From a Rubio Long Snapping Parent…..

I have wanted to write about our experience with Rubio Long Snapping for years because there are things that I wish someone had pointed out/told me when we were first getting started.

Our son is a Rubio Long Snapper. He isn’t just a long snapper he is a Rubio Long Snapper and he is now playing Divison 1 college football on full scholarship.

From the time our son was in 1st grade he had 3 goals:

1. He wanted to make the Varsity Football Team at his high school as a sophomore – we are a 6A school so making Varsity as a sophomore is a big deal. (He achieved this goal)
2. He wanted to play Division 1 college football (He achieved this goal)
3. He wanted a full scholarship (He achieved this goal)
4. He wanted to play in the NFL (He is working toward this goal)

We have always encouraged his passion for the game and sent him to all different types of camps – full contact as well as skills and we have had him in sports performance training since 4th grade.

He started long snapping in 7th grade. His head football coach asked anyone who thought they could snap a ball to try out for the position and he won it. While we “knew” that he snapped the ball for punts, extra points and field goals, we really didn’t have any idea it was an actual “position” so to speak. We thought it was just “something extra” he did in addition to playing Linebacker and Fullback.

The summer before his freshman year in high school he came and asked us to go to a long snapping camp and my husband and I were like – a what??? What in the heck is that? We were in the process of signing him up with a college recruiting service and I asked the representative if he knew of any long snapping camps and he recommended Rubio. The college recruiting service cost us a lot of money and didn’t end up doing anything for us in terms of recruiting BUT it will forever be worth the money because of their recommendation of Rubio Long Snapping.

I got on the computer and found out that Rubio was doing fall camps in various locations but the one closest to us was already set up. I emailed Rubio and was able to get our son on the waiting list and – eventually – into the camp.

This camp was our first exposure to the ins and outs of long snapping and to Rubio. While at the camp, my husband saw another father there that he knew. The father

wanted to share all of his knowledge with us and informed us that we shouldn’t limit ourselves to doing only Rubio camps – we should do ALL of the different ranking camps and get our son out there so he could have as much exposure as possible. Basically he was saying not to put all of our eggs in one basket. We listened politely to everything he said but at the end of the camp I told my husband that I didn’t agree – that I really liked this Rubio guy and how he ran his camp and our son seemed to respond to him and that was that. We never looked back and never put him anywhere else and have never been sorry about that. Interestingly enough, this other long snapper never ended up playing college ball and his father approached my husband here in town after our son received his scholarship to tell us how wrong he had been and if he had it to do over again, he would’ve stuck with Rubio like we did. He spent so much time running from one camp to the other that his son never had any consistency in terms of critique or what he needed to do to be the best that he could be.

SO WHY NOT PUT YOUR KID AT ALL THE DIFFERENT RANKING CAMPS?

Well, there are several reasons for this in my opinion. First, they are extensions of Kicking Camps – not really long snapping camps per se and it is not always the same person doing the evaluations and/or rankings so there is no consistency in what your son is being told to do and/or work on to improve.

Over the years, I can’t even count how many times our son has been approached to train with these other companies or attend their “invite only” camps. They have stalked him on social media, private messages and at different college camps he was attending that they happened to be running. The invited him to their regional camps and their “invitation only” camps (which is pretty much anyone that will pay for it). What they REALLY wanted to do was recruit a Rubio Long Snapper. They will pretty much tell you anything/everything you want to hear to get you to go to their camps but they really don’t do anything for you and your son in the long run – oh yeah – big talk and all but very little contacts and actions. If you look across the board in college football – the vast majority of long snappers come out of Rubio Long Snapping. I’m not telling you that there aren’t some from other companies but – overall – the college coaches trust and rely on Rubio and his evaluations. It doesn’t really matter if you are the #4 ranked long snapper in your class on their site if they are only ranking 30 kids. What, exactly, does that tell a college coach? That you invested your time and money with a company that doesn’t see enough long snappers to truly be an expert in the art form that really is long snapping.

I’ve seen kids go with other companies in addition to Rubio and think that they are somehow going to be chosen for a bowl game that way. That.Isn’t.Going.To.Happen. Let me repeat that – That.Isn’t.Going.To.Happen. Look back through their choices over the years and you can bet that their choices are never kids that train elsewhere. They TELL you that your kid is amazing and has a shot at it just to get your money and have your kid at that camp. Rubio now chooses snappers for 2 different bowl games and that isn’t an accident – he really is the foremost authority on long snappers.

If a “coach” from another long snapping company only tells you and your son how amazing he is and how much this company could do with/for them, they are likely blowing smoke up his (and your) butt. The truth is that every long snapper has things that can be improved. Our son continues to train with Rubio privately once a year and with Finch as many times as we can manage it when he is home for any period of time and he attends the college camp. And guess what? There are still things Rubio has him working on in order to go to the next level – the NFL.

Regardless of which college team is your favorite I don’t think that there is any doubt in anyones mind that Nick Saban is one of the best coaches in college football history. There is a reason that he only uses Rubio Long Snappers – think about that!

RANKINGS AND HOW TO DEAL WITH THEM

This is a tricky one and I will be the first to admit that I didn’t (and still don’t) always agree with Rubio in whoever was ranked above my kid. Now, I didn’t question the STAR rankings of the kids involved, but if there were several kids with the same number of stars – I didn’t always think that the person/people he ranked above my son were better than him. Sometimes I did agree and sometimes I didn’t but what I always DID agree with is whatever he critiqued our son on needing to work on so that is where we put our focus. Concentrating on that is what made our son the long snapper he is today.

If you and your kid don’t like where he is ranked, work on what Rubio says he needs to work on and improve that and then the next time Rubio sees him he will likely move up in the rankings because he fixed, or at the very least improved, that situation.

Or you can go coach shopping and find another company to tell you what you want to hear because they want your money. If they are telling you how awesome you are when Rubio is telling you what you need to work on then I would question their knowledge level. The way I look at it is this – wouldn’t it be “easier” for Rubio to just tell every kid how amazing he is and then write that up after every camp? He doesn’t do

that – he actually pays attention to the kid AT the camp and then goes back and watches their film and gives you detailed information – and he balances that – giving positive affirmations as well as things that need to improve. Ask yourself which “review” a college coach is going to trust – one that only tells you how amazing this kid is or one that is honest and straightforward? I personally prefer to hear the bottom line truth and so does our son. What about you?

AND ANOTHER THING ABOUT RANKINGS

I’ve heard a lot of people complain that their kid should be ranked higher or have more stars when their kid hasn’t been at camps. They complain that Rubio only wants them at the camps so that he can make more money. Two things here:

1. Rubio can only rank the kid if he SEES the kid. So even if you think your kid is better than John X right now, if your kid isn’t at the camp and John X is and John X is better NOW than the last time Rubio saw your kid then John X is going to jump your kid in the rankings because he can only compare John X NOW to your kid the last time he saw him. This isn’t Rubio moving your kid down in the rankings at all – it is about another kids improvement since the last time he saw him and since he hasn’t seen your kid since then…..well you see how that is?

2. This is Rubio’s business – his livelihood, his way to support his family so absolutely there is a financial aspect to him doing this. But – I have never been involved with an organization where the owner gives so much back to the kids. If you or your kid texts Rubio, he answers, if you comment on one of his posts on social media – he answers. He is encouraging and funny and supportive of everyone that is part of the Rubio Family – parents and kids and he doesn’t charge a dime for any of that “extra” support. My son started as a true college freshman and his first game was an away game and it was supposed to rain. Although my son was confident in his abilities he was a bit nervous and got in touch with Rubio and guess what Rubio did? He answered him right away and took the time to talk him through everything that needed to happen for our son to be successful. He set him at ease and helped him get out of his head in that minute when it truly mattered. I don’t know any other “long snapping” companies that are that accessible in that way and would’ve taken that time – after business hours – to do that. Do you?

   RUBIO FAMILY

Our particular high school class of long snappers was an exceptionally close class and I have heard people from other classes complain that they don’t have that bond that we

had – parents and kids. ANY class can have that bond but you have to have one or more families who are invested in making things happen – lunch together during camps, dinners together after camps staying the same hotel in Vegas and regional camps, etc. Guess what that means? Someone has to step up to the plate and coordinate it all – meaning do the research and keep in contact with everyone. If no one does that then it doesn’t happen.

The other thing I noticed is that all the families in our class were supportive of ALL the boys. There wasn’t any competition EXCEPT on the field. These kids have had a group chat going since they were Event Elite together summer before their Junior Year in high school and Top 12 the summer before their Senior Year and they are going into their (academic) Junior Year in college now and still chatting via group text. If someone was going to turn down an offer, they told the others in their group chat so that the rest of them could reach out to the coach if they were interested in playing for that college. No one “hoarded” that information – they shared contact information for coaches so that they could all achieve their dreams. They were all doing exactly what Rubio taught them to do – building each other up rather than tearing each other down.

Whenever I’ve seen issues between kids in the same class (not friendly competition), you can bet that some adults is egging that on and so if you stop any of that, then you can all have the same closeness up and down the rankings that we had. I can honestly tell you that out of the 5 Start Snappers in our class any one of them could’ve been #1 in the class on any given day. And, out of the parents in our class – we are still close to many of them and keep in touch and keep rooting for each others kids.

Rubio actively encourages these kids to not only be great long snappers but also to be great human beings.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

If your son genuinely wants to play college football don’t be laser focused on whether it is a scholarship or a PWO. I mean, I get it – they all want a full ride but there are still some schools that simply will not bring in a long snapper on scholarship as a true freshman. Don’t make your son feel like a failure that he “only” received PWOs. Long Snapping isn’t like playing QB or RB where the school is going to take at least one player in that position every single year. If they don’t need a long snapper, it doesn’t matter how good your kid is – they aren’t going to take them.

We constantly told our son that he could play where HE wanted to play whether it was a PWO or scholly (and he multiple offers of each type). Ultimately he chose a school

that offered him a full ride but – for him – it was more about the actual University then it was about anything else.

CONTINUED TRAINING

This is a mistake I’ve seen families make. Our son got the offer so we are done with training. The difference between high school football and college football is the difference between driving on the Interstates here in the US and driving on the autobahn in Germany and you want your son to keep honing his skills for his entire college – and NFL – career.

We highly recommend starting private lessons with Rubio in high school and continuing these at least yearly – through college and beyond. Also, be sure you have your kid training at least sometimes during the year with a RUBIO instructor (Samantha can tell you where the closest RUBIO instructor is to you) and if you aren’t near one then go with Virtual Lessons. We started private lessons with Finch as soon as we started with Rubio and that made a huge difference. We didn’t have the option of virtual lessons at that time so we drove quite a distance on a regular basis so that our son could improve. With the option of virtual lessons, the sky is truly the limit in terms of improvement.

The one “regret” that I have is that we didn’t start private lessons with Rubio in Idaho sooner than we did. It is definitely an investment but having Rubio completely and utterly focused on your son for a period of time truly is priceless and every time we have gone up there it has taken our son to the next level. So, as soon as you can afford that – do it – you won’t regret it.

We also recommend attending January and May Vegas if at all possible. It gives your son invaluable experience.

THOUGHTS TO TAKE AWAY

To sum all of this up, our son worked very hard and daily to achieve his goal of playing college football and continues to work his butt off to be the best that he can be but none of this would’ve been possible without Rubio.

Rubio wasn’t easy on him. He set goals for him that were sometimes difficult for our son to achieve but he worked as hard as he did because Rubio expected it of him and challenged him to never settle for less. People rise to the level of expectation that are

placed upon them and we believe that Rubio set him up for success by expecting these things from him.

So I will end this the way I started it…..Our son is a Rubio Long Snapper. He isn’t just a long snapper, he is a Rubio Long Snapper and we are very proud of that distinction.