PROFILES: Interview with Alex Sumner

AS: I graduated with a sport management degree at Dakota Wesleyan University in South Dakota. After I got my degree, I was actually playing independent minor league baseball – I was an okay player, good not great, and it was kind of a Band-Aid for me to not be a full adult yet. So I played until I could find a job in the sports world, and I took a director of sports position with a well-known adaptive sports organization, and that changed my life. Still involved with it today.
 

We oversaw 15 statewide sports, and obviously, baseball is my passion. A youth baseball position opened up in Fargo, and I figured if I could hone in on one sport, then life would be good. At that time, we had about 350 kids in our program. We were one of two programs in the city of Fargo – we merged to form Fargo Youth Baseball, and it's been quite the ride. We have more than 1,500 players this season. We’re also now the headquarters of what we call the Red River Valley League, a league composed of Fargo and the surrounding communities. Altogether, we serve about 3,000 kids in baseball and fastpitch.

AS: I tell our players to take bits and pieces of what you learn from everybody, pull a little nugget of information from your superiors – your bosses, board members, coaches – and then apply it and make your own style.

The one guy who's really helped me along the way is my college baseball coach, Steve Gust. I actually asked him and his wife, Anita, to be the host couple at my wedding, so we have quite the bond. When I first played for him in college, he implemented a phrase called PDH – Pride, Desire, Hard Work – and I took that to heart more than any one of my teammates. It’s become part of life at Fargo. We have a fall baseball program, and that's our theme: PDH on three. Pride, Desire, Hard Work. You take pride in what you do, have the desire to get it done, and hard work will get you there. Coach Gust has always been there for me as a person, as a professional, and as somebody I can always lean on.

AS: Honestly. It should be my next one.

AS: The experience I always come to is when we sent our team to the biggest youth baseball competition in the U.S. I remember when our parents were talking to the players after the game, and a mom went up to her son, gave him the biggest hug, and said, "I'm proud of you." It warmed my heart, and it wasn't because he made a big hit or a diving play in the field – it was because he worked very hard to get where he needed to be to help make his team successful. Just that big hug in that moment.

Now we have meaningful stories happening all the time. We run special tournaments, host animal adoption events, and partner with local hospitals and foundations that bring awareness to suicide prevention and childhood hunger. Those little things we do help make sure people understand it's more than just a sport for us. It's about building good people. And that power we have always pushes me.

AS: I would say it's really implementing a Kids-First philosophy. That was something our past president introduced, and when we had our board meetings, it was always: “Is this a Kids-First decision?” When we were Fargo Youth Baseball, we realized we were basically a boys-first organization. That's when we started having conversations regarding girls fastpitch. Now we offer sports for boys and girls, and we hone in on building passion for our sports, building good people.

AS: That’s probably one of the hardest parts of our job – making decisions that may disappoint a few kids but create an improved experience for the vast majority.

Parents have their own vision for their child – but a lot of them have to be educated by our staff on why we make the decisions we do, to help them remain realistic. If there is a situation they’re unhappy with, and we take time to have an adult conversation, I think they see where we're coming from, and at the same time we see where they're coming from. That's been part of our staff's success: we build on what works and learn from our mistakes. We're not going to get it right every time, that's just the nature of it. But we always have to stay true to making sure this is a Kids-First decision and not a parent-first or organization-first decision.

I think it's okay to allow our kids to not succeed in certain areas. That's a good teaching moment for us as parents. As a father of a seven-year-old and a four-year-old, we’re fully entering the youth sports years, and starting to see it firsthand. Now on the parent side I have to remind myself that everything isn’t built only for your player – it's for the best for all the kids, not just a small handful.

AS: Hiring people around me who are good at running things.

Unfortunately, I think a lot of sports are turning into a country club model where expenses keep climbing, and we need to find ways to stop that. We offer lessons and camps, but how do we make sure our volunteer coaches are knowledgeable enough to help keep more money in families’ pockets? Not every coach comes in with a strong baseball or fastpitch background, so that’s an area where we can continue to improve.

One thing I’m very proud of our staff for doing is building drill sequences in PlayMetrics – uploading video, creating practice plans and drills for all our coaches. We also upload drills from nationally recognized organizations and categorize them using a well-known skills matrix, which outlines the skills kids should have at each age. Then we create practice plans from that.

AS: Parents are advocates for their kids – whether it's tryouts and a kid didn't make the team they wanted, or an umpire made a bad call, there are a lot of situations where they speak up. How they advocate is where philosophies can differ. If someone comes in hot, it's not going to go well. Our first step is to calm the situation, then we can talk.

We've had parents follow umpires out to the parking lot and swear at them up and down. We've had umpires do the same thing back. We've had coaches and parents going at it. We're a volunteer-based organization, and a parent might not like what a coach does – but if I'm a coach, I might think “Well, why don’t you come give this a try?”

A big thing I've seen is that parents are quick to complain without offering a solution. If a parent can provide a solution – let's listen and have a conversation. You might have a really good idea that could make our program better. But if you’re just going to complain without offering suggestions, what do you want us to do to fix it?

AS: Sure. And sometimes on social media, which can create problems. We've had to suspend players for social media posts. It's a different world right now, and we have to be careful about how we approach certain situations.

AS: No. But that's a small piece of it. Sometimes it’s a big weight on our shoulders when we hear it, but keep in mind that's 5 to 10 percent of our job – it's not the other 95. If there's a solution to the problem, let's learn from it. If we messed up, let's learn from it. If it's a success story, let's build on it. Our staff is very proud of the way they handle the member experience and conflict, and they do an excellent job of finding solutions to problems.

AS: In sports, we're always trying to better everything – and that's a gift and a curse. There’s a lot of good that comes with technology, like having league schedules generate automatically. Before, we'd list all the teams on a sheet of paper or a spreadsheet, list the dates and the games, try to line them up, and it would take days. Now, it's a click of a button. Practice planning and communication are also much more efficient. If I'm out on the field checking whether it's playable or if we have to cancel a game, I don't have to run all the way back to the office – I can update everything right on my phone and then send out a notification to everyone all at once. This makes us more efficient and ultimately provides a better experience for our players.

When it comes to capturing player development and understanding players' goals, technology also plays a big part. I've been scouting for six years, and the game has changed a lot – there’s more analytics now, like exit velocity, bat speed, how hard you throw. That isn't necessarily a great thing. Sure, they’re measurements we can use to better our development, but we shouldn't make decisions solely based on those numbers, and I’ve seen that happen. The eye test is a big factor in our sport, and that needs to continue to be in there. We can go in a batting cage, a kid can hit 100 exit velocity, and that’s great. But can they do that in a game?

My fear is that we're so mechanics-focused now that we’ve forgotten to let kids just be athletes. They shouldn't take a swing and immediately look up at a screen to see how hard they hit the ball. Use that as a measuring tool – here's where we're starting; now let's go through our training and trust the process. In a month or two, let’s get those numbers again and see if we need to make any changes. Technology is a tool to help make decisions, but it's not the tool that makes the decision.

AS: Youth sports isn’t the easiest job anymore. There are a lot of avenues it's gone down that have complicated the experience for everyone. There are times when I’ve asked myself if it’s worth it. Then I see a parent tell their child “I’m proud of you,” and it brings me all the way back. Those moments motivate me to keep working to provide the best possible experience for kids.

I keep going back to PDH. When times get tough, go watch a baseball game. When you see a kid smile or a high five happens, you’re reminded it’s all worth it. All the behind-the-scenes BS fades away because those moments are exactly why we do this.

(At this point, Alex called over an intern who grew up in the program, played recreation and travel baseball through Fargo Youth Baseball, then with a competitive teen league, and is now a collegiate pitcher at Valley City State University.)

AS: How would you describe what's changed in baseball since when you started?

Intern: The facilities are so different.

AS: How about fun – did baseball get more or less fun as you got older?

Intern: Harder. Got too serious.

AS: That goes back to it – we need to keep baseball fun. Facilities-wise, if you look at Fargo ten years ago compared to today, it’s night and day. That’s because of our community, the people who believe in our program, and our partnership with the local parks district. But my bigger concern is that we’re turning youth sports into full-time jobs. Kids need to enjoy themselves. They need to love the game. If they’re having fun, the development takes care of itself. You still have to work at it, don’t get me wrong, but we spend so much time trying to be the best player in town or the state. Every player has their own strengths and develops at their own rates. We need to let them play.

AS: If someone interns with us for more than two years, I probably won’t take them. I think they need to go out and see what else is out there. It’s important that new professionals try new things and different organizations to help build their own professional style. Then, if you’ve gone through that and still want to get into the youth sports sector, let’s have a conversation and point you in the right direction.

AS: We have a great neighborhood where kids just run around – we'll wake up in the morning and someone's bike is in our front yard. I'm happy to live where we live, where that's still a thing. My kids can be out playing, go into someone's house, grab a fruit bar, and before you know it, five other kids are in our house having a popsicle.

One day, I grabbed our paint striper from the field and made a half-flag football, half-baseball field in our backyard. Before we knew it, there were 15 kids, ages 3 to 12, in my backyard playing a full-on game. That's my happy place.

AS: You're right. Seeing how much kids are having fun – that's what it's about. I think as parents and admins, we get in the way. If we just say: “Here's a ball, a bat, a helmet, a couple of gloves – go do your thing.” I think that's needed more and more every day.