Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / 2022 USTFCCCA LIVE podcast: Sean Foulkes-Goshen College
Transcript
- 0:05Hey podcast listeners, we're super excited about December
- 0:0811th at 5:30 Mountain Time Denver Time when we're going to
- 0:12go live once again on YouTube to record a live Gil Connections
- 0:16podcast. To celebrate, we're giving you
- 0:18bonus clips every day until then of last year's 2022 guests that
- 0:23came onto the live Gill Connections podcast.
- 0:26Check it out. Look in the show notes below and
- 0:28you'll see the URL. Check us out December 11th, 5:30
- 0:32PM Denver time. Yeah, hey, and this guy here,
- 0:39he's going to be a future guest. He's on my list, but
- 0:43unfortunately the list is long and I only get 52 people a year.
- 0:49That's not very funny, right? So it's hard to get on the show,
- 0:52but. Mike's gonna be on there one day
- 0:54as well as this guy right here. Introduce yourself to us,
- 0:57please. Hey, I'm Sean Fox, head coach of
- 0:59track and field at Goshen College in Goshen IN.
- 1:02Sean, I feel like you're a guy that I haven't known for very
- 1:07long, but it feels like I've known you for a long time.
- 1:11Yeah, I I feel like that too. Like I mean between social media
- 1:13posts like back. And forth.
- 1:15And like just promoting the sport and and not just the
- 1:17sport, but coaches and athletes who are doing good things and
- 1:20putting more positivity back into our.
- 1:22Sport, yeah. I think we've done that a lot
- 1:24like an overlap. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 1:25I love that man. And you're, you know, you're
- 1:27such a a gregarious and giver type of guy.
- 1:30I think that may be what attracts like, oh, this feels
- 1:32like a guy that I'd be like if you lived in the same town, we'd
- 1:34be boys, you know what I'm saying?
- 1:36That's what it kind of feels like.
- 1:37So tell us. About this week of the
- 1:40convention, You are a smart guy. You have a list of all the
- 1:43different things going on, events, speaking, topics,
- 1:46meetings, etcetera. What were the one or two like
- 1:48you highlighted? Big time circle like?
- 1:50I can't miss this one. So there were a few different
- 1:53things that were really exciting for me, obviously.
- 1:57So it's my first year at Goshen because it just made the
- 2:00transition this fall. I never feel like I know enough
- 2:03about being a head coach. So there was a rookie head coach
- 2:06or a first year head coach guess.
- 2:08I've been a head coach for a few years and I know that I don't
- 2:11know everything. The minute I think I do, I need
- 2:13to stop coaching. You're in trouble.
- 2:15So that was one that was exciting.
- 2:18There's always someone recruiting that's always kind of
- 2:20like what's the new and latest thing coming out.
- 2:22But I know that like Sean Denard at UCLA has a really good
- 2:25presentation coming up. He was at Grand Valley when I
- 2:27was in Michigan and he's a great guy.
- 2:30Charles Inferno also does another really good one.
- 2:33So I mean, there have been a few that I'm really, really excited
- 2:35to see, but. Just because they're quality
- 2:37people who've done quality. Right.
- 2:39So you brought up something interesting, John, about being
- 2:41your first year at Goshen. Our our number one podcast by
- 2:45Listens is by maybe no surprise. Who checks?
- 2:48Who checks? Yeah, yeah.
- 2:50And you know, one of the things, one of the reasons why I think
- 2:53that episode is so important, that if you haven't listened to
- 2:55it, you absolutely have to listen to it.
- 2:57If you have listened to it, you need to listen to it again.
- 2:59But who talks about if he could go back in time when he would?
- 3:02Do different. And he advises coaches.
- 3:04You know, we pay our coaches out here.
- 3:06So little money that if you can go somewhere and make extra
- 3:09money, you need to do it because you need to be setting yourself
- 3:11up for when you're 6 to 70, retirement, etcetera, right.
- 3:15But we get into it. I I switched jobs a lot when I
- 3:17was coaching. I I went to five different
- 3:19places in 10 years. So I I did it as well.
- 3:22And we always have these. I'm going to call them excuses,
- 3:25reasons, whatever, why we don't leave.
- 3:27You know, the kids had a good recruiting class.
- 3:29I don't want to leave these guys or gals etcetera.
- 3:31How did you handle transition of where you were to come to Goshen
- 3:36and all those outside voices that we hear when we start
- 3:39talking about other? So the biggest thing for me was
- 3:44having a position that not only facilitated us to be successful
- 3:47in our sport and helped me grow as a coach and help provide for
- 3:50my student athletes and give them a great opportunity, but it
- 3:53was also a chance to have my family be well taken care of.
- 3:58I love my wife and my son dearly, like, they are my, they
- 4:00are my reason for getting up and working my butt off to do what I
- 4:04do. And so when we told kids at
- 4:08Rochester when I was there at Rochester University of
- 4:10Michigan, I said, you know, it's going to take a lot for me to
- 4:13like move from here because we had in laws that could help, you
- 4:16know, facilitate some babysitting.
- 4:17And they were very supportive of us and we're about an hour away
- 4:20from my folks now. So like.
- 4:22We still have family close by, but it's a 30 thousand person
- 4:26community that's that loves the town.
- 4:28It almost looks like it should be on one of those Hallmark
- 4:30meetings, right? So I mean it's very close knit,
- 4:33but because it's close knit, you're going to have a lot of
- 4:35passionate. People and.
- 4:37The big thing I tell kids, if you want to go somewhere fast,
- 4:39go alone. If you want to go somewhere far,
- 4:40go together, love it. And so if we have a town, that
- 4:44buys into what we're doing. Our kids buy into what we're
- 4:46doing. It makes it that much easier to
- 4:48go. So, well, you're on your own
- 4:51right here. I have 100 random questions.
- 4:54You get to pick the number of your questions, now do you?
- 4:57Have any argument? Are you?
- 4:58Can we get? To double up, Yeah, I'm not
- 5:01keeping track, man. That's too much work.
- 5:03All right, you know what? We're gonna.
- 5:05Do 15 the date. Of my son's birthday from.
- 5:07Our I love it, man in game, who's your favorite comic book
- 5:11character? Captain America, Why?
- 5:14Quite frankly, because even when things are tough or hard, he
- 5:18still has to make the call to do the right thing.
- 5:33Amen. It's not always easy to do the
- 5:23right thing. Sometimes our sports, sometimes
- 5:25people like fall by the wayside or say, you know what, we're
- 5:27going to take the easy way out. If it were easy, everyone would
- 5:30do it. And we've got probably the best
- 5:32and hardest sport in the. Because you have so many
- 5:35different disciplines, so many different things that you need
- 5:37to do and accomplish. So it's not easy.
- 5:40And he's a guy that says I can do this it.
- 5:42Protects the easy route. Yeah, and but frankly, I think
- 5:45that's worth emulating a lot. So yeah, just putting it on
- 5:49today's work and she throws A discus, so why not, right?
- 5:53That's where I knew there had to be something else in there.
- 5:55Well, Sean, man, let's get her selfie in here.
- 5:57Definitely in today's interview, man, I'm just so thankful for
- 6:00you. I appreciate everything you do
- 6:02and I think you are going to be transformational.
- 6:04Negotiate. I really do.
- 6:05I think not only the program in the school.
- 6:08With your family, when you make decisions based on your family,
- 6:12things are going to workout brother.
- 6:14No, I I get what Boo's saying about you wanting to go
- 6:16somewhere and set yourself up to the money down the road for like
- 6:19if you're not happy, No. Amount of money's no, no 100% so
- 6:22like, yeah. I mean, we've done a lot of
- 6:24those decisions based on what can give us close to.
- 6:26Right, Yeah. So yeah, we towed the line
- 6:29pretty well, but it's worked out really well for.
- 6:31So I love it, man. It's just going to keep getting
- 6:32better. I'm excited to to watch along
- 6:34and watch the journey. Definitely appreciate it.
- 6:36Thanks, John. Thanks for being on the show
- 6:37today. Thank you World Record Shortest
- 6:43Gill Athletics Connections Podcast ever.
- 6:45Check us out December 11th 530 Denver, Co Rocky Mountain
- 6:49Central Time. Check us out on YouTube in the
- 6:53link below in the show notes.