Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / BONUS: USTFCCCA 2023 LIVE: Wes Miller-Wayland Baptist University

Transcript

BONUS: USTFCCCA 2023 LIVE: Wes Miller-Wayland Baptist University · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

• 0:00
  Hey gang, you know we like our bonus material.
• 0:02
  So from today all the way through USTF CCA, in celebration
• 0:07
  of our live podcast recording at the convention, we're going to
• 0:11
  play you last year's clips, each one individual from today all
• 0:15
  the way up until Monday, December 16th when we go live on
• 0:19
  YouTube at 6:00 Eastern Time. Join us if you're at the
• 0:23
  convention, sit down. We're going to be talking about
• 0:26
  your feelings, actions, thoughts about the way the NCAA is
• 0:31
  changing and we're going to make some predictions for next year.
• 0:34
  And every guest that sits down with us will you get a a
• 0:37
  exclusive free gift? So join us December 16th, 6:00
• 0:41
  PM Eastern Time for the Gill Live Connections podcast on
• 0:45
  YouTube and at the USTFCCCA convention.
• 0:48
  Here is bonus material. You never know who's going to be
• 0:54
  next. We're getting, we're getting
• 0:55
  close to packing up shop here. You know, we're, we, I think
• 0:58
  we're through 8 7:30 tonight. We've got a lot of amazing
• 1:02
  technical symposiums going on. We kicked it off tonight with
• 1:05
  Blake Bolden from Drake Reelas who supports these technical
• 1:08
  symposiums. You know, what's so funny is I'm
• 1:10
  getting a phone call from a coach right now.
• 1:12
  Hope they know I'm live on YouTube and Twitter.
• 1:15
  Look, it's, it froze my, my Twitter.
• 1:17
  If, if Ray Ray Williams from Washington University of Saint
• 1:20
  Louis caused my Twitter feed to go down, he will hear it.
• 1:23
  I'm have to do like a video on Twitter of me giving him the
• 1:26
  business edit broadcast. Yeah, he did.
• 1:30
  I'm going to. So we just went dead on Twitter,
• 1:33
  really, because I didn't put the do not disturb on there.
• 1:37
  But I am going to find Ray if he's here, and I'll make him
• 1:40
  apologize to everybody on Twitter.
• 1:42
  Now let's get to our next guest. Why don't you scoot up here,
• 1:45
  speak loudly, and introduce yourself?
• 1:47
  Hey, Wes Miller. I'm the head coach at Whaler
• 1:49
  Baptist University. And this is a fairly new title.
• 1:53
  New title? Where'd you come from?
• 1:54
  So past Four Seasons was at South Plains College Junior
• 1:58
  College in Texas. Now that's a pretty good
• 2:01
  program. We were talking about Community
• 2:04
  College, junior college, track and field just a little bit a
• 2:06
  little bit ago. How was, I mean, South Plains?
• 2:10
  You guys were really cooking. Yeah, we we had a really good
• 2:15
  run, good history before that. But yeah, in the four years we
• 2:20
  won seven national titles, so pretty good stretch.
• 2:24
  Dude, there are people that will go through their career and not
• 2:27
  win one national title. You were able to have a be a
• 2:32
  part of seven. Yeah.
• 2:34
  What was it like winning the 1st?
• 2:37
  10 The first one was honestly, it was you said there are people
• 2:41
  that never do it. I teared up.
• 2:44
  It was a huge emotional feeling, something that, you know, I
• 2:47
  didn't know that I would get to experience.
• 2:49
  We fortunately didn't have to experience so.
• 2:51
  But I'll tell you what that experience is.
• 2:53
  I mean, it is addicting. You, you want to do.
• 2:56
  Yeah, sure. So.
• 2:58
  How many women born this is really kind of a rhetorical
• 3:00
  question. And then don't win ever again
• 3:03
  and think like, oh, we'll do it again.
• 3:04
  We're. Better next year and it's like.
• 3:06
  Do this special that's why like I remember one year Oregon won
• 3:11
  the indoor national by a huge March 4050 points and I remember
• 3:15
  going up to now former head coach Robert Johnson, great guy
• 3:18
  living with that and I, you know, congratulating was like I
• 3:21
  know this was hard. I know people from the outside
• 3:23
  are going to see this 40 point win be like you guys easily. 1
• 3:26
  is like I I know how hard it is super hard to do.
• 3:30
  So how do you, from everything that you learned at South
• 3:32
  Claims, everything that you taught and were part of at South
• 3:35
  Claims, how do you bring that to a really historic program?
• 3:38
  I don't know. Sure you've looked in the
• 3:40
  history here. Yeah.
• 3:41
  How do you bring that to Wayland Baptist now?
• 3:43
  No, I think, I mean, I think most coaches would say the same
• 3:46
  thing. It's process, process oriented.
• 3:48
  You've got to look at what your resources are, what your
• 3:51
  strengths are from a recruiting standpoint, and then, you know,
• 3:55
  kind of evaluate where are areas that, you know, hey, with
• 3:59
  yourself as a coach and your staff that we can coach athletes
• 4:03
  up, you know, to square up the National League.
• 4:05
  Just kind of start chipping away, really.
• 4:07
  Yeah. Being a head coach is the
• 4:10
  difference. You've learned that in this
• 4:12
  short amount of time. Was there anybody or any process
• 4:16
  we talked about processes that you leaned on to help educate
• 4:20
  ourselves? Was there someone you called was
• 4:22
  like, hey, all right man, you've been a good for 20 years and
• 4:25
  I've always looked up to you. How did you figure out X or
• 4:28
  what? Hey, and there is the guy right
• 4:29
  there that cut us off Twitter. We're going to have him sit down
• 4:32
  and talk to us about why he cut us off Twitter.
• 4:36
  What how did you lean into and what did you continue today to
• 4:39
  lean into to help you become a better?
• 4:42
  Sure. No, I was fortunate when I first
• 4:44
  got started in college to have some really good mentors.
• 4:48
  Got started in Louisiana at Northwestern State University
• 4:51
  and Leon Johnson was. A.
• 4:54
  Legend coach, 30 something years, individual national
• 4:58
  championships, a lot of conference championships and you
• 5:01
  know, he taught me really early on in recruiting, you've got to
• 5:06
  find your niche, find what what athletes are available in your
• 5:10
  recruiting area and you kind of you've got to be flexible.
• 5:14
  You know, you've got to be able to shift your focus into certain
• 5:16
  events if that's where the talent is.
• 5:18
  And and then also looking at the conference and saying where are
• 5:21
  the weak areas? And so we're at a national
• 5:23
  level, you have to do the same thing and say where are points
• 5:26
  available? And you know, are there points
• 5:29
  available that that I can? You know, Coach, Yeah.
• 5:32
  So, yeah, I think I think that and then having head coaches
• 5:36
  that have honestly given me more freedom than I deserved early
• 5:39
  on, you know, learn from some failure in recruiting and, you
• 5:44
  know, thinking, oh, I can just snap my fingers and this.
• 5:50
  Will happen. So it's been, yeah, I've been
• 5:53
  blessed to be in some good programs with every coach.
• 5:55
  That gave me a lot of a lot. Of freedom do we do anything
• 5:58
  here at USTFCCCA, whether it's I'll say first time head
• 6:02
  coaches, but that'd be real narrow to do something as big as
• 6:05
  here. Maybe it's the first five years
• 6:07
  as head coach education or to our I know we have assistant
• 6:10
  coach track here. Do we do anything like, hey, you
• 6:13
  would be head coach? Well, let's have some head
• 6:16
  coaches have done. Really, do we do anything like.
• 6:17
  That I know, I know USATF, are you sorry USTF CCA has you have
• 6:22
  one program or cert that was a head coaching cert?
• 6:26
  Oh, OK. And actually did that about
• 6:28
  eight years ago and it was good, you know, talking about
• 6:32
  budgeting, recruiting and managing personnel.
• 6:34
  Absolutely pretty good. It'd be nice to have maybe more
• 6:38
  100. Percent sure.
• 6:39
  Because there's so many things that you know, I've been
• 6:41
  associated head twice, but until you sit in that chair and it's
• 6:46
  only learned by doing it. So.
• 6:48
  Yeah, some of this stuff might have been nice to be prepared.
• 6:50
  For and we've got to do a better job as head coaches of preparing
• 6:54
  our system. You've got to do a better job as
• 6:56
  head coaches of delegating. You know, we need experience in
• 7:01
  budgeting and recruiting and alumni support and meat
• 7:05
  management, transportation. We need that experience with our
• 7:10
  sister coaches so that when they become head coaches, not
• 7:12
  everybody can, should or wants to be become head coaches.
• 7:16
  They're at least getting out of the blocks faster, not learning
• 7:18
  blocks on the job. Now, if you're watching, I know
• 7:22
  you know, we, we rerun this on the podcast.
• 7:24
  It'll be audio only as well. But if you're watching this
• 7:26
  video, I know you've already seen my hat, but I want to show
• 7:30
  his this. Tell me more about this.
• 7:31
  Show the hat a little bit here. P and AMS.
• 7:33
  This is cool. Yeah.
• 7:36
  So actually it was an athlete kind of gift or care package.
• 7:40
  I had two athletes go to an American championships and
• 7:44
  medals while I was at SPC. And so each of them kind of came
• 7:48
  back with a gift to say thank you.
• 7:49
  So they got to go. We helped him get there, but I
• 7:53
  had to stay behind because it happens in, you know, November,
• 7:56
  Stay behind with the rest of the athletes and that's very
• 7:59
  fortunate. It's a pretty striking hat I
• 8:01
  really like. Alright man.
• 8:03
  I guess it's pretty. Cool too.
• 8:04
  You know, I had to, you know, Cooks Prime showed us with swag
• 8:09
  and yeah, and you know, I think he did a phenomenal job.
• 8:12
  I know a lot of people. So I had to get my I ain't hard
• 8:14
  to find either. You know, you can find me on the
• 8:16
  podcast, on Twitter, on e-mail, my phone number.
• 8:19
  I ain't hard to find baby. And these aren't hard.
• 8:22
  Well, actually, these are hard to answer.
• 8:23
  So I've got 100 random questions and they are random, my friend.
• 8:26
  You get to pick the number. I get to ask the question.
• 8:29
  He's picking up. One through 100.
• 8:31
  Let's go 17. 17 Fear Mountain Time What fears do you have?
• 8:37
  Heights, spiders, snakes. You are.
• 8:38
  You hit it on the first one Heights.
• 8:40
  Heights I. I get queasy stepping up today.
• 8:44
  I mean, I don't have to be on the edge, just seeing the edge
• 8:47
  of anything that's. Up high.
• 8:48
  So you're not doing any hot balloons?
• 8:49
  You're not doing any. I will never jump out of a
• 8:52
  plane. Bungees jumping.
• 8:54
  Out of a plane? Never do you have a problem
• 8:55
  getting on a plane like you flew here.
• 8:58
  No, I'm fine with planes, OK. Do you not are you not able to
• 9:00
  look out? Like do you get the window
• 9:02
  shaved down? I'm I'm good.
• 9:02
  With that, I don't know why I feel safe in a tin can, but I.
• 9:05
  Didn't screaming, Yeah. I sit at the back.
• 9:08
  Which is the most likelihood of survival at the back of the
• 9:11
  plane? Yeah.
• 9:12
  They've done crash test length, you know, test crashes.
• 9:16
  Yeah, Highest chance of. Survival.
• 9:19
  It's actually as long as it's not a nose first landing it, but
• 9:23
  even if it's a crash landing the back.
• 9:26
  Huge better. High chance of survival.
• 9:29
  Well, I always sit up front, so I get the heck off that plane
• 9:32
  because I fly so much. I'm tired of sitting down all
• 9:34
  the time. So I'm a gunner.
• 9:35
  That's what I learned today. I'm a gunner.
• 9:37
  I'm a gunner. Well, my friend, there's a small
• 9:40
  token of our appreciation. Everybody sits in the hot seat
• 9:42
  with us today. We've got a small appreciation
• 9:45
  of custom Build Connections podcast Christmas morning for
• 9:47
  you. Just so thankful for you sitting
• 9:49
  down and thankful for everything that's good for us, for our
• 9:51
  young people, man, it's really a measurement.
• 9:53
  Thank you, appreciate. You.
• 9:56
  Yeah, Absolutely. Yeah.
• 9:58
  You know, a new head coach, how do you even prepare for
• 10:00
  something that you have no idea? You think you know, but you
• 10:04
  don't know. And so it'll be exciting to
• 10:06
  watch him continue develop and grow as a head coach for Waylon
• 10:10
  Baptist, which is a really historic track and field
• 10:13
  program.