Podcast: CBI Customer Ralph Burnley speaks with Allen Gay on NowD1 Speaks
Tune in to this episode to gain unparalleled insights into the world of college baseball recruitment, and discover how College Baseball Insights can be your key to unlocking success on and off the field.
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Transcript
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All right, everybody, let’s get right into it.
0:35
I’m Alan Gay, and this is NowD1 Speaks.
0:37
We’ve got a really cool show today.
0:39
It’s a follow up to a show that we have done earlier.
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The show that I’m referencing, it was all about College Baseball Insights (CBI) and it’s a fantastic platform.
0:50
It’s data driven, ton of information that’s going to help any uncommitted athlete really on his recruiting journey.
0:58
And what’s going to be cool about tonight’s show?
1:01
We have got a customer of CBI College Baseball Insight.
1:05
That’s Ralph Burnley.
1:06
Hey, Ralph, are you with us?
1:08
Yes, sir.
1:09
I’m right here.
1:10
Hey, Ralph, thank you so much for being here.
1:12
Absolutely appreciate taking a little bit of time out of your day to kind of give us some information about College Baseball Insights and how you got connected with them and how you were able to use the platform and where you see this thing going.
1:27
So thank you again for being here.
1:29
And kind of with that said,
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Why don’t we start right off the bat as to why anyone should choose College Baseball Insights.
1:37
So maybe give us a little bit of your perspective on how you came across CBI and how it’s really impacted your approach to college recruiting.
1:47
I’d be glad to.
1:49
Thanks for inviting me to speak on behalf of CBI and also on behalf of
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Parents who are trying to navigate college baseball entry for their young youngsters So I want to start with You know how I connected or how I learned about CBI it goes back I’m going to say anywhere between three and five years ago when my sons were playing Travel baseball at a facility that’s known for
2:27
for Travel Baseball and Recruiting in New Jersey called Diamond Nation.
2:35
And as I was walking out, I usually always try to take in the ambiance of the experience simply because, you know, these are first things for me these days and times is developed as travel baseball is.
2:53
And on my way out, I noticed
2:57
a stand and two gentlemen standing there.
3:02
And one of them was Art.
3:04
And so we didn’t talk a whole lot about the ins and outs of the program then.
3:13
But what he did is he gave me a pamphlet that had his website address on it and said, hey, give me a call.
3:21
I kind of explained to him what my son’s
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Ralph Burnley’s Journey with College Baseball Insights Ralph Burnley’s Journey with College Baseball Insights Ralph Burnley’s Journey with College Baseball Insights Ralph Burnley’s Journey with College Baseball Insights Ralph Burnley’s Journey with College Baseball Insights
3:52
So that’s kind of how I got into the CBI experience, if you will.
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One of the things that I do in my profession is, so I have a doctorate in education, education administration.
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And so what I’ve always been, at least in my doctoral experience, what I’ve always liked is the research part of it.
4:20
And as soon as I had reconnected with Art, maybe about a week or two later, I visited his website, explained it to the boss here in my house and my boys and asked them to sit down and kind of listen to what it was.
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And I was blown away by just all the things that I learned about, about every school in the country.
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Um, and that was something that I had never been exposed to.
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Um, and all the ins and outs of D1, D2, and also, and also, um, some of the other JUCO organizations, and I believe it’s NAI, and, um, Art kind of walked us through, um, what that experience was like, and it just opened up a whole new world for me in trying to navigate what their, um,
5:18
Ralph Burnley’s Journey with College Baseball Insights Ralph Burnley’s Journey with College Baseball Insights
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Um, finances of the experience, locations, um, rostering, which we talked about as recently as two, three days ago, because I still have a young son who’s trying to navigate that experience and one who’s right in the middle of it.
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Um, so that’s kind of how I got introduced to it.
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Um, and the conversations now and recently have, you know, been pretty regular.
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Hard to get the kids to sit still long enough, but it still is a valuable tool for me to kind of navigate what schools are doing, what the trends are and so forth nationally, not only in the state of New Jersey where we live.
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So that’s my story about why I chose it and why I’m still involved with it.
6:36
Well, that’s a fantastic run through.
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Thank you so much for that background and some insight into how you came
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to be affiliated and to choose to use College Baseball Insights.
6:46
So let’s talk about your personal experience just a little bit and really the benefits and how it’s directly benefited you.
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There’s maybe a couple of specific ways or highlights that you could that you could point to that has directly benefited you.
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Yeah.
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There are a number of ways that I use it.
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If you challenge me to figure out what
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has been the most advantageous experience.
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I think it’s more of just being able to see what the rostering looks like at schools.
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I personally was never aware of the fact that that was something that was available to parents, to the general public.
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And so what I found to be
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just recently the most advantageous or the most the biggest advantage I should say is looking at each individual schools see how many players they’re carrying at what positions and then also looking at what geographic locations they’re coming from so right away and part of this is because of who my kids are I didn’t see them
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Really, and they didn’t see themselves as kids who were going to travel a long distance.
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And so one of the things that we took out of the equation was, for example, not at my choice, but at theirs, is not to look too much for West Coast things.
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Look for schools maybe on the eastern seaboard and then also in not the deep South,
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but south of New Jersey where we are.
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So that was one big area.
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The other area I think was just to kind of get me to quantify what were the differences between D1 and D2 and then also D3.
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For example and this is something that I learned not only from from arts
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platform but from others as well what are the financial financial benefits of some schools over others so in a nutshell it’s probably been those two big items that I learned I guess the third and final one would be having a conversation with my sons about well if you decided you want to go to this school what
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What is that school?
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Is it a D1 school?
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Is it a D2 school?
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Is it a D3 school?
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And then my process and our process has been trying to look at those individual schools and see if the data actually could be matched with my son’s abilities.
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Because at the end of the day, my wife and I are both educators
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And so one of the things that we recognize is that baseball is one thing, but we also realize the reality of how long baseball can last, not will last, but can can last in a young person’s life and career.
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So those are kind of the three things.
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There’s a ton more which I could get into, but
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Right now, based on what you asked me to do, I think those are the three things that stick out.
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We’re going to get into the data-driven piece just a little bit later.
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I thought that was interesting that you brought that up as the third example.
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And especially, kind of also, not only the data piece, but it really kind of points to the ownership of your children as well, which I think really helps drive this tool of college baseball insight.
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But before we move on, Ralph, would you be comfortable talking about that financial piece?
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I really found that very interesting as you were looking at the difference between D1, D2, D3.
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Maybe elaborate on that just a little bit more.
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and kind of give our listeners maybe a clearer understanding of what did you mean the financial implications?
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So one of the things that my wife and I started to plan on when I retired back in 2013, and boy I sound old when I say that myself, but one of the things that we had to prepare for was how are we going to get two young men through
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college without having a financial burden once they walk out.
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And so, um, on, on arts, um, platform and then on others, it talks about, and usually in generalities, but at least me, at least it gave me a starting point.
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I mean, you’re talking about a guy and this makes me sound old as well.
11:58
You’re talking about a guy who graduated from an HBCU back in 1972 and
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We paid less than $2,000 for a whole school year.
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And so now, so that’s my frame of reference.
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I have put some daughters through school.
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They either struggled getting through or they took on some loans.
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But the reality of it is that was important to me and I was able to at least get a view, a bird’s eye view of
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What it’s going to cost to go to state school.
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What it’s going to cost to go to a private school.
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What it was going to cost to go to a D1 school and a D2 and a D3.
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And so that kind of gave us footing based on where my kids also stood academically to kind of determine what we need to prepare for financially if that makes sense.
13:02
Makes all the sense in the world.
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Man, what a fantastic benefit that College Baseball Insights offers that view into the financial aspect of each school as well.
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13:45
Hey, let’s continue to talk about the recruitment journey here just a little bit, navigating it.
13:53
And really what I’d like to talk about are lessons learned.
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I think that your use of CBI, you could absolutely help future users.
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And by that, what I mean are
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Were there any specific challenges that you overcame or strategies that you were able to employ that you believe would help a future user of College Baseball Insight?
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Yeah, so again, there are a ton.
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And I know, you know, we’re limited in some respects in terms of time.
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So one of the things that that really helped us
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in terms of navigating the recruitment process, which I explained to the whole family when we pulled together that one Sunday afternoon in between NFL football and some other programming, was the affordability.
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And so, Art’s program, and I think he gave us a preview, you know, that we were able to navigate ourselves, but it was affordable.
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And I was actually blown away by the amount of information that was there for, you know, a very reasonable price, which, you know, you have to find out for yourself once you visit his website and so forth.
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But I thought that was astronomical.
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And I say that because of the economy, the way it is now.
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And I say that because of some other
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Organizations, whether they be travel or whether they be other recruitment organizations, the prices are just incredible.
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I mean, my sons have been, like I said before, involved in travel baseball since they were eight years old and nine years old.
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And so what I found is that arts was the first one that I found, but it’s also been the one that’s been most affordable for my family.
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given the fact that we’re like anybody else.
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We were both working folks.
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We’re not independently wealthy, although we do make a decent living.
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But I found that it was the most affordable.
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It was the most accessible and that it gave me some real time information.
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It at least gave me a start on which direction to go.
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And so from that,
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We have been able to kind of figure out, well, one or two things.
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First of all, if it’s a school that we’re interested in, how do we make a decision whether or not that’s the place to go?
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And again, to talk about the whole financial part, just two days ago, we had a conversation about five offers that my younger son has out now.
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And so it gets down to,
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First and foremost, I guess has to be affordability The second thing is it is somewhere that that he can get the degree and the five-year program And I say five-year program because that’s been kind of the easy part for us Does this offer us the opportunity to go five years and come out with?
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A master’s degree which I think gives them the best opportunity to be successful
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And so I’m able to look at those that information and also kind of discern graduation rates The the other thing that we looked at is and This came up more in the conversation, but the conversation was driven by the data What is the what is the coaches persona if you will or what is their track record and so
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By looking at the data, I can kind of figure that out at least a little bit better.
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As a matter of fact, a lot better.
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But Art was able to kind of, you know, tell me to kind of look under their fingernails, if you will, to kind of make certain that you’re getting into a program that values the athlete that you’re sending to them, which, as everybody on this platform will know or should know, is your kids are your most valuable commodity.
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That’s kind of been our recruitment journey.
18:21
I will say this, we’re still heavily in the middle of it.
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Okay, man, that’s some great information that you are providing.
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What a wealth of information, valuable information, just a fantastic tool College Baseball Insights is.
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Ralph, you’re doing a fantastic job just really elaborating personally the advantages and how you’ve been able to employ them.
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So thank you so much.
18:45
Let’s talk a little bit about the data driven piece and how data can really drive your decision making process.
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Can you elaborate on the data and how that really affected the decisions that you and your family are making?
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So one of the things that that.
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I was really enamored by, I guess, was the fact that because of my background in education,
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and looking at test scores and safety rates, and I valued that information.
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So as soon as I got on to his website, I was able to go in and kind of get a feel for what divisions the different schools that we had selected, what divisions they played in, what their win-loss records were,
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And I guess the biggest one is one that I already mentioned is like my younger son is is a catcher and So I was able to go on here and look numerically and find out that XYZ school I’ll just use for example Wilmington University we were talking about them and had been in some you know some conversation with them and
20:13
You know, they’re carrying six or seven catchers.
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And so now what I need to be able to make an informed decision on and to train my sons to make decisions on is that do we want to go to that school when they already have six or seven catchers and then end up either not getting a lot of opportunity or
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We go and figure out that, you know, we’re just not going to play as much as they would like to.
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My kids are like anybody else’s.
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First and foremost, they want to go and play somewhere.
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And so what the data also was able to tell me with rostering information and financials, too, but mainly the rostering information were how long are these folks going to be there?
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Is it going to be a situation where attrition is going to give us more opportunity?
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And that’s a big one these days and times, because what I’ve learned through conversation more than anything from art and from some other folks, you know, just in in the same situation, is that the portal now is is just hitting us and probably other families, too, that don’t even realize it.
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But it’s really, you know, hitting us really hard on the movement and the amount of movement.
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I was also able to see and sorry to say in some cases, you know, what the levels for the financials were with some of the smaller colleges, like some of the HBCU colleges, some of the NAI colleges.
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So it’s been really helpful for me to kind of, you know, really zone in on who’s on the roster there.
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How long are they going to be there?
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And is it going to afford us the opportunity that I know my kids deserve?
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So that’s where some of the data comes in, as well as the platform allows me, and it’s easy to navigate.
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It allows me to look again at D1s and D2s separately or together.
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And then from there, we kind of do some of our own footwork.
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And I think that’s kind of one of the things that parents
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and educators or anybody in you know with kids or coaches or what have you need to figure out how do I chart a course for this young man or this young lady that’s going to be successful for them academically and then also athletically.
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So that’s kind of been my experience with data.
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I was married to it because
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of my experience, you know, at Seton Hall when I graduated, you know, way back when to get my degree.
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And so I valued numbers, even though I hated math, probably, and I probably shouldn’t even say that as an educator, but I hated math.
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But now I’ve really seen the relative value with it when it comes to making a real life decision for my boys.
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Ralph, you are fantastic, man.
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I just can’t thank you enough for being on and walking through the advantages of College Baseball Insights.
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Let me ask you something.
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Could you imagine yourself having gone through this recruitment journey with your sons without using a tool like College Baseball Insight?
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No, absolutely not.
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And that’s, you know, part and parcel is because, you know, I do think that the information is fantastic.
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The other part is that I think what most parents don’t know, and I use this
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not to disparage any parents, but most parents don’t really realize, you know, what they’re up against.
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It’s almost like it.
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I mean, speaking of all the moms and dads out there, most of us, even when we got into marriage and, you know, boyfriends and girlfriends and let’s have a baby.
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We just focus on that part of it, not realizing that at some point you you need all of the resources that are available to you to make a real value judgment
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on what’s the best thing for your kids.
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And so that is where I where I am right now with this program.
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We also my sons are more accustomed to finding things on Google and and so forth and so on.
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Whereas and that’s simply because they don’t have to pay the bills.
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But so parents, though, need to understand that.
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All right, let’s try to balance everything here.
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Um, I’ll say this and I’ll be quiet.
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So one of the, one of the schools that’s recruiting my son right now is Penn State.
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And so the conversation that I had to have with my younger son one day, you know, when they’re scratching their heads and they’re, you know, they’re saying, Oh boy, will he shut up or will mom shut up?
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Is that given the fact that Penn State is, is a big 10 school.
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When you walk away from Penn State with a Penn State degree,
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You’ve kind of upped the ante from any recruitment people to provide you with a salary or entry level salary that’s going to really carry you for a long way or at least carry you along enough to kind of make a good start for yourself and your family if you have one at that age.
26:00
and you’ll be able to support yourself.
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And I think, you know, that’s something that we’re all dedicated to do as parents.
26:06
It’s just, you know, unfortunate that most parents and Art and I talk kind of partial to inner city because I’ve been working in the inner city as an administrator for the past 25, 30 years.
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And so it’s just unfortunate that they don’t get the opportunity to look at this information and then also have someone kind of walk them through, if you will.
26:30
And I think I think platforms like yours will help with that.
26:35
If I could say anything, which I plan to do anyway, is to pass on this information to my son’s coaches this year because he’s graduating in the spring.
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And one of the things that, you know, we’ve got a brand new coach coming on.
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I think he needs to.
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I think he has a responsibility, as a matter of fact, to expose parents to this platform and also other
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areas that are going to make certain that their kid is going to be successful.
27:05
Well, Ralph, again, I’ve got to say, man, you are fantastic.
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You’re absolutely doing it the right way.
27:10
You have provided a tremendous amount of information today.
27:14
I certainly appreciate it.
27:15
I would like to ask you one last thing, maybe before we before we end.
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I want to be respectful of your time is if you know, I know that College Baseball Insight offers a free demo for anybody that wants to get in and kind of check out what’s under the hood.
27:31
and understand how it works.
27:33
But if you could speak to maybe just one thing, if you were going to tell a new user, if nothing else, go check this out.
27:42
I’ll guarantee you, you’ll see the benefit in it.
27:45
What would be your advice?
27:49
My advice would be it’s kind of twofold.
27:53
One is the information is definitely on point and up to date.
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and Real Time.
28:02
So that’s the one thing.
28:05
The other thing that I found as a father, as an educator, as a coach, that’s invaluable is the opportunity to sit down with your son or daughter and help them navigate platforms like this so that they can remain and become informed adults.
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That’s one of the things that I think is missing in many families.
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They just don’t sit down and have these conversations.
28:39
And the kids, they’re not drawn to it, but they have to be exposed to it so that they can make good, good informed decisions.
28:50
Are they all going to be the right decisions?
28:52
Maybe, maybe not.
28:54
You would hope so.
28:55
But when you have information like
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this one that can kind of talk to you about and give you an idea.
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Well, this is the school I want to go to.
29:03
I want to go to Alabama.
29:07
Well, let’s be realistic here.
29:10
Alabama is X, Y, Z miles away.
29:14
You got to look at the temperament of the school that you’re going to from from from an academic standpoint and from an athletic standpoint.
29:23
So I think there’s if I had to hang it on one one thing,
29:27
The program is fabulous, but it kind of goes hand in hand.
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It needs to be, let’s talk about this information and see what you want to do.
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And here’s a tool that you could use to kind of help you figure out whether that’s the right fit for you.
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So I think that’s the thing that’s kind of intrigued me.
29:45
And they are tense conversations.
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I will say this, parents have to have the courage to be able to have those kinds of conversations and, um,
29:55
Unfortunately on most days I have it some days I don’t But I think I think well because of the pushback from kids.
30:03
They just they just don’t know what they don’t know But I think that that’s that’s probably the best part having a conversation with them at least I can put my head on the pillow at night and say that you know Hey, I gave it the best shot.
30:15
I could Amen to that Ralph.
30:17
I tell you what, man You’re a great advocate not only for college baseball insights, but a great advocate for families and fathers in general.
30:24
I have
30:24
thoroughly enjoyed listening to your perspective tonight.
30:28
And it is a fantastic perspective.
30:30
And I got to tell you, Ralph, I can only wish nothing but the absolute best for you and your family and especially for your sons.
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I hope they all enjoy the success that you guys have been working very, very hard and very, very diligent to afford them the opportunity to be successful.
30:45
Well, thank you for having me, sir.
30:47
I appreciate it and I appreciate the time.
30:50
Absolutely.
30:50
And I think with that, it’s a perfect time to say goodnight.
30:54
Alright, sir.
30:55
Have a good one.
30:56
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