This blog might have the single most important piece of advice I’ve ever given out to parents…and it has nothing to do with playing ball.
I have the best Summer Camp coaching staff in the world; they are passionate, energetic, fun, and truly care about the kids on the field. This is largely because 99% of them were once campers themselves and after “graduating” from Little League, they come back to help out first as junior coaches while in middle school, work their way up the ladder to get more responsibility as high schoolers, and then many continue coaching through college and beyond. Our oldest coach (besides me) is now 27 and I’ve known him since he was a 6-year-old camper; he started in the half-day camp group as a player and now coaching at Spring Training has been his full-time job for the last 4 years since graduating from college!
All these coaches remember what Summer Camp felt like to them when they were younger and are eager to give the next generation of ballplayers the same incredible experience that they had.
In fact, just a couple weeks ago I had a 19 year-old who I hadn’t seen since he was 9 come up to me and say something to the effect of, “Dan, your camps were my favorite childhood memory.”
Nothing makes me happier than that!
And while I hire almost every coach from within the Spring Training ecosystem, I do get lots of emails inquiring about summer jobs at camp.
Here’s the crazy part: I cannot count how many times I receive an email from the parent of a high schooler (and even on a few occasions the parent of a COLLEGE student), asking for a job on their son’s behalf.
Let me say that again, I get emails not from the 17 or 18 year old wanting the job, but from their “Mommy and Daddy.”
“Hey Dan, my son is going to be a senior at PV High, has played baseball his whole life and is looking for Summer work.”
Unbelievable.
And this happens all the time.
(And the one I’ll never forget, “Hey Dan, my son is a freshman at UCSB and will be home for the Summer looking for work; do you have any coaching positions available for him?”)
I used to respond politely with, “Thanks for reaching out; please give him my email address and I look forward to hearing from him.” This was mostly a test to see which kids would respond on their own.
99% of the time that email never came.
Now, I don’t even respond to the parent’s email.
If a high schooler can’t write an email on his own asking for a job, what kind of employee/coach would he make? Is he going to be a self-starter? Is he likely to be someone who will take on additional responsibility without being asked?
I think you know the answer. Having a parent of a high school student email me is an extremely effective way to start filtering out candidates!
My almost 12-year-old doesn’t have a cell phone and won’t get one until 8th grade at the earliest so I totally understand when I get emails from parents of 13-year-olds asking about being a junior coach but there is no excuse for a high school kid to let his parents job search on his behalf. And for middle schoolers with email accounts who want to coach at camp…fire away!
The flip side of this is that when I do get an email from the kid, they immediately get a response and have made a very positive first impression on me; they are far more likely to be responsible, hardworking, and take initiative than then teenager who has his parents hustling on his behalf.
I didn’t write this to give advice on how to get a job at Summer Camp; I write this as someone who will be a lot of kids first interaction with a “boss” and can tell you with confidence that I’m not the only person responsible for hiring where a first impression through email can make or break an opportunity.
How can we start teaching independence?
The single easiest thing parents of young athletes can is to make their child carry their own bag to and from the field at every practice and game.
That’s something even a 4-year-old can do…in fact, here’s my kids at exactly that age down at RHLL after Maddux’s first Rookie game and on the way to Sloane’s first tee ball practice:
Kids who learn at young ages to do things they’re capable of doing (even if it’s uncomfortable, like carrying a baseball bag that’s twice their size!) will turn into young adults who can do things that are uncomfortable (like emailing a stranger out of the blue asking for a job!), but that will pay dividends many times over compared to having someone else do it for them.
This is why at the end of every Summer Camp Monday, I remind the kids in the bleachers that it is their responsibility to carry their own bag to the car, not their parent’s or babysitter’s.
The hope is that by starting young with something simple like carrying their own bag, someday they’ll be confident enough to do more difficult tasks like sending their own email asking for a job. I think it’s safe to say that overall as a society we have evolved (devolved?) from an era of helicopter parenting to an era of bulldozer parenting…but it’s not too late to change course!
If you’re teaching your kid to talk to teachers about a sub-par test score, advocate for themselves with coaches when they’re not playing the position they want, or telling them they have to write the email asking for a job…keep on rolling!
And if you’re a parent reading this who still carries his son’s bag around for him, tomorrow is the perfect day to create a new family rule 🙂
Play Hard, Have Fun!