Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / BONUS: Koach2Coach Episode 1

Transcript

BONUS: Koach2Coach Episode 1 · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

• 0:00
  Hey gang, quick bonus intro here.
• 0:02
  We've got Coach to coach podcast hosted by Lamont Vaughn from
• 0:07
  Grambling State. Hey podcast alum #43 by the way,
• 0:10
  go listen to him new podcast. He's just kicked off on YouTube.
• 0:15
  Wanted to give you the 1st. Episode a little taste, little
• 0:17
  teaser. And then I want you to head over
• 0:18
  to youtube.com and search coach to Coach KOACH, the number 2
• 0:24
  COACH, Coach to coach. This is episode #1 features a
• 0:28
  mouse. Also Guild Podcast alum #30
• 0:31
  Jermaine Jones, Alan Whitaker and Bruce Jackson podcast guest
• 0:35
  #255 go check it out. Listen to episode 1 here and
• 0:38
  then head over to YouTube Coach to coach.
• 0:41
  All right, I think we're live. Good evening, Earth.
• 0:45
  Good evening, Planet Earth. This is Coach Lamont Vaughn,
• 0:48
  Grandma State University. This is episode 1 of Coach to
• 0:51
  Coach Live with some of the best coaches in the business.
• 0:56
  This is a space for professionals to talk about the
• 0:58
  profession of coaching track and field.
• 1:02
  I'll let everybody introduce themselves.
• 1:04
  As you see on the screen next to me, Coach, Coach Holloway, I'll
• 1:08
  let you introduce yourself real quick.
• 1:10
  Good evening, everybody. I'm Coach Mike Holloway.
• 1:12
  I'm the head men's, women's track and field and cross
• 1:14
  country coach at the University of Florida.
• 1:18
  Good evening everyone, is Coach Alan Winnifer.
• 1:20
  I'm the head boys coach at Scotlandville High School in
• 1:23
  Baton Rouge, LA. Good evening.
• 1:27
  My name is Bruce Jackson. I'm the assistant cross country
• 1:30
  and track coach at the University of North Carolina
• 1:32
  Greensboro. Good.
• 1:34
  Evening, everyone. This is Jermaine Jones.
• 1:36
  I'm a throws coach at Warren Central High School,
• 1:39
  Indianapolis, IN. Gotcha.
• 1:41
  Thanks everybody for your time being on.
• 1:44
  I want to get right into it. So First things first, I want to
• 1:48
  pub Coach Holloway's book hashtag the Holloway.
• 1:52
  I'm into it right now, probably right in the beginning of
• 1:56
  chapter 8. Very motivational book, very
• 1:59
  great book. Coach Holloway means a lot to
• 2:01
  me, has been a mentor for me and and countless others in this
• 2:04
  profession. So I definitely want to pub his
• 2:07
  book, but got AI got a couple of quick questions for you Coach
• 2:11
  right now. Why, why, why, why write a book?
• 2:14
  Why, why now? Why this moment in your career?
• 2:17
  Well, I mean, honestly, it's something that, you know, been
• 2:20
  talked about. My mother-in-law had been after
• 2:22
  me for about for a while. My mother had been after me, my
• 2:25
  my wife and my children. And then I started working on it
• 2:29
  before COVID, COVID hits. And like, you know, you would
• 2:32
  think that during COVID I would have more time to write the
• 2:34
  book, but I was dealing with all the kind of nonsense during that
• 2:36
  time. And so I just kind of shut that
• 2:38
  down. And then after COVID, I got
• 2:40
  going again. Then my mom got ill and she
• 2:42
  ended up passing away in November of 22 and and I
• 2:46
  promised her before she passed away I was going to get this
• 2:48
  done. And so I started working on it
• 2:50
  again and then I really started, I just put it in my mind that it
• 2:53
  was going to be out by Christmas of 2024.
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  So in March of 2024 I sat down, got a publishing company and got
• 3:02
  going and December 23rd it was released.
• 3:06
  Yeah. How long did it take to to to
• 3:08
  start and finish? I mean, if you discount this
• 3:12
  past year, probably about seven months, if you count the
• 3:17
  procrastination time, which we're not going to do this this
• 3:19
  evening. But you know, it took a little
• 3:22
  bit longer. And, and I mean, I'll be honest
• 3:23
  with you, it just once I found the niche and what I wanted to
• 3:28
  discuss and what how I wanted to, you know, because from my
• 3:31
  previous notes and, and I'm going to give a shout out to a
• 3:33
  good friend of mine, Zach Durlam, who was a Sid here.
• 3:36
  When I first started talking about the book, we had kind of
• 3:41
  some things and thoughts that we had put together.
• 3:44
  And then when I started doing it, I couldn't find the flow
• 3:46
  within that. So I had to change some things
• 3:48
  and I got with the publishing company.
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  I had a couple of meetings with them.
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  They came back with some ideas. I was like, look, I'm going to
• 3:55
  write. This needs to be in my voice.
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  And once I start sat down and start writing, man, it just came
• 3:59
  out of me. So it's pretty cool.
• 4:01
  Gotcha, gotcha. What?
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  What do you want the readers of this book?
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  What do you want them to know about this book?
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  I think most importantly is if you're looking for workouts,
• 4:10
  don't buy the book 'cause there's none in there, not one.
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  But if you wanted an insight to who I am, insight to what makes
• 4:18
  me me an insight to my thought process is not just for
• 4:23
  championships, but also just on everyday life, how to be like,
• 4:27
  My big thing is this, I'm trying to help people become better
• 4:30
  people. And you'll, if you, once you
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  read the book and I know coach, you're into it a little bit,
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  you'll see that I think it gives you a great insight into who I
• 4:38
  really am. You know, I'm not this
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  unapproachable human that people seem to believe that I am so.
• 4:43
  Gotcha. And that that's the that's the
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  thing. Coach I, I'm, I'm, like I said,
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  I'm, I'm diving into the book and, and you know, it's special
• 4:51
  for me because, you know, your mentorship of me started, you
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  know, with Coach Anderson, who's a really good friend of yours,
• 4:58
  like brothers almost. My best, my best friend.
• 5:01
  Best friend and, and he gave me access to you.
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  But you know, reading the book, I hear some of the things that
• 5:08
  you were saying to me as you were going through these
• 5:10
  struggles. So I, it's, it's a very
• 5:14
  inspirational and motivational book.
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  I definitely will recommend not just any coach pick it up, but
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  anybody who wants to be a leader of people, anybody going through
• 5:23
  something that's trying to achieve something.
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  This, this book, definitely, it is a good read And, and you
• 5:30
  know, I mean, I, I love it too, because you know, the attention
• 5:34
  span and the busyness of coaches, you know, this, this
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  ain't war, war of the worlds or war and peace or anything like
• 5:40
  that. It's, you know, it's, it's a
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  good quick, easy, easy read, but it, it gives you a lot of great
• 5:45
  life, life lessons as well. So you know me, man.
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  I'm I'm straightforward. I'm to the point.
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  And. I'm very much that way in the
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  book. And, you know, there's a way to
• 5:54
  communicate, you know, without making it, you know, 1500 pages,
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  you know, we got it done 149 so. Yeah, no, it's, it's been a
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  great book. Any plans for any more books?
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  Any any other ways to reach people?
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  I mean, my biggest thing right now this this kind of a couple
• 6:12
  hours in the fire one is I'm kind of developing some thoughts
• 6:15
  and ideas on a leadership book. Haven't quite got exactly the
• 6:19
  great feel for that yet. And then, you know, there's some
• 6:21
  talks about, you know, doing a podcast similar what you guys
• 6:24
  are doing. The book seems like more of a
• 6:27
  realistic thing right now. You know, I have so much free
• 6:30
  time to be doing a podcast every week.
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  So I say definitely tongue in cheek on that one.
• 6:36
  Yeah, no, I did. But my big thing is, man, like
• 6:38
  with this book, anything else that I do in life, I'm just
• 6:40
  trying to help people get better.
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  And I think the biggest thing for me is, is that I want to
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  show people that there's a path to success.
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  It didn't have to be greatness, but to success.
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  And if we spend a little more time, I think one of the
• 6:54
  biggest, most absurd things is people's thought to and what
• 6:58
  somebody else's happiness is, right?
• 7:00
  You know, comparison has always been the thief of joy.
• 7:03
  And you know, I, I told you this story earlier, I bowled a guy on
• 7:07
  Tuesday nights and he was very loudly telling somebody one
• 7:11
  night that, you know, coach is happy because he has money.
• 7:15
  No, it's nothing to do with me being happy, right?
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  So, you know, me being happy is helping other people.
• 7:21
  Me being happy is, you know, not just about creating, you know,
• 7:25
  champions on the track is creating champions off of it.
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  And I get, I think in the book will show you that side.
• 7:31
  Definitely, definitely. And, and, and for the, the, the
• 7:34
  views out there, for anybody out there that doesn't know Coach
• 7:36
  Holloway, I can attest he's very approachable, he's very engaging
• 7:43
  and, and he's very direct and straightforward to the point.
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  He's not going to let you steal in your mess.
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  He's not going to give you what you want to hear through his
• 7:51
  voice. So, but you know, if you ever
• 7:54
  have any, any, any issues, I have a personal anecdotal story
• 7:58
  to tell you. You know, like I said, I, I as a
• 8:00
  young coach, just finished coaching high school, got
• 8:04
  started at Marshall University long time ago.
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  I was trying to figure life out. I was trying to, to get these XS
• 8:12
  and OS down. I was trying to learn how to be
• 8:13
  a good assistant coach And I was calling Darrell Anderson.
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  It seemed like it was every day. And, and Darrell got, Darrell
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  got upset with me one day and just said, hey man, have you
• 8:23
  learned from anybody else? Who are you learning from?
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  I said, well, I'm learning from you and I'm learning.
• 8:27
  You know, my father was my high school coach and he just said,
• 8:30
  man, look, you, you're, you got to remember, you're not just
• 8:33
  coaching yourself and your teammates.
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  You're coaching brand new people in a brand new setting.
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  And he's and he literally the next sentence was don't call me
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  until you learn from somebody else and hung up the phone.
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  And then I get an e-mail with Coach Holloway's number and say
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  start with this. And took me, it took me two
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  weeks. I, I saw that e-mail every
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  morning. And you know, Mike Holloway,
• 8:56
  it's Florida. It's, you know, it's, it's
• 8:58
  these, it's these names connected to each other.
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  And, and, and so it, it took me a lot, lot to get the gumption
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  to make that phone call. And, and when I did, the first
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  thing Coach Holloway said to me was I've been waiting on you.
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  And, and from that day, it's been a testament to you never
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  know what God in life has planned for you that's already
• 9:22
  working out in your favor before while you in the midst of your
• 9:24
  mess. And Coach Holloway's been
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  nothing but that for me. I've, I've become a better
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  person, a better coach, a better individual, a better husband, a
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  better father because of a man like this.
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  And, and so the value that I have for you, I wanted to make
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  sure that I showed you that value by a giving you that, you
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  know, giving the space for you to talk about this book and, and
• 9:48
  publicize this book, but also buying my own copy, you know,
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  'cause the, the thing that I've always said is if we value
• 9:56
  people, we've got to show our value for our people.
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  So I shouldn't be calling Coach Holloway asking for a free
• 10:01
  signed copy. You know, I should be buying the
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  book retail as is to show my value for you.
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  And I believe that's a lot that, that we go through in track and
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  field is a value problem in track and field.
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  And I think we've got to start showing our value for ourself.
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  I've told, you know, coach, coach Whitaker, when he was
• 10:20
  coaching at Ruston High, you know, I mean, we got to start
• 10:22
  paying the walk in these meats, you know, pay to walk in these
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  high school meets. They need money, you know, to,
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  to do the things that they need to do for their student athletes
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  and their communities. So I, I want to make sure that
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  we add value and show value to each other by publicizing this
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  book. Coach ain't paying me a dime.
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  He don't have to pay me no dime. He he, he didn't have to do
• 10:45
  nothing for me today. OK, but pick up a copy of this
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  book. If you are the leader of young
• 10:50
  people or you just trying to achieve something, pick up a
• 10:52
  copy of hashtag the Holloway, the unconventional path of Mike
• 10:56
  Mouse Holloway. And I've never, I only think
• 10:59
  ever think I've ever called you Mouse in person.
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  I ain't going to start. So you know, but the, the last
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  question I have for you before we let the other gentleman jump
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  in and maybe ask some questions of you.
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  What what do you think we can do as track and field coaches at
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  all levels to add value to to our sport in in the midst of us
• 11:21
  trying to figure out where these dollars are coming from?
• 11:24
  Well, I think the first thing is, is everybody needs to quit
• 11:27
  pushing the panic button. You know, I'm not a panicker and
• 11:30
  I'm not a guy, a doom and gloom guy.
• 11:32
  So let's, how about we wait, let the settlement work itself out.
• 11:35
  Let's see, 'cause I haven't had anybody come to me and say, hey,
• 11:38
  my AD came to me and said we're getting rid of track and field,
• 11:41
  right? But that's the message everybody
• 11:43
  trying to put out there. Now, are there going to be some
• 11:46
  inequities on some campus campuses?
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  Yes. Or they're going to be some
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  schools that are all in on track and field, others that are like,
• 11:51
  ah, you know, you got what you got, But isn't that kind of what
• 11:55
  the world we live in now? So the other thing is this is
• 11:58
  like, all of a sudden it's like, well, Florida's got all this
• 12:01
  scholarship dollars and they're going to get all the talent.
• 12:04
  Well, I've only got 35 roster spots, so that means I got 35
• 12:07
  people I could have on my team. And there's a lot more than 35
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  talented people in this country. The other thing is you think
• 12:15
  about it like this. I currently have 54 men on my
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  roster. 19 guys got to go away. Nobody's thinking about that
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  stuff you're thinking about, you know, So if you're trying to
• 12:26
  improve this sport, let how about we stop trying to make
• 12:29
  drastic changes Like everybody keeps saying, we got to get on
• 12:33
  television. I would agree with you if
• 12:36
  television was going to put revenue into our pockets,
• 12:40
  because we're on television now, that one really gets a dog from
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  it. And you know, I'm a little older
• 12:46
  than most. If television thought we had
• 12:48
  some value, they would have came and got us a long time ago.
• 12:52
  They would have come to us and said, if you package it like
• 12:54
  this, we'll we'll put you on television and we'll make you
• 12:57
  marketable. We'll put some money in your
• 12:59
  pocket. At some point in time.
• 13:00
  We have to understand we are who we are.
• 13:03
  And I'm not trying to do, you know, devalue who we are and
• 13:05
  what we do. But we become important to
• 13:09
  television and other entities every four years to the Olympic
• 13:12
  Games because then it's US against the world.
• 13:14
  There's a reason why the Penn Relays was such a big thing when
• 13:17
  it was US against the world, right?
• 13:20
  And as that thing is falling apart, all of a sudden, Penn
• 13:23
  Readers isn't so big. Anymore.
• 13:24
  Is it true? Right?
• 13:27
  So at the end of the day, you know, if you want to make the
• 13:30
  sport better, make it better on your campus, make yourself more
• 13:32
  viable to your athletics directors.
• 13:36
  We have to understand that 90% of the people who come to track
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  meets, unless you're in Eugene OR where there's nothing to do
• 13:43
  but watch the track me. No, no diss on Eugene, but that
• 13:46
  is what it is. But 90% or more of the people in
• 13:50
  the stands are the parents, brothers and sisters, aunts, the
• 13:54
  uncles, you know, the, the there it's not like football where
• 13:59
  you're going to have like a Florida, Florida football fan or
• 14:02
  get in a car and drive to Louisiana over the weekend.
• 14:06
  There's nobody from Gainesville drive Louisiana for attract me
• 14:09
  right? Didn't happen.
• 14:10
  And if it is, it's one or two people, not thousands of people
• 14:13
  doing it. So we have to understand our
• 14:15
  place in this whole thing. But if we want to be solid of
• 14:20
  who we are, then make sure that you're solid on your campus.
• 14:23
  Make what's on your campus better.
• 14:24
  And if we all make it better on our campuses, then guess what
• 14:27
  gets better across the country. But it's not going to get better
• 14:30
  by us standing at the meetings and calling up, calling the
• 14:33
  order and everybody. Oh my God, track's going to be
• 14:35
  dead. Track's going to be fine.
• 14:37
  Look at the numbers out there. We have more participation at
• 14:40
  every level that we've had in years.
• 14:42
  And if you had a smaller school like yourself, I'd keep an eye
• 14:45
  on the portal here real soon because it's about to get hot.
• 14:48
  Because again, I've got 19 I can't keep.
• 14:51
  Yeah. Right.
• 14:53
  You can send all of them to me and I'll take them.
• 14:56
  I got a couple. I wouldn't do that to you.
• 14:57
  Bro, yeah, I feel you. I feel you.
• 14:59
  Yeah. But yeah, I definitely want to
• 15:01
  open up the floor for the rest of the gentleman here to, to ask
• 15:05
  Coach Holloway any questions they may have.
• 15:08
  So with that, I'll I'll leave that space to you guys.
• 15:11
  Yeah, I, I have a coach question.
• 15:13
  Coach. I mean, you've been at at the
• 15:16
  game for a long time and obviously plenty accomplishments
• 15:21
  and accolades and whatnot. But I'm just curious about like
• 15:24
  what, what are your wise, you know, for what you you know, for
• 15:29
  doing this still or, or what do you want to maybe accomplish out
• 15:31
  of this out of the sport and your motivation?
• 15:33
  Because obviously, as we're we're all at different phases of
• 15:36
  our coaching career here and they're saying different levels.
• 15:39
  And you know, obviously as you go through the coaching grind
• 15:44
  and then all that, that why and all that can evolve and change
• 15:47
  and and and mold. And so I'm just curious at that
• 15:49
  this stage for you, like what, what what's that motivation?
• 15:52
  What's that drive? What do you want to still maybe
• 15:54
  go out and do? The day that I walk in my office
• 15:58
  and I don't feel like I can help young people get better, I'm
• 16:00
  gonna turn my keys in. The day I walk in my office, I
• 16:03
  think I know everything. I've clearly lost my mind.
• 16:05
  I'm turning my keys in, right? And that's my motivation, you
• 16:09
  know? Obviously, you know, the
• 16:12
  championships, the rings, the trophies, all that's really
• 16:14
  nice. But what motivates me is the
• 16:17
  phone call I got this morning from a young man telling me he's
• 16:20
  going to propose to his girlfriend, right?
• 16:23
  The phone calls I get, hey, coach, we're buying our first
• 16:25
  house. Hey, coach, we're going to have
• 16:27
  a baby. Those phone calls, those texts,
• 16:29
  those emails, You know, one of our former athletes, Eddie
• 16:32
  Lovett, brought his daughter by to see me yesterday.
• 16:34
  You know, those are the things that you can't.
• 16:36
  Those are moments you never forget.
• 16:38
  The championships and all that stuff.
• 16:40
  It's wonderful. But I'm all about helping people
• 16:43
  become better people. And I say this all the time, you
• 16:47
  know, if you can handle what I do with you in practice every
• 16:52
  day, going to class and learning is easy.
• 16:55
  And I've also found over the years that the people that work
• 16:58
  harder at being better people have a lot more success rate
• 17:03
  than the people that are out there doing stuff they shouldn't
• 17:05
  be doing. So I'm all about helping people
• 17:07
  become people, become better people because you know, they
• 17:10
  don't understand this when they're this age.
• 17:11
  But hey, you're going to get older and those spikes got to
• 17:14
  get hung up and you got to have a job, got to have a job, and
• 17:17
  you got to have one that fits your needs from that, you know,
• 17:21
  if you know what I'm saying. So that's my motivation, my man.
• 17:26
  OK. And it's kind of fall up on
• 17:27
  that. I mean, as you talked about
• 17:29
  helping other people and it's really kind of simplify that
• 17:32
  what you're saying about relationships and and having
• 17:35
  those connections and and all that.
• 17:37
  And just you mentioned, right, if you can go through what you
• 17:39
  put them through in the track, right in those lessons, you can
• 17:42
  they're applicable to base the classroom life off off the
• 17:45
  track. How did that how do kind of the
• 17:48
  reversal of that, like how do you perhaps over the years, how
• 17:52
  do they are now? How do student athletes maybe
• 17:54
  inspire you, you know, and in in in that aspect.
• 17:58
  The my happiest moments are the aha moment, right where that
• 18:02
  happens in practice or if it happens in a competition.
• 18:06
  That moment when they figure something out and you see the
• 18:09
  light bulb come on. That's what I'm always searching
• 18:12
  for. And I told him, like, some days
• 18:14
  you don't come out here and be like, man, I'd rather be sitting
• 18:15
  in class and dealing with this dude because this is hard,
• 18:18
  right? But then the light bulb comes on
• 18:20
  and it's almost sudden. It's like, wow, that Grant and I
• 18:22
  were talking about this to one of our freshman hurdlers the
• 18:24
  other day. Grant's first three, I'd say 3
• 18:28
  1/2 to four weeks of hurdle practice with me.
• 18:31
  It was a war every day. Maybe because he just didn't,
• 18:34
  wasn't grasping, didn't want to listen up.
• 18:36
  We just fought about it. I'm like, hey, we're going to do
• 18:37
  it this way. It's not going to get done.
• 18:39
  And then one day he came out there and he looked at me goes
• 18:41
  well, I got it now. And yeah, but as you can see, he
• 18:44
  got it now. So so, you know, just kind of
• 18:47
  kind of happens. But you know, that's that's a
• 18:50
  big part of my why is watching them go, Ah, man, coach, I get
• 18:54
  it now, you know, so. Anybody else, I'll go.
• 19:02
  What is the culture like at Florida and like what are some
• 19:05
  of the ingredients that help you build the sustainability that
• 19:08
  you have now? Well, I think the biggest thing
• 19:11
  is our culture is, you know, it's we're a family, right?
• 19:16
  And so we talk about doing the right things.
• 19:19
  If if someone asked you to do something and you have to say,
• 19:22
  ah, that means it's no, it's a no.
• 19:24
  Like the moment you have to think whether you should do it
• 19:26
  or not, it's a no. So don't try to talk me into it.
• 19:29
  We talk about that. We talk about uplifting each
• 19:31
  other. We talk about supporting each
• 19:33
  other. And more importantly, we talk a
• 19:35
  lot about doing the little things, you know, doing the
• 19:39
  stretching after the weight room, doing the stretching
• 19:41
  before practice, eating right, sleeping right, you know, trying
• 19:46
  to look, I'm never going to tell you this.
• 19:48
  Somebody comes University of Portland, they never go to a
• 19:50
  party. That's that's a lie, right?
• 19:53
  But what I can do is ask you not to party during the season.
• 19:57
  I can ask you not to party when, you know, we're trying to be
• 20:00
  part of something special, right?
• 20:03
  So we hold each other to those standards.
• 20:05
  We hold each other to the standard of.
• 20:07
  Academics come first. They understand very clearly, if
• 20:09
  you want to make me mad, you want to see me really get mad,
• 20:12
  don't go to class because that enrages me.
• 20:15
  Somebody is paying for you to go to school, whether it's me or
• 20:18
  your parents is not coming out of your pocket and you don't
• 20:22
  want to go to class. That really upsets me because
• 20:24
  that's your future. So I think the biggest thing
• 20:27
  with us here in Florida is we have a standard.
• 20:29
  They understand what the standard is.
• 20:30
  We start talking about it from the moment I pick up the phone
• 20:32
  and recruit you. And I tell you, if you don't
• 20:35
  want to fight to this standard, please don't come here because
• 20:37
  you're going to have to go away. You know, just just plain as
• 20:41
  simple cut and dry. You know, like, you know, Lamont
• 20:43
  and I talked about this, you know, sustainability and that's
• 20:48
  on recruiting, right? I don't care how good of a coach
• 20:50
  I think I'm and I think I'm pretty good.
• 20:52
  I'm not very good if I don't have good talent, and I'm not
• 20:55
  very good if I don't have talent that's going to listen, right?
• 20:58
  So I got to have talented people.
• 21:00
  I've got to have people that want to come in and listen.
• 21:02
  I have to have talented assistant coaches.
• 21:04
  They've got to believe in me and follow my vision.
• 21:07
  And that's why it works here because everybody, I put it to
• 21:10
  you like this. If you plug into what we do
• 21:12
  here, it works. If you don't plug in, it doesn't
• 21:15
  work. That was kind of my next
• 21:19
  question, like what are the roles of the of the athletes,
• 21:21
  the coaches and your support staff to help establish your
• 21:24
  culture? I like, I, I'm the straw that
• 21:29
  stirs the drink, right? You know Reggie Jackson, right?
• 21:31
  You know, you guys don't know if you guys are that old, but
• 21:33
  Reggie Jackson said that Yankee guy.
• 21:35
  And like, you have to allow me to stir the drink and you have
• 21:40
  to make sure that the message goes out the same way.
• 21:44
  Like, you know, I, I'm not a big staff meetings guy, but I talk
• 21:46
  to my staff every day. But I'm not getting everybody in
• 21:48
  the same room and we're not spending an hour and a half of
• 21:51
  everybody's day in staff meeting.
• 21:52
  If I want to talk to you and walk down your office at a
• 21:54
  concert with you, the last five or 10 minutes, I'm going about
• 21:56
  my business, right. But when we have these meetings,
• 22:00
  whether it's a big staff meeting or individual meetings, like if
• 22:03
  we have a staff meeting tomorrow and we're talking about
• 22:06
  something that we'll discuss it at the end of this.
• 22:09
  Just got something. OK, look, this is the way we're
• 22:11
  going to do it. See, that's the critical moment
• 22:13
  when I say, OK, this is how we're going to do it.
• 22:16
  And everybody in the room has to take that message outside of
• 22:19
  that office, whether they believe it or not.
• 22:22
  Because if the doesn't, if one person says to somebody, well,
• 22:25
  this is what the old man wants to do, but it ain't going to
• 22:27
  work, right? So then that person tells
• 22:29
  somebody and that person tells somebody.
• 22:31
  All of a sudden you got these two sides of the thing.
• 22:34
  Some people think it's going to work, some people are not.
• 22:36
  And I always tell them, if you do it my way and it doesn't
• 22:39
  work, it's my fault, right? But if you do it your way, it
• 22:43
  doesn't work. And any conversation you want to
• 22:45
  have, right? And luckily I'm blessed and I
• 22:47
  don't miss a lot, so I'm pretty good so.
• 22:51
  Yeah, Bruce, you've heard that one before.
• 22:53
  I I use that one on y'all the day I got to watch him.
• 22:55
  Yeah, Jay Jones, you got something, man.
• 23:02
  Yeah, team. How?
• 23:04
  I mean you are clearly a a busy man, a very busy man.
• 23:09
  How do you balance work and home?
• 23:13
  You got a lot of young cultures out there.
• 23:15
  You know. Grinding like crazy, but how do
• 23:17
  you balance the work life balance?
• 23:19
  I think the first thing, you just have to listen.
• 23:21
  You know, whether it's your spouse or your significant
• 23:23
  other, you know your children, right?
• 23:26
  I've always tried to listen and understand what they're asking
• 23:30
  me for. I've missed, I've missed some
• 23:32
  very important times in my children's lives.
• 23:35
  I, I wasn't able to attend either one of my children's high
• 23:37
  school graduations, right 'cause he's freeling me.
• 23:41
  So I go to my daughter and I say, sweetheart, I got to make a
• 23:46
  decision to come to your graduation or do I go to this
• 23:48
  meet? She immediately said that I'm
• 23:51
  OK. Can you just please make sure
• 23:53
  that grandma and, and is here had the same conversation with
• 23:57
  my son, almost exactly the same as you know, they're 14 years
• 24:01
  apart. And so I think the biggest thing
• 24:04
  that I try to do is even with my wife, you know, I listen and I
• 24:08
  try to understand what she's going through.
• 24:10
  I try to understand that if she needs me to do something like it
• 24:13
  could be as simple as something is loading the dishwasher,
• 24:15
  right? But load the dishwasher, you
• 24:18
  know, this just simple stuff. But if you don't listen and then
• 24:22
  you therefore you can't communicate this, it's not going
• 24:24
  to work out very well. Got.
• 24:28
  You got you. I guess my, my question is, you
• 24:34
  know, how do you know as you're transitioning from group to
• 24:40
  group, from championship to championship, from season to
• 24:43
  season, how do you know what to keep and, and what not to keep
• 24:46
  so. What do you mean what to keep
• 24:48
  and what? From training, from messaging,
• 24:51
  from whatever and still maintain who who you are as a coach, as a
• 24:57
  program, all of that. OK, so the training is pretty
• 25:00
  simple. I mean, I am who I am, I believe
• 25:02
  in what I believe in. Now, are there tweaks within
• 25:04
  that? Of course.
• 25:06
  But that comes from getting to know the athlete in the event
• 25:11
  area. Like I don't coach the 110
• 25:13
  hurdles, I coach the 110 hurdler.
• 25:17
  You know, I said this is somebody that today, like they
• 25:20
  asked me could I send them grants, workouts and I can send
• 25:23
  them to you. But I wouldn't advise that you
• 25:25
  don't because you don't have grant.
• 25:29
  There's a difference. So that's how you know what to
• 25:32
  keep and not to keep. You have to base it on their
• 25:33
  ability to do things and as, as far as you know, going from
• 25:38
  event group to event group, I mean, you guys are coaches.
• 25:40
  So you, I'll give you a great example.
• 25:43
  In 2017, I think it was 2017 or 2018.
• 25:49
  I think it's 2017. Yep, 2017.
• 25:52
  We had three guys make the USA team in the Florida hurdles.
• 25:56
  Kron Clement, Eric Fudge, TJ Holmes.
• 25:59
  They never worked out together. Three different people,
• 26:04
  different personalities, 3 different skill sets.
• 26:08
  So that that's just me not being lazy and saying, well, we're all
• 26:11
  going to do because Quran was the best guy.
• 26:12
  Well, you're just going to do what Quran does.
• 26:14
  No, because if you watch the three of them race, none of them
• 26:17
  had the same race model. So they had, I had to devise the
• 26:21
  different workouts for all three of them.
• 26:23
  And so that's the key is like, the other thing is this.
• 26:26
  And you know, you know, Darrell and I were talking about this
• 26:28
  the other day, like we spent a lot of time on the track.
• 26:32
  Like my whole team is never on the track.
• 26:35
  And I obviously I'm blessed. I'm in Florida, the weather's
• 26:37
  good. I've got a great support staff
• 26:39
  as far as, you know, director of OPS and all that stuff.
• 26:42
  But like, I walk out of my office at 10:15 every morning.
• 26:45
  I don't walk back in sometimes until 4:30.
• 26:50
  And there's a lot of days, especially when my son was on
• 26:52
  the team, he's bringing me lunch on the track every day.
• 26:55
  I pack a lunch, I pack a sandwich.
• 26:57
  But we split up all the event areas and the event groups so we
• 27:01
  have time to coach them. What time do you get in the
• 27:04
  office? I dropped my grandson off at
• 27:07
  school usually around 7:45 to 7:50 and I'm in the office by
• 27:10
  eight O 5. So that's a very efficient
• 27:15
  2:00-ish hours that you're doing with whatever decisions you're
• 27:19
  making, whatever paperwork you're getting done, you know
• 27:22
  that that's that's a very efficient have.
• 27:25
  To have to give a big shout out to my director of OPS, Adrian
• 27:27
  Melendez and his assistant Andrew Shooting.
• 27:29
  They, they make my job a lot easier.
• 27:32
  They, they allow me to coach, you know, so in that two hours,
• 27:36
  you know, I'm answering emails, answering some phone calls and
• 27:38
  stuff like that. And then Wednesday is a big day
• 27:40
  like today, Wednesday is the day where I sit down like I set up
• 27:45
  excuse me at my desk today when I sat down this morning, I had
• 27:47
  180 emails when I left at 30. And I also took the time today
• 27:53
  and I wrote all my training for next week because Wednesday
• 27:56
  recovery day around here, you know.
• 28:00
  But please, Darryl said that that was the biggest surprise
• 28:03
  when he came here because he was my volunteer assistant for a
• 28:05
  year. He had no idea how much time I
• 28:08
  spent on the track. But again, I think that's why we
• 28:10
  are a little better than most because like I've got I think 7
• 28:15
  short sprinters, 102 hundred guys on my team right now.
• 28:18
  If they're all on the track at the same time, how much work am
• 28:20
  I getting done? Right?
• 28:22
  Individualistic training, you can't do it.
• 28:25
  But if we drop split him into two groups and sometimes even
• 28:27
  three groups, we can get it done.
• 28:30
  Yeah, gotcha. I don't want to jump in front of
• 28:35
  anybody else's questions as I got one, but I, I guess my next
• 28:39
  question is, 'cause I, I get this all the time.
• 28:42
  When, when, when people ask me about you, you know, in the
• 28:47
  championships and all that. And and so they asked me which
• 28:50
  one do you think is the hardest, the first one, the current one
• 28:55
  or the next one? Oh, man, wow.
• 29:00
  I, I think the next one, because there's you, because there's an
• 29:04
  expectation of the next one. Now there's an expectation that
• 29:07
  you're supposed to win. You know, it's Florida.
• 29:09
  You're supposed to win. You know, you've been winning.
• 29:11
  The first one was hard because we'd never done it before and
• 29:15
  we'd come so close so many times.
• 29:18
  But I can remember, I literally by the time was we were on a
• 29:23
  charter plane and by the time we got on the plane to come back, I
• 29:26
  looked at my assistant coach and I, Steve Olympic, my associate
• 29:29
  coach, I was like, we got to do this again next year.
• 29:32
  He's like, man, can we get back to games?
• 29:33
  Well, I'm like, no, we got to leave this here.
• 29:36
  We do it again next year. And that's always my thing.
• 29:38
  Once the championship, we take the trophies with us.
• 29:41
  But the experience and all that stuff, we leave it right there
• 29:43
  because I don't want to revel in that in this world, the next one
• 29:46
  and take have it distract me from trying to do it again.
• 29:50
  But I'll be honest with you, I don't think any of them are
• 29:51
  hard. And that's not that mean.
• 29:53
  That sounded a disrespectful way.
• 29:55
  It's not hard for me because I love what I'm doing.
• 29:57
  It's not hard for me because I can always look at my team and I
• 30:03
  can. And I don't try to envision what
• 30:05
  we can do against everybody else.
• 30:06
  I just immediately envision what we're capable of doing.
• 30:10
  And I just feel in my heart, if I can find a way to get to 50
• 30:13
  points, well, we got a shot. We got a shot.
• 30:16
  You know, that's always my mantra.
• 30:18
  Find a way to get to 50. Gotcha.
• 30:21
  Well, shoot coach, hey, we went way over 15 minutes with with
• 30:24
  you. I appreciate it man Thank.
• 30:26
  You guys, yeah. Now feel free to stay on if you
• 30:28
  want or can. Yeah, I've got I definitely,
• 30:31
  I've actually got another podcast I gotta do tonight.
• 30:33
  Go for it. But I want to say thank you
• 30:34
  guys. I really appreciate it and the
• 30:36
  team is always good to see you. Always good to see you and.
• 30:40
  I will let it. Let it go, Coach Ron.
• 30:42
  Let it. Go well before before you go
• 30:44
  coach, I I need, I need to make sure that I give you your
• 30:47
  flowers, man, because you know what you meant to me, my family,
• 30:52
  my, my athletes, my team, my my current staff and and future
• 30:56
  staff, man. You know, I know, I know you
• 30:59
  said it. You know, you know, we don't
• 31:01
  like the titles and this that and the other, but you know,
• 31:03
  you're the goat to me. You can go for me And, and you
• 31:08
  know, I believe in and giving people flowers while they're
• 31:10
  here. And, and I appreciate you
• 31:12
  because, you know, the interactions I've had with these
• 31:15
  gentlemen are inspired by some of the conversations that we've
• 31:18
  had, you know, and, and you know, I know, especially with
• 31:23
  Whitaker and, and, and Bruce, man, I've talked about you to,
• 31:26
  you know, to the cows come home, man.
• 31:28
  So I, I appreciate you and what you've done for me and I want to
• 31:33
  make sure that I give you your flowers, man, and, and give you
• 31:36
  flowers that you know from people that, that have been
• 31:40
  touched by my presence. So I'm just a ripple in the way
• 31:44
  that you created in this lake, man.
• 31:46
  And, and, and I'm appreciative of you, man.
• 31:48
  So we love you man and and we wish you nothing but success and
• 31:52
  good health down the rest of the way in the season, man.
• 31:54
  Thank my love you guys too. And you know folks you know, go
• 31:58
  to Amazon.com, pick up that book and you run it to me on the
• 32:01
  street someplace. I promise you all autographs for
• 32:03
  you. I got you and Lamont.
• 32:05
  I appreciate you giving me the the time and the space to talk
• 32:07
  about the books and also answer you guys questions and looking
• 32:11
  forward to watching you guys. I'll be very successful this
• 32:13
  year, man. All right.
• 32:15
  Appreciate you guys, man. Thank you.
• 32:18
  Ruth. All right, sorry about that.
• 32:24
  I almost, I'm going to let go of Whitaker there.
• 32:27
  All right. So getting back to that value
• 32:30
  question, you know, we all, we all struggle with it.
• 32:35
  You know, I mean, budgets are budgets, whether you're Florida,
• 32:39
  whether you're grandma, whether you're in high school, whether
• 32:41
  you're JC, you know, so the things, some of the things that
• 32:45
  I've kind of challenged people to start talking about is
• 32:49
  utilizing these spaces, right? So when looking at a track and
• 32:54
  field facility, OK. And because of track and field
• 32:59
  being a nine ring circus, there's so many places that your
• 33:02
  eyes can be directed to, right? How do we take advantage of
• 33:06
  those of those spaces to create value for a DS Create value for
• 33:11
  president of universities and principals of high schools and
• 33:15
  athletic directors of of of areas and this, that and the
• 33:18
  other can can y'all think of anything that we can do with
• 33:21
  those spaces to create some added value?
• 33:22
  Are you what? Do you mean let's just value as
• 33:30
  in like? Are we talking about like a
• 33:33
  monetary economic value? Are you talking about a value of
• 33:36
  like importance, importance to the athletic department and all
• 33:40
  those things? All of the above.
• 33:42
  I know we hate hosting meets, but that that that could be
• 33:46
  something that that that adds value to your community right
• 33:48
  now. Yeah, Yeah.
• 33:50
  I mean, I think it's about having, I think one way is
• 33:54
  obviously trying to make, I mean track meets more interactive
• 34:00
  with fan bases. I mean, if you really think
• 34:02
  about one, I mean, how close with the sports, with the ball,
• 34:06
  like with the basketball, you're on the court, you're on the
• 34:08
  sideline for football halftime shows, right?
• 34:11
  For these things. You don't really have these kind
• 34:13
  of stop gaps, right? And attract me, attract me.
• 34:16
  It's all continuous and stuff like that.
• 34:18
  So somehow how do you have fan engagement with that?
• 34:21
  And you've seen some of the bigger at the college level and
• 34:24
  I've seen this at bigger high school invites, right?
• 34:28
  Engagement, you know, I'm a distance coach, right?
• 34:30
  So just you can have the ability to put fans on the track when
• 34:34
  distance races are are going on because they're using inter
• 34:37
  lanes and stuff like that. And that seems to have a lot
• 34:40
  more interaction. You can, if you're a field event
• 34:43
  coach, right, you can have fans a little bit more closer to pits
• 34:47
  or letting them on to certain parts of the field.
• 34:48
  I've seen that as far as throws and and shot and things like
• 34:52
  that, a little closer to the cage.
• 34:55
  I don't know. Those are just some immediate
• 34:57
  ideas. Gotcha.
• 35:00
  Any anybody else? I I think your administration
• 35:05
  needs to see your dedication to your craft just like anything
• 35:10
  else, because that will help create numbers.
• 35:14
  When they show that you really have a genuine interest in the
• 35:17
  kids and you're getting numbers. Numbers speak volume.
• 35:22
  If they see participation, that helps, even if they don't know
• 35:26
  what they're looking at, if they see, you know, I'm, I'm in the,
• 35:30
  I'm in the high school level now.
• 35:31
  So I see, you know, 50-60 kids out for cross country and track
• 35:36
  and field and they, and they're loving it.
• 35:39
  That's going to speak volumes to the administration.
• 35:41
  They go to meet. We've got a full team and a
• 35:44
  team, you know, team members there supporting their other
• 35:48
  teammates. I speak I think that speaks
• 35:52
  volumes. And also if these kids are being
• 35:56
  developed, you know, say, hey, you know, we we actually have
• 36:01
  good kids because we have good coaches.
• 36:03
  I mean, we're all at pretty small, you know, I know you guys
• 36:07
  are at smaller division ones. I don't know what size your high
• 36:10
  school is, Whitaker, but I'm at a pretty big high school.
• 36:13
  So I'm like one thing I hang my hat on is I'm going to develop
• 36:18
  the kids. That's that's my that's my
• 36:21
  drive. So I think if administration
• 36:24
  sees that, then it makes them go, let's go out here and see
• 36:27
  what's really going on at the track because basketball gets a
• 36:31
  name no matter what. Football gets a name no matter
• 36:34
  what. Volleyball, even baseball gets a
• 36:36
  name no matter what. And so we have to create our
• 36:40
  lane by being as good and by that being really coach your
• 36:45
  kids up and show your administration to, hey, we're in
• 36:48
  this and we're dedicated just as much as any other sport.
• 36:51
  And we have, we have the kids to prove, we have the numbers to
• 36:54
  prove it, and we have the performances to back it up.
• 36:57
  So I think that helps. Gotcha.
• 36:59
  Yeah. I would agree with that as well.
• 37:01
  When I got hired at Scotlandville, I told the
• 37:03
  principal that I'm going to promise you.
• 37:09
  Kind of lost you a little bit wet.
• 37:12
  You hear me? Yeah, I got you.
• 37:13
  We, we, you. We lost you at Promise You.
• 37:16
  I promised my principal that I would bring to.
• 37:20
  Nope. See.
• 37:21
  And I'm going to show you how I'm going to do it.
• 37:23
  You know, I was at Ruston High. I was very successful there with
• 37:27
  the same model, you know, championships and scholarships.
• 37:29
  And it's all about caring for the kids.
• 37:33
  My principal, he trusts that I care for the kids.
• 37:36
  I know what I'm doing. And he comes out there from time
• 37:39
  to time just to check on us, just to see what we're doing.
• 37:42
  He's very supportive of that. He's at the track meets, you
• 37:46
  know, he's at the big meets, and that helps the kids know that
• 37:50
  not only the track coaches are supporting them, but you know,
• 37:52
  they have administration supporting them.
• 37:54
  You know, the principal is not just the guy in the suit walking
• 37:58
  around the campus. He's actually like to meet
• 38:00
  supporting them, which that helps with not only the
• 38:04
  academic, I mean the athletic side of things that helps with
• 38:06
  the academics, which is so important with this high school
• 38:08
  training field. But so I think that adds value
• 38:12
  when you have a school culture that participates and cares
• 38:18
  about the kids, whatever. So that's kind of what I'm
• 38:21
  experiencing now at Scotlandville, where we have a
• 38:23
  community, we have an administration staff that, you
• 38:25
  know, they show their support by not just what they're, you know,
• 38:29
  they're. They're doing gotcha we, we at
• 38:33
  Gremlin, just trying to create some things where, you know, we
• 38:36
  can support the student athlete, support the coaching staff.
• 38:42
  So, you know, investments in facilities has been big for us
• 38:46
  that that's kind of been where it's starting.
• 38:50
  So now we've got to sustain that facility by taking care of it.
• 38:53
  That starts with us. It starts with me and my staff.
• 38:56
  That starts with this team making sure trash is picked up,
• 38:58
  making sure that, you know, I have certain things in place.
• 39:02
  I went out and bought some of the rollaway mats and I plan on
• 39:09
  cutting that up and, and using that and putting blocks on it
• 39:12
  where we can do block starts on it.
• 39:13
  So we're not tearing up areas of the track doing block starts
• 39:16
  every day. You know, so showing that value
• 39:20
  by keeping the facility up that that's one thing.
• 39:24
  And then getting this and, and I think our next phase is just
• 39:26
  getting the, the, the facility ready to host Invitational
• 39:30
  meets, whether it be high school, college or both.
• 39:33
  So that that's kind of where we at.
• 39:35
  Bruce, I'll turn it to you. Yeah, I know.
• 39:38
  I think also I mean value and I, I, I hear from the high school
• 39:42
  coach, I was high school for 11 years and I understand that
• 39:46
  you've got kind of the Jermaine was talking about kind of a if
• 39:49
  you build it, they will come like produce it if you're
• 39:52
  putting out participation. And I know how that would work
• 39:55
  very well at that level. I used to be at a big high
• 39:57
  school like yourself and have 200 Duke tryouts.
• 39:59
  Cuts have 220 kids out on the track team at the high school
• 40:03
  level. But obviously we don't have
• 40:05
  those kind of numbers, particularly starting next year
• 40:08
  at the college level. So it's, it's not necessarily a,
• 40:11
  a participation game. But I think what's good about
• 40:15
  track and field in in general, overall, regardless of the level
• 40:18
  is it's a, a, a unifier. I think what, what's unique
• 40:22
  about track and field compared to other sports is it's, it's a
• 40:25
  place where there's common ground in, in a united front,
• 40:30
  regardless of nationalism, religion, socioeconomic status.
• 40:35
  It's one of those one of the sports where you know, a lot of
• 40:38
  play playing ground, equal ground from people from all
• 40:41
  different diverse backgrounds. And I think that's very
• 40:43
  appealing to athletic directors, universities in general and at
• 40:48
  the collegiate level. I think what's very good and it
• 40:51
  needs to be kind of hone on is, I mean, the NCAA system is the
• 40:56
  pretty much the breeding ground for the world stage.
• 41:01
  And so being able to produce those kind of athletes, you
• 41:04
  know, are going to present individuals that are remarkable.
• 41:06
  They're going to bring eyes to your particular university and
• 41:09
  that brings, you know, a value, whether it's, you know, people
• 41:13
  are interested in the school program, help increase
• 41:15
  enrollment, things like that. If you produce a winner, people
• 41:18
  want to be there, right? There's there's playing, there's
• 41:20
  clear statistics like if you coach a bold, you know, and it's
• 41:27
  College Football Playoff team are a national champion and
• 41:30
  literally the next year your enrollment numbers go up by like
• 41:32
  17% because people want to be there.
• 41:36
  And so I think that's just something just building a better
• 41:38
  product and and what you put out on the field, it's going to turn
• 41:41
  heads. Yeah, it it's the old statement
• 41:43
  that, you know, especially in college athletics, that
• 41:46
  athletics is the front porch of the university, you know, So I
• 41:49
  mean that that's a big thing. I mean, and, and you know, you
• 41:53
  speak to, you know, I think that's a good kind of transition
• 41:56
  to, you know, the landscape of college athletics and, and
• 41:59
  college track and field going forward.
• 42:02
  And you know, Jay Jones, you've got collegiate experience and,
• 42:08
  and high school experience. Bruce, you have high school
• 42:10
  experience and, and now collegiate experience.
• 42:14
  How, how can we at, you know what I'm asking this to the high
• 42:17
  school coaches now, how, how can we help young people, coaches
• 42:23
  navigate this new space right now?
• 42:26
  What, what, what questions are there coming coming from
• 42:29
  coaches, coming from parents, coming from athletes?
• 42:31
  Because I I've started to figure out in the last week, a lot of
• 42:34
  people don't even know what's going on.
• 42:40
  I think in my neck of the woods, I, I, I would, I, I agree.
• 42:45
  They really don't know what's going on.
• 42:48
  So you know what I tell our kids that are scholarship level is
• 42:55
  you find the school you want to go to, you recruit the school.
• 42:58
  Don't don't wait, you know, find your four or five schools, look
• 43:03
  into the program, do a little bit of homework, then call the
• 43:06
  coach. Then e-mail the coach and let
• 43:09
  them know of your interest. OK.
• 43:12
  And that way you get a better picture of what's going on
• 43:15
  'cause I always say you're going to go where your major is, OK,
• 43:19
  That that's a given for the most part.
• 43:22
  So why don't you do some real homework and find out if this
• 43:25
  place, if this is the place you really want to be, you know, and
• 43:29
  then you get there and then whatever happens, happens.
• 43:32
  Like you, you don't know the future.
• 43:35
  So just go with it. Because the coach that's there,
• 43:39
  more than likely they want to continue their career.
• 43:41
  They want to continue in the profession.
• 43:43
  So, you know, just go and hope for the best.
• 43:47
  You know, like coach said, I think a lot of people have a lot
• 43:50
  of doom and gloom when it comes to the future of track and
• 43:53
  field. And I think it's that that can
• 43:57
  be a little bit misleading to young athletes because you hear
• 44:01
  it so much. Then it deters them away from
• 44:03
  track and field wanting to do track and field in college.
• 44:06
  So I, you know, I would really tell coaches, hey, don't worry
• 44:11
  if it hasn't happened yet. Keep plugging forward, keep
• 44:15
  showing your administration's that, hey, we are all in.
• 44:20
  We are all in every day. We are here dedicated to our
• 44:22
  program, dedicated to our sport and we want to stay and we're
• 44:27
  going to show you. And so the high school kids can
• 44:30
  see that as well. Because if you project the wrong
• 44:33
  image, you know, it's easy to especially if you're fast, you
• 44:39
  know, it's easy to move away from track and find another
• 44:42
  sport. And so we have to project a
• 44:44
  really good picture for us to see to go.
• 44:47
  Hey, yeah, Grambling's a great spot.
• 44:49
  You and CG is a great spot. You know, let's, let's, let's go
• 44:53
  call those coaches and see what's going on.
• 44:56
  Yeah. And I agree.
• 44:57
  And I think with conversations just like this, building rapport
• 45:00
  with cultures around the country, building those
• 45:02
  relationships. And we froze wet got froze a
• 45:11
  little bit. Let's see if we can get him
• 45:16
  back. Let's see if we can get him
• 45:17
  back. Hand him back.
• 45:20
  OK, we got you now. I think I know how to do this.
• 45:23
  Now add and remove. He keeps reading.
• 45:29
  Yeah, I got. Wait, can you hear me?
• 45:33
  This might be as as connected, yeah.
• 45:37
  You know how I want to go. There we go.
• 45:40
  Well, well, there there was. OK, All right.
• 45:42
  You moving again? You moving again?
• 45:44
  Yeah. You moving again?
• 45:46
  What I was saying is I think it's starting with conversation.
• 45:48
  Damn his. Wife.
• 45:51
  I don't. Like him?
• 45:52
  Come on. I'm going to do it again.
• 45:57
  Come on. Come on.
• 45:58
  Wit. All right.
• 46:01
  You good? You good?
• 46:02
  I think you hear me? Yeah.
• 46:05
  Yeah, you're going to have to. You're going to have to say it
• 46:07
  quick bro. Man, just look, just building
• 46:11
  rapport with coaches like you all building relationships.
• 46:14
  I think that's going to help with this new quote UN quote era
• 46:18
  we got coming going. I've been knowing you for years.
• 46:22
  I talked to you probably monthly about what my athletes are doing
• 46:26
  and you're not the only coach that I'm talking to.
• 46:28
  So, you know, I'm always promoting my athletes.
• 46:31
  I'm always telling them to be, you know, they're they're best
• 46:36
  selves in a sense. Like Coach Jones said, look up
• 46:41
  the schools that you want to go to, go to Tifters.
• 46:44
  Look at what those those athletes are competing in, you
• 46:47
  know, compare those times and things like that.
• 46:49
  Get your fast for together, get your, your ACT scores together.
• 46:53
  Get yourself in a position to where a coach has to deny you,
• 46:57
  not, not because you weren't prepared, you know, because you
• 47:01
  just weren't what they wanted at the time, but put yourself in a
• 47:05
  position to where, hey, you check all the boxes and if
• 47:08
  you're not the right fit for that school, we move on to your
• 47:10
  next school on that list. So that's kind of what we're
• 47:13
  doing here at Scotlandville, just putting athletes in the
• 47:15
  position to where you know they are ready when the coach calls.
• 47:20
  Yeah, yeah. I mean, I, I've had to fight the
• 47:24
  doom and gloom, to be totally honest.
• 47:26
  These announcements came quick. They came, they hit hard.
• 47:29
  And then the assumption started coming in, you know, the, the,
• 47:32
  the day that it was announced, 45 scholarships, you know, and
• 47:36
  then, you know, the, the first e-mail, the first phone call,
• 47:39
  hey, man, here you got 45 scholarships.
• 47:41
  I got this kid right here. He needs a full, you know, and
• 47:44
  and it just kind of permeated and then you, God bless you get
• 47:48
  to that the coaches convention and it's more doom and gloom,
• 47:51
  you know, the proposals that were heard and the whispers and
• 47:56
  the rumors and this, that and the other.
• 47:57
  So we're we're fighting that. We're fighting off the doom and
• 48:00
  gloom at at at this level as well, you know, and we're still
• 48:04
  learning more. You know, there's still so many
• 48:07
  things because now in this this news cycle and social media
• 48:11
  zeitgeist and all of this stuff, man, like soon as something gets
• 48:14
  out, the Alabama, the Vanderbilt quarterback sues the NCAA.
• 48:18
  Now all, every JUCO athletes going to have this and you know,
• 48:21
  and, and people don't understand what the word injunction means
• 48:25
  and you know, all of this stuff now, you know, I think the last
• 48:29
  thing I heard was everybody's got 5-6 years of eligibility
• 48:32
  now. So we're fighting that as we're
• 48:35
  gathering this information, the information is continuously
• 48:40
  changing. And, and I've always said
• 48:45
  there's a track and field and I think sometimes it, it does
• 48:47
  annoy me that usually we're kind of the last sport to know what's
• 48:54
  going on, right. Once the decisions made.
• 48:57
  And I, I, Jay Jones, I don't know how old you are, but I, I,
• 49:00
  I'm, I remember when men's track and field had way more
• 49:05
  scholarships than 12.6. I I I remember.
• 49:08
  That I'm up there a little bit. Yeah.
• 49:10
  So you, you remember what that was late 80s when, when, when it
• 49:13
  changed because remember it was 16 at one point and then it went
• 49:17
  to 14 and then it went to magically 12.6.
• 49:20
  And I still don't know how they came up with that number, you
• 49:22
  know, So that happened quick. But if that had happened now in
• 49:28
  this age, I think the panic button would have been pushed so
• 49:31
  hard across the country. But we've also seen in these
• 49:36
  last 3540 years of college athletics, we've seen pretty
• 49:40
  much almost the death of great sports like wrestling, like
• 49:45
  gymnastics, men's gymnastics, men's volleyball.
• 49:49
  And, and a large part of this, to be totally honest, I think
• 49:52
  it's just been a, a, a just poor misinterpretation of title nine.
• 49:57
  Title 9 has been a scapegoat, right?
• 50:00
  It's been a scapegoat for whatever reasons, whether it's
• 50:03
  spending more spending for football and, and basketball or
• 50:07
  mismanagement of budgets and, and this that and the other.
• 50:10
  So, you know, we're fighting off this doom and gloom.
• 50:14
  If you've been in this sport and if you've been in sports long
• 50:16
  enough, you've seen these patterns happen.
• 50:19
  And sometimes what we're doing is predicting the future and
• 50:22
  we're getting out ahead of ourselves sometimes.
• 50:24
  And I've had to fight that. I'm fighting it now.
• 50:28
  So I'm just trying to gather the information.
• 50:29
  I'm now on on the coaches association executive committee.
• 50:33
  And we had a meeting this morning and I just kind of shut
• 50:36
  up and listen. But I looked at the minutes and
• 50:39
  I'm like, good Lord, it's hard not to be doom and gloom with
• 50:42
  some of the proposals that, that have come up.
• 50:43
  But, you know, I'm, I, I tried to look at it again and say, OK,
• 50:47
  well, if this happens, how do I adjust instead of just saying,
• 50:51
  OK, I'm just going to, I'm going to accept it, take my ball and
• 50:55
  go home, you know, but I'm really trying to figure out ways
• 51:00
  to do that. And to be totally honest, what
• 51:01
  I'm, what I'm really wanting to do is rely on, you know, younger
• 51:07
  coaches who have some season like a Bruce Jackson to see what
• 51:11
  it is they're doing so I can keep up with the trends and, and
• 51:14
  now in my 50s. So you know, Bruce, what, what
• 51:19
  are you guys not not said, not to say you know what decisions
• 51:22
  you guys have made, but how are you adjusting to what's going on
• 51:27
  in, in this era of college athletics, you personally?
• 51:32
  Me personally, I mean, I don't think there's much of I mean,
• 51:37
  just for me, I'm very neutral and everything.
• 51:41
  It's I guess the lawyer in me, you know, I like to listen to
• 51:43
  both sides and see like that and and go from there.
• 51:47
  Obviously, I think the biggest forefront of of things for
• 51:51
  college coaches. I mean, we do again, yes, you
• 51:53
  talked about this lot of these things are, you know, proposals
• 52:00
  until like right, the settlement gets gets affirmed, which it
• 52:04
  will in in April. I believe that's the next court
• 52:06
  date for that. I mean, everyone's already
• 52:09
  already been prepared at the college level for roster limits.
• 52:12
  I mean, cuts and all that's been happening.
• 52:14
  You just had Coach Holloway talk about take a look at the portal
• 52:16
  because the portal will be on steroids about this time next
• 52:19
  year anyway. So, so I think, yeah, just
• 52:23
  depending on what kind of program you're in, that's going
• 52:25
  to look differently. You know, you know, obviously
• 52:28
  there's going to be a lot more cuts at a Florida with a bigger
• 52:31
  roster than a place where I'm at where we're primarily
• 52:34
  predominantly a distance school. But I think I think any college
• 52:39
  coach is really going to have to take a tension on obviously
• 52:42
  roster management, really, really pay attention to roster
• 52:46
  management. And you know, how they set
• 52:49
  themselves up amongst all grades because, you know, maybe before
• 52:55
  you know, you could bring, you could bring in more than maybe
• 52:58
  you're exiting, but now not. And so being able to set that
• 53:01
  roster up appropriately where it's like, man, I can only read.
• 53:04
  I only have 3 graduating seniors.
• 53:06
  I can only bring three guys in. You know, coaches might not
• 53:09
  necessarily be used to that or used to bringing in, you know,
• 53:12
  more, more, more bodies. I think one thing and I don't
• 53:18
  know, maybe it's the competitive nature in me.
• 53:20
  I think kind of something that's not necessarily been talked
• 53:24
  about and it's not necessarily with the rules.
• 53:26
  Just like when something happens, what's this effect on
• 53:30
  how your ability or coaches of other ability to to coach and
• 53:35
  convey and develop and all this. And I think what we're going to
• 53:38
  actually start seeing is there's going to be a more increased
• 53:43
  intentionality with coaching, I think.
• 53:47
  And again, my, you know, I've coached sprinters and all that,
• 53:51
  but in my distance hat, I think you're going to start seeing, I
• 53:56
  think some programs. And again, whatever my people
• 54:00
  might be thinking, I'm taking a shot.
• 54:01
  I think there's sometimes a platoon mentality where it's
• 54:05
  like, well, I'm going to work with this.
• 54:06
  We're going to do things a certain way and whatever sticks,
• 54:09
  sticks like throwing spaghetti on a wall and it doesn't matter.
• 54:11
  I've got 10 other guys are going to come into the program anyway
• 54:14
  and we'll just recycle and repeat, you know, like a shotgun
• 54:18
  blast and we'll see what happens.
• 54:20
  And because of now you've got less bodies to work with, you're
• 54:23
  going to have to really focus on those those set and particularly
• 54:27
  in cross country, it's 17 and and and 45 and think if you're
• 54:31
  an SEC right, 10 for the men's side, 10 and 35.
• 54:35
  I think you're going to not have that kind of out of sight, out
• 54:39
  of mind, you know. And so I think just again, maybe
• 54:45
  also unforeseen byproduct of this is there could be actually
• 54:49
  a better college experience for student athletes because we know
• 54:55
  there's, I mean, I can talk when I was at I was at a power force
• 54:59
  school and there was probably guys on the team that had no
• 55:01
  business being on the team. And we're just killing
• 55:04
  themselves to be on the roster just to say they're on the team
• 55:08
  now. And so I think what you might
• 55:11
  end up having is just the byproduct as a better college
• 55:13
  experience for those particular student athletes, because
• 55:17
  they're going to have to find another.
• 55:18
  Maybe they weren't a powerful, maybe they're a mid major D1,
• 55:21
  maybe they're not mid major D1. Maybe D2 is a better place for
• 55:23
  them to develop long term. Doesn't mean they can't be the
• 55:26
  greatest track field athletes since whatever.
• 55:29
  They just maybe needed more seasoning or a different
• 55:31
  environment to get that out of them.
• 55:34
  And so I think a lot of kids, a lot of student athletes might
• 55:37
  actually have a much better college experience than they
• 55:40
  were as shooting to because they had D1 dreams and that's the
• 55:44
  only thing they thought D1 or bust when there's actually
• 55:46
  probably maybe a better environment to get their skill
• 55:48
  set. And, and, and I'm like I said
• 55:50
  before, I think we're going to start seeing what coaches can
• 55:54
  really coach like I, I think that's, I'm really welcome.
• 56:00
  That was literally the first thing that came my mind with,
• 56:02
  with limits. It's like you're going to have
• 56:04
  to really start paying attention to people.
• 56:05
  You're not going to be able to drive droves in.
• 56:07
  And I think some programs, and again, it's probably a little
• 56:10
  more geared in the distance side programs that we think are
• 56:13
  pretty good. New programs might emerge, some
• 56:16
  programs might fade because they can't take this platoon
• 56:20
  mentality and have 30453540 kids on the roster.
• 56:24
  And we're just rinse and repeat and grind them to the ground and
• 56:28
  we'll see what happens. And, and that's kind of inspired
• 56:30
  me a little bit right now just thinking about it because me
• 56:33
  being at a smaller Division One school, me having a little bit
• 56:37
  less resources than maybe places I've had I've been at before.
• 56:41
  I'm looking at the the student athlete experience and saying,
• 56:44
  OK, now if you know when, when me and you were at Washington,
• 56:48
  but we had 60 something, almost 70 something guys, you know,
• 56:52
  they wanted us to have like 85 ladies and this that and the
• 56:55
  other. But we only got 1 trainer.
• 56:57
  We only got 1 academic professional for us.
• 57:01
  I can see now that those people being way more efficient and
• 57:06
  effective for our student athletes when they don't have
• 57:09
  these waves of people, you know, because now when I think about
• 57:13
  it, you know, the numbers that we had at Washington that
• 57:17
  exceeded the football team, right?
• 57:20
  It's the largest women's sport on most campuses, right?
• 57:23
  And then you're only getting one trainer.
• 57:27
  You know, when a football program might have 6-8 plus
• 57:31
  trainers, they may have 6-8, you know, academic professionals
• 57:36
  that are working with them and or when they come into study
• 57:39
  hall. I've been in schools where when
• 57:41
  football, they have their own time for study hall.
• 57:43
  Nobody else can go in there when they're in there.
• 57:45
  So now that puts stress on those people during the daytime or
• 57:50
  during the evening when track and field needs little
• 57:53
  something. And this person is not only
• 57:55
  assigned to track and field, they're assigned to volleyball,
• 57:57
  golf, tennis and this, that and the other.
• 58:00
  So I can see where some of these roster limitations can also
• 58:03
  benefit the student athlete experience by not overstressing
• 58:06
  your human resource, your support staff.
• 58:10
  Exactly. So I can see there's some
• 58:12
  benefit to that. And maybe that's, that's a
• 58:14
  narrative, to be totally honest for me as I'm talking to other
• 58:17
  coaches that I need to start pushing as well that we can
• 58:20
  improve the student athlete experience by not stressing out
• 58:23
  our our support staff. Yeah.
• 58:25
  And I mean, I think for, I mean, just staff and then then
• 58:28
  obviously the track program, print and track and field
• 58:31
  period. Like I said, I know a lot,
• 58:33
  there's a lot of doom and gloom with all I'm going to lose these
• 58:36
  kids. But at the same time, similar to
• 58:39
  what recently kind of the portal has done for college football,
• 58:43
  it's become a leveler, right? It's made teams like a, like a
• 58:48
  Indiana SMU, right, rise up to make the College Football
• 58:52
  Playoff. And now this is kind of leveling
• 58:55
  the playing field is like, Hey, we all, we've all got the same
• 58:58
  numbers. And again, this goes back to a
• 58:59
  point. Let's, let's really see, we're
• 59:02
  not stockpiling talent. Let's really see who can coach
• 59:05
  and develop some people. And, and like I said, I think
• 59:08
  they're going to start seeing some, yeah, some interesting,
• 59:11
  you know, we'll see who kind of rises up, but I think it's our
• 59:13
  ultimate level level in the playing field.
• 59:16
  You and you're going to see some ebb and flow.
• 59:18
  You know I mean who this has been a brutal football season
• 59:21
  for me. I'm a Florida State fan.
• 59:23
  They were awful last year undefeated in the regular
• 59:26
  season. You know kings of the transport
• 59:28
  port you know and then this year transfer port will betray them.
• 59:31
  I think that's just now what it is in college athletics is the
• 59:34
  given to take, you know, I mean, even, you know, I think us, you
• 59:38
  know, we've, we've benefited from the transport portal.
• 59:42
  We've also lost people to the transfer portal.
• 59:45
  So I, you know, for me, I don't spend a lot of time crying about
• 59:47
  what I lost and, and being overly excited about what I
• 59:50
  bring in. I think it's just now it's the,
• 59:52
  it's the new norm now. And I think, you know, we've got
• 59:56
  to adjust to that. But I also want to make sure
• 59:59
  that, you know, 'cause I, I hear it in a lot of, you know, club
• 1:00:03
  coaches, high school coaches, junior Co.
• 1:00:05
  Well, what about us? There, there is a space, you
• 1:00:09
  know, there is a program that's going to value it.
• 1:00:11
  We are going to value it, you know, and, and you know, just
• 1:00:15
  like what you were saying, Bruce, it's it's, you know, you
• 1:00:18
  know, the platoon thing, there's always going to be good high
• 1:00:20
  school athletes. I know Scotlandville High, I
• 1:00:22
  know Warren Central is going to be continuing to produce those
• 1:00:25
  type of athletes year in and year out.
• 1:00:27
  And maybe we're the right fit for them.
• 1:00:29
  Maybe we're not. But I got to keep going back to
• 1:00:32
  him to see I got to give these, you know, I got to give space to
• 1:00:35
  these high school coaches, got to give space to these parents.
• 1:00:38
  I've got to give space to these athletes because you never know
• 1:00:41
  when the next one is and you never know when you're going to
• 1:00:43
  lose the next person. You know, I mean, I've had 20
• 1:00:46
  point guys see you to the transfer report.
• 1:00:49
  I've had 13 second hurdle to see you to the transfer report.
• 1:00:52
  Love them, love them the same, but I got to go get the next one
• 1:00:55
  that, and that person could come from Scotlandville, can come
• 1:00:58
  from Warren Central, it can come from Memphis, it can come from
• 1:01:00
  Atlanta, it can come from anywhere.
• 1:01:03
  So I, I, I think what we have to do as high school coaches, I
• 1:01:07
  mean, or as, as college coaches is just make sure that we're
• 1:01:10
  maintaining our connections and, and, and, and telling the truth
• 1:01:15
  to people about what it is. Because you can talk to five
• 1:01:19
  different programs. Jay Jones, you know this, you
• 1:01:20
  talk to five different programs in five different years, you
• 1:01:22
  might get 5 different answers on what they need in five different
• 1:01:25
  months. Because it's always Evan
• 1:01:28
  flowing. It's just, I think it's just
• 1:01:30
  speeding up now. You know, one one thing I used
• 1:01:33
  to tell recruits all the time, and now to some of the high
• 1:01:37
  school, I tell my high school kids this is that you know, in
• 1:01:43
  in reference to the transport portal when you pick a school,
• 1:01:49
  your sport, you know, especially Division One.
• 1:01:53
  And I've been a power for a guy for a long time.
• 1:01:57
  As important as your sport is to you and it is to me, this can't
• 1:02:01
  be the only reason why you're here.
• 1:02:03
  Because if it is, you'll be in the transport portal the minute
• 1:02:08
  you're not happy with me. So in order to to keep kids, I
• 1:02:14
  think now you know, especially with roster limits, you have to
• 1:02:18
  sell more than just the sport to me.
• 1:02:20
  You have to sell the university. And you're a great fit for this
• 1:02:24
  community as a whole, not just here.
• 1:02:27
  You know, yes, I want you to be on this track and field team,
• 1:02:30
  but this is a great campus for you.
• 1:02:32
  This is a great major for you. These professors are really
• 1:02:35
  excited about you being here so that when they go home, they're
• 1:02:41
  excited about the other things on campus that are happening
• 1:02:45
  that'll keep them there. I mean, you know, some athletes
• 1:02:48
  are 100% I'm here for this sport and it is what it is.
• 1:02:53
  But we have to, I think we have to go about it a little
• 1:02:57
  different, a little differently by saying, hey, you have to sell
• 1:03:00
  a package deal. And I do agree if you do have
• 1:03:04
  roster limits, you know, I'm I'm a throws coach and I've always
• 1:03:08
  said this, at least in my career, I can't afford to miss
• 1:03:12
  because I don't have very many scholarships anyway.
• 1:03:14
  So now everybody else you can't afford to miss.
• 1:03:20
  So if you bring a kid in, you better really know what they're
• 1:03:25
  capable of and you better make sure that, hey, this entire
• 1:03:31
  university is a good fit for you, not just me.
• 1:03:34
  And the cross country and track and field program that I
• 1:03:37
  hopefully that will help keep some athletes out of the portal
• 1:03:40
  as long as you have a program on your campus.
• 1:03:43
  Yeah, and, and to be totally honest, how many people really
• 1:03:48
  like Bruce? What you had a your group at
• 1:03:52
  Washington, What? We were 8-9 deep in the 400 and
• 1:03:57
  we only had maybe 2 short sprinters.
• 1:03:59
  And then Isaiah came out, you know what?
• 1:04:02
  We had two, maybe one or two short hurdles.
• 1:04:04
  We didn't have guys. We didn't have 25 guys in the
• 1:04:08
  sprints. Yeah, I mean, I think every
• 1:04:10
  place. I mean I just, you know, I came
• 1:04:12
  here from the Academy of Art, the division two, and that was
• 1:04:15
  the model leading me. You know, we've been a a podium
• 1:04:19
  team with right at the limit for counter, you know, 15 fourteens,
• 1:04:23
  you know, like that. You know, obviously at a
• 1:04:26
  national level, right, how many people are really doing the
• 1:04:29
  scoring, you know, on your on your team.
• 1:04:31
  But but the back, the piggyback, what, what Jermaine coach Jones
• 1:04:36
  was saying, and you know, I, I might give you a little push
• 1:04:41
  back here, but I agree. What he's saying is, you know,
• 1:04:46
  you, you talked about, you know, obviously establishing, keeping
• 1:04:49
  those connections and taking those, those kids from places
• 1:04:52
  where you've gotten them at the high school level.
• 1:04:55
  I I actually, when this all stuff came out and, and you
• 1:04:58
  know, I've coached now 17 years, I've coached high school 11 and
• 1:05:02
  so more so like I immediately thought about the high school
• 1:05:06
  athlete to me and all this is actually going to be the I feel
• 1:05:09
  like the individual that's going to most suffer.
• 1:05:12
  I I mean, I think call, I think college is that a power for
• 1:05:16
  because you, like you were saying, you, you, you've been in
• 1:05:18
  this as a throws coach. I can't I couldn't miss, right.
• 1:05:20
  You were getting limited scholarships.
• 1:05:22
  Now I've got limited roster spots.
• 1:05:24
  There's an increased value or premium on a spot for a team.
• 1:05:29
  So if I'm, you know, out of powerful, I don't care any if
• 1:05:33
  I'm at a division between one period or whatever because I
• 1:05:37
  can't miss. I'm going to probably take
• 1:05:40
  something that's less risky. And so something that's less
• 1:05:45
  risky is something that's probably a little more
• 1:05:47
  established that's been known. And so with that, I think
• 1:05:52
  coaches, to be quite frank, are going to probably go with a
• 1:05:55
  known commodity and that would be a known commodities already
• 1:05:59
  been at the college level who's already proven marks.
• 1:06:02
  It's going to probably come to the transfer portal or
• 1:06:05
  internationally. So I think it's going to be
• 1:06:08
  harder for high school kids to come.
• 1:06:11
  I think you're going to have to be a very elite high school kid.
• 1:06:14
  I think high school coach is going to have to do a way more
• 1:06:16
  due diligence about making their athletes visible.
• 1:06:20
  Like I know what what questions what that would be My thing I
• 1:06:23
  would tell high school after you're going to do really coach,
• 1:06:25
  you're going to need to really do a good job of making your
• 1:06:27
  your kid more visible. And then you guys already
• 1:06:29
  alluded to, you know, being telling athletes and parents to
• 1:06:33
  be more proactive in their recruitment process and being
• 1:06:36
  more, you know, reaching out on their own.
• 1:06:38
  But I truly think a lot of those kids, you know, programs are not
• 1:06:44
  going to be able to take walk ONS.
• 1:06:47
  Those developmental kids that might become something down the
• 1:06:50
  road. They're going to need to
• 1:06:51
  probably going to gear more towards a proven commodity.
• 1:06:54
  And if I have a choice of a proven come on, who's been at
• 1:06:57
  this level between the obviously the high school who could
• 1:06:59
  develop that way. So I think a lot of coaches are
• 1:07:02
  going to probably go with the more proven product from the
• 1:07:05
  portal internationally. And and then, you know, coaches
• 1:07:09
  are going to be strategic. We you know, you know, the game.
• 1:07:11
  People are going to tell kids, Hey, stash them in JUCO, hold
• 1:07:14
  this gift for two years. Let's do this.
• 1:07:16
  And then again, rosters as well. You're you know, I'll get to
• 1:07:19
  another half of what I also think is going to happen, But go
• 1:07:22
  ahead. I think Coach Whitaker wants to
• 1:07:23
  jump in there. You know, Yvonne, you and I,
• 1:07:26
  we've talked about this from time to time.
• 1:07:28
  I can't send you 10-6 anymore, you know, I just can't.
• 1:07:33
  And so we have to be real realistic to our athletes where
• 1:07:36
  you have to open up. You're recruiting more D1D2NA,
• 1:07:40
  NAI and JUCO because now they're competing with the portal,
• 1:07:45
  they're competing with JUCO kids.
• 1:07:47
  You rather take a season 10 three kid over a high school 10
• 1:07:51
  six, you know, and it's it's no shot at our relationship.
• 1:07:55
  It's just a reality of business. Now I have to get parents and
• 1:07:58
  kids to understand that because every a parent wants their kids
• 1:08:01
  to get recruited. Coach, you've got so many
• 1:08:03
  connections with all these different cultures around the
• 1:08:04
  country. Why is my kid not getting
• 1:08:06
  recruited? But meow, Sir, he's running
• 1:08:09
  10-6. You know, female is running 12
• 1:08:12
  five. I can't get them out of LSU.
• 1:08:16
  It's not going to happen. I.
• 1:08:18
  Can't give a 10/6 guy to to Graham and stating him, you
• 1:08:22
  know, maybe 10 years ago we can have that conversation, but
• 1:08:24
  where things are trending now, I mean, you guys have jobs to
• 1:08:29
  protect now. You know, the rights to limits
• 1:08:31
  and all that are going to affect high school athletes.
• 1:08:33
  So we we're just trying to have them open up their horizons to
• 1:08:37
  just not D1 of us. Yeah, You know, I, I tell some
• 1:08:42
  of the kids, you know, and, you know, across all sports, some at
• 1:08:47
  the high school. Now do not wait if, if, if an
• 1:08:52
  institution offers you a scholarship, you better make
• 1:08:57
  sure that you want to go there or, or, or you don't want to get
• 1:09:03
  in there. You don't want to go there and
• 1:09:04
  you have another situation. Because I, I've told the
• 1:09:07
  athletes here, if you wait until that college season ends and the
• 1:09:12
  portal opened up, opens up for that sport, that coach is going
• 1:09:17
  to lead you. Because now instead of
• 1:09:18
  recruiting just you, he's also recruiting that unhappy
• 1:09:22
  quarterback, that unhappy receiver, you know, that unhappy
• 1:09:27
  basketball player or that unhappy long jumper.
• 1:09:30
  OK, So I, I, I told my athletes, if you're looking at schools,
• 1:09:34
  number one, you do your due diligence.
• 1:09:38
  Get to them before they get to you.
• 1:09:40
  This is this is the pro, this is the ball game that high
• 1:09:42
  schoolers have to play. To me is OK, you have the
• 1:09:46
  transport portal out there. You need to be signed before
• 1:09:51
  bowl season. You need to be signed before the
• 1:09:53
  end of bowl season, before the end of the Final Four, before
• 1:09:56
  the end of the national championships.
• 1:09:58
  Because those disgruntled athletes or those graduated
• 1:10:02
  athletes, all of a sudden you go from being in the front to
• 1:10:06
  immediately in the back. So I tell them, do not wait.
• 1:10:12
  And I tell the parents that I've talked to, if you wait, you're
• 1:10:14
  taking a huge risk. You're taking a huge risk by
• 1:10:18
  waiting. Like if you got your choices, go
• 1:10:20
  with it. Don't keep waiting for the next
• 1:10:23
  next best thing because that may not come along.
• 1:10:27
  You know, once the national championships are over, that
• 1:10:30
  that coach is going to look to somebody else pretty fast.
• 1:10:33
  And so we have to, as high school coaches, I think we need
• 1:10:36
  to get these people on the front end earlier as opposed to, you
• 1:10:41
  know, that means as a junior you really need to perform.
• 1:10:44
  You know, you really need to perform as a junior.
• 1:10:47
  And then your senior season, I think, you know, you going into
• 1:10:49
  that senior season, you better have those visits done and ready
• 1:10:53
  to sign before indoor gets done. Yeah, definitely before outdoor
• 1:10:59
  gets. Done.
• 1:11:00
  And, and it's all happening as there's a boom in performances
• 1:11:03
  in in our sport at every level. At every level.
• 1:11:06
  You know, when I got into the swag, the average winner in the
• 1:11:08
  men's hundred was 1034. It's 1017 now and that's after
• 1:11:12
  the pandemic, you know, so this boom is happening and now these
• 1:11:17
  right. And to your point, not only
• 1:11:19
  making those type of decisions, but we're making those academic
• 1:11:22
  decisions too. You know, you, you, you really
• 1:11:27
  can't be an academic risk coming in because as we know it right
• 1:11:30
  now, APR still exists and it's, it may change.
• 1:11:35
  And I know people are fighting for it and this that and the
• 1:11:37
  other. But now if, if your job's on the
• 1:11:40
  line and you're in a high pressure situation and all these
• 1:11:43
  situations are now getting squeezed in more, you, you got,
• 1:11:47
  you got to, you got to produce every day.
• 1:11:51
  You got to produce in the classroom, you got to produce on
• 1:11:54
  the track and in the field that there's just more pressure on
• 1:11:58
  everybody. And this, this, I mean, in
• 1:12:01
  recruiting, I tell kids, this is not girls track and field, this
• 1:12:04
  is not boys track and field. This is men's and women's track
• 1:12:06
  and field. And you got to understand that
• 1:12:08
  right off the top. I try to tell that to parents
• 1:12:10
  and, and, you know, I, I think I don't know what it is.
• 1:12:15
  Maybe it's the social media era where, you know, people are,
• 1:12:19
  are, are, are looking for instant affirmation, no matter
• 1:12:22
  how good or good or, or they may or may not be.
• 1:12:25
  But it's all about what I think I am and what I and and how many
• 1:12:28
  likes I can get where they don't, You know, people don't.
• 1:12:32
  From my perspective, I think sometimes people don't want to
• 1:12:35
  hear the truth. They want it.
• 1:12:38
  They just don't necessarily want.
• 1:12:39
  I don't even know if they don't want to hear, they might not
• 1:12:41
  want to deal with it, you know, because, you know, say Whitaker,
• 1:12:45
  you, you, you, you know, hypothetically 10/6 guy, you
• 1:12:49
  know who's telling him, Hey, man, you know, other than you
• 1:12:52
  know, you trying to be real with him.
• 1:12:53
  But again, we're adults and we supposedly don't know nothing.
• 1:12:56
  And then, you know, go back and tell Mama, coach said I ain't
• 1:13:00
  fast enough to go to such and such and such and such.
• 1:13:03
  And you can put the stats in front of them.
• 1:13:05
  You can put all of that that stuff you want.
• 1:13:07
  You can't tell me that my dream ain't go ain't go.
• 1:13:11
  I'm not going to make it to the Olympics because what do you see
• 1:13:13
  on Twitter handles and instant 2028 Olympian put some respect
• 1:13:18
  on that, you know, so there's all these things circling around
• 1:13:22
  that to drive these narratives in there, these individual
• 1:13:25
  narratives based off of what they either know or think or
• 1:13:28
  don't know or what they think they know.
• 1:13:30
  And and it's just it's just making things cloudy and and,
• 1:13:35
  you know, I think spaces like this and continue to have these
• 1:13:38
  conversations are are, you know, and and getting them out there
• 1:13:42
  in these spaces, I think are going to be important.
• 1:13:45
  But this thing, you know, this and you know, all this other
• 1:13:48
  stuff, the the the lawsuit and all this stuff, there's still
• 1:13:51
  battles to be fought to even figure out what this is actually
• 1:13:53
  going to be. We just know something's coming
• 1:13:56
  that that's really what this is. We we know something's coming.
• 1:14:00
  And I think that leads the gloom and doom, you know.
• 1:14:04
  But he go ahead. Even still, we know something
• 1:14:07
  come. Something's coming.
• 1:14:09
  You know it it. It's just like any other job,
• 1:14:11
  though obviously I'm speaking about the college level.
• 1:14:13
  Still do your job. Yeah, still do your job.
• 1:14:16
  Like whatever that is, you have 0 control over that.
• 1:14:23
  You know, that is at the administrative executive level.
• 1:14:26
  Let them handle that. I'm still going to put a product
• 1:14:29
  out on the track to let them know, hey, he is still highly
• 1:14:33
  dedicated and he is still bringing kids in here.
• 1:14:36
  So when it does come, whatever comes, you know, they can look
• 1:14:40
  back and say, hey, you know, Coach Bond is still putting a
• 1:14:44
  great product out there. Coach Jackson is still putting a
• 1:14:46
  great product out there. Man.
• 1:14:47
  We have to, you know, your administration has to look at
• 1:14:51
  you and go, well, I think I want to save my guy.
• 1:14:54
  Yeah, yeah, I think I want to look after my guy.
• 1:14:57
  So yeah, they, they respect the hustle.
• 1:15:00
  You just got to be hustling. You know, that's, that's going
• 1:15:03
  to be the big thing. Well, with, with that y'all, we,
• 1:15:06
  we've gone to the one hour and 15 minute level.
• 1:15:10
  I want to give everybody an opportunity to kind of shout
• 1:15:13
  out, you know, people who've impacted them, you know, get
• 1:15:18
  give, give your flowers out and and then I'll, I'll put a put a
• 1:15:23
  cap on everything. So whoever wants to start, go go
• 1:15:26
  for it. Oh, yeah, I'll go.
• 1:15:29
  That's fine. Yeah.
• 1:15:31
  No, I just want to thank. Thank you, Coach Vaughn.
• 1:15:34
  Obviously I've been a mentor throughout my process, you know,
• 1:15:38
  the grind, grind at the high school level for sure for a long
• 1:15:43
  time and then jump into the collegian ranks.
• 1:15:46
  So obviously, you know, you've been there a listening year for
• 1:15:49
  me. So I appreciate that.
• 1:15:50
  And obviously there's, you know, other other coaches and mentors
• 1:15:53
  I've had along the way who's helped me from, you know, I'm
• 1:15:58
  very close to my high school coach to this day, and then
• 1:16:00
  other coaches along the way from high school to college and, you
• 1:16:04
  know, post collegiately. So, and then obviously my peers,
• 1:16:07
  you know, we're out here and, and getting, you know,
• 1:16:11
  information from you guys and, you know, get the met both of
• 1:16:14
  you 2 last night tonight and getting information from that.
• 1:16:17
  So it's always good to hear perspectives and coach hallway
• 1:16:20
  and here and my peers and obviously, you know, here at
• 1:16:22
  UNCG and, you know, my first college stop at Academy of Art
• 1:16:25
  and and those coaches have helped me get here.
• 1:16:27
  So I appreciate it. And you know, it's all about
• 1:16:30
  we're all learning. Doesn't matter where, where
• 1:16:32
  we're 41 like myself, 66 like coach, hallway or everyone
• 1:16:36
  you're. Not 41.
• 1:16:37
  You're not 41. I'm not 41.
• 1:16:38
  Yeah, I'm 41. You're.
• 1:16:39
  Not 41 that make that that that makes me.
• 1:16:42
  Yeah, shut up. I'm not.
• 1:16:43
  I'm not going to talk about that.
• 1:16:45
  So Yep, man, that man met me when I, when I walked into
• 1:16:51
  Washington. I was 30.
• 1:16:52
  So that tells you. I'll, I'll go shout out to you,
• 1:16:57
  coach Vaughn. I mean, you walked into Ruston,
• 1:17:00
  man, you, you, you greeted me and you show you were a man of
• 1:17:02
  integrity. You taught me a lot behind the
• 1:17:05
  scenes on how to handle a program, how to handle people.
• 1:17:08
  So big shout out to you. There's a guy named Dave
• 1:17:12
  Anderson who was a, you know, a Ruston great, one of the
• 1:17:16
  greatest coaches to country Ruston High.
• 1:17:18
  And I followed him and you know, he always shots me out.
• 1:17:22
  At least you know, he's doing what he's doing across the
• 1:17:25
  country. Well respected.
• 1:17:27
  Another guy name is Wallace Martin.
• 1:17:29
  He passed away several years ago, but he was a head coach at
• 1:17:32
  Cedar Creek High School in Ruston for a long time.
• 1:17:35
  He gave me this bit of advice. He said that when I first took
• 1:17:39
  over he was like coach, don't try to do everything this first
• 1:17:43
  year. Find one thing, learn as much as
• 1:17:46
  you can about it. Then the next year specialize in
• 1:17:49
  something else. Then the next year specialize in
• 1:17:52
  something else. So I started out as a sprint's
• 1:17:53
  coach. The next year I learn jumps, the
• 1:17:55
  next year I learn throws and now like I'm, you know, my tool pack
• 1:17:59
  is, is pretty good. So that was some, some well
• 1:18:02
  needed advice from Wallace Martin and just my, my coaching
• 1:18:06
  staff at Scotlandville, a well-rounded coaching staff.
• 1:18:09
  Shout out to them and you know, the support that they give me.
• 1:18:13
  I couldn't be where I am without the coaches that, you know, have
• 1:18:16
  been in my life. So shout out to all of them as
• 1:18:18
  well. Again, Coach Vaughn, thanks for
• 1:18:23
  the opportunity. You know, I really appreciate
• 1:18:25
  it. I think the podcasts are super
• 1:18:27
  cool because you get to bounce ideas off other coaches and hear
• 1:18:31
  their perspectives from their other institutions.
• 1:18:36
  And one person that is so meaningful in my life is my
• 1:18:39
  college coach, Larry Maddox. If our paths hadn't crossed my
• 1:18:44
  third year in college, we wouldn't be having this
• 1:18:47
  conversation today. So, and then I'm, I'm really
• 1:18:51
  excited just about the opportunities I've had to work
• 1:18:55
  with the different Staffs that I have.
• 1:18:58
  I think the staff here at Warren Central High School is amazing.
• 1:19:03
  We, we have a really good staff and some really good, cool kids
• 1:19:06
  to work with. So I'm, I'm, I'm excited about
• 1:19:09
  that. And it's just good to see that
• 1:19:12
  people are still, you know, very passionate about the sport.
• 1:19:16
  You know, just keep grinding. And if I could give a piece of
• 1:19:20
  advice to young coaches, learn your craft.
• 1:19:25
  Learn your craft. It is not in a book.
• 1:19:28
  A book is just a reference to going out there and actually
• 1:19:31
  putting work in and figuring out what works with each and every
• 1:19:34
  one of your athletes. Because everyone is not the
• 1:19:36
  same. But I, I think this is awesome,
• 1:19:39
  man. Keep up the good work all you
• 1:19:41
  guys. Yeah, yeah, I, I'll give my
• 1:19:44
  flowers out. You know, I obviously, you know,
• 1:19:47
  my, my wife and my daughter, my, my mother, my father, my sister,
• 1:19:52
  definitely, you know, that family support all my cousins
• 1:19:54
  and uncles and, and all of that. Definitely, you know, that's the
• 1:19:58
  base that that I that, that I stand on and and I appreciate
• 1:20:03
  that. From a coaching aspect, you
• 1:20:06
  know, my father who is my first example of a coach, my first
• 1:20:10
  example of a father, my first example of a man and gave me
• 1:20:14
  access to, to this whole thing of track and field.
• 1:20:18
  Darrell Anderson, my college coach, like a second, like a
• 1:20:22
  second father to me. You know, I, I definitely wanted
• 1:20:27
  to run for somebody who like, you know, reminded me of my
• 1:20:29
  father and Darrell did in, in his way, giving me access to
• 1:20:34
  people like Coach Holloway, you know, putting my name in front
• 1:20:39
  of of coaches. I mean that Bruce, I'm not at
• 1:20:42
  Washington without Darrell Anderson and Mike Holloway
• 1:20:45
  making a phone call to Greg Metcalf, you know, and, and
• 1:20:48
  giving me an opportunity because y'all don't know where I was in
• 1:20:52
  my life before that. I was struggling professionally,
• 1:20:55
  you know, so, and, and they, that, you know, Greg Metcalf and
• 1:20:59
  University of Washington gave me the shout out, you know, Mike
• 1:21:01
  Maynard at UCLA and the administration staff there and,
• 1:21:05
  you know, meeting those type of people everywhere.
• 1:21:08
  I've been, every athlete I've ever coached, every
• 1:21:10
  administrator I've ever worked with, every academic
• 1:21:12
  professional, every, every trainer, you know, everybody
• 1:21:15
  behind the scenes, every manager.
• 1:21:17
  I, I, you know, I appreciate you.
• 1:21:19
  And, and you know, anybody who watches this, you know, anybody
• 1:21:23
  who takes the time to, to hear what, what I have to say or
• 1:21:26
  anybody else have to say. And you know, and all my, my
• 1:21:28
  friends and colleagues in this sport, you know, I don't know if
• 1:21:34
  you saw that message this morning, Jay Jones, but you
• 1:21:36
  know, we, we, we can't be YBCD anymore.
• 1:21:39
  We we got to be the league. Of extraordinary coaches.
• 1:21:42
  That was hilarious, yeah. We got to be the league of
• 1:21:44
  extraordinary coaches, man. That's what my wife calls us.
• 1:21:46
  So that's what I'm going to call us right now.
• 1:21:48
  So yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We we in our 50s, brother, we
• 1:21:52
  can't be why YBC watch CBD anymore.
• 1:21:55
  So but you know, if you know, you know that, but you know that
• 1:21:59
  it's a group of us that have come up together that we've
• 1:22:02
  leaned on. This is my that's my circle,
• 1:22:05
  man. These are my people.
• 1:22:06
  These these are the people who I turn to.
• 1:22:09
  You know, if I, if I have any throws of ice, man, I call Jay
• 1:22:11
  Jones. You know, if, if I have
• 1:22:15
  something, you know, we all, you know, Ray Williams, you know,
• 1:22:17
  Ronnie's, Ronnie's the gangster of the group and that's my
• 1:22:20
  teammate. So you know, just anybody who's
• 1:22:23
  poured into me, man, teammates, friends, family, coaches.
• 1:22:27
  I, I, I want to give my shout outs to you.
• 1:22:31
  But with, with that, we're, we're going to continue this.
• 1:22:34
  This is going to get better. At some point I'm going to have
• 1:22:37
  some intro music and outro music because of my daughter.
• 1:22:40
  I told her to to to go find me something that that sounds like
• 1:22:43
  if Tribe Called Quest and Outkast had a baby.
• 1:22:46
  Because you know that those are my groups.
• 1:22:49
  You know, I'll have graphics and stuff like this.
• 1:22:51
  But you know, I appreciate you hanging in here with me, man,
• 1:22:54
  through all of this. This is this is this is going to
• 1:22:56
  be the catalyst to something great.
• 1:22:58
  And I appreciate your spaces, man.
• 1:23:00
  If there's anything I can do for any one of you, man, pick up a
• 1:23:04
  phone, call me, text me. It ain't it ain't nothing but a
• 1:23:06
  word. You know, I got you guys back
• 1:23:09
  from from here to the grave, man.
• 1:23:10
  So let let me know how I can help you.
• 1:23:13
  Anybody that watches this, you can always contact me.
• 1:23:16
  You can always reach out to me. And and I'll say this, like I
• 1:23:19
  said to anybody else, if I don't pick up their phones because I'm
• 1:23:22
  doing something, leave me a message.
• 1:23:23
  I'll call you back, you know, and I think these men will
• 1:23:26
  attest to that, that if you if you reach out to me and I don't
• 1:23:29
  pick up, I'm going to call you back at some point, you know.
• 1:23:32
  So with that man, I wish everybody health, good health,
• 1:23:38
  happiness and success. The last thing I want to do
• 1:23:41
  before before I got close it down.
• 1:23:43
  Where are we going to find each of you guys next?
• 1:23:46
  What's the next competition for each of you guys coming up?
• 1:23:51
  I'll be at JDL. Did you attack in Winston Salem
• 1:23:55
  this Saturday here in North Carolina?
• 1:23:58
  OK, good luck. I'll be at McNeese in Lake
• 1:24:02
  Charles this weekend for home school, indoor track and field
• 1:24:06
  meet. We are still in training.
• 1:24:10
  Our season doesn't start till strangely next month in the mid
• 1:24:16
  Miss state of Indiana high school athletics.
• 1:24:19
  So you need to push it back a little further, but that's a
• 1:24:22
  fight for another day. Got you and my grandma.
• 1:24:26
  Steak Tigers are heading out on Friday.
• 1:24:28
  Friday morning we're going to Birmingham for the Sanford
• 1:24:31
  Invite running on Saturday evening.
• 1:24:33
  So like I said with that wish all health, happiness, success,
• 1:24:37
  safe travels and catch y'all on the other side of the track man.
• 1:24:42
  Yes, Sir. All right, that should I've
• 1:24:48
  pressed in stream. OK.
• 1:24:50
  And it's. Oh, nevermind.