staying in sports

Interesting discussion. My D1 could not decide what Major for college so we sent his paperwork to the Business school. He is getting top grades and can keep options open until he decides or events decide for him.

His brother played all sports but is realistic. He gave up playing but Majored in Accounting with a Minor in Analytics so he can stay close to sports. He is presently an Intern for a Big 5 Accounting firm. He is also an intern with D! football program so he stays close to sports and gets an inside view.

Their cousin lettered in Cross Country, Golf, Soccer, and Track and said she does not have the time while doing an Engineering degree!

My Dl/Dll majored in Business/Marketing. Earned his MBA and now works for a Tech Mobile App Advertising company. He was an intern with them his senior year, was hired upon graduation, and worked full time while earning his MBA. All this just 3 years removed from baseball.

I think playing sports helped him in his current career even though they are not related. He has continued to succeed knowing that he has to work hard, continue to learn and compete for advancement.

@Good Knight posted:

Interesting discussion. My D1 could not decide what Major for college so we sent his paperwork to the Business school. He is getting top grades and can keep options open until he decides or events decide for him.

His brother played all sports but is realistic. He gave up playing but Majored in Accounting with a Minor in Analytics so he can stay close to sports. He is presently an Intern for a Big 5 Accounting firm. He is also an intern with D! football program so he stays close to sports and gets an inside view.

Their cousin lettered in Cross Country, Golf, Soccer, and Track and said she does not have the time while doing an Engineering degree!

If you are at a liberal arts school I think analytics/statistics is a cool idea.   This skill set is usable for a career in sports but also portable to a career on Wall Street or generally in business.   Good call Good Knight.

Focus on hard skills first: Math, Statistics, Engineering, Programming, Accounting, and Science.

Mine went D3 with a degree in engineering as he found out D1, with a few exceptions was a no-go. (Ivy's, Stanford, and a handful of others) That said his schedule was brutal and, to be honest, I could not have done it. His discipline to do both engineering and baseball has continued to pay off in his post college career. 

Anytime I run into a young family with kids I tell them the "keys to the kingdom is math, if you can do math you can do anything"

JMO

Stats.  In any industry the people who are close to the data will inevitably understand it better than anyone else and be able to leverage it into insights that help their organization and their career.

@K9 posted:

Stats.  In any industry the people who are close to the data will inevitably understand it better than anyone else and be able to leverage it into insights that help their organization and their career.

This is brilliant 👏

@BOF posted:

Focus on hard skills first: Math, Statistics, Engineering, Programming, Accounting, and Science.

Mine went D3 with a degree in engineering as he found out D1, with a few exceptions was a no-go. (Ivy's, Stanford, and a handful of others) That said his schedule was brutal and, to be honest, I could not have done it. His discipline to do both engineering and baseball has continued to pay off in his post college career.

Anytime I run into a young family with kids I tell them the "keys to the kingdom is math, if you can do math you can do anything"

JMO

Ding, ding, ding.  Winner winner chicken dinner!!!

That said I believe that a kid can turn any passion into a great career and livelihood. The one I see all the time are kids that are passionate and talented in art.  Parents are always steering kids away from art.  Same parents are always shocked when they learn about what a creative designer can do at a marketing agency.  It is just different then what most think of the artist life.

Timely post. I talked to my 2023 son last night about this. He's been talking with some of his 2022 HS teammates and it's kind of a mixed bag in terms of their after HS plans. A few of them committed the past few weeks to local JCs, these are kids with some D1 measurables but no D1 offers due to COVID affecting recruiting or whatever (I'm not close to any of the kids so I don't have first-hand knowledge of what their recruiting journey looked like). A couple of his friends didn't get any interest from schools they were interested in and are just playing out the string this year, no plans to pursue baseball in college.

My son told me that that he has the grades to get into the schools he's interested in and he wants a traditional college experience (He's a good student, 3.8 unweighted, but says he wants to do things in life other than just study, he's not trying to go to Stanford or the Ivy league). Anyway, he said that he doesn't think he'd be interested in sacrificing the first 2 years of the college experience to go to a JuCo just so he could keep playing baseball after HS.

In terms of career planning, we have a family friend who owns a construction business and my son has been set on studying Construction Management in college for a couple of years. We have a list of schools that he's made initial contact with, but I think if he doesn't end up drawing interest he may just hang up his cleats after his senior year and go to college.

Son majored in Business/Marketing at a mid-major.  He took a grad asst position with a local NAIA....then Covid hit midway thru his first season.  The school essentially shut down and by the time things came back up to speed he had decided that coaching wasn't for him.   He also was hitting the job market right in the middle of Covid.  He ended up taking an entry level position at a local branch of a hardware/tool company.  He loves the job and the people....and has moved up to second in line at that location.  He is still close to home and quite a few of his HS friends.   He had honestly never planned to get into coaching....but the NAIA guys knew him from HS and his summer league team and offered him a nice deal....but again Covid changed that.  Maybe it ended up a blessing.  He is happy and doing well so I guess it did

@BOF posted:

Focus on hard skills first: Math, Statistics, Engineering, Programming, Accounting, and Science.

Mine went D3 with a degree in engineering as he found out D1, with a few exceptions was a no-go. (Ivy's, Stanford, and a handful of others) That said his schedule was brutal and, to be honest, I could not have done it. His discipline to do both engineering and baseball has continued to pay off in his post college career.

Anytime I run into a young family with kids I tell them the "keys to the kingdom is math, if you can do math you can do anything"

JMO

This is what I told my kids.  I was at odds with the school counselors who pushed the "follow your passion" rhetoric.  What the counselors don't understand is that there is plenty of time to pursue passions if you build a successful career, but it doesn't work the other way around.

"This is what I told my kids.  I was at odds with the school counselors who pushed the "follow your passion" rhetoric.  What the counselors don't understand is that there is plenty of time to pursue passions if you build a successful career, but it doesn't work the other way around."

Hits pretty close to home. Infamous story in our family: Daughter calls home from college and tells me "I want to major in ART.".

My response: "No that is a hobby not a career!" If you cannot decide then your backup plan is business.

She was unhappy with me but is now a top exec in a Fortune 500 company. Her sons may have heard the story from me.???

The “follow your passion” rhetoric takes on a different meaning when it’s coupled with wanting to see an “equal outcome.”

Our education system is in the toilet.

I mainly hire people who are passionate about what they do for a living.   People who love what they do will out produce those that are along for check.   The perfect job is when passion and pay match up to enable you to live the life you want.   If my kids were passionate about an Art degree though I would have a tough time supporting That decision but it would never to get to me as my wife would shut that talk down immediately!

Oldest is business management major and is in grad school now for supply chain management. Working part time for the fall, I expect he will start full time for current employer in June, they will pay for the rest of his grad school if he chooses that option.

Youngest is a JR he wanted more then management, didn't want Econ or Finance...my response was welcome to accounting while you figure it out! Money travels across any business so he will figure it out and he finds accounting easy.

Funny conversation with academic advisor. He was struggling with a calc class and not sure what he wanted to do, i told him to go talk to advisor. The advice was if you are struggling in math you might want to consider different major. His response was classic, he said accounting has nothing to do with math, why would calc matter?? LOL it was so him and absolutely true. the advisor didn't have much to add...i think it was the last time they spoke!

Business degree of some kind and MBA is the surest / simplest way to leverage common sense to the potential of an outstanding income. Neither one of my kids would have wanted to be a STEM guy, it is not who they are.

@Gunner Mack Jr. posted:

I mainly hire people who are passionate about what they do for a living.   People who love what they do will out produce those that are along for check.   The perfect job is when passion and pay match up to enable you to live the life you want.   If my kids were passionate about an Art degree though I would have a tough time supporting That decision but it would never to get to me as my wife would shut that talk down immediately!

i love to hire ex athletes they are competitive. I love to hire eagles scouts as i have found them to be determined individuals, i love to hire any kid  from good family in the area that doesn't have a clue what they want to do, the success rates of them being hard workers and trainable with nothing but family background is fairly high.

I hired one guy who was a military guy with a Philosophy major... I thought he was an interesting fit - I no longer hire philosophy majors LOL

@Good Knight posted:

"This is what I told my kids.  I was at odds with the school counselors who pushed the "follow your passion" rhetoric.  What the counselors don't understand is that there is plenty of time to pursue passions if you build a successful career, but it doesn't work the other way around."

Hits pretty close to home. Infamous story in our family: Daughter calls home from college and tells me "I want to major in ART.".

My response: "No that is a hobby not a career!" If you cannot decide then your backup plan is business.

She was unhappy with me but is now a top exec in a Fortune 500 company. Her sons may have heard the story from me.???

A cousin headed for Yale. Her parents told her no way, no how was she to major in drama. She switched to drama without telling her parents. She then got her MA in Performance Art at Juilliard. She went straight to Broadway without waitressing.

These kinds of people skew reality for others. A friend spent about twenty years in acting. She referred to herself as the third string redhead on Broadway. She did the prereqs … Miss America contest, Broncos cheerleader, summer theatre. But she couldn’t break through the bubble. She spent almost twenty years in roadshows and on cruise ships.

She ended up performing here until she aged out and became the musical director. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7y5bQtW1O4

I have one environmental science major who got a great job out of college (she researched science degrees that don’t require a terminal PhD just to get a decent job). Middle child is double majoring in legal studies and communication with a business certificate. When she’s done playing, she wants to stay in sports. Player development in the NBA or back office management are her goals. Both are hard working, organized and very smart. Internships were key for both.  Gonna be fun to see where they end up.

I suspect the boy will major in business if he goes back to school. He has a mind for it and an interest in it.

My daughter (played college softball) had her own mind. She majored in forensic science. I called it majoring in watching too much CSI. By the time she finished her soph year her advisor suggested she go into law. She finished second in the Southeast Collegiate Undergrad Moot Court. The advice she did take was working in a law firm doing research for a couple of years before committing to three years of law school. She used the references to get into a top law school.

My son was blunt. “I want to get where you are.” I told him it starts in the corporate world with some kind of business/math oriented degree. The first two questions I was asked in the cattle herd campus interviews was, ”What’s your major? What’s your gpa?” Then you have to have the balls to walk away from a real good paycheck to start your own company.**

At 28, he just took step two. He didn’t start the company. But, he left a Big 4 consulting firm for a potential equity position in a recent start up. He used five to play four for automatic acceptance to a quality MBA program.

** In my case it was the only way to escape IBM. Despite success I didn’t fit the mold. I left. IBM bought the company. I left again. IBM bought the company. The next step I started my own company with another former IBM rebel.

Internships were key for both.

This is the smartest thing a kid can do to set themselves up. When my son came home he had a BA and an MBA. I asked him what he was going to do. He said he was going to the Shore and drink beer for the summer. He said in more lucid moments he would write out a business plan for getting a job. What he didn’t say was he was two interviews from getting hired by the Big 4 he interned for a summer. The internship was another injury situation (couldn’t play that summer) where he landed on his feet.

"Internships were key for both"

I agree, but If you are still playing and going to school that can be a tough task. As I mentioned, my son's internship resulted in him being hired upon graduation. Luckily, his HC allowed him some flexibility during season so he could work half days. It was still a grind, school, work, practice & games.

I remembering him saying that work alone was a piece of cake compared to what he had gone through.

This is a great discussion. Thanks to everyone who's been there with their kids for sharing the side of being an intercollegiate athlete that isn't talked about much

I'm reminded of a kid i knew tangentially who committed to a midwest college (not baseball) but decommed a little while later when he realized that their marine biology program wasn't up to par (or existent, lol).

RJM's story about his daughter reminded me of that brief moment in time that i was interested in that field.  I was disillusioned with chemistry (bc it was so freaking hard!!) and looking for alternative career paths. years of working on someone else's projects or years of school getting a doctorate weren't appealing.

luckily, i realized (not sure why i didn't realize it sooner) that the chemistry degree could be used in other fields and that you don't have to have a major specific to the field you're working in. 

@mattys posted:

I'm reminded of a kid i knew tangentially who committed to a midwest college (not baseball) but decommed a little while later when he realized that their marine biology program wasn't up to par (or existent, lol).

The sea was angry that day, my friends - like an old man trying to send back soup in a deli.

@Picked Off it is so funny that you said that. I was texting my daughter who’s been out with a back injury and she asked me if “Dad told you about my NIL idea?” And then she sent me this:

She has literally been thinking about this as a business idea and I didn’t even know it. 😂

@Picked Off posted:

"Internships were key for both"

I agree, but If you are still playing and going to school that can be a tough task. As I mentioned, my son's internship resulted in him being hired upon graduation. Luckily, his HC allowed him some flexibility during season so he could work half days. It was still a grind, school, work, practice & games.

I remembering him saying that work alone was a piece of cake compared to what he had gone through.

Before the injury eliminated summer ball his coach wasn’t pleased my son asked to be placed on a team in a less challenging summer league. He figured he could get from NYC across the river to NJ in time for games.

@RJM posted:

Internships were key for both.

This is the smartest thing a kid can do to set themselves up. When my son came home he had a BA and an MBA. I asked him what he was going to do. He said he was going to the Shore and drink beer for the summer. He said in more lucid moments he would write out a business plan for getting a job. What he didn’t say was he was two interviews from getting hired by the Big 4 he interned for a summer. The internship was another injury situation (couldn’t play that summer) where he landed on his feet.

Absolutely key. You do not have to play summer ball unless you are a draft pick. Get an internship and work out in the gym and maybe some weekend ball if you want. My son's internship led to a fully funded masters in engineering from UT. As a bonus he got to play with the cricket club. (who had to teach him how to throw "cricket style" (and not kill a batsman)

@PTWood posted:

@Picked Off it is so funny that you said that. I was texting my daughter who’s been out with a back injury and she asked me if “Dad told you about my NIL idea?” And then she sent me this:

She has literally been thinking about this as a business idea and I didn’t even know it. 😂

Great idea. It's always been hard for athletes to find time and opportunities for internships. Those that are near a big city tat have more options/opportunities just because of the sheer numbers. You would think that more companies would jump at hiring athletes that have been preforming at a high level, managing their time, operating within a risk reward/failure environment.   

I was told as young man fresh out of HS with no degree but big ideas "you don't get fat working for somebody else" now i realize as an adult that some executives do but it is a short list in comparison to the global economy.

From the time my kids were small virtually every time a job or profession was discussed it was in context of how that leads you to self employment. My first venture failed miserably, the 2nd was a homerun. It is still the motor that feeds everything else, the next step was learning how to own more then one business and run them successfully. That was harder then figuring out to start the first one, now my biggest problem is how to do less and make more. I am attempting work no more then 20 hours a week, I feel like to be truly happy I want all my companies to run themselves. When you hit that point you know you have finally gotten it right.

My next goal is to be ready and available for when one of my kids wants to start a new company and needs help, as long as they don't need more then 20 hours per week!!

There are 168 hours in a week, use them "wisely". "swing for the fences". Have a game plan and confidence to execute with intelligence. Expect success.

Real estate Development [42 years], Area Code games [17 years] and tryouts, international Goodwill Series [36 years], Coach of Santa Rosa Summer Travel Team [6 years].

"Now praying for extra innings"

Bob