The Get There

Brock Hardy was the kid nobody could keep still. He growled at kids in flag football, double-legged his kindergarten teacher in the cafeteria, and spent his early years bouncing off every wall in Box Elder, Utah. He was later diagnosed with ADHD. He was five foot eight in fifth grade.   He also went on to be a four-time Utah state champion, a four-time NCAA All-American at the University of Nebraska, a Big Ten champion, and a U23 World Championship bronze medalist. He served an LDS mission in between. And when he got caught in the most viral moment of the 2022 NCAA tournament, he went right back out and placed third.   In this episode of The Get There Podcast, Brad sits down with Chris and Jenny Hardy to tell the whole story. How the Hardy family farm and older cousins shaped Brock's toughness before he ever set foot on a mat. The seven-year-old moment in Reno that became his light bulb. The 20 Nebraska recruiting emails sitting in his high school coach's spam folder. And what they would tell any parent of a young wrestler today.  

  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 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.  

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  

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