Scott Schimmel (00:00)
Hey everybody, welcome to an episode of the YouSchool podcast. If you've been watching the podcast or listening, it's been a long time since I've had a guest, mostly because I don't like other people and I love the sound of my voice, which you can figure out which is true of what I just said. But fortunately we are different this week. We have a actual live guests in the studio, virtual studio.
Nolan Recker has become a good friend of mine. I don't remember when we met because I have no sense of time Nolan from Covid. might have been two years ago. It might have been 12. Somewhere in there you and I became friends. I don't remember how we met either, but we are kindred spirits and you are on a parallel journey in the great state of Illinois caring about kids, supporting families and also very entrepreneurial and trying to solve problems. And we recently reconnected.
to talk about your new venture, which is Hey Coach, which I would love to hear about. But before we do, just give us a little context of who you are and why you're here.
Nolan (00:57)
Yeah, fun story. would love, I'm glad to remind you of how we met. We met because I interviewed at a church that you would regularly preach at. That is no longer a thing, that church. Yeah. So they just realized after interviewing me, there's nobody better. And they, yeah. And I mean, they didn't offer me the job. They just said, if this, if no one is the best we have, then our best option.
Scott Schimmel (01:08)
Yeah, that's right. It does not exist. ā
Mm hmm. Shut this thing down.
We
are shut. Yeah, no, I think you're right.
Nolan (01:29)
Yeah, so that's but similarly it was what was his name? He was Bob Goff's young life leader Steve Murray and he said to me based on our conversations there's someone in that you need to talk to and he didn't use kindred spirit but he was right Steve was correct he got you and I connected and you gave me the time of day and here we are man it's been
Scott Schimmel (01:36)
Steve Murray. Yeah.
Nolan (01:54)
gosh, four years. Yeah, so, fun fact, Scott and I have never met in person.
Scott Schimmel (01:56)
All right. There you go. I believe you.
And big shout out to Steve Murray.
He's one of the biggest fans of U School, biggest supporters of mine, and I owe a lot to him and his encouragement. So if you're listening, Steve, we love you and hope you're enjoying retirement.
Nolan (02:09)
Yeah. Yeah. Thanks again, Steve.
I look forward to meeting you in person someday, Scott. We've known each other for four years, have talked regularly. I don't know how many people, I don't have anybody. don't do, yes, you're right. The one time I was in San Diego, you took something out of your son's car so it wouldn't work. And then told me that it wasn't gonna be a thing. So yeah.
Scott Schimmel (02:16)
I don't do that, Nolan. I don't do a person.
I was like, sorry,
That's right. Yeah. Yeah, car died
because of that too. That's how far I will go. Sorry, I had to calm. Sorry, buddy. So tell us your you were maybe gonna be a pastor now not what's your deal?
Nolan (02:33)
Yeah, I mean, you definitely overplayed your hand just to get out of in person.
Yeah, my background,
my background is in vocational church ministry, whether it was full time at some point or multiple points and then bivocational served almost in every single position in the church except for worship leader. You don't want me singing in front of a group of people, but I mean, custodian children's ministry, youth ministry, adult ministry, lead pastor, executive level positions.
Scott Schimmel (03:03)
Yeah. Yeah.
Nolan (03:14)
And I did that for many years. But my number one passion was always been like mentoring coaching. And I think that's the parallel for my background in ministry was helping people to discover what their faith looks like for them and how to live it out faithfully. And I'm grateful that I get to now coach regularly. And then, yeah, I developed a program called Hey Coach. It's a platform called Hey Coach. Team is where you can find it. And it
came about of a problem that I experienced in my first year back in coaching, got married, had kids, stepped away from coaching youth for a while, got back into coaching in high school and the communication breakdowns was like a regular thing. And I know you and I talked about a number of different times on our calls and I was like, there's gotta be, somebody's had to solve this problem. How do we increase?
interpersonal connection between coaches and players in a way that's safe and actually encourages transparency and vulnerability without fear of reprisal or fear of inappropriate things going on. And sure enough, I was lucky enough to discover nobody really had solved it in a way that meets the logistical necessities of, all right, we've got to schedule, we've got to communicate with parents. Nobody wants to download another app.
And I, I love text messaging. I, I don't know how many times my wife and I have solved some sort of miscommunication through texting. And for the longest time, I was like, this is bad. We can't do this in person. And I realized, Nope, actually we love to text and go, this is what I actually meant. And we throw in emojis and everything. And it's been super beneficial for us. And I was like, what if we.
Scott Schimmel (04:59)
Mm-mm. Yeah.
Nolan (05:04)
created a whole platform that allows you to journal through text messaging, to automate text message conversation starters, allow students to get those automated messages and then start journaling and then it saves it somewhere in the internet. And the parents don't have to download another app. And that's how Hey Coach came about. And now we're creating enterprise level solutions for schools and leagues and school districts. And yeah, it's wild.
Scott Schimmel (05:28)
There's no, I think, better context for developing a kid than sports. And I wish it was possible to do that through school. School's very challenging. In my experience, I've spent a lot of time trying to do, let's call it identity formation work inside schools. I've effectively given that up. And some of the people that listen to this podcast are still leaders inside schools. And God bless you. It's a hard challenging environment.
I still believe transformation is possible. It does happen, especially between amazing teachers and engaged kids, but sports is different because it's, and I think this is gonna kind of transition to what we're gonna talk about today. Sports typically is something that kids want to do. They want to be there. They are engaged. They're drawn to it. And that just by itself is an ingredient that really is conducive to having great conversations. It's a captive audience.
my work inside schools, and I know you've been inside schools too, can be a challenge. I feel like I start from not just zero, but from negative to try to get engagement. And I will try to say things like, hey, would you rather me be here or go back to math problems? know, would you rather me be here or go back to doing a worksheet? And that can kind of bump you up to zero, but I still have to win engagement. You still have to really prove that this curriculum, this experience is going to be valuable. But in sports, you get to talk about failure. You get to talk about lot of these
life lessons because they're right, they're front and center to performance. They're connected to performance. I'm just curious your thoughts on sports in general and why you're drawn to it.
Nolan (07:01)
Yeah, that is a really good question. I hold to the third space theory, which is this idea that if you were to think about your life, you spend it in three primary areas and it's going to be worker school and then home. And then what's that third area. And I'm with you. Faith communities for the longest time was that third space. And we've seen a cultural shift in that. I think they're super important. I think having faith is important.
still a man of faith and I love having those conversations with people but kind of like what you realize there's something about participating in sport and team that have done in a really healthy way actually helps us to excel in those other areas like home or work and
There's been a huge influx of cash into the youth sports world. And if you have kids in youth sports, you realize that you feel that burden. And similarly, you've probably also have your horror stories about youth coaches or school-based coaches where you're like, think, yes, Nolan, you're onto something. We are spending a lot of time and resources on sports and now it's kind of muddied.
Scott Schimmel (07:49)
Yeah, huge.
Nolan (08:13)
And ā yeah.
Scott Schimmel (08:14)
Well, that brings up like for what
for what are we doing? Are we doing this for college scholarships? Are we doing this to boost a college application or are we doing this maybe in the purity of fun, joy and what you and I care about the most, which is developing young people into healthy, thriving adults. And that's what can get missed or muddled when there's a lot of money involved. I don't know coaches, however.
who wouldn't say that they want to develop kids. They want to be a part of mentoring them, helping them learn life lessons that can carry with them for the rest of life. However, I also don't know coaches and I've been one myself, I am one, that feels really confident about doing that. It's hard. There's only a few, the big names, Tony Dungey. There's only a few big names out there. I think that we all can think about that.
are really excellent at using sports to develop people into good human beings. And I've found myself doing the same thing as a youth sports coach to my own kids. When I first started coaching, literally baseball, there's a lot of time that I got to spend with these young boys. And I remember thinking I professionally work with kids. I'm a mentor to kids like that's what I've done professionally vocation. That's all I do. And I still don't really know what to say to this kid who keeps striking out. I don't really know what to say to the team who keeps losing.
I don't really know how to inspire them. don't, and so I remember thinking years ago before I met you, was like, gosh, wouldn't it be cool if there was a roadmap, a script, a curriculum that isn't like sit down kids and do a worksheet, but it was thoughtful questions that could steer me in the right direction to have the kind of impact and connection that I want to have.
Nolan (09:57)
Yeah, I know, I think I think you're onto it. And you're is interesting for somebody like you, who's been doing this for years, to have those sorts of sets of doubt or struggles because I have them to over. I mean, you count you pastorally counsel people, you guide people to self discovery and making decisions that empower them to go on to make right choices. And
We've been doing this for years, specifically working on this. yeah, Aspen summit did a study, coaches study in the last few years and less than half of coaches felt confident. And mentoring students, how to talk to them in the face of defeat, how to debrief with them after a win or a loss. And yeah, you're right. It's it is, there's a gap. How do we get that information to them though? And similarly when it comes to dealing with parents.
You know, you and I both know the parents that need the positive coaching education aren't going to go. They're probably lacking that self-awareness and you're a big self-awareness guy to go, you know what? I've been a real jerk at my kids games. I think I'm going to go. Go to go work on that. No, the parents that are that way. They're not going to go find that. So how do we put that in front of them? And those are some of the problems that we're trying to solve.
Scott Schimmel (11:06)
Right. I've been too intense.
Yeah.
Well, I'm so glad you're doing it. I, I've coached, think 27, 28, I've kind of lost count a little bit. Youth sports teams, mostly to my kids. And I'm talking about little kids, five to 11, 12 years old. And my three kids finally aged out of me being their coach for rec sports. And this past fall, I got the chance to coach for the first time a high school team. This was a high school girls golf team. And golf is big passion and love of mine. I played it grown up competitively and
I think there's again, no better context for self discovery and growth than the game of golf. It is so public. It is so stressful. You're on display all the time. It's stripping. It's constantly about failure and feedback. And nevertheless, as a coach, I didn't quite know how to engage the players in those kinds of conversations. I'd try to bring it up before a match, a little bit after a match.
But I love what you're doing with Hey Coach, because I'm looking forward to implementing it and then sending assignments. This is what I'm imagining. And maybe you're not doing this, but this is my feature request that I would be able to kind of toggle on for them. Hey, before our next match or before the next practice, I want you to reflect on this question. What are you learning about yourself as you, competing against other kids? Because I remember as a player, having incredibly stressful times.
Nolan (12:20)
Yeah. Yeah.
Scott Schimmel (12:39)
And at a time of life when what mattered most to me was probably peer acceptance, like being accepted by other people. And the game of golf would expose me and make me feel humiliated. And then I would shut down and then I would miss the chance to really learn about who I was and to work through it. Cause I didn't have a guide mentor helping me frame that, helping me reflect on it. I just was going to the next match and carrying with me all that baggage. So.
Nolan (12:57)
Hmm.
Scott Schimmel (13:06)
Am I close on what you guys are doing?
Nolan (13:08)
Yeah, absolutely. You know, some of the things that we are putting into or have already built into what we're doing and getting ready to add in 2026 is not only automating when these reflection questions go out, but that ability as a coach that says, Tammy really struggled in the last match. Here's 10 to 15 different quotes and reflective question that I could pick from. And I can send that out to her.
Scott Schimmel (13:28)
Yeah. Yeah.
Nolan (13:36)
And she can respond back and keep that conversation going asynchronously. So that when I do get in, follow back up with him, Hey, I really appreciated what you said about this. I struggle with this too. And dot, dot, dot. Yeah. So that's, that's where, how much time do you have during practice to really be hitting on interpersonal stuff? You don't have a lot of time period. Like we run into this all the time. I coach high school basketball and I counted it last year between I coach freshmen.
Scott Schimmel (13:45)
Yeah. Yeah, that's good.
No, not much. Yeah.
Nolan (14:05)
And then I have to be at all the GV varsity stuff between and four months. We had a total of 24 practices, 24 practices in four months. But then you're going to, had coached over 20, was 23 high freshman games. And then we had over 30 varsity games, GV varsity games. Yeah. When do you have time, you know, to really have those in-depth conversations? And that's kind of what drives us is creating those outside of those times.
opportunities and to help students discover for themselves those deeply held beliefs. That's one of the things I don't, are you a big Jonathan Haidt fan, anxious generation? Yeah, he, in their research, they discovered that a lot of students, they think through the lens of how they're going to be received or perceived by their peers. And that's a social media phenomenon. All right. If I post this, how many likes am I going to get? I had, I don't know how many conversations with students when I was working in the schools more regularly.
Scott Schimmel (14:43)
Got it right here.
Yeah. Yeah.
Nolan (15:03)
man, my one post didn't do so well. Mr. Records, you see that? And going, didn't know. I did see that. I'm not going to like it because of the kind of attention that you were trying to grab from that social media post. And you know what? I tried to coach them on it. If you want to be successful in social media, like actually create a niche, a niche thing that you do where you just learn something, learn a new skill and just record yourself doing it. Don't try to be like all the other influencers.
Scott Schimmel (15:05)
huh. Yeah.
Yeah.
Nolan (15:30)
that you're emulating. so journaling, as you and I both know, actually helps you to wrestle with things and to form a sense of self, a sense of identity, and a sense of groundedness that when you do encounter something that challenges that, you're not immediately going to go, if I share this right now, how is it going to be received? No, because I wrestled with it in private, and I feel more confident about sharing that.
Scott Schimmel (15:56)
Well, it's a, I would say it's a lose lose scenario. Every time a kid posts something on social media or even likes something on social media, so let's say best case scenario, you post something and a lot of people like it. And now you are let's say reinforced to do that more often or you are receiving that as value. You're valuable because you posted this thing in that way.
But the other side of it is I often think of even my own kids who post things. I know because of human nature, if I post a similar thing that someone else did that I look up to or maybe feel a rivalry with and they got more likes or more engagement or more comments than I did, it is now communicating something to me about my value. either way, and it's the lose loses, it's all fake. It's not, none of that's real. You're not more or less valuable based on your comments or.
or engagement, however it feels that way. It certainly feels that way. That's truly a scoreboard that I had to deal with, of course, before social media. No kid escapes that, but to be, I think, weaponized against them is really tough. So as an antidote alongside that to offer times of reflection, that is the kind of very simple thing that kids can do and coaches can offer and require that can be...
source of salvation, of course, a source of like reality, dosage of reality in the midst of that. And I would have loved it as a teenager, even before social media. I would have loved the chance to reflect on the stuff I'm learning about myself.
Nolan (17:28)
No, it's good. I was a natural note taker, but that's, mean, how I operated every once in a while as we move around or whatever, I'll find those boxes of my stuff from when I was a teenager and I flip through it and I read a lot of the things that I wrote and going, my goodness, dude, where was, where was my mind at, at that time? And, but we were pre social media.
You know, my first cell phone was 16 years old, but it was what we call a brick. was a T nine technology. think the only thing on my phone that I had that was entertaining was snake. And it was all, you know, like that analog, snake game and that screen, man, that screen was probably the size of this, you know? So I could not imagine.
Scott Schimmel (18:10)
Yeah. Yep.
Right. Yeah.
Nolan (18:23)
growing up with social media.
Scott Schimmel (18:25)
Yeah. Yeah.
Nolan (18:27)
couldn't I couldn't do it but at the same time I had coaches I I had coaches who I mean my eighth grade basketball coach even though he and I always didn't get along you know I was still had a fondness for him and he lived a few blocks away from me so it wasn't difficult to actually see coach Piper he's no longer with us but to see coach Piper out and about at his house when I would drive my or ride my bike
by which then could see him out about but we don't I don't think that happens as naturally anymore.
Scott Schimmel (19:00)
Yeah.
Yeah, I agree. The commercialization of eSports has led to that. And one thing that you get to do through Hey Coach, I think is reimagine what sports are for and whether it's remind people of that, because I think there's an element for most people that they can harken back to a mentor that they had that made a big impact on them and they can maybe see more clearly.
man, you know, I want to be able to do that through sports, whether I'm a coach or a parent. But I think also the hyper competitive, so called missions too. It's like, we don't have time for fun. We don't have time for development. We don't have time. We got to perform. We're going to succeed. We got to get playing time. We got to get eyes on us. And that certainly dilutes this other stuff because this other stuff takes time. And so to be able to squeeze this in through journaling, through an app.
Nolan (19:37)
Yeah.
Scott Schimmel (19:50)
where you can reach kids, I think it's brilliant. There's a simple brilliance of what you're offering. I'm curious about your growth plans. I know it's because we've talked the idea of going from school to school and coach to coach and league to league, it makes a lot of sense. But I can also imagine just being a parent, finding out about, coach, whatever sports my kids are gonna participate in, there's going to be communication, of course, to organize.
travel and games and practices and training sessions. So in the marketplace of all the different apps that could be used, I found out that one of them would also encourage my coach to have that kind of relationship with my kid, like, please choose this. It's probably gonna be about the same amount of money. Just pick this one. This one's better. And to have a little more of an organic bottom-up approach from parents to coaches, I think could be really cool too.
Nolan (20:33)
Right. Yeah.
Yeah, that's we we've, we're, it's built in that coaching resources will be available for coaches to get. mean, I'm always reading, you know, I can only read so much John Wooden and I still need to, you know, keep up with, you know, the modern ideas and experiences that coaches are having as things shift. Similarly with parents, you have, mentioned this earlier as a coach, man, how do I talk to a player after a bad match?
Well, how does a parent do it? And there's some really good stuff out there, but you have to be able to find that or have the self-awareness to go, I'm not responding to my kid, think, in the best way. How do I do that? What can I do? And I think chat GPT, we're seeing that increase of people wanting to learn more about that. And we've built our own, coach AI that you can start messaging with not only as a coach, so you have a coaching staff in your pocket.
Scott Schimmel (21:12)
Totally.
Yeah. Yeah.
Nolan (21:39)
But as a parent that says, okay, I heard this somewhere. You know, we've, we've put all of that in together into a box that you can engage with and that launches. this is actually news for you. Cause I haven't told you about this yet, but we actually just worked with. It's all coming and we approve some different things in our, our, coach AI is instead of reaching out to the deep sea of all that information and trying to get the correct prompt.
In order to get the information that's most valuable to you, we're taking our knowledge and experience and all the resources that we've created and that we're getting from folks who are willing to let us use it and putting it in there. So it's a more concentrated AI experience that'll give you some options as to the things that you are wanting to learn about specific to sports coaching, leadership, mentoring, without having to wait through all the other information then let's just say.
Scott Schimmel (22:20)
Yeah. Nice. Yeah.
Nolan (22:35)
that GPT has to throw at you. Yeah.
Scott Schimmel (22:37)
Well, I'm a
huge fan. U School is a huge fan. We want to be, certainly as we develop a partnership, sharing content, sharing resources, pointing people in the right direction. And a significant way that I spend my time through U School is in partnership with the YMCA here locally in San Diego. And that's a lot of that is around.
Nolan (22:53)
Yeah.
Scott Schimmel (22:55)
sports and training coaches and sports staff, all the stuff that you're doing through this app. this is one of my favorite topics. I think it's most one of the most important things we could do. I know many high schools, two thirds, three quarters of their overall student body are participating in team sports. So it's it's not like a little niche. It's like the vast majority of most high school campuses. And so the potential, the market is huge and the opportunities I think significant. So
Thank you for what you're doing and thanks for this partnership. you're likely as you're listening and watching, gonna see Nolan again. We're exploring how we can partner together and share some thoughts and ideas and dig into some more topics. So love to hear from you as you're listening, what do you like to hear from us? And Nolan, thanks for being on the You School Podcast. Thanks for breaking the seal to guests.
Nolan (23:39)
Pleasure.
Thank you so much.
Scott Schimmel (23:43)
Talk to you soon.
