Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / #299: Elton Ervin-Atascocita (TX) High School

Transcript

#299: Elton Ervin-Atascocita (TX) High School · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

• 0:02
  You're listening to the Gil Athletics Connections podcast
• 0:05
  with host Mike Cunningham. Track and field world UNL tuned
• 0:12
  in to our humble servant Mike Cunningham for another
• 0:16
  extraordinary message for Gil Athletics Connections.
• 0:22
  Here we are. You're back here on the Gil
• 0:23
  Athletics Connection Podcast. Thank you so much for pressing
• 0:26
  play. You know, we are the number one
• 0:28
  top track and field podcast in the world according to my mom.
• 0:32
  At least she told me that and that's pretty stinking official
• 0:35
  for me. I'm so glad to be and humbled to
• 0:37
  be your host, Mike Cunningham here at Gill Athletics.
• 0:39
  I do a lot of things, but mostly people know me as the Twitter
• 0:42
  guy or the podcast guy. And you know what?
• 0:44
  That's OK with me. I'm super excited about today.
• 0:47
  I'm excited. You know, I know I say that
• 0:48
  about every guest, but I really am excited about every single
• 0:51
  guest that we have here. You know, we're about two months
• 0:54
  into our season 6 and completely unintentional.
• 0:57
  We've been kind of heavy Texas focused.
• 1:00
  If that's bothered you, too bad. I'm sorry because we're we're
• 1:03
  going straight. We're going to stay right here
• 1:05
  in Texas today. Help me welcome the head coach
• 1:07
  from Atascocita High School. I got to ask about that name.
• 1:10
  That's a little. I got to figure that how you
• 1:13
  doing? How you doing?
• 1:13
  The head coach, Mr. the Wise, the wonderful Mr. Elton Irvin
• 1:17
  Elton, how are you, Sir? Not bad.
• 1:19
  Another day in paradise. It's Friday.
• 1:21
  So, Speaking of paradise, So what is a Tascocita?
• 1:23
  What is? Is that a?
• 1:25
  It's a subdivision in the Humble area, so we're right near
• 1:28
  Kingwood. Humble King Bullet so.
• 1:30
  Is it an old Indian name? It sounds kind of Indian.
• 1:33
  Name, I believe it's old Indian is what I was.
• 1:35
  So yeah, OK, the story, I think I've read it probably a couple
• 1:38
  years ago. What where the name comes from
• 1:40
  so. OK, what is what is your guys's
• 1:42
  mascot? A eagle.
• 1:45
  OK, so yeah, you know Eagle. Yeah, so it could be Native
• 1:48
  American there. Yeah.
• 1:49
  OK. All right.
• 1:49
  Yeah, I, I was thinking about it like, I know the name.
• 1:51
  I was like, but that's such a unique name.
• 1:53
  I was like there has to. Be it is.
• 1:55
  And then you think about all these other names, though.
• 1:57
  Katie Humble. Where do those names come from
• 2:00
  either, you know? Yeah, I get it.
• 2:02
  Well, Elton, man, you know, you've been on my list for a
• 2:05
  while, even before I, you know, Elton, you're an interesting
• 2:09
  case here. And here's what I mean by that.
• 2:11
  I know you've heard that your whole life.
• 2:14
  You know, when a, when a college coach goes from say a university
• 2:18
  like my alma mater, like Troy University, and they coach at
• 2:20
  one of the, the Power 4, Power 5 schools, Alabama, LSU, whatever,
• 2:25
  it's like immediately like, oh, they're, they're knowledgeable.
• 2:28
  Oh, everybody wants to ask them questions.
• 2:29
  Everyone wants to invite them to their clinics and things like
• 2:31
  that. They're the same people, you
• 2:33
  know, the knowledge they had when they're at Troy is pretty
• 2:35
  much the same, right? You know, I, I always want to be
• 2:38
  careful with a guy like you. You have been an excellent coach
• 2:41
  that we're going to learn about. And then you certainly had a
• 2:45
  very, I don't want to overstate and say life change.
• 2:48
  Let's say professional changing event happened last year where
• 2:54
  your kids set the national record in the 4 by 1.
• 2:56
  And so I always want to make sure I'm careful.
• 2:58
  It's like, oh, Irvin, I don't care about you because you set
• 3:01
  the national record. That's very cool.
• 3:03
  I cared about you before, though, So I don't want to be
• 3:04
  like, oh, now you're now you're worthy to be on the show, my
• 3:09
  friend. You've been on the list for
• 3:10
  quite a while. So I just wanted to make sure
• 3:13
  you know that I, I, I got that out and you knew that, that you,
• 3:15
  you mean a lot to me and, and to our coaching world, regardless
• 3:19
  whether you set records or not. It's cool that you do, but who
• 3:22
  you are is first and foremost my friend.
• 3:24
  Yeah. Appreciate that.
• 3:26
  Absolutely. So let's dig into it.
• 3:29
  You know, I think this I'm pretty sure this is true.
• 3:32
  This will be you connect the first brother brother.
• 3:35
  So your brother's been on the show.
• 3:36
  This is the first like family member, I think that we've had
• 3:39
  on the show. And so let's so if you listen to
• 3:42
  his brother's podcast, we'll probably repeat a few things
• 3:45
  like where they grew up and all those kind of things, but we're
• 3:47
  going to stay focused on him and not have assumptions.
• 3:50
  So Elton, let's get in our kind of our wayback machine here and
• 3:53
  let's start. Where does track and field even
• 3:56
  start for you? Where does?
• 3:57
  Where does that begin? My 10th year, 10th grade of high
• 4:01
  school. So I was a basketball player who
• 4:04
  was on JV basketball. My track and field coach, D
• 4:10
  track and field coach at Westbury came in and recruited
• 4:13
  us off the court for basketball. We ran our first meet at the
• 4:17
  LaPorte Relays Bayshore Olympics and put us in a 4 by 8 and we
• 4:23
  got third and that Sunday we had our name in the paper and so
• 4:27
  ever since then we was up so. Is that right?
• 4:30
  Yeah. So you you went to Westbury?
• 4:33
  Yeah, we went to Westbury, man. I mean, legendary.
• 4:36
  Yep, yeah, Yep, Yep. Yeah, I, I mean, I, I remember,
• 4:42
  you know, when I grew up, we had track and field news and I
• 4:45
  remember, you know what, my favorite episode.
• 4:48
  Episode. What would you call it?
• 4:50
  Article or Yeah, yeah, yeah. The monthlies, whatever would be
• 4:55
  like when they'd have like the, the list of all the and then the
• 4:58
  recruiting list, you know where the kids sign and, and I knew of
• 5:01
  Houston Westbury as a little old middle of nowhere, small town
• 5:05
  Alabama. I knew about Westbury because of
• 5:08
  the the amount of kids that came out of there.
• 5:10
  Was that a so you said you're a basketball player until the
• 5:15
  sophomore junior year moved over to track.
• 5:17
  Was there ever did you ever feel pressured to join track right
• 5:20
  off the bat or? No, not at all.
• 5:22
  You know, I think we was into that, just our sports and we had
• 5:27
  a lot of friends that was on the track and field team and then,
• 5:29
  you know, the coaches. Why not try it?
• 5:32
  I think we did cross country at some point anyway.
• 5:34
  So we went out and did that and had some success.
• 5:37
  So at the end of the day, me and my brother, I think I played
• 5:41
  basketball, but I was maybe 5-1, less than 100 lbs.
• 5:44
  I had no, I had no business on the basketball court really.
• 5:47
  But I can run forever. So, but you know, yeah, it, it
• 5:49
  was perfect for me. He he saw a vision that I didn't
• 5:52
  see. Hey, you know, to me that is the
• 5:54
  superpower of a of a track coach right there.
• 5:56
  They see something in you before you see that.
• 5:58
  That's the and, and again, knowing the, the, the history of
• 6:02
  Westbury there that that coach and the coaching staff probably
• 6:06
  did that a lot. They probably saw a lot of kids
• 6:08
  were like, Oh yeah, what are you doing over there?
• 6:09
  Come on, you're 1/2 miler. Oh, come over here, you're a
• 6:11
  triple jumper. Oh, come over here, you're 1/4
• 6:13
  miler. They probably saw a lot in young
• 6:15
  people down there for sure. So you said you were kind of
• 6:20
  hooked. You know, you went to that first
• 6:22
  meet and then you got your name in the paper and that is you
• 6:25
  know it. Let's be real, that's pretty
• 6:26
  cool for a 141516 year old kid. Did it continue being hooked?
• 6:33
  Meaning it's one thing to get your name in the paper and your
• 6:36
  first meeting, that's cool. But then practice shows up again
• 6:38
  on Monday and the Tuesday yo-yo practice happens.
• 6:42
  How was your experience like? Did you enjoy track and field as
• 6:45
  a as a kid? Yeah, I did.
• 6:46
  Because I think knowing now as I'm older, I think our bloodline
• 6:50
  is really, I'm from Jasper, TX, so Joshua was put on a lot of
• 6:54
  runners. They're the first high school to
• 6:57
  go sub 40. You know, Zach Brunson, Ben
• 7:01
  Brunson who was the forward to Hurdle.
• 7:02
  A lot of great athletes came out of there.
• 7:05
  You know, you know, Mark Henry from Simsbury right down the
• 7:08
  street. This is the whole East Texas
• 7:09
  part, you know, had a lot of talented people.
• 7:11
  So just knowing that the pedigree is just what you know,
• 7:15
  we we came from. I always like asking, you know,
• 7:18
  we, you know, you and I at this point, Elton, we're old timer.
• 7:22
  So, you know, we like to say, yeah, you know, the kids these
• 7:24
  days, they don't know, you know, who the good kid, who the
• 7:27
  Olympians, they don't know who Noah is and who Justin was and
• 7:31
  all those kind of things. So I'm always curious to ask,
• 7:33
  you know, people of our age and stage.
• 7:35
  So what kind of track athlete were you?
• 7:37
  And what I mean by that is not I don't really care how good or
• 7:40
  not good you were as an athlete. Were you a track nerd?
• 7:44
  Meaning did you know what was coming up in the Olympics, who
• 7:47
  the best people in your event were even in the Houston and and
• 7:50
  Texas area? Did you know, like here's the
• 7:51
  top ten half milers or whatnot? Were you like that kind of guy?
• 7:55
  Are you like, you know, I'm just trying to get through practice
• 7:57
  and run the meet on this weekend.
• 7:59
  Yeah, me and my brother both was we, we studied the the Houston
• 8:02
  Chronicle. We knew everyone.
• 8:03
  We looked forward to the track and field News magazine.
• 8:06
  We'd go get it out the library. We, we followed Dostat.
• 8:11
  We followed, I think there used to be one for NCAA back in the
• 8:13
  day that we follow. So we, and then, you know,
• 8:16
  coming from summer track, we, we ran against the whole nation.
• 8:19
  So, you know, that's what we learned of the Obie Moores and
• 8:22
  Angela Williams and Angelo Teglers and it just really got
• 8:26
  us in all and, you know, really took to it.
• 8:28
  So man, I think you have to be a student of the sport first.
• 8:33
  So that way you could kind of know and read and you have a
• 8:35
  goal of what it be. So, you know, send those
• 8:38
  rankings, come out on Sunday and your name not in it.
• 8:41
  You know, everyone is in the area and all that.
• 8:43
  So who's in the state? So it just helps you be better
• 8:47
  prepared, you know? How important this just kind of
• 8:50
  hit me when you talked about summer track.
• 8:52
  You know, I never did summer. I don't think we even had summer
• 8:54
  track where I was in, you know, early 90s, middle of nowhere
• 8:58
  Alabama. And you know, I, I loved my
• 9:01
  sport and I loved competition. So I, I kept track of like I
• 9:05
  was, you know, I wasn't very good, but our 4 by 18 was decent
• 9:07
  and I was on that and it was like, OK, here's the top in our
• 9:09
  division and things like that. But I certainly outside of the
• 9:14
  track and field news, you know, every month, but it's but still
• 9:17
  that was limited. You know, they they had to cover
• 9:19
  all sports. They weren't just doing high
• 9:20
  school. That would have been cool.
• 9:21
  By the way, it was pre Internet. So I really had no idea what
• 9:26
  kids were running in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Texas as an
• 9:31
  aggregate. You know, I knew the studs like,
• 9:32
  oh, Westbury has another triple jumper or whatever, but not not,
• 9:36
  you know, like, oh, it's a 10th place in Texas.
• 9:38
  Was this, you know, those kind of things.
• 9:40
  Today's world we do right. Like I know who does the number
• 9:42
  one thing right off, you know, on Twitter before that, how
• 9:46
  important, you know, kind of looking back, you know, we have
• 9:48
  perspective at our age. You ran summer tracks.
• 9:51
  So you got to, you know, go to meets and see other people from
• 9:54
  around the country. So you had a much better purview
• 9:56
  of like nationally, what things were going on then, like a guy
• 9:59
  like me, How important do you think that was to to
• 10:02
  understanding the world of track and field instead of just being
• 10:05
  so myopic of like, oh, oh, this suburb of Houston or you know,
• 10:07
  Houston and you know, our area and maybe Texas as it relates to
• 10:10
  the state meet you, you were able to understand like are able
• 10:14
  to see from like West Coast to East Coast, like, oh, there,
• 10:18
  there's a there's a whole world out here.
• 10:20
  In my age, How? How?
• 10:22
  Important was that that summer track?
• 10:24
  I think it's important because it drove my love for the sport,
• 10:26
  you know, you know, you know, during that mid 90s man, Obie
• 10:30
  Moore was everything. He was the Quincy Hall.
• 10:32
  I mean, Quincy Wilson, he was the Andrew Taylor, you know, he
• 10:36
  was everything. So as a young kid to see him at
• 10:40
  meats and he took a liking to us because he he can run 800 and
• 10:43
  all that also. So they have that relationship
• 10:46
  with him and just to admire what he was doing kind of fed us and
• 10:50
  gave us that energy that we needed.
• 10:51
  And you know, they kind of tell us that we know, you know, we
• 10:55
  truly love the sport of track and field.
• 10:56
  That's track and field is so different.
• 10:58
  You know, it's, it's really no, not much hatred.
• 11:00
  You know, even at the culture plan that we all love, it's like
• 11:02
  it's so kumbaya. Everybody's getting along.
• 11:04
  So it's not really a sport where it's like it's true hate.
• 11:07
  It's just like for everyone. Everybody want to see everyone
• 11:09
  grow. So I think it was a perfect fit
• 11:12
  for our personalities because you know, I, I tried football
• 11:15
  and it's, there's no really hate or anger in my body.
• 11:18
  So it's like, it's just, it's just got to be different for it.
• 11:22
  I remember we played our rivals my junior year, I think it was,
• 11:26
  and that was an offensive lineman and, you know, kid was
• 11:30
  on the ground from the other team.
• 11:31
  And, you know, I just instinctively like put my hand
• 11:33
  down and one of my teammates was like, that's that's the enemy.
• 11:36
  You can't do that. I literally was like, oh, OK,
• 11:38
  sorry, I can't do that. And it was like, I just want to
• 11:40
  help, you know? Yeah, I'm with you.
• 11:42
  I'm with you. So that's interesting.
• 11:44
  You know, you talk about OBM or it and, you know, there's
• 11:47
  special kids along and I'm talking about like, you know,
• 11:50
  there's one in each one of our lives that becomes that
• 11:53
  transcends right now. It is Quincy right now on the
• 11:57
  high school level. And and that's crazy to say
• 11:58
  because, you know, the the kid in Georgia ran sub 10 as a high
• 12:01
  schooler and and I'm not taking anything away from him, but it's
• 12:04
  like, yeah, but you ain't Quincy, boss.
• 12:05
  I mean, you know, Quincy has done things.
• 12:07
  You were in that era of Oba Moore and that was a kid even in
• 12:10
  little old Alabama. I knew it'll be a Moore.
• 12:13
  I mean, that was a name, you know, what was it like?
• 12:17
  You're competing against them. You're you become friends with
• 12:20
  this Californian kid. You know, you're right.
• 12:24
  His range was amazing right here in the a good, he said Mile if I
• 12:28
  remember his. Mile.
• 12:28
  Yeah, he was a good mile. Yeah, like 4. 30, maybe 420,
• 12:32
  yeah. It was like, you know, I I did
• 12:34
  the mile a few times and it was faster than me, for crying out
• 12:36
  loud. That that felt a little, yeah, a
• 12:38
  little bad about that. But what was that like?
• 12:40
  Like, like there's a little bit of a Rockstar fandom around him.
• 12:45
  What was it like to be like? Oh yeah.
• 12:46
  It's just that's, you know, that's my California homie
• 12:48
  Mobia. Yeah.
• 12:50
  You know, before Allen Iverson is the core rose, you know, it
• 12:52
  was Obie Moore and the core rose, so.
• 12:55
  And it was a good dude. So, you know, you know, like you
• 12:59
  said, like each era has their own.
• 13:01
  You know, Brandon Miller was one of Shunty Jackson, Quincy Wilson
• 13:04
  and there's going to be somebody after Quincy and you have to
• 13:07
  have that just to see, you know, you know, those Angela Mayer,
• 13:09
  Shunty Jackson's and all that, that and see who you're
• 13:13
  following up. I still we was at the banquet
• 13:16
  the other day with Robert Morton, Roy Morton and the you
• 13:20
  know, the robot, like I'm still out of him because I have heard
• 13:22
  so many stories of Roy Morton. You know, the human robot, one
• 13:27
  of the ones I met during this clinic that passed the gentleman
• 13:30
  Jones. I have heard so many stories of
• 13:33
  him and, you know, his epic comeback.
• 13:35
  So just to meet a lot of those guys that you know, was legends
• 13:37
  in her times, you know, I mean some lots, you know, you just
• 13:41
  give your, you know, just be nice to be around them in that
• 13:44
  era, you know? It's amazing.
• 13:45
  I I agree with that. OK, so Elton, so you're running
• 13:48
  track, you're running summer track.
• 13:49
  You're you're getting a real without being worldly.
• 13:54
  You're at least getting a very outside of your pocket of
• 13:58
  Houston. You're understanding California
• 14:00
  and you know, you're seeing all these kids from all this other
• 14:02
  place. What is your relationship to
• 14:05
  coaching and your coach? And and what I mean by that is
• 14:09
  maybe less about like, oh, you know, he or she was awesome,
• 14:13
  like a father that that could be important.
• 14:15
  That could be part of the story. But I wonder more, you know, now
• 14:17
  that we know you've become a coach, like, did you pay
• 14:21
  attention to workouts and you know why we structure this and
• 14:24
  that and ask questions? Or were you just like, OK, 4 by
• 14:27
  400, all right, let's go run 4 hundreds or what?
• 14:29
  You know, there's something to be said about that as well.
• 14:31
  By the way, just, you know, Yes, Sir.
• 14:33
  And we go do the job. You know, yeah, no, I, I never
• 14:36
  asked questions about the because remember, I was so young
• 14:38
  into the sport, so obviously their knowledge is more superior
• 14:42
  than mine. So but I, I did pay attention to
• 14:45
  a lot of things. So what what I'm doing now kind
• 14:47
  of carries over to that. More important, just paying
• 14:51
  attention to the human beings that I was around with, Coach
• 14:55
  Banks and Rose Brimmer, Coach Poole, who was our coaches back
• 14:58
  then. So there's great people, which
• 15:00
  makes a big difference. Tell me more about what you mean
• 15:05
  paying attention to them as humans.
• 15:07
  You know, it's, it's a lot of coaches that truly loving and
• 15:12
  care for the athletes, but you don't get that all the time.
• 15:15
  So it's only 2 when you get that coach who you don't have a
• 15:18
  relationship with or not as caring or doesn't know your
• 15:21
  situation where you realize like, man, I had something
• 15:23
  really special there. So to go from high school where
• 15:26
  you had a relationship with your coaches, they knew everything
• 15:28
  about you. And I spent time, you know,
• 15:31
  getting fed by my high school coaches rise and all that to
• 15:34
  where you go to college and it's more of business.
• 15:36
  Like it's, you know, once you leave work, I mean, once you
• 15:38
  leave practice, that's it, you know, so you start to appreciate
• 15:42
  that and, you know, like that everlasting relationship that
• 15:45
  you created in high school with them, you know, so.
• 15:47
  So you had a good relationship with your coaches?
• 15:51
  Oh, yes, most definitely, yes. You know, we Coach Poole used to
• 15:56
  joke that, you know, she should have claimed Arizona taxes.
• 15:59
  So she helped us out, you know, and took care of so much so.
• 16:03
  I love that. That's cool.
• 16:04
  Well, let's talk about that next level.
• 16:06
  What were you thinking? Where'd you end up going to
• 16:09
  school? Did you run track?
• 16:10
  And where'd you end up going to college?
• 16:12
  Did you run track in college? And more importantly, I loved.
• 16:15
  You know, to me, it's just ridiculous, I think is the right
• 16:17
  word here, that we make 18 year olds pick a major that's going
• 16:21
  to affect their whole life and it's like 18.
• 16:24
  What in the world did I know at 18 to affect my whole life?
• 16:26
  But we do that. So maybe what were you thinking
• 16:29
  about at 18? Were you thinking about becoming
• 16:30
  a doctor, a lawyer, a business owner, a teacher?
• 16:33
  Talk to us about that process from high school to college.
• 16:37
  I chose gremlin state, I had like maybe two to three offers.
• 16:40
  I think it was the all swag schools gremlin Southern PVI
• 16:44
  chose Grambling State and I went on campus.
• 16:50
  Shockley, the coach was like, oh, you hear, you know this back
• 16:52
  in one day they sent everyone scholarship and then shut up on
• 16:54
  campus and all that. So education, you know, wise, I
• 17:00
  always wanted to be like an entrepreneur.
• 17:02
  I, I as a kid, I wanted to be a firefighter, but I always wanted
• 17:06
  like, you know, like the business mind or whatever, you
• 17:09
  know, so entrepreneurship was one of the 1st.
• 17:12
  He like, I couldn't even spell it, but I knew entrepreneurship
• 17:15
  like, oh man, this is neat. So, and now and in this time,
• 17:18
  entrepreneurship is at all time high.
• 17:20
  So, so did you know something that I saw early on, like man,
• 17:24
  like be your own business, create your own.
• 17:26
  So now it's just that day and time where you can just create
• 17:28
  your own business. So I had, I went to Grammy for
• 17:33
  one year, had good success. I finished third indoors, I
• 17:37
  think like 4th outdoors to some great athletes.
• 17:41
  I like that. And so I think I was freshman of
• 17:44
  the year indoors. So, and then I I used that
• 17:46
  success and I transfer to the University of Texas where I ran
• 17:51
  and finished my career there so. So you're a Longhorn by finished
• 17:56
  out, huh? Wow game day.
• 18:00
  Oh, brother, Yeah. Oh, that's right.
• 18:02
  Tonight, you know this is how I. Had to push them on.
• 18:04
  I didn't want to be Albert Orange.
• 18:06
  You know, that's not a test. To see this this game night, I'm
• 18:09
  excited to. This is how Podcast World works.
• 18:11
  You're listening to this in February.
• 18:14
  We're recording this on the Night of the Ohio.
• 18:16
  State Texas football game Yes. So you know exactly what I have
• 18:19
  to ask him, dear listener. So give us our prediction for
• 18:22
  tonight, because we'll know when we listen to this whether you
• 18:24
  were right or not. Yeah, yeah.
• 18:26
  So, you know, me and my brother, we, we consider ourselves a
• 18:29
  realist. So, you know, mostly I, I, I
• 18:32
  want Texas to win, but Ohio State is playing unbelievable.
• 18:36
  The last couple of games they've been clicking.
• 18:38
  But you know, we have the Thorpe Award winner and the cornerback.
• 18:42
  They have the top wide receivers.
• 18:43
  So like hey, let's line up and make it do what it do so.
• 18:47
  So Texas by 100 is what you're saying?
• 18:50
  Yeah, hopefully so, but we want to see a good game.
• 18:52
  Even with Texas, the last two games is good.
• 18:54
  Last night was a good game, I guess all I asked.
• 18:56
  No blowout so. I think, you know, we had to get
• 18:59
  past some of these the games that happened in the first
• 19:01
  round. This the the expansion of the
• 19:03
  College Football Playoff has been bravo.
• 19:05
  That game last night, the Penn State, yeah, Notre Dame game,
• 19:09
  wow, that was really good. Ohio State, Georgia was good.
• 19:13
  I mean there Texas, who did Texas beat in that?
• 19:16
  First round would be Arizona State and that.
• 19:18
  Came to Texas. Arizona State was amazing.
• 19:20
  I mean like, really amazing. As the game came to the end, so
• 19:23
  it's like, you know, it's been work well so.
• 19:26
  I, I think, you know, it's, it's interesting and it shows last
• 19:28
  night, you know, the spread I think was 2 1/2 and it ended up
• 19:30
  being 3 points. And you know, I, I, I think it
• 19:35
  was, you know, it looked like Penn State was actually going to
• 19:37
  run him over for a while. And then Notre Dame makes it a
• 19:39
  great game And they, you know, when near the end, I just think
• 19:43
  that this is awesome. I think same thing for tonight.
• 19:45
  I think, you know, on paper, kind of visually, maybe Ohio
• 19:48
  State looks like they're the, you know, they, they looked
• 19:51
  really good. They play and all that.
• 19:52
  But dude, watching Sark in the Texas team, it was like, I
• 19:57
  wouldn't want to bet against that guy in the team that's.
• 20:00
  I agree and that's why I spoke at the clinic.
• 20:02
  You know, coaches like coaches get paid to coach, coach man,
• 20:05
  make their decision, put them in a position.
• 20:07
  You know, you know, you can be like where you got a stone you
• 20:12
  you take the lies down, you know, you can do those trick
• 20:15
  pays or whatever. So it's like nothing's given,
• 20:17
  you know, given every day, like someone's going to take it down.
• 20:19
  So this was good, you know, coaches get put in those
• 20:22
  position and do and coach them up so.
• 20:24
  You know, one of the things that kind of impressed me, I know
• 20:25
  we're seeing even though we have cameras everywhere for these big
• 20:28
  games like this, we're still seeing a very small part of
• 20:31
  Sarkeesian. First of all, he's married to a,
• 20:34
  a former track athlete, which that makes me automatically want
• 20:36
  to root for him. I was like, oh, yeah, tracking
• 20:38
  your blood, brother. But you know, I get kind of this
• 20:42
  is completely off topic, Elton. I'm sorry.
• 20:45
  This is kind of how you know me. We'll just, you know, take.
• 20:48
  But, you know, and I'll pick on football coaches.
• 20:50
  They talk about football coaches will, you know, demand and
• 20:54
  command their athletes of, you know, control your emotions, you
• 20:57
  know, no stupid penalties. No, you know, don't fight back
• 20:59
  because that's the, you know, the second man's always going to
• 21:02
  get the penalty and all these kind of things.
• 21:03
  And then an athlete will again, we're dealing with 18 to 22 year
• 21:07
  olds here on the college level. A kid will make a mistake and
• 21:10
  you see the coach just fly off off the handle and you know, the
• 21:15
  Internet goes all look, that's good hard coaching.
• 21:17
  And I'm like, wait a minute, that's the same dude that was
• 21:20
  talking about controlling your emotions.
• 21:21
  He is certainly not modeling that.
• 21:24
  Where I'm getting at with this is with Sarkeesian, which again,
• 21:26
  I know where I'm not seeing a camera on him 24/7 during the
• 21:29
  game. But man, even through those
• 21:31
  stressful times when the field goal kicker was missing the
• 21:33
  kicks and stuff, very, very calm.
• 21:38
  Yeah, even I want to say businesslike, but I don't like
• 21:41
  that term in this relationship. It's just more like, like, OK,
• 21:44
  that sucked. What do I got to do next,
• 21:46
  though? Like, not like, oh, flap the
• 21:47
  handle. What are you doing, kicker?
• 21:49
  What about it was like, OK, that's the reality.
• 21:51
  So what's my next step? Like, I was kind of looking to
• 21:53
  that next step. And that, that impressed me,
• 21:55
  really did. But most people who know Sir
• 21:59
  knows he has the history. So from the USC days, so, you
• 22:03
  know, after the the climb back up.
• 22:04
  So I'm pretty sure that has taught him so much and he's
• 22:07
  learning his lessons and he's that much better of a person,
• 22:10
  especially coming from Bammer where he was under Nick and he
• 22:14
  he had to control those emotions with Nick, so.
• 22:17
  Well, now you say that, Nick, You know, as vaunted as Nick is
• 22:21
  and all this stuff, there were plenty of times where he would
• 22:24
  fly off the freaking handle. And I was like, dude, Nick,
• 22:26
  you're supposed to be the top of all of the college football
• 22:30
  coach. And it was like, man, I don't
• 22:31
  know. Anyway, OK, so you got Texas 100
• 22:34
  over state tonight. So that means Texas and Notre
• 22:37
  Dame is who you have in your bracket for the national
• 22:40
  championship. So give us a prediction for
• 22:41
  Texas and Notre Dame because that's obviously who's going to
• 22:43
  play. And what's fun is we're
• 22:45
  listening to this in February going oh, man, he was completely
• 22:47
  right or completely wrong. But you got Texas.
• 22:49
  I know who you got. Tell me, how bad does Texas beat
• 22:53
  Notre Dame in the in the championship game?
• 22:55
  But once again, I'm I'm a really so unless Texas comes and plays
• 22:59
  better a complete game four quarters, all three level
• 23:03
  special teams, offense, defense, you know, I can't just just
• 23:07
  because I went to UT and pick them.
• 23:08
  You know, I would like to for the win, but it's the team that
• 23:11
  plays all three phases of the game and play a complete game.
• 23:15
  So until Texas plays a complete game, I I I would I'd be ashamed
• 23:20
  that I pick from, but I hope so. Sark has watched the films and
• 23:23
  they they come in and they play complete game and not still out
• 23:26
  for two quarters. I got it.
• 23:28
  So Texas by 100 is what you're saying?
• 23:29
  Great. You are the you are the worst at
• 23:32
  giving someone. What do they call that?
• 23:36
  Like the sound bite or? Whatever, Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 23:38
  Sound bite or like, you know, court board material or
• 23:40
  whatever. Yeah, yeah.
• 23:41
  We we train these kids around here like that now.
• 23:43
  We don't want no bulletin board. Equipment.
• 23:46
  Yeah, Bulletin. Board, you are the worst at
• 23:48
  that. Well.
• 23:50
  Because that's, that's what we do.
• 23:51
  We use all that as fiery and theory and a true psychologist
• 23:55
  and motivator use that. That's right.
• 23:57
  They lift their teams. That's.
• 23:58
  Right, that's right, that's right.
• 23:59
  OK, So out of high school, you said you wanted to be let's get
• 24:03
  back to you. What we're really here for
• 24:05
  today, Elton, you wanted to be an entrepreneur.
• 24:06
  That's interesting because like like you alluded to, you know,
• 24:09
  today, that's a cool like when you tell someone entrepreneur,
• 24:12
  it's like, wow, that's cool. Back then I don't we didn't even
• 24:15
  you saw you said, you know, I love how you joked, right?
• 24:16
  You said I couldn't even spell the word, but we didn't even
• 24:19
  know what that word meant really back then.
• 24:21
  Where does where did that kind of like, you know, business
• 24:23
  start businesses, things like that, like parents, where where
• 24:26
  you had to have seen this? Maybe somewhere Shark Tank
• 24:29
  wasn't a a show back then. Where where did you kind of know
• 24:32
  about this? I, I think, you know, my
• 24:34
  generation grew up where we, we, you know, we, we mow grass or,
• 24:38
  or we sow candy or we did anything to kind of hustle and
• 24:42
  make money. So it was already that mindset,
• 24:44
  like I always can make money or do something.
• 24:46
  So probably just from that aspect of like, you know, you
• 24:49
  know, even in college, like, you know, we didn't have nothing to
• 24:52
  eat, but I could go donate blood.
• 24:53
  It was some way I can make some money and do something, you
• 24:56
  know, to get some money to do what you need to do.
• 24:59
  And so it was just always had that mindset, you know, OK, what
• 25:01
  what can we do, you know, so. So you went to Grambling?
• 25:06
  What a great school. Good friend.
• 25:07
  Lamont Von's the head coach there now.
• 25:09
  Is higher and OK, she says. I went.
• 25:14
  Oh, yeah, OK, I know, I hear. It a lot of the.
• 25:17
  Time interesting. And we'll maybe just point it
• 25:21
  out what you said and then we'll bring it back up later on.
• 25:24
  You transferred from Grambling to Texas?
• 25:27
  Yeah, no shame. I'm not putting any shame.
• 25:29
  I just I, I, I'm always interested in today's world of
• 25:33
  bashing the transfer portal. And, you know, I was kind of
• 25:36
  retort to people like, well, you know, transferring happened
• 25:39
  before this name of the transfer.
• 25:41
  I know it's a little different, but still people transfer and
• 25:43
  transfer for their own reasons. So interesting that you
• 25:46
  transferred back home. Did you grow up a Texas fan?
• 25:48
  Is that why you went to Texas or?
• 25:49
  No, no, no. Unfortunately my twin brother
• 25:54
  was a great behind me and so Texas first recruited him.
• 25:57
  And so once I I just recruit him and you know, we was probably
• 26:01
  going to go for the package deal, but Kansas end up offering
• 26:04
  him more and so I was still on Texas and so I went to Texas.
• 26:08
  So yeah. Very cool.
• 26:09
  All right, so what'd you end up getting a degree in?
• 26:13
  Sociology with a modern business management.
• 26:16
  Yeah. OK.
• 26:18
  So we'll have to find out how teaching comes in because I'm
• 26:19
  not sure those are teaching degrees.
• 26:22
  But tell us about your time at Texas and really in regards to,
• 26:25
  like, your relationship with your coaches.
• 26:26
  You talked a little bit about how, you know, sometimes college
• 26:28
  is more like a business and high school is different, but it's
• 26:30
  not everybody's case. But how was it there with the
• 26:33
  Texas coaches? You know what it taught me more?
• 26:38
  I called UT the real world. It was the largest university
• 26:42
  for the longest. It's a, a melting pot where it
• 26:45
  has all the races, everything. So if I, I thought as a mindset,
• 26:48
  if I could survive in that environment, which is going to
• 26:50
  be pretty much the real world where I'm just a minority and
• 26:54
  you know, I have to survive and you don't know how to play the,
• 26:56
  the games. And it worked.
• 26:57
  So that put me in a better position where I grounded.
• 27:01
  I was just amongst my own race and I, I don't know if it would
• 27:04
  have me prepared for the real world like Utd.
• 27:07
  So it put me in a position where I how to speak better, how to
• 27:10
  dress more properly, you know, you know, I got judged.
• 27:13
  I had to change everything. So I I learned how to operate in
• 27:17
  life and move certain ways what's going to happen.
• 27:19
  So it kind of molded me a little bit to help me out coaching
• 27:24
  wise. You know, I, I went from more
• 27:28
  money at ground into less money at UT.
• 27:30
  But the relationships and the friendships and everybody that I
• 27:35
  knew that UT probably is worth the the money that I lost
• 27:39
  because I definitely made a lot of friends and a great network
• 27:44
  when I went to UT, especially with I call UTI was there from
• 27:48
  99 to like O4O5I call it the golden years because you know,
• 27:52
  you know, that's like the end of Ricky Williams is the major
• 27:55
  Applewhite, Chris Sims, Vince Young, TJ 4, Marcus Aldridge,
• 28:00
  Sandy Richards, Michelle. So it was like this these golden
• 28:04
  years. Kat Osman was there, the
• 28:06
  Professional Golf guy, I forgot his name, but he was like a So
• 28:10
  it was just so many good, so many Olympians that was there
• 28:12
  for a swim. So I consider the golden years
• 28:15
  that you know, it was really good.
• 28:17
  You know, I met so many people, so it put me in a great position
• 28:23
  where I need to be so. Yeah, that's a great point that
• 28:26
  that was. And now maybe it's kind of back
• 28:28
  into another golden year, golden era, but that was a really
• 28:33
  amazing time at Texas. Most people most people don't
• 28:36
  understand like at UT back in the day or during my time, the
• 28:40
  Irwin center is right next door to UT.
• 28:43
  So George Bush, all the wrestlers came to use that
• 28:45
  weight room, all the basketball. So anybody was signed with in
• 28:48
  town that was inside UT weight room working out.
• 28:52
  And you know, you can meet any other professional wrestlers,
• 28:54
  Rock, Mark Henry and who's a good friend is like, you just
• 28:59
  got to be around people and see people that you probably
• 29:01
  wouldn't have been able to see any other time because you know,
• 29:04
  they they would just come to use that weight room and all that.
• 29:06
  So it's a great time. So you.
• 29:08
  Know, that's interesting. Let's kind of double click into
• 29:11
  that because, you know, I'm conflicted with a lot of things.
• 29:15
  I, I, I, I work really hard at not judging people for, for
• 29:20
  many, many reasons. Like like if a kids, you know,
• 29:22
  when we talk about athletics here, if a kid signs with Texas
• 29:25
  or they sign with Letourneau Universe, I'm trying to another
• 29:27
  small university in Texas. Like it doesn't matter to me.
• 29:30
  Like cool, you're going to college.
• 29:32
  That's awesome. I don't care that you're going
• 29:34
  to a school that I can barely spell Letourneau.
• 29:36
  I've gotten better at it or to a school that of course I hear
• 29:39
  about every day because of football, Texas, et cetera.
• 29:42
  You know, you just, you just made a really great point about
• 29:46
  the value of a school like UT. This is not a UT commercial.
• 29:50
  So I'm, I'm going to say the schools like UT meaning like you
• 29:54
  got to be around. It's a little bit like why they
• 29:57
  talk about Ivy League schools that the they don't, they don't
• 30:00
  necessarily like teach you more because you go to a Harvard or
• 30:03
  Yale or whatever, but you're around other highly skilled or
• 30:09
  highly placed type people. Same reason why they talk about
• 30:13
  going to get an MBA. It's not really the education.
• 30:15
  Like you can go read a book and read what you're going to get
• 30:17
  MBA, but you're around other entrepreneurial like minded.
• 30:20
  They're all going to own their own businesses, be CFOSCEOS,
• 30:23
  etcetera. I learned early on in college,
• 30:25
  it's not about what you know, it's about who you know.
• 30:27
  So create new relationships and all that is going to last longer
• 30:30
  than what, you know, all the stuff we learned in college is
• 30:33
  probably more survivor skill than it is educationally.
• 30:35
  But you know, we met and networked with some, a lot of
• 30:38
  the great people that we still use today.
• 30:40
  And you know, frat people or sorority people go to college
• 30:44
  and just party up. And then now they're CEOs and
• 30:46
  all that, you know, because you know, their parents was the CEO
• 30:49
  as a parent company. So it's like, you know, the
• 30:50
  networking is still. So once I, I realized that in
• 30:55
  college, like, you know, OK, let's network, let's, let's meet
• 30:57
  people, you know, so it's, it has paid off a ton because a lot
• 31:02
  of that has got me some doors open.
• 31:04
  For sure, for sure. And you know, you're, you know,
• 31:07
  I don't know if people today know this term, but your
• 31:09
  Rolodex, your, your contact list and your phone, you know, if you
• 31:13
  need something, need help or need advice or need an
• 31:15
  introduction is a little larger than maybe someone who did track
• 31:20
  at a smaller school. I'm trying to be real careful.
• 31:22
  I'm not picking, I'm not picking on any schools or getting more
• 31:24
  uplifting. But but it makes me think about
• 31:26
  like when, when a coach talks about like, you know, get rid of
• 31:30
  that D1 or bus mentality and, and I know what they're talking
• 31:32
  about, but it seems like there's a lot of judgement of like, oh,
• 31:36
  a kid takes a book scholarship to a power 4 versus 1/2 right or
• 31:39
  full right or whatever to a smaller school.
• 31:42
  And again, this is a much more complex than just the logo of
• 31:46
  the school because you're also talking about like, oh, they're
• 31:48
  student loans and but you also don't know if the family can
• 31:50
  afford it, if you know, to get books at Texas and pay the rest,
• 31:53
  etcetera. But there I think there is
• 31:55
  something to be said when I I always, you know, been around
• 32:00
  track my whole life, right. So I ran track all through high
• 32:02
  school, love all my high school teammates, etcetera, etcetera.
• 32:04
  Not a single one of my high school teammates went on to
• 32:07
  coach track and field And I I get other coaches where, you
• 32:10
  know, they're like, Oh yeah, my high school team or my college
• 32:12
  team. Oh, there's fifteen of us that
• 32:14
  all coach and it's like. Saying with us.
• 32:16
  Yeah, yeah. It's like, Oh well, your base is
• 32:18
  a lot like I had to build my best a lot harder than you did
• 32:21
  you. You had homies that were track
• 32:22
  coaches. I didn't know anybody, you know,
• 32:24
  And it's like, so when you're talking about even pass track
• 32:27
  and field, you're talking about, Oh, I bumped into rock and Mark
• 32:30
  Henry and it's like, oh gosh, I didn't get that opportunity at
• 32:34
  other small school. You know, just it's just
• 32:35
  interesting to me that maybe there's more value in some of
• 32:39
  those things that we think are superficial.
• 32:41
  Like, oh, I go to Texas, I'm walking on a Texas because I get
• 32:44
  to say I was at Texas versus Oh, well, you could have come to my
• 32:46
  school and gotten 4th in conference or whatever.
• 32:48
  Maybe there's other values out there because in the at the end
• 32:51
  of the day, how many, it's a little higher at Texas.
• 32:54
  How many of track athletes are going on to make money and track
• 32:58
  very, very small. So unless you somehow think, you
• 33:03
  know, I'm a 10/30 sprinter or 1050 sprinter and I'm going to
• 33:07
  somehow become 980 that that's going to be very hard.
• 33:10
  So college is going to be the top of my running career.
• 33:13
  Well, then I better make as much connection as possible during my
• 33:17
  running career. And that might be better at a
• 33:19
  bigger name, I don't know. It's just interesting.
• 33:21
  I just when you're naming those names like, that's interesting.
• 33:24
  Put things in perspective, man. At just like now at UT, all the
• 33:27
  professions as training. When I was at UT, Donovan Bailey
• 33:31
  was there training. Bruni Saren, Green Street,
• 33:34
  Thompson, OB Daley Thompson, Sandy Richards, Suzanne Reed.
• 33:41
  It's like it was like the who's who like the professional
• 33:43
  circuit at that time. You know, we have the Olympic
• 33:46
  champion of Donovan Bailey training on the track, you know,
• 33:48
  and brilliant. Who's the up and coming world
• 33:50
  champion, you know, So it's like Obadela who was cold, like it
• 33:53
  was all these 99 guys. So just, yeah, as you watch,
• 33:56
  just to see them out there practice and it's like, you
• 33:58
  know, it's like, Dang, you know, and then sometimes y'all hang
• 34:01
  out with him. So I mean, that was that was
• 34:02
  real neat. Yeah, I don't know.
• 34:04
  That just kind of opened my eyes about that whole discussion.
• 34:07
  Again, it's a much, there's a lot, no one thing is the one
• 34:10
  thing. So there's a lot of threads into
• 34:11
  those kind of discussions, but I don't know.
• 34:14
  Interesting. OK, so you TT you graduate where
• 34:19
  at any point I usually ask this question back in high school.
• 34:22
  Let's go back to high school. At any point when you were
• 34:24
  running track those last couple years in high school was
• 34:27
  coaching even a thought for you? You're somewhat entrepreneur, so
• 34:29
  you probably weren't even. Yeah, OK, now, now you get to UT
• 34:32
  and you go through, you know, the you go Grambling, then UT go
• 34:36
  through a few years, you see different coaches at UT.
• 34:38
  Definitely your kind of maybe your mind and world of track and
• 34:41
  field open up as far as like, oh, there's a whole different
• 34:44
  ball game going on here anytime during Texas as you're working
• 34:48
  towards graduation coaching, hitting your mind at all.
• 34:52
  Nah, no, not at all. So yeah, you know, you just
• 34:57
  focus on just trying to live and, you know, thinking your
• 35:01
  degree, your major is going to get you those jobs.
• 35:03
  But yeah, no. You, you're still like all the
• 35:06
  way through Texas thinking entrepreneurial like, OK, what
• 35:08
  business am I going to start or work with someone else?
• 35:12
  I, I, I, I'll tell you the, the pivot point for me, and this is
• 35:17
  a high moment. I filled out my junior year and
• 35:23
  I had my best friend played in the WBA.
• 35:25
  Her name is Ayana Walker. She went overseas after the WBA
• 35:30
  season and she said, hey, I got 1 ticket, I could bring one
• 35:33
  person and I just filled out. So I went to Europe for a
• 35:37
  semester ineligible and I spent a year in a semester in Denmark,
• 35:44
  Copenhagen, what a professional WNBA player.
• 35:48
  And over there he's like, you know, so I hope because I had
• 35:51
  never been overseas. This is a young guy from Texas
• 35:54
  who's now out of college. You're trying to figure out your
• 35:56
  life and you go overseas and you see the perspective where
• 35:59
  everything, the crime is no crime over there.
• 36:03
  You know, everything's is so much different.
• 36:04
  You know, the everybody's walking, everybody's healthy.
• 36:07
  I like that. So just been over Denmark for a
• 36:10
  semester, really woke me up and you know, saw me allow me to see
• 36:16
  what you know my path was going to be and all like that.
• 36:20
  And I came back and finished my last semester and 1/2 with like
• 36:23
  4 point O. So to go from being ineligible
• 36:26
  to finish with a four point OS, I think I finished with a
• 36:29
  football like two of the last three semesters.
• 36:31
  So it's just, you know, it was just one of those things.
• 36:34
  I went to college at 17, so I was a young college kid anyway,
• 36:37
  So I I needed to material a little bit and that was the eye
• 36:39
  opener because you know, going overseas is just so much
• 36:41
  different from America. They loved us as Americans and
• 36:45
  you know that it's it was a really great experience.
• 36:48
  You know, if I could have moved over there, I could have I would
• 36:51
  have. You know, it's crazy because the
• 36:53
  next semester, the next year, when the WBA season was over,
• 36:56
  she was like, hey, I'm going to China.
• 36:58
  You want to go? I was like, no, no, I got to
• 36:59
  finish my degree. Like then it's like the next one
• 37:01
  was like, I'm going to Israel. You want to go?
• 37:02
  I'm like, I got to get this degree.
• 37:05
  But yeah, so I was looking. I had the the best friend that
• 37:08
  put me in that situation and that that stores online and that
• 37:11
  that woke me up. But you know, anybody have never
• 37:13
  spent ever spent time overseas? His eye opening and it is it's
• 37:17
  very you know who's got to travel to Russia, Germany, you
• 37:21
  know, Amsterdam and red light district and all like that.
• 37:23
  So it was pretty neat, so. I I think that goes back to, you
• 37:26
  know, the 18 year olds making decisions of their kind.
• 37:29
  It's like you don't even know where Denmark is you.
• 37:31
  Don't. Go to those places, go get a job
• 37:34
  or, you know, for a semester or two and then, and then coming to
• 37:37
  school or something. Yeah, that's fascinating.
• 37:39
  You know, that's interesting. I, I imagine when that semester
• 37:45
  we talked about you failed out as you're, you know, you kind of
• 37:47
  see the grades go on and it's like maybe a little scary.
• 37:51
  What, what am I going to do? What's going to happen?
• 37:53
  You know, things like that, how like when you went overseas, was
• 38:01
  that an escapism of like, let me just get away from things?
• 38:04
  Or was it like, you know what, maybe I can earn?
• 38:06
  A lot of times we need a eye opening, you know, and you know,
• 38:08
  some people eye opening might be the last eye opening, you know,
• 38:11
  like it could be detrimental. But mine was like more of a
• 38:14
  situation to see, Hey, you know, there's, there's a better way of
• 38:17
  life or a better way of living, you know, put things respected
• 38:19
  because, you know, she's playing WBA ball.
• 38:21
  So as you see, most of them go overseas and they get great
• 38:24
  money. I think we would mean we had so
• 38:26
  much money. They was giving her cash and all
• 38:28
  that. So we live really nice over
• 38:30
  there. You know, it was just, it was
• 38:31
  just so cold over there, you know, in Copenhagen in October,
• 38:36
  November. So, but other than that, like
• 38:38
  we, we live well. We took trains everywhere.
• 38:41
  So it was just a great experience, like eye opening.
• 38:43
  And it's OK, you know, let's, I'm ready for this, You know, it
• 38:47
  gave me more time to open up and it helps out.
• 38:50
  And then you you can't, I'm almost kind of searching, you
• 38:53
  know, we deal with this in coaching.
• 38:54
  You've heard this before. You know, the magic pill.
• 38:56
  What's the workout I need for the big bite 800m runner is the
• 38:58
  best. So I'm kind of almost like
• 39:00
  searching for the that magic pill on this because you
• 39:02
  mentioned you come back and now you're like, oh man, four O 4.
• 39:05
  You know, you like it, it, it changed your life, dude.
• 39:08
  That's what I'm hearing. What what was it?
• 39:11
  What? It can't be that, Oh, I took
• 39:13
  trains instead of cars, Mike. That's what you, you know, And I
• 39:16
  don't know that there's any one thing that almost sounds like
• 39:17
  it's a culmination of just seeing a different literal side
• 39:21
  of the world. Yeah, honestly, I I think males
• 39:25
  mature later than females. I still needed more time than
• 39:28
  mature. I was a 17 year old going into
• 39:31
  college. That's why I think, you know,
• 39:33
  like he said, like sometimes starting off that one or two
• 39:36
  years, like at a Community College or whatever, give me
• 39:38
  more time to cheer my cheer and learn that host system.
• 39:41
  So I needed that just to kind of the grass and, you know, just
• 39:46
  like, you know, get myself together and and that helped,
• 39:50
  you know. You, you didn't do track over
• 39:52
  there, I'm assuming was it was any part of this transformation,
• 39:57
  if you will, that. Oh, I'm going to say, yeah, I
• 40:00
  don't like when people say this. When track was taken away from
• 40:02
  you, you caused track to be taken away from you.
• 40:04
  You know, no one ripped it away from you.
• 40:06
  Your actions caused that. You're mature enough to know
• 40:08
  that. But now you go over there and
• 40:10
  there's a little bit of like, oh, there's no track either, and
• 40:12
  maybe I kind of missed that. Was there any of that aspect to
• 40:14
  it? No, I think it, it when I even
• 40:18
  when I came back, I think I, I attempted to run for a little
• 40:21
  bit, but then I, I got cancer and then I, I just gave that up
• 40:26
  and just became a student. So yeah, it makes sense.
• 40:31
  But so it's like my health was more, more important.
• 40:36
  So I, I was diagnosed with basic cell carcinoma my junior year,
• 40:41
  so as a 20 year old. So it's like, OK, yeah, yeah,
• 40:45
  yeah. And, you know, and that's the
• 40:47
  crazy thing about it, you know, guy has a way of talking to you.
• 40:50
  I was diagnosed with skin cancer, not on my skin out here,
• 40:56
  but in my ear. So it was like, not just skin,
• 41:00
  like where, you know, that maybe the sun, when we travel around
• 41:02
  the sun was in my inner ear. And it's only because I lost
• 41:06
  hearing in my ear that, you know, I found out that I have
• 41:08
  basic cell carcinoma. And I was like, OK.
• 41:10
  Wow. Let's get this together, you
• 41:12
  know, and then you know, from there I just let's get to the
• 41:15
  degree. Now going to Denmark can
• 41:18
  certainly change your life and make you see things differently.
• 41:23
  I don't know that you can have cancer and it not change your
• 41:27
  life in regards to obviously. But she had 20.
• 41:30
  Most 20 year olds don't want to unite. 20 year, you're
• 41:33
  bulletproof, right? I mean, you know, something can
• 41:35
  take you down and then you find that you have something that
• 41:37
  absolutely can take you, take you out.
• 41:40
  What was that like? Is is that part of this
• 41:42
  transformation? A little bit here too.
• 41:44
  Yeah, it's part of that transformation because it's like
• 41:47
  it gives me another outlook on life and all that.
• 41:50
  So I live life by curiously and, you know, I, you know, all by
• 41:54
  helping each other, helping people and, you know, just being
• 41:56
  like that. So as a 20 year old, you go to a
• 41:58
  doctor's office, you lose your hearing.
• 42:01
  I left my I lost my hearing in my right ear.
• 42:03
  So the doctor had to pull something on my ear and then he
• 42:07
  just sent me home. You know, of course he said,
• 42:09
  hey, I'm going to get it tested. It bled, bled, bled, bled all
• 42:14
  night long. Had to come back in because it
• 42:16
  kept bleeding later on when you called like it was cancerous.
• 42:19
  So that's why I was bleeding. I had to get like the Afrin to
• 42:22
  stop the bleeding of the vessels and all like that.
• 42:24
  But you know, the goal in a doctor's offer at the age of 20,
• 42:28
  you know, mama's not there's like, I need my Mama now.
• 42:30
  You're like, you know what, what you mean I got counseling.
• 42:32
  I'm 20, you know, So, you know, just shocking that aspect
• 42:35
  because you, you know, you know, no 20 year old expect to hear
• 42:38
  that. No, usually your parents right
• 42:39
  there or somebody's there with you a year alone.
• 42:41
  Like, hey, wow, wow, you got cancer.
• 42:44
  You know, so it's like, yeah, it's just one of those things
• 42:47
  like you, you better test it and you're, you're ready for it.
• 42:49
  Yeah, 20. You think cancer is an an old
• 42:51
  man's disease? Like oh, when I'm 60 maybe, or
• 42:54
  70. In skin cancer, skin cancer is
• 42:57
  not predominantly in my my ethics.
• 43:00
  So it's like, it's weird about that, so.
• 43:03
  Wow man, well that's amazing. I love, you know, this is this
• 43:10
  is the reason why we started this podcast was learn like, you
• 43:12
  know, we see you today and what you're doing.
• 43:14
  It's like, what's the what's the back?
• 43:15
  What's chapter one? Yeah, this is amazing.
• 43:19
  Thank you so much for for sharing and being so open and
• 43:21
  authentic with that. It's it's really, it's amazing.
• 43:24
  It's fascinating. It it's hard to you made it hard
• 43:27
  on me as your interviewer because it's hard to like, well,
• 43:29
  OK, that's great. Now what?
• 43:30
  You know, but so, so now, so you get your degree.
• 43:34
  I didn't hear you get a teaching degree.
• 43:37
  So what do you do? So I start working at Home
• 43:41
  Depot, one of the former alumni's at UT, Cynthia got me a
• 43:48
  job on my Home Depot as a manager.
• 43:50
  So I worked in retail for 2-3 years.
• 43:53
  But you know anybody knows working retail is is a grind
• 43:57
  because you're working every holidays, you you're working
• 43:59
  every weekend, you open and close.
• 44:01
  And so my twin brother end up getting becoming a teacher and I
• 44:07
  saw what he made his first year after he went to the alternative
• 44:10
  certification program. And so here's the kicker that a
• 44:14
  lot of people don't know. And This is why me and my
• 44:17
  brother are so determined and you know, you know, we are
• 44:22
  successful, but we worked very hard at it.
• 44:24
  I drove from Austin 3 or 4 times a week to go to an alternative
• 44:28
  certification program with a three month old son and, and his
• 44:35
  mom at the time, you know, just to make sure that happened for
• 44:37
  like 6 weeks just to get that alternative certification.
• 44:42
  And then when that happened, you know, I moved down.
• 44:43
  So it's just one of those things like, you know, you just got to
• 44:46
  get it done to get the betterment of yourself and all
• 44:49
  that. And so you know, it's just, you
• 44:51
  just make it happen and all that.
• 44:53
  So we don't mind putting in the work for anything.
• 44:55
  Like we work hard at what we do, like we might have success, but
• 44:59
  there's there's a lot of work that goes into it.
• 45:01
  For sure. And we don't shop from that so.
• 45:04
  Yeah. So you go through the
• 45:06
  alternative certification process to become an, to become
• 45:09
  a teacher. Yes.
• 45:12
  What was your OK is is it's one thing you're going through the
• 45:17
  Home Depot like management training program.
• 45:19
  Your your brother goes through the through the alternative
• 45:22
  series and you see like, oh, wait a minute, he's making some
• 45:24
  pretty good money. Way more than me, yeah.
• 45:26
  Yeah, he's like, wait a minute. Right, Right.
• 45:28
  You know, and this, this that time when Home Depot used to pay
• 45:30
  the athletes back in the day, the Olympic athletes and had
• 45:32
  that program where you can work 20 hours and you can, you can
• 45:36
  get paid. You know which I wish they
• 45:37
  brought that back because. I agree you have some.
• 45:40
  Athletes out like at least some company Apple test somebody need
• 45:44
  to you know get a program where you helping out these pro
• 45:46
  athletes where they don't have to get a full time job.
• 45:48
  I agree I can get the money some.
• 45:50
  That depot program I think really helped and saved and
• 45:55
  helped a lot of people become Olympians and continue to become
• 45:58
  Olympians because that was, it was amazing.
• 46:00
  I, I agree with that tremendously.
• 46:02
  I love that when you are, when you decide, OK, I'm going to go
• 46:06
  through the same program my brother went through.
• 46:09
  Where is where is Trek? Is it like, oh, I'm going to go
• 46:11
  teach and coach, or are we still not even thinking about coaching
• 46:14
  at this point? I'm thinking about coaching
• 46:18
  because he's he, he coached also during that time, once I finish,
• 46:25
  Bill had senior Richards there and she had raising McIntosh
• 46:30
  there who was a both like great 400 runners.
• 46:33
  So she allowed me to stick around and help with them.
• 46:37
  So you know, I, I would pace singing through the condition
• 46:41
  workouts. Like in the fall they did 2
• 46:43
  models on a, on an instrumental field or they did 400 repeats.
• 46:47
  Or when she had 400, somebody needed to bring her through 53
• 46:50
  or 23 second 200. So and I think that kind of got
• 46:55
  me back into track after that little break that I had.
• 46:57
  I was like, OK, you know, you still have this in you.
• 47:00
  So, you know, I watched Bev a lot.
• 47:02
  I watched Bubba Thornton, Dan Path, who was there when I was
• 47:06
  there. And it was like, OK, Jason
• 47:07
  Vigilanti was my college coach. So I think I, you know, I was
• 47:13
  around greatness a lot. And, you know, and I I kind of
• 47:15
  just taking the liking to it and all that.
• 47:18
  So I was like, OK, yeah. You know, and I'm one of those
• 47:21
  people I'm always watching and looking and trying to, you know,
• 47:26
  learn. So I still remember going in Dan
• 47:29
  path office and out and all that, how many books he had on
• 47:32
  his shelf, how many vitamins that was there.
• 47:35
  You know, that that that what it took to be that level of
• 47:38
  coaching. So it's like, you know, my mind,
• 47:41
  I was clicking. It was always curious.
• 47:44
  We Dan Path has been on the show as well, and you have no Dan for
• 47:48
  a long time. I haven't told this story in a
• 47:50
  while. I when I was coaching at
• 47:52
  Mississippi State, he was at Florida and he had this stud
• 47:56
  like 74 high jumper who also long jumped 2627 also trip like
• 48:01
  he was he was the number one in all day.
• 48:03
  Yeah, it was amazing. And my long jumper ended up is
• 48:07
  that Vandy for conference for SCCS.
• 48:09
  My long jumper beat his long jumper to win the the long jump
• 48:12
  title and you know, big, you know, won an SEC title.
• 48:15
  That's that's a big deal. And I beat Dan Path, who was
• 48:17
  already like, Oh, my God, you know, and you know, this all
• 48:21
  this always stuck with me about humility.
• 48:24
  The first thing that at least I saw after the competition, after
• 48:28
  it was, you know, finalized that my kid was going to win.
• 48:29
  His kid got second, yada yada is he immediately walked over to
• 48:32
  me, shook my hand and said congratulations.
• 48:35
  And I was like, that's Dan Path. He didn't have to say nothing.
• 48:40
  Yeah. It was like, it really like
• 48:43
  impacted me of like, oh, that's how that's how big time coaches
• 48:46
  act. Like even in even in a loss,
• 48:48
  they're going to go congratulate other people.
• 48:50
  Like, you know, they don't go salt.
• 48:51
  They don't go yell at their athlete or what, you know, that
• 48:53
  he it was really cool. So it was cool to have him on
• 48:56
  the podcast to be able to say, hey, man, I haven't I haven't
• 48:58
  been able to publicly say how cool that was to you.
• 49:00
  It was cool and we had. Happy birthday to my goddamn
• 49:04
  past, He. Is that's right.
• 49:05
  It's his birthday today. That's right.
• 49:07
  He'll celebrate with a Texas victory tonight.
• 49:09
  I'm sure we had Andreas Bain from Altus.
• 49:12
  On this too and also he was at UT with us so.
• 49:15
  Yeah, as I say, he was also there.
• 49:16
  He. Was an assistant at UT with us
• 49:19
  as a volunteer in all of that. So Andrea has been around for a
• 49:22
  while. So I seen him come up, then he
• 49:23
  went to aid and I'm so I'm so proud of him, man.
• 49:25
  Like everybody don't know, like a lot of people wouldn't take
• 49:28
  the route there Andrea is to, or you just grind me and work your
• 49:32
  way up. So, so it's good to see what he
• 49:34
  he's doing. His story.
• 49:36
  If you guys haven't listened to Andrea's story, you got to go.
• 49:40
  Elton hit the nail on the head here.
• 49:42
  You talk about a guy he he volunteered, volunteered at A&M
• 49:47
  for eight years. That was after spending many
• 49:50
  years at Texas with PATH and those guys before that being at
• 49:55
  Tennessee with Vince and some other guys there.
• 49:58
  So I mean, his story is one of like, I don't want to say
• 50:02
  perseverance like he was, but of of timing and what's the word he
• 50:08
  kept using how how it integrates.
• 50:09
  So he was like, because I was like, you know, he's like,
• 50:11
  you're in eight years of Texas A&M, dude, and you were
• 50:12
  coaching, you know, pretty big world record holder and things
• 50:15
  like that. It's like, why didn't you go get
• 50:16
  a job? You know, and he's like, it, it
• 50:17
  just didn't fit to where I was at the time and what I needed to
• 50:20
  do. And I was just like, well, you
• 50:22
  talk about a person who understood what his real and
• 50:25
  patience to do that anyway. So, yeah, when you mentioned Dan
• 50:29
  at Texas, that made me think about Andre, Andre and those
• 50:33
  guys. Yeah.
• 50:34
  And it, you know, anytime, Elton, that I can remind.
• 50:36
  People so did you see the greatness I was around at that
• 50:38
  time? It was amazing.
• 50:40
  It's amazing. It was like there's so much
• 50:42
  talent at UT during that time and that kind of sparked that
• 50:44
  flame. So yeah, that's what I'm saying.
• 50:46
  You know, I didn't, I enjoyed Gremlin, but the the people I
• 50:49
  met and the, the lifelong memories I have like kind of,
• 50:54
  you know, kind of took care of itself so.
• 50:56
  Makes sense. So you go through the
• 50:57
  alternative certification program, did you guys both go to
• 51:01
  Summer Creek? Is that is that the where we
• 51:03
  start off as far as teaching and coaching or?
• 51:05
  We both start off at Tascocita. Is that right?
• 51:08
  OK, Sorry, I haven't had Shelton on for a while.
• 51:11
  OK, so you go through, you get the certificate.
• 51:13
  So you go to a Tascocita. You go.
• 51:15
  So this is a homecoming for you? I didn't know this.
• 51:17
  So yes. Yes.
• 51:18
  All right. So it's been 6 years here
• 51:20
  before. Yeah, yeah.
• 51:20
  OK. So six years at a Tascocita, you
• 51:23
  can't. It just doesn't roll the tongue.
• 51:27
  Atascocita. So you spent six years there.
• 51:30
  So talk to me about did you immediately go into coaching
• 51:33
  track when you got there? Yes, yes, yes.
• 51:36
  So I took over and I was assisted.
• 51:39
  I did a long jump and triple. I did long jump and triple
• 51:44
  jumping hurdles. I starting off so and you know,
• 51:47
  and this is one of those I have moments because it pays off in
• 51:50
  the end. I was a 408 hundred guy.
• 51:52
  So you know, like I thought as a you know, coming in, hey, I run
• 51:55
  track of college. I'm a coach to 400 guys, 800
• 51:58
  guy, you know, and this coach got me out of my comfort zones.
• 52:01
  Like, hey, you know, you're going to coach hurdles, you're
• 52:03
  going to coach a long jump, you know, and all like that, you
• 52:06
  know, and years later, you know, I have state champions and I
• 52:10
  have and those events, you know, you know, I got out of my
• 52:14
  comfort zone was like, hey, Nah, this is what I do.
• 52:16
  Like, I was like, OK, yeah, I, I learned the hurdles, I learned
• 52:19
  their jumps and, you know, it pay dividends.
• 52:21
  Elton, that's so funny. So this past weekend, you and I
• 52:24
  were together at the TTFCA down in Waco.
• 52:27
  Yes, yes. And as we were prepping for a
• 52:30
  video Q&A with Carl Lewis, we were having some technical
• 52:33
  difficulties. And I said to the crowd, I said,
• 52:37
  hey, you know, you guys know this as teachers and coaches
• 52:39
  that, you know, if you don't have adaptability, I'm not sure
• 52:42
  you can be successful as a coach or as a teacher or anything in
• 52:46
  in life and. Life.
• 52:48
  Husband. Wife.
• 52:49
  Yeah, A. 100% and and I got you and your brother to come up and
• 52:52
  do a short Q&A while we waited that but that's so funny.
• 52:55
  You know what I said there and now here you were showing like,
• 52:57
  oh, I'm a four hundred 800 meter guy.
• 52:58
  Yeah, that's cool. Go coach the long jump, trouble
• 53:00
  jump and the hurdles. So what was the first thing you
• 53:04
  know? I know you well enough and you
• 53:05
  mentioned. About how let's think about
• 53:06
  this, the whole state of the whole United States had a
• 53:09
  shutdown this week because of snow and all that.
• 53:12
  So if you, that's not adaptability, that's anything,
• 53:15
  you know, we all have to figure out some way to get our training
• 53:17
  in or do what we need to do because of the snows and all
• 53:20
  like that. And it's been indoors.
• 53:22
  So that's right. You have to be able to adapt in
• 53:24
  this life. That's right.
• 53:25
  Or you just darn as successful as you could or should be.
• 53:28
  Yeah, I agree. So.
• 53:30
  So what is the first thing you get there?
• 53:32
  Your your mind says like, yeah, I'm a coach.
• 53:34
  I'm I'm, I did the four and eight.
• 53:35
  That's why I'm a coach. And he says, yeah, that's cool.
• 53:38
  I need you to do long jump, triple jump and hurdles.
• 53:40
  What's the first thing you did of like, OK, well, I I better
• 53:43
  get ready. What's the first thing you did
• 53:44
  to help yourself get ready to coach those events?
• 53:47
  I just read up a lot, you know, and I got the knowledge, like
• 53:53
  reading documents and, you know, going to clinics.
• 53:55
  I think Rice used to have a clinics back then.
• 53:57
  I got the Level 1 cert. I went to Chula Vista to Olympic
• 54:01
  Training Center, you know, I got my certification.
• 54:05
  I think Charles Jones, right? Is it?
• 54:07
  Charles did MSN, right? Charles Jones.
• 54:10
  Charles Smith, He's out there in LA.
• 54:12
  He's one of the big ones. Used to coach at Wilson.
• 54:15
  I like that I got my certification from him.
• 54:17
  I met I met Justin tier one there he was in my clinic.
• 54:21
  Richie Mercado was in my class. So it was a lot of big names
• 54:25
  that was in that level one with me.
• 54:27
  I truly invested in, you know, at the Olympic training, so that
• 54:30
  was real neat. So and you know, once again,
• 54:33
  just eager for knowledge, you know, just going to the clinics
• 54:35
  and all that and just learning so.
• 54:38
  So hold on now, you know, I interviewed lots of high school
• 54:41
  coaches and, you know, I was like to it's very, it's more
• 54:46
  common than not that, you know, if I was an 800m runner and I go
• 54:50
  to teach and coach in high school, sure, I might coach the
• 54:52
  800, but I'm probably going to do jumps or throw, you know, you
• 54:55
  have to be very adaptable. But my favorite answer, I always
• 54:58
  ask a high school coach, oh, what do you coach?
• 54:59
  And you know, they're like, yeah, I coach high school.
• 55:00
  I mean, I coach everything. It's like.
• 55:02
  I coach everything. You talking about, you know,
• 55:05
  doing your level ones and reading, you really threw
• 55:09
  yourself into this and this is not shaded for other people that
• 55:12
  don't do this or can't you know that everybody has a different
• 55:14
  availability for their time and, and passions and things like
• 55:17
  that. You could have, you could have
• 55:20
  still done the job, maybe not as well doing half the work that
• 55:24
  you did. You didn't have to go to level
• 55:25
  1. You could have read books.
• 55:27
  You're in Houston area. So there's a lot of people you
• 55:29
  could have reached out to. You have a great network to
• 55:32
  read. You know, you could call Dan and
• 55:33
  just listen to him for an hour and wouldn't code him.
• 55:36
  What is it about you and your, your, your ferventness of, of
• 55:40
  passion of like, oh, it seems like you go all in.
• 55:43
  Like there's 100% and there's zero percent.
• 55:45
  I don't know anything in between, Mike.
• 55:48
  Because I believe knowledge is power, you know, I can't, you
• 55:51
  know, have a mentor like damn path where I see he's have
• 55:54
  nothing but books or he's chatted reading up and been a
• 55:57
  student of the sport. And I'm not a student of the
• 55:59
  sport, you know, you know, the best coaches are thieves.
• 56:02
  So I'm always trying to learn and still one ideal or one take
• 56:06
  from someone or something. And that way I can take and make
• 56:09
  those athletes that much better. So you got to continue building
• 56:14
  your knowledge. Otherwise you just you go still.
• 56:16
  So it helps a lot, you know, not just in hurdles classes with
• 56:21
  Sammy Dabbe a couple months ago. Then we went to the clinic.
• 56:24
  I'm going to New Mexico at the end of this month.
• 56:26
  So it's like we always trying to learn, you know, we love the
• 56:31
  buying the stuff that the Harvard guys are doing is like
• 56:33
  we, we're always trying to learn to get that that knowledge.
• 56:37
  So. So how does how did you let you
• 56:39
  know you're an 800 meter dude? How did you like coaching the
• 56:42
  jumps? I like it.
• 56:45
  It's to me the hurdles and jumps is very simple because it's so
• 56:48
  technical. Technical, you got a predefined
• 56:50
  space and distance and all that and you have to get it.
• 56:53
  So it actually made me a much better coach because I don't
• 56:56
  think we could have broke the national record if I wouldn't
• 56:59
  have been so attentive and paid attention to detail if I've been
• 57:03
  a hurdle coach and jump coach. Because, you know, any little
• 57:06
  thing in the hurdles or jumps, you know, can make a difference.
• 57:09
  So we're always striving and to be technically sound.
• 57:13
  And that's the same way I do when I'm coaching 100 or 400 or
• 57:16
  whatever. So we're trying to just get that
• 57:20
  technique now. Now you were at at Tuscocita
• 57:23
  with your brother. Yes.
• 57:25
  So what's that like? I mean, it's, I've heard
• 57:29
  coaching Staffs talk about like, oh, we're so close.
• 57:31
  We're like family. But you, you were family.
• 57:35
  You've known him since, you know, diapers.
• 57:37
  Working out loud. Yeah, exactly how?
• 57:40
  What's that like working with your your brother?
• 57:44
  Like minded individuals. So you know, not only he's my
• 57:48
  brother, he's my twin. So most of the time we we cut
• 57:52
  from the same cloth, especially from the people we learned from
• 57:56
  him going to U of H allowed him to to be underneath the Braille,
• 58:00
  then watch Carl watch Talez to have that relationship.
• 58:04
  And from his relationship with them, I was able to get
• 58:07
  relationship. I was reading the six degrees,
• 58:10
  the separations. And that's just one of the
• 58:12
  things from him knowing someone I was able to know and put
• 58:15
  myself in those circles that have paid dividends.
• 58:18
  And the same with him, you know, it, it, it has paid a lot.
• 58:22
  So. Yeah, cuckoo, cool.
• 58:24
  You're still brothers. You fought over toys when you're
• 58:27
  a kid and you know I'm mom's favorite or whatnot.
• 58:32
  And I know we were adults when we get to this age but we're
• 58:35
  still brothers and family and breaking bread over Thanksgiving
• 58:39
  and hard to get a break from your brother versus, you know, a
• 58:42
  Co worker. Any rubs?
• 58:45
  And you do you are different people.
• 58:47
  I know you're twins and you are very like minded, but you are
• 58:49
  different people. Any rubs?
• 58:50
  And you're like. Man, get off this.
• 58:52
  Let me go do the 800. I know.
• 58:53
  Do you think you're the hunter guy?
• 58:54
  Let me do it. Anything.
• 58:56
  No, because a lot of times I don't have eagles.
• 58:58
  Only thing that men him disagreed on, like he on the
• 59:02
  development level. He didn't think I should work
• 59:05
  hurdles or jumps every day. But you know, I think with my
• 59:09
  level athletes like we don't have to like jump every day, but
• 59:13
  I we could touch on it and just hit it.
• 59:15
  You know, we don't have to hurdle, like all out hurdle
• 59:18
  every day, but we could touch on and just hit it.
• 59:20
  You know, nobody's going to tell the quarterback, Well, you can't
• 59:21
  throw today. They're not going to tell Steph,
• 59:23
  we're not shooting. So I always had in myself like,
• 59:27
  you know, you know, shoot or shoot, throw, they throw
• 59:29
  baseball. Like, so we have to kind of just
• 59:31
  touch on it because our time is limited and the more they see
• 59:34
  it, the more they get better at it.
• 59:36
  So we have to, you know, kind of give the young development kids
• 59:39
  a little bit more time in that and not just try to, you know,
• 59:42
  just make it 2 * a week expected they're going to truly develop,
• 59:45
  you know? That's a good point.
• 59:47
  And by the way, in Shelton, because I know you're listening,
• 59:49
  I'm not trying to make a divide between my two friends here.
• 59:52
  They're the two brothers. So just curious on on the
• 59:56
  dynamic there. OK, so six years at a Tascocita,
• 1:00:01
  but I know you're at Summer Creek at some point.
• 1:00:03
  So is that the transition and why?
• 1:00:07
  Yeah. And then I went over to Summer
• 1:00:09
  Creek and I get there. The reason I went over is just
• 1:00:13
  to be a head coach anyway. So I became the head girls coach
• 1:00:15
  over there. So I stay in that position, I
• 1:00:19
  think maybe three years so and then I took a break from it to
• 1:00:24
  be, I took a break from coaching period just to, you know, be a
• 1:00:27
  father or whatever so and then I got back into it so.
• 1:00:33
  So three years of Summer Creek and then a break.
• 1:00:36
  Yeah, I went to to Kingwood Park for a while and then I went to
• 1:00:39
  elementary raw. So my 18 years of coaching the
• 1:00:43
  year elementary was probably most joyous time I had because
• 1:00:47
  it's the previous form of education.
• 1:00:48
  There's no cell phone, there's no talking, there's so much
• 1:00:50
  structure and anybody who ever worked in an elementary man,
• 1:00:53
  like it's just, it's just pretty joy.
• 1:00:55
  The kids hug you, hug you, they look forward to you.
• 1:00:57
  There's so much excitement and you getting paid to go to
• 1:01:01
  recess, you getting paid for them to sit on a carpet timer
• 1:01:04
  and just read and they're running to grab a book.
• 1:01:06
  So to me as a truly educated, that was like, you know, so
• 1:01:10
  exciting because these kids are yearningly to to read and learn.
• 1:01:14
  So I truly enjoy that because. That's a good point.
• 1:01:16
  Yeah, they, they're, they're innocent.
• 1:01:18
  So they, they're truly coming into themselves.
• 1:01:19
  So I I enjoy that. That's good.
• 1:01:22
  My my dream job is just to get an elementary PE job and just be
• 1:01:26
  the OPE coach and just retiring that cause love PE so.
• 1:01:30
  You'd be awesome. That'd be so cool.
• 1:01:32
  Yeah, well, you went to Summer Creek to become a head coach.
• 1:01:36
  Talk to me about, you know, responsibilities change when
• 1:01:40
  you're not only responsible for a segment of kids to coach, but
• 1:01:44
  you have a staff. Tell me about what did you learn
• 1:01:47
  as a as a head coach? I think come from Matassa City,
• 1:01:51
  I was underneath Todd Simmons, who was who I just replaced.
• 1:01:55
  He did a good job by, you know, teaching me the ropes, teaching
• 1:01:58
  me what to do, what not to do, show me all the paperworks,
• 1:02:02
  documentation and how to handle people.
• 1:02:04
  So I think I was ready for it because he prepared me for it
• 1:02:07
  and I saw him do it the correct way.
• 1:02:09
  So they helped me move into that transition pretty smoothly.
• 1:02:15
  At the end of the day, I always, you know, consider myself, I
• 1:02:19
  think the best assistants are the ones who could be also
• 1:02:21
  ahead. Most staff that are successful
• 1:02:24
  might have a couple of former head coaches on their staff.
• 1:02:26
  So, you know, it just makes them that much elite because you
• 1:02:30
  don't that's one person you don't have to worry about, you
• 1:02:32
  know, watching and all that because they they know what it
• 1:02:34
  takes. So.
• 1:02:36
  You know, I'm always amazed that our high school coaches who are
• 1:02:39
  also teachers, you know, I know there's some high school coaches
• 1:02:42
  who are, you know, outside of the school, but because your
• 1:02:45
  teacher, so you, you have a full time job, that's called being a
• 1:02:48
  teacher. And I've certainly always had a
• 1:02:50
  lot of respect for teachers. But I've gained a lot more these
• 1:02:52
  last few years. My wife has started doing long
• 1:02:55
  term substitution job. So, you know, even though she's
• 1:02:58
  not a full time teacher, but you know, she's in there for three
• 1:03:00
  months. And I'm like, I, it's, I hear
• 1:03:03
  more about what our teachers are going through and doing things
• 1:03:06
  like that. So I have a lot of empathy when
• 1:03:10
  again, you know, coming from Twitter and stuff, when some
• 1:03:12
  coaches, you know, college coach might say, Oh, these high school
• 1:03:15
  coaches are failing their sprinters or jumper and insert
• 1:03:18
  whatever event because you know, they're not going to level ones.
• 1:03:21
  They're not doing this, they're not doing that.
• 1:03:22
  And I'm always like, yeah, they're teaching for 8 hours a
• 1:03:25
  day, which means they're grading and all, you know, committees
• 1:03:30
  and things like that. And then they're coaching where
• 1:03:33
  you college coach. There's a lot of I'm not saying
• 1:03:37
  that it's super easy to coach college, but you're coaching,
• 1:03:41
  you're coaching. That's that is your job.
• 1:03:43
  High school coaches job is not coaching.
• 1:03:45
  It's teaching. And then you also want to coach
• 1:03:47
  what what I'm where I'm really long windedly get into.
• 1:03:50
  So as the head coach, I I kind of had this vision of however
• 1:03:54
  many assistants you have. You kind of have stratums of
• 1:03:57
  coaches who have different passions of coaching track and
• 1:04:00
  field somewhere. Out there 'cause they're.
• 1:04:01
  Like, oh, I just want to help and others are like, I want to
• 1:04:03
  be a college coach one day. I don't know.
• 1:04:05
  And they again, they mostly have a full time job.
• 1:04:07
  They have the they're they're teaching.
• 1:04:09
  How did you manage and handle and coach your assistant coaches
• 1:04:14
  to the one who is out there just to help and doesn't even really
• 1:04:18
  want to learn more about the high jump, but you've got that
• 1:04:20
  person over high jump and how do you, how did you help, motivate,
• 1:04:23
  help, educate, help work with the different levels of passions
• 1:04:28
  with your different assistant coaches?
• 1:04:31
  You know the one disadvantage of high school?
• 1:04:33
  Most assistant coaches are coming from a second sport or
• 1:04:36
  first sport anyway. That might be football coaches
• 1:04:38
  or it might be coming from basketball.
• 1:04:40
  So you catch you, you're getting a coach that you know, who's
• 1:04:45
  just getting a stipend in the Air Force into that there there
• 1:04:48
  are some that are really great and that's like really
• 1:04:50
  passionate about it. But you have to you know,
• 1:04:52
  whatever football hires, that's who you're getting.
• 1:04:55
  So a lot of times you just that's why we came up with the
• 1:04:57
  philosophy. Just control the controllables
• 1:04:59
  at the end of the day, as a head coach, like you know, we we made
• 1:05:04
  our knowledge much more and we learn jump through learning
• 1:05:06
  throws low, learn vaults and you know, just to give those kids
• 1:05:09
  what they need in that offseason and then by hopefully time by
• 1:05:13
  offseason come, you know, it can maintain and give them make them
• 1:05:16
  through so. Yeah, that's a great point
• 1:05:19
  because, you know, again, we hear about the stereotype of
• 1:05:22
  like, oh, they're just football coaches are out there to get a
• 1:05:24
  stipend, which, you know, when people say that, I'm always
• 1:05:26
  like, how much do you think these stipends are?
• 1:05:28
  I don't know that it's worth it necessarily.
• 1:05:29
  It's someone just out there to get a $1000 for the season or
• 1:05:32
  $500.00 for the season. It's not like we're handing out
• 1:05:34
  big stipends here and that's why they're just out there to be
• 1:05:37
  about. Hourly you don't.
• 1:05:38
  You don't. Take too much?
• 1:05:39
  No, not at all. Not at all.
• 1:05:41
  So that's it. So that's interesting there
• 1:05:43
  about, you know, again, the different levels of passions
• 1:05:47
  that the high school coach may bring because of other things.
• 1:05:50
  They're not. They're not a college.
• 1:05:51
  Coach first like, you know, can we sit there and complain about
• 1:05:54
  it? Can we just get more knowledge
• 1:05:56
  and you put those kids in a position to be successful, you
• 1:05:59
  know, just, you know, up, up your knowledge, you know, you
• 1:06:02
  know, it's, it's just, it's just what you have to deal with, you
• 1:06:05
  know, and just make the best out of that situation.
• 1:06:09
  So. You did that very well.
• 1:06:11
  So you had a lot of success at Atascocito Part 1.
• 1:06:14
  You had a lot of success during Summer Creek.
• 1:06:17
  You go off and do the most important job, Dad, you do dad
• 1:06:20
  work and you're teaching elementary school.
• 1:06:22
  I love that. And then you come back to a.
• 1:06:26
  Tesco, my brother talked, my brother talked me to coming back
• 1:06:28
  so. It's his fault.
• 1:06:30
  I got it got it got. It.
• 1:06:31
  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Now that I think about it, he
• 1:06:34
  blessed me with that. So by, you know, say I need
• 1:06:36
  assistant, you know, I trust you.
• 1:06:38
  So like, you know, and I was comfortable by elementary, but
• 1:06:42
  you know, so he, he has something that he offered me and
• 1:06:45
  I was like, OK, I I come back to.
• 1:06:47
  So you came back? So you come back from the break
• 1:06:50
  back to Summer Creek, right? Yep.
• 1:06:55
  Yep. Sorry, sorry.
• 1:06:56
  I wasn't looking. So you come back to Summer Creek
• 1:06:58
  again. You got you, you know what you
• 1:07:01
  guys create down there, Texas in general.
• 1:07:05
  And then, you know, again, specifically at Summer Creek
• 1:07:07
  when you guys were there, it's just different.
• 1:07:09
  I was in a conversation, I can't remember if it was you or your
• 1:07:12
  brother this past weekend with some other coaches and they were
• 1:07:15
  talking about like, oh, you know, how's it looking for this
• 1:07:17
  year? And you know, I, I can't
• 1:07:19
  remember one person's like, well, you know, Duncanville's
• 1:07:22
  got a, a 52 second quarter girl. So that's going to be tough.
• 1:07:25
  And, and it was, and I was just like, well, this ain't real
• 1:07:28
  talk. Who talks in high school about,
• 1:07:30
  yeah, well, they've got a 52 and we've got a 52.
• 1:07:33
  You know what boys maybe like, Oh yeah, I got a 52 quarter guy.
• 1:07:36
  You know, he may do something on my quarter, on my 4 by 4.
• 1:07:39
  It's the whole different worlds. You guys.
• 1:07:41
  It, it feels like they're in this time.
• 1:07:43
  This is kind of when I first kind of met you guys on this
• 1:07:45
  summer Creek 2.0, if you will. Second time there you guys, it
• 1:07:49
  feels like outside looking in. This is where things like really
• 1:07:53
  gel in regards to like, oh, we have a, a program, we have a
• 1:07:57
  style, we have a, a culture. This feels like we're like if
• 1:08:01
  you were to write a book about like this is where how I how I,
• 1:08:04
  how I coach, this is how I coach.
• 1:08:05
  It feels like during this time. Would you agree or?
• 1:08:08
  Yeah, I agree. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:08:10
  You know, and you know, a lot of those kids before built that
• 1:08:13
  foundation, then the foundation got more solid.
• 1:08:16
  Yeah, we're our knowledge increase and who was able to put
• 1:08:21
  the kids in a better position and all that.
• 1:08:23
  So and most importantly, I think we got a real good staff around
• 1:08:26
  us. You know, those last few years,
• 1:08:29
  some Creek that, you know, truly made that really special and
• 1:08:32
  that run. So did you.
• 1:08:34
  Continue coaching jumps and hurdles?
• 1:08:36
  Or did you go back to the 800? Where?
• 1:08:37
  Where were you at as far as your main focus?
• 1:08:40
  Yeah, I was still coaching jumps and hurdles most of the time as
• 1:08:43
  a whole head coach, man, we, we coach everything.
• 1:08:45
  Like I think last year I coached everything but the distance.
• 1:08:49
  So it's just, it's just one of those things.
• 1:08:50
  Like it, it, it is what it is. And we just get a thing.
• 1:08:54
  And, and during that time, like, you know, I was coaching jumps
• 1:08:59
  and hurdles. My brother was the relays and
• 1:09:01
  all that as when I was an assistant.
• 1:09:03
  But we, you know, where we needed to fill up.
• 1:09:07
  He was in cross country. So I ran the whole fall program
• 1:09:11
  or whatever. So it's like we we tag teaming
• 1:09:13
  and all that. So.
• 1:09:14
  Yeah, that's where, you know, I thought it was really important.
• 1:09:18
  Joseph Garman from the UIL was there this weekend and you know,
• 1:09:22
  he, he mentioned him and Maria Zapata talked about, Hey, you
• 1:09:25
  guys here in Texas, make sure you know how lucky you are.
• 1:09:29
  You talk about offseason program and it was like, you know, you
• 1:09:32
  get to actually train your kids and you guys have an athletic
• 1:09:34
  period. And it's like other states don't
• 1:09:36
  have that. And I think we sometimes forget
• 1:09:38
  we, we like to like give a lot of the attribute of why Texas is
• 1:09:42
  so good in high school. It's like, oh, well, they're so
• 1:09:43
  big and, and population plays into it.
• 1:09:46
  Certainly, you know, I, I get that, but you have a lot of
• 1:09:50
  knowledgeable and passionate coaches and we have that in
• 1:09:52
  other states as well. But we do have some like
• 1:09:54
  attentiveness to sports, specifically in Texas that not
• 1:09:58
  all of our states have. And that's a that is a blessing
• 1:10:00
  for sure. Yeah, it is.
• 1:10:01
  I agree. Having that athletic period, you
• 1:10:03
  know, talking to Georgia at their clinic, you know, not
• 1:10:06
  having athletic period, it push them at such a disadvantage
• 1:10:09
  where I get my kids 90 minutes a day during the period and then I
• 1:10:12
  can see them after school. So it's truly a good training
• 1:10:16
  session. Yeah.
• 1:10:16
  Did you know other states don't Or like, did you go to Georgia?
• 1:10:19
  You're like, wait a minute. I was shocked in Georgia and it
• 1:10:21
  was like, what? Like hold, hold on, What do you
• 1:10:23
  mean? What do you mean?
• 1:10:25
  Yeah, and even in Georgia, they can't start training their kids
• 1:10:27
  to like January. From my understanding, that's
• 1:10:29
  where we could start training our kids from like August on
• 1:10:32
  since we're individual sports. So it's like they're like pigeon
• 1:10:35
  holes some, you know, so. That is the most common that
• 1:10:38
  until until season starts, which is a lot of times in March for
• 1:10:43
  some states. We think about our Wisconsins,
• 1:10:45
  Ohio's, etcetera. And you cannot not practice
• 1:10:49
  until those days. And I'm always like, you know, I
• 1:10:51
  understand why the rules, there's always reasoning behind
• 1:10:54
  rules. They're not just frivolous
• 1:10:55
  reasons, but they may not, may not agree with them, but the
• 1:10:57
  reasons are it's like, oh, that we don't want to coach take them
• 1:11:00
  away from other sports or, you know, 24/7.
• 1:11:02
  They may get injured and it's like, yeah, but that means
• 1:11:04
  you're also starting them off way behind.
• 1:11:06
  Not not only athletically, like way behind, like to get
• 1:11:09
  scholarships and whatnot, like way behind, like health wise,
• 1:11:11
  like, oh, this is how they get hurt when they go from day one
• 1:11:14
  and you got to compete in seven days that that's how they get
• 1:11:17
  hurt. Yeah, yeah, I agree.
• 1:11:20
  OK, so you guys do really well. You're winning state titles
• 1:11:23
  there at Summer Creek. This feels like, again, you
• 1:11:25
  know, my words here kind of the gelling of how Elton's coaching
• 1:11:29
  and, and, you know, things are your, your knowledge levels are
• 1:11:31
  high and your your network is amazing and continues to grow.
• 1:11:35
  And then you, you, you, you leave your brother.
• 1:11:37
  I, I'm sure that had to be a difficult holiday dinner, you
• 1:11:41
  know? Hey, brother, I'm leaving.
• 1:11:44
  Why go back to Atascocita? He doesn't roll Summer Creek
• 1:11:47
  rolls. Yeah, I got.
• 1:11:49
  I better get used to saying it because, you know, a lot of good
• 1:11:52
  things are happening there. Why leave Summer Creek and go
• 1:11:54
  back to Atascocita? Well, first of all, he, he
• 1:12:00
  encouraged me to, you know, to seek that job or whatever.
• 1:12:04
  But I didn't want to leave Summer Creek because I was very
• 1:12:07
  comfortable. My son was a senior there last
• 1:12:09
  year. So that was pretty hard, you
• 1:12:11
  know, to leave his last semester and not be there because, you
• 1:12:15
  know, I, I could just walk down the classroom, check on or, you
• 1:12:17
  know, check his attendance and all that.
• 1:12:19
  So I, I had AI was pretty comfortable, but a lot of times
• 1:12:22
  we're so comfortable that we, we need to be pushed, you know, and
• 1:12:27
  out the door and all that. So the blessing wise.
• 1:12:31
  And it's weird because I, I thought about this the other
• 1:12:33
  day. I was like, I should have
• 1:12:34
  mentioned this at the clinic. A lot of times we can get our
• 1:12:37
  own way. And you know, I went to Summer
• 1:12:40
  Creek and say, Hey, hey, I got a job offer.
• 1:12:43
  You know, they offer me this job.
• 1:12:44
  You know, I want to stay, have a senior here.
• 1:12:45
  I don't want no money. I don't want no more money.
• 1:12:48
  Just Get Me Out of the classroom and I stay, you know, because I
• 1:12:51
  know I had I had state champions, I was pretty
• 1:12:54
  important to the team. And OK, OK, let me, let me get
• 1:12:57
  back with you and you know, I'll let you know.
• 1:13:00
  So then, you know, the, the days go by, week to go by year
• 1:13:03
  crickets. And so I was like, you know
• 1:13:04
  what, it's time for me to to go elsewhere because, you know, I
• 1:13:10
  gave them first choice and, you know, they getting so I could
• 1:13:14
  have missed out on a big blessing in the national record
• 1:13:16
  number one team state championship by just getting in
• 1:13:19
  my own way. I got more money.
• 1:13:22
  I got just titles and all that. So sometimes we have to get out
• 1:13:26
  our own comfort and, you know, be put in those positions so we
• 1:13:30
  can let our wings fly. So I'm glad it worked out for
• 1:13:33
  everyone. And, you know, and I, I
• 1:13:36
  definitely got out of my own way and out of my head, you know?
• 1:13:39
  It's it's hard to grow when you're in the comfort zone.
• 1:13:42
  Yeah, yeah, And you know, a lot of times we don't like change,
• 1:13:45
  you know, like you ever tried moving after stands somewhere 15
• 1:13:48
  years, you know, with stuffy accrue during that time.
• 1:13:50
  It's like it's just a pain, you know.
• 1:13:51
  So it's like yeah, it's like it's like, you know, it's like
• 1:13:56
  so but you know, it it's sometimes we need that, you
• 1:13:58
  know, and like we have to spread our wings and we never know what
• 1:14:00
  that blessing could be on the other side.
• 1:14:02
  And that blessing was way more and you know, those types of
• 1:14:05
  city guys was very adamant, like, hey, coach, we want you
• 1:14:08
  over here. And that made me made it easier.
• 1:14:11
  It's like, hey, you know, and I know they was they or track,
• 1:14:14
  track guys, the guys that was here last year.
• 1:14:16
  And then, you know that that made it so much easier, you
• 1:14:18
  know, to be wanted somewhere. Right.
• 1:14:20
  And so you go to Atascocita. You replaced your former head
• 1:14:24
  coach that you worked for. Yes, yes, yes.
• 1:14:26
  Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:14:29
  What? What's that like?
• 1:14:30
  You know, you went six years with them.
• 1:14:34
  He obviously had a lot of success.
• 1:14:35
  So he has his own culture and ways of doing and I assume you
• 1:14:39
  probably agreed with some or most of what he was doing, but
• 1:14:41
  there's still you have your own culture or flavor or style.
• 1:14:45
  How do you go into a program that's had a lot of success?
• 1:14:48
  It's not, it's one thing to go in to a program that's had no
• 1:14:51
  success. It's like, well, you guys got to
• 1:14:52
  listen to me because obviously what you've been doing ain't
• 1:14:54
  working. Well, they have.
• 1:14:55
  Been working, have been successful.
• 1:14:56
  How do you come in and and try to import your own culture and
• 1:15:02
  style? You know, just just sit back and
• 1:15:06
  relax, you know, and I have watched them for years.
• 1:15:08
  So I, I know what they was doing, what they wasn't doing.
• 1:15:11
  So I, I, I could have, I had input from before.
• 1:15:15
  So like I had a good idea of what, what, what was needed
• 1:15:18
  since we were Robert Schools and we were in the same district.
• 1:15:21
  So it made it easier for me because I knew everyone.
• 1:15:25
  I knew what was needed. And so implementing those plans
• 1:15:30
  was not bad because, you know, I I knew the plan and the buy in.
• 1:15:35
  I think with them saying the success I had over there, you
• 1:15:38
  know it. Yeah, we have a winner, you
• 1:15:41
  know, and then when you come over here and you got two big
• 1:15:42
  rings on your finger is like, how can you not buy in, you
• 1:15:45
  know, because that's, that's your ultimate goal.
• 1:15:47
  That's what you want. You know, that's what we we're
• 1:15:49
  trying to get. So it's like, and I made sure
• 1:15:51
  those rings was out and you knew who you was talking to or who
• 1:15:55
  was talking, you know, just to set the tone, you know, like
• 1:15:58
  you're talking to a winner, prover winner.
• 1:16:01
  And that's how we we're going to operate.
• 1:16:03
  Absolutely. I love your style with your
• 1:16:05
  rings here. You know, I, I talked about the
• 1:16:08
  clinic. I when I was talking with Joe
• 1:16:10
  Lee, Quincy Wilson's coach, and I was like, so dude, he's got a
• 1:16:13
  gold medal. Like does he just wear that
• 1:16:15
  around school all day? Because I would, I, I'm 16 year
• 1:16:18
  old. Let's, let's be real here.
• 1:16:19
  I would be insufferable if I was back in high school and I'd won
• 1:16:22
  a gold medal to the Olympics. You would never you couldn't
• 1:16:25
  talk to me to save your life. Like what?
• 1:16:27
  What'd you say? I'm sorry, I can't hear you or
• 1:16:29
  see you see this gold medal. Come on, I'm not going.
• 1:16:31
  I'm not going to I'm not tardy. I'm on tie.
• 1:16:34
  You know I'm not going. You couldn't do it, man,
• 1:16:36
  couldn't do it. So would you say coming into
• 1:16:39
  this? Because the reason I'm asking
• 1:16:42
  and kind of going down this rabbit hole a little bit is, you
• 1:16:44
  know, there's people listening who are this year right now is
• 1:16:48
  their first year taking over a program or a year or two year
• 1:16:51
  from now they're going to take over a program.
• 1:16:53
  And it's not as simple as taking of a program.
• 1:16:56
  The type of program that you take over is important.
• 1:16:58
  So what kind of success do they have?
• 1:17:01
  What kind of culture do they have and, and how much you need
• 1:17:04
  to adjust going in? I'm hearing less of I had to go
• 1:17:08
  in and bulldoze and and move everything and more of like
• 1:17:11
  maybe you had to tweak some things like, oh, I like to be
• 1:17:14
  warm up this way or I like our jumpers to do X or Y.
• 1:17:18
  Yes. So that is just tweaking.
• 1:17:20
  Like, I think it's, it's just like I was thinking the other
• 1:17:24
  day, like Alabama had 3-4 losses this year and the only
• 1:17:28
  differential was Nick Saban. Nick Saban, he's he's a proven
• 1:17:32
  coach and he was a winner all the way.
• 1:17:34
  Like, and it just goes to show you how important Nick Saban
• 1:17:37
  was. So it it's a great coach can
• 1:17:40
  bring a lot to a program, you know, and like it makes a big
• 1:17:44
  difference. You know, just when you you you
• 1:17:46
  input them to that because it's not only because what they
• 1:17:49
  doing, but it's the way things are operated and the way the
• 1:17:52
  system is moving on, how accountability, the way the kids
• 1:17:55
  are moving. And it's just like the things
• 1:17:57
  that fall into place. So it's going to be one of the
• 1:17:59
  thing to be the difference between been successful and not.
• 1:18:02
  And we know saving fool with iron fist and he moved a certain
• 1:18:07
  way. Even his coaches had to move a
• 1:18:09
  certain way, but it's proven the work.
• 1:18:10
  So why changing, you know? Yeah, I think about like on the
• 1:18:13
  college level, like I was trying to think of like a program that
• 1:18:15
  was really successful and that coach left and another ultra
• 1:18:19
  successful coach came in and I'm actually thinking.
• 1:18:21
  Of I need to tell you. Who you got?
• 1:18:23
  LSU. Oh great.
• 1:18:25
  Pat Henry and Dennis Schaefer, yeah.
• 1:18:27
  OK. But difference here, agreed.
• 1:18:29
  Difference here being is Dennis was the assistant for a long
• 1:18:32
  time. He didn't come from somewhere
• 1:18:34
  else, you know what I'm saying? So.
• 1:18:36
  Oh, he said. Somebody came in.
• 1:18:37
  Yeah, so let's think about University of Georgia.
• 1:18:40
  Yes, University of Georgia Petros Gill podcast along wins
• 1:18:44
  titles second in the nation, you know, highly successful.
• 1:18:48
  You you couldn't disagree with him getting it done.
• 1:18:50
  He was getting it done. He leaves and Carol Smith
• 1:18:52
  Gilbert comes in off of winning a national title at USC.
• 1:18:56
  From. USC and something tells me and I
• 1:18:59
  bet you so Carol also has been on the podcast.
• 1:19:01
  I bet you I asked her. I can't think off the top of my
• 1:19:03
  head. I bet I asked her like, well,
• 1:19:04
  the kind of these same questions, like, well, how much
• 1:19:07
  did you have to change? Or, you know, she has she.
• 1:19:09
  Carol is different than Petros, trust me.
• 1:19:11
  Yes, she is. Yes, she is.
• 1:19:13
  So how much did you have to change?
• 1:19:15
  And I bet you, because she's a extremely smart individual,
• 1:19:19
  there were changes she had to make.
• 1:19:20
  But it was like, oh, well, at least the base was there.
• 1:19:22
  Like, you know, I didn't have to start from zero here.
• 1:19:25
  Now, again, the difference between like the example of you
• 1:19:29
  and a Tascocito and this George example is the vaunted words
• 1:19:33
  transfer portal. You know, I know some kids
• 1:19:35
  transferred and all those kind of things.
• 1:19:37
  So, you know, you you maybe didn't have the same team as
• 1:19:40
  what Petros left when, you know, when she comes and takes over
• 1:19:43
  something interesting. All right, so let's talk about
• 1:19:46
  this, Elton. Sorry my phone, my iPad was
• 1:19:49
  about to die. Oh, yeah, no, no worries.
• 1:19:50
  I appreciate you. That was being.
• 1:19:52
  Let me make sure. Yeah.
• 1:19:53
  Is it plugged in Let? Me make sure.
• 1:19:57
  Elton, we've never had anybody's battery run out on the podcast.
• 1:20:02
  No, you won't be the first. Trust me.
• 1:20:04
  All good. All good.
• 1:20:06
  I knew my phone wouldn't be charged so.
• 1:20:08
  Yeah, all good. We're.
• 1:20:10
  Good to plug. We're good plugged in.
• 1:20:11
  All right, so let's talk about this 4 by 1 before we hit
• 1:20:16
  record. I I said this to you.
• 1:20:18
  You know, when a high school national record gets broken,
• 1:20:23
  that to me is just like Uber impressive, more more so, and
• 1:20:29
  I'm probably more of a college track fan than I am high school.
• 1:20:32
  Like if I had to rank them, I'd probably be college, high school
• 1:20:35
  and then pros. When a college kid sets a
• 1:20:39
  national record, I mean, it's I mean, because first of all, the
• 1:20:41
  records are just gaudy. So when a kid sets a national
• 1:20:43
  record, it's like, holy crap, you know, you're an Olympian
• 1:20:46
  essentially, right? World records, Obviously
• 1:20:48
  they're, they're amazing, but the reason why a high school
• 1:20:52
  record, even a high school school record to me is like
• 1:20:55
  super impressive because that's the the that's the history of
• 1:20:58
  that school. But a national record.
• 1:21:01
  I think the reason why it's more like impressive to me is
• 1:21:05
  because, you know, I know what 14 to 18 year old kids are like
• 1:21:08
  even talented ones. I had a couple of super talent
• 1:21:11
  like, you know, they went to play college ball and college
• 1:21:13
  track and stuff like, so they were Uber talent and I still
• 1:21:15
  know they were goofballs, 14 to 18 year old goofballs.
• 1:21:20
  So, you know, so if if you were to have coached a kid to set the
• 1:21:25
  national record in the the 800, which would have been amazing
• 1:21:30
  because right, that's another just crazy record, I'd be like,
• 1:21:32
  wow, Elton, that's impressive, dude.
• 1:21:35
  You had to mentor that kid in the right races in the right
• 1:21:37
  times. And yeah, yeah, that's
• 1:21:38
  unbelievable. You helped lead to set the four
• 1:21:43
  by one relay record. That means 4 knuckleheads and I
• 1:21:48
  know those kids are probably listening.
• 1:21:49
  I'm loving you when I say knuckleheads.
• 1:21:50
  I you know, I don't. I think a couple of you, yeah,
• 1:21:53
  actually several. I'll say a couple.
• 1:21:56
  Follow me on Twitter. So you know, all respect, all
• 1:21:58
  love, you know, I know you're mature enough to know what I
• 1:22:01
  mean when I say 1418 year old knuckleheads.
• 1:22:03
  So not a disc from those kids at all.
• 1:22:04
  Love them, love them to death. But you took four of those kids
• 1:22:08
  and and maybe more. Let's let's maybe learn about
• 1:22:10
  alternates and things like that. So how did you do it?
• 1:22:14
  That's the dumbest way to ask that question.
• 1:22:17
  What, what were some of the things that you had to change to
• 1:22:22
  make it possible for these four kids?
• 1:22:23
  They had the talent, obviously. I assume they ran pretty fast
• 1:22:25
  the year before you as well, but they didn't run this fast.
• 1:22:28
  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, honestly think about
• 1:22:31
  it, I think they probably from the year, the year before they
• 1:22:35
  maybe was 40 point 840.9. So so probably 2 seconds of a
• 1:22:39
  drop. Between wait a minute, because
• 1:22:43
  99% of the people listening right now are like, dude, if I
• 1:22:45
  had a high school team run 40.8, I'm good.
• 1:22:48
  I I'll be the king of the castle.
• 1:22:50
  Heck, there's plenty of college coaches that are listening
• 1:22:52
  going, dude, if I could run 40.8, I'm great.
• 1:22:55
  So they ran 40.8 and yeah, you went down to the you didn't, you
• 1:22:57
  didn't go sub 40. That's one thing that's crazy.
• 1:23:00
  You went sub 30, now you went 38 point.
• 1:23:02
  What? What?
• 1:23:03
  What was it? 38 points. 92.
• 1:23:06
  Did you have that? Like, do you have that like
• 1:23:07
  tattooed? I mean come on, that's crazy,
• 1:23:08
  dude. 3892 Do you really? Yeah.
• 1:23:12
  I do. Oh, I love that.
• 1:23:13
  That's awesome. I love that.
• 1:23:17
  I love that. I love that.
• 1:23:18
  Seriously, I love that. I love that.
• 1:23:20
  So what? What was tell us a little bit of
• 1:23:22
  the story of, you know, we had to, maybe you had to overcome an
• 1:23:26
  injury. Maybe you had to, maybe one of
• 1:23:28
  the kids didn't believe. I I don't know.
• 1:23:30
  There has to be this has to be a magic like.
• 1:23:32
  You could probably write a little book.
• 1:23:33
  Over I can write, I can write a book about that, but it's, it's
• 1:23:36
  definitely a lot of back story to that.
• 1:23:38
  You know, I'd be the 1st to tell you like I'd tell anybody, any
• 1:23:42
  coach, any athlete, never chase records because the records be
• 1:23:47
  broken. Chase wins, OK.
• 1:23:49
  So I'm going to interrupt you every time, Elton.
• 1:23:52
  OK, cool. Love that.
• 1:23:54
  Did you guys ever talk about the record?
• 1:23:57
  No, we didn't, not before the season because I I this was a
• 1:24:01
  like when I saying last year was to keep the main thing, the main
• 1:24:04
  thing. The main thing was to be state
• 1:24:07
  champions as a team and as as individuals did.
• 1:24:11
  They did. They win the state title the
• 1:24:12
  year before. Yes, Yes.
• 1:24:13
  No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
• 1:24:15
  OK. So the year before they did.
• 1:24:17
  They didn't make a mistake or whatever, so they had some
• 1:24:20
  hiccups the last few years and all that.
• 1:24:23
  So that's why it was more pressure on me to run 38, nine
• 1:24:29
  and continue to be successful because the main thing was to
• 1:24:34
  win state. It wouldn't have run 38, nine.
• 1:24:36
  So to run 38 nine and not be the fastest, not be the state
• 1:24:40
  champions, what's kind of like an oxymoron, It's a little sour,
• 1:24:44
  like you're at 39, but you're not the state champion.
• 1:24:46
  So like the main thing is still the main thing.
• 1:24:49
  So like we checked all the boxes.
• 1:24:51
  We was the regional champion, state champions, fastest in the
• 1:24:54
  nation, record holder. So I didn't want to like, OK,
• 1:24:57
  you got the time, but you don't got a lot of the accolades that
• 1:25:00
  came with it. You know, that relay wasn't able
• 1:25:02
  to help your team win the title. So that's why, you know, you
• 1:25:07
  know, we had teammates who have held national state records or
• 1:25:11
  whatever. But you know, everything is
• 1:25:14
  getting so fast. And so we, we, I was just chased
• 1:25:16
  the winds and with so many 40 points last year and 39 is like
• 1:25:21
  with the wind was going to come a fast time.
• 1:25:22
  So it made more sense. What?
• 1:25:24
  What part of the year did you actually break the record?
• 1:25:27
  Like April, May, March. March like March 20th something.
• 1:25:30
  March 20th and state is May or May 1st OK?
• 1:25:35
  It was like May 1st the second, yeah.
• 1:25:37
  How do you, this is what's really more interesting to me, 4
• 1:25:43
  kids that set the national record and these are 4 talented
• 1:25:46
  kids. They're also being recruited and
• 1:25:48
  things like that. How do you keep 4 kids?
• 1:25:52
  This is a little bit like the Quincy Wilson story of like, you
• 1:25:55
  know, you could talk to me, bro. If I was on that relay team in
• 1:25:58
  March, first of all, you wouldn't have set the record.
• 1:26:00
  But if I was on that real team in March as as an 18 year old,
• 1:26:04
  you couldn't have talked to me for the rest of the season.
• 1:26:06
  Meaning I've been like, like my mentality and ego would have
• 1:26:11
  been like, what's it matter coach?
• 1:26:12
  We're going to blow these guys out the next race.
• 1:26:14
  What's it matter? Regionals Coach, come on, we got
• 1:26:16
  this. How do you keep four young
• 1:26:19
  people that? That's his own challenge in
• 1:26:23
  today's world with cell phones, bubble, blah, Internet,
• 1:26:25
  whatever, yadda yadda, chachi BTS.
• 1:26:27
  How do you keep four people who ultra successful, They're the
• 1:26:30
  fastest quartet ever. How do you keep them in the
• 1:26:33
  game? Motivated, thriving for the next
• 1:26:37
  like, oh, the next race we got to, we got to do well, how do
• 1:26:39
  you keep them in the game? You know what I'm saying?
• 1:26:43
  Yeah, and that's why I say that, you know, I love that, you know,
• 1:26:46
  coaches get paid to coach. So it was my job to keep them
• 1:26:48
  motivated, to keep them reminded of what their standard is.
• 1:26:53
  The standard is the standard. Like we the standard was just,
• 1:26:56
  you know, we got to win goal, we got to win state.
• 1:26:59
  That football 1 is so important for us.
• 1:27:00
  Win the state because Texas has the the 20 points.
• 1:27:03
  So we we haven't done nothing yet until we went state.
• 1:27:07
  We can't be the national record holder, but you don't have the
• 1:27:09
  state meet record or the state record because you didn't make
• 1:27:12
  it there. So like you got to be kind of
• 1:27:14
  crazy because the other teams would have had that record and
• 1:27:16
  it's like, Are you ready to stay?
• 1:27:18
  You know, like it's just weird, you know, so you know, being
• 1:27:21
  able to go to state and then I think we ran 39 one and one
• 1:27:24
  four. So it's like.
• 1:27:25
  So you really kept this carrot of the end of the season of like
• 1:27:29
  state meets like, oh, that's awesome, you guys did that.
• 1:27:30
  That's great. That's really going to help us
• 1:27:32
  when the state meets like it so that you always kept pointing
• 1:27:35
  towards that is the is the goal. Yeah, I mean, because most
• 1:27:38
  people aren't saying like we want 40.3 to 1st meet with an
• 1:27:41
  alternate, so like to go 40.3 like and you know, with an
• 1:27:46
  alternate and yeah, you know, we just put the relay together.
• 1:27:50
  We just OK, we got to run a 4.1. We didn't run in the first meet
• 1:27:52
  and said OK, let me run a 4.1, let's work on it. 40.30 Dang,
• 1:27:56
  you know that 40.3 like that's most people don't even open up
• 1:27:59
  the season there. So we shut it down for a while
• 1:28:02
  and then we ran it again. The next time we ran it was when
• 1:28:05
  we broke the national record. So it's like, you know, it was
• 1:28:08
  very strategic and that's where with, you know, I could have ran
• 1:28:13
  it the the next week, but I'm running with an alternate.
• 1:28:15
  And you know, we run against such a league team and I never
• 1:28:17
  wanted to get another team to vantage over as you beat us.
• 1:28:20
  But hey, we don't even have a complete team.
• 1:28:22
  And like that's in my guy's head or that's in their heads to get
• 1:28:26
  a more, more, more, more, more motivation or whatever.
• 1:28:29
  So, you know, it was very treatious.
• 1:28:31
  That's what I said. Like the coaches put them in
• 1:28:32
  position to to be successful. And I think that's what made my
• 1:28:37
  brother do well. Like it's just moving correctly
• 1:28:39
  and and putting in like where we need to be.
• 1:28:41
  You know, this is my motto all year.
• 1:28:45
  I had a Bugatti and you know, I'm not going to work every day
• 1:28:48
  at the at the City High school in the Bugatti.
• 1:28:51
  Bugatti is a special car and you pull that out whenever is needed
• 1:28:55
  on special occasions and all like that.
• 1:28:56
  And so we told them, Hey, y'all, y'all a fine car.
• 1:28:59
  Like y'all have to, we have to move a certain way.
• 1:29:01
  Like you know, you're not going to just hit potholes or whatever
• 1:29:04
  in those cars. Like you have to kind of move
• 1:29:05
  it. You know, we like analogies.
• 1:29:07
  It's just and put them in like, hey man, like we have to, we
• 1:29:09
  have to operate at a certain way, you know?
• 1:29:11
  It's interesting you talked about you ran some, some meat,
• 1:29:14
  you didn't run some meat. You ran alternates in, you know,
• 1:29:17
  when you deal with a four by one and and maybe you're going to
• 1:29:20
  tell us we just, you know, I say we generally in track and field
• 1:29:23
  just over complicate the relay. Maybe OK, I'll say maybe because
• 1:29:28
  you, you know, I would think about like I I would have said,
• 1:29:30
  I would probably would have put a a bet if I was a gambling man,
• 1:29:33
  like, oh, he ran the same 4 every race because of, you know,
• 1:29:36
  the the fluidity of just the you know, the passes and and
• 1:29:39
  recognition and and patterns and you you did the almost the
• 1:29:44
  opposite, it sounds like. Were you not concerned about
• 1:29:47
  cohesiveness of like 1:00 to 2:00 and 2:00 to 3:00 and 3:00
• 1:29:49
  to 4:00? 'Cause just because we didn't
• 1:29:51
  run into meat doesn't mean we wouldn't practice it.
• 1:29:54
  We practice it daily. So we practice handoffs, we
• 1:29:56
  practice stick, we practice the chemistry there.
• 1:30:00
  So I know when we got back, so we took that week off two weeks
• 1:30:03
  of just chemistry practice, practice, practice, broken
• 1:30:06
  national record, you know, So I think a lot of times that's a
• 1:30:09
  good point. We, we, we, we go by the college
• 1:30:12
  motto, like college is not running every week, you know,
• 1:30:15
  especially in like cross coach, all like that, like they, they
• 1:30:17
  have time in between. So I don't want to run every
• 1:30:20
  week and I'd rather train. And then when I come back, you
• 1:30:23
  see this big improvement because you didn't train for two weeks
• 1:30:26
  and you had that much gain. So in Texas we get 8 meets.
• 1:30:30
  I hate that, you know, some people feel like they have to
• 1:30:32
  run out of eight meets and take a week off and just train, you
• 1:30:34
  know, allow them to rest, allow the body to recover and go out
• 1:30:37
  there. So, you know, once again, just
• 1:30:39
  have that college background and all that kind of has put us in a
• 1:30:42
  position where we can move a lot different than most people.
• 1:30:47
  So how about when you set the national record, and this is a
• 1:30:51
  pretty, you know, if someone were to set the 200m high school
• 1:30:56
  national record, big deal. And that's huge, yes, but I
• 1:30:59
  don't know that it would be national news outside of track
• 1:31:02
  and field news. Let's let's make it that.
• 1:31:05
  But if you know, if you do it in the mile, if you do it in the
• 1:31:07
  quarter, the 100 for sure if if you ever if someone ever breaks
• 1:31:12
  Michael Carter Shotput record, I feel like that might.
• 1:31:14
  Yeah, yeah, but the four by one caught a lot of people's
• 1:31:17
  attention. So when that happened, you got a
• 1:31:21
  lot of the media, not just track and field media, you got a lot
• 1:31:24
  of media. So you did, they did again.
• 1:31:27
  I just keep going back to 17 and 18 year old kids.
• 1:31:29
  I'm like, dude, my newspaper never called me bro.
• 1:31:32
  So they, you know, they didn't even know my name.
• 1:31:34
  These guys were on TV's and the internets and that how did you
• 1:31:38
  again, I know, I know. OK, we got we got it, Elton.
• 1:31:42
  Coaches, your coach beat a coach.
• 1:31:44
  You actually said that at the track clinic this weekend.
• 1:31:46
  And I was trying to interject to say that was one of the most
• 1:31:49
  impactful things that boost Schneider ever thought be a
• 1:31:51
  coach, be a coach. So I get it.
• 1:31:54
  I get it, Elton. That's what coaches get paid to
• 1:31:56
  do as coach. But still no one is prepared for
• 1:32:00
  media and blah, blah, blah. You know, distractions is really
• 1:32:03
  what this is. How did you handle that so early
• 1:32:06
  in the season? You still got April and?
• 1:32:08
  Yeah, Yeah, I have a conversation with that.
• 1:32:10
  And we all those guys were so mature and they was locked in,
• 1:32:14
  which was was nothing one of our our team mottos.
• 1:32:18
  Like just like in I mean like we can't buy into it, you know.
• 1:32:21
  Then, like I like I said, if we came to a point where we wasn't
• 1:32:23
  doing more interviews, we just focused on that state-run and
• 1:32:27
  just making sure that we was able to defend, you know,
• 1:32:31
  because it's not like we was running 39 in district area
• 1:32:34
  because we had another 39 right behind it.
• 1:32:36
  So it's not like we could kind of just we could just chill or
• 1:32:39
  whatever. You know, like, you know, we're
• 1:32:40
  310 football 4, but we still running 312 three thirteens when
• 1:32:44
  we don't have to. So it's like all because, you
• 1:32:47
  know, we didn't want to give those team those open hands and
• 1:32:48
  say they beat us. But it's like he, you know, we
• 1:32:52
  still have so much, you know, because everyone's you got the
• 1:32:54
  big target on your back. So you stay the reminder.
• 1:32:56
  Like you know, you still have to bring your And then at the end
• 1:32:59
  of the day, like, like we talked about the whole Obi thing and
• 1:33:02
  the Brandon Miller's and all them, like when you do something
• 1:33:05
  like that, everyone is looking at you and you know, you become
• 1:33:08
  that one everybody's looks up to.
• 1:33:10
  So I reminded him that like, you know, y'all are those people,
• 1:33:13
  like a lot of people come to see y'all.
• 1:33:14
  So we have to make sure that you give him a show and that you're
• 1:33:17
  not disappointing in this moment.
• 1:33:21
  Great example of the harshness of any sport.
• 1:33:25
  You know, like if I were to say, Hey, who was the runner UPS of
• 1:33:29
  the 1992 Super Bowl? You're like, well, I don't know,
• 1:33:32
  but I know Denver won or whoever.
• 1:33:33
  I that was a terrible example. I hate NFL.
• 1:33:37
  Who who was that? So who, who was that team that
• 1:33:39
  was right behind you that also ran really fast?
• 1:33:41
  Who? Who was that?
• 1:33:43
  Right. Never.
• 1:33:45
  But I say it was. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:33:47
  Yeah, yeah, I know who you know it is.
• 1:33:48
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Who?
• 1:33:49
  Who? What's their names?
• 1:33:50
  What? What school was that?
• 1:33:53
  It was it was three schools that did it.
• 1:33:55
  Is that right? Three schools ran 39.
• 1:33:57
  Three schools ran 39. Yeah.
• 1:33:58
  Yeah, that's just absurd. I mean, literally, that's just
• 1:34:02
  that's those guys just had the year of their lives and year 4
• 1:34:07
  gentlemen just do the impossible.
• 1:34:09
  I mean, it's quite amazing. Again, it's one thing to coach.
• 1:34:12
  You got to be able to coach it. That's that's one thing.
• 1:34:15
  I I'm just so impressed with the management of it all.
• 1:34:19
  Again, eighteen 1718 year old kids, man, that's just that you
• 1:34:23
  were were able to do this in March and then also win the
• 1:34:26
  state title. That to me is that is more
• 1:34:29
  impressive to me than the the third in the 38 point is Uber
• 1:34:32
  impressive to me that you kept them together to to hit the end
• 1:34:36
  goal that. Is and that's the goal like I
• 1:34:38
  think as a coach, like if we didn't you know, we we I think
• 1:34:44
  USA went 1-2 now we went 1-3 and 100 this year.
• 1:34:48
  You know, we had such a good football, one 100 runners, but
• 1:34:52
  we didn't complete the race, you know, so it's like, what's the,
• 1:34:54
  what's the point? I have.
• 1:34:56
  It's such a good run and run and you you don't get the.
• 1:34:58
  But isn't that good for Elton? Cuz, cuz I know it's easy.
• 1:35:01
  I know, you know, people are probably screaming at me right
• 1:35:03
  now. It's like, well, why don't you
• 1:35:04
  make the connection for Elton? Why isn't he coaching the men's
• 1:35:06
  relay teams and things like that?
• 1:35:08
  I, I think the difference is, and I think you said it, you hit
• 1:35:11
  the nail on the head here when you, cuz I said, well, I would
• 1:35:13
  imagine they ran the all four every meeting, But when you're
• 1:35:16
  like, no, we, we still practice and that's the most important
• 1:35:18
  part. And I agree with that.
• 1:35:19
  And I think that is our ultimate downfall for Team USA
• 1:35:22
  specifically is these guys get together a couple of hours a
• 1:35:26
  year, essentially they're not practicing.
• 1:35:29
  I think that's our biggest downfall there.
• 1:35:32
  But. I love this but oh sweet, but
• 1:35:35
  what? Yeah, my, you know, and I, I
• 1:35:36
  know the whole pro circuit. I've had to talk to how it
• 1:35:40
  works. Like why are we not just
• 1:35:41
  practicing the hand off with our teammates?
• 1:35:43
  You have Dennis Mitchell got the fastest 300 girls in the United
• 1:35:47
  States. So why are y'all just not doing
• 1:35:48
  touches, just getting chemistry, chemistry, chemistry.
• 1:35:52
  You don't even have to be like just complete handouts.
• 1:35:54
  Just baton in your hand. You got to run your, your 40
• 1:35:56
  meters with it. You just touch it, touch it,
• 1:35:58
  touch it, you know, and just creating that chemistry that we
• 1:36:01
  have, right. So it's more just like get
• 1:36:05
  everybody on the same page and, you know, just, you know, use a
• 1:36:07
  baton more. Yeah, 'cause you don't use, you
• 1:36:10
  don't use it enough. No disagreement there.
• 1:36:12
  And you know, we, we both had the honor, we got to listen to
• 1:36:17
  the women's relays. Coach Michelle Freeman at the
• 1:36:20
  clinic. In fact, she was just a few
• 1:36:22
  weeks ago, she was a guest here on the podcast and and it's one
• 1:36:25
  thing, you know, it's interesting where I said maybe
• 1:36:27
  we over complicate the relay. And you know, you kind of agree
• 1:36:30
  with me there. But then also, you know, you and
• 1:36:31
  I both were very impressed with what Michelle and I assume
• 1:36:34
  therefore Mike Marsh. I mean, they really, it's a
• 1:36:37
  science. It's a science.
• 1:36:39
  It's a technical thing. It is.
• 1:36:41
  But it's it's also a science that missing like, you know, as
• 1:36:45
  high school, everybody say, why are you running 38?
• 1:36:47
  Well, we use a baton in practice.
• 1:36:49
  You know, you're running a 200, you're running 100 in practice.
• 1:36:51
  Like they don't have to be like, I have no problem like taking
• 1:36:55
  the baton out the bad, Hey, I'm putting this baton in your hand.
• 1:36:58
  Or we do like when are we doing 200?
• 1:37:00
  OK, we're doing 2 hundreds with the baton and you pass it to one
• 1:37:02
  another. So I'm putting you in a position
• 1:37:04
  where. You.
• 1:37:06
  You make mistakes and all like that, so you.
• 1:37:08
  Do the traditional overhand or I don't know what you have, push
• 1:37:11
  your ass. Yes, the push you up.
• 1:37:13
  So what do you do? We're we're it's 2025.
• 1:37:16
  You have won many state titles. You've set the four by one
• 1:37:20
  national record. How do you stay motivated?
• 1:37:24
  Like what are you still? You know, you know that I
• 1:37:28
  already know this answer, so I'm setting you up here.
• 1:37:30
  Do you still learn from other people or do you are you, are
• 1:37:34
  you just set in your ways now? Like, hey, this is the Elton
• 1:37:37
  way. This is how we do things?
• 1:37:38
  What? How do you continue to improve?
• 1:37:41
  Yeah, once you feel like you learned everything like you, you
• 1:37:43
  probably need to get out of what you doing.
• 1:37:44
  You know, I'm still a big fan of what listen to podcast all the
• 1:37:48
  time. We have a favorite people who
• 1:37:50
  listen to podcast. I just bought my subscription to
• 1:37:53
  Altus the courses. So I go and I learn their
• 1:37:57
  courses and I watch their videos.
• 1:37:59
  I'm Texaco path all the time. I was on zoom with Sammy dabs
• 1:38:04
  learning the hurdles and, you know, just trying to protect my
• 1:38:06
  craft. You know, I I wish I learned
• 1:38:10
  from coach flow last year from AUT, like he had such amazing
• 1:38:14
  things like they have like AQ and a with coach flow and miles
• 1:38:17
  from Florida, like those things. That was like just put us a
• 1:38:20
  position where we could just learn so much.
• 1:38:23
  You know, we're too tracky. Once again, I said at the
• 1:38:25
  clinic, I go to the Olympic trials at world championship
• 1:38:27
  every summer in Oregon. And I'm sitting there watching
• 1:38:30
  them warm up. I'm watching the 10,000.
• 1:38:33
  I'm watching the long jump. And you know, I'm, I'm observing
• 1:38:37
  with those guys and I'm putting myself around greatness or like
• 1:38:41
  people like that just to, to continue to sell my so my
• 1:38:45
  knowledge and all of that. So.
• 1:38:47
  You know, I'm such AI have such passion for track coaches
• 1:38:51
  because of the positive impact that you make on young people.
• 1:38:54
  I have 0 discrepancy between college and high school coaches.
• 1:38:58
  Meaning I don't think because you coach at something that says
• 1:39:01
  university versus something that says high school that you're any
• 1:39:04
  better. I really don't because I don't
• 1:39:06
  care how good you are. XS and OS, to be frank with you,
• 1:39:08
  I care about how you work with young people.
• 1:39:11
  That, that to me is the impact that you make in society because
• 1:39:14
  you know, 99% of the kids you ever coach, including the
• 1:39:16
  college kids aren't going pro, but they're all going to become
• 1:39:19
  moms, dads, business owners, clergy, teachers, etcetera.
• 1:39:24
  And that's, that's your real impact.
• 1:39:26
  But I'm but I am curious more probably because you're the
• 1:39:30
  success you've had here and the location you're at.
• 1:39:32
  Any desire to coach college one day?
• 1:39:37
  Yeah, I, I, I do have the desire.
• 1:39:39
  I know it's such a weird time in college right now with the
• 1:39:42
  roster cuts and roster cuts down to 35.
• 1:39:45
  I mean, you're not going to carry as many coaches.
• 1:39:48
  So this is such a, a bad time. And when it comes to college
• 1:39:53
  coaches, you know, I would hate to try to work my way up from
• 1:39:57
  the, the complete bottom of way to where I need to be.
• 1:40:01
  So plus, you know, high school coaches like right now in Texas.
• 1:40:04
  We're starting to get paid pretty, pretty good salary,
• 1:40:07
  probably more than some of those assistants at like smaller
• 1:40:10
  colleges or hey, colleges. So and I got the whole summer
• 1:40:14
  off and I got two week break for December.
• 1:40:17
  You know, high school get a February break, we get a March
• 1:40:20
  break, April break. So it's kind of the amount of
• 1:40:23
  days I have off. Are you?
• 1:40:24
  Hiring Whoa, hold the cap. It's starting to we compensate
• 1:40:31
  really well. Yeah, good, good.
• 1:40:32
  Yeah, I, I taught level ones for many, many years.
• 1:40:36
  And the number one question I'd get from high school coaches,
• 1:40:38
  because I used to coach high school and then went to
• 1:40:40
  collegiate was hey, how do I, how do I coach college?
• 1:40:43
  And I'm like, I don't know, maybe you don't like do you know
• 1:40:45
  what? Like it's not cool.
• 1:40:47
  It's not, it's not like this winter Wonderland.
• 1:40:49
  You go there, it's it's, it's got it's own toughness,
• 1:40:51
  including. Yeah, it is.
• 1:40:53
  It's recruiting all that so. Yeah, well, yeah, pay and travel
• 1:40:57
  and the the thing that breaks my heart the most, you know, Elton,
• 1:41:02
  if something were to happen tomorrow at Atescocito and they
• 1:41:05
  let you go, there are other high schools within easy driving
• 1:41:08
  range specifically because where you are.
• 1:41:10
  But there's other high schools you go to.
• 1:41:11
  You wouldn't have to uproot your whole house and move to Seattle
• 1:41:15
  or, you know, all these things. I I was heartbroken.
• 1:41:17
  This big, big name college coach, Big name college coach.
• 1:41:24
  Not his fault he was, he wasn't like go the the the head coach
• 1:41:27
  was let go until therefore he was like go.
• 1:41:29
  And you know, he had to uproot his family, two kids, because
• 1:41:34
  there was no college within 10 miles or whatever.
• 1:41:38
  Like the next available job was completely across.
• 1:41:41
  And it just broke my heart. He almost got out of coaching
• 1:41:43
  because of it. And I completely understand.
• 1:41:45
  It's like, man, that's not, it's not cool.
• 1:41:47
  There's no answer to it, but it's not cool.
• 1:41:49
  I got job security where I'm at because you know, like, you
• 1:41:52
  know, we, you know, we're successful.
• 1:41:53
  So we, yeah, as long as we keep our hands clean and do
• 1:41:56
  everything correctly, we'll stay where we need to be.
• 1:41:59
  And plus, after the day, like remember I said entrepreneurship
• 1:42:02
  is one of my goals, one of the things I love.
• 1:42:04
  So I do real estate on the side. So I, I, I got 2 jobs where, you
• 1:42:09
  know, the weekends I'm doing real estate selling houses or,
• 1:42:11
  you know, listing houses or whatever.
• 1:42:13
  So, you know, we have to kind of, you know, put ourself in a
• 1:42:16
  position where we could be successful.
• 1:42:18
  Yeah, I love that. That's cool.
• 1:42:19
  Well, Elton 2, I think it was two years ago, Boo Scheck Snyder
• 1:42:23
  spoke at TTFCA. Yeah, I love him my my absolute
• 1:42:28
  mentor and just love him to death.
• 1:42:30
  And after I, I introduced another speaker that year was
• 1:42:33
  Vince Anderson. And I stuck my head in with
• 1:42:37
  Vince because, you know, Vince is just a fireball.
• 1:42:39
  I, I haven't coached in almost 20 years.
• 1:42:41
  And every time I hear Vince speak, I like, I, I want to run
• 1:42:43
  out and coach. I mean, he's just so amazing.
• 1:42:45
  And I snuck my, I stuck my head in just to kind of look at the
• 1:42:48
  crowd or whatever. And I see Boo Boo Scheck Snyder
• 1:42:51
  in the crowd, taking notes and, and everything.
• 1:42:53
  And I was like, and I remember taking a snapshot of that.
• 1:42:55
  I was like, what does you know, one of the greatest coaches in
• 1:42:57
  the world do when they're not speaking at a clinic And I go,
• 1:43:01
  they sit down and watch the the next clinician.
• 1:43:04
  And I was equally it was it was like Deja Vu with just different
• 1:43:09
  people with you this past weekend, my friend.
• 1:43:12
  So as we said, you know, Michelle Freeman, the women's
• 1:43:15
  relays coach for Team USA was there to speak and she's
• 1:43:17
  amazing. You, if you're listening to
• 1:43:19
  this, you hopefully have already listened to her episode as well.
• 1:43:22
  She's great. And she was going over all the
• 1:43:24
  different stuff and, and really making a lot of sense, like, you
• 1:43:28
  know. And big up to my my kind of
• 1:43:30
  teammate Michelle Carter. She put on a good one too.
• 1:43:32
  She did. She was.
• 1:43:33
  That was first time I met her. She was awesome.
• 1:43:35
  But what's? Yeah, she's awesome, but what's
• 1:43:37
  her dad is my dad is just as awesome too her.
• 1:43:40
  Dad, is that right? I've never met him.
• 1:43:41
  I need to, but you're deflecting because, you know, I'm about to
• 1:43:44
  give you props here. But as I'm watching her, I look
• 1:43:48
  back over my shoulder and there you are with your camera out
• 1:43:53
  filming and taking photos, as engrossed and as listening and
• 1:43:58
  as learning as anybody who has never coached the Four by One
• 1:44:01
  would have been in that seminar. And I remember I took a snap of
• 1:44:04
  a picture and I put it on Twitter and I was like, what
• 1:44:05
  does the guy who, you know, help set the national record in the
• 1:44:09
  Four by One do? When Michelle Freeman's talking,
• 1:44:11
  he he takes notes. And I just to me, that was the
• 1:44:14
  equivalent of Boo sitting down listening to, to Vince, you
• 1:44:17
  sitting there listening to Michelle.
• 1:44:19
  It, it really, you know, I already knew this, but it was
• 1:44:22
  like one more cement, one more glue of like, Oh yeah, this
• 1:44:26
  guy's not done. Like actually I kind of was
• 1:44:28
  like, oh man, I hope everybody's seen that because this dude's
• 1:44:30
  still learning. You guys are in trouble.
• 1:44:32
  I just thought that was very impressive and said a lot about
• 1:44:35
  your character and your actual passion for coaching, so I just
• 1:44:40
  wanted to publicly say it as well.
• 1:44:42
  I appreciate that. Yeah.
• 1:44:44
  Yeah. Michelle gave an awesome speech.
• 1:44:45
  So we, I, I probably told her so many times, like, man, you
• 1:44:48
  killed that. Like it was.
• 1:44:49
  There's so much stuff. So we was impressed by that.
• 1:44:52
  So. Absolutely.
• 1:44:54
  Yeah, I was. When I had Michelle on the
• 1:44:56
  podcast, it was interesting to learn her journey as well.
• 1:44:59
  But but just, you know, it it kind of.
• 1:45:02
  Another twin. She's another twin.
• 1:45:04
  That's right. But she's been doing it.
• 1:45:05
  She's been doing it so for so long now.
• 1:45:07
  But it was literally like, I was like, it was kind of like as a
• 1:45:09
  as a supporter and fan of Team USA, I was like, oh, man, we're
• 1:45:13
  in good hands. Like it was just like, it was
• 1:45:15
  like comforting, like, oh, this is the person running it.
• 1:45:18
  We're golden. Yeah, the the one thing about
• 1:45:22
  about being a leader, like a servant leader, like you can't
• 1:45:24
  be afraid to make decisions. You know, everybody's not going
• 1:45:27
  to agree with your decisions and all that.
• 1:45:29
  So. And she has made decisions that
• 1:45:31
  have been proven to work, you know, and you know.
• 1:45:35
  Yeah, that's right. Made a couple people upset, you
• 1:45:38
  know, like, and I probably have done the same, Yeah.
• 1:45:40
  Not probably right take. Probably, yeah, definitely can't
• 1:45:44
  deny the results and that's what I'm graded on because if you
• 1:45:49
  know, I wouldn't be here in a position if you know something
• 1:45:54
  had went away so. That's right.
• 1:45:56
  Well, Elton, super impressed, man.
• 1:45:58
  I'm so glad we were able to finally get you on the show
• 1:46:00
  here. It's completely my fault, not
• 1:46:02
  his. He's been on the list for quite
• 1:46:04
  a while. But you know, I think what's
• 1:46:06
  what's interesting to me anytime specifically our high school
• 1:46:10
  coaches, because you know, it's one thing 18 to 22, we always
• 1:46:13
  say, you know, it's the business side and all that kind of stuff.
• 1:46:15
  But you know, I still remember remind people they're still
• 1:46:17
  kids, 18 to 22 year old, they're still kids.
• 1:46:20
  But in high school, we're 1418. We are certainly kids.
• 1:46:23
  Even our most mature kids are still kids in high school.
• 1:46:26
  So I really like to me at the high school coach is maybe less
• 1:46:32
  of a coach, not taking away anything about that.
• 1:46:35
  But you're a leader. You're a leader of young men and
• 1:46:38
  a young women. And like I said, those young men
• 1:46:40
  and young women are all going to go on to become moms and dads
• 1:46:42
  and business owners and I'm going to hire them kids one day
• 1:46:46
  here and things like that. And so to me, that is the true
• 1:46:49
  impact that you make on society is the positive impact that you
• 1:46:52
  make on on young kids. And it's weird because I tweeted
• 1:46:55
  it out earlier because I consider myself more of a
• 1:46:58
  teacher than I am a coach because I spent so much time
• 1:47:00
  with these kids. You know, we, we know a lot of
• 1:47:03
  their in and out. It's probably more than their
• 1:47:04
  parents. You know, we spend more time
• 1:47:06
  with them. So, you know, we, we wear them
• 1:47:09
  doing Afed, we wear them after school, weight room, all that.
• 1:47:12
  So you truly form a bond with it, with the same bum that my
• 1:47:17
  bond that my high school coaches formed with me.
• 1:47:19
  And you know, it's just me. Just once again sowing a seed
• 1:47:22
  and giving back to what was given to me, a person who came
• 1:47:26
  from a single parent home and was made to feel like they were
• 1:47:29
  someone. Yeah, I love that, man.
• 1:47:32
  Elton. Thank you so much, man.
• 1:47:34
  Your time. It's one of the most valuable
• 1:47:35
  things you can give me. So anytime you guys.
• 1:47:37
  Can sit down get it back? That's right, that's right.
• 1:47:40
  Good or bad, it has happened. And I'm really just so grateful
• 1:47:43
  for your openness and authenticity.
• 1:47:45
  You know, what you went through in college, I think that might
• 1:47:49
  be one of the more impactful parts of your story.
• 1:47:51
  And your story is very impactful is I think it's important.
• 1:47:53
  I learned this from Karen Dennis, now retired from The
• 1:47:56
  Ohio State University. When she told me about why she
• 1:47:59
  left UNLV to go to Ohio State is because she got fired.
• 1:48:02
  And I was like, Karen, you know, you didn't have to say that.
• 1:48:04
  Like you get this. Share this story.
• 1:48:07
  You have to, yeah. You know you but she in the
• 1:48:09
  reason she said she goes, yeah, I think it's important for
• 1:48:11
  people for coaches to know that bad things can happen to you and
• 1:48:13
  you can still have success. So, Elton, when you tell stories
• 1:48:16
  about, you know, funking out of school, yeah, being cancer, I
• 1:48:21
  think those are the important parts because we get sometimes
• 1:48:24
  bad things are going to happen to us, some that we bring our
• 1:48:26
  own, some that are outside of our control.
• 1:48:28
  And I think hearing stories like that, that people have gone on
• 1:48:32
  past that to have a lot of success.
• 1:48:34
  I, I think that's truly important for our coaches, for
• 1:48:36
  our kids to hear those stories. So I'm just so grateful for you
• 1:48:39
  sharing that with us, your authenticity with that.
• 1:48:42
  And I think it's, I think it's really impactful, my friend.
• 1:48:45
  And I'm I'm really. Grateful, I appreciate it.
• 1:48:47
  Absolutely. All right.
• 1:48:48
  That ends our day today. Guys, gals, thank you so much
• 1:48:51
  for being here today. You heard a lot of us lot.
• 1:48:54
  You heard us talk about a lot. It's near the end of the day.
• 1:48:58
  I'm getting ready for the Texas game.
• 1:48:59
  Leave me alone, everybody. Yeah, but you heard us talk a
• 1:49:04
  lot about really great mentors and people in lives.
• 1:49:06
  And we talked about Dan Papps and boozechnaters and many, you
• 1:49:10
  know, Michelle Freeman is, is one of those people today.
• 1:49:13
  So just encourage you to, you know, his story to me is a lot
• 1:49:16
  about who you surround yourself with.
• 1:49:18
  And I think that's tremendously important.
• 1:49:20
  He got a leg up. He got his brother.
• 1:49:22
  So they both have each have had each other for a while to
• 1:49:24
  surround ourselves, but they have certainly expanded that
• 1:49:27
  network. And I think that's an important
• 1:49:29
  part of the story. So thank you guys for being here
• 1:49:31
  today. We'll do it all over again next
• 1:49:33
  week. So, Mike, remember the story.
• 1:49:34
  Mike, say again that the tax. Yes, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
• 1:49:40
  something. New.
• 1:49:42
  Oh, man, I love it, dude. I love it.
• 1:49:43
  All right, Thanks for being here, guys.
• 1:49:44
  We'll see you at next week. Thank you.
• 1:49:46
  I appreciate you. No problem if it goes to
• 1:49:52
  appreciate the coach, the ones that pouring people most every
• 1:49:55
  season needs a voice of reason speaking the growth you got to
• 1:49:58
  prep before you carry the load. Ice coffee to the soul.
• 1:50:01
  For those of us who stay on the go, pop a hand off and stay in
• 1:50:04
  the zone which you packing for the road.
• 1:50:06
  There's more than one way to go. Taking dose SPN you told it
• 1:50:09
  ain't practice. It's your purpose, Saint Clair.
• 1:50:11
  It can't help stepping until you listen with both is you can't
• 1:50:14
  mentor without a mentor of experience.
• 1:50:17
  You can reinvent those years. Every plan's got to stand and
• 1:50:20
  deliver to and the price sacrifice.
• 1:50:22
  Can you give up you. It's a choice and to fight not a
• 1:50:25
  win or lose. It's not a ploy boy device.
• 1:50:27
  Y'all can make more moves. It's not about how to it's all
• 1:50:30
  about why you don't know till you know who you are inside
• 1:50:33
  6,000,000 waste of time choose none.
• 1:50:35
  So y'all cross finish line. The work ain't done so we learn
• 1:50:38
  from the experts, but y'all got to put in the leg work you'll
• 1:50:42
  Athletics is a network. It's all about connections put
• 1:50:44
  together for the profession to where every track coach could be
• 1:50:47
  blessed.