Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / #184: Connor Green-University of Hartford

Transcript

#184: Connor Green-University of Hartford · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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  Welcome to season 3 of gila politics connection podcast.
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  Alright, welcome back to the Gila phottix connections, track
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  and field podcast, I don't know, throwing like a thousand words,
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  they're just know, it's the Gill connections podcast, right?
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  You're here for another week with another amazing guest
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  before we get to today's guest who I'm super excited for.
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  That's next Monday. Holy crap.
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  Okay, that's enough of a commercial.
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  Let's get to our recording right here.
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  Today not live as you're listening to it now, but I'm
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  doing it live right now with the assistant coach from The
• 2:10
  University of Hartford in Hartford and beautiful,
• 2:12
  Connecticut, help me welcome the wise.
• 2:14
  The wonderful, mr. Connor Green Connor, how are
• 2:16
  you, sir? Great Mike.
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  How you doing today? You know, you're in Connecticut
• 2:21
  and I'm in Illinois which are both cold climates and it's
• 2:23
  November. I think it's a high of 74 me
• 2:26
  today. I have a feeling I'm better than
• 2:28
  you because it's Connecticut's. I just assume it's always
• 2:30
  snowing in Connecticut. How are you doing no snow yet
• 2:34
  which is which is great meal knock on wood because sometimes
• 2:36
  we get some pesky snowstorms that like the end of October
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  Sure. But, you know, it there's some
• 2:42
  frost on the ground for sure but, you know, it is what it is.
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  You know, for an Alabama boy, any cold is not good and I'm
• 2:49
  here to Chicago, girl, so it ain't like I'm not going
• 2:52
  anywhere. I tried one time early so I got
• 2:55
  here in 06. I want to say it was 08.
• 2:58
  I got my first winter and it was terrible and I think it was the
• 3:02
  middle of my second one and I went to our CEO and I was like,
• 3:05
  hey David, I was like I need I need you to see this Vision.
• 3:08
  Gil Athletics, Jack. Bill Florida Office, 16 years
• 3:15
  later. I'm still here in Champaign.
• 3:16
  Illinois didn't happen at all. It's weird.
• 3:18
  It's like, it's centrally located or something, for
• 3:21
  convenience, well, and you know, quick history.
• 3:24
  So Gila FedEx, was started by Harry Gil, right?
• 3:26
  So Gila phonics, who was the head coach at?
• 3:29
  Right here? The University of Illinois.
• 3:31
  So, he, this is, I think this is fascinating really speaks
• 3:35
  through our DNA even today in 2023, that it is. 23 right now.
• 3:40
  2022, trying to make it home. It is so neat with you.
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  Almost almost a I'm already for next year.
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  But Harry was the head coach here at the University of
• 3:47
  Illinois and started the very first NCAA championships for any
• 3:53
  sport. So obviously, it was tracking
• 3:55
  field, but it was, there was no tennis national championship
• 3:58
  football, baseball. Not there was none of that he
• 4:01
  got everybody together and said, hey, why don't we?
• 4:04
  When we like score this out as like a national meeting, have a
• 4:06
  national champion here, you'll started that thing, man, that
• 4:08
  amazing. That's Incredible, isn't it had
• 4:11
  the opportunity to be at the NCAA like the head office last
• 4:17
  year down in the a hapless and I'm surprised I didn't learn
• 4:20
  about it there. Yeah.
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  History but no, that's, that's pretty incredible.
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  I love that place. Did you go and look for, like,
• 4:26
  your alma mater and Hartford on the?
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  Yeah, that's probably it. I knew exactly where I went to
• 4:30
  the greatest University in the world, Troy University.
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  So I knew exactly every time I go there, I know exactly where
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  my Troy emblem is man. That's course.
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  It's awesome. I love it.
• 4:39
  Well Connor, let's learn. Learn more about you.
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  I really appreciate you being here today.
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  You know, we love just talking to coaches around the country on
• 4:46
  all different levels and of all different ages and stages in
• 4:49
  their career, for you, you know, at some point assuming that you
• 4:54
  were an athlete coaching switched in your mind, it went
• 4:58
  from something that happens to you.
• 5:00
  Coach would tell you to run laps or throw this or go lift here,
• 5:04
  right to maybe some point. It changing it was like, oh wait
• 5:08
  a minute like I could be the coach Like that's an actual
• 5:11
  profession. Where does coaching begin for
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  you? So I'd say for me, well, you
• 5:17
  know, I'll use the term athlete lightly, through the quotations
• 5:21
  up there, you know, I was an average distance Runner, you
• 5:24
  know, nothing nothing to write home about was fortunate enough
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  to run a year in college, but, you know, it is one of those
• 5:30
  things where I don't know if you've ever seen D to the Mighty
• 5:33
  Ducks. Oh yeah.
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  Okay, yeah. So classic film and stick with
• 5:38
  me here at one point. There is a scene where basically
• 5:44
  Charlie Conway, one of the main characters is like you know,
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  he's a coach, you know, how I always said like I'd be a better
• 5:50
  Coach than a player and I don't know what it was about that one
• 5:54
  line, but that one line like really, really resonated with
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  me. And it was one of those things
• 6:00
  where it's like, you know, I was an okay Runner but I always knew
• 6:03
  that coaching something I wanted to do and around like I would
• 6:06
  say my sophomore junior high schools are on 15, 16 years old.
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  I think it was something that I had really decided like yeah,
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  this is what I would. To do after after the sport now.
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  Where does that come from? And what I mean by that is, did
• 6:21
  you have a coach that was really instrumental for you during
• 6:24
  that's fairly young? I mean, II had a 10-year College
• 6:28
  coaching career and now basically, my truck coached
• 6:31
  Advocate, is what I do now in my career, right?
• 6:33
  But I can't say that at 15, 14 years old that I even thought,
• 6:38
  like I had no clue how coaches became coaches.
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  I probably just assumed everybody was a teacher to be
• 6:43
  real. Even in college, probably like
• 6:45
  probably teach where did that come from it?
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  Such an early age that you're like, oh yeah this is kind of
• 6:49
  what I'm I'm digging here. So it's funny that you mentioned
• 6:52
  the teacher thing, you know, I think like many coaches and, you
• 6:56
  know, kind of fitting in with that stereotype.
• 6:58
  So I had wanted to be a teacher, my I had a sixth grade teacher,
• 7:03
  who was very, very influential on my life, actually, wrote like
• 7:06
  my college essays about him and like the impact that he had.
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  Shout out to mr. Kenyon in Charles.
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  Elementary school. But it was one of those things
• 7:16
  where I always knew I wanted to be involved working with kids at
• 7:21
  all ages. Those I mean I would say that
• 7:24
  was probably the only type of job I've ever had is like a camp
• 7:27
  counselor or you know working in a day care or you know, coaching
• 7:31
  or anything like that. So I always knew that helping
• 7:37
  kids kind of grow and develop and you know, like see their
• 7:40
  potential was something I always wanted to do and I obviously
• 7:43
  wasn't until I was Older that like I kind of connected those
• 7:45
  pieces, but it was something that was kind of always
• 7:47
  underlying than their even. We used to do this like fun run
• 7:51
  with the elementary school kids and it was just something as
• 7:54
  simple as like me leading them you know doing like a half mile
• 7:58
  like on a trail behind the school just as like a fun run
• 8:01
  for them and just like seeing how happy and excited they were
• 8:03
  like just those little moments you know kind of helped kind of
• 8:07
  solidify it. I was very fortunate to also
• 8:09
  have some some pretty great coaches that help kind of Guide
• 8:12
  Me Down. I'm always interested in bigger
• 8:17
  than life people. Like you're describing mr.
• 8:19
  Canyon Canyon Canyon. Yeah, opinion.
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  Because, you know, we have a lot of people, especially as young
• 8:26
  adults and young people that come in through our lives,
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  right? You had many many teachers you
• 8:30
  had many coaches, maybe bosses at your, you know, different
• 8:34
  jobs through high school and things like that.
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  But mr. Kenyon obviously, sticks out to
• 8:39
  you. What did he do?
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  How did he make you feel that? Like even today you're like oh
• 8:45
  yeah Mr. Kenny and Shout out like dude, if it works for you
• 8:48
  I'm not sure where I'd be what was it about him?
• 8:51
  You know, I got to be honest, it's funny because I had his
• 8:54
  wife, the year before as a teacher and they were both.
• 8:57
  Just those quintessential teachers that, you know, they
• 9:01
  they're just doing their job, like, they're just being who
• 9:03
  they are just caring about their students.
• 9:05
  And just watching, you know, I was very passionate about
• 9:09
  history and everything as well at that age.
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  And like just him nurturing that like that interest in that, that
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  Curiosity within my education where it's like, I was I don't
• 9:22
  know, it's kind of a of the students that was in between.
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  Like, I wasn't a bad student, but I wasn't a great student.
• 9:28
  And, you know, a lot of times those kids kind of fall through
• 9:31
  the cracks and just being able to get like that little extra
• 9:36
  bit of support and motivation and, you know, Guidance was just
• 9:43
  really, really critical and it was something that I obviously
• 9:46
  appreciated, but it was something that I realized later
• 9:49
  on that I was like, that's why I like coaching so much or that's
• 9:53
  why I like, you know, training people and everything because it
• 9:55
  was that exact experience that has kind of helped guide and
• 9:59
  shape the way that I kind of live my life.
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  I believe a lot of coaches want to have that type of influence
• 10:06
  over their athletes, right? To be a good role model.
• 10:09
  And so, you know, hearing the words of how you Describe him
• 10:12
  like that's why I want to talk about like influential people
• 10:14
  like that because it's like, oh man, someone's listening, go on
• 10:16
  me. I'm missing the boat but here
• 10:18
  are the words that you described using for mr.
• 10:21
  Kenney. They're caring.
• 10:23
  Nurturing guiding like those are like really good principles for
• 10:29
  us to like double down on as coaches if we want to have more
• 10:32
  even more. We already have an abundance of
• 10:35
  positive influence over young people.
• 10:37
  So hearing those kind of words and what they mean to you is
• 10:40
  like that, that to me is Good like primer of like oh man you
• 10:43
  want to you want to be a better Coach?
• 10:44
  It ain't always in the X's and O's sometimes it's being better
• 10:48
  empathy and be better caring and being better guidance for young
• 10:52
  people so I appreciate that. I was just it was interesting
• 10:55
  when you said Mr. Kenny in your face, kind of changed a little
• 10:58
  bit of just like, like a flood of fond memories, kind of hit
• 11:01
  you. I think when you you said his
• 11:03
  name's that was a house interesting.
• 11:05
  Appreciate sharing that. So what as you go through high
• 11:09
  school and you say, you're an average run or not.
• 11:11
  I'm gonna push back a little bit and not knowing at all of what
• 11:16
  you ran TimeWise. And you don't have to tell me at
• 11:18
  all, it doesn't matter, but I'm going to push back at me in just
• 11:21
  an average athlete because you, then also said, you ran at least
• 11:25
  a little bit in college. I've seen too many athletes and
• 11:29
  I was a track athlete myself who had no shot at running Kong.
• 11:33
  It's, it was a mid distance, kind of hurdle kind of guy.
• 11:38
  So you weren't just an average, aren't you had to be a decent.
• 11:41
  Runner here. How did that manifest itself as
• 11:43
  far as thinking about you wanted to be a coach, you wanted to
• 11:46
  help and guide young people? How did you choose college and
• 11:50
  what did you go in? As a major Yeah, so getting into
• 11:55
  distance running was never my plan like most New England kids
• 12:00
  while I would say most kids, you know, I grew up playing soccer
• 12:02
  basketball baseball and, you know, was not great at any of
• 12:06
  them. And then did indoor track my
• 12:10
  freshman year. I was like, all right, I'll be a
• 12:11
  sprinter that's fine. That sounds easy.
• 12:14
  I didn't know anybody in that group, but I had a buddy who I
• 12:17
  played soccer with that. He was going out for distance.
• 12:20
  So, you know, we're out there. There that first practice and I
• 12:23
  think we had to do like a three or four mile run and I think I
• 12:27
  stopped like 12 times because, you know, it's a long run for
• 12:31
  somebody who's never done that before.
• 12:32
  Sure. And and don't worry, I
• 12:34
  remembered that when I became a coach and it, you know, but then
• 12:40
  I just kind of kept kept with it.
• 12:42
  And, you know, it was a distance Runner and then, you know, that
• 12:45
  was fortunate enough to kind of guide me through high school and
• 12:48
  then I was all set to go. In State College and but then I
• 12:55
  ended up getting an offer to run for Merrimack College in
• 12:59
  Massachusetts. And this is when they were still
• 13:01
  division two and they didn't even have track and field.
• 13:03
  So, in my mind, I was like perfect.
• 13:05
  I love cross country, it's my favorite sport.
• 13:07
  Like that's all I got to run it was going to be great.
• 13:10
  So I was going to go there, study history and secondary Ed
• 13:13
  and you know and then kind of follow in the footsteps that I
• 13:18
  thought were going to be laid out for me but you know so so
• 13:21
  far at this This point in the story, it's going, well, I feel
• 13:25
  like there's a cliff we're about to there.
• 13:26
  There's, there's a little bit of a cliff, but it's good.
• 13:29
  That's what makes good stories. I'm excited because you've lived
• 13:32
  through it, so that's why I can be excited about is like, okay,
• 13:34
  so it's something is about to happen, but good news.
• 13:36
  He's here with me today. So we're all good.
• 13:38
  I'm curious. It's something, you know, I was
• 13:41
  I was a, almost point-blank said, I was not a distance
• 13:45
  Runner and what I mean by that is, you know, I played football.
• 13:48
  I ran track. But I also did cross country
• 13:51
  during football, we were Here we had no structure, so we needed a
• 13:55
  cross-country team. So I was a lineman offensive
• 13:57
  lineman and then on a couple of Saturdays we would run across
• 14:02
  here on three mile through 5K or something like that.
• 14:04
  And in Alabama, the state meet at least back then was an
• 14:08
  all-comers as well. So you have to qualify like
• 14:10
  through a regionals or anything. So we'd run it states.
• 14:12
  I ran a state every year but it's like, oh, but I stopped,
• 14:14
  that's how bad. I mean, I was in football.
• 14:15
  We didn't train. It wasn't like I was doing
• 14:17
  football, practice and then would go run mild.
• 14:18
  No, no, I just did football practice and then see you
• 14:21
  Saturday after the game Friday night.
• 14:22
  Night, I'll beat up from the, from the game.
• 14:24
  I was gonna say I can barely get my linemen to do, you know,
• 14:27
  warm-up lap. Sometimes I couldn't even
• 14:28
  imagine getting, I'm turning 25 K, as much as I was a starter.
• 14:33
  I started my last two years as much as I weigh.
• 14:35
  Now, I wish I weighed that much back in high school because I
• 14:37
  have been a much, much better lime.
• 14:38
  And I remember one time this is terrible.
• 14:41
  So we're playing our Rivals. I'm the right.
• 14:43
  I'm starting to read guards as my junior year and this guy the
• 14:47
  the the right defensive tackle. So you know, the not the guy
• 14:50
  lined up on me but on the other side We're waiting for, you
• 14:53
  know, the ref to let us to get down and snap the ball in the
• 14:57
  defensive tackle. Looks at his defense attack on
• 14:59
  goes wait, that guy is who you're up against.
• 15:01
  You should be killing that guy, talking about me.
• 15:04
  I mean, just right there in the middle, the games like man, you
• 15:06
  should be killing us like crazy talking about me.
• 15:09
  I'm right here man. Come on.
• 15:11
  That's like how rude dude that's.
• 15:14
  And that's some psychological warfare.
• 15:16
  Yeah, yeah and it wasn't like I respond to be like Oh I'm gonna
• 15:19
  I was like look man I'm was I 170.
• 15:22
  Probably back those. I'm just trying to survive, bro.
• 15:25
  We're just trying to get things done.
• 15:27
  Okay, what a all that to say is it's interesting.
• 15:30
  You said going to Merrimack, you're like oh that's kind of my
• 15:33
  jam because it's cross-country only outdoor about track.
• 15:36
  Those were my word, he didn't say that but you love cross
• 15:38
  country, but it's true. Yeah, but it's interesting
• 15:44
  because you never, I've never heard and I think never is the
• 15:46
  right word. I try not to use like real
• 15:49
  definitive hard words, right? Because it's rarely True.
• 15:54
  But I don't know that I've ever heard of a distance.
• 15:56
  Runner says, oh man, I love running the 5K on track but that
• 16:01
  cross-country stuff is for the birth.
• 16:03
  An 800-meter Runner has said that for sure, but I haven't
• 16:06
  heard very many, you know, distant track distance guys, why
• 16:09
  do you think that? That is so one thing that had
• 16:13
  kind of happened to me and, you know, we're talking about, you
• 16:16
  know, things that kind of happen in our lives.
• 16:18
  But in high school, I was diagnosed with ADHD.
• 16:22
  As well as like a couple of like anxiety things but the ADHD
• 16:28
  diagnosis really kind of brought like my whole life prior to
• 16:31
  that. And after it like into Focus
• 16:33
  literally and it was one of those things where the reason I
• 16:39
  love cross country so much is because it wasn't repetitive.
• 16:42
  It wasn't, you know, it wasn't just lap after lap, after lap,
• 16:48
  my mind wanders quite a bit and cross-country allowed me to You
• 16:52
  know, kind of go into that that basic just zoning out and just
• 16:56
  wandering through the woods but you know while also running fast
• 16:59
  and it was just something I always really loved, you know I
• 17:03
  know I still love obviously being out in nature.
• 17:05
  You know, basic Millennial, I love, you know hiking and all
• 17:08
  that stuff. So it's it's just something I
• 17:11
  always enjoyed and it really kind of pulled it into Focus.
• 17:14
  I didn't have to count. That was that was always a great
• 17:17
  thing. Indoor track in New England will
• 17:18
  anywhere. Counting laps is the worst thing
• 17:20
  ever. That makes a lot of sense for
• 17:23
  guy who, you know, I would not call myself having been a cross
• 17:27
  country Runner. Even though Iran Iran, there was
• 17:30
  error codes there for sure and cross-country meets.
• 17:33
  Like I love the the philosophy of cross-country.
• 17:37
  Like, I love the team aspect, there's always a team score,
• 17:40
  there's always a team, you're going for a team level, as well
• 17:43
  as going for the individual championship and all that kind
• 17:45
  of stuff. There's that intra Squad,
• 17:48
  competition of who's gonna be the fifth Runner, the fourth,
• 17:51
  the sick, you know, that Changes from time to time.
• 17:55
  What I don't like about cross country is it's hard to watch
• 17:57
  the whole race. That's, that's the my problem.
• 18:01
  That's why I was fun being in the race.
• 18:03
  Yeah, yeah, no, that's a good point.
• 18:04
  Yeah. But see for me, I had to like,
• 18:05
  well, that means I gotta run and that's okay.
• 18:07
  I'll just give me the results and I'll see what it's all
• 18:09
  about. So it's interest.
• 18:11
  I do think, you know, cross country is his special.
• 18:15
  It's different, you know, there it's, it's always a team thing.
• 18:19
  It seems like we're track is not necessarily always.
• 18:22
  Team thing. So it's just always interesting
• 18:24
  when the distance is all, man. I love cross country.
• 18:26
  But track. I never thought about the
• 18:28
  counting labs and the repetitiveness of it, right?
• 18:31
  Because we cross country, at least you got some stimulus or
• 18:34
  different, you know, a boulder the woods.
• 18:37
  You're in a patio, a new tree. Yeah.
• 18:39
  A new tree dwelling by the parking lot or there's car you
• 18:41
  know, with the track. It's like oh yep.
• 18:43
  Here's you know what was the 10K 25 laps?
• 18:46
  Is that right Outdoors? Yeah, here's here's another lap.
• 18:49
  That's that's what this is, all the same, the official, the same
• 18:51
  lap counter. It's I had to count laps for one
• 18:55
  of our girls at Bucknell last year and the, and one of the
• 18:59
  other distance Runners that was helping me.
• 19:02
  It was like, we were losing count of how many laps and we
• 19:05
  weren't even the ones running and it was just yeah, it's one
• 19:07
  of those things where it takes a special person to be able to put
• 19:10
  themselves through that. So, and, you know, I can fully
• 19:14
  admit that that wasn't that wasn't for me.
• 19:16
  When you hear about, you know, a race which essentially means the
• 19:20
  official in the athlete has to Take some responsibility here
• 19:25
  but they run a lap short or you know, it's something like that
• 19:27
  or they ring the bell short and you know people just go nuts and
• 19:31
  I'm like hey that's a human I have a lot of Grace for those
• 19:34
  like that person was trying to count 25 200-meter Labs or what,
• 19:37
  you know, whatever the racism like it had, it rarely happens
• 19:40
  that get all up in arms. If it happens at every race when
• 19:43
  it's once a season or, you know, even twice a season.
• 19:47
  It's like, oh, the process is working.
• 19:49
  Most people are able to do this and some poor.
• 19:52
  Person made a mistake and doesn't and feels worse than any
• 19:55
  of us by the way that they made that mistake, okay?
• 19:59
  So let's let's get to this Cliff, man.
• 20:00
  I mean, I'm building up the excitement.
• 20:02
  Here you go to Merrimack. You're going to run
• 20:03
  cross-country. You're going to study history
• 20:06
  and secondary education. You're like, oh man I'm set.
• 20:09
  This is where I'm going. I'm going to be a high school
• 20:11
  teacher and track and cross-country no joke.
• 20:13
  Yeah, I was fully ready. And then basically School
• 20:19
  wasn't, wasn't what I thought it was going to be.
• 20:22
  You know, as somebody, and once again, it takes, you know, years
• 20:25
  of reflection and you know, learning more about yourself to
• 20:27
  kind of realize this, but in the moment, it was just, you know, I
• 20:29
  wouldn't go to classes sometimes I didn't do well.
• 20:32
  I didn't have, you know, the same kind of structure that I
• 20:35
  had had previously, where I had found success.
• 20:39
  And, you know, it wasn't the fault of my coaches or anything
• 20:41
  like that or anybody around me. It's like at this point I'm an
• 20:44
  adult and you know the choices I made directly impacted things
• 20:48
  that happen. So I didn't have a great GPA.
• 20:51
  You know what? Like 2728 something like that
• 20:54
  but it was low enough that you know I lost my academic
• 20:57
  scholarship or like significantly decreased it to
• 21:00
  the point where it's like, okay well it's not worth going to
• 21:04
  school there and paying you know that much money.
• 21:08
  So I transferred after my first year there so you know,
• 21:12
  basically I was looking to come back home and I got a good
• 21:18
  follow-up for that but I was hoping to transfer to Central
• 21:20
  Connecticut State University but But when I decided to transfer a
• 21:23
  little bit too late, so I went to a community college instead,
• 21:27
  but you know it's funny when how certain doors closed and other
• 21:32
  ones open because literally a week after my freshman year of
• 21:35
  college, I met my, my now wife. So, yeah, it's not the worst
• 21:40
  thing that could have happened. Did you meet her at the junior
• 21:42
  college now. So my buddy's sister, we had a
• 21:47
  minor league baseball team that was very popular in my buddy,
• 21:50
  sister was singing. Her like Middle School choir was
• 21:54
  singing the National Anthem. He was like, hey, you want to
• 21:55
  go? I got extra ticket, so, you
• 21:58
  know, I'm just back from my freshman year, just ready to
• 22:01
  enjoy my summer and we're walking around The Concourse and
• 22:05
  my now, wife Bernie is at one of the souvenir stands she was
• 22:09
  working. And so, I walk past like once,
• 22:13
  or twice. And, you know, the same thing
• 22:15
  that all, you know, 18, 19 year old boys do where they think
• 22:18
  they look cool. And yeah, come To find out.
• 22:22
  She's like, oh, that guy's going to come up to me.
• 22:24
  That's like with us. This is the thought she had.
• 22:27
  But so, you know, on that third, go around, I wrote my name and
• 22:30
  phone number down on a ticket and I walked up to her and I
• 22:33
  said, you know, this is for you and I handed it to her and then
• 22:35
  I walked away because there's no way.
• 22:37
  Yeah, they're exact. That was the goal.
• 22:39
  But it was really just, there's no way I want to deal with the
• 22:41
  repercussions of what I just did, you know, positive.
• 22:45
  Hopefully they were going to be positive but, you know, it
• 22:48
  works. Yeah, she ended up by number was
• 22:50
  illegible. So she found me on Facebook.
• 22:52
  Thankfully and basically, you know, we went on our first date,
• 22:55
  like a week later and we're going on 13 years together now
• 22:58
  and will be five years of marriage.
• 23:00
  So I think it all worked out that story was a roller coaster
• 23:03
  because you had me really scared for a second cause you're like,
• 23:05
  my buddy's, sister had a middle school course and I was like
• 23:08
  what you're in, you're in college bro.
• 23:10
  Like what are you doing here? Oh yeah I know definitely yeah I
• 23:13
  literally I was like, oh man, this might not be a.
• 23:15
  We might have to cut this short. This is not going well and then
• 23:18
  you pivoted to the the souvenir stand.
• 23:20
  I love it. A good start.
• 23:21
  Oh yeah. That's so awesome.
• 23:23
  You know I love stories like that because you know we have
• 23:26
  experienced now right? Like we see we have perspective
• 23:30
  of what happened and we have the experience of what took place,
• 23:33
  you know. You could have not gone to that
• 23:38
  for the for the middle schoolers.
• 23:39
  But yeah, you baseball game. Yeah, I can't think what it was.
• 23:42
  I was thinking, Connecticut cycle, has to be hockey, right?
• 23:44
  Because that's all you guys do up there.
• 23:45
  That's why this wasn't like, you know, like all the year.
• 23:50
  I swear my in-laws Lucky and it seems like the Blackhawks play
• 23:54
  like all year, like, okay, there's the Stanley Cup and then
• 23:58
  a week later, I got a preseason. I'm like, man.
• 24:00
  Then you guys just in this thing, feels like it's all the
• 24:02
  time, so, I'm from Alabama. So yeah, I can, there's no
• 24:05
  hockey anytime. I can't even spell hockey.
• 24:08
  That's how little I care about hockey and my life anyway, so
• 24:11
  you could have not gone to that and instead, you know, you did
• 24:14
  and look at the happy time it. So it's just so cool, man.
• 24:17
  Just the little, there's a movie.
• 24:19
  Have you ever seen the movie Serendipity?
• 24:21
  No. No, no, I'm it's a little older,
• 24:23
  you're a little young, you might not, you gotta go find this.
• 24:25
  If you haven't seen it, sliding doors.
• 24:28
  Haven't heard of it. Gwyneth Paltrow, I believe is
• 24:31
  the actress there and I'm the movie Buffy or anything.
• 24:34
  But I just this movie kind of impacted me and it kind of, it
• 24:37
  shows us a story of Gwyneth, the character that go into the place
• 24:43
  of the subway door and she makes the subway versus she doesn't
• 24:49
  and what happens to her life, you know, she thinks Missing the
• 24:52
  train is the worst thing in the world and that's actually the
• 24:54
  happy story where, you know, you see the other side of the story
• 24:57
  where she makes the train and all bad things kind of happen to
• 25:00
  her. It's just a really good kind of
• 25:02
  like, man there are Forks in the road that sometimes we get to
• 25:05
  make the decisions. Sometimes we don't get to make
• 25:07
  the decision. Sometimes we think it's the
• 25:09
  worst thing in the world that happens to us from some external
• 25:12
  source and sometimes it's the greatest thing in the world.
• 25:15
  I'm so happy that for you is the greatest thing in the world.
• 25:17
  And I'm so glad you took the gumption.
• 25:20
  And we're so smooth to give you Your phone number then.
• 25:23
  Thank God for Facebook by the way, because thank you for the
• 25:25
  happen for that as well. Exactly, I would have been still
• 25:28
  alone, probably but wasn't for that.
• 25:30
  But now ye worked out. So but then we and then I ended
• 25:35
  up at Community College for two years.
• 25:37
  Yeah, so, my did you run their the junior college now?
• 25:41
  Yeah. Okay.
• 25:41
  Now they didn't have a program or anything.
• 25:43
  So it was basically like my running career was kind of over.
• 25:47
  Did you did this? Did you think that this would
• 25:50
  curtail your Coaching Ambitions, if anything a kind of sped it
• 25:56
  up, so I was able to kind of pop back in.
• 26:03
  It was either that season. I think I volunteered back with
• 26:06
  like, my high school team, just the cross country season and it
• 26:11
  was, it was great, you know, like it.
• 26:14
  Looking back on it. Now, I probably wouldn't have
• 26:18
  somebody who just graduated necessarily come back and like,
• 26:22
  help immediately and more on the side of like go out, like, find
• 26:27
  something new, like I would have them volunteer with a different
• 26:31
  coach or a different team and stuff so you can learn.
• 26:33
  And, like, experience something new.
• 26:35
  I say that, though, having hired, like, multiple alumni
• 26:38
  throughout my coaching career, but it's one of those things
• 26:42
  where I was very Fortunate to get involved with coaching that
• 26:47
  season but then what ended up happening is I got referred to
• 26:51
  another program. Our school record holder in the
• 26:55
  mile, he was a longtime coach at Southington High School which is
• 26:58
  where I spent a long time and I ended up volunteering under him.
• 27:01
  And that kind of is what propelled my coaching career at
• 27:04
  that point to. So do you get back on track to
• 27:09
  pun intended to get your four year degree or as you're going
• 27:13
  through? Volunteer phase of the beginning
• 27:16
  of your career. Yeah.
• 27:17
  So add interest Community College.
• 27:19
  I actually switched out of History.
• 27:21
  Secondary Ed and I switched into exercise science and health
• 27:25
  promotion so because because of coaching, or did you lose the
• 27:28
  history love? No, it wasn't that I lost the
• 27:31
  love of it was one that didn't have like that kind of major
• 27:34
  there. And it was that, you know, I was
• 27:38
  still at a point in my life where it's like, you know, I
• 27:41
  think I want this. But then, you know, the same
• 27:43
  Time, you know, maybe I don't. So I knew that I loved running.
• 27:48
  And I knew that I loved track and field, and I knew that I was
• 27:51
  very intrigued and interested. I'd like performance and all
• 27:53
  that stuff. And so I started off and I was
• 27:55
  like, you know, maybe athletic training is like something I'll
• 27:58
  do because like, I've had really positive impacts with physical
• 28:01
  therapists and athletic trainers, throughout my career,
• 28:03
  as an athlete. You know, they really helped and
• 28:06
  so I was like, sure, I'll give it a try.
• 28:08
  So I get my two-year degree. Associate's degree in exercise
• 28:12
  science and health promotion, And Connecticut has this thing
• 28:15
  where the community college is. Basically if you graduate with
• 28:18
  an associate's degree, you get automatic admittance to any
• 28:21
  state school for their four year program.
• 28:23
  So I get my two-year degree. I'm coaching during that time
• 28:28
  and then I end up at Central Connecticut State University
• 28:31
  where my wife just also happens to go to school.
• 28:33
  So I worked out. Did you plan that or was that
• 28:36
  the best place for you? It was the best place for me.
• 28:40
  It happened. It worked you know it.
• 28:43
  Was nice being able to see her and, you know, because the town
• 28:46
  that we live in. Now in the town that she's from
• 28:47
  is where Central Connecticut state is.
• 28:50
  So it was, it was nice. It was just down the road for
• 28:52
  us. It was perfect.
• 28:54
  So, what did you know get your four-year degree in exercise
• 28:57
  science? Yeah, wow.
• 28:59
  That's also pretty big departure from history.
• 29:02
  It's a huge departure from history and you know, it.
• 29:08
  I actually even at one point was like athletic training is what I
• 29:10
  want to do. And then you know I got through
• 29:12
  part of that and was like well maybe not athletic training.
• 29:14
  So then I moved into the shrink a conditioning and exercise
• 29:16
  physiology side of that our program there.
• 29:20
  And I was like this is what I want to do as well as coaching
• 29:23
  during this entire time. So you know it's not often but a
• 29:27
  lot of some people do actually get to use their degrees like
• 29:30
  and fully maximized it within like their career and profession
• 29:34
  and I was fortunate enough that I got to do that.
• 29:36
  I think I was working at a daycare at the Time to so it was
• 29:39
  like yeah I know I told you I'll always jobs with kids it was at
• 29:42
  a jail cell so you know it was a day care since you're getting
• 29:47
  the kids on the bench pressing exam on your old, that's good.
• 29:50
  It's going to start early, of course.
• 29:52
  Yeah as you're going through, finishing out your degree at
• 29:56
  Central, Connecticut, State University in exercise science
• 29:59
  and you're doing these different kind of volunteer stops, There
• 30:03
  had to be assuming because you're still here today doing
• 30:06
  this. That had to kind of like lock in
• 30:09
  like, oh yeah, yeah, this is what I want to do.
• 30:11
  Know, you went through some Sprouts of athletic training
• 30:12
  stuff. But like, as you kept going
• 30:14
  through the different seasons and different athletes and
• 30:17
  volunteering with other coaches, it was like, oh yeah, yeah
• 30:20
  waiting. This is maybe been right here in
• 30:21
  front of my face the whole time. This is what I want to do.
• 30:24
  What was it about that, as you think about them volunteering
• 30:27
  process and, you know, helping out other programs not
• 30:30
  necessarily directing your own At that point, you're just kind
• 30:34
  of inputting and really sponging up, like, what are other people
• 30:38
  doing? What was it about that, that
• 30:39
  kind of locked, it ins? Like, yeah, this is, this is
• 30:42
  what I was meant to be as meant to be a coach.
• 30:44
  Yeah, so starting off as volunteer.
• 30:48
  Yeah, you make huge huge bucks. I think I got like two free
• 30:51
  shirts or something like that. So that that was worth it.
• 30:53
  But you know what? I've 19 20 years old, but it's
• 30:55
  all you need, but the following year, Rich Nero, he and up
• 31:01
  stepping down. He got promoted within the
• 31:04
  school district and even a coach there for like 20 years.
• 31:07
  So he was just taking time for him and his family and stuff.
• 31:09
  So, a new head coach had come in and ashla.
• 31:13
  And Dan is is going to be a lifelong friend of mine and but
• 31:17
  he, he was the distance guy. He would run at Georgetown.
• 31:22
  He had coached at UNC Greensboro, like he was, he was
• 31:25
  the guy like he was ready to go. He had taken a Hiatus from
• 31:29
  coaching but he was coming back into it.
• 31:31
  So they didn't need to distance guy.
• 31:32
  Why they needed Sprint's jumps hurdles anything else, anything
• 31:36
  but distance. So here I was now in track and
• 31:39
  field and it was like well you've got a degree in exercise
• 31:41
  science. You'll figure it out and that's
• 31:44
  what I got thrown into. So in like 2012 2013, I started,
• 31:48
  you know, I was a paid position but I started coaching the the
• 31:50
  sprinters and the jumpers and hurdlers some people would say
• 31:56
  no sorry that's not me. I'm I run miles.
• 31:59
  I don't know. M.
• 32:01
  Yeah. You know that was it?
• 32:03
  Our will distance to Sprint Compares.
• 32:04
  That's right, that's right. That's why I went with it.
• 32:07
  What, what is it about you that you kind of accepted that
• 32:11
  challenge? Well, where was that?
• 32:13
  Where does that come from? So to kind of circle back to
• 32:16
  what your original question was before, that is the reason that
• 32:20
  I was totally okay with it is because I like the challenge of,
• 32:25
  you know, trying to figure this out and everything but it was,
• 32:28
  you know, I got to see myself kind of grow and be challenged
• 32:31
  by the new events and everything.
• 32:32
  Obviously, I was very fascinated by the biomechanics and
• 32:35
  Physiology, but it was, I had always seen the progress of
• 32:38
  distance Runners. Like the I experienced it, I
• 32:40
  got, you know, obviously see my teammates and friends and
• 32:43
  competitors. All see that progress.
• 32:45
  But now, I was in this whole new event group was whole new world
• 32:49
  of. Okay, what, what is like you
• 32:53
  know, getting better in the hurdles mean or what is getting
• 32:55
  better? The Sprint's the 400 the you
• 32:57
  know the long jump, high jump, all this stuff and I found
• 33:01
  something out very very important about Myself.
• 33:03
  Well a few things one I can't hide.
• 33:05
  Jump at all save my life. That's an important lesson to
• 33:09
  learn the early Lily to. I am not brave enough to pole
• 33:16
  vault and three that Seeing the development of the speed and
• 33:24
  power athletes from freshman year, sophomore junior senior
• 33:27
  year was huge. It was something like I never
• 33:31
  experienced before and just like seeing the All the different
• 33:35
  variables that could go into like seeing that progress and
• 33:38
  being a part of that progress with something that like just
• 33:40
  get hooked me instantly. I couldn't imagine being in a
• 33:43
  different event group. Now did you do any formal
• 33:48
  coaching education at this point for those events and what I mean
• 33:51
  by that is you know you have an exercise science background and
• 33:54
  that's well and good. That's extremely important to
• 33:57
  have, to help with writing out your workouts and things like
• 33:59
  that, but you were not a Sprint jumps, coach undergrad, right?
• 34:04
  That isn't exist. If it never did mean, that would
• 34:06
  be amazing. So you probably go back to
• 34:08
  school, right? Yeah, exactly.
• 34:11
  So you didn't, you know, you don't have experience of, you
• 34:13
  know, what speed workouts to look like and what, you know,
• 34:16
  extensive Tempo and things like that.
• 34:18
  And we definitely don't get an X's and O's here.
• 34:20
  But what you seem like a guy you said, you like the challenge of.
• 34:24
  So normally for people that I know who like to be challenged
• 34:27
  the then therefore like to go learn to overcome whatever that
• 34:30
  challenges any kind of professional development.
• 34:33
  Yeah times. If anything, if you ask my wife
• 34:36
  way too much but, you know, really kind of right off the
• 34:40
  get-go. I did, you know, the usatf level
• 34:42
  one and it was, you know, it was good.
• 34:46
  I will say, like, it in my, something that I learned from my
• 34:50
  dad is that, you know, research is your best friend.
• 34:53
  So, he's the kind of guy that, like, if they gotta buy a new
• 34:55
  car, he's doing like three months worth of research,
• 34:58
  there's scribbled notes everywhere.
• 35:01
  I mean, should they could be buying a new blender?
• 35:03
  And it would still be three months.
• 35:04
  Of research and, you know, all the digest magazines and making
• 35:08
  sure everything is like the best they could be.
• 35:11
  So that's a habit that I learned that basically.
• 35:14
  It was just non-stop research, you know, Googling everything I
• 35:16
  possibly could. So I did the usatf level 1 Latif
• 35:23
  Thomas who I know has been a guest on set up to Gil
• 35:26
  connections alone. Yeah, exactly yes.
• 35:28
  His complete track and field stuff.
• 35:30
  I mean was was pretty critical to my early on like sprinting.
• 35:34
  Sprinting career and everything. It was definitely like your two
• 35:37
  or three of running that group and you know, unfortunately, my
• 35:42
  first group of Runners were my guinea pigs of, you know, and
• 35:46
  dealt with the repeat to hundreds that you always hear
• 35:50
  about. It's like, oh yeah, no.
• 35:52
  Why why, why can't you run like 8 to 12 to hundreds with a
• 35:55
  minute recovery? Aren't you a sprinter?
• 35:58
  I thought you were strong. You know, it's like that poor
• 36:00
  group but, you know, that's growth, right?
• 36:02
  Looking back and seeing that change.
• 36:04
  JH. You know.
• 36:06
  So he was huge going through all those videos and stuff that he
• 36:09
  puts up and yeah, he he Stills that those websites are still
• 36:13
  huge resource, but that's when I was first introduced sprinting
• 36:16
  wise to him and you know, Dan path and learning all about
• 36:21
  those guys. And then I did a jumps video
• 36:29
  because I've also worked with a long jumpers and high jumpers
• 36:31
  and stuff. And that's when boo kind of came
• 36:33
  into the The fold into into my knowledge.
• 36:36
  You know, we're like everybody. I had no idea how to pronounce
• 36:38
  his name and I was like, okay but that's fine.
• 36:40
  I was like you know listen to his videos and stuff.
• 36:43
  I was like man this guy really knows his stuff and You know, so
• 36:48
  I did a bunch of those. I think us tfcc a, at that point
• 36:52
  had started, their like course is as well.
• 36:55
  So I did like their technical one but it was that stage of my
• 36:59
  career where I was just pulling in as much information as I
• 37:02
  possibly could like way too much information, you know, a loved
• 37:06
  one of the joys of the podcast is learning stories, like yours
• 37:11
  all the way up, to learning the stories and the journeys of
• 37:15
  gentleman, like, Boo schexnayder, right hook I've
• 37:17
  been friends with forever but to hear another shout-out, another
• 37:20
  Gil podcast, Alum, to hear his journey.
• 37:23
  It's quite amazing. And so, you know, it's it kind
• 37:26
  of struck me as you were talking about, you know, the influence
• 37:28
  of Abu and Latif and Dan path, you know, one of the joys of my
• 37:33
  life here is the podcast host. Is, I was able to kind of
• 37:37
  represent guys. Like you too boo.
• 37:40
  Like I told booze, like, hey, you know, I represent thousands
• 37:42
  of people that will never be able to say, thank you that
• 37:45
  whenever they just did. Real to find you or they still
• 37:48
  have the nerves or whatever to see as I represent.
• 37:51
  A lot of people that you changed our lives.
• 37:53
  You changed our for me, changed my coaching life.
• 37:57
  So in and I think I wonder sometimes when I'm telling like
• 38:00
  Abu that I'm under features like that's really nice because it's
• 38:04
  being recorded whatever. Mike and it's like yeah it's
• 38:06
  like oh wait no actually boo look I'm recording a guy that I
• 38:09
  represent this guy when I told you boo, what an influence you
• 38:13
  you have over people because the way you teach everything, and
• 38:16
  then of course, Dan pass. If which I think, I might let
• 38:20
  the cat out of the bag here on your episode here.
• 38:22
  Connor. So Dan path, who was booze
• 38:25
  Mentor, which blew me away, I had no idea about that.
• 38:29
  Dan is actually so you're kind of getting inside knowledge here
• 38:32
  Connor. Dan is going to kick off season
• 38:35
  for for the Gil connections podcast.
• 38:37
  So January 2nd, will be our first episode of Season 4.
• 38:40
  That'll be a Monday, of course. Because that's when we publish
• 38:43
  our episodes here and Dan path is the, he's the guest man.
• 38:47
  So If you like I don't follow that.
• 38:50
  Yeah, yeah. You're warm up leading up to.
• 38:53
  Yeah, that's fine. That's fine.
• 38:54
  Yeah, so if you, you know, you name three, incredibly amazing
• 39:00
  gentleman. But to me in this sport, amazing
• 39:03
  teachers. So, Latif Thomas again, if you
• 39:06
  haven't listened to his episode, please go back into the archives
• 39:09
  and look up for Latif Thomas. He's amazing.
• 39:12
  Boo schexnayder still, or I should say still Rose quickly
• 39:15
  and has remained our number One episode ever.
• 39:18
  So 180 something episodes and boo is not only number one, but
• 39:24
  let me tell you there's a, there's a gap between number one
• 39:27
  and number two. And number two is amazing, by
• 39:28
  the way. So yeah.
• 39:30
  So it tells you what boo and then Dan the great damn path.
• 39:32
  Will be January 2nd, 2023, man. I really don't know what year it
• 39:37
  is. That's quite amazing.
• 39:39
  It's that time it says time where we just lose track and we.
• 39:43
  So our fiscal year is October 1, so we're in, you know, According
• 39:47
  to November we're into our second month of our next year
• 39:51
  2023. So we say 2023, even though the
• 39:53
  calendar outside and I'm not that bright, you know.
• 39:55
  I went to California. Some, come on.
• 39:57
  I wanna see you. I just said I went to
• 39:59
  California, Alabama. My wife just left the California
• 40:02
  today. I'm a record today, Connor.
• 40:04
  All right. Look, my wife left me for the
• 40:06
  games that take care of exactly gonna work.
• 40:09
  It's a lot. Hey, it's hard.
• 40:11
  When the Superstar leaves know it.
• 40:13
  She left a day to go visit her brother and his wife in
• 40:16
  California so she's gone. Until Sunday.
• 40:18
  So you know we have a almost 12 year old and nine year old.
• 40:22
  I looked at her, I was like, so it's my responsibility to keep
• 40:24
  them alive because that's what you've been doing.
• 40:27
  That's like you really did you leave notes.
• 40:29
  You know. Yeah.
• 40:30
  I was like you either really, really trust me or you're not as
• 40:35
  smart as I thought you were because you're leaving them with
• 40:37
  me so not good. Our this goes to trust.
• 40:41
  Yeah. Yeah well it's not a again
• 40:44
  sometimes I'm you know, we've been married for, you know,
• 40:46
  going on. 14 years, 13 years now and every day.
• 40:49
  I'm just like, wow, you're still here.
• 40:51
  Like that's that's amazing. It's so nice.
• 40:52
  That you you still want to be with me.
• 40:54
  It's great. All right.
• 40:56
  Connor Kayla. No good.
• 40:59
  Yeah, no. It's good to have a feeling
• 41:00
  that, I mean, I do feel that way and I feel like that even after
• 41:03
  14, 15 years of marriage, it's probably gonna feel like that
• 41:05
  even more. So you just sit back sometimes,
• 41:08
  you're like, man, you continue to trust me to be together after
• 41:12
  all these times it's because, you know, we at least me, I do
• 41:15
  dumb things. So I try to attract.
• 41:18
  Yeah, it's give extra, I'm all over the place.
• 41:22
  Terrible job with you. Connor, please forgive me.
• 41:25
  We're going to do better here as we move forward.
• 41:27
  Okay, so I lost track. Where are we?
• 41:29
  I know you're coaching Sprints and hurdles and jumps.
• 41:33
  Where are we? What physical studies,
• 41:36
  Southington high school. So that's, yeah, that's where I
• 41:38
  spent. I spent eight years there and I
• 41:42
  was fully set on being there for forever.
• 41:45
  And and coo currently, In physics or chemistry?
• 41:50
  No nope no teaching or anything like that, I never ended up
• 41:53
  getting a teaching degree. I think from like 2015, I was
• 41:58
  yeah, 2015 to like 20 20, I was a personal trainer, so I was
• 42:03
  working at a gym and so that was my, that was my day job.
• 42:07
  I would train clients from 5 a.m. to 1 p.m. and then I would
• 42:12
  have like an hour for lunch and then go to practice from 225.
• 42:15
  Now, I did Similar. I was a personal trainer at a
• 42:20
  gym in Chicago and coached high school track in the afternoons
• 42:25
  and that's its own like that's an interesting career path.
• 42:29
  Did you mean you do that for quite a while to was there ever
• 42:32
  a thought like hey this is really why I went to go study
• 42:35
  extra science. I'm going to be a personal
• 42:37
  trainer so I got to be honest. It general population was fun
• 42:42
  and you know obviously I worked with some really great people
• 42:46
  but it just In challenge me enough because a lot of the
• 42:50
  commonalities that came into the people that are dealing with it
• 42:54
  was there people that just, you know, we're not active.
• 42:57
  So it was just getting them more active.
• 42:58
  It was people that were getting a little bit older and they
• 43:01
  needed more flexibility, more strength training.
• 43:04
  I did have this one client for a number of years and then, even
• 43:07
  after I left, this this curtain Jim, and I started my own
• 43:10
  business, I continue to train him and this man, he came to me
• 43:14
  at age 70 and was, you know, acting like He was the frailest
• 43:18
  little man ever. But he Rick, was it rick Lawson,
• 43:22
  that's his name. Don't forget.
• 43:23
  He an incredible man. He plays like 36 holes of golf a
• 43:28
  week walks every one of them and he does it.
• 43:33
  He's been doing it every year since he was like 30, but he he
• 43:38
  challenged me because you know, typically when you get a client
• 43:41
  that's in their 70s, you know, your first thought is not going
• 43:44
  to be all right. Heavy deadlifts squats, you all
• 43:45
  that stuff. Is it shouldn't be It's usually
• 43:48
  like Mobility flexibility, General strength training, you
• 43:51
  know, probably dealing with some arthritis and stuff, but he came
• 43:54
  in and I swear his legs did not exist in this plane.
• 43:57
  They belong to the gods. He was the strongest man I've
• 44:01
  ever met. He, he could leg press, like,
• 44:04
  400 something pounds. Do problem deadlift, we got up
• 44:07
  to 300. Yeah, this guy, this guy pushed
• 44:11
  pushed me as a coach and entering 70 years old.
• 44:14
  So for his 74th birthday, he I wanted to deadlift 300 pounds.
• 44:20
  So we worked our way, we got him there, and he did it with
• 44:23
  Immaculate form, like and no, at no point.
• 44:25
  Was, I worried for him at no point.
• 44:27
  Was like my boss worried of like, oh man, this guy's gonna
• 44:30
  hurt himself. Like he was doing lunges with,
• 44:32
  like 50 pound. Dumbbells with no problem.
• 44:34
  Like, if I had film of it, he would have been trending on like
• 44:38
  on Tick-Tock and Instagram and stuff.
• 44:40
  Yeah, like you always see those people, he is a machine amazing.
• 44:44
  This is those are the Unicorn type of people.
• 44:47
  Like it also kind of makes you wonder is like oh well are all
• 44:50
  people supposed to be like that at 70?
• 44:51
  Like in, you know, just in general.
• 44:52
  You talk about general population.
• 44:53
  Are we just like, normally like I'm old so I'm going to sit on
• 44:55
  the couch. I'm 46 and I sit on the couch,
• 44:57
  so I could, I'm 31 and I said, I'm the gas yet.
• 45:00
  It is amazing. So that didn't kind of spark the
• 45:04
  the juices, so to speak but coaching, and interestingly
• 45:09
  coaching things that are outside of your natural realm.
• 45:11
  Meaning you are a distance Runner by trade and here you are
• 45:15
  doing sprints and jumps in hurdles.
• 45:17
  Yeah. So like I mentioned yeah general
• 45:21
  population was fine but it was really like that was my paycheck
• 45:24
  coaching at the high school at Southern 10 and working with
• 45:27
  athletes and stuff. That was that was my hobby.
• 45:30
  That was my passion. That's what I loved.
• 45:32
  And like you know yeah you get a little stipend at the end of the
• 45:34
  year or whatever. But you know that basically just
• 45:37
  went to loan payments for school but it was that's where like my
• 45:42
  my mind was really challenged and you know, like some people
• 45:45
  do Sudoku like my wife. Are you sure that she just
• 45:48
  that's like, Sudoku and puzzles and like, for like 30 minutes
• 45:51
  every day. And for me, it's how can I
• 45:54
  tinker and make my coaching better?
• 45:56
  How can I make the workouts better?
• 45:58
  Like, what can I learn from like?
• 46:00
  And that's what I was truly, really passionate about doing.
• 46:04
  I was fortunate that my boss at the time.
• 46:08
  She was really, really open to Bringing students in, and
• 46:11
  athletes in and stuff like that. So, during the summer, I would
• 46:13
  run like an athlete camp and everything out of the gym.
• 46:15
  And, you know, because Why wouldn't she want more people
• 46:18
  coming in and, you know, paying money and stuff like that, but
• 46:21
  it was great because I got to, you know, continuously work with
• 46:24
  with students even though we were out of season.
• 46:26
  So it's great. What did you see?
• 46:28
  I know you didn't necessarily have distance, running coaching
• 46:33
  training background at this point but you had experienced
• 46:36
  you done. A lot of work out seeing a lot
• 46:38
  of different workouts, you've volunteered for different
• 46:41
  coaches. So you saw different things.
• 46:43
  What commonalities again, we don't get an X's and O's but
• 46:46
  with that, A background going into a learning how to coach
• 46:50
  Sprint, Champs and hurdles, were there any commonalities at all
• 46:53
  or was it because you know, you mentioned the old.
• 46:55
  You know, 200 meter repeats, just kind of a you know it's
• 46:58
  funny that you said that that's how I used to recruit.
• 47:00
  When I recruited sprinters I be like hey what's a speed day and
• 47:02
  if they told me like, repeat 200, so I'm like, well let's go
• 47:04
  because you ain't doing speed. So will I get you?
• 47:07
  I get the same thing now. So what were there, any
• 47:10
  commonalities and maybe it's not X's and O's and more it's like
• 47:13
  attitude and you know leadership and work out Between the kids.
• 47:19
  Yeah, you know, I think you kind of touched on it.
• 47:22
  It definitely wasn't necessarily about the X's and O's, you know,
• 47:25
  a lot of the kids that I was getting soccer, was a really is
• 47:29
  really big in southern sand, and a lot of the kids that I
• 47:32
  beginning for track, we're also soccer players.
• 47:34
  So, during the indoor season, I was a head voice coach during
• 47:37
  the outdoor season, I was ahead, girls coach, and then Dan and I
• 47:41
  would flip flop but it was the soccer players that were coming
• 47:46
  to me as sir. Jurors, who just getting them to
• 47:50
  understand the idea that like three to five to six to ten
• 47:54
  minutes of rest based on whatever workout we're doing.
• 47:57
  That's okay. Like it's a normal thing.
• 48:00
  So, with the distance Runners, though it, you know they're very
• 48:03
  used to like 90 second rest to minute rest to rest but whenever
• 48:08
  I would get like some 800 kids other kind of drop down to the
• 48:10
  400 and they get all this rest. It was I use that term but it's
• 48:15
  like it was crazy how different Current the worlds were and how
• 48:19
  they all kind of appreciated being able to move at that
• 48:22
  faster speed. So like even our distance kids
• 48:24
  would do, you know, flying 30s and stuff like that or, you
• 48:27
  know, 80 meter repeats at, you know, higher intensity and
• 48:30
  stuff. Obviously, it was all relative,
• 48:33
  but that would just be something that they would kind of touch on
• 48:35
  like, get that energy system going.
• 48:38
  And that's why Dan. He was, he a great coach.
• 48:42
  We had, we had a lot of success him and I together, I think we
• 48:45
  broke like 58. Records or something like that
• 48:48
  between the indoor and outdoor season.
• 48:50
  So it was, it was pretty great. Tell me more about things.
• 48:53
  I was going to be my next question.
• 48:55
  You mentioned 58 school records? So their success what success
• 48:58
  is, did you have on the high school level there?
• 49:01
  So, in that first year, that day and I took over, we sent our
• 49:05
  first group to Nationals. So we had a relay like a Sprint
• 49:11
  medley relay that went. And then basically, every year
• 49:14
  after that, we send them in for kids to Oils as either relays or
• 49:18
  individuals. And so those are obviously
• 49:21
  successes. We went from kind of a bottom of
• 49:25
  the conference team to, you know, kind of working our way
• 49:27
  up. And then for like 3 or straight
• 49:29
  we won the conference meet. And if you know anything about
• 49:34
  Connecticut, there's a couple of teams that are like in every
• 49:37
  state of they're just like the perennial Powerhouse schools
• 49:40
  will, two of them are directly always within the same
• 49:43
  conferences us. So it was like you could win
• 49:45
  your state, meet the lose your conference meet.
• 49:47
  Because they were in a different division, but, you know.
• 49:52
  So 2018 was kind of like the, the big year.
• 49:55
  So we won the Connecticut state open, which is like the biggest
• 50:01
  meet in Connecticut and we did with five girls all field
• 50:05
  events. So we had a pole vaulter who
• 50:08
  once you jump like 12:3 or something like that, we had a
• 50:12
  shot putter. And discus, thrower, the same
• 50:15
  girl chat and disc. She won both of those.
• 50:17
  And then we had a girl that one Javelin.
• 50:19
  And I think we had our fifth Girl place like fourth or
• 50:23
  something like that. So she got a couple of points
• 50:24
  and we be out this the Sprint program, Bloomfield High School
• 50:29
  which is one other state titles. Yeah, then Connecticut in
• 50:32
  Connecticut history they're credible and so we beat them out
• 50:36
  by like two points with like the lowest-scoring state meet in
• 50:39
  history while. Yeah.
• 50:40
  So that was pretty incredible invention.
• 50:43
  And because you said there was two historical Bloomfield, when
• 50:46
  he said that. I remembered that one.
• 50:47
  What's the other one? Glastonbury High School is
• 50:50
  another, really big one. Danbury is another really big
• 50:53
  one. It might be another state up
• 50:54
  there. I thought there was like, a
• 50:56
  Academy like me as a lot of it might be New Jersey.
• 51:01
  I'm thinking of like the bunch of tasks fleets of come out of
• 51:03
  there. There's always good athletes.
• 51:05
  I might be getting Jersey mixed up from Alabama.
• 51:08
  So up in New England, it's like New York.
• 51:10
  It's like all one blue. Yeah, it's all rusted.
• 51:13
  So what have a little bit of experience with this?
• 51:16
  What were some of the challenges of being a high school coach who
• 51:21
  wasn't a high school teacher? If anything, I think it actually
• 51:27
  was a benefit to me, you know, I know a lot of coaches that you
• 51:30
  do teach and everything like that and that, you know, they're
• 51:32
  pulling kids out of the hallway and, you know, and all of that
• 51:34
  stuff. But for me, it was the kids that
• 51:38
  wanted, you know, the kids that knew me obviously, on the team,
• 51:40
  I think between the guys and the girls.
• 51:42
  Yeah, we're fortunate to be one of the biggest schools in the
• 51:45
  state. So we had about 200, kids total
• 51:47
  on the team. And, you know, it was one of
• 51:51
  those things where we just kind of built up the events and
• 51:53
  characters Kids brought their friends and you know, they had a
• 51:56
  great experience and that's what Dan and I were like.
• 51:59
  We're really all about was making making a great
• 52:01
  experience. You know, he I forget the name
• 52:05
  of the the Oregon agency that he works for, but he works with
• 52:08
  they put on like the Boston boost meats and the New Balance
• 52:11
  Indoor Grand Prix and stuff like that.
• 52:13
  And so he's all about, you know, the experience.
• 52:17
  Making sure everybody gets like the best of the best, and he
• 52:20
  really helped grow a lot of that.
• 52:22
  And that's what helped kind of had a Into our program and just
• 52:26
  getting those kids out, helped pull their friends in and then
• 52:31
  it just kind of kept growing and growing and growing.
• 52:32
  So we didn't really need to be in the school.
• 52:35
  You know, healthy things grow. So to hear, you know, 200
• 52:38
  between boys and girls. That's that's a lot.
• 52:40
  That's amazing. It was a lot.
• 52:44
  How do you have any coaches? Did you have?
• 52:45
  And how did you end up splitting up duties there?
• 52:48
  So we had most of the time five coaches.
• 52:56
  Only, I think three of them were paid so we typically have like
• 52:59
  two volunteers or we would like split stipends and stuff like
• 53:02
  that and you know that it was agreed upon and it was really
• 53:06
  just people were really excited to be a part of like what we
• 53:09
  were doing and growing and everything like that.
• 53:11
  And then like I said, that all culminated and 2018 with our
• 53:15
  first school championship and, you know, it's definitely not a
• 53:18
  A road that we couldn't have gotten to even with the help of
• 53:21
  other coaches. You know.
• 53:23
  I learned a lot from he's actually Bloomfield throws coach
• 53:27
  but coach country or Damien Larkins is name.
• 53:30
  But coach country as everybody in the throes world knows him.
• 53:33
  I mean what he did for our throwers was was Monumental.
• 53:38
  I mean, yeah, we had a time where we didn't have a thirst
• 53:41
  coach at all and he was like, yeah, send him up.
• 53:44
  Send him up my way, you know. So he runs then coaches.
• 53:46
  I mean, you could probably look back.
• 53:48
  Can pass like decade and he's probably coach. 80% of like the
• 53:53
  top three throwers in the state of Connecticut in any event
• 53:57
  because people just blood to him because he's a great personality
• 54:00
  but he's incredibly knowledge knowledgeable and you know he
• 54:04
  really gets people results but he was just open and he was
• 54:08
  like, yeah of course, I'll help you know, they didn't even ask
• 54:11
  Larry, you know, ask anything from us in return and you know,
• 54:15
  and we have a community like I'm sure many people have wood pole
• 54:18
  vault is that you know, not a lot of coaches know how to coach
• 54:21
  pole vault. So we We had to sometimes send
• 54:23
  our kids out to another coach like for an indoor facility to
• 54:27
  jump at or to get poles or to ask questions and that's one of
• 54:30
  the things that I really loved about.
• 54:32
  Like you said, the connections side of this podcast is, you
• 54:35
  know, the relationships that we got to build with other coaches
• 54:37
  as well to help our program. You know, they weren't worried
• 54:40
  about oh and the competition like we couldn't possibly help
• 54:43
  our competitors. Right?
• 54:44
  I can't imagine a school setting their pictures to another school
• 54:48
  and their league or stay to help out or there.
• 54:52
  Quarterbacks I'll go to, you know, someone in their County.
• 54:56
  Like it'd be like no way man. You deal with your own exactly
• 54:59
  what? Selflessness that those coach
• 55:02
  country and some of the pole vault people and others.
• 55:05
  I'm sure expressed it to help out not just you but other
• 55:08
  schools and kids as well quite amazing.
• 55:11
  Yeah, I know, it's pretty great. I mean I think one of the
• 55:13
  benefits of Connecticut being, you know, smaller state is that,
• 55:17
  you know, there's only a couple of venues that are hosting
• 55:19
  meetings and stuff like that and you know, so we're all
• 55:21
  constantly there. And we're always seeing it and
• 55:24
  you know, at the high school level which I and I actually had
• 55:27
  almost any level, it's not about us, right?
• 55:30
  Like it's about it's about the athletes and the majority of the
• 55:35
  coaches that I was fortunate enough to get to know we're very
• 55:38
  long that along that mindset, they were definitely about, you
• 55:41
  know, putting a an athlete forward coaching model together,
• 55:46
  which is something that, you know, I'm very big fan of and
• 55:49
  it's been great. That's amazing.
• 55:51
  So, You are having the success in high school and you're doing
• 55:55
  it for quite a while here. Now not just a one or two-year
• 55:58
  kind of thing. Dots of coaching college or were
• 56:02
  you on just a good path and just wanted to keep coaching High
• 56:05
  School? Yeah, I mean, so in 2020, you
• 56:09
  know, the pandemic starts and I had already been planning to
• 56:15
  leave the gym that I was working at and open up my own gym or
• 56:18
  open up my own business. At least so June 2020.
• 56:21
  I start that I'm still coaching at Southington.
• 56:24
  I started green light Sports Performance started in the
• 56:27
  middle of the paint. Not even the middle, the
• 56:29
  beginning of the pandemic bravo bravo or not great business
• 56:34
  advice. Yeah so the banks would agree
• 56:37
  with that now but now there's one of those things where it was
• 56:40
  right as like some of the like the outside mandates and stuff
• 56:46
  in Connecticut we're getting lifted and you know you could do
• 56:49
  training and stuff outside. So I was I was cool.
• 56:51
  I was right, you know. I didn't need equipment because
• 56:54
  there's a lot of like speed agility and track and field
• 56:56
  coaching and stuff like that. And yes, I did that a lot during
• 57:01
  summer. I work with teams at the high
• 57:02
  school. I was fortunate that because I
• 57:04
  was a coach, I got to use the facilities for free, most people
• 57:10
  would have to pee, but I had been there long enough and they
• 57:12
  knew me and they you know, knew that I was helping their
• 57:15
  athletes and they were like yeah it's fine but then I ended up
• 57:21
  getting an indoor space as well. Well, and so I was I was said I
• 57:25
  was like we're going to be running sudden high school.
• 57:28
  I'm gonna be running my business.
• 57:29
  This is life. College coaching and always been
• 57:34
  something I've thought about, you know, never experiencing it
• 57:37
  and really only experience in college athletics for one year.
• 57:40
  You know, the Grass Is Always Greener kind of deal.
• 57:42
  It's like man that that sounds amazing full-time pay and
• 57:46
  getting the coach track and field full-time, that sounds
• 57:49
  amazing. And now that I'm in it, it is
• 57:52
  pretty full full disclosure. I love it.
• 57:55
  But, you know, so how I ended up at the University of Hartford
• 57:59
  was in 2021 Well, in 2019, we were going to win another state.
• 58:06
  Champions are 2020. We're going to win another state
• 58:08
  championship and I knew it. We had an incredible incredible
• 58:14
  roster and then the pandemic happen.
• 58:17
  So I'll just put an asterisk on that, but not the first time
• 58:21
  you've heard it, not the first time, the last time you're going
• 58:23
  to hear it, but I think we were going.
• 58:26
  So my wife's family is from Michigan, the Upper Peninsula of
• 58:29
  Michigan. And so we go there every summer
• 58:31
  and I think it was like three days before we were going.
• 58:36
  So this is August 20, 21 now and again, email just like one of
• 58:42
  those like job posting ones from the University of Hartford.
• 58:45
  It said, you know, in term track and field coach.
• 58:47
  And I was like, that's weird because I actually been sending
• 58:51
  athletes to Stacy our head coach, and sending athletes to
• 58:55
  the University of Hartford for years.
• 58:57
  And I actually currently have three Southern 10 athletes on
• 59:01
  the roster at the University of Hartford, which Great.
• 59:04
  And I've coached all three of them directly so.
• 59:07
  But you know, so I have known safety for a couple years, you
• 59:10
  know, I emailed her and I was like, Hey, like I saw this
• 59:12
  posting, you know, do you have somebody in mind like this is
• 59:16
  just a courtesy post or anything and she was like, well, no, I
• 59:21
  didn't even know that posting had come out yet, but you should
• 59:24
  totally apply. So there, the jumps coach Dan
• 59:28
  Johnson, incredible guy, he, he's a great, great coach.
• 59:33
  Ouch, he's up at the University of Buffalo now but so he moved
• 59:36
  on and they had this opening first prince jumps and hurdles
• 59:39
  and so I applied and you know, and obviously yeah, I think I
• 59:43
  did okay in the interview and, you know, Stacy gave me an
• 59:46
  opportunity and it's been pretty awesome.
• 59:50
  I mean, ultimately this is a story of a distance Runner who
• 59:53
  becomes a Sprint Turtles guy man, what that's improbable.
• 59:58
  It's not supposed to happen. Have you met before?
• 1:00:00
  There's a lot of continuing at in there.
• 1:00:02
  Yeah. Well Thank goodness.
• 1:00:03
  Right. I mean because because there's
• 1:00:05
  two ways of doing it one is to say yeah we're going to get us
• 1:00:09
  fit as possible and do the repeat twos and fours and all
• 1:00:12
  that kind of stuff. And then there's the okay.
• 1:00:14
  I got to go learn this thing. So what are the resources out
• 1:00:16
  there? Do usatf?
• 1:00:18
  He's us tfcc a Altis etcetera. So I'm very glad you took the
• 1:00:22
  ladder path by the way. So yeah, definitely Thor your
• 1:00:25
  athletes. But by the way, they're the ones
• 1:00:27
  that are really benefit from it. Have you met?
• 1:00:30
  You know, as you, you know, finishing up your first year
• 1:00:33
  Going into your second year of college coaching, have you met
• 1:00:35
  many people like you people that were distance Runners who are
• 1:00:38
  now successful Sprints and hurdles and jumps coaches?
• 1:00:42
  Not not many. Now it's, it's not that it's
• 1:00:46
  uncommon, you know, there's always that stereotype of, like
• 1:00:49
  the distance Runner that turns, you know, coach and everything.
• 1:00:53
  But I have found that, you know, at least in college, a lot of
• 1:00:57
  the kids are a lot of the coaches.
• 1:00:59
  You know, that's what they did in college that that was their,
• 1:01:02
  their background that they followed.
• 1:01:04
  The then went like the g a router volunteer, coach route
• 1:01:07
  and kind of kept going, you know.
• 1:01:09
  I think that there's absolutely people out there.
• 1:01:13
  Yeah, learned and grew in, you learned in those events and
• 1:01:16
  everything, you know, I think that like most head coaches I
• 1:01:19
  would say probably know at least a little bit about every event
• 1:01:22
  group, right, really? Yeah.
• 1:01:24
  But that's what I would expect and having gone through like
• 1:01:30
  learn how to coach Sprint's jump hurdles.
• 1:01:32
  I was actually our throats Coquette Southington for the
• 1:01:33
  last two years there and you know, not to my own horn but
• 1:01:38
  we're pretty good, had a bunch of really, really good.
• 1:01:42
  Javelin girls, what top three in the state two years in a row.
• 1:01:47
  And so I learned all the events and so I was like well, it would
• 1:01:51
  only make sense to learn more about all the events so I did
• 1:01:54
  like the multi specialist. I did the throw specialist'
• 1:01:58
  certifications through the, u.s. tfcc, a all, this has put out,
• 1:02:04
  like you said, some incredible stuff.
• 1:02:05
  I mean they cover every event group.
• 1:02:07
  So I have done all of those and, you know, I don't feel like me
• 1:02:11
  not. Being in that event group as an
• 1:02:14
  athlete has a limited me in any way.
• 1:02:17
  So let's we're going to play both sides of this coin.
• 1:02:20
  Let's start with the fun side. So there's many, many High
• 1:02:22
  School coaches out there that either want to coach college or
• 1:02:28
  and I mean this sincerely think they want to coach College.
• 1:02:32
  We'll get to that part on the other side here.
• 1:02:34
  What have been some of the. As as you said you wanted to
• 1:02:38
  your second year here. What have been some of the
• 1:02:39
  positives? Like man, I did not.
• 1:02:42
  Not know, X, Y and Z was going to happen.
• 1:02:44
  This is amazing. What are some good things not
• 1:02:47
  saying that, you know, high schools lower just you know, the
• 1:02:49
  transition from high school to college, would have been some
• 1:02:51
  just, you know, really positive things that stand out to you.
• 1:02:55
  I think group size is definitely one of the biggest things.
• 1:02:58
  And, you know, like I said, we had like, 200 kids at
• 1:03:02
  Southington, but my group. Now, Sprint, jump Charles we
• 1:03:06
  have about 30 kids, so, you know, working that out that used
• 1:03:10
  to just be like the short, Screw like just one group but now, you
• 1:03:14
  know, that now it's all of them. So I'm able to actually like
• 1:03:17
  really give better feedback, which is what I've always liked
• 1:03:20
  strive to be able to do, you know, more personalized
• 1:03:23
  workouts, you know, being able to like actually sit down.
• 1:03:27
  I do monthly meetings with our athletes, where we meet could be
• 1:03:31
  one minute could be 30 minutes. It's whatever they need.
• 1:03:33
  You know, they get the allotted time just check in with them.
• 1:03:37
  And it's like, it's not like I don't see them every day, but,
• 1:03:40
  you know, we meet monthly to just kind of talk.
• 1:03:42
  And see how things are going. You know, I asked for like I
• 1:03:45
  said, I'm very student-athlete LED in this coaching philosophy.
• 1:03:50
  So it's a lot about what they want to get out of it.
• 1:03:53
  And I think that's something that I wasn't always able to do
• 1:03:55
  with the high school level, just because of the sheer numbers,
• 1:03:58
  the limited amount of practice time.
• 1:04:01
  But yeah, it's been pretty great.
• 1:04:04
  Tell me more about that because, you know, like we've said here,
• 1:04:07
  repeatedly now, you know, we don't talk X's and O's, but I'm
• 1:04:09
  interested in that relationship between Coach and athlete.
• 1:04:12
  What are, what are you hoping to get out of those tight?
• 1:04:15
  You said monthly meetings, what are you hoping to get out of
• 1:04:18
  those meetings and what have you seen the athletes do get out of
• 1:04:22
  those meetings? So a lot of the times and this
• 1:04:26
  kind of goes back to one of the, you know, we haven't gotten to
• 1:04:28
  the negative side or the bad side difference.
• 1:04:31
  Is it's coming? No, I know.
• 1:04:33
  But this kind of leads into it is that these student athletes
• 1:04:37
  are in a completely different world than where they were even
• 1:04:40
  from freshman year to senior year of high school, right?
• 1:04:42
  Like so freshman in college senior high school completely
• 1:04:46
  different. So my biggest thing, especially
• 1:04:48
  with our freshmen is, you know, do I want them to, you know,
• 1:04:51
  perform. Well athletically, of course
• 1:04:52
  like, you know, As a coach, of course, I want that for them.
• 1:04:55
  But, you know, I want to make sure that they're eating that
• 1:04:57
  they're sleeping that they're drinking water that they're
• 1:04:59
  going to class at their, you know, making friends that they
• 1:05:03
  aren't homesick because when all of those things are taken care
• 1:05:06
  of. Yeah, the athletic piece comes
• 1:05:08
  and I'm not worried about that but I think a lot of times they
• 1:05:11
  come in with this notion of being so overwhelmed because of
• 1:05:16
  the transition of moving on your own own schedule harder classes.
• 1:05:23
  I mean, just my freshman, you know, a lot of high, school,
• 1:05:26
  warm-ups and stuff, typically aren't that long, our warm-up
• 1:05:30
  could be 40, 45 minutes, sometimes, depending on the work
• 1:05:32
  out and that alone gassed, some of these kids like they won.
• 1:05:37
  So, it's even just that can be kind of a shock for them and
• 1:05:41
  just constantly giving them an opportunity to voice their,
• 1:05:44
  their feelings, their opinions, you know, their challenges even
• 1:05:47
  if they don't necessarily have them.
• 1:05:50
  But just giving them that opportunity I think has been
• 1:05:52
  really, really great. Wait for me because, you know,
• 1:05:55
  I'm sure there's things, I don't know.
• 1:05:56
  But, you know, I like to assume that they're being as open and
• 1:05:59
  honest with me because I'm always open and honest with
• 1:06:01
  them, you mention the kind of trials and tribulations that
• 1:06:05
  they're going through is college freshman, you know, scheduling
• 1:06:08
  on their own etcetera. If I remember correctly, you
• 1:06:10
  kind of have some experience with that yourself.
• 1:06:13
  Are you able to use that in some kind of counseling form to the
• 1:06:16
  freshmen? Yeah.
• 1:06:18
  It's and it's not even something that I wasn't using as a high
• 1:06:22
  school coach and everything to and You know, it's it's that a
• 1:06:26
  choices make, you know, our outcomes either positive or
• 1:06:30
  negative, right? And that's where this open
• 1:06:33
  Community line of communication is, you know, because I built
• 1:06:35
  this relationship with them where I can say like, listen,
• 1:06:37
  like you not going to class may not seem like a big deal right
• 1:06:40
  now but you don't know what you ten years from now is going to
• 1:06:43
  be thinking about it. Are you five years from now or
• 1:06:45
  anything? And you know, a lot of times if
• 1:06:47
  you don't have that relationship it can come off poor and You
• 1:06:53
  know, it's not like day one, I'm coming in with, you know, the
• 1:06:56
  Deep like heavy, heavy heavy stuff, but it takes time and I,
• 1:07:01
  they deserve honesty because, you know, like everybody, we all
• 1:07:05
  deserve honesty. And I think that's probably the
• 1:07:08
  biggest difference that I've been able to notice is that the
• 1:07:11
  transition from eighteen nineteen, twenty Twenty-One even
• 1:07:15
  our seniors you know they take a lot of them now.
• 1:07:18
  Take full advantage of our meetings, you know it's good
• 1:07:21
  because they'll tell me, you know, the fun things that are
• 1:07:22
  happening in their lives. Jobs and what not.
• 1:07:24
  But or if they like, did bad on exam and they don't feel like
• 1:07:28
  they're going to get punished for it because I've tried to
• 1:07:30
  create a safe space for them, where, you know, they can kind
• 1:07:33
  of, you know, voice, what's going on in their lives and
• 1:07:36
  without fear of repercussion or anything like that.
• 1:07:39
  Because I was going to ask you brought up there just little
• 1:07:40
  bit. So I want to continue that
• 1:07:42
  little bit. Do you see those meetings?
• 1:07:44
  Getting more enriching as they move from frost too soft, to
• 1:07:48
  Junior and senior in kind of add-on question.
• 1:07:50
  That is this and maybe you have And said this out loud to
• 1:07:54
  yourself, but is this a way of of garnering trust from them?
• 1:07:59
  You know, we've heard the old adage of if athlete trust their
• 1:08:03
  coach, you know, the it almost doesn't matter, very
• 1:08:06
  oversimplification here. It doesn't matter what the
• 1:08:08
  workouts are, you know, to trust in the coach and the in the
• 1:08:13
  philosophy of training is Paramount.
• 1:08:17
  So do you use? So have you seen a transition in
• 1:08:20
  the depth and enrichment of those meetings?
• 1:08:23
  As they've gone along and do you use, is this kind of a way of
• 1:08:26
  garnering, trust from them in the academic and athletic areas.
• 1:08:33
  Yeah. Sorry, my internet connection is
• 1:08:35
  a little unstable. Hopefully, we'll fix.
• 1:08:37
  Hopefully, it sticks in itself. But yeah, I mean so one of the
• 1:08:41
  biggest things that yeah I was at the same school for years,
• 1:08:44
  right? So, it's like, at that point,
• 1:08:45
  you've kind of built up this this reputation and, you know,
• 1:08:49
  people know who you are. You don't have to like
• 1:08:52
  reintroduce yourself every time, but, you know, now, I was moving
• 1:08:55
  into a new school, a new program, you know, at arguably a
• 1:09:00
  much higher level than what I previously.
• 1:09:02
  I was and, you know, I had to not only get these kids to trust
• 1:09:06
  that. What I was saying was going to
• 1:09:08
  be, you know, accurate and you know, the best things for them.
• 1:09:12
  But they had to also kind of buy into my new training system,
• 1:09:16
  right? Because we could have
• 1:09:18
  similarities because a lot of people do the same, you know,
• 1:09:22
  education stuff. But execution is everything and
• 1:09:27
  how I put our plans together and you know how that made it.
• 1:09:32
  From years past like my freshman didn't know anything different
• 1:09:35
  but sophomores juniors, seniors all of it was new right?
• 1:09:39
  And so getting them to buy in and Trust what I was saying, I
• 1:09:44
  couldn't imagine doing it any other way than face-to-face,
• 1:09:48
  meetings goal-setting, things like that and every year now,
• 1:09:53
  like the freshmen are still kind of hesitant because they like I
• 1:09:58
  know I say this a lot but they don't know what they don't know.
• 1:09:59
  Right? So they think that this first
• 1:10:01
  semester, ER is like the hardest thing that they've ever
• 1:10:03
  experienced, because workouts are hard, sleep, stuffy all
• 1:10:06
  those stuff but it was also because they didn't get to pick
• 1:10:10
  their schedule. So it's like now they get to
• 1:10:11
  pick their schedule for next semester and all the years after
• 1:10:14
  that you know, school still be tough.
• 1:10:17
  But life gets better, sophomores Juniors and seniors though
• 1:10:22
  they've been through it, they've been through the tough part.
• 1:10:24
  And yeah, I'm sure they still have ups and downs, but they can
• 1:10:27
  really kind of reflect a little bit more and get a little bit
• 1:10:30
  deeper. With their goals and what they
• 1:10:33
  want to get out of the year and stuff.
• 1:10:35
  So like when we do goal setting, I don't do like, yeah, we have
• 1:10:39
  performance goals and stuff like that.
• 1:10:41
  Like I have a general idea based on how they perform a practices
• 1:10:43
  of where I want them to be, but, you know, we do a small goal, a
• 1:10:47
  medium goal, and a large goal where that small goal is.
• 1:10:51
  You know, what can I leave the the year with feeling like okay,
• 1:10:54
  it wasn't everything I wanted but, you know, I accomplished
• 1:10:57
  it. Medium goal is, you know, the,
• 1:11:00
  the middle of the road goal where it's typically like, 01 a
• 1:11:02
  PR in this event or, you know, I want to get a GPA of three
• 1:11:07
  points. It based on where we're
• 1:11:09
  currently at realistically, what do we think?
• 1:11:11
  We can get kind of deal and that large goal is like stars.
• 1:11:14
  Align everything is perfect. You know what's that?
• 1:11:16
  Reach goal? One of my freshman was like, I
• 1:11:18
  want to break 20 and I was like 20 and what is like, $20, you
• 1:11:24
  want to break a 20? I got two times in my wallet
• 1:11:27
  now, but is he's like, okay, so it's not that large World got
• 1:11:30
  it, but Using those kind of goals, it's not just
• 1:11:34
  performance, like, I've got kids that are, like, I want to be a
• 1:11:37
  better teammate, or I want to get a GPA that is, you know,
• 1:11:41
  point to hire, or I just want to show up and be consistent.
• 1:11:45
  And that's not just freshman saying it's sophomores juniors,
• 1:11:47
  seniors, because they understand their workload.
• 1:11:50
  And they're, you know, what's happening with their lives right
• 1:11:52
  now. So they set more realistic
• 1:11:54
  things, and it's been really helpful, those are many, many
• 1:11:59
  positives, and obviously you're leading, I mean, that's what
• 1:12:01
  coaches do, right? R servant leaders we typically
• 1:12:04
  get into coaching because we want to serve others and we have
• 1:12:06
  a god-given skill to help lead people specifically young people
• 1:12:11
  which leadership is more valuable today than it's ever
• 1:12:15
  been. It's more needed than it's ever
• 1:12:16
  been. So I love those kind of
• 1:12:18
  leadership qualities that you're instilling into them as well.
• 1:12:21
  I mean those those kids are going to go on to become doctors
• 1:12:24
  business, owners moms and dads. They're going to use a lot of
• 1:12:28
  the experiences that you're giving them to help lead their
• 1:12:31
  families, their business. Is their business units.
• 1:12:33
  Etc. So, I love that you're in
• 1:12:35
  parking and them Beyond how to run faster in the hundred, how
• 1:12:38
  to jump farther in the triple jump.
• 1:12:40
  And that's that's a valuable reasons out there, right?
• 1:12:43
  Yeah. Like you said, it all lines up a
• 1:12:44
  little bit easier on that little slide and all this other stuff
• 1:12:46
  can can line up. Okay, well, we mentioned, you
• 1:12:49
  know, there's two sides to every coin, Connor in there may not be
• 1:12:52
  not. I know I'm putting you on the
• 1:12:54
  spot here but you know going from high school to college.
• 1:12:57
  It's not always, the grass is greener.
• 1:12:59
  On the other side. I thought, when I so I Stood out
• 1:13:02
  coaching high school and I wanted to coach College because
• 1:13:04
  I thought, oh man how easy would that be?
• 1:13:08
  You actually get to pick who you get on your team in high school.
• 1:13:12
  I'd get whoever comes out and you know, everybody who is
• 1:13:15
  coaching college and I was laugh at, you know, you kind of put a
• 1:13:17
  small. You're like, yeah, yeah.
• 1:13:19
  Yeah. You get to picture.
• 1:13:20
  Sure, buddy. Yeah.
• 1:13:21
  You think you're like that control?
• 1:13:23
  You got that control, right? So have you seen any experienced
• 1:13:28
  anything that's been I'll say a - but, you know, that can be a
• 1:13:31
  little harsh. Just some things you like oh you
• 1:13:33
  know what high school is a little better because we got to
• 1:13:35
  do X Y and Z here on this side or or not.
• 1:13:38
  I don't put any assumptions on the air.
• 1:13:41
  Honestly, I think you know University of Hartford has been
• 1:13:45
  pretty fantastic for me. You know, our head coach has
• 1:13:48
  been really, really supportive of our program in our growth.
• 1:13:52
  I mean, just that she say she's been Stacy went by the way.
• 1:13:56
  She's been pretty pretty influential in developing this
• 1:13:59
  program and really getting it to where we are.
• 1:14:02
  I think prior to her starting. No, athletes had gone to like,
• 1:14:05
  NCAA regionals or anything, like that.
• 1:14:08
  So she, she, she really taught me what it meant to be a
• 1:14:11
  recruiter and getting the right people on the campus.
• 1:14:15
  And the challenge with that, though is, you know, I like I
• 1:14:20
  said, I'm a very relationship-based person.
• 1:14:23
  So even during the recruiting process, you know, you're making
• 1:14:26
  phone calls, you're seeing them at open houses, you know, you're
• 1:14:29
  seeing them at their state championship meet you build
• 1:14:31
  these relationships, With the recruits and then all of a
• 1:14:34
  sudden it's like up just kidding.
• 1:14:35
  We're actually going elsewhere, sorry to see you later and it's,
• 1:14:39
  you know, that that stuff because ultimately I want what's
• 1:14:44
  best for them, you know, not what's best for me and because
• 1:14:47
  that was the mindset. I always had with with my high
• 1:14:49
  school athletes. As I was, I was trying to send
• 1:14:51
  them to the place that was the right fit for them, you know, I
• 1:14:53
  thought I'd actually or not. And so I kind of keep that same
• 1:14:56
  mentality with our recruits and once again, I am open.
• 1:14:59
  And I'm not like I'm, you know, I tell them I'm like, this is
• 1:15:02
  What to expect this is what its gonna be like for you and like
• 1:15:05
  if this is true, you feel like will be a good fit for you.
• 1:15:08
  Awesome, we'll take it, you know, I got I got no problems
• 1:15:11
  but then we say we get them and you know, as life happens, you
• 1:15:16
  know, people leave the team. You know, I was a prime example
• 1:15:18
  of that and we have some pretty demanding majors at our school.
• 1:15:23
  We have a couple of radiology, couple music programs, we have
• 1:15:26
  Prosthetics and Orthotics a lot of our engineering programs are
• 1:15:29
  really, really tough and schedules, just Come almost
• 1:15:33
  impossible. So the hardest thing I think for
• 1:15:36
  me is that you know you build these data day, you see them
• 1:15:41
  through their their hardest moments of practice.
• 1:15:43
  You know. You see them through the
• 1:15:44
  successes and then you know, they decide listen, I can't do
• 1:15:48
  this anymore School needs to come first and like, you can't
• 1:15:51
  be upset about that, because that's what they're here for.
• 1:15:54
  So it losing that day-to-day relationship can be really.
• 1:15:59
  I would say probably the hardest thing that I do than I did.
• 1:16:02
  Day. Yeah, not many kids are
• 1:16:04
  transferring, even though we publicize the ones that do, and
• 1:16:07
  it's usually like, in a basketball or football, but not
• 1:16:09
  many kids are transferring out. If you have a kid as a freshman,
• 1:16:12
  they're probably going to be there to the senior and
• 1:16:14
  certainly in track and field. We have people that come in and
• 1:16:16
  so idea, okay, I need to be a baseball player, not a track
• 1:16:19
  athlete or whatnot. Yeah.
• 1:16:20
  But yeah, in college for many, many reasons, you know, you can
• 1:16:24
  have churn with those kids and so being a relationship guy can
• 1:16:27
  see where that would be kind of, I don't want to say hurtful
• 1:16:30
  because I want to overstate it but Go, man.
• 1:16:32
  You know, I wish was Johnny or Sally, it's day.
• 1:16:35
  They were, you know, they were a good fit for our team and we'd
• 1:16:37
  have been better if they'd have been here still.
• 1:16:39
  Yeah. And I am fortunate in the sense
• 1:16:41
  that, you know, the kids that are no longer a part of our
• 1:16:44
  program are still on campus, right?
• 1:16:45
  So it's like, you know, I it's not that they were leaving
• 1:16:48
  because they didn't want to perform athletically, it's that
• 1:16:50
  yeah they were given these, you know, internship opportunities
• 1:16:53
  or their class load was too high or like they have to do, you
• 1:16:56
  know, like because we have like I said the radiology and nursing
• 1:16:59
  and all those programs like they got start doing clinicals and
• 1:17:02
  Stuff and like that. Just becomes impossible but it's
• 1:17:05
  like I still get to see them, right?
• 1:17:07
  I'll see you then you know in when getting breakfast or lunch
• 1:17:10
  or something or they're still friends with kids on the team so
• 1:17:13
  they'll come by and you know that that part is really great
• 1:17:16
  but sometimes losing out on that day to day can be tough because
• 1:17:20
  you just want what's best for them.
• 1:17:21
  And you hope Athletics can be continue to be a part of that.
• 1:17:25
  But it doesn't always work out and no matter how long they're
• 1:17:28
  on the team, whether they're on the team for one semester or
• 1:17:30
  three years and, you know, Radiology or Life gets in the
• 1:17:33
  way. You've impacted that individual
• 1:17:35
  in a positive manner, right? I mean, think about I love your
• 1:17:38
  journey of, you know, doing at Merrimack and then, you know,
• 1:17:41
  grades and everything. So he had to leave, but that was
• 1:17:43
  an impactful year of you been able to run collegiately.
• 1:17:46
  Like, you got a lot of time of experiences met some people.
• 1:17:49
  I have to imagine you, probably, maybe still have friends from
• 1:17:53
  even that one year, like, being at Merrimack, that you wouldn't
• 1:17:56
  have had if you would have gone somewhere else or for four
• 1:17:59
  years, you know? So it's a good to have that
• 1:18:01
  positive impact. I love that.
• 1:18:02
  You do that, you know, my experience with people from
• 1:18:07
  California. I know you're not from
• 1:18:09
  California. Stay with me on this one.
• 1:18:10
  Connor is that people from California?
• 1:18:13
  Want to get back to California. I mean, I've lived all around
• 1:18:18
  this country and everybody that I have met that are from
• 1:18:21
  California moved back. It's just it's just a given
• 1:18:23
  their sister distraction being from California, is there a
• 1:18:26
  traction Beam for you for distance running?
• 1:18:29
  Do you? I mean you're doing a great job
• 1:18:31
  and have done a great job Now, for, you know, you're going on a
• 1:18:33
  decade now and being a Sprint, jump hurdles coach, but I don't
• 1:18:37
  want to pigeonhole, you know, some of the best coaches from
• 1:18:40
  Boudin path and Brooks Johnson. Continually talk about being
• 1:18:44
  generalist, not specialist, not being a spring service coach,
• 1:18:48
  you're a track coach. Is there any pull for you to go
• 1:18:50
  back into coaching distance runners?
• 1:18:54
  I wouldn't say directly. I am fortunate that I'm also the
• 1:18:57
  assistant Cross Country Coach, so I get to, you know, be at the
• 1:19:02
  meats and stuff and I get to bring them to their long runs
• 1:19:05
  and, you know, I get to go to like, some of their practices
• 1:19:08
  earlier in the cross-country season.
• 1:19:10
  You know, it. Even if it's something as simple
• 1:19:12
  as like just walking by giving a fist bump and just like seeing
• 1:19:15
  like how their day is going stuff.
• 1:19:17
  I still get to interact with those Runners a lot.
• 1:19:19
  Like I may not be making their programming, but I don't need to
• 1:19:22
  because I know, you know, Stacy's going to do a great job
• 1:19:24
  of that. That, you know, she's been
• 1:19:26
  coaching top-tier Runners for a very long time.
• 1:19:28
  So I definitely want the worry in anyway, so I just get to have
• 1:19:33
  the joyful relationship part. I get to experience the the
• 1:19:36
  cross-country meets still, but I still also get to be challenged
• 1:19:40
  with my group and, you know, pushed in to be a better Coach
• 1:19:44
  with them. So it's kind of a Best of Both
• 1:19:46
  Worlds. Yeah.
• 1:19:47
  Yeah. Are you still a runner yourself
• 1:19:49
  for you? You gonna tell me you do
• 1:19:51
  marathons and all that kind of crazy stuff in my mic?
• 1:19:53
  That's a loaded question. We Gasps things like that.
• 1:19:57
  No, I'll tell you. I went to see my foot doctor
• 1:20:00
  yesterday because I have some Achilles issues and I'm on the
• 1:20:03
  mend after a procedure. And he looked at me goes, are
• 1:20:05
  you a runner? And I almost laughed at him like
• 1:20:08
  no, but we ain't gotta worry about that.
• 1:20:09
  Doc, don't worry. Yeah.
• 1:20:11
  You know what? I like to, you know, run more
• 1:20:14
  consistently. Absolutely, you know, I think
• 1:20:17
  that the days of sorry, when I, when I first started coaching at
• 1:20:20
  Southington, you know, because I would also be assisting every
• 1:20:24
  coach there. My goal was to train during the
• 1:20:27
  summer and to be able to run with like the, The Varsity Boys
• 1:20:32
  by the end of the season, but our team kept getting faster and
• 1:20:36
  faster. So that will went from like
• 1:20:37
  varsity boys down to JV, boys and that from JV boys, who are
• 1:20:40
  varsity, girls never varsity, girls to our JV girls which is
• 1:20:44
  great because, you know, they, they were progressively getting
• 1:20:46
  faster and whatnot, but it did not not go well for my ego and
• 1:20:51
  where I thought my athletic career was potentially going.
• 1:20:55
  But you know, so now I follow on a bike but then a long runs and
• 1:20:59
  stuff like that, which is great. You know, I definitely don't run
• 1:21:01
  as much as I would like to but it I definitely can't get out
• 1:21:07
  like I said, I can't hide jumps. Okay, that's out.
• 1:21:10
  I can't, I can't be doing things like that at practice.
• 1:21:12
  Yeah, I can get a good couple of demo reps in, you know what, a
• 1:21:16
  skips and stuff should look like.
• 1:21:17
  But for the most part now that we, we stick to a little bit
• 1:21:21
  slower lifestyle, love, love, love.
• 1:21:24
  It. Okay, Connor you've opened up a
• 1:21:26
  can of worms, I thought of something because of thing that
• 1:21:30
  you do and I'm going to put you on the spot here.
• 1:21:32
  So I'm going to ask the question and then imma imma give a little
• 1:21:35
  bit of a diatribe. So you give you a little bit of
• 1:21:36
  time to think about it. So you mentioned with your
• 1:21:39
  athletes. I thought this was so cool that
• 1:21:42
  you guys sit down and do a small medium and large goal for the
• 1:21:46
  upcoming year or maybe even maybe the large goal stretches
• 1:21:49
  over their career, you know, they got three years left like,
• 1:21:51
  yeah, you know, by the time, my senior year, I would like to own
• 1:21:53
  the school. Or whatever that large goal
• 1:21:55
  might be someone put you on the spot, I'd like to know your
• 1:22:00
  small medium and large goals. I don't know how what parameters
• 1:22:05
  you put on it for the athletes. I'll be very wide with the
• 1:22:08
  parameters, you can be, they could be professional, they
• 1:22:10
  could be personal, they could be this upcoming season, they could
• 1:22:13
  be your career, I'll let you dictate where the small, what
• 1:22:17
  Avenue? The small medium and large goals
• 1:22:19
  are. But I'd like to start out with
• 1:22:21
  small. What's a small goal that Connor
• 1:22:24
  Green that you have yourself. Thanks Mike.
• 1:22:28
  Yeah, I'm good at this. It's funny because the first
• 1:22:36
  person that ever like really got me into like this type of goal
• 1:22:40
  setting. As our former athletic director,
• 1:22:42
  Greg fairy he is a guidance counselor now at another high
• 1:22:46
  school but I still train his son so he used to give me these
• 1:22:49
  forms to fill out like every week and stuff and it's like
• 1:22:53
  it's crazy how much that can impact you but he'll be very
• 1:22:57
  disappointed. Wanted to know that I have not
• 1:22:58
  filled one out in a while. So through that, that's what I
• 1:23:01
  was thinking. Actually, kind of because I was
• 1:23:02
  like, you know, we do something sometimes for our athletes and
• 1:23:05
  that we don't do them for ourselves.
• 1:23:07
  And I'm not talking about, you know, it's one thing.
• 1:23:09
  You want your athletes to be fit, whether it's, you know, if
• 1:23:11
  your distance run or not, doesn't matter, but we don't
• 1:23:14
  necessarily have to be fit. I want you to be fit for your
• 1:23:16
  own health and things like that. It's not a necessary.
• 1:23:18
  But if you're going to assign goal setting for your athletes,
• 1:23:23
  you as a professional and as a personal need to, Have goals, we
• 1:23:28
  should all have goals, you know, there was a study done that
• 1:23:30
  people who wrote down their goals, wrote them down and kept
• 1:23:34
  them in their wallet or and their person were like I'm
• 1:23:38
  making up a statistic here, ten times more likely to hit those
• 1:23:41
  goals, then people who just said the goals.
• 1:23:45
  So when I last coaching stop my last two actually, Ball State
• 1:23:49
  and Mississippi State. So we did goal setting as well
• 1:23:52
  and I'm sure much like you mentioned there with would that
• 1:23:55
  individual. I'm sure I stole this from
• 1:23:56
  someone else. It was like, oh, so we're going
• 1:23:59
  to write them down. That's pretty common.
• 1:24:00
  You probably have your application down.
• 1:24:01
  I was like, but I want you to see them every day as well, so
• 1:24:04
  it was mandatory. I never knew.
• 1:24:06
  If they did, exciting, go to the rooms but they had to tape the
• 1:24:09
  goals right by their light switch.
• 1:24:11
  So the idea was every night. Before you go to bed, you got to
• 1:24:14
  turn the light switch off, you're going to see your goals.
• 1:24:15
  And then every morning, you wake up, you turn your light switch
• 1:24:18
  on, you're going to see your goals.
• 1:24:19
  That's why I wanted to challenge you a little bit.
• 1:24:20
  I'm like, hey, let's talk about your goals and again they can
• 1:24:24
  be, I'm giving you a big, what? Usually your goals are not going
• 1:24:26
  to make sense. Lennox.
• 1:24:27
  I'm letting you go wide here. What's a small goal for you
• 1:24:30
  here? Connor, you know I think a small
• 1:24:33
  goal if we're going to base it off the other parameters that
• 1:24:35
  give our kids where it's like, you know, I want to finish the
• 1:24:37
  year and feel good is that, you know, I'd like every kid or
• 1:24:42
  every student athlete, you know, at least feel like they
• 1:24:46
  accomplished something. You know, by the end of the
• 1:24:48
  year, they could not PR, they could fall down, they could foul
• 1:24:51
  everything. But if they feel like they've
• 1:24:54
  accomplished something, then I think coaching, why's that would
• 1:24:56
  kind of feel with In my small goal, you know, being present
• 1:25:00
  with my family. I think we're definitely be
• 1:25:02
  another small goal. It's like something.
• 1:25:04
  I know I can achieve, but, you know, sometimes, you know,
• 1:25:08
  there's challenges, obviously, you know, where it becomes a
• 1:25:11
  little bit more heavily Focus that it should.
• 1:25:14
  It's funny, my dog is actually sitting right next to me
• 1:25:16
  snoring, so the be being there for him is important to guess.
• 1:25:21
  I'd say those are probably two of my smaller goals that, you
• 1:25:24
  know, I want to accomplish and I know that we mostly We can see,
• 1:25:28
  I think those are really important, you know, what you
• 1:25:29
  mentioned, there is a little bit, like, I'm a former in
• 1:25:32
  between my coaching career and Gil Crozier.
• 1:25:34
  Professional poker player. So, I like to use a lot of Poker
• 1:25:36
  analogies and stuff, but those are kind of table Stakes, right?
• 1:25:39
  Psycho, you'll you better be present for your family and boy
• 1:25:42
  your kids better get something out of their year, right?
• 1:25:45
  But what's important for you to say those out loud is the
• 1:25:48
  intentionality of them it's like oh I want to be there for my
• 1:25:52
  family. Well it's one thing to just say
• 1:25:55
  it but to actually do it. Sometimes I have to put that out
• 1:25:59
  front and have it on paper. So I see, and I'm a held
• 1:26:02
  accountable for myself and for my firm, in this case, my family
• 1:26:07
  for that goal sets, that's really important.
• 1:26:08
  I like that. Thank you for sharing that as
• 1:26:11
  you were as you were talking about that.
• 1:26:12
  I hope you were thinking about the medium because medium going.
• 1:26:15
  Yeah, I'm interested. Because it's interesting, you
• 1:26:17
  put those into three buckets instead of just large and small,
• 1:26:20
  which would be a lot easier. So I'm really this to me feels
• 1:26:22
  like it'd be the harder one. What is a medium goal for you,
• 1:26:27
  John? Take a medium goal for me.
• 1:26:28
  You know? If we're talking coaching wise
• 1:26:30
  it'll definitely be. You know, I got a couple of
• 1:26:33
  school records that we have our eyes on as well as we had an
• 1:26:39
  individual last year who I was fortunate enough Anthony calvet
• 1:26:42
  he's in talk about a kid that you know is the the
• 1:26:46
  stereotypical kid that you want on your team hard-working
• 1:26:49
  intelligent great personality. He's fantastic.
• 1:26:53
  So he made NCAA regionals last year in high jump.
• 1:26:56
  He was like one of the last guys And you know, the beginning of
• 1:26:59
  the year that wasn't even on our radar.
• 1:27:01
  He was jumping like 2 meters and his PR at the time I think was
• 1:27:05
  only like 20 one but we got him up to 2008 indoors and then 2008
• 1:27:09
  Outdoors. So going with him to the NCAA
• 1:27:12
  Regional mean. I mean that was that was crazy
• 1:27:14
  and we could talk about that again.
• 1:27:16
  But you know, I want to get him back there.
• 1:27:19
  He's a senior this year and I want I want him to get to be
• 1:27:23
  able to get back there and you know, we can get other athletes
• 1:27:26
  up there. Are fantastic.
• 1:27:29
  But I would say, from a coaching perspective, that's one of my
• 1:27:32
  biggest goals is to make sure that, you know, it wasn't a once
• 1:27:35
  once in a lifetime experience that he gets that gets to have
• 1:27:37
  that again. Yeah, that's an experience for
• 1:27:40
  him for the coach, for the program to know that these are
• 1:27:43
  kind of our expectations here. We've we've had athletes in the
• 1:27:46
  past, so why can't we have them in the present and future?
• 1:27:49
  So, yeah, that's that's, we're not like that.
• 1:27:51
  Okay? So, you know, after small
• 1:27:54
  baguettes medium, next gummy, Large Marge, What's a, what's a
• 1:27:58
  large goal that you have, man, that out there.
• 1:28:01
  Everything perfectly aligns. I know when we're recording
• 1:28:05
  this, the mega jackpot. Lotteries 1.5 billion.
• 1:28:09
  I could get but million or something now.
• 1:28:11
  No, it's like 1.5 no, no, it's not high.
• 1:28:15
  Yeah, yeah, 1.5 doesn't make it is right because it's 1.5 I saw
• 1:28:21
  this morning whoever didn't want it or, you know, no one want it
• 1:28:24
  last time. So it's like 1.5 is maybe the
• 1:28:26
  projected whatever. It's a lot that's a lot of yeah
• 1:28:29
  buddy first track coaches, its Monopoly money.
• 1:28:33
  We can't even conceive that much.
• 1:28:35
  So yeah I realize that all Diana hurdles, I could buy with that.
• 1:28:40
  That would be that you went there?
• 1:28:43
  Not not pole, vaulting, not only train.
• 1:28:46
  That is something that can efficiently carry banana hurdles
• 1:28:54
  without. Yeah, let me put this out to
• 1:28:57
  you. Verse so actually I'll give a
• 1:29:00
  plug here, Gabe Sanders over at Boston University, his
• 1:29:04
  assistant. And I can't remember his name.
• 1:29:07
  I'm so sorry. They created a, they built their
• 1:29:10
  own design. It's like this case holder
• 1:29:13
  thing, right? Quite amazing.
• 1:29:15
  It's, they did an amazing job and before that we were already
• 1:29:19
  working. So we're working on a design.
• 1:29:20
  We just haven't priority list but we are going to.
• 1:29:23
  I told my R&D guys, I know this seems small.
• 1:29:25
  I get it as like but this is a Big hassle.
• 1:29:29
  Look the okay it is good. Yeah right especially spaghetti
• 1:29:34
  strings all together that they got to figure out how to unhook
• 1:29:37
  to have practice that. They do it all the time by the
• 1:29:39
  way to yeah. Okay.
• 1:29:40
  Besides there's a large degree besides by in a bazillion banana
• 1:29:44
  hurdles. What is a large goal for you?
• 1:29:48
  Yeah, I think a large gold for me is just too.
• 1:29:52
  Help get my student athletes to a level that they thought they
• 1:29:56
  wouldn't be able to reach. You know, some kids are
• 1:29:59
  notorious and are constantly dealing with injuries, you know.
• 1:30:02
  I want, I want to learn and be better so that, that doesn't
• 1:30:06
  happen. Yeah.
• 1:30:07
  Grated the events kind of, you know, constantly push that
• 1:30:11
  barrier and that boundary of injury and everything like that.
• 1:30:15
  But just learning, I want to, I want to learn more and I know
• 1:30:18
  that is, you know, I have a master's degree and everything
• 1:30:21
  like that. So, Like, I told my wife, I was
• 1:30:23
  like, well, I've got three, I got all three, like I got.
• 1:30:25
  Like you said, Pokemon guy. Collect them.
• 1:30:27
  All right. She's like, if you get a PhD,
• 1:30:29
  you're gonna have to find somewhere else to live.
• 1:30:30
  And I said, okay, that's fair but it's you know I just
• 1:30:36
  constantly want to learn more on the this usatf level 2 is one
• 1:30:39
  thing. I'm really excited that
• 1:30:43
  knowledge is so something that's really interesting to me.
• 1:30:46
  So I think learning as much as I can within this year and, you
• 1:30:49
  know, making sure that I can be the best coach that I And for my
• 1:30:52
  athletes is probably my large goal.
• 1:30:55
  I love it man. That's so awesome.
• 1:30:56
  It's good for you to say those out loud.
• 1:30:58
  You know sometimes we just need to hear ourselves say those
• 1:31:01
  things. Those are none of those were
• 1:31:02
  original ideas for you. You've been thinking about those
• 1:31:05
  for, you know, certain amounts of times depend on each one.
• 1:31:07
  So for you to hear that out loud is is really important and will
• 1:31:10
  help more likely make those goals to be accomplished over
• 1:31:15
  the next 6 to 12 months, 18 months for you, man.
• 1:31:18
  So, that's, that's good. I appreciate you getting on the
• 1:31:20
  hot seat. There's people don't realize.
• 1:31:22
  Sometimes we don't, we don't, we don't screw.
• 1:31:25
  Any questions all of our guests including Connor, they don't get
• 1:31:27
  questions before this. They, it's a pretty open wide
• 1:31:31
  thing but they never know when I'm going to throw that
• 1:31:33
  curveball of the challenge. Like, hey, so you do this with
• 1:31:36
  your kids. All right, so your kids are
• 1:31:38
  gonna listen this and they were like yeah, finally, someone got
• 1:31:41
  coach green, make him do his small medium and large when your
• 1:31:44
  kids are going to listen to this and I hope so.
• 1:31:46
  Yeah. I got I gotta be honest though.
• 1:31:49
  So are you familiar with Brett Bartholomew?
• 1:31:52
  I know him by name and conscious coaching.
• 1:31:53
  Yeah. So So I was a part of last year.
• 1:31:57
  I was part they do. What is it?
• 1:32:00
  The the cohorts. So basically it's it was like
• 1:32:04
  six months we would talk on Zoom once or twice a week and it was
• 1:32:09
  like small groups like five or six of us and you think that was
• 1:32:13
  a hot seat. You don't know how to see he I
• 1:32:16
  mean he did a great job of really pushing us past our
• 1:32:20
  comfort zones and his big thing is obviously communication and
• 1:32:23
  whatnot and you know learning how to Now they just talk to
• 1:32:26
  people but also like get what you want and ask people for what
• 1:32:30
  you want and so that, you know, those are huge.
• 1:32:33
  I would, I would recommend anybody check out his book,
• 1:32:36
  conscious coaching and any of his courses and all that stuff
• 1:32:38
  Frets and his wife was a part of it and it was an incredible
• 1:32:42
  experience that I think that really helped shape my ability
• 1:32:45
  to hopefully talk and communicate a little bit better.
• 1:32:48
  So I heard kind of was a you think I need to get tougher when
• 1:32:52
  I challenge people here. All absolutely okay.
• 1:32:55
  Yeah, that whoever the next person is, yeah, it was ever
• 1:32:58
  after me, I you want to make it a hot seat.
• 1:33:00
  You gotta, you gotta get me a real hot seat.
• 1:33:04
  Well Connor wrap us up here today.
• 1:33:06
  Tell us what's got you excited about whether it's this season
• 1:33:09
  coming up for the next two seasons.
• 1:33:10
  What's going on their University of Hartford?
• 1:33:13
  Yeah, I mean, I think that just seeing my athletes, you know,
• 1:33:18
  coming into year to now with me, you know, they really bought
• 1:33:21
  into the weight room. They bought into the recovery to
• 1:33:24
  the practice, Um, I just want to see him compete, you know, I
• 1:33:28
  know that performances are going to be better on and I'm sure
• 1:33:31
  there's going to be days where they're not, but just the energy
• 1:33:33
  that this group has is really exciting, and I just can't wait
• 1:33:37
  to get back into competitions and feel like see him, let loose
• 1:33:41
  in that exciting. We I think we all collectively
• 1:33:44
  kind of took it for granted and covid, through all of its
• 1:33:47
  horribleness. There's no positivity out of
• 1:33:50
  covid at all wish, it would never have happened but however,
• 1:33:53
  it did give us a little bit of like Oh man, like this can be
• 1:33:56
  taken from us at any minute. And boy, I really did enjoy
• 1:34:00
  competitions, and I really did enjoy the everyday day-to-day on
• 1:34:03
  the track grind with my athletes in all of our events so it
• 1:34:08
  really is something precious. So you know, that is something
• 1:34:10
  to be excited about that. Hey, you know what, tomorrow, we
• 1:34:13
  get to get on the track and, and have some practice.
• 1:34:15
  And you know what? Next week we get to go to such
• 1:34:17
  and such meet and we have all these things to look forward to.
• 1:34:20
  So it's, that is something special and in Precious, really
• 1:34:26
  Hopefully boo. We'll also do some in-person
• 1:34:29
  coaching stuff because actually I met boo a couple years ago in
• 1:34:33
  a coaching clinic and stuff and I was fortunate that he actually
• 1:34:36
  remembered my name and then when I asked him, why he was like, oh
• 1:34:39
  you look like somebody from my hometown so it's like this.
• 1:34:41
  I'll never forget your name. It's like, all right, that's
• 1:34:44
  fine. But I was fortunate to do Zoom
• 1:34:48
  certification with them, but I would love to, you know, do some
• 1:34:50
  in-person certification stuff because it's just different, you
• 1:34:54
  know? Able to actually like have that
• 1:34:56
  even with the other people in class just that dialogue and
• 1:34:59
  everything. So that's something else I'd be
• 1:35:01
  looking forward to. Yeah, 100%.
• 1:35:03
  I tell everybody, I don't care what you coach, what event?
• 1:35:06
  I don't care if he coached tiddlywinks if you're at a
• 1:35:08
  clinic or something and boo is talking and I don't care what
• 1:35:11
  booze talking about, if he's talking about weight room stuff,
• 1:35:14
  jumps distance, throws it don't matter, whatever you do, and
• 1:35:17
  whatever he's talking about, you just go, you will learn
• 1:35:19
  something, it's quite amazing. What an amazing teacher, the
• 1:35:24
  gift, you know, God gave him Gift of teaching and thank
• 1:35:26
  goodness. He got it inside a track and
• 1:35:29
  field for us. I mean we are absolutely meant
• 1:35:32
  if he if he didn't leave football man, well, it's right.
• 1:35:36
  Be terrible. I mean, right now he could be
• 1:35:38
  some football guy and we'd be like, well, I wonder if that
• 1:35:40
  guy, he's probably don't know about track.
• 1:35:41
  And do you think it is easy to track guy, man?
• 1:35:43
  It's quite amazing. Well, Connor, and thank you so
• 1:35:46
  much. You know, I say this at the end
• 1:35:48
  of every episode and it really is.
• 1:35:51
  It's so humbling here for me as the host here at the Gil
• 1:35:53
  connections podcast. You know, the most valuable
• 1:35:56
  thing that you can ever give us. Is your time, you're busy.
• 1:35:59
  I know what coaches go through. I'm always amazed when anybody
• 1:36:02
  says, yeah let's record. I'm like you know I asked for
• 1:36:04
  two hours. I'm we get after it here and so
• 1:36:07
  I'm just so thankful for you, man.
• 1:36:08
  You know your story? It's really interesting.
• 1:36:12
  It's, it's different. That's what I love about each
• 1:36:14
  one of our guests is your store. Your origin story is so
• 1:36:18
  interesting. No one would ever Peg.
• 1:36:21
  I'm going to use my words here. Don't take offense a College
• 1:36:24
  Dropout. Out.
• 1:36:25
  After their first year goes to Junior College does not have a
• 1:36:28
  running career. Now, at that point, by the way,
• 1:36:30
  is a distance coaching becomes this successful, you know,
• 1:36:34
  School, record-breaking producing athletes coach and
• 1:36:37
  Sprint's jumps and hurdles. And now coaches on the college
• 1:36:40
  level and is doing such amazing things in Connecticut of all
• 1:36:43
  places. I mean, it's a we wrap our hat
• 1:36:46
  State. Yeah.
• 1:36:47
  Well hey, one of my best athletes.
• 1:36:51
  I'm pretty sure it was from Connecticut.
• 1:36:52
  Does the name Glenn McFadden wearing a bra?
• 1:36:55
  Well, at least he's kind of course he's yeah, he still has
• 1:36:58
  school. He still has State records.
• 1:37:00
  Where did he go to Glastonbury? What did know he was from?
• 1:37:05
  I want to say Hill house but I don't think he'll have.
• 1:37:08
  Yeah. That was the school.
• 1:37:09
  I was trying to think of earlier.
• 1:37:11
  Oh yeah, always has good. Add the more multis and Gary and
• 1:37:14
  Michele more. You want to talk about two
• 1:37:17
  coaches that you should get on your podcast that right these?
• 1:37:20
  Yeah, they are. Incredible, incredible people,
• 1:37:24
  first and foremost, incredible people, but coaches.
• 1:37:26
  They they know what they're doing and they're even their
• 1:37:30
  kids are incredible athletes who have been ones at Kentucky and
• 1:37:33
  one is a freshman at Baylor, this year.
• 1:37:35
  Oh, is that right? Yeah.
• 1:37:37
  Oh we're incredible. Incredible family.
• 1:37:39
  We're big fans were big fans of everybody but our CEO was a
• 1:37:43
  five-time All American pole vaulter Baylor, and every one of
• 1:37:46
  those kids all five went to Baylor.
• 1:37:48
  In fact, his fifth, the boy is running cross-country for him.
• 1:37:52
  Dealer and tracking right now so he probably both throwers.
• 1:37:56
  Oh, yeah, yeah. Oh, so he's with Chuy.
• 1:37:57
  Yeah, I love ya. She would have.
• 1:37:59
  That's awesome. Yeah to look them up.
• 1:38:00
  Yeah, Glenn McFadden. I coached I recruited him when I
• 1:38:04
  was a junior college coaching but luckily he made his grades
• 1:38:06
  and went to Mississippi State and that I followed on its head
• 1:38:09
  of narrator and just what a mean what a track nerd.
• 1:38:13
  I mean, this guy, he knew every stat everybody, I mean, it was,
• 1:38:19
  it was impressive, you know, it's six foot four, six four.
• 1:38:22
  Five is dhivya. He was not a small guy, he used
• 1:38:25
  to get so mad at me cuz I'd have them do a hurdle up and unders,
• 1:38:29
  you know. And so, you know, he, you know,
• 1:38:30
  he'd want to cheat and you just dip down.
• 1:38:32
  I'm like, you know, you got drop your hips and he's like, look at
• 1:38:34
  me coached and I was like, look at that.
• 1:38:36
  Don't matter. You gotta get down.
• 1:38:37
  Big Daddy. Exactly.
• 1:38:38
  I'm glad you said that. I'm glad you said that because I
• 1:38:41
  got, I got kids that are only, like, 5 10 that give me grief
• 1:38:44
  about it. And I'm like, guys, I've seen
• 1:38:46
  I've seen College lineman, you know, 300 Subs bound, dudes, get
• 1:38:50
  through this hurdle and they don't make them bigger.
• 1:38:52
  Like, They already said that they all want to give the
• 1:38:55
  excuses and they all want to point to the short kids and be
• 1:38:57
  like. Well look yeah.
• 1:38:57
  If I was five foot one, it's like, yeah, I'm sorry you're 6
• 1:39:00
  foot 5. I'm not actually because thank
• 1:39:02
  God, you're six foot five to get better.
• 1:39:04
  We got to get those hips. Open, Big Daddy.
• 1:39:06
  Yeah, May I loved it. Loved Glenn McFadden.
• 1:39:08
  Well, I haven't talked to him and such a long time and that's,
• 1:39:11
  that's my Connecticut Powerhouse.
• 1:39:12
  I go. Yeah, I know there's Perkins.
• 1:39:13
  It come out of Connecticut. Come on, man.
• 1:39:15
  There ain't no. I mean, no shade thrown a
• 1:39:16
  Connecticut. Ain't incredible.
• 1:39:19
  Incredible program Little House ads.
• 1:39:21
  Yeah, that's it. Them up, that's awesome.
• 1:39:23
  It's good recommendation. All right, mr.
• 1:39:24
  Connor man. Thank you again.
• 1:39:25
  So much. I'm so excited about this
• 1:39:27
  upcoming year for you, man, the high jumper.
• 1:39:30
  We're going to put it into the space right here.
• 1:39:32
  He is going to make it back to reach.
• 1:39:34
  He's gonna jump even higher. He ain't gonna be the last man.
• 1:39:36
  He's gonna be like really early this morning.
• 1:39:39
  You heard and have it locked up. Absolutely, man.
• 1:39:41
  So again, thank you for your time.
• 1:39:43
  I'm just so, so appreciative of you and what you do there,
• 1:39:47
  University of Hartford and what you do for coaching track and
• 1:39:49
  field, it's really important. Thank you, Micah great,
• 1:39:52
  gratefully appreciate being on this.
• 1:39:54
  It was an incredible experience for Mom and thank you so much,
• 1:39:56
  man. Hey, and for you listening out
• 1:39:58
  there, if you're listening during the week this is weird,
• 1:40:01
  right? Because you could be listening
• 1:40:02
  to this, it could be 2029 right now and you have no idea what
• 1:40:05
  I'm talking about. But next week December 12th,
• 1:40:08
  we're going to be at the u.s. tfcc a convention in Denver and
• 1:40:11
  we're going to be doing this lives.
• 1:40:13
  There's no outtakes there's no editing if I flub.
• 1:40:17
  But why just club and so maybe you want to watch just because
• 1:40:20
  you want to see if I put heh. My face here.
• 1:40:22
  So if you are at the convention, come down to the booth want to
• 1:40:25
  interview, as many, many coaches as we can five ish minute.
• 1:40:28
  At a time, just have some fun and then if you're not there,
• 1:40:31
  check us out on YouTube live. If you go to youtube.com slash
• 1:40:34
  you'll have Lennox, you'll be able to see the link.
• 1:40:36
  You can actually hit like a little reminder button.
• 1:40:38
  So, it'll remind you on December 12 when we go live.
• 1:40:41
  So hope you join us there for that event and Hope you join us
• 1:40:44
  next week. When just give more value here,
• 1:40:47
  we have another amazing coach here in the track and field
• 1:40:50
  world. And Do it all over again.
• 1:40:52
  So join us then. Alright, thanks for being here.
• 1:41:02
  It's Mike what an incredible journey coach has been on so
• 1:41:05
  awesome to hear their story in their own words, tremendous
• 1:41:08
  proof of the positive effects coaches make on a daily basis.
• 1:41:11
  Help us spread the word of this. Great journey by sharing on your
• 1:41:14
  favorite social, media channel. And don't forget to take a
• 1:41:17
  minute to rate and review the podcast.
• 1:41:19
  You just might get a shout out on a future episode, that's it
• 1:41:22
  for today. Join us next week, when we'll
• 1:41:24
  connect you with another amazing coach.