Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / #175: David Cain-University of Alabama-Huntsville

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#175: David Cain-University of Alabama-Huntsville · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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See what today's guest has in store for us.
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We're back here on the Gillis. Latex connections, podcast,
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really pumped for today's episode.
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I've known today's guest for cash.
0:47
I don't know. Long time.
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It's got to be close to 20 years, I guess I would think it
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in there. So old we are.
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But today's guess you know, we're going to delve into the D2
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world. He has been the head coach here
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at the University of Alabama. Huntsville's.
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Go chargers for a super long time.
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We're going to learn more about that.
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Help me, welcome the wise, the wonderful mr.
1:07
David Kane. David, how are you, sir?
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Doing great hat. Be with you man.
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I'm pumped you're here you know we know each other because of
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our Bulldog Roots. That's that's how we've known
1:17
each other and so you know, as a unofficial, Bulldog Alum, I'm
1:22
always excited when Bulldog alums do well and so, you know,
1:26
having known you for a major major part of your career in
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seeing you do so well, man. I'm just so pumped to be able
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to, you know, explore your journey and share it with
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listeners today. Yeah, it's going to be fun.
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Absolutely, man. So let's get jumping right into
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it, David, you know, at some point assuming you were an
1:47
athlete and I know you were, but coaching went from something
1:50
that's done to you, you know, coach, you know, barks out the
1:54
orders. Tells you what the Run?
1:56
Yes, sir. Yes, ma'am.
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And you hop to it right at some point and it could have been
2:00
early and high school. Later coaching had to change in
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your mind to something. That like oh wait a minute.
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Like I actually could Do this. Like this could be my career,
2:09
like I could be that person right there, that could be me.
2:12
Where does that begin for you? Where does coaching start
2:14
thinking about being an actual like profession for you?
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Well, in the middle of my Mississippi State Career, I
2:23
originally started at Mississippi state with the path
2:27
in mind of becoming a physical therapist and so I was doing the
2:31
pre-physical, therapy curriculum at Mississippi State, my first
2:35
couple of years and actually applied for a back then they had
2:39
a undergrads with physical therapy program at a as a
2:45
another school and I was applied for that.
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At and of course I got a kind letter back saying your one 450
2:56
people who have applied for the 50 positions that are available
3:00
and your 3.5 GPA is not high enough because the average GPA
3:05
is a 3.9. And so that's when I decided I
3:10
needed to think about other career paths and, you know, I've
3:16
always just been a A sports fanatic.
3:19
I've been you know just growing up the group of friends that I
3:22
grew up with, we just played Sports, you know, didn't matter
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what day it was or what time of the year was we were playing in
3:31
somebody's backyard football or basketball or tennis or or
3:35
whatever. And we all played you know
3:39
organized Sports on top of what we did at each other's houses.
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And and so you know That was when, you know, I was thinking
3:50
hard about, you know what what else do I want to pursue?
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And I was like, you know, I think coaching eventually is
3:58
what I would like to do so I changed my major to exercise
4:02
science and and started pursuing that path and you know, run at
4:08
Mississippi State under Al Schmidt.
4:10
He was always one who really enjoyed teaching exercise
4:15
physiology and You know, sometimes we'd go to practice
4:18
and he would take us into the field house and we'd have a, you
4:23
know, a 45-minute lecture on on why we're doing what we're doing
4:27
and the physiology behind it. And I appreciated that and, and
4:31
learn a lot from him in that regard and that kind of fueled
4:34
that, you know, that thought as well as being something that I
4:37
would like to pursue as a career, you know, you brought up
4:40
Big, Daddy. Al, you know who's like a father
4:43
figure to me. In fact, I was just texting with
4:45
his son. His son was Champagne for the
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football game, a couple weeks ago.
4:50
He's now a football equipment manager out of Wyoming and, you
4:53
know, oh, so much to a guy like Al Schmidt.
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It's funny you mentioned the exercise physiology because I
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remember one of our first meets that we went to he's up in his
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front seat of the bus and he's reading and exercise physics
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book. And I was just like first of all
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I know this guy I'm gonna do air quotes here knows it all about
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exercise fizzbuzz you know this is what he does on his like
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reading is you know, very very rehashing re making sure he
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knows. Knows all of this stuff.
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It's quite amazing interesting. You said you were thinking about
5:22
PT physical therapy, you know, I, this is episode number 175.
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So we have interview over 175 coaches here on the podcast,
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real in-depth. You know, we're, you know, we're
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on five minutes into our five, our podcast here, David.
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I promise you won't be five hours, everybody, I promise.
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But, you know, one of the things that I have learned Over 100 in
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almost 200 interviews is you know, people get into coaching
5:51
because they they enjoyed getting better typically at
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their athleticism and that means whether they were all Americans
5:57
All State or just, you know, they made it to their relay team
6:01
one time at a varsity M something right.
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But they enjoyed getting better. And I learned that people who go
6:07
into coaching that's typically why they want to go into
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coaching. They want to just help kids,
6:12
help young people, get better at whatever event discipline that
6:15
they're typically. Involved in.
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So really that's a that's a heart of servitude.
6:19
Like I want to serve young people to get better in this
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aspect, Physical Therapy. Sounds a lot like that.
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Is that kind of as you were thinking about your your head
6:29
space as a want to be a physical therapist.
6:31
Was it because I want to help other people involved in sports,
6:34
obviously in this case, but was it more of just like I want to
6:37
serve and help people get back out on the field or what was
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that? That kind of that posture for
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you as a want to be PT? Yeah, absolutely.
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I think you'll find The field where I felt like I could, I
6:49
could be a help to people and and also getting to work with
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athletes and stuff to help them get back to doing what they love
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to do. That was kind of what drew me to
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that. Well, I love that.
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You know, when we look back we have something now that we
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didn't have in the moment that's perspective, right?
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When you got that letter from the PT school, it had to feel a
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little crushing because I mean that was your goal and you get
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this letter, it's like, oh, okay, I may want to be a PT but
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they don't want me. To be a PT here, ya, little
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disappointed, but you know, the doors closed and others open
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and, and obviously, I'm happy with how things worked out.
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Yeah, it's weird to say, like, I'm so happy that that school
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rejected you because if not, we wouldn't have gotten what we
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gotten out of you so far, man. I love that.
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That's so you go to Mississippi State, one of the greatest
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universities around, you know, those guys gave me my break to
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coach in the SEC so I'm forever didn't even plan this, but I got
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kind of my maroon. My Bulldog colors on today.
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So all In great, in debt, in gratitude for Mississippi State.
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In fact, one of my former athletes is now the head coach
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which is just crazy. That means I'm old, I think is
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what that really means. But as you started exploring
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going into coaching, instead of you changed over to exercise
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science from Physical Therapy, what was the first kind of
8:05
inkling of actually going into coaching?
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Did you volunteer somewhere did? I'll put you on the he must have
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put you to work because that's just what I'll does.
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But how did that first step kind of go in?
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Well, I would say that my My career path to becoming the head
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coach here is much different than most.
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So the week before, my senior year at Mississippi State, right
8:30
before my senior cross-country season, I made a teammate of
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mine. My wife Ashley and she was also,
8:40
you know, on the cross country and track team at Mississippi
8:42
State. So we got married right before
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the start of our senior year. And when we graduated from
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Mississippi State, a year and a half later going to be a
8:51
graduate assistant somewhere really wasn't in the cards, it
8:54
was kind of time for me to go get a job somewhere and
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obviously it's it's hard to get into coaching without any
9:01
experience and so we had, we were able to line things up to
9:06
move the Huntsville and managed a running shoe store here in
9:10
town. And so we both got hired at the
9:13
running shoe store to help manage that.
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And so I was doing that working full-time with The Running
9:19
Store. I was also working part-time as
9:24
a fitness instructor at a gym and doing some personal training
9:27
trying to, you know, stick with, you know, the field that I got
9:32
my degree in. And at least that's you know
9:37
what we did to kind of get things started not knowing where
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that might lead. Lead, we're you or Ashley from
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Huntsville? Like, was this going back home?
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I was born and raised here. Got it.
9:48
Okay. Alright.
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So that was kind of the draw like, okay, I have support
9:51
there. Yep.
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And you know, my wife, Ashley, she was from Laurel Mississippi.
9:56
And so we met at Mississippi State and then after we
10:00
graduated came to Huntsville, and yeah, we've not left.
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So how was the transition from the store to actually?
10:11
Eh well, so the way that came about was, you know what, at
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that time I mean as to both were just out of running it for
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Mississippi State. We're both fit running.
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Well, so we were enjoying the road racing scene, running some
10:27
road races and, you know, having some fun with that and add after
10:32
one of the road races, the current.
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Well, the current at the time Cross Country Coach uh Michael
10:38
sparano. Came up to me and Introduced
10:41
himself to me and invited me to come to cross-country practice
10:47
at UAH. His reasoning for.
10:49
That was at the time he had a canyon on the team that was way
10:53
faster than everybody else and he was asking, if I'd be willing
10:57
to come and be his training partner and I was happy to do
11:01
that because I was just training on my own.
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And so it was nice to, you know, to have somebody to do some hard
11:07
workouts with a stuff. So I started coming to the uh,
11:10
cross-country practice. Just has two or three days a
11:12
week primarily on the hard days and running with their top guy
11:18
and you know that that went well.
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So I got a chance to get to know the code to a little bit during
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the course of the season. And and I remember after one of
11:28
the workouts coach, Carano asked me.
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Hey you want to want to go? Run a cool down with me and I
11:34
was like, sure. So we were off on a two-mile,
11:37
cool down and and we got to talking and he asked me, he
11:40
said, Have you ever thought about getting into the coaching?
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And I said, well, yeah. Actually, that ultimately, is
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what I want to do. But, you know, not sure how I'm
11:50
going to pursue that I haven't gotten that far yet, but I think
11:56
that, you know, that's the ultimate goal is to get to
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become a college coach. And, and I really didn't think
12:04
that much about that conversation.
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But just, I guess, I guess about six weeks later the cross Entry
12:11
season had ended, and he gave me a call and said, hey, I'm I'm
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moving back to my hometown and Riverside, California to go be
12:18
the compliance officer at that University.
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And so the cross-country position at uh is opening up and
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if you're interested I want to recommend you for the position
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of course I was blown away and was like yeah absolutely you
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know and so got the opportunity to come and interview for the
12:36
position and was very grateful to get the opportunity.
12:40
I mean Oh, wow. Yeah, like I said my path to get
12:44
here is not typical what is it right?
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Place right time. Holy cow, I guess what was we're
12:53
talking cross-country specifically or did?
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Uh, because you know, we go through, you know, different
12:57
parts. Where programs are?
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Did they have a track program, right?
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Then, at that point, I did not. Yeah.
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Okay. So, uh, it, uh, had never had a
13:05
track program when I came on board and when, when I met with,
13:11
Here's the athletic athletic director at the time.
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I told him if you hire me, I have every intention of starting
13:18
a track program and and I'm not sure if he thought, you know,
13:24
you know I was serious or whether I was going to really
13:27
pull it off for not. But so I started running the
13:32
club track team once I became the cross-country coach.
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We started in the spring, I still had my distance Runners.
13:39
You know train I'd take him to some Meats and run as a club
13:42
team and and that started to grow.
13:45
And then after a couple years of that went to my athletic
13:49
director and said if you ever want us to be National caliber
13:54
and cross-country, we have to add track and field because I'm
13:59
losing recruits because they're really interested in coming here
14:02
until they find out that we don't have track because great
14:06
distance Runners want to do both.
14:08
And, you know, if given the opportunity We can make this
14:12
track program, you know, be successful and in addition to
14:17
make the cross country team successful, as a result.
14:20
And a year later, we added women's track is an official
14:24
sport so that was the spring of 2001 and then after seeing what
14:30
that did for the women's program, we added Men's Track as
14:33
an official sport in the spring of 2004.
14:36
So kind of got that all going from scratch.
14:39
Well you know David we're primarily Only a bio podcast
14:42
here. So you're at, uh, a, uh, and
14:44
you're now that coach, well, as the whole, that's a wrap, that's
14:46
the whole podcast. I guess we're done, you know,
14:50
joking. I told you five hours, maybe
14:52
it's five minutes. Right?
14:54
You know, that is quite I mean quite amazing actually again the
14:58
right place, right time but also like, I'm super curious.
15:02
You couldn't have been when you said, you went into your ades
15:05
office and said, hey, I'm just gonna let you know.
15:07
I have all intents and purposes to make a track team here as I'm
15:12
kind of guessing by the timeline here you couldn't have been 25
15:17
26 years, old younger than. Yeah, okay.
15:21
I'll kind of give you a little bit of the doubt.
15:23
Yeah so you're uh some 25 no coaching experience come from a
15:28
great program with great coaches.
15:29
You have that kind of lineage with you.
15:33
How did you gussied up to the ad and say hey I'm just letting you
15:36
know, like we're gonna we're going to start track here and
15:40
that's going to be my plan. Anyway, most people would be
15:42
like, man. I'm just, I'm just glad to be
15:43
here. You cross country is Sir.
15:45
We'll, we'll get her done. You have you ever want to talk
15:47
to me? Certainly, I'll be open, but you
15:49
kind of, I'm not paying the picture, like, you defiantly did
15:52
it, but it was like very intentional.
15:53
Like, hey, this is a goal of mine.
15:56
If I come here to be the head coach of cross-country.
16:00
Yeah, absolutely. I think that he probably
16:03
wondered how in the world, I would fund that because, you
16:07
know, especially back in those days To run cross country, and
16:12
track programs for division to the, you know, fundraising was a
16:20
big part of helping make that happen because budgets were
16:23
extremely tight. And, and that's one of the great
16:29
benefits that I've enjoyed, you know, being a Huntsville native.
16:33
I grew up being a part of the Huntsville track club and the
16:38
running Community knew me. And so when So when I was hired,
16:42
as the cross-country coach, you know, one of the first things
16:45
that I did was, you know, get with the the presence of the
16:48
Huntsville track club and and ask them, you know, can I kindly
16:52
get the mailing list? Because I need to have a booster
16:56
club of people who care about running.
17:00
And so they graciously helped me, you know, be able to send
17:03
out letters to the Huntsville track club.
17:05
And so the support of the community was a really big part
17:08
of getting the track. Graham established and then
17:13
helping that grow to the point where we could fund it to a
17:16
place where it could be successful.
17:18
So, you know, without the community support, we wouldn't
17:21
have ever gotten this far. That's for sure.
17:25
We're going to touch more Community because not only are
17:27
you, have you built a community there, you had a community from
17:30
high school on. So I mean we definitely want to
17:33
touch on that some more and what that means to you.
17:36
And now Ashley has built a community there with you as
17:38
well. And what that means for you
17:40
before we Get there. You mentioned earlier about, you
17:44
know, having a track team is instrumental to having a good
17:47
cross country team. We've seen universities around
17:52
the country, kind of take what they think.
17:55
Is maybe an easy way out of dropping track but keeping
17:58
cross-country, as if that kind of a Bates everything's like
18:01
look we still got cross-country and we can still be successful
18:04
and I don't know that it's ever happened.
18:06
That a cross-country team. That doesn't have a track team
18:09
is successful. Can you speak on that a little
18:12
bit about what Y is the track portion of an entire distance
18:15
program is so important to having a successful
18:19
cross-country part of that program?
18:21
Well, I think that, you know, the cross country season builds
18:27
strength and endurance for the track season and the track
18:29
season, builds more speed for the next cross country season.
18:32
I think that the, the two really go hand in hand hand to to build
18:38
the complete distance Runner and You know, most most distance
18:45
runners in high school, they're running cross country and
18:47
they're running track. And then, you know, when, when
18:52
they look into a school and find out that they only get to do
18:54
half of the equation, you know, some athletes, you know, are
18:59
fine with that. But I would say that most
19:02
especially at the most competitive end of the spectrum.
19:06
They really want both, you know, and Yeah, I just I would find it
19:14
and I did find it very hard to to be able to attract, you know,
19:20
the best distance Runners from our state to want to come and
19:23
run here when they new track wasn't you know a viable option.
19:28
So yeah when we as soon as we added tracks and official sport
19:33
recruiting skyrocketed immediately started, you know,
19:38
signing kids that Leslie. You know just weren't interested
19:42
because we didn't have track. What, you know, we don't talk
19:47
X's and O's here. There's a lot of other great
19:49
resources for people to learn how to coach distance Runners,
19:52
better at cetera. So without getting into that
19:55
type of discussion, what's it like, you know, I'm always
20:00
amazed at distance Runners because you know, sprinters and
20:04
jumpers on their own. It's tough indoor season 2
20:06
outdoor season, you know, January through June constantly
20:09
every week, pushing your body conference and Nationals in
20:13
there and then having to redo it after endure.
20:16
Distance Runners have that. Not only do they have it for a
20:18
third time in the sense of they have a cross-country season in
20:21
the fall but if they don't put in really massive and amounts of
20:26
quality workouts in the summer, well, they're going to waste
20:29
their cross-country season, we're attracted, kind of can,
20:33
you know, I'm overstate this little bit and say, you know,
20:35
not do much over the summer and come back and Labor Day.
20:37
You got a long ramp up yet. Three, four months before.
20:40
Yeah, sure. That's plenty of time to get
20:42
back up and get your speed going in your power etcetera.
20:46
But for distance Runners, it's just always quite amazing.
20:48
It's literally 365-day commitment.
20:51
I don't know that you can have any kind of lengthy time out
20:55
there, not being a distance coach.
20:56
I'm sure distance coaches are yelling at me right now of all
20:58
the work, I know, recoveries important, I get it.
21:01
So how did when you first came back into indoor and outdoor
21:06
season or maybe you just had outdoor?
21:08
How did you get the kids back into the groove of that that had
21:11
been off for a couple of years in the spring?
21:16
Well. You know, the ones that had been
21:20
on the team they had, you know, can we still have a spring
21:24
training cycle but, you know, you know, we typically for our
21:30
distance Runners, we start our base training for the
21:31
cross-country season about the second week of June and we run
21:37
that through to Nationals and then we typically take for an
21:44
athlete that's healthy and doesn't have any issues.
21:46
We take about a week. Where we give them, I tell them
21:51
to, to do some cross training and maybe run two or three days
21:55
that week shortly as Iran's. But to kind of give your body a
21:58
break and take a mental break from running every day.
22:01
If I have somebody that's a little bit banged up, you know,
22:05
sometimes I'll give them, you know, two or two and a half
22:08
weeks of that. And then and then we go right
22:11
back into base, training for the spring.
22:14
And and then at the end of Of of outdoor.
22:19
I usually give everybody about three weeks, whether they just,
22:24
you know, they're on their own. I'm not going to give you a
22:26
schedule. If you feel like you need extra
22:29
rest and don't run if you feel fit and healthy and you don't
22:33
want to take much of a break. Well then just run over the
22:36
other day cross-train on the other days if you feel like it
22:40
and give them a lot of flexibility, kind of listen to
22:42
their bodies and make sure that they're able to kind of hit the
22:45
reset button a little bit and let their bodies.
22:48
You have a mental break because I've found that it's really hard
22:54
to get them the Peak at the right time when I want them to
22:57
Peak. If they don't have some sort of
23:00
a break that hits the reset button.
23:03
You know, if they just go straight continuing to run
23:05
everyday and right back into the next training phase.
23:10
They tend to Peak a little earlier than I wanted.
23:13
And so just that small break in between cross country and track
23:17
really seems the to help me be able to manage when they run
23:21
their fastest. Now, I'm not saying coaching,
23:25
cross-country is easy. So for anybody who wants to
23:28
tweet me right now, just stop. But when you add track you add,
23:34
I don't know what the math would be.
23:35
Let's call it 15 plus more events if you do it in its
23:38
entirety from the get-go, how did you transition from?
23:43
This is why you're going to, you're going to get mad at me
23:45
here, everybody, listening, you transition from just doing In
23:48
cross-country I hate that word just but you were only doing
23:51
cross country to. Now I have a full-fledged track
23:55
and field season and I maybe have sprinters and jumpers
23:57
dependent and talk about how did you actually stage that?
23:59
Did you guys go full bore and get Hammer thrower sprinters
24:03
jumpers Pole vaulters from the get-go or did you stage it?
24:06
But how did you now start? You know, assistant coaches,
24:09
there's more involved with it. How did you handle that
24:12
transition? Sure.
24:14
So, you know, the first I would say the first year of the track
24:22
program, it was basically the people on the cross-country team
24:26
and you know, people who are already at uh that did track and
24:31
field and wanted to come out. And and, you know, try out for
24:34
the team, we had, you know, that first year we had we had a few
24:37
sprinters in a few few jumpers or whatever that came out and
24:43
they're really, it took a couple years to get to the point where
24:47
I could really start recruiting Runners and filled eventers,
24:52
just because right away, we didn't get a scholarship
24:54
increase. So I was still basically you
24:58
know working with a with a cross-country scholarship budget
25:03
but I think that some of the early success that we had with
25:10
our track program, the athletic director, you know, Jim Harris.
25:17
I give him a lot of credit and vision for Seeing that he could
25:21
help facilitate making it a really competitive program.
25:26
And so after that first season, we had a young lady, make it to
25:32
Nationals and made the finals. The 5K in our first season of
25:36
having to track program and and I think that got him excited.
25:39
And so he started, you know, you know, continuing to add to our
25:44
scholarship budget over the years and we were able to, I
25:48
always was the mindset of Of trying to put together the most
25:52
complete balanced track program that I could even though, you
25:56
know, I coach the distance Runners as well as a high
25:59
jumpers early on I coached everything.
26:02
And so I wanted to be good at everything and so you know I
26:07
didn't really put favoritism on on one event group.
26:10
I was looking for the best athletes, you know, regardless
26:13
of what event they could do. And so we when we got the track
26:18
program going, I was able to recruit a young lady out of
26:24
Birmingham Easter Grant to come and Sprint for us and you know,
26:31
in our third year of having a teen, she made it to the
26:34
National Championship in the 200 meters and was our first non
26:39
distance qualifier. And you know, we've You could
26:44
argue that we've had more more success in track and field in
26:49
the Sprint events and We have anything else and we've had a
26:52
lot of kids come here and be very successful make
26:55
All-American. And I was going to make some
26:57
crack about how the, you know, the distance is so tough and D2,
27:01
that's not the crack because that's true.
27:03
But that would mean that I'm saying that the Sprint's are
27:05
maybe not that tough in D2 and that is not true at all.
27:08
I mean, I've now for the last couple of years have been so
27:11
blessed to be able to go to the D2 National meet both indoor and
27:15
outdoor, typically I would go to division one just cause that's
27:17
my background. So I've been I think the Two or
27:20
three years have gone. And am absolutely floored not
27:25
just by the results. Because I've always seen the
27:27
results and they've always been amazing, but the passion, the
27:32
intelligence of the D2 coaches and athletes just, that whole
27:36
meet its really special. So I, as soon as you said that I
27:39
was going to make some crack because, you know, I'm just, I'm
27:41
thinking of like Jerry baltus and those guys and it's like,
27:43
well you actually from throws, the Sprint's the jumps, did it,
27:47
you name it event, it's tough stuff on the detail level.
27:50
Uh yeah, how long I love that you're building up, you know,
27:53
you're the at started adding some scholarships when you had
27:56
the 5K girl, do well and make finals.
27:58
Your school pride is an important thing, right?
28:01
So they'd he's like, oh wait a minute.
28:02
This guy actually knows what he's doing, maybe I shouldn't
28:04
give him a little bit more, right?
28:06
And he start. Now, you get a sprinter and she
28:07
goes when when did they start having like an assistant coach
28:12
start being involved and helping you out with that part of the,
28:15
the equation? Yeah.
28:17
So in 2004 I was able to bring in study Thompson from
28:24
Gardner-Webb University she had just graduated and she came down
28:29
and became my first assistant coach started off as a graduate
28:34
assistant and she did a great job and was very successful with
28:42
our program. And so we as quickly as we could
28:45
got her Be, you know, a paid position and then a full-time
28:50
position. And and I was again, very
28:55
blessed to have her as my assistant coach for 13 years so
28:59
which is the for a while. Yeah.
29:01
She was so, you know that again is something that you don't see
29:04
a whole lot of in our sport. Having you know, assistant coach
29:10
you know stick stick for 13 years and she had opportunities
29:13
to go other places and I was thankful that she wanted to
29:16
stick around as long. And she did well Hudson.
29:18
So pretty, pretty good area. That a lot of people kind of
29:21
don't think of Huntsville and any there, a lot of stereotypes
29:24
of just like, oh, it's an Alabama.
29:25
So, they think they know Huntsville is a very smart area.
29:29
I mean, that's where NASA and Rockets.
29:31
And, you know, a ton of smart people, a former teammate of
29:33
mine in high school who ended up running for Georgia Tech.
29:36
He works for some electric car company in Huntsville or do you
29:40
whatever he does software wise. Helps with electric cars
29:44
huntsville's are really, really Like I want I keep coming back
29:48
to like, intelligent area, but there's like a lot of good
29:51
things that are going on there. It's is not your typical
29:54
Alabama, Town. Hmm.
29:56
It's very high-tech. It's very fast-growing hits me
30:02
right now. There's you said high-tech,
30:03
that's the right word. I think that that might be the
30:05
word I was looking forward to very high tech.
30:07
Yeah, it is a lot of Engineers, a lot of research lot of You
30:13
know, people sending missiles into space and that kind of
30:16
stuff people a little bit smarter than us, track coaches.
30:19
I think sometimes indeed will speak on that.
30:23
You know, you grew up there, you come back to work and now have
30:27
coached at the the flagship University in Huntsville for 25
30:32
years. What does that mean to you?
30:35
I mean, you mentioned your assistant coach Thompson having
30:38
choices and opportunities to go elsewhere.
30:41
You've been very Will you have had opportunity?
30:44
I'm assuming here that you have had opportunities, and thoughts,
30:47
and maybe dreams of other places, whatever, for whatever
30:49
reasons. It doesn't matter.
30:51
Maybe you want to go, you know, take the white back to Laurel
30:53
Mississippi, baby. That was a thought Laurel is not
30:57
Huntsville. I know you're listen, Ashley,
30:59
sorry, I've been involved, but you have not only stuck around
31:06
but have thrived over two decades.
31:09
Working on three decades here, you've have to be of I'm a
31:12
figure in that area as a track coach and a long celebrated
31:16
track coach, what has kept you there?
31:18
What are some of the positives of being at one Institution for,
31:22
you know, going on three decades now?
31:25
Well, To be honest with you, it keeps getting better.
31:33
You know, we've had a lot of just really great things happen.
31:38
Here, not just in Huntsville, but on our campus, you know,
31:41
we've seen exponential growth and our and our student body.
31:46
I think, you know, just a few years ago, we were, you know,
31:49
around 6,500 students and now we're close to 10,000 students
31:53
and because of that we've had, you know, some really nice
31:57
Nations and and new buildings built and just, you know, when
32:04
when recruits come to campus, they're blown away.
32:08
You know what's got? What's going on here?
32:10
You know, we've got some really great things happening, the
32:13
academics are outstanding, the facilities are amazing and and
32:19
you know it's it's fun to be somewhere where you you know
32:22
keep enjoying more and more success.
32:24
The long you stay and I've been blessed Experience that, you
32:28
know, we've, you know, we've had our best years of late and, you
32:34
know, you know, getting to finish higher than national
32:38
championships. Last several years, just
32:40
continues to put more fuel to the fire to stay here and keep
32:44
taking it. Further, what has been the role
32:48
of assistant coaches throughout these decades?
32:51
You know, it's it's one thing. You know, the the head coach
32:53
gets to be the quote maker in the newspaper and the The
32:58
newscaster interview and stuff like that, but we all know that
33:02
it can't be one person, you just couldn't, you know, you did it
33:05
earlier in your career and you know, you can think about doing
33:07
it now. So you've had some amazing
33:09
assistant coaches along the way and volunteer coaches and just
33:13
support for the program. What role has assistant coaches
33:17
played in the success of, uh, a huge role.
33:22
Definitely cannot cannot run a team of the size that we have
33:27
with one. Person, you know, early on we
33:29
had a small team and you could do that for a couple years.
33:31
But no, I give the, you know, my assistant coaches a lot of
33:36
credit for the success that we've had.
33:38
I've always been of the mindset to let my assistant coaches
33:43
manage and run their team as they see fit.
33:46
I give them a lot of, a lot of, I guess autonomy to do it their
33:55
way and I've been very fortunate the last several years, to be
34:02
able to expand the our coaching staff, you know, for a long
34:06
time, we just had one full-time assistant, who primarily ran our
34:11
Sprints and jumps and the last, for the last, probably 10 years.
34:18
I've had an amazing volunteer assistant to be able to run our
34:22
pole, vault group. So we've always had good group
34:24
of altars and had somebody K to work with the vaults and then
34:31
several years back was very fortunate to have Brad.
34:36
He'll come on and be our volunteer assistant for throws
34:41
and he was one who is about as knowledgeable as you could hope
34:46
for in an assistant let alone it being a regardless of whether he
34:49
was a volunteer but he came in and did a tremendous job
34:52
building up our throws program and then Kate Smith, our
34:56
athletic director, You know solve fit to help us you know
35:00
add it a second full-time assistant last year so I was
35:04
able to bring in do Kaczynski to be my full-time throws coach
35:07
last year and so we're continuing to expand our
35:13
coaching staff and be able to give the athletes more
35:16
one-on-one attention. And so, yeah, I mean, it's it's
35:21
a continuing to grow and get better.
35:23
And I've got great assistant coaches and I have Steve still
35:26
be here. We're working with our Sprints
35:29
and hurdles and, you know, he's doing a fantastic job.
35:32
We saw a great results, this past spring, and just just
35:36
brought on terrestrial Russell as our new throws coach, and
35:40
Jeff bands are pole, vault coach.
35:42
And I'm really happy with where we're at and what we're about to
35:47
Endeavor on this spring. It's amazing.
35:50
You mentioned. You know, as the decades have
35:53
gone along here and you're in 25th year, and you've had more
35:56
success. Now, here in the the recent
35:58
history, then, you know, throughout the rest of it in an
36:01
amazing when you get support from ministration and you get
36:05
good volunteer coaches and you get good full time code.
36:08
Like they give you support, how much the program can rise,
36:12
that's just amazing to me for sure.
36:15
You know, the the support that I'm getting from my
36:19
Administration, it To grow and you know, I'm excited for the
36:25
future because you know, I see, you know, Kate Smith or athletic
36:31
directors is really invested in helping us be successful and to
36:35
get better and I feel like we really got things moving in the
36:40
right direction. So you mentioned an important
36:44
person may be one of the top five, I don't know.
36:46
I might not be exaggerating here, Sprints and hurdles
36:49
coaches in this country. Our good friend, Steve Silva.
36:52
She, and if, you know, Steve Sylvia at all, you know, that
36:54
guy has more energy than. I don't know anyone.
36:57
How do you keep up with a guy who's been around?
37:00
I hate to say done it all because I don't think he would
37:02
say done it. Like he is constantly working to
37:06
get better. I mean, it's really quite
37:08
admirable. A guy who has coached many, many
37:10
all Americans many national champions and every time I have
37:14
a conversation with him, he's like, yeah, I've been trying
37:16
this with it. The hurdler you had a D2
37:18
indoors, he's like, how, you know, we're working on this and
37:20
working them from here. I mean, he's just He's the, he's
37:23
the consummate. Oh gosh, I'm thinking of like
37:27
the Puppeteer, you know, Pinocchio.
37:29
He's constantly like, how do I pull this string?
37:30
What do I need to do here? How do you keep up with it?
37:33
I mean, he is boundless of energy.
37:35
Yeah, he's I mean, he's passionate about about coaching
37:38
his events and he can see he's always looking for, you know,
37:43
that that next little thing that he can add to what he's doing
37:47
with his athletes, to get them better and Yeah, he's got a lot
37:52
of energy. He he's he, he gets after it and
37:58
does a tremendous job. And, you know, I've enjoyed the
38:04
get to pick his brain because he's gotten the gotten to see a
38:07
lot of things and Coach with a lot of great coaches.
38:10
And and he entertains me with a lot of cool stories to yeah.
38:15
Oh yeah. I could never have them on the
38:18
podcast because we are an unedited clean, you know.
38:22
There's just some stories. We just wouldn't want to put out
38:24
there from the good old days back then.
38:26
But Steve, I know you're listening, man.
38:27
You know, I love you to death and I'm really appreciative of
38:29
our long, history, and friendship.
38:32
You know, guys like Steve and other coaches, you have here
38:36
Jeff and Russell, you know, it's easy for someone in your
38:41
position who's been doing it for a long time.
38:44
Been doing it for a long time at the same institution, been doing
38:47
it for a long time at the same institution in my hometown.
38:50
It's easy for complacency to set In like man, I'm here.
38:53
I'm good. We'll have a good program and
38:55
you know every once in a while somebody will qualify and and
38:57
etcetera but you haven't allowed that have assistant coaches like
39:01
that. Maybe administrators have they
39:03
like energized. You to kind of never become
39:06
complacency is not a word. I would use for you and so I'm
39:08
just wondering where that, you know, push back of complacency
39:12
because it's always fighting us. It's always coming for us.
39:14
How did, how have you kept that at Bay and kept charging and
39:17
continue to improve the program and yourself as a coach?
39:20
Yeah, I guess. I guess since I've never won a
39:23
national championship, I don't have anything to be content
39:25
about, you know, we're still striving to get better every
39:28
week and, you know, we've we've become a pretty competitive
39:34
program but, you know, we, we haven't we haven't reached the
39:38
ultimate goal yet, so we've still got work to do.
39:40
And, you know, certainly when Steve came in, he kind of
39:43
recharge things a little bit with his tenacity and and, you
39:47
know, one of the things you told me is I didn't I In come here to
39:52
just hang out with you. I came here to help you win
39:55
championships and do something big at the national level.
39:58
And you know, that's, you know, that's that's what we want here.
40:01
Uh, yeah, I when I heard of the higher I was like well I hope
40:05
David's ready as I cuz I don't think Steve knows what a swan
40:09
song is like. Okay, this is my my retirement
40:11
here and I'll be done. He's coming in full.
40:14
I want to get her done and he's done a great job for you, and
40:16
you've done a great job with him again, you know, not
40:19
micromanaging. Allowing him to work and Able to
40:22
support him. So it's really good with that as
40:25
well. What talk to me about, I'm still
40:28
learning the D2, kind of philosophy and culture.
40:32
If you will, you know, I never coached in the D2 level but I
40:36
again, haven't been now. Having met hundreds of D2.
40:39
Coaches, I'm just always impressed with them.
40:42
What's it like, coming from a D1 Athletics at?
40:44
Not only D1. There was a conversation on
40:48
another great Mikado. YouTube channel Athletics LLC,
40:53
where they were talking about in the SEC, you know, it means
40:57
more, right? That's the SEC motto and
40:59
everything and they had this great debate about SEC track and
41:01
field. And does it really mean more
41:03
compared to other conferences? And of course, you know, I'm an
41:06
SEC home or two by the way. So I was like, of course it
41:08
means more. I just you know, come on, it's
41:09
SEC. So you came from a very
41:12
competitive, I mean, it's Cutthroat, you know, you know it
41:16
better than anybody because you were an athlete in the SEC and
41:19
now on a D2 World, which is Still cut through again.
41:23
Go look at the results if you have any doubts there but it is
41:26
a different culture. Like I love the motto of I
41:28
choose d 2 and a little bit more because I don't want to
41:32
overstate this but a little bit more of the student-athlete
41:34
balance there, talk to me about D2 and as a coach of D2 for a
41:38
long time, the culture recruits and there and the athletes and
41:42
how they get to interact with the sport and academic portions
41:46
of their lives. Sure, well, one of the things
41:51
Things that I've always loved about coaching at the division.
41:56
Two level is, as I've always felt like I can recruit kids
42:03
from my home state and develop them into kids that can compete
42:09
at the national level and it takes, it takes time and
42:14
patience to develop local kids to get to that level.
42:19
And I know that At the division, one level and some of these
42:24
larger conferences like the SEC, they may not have the luxury of
42:31
spending three years to develop the kid to finally be able to
42:34
score their conference Championship, you know.
42:37
And so I you know, I enjoy the fact that I can I can, you know,
42:43
bring a kid from Huntsville or from from Birmingham or from
42:47
from mobile and be patient with them and you know, increase Your
42:52
mileage slowly make sure they stay healthy and know that maybe
42:55
they're not going to help us in the first year or two but maybe
42:59
by your three or four, they can become one of the top runners in
43:03
the conference and qualify for the national championship and so
43:09
you know, you know, and haven't been here as long as I have been
43:13
here and having the success that we've had, you know, I don't
43:16
feel pressure to hurry up and get, you know, get a kid super
43:21
fast real quick. And so I think that's, you know,
43:25
just knowing that is given given me more time to help be patient
43:30
with kids and develop them a little bit slower over time.
43:34
And and also I think we do a really good job of balancing,
43:41
the, the Athletics, and the academics, uh, is a very
43:45
challenging School academically and we have a very high
43:49
percentage of athletes on our team that are Here for
43:52
engineering and it's a very calm, very tough, very
43:55
competitive program and one of the reasons why I love coaching
43:59
it uh is because because of the academics and how tough it is
44:06
here, uh, I'm confident that. If they can, they can make good
44:13
grades and graduate from you. Aah.
44:15
They're going to get an awesome career.
44:18
And and that really makes it worthwhile to me knowing that
44:22
they're not just here, you know, to run and maybe maybe not get a
44:27
good career afterwards. You know, we have a lot of
44:32
former Runners of mine that are currently working on helicopters
44:35
and and missile design and you know, all this amazing thing.
44:40
that they do, you know, working at these engineering companies
44:44
here in Huntsville and and that kind of to me, makes What I'm
44:51
doing, even even more important because they are truly going on
44:56
and being super successful in their field and you know, doing
45:00
what they set out for so awesome.
45:03
Okay, last two topics, one is what is the significance of
45:08
charger? So if you don't know their logo
45:09
there the Chargers but it's this really cool horse.
45:12
I'm probably gonna get correct. That's probably a stallion or
45:14
something here but it is some sort of a horse.
45:16
Okay. Yeah I don't like a very
45:18
specific stallion. I don't know you know.
45:21
What does that with Huntsville? I don't know of a connection or
45:24
their wild horses in Huntsville. I honestly don't know, we've
45:29
been the Chargers just before I came here but I like it.
45:35
You know, we're the the charger. Stampede who wins in a fight at
45:42
a horse or a bulldog? Definitely a horse.
45:45
Oh man, you're missing is the Bulldog.
45:48
Do I mean No they are tough but they can only get to about knee
45:53
high on a horse. So remember the couple of years
45:57
ago. It was Texas and Georgia.
46:00
I think it was. Yeah, Texas and Georgia and they
46:02
brought Bevo, you're not a horse but you know, a large animal too
46:05
close to the to the dog. I can't.
46:08
Ugh, ugh. All right.
46:09
Yeah and yeah the the Evo got startled and almost and trampled
46:15
poor Helga. How would I?
46:17
And as you know, the Mississippi State Bulldogs?
46:18
You know you probably had the same thing we've been able.
46:20
Would you be able to pet bully before?
46:22
And it's like that dog is really stinking cool.
46:24
So, I think the Georgia, Bulldog is kind of thinking.
46:26
Cool. And I'm like, oh my God, we
46:27
almost had a terrible live on TV incident.
46:32
Yeah. That that might have changed
46:33
college football. Fundamentally it, I truly
46:37
believe a Vivo would have done something to that dog.
46:39
All live animal mascots would have been banned so therefore it
46:43
couldn't have been bad for sure. No more Eagle, the more
46:46
Colorado, Buffalo, no more the horses at Oklahoma, no more.
46:49
I think I think there have been some some change.
46:52
So I'm so happy Agra that you were okay and Bevo.
46:54
Thank you for not stomping on that little Bulldog so.
46:57
Okay man. Hey, wrap it up here for us.
46:59
David tell us. You know?
47:00
25 years? No, complacency you're doing
47:03
better at the national meet. You got you got a gag Kids that
47:05
are going to the National meet every year.
47:07
There's Chargers all around that track.
47:09
What's got you excited coming into year 25 for, uh, track and
47:14
field and cross country? Well, for cross-country, I think
47:18
you know we've got a great opportunity to have both are men
47:20
and women's team at the national championship.
47:22
This fall, we've got we've got a really good squad, so excited to
47:28
get them rolling. And and for track, we've got a
47:33
good group returning and we probably had one of the best
47:36
recruiting classes we've ever had.
47:37
We, I think we brought in 35 freshman and wow.
47:42
Now have what I think we have 97 athletes on the men's and
47:46
women's The track team this year, so the largest team we've
47:49
ever had. And, you know, we're really
47:52
excited about the charger. Stampede come, come springtime,
47:56
we're going to have a pretty good team that is absolutely a
47:59
stampede man. You know, we believe healthy
48:02
things grow, so to have that kind of growth and the success
48:06
with it. That's that's quite amazing man
48:07
Bravo that brings its own set of challenges, right?
48:09
That many people means more uniforms travel more
48:12
coordination. More more work for you in the
48:15
staff on Call. Sure, the Old 97 people coming
48:18
together as a lot harder than 35 people coming together.
48:21
For sure. For sure.
48:23
He has its challenges but it also has great opportunities as
48:27
well. Now I know why you you're not
48:29
getting complacent being there for 24 years you won't have
48:31
time. You got 90 said there's no time
48:32
kids. Yeah man David you know one of
48:37
the most important and expensive things that you can give me is
48:40
your time and I'm just really really grateful you know, I love
48:45
before we hit record today. And I think I've mentioned this
48:47
on the podcast before, you know, a few years ago, sitting around
48:50
with a bunch of buddies at the u.s. tfcc a convention.
48:53
And we were talking about coaches that had been at an
48:56
institution for a length of time, you know, because we tend
48:59
to think of track and field and maybe it's other coaches, other
49:02
sports, but as job Hoppers, you know.
49:03
We and by the way, I always raise my hand.
49:06
That was me, by the way, I coach for 10 years and I was at five
49:08
different places so this isn't me Judgment at all.
49:12
This is more just being super impressed and interested in
49:15
coaches that have been at the Institution for, you know, 10
49:18
years, 20 years, 25 years, you're going to Blink and it's
49:22
going to be 30 and 40 years by friend.
49:24
It goes by fast. Yeah.
49:26
If you're not already in the uh, Hall of Fame, they're probably
49:29
grinding your bust right now to make that picture to put you in
49:32
there, buddy, because you're going to your transformational
49:34
for that program literally not only growing the program from
49:37
zero, but what you and what you do with the staff to qualify
49:42
kids to Nationals and academic all-americans and growth for the
49:45
University. I mean, It's quite quite
49:47
amazing. So, I'm always thankful.
49:49
I know how busy you are. You're the cross country and
49:52
distance coach along with the head coach and you're in the
49:54
middle of cross country season right now.
49:56
So, I'm just so thankful, man, to be able to learn your
49:58
journey, build a share, with our listeners and really bring value
50:02
to others, that can hear your story and see what it's like,
50:04
you know, the benefits of maybe being at an institution.
50:08
If it's the right institution, fit for you and your family,
50:10
which obviously it is for you and Ashley and family.
50:13
You know, there's a lot of benefits to being at the same
50:16
place for Long time, I definitely think.
50:18
So, I, I've loved being part of the Huntsville community and,
50:23
you know, seeing the athletic department and our University
50:25
grow, and there's no other place.
50:28
I'd like to be. I love it, man.
50:29
Home is home, is home. Is home, buddy?
50:31
I love it. I love it.
50:32
Oh, man. Thank you again.
50:33
So much for being here. Super, super super proud and
50:36
grateful to show your journey. Thank you guys for being out
50:39
there. Listening, man, this was
50:41
awesome. I love this guy, I've known him
50:42
for, you know, I coach the Mississippi state's, that's kind
50:44
of how I the first meet that we. Hosted and he came, it was just
50:47
okay, he's an Alum. I got to know him.
50:48
Right. That's trying to him up for
50:49
donations. Little did I know he was just
50:51
starting to track for. He was hitting me up for
50:53
donations. I was it was terrible.
50:54
That really bad, but he's done an awesome job and I'm just so
50:57
humbled to be able to share his journey with you today.
51:00
So come back next week, we'll do it all over again with another
51:02
amazing coach. And we'll make some connections,
51:04
right? Thanks guys, have a great one.
51:14
Thanks Mike what an incredible journey coach has been on so
51:17
awesome to hear their story in their own words, tremendous
51:20
proof of the positive effect coaches, make on a daily basis.
51:23
Help us spread the word of this. Great journey by sharing on your
51:26
favorite social, media channel. And don't forget to take a
51:29
minute to rate and review the podcast.
51:31
You just might get a shout out on a future episode.
51:33
That's it for today. Join us next week, when we'll
51:36
connect you with another Amazing coach.
51:37
Amazing coach.