Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / #97: Gill1918 Presents Coach/Author Dave Emeott “You Can't Catch Fish Unless You Go Fishing” Powered by Coach O

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#97: Gill1918 Presents Coach/Author Dave Emeott “You Can't Catch Fish Unless You Go Fishing” Powered by Coach O · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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  Welcome to the Gill 1918 Project, a podcast series by
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  coaches for coaches, powered by Gill Athletics.
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  Think of it as the Ted Talks of track and field coaching.
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  Short, insightful, and packed with valuable strategies to help
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  you grow as a coach. This episode is part of the
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  Youth and Beginner Series, brought to you by Coach O.
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  In this series, we focus on topics relating to coaching
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  youth athletes, coaching beginner athletes of any age,
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  and supporting brand new coaches as they find their way.
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  With that in mind, let's grow. How big is your track across
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  country team? Do you have enough athletes to
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  accomplish your goals? Would you like more?
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  Let me ask you this, what would happen if your program doubled
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  in size or tripled in size? I'm Dave, MI, head track and
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  field coach at East Kentwood High School in Michigan, where I
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  also coach pole ball for both the boys and the girls.
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  Our team has grown to 180 boys and 160 girls.
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  And every year we work to grow those numbers, not just for
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  wins, for for something much bigger.
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  Let me give you the back story. First of all, I'm talking about
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  this today because somebody said, Dave, how do you get so
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  many people? They had heard me talking and
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  they said, how do you get so many people?
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  I said, well, maybe I need to spend a few minutes and let you
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  know all the little things we're doing to grow our team.
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  And maybe some of them can help you grow your team as well.
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  When I started in 2004, we had 56 boys on the team and on the
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  girls side. And I'll continue to reference
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  the girls because coach Stephanie Stevenson, our girls
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  coach, is my partner in crime and all this.
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  I would grow and she would grow. And so I would do, I would try
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  to get my team bigger and so would she.
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  So we did a lot of this together, but we had 56 boys and
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  less than 30 girls on the team back in 2004.
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  And we would win some some league titles and and be
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  competitive. But I had I had a theory.
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  I said, well, if we have 10 kids, I bet you one of them is
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  going to be good. And if we have 100 kids, one of
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  them is going to be great and I can win a lot of track meets
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  with 9 good athletes and 1 great 1.
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  So it was our goal to go out and try to win state titles and, and
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  championships and, and I knew I had to have some great athletes
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  if I was going to do that. So that theory, I'm not sure if
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  it if it has any statistics behind it whatsoever, but it
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  still drives me to this very day.
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  And we, we were always trying to be bigger and better.
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  So when we originally set our goal, we, we looked around and
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  we said, OK, what, what makes sense?
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  And so we had at the time, we had about 2500 kids in our
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  school. These days in our school, we
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  have about 2627 hundred, so pretty similar size.
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  And I figured that 10% of them could come out for track.
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  That was our goal we're going to hit.
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  We're going to try to find 10% of the school so far on the boys
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  side, that was 125 boys. And if we can get that, we could
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  change the culture. Every classroom is going to have
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  two to three track athletes in it.
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  People would take notice. Graduation couldn't never be
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  scheduled on the night of a big meet because we had we'd have
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  10% of the graduating class on our team.
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  It couldn't couldn't be done. So we were we mattered and we
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  were going to change the school ecosystem.
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  So I set a goal, A5 year goal 125 kids.
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  How do we get there? So here's here are all the, the
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  things that we did. We, we went to football games,
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  soccer matches, swim meets, cross country races, anywhere
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  that we could find potential athletes.
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  I visited classes on my prep hour.
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  I handed out Flyers in the hallway.
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  I stood in front of the freshman lunch and and had a bowl of
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  candy and said, anybody who signs up for track is going to
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  get a mini Snickers bars today. Come to come to our meeting.
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  You know, at the end of lunch, we're going to, we're going to
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  spend 5 minutes in in in. If you sign up, you get a
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  Snickers bar. But I'm going to tell you a
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  couple things that I think are important to you.
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  Here's how you earn a varsity letter.
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  Not all freshmen get to earn a varsity letter on other sports,
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  but you can on ours. No experience is required.
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  It's really hard to learn how to throw a baseball in at 14 years
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  old, but it's not hard to learn how to run.
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  Just show up. We just need bodies.
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  We need smart kids, dumb kids, tall kids, short kids.
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  It doesn't matter. We need them all on our team.
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  We, we didn't look for perfect athletes, we looked for kids.
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  I'd ask the I'd ask the teachers and the coaches.
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  Who's your hardest worker in class?
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  Who's tall? Who's funny?
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  Who who can't sit still? Who's who's got too much energy?
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  We're always shaking the trees and trying to and trying to get
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  as many kids as possible. Eventually I got access to the
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  parent e-mail list and now nowadays most of us probably
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  have access to that or some sort of format.
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  But you know, back then we didn't really have that.
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  I would start to send weekly updates to all of the parents in
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  the offseason about track and field and I'd celebrate our
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  alumni. I did it so often.
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  I, I actually got told I had to pull back a little bit.
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  But I, I put the messages out there.
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  Hey, let me tell you about this kid who's running in college
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  somewhere. Or let me tell you about, you
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  know, our, our, our GPA of our team, whatever, whatever I could
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  brag about. I wanted people to know,
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  especially parents to know that this was a positive place for
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  their kids and they were going to they were going to grow if
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  they came in and hung out with us.
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  Re remind them that you know, I would always try to remind them.
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  Most of our sport is is talent based.
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  You just needed to be talent, no skill required.
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  You didn't know have to know how to, you know, throw a ball or
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  ice skater or dribble a basketball.
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  You you could start athletics, track and field in high school.
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  If you had never done any other sports before.
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  It might be tough, but there might be some talented kids out
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  there. There might just be kids who
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  want to be a part of something. We, we had a layered approach.
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  Recruitment just didn't start in 9th grade.
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  We, we started, you know, if you, if you said OK, we got five
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  years to build our, build our program up.
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  We started that that year doing a lot of different things in for
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  the younger kids. So each week we would do speed
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  and agility for, for an hour for K through 2/3 through 5 and
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  middle schools. Those would be 5 week long
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  sessions an hour a piece, so 551 hour sessions.
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  And I'd have my current athletes run the stations and while they
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  were running the warm ups and the whatever workout we were
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  doing that day for that group or for the younger kids, whatever
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  game we were going to play to just have them run around the
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  gym. I'd meet with all the parents
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  and I'd tell them why I love track and field and I would tell
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  them why they should consider it for their kids someday.
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  I wasn't really trying to sell track and field to them at this
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  moment, just put that in as an idea in their head.
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  In the summer, we run Kentwood Track Club.
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  It's it's a, it's a group. We meet two days a week.
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  It goes 2nd grade through 12th grade.
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  We break into our groups of elementary, middle school and
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  high school kids. It's we probably have around 200
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  kids at the beginning of each summer.
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  It whittles itself down by the end of the summer, but it's low
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  key. It's no pressure.
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  There's no scary elite club vibe.
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  We're not trying to win nationals.
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  We're trying to build a connection and get people out on
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  the team. Our middle schools, our middle
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  school strategy, we incentivize middle school coaches to build
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  numbers. Back in the beginning, I would I
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  would say whoever has the biggest team, I'm going to buy
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  your, your, your coach's gear. When I started, we had 130
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  middle school kids total from three middle schools, boys and
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  girls. Now we have over 400 kids in
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  those in those three middle schools feeding into into our
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  high school. We go to practices, we go to
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  their meets and, and our big middle school event for the
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  year, it's called Battle of the Woods.
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  We started this years ago, probably, you know, around that
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  same time, 20 O 420 O 5 and it's Pinewood versus Valleywood
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  versus Crestwood. And we hand out medals and we
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  shake hands and, and Coach Stevenson, the girls coach and
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  I, we sit at the 50 yard line and we announce, you know, check
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  out this race and, and Johnny won and Susie was second and
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  whatever it was. And then they have to come to us
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  to get their medals. We hand each kid their medal And
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  and we don't do a medal presentation.
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  We we hand them their medal, we check them off our list and then
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  we have a conversation with them so we can meet them.
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  Our cross country coaches, they now come to the same thing and
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  they're handing out Flyers for cross country and they're
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  writing personal invites. They knew Johnny ran a really
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  good mile time last week. He gets a personal invite to
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  join the cross country team. It's all about building
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  relationships. The biggest event, the crown
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  jewel of our entire pipeline of East Kentwood track and Field.
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  This is the one that blows the mind of most coaches that I tell
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  them This is why we're great. We have always in the history of
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  our district done this meet. It is called 5th grade Field
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  day. It's a crown jewel of our
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  pipeline. It's a 2 day event.
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  Every 5th grader in the district, five schools on what?
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  We have 10 elementary schools. So 5 schools on one day, five
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  schools on the next day. Every single 5th grader
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  participates. For 20 years, I was the starter
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  for this meet. And Stephanie, the girls coach
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  that I keep telling you about, she was the clerk.
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  We touch every single kid face to face who gets to talk to
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  every kid? The starter who gets to talk to
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  every kid, the clerk, because when you're talking about 5th
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  graders, they're moving around and you get to go and, you know,
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  get your foot behind the line and build relationships with
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  them. Our high school athletes
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  officiate all the field events. We have a big long talk with our
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  kids about, hey, it doesn't matter who wins who, who throws
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  the softball the furthest or who long jumps the furthest.
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  That's not who we're recruiting. We're recruiting every single
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  kid to, to leave that day and think, man, track and field's a
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  cool sport. And I can't, I can't wait to be
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  a part of that. It's a, it's a rite of passage
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  for every 5th grader in, in Carol public schools.
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  And if you ask any kid what their favorite elementary school
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  memory was, field day is a top three, guaranteed.
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  I it's usually a top one. It is always right in the mix
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  for what, what they do. So that that fifth grade field
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  day, I've defended that mission so many times.
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  People have tried to shut that down, curriculum directors and
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  teachers and, and, and you know, sometimes there's been PE
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  teachers and they run, they are the ones that coach the teams.
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  They've said, oh, it's so much work.
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  And the curriculum director is like, well, we, we should spend
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  that time, you know, you know, working on our other studies and
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  our standards. I fought so hard.
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  Field day teaches life, competition, effort, joy.
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  It's standing still today and it's going to, it's stronger
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  than ever and it's going to continue on.
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  And it's the lifeblood of East Kentwood track and field.
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  But a lot of East Kentwood athletics because it teaches
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  kids for the first time to go out and compete.
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  Many of them. I can tell you when you're
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  recruiting, when you're, when you're out recruiting kids and
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  parents and, and one thing you got to prepare yourself for is
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  rejection. You're going to get rejected and
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  you better be resilient. I've been rejected thousands and
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  thousands of times because I've invited every single kid to be a
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  part of our team. It doesn't matter who they are.
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  I've talked to all of them. And I said, man, you should be.
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  You know, you know, one of my great joys is when a kid, you
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  know what? Their senior year, they didn't
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  run track. I, I run into them somewhere
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  else and they're like, yeah, you wanted me on your team so bad.
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  And I and I, I go, yeah, I did, I did.
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  But I giggle inside because I wanted every kid on my team so
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  bad and I and I tried to recruit so everybody and I hope
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  everybody felt like I really wanted them there, even if even
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  if maybe they didn't want to be there.
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  So, you know, like I said, I've been rejected.
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  I hate running track is boring. I've never done done it before,
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  but but I can tell you this, you can't catch fish unless you go
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  fishing. And we fish a lot.
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  We are always fishing. In 2009, five years after my
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  first year, we hit 132 boys on our team for the first time.
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  Also in 2009 we were we were well. 2008 we were runner up at
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  the state finals. 2009 we were state champions for the first
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  time and and those 132 boys couldn't be more excited that
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  they were part of the the first ever state title in East
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  Kentwood boys track and field. We went on to win eight more
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  state titles, three more runner UPS.
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  We've had an amazing time. The only year that we weren't
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  above 125 was in 2021 right after COVID, which kind of
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  slowed us our pace down a little bit, couldn't meet and couldn't
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  recruit as much. But you know, we love our team.
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  We love how big our team is. We've won a lot of meats, but
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  but more than that, we've impacted a lot of lives.
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  We've created a lot of smiles. When a when a kid runs a time
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  they never thought they could hit, when they clear a bar that
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  they they thought was too high, those are the real trophies.
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  And when we have 180 kids on the team, we get a lot of trophies.
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  We get a lot of smiles. I understand coaches, I don't
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  know if I understand coaches that, that are quality over
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  quantity, but I but I get it. You know, I see a team that's 25
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  kids, their whole roster is 25 kids.
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  Somehow they've picked 25 elite athletes and they go out and
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  they win something. I I don't know.
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  I don't know that I could do that.
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  Maybe maybe I would be happy about it.
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  Maybe I'd have a lot of fun with it, but I like having big
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  groups. I like building fraternities.
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  I love them getting together and, and having memories, you
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  know, till they're old. I think if I had a small team,
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  I'd, I'd miss the impact. I, I certainly wouldn't have as
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  big a staff as I have because how I justify my staff is how,
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  how you know, I have 15 people on my coaching staff is because
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  we have 350 kids on the team. And so we have to have a big
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  staff. I think if you had 25, you might
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  only have one or two staff members.
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  So life might be a little bit harder.
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  But I, I would, I would miss the time with the kids.
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  I would miss the time with my staff and I can tell you I, I
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  don't know that I'd laugh as much as I do right now because
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  when you have over 300 kids out there on the track, man, there's
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  something to laugh about every single day.
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  So my final message is, is to you is, is to grow your team,
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  not for the wins, but for the joy.
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  Make it a mission to say no rock is left unturned.
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  Every kid was asked to join this team.
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  We we gassed them all and, and if and if you make that your
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  mission, you're going to grow your team and I know you're
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  going to find some stars out there somewhere.
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  I can tell you I go to track meets all the time.
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  I look around and I ask myself what I asked that kid to join
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  the team. If that kid was sitting in my
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  third hour class in the front row and they were quiet and they
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  never said anything. What I ever have asked them to
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  join the team. I know what my answer is.
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  I would ask, I ask every kid to be on the team, but I know the
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  guys that are out there looking for quality over quantity would
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  would have a hard time looking at some skinny little kid who
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  who wasn't very tall and wasn't very intimidating.
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  Hey, hey, maybe that kids going to be the next star.
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  I asked the kid, I I want that kid on my team and, and guess
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  what? A lot of those kids have turned
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  out to be stars. And so overturn all the rocks.
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  Ask all the kids to join. It's going to make your life a
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  lot better, not only competitively, but just you're
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  going to have you're going to have more fun.
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  If you enjoyed this podcast and want to hear more stories like
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  this, check out my book coming in late 2025, Beyond the Finish
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  Line, The Art of Transformational Coaching.
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  Thank you. Have a good day.
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  Hey gang, Mike Cunningham here. Thanks for joining us for this
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  episode in the Youth and beginner series Powered by Coach
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