Latest / Desert Valley Blitz / EP#34-How A Pro Football Journey Became A Youth Training Mission-The Devin Jones Story

Transcript

EP#34-How A Pro Football Journey Became A Youth Training Mission-The Devin Jones Story · Desert Valley Blitz

0:24
SPEAKER_01: Welcome back, everybody, to Desert Valley Blitz Coach's Corner Edition.
0:28
SPEAKER_01: Today's special guest.
0:30
SPEAKER_01: This man has been to the top of the game as a player, but now he's back in our valley committing to teaching the youth the game and bringing the next generation up.
0:39
SPEAKER_01: Mr.
0:39
SPEAKER_01: Devin Jones of Empowerment.
0:41
SPEAKER_01: Thanks for joining the show.
0:42
SPEAKER_00: Thank y'all for having me, man.
0:43
SPEAKER_01: Thanks for coming.
0:44
SPEAKER_01: Walk us back.
0:45
SPEAKER_01: How'd you get started?
0:46
SPEAKER_00: Oh man, my journey started.
0:48
SPEAKER_00: If you don't know, I'm from New Orleans, Louisiana.
0:51
SPEAKER_00: Been playing running back pretty much my whole year in youth league, all the way through high school.
0:58
SPEAKER_00: Out of high school, crazy story, man.
1:01
SPEAKER_00: I was highly recruited.
1:02
SPEAKER_00: You know, it was a bunch of bunch of schools after me for running back.
1:07
SPEAKER_00: I wanted to go to the Big East.
1:08
SPEAKER_00: I know that's kind of rare for somebody in the South, but yeah, I don't want to go to the Big Back.
1:12
SPEAKER_00: I wanted to go to the Big East.
1:13
SPEAKER_00: It was uh University of Connecticut that was highly on me.
1:16
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
1:16
SPEAKER_00: And I just looked at it as an easy, smooth ride through to the NFL.
1:20
SPEAKER_00: You know, they play people like Pittsburgh, Rutgers.
1:22
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I can get I can run through that competition.
1:25
SPEAKER_00: You know?
1:25
SPEAKER_00: But funny story, I went up there to visit after the junior year.
1:28
SPEAKER_00: Couldn't take the weather.
1:30
unknown: Really?
1:30
SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm a southern boy, man.
1:32
SPEAKER_00: It don't snow where I'm from.
1:33
SPEAKER_00: It's different.
1:34
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, that cold weather was too crazy.
1:36
SPEAKER_00: So my mom was like, be real with them.
1:38
SPEAKER_00: If you don't want to come here, you're gonna come here.
1:40
SPEAKER_00: So um bounced around at different other schools, took my visits, and I ended up settling with LSU.
1:45
SPEAKER_00: And LSU where I went to and I stayed there for three years.
1:49
SPEAKER_00: And then I transferred out to Southeastern Louisiana University and I finished my career there, but at linebacker.
1:55
SPEAKER_00: I got moved, I got moved from running back to linebacker.
1:58
SPEAKER_00: Um and from there, man, I uh undrafted through the NFL draft.
2:04
SPEAKER_00: I ended up going to a training camp with Miami Dolphins.
2:07
SPEAKER_00: I was in training camp with the Miami Dolphins.
2:10
SPEAKER_00: Didn't do nothing after that training camp because I got cut like the third week.
2:14
SPEAKER_00: Went around another year, then I got picked up by the Saints.
2:17
SPEAKER_00: Another training camp um guy.
2:19
SPEAKER_00: Went through all four weeks, then got cut.
2:22
SPEAKER_00: Um, and then luckily the Houston Texans picked me up for the practice squad.
2:25
SPEAKER_00: I ended up staying with the practice squad for them for two years, actually.
2:29
SPEAKER_00: Couldn't crack that roster, man.
2:30
SPEAKER_00: It was tough.
2:31
SPEAKER_00: It was tough.
2:32
SPEAKER_00: And then I got um I got picked up by the San Diego Chargers.
2:37
SPEAKER_00: This is 2017 at this point, playing under Mike McCoy.
2:42
SPEAKER_00: Um, and again, training camp guy, got cut third week, went to Cincinnati, had a crazy wild store in Cincinnati, stayed there for about a week.
2:51
SPEAKER_00: And then after that, man, I played some arena football two, three years, one with the LA Kiss that was in Anaheim, if y'all hear about them.
2:59
SPEAKER_00: Me and Shane both played with them Cleveland Galladiators.
3:02
SPEAKER_00: I played a season for them.
3:04
SPEAKER_00: Um uh played a season, the first season for San Diego Strike Force, the indoor football team.
3:10
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
3:10
SPEAKER_00: Um And they, you know, they doing real well right now.
3:12
SPEAKER_00: But I played the first season with them in 2019, and then COVID came.
3:16
unknown: Wow, yeah.
3:17
SPEAKER_00: Kind of put a, you know, a damp on a lot of things, a lot of things, and just shut down.
3:21
SPEAKER_00: You know, you just had that year of kind of you know resetting with your mind and thinking, like, man, it's gonna be taken away so quick, you know.
3:28
SPEAKER_00: So start to reset and readjust and think about what other things I can do.
3:32
SPEAKER_00: You know, and I kept playing.
3:34
SPEAKER_00: I just played minor ball, minor league ball.
3:36
SPEAKER_00: I was playing semi-pro football, man.
3:38
SPEAKER_00: And actually, I enjoyed that more than, you know, my years in the league, man, because I didn't have to worry about anything.
3:44
SPEAKER_00: A little less pressure, right?
3:45
SPEAKER_00: Oh man, to just go hit people and then go back to work, you know?
3:49
SPEAKER_00: And right around COVID, me and me and Shane had a conversation.
3:53
SPEAKER_00: We was like, he was already out here training the youth.
3:55
SPEAKER_00: I was in San Diego, and um, once we decided that we wanted to do empowerment, I was like, well, let's go down there where you at.
4:02
SPEAKER_00: You know, I see a lot of gyms like that in San Diego, but you already kind of made a name for yourself out here and people know you.
4:08
SPEAKER_00: We can build on that foundation.
4:10
SPEAKER_04: Right.
4:10
SPEAKER_00: And 2020, that's when we came with empowerment, and here I am.
4:15
SPEAKER_00: 2020.
4:16
SPEAKER_01: So you've been here six years already, huh?
4:18
SPEAKER_01: Six years, man.
4:19
SPEAKER_01: Six years.
4:19
SPEAKER_01: So you've kind of been through the whole business side of the sport too, right?
4:23
SPEAKER_01: Definitely from the NFL from college, and even at the college levels of the business at the college.
4:28
SPEAKER_00: I've seen a lot.
4:28
SPEAKER_00: I've seen a lot.
4:29
SPEAKER_00: And and the good thing about that is I'm able to tell the younger kids that didn't have nobody else to type that can experience things like that.
4:37
SPEAKER_00: But it's definitely a business.
4:38
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
4:39
SPEAKER_00: And if you're not mentally strong, it can it can break you.
4:42
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I really love the game.
4:44
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, definitely, definitely, man.
4:45
SPEAKER_00: And it it's but the mental side though, you can really love the game, but the mental side to know that this is a business and it's not really all about your talent.
4:54
SPEAKER_00: Like they cannot want you because they can't afford you.
4:57
SPEAKER_00: You know, I mean, or maybe they be trying to want to afford to someone else.
5:00
SPEAKER_00: So the money I'm paying you, I gotta cut you because I need this person a little bit more.
5:05
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes it's not, you know, coaches get a bad rep, but it's not on the coach because you gotta understand he has somebody he has to answer to, and that's that guy in the skybox.
5:14
SPEAKER_00: You know, that's the one that's making all the money moves, and he likes you better than he liked you.
5:20
SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, that's the way it goes, you know.
5:22
SPEAKER_00: And it can, it can break a lot of people.
5:24
SPEAKER_00: I've seen it break a lot of people.
5:25
SPEAKER_00: I'm one of them, but um, thankful for me, like I said, I love the game so much that I just kept playing, and I found a different love for it from seeing it from this side, you know, because it wasn't everything laid out red carpet for me, like college at NFL was.
5:40
SPEAKER_00: It was like, now I gotta go to work 40 hours, and then after that, I gotta play, and then I gotta recover in 24 hours because I gotta go back to work, you know.
5:48
SPEAKER_00: So but it's a bit it's been a blessing.
5:50
SPEAKER_00: The ride has been a blessing.
5:51
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, definitely.
5:52
SPEAKER_01: I mean it's a blessing that it got you to where you're at today.
5:55
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you're one of the, I mean, premier trainers.
5:58
SPEAKER_01: You've been the pre premier spot for athletes for the past couple years now.
6:02
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, sure.
6:03
SPEAKER_01: At least in my opinion, and now you're kind of taking the next path, and we'll kind of talk to that.
6:07
SPEAKER_01: Um, but also you you had mentioned you continue to play some semi-pro ball.
6:11
SPEAKER_01: You played uh for the So-Caled Coyotes here.
6:13
SPEAKER_01: I think you're like one of the all-time leading tacklers in that team, man.
6:17
SPEAKER_01: You want to talk to talk about some of that?
6:18
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's another reason people know you around here is because you were the man on that team.
6:22
SPEAKER_00: Shout out to Coach Miller, uh, J.
6:24
SPEAKER_00: David Miller, man.
6:25
SPEAKER_00: I really still to this day don't know how he found me.
6:28
SPEAKER_00: How he found me, but I was just, I was in the clutch of um that that span between Miami and the Saints.
6:34
SPEAKER_00: And I just wanted to get out of New Orleans.
6:37
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't a place where we got like gyms where you can train like our gym.
6:41
SPEAKER_00: We didn't have like no empowerments and stuff like that.
6:43
SPEAKER_00: And you had to really be tight with the high school coaches to even go do that, you know, go to their gym and train and stuff like that.
6:50
SPEAKER_00: So I just was like, I tell my agent, I gotta get out of here, man.
6:52
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I gotta get out of here.
6:54
SPEAKER_00: And I was at a TGI Fridays and he called me, and all he said was California and football.
6:59
SPEAKER_00: He said, Yeah, you ain't gotta worry about nothing else.
7:01
SPEAKER_00: Just get here.
7:02
SPEAKER_00: And I got here four days on a bus because I was scared to fly, man.
7:06
SPEAKER_00: Oh, you took the bus from Luigi.
7:08
SPEAKER_00: Four days, man.
7:08
SPEAKER_00: Nothing wrong with that.
7:09
SPEAKER_00: Nothing wrong with that.
7:10
SPEAKER_00: That's a trip.
7:11
SPEAKER_00: Funny story, they dropped me off in Palm Springs, and I was not expecting how Palm Springs looked.
7:16
SPEAKER_00: I seen, I was Googling LA, San Diego.
7:19
SPEAKER_00: Palm trees, bee cheeses, girls in the church.
7:21
SPEAKER_00: He dropped me off in the in the desert, and I heard a coyote for the first time.
7:26
SPEAKER_00: Ooh, and I'm like, no, man, this ain't it.
7:29
SPEAKER_00: But it turned out to be a blessing.
7:31
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
7:31
SPEAKER_00: I met a lot, I met a lot of great guys.
7:33
SPEAKER_00: He's a great guy, man, the way he ran that organization.
7:36
SPEAKER_00: Get him in here.
7:36
SPEAKER_00: You do, you do.
7:37
SPEAKER_00: He's a real great guy, man.
7:39
SPEAKER_00: And um, yeah, I just it just found it, I get I got a different love from the game.
7:43
SPEAKER_00: And it helped me go to the Texans because I I stayed in play and shit.
7:47
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you read that.
7:47
SPEAKER_00: And that's what people didn't understand.
7:49
SPEAKER_00: It's different than when you just training, to where you actually tackling people and breaking down and keeping them hips loose, and and it helped me because when them guys seen that film, they thought it was like some junior college film and stuff like that.
8:01
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, y'all must then do your homework.
8:03
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, but um, it was a blessing though, man.
8:06
SPEAKER_00: And after that, um, I went to Inglewood Blackhawks, which was um coach Tony Reed out there.
8:12
SPEAKER_00: He had a winning organization for a long time.
8:16
SPEAKER_00: Long time.
8:16
SPEAKER_00: And I was blessed to play for him my last five years.
8:19
SPEAKER_00: I just quitting 2022.
8:22
SPEAKER_00: And um yeah, we went to back-to-back national titles and stuff like that as one of the championship rings right now.
8:28
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I got a couple big ones.
8:29
SPEAKER_00: This probably like the only one I can right now.
8:31
SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
8:32
SPEAKER_00: You can't get that on camera, yes, sir.
8:34
SPEAKER_00: But I got a couple of them, man.
8:36
SPEAKER_00: And um, it's it's just been a blessing, man, to just see different likes of California and meet different people.
8:42
SPEAKER_00: And some of them people I done built business relationships with, not just social relationships.
8:47
SPEAKER_00: So it's been a great journey.
8:48
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yes, sir.
8:49
SPEAKER_01: That's all that's all it is.
8:50
SPEAKER_01: So I run another uh podcast called C V Hustle, and it's about entrepreneurs, so I'm gonna put that cap on now because you said 2022 you stopped playing.
9:00
SPEAKER_00: Well, I stopped playing minor league.
9:02
SPEAKER_01: Okay, okay.
9:03
SPEAKER_01: I did one more year.
9:04
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but empowerment.
9:06
SPEAKER_01: Empowerment was 2020 then?
9:07
SPEAKER_01: Empowerment was 2020.
9:09
SPEAKER_01: So you and Shane, your partner.
9:11
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you you're you basically opening a, you know, even though it's your world and you know how to train, you're you're doing a business now.
9:18
SPEAKER_01: It's not it's not just coming out, showing and and playing.
9:20
SPEAKER_01: Now you have to do the business side.
9:22
SPEAKER_01: How was that transition as from a player to a businessman running a running a full-time business?
9:27
SPEAKER_00: It was tough.
9:28
SPEAKER_00: I'm not I'm not about to sit here and front like it was easy.
9:31
SPEAKER_00: It was definitely tough because we knew the training side.
9:33
SPEAKER_00: We knew the sports side.
9:35
SPEAKER_00: We didn't know the X's and O's when it came to business.
9:38
SPEAKER_00: Um and um we learned a lot over the over the couple years, you know, and but it took us reading, you know, Googling some stuff, axing.
9:46
SPEAKER_00: We had a great mentor, which was Marcus Black.
9:49
SPEAKER_00: Um he owns a plastering company out here, we're real big, but um, he guided us through a lot of stuff, but we learned a lot of stuff over the years.
9:57
SPEAKER_00: And um just, you know, unfortunately, you know, we don't have the gym anymore.
10:00
SPEAKER_00: The the business environment, we're still training.
10:03
SPEAKER_00: We're just not training in our facility no more.
10:06
SPEAKER_00: Because unfortunately, inflation and things like California kind of just got too out of hand.
10:10
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, the numbers sometimes don't work.
10:12
SPEAKER_01: Yes, sir, yes, sir.
10:13
SPEAKER_00: And we had to we had to rebuild from square one.
10:15
SPEAKER_00: So we are coming back um bigger and better soon.
10:18
SPEAKER_00: But yeah, that the business side was was tough, man, because there's a lot, a lot of hurdles to jump through.
10:24
SPEAKER_00: Trying to put everything together, and I'm like, why is these circles not fitting in these squares and things like that?
10:30
SPEAKER_00: And but um I learned a lot.
10:31
SPEAKER_00: I learned a lot.
10:32
SPEAKER_00: So next time when it comes time that we open another building, it's definitely gonna be better because we got that mindset now that we didn't have before.
10:40
SPEAKER_00: Right.
10:40
SPEAKER_00: You know?
10:40
SPEAKER_01: And a lot of times in business you learn from trial and error.
10:43
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
10:43
SPEAKER_01: You know, it's it's you don't know what you don't know.
10:45
SPEAKER_01: Yes, sure.
10:46
SPEAKER_01: So you guys obviously know the training side.
10:48
SPEAKER_01: You know, and that's what that's one thing that empowerment's known for, is getting those athletes ready.
10:52
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you have a couple guys this year going D1, getting scholarships that come directly from your lineage in your gym.
10:58
SPEAKER_01: Yes, sir.
10:59
SPEAKER_01: So what is it?
11:00
SPEAKER_01: I mean, there's a lot of people that run gyms.
11:01
SPEAKER_01: What is it about empowerment?
11:02
SPEAKER_01: Because I've heard about, I first heard about empowerment when my son was like 10 years old.
11:06
SPEAKER_01: They're like, hey, you should send him to that gym because that gym is the one that's turning out all these great athletes.
11:11
SPEAKER_01: You know, so you guys had a reputation, and I didn't even really know who you guys were at that point.
11:15
SPEAKER_01: So, what, how did that reputation start?
11:17
SPEAKER_01: Why, why is empowerment like a little bit different from the other gyms out there?
11:21
SPEAKER_00: Um, first and foremost, I gotta give credit to Shane.
11:25
SPEAKER_00: I mean, the thing, the thing he was doing way before I came a part of it, and how he built that foundation with the kids that he had, and he built a great repertoire with him.
11:34
SPEAKER_00: Um, I think he's a big part of that success because they see how caring, how considerate he was, at the same time, how serious he was about the training and making them better, you know.
11:48
SPEAKER_00: So adding me to that was just the other half of Louisiana.
11:52
SPEAKER_00: Because they seen him and they was like, okay, this is he's kind of a southern gentleman and he's serious about this ball, and then boom, he got another athlete, you feel what I'm saying?
12:00
SPEAKER_00: And and I'm the same way, you know, and then we was able to um come together and realize, okay, he's strong in this, I'm strong in that.
12:09
SPEAKER_00: I need work in this, I need work in that.
12:12
SPEAKER_00: And we built off each other.
12:13
SPEAKER_00: You know, when we together, it's a it's a dynamic thing when we're together, you know, and he's real big on speed.
12:19
SPEAKER_00: I learned a lot of speed stuff from him, you know, but I already had a general knowledge of certain things that I passed on to him, and it just made us better.
12:28
SPEAKER_00: And I think when people see us together, when they see how we operate with one another, it draws them in.
12:34
SPEAKER_00: Because we're just not people just yelling at you, which we don't really yell.
12:37
SPEAKER_00: If you've ever seen us really work, we don't really yell because we're more teaching.
12:42
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing I'm gonna know in this session that you're not gonna leave the session without knowing.
12:46
SPEAKER_00: And we big on that.
12:47
SPEAKER_00: That you can take that somewhere and decipher that with another coach, like, no, I don't think that's right.
12:53
SPEAKER_00: Because I was I was taught this way, I was taught this way, and you're gonna know why we're teaching you that.
12:57
SPEAKER_00: And I think that's what's separated and support.
12:59
SPEAKER_00: We ain't just putting you through drills and get past this hour and trying to get your$30,$40.
13:04
SPEAKER_00: You know, we really want you to know what you're doing, why you're doing it, and how this is gonna translate to what you're doing in your sport.
13:12
SPEAKER_00: And we didn't try to be your coach.
13:14
SPEAKER_00: I think that's a big, big thing right there.
13:17
SPEAKER_00: We didn't try to be your coach.
13:18
SPEAKER_00: If your coach taught you this way and this is the way he likes, okay, well, we just gonna build on that.
13:23
SPEAKER_00: You get what I'm saying?
13:24
SPEAKER_00: Because at the end of the day, I can't force you to learn something else, and he's teaching you something.
13:29
SPEAKER_00: Now it's contradicting what he's teaching you, and you can't play.
13:32
SPEAKER_00: Right.
13:32
SPEAKER_00: You feel what I'm saying?
13:34
SPEAKER_00: You're over there with empowerment, they're teaching you this.
13:36
SPEAKER_00: And no, we never wanted that.
13:37
SPEAKER_00: We wanted every coach, like you said, Kane Hiley, that okay, those guys are good.
13:41
SPEAKER_00: If you already have speed, then we're gonna build on that speed.
13:43
SPEAKER_00: If they taught you how to A-skip this way, oh, cool.
13:45
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna teach you how to B skip this way.
13:47
SPEAKER_00: You get what I'm saying?
13:48
SPEAKER_00: We we fed off what they was already taught and just tried to add more to that.
13:52
SPEAKER_00: And I think that's what sets us apart.
13:54
SPEAKER_03: That's a great approach.
13:56
SPEAKER_03: Is it is uh is there a difference the way you train like uh younger athletes or high school athletes, or is it also depending on uh when I when I when I was a kid, like it was like oh you never supposed to lift weights until you're like Oh yeah, yeah, until you're like 14 or something like that, and you know, and but now you're going to change gyms.
14:14
SPEAKER_03: There's a lot of young athletes in there getting it, you know?
14:17
SPEAKER_00: We're big on strength.
14:19
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
14:19
SPEAKER_00: So strength doesn't say necessarily you have to lift weights, strength just means resistance.
14:25
SPEAKER_00: Um, and I can I can get you to do body weight exercises and still build and make you stronger.
14:30
SPEAKER_00: You get what I'm saying?
14:31
SPEAKER_00: I've had some kids that's been coming to me with 10, we do assessment, they can't do three push-ups.
14:36
SPEAKER_00: But if I'd have made you do those three push-ups over and over and over, eventually you're gonna be able to do four.
14:41
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna be able to do five, and that means you got stronger.
14:44
SPEAKER_00: You get what I'm saying?
14:45
SPEAKER_00: So I think that's the the method that we we already approach that we know we gonna know by assessing them when they're ready to lift weights.
14:55
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
14:55
SPEAKER_00: You get what I'm saying?
14:56
SPEAKER_00: And even we can have some high school kids that come in and say they lift all this, and we assess you and be like, oh, your technique is wrong.
15:03
SPEAKER_00: Alright.
15:03
SPEAKER_00: You're not gonna really be out there on the field because you're gonna beat yourself up this way.
15:06
SPEAKER_00: And we dial them back.
15:08
SPEAKER_00: And I can't say that's been it's been it's been smiled upon by a lot of people, you know, and a lot of people, you know, didn't stay with us because, but we have your best interest in our if we see something that's gonna hurt you in the long run, we gotta dial you back.
15:24
SPEAKER_00: Yeah and be like, and the ones that that that's receptive to it, you see, they've had success with our program because they understand, because we're gonna break it down.
15:32
SPEAKER_00: Like I said, you have some that just oh, I want to do this.
15:35
SPEAKER_00: And was like, well, if you want to build a refrigerator, build a refrigerator.
15:39
SPEAKER_00: They ain't good with sitting in the corner.
15:40
SPEAKER_00: I want to build a sports car.
15:42
SPEAKER_00: This engine gotta keep going.
15:43
SPEAKER_00: This gotta keep going.
15:44
SPEAKER_00: It's still a strong engine.
15:46
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there's a real art to it all.
15:47
SPEAKER_00: There's a real art to it.
15:48
SPEAKER_00: It's a art, it's a art.
15:49
SPEAKER_00: But that's the way we was taught.
15:51
SPEAKER_00: That's the way we was taught.
15:52
SPEAKER_00: I I gotta applaud all the mentors that I done had over the years that I done picked up something from each one of them that I'm able to give these these kids that.
16:01
SPEAKER_00: And I think that's a big thing with me.
16:03
SPEAKER_00: That's a big thing with Shane.
16:04
SPEAKER_00: Is like you can have all these coaches and go this far in NFL and stuff like that, but if you ain't learning nothing from them or know how to decipher well, that's a good thing and that's a bad thing, and I can break that down into where a baby can understand.
16:16
SPEAKER_00: What are you training for?
16:18
SPEAKER_00: What are you coaching for?
16:19
SPEAKER_00: You can't break this thing down to where I can get you to understand it, we're not getting, we're not gonna, we're not processing.
16:24
SPEAKER_00: I mean progressing, give me, excuse me.
16:27
SPEAKER_00: So um, yeah, that's the big thing.
16:29
SPEAKER_00: Just we assess the kids, we see where they're weak at, and we want to build up on that weakness, we see where they're strong at, we still want to build up on that strength.
16:38
SPEAKER_00: And I think it's just uh the way we talk to them too.
16:42
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna belittle you because you don't know nothing, you don't know how to do anything.
16:46
SPEAKER_00: Um They want to be better.
16:48
SPEAKER_00: They want to be better, they come there better.
16:49
SPEAKER_00: That's the that's the good thing about a lot of kids that's been with us.
16:52
SPEAKER_00: I've never had no bad attitudes where they didn't want it.
16:55
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
16:56
SPEAKER_00: The ones that didn't, they didn't stay.
16:58
SPEAKER_00: You know, but we've been blessed to keep the ones that wanted to.
17:01
SPEAKER_00: You feel what I'm saying?
17:02
SPEAKER_00: And realize, like, okay, I am messing up in this.
17:04
SPEAKER_00: I gotta, I gotta, I gotta, I gotta do better, coach.
17:06
SPEAKER_00: I gotta do better, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do the.
17:08
SPEAKER_00: And then they do it and they see the success in the long run.
17:12
SPEAKER_03: Is it fun to see kids progress?
17:14
SPEAKER_03: Like you get them a little young and then they get into high school and they start the ball out.
17:17
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
17:18
SPEAKER_00: I love it, man.
17:18
SPEAKER_00: My my my nucleus, my nucleus just graduated, my four or five guys, when I had to show y'all that picture, but my nucleus just graduated this year.
17:27
SPEAKER_00: And the seat, when I showed them the older pictures when they was freshmen coming in and be like, look how small you is.
17:33
SPEAKER_00: Like, I got one now, Noah Whitaker.
17:35
SPEAKER_00: Noah Whitaker picked up 50 pounds of muscle since he's been with me.
17:38
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
17:39
SPEAKER_00: He came to me.
17:40
SPEAKER_00: He came to me as a skinny receiver, man.
17:42
SPEAKER_00: And later, you know, with the success Palm Springs had, he was starting at the end, and now he got him a scholarship to go to Cal Lutheran.
17:49
SPEAKER_00: And when I show him the pictures and videos, he'd be like, Wow.
17:52
SPEAKER_00: But because you've been with me so much and we just going through this change, you don't see the drastic change.
17:59
SPEAKER_00: And that's why I document it because I love to come back there.
18:02
SPEAKER_00: People like Jonah Tolan, you know, came to me as a lot of any little eighth grader.
18:06
SPEAKER_00: Nah, you see what he done, yeah, he done sprouting into it.
18:09
SPEAKER_00: And I man, I love to see that.
18:10
SPEAKER_00: But the most thing is um I make them train together.
18:14
SPEAKER_00: So you got kids from Palm Springs that meet kids from Xavier, Palm Desert that was grew up, they supposed to be rivals, and now they playing together, and now they taking pictures after the game and tagging me to it and stuff, and that's the thing I love.
18:28
SPEAKER_00: They don't like it in the beginning.
18:30
SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
18:31
SPEAKER_00: It's a lot of quietness, a lot of women going on.
18:33
SPEAKER_00: But they don't see what I'm trying to build because now you done just got a friend from across town.
18:38
SPEAKER_00: You feel what I'm saying?
18:39
SPEAKER_00: And now, if y'all go to y'all go to other places, like we seen we trained Camille um Provelo, if y'all not familiar with him, the track star.
18:46
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
18:46
SPEAKER_00: He's at Survite right now.
18:48
SPEAKER_00: We trained him when he was younger.
18:49
SPEAKER_00: Jonah was at the state, you know, in uh in a high jump.
18:53
SPEAKER_00: They was seeing each other.
18:54
SPEAKER_00: I seen a post where they seen can come shake each other's hand before Camille run.
18:58
SPEAKER_00: Like, I love to see stuff like that.
19:00
SPEAKER_00: You feel me?
19:01
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, because they were working towards something together at a young age.
19:04
SPEAKER_03: And then they're there.
19:04
SPEAKER_03: I mean, that's that's good.
19:06
SPEAKER_00: Even with them parting and him going way over there to school, it's like you still built the relationship that they talked amongst themselves through Instagram or you know, texting, what have you, that we see that on a big stage.
19:17
SPEAKER_00: Like, wow.
19:18
SPEAKER_00: Both y'all at the highest stage, y'all at state, and now able to come together and shake hands.
19:23
SPEAKER_00: And to me, that's the biggest thing that I want.
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20:18
SPEAKER_01: Empowerment has been known for football training because you guys, obviously, you and Shane got a background in football.
20:24
SPEAKER_01: But you over the years, you guys have kind of expanded that and uh into other sports now.
20:28
SPEAKER_01: I see I see a lot more diversity in your athletes.
20:31
SPEAKER_01: You want to kind of speak to all the other athletes, all the other sports you guys can train and make better as pretty much everybody, right?
20:37
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
20:38
unknown: Excuse me.
20:39
SPEAKER_00: Because I think people start to understand the strength and conditioning aspect of it.
20:44
SPEAKER_00: I mean, yeah, you know, we got well known early on because we had a lot of football players, and of course, we're gonna do football-related drills.
20:51
SPEAKER_00: But I think as they got older and parents start to understand that, okay, even if they run across country, she needs to build her legs up.
21:00
SPEAKER_00: You know, he needs to build his legs up.
21:01
SPEAKER_00: Where can I go?
21:02
SPEAKER_00: I go to them people.
21:03
SPEAKER_00: We have success.
21:04
SPEAKER_00: Oh, they're going in water polo.
21:06
SPEAKER_00: They need some type of shoulder strength.
21:08
SPEAKER_00: You know, they still need explosiveness.
21:10
SPEAKER_00: Or I done had swimmers, um, Ava from Xavier.
21:14
SPEAKER_00: You feel what I'm saying?
21:14
SPEAKER_00: That came in our program and did great things.
21:17
SPEAKER_00: And that's what I think I wanted to approach when I came out here is that strength and conditioning is your baseline.
21:23
SPEAKER_00: Because when you go to college, you just gonna be lifting weights and conditioning and going to class.
21:28
SPEAKER_00: I don't think they know that.
21:29
SPEAKER_00: Ain't no positional work until you go to spring or you you start back with your coaches.
21:34
SPEAKER_00: You know, you're just gonna be a baseline of strength, a baseline of conditioning, and then you go into class.
21:40
SPEAKER_00: And that's what I wanted to bring because that's what they're gonna experience when they go to four years.
21:45
SPEAKER_00: So I didn't want to harper on the positional work so much because then, you know, it kind of confuses people when they see the videos and it was like, oh, they just do drills.
21:55
SPEAKER_00: No, I want you to have a baseline of strength and conditioning too.
21:58
SPEAKER_00: And I think people start understanding.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: That and that's what started bringing them other sports.
22:02
SPEAKER_00: Because, you know, the valley takes a while, especially me and him, we not from here.
22:06
SPEAKER_00: Right.
22:06
SPEAKER_00: So it takes a while for them to come to out-of-towners and be like, uh, I really want to trust you with my kid.
22:12
SPEAKER_00: I don't really know your plan background and things like that.
22:15
SPEAKER_00: So it took us a while, but I think we we made a staple, you know, in this area where they like, okay, that's where I gotta go if I want my kid to excel.
22:24
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's not the only place.
22:26
SPEAKER_00: You know, they got a lot of other gyms around here that do the same thing as us, and you know, they have their strengths and they have their weaknesses, but just to prompt us, I mean, I think that's what's been going at like people understand now that we know what we're doing.
22:38
SPEAKER_00: You know, we've been had good testimonials from a lot of you know clients that has gone to the next level and like, yeah, they helped me tremendously.
22:45
SPEAKER_03: And then all it takes was a couple of parents, that's it, and then they get the word out, and then it kind of just spreads and spreads.
22:51
SPEAKER_03: Yes, sir.
22:52
SPEAKER_01: Yes, sir.
22:53
SPEAKER_01: Turning the page a little, empowerment been around, you guys are killing it in that game.
22:58
SPEAKER_01: Uh, a little different position coming up for you this season, I want to kind of touch on.
23:03
SPEAKER_01: Mr.
23:03
SPEAKER_01: uh coach Nick King got you got you uh out of the personal training.
23:07
SPEAKER_01: Well, you're still in the personal training, yeah, but he he he was smart enough to bring you in to the Shadow Hills program this coming season.
23:13
SPEAKER_01: That sideline.
23:14
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so so what to talk about that decision and and you getting back into the coach?
23:18
SPEAKER_01: Because coaching, even we're old coaches, we know that that's a stressful job, man.
23:21
SPEAKER_01: A lot of work, yeah.
23:21
SPEAKER_01: It's a lot of work.
23:22
SPEAKER_01: You're depending on 18, 17-year-olds for your happiness.
23:25
SPEAKER_01: It's not the best job sometimes, man.
23:27
SPEAKER_01: But so what was what made you kind of say, okay, I think I can come off and join this coaching staff and make a difference.
23:32
SPEAKER_00: I just needed a new challenge.
23:33
SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay.
23:34
SPEAKER_00: I needed a new challenge, man.
23:36
SPEAKER_00: I feel like you said, uh I felt like this thing was on cruise control with empowerment.
23:40
SPEAKER_01: I get you, I get you.
23:41
SPEAKER_00: Um it's it's been other coaches that have reached out over the years.
23:44
SPEAKER_00: It just wasn't something I wanted to do.
23:47
SPEAKER_00: Um, and then when I seen King come and get the new coaching staff, and you know, I I looked him up and I, you know, I respected him a lot in his journey, and I was like, you know what?
23:57
SPEAKER_00: Why not?
23:58
SPEAKER_00: Why not?
23:58
SPEAKER_00: If everybody been asking me all over the years, why not, Dev?
24:01
SPEAKER_00: You know, you got every what reasons you have not to do it.
24:04
SPEAKER_00: And when I looked at the pros and cons, I was like, well, you know, the pros outweighed the cons.
24:10
SPEAKER_00: And it's been a it's been a great journey, man, learning, learning how to coach kids that I'm gonna see every day.
24:17
SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm used to them two, three times out the week, and then they're gone for a couple months.
24:22
SPEAKER_00: But being able to interact with them every day, and I think I didn't make strides with them since I've been there just this little period of time.
24:30
SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
24:31
SPEAKER_00: So I'm really excited about what the season is to come.
24:34
SPEAKER_00: You know, I get to work with the running backs a little bit right now, aside from the strength and conditioning part, which is fun.
24:41
SPEAKER_00: Um, but I think I'm gonna really enjoy watching some of these kids grow because they have a lot of young kids over there and a lot of young talent.
24:48
SPEAKER_00: So the journey's gonna be nice.
24:50
SPEAKER_03: It's a brand new chapter, it's fun to get in in the beginning when it's starting.
24:53
SPEAKER_03: So yeah.
24:54
SPEAKER_01: I think it's a great hire by Coach King, though.
24:56
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
24:56
SPEAKER_01: Because you're a known commodity.
24:57
SPEAKER_01: I know Shadow Hill's gonna be in the weight room.
25:00
SPEAKER_01: Them dudes is gonna be bigger and stronger.
25:02
SPEAKER_01: You want to I would always say, like, if I ever got a head coach, the first guy I'm hiring is the strength and conditioning guy.
25:08
SPEAKER_01: That's the most important one.
25:09
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's one of the most important spots in the whole dang program.
25:12
SPEAKER_01: And people, like I, you know, people forget about that.
25:14
SPEAKER_01: That's like the most important spot in the offseason.
25:17
SPEAKER_01: So great hire by Coach King.
25:19
SPEAKER_01: I think you know, you over there is gonna be a real a real benefit to that program.
25:23
SPEAKER_01: And I think they're already gonna see some results over there.
25:25
SPEAKER_01: So you've been over there for a couple months now.
25:27
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
25:28
SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, we don't wanna we don't want to take Coach King's spot, but I know you you have some ideas on how it's how the camp's going and and some players that maybe look out for that we maybe haven't heard of over there.
25:39
SPEAKER_00: Not too many y'all haven't heard of, and and I'm still learning the kids.
25:43
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, I know I know them by their face rather than name.
25:46
SPEAKER_00: So I'm I'm still tape on their heads.
25:49
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm still learning.
25:50
SPEAKER_01: I'm still learning to do that every season two.
25:52
SPEAKER_00: I definitely think y'all are gonna surprise, be surprised when y'all see them first hit the field.
25:57
SPEAKER_00: I mean, of course, we're gonna go through some growing pains.
25:59
SPEAKER_00: It's a new coach, it's a new environment.
26:01
SPEAKER_00: It takes a while to kind of new playbook.
26:03
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
26:04
SPEAKER_00: Build them the way you want to, but I think he's doing an exceptional job, and all the coaches on that coaching staff is doing an exceptional job of turning that curve to making them do what he wants to.
26:14
SPEAKER_00: And it's it's gonna go in the right direction.
26:16
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna go in the right direction.
26:17
SPEAKER_00: We had this thing called um we changing the culture.
26:19
SPEAKER_00: That's where all the coaches inside, even the principal, he'd be in the weight room sometimes.
26:26
SPEAKER_00: Doctor What you've been there in there, huh?
26:28
SPEAKER_00: Doctor being there, he was like, uh I love this.
26:30
SPEAKER_00: It's changing the culture because we we doing a lot of things that not not no knock on what's been going on before because I haven't been there, but like he said, he never seen coaches work out with the players.
26:40
SPEAKER_00: Coach Kingdom be in there working out with them.
26:42
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm training the guys, you get what I'm saying?
26:44
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I don't think they're ready for me.
26:46
SPEAKER_00: I'm packing on too much weight.
26:48
SPEAKER_00: But I don't want to embarrass nobody.
26:51
SPEAKER_00: It is a blessing, and I think the kids buying in.
26:54
SPEAKER_00: And like you said, we was talking about earlier with a lot of the team building exercises that King is implementing.
26:59
SPEAKER_00: Um, that's a plus because the kids are all buying in, you know.
27:03
SPEAKER_00: So it's I I'm I'm I'm excited, man.
27:06
SPEAKER_00: I'm excited, bro.
27:07
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think all the Shadow Hills fans should be excited too, because I think a new era, like Coach Josh says, and you say, it's gonna take a couple games to get your get your bearings just because everything's brand new, but I think the foundation is there.
27:18
SPEAKER_00: And a tough preseason schedule.
27:19
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you guys haven't even hit that in.
27:21
SPEAKER_01: You guys got a lot of returning talent.
27:23
SPEAKER_01: I think, you know, player for a player, you guys got some really good.
27:26
SPEAKER_01: They're gonna be starting back, man.
27:27
SPEAKER_01: So that always helps, right?
27:28
SPEAKER_01: Yes, sir.
27:29
SPEAKER_01: That always helps.
27:30
SPEAKER_03: I saw them during summer.
27:31
SPEAKER_01: They look they look good.
27:31
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
27:32
SPEAKER_03: Throwing the ball at least.
27:33
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, they're building.
27:33
SPEAKER_03: No pay.
27:34
SPEAKER_03: They're building.
27:34
SPEAKER_03: They're good.
27:35
SPEAKER_01: So I think we're on the right track over there.
27:37
SPEAKER_01: Good hire by Coach King.
27:38
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, sir.
27:39
SPEAKER_01: So um, you've kind of been to where a lot of the players that watch the show want to go.
27:44
SPEAKER_01: They want to go play D1 ball, you know, they want to get to the next level.
27:48
SPEAKER_01: What advice would you give to those players that think, hey, I maybe got a shot?
27:52
SPEAKER_01: You've been there, you've been to the promised land, you've seen, you've seen the layout.
27:55
SPEAKER_01: What do these young kids need to do to kind of set themselves up to even have a chance to do that?
28:00
SPEAKER_00: Uh, first and foremost, social media is big.
28:03
SPEAKER_00: So you gotta change the social media to make it look like a business page.
28:07
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you should first have your name on there.
28:10
SPEAKER_00: My name should be Devin Jones at the top, class of whatever, GPA.
28:15
SPEAKER_00: They should have a link to where they can access your film, and then all your videos and all your posts should either be your view training or a couple of highlights and stuff like that.
28:24
SPEAKER_00: Um, from where I wanted to, they don't want to see money making Mitch.
28:28
SPEAKER_00: You get what I'm saying?
28:29
SPEAKER_00: They don't want to see posts like your head down gas station with a lot of lights.
28:34
SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
28:35
SPEAKER_00: I know, I know that's a popular thing, but these are what the coaches don't want to see.
28:39
SPEAKER_00: And if you want to get your name out there, when they see you and they see you play, and they done heard, oh, such and such and said your name in the stance, they will look right quick.
28:47
SPEAKER_00: They know I can go to social media, I can go to Instagram, Twitter quicker than I can talk to your coach.
28:52
SPEAKER_00: Because going talk to the coach requires me to drive down here, fly down here from wherever school I'm coming from.
28:58
SPEAKER_00: I gotta meet the principal, I gotta get access, and then I gotta go meet the coach, and then I gotta meet the counselor, talk about your your grade point average.
29:05
SPEAKER_00: Then I finally get to meet you, and then I gotta still pull you out of class or catch you at the right time.
29:10
SPEAKER_00: It's a lot, right?
29:11
SPEAKER_00: Opposed if I know I can go look up Devin Jones in his Instagram and turn your way quick when they don't have nothing to look at.
29:18
SPEAKER_00: So that's first and foremost, because we didn't have to worry about that growing up, you know what I'm saying?
29:23
SPEAKER_00: But they they have to now.
29:25
SPEAKER_00: And it's a good tool, and it can also be a bad one.
29:28
unknown: Right.
29:29
SPEAKER_00: So if it's not set up for success in the future, it's gonna be a bad thing because the minute they go to it and they don't see no pictures, and you know what I'm saying, they don't they barely see your name.
29:38
SPEAKER_00: And when they Google your name, they got eight different people and none of them have a headshot.
29:43
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's your chance right there, regardless of how great you is, you know, they're gonna look past you because they're gonna go over the riverside and they're gonna look at another kid and he's gonna have everything like that.
29:53
SPEAKER_00: Boom.
29:53
SPEAKER_00: I'd rather take him.
29:54
SPEAKER_00: That makes sense.
29:55
SPEAKER_00: You know, yeah, it's perfect sense.
29:57
SPEAKER_00: So that's advice.
29:58
SPEAKER_00: Um, you have to train, you have to train, but you also have to recover.
30:03
SPEAKER_00: Recovery is a big thing.
30:04
SPEAKER_00: You're only good if you're on the field.
30:05
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
30:06
SPEAKER_00: You know, you can lift all the weights, you can run, you can practice all hard.
30:09
SPEAKER_00: But if you saw it and tore up on game day, or you ain't practice all week and you finally want to practice on game day, you ain't the same athlete.
30:16
SPEAKER_00: So I think recovery has to be a big thing with these kids during the season.
30:20
SPEAKER_00: You know, go get in the ice bath, you know, go get in a sauna, go get a massage, or something of recovery that you can do.
30:28
SPEAKER_00: Um, cryotherapy is big, you know.
30:30
SPEAKER_00: I know they have a lot of good places around here for that.
30:33
SPEAKER_00: Um, but recovery has to be a big thing.
30:36
SPEAKER_00: Um and sometimes you got to get away from people that's bad for you.
30:40
unknown: Yeah.
30:40
SPEAKER_00: I know that's a that's a big thing.
30:42
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that might be your friend that you grew up with, you know, forever, but if you know he's going down the wrong path or she's going down the wrong path, you need to disassociate yourself because you don't want to be associated with that, you know, because I mean, unfortunately now, and it's from experience, uh, parents talk about kids just as much as kids talk about kids.
31:02
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, exactly.
31:02
SPEAKER_00: And one thing you don't want to is I'm engaging with you and you don't even know I'm a college coach.
31:07
SPEAKER_00: I just ask you about such and such, and you're like, man, that guy's always in some trouble.
31:11
SPEAKER_00: As great as an athlete he is, you know, and you don't you don't know that I'm I'm recruiting him, but I'm like, oh what?
31:17
SPEAKER_00: If a if a parent says that I'm gonna trust your word before I go to him.
31:20
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know what I'm saying?
31:21
SPEAKER_00: Regardless of how great of an athlete he is, because your investment when you go to college.
31:25
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
31:26
SPEAKER_00: I gotta invest$50,000,$60,000 in you.
31:28
SPEAKER_00: But first I gotta bring you to the table, and I gotta tell my head coach, this is a guy that I want on this team.
31:34
SPEAKER_00: And if the head coach is like, nah, you know, then that's it.
31:39
SPEAKER_00: I mean, funny story about that, I hate to, you know, keep talking, but during my recruiting process, I lost a scholarship to University of Tennessee.
31:48
SPEAKER_00: We was beating a team by 50.
31:50
SPEAKER_00: I got like three touchdowns that game.
31:52
SPEAKER_00: I'm over here dancing with the chill leaders.
31:54
SPEAKER_00: I'm on the I'm on the table with the pompons.
31:57
SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm doing a good person.
31:59
SPEAKER_00: So the next day, um, or that Monday, coach comes in, I meet him, shake his hand.
32:04
SPEAKER_00: First thing he pulled up, tell me what you're doing right here.
32:07
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, Um, that's defense.
32:09
SPEAKER_00: I'm not on the field right now.
32:10
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no.
32:11
SPEAKER_00: Coach, can you zoom in right here?
32:13
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, Oh, I'm dancing with the Chili's.
32:16
SPEAKER_00: He was like, Yeah, I'm gonna tell my coach that you're gonna you gonna get up at 6 a.m.
32:21
SPEAKER_00: and make my strength condition uh sessions.
32:24
SPEAKER_00: Is that telling my coach that this guy can one day be the leader of this offense?
32:28
SPEAKER_00: Is this a guy you would invest in?
32:31
SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, no.
32:32
SPEAKER_00: Okay, nice to meet you.
32:33
SPEAKER_00: And he walked out.
32:34
SPEAKER_00: Wow, just like that.
32:35
SPEAKER_00: He walked out.
32:36
SPEAKER_00: And from then, I had a long talk with my head coach after that, and he was like, Yeah, you have to conduct yourself accordingly.
32:42
SPEAKER_00: I didn't even know you was doing that.
32:43
SPEAKER_00: He was like, Yeah, it's all fun and games until people like that see you.
32:47
SPEAKER_00: Right.
32:47
SPEAKER_00: And everything you do, everything you say, they monitoring.
32:52
SPEAKER_00: Like I said, unfortunately, we didn't have social media growing up, but it's like that with the kids.
32:56
SPEAKER_00: They're monitoring everything.
32:59
SPEAKER_00: So you gotta make sure you're doing everything possible to set you ahead, not set you back.
33:04
SPEAKER_03: That's so true, man.
33:05
SPEAKER_03: They're looking at every angle.
33:06
SPEAKER_03: Everything, man.
33:07
SPEAKER_03: And that social media is just a window, really.
33:09
SPEAKER_00: I mean, look at it when things happen in life, how quickly they go back to five, six years ago when that kid was a freshman in high school.
33:17
SPEAKER_00: Like, oh, he said this on Twitter.
33:19
SPEAKER_00: You get what I'm saying?
33:21
SPEAKER_00: In his mind, he done forgot about it.
33:22
SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't even live in that moment no more.
33:25
SPEAKER_00: But they can go back and get it from social media.
33:27
SPEAKER_00: You get what I'm saying?
33:28
SPEAKER_00: And now that entertaining people's perspective about you.
33:31
SPEAKER_00: You done built yourself up to be all the way a Heisman candidate, a great young man, and they find this one tweet you done said, yeah, and boom, change the whole thing.
33:39
SPEAKER_00: Or one picture where you done had your middle finger up and you just chilling with your boys.
33:43
SPEAKER_00: At that time, you didn't even think you was gonna play college football.
33:46
SPEAKER_00: Right.
33:46
SPEAKER_00: But somewhere that picture is still lingering.
33:49
SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
33:50
SPEAKER_00: They can pop it up with a quickness.
33:52
SPEAKER_00: And that goes your career, man.
33:54
SPEAKER_00: That's some good advice.
33:54
SPEAKER_00: Great advice.
33:55
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, all you players out there need to listen to this.
33:58
SPEAKER_01: If you have any inkling that you might play at the next level, take Coach Devin's advice, clean up that social media immediately.
34:04
SPEAKER_01: Please, please immediately.
34:06
SPEAKER_01: Please, man.
34:06
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no, no, no crazy stuff on social media.
34:10
SPEAKER_01: Um, so I think we can consider you a native now.
34:12
SPEAKER_01: You've been in the Coachella Valley for six years.
34:14
SPEAKER_01: Six years, right?
34:15
SPEAKER_01: I know you're from the South, but but I always want to ask the the guys that kind of come in.
34:19
SPEAKER_01: I think you and Shane and Empowerment have kind of helped rise the level of play out here.
34:25
SPEAKER_01: But what's your what's your take on the valley football right now?
34:27
SPEAKER_01: Where do you think it's at?
34:28
SPEAKER_01: Where do you think we can go?
34:30
SPEAKER_00: I think I think it's very young right now.
34:32
SPEAKER_00: Okay, and these young guys are coming in ready to play.
34:36
SPEAKER_00: Right.
34:36
SPEAKER_00: Um, I gotta test y'all, y'all coach has been doing a good job at the uh at the you know the youth little league level, let me say that, to get them ready because a lot of them are coming in ready to play.
34:47
SPEAKER_00: They don't want to be freshmen and sit on the sideline.
34:49
SPEAKER_00: They want to play with varsity.
34:50
SPEAKER_00: They feel they compete.
34:52
SPEAKER_00: And I think that's a real big thing in turning the whole program.
34:55
SPEAKER_00: Especially people like Coach King, who's at Shadow, you know what I'm saying, that feel like, oh, I didn't I didn't need to stay at PD.
35:01
SPEAKER_00: I mean, um, Palm Springs, let me go over here.
35:03
SPEAKER_00: I think that'll make a good camaraderie because you know what I'm saying, he's gonna build them this way.
35:07
SPEAKER_00: You got Palm Springs build them this way, Rancho.
35:10
SPEAKER_00: I I feel like you got a lot of scattered talent that's just gonna make it very competitive around here.
35:16
SPEAKER_00: Right, you know, very competitive.
35:17
SPEAKER_00: It ain't just like all our kids are leaving one program and staying at one program and they just adding more.
35:22
SPEAKER_00: Oh, they spreading out.
35:24
SPEAKER_00: I mean, look at the success of DHS.
35:26
SPEAKER_00: I mean, when I first came out here, nobody would say DHS name, and now you're looking at them and like they got who?
35:31
SPEAKER_00: They got some dudes.
35:31
SPEAKER_00: They doing what?
35:32
SPEAKER_01: They got some dudes.
35:33
SPEAKER_01: They winning what?
35:34
SPEAKER_01: You know what I'm saying?
35:34
SPEAKER_00: So um I think I think the valley is getting a lot better, especially with some of the success that some of the kids did have that went to the college ranks.
35:43
SPEAKER_00: I think that's helping these kids get their mindset that I can be that next one.
35:47
SPEAKER_00: You know, when you have the Jake Shipleys that went to Oregon, you know, you got the Brysons went to Oregon, you know, things like that is helping shape their minds.
35:54
SPEAKER_00: Like, oh, I can get out of here too.
35:55
SPEAKER_00: And they working harder.
35:56
SPEAKER_00: Right.
35:57
SPEAKER_00: And they working harder.
35:58
SPEAKER_00: And I I think the future's bright.
36:00
SPEAKER_00: The future's bright over here.
36:02
SPEAKER_03: I I think some of that strength conditioning that you're doing.
36:04
SPEAKER_03: I hope so.
36:06
SPEAKER_01: Well, definitely, yeah.
36:06
SPEAKER_01: Empowerment's had something to do with that.
36:09
SPEAKER_01: I wouldn't we'd we'd have to say that because those dudes were at the top of the food chain for a long time.
36:12
SPEAKER_01: So you and Shane kind of opened the door.
36:14
SPEAKER_01: Now other people are kind of doing it too.
36:16
SPEAKER_01: I think that's just gonna raise all of our all of our levels.
36:19
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, that's a blessing.
36:20
SPEAKER_00: That's a blessing because they're able to reach people that we're not able to reach.
36:23
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
36:23
SPEAKER_00: Now everybody is getting that extra work instead of just this nucleus that's getting the work and nobody else is.
36:29
SPEAKER_00: You got um, you got a lot of guys that didn't came back from college.
36:33
SPEAKER_00: Excuse me.
36:34
SPEAKER_00: From what I seen, and they're giving back to community by training.
36:37
SPEAKER_00: It's because I ain't never been to La Kintha outside of La Kintha High School.
36:40
SPEAKER_00: I never trained that field and stuff like that.
36:43
SPEAKER_00: But I know that's a real popular place.
36:45
SPEAKER_00: I see on social media a lot of trainers over there.
36:47
SPEAKER_00: So that's a lot of kids getting work.
36:49
SPEAKER_00: I seen Mr.
36:50
SPEAKER_00: Henry Hodge got his thing going over there for the for the trenches.
36:54
SPEAKER_00: I think that's major.
36:55
SPEAKER_00: The trenches don't get enough credit, man.
36:57
SPEAKER_00: But like I said, you got a lot of people giving back, and I think that's what's making this area more competitive, you know?
37:03
SPEAKER_01: And you and Shane can't get everybody.
37:04
SPEAKER_01: You guys can't do it.
37:05
SPEAKER_01: We can't get everybody.
37:06
SPEAKER_01: You guys got jobs.
37:06
SPEAKER_01: A lot of work done.
37:07
SPEAKER_01: I wish we could.
37:08
SPEAKER_01: You guys can't help everybody because you guys are just you're popular, and you know, other guys got to step in.
37:13
SPEAKER_01: But I think you know, they're all doing a good job, and you guys are we're leading that way.
37:17
SPEAKER_01: So um, you know, we're just we're blessed to have you coming and talk to us today.
37:21
SPEAKER_01: You guys are doing a great job.
37:22
SPEAKER_01: Where can our listeners kind of find you if they want to maybe get that empowerment, you know, work out on and get to the next level?
37:28
SPEAKER_01: Where's the best place to find you?
37:29
SPEAKER_00: So you can find us at at empowerment underscore s dot s dot a on Instagram, or you can find my personal Instagram at D as in dog, Big Easy51.
37:41
SPEAKER_00: Um, as far as our phone number and things like that, I don't know if we can sell you on Instagram.
37:47
SPEAKER_00: Okay, okay, but yeah, you can find us on Instagram.
37:50
SPEAKER_00: Facebook, our our empowerment name is also on Facebook.
37:53
SPEAKER_00: Um, and then reach just reach out and then we'll contact you as soon as possible.
37:57
SPEAKER_00: I know sometimes I'll be busy and bro be busy, but we'll get back to you at our earliest convenience.
38:03
SPEAKER_00: But reach out, people.
38:06
SPEAKER_01: These guys are the best in the business.
38:07
SPEAKER_01: They're they're really good at what they do, I can attest.
38:09
SPEAKER_01: I've seen it firsthand with some of the players I've coached.
38:12
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and you can see it now when you see all these guys getting offers and guys going to college, they're they're they're crediting in Coach Devin over here with some of the some of that work.
38:21
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, if you're a serious athlete, it's almost a must.
38:23
SPEAKER_03: You gotta be.
38:23
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, these days you got to get that extra work in if you're if you're gonna try and get to the next level.
38:28
SPEAKER_01: Coach, thanks for coming in, man.
38:29
SPEAKER_01: You're a star in our community.
38:31
SPEAKER_01: I'm excited that you're joining the coaching community.
38:33
SPEAKER_01: I think it's only gonna help help the help the school that you're at, and you're gonna feel some of our pain pretty soon.
38:39
SPEAKER_01: As being a coach, you know, sometimes it's a it's a painful profession, but we're glad we're glad to welcome you into it.
38:45
SPEAKER_01: We wish you good luck this year.
38:46
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, man.
38:46
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
38:47
SPEAKER_01: All right, guys.
38:48
SPEAKER_01: You know the routine.
38:48
SPEAKER_01: If you found some value in that conversation, like, subscribe, and follow, and we'll see you next time on Desert Valley Blitz.