Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / #210: Erik Whitsitt-University of Tennessee

Transcript

#210: Erik Whitsitt-University of Tennessee · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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  Track and field coach, the ones that point
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  people most every season. He's the voice of reason.
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  Speaking, the growth gotta prep for you carry the load.
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  Talk to the stove. For those of us, stay on the go
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  pop, the handle, staying in the zone.
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  What you packing for the role is more than one way to go taking
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  those tests. And you told it ain't practice
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  it before it became clear. You can't happen to you.
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  Listen with both ears, can't Mentor, without a mentor, kids
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  of experience, you can reinvent those kids.
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  Every plans got to stand and deliver in the price sacrifice,
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  can you give up Hugh its choice and to fight not to win or lose?
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  It's not a boy, but if I see, y'all can make more movies, not
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  about how to All about why you don't know what you're you know
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  who you are inside. Six, many ways to die.
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  She's not absorb. Your faults Finish Line.
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  The work ain't done. So we learn from the experts to.
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  Y'all got to put in the legwork Gil athletic shoes Network.
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  It's all about Connections put together for the profession to
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  every track coach could be blessed.
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  Alright, welcome back here to the guild connections, track and
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  field podcast before we get started.
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  Hey, how about a shout-out for our intro music, man?
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  I am just so pumped here and season for that.
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  We've got like real professional.
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  Like, you know, real hundred authentic intro music and that
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  was done by someone just like you.
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  That was actually done by track and field coach over at East
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  Carolina University. Mr. Udon cheek.
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  He's an amazing amazing artist as well as a pretty fantastic.
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  Big track coach. In fact, they just set the
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  school record in the 200, which was a pretty salty, 200 records,
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  so go check him out. If you know, him, just go tell
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  him. Thanks, he did a great job for
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  us and I'm just so grateful for him.
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  If you don't know him, you need to know mr.
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  Udon cheek. He is awesome.
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  Awesome person. Awesome!
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  Awesome artist. And I'm just so thankful and so
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  grateful for what he did for us here at the Gill tract and field
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  connections podcast. I'm so humbled to be your host.
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  Mike, cutting him here. National business development
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  manager for Gil, Athletics and part.
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  Most known for being the Twitter guy.
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  And also the podcast guy and we are here on the connections
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  podcast to uplift and honor coaches from around the country
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  and today will buckle up. So we got a throws coach today.
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  And typically with throws coaches, we get a little more
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  amped up, go back and listen to people like r.i.p., Judd, Logan,
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  we've had on the podcast, Lance deal.
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  You know the throws coaches bring a little bit more energy
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  today. So help me welcome.
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  The throws coach assistant coach from the Vols man, the
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  University of Tennessee. SC.
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  Help me. Welcome the wise, the wonderful
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  mr. Eric, Woodson Eric, how are you
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  man doin? Great?
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  Definitely excited to sit down and always catch up with you.
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  Yeah man. This will be fun because, you
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  know, sometimes we have guests on here that I've never met
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  before. This is our kind of our first
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  introduction you and I have known each other for quite a
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  while now, through a lot of ups and downs and developed kind of
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  a, not just a professional relationship but I can't, I
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  don't know. Maybe I'm going to are, are
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  wrong on hair right here. I would consider us friends as
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  well. That that fair.
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  No absolutely. You know going back to those
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  Illinois State days and you know being able to tour the facility
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  with you and you know the early days of finding the ins and outs
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  of what makes you feel so special.
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  But you know also the relationship we've developed it,
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  numerous track meets throughout the past decade.
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  Plus yeah man, I love it. I love it.
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  Well man, I'm so happy to get you here.
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  You know we've been working back and forth to get this on the
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  schedule for quite a while. And when we're recording this,
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  So, if you're listening, you're listening, probably during the
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  week of the NCAA division. One championships down in
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  Austin, Texas. So I know I'll see you down
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  there, Eric, when we're recording this, we've actually
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  just finished conference, which I can't wait to talk to you
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  about SEC conferences as a former SEC, coach myself.
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  I know just what a bloodbath that meat is and I had it easy.
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  We only had 12 teams when I was in it, it's harder now and it's
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  about to get even harder with the Texas and Oklahoma coming
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  in. So I definitely want to talk to
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  you about the SEC. Chips.
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  But we're getting into go into first round of Championship, so
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  you're going to be down at Jacksonville right University of
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  North Florida. Yes, sir.
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  Yeah, we head out early next week with the King disqualified
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  and try to see how many kids can get through all of it, man.
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  That's another tough one North Florida.
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  I love what a gorgeous facility. I love that they have that
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  they're in Jacksonville, but another tough meat just survive
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  in advance, survive in advance, and then perform and, you know,
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  probably 100 120 degree heat, that will have In Austin you
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  have been you know the regional championships is kind of what
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  sets you know the elite athletes rest from the rest.
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  You know only having three attempts you know not relying on
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  trying to find an early Groove and hit a big Pro and finals.
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  You know you got free and done to be in the top 12 so
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  definitely you know a pressure cooker type situation that's a
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  good question and you know knowing that we don't talk X's
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  and O's but before we get into your journey that actually just
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  kind of made me think about it. I forgot they went down to He
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  throws it used to be three and three and all that kind of stuff
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  like traditional, do you? Because you brought up a good
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  point about like Rhythm and you know it maybe even intensity and
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  excitability of the athlete. Do you have to as we think about
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  our field events, feel the venters, do you have to coach
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  differently at the regional because you only get three.
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  Is there a? You do something different with
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  your coaching in my mind? I think the emphasis is a lot
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  more about warm-ups in the continuation of warm up.
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  It's to that first and second throw, you know, a lot of times
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  you can get through some warm-ups and get through one or
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  two throws and then try to find a rhythm getting into finals in
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  the typically, what you see here are huge throws and final
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  specially on that fifth and sixth round when kids start to
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  get a little bit more comfortable.
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  You know, for me personally and in my experience has the
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  importance of the warm-ups in the preparation of warm-ups, you
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  know, even leading through practice and trying to come out
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  with intensity on Throne. Number one, just to set the tone
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  early and try to get a and try to It into the competition.
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  Early is a little bit different of a mindset and how we approach
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  it. For sure.
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  Do we see I'm imagining in, you know, of Coach them feel that
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  I've coached some pretty good long jumpers and triple jumpers
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  but not throwers. Do we see athletes, who are
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  better at the first three, verses better at the last three
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  meaning I can imagine an athlete who almost needs to get warmed
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  up in their first three throws before they, you know, you know,
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  we I've seen some just amazing round four, five six battle, you
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  know, one person throws far and then everybody gets a up and
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  everybody starts, throws far, and then I'm also imagining an
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  athlete who because the way they're maybe they're made up
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  physiologically and psychologically that, you know,
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  their first three throws are always there better throws and
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  they don't do as well in the last year, so they kind of got
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  to get it done early. It seems like we're changing the
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  meat by doing three throws versus all the other times doing
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  six for those athletes. The, you know, the caliber to
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  make it to finals. Did you see?
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  Do kids sneak in or, you know, snuck out because of the three
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  throws versus 3 plus 3. No absolutely and I think that
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  you know the the main point is that leads to experience, you
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  know the kids that have been there and done that you know the
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  previous year or the year before tend to go into that meat a
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  little bit more relaxed. You know, the new kids that this
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  might be their first time qualifying for regional meet,
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  you know, those kids, you know, soaking up that experience and
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  having that experience I think is key in how to handling those
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  three Attempts, for sure that's interesting.
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  Well, I'm on record as not being a fan of regionals.
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  What about you? Are you a fan?
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  Or not enough? And, you know, I've been around
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  a lot of coaches, especially at Oregon, you know, they did the
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  regional format, but I've always loved it, and I guess that's
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  because I've had quite a few athletes over my career sneak
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  in, you know, in those high 30s to 40s pots.
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  You know, I've had a kid in a regionals as high as forty
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  three, you know, and sneak in and have big PR is whether it
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  was at Illinois state or even at You know, and I believe is 2019.
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  Max Litem had, you know, had a big PR just to qualify for
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  regionals because in the very first flight ranked, you know,
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  42 43 and on his, his last throw the throw of his competition.
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  You know, hit a three meter PR and snuck into the national
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  championship, made his senior year, his first trip every go.
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  And so, you know, I've had probably pretty close to thin 12
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  athletes that, you know, we're outside of the top 30 sneak into
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  that meat just by Showing up and getting big throws.
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  You know, somewhere, there's a person who finished 13th their
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  Regional and is telling the opposite stores.
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  Like yeah, this kid came out of nowhere and be ours by 3 meters.
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  I was said I was going to Nationals and and then I didn't
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  know. Absolutely.
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  And now, you know, I've been on the other end of that to, you
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  know, quite a few 13th outdoors in quite a quite a few as 17th
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  indoors. And those spots are definitely
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  heartbreaking. Especially when you're looking
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  within CM, you know, I had a girl Miss national championship,
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  in 2014 by 1 cm in the shot, put Dude, I mean weight of a grass.
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  Yeah, right? Yeah.
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  That's good perspective. Oh why?
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  All right, Eric. Let's jump in, man.
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  Let's learn more about your journey here.
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  You actually, you know, again, we know each other fairly well,
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  you have an amazing really legendary journey in regards to
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  people that have poured into you somewhere along the way, knowing
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  that you are an athlete. You were really good.
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  Thrower coaching had to change for you.
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  It had to go from something in your head.
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  Of where coach just tells me what to do go, lift this, go
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  throw that to where it was, like, oh wait a minute, like I
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  could be a coach or maybe that could be a profession for me.
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  Where does coaching begin for you?
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  As a thought of, like, I could do this, you know, originally my
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  plan in college was to be a high school, history teacher in a
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  football coach, you know, I've had great experiences for my
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  high school and, you know, my first couple of years at the
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  high school, definitely wasn't the greatest student.
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  And you know, we had some High School coaches that Kept tapping
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  on my shoulder in, you know, expressing their levels of
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  potential for myself. And first of all, it started in
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  the class trip. So you know, to have those type
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  of people take interest in me and tell me that, you know, I
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  could do some things maybe that I wasn't thinking about and rise
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  up to a different level of, you know, whether it was football or
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  track and field, you know, I hold a lot of those early
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  coaches, you know, dear to my heart and, you know, again, I
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  wanted to be a high school history teacher, my throws coach
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  and football coach and In high school was a history teacher.
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  So I kind of wanted to just you know anyway his footsteps in
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  help high school kids you know I graduated from Boise State and
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  Mike Maynard had got a call from theis even who was the head
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  coach at mcnees at the time and you know he was heading out to
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  the Olympic Training Center. I mean basically called Mike and
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  said, hey, you know, do you have anybody graduating?
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  You know, we're looking for a throws coach out here neck
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  knees. And in my mind, you know, the
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  first thing that click is, wait, I can get a job right away and I
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  can poached It builds, you know, I don't have to apply for
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  teaching jobs and try to figure, you know, the high-speed that
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  the landscaping in high school teaching out, sure, I'll go out
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  and figure that out. Let's do it.
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  Well, let's go back. So in high school you were a
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  football plus tracking had this great coach London, you know, we
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  almost called this the shout-out podcast so you know it's been a
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  while. We're getting an age are but if
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  you remember his name, would love to know coach's name.
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  You know, I definitely remember his name.
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  I I named my son after his sir. Her name.
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  So his name is Timothy Graham, and he passed away a few years
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  ago from brain cancer, you know. But, you know, he was and he
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  followed me throughout my whole college career, you know, he
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  drove from Colorado at the Sacramento to watch me, throw my
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  senior year, Boise State at the national championships and he
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  was somebody that we probably talked with or text with back
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  and forth, you know, multiple times a month and you know, kept
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  in touch you know, my whole coaching career until he passed
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  away and it was actually my wife's idea because she knew how
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  important he was to be in my life.
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  That you know, why don't we name our son, Graham, you know, after
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  after, Tim Graham surname and so we thank, you know, that's what
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  we did. You know, the positive impact a
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  coach makes on young people, whether that's in middle school,
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  high school college, even on the pro circuit, it really is a
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  measurable. So hear that story that the
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  impact coach Graham had on you. And what I love about it is that
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  it was your wife's idea who was not coach, But but so that that
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  should that tells me like she could see the impact.
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  That he made on you and therefore made on your family.
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  So to hear that is really, I mean that is amazing.
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  Eric really is what was it as you think?
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  Now back on his coaching style, you know, we all have a
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  different style. Not just the X's and O's that we
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  know, but how we communicate and act with our athletes, what was
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  it? That impacted you, you know, was
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  he one of the was he a drill sergeant type of style?
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  Was he, you know, a nerd? Nurturing.
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  What was it? That, you know, you wanted to be
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  a high school coach and teacher because of History because of
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  him. What was it that really you
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  wanted to emulate? I think it was a combination of
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  the task, but the love, you know, my father passed away when
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  I was really, really young. And so when, you know, primarily
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  growing up in a single family, house holders to single-parent
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  household, majority of my life, getting to high school and
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  having somebody like that that was one tough.
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  But then to, you know, Express Being that he cared for me and
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  wanted good things for me and wanted, you know, me to have a
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  route path, my life will be successful and always being on
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  me. Always making sure that I was
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  treated in my homework. I was making sure I was throwing
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  up to practice, on time, you know, basically preparing for me
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  to be a responsible adult and a future.
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  You know, I remember car rides where a lot of local track
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  meets, you know, at very low level competition and, you know,
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  he would drive me up to Denver, just me and him in the car to
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  compete at the big Championship, you know, big big High Caliber
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  meats and never to compete against the best.
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  And, you know, he just wanted me to get that experience.
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  And, you know, he sacrificed a lot of time and money, you know,
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  we didn't have a whole lot of support for our track, team
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  financially in high school and you know he bought me discs and
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  bought me shot. Put sand and all the training
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  equipment for me to feel like I had the best to compete with the
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  best. So you know, he definitely took
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  a lot of time and effort out to help me.
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  And you know, a lot of things that he didn't have to do.
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  If you're a coach listening right now, I know sometimes it
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  can be hard. To think that you're making an
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  impact at the the kids. Appreciate what you do.
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  Listen to that story. You are someone's coach Graham
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  the we're not always going to verbalize it when we're 14 15 16
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  18 heck sometimes 22 sometimes 32 years of age but trust me you
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  make an impact that is a that really is an amazing story so
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  you said you go to Boise State. Did you grow up in Idaho, or You
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  mentioned in Boca Raton. You know, I grew up in Colorado,
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  Public, Colorado and, you know, had a high school again.
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  Our track coach is always try to get us out of Colorado to
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  compete against the best. So we used to go to the same pot
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  games at Idaho State. And, you know, my sophomore,
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  Junior and Senior year, I competed out in a simple games
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  and I originally signed with Idaho state.
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  So, you know, I went, I do state for three years.
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  You know, my freshman sophomore, junior year.
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  It's where I met my wife Casey. She was an incoming pole vaulter
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  in the track team as well and, you know, we're right around.
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  Junior year I separated injury and, you know, we kind of reload
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  it all my wife's parents, we're from the, the Boise pad area and
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  we were married at the time. Got married, pretty early in our
• 16:17
  lives as my we dated for a couple of weeks, actually,
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  before I asked her to marry me, I had a nine-month engagement.
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  We've been married post, 18 years now but we want to get
• 16:26
  closer to family and so we transferred to Boise State my
• 16:29
  last two years now coaches are famous for on both males and
• 16:34
  females Female saying hey stay away from the boys, stay away
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  from the girls don't have boyfriends, don't have
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  girlfriends. You got married, how did that
• 16:44
  affect you? The, and Casey athletically.
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  Like, did that help you guys with her frustrations?
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  I mean, that's the marriage is a very tough thing to have, you
• 16:54
  know, it's a totally different world here.
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  Having kids is the next one. And you know what, we'll get to
• 16:58
  that with you with you guys eventually.
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  But how was that being married on the team?
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  You know, it is definitely a weird dynamic but I think it
• 17:06
  provides you with a different level or support you no more
• 17:09
  personal level of support when you go home at night, You know,
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  your significant others there and you know it was definitely a
• 17:15
  growing process for two young kids, you know, he like you said
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  she was an incoming freshman and I was rich or sophomore.
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  You know, when we met it, the first track meeting of the
• 17:25
  Season that year and you know, we were married within that year
• 17:29
  or so you know it was definitely a learning adjustment for sure,
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  you know first time living with the you know the somebody of the
• 17:37
  opposite sex and an apartment but you know I feel like that
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  Kind of onerous even more to figure out why early on together
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  and having somebody right by your side to help you through
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  the bad times is as well as to support you when you head home
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  from a meeting with the good times.
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  Well, I can't imagine she's not listening to this podcast when
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  it's out so I got to put it on wax here.
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  Was it Love at First Sight? It was you know I asked her out,
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  you know within the first couple of days actually in you know we
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  I really first date. You know she I actually sat down
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  and said, I'm not looking for a serious relationship, you know,
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  seems to be what was the pole? Vault was an assistant football,
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  coach at Idaho State at the time and, you know, I am looking to
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  be the best athlete I can be. And, you know, we went out to
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  dinner and a movie and then a couple of more dates and you
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  know that there's a history there.
• 18:31
  That's awesome. I love this.
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  You like put the ground rules down.
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  Look, I'm not looking for anything.
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  Oh yeah. We'll be married in like six
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  months, man. The first time I ever met her
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  dad. Actually.
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  You know, I had two goals to drive up and meet him for the
• 18:43
  first time to ask. I could marry his daughter.
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  Yeah, dude. And what do you know, what, an
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  amazing story of like been married?
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  Now, for 18-year, like it's been successful.
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  I mean, that's cool, man. Maybe that's a lesson for
• 18:56
  coaches. When the, you know, they're your
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  new freshman says, hey, I like that boy.
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  Or I like that. Girl you know maybe you blessed,
• 19:01
  I don't know, maybe more go bad than good.
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  I'm not sure. We're talk about 18 year olds
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  here, so be careful. So you're in college.
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  You start at Idaho State, transferred to Boise State,
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  you're studying history. The plan is, I'm going to be a
• 19:15
  high school teacher and Coach. Vo.
• 19:18
  Now, you are you playing football at all Idaho, state or
• 19:21
  Boise State? No, I, you know, once I got to
• 19:23
  college, I was just throw our. Yeah, yeah.
• 19:26
  That's a tough, you know, always when I see these kids that are
• 19:28
  doing more than one sport in college, It's it's unbelievable.
• 19:32
  Even something. As as you know, complementary as
• 19:36
  football and track. It's still like man.
• 19:38
  That's that's a workload. Plus by the way you're going to
• 19:40
  school, okay? So you know Legend of a coach
• 19:44
  there at Boise State that's one of the people I wanted to talk
• 19:47
  about Mike Maynard. I mean, Mike Maynard's poaching.
• 19:51
  Tree is one of the more Lots of branches.
• 19:56
  Lots of former athletes have become coaches.
• 19:58
  What was it? Like, when you started working
• 20:01
  with Coach me and are there Boise State, you know, it was
• 20:05
  almost a seamless transition for me, you know, a lot of tough
• 20:07
  love but that tough love came from, you know, Carrick, you
• 20:12
  know, he didn't say anything that he didn't mean and
• 20:15
  ultimately he wanted the best for all of his kids.
• 20:17
  He saw potential in his kids and, you know, if you were doing
• 20:20
  something wrong, he was quick to put you in line and, you know,
• 20:23
  had a lot of expectations and With those expectations came a
• 20:26
  lot of hard work but at the end of the day, you know, he
• 20:28
  expressed that belief. And if you if you cross your
• 20:31
  eyes or being cross your t's and Dot your I's that, you know, you
• 20:35
  can do things that maybe you didn't think you could do, you
• 20:38
  were history, major. Not an English major.
• 20:40
  So it's okay if you cross your eyes and touch your teas at
• 20:42
  that. Yep.
• 20:44
  I'm from Alabama. So, who am I to judge on grammar
• 20:46
  and spelling and whatnot. So I'm always interested in
• 20:52
  people like a Mike Mater. I think about like, We're
• 20:55
  Central with the coaching staff that they recently retired, but
• 20:59
  have had their, these coaches and coaching staffs that
• 21:02
  seemingly put out so many coaches.
• 21:05
  So many of their athletes go on to be college and High School
• 21:09
  coaches but there's a few that are just really special like
• 21:13
  that. What do you think?
• 21:15
  You know kind of looking back now you've had a long successful
• 21:17
  career at this point. Many, many years ahead of you
• 21:20
  here. When you look at how Mike Worked
• 21:23
  with his athletes prepared, as athletes talked to his athletes.
• 21:29
  What is it? Do you think about Mike that has
• 21:31
  made so many move on to college in high school coaching
• 21:35
  positions, successful coaching positions?
• 21:37
  By the way, as well, the level of importance in preparation,
• 21:41
  knowing the why you're doing something in the way you need to
• 21:44
  do it. And should you do it?
• 21:45
  Just because you can do it. You know, I remember entering my
• 21:49
  senior year when he had got that phone call and asked if He had
• 21:54
  anybody graduating that, you know, is looking to coach and,
• 21:57
  you know, primarily my emphasis was just a shock.
• 22:00
  But, you know, I didn't throw a discus in college.
• 22:02
  I didn't throw any of the other events and, you know, he said
• 22:05
  down and said, you know, if this is something you want to do, you
• 22:08
  need to start learning and I can help you learn how to coach, you
• 22:11
  know, this last year and so I, you know, constructed my
• 22:15
  academic schedule and my training schedule around some of
• 22:18
  his other advanced round, Hammer, Vance, and Javelin
• 22:20
  events. And, you know, a lot of times I
• 22:22
  would, Up in those other practices to, you know, I would
• 22:24
  be done with my shop practice and I just tend to linger around
• 22:27
  the track and watch how he cooks, the Jeff kids watch how
• 22:30
  he coached the hammer kids and just kind of learned how we talk
• 22:33
  to those kids individually you know in finding individual
• 22:37
  programming and the things that work for you know each and every
• 22:40
  kid not just having a standard set of this is what everybody
• 22:43
  does. You know I think Mike did a
• 22:45
  great job of figuring out the individual athlete and the value
• 22:49
  no devising a training plan that he thought would fit that ass.
• 22:53
  Since natural tendencies in, you know, experiences and in
• 22:57
  quality. So, you know, I take that into
• 23:00
  my coaching. Now, if, you know, I don't have
• 23:01
  a standard, you know, training plan, every one of my kids, you
• 23:04
  know, after a couple of months and I get to learn there are
• 23:06
  ticks, you know, we develop an individualized training plan,
• 23:09
  and that's something. I feel like I got for Mike.
• 23:12
  No, that's interesting recently about a month ago.
• 23:16
  Someone on Twitter posted that if you didn't participate in the
• 23:19
  event that you cannot, you can't coach it.
• 23:22
  Now, we know that Bunk and, you know, you go back to, you know,
• 23:26
  amazing guests that we've had boo schexnayder, one of the top
• 23:28
  five coaches in the world and was not a jumper at all.
• 23:31
  In can coach the jumps be a pretty good, right?
• 23:34
  It's interesting because I think of you as a very holistic throws
• 23:38
  coach like, you know, there's a lot of great throws coaches that
• 23:41
  do really, really well in the shot in The discus and that
• 23:44
  makes sense. Right?
• 23:45
  Because here in America in high school, every state in high
• 23:47
  school, we've got shot in the disc, some can pick up the have,
• 23:51
  picked up the hammer and College, because we have that in
• 23:54
  college, but not really in high school here in America and do a
• 23:58
  really good job. And here is one of my favorite
• 23:59
  events. I love that and then there's
• 24:02
  this the the tougher one, the bastard child of throwing this
• 24:05
  Javelin, which is, you know, it's not rotational at all, it's
• 24:08
  more linear. It's more like a long jump than
• 24:09
  it is a throw kind of thing, all that kind of stuff.
• 24:12
  But you've been able to, I don't know if I want to use the word
• 24:16
  Master because I know how you feel about your craft of
• 24:19
  learning, but you've done really well in all four events.
• 24:23
  But I didn't know that you were primarily just a shot putter.
• 24:26
  I would have said for sure. You did The discus and I would
• 24:28
  have assumed you did the hammer just because of Mike and
• 24:32
  throwing and things like that. Why just the shot was it?
• 24:35
  I mean the boys, our program was really, really good.
• 24:37
  Was it just because you had other great discus throwers and
• 24:40
  Hammer throwers. Well, after my freshman year of
• 24:43
  college, you know, I had a pretty devastating shoulder
• 24:45
  injury and was basically out of growing or probably 14 15 months
• 24:50
  so it took a lot of time to come back from that.
• 24:53
  At and and obviously, you know, you lose some flexibility and
• 24:57
  some mobility and you lose time. So it's, you know, what do you
• 25:00
  what do you focus on your last couple of years of your career?
• 25:02
  Do you start to water down things with other Advanced when
• 25:06
  you're basically picking up from scratch again or, you know, you
• 25:09
  have some tendencies in one event.
• 25:11
  Yeah, at least in your mind, you know, how it should work.
• 25:14
  Let's just build that one back up.
• 25:16
  That makes a lot of sense. Yeah, it makes all sense.
• 25:18
  So going back to what that tweet was about.
• 25:21
  You know, if you didn't do the event, you can't coach it.
• 25:23
  Blah blah, which again, you know, don't believe in it.
• 25:25
  But I'm curious. What are some of the things that
• 25:28
  you've had to do to overcome that?
• 25:30
  And what I mean by that is, you know, you've done the shot put
• 25:34
  and you rotate it to you. Can you maybe have some natural
• 25:36
  feeling of what rotation means for The discus and the, and
• 25:39
  maybe even the hammer. Even though, you know, there's
• 25:41
  obviously some intricacies there.
• 25:42
  But you've done really, really well in the javelin.
• 25:44
  How have you don't want to say overcome?
• 25:47
  Because I don't believe that. If you didn't do the event, you
• 25:49
  can't coach it. But what are, you know, how did
• 25:51
  you when you first started you go to Mcnees.
• 25:53
  Let's actually jump to work my knees.
• 25:55
  I mean, this is a great example because so first of all you're
• 25:57
  in college, you've got Javelin, whether it's pure, Javelin
• 26:00
  throwers or Javelin for the mold dies and you're in the state of
• 26:03
  Louisiana, which does one of the roughly 20 states that we have,
• 26:07
  that does have high school jablin.
• 26:09
  Meaning I assume these gets more Javelin throwers on their team
• 26:13
  than say Illinois because we don't have it at all here in
• 26:16
  Illinois. What are some of the things that
• 26:18
  you had to may be overcome or adapt to As you move to the
• 26:21
  college ranks and had to coach all For you know, that was my
• 26:24
  biggest fear when I when I accepted that mcnees job when I
• 26:28
  was looking at her oscar but 23 throwers you know the fourteen
• 26:32
  or fifteen between the men and women where Jeff throwers and
• 26:36
  you know I didn't know about the javelin, you know.
• 26:39
  Fortunately I got up to Lake Charles about two months before
• 26:43
  school and training started. So a little bit earlier this
• 26:45
  summer to prep for recruiting and things like that.
• 26:49
  And yeah I ordered every jab video.
• 26:53
  And in bought every jab book you know on the market that I could
• 26:56
  but it would Duncan that would pump Patron off the complex
• 26:59
  kiss. You know, probably spend several
• 27:01
  hundred bucks on instructional, Jeb videos and books and just
• 27:06
  reading articles and at the end of the day everybody kind of
• 27:09
  goes about things differently but when you start to piece
• 27:12
  different perspectives together you find the ten fifteen or
• 27:15
  twenty percent that they do the same, you know, you know
• 27:17
  everybody does you know, quite a bit of things differently.
• 27:21
  But you know, over the course of I'm you know everybody does this
• 27:25
  the say to everybody, you know, looks at its emphasis the same.
• 27:28
  And so as a coach you know when you have those type of
• 27:30
  authorities, you know all agreeing on one or two aspects
• 27:33
  of how things should be, you know, in your mind.
• 27:36
  Okay. You know that's going into my
• 27:37
  programming and then after that it's trying to figure things out
• 27:41
  and learn you know a little bit as you go you know I can't say
• 27:45
  enough about how much Tom Patron off and complex kiss you know
• 27:49
  help me out through my career and gave me a lot of input.
• 27:53
  You know I still call those guys.
• 27:54
  I still send videos to those guys, you know, I'm still on
• 27:57
  text messages. Asking what do you think about
• 27:59
  this? What do you think about that and
• 28:00
  you know those type of guys have always been willing and able to
• 28:03
  reach out to me and I think they have a loved and real love for
• 28:06
  the sport you know and they just want to see the sport in the
• 28:09
  United States get better so you know those type of guys you
• 28:12
  reach out to them and they just want to help you make me better.
• 28:15
  Yeah, I would agree in Echo what you said, specifically not about
• 28:20
  Tom and Tom but I can't throw out.
• 28:22
  Duncan There as well. Just great people love that you
• 28:26
  had there speaking in to you early, and it'll be interesting
• 28:30
  because patron of will actually play a story into this story
• 28:33
  here in the near future as well with you are.
• 28:37
  Did you say Ty left McNeese? Or was he there at McNeese with
• 28:40
  you when you were there? No tie lap.
• 28:42
  So I was the head coach and Meg, nice.
• 28:45
  And he left to be the throws coach out at the Olympic
• 28:47
  Training Center, the jumps coach and they hired branded Gilroy
• 28:49
  who is the assistant distance coach there.
• 28:53
  And so you note, I was looking for, you know, some
• 28:55
  possibilities. And then when I went out there,
• 28:57
  you know, I interviewed with Brendan and interviewed with the
• 28:59
  the athletic director out there and you know, basically, they
• 29:03
  pretty much gave me the job on the spot.
• 29:05
  Yes. Curious, because Ty is another
• 29:07
  phenomenal. I mean, I'll say Javelin but
• 29:10
  just coach. I mean, the guy can coach
• 29:12
  anything and so I would that have been another one that would
• 29:15
  have been good for you. And I'm sure you've talked to a
• 29:17
  time since then. But that would have been a good
• 29:19
  one as well. Okay.
• 29:20
  So the whole goal up until now Now, before you get three knees
• 29:24
  was to go coach high school and become, you know, like your
• 29:28
  Mentor back in high school, coach Graham but now you're in
• 29:32
  the college ranks and you're pretty good conference there
• 29:34
  with nice as well. What was it like?
• 29:37
  What was it like jumping in? And you know obviously you
• 29:39
  jumped in head, first with education on Javelin
• 29:42
  specifically, but what was it like just okay, I've got to
• 29:44
  recruit, I'm dealing with 18 to 22 year olds, not 14 to 18 year
• 29:48
  olds. I'm not teaching history, means
• 29:51
  nothing as it comes. What's on the track?
• 29:53
  My history major, what was it? Like jumping into the college
• 29:56
  ranks division one right off the bat?
• 29:59
  A lot of hours? Put in, you know, if that's your
• 30:02
  first time coaching, it doesn't matter where you're coaching it
• 30:04
  or what level, you know, it's about the hours in and the
• 30:08
  crying is very real, you know, not only, are you learning how
• 30:11
  to coach is a first-time coach. But you're learning how the NCAA
• 30:14
  where it's, you know, you're learning the NCAA rules, what
• 30:16
  you can and can't do. You're learning how to
• 30:18
  recruiting goes, you know, you're making 15 20 calls a
• 30:22
  week, you know, just The fine town and athletes.
• 30:25
  It's it, it's very, very time-consuming, you know, 50,
• 30:28
  60, 70 hour weeks, sometimes, especially when you start, you
• 30:32
  know, just to get a crash course in in what it's going to take
• 30:35
  and as, you know, I'm a very competitive guy, you know, even
• 30:38
  if I don't know how to do something, if I'm playing a game
• 30:42
  or, you know, doing something that has something on the line
• 30:45
  for myself. I'm trying to figure out how to
• 30:47
  get the advantage, you know, as fast as I can.
• 30:49
  And how to learn English fast as I can, because I need to lose a
• 30:51
  thing that says just my purse. Finality, my wife hates it
• 30:54
  because when we play a game of Monopoly or something at home,
• 30:56
  you know, I'm the most competitive board game player
• 30:58
  there is but that's just kind of in my blood.
• 31:01
  You know, if I'm doing something you know I want to beat
• 31:05
  everybody else but I'm doing it. So you know, I I do of into a
• 31:08
  pretty hard to try to figure it out as best I could sure.
• 31:12
  Yeah. I think, you know, when we
• 31:13
  typically hear competitiveness, we all like shake her head like
• 31:16
  oh yeah. That's a, that's a key
• 31:17
  ingredient for success. I like to think of it as
• 31:21
  controlled competitiveness because Over-competitive can be
• 31:24
  a negative, and a danger has York and I know you're, you
• 31:28
  know, I know you well enough, you are competitive.
• 31:30
  I would never even play tiddlywinks with you if I
• 31:32
  wasn't, if I wasn't a secure enough that like, all right, I
• 31:35
  might lose here because he's gonna do everything he can to
• 31:37
  win. This, this thinking Gang has
• 31:39
  your competitiveness because you're really competitive here.
• 31:42
  Eric has your competitiveness as you look back a little bit with
• 31:45
  some perspective, ever bit. You in the butt, has there ever
• 31:48
  been a time? We were like, who, you know,
• 31:50
  maybe I should have dialed it down to 29.
• 31:52
  I didn't have to be a 10 on this one, you know, that as you know,
• 31:56
  I've now entered my 16th 17th year of coaching and looking
• 32:00
  back on that is taken the ego out of the equation, and, you
• 32:03
  know, being competitive. Yeah, it's one thing to be
• 32:08
  competitive and look at that side of things.
• 32:10
  But, you know, now I'm looking at the development relationship
• 32:13
  with the athletes quite a bit more as before, you know, I was
• 32:16
  trying to compete with other Pros.
• 32:17
  Coaches, if my kids could beat other throws coaches because you
• 32:20
  know, that's what I was trying to do.
• 32:22
  And yeah. Kids were having success in but
• 32:25
  it's not, you know about me anymore.
• 32:27
  And I think is over the last couple of years and, you know,
• 32:30
  getting into this game and building relationships with
• 32:33
  these athletes, you know, that that's quite a bit different and
• 32:35
  it's something still I'm working on.
• 32:38
  But it's trying to take the personal ego out of the
• 32:40
  equation. Yeah, it's okay to be
• 32:42
  competitive but at the end of the day it's about the
• 32:44
  experiences that these kids and more.
• 32:46
  So the relationships that you're developing them with them along
• 32:49
  the way. Yeah.
• 32:50
  You're touching on a little bit of like the abundance.
• 32:52
  Mindset versus what's the alternative, you know, the, The
• 32:57
  Limited mindset, right? It's like I want to beat the
• 32:59
  other kit. The other coaches kids because
• 33:01
  there's only so many places in there is there's only so many
• 33:04
  first places that conference at Nationals.
• 33:06
  The abundance mindset says, hey man if I'm making my kids
• 33:08
  better, well, that's a card installed, they can't cause
• 33:11
  that's all I could have control over.
• 33:13
  So that's interesting. I appreciate that that
• 33:16
  authenticity there. So, how did he go?
• 33:18
  I'm just so curious. I know you and I know your
• 33:20
  educational Pursuits. You're always.
• 33:22
  It's Our competitiveness, you are going to leave no stone
• 33:25
  unturned, to make your athletes better.
• 33:27
  So I'm just curious the first Javelin practice.
• 33:30
  You have it McNeese. So you got all these Javelin
• 33:32
  throwers. I'm pretty sure he probably had
• 33:34
  some fairly successful ones there as well.
• 33:36
  That were pretty good. Probably knew a little bit about
• 33:39
  how to throw and how they were just coached, by the way, B i7
• 33:43
  again, one of the top coaches around, I hold tie extremely
• 33:47
  high in his knowledge and in coaching ability, what will in
• 33:50
  your 22 23, 24, 23, 24. So, you're still a pup.
• 33:57
  You go to the first practical athlete.
• 33:59
  I had a couple athletes a year or two younger than me like
• 34:07
  that. First practice.
• 34:09
  You got to make nice shirt on. You're pumped, your coaching
• 34:12
  College. Okay, boys.
• 34:14
  And girls? Coach Whitsett.
• 34:15
  Not Erica's here, coach Whitsett.
• 34:17
  Is here. What was that?
• 34:18
  Like And it was definitely a learn as you go.
• 34:22
  Yeah, I think that first Javelin practice in my mind, you know, I
• 34:25
  had a certain level of Fitness to throw the event and you know,
• 34:29
  we started doing long runs and we did several long runs a week
• 34:32
  and it took me a while to figure out that we're not developing,
• 34:35
  you know, slow twitch muscles. Oh yeah, that was a shot.
• 34:40
  The amount of running that we did that, you know, my first
• 34:43
  year coaching for that, job group was definitely excessive.
• 34:48
  I appreciate you. You know, I always tell people
• 34:51
  are guests here. There is no pre question so they
• 34:54
  get to tell their story the way they want to store.
• 34:56
  He didn't have to tell us, that's a pretty big faux pas.
• 34:58
  Like I know there's a lot of coaches are there going?
• 34:59
  Oh my God. Why would you do that?
• 35:01
  I did. I was like, what are you doing?
• 35:02
  That's interesting. Where did that come from?
• 35:05
  Because, you know, we typically fall back to how we were
• 35:07
  coached. When we first get into coaching,
• 35:09
  I have to assume that could be wrong here that Mike wasn't
• 35:12
  doing that with his Javelin throwers where that key was not.
• 35:15
  Yeah. You know it yeah, yeah.
• 35:19
  Yeah. I can't quite tell you, you
• 35:20
  know, again in my mind it was a preconception that these guys
• 35:24
  needed to be fit and it was before I started getting into my
• 35:26
  circuits and realizing that short quick fast movements more
• 35:31
  the way to go through my mind. We're going for a long run
• 35:34
  today. And we did probably too long
• 35:36
  runs a week and racking up the miles like distance Runners.
• 35:39
  And we're probably putting in eight to ten miles a week with
• 35:42
  that Javelin group. It's a wonder, they even threw
• 35:44
  as far as they did. You know, we actually actually
• 35:46
  through you know, pretty well, I had two freshmen one kid.
• 35:50
  That drone 160 170 feet in high school.
• 35:52
  Go through to 12 that year but it but I don't know how he did
• 35:56
  it. You just tell the kid to the
• 35:58
  mile, so you know, there's the Yankee good appeared in the
• 36:01
  mile. Yep.
• 36:03
  I always say after and I don't know where the year markets like
• 36:07
  you're five, ten, fifteen, but after.
• 36:09
  So many years coaching, if you don't look back at your first
• 36:12
  year or two of coaching and go, oh my God.
• 36:14
  What was I thinking? I don't think you're coaching,
• 36:16
  right? So that means you're not
• 36:17
  developing because we all Oh, we're making make mistakes today
• 36:20
  and year 1516 coaching so you know you made mistakes year one
• 36:24
  if you can't look back and be like oh man well to be honest
• 36:27
  with you like I don't even think that there's one thing that I do
• 36:29
  today or the last eight to ten years that I did those first
• 36:33
  two, probably not even one aspect, I love it.
• 36:37
  I love it. Well how many years were you
• 36:39
  there at McNeese? And how that go?
• 36:40
  That's a unique place to coach. It's a great place.
• 36:44
  For two years. So the 2007 and 2008 seasons.
• 36:48
  And, you know, we had a lot of success in all the events.
• 36:52
  You know, obviously learning the jab.
• 36:54
  You know, we had some good young Talent out there, but in the
• 36:57
  shot that is he broke several school records.
• 36:59
  Those first couple of years, and ultimately got me a pretty quick
• 37:03
  opportunity to move up the chain to Illinois.
• 37:05
  State, did you during those first couple of years and maybe
• 37:09
  even extended into Illinois, state, which will get into here
• 37:11
  in a second? Are you?
• 37:13
  Le defy that you're a college coach at this point, or is there
• 37:16
  any inkling of still like, you know, I could still go back and
• 37:19
  Coach high school? I'd still be cool with that or
• 37:21
  any other, you know, Myriad of opportunities that you might
• 37:23
  have. I think the first year in my
• 37:26
  mind are at, I got a job right off the bat, this is something
• 37:29
  to do. I'm getting paid to do it, you
• 37:31
  know, I'm kind of figured it out.
• 37:33
  The more I figured out in your, to my started to realize that
• 37:37
  this is something that I, you know, could see myself doing for
• 37:40
  the next 20, 30 years. So again, you go back to the The
• 37:44
  the study and did the research and trying to figure out how to
• 37:46
  be better your to that you wear your one, you know, across all
• 37:50
  the events, you know, even in the shop.
• 37:51
  But you know, I'd I was an event that I did and you know going
• 37:56
  and researching articles and looking at videos and looking at
• 37:59
  talks and seminars and coaching conventions on even the shot,
• 38:03
  trying to figure out ways to be better to the rotation for the
• 38:06
  Glide, you know. It was that your to that, you
• 38:09
  know, after that first year where, you know, I kinda got the
• 38:12
  job. It was nice too.
• 38:13
  Have to worry about it in come and be able to support the
• 38:15
  family to. You're too kind of developing a
• 38:18
  passion that, you know, this is something that I could see
• 38:20
  myself doing for the rest of my life.
• 38:21
  Sure. And you've been very vocal, very
• 38:25
  prolific on Facebook, especially, I don't know.
• 38:27
  I don't, you know, you're not on Twitter very much what, you know
• 38:29
  that hurts me, because that's, that's my domain, but you've
• 38:33
  been in the last several years, I've tent maybe 10 years, pretty
• 38:37
  vocal for something that I'm passionate about four coaches as
• 38:40
  well. And that's your physical health.
• 38:42
  Like, every time you Post your picture from Boise.
• 38:44
  I still don't believe it's you. I mean, you're a different
• 38:47
  person physically than you were in Boise.
• 38:50
  And obviously there's some differences between, you know,
• 38:52
  in college. You know what you do need and
• 38:54
  lift for throwing versus what you do.
• 38:56
  Now, as a coach, you've been real vocal about your health
• 38:59
  Journey, when does that start? Is that, is that starting here
• 39:02
  at McNeese or Illinois? Or future better, they're really
• 39:05
  kind of started at Oregon. Hope.
• 39:07
  You know, I graduated Boise State, you know, probably a
• 39:11
  little little closer to 300 plus Pounds and, you know, move down
• 39:15
  to the South and probably gained some weight actually in the
• 39:17
  South and maintain that way to do annoy State, you know, when
• 39:20
  we moved it to Oregon quite a bit more health-conscious, you
• 39:25
  know, you know, out there that just the general environment.
• 39:27
  And, you know, I think some of the staff we're trying to push
• 39:31
  me on, you know, being healthy and eating better and training.
• 39:35
  You know, we got these little Nike bit pots and we started a,
• 39:39
  just a kind of a staff competition to see who could get
• 39:42
  in the most steps and And you know each week and you know
• 39:46
  again I'm somebody that's pretty competitive.
• 39:48
  So when we had that little staff competition to see who could get
• 39:51
  the most steps in our little fit, pods with a dinner or a
• 39:55
  prize at the end of the season. You know you could bet I was
• 39:57
  getting my fifteen fifteen thousand to two thousand to
• 40:00
  twenty thousand steps in a day. You know, whether I had to take
• 40:03
  a morning run or a night run or something like that with the
• 40:06
  numbers of your first couple of years at Oregon, you know, I
• 40:08
  lost 20 or 30 pounds. And, you know, each year, I
• 40:11
  probably lost another 10 15 pounds and Just kept at it.
• 40:14
  It you know I was doing a lot of running and then it kind of
• 40:17
  transition to where you know I like the strength training and
• 40:20
  weight lift and you know I like to do circuits.
• 40:22
  I think that's a big part of my program and training athletes a
• 40:25
  circuit. So why don't I do the circuit
• 40:26
  suddenly? And I started doing my own
• 40:28
  circuits and started getting back into the weight room and
• 40:30
  lifting weights and you know kind of switched up right around
• 40:34
  your 4 year 5 at Oregon. When we get to Oregon I want to
• 40:37
  touch on that more. That's just something I'm really
• 40:39
  passionate about is you know, there's a lot of great
• 40:41
  opportunities out there for And education.
• 40:44
  So how to coach a thrower, how to coach distance Runners?
• 40:47
  Etc. And that's extremely needed
• 40:48
  because we got to continue to get better in our craft.
• 40:50
  I'm very, very passionate personally about a coach's other
• 40:54
  side of their health. So their physical health, their
• 40:57
  mental health, their relationship, Health, Etc.
• 41:00
  So, you know, I've always been, you know, really proud of not
• 41:03
  only the journey you've been on for your health, but really
• 41:05
  proud that you have been public with it so other coaches can
• 41:09
  see, you know, the transformation that you've had
• 41:12
  in the benefits of it. I'd like to When we get there
• 41:14
  talk about like, maybe any health issues, you might have
• 41:16
  had your willing to share and then what have been the benefits
• 41:20
  of that as well. When we get to that point, but
• 41:22
  before we get there, you're right, you go south.
• 41:25
  So I hope you learned to drink sweet tea down there because
• 41:28
  that is the absolute best thing in the whole world fried okra.
• 41:31
  Come on man you got to make sure you eat that when you go down
• 41:33
  south, but then you get the opportunity to come up north and
• 41:36
  this is actually where you and I first meet meet, you become the
• 41:39
  throws coach at the Redbirds Illinois, State University, why?
• 41:43
  Why switch? I go from McNeese up to Illinois
• 41:46
  State again. It kind of leads back to, you
• 41:49
  know, my competitive nature. When I, when I realized that
• 41:52
  this is something that I wanted to do for the rest of my career.
• 41:54
  It's alright. How good can I get my kids to
• 41:58
  compete at this level and to provide different opportunities
• 42:01
  for my family? And it and again, this goes back
• 42:03
  to the early ego issues of why coach.
• 42:06
  You know, I looked at coaching, is how fast could I move up the
• 42:10
  ladder? You know, the faster, I get my
• 42:12
  kids to compete at the Level. I knew that there would be
• 42:15
  opportunities to come around and again over the last couple of
• 42:19
  years, this emphasis on coaching is is definitely turn more
• 42:22
  towards the relationship with your kids and and, you know,
• 42:26
  they get better and they have a good experience and knowing that
• 42:29
  you can change their lives in different ways just like my life
• 42:32
  was changed early on. But after that year that first
• 42:35
  year at the McNeese, you know, I realized that McNeese wasn't
• 42:38
  going to, you know, it was a great opportunity, a great
• 42:40
  school, we love the South but really far away from them.
• 42:43
  We all are A family from Colorado from Idaho.
• 42:46
  So, you know, looking for, you know, different opportunities.
• 42:50
  And again this kind of goes back to, you know, developing
• 42:52
  relationships at the Illinois State Jeff.
• 42:55
  Bovie, you know, he was a distance, runner at Arizona,
• 42:58
  when Mike Maynard was the crows coach at Arizona.
• 43:01
  And so I remember Jeff, reaching out to Mike saying, hey, you
• 43:05
  know, our gross coach has taken another job.
• 43:08
  He had just moved up the chain and you know, is there anybody
• 43:11
  out there that you would recommend us?
• 43:12
  I was taking a Get in again you know he kind of threw my name in
• 43:16
  the Hat. I've had had those pretty good
• 43:18
  two years at mcnees and you know, got the kids batter and
• 43:22
  broke some school records and you know obviously that
• 43:24
  relationship and the trust that when Mike you know throws out a
• 43:28
  name that he think that can get the job done.
• 43:31
  You know I was provided me an opportunity to Illinois State.
• 43:34
  That's I did not know that. That's really interesting about
• 43:37
  the bovie Maynard connection, that's really cool and shout out
• 43:41
  to Jeff bovie. I'm sure you'll say a lot of
• 43:43
  good. Things to just one another
• 43:46
  conference title there at Illinois State.
• 43:47
  This past year, he just continues to do a real.
• 43:51
  He was the assistant coach for a while and now the head coach
• 43:53
  continues to do a really good job of leading that program has
• 43:58
  some phenomenal athletes and is had really phenomenal.
• 44:01
  Assistant coaches, come through there as well.
• 44:03
  It's really impressive. What movies do in there, it'll
• 44:05
  annoy State, appreciate what he's doing.
• 44:07
  So you get up to Illinois up to Illinois, State, not.
• 44:11
  I don't remember because Illinois state.
• 44:13
  Had really good throwers for quite a while.
• 44:15
  I know during your stretch and we'll talk about some of them
• 44:18
  really good but I think right before you they had some really
• 44:21
  good ones and they've continued what was it like going into
• 44:25
  Illinois State? A little different.
• 44:26
  You don't have as many Javelin throwers as a big nice?
• 44:29
  Because again we don't have it here in Illinois but you have a
• 44:32
  full throws program. I mean you got all four throws
• 44:34
  and then the multi is and things like that in your in the not the
• 44:39
  Ohio Valley, Missouri, Valley, had Missouri Valley observed
• 44:42
  value in a different Conference. What was that?
• 44:44
  Transition? Like coming up there to the
• 44:46
  great state of Illinois. You know, it was, it was good,
• 44:49
  it was fun. You know, obviously that
• 44:51
  recruiting class the following year coming in with a bunch of
• 44:55
  really talented freshman. You know, you had Tim Glover,
• 44:58
  you know, you had leave Patron off, who was a redshirt
• 45:03
  sophomore, Redshirt sophomore, you know, coming into her
• 45:06
  Jensen, just the, the Ross kid out of high school and the shot.
• 45:11
  Brittany Smith. Somebody that a lot of big.
• 45:13
  Rules overlooked, but those kids were excited about Illinois.
• 45:17
  Illinois, State, you know, a lot of those kids were from, you
• 45:20
  know, the stadio annoy and and they had a lot of pride, in a
• 45:24
  lot of work, ethic and being around those type of kids, that
• 45:27
  would just show up every day and just grind was kind of a coach's
• 45:30
  dream. You know, yes or no sir.
• 45:31
  And and man did they train their hearts out for sure but even
• 45:36
  though I didn't have as many jab kids, you know, having Tom
• 45:38
  Patron, non-starter making sure that those eyes were dotted and
• 45:41
  T's were crossed. You know, I remember being on
• 45:43
  the phone. With Dan, probably every week
• 45:44
  going over training. Eric a when, you know, what are
• 45:46
  you right now for trading today. And I want to see, you know,
• 45:49
  having those type of conversations.
• 45:50
  And and obviously, that's kind of where I started developing.
• 45:53
  My relationship with complex gets a little bit more as well
• 45:56
  with him being up in the Chicago area.
• 45:58
  You know, I didn't have as many Javelin throwers, but, you know,
• 46:00
  I kind of feel like those that those first couple of years ago,
• 46:03
  annoyed state is really where I start to develop a javelin
• 46:06
  program. We're now, you know can 15
• 46:09
  years, you know, 12 years later, you know, a lot of what I did to
• 46:12
  do annoy state You to do today. Yeah, that's what there's a lot
• 46:16
  of athletes of touch on it and we won't touch on all of because
• 46:19
  will forget two to three of them that deserve to be talked about.
• 46:22
  But I do want to talk about. It is an interesting situation
• 46:26
  to be in coaching Lee Patron off, when you know, Lee's dad
• 46:30
  is, you know, world record holder phenomenal.
• 46:33
  Javelin thrower knows the javelin inside and out, you
• 46:38
  know, here, I don't ever want to coach Carl Lewis son in the long
• 46:41
  jump. I don't want to coach You know,
• 46:44
  I don't want to coach Trey, Hardee and Chelsea, a hearty
• 46:48
  have children. If they ever become to
• 46:50
  Kathleen's, I don't want to coach them.
• 46:51
  Right. I don't you know, don't move.
• 46:52
  God bless your parents, did it better than anybody?
• 46:56
  I don't want to coach Ashton and Breeze children.
• 46:58
  You know? I mean just come on man.
• 46:59
  Your parents did it. How could I ever top that what
• 47:02
  was it like coaching lie with an involved dad and I think
• 47:07
  properly involved so I'm not talking about Li Tom being
• 47:11
  overly and we've had parents that are overly and to involved
• 47:15
  and not involved in the right places.
• 47:18
  Tom comes with his own expertise and help for you as a still
• 47:22
  learning coach at that point. What was it?
• 47:24
  Like knowing man, I'm coaching the daughter of world record
• 47:28
  holder, who's very talented to, by the way.
• 47:30
  Something like, you know. Yeah, she's eating.
• 47:32
  Get the jeans. She got the jeans.
• 47:33
  What was that? Like, advantages disadvantages.
• 47:38
  I definitely advantages. And you know, that's it's one of
• 47:40
  those situations where you got to take the ego out of the
• 47:42
  equation. At the end of the day, it's
• 47:44
  trying to find the best course of action for the athlete and a
• 47:49
  my way or the highway is a coach, you know, a lot of times
• 47:52
  isn't going to work at this level and, you know, I'm still
• 47:55
  developing, you know, my Javelin the repertoire and and having
• 47:59
  Tom and having those influences and having the conversations on
• 48:02
  the phone and, you know, going over training programs fall
• 48:06
  winter, spring peeking, Cycles, you know, conditioning
• 48:09
  plyometric drills, throws towns, you know, different drills with
• 48:12
  Med balls, you know, again those those early couple of years ago,
• 48:16
  in my state, you know, kind of set the foundation.
• 48:18
  So what I still do today and if you go into a situation like
• 48:21
  that with the ego and you want to protect him like you know it
• 48:23
  all and you don't at least taking the advice of a four-time
• 48:28
  Olympian, you know, you're not doing your athletes any
• 48:31
  services. So I think it's just taken out
• 48:33
  the ego and understanding that you know there's 20 plus years
• 48:37
  of experience. Ian's here.
• 48:39
  You know, yeah. There's a couple of things that,
• 48:41
  you know, I kind of want to do this way but understanding, why
• 48:44
  are you doing something? How are you doing it and do you
• 48:46
  need to do it? And are there better ways to do
• 48:48
  it? And a lot of times Palm
• 48:50
  understood where I wanted to go with something and he would show
• 48:53
  me, well, I get this. But you know, what do you think
• 48:56
  about doing it this way? In little light bulb, start to
• 48:59
  click off on your head and training just becomes more
• 49:01
  steamroll. You know, you take out the busy
• 49:03
  work and a lot of things about the Collegian training is Busy
• 49:07
  work, just doing things for the sake of doing things and, and
• 49:10
  wasting time doing things. When you can spend more time,
• 49:13
  you know, developing something else or spend less time doing
• 49:15
  it. All and allowing for more
• 49:16
  recovery, time to the athletes, you know, do you need to do
• 49:19
  everything that you're doing? You need to train them for two
• 49:21
  and a half, three hours a day, you know, is there a purposes or
• 49:24
  focus and then, you know, I got a lot of that from Palm is, you
• 49:28
  know, have a meaning for everything that you do in try to
• 49:31
  find the easiest ways to do it that accomplish a goal, I think
• 49:35
  covid taught us that lesson really As well as far as how
• 49:39
  much we do with our app. Absolutely.
• 49:41
  So before ask - question that does make me think, when you get
• 49:45
  to Illinois state, are we done with the long runs with our
• 49:48
  Javelin throwers that stay down? Okay, good.
• 49:51
  That's two down in Louisiana. Yeah, she had stayed down.
• 49:53
  There are good. Now for anybody, who knows Tom
• 49:57
  Patron off, he's a character and I mean that all the good ways, I
• 50:00
  have a very good relationship with him, love him business, and
• 50:03
  personal professional relationship with him, I'ma put
• 50:06
  you on the spot or there. Any stories because it's very
• 50:08
  unique. Dad coach daughter, any unique
• 50:12
  stories, fun stories, funny stories that are appropriate to
• 50:15
  be told on recording that you can think of with, with Tom and
• 50:18
  lie. And just that crew that you had
• 50:20
  there. As it relates, I would a lot of
• 50:23
  stories he probably can't talk on on recording for sure.
• 50:27
  You know, some of those earlier days in his training like for,
• 50:31
  you know, very different time. But I do remember the first time
• 50:34
  I met him. I think we were prepping from
• 50:36
  for a USA. A championship or Regional
• 50:39
  Championship meet and he came to visit Lee.
• 50:42
  Eun bi believe is that maybe that second year and he came out
• 50:45
  to a training session to watch and we were doing some things on
• 50:49
  the runway and you know, she actually she hit a really good
• 50:52
  clean throw and I was just standing right there filming and
• 50:55
  all of a sudden his big barely chest, just comes in.
• 50:58
  And he gave me this huge chest pump and almost knocked me down
• 51:00
  in the grass, because he was so excited that, you know, she was
• 51:03
  starting to prep and getting good throws.
• 51:05
  I believe that was the year that she was a person.
• 51:07
  Um, All-American. You know, he came down and watch
• 51:10
  the training session and out of the blue.
• 51:11
  I got about chest pump right down to the ground.
• 51:14
  I could see the boy so I can see that.
• 51:19
  I love it. I love it.
• 51:20
  We had a lot of success with her, and a lot of fun times
• 51:23
  coaching her and working alongside dad with that one.
• 51:27
  Another person that I do want to talk about, because I'd be
• 51:29
  remiss, great friend of mine, former coworker of mine here at
• 51:34
  Gila, FedEx. Former top 10 Javelin thrower in
• 51:38
  the NCAA. By the way that we just had a
• 51:41
  crush of really good Javelin throwers.
• 51:42
  Come out here in the last few years is mr.
• 51:44
  Tim Glover. Now Tim was a Bloomington kid.
• 51:47
  We talked about Illinois, not having Javelin, but he was from
• 51:50
  right there in Bloomington. Illinois, his dad was the school
• 51:53
  record holder at Illinois state in the javelin as well.
• 51:55
  So he kind of came up throwing the javelin.
• 51:58
  You helped coach. Tim, I think when he threw his
• 52:01
  big, big PR in college number three, or four.
• 52:06
  I'll time I believe somewhere in that range, but also the to and
• 52:10
  I call it two and a half national championships to
• 52:13
  outright championships and then his senior year he got second.
• 52:16
  So I call it two and a half. I just give him credit there.
• 52:18
  What was it like, I mean, that's a that maybe a for a lot of
• 52:21
  people that's a once-in-a-lifetime athlete.
• 52:23
  What was it like working with Tim?
• 52:25
  And please tell me any deep dark secret so that I can message him
• 52:28
  and hold them over and you know there weren't too many.
• 52:32
  I you know, I would kind of Christ him is being one of those
• 52:35
  dream. It's you know, he was bought in
• 52:38
  you know from the get-go. If you had something written
• 52:40
  down on paper told the kid to do something he was going to do it
• 52:43
  and he didn't question. You know, he just had the firm
• 52:47
  belief that you know, we were there to get better and the try
• 52:51
  to win championships so I can do I know that his first goal was
• 52:54
  just the greatest dad School record in the javelin, you know,
• 52:56
  I think that's that was really, you know, all he kind of wanted
• 52:59
  to do, you know, there was a little bit hectic training as
• 53:03
  that first year as a freshman, you know, obviously You know,
• 53:06
  the approach is never been Tim's long suit, you know, he's is
• 53:10
  armed and the way he blocks and his rhythm and the Crossovers
• 53:13
  are what has made him great. And I remember that freshman
• 53:17
  year, if you know our biggest emphasis was trying to develop a
• 53:19
  reproach trying to bring in some speed into the Crossovers and
• 53:22
  the throw and first mate of his freshman year, he had probably a
• 53:26
  25-foot PR, you know, you've thrown 2004 in high school, we
• 53:30
  open up at about 69 M 68 m in, he threw out his back a little
• 53:35
  bit and that Costas some time and, you know, through that
• 53:38
  back, injury leading up to the Missouri Valley Conference
• 53:41
  championships, you know, we kind of develop that little Trot in
• 53:44
  72 little Trot in ninth step that, you know, basically, we
• 53:48
  use the next couple of years but that ultimately was set him up
• 53:52
  but Tim was a dream athlete. He was, if you told him to jump
• 53:55
  up play up and he thought that was going to make him better,
• 53:58
  you know, he would have jumped off the cliff.
• 54:00
  There's a lot of trade crazy things that we did whether it
• 54:02
  was over speed were crossovers reading down.
• 54:06
  Gil. And you know me pulling them on
• 54:07
  on Bundy's and things like that. I'm sure.
• 54:09
  Tim can tell you some stories, I know he did an interview one day
• 54:12
  saying, you know, that there was a lot of crazy stuff, coach
• 54:15
  Whitsett, and I did. And, you know, I think that's
• 54:17
  when I took that Oregon job and, you know, I think, you know, he
• 54:21
  enjoyed doing some of that stuff outside of the box.
• 54:24
  Yeah, you know you call him a dream athlete.
• 54:27
  I call him a dream teammate. He was amazing working with us
• 54:31
  here at Gila flicks and left to pursue his dream of making Team
• 54:35
  USA and They made the world Champs team.
• 54:37
  I mean that's no small feat man, I love him to death and so there
• 54:42
  was one story in this is after he won his first national
• 54:45
  championship. So it's sophomore year, you
• 54:46
  know, wins national championship on his first, throw the
• 54:48
  competition, huge BR, but we're going through the next season
• 54:52
  and I everything's great. Training is going awesome.
• 54:55
  He's looking like a million bucks and of course, is a coach.
• 54:58
  You know, you got to realize what's the date month.
• 55:00
  April 1st. Tim shows up the practice
• 55:03
  wearing a basically a cast, In walking on crutches and the
• 55:08
  panic in my mind that ensued and those kids got to those kids got
• 55:13
  a pretty good laugh out of that. But Tim got me good one on that,
• 55:16
  April Fool's joke, you know, Panic that seems like a standard
• 55:19
  athlete to coach April Fool's joke.
• 55:21
  That's great. Yeah, I love that.
• 55:23
  I can totally see him pulling that off too because he's so
• 55:26
  very even Keel. So anything he presents to you,
• 55:28
  you feel like is the truth. I mean, he just he's not a
• 55:31
  boisterous, he's not going to overdo it.
• 55:33
  So if he comes to you with a broken arms like hang Oh my God,
• 55:36
  I broke his arm. And if you look at his teeth a
• 55:40
  list, there's going to be an indoor competition.
• 55:42
  I believe his sophomore year. He's got a shot but Mark and a
• 55:45
  35-pound weight Grill mark on there.
• 55:47
  So Tim always wanted to try the other events and his sophomore
• 55:50
  year I said, you're never going to throw the shot but you're
• 55:53
  never going to throw the weight and we made a bed.
• 55:55
  I'm like, seeing if you can win the national championships and
• 55:57
  Javelin sure, all the inner you in an indoor meet.
• 55:59
  And so the soccer went out there and won a national championship.
• 56:02
  And I had I had to let him grow shop.
• 56:03
  Put in the way through it an indoor.
• 56:06
  Titian. Yep.
• 56:07
  Do you think he would have been a pretty good Hammer thrower?
• 56:11
  Body and his build my I definitely could have seen him
• 56:14
  in growing hammer for sure. Yeah, that's what I look at him.
• 56:17
  Like, you know, he's not a, he's not actually a prototypical
• 56:19
  javelin thrower to be to be real Frank.
• 56:22
  But, you know, he's real strong. I was like, oh, if he would have
• 56:24
  been able to learn the Rhythm, I feel like he would have been a
• 56:27
  really good Hammer thrower to tremendous Core Power, you know,
• 56:29
  and the back that he had on his back and his legs, for sure.
• 56:33
  Yep, it's also. Well, I know Tim's gonna be
• 56:35
  listening to. So Tim love you to death man.
• 56:37
  So happy for World Champs, man. Come on dude.
• 56:39
  You're in A fraternity, this big.
• 56:41
  It's quite amazing. So proud of you and really so
• 56:44
  proud to call you up to Frank. Call your friend, man, really?
• 56:46
  Really? Yeah, I was happy to that.
• 56:49
  He did that. You know there was only two of
• 56:51
  ants that I went out there to go watch at the World Championships
• 56:53
  when I was still out Eugene and that was Kim throwing the
• 56:56
  javelin and Gillian we're throwing the hammer for Team
• 56:59
  Canada. That's right.
• 57:00
  Yeah. So at Illinois State and there
• 57:04
  are many other occurred Jensen. By the way is another teammate.
• 57:06
  Former teammate here at gil. Worked on our Porter side Super
• 57:11
  smart, super charismatic was a tremendous, thrower looked the
• 57:16
  part with his big old beard and he was a viking.
• 57:19
  All the way unbelievably strong, you wanted to kind of strength
• 57:24
  power lifting type stuff after he went back up to Wisconsin and
• 57:29
  he's just he's just a phenomenal specimen.
• 57:30
  I love Kurt Johnson so and you mentioned Brittany, there's a
• 57:34
  lot of value. Had it up.
• 57:35
  Unbelievable crew there, how long were you there at Illinois?
• 57:38
  State, three seasons. 2009 through the 2012 year, okay?
• 57:43
  So we gotta we gotta address this.
• 57:45
  So two years at McNeese, three years at Illinois, State, lots
• 57:50
  of success, special that only state.
• 57:51
  I mean national titles, many, many points and usually I ask
• 57:57
  the question, well, where'd you go and why'd you leave?
• 58:01
  But you went to Oregon. So I think maybe for most of us
• 58:04
  listening, it's like, well it's obvious.
• 58:06
  Why you left you go to Oregon? but, And I know you have a lot
• 58:12
  of success here or get is, first of all, your power 5
• 58:16
  automatically, write your Pac-12, your organ, your, you
• 58:20
  know, Nike University, whatever. All you at least have the
• 58:23
  Assumption from the outside that everything is taken care of
• 58:27
  budget travel recruiting branding etcetera, when you go
• 58:32
  to recruit, those kind of things, but you only did your
• 58:35
  fine. I mean, that your app up your
• 58:38
  you are you're a redshirt senior.
• 58:41
  If you will, as a coach, any concerns when organ comes
• 58:45
  Colony, they come calling you. By the way, you don't, you know
• 58:48
  what? Apply to Oregon, Oregon calls
• 58:50
  you any concerns or was it just pure excitement of like, oh
• 58:54
  okay, no more excuses because everything is available to me
• 58:58
  there when I go to Oregon what was your thought when Oregon
• 59:02
  calls? And that was the biggest
• 59:04
  anxiety, you know, there is two parts, you know, my wife's two
• 59:07
  years, you know, younger than me and her schooling.
• 59:11
  So when they approached me about that job at the 2012 Olympic
• 59:14
  Trials, you know, I was out there with with poor of our
• 59:16
  throwers from Illinois State. And that's, you know, when they
• 59:20
  first approached me understanding that my wife was
• 59:22
  going to have to stay in Illinois for another year to
• 59:24
  finish her student teaching, you know, there was that anxiety.
• 59:27
  But then also knowing that that's the type of position that
• 59:31
  you have a bad year or two bad years and, you know, it's not
• 59:34
  your choice and you're right, you know, when you have
• 59:37
  everything possible, you know, at your disposal, it comes down
• 59:40
  to The coaching and the athletes.
• 59:42
  And at the end of the day, the coaching is who brings in the
• 59:44
  athlete. So really it just comes down to
• 59:46
  the coaching. So if there's a year to in there
• 59:48
  that it's not getting done, you know, that responsibility, you
• 59:51
  know, fully falls on your shoulders.
• 59:54
  Did you have any misconceptions going into Oregon in?
• 59:58
  Let me give you an example of what I might mean there again.
• 1:00:01
  You know, there's a difference between being on the outside
• 1:00:03
  looking in and then being on the inside of it, and I remember
• 1:00:07
  visiting one year And it was jumps practice and the head
• 1:00:14
  coach was the jumps coach and he was out there, turning hit the
• 1:00:19
  pits himself and I remember saying to him, I was like coach.
• 1:00:24
  No one will ever believe me that the head coach of Oregon is out
• 1:00:28
  turning his own pits. They all think you have
• 1:00:31
  everybody who does everything and we know Oregon has a lot of
• 1:00:33
  resources. So I'm not saying Oregon does it
• 1:00:37
  but there's this conception At Oregon, everything is done for
• 1:00:41
  you, you need to your practice set up.
• 1:00:44
  There's a manager for that. You need pits turned over.
• 1:00:47
  There is a manager or staff for that, that's not the case, the
• 1:00:51
  necessarily at Oregon. Was there any misconception you
• 1:00:54
  had that had to the the yet, the myth had to get popped real
• 1:00:57
  quick when you arrived in Eugene.
• 1:01:01
  I know. Absolutely, you know, we had
• 1:01:03
  facilities workers that, you know, obviously took care of the
• 1:01:06
  grounds of the facilities, but in reality, we didn't have any
• 1:01:09
  Key managers, you know Kurt Taylor was setting up the
• 1:01:12
  hurdles for hurdle practice gave me cook with setting up the
• 1:01:14
  hurdles, you know, I'm out there you're drawn sector lines and
• 1:01:19
  moving my equipment and things like that, you know, when it
• 1:01:22
  came down to a squash and Rings, you know, we would work on the
• 1:01:24
  Rings, you know, every kind of Coach, you know, basically took
• 1:01:27
  care of, you know, their own event group and Hauling
• 1:01:30
  equipment in and out and making sure everything was prepped for
• 1:01:33
  the kids. Now, the luxury is, you know,
• 1:01:35
  for me time, we had a great officials Association.
• 1:01:39
  Our ground people were world-class and so, you know,
• 1:01:42
  it's set up a facility is fantastic in terms of the paint
• 1:01:46
  lines and all that stuff, you know, the old noise State, and
• 1:01:48
  mcnees, you know, I was out there drawing my own sector
• 1:01:50
  lines, but the overall budget, you know, a lot of people like
• 1:01:53
  you said, a lot of people think that that Oregon has everything
• 1:01:56
  at their disposal in it, and I do think over the last couple of
• 1:01:59
  years, it's gotten substantially better.
• 1:02:01
  But now being out here in the SEC and looking at the budgets
• 1:02:04
  and things like that, that are operating in the SEC.
• 1:02:06
  Oregon wasn't even close, you know, maybe we chartered One
• 1:02:09
  flight a year, you know, to a national championship meet, or
• 1:02:12
  something like that. And everything else was busting
• 1:02:15
  up to Seattle Washington or playing coach somewhere, you
• 1:02:19
  know. So I think, I think it gets lost
• 1:02:22
  in the whistles in the bills because the facilities are, you
• 1:02:25
  know, phenomenal, and you see the face value of the
• 1:02:27
  facilities, but some of the inner workings, you know, those
• 1:02:29
  first couple of years, you're right.
• 1:02:30
  You know, we had to do a lot of things on our own and, you know,
• 1:02:33
  our whether it was equipment budget or travel budget or
• 1:02:36
  things like that, you know, probably didn't compare You
• 1:02:39
  know, a lot of schools especially in the SEC and
• 1:02:42
  forgive me, I didn't even mention his name and you know,
• 1:02:46
  the head coach. Now former head coach at Oregon,
• 1:02:48
  Robert Johnson is the guy that was talking about the jumps
• 1:02:50
  coach and, you know, Robert was very good to me during his time
• 1:02:53
  at Oregon. So I just want to correct that.
• 1:02:56
  I did not mention Roberts name. I have nothing but great
• 1:02:59
  reverence and love for Robert Johnson and he did a phenomenal
• 1:03:02
  job. I mean, look at the jumpers that
• 1:03:04
  came out there and he is a story is another great story, you
• 1:03:07
  know, coming from appstate, I'd love Of to explore his story one
• 1:03:10
  day but just, you know, shout out to Robert Johnson, like said
• 1:03:13
  always good to me. So I have a lot of love brought
• 1:03:15
  back for Robert. There's the head coach there at
• 1:03:17
  University of Oregon. So Eric, did you take over?
• 1:03:21
  What was Lance deal that when he retired and went to facilities,
• 1:03:25
  or did you take over for someone else?
• 1:03:27
  Robert, we're probably plants that.
• 1:03:30
  Yep. Yeah.
• 1:03:30
  Lance had stepped down and 09 and they had Robert.
• 1:03:33
  We are there in 10 11. Okay, that's right.
• 1:03:37
  How could I forget? Legendary rock.
• 1:03:39
  We had Lance deal in the brain because it, you know, Gil
• 1:03:42
  podcast, Alum, land, steel, love Lancelot that we've had here on
• 1:03:46
  the podcast and then went and did a phenomenal job.
• 1:03:50
  Overseeing the facility. They are at Hayward and was
• 1:03:53
  really instrumental in helping for us as we did Olympic trials
• 1:03:56
  and NCAA championships there at Oregon.
• 1:03:59
  So just love love. Lance always want to give Lance
• 1:04:01
  a shout out, so what was it? Like again, there's this
• 1:04:05
  misconception, misconception not conception misconception that.
• 1:04:09
  Everything is just perfect at Oregon.
• 1:04:11
  We all have to remember that no matter where you're at high
• 1:04:16
  school college, big college, small College, whatever every
• 1:04:20
  school has their own issues. There's not just carte blanche
• 1:04:24
  organ. Just doesn't sign everybody on
• 1:04:25
  full rides because they've got all everything bubble blah and
• 1:04:28
  they got every poll and every series and every shot, put in
• 1:04:32
  every diameter. There are limits everywhere.
• 1:04:36
  There are budgets. There are, there's finite
• 1:04:38
  resources out there. What was it like the first time?
• 1:04:41
  So kind of thinking back to your first time at McNeese, the first
• 1:04:44
  Javelin practice of like, all right, I got to figure this out
• 1:04:47
  first, Illinois, State practice of like, okay?
• 1:04:49
  These guys are pretty good. I we can make them better, and
• 1:04:51
  then now, organ you walk into Hayward.
• 1:04:54
  That's your, that's your practice place.
• 1:04:56
  That got your home. What was it?
• 1:04:58
  Like that first week? Two weeks of practice of finding
• 1:05:01
  your groove. Now, in the Pac-12 it was
• 1:05:05
  definitely exciting and you know, I think what allowed me to
• 1:05:09
  To adjust. So quickly is again, you know,
• 1:05:11
  my wife had to stay out at Illinois, State, and finish her
• 1:05:15
  last year of student teaching. So I'm out in Eugene, Oregon,
• 1:05:18
  you know, by myself, with unlimited amount of time, you
• 1:05:21
  know, and showing up for weights at 6:45 in the morning and
• 1:05:25
  staying in the office until 8:30, 9:00 at night, you know,
• 1:05:28
  that first year, you know, five days a week and then still
• 1:05:30
  haven't practiced on Saturday. Probably the most hours I've
• 1:05:34
  ever worked in my career. Was that, that first year, it'll
• 1:05:37
  Corrigan trying to get In with the landscape, you know,
• 1:05:40
  obviously, you know, managing the personalities of the
• 1:05:43
  athletes, you know. You go from coaching, Tom
• 1:05:45
  Patron, off Stoddard, Illinois, state to coaching Scott
• 1:05:48
  Skipper's, son and Dean krauser son and Robert.
• 1:05:52
  Where's daughter at Oregon? You know?
• 1:05:55
  So managing those high level type athletes and get no
• 1:05:59
  developing relationships as fast as you can to, to ultimately try
• 1:06:02
  to provide the best opportunities for them to have
• 1:06:05
  success and to excel at Oregon. Yeah, I didn't think about that
• 1:06:08
  you Have really coached some family Legacy.
• 1:06:12
  People, you mentioned the Skipper's and the Krauser's.
• 1:06:16
  Two names, two, family names in Oregon that are revered knowing
• 1:06:21
  both families really well, parts of each member's.
• 1:06:24
  You know, Mitch krauser is a good friend of mine.
• 1:06:29
  Greg Skipper is a friend of mine and it just, you know, those
• 1:06:31
  family lineages are. I mean there's some school
• 1:06:36
  toptenz that don't have an equal top 10 of these.
• 1:06:39
  Release the throw. So and then the, we're yeah,
• 1:06:42
  you've really had. You've gotta I didn't think
• 1:06:44
  about this but you've really made a impact on family Legacy
• 1:06:48
  coaching. If you will, that's that's
• 1:06:50
  tough. And he goes back to, you know,
• 1:06:52
  my development, you know, I don't know how many lunches or
• 1:06:55
  dinners, you know, talking with Dean and you know, still talking
• 1:06:59
  to Scott, you know, Scott and I and Greg still, if you know
• 1:07:02
  probably conversate, you know, at least once or twice a month,
• 1:07:06
  even now that I'm gone. But, you know, Taking those
• 1:07:09
  insights of those. Not just the dads but coaches,
• 1:07:14
  as well. If, you know, Scott, coaches
• 1:07:16
  Dean coaches, you know, high school kids and have developed
• 1:07:19
  high school kids and taking some of their experiences and, you
• 1:07:23
  know, seeing where it fits in with your ideology at throwing,
• 1:07:27
  you know, did you know, has just been another piece and in my
• 1:07:30
  coaching development? Yeah, yeah.
• 1:07:32
  That's, that's really unique. I had, you know, I had Patron
• 1:07:36
  off in my head, totally forgot Skippers and trousers, and And
• 1:07:39
  Weir's. Yeah.
• 1:07:41
  So you know along the way of your journey, you mentioned the
• 1:07:44
  word ego several times and I've said every time it comes up in
• 1:07:49
  the podcast here you know ego is not bad.
• 1:07:52
  Bad ego is bad. And we share say, a similar
• 1:07:57
  experience in the sense that, you know, my whole career.
• 1:07:59
  When I coached was all to get to the SEC, you know.
• 1:08:02
  I'm from Alabama. So I'm a, I'm a, I have no
• 1:08:05
  problem saying I'm an SEC Homer. I mean, I think that CeCe has
• 1:08:08
  the best. If they had tiddlywinks in NCAA
• 1:08:11
  SEC would be the best tiddlywinks.
• 1:08:13
  Conferring, we were just the best conference out there.
• 1:08:14
  So, my whole goal was to get to the SEC and I go from Ball State
• 1:08:18
  to Mississippi State. I made it.
• 1:08:19
  That was actually my, my problem.
• 1:08:21
  I'd made it. I had arrived.
• 1:08:24
  You had a much better attitude than I did.
• 1:08:26
  But what I'm curious about, when I got to Mississippi State, my
• 1:08:30
  ego, my bad ego played into it thinking, oh, now that I've
• 1:08:34
  arrived now that I'm in SEC recruiting I was a big recruiter
• 1:08:38
  work. Routing is going to be so much
• 1:08:41
  easier when I was at Ball State and I compare that to an
• 1:08:43
  Illinois State when you called recruits.
• 1:08:47
  A first of all, there was probably a line of recruit, you
• 1:08:49
  didn't call. You may be kind of just assumed
• 1:08:51
  to for time and efficiency. I'm not going to get the number
• 1:08:54
  one, thrower in the country at Ball State.
• 1:08:56
  I certainly didn't call the number one, high jumper in the
• 1:08:59
  country, unless they were from Illinois from Indiana.
• 1:09:02
  I'd give it a shot, but, you know, again, there was no shot,
• 1:09:04
  right? But I had to explain who Ball
• 1:09:07
  State was where we were What a great school it was etcetera.
• 1:09:10
  Or maybe you had to do that at Illinois State.
• 1:09:12
  I assumed when I got to Mississippi State as soon as I
• 1:09:16
  said hey this is coach Mike Cunningham from Mississippi
• 1:09:19
  State, it was over, there's a rap, you knew who we were what
• 1:09:23
  conference we were in you automatically assume that was a
• 1:09:25
  great coach because I was at NCC and I remember one of the first
• 1:09:30
  recruits, I call the LZ Coleman he ended up setting the actually
• 1:09:33
  that's implied games. You mentioned Simplot earlier
• 1:09:36
  set the end or High School National Record the So this
• 1:09:39
  gives us stud is SEC material kit.
• 1:09:42
  And after I establish some bonding and rapport with him
• 1:09:45
  over, you know, a few weeks, I asked him.
• 1:09:47
  So LZ, who are you looking at for your top five, you know,
• 1:09:50
  back then we only had five visits, right?
• 1:09:52
  That's about to change. Who's your top five?
• 1:09:56
  And I distinctly remember him going?
• 1:09:58
  Oh yeah, University of Florida, USC, Baylor.
• 1:10:03
  And I think it was Texas. I think and I remember there was
• 1:10:07
  a pause, I didn't know. To say because I was like, oh
• 1:10:10
  wait a minute, I've got to go because my call away, that guy's
• 1:10:14
  my mentor. Like I ask him question.
• 1:10:16
  Like I need a mic Holloway Willie, I gotta beat the Los
• 1:10:20
  Angeles, I'm in Starkville Mississippi.
• 1:10:23
  Oh wait a minute, I've got to beat quarter mile ER you This
• 1:10:28
  guy. Oh wait, this didn't get easier.
• 1:10:32
  This just got a whole lot harder.
• 1:10:35
  Do you remember, your first major work?
• 1:10:39
  I mean, you know, at that level every recruit Spectra crew.
• 1:10:43
  But do you remember the first time you called someone on
• 1:10:45
  behalf of? I'm coach?
• 1:10:46
  Eric would sort of University of Oregon and they talk to you
• 1:10:50
  about other videos. They were taken, was there a
• 1:10:52
  sense of like oh okay, well that's the, you know, the State
• 1:10:56
  Illinois State. No more, that's no distal
• 1:10:57
  annoyed. But what was your reaction that
• 1:11:00
  first time that like that reality maybe hit you or became
• 1:11:03
  a reality for you. In some ways you're creating an
• 1:11:06
  ad or getting was to be honest, the easiest in terms of opening
• 1:11:10
  doors, you know, I would say that a majority of the kids that
• 1:11:13
  I ended up calling and called me first, you know, some kids were
• 1:11:17
  contacting me, you know, and you know getting an early step in
• 1:11:21
  the door by sending emails and contacting me first, you know,
• 1:11:26
  after those Legacy Kids graduated, It you know the
• 1:11:28
  Skipper's weirds and browsers it in.
• 1:11:32
  The biggest aspect was funding in that event area.
• 1:11:35
  You know Oregon you know is primarily distance and had
• 1:11:39
  developed since Prince and the throws were getting some good
• 1:11:43
  support you know and then you know you started to invest in
• 1:11:46
  the jumping areas you know that you know took away from from
• 1:11:50
  some groups, you know, there was probably three or four seasons
• 1:11:52
  there that maybe we had one combined scholarship total
• 1:11:55
  between the men and women. So that ended up being the
• 1:11:57
  Biggest headache is trying to find the best athlete in trying
• 1:12:01
  to figure out, you know, trying to find kids on academic money,
• 1:12:04
  trying to, you know, trying to. Yeah, this kids really good.
• 1:12:07
  But, you know, I don't have a shot at this time because
• 1:12:09
  really, we don't have the money to invest in that area.
• 1:12:11
  So maybe we go after, you know, a kid couple of notches down
• 1:12:15
  that's going to get six to ten thousand dollars academic money.
• 1:12:18
  So, that was that started to be the biggest hurdle is trying to
• 1:12:20
  find good talent that had money, you know, from other avenues and
• 1:12:25
  it was a tremendous benefit that Ian was a javelin throwing
• 1:12:29
  state. That was a, that was a huge
• 1:12:32
  benefit. You know, we had a male to
• 1:12:34
  Nashville Tennessee, you know, every year I was there and, you
• 1:12:38
  know, a female athlete probably six or seven years combined with
• 1:12:40
  the male athlete. So, I have a javelin there,
• 1:12:43
  really helped make the job a little bit easier because you
• 1:12:46
  could get those kids, you know, for Fairly cheap, huh?
• 1:12:48
  Being in state kids and in Oregon being a big name brand
• 1:12:52
  and obviously getting in-state tuition, but Oregon's
• 1:12:55
  out-of-state, tuition, at the time, you know, to bring in.
• 1:12:57
  Top level kid and not have to have big you know not have big
• 1:13:00
  money for them and that was the biggest difficulty and that's a
• 1:13:04
  great point about those. Every school has their issues.
• 1:13:08
  That's a great Point. By the way, even though it's
• 1:13:10
  organ, you still only had 12 points six scholarships and you
• 1:13:13
  only had 18 in great point about the cost of out-of-state cost
• 1:13:19
  for the University there along with cultural issues, right?
• 1:13:23
  Meaning that Oregon, I'ma Do air quotes but they're very they
• 1:13:27
  softened their coats needs to win in the distance because of
• 1:13:30
  its Legacy and history and tradition.
• 1:13:33
  There on the west coast and specifically in Oregon.
• 1:13:37
  They, you know, they are looked at that.
• 1:13:38
  They quote unquote have to have a distance program so maybe more
• 1:13:42
  scholarships are going into the distant side versus throwing
• 1:13:46
  etcetera. So yeah, that's those are really
• 1:13:48
  good points about the get outside looking as like, well,
• 1:13:51
  how come they didn't have every great thrower in the world.
• 1:13:54
  It's like, well, first of all, I got this many scholarships and
• 1:13:57
  It's what the kids. I'm recruiting a pretty good so
• 1:13:59
  they can go anywhere to get a lot of scholarship as well.
• 1:14:03
  And I like how you brought up about in this is a conception /
• 1:14:08
  misconception. You brought up that, you know,
• 1:14:10
  maybe one of the real advantages there was recruiting was easier
• 1:14:14
  in the sense of a lot of kids were reaching out to you because
• 1:14:17
  the brand that the brand of organ is extremely strong in
• 1:14:21
  sports, but really strong, also in the niche of track and field.
• 1:14:28
  But the kids that you're recruiting and not just in
• 1:14:31
  throws but overall in the program, any kid that's being
• 1:14:35
  looked at by Oregon for any amount of scholarship, is also
• 1:14:40
  being recruited by almost say. I'm going to exaggerate here,
• 1:14:43
  but everybody else 100 other schools, right?
• 1:14:47
  In fact, I remember having this conversation with Carol Smith,
• 1:14:49
  gilberg then head coach at USC. And now, at University of
• 1:14:53
  Georgia phenomenal person, another person that really needs
• 1:14:56
  to be on the podcast. Just love her journey, good
• 1:14:59
  friend. And I remember touring the u.s.
• 1:15:01
  see facilities in. She's telling me how much again
• 1:15:03
  cost and it's private. So there is no in-state
• 1:15:06
  out-of-state there. So there's there's a
• 1:15:07
  misconception of, why isn't you see winning every time?
• 1:15:10
  Well, God bless. They have their own issues,
• 1:15:12
  right? So she was telling me the cost
• 1:15:14
  and things like that, and I was like, and they have their own
• 1:15:16
  issues with their track to Scylla T.
• 1:15:18
  So, you know, Oregon has a very specially now closed down like
• 1:15:22
  that, you have full control over your facility.
• 1:15:25
  USC's is maybe the exact Opposite, you know, the band
• 1:15:28
  uses it. The community uses it at cetera.
• 1:15:31
  And so, I was, I asked, remember, we're walking with
• 1:15:34
  with Quincy now head coach at USC, and I was like, well then,
• 1:15:37
  you know, if you're recruiting a kid here at USC Carol, well,
• 1:15:41
  that means, you know, they can go to Oregon Texas, Tennessee,
• 1:15:45
  whatever rate, you know, programs, Florida cetera that
• 1:15:49
  you can name. They can also go there.
• 1:15:50
  Like, if you're recruiting them, that means they're, you know,
• 1:15:53
  the other guys are in gals are also looking at them.
• 1:15:55
  Why do they go to school us? See and there was other factors
• 1:15:58
  it was you know some other academic and things like that
• 1:16:00
  factors. What were those other factors
• 1:16:02
  for you at organ when you recruited a kid that you know
• 1:16:06
  maybe was getting a full ride at XYZ University but because of
• 1:16:10
  you no limitations of scholarship at cetera, you could
• 1:16:13
  only offer a quarter or less. What were the other selling
• 1:16:17
  points for you as a coach to get those kids there?
• 1:16:22
  Primarily the sillies, you know, II know a lot of a lot of
• 1:16:25
  schools and coaches - recruited that the weather out there, you
• 1:16:29
  know, it is pretty rainy and you don't see the Sun for quite a
• 1:16:32
  few months but at the end of the day it's about training and in
• 1:16:36
  the belief and in, you know, you can be great and then look what
• 1:16:40
  we did there. You know, those ten years with
• 1:16:42
  the type of weather we had you not even have a training
• 1:16:44
  facility for three years as they be able to Hayward Field.
• 1:16:48
  So it's more about the the belief, in the wise and What's
• 1:16:51
  in the house? You're doing something.
• 1:16:53
  If you want to be great, if it's not necessarily the fancy
• 1:16:55
  facilities or the weather or things like that, but I hear I
• 1:16:59
  hear the name. Branded Oregon is huge.
• 1:17:01
  I think the Allure of that's where Nike was created, you
• 1:17:06
  know, having that type of relationship with Nike and
• 1:17:09
  having Nike there in Beaverton, but knowing that in Oregon coach
• 1:17:13
  and an Oregon distance, Runner Health, buying found that
• 1:17:17
  company and then the relationship it is still has You
• 1:17:21
  know, I think it plays a big draw in why kids want to come to
• 1:17:24
  Oregon, you know, that that connection.
• 1:17:27
  Yeah, I forgot you brought the weather and what I love about
• 1:17:30
  that is I actually like to kind of like bring down the lure of
• 1:17:34
  schools and organs. A great example of that, not
• 1:17:37
  because I'm a hater. Anything I'm definitely a fan of
• 1:17:40
  Oregon for many, many reasons, but what I like to do is, I want
• 1:17:46
  people to realize that winning is hard no matter where you are,
• 1:17:51
  And because of that, when you, when you can understand that
• 1:17:54
  truth, that there's only one National Champion every year.
• 1:17:57
  On the men's side, one of the women's side, there's only one
• 1:17:59
  National Champion shot putter, Etc.
• 1:18:01
  There's only one winning is hard.
• 1:18:04
  And so when you can accept that as a truth, that means that
• 1:18:09
  coaching is extremely important. That like I like to bust the
• 1:18:15
  myth that an organ or now at a Tennessee SEC.
• 1:18:18
  School that oh oh well Eric. Just got the best kids in the
• 1:18:22
  world and just all he had to do was just drive them, you know,
• 1:18:25
  the whole. I'm just a bus driver thing.
• 1:18:26
  He just had to drive the bus. That's not true.
• 1:18:29
  Well, you certainly Got Talent and get first of all, you had to
• 1:18:31
  overcome a lot. The organ is not perfect.
• 1:18:34
  Organ has its advantages but it's not perfect.
• 1:18:38
  And you had to recruit against some other schools that had
• 1:18:41
  advantages versus in Oregon and also disadvantages, but
• 1:18:44
  advantages La has better weather than Eugene.
• 1:18:47
  Sorry that's that's just a fact. But so not only did you have to
• 1:18:51
  overcome that you had to recruit your butt off to still get kids
• 1:18:54
  at organ? And then when they got there, no
• 1:18:57
  matter how good they were, you had to coach your butt off to
• 1:19:02
  make them all Americans national champions and eventually
• 1:19:05
  National Championship t. I remember coming up to Robert
• 1:19:08
  when you guys won indoors at Texas A&M. 2017-18 some around
• 1:19:14
  there. You won by on the women's side.
• 1:19:16
  You won by a huge margin like Points, which is, you know, from
• 1:19:18
  Nationals is just crazy. And I remember going up to
• 1:19:22
  Robert and I was like, Hey, a lot of people are going to say,
• 1:19:25
  well, how easy was this? You know, you won by 30.
• 1:19:28
  I know you won by 30 and it was not easy.
• 1:19:31
  It is hard things have to go perfect other things that the
• 1:19:35
  not go perfect for other teams. It's unbelievable hard.
• 1:19:38
  So I love this. Again, not the busting of the
• 1:19:42
  Oregon myth, but of the realization that, hey, other
• 1:19:45
  coaches, that are looking at when you are door again and
• 1:19:47
  going, oh, Eric of course you had these all Americans.
• 1:19:51
  You have everything there. Sorry folks.
• 1:19:54
  There was still a lot of hard work and one of those hard works
• 1:19:57
  and you brought this word up a lot is the circuits and again we
• 1:20:01
  don't talk X's and O's here but it feels like outside looking in
• 1:20:04
  that. This is really where your
• 1:20:07
  coaching philosophy kind of came.
• 1:20:10
  Around on circuits. Like, I remember these the big
• 1:20:13
  tires and I don't know, I don't know that you had big tires at
• 1:20:15
  Illinois, state. But I know you had a mentor
• 1:20:17
  again, and just kind of this blue-collar work ethic.
• 1:20:20
  Like, okay, sure, we've got Hayward and it's amazing but
• 1:20:24
  we're going to put in work here is this where circuits as a
• 1:20:27
  philosophy started coming into and also maybe connect that to
• 1:20:31
  personally for you because this is where the physical health of
• 1:20:34
  you really started kicking in again at least from the outside
• 1:20:38
  looking in. No.
• 1:20:39
  Absolutely. You know, we started the
• 1:20:41
  strongman circuits or I had get an 8 to 10 foot logs at the you
• 1:20:46
  know, we would basically Fingal picker over.
• 1:20:49
  We had tires that we flipped, you know, I drilled handles and
• 1:20:52
  two tires that we would form or carry pushing and pulling my
• 1:20:55
  truck. I remember, I think my second
• 1:20:57
  year there, I actually had Lance weld me a hook to put on the the
• 1:21:02
  tow cables in my truck and we put a hammer wire and a handle
• 1:21:05
  that and I would have two athletes in the front of my
• 1:21:07
  truck backward. Camera walking You know, my
• 1:21:09
  truck, you know, went to a local beer dispensary and bought a
• 1:21:13
  whole bunch of got donated, a whole bunch of used cakes and
• 1:21:17
  water and sand in those pigs. And, you know, Finding strength
• 1:21:21
  movements through Mobility. You know, I think is key and
• 1:21:24
  that's a philosophy of mine that you know, is stuck with me is is
• 1:21:29
  getting strong through movement, you know, sure, static strength
• 1:21:32
  in the weight room, your squats or deadlifts.
• 1:21:34
  You know, are just buying, you know, obviously you're going to
• 1:21:36
  get strong but, you know, we're moving when we're throwing.
• 1:21:39
  There's not a single throwing event where you're standing in a
• 1:21:42
  vertical plane, so developing ways to train and strengthen
• 1:21:46
  ligaments and tendons, and strength and lower backs
• 1:21:49
  through, you know, pretty intense hard ways of movement
• 1:21:54
  is, is something that I'm in a really, really big on the matter
• 1:21:58
  of fact. Today, I'm going out to a
• 1:22:00
  brewery to pick up our per set of cakes here, starting at
• 1:22:04
  Tennessee. So late in the year basically
• 1:22:05
  getting here a week before practice, you know, we missed a
• 1:22:08
  lot of what we do on On my Paul prep work so there was a lot of
• 1:22:12
  things I had to improvise here. This first year you know just
• 1:22:14
  getting thrown in so quickly but these kids are going to find out
• 1:22:18
  in a hurry this summer and next fall, what what?
• 1:22:21
  We're all about. So I'm going to pick it up the
• 1:22:23
  tractor tires this week and go to the dispensary and getting
• 1:22:27
  our various size tag the pillows of water and sand.
• 1:22:29
  And we're get back to the group kind of town.
• 1:22:32
  I love your strength in a movement philosophy, if you
• 1:22:38
  will. And while I know, Not, you're
• 1:22:40
  not the only person that does that.
• 1:22:42
  However, I do believe from coaches that I talk to.
• 1:22:46
  And, you know, again, I'm always on Twitter, some seeing how
• 1:22:48
  people are training. It is still a fairly unique
• 1:22:52
  aspect. A lot of us are as throws
• 1:22:54
  coaches, and strength. Coaches are very big on weight
• 1:22:57
  room. Like, that's a huge and it's
• 1:22:58
  part of it, you know, we're not saying you don't do weight room.
• 1:23:01
  It's a part of, but you do a lot of functional movement type of
• 1:23:05
  strength for your throwers, do you?
• 1:23:07
  And I just don't know. Eric, Do you speak a lot on
• 1:23:10
  that? Like there is through podcast or
• 1:23:12
  add a state clinics, or you stfc a?
• 1:23:16
  I mean, that's a like that would really benefit the throwing
• 1:23:19
  Community coaches. Specifically, I haven't, you
• 1:23:22
  know, majority of my career, I've kind of just kept my head
• 1:23:26
  down and just do my own thing and just trying to go out there
• 1:23:29
  and get the kids better and compete.
• 1:23:32
  You know, I wouldn't be opposed to now, you know, a little later
• 1:23:35
  on in my career and and again this goes back to the ego part
• 1:23:38
  of things. You know.
• 1:23:39
  But, you know, sharing some of that knowledge and in some of
• 1:23:42
  those things with other people, definitely wouldn't have a
• 1:23:45
  problem doing that. Moving forward.
• 1:23:47
  But primarily, you know, I've always kind of kept things
• 1:23:50
  relatively close to the Belt. Yeah.
• 1:23:51
  You're really unique in that aspect Eric and you know I can
• 1:23:54
  say this as someone who's seen you you know inside the track
• 1:23:57
  and outside the track. You know you portray if I only
• 1:24:01
  saw you a track meets maybe a practices you portray a very
• 1:24:05
  extroverted type of Personage, right?
• 1:24:09
  Like you're loud, you're competitive, you know, lots of
• 1:24:13
  movement, things like that. But I and I thought I knew this
• 1:24:18
  and I was right but I wasn't sure you're not on the the you
• 1:24:22
  stfc a circuit. If you will, you know, talking
• 1:24:25
  about your training, you are also very introverted in that
• 1:24:29
  sense, you know, your family life is very private things like
• 1:24:32
  that. It's just a unique aspect of
• 1:24:35
  this, you know, it's actually, you know, we think of
• 1:24:37
  extraversion inversion as A light switch, I go, you're
• 1:24:40
  either extroverted or introverted, and it's actually,
• 1:24:42
  there's a spectrum. There's actually a very good
• 1:24:45
  term for someone like you. It's called ambivert it's
• 1:24:48
  someone who can play on both sides, but that also means both
• 1:24:52
  sides can be tiring as well, you know, extroverts and introverts
• 1:24:58
  can do extroverted activity, but it tires them out, very quickly.
• 1:25:01
  They need to get back in the introversion very quickly.
• 1:25:04
  So, someone who's the hamburger can do?
• 1:25:05
  Both, that means both also Tire them out, kind of, kind of
• 1:25:08
  quickly. And I think you hit the nail on
• 1:25:11
  the head, you know, I'm very emotional type of guy and then
• 1:25:14
  my emotion doesn't just pour out on me.
• 1:25:16
  It's, you know, I'm out there who are on and jumping up and
• 1:25:18
  down in a practice session. When the kid does, what I do,
• 1:25:21
  you know, tell them to do. So, that's beam and in Fire and
• 1:25:25
  yelling when you see me, you know, one of my athletes had a
• 1:25:27
  big growth, those big meats, you know, that's probably my my week
• 1:25:30
  that week attack practice and you know, definitely some
• 1:25:34
  athletes cup of tea and some not you know, I've had some kids at
• 1:25:36
  kind of wanted a little bit more mail.
• 1:25:39
  And I've got it if myself and then realize that this kid likes
• 1:25:42
  to, you know, their practice setting to be a little bit more
• 1:25:44
  calm, cool and collected, but my exert a lot of energy when I
• 1:25:47
  coach, whether it's through demonstration, or vocal, or just
• 1:25:51
  a lot of fist pumps and high fives and jumping up and down.
• 1:25:53
  And, you know, that's just not limited to, you know, the big
• 1:25:57
  time Championship meet, you know.
• 1:25:58
  I'm, I'm who you see at those meats probably every day of the
• 1:26:02
  week out of practice and a lot of the times when I get home,
• 1:26:05
  you know, it's using that remaining amount of energy and
• 1:26:09
  saying that your family, you know, needs a little bit of your
• 1:26:11
  time as well. You know, I was talking to
• 1:26:14
  somebody last week and said now my son 72, my daughter's three,
• 1:26:18
  you know, you start to realize that you spend your day to day
• 1:26:20
  more with other people's kids and do your own.
• 1:26:23
  You know, I'm usually up and that way, it's before they even
• 1:26:25
  wake up and they go to bed at 8:00, you know, the typical day,
• 1:26:28
  I might get home at 6:00, we sit down and have dinner from six to
• 1:26:31
  seven and you might have an hour to, you know, play some Mario
• 1:26:34
  Kart or talk about those the day's going, and then they go to
• 1:26:37
  bed. So, you know.
• 1:26:39
  Tried to the weekends and things like that, I haven't gone to
• 1:26:42
  those coaches conventions in a long time.
• 1:26:44
  And, you know, I'm not flying out and doing conventions and
• 1:26:47
  doing a lot of speaking because, you know, those Saturdays and
• 1:26:50
  Sundays, you know, inside of the year, when you're not traveling
• 1:26:52
  during the summertime, you know, I got to get back to my family.
• 1:26:56
  Yeah, I respect that a lot like and you know, that that's part
• 1:27:00
  of my passion for coaches is, that's the relationship health.
• 1:27:04
  And, you know, I saw a tweet just yesterday, it really was
• 1:27:08
  one of those like, Like hmm kind of hit you like kind of almost
• 1:27:12
  like a sucker punch type of a tweet.
• 1:27:14
  I think it was from a strength or a football coach actually
• 1:27:16
  wasn't a track coach. And they were essentially, they
• 1:27:19
  were saying, you know, how, you know, very stereotypically a
• 1:27:22
  coach will say, you know, we're family, you know, with our
• 1:27:24
  athletes and things like that and then they'll dismiss their
• 1:27:27
  own family, they'll be gone. Every weekend every, you know,
• 1:27:30
  your wife and your children, get 1% of you and you give nine
• 1:27:34
  percent to your job, coaching track and field in the Tweet was
• 1:27:38
  essentially saying You're saying your family will we see how you
• 1:27:40
  treat your family so they like you're showing your reality what
• 1:27:43
  family is. Like, it's not this Kumbaya,
• 1:27:45
  we're seeing how your actual family is treated was really
• 1:27:48
  like a who is it was a gut punch her for?
• 1:27:51
  I think four coaches of like, man, you know, this is your job
• 1:27:54
  and I know it's your passion and I'm very passionate about my job
• 1:27:56
  as well. But it's your job, your family.
• 1:28:00
  That's different. And we've got to do a better job
• 1:28:04
  as a coaching body of being present with our spouses being
• 1:28:07
  present with our families. He's at all turns, not not, when
• 1:28:11
  we can at all turns. And then our job is what we do.
• 1:28:15
  And again, it's a unique job, being a coach, I understand that
• 1:28:19
  the day, it's still a profession that gives you money to take
• 1:28:21
  care of your family, and passions, your Charities Etc.
• 1:28:24
  So all right and we step off that soapbox there but
• 1:28:28
  appreciate just like your unique in that and I just want to
• 1:28:29
  encourage you as it fits in with your family time.
• 1:28:32
  First and foremost of just speaking out, you know, your
• 1:28:35
  training is it's been developed, very uniquely Been crafted
• 1:28:40
  uniquely with your own personality and experiences, and
• 1:28:43
  I just think there's a lot that other coaches specifically in
• 1:28:45
  this strength and throwing world could learn and we could
• 1:28:48
  continue to raise up the throwing Community, which is
• 1:28:51
  throwing out their mind right now, by the way, on all levels
• 1:28:54
  high school and college and professionally.
• 1:28:57
  It's just you know everybody talks about the shoes and track
• 1:29:01
  and field right now. Well they wear those shoes,
• 1:29:03
  throwing people and the throws are equally crazy right now.
• 1:29:08
  There's no event, right? Now, and track and field.
• 1:29:09
  That's not just Bonkers, but the throwers are certainly holding
• 1:29:14
  their own in each and every one of their events, okay?
• 1:29:17
  So Eric, let's start transitioning to today.
• 1:29:21
  You're at the University of Tennessee and I'm going to let
• 1:29:24
  you share how you want to share the transition from Pac-12 to
• 1:29:29
  SEC from Oregon to Tennessee. You know, is definitely a tough
• 1:29:36
  time you know, going out the way you did.
• 1:29:39
  Did, but sitting back to got to realize the opportunities that
• 1:29:42
  you had over the last decade, you know, coming off of a season
• 1:29:45
  where you've coached a World Champ in the shot and bronze the
• 1:29:49
  disc, and several Americans is freshmen and sophomores.
• 1:29:52
  You definitely finding another job was not on, on the mindset.
• 1:29:58
  So things happened pretty quickly was pretty darn
• 1:30:01
  stressful after the NCAA championships.
• 1:30:04
  But again, fortunate enough to have spent, you know, ten years
• 1:30:07
  at Oregon and ultimately that I meant something, you know, there
• 1:30:10
  was a lot of opportunities and a lot of different jobs to, you
• 1:30:14
  know, look through it and sift through, you know, Tennessee,
• 1:30:17
  when Tennessee called, you know, obviously, that type of program
• 1:30:22
  was up my alley a program, they could still get done for
• 1:30:24
  national championships, but then ultimately everything kind of
• 1:30:28
  fit into place, you know that the location in Knoxville, we're
• 1:30:31
  big Outdoors people. We love to camp and fish and
• 1:30:33
  hiking on, you know, that's something that we do any given
• 1:30:37
  moment that we can and have The Smoky Mountains and the rivers
• 1:30:40
  out here was huge. And then coming out here and
• 1:30:43
  meeting coach Ross, you know, definitely, probably one of the
• 1:30:46
  most down-to-earth people tough when he needs to be, but
• 1:30:49
  somebody that has unwavering trust in you as a coach and as a
• 1:30:53
  staff to do your job, somebody that's not hovering over you but
• 1:30:56
  just gives you the rope that you need to be successful.
• 1:30:59
  So, you know, that was it was an easy decision.
• 1:31:02
  When we took our interview out here, the right fit for our
• 1:31:05
  family and can see it in ourselves being able to try.
• 1:31:09
  To build this program up to a championship caliber program.
• 1:31:12
  Yeah, I want to, I love your story and I love your story
• 1:31:16
  because of I don't say where you landed, but where you are today,
• 1:31:21
  which is a great place. And you mentioned Dwayne, Ross,
• 1:31:23
  whose dear friend of mine. I love him to death, Gil,
• 1:31:26
  podcast Alum, as well from, when he was at NC.
• 1:31:30
  A&T fact, we've had several Ted, I think you're like, maybe the
• 1:31:33
  fourth Tennessee coach. So, do I need that Carlson on
• 1:31:36
  there? Carlson came on a great guy.
• 1:31:39
  You yeah we're me guy and when we talked a lot about the
• 1:31:42
  uniqueness is there at Tennessee and coming from Notre Dame his
• 1:31:46
  North Central grad. So there's another Diary is
• 1:31:48
  competitive unique. How you're setting up the
• 1:31:51
  distance events in cross country teams there in Tennessee, we had
• 1:31:55
  former Tennessee head coach Beth, Alfred Sullivan also on
• 1:31:58
  the show as well, which another just great insights into the
• 1:32:01
  coaching Community for your story.
• 1:32:04
  Here, I want to I like to use it as a cautionary, Tale.
• 1:32:09
  What I mean by that is, you know, when we get into and a lot
• 1:32:12
  of it was, you know, it's based off of what I talked to told you
• 1:32:15
  about my desires of coaching. It was all to get to the SEC,
• 1:32:18
  right? You know, a lot of times again,
• 1:32:22
  it's that outside looking in, but there were a high school
• 1:32:24
  coach or non power, 5 division, water division, two to Juco.
• 1:32:30
  Any? I we think, man, I want to coach
• 1:32:35
  the best and that's not bad, but that means, I need to be at the
• 1:32:39
  SEC or the Pac-12. Power five.
• 1:32:42
  I need to be a division 1. And we get forget that, there's
• 1:32:46
  a lot of things that go on and on these levels.
• 1:32:48
  And, you know, for you Eric, you know, I'm not sure in the 10
• 1:32:53
  years that you were at Oregon that many coaches had a better
• 1:32:58
  10-year block a decade of coaching throwers on the
• 1:33:02
  Collegiate level. As you mentioned, you know,
• 1:33:04
  World Champ that last year, you know, many, many national
• 1:33:08
  points, many many conference points, many, many Conference
• 1:33:11
  champions championship teams that your athletes it in
• 1:33:15
  national championships at cetera.
• 1:33:17
  It was an amazing tenure slot. Like if if that was your only
• 1:33:21
  resume and be like, my aunt's want to top 5 resumes in this
• 1:33:24
  country and through. No fault of your own.
• 1:33:28
  You find yourself out that? That's the cautionary, tale.
• 1:33:32
  That's the tail that I think we need to learn from.
• 1:33:35
  Is that not be careful what you ask for, but just know that when
• 1:33:40
  you get to that level, you could do everything right.
• 1:33:43
  And I don't know that you did everything right, you know.
• 1:33:45
  Perfect is a hard level to attain, but you did a lot of
• 1:33:49
  things, right? You did the vast majority of
• 1:33:51
  things correctly, you are a great person to work with no one
• 1:33:54
  ever. And I know lots of people on
• 1:33:56
  that staff and former staff, no one ever was like, yeah, you
• 1:33:58
  know, he's kind of a jerk nothing, great person, great
• 1:34:01
  teammate to have on the coaching staff at cetera your athlete
• 1:34:04
  speak. Very highly of you through no
• 1:34:06
  fault of your own. You find yourself out and it's
• 1:34:09
  one thing. You know, when I was coaching,
• 1:34:11
  it was before I got married and had children, it's one thing I
• 1:34:14
  was Coach for 10 years, and has a five different places.
• 1:34:16
  It's one thing when it's just you to move around.
• 1:34:20
  Now, you find yourself married. You find yourself with two
• 1:34:26
  children. You own a house.
• 1:34:29
  Just bought a house. Yep, just bought the house.
• 1:34:34
  And you find yourself unemployed, that's a tough
• 1:34:38
  situation to be in. And I know a lot of Americans
• 1:34:42
  deal with that on a daily but not coaches, just people in
• 1:34:44
  general and that's so stressful. And, you know, you and I as
• 1:34:48
  being friends, went through this process a little bit together
• 1:34:51
  and I know the stress that you were in and I know the stress
• 1:34:55
  you carried was really less about you and your professional
• 1:34:59
  career. And I remember almost every one
• 1:35:01
  of our conversations was about. Oh man, Casey Me and the kids,
• 1:35:06
  you know, what do we do about schooling?
• 1:35:07
  What are we going? We're going to grow up, it was
• 1:35:10
  the stress of carrying the family on your shoulders.
• 1:35:14
  I truly believe that if you would have ended up at the
• 1:35:17
  smallest the newest of program in the NAIA Juco, you know no
• 1:35:21
  kids, no program. You would have been completely
• 1:35:24
  happy as long as it's a good place for your family, paid
• 1:35:26
  enough to help the family to do the things that we need to do
• 1:35:28
  for the family, Etc. The ego had been the bad ego
• 1:35:32
  have been completely washed away.
• 1:35:34
  Way, at that point there was no ego of like, well, gosh, I'm
• 1:35:37
  from organized should be able to go anywhere.
• 1:35:38
  It was like, man, what can I do for my my family.
• 1:35:40
  We won't even get into some of the other options that you even
• 1:35:43
  consider the options that we're not in coaching because it would
• 1:35:46
  been right at that point for the family.
• 1:35:48
  So I just like to use your tails at cautionary.
• 1:35:50
  Just just make sure you're getting into whatever level that
• 1:35:55
  you're at for the right reasons. And what I mean by that is it's
• 1:35:58
  a profession and you have your family but also know that you
• 1:36:03
  Eric did not Affect young people, positively more, just
• 1:36:08
  because he was at Oregon, whether he would have stayed at
• 1:36:10
  Illinois, State, McNeese State, went to my alma mater and Troy,
• 1:36:13
  he would have had as much of a positive impact on young people
• 1:36:17
  there. He just said Oregon had
• 1:36:19
  different Will be the word different expectations.
• 1:36:23
  Like, okay. Yeah.
• 1:36:24
  You need to have a positive student athlete experience
• 1:36:26
  because they are students there at University of Oregon and
• 1:36:28
  getting degrees. But we need those athletes.
• 1:36:30
  Also perform at this level versus maybe a different strata.
• 1:36:34
  Met a division, three or Nai, Etc.
• 1:36:37
  So just like to use that tail, and it's so happy for your
• 1:36:40
  family that you landed at the University of Tennessee because
• 1:36:44
  it's a great school. It's a great Athletic program
• 1:36:47
  and for me honestly selfishly because Dwayne Ross is there, my
• 1:36:51
  man. Justin I'm a big Duane Ross fan.
• 1:36:53
  So so what's it like, you know, you grew up your West Coast
• 1:36:57
  your, your Colorado, the closest you got to SCC was probably a
• 1:37:01
  mcnees because you're an LSU territory their year in the SEC,
• 1:37:05
  man. When I was there, 12 teams you
• 1:37:08
  got 14. Now, I hated the SEC Conference
• 1:37:11
  meet, we were pretty good team, we were top 10 team at
• 1:37:14
  Mississippi State, we ran three flat and change in the 4x4 and
• 1:37:18
  never ran it up at the SE c--'s. We were Point for Nationals.
• 1:37:22
  What's what was it like that first SEC indoor championship
• 1:37:26
  and then also outdoor just you know just tell me cuz I it's
• 1:37:30
  phenomenal that meat. So tell me, tell me your
• 1:37:32
  experience. The biggest eye-opening was
• 1:37:36
  there's no straggler points. You know there's no getting
• 1:37:39
  cheap, dance, 6th 7th and 8th places.
• 1:37:43
  You know our top eight from hands down in every event is you
• 1:37:48
  do a Mark that might get you know National championships.
• 1:37:51
  I mean we are looking at 19 million the shot being fifth,
• 1:37:55
  sixth seventh, you know, 57 58 M. 59 m in The discus being
• 1:38:00
  fourth, fifth sixth. So, you know, the back 12, you
• 1:38:04
  know, the top three for are usually pretty deep and and, you
• 1:38:07
  know, I made a name for it. Cleaning up some of those
• 1:38:10
  stragglers points there at the end with some developmental
• 1:38:12
  kids, but you find out in a hurry that the SEC is definitely
• 1:38:16
  more about polish Talent, you know, if you can take your time
• 1:38:19
  to Develop a lot of talent out here long term if you're trying
• 1:38:24
  to win championships you know. Yeah.
• 1:38:25
  It's it's a banger territory. You know the the conferences is
• 1:38:29
  the real deal for sure. And I'm not taking away with the
• 1:38:34
  Pac-12 when I ask this next question because the the Pac-12
• 1:38:38
  throws coaches are there legendary in their own minds.
• 1:38:42
  I'm not doing that was a terrible, that's not how I meant
• 1:38:44
  that they are legendary in their own ways, not in their own
• 1:38:47
  minds, maybe some are, but they are awesome HV.
• 1:38:50
  Coaches throws coaches, specifically are amazing.
• 1:38:52
  Some of the greatest throws coaches around sec.
• 1:38:56
  I mean, you turn around and look at who's coaching, Georgia
• 1:39:00
  throwers look, who's coaching Florida throwers?
• 1:39:02
  Now look who's good surgeon in South Carolina?
• 1:39:04
  Doesn't get his demands. Oh my God.
• 1:39:07
  Johnny Connie. Come on, man, Pat evil.
• 1:39:13
  Oh my gosh. Ashley, Ashley.
• 1:39:17
  Go back now. You might be the eighth.
• 1:39:27
  Best throws coach in the SEC. And you're still your top five
• 1:39:32
  in the country, though. You might try for sure.
• 1:39:36
  It is amazing. It's every event in the SEC
• 1:39:42
  including Distance, by the way, that's where they get the most.
• 1:39:45
  You know, outside finger-wagging is Worked like the Sprint's need
• 1:39:52
  to be olympic-caliber. The jumps need to be
• 1:39:54
  olympic-caliber the long and triple jump.
• 1:39:57
  That was just in case just insane.
• 1:39:59
  I can't wait to see this Arkansas kid at Nationals.
• 1:40:01
  I mean 12 stepping 58. Ft, 11, jump.
• 1:40:05
  Come on in Trevor's. Get for a great cause I mean,
• 1:40:07
  come on man. It's just amazing when I was
• 1:40:10
  there. That was kind of like when I
• 1:40:11
  first walked into the first SEC and it was just like oh my God
• 1:40:15
  these are my these like for me it was you know, I was much
• 1:40:17
  younger and my coaching career than where you are now but it
• 1:40:19
  was just Like me, these are my heroes.
• 1:40:21
  Like, these coaches are like, like I want to be them one day
• 1:40:24
  and but I got time because now I'm in their conference, so I
• 1:40:26
  got to be them today. And then walking out, you know,
• 1:40:30
  maybe you go in thinking, oh, I can get these many points and
• 1:40:32
  you walk out with maybe less. It's just a blood bath and and
• 1:40:37
  even what Jon Newell is doing at Arkansas with their throws.
• 1:40:40
  Yeah come on John Woos. That's my that's my birthday to
• 1:40:43
  him. We're both July 25th babies man.
• 1:40:45
  I love John to death. What do you think about is?
• 1:40:48
  And again this may not be a Question, because you're just
• 1:40:51
  finishing up, you're not even your name, finished up your
• 1:40:53
  first year there. But, when you think about that
• 1:40:55
  conference, you've got to experiences the indoor and
• 1:40:58
  outdoor conference meet. And, you know, within what is it
• 1:41:01
  two years or a year? You've got Texas and Oklahoma
• 1:41:04
  coming in as well. What is, I mean, does that
• 1:41:06
  excite use that concern? You, what's your feelings about
• 1:41:10
  this conference getting even much, much more terrible?
• 1:41:13
  I mean, definitely not, you know I don't want to tell me this in
• 1:41:16
  a bad way. I'm a competitive guy so I, you
• 1:41:19
  know, No, I'm not afraid of Vinny school coming in or the
• 1:41:23
  the type of quality that the SEC is now or that's going to become
• 1:41:28
  you know I think indoors 1820 in the shop, put scored and you
• 1:41:31
  look at Oklahoma and they got three or four guys over that
• 1:41:33
  market. Texas, got a guy over that Mark.
• 1:41:35
  So you got five guys coming into the conference over.
• 1:41:38
  What our eighth place Gordon last year, but it's, you know, I
• 1:41:42
  think some things change in terms of recruiting, you know,
• 1:41:45
  you're going after, you know, the the bangers.
• 1:41:50
  And if you don't find those bangers realizing that you got
• 1:41:53
  coach Russ and the hurdles and in the Sprints, you got a
• 1:41:56
  tempest in the jumps, you know, you got Carlson and his distance
• 1:41:59
  group, you know, Ron Gardner, you know, helping coaching those
• 1:42:03
  mid-to-long Sprints and relays. You know, taking again the ego
• 1:42:07
  and pride out of it. Knowing that I don't have to
• 1:42:09
  have a throws group here or a big, grows your presence for us
• 1:42:13
  to win. If it's not the right kid and
• 1:42:15
  the throws group that can help us score points.
• 1:42:18
  I got a pass. Maybe I don't have it.
• 1:42:19
  Kid this year, maybe, I don't have a kid next year.
• 1:42:21
  You know, I've got one female throw returning on our Oscar
• 1:42:24
  next year until graduate, you know, I'm not going to fill that
• 1:42:27
  spot it for the sake of going, you know, if it's not the right
• 1:42:30
  type of female that can come in and can develop and in score
• 1:42:35
  quickly and make an impact quickly.
• 1:42:37
  You know I've got to defer to these other areas and let
• 1:42:40
  somebody else bring in a beggar if they can fit to get the job
• 1:42:43
  done. So you know, and it's again
• 1:42:45
  letting go of your ego a little bit, you know, realizing I'm not
• 1:42:47
  going to have it through a represented in every growing of
• 1:42:49
  it. Don't, you know, I'm not going
• 1:42:50
  to have a huge scrote Squad. Like, I've been used to it.
• 1:42:53
  It needs to be selective him. The people that I bring in, you
• 1:42:57
  know, need to matter, and they need to fit in the right way.
• 1:43:00
  So, you know, just trying to identify those bodies.
• 1:43:03
  I think is the biggest switch in mindset in terms of recruiting
• 1:43:06
  with. We're at the SEC and especially
• 1:43:07
  with Texas and Oklahoma join the conference.
• 1:43:11
  Yeah, that's a great point about the ego and how much of a
• 1:43:14
  teammate you've got to be on that staff.
• 1:43:18
  Because you got it. I mean, the points are so scarce
• 1:43:20
  and so hard to get, you've got to get them where they can.
• 1:43:23
  So if five of the world's best throwers want to come to
• 1:43:26
  Tennessee, will Duane has to figure out.
• 1:43:28
  Okay, well, maybe I don't sign this through or this distance
• 1:43:31
  skin, this Sprinter or whatever, you know, to make that happen.
• 1:43:34
  But on you as individual coach to that example, you gave there
• 1:43:37
  on the women's side for throwing it's like, oh, I mean I came
• 1:43:41
  here to coach, I'd like to coach a good number of people, but I
• 1:43:45
  also don't have time money resources.
• 1:43:47
  For just anybody. They've got to be the right
• 1:43:49
  ones. So you've got to have that.
• 1:43:50
  Yo of just like, okay, well we're not going to do anything
• 1:43:52
  in the throes. This year, we're going to do
• 1:43:54
  everything we can, but I'll be the biggest cheerleader for the,
• 1:43:57
  for the sprinters, and the biggest cheerleader for the
• 1:43:59
  jumpers, and the, in the distance, and know that, you
• 1:44:02
  know, maybe next year, I'll have that one or two or whatever
• 1:44:04
  number kids that come through. And they've got to do the
• 1:44:07
  reverse. Now, they've got to become the
• 1:44:08
  biggest cheerleaders of the throwing Squad that such a
• 1:44:10
  really kind of shows you what the how the coaching staff has
• 1:44:14
  to be cohesive and walking step and step together.
• 1:44:18
  Did the goals of, you know, winning a conference title in
• 1:44:21
  winning a national title for sure.
• 1:44:24
  Absolutely, that's ultimately the goal here is, is here.
• 1:44:27
  Try to put the best product on the field for an 18 national
• 1:44:30
  championship? You know in both genders in to
• 1:44:33
  do that it can come from a lot of different areas and I think
• 1:44:35
  it patience is going to be a key.
• 1:44:38
  Again, you know, if I don't have a single female throw on my
• 1:44:40
  roster here in two years but we just brought in a 22-foot, long
• 1:44:44
  jumper, or a 46-foot triple jumper.
• 1:44:47
  We've got a 60 Ooh, I jumper, you know, the, the points of the
• 1:44:50
  points, you know, we're all eating together.
• 1:44:52
  It's not an individual, Focus, the team, you know, we're trying
• 1:44:56
  to find the best talent and in any event to come in.
• 1:44:59
  And if it's a year that, you know, the throws are a little
• 1:45:01
  bit down or I can get an athlete for the, the money allotted.
• 1:45:05
  You know, we will go with the distance Runner, you know, at
• 1:45:07
  the end of the day, we're just going to fill the best thing we
• 1:45:09
  can teach here. I like that, we're all eating
• 1:45:13
  together. That's, you know, that shows the
• 1:45:16
  importance of head coach. Well, Start with a DS hiring, a
• 1:45:19
  head coach, and then a head coach getting their staff
• 1:45:22
  together that we're all eating together.
• 1:45:24
  So he or she's got to pick the right.
• 1:45:27
  People to be on that staff because if one person decides
• 1:45:29
  they're going to try to go do their own thing, the, the margin
• 1:45:32
  of error is very slim when you have goals like that one coach
• 1:45:36
  not being eaten together trying to eat at the other table will
• 1:45:40
  wreck you quickly, really, really quick, Eric as we wrap us
• 1:45:45
  up here today. You know?
• 1:45:47
  What and we touched on some of this little bit.
• 1:45:49
  What's got you excited? You know as you think about your
• 1:45:51
  family now in Tennessee and get into school and you know again
• 1:45:55
  still haven't finished your first year.
• 1:45:56
  So you're still getting your feet underneath the end.
• 1:45:58
  Maybe just still have to use GPS to figure out what the grocery
• 1:46:01
  store is and stuff like that. But what's got you excited?
• 1:46:04
  As you start looking towards the future, there's of all, and you
• 1:46:07
  know, the one of the most historic programs there are with
• 1:46:10
  some of the again at all events. I can think of you know amazing
• 1:46:13
  people and each and every event that have come through the
• 1:46:16
  Tennessee program. There in That are legends Hall
• 1:46:18
  of Famers in coaches as well. What's got you excited?
• 1:46:23
  As you think about one more year, five more years, Etc.
• 1:46:27
  I think continuing the relationship building is a staff
• 1:46:30
  that we have in the relationship building with the community and
• 1:46:32
  the people here. You know, we were all thrown in
• 1:46:35
  so quickly that, you know, it was work right off the bat and
• 1:46:38
  and you know, going into next year.
• 1:46:40
  I think we all you know learn a little bit more each other's
• 1:46:43
  Tendencies when we're stressed out when we're not, when we need
• 1:46:46
  to pick me up and And developing those relationships continuously
• 1:46:50
  as a staff. But getting out of the
• 1:46:51
  community, trying to bring the community back into the fold.
• 1:46:54
  But, you know, the excitement is the development of this team and
• 1:46:59
  trying to see what we can do over the next two, three, four
• 1:47:02
  years, you know, with the men's team finishing third in the
• 1:47:04
  women's team finishing fifth in the SEC.
• 1:47:07
  That's our best combined finish since 2008.
• 1:47:09
  And I think we left some points in the table.
• 1:47:12
  You know, it wasn't necessarily a fully faceted me for us. you
• 1:47:18
  definitely excited about the recruits that we have coming in
• 1:47:20
  May including a few throwers on the mid side and then, but
• 1:47:24
  recruits across the board, whether it's distance, jumps,
• 1:47:28
  Sprints, so excited to get that new blood in and start to feel
• 1:47:31
  like you're getting your own people in that kind of fits your
• 1:47:34
  style of training and then getting back to, you know,
• 1:47:38
  training how I've trained before, you know, getting back
• 1:47:40
  into these circuits and the strongman training and again
• 1:47:43
  with a couple athletes that I have returning that are on the
• 1:47:46
  team now that had Had a lot of progress, really excited about
• 1:47:51
  our young female Hammer thrower right here, Candler, phenomenal
• 1:47:53
  athlete that I've been fortunate to work with, but, you know, by
• 1:47:57
  getting out into the community as a family, you know, we found
• 1:48:00
  a great church that we're going to and my wife goes in as a
• 1:48:04
  great support group on on Wednesdays and in that and some
• 1:48:07
  parents that have young kids like ours and starting to get
• 1:48:10
  integrated into Community as a family.
• 1:48:12
  But I'm excited to get out there and try to figure out how to
• 1:48:14
  fish these Rivers, you know, a little bit different than
• 1:48:17
  Oregon. Yes, I got a lot of bass and got
• 1:48:20
  a lot of catfish out here. I'm going out five time now I'm
• 1:48:22
  over haven't even caught a throw me back in for a guy like me
• 1:48:26
  that likes to get out and and be competitive at whatever he does.
• 1:48:30
  And that's included going out there catching some dark fish.
• 1:48:33
  I've been starting to get a little frustrated at that so
• 1:48:36
  we're going to figure it out. You know, switch the tackle up,
• 1:48:39
  switch the spots up but you know just excited to learn more about
• 1:48:42
  the area. We've been out to the Smokies,
• 1:48:44
  you know, once or twice but getting out there and getting
• 1:48:46
  some camping in and in Some Tennessee fresh air in, and, you
• 1:48:50
  know, seeing what our new homes a little bit more about is the
• 1:48:53
  is definitely exciting. Still a lot of Adventure left to
• 1:48:56
  be out of your of know. We've been out here a year.
• 1:48:58
  Yeah, I agree with that and, you know, I think you brought up a
• 1:49:01
  good point about your own training, you know, it's one
• 1:49:04
  year is one year's a long, but it's so short in the whole
• 1:49:08
  scheme of things and to your point about getting their, sole
• 1:49:11
  the whole staff getting there. So late into the season, you
• 1:49:14
  know really kind of almost like just trying to keep it together
• 1:49:16
  as we move along through the season 2.
• 1:49:17
  See you in your athletes, have a full year of what you like to
• 1:49:21
  do, and have had success with. That'll be a really exciting.
• 1:49:25
  And then, you know, I'm just a big Duane Ross fan.
• 1:49:27
  I mean, he built something at Methodist, he built something NC
• 1:49:30
  A&T and so I had no doubts what he's going to build their
• 1:49:34
  Tennessee and with the staff that you guys have there and the
• 1:49:38
  resources and administration supporting you along the way.
• 1:49:42
  You know, I think something special.
• 1:49:43
  I don't think the other SEC and National caliber coaches are
• 1:49:47
  very happy to see all you guys together because it's just
• 1:49:50
  another Contender. Now that everybody's got to deal
• 1:49:52
  with and it'll be exciting to see you guys.
• 1:49:55
  Continue to grow and Foster your athletes and Foster your family.
• 1:49:59
  They are the Knoxville area man. It's going to be it's going to
• 1:50:01
  be fun watching from the outside looking in.
• 1:50:03
  That's for sure. No.
• 1:50:05
  Absolutely. And I know is that staff were
• 1:50:07
  excited to be up for the challenge and you know, see what
• 1:50:10
  kind of damage we can we can get done.
• 1:50:12
  You know, Arkansas reminds me of those Oregon days, you know,
• 1:50:16
  they kind of seem like the Juggernaut but, you know, you
• 1:50:19
  put the right situation, the right people, the right Talent
• 1:50:21
  together. You can start making waves and
• 1:50:23
  that's what we're trying to do. We want to make some waves
• 1:50:26
  that's awesome. And we're thank you for being
• 1:50:28
  here today. You know, it's always amazing to
• 1:50:31
  me you're busy all year and at this specific Time of year with
• 1:50:35
  scc's and regionals and Nationals and recruiting never
• 1:50:39
  stops and USA's coming up. Etcetera.
• 1:50:41
  Oh and by the way, spending time with your family, getting
• 1:50:44
  schools ending for the kids and getting ready for next and all
• 1:50:47
  those kind of things, man. So I'm just so grateful for your
• 1:50:49
  time, you know, it's not an easy podcast to listen to write Dear
• 1:50:52
  listener. Your been here.
• 1:50:54
  We're coming on the hour and 15 minute Mark and you're still
• 1:50:56
  here. I'm just so impressed with your
• 1:50:58
  perseverance to hearing Eric Story and are again.
• 1:51:01
  It's not an easy podcast to be on.
• 1:51:03
  You got to start from the scratch and And we go through
• 1:51:05
  some difficult times and I'm really, really, and I know, you
• 1:51:08
  know, knowing you as a friend, I knew you would be this way, you
• 1:51:11
  know, your authenticity and humbleness of throughout your
• 1:51:15
  whole career, but especially the, you know, the transition
• 1:51:17
  from Oregon to Tennessee, you know, it's just, it's it's
• 1:51:21
  really good. You know, it's what people need
• 1:51:23
  to hear. It's the value that is brought
• 1:51:26
  to the coaching body sharing stories like this.
• 1:51:29
  So I'm just so thankful for you being open and authentic, and
• 1:51:33
  humble with your story here with us.
• 1:51:36
  Now, I absolutely appreciate the invite to get on with you and
• 1:51:39
  always loved bitch. A didn't, you know, chance to
• 1:51:41
  connect. Absolutely absolutely.
• 1:51:43
  Well, thank you for being here. Again, this week, it's its
• 1:51:45
  Nationals week division. One, we just had to Vision to,
• 1:51:47
  in division three, that was Bonkers.
• 1:51:49
  I'm kind of speaking into the future.
• 1:51:50
  It's next week for me. I'll be in Colorado.
• 1:51:53
  Can't wait to see the D2 and D3 Cruz, and what they produce,
• 1:51:56
  because they produce. It's an amazing meet.
• 1:51:59
  And then we're going to go to Austin, which is guaranteed that
• 1:52:01
  it's going to be 120 degrees on the track.
• 1:52:03
  It's going to be hot. There's going to be a rain storm
• 1:52:06
  that will cause a delay happen. Multiple multiple.
• 1:52:10
  Yeah, I'm going to be an optimistic and say in just one
• 1:52:14
  but it's going to be amazing Austin as a fantastic host.
• 1:52:17
  For the Nationals, it's going to be great and you know we've
• 1:52:20
  already seen we just got done with scc's.
• 1:52:22
  How about this for a conference me for buy one, winner sets the
• 1:52:25
  Collegiate record, the 4x4, the top two teams.
• 1:52:29
  How do you like to get second and you break the college record
• 1:52:31
  but you get second break. The Collegiate record, those
• 1:52:34
  guys. Guys, I bet you that was
• 1:52:35
  Alabama. I got second.
• 1:52:36
  I bet you they're going to be out for Revenge down in Austin.
• 1:52:39
  So it's going to be exciting from the very first event to the
• 1:52:43
  very last and I hope you'll check it out on.
• 1:52:45
  Sure. It's on ESPN this year where the
• 1:52:48
  incidentally website, you'll enjoy it.
• 1:52:50
  So thanks for being here. Join us next week we'll do it
• 1:52:52
  all over again. And will uplift an honor, the
• 1:52:54
  Journey of a coach and bring some value to you.
• 1:52:57
  Thanks everybody have a great week.