Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / BONUS: Hey Dude! What's Up Man?

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BONUS: Hey Dude! What's Up Man? · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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Hey guys, here we go once again with a bonus episode.
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You know, I just don't think you can get enough track and field
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podcast. And recently down in Aggieland,
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Texas A&M, former student athlete Julia Able and now track
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coach Julie Abel, as well as Wendell Mcraven started a
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podcast. Hey, dude, what's up, man?
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It's really interesting. I'm finding especially with
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Julia, her first year, she just finished her first year
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coaching. And so to see athlete turned
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coach, what that means the the differences she's seen in the
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team, what it means the coach versus being an athlete, I think
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you're going to enjoy this. So I'm going to play episode one
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for you today so you can get a taste of what they're doing over
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there. And then I'm going to tell you
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go on to the same podcast your app you're using right now and
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go subscribe to. Hey, dude, what's up, man?
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Check them out. I think they're trying to do it
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weekly. I hope they continue with it.
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I think it's adding a lot of value and I think you're going
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to enjoy it. So let's go.
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Hey dude, what's up man? Hey dude, what's up man?
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Hey, man. Hi, everyone.
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Welcome to the Hey Dude, What's Up Man podcast with your host
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Julia Abel and Wendell Mcgraven. A podcast where we talk about
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what's on our minds and you ask, are these people OK?
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To which we will probably answer no and just keep on laughing.
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But before we get going too far, we'd like to introduce
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ourselves. So, Coach Mcgraven, why don't
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you kick us off? I'm Coach Mcgraven, cross
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country and track coach at Texas A&M University. 13 years at
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Texas A&M, as I think I mentioned earlier to Julia, 352
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years of college coaching. I think I started coaching
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sometime in the late 1600s, and somehow I'm still here doing so.
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Tell us about yourself, Coach Abel.
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Yes, I'm originally from the Dallas Fort Worth area town
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called Keller so local Texas girl and I don't let him forget
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that. And I grew up playing sports all
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my life, every sport, you name it.
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It's finally settled on track. Ended up running cross country
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at track at A&M for the last five years and I'm now in my
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first year as a college coach at A&M, which is pretty special.
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But you've probably connected the dots by now.
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Coach Mcraven Co host was actually my coach for all five
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of those years. So if you hear me referring to
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Miss Coach, it's just out of habit, even though I'm trying to
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get him to be my marathon coach. We'll see where that takes us.
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But right now, he's Coach Mcraven still.
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Yeah. And I forgot to mention, of
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course, that I am from the Chicago suburbs, which I don't
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let people forget often, so. I'm surprised that wasn't the
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first sentence out. Yeah, yeah.
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Yeah. NW suburbs, Chicago to Wheeling
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High School, get that Wheeling feeling, you know, etcetera,
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etcetera. So Coach Abel, you are, as you
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said, you're in your first year. Well, first of all, hey, let's
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talk about what this is supposed to be.
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Yeah, that's. Yeah, I think jumping all over
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the place, it's our first, this is our first episode.
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We're not super well. Coach Abel is very practiced.
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I unfortunately I am not being the talent of the show, but this
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is our first episode. We're going to make some
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mistakes. We're going to jump around a
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little bit, but what is this show going to be about?
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It's really going to be about a lot of things.
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We obviously we're tracking cross country coaches, so we're
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going to talk a lot about probably college track and cross
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country. We're going to talk about stuff
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in performance areas. We're going to talk about a lot
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of stuff outside of of tracking cross country and outside of
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college athletics because there is life outside of college
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athletics. We we have interests outside of
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that. We love music.
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We have very different tastes in music, but we do love music and
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we're just going to talk about the stuff that interests us a
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little. Much like much like the show
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Seinfeld, this may be a show just about nothing, and that's
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fine. So, but let's talk a little bit
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about, you know, Coach Abel's in her first year of college
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coaching and that's kind of cool.
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I've been doing this for a while, as I mentioned earlier,
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and I wish somebody had asked me at the end of my first year as a
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college coach to kind of look back on and talk a little bit
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about it. But now we've got a microphone
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and so we can talk a little bit about that.
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So coach able tell us and tell the people.
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Tell me a little bit about, you know, that transition from being
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a student athlete to now being a college coach.
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And I guess what are the big, the kind of the biggest
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surprises or just you know what, what have you learned in this
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year? Yeah, I feel like this year has
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gone by super fast. You just said that like you wish
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somebody had asked you at the end of your first year what it
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was like. Well, I feel like I was just
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asked how my first week was like after my first week, I was
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saying bye to Coach Henry. For those of you that aren't
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super familiar, Coach Henry's the head coach at A&M, been here
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for 2021 years a while. And I walked into his office,
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say bye at the end of the day. And he said, hey, how how was
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your first week? And I was like, oh, it was
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awesome. I loved it.
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And he said, good, keep doing it as long as you love it.
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And that's, that's what's really been true about this year is I
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can really see like the college coaches, they they love it.
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You can't be in this job if you don't love doing it every day.
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And I have loved doing it, we'll say pretty much every day.
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But what what I kind of expected was, you know, you go to meets,
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you do workouts, you go to practice, you go to team
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meetings and all that stuff. But what was really cool is
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having those one-on-one meetings with athletes, which by the way,
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you might have figured this out to those were my old teammates
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last year. And so, you know, one of them
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was my old roommate. All of them except for the
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freshmen were my old teammates. And so it's pretty cool getting
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to see like what makes them tick.
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I never knew what their meetings with you were before this year
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and getting to see like what makes them like I, I love them
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all as teammates, but getting to see, you know, their thought
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process going into races and everything was so special and
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made me like appreciate their work even more than I could have
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as a teammate. And so that was one thing like
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that I, I didn't expect I when I took the job, I didn't think,
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oh, I'm going to be in all those athlete meetings.
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That'll be interesting. But that's been one kind of like
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hidden gem is getting to see like how their minds work and
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everybody approaches everything so differently.
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But that's been one, I guess, pretty exciting thing.
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Just see people from a different point of view.
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And, and I've been pleasantly surprised and I've like been
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really, really proud of our team and the way way they think going
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into stuff. One of the things you mentioned
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earlier in the year that you were surprised at, like how
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coaches knew each other and how friendly coaches were to each
6:47
other. And you thought like, oh, I just
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thought you guys went to meets and coach your athletes and I
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didn't know you guys all knew each other.
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So that was kind of you thought that was kind of a.
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Surprise yeah, it's like I, yeah, we like we would go out to
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dinner with people like before the before the meet and see
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them. It's different things.
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And I realized Oh my gosh, all these coaches are friends and
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they all talk about training and they all talk about their
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athletes and we'll have coaches come up to us.
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Oh how's your how's your whatever girl doing?
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And I'm like, Oh my gosh, you know, like, you know, the names
7:19
of people on our team. I thought they were just this is
7:22
my team focused on my team. And yeah, maybe I wave at Coach
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Mcgraven across the course or the track, but like, I don't
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know him, but you guys all genuinely know each other.
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And I feel like every single time we, you know, walk out of
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the hotel, we like you're always oh, hey, and I'm and we walk
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away and I'm like, who was that? And it's some coach that you've
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known for 20 years. That's been at these different
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schools that aren't even in our conference and I'm like, Oh my
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gosh, there's a like the athletes have camaraderie, but I
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didn't realize that the coaches had an extent of that same
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camaraderie that you guys hid from us for years.
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I was always here for five years.
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I was hiding it. But no, we're all here for five
8:02
years and I never knew that you guys like, hung out together and
8:05
spent time together outside of being coaches.
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Yeah, but and and by the way, the name of our podcast, we
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didn't even. Mention.
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Oh yeah, it. Comes from it's hey dude, the
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name of our podcast is hey dude, what's up man?
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And that is because Coach Abel accuses me of that.
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That is my greeting. Like what?
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Like I think she first mentioned at the NCAA cross country
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championship last year. Every coach I ran into that, I
8:32
say, hey dude, what's up man? I probably say that to the
8:34
female coaches too and I Co coach able do it all the time.
8:38
So and hey man, to her all the time, but also then at the
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coaches convention, I think that's when it really started
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to. Stay.
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Like every single coach I, I ran into.
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And I do know their names, by the way.
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I don't 99% of them, I know their names.
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They'll probably test me now. But yeah, that's where the,
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that's the origin of the name for the podcast is.
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That's allegedly, I'm saying allegedly.
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That's allegedly my greeting. And yeah, you think it'd be
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like, hey man, or hey, dude, like you, you don't think you
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need to throw out two generic things like that, Like, hey,
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dude, what's up, man? And the whole time he's like
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shaking their hand and then like bringing them in for the pat on
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the back. It's the same.
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It's the same. And like, I, I for anybody who,
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who has been greeted in this way, he is doing it pure, like
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pure, authentic, genuine. He's excited to see you.
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But if anybody knows him, like, he's just excited to see like
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people. Like, he's he's an introvert,
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but he loves people. And so the hey, dude, what's up,
9:39
man? I'm like, why do you have to say
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dude and man, Like, why do you have to say both of those?
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And why is it the same greeting every time?
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Yeah. I'm a product of the 80s.
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Man, Yeah, yeah, man. And so.
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Wheeling High School, if you know anything about Wheeling
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High School in the northwest suburbs, you would, you'd
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probably understand lots of mullets and muscle cars and
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etcetera, etcetera in the parking lot.
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Yeah, so I like to walk into his office and go, hey, man.
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And just to make fun of them. I'm sure our I'm sure the other
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people on our staff think we're crazy.
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But if they, if they find this podcast, they'll, they'll know.
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It'll it'll confirm hopefully. They never find this podcast.
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Hopefully, you know, this is we're recording for ourselves.
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Actually, maybe nobody will ever listen to this and that will be
10:21
fine. You know, our big sponsorship
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deals might go out the window. I don't know OK any any more any
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more insight into that that first year I know you're you can
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talk. Yeah, yeah, no, the other thing,
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the other thing that surprised me, which like, I don't don't
10:37
want to toot my own horn. Wait, wait, wait.
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Wait, wait. Since when?
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This is a public person in and out.
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Yeah, she. She does love to tutor.
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I don't want to brag, but no, like I and, and I say this
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coming from a humble stance of I understand that a lot of people,
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you know, they work their way up through quote, through the
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ranks. They are middle school coaches
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that high school. Coaches right at the top.
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You started, I get to start at the best university in the
11:05
country. I know, I know.
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And I, and I mean that. But like I, I am saying all this
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with the standpoint of yes, I am fully aware that I am extremely
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lucky to have gotten a job at A&M right out of college.
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I don't take that for granted. A single day in the last year,
11:25
but a single day in the last year, I don't take that for
11:26
granted. I understand that so many of
11:29
these coaches have worked up and and they have a ton of
11:31
experience because of that working it though, back when I
11:34
was working at this high school or at this junior college or
11:37
this D3 and and there's times when I'm like, man, like I feel
11:43
like I didn't get that part of it.
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And I feel like I like maybe I missed out on like that
11:49
development through it. But one thing that has surprised
11:53
me is that I was lightly, turns out, I feel like I was more
11:59
prepared for this than I thought I would be when I accepted the
12:02
job. I was like, I don't know
12:05
anything about coaching at this level.
12:07
I don't. And, and the other side of my
12:09
job is I'm also our recruiting coordinator and I do a lot of
12:12
stuff setting up our official visits and everything.
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And so when I'm, when I started out in all this, I'm like, Oh my
12:18
gosh, I don't, I don't know how to do this.
12:20
Like these coaches on the staff are so amazing.
12:22
Our program is, is a high level program.
12:25
And with that comes the intensity.
12:26
And like, you know, at at other places, other jobs, other
12:31
levels, like maybe it's OK to make a lot of mistakes.
12:35
And at A&M, it's a great environment, but everyone's
12:39
expected to excel and you're expected to work at the highest
12:42
level. And I experienced that when I
12:44
was on the team and I was in school there.
12:46
And like, you expect, you're expected to get good grades.
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You're expected to what why are you laughing?
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You are you're expected to get good grades.
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You're expected to do community service.
12:57
You're expected to perform well on the track.
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You're expected to do all these things.
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And I think that expectation for the five years I was a student
13:05
there helped me, you know, be a little bit better with those
13:10
expectations when I became a staff member for the program.
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And so I do think I was prepared more than I thought I would be.
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And then turns out we're at practice and where it meets.
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And I, I didn't have any formal coaching experience, but I knew
13:29
a lot about the team and I knew a lot about the girls and the
13:31
guys on the team. And I knew the courses that we
13:33
were running at. And I realized, oh, OK, I didn't
13:36
maybe learn all this from being at a different institution or at
13:39
a different level, but I learned all this by living this for the
13:43
last five years. And like when we're when we're
13:47
recruiting and we're and we're talking to people and I'm like,
13:49
hey, listen, like I may not know a lot about sprints or pole
13:53
vault, but I do know what it's like to be a girl on the team at
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A&M. And so I've been really like
13:59
leveraging that in coaching and recruiting is like, Hey, I, I'm
14:04
not an expert. I don't claim to be an expert as
14:06
a track coach, but I do know what it's like to be in your
14:10
exact shoes because just a year ago I was.
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And so while I, when I first started out, I thought, Oh my
14:16
gosh, I'm a, I'm a newbie. I'm a beginner.
14:17
I don't know anything. And I realized, huh, OK, maybe I
14:21
do know more than I thought. And maybe I can use where I've
14:26
been for the last five years to apply that because I mean,
14:29
there's things where like we talk all the time in the office
14:33
and like I, I'm flattered when you asked me for help because
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I'm like, oh, OK, maybe I actually could provide insight
14:40
on that because that is a very specific thing to our team.
14:43
Like what would the people on the team like in this scenario?
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And I'm like, oh, OK, I can, I can answer that.
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For the most part in our staff meetings, if you've noticed, I
14:53
remain pretty quiet because I know when it's time to talk.
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I know when it's time to listen. I know that's shocking for you
15:00
to think, but like I'm not going to have a bunch of insights on
15:05
what I think we should, you know, bring up in the technical
15:08
meeting because I don't know that stuff yet, but I'll learn
15:12
it by listening. But when the question comes up
15:14
about something that a preference that the women's team
15:18
might have, that's when I chime in.
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So that's, I think that's been the best thing is kind of
15:25
learning when to be quiet and learn, learn on the fly and when
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to go. No, no, I do.
15:30
I do know this area, but that's been what's that's.
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I've pulled some confidence from that part of it.
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Well, in the end, it it's a people business.
15:38
We're dealing with human beings, we're dealing with people.
15:41
And you're good at that. And, and, and then, yeah, I mean
15:44
the the XS and OS of the sport, you know, yes, there's some
15:49
complexities of Physiology and bio mechanics and all that kind
15:53
of stuff, but it's not stuff that it's not rocket science,
15:56
you know. And so, and I think you quickly
16:00
learned that. I think I that was for me the
16:02
same thing, you know, when I first started coaching the same
16:05
thing. I was scared that I didn't know
16:07
enough. Well, probably I was actually
16:08
probably thought I was a little overconfident.
16:10
I'm a typical guy. I thought I knew everything.
16:12
And then then I realized how little I knew.
16:14
And then then I thought I knew a lot.
16:15
And it goes back and forth, but but awesome, it sounds me like.
16:19
And obviously I've worked with you.
16:20
So I mean, I mean kind of interviewing you, but at the
16:23
same time I, I, I, I saw all this happen I you.
16:25
Know you've been there for every, like, every step of the
16:27
way. I was there for the you know,
16:29
from recruiting you to having you to coaching you, talking off
16:33
the ledge. To OK the ledge of being nervous
16:38
before racing. OK Oh my God, not a little
16:41
ledge. I was a nervous Nelly so he
16:45
helped me through that for sure. Well, eventually that might be
16:48
an episode we talk about. Yeah, honestly, honestly.
16:51
And and it's not life or death. Your parents will still love
16:54
you. And that's one thing that I've
16:55
learned from you, honestly, is like, well, I I learned from my
16:58
parents that they would love me no matter what.
17:00
But I was reminded by you before all those races.
17:03
Of hey listen, keep double check with your dad just to make sure.
17:06
Oh my God, yeah. So, OK, well that's awesome.
17:10
And you know, I'm not going to go through my 112 years or
17:14
whatever, 3 and 52, three and 52 years of college coaching.
17:17
I will talk about real briefly some of the changes I've seen in
17:20
college, if that's if you're interested in hearing about
17:22
that. No, but you're going to tell me.
17:24
Anything. Yeah, I am, because I like to
17:25
talk. It's a problem with you have two
17:27
people that enjoy talking. Especially like talking about
17:29
myself. Now I'm just kidding.
17:30
You're your biggest. Fan yeah, I am my biggest fan.
17:33
So you're forced to listen, no, you don't have to even set it,
17:36
set it off right now. But you know, one of the things
17:39
I've noticed in college athletics, the biggest change
17:41
I've noticed because I don't want to talk a lot about actual
17:44
coaching right now is just, you know, it's kind of a, it's a,
17:47
it's a tumultuous time, tumultuous time in college
17:50
athletics right now. And, and, and for, you know,
17:52
maybe a scary time for some in college athletics because we're
17:56
seeing potential big change. We've seen big changes over the
17:59
last few years. We're seeing potential big
18:01
changes coming up on the horizon.
18:03
And, and some of them, I think some of it's going to be good
18:08
because part of the deal is when I first started college
18:12
coaching, it was a very, it's very different.
18:16
It was, you know, USA track and field.
18:18
Were dinosaurs still roaming? Yeah, there were dinosaurs.
18:20
Times we did not have electricity.
18:24
I mean, Benjamin Franklin was working on it, but we weren't
18:27
quite there yet. But no, when I first started
18:28
college coaching, the, you know, we kind of college athletics
18:34
kind of followed the mantra that, that USA track and field
18:36
coaches education. If anybody that's gone through
18:39
the USA Track and Coaches Education program now the
18:41
USTFCCA coaches education program, which I did as a young
18:45
coach, they talked about athletics, you know, where it
18:49
was athlete centered, it was coach driven and it was
18:53
administratively supported. And anybody that's been coaching
18:55
as long as I have have been kind of has noticed over the years
19:01
that that in college athletics it, it, it really become more
19:04
and more administratively centered.
19:06
And, you know, I, I think you see a lot of the, the stuff
19:12
that's coming out of athletics where athletes are, are filing
19:15
lawsuits against college athletics is, is part of that
19:20
administrative bloat that is kind of happening college
19:23
athletics. And, you know, it's just
19:27
interesting to to see that. And and so I think so I think
19:29
maybe, you know, it is scary. I don't know what the money, all
19:33
the money stuff. I don't understand all that
19:35
stuff. I know there's a lot of money in
19:36
college athletics. I know college football coaches
19:38
and college basketball coaches at the high school get paid
19:39
really well, but they're also the people bringing in the money
19:42
and the athletes are the people bringing in the money in those
19:44
sports. So I don't begrudge anybody.
19:47
I don't begrudge the athletes in those sports that are demanding,
19:51
you know, some, some a piece of the pie.
19:55
That's that's cool. You know, I was in a college
19:57
athlete at 1:00, but I hope we don't get away from the love of
20:00
college athletics. I hope we don't get away from
20:02
the fact that like in in our sport and track and, and some of
20:06
the other, you know, non glamour sports like football and
20:09
basketball, that there's still a lot of athletes that are doing
20:11
this purely for the love of the sport.
20:13
But I but I do hope we see some positive change in the sport.
20:18
So and, and kind of going from that, that administrative bloat
20:24
to see more of that money. Going into athletics itself,
20:28
into what we're doing, because every coach that that is, you
20:32
know, every coach has been doing it for any period of time.
20:34
You talk about loving it. Well, you know, college coaches
20:38
right now in, in, you know, and outside of the private power
20:42
sports, we probably all feel like a little bit like we're
20:44
kind of caught in the middle, you know, from, you know, the
20:47
administrators on one side and the athletes on another on the
20:50
other side where we don't have a ton of power.
20:55
But why we do it is because for like 2 to 4 hours a day, we have
20:59
the best job in the world. It really is like working with
21:02
student athletes, helping people, helping human beings
21:05
achieve their dreams and goals. It is awesome.
21:08
That's why we all got into it and why we continue to get into
21:10
it. So I, I, you know, I said, I
21:13
don't want to talk a lot about my whole coaching career, but I
21:16
did want to, I did want to kind of, it's the biggest thing I've
21:19
noticed. Like when I like when I first
21:20
started coaching, man, I, I, I like you.
21:23
I started a great, I started the University of Alabama.
21:25
I was a volunteer assistant at the University of Alabama,
21:26
poorly hired, not as, as a graduate assistant.
21:29
Eventually they paid me real money and stuff, which I, I was
21:32
just shocked that people take me real money to, to be a, be a
21:35
coach. But, but back then you had one
21:38
compliance person you had, there was a, an athletic director.
21:42
There was none of this, none of that other stuff.
21:44
And so we've just seen a lot of growth in, in, in, in, in, in
21:47
the the administration of college athletics and stuff and,
21:49
and, and, and, and now we're seeing athletes kind of go, hey,
21:53
well, but where's all that money's going, going elsewhere,
21:55
but it's not going to us. And so that's cool if that's
21:59
what they want to do so. Yeah, and that's kind of the
22:02
reason, like we, we want to make a podcast because we enjoy
22:06
talking to each other. We enjoy talking about athletics
22:11
and about just everything. But it does come back to that
22:15
love for the sport and loving being around the team and just
22:19
everything that goes into it. Like I remember when when you
22:22
came down for practice one day a couple years ago in you're
22:25
still, I would say, like more office clothes, not what you not
22:29
what you normally wore to practice.
22:30
And we saw you in a pair of shoes and we were like, oh, are
22:33
those shoes new? And you were like, no, I just
22:36
don't you. I usually just only wear them to
22:38
work. And we were like, where do you
22:41
work? Like it was like a genuine like
22:43
question. And the words came out of my
22:46
mouth, And then I was like, Oh, my gosh, this is his job.
22:49
And like, I think you said the same thing this fall about me.
22:53
Like, I said something about work or whatever.
22:55
And you were like, where does she work?
22:57
And it's just kind of cool to have those reminders of like,
23:00
oh, yeah, OK. Like, like my brother told my
23:03
mom like, well, you don't work. I was like, yeah, I work a lot,
23:06
but I own my own business, and I love what I do.
23:08
And like, she was really proud that my brother didn't think of
23:11
what she did as work. And so when I said that to you
23:14
about your shoes, it was almost kind of like a wow.
23:17
OK, Coach Mcraven must love this because he's never made it seem
23:21
to us at practice that he was even working like this didn't
23:25
seem like this was his job, but it is.
23:27
And like, you know, the bank account, the the check hits the
23:31
bank account every month. And I'm like, whoa, I forgot.
23:34
I haven't forgot. This is my job.
23:36
And so that's just kind of the, you know, the idea of the
23:39
podcast and a little bit of the inspiration, not the complete
23:41
inspiration, but a little bit of it is like, hey, we, we enjoyed
23:47
talking to each other pretty much.
23:49
Why not? Why don't we just click the
23:50
record button and see where it goes?
23:52
Yeah, sometimes we go off the rails so we won't go off the.
23:54
Rails but. Yeah, I mean, you talk about
23:56
like, that's what I, I, I had the fortune and I, I ran at the
24:00
Division Three level, ran for Al Carious at North Central College
24:03
in Illinois, was fortunate to be a member of three national
24:08
championship teams at the Division Three level.
24:09
I I forget how many national championship?
24:11
AL's one, I mean. Is that a one to one ratio on
24:14
national championships to stretch fractures for you?
24:17
OK, we're not going to go down that we're going to that'll be a
24:19
maybe we'll cover that subject in in another future podcast.
24:23
But but Al used to say it's great.
24:28
He's like, I've never worked a day in my life.
24:30
And I was like, you know, that, you know, that along with some
24:34
great high school coaches were kind of inspiration for me to
24:36
get into coaching because guys like Al Carius, Frank
24:40
Grammarosa, my high school coaches, Jim Nagle, Mark Saylor,
24:44
they just made it seem cool. So made it seem fun, you know,
24:47
to be at a coach. And heck, even Rick Benedetto,
24:52
who's our our high school football coach at Wheeling High
24:55
School, he's made it seem like fun.
24:57
These guys were cool guys who made coaching seem fun.
25:00
And so that's why I followed this path.
25:04
And I don't want a deep dig too deep into the psychological
25:07
profile of me and why I. We don't need to have time.
25:11
For that, that'll really go off the rails.
25:13
But but yeah, we love coaching. We love working with student
25:17
athletes. We we enjoy the banter back and
25:20
forth about what we do and and that's where we're at.
25:23
Right. That.
25:24
That's actually how I got into coaching too, was I thought you
25:26
were so cool. Have you actually thought about
25:29
this guy? This guy's such a goofball, and
25:32
he can do this. I'm.
25:33
Sure, I can do that. I'm sure I can.
25:34
Think it can't be that hard, you know?
25:38
So yeah, I'm. I'm the furthest thing from
25:41
cool. But yeah.
25:43
So you know, it's the first episode we we talked about, you
25:47
know, we want we want this to be fun.
25:48
We want to be positive, We want to accentuate the positive
25:54
things. Let's so we talked about maybe
25:58
as as this podcast goes along, however long lived it or short
26:01
lived it may be talking about the highlight of the week or
26:05
whatever in this podcast. Hopefully we'll be able to do
26:08
this about once a week, you know, where we have a busy
26:12
coaching life. So maybe some weeks we can't do
26:15
that. Maybe we'll have some time for
26:17
emergency. We might have to do an emergency
26:18
podcast every once in a while with something exciting.
26:20
Oh my gosh, hop on the mics. Let's go.
26:22
Let's. Go, let's make it happen.
26:23
But, but we talked about a highlight of the week and since
26:28
it's our first episode and, and you are at the end of your first
26:32
academic year as a college coach, closing in the 1st at the
26:35
end of your first calendar year as a college coach, why don't
26:38
you talk about what's your highlight of the year?
26:42
Yeah, and you're? Probably going to steal mine
26:44
maybe. Oh, no, I was about to say I'm
26:46
definitely. I think I'm going to steal
26:47
yours. We we actually didn't talk about
26:49
this before. Yeah.
26:51
We, we don't know. I don't know what her highlight
26:52
is. I don't know what.
26:53
Mine is, but when I, when I suggested, Hey, we should do a
26:56
highlight of the week each week, it actually, I don't know if I
26:59
told you that I know, you know, we did this when we're on the
27:02
scene, but I don't think you I connected the dots here is we
27:05
would always on long run, every Sunday do a high and a low.
27:08
And since we were A&M, we do whoops and poops of the week.
27:12
And so we would spend like, I don't know, I mean, we got
27:15
chatty and there was a lot of us.
27:16
And so we spend the first, you know, like two or three miles of
27:20
the run, like every person going through saying a highlight of
27:24
their week and a low of their week just to update everybody.
27:27
You can't talk to every single person on the team every day.
27:30
And so that was something I really enjoyed.
27:32
I look forward to every week. We made a rule that if you had a
27:37
highlight and two lows, you had to come up with another
27:41
highlight. You could have two highlights
27:42
and one low, but you could not have more lows.
27:44
So you had to really dig through your week and find another
27:47
highlight because the. Women more often.
27:49
To yeah, like if you said, like if you said, hey, I had a pretty
27:52
good week, you know, I had lunch with a friend, but I but I
27:55
didn't get enough sleep and I did battle on a test.
27:56
We're like, well, you better go back to your week and find
27:58
something else good because the good always has to equal or
28:01
outweigh the bad. And so that's one thing like,
28:05
you know, in these jobs, it's stressful, it's tiring, but I
28:08
like that we're going to always circle back and we're not going
28:10
to do a low because I don't want to focus on a low at all.
28:12
But I say hey, I can't. Think of any lows.
28:14
There's no. Lows.
28:15
There's no lows. Hey, yeah.
28:16
Also, if you had no low of the week, that was even better.
28:19
So if you couldn't even think of one, that was pretty awesome.
28:21
So anyway, I'm going to steal your highlight, I'm sure of it,
28:25
because if this isn't your highlight, then I'm.
28:28
I'm firing you myself. The highlight has got to be,
28:34
well, I, I have a highlight and then a mini highlight that I
28:36
think resulted in that highlight.
28:40
The highlight has. Oh, yeah, drum roll, please.
28:43
The highlight has got to be our women's cross country team going
28:45
to nationals for the first time in 23 years, 23 years.
28:48
Yeah. Which at the time was like my
28:51
entire lifetime they had never been.
28:54
And so I had been on those teams that were close.
28:58
You know, we talked about those teams that were like, it was
29:00
like gut wrenching that we were like, oh wow, Yep, so close.
29:04
And like we have it clinched with AK to go and then we don't.
29:07
And so I had seen that like heartbreak year after year of
29:12
being on the ground floor, seeing the workouts every single
29:15
day, sharing the highs and lows on the long runs.
29:18
And then, you know, you get to the lowest of lows where you
29:20
miss it by a place going to nationals.
29:23
And so to be able to see this group in my first year coaching
29:28
qualify for nationals has got to be the highlight.
29:31
There's of course other highlights in the year.
29:32
There's been great stuff on the track, but that's just such a
29:35
special thing because we had been so close so many times.
29:39
I'm like, I I knew that was hard for you seeing us be close that
29:42
many times because it was hard for me on the team and then
29:45
getting to still be a part of it.
29:47
Yes, of course it was, you know, bittersweet going like, OK,
29:51
yeah, like I'm not getting to run in this race.
29:53
But it was still so cool to be able to be involved in it
29:56
because it would be way less fun being halfway across the country
30:00
at a desk job, seeing it on social media.
30:04
But I got to actually be there and still live it in a certain
30:06
capacity. And I bet you can guess my mini
30:11
highlight that led to that. It's not me.
30:14
It's it's the culture of our team.
30:18
We've we, we we both know there's been like, there's been
30:24
like years ago, decades ago, not decades, but I'd like to say it
30:29
was decades years ago that it was bad.
30:31
And so for it to be, you know, several years now we're like the
30:36
girls on the team are like, what are you talking about?
30:38
The culture was bad at some point.
30:39
And like the freshmen are like, Oh my gosh, the upperclassmen
30:43
are amazing. I love everybody on the team.
30:45
And that just like warms my coaching heart because I'm like,
30:48
oh, I'm like, oh, that's awesome.
30:49
And in my head I'm like, Oh my gosh, I'm, I'm so happy.
30:54
I throw myself back into my athlete days.
30:56
I'm like, wow, I'm so happy that there's freshmen on the team
30:59
that are like, they, they know nothing other than loving every
31:04
aspect of being on this team. And Oh my gosh, the culture is
31:06
amazing. And I love all the girls and I'm
31:08
like, Oh my gosh, that's awesome that you don't have any other
31:11
experience than that. And so one thing we talk about
31:15
all the time is culture. And if you just kind of ignore
31:18
it, it's going to revert. And so we keep working at it.
31:21
And so I, that is, I mean, no knock on you as a coach as
31:26
writing those workouts down, but the culture you've cultivated on
31:30
the team is, is I think more of AI mean obviously you got to
31:36
have the workouts, right? Yeah, but like the culture, if
31:42
you have bad culture and good workouts, your team's going to
31:44
suck. If you have, if you had mediocre
31:48
workouts and a great culture, it's you're going to have a good
31:51
team. And so, but, and then this year
31:54
we had good workouts, great culture, great result.
31:57
And so that's my mini, my secret highlight is just the ongoing
32:02
culture. It should be an ongoing
32:03
highlight for me is just the, the path our team is on And like
32:07
it just keeps getting better. Like honestly, every day, I know
32:10
it sounds crazy, but really every day I feel like I'm more
32:12
proud of the team, more proud of the team and like it the culture
32:16
and the camaraderie on the distance team has has I've seen
32:19
it expand onto the entire track team and like you've got a,
32:23
you've got a thrower, a male thrower, cracking jokes with
32:26
like a sophomore distance runner.
32:29
And I'm like, how are the two of you even like have like inside
32:33
jokes? But it's just so cool to see
32:35
that bridge across the whole team.
32:37
And so that yes, yes, going to nationals was amazing.
32:40
That's got to be the highlight. I'm sure that was yours.
32:43
But the culture aspect of it, sorry, the culture aspect of it
32:46
is something that's even more to be more proud of because that's
32:51
going to produce more and more trips to nationals.
32:53
Just A1 isolated situation qualifying.
32:56
OK, but can you repeat it? And I think you repeat it by
33:00
having the good culture. Yeah, there's no doubt about,
33:02
you're absolutely 100% correct. I mean, there, I mean, because
33:07
the XS and OS of the sport like it's it's funny, I remember when
33:10
I was coaching at the University of Illinois, we had a guy on our
33:13
team who he ran at the same high school and he had a teammate.
33:18
This is when Jerry Schumacher is now the head coach.
33:20
University of Oregon was that was the cross country and
33:22
distance coach at the University of Wisconsin and he had a
33:26
teammate and that's when Wisconsin was killing it.
33:29
They wrapped. I mean, they're still premier
33:31
program, but that's when they were absolutely killing it.
33:32
They had, I mean, I think that 456 future professional distant
33:37
terms on our team. And I remember him making the
33:40
comment after a workout. You know, wow coach, I was
33:45
texting with my buddy and we did the exact same workout that
33:48
Wisconsin did today. And I'm like, oh, earth
33:51
shattering news. Other people are doing mild
33:53
repeats or whatever it might have been that day.
33:56
And you guys all talk. You all hang out.
33:57
Like, and I'm like, and I'm like now, now Jerry, Jerry's real
34:00
secretive a little bit about what he does.
34:01
So I don't know if that's necessarily the case.
34:03
I hope Jerry's not listening to this.
34:04
But but yeah, it's, it's it, it, it always boils down to and, and
34:11
I know culture has become a catch phrase out there and
34:14
people talk, are you here like, because Nick Saban talks about
34:16
culture and process and so everything process, culture,
34:19
process, culture. But it's about a feeling.
34:22
It's like, it's how do you feel? Do you when you walk into the
34:24
room every day to practice? We walk in and we end our
34:27
meeting room every day for practice.
34:29
Are you excited about what you're doing?
34:31
Are you excited about the people you're around?
34:34
And you're absolutely, 100% right.
34:36
That's what makes it fun to those, those seeing, seeing
34:39
those a thrower and a distance runner joking and seeing a
34:42
hurdler and a middle distance runner joking together and
34:45
stuff. And guys that that aren't
34:47
training together, people that aren't, aren't necessarily they
34:51
they share a camaraderie along with that.
34:53
And that's what Coach Henry has preached at Texas A&M is, is
34:55
build a team. And when you see that happening
34:58
and you see it happening in our cross country and distance
35:00
group, it it it does it you say warms your heart.
35:03
That's kind of, you know, that's I mean, yeah, that's an
35:06
apartment description of the feeling that you get.
35:08
There's no no question about it. You did steal my highlight of
35:11
the year. Obviously, that was a long time
35:13
coming. And, and, and there was several
35:16
times, obviously as a coach where walk away from regional
35:21
championships and you have individuals to qualify maybe
35:24
and, and, and stuff, but you're always like, gosh, what is the
35:26
missing piece? What is the missing piece?
35:28
And there were times when the culture, you know, we talked
35:30
about you were on team. We went through a year, the
35:33
COVID year where, where our culture kind of took a little
35:36
bit of a hit more than a little bit.
35:37
Yeah, it was not a good year. And so we, we and and and and
35:41
and, and all kinds of credit to the athletes on the team
35:46
because, you know, that was the challenge.
35:50
You, you and I talked in my office.
35:51
I'm like, hey, well, what are you going to do about it?
35:53
Like, what are you going to do about it?
35:54
Like I. I think I asked you that.
35:56
Yeah, you did ask me that, but I, yeah, but, but you guys are
35:59
the ones that did it. I can talk about all I can.
36:02
I can talk about it. I can try to make changes and
36:04
stuff like that. But in the end, it's got it's
36:06
got to come from the student athletes.
36:07
Because we're only at practice for 2-3 hours a day, so you
36:10
can't be a miracle worker. I can't and I can't.
36:13
I don't know what's happening. You know, I can't be there with
36:14
you, you know, in the dorms, in the apartments and when you guys
36:18
are hanging out in the in the nutrition center and stuff like
36:20
that, eating your meals and stuff, that's when, you know,
36:23
that's when those bonds happen. And you know, yeah, you guys
36:28
did, I mean, you, you were part of that.
36:30
And so and, and and so we're where we are because of, of the
36:36
concerted effort by a lot of people that that really cared
36:39
about it. And that's what you have to have
36:41
because you, you hear, I mean, like there are great technical
36:45
coaches out there that have not had the kind of success they
36:48
that you think they should have because, you know, there's the,
36:51
their culture is not good or, or they're not in the right place
36:53
at the right time and all those kind of things.
36:55
But yeah, that, that was my highlight probably too.
36:58
I was going to actually, you kind of stole both of my
37:00
highlights because because when I said I, I'm like, I'm like, I
37:03
know she's going to take, she's going to take the qualifying
37:06
team, qualifying for Nashville. She's going to take that as her
37:08
highlight of the year. I'll talk about.
37:11
Culture, I was going to talk about this, the growth, kind of
37:13
the growth through the year that we've seen and, and, and
37:16
obviously the women's team qualified for Nashville, but the
37:18
growth of the men, both the men and women are our distance group
37:21
and, and watching, watching that growth and and watching people
37:24
mature and people just kind of, I mean, you know, you don't want
37:29
to, you don't want to like individual, you know, kind of
37:33
necessarily highly certain certain individuals, but I mean,
37:35
like, I mean, I, I look at somebody like Cooper Kafra.
37:37
That's what I was going to. Say, you know, the growth he's
37:39
made this year, just the maturity and stuff.
37:43
He was disappointed not qualify for nationals here and and he's
37:47
probably like like, you know, bummed he's not here in Eugene
37:50
because he really was a guy that I think is going to be here
37:53
eventually. But but watching his maturity,
37:57
how he how he maturity was as an athlete and stuff like.
37:59
We we've talked about, we talked about that bad conference when
38:03
we were running, we were like, wow, like super proud of him.
38:06
Everybody on the team. It seems like there has been a
38:08
shift of like not even just at practice shift, but a cult like
38:12
a, a maturity shift on our whole team.
38:16
And like we attribute it to those seniors, But like that is
38:20
one person that we did talk about of like, wow, he like he
38:23
has a different person on and off the track.
38:26
Different person, yeah. And, and we've seen it with a
38:29
lot of people, yeah, we've seen some of them even young, some
38:31
young people that have stepped up, I mean, and that's exciting.
38:35
So I'm sure we'll as that as time goes on, some of those
38:37
individuals will probably highlight.
38:39
Yeah, they've are. We've been joking about it at
38:41
practice. We've got to start a podcast and
38:43
we've already got that. We already have a list of people
38:46
asking to be on our podcast. Yeah, we're like, whoa, slow
38:49
your roll, man. We don't even have it up.
38:51
We don't. Even have intro music.
38:52
Don't even sorry. OK, Yeah, me.
38:54
Maybe we'll get some intro music for episode 2.
38:58
Hey, you said we're not going to be all super polished.
39:00
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And and this, you know, we kind
39:02
of we were talking about this what I don't know if it's
39:05
yesterday or the day before we're.
39:06
Talking the days run together. Yeah, when, when you're in
39:08
Eugene for a week, for the ends of the championships, the days
39:11
simply run together. You don't know whether it's.
39:13
I don't even know what day of the week it is.
39:14
Right. Is it Tuesday?
39:16
It is Tuesday, my song of the day week, song of the day day.
39:21
But yeah, we're talking about it.
39:24
And, and, and I remember he listening to Mike Cunningham,
39:27
who does the Gill Athletics podcast where he interviews
39:31
coaches and, and Mike's one of the most upbeat, positive people
39:34
in the world, loves coaches, loves track and field, does a
39:38
phenomenal job. He was a track coach himself at
39:40
one point, along with being a professional poker play, which
39:42
is amazing. That's a guy we should have on
39:44
the podcast Really that would be like a 2 hour podcast though,
39:47
because we talk a lot. He talks a lot.
39:49
But you know, he talked about his first podcast.
39:52
I think he just recorded it as on his phone and didn't realize
39:55
that the, the, the the podcast app on his phone ended at an
39:59
hour. And I think he went something it
40:00
went over an hour And so whatever the last 1520 minutes
40:03
of it, like he didn't even get and stuff, you know what he put
40:05
he published it anyway. It's out there in the.
40:10
In the podcast sphere, I guess, and, and, and so that's our
40:13
inspiration. We don't expect us to be
40:14
perfect. We're going to have fun doing
40:15
it. We're going to have fun talking.
40:17
Maybe people listen, maybe nobody.
40:18
Listen, we're the only two people that ever listen to this.
40:21
Hey, that's good enough for me. Yeah, I'm going to hate my voice
40:23
because I hate my. I hate my.
40:24
My. Recorded voice.
40:25
We all do. I was going to go into radio
40:27
also and I don't know how I was going to do that.
40:29
That's why I got my, that's why I have my podcast, my There You
40:32
Go. Because I was all gung ho about
40:33
that and. Somehow, somehow, we both have
40:36
Podcast Mike's. We've never done podcast.
40:40
Purchased no equipment for this. I've had this podcast, Mike, for
40:45
probably almost two years. Now, I've had this one for for
40:48
four years. I didn't purchase it.
40:50
It was actually given to me. I'm not going to, you know, not
40:53
going to lie, but I but the whole reason I had it because I
40:55
like, I don't, I don't think I'm going to do a podcast sometime.
40:58
And yeah, I kept mine because I had a dream of doing a podcast.
41:00
And like, to your point of, of Cunningham is like, Hey, we've
41:05
joked about doing this podcast for months and we were waiting
41:08
to, you know, have our ducks in a row and and our ducks.
41:15
Are. In our ducks, well, I don't even
41:17
know if they're in a row yet, but we've realized, hey, it
41:19
doesn't matter. Like maybe we'll be the one to
41:21
listen to this. Maybe Mary and Kylie and my
41:24
family will listen to it and and we'll get like a collective of
41:27
like 10 views and it'll be great.
41:29
Maybe they'll maybe they'll stop listening already, yeah.
41:32
If you made it to this point, thank you so much for still
41:35
being with us. Yeah, yeah.
41:37
Thank you very much. This is is our first podcast and
41:40
I guess we didn't really think of any outro.
41:42
We're yeah. Well, yeah, we did not about two
41:45
minutes ago. I was wondering how are we going
41:47
to wrap this up? If it's usually like most of our
41:49
conversations with. I just walk out of your office
41:52
and then I and then I and I'm down the hallway and I hear, I
41:55
hear you talking. I'm.
41:56
Still talking to myself. And then you're like yelling,
41:58
wait, did you leave? And I'm like, how did you not
42:01
hear me leave? Should we just like, stop the
42:05
cops? Thanks.
42:07
Peace out. We'll see you next time.
42:09
See you next time on the hey dude, what's up man?
42:12
Hey dude, what's up? Man.
42:14
Oh my gosh.