|
Today, Bobby is the Director of Corporate Partnerships at Diamond Nation, home to a 65 acre baseball/softball complex based out of Flemington, NJ. Over 3,000 teams per year participate in Diamond Nation tournaments and over 500,000 visitors enter the gates of the 700,000 square foot, turfed facility. Bobby has two children. One a 17 year old high school junior who has played baseball his entire life. He won a state championship as a freshman at Hunterdon Central Regional High School and lost in the state finals a year later as a sophomore. He is currently committed to continuing his education and baseball career at Old Dominion University after his graduation in 2019 His daughter is a 13 year old 8th grader who just started playing softball a couple of years ago. She made the transition from dancer to ball player, also giving basketball and volleyball a go in middle school. She’s got some catching up to do, but no one works harder!
Ready to Get Started? CLICK HERE TO GET STARTED MY JOURNEY WITH VIDEO: Ever since I was a kid I was into video. Way back when there were BetaMax machines (Google it kids), I was into making highlight reels. In the mid 90’s, I remember spending 16 hours straight all through the night making a highlight tape for a 12 year old player on the Little League team I coached. He was moving out of town and I wanted to put something special together for him. I had four big video recorders, about a dozen different VHS cassettes, an audio receiver, a CD/cassette player, and a video mixer (check out the 13 second video below for a good laugh!) Something today that could be done on a small computer in a few hours, took me ¾ of the day 23 years ago. Common denonimator? I LOVED IT THEN, AND STILL LOVE IT NOW! In 1997, I founded a youth baseball league. I acted as the league’s President for 19 years! When YouTube was born, oh was I in my glory! Soon after, Facebook started to allow video uploads! I started a YouTube channel and a Facebook page for the league and I was spending more time goofing off with videos than I care to admit! Both those channels are still up and running today despite my retirement, and hundreds of parents and players can go online whenever they get the urge to go relive some of their fondest memories. NEVER GOT A CENT OF COMPENSATION, JUST DID IT FOR THE JOY OF IT! When my son started playing in high school a couple years ago, naturally, I shot most of his games. You guessed it, I started a YouTube channel and Facebook page for his school team and in no time, I was putting up highlights like this one below from just about every game! Speaking of my son, he’s a verbally committed D1 bound pitcher! So, in the "practice-what-you-preach" column, I used the highlight reels I produced of him in the recruiting process! And they helped! Because I was at all of his games, I had a ton of video and made several different reels! Here's just one simple one that we put together this past summer just a few weeks before he made his comittment! My son did not attend one college camp and you can count on one hand how many showcase events he went to! Now, I am NOT saying college camps and showcase events are bad things to do, nor am I saying videos can be a replacement of them, so don’t misunderstand me. I’m just saying that the videos he was able to share coupled with the live outings that coaches were able to get to were enough for him to get a great offer. Of course his ability was the primary force behind this, and that holds true with any athlete! But, the videos saved me thousands of dollars, both in event and travel costs! Moral of the story is, I’ve been involved in youth baseball for 30 years. I know how to make a quality video, I know what the college coaches are looking for, and I can put something together for you in a nice short and sweet reel that will serve as a perfect appetizer. And because I enjoy it so much, it’s a labor of love, and when you love to do something, it shows in the finished product!
|
