The Get There

The Games vs. Practice Problem: John Moeaki Gets Honest

John Moeaki played linebacker at BYU, where one of his travel roommates was a young Kalani Sitake. His daughter Taylor won Gatorade Player of the Year in Utah basketball and played collegiately at Utah Tech. His son Noah, who started on varsity basketball as a freshman at American Fork and won a state championship, received D1 football offers the same week before ever having real football film, and is now a tight end at BYU. In this episode of The Get There, John and Brad get into the real stuff: the specialization debate, the games-versus-practice question, the relative age effect, hold backs, the socioeconomic gap that keeps talented kids invisible to recruiters, and the moment a California basketball tournament in third grade changed the way Noah saw himself as an athlete. John's answer when Brad asks him to sum it all up is short and hard to argue with: there is no magic drill. It is just the hours.

Ului Satuala — Just Be Involved

Ului Satuala never played organized sports growing up. He learned everything from YouTube videos, trial and error, and a commitment to showing up at the park with his kids on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. The result: four kids who all became multi-sport athletes, three already playing at the D1 level and a fourth being recruited right now. In this episode of The Get There, Brad sits down with Ului to talk about how his family did it without a club team, without a personal trainer, and without a trust fund. They cover specialization, structure, mindset, failure, weight training, spirituality, and the quiet power of choosing the right environment for your kids to grow up in. Ului's advice to any parent of a young athlete is short and hard to argue with: just be involved. Get on the ground. Do the sprints with them. Show up.

The Coach-Mom: RaeAnn Belnap on Raising a BYU Pitcher

RaeAnn Belnap is a fastpitch coach, a hitting trainer, and the mom of Kennedy Belnap, a pitcher currently competing at BYU. She has spent years on both sides of the coaching relationship, and in this episode she holds nothing back. RaeAnne and Brad dig into what it looks like to raise a D1 athlete without making it the point of the whole thing. They talk about overtraining and injury, the moment Kennedy tore her labrum in high school, the challenge of coaching your own daughter, and the mental health struggles that showed up once Kennedy got to college. They also talk about RaeAnn's younger daughter Ashton, who started playing at 13 and already has offers. The advice RaeAnne leaves us with is simple and cuts right to it: celebrate them. The failure is part of it. Let them feel it, and then let them see you cheering anyway. Find Ryan on Facebook: Pro Angles Hitting

From a Brain Bleed to the NFL: Inside the Batty Family Story

Tyler Batty plays in the NFL. But before the draft, before BYU, before the scholarship, there was a farm, a four-wheeler, and a doctor's warning that his football career was over before it started. In this episode of To Get There, Brad Gordon sits down with Layne and Peg Batty to tell the real story. They talk about raising seven kids on a Utah farm with no handouts and no shortcuts, navigating the college recruiting world as first-time sports parents, Tyler's decision to serve an LDS mission despite scholarship pressure, and the quiet conviction that drove it all: the dream has to be theirs, not yours. Plus, hear about Edward's Hands, the equine therapy nonprofit Tyler founded for special needs kids, run out of the family's Circle B Farm. Edward's Hands: edwardshands.org