10/28/2026
Travel ball is not like it use to be. Nothing is like it use to be. There are sooo many different ball teams in the same age group from the same city. This makes it hard for loyalty and for one ball team to stay together. If someone doesn’t like something about the coach or their kid isn’t getting what they think they deserve, they go to another team or start their own. We have seen it so much in the years that we have had a team. The grass is greener on the other side type of mentality. At the end of every season, the teams play fruit basket upset.
Or coaches like what they see on other people’s “no name” teams and they poach players. I don’t call it “scouting” or “offers” because this isn’t the freaking MLB! This is 13U!
Robert has been the coach of TN Prospects for a while now. His first season, he took a team of boys and helped develop them, and came out swinging for the fences. They were the hardest working, hardest playing group of kids we have ever seen. They won tournaments; gold rings, silver rings, bronze rings and they became the most “hated” baseball team because no one wanted to play them. They beat a lot of the “unbeatable” teams. He took a team and became a winning team and a winning coach. This team did not stay together because of various reasons.
That next fall, Robert put another team together. He believed in players and I watched several kids come out of their fears, conquer the mental game and become a winning team. They won a gold championship by the end of that short fall season. A brand new team; he only kept 4 players from the team in the Spring. Yet again, after the fall season, some went on to other teams that were already AAA teams, some chose closer to home teams and he lost half of that team.
The next spring season, he had to put together another completely new and different team.
He had to pick up 5 new players. Yet again, working with a new team, conquering the mental game as well as developing players and putting kids where they have never played and watching them excel, Robert helped develop another winning team. This team won the last two weekends they played and did very well in World Series after a VERY rough start to the season.
He has been told things that no head coach should ever be told and has had to deal with more drama than any head coach should have to deal with.
He doesn’t approach coaching as a dictator. He doesn’t coach like most people. He wants these kids to develop in their mental game as well as in their skills but he wants to foster the love for baseball. He sees when kids have certain talents for certain positions, he even can see when a kid isn’t developing and knows when to and when not to play them in certain situations.
I have seen him coach for a long time and I have seen him have more patience with a kid than I would ever have. His practices will not look like most. Some of the time, he plays back yard ball in a practice. You know why? To build team moral, to foster the love for the game and to have fun! I have seen him take kids who have never played a certain position and put them in a spot where they excel at that position!
You will not see him yell at the kids. You will not see him belittle the other team.
You will see him pull a kid off to the side and tell them exactly why he’s frustrated about an error, you will see him tell that kid what he does do right and build him up and pat him on the back and tell him how great he is. You will not see him play daddy ball even though he has a kid on the field. You will see him treat his kid the same exact way he does every one else (and some times he’s harder on his own kid). You will see him ask advice from assistant coaches and do what they suggest. I have seen him build so much confidence and passion in a team and in a kid that they want to come out swinging and win the game. I’ve also seen him very torn when he had to let a kid go that might not be developing at the speed that the team needed.
We had one season that was by far the hardest on him and our family. You do eventually get tired of taking the brunt of actions and words and whispers and some times down right in your face rudeness. You do eventually question is it worth it because we have spent so much time developing a team that our own child takes the back burner at times. However, things came together, he picked another team up that had been hurt and loved on their coaches and players and once again, turned them into a winning team: hitting home runs, winning rings, being AAA, fostering the love of the game and teaching them team mentality. They became like family to my kid.
And once again, you get burned. I would often ask Robert why he would do certain things that I thought made Easton look like a not so great player and his answer would always be; “I make decisions for the team and he needs to be a team player”. There’s a reason my son has 20 rings and a few medals on his shelf from being a TN Prospect over a 3 year period. There’s a reason the TN Prospects were #1 in USSSA points ranking.
People always think it’s greener on the other side. We’ve been on the other side, it’s not greener.
I do not like this new form of travel ball. The lack of loyalty, commitment, honesty has about gotten the best of this mama. We are trying to teach our children so much more.
So…with all of that, the Ross family will be making changes. Robert will not be head coaching, we are taking our own and going to help develop him for a little while.
It will be a great break for Robert and I and we feel like it will be the best thing for Easton and our family at this point. We’ve prayed with every step in this journey with Easton and we are beginning to find peace with this decision. Easton has walked the highs and lows of this journey. We believe we have a very talented young baseball player and we have got to look out for him and his mental game moving forward.
We are signing off as Tennessee Prospects Premiere Ross. It has been an emotional decision to make because with all of the lows mentioned above, it has been one of the best investments of our lives.
Prospects on 3️⃣! 🖤
