36. Robert Flatt and the NCHC

In today’s episode, we get to spend time with Robert Flatt from Oklahoma. Robert is a homeschool father of 4 and the executive director of the NCHC (National Christian Homeschool Championships), a homeschool sports organization that began in the early 1990s. Robert's parents made the decision to homeschool when he was in first grade. When he was 13, his family moved from Pennsylvania to Oklahoma where they learned about homeschool basketball. Robert's dad soon became a coach of a team and was eventually asked to run the entire program, known today as the NCHC. In 2017, Robert took over as the executive director and the NCHC continues to grow each year. The NCHC has hundreds of basketball teams and volleyball teams, as well as teams in track and field and golf all over the United States. Last year there were more than 360 basketball teams that attended the homeschool basketball national championships in Springfield, Missouri. Some prominent players that started their basketball careers in the NCHC include Justin Jackson, Blake Griffin, and Moriah Jefferson. Robert reminds listeners that building community among homeschool families is essential, and that sports is one way to foster such community.

 Connect with Robert Flatt
https://www.nchclive.com/

Websites
https://hslda.org/
https://homeschoollife.com/

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Transcript

Robert Flatt: 0:00

Because the bottom line is that the homeschooling options, I believe, not everyone does it right. There's plenty of examples out there of how not to do homeschooling. But if you're serious about your kid's education, you can take that by the reins. It's not as intimidating, but But you do have to find that community. And sometimes it is as simple as finding a sports team.

Timmy Eaton: 0:22

Hi, I'm Timmy Eaton, homeschool father of six and doctor of education. We've been homeschooling for more than 15 years and have watched our children go from birth to university successfully and completely without the school system. Homeschooling has grown tremendously in recent years and tons of parents are becoming interested in trying it out. But people have questions and concerns and misconceptions and lack the confidence to get started. New and seasoned homeschoolers are looking for more knowledge and peace and assurance to continue homeschooling. The guests and discussions on this podcast will empower anyone thinking of homeschooling to bring their kids home and start homeschooling. And homeschoolers at all stages of the journey will get what they need and want from these conversations. Thank you for joining us today and enjoy this episode of this Golden Hour Podcast as you exercise, drive, clean, or just chill. You're listening to this golden hour podcast. In today's episode, we get to spend time with Robert Flatt from Oklahoma. Robert is a homeschool father of four and the executive director of the NCHC, National Christian Homeschool Championships, a homeschool sports organization that began in the early 1990s. Robert's parents made the decision to homeschool when he was in first grade. When he was 13, his family moved from Pennsylvania to Oklahoma where they learned about homeschool basketball. Robert's dad soon became a coach of a team and was eventually asked to run the entire program known today as the NCHC. In 2017, Robert took over as the Executive Director and the NCHC continues to grow each year. The NCHC has hundreds of basketball teams and volleyball teams, as well as teams in track and field and golf all over the United States. Last year, there were more than 360 basketball teams that attended the Homeschool Basketball National Championships in Springfield, Missouri. Some prominent players that started their basketball careers in the NCHC include Justin Jackson, Blake Griffin, and Mariah Jefferson. Robert reminds listeners that building community among the homeschool families is essential and that sports is one way to foster such community. Welcome back to this golden hour podcast. We're really excited to have with us Robert Flatt from Oklahoma. And Robert is the executive director at the National Christian Homeschool Championships, and he's also a homeschool father, and he also grew up being homeschooled. So please give us a brief bio of yourself, whatever you wanna say. Me and Robert had an awesome conversation before this, and so I've learned some things, but this audience needs to hear about Robert. So and do you go by Robert or Rob? What do you prefer?

Robert Flatt: 3:03

I think I've Hey. Both. Okay. Cool. I'm good with either one. I my email's robert flatt at mail dot com. So it's pretty So I go by Rob a lot, but Robert as well. Yeah. No. I appreciate you having me. It's always Interesting to hear from the Canadian side of homeschooling because I know there's that need for homeschooling across the country. Yeah. But, typically, I work with the United States. And so always great to be able to Grow our audience a bit, and I'm thrilled to be here. I started homeschooling in first grade. My parents Felt like they were being called to be missionaries. My they're wrapping up Baptist Bible College in Pennsylvania. Mhmm. And, We were they felt like they were gonna be going to South Africa, and so they might as well start homeschooling their four boys who their oldest was going into first grade. There wasn't it wasn't a lot of the pre k stuff for the younger ones, but they started homeschooling. And during that time, the Lord really changed their heart on their motivation to homeschool, but Their desire to homeschool was stronger than ever before. And I would I've been homeschooled since first grade. All my brothers didn't even go to kindergarten. I went to a small Christian school tied to our church for kindergarten. And so I always held that over their head. Hey. I at least went to school. You're the you were older

Timmy Eaton: 4:19

than them then? Or

Robert Flatt: 4:20

I was. I was the oldest. Yep. And I think I'm forty, And my youngest brother's thirty five. It was we were there's a lot of us in Quake. Yeah. And we moved to Oklahoma in I think it was nineteen ninety six, so I was thirteen And tried out for a homeschool team in Oklahoma City and was cut from that team. It was not good enough for it. I told you in our Before, I would always double dribble. I would go to college games at BBC with my dad, and he I'd catch the ball and dribble it and pick it up, and I thought that's how you did it. And I got cut from the team. And my parents just said, hey. If you guys wanna get better, all you wanna play basketball, if you wanna do it, then let's get up at five thirty in the morning, go to the YMCA, and we'll do three on three, mom, dad, and the four kids. And so we did that played YMCA ball. And then the person that had told us about the homeschool team said, Why don't you come check out Basketball Nationals in Estes Park, Colorado now Springfield, Missouri, but at the time, in Estes Park, Colorado, and Play Team USA. We're it's a collaboration of kids. I played with a kid from Alaska. Mhmm. Oklahoma um, and Missouri, some different states like that. And so our family checked it out. My dad coached one of my younger brother's teams, And it was a phenomenal experience for us and got us tied to the local community from the same team that I was got from. They asked my dad to be the coach the next year. And so I and so he ended up coaching that team for multiple years. And from that core group the family just wanted him to continue coaching their kids in high school, and they ended up He ended up starting his own homeschool program with that core group, and we didn't even have a senior on our team. And before it was done, I think by the time he stepped away, they had fifteen basketball teams and started other Sports as well. And

Timmy Eaton: 6:13

so was a that was a range of ages that he was coaching, or

Robert Flatt: 6:16

what was the Yeah. He coached fourteen and under For me. And then he the group he was coaching wanted him to coach high school. He had a vision that he felt homeschoolers could compete against the best teams in the state even though they didn't have a practice court except for the what they rented. And Yeah. And it was generally seen as Fairytale type like, no way it's gonna happen. And so they said if you think you could do that, why don't you start your own program? And he said how do you do that? He said you I'm sure you could figure it out. And so the families that were involved said, we'll help you figure it out. And so as homeschoolers are, they have free education available to them. They say we could figure it out, and if we think we could do it better, we will. And so that group started up something pretty special, And that I was able to be part of. And after, I think, just a year or two Of being part of that the national basketball tournament that we were attending, that we had initially attended M Team USA, Had some rivals that were kinda growing up that felt like they could do a better job and had started their own event. This was within the homeschool community? Within the homeschool community. Yeah. And they started up their own National tournament. And so when that happened they my father had been kinda clued into what was going on and so some of the issues. And so he just he encouraged the leaders that were that had the issues to maybe talk to the leadership that was running The events just to share with them their concerns, and they said they won't listen anyway. So we're just gonna do our own thing. And so they did. And so he ended up taking back then, you had to fax your communication. So he faxed to them his concerns that had been shared, and they said, hey. You got some great ideas. Would you be interested in running it for a year? And he was a little surprised by that. He didn't expect that to be the response, but said That he would take it on for a year and try it out. So this was

Timmy Eaton: 8:10

the NCHC asking him to do this, or this was a faction of it?

Robert Flatt: 8:14

It was the originator. It was started out in San Antonio, Texas, the feast homeschool group. Families east south or East San Antonio, Texas Alliance is what I'm coaching here.

Timmy Eaton: 8:27

One. Some somewhere in nineteen ninety one.

Robert Flatt: 8:30

They that started in nineteen ninety one in San Antonio. My family got involved, I believe, in nineteen ninety six, the national tournament in nineteen ninety six. And so I've been around for I missed the first five years. Haven't missed one cent. Oh, wow. Forty seven straight national championships. And so but in that process, They gave my father the opportunity. And during that time, we got it to a hundred teams that year, and they ended up asking him to take over permanently. And from that, to run it like a business, but to reinvest the profits back into the community. And so

Timmy Eaton: 9:04

real quick, how was he doing that? Like, how was he doing that with his own job or whatever? Did he just shift or what how did he manage

Robert Flatt: 9:10

his time? he Was an entrepreneur, and so he just had a knack for being able to have systems and get things going. And at that time, He would say himself, it was a hundred team tournament. It was it took some time, but it definitely wasn't a full time type situation. And so He was he was able to manage that. And then as time went on, I was coming up and I was playing, but I also Was very involved in some of the different ideas and how we wanted to grow. And And so There was a hundred teams in nineteen ninety nine, and then we moved in two thousand eight when the Oklahoma City Thunder moved to Oklahoma. We no longer had an arena that could hold us um, and that was our a backup plan was actually where the Thunder were gonna play their home games. So When they were moving, there was no ability to know for sure where we were gonna when the courts were gonna be available, and they weren't gonna hold it for tournament. Yeah.

Timmy Eaton: 10:04

And so They're having to adjust their game schedule for the homeschool. No. No. It wasn't gonna happen.

Robert Flatt: 10:09

And so but at that point, it was a three hundred team tournament. And so Wow. yEp. And so we moved to Springfield, Missouri. We've had an incredible relationship with the Springfield Sports Commission the visitor bureau. And in fact, next week, I'm meeting the Springfield Sports Commission is coming to Oklahoma City. We're gonna go to a Thunder game and we're we're talking about future years and twenty twenty four and just getting on the same page. And we're very happy to keep that relationship.

Timmy Eaton: 10:36

Your dad was the executive director, and then you how when did you become the executive director?

Robert Flatt: 10:41

Two thousand I wanna say I it was about two thousand seventeen that I became the executive director. He was heavily involved up through, Twenty twenty. He was actually in Springfield when we made the decision to cancel nationals due to COVID. And, that was the Thursday actually, the Oklahoma City Thunder were playing a game against the Utah Jazz, And I had an on in the background. I was as I was preparing for nationals, and they postponed the game. And when they postponed the game, that was the first big thing that happened where a game was postponed because of COVID. Mhmm. And I remember thinking, okay. This, at this point now, it's just a matter of time before everything else has to start falling. Yes. And so that was, I think Wednesday or Thursday before our national tournament, and national starts on Monday. Most people get in on Sunday. And when that decision once that happened, we got on the phone and started making calls, and we had already been talking with the city. And so we had to cancel that, once that happened, he's been a lot less involved the last few years. And He said you were ready for that position anyway, and it's just been an actual deal. And so,

Timmy Eaton: 11:51

um, tIme. Like, What's your major roles as executive director?

Robert Flatt: 11:59

tHere's a whole lot more that I didn't know he was doing. Yeah. Before. Most of it, it would be boring, so I won't bore you with it. But I'd say the roles that that occupy a lot of the time Of course, eligibility is always gonna be a big thing. Despite the fact that there's millions of homeschoolers we are an association. And as Such our member organizations help us figure out what are the right rules and guidelines and and interpretations. And I was mentioning to you, I got back from volleyball nationals, had a dozen basketball hardships that I had to take care of as soon as that got done that I've gotten a little bit behind on With basketball season starting so we deal with probably a hundred and twenty to a hundred and forty hardships cases that come through annually between the two between our two main sports of basketball and volleyball.

Timmy Eaton: 12:42

So the just to be clear for the listeners, a hardship case would be Like, there's a difficult scenario. And in order for that to keep in order for you guys to keep true to your mission as keeping in a homeschool League for or organization for the different sports that you offer, basketball, volleyball, and so on. You have all these cases that are like what about this scenario? And you gotta field all those and then make sure that it doesn't mess with the eligibility and the mission you're trying to accomplish.

Robert Flatt: 13:08

Yeah. You and I talked about some ahead of time, but one That we didn't talk about would be like a medical age exemption. Someone that has a medical disorder or a medical, situation. we Get a lot where the child is severely autistic, and they're asking for them to be able to play with their peers and their grade level opposed to the age restrictions. And so those are ones where age right now, The age you're always gonna get the age request, but for so long, we didn't have any age exemptions. And I think medical age exemptions over the years our member organizations get an opportunity to hear about it. We don't get we don't allow talented or race or gender to be discussed in those situations and even location. We want people voting on the merit of the situation because our goal is to then be consistent and uphold it. We don't wanna have to have Every single case go there if we got five in a row that are similar that are getting approved. We're gonna just everyone's that has the a similar one that year is gonna get.

Timmy Eaton: 14:08

Yeah. You weigh against the principle of whatever. And what and how would you state it? I how would you state this is what we're out to do. This is the mission we're trying to accomplished. Because that way you can weigh things against that every time you come up against these hardship cases or anything else that you're faced with.

Robert Flatt: 14:22

I think the spirit behind it is protecting the sport to make sure that the member organizations in the National Christian Homeschool Championship Are competing against um, and their players are homeschool student athletes that for the most part are traditional homeschooling. Yeah. You're always gonna have situations that are nontraditional, and that's where we we sometimes have areas that we're we're not sure. We've seen I've seen hundreds of thousands of hardships. Oh, yeah. I get some that and another one that we used to have was the dual enrollment. There was a stretch where dual enrollment kids were actually ineligible by our rules. And so we had to go through and go through the process of, wait, if they're dual enrolled, we don't wanna punish them for being smart. Yeah. And so we had to change our fifty one percent rule for dual enrollment. Had to have its own Deal. And so we're always the rules are always progressing, I believe. They're always

Timmy Eaton: 15:13

Yeah. Especially as homeschooling grows and the options become like you said, they become, more hybrid and more and there's so many approaches now. And but I like the I like that trueness to the traditional homeschool. And I like how You guys def I like your definition, actually. I just wanted to and then keep going what you're saying. But on your site, it says homeschooling is defined It's education being parent directed and done at home. And I know that, again, you have to adjust because of things like dual enrollment and other things, but that's a good baseline from which to operate.

Robert Flatt: 15:42

And one question we get all the time is what about online at home through a charter or through and so that's one that we've had to take Before our leaders before and say, okay. It's changing. And so Yeah. Where we settled after COVID was if it's done through the local online public School system and district. That's not that does not qualify because a lot of kids were doing that through COVID, but they weren't They didn't consider themselves homeschooled. They were just so they were that low.

Timmy Eaton: 16:09

Man. Yeah.

Robert Flatt: 16:10

And so we that was one that we had to take because, again, it was uncharted territory. And so one thing that's been great in this whole process has been that we do. We have the leaders and the coaches and the athletic directors that Come to our events. They're very invested. It's very rare that we send out a vote that doesn't get a minimum of a hundred votes usually within the first forty eight hours. It's just it's a very responsive group. And we run into a spot where we might run-in we're not sure on how to handle it. We've had situations that I've had to recuse myself of. And yet in doing that, the leaders and the athletic directors were able to work with, Our other staff members and be able to just step in, and it was almost a seamless situation because that's who helps us make those decisions. Because, Honestly, for recruiting purposes, it's better if we have less rules in the sense of when you tell a team, hey. You should come to our events, but you have to meet this rule,

Timmy Eaton: 17:03

and you can't do this. Yeah. That

Robert Flatt: 17:05

That yeah. We have to we really are in a spot where we can recruit a lot of teams. A lot of the recruitment we are gonna do is if, hey, if they play teams And they're a homeschool team, and they're already playing in a lot of the same tournaments with these same teams. And then, yeah, you guys should come check it out because, yeah,

Timmy Eaton: 17:20

And they gotta be it's gotta be in their interest too. So they have all these rules and stuff like that. Absolutely. So maybe talk a little bit about How did it actually start? Like, how did NCHC start? I know it was nineteen ninety one, but who Yeah. I mean, I saw different founding names. I don't know what I'm saying but Jim Leininger and Don Miller and Alan Day. But then your and then your dad came on the scene. Yeah. The Feast,

Robert Flatt: 17:40

Homeschool feast dot com is the group that started that. And I'm going to their website right now because I just wanna make sure that in giving out give the correct credit here. And so I was a lot younger then. But the group out of yeah, San Antonio is the feast. It's Family Educators Alliance of South Texas. Mhmm. It was the first homeschool organization in the South Texas regions for the purpose of Being a clearinghouse of information for homeschooling families. The feast board held its monthly meetings in a garage. It was a Dusty garage that the organization grew, incorporated as a five zero one c, trade and planned events instead of homeschooling library. So those that could not afford to buy books could also borrow books to teach their children. And they're an amazing group you mentioned, Don Miller Alan Day, and Jim Leininger. They they were part of the board Linda Witten as well that that brought our family involved. And then so I love the national tournament before my family ever got involved. Oh. And so it was quite a surprise when my dad came back I could say, hey. They want us to try to run it. And so but and so he, he never was intimidated by things. I think I would have been quite terrified even in the first couple of years where for myself, I even though I grew up in this, I was like, I need some help.

Timmy Eaton: 18:57

Basically, at the beginning, it was just like it was just like another homeschool parents kinda getting together, opening things up, but then they got interested in the sport aspect of it.

Robert Flatt: 19:05

Yeah. Yeah. And I think pretty quickly. I think FEAST had sports pretty quickly. I believe Jim Leininger helped buy a gym for the the Patriots at the time right now, there's FEAST no longer has sports, but the FEAST Patriots were the One of the original homeschool basketball teams. And up until last year or until this year, they actually had been supporting sports. And it would it so for our family, I know homeschooling is a big part of why we stayed homeschooling. And as a former homeschool athlete it's personal for me. I wanna make Sure that the players that are competing in the events if our member organizations are not interested in that being the focal point that might become the time where I yeah. That might become a point where I have to relook at my focus because for me, that's the real focal point. And so that's where we wanna that's the where we wanna draw that distinction. Of course, we're never gonna be as strict as some could see us Or as FAIRR or our standards being where they shouldn't be. And so finding that balance is always really good, and I think that was something that my father really instilled was the importance of being able to we've taken many a vote where it was enough to pass, But it was a new rule, and so we went back and said what if we made these adjustments here? And when next thing you know, it was eighty six percent in support and seven percent thought it was way too Strict and seven percent thought not too strict, and we're like, okay. We this is a good rule. It's so Finding those deals there. But, yeah, that FEAST group, what they the blood, sweat, and tears. I know there are people that are convinced they were making so much money, Early on and my father actually found a notebook where that was mentioned, how much they were making, and they were losing money every year. And that was one of the first goals of the NCHC was find a way to just break even. Yeah. No. Just No kidding. Just not lose money.

Timmy Eaton: 20:49

So what about the logistics of just, like how do you I mean, even today, like, how do you book gyms, and tell us about the organization of, like, how many things like how are teams and leagues organized? How many total Athletes are we talking about here, all the logistics stuff.

Robert Flatt: 21:06

Yeah. I think we have about thirty five hundred registered athletes yearly on the basketball side of things. On the volleyball side, twelve hundred. On track and field, twelve hundred. About four hundred on cross country. gOlf's a lot smaller than that on a Goodyear fifty. Those are our sports that we run. And so though yeah. The we're always amazed with the Numbers that the team wise, our basketball, we have thirteen events. We've got South Carolina, Wisconsin, Louisiana, Arizona. Sometimes it's in California, but this year it's in Arizona. KAnsas multiple events in Texas. Some of the big our biggest events are in Texas where our regional has two hundred Teams in Dallas Fort Worth area are and then we have a hundred team district in the Dallas Fort Worth area and then a In the Houston area. Wow. Or College Station this year, but in the South Texas.

Timmy Eaton: 22:00

And that's where and that's how we got on to that's how I was able to meet you. I we have friends that are in College Station. And, actually, they're Okay. They were on this podcast, and they were telling us about it. And we just, like I'm up in Alberta, Canada, and we had no idea that this even existed. And so I had heard rumblings before from them, but then we just asked more questions. And, anyway, so that's I can see why there's a concentration

Robert Flatt: 22:21

of it there. The Aggieland Panthers out there great organization for both basketball and volleyball for the NCHC track and field. It's and the thing about the organizations like that's really unique is you were mentioning in where you're at, A lot of the kids will play on the school team. That's right. And so that's a phenomenal opportunity. I think for a lot of homeschoolers, That was not like, in San Antonio, for example, that wasn't an option for that the schools were providing. I would say

Timmy Eaton: 22:47

most people here where I am Don't even know that's an option. It's really rare. Like, when our we like, we're in Southern Alberta, and our kids play for the local school because they don't have a team through the school authority that they have to go through. And so and that's a difference in the Canadian context than the Alberta context. But most kids don't even know that's an option, and a lot of them aren't that interested anyway. But I think Moore would be interested if they knew something like this existed, like the NCHC. But

Robert Flatt: 23:13

yeah. You mentioned that the College Station would like the Aggieland Panthers. When you have a group and Aggieland Panthers are one of a dozen plus in the Texas area. We've got CHSA, Wolverines, and the Houston area HCYA Warriors, FBCHEA c h e a Eagles out of Fort Bend. Then, of course, the San Antonio Patriots and then No longer feast, but still the San Antonio Patriots. So you have the New Bruntsville Thunder. tHen that's just in the South Texas, Lake Houston Warriors which is Houston Homeschool Athletics, CHSM Crimson Knights out of the Houston area spring. And then in the Dallas side, you got Dallas HSAA Angels, Dallas Thunder. You've got Dallas dash Spartans, The Red River Radlers, the So

Timmy Eaton: 23:57

where do all these teams practice, and how do they get organized? And, like, where do they have to come up with that, or does NCHC fund stuff? Or how

Robert Flatt: 24:04

does it work? No. No. That those each organization has to find and build their own relationships with the facilities and, The gyms they've gotta build their own schedules. One of the things that the NCHC can help with, especially for a new organization, is for example, like basketball nationals for a varsity boys team can yield as many as seven games. Basketball regionals which we have five hundred teams that attend our four regional events over the same weekend. And so or the same And where do you hold that stuff? The okay. So the regional tournaments are in the Dallas Fort Worth areas. So we're actually both in We are out in Dallas, Fort Worth area. We have to be in two different locations. And we're in Frisco And Grapevine. And so we use Fieldhouse USA facilities there. And so I think between that, we have fourteen courts running over the three days um, with two hundred teams. And then we have the big the Midwest tournament has a hundred and sixty five teams, And that's out in the Indianapolis area. That was last year's number. This year, we have a hundred and sixty signed up already. In the big south, we already have two hundred teams signed up From for February events. And so that was

Timmy Eaton: 25:14

those any the you guys will book the you'll book the locality. You'll book the gym.

Robert Flatt: 25:19

And so for them so a team comes to nationals or seven games, potentially six, seven games for the high school ages, and then four games at regionals quickly. And then we also have the district tournaments that they can usually get three or four games. And so right off the bat, a team can get ten, fourteen games just coming to our events. And then we also have conferences out in the Midwest that are really they've just grown over the years where we and teams are playing in Playing each other in a home and a way, but they determine which one's a conference game. And so

Timmy Eaton: 25:48

So do people, Do you get it where it's like, everybody in the homeschool world in the south kinda knows about it? Or is it still people are like, what? There's a league for homeschool kids? Or is it more like the northern states and the western states that are like, wait. There's homeschool leagues? Because, for us, if that's what it was like. It was just like, what in the world? I didn't know there was homeschool leagues.

Robert Flatt: 26:07

I think a lot of it comes down to we're in the sweet spot where This last year at nationals, I was running into players that were alumni of the event that were there as parents. Yeah. And so you start to see that It's really unique. It's really awesome. And so I think what's happened is these organizations like Feast and in Oklahoma City, you have the Oklahoma City nights that have been around for a long time. You've got in Tulsa, you've got numerous different organizations and some newer ones as well. And so What happens is a lot of these teams, they're getting a chance to play against the public schools because they've built a reputation in the area. Oh, I see. They play against the schools. They play against the public schools. So when they get a chance And that makes a huge difference for the because now all of a sudden, there's a reason so to be to join a team because now you could Compete against them. That but it's own challenges. I mean, I remember getting laughed at by teams when I pick up the phone because I'd see that they had an ad. And I was the assistant athletic director. And I had graduated, and I was a coach, but I would pick up the phone and make those phone calls and try to get the games, and they would laugh at us. And but then when they would have a tournament, we'd say, we can fill that spot, and they take us for a tournament. And so we would build the relationship. And before you knew it, they're like, you guys play hard. You challenge us better than anyone else, gets us ready for state tournament. We don't mind playing you. We wanna play you. And so over time, we built We build great schedules with that. And in the state of Oklahoma, a player was named the player of the year by four different publications In the state. The Daley Oklahoma, the Tulsa World, Vipe Oklahoma, and another one. And they named him the player of the year out of a homeschool team. Was that one of

Timmy Eaton: 27:46

the Griffin boys that you were telling me about?

Robert Flatt: 27:49

No. It wasn't, actually. The Griffin brothers both Won plenty of awards. Fortunately for them, they were able

Timmy Eaton: 27:55

to Tell our listeners who they are. Tell our listeners about that.

Robert Flatt: 27:58

Yeah. Yeah. Blake and Taylor Griffin were Oklahoma Sooner Stars OU basketball team that made a belief to the elite eight With Blake his final year. Blake was the number one draft pick for the LA Clippers, and He's played around a lot of different teams since then, but was traded to the Detroit Pistons in a blockbuster. And I've watched him play in Celtics a Celtics uniform last year when they came to Oklahoma City, and he actually is playing with The player that our most famous alumni is Justin Jackson. Justin Jackson was a McDonald's all American. His team, the HCIA warriors were featured on ESPN when he was playing with them because he was a top prospect. Roy Williams Gino Armiano. I'm saying his name wrong. Pat Summit. These different players have been to our events because of players like in Justin's case, Roy was there to watch him play. Mhmm. And that was Justin went on To lead North Carolina to a national championship. Back I think they went back to back final fours with him as a starter, and then he was a lottery pick for the Sacramento Kings. And he was traded to the Dallas Mavericks, With the Harrison Barn trade, which was all tied to the Golden State Warriors getting Kevin Durant, Which is a sore subject here. Yeah. I was gonna say,

Timmy Eaton: 29:15

And so many of those players played at at Oklahoma. So that like So that's interesting. So the teams during the year, they're just getting as much gym time as they can, and they're practicing on their own schedules. But then you have these thirteen events for basketball specifically, that you will host and book facilities. They'll come and do these and and, like you said, you have to meet all these eligibility requirements, which I get. You gotta make sure it's staying true to your reason. And then you have these awesome thing. Is there any chance for football in the Future, you think or no?

Robert Flatt: 29:43

Okay. So so our total number of basketball is eleven hundred and twenty teams that we have signed up for next year that will play from in January to March. Now I will say this. I am full time now. That and when my father was doing it, he was never full time, but I have to be. And so if we and because we our other sport, volleyball started with eighteen teams. This year alone, our boys volleyball, which is, I think, five years ago, we started boys volleyball for at nationals. And we've watched it grow that We had thirty six teams in boys' volleyball this year, which was big twice the size of our first year of nationals. And we had a hundred and forty three teams. We played on sixteen courts all under the same roof. We broke our own record of a hundred and thirty eight the year before. But Just four years ago, we were trying to get to a hundred teams. And it was a vision that my father actually started putting out there three years to a hundred teams, and we got laughed at because There's no way you're gonna get to a hundred teams that and so we in twenty twenty, we got to ninety six, and then we were at a hundred and twenty eight and then a hundred and thirty eight and a hundred Forty three. And we're at the point now where we're we'll probably have to turn teams down because or find a way to expand, but We really wanna keep it under one roof. It was really special this last year.

Timmy Eaton: 30:56

And the thing the thought I keep having is as we're talking about this is turns out, homeschool families like sports because I feel like the stereotype for so long and maybe you don't even see this because you grew up in this culture but it is just it I feel like it's a common thing that oh, homeschoolers don't play sports and so have you Have have you had that come up a lot in that one of the major reasons people homeschool is to have the freedom and flexibility of not being tied to that kind of extracurricular. Like, how has that been navigated for you? And that question that's you know, for traditional homeschoolers, they go we don't wanna be tied to something so we can go do the things that but turns out lots of homeschool families are into sports, obviously, because you're just Yeah. Growing.

Robert Flatt: 31:36

I Think everyone homeschools for different reasons. When I was homeschooled, it was more I think the majority of homeschoolers, it was a religious purpose. And so there that was a big element of homeschooling. Mhmm. That is not the case that we run into as much now. And so that definitely changes things. One of the things we do at our events is we have prayers before before the teams, we have a meetup and have a prayer and a scripture verse each day. It's not a huge deal, but our goal is to help Sometimes that's the only time these kids are gonna hear that in their meetings and with their coaches is in their teams. And but what we run into now is I even when I played basketball was we weren't looking for that, But what ended up happening was it became a way for our family to be together. Mhmm. And it became a way for For us to stay in the homeschooling because it gave us a community. I think you gave me a list of questions, and one of them, you asked what that What my number one tip or key for someone new to homeschooling Yeah. Yeah. Advice. And I would say find a coop or a sports team. I didn't have a coop. My kids have a coop. And a big part of our story is, you know, my kids really play sports. And so we were kinda without with because there wasn't an interest, and we didn't push them into it. I've got cello player. They've done mixed martial arts. I've got one that's working right now. And in fact, one of his siblings had to pick him up just so I could do this podcast because I normally pick him up. And but the and so I'd say that for the homeschool's family, there may be maybe sports isn't what they're looking for, but community is such a, that would be my advice would be find a community because because that's that aspect's so crucial. As my wife said, Yeah. Some things she's been saying this a lot recently. So some things our children are not gonna learn from us. They have to learn it from their peers. And so For me, growing up, that if you talk to me about my identity growing up, I would have told you I was homeschooled. But Quickly, as I told you that I played basketball for my team, then I would list my team. And most people had heard of that team because we had played against public schools or the private schools or the Christian schools And said, oh, you you guys are pretty good. And and so that would that was, to me, a big part of my identity. My kids didn't necessarily have that. And so I would say for homeschoolers, finding that community aspect, whether it's a coop or a sports team. And if you can't find one, start one. Because the bottom line is having the homeschoolers are gonna be drawn to people that start something if it's done right And Because

Timmy Eaton: 34:01

there is such a need. And then I love that you're saying that it's the principle is actually more community and community with like minded individuals. Have you do you see if somebody were to ask you hey. What are the what are the, Real differences between a homeschool team and your typical traditional public school team that I grew up playing. I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago playing on sports teams, and I it was a big part of my growing up. In some ways, I almost feel like I was not very balanced because I was so into Yeah. Athletics in high school, stuff like that. But but what would you say? What are the what are, like, the the in your eyes, seeing this for years and years as a player and now as a as the executive director of the organization. What are the benefits or the clear differences between homeschool sports and what kids would experience? And I know that kinda risks being stereotypical, but I would say call it how you see it.

Robert Flatt: 34:50

Right now, you have a group that's Won the varsity boys national championship, the three time defending national champion Memphis MHEA Eagles. So I'll kinda use them as an example. Sure. They they made exactly three national final fours in their thirty year history of existence. All three are in a row, And all three resulted in them winning the undisputed national championship. And they've been around in the Memphis area. And, for decades, they've built such a reputation. They play a lot of the homes the a lot of the public school teams all year long. And I think one of the things is they very rarely does a homeschool team go into a public school gym And instantly get taken serious. Usually, they kinda get maybe even laughed at because they don't look like they're gonna be that much. And, Even sometimes team like MHEA Eagles, they despite their reputation, I think people would see them and say, Yeah. We most teams are gonna well, we could beat them. But the thing about it is once they start playing, it's that discipline. And I'd say that's a big difference in a lot of the homeschool teams that I see is their discipline. They execute well. And a lot of that comes down to getting a good coach. If you don't have a good coach, then Yeah. It won't be it won't be as relevant. But I think a lot of these

Timmy Eaton: 36:07

and who vets that? The quality of coach and is that just up to the local home

Robert Flatt: 36:11

coach again? Organizations. Yeah. And some of the greatest coaches Are the one the parents. The parents that say, I'm not good enough to coach because those are the teams that know how to lose. That's just as important. The these public school when you go into these public schools, if you don't lose well, you won't get a re you won't get a callback the next time. And if you don't win well, that's the other thing. You're gonna be able to win well too, and that's a hard balance because sometimes high school kids, if you're winning, they wanna let someone know. And so Yeah. I would say that the average homeschool team knows they've gotta behave a little bit different because they're that It's a blessing to get that game. Most homeschool teams don't have a home court. And if they did, they wouldn't get teams to show up in the sense that they've gotta play. HCYA, Justin Jackson, When he was interviewed by ESPN, he said, I don't have a home court that we play home games that way. We don't get teams to play us at home. We play in tournaments, and we go and visit them. And

Timmy Eaton: 37:01

so And what percentage of these teams are playing homeschool teams and playing public school teams? I know that's probably hard because it depends on where they live. But in general, would you say is it fifty percent or not even?

Robert Flatt: 37:13

I think that's a great question. I know this I know a lot of states now, I think we're at the point I think in the state of Michigan, for example, they still have some rules that make it so that I think the public schools can only scrimmage a homeschool team, and it can't count as an official scrimmage. But I think that there's been some barrier breaking there. I think I remember hearing maybe tournaments. They might be allowed in tournaments here at some point. I that I could be off on that, but I know that's a lot of times and so so Michigan has a hundred homeschool teams themselves at their annual state tournament. And that obviously is gonna impact a great deal of people when you they're not able to play against public schools. So I would but I would say you're probably looking at seventy five percent of the teams that come to NCHC are in states Where they're able to compete against the public schools. I know for years about five or six years ago, we were working with Kentucky and Arkansas. And one of the Biggest things, we talk we've talked about eligibility before we've had the call and or before the podcast and also here on the podcast a little bit. But One of the biggest things with that eligibility is for Arkansas and Kentucky and some of these different states, as they had legislation being put in place, There was actually bills being put in place to stop homeschool teams from being able to compete against the homeschool tea or the public schools. But at the same time, homeschoolers were then gonna be allowed to play on the public school teams. That would have, for all intents and purposes, made it you no reason to play homeschool sports anymore. Just go play on the school team because you can't play against the schools. And so one of the things they said is the homeschoolers don't have rules. And so the member organizations In Arkansas, we're able to take to their legislation and say, here are our rules that we agreed to. Yeah. This isn't this is not what you're calling it. And so they were able Arkansas, they they've been able to push barriers, and they were able to play against the public schools. Tennessee, that's Then that's been a barrier broken for a long time. Indiana, that's been a barrier that in the last decade, we've seen much headway there. And, Honestly, I would say that we're seeing teams like the Indianapolis Wildcats won in two thousand nineteen. They won the undisputed national championship. First team Out of Indiana to win it. At first team outside of really Oklahoma, Texas, and Tennessee. Yeah. I was gonna say

Timmy Eaton: 39:31

it. When you were talking about Michigan, I was Too surprised to hear that because in my head, I'm like, when I think of big homeschool pockets in the states, I think of Texas, Oklahoma, North Carolina. I'm surprised I haven't heard North Carolina come up because I feel like but and then Tennessee is not a surprise, but, Michigan, and Indiana. And what about Washington State? What if Washington State wanted do they have anything going on? Or I think Washington state them. I'm just thinking west.

Robert Flatt: 39:56

Yeah. No. We yeah. Yeah. Out west, Montana has some teams. Washington state, I don't think, has some teams as much as they have homeschool families. And, I grew up in Pennsylvania. We don't draw Pennsylvania to our events. It's we got last Year in twenty twenty two in volleyball, we got our first ever Pennsylvania team called the fierce. It was a fourteen under girls team. And it was a group of girls From Pennsylvania that were homeschooled, about seven or eight of them, and they made it one year. And they told us we probably won't be back next year because we I don't think we'll even be around. But and so but in Pennsylvania, it's a lot there's a lot more restrictions there and it's just not as widespread whether maybe kids are playing on school teams or the sports that they are interested in that's just hard They get Or

Timmy Eaton: 40:40

just community involvement or something like that. And then what about the the travel to these events? Like, how does how do you guys get so many people to be willing? I mean, because the cost involved with that and just the time involved with that in I know there's flexibility in homeschooling, but that's a big commitment to go. We're gonna drive to spring Springfield Missouri. We're gonna go to Texas, or we're gonna go wherever. Yeah. I think,

Robert Flatt: 41:01

Our district tournaments, we have a lot of those events and even the conferences, those are more designed to be local. The conference tournaments, the district tournaments, those are designed to kinda draw teams that are Most of them aren't even having to spend a night in a hotel. And if they are, it's it's a it's one night. Yeah. The regional tournaments yeah. We're drawing for Texas, we're drawing teams From I just saw Albuquerque, New Mexico typically comes. I just saw that they signed up, and I was looking. We had a wait list, and we were going through it. I said, we're gonna go ahead and expand that age group there, and so that New Mexico team's in there. Sometimes we get Denver to come out to The big south in Texas. We get a lot of Louisiana Mississippi. We've dropped to the big south. And so getting those teams, I'll be honest. I had one year that we had an ice storm, and I wasn't able to make it to the first day in the big south. I haven't been since COVID to a lot of these regionals, but I Yeah. For that point, I had been going yearly. And so I got there. The Uber Hold me up and dropped me off after taking a train in. And so I got there, and I could not believe how many vehicles were there. Considering the fact that it's all done through email and social media And then

Timmy Eaton: 42:05

just one week, and it just shows up.

Robert Flatt: 42:08

And yeah. And so I there's a level this year for Volleyball Nationals, with a hundred and forty three teams in Lawrence, Kansas and pulling up and just seeing the sheer magnitude of it all, I'm always in awe, but I think what it comes down to is my family wasn't a sports family, but we traveled out to Estes Park, Colorado to check it out Yeah. To play. And I think for a lot of times for homeschoolers, that's the idea of community. Yeah. The idea Of being part of it, I had an email from a family, actually, that's a coach. And he sent me an email and said, our team last minute wasn't able to make nationals. thEre was they had some conflict with some leadership, and we lost about seven teams Last minute that weren't able to come just from that was internal stuff that they were working through. Yeah. And he just said the Tears on the kids' faces I will never forget. Oh, man. And he said and I think that's something that I didn't realize until we had COVID happen. That was when that happened, the letters that we got from seniors, the letters we got from families that said, hey. We know that the decision had to be made or terrible decision, whatever it was. Yeah. But it all really came down to the kids. And I think for us, that was the hardest decision factor was this is a whole group of kids that don't get this year back. Yeah.

Timmy Eaton: 43:22

Because they look forward to that, man, and they want those those experiences that they don't get otherwise.

Robert Flatt: 43:26

There's so many memories that in fact, I get a I got an email from a new group in Tulsa That was a split off from another organization, and they said, our coach and his wife or his her husband I can't remember if The coach was the male or female, but they met at nationals. And there was a player that I coached. Him and his wife met at nationals, and she was from Ohio. And they met at nationals, and by the next year, They were in they were married. And so it was one of those deals where I think that nationals kinda is that it has those experiences that the kids really look forward to. And So I think that winds up happening is for the parents, that makes it an easy decision even though it's not always and as a parent myself that travels, I understand those easy decisions Come at a cost. And so the regional events for many teams, they make it their end of the year event. It's we have five hundred teams that travel to regionals and we only get three hundred I'd say about thirty five of our teams are made up of team USA Annually. If we have three hundred and seventy teams, there's three hundred and thirty five teams or so at nationals. So so there the and then the rest are Team USA. That's a hundred and seventy teams at home that came to regionals that didn't come to nationals, and then there's also teams that come to nationals that didn't come to regionals. So we're probably looking at about two hundred teams that come to regionals that don't make it out to nationals. And so we understand that for some, regionals is a great event. It's a great end of the year event Yeah. And that's sufficient for them. We always think that if you get your whole program to come, Those younger kids get that vision. If you get a fourteen year old that's a b team player that catches the vision, one of my favorite stories is a team out of Nashville, And they won an undisputed title, and they beat the Oklahoma City team that won a lot. And they beat them in the final, And their president came up to me and he said, Rob, you gotta hear this. I said, alright. He goes, this team here has players on it. They were on that b team that we brought to nationals when our organization made the decision. We're bringing everyone. Everyone comes. They're all gonna check it out. And he goes, There's players from that b team. He goes, they didn't win one game all season. They were went o for the whole year. They lost their first game at nationals, And then they won their next four games by a combined five points, had three buzzer beaters. They won so he's they won four games. I said, how many of those kids were part of the this team that just won the undisputed? They played key minutes. He said three players That played key minutes in the undisputed finals to win it all. We're on the We're part of a b team that hadn't won a game all season. Wow. And so just the difference from a fourteen year old, Blake Griffin, we talked about the Blake for a little bit. He played he terrorized the ten and under and twelve and under age groups in homeschool basketball. By the time he was eligible for fourteen and under, I think he was playing as a twelve or a thirteen year old, and him and his brother were dominant. It was my junior year that was Taylor, his brother, his older brother's Eighth grade year. And so my senior year, that summer, I met my wife, Ashley. And I knew that this freshman was coming up, and He was gonna take my starting job anyway, so I didn't work near as hard. And our captain, Zach, he sent me an email Or text. I don't remember back then. I think it was an email because it was long enough. You had that texting then wasn't possible. Yeah. And he basically called me out for my Lack of devotion and where is my effort and where is my heart? And I knew he was right, but I met my wife, so I didn't know she was gonna be my wife at the time, but I and so I remember that year, Taylor had forty six dunks, And we were playing a game at nationals in double overtime against an opponent we had beaten two weeks earlier By eighteen points, and it was in double overtime. And it was about that time I sat there and thought, man, I wish I had worked a lot Harder. This is painful. We end up winning the game and the next game by forty six points, but it was still one of those deals where We knew back in those ages, it's been fun to see some of the players like a Jeremy Lam who played for Yukon. He played in fourteen under. I didn't know it at the time, but I coached against him at with the North Atlanta flight. His dad found me years later and said, you my son played at your event. We were like, really? And so we

Timmy Eaton: 47:39

went back Jeremy. Who is Jeremy?

Robert Flatt: 47:42

Jeremy Liam, and he was a Key member of the Yukon Huskies, and he ended up playing for he was a draft pick for the Charlotte Hornets. He ended up playing some I'm in Oklahoma City, so I gotta watch him play some here. Nice. And but he and so but you mentioned Michigan not knowing it as much as a hotbed out. I'm gonna put out a name out there for you. Lily Williams, and she was a fifteen year old last year at nationals. She was in our dunk contest. Wow. And she was she has been offered now by pretty much every big ten school has offered her a full ride scholarship. And every week, it feels like on social media, we're updating our database with I think on Twitter is where she's most active. We're updating Twitter with who's offered Lilly this week. And

Timmy Eaton: 48:24

That's so fascinating that there's that Many I think what like and, again, you're probably so embedded in it that you're so used to it. But just to hear that homeschooling, especially in this Canadian context, It's grown a ton here, but it's just so small, the country itself as far as population compared to the states. And so just to hear that this many people have chosen the homeschooling route. Now I'm mindful of your time, so I wanted to if we could we, I'll give you any other thing you wanna say just a last word on the NCHC. And then I just wanted to, transition for a minute to your own experience just for a few minutes. Yeah.

Robert Flatt: 48:56

Absolutely. You mentioned football. And while we do not offer football, I would hate for someone that is sitting listening to this to screaming, saying, there is a football championship. There is. There is a football championships. There's a soccer's championships. And there's many event that you mentioned the North Carolinas and that stuff. There's an East Coast championships, and all do Their own thing. They're not part of the NCHC. And there's different rules. The East Coast, they have rules that basically would make The majority of players that play against public schools ineligible in the states that we're involved in. And so having a deadline that's six months later that might work in the Carolinas and stuff. I don't know what their rules are. But for our teams, it makes them a little bit more of a club team, like an AAU team, And so they don't want those rules. They don't And you're

Timmy Eaton: 49:42

saying there are homeschool

Robert Flatt: 49:43

football Yeah. The national homeschool Football championships, I think is the name of that. And there is they do that now. It's a little unique, but it's a great setup. They've been running for years. People have asked us to get involved. There's a homeschool world series, and we always say, hey. There's other groups that are doing a great job, and those are sports that are our specialty. And so the homeschool world series does It's for baseball. I think they had twenty four teams at their national or at their big event. You had And the football, I think they have about thirty two to forty eight teams or something along those lines. But the different rules make it a little hard. For football, they allow public Schoolers or private schoolers as long as it doesn't make up a certain percentage of the team. And at least in when I was looked at

Timmy Eaton: 50:25

it, I thought stuff to deal with for sure. They have different

Robert Flatt: 50:28

stuff to deal with. And so for us, that would muddy the water

Timmy Eaton: 50:31

Yeah. You've got your niche.

Robert Flatt: 50:32

And so we do. And so I would definitely in closing, I've talked enough about the NCHC, but I would definitely say that's But there are definitely other options. I don't think there's a sport out there that's a team sport that's big in the states that doesn't have an option. And so I think from that standpoint, I just wanna make sure the metrics Oh, that's awesome.

Timmy Eaton: 50:51

I blow past that one. No, dude. That was good because I didn't even know that existed, so I'm grateful that you said that. Let's transition for at least the last few minutes on just your like Yeah. You I mean, what One of my most common initial questions is what was your first exposure? And you and I kinda laughed when we were talking before the you know, before you started recording because You've been exposed to it forever. Your parents decided to homeschool. And actually, what was their main reason? What was their main reason to homeschool?

Robert Flatt: 51:17

I think from the way they tell the stories, and my parents are great storytellers in the sense that a lot of and stuff are able to be passed on because they've shared. And so the way they shared it, my dad was wrapping up his last semester in seminary, And they were getting ready to go to South Africa. Yeah. And I think there's some big conflict that ended up rising up around that same time. But I didn't I wasn't privy to it at the time. And so they ended up pulling me out of school during that time and thought, hey. If we're gonna go to another country, we probably should be teaching our kids at home. They were both public schooled, and I don't think that their experience at school was such that they were like, we're homeschooling in order to protect from that.

Timmy Eaton: 51:55

And it's a pretty much to go to South Africa and educate their kids. That's

Robert Flatt: 52:00

right. And so I think over time, That quickly changed because they realized that they weren't going, but I think they realized a lot of the benefits. And Yeah. So I think from my from that standpoint and then as a parent from may I've covered kinda as an athlete how I was exposed. As a parent, I was exposed Obviously, through having done it, but what's interesting, and I think I'm not the only one that's been like this, is I married a public schooler. And through talking about her experiences with her and my experiences growing up, she did not wanna put her kids in school. She wanted she want She wanted to homeschool her kids. And so that was something that we agreed to that I wasn't dead set we're gonna homeschool. I was Right. Willing to Talk about it. And be open to the options. Yeah. anD she was not as open. She did not see the school system as What were her big reasons? And so I think you know, it's funny. We were even just talking just I think it was just yesterday, and she heard, Another parent talking about how a teacher talked to their child, and that child actually recorded it. It was on social media, and it was it was a school where the Eric, basically, had said, this teacher's bullying my kid and finally had some video evidence. And the teacher was saying stuff like, you're stupid. You'll amount to nothing. You're a brat. And my wife, I could see it. It was a trigger for her, and it's something that teacher she didn't learn the same way everyone. And so there was a level of bullying there and or even having situations where she's feeling kinda left behind where she didn't learn some of the things that as she's homeschooled, she's relearned and said, hey. I'm proud of some of that work that they turned out because I can actually go through it myself. And Yeah. And so there was a level where so for her, I think a lot of it was just I think for her, some of the reasons that would be more traditional reasons of Wanting you have good education, wanting to be able to be there for your kids during those impressionable key years. Yes. So that and For me, personally, I having been homeschooled, I would have thought I had a lot more resources, but I think we quickly realized that we were starting from Scratch for all intents and purposes. And so

Timmy Eaton: 54:08

it is rare to hear it is rare to hear that situation where it's like the guy was homeschooled. Mary is a girl that wasn't homeschooled. She wants to School, and even for different reasons. And have do you feel like you've been like this amazing informant to her for how do you get curriculum? Do you tap into community, and and how do you find the right sources to customize and tailor the education for your specific kids? Or Has she kinda done that through her own efforts?

Robert Flatt: 54:33

Yeah. I gotta give her a lot of credit because, honestly, I if you had asked me for good information on a sports team or how to coach a Team are Yeah. I could have helped her a lot. Heck, I was coaching when our first children were born. I stopped coaching before our fourth was expected because I felt like the lord had changed my heart and Gave me a different vision, which was getting involved in the NCHC, and it was that or stick around and coach full time. Yeah. Not full time money wise, but Full time in the sense of start coaching a high school team and get further in invested. And and for her, she a lot of that, she had to start and find those resources herself. And so I even coming on, I asked her for some or some good resources that she said that for her homeschool life dot com was a great resource for helping finding co ops. They do a lot of the co ops. And so for her and then h s l d a dot com for legislation and legal advice and a lot of other things like that as well. And so she did a lot of research, and our story is kinda unique in the sense that we homeschooled. All of our kids were in grade school, and then stress related flare ups for my wife started happening. Some health issues that Had been underlined that we weren't really aware of Mhmm. As the stress of having four grade school students, It caused some flare ups at the time, and we didn't know what it was going on. But her doctor's eat more vegetables do yoga, stress less. She's okay. Thanks. I'll I tried all I'll try them all. And so she did, but we had a stretch where we had our kids in school. I think three of them were in school for three years, and one of them was in for two years. And so During that stretch, health issues improved but one of our kids really wanted to come back and be homeschooled. And so once he finished out of his Seventh grade year, we brought him back and homeschooled him. And during that time, it was a really good time to kinda reconnect with him and realize Those two years were had cost us a lot just in the sense of what they were exposed to and really almost a detox time period for us. And we really wanted to bring the other three back home, but they were pretty content in their school environment and didn't want to be, and then COVID hit. And the only one of our children whose education wasn't completely interrupted, turned upside down, was our homeschool student. And so the rest of them turned into Zoom calls where the teachers spent we would listen, and it was just like catching up. And then, they're the support system. And we got it. We understood But that wasn't we looked at that and said our other son actually went through and Yeah. Got his education still. Yeah. He's driving. Yeah. And really, one of the best things that happened for us is we made the decision To homeschool all four knowing full well that we didn't have the solutions for my wife's flare ups. We didn't know what was going on. Her doctor was saying you're fine. All the blood lab is saying you're fine. I'm sure that many homeschool moms can relate to this, Because as I share even with athletic directors or coaches, they oh, my wife's gone through that herself, or we've got many families that have and We really a decision of faith to go ahead and homeschool even though it was gonna be costly. And so we did we made that decision. And in our coop, it was our first year in the coop, Which was just a huge you asked defining moments in homeschooling for us. It was finding the Keystone Co op in Edmond, Oklahoma Because that gave us that support system in that community. And it wasn't until twenty twenty till twenty twenty that we were Full time into that coop. And for us, we were in that, and my wife's issues started coming back. And we actually had a doctor who's passionate in that co op, who's passionate on finding the root causes. And she felt like after COVID, the lord told her to open a practice. She hadn't opened one. And she said that she literally filled up her practice with Women from the coop who were experiencing health issues that Like,

Timmy Eaton: 58:29

how many people are in that coop?

Robert Flatt: 58:31

Oh, I think there's a hundred families. And so I, I think early on, she was just taking one one day that She was meeting with people. And oh, she just started realizing there's the need here. There's a need going on. Yeah. And so she was able to see my wife fairly quickly. One of the other moms said, hey. I know you're going through some stuff, and you don't know the answers. At that point, we were just trying to cut out fat because we just noticed that fat was causing problems, but we didn't in the sense of But then even that wasn't working. And so we started realizing that wasn't even the healthiest, but we needed some answers. And so she found The doctor through our co op. It's the only year the doctor was in the co op. And actually just came back from a visit today, That another a checkup. And so all of our kids are now seeing this doctor. And but my wife was able to get Blood Labs that finally the doctor looked at her and said, I don't know how you're functioning. You've got, Hashimoto's markers, lupus markers. I mean, this is and so right off the bat, That was just one of the ways that the Lord showed us that we would have never been in that. We probably would have just stuck in that. And she was

Timmy Eaton: 59:39

just the homeschool mom slash doctor in that coop. That's amazing, man. That's impressive. School

Robert Flatt: 59:44

mom in that coop, and my mom my wife was the yearbook teacher that year. And so It was just one of those deals where

Timmy Eaton: 59:51

it was And so she's seen improvement since that?

Robert Flatt: 59:54

Yeah. Yeah. The doctor, Doctor Eddie asked her today. She said, how would you describe your time in seeing me? And she said, I feel like my life, I've I got my life back. I've gotten answers. And through both the combination of of course, we're gonna try to do as much as we can holistically, but also through prescriptions, being able to take the combination and To treat that, and a lot of it just comes to knowing what's going on and being able to know what to look for. And a doctor that literally is saying, hey. You know the holy spirit. Ask the holy spirit before you take this medication because it's got some stuff in there that and it wasn't even a prescription one. It was just a Holistic one, but it had fermented soy in it. And so she just and that's not a that's not an ingredient that we usually use in our home because we have some allergies And so just finding a doctor that's telling you go ahead and ask the holy spirit. You know your body. You know That doesn't

Timmy Eaton: 1:00:46

happen everywhere. That no. And and the other thing that I was thinking is it is interesting that I you know, one I think something that's common among homeschool families. And, again, this is definitely a stereotype, but I think it holds true. I think they exist in some ways for reasons. And in this case, it's like homeschool families, and I'm not saying all, and there's such a range, but I find that a Commonality is that there is this idea of I'm I'm cool to look at the alternative option. And alternative maybe it might be alternative medicine. There's definitely alternative diet or foods that I find homeschoolers get interested in and just Yep. There's just like this, I think and it's been good for me because I feel like I'm typically an in the box type of person, but yet I just have learned so much in the homeschool community to not be cynical, but to ask questions and to really learn and kinda go. And so I just find that interesting that that happened with you guys. And right there in the co op. Yeah. And

Robert Flatt: 1:01:40

you asked with my role as executive director, one of the one of some of the biggest things that we deal And I mentioned eligibility. I didn't even get into a lot of the other stuff, but one of them is answering questions because there's a lot of questions of how and why. And so we've Almost to the point of sometimes we try to be so clear on it because we're and even in doing that, sometimes you use more words and that doesn't necessarily make it more clear. So we run into that problem ourselves. But, I hundred percent. And so for us, seeing how that has Impacted our family. We have a son that deals with allergens, and we've been able to start addressing some of those issues now at a young age or not necessarily a young age, but while they're still in our home. And through our doctor, we've even had some great, Advice as far as finding even therapy in sense of looking deeper in the emotional elements, but also being wise in And how we select that. And so I think for the homeschooler, I think that you do find that the average homeschooler is seeking to better Elements, whether it's Yes. Their schooling and looking at things, like you said, outside of a box. I'm more of a inside the box thinker. My father was an outside of the box thinker, and I think what I have found is I think outside the box a lot more now just naturally because I was forced to at a young age. It's Yeah. So Yeah.

Timmy Eaton: 1:02:59

You were exposed to that. What about what I was just thinking you, Oh, how did I have the thought? I'm just thinking of your exposure as a homeschool student and then you now having your own kids. Do you have what are your concerns about their post secondary and their careers and, like or are you confident because you have your own experience with it. And I'm saying, what are yours and your wife's feelings about what's the age range of your kids, first of

Robert Flatt: 1:03:24

all? Alright. So my oldest is nineteen Okay. And he's a senior, and then my youngest is twelve. Yeah,

Timmy Eaton: 1:03:31

What have your concerns been? That's interesting because ours are ten to nineteen. So we're right there. We have six kids straight to nineteen. So we're right with each other. Yeah what are your what are you guys how are you navigating the preparing them for life after homeschool and life after being home and what's on your mind about that? Yeah.

Robert Flatt: 1:03:49

I think, I think there's we My wife and I have a lot of deep conversations, and one of them that we've had is a combination of may I don't know if concern, maybe concern, but really of where we're going as a society. Maybe not just America, but it but maybe it is more of an American thing. But you're almost dealing with the fact that a lot of homes are becoming generational homes, And so you have more multigenerations all living under the same roof. Mhmm. And some of that, I think, is due do expenses and different things along those lines. And I think some of it might be to just the way people are being brought up. And so we don't really know what to expect in that regard because, Obviously, homeschoolers tend to be considered more of the type that stay in the nest. But I in my home, all my brothers, We were all married by I think I was married at nineteen Um, turned twenty right after. Yep. The next month. And most of my brothers were married twenty one, twenty three, somewhere in those ages, and having kids. I don't have the same expectations with my children, so I don't really know in that regard. But I definitely think there's a level where I definitely I don't have any concerns to them any different than what I did when they were in school as far as what their future would look like. I feel like they Because of the community and because of the coop and having that they there's a really good balance. Their peers Or you can have that ability to help kinda rub with some of those edges. I'm blessed to be able to be around a lot And be home and active and involved. And I get to go to the birthday parties, and I get to see The groups that they're able to hang out with. And there's I think that there's just something that It's such a diverse group of kids that homeschool even within our little area, and I think that they there's such a good rounding that takes place. I've got one son who's really motivated. He wants to get a car, and he's about to get his license. And so he's working, and he's already got a job. And and from that element he's motivated. I've got another one who's studying. He's in his final year of a biomed Through a technology school where he's doing part time at the technology school. He's in his final year of a bio biomed program with that. And he's looking at college and different opportunities there. He may even take a gap year and so to work on different things. And those are my older two. My younger two they definitely I look at them, and I think they're gonna be pretty balanced, but they're they definitely need some help with motivation. But I think that's typical for that age. Yeah. I think that's, Yeah. And

Timmy Eaton: 1:06:25

that's not necessarily unique to years old. That's not unique to homeschool or something like that. But what would you say, what were their what were the academic like, uh, emphases that you guys were giving. What were you what subjects did you guys really care about? Honestly,

Robert Flatt: 1:06:39

The within this coop, it's a really neat coop because it's so academically focused that usually you could tell the first it's all the moms run it. I actually put my name in there and said, hey. I'd be willing to be the PE teacher if they need it. I've helped in those before, and they said, listen. We Actually, it's all the moms run it. The moms are the teachers. The moms are the they grade the work, and it's we it's run by the moms. And so Yeah. Because my wife because of some of her health issues, she that was something that she had leaned on me in the past. But because of the way that the Structure is that was something that she kinda jumped in on. And and so I think for her, She figured out really quickly. The these the education our kids were getting at school was nothing compared to the math the English. They I mean, they're writing almost college style papers. Wow. My our twelve and thirteen year olds are And

Timmy Eaton: 1:07:32

this is all through the coop? Just outsource So we're not outsourced, but utilizing maybe outsource is the right word. So are all subjects dealt with through the coop, or is there things that you do specifically at home? And the

Robert Flatt: 1:07:43

there's the there's so many different coops even in Oklahoma. The one that we're in particular has, like I said, about a hundred families. And so those moms different they take on different roles. So for my wife, she's the yearbook teacher. She's been the assistant. She's been the head teacher. She took a year where she was an assistant because of health issues, and then now she's back as the teacher there. But the each hour, they meet once a week, and each hour, she has a different role. So one hour, She's the teacher there in the next roll hour. She's Where do they meet? They meet at a church Oh, okay. That some of the some of the families are part of. And so they meet, and then what ends up happening is so they ask the families, who's what are you willing to teach this year? And so some of the moms will say, I can do high school math, Or I can do drama, or I can teach French for this, or I can teach and so they we've got psychology that they're getting a class in that. They had American sign language. I think this year, they did not have it. But for years, they would have twelve fourteen kids sign up for ASL. And so Cool. They would they have PE. And so They get your core curriculums for the most part. Sometimes they might have a year where they just can't get a fifth or sixth grade teacher To teach a core curriculum, so the parents may have to take that one on at home. But they are able to get the majority of their core, And then they go home and they work on that, and then the moms will grade it for their own kids. And then the teachers will then Take that, and they'll regrade it in essence. And sometimes my wife will say, I feel like they're grading my work. Yeah. Yeah. Totally. Their grade. That's not Correct. So but in that process so I what I have seen is the English the English, the reading and comprehension, and the math are ones that we can tell the ones that have been through the our coop at the earlier ages. And so will

Timmy Eaton: 1:09:31

they the concept. So they'll go once a week, meet together, and then throughout the rest of the week, the kids are doing their own thing based on whatever is assigned or However they wanna do it at home. So the majority of what's happening is done at home. That's right. Meet once a week. And then how did you guys for your two older kids, how did you guys approach Did you want them taking entrance exams like ACT, SAT? Or how did you guys approach that? Or did you care about a diploma? Or did you guys just go to the trans transcript portfolio route. Like, how'd you guys do that stuff? Yeah. We've

Robert Flatt: 1:09:58

asked each kid what their goals are, but we still ourselves, we make them take the ACT Um, test. And we've and we'd work with them on that. And so our thought is that they may someday decide Hey. Maybe I wanna go to college. So we wanna make sure that we've done everything to prepare them for that aspect. Yep. And Have you heard of CLT?

Timmy Eaton: 1:10:19

CLT? No. CLT is the classic learning test. It's a it's a it's spreading a lot. It's in two hundred and fifty universities. I just learned about it because I interviewed one of their the person who's over homeschooled for CLT. And most of them there are homeschool, and she's out of I believe, Tennessee or somewhere. But the CLT is a replacement for the SAT and the ACT. And it's a it's called the classic learning test. And so it replaces those two, and there's more and more universities every year accepting that. Anyway, I just I'm just letting people know they could listen to my podcast on it because it was that episode will be coming out in the next couple weeks, but but I just thought that was fascinating. I had no idea. It is. And so it was a cool option for A lot of homeschool families would choose that if they knew about it. Yeah. I'll definitely

Robert Flatt: 1:11:04

check into that. That's that's really neat. That's awesome. I

Timmy Eaton: 1:11:07

love hearing that you guys work with them individually and really kinda say, hey. I just love the communication that I'm hearing that you and your wife use with your kids to say, what are your goals? And it's not and more and more I'm hearing this, Rob, that families aren't just going, no. No. No. For sure, you gotta go to university. And I think that idea is slowly dissipating. And I'm not, totally knocking it, but for a lot of of certain world views, the universities are have certain agendas. And in today's world, unless you're getting a particular certification or a profession, You kinda need to use university as a tool to your own ends. And as soon as you you've got what you need out of it, you don't need to graduate or you don't, and I know people here listening would be like man. Hold still. But I really believe that more and more. I mean, here, I have a doctorate of education myself, but the fact is my wife is way more advanced, especially in the home education realm. And I don't know. Anyway so I'm just more open to not having a university degree. But

Robert Flatt: 1:12:05

and I think that I think you'll find that the homeschoolers, Really, it varies. A lot of them are what you're talking about, they'll use it for the right purpose for a specific purpose, whether it's For sports or to learn a trade or along those lines. And I think that I think a lot of it comes down to it's the way that the system is set up right now With the universities is that there is such a focus on things that have nothing to do with the actual education Um, for trade. And so when they start pushing those type of things onto it, it really just changes it. Now that doesn't mean that a home that kids can't go there and absolutely Thrive in those environments. We've seen it. We have to time in and time out. But the sake of going to college just for the sake of The experience or for you have to do that to get a good job. It I think the veil's been on that. Yeah. I think

Timmy Eaton: 1:12:55

that's a good way to say it. That's a good way to say it. Yeah. Man, this has been an awesome conversation. There's so many places we could have gone in. Maybe I'll just give you the last word on anything you wanna say as far as just you've already given kind of some advice as far as for new homeschooling families. And but maybe what I for you, uniquely, I would ask you What would you counsel or what advice would you give homeschooling families who want their kids in athletics? What would be your advice to them? And then tell us how we can get ahold of you, and Where's the best place to Sure. To connect with you? Alright.

Robert Flatt: 1:13:28

Best advice I can give to families that are looking to get involved in athletics for homeschooling, which is simply be if you've no so it doesn't take many. It doesn't take many families to be able to get something started. Mhmm. You have to have the reason for it. If your kids are playing on a sports team in a local school, you might not have the motivation. If situations start happening with the coach or the players or the that then all of a sudden, that opens up maybe possibly a need. If there's a need for it, it will try. If there's not, it becomes an uphill battle because working with when you're having to break down some trails yourself and be a trailblazer. It's not necessarily the easiest. But if there's teams that you're are in your area and you're not a homeschool family, I'd say that I think a lot of families need to look at the schooling system the education system that their kids are getting. Yeah. Because the bottom line is that the homeschooling options, I believe, not everyone does it right. There's plenty of examples out there of how not to do homeschooling. But if you're serious about your kid's education, you can take that by the reins. It's not as intimidating, But you do have to find that community. And sometimes it is as simple as finding a sports team. If you're in if you're in Indiana, Tennessee, Texas, Kentucky, Illinois, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia. I even Montana has some teams. They're around. And if you even if it's just a group that's meeting for dodgeball, That can sometimes be the starting point of a basketball, football team. If it's a group that meets for co op or for A co op that meets for field trips. That's that was one that we see a lot that is phenomenal because sometimes you get in that co op, and then that Family's the one that tells you about the educational one, or that's the one that tells you about the sports team. And so find those different ways if you're homeschooling because as my wife says, sometimes your kids need to be taught something or that they're not gonna learn from you, but they'll learn it from their peers. And so If you could find those communities and those groups, if, if it's sports, that's great. But not every kid's gonna wanna play sports. But if you can find those communities, it's gonna make all the difference. And one of my sons is wanting to play lacrosse now. There's no homeschool lacrosse teams. I'm not looking to start any lacrosse tournaments or teams or anything. So the bottom line is, I will say that I've listened. I've at the practices, and I'm pretty amazed at what these eighth graders are saying, Ahmed. So Yeah. I can understand the value of, Hey. If he does this seriously long enough, there may have to be looking elsewhere because he's gonna wanna

Timmy Eaton: 1:16:00

play. Yeah. As it as interest expands, That's that might let me be the case. Can I just say one more thing before I you tell us where to connect with you? Because, one so let me just tell you about our situation. I've said it a little bit. Our kids, We're in a we're in a situation where there's not like a homeschool sport option. And we just thought, here's a good way. And we both my wife and I both grew up playing sports. But I'll be honest. Right now, we've had two kids graduate. We've got four more coming up, and all four of them, especially the first three of the four, are into the sports. So they football, basketball, volleyball, whatever. And and it's been good, but what we're noticing is this. They're doing it through the school, but they're not you know, most of the kids, even though we're all even a very it's a very faith centered community where we live and even the and even a similar religion, most of them. Yeah. And so you would think you'd have more like minded people, and you do in some ways. But in other ways, it's totally different from this homeschooling mindedness. And so what our big struggle is here we are. We're a homeschool family, and we're tied to the school schedule because they play school sports. And then our kids, they you know, when they're around it so much, it's like kinda what you said. And this is inevitable. I don't think it's totally because it's homeschool kid, public school kids. But we're having we're seeing this idea of having to reprogram once in a while with some of our kids more than others. But I'm I guess what I'm saying is it's actually become one of our Most difficult challenges that we face. My wife would probably say our biggest challenge that we faced as in our homeschooling journey because That's why we homeschooled was to have the flexibility and the freedom and not to be tied to this school schedule of practice every day. My son practices football there. We're going in they're gonna be playing probably till November twenty fifth, their football season, and then he's right into basketball. And so those kind of things they thwart our family plans. And anyway, I just I'm just spewing that. I'm not sure that a challenge.

Robert Flatt: 1:17:51

With homeschool sports, I'm not sure that necessarily changes. Sometimes the family schedule morphs around Yeah. Yeah, around that as well. But I would Say that one thing that kinda is nice is if you're sending your kid off on a with the coach or with the teammate, they're homeschooled. And so That whereas if you're you know, that's a real nice benefit. I will say one of the challenges too is because homeschooling has changed so much, it becomes really important who the coach Sure the director of the organizations are because you're gonna get kids dropping out of school. We have a lot of rules based on when a kid can drop out of school And still play homeschool sports. The older they get, the more they have to sit out because we had we have sitting out periods for players that, That were not homeschooled the previous year if they were a junior in public school or private school the year before. And so we have some things there, and I think part of that is To protect the org the organizations wanted some protection because if you just get a flood of kids that start homeschooling as Juniors and seniors, then very quickly, your team is gonna look and behave no different than the public school team. That's what I'm saying. Guess what? The good players have Language that your kids are gonna start using because coaches doesn't sit him on the bench when he says that, He can't afford to. And so you run into a spot where the compromise is just as hard for a homeschool coach or a leader. Yeah. And parents run into that, and that's why you do sometimes see a lot of different programs start up because a parent might say, I want my kids to play, but I don't want them to necessarily play for that coach, or I don't want them to play with that format. And I think that's hard because that's painful for the kids to go through to when you have that. And so but with what you're running into, I definitely it's definitely a concern, and it's why you see homeschool organizations that we see that pop up. Like the West Michigan Hornets out in Michigan, they have a seventy t player a seventy individuals are on a wait list for them. Wow. They have over a hundred and fifty students in their organization for basketball only. They have seventy on the wait list, and they are vetting Any new player that comes through. And so they it's a and so you're running into that. They've just that's how they're handling the you got the Northside Lions out near Indianapolis in the Westfield area that they practice right out of one of our gyms that we use for our regional, and they've exploded as Well, I think as many as fifteen different teams that come to our events from that organization.

Timmy Eaton: 1:20:16

I'm impressed that you can call all these teams by name. That's It's amazing. I hey.

Robert Flatt: 1:20:20

I'm leaving out too many, I'm sure. But there is. There's There's so many good groups out there, and the and I think that's the thing about it is it all starts almost every single one of them will have a humble beginning like with the feast. I've got still pulled up Homeschool feast dot com out of San Antonio where they met in a garage and a dusty one at that. And so I think that's the thing about it is almost every single homeschool sports group out there, every single homeschool coop. The coop we're in has been around twenty five years. Some of the many of these families that are still in leadership, they've raised their kids, and now they're they've adopted Kids, and they're raising their adopted kids up through the system. And so because of their family starting a coop And they've continued to keep that around all these years. It's blessed so many hundreds, thousands of families. Yeah. And that can if you're in an area that You're not happy with the options. Football's real hard, because you need so many players. Yeah. You do. Basketball's a lot easier because, seven, eight players, you can get something started. And that could turn into seventy before you know it, and that could turn into two hundred. And so Once that happens, if you find a sport to get you sink your teeth into, other sports start to spring off.

Timmy Eaton: 1:21:30

Only that like you said, Lacrosse, perhaps. And maybe the response that I would have to myself is that you just can't you cannot contain All the families in one container. We're every your family is unique from mine and every homeschool just like every public school family. But and so because we're so unique, We just have to navigate our own kind of thing and and let people do as they do. And because what's what I pose as a challenge, another family will go, that doesn't sound like a challenge at all. We love taking the whole family and going to the sports and stuff like that. Whereas we struggle because we think it's out of balance and anyway, so Every family has unique order. So they just gonna have to really be true to their own priorities and their own purposes for their family and respect

Robert Flatt: 1:22:10

others. Are playing fifty games before they get to nationals. Yeah. Yes. That's

1:22:16

a

Timmy Eaton: 1:22:16

lot of games.

Robert Flatt: 1:22:17

Yeah. I was playing fifty games this season by the end of nationals usually. So we play forty something games. We play the fact that we only practice twice Wait. Wow. So you prep yeah. And so that, that then that also brings people that say, hey. Maybe this is a better option because they're able to play public schools in Oklahoma, Tennessee, Indiana. Exactly. Depends on the family. Arkansas. And because of that, they can go and get twenty games against the public school team, fifteen, twenty games against homeschool teams, and it's a great season for the kids. And And as far as different ways to contact me, because my phone is notifying me it's slow a few times. Yes. I'll yeah. I'll give out my email address. It's Robert Flattmail dot com. That's spelled r o b at f l a t m a I l dot com. It's like my last name, which is it's Flatt, like a flat tire, but with two t's. Yes. And then our web the website for nationals and regionals and the different events that we run is NCHC, which is for National Christian Homeschool Championships, And then live. So n c h c live dot com. Excellent. And though that's our website there, and it's got our different events. And the email anyone that's paying attention here, they can cut just shoot me an email and myself or Zachary Stargell. He's our our chief operating officer you asked about the facilities and Yes. He's the one that would be has all the good juicy details on how we do that, and he's been a complete hero through COVID. Before COVID, we never once had to move an event. Zach Star he's he just was a hero that year in twenty twenty, one when we our first year after COVID where we had four different regionals for five hundred teams that we had to move. Each of the four regionals had to be moved for various reasons. I think one of the facilities was saying the players had to wear a mask while on the court. So that was a no no win for us. And so different reasons. Some of them we had to take to the people and say, what do we wanna do? And some, we didn't even have a choice. Just they didn't the facility was no longer available or was being used for leagues. And that's that element of it all, it's just this constant moving. We're the minute an event's over, we're working on making sure we've got the right location for the next Jier. Mhmm. But since COVID, so much of that has changed where we've had to keep kind of on our toes because, while things have become more normal the last few couple years, I'd say, there's still that in the back of our reminds, and we feel really good when event starts. Yes. Yeah. Once an event starts, if we feel phenomenal because we know what it means the kids. And so once that once those first games get going, we feel like those kids are gonna get that experience that they've looked forward to their whole year. Some of them, the older they get, the more they look forward to it, I believe. And so you get seniors, and they've been waiting that their whole life. And so there's a special place in our heart for those class of twenty twenty athletes who just never got that I know. Time here. I can't imagine. Yeah. And that's it was just the homeschool

Timmy Eaton: 1:25:15

community. That's a good point. I think you said where we could get you. You talked about your email and then the website. Is there any plans for any of your kids that might take this over from you someday?

Robert Flatt: 1:25:25

You know, honestly, they all really enjoy traveling. I think this last year, a couple of them couldn't for volleyball nationals in October, there were two that weren't able to make it, and they were really bummed. But the two that did make it, my son, Noah. He was able thirteen year old. He was able to be with me, I think, at the gym for about twenty of the hours that I was at the gym, and he loved it. Wanted to be there as much as he could, and I accidentally left him one morning, but I didn't know he was awake and waiting for me. I was expecting him to be up where I was leaving, and he was expecting me to come and get him. And so I felt terrible about it, but they really enjoy it, but I think for us, we're just, it's one of those deals where, for me, I was doing stuff like at nineteen years old. I was involved in the seeding of the tournament, for making sure the teams were put in the right brackets or Yes. And all of that. And I had an instant, attraction to that and promoting through social media and, even I did the rankings early on. I can't do the rankings as much now because I started realizing from my role when you start putting numbers next the teams. I can do that for a tournament because that's part of my job. But when you're doing it earlier in the year, it's a little extra heat that, I I've actually got someone that, does a great job with that, Jeremy Caldwell, he's an alumni. We have a lot of people that come to our events,, or help us with putting on the events that used to coach or used to play. Mhmm. This last year at nationals, we have the Sanders brothers, Thomas and,, Jesse Sanders from the HCYA Warriors dynasty. Their dad was the original coach, for HCYA, and they won, I think, six or seven undisputed titles. And during that stretch, and they actually came back. They started a camp, in Texas, and they wanted Cool. To promote it. And so we said, we'll promote it for you guys, but, also, if you want to, why don't you come out do some live stream with us. And so they came, and they were broadcasters for us on our live stream. We usually cover two different courts, and we have two to three members on a broadcast team, and we usually have at least one camera angle, if not multiple camera angles. And so we usually get sixty to a hundred games of,, at nationals covered, on our different, YouTube channels and different stuff like that. And they were able to come out, and that was just that was great to see the alumni that we get to see every year that come back and broadcast and be involved in that way. And with my kids, I don't know what will happen with them, but, we're not necessarily training them for that. But Right. I think there was an element where I was trained for this, in in some of those and so I definitely feel like for years, this was kind of set up for me. I'm not necessarily looking at taking that same approach, but I do think it would be really neat if it was something that my kids had None of your brothers are involved with it? No. I one of my brothers has done some different bracketing stuff for us because he's a wizard on Google Sheets and Docs and stuff like that. And he's helped out in different ways like that. But, no. They all have great memories of it, but none of my kid my brothers homeschool. Yeah. That's true, I guess. And so for them, it's just not been they have an interest, but I think it's like anything. When you've been involved in it a long time, and then you step away from it. Sometimes you wonder, how did I have so much time to care about that? Yeah. When it's not your passion.

Timmy Eaton: 1:28:37

Well, man, thank you for taking so much time. I really appreciate it. I can see us, if you're willing to kinda get together sometime in the future again, and hopefully, we get to meet in person one day. But thank you very much for your time. I appreciate

Robert Flatt: 1:28:47

it. Yeah. And if you got any family members or anyone who wanna come out one of these years for nationals, we could get a team Canada even. Yeah. I'm done. That would be fun. And, even if it was just to come out, they could always come out individually and be part of team USA, do that as well. That's always a great option. Option. I think that's ninety dollars. It might be a hundred and twenty now. Mhmm. But ninety to a hundred and twenty dollars, it depends on if they have the uniform already, to come out to the national tournament, and, we've I've like I said earlier in the podcast, I played with kids from Alaska. This year, we have our first Hawaiian team coming. Cool. So we're really excited about that. They're coming out to nationals so that we keep checking off states. And that'll be in Missouri. Right? That'll be in Springfield, Missouri, yep, in March.

Timmy Eaton: 1:29:29

I just it would encourage anyone listening To go on to their website and so that's n c h c live dot com. And, and to really kinda just look into it. And if you're interested, contact me, and we can talk to Rob Flatt. And so that's the main person to go to. So thank you again so much for your time. I really appreciate it. Yeah. I

Robert Flatt: 1:29:46

appreciate you having me, and, this has been phenomenal. So Yeah. It's been

Timmy Eaton: 1:29:49

fun, man. Thank you very much. That wraps up another edition of this golden hour podcast. If you haven't done so already, I would totally appreciate it. If you would take a minute and give us a review in Apple podcasts or Spotify, it helps out a lot. And if you've done that already, thank you much. Please consider sharing this show with friends and family members that you think would get something out of it. And thank you for listening and for your support. I'm your host, Tim Eaton. Until next time, remember to cherish this golden hour with your children and family.