Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / #185: Nate Rucker-Upper Iowa University

Transcript

#185: Nate Rucker-Upper Iowa University · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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  Welcome to season 3 of gila politics connection podcast.
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  See what today's guest has in store for us.
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  Hey, welcome to the gulf etics connections podcast.
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  I'm so humbled to be your host, Mike Cunningham here at Gill
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  Athletics. Really appreciate you guys.
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  Jumping on here for the show, where we uplift, and honor
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  booth 5 to 7 p.m. tonight in Denver and get on the show man.
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  I'm not Not rejecting anybody. Anybody can come on.
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  Just going to have some fun time here, five minutes at a time and
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  just have some fun. That's really what this is all
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  about doing this live, taping to have some fun.
• 1:48
  So, speaking of fun, let's get into today's guest.
• 1:53
  The most unique mascot, we're going to jump right into that
• 1:55
  first and foremost, because it's one of my absolute favorites.
• 1:58
  Help me. Welcome the head coach of Upper
• 1:59
  Iowa University. The wise, the wonderful, mr.
• 2:02
  Ney trucker Nate, welcome to the show.
• 2:05
  Hey Mike, thanks for having me, man.
• 2:07
  Thank you. First of all, I mean, I know
• 2:09
  you're extremely Busy. This this podcast could be 10
• 2:11
  minutes long because he may have to jump off and go your crude
• 2:14
  and all this other stuff. You know what you coaches do,
• 2:16
  man? It never ever stops.
• 2:18
  Oh, I'm just really grateful for you in your time today, man.
• 2:21
  I know you're super busy, so appreciate you sitting down with
• 2:23
  us today, appreciates thinking of me, man.
• 2:25
  So you, so you think we've got a pretty unique mascot, huh?
• 2:29
  So I'll tell you the back story and I think I told you this, we
• 2:33
  have this really cool too. It's actually my favorite
• 2:35
  product that we've made in the 17 years.
• 2:38
  I've been here and that's the high jump.
• 2:39
  Staters, the agx Highjump centers that we do.
• 2:41
  And the reason I love them is one, they're super functional
• 2:44
  and all that kind of good stuff, but they have a really cool
• 2:47
  ability to be branded by the customer, in any form or
• 2:50
  fashion. It's like, I always tell people
• 2:52
  we can do photo quality printing, so I could put your
• 2:54
  face on the, on the high jump standards.
• 2:56
  If I wanted, it might not help the high jumpers like don't want
• 2:59
  to do that, and you don't want that.
• 3:02
  And so what I like about them is we've done these for organ,
• 3:05
  Georgia Baylor Auber, I mean, Many quote-unquote, big name
• 3:11
  schools, all that kind of good stuff and they look amazing.
• 3:14
  But early you guys Upper Iowa took a chance on these and
• 3:18
  bottom and what I love about them this is what really this is
• 3:21
  honestly, I used to have a sheet that I took to potential
• 3:25
  customers showing, you know, George's and all Burns, all
• 3:27
  that. But I also had upper Iowa's in
• 3:29
  there and people would like, that's, you know, who's this?
• 3:32
  And the reason I love it is your mascot is the peacock.
• 3:36
  And you guys designed this, really I mean just unique
• 3:41
  cool-looking standard, that had the feathers kind of going in
• 3:44
  and out and I just, I really just became enamored with it was
• 3:48
  like oh man, this is super, super cool.
• 3:50
  So, tell me how many peacocks are in Upper Iowa at the
• 3:54
  University. Why the peacocks?
• 3:56
  This seems a little odd here. If I can remember the history of
• 4:00
  it from when I first got here, I think it is either had to do
• 4:05
  with the color scheme that they had back in the day, which is
• 4:07
  the Columbia Blue. The white, I think they called
• 4:11
  it peacock blue or something about our old long time,
• 4:15
  football coach back in the you know mid-1900s it sounds weird
• 4:20
  saying that but dot Gorman was here, 63 years and I want to see
• 4:25
  me. There was an article that said
• 4:27
  something about Doc's boys being proud as peacocks, and it's
• 4:31
  either had to do with the color, something like that.
• 4:33
  I think there's a lot of Legends, how the name got here,
• 4:35
  but definitely a very unique mask out amongst the D1 D2 D3,
• 4:42
  Nei Juco, for sure. I mean, there's only one other
• 4:44
  peacock school and that was Saint Peters and they made a
• 4:47
  pretty cool run the basketball tournament last year.
• 4:50
  So we kind of we jumped on and support them from here in
• 4:53
  Northeast Iowa and being the only two peacocks.
• 4:56
  And all of College athletics that was that was kind of a fun
• 4:59
  thing to see. They were definitely my favorite
• 5:01
  team during the tournament. So we as a family, the
• 5:04
  Cunningham's, we all. So my daughter, my son, my wife
• 5:07
  and I we all pick our own brackets just for bragging
• 5:09
  rights. It's, and my daughter picked st.
• 5:11
  Peter's all the way to the championship because she picks
• 5:13
  on mascots. Yeah, it's so you like, if you
• 5:16
  like St. Peter's, you know, peacocks
• 5:17
  versus you know, Villanova can you think Villanova's mascot?
• 5:24
  Oh my gosh. Okay, well, thank you, thank
• 5:26
  you. And you know, Villanova is
• 5:28
  awesome and all and she was like peacocks.
• 5:31
  So she had a chance of beating all of us because I think if
• 5:33
  they would launch shoot, it should be Elvis, but she
• 5:35
  ultimately perished and did not get bragging rights in the
• 5:38
  country in the household. But I love that.
• 5:40
  I really thought you're in Fayette Iowa, right?
• 5:42
  Yeah, yeah. So I came to visit you year or
• 5:46
  two ago and I really thought I would see peacocks.
• 5:48
  Maybe just like running amok, but I didn't, I didn't see Nary
• 5:51
  a peacock there. No peacocks back.
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  I suppose we back like 1960s. They did have live peacocks,
• 5:58
  wandering campus, but I think something happened to him and
• 6:02
  they just never did it again or they are just a pain in the
• 6:05
  butt, I don't know. But yeah, there was because
• 6:08
  we've, there's As a farmer around here somewhere, it does
• 6:12
  have a couple life peacocks and know they have made appearances
• 6:15
  in the homecoming parade and that type of thing, but no, no,
• 6:18
  live. Peak Heights roaming around
• 6:19
  Upper, Iowa University, unfortunately.
• 6:22
  Yeah, that seems like a really good idea that it would be a
• 6:25
  really bad idea. Bunch of peacocks run around a
• 6:27
  bunch of college students. I just feels like you're just
• 6:29
  asking for trouble. They're actually out while you
• 6:32
  know they are a beautiful animal there, they are pretty
• 6:35
  aggressive. So I mean, you wouldn't You
• 6:38
  know, your peacock that you know, you got shiny feathers,
• 6:41
  but now they're they're not, they're not a very nice bird I
• 6:45
  so I read it, probably best. I read a scouting report on
• 6:48
  Upper Iowa University's basketball team, and that's what
• 6:51
  they said that they were pretty aggressive and they're pretty,
• 6:53
  but not very nice. That's the, what I heard my
• 6:55
  best, but number two, in the country, starting off the
• 6:58
  basketball season here. So I'm going women's basketball,
• 7:03
  got a couple big wins over the weekend so looking at it looking
• 7:06
  to start the winner. Strong.
• 7:07
  Yeah. He didn't mislead people and say
• 7:10
  that he was st. Peter's peacocks.
• 7:11
  But in Iowa today okay because no one knew they were in Jersey.
• 7:15
  So you easily could have just like oh yeah, no, no, we're
• 7:17
  denying me the corners of the semis last year, we're gonna do
• 7:20
  it again. If you just signed your bus, now
• 7:22
  they had a pretty at Men's Basketball had a pretty good run
• 7:24
  for us last year too. So that was that was, that was
• 7:27
  pretty good too. So yeah, it's it's peacocks,
• 7:30
  everywhere, heaven, heaven success, it's all good.
• 7:32
  That automatically makes me think what it is.
• 7:34
  You know, how groups have different names?
• 7:35
  What is a group of peacocks? I've looked this up how you know
• 7:41
  this. Awesome.
• 7:42
  All right. How what is it?
• 7:45
  It's like sighs. It's not very cool.
• 7:46
  Like you think of the floor? What is it?
• 7:50
  I don't, I don't normally do, I don't normally do this.
• 7:53
  I'm gonna google this one because I love the, the Al's is
• 7:59
  a parliament. That's one of my favorite things
• 8:01
  up, parliament of owls. A group of penguins are, I did
• 8:05
  Penguins on liking their pride, it's either a stir.
• 8:12
  That's not very cool. Musters kind of cool.
• 8:14
  Monster school pride they have Prides kind of ostentation.
• 8:18
  That seems like a SAT Word ostentation.
• 8:20
  Yeah, I wouldn't wanna spoil their struggle with peacock so
• 8:28
  let's not go too. Well that does.
• 8:31
  Let's go to you Nate. Let's talk about coaching and
• 8:35
  how that started for you at some point assuming that you were an
• 8:39
  athlete coaching. In your mind changed from
• 8:43
  something that only happens to you.
• 8:45
  Coach tells you to run these Labs, throw the discus.
• 8:48
  What not to? Oh, wait a minute.
• 8:50
  Like maybe I could be a coat. Like maybe that could be my job
• 8:53
  one day, where does coaching as an idea for a career?
• 8:57
  Begin for you and your head honestly for the longest time
• 9:01
  growing up, I wanted to get into law enforcement.
• 9:05
  I was always, I was always enamored by Bowie Sherlock
• 9:10
  Holmes, right? Like just Love the mysteries of
• 9:12
  detective. Novels, that was kind of always
• 9:15
  my thing. Still a big Sherlock, Holmes fan
• 9:16
  to this day but it up until my senior year in high school.
• 9:22
  I wanted to be a cop detective. You know, you know thinking US
• 9:26
  Marshal FBI that type of thing crazy enough.
• 9:30
  This might sound a little stupid, but I think my junior
• 9:33
  year in high school I reached out to the Texas Rangers down.
• 9:38
  Not the baseball team, I've right.
• 9:42
  But the few law enforcement agency down in Texas and just
• 9:47
  because at that time, right? Walker Texas.
• 9:49
  Ranger was a, was, like, a big thing on TV in the 90s, right?
• 9:53
  Chuck Norris, and all that stuff.
• 9:54
  But so I thought that was kind of cool.
• 9:56
  And I actually got a letter back from one of our sergeants, you
• 10:00
  know, encouraging the about, you know, that was really neat.
• 10:03
  But somewhere my senior year in high school, I decided I want to
• 10:08
  be a teacher and Coach, I don't know.
• 10:11
  I can't tell you. To pinpoint exactly when that
• 10:13
  flip happened but I know I you know I probably owe a lot of it
• 10:18
  to my high school coach Jim Newton.
• 10:21
  You know it was long since you know he's been retired and
• 10:23
  retired out to Oregon actually in Eugene and doesn't live that
• 10:27
  far from Hayward Field. Nice ironically enough but he
• 10:33
  I'm sure he played a role in it because of the relationship I
• 10:36
  had with him and he had with me and he had with the team.
• 10:41
  That's probably probably where it all started, and how I kind
• 10:45
  of started down this path, I guess.
• 10:47
  Well, you know, I believe, the positive impact of Coach makes
• 10:51
  on young people is immeasurable, I mean, they're there.
• 10:54
  It's, you know, it's Infinity. There's no way to really
• 10:57
  describe what a coach can and should and does in a lot of
• 11:01
  cases. Do for young people.
• 11:03
  Tell me more about that relationship with Coach Newton
• 11:06
  was his style authoritarian. Was it more collaborative?
• 11:10
  What about that? Relationship and style attract,
• 11:13
  you like, oh wait a minute. Maybe, I want to be a coach
• 11:15
  Newton one day. He was he was definitely wasn't.
• 11:18
  He was not authoritarian for sure.
• 11:20
  You didn't. He didn't rule with an iron
• 11:22
  fist. He I don't why we saw him was
• 11:25
  like, very calm, you know, I mean, he, you know, he he would
• 11:29
  get upset and you would know what he did but he Were lashed
• 11:32
  out at us or anything like that, you know, he always liked to
• 11:36
  joke because I grew up in Illinois, town called rock falls
• 11:41
  off I-88. And, you know, at the time Joe
• 11:44
  Newton was at Elmhurst George and I got to meet Joe during my
• 11:49
  time during college recruitment and great man, great man, but my
• 11:55
  coaches, I was like, I'm Jim not Joe because the Newton
• 11:58
  connection, but but no job coach Knute.
• 12:02
  I never knew as we called them was never, he just very
• 12:05
  even-keeled guy, you know, great great guy.
• 12:08
  You know, he was he's probably in his mid-50s at that time and
• 12:13
  his kids are moved out and all that and his wife lived right
• 12:16
  next to the high school on the river and, you know, have us
• 12:19
  over for pasta dinners and just just great people.
• 12:22
  And I just think it was just probably the relationships that
• 12:25
  he made with us and and to me in particular, just kind of is what
• 12:32
  Really gotten started. I love that he retired to
• 12:34
  Eugene. I'm surprised, I don't hear that
• 12:36
  more often. I want to retire to Vegas but I
• 12:38
  would I see a lot of track coaches like, oh, there's some
• 12:41
  advantages in this to retire into Eugene Oregon for sure.
• 12:44
  Yeah, I know, I do know his daughter did attend school at
• 12:47
  the University of Oregon. I think and I think they still
• 12:49
  live out there. I think that was part of it, but
• 12:52
  I do talk to Mary on occasion he every once in a while.
• 12:54
  He sent me, you know, obviously being being an older guy.
• 12:57
  Now being in the 70s he's you know, newspapers are still a big
• 13:01
  deal to him and And maybe, as younger, folks, jump on phones
• 13:05
  and computers to get the news, but he sent me articles from the
• 13:10
  world championships and some other some other little cool
• 13:13
  trinkets. But that yeah, so every once in
• 13:15
  a while, I'll get something in the mail from him from Eugene or
• 13:20
  maybe the Prefontaine classic or something like that.
• 13:23
  So yeah. We yeah, we still keep in touch
• 13:26
  all these time. Yeah, yeah that's interesting
• 13:28
  because I was going to say, you're still keeping in touch
• 13:30
  after years. I mean it sounds like Kind of
• 13:32
  really good relation with new. Yeah, we did.
• 13:35
  We had a pretty good relationship and I mean, he was,
• 13:38
  I mean, my parents went to the same high school and knew that I
• 13:41
  think was a relatively younger teacher when my parents were
• 13:44
  there in the mid late 70s and you know, so he knew my parents
• 13:49
  pretty well. And I remember my dad, they were
• 13:53
  there working. I think, remember the old Gus
• 13:55
  Macker tournaments, I don't even know if they still do those.
• 13:58
  Well, our high school always ran like a food tent.
• 14:02
  When the tournament came to Sterling, Illinois.
• 14:04
  And I remember, I think I was, I was right out of high school, my
• 14:07
  freshman year in college, I rebelled and got an earring, you
• 14:10
  know, you know, big, whoo, big got Hearing in my dad.
• 14:14
  I remember my dad asking asking new to goes.
• 14:16
  He goes. What do you think?
• 14:17
  And they get an earring? And he goes, Tommy goes, that's
• 14:20
  the worst thing he does. You got off easy.
• 14:25
  That's funny. That brings us the most that
• 14:27
  brought up a memory. When I first joined track, I had
• 14:30
  an earring back in the day. Yeah, and that was the first
• 14:33
  thing. My head coach.
• 14:34
  Dennis Anderson. I'll never forget on was like
• 14:36
  Hey on this team. We don't wear earrings and now I
• 14:40
  think about I'm like I should have rebelled a little bit like
• 14:42
  not disrespect me but like really.
• 14:43
  Yeah, I mean, come on this this is what we're gonna be talking
• 14:46
  about but I was very compliant. I like, yes sir.
• 14:49
  And I remember taking it out and I think I was done with that.
• 14:51
  I think I was like well I want to do track more than I want to
• 14:53
  have an earring. So yeah, that's interesting.
• 14:55
  What so I'm going to assume that you are going to make sure coach
• 15:00
  Newton listen. Has to this episode at least a
• 15:04
  few minutes to speak to you. Coach Newton Bravo sir.
• 15:08
  I mean, you know, I will never, I will not apologize and will
• 15:12
  never stop saying again, the positive impact that coaches
• 15:16
  make on young people. And so, you know, coach Newton,
• 15:19
  as you were working with all these young people including
• 15:21
  Nate here through all your years coaching and including teaching,
• 15:24
  you know, maybe sometimes it was hard to see the impact you are
• 15:27
  making because you were in the daily, the day-to-day mocking.
• 15:29
  I'm sure. You know, Nate's.
• 15:31
  It's not going to The stories of how he caused you heartburn but
• 15:34
  I'm sure Nate and Company caused you some heart burns.
• 15:37
  And yet, look at what you have helped create, you've helped
• 15:40
  create this amazing person who has gone on to now continue your
• 15:45
  Legacy by coaching 18 to 22 year olds in the college side and
• 15:49
  have an amazing positive impact that we're going to learn more
• 15:51
  about here and the upcoming minutes of Coach Newton.
• 15:54
  Shout out to you, sir. Hope you enjoy Eugene.
• 15:56
  If I'm ever in Eugene, which I am about once a year.
• 15:59
  I love to meet up with you and just shake your hand, my
• 16:01
  friends. So thank you so much coach
• 16:03
  Newton for being that type of mentor and leader for for Nate.
• 16:07
  So Nate, how did you manifest that then?
• 16:10
  So you have this relationship with Coach Knute, you grow up
• 16:13
  thinking, you're going to be a Texas Ranger.
• 16:15
  You wrote to them, I love that. I mean, that's like, I mean
• 16:18
  that's, you know, you talked about young people, taking it in
• 16:22
  their own hands. I love that.
• 16:24
  You did that, but you then decide.
• 16:25
  Okay, I want to be maybe a teacher, and a coach, how did
• 16:27
  you manifest that? Where did you go to school?
• 16:29
  And what did you end up? Studying I ended up at the end.
• 16:32
  Should a Buick, you know, here in Iowa rates line Scouts turn.
• 16:36
  I'll do was the coach that recruited me from Dubuque to and
• 16:41
  when he was at Dubuque and really like to leave a solid,
• 16:44
  right? I mean, ironically, my final
• 16:46
  three choices were Dubuque Upper Iowa, believe it or not Dan.
• 16:52
  Hostetler was a coach here at that time and then Elmhurst
• 16:57
  College. And Bob Schultz was a coach
• 16:59
  there at that time. Now he's at lauriston And I like
• 17:03
  to give Bob a hard time, I'm like, dude, how you know, how
• 17:05
  you look younger than I do? I'm like, you know, it's and
• 17:10
  it's kind of cool to see, you know, Bob after all these years
• 17:12
  and being a being a young guy on a campus requin, he's recruited
• 17:17
  me out of high school and, you know, I still remember that.
• 17:20
  I mean, I went up there for a visit and I got to meet Joe
• 17:22
  Newton because Bob went to York and he set that up.
• 17:27
  So it was a long green line, long green line.
• 17:31
  Actually, I think I The book on my bookshelf behind me somewhere
• 17:35
  but you know, so you know, you know, even, you know, Bob to,
• 17:38
  you know, no one him, all these years and, you know, like, you
• 17:40
  know, as much, you know, love and respect as I have for him.
• 17:43
  But I ultimately chose to buek and it was a lot of those
• 17:46
  because they're now going to what he was selling and trying
• 17:50
  to buy into that. And yeah, so I ended up at UD
• 17:54
  for four years. It wasn't, it wasn't an easy,
• 17:57
  four years, four different coaches in four years, was kind
• 18:01
  of tough. If you know, but almost
• 18:05
  transferred out a couple different times, but I stuck
• 18:08
  with it, stuck with the team and just enjoyed my time there, as I
• 18:12
  could, as a student-athlete, you know, going through some injury
• 18:15
  issues, and some stuff like that in coaching changes, but I think
• 18:20
  somewhere, it probably helped shape me a little bit today.
• 18:25
  And how I, you know, maybe try to deal with things in my own
• 18:28
  athletes that I have. So, but yeah, I I mean honestly
• 18:32
  Mike, I was sitting there started off as an education.
• 18:35
  Major thought I wanted to be a history teacher so a lot of
• 18:37
  history least you know I'm always intrigued by that type of
• 18:41
  stuff and I got going and definitely not enough, Lee, not
• 18:48
  the bewkes fault, but I got in, I got in some class situations,
• 18:53
  just, you know, observing and doing that.
• 18:55
  I'm like, you know what, I don't want to do, I don't want to do
• 18:57
  this. And you know, and God bless all
• 19:00
  the teachers. My wife is one and she's an
• 19:03
  excellent science, teacher and does a fantastic job with her
• 19:06
  students. But you know, I love, you know,
• 19:11
  God love him. I just did.
• 19:12
  Just wasn't for me. It just wasn't.
• 19:14
  And I remember sitting there going, okay.
• 19:16
  Now, what am I going to do with my life?
• 19:18
  If I thought I had it figured out, you know, and I'm in my
• 19:22
  sophomore year and I decide at a volleyball game.
• 19:29
  I still remember this. I was looking at the program at
• 19:31
  aut volleyball game, and I was looking at our head coach in his
• 19:35
  assistant and I'm like, they don't have an education degree
• 19:41
  there coaching. Why not be a college coach?
• 19:45
  I mean, that's really how I came to the Epiphany, was at a
• 19:47
  volleyball game at the University of Dubuque that I
• 19:50
  could, I could coach College because I don't need to be a
• 19:52
  teacher. Even though, ultimately, I we
• 19:54
  are teachers in some respect but I didn't have to be a classroom
• 19:59
  teacher. That's always switch arresting
• 20:02
  where the yeah. I mean it kind of motivation and
• 20:05
  Epiphany. Yeah I'll be right.
• 20:07
  Like weird. Like I still wanted to coach
• 20:08
  like I like I had that tug and I had that passion because I Of
• 20:13
  the sport but I'm just like, I just couldn't I just didn't
• 20:18
  think I could handle being a classroom teacher.
• 20:22
  And I think my wife said she would probably agree with
• 20:25
  because she's like a lot of kids dodged that bullet sir.
• 20:27
  Yeah, we probably did you like I said you probably right?
• 20:34
  But what did you end up changing your major to then I got a
• 20:37
  degree in speech. Communications yeah.
• 20:39
  Now was that because you thought?
• 20:41
  Oh okay. I'm I'm said, I'm going to be a
• 20:43
  college coach speech. Communication will help me in
• 20:46
  communication with kids or was it like, oh yeah, this is what I
• 20:49
  I'm more on track to get this degree in.
• 20:51
  For years. So I'm going to go there.
• 20:53
  Honestly, it was more. I thought it would help, you
• 20:55
  know, riding skills. Communication skills.
• 20:57
  That's kind of what I thought it was.
• 20:58
  It was a great like, I really enjoyed it once I got into the
• 21:01
  major, we had some, you know, it's some really awesome
• 21:04
  professors in that program, you know, we, you know, I did have
• 21:08
  to do a theater class. That was interesting that
• 21:11
  freaking me out a little bit. I'm like not really an actor
• 21:15
  here but you know, it did help with public speaking and
• 21:18
  standing up and have them deliver different things.
• 21:21
  And the two professors that, you know, we really had Mary Carol
• 21:24
  Harris and Lisa Ford Brown. They were fantastic and they
• 21:30
  were great great in those roles while we were there and, you
• 21:33
  know, really helped Talk to that transition from what I want to
• 21:37
  do to do that and it was it was good.
• 21:40
  Ultimately I and what will probably touch on later but I
• 21:43
  end up getting my Masters in Education when it was all said
• 21:46
  and done so but I guess it came full circle at that point.
• 21:51
  But yeah that I mean I'd probably weird Epiphany for.
• 21:54
  I don't hear that often but I knew I wanted to coach and
• 21:58
  that's kind of what made me decide on College coaching.
• 22:02
  We just like, hey I don't I don't have to be a classroom.
• 22:05
  Teacher. Please tell us in your theater
• 22:07
  class you had to star in like newsies or something.
• 22:11
  Tell me, you had a persistent. It was just a class.
• 22:14
  We had a rider. We had a rider on play likes.
• 22:16
  Okay. It's got to go.
• 22:17
  Just had a right? I mean, like a 15-minute deal
• 22:21
  and we each had a part in it. It was fun.
• 22:23
  It was a fun class. And and doctor dr.
• 22:27
  Ford Brown made it rot. Lot of fun, but it was, yeah, it
• 22:32
  was a little nerve-racking, but nerve-racking.
• 22:35
  And I give it credit, right? Like she, you know, we had
• 22:39
  approved things, but she would let some things go, you know,
• 22:43
  she's like, it's art, you know, I mean nothing that was too
• 22:47
  graphic, but you know, she let some some language fly and you
• 22:50
  know, that was okay with her as long as we approved it, we
• 22:53
  talked to her and we you know, we gave her the reasoning behind
• 22:56
  that scene in that. So it was, you know, there's
• 22:59
  there's some really good things things with that too.
• 23:01
  So yeah. It was it was fun.
• 23:05
  Was a fun major. I was super helpful.
• 23:07
  There was a photo maybe around if you like playing a tree and
• 23:10
  Peter Pan or, you know, maybe you were Romeo and I was really
• 23:14
  hoping there was gonna be a photo.
• 23:15
  I was not, I was not stepping out on stage at now, my senior
• 23:19
  year, we did hire two new professors because they both
• 23:21
  moved on which was unfortunate, but the two guys, we did hire
• 23:27
  the one of them end up taking over the theater part.
• 23:31
  And I did, I think I helped secure props and something just
• 23:35
  Part of a class. I definitely was not on stage
• 23:37
  for that. That's disappointing.
• 23:40
  I'm okay, I'm good. I know I don't need no regrets,
• 23:44
  I know no regrets. It's you know, I'm not like a
• 23:46
  casino I missed my chance. I could be starting Marvel
• 23:49
  movies now or something like that.
• 23:50
  But it's right. Well, I'm curious something you
• 23:55
  said earlier, before we get into our theater tangent, you
• 23:58
  mentioned, you had several different coaches, they're in
• 23:59
  there during your time at Dubuque and struggled with
• 24:01
  classes and even thought about maybe, Fernand cetera.
• 24:06
  How did that impact? Your thought of being a college
• 24:09
  coach? That could have impacted
• 24:11
  negatively? You know?
• 24:13
  Hey man, coaches are fly-by-night.
• 24:15
  We, you know, there's gonna be a new one every time that would
• 24:17
  but my career is going to be, how did that impact you as you
• 24:20
  started? Thinking about how you were
• 24:21
  going to be a coach one day? I mean, I think that crossed my
• 24:25
  mind a little bit, but it also gave me an opportunity to kind
• 24:30
  of learn Different different things, right?
• 24:35
  Like each coach brought something different.
• 24:39
  You know, one guy was little bit more low mileage, as a distance
• 24:42
  coach. I really wasn't a fan of that.
• 24:45
  One guy was a little bit higher and I kind of liked how he
• 24:47
  Incorporated some certain things there.
• 24:51
  You know. You know, one guy was more
• 24:55
  middle of the road, you know, I kind of like that.
• 24:58
  So I think between all four of them, I, you know, I kind of
• 25:01
  pulled bits and pieces things I liked and didn't like and try to
• 25:05
  incorporate now. Would it have been great to kind
• 25:07
  of be under that one coach for four years?
• 25:10
  Yeah, I think there would've been a lot of benefit to that,
• 25:15
  but I think it also, you know, it kind of opened my eyes and
• 25:19
  hey, you know, this is part of the profession, you're either
• 25:22
  going to, you're going to have An opportunity to move on to
• 25:25
  bigger and better things and that's okay.
• 25:29
  I mean, it's just part of it, we do move on.
• 25:32
  And, you know, I've been blessed to be here for 10 years.
• 25:35
  And I've enjoyed my time here, immensely.
• 25:39
  And I think having somebody in that head spot can can hopefully
• 25:43
  lead to stability and in turn over.
• 25:46
  And I think, you know, looking back and I think it took Dubuque
• 25:49
  awhile to get things rolling. And, you know, they finally have
• 25:53
  a lot of Billy with Chad gunnel said, he's been there for a long
• 25:56
  time and, you know, as an Alum, I'm proud of what he's been able
• 26:00
  to do. And, you know, obviously, they
• 26:03
  should not have those facilities when I was there, 20, some years
• 26:07
  ago, but, you know, that just goes to show how things can
• 26:09
  prove and change over time and in all that.
• 26:12
  So, but yeah, they are. Yeah, so I think out of out of
• 26:18
  our hardships, I think some good things have happened and, you
• 26:22
  know, I I wouldn't trade it. I wouldn't trade my time for
• 26:25
  anything. They're made some good friends
• 26:27
  and good teammates. And I, you know, I did enjoy my
• 26:30
  four years there. Regardless of Heaven almost a
• 26:33
  new coach every year. It sounds like almost like you
• 26:36
  got a little bit of a coaching education throughout that
• 26:39
  because I think, to your point of I, for sure.
• 26:42
  Think, you know, I think stability is important, right?
• 26:44
  So, whether coaches for your entire, for 25 years, or some
• 26:47
  immense benefits to that, to you, as an athlete.
• 26:49
  However, you as a coach and training, if you will, you got
• 26:53
  The four different people and not only their training Styles
• 26:56
  but their leadership styles and get to pick and choose like okay
• 27:00
  well I didn't like how this person trained this but I did
• 27:03
  like how they had team meetings every week or you know you got
• 27:06
  to as long as you were being able to be cognizant about it.
• 27:09
  You were able to kind of absorb and pick and choose how your
• 27:12
  style was going to be both training and leadership style.
• 27:16
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 27:17
  You're right. All right.
• 27:18
  Now, you know, by now that you think and now that I can look
• 27:21
  back on it. Yeah, I think that's just kind
• 27:23
  of and I had thought about that through over the years, right?
• 27:25
  Like this is it probably did. Mold me a little bit and there
• 27:28
  were some, you know, there were some things I probably pulled
• 27:31
  from each of them, over my class 20 some years of being in this
• 27:35
  crazy profession. Yeah.
• 27:36
  Some things are cognizant conscious and subconscious so
• 27:39
  you may not have consciously thought, like, oh okay I want to
• 27:42
  make sure I remember how he or she did this but subconsciously
• 27:46
  he was like, yeah, that I did not like how the team Rectify
• 27:49
  that because I didn't go well, so kind of maybe subconsciously
• 27:51
  as you were ya doing. That's really it's really
• 27:53
  Resting. So where does it manifest in
• 27:55
  regards to you graduate your? You have through volleyball, you
• 27:59
  have chosen. You are going to be a college
• 28:00
  track coach your mind, I love it, I love it, I'm a huge
• 28:04
  volleyball fans, I love that. Yeah, well plays into, what was
• 28:07
  your next role? Did you go into a g a role?
• 28:09
  Did you volunteer somewhere? What was your first kind of
• 28:11
  forward and coaching? I got to I was fortunate because
• 28:17
  of one of my, one of my coaches. Greg huffaker was our third
• 28:22
  Coach and he's been distance. Coach Cross Country Coach, and
• 28:25
  Illinois. Wesleyan for a number of years
• 28:28
  now, really, really enjoyed him. And what he brought to the table
• 28:33
  during my time as young athlete, but because through him he
• 28:38
  actually introduced me to the guy went to be a ga for by the
• 28:41
  name of Mark Mich. Who's now the head?
• 28:45
  Head men's coach cross country coach at you see Colorado
• 28:48
  Springs. Mitch was the head cross country
• 28:52
  and track coach at Southwest Baptist University down in
• 28:55
  Bolivar. Missouri.
• 28:58
  And through Greg huffaker. He kind of put me in touch with
• 29:02
  Mark and that's, he Mark, gave me.
• 29:07
  The heart, gave me the chance man.
• 29:10
  Gave me the chance. So, Yeah, it was good and it
• 29:15
  ended up in Southwest Missouri. So what was that?
• 29:18
  First taste of coaching like was in knowing that your gaas,
• 29:22
  there's things you can again do and how much responsibilities
• 29:25
  are going to have, how was that first of like, okay, I get to
• 29:28
  get to speak into training or, you know, and talk to us about
• 29:30
  what kind of responsibilities you had their, you know, it was
• 29:34
  a young coach. I mean, Mitch was good at just
• 29:36
  kind of guiding and teaching, you know, he put a lot of the
• 29:42
  paperwork on me, which was Fine. And I didn't mind doing that and
• 29:45
  I you know, you had every right to do as a head coach and you
• 29:49
  know that that helped me develop the administrative skills early
• 29:51
  on him at least entrusting me with like setting up you know
• 29:55
  hotels and you know, travel and ordering stuff and in that type
• 30:00
  of thing. So that's you know that's always
• 30:02
  kind of been been a big part of what we do.
• 30:05
  But yeah, I mean my second irrigate, you know, he gave me a
• 30:08
  couple kids to work with a little bit more and, you know, I
• 30:11
  really enjoyed the Steeplechase As an athlete and one of my
• 30:15
  coaches, you know, Scott's turn Ogle was a national champion
• 30:18
  Steeplechase here at UW Oshkosh back in the day.
• 30:21
  So you know my first year under him as an as an undergrad, as an
• 30:25
  undergrad, you know you know got learning about Steeplechase and
• 30:27
  he was still a mentor to me. You still kept in touch once you
• 30:30
  left and you know I was able to hit him up on some Steeple
• 30:35
  stuff. So you know, I got to coach a
• 30:37
  couple steeple Chasers and that type of thing, my second year.
• 30:41
  So that was a lot of fun and I appreciate Mark, giving me that
• 30:44
  opportunity to, you know, Implement my own stuff and try
• 30:48
  to working with those kids, but it was a good time.
• 30:51
  It was a good time down to Southwest Baptist.
• 30:53
  Who's really good school? You know what?
• 30:56
  We were kind of down there starting things from scratch
• 31:00
  with what, with what Mark inherited.
• 31:03
  So we're pretty much Isn't the only program we start adding my
• 31:07
  second year we added a couple more guys you know, some couple
• 31:10
  sprinters and jumpers, not a whole lot but then you know they
• 31:14
  start building the program after that and Cory mac.
• 31:18
  Oh he needs to coach down there now and he's done.
• 31:20
  He's done a fantastic job as well.
• 31:24
  So you know another again building a program and get it to
• 31:29
  where it is. It's you know, seeing the growth
• 31:31
  of these programs has been has been pretty cool.
• 31:34
  That I've been up, I've been a part of so yeah, whether it is a
• 31:38
  student athlete or has a DA. So yeah it's been kind of a
• 31:43
  journey. Huh.
• 31:45
  Why is the Steeplechase the best distance event?
• 31:49
  I'll make it run through water, get a jump thing.
• 31:52
  No I mean I think my opinion I think it's the closest thing to
• 31:56
  cross country on the triangle. So interesting.
• 31:59
  So it's just a very you know you're very your pace every 80
• 32:03
  meters. You got you know you got a
• 32:05
  200-pound barrier anyway you know that thing's not going to
• 32:08
  move. It's not like a hurdle.
• 32:11
  That's it was going to go over your that that barrier.
• 32:13
  You're going to stop. It's not you're going to be
• 32:15
  moved. That will not be moved.
• 32:17
  So that's interesting. You compared to Cross country,
• 32:20
  I'm not the world's biggest cross country fan, I do like it
• 32:22
  because of the team aspect, there's always a team Essex.
• 32:25
  I do love that and it's outdoors and scenery changes.
• 32:28
  We just had this discussion recently on the Gill podcast
• 32:31
  about, you know, cross country versus like a track 10K because
• 32:34
  I'm definitely not. I'm so sorry if everybody's
• 32:36
  listen, I'm not a 10K on the track fan I'm sorry what's
• 32:40
  wrong? I got like I've said multiple
• 32:42
  times and I'll repeat it again. I'm quite okay.
• 32:44
  Going on record as saying this, I think to 3,000 steeple should
• 32:46
  be the longest track. Went out there, I'm sorry I just
• 32:51
  I can't I can't do it. This my own Sprint jumps by as
• 32:53
  here but the steeple I mean a good like you know, world-class
• 32:58
  Steeplechase race is amazing. A beginners beginners.
• 33:02
  You know Junior you know intro Steeplechase race is amazing.
• 33:07
  I've never seen a bad Steeplechase race from the
• 33:11
  barriers. As you talk about to the water
• 33:12
  barrier has its own, you know, uniquenesses and you know the
• 33:16
  amazing people that fly over don't even touch the water.
• 33:18
  Our barrier just like the other Bears to the people who, you
• 33:21
  know, they have two hands on the the barrier and get themselves
• 33:24
  over into the water. It is just a fascinating event.
• 33:28
  It really is like to me. That's what track could be in
• 33:31
  regards to like the pole vault is one of those right where
• 33:34
  everybody no matter who it'll stop the show.
• 33:36
  You can do in the middle of a mall.
• 33:38
  People will stop the Steeplechase.
• 33:39
  Is that race that will stop? Everybody?
• 33:42
  Pay attention to the race? I love it.
• 33:44
  I love it. Everybody always gets around the
• 33:46
  water picks. I think they want to see
• 33:47
  something. They want to see something
• 33:49
  happen, so, and he actually does, it's a, it's a fun.
• 33:53
  It's a fun race. I mean, I even I've even heard
• 33:56
  it referred to as plasticized cross-country.
• 33:59
  So plasticized cross-country, I can't tell you where I heard
• 34:03
  that quote, when he had kind of go.
• 34:05
  Did you ever in your career? Did you ever get to do a
• 34:07
  steeple? I did my freshman year in
• 34:09
  college, you didn't stick with it, I'm telling you the injuries
• 34:14
  mounted up and I mean, I did it. I did it a couple more times but
• 34:18
  I, you know, I, you know, I was really more into it probably my
• 34:21
  freshman year. Yeah, but injuries mounted up
• 34:24
  and just to the coaching changes, it just it.
• 34:26
  Yeah, I think it wreaks Havoc wrought havoc on me a little bit
• 34:30
  and But yeah, it was all right, it was fun.
• 34:34
  Like, I enjoy it. I enjoy the event.
• 34:36
  I still do. I love great.
• 34:38
  Great race. I love it.
• 34:40
  So you're at Southwest Baptist in your in a g a role.
• 34:43
  And sometimes we forget that GA roles are still taste testers.
• 34:47
  Meaning? Yeah.
• 34:48
  You don't have to move on and coaching after UGA could be just
• 34:52
  your Avenue to receive your master's degree in education.
• 34:55
  You got, by the way, full circle, come back into the
• 34:57
  masters of education. How did you as you start in?
• 35:01
  Ending your second year, there at Southwest Baptist, getting
• 35:03
  ready to get that master's degree.
• 35:06
  What? Part of the Masters?
• 35:08
  The ga experience was like, oh yeah, I made the right decision.
• 35:11
  This is where I'm going towards this career.
• 35:15
  I mean, I think it was probably early on just because we had, we
• 35:18
  had such a, we had such a good group of guys and gals down
• 35:22
  there. They were a lot of fun to work
• 35:25
  with the, you know, they cared about each other, they cared
• 35:29
  about the coaches. They want to be successful, and
• 35:33
  I think it made it easy, you know, just stick with it.
• 35:37
  We just had a good group of kids, you know, didn't have to
• 35:40
  worry about a whole lot day in and day out with them.
• 35:44
  They're always won't they were Sean operator, greater role.
• 35:47
  So, I really think that that's probably a help.
• 35:50
  I mean, it could have been a bad experience, you know.
• 35:53
  But it was a great, I had a great mentor and Mark mesh and
• 35:55
  I, he definitely helped, you know, Fuel That Fire and, you
• 36:00
  know, there's a great group of kids and I, you know, I still
• 36:02
  talk to a couple of them. Even now 20 some years later.
• 36:06
  So. Yeah, it's it was good, it
• 36:09
  definitely good experience for sure.
• 36:11
  Do you send them newspaper clippings?
• 36:13
  No, we should touch them. It's text message.
• 36:18
  That's nice phone calls. No, but I mean, ultimately to I
• 36:22
  met my wife down there so that, you know, I probably has a
• 36:24
  little something something to do with it as well.
• 36:27
  So, was she on the team? No.
• 36:30
  Okay. Okay, let's not do that.
• 36:32
  No, no, no. I don't mean that in a negative
• 36:33
  way. And you
• 36:48
  know, stuff like that but we end up having a grad class together
• 36:55
  and she's like all the only reason we got together because
• 36:58
  we were the youngest people in that class that we didn't really
• 37:02
  have any other options. But So she's like no, she's
• 37:07
  awesome. Like you know, she really is
• 37:09
  like you said, she's a great educator and she likes she likes
• 37:14
  to give me her attention as well.
• 37:14
  I got my Master's done in a year.
• 37:16
  I was like, well, I was, I was doing it for the coaches.
• 37:19
  That's right. Yeah.
• 37:20
  I was trying to get the experience of space in that out.
• 37:22
  Absolutely, I wasn't rushing to get it done.
• 37:25
  So now you never pulled the old fake drowning to get the
• 37:29
  Lifeguard to come down to you. Did, you know, that was like,
• 37:32
  your first date do and how you do that to, like ask her out on.
• 37:34
  The first date or anything, right?
• 37:36
  No, no, it wasn't like that. No, it was it was me.
• 37:40
  It was me telling her I needed notes for class because we're
• 37:44
  getting ready for a home cross-country meeting.
• 37:45
  I was going to miss class that night and she's like, yeah,
• 37:50
  smooth. I love it.
• 37:54
  I love whichever way it works. That's all I'm yeah.
• 37:56
  Right whatever. Way works so yeah.
• 37:59
  Been together 20 years been? Married 17 of its oh man.
• 38:04
  Yeah. I love hearing that, that's
• 38:06
  awesome. Yeah, that's really good.
• 38:07
  She deserves, she deserves a medal.
• 38:09
  Oh, yeah. No, we all figured that we
• 38:11
  assume, she's the real patient one.
• 38:13
  And yeah, she, I mean, you know what, coach coach coaching
• 38:18
  spouses they do they deserve a lot, you know, a lot of credit.
• 38:23
  I mean, I've got, I've got four kids at home, three of which are
• 38:27
  teenagers and, you know, I'm gone, you know, this weekend,
• 38:31
  we're leaving to go to Regionals down in Joplin Missouri.
• 38:34
  And gonna be gone for a few days.
• 38:36
  So you know, she's got to take care of the house and the kids
• 38:38
  and she does a fantastic job but will shatter at what's her first
• 38:42
  name Betsy Betsy. That's because I know you're
• 38:45
  listening cause I know you're like, I was this guy going to
• 38:47
  say, I got to make sure you do. He didn't say anything to get
• 38:50
  himself in trouble, Betsy. I Echo what he said about
• 38:54
  coaching spouses. There are so many we had earlier
• 38:58
  this year. We are earlier than November, we
• 39:01
  had Rosalind Joseph. The head coach of Ohio State,
• 39:05
  Mother of three married and we were talking about her spouse,
• 39:10
  you know, it doesn't happen without the people that are
• 39:12
  supporting and around us and vice versa, Nate doesn't happen.
• 39:16
  Without you supporting her with what she does is a profession.
• 39:19
  And as a mother, and as a wife, it did, it's definitely one of
• 39:23
  those things where two people have to be in sync, knowing
• 39:25
  their individual roles, but knowing that those roles
• 39:27
  crossover. So Betsy, shout out to, you
• 39:30
  can't, you know, I know Nate fairly well.
• 39:31
  I can't imagine just again, how patient you must be.
• 39:34
  Explaining things several times to make.
• 39:37
  Sure he gets it, I hear you. But see, I know right now.
• 39:40
  You're shaking your head. I get it.
• 39:41
  So that's you. Thank you.
• 39:42
  And to all the spouses that are out there again, it just it
• 39:45
  doesn't happen. I mean it's just a the spouses
• 39:48
  of a track coach. It's amazing.
• 39:50
  There's so much extra that you have to do and I'm so
• 39:53
  appreciative of you. So where did you go?
• 39:55
  You get your masters of education.
• 39:56
  You didn't think about going into teaching you that didn't
• 39:58
  change your mind, I didn't say that did not change my mind at
• 40:01
  all is all about just getting a master's degree if it if you
• 40:04
  know Southwest Baptist would have had, you know, like a sport
• 40:07
  management or something like that, I probably would have done
• 40:09
  that because you know, Sports always been a part of my life,
• 40:13
  you know, whether it's was running track, you know, get
• 40:16
  involved in junior high with track or baseball, or
• 40:18
  basketball, or whatever. So always been around sport,
• 40:22
  always watched it. And but that, that probably even
• 40:25
  more logical degree choice, but that's what SP you had.
• 40:30
  Is that an MBA program at the time.
• 40:31
  So I went with the education route because I did have sort of
• 40:34
  A background. So, but yeah, from there I, you
• 40:38
  know, I applied for every job, I possibly could of and nothing
• 40:43
  really stuck, right? And so, I had an offer from one
• 40:48
  school to be a volunteer. And I, you know, I kind of kind
• 40:51
  of blew it off in the beginning, but I still kept in touch with
• 40:55
  that coach and then, you know, things were winding down.
• 40:58
  I call them back up. See if he still needed violent
• 41:00
  Cheney said, yes. And I ended up at Washington
• 41:03
  University in st. Louis, with Jeff Stiles.
• 41:05
  Oh, well, that's a heck of a place to go.
• 41:09
  I mean that's, you know, you didn't get unlucky there.
• 41:12
  No, nefeli not at all. And not, not at all.
• 41:15
  And II think that just that name alone on my resume for the first
• 41:21
  few years as a coach probably helped me out more than anything
• 41:24
  I probably did on the track or on the cross-country course.
• 41:29
  So real quick, you know, it's interesting.
• 41:30
  We were just having Betsy and you know, you met your wife
• 41:32
  there at Southwest Baptist. How did not knowing where you
• 41:35
  are in relationship with her in regards to married or engaged or
• 41:40
  serious dating? How did because you know what we
• 41:43
  just talked about is you know it is a unit, right?
• 41:45
  Eventually. Most of us get married and
• 41:47
  there's a unit there but even in this pre unit stage, there's
• 41:51
  some considerations. How did wherever you were in
• 41:54
  your relationship with with Betsy?
• 41:55
  How did that effect where you applied for jobs or did I mean
• 42:00
  sheshe knew we, you know, we kind of talked about it and she
• 42:03
  knew and Just that was just kind of it.
• 42:07
  And I mean, I kind of knew early on that she was the one and we
• 42:11
  were going to try to make it work out where we could and
• 42:14
  ironically, it worked out her first teaching job was in Troy
• 42:19
  Missouri, which is about an hour, north of st.
• 42:21
  Louis. Yeah.
• 42:22
  So, ending up at Wash U. It worked, you know it just kind
• 42:28
  of worked out so so is it possible?
• 42:30
  She could have been at Troy Missouri and you could have been
• 42:33
  at Washington State could have been.
• 42:36
  Yeah. Wow, interesting.
• 42:38
  I think they're means that means something else was in works for
• 42:41
  you two together. I mean I think so.
• 42:43
  And you know, she she she got that job because of connection
• 42:46
  and she had and you like anything in life.
• 42:49
  I feel like that's how things happen.
• 42:51
  It's more, it's more about, you know, who, you know, than what,
• 42:53
  you know, half the time. So, but yeah, that worked Doubt
• 42:57
  for us early on and you know, it was good it was good and being
• 43:01
  at Wash U for the short time. I was it was it was a blessing
• 43:04
  and it was it was great and got to learn from a couple good
• 43:07
  coaches. Paul Thornton came in as the
• 43:09
  head track coach while I was there.
• 43:11
  I think and I always have the University of Kansas so you know
• 43:16
  to really good really good guys to continue to learn from so
• 43:21
  will tell us more about that because you know what a great
• 43:23
  campus great facilities you know Jeff Stiles.
• 43:28
  Arguably one of the top coaches in this country continues to put
• 43:32
  out, amazing programs year later fighting for titles and if he's
• 43:36
  not winning it he's making. He has effect on who is winning
• 43:40
  it? But his yeah, he was there and
• 43:41
  you mentioned Paul, what a good friend, great guy but in a
• 43:44
  couple different places and just does a phenomenal job
• 43:47
  everywhere. He goes, how was that experience
• 43:49
  there at Wash U? It was it was great as a young
• 43:52
  coach just being able to sit down and listen, I mean more so
• 43:56
  than Anything just listen and pick things up and in that and
• 44:01
  styles of tell you to he had picked and he picked up a
• 44:06
  roommate. So as a place to live, I slept
• 44:09
  on his couch. For six months and styles and
• 44:14
  tell you, he'll tell you that story.
• 44:15
  He will because I think he, he uses it and I mean, I even do to
• 44:20
  that I was trying to stay in the profession so bad that I was
• 44:24
  paying him a little bit of rent this asleep on the couch.
• 44:28
  So I mean, if you, sometimes you got to grind, they got to grind,
• 44:34
  right? And I do what you gotta do, to
• 44:36
  keep your foot in the door, looking back at that.
• 44:38
  Any regrets? And I know, you know, the good
• 44:41
  Uses. Look, we are today and that was
• 44:42
  part of the journey. But any any regrets of like,
• 44:44
  man, that just that wasn't very smart.
• 44:46
  I should have gotten a job somewhere and he, no, I don't
• 44:50
  regret it. One bit, not at all.
• 44:54
  No regrets. So, how long did that last?
• 44:57
  You said he slept on the couch for six months, how long did the
• 44:59
  volunteers? I was at washing for about six
• 45:01
  months and then I went back to my alma mater, briefly for a
• 45:05
  couple years and got married and moved back to Missouri.
• 45:07
  My wife's originally from Missouri.
• 45:11
  So after we got married, we moved down there and had our
• 45:13
  first kid. So but you went from wash you
• 45:17
  back to Dubuque back to the beaut.
• 45:18
  Oh yeah. And then you know, life life
• 45:22
  kind of happened with with my wife and we got married and
• 45:26
  moved back to Missouri and ended up at an Nei school called
• 45:28
  Central Methodist. Oh yeah I know Central
• 45:31
  Methodist. Yeah in Fayette Missouri.
• 45:38
  How was it like their Central Sadist.
• 45:42
  It was all right, I mean, you know, obviously I, you know,
• 45:46
  being an NCAA guy as an athlete and as starting out as a coach,
• 45:50
  you're like, oh anyway, I bought.
• 45:53
  It was, it was it wasn't bad. It was good.
• 45:56
  Actually actually had to learn how to coach one of the weirdest
• 45:59
  events in track and field. I had learned how to coach the
• 46:03
  race walk. Oh, right.
• 46:08
  Yeah, how do we had an International Champion race
• 46:11
  Walker? And I had to figure out what to
• 46:12
  do. How did you tackle that good?
• 46:14
  Because that's interesting. You know, we will talk with
• 46:16
  throws coaches and they've got to learn the javelin for their
• 46:19
  first time or yeah. Jumps coach wrestler in the
• 46:22
  pole, vault for the first time here in the didn't, you know?
• 46:25
  And shame on me. I think of the distance I'm
• 46:27
  like, oh, you know, you're basically just your distance.
• 46:29
  Whether it's, you know, 815 five or ten, to Steeple because when
• 46:32
  you said the weirdest of Mike, well, we already went over
• 46:34
  steeple, where You going with this, but the race walk super
• 46:37
  unique, not comment, you know? How did you tackle that are, you
• 46:43
  know, very fortunate. And I guess probably fortunate
• 46:48
  that the race Walker we had was actually very technically sound.
• 46:53
  You know, the guy that was there before us?
• 46:55
  He must have done a really good job with him because he I mean I
• 46:59
  think in the couple years I was there and between the conference
• 47:03
  championships in the National Chirps US championships and all
• 47:07
  that. I don't know that I ever
• 47:09
  remember him getting a red card for getting flagged for
• 47:14
  technique. So I think that helped me out
• 47:18
  having him to to work off of and really trying to understand that
• 47:23
  form. There was a there was a there's
• 47:26
  a guy in Columbia Missouri but name of dr.
• 47:28
  Wayne armbrust, he was array SWAT guy and he kind of helped
• 47:34
  me out. Out a lot as a young coach, so
• 47:39
  that that helped me out to and Vince Peters was the national
• 47:42
  chair at the time of usatf or race walk, and he was actually
• 47:47
  really good resource because they were trying to build the
• 47:49
  event. I mean, you know, it's like you
• 47:51
  said, it's very unique, it's not very well known.
• 47:55
  I Vlog not saying it's not that, it's not well known, but there
• 47:58
  are only two high schools in the in the country to high school,
• 48:02
  associations in the u.s. New York in May We're the only
• 48:06
  ones that do it as a high school event for track and field.
• 48:10
  Otherwise if you go anywhere else it's it's a club you're
• 48:15
  going to learn from a from an AAU club usatf club, whatever it
• 48:19
  might be, but that's how and it's that, it's not a sanctioned
• 48:23
  event within the NCAA. The Nei is the only Collegiate
• 48:28
  organization that offers it as a sanction event.
• 48:31
  So yeah. Definitely definitely unique.
• 48:37
  Did you embrace it? In the sense of did you try to
• 48:40
  start recruiting more race Walkers or was it like, I just
• 48:43
  need to take care of this national champ?
• 48:44
  I got well, we took care of him and we had a guy.
• 48:47
  We had a guy in a gal. There was a gal there that was
• 48:49
  doing it as well and we had a guy that was a freshman that
• 48:53
  wanted to give it a go and we you know, we end up getting him
• 48:56
  to Nationals and he scored points of conference.
• 49:00
  You know, we didn't we try to bring in a couple but I was
• 49:03
  there like said was only there a couple of years.
• 49:05
  Ears. So we, you know, it was pretty
• 49:07
  quick switching out of it, but Yeah.
• 49:11
  I mean, most of us taking trying to take care of Patrick and Jeff
• 49:13
  and Beth at that time. And, you know, it was fun.
• 49:17
  I mean it was it was definitely you know what, I was honest with
• 49:21
  him. I said I write my first
• 49:22
  introduction to race walk was as a freshman in college.
• 49:27
  We had it we were going to a meet at Wisconsin Whitewater and
• 49:31
  they had it and uw-parkside was a National Power in the race.
• 49:36
  Walk in Mike De Witt. He was another resource for me
• 49:39
  Mike. Was Mike was great.
• 49:41
  He was, he was a good Mentor to. He probably doesn't know that,
• 49:45
  but he always answer a lot of questions for me over the years
• 49:48
  if I ever needed anything because he was the, he was the
• 49:50
  guy, you know, he produced Olympians, you know, national
• 49:54
  champions, and out of Wisconsin Parkside there, an Nei Nei
• 49:59
  power. So they were there.
• 50:02
  And that was my first introduction to the first
• 50:04
  introduction to, it was like, what is going on out on that
• 50:07
  track? I didn't quite understand it.
• 50:09
  They said it was a race while I was like, all right.
• 50:11
  That's, that's that's, that's different, that's weird.
• 50:13
  But, you know, it is what it is. We moved on.
• 50:16
  So, and then how many years later, you know, you kind of
• 50:20
  laugh and joke and make fun of it a little bit but then, here I
• 50:24
  am stuck coach, they coaching it, but it was good, it was a
• 50:27
  good experience. You know, Patrick Phenomenal
• 50:32
  couple u.s. national team's kumble.
• 50:33
  Look at the Olympic trials in 2008, you know.
• 50:38
  So it was it was good. It was definitely an experience.
• 50:42
  It sounds like a, your face even kind of lit up a little bit.
• 50:45
  Sounds like you like challenges of like learning new things
• 50:49
  because when you talked about the race walking, okay, here we
• 50:51
  are. We got to teach your face.
• 50:52
  Kind of lit up a little bit. Like, all right, there is no
• 50:55
  choice here. Let's go.
• 50:56
  I don't know. I respect the way race walk.
• 51:14
  I don't understand, I do too. I mean, I do too.
• 51:17
  I just I wish there was a way. We could promote it more because
• 51:21
  I think it's an Avenue. You could get some, you could
• 51:24
  get some athletes on, you get some exposure and it could, you
• 51:26
  know, it could lead to some good things for him.
• 51:29
  I, you know, since coming to Upper Iowa I'd probably haven't
• 51:32
  touched it and over over a decade but it's tough, right?
• 51:38
  And that's what Eileen I might do it a lot was because the
• 51:41
  NCAA, it's because it's not a sanctioned event.
• 51:45
  I can't. I mean, I could I could have a
• 51:47
  kid right now on my team now and I could coach him, but if they
• 51:50
  were to hit some marks and do some stuff they couldn't go on
• 51:52
  to the upper highwomen. Right?
• 51:55
  So that's unfortunate, but I understand whatever.
• 51:59
  So, you know, I kind of just kind of backed off on trying to
• 52:03
  even introduced anybody just to see now my athletes here.
• 52:07
  They you know, they'll laugh at me, they go coach him, I doing
• 52:09
  it right. You know, they'll try to mimic
• 52:11
  the motion. I'm like, nope, you're
• 52:15
  disqualified, that's garbage. He can't do that.
• 52:18
  Oh, but I do think it's a great way to try.
• 52:23
  You too, you know, to grow that event.
• 52:25
  And I know they've tried and it's tough.
• 52:28
  When it's when it's not there in the high school levels and kids
• 52:31
  aren't exposed to it as much. And you know, the NCAA does not
• 52:34
  offer it as an event. You know, it's tough and I
• 52:40
  think, you know, a lot of times coaches like let's just one more
• 52:42
  event. I got a coach, I said, honestly,
• 52:45
  all you got to do is learn the technique, you know, you can
• 52:48
  base your training, you can do this, you can, in my opinion, I
• 52:52
  think you do some of the sent, some of the same types of
• 52:55
  workouts, it's just the pacing is going to be a little
• 52:58
  different and obviously you got to focus on, you really got to
• 53:01
  focus on the athletes technique so they get get the cute little
• 53:05
  paddle that comes out with a bent knee or a loss of That
• 53:08
  warning though. Yeah, I love your experience on
• 53:13
  both the NCAA and NAIA level. It's fairly unique besides the
• 53:18
  race. Walk thinking about your
• 53:20
  experience on both of those levels.
• 53:21
  What else was unique, positive or negative coaching on the NAIA
• 53:25
  level? As a pit?
• 53:26
  As opposed to the NCAA level? I think back then we had talking
• 53:31
  now man, almost 17 years ago. You know, I think the any eyes
• 53:38
  always kind of been like, you know, there wasn't, you know, a
• 53:41
  lot of rules, you know, I mean, not that they can have them, but
• 53:46
  it was just a little things, were a little bit more loose and
• 53:51
  I think that was part of it. And then, you know, NCAA always
• 53:54
  felt like little bit more structured.
• 53:55
  Like, you know, if you do this or this, you know, you might get
• 53:58
  dinged. But any I, you know, I just it
• 54:04
  was I don't know if a wild west as the Right thing.
• 54:08
  But you know now you know, I still I still have some buddies
• 54:10
  at that level and I think they'll kind of say the same
• 54:12
  thing. You know, you know, there's a
• 54:15
  few things here and there but I enjoyed it.
• 54:17
  I really I really do. And I mean it would, I'd have no
• 54:21
  problem, you know, coaching at that level and I did I enjoyed
• 54:25
  my time, time at Central Methodist, you know, go Eagles,
• 54:29
  but I coached at the Juco level and I would kind of mimic what
• 54:34
  you said there. And really, I always use the
• 54:35
  example of the room Like oh, the NCAA rule book this?
• 54:38
  Yeah. Juuko rule book was maybe this
• 54:41
  thick and that's kind of your comment on any eye level, you
• 54:43
  spent 17 years ago. Yeah, I would say my that's
• 54:46
  definitely a good way to, to say it, you know, and she's a bully
• 54:50
  rulebook. You know, its massive and the
• 54:53
  other ones are not in near as much.
• 54:55
  I mean it's But that's what it is.
• 54:58
  That's a No-No. Shame on how those organizations
• 55:01
  are around. They do what they got to do to
• 55:02
  make things work and that's great.
• 55:04
  So and it gave me a unique experience as a coach and that
• 55:09
  like I said, never in my never in my life, did I think I'm
• 55:12
  coaching the race walk and you know, in the beginning end up
• 55:16
  being a u.s. national team coach because of it.
• 55:18
  So you know, it's that right? Yeah.
• 55:22
  Wow. That's an experience.
• 55:24
  Yeah, it was it was a lot of fun.
• 55:26
  It definitely was so. But I know it's not the jacket I
• 55:32
  have hanging up behind me. I got that on another wall in my
• 55:34
  office. Yeah that's right.
• 55:36
  I remember that. That's right.
• 55:37
  Yeah yeah 2010. U.s. u.s.
• 55:40
  Canada Duo me up in Toronto. Yeah that's cool.
• 55:43
  Yeah, let's get serious walk and take Our.
• 55:45
  I love it. That's all they can't.
• 55:46
  I mean I mean track and field Kevin cries.
• 55:49
  That's right. There's a lot of great things
• 55:51
  but race walk. Yeah.
• 55:52
  It was, it opened up. It opened up a door.
• 55:55
  That's cool. Really dead.
• 55:56
  So well, where does the door open up from Central Methodist?
• 55:59
  Where do we go next? So, spend a couple years at
• 56:02
  Central ahead further south down to Montgomery, Alabama.
• 56:10
  You know, I think that's where we first met.
• 56:12
  I don't think because I called you and we're trying to start at
• 56:15
  a track program before I left down there and We moved to
• 56:21
  Montgomery. It was a D3.
• 56:23
  I really want to get back to the NCAA, you know.
• 56:26
  And as a D3 athlete, you know, I really thought D3 is where I
• 56:30
  wanted to be right. And here was Huntington hunting.
• 56:36
  Done not Huntington. It's a deal when at the end and
• 56:39
  it's College, not University, but they, you know, they're
• 56:44
  looking to start a cross-country program and I thought why not?
• 56:50
  You know, something different got my wife and I out of our
• 56:55
  comfort zone, obviously you know, being around her family in
• 56:57
  Missouri where we were living and then, you know, obviously my
• 57:01
  family still in Illinois, but you know, we you know, we move
• 57:03
  14 hours away from family, you know, as young couple with young
• 57:07
  children and that's hard. It was it was really hard and
• 57:11
  there are times it was hard but we, you know, we had a good
• 57:13
  network of people down there. We had a good church at we
• 57:16
  belong to, we move down there. We had some, you know, had some
• 57:19
  really great people that took care of us and looked out for us
• 57:24
  while we were there and it was it was definitely a unique
• 57:27
  experience. Living in Montgomery, you know,
• 57:30
  the long history of that bet City but we enjoyed it and
• 57:36
  enjoyed our time, the South and I don't think I came back with
• 57:41
  two strong men, accent hopeful, but I think I can, I think I
• 57:45
  kept my Northern yanky yanky this a little bit, but It was
• 57:50
  good. So we started a program hung out
• 57:52
  in Montgomery, Alabama, for four years and, you know, knew knew
• 57:56
  it was about time, you know, my oldest was getting my oldest was
• 57:59
  in kindergarten and getting ready to go into first grade.
• 58:03
  And it's like, if we're going to make a move, I think we need to
• 58:05
  do it now. Let's get back closer to family
• 58:08
  because, you know, we had, you know, my grandparents were
• 58:11
  getting older and her grandparents are getting older
• 58:14
  and, you know, let's let's have her kids be around family.
• 58:18
  Family, you know, maybe not right on top of the family, but,
• 58:22
  you know, we looked and, you know, worked out.
• 58:25
  But it was, it was good. It was a good experience on
• 58:27
  there. Being able to start a program
• 58:28
  from scratch. And really trying to figure out,
• 58:31
  you know, What, what would work? What wouldn't work and, and all
• 58:35
  that. So I love Huntington for several
• 58:38
  reasons. One, you and I met there.
• 58:40
  So that's a yes, A nice memory to.
• 58:41
  It's a beautiful little campus, kind of hidden feel realize,
• 58:45
  it's really, really gorgeous. And because all things revolve
• 58:49
  around my alma mater, Troy University football coach, Mike
• 58:53
  Turk, was a turkey to Hero for us at Troy State University
• 58:58
  leading us to a national champion as the quarterback.
• 59:00
  All of I don't know, is he? I'm I'm 5 foot 10, but I think
• 59:03
  he's already five foot eight least back when he was
• 59:06
  quarterback in. Uh, so but yeah, love, love
• 59:08
  Huntington. Did you know?
• 59:10
  It's interesting kind of two things that I thought about
• 59:12
  their one. You mentioned your oldest was,
• 59:14
  you know, kindergarten first grade, and you mentioned
• 59:16
  accents, I'm sorry little boy, little girl for the oldest, my
• 59:21
  two oldest are my two. Oldest, two girls, my two
• 59:23
  younger girls. Rights, did the little girls
• 59:25
  pick up an accent though because that's all they kind of really
• 59:27
  new. Yeah my you know my daughter my
• 59:32
  Daughter. My oldest daughter was both my
• 59:34
  daughters are born in Missouri. And my oldest son was born in
• 59:38
  Montgomery and I have video of my youngest and we my wife.
• 59:43
  And I talk about this, every once in a while, they're in our
• 59:47
  house and they have my son who's, I don't know, 45 months
• 59:52
  old, they have them in the baby doll stroller, right?
• 59:56
  You know they put their baby dolls in and they're running up
• 59:58
  and down the hallway with him. And my oldest is pushing him and
• 1:00:02
  my youngest is stand there. Holding the baby doll and she's
• 1:00:05
  like oh look at that. He's so cute.
• 1:00:10
  He's just a little baby perhaps. That is the worst southern
• 1:00:13
  accent I've ever heard that was terrible.
• 1:00:30
  You're right. Absolutely.
• 1:00:31
  And you know that's all she knew because we you know, we move
• 1:00:34
  down there and she was was a baby and it just it was I was
• 1:00:40
  like oh boy with I'm like we gotta go, we gotta go.
• 1:00:46
  No but yeah, so they did have it and it was funny.
• 1:00:51
  Moving back up north and moving up to Northeast Iowa.
• 1:00:54
  You start getting you starting to push that Minnesota.
• 1:00:57
  Wisconsin, the O's in the A's, you know, Omega, Yeah, you
• 1:01:00
  betcha Jeepers cripes. And you know, all that right?
• 1:01:03
  Like, I'm not again, not stereotyping, but you get that
• 1:01:06
  more. Oh yeah, you betcha.
• 1:01:10
  And so my oldest daughter, you know, she's in school and she is
• 1:01:14
  B blowing her mind like, like the way, you know, the way the
• 1:01:18
  A's and the O's are extended like, you know, add like like
• 1:01:23
  agriculture, right? Ag ag.
• 1:01:26
  Well, they pronounce an egg or more of a that the eggs.
• 1:01:30
  And right, and she's my daughter's.
• 1:01:32
  Like, what do you mean egg in the classroom?
• 1:01:34
  What are you talking about? This is supposed to be act like
• 1:01:36
  Sochi. I'm like, oh my God.
• 1:01:39
  So as so. And so then we got to deal with
• 1:01:40
  all that, right? It's just so you deal with the
• 1:01:46
  accent thing, we know them out, you know, we're not living down
• 1:01:48
  there and you know, one of our friends, you know, she's a
• 1:01:51
  teacher and she was talking, you know, she was, you know, I'm
• 1:01:54
  sitting here trying to teach these kids you know how to spell
• 1:01:58
  the word the word 10. That it's Tean but when they're
• 1:02:02
  counting, its eight, nine ten. You know.
• 1:02:05
  It's the way they say that you're shaking your head you
• 1:02:07
  get, you can get exactly what I'm saying.
• 1:02:09
  As you said, ten as I go, I know where this is.
• 1:02:11
  Yes, 10, it's 10 it's he could beat e ey.
• 1:02:15
  N Tan? Yeah, you're right too.
• 1:02:18
  But she's like, you know, she was, I know it's because of
• 1:02:20
  what, you know and you know, but we had that conversation so but
• 1:02:24
  yeah, I hear it's funny here at you have that southern that
• 1:02:27
  southern accent a little bit and I know I probably picked it up.
• 1:02:31
  And if you ask my assistant coach, coach hope, you know, we
• 1:02:34
  went down to Nationals in 2020, down to Birmingham, before
• 1:02:37
  covid, hit. You know, you know, she's like
• 1:02:39
  it. Can't she goes Nate.
• 1:02:40
  She was it came out. She was when you were down
• 1:02:43
  there, she was at Southern your Southern twang.
• 1:02:45
  That's interesting. So, as it should I said, no, it
• 1:02:49
  didn't. She was God.
• 1:02:50
  My, my wife will tell me that she can tell where the person on
• 1:02:54
  the phone is from based on hearing me speak.
• 1:02:57
  Because if they're from the south, I just kind of The
• 1:03:00
  drawers start coming out versus if I'm talking to someone in
• 1:03:03
  Minnesota. Yeah Boston yeah that's
• 1:03:05
  interest. Even you haven't been down there
• 1:03:07
  just for a really short amount of time.
• 1:03:09
  Yeah, even you kind of picks right back into you a little bit
• 1:03:12
  there. But I mean you say that now, you
• 1:03:14
  know, I even think about that when we live down there, right?
• 1:03:16
  Like we would, I'd talk to like my college roommate, it was from
• 1:03:19
  Wisconsin and you know, talking to him, maybe fill probably more
• 1:03:24
  Northern because then it, you know, then that would come back
• 1:03:27
  out, right? Oh yeah.
• 1:03:28
  The Packers you Of the Packers, you know?
• 1:03:31
  So I mean, you would do that and you kind of get that sense of
• 1:03:35
  home and talk to my family and all that.
• 1:03:38
  Ironically, you know, my wife being from Missouri is from
• 1:03:41
  Central Missouri. They don't have its kind of
• 1:03:45
  that. There's not really much of an
• 1:03:47
  accent. And what do they call that?
• 1:03:49
  They call a phone call? Like the like TV anchors.
• 1:03:52
  I guess. Study that type of.
• 1:03:54
  Yeah, there's, there's something to say I can't there is a name
• 1:03:57
  for it and I guess you don't remember that.
• 1:03:59
  Non, that non accent type of. Yeah.
• 1:04:04
  Talk, right. So there's not really much.
• 1:04:07
  I mean there is some people down there, but her mom and dad,
• 1:04:10
  definitely. No, they don't and she doesn't.
• 1:04:13
  So there wasn't really anything much down in Missouri, but
• 1:04:16
  Boone, Alabama. It was, I mean it was a bit of a
• 1:04:18
  culture shock. I'm not gonna lie, I mean, being
• 1:04:22
  being up north and you know, things up here to things down
• 1:04:25
  there, like I said, especially being a Montgomery, it was
• 1:04:28
  different. It was just, it was just a
• 1:04:30
  little different. I mean, great school, you know,
• 1:04:34
  a lot of good coaches on that staff at Huntington, you know,
• 1:04:38
  Mike Turk being one of them. He still there as the head
• 1:04:40
  football coach doing amazing things, and You know, it was it
• 1:04:46
  was definitely it was definitely an experience, it was a good
• 1:04:48
  four years, we were successful in those four years and had a
• 1:04:51
  chance to build a program from scratch and and, and have a
• 1:04:55
  different experience in. Get out of the comfort zone.
• 1:04:58
  A little bit real quick before we move on from Huntington, you
• 1:05:02
  know, it's interesting talks about where you are in your age
• 1:05:04
  and stage of your family, life having the kids and married and
• 1:05:08
  still early in your marriage in that sense, right?
• 1:05:10
  I mean certainly years of marriage but not like you're 10.
• 1:05:14
  In like yard it is 17 years in you know I don't think I
• 1:05:18
  realized the value of family until my wife and I started
• 1:05:22
  having kids and we're close were close to her family, her family
• 1:05:25
  a couple hours away and just the just the support and help.
• 1:05:29
  When you first have kids you're doing that in your you actually
• 1:05:32
  want the opposite. How did you know you moved away
• 1:05:35
  from family as you're in a very important age and stage of the
• 1:05:38
  kid and your marriage? How did you guys let me use the
• 1:05:42
  term bulletproof. Like, how did Sighs.
• 1:05:45
  You and Betsy and the kids. How did you guys like really
• 1:05:49
  work on? Like we've got, you know, we're
• 1:05:51
  all we have, there are no family sir.
• 1:05:52
  I know you have friends and church family and that's
• 1:05:55
  certainly again. Oh, my gosh, couldn't live
• 1:05:57
  without people like that, but there's no, there's no
• 1:06:00
  mother-in-law coming to help. There's no Mom coming to help.
• 1:06:02
  Yeah, how did you guys really? You know, I don't want to make
• 1:06:05
  it through as if it was just unbelievable ordeal, but it is
• 1:06:08
  an ordeal for a family unit. How did you guys work through
• 1:06:11
  that as you are continuing along in your career as well?
• 1:06:15
  I know, I don't, we just, you know, I guess, you know, I never
• 1:06:18
  really thought about it, but we just did, we just kind of made
• 1:06:20
  things happen, right? You know, we didn't have, we're
• 1:06:25
  when we look in Missouri. We literally live 10 minutes
• 1:06:27
  from her family, and we had nana, and papa there to hell and
• 1:06:33
  then, but when we, you know, we left, we didn't have that.
• 1:06:36
  So now we did rely on daycares and, you know, strangers in some
• 1:06:41
  regard. You know, looking after our
• 1:06:43
  children and In our trust, in some of those daycares down
• 1:06:47
  there and it was good and we had and we had them and some good
• 1:06:50
  day care as you know, if you're good advice and some of the
• 1:06:52
  people that we work that I worked with and it worked out
• 1:06:56
  and I do credit like our church family there at the church that
• 1:07:01
  we went to that. They you know, they were really
• 1:07:04
  good and when we moved into the apartment and then we moved into
• 1:07:07
  a house. After a short amount of time,
• 1:07:10
  you know, they were there they were looking after the kids are
• 1:07:12
  helping out our pastor even helped out.
• 1:07:14
  And, you know, to credit to him. But they, you know, I think that
• 1:07:20
  was it. It was just, you know, we knew
• 1:07:22
  it was us and I think that was a part of it.
• 1:07:24
  I think that helped us learn to be be self-sufficient.
• 1:07:29
  I guess, without family that we had to figure things out without
• 1:07:34
  calling Grandma. Grandpa nana and papa to come
• 1:07:37
  help that, you know, it's on us or maybe we got a friend friend
• 1:07:41
  group that can help or, you know, somebody from our church
• 1:07:43
  that can help. And you know, that's that's just
• 1:07:48
  kind of what it was and we made it work.
• 1:07:51
  We just and I think you know both my wife and I was always
• 1:07:54
  kind of that kind of done that we just get it done, you know,
• 1:07:57
  don't think just do and things will happen.
• 1:08:00
  But appreciate helping bring awareness to that because I
• 1:08:02
  think that's important for coaches to know when they are
• 1:08:04
  looking at whatever. The next job might be for them
• 1:08:07
  in the coaching realm. You know?
• 1:08:10
  I definitely think I'm fully supportive that coaches don't
• 1:08:13
  make enough. And so, So if there's another
• 1:08:15
  job that pays 5,000 or 10,000 more a year, you might consider
• 1:08:19
  that. But location to family also has
• 1:08:22
  to be one of those. If you're going to do the
• 1:08:24
  traditional pros and cons list that, yeah, potential especially
• 1:08:27
  as you start having children may be has, to be in the con list of
• 1:08:30
  is. It worth 5,000 more?
• 1:08:31
  Not only financially, you mentioned, you know, daycares
• 1:08:33
  which oh my goodness, get me started on the cost of those.
• 1:08:38
  Right? But the emotional cost of, you
• 1:08:41
  know, you mentioned, you know, Nana and Papa I was like, oh man
• 1:08:44
  we're Pinch, I've got to go out of town, Nana, can you come over
• 1:08:47
  and watch the kids, certainly the 10 minutes be there in 10
• 1:08:49
  minutes versus oh no, you would have to been on a plane to get
• 1:08:52
  to Montgomery day happening. This is not happening.
• 1:08:55
  So you're still stealing that changes.
• 1:08:57
  It doesn't go away because you have Community Friends Church
• 1:09:00
  and co-workers, but it changes. So I like, you know, bringing
• 1:09:05
  that awareness of, you know, make sure you look at the total
• 1:09:08
  package. Not just the name of the school
• 1:09:09
  that you might be looking at, just only the financial side.
• 1:09:14
  Of it and also not just a level of it's like, well, I'll pay my
• 1:09:17
  dues to go to division one and make 20,000 a year and be 2,000
• 1:09:21
  miles from a family that I don't know.
• 1:09:23
  I'm not sure that might be the right thing and if you do decide
• 1:09:26
  it to your point about what you and Betsy and the kids kind of
• 1:09:29
  insulate ins like, all right, we're going to have to do this.
• 1:09:31
  We don't have family to to rely on 24/7.
• 1:09:36
  Like we did that, you're going to have to really focus on that
• 1:09:39
  and there's gonna be some good times and not some good times
• 1:09:42
  some hard discussions and not so hard discussions.
• 1:09:44
  That's going to have to be part of the package.
• 1:09:46
  I appreciate you. Bringing helping bring awareness
• 1:09:48
  to that. So where do we go?
• 1:09:50
  You leave the land of sweet tea grits and banana pudding.
• 1:09:54
  Which all three, I highly recommend any time you get off,
• 1:09:57
  cover your Birmingham. You got to have all three in one
• 1:10:00
  meal. Now you can't.
• 1:10:04
  I cannot do grits. I cannot, we did not impart our
• 1:10:08
  Southern Miss to you then. Okay, hold on.
• 1:10:09
  Now, we got to do a checklist. All right.
• 1:10:11
  So Chris first of all you gotta have grits, their amazing.
• 1:10:13
  You got to put butter and me You some sugar, but a lot of butter
• 1:10:16
  in there. What about fried okra?
• 1:10:20
  Like right? Okay.
• 1:10:20
  I can do that. Yeah, it's really good.
• 1:10:22
  Really good. This is an easy one.
• 1:10:25
  Barbecue. There's really good.
• 1:10:26
  Barbecue. Yeah, that's an easy one.
• 1:10:28
  Yeah. Sweetie.
• 1:10:29
  We didn't get a confirmation on sweetie.
• 1:10:31
  Now, I've never been a friend. I've never been a fan of tea,
• 1:10:33
  sweet or unsweet. I've never my daughters and my
• 1:10:36
  wife, absolutely give them sweet tea.
• 1:10:38
  My wife even knows how to make it the right way.
• 1:10:42
  She had, you know, I mean it was like that was like trying to get
• 1:10:44
  the secrets of the Pentagon from those old southern wind.
• 1:10:48
  Like how do you make sweet tea? It was like, Guarded that with
• 1:10:50
  their life. Yeah, it's a, it's ten Parts
• 1:10:53
  sugar. One part teeth.
• 1:10:54
  By the way, just well, it's okay that you didn't become a fan as
• 1:10:59
  long as you didn't become a fan of unsweet tea, because that is
• 1:11:03
  an Abomination. Now, I've never been able to
• 1:11:05
  beat my kids. They will not drink anything
• 1:11:07
  less. It's sweet tea.
• 1:11:08
  Hey, I saw a tweet a video. Someone said, here's the proper
• 1:11:12
  way to drink unsweetened tea and they took in just dumped it out
• 1:11:14
  in the kitchen sink in. As I came in because unsweetened
• 1:11:17
  tea, you can have me on Twitter all day.
• 1:11:18
  I don't care. Honestly, T is just colored
• 1:11:22
  water. It is not t at all.
• 1:11:25
  A come on now. I'm not what you are thinking,
• 1:11:31
  you know, some of them are too easy, right?
• 1:11:32
  Like banana pudding, like I don't mind.
• 1:11:37
  Yeah. That's that's kind of an easy
• 1:11:38
  one, Black Eyed Peas. That's a very Southern.
• 1:11:42
  Yeah, I do my, it's okay. chitlins and things like that
• 1:11:59
  because I never ate those and never would what about No, man.
• 1:12:04
  You froze up right there. This is gonna be a good one.
• 1:12:05
  There you go. What did you say?
• 1:12:06
  You froze up. The cheese and apples.
• 1:12:09
  Cheese. Hold on, I don't know what is
• 1:12:11
  it? Where did you little doll now?
• 1:12:13
  Cheese and apples. There was a spot.
• 1:12:16
  I might, I can't. I can't.
• 1:12:18
  It was between Troy and Montgomery.
• 1:12:20
  It was like, well first of all, there's not much between Troy
• 1:12:23
  and it was somewhere. Down that direction we went
• 1:12:26
  there, it was like a, like a Sunday brunch and they like, my
• 1:12:31
  wife says she liked it. It was like apples and cheese
• 1:12:35
  baked or like yeah. I mean, like, I know you maybe
• 1:12:39
  have it like a slice of apple, a slice of cheese and that's not
• 1:12:41
  bad, right? I've done that, but I don't
• 1:12:44
  like, yeah. It was like, like I was like, I
• 1:12:46
  thought like it when I first saw it, I thought it was cheesy
• 1:12:49
  potatoes. Sure.
• 1:12:50
  Are you sure? It wasn't, it was no, it wasn't
• 1:12:53
  cause I got it. Like, what is this?
• 1:12:55
  This is not what I thought it was going to look like, I don't
• 1:12:59
  know that one that's a little that's rare.
• 1:13:01
  My did you learn this? My wife?
• 1:13:04
  Who's from Chicago? I took her down to Troy a couple
• 1:13:07
  times. One was for a fantastic weekend
• 1:13:10
  of the Navy. We played Navy in football on
• 1:13:12
  Saturday, and then Mississippi State in our new basketball
• 1:13:14
  arena on Sunday, just a fantastic weekend.
• 1:13:17
  But down there, very popular what they call a for a
• 1:13:20
  restaurant, with a call, a meat and three.
• 1:13:22
  So you make you mean, yeah, you fried chicken or meat loaf or
• 1:13:27
  make chicken Etc and then you pick your three sides, right?
• 1:13:29
  So yeah. Croce's.
• 1:13:31
  Maybe a cornbread, some like that.
• 1:13:33
  And it was really weird. You know, my Yankee wife here in
• 1:13:36
  Chicago, born and bred. And she's like, oh yeah, I just
• 1:13:38
  that's just wasn't good. But now every dinner that we
• 1:13:41
  have is typically a meat and three.
• 1:13:42
  It's, you know, it's a it's a special make chicken or steak or
• 1:13:46
  what not. And then we have mashed
• 1:13:47
  potatoes. And, you know, spinach I'm like,
• 1:13:50
  you know, you're just making meat and three like this, who
• 1:13:52
  just have a turn for a down there.
• 1:13:54
  Yeah. There was one of Montgomery.
• 1:13:56
  We went to not too far from campus.
• 1:14:00
  In fact, I know when you came down, there, we went to those
• 1:14:02
  Steakhouse. Oh yeah, what?
• 1:14:05
  Yeah, that was super good. That little hole in the wall.
• 1:14:08
  Place. Yeah, Chophouse put whatever but
• 1:14:10
  they're like right next to it. There was a meat and three is it
• 1:14:12
  was just it was a grocery store now and just walk in like lunch
• 1:14:16
  time you go through, get your meat, get your three sides,
• 1:14:19
  right? Yeah that was it, best barbecue
• 1:14:22
  spot in Montgomery. In my opinion was Sam's.
• 1:14:25
  It was Mi llanta Highway little hole in the wall.
• 1:14:28
  You know as soon as they were out they were closing.
• 1:14:31
  That was it for the day. Okay.
• 1:14:32
  I thought about it more and then we'll move on to where we left
• 1:14:36
  Huntington boiled. It's no I can't.
• 1:14:40
  Can't do it, man. I can't the tip.
• 1:14:43
  Hey, too much too much, too. Much of a Yankee and me I guess.
• 1:14:46
  Yeah. Now hey I did.
• 1:14:48
  Go to Talladega. Okay.
• 1:14:50
  All right, I did go and tell him while we were down there.
• 1:14:54
  The thing that cracked me up the most, my wife, my wife got this
• 1:14:59
  too and she was teaching who you for I went to Troy University so
• 1:15:05
  and I named my son Troy. So, I'm Troy first over, Alabama
• 1:15:08
  and Auburn sir. Yeah, that is the number one
• 1:15:10
  question you get asked, is when it comes to the Iron Bowl.
• 1:15:15
  I root for Auburn because I grew up about an hour from there.
• 1:15:17
  I had high school teammates at played there, and things like
• 1:15:19
  that when I decided to go to Troy universe.
• 1:15:22
  So I grew up in Auburn fan because that's you again.
• 1:15:24
  You pick one of the other exciting, but when I went to
• 1:15:27
  Troy University who was also D1, it was first and foremost, like
• 1:15:30
  oh, you know, I think go to Auburn.
• 1:15:32
  I think I dialed My Troy's who gave me my education, my faith,
• 1:15:35
  my life, we are friends. So and again I named my son
• 1:15:38
  Troy. So it tells you how big it's
• 1:15:40
  Troy first and then my wife went to Illinois.
• 1:15:42
  And then I had an unofficial Alum of Mississippi state's,
• 1:15:45
  that's my top three. I'll root for Auburn at the Iron
• 1:15:48
  Bowl. Yeah.
• 1:15:49
  They it was a that was always fun.
• 1:15:50
  Except look at him. Everybody know.
• 1:15:52
  I grew up. I grew up in Iowa Hawkeyes fan.
• 1:15:55
  So I just be like Iowa, not be likely for the NFL me.
• 1:15:58
  Look at me like I was crazy. Like, what do you mean NFL?
• 1:16:00
  I'm like, well, there's a team two hours down the road.
• 1:16:02
  Road and Atlanta, you know, and they probably thought I was
• 1:16:06
  crazy. Our church had a thing in 2010,
• 1:16:10
  you know, Packers were in the Super Bowl.
• 1:16:12
  So they had and I'm a die-hard Packers fan and they had, they
• 1:16:16
  had that they had to do, they had the game going on big screen
• 1:16:19
  in the gym and, and like, they're all looking, like, I'm
• 1:16:21
  nothing like you guys were doing the same thing, if it was
• 1:16:23
  Alabama Auburn, let her be honest.
• 1:16:25
  Yeah, that we killing trees. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:16:29
  That happened while I was down there.
• 1:16:31
  That was interesting. Did you watch the 30 for 30 on
• 1:16:33
  that? No.
• 1:16:35
  But I, we were, we were in Auburn after it happened and
• 1:16:40
  they have the trees blocked off. It was crazy.
• 1:16:43
  Yeah. If you don't know, the culture
• 1:16:46
  of Alabama versus Auburn and there's others, you know,
• 1:16:49
  Mississippi State Ole Miss Florida, Florida State etcetera,
• 1:16:51
  be pale in comparison to Alabama Auburn.
• 1:16:54
  There is a 3430 on the album are just Them all burn game and they
• 1:17:00
  talk about that. If you don't own a time, I want
• 1:17:01
  to say they kill trees, go watch it.
• 1:17:03
  It's fanaticism at its worst level to be real, real Frank
• 1:17:08
  with you, my wife. But before we went to Alabama,
• 1:17:11
  my wife, Amy, watch that, and she was like that when I'm going
• 1:17:13
  into it like, yeah, we're going to much smaller Troy version of
• 1:17:16
  it though. We're not we're not going to TP
• 1:17:18
  and kill trees but um but yeah. You know, the big difference
• 1:17:23
  down there, growing up in Alabama, you know, you hit the
• 1:17:25
  nail on the head, there you have no pro teams.
• 1:17:28
  No pro basketball football, baseball nothing.
• 1:17:31
  So we live in died on high school and college athletics.
• 1:17:35
  We know who the number one quarterback in.
• 1:17:37
  The state is no matter for high school, no matter where you go
• 1:17:39
  to school, you just arrived and just things, you know?
• 1:17:42
  Because if you want to be an NFL fan, you got to go to Atlanta or
• 1:17:45
  New Orleans basketball. I have no clue, I guess you go
• 1:17:48
  to Lana and maybe Charlotte now, I don't know.
• 1:17:50
  We don't have hockey so you Yankees up there.
• 1:17:53
  We know that that was not in our vocabulary at all.
• 1:17:56
  Did you get? I'd say what the Braves the
• 1:17:57
  breeze were pretty big deal, Deal.
• 1:17:58
  I mean, the Atlanta Braves, you know, because they're a national
• 1:18:01
  brand as well. Yeah, that's probably.
• 1:18:03
  Yes, was everywhere. Yeah, I mean, yeah, he's fans in
• 1:18:06
  California for crying out loud, but certainly, that's a good
• 1:18:08
  point. We did have Braves.
• 1:18:09
  That was a big, big deal. Okay, we can talk about the
• 1:18:13
  south, long time. Yeah, we are so many positives.
• 1:18:17
  I love it. Love it, love it.
• 1:18:18
  Where do we go? How do we get close to back to
• 1:18:20
  home? Where do we go from?
• 1:18:21
  Huntington Huntington? So, you know, we're I was, you
• 1:18:24
  know, was that it was much like when we love when When the
• 1:18:29
  opportunity arose to go to Huntington, it was, you know,
• 1:18:32
  the kids, you know, they were at that age.
• 1:18:34
  Like I said, earlier, my daughter, all this daughters,
• 1:18:37
  getting ready to go in the first grade.
• 1:18:38
  And we had been talking a little bit, and it's like, we think
• 1:18:43
  it's time, it's time to go back home and, you know, let our kids
• 1:18:47
  grow up around, you know, our families.
• 1:18:49
  Now, we're, you know, we, I tried to Center in the midwest,
• 1:18:53
  you know, I wasn't looking to try to go too.
• 1:18:57
  You know, I mean I think I looked at Kentucky he was got us
• 1:19:00
  a little bit closer but then I looked at a school in Kentucky,
• 1:19:05
  but I was looking at Wisconsin Illinois.
• 1:19:09
  Iowa Missouri. You know, I think I think I got
• 1:19:13
  threatened about going to Minnesota because of the cold, I
• 1:19:16
  got threatened about Wisconsin to a little bit because of the
• 1:19:19
  cold. My wife loves the warm weather.
• 1:19:21
  She, she Sheila, I, you know, me, I can I don't mind the fall
• 1:19:25
  in the winter so much. A'ight, you know, down south and
• 1:19:30
  went from hot to warm to hot. There is just really no in
• 1:19:32
  between, as far as he gives me. If you could be a weatherman
• 1:19:35
  down there, that was perfect. Yeah, it's hot right now.
• 1:19:38
  It's a little warm. It's cool.
• 1:19:40
  Hey, it's 40 degrees, let your faucets drip, they might freeze.
• 1:19:44
  I'm like, what are you talking about?
• 1:19:46
  And that, and then it's hot again, you know, that's that.
• 1:19:52
  That was, that was it, I guess 50 degrees and people had Park
• 1:19:54
  is on down there. That's like t-shirt and shorts
• 1:19:57
  weather up here, right. So, but it was it was about
• 1:20:00
  trying to get closer to family. And, you know, I'd looked at,
• 1:20:04
  you know, I'd come close on a couple things.
• 1:20:05
  It didn't work, actually looked at Central Methodist.
• 1:20:08
  When it opened up in tried and came really close, but they went
• 1:20:12
  different directions. That was fine, turned another
• 1:20:16
  job down in Missouri. Just didn't feel like the timing
• 1:20:18
  was right. I was going to have to leave my
• 1:20:19
  family again and I wasn't ready to do that.
• 1:20:22
  Like I did when I left Missouri for a couple months.
• 1:20:26
  So Upper Iowa opened up and I was like, okay, oh, that's
• 1:20:30
  right. They went division to.
• 1:20:32
  All right. I know Upper Iowa, they were in
• 1:20:35
  the Iowa Conference and it's to me it's totally Iowa Conference.
• 1:20:38
  It's not the American Rivers conference.
• 1:20:40
  I know that's what they're called now, but it's time.
• 1:20:41
  Always always going to be Iowa Conference to me.
• 1:20:44
  They were in the Iowa Conference, I knew about him, I
• 1:20:47
  knew the area, my dad is originally from Waterloo.
• 1:20:50
  And I had family up in this part of Northeast Iowa as a kid.
• 1:20:54
  So, I was kind of Familiar with everything.
• 1:21:00
  You know, I applied and they move pretty quick and, you know,
• 1:21:04
  we got up here and I was 2012. So it was, it was like coming
• 1:21:10
  home. Honestly, you know, I mean, my
• 1:21:15
  dad grew up in Waterloo IA, there's a town called Charles
• 1:21:18
  City, that's about 45 minutes from here.
• 1:21:21
  Our from here, I had a great aunt and uncle that visit during
• 1:21:24
  the summer it up there my great-grandmother.
• 1:21:26
  Other live in a tiny town called Alma, which is about the same
• 1:21:30
  distance from here. My dad's got cousins in the area
• 1:21:34
  up into core over in Waterloo Cedar Falls.
• 1:21:38
  So, we were going to be three hours from my family in Illinois
• 1:21:41
  about five from hers and Missouri.
• 1:21:44
  It wasn't 14 hours like it, had been before living in
• 1:21:47
  Montgomery, but yeah, it was, it was good and it was, you know,
• 1:21:53
  starting out as a division to coach, you know, it's when I was
• 1:21:55
  at Southwest Baptist. You know, now being that that
• 1:21:59
  same region with the MIAA and that type of thing it was like,
• 1:22:03
  this is kind of cool. So I thought, you know, I like
• 1:22:06
  division to, you know, I like D3 but I was like, you know, D2
• 1:22:09
  might be kind of fun and being the only division to school in
• 1:22:12
  the state of Iowa, I thought, okay, this is this is something
• 1:22:15
  different. This would be okay, did you go
• 1:22:17
  there as start? Now as the head coach, or, as an
• 1:22:19
  assistant coach. So I the job title when I
• 1:22:23
  applied was head cross head, women's cross country, Assistant
• 1:22:27
  athletic director for internal operations so in or game
• 1:22:31
  management. So that's that's what it was.
• 1:22:34
  And what does that entail? Tell us what internal operations
• 1:22:37
  game management. Internal operations is game
• 1:22:39
  management facilities. So, studying up workers for
• 1:22:42
  football games, basketball volleyball.
• 1:22:44
  Making sure you know, referees got their stuff going on, you
• 1:22:48
  know, off behind the scenes stuff that goes on that.
• 1:22:50
  Nobody thinks about when they're enjoying a football game or a
• 1:22:52
  basketball game or volleyball game, you know what it takes.
• 1:22:56
  Is to make sure the rest got the locker rooms.
• 1:22:58
  You know, the teams are in locker rooms are set up for the
• 1:23:01
  team's coming in. And, you know, practice times
• 1:23:04
  June, you know, all that stuff. So, you know, trying to recruit
• 1:23:07
  start a new program. Start the women's program from
• 1:23:09
  scratch because they had dropped cross country and track and
• 1:23:12
  field. When they transition from
• 1:23:13
  division, 3 to division two back in 05, 06, something like that.
• 1:23:18
  So are we starting the women's program from from nothing?
• 1:23:21
  And I mean nothing, there was nothing left of the old program.
• 1:23:24
  I mean, I had to, I had to go through, Sports, infos stuff,
• 1:23:28
  trying to find old records and stuff like that.
• 1:23:32
  So I mean, there wasn't a uniform around, there wasn't
• 1:23:35
  warm-ups? I did find a couple old Gill
• 1:23:37
  pole, vaulting poles. We just, we kind of have those
• 1:23:41
  just kind of tucked away, nobody using those because I don't, I
• 1:23:45
  don't know. They, they're sitting in storage
• 1:23:47
  for a long time. So, but we got new ones though.
• 1:23:51
  Got those Pacer FX, got those bad boys.
• 1:23:54
  So those are great. But yeah, there was really there
• 1:23:58
  was, I mean, I was literally starting from nothing when we
• 1:24:01
  started the women's cross-country program back in
• 1:24:02
  2012, 2013, now you started from nothing when you started
• 1:24:07
  coaching race walk for the first time.
• 1:24:09
  Yeah. And remember I said, you know,
• 1:24:11
  it's sometimes hard, you know, we don't look at ourselves in
• 1:24:13
  the mirror all the time but I get to see you as a mirror, your
• 1:24:16
  face lit up when it was like, you know, I don't know anything
• 1:24:18
  about it, I don't learn here is you're starting from scratch.
• 1:24:22
  You got this challenge in front of you.
• 1:24:24
  Now spoiler alert, you been there for 10 years.
• 1:24:26
  So I mean, obviously answer is yes, you love the doll and
• 1:24:28
  thrived but was, was that challenge of like, all right,
• 1:24:32
  they here you go. Here's a blank plate.
• 1:24:34
  There's a blank canvas you get to paint with this team is going
• 1:24:37
  to look like how did you Embrace that challenge?
• 1:24:40
  And what were some of the struggles?
• 1:24:41
  Because it wasn't all roses. I'm going to assume, you know,
• 1:24:45
  where some of the struggles it wasn't because it's, you know,
• 1:24:48
  it's, you know, Mike you've been, it's fat Iowa, I mean I
• 1:24:52
  jokingly tell recruits on The time that we're located in the
• 1:24:55
  middle of a cornfield, that's not too far from the truth.
• 1:24:58
  You drive up from Cedar Rapids there Twin Cities, you're kind
• 1:25:00
  of going man where am I? It's a quaint town, it's a great
• 1:25:04
  town. I always tell them as I go, I
• 1:25:07
  believe it's the safest college town in America, you could
• 1:25:10
  literally be on Main Street at 3:00 in the morning and feel
• 1:25:13
  feel safe and be back on campus in five minutes and they get rid
• 1:25:17
  of all those aggressive peacocks that were on.
• 1:25:22
  It is so But, you know, the other thing is trying to
• 1:25:27
  re-establish a program that once had a team and hadn't really
• 1:25:31
  been that long at the end of the day, it's been only maybe seven,
• 1:25:34
  eight years since they had a program and trying to
• 1:25:38
  re-establish it around programs, you know, other private schools
• 1:25:42
  and obviously, the state schools in Northern Iowa, Iowa State
• 1:25:45
  Iowa, but, you know, not only that, but the private schools,
• 1:25:48
  you know, the outstanding program, you know, Wartburg and
• 1:25:51
  loras and and you D and all that.
• 1:25:54
  So trying to get in and still try to get some of those same
• 1:25:57
  types of kids, you know, it's it's always it was it was, it
• 1:26:02
  was, it was tough early on but you know, I think now we're we
• 1:26:07
  out of the program. We're starting to now that we
• 1:26:09
  brought the men's program back 34 years ago, right?
• 1:26:11
  Before. Covid.
• 1:26:11
  Hit. You know, we're starting to get
• 1:26:13
  things rolling and I think there's some good things ahead.
• 1:26:16
  But, yeah, it's it was fun. This, this place, is this place
• 1:26:21
  is uniquely special and I love Love it here.
• 1:26:24
  I mean there's there's no other place like it in the country but
• 1:26:29
  what always gets me is when the alumni when the alums come back
• 1:26:32
  whether they're recent or you know 50 years ago you see the
• 1:26:38
  love and the joy that they have for this place and the stories
• 1:26:43
  you know, and like I said earlier in this in this
• 1:26:46
  conversation Upper Iowa is one of my final three choices and
• 1:26:50
  I've met people that I would have been classmates with And I
• 1:26:53
  work with a couple of them. I would have had a good time
• 1:26:56
  here. I really would invite a chosen.
• 1:26:58
  A I will rebuke I would have had, I would have had a really
• 1:27:02
  good time. Here you mentioned, getting it
• 1:27:05
  rolling. And I kind of have this picture
• 1:27:07
  since we're talking about whether you know, of when we're
• 1:27:09
  building a snowman, you have to start with a small snowball and
• 1:27:12
  you roll it until you can have a boulder of a snowball, right?
• 1:27:15
  To get things rolling, you have to start with a small win.
• 1:27:19
  What is as you think about when you were first starting?
• 1:27:21
  Getting it going and you know there's not even a uniform in
• 1:27:24
  sight for crying out. Out loud.
• 1:27:26
  What was some of the early wins that you had?
• 1:27:29
  Where there was a recruiter a schedule budget and assistant
• 1:27:32
  coach? What was one of the first little
• 1:27:35
  win that helped? Kind of get that ball rolling.
• 1:27:38
  I think one of the first ones was one of the first girls that
• 1:27:40
  we recruited Chandra Smith. She was a decent runner from,
• 1:27:46
  you know, Southern Iowa and all-stater and, you know,
• 1:27:49
  getting her and her and Emily Frank's Emily was a former state
• 1:27:54
  champ. Here in Iowa, and getting those
• 1:27:57
  two girls to when we first started the program was was was
• 1:28:00
  good. I think that helped and, you
• 1:28:03
  know, you know, it's it takes time, you know, it's, you know,
• 1:28:08
  I think it's you. It takes time to build anything,
• 1:28:11
  right? Rome wasn't built in a day.
• 1:28:14
  What's the old Lou Holtz? Cool won't Rome wasn't built in
• 1:28:17
  a day, but I'd like to think that's because I wasn't born
• 1:28:19
  born yet. I'd have been born back then
• 1:28:22
  though. Yeah, I could be true but he but
• 1:28:25
  you No it does it does take time but I just think getting that
• 1:28:28
  first kid to commit, you know. Hey all right cool.
• 1:28:31
  Somebody's taking a chance on this upstart program you know we
• 1:28:35
  have had a program in seven years and you know, someone's
• 1:28:39
  willing to come here to try to get this thing going and off the
• 1:28:42
  ground. It was the same thing.
• 1:28:43
  When we started the men's team, you know, that they were willing
• 1:28:46
  to come take a chance where the women were starting to become a
• 1:28:49
  little bit, more established at that point, but the man we know
• 1:28:52
  we had a men's team and You know almost 15 years at that point
• 1:28:58
  hey come take a chance on this. Come to Fayette Iowa.
• 1:29:02
  You know a yeah we get it it's not all Glitz and glamour it's
• 1:29:05
  you know, but you know you're going to have you're going to
• 1:29:08
  get a good education, you can have some great professors,
• 1:29:10
  you're going to have some great teammates, you have a great
• 1:29:12
  athletic Administration that support and care about you.
• 1:29:17
  Come, give us a chance. Come be a peacock.
• 1:29:19
  Come to one of the most unique mascots in the country.
• 1:29:23
  Right. So yeah, 100%, and some people
• 1:29:25
  that will be all they need. Honestly, you never know what
• 1:29:28
  the hook is going to be. It sounds like you're it sounds
• 1:29:30
  like you're able to build off of that first recruit like that
• 1:29:33
  kind of like, okay. Now we can like we have somebody
• 1:29:35
  look, I'm a air quotes here may be legitimized us.
• 1:29:39
  So now when you talk to next recruits like hey we signed our
• 1:29:41
  first one she's yeah, done. This this this you could be that
• 1:29:44
  person's teammate now. Yeah.
• 1:29:46
  And I think that I think that helps, you know, I mean, it's
• 1:29:48
  like anything. Okay, you got this, you know,
• 1:29:50
  this person signed. All right, cool.
• 1:29:53
  You know, great, you know, obviously can't see much until
• 1:29:56
  they do sign, but it's yeah, I think once you kind of start
• 1:30:00
  getting things rolling, kids start seeing who's in the
• 1:30:02
  program and what you got going on, you know, they want to come
• 1:30:05
  be a part of it. So yeah, I mean we don't, we
• 1:30:09
  don't hide what we are and where we are right, you know, we know
• 1:30:12
  we're in Fayette, we know that, we only have a couple spots to
• 1:30:15
  eat. You know, closest Walmart's 45
• 1:30:18
  minutes away. But you know, college is to me
• 1:30:22
  college is what you make it regardless of where you are,
• 1:30:25
  right? You know, if I'm at Upper Iowa
• 1:30:27
  or I'm at Troy or I'm at Dubuque or Auburn, Alabama, Iowa State
• 1:30:32
  College is what you're going to make it.
• 1:30:34
  If you're in a lecture hall with 300 kids or your lecture hall
• 1:30:37
  with 30. You're still going to get an
• 1:30:40
  education. You still going to make French
• 1:30:43
  but you know, we're giving you a chance to compete in a chance to
• 1:30:46
  compete at the college and college level and compete at a
• 1:30:48
  high level. So that's on what you make it.
• 1:30:50
  You know, like I said, well the alums come back, you see the
• 1:30:53
  love in their eyes and the stories that they tell from
• 1:30:56
  their time here, time here in Fayette, and it's great to hear
• 1:30:59
  that stuff. It really is.
• 1:31:01
  I think similarly, cuz I agree wholeheartedly about colleges
• 1:31:05
  what you make of it. You know, kind of similarly,
• 1:31:07
  when I recruited and it's kind of the same thing like, hey, you
• 1:31:10
  know, if you sit in the front of class, At Troy versus sitting in
• 1:31:14
  the back of the class at Harvard, you're not going to
• 1:31:16
  learn at Harvard just because it's Harvard, like you've got to
• 1:31:18
  put in the effort, you know, how to do things.
• 1:31:21
  I also think about that as our career and are different stops,
• 1:31:24
  right? So, you know what, you get out
• 1:31:26
  of you personally, make it out of Upper, Iowa University as an
• 1:31:29
  employee and a teammate and a coach, there is what you put
• 1:31:32
  into it because you look into your career you know your two
• 1:31:35
  years here as a ga your year here, three years here, four
• 1:31:38
  years at Huntington. Now your is this going to be
• 1:31:41
  your 10th or Have it dear? Then, this is your time.
• 1:31:44
  This is your 10. What has it been?
• 1:31:47
  That has kept you there. Why 10 years?
• 1:31:51
  And no end in sight right now, by the way, what's what's
• 1:31:54
  special about the community, the school, your teammates, you
• 1:31:58
  know, the other coaches you work there.
• 1:32:00
  What's kept you there and not gone to somewhere else.
• 1:32:03
  You're a marketable smart guy. You could have gone somewhere
• 1:32:06
  else and yet you continue to thrive there at Upper Iowa.
• 1:32:09
  The thing, the thing I think with Upper Iowa and, you know,
• 1:32:12
  So we get, we even get asked this as coaches, you know,
• 1:32:15
  whether it's parents or recruits and it's the people, it's the
• 1:32:18
  people at this place. I mean I have I have an athletic
• 1:32:20
  director and Rick Hartzell. That's a cool guy.
• 1:32:24
  I like you very great guy who's long time, 80 in Northern Ohio,
• 1:32:28
  Northern Iowa and came over here.
• 1:32:31
  He gets track and field. He understands it.
• 1:32:36
  You don't get that a whole lot. With with the I, you know, I
• 1:32:40
  don't know, least in my experience is you know, you
• 1:32:43
  know, I've had some great ideas but you know not every one of
• 1:32:46
  them understands cross country and track and field, Rick does.
• 1:32:50
  And that's that's been that's been great.
• 1:32:52
  And he, you know, he you know, I even count him as a mentor, you
• 1:32:55
  know there's times I've, you know, I've walked in and had to,
• 1:32:57
  you know, talk to him and, you know, about that.
• 1:33:00
  So about different things and you know, he's helped, you know,
• 1:33:05
  he's helped guide me, you know, over his past four years here.
• 1:33:08
  In that type of thing. And we'll start in the men's
• 1:33:10
  program and all that. So yeah he's definitely he's
• 1:33:13
  definitely been a been a great boss to all of us here.
• 1:33:16
  He's an excellent ad doing doing great things for a pariah when
• 1:33:20
  our athletic department as a whole.
• 1:33:22
  So, you know, it's things like that to make you want to stick
• 1:33:25
  around and and and try to keep building things and be here, you
• 1:33:29
  know, the coaches that I work with, you know, all great guys
• 1:33:32
  and gals, you know, same grind, we're all going through the same
• 1:33:35
  ground and, you know, we're trying to get kids to Fayette
• 1:33:36
  Iowa, you know. So we got each other to lean on
• 1:33:39
  and, you know, talk to, you know, about those types of
• 1:33:43
  things. So, it really Mike.
• 1:33:45
  It really is the people to me and and I love Iowa, I really
• 1:33:50
  do. I love, I love this.
• 1:33:51
  Part of Iowa. Everybody think I was flat
• 1:33:53
  coming Northeast, Iowa, I'll show you around.
• 1:33:55
  It's not. I promise you, there's plenty of
• 1:33:57
  hills and Bluffs around here. The beautiful to look at, maybe
• 1:34:00
  not so much fun to run up and down, but it can't be, it's
• 1:34:04
  definitely a beautiful part of the state especially in the fall
• 1:34:07
  especially as Leaves start to change.
• 1:34:09
  Its I can't think of a better spot to be, to be honest.
• 1:34:14
  So yeah, it's things like that. My family to they, you know,
• 1:34:17
  that's been a big, they've been a big part of staying to you, as
• 1:34:21
  my kids have gotten older, their, their entrenched in
• 1:34:23
  their, in their community, and their schools, and their Sports
• 1:34:27
  and what they do. And it's one thing, when they're
• 1:34:31
  little to pick up and move them, it's another.
• 1:34:34
  When they're you're talking, you're sixteen Seventeen
• 1:34:37
  fourteen. 39 years old and try to uproot them from, what,
• 1:34:41
  although that, what they've really have known for the better
• 1:34:45
  part of their lives is that stuff?
• 1:34:49
  Well, speaking of people talk to us about the coaching staff that
• 1:34:52
  you have there. I know one of them I've met and
• 1:34:55
  we're working on another one but talk to us about you know the
• 1:34:58
  people that helped the program there.
• 1:34:59
  Yeah. Right now we got one assistant
• 1:35:01
  and it's hoped her prick. She's assistant athletic
• 1:35:04
  director for the rec center and she's Or throws coach.
• 1:35:09
  And she's done a fantastic job or four years a year.
• 1:35:12
  She came over from Northern Iowa, was recommended by their
• 1:35:14
  throws coach at the time down on Maura.
• 1:35:17
  He highly recommended her and, you know, he's a great guy and,
• 1:35:20
  you know, I trusted him and she's done great things here.
• 1:35:24
  Great recruiter great coach, you know, good friend, you know,
• 1:35:29
  we're, you know, we're able to sit there and talk and get
• 1:35:31
  things, you know, figured out, she's my right-hand person.
• 1:35:34
  I mean, really helps me, you know, get a lot of stuff done
• 1:35:37
  and That don't look currently looking for, an assistant,
• 1:35:41
  Sprint's hurdles jumps coach, we do have a ga, we have just
• 1:35:45
  recently hired, she'll be coming in, in January, and trying to
• 1:35:48
  fill that g a position for a couple years to finally found
• 1:35:50
  somebody. But I can tell you this, the
• 1:35:53
  coaches we had You know, I don't know.
• 1:35:57
  It was like well they want to credit me for it.
• 1:35:59
  I'm like I see you know I didn't do anything.
• 1:36:01
  Besides give you guys an opportunity.
• 1:36:03
  You know I've had I've gone through three assistant coaches
• 1:36:05
  in the past four years. Much like the maybe this was
• 1:36:09
  what was preparing me. That sounds familiar.
• 1:36:12
  And you know, and I do feel for my kids that you know, those
• 1:36:14
  event kids that have had to deal with that.
• 1:36:16
  And I've told them that listen, I said I've been through this as
• 1:36:18
  an athlete, this sucks, I get it, we'll get through it.
• 1:36:22
  I promise. But two of them have gone on to
• 1:36:25
  be head coaches and one Got out to be a D1 assistant.
• 1:36:28
  So you know I think it's more of a testament to them and their
• 1:36:32
  job is recruiters and coaches and what they're able to get out
• 1:36:37
  of their athletes here with really not much of a facility,
• 1:36:41
  but we're able to get things done.
• 1:36:42
  Score some points, do some things, you know, get kids on
• 1:36:45
  the national list and that type of thing.
• 1:36:48
  I think it's more of a testament to them than anything else.
• 1:36:52
  So well, as we wrap up today, Nate, what's got you excited?
• 1:36:57
  As you put on your your future, you look into the crystal ball
• 1:37:00
  here, whether it's this upcoming season, or three, four, five
• 1:37:02
  years, you know, as the leader better than anybody, what's
• 1:37:05
  coming along here at Upper Iowa University, what's got you
• 1:37:08
  excited about the but your program their eyes you know
• 1:37:11
  there's a lot of things out you know right now we're going
• 1:37:12
  through tuition reset. We're going to we're going to be
• 1:37:15
  on the cheaper private schools and state of Iowa.
• 1:37:17
  You know we're going from 33. And fees, I think overall cost
• 1:37:24
  is going to go from 43 down to 29 so wow, holy cow.
• 1:37:29
  Yeah, it's a great thing. Our upper Administration is
• 1:37:32
  doing a great job, you know, helping that it's something.
• 1:37:34
  You know, it's been talked about for a number of years and it's
• 1:37:37
  finally reality. So, you know, you know, with the
• 1:37:40
  cost of schools going up, you know?
• 1:37:42
  I mean, it's kind of ridiculous to be honest.
• 1:37:45
  I mean, you know, not every schools at Washington University
• 1:37:48
  in st. Louis and much, love for that
• 1:37:51
  place. What they are.
• 1:37:52
  But yeah I don't you know I think with what we were at a
• 1:37:56
  think with what we're doing I think that you know 29 thousands
• 1:37:58
  of you know for tuition fees room and board pretty.
• 1:38:01
  Pretty dang good. You're going to get a good
• 1:38:03
  education. You're going to you're going to
• 1:38:07
  get a job. I mean we got a 94 percent
• 1:38:08
  placement rate whether you're talking, you know, master's
• 1:38:12
  degree higher level degree or getting a job you're going.
• 1:38:16
  It's going to happen coming from Upper Iowa.
• 1:38:18
  You're going to have that one-on-one with your professors.
• 1:38:20
  You're going to do all that. So I'm going to get a great
• 1:38:22
  education, you know, this men's program, our women's program, we
• 1:38:25
  got young team. I think we're hit, we're going
• 1:38:28
  to start hitting our stride here next couple of years, you know.
• 1:38:31
  Also, you know, we're possibly looking to switch.
• 1:38:34
  We're possibly looking to switch conferences.
• 1:38:37
  We might be leaving the northern Sun, we've explored options with
• 1:38:40
  the govt, see, you know, over there with Louis.
• 1:38:45
  So, you know, Illinois Springfield and you know, the
• 1:38:47
  schools in Missouri and Quincy and all those guys McKendree.
• 1:38:50
  So we'll see. See, we're definitely proud
• 1:38:52
  members of Northern sun right now and that's where we are.
• 1:38:54
  That's where we are. I love this conference.
• 1:38:56
  I love these coaches in this conference, but if it's if it's
• 1:38:59
  destined for us to make a different move and different
• 1:39:01
  path and we'll do that and we'll, we'll meet that with
• 1:39:04
  enthusiasm as well. So but I think things are good.
• 1:39:07
  Things are looking bright on the horizon for Upper Iowa and
• 1:39:09
  peacocks and Our program. I think there's some good things
• 1:39:13
  ahead for us and I think we're just going to start scratching
• 1:39:16
  the surface and lots of exciting things like on the horizon like
• 1:39:20
  right there, like, you can almost reach out and grab it,
• 1:39:22
  man, that's exciting. Most almost that's excited.
• 1:39:25
  Well, no doubt they have the right leader in place to do new
• 1:39:28
  things, right? Changing conferences.
• 1:39:30
  And, you know, build in the program, continue to build a
• 1:39:33
  program leading, new coaches on staff.
• 1:39:35
  That's not an easy task, you know, getting immigrated into
• 1:39:37
  the culture and how they're going to positively contribute
• 1:39:40
  to that. That so it's exciting to do
• 1:39:42
  those things and not just be stale and not growing and
• 1:39:46
  sitting there. You're being active my friend
• 1:39:48
  very very active. I love it.
• 1:39:50
  I hope I hope so. I hope so.
• 1:39:54
  Well Nate man you know one of the most valuable things that
• 1:39:58
  you can ever give us here. Gil FedEx is your time, you
• 1:40:01
  know, I know how busy you are and you know you mentioned it
• 1:40:04
  before we hit record. You're never off season, you
• 1:40:06
  know, it's fall, which means you're in the middle of
• 1:40:09
  preseason. Plus Plus hiring and then, of
• 1:40:12
  course, we know what spring season is and in summer, you
• 1:40:15
  know, it seems like it should be like this good chunk of the Year
• 1:40:18
  where we don't have much going on, but that never is the case
• 1:40:21
  would have recruiting and catching up with loved ones that
• 1:40:25
  we have not been able to get with during the season at things
• 1:40:27
  like them kind of paying back our family if we if you will.
• 1:40:30
  Yeah. For time missed and stuff like
• 1:40:32
  that, and dad being gone and stuff.
• 1:40:33
  So, so just so thankful for your time today, man.
• 1:40:36
  It was just a great journey one that I think is You know it's
• 1:40:41
  very valuable your story matters and I think people listening
• 1:40:43
  today can see similarities and hope and what you have done are
• 1:40:48
  doing and will be doing. There's the leader of the Upper
• 1:40:52
  Iowa peacocks there. Thanks Mike I appreciate you.
• 1:40:55
  Having me just you know just doing it man.
• 1:40:58
  Just being a college coach living the dream I guess so.
• 1:41:01
  Well thank you. Well thank God for volleyball
• 1:41:06
  and the you were able to see the vision that you could become a
• 1:41:10
  college track. Coach man because I couldn't
• 1:41:11
  imagine it without you. Look at her body while program,
• 1:41:14
  right going? Hey, I could do this maybe,
• 1:41:17
  maybe maybe or maybe that might have been the worst decision,
• 1:41:19
  but it's been a fun 20. It's it's been a fun.
• 1:41:22
  It's been a fun 20 years. I'm sure it's you know you just
• 1:41:27
  yeah you know you never I don't think you ever think about
• 1:41:29
  becoming a college coach. I think I don't know.
• 1:41:32
  I would say most of us. Probably think it just happens,
• 1:41:34
  you know, at some point something clicks like it did for
• 1:41:36
  me like hey this might be kind of cool.
• 1:41:38
  And then here we are. Maybe 25 years later and bald
• 1:41:43
  and great my beard. Well, well, you might be bald
• 1:41:47
  and green your beard. The cool thing about this after,
• 1:41:50
  you know, 20s years and coaching is, it's not over friend.
• 1:41:53
  There are many many years decades to go forward, so it's
• 1:41:58
  going to be awesome to do a check in with you here, in 5,
• 1:42:01
  10, 15, 20 years, and continue to see the positive impact that
• 1:42:06
  you're making on kids, and how you continue to lead.
• 1:42:10
  Create the Legacy that coach Newton started with you all the
• 1:42:14
  way back in the day. You know, you stand on the
• 1:42:16
  shoulders of giants like him. And so it's cool that, you know,
• 1:42:19
  you don't waste that and you have continued for into young
• 1:42:22
  people in today, and helping them become moms, and dads, and
• 1:42:25
  business owners and coaches, and teachers and volleyball coaches.
• 1:42:30
  It's just awesome to see and just so proud of what you do and
• 1:42:34
  how you do it there and Fayette Missouri.
• 1:42:36
  Fading Missouri Fiat, Iowa, get the right State here.
• 1:42:40
  Yeah. Yeah, Mike.
• 1:42:41
  I appreciate you, man. I really do appreciate the
• 1:42:43
  friendship and after all this time, and appreciate you having
• 1:42:47
  me on here. Absolutely.
• 1:42:48
  And I appreciate you guys being here, listening.
• 1:42:50
  Again, just so humbled, that you'd be here for the show that
• 1:42:53
  uplifts and honors coaches around the country, and around
• 1:42:55
  the world, all the way to Fayette Iowa.
• 1:42:58
  That's what he learned today here on today's episode, so
• 1:43:01
  appreciate you. If you received value from
• 1:43:03
  today's podcast, maybe share it with someone just one person.
• 1:43:06
  I won't even ask you to blast it on social media, maybe you text
• 1:43:09
  someone or send them an email and just say hey I listen to
• 1:43:12
  this podcast I receive a lot of value from it, maybe you would
• 1:43:16
  as well. That would mean the absolute
• 1:43:17
  world to me and more importantly, it helps amplify
• 1:43:20
  the story of these great guests that we have here and honestly,
• 1:43:23
  they're the ones that deserve it.
• 1:43:24
  The most so, join us next week, we'll do it all over again.
• 1:43:27
  We'll be here to share the Journey of another amazing
• 1:43:29
  coach. Have a great week everybody.
• 1:43:38
  Thanks Mike what an incredible journey coach has been on so
• 1:43:42
  awesome to hear their story in their own words, tremendous
• 1:43:44
  proof of the positive effects coaches make on a daily basis.
• 1:43:48
  Help us spread the word of this. Great journey by sharing on your
• 1:43:50
  favorite social, media channel. And don't forget to take a
• 1:43:53
  minute to rate and review the podcast.
• 1:43:55
  You just might get a shout out on a future episode, that's it
• 1:43:58
  for today. Join us next week, when we'll
• 1:44:00
  connect you with another amazing coach.