{"id":7928,"date":"2015-09-09T09:30:50","date_gmt":"2015-09-09T14:30:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/?p=7928"},"modified":"2015-09-09T09:11:31","modified_gmt":"2015-09-09T14:11:31","slug":"the-journey-and-evolution-of-one-nsr-scout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/the-journey-and-evolution-of-one-nsr-scout\/","title":{"rendered":"The Journey and Evolution of one NSR Scout"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\">Having grown up in the 1970\u2019s and 80\u2019s, rock music was the dominant music genre for most social circles and the band Journey was definitely one of the bands at the forefront.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>In 1979 Journey released its album titled Evolution and here it is more than 35 years later and my current life has me thinking of Journey and Evolution.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>We all have our own journey and our own evolution and I am obviously no different.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Please indulge me and let me briefly elaborate on my personal journey and evolution from player- to parent- to coach- to scout, with being a parent injected at all times following the birth of my children.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Sports have always been a huge part of me and my family\u2019s life.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>In fact, my older brother when asked by his Kindergarten teacher what the seasons of the year were, proudly replied \u201cbaseball, football, and basketball.\u201d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>More specifically, baseball and softball have been the two constants throughout my lifetime.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Like most boys, I grew up wanting to play Major League Baseball and although I fell short of that goal like most others did as well, I did have the great fortune of playing 4 years of college baseball and 4 years of professional baseball.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>The first of my three children was born during my 1<sup>st<\/sup> year in the minor leagues and being a parent has been a factor in every stage of my evolution since.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>After being released from baseball and upon receiving my degree in Health &amp; Physical Education, I became a high school coach throughout the next 20 plus years and even had the blessing of being able to coach my son for two years of high school and the last few years of collegiate summer ball.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Last fall my son was going out of state to play his last 2 years of college baseball and since I wasn\u2019t going to be able to go watch him, I decided to try the college softball coaching ranks and was fortunate enough to be a part of the coaching staff at Division I Southeast Missouri State.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Even though that was a wonderful experience that I learned so much from, there was still something missing.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>As the Lord works in mysterious ways, my son ended up red-shirting that season and I didn\u2019t miss any of his games after all.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>That over-powering desire to be a bigger part of his journey has led me to step away from my Division I coaching position and join NSR as a national college softball and baseball scout.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>I believe things happen for a reason and his being red-shirted and the career change with greater flexibility of being a scout with NSR seem to have happened for a reason.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Perhaps the most important revelation of my journey has recently flashed in front of my eyes and that is helping other athletes and their families from me and my family\u2019s experiences. After only a week with NSR, I wish I would have discovered them a few years earlier.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>You see just a few years back, I was my son\u2019s high school coach and obviously his Dad as well and I couldn\u2019t get him many opportunities or offers from colleges and I had been around the game forever.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>I couldn\u2019t have cared for any player any more than him and I obviously had a very strong vested interest, but I still felt hopeless and somewhat useless for him.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Please don\u2019t take this as a bash towards his JUCO coach and program nor his current coach and program as I absolutely respect both and as I said\u2026things happen for a reason. While both college baseball stops ultimately may turn out to be the best thing that happened for my son, a relationship with NSR at that time would have most definitely opened more doors for him and given him more options to choose from.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Let me close by saying, although I don\u2019t have a crystal ball concerning me and my family\u2019s future journey and evolution, I can only try to be the best version of me moving forward and hopefully I can help as many people as possible along the way in their journey and evolution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Having grown up in the 1970\u2019s and 80\u2019s, rock music was the dominant music genre for most social circles and the band Journey was definitely one of the bands at the forefront.\u00a0 In 1979 Journey released its album titled Evolution and here it is more than 35 years later and my current life has me &#8230; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/the-journey-and-evolution-of-one-nsr-scout\/\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7928"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7928"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7929,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7928\/revisions\/7929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}