Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / BONUS: USTFCCCA 2023 LIVE: Blake Bolden-Drake Relays

Transcript

BONUS: USTFCCCA 2023 LIVE: Blake Bolden-Drake Relays · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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  Hey gang, you know we like our bonus material.
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  So from today all the way through USTF CCA, in celebration
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  of our live podcast recording at the convention, we're going to
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  play you last year's clips, each one individual from today all
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  the way up until Monday, December 16th when we go live on
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  YouTube at 6:00 Eastern Time. Join us if you're at the
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  convention, sit down. We're going to be talking about
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  your feelings, actions, thoughts about the way the NCAA is
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  changing and we're going to make some predictions for next year.
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  And every guest that sits down with us will you get a a
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  exclusive free gift? So join us December 16th, 6:00
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  PM Eastern Time for the Gill Live Connections podcast on
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  YouTube and at the USTF CCA convention.
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  Here is bonus material. Welcome to the 2023.
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  I just forget what year we're at 2023 version of the Guild
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  Connections podcast live 2 places right here on YouTube.
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  And you know, I am always, always, always on Twitter.
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  And so we're live right over here.
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  We're going to make sure my my cameras are going here, right,
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  that we're live on Twitter as well.
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  If you want to check out, it's at Mike Cunningham over on
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  Twitter. And we're back for another live
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  edition. It was such a hit last year.
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  Everybody enjoyed being on the show.
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  I heard a lot of please, please, please do it again.
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  And so we're here, we're back in Denver as well.
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  We're just repeating everything we've got.
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  So appreciate you guys joining us here.
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  You can join us in the chat if you have questions, I'll try to
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  read them to our guest here as well.
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  Twitter. If you've got questions, pop
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  them up over there. And we'll you know, we're just
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  going to have another night of fun and coaches and just
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  uplifting and honoring the men and women that choose to be
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  track and field coaches because they are everything to what we
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  do here at Galapaudix, me personally.
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  And then of course, all of our wonderful student athletes all
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  around. So we're going to start making
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  this a tradition. So this is 2 years means you got
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  to do it next year, year after. We're starting with, well,
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  actually, let's have you introduce yourself.
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  Sure. Yeah, Blake Bolden, Franklin P
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  Johnson, Director of the Drink Relays.
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  In my 8th year at Des Moines at Drake.
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  Yeah, it's going fast. Yeah.
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  And, and you, you talked about a lot of things that are the same
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  as last year Denver. The.
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  Guild podcast, but also same as last year, we are the presenting
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  sponsor of the technical symposiums which start here in
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  in 25 minutes or less maybe. And just really thrilled to
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  partner with USTFCCA to celebrate and honor coaches and
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  the work that they do. And that commitment to, you
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  know, USTFCCA always committed to innovating in this border
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  track field and our event has done that for 11 decades in this
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  sport and in Des Moines, IA. And so a national partnership
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  and and of course continuing to identify ourselves as a resource
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  for coaches and also an opportunity for athletes every
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  spring and and start building our track field meet into their
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  schedule in 2024 and in 2025 and every year from from now until
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  eternity. So why you know, I understand
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  why you're connected to the USTF CCCA, right?
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  It's in the name across country and track and field coaches
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  association and without our coaches and our programs going
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  to the Drake Relays, there is no Drake Relays, there's no
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  athletes, etcetera. Why the technical symposium?
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  You know, there's a lot of things, you know they have the
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  Hall of Fame banquet, we've got the Bowerman, a lot of different
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  avenues of what they do here for coaches.
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  Why did you pick? Why did Drake Relays pick?
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  The. Technical.
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  Symposium yeah, coaches education is invaluable because
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  that was what will continue to elevate performances, improve
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  student athletic experience. But really more than that or
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  tactically Hall of Fame you mentioned or the big luncheons
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  in in those large group settings, we may not necessarily
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  be talking the coaches we want to talk to and the coaches we
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  want to talk to are coaches that are young future leaders and
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  that's who's going to the technical.
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  Symposium. The Hall of Farmers, they either
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  have been or won't come to the Drake Relays.
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  So the and and the kind of the old guard, older generations of
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  coaches, they know what the Drake Relays are.
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  You know, back in the 1960s with Jim Ryan and Al Order and then
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  all the way through the 70s and just the the way college track
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  and field, Herschel Walker in 1981 as the Heisman Trophy
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  winner running in a track meet in front of 40.
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  You know, that year, probably 20,000 fans and standing room
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  moments. Cool type of excitement and
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  that's what you know about the great real life and and younger
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  coaches. You know, just the era of
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  college track and field has changed so quickly that to
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  continue to invest in areas where we can represent our
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  significance to the next generation.
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  Of coaches so like you and I have known each other for a long
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  time. I've known you since you were an
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  athlete. That's right, a lifetime ago.
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  I was talking to you on the phone when, you know, I work
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  with Houston Franks now at LSU. Yeah.
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  And you know, knowing that you were a sub 4 minute mile and
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  like that was so cool. Like, Oh my God, I'll talk to a
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  sub 4 minute mile. I'm a sub 4 minute half mile on
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  my best day. My PR would have always enjoyed
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  about you And I think our friendship has grown.
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  You know, being not just working in business with friends is
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  you're creative, you're always doing something, you're always
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  changing something. What?
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  Anything that we're doing this year at the Drake Relays, we're
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  going to see that's going to be new, maybe for the 1st.
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  Or second time, Yeah. So really this year is
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  continuity. As we talked about with Gil
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  podcast in Denver, the theme would be continuity.
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  We made wholesale changes a year ago to the competition format
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  and we're recommitting to that and communicating this, the
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  benefits of it because unless you were there and you're
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  Justice Sinclair Nebraska who wins a relay cup and has world
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  class performances in the field events, unless you're there to
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  see it and know that that the improvements of the format, then
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  all the fundamentals are there. We have to preach the gospel and
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  educate people and, and I'm hoping it serves as a model for
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  other meats because it will improve the format and the
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  competition performance opportunities for athletes
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  across the country. But what we did a year ago
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  really can be a leading example. Now, this is out of my
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  wheelhouse, so you tell me if I'm the speaking here, but I
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  thought I saw the Road Mile. Yeah.
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  Was this the first time we had a Road Mile world record?
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  Yeah, it was that Drake. Yeah, that's right.
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  That's right. Yeah.
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  So it's kind of separate from what we do here with the college
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  coaches, right? Yeah.
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  The inaugural World Athletics one mile world record.
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  Was set. In Des Moines, for both men and
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  women, Sam Prankkel and Nikki Hilts both had terrific
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  performances. And I think it was a testament
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  to our attention to detail at the point and how we go by doing
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  everything that in 2023, prior to the inaugural World Road
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  Running Championships in Regalacia, no one paid attention
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  to those details better than us. Is is is probably the way to say
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  it. It was terrific performances on
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  the day, but really our team, our volunteers, our officials,
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  our drink realist committee, our entire community event help.
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  We renamed the city street. World record, right?
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  So it is. It's an event that starts in the
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  stadium. That is the heart and soul of
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  it, but it's something that's celebrated throughout our
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  entire. Community and can you commit
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  today that in either, I guess 24 is probably already set, so I'll
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  give you a 2025 that we can do a masters road race and we can see
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  Blake Bolden come back to the mile on the road.
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  I will not get running anything right.
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  Now, sometimes when I get a live, I try to, you know, get it
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  on record here. Blake, you're having a good
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  time. Very much appreciate what you do
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  here for USFCA. I've got 100 random questions,
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  one through 100. You pick the number one through
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  100. 4. Why #4.
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  You already said 4 minutes for the mile seem like a good number
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  to start with all. Right, well the topic is
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  annoying lunch. Do you subscribe to YouTube
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  Premium? And why should they stop asking
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  me? Every time I get on YouTube and
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  YouTube on the phone, they're always asking to subscribe.
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  I'm not doing it. YouTube are you subscribe to?
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  I'm not subscribed and I feel the same way.
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  Yeah, every single time I open an app on my phone.
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  Take a hit on YouTube. Yeah, don't cut me off on
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  YouTube. I know we're live right now.
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  It's it's I like a good salesman and track and field equipment
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  persistence. Yeah, I try not to be that
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  alone. All right, that's two things
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  here. Blake, since you have been a
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  Guild Connections Podcast alum, you've been on the show.
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  Thank you for that honor. You get to flip the script.
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  Only alums are getting to flip the script.
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  You get to ask me one question from live on YouTube tonight.
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  Yeah, well, live on YouTube put you on the spot.
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  That's right. OK who are you?
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  Most Hopeful sits down at one of these sheriffs in the next two
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  hours. Yeah, you know, this is going to
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  sound like I'm. Going to pick a favorite man.
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  You can't stay political. Because no.
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  Because So we're close to 250 episodes, which means I've had
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  over 250 coaches to sit down with us.
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  Everybody from Drake Relays directors to Mouse Holloway to
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  D3 coaches, junior college coaches, middle school.
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  I had a high school coach at Kentucky who ran a track meet at
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  his high school with no trap. He did the shopping out of the
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  out of the baseball field. He had one lap in his parking
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  lot, so he did the one lap race. Yeah, to me, and this is the
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  reason why we started the podcast, Everybody, everybody's
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  journey, no matter what's on their shirt is really, really
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  important. So since I know you're not going
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  to let me cop out that here's where my.
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  Real. It's a great answer, but it's.
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  Not here's my real answer. I, I now again, going into our
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  fifth season here starting in January, I, I continue to get
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  this sense of responsibility of capturing people's stories.
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  It's their whole journey, as you know, right.
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  And so I start seeing these coaches like a Lance Harder and
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  George Williams, who has been on the podcast that, you know, I
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  feel a little bit of a responsibility.
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  Let's get their story on that so that younger coaches, 10 years,
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  20 years, 30 years from now would be able to go back and
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  find out how did a Lance Harder make it?
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  How did that George Williams make?
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  That's who I would really. Yeah, there's some Wallpapers
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  this year. Maybe one of them will stop.
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  By that would be awesome. Yeah.
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  All right, Blake, we do have a gift.
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  We do have a gift. All right, everybody tonight and
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  only people who sit down in the hot seat get a custom man look
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  at this a custom Guild connections podcast Christmas
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  ornament. No one else is going to get it
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  unless you sit down. Blake.
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  It's just our little president to say thank you so much Ethan,
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  that one thank you go interview so much people.
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  Thanks, Blake. All right, that was awesome,
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  man. You know, Blake has been our
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  first 1-2 years in a row and we had to have him on here again.