A Hall of Fame coach tells parents to let their kids fail and learn from loss instead of protecting them. Playing time at Division II or III beats sitting the bench at Division I. Good grades matter for recruiting and roster decisions.
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I just had one other comment I wanted to make, too. I remember.
When I was coaching, towards the end of my career, I had a number of examples of players who thought and parents who thought their son was a Division 1 scholarship. And as a coach, I could see that Division 1 scholarship wasn't going to happen. And to be honest with you, back at that time, there weren't a lot of high school players from Wisconsin getting scholarships to Division I schools as there are today. And.
These were players that certainly could have played at the Division 3 level in baseball in the state of Wisconsin. We had several teams that were very good at the Division 3 level, but they decided to go ahead and do the Division 1 and never played. So I think that you have to. You have to let your son or daughter.
Develop without the constant helicoptering.
You heard it, guys. Hall of Fame coach, right here. One of the winningest coaches in Wisconsin. Here's the deal, guys. Let your kids fail. 8th place trophies have no business in sports anymore. The kids have to learn how to fail. The kids have to learn how to learn from failure so they can grow. Quit creating artificial environments for them. And at the end of the day, he's right. I played college baseball. GPA is a huge thing in sports. Every team in every sport in college has to maintain a certain GPA as a team. So when they're recruiting, especially baseball, which has historically been known having low GPAs.
Those teams try to recruit good athletes because at a minimum, they got to.
Keep their team GPA up.
So keep your kid in the classroom.
As much as you are keeping them on the field.
And like he said, it's about game time. It's not about the glory.
So if your kid has an opportunity to play at the Division 2, Division 3 level, where he or she might.
Sit on the bench for four years at Division 1, it's not worth it. Let the kid play. Let them get the time that they.
Can get on the field, because that's what they're gonna remember. So, dad, thanks. I appreciate it. That's it for now, guys. I wanted to make this video for you to interview, to show parents out there, especially my generation, who are parenting these kids right now. You got to let these kids develop who they want to be. Quit trying to create environments for them that are artificial where failure is not.
