2006 All - Impact Teams

..you're the best. BTW, I finally met John Ackley yesterday

 

haha..the verdict is still out on that one!

Glad to hear you met Mr. John...did y'all chat about me instead of baseball

Oh and BTW...once you brush up on your scanning skills get me a pic!
Of course I know a good photographer that will be at the LR games that I can request one from

 

Yep!!!!!

 

Of course it's a business, but that has absolutely nothing to do with the talent on this team or Andy's objectivity. I was fortunate enough to see most of the "top players" in the country over the past year, and I can tell you that the All-Impact Team has some truly special players on it's roster. As a matter of fact, several of the players are ranked in Baseball America's Top 100 list and all have been recruited by top D1 schools. I wonder if those schools would disagree with Andy's selections? I doubt it.

 

I would have been willing to pay a little extra each fall if we could have got pizza....the hot dogs were a little tough.

 

What many people don't realize is this. It was just 5+ years ago that the major D1 schools in North Carolina rarely signed players in our state. The recruiters felt the talent pool in our state was weak. Heck, in Charlotte, with all of our schools, there were only 2 players recruited for D1...and absolutely none recruited for UNCC. I was told by their recruiter at the time that he felt the talent was so much better in Maryland...Maryland?...yep!

Andy Partin has done more in getting kids exposure across our state than anybody. He was also the 1st to develop a website exclusively to promote HS baseball players in NC. This was unheard of prior to Impact. Andy was a one man show. People were complaining that he didn't know players in the Western part of the state. So Andy spent 100's of thousand miles criss crossing the state to check out players and eventually building the Impact tryouts in all of our areas. He did this not to make money, but to give himself and the players from other areas exposure to recruiters that never would have known some of the players had he not.

After his 3rd year of "business", Andy put 400,000 miles on his jeep and grossed 18,000 per year....and what did he get out of it? The satisfaction of being around some of the best HS players across the state and helping them reach their goals. That's it...that's all he wanted to do. He loves baseball and he loves being around talented players. Does he get all the players he wants? Of course not...He would love to have the players from other organizations like On Deck, Cubs, Copperheads, Megastars, etc.,etc...but the players on those teams are with great programs too

I must confess that prior to knowing Andy, I was sitting on a fence wondering what this guy was about. Did he really care about the players or was he just trying to ride the backs of some kids to develop a business? In my opinion, Andy is one of the nicest guys..hardest working..big heart and hoped but never believed that his ideas would have grown to where it is

Whatever little credibility I may have, I would risk all of it by saying that he did not get into Impact to develop a "business"; that his sole drive is to help the players..just as it is for guys like Freddy Suggs and Gary Robinson. Those guys mentioned do it for the love of the game and being around the young players...it ain't to make money. Heck, Freddy has given away more money then he has made coaching and I'm sure the same can be said for Gary. The same can be said for Andy.

The biggest difference between Andy and the coaches is this; the coaches develop players...Andy promotes them. But they go hand in hand...both are instrumental in helping the players achieve their dreams. But let me add that Andy is a pretty durn good coach also...but he is not a pretty durn good business man...but then again, that's not why he does what he does.

 

Ditto Braves....well said

 

Great post Braves, and what makes it even better you did it at 3.42am, don't you ever sleep????

 

Hey strike 3,

That's when Braves gets up.....at his age he goes to sleep when the sun goes down.....

 

...unless there are night games..then I get up at 4