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Youth Inc. with Greg Olsen
CJ Stroud on Character, Leadership, and the Future of Quarterbacks with Greg Olsen
00:57:24
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- [00:00]
A
Make sure you subscribe to both our YouTube channel and our RSS feed for all future conversations here at Youthink. What's up everybody? Welcome back here to you think. And today we have CJ Stroud. We talk everything from sports specialization at a young age to picking the right school or program, learning to lead. He tells some really cool experience about his childhood, growing up, his family values, the morals, what's kind of guided him to becoming the player, the leader and the person that he is today. Obviously second overall draft pick, former five star quarterback out of California, starting quarterback at Ohio State, rookie of the year, so on and so forth. So maybe no better person tend to share some of those ups and downs of an athlete's journey than CJ and we're super thankful to have him here on youthink. All right, so, so CJ so in your take and again, you're, you're, you're fresh in your career. Can you still be a multi sport athlete and reach the level of someone like you?
- [00:57]
B
Yes, I 100% agree that you can. I would say that it's very important to do such because different sports invite different type of movements, different type of fluidities, different type of mobilities to be able to be best at the sport you ultimately get to pick at the end. So you know, baseball could help with your hand eye coordination, while football health helps with your physicality, while basketball helps with your footwork like soccer helps with your footwork and your agility and your stamina like that can all play together whenever you decide to pick one sport. And then on top of that it's just different type of locker rooms. Even though when you're a kid you necessarily don't have a locker room, but you have the dugout, you have the sideline as a football game, you have the bench in basketball. I don't know how soccer works, but I'm sure they have something very similar. But the bus rides, the team cornery things, just the disciplines that each sport brings, like football, the football disciplines will bring a different type of discipline than the basketball disciplines of the fundamentals of basketball not really having anything to do with football. So football you're more so working on strength, conditioning, eye control, body control, where basketball is more instinctual for the fundamentals and ball handling and things like that. Where baseball, you know, the disciplines of alligator in the ball. You know, I still got a couple terms that I use. I love it like if I drop a snap, I try to alligator the football. So I learned that from baseball. So like there's different Disciplines that you can use. So all those kind of play, play together at the end.
- [02:47]
A
Yeah, no, so, so tell. So growing up you're playing basketball, you're playing baseball, you're playing obviously football. Like give us an idea of what your, you know, kind of your multi sport experience was like just as a kid growing up, you know, through high.
- [02:59]
B
School, yes, I was a three sport athlete, Basketball being my first love of the sport that I really thought I was going to go far in. But I was, you know, definitely convinced for my dad and my mom to continue to play basketball, I mean, to continue to play basketball while also playing football and baseball. So I played those three sports, played soccer when I was a really young, young kid. But yeah, those three sports, you know, were, you know, the things that I bought into and the things that I took very serious, whatever season I was in. And yeah, so those are the things that I, that I'm part of.
- [03:36]
A
So what happens a lot around where we live and really throughout the country is we're having a lot of coaches, a lot of these travel ball coaches, even school coaches that are starting at a young age to get to these young athletes and say, hey, if you don't pick basketball, if you don't pick football or baseball or soccer, you're going to fall behind. And I think there's a lot of kids that are feeling that pressure. Like did you have any coach at any point, whether it was in high school or even earlier in middle school? Or did you have any coaches that you had to go home and talk to your mom and dad and say, hey coach, so and so is trying to get me to just play basketball or just play football. Did you have to fight that like coming up in your day?
- [04:14]
B
Definitely, yeah, I definitely did. You know, I had a lot of guru or trainers or people who were expertise, you know, at these things who are trying to put pressure on you. And I think, to be honest with you, if I could be frank, I think it's a money grab and I think it's a, it's a finesse because at the end of the day, like my dad, at least he would always be honest with me. Like I play multiple sports is what he was saying. Like, I think it's very helpful. So it was great. I was grateful to have my dad there to help me in that aspect at that age. And my mom, she wasn't very like sportsy, but she was also very, very, very, you know, hard on us about our morals and, and our standard of a family and one of our standards Was if you start something, you finish it. So I wasn't gonna start to play baseball and then not finish it, you know, So I would say, you know, to those people who are going through those pressures, I mean, you know, you have to really, really dive deep into, like, what is the benefit. So what I used to do is write pros and cons list. So I would write pros of I stayed in the sport and cons if I left the sport or if I stayed in the sport. So both ways. Yeah, I think that's something that is important, you know, that we have to do is, you know, put those pros and cons together. But, yeah, I wouldn't. I wouldn't dive deep into those ideas that this would make you far behind. And, like, at the end, they're still kids. You know what I mean? You're still developing not only as a athlete, but as a. As a person and as a human being. And I think if your goal is to be a professional athlete at 5, 6, 7, you know, preteen, you know, like, in my opinion, that shouldn't be a goal. The goal should be being a better person, being a better being, better at discipline, learning teammate etiquette, learning, sportsmanship. These are the things, and I know, Greg, you can probably admit to this as well, these are things that got me to the NFL. Like, if you have the talent, the talent is going to show every year through, in, and throughout. Like, you'll be fine. It's those things that keep you around, in my opinion. So those are the things I would say, like, don't put pressure on the aspect of making it right away. Like, that shouldn't be the standard. The standard should be a better in every little thing as a person before, you know, being a professional athlete.
- [06:47]
A
Yeah, it's so well said. We've said on this show a few times, if the goal of youth sports is to be a pro, then everybody should just stop doing it, right? Because. Because it's not worth it. You know, there's not enough kids that are going to go pro to make the investment across the board at a young age. It's all about the growth. It's about the development, it's about all the traits, everything that you're talking about. So we couldn't agree with you more. And then the last thing before we move on to our next segment, the advice I always try to tell the kids, and it's really the high school kids, where we work, where we coach at here in Charlotte, I say, if you have a coach telling you that you can only play their sport. He's only telling you that because it's in his best interest, not yours.
- [07:25]
B
100.
- [07:26]
A
It's in his best interest. You don't miss summer football for baseball or basketball, or you don't miss basketball tryouts for football, or it's in his best interest, not yours. And be very, very careful around those people. That. That's always the advice I give. So I think it's important for our listeners to hear it coming from someone like you, who've obviously reached the highest levels.
- [07:46]
B
Yeah, I 100% agree with you on that. That's. It's a finesse. There's. There's no real man and woman who are in sports. Like, there's no man or woman that really cares and loves for you. That would tell you one thing is just certain for you at that age. Now, if you're 26 years old and you're trying to. Yeah, we have to be smarter. You know what I mean? But, like, if you're 12, 13, 10, like, whatever those, those youth sports ages are, to me, that. That's blasphemous. Like, that's stupid.
- [08:20]
A
I agree. No doubt. I think it's a great segment. You just talked about how, you know, your dad kind of helped drive some of the, some of the sports decisions, and your mom was really big on, on morality and the way you carry yourself and your growth as a man and your growth as a human. So I, I think it's a very f. So, like, who were those people? Like, where did your leadership traits come from? Where did you learn it? Maybe earlier in your life? Did you have any struggles assuming that role as a leader? I think everyone always assumes the quarterback has to be the leader, but for some people, it comes earlier. It comes easier. So, like, what were your early kind of interactions as far as saying, hey, I need to learn leadership. I need to be someone that other people want to gravitate towards.
- [09:02]
B
Yeah, you know, for me, it starts off, you know, in my household, like you said, with my mother and my father, they were, you know, pillars in our community for a long time of, you know, trying to do it the right way as best they can, being, you know, flawed and broken people like we all are. But, you know, our model, you know, and this is just who I am and what I was raised to be is, you know, how Jesus modeled it. So that was our foundation. That was our core, is our faith. And, you know, even though we all fall short, we don't really, you know, hit the mark every time but that was the standard to try to reach that. And, you know, there's one of the people who kind of stick out to me that I was taught. You know, I used to watch this movie called the Prince of Egypt growing up, and it was the story of Moses, and it was a cartoon, but it really, like, gave a good picture of, like, what a leader is. And if you look at the story of Moses, Moses was a man who had a stutter. He doubted himself. He was a flawed human. He was a murderer, but God used him mightily. And so that kind of is, like, to me, the idea of a leader is a flawed human trying to be a better person for others and to be a servant. And so that was what me and my family did. We served our community. We served as people as much as possible. And so, yeah, that was, like, the standard and the start of, you know, the leadership side of me. And on top of that, I'm the youngest out of five, so two older sisters, two older brothers, and then I'm the youngest. So I had to be, you know, a follower before I ever had to be a leader in a locker room. So, you know, following my brothers and sisters lead in the household was definitely good for me to learn positioning, to learn the age differences and maturity of what that brings. So, yeah, a lot of those things had to play a part. And then for me, I would say to the question you asked of, like, the mistakes that I've made, that is the reason why I feel like I am the leader I am today. The mistakes that I've made, I have a whole bucket list of them. Yeah, the mistakes create vulnerability, and they create. I'm trying to think of the best word to use. They created ability for us to relate to one another. So, like, Greg, me and Greg, if we were in the locker room together, we probably don't have a very super similar background. We might. We might not. Like, only time would tell, only conversation would tell, but the different mistakes, the different things that I've been through that Greg has been through, that'll just, you know, create a opportunity to connect. And so I think for me, that was the. The mistakes that I made were, like, just. Just failures as a young man trying to be a better person. So I don't know if that answers your question or not.
- [11:55]
A
Yeah, no, it does.
- [11:57]
B
What makes sense for me.
- [11:58]
A
No, it totally makes sense, and I want to dig a little bit deeper into that, because I think that what's so cool about an NFL locker room, or just any locker room, college, NFL, whatever, sport, it is, is the different backgrounds, the different types of experiences, but all coming together for a shared goal, a shared common purpose. I mean, I've had locker rooms, I've had lockers back to college next to guys that we had very little in common. We had very little, shared similar past experiences, and then other guys where we had a lot of similar, you know, background and a lot of similar shared experiences. So all shapes and sizes come in. How do you feel you best connect? Like, what would be your advice to young players, young athletes? How do you kind of bridge those gaps? How do you make sure, especially in your position as a quarterback, how do you make sure you can interact with your young wide receivers, your old tight end, your defensive players, your coaching staff? Like, how do you make sure you as a leader, you as the kind of the center point of that organization, can still find ways to relate to people, find commonalities with people who maybe you don't have a lot of shared experiences, a lot of shared background, but you still need to form that connection, that trust, that bond. I think it's more art than science, but like, what is your approach to that?
- [13:13]
B
Yeah, that's a great question. I would say my approach is time. Like, the more time you can spend with somebody, and I would say time plus understanding. And so the more time you can spend with somebody while being vulnerable, it doesn't have to be unnatural, it has to come off natural. But the more time and the understanding once you spend that time of why this person is the way it is and accepting them for who they are breeds a great relationship. So, like, I'll try to give you an example. So let's go for. In college, I had one of my best friend in college was a guy named Mayan Williams. He was a running back for us. He's playing in the CFL right now. I'm from Southern California, Inland Empire, Rancho Cucamonga. Like, where, you know, I'm a west coast kid. I love California. You know, we have a lot of, you know, we wear Converse, we wear vans, very chill, very laid back, you know, and that, that's just my background. Mine is from Cincinnati, Ohio, where it's, you know, very, very, very different. Like, it's snowing, they're wearing coats. I never wore a coat growing up until I went to college. They're wearing boots, you know what I'm saying? Like, it's just different. Like he has a different background with his family, you know, so like, that's a whole different ballgame. We don't come from a similar place. But the time we spent, the understanding where, like, I would sit there and tell him a life story, he would tell me his, and I would sit there and we would just rap. You know what I mean? Then you throw in a guy like Kate Stover, my teammate, Ohio State, now my teammate, the Texans, a farmer, a guy who grew up on the farm working with his dad, has his own meat company. Like, you know, I ain't never seen cattle in my life. You know what I'm saying? Like, that's just not.
- [15:06]
A
Neither have I. I grew up in New Jersey, right?
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B
So, like. But like, the fact that we were still able to connect because, you know, I necessarily. I don't think I've ever went up there. But I would buy his meat. I would pause, but I would buy, you know, his merchandise. Like, I remember one time I would. I had showed up with the Stover Farms shirt, and he was like, bro, what the heck? Like, I'm like, nah, I just want to, you know, like, support. And it was just dope. You know what I mean? So, yeah, it's just that time spent, you know what I mean? And that understanding of trying to understand somebody not for yourself, but for who they are, if that makes sense.
- [15:47]
A
No doubt. No, totally. And a simple gesture like wearing, you know, it's amazing the credibility and the connection that you can. And the respect that you can earn in a locker room. Something as. As simple as, hey, you bought. You bought your. Your tight end shirt and you wore it into the thing. And he's thrilled. Like, something. It seems so innocent, it seems so easy, but it can have an unbelievable effect. You think? Is proud to present this episode in partnership with Unrivaled Sports. This summer, while in Cooperstown, New York, I had the chance to sit down with Andy Campion, chairman and CEO of Unrivaled Sports, to hear how they are providing top tier experiences at every level of youth sports. All right, so welcome to what's a really special edition. Here we are in Cooperstown, New York, Andy Campion, chairman, CEO of Unrivaled Sports. We are here at Cooperstown All Star Village. A lot to dive into. We're talking before here on you think. Just give us a snapshot. Like, what are we looking at? What is this is. This is absolutely incredible. We're going to talk about my Cooperstown experience, but give us an idea of just where are we. What are we looking at? This is incredible.
- [16:51]
C
Well, we're pretty close to the baseball hall of Fame here in Cooperstown, right? Cooperstown All Star Village is the name of this property. I would say this property represents our mission in unrivaled sports in its most sublime state. So it's 12 year old youth baseball, only 12 year olds. It's a little bit of a rite of passage as they move on to the next level of baseball. Bigger fields, high school, etc. You know, the way we think about it is keep the main thing the main thing. So we have amazing fields themed by, you know, New York, LA, CA, etc. If you're a Boston fan, we got a green monster out there and that's the main thing. We want it to be awesome tournament experience and we want to inspire the kids. And then we've created this environment, a player's village. They stay in a tavern space for parents lodging. And our philosophy is pretty much if we inspire the kids and they have an awesome time, it'll be memory making for the parents.
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A
We're going to talk more about just the, the intricacies of the All Star Village here in a second, but I want to talk a little bit about the work you guys are doing with Unrivaled. So there's not a day that goes by that there is not an article about investment in youth sports, the big business of youth sports. Tell us a little bit more about Unrivaled. What was the motivation? Why youth sports? Why do you guys have such a passion, but not only here for All Star Village, but Cal Ripken and some of your other projects just out. What is it about not only the business of youth sports, but just the experience you guys can help create for so many of these young families and young kids?
- [18:18]
C
All right, so I'll answer that a little bit through the lens of why am I doing this? So I was more lucky than good. I was really lucky to have had the opportunity to work at Disney 11 years, work at Nike for 17 years. I'm actually wearing Kobe 6 Dodgers shoes for a reason.
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A
So would cut your leg off. They don't even know what size they are. My kid would cut your leg off to steal your shoes. Right now those are Kobe's are a big deal.
- [18:44]
C
Basically in the last few years before he passed away, I was really lucky to get to know Kobe. And on a few occasions he gave me advice and it was almost like he was giving himself advice after basketball. He said a few times and I have some sign things from him that say, andy, do epic shit always. And it just stuck with me. And in a way it's like, well, obviously we'd all love to do epic shit. Everybody loves Youth sports, right. Everyone wants their kids to play youth sports. Our mission is provide unrivaled sports experiences to young athletes everywhere. So for us, that's not just provide the pinnacle like Cooperstown All Star Village. It's a dimension of this kind of experience at every level. That could be league, tournament, a showcase. I think you talked about your oldest playing in some showcases, local, regional, national. And so, you know, if you think about what epic means, right. It's like a long journey, but a huge impact. And I just think youth sports is one of those things where you go, it's almost never ending how much impact you could have in it. And that's what unrivaled sports is about. And it's frankly why we chose the name. We want our experiences to be inspiring and memory making, inspiring for the kids. And if that's true, it'll be memory making for the families. We think about it as competitive and developmental. We want people to go home and say, this was awesome. The win might be kids are going home going like, I never thought about baseball that way. And frankly, I'd say even more so. There's a value we have which is we want to set the standard for youth sports in every aspect of youth sports we're in. So if we're managing a flag league, like our Flag league Under the Lights, where we just launched unrivaled flag, a flag football focused new brand. We launched it with a high school girls national championship at our property in Canton, Ohio, which is adjacent. It's part of the hall of Fame complex. We invited the top eight teams from around the country for free to come play. And we invited other teams into an invitational to come see if they could, if they could compete. We had Ashley clams on the U.S. national team. She came and spent the, the whole two day tournament interviewing the kids, giving them advice. Then we wanted them to leave thinking the future of football is female. And I think they did. They felt like, they felt like, I'm, I'm Greg Olse. I think they left going like, I'm.
- [21:04]
A
A pro football player, part of the future here. I'm part of this growth. That's awesome. I've always, I've always been very open and honest about the, the best thing that ever happened to me in my career. I grew up in suburban North Jersey, right outside of New York City, you know, metropolitan Northeast. And then I went to school at the University of Miami. Yeah, completely different inner city background, most of the kids, different backgrounds, a lot of South Florida. Best thing that ever happened to me was going outside of my comfort zone, outside of all I ever knew of New Jersey and going down and sharing lockers, sharing stories, sharing meals, going to each other's apartments, going, hanging out and just getting to know a very different part of the country, a very different background, very different stories of growing up. It was the best thing that ever happened to me in my growth as an athlete, as a person, as a friend, as a teammate. And those were lessons and stories that I was able to carry forward all the way through. There was never a locker room that I didn't feel comfortable in. There was never a type of guy I didn't feel comfortable around. And I think one. And so to your point, it's so true. Like, the whole experience, everyone focuses so much on the football, but so often the football is a lot better when all of the personal stuff is better, when all the relationships are better, the connections are better. So I think you're spot on with that.
- [22:25]
B
Yeah. And I think you hit it on the nail. Like, the fact that you were uncomfortable is what, to me, sparks my interest because as humans, we run away from uncomfortable, uncomfortable situations and pain, but those are what breeds us to become better. So you hit on the nails, like, pushing yourself to be uncomfortable. Like, it was the most uncomfortable thing ever to go 2,000 miles away from home to Columbus, Ohio, where, like, it's nothing like where I'm from, but like you said, it's the best thing that could ever happen to me.
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A
Totally. And some of those guys are still my good buddies to this day. We became NFL teammates together, you know, John Beeson and Devin Hester. And going on like, just guys that I never would have met, I never would have been around if I didn't go down to South Florida and, you know, Obviously the next 20 years took care of itself, but it was the best thing that ever happened. Before we move on, I want, I want to just touch on one last thing about the whole leadership, right? The player to player connection is one thing. Is there a certain type of coaching leadership that you found early on you gravitated towards, or maybe a style of leadership from coaches you maybe didn't appreciate? Like, is there a coaching type of method that you've been more comfortable with, more attuned to, whether it was early on, a high school coach or a youth coach, or all the way up through, obviously a guy we, you know, I've gotten to know really well and through you, Ryan Day up in, in Ohio State, like, is there a certain style that you love that you found? Is the Best leadership style from a coach, in your eyes?
- [23:54]
B
Yes. You know, I think Coach J is a perfect example of, like, the style that I wanted and I didn't want. And he'll tell you this, like, we didn't always have the best relationship. I'm a kid, you know, my father was incarcerated at 12 years old. So, well, around that age, until I was about 14, my dad was in and out. So, like, I had a really hard time dealing with, like, male leadership and, like, male, I would say, guidance, where, like, you know, a lot of my life, I mean, a lot of my times of me becoming a man, I was raised by my mother. So, like, Coach Day, same thing. Like, his father had passed away when he was a young child. So we off the back, we didn't connect off that we didn't even know because we didn't spend the time to understand one another. So a lot of it was just miscommunication. But one day, out of nowhere, he called me in his office and we just had a talk for, I would say, probably six, seven hours. Just, like, just talking at the time, we really didn't get along. Mind you, I'm a starter at Ohio State. Like, this is, like, into the season. We're, like, doing well. You would think everything was fine, but, like, deep down, we both had some things that we had to be men about and put on the table, and we were to do that. And after that, our relationship has become great ever since. Like, I consider him, you know, a great. Not only a great coach of mine, but a father figure, somebody who I look at as a friend, as a brother, and, you know, somebody who I know that I can call if I really need him and he can do the same with me. But, yeah, so, like, my favorite type of coaching style is the same way I like to think of, like, being a good teammate is to build time and to understand who I am as a coach, because we all have brokenness that we're trying to heal and trying to get past. But as coaches, for a lot of times, especially dealing with young kids, there's a lot of traumas children don't know how to deal with, and you're the only person that they could be leaning on at that moment. So it's very important to understand the players. Now, I can't tell you that I enjoy being yelled at and cussed at and things like that, but at the same time, there was an idea that. I mean, there was an idea, but there was a standard in the. My parents put in place that I was Going to respect elders no matter what they were saying. So that was a thing. But also that was not what I like. But once I explained that to a coach, that's what they understood. So I think there has to be an understanding from the coaching side of like this is, let me figure out these guys, these different personalities. Then there has to be an understanding from a kid to a player that, hey, I might not like everything, but I have to move some, I have to move off my mark just a bit, little, little bit to try to understand this coach as well. It can't just be just the coach, it has to be the player as well. So that would be my, my thing was like, I know I'm probably giving you a vague no, this is great. No, I love it. Yeah, I would say just like there's, there isn't one coaching style or one style that I would like or dislike. It's, it's a mixture of who I want, I want that person to be exactly who they are. If that's a yeller, somebody who does a lot of like, okay, cool, but understand where I'm coming from too. You know what I mean? That's, that's what would be my.
- [27:09]
A
Yeah, yeah, it's a two way street, right? It's a two way street. And both people understand the, the source. I, I always said before I can coach you, we coach a lot of our kids teams here at school and, and you know, independent travel and all that. I always say, like, I can't coach you the best until I know you the best. And some kids, you need to get on, you need to kick them in the ass. And it's got to be every day because if not, they're not self starters. Other kids don't respond to that. So like getting to know what buttons to push, what levers to pull, that's kind of the art and the beauty of coaching in my mind. And not every kid responds to the same. I don't respond to the same. So no, I think what you said makes complete sense and I think it's super important for, for our listeners to hear. Yeah. So I always tell the story. I'll lead off with saying my first ever big decision CJ that I made, which was where was I going to go to college? I went to University of Notre Dame. Out of college, out of high school. I got there after my high school graduation in June and by August of that year I had transferred to Miami. So I made it, I made it there three months. So I would say like the first ever Big boy decision that I got to make. I didn't even last three months there before I changed my mind. So the art of decision making, I think, is ever changing. I think people get better. So when you look back early on, whether it was picking your Pop Warner team or picking your high school or obviously bigger decisions like college and whatnot, like, take us through that thought process, I think it's something that young families now are dealing with even more so than we did growing up. There's so many choices, so much opportunity to move around and bounce around, you know, give us a little insight into maybe some of your big decisions and what led into ultimately what you decided.
- [28:53]
B
Yeah, for me, I mean, to your point, first, it's. It's. It's a tough day and age now. You know, I grew up, I feel like, in the back end of, like, old school, where, like, you were gonna listen to your parents, like, at the end of the day, like, I didn't really make a real decision until, like, you going to college. That was my decision. My mom had some influences, my dad had some, and my brothers and sisters did it well, but it was core mine. But back when I was like a kid, like, it was my parents, like, they were making every decision. But it's really hard even for the parents now because social media, the fact that we even have, like, Yelp and, like, different review reviews that guys. I mean, you can give, like, and people are doing a live emotion. So, like, I would say for. For me, if I was giving somebody an advice, I'll just go from my decisions that I've made. So for one of my first one was probably the high school that I was going to go to. So I played youth ball for this team called the Al Salomo Warriors. It was a junior all American team. Had a great experience with them. Then I ended up going to play for Snoop, Snoop Dogg's team at the syfl. That was a decision that my father made that I had a little bit of say so. But he wanted me to, like, broaden my ability to play with more inner city kids, kids that look like me that come from, you know, like, I wouldn't say similar backgrounds, but, like, have different backgrounds that I could correlate with. So that was very helpful then. So when I get to the syfl, my coach, his name was Coach Fly. Somebody who was a father figure for me, somebody who was a pillar in my community who do great things, you know, not only me, but his sons and his family, he went and coached at this school called Upland, which Was Rancho. The school that I ended up going to was one of the rivals. And so he wanted me to go to Upland, but Upland already had a quarterback, so. And also did Rancho. Rancho had like a quarterback as well. And I was going to come into a freshman year and I was like, man, you know, trying to, like, put in. Trying to put it all together. So what I did was I put a pros and cons list. It's like, I got pros of me going to Rancho. I have pros of me going to Upland. I have cons of me going to Rancho. I have cons of me going to Upland. I made my decision off my pros and cons list. Hey, I have more pros. And it doesn't just have to be sports. It can be lifestyle. Like, I knew that I had more friends going to Rancho. I knew that I had an opportunity to play on a better basketball team. I could possibly have played baseball. The education was a little bit better. The administration and the counseling was better at Rancho, in my opinion at the time. So there was a lot of things that were better for me to go to Rancho. So that's that decision. Going into college was really tough. I didn't have my father at the time. It was just me and my mother and my sister and my brothers were around, but they were, like, working and stuff. So I was going on a lot of these visits, just me, my mom, and my brother. And we don't really have, like, nobody who made it to this level. So that decision had to come into a lot of blind faith and trust in one, in a God, two and two, the program that I was going to trust. So it had to do with a lot of just, you know, I don't want to get Bible on y', all, but you do you, man.
- [32:14]
A
Whatever you. You be on it. You do you.
- [32:16]
B
Yes, sir. And in Ecclesiastes 3, it's. It's King Solomon. Solomon is known as the wisest person ever live. He asked God for wisdom, and that's what he got. But he also made bad decisions. But if you look in Ecclesiastes 3, he talks about how there's never a time. I mean, excuse me. He explains it. There's a time to plant. There's a time to harvest. There's a time for rain. There's a time for sun. There's time for happy. There's a time for sad life. There's a time for every single season. So at this time, there's a time for a season of taking a step into and so what I did was I took as many visits as I could. I had a pros and cons of everything, but also I had to make a decision as a man to decide to get out of my comfort zone. And that was probably one of the biggest decisions I ever made to be out of my. Because going to Rancho wasn't very hard for me. Like, it was right up the street from where I'm from. I had friends that went there. Going to Ohio State was all the way out of my comfort zone. So I had to make a blind trust decision. And I also had a listen to my mom hurt, and her thing was like, whatever you start is whatever you start, you're gonna finish it. So just like you, girl, I wanted to transfer. When I got there, I hate. I was. I hated it. But I didn't understand the goals that they had for me at the time. Because recruiting, you're on an all time high, like, yep, you're like the man. Everybody wants to cater to you. You're getting the best treatment. And then when you come to the freshman, you're like, you're the shrimp. You're the, you know, of the.
- [33:45]
A
Yeah, you're the bottom of the barrel.
- [33:47]
B
Yes. It's hard, man, if you don't have, like, a good support system, it's hard to stick in there and fight. And I'm grateful. Like, I'm so grateful from a guy like that. My mom instilled that into me. And I had coaches like Coach Mick and, you know, Coach Quinn, our strength staff, like that, you know, you're with them majority of the time, especially if you enroll, enroll early. Then, like, vets that I have, like Justin Fields, Chris Olave, Garrett Wilson, you know, guys who, like, poured into me, you know, that, you know, were like, hey, it was like this for me as well. I didn't happen overnight. So, like, that's. That's my background on, like, the decisions I made. And I don't know if that will help, but, like, yeah, that, you know, like, just sometimes it takes that blind faith. But you want to make calculated decisions where, like, hey, I'm okay with the worst case scenario. You know, that's. That's how I kind of made my decisions.
- [34:41]
A
Before we get back to my conversation with CJ Stroud, let's continue my conversation with unrivaled sports CEO Andy Campion. How do you guys balance here at All Star Village? The baseball experience, which is maybe a couple hours a day, and then all the other time, like, how do you capture the priorities of the experience? When they're here on and off the field.
- [35:02]
C
Yeah. So first of all, I'd say Cooperstown All Star Village is the best possible expression of youth sports from our perspective. To your point, it's because it combines so many things. It's a baseball tournament, it's camp. Every one of the kids, we have 82 teams, 82 to 84 teams a week stay in bunkhouses with their team, with their coaches. They're having food, playing wiffle ball, hanging out with their teams in the players village. So it's camp meets baseball, and then there is some theming. But I'll put it this way, like, I was at Disney 11 years and I look back and go, nobody at Disney must have ever visited Cooper Stall Village, because if they did, they would have said, this is better than Disneyland.
- [35:47]
A
Is there something unique about baseball? Like, give me an idea. Would you guys look at the landscape creating these destination facilities? Can we do this?
- [35:56]
C
Awesome. Other sports, the way we're looking at it unrivaled is baseball is actually, as you know, with your kids, right. One of the most developed sports ecosystems. You have Little League, you have travel, you have showcases, you have the Little League World Series.
- [36:10]
A
There's something for everybody.
- [36:12]
C
There's something for everybody. Right? Starting a T ball and all the way up to, like, high school select tournaments. Okay, let's keep doing that in baseball. Now, by contrast, flag football, to me, I think we're in the equivalent of the dot com era. When before has there been a sport that's a new sport that's very accessible? Think of how easy it is to play flag football, but then has all of the, like, fandom and emotion that you and your teammates and the NFL and college football have created. People love football, and all of a sudden there's this opportunity to bring it to a ton more kids and to girls. And so I look at unrivaled flag and our other businesses in flag football under the lights, our league, as we get to create the future of flag football and baseball, we get to take this, like, amazing ecosystem of baseball and go, like, let's make every part of it we play in better because it's such an amazing sport.
- [37:06]
A
So how do we keep the integrity, the kids, their best intentions at heart? How do we keep that as the main thing, but also build really well thought out, well constructed businesses around it to not only grow and make money, but also elevate the expectation and the level of experience these families and kids can have like this. Like, I think it's a little bit of a Fine line. How do you guys manage that?
- [37:31]
C
Yeah, one of the things I've learned over the years is instead of trying to make everything in life absolute, it's this or that. Lean into the paradox. The more kids playing sports, the better. And that's a much more inspiring way to run a business. I think there's a role for philanthropy in youth sports and a role for business and I don't think they're distinct. I think you can do some of those things together. I think you can offer an amazing, sustainable, growing portfolio of businesses. Like we are with Cooperstown All Star Village, Ripken Baseball Unrivaled Flag, which we launched. And so I think there's a way to do that in business. Work with high schools, local parks and recs, et cetera, and work together. I think if you can lean into both ends of that spectrum, that's the only way you can have epic impact. What I think about is I want to do something epic. Like I look out here and I go like, there's nothing better than making all of these kids.
- [38:29]
A
That kid just hit a home run. As you were talking, that was like fake.
- [38:32]
C
Exactly.
- [38:33]
A
You guys talk about like your, your, your, your pyramid, right? What your priorities, your hierarchies of how you guys set. You have these elite high level destinations and then you build out those portfolio kind of downstream. Explain it to us, give us an idea. Because I think it's important to picture not only where you guys are now, but I think it'll give our listeners and our followers a really good idea of kind of what's to come. Where are you guys going to continue to kind of pave this?
- [38:56]
C
Totally. I love it. We run leagues and so that's the most inclusive. Like that is that lifeblood of the pyramid. We run tournaments, but think about it this way. In youth sports there are destinations and there's programming like running a tournament. The model we love the best is destination plus programming equals experience. So we love these destinations like exactly. Like we can make sure the fields are turfed and if they need to be re turfed, they're re turfed. We've got the right officials, we know that they're available. Right? You know, like field time is a thing and we've got the field time, we can control that. And then what is the tournament play, etc. So that I would say that level of our pyramid would be like a really well run diamond or rectangle facility. The next level in our pyramid is Ripken baseball. So that level is. You control the destination and the programming. But you have really dialed it up. The destinations theme, like there's an emotion and I even haven't started playing that Ripken. And then that takes you to like Cooperstown All Star Village and Rocker beat. But when you're here, you're not wondering what's over there. Like you're in this is life, right? So that's the pinnacle of the pyramid for us.
- [40:07]
A
So you said Mick and my ears perk up. So when I went to Notre Dame, Mickey Moratti, your strength coach who's still at Ohio State, he was my strength coach at Notre Dame. So that first summer I went to Notre Dame, Mick was the one making us, you know, midnight lifts. The, everything you hear about it was, Mick was awesome. I, when I come up to, when I came up to visit you guys, I still go up and visit Ryan. But when I first came up there to visit, when I met you for the first time, it was good to see Mick because I don't know if at the time when I was 18, I ever loved going to see Mick. But now I look back and I'm like, man, like I know it was a short window, but God, I learned a lot about myself on those hard ass summer workouts. But so a name that me and you now also have in connection with one another. Getting through a mic workout. But I want you to stay there because what I think you just touched on the fear of making a bad decision. The unknown. Then once a decision is made, seeing it through till the end. In this day and age, with transfer portal in college, high school pretty much has turned into the wild west. Kids are going to four high schools in four years. It's happening at the youth level. Kids are travel playing on different travel teams on a weekly basis. There's really no messaging anymore to just pick a team, stay with it and let it ride out and see it to the end. So talk a little bit about that struggle because I think everyone sees C.J. stroud. He's a first round pick, he's rookie of the year, he's all pro right off the bat. He's the starter at, you know, at Ohio State, everything's been easy. He's always been the best player. He was a top recruit. But there are a lot of low points. There are a lot of moments where we sat in our dorm rooms. I had this at Miami where I called my dad and he goes, how do you like it? I said, I love it. It's beautiful. The campus is insane. But I'm never gonna play here. You know, when I Got to Miami, we were coming off back to back national titles. The guys in that locker room, my freshman year, we had six first round draft picks. Like the vision of me ever being on the field with Sean Taylor and Vince Wilfork, and it never made sense to me. I was like, I'm not as good as these guys. But there's always the doubt. Talk a little bit more about that because I think that vulnerability of that is so valuable for young athletes who. All they see is your best play. All they see is your four touchdown game. All they see is you holding up your number one Texans jersey. But they don't see the nights you lay in your dorm room saying, I can't do this anymore. Or the days you. You throw three picks at practice. Like, yeah, I think it's super important that everyone understands there's another side of the coin here that even the guys at the highest level, like, you go through.
- [42:42]
B
Yes. Yeah. I mean, I have stories on stories, so I'll explain one fast, but. So I had a. I had a coach. He's actually coaching at Seabum north now. I still love him, but his name is Coach Alfred. And when I first got to Ohio State, I did not understand, like, like I told you guys before, like, like the development that they were putting me through. I didn't understand the plan that they had for me and I didn't even know if there was a plan. And just like you, I'm like, man, I don't know if I can play here. Like, you guys are really good at what they do. And so I remember after practice, like, I was really down and dumb, so I don't really practice much. Like, I was going with like the three Ds and like, it was, it wasn't great. Like, I, I didn't want to be there. I was like, man, if I went to usc, like, I would play, like, if I went to some school close to home, I would be the man right off the bat. And like, yeah, these things might have been true, but, you know, so when I sat down with coach Alford, it was cold as heck. We're sitting there, it's like we're doing really well. This season's Covid years, it's like an awkward year, so everything's kind of like off. And he sat there and he looked at me. He was like, man, he was like. And he just was honest. He was like, man, you'll be foolish if you left this opportunity. And he was like, you know, sometimes development seems, seems like demotion. Like, it seems like denial. But no, it's just. It's a part. It's a process of you becoming great. And I stuck out to me and I was like, you know what? He's right. Like, let me just let me try and let me, Let me, Let me try to. To not be perfect and just to attack the situation. And that's what I did. So, you know, it took me a minute to understand, but I look back and like now everybody's like, oh, it made sense. But at the time, like, kind of what you're saying, like, it didn't make sense at all. Like, for me to stay, it was. And so I'll go back to like, to now, like what I would think of, like, just as what I would give it for advice. If it's too easy, don't do it. Because there is nothing rewarding to easy. If you look at some of the most successful people ever to do anything from business to sports to whatever the case may be, you have to understand that it takes time to become great and it takes pruning. If you look how gold is made, it's made in fire. It's broken down, it's beat up on. It's not sunshine and rainbows. You know what I mean? So for me, the days of when I didn't want to do it, when I didn't want to get up and go to practice, when I didn't want to get in the waiting room, when I didn't want to go see Coach Mick, when I didn't want to be disciplined, when nobody else was looking, those are the reasons why I made it. It wasn't because I threw the five touchdowns or I had a great game against Georgia. Those are just testaments to the work that I put in when nobody was looking. And I know it sounds cliche, but it's the God honest truth. So, yeah, I mean, you have to have some type of blind faith, man. You have to have some type of trust in yourself and gives us some grit to you, man. Like. Like if you think it for the. For, especially for like the high school kids and college, if you think when you get to the NFL, it's just as like, if you just think it's gonna be easy, oh youh have another thing coming because there's every single year another guy coming for your position. Then on top of that, it's political. Like you, you. If you just get up and leave, you're. You're. You're setting a tone not only for yourself, before everybody around you watching that you're A quitter. And that's just a God honest truth. So I believe in grit and I think there's some respect in that. And like getting some dirt on your nails and some grit, some scars, like, like I wouldn't. For me, like if anybody listens to this call and will call me out, like, please do. But like I, there's people who know me. I got some scars, man. I got some things that are the reason why I'm sitting here on this call with you. And I know Greg, the same thing for you, like you have some things that you have experience doing such. So that's why you have a following listening to you, you know, via Youth Inc. So like I think like if you're listening to people to tell you to transfer and to do like, and they don't got no grit, they don't got no scars, they don't got no stories to tell, you don't listen like at all because how are you going to tell me what to do and you ain't never did it yourself, you know what I'm saying?
- [47:00]
A
Trust me, we're going to bottle what you just said and we need to share that with every single high school athlete in the country right now because what you just said is the message and you couldn't have said it any better. Yeah, so we've actually talked to a couple guys, so we talked to Adam with 3D QB, I know there's QB country, there's quarterback trainers everywhere doing all sorts of really good stuff. The quarterback position is so special, right? Is it is the hardest position in all of sports. The skill, the mentality, the mindset, all of it. Just give our listeners a little idea of like what goes on for you. And this could be all the way back to your high school days or prior. When you're away from your team, you're not with the Texans, you're not with Ohio State, you're not with Rancho. Like you are by yourself just trying to improve and develop as an individual. Like tell us a little bit about that journey.
- [47:47]
B
Yeah, for me, I mean it's been steps of like development. So starting off, like, I really didn't have a quarterback trainer until, until I really got to college. Like all through high school didn't really have, I had like, I had camps and stuff that I learned drills and so when I, when I went and learned these drills at these camps, I would go home and apply the same drills and I would just do it over and over and over and over and over and I would watch a lot of Tape. So, like in high school for me, when nobody was watching, I used to watch a ton of Drew Brees, a touch of a touch. Excuse me, a ton of Drew Brees, a ton of Matt Ryan, a ton of guys who didn't really, like, play my type of playing style just to like, learn something new. The one thing that I learned from them was like, play action. And like, even though I was never under center in high school, I still worked on it when nobody was watching because I seen it doing. It was being done at the highest level. Watched a ton of Brady. He did a lot of it. And then I, yeah, I watched like some Michael Vick, some Deshaun Watson, some Cam Newton, some of the guys that kind of like the style that I wanted to play. And I would learn some things from them and from them I would say the things that stuck out from those type of guys were the instincts where Brady Breeze, Philip Rivers, like, you know, Ben Roethlisbergers of the world, those guys necessarily didn't have the physical makeup or like the instinctual things. They were more so mental. Like, they would process the game faster. They would see coverage, they would do those things. So, like, I took a step to learn that. And for me, it was playing Madden. Like, I learned coverage from Madden. Like cover two. Hey, it's this. It's cover four. It looks like this. And they're not a bunch of rules and guidelines in Madden, but, like, it taught me the base layer of coverage.
- [49:27]
A
Yeah.
- [49:27]
B
And then I would take it and watch YouTube videos and like, try to learn that way. And then it grew in college to where. Then I met Adam, I met Taylor Kelly, I met John Beck, 3D QB, Tom House, people, you know, and I started working with them. And then that took a step. And then I've been running with that ever since. And that's been. That was a process, like first with them. You know, everybody's seen Dak doing the shoulder back hip separation where he's doing the like little funny dance. Like those, that stuff is dangerous for kids. Like, that's all up in your inside your, your, like your ab work. Like, if you're not developed as a, as a person, like, you shouldn't be doing stuff like that, in my opinion. Yet. So my advice would be to the people who are looking to develop is to go to these camps, go to these, these, these places where they're teaching you in person, they're teaching you things, and do it once or twice, do it three times, do it four times a year. But I don't I don't think it's necessary that you need to be eight years old, training every weekend. Like to me you need to be going to the park, you need to be playing, you know, different types. You need to play in the neighborhood with the kids and like learning how to instinctively, instinctively play at a high level with some regards to the training that you learn. So I think a mixture is great. And so when you, when you do decide it's going to be a profession or that's something that you're going to try to invest into is then when you invest the money into the trainers and things like that. So that's my honest, you know, advice that I would give somebody to do that is like, you know, start off with the camps, the once in a while training and learn from that. Take whatever you can and apply it at home with the instinctual things of going to the park, playing in the street, like, you know, having fun with, with kids, seven on seven, AAU basketball, things like that. And then as time goes on when your body starts to develop, then take it more serious. Love it.
- [51:22]
A
Well, C.J. man, I can't thank you for your time. I know you're in New York, I know you got a lot going on, man, but ever since I came up and visited spring ball a couple years ago and had a chance to meet you, it's been so cool to not only follow you at Ohio State then, but now get to know you, call your games, be there, do production meetings with you, obviously watch you rookie of the year, now you're going into year three. It's been really cool, man, to just see the way you carry yourself obviously on the field, that's been off the charts, but just everything away from the field, just getting to know you and talk to you, man, I can't thank you enough for joining us at you think the wisdom, the experiences, the vulnerability that you share to our audience and athletes is so valuable, man. So I can't thank you enough for joining us and, and, and, and being here with us on you think.
- [52:05]
B
Nah, thank you man. I really appreciate the, the time and you know, the ability to give a couple of my two cents.
- [52:11]
A
Yeah.
- [52:11]
B
But yeah, man, I think youthink is doing a great thing and something that I'm proud to be a part of and something I think is necessary for this time and I don't think I know it's necessary because structure is good, you know, and the foundation is being built with you think. And I think it's, it's going to take off so I'm excited to be a part of it and, you know, very grateful.
- [52:31]
A
Thanks again to Unrivaled Sports for partnering with us on this episode of youf Think. Now let's wrap up my conversation with CEO Andy Campion. All right, so for anyone who's lived the youth sports in, you know, journey and. And lived in this world, there's really two elements to it, right? There's two groups of people, there's the kids that they need to be the goal. And I think for a lot of adults, at times they lose track of who really all this is for. Because then the other side of the coin are all the adults that could be coaches, parents, umpires, referees, tournament directors, all the adults that of course, make events possible, make teams possible, and all that with your efforts, not only here at All Star Village, but just all of your projects, all of your properties at Unrivaled. Like, how do you guys make sure that even though adults are making all the decisions and you're driving adult experiences and family experiences, all of that never loses sight that it is about the kids at the end of the day and ultimately their experience.
- [53:30]
C
You're pretty fond of saying something like, focus on the dreams and desire and drive of the kids, not of the parents in youth sports. And I love it because that's. You could end the sentence there. You could say, focus on the dreams and aspirations of kids, not on the parents or the adults, as you said. Right. But then as you. And you've talked about this a lot too, but it's a little more dynamic than that. Right? And what you've talked about is. So kids first. The short of it with kids is the more kids that play sport, the better. It's almost that simple. Like if you said, what do you guys measure? If that's the best. That's the single most important measure for us is more kids playing sports and kids playing more sports. Right? So that's most important. But then you go to the adults and you kind of lump this all into one category. And so I know I kind of know what I'm up against with parents. Cause I have kids that play sports. So the way I think about it is what we'd love to do is get the parents engaged in the most family oriented way possible, not in the game itself. So tonight at Cooperstown All Star Village, for example, we have Fan Appreciation Night. And a credit to our team here, they just launched it this year. So Fan Appreciation Night, this one. Like, you can't help but smile when you say it. Mom's Home Run Derby, we've had to expand it to like qualifying rounds because it's become so popular just a few weeks into the summer that every mom wants to do it. Us as parents, we're on the sidelines going like, I kind of get around on the field. Great. Get on the field and play in the Home Run Derby. I'd say the second element of adults that you talk about a lot is coaches. There might be almost nothing more important at that at this age. Right. Because they're an authority figure. They're teaching the kids and. But we don't hire the coaches. The clubs and teams hire the coaches. And our assumption, but we pay pretty close attention is, is are we giving them the right environment to be a great coach? Then you have the officials. You know, you put like, you know, black and white stripes on someone and you get a negative connotation. Usually the reality is in youth sports, it's got to be the opposite one. You want the games to be fair. That's baseline. But the officials and the umpires are basically running the field. They're kind of the general manager of the game. Right. You have the teams on the field and you have the coaches and there's really one adult, to use your term, out there. And it's the ump. And so we have kids that are like taking selfies with umpire Mike and posting them. Like our umps are. They're great at officiating and they're great people. Like, it's 12 year old kids. We want them to be great.
- [56:04]
A
How do I experience any of the unrivaled properties? Next. Like, how do I say this was incredible? Yep. But I want to do it again next year. Where do I go?
- [56:13]
C
Take me there. Okay, so first I'll just give you the landscape. Over the past year, we've become a national organization in baseball, we now have a national footprint. We've got everything from Cooperstown All Star Village to Diamond Nation, which is actually the high school age. You probably are familiar with that. In New Jersey, we have Ripken baseball in a number of different locations. But the one I've been kind of saving for last is called Rocker B Ranch in Texas. So it's 325 acres, a little over an hour outside Dallas. It's right now baseball. So we've expanded the number of baseball fields, but we have some acres. We have some land. It's Texas. Right. We're definitely going to expand rectangle fields, as you might call it, flag football, soccer, et cetera. We're in that process. But what's awesome about it, it's Texas. So we have lodging there. It's our only other property where we have casitas, lodges, et cetera. There's a music hall, and again, food wise, we got Traegers out there.
- [57:06]
A
It's like a dude ranch to play baseball.
- [57:09]
C
It's called Rocker B Ranch. It literally is. It's like it's country meets baseball. It's awesome. So this, I'd say, is the Disneyland of baseball. That'll be the Walt Disney World of youth sports.
- [57:20]
A
Thanks again for joining us. We'll catch you next week right here on youn Think.