Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / #336: Cjay Brown-Gene Tomas (TX) High School | Building a New Texas Track Program from Scratch

Transcript

#336: Cjay Brown-Gene Tomas (TX) High School | Building a New Texas Track Program from Scratch · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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You're listening to the Gil Athletics Connections podcast
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with host Mike Cunningham. Track and field world UNL tuned
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in to our humble servant Mike Cunningham for another
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extraordinary message for Gil Athletics Connections.
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You're back here on the Gil Athletics Connections podcast
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again. Just so humbled.
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You'll hear me say this every single week.
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Humbled that you would press play today on the show.
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I, you know, I, I make no bones about it.
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This is not an easy podcast to listen to.
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And what I mean by that is this is not a 20 minute drive to work
0:38
and you're done podcast. This takes time to listen to,
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but that is intentional. We do that on purpose because
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the men and women, the coaches that we have on the podcast,
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their journey is important. Their voice matters, their story
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matters. And you don't get to explore
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that in 20 minutes. So we spend hour, hour and a
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half, two hours. Who knows, maybe this is going
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to be a 5 hour banger today. He said he doesn't have school
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today. So I got all day with my guy
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today. So we'll see what plans out
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today. Again, quick introduction, my
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name is Mike Cunningham. I'm the host here for the Gil
1:05
Connections podcast. Proud to bring you the stories
1:07
of the men and women who choose to be track coaches.
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And today I got a fun one. You know, if you're if you're a
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long time listener, you know, sometimes I'll tell you I've got
1:15
guys and gals that come on the show that I've never met or
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maybe met at a clinic. I don't know, know real well.
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And those really, really excite me.
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And that's what we have today because I get to learn about a
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new person that I don't know much about.
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And that's always that's a great part of my job, creative part,
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interesting part of my job. So help me welcome from the
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great state of Texas. I mean, there's a million
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coaches in there. I could just spend all day down
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in Texas with coaches. He is the head coach of Jean
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Tomas High School. We're going to we got to learn a
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little bit more about that high school.
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Help me welcome the wise, the wonderful Mr. CJ Brown.
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CJ How are you, Sir? I'm doing well how you might.
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Oh man, I am. I'm doing great.
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Appreciate you asking. You know, I get to do this for a
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living, man. So life's pretty good for this
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guy here. You know, this is what I get
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paid to do is outreach and uplift and honor the positive
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impact that you make on young people, man.
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So I'm pumped. I'm pumped.
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You pumped. Yes, Sir, absolutely.
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I love it. Hey, before we start your
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journey, I do want to learn more about Jean Tomas High School.
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That's obviously it's named after somebody who do you know
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much about who Jean Tomas was so.
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Yes, Sir. So we're Jean Tomas High School
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is located in Richmond, TX, right outside of Sugarland area
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which is right outside of Houston.
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And we actually opened campus this year.
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So we actually do not have any seniors currently on campus.
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We only have freshmen, sophomores, and juniors and so
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we broke ground this year. Jean Thomas was a long time
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teacher, principal and educator in the La Mar Consolidated
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School District and so we opened school August 13th and so we
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have only been open about 7 weeks and so it's been an
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amazing journey thus far. Obviously with opening a new
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school, it comes with everything brand new.
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And so we've had to literally build everything from the ground
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up in hurdles, pole ball, mats, high jump, everything.
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And so been blessed and fortunate to also work with our
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girls coach, Coach Jelana Owens, who shares the same drive and
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passion as I do for track and field.
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And so it's been fun, supportive AD and coach Kyle Johnson, who
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loves track and field. And when I was hired, it was
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very well stated that he's hiring a track guy to coach
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track and field. And so that's been a blessing as
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well. So we're just excited to create
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culture here at Gene Tomas High School.
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Well, first of all, that sounds like a smart AD.
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Shout out to that AD. Second of all, I can't wait till
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we get to that part of your journey because that's what
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fascinates me. You know, sitting in this seat
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and be able to interview coaches because you, you know, you could
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easily say especially, you know, this is going to be episode 336
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after 336 and more actually, because we've had, you know,
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groups of coaches on a time, you know, there's a what else is
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there to learn? Mike, you, you've done 300.
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I mean, that's a good sampling of coaches.
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You've heard it all to be able to pick your brain about a new
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school like literally weeks on campus here.
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That's going to be fascinating. I'm interested because you know,
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we talk a lot about different topics with, you know, culture
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and building culture and you, you know, taking over a team and
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you know starting A-Team from 10 kids and growing to 100.
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You're going to have some pretty unique aspects of a brand new
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school. I mean you you are starting
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culture from ground. So that'll be that'll be
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fascinating real quick. What if if Jean Tomas is named
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after a long time administrator teacher?
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Love that. By the way, what in the world do
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you go for a mascot? What?
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What is a Jean Tomas mascot? So, so in Lamar Consolidated,
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we're, we're on what's called tracks.
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And unbeknownst to me, when I seen the green track, I'm
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thinking we're getting like North Texas, like a green,
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actual green track. But our tracks are comprised of
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elementary schools, middle schools, junior high schools and
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high schools. And So what it is, is they're,
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they're a feeder pattern, whereas they're literally around
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the corner from each other. And so if you start at our
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elementary school, which is faggot elementary, you'll go to
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Bill Stein, which are middle school, Banks junior high, which
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are junior high and then Tomas High School.
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And so, so that's, that's how our tracks work.
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And yeah, so yeah, that's how it works.
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And what would be like you mentioned North Texas, so
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they're the mean green, What is Jean Thomas so.
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Yeah, so, yeah. Sorry.
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So we're we're the Gators. The Gators.
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OK, Yeah. So Tomas Gators, Yeah.
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Was that like Jean Tomas is like favorite animal?
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Like how so? So that part, I don't know, I
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was in that process, but I knew like I knew that like so the
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purple track is like the Chargers.
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And so everybody has like a different like animal or
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whatever fossils, the Eagles and Randall who's just one state
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lions. And so so yeah, every, every,
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every track has a mascot. And so that's ours was the
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chosen gate. And Green's actually my favorite
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color. So that was easy.
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I mean. I was hopeful you were going to
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tell us that Jean Tomas passed by an alligator incident.
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That's what I was hoping you weren't going to tell us.
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So, OK, good. I have no idea, but I would not
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be surprised. Or he wrestled an.
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Alligator. Yeah, the same.
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The same. Kindergartners.
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That'd be cool. Yeah.
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Yeah. We're just going to go with that
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lore. I want you to start telling that
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story. It'll go on, on.
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And like 10 years later I'll be like, oh, it's just Jean Thomas.
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He wrestled an alligator. That's why I wear the alligator.
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It'll be. It'll become truth, man.
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Right, right, right, all. Right, CJ, let's get into it.
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Let's learn about your journey. You know, somewhere, assuming
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you were an athlete, and we know plenty of coaches who were not
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athletes in our sport that became great track and field
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coaches somewhere track and field had to start for you.
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Where does track and field start for you?
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So actually I've never ran track and field.
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OK. I haven't.
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And so so my passion for track comes from my parents who ran
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track and my little brother ran at U of H under Carl Lewis and
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Leeward Burrell. And so when so me and my brother
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are three years apart. And so when he was 14, I was 17,
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about to leave high school and I was I was so he at at his
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school, you know, they the, the, they were over, over, over had
7:06
too many kids, right. And so he, he's ran summer track
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his whole life. I used to record his races and
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stuff at, in summer track for Carl Lewis star Co stars track
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club. And so Carl Lewis has been a
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part of our family for a while. And like I said, he ended up
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running for me at U of H And so that's why I got into the track.
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So from my brother and his friend.
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So brother ran track. Did you do any sports?
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What was? Your so so I played football.
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What was? Yours.
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Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I played football for a
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little bit, but I was more interested in dating and
7:38
everything and so I didn't really get sick.
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And so. So for me, I was just.
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Thank you for your honesty by the way.
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Yeah, yeah. So I wasn't really, really
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focused on sports like that. You could.
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Have told me that man I was a big scholar I was in just no and
7:53
you're like no man I was in the I was in the dating that's what
7:55
I. Was.
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Yeah, it wasn't. It wasn't, I love sports, right?
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I love sports. I've been around in my whole
8:00
life. But the, the rigor of the
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sports, right, like the waking up early mornings and stuff,
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which is not very appealing to me.
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And so it was just more, more just being a student, enjoying
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the social life of being a student.
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And so that that that was fun for me at the time.
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So you're kind of watching younger brother growing up and
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he starts doing track and he starts working with Carl and
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those guys. Did you know the significance of
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Carl when he first came into the to the family?
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So no, right, because I'm, I'm a teenager.
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I'm, I'm, you know, my parents are telling me, yeah, he's this
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fast track guy. And I'm like, OK, cool, sounds
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good. The uniforms are cool.
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And again, everybody wants to look good, feel good and all
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that. And so I'm like, it's cool.
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He's Olympian. That sounds great.
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But no, I did not understand the significance until I got a
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little bit older, right? And so that, that was the, the
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fun part for me is as I matured as an adult, I learned more
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about how much of an impact he laid on track and field.
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So that's when you know, I'm like, hey, like this sport is
9:00
pretty cool. Because at the time when I'm 15,
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I'm like, I can't understand why people put themselves through so
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much pain for 9/10, 11:12 seconds because it is the rigor
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of track and field. I tell everybody's like nothing
9:14
else, right? Like the, the, the, what it
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takes to be elite in track and field.
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I don't think any other sports and not discredit any other
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sports, but I think it really takes a different type of
9:25
mindset because there are going to be times where it's not going
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to be just your fault, right? When, when does a factor right?
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And so especially in events I coach, which are the sprints.
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And so, you know, I think that that sets them apart.
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You know what, I just thought about something and you know, I
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tell people, CJ as the host of the show, I get to push back and
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I'm the host. I get to do whatever I want.
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CJ Right? So I was just thinking just for
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conversation point. I want to have this conversation
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with you here real quick because I love what you said there.
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And you know, as a track guy, I want to agree with that, right?
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Like, oh, you know, tracks #1 blah, blah.
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And at first I was like, well, you know, it's kind of not true.
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And what I mean by that is there in football, if you're trying to
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become pro or elite, you know, there's down times in baseball,
10:06
basketball, but I actually think it's easier.
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And I just kind of had this thought.
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Here's why this sounds counter intuitive, right to what you
10:14
just said and what I even just said and thought and, and how,
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you know, probably 99% of our audience is thinking it might be
10:20
easier in track and field. Now, that doesn't mean more
10:23
people get to GoPro or Elite or. You know.
10:26
Their potential, but one of the things that separates track from
10:29
other sports and this is This is why I think track is the the
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bee's knees. Why it's the number one right?
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Is there's no one else to blame, right.
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So whatever you run in the hundred, it's the same 100 for
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you down there and it Tomas high school, it's the same up in
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Seattle, WA, it's the same in Augusta, ME, Miami, FL,
10:48
etcetera, right. And so so it's not easy because
10:53
that's not easy to run 9.9 or whatever, you know, to GoPro and
10:56
all that kind of stuff or or, you know, 9.9 to win the state
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need in Texas. That's how crazy this world is.
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Right, but. I think it's it's it's harder to
11:05
get overlooked. Right.
11:07
Because of that, right? Because I just think about when
11:09
you think, when you're talking about, I always thought
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recruiting for track and field was pretty easy.
11:13
I coached college for track 10 years.
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That was kind of my thing. It's more of a relationship
11:16
thing than it was as far as like evaluation.
11:18
And I maybe, you know, I haven't coached in 20 years.
11:21
So maybe, maybe. And I that's comes with a
11:23
doubtful, It's different today, but you know, if I see a kid run
11:27
10 flat in high school, what's the same 100 meters they're
11:30
going to run in my college? What else do I need to see?
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I mean, honestly, you know, but football, if a kid runs for 300
11:38
yards in a game, I got to know, well, wait a minute, who's he
11:42
playing against? What kind of offensive line does
11:45
he have? I mean, maybe he's got like, you
11:47
know, all D1 offensive line and he's playing against the school
11:50
of, I don't want to say they're playing against a really small
11:52
school, right, Right. Or here's the unfair part.
11:56
What if a kid is averaging 40 yards a game?
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That's not very much, right? But he has no offensive line.
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He got unlucky and lives in Houston and is playing against
12:08
all, you know, just killers, you know, all D.
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One kids, right? It's like, man, that kid
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actually probably could have gone to Texas, TCU, whatever,
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you know, you're a fan of and maybe gone pro, but because his
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stats say 40, right, half the people didn't even look at.
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So I just think tracks, yeah, I just think tracks easier in
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regards to the evaluation that if you're good, I think you have
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a good if you first of all, you have the genetics, if you're
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good enough to be a pro, be an Olympian, it's it's easier for
12:36
you to be identified and and move that path where in
12:38
football, baseball, same thing with baseball.
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My kids got a, you know, .1 ERA. I'm like, well, who's he
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throwing against? If he's throwing nobodies, who
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you know, who cares, right? Sometimes thinking OK, CJ, let's
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get back to you. I'm, I'm always I almost called
12:50
this podcast the Gill so Box podcast because I knew I was
12:54
going to get on my soapboxes about.
12:55
This. I'm waiting one day to start.
12:58
You know how these streamers, they get clipped all the time
13:00
when you know they'll say something that gets taken.
13:02
I'm waiting for people to start clipping me.
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Please don't. I'm completely happy that I'm
13:06
not, by the way, but that's happening anyway.
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I get ahead of myself there. All right, CJ.
13:11
So brother starts running track. You're going through high
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school. You I assume, because you're a
13:17
teacher. I assume you went on to college.
13:19
Yeah, so so. Tell us about college and what
13:22
were you thinking as a, you know, 18 year old going to
13:25
college? What were you thinking about
13:26
becoming as a, as an adult? What was your, you know, are you
13:28
going to become an astronaut, a firefighter?
13:30
What were you thinking at 18? So my, my story's a little bit
13:34
different, right? And so right after high school,
13:36
I went into the workforce. I have family who's in real
13:40
estate. And so initially after high
13:42
school, I went into real estate for a couple of years.
13:44
And so I did that for like 3 or 4 years.
13:47
But while I'm doing this, I start coaching 5 and 6 year old
13:50
flag football with the Missouri City Raiders.
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And because I knew I wanted to be a coach eventually.
13:55
And so I start with five and six year.
13:56
Olds OK, so 2 questions there. One is what's it like for an 18
14:01
year old to go and into real estate sales?
14:03
Because you know, I know that's a I'll say a fairly popular
14:07
profession for adults and and kind of like a it seems like
14:11
it's like this fall back profession, like someone will go
14:13
into IT, realize they don't like IT.
14:15
Walls become a real estate agents like everybody air quotes
14:18
can become a real estate agent. I know that's not true but but
14:21
as an 18 year right out of high school, what's that like?
14:24
So it was initially real estate development and so fixing up
14:27
houses, right. And so buy properties for a very
14:31
much lower property value and then fix them up and sell them
14:34
for 67% of greater than what we purchased it for.
14:38
And so I did that for three or four years, 3 or 4 years.
14:42
Yeah, it was, it was, it was hard work, but it was good
14:45
money, right? It was good money.
14:46
It was family business. So the Boston's were family.
14:49
And so that that wasn't, you know, too, too strenuous, except
14:53
for the fact that they thought we to work late hours.
14:55
But other than that, it was great.
14:56
You know, it was cool. And so I did that for three or
14:58
four years and then realized after coaching Little League
15:01
sports for three or four years that I'm pretty good at this.
15:05
Like I'm, I'm, I'm pretty good at, at, at motivating and
15:09
mentoring kids. And so, you know, I started
15:11
doing more research and I'm like, well, hey, in Texas, you
15:15
have to be a certified teacher to coach.
15:18
And I'm like, OK, that's pretty cool.
15:21
But then I also realized my brother went to private school.
15:23
He went to Pitts school, high school.
15:25
And so in private school, you don't have to be a teacher to
15:27
coach. And so then this is where my
15:29
business mind starts coming in. And so I'm like, OK, I know I
15:32
want to coach track and field. You know, I helped train my
15:35
brother's friend and my brother a little bit, but more so his
15:39
friend who end up winning the SBC, which is our one of our
15:43
private school won the SBC 400 title.
15:45
And you go on YouTube and see a video of me, he's coming down
15:48
homestretch and I'm running down the bleachers with him while
15:52
he's coming down the homestretch to win the Florida title.
15:54
And that's kind of really where my coaching track journey
15:56
begins. And so I realized, you know,
15:58
hey, like in private school, we don't have to be certified to to
16:01
teach, I mean, to coach. And so I start emailing every
16:05
private school in Houston, TX. Pause there.
16:07
All right. I love that.
16:08
The the other question I had on those 5 to 6 year olds, did you
16:12
say that was flag football or football?
16:14
Flag football, yeah. I was going to maybe stop this
16:18
recording immediately if you told me regular recording
16:20
because. No, no, no, no.
16:21
Have you ever watched the Netflix show Friday Night Tikes?
16:24
Yes, yes. San Antonio.
16:26
Texas, I would say that is in Texas I couldn't have used to or
16:28
San Antonio. I remember watching this.
16:32
I travel a lot, so I'm always watching my iPad and stuff.
16:35
And this is years ago. My, my son now is, you know, 14
16:37
in freshman in high school. He had to be, I don't know, 6-7
16:41
years old. So it's, you know, good call it
16:42
10 years ago. And, you know, I played high
16:44
school football as well. I love high school football.
16:47
I I love college football, etcetera.
16:49
But I've always kind of like, you know, I think I got really
16:51
lucky playing four years of, I guess maybe three years of high
16:55
school football, you know, no, didn't blow out any knees.
16:58
No, no documented concussions, although I think I did get one
17:03
in my senior year. But but I was always like, you
17:05
know, with my son's like, you know, if he doesn't want to play
17:07
football, that's OK. Like I don't want to do well
17:09
with my kid getting hurt, right? So he's 678 years old, whatever.
17:13
And I start watching this Friday night Tykes thing.
17:14
And I remember calling my wife up from the road.
17:17
I was at a hotel. I just finished maybe season 1
17:19
or something. And I said if there was any
17:21
percentage of me that wanted to go back on that and said, you
17:25
know, my son should play football, it is gone.
17:27
That I mean, you talk about malpractice, these coaches, I
17:33
think it was 8 year olds roughly that they were dealing with.
17:37
It's 1 and tackle. It's one thing to be aggressive
17:39
and all this kind of stuff, but the audacity of some of these
17:42
coaches while being recorded by the way they knew they were
17:44
being recorded to tell the kids to break the rules, you know,
17:48
ear hold them things that they weren't allowed to do, you know,
17:49
hit them in the ears and stuff like that.
17:51
I was just like, there's no way I'd let another adult.
17:54
I don't care male or female, do that to my child or be my child,
17:58
be the recipient of that and not go off.
18:01
And I mean legally like the whole not I mean just not good.
18:04
So you said 5 to 6 year olds. I'm like oh God we're Texas if
18:07
this dude tells me 5-6 year olds play.
18:10
No, no, no, no, no. Yeah, OK.
18:14
All right. OK.
18:16
Thank you for that. First of all, all right, so you
18:18
start coaching 5-6 year old flag football and if you're if you're
18:22
listening right now and you coached or coached tackle 8 year
18:27
old football. First of all, I hope you're
18:29
doing it correctly. Second of all, I'm not sure 8
18:31
year olds should be playing tackle football.
18:33
Third of all, what are you doing, man?
18:34
Go there's something better things to be good to these kids.
18:37
Holy cow. You find yourself like, oh, wait
18:40
a minute, like not only am I pretty good, like I kind of
18:42
enjoy this coaching gig. You're a smart guy.
18:45
So you said all right, well, what's that take?
18:47
Oh, I got to I got to be certified.
18:49
OK, let's I don't have that. I'm not sure maybe if I have the
18:51
means for that, but you find out for your brother that you that
18:58
private schools and there's a couple, right?
18:59
There's taps, there's SBC. We had, I think I think it was
19:04
in 2024-2025 somewhere in the archives, if you're listening
19:07
whatever podcast you're on, you can find this.
19:11
We actually did an interview with every a high school coach
19:14
from every state about their outdoor championships.
19:17
And so we had Stu Canner on. Yeah, everybody knows too.
19:21
Yeah, he was my Texas guy and he did a because it's a it's a
19:25
fairly confusing in Texas. You know, there's the right,
19:28
there's the general what everybody would know, like, oh,
19:29
the. UI OK, there's.
19:31
Six or seven classes? OK, this is how we qualify.
19:33
Makes sense, but then he did a great job of helping us through
19:36
TAPS and SPC and I think there's actually other little ones as
19:39
well. Yeah, we have TKL and.
19:40
Yeah, that's right. Yeah.
19:42
Yeah, There was a couple other. It gets a little confusing.
19:44
He did a fantastic job. So if you're interested, every
19:47
state from Alabama, Alaska, Wyoming, everything in between
19:50
Washington, DC, even we did a about a little less than 30
19:55
minutes on each state, a high school coach from each state
19:58
telling us how they qualify for the state meet outdoors.
20:00
It was it was fantastic. A lot of rave review.
20:02
So if you haven't heard that, make sure you go back and listen
20:04
to that. So you find out through SBC,
20:07
hey, you don't have to be certified.
20:09
So you started coaching and this seems like where the bug maybe
20:12
bites you here, this, this is your, this is your jam.
20:15
I said everybody has a jam in high school.
20:17
This is becoming a jam. Keep us.
20:19
Keep us going with that. So, so initially my, my first
20:22
response was Saint Pius, the 10th high school.
20:26
And so I was excited about that. I was like, you know what, like
20:29
I'm, I'm getting opportunity because again, I didn't run
20:30
track. So people don't know me, right?
20:33
Like they, they don't know who I am.
20:34
And so, but one thing they know is I have a passion for, for
20:38
coaching kids, right. And so that's like one of our
20:40
things, like pack is a passion, passionate about coaching kids.
20:43
And so St. Pius extends an offer for me to
20:46
come be one of their assistant coaches.
20:48
Well, I realized that St. Pius does not have a track on
20:51
campus. I'm like, that makes it kind of
20:53
hard. But again, I'm brand new.
20:54
So what do I really have to be like, Oh, I'm, I'm, I'm too good
20:58
to right. I can, I'll be picky and I'm
21:00
like, OK, but I accept. I'm like, OK, great.
21:03
This is great. I, I get the opportunity.
21:05
So I'm excited. I tell my parents, they're
21:06
excited. And then and then like a week
21:10
later, the Kincaid school emails me back.
21:14
And then if you know about Texas Kincaid school, the private
21:16
school is one of the most prestigious private schools in
21:19
Texas, around 32 grand a year to go there, very high profile.
21:24
So they e-mail me back, beautiful facility, full track
21:27
everything. And so I have to make decision,
21:29
right? I'm like, hey, I have to make
21:31
decision if I want to go and do a work at the Kincaid school or
21:35
do I want to work at Saint Pius? Both grade schools, both grade
21:38
high academic standards, which is what I also I wanted
21:40
obviously in private school. And so I'm like, you know what,
21:43
I'm going to go to Kincaid school.
21:45
And so Coach John Beckwith and Coach Ken Connor give me my
21:49
first opportunity to coach high school track and field.
21:53
Now again, this is me. I had did a little bit just
21:56
backtracking. I had worked at a charter school
21:59
with middle school coaching middle school girls.
22:02
We had five athletes at a big time district meet at Houston
22:06
Christian. You're going to hear me mention
22:07
them again. So, but at Houston Christian, we
22:10
had a, we had five kids compete and end up placing second place
22:14
at the meet with five, five kids compete.
22:17
And so that's when I realized I'm actually OK at coaching
22:20
track and field. So that's when I reached out to
22:22
Kincaid and all the other private schools.
22:25
Generally, you know, again, after 300 and something
22:28
interviews, you know, we've learned there is no one path
22:31
that gets you to where you are today.
22:33
But in general, this is a pretty tried and true statement that
22:37
when we first become coaches, we typically coach how we were
22:41
coached because that's all we know.
22:42
It's how good or bad or everything in between.
22:45
That's just what we know. And then we do, you know, some
22:47
peer-to-peer coaching education, formal coaching education,
22:50
things like that and and develop our style.
22:53
So when you first become a coach, what's your basis like
22:57
where you didn't do track? So there is nothing to fall back
22:59
and go, this is what my coach did.
23:01
How did you start to even know how to coach track and field?
23:04
When you, so I'm very inquisitive, right?
23:08
My, my mom would say that my dad's passed on now, but my mom
23:12
would say I'm very inquisitive. Anything I've ever wanted, I'm
23:15
always going to go get right. And so I'm going to lick it up.
23:18
One of our dogs we had for 16 years up until his death, I
23:22
found him on Craigslist and begged my dad to go and get
23:25
them. And so that just tells you, and
23:26
this was at like 10-11 years old.
23:28
And that just tells you kind of just like my mentality and
23:31
pretty much how I coach. It's very like we're getting
23:34
after everything we do. And so I was in, I was
23:37
inquisitive on learning track and field.
23:39
And so, you know, I started doing research, reading books,
23:43
talking to, you know, coaches that I respected and knew.
23:46
And so that's kind of pretty much how I I learned, I guess.
23:51
And then when I look back on it now, I realized I didn't know
23:54
anything. And so but, but, but what I did
23:57
have was a passion, right? When you have passion and
24:00
purpose and those two align, you can be really good at whatever
24:03
you put your mind to. And that's kind of what I preach
24:05
to my kids. I agree with that 100% CJ.
24:09
But but on on unguided passion can be dangerous, right?
24:15
I mean, in our in our area here with tracking field, you know,
24:18
kids could get injured, lose love for the sport, etcetera,
24:21
etcetera. So when you say you started
24:23
reading, let's you said reading and and talking with coaches
24:26
you, you knew and respect. Let's start with the reading.
24:28
Do you remember any specific because here's the case, CJ,
24:32
you, you, I always say to say this, you are not unique.
24:35
And what I mean by that you are very unique, CJ.
24:37
But what I mean by that is there are other people right now
24:39
listening that are about to start their first year coaching
24:42
track this year or they're in their second year and they're
24:44
like, I'm lost, you know? So do you remember any kind of
24:47
specific stuff that you read that that would be good for like
24:50
someone who's listening to be like, oh, I need to go get that
24:51
book or an article or a podcast or anything?
24:54
Do you remember anything? It's been 15 years, but I
25:02
believe, I think my one of the books was something about Tom
25:06
Tularez, right? That, that was one of them,
25:09
obviously, of course, talking to Carl Lewis, coach James Banks,
25:13
which is one of my mentors at 4, Ben Marshall, well, was at 4.
25:16
Ben Marshall won 10 state titles, so talking to him and 10
25:21
state titles in Texas is unheard of.
25:23
Anywhere but yeah. And yeah, and 5A track and
25:26
field. Let me see.
25:29
That was pretty much it honestly.
25:31
And then obviously having the guidance of, you know, going to
25:34
Kincaid and, and, and working under coaches there.
25:39
And so initially my first, my first hit, my first assistant
25:43
position was under Coach Beckwith and Coach Connor at
25:47
Kincaid. So help us understand kind of
25:51
pre Kincaid and I'm gonna call it post but but still at
25:55
Kincaid, CJ's learning and what I mean by that.
25:58
Yeah, I think you said kind of sprints and hurdles is kind of
26:01
yeah. So like before you got to
26:03
Kincaid, CJ thought I'm just going to make up stuff.
26:06
You're going to you're going to tell us the specifics.
26:08
CJ thought you were supposed to run 5 by 1 mile to make a good
26:11
tough 100m guy. But then I got to Kincaid and
26:13
was with coach James and stuff and I was like, oh, wait a
26:16
minute, OK, I'll learn. Can you kind of because I'm
26:18
because what I'm trying to paint the picture is your development.
26:20
I'm like, OK, I love track. I have passion for track and
26:24
sometimes that's that's rattled with like, well, let's do let's
26:27
make them tough. Let's go make a Mylar repeat.
26:29
And it's like it's terrible. It's not what you do.
26:31
Learn how to actually coach. So help us understand kind of
26:33
pre and post. Yeah, so, so just going back to
26:37
when I, you know, initially started coaching middle school
26:39
and I believe that, you know, I'm so grateful for them, but I
26:42
believe that they just needed someone and I applied.
26:45
And so obviously it's hard to fill middle school positions
26:47
coming in at a charter school where you have to be at there at
26:50
3:45. And obviously I'm pretty much
26:52
making my own schedule, so that worked for me.
26:54
And so, yeah, going back to, you know, starting coaching and
26:57
those kids are now in their 20s, early 20s.
27:00
And so going back, you know, just doing like we didn't have a
27:03
track at school. So what I would guess to make
27:05
probably like 6 hundreds and and everything for shorts printers.
27:11
But again, this is this is lack of knowledge, but passion,
27:14
right? And and when you can get kids to
27:16
believe in what you teach and what you, you know what what you
27:19
think is right, it'll work. And so if you actually.
27:23
Sorry to interrupt CJ, but 100% Please note this is not about
27:26
judging CJ. This is not about like CJ.
27:29
What an idiot 600. This is actually because what
27:32
this is, this is real life. You can either you're, you can
27:36
listen right now to CJ at this part of the story and go, what
27:38
a, why would he do that? That's terrible, this guy's a
27:41
terrible coach, blah, blah. Or you can realize you probably
27:44
did this too. And by the way, if you can't at
27:46
some .5 years, 10 years into your career, look back at your
27:50
first year or two and go, that's a little cringe.
27:53
What did I do? I think you might be, I think
27:54
you might be coaching wrong because that means you haven't
27:56
developed. So, so CJ, please not a single
27:59
ounce of judgement when I'm asking these questions.
28:01
I, I want to show what I'm trying to do is kind of pull
28:03
the, the, the curtain back and show this is real life, baby,
28:06
this ain't curated. You know our tweets and stuff
28:09
the. Same I know.
28:10
When I get up in front of a track clinic to speak and I talk
28:12
only about the great, the 10 state titles and all kind of
28:15
stuff, and those are great. It's like, hey, here's my warts
28:16
and all because that's what helps people develop.
28:19
So I appreciate you being very open and authentic here.
28:22
So you get to the middle school and very common.
28:25
You're like, all right, well, you know, I love tracking these
28:28
guys. Got to be tough.
28:29
It's a hard sport. We're going to do 608 feet.
28:31
Yeah, that's pretty, pretty common, unfortunately.
28:33
Sure. And so that that's what the
28:35
pretty much the workouts at the middle school level in my first
28:38
year of ever coaching track and field over 10 years ago
28:41
consisted of is like, OK, well, we need to be tough.
28:44
And, and what I didn't realize what I was doing now when I look
28:46
at it, you know, I was doing workouts that were more
28:49
consistent with 800 milers, right, right.
28:52
And then and trying to get them to turn over and, and Sprint,
28:55
which is very counterintuitive to the, the energy system that a
28:59
sprinter would use. And again again, this is me at
29:03
23 ish. So with 0 track background.
29:07
With zero track background. And again, you could have been
29:09
all excused if you said, yeah, I ran tracking.
29:11
You know, this is what coach did to me.
29:12
So this is what I did. I'd be like, right, That's,
29:14
that's right. Absolutely, you're on the right
29:17
track if you will for your development.
29:19
I love this. And so, yeah, so like I said, we
29:23
had fun. We probably were more stronger
29:25
than we were fast, right, Because we're doing workouts
29:28
that were more strength based. And like I said, more 800 mile
29:32
base, which is probably why we did pretty well in in the mile
29:34
races, not knowing that, right? Like we did better in the longer
29:39
distance races. And our sprinters, you know,
29:41
just had guts and glory and we're able to just finish and
29:44
they weren't faster. And here's what happens.
29:47
I mean, this is so common. CJI love this.
29:49
This is great. This is going to be real helpful
29:51
for people listening. So thank you for this.
29:53
There are people that will have that same experience.
29:55
They'll be doing 406 hundred repeats and they'll, their team
29:58
will start doing better than the 8:15 and maybe the two mile and
30:00
4 by 8. And they're like, it's great.
30:02
We're just not fast. And so they'll double down like
30:05
we got to get faster. So we're going to do more 600
30:07
meter repeat. Right, right.
30:09
My, my senior year, I think I've said it before.
30:12
I know I've said it before. My freshman through junior year
30:14
in high school, terrible track coaching.
30:17
Great track coach. Dennis Anderson was my track
30:19
coach. Loved him to death.
30:20
He was a thrower at my alma mater, Troy University.
30:22
Loved him to death. Had no clue how to coach him.
30:24
We literally every day would run our events and and be done.
30:28
And not only that, we'd run them in the order of the meet.
30:30
So literally every day, the 4 by 8, we did our thing first and
30:33
then the guys would run 100 and then, you know, we'd go do the
30:37
four. Whatever.
30:37
Yeah, it's terrible. Obviously didn't get very good
30:40
and I didn't have the genetics anyway.
30:42
Senior year, whole new coaching staff.
30:44
John Gross is our track coach. Love him to death.
30:46
John actually end up going to become the head football coach
30:49
at Jacksonville State and took him to the championship game.
30:51
Love coach Gross and he's different.
30:53
He's like, I remember telling him that was our workouts and he
30:56
was like, that's just what do you mean we're not?
30:58
Doing that right, Right. Here's what we did every single
31:01
day, Every single day. 400 meter repeats for everybody.
31:07
Our 800 milers got better. In fact, kid was a year younger.
31:12
Me, Kevin Betts, love Kevin. His daughter's a standout track
31:15
athlete now down in Alabama. He goes on to win the state
31:18
meeting the mile his senior year.
31:20
Year after I get done right, it was just like, well, of course
31:23
we're probably pretty good 800 meter milers for doing corner EP
31:28
Nowhere in the mind until you start doing coaching, education
31:32
and talking with other people. You start going, oh, that's not
31:35
what the 100m demands. That's.
31:37
Not no wonder we're not very good at the four by one.
31:40
We're. Talking.
31:40
We're talking. But guess what?
31:42
There's no event that's called tough, so we got to stop
31:44
coaching towards tough, start coaching to the event.
31:48
When did you? When you got to Kincaid, and
31:52
maybe it was a little bit before that, so you tell me where, what
31:54
I'm curious about, you had to have sat down with someone,
31:57
whether it's Carl Lewis, the coach of DK, and either you
32:01
started it or somehow as they're talking about training, you were
32:04
like maybe, maybe out of pure embarrassment, you just didn't
32:07
mention it all. I don't know.
32:09
I'm trying to find a story, a real story where you said, Oh
32:13
well, I do 600 meter repeats. And they would have been like,
32:16
wait, what? Like was that?
32:18
Did that ever occur or how? Did that.
32:19
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So so ironically enough, the
32:25
girls head coach at King K happened to be a science
32:28
teacher, right. And so now we're talking more
32:31
science based approach to training.
32:33
And you know, I'm thinking again, we're thinking guts and
32:36
glory. Mondays need to be gone.
32:38
So Monday they need to be on the ground throwing up because if
32:41
they're not throwing up, knowing that now we've taxed all energy
32:44
since they can't do nothing. And so I get there and I'm like,
32:47
and coach is like, well, well, coach, if they're if they're, if
32:50
they're on the ground rolled over on Mondays, you know,
32:52
getting nothing on them on Tuesdays, right.
32:54
And, and then the, the week, the the rest of the week going.
32:57
And so and, and again, he was very it, it, it was, it was such
33:00
a good experience because it wasn't a judgement zone, but it
33:03
was more of a, you know, we, we hired you because we know
33:06
Wednesday and your passion. That's what we seen through the
33:08
interview. And we can, we can, we can teach
33:10
you everything. That's exactly right.
33:12
We we talk about that here at, at at Gill about you can teach
33:16
the skills. Boy, I can't teach passion.
33:19
I can't teach curiosity. I can't teach anymore.
33:22
You know, I can teach the skills.
33:24
That's exactly right. So they saw and you're like, oh,
33:27
dude, he's spitting fire. He's he's a he's passionate
33:29
about helping young people. All right, we can teach them how
33:31
to coach. That's almost the easy part,
33:34
actually. So, yeah, love that.
33:36
Love it. And and so and so, so I started,
33:38
so I started, you know, obviously learning more about
33:41
the energy system, acceleration patterns and all of those
33:43
things. Did that just, like, blow your
33:45
mind? It did it.
33:46
It really did. Like there's an.
33:47
Actual process to it. It did.
33:50
And so when I look at my training program I'm looking at
33:52
now, we're right now currently in my current school when our
33:55
general prep phase. And so now we're really working
33:57
on general, general. Things and so.
34:00
Right. Oh yeah.
34:01
Like, Oh yeah, our season's broken up to so many phases now,
34:04
micro and macro phases. And so things that didn't happen
34:08
when I first started coaching, right?
34:09
Like it was was a phase. What is a, you know, what is
34:12
acceleration? What is tempo?
34:13
Shoot, I was on tempo workouts every day, didn't even realize.
34:17
And then trying to wonder why I can't go and crack 12 seconds in
34:20
the Sprint because we're not sprinting.
34:23
And so, so that that was the fun part, you know, getting under
34:26
them the first year in learning. As you started and again, CJ, I
34:30
am so this tells me so much about you that you can be so
34:35
open and transparent and and be able to laugh at yourself like
34:39
that too is a huge like green flag.
34:43
You know, we always talk about red flags and people.
34:44
There's a green flag when someone could be like, man, I
34:46
was so dumb. You know what I was doing?
34:49
Thank God that someone took me out of the wing and topped me.
34:51
And then and then to have the humility to listen and go, whoa,
34:55
OK, that is right. I wasn't wrong here.
34:58
I just think that says so much about you, CJ.
35:00
So I really appreciate that. So as your is the science
35:03
teachers pulling you over talking about, you know, ATP and
35:05
all those kind of things did as you started doing, you know,
35:09
changing up your workouts to to this a new learning that you had
35:14
there, did you start seeing results?
35:17
Absolutely. And so also during and I'll get
35:22
more into it. I also have a summer track
35:23
program as well. And so we start to see results
35:26
in that and, and me and the founders of the club, when we
35:29
all started together, we were talking about, you know, we
35:31
first started our track club and we were doing 6 hundreds.
35:34
And as we've grown in our training and, and we've seen
35:37
results from national champions to national records to all kind
35:41
of things and, and, and we've had 50 plus all Americans broken
35:45
national records and all that. But yes, it, it is, it's
35:47
indicative of the growth in the coaching as well as the, the
35:52
preparation of the athletes because they have to run right
35:55
and then buying into the program and everything that we're
35:57
selling. And when those things come
35:58
together, I think it's a recipe for a very, very good, good
36:01
program. And so that's so cool, man.
36:03
Holy cow, that's. Just so funny to me because we
36:06
like to to take what we just talked about.
36:08
There was your development, you know, your natural inclination
36:11
and coaching and then the development of what I would call
36:13
actual, you know, you know, truly coaching track and field,
36:16
specifically in our, you know, short speed events.
36:20
That is so common, dude. I mean, we like to like not talk
36:23
about like, Oh no, no, you know, coaches come out of the womb
36:27
knowing, you know, fly 30s acceleration.
36:29
It's like, no, that that that's a that has to be taught.
36:32
Yeah, that's why I I'm such a big believer in coaching
36:36
education and clinics and peer-to-peer, you know, calling
36:40
some, I mean, you know, they have the ear of someone like a
36:43
car Lewis and things like that. It's just so valuable to be able
36:47
to hear some of the things. And I know like recently we had
36:51
Curtis Taylor from Oregon on the show, an amazing man, love him
36:55
to death. And, you know, he talked about a
36:57
little bit of what's the right word here, a little bit of a
37:01
disillusionment of like, when he's at clinics and stuff, you
37:03
know, coaches will be listening and all that kind of stuff.
37:07
And then as soon as he says a workout, that's when they start
37:08
scribbling. And I think that's OK.
37:11
Not. Because I think they should go
37:13
take that workout and immediately do that workout.
37:15
But it's it's hard to express what proper Sprint training is
37:20
without a workout. You know, you can say like, oh,
37:22
you should do acceleration training.
37:23
OK. Well, what does that mean?
37:25
Well, that's 10 to 40 meters. OK.
37:28
So do I just run 140 meters? Do I run 140 meters?
37:31
What we'll do is we'll do 5 out of box and like, oh, OK.
37:36
Yeah. You see, it's hard to express
37:38
some of these very, you know, what we're doing in track and
37:42
field, which is different from other sport.
37:43
This is where we are different from other sports.
37:45
We are we're not trying to learn plays.
37:48
We're not trying to figure out where's the center go on on this
37:51
play. We're not trying to figure out
37:52
what the right tackle does on this play with, you know, what
37:56
the signals are to steal. But we're not learning any of
37:57
that. It's 100 meters or, you know,
37:59
the the most we do is like 4 by 1.
38:01
Like you know that that takes some I guess that's a play, you
38:04
know, right, right. But we're really what we're
38:06
doing is we're trying to take the body and say, OK, you can
38:08
Max run in this example, 100 meter dash in 11 seconds.
38:11
OK, what do I do to change that body to where it runs 1095 and
38:15
then 1090 and 1080? You know, that's, that's hard.
38:19
That takes as a coach, that takes training and teaching.
38:22
So what you're expressing here is so normal.
38:24
And I love it and I love to be able to, we haven't had this
38:26
opportunity in a long time. I love being able to have this
38:28
opportunity to to kind of pull back the veneer and show real
38:33
coaching development, man. So I absolutely love this,
38:35
absolutely love this. Okay, you're at Kincaid.
38:38
You are. I mean, this is a pretty
38:39
instrumental time frame for your your overall up to this point
38:43
career. Tell us how how when at Kincaid.
38:46
So so at Kincaid. We end up winning 2 SBC state
38:50
titles, breaking a four by one state record, the 100 state
38:55
record, 200 state record, and come a really close to the 4 by
38:58
4 state record. And So what I didn't mention
39:03
initially is that when I got hired at Kincaid, I was hired as
39:07
the sprint's coach. And so as much as Coach Connor
39:12
talked about, you know, you know, taught me everything and
39:17
about the energy systems and, and all those things, he threw
39:20
me in the fire Year one. It was you're going to be the
39:23
sprints coach and it's up to you to, you know, get the sprints to
39:28
where they're going, right? And so we did just that, right?
39:31
I was blessed to come in with a junior who had already went, a
39:37
junior girl who had already went 11-7 in 23 seconds.
39:41
And so now it's now it's how do we get her faster than 11/7,
39:44
right? And how do we get her, you know,
39:46
low 20 threes. So we achieved that, did you
39:49
know? Like when you got there.
39:52
And so you get handed this 11/7. Did you know, like how precious
39:57
that is? And what I mean by that is, and
39:59
I know it's easy for you to get a little jaded in Texas because
40:04
11-7 might be the 40th fastest kid over, right, Right, right.
40:07
In Texas, but 11. Seven will.
40:09
Win the state meet for you know, there's if there's 50 states,
40:14
most states have more than one to division.
40:16
I mean, there's got to be I should I should actually do this
40:18
one day. There's got to be somewhere in
40:20
the neighborhood of 200 to 250 ish state meets when you talk
40:24
about classes, right? Yeah, Illinois, we have 3.
40:27
Heck, Texas, we have. 7 plus the tabs and I mean so that you know
40:31
maybe it's closer to 311 seven will win 200 of the 300 and then
40:38
play 2nd and you know 90% of the rest of them right you realize
40:41
like. Oh wow, this.
40:43
This girl's already really good. Did you know how precious so so
40:48
just being? Around summer track, I did
40:51
because remember my brother at this time, Yeah, at this time,
40:55
he's now 20, in college running. And so he's ran since he was six
40:59
years old. So I've always knew like track
41:01
stats, I've always been a statistician.
41:04
This is before it was so easily accessible.
41:06
We used to go, I forgot the name of the website, but it was like
41:08
a blue website and they would update it like every so often to
41:12
where people ranked. And so like when my brother used
41:14
to go to Junior Olympics, we'll know, hey, y'all are coming in
41:17
and like 4th, 4th coming in to the relay.
41:19
And so I've always known track stats And so I think that was
41:22
also a a pretty big, I guess, you know, green flag, if you
41:26
will. I think it's huge.
41:27
I only. Before I coached college, I
41:30
coached the boys high school and so I knew boys times decently.
41:33
I probably actually didn't, but I thought I did.
41:35
I had no clue because I started thinking I was like, I got to
41:37
start recruiting girls over here.
41:39
I don't even know where do I start?
41:41
I have no clue. Right, Right.
41:42
And so I had to. Start learning, yeah.
41:44
Yeah, yeah. So that I think, I think that
41:46
alone, you're right, kind of helps you because it helps set
41:48
the tone of like, oh, developmental versus oh, you're
41:51
11 seven, you're elite. I know there's way faster than
41:53
11 seven, but 11/7 you're elite in high school, Yeah.
41:57
And so. And so, yeah, so same with you.
42:00
You know, I was very well versed on boy times and then but
42:03
learning that if you're going under 24 seconds as a girl, you
42:07
are the most elite in the nation, right?
42:09
And again, you know, so coming in brand new coach, I'm young.
42:13
And so I think that had that that was one of my pluses that
42:17
I'm young. And so I was relatable to the
42:19
kids, right? And so that that was the easy
42:21
transition for them is that that was a young coach coming in.
42:25
And so they kind of bought in pretty early to what, you know,
42:28
what I was teaching, even being very well, very new into the
42:32
into the profession and even newer into high school with
42:36
kids. Did you have to?
42:39
Prove yourself. And what I mean by that is your
42:42
brother ran for Houston, right? Right.
42:43
So if your brother and I and I don't, your brother's not the
42:47
the star of the show you are. So I don't want to get into your
42:49
brother. But if your brother goes to
42:50
coach, track and field, he has a little bit of a, a proof calling
42:55
card, right? Like, hey, I ran for Houston.
42:57
Sit up and listen to him a little bit that way.
42:59
You don't have that. You didn't run high.
43:00
School, etcetera. Did you did these kids who
43:03
you're related with on an age basis?
43:05
I get that. Was there ever like, well, so
43:09
where did you run? Wait a minute, You didn't run
43:10
like was there ever that like you had to like, hey man, that's
43:12
not the be all end all to be a coach.
43:15
So it was that. Right, but it wasn't like a it
43:19
wasn't like that was like a proof thing, right.
43:21
It was like, OK, well, did you run?
43:22
I was like, no, all right, you're cool anyway, so and I've
43:25
always had that right. It was always, my kids have
43:27
always gravitated to me pretty quickly.
43:31
You know, at the time we kind of still listen to the same music.
43:35
Not so much now, but at the time we listen to the same music.
43:39
So I'm a Segway guy and. So you said that.
43:42
It made me think I was just down.
43:44
I was just down in Texas, actually, at Kenny Roseman's
43:47
place, you know? Kenny.
43:48
Yeah. So.
43:49
I was down, yeah. So I was down there hanging out
43:51
with. Him and John Drummond and John
43:53
Drummond and I are, you know, closest to the same age.
43:55
I think he's a little bit older than I am and, and Kenny's a
43:58
little bit younger. And the big debate all night at
44:01
Kenny's location was about music.
44:03
And so like JD and I, and it was JD's birthday.
44:06
John and I are talking about, you know, music from our, you
44:09
know, Tribe Called Quest, and you know that kind of.
44:13
Stuff and Kenny's talking. About music that I'm like, I
44:15
don't even. And what's funny is that some
44:17
athletes came in to work out and Kenny was like, I don't know
44:20
even what they're listening to. Like what is it?
44:21
And it was. Like now it's just generate, you
44:25
know what you say this generation.
44:27
And I I agree with that. But you know our.
44:28
Parents said the same thing about my you know, what is this
44:31
tribe called? What are you in?
44:33
What is it? And.
44:35
I'm being a little. Fake here.
44:36
I did. I absolutely listen.
44:37
I grew up on rap music, so I absolutely do.
44:39
Those guys and gals had all their CDs and such.
44:43
I am a huge Vanilla Ice fan. So yes, because everybody right
44:46
now is yelling at me that knows me goes why isn't he mentioned?
44:49
Yes, my parents made fun of me for listen to vanilla ice,
44:52
etcetera, and now I'm just making fun of my kids music.
44:55
It's just a I do not. Get today's rap music.
44:59
No, I do get today's Christian hip hop music.
45:01
That's what I look like. But this you know what they
45:05
call? It mumble rapper I don't know
45:06
what it's I. Well, I learned a new I learned
45:10
literally new, new, new verbiage what we opened seven weeks ago.
45:15
So I've learned new verbiage in the last seven weeks.
45:17
Are you like, I don't want to jump ahead here, but are you?
45:20
In the six, seven phase of life with your kids.
45:23
Do you hear that, Mike? Let me tell you.
45:25
We had our. We had.
45:27
We had our, it's called Newcoming because obviously we
45:30
can't have homecoming because we don't have nobody to come home.
45:34
So we had our Newcoming parade. You know, I mentioned the whole
45:37
green track thing, right? And so the elementary, the
45:40
middle school, the junior high, all this, we shut down the camp,
45:43
all campuses for about an hour and the high school athletics
45:47
programs and clubs all lined up and we, we threw out candy and
45:51
all that. And Mike, the amount of 6/7 I
45:53
heard, literally if I could count, it's probably over 1000
45:57
times that I heard walking in that parade.
46:00
My ears almost exploded. I've got a freshman and a 6th
46:02
grader. And they, they say it almost
46:05
ironically, I think. And my wife is a substitute
46:08
teacher and she's like Mike. It's all they she goes, I'll be
46:12
doing something and just someone will yell out six, seven,
46:15
literally. And and and so when?
46:17
We're doing roll call. We'll be like so and and I teach
46:20
PE as well. And so you know, they're in roll
46:23
call lines and so we're in lines of 8.
46:25
And so when I'd be like, who's number six and they'll be like
46:28
7. I'm just like, dude, please do
46:30
you know it's from a song? Yes, it's from a song and then
46:33
it. Became popular I think on
46:34
TikTok. I'm just like I had, I had to go
46:37
so I had Alexa. Play it the song and I was just
46:40
like, again, it was one of the songs where I was like, I don't,
46:42
I don't understand this song. And then he says, you know, the
46:45
6-7, but it's not like it's the it's not the title of the song.
46:49
It feels like it's almost like a throwaway part of the chorus.
46:53
But what's amazing to me is that is it has become this meme,
46:58
right? This real life.
46:59
The kids are saying it all the time.
47:01
I I watch. I'm also, you know, I'm a big
47:04
dork, so I'm a big Fortnite player.
47:06
You know Fortnite, Yeah, I play a lot, right?
47:08
And so I watched this streamer Courage.
47:09
JD and he's funny and he was doing this this the thing inside
47:14
the game and he's trying to get as many people to follow him or
47:16
whatever right on the on the in the game and he would start
47:19
counting. It was all the audio was on so
47:21
you could hear all the other players and he was counting.
47:22
He was trying to count like the 25 people or whatever that were
47:25
behind him. And he goes, you know, 123-4567
47:27
and all the the audio 6. And I was like, it's like I was
47:32
like courage, just count. Like skip the seven.
47:33
Like just go 68910 and you'll know there's one more.
47:37
But stop saying success because you kept doing over.
47:39
And I was like, it's just, it's brain.
47:42
It's, it's a movement for sure. But what's funny is you know.
47:46
In your time frame, you had some stupid stuff.
47:49
You said that your parents were like, what are you talking
47:51
about? And you're like, oh, no, it's
47:51
just cool to say. And I had it on my what's
47:54
fascinating to me, this, this fascinates me.
47:56
It's one thing today you mentioned that, you know,
47:58
somewhere some freaking TikTok influencer picked up, started
48:02
saying 6-7 over and over. And it just, you know, everybody
48:04
in America has TikTok and all this kind of stuff, right?
48:07
In my day and age, there were memes and themes that were that
48:13
everybody knew, but we didn't have social media, We didn't
48:15
have Internet like that one. That one always fascinates me.
48:18
It's like, how did that spread? Like I I was in little no man's
48:22
land Alabama and I knew about stuff in the New York and LA and
48:27
had no no Internet. Like how did?
48:30
I learn those. Today it's much easier, but it
48:33
that's just yeah, this 6 seven thing is, you know, this is my
48:38
old man yelling at the clouds. Stop saying this.
48:41
It's. So dumb and it's every.
48:43
Age. It's from like 5.
48:44
To like 18, I'm just like, Oh my God, I didn't expect it in high
48:49
school. I knew, I knew obviously the the
48:51
younger kids, but I'm like, we're in high school saying this
48:53
like if, if there was some. Behind it something behind like
49:00
it's this funny music video in the 6th and 7th pick of the
49:03
basketball like okay, it's just the.
49:06
Guy just says 6. Set.
49:08
And it's just like just you know what, You know, here's what I
49:12
think it is. I think kids are really stinking
49:15
smart and I think they know this will irritate old guys like me
49:18
and we call you an old. Guy CJ Oh yeah, no.
49:22
You ain't in high. School, so you become old
49:24
automatically. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
49:25
I think they're doing it just because.
49:26
They know we will. Just sit there and roll our
49:28
eyes. I truly do.
49:29
And you know what? Honestly, if that's what they
49:31
want to do, I'd much rather them do that than some of the other
49:33
bad things that they could do for a gym to make our eyes roll.
49:36
So I did not think. I would talk.
49:39
For 5 minutes, have a conversation for 5 minutes today
49:42
about 6-7. I love this podcast, man.
49:46
It's Friday. We've got a good college
49:49
football schedule. You're probably actually this is
49:51
this will publish in November, so you got to go back.
49:54
We're not even in October when CJ are actually doing this.
49:57
So CJ, I'm just having a great time.
50:00
I'm so sorry this is a little bit past our norm of how we do
50:03
things. I appreciate your patience.
50:05
You're, you're awesome. You're you're, you're obviously
50:08
I'm vibing with you and maybe vice versa.
50:09
It's like, oh, I can just have a conversation with this dude.
50:11
So I'm grateful for this. OK, where are we though?
50:14
Because. I do want to keep your journey
50:15
going. You're in Kincaid, you guys are
50:17
doing awesome. You're winning state titles,
50:19
You're setting state records. How long were you there?
50:23
Where'd you go next and why did you leave?
50:25
It sounds like you guys are kicking butt, right?
50:27
So so now. My confidence is up right, Like
50:31
we've won two titles, Boys are doing well.
50:34
I also coach football at KK, so we've won two or three titles at
50:37
the time. They're starting receiver at
50:40
Georgia right now. Dillon Bell, number 86 for
50:42
Georgia, is currently predicted to enter NFL draft next year.
50:47
Josh Williams was our running back.
50:49
He's playing for the buck in the years right now.
50:51
So we had how big of a school? 800.
50:55
Kids, Yeah. But but we started.
51:00
So it's we started five years old and go to 18.
51:02
So probably about 1000 kids because like 200 per what about
51:06
just 9? Like 9 through 12?
51:08
What would you guess to me 9 through 12 like?
51:10
455 hundred, yeah, OK. That's about what?
51:12
What my husband was. I think, yeah, SO450500.
51:16
That's we're doing well. Yeah, we're doing well overall.
51:18
It's a great school, great culture, people are great.
51:22
The lunch room serves lamb chops with grape Jelly.
51:26
I mean, I grate Jelly. Mint Jelly.
51:28
No, no, no culinary chef mint Jelly.
51:33
That was my first time ever having lamb toss with mint Jelly
51:35
and I've never went back since. So not good.
51:39
No, it was great. Like no I've.
51:41
Never gone back. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
51:43
Never backtracked. I'm always going for the land.
51:45
Yeah, yeah. And so.
51:47
Curious. Holy cow.
51:48
So. We used to have those reheated
51:50
pizzas. That's all I had in high school.
51:51
No, no, no, no, no. They had like.
51:53
They had a Starbucks, but they called it Falcon Bucks.
51:56
And so that that was what kids can go earn their breaks and go
52:00
get the Falcon Starbucks and all those things.
52:04
So I don't want to be that old man, yell at the clouds, but.
52:06
These kids are so soft. Are you kidding me?
52:09
It's. They are definitely blessed
52:10
beyond measure for sure. Good for them.
52:12
That's true, yeah. And so.
52:14
So at the time I'm also starting, you know, substitute
52:17
teaching because again, you know, eventually I want to
52:19
become a teacher. You know, I'm now enrolled in
52:21
college. I'm at Texas Southern University
52:24
at, in studying Health Sciences, then focusing on getting my
52:28
teacher certification. So that's what I'm doing during
52:30
this time at, at Kincaid. And so graduate from TSU with
52:35
with my bachelor's in in Health Sciences and then I go on to.
52:42
Think it is much harder to go to college when there's a
52:48
separation after high school, it's much easier.
52:51
You know, June of your senior year, you graduate high school
52:54
and you start in August or September or whatever.
52:56
It's like, oh, it's just I've been what I've been doing for
52:57
the past four years and really the past 12 years when you go
53:00
into the workforce and start coach, like you got a career
53:04
going here, right? Right.
53:05
Kind of not interrupted necessarily, but make it harder
53:09
like you on top of all that to go back to college and get a
53:12
degree. I think that's super hard.
53:14
So bravo to you, brother. That's that's again, that says a
53:18
lot about you of like, oh, I have a goal in mind.
53:22
I'm going to go do that. May not do it the way you think
53:24
Traditionally, you know, straight into high school.
53:26
I'm going to get a degree though, and from a great
53:28
university, Texas Southern. That's so cool that that's
53:31
inspirational to me because I I can never do that.
53:34
I could I'm done. I'm not going back to school.
53:36
Yeah, yeah, that's awesome, dude.
53:37
So you go back and you get like a Health Science education type
53:40
of yeah. So it it's it's.
53:42
Under the education umbrella, but I couldn't get my, I
53:47
couldn't get my certification in school.
53:49
I couldn't go to the College of Education because I was coaching
53:52
already. And so the hours that would have
53:54
been spent on that would have just been too much of my
53:56
counselor at TSU was like, you're coaching.
53:59
So you would have to stop that because you wouldn't be able to
54:01
do that. And so she told me about the
54:03
alternative teacher certification program.
54:05
So I'm I'm in there studying for that and, and I get my
54:07
certification in PE. Well, so I have it.
54:10
And so, so Fast forward five years, I'm in Kincaid five years
54:15
and my head football coach, coach learned it forever
54:18
grateful to him. You know, I've worked under him
54:20
and he's like he randomly text me.
54:22
I'm at a summer track meet again.
54:24
And now I'll talk more about my summer club and how it's
54:26
impacted, you know, my career as well.
54:29
So, but I'm at a summer track meet.
54:31
I think it was actually qualifying and I'm on the field.
54:33
I'm at the 50 yard line. I'll never forget this day at
54:35
Barnett Stadium in Houston, TX. I I get I get a call, he calls
54:40
me. Now coach laundry.
54:41
Don't call nobody. He usually texts you whatever
54:43
you want because he's busy, right?
54:44
So here, football coach, you know, so he called me.
54:47
I'm like, because Lawrence called me.
54:49
Am I getting fired? And so he called me.
54:51
He's like, what's up, man? You ready to be a head coach?
54:55
And I'm thinking he's saying to Kincaid again, you're like, why
54:58
would you leave Kincaid mint Jelly with lamb chops?
55:00
Why would I ever leave there? And he's like, I mean, he's
55:03
like, Are you ready to be a head coach?
55:05
I'm like, yeah, you know, I, I think I'm pretty good at this
55:09
now. And so he's like one of my
55:13
buddies has just got the athletic director position at
55:17
Houston Christian High School and he's looking for a head
55:21
track coach. And I told him about you.
55:24
So then I'm like, OK, yeah, you know, great.
55:27
You know, he, he, he sends him my information cause Cherry
55:31
protocols me 20 minutes later. He was like, hey man, you come
55:35
highly recommended from coach Larned.
55:37
He's a good friend of mine. And so I want to bring you in
55:39
for an interview. And so he brings me in for an
55:42
interview And, you know, we, we sit up there and it was more
55:45
like this, It was a conversation, wasn't really an
55:47
interview. It, it was more about my passion
55:50
for Christ and what he's done for my life and what his
55:54
expectations for me, for young people are.
55:57
What he doesn't know is I'm already riding off of a high of,
56:01
you know, being a, a coming from winning SBC state titles.
56:04
And again, Houston Christian is in our conference, right?
56:07
And I'm thinking Houston Christian ain't won nothing.
56:09
We've been running against Houston Christian for five
56:10
years. They ain't even been in the mix,
56:12
right? Like it's not even close.
56:14
And so, you know, the conversation was more Christ
56:16
center based and what his expectations is for a young man
56:20
like myself leading Christian, young men and women.
56:23
And so that was the focus of the conversation.
56:25
And because he already said, you know, he's heard about me.
56:27
He believes in anybody recommended from people that
56:30
that he knows, you know, he believes in them.
56:33
And then he also obviously said he can sense my passion.
56:35
And so the conversation was great.
56:37
You know, I was hired, went through all the hiring process.
56:40
And after that, I remember that night after the conversation, I
56:43
went and looked up Houston Christian stats and what they
56:45
had done finishing 17th place at the conference meets.
56:49
They meet and it it just was not great.
56:53
So I get to Houston Christian, I assemble, you know, my track
56:55
staff, distance coach end up being my frat brother from
56:58
college who graduated years before me, but we're still in
57:02
the same chapter stand fraternity.
57:04
He ended up being my distance coach.
57:06
And I bring in one of my female friends who coached with me at I
57:10
mean, who went to school with me at Texas Southern.
57:12
She was a 52400 runner at Texas southern.
57:15
So I'm bringing in people you know who know track and field,
57:18
right, because I, you know, the head coach is only as good as
57:20
your assistant. So I bring her in I bring in
57:23
another really good coach who won district titles at Fort Ben
57:26
Austin to come coach with me as well.
57:30
Coach my jumps and because my all my jumpers by bringing a
57:33
hurdle coach who hurdle who's a who's a heads athlete at college
57:38
when she was in college. So again, I got a whole staff of
57:41
everybody who ran track but me, right?
57:44
I got 5 coaches who ran track. So our first year I'm coaching
57:48
sprints. Now.
57:50
This is where the buy in was a little bit harder, right?
57:53
Because it's when I got to Houston Christian.
57:56
This was their third year of having a new coach every year.
58:00
And I'm coming from a successful program.
58:02
So it's a little pulling tub both ways, right?
58:05
I'm pulling because I'm like, hey, y'all need to fall in line
58:08
because I come from Kincaid. And basically we hooked up on
58:11
y'all all all these years. And then it's pull on their end
58:15
because now these kids have now had three different leadership
58:19
head coaches in three years. And one thing I know about kids,
58:21
they need consistency just about everybody, right?
58:24
And so the first year we have some success on the girls side.
58:28
We actually end up finishing third at the state conference
58:31
meet, which is the best finish in the school's history.
58:34
The school opened in 1993 and that was the best finish in the
58:38
school history. And so the girls do really,
58:39
really well. We finished third.
58:42
We win a few races. We won the four by one, did well
58:45
in that. Fun fact, I didn't lose a four
58:47
by one that I've coached in four years because again, it's
58:50
rolling over from Kincaid to now, you know, at Houston
58:53
Christian. So we didn't lose a four by one
58:55
for about four years when when I coached 1.
58:58
And so we do well. We have that first year, we do
59:01
well and we have one of our girls end up going to run track
59:06
in college and then one of our male jumpers end up going to be
59:10
a triple jumper in college. So we do well on that and we end
59:14
up breaking that first year. I think we broke 9 school
59:17
records the first year and then the fun then then, you know, so
59:22
now people, the kids are starting to believe even they're
59:24
buying in. Then year 2 we have some
59:28
transfer boys come in and also fun fact we end up breaking the
59:35
4 by 4 SBC state record and it ends up being the fastest ever
59:41
private school 4x4 time ever. Ran three out of the four kids.
59:45
On that team all. End up going to run in college.
59:47
The 4th kid didn't run in college because he's now still a
59:50
senior there now. So at the time he was a
59:52
sophomore, right. And so one one of the kids,
59:56
Jordan Ellie Stewart, who's currently now at the Air Force
59:59
Academy playing football and running track.
1:00:01
He ends up winning the hundred 200 and the 400 at the SBC meet.
1:00:06
I find out from one of the long term coaches at Saint Mark's
1:00:10
that that has never been done in in private school.
1:00:13
And so he ends up winning all four of them.
1:00:15
He ends up splitting 46 two at at Texas Relays ends up running
1:00:20
20.8. To win a 220.8, I don't care
1:00:25
where it's at. That's a legit time right?
1:00:28
Wins. Most state.
1:00:29
Meets right outside 6/8 right. And so.
1:00:33
So we do that, that's in year 2. Then Julian end up going to
1:00:38
prayer view to run and Dylan ends up going to Dallas Baptist.
1:00:42
All four of them and I mean all three of them end up running
1:00:45
under 22 seconds. I think Dylan and Julian end up
1:00:48
running 21 seven and Jordan runs 20.8.
1:00:51
And then Sam is still currently at at Houston Christian now in
1:00:56
his senior year now. And so that's, that's what year
1:00:59
2 was like. And then by this time, we've now
1:01:01
broken 16 school records. Had to be just over the moon
1:01:07
that you showed back up the second year.
1:01:09
You know, I, I think you're spot on when you talk about kids need
1:01:13
consistency, right? That that is typically what that
1:01:17
is. One of the factors of whether an
1:01:19
athlete, how they progress or not is consistency and training.
1:01:23
Some of that stuff is held back by injuries, and then sometimes
1:01:27
it's by a different coach every season or every two seasons.
1:01:31
So, you know, I could see where there was pushback in that first
1:01:35
year because it's like, yeah, dude, we just got to wait you
1:01:37
out one year, then there'll be a new guy.
1:01:38
Like that's what we've had our whole whole time, you know?
1:01:40
So I think they had to be over the moon.
1:01:42
What I'm interested in, you know, it's still very young in
1:01:44
this career. What were some of the
1:01:46
differences you noticed at Kincaid being an assistant
1:01:49
coach? Now you're the head coach at
1:01:51
Houston. What were some of the
1:01:53
differences you noticed that whether it was how you had to
1:01:56
coach, how you had to comport yourself around the staff or the
1:01:59
team, maybe there's differences inside the athletic department
1:02:03
itself as far as what expectations of an assistant
1:02:06
coach versus a head coach. What did you notice the
1:02:08
difference between assistant coach and then three years
1:02:11
later, five years later becoming a head coach?
1:02:14
You know the biggest difference obviously is.
1:02:15
Dealing with parents, right, because assistant coaches don't
1:02:18
deal with parents like that's the parents are not emailing you
1:02:22
when about anything, right. And so where I grew as a coach
1:02:25
and where the support was great for me was with coach Pearl, the
1:02:29
athletic director, you know, guiding me as far as how to deal
1:02:34
as a head coach, because again, he knows that, you know, I've
1:02:37
done well as an assistant coach at Kincaid, but he also knows
1:02:40
that this is now my first head coaching opportunity.
1:02:42
And I've never well, no, so so I have dealt with parents because
1:02:47
the, the I guess the benefit that I had is that again, we've
1:02:51
had a summer program and so we've had to deal with parents.
1:02:54
You know, obviously relays are are the end all be all for some
1:02:57
people and nobody gets mad about open events.
1:03:00
But once relays come, it's now, you know, a tug and pull.
1:03:04
And so that was the, you know, the benefit I had having the
1:03:07
summer program. So I've had the opportunity to
1:03:09
deal with parents before. And then just from an
1:03:12
administrative side, making sure scheduling is right, making sure
1:03:15
buses are, you know, ordered in and ready to go, making sure
1:03:19
meals are, are ready, making sure, you know, and, and I'm,
1:03:22
and even now and then a Houston Christian, I've always been like
1:03:25
this. I guess you would say within my
1:03:26
head coaching journey is that, you know, I've always wanted to
1:03:30
make sure that I, I put coaches on staff and hire coaches who
1:03:34
wanted to coach and didn't want me to just give you a workout.
1:03:38
And so I've been blessed to have that opportunity to have coaches
1:03:41
who knew their events and I've had the opportunity to only
1:03:45
focus on the 1/2 and 400, which has been my, you know, I guess
1:03:49
you'll say best coaching events. And so I've had hurdle coaches,
1:03:53
I've had throws coaches, I've had, you know, all coaches who
1:03:56
loved what they coached and were able to thrive in that arena
1:04:00
because you, I've never, I forgot who said it, but you want
1:04:04
people to want to work for you. You know, you don't want to be
1:04:07
somebody when they get out their car, they just take a deep side
1:04:10
and it's just like, oh man, here we go again.
1:04:13
And now this is where where we're at.
1:04:15
And so the way to do that is give coaches the opportunity to
1:04:19
coach, be very commutative with coaches, make sure your
1:04:22
expectations are set and make sure they understand that we're
1:04:25
all here for a common goal. And I think once that happens,
1:04:28
then you can become successful. I think that's where a lot of
1:04:31
our success at Houston Christian came from.
1:04:33
Like I said with Jordan, you know, winning 3 sprints and you
1:04:37
know, just the whole team aspect of that, it's just everybody be
1:04:41
on the same page. We didn't, we ended up winning
1:04:43
the title because we were just outnumbered, right?
1:04:45
We're a much, we were a much smaller school.
1:04:48
And funny enough, you mentioned my brother earlier.
1:04:50
My brother was actually the spring coach at his alma mater
1:04:52
Episcopal. And they won like 3 titles
1:04:55
back-to-back to back. They end up he that he was there
1:04:58
when they had Carson Gordon, the triple jumper who jumped 50 plus
1:05:02
feet. I think he jumped like 52 feet
1:05:03
in high school. And then they had some more
1:05:05
elite sprinters. One of my summer track kids, and
1:05:08
I'll get on that story in a little bit.
1:05:10
DJ Taylor, who end up running 36 seconds, 300 hurdles, being a
1:05:14
top three top three 300m hurdler.
1:05:17
He's now a freshman at Texas A&M.
1:05:20
And so they were just loaded with talent and so we didn't win
1:05:23
the team title, but we were definitely felt I I never forget
1:05:26
we were at my mom's house for dinner and my brother, I told my
1:05:29
brother that Jordan would win the 1-2 and four at at the state
1:05:32
meeting. He's Oh no he'll be too tired
1:05:33
for the four by four and then ends up anchoring the 4x4 to SPC
1:05:37
record fastest ever private school and so yeah what as you
1:05:41
go through the. Houston Christian Journey,
1:05:43
you're obviously becoming more well-rounded as a coach, meaning
1:05:48
I love the distinction between assistant coach.
1:05:50
I don't really have to deal with parents scheduling, that's
1:05:53
someone else does that. But now as a head coach, you've
1:05:55
got to do all that buses, meals, et cetera.
1:05:58
Have you added anything about to your coaching education like you
1:06:02
talked about the 1-2 and four kind of your bread and butter.
1:06:05
How are you continuing to to evolve positively as a Sprint
1:06:09
coach? So during this time I.
1:06:12
I attend Vince Anderson's clinic at Saint, the Saint John school,
1:06:17
which was a great all day clinic.
1:06:19
Now I'm a part of the TTHTTFCHA and we're there every year we're
1:06:25
we're doing online. Training I got to.
1:06:27
Give a shout out to TTFCA Texas Track and.
1:06:29
Field Coaches Association, you know, every January they have
1:06:32
their clinic in Waco now. And you know, first class, you
1:06:36
know, I go to a lot of clinics, Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota,
1:06:40
etc, Ohio, some of the biggest, biggest ones around.
1:06:43
And I tell you, TTFCA is, is up at the top there, the speakers
1:06:47
that show up there, the camaraderie amongst that.
1:06:51
So if you're in Texas and you haven't been to the convention,
1:06:54
it's literally, I think it's the very first weekend of January
1:06:58
you need to go. If you're from out of state and
1:06:59
you can make it into Waco, I'd highly recommend you come visit.
1:07:03
We had a recent guest here on the podcast, Jason Cage from
1:07:06
Westlake High School in Georgia, many, many state titles.
1:07:09
I was, I think it was this past year.
1:07:11
I'm walking around cuz I kind of do a host an MC thing there at
1:07:14
TTMC. I'm so blessed.
1:07:15
They allow me to be involved like that into uplifting our
1:07:18
coaches in that format. And I turn my head and there's
1:07:20
Jason Cage. I'm like, wait, I'm gonna say,
1:07:21
Georgia, what are you doing here?
1:07:22
And he's like, man, he goes, you go where the coaches are to
1:07:25
learn. And so I just want to give a
1:07:26
shout out to we got like a whole new board and leaders there at
1:07:30
TTFCA that are going to do, you know, Jessica and June Villars,
1:07:34
who again, another Gil connections podcast alum that
1:07:38
are just going to continue to lead us there in Texas high
1:07:40
school track. Very proud of them.
1:07:43
Greg Williams, the executive director.
1:07:44
They're just going to do a fantastic job.
1:07:47
They've got a a big shoes to fill with Stu, but I think I
1:07:51
think the future is very good there.
1:07:52
So if you haven't checked it out, go if you just Google TTFCA
1:07:55
convention or something like that, it'll, it'll bring it up.
1:07:58
Highly recommend you check that out.
1:08:00
So I'm glad you go there and do that because it's that's
1:08:02
phenomenal. They just do a great job there.
1:08:04
So you're doing that. You're going to listen to other
1:08:06
speakers. You know, Vince and Tony Vini
1:08:09
has been there, Sue Humphreys, you go there to listen to those
1:08:11
guys and gals. Awesome.
1:08:13
Yep. So yeah, so I we attend that.
1:08:15
Every year since we, I started when I was at Kincaid and it's
1:08:19
been every year since. So just picked up knowledge,
1:08:21
just more and more knowledge on just how Sprint training really
1:08:25
looks and, and what that looks like.
1:08:27
And so, you know, during this time also, you know, I have a
1:08:31
summer track program, so. Yeah.
1:08:34
So our summer track. Program me Devante Taylor and
1:08:38
Ramsey Taylor, a husband and wife couple again I was coaching
1:08:41
5 and 6 year old football. So this is where I met them at.
1:08:44
And and Ramsey Bethany Taylor's dad is Dave Bethany from Texas
1:08:49
Southern, the head coach for Texas Southern.
1:08:51
And so in honor of him we, we reignite, I guess you could say
1:08:55
the Dave Bethany Track Club and we and we name it the Dave
1:08:58
Bethany Elite Track Club. And during that time, we started
1:09:01
with one athlete, their son, who DJ is DJ Taylor, who like I say,
1:09:05
is now a freshman at Texas A and MSBC title, 36 seconds in the
1:09:10
400. I mean, in 300, hurdles wins all
1:09:13
the major meets, Tex A&M, Texas Relays, and Arcadia wins all
1:09:19
three of those meets. And so obviously, I think when
1:09:22
you win, Arcadia takes relays and takes A&M Bluebonnet, You're
1:09:25
pretty good. Yeah, you're pretty.
1:09:27
Good. And so.
1:09:28
He wins those meets and so we start with him when he's seven
1:09:31
years old, we start with him because again, I could just win.
1:09:33
Back to CL stars. You know, that's where family
1:09:36
is. That's easy.
1:09:37
But, you know, I've now developed this relationship with
1:09:39
these people and they have a vision and we have a vision
1:09:42
together. So we start that program.
1:09:44
Fast forward, we have 50 plus now.
1:09:49
Junior Olympian medal, Junior Olympic medalist in 2020.
1:09:53
What's this, 2025? So in 2023-2024, excuse me.
1:09:58
Yeah, 2024 we we end up breaking the 1314 year old boys 4 by 1
1:10:04
record national record and 4 by 4 national record.
1:10:08
What's the you know, I? I have such reverence for summer
1:10:12
club coaches. I, I, I tried when I first moved
1:10:14
here, we had a pretty successful summer club here called Mohammed
1:10:17
Heat. And so I, I tried, I tried to
1:10:20
coach them because, and I say try because, you know, just
1:10:23
working a nine to five, you know, it's just impossible.
1:10:26
But I, I remember going to the, this is what broke me.
1:10:30
I went to the first meet, the first and only meet I could
1:10:32
make. I went and no one was raking the
1:10:35
long jump pit, right? So I'm like, I'll do that, you
1:10:37
know, So I'm raking the long jump pit and kids are just
1:10:40
jumping and jumping and jumping. And I mean, it's, I mean hours
1:10:43
because of all the age groups, you know, Right, right.
1:10:47
And it's just, it's going on forever.
1:10:49
And then the triple jump starts. And I, I remember hearing I
1:10:53
couldn't see the track because of the stands, but we were
1:10:55
hearing that, you know, heat 13 of the 100 meter dash.
1:10:57
I'm like, yeah, yeah, that's, that's.
1:11:00
Normal for so much, right? I was like, I can't do that.
1:11:02
So every time. I would.
1:11:03
I used to teach USATF level ones and things like that.
1:11:06
I'll always ask, you know, raise your hand if you're a high
1:11:08
school coach, raise your hand at your college.
1:11:09
I was like, raise your hand. If you're a club coach, you know
1:11:12
people. Raise their hand and I'm like,
1:11:13
God bless you because you have to have just a crap ton of
1:11:16
patience to to make that work. Being, you know, now an
1:11:22
experienced high school coach and obviously an experienced
1:11:25
summer coach. What are the help me understand,
1:11:27
because I don't know much about the summer club experience.
1:11:29
You know, what I see on social media and stuff.
1:11:31
What are the positives versus negatives of the two different?
1:11:35
You know, you see what it takes for high school.
1:11:37
You see what it takes for summer, kind of walk us through,
1:11:40
you know, your experiences, good, good and bad, all between,
1:11:43
right? So you know again.
1:11:45
I, I started from grass roots training, figuratively and
1:11:49
literally, right? I started with five and six year
1:11:51
old babies. And so that's always been the
1:11:54
soft spot for me because I feel like once we get them there at
1:11:57
that age, we can really teach them and grow their minds.
1:11:59
Because when you get them at 1516, they're already set in
1:12:02
their ways, right when we get them younger.
1:12:04
And so the, the most positive thing is we start our summer
1:12:07
program at 5:00 and 6:00 and we go to 18, right?
1:12:11
And where they age out. And so the great thing about our
1:12:14
program is that most of our kids have been in our program since
1:12:16
they were 5 or 6. I was just at a game last night
1:12:18
for one of my kids, Jaden Warren, who's a four-star
1:12:21
receiver commit, about 6 to 200 lbs, ran 10/1 in high school and
1:12:27
he's been with us since he was seven years old in our program.
1:12:30
And so we've, we've been able, we've had the, the great
1:12:32
opportunity to see all these kids grow up.
1:12:35
And so that's one of the biggest projects things we have a, a
1:12:37
great family support. We're not a major, a big, major
1:12:40
club. We have about 100 kids and
1:12:41
that's on purpose, right? It's because you're you're not a
1:12:44
major club and you have 100. Kids, I was waiting for you to
1:12:46
say 30. No, no, we're about 100.
1:12:49
Yeah. And so it and that's on purpose
1:12:51
because we want to make sure that we're able to really teach
1:12:54
and coach. If you said you're more of a
1:12:56
smaller. Club but 100 What do big clubs
1:12:58
have? Maybe I have no idea.
1:12:59
Here you have clubs and and. Of course, shout out to track
1:13:01
Houston who have 5-6 hundred. You got clubs with 300.
1:13:05
You know what? I met those guys.
1:13:07
At Nike Outdoor National, they were they were actually I told
1:13:10
them it was kind of cool. The coaches when they'd come
1:13:12
into the coach of social, they all wore the same like jackets,
1:13:15
the same thing. Yep.
1:13:15
And it looked hot. I.
1:13:16
Mean they just really looked on. Point I remember I was like, you
1:13:19
guys win the best dressed awards like holy cow.
1:13:21
Yeah, yeah, yeah, they did tell me.
1:13:23
I remember asking about it and they did tell me, you know, I
1:13:25
mean, hundreds of kids and like, you know, training center over
1:13:28
here because they're just somebody, OK, but.
1:13:30
That's not the norm either, right?
1:13:31
Like there's not like no, no, yeah, yeah, no, most clubs.
1:13:34
Don't have that many. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
1:13:35
No, most clubs would fluctuate between the 80, 152 hundred
1:13:40
range. You have about 3 or 4 who will
1:13:41
probably a closer to 300 and then track.
1:13:44
Houston's by far the biggest in the Houston, if not the nation
1:13:47
and probably they're probably sure they're the biggest club in
1:13:49
the nation. They got to be pushing it,
1:13:50
right? Yeah, yeah.
1:13:51
Yeah. And so you know the.
1:13:53
Opportunity to race those guys every year, every summer we look
1:13:56
forward to because of the healthy battle.
1:13:58
It's never a rivalry if only one person wins, right?
1:14:00
It's always a rivalry when it goes back and forth.
1:14:02
And so when we broke the national record track, Houston
1:14:05
was I think second in a four by four and third in a 4 by 1.
1:14:10
And that's yearly, right? And so they push us to be
1:14:12
better. And Houston is so big and so,
1:14:14
but it's so small and people don't realize, you know, often
1:14:18
times a lot of other states say all Texas is always just loading
1:14:21
up on talent and they just run relays.
1:14:23
What the reality of it is, is my club is around three other clubs
1:14:26
within a five mile radius. And so if that was the case, if
1:14:28
we actually loaded up, we would have we would have a. 14U Team.
1:14:33
Run 40 point and two O 7. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
1:14:37
Because the funny part is about that team is that the year we
1:14:40
broke the national record in the four by one, we never we broke
1:14:45
the national record every meet. We ran the meet, we ran the race
1:14:47
five times and we broke it every five times.
1:14:50
We broke we were the only team to ever run.
1:14:52
We only one other team, excuse me, ran under 42 seconds.
1:14:55
I'm under 43 seconds in that age group and we ran it five times.
1:14:58
So one of the things I'm. Insanely curious about like, you
1:15:03
know, you know me well enough from social media and TTFCA.
1:15:06
You know, my, my, I position myself because first of all,
1:15:10
because there's no one else doing it.
1:15:11
And so I, you know, see a need, fill a need advocacy for a track
1:15:15
coaches, right? And part of that advocacy is,
1:15:19
you know, education, professional development.
1:15:22
Like, you know, I, I want you to make more as a track coach.
1:15:25
I don't care. I don't, you know, I don't.
1:15:27
I love that you do it for the kids, but you should also be
1:15:30
paid. You know that's your mortgage
1:15:32
doesn't get paid on love for kids, right?
1:15:34
And so one of the things that I'm really interested in, I've
1:15:37
had this talk with a few people and it's not a Texas thing.
1:15:40
This is this is throughout probably all 50 states, but it's
1:15:43
certainly has reared its ugly head in Texas.
1:15:45
A lot is this battle between club coaches and high school
1:15:50
coaches. Yeah, you knew we.
1:15:53
Were going to get there. Yeah, you uniquely sit on both
1:15:56
sides of that fence from. Your seat.
1:16:01
Obviously there's not an I say obviously there's not an issue
1:16:04
between well, you know your now current school and your former
1:16:08
school and and club your club because you you run both.
1:16:12
But how do we help? I don't want to say bridge the
1:16:17
gap because there shouldn't be a gap, but there is certainly an
1:16:19
animosity and not everybody, but there's enough.
1:16:23
There's animosity between high school coaches and club coaches.
1:16:26
And you could probably speak better to it being focused on
1:16:30
Texas versus the the country. How do we get on the same page
1:16:35
with our high school coaches and our club coaches from where you
1:16:39
see your your experience on both sides there, right?
1:16:42
So, yeah, so. I think, you know, when I first
1:16:44
got to Tomas and I think that was our the first thing we
1:16:47
talked about, right, is that, you know, when you're in season,
1:16:50
you're here, right? Like that, that has to be a
1:16:52
thing. You know, I think a lot of times
1:16:56
what I've seen in, in in coaching is that a lot of high
1:17:01
school track coaches are not necessarily track coaches and
1:17:06
they're football coaches, right? You know, this is a
1:17:08
conversation. Me and my other guy, Erica had
1:17:10
it within in my interview is like, you know, I, it, it, what
1:17:14
we're seeing a lot of is there are a lot of football coaches
1:17:18
coaching track and field. And you know, like I said, from
1:17:22
someone like me who came in with very, very little knowledge, AKA
1:17:26
no knowledge of track and field 15 years ago to winning, you
1:17:30
know, titles and records and all those things.
1:17:33
It doesn't take you being a 10110 to non second athletes
1:17:37
yourself to be a very good coach.
1:17:39
You know, we see that interview a lot, right, that a lot of the
1:17:42
greatest NFL coaches weren't really great athletes, right?
1:17:46
But it's the dedication and passion to learning, right?
1:17:49
And so for me, and this is my stance on and this to anybody,
1:17:53
is that there are too many coaching opportunities out here,
1:17:56
too many professional development opportunities for
1:17:58
coaches who coach the sport not to become better.
1:18:03
And that's where we see the biggest issue is that.
1:18:07
On one hand, I very much agree with you.
1:18:10
Now I hear this. It's kind of the same arguments,
1:18:14
you know, where I hear arguments of high school coaches versus
1:18:16
club coaches, I will also hear this less of an argument, more
1:18:20
of a belittling of college coaches.
1:18:23
And again, I'm it's not it's not even the majority of this.
1:18:27
The majority of club coaches and high school coaches in my in my
1:18:30
experience are getting along, by the way.
1:18:31
Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is my utopian.
1:18:33
I want everybody to get along, right?
1:18:35
Certainly not the majority of college coaches, but there are
1:18:38
I'll see this on social media a lot where much like you just
1:18:42
said there, they will. I'll, I'll these are my words.
1:18:44
I'm not putting words in your mouth.
1:18:45
They'll complain about the high school coach that doesn't air
1:18:48
quotes here, know how to coach, doesn't know how to coach
1:18:50
sprints and such and such, Right?
1:18:52
And I have a lot of grace for our high school coaches.
1:18:55
Oh, yeah, who are typically teachers.
1:18:57
And I'm like, dude, that person. And I've gotten way more grace
1:19:03
and passion since my wife became a, a long term sub.
1:19:05
So now I get to see more behind the scenes of grading things
1:19:08
like that. These guys and gals are working,
1:19:11
you know, seven to three, teaching, grading all.
1:19:15
The other stuff that they do. And their coaching, you know,
1:19:19
they don't have the, the maybe the by the way, they have
1:19:22
families, they have passions, charities, etcetera.
1:19:25
They don't have the resources, time or desire.
1:19:28
It's a priority thing to go to clinics and things like this,
1:19:31
right? But I do think they are doing
1:19:33
the best that they they can. I don't think they're doing
1:19:35
anything malicious. Even I told you the experience
1:19:37
of my high school coaches terrible, right?
1:19:39
You, I mean, literally, it's OK to laugh at what I, the trainer
1:19:42
in high school. That's like, that's ridiculous.
1:19:43
I still, that's why I love Dennis Anderson.
1:19:46
That's why I have no problem saying his name out loud.
1:19:48
I love Dennis Anderson because he was doing the best he could.
1:19:50
He wasn't trying to injure us. He wasn't trying to hurt us.
1:19:52
He wasn't trying to make, you know, he was doing what as good
1:19:55
as he could do. And I he kept me in the sport.
1:19:57
I mean, God bless here, 30 years later, I'm still in sport.
1:20:01
You know he didn't. Run me out.
1:20:02
So I agree with you. There's a ton.
1:20:05
I mean we can go on YouTube, etcetera, etcetera.
1:20:07
I think there are. I think there are coaches who
1:20:11
were coached almost a coach like you, but you weren't coached,
1:20:14
right, Right, right. I think there are.
1:20:16
Maybe there's a better way of saying.
1:20:17
It I think there are kids that were coached the way you first
1:20:20
started out coaching. That's a fair statement.
1:20:22
Who That's all they know. They loved their coach, they
1:20:26
loved you, they loved the sport. They've always been a big
1:20:28
Olympics fan or something. And so they get into coaching
1:20:31
and that is how they coach. And when they're presented with
1:20:34
another alternative like, well, you actually acceleration work
1:20:38
and next fly, it's like, yeah, but that's hard, right?
1:20:42
I'm having success. We're we are 4th or 5th or maybe
1:20:46
they won their conference, right?
1:20:47
Yeah, yeah. Why?
1:20:48
Why should I? What are you talking about,
1:20:50
right? But ain't broke.
1:20:51
Don't fix it, right? Right and honestly.
1:20:54
Getting 4th or 5th or whatever. In your conference, that's not
1:20:57
bad. You know, in track and field, we
1:21:01
sometimes forget how hard it is to win you.
1:21:03
You mentioned you know Fort Bend Marshall when in 10 in a row, I
1:21:07
don't care. You know you caveat of that
1:21:09
within Texas and you're right in Texas.
1:21:12
Guess what? If a coach wins.
1:21:13
Ten in a row in in Maine. That's a lot.
1:21:17
Holy crap. Consistency.
1:21:19
You win 10 in a row. In New Mexico.
1:21:21
I don't care where you are, I. Don't care where you are in
1:21:24
tech, you're in the biggest. Division of Texas, the biggest.
1:21:27
Oh, there's only one division in California.
1:21:29
I don't care. That's hard, right?
1:21:32
It's actually hard to agree with this.
1:21:33
You win 1B, You win 2. You're a genius.
1:21:36
You win three. What the hell?
1:21:38
4? I'm out of words after four.
1:21:40
Like, what do you mean you win four in a row?
1:21:42
That's dumb. That's crazy.
1:21:43
No one does that, right? Yeah, I get what you're saying.
1:21:48
So how do we? OK.
1:21:51
And at the same. Time when I hear club coaches
1:21:54
complain or or high school coaches, by the way, complain
1:21:56
the other way of like, oh, you, you guys just think you know it
1:21:58
all. I want to run my practices by
1:22:01
the way, I'm I'm at a high school so I have a team.
1:22:04
No matter what you think about track and field as a team or
1:22:05
individual, I have a team. And yet Johnny gets to go to
1:22:09
club and doesn't have to show it for practice.
1:22:12
How do I tell that to my other 14?
1:22:13
You talk about kids and that 1415 year old kids and I
1:22:17
personally have not. I and my, I guess time from even
1:22:22
Kincaid to Houston Christian to so he's a Christian.
1:22:26
My first year that was a little bit of a issue, but it was very
1:22:30
small, right? It it was nothing that lingered
1:22:32
on a long time. It was kind of the standard was
1:22:35
set and it kind of that that's what it was.
1:22:37
And so I personally have not had issues, but I've had colleagues
1:22:41
who've had major issues with that.
1:22:43
And, and, and you and you hit the nail on the head, right?
1:22:46
Is OK, yes, I have a superstar, right?
1:22:48
Because, you know, there are superstars on teams who needs a
1:22:53
different kind of training. I don't know if I agree with
1:22:55
that. Well, who?
1:22:57
Needs. Yeah, OK.
1:22:58
Yeah well who need who needs whatever you know whatever they
1:23:01
think they need and but but but how do I explain to 1520 thirty
1:23:08
other girls or boys why this person has now left practice how
1:23:13
this person just shows up to the meat.
1:23:15
What kind of team chemistry? What kind of continuity, what
1:23:18
kind of culture am I building And because I haven't had really
1:23:24
that problem in my high school journey and even now at Jean
1:23:27
Thomas. You know, I've been blessed to
1:23:30
not only have a great staff, but have kids who are so invested in
1:23:36
what we're trying to do. You know, I'm looking at social
1:23:38
media and in our first official after school practice.
1:23:41
We practice in the period right now, but our first official
1:23:43
after school practice starts Monday.
1:23:45
And I'm seeing them posting about practice starting Monday
1:23:47
and how exciting I'm walking through the halls, these kids
1:23:50
ask me about practice. And again, this is a brand new
1:23:52
campus that opened seven weeks ago.
1:23:54
So it's the energy that we've given is the energy that's being
1:23:56
received by these kids and they're excited.
1:23:58
And so I've been blessed enough not to really have that issue.
1:24:01
But as a summer coach, I've had high school coaches, you know, I
1:24:06
guess have an opinion about us without even talking to us.
1:24:09
But if anybody knows, I run one of the most successful summer
1:24:11
programs in the country. And so anybody that knows us
1:24:14
know that we aren't hands on with our kids until post season.
1:24:19
We just aren't, I think, the thing that you.
1:24:21
That bears repeating that you just said there is.
1:24:24
You said, you know people will have problems with me without
1:24:27
even talking to me. I think that's ultimately the
1:24:29
issue. Always.
1:24:31
I hate to. Boil it down to.
1:24:33
This oversimplification, but communication, we always talk
1:24:37
about how important it is. Yeah, and it should be the
1:24:40
easiest thing in the world, especially today, right?
1:24:42
I can DM you, I can text you. It's so easy.
1:24:45
It's so. Easy.
1:24:46
And yet it's so easy. It's the hardest thing.
1:24:49
But we have such a bad, you know, a.
1:24:51
Negative connotation because again, Mike, if you're ever in,
1:24:54
in, in Texas and come to a summer meet, you're going to see
1:24:57
us with 20 different uniforms. We're flashy.
1:25:00
We, you know, we, we have fun. That, that's what my club is
1:25:02
about. You know, I, I really believe
1:25:04
in, in having fun. We got different themes and
1:25:07
uniforms. And so when people think about
1:25:09
my club, they're like, oh, they probably think that better.
1:25:12
You know, I had last year, we had a 13 year old girl went 55
1:25:15
seconds. She's a 7th grader.
1:25:17
You know, we've had 7th grade boys just jumping 22 feet in
1:25:20
long jump. And so I think the idea of my
1:25:22
club is that all and I and it's it's been said because because
1:25:27
the area that we're in in, in, in in the Houston area, we have
1:25:31
a lot of former pro athletes right on our team.
1:25:33
And so I think people feel like that old, their club is only for
1:25:38
pro athletes. Like Adrian Peterson's son was
1:25:41
second leg on my relay at Adidas nationals this year.
1:25:44
We went to Adidas Nationals and broke that, that that national
1:25:47
record this past summer. And so I think they feel like
1:25:49
old because we have all these former pro athletes that old
1:25:52
that we think we're better and that we're unapproachable, which
1:25:55
in reality is that total opposite.
1:25:57
You know, my coaching staff is comprised of former college and
1:26:00
pro athletes. Again, the same thing in school.
1:26:03
All my coaching staff is either been pro, really either been pro
1:26:07
or been at the highest collegiate level you can be at.
1:26:10
You know, tomorrow Williams, Super Bowl champion for the
1:26:12
Green Bay Packers and all, you know, things like that.
1:26:14
And so, CJ, I'm going to challenge you.
1:26:17
You know, because you do sit at a fairly unique place of being a
1:26:20
high school coach and excuse me, a club coach.
1:26:25
So you are uniquely positioned to help, right?
1:26:30
So I'm going to challenge you in maybe two different ways.
1:26:34
One is if you think that the perception of your club is that,
1:26:40
oh, we're unapproachable because, you know, we happen to
1:26:43
have former pro athletes, kids on our teams and all that kind
1:26:46
of stuff, and we're flashy. I'm not telling you to be
1:26:49
apologetic for your, your clothing choices and things like
1:26:53
that. I don't care about that.
1:26:55
I think that's, I think sports should be fun.
1:26:56
And if that's what the kids find fun, then who am I to say you
1:26:59
should wear nothing but white jerseys all the time?
1:27:02
You care? Yeah.
1:27:03
It's not my, it's. Not my place to judge.
1:27:05
So if you, but if you think that that's the perception, then I
1:27:09
want you to really my challenge to you would be and use your
1:27:12
coaching staff and, and maybe some, you know, you probably
1:27:15
have some kind of trusted, almost like an Advisory Board,
1:27:19
like really like sit down and have a discussion of like, well,
1:27:21
why is that? What can we be doing
1:27:24
differently? And again, that doesn't mean
1:27:26
like, oh, let's go down to two uniforms versus 20 or whatever,
1:27:30
but maybe that's how you post on social.
1:27:32
Maybe that's how you interact with other coaches at Meads,
1:27:35
etc, etc. But make it to where people go,
1:27:38
wait a minute, they are approachable.
1:27:40
What we've been missing out. That's one challenge.
1:27:43
The second challenge is to take leadership in between these two
1:27:48
very passionate groups, high school track coaches and club
1:27:52
track coaches and, and be that bridge.
1:27:55
If we're supposed to be bridging a gap, figure out whether that
1:27:57
means speaking at TTFCA about how do you run a high school in
1:28:02
a, in a club program? How do you how do you work with
1:28:05
club coaches? And I've, by the way, I've been
1:28:06
at both, I'm on both sides. So I can speak, you know, from
1:28:10
experience on that, whether it's that getting another podcast,
1:28:14
you know, Texas track dad's podcast, raise, things like
1:28:18
that. I think that, you know, you're
1:28:20
uniquely positioned there to make a, you're making a huge
1:28:23
difference in young people's lives.
1:28:25
And that is the that is where the bar starts.
1:28:27
And I'm grateful for that. I just think you have such a
1:28:30
personality and experience and just kind of a really humble,
1:28:35
authentic authenticity to you. But I think you can, you know,
1:28:38
move your your leading in the coaching space.
1:28:41
I think there's another step that you could take in leading
1:28:44
in the coaching space, not the coaching athletes space, but the
1:28:48
coaches professionalism case. I just I just want to challenge
1:28:52
you for that because it's a it's a real problem that the only
1:28:55
people who suffer are the kids. That is what my ultimate
1:28:59
problems. Like man, you guys are you
1:29:01
adults are bickering and that 13 year old kid is the one who is
1:29:04
suffering for it. And that's what it is.
1:29:07
That's that's. Literally what it is is that
1:29:09
now, because there's a power struggle now, kids are, you
1:29:13
know, not getting, you know, what they need.
1:29:15
And so, so yeah, it, it's such a, I guess a, it's, it's a bad
1:29:21
ego place. Is what it is.
1:29:23
It's it's ego, right it's fear it's fear of rejection.
1:29:26
It's fear of judgement that there's a you you might
1:29:29
actually, if you haven't read this book, it's a it's a
1:29:32
football story, so it may be more resonates to our football
1:29:35
type coaches, but it's called the twin thieves.
1:29:38
Have you heard this book? Yes, Sir, I would.
1:29:41
Encourage you to read it. I can't.
1:29:43
Remember the I think it's two authors.
1:29:44
They're they're football coaches and again, the, the story is
1:29:48
based in football. It's a twin thieves.
1:29:51
It's two things that rob us of just joy in life and
1:29:55
advancement, etcetera. And that's judgment and and
1:29:57
rejection that those two, those are the 2 thieves in life.
1:30:00
You know, rejection and the judgment, rejection, judgment.
1:30:09
You would, I think you enjoy the, the guys did a great job
1:30:11
reading it and did a fantastic job.
1:30:14
All of our track coaches should should read that.
1:30:16
We need a book from tracks perspective.
1:30:19
So that twin these is a great book.
1:30:20
And again, it's football themed. And then there's another book,
1:30:24
good friend actually Gill podcast Aloma as well.
1:30:27
Todd Gonger wrote lead for lead for Jesus sake or lead for
1:30:33
Christ sakes. I can't remember.
1:30:34
He was Jesus sake, lead for Jesus sake.
1:30:36
And that's basket. He was a basketball guy.
1:30:38
His dad was a big long time basketball coach.
1:30:40
But again, just one of those, you know, just fantastic books
1:30:42
our coaches should be reading. Lead for God, lead for God's
1:30:44
sake. That's what it is.
1:30:45
Sorry, Todd, lead for God's sake.
1:30:47
And if you want to know more about that book, again, whatever
1:30:50
app you're using right now, just search Todd Gonger and it'll
1:30:53
bring that up. And and then the twin thieves.
1:30:56
So those are basketball and football theme.
1:30:58
I I got to figure out someone's got to write.
1:30:59
And you know what? Maybe it's maybe, maybe it's me.
1:31:02
I've got to write a track theme for our track.
1:31:04
Yeah, yeah. But that's my challenge.
1:31:06
To you, my friend. OK, let's.
1:31:06
Keep going, CJ, you're at Houston Christian.
1:31:10
Do we go from Houston Christian to Jean Tomas?
1:31:12
Because I want to make sure I spend time.
1:31:13
OK Yeah. So what?
1:31:16
Why? And maybe some obvious reasons
1:31:18
of like, holy cow, it's a clean slate.
1:31:19
I I I find this fascinating. So.
1:31:21
So. So we're Fast forward and now
1:31:24
we're in the year, this is 2025. So yeah, so we're in this year,
1:31:29
this is this year. So we're we're in March of 2025.
1:31:34
And so, so I'm in private school, in the private school
1:31:39
sector, teaching, coaching, whatever.
1:31:40
And so now I'm like, you know, I, I feel like I've done a lot
1:31:44
in private school. I didn't win a state title, but
1:31:47
individually with the, you know, with the 3025 men and women team
1:31:53
I have, we do very, very well. And so now I'm in Texas, right?
1:31:57
So Texas high school track is, is, is different, right?
1:32:00
And so, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm wanting to be
1:32:03
challenged more. And so now I'm like, hey, I've
1:32:06
done really well. I've developed some good
1:32:08
athletes in private school. About 15 athletes end up going
1:32:13
and running in college during my time, you know, at Houston
1:32:15
Christian Kincaid on the Sprint side, you know, then we had more
1:32:18
in jumps and throws and stuff like that.
1:32:20
But on the Sprint side, about 15 athletes have going and run at,
1:32:23
you know, Division One division to all, all levels of track and
1:32:25
field. And so I feel like I've done
1:32:27
what I've I can do here. And so I look on Lamar C ISD's
1:32:33
website and they're like new school come in the new green
1:32:36
track. And again, remember I told you I
1:32:38
thought the green track was that the school was actually going to
1:32:40
have a green track. So I got excited about them,
1:32:42
like, Oh yeah, I got to get that.
1:32:43
That's a cool track. And so now we're, we're, we're,
1:32:45
we're, we're, we're again, remember, I'm, I'm and I want
1:32:49
something to go get it. And so they named the head
1:32:52
football coach slash athletic director, assistant campus
1:32:54
coordinator. And immediately I reach out to
1:32:58
coach Johnson, I'm like, hey, my name is CJ Brown.
1:33:00
I'm currently the head coach of Houston Christian.
1:33:03
Above all else, I love coaching kids.
1:33:05
But first and foremost, before I tell you anything about what
1:33:08
I've done on on the the the the my resume, if you will, I love
1:33:13
coaching kids. So he emails me back.
1:33:16
I tell him on my resume, Dada da, he emails me back and he
1:33:20
sets up an interview. Also, fun fact, Lamar CSD has a
1:33:25
school named after my great grandfather, Willie Milton
1:33:28
Elementary. It's on the purple track.
1:33:30
And so my great grandfather was a civil rights activist and the
1:33:35
and he assisted with getting worked with our good Marshall
1:33:39
and assisted with getting blacks to vote in Fort Bend County area
1:33:43
and so and so right and so. But I intentionally left that
1:33:47
out of my interview because I want to be hired on who I am and
1:33:50
not who my grandfather was. And so I made sure I never
1:33:54
mentioned that in my interview. I told people after, but that
1:33:56
was never my selling point for myself in my interview because I
1:33:59
want to be hired based on my merit alone.
1:34:02
And, you know, we get an interview.
1:34:04
I interviewed with Coach Johnson first.
1:34:06
Just very real chills, kind of almost like the Houston
1:34:09
Christian interview, just telling me his expectations of
1:34:12
what he wants the program to look like.
1:34:14
Letting me, letting me know that he is a guy who is not just
1:34:18
hiring somebody to fill a position, but he's a guy who
1:34:22
wants track people to coach track and field.
1:34:25
And so I interviewed him, end up interviewing with, and then I
1:34:29
get my official interview while I'm wearing, you know, the suit
1:34:31
and tie thing with him and the principal because, again, my
1:34:35
campus isn't built yet because it's brand new.
1:34:37
And so we're interviewing at another high school, right?
1:34:40
High school. Yeah, High school in the
1:34:43
district. They can't even like give you a
1:34:45
tour of the school. There's nothing like we're
1:34:48
literally. Again, this is this is around
1:34:50
like March. I forget the exact date, but
1:34:51
this is around the March time, right?
1:34:53
Because so campus is literally gravel and a few stones I'll
1:34:58
drive by because again, I believe in, in prayer and, and,
1:35:01
and, and all, and all those things.
1:35:03
And so I'm driving by daily, you know, because this is what I
1:35:05
want for my life. And if this is what God wants
1:35:07
for me, I want to make sure I take that.
1:35:09
And so I know that, you know, I can do the work in it, right?
1:35:15
And so now it's just up to God to determine if this is where I
1:35:18
should be in my current path in life.
1:35:20
And so so he called me back. He's like, hey, you know, we got
1:35:24
the position for you, you know, again, reiterates the
1:35:27
expectations of what he wants for the program.
1:35:30
And so we get the ball rolling on that, go through the HR
1:35:32
process, everything. And I end up getting hired, I
1:35:36
think like a month later, maybe a little bit after he hires the
1:35:42
girls coach. Now the girls coach I'm familiar
1:35:44
with because she also has a summer program and we've
1:35:48
competed against each other and, and for years, you know, and so
1:35:52
I'm like, yes, this is great. She the, the, the female coach
1:35:55
says hired as someone who also loves track and field, right.
1:35:59
And, and there's someone who I know I can work well.
1:36:02
She's also young like me, you know, we're not, we're not 60-70
1:36:05
years old. And so we're also young.
1:36:07
And so we kind of still a little bit bringing in that with our
1:36:10
kids and that the fact that we're not a little bit older.
1:36:13
And so the relatability is still there a little bit.
1:36:15
Don't listen to mumble rap. So when they start playing that
1:36:17
I'm just like, what is that? But you know, you know, them,
1:36:21
them, them still keeping me young currently because I'm
1:36:24
learning new terms that they use.
1:36:25
I'm just like, like I didn't know my ball meant like my
1:36:27
girlfriend or my boyfriend, like one of my kids like.
1:36:30
That's not my. Ball, I'm like, what does that
1:36:32
even mean? And so so now Mike, when you go
1:36:34
to my ball like BALLL and you. Go to your kids Yes, when you go
1:36:37
to your. Son say tell him your wife is
1:36:40
your ball. And so actually, if he knows
1:36:42
they're me, I, I can say this because I'm pretty sure he does.
1:36:45
Not listen to my podcast. I don't think my son's cool
1:36:47
enough to say that, bro. I think my kid would look at me
1:36:50
like I'm an idiot, which he does on a, you know, he's a teenager,
1:36:52
so he does it on a daily. Yeah, yeah, that's not my ball.
1:36:55
What a. That's not my ball.
1:36:56
What a weird thing. Because what they're doing.
1:36:58
Is, you know, back in the day, we were playing on the on the
1:37:00
courts. It's like, oh, that's my ball,
1:37:01
it's my ball, it's your ball. No, it's my ball.
1:37:03
And now they just equate that to yours.
1:37:05
And then that's a relationship. Yeah.
1:37:07
Relationship, yeah. And so.
1:37:09
So yeah. So she gets hired.
1:37:10
I'm excited about that. We develop we we established
1:37:13
very early on that we're going to make sure that we make this
1:37:16
program together because I was at and it's funny, even before
1:37:21
we came to the and you were there the San Antonio convention
1:37:26
with all sports right And Aries mayor spoke and and I forget the
1:37:30
coach from McKinney Boyd's name and yeah, and and and she yeah,
1:37:38
Jessica Richards, she stated yes.
1:37:40
She was. She was.
1:37:41
Very informative. Again, continued education
1:37:43
because you can never know too much, right?
1:37:45
And she stated that the the boys and girls program at their
1:37:48
school was combined and that's how they ran their program.
1:37:52
And so that's how we are running our program.
1:37:54
So I'll coach, I'll coach TO100200 runners coach always a
1:37:57
coach to two Forerunners. We have a distance coach who
1:37:59
comes from Foreshore High School, Coach King, who won
1:38:01
multiple district titles there. So he's a program development
1:38:04
and he actually opened up that school when when that opened 6-7
1:38:07
years ago. So he has experience in that
1:38:09
realm on my throws coach comes in with experience, hurdle
1:38:12
coaches and jumps coaches. And so we're running just one
1:38:14
big program together and we've seen just in these six weeks,
1:38:18
we've seen kids who because so we pulled from feeder schools,
1:38:22
obviously, I mean, not feeder school, excuse me, we fought.
1:38:24
We pulled from nearby schools to form, you know, and so we've.
1:38:30
Seen in the six weeks. Where we've been in our general
1:38:32
prep phase where we're lifting weights, we're getting stronger
1:38:35
and we've seen strength growth and everything in our kids,
1:38:38
whereas they said they didn't do any of this last year.
1:38:41
And so we're looking at their times and we're like, OK, so you
1:38:43
ran pretty decent last year and you didn't even have a strength
1:38:46
base. And, and to be strong, to be
1:38:48
fast, you have to be strong. You don't have to be a
1:38:50
bodybuilder, but you have to do lifts that, that, that are
1:38:53
cohesive with spreading and running fast, right?
1:38:57
And so we're seeing that right now.
1:38:58
We're seeing in our, in our six weeks we've been in school that
1:39:02
we're, we're, we're getting stronger.
1:39:04
And so that's been a plus for us for kids who have not been in
1:39:07
programs like that. You know, this is fascinating
1:39:08
because you're you're. Explaining all these things and
1:39:10
you haven't had a single in season practice or meet.
1:39:13
You know, this isn't February or March for current.
1:39:16
You still have months to go. What you know you've had
1:39:19
different schools and and there's something about even
1:39:22
even Houston Christian where you came in and they had three
1:39:25
different coaches in three years.
1:39:26
There was still things that were already in place, right?
1:39:29
Like there were uniforms you may have to fill.
1:39:31
Yeah, yeah, yeah. There might have been a schedule
1:39:34
already. And you might have altered it,
1:39:35
but you know, we had meets that we went to and and all this
1:39:39
other stuff. You know there was a budget that
1:39:41
was already set right, right, right here you're.
1:39:44
Coming in with a clean. Slate and one hand, that's very
1:39:46
exciting. On the other hand, it's a lot of
1:39:48
work. A lot of work a.
1:39:50
Lot of work, a lot of work. What's got you concerned?
1:39:52
The. Most like when you think about,
1:39:55
okay, the first practice is on February 1 or whatever day it is
1:39:59
and we gotta go all the way through season and districts are
1:40:03
here in regionals here. I can't remember the sequence
1:40:05
but. What what's like when you're
1:40:07
looking at it from because there's always concern like when
1:40:10
you've been looking in your third year, Houston Christian,
1:40:12
you're like, oh man, I got to replace this leg here and we got
1:40:14
to, you know, hopefully this new freshman can do this, yada,
1:40:16
yada. You don't know anything like
1:40:19
like you're going through, you know, you had some period
1:40:20
practices and now you're about to go through some after school
1:40:23
practices. You'll Start learning the kids
1:40:25
and things like that, but they still haven't competed for you.
1:40:27
What what's as you're just kind of staring into the future.
1:40:29
What's got you concerned the most?
1:40:31
So honestly, Mike, not much. Honestly, you know, I feel like,
1:40:35
and again, this, this and I, I keep saying this because it's
1:40:38
true. It speaks to, you know, the, the
1:40:40
staff that we've brought together, you know, like we,
1:40:44
we've had some experienced people who have been in opening
1:40:48
schools, who have been in leadership position themselves,
1:40:51
who have the same visions we do. If anything, that concerns me
1:40:55
within year 1 of this year for us, which is, which would just
1:40:58
be that we're young, right? And I, and I've said this to
1:41:01
everybody I've come in contact with, this is a three-year
1:41:03
process for us. Not saying we're leaving in
1:41:05
three years, but in three years we'll be where we'll, we'll
1:41:09
compete at state level. But honestly, Mike, we'll have
1:41:12
kids this year compete at, at regionals.
1:41:16
Like we really believe that, you know, just because we've seen
1:41:19
some of them before, we know that, you know, I'm not saying
1:41:22
that obviously our program is the only thing that works, but
1:41:24
we know that the things we put on them, on them so far they've
1:41:28
responded well to. We're seeing that.
1:41:30
They're, when we're seeing that when we go into the weight room
1:41:32
during our period and they have 7 minutes to get there and start
1:41:36
stretching and start, you know, rolling out and, and, and, and
1:41:40
targeting stuff like that, that they're coming and taking
1:41:42
initiative of doing that already.
1:41:44
And again, this is only, these are only freshmen, sophomores
1:41:46
and a few juniors because again, most juniors aren't leaving
1:41:49
their campus that they were at to come to a brand new school
1:41:51
because they're friends and everything programs and, and,
1:41:54
and they've been moved up to varsity.
1:41:56
So they have the option to stay where they're at.
1:41:58
And so we're, we're really talking about 1415 year olds who
1:42:02
are coming in taking that initiative.
1:42:04
Don't we ask them do while still having fun?
1:42:06
You know, we we want a program to where it's not a military
1:42:09
base. We want you to still listen to
1:42:11
music. We want you still have not your
1:42:12
music, though. We play the music because you
1:42:14
can't have headphones and stuff in the in the weight room.
1:42:16
You can't have Crocs in the weight room.
1:42:18
You can't have you can't have other school shirt in the weight
1:42:21
room. If you have the shirt on, you
1:42:22
have to turn it inside out. And they're doing that.
1:42:24
We're seeing the initiative taken.
1:42:26
And so when you say you ask what concerns me?
1:42:29
Just them getting into the fire and because we're throwing them
1:42:32
in there first, you know, first meet our schedules already made
1:42:35
out. We've been working on in that
1:42:36
since May. That's already laid out our
1:42:39
season, our, our, our, I guess you would call it master
1:42:42
schedule for the season. It's pretty much done.
1:42:45
The biggest thing is just to make sure we get uniforms and
1:42:47
stuff in time, right. Look, that's nothing to do with
1:42:49
actual track, but making sure that we get everything because
1:42:52
you obviously know working in in in in sales and you know, things
1:42:55
like that, how equipment is making sure we got everything.
1:42:58
We got state-of-the-art hurdles, a beautiful hurdle set.
1:43:01
But again, that comes with, you know, having athletic leadership
1:43:04
who loves track as well because easy for athletic.
1:43:07
Director. AKA football coach.
1:43:08
Because in Texas the campus coordinator is the football
1:43:11
coach. It's very easy for them to only
1:43:13
worry about football, to have a coordinator.
1:43:16
And. Coordinators who care about
1:43:18
track just as they do football, that gives us an easy job to do.
1:43:21
And we're we're we're excited about, you know, the
1:43:24
opportunity. I I would be lying if I said it
1:43:26
hasn't been a lot of work because you know, you mentioned
1:43:28
earlier seven to three, like my day starts because I also coach
1:43:31
football, my day starts at 4:00 in the morning and my day ends
1:43:36
at about 9:10 every night and then so.
1:43:39
You know but but. When you love what you do, it
1:43:41
doesn't feel like that. You know?
1:43:43
I have the opportunity just like you had.
1:43:44
You had an opportunity to come and talk to people.
1:43:46
I had an opportunity to go every day and impact kids lives.
1:43:48
I had an opportunity to wear basketball shorts to work.
1:43:51
That's my hard time. And then when I take a shower
1:43:53
after practice, I changed some more basketball.
1:43:55
I worked at Bank of America. For one.
1:43:57
Week Mike when I was 20 years old and hated every minute of
1:44:01
it. You know, I have an opportunity.
1:44:03
When you work with kids, especially in the high school
1:44:05
setting, it's no, no day is the same.
1:44:08
No day is the same. And so the the most challenging
1:44:11
part is me just being grounded and not getting too excited for
1:44:16
the seasons of action. And go through the process of
1:44:20
all. Our phases of prep and not
1:44:22
putting the the wagon, but for the horse, if you will.
1:44:25
Yeah, that emotional. Regulation is very important.
1:44:27
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Stand even killed.
1:44:29
And understand that this is a process because again, yeah, I
1:44:32
was at Houston Christian where, you know, the uniform stuff was
1:44:34
already there. But it was also, I had to go to
1:44:37
a place where I had to break down a culture that wasn't, you
1:44:41
know, productive because they hadn't seen that.
1:44:43
And I had to build a culture of this is how we're going to do
1:44:46
things. This is how we're going to warm
1:44:48
up. You know, we had kids that came
1:44:49
there when they wanted to do the practice and stuff to warm up.
1:44:52
Our kids got 7 minutes from Bill to Bill at Jean Thomas High
1:44:55
School to get where they need to be.
1:44:57
And, and, and, and we have things in place that are called
1:45:00
character adjustment because we still love you.
1:45:02
We still love you. You know, Mike, on my team, you
1:45:05
have to. You have to on our team, you
1:45:08
have to keep a grade point average of 85 or better.
1:45:11
UIL says you only have to have a 70 or better.
1:45:13
That's not good enough for us. Our first six weeks came out,
1:45:16
Mike, and we had 23 kids on honor roll.
1:45:18
Yeah. Wow.
1:45:19
In the 1st. Six weeks.
1:45:21
But what they have to understand is first six weeks, it's not
1:45:23
even track seating. So that's good, but we need the
1:45:26
consistency. It's not about who does it
1:45:28
first. It's not about who does the
1:45:29
best, but it's about who does the most consistent, you know,
1:45:32
and so. For us, that's big.
1:45:34
It's amazing you know you. Talked about having a
1:45:37
coordinator who's the football coach and you know, they care
1:45:40
about tracks or uniforms and equipment hurdles, things like
1:45:42
that which, you know, it's amazing that's my world right
1:45:44
track and field. But that that also has to occur
1:45:48
for the volleyball team and the basketball teams and the
1:45:51
baseball and softball teams and the tennis and got whatever
1:45:56
other sport, you know, that's it's so daunting to open up a
1:46:00
new school. That's really oh man, it is.
1:46:03
It's. We've all been, I think the,
1:46:06
the, the, the consensus around all the head coaches within the
1:46:10
program is that we're so excited, but the IT has been
1:46:13
work, right? And and I never, you know, I
1:46:16
never thought it'd be this much work, but I'm enjoying every
1:46:19
minute of it like it's fun work. Like I I never get this summer
1:46:23
because again, you don't get a summer when you open up a new
1:46:25
school like we. Got into the teacher profession.
1:46:29
Because we get two months off in the summer, that was not the
1:46:31
case this. Summer.
1:46:33
Maybe next summer, but it won't even still be that long.
1:46:36
But this summer I worked from May because again, I'm still
1:46:40
running summer track and, and thankfully Junior Olympics was
1:46:44
in, was held in Houston this year.
1:46:46
So it what I didn't have to travel this year to go to Junior
1:46:49
Olympics. So that was a blessing.
1:46:50
And so I was able to get my work done and then still make Junior
1:46:53
Olympics meet for my summer program.
1:46:55
But I, I think about the in the summer, it's 100 and some
1:46:58
degrees and we're out there putting together hurdles, you
1:47:00
know, those like that. Those are the things that was a
1:47:03
lot of worry then that we look back on now.
1:47:05
It's like that was so much fun because to have the blessing.
1:47:08
Opportunity. To be blessed with the
1:47:10
opportunity to even, you know, leave that mark.
1:47:13
Like I remember when the I remember when Mark we were able
1:47:17
to set up hurdles, when we were able to put everything in our
1:47:21
yeah, I guess culture, right? You know, we haven't even
1:47:25
ordered a record board because for what?
1:47:26
Everything, everything. That's right, you know.
1:47:29
But we had the opportunity. To go and order a record board,
1:47:31
you know how we wanted to look and that and that's the good
1:47:35
thing about you know with having AAD like coach Johnson, he was
1:47:38
like it's your program. You know, you your program is
1:47:42
going to go how you wanted to go and how you make it look, you
1:47:46
know, and so that same thing with all the other sports,
1:47:49
football, obviously he's a football coach, but basketball,
1:47:51
soccer, tennis, that all it is. It's beautiful to see how
1:47:55
everybody has their handprints on their and that's.
1:47:59
The best thing about opening up a new.
1:48:00
School. And so my advice for anybody
1:48:02
opening up a new school is, yeah, when you can make that
1:48:04
initial post on social media saying that you got the job and
1:48:07
that you have the opportunity and you put this ChatGPT answer
1:48:11
that you have the opportunity to open up a new school and it's
1:48:13
this great thing. Yeah, Make sure you understand
1:48:15
that it's great. Make sure you go out and
1:48:16
celebrate and do whatever you need to do to celebrate.
1:48:18
But make sure that next morning when you wake up, you have to
1:48:21
understand that the work starts standing.
1:48:22
Yeah, it's not. You're not waiting.
1:48:24
Till August. It's amazing, you know, I, I
1:48:26
see. Coaches and you know, you've
1:48:27
done it in different places with Kincaid and Houston Christian
1:48:30
where you put your fingerprint on the program.
1:48:32
This is I like how you actually said you said your handprint
1:48:35
because it's like, that's right. Not not fingerprints when you're
1:48:37
opening a whole new school. It's the whole hand, buddy.
1:48:40
It's the hand. I just find that completely
1:48:42
fascinating. And it's got to like, I can't
1:48:45
wait. I, I want you to message me or
1:48:48
call me after the first track me because that has to be a pretty
1:48:51
special time. Like, OK, all this work we've
1:48:54
been doing and we, we actually put a product out there that
1:48:58
competed and competed hard for, for the new school.
1:49:00
That's that's, that's really special, man.
1:49:03
So we have our our first. Official meet won't be until
1:49:06
February, but we'll have the inter squad meet in December.
1:49:09
And we're excited about that because you know, when we when
1:49:12
we look at what, what we have on on roster, you know, we have a
1:49:16
lot of young kids who are very hungry.
1:49:20
We had our hurdle coach did like a 400 time trial with one of our
1:49:23
kids yesterday. And after the time trial the the
1:49:27
kid told me I've never felt a 400 so easy.
1:49:30
I said, well, I'm going to say are you right?
1:49:31
He's a freshman, he's a freshman.
1:49:33
I said, I'm telling you right now, you're going to PR your
1:49:36
first meet just because you're saying that you feel like it's
1:49:40
easy in September. And so we're and, and so we have
1:49:42
a lot of kids like that. Well, we know that once we
1:49:45
finally put them on the track. And again, that's what us being
1:49:47
patient, right? And not getting too excited and
1:49:51
jumping our training instead of trusting our training.
1:49:53
Like we want to tell the kids like we can't tell them to trust
1:49:55
it if we're not trusting, we're too excited when we're over
1:49:58
training or trying to do too much.
1:50:00
Sometimes you got to know when to hold and when to fold, right?
1:50:02
And sometimes you can give a workout and that day they've
1:50:05
broken up with their girlfriend or boyfriend that day and
1:50:07
they're mentally not there because I've had that and
1:50:10
they're not there. And sometimes your ego had would
1:50:12
not. Sometimes every time your ego
1:50:14
has to go to the side and say, hey, you know what, that's it
1:50:16
for the day. And now let's come back the next
1:50:19
day with a better mentality, better frame, because all I was
1:50:22
going to do is make you upset. They're already mentally checked
1:50:26
out. So now you upset.
1:50:27
Now you can't coach everybody else because it's not, it's not
1:50:31
just a conducive environment. Yeah, dude, CJ.
1:50:34
I'm I'm so proud of you, first of all, I mean, just where
1:50:38
you've gone to your career and really, you know, a lot of
1:50:40
things stacked against, although I kind of wonder sometimes, you
1:50:43
know, just because you were a great athlete, does it make that
1:50:47
you're going to be a great coach right now?
1:50:49
It doesn't, it doesn't exclude you from becoming a great coach,
1:50:52
right? But I know sometimes a great
1:50:55
athlete when they get into coaching, there can be some
1:50:57
frustration because they're they're a great athlete for for
1:51:00
many reasons. But one of those reasons is they
1:51:01
had the God-given talent, they had genetics, right?
1:51:03
And so some things came, probably.
1:51:05
Pretty easy to. Them and then they start
1:51:07
coaching high school and you know, you've seen it.
1:51:08
You run the gamut from like, oh, really good kid that, you know,
1:51:10
maybe they're gonna become an NFL or one day too.
1:51:13
Like this kid can barely tie his shoes without.
1:51:15
Yeah. And so there can be.
1:51:16
Frustration So. So I'm not sure being an athlete
1:51:20
or a great athlete is an advantage over not having done
1:51:24
the sport at all. I remember there was a an NFL
1:51:28
field goal coach was at the Dolphins.
1:51:31
I'm sure he's at other places too.
1:51:32
But he was AI don't want to overstate or understate it, but
1:51:35
he was in a wheelchair and so he couldn't like demonstrate how to
1:51:38
kick. He was in a wheelchair and he
1:51:40
was one of the greater. Coaches around.
1:51:42
First of all, he's in the NFL. You're a good coach if you make
1:51:44
it like that, right? So I I just love that you have
1:51:47
not used your background, your lack of a background as an
1:51:52
excuse like, well, you know, the reason why we didn't win State
1:51:55
of Houston Christian was because, you know, I didn't have
1:51:57
that experience as an athletes. Like, yeah, those are excuses.
1:51:59
You're you're certainly not allowing those to be excuses and
1:52:03
still giving the kids in your club and in your high school
1:52:06
programs great experiences, love for the sport, passion and
1:52:09
direction to to move forward in their sport, wherever their
1:52:13
talent may lead them to. So I'm just I'm really proud of
1:52:15
you, proud of your development as a head coach bringing
1:52:18
surround yourself with the assistant coaches.
1:52:20
Those are those are extremely valuable and not as easy as you
1:52:24
make it sound. Sometimes activities to do.
1:52:27
It's easy to to blow that a lot of people have and and I'm just
1:52:32
it's really exciting to see what this new school Jean Tomas, what
1:52:36
it's going to do, because again, that's fascinating to me.
1:52:38
Just, you know, the whole brand new every, every, every
1:52:40
activity. I love that you said we don't
1:52:42
have a record board because every as soon as we run one heat
1:52:44
of the 100 boom, there's our school record.
1:52:47
Break it. Let's go, you know.
1:52:49
So that's awesome. So I'm just so proud of you and
1:52:51
so thankful for your time today. Man, your your journey is
1:52:54
unique. You had that smile when I said
1:52:56
every journey is unique and I was like, oh, this one's this
1:52:58
one's going to be good and you did not have points.
1:53:00
I'm just so. Grateful for your.
1:53:02
Time with us here today, CJ. Yes, Sir.
1:53:05
Thank you. Absolutely, man.
1:53:06
I appreciate you guys. Again, listening, you know, I
1:53:08
told you I love these unique ones.
1:53:10
What a what an amazing story I've done 300 of these stories
1:53:12
and I have not heard that one and certainly what's cool about
1:53:15
CJ story is you know he's still this is pretty young in his
1:53:19
coaching career. He's got 10/20/30, heck, with
1:53:21
today's society with health and insurance and medical, he's got
1:53:25
fifty 60-70 years to go coaching.
1:53:28
So I'm excited to watch from the sidelines and see really seeing
1:53:32
this, this, you know, 20 years from now, it would be
1:53:34
interesting to talk to whoever the head coach of Gene Tomas is.
1:53:36
And I can go back and say, yeah, well, I knew the first guy and
1:53:39
what he did and I think that's fantastic.
1:53:41
So, CJ, thank you again for your time today, you guys and gals,
1:53:44
thank you so much for being here listening.
1:53:45
Join us next week. We'll do it all.
1:53:46
Over again. See you guys.
1:53:51
The goals to appreciate the. Coach the ones that point people
1:53:54
most every season needs a voice of reason speaking the growth
1:53:57
you got to prep before you carry the load ice coffee to the soul
1:54:01
For those of us who stay on the go proper handoff to stay in the
1:54:04
zone which you packing for the road.
1:54:06
There's more than one way to go taking notes that's paying
1:54:08
you're told it ain't practice if you're perfect Saint Clair it
1:54:11
can't happen until you listen. We're both is can't mentor
1:54:14
without a mentor of years of experience.
1:54:17
You can reinvent those years. Every plan's got to stand and
1:54:20
deliver to and Christ sacrifice. Can you give up you.
1:54:23
It's a choice and a fight not a win or lose.
1:54:25
It's not a ploy boy device. Y'all can make more moves.
1:54:28
It's not about how to it's all about why you don't know till
1:54:31
you know who you are inside 6,000,000 Waste of time choose
1:54:35
none. So y'all cross finish line, the
1:54:37
work ain't done so we learn from the experts but y'all got to put
1:54:40
in the leg work. Your athletics is the network.
1:54:43
It's all about connections put together for the profession to
1:54:46
where every track coach could be blessing.