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Carl Lee's Overtime - The Next Level: Advice for Parents and College Athletes · WCHS Network Podcasts

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  The opinions expressed on this program do not necessarily reflect the opinions of w VRC
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  Media, It's management, employees, or sponsors. This is Overtime, a
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  weekly moment of off the Cup commentary on everything from sports and politics to observations
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  about everyday life from NFL all Pro Carl Lee. Welcome to Overtime. Hello,
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  ladies and gentlemen, And I'm back, and this is the overtime,
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  and me and Hollis Lewis are still here, and we're going to pick up
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  a little bit from where we were talking about the draft and kind of the
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  process of getting through the draft to the field, to the making the team
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  and just all of the kind of challenges that come with that. And I
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  and I think what we want to shift to is trying to trying to explain
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  the parents and and and the and the and the athlete want to have some
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  conversation in and around those specific I want to say tendencies of what to do
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  and what not to do, because I think I think training is a is
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  a major piece to this. But what do you got, Hollist, You're
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  you're gonna start it out or yeah, So I guess what I We'll get
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  to the physical part of it. But I would just like to hear your
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  experience dealing with the mental shifts, you know, as you go from high
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  school to college, uh college in the NFL, because I think what people
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  don't understand, not to say that, you know, you know, football
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  is calculus, but I think you know, as you move up levels,
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  schemes get more complex. You have to be able to think very very quickly
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  as you're you know, moving out on the field, game plan game,
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  you know. And then obviously when you go to the NFL is your job.
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  This is what you're doing eight hours a day, you know, So
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  how how is that sort of processing for you as you moved from level to
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  level? And we kind of touched on it already a little bit. Well,
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  I'm gonna I'll try to take it a little bit to a different category
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  somewhat. I think, you know, when you're because I think the problem
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  that we have, I think the challenge that we have, especially I think
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  here in West Virginia. I think the talented kid that thinks that he's he's
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  he's destined for greatness. I think the fear that a parent should have in
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  that is he's not gonna always be competing against these the kids in the neighborhood,
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  or the kids here in the valley, or the kids here even in
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  the state. Success is going to require more. Your kid's good going to
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  practice, and let's just say he works hard in practice, that's great.
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  Yeah, But at some point there's there's gonna be he's gonna have to you
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  know, he's gonna have to do some extra work. And the question is
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  does he have that on his own or are you gonna have to do that.
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  I see parents having kids at the wreck five thirty six thirty in the
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  morning and they're shooting basketball and they're doing footwork. That's all. That stuff
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  is great. That's the kind of thing that you're gonna have to do to
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  get you better than the person that you don't see. Yeah, And I
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  think as far as the mental aspect, I think you know, to me,
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  I think that's where like I see it going, because like you said,
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  I think a lot of parents' kids, I think they realize they put
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  in some sort of level of work. You know, you're doing footwork.
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  Most kids now are doing something. You know, they're not doing nothing.
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  Most kids they're doing something. I'm not saying, it's like I'm not saying
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  they're, like, you know, going all out giving one hundred and ten
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  percent, but I think they're end up doing something because it's sort of built
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  in, right because if I'm having that three week period in the summer,
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  if I'm having seven on seven, I'm doing these things and I'm able to
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  find the information. As you just mentioned, you weren't able to necessarily have
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  this collection of information from YouTube and Twitter everything else. You just had to
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  go sort of grind it out, whether that be lifting those plastic weights or
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  running those hills or what have you. But what I see is that but
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  you all. But the advantage that you may have had is that on Sundays,
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  Saturdays and Sundays, you and your dad or just you and your buddies,
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  you'll probably watching fifteen games or maybe not fifteen, but watch everything.
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  You're watching everything that's on, So that almost becomes a case study with than
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  itself, and it allows you to build up that IQ. Well, I
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  don't know if kids today, like I don't know how much sports they're watching,
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  you know what I mean? And and see and and I'm I'm concerned.
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  I'm concerned about the work ethic and and to me, the work ethic
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  is what I don't and again I can't. I won't see, you know,
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  but I don't know that that people are doing it. I see people
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  coming to the rec doing different things, whether it's basketball or whatever. They're
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  doing extra work. But I don't know if that good player, that great
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  player, that's great, he's the star player right now, I don't know
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  what he's doing and he needs or she needs to be putting in the needs
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  to be working the most. I think they're putting in the work. But
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  I mean again, I think that's subjective, right because I think that,
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  like like I mentioned, work's almost kind of built in because they haven't Like
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  if you're a basketball player, for example, you playing a you you probably
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  have a shooting code. You probably have these things already be already built in
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  with you know, the schools or the teams that you're running with. Now,
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  are you maxing it out? Are? Because I think there's a difference
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  in like, Okay, I'm working out with the team just like practice right
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  say we was mentioned I'm working in practice, I'm working out with the team,
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  is doing team activities, But are you actually analyzing yourself and saying I
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  need to get better here. I need to I need to get fast,
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  I need to get quicker, I need to get stronger. I need to
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  develop my my quad so I can jump. Are you doing those little nuanced
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  things that's going to take your athletic performance to the next level. Yeah,
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  because you got it, you know. And one of the interesting things about
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  basketball, and I can't even begin to even act like I know anything about
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  it, but I watch people in the gym. They dribble, they shoot,
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  they make a move to the basket, they do all those kind of
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  things. I don't ever see the footwork to where they're playing on defense,
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  and I don't, you know, I don't know if you're going to be
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  great enough. You know, not judging, but I don't know if just
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  being a great shooter and not being able to cover somebody is enough or or
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  I think, you know, having well rounded skills because as you mentioned,
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  just like what we talked about, you go from being you know, having
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  all American considerations in college and being leading the team in tackles as a safety.
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  Now day one NFL you got to move the corner, which is it's
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  a defensive back. But those are two different positions different right, So it's
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  that same thing. For example, if I'm playing basketball, baseball, whatever,
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  and I'm a shooter and I'm an offensive threat in high school. Now
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  obviously I go to a team in college and then got uber talent, and
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  now I have to be a lockdown defender. Do I have those transferable skills
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  or have I been working on those transferable skills that's going to allow me to
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  thrive in my new role where I'm going had no clue of what that role
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  is going to be. And that's what I'm saying. So to your point,
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  I mean again, and that's what I'm saying. I think a lot
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  of our kids are putting in work, whether they're being forced to, whether
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  it's through the team, but I'm not sure are they working on those nuanced
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  athletic skills that's going to be so transferable, so universal. For example,
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  like you running track, right, because if you were at Minnesota and they
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  had a great safety at a great corner and they said, well, Carl,
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  we we like you. You just got to play donner. Hell,
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  you've been running track, so you've been used to busting that forty sixty yard
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  run and keep going, and you've been a safety, which you used to
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  tackling. So those skills that you've gathered and collected would have been transferable if
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  you had to go be the kickoff All Star or be the punt team punt
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  return guy. And that point, I was an R two. I was
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  an R two and the kickoff team, and I was a gunner on the
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  punt team. That's what I'm my whole, my whole basically my whole career,
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  and that's transferring. Those skills came from doing other things and being and
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  just having a well rounded So what I guess what I'm trying to say is
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  that when we talk about skill development versus athletic development, I think that's what
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  we're missing. You are a three point a three sport athlete in high school
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  and a lot of kids just start they're not playing multiple sports and those in
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  that athletic development, and you can clearly see it. You can see it,
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  and it's particularly alarming in a sport like basketball, where it's just so
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  athletic dependent. Really, you're a good athlete as a basketball player, and
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  you just got a little bit of skill, you can go, particularly at
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  a high school level. So you see now it's just like dang, these
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  just these aren't just good athletes, you know what I'm saying. They're good
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  football, basketball, football, basketball player, not good athlete, and and
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  and and I'm gonna I'm gonna switch it real quick here to to to this
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  piece. I think we have to we have to prepare our kids for the
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  next for the next level, whatever that next level is. Because when you
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  go from high school, and and this and this fits the parent as well.
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  When you go from high school, he gets that D one. Let's
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  say he gets a D one offer and he signs, and he goes there,
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  you're done. As the parent. You ain't got no say, you
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  ain't got nothing in this. And that's gonna be a difficult that's gonna be
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  a difficult task for you to understand that you you don't have you don't have
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  any control. You don't get this. Get up in the bleachers and yell
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  at the coach and tell him to put your kid in you. We need
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  to be prepared for the possibilities of what the next level looks like and what
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  our role should be. And I'm not saying everybody needs to be my dad,
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  you know, but when you're yelling and screaming and yelling at the coach
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  about your kid. The coach knows everything about your kid as it relates to
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  that sport. And see, and that's and and I'll and my heart back
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  to this. That's why I like the idea if you are an elite athlete
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  to play multiple sports because to your point, you may be the absolute star
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  in basketball, but you may be just a guy running track. And I
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  think it not only allows you to I hate to use the word humble,
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  but it allows you to be a team guy. If I'm the star in
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  basketball, but I'm just a guy of football and I'm cool in baseball,
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  attract It allows you and even as the parent, it allows the parents to
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  have that understanding that hey, my kids this and this sport, but he's
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  okay in this sport. So I can sit back and chill and relax.
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  I don't guy, he's just he out there because I had an argument with
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  some guy on on on I think Instagram or Twitter, and I just like
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  man, kids would play multiple players like what you do. They should shit
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  the benches and they play football, be a star, sit the bench of
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  basketball. Yes, yes, play JV. Work your way up because you,
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  yeah, you're not always gonna be able to play, and it allows
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  you to be a team I think sitting the bench or being like just a
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  guy, or realizing, hey, I'm not the best score. I can
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  play defens and I can rebound really well. It allows you develop your team
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  skills, so I can be a team guy here. And I understand how
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  not only a superstar feels because I'm the superstar maybe this sport. But I
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  understand how kind of the sub the second tier guys because I'm that in this
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  sport. So when I go to my main sport, I understand how to
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  treat everybody and how to work within the team concept and structure. Bro I
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  was, I was the fifth guy on our basketball part and our basketball team
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  I started. But I'm the fifth guy. Like I know, I can't
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  shoot, you know. All I'm here out on the court to do is
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  is to cover their god, their God, and that's it. And I
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  might be this in football and this, and then when I started running track
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  in college, but I wouldn't win or nothing. I didn't. I didn't,
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  I didn't. I didn't win a meet. I don't. I didn't
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  win one hundred yard dash at any given time, A two hundred and four
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  hundred, nothing, that's is that not humble? Yeah? And that and
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  that allows you to develop a different mentality, and it allows you to just
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  have your mind not always set on like I have to do X Y Z.
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  It allows you to say, in this instance, I just need to
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  contribute and do my part to the best that I can, and then I
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  let the other superstars take it from there. So I just think having that,
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  you know, and I think, kind of to answer your question,
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  I think that's what we've lost in West Virginia. Specifically when I was in
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  Orlando, when I was in Louisiana, and I was, you know,
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  paying attention to high school kids. These kids played football, basketball, baseball,
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  track. I mean, this is high school. Some of these guys
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  play three or four, maybe five sports in high school all four years,
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  and they were developing. I watched Landon Collins, who was a free safety
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  or strong safety with the with the Giants. I watched him not only in
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  the football field. I watched him in a track meet. He didn't win
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  the track meet, but he was there. Lindsey Scott who's playing in the
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  USFL, I watched him, you know, play high school football and also
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  run track. They weren't necessarily winning, but they were multiple sport athletes who
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  were focused on developing athletic ability. And I think in West Virginia we've totally
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  lost that. We're our good athletes anymore. Yeah, we just won sport.
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  And ladies and gentlemen, we're gonna close on this note. If anything,
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  try to try to add to your to the athleticism of the sport for
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  your child, in multiple sports, because all these sports do great things for
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  you. Try helps your speed, basketball, your footwork, football, the
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  physicality. I mean, and I'm not, I'm not. I'm not saying
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  anything negative about soccer and all those kind of things that they bring something to
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  but doing something other than just one sport, you can't. I just I
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  just don't see how that really works. But that's just that's that's our take
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  from Let's talk, and uh, ladies and gentlemen, we're gonna get out
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  of here and we'll be back with you again. So here, we'll be
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  back with you again. The opinions expressed on this program do not necessarily reflect
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  the opinions of w VRC law management or sponsors. Follow us on Facebook,
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  Let's Talk, Curly, visit wcchsnetwork dot com, slash let's talk for more,