Fallon Center for Youth Sports: Welcome

HAPPY HOLIDAYS ... over the next few weeks and through the holidays we will be adding pictures of our alumni.  See how many you can recognize, 97% of them played in college (36% at the Division I level) and over 90 have had the opportunity to play professional baseball.

We have been involved with youth sports and college planning since 1996.  In that time we have placed more than 1,200 students into college programs and guided hundreds more into making sound decisions for their future.  The difference is that we are honest and real.  Sometimes our evaluations are not popular to parents, players and even their coaches, but in the end they are accurate.  We have strong connections with college coaches and professional scouts throughout the country and wish to continue to strengthen those connections as well as build upon our reputation as a honest and caring group of mentors in each community we serve.  If we are not honest, we jeopardize our value to college coaches.  

Due to the increased support and growing attendance at our Fallon Report (Elite 48) workouts, we have added Tuesday and Thursday sessions.  Also, we have begun our monthly memberships again offering a month by month plan for players aged 15u down to 8u.  We are also now accepting new high school members into our college planning program.  We will also be adding teams into tournaments this winter to keep you sharp and to get some of the football players players back into game shape.   

It’s a Fact: Only 15% of All Little Leaguers
Play High School Baseball; Less than 3% of those will play in College 

Study after study has concluded that athletes 13-18 years of age demonstrate optimum sport development when training in a 50:50 (practice to game) environment.  60 plus game schedules with little or no structured practice leads to burnout, injuries, and/or limited technical advancement.  This obviously will hurt a players chances of playing high school or college baseball. 

What is very interesting to me is year after year, there are club, travel team and even high school coaches who believe that they know who the best players are in the state.  They make these evaluations from seeing them in games or tournaments.  To me that is only a piece of the equation.  When I look at a player (and what the Elite 48 is all about) for USA Baseball (NTIS), for the Angels or for any college in the country, I am looking for talent (yes), but also for character, knowledge of the game, passion for the game, a player who understands the importance of practice and constant and never ending imporovement.  Not the player who just shows up for a game and expects to perform at a high level.  Years of experience tells us that these players just don't make it to the next level.  They have never experienced failure or do not understand how to handle failure when it occurs.  This game is all about failure.  It's about picking yourself up off the ground and being able to make the next play, delivering in the next at bat or picking your teammate up when he fails.  The teams and players who understand this are typically the ones who survive in this game.

Great examples of these type of players are Jeff Larish (Tigers), Joe Mather (Cardinals), Matt Pagnozzi (Cardinals), Brad Mills (Blue Jays), Nick Evans (Mets), Eric Sogard (Padres), Doug Mathis (Rangers) and of course Carlos Ramirez (Angels).  Not one of those players were superstars when they were 10, 12, 14 or even 16.  But with each year, they got better.  They had the proper foundation (from their parents) and understood that it is a process and a commitment to the day to day belief of a constant and never ending imporovement.  Being around anyone of these men, you would never see them get too high or too low emotionally.  They were all very consistant yet extremely competitive.  Life is all about learning from the past and trying to recreate things that we know are successful.  These players demonstrate exactly what we try to teach within our program.  Our program did not make these players, these players helped to make our program.  Thats an important distiction.  Many programs will say that they coached this guy or that guy ... but in the end, the most important coach in the lives of each and every baseball player is their parents.  So much has to do with what you say to your child on the way home from that lesson .. from that practice or from that tournament.  Everything the coach just worked on in that session, could be lost with a few negative or non supportive words from a parent.  We all have choices as to where to place our children and who to surround them with.  Be smart, do your homework and investigate their background.  Then let those coaches teach your child.  Be suppostive, positive and encouraging of what he is teaching.  If you have done your homework, be comfortable he is giving the right information.  If anyone ever has any questions on any baseball academy, coach, team .. whatever .. I have been here since 1993 and made it my mission to learn as much as possible about anyone involved in this game in Arizona!  Feel free to send me an email at jeff@fallonsports.com.  The only thing I ask is if you ask ... please be prepared for the truth (as I see it). 

There are "coaches" out there who get uniforms, come up with a fancy team name and go out and recruit players to play for them.  Typically these coaches are dads who want to surround their child with the best possible players so they can have "success."  Of course "success" at that level is measured by winning.  After the game, the question is ... How did you do?  A loss typically means not good ... a win (not matter how the game was won), means success. 

What Happened to the Other 85%?

30% do not move up because of physical inability to play at a higher level.
55% do not move up because they lack instruction during their developmental years.
 

You should know:

Over one thousand of our former participants have gone on the play in college!

More than 90 have been drafted!  In addition, not included in our stats, this year’s World Series participants Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley both played with the Moutain West Academy who we are partnered with for all NTIS functions.

Together we have had twenty-five USA Baseball National Team Trials and National Team Players!

Will you be next?

CLASS OF 2010

Early Signings and Verbal Commitments

Most of our adult lives are spent working.  Taking into account commuting time, overtime, thinking about jobs, and worrying about deadlines or problems we spend more of our waking hours in an office or factory, behind a desk, in a meeting, or on the road than we do at home.  But too many find their jobs laborious and repetitive, an irritating but necessary interruption between weekends.  They would rather get home than get ahead.

A job is something you do for money.  A career is something you do based on an inner desire and motivation.   You want to do it, you love doing it and you are excited when you do it.  You do it because it is in harmony with your core values and goals.

People who are paid exactly what they are worth (or more) often find themselves replaced, declared obsolete, and re-engineered out of the organization.  Overpaid people are overdrawn in their knowledge bank account.  People who are underpaid for the amount and quality of the service they provide are always in demand and always ahead of the money in their knowledge and contribution.  So money and opportunity are always chasing them.

Keep the level of your yearning and learning ahead of your earning.  Be inspired to learn as much as you can, to know as much as you can, to gain skills when you can, to find a cause that benefits humankind – and you’ll be sought after for your quality of service and dedication to excellence.  This motivation will make you oblivious to quitting time and to the length of your workday.  You’ awake every morning feeling the passion of pursuit of a paycheck.  Those who do more than they’re paid for are always sought for their services.  Their name and work outlive them, and they always command the highest price.  Chase your passion, not your pension.