Day 1 - May 30th

The big day had finally arrived... May 30th was the day I would be departing on my Camp Tour. 

The first camp would take place at Louisiana State University, which is located in Baton Rouge, LA. When I originally put my hometown of Weston, FL to Baton Rouge, LA into Google Maps, I may have said a word or two that would cost me some push-ups back at North Florida. There was no way I would be completing the 14 hour drive by myself in one day, especially considering that I had to work from 10am-2pm. In the summers, I referee basketball to make some spending money for the year. Although I referee intramurals sporadically at school, I much rather spend my hours in the basketball office then making a few extra bucks.

I decided to split the initial drive into two days and spend the night in Jacksonville. The five hour journey wasn't nearly as eventful as some other drives will turn out to be. A couple storms throughout the ride were met but nothing too crazy. My favorite part of the drive was utilizing my Bluetooth (my mom's favorite feature in my car) and make phone call after phone call. It was between phone calls that I sat back and realized that after just three years in this business and only one year really expanding outside my own program, just how many friends I had made. To me, that was pretty cool. I'm 21 years old, relatively inexperienced, and I know people that are locking in GA spots and even some assistant gigs at young ages. Although I made some friends on the road the day before a game or something to that extent, the majority of my friends came from working those camps last summer. 

As this Tour progresses, I will go into detail with some of the networking tips that were shared with me in addition to some other things I do to build relationships. The biggest thing for me was building legit relationships now when I didn't need anything tangible from anyone, but rather just some words of wisdom. Although I did ask "strangers" for advice, I wasn't begging or even looking for a job. All I wanted to do was listen, listen, and listen some more. 

With Day 1 in the books, things are looking bright! Some sleep is needed as tomorrow's 9 hour drive will be the longest I've ever done.