Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / #347: Joseph Tooks-Bloom Township (IL) HS | From Blazing Trojan to Transformational Track Leader

Transcript

#347: Joseph Tooks-Bloom Township (IL) HS | From Blazing Trojan to Transformational Track Leader · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

• 0:00
  Hey guys, real quick before we start today's episode, which is
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  right now. Let's get on with the show.
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  You're listening to the Gil Athletics Connections podcast
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  with host Mike Cunningham. Track and Field world tuned in
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  to our humble servant Mike Cunningham for another
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  extraordinary message for Gil Athletics Connections.
• 0:58
  All right, you made it back here to the general FedEx Connections
• 1:01
  podcast. Man, I'm just so pumped.
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  Season 7, I can't believe it's here.
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  My name is Mike Cunningham. I'm the host here of the Gill
• 1:22
  Connections podcast, also the biz dev manager here for the
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  clinics and track meets, the incidentally sponsorship and all
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  podcasters always forget to ask this.
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  So other coaches to find this podcast, if you will, on your
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  So whichever one of the three or all three, that would be great.
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  spreading the word so other track coaches know about what
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  we're doing here so they can enjoy and receive the value that
• 2:00
  you're getting by listening. So let's hop into it today.
• 2:04
  Here we go with the head coach for the girls at Bloom Township
• 2:07
  right here in Gills Homeland, right here in Illinois.
• 2:10
  Help me welcome the wise, the wonderful Mr. Joseph Tux.
• 2:13
  Tux, what's up, man? How?
• 2:15
  You feel man, I am blessed. It's it's obviously when we're
• 2:19
  recording this, it's offseason. I think when this publishes will
• 2:22
  be an indoor season. But man, I'm feeling good.
• 2:24
  Except for, you know, I'm originally from the Alabama, so
• 2:27
  I'm not really liking this cold stuff.
• 2:30
  Man, starting to get to that. That winter season, man, it's
• 2:34
  the worst. That's what indoor is all about.
• 2:36
  Yeah, thank God. You know, if I wasn't an
• 2:37
  equipment manufacturer, I'd say just get rid of outdoor and just
• 2:39
  keep it indoor because it's, you know, it's contained.
• 2:41
  But I need both and and really, you know, track and field is
• 2:43
  really outdoor sport. But so I guess give me both with
• 2:46
  me and I'd, I'd like to go South.
• 2:49
  You definitely got to love that controlled weather on the inside
• 2:52
  of indoor season, you know, especially as a jumper.
• 2:56
  Me too. I do man.
• 2:58
  I there's something about indoor track, the loudness to it, the
• 3:02
  small, the intimacy so I can see everything real easy.
• 3:06
  Indoor track is pretty cool. I'm surprised and I wish they
• 3:09
  would they would do indoor track for like the Winter Olympics.
• 3:12
  Like, I think that'd be that that fly pretty well, you know?
• 3:15
  That's that's that's the idea. Yeah, I like that.
• 3:18
  Think that that will get a lot of interest.
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  I wish they would do that. OK, real quick.
• 3:22
  I like to know people's mascots and, you know, shame on me.
• 3:25
  Not that I know all of Illinois. Mascot Illinois.
• 3:27
  If you're not from Illinois, Illinois, especially right here
• 3:30
  around the champagne area has some of the craziest mascots in
• 3:34
  the world. It's it's really weird.
• 3:36
  Go look it up and and it's it's crazy.
• 3:39
  Bloom Township, I feel like doesn't have a crazy one.
• 3:41
  I want to say you're something like I'm trying to look for.
• 3:45
  Oh, OK. I do as I say, I'm looking for
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  clues in your background and I see looks like a Spartan or a
• 3:50
  Troy, a Trojan. Are you the Trojans?
• 3:52
  The. Blazing Trojans.
• 3:55
  Dude, I'm a Troy, so I went to Troy University.
• 3:57
  I'm a Trojan, so I like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 4:00
  Good, good, good. The Bloom Township.
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  Do you know why they're the Trojans?
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  So Bloom Township and Bloom Trail, when they combined
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  athletics, Bloom Trail was the Trail Blazers and Bloom Township
• 4:16
  in Chicago Heights. Bloom High School was the
• 4:18
  Trojans. So when they combine, we became
• 4:21
  the Blazing Trojans. Oh, you're the I didn't hear.
• 4:24
  I'm sorry. You're the Blazing Trojans.
• 4:26
  Yes, Sir, we're the Blazing Trojans.
• 4:28
  That's that's actually kind of cool.
• 4:29
  That's cooler than just the Trojans, actually.
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  I like that. That's that's really cool.
• 4:33
  I love that. Yeah, man, it was.
• 4:35
  I thought it was a great combine for building Hey Sounds.
• 4:38
  Good. When did they?
• 4:38
  I'm getting ahead of myself here a little bit, but when did they
• 4:41
  combine? So I want to say they combined
• 4:45
  early 90s. OK cuz I early. 90s.
• 4:50
  I coached at De LaSalle High School, the 96 and 97, yeah, 96
• 4:56
  and 97 season. And I and I feel like I remember
• 4:58
  Bloom High School. You mentioned that was one of
• 5:01
  the two. So I wonder when that was.
• 5:03
  That's interesting. Yeah, that's a long time ago.
• 5:07
  Before my time. You know, that's what I was
• 5:09
  going to say. You're you're young.
• 5:11
  You what? What?
• 5:12
  Yeah. I'm not even going to ask.
• 5:13
  You weren't even thinking about track and field.
• 5:15
  All right, so let's get into it, baby.
• 5:18
  You know, assuming you were an athlete, and we certainly don't
• 5:20
  want to assume because we've had many, many great coaches here on
• 5:22
  the podcast, that we're not athletes who've gone on to
• 5:24
  become great track coaches. But assuming you were an
• 5:26
  athlete, where in the world does track and field start for you?
• 5:30
  So for me, track and field started in the 5th grade.
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  I attempted to race our principal in the 5th grade.
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  It was our like our fun day last days of school.
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  And our principal usually like the race the kids that were
• 5:50
  going over to the middle school and because he usually like to
• 5:53
  encourage those who are fast to go out for track because he was
• 5:56
  a track guy. So Mr. Morgan, the principal
• 5:59
  man, he just gave out, gave us 5th graders opportunity to race
• 6:03
  him. And you know before the year
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  before I saw a young man beat him.
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  So I'm like it got to be possible.
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  And that young man was fast. So I came close to beating him
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  and he still gave me the win. Man, I tried to dip and
• 6:20
  everything. He still gave me the win.
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  And he had a conversation with me after that race and was like
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  hey, you should make sure you join the Cottage Grove track
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  team. You got some speed if you can
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  keep up with me and I joined track and field that summer with
• 6:36
  the Illinois Flames and it was all she wrote, Man.
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  I joined the track team after that in the 6th grade and was
• 6:44
  running for the 7th grade my 6th grade year and kept it up.
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  I love, I love an administrator who incurred, you know, he said
• 6:54
  he was a track guy. You know, I always talk about
• 6:57
  with our track coaches, including you took, I always
• 6:59
  encourage our track coaches to go into administration, whether
• 7:02
  it's on the high school side of the collegiate side.
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  Not that I because I want to lose you as a coach, but I know
• 7:08
  that some important decisions about our sport are happening in
• 7:11
  those circles. And I sure would like a guy like
• 7:13
  that principal, a guy who knows track and field and loves track
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  and field, to be in those circles having those
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  conversations. So I love that he was a track
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  guy and and as a principal there, that's pretty cool.
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  Very encouraged and very encouraged.
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  That's cool. So you got you jumped right into
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  it. You said all right, cool.
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  You think I'm fast? I'm going to do track and you
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  started doing track and field. Any other sports?
• 7:35
  Yeah, well, I thought I was a basketball guy.
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  I did play ball. My mom, she was in the Hall of
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  Fame for Richie's, Richie's High School.
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  She played ball at Richie's, So yeah, I thought I was supposed
• 7:48
  to be a basketball player, but come to find out I was just
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  athletic enough to play basketball, but I was really a
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  track guy, so. That's a good distinction.
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  Yeah. Yeah, that's good.
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  And. The crazy part is there's tons
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  of young athletes out here who they really, it's a lot of
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  people who think they basketball players when really they could
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  be really great track guys, right?
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  I told you I I was in Chicago in the 9697 time frame during the
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  the Jordan Bulls. So everybody really did think
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  they were basketball players. Everybody want to be Jordans.
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  No one wanted to be Michael Johnson's.
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  But some of them found out they were not Jordans and they were
• 8:35
  better at being Johnson's, right?
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  Right. So what you said your mom was a
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  Hall of Famer. That's amazing.
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  What high school did you end up going to SO?
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  She went to Richie's but I came to Bloom Trail.
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  So after running track 6-7 to 8th grade year, I end up being
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  coming out of 8th grade being top ten in my class and I had a
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  offer to go to Marion Catholic where my mom knew the track
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  coach. But at that time, realizing the
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  dynamics of the team, Bloom Township was the ideal team to
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  beat around that time, You know, So it came to a point to where
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  it was, do I want to go to Marion and have to race these
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  guys or do I want to go to Bloom trail, train with these guys,
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  get better and just only have to deal with them at practice?
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  You know, I knew I knew it was going to be hard to break that
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  varsity cut with those guys, but to have that leadership and that
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  type of talent to train with, I think it I think that was the
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  best experience, best choice for me.
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  That's an interesting. Thought process there, not
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  thought process, but decision you made there because I could
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  see I have a lot of grace for 1418 year old, 18 to 22 year
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  old. You know, I just they're they're
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  young. You were young at this time.
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  So if you would have said, hey, Mike.
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  So I ended up going to marrying Catholic because, you know, I, I
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  wouldn't even be able to make the four by one team at bloom
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  until maybe my junior year. And I wanted to immediately like
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  I, I'd be like, oh, that makes sense.
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  You know, OK, I can't fault that.
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  But you were even at a young age kind of a little bit different
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  of like, OK, I may not be able to make the 4 by 1.
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  And I don't know if that's the account.
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  You don't want to put word your mouth, but it seemed like it
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  would have been harder for you to be on varsity going to bloom.
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  But you were like, OK, but that's going to make me better.
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  That's going to make me better for sure.
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  I just knew that going to where though, because I, I looked up
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  to most of those guys and I watched a lot of the Bloom track
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  and field coming out of 8th grade and 7th grade simply
• 10:53
  because playing basketball in junior high when I had friends
• 10:58
  that were being scouted by the high school, you know, they had
• 11:03
  basketball coaches coming to watch them out of 8th grade.
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  Well, I had the Tri coach coming to watch me.
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  So I was like, OK, well, I know where my focus needs to be, you
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  know. So that pretty much opened the
• 11:15
  door for me for wanting to be at Bloom.
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  I knew the Marion coach knew about me, but he knew my mom.
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  So which was all good, but I needed I knew I needed to make
• 11:27
  that decision for myself. And just racing those guys at
• 11:31
  the time, I just knew it wasn't going to look good for me.
• 11:33
  Man iron sharpens iron, man I I'd rather go and let them boys
• 11:39
  whip me in the shape and and it turned out well.
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  Turned out well. I had great leaders, great
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  captains and Bill long lasting friendships.
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  Forgive my ignorance. Bloom's not in the CP, the
• 11:52
  Chicago Public Schools, right? No, I I just remember you're not
• 11:56
  being from Chicago. So when I went up there and
• 11:59
  start coaching at De LaSalle and stuff, I had to learn, you know,
• 12:02
  Chicago Catholic League, CPS, all this kind of stuff.
• 12:04
  And back then, because what year did you graduate high school?
• 12:07
  2009. OK, Yeah.
• 12:09
  She's. So when you were still playing
• 12:12
  with Duplos, you wouldn't play with Lego, You had to play with
• 12:15
  Duplos. The Catholic League was really
• 12:18
  good for for track and field. Ed Adams at Leo and some other
• 12:21
  guys. Loyola was really good.
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  I was at De La Salle. We were, we were OK.
• 12:28
  And the CPS was terrible for track, for track terrible.
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  I remember we were just down the road from Dunbar.
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  And so they, they had good athletes like the, you know,
• 12:38
  basketball teams were amazing. Football teams were pretty good.
• 12:41
  I remember I was thinking like, man, if the CPS ever took like
• 12:45
  track and field series, like, so there's some talent in those
• 12:47
  schools and eventually they did. They've had some amazing
• 12:52
  athletes out of those CPS. So I didn't know, I couldn't
• 12:54
  remember where Bloom kind of where they were.
• 12:58
  You're more suburbs, right? If I remember, yeah.
• 13:00
  Yeah, yeah, Far South. So tell me about high school.
• 13:04
  You've got a bunch of good guys on the team.
• 13:07
  You're battling every day. Tell me about what kind of
• 13:09
  relationship do you have with coach?
• 13:11
  What was the you're kind of give us a little bit of insight into
• 13:15
  what it was like. The relationship with you and
• 13:16
  the athletes. Sounds like every day was a
• 13:18
  battle, which can be good for track and field.
• 13:20
  Tell us about more about that. So having a coach, having the
• 13:25
  coaches that I had at the time, they really, they really allow
• 13:29
  the athletes to set the standard for each other.
• 13:32
  Andrew Schmidt, who's the head coach at Nutria, he just wanted
• 13:36
  state last year. Jeff Timms, he came my sophomore
• 13:41
  year, my freshman. I had a jump coach by the name
• 13:44
  of Coach Matt and my spring coach at the time was Coach
• 13:48
  Woods. They just really set the
• 13:52
  standard man, and they ran the program as if it was a
• 13:57
  collegiate program. There was there was no sugar
• 14:01
  coating about things. And the best thing that I can
• 14:05
  say, Andrew Schmidt was very knowledgeable, very
• 14:10
  knowledgeable. So I really take my hat off to
• 14:14
  coaches who really continue their education and just don't
• 14:18
  think what they know is enough. You know, steady further in that
• 14:22
  education because there's always going to be ways to get athletes
• 14:28
  better and just finding those different ways tells me that
• 14:32
  that coach understands that every athlete is different.
• 14:35
  So you know the same thing I prescribe this athlete, it may
• 14:39
  not work. Right.
• 14:41
  So just having that knowledge man, and.
• 14:44
  Were you as a 145016 year old kid, you know, high school kid,
• 14:49
  were you cognizant of that Like, you know, as an adult now,
• 14:52
  especially as an adult who becomes a track coach?
• 14:54
  Spoiler alert, when you're in high school, you know, there's a
• 14:58
  lot of things going on and you may have taken track very, very
• 15:01
  seriously, but there's still, you know, who's going to go to
• 15:05
  the dance and who am I going to go with?
• 15:07
  All I got to pass math, you know, pre algebra, whatever.
• 15:10
  That's what I took in high school, pre algebra.
• 15:11
  You probably took much better math there.
• 15:13
  There's all these things that are going on.
• 15:16
  Were you cognizant of like some of these coaches you're
• 15:19
  mentioning that that they were learning their craft still, or
• 15:22
  was it like, like, here's what I'm always interested with with
• 15:26
  athletes who I know become track coaches.
• 15:28
  Were you involved? And what I mean involved, like
• 15:31
  were you paying attention to what kind of workouts they were
• 15:33
  doing? And, and you were curious, not
• 15:35
  not questioning them, but you were curious like, oh, I wonder
• 15:37
  why we did this on Monday and this on Tuesday or because
• 15:40
  again, we're talking about 1418 year old kids here.
• 15:43
  Were you the guy who was just like, they told me to run and I
• 15:45
  ran. I didn't know why, but you know,
• 15:47
  I just I listen to coach. Both are are good.
• 15:49
  You know what I'm? Saying so, I got to say that my
• 15:52
  freshman and sophomore yet be because I had such great
• 15:55
  leadership. I think the coaches did a good
• 15:57
  job with breaking down to the captain's what the workout was
• 16:00
  while we was doing it and us as young athletes, we knew that
• 16:04
  those top guys was the top guys for a reason.
• 16:07
  So when they came back and told us what the workout was, they
• 16:11
  didn't necessarily explain why my coach did for them, but we
• 16:15
  knew. Hey, we following suit.
• 16:19
  Yep, because we know how good you guys are.
• 16:22
  So but my junior senior year, when I became the guy that coach
• 16:26
  was pulling to the side, Hey, we doing this, it's going to work
• 16:29
  on this. It made me really understand
• 16:33
  that these guys really they, they take their knowledge and
• 16:38
  and about track and field and what they can do for a series.
• 16:41
  Did you have knowing that we don't talk to X's and O's
• 16:44
  necessarily, but when you I love this aspect cuz you know, so as
• 16:47
  a frost off you were the captain said run this because coach said
• 16:51
  that I did it. I didn't question.
• 16:53
  Then junior and senior, you start kind of getting to be able
• 16:55
  to peel behind the curtain like, oh, This is why we do this.
• 16:59
  This is why we do it. Was there a think about, you
• 17:02
  know, this kind of a hard question cuz we're going back a
• 17:05
  few years here, but was there a day, a workout, a scenario that
• 17:09
  happened when you were literally like, Oh my God, I thought we
• 17:12
  did this workout because of blah blah, blah, blah blah.
• 17:15
  Now I see the evil genius behind it.
• 17:18
  We're actually doing it because of this.
• 17:19
  Do you remember any kind of story like that?
• 17:22
  So my first time being introduced to the Wilmer Ross
• 17:27
  workout. Oh.
• 17:29
  Yeah. OK.
• 17:30
  Oh my Lord. So I didn't necessarily
• 17:35
  understand why I'm thinking that, you know, for 1/4 mile and
• 17:40
  300 hurdle, I'm thinking that, hey, maybe I need to go out for
• 17:45
  some some longer runs to build strength so I'm not hitting
• 17:51
  lactate so quick. And he broke it down with that
• 17:56
  workout, understanding that the body is the bottle.
• 17:59
  When the body hits lactate, it's really not much that you can do,
• 18:03
  but the goal is with that workout.
• 18:05
  If man it man, I remember like it was yesterday.
• 18:09
  It made me realize that what you want to do is you want to use
• 18:12
  your speed aspect to get as far as around the track before
• 18:16
  lactate sets in there, right? You know, so and then I'm
• 18:21
  learning to work through the lactate, knowing how to stay
• 18:24
  relaxed through the lactate. So that that workout right there
• 18:28
  really made made me wake up to the Track World like these
• 18:32
  coaches know what they doing. Now you hit a memory for me when
• 18:36
  you said Wilbur Ross. What were what?
• 18:38
  And again, I know we don't get next to the nose, but I'm going
• 18:41
  to give you a pass on this one. What workout are you
• 18:42
  specifically talking about? Because Wilbur Ross was a
• 18:45
  freaking genius. And you guys who don't know who
• 18:47
  Wilbur Ross is, you got to go to I, I guess the Internet, go
• 18:51
  somewhere, find his books. His hurdle book was you couldn't
• 18:55
  read my version of his hurdle book because I had read through
• 18:58
  it so many times. It was unbelievable.
• 19:01
  What work out are you are you talking about?
• 19:03
  2 plus twos. 2 plus twos OK. So 200 + 200.
• 19:09
  OK. So like 200 small rest 200.
• 19:13
  Man, you, you did A2 as fast as you can because I, I called you
• 19:17
  to say you need to be under 50 seconds if you can't run on our
• 19:20
  4x4 if you can't run under 50 seconds.
• 19:22
  So I remember specifically him saying hey, the 1st 200 need to
• 19:28
  be 24. The 2nd 200 need to be 24 or
• 19:32
  faster. I was like oh and then when I
• 19:35
  realized it was only a 32nd rest once we got through the 1st 200,
• 19:43
  oh Lord. Yeah, yeah, I think they would
• 19:45
  call those broken 4 hundreds now or something.
• 19:48
  We used to, boy, you took, you're getting me into the zone.
• 19:52
  I never go into, but it's just such great memories.
• 19:57
  So at Mississippi State, I was with Steve Dudley.
• 20:00
  We're he was our head Sprint coach.
• 20:01
  I, I assisted him and one of his like bread and Bunner 400 meter
• 20:06
  workouts that we would, it would progress throughout the year.
• 20:08
  It would start out what you're saying, 202 hundred, right?
• 20:10
  So you do 200. So you run from the start line
• 20:12
  to the 200 and like, maybe let's just call it 30 seconds and then
• 20:15
  200 meter in and then a long recovery.
• 20:17
  And we do that, you know, maybe two or three times, maybe 3 or
• 20:19
  4, but you know, not many, right, Cuz it, and then he would
• 20:22
  continue to extend it. So we would do a 250. 150 and
• 20:27
  then, you know, again as we're moving down the, the season, a
• 20:29
  330 seconds 100 and then finally A-350 walk back hundred and and
• 20:36
  and I'll tell you what, our quarter mile we ran 3 flat my
• 20:39
  last year there. Oh yeah, we, we, we got some
• 20:44
  good kids out of high school some 40 sixes and stuff like
• 20:46
  that. No, no 40 fours or anything, but
• 20:49
  they all ended up splitting, you know, call it 44.
• 20:51
  So, but that is just a memory of mine that I like that that kind
• 20:56
  of workout just like stick like if someone were to like force me
• 21:00
  to go to the track right now and say coach these quarter miles,
• 21:02
  I'm like, all right, guys, we're doing 230 seconds, 200.
• 21:05
  Right, right. It's just one of those workouts
• 21:09
  that it wakes them up like. Hey, this is serious, this.
• 21:13
  Is what quarter miles do. I love it.
• 21:16
  Now, you mentioned a jumps coach and hurdling as well.
• 21:19
  Did you Do you do a lot of events?
• 21:22
  So in high school, I was AI became a 300 hurdle of my junior
• 21:26
  senior year thanks to the great Jeff Timms, who's now at
• 21:30
  Benedictine. Nice.
• 21:34
  But my freshman sophomore year, I came in, I was just straight
• 21:39
  sprints and jumps. Guy did high jump, triple jump,
• 21:42
  long jump. Did my did my part on the on the
• 21:49
  four by tools for fresh off. But as I as we started to as
• 21:54
  those guys started to graduate and I moved up, I just started
• 21:58
  to figure out what my bread and butter.
• 22:00
  And by my junior year, I was a top triple jumper.
• 22:06
  I was just learning 300 hurdles. I had moved away from the one
• 22:08
  10s simply because I couldn't make the adjustment, the height
• 22:12
  adjustment, but I actually moved away from lone jump and end up
• 22:18
  making triple my and the crazy thing is I was jumping.
• 22:21
  This is before like now I look at the state, I look at the
• 22:25
  state qualify qualifying. I'm like, you know, 44 three.
• 22:29
  I was, I was pretty, I was every bit of 4411 and 45 in high
• 22:35
  school and 45 was the standard to go downstate, you know, So
• 22:38
  now I'm seeing that they accepting 44 threes and I'm
• 22:42
  like, man. But it was, it was I think that
• 22:49
  my coaches did a good job with not keeping me in a box,
• 22:53
  allowing me not to come in and just say I'm a I'm a 102 hundred
• 22:58
  guy because as a 7th or 8th grader, I went downstate for the
• 23:01
  100 and 200. But you know, you get into high
• 23:04
  school, it's a whole nother playing field.
• 23:07
  Hey, you know, so that brings up a good point for for listeners
• 23:10
  as well, something that I'm really proud of Illinois and I
• 23:14
  don't I don't believe I've not heard that it happens very often
• 23:18
  in other states. I'm sure there are some states
• 23:20
  in there, but Illinois runs a full out all out middle school
• 23:26
  state championship for track and field IESA and it's a great,
• 23:31
  great meet. It's a great setup for high
• 23:33
  schoolers. And I think that's why, you
• 23:35
  know, Illinois. So when you look at if you were
• 23:37
  to name the top five states for track and field in the United
• 23:39
  States as far as like talent and stuff, you know, quickly, number
• 23:42
  one, number two, number three, right?
• 23:43
  California, Texas and Florida, maybe.
• 23:46
  But there's a good argument that Illinois is a #4 #5 you know,
• 23:50
  George is going to talk some talk.
• 23:52
  Ohio is going to talk some talk, but Illinois, Illinois 8 tenth,
• 23:55
  let me tell you that. And I think part of that,
• 23:58
  besides the code, there's some amazing coaches and you
• 24:00
  mentioned about coaching education and things like that.
• 24:02
  That has gone on in this state for quite a while and that's
• 24:04
  been a really impressive. But I think that middle school
• 24:07
  state meet plays a factor in our overall varsity level track and
• 24:12
  field here. I really do.
• 24:14
  I'm really proud of the people that put that on, the coaches
• 24:16
  that support it. And I wish every state would do
• 24:19
  that because, gosh, I could imagine what track and field.
• 24:21
  Track and field already is crazy on the high school level in the
• 24:24
  US We couldn't imagine if we had a full-fledged, you know, middle
• 24:27
  school development program. When you look back, what what
• 24:30
  was your favorite event in high school to do?
• 24:34
  Is that right? Yeah.
• 24:35
  Just the so I would triple jump in 300 hurdles will be next then
• 24:40
  it would for me it would be the four by 4.
• 24:43
  But if I had amongst all the relays, the 4 by 4 is by far my
• 24:46
  favorite. But my favorite, my favorite
• 24:49
  event would definitely have to be triple jump because I was
• 24:52
  really able to make that my own. And then that really became my
• 24:56
  bread and butter in college. Yeah, that's what that's what
• 24:59
  paid the bills in college. Man, you're, you're a great
• 25:01
  Segway artist because that's where we're going to next.
• 25:03
  So senior year you're you know, you're captain on the track
• 25:06
  team. You're thinking about state
• 25:08
  meet. You're also thinking about,
• 25:10
  well, I might go to college. Talk to first of all before
• 25:14
  first question, as we talk about college, as you're looking into
• 25:17
  schools and looking into majors, what are you as an 18 year old,
• 25:20
  17 year old? What are you thinking at that
• 25:22
  point that you're going to be? Are you going to be a
• 25:25
  businessman? Are you going to be a teacher?
• 25:27
  Or were you thinking like was coach?
• 25:28
  I'm trying to figure out was coaching it all in your head as
• 25:30
  a 17 ish year old kid. Yeah, so as a as a captain, I
• 25:35
  got to say that Jeff Timms and Andrew Schmidt did a good job
• 25:38
  with giving the captains the lead way to really lead the
• 25:41
  team. Nice.
• 25:42
  So I really saw myself as an awesome leader.
• 25:45
  Oh, my senior year and I was on the team with some really good
• 25:50
  athletes. I had Japheth Kato, who jumped
• 25:54
  at Wisconsin. Oh yeah, yeah, he had.
• 25:58
  Actually, I think he set the record over there for the.
• 26:00
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he's.
• 26:02
  A multi kid? Yeah, I remember him.
• 26:03
  Yeah, ran with Jay Kato, Alex Robinson, who was long jump
• 26:11
  champion in 2008. Him and Jay Kato went one and
• 26:14
  two, I believe that was to the 2008 or 2009 of my senior year.
• 26:19
  So yeah, they went 1-2 in the state.
• 26:22
  So I had some really good guys, man.
• 26:24
  And I want to say that for me, it was my mom who really pushed
• 26:32
  me, stayed in the back of my mind of being that that first
• 26:36
  grandson to graduate college. So for me, it was how how am I
• 26:40
  going to make that happen? And once I realized I was good
• 26:43
  at track, like I said, this got to be it.
• 26:46
  This got to be it. So I really found where I would
• 26:54
  be appreciated. I think for me, a college where
• 26:57
  I would be appreciated, where the coach would understand me
• 27:02
  and where I was coming from. And I found that in Saint Joe,
• 27:07
  end up going to Saint Joe, where Bill Muscles was the head coach.
• 27:11
  There's a couple of Saint Joe's I.
• 27:13
  Was Saint Joe in Randstalier, Indiana?
• 27:15
  Yeah, I'm sure I'm getting this mixed up.
• 27:19
  Doesn't exist anymore. No, they actually closed.
• 27:22
  They end up, yeah. OK, OK, that's I want to make
• 27:24
  sure. OK, OK.
• 27:24
  Yeah. Believe the Bears used to play
• 27:26
  there back you mean. Used to practice there back in
• 27:28
  the day, right. That sounds right.
• 27:29
  Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
• 27:31
  So you went to Saint Joe's, which had, you know, sad the
• 27:34
  school closed down because it had put out some good track kids
• 27:38
  there. I do remember that.
• 27:40
  So you go there. So when you go first of all,
• 27:43
  were you, did you look at several different places and you
• 27:46
  zeroed in on on coach there? I was looking at Lewis because
• 27:51
  it was close. Sure.
• 27:53
  And then the head coach at the time left, so the new coach that
• 28:00
  was there didn't offer me the same baggage Steel.
• 28:06
  So I decided to find a school in the conference.
• 28:09
  I took it personal, actually. OK, as soon as you said that, I
• 28:13
  see where this is going. Yeah, I said to myself, I will
• 28:15
  find a school in the conference just to make them play and I
• 28:21
  did. I end up finding Saint Joe and I
• 28:23
  end up choosing St. Joe after I talked to the coach.
• 28:26
  My So my first point, my first reason for choosing St.
• 28:29
  Joe is because they had my name in it.
• 28:32
  And then I didn't even put two and two together there.
• 28:35
  Of course, Saint Joseph Tookes. There we go.
• 28:38
  I got it. Got.
• 28:39
  It right so I went there because it first had my name in it and
• 28:42
  then after talking to the coach we built I mean he just seemed
• 28:45
  so authentic over the phone man and felt like I could trust him
• 28:49
  with the type of person that I was because I was able to let
• 28:53
  him know who I was right through the door and he said you know
• 28:57
  was hey, I'm willing to work with you brother and you know
• 29:02
  that I just I just felt like he understood me so I I end up
• 29:05
  going to Saint Joe and I could I could honestly say every GLPC
• 29:11
  conference meet made sure I found that Lewis triple jumper,
• 29:16
  whoever he was at the time you. Know, it's funny you hear this
• 29:20
  kind of story often, right? You hear, you know, with the
• 29:24
  musical artists who say, oh, everybody who turned me down and
• 29:26
  actors who, you know, every role that they turn me down.
• 29:29
  I kept, you know, I'd pinned the the letter, the rejection
• 29:31
  letter. Yeah.
• 29:33
  Here's the thing. Here's how I think about it.
• 29:37
  Thank goodness that coach, whoever the new coach at Lewis
• 29:41
  was, didn't offer you the same package because you weren't
• 29:43
  meant to go there. You were meant to go to Saint
• 29:46
  Joe. So I turn it around and think
• 29:48
  about like, oh, thank God you didn't offer me what I thought I
• 29:51
  should be offered because that, because that's not, that's not
• 29:54
  where I should have been. I should have been at Saint
• 29:55
  Joe's and that led to that. So, and it's also tough, man.
• 29:58
  I, you know, you hear that story too about, you know, a new staff
• 30:01
  comes in and they don't offer the same or they don't recruit
• 30:04
  me like they did. What I tell you what, it's hard
• 30:08
  when you're a coach of a new program.
• 30:10
  There's so much going on and and it's tough.
• 30:14
  I don't think there's I don't think I've ever met any coach
• 30:19
  who went to a new program who didn't recruit a kid or didn't
• 30:22
  offer them the same that did it out of like spite, like, oh,
• 30:27
  that was that old coach's kid. So I'm not going to bring it's
• 30:30
  more of just they think differently.
• 30:32
  We just, you know what? Hey, you were there.
• 30:34
  Hold on. This struck me.
• 30:36
  So we were just at Marcus Lowe's clinic up in Kankakee, right?
• 30:42
  And you remember Bretton Emanuel from USC spoke right about
• 30:46
  recruiting. Remember him?
• 30:48
  OK. Yeah, and he brought up a point
• 30:51
  about how each school, each program is a little different,
• 30:57
  could be radically different and the coaches priorities can be
• 31:01
  and are radically different. And he made the comment about he
• 31:03
  was using a mythical for I think he said 47 point in regardless
• 31:09
  whether he said 46 1/2 or 47, it doesn't matter.
• 31:11
  Let's just use 47 point. He said a 47 point kid at
• 31:15
  Nebraska, you'd probably, because that's where he's trying
• 31:17
  to from Nebraska. And then he went to USC would
• 31:19
  probably be offered less than 47 point at USC.
• 31:22
  And that's kind of counterintuitive because you're
• 31:24
  like, dude, it's USC or $100,000 a year.
• 31:27
  You know, LA and, you know, you just won the national title and
• 31:30
  all this kind of stuff. And it's like, yeah, but at
• 31:32
  Nebraska we knew we were going to win with field events and
• 31:35
  distance like that was our priority.
• 31:36
  So a 47 point kids, not, you know, still good.
• 31:39
  But yeah, we just don't have enough money for them.
• 31:41
  We're in at the USC. It's like, oh, we're going to
• 31:43
  win with sprints and hurdles. That's it.
• 31:45
  There's no distance. You know, maybe there's a
• 31:46
  thrower. But and so we can fully invest
• 31:49
  into a 40. If if we think that's a 47 point
• 31:51
  kid that can become 45, then we can fully invest or more invest
• 31:55
  in that kid. It may not work out, but that's
• 31:57
  the risk we're willing to take. And that makes so much sense
• 32:01
  because I think on paper people are like, well, yeah, of course
• 32:03
  Nebraska's going to offer a 47 kid more than you would see.
• 32:05
  And it's like because of the priorities and cost of school
• 32:09
  and things like that, it's like it makes so much sense.
• 32:14
  Off track a little bit here of course, but.
• 32:15
  No, no, no, I think. I think it goes hand to hand
• 32:17
  because it's perfect. Because my also reason for me
• 32:22
  going to Saint Joe was when he told me that his triple jumper
• 32:26
  was a senior that year and I would be the freshman triple
• 32:30
  jumper coming in. And he was letting me know,
• 32:33
  like, you know, your marks are pretty competitive with my
• 32:35
  senior jumper. So, you know, you'll be able to
• 32:38
  come in and provide help right away.
• 32:40
  That's all I needed to know is that I could come in and be
• 32:44
  beneficial to your program. And, you know, you believe in my
• 32:48
  in my ability to to help your program and that and that's what
• 32:52
  it was for me, man. Yeah.
• 32:54
  So, so when you go to Saint Joe's, so besides being your
• 32:57
  name on the school, I love that. What were what was your major
• 33:01
  when you started? What were you thinking about
• 33:03
  becoming? What was what was 18 year old
• 33:05
  took thinking about becoming as an adult?
• 33:08
  So that's, that's, that's cool you say that because I've always
• 33:11
  I took three years of mass communication.
• 33:14
  Well, it was broadcast and television here at Bloom Trail.
• 33:17
  Yeah. And I actually end up getting my
• 33:19
  mass Comm degree at the time, at the time I was doing a little
• 33:23
  small work. I as a junior senior, I was
• 33:26
  actually like making sad money, learning how to record artists,
• 33:31
  music artists. So I was already jumping into
• 33:34
  the media field trying to learn entertainment.
• 33:37
  And when I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do in
• 33:41
  college and I came across broadcasting, I said I'm going
• 33:46
  to get me a mass communications degree.
• 33:49
  And that's what I said, man. And I made it happen.
• 33:52
  Is that? That's what you end up getting
• 33:54
  your degree in. Mass Communications.
• 33:57
  Wow, that's so cool. I love, I'm a communications
• 33:59
  major in myself. It's so versatile, you know when
• 34:02
  people talk. But I did more print journalism
• 34:05
  and people like, oh, we need to become a newspaper reporter.
• 34:07
  I'm like, well, first of all, thank God because no one buys
• 34:09
  newspapers anymore. But all the skills that I
• 34:13
  learned from writing, expressing yourself, design work, it's like
• 34:18
  I use that every day. I used it every day when I was a
• 34:20
  coach. I used it every day as a sales.
• 34:23
  Professional. Right.
• 34:24
  It's a great major man. That's really cool.
• 34:27
  Because it also put me in position to be able to as an
• 34:32
  adult and as a coach, lead man, be able to clearly speak and get
• 34:38
  my point across to the mass. You know, when you dealing with
• 34:43
  30 teenage girls who all upset about something, you know, it's
• 34:51
  you got to be able to control the room.
• 34:54
  And I think I do a really good job with setting that standard
• 34:57
  for my athletes. And they know you know when when
• 35:00
  Coach took speaks, it's time to listen.
• 35:03
  When you early in your Saint Joseph's educational career, so
• 35:09
  did you think like, like what did you did you want to be like
• 35:13
  a music producer? Did you want to be like behind
• 35:16
  the camera someone who you know helps with music videos?
• 35:18
  What were you thinking as a, you know, 19 year old?
• 35:22
  I wanted to just run my own. I thought I was going to be the
• 35:27
  next what's the guy name? Russell Simmons.
• 35:32
  Yeah, yeah, OK. Like I thought.
• 35:35
  I was going to be the next Russell Simmons, but it turned
• 35:39
  out that my passion for my passion for music is it was
• 35:45
  there, but I wasn't fully I wasn't fully with it, you know,
• 35:52
  because in the direction that music was going into.
• 35:56
  So I think for me, understanding that the camera was a big basis
• 36:04
  around that, I really wanted to be a the radio host because I
• 36:10
  ran the radio station for 40 years at Saint Joe.
• 36:12
  Yeah. Is that right?
• 36:14
  Yeah, it was. It was fun man.
• 36:16
  That's cool. Yeah, man.
• 36:19
  So I always thought I was would be a radio personality, but it
• 36:25
  just took a turn, man. I end up actually structuring a
• 36:30
  photography company, so I started my own photography
• 36:34
  company and then I just recently started my own entertainment and
• 36:37
  promotions company. In college.
• 36:40
  And so in college, no, I was just thinking like, I'm in
• 36:46
  college. I was more so focused on the
• 36:47
  radio side, right. So once I got that radio gig at
• 36:52
  the at the station and my grades showed that I could run the
• 36:57
  radio station because that was part of your assignments, You
• 37:00
  know, I became a regular for the, for the, the local, you
• 37:04
  know, so being that voice that people recognize in the in the
• 37:09
  neighborhood Walmart, they like it.
• 37:10
  You're the. You're.
• 37:12
  The voice of Saint Joe. You know, so that's so.
• 37:15
  Cool, man, I, I wish I tell my kids this, you know, because now
• 37:19
  they, you know, my, my freshman in high school and 6th grade.
• 37:22
  And so they see with Mike Cunningham today, you know,
• 37:25
  doing a podcast, you know, getting in front of a track
• 37:27
  clinic, you know, those kind of things getting on stage and
• 37:32
  they're like, oh, you must have been like that in high school,
• 37:34
  Dad in college. I was like, no, I really wasn't.
• 37:37
  I was a little too shy, too insecure to do those things.
• 37:42
  I bet that if I would have had some, some of the same skill
• 37:47
  sets that I have today and some of the skill set is, by the way,
• 37:50
  I don't give a crap what people think that that allows me to get
• 37:52
  on on a stage and, you know, things like that.
• 37:54
  It's like, yes, Sir. I wonder if I'd have had a
• 37:57
  little bit more of that in college if I wouldn't have gone
• 37:59
  the radio route too, because I, I love music.
• 38:02
  I love introducing like, you know, explaining like, oh, the
• 38:05
  next song and, you know, a little tidbit behind, you know,
• 38:07
  those kind of things. I love doing interviews, things
• 38:09
  like that. I, I think the radio might have
• 38:12
  been like, maybe my lost calling.
• 38:14
  Like that's what I could have should have been, you know, the
• 38:19
  the Casey Kasem, which I don't know if you know Casey gets a
• 38:21
  little older, but but you know, that kind of that kind of thing,
• 38:24
  man, is that. Is that is that he from AM 1000?
• 38:28
  Dude, maybe he was the guy the every Sunday, the Top 40 hits of
• 38:33
  pop or whatever on the radio. Casey Kasem was the the the host
• 38:38
  of that radio show. Yeah, kind of the who's the guy
• 38:41
  now who has all the jobs Was he's he is or was the host of
• 38:47
  American Idol. What's his name?
• 38:49
  It's kind of famous or he is famous because he has a show on
• 38:52
  East and Oh my gosh. Anyway, that guy, that guy's
• 38:56
  kind of like the radio personality guy of today.
• 38:59
  Or at least you know, maybe I'm major myself. 10-15 years ago,
• 39:02
  that's what Casey Kasem was on the radio.
• 39:04
  He had this, he had a great radio voice, was always the
• 39:07
  announcer, the host of of things like that.
• 39:09
  Maybe. Did he do Casey Caseon's
• 39:12
  Rock'n'roll New Year's Eve? I think so.
• 39:14
  I could be missing out. But he did like a New Year's Eve
• 39:16
  big bash, you know, on TV and stuff.
• 39:19
  Anyway, it was cool. OK, so talk to us about college.
• 39:26
  You had some real Gunners on the high school team that you had to
• 39:29
  keep up with and and taught you how to become a captain and
• 39:32
  things like that. What was it like going to
• 39:34
  college? Sometimes that can be a little
• 39:36
  different. So once I got to college, I I
• 39:41
  can tell you that I hit a little bit of a plateau, but my plateau
• 39:46
  was because I got big headed being at that point and not
• 39:54
  being leadable because I was coachable for my coach.
• 40:00
  Yeah. But when the senior at the time
• 40:04
  was trying to help me with certain things and stay on me
• 40:08
  about being in a weight room, because I, I wasn't that far off
• 40:13
  from him. I just felt like it wasn't much
• 40:15
  that he could tell me, you know, But I learned that, you know, if
• 40:21
  you, if you learn to listen and, and take what others may be able
• 40:29
  to offer you and just figure out how you can work with it, you
• 40:32
  know, don't be so quick to, to not want to give somebody the
• 40:36
  opportunity to help you out, you know, So once I adapted to
• 40:44
  learning how to learning how to work out in the weight room,
• 40:48
  because in high school, the weight room wasn't pretty,
• 40:50
  wasn't pushed on us, you know, we, we went in there, we did
• 40:54
  what we were supposed to, but he wasn't really focused on what
• 40:57
  you were supposed to do in the weight room college.
• 40:59
  It was your job, you know, So once I took that leadership from
• 41:05
  the senior at the time and it was tad head injure.
• 41:09
  He did a good job. Really me in and super respect
• 41:13
  to that guy because not only did it get me stronger, I end up
• 41:16
  beating him outdoor at the outdoor conference my freshman
• 41:19
  year. And I thought he would take it
• 41:22
  bad, but he was like, man, I've been training you for this so.
• 41:27
  That had to stick with you, right, because it was like, oh,
• 41:29
  wait a minute, That's that's selfless.
• 41:31
  Like, wait a minute, you you caused this.
• 41:33
  Instead of you winning, I'm winning.
• 41:35
  And instead of being a, you know, a hater, you know, they're
• 41:38
  trying to force that. I'm a senior.
• 41:40
  You're a freshman. He was like, man,
• 41:42
  congratulations, man, I've been trying to help you for this is
• 41:44
  awesome. Like he was, he was happy for
• 41:46
  you. Big PR, that's what it's all
• 41:48
  about and that's what So that right there is what made me want
• 41:53
  to be a coach. Really.
• 41:57
  Yeah. What what about it?
• 42:00
  Was it the you saw him develop if you've had people develop
• 42:04
  you, though, so it can't be that.
• 42:05
  Was it the the selflessness of like, oh, this isn't about me,
• 42:09
  it's about you? Right.
• 42:10
  So I think because I've always had, when you come into high
• 42:17
  school, you trying to find your way and you know that there's
• 42:22
  others better than you. But I think for me, once I got
• 42:24
  to college, I felt like I was good, you know, and to have
• 42:28
  somebody humble themselves to tell me, to show me, it was
• 42:34
  like, I respect that. Yeah.
• 42:37
  Now I want to help other people get to what they need to be.
• 42:41
  Right, right, right. Yeah, sometimes it's, you know,
• 42:45
  I get people in all different situations, but sometimes we
• 42:47
  just have to see it modelled in front of us for us to actually
• 42:50
  know that. Well, wait a minute, It's
• 42:53
  almost, it sounds a little off putting sometimes, but it's
• 42:55
  almost. Sometimes it's like, wait a
• 42:56
  minute, if that person can do it, well, why can't I do it?
• 42:59
  You know, it's like, but yeah, that's really cool, man.
• 43:02
  That's he almost became my jump coach.
• 43:07
  Like though he was a athlete, he was my jump coach.
• 43:11
  So to have somebody who's supposed to be wanting to beat
• 43:15
  you all the time, right, help you get better than them so that
• 43:19
  when they left, you know, they could trust that a, you know
• 43:23
  what you're doing. I thought that that was very
• 43:28
  admired for me, man, I was amazing.
• 43:30
  So that was freshman year. What did you do differently?
• 43:33
  You're still getting your mass Comm degree as your next three
• 43:37
  years or so. What did you did?
• 43:40
  Looking back on now, did you find yourself doing things
• 43:42
  differently the next few years? And what I mean by that is maybe
• 43:45
  less about what you were doing differently, like working out
• 43:48
  and weights and grades, all stuff.
• 43:51
  Did you find yourself helping others more?
• 43:54
  So I did. I found that my, my when I my
• 43:59
  sophomore year by Bill Muscles, the coach at the time, he he
• 44:05
  basically saw that I I knew everything for triple jump that
• 44:09
  I needed to know and that I just needed to work on certain
• 44:12
  things. And that's only where he could
• 44:15
  come in that so other things he was allowing me to hey, get all
• 44:20
  the egg tux, go get all the jumpers, triple jumpers got this
• 44:24
  work. I already knew, you know, so
• 44:29
  when I could take a group and run a group myself as a, you
• 44:33
  know, as a sophomore in college, Yeah, I'm like, you know, maybe
• 44:38
  I can. Maybe coaching is in the play
• 44:40
  for me because I'm getting people to buy in.
• 44:43
  They're getting better under me. Maybe I do know what I'm
• 44:48
  talking. About the name, the name, the
• 44:49
  school after him, I mean. It's already in the place.
• 44:54
  It's in the books, maybe. OK, you go through the next few
• 44:59
  years. I love that that that change.
• 45:01
  And what did you say that young man's name was, You say Tad.
• 45:04
  Bad head injury. Man, it's amazing who gets put
• 45:08
  into your life that you don't even know or think would have an
• 45:12
  influence in your life and what he did for you.
• 45:14
  That's, that's really remarkable, man.
• 45:17
  It is, man. It really is.
• 45:19
  So you go through the rest of your years, you get your mask on
• 45:21
  degree, you're in the radio. Does coaching begin right after
• 45:26
  you graduate or you mentioned you started a photography
• 45:28
  company? So coaching began coaching on
• 45:34
  the high school level began, I want to say, because I went
• 45:38
  after after graduating, I sold cars for two years and but I
• 45:43
  knew my my junior senior, I spent more time coaching other
• 45:49
  jumpers like recruits that or, or talking to recruits that we
• 45:53
  had coming in or training new guys that I really my my
• 45:58
  training time for myself was spent, you know, 50 coaching
• 46:03
  athletes and then the other word trying to get in for myself.
• 46:07
  So once I graduated, I was just looking for, because I should
• 46:14
  have went to California for ACNN job, but my aunt died from
• 46:21
  cancer and I just felt like I needed to be home, you know, so
• 46:25
  stay home And so cars for two years.
• 46:28
  And then I got a call from I, I actually reached out to Andrew
• 46:33
  Schmidt himself and was wondering if they had anything
• 46:37
  open, man, and I just wanted to come in and coach because I
• 46:40
  already knew what I was doing on a college level and man, he gave
• 46:44
  me an opportunity. I also, I was selling cars and
• 46:47
  then I started getting into substitute teaching.
• 46:50
  When I got into substitute teaching, I'm like, I really
• 46:52
  want to coach. So that's when I reached out to
• 46:55
  Andrew Schmidt and he gave me opportunity and it's been all
• 47:00
  she wrote every since. Now where was that at?
• 47:03
  So my first coaching gig, well, I've been here all my all my
• 47:08
  coaching. Oh, that was there.
• 47:09
  Is that right? I've been at Bloom all my
• 47:11
  coaching life. Really.
• 47:13
  Yeah, so I was an assistant for eight years and then the last
• 47:17
  four years I've been the head. And are you full time teaching
• 47:22
  now or? I am a teacher's assistant.
• 47:25
  I'm a paraprofessional. Yep, Yep.
• 47:27
  But I like. I like.
• 47:29
  I like, but not that that I'm the president of the
• 47:32
  Paraprofessional union because, you know, I'm.
• 47:35
  What is that a real thing? I don't know.
• 47:37
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm so we have a union, Our
• 47:40
  paraprofessionals have a union. So I'm the president, you know,
• 47:43
  so. Hey, leaders going to lead.
• 47:44
  I love that. Leaders got to lead and and I'm
• 47:48
  all about it. I like being in the forefront.
• 47:51
  Yeah, I don't know much about, I don't know much period, but like
• 47:56
  it always amazing to me people who go to college and don't get
• 48:02
  an education like a teacher's degree, but end up become a
• 48:04
  teacher's or Paris because it's not easy.
• 48:07
  Like like in each state's a little differently.
• 48:11
  I know. And I've talked to a couple
• 48:12
  different people have done it. But like, I guess shocker, maybe
• 48:15
  I don't know. Texas is a little easier, at
• 48:17
  least on the private school side.
• 48:20
  But Illinois I think is a little tougher.
• 48:22
  And it's it's. They don't make it easy which.
• 48:25
  Not at all. I know on one hand, I guess I
• 48:27
  agree on one hand, the other because, you know, like I guess
• 48:30
  I do want my teachers to a very stringent bar for a teacher to
• 48:33
  hit. I also know they don't get paid
• 48:36
  enough. So it's also like, well, if
• 48:37
  you're going to do that, pay them.
• 48:39
  Damn they tolerate so much. Yeah.
• 48:43
  I think that's why I enjoy being a pair of because I don't have
• 48:49
  the the certain things that I have to do as a teacher.
• 48:51
  Like I don't, I don't, I don't have to plan.
• 48:55
  You know I don't. Have to plan what the class
• 48:57
  period going to look like. I'm here to assist what the
• 49:00
  class period looks like, you know, so but I think for me, the
• 49:05
  pair of part I took on the pair of part simply because I wanted
• 49:09
  to be in the building with my athletes.
• 49:11
  I want to be able to keep an eye on them.
• 49:13
  And I know for me growing up, eligibility was a big thing for
• 49:17
  for some of our good athletes that could have been really
• 49:20
  good. But not having someone stand
• 49:25
  down that back popping up that class simply because they didn't
• 49:31
  have they don't have anyone at home Who said who said the
• 49:33
  expectation is as a coach, I feel like that's where I come in
• 49:37
  it. And I do a good job, man, with
• 49:40
  helping kids because my shot putter who just recently
• 49:43
  graduated, you know, super proud of her because she made a full
• 49:47
  360 turn from her fresh meal. All because, you know, I gave
• 49:52
  her a idea of what she she could, what she could be good at
• 49:56
  for track. And she had never done it.
• 49:59
  She saw some success and was fell in love with being
• 50:02
  successful and stayed all four years end up getting them
• 50:07
  getting the shot put record. You know, we didn't qualify for
• 50:10
  state, but it was a it was a life.
• 50:13
  It was a definitely a life experience for her because on
• 50:17
  the biggest stage of her life, right, she was looking for,
• 50:21
  she's looking for support, you know, but that taught her even
• 50:26
  when in life you're going to look for support, but sometimes
• 50:29
  you're not going to get it. But you still have to push to be
• 50:32
  successful, to get the job done, you know.
• 50:36
  So I think that's helped her because now you know, she's
• 50:42
  pushing through, she's working, you know, she you're doing the
• 50:48
  best for yourself, man. And that's a.
• 50:49
  That's a good story, you know. That that's a story, you know, I
• 50:53
  say the superpower of a track coach is that they can see
• 50:57
  something in someone else before they see it in themselves.
• 50:59
  They both. They see it in themselves.
• 51:00
  That young lady couldn't see that her freshman year, you
• 51:03
  know, and, and you, you did and your coaches did and you guys
• 51:06
  helped her. And that, you know, that's a
• 51:07
  story that that's a common story.
• 51:11
  I, I, I'm glad it's not like, you know, one out of a hundred
• 51:16
  1000 times I hear that story because there's coaches like you
• 51:18
  around the country that are doing that every day.
• 51:20
  And so that's, that's what makes it common that the kids are
• 51:22
  being poured into by coaches such as yourself and, and the
• 51:25
  staff there every day. And that's, I'm glad it's a,
• 51:28
  it's a uncommon or it's a common story.
• 51:30
  I'm very glad because it means more young people are being
• 51:33
  reached out to. Where, where does you mention
• 51:35
  the photography company of business?
• 51:37
  Where? Where does that play into this?
• 51:39
  So when I, when I, after I graduated, I did a lot of work
• 51:43
  with the camera at Saint Joe and I just enjoy capturing pictures,
• 51:49
  man. I enjoy capturing the moment.
• 51:51
  So once I got the job here at Bloom Coaching, I'm like, I got
• 51:56
  to capture some of these track moments, man.
• 51:58
  So I end up grabbing a camera, buying a Canon 40D.
• 52:04
  Oh, you got like a real camera. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 52:06
  I actually, I spent good money on it because I want to be able
• 52:09
  to capture these moments in which I didn't have.
• 52:11
  All I got is the newspaper clippings and writings that I
• 52:14
  had from my high school year. So it's like if I could capture
• 52:17
  some of these moments for these kids.
• 52:19
  And I knew we was going into a social media era, and, you know,
• 52:23
  that was something that they appreciated, to get a picture
• 52:27
  from a random meet that they was running that they could cherish,
• 52:30
  you know? Yeah, yeah, I do know.
• 52:32
  I. Became the team photographer and
• 52:35
  wow, after that I end up taking pictures during basketball games
• 52:39
  and yeah, I'm like, man, you know, I'm going to start my own
• 52:42
  photography company, man, and came up with Tux with the shot
• 52:46
  and I actually had some really good success, man.
• 52:49
  What? What?
• 52:51
  It's interesting. I can think of several different
• 52:54
  people from Howard, Leo. I think that's how you pronounce
• 52:57
  the last name up in Seattle, Quinn Quinn, who's been on the
• 53:01
  podcast that love something about track and photography goes
• 53:06
  together. I don't I don't know what it is
• 53:08
  and maybe it's other sports too, but I know in track it's not
• 53:11
  uncommon to hear people really get not just I'm going to take
• 53:14
  pictures like I'm going to capture the moment, like you
• 53:17
  said, of these things. What a what a what drew you to
• 53:28
  the camera? I mean, that's very artistic.
• 53:30
  And you know, radio hosting is artistic as well.
• 53:33
  Sure. It's a very art kind of bend for
• 53:36
  you. So I, I think I, I tried to jump
• 53:40
  into the market for the Chicago market for radio, but it was,
• 53:45
  it's hard to get into the Chicago market.
• 53:47
  So I just, I figured I would pick up something that I knew
• 53:53
  people would use on a regular for the like entertainment life,
• 53:57
  and that's photographers, you know, So I actually made a my
• 54:03
  first two years and it was super good, man, because I had so many
• 54:07
  people looking to work with me. They like man, we need a
• 54:10
  photographer and. So what?
• 54:13
  What? What?
• 54:14
  Kind of gigs were you getting? Are you doing weddings?
• 54:16
  Are you doing all sporting events?
• 54:18
  What are you? Doing I focused my first two
• 54:20
  years on sporting events simply because when me being a sport
• 54:24
  guy, I just knew those those angles that parents would love
• 54:27
  to capture. That ain't kids.
• 54:29
  And it was that was the creative side for me being that that
• 54:35
  sports photographer. But then I, I want to say it was
• 54:39
  until I want to say like my third year and I started taking
• 54:47
  like baby showers, learning that like certain lighting that baby
• 54:51
  showers and then learning, I think I'm, I think I've only
• 54:54
  done like 3 weddings simply because I just don't like
• 54:58
  standing that long. I like sitting down when I want
• 55:01
  to sit. There.
• 55:02
  You know at those weddings, they expect you to be everywhere.
• 55:06
  Yeah, everywhere. Don't miss a moment.
• 55:08
  Right. Maybe.
• 55:09
  Like I can't believe you didn't get grandma kissing Auntie.
• 55:14
  Like. I was too busy taking a picture
• 55:16
  of you. Right and say yeah you always
• 55:20
  need like hire like 5 of them. If you want everything, hire 5
• 55:23
  different photographers. Knock yourself out.
• 55:25
  Right, thousand a person, by all means go.
• 55:29
  I love it. I love it.
• 55:30
  So you start working as an assistant at Bloom and I, I like
• 55:36
  that you're in school there because, you know, I told you I
• 55:39
  coached a couple years at the LaSalle High School and I
• 55:41
  didn't, I worked off off campus and then came for practice.
• 55:45
  And, and that, you know, that's, I don't know if it's 5050, but
• 55:49
  there's certainly enough of us track coaches who don't teach or
• 55:53
  repair do anything at the high school.
• 55:54
  They have another job. And then they, they come and I,
• 55:57
  I think you, you and they're doing a great job.
• 55:59
  It's, it's hard, but you brought up a good point about, you know,
• 56:04
  being able to be in the hallways, being able to show up
• 56:07
  at a classroom, you know, making sure you're there, like there,
• 56:10
  there is something there for that, that, you know, maybe 14
• 56:13
  to 18 year old kids need more than just the guy or gal who
• 56:17
  shows up at, call it 3:00 for, for practice, which is also
• 56:20
  important. I'm just saying, I think if you
• 56:22
  had your druthers, maybe you'd want to be at the school as
• 56:25
  well. I agree man.
• 56:26
  Simply because, you know, you can get in front of the problem
• 56:31
  of, of, of eligibility, you can get in front of that problem
• 56:36
  before it becomes a problem, you know, and I think kids find a
• 56:42
  sense of it and take a sense of ownership once they become a
• 56:47
  athlete in which they should. But I think most kids don't
• 56:52
  understand that they are student athletes until they become
• 56:55
  professional. It's no way you can even do the
• 56:59
  athlete part if you don't take care of being a student.
• 57:03
  So I think that for me, being in the high school, being inside
• 57:08
  the building gave me the, the, the power to pop up and make
• 57:15
  sure that they being the student and that I can view that for
• 57:19
  myself. I don't have to wait for
• 57:20
  teachers to e-mail me back. I got access to grades right
• 57:24
  away. When kids, well, I get kids that
• 57:26
  walk up to me every year. Hey, I'm going to do track.
• 57:29
  I say, OK, what's your ID number?
• 57:32
  And then I go right to my phone. I pull up their grades on my
• 57:35
  phone. I'd be like, whoa, whoa, whoa,
• 57:36
  whoa. Before you walk off, are you
• 57:38
  going to do track with four FS? Yeah.
• 57:42
  You're not even eligible. Yeah.
• 57:45
  Like what you? Mean yeah, you know, come on
• 57:49
  yeah, you brought up a good point too.
• 57:50
  Even peer-to-peer being able to go talk to a teacher, you know,
• 57:55
  to talk about Susie or Steven or whatever.
• 57:57
  Like it's much easier when you're in the school, like I
• 58:00
  will, I'll come get you in your second prep period or whatever,
• 58:03
  where if you're, you know, not showing up till after that, that
• 58:06
  makes it more difficult for that.
• 58:07
  And also, you know, every high school coach that we have here
• 58:11
  on the podcast, they talk about how important recruiting the
• 58:15
  hallways is for their team. Like if you want more kids on
• 58:19
  your team and you want to make sure that, you know, Johnny, the
• 58:22
  football player comes out for track, well, you need to make
• 58:24
  sure you're, you know, seeing them in the hallway.
• 58:27
  And so that's another aspect of being in the in the at the
• 58:30
  campus during the day has to benefit you as well.
• 58:34
  Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
• 58:35
  So I think for me with on that aspect, you do see talent
• 58:41
  walking around like things you can't even teach, like height.
• 58:46
  You can't teach height, right? But you can't really, you can
• 58:51
  walk up to the 64 girl who's walking the hallway, who's never
• 58:55
  done track, who's a senior, who you can say, hey, I know you'd I
• 59:01
  know you've never done track. I've seen you through the
• 59:03
  hallways. But you should really come out
• 59:07
  getting her, getting her out to the field to even just attempt a
• 59:12
  couple high jumps or long jumps. It's, it's so hard because if
• 59:22
  they don't already have said in a manner they could be good at
• 59:26
  it in this day and age, they don't want to attempt it, you
• 59:30
  know, So I, I think my biggest thing when I'm in the hallway is
• 59:37
  let the kids know where they can like, Hey, if you look like you
• 59:41
  may be a good sprinter, but I can only help you be a good
• 59:45
  sprinter. If you really want to be good,
• 59:48
  you know, like do you want to be?
• 59:49
  So you got to ask. So for me, I got to ask those
• 59:52
  certain type of questions. Hey, how important is it for you
• 59:56
  to focus on something that you do like it no matter what you
• 59:59
  do? How much focus are you willing
• 1:00:01
  to put on me when kids tell me one or two out of out of 10?
• 1:00:07
  How important is it for you to be successful with whatever it
• 1:00:10
  is that you do if it's not a 10 or at least a 8 and up?
• 1:00:16
  Yeah, you know, you mean to tell me.
• 1:00:18
  You OK with? You OK with failing all?
• 1:00:22
  Right. You know.
• 1:00:24
  How many of those kids, though? Let me ask you that.
• 1:00:26
  That's important. Let's let's stay on that topic.
• 1:00:29
  And by the way, you know, I'm speaking from not a teacher, not
• 1:00:32
  a high school coach anymore. Yeah, I've got two kids, right?
• 1:00:36
  I've told you I got a freshman and A and a 6th grader.
• 1:00:38
  But I wonder, like I've been, I've been thinking about this a
• 1:00:42
  lot with different things, some guests here on the podcast, some
• 1:00:45
  social media, some just society in general.
• 1:00:48
  Like it's amazing to me how often and quick we are to bag on
• 1:00:54
  young people today. Now, having said that, I don't
• 1:00:58
  think we bag on young people any more today than what people that
• 1:01:04
  were well, I'm older than you. People like me used to bag on
• 1:01:07
  your, your kids your age and people that were, you know,
• 1:01:12
  older than me, they used to bag on my generation.
• 1:01:14
  It, it's funny, I was at a show once at A, at a convention and
• 1:01:18
  this lady, the presenter, and I can't remember what the topic
• 1:01:22
  was, but she was talking about like it was about teaching Gen.
• 1:01:27
  X or working with Gen. Xers.
• 1:01:29
  So in a professional site, we had to hire Gen.
• 1:01:31
  Xers. All that kind of stuff, right.
• 1:01:32
  So here's how you manage Gen. Xers versus Millennials versus
• 1:01:37
  whatever. I don't even like all those
• 1:01:39
  different tags. I don't remember them all, but
• 1:01:40
  whatever. And she she read a statement,
• 1:01:43
  she goes, what age group? You know, what generation do you
• 1:01:47
  think this describes? And it talks about, you know,
• 1:01:49
  the young people are lazy, they don't want to work, blah, blah,
• 1:01:52
  blah, blah, blah, right? You would say that when I say
• 1:01:55
  you, the general, you maybe not you necessarily the general, you
• 1:01:57
  would say that about today's youth right now, all these kids,
• 1:02:00
  they just want to get on their TikTok, right?
• 1:02:02
  And all this kind of stuff, right?
• 1:02:03
  So she, she hold on, hold on. So she reads all this and goes,
• 1:02:06
  what age group, you know, blah, blah and all the, you know, it's
• 1:02:09
  a bunch of old guys in the audience.
• 1:02:10
  We were like, oh, yeah, today's youth, blah, blah, blah.
• 1:02:12
  And she goes, actually, that was from the 1960 Time magazine.
• 1:02:17
  It was about you guys. Wow.
• 1:02:20
  It's not that young people are lazy, but today all young people
• 1:02:25
  are lazy. Whether you're grew up in the
• 1:02:27
  1960's, the 1990's, the 20 twenties, we eventually, some of
• 1:02:32
  us eventually grow out of it. So I don't think it's today's
• 1:02:35
  youth. So here's where I'm really
• 1:02:37
  getting at. When you tell, you know, if a
• 1:02:39
  kid says they're A1 or A2 and they don't say an 8-9 or ten,
• 1:02:42
  I'm like, maybe you need to go play softball or whatever.
• 1:02:44
  You know, that was my words, not yours.
• 1:02:46
  Don't get your softball coach Matt Abbey.
• 1:02:47
  Don't. Even go to softball.
• 1:02:49
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Maybe you need to go.
• 1:02:50
  Yeah, go go join the E gamers or something.
• 1:02:53
  I don't know. But what I wonder is how many
• 1:02:57
  young people need someone like yourself when they say, you
• 1:03:03
  know, I don't think I can be very good sprinting Coach
• 1:03:05
  Tookes. I you know, to how many people
• 1:03:08
  need a Coach Tookes and thank God there are people like you
• 1:03:11
  and other people out there that go, hey, why don't you give it a
• 1:03:14
  try? Why don't you come out and let's
• 1:03:17
  see what happens and doesn't give up on that person.
• 1:03:19
  Plenty of people are giving up on these young people, just like
• 1:03:22
  plenty of people gave up on young people when you were
• 1:03:24
  young. And same with me.
• 1:03:26
  I think young people in general are just lazy and they need
• 1:03:30
  leaders like our track and field coaches like yourself to just
• 1:03:34
  not give up on them until they're you know, some people
• 1:03:38
  are not saving savable, right? I, I, I get that there's a
• 1:03:41
  reason why we have jails and unemployment and things like
• 1:03:44
  that. And I'm not bashing people that
• 1:03:45
  are in jail or unemployed. I just can't give another good
• 1:03:48
  example of that. But most of us go on to have
• 1:03:51
  full time jobs. Some of us who, who we've never
• 1:03:54
  thought would do anything, go on to become coaches and impact
• 1:03:57
  young people in a, in a major way.
• 1:03:59
  I just think when I hear that story about you and the walk in
• 1:04:01
  the hallways, I'm like, man, Tookes, I don't.
• 1:04:04
  I don't know that you're describing what you actually
• 1:04:06
  believe. So I I I know that.
• 1:04:11
  You didn't give up on that young lady, that thrower that you
• 1:04:13
  mentioned. I, I didn't, but she also took
• 1:04:17
  the risk of giving me the opportunity to try to make the
• 1:04:22
  change. I feel like, you know, I look at
• 1:04:24
  life as a big choice, right? And when someone expresses that
• 1:04:31
  that potential when you that they see now, that becomes you
• 1:04:37
  having to see it for yourself. So for me at this point, when I
• 1:04:43
  get kids who doubt themselves so much, I go to extra mile and try
• 1:04:48
  to figure out why. Why it is that you're doubting?
• 1:04:50
  That's what I'm talking about. I don't think you were
• 1:04:52
  describing how you actually are. That's more of what I believe.
• 1:04:55
  No for sure. Now I will go to extra mile to
• 1:04:58
  figure out why it is that you doubt yourself and do what I can
• 1:05:02
  to change it. But you have to be open to the
• 1:05:06
  change. That's right, I agree with that.
• 1:05:08
  You know. You're not actually changing
• 1:05:10
  them, you're giving them a conduit to change.
• 1:05:12
  But they have to be the ones that change.
• 1:05:15
  I'm with. You, I'm with you agree.
• 1:05:17
  And when you do have those who take that and they make the
• 1:05:23
  change, it's a beautiful thing. That's right.
• 1:05:26
  It's a beautiful thing. But like you said, you, you, you
• 1:05:30
  can't save everybody because the moment you try, I mean, you
• 1:05:35
  don't, you start to beat yourself up, then that becomes
• 1:05:38
  stress. It's a great point.
• 1:05:39
  Right, and you just can't live right with stress.
• 1:05:43
  And by the way, I'm not sure I think the majority of people get
• 1:05:46
  there wherever there is. Meaning, oh, I need to know how
• 1:05:49
  to, I realize now how I need to act to have a full time job or
• 1:05:53
  to do well in math class or to be on the track team, etcetera.
• 1:05:56
  I think we all eventually get there, but unfortunately you're
• 1:06:00
  working with 14 to 18 year olds. And what I mean by that
• 1:06:02
  unfortunately is some of us don't get into we're 222835.
• 1:06:07
  You only get them for this, this amount.
• 1:06:11
  Now the thing I think sometimes our high school and even our
• 1:06:14
  college coaches forget when they have a kid because right now
• 1:06:17
  you're probably thinking of kids like, man, that kid was just
• 1:06:19
  unsavable. I don't even know what happened
• 1:06:21
  to whatever blah blah, blah is five years down that when
• 1:06:24
  they're 25 or whatever and they do get it and they become a a
• 1:06:28
  husband or a wife or a mother or a father.
• 1:06:31
  What you have the ability to do today in their 1418 year old
• 1:06:35
  range is to to plant a little seed.
• 1:06:39
  I've had so many, I've had so many coaches come on to the show
• 1:06:42
  and talk about when they were young, this one coach or this
• 1:06:45
  one teacher. I was a knucklehead, Mike, and
• 1:06:48
  this one teacher didn't give up on me.
• 1:06:51
  She wasn't my favorite teacher, but she kept pushing me.
• 1:06:54
  She wouldn't just let me just go and do my thing and fail my
• 1:06:56
  class or wouldn't let me just do my thing at practice and cut me
• 1:06:59
  or whatever. And now as a 25 or then as a 25
• 1:07:03
  year old, I realized, wow, they were trying to teach me XY and Z
• 1:07:06
  and it finally connected. That's what you have the ability
• 1:07:10
  to do that for the kids that won't join your team, will only
• 1:07:13
  be on your team for a year will come there.
• 1:07:16
  And we we've all had it. I coached high school for a
• 1:07:18
  couple years, loved it. The kids that just want to be
• 1:07:20
  part of a team. That's not a bad thing.
• 1:07:23
  I've I've got I've talked to plenty of track coaches.
• 1:07:25
  High school was like, if you're going to be on my team, you're
• 1:07:26
  going to, you know, you're going to strive for the state meet and
• 1:07:29
  like that ain't everybody. In fact, it's not most people to
• 1:07:32
  be agree agree, but they can get positives from you as a leader
• 1:07:38
  being on that team. So I know for me, I allow those,
• 1:07:43
  you know what I'm saying? I allow those because like my
• 1:07:46
  hope, my shot put group last year, they were a tight knit
• 1:07:50
  group, but they know out of five girls, two were just they were,
• 1:07:59
  they knew that they was throws. The other three, they were there
• 1:08:01
  to work out with the other girls because they just they just knew
• 1:08:04
  the workout was good for them. And you know, my thing is, you
• 1:08:09
  know, your purpose, purpose. When you when you walk into
• 1:08:13
  anything, there should be a purpose.
• 1:08:17
  And when you don't have a purpose, that's when you're
• 1:08:19
  willing to settle or do anything, you know, but those
• 1:08:23
  girls walked in and understand that, you know, I did a good job
• 1:08:27
  with letting them know that, hey, if you're here, you're here
• 1:08:31
  to get something done right. You know, you got to have a
• 1:08:34
  goal. And they did a good job.
• 1:08:36
  They they, they set the certain goals with weight room.
• 1:08:39
  They might not have want, they might not have wanted to throw
• 1:08:41
  343536 feet. That just wasn't something that
• 1:08:45
  they was thinking about. But if they could come in
• 1:08:47
  knowing that coach Took's got a goal for them to all I want them
• 1:08:51
  to do is measure their weight every week.
• 1:08:53
  Just make sure you going, you know, you working at something,
• 1:08:56
  get stronger every week. It was those small goals.
• 1:09:00
  Hey, Coach Tux, I got a hired. I was able to do better on the
• 1:09:04
  deadlift today. Nice.
• 1:09:06
  I know this kid, not going to go out there and throw 36 feet, but
• 1:09:09
  I'm happy about your deadlift because you're excited and
• 1:09:12
  that's something that you focus on.
• 1:09:13
  That's the kind of kid that's going to be the first in their
• 1:09:17
  family to graduate college because they they're going to
• 1:09:20
  learn from you of like, oh, I need to measure that.
• 1:09:22
  I need to have goals. I need to track things like
• 1:09:24
  those are things that you need to have in college to be
• 1:09:26
  successful to actually get a degree, right?
• 1:09:28
  They're going to get a job and they're going to get, you know,
• 1:09:31
  start at entry level and maybe get promoted to manager because
• 1:09:33
  they're going to remember, you know, Coach Tookes used to make
• 1:09:35
  me write down everything and used to make me, you know, track
• 1:09:38
  this. And every week I'd have how did
• 1:09:40
  I do? OK, I did this.
• 1:09:41
  Well, I did a little bit better than last week and threw 30 feet
• 1:09:44
  in the shot put as a high schooler.
• 1:09:47
  Their worth is not based on how far they throw.
• 1:09:50
  Their worth is I like how you said that.
• 1:09:52
  What's their role on the team? Some people's roles, which by
• 1:09:56
  the way, is things out of your control.
• 1:09:59
  You have God-given genetics. Sorry, there's no no amount of
• 1:10:02
  coaching is going to give or take away that right.
• 1:10:03
  And they're going to go on and throw 50 feet for a shot putter
• 1:10:08
  and not be a leader. By the way, they were like
• 1:10:09
  alright cool, I threw 50. And that's all they job is.
• 1:10:12
  They job is to perform. That's it.
• 1:10:14
  You know, and then you got other man.
• 1:10:16
  So that's and and that jumps into knowing your personnel man.
• 1:10:21
  I, I think that that's, I think that that's a big thing that
• 1:10:25
  coaches have to get and have to understand.
• 1:10:28
  Like you have to know your personnel.
• 1:10:30
  I had a girl on my team. She was just the emotional,
• 1:10:33
  spiritual girl. Like go sit by Jeanette and make
• 1:10:39
  sure Jeanette not crying, you know, and she could do that.
• 1:10:42
  She'll go sit back. Jeanette start having Jeanette
• 1:10:45
  crying, I mean laughing. And yeah.
• 1:10:48
  Next thing you know, Jeanette ain't thought about her race.
• 1:10:50
  So let let's let's double click into that then took because you
• 1:10:53
  this is not something when you started coaching as a what 25
• 1:10:57
  ish year old, roughly 25. You are not the same coach today
• 1:11:03
  as you were then. I hope you weren't anyway,
• 1:11:05
  because that means you haven't developed right?
• 1:11:07
  So how do you learn these things?
• 1:11:10
  How did you, how, how have you developed as a coach from 25
• 1:11:15
  till today? And when I say how, I don't
• 1:11:17
  necessarily mean like, oh, I'm better at knowing people's roles
• 1:11:20
  and things like that, like that. That's that's cool and all, But
• 1:11:22
  like, how did you observe other coaches?
• 1:11:25
  Was there a, a, a clinic presentation that you went to
• 1:11:28
  Was like, wow, wait a minute. I didn't realize that I could
• 1:11:31
  have had influence over that. I could help people with the
• 1:11:33
  roles, whatever. How did how have you developed
• 1:11:35
  over these past few years? I got to say through 1st and far
• 1:11:41
  more foremost, my first Aika clinic, my first ICA clinic was
• 1:11:46
  a big awakener. Why?
• 1:11:49
  How so? Big awakener for me.
• 1:11:51
  When he says it, remember, we, we global took.
• 1:11:54
  So we got to make sure you tell people what we know because it's
• 1:11:58
  the Illinois track and field cross country.
• 1:12:00
  It's it's your state association.
• 1:12:02
  So you know, Alabama has a HSAA. Well, that's the whole
• 1:12:06
  association. But Wisconsin has the Wisco,
• 1:12:09
  Wisconsin Track coaches association.
• 1:12:11
  Every state, almost every state has something like that.
• 1:12:14
  He's talking about about the Illinois version, which is one
• 1:12:16
  of the top five, again, roughly track clinics in this country.
• 1:12:20
  For sure. I love.
• 1:12:21
  I love it. Yeah.
• 1:12:22
  Yeah. So how?
• 1:12:23
  How so? How was that such an eye opener
• 1:12:24
  for you? So hearing Boo Snyder speak,
• 1:12:28
  check Snyder. Yeah, yeah, man.
• 1:12:30
  And and, and and and and hearing other coaches through Illinois
• 1:12:35
  give their perspective on what they were doing.
• 1:12:38
  And it was, I forget this coach name in particular.
• 1:12:42
  I can't remember his night specifically, but I at the time
• 1:12:45
  he was at an orange school, It was it was something orange.
• 1:12:49
  You did narrow it down. High school.
• 1:12:50
  College. High school.
• 1:12:53
  OK, I still see. Him I still see him at all yeah
• 1:12:56
  I still see him at other meats. I just his his name just won't
• 1:12:59
  come out. But he gave a team camaraderie,
• 1:13:04
  talk and how to be there for not only your athletes, but for
• 1:13:11
  parents, you know, and that that gave me so much insight, man,
• 1:13:20
  simply because my, the young me, I ain't man, I ain't man.
• 1:13:27
  Just being as real as possible, you know, whether it hurt it,
• 1:13:31
  the athlete feelings, the parent feelings, you know, it was it
• 1:13:38
  was like, hey, I'm trying to get the team that I won't.
• 1:13:41
  And I need people involved who know that, you know, and just
• 1:13:46
  being able to dial it back and understand.
• 1:13:50
  Not everybody coming into this thing with the same support, the
• 1:13:53
  same mindset or the same expectations for their kids.
• 1:13:57
  Some parents don't care if they kid come to practice or not.
• 1:14:01
  Some parents will tell their kids, hey, you don't have to go
• 1:14:03
  to practice today, come home, right?
• 1:14:06
  But knowing that you, you know, hearing that talk and knowing
• 1:14:10
  that you're dealing with different playing field across
• 1:14:14
  the board and every different household with every different
• 1:14:17
  kid, that really gave me the knowledge that I needed to to
• 1:14:22
  respect that part. Two things.
• 1:14:24
  One, you said you still see Orange coach around, right?
• 1:14:30
  Yeah. All right.
• 1:14:30
  So I'm going to give you homework.
• 1:14:31
  Next time you see that person, you're going to go up to him be
• 1:14:36
  like, hey, man, I was just thinking that.
• 1:14:38
  I was thinking I was reflecting back, you know, maybe orange man
• 1:14:42
  knows about the podcast. I was on Mike's podcast, Gill's
• 1:14:44
  podcast, and we were talking about people that are
• 1:14:46
  influential and man, you gave a talk at Edka X amount of years
• 1:14:50
  ago and I brought that up like that person needs to hear that
• 1:14:54
  his talk helped someone else. You know, sometimes we forget
• 1:15:00
  like the influence we have and it's easy for us to go, well,
• 1:15:02
  I'm just in my own little place. Like, no, you, you have
• 1:15:04
  influence, right? So step up to that person next
• 1:15:08
  time and tell them thank you, Will.
• 1:15:10
  Do man. Two, I love that that is your
• 1:15:14
  memory. First of all, you mentioned my
• 1:15:17
  my mentor, Bouchex Nader. So I love that that's the first
• 1:15:19
  person you mentioned. Still the number one show on our
• 1:15:21
  podcast, by the way. So whatever app you're listening
• 1:15:23
  to, go listen to Boo Story. It's amazing, but that that not
• 1:15:28
  a an X's and O's working, not a oh, I went to this.
• 1:15:32
  I listen to this triple jump speaker And oh, it just amazed
• 1:15:34
  me. I went to the store a talk on
• 1:15:38
  culture and parent culture that that because we're doing a
• 1:15:43
  better job today than we were yesterday.
• 1:15:44
  But you know, when you go to a track clinic, it used to be 90,
• 1:15:48
  maybe even back on that one you're talking about.
• 1:15:50
  Maybe he was the only talk that wasn't an X&O's 90% we're all XS
• 1:15:54
  and OS and 10% were on culture or recruiting, something like
• 1:15:56
  that. We're getting better today where
• 1:15:58
  maybe 70% are XS and OS and 30% are on culture.
• 1:16:02
  And so I love that that is the like that was your first memory
• 1:16:07
  of like, oh, I went to Edgar and I saw this guy talking about,
• 1:16:10
  you know, expectations and kids and parents.
• 1:16:12
  And I was like that really kind of that that changed you, that
• 1:16:15
  changed your day a little bit. Oh, yeah.
• 1:16:17
  Oh, yeah. Because I mean, simply because
• 1:16:20
  it's, it's not always about sports, man.
• 1:16:24
  The kids can have fun and they could be really successful with
• 1:16:29
  the sport if you know everything that's going into it, everything
• 1:16:34
  that they got to deal with before they get to the sport,
• 1:16:37
  right? Because if you could help with
• 1:16:38
  certain stressors, man. Yeah.
• 1:16:42
  Man. That's an important language is
• 1:16:44
  important to me, like the words you choose and the words you say
• 1:16:47
  and how you speak to yourself as well.
• 1:16:49
  But took the way you just said that you said, you know, the
• 1:16:52
  things that they have to deal with before they even get to me,
• 1:16:54
  before they get to practice. That's a stark difference
• 1:16:58
  between how you were explaining like, you know, if a kids one or
• 1:17:01
  two, I don't know, And it's like, you know, it took what you
• 1:17:04
  just said there is really important.
• 1:17:07
  Have you taken a second, taken a step back and really learned
• 1:17:10
  what is that kid going through to be it to self to self, say a
• 1:17:15
  one or two man? There's a there's something
• 1:17:17
  there. That's it.
• 1:17:19
  There's something. They're deeper, right?
• 1:17:21
  Even a kid that you know, you could, you could easily dismiss
• 1:17:24
  a kid who has it looks like they have everything.
• 1:17:26
  Maybe you got both parents. You guys are middle, middle
• 1:17:29
  class, you know, so money's not a part you're not, you're not
• 1:17:32
  missing breakfasts and stuff. You're fine.
• 1:17:34
  What do you have to complain about?
• 1:17:35
  Like, man, that kid might just not be her.
• 1:17:38
  That kid might, you know, there's so many things with
• 1:17:41
  young people with with, with us. You have something going on
• 1:17:44
  right now. I have something.
• 1:17:45
  We all have something that we don't see going on.
• 1:17:49
  And you remember yourself as a 1617 year old kid.
• 1:17:52
  Things were things were much easier to think that it was the
• 1:17:55
  end of the world. That's a 16 year old that now
• 1:17:57
  you're like, whatever man, I'm good.
• 1:17:59
  A 16 year old thinks it's the end of the world, you know?
• 1:18:01
  Right. I was I was upset when I ran out
• 1:18:03
  of Cocoa Puffs man. I'm I'm ain't no more Cocoa
• 1:18:06
  Puffs man. I don't the world about the end.
• 1:18:10
  Man, where the Cocoa Puffs? Wake up in the morning about to
• 1:18:15
  go to school, trying to pull you some Cocoa Puffs and three
• 1:18:18
  pebbles come out. Amen.
• 1:18:20
  Like, oh man, it's a bad day. It's.
• 1:18:22
  A It's snuffing to be a good. One, I hope that track coach
• 1:18:25
  don't try to talk to me today because it ain't happening
• 1:18:27
  today. Yeah, exactly.
• 1:18:29
  You know, I love I love this perspective.
• 1:18:32
  Talks about whether you're talking about, you know, 15 year
• 1:18:36
  old kid in the hallways, your assistant coach, a coach in
• 1:18:39
  another program, a teacher, etcetera, that we're all going
• 1:18:43
  through something and and we we don't know what that other
• 1:18:45
  person is going through. So grace is an important factor
• 1:18:51
  for us to get through life because we need grace as well.
• 1:18:53
  By the way, you're I guarantee you maybe not.
• 1:18:56
  You took me. I snapped at someone because I
• 1:18:58
  was having a bad day and the other person's like, man, Mike's
• 1:19:00
  a jerk and it's like man, that was a jerk moment for sure.
• 1:19:03
  I'm not a jerk doesn't excuse what I did.
• 1:19:06
  I'm sorry. You know, we need grace.
• 1:19:08
  I. Agree man.
• 1:19:08
  I have a very very down moment in my life where just not even
• 1:19:15
  down just I learned from because I showed myself not to be in
• 1:19:22
  control. I think a big thing for that is
• 1:19:26
  self-control and I had a big blow up at Rich Township, that
• 1:19:29
  immediate Rich Township last year.
• 1:19:31
  Oh no, it. Was it was it was it was crazy,
• 1:19:33
  man. What happened?
• 1:19:35
  So we had my fresh soft relay was told they were in the wrong
• 1:19:40
  heat. So they knew it was should have
• 1:19:43
  been in the heat before. But they were told like, Hey,
• 1:19:47
  you're not in this heat. And then when the race started,
• 1:19:52
  the starter was like, hey, Bloom Township was supposed to be in
• 1:19:55
  that heat. So I'm like, no, but you know,
• 1:19:59
  the clerk told them that they were supposed to.
• 1:20:01
  So when I brought it to the the athletic director who was
• 1:20:06
  helping run the meet. He basically told me like, no,
• 1:20:10
  it's not my clerk's fault, your girls just didn't get on the
• 1:20:12
  track. When the clerk told me, she told
• 1:20:16
  them what heat to get in. So instead of being under
• 1:20:19
  control and I handed it professionally, I did.
• 1:20:24
  I went off. I was I was right by the finish
• 1:20:27
  line. So all the parents saw me going
• 1:20:29
  off and I held up the next race. I held up the next race.
• 1:20:36
  I did man. Like you stood on the track.
• 1:20:38
  It was like, we ain't having this.
• 1:20:39
  Race I was right at the start I said we we can't be planning on
• 1:20:42
  starting another race and y'all not getting this, getting this
• 1:20:45
  fixed because not only did it affect my fresh, my fresh soft
• 1:20:48
  girls, but it refreshed at Kennedy King and another and
• 1:20:52
  another high school girls. So my thing that I was pushing
• 1:20:55
  for to the Rich Township AD was this got to be about the kids.
• 1:21:00
  Right. Isn't it's not even it's not
• 1:21:03
  about no points. It's about these kids making
• 1:21:06
  sure they get the opportunity on the track to run when it wasn't
• 1:21:09
  their fault. I could really respect if my
• 1:21:13
  girls didn't walk up to the line and they just Ding, I could
• 1:21:17
  fully respect that and not take that out on them.
• 1:21:20
  But for your clerk to say, yeah, I told them this heat and then
• 1:21:27
  you try to say, no, it's it's not your fault, it's their
• 1:21:30
  fault. What are we doing as adults?
• 1:21:33
  What was the resolution? We we got him on the track.
• 1:21:37
  So thanks to Laniel Poole, one of the great starters in here in
• 1:21:41
  Illinois, he walked over and was like, hey, man, you got to calm
• 1:21:46
  yourself. Now I can fix this, but you
• 1:21:48
  making me not want to fix it, you know?
• 1:21:51
  So in that moment, I had to realize, all right, I did too
• 1:21:54
  much, especially when I got a bloom grape walking over here to
• 1:21:57
  me telling me, hey, you're not making us look good.
• 1:22:01
  Dude, what a statement that that kind of resonated with me right
• 1:22:04
  there, man, When you, when he, when you said that, he said,
• 1:22:08
  look, I want to help you out, but you're making me not want
• 1:22:10
  like like that hit me. Like I wonder times where
• 1:22:13
  there's been people who like have my back, want to have my
• 1:22:16
  back and because the way I'm acting, they're like, not like
• 1:22:19
  this, right. Like you put yourself on an
• 1:22:22
  island, bro, when you're acting like this.
• 1:22:24
  I can't help that. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:22:26
  That hit and. And in my perspective, it was.
• 1:22:32
  And that's why I perspective is everything, man.
• 1:22:34
  Perspective is everything. Because in my eyes, I thought
• 1:22:37
  that the Rich Township AD just didn't respect me.
• 1:22:41
  And therefore he was going to just go with what he was saying.
• 1:22:45
  But not knowing that the starter knew what was going on, not, you
• 1:22:51
  know, Lionel Pulley, he knew what was going on.
• 1:22:54
  He was going to fix it. I never gave him the opportunity
• 1:22:57
  to address it because I took it into, you know what I'm saying?
• 1:23:01
  So I learned that. How would you you talk about
• 1:23:05
  perspective. You know, we have, we have that
• 1:23:08
  right, 2020, we have that behind us.
• 1:23:10
  We can see how would you have done something.
• 1:23:12
  And by the way, let me take a step back here.
• 1:23:14
  Thank you for being so open and authentic with this, because
• 1:23:18
  this is the type of these are hard conversations.
• 1:23:20
  It's hard for you to to tell, you know, there's a lot of
• 1:23:23
  people listen to the podcast, bro.
• 1:23:24
  It's hard to to tell people, hey, here's how I was an idiot.
• 1:23:28
  My word. I guess I just said that I
• 1:23:31
  called you an idiot because I said my words, not you.
• 1:23:33
  You didn't call yourself an idiot.
• 1:23:34
  I called it was. It was very idiotic man, because
• 1:23:37
  I should have been able to have more self-control.
• 1:23:39
  That's my thing. For you to be able to do that in
• 1:23:41
  a public forum like this, I am so grateful because I think
• 1:23:45
  there are other people that are hearing this right now and
• 1:23:47
  they're going, oh, did I do that?
• 1:23:50
  And I have an apology, like, oh, I don't, I don't think anybody's
• 1:23:53
  actually told me that I acted like that, that that brings a
• 1:23:55
  bell. Or they're listening and they're
• 1:23:57
  going to be in a similar situation as you one day today,
• 1:24:01
  tomorrow, five years from now. And for some people, they're
• 1:24:04
  going to remember your story before they blow up and go, oh,
• 1:24:07
  OK, wait a minute. I remember that guy, he blew up
• 1:24:10
  and it didn't work out real well and he, you know, kind of pushy
• 1:24:13
  would have taken a step back. Do I need to take a step back
• 1:24:16
  right here? Am I do am I about to blow up?
• 1:24:18
  And it's not going to be good. Like this is going to help
• 1:24:20
  people. So I just want to publicly say
• 1:24:22
  thank you because you, you know, sometimes people don't realize
• 1:24:25
  it on this podcast. It's not a scripted podcast.
• 1:24:28
  What I mean by that is you got no questions beforehand.
• 1:24:30
  So you had no clue this story was even going to come up.
• 1:24:33
  You probably were in your head were like, I hope this story
• 1:24:35
  doesn't come up. So you get to tell the story how
• 1:24:37
  you want to. So I'm just grateful that you
• 1:24:40
  have the humility and honestly, the what's the word?
• 1:24:45
  Well, some of it's trust, but Oh my gosh, I can't think of the
• 1:24:50
  word. Here you have the the no, I'm
• 1:24:53
  really stuck on the freaking word.
• 1:24:54
  You have the humility to be able to say, hey, here's what I did.
• 1:24:57
  Boy, it was wrong. Yes, I I appreciate that.
• 1:24:59
  I just want to make sure. No problem with ownership at all
• 1:25:01
  man because I feel like people learn from others mistakes,
• 1:25:04
  yeah. Some of us do.
• 1:25:06
  More of us should, right? That's very, very nice of you to
• 1:25:10
  say that. We all do.
• 1:25:11
  But no, you know, we all don't. What, what, what?
• 1:25:15
  So hindsight in perspective here, what would you have done
• 1:25:19
  differently now knowing how it all turned out and you have all
• 1:25:21
  the cards on the table, you know everything and what everybody
• 1:25:24
  knew and how they really were acting.
• 1:25:26
  How would you have done that differently?
• 1:25:29
  So I would have took it into Lionel Pool right from the out
• 1:25:32
  of taking it, taking it to the starters, the judges of the
• 1:25:35
  starters of the meet simply because they hate the ones who
• 1:25:39
  at the end of the day make make the decisions right.
• 1:25:44
  So instead of understanding that the clerk went wrong, instead of
• 1:25:50
  going to the ADI would have just went straight to the starters
• 1:25:53
  and allowed the starters to get it correct with the AD instead
• 1:25:58
  of including myself. And that's and that's a trust
• 1:26:03
  factor because in that moment I didn't trust that they would do
• 1:26:08
  the right things for the kids. So, you know, I put myself in
• 1:26:14
  position to make sure it was done, but it wasn't done the
• 1:26:17
  right way. Yeah, there's a lot.
• 1:26:19
  There's a lot of positive to it too, as well.
• 1:26:20
  Like, you know, what you were fighting for is positive.
• 1:26:23
  You were fighting for the kids. Someone else made a mistake.
• 1:26:26
  They shouldn't be punished for it.
• 1:26:27
  So there's a lot of positives to it.
• 1:26:29
  The negative is OK, here's how I reacted to it.
• 1:26:32
  So that that's the the lessons like, OK, bad things are going
• 1:26:35
  to happen. This won't be the last time
• 1:26:37
  you're not retiring this year. So this ain't the last time
• 1:26:39
  something like this is going to happen.
• 1:26:41
  OK. Now next time it does happen,
• 1:26:44
  you're going to respond to it in a much different way and more
• 1:26:48
  positivity is going to come from it.
• 1:26:50
  So I love that. That's a great lesson, man.
• 1:26:52
  That's good. What you know, you mentioned
• 1:26:55
  assistant coach for so many years, I think maybe said eight
• 1:26:58
  now the last, maybe the last four as the head coach.
• 1:27:00
  What's what's the difference that you've seen being a high
• 1:27:04
  school assistant coach versus a high school head coach?
• 1:27:07
  What's the biggest differences for you?
• 1:27:09
  So when was that assistant coach?
• 1:27:14
  I didn't have to deal with the parents in like my first couple
• 1:27:19
  years as an assistant. I was able to just focus on the
• 1:27:22
  athletes. But then during the last couple
• 1:27:27
  years, I honestly say the parents just started to become a
• 1:27:33
  little too much. So that's when I became the one
• 1:27:38
  to talk to the parents. Therefore, the head coach could
• 1:27:43
  just focus on the athletes simply because our parents at
• 1:27:49
  the time then, you know, I don't think they appreciate it, the
• 1:27:55
  knowledge and what Andrew Schmidt was doing for their
• 1:27:57
  kids. I just, I think that they had
• 1:28:00
  their own perspective of what was going on, thinking he was
• 1:28:05
  playing favoritism or anything like that.
• 1:28:07
  When you know, we run the kids who who run the times, you know,
• 1:28:12
  we run the kids who show up to practice, you know, we set an
• 1:28:15
  expectation. If they meet it, they race.
• 1:28:18
  You know, I think they saw, I think they saw more not not it.
• 1:28:25
  They didn't see it as him setting the expectation.
• 1:28:28
  They saw it as passive aggressiveness.
• 1:28:30
  So when when I saw that they were trying to make it out to
• 1:28:36
  something that is not so when I told him you shouldn't deal with
• 1:28:39
  any more parents, I'll let me talk to the parents.
• 1:28:43
  And I want to say we came out those last couple years before
• 1:28:47
  he before he left it, I want to say 2019-2020, the Kobe year.
• 1:28:52
  I mean, we came out, we came out ranked top five in the state
• 1:28:57
  that year, you know, and then everything happened with COVID
• 1:29:02
  and you know, he end up leaving, I want to say that year after
• 1:29:06
  COVID. So I want to say that the
• 1:29:10
  biggest difference there is definitely parents from
• 1:29:14
  assistant to head coach, because as an assistant, you're not
• 1:29:20
  looked at as the main guy, you know?
• 1:29:25
  You looked at as a piece who's helping everybody else get
• 1:29:30
  better, you know? Well, what's, it's hard for me
• 1:29:35
  to understand this because as a, like, I'm so glad my, my
• 1:29:39
  freshman and both my kids actually are not doing track.
• 1:29:43
  I, I wish they were, I guess, you know, because I love track
• 1:29:45
  and all that, But like, I, I used to think like, oh, I don't
• 1:29:48
  know if I can be the good parent, you know, because I
• 1:29:50
  coached at a high level. I coached in the CCI coached,
• 1:29:53
  you know, a couple of CC champions, all Americans, all
• 1:29:55
  this kind of stuff. So, you know, I at least used to
• 1:29:57
  know what I was doing. I've forgotten everything since
• 1:30:00
  then. But you know, at least I used to
• 1:30:02
  know it all or used to know a lot.
• 1:30:04
  And I always wonders like, oh man, if my kids, especially
• 1:30:07
  hurdles, that's my jam. I was like, if my kids go to
• 1:30:09
  track and start doing hurdles and the coach isn't doing what's
• 1:30:13
  right, can I just sit there and shut up?
• 1:30:15
  As long as they're not being unsafe, Like there's, there's
• 1:30:17
  always that there's a line there, of course of, you know,
• 1:30:19
  safety. But if they're just not coaching
• 1:30:22
  them, teaching them how to do hurdles, how I know it should be
• 1:30:24
  taught, can I just be like, well, you know, they're still
• 1:30:26
  having a good experience. It's OK.
• 1:30:28
  What are the odds? My kids are going to college for
• 1:30:29
  track anyway at 7%? So, you know, I don't know if I
• 1:30:34
  could. So I've really taken the
• 1:30:37
  attitude of like, hey, is again, long as everything's safe, I
• 1:30:41
  don't care. I mean, coach is the coach.
• 1:30:44
  If you want to come home and complain about coach, sorry, do
• 1:30:48
  better. I'm not going to go I'm not
• 1:30:50
  going to go talk to coach. I'm sorry.
• 1:30:52
  As long as everything's safe, coach has the right to run his
• 1:30:55
  or her program however they want.
• 1:30:57
  So it's hard for me. This is why I asked this
• 1:31:00
  question. And it's a little sensitive
• 1:31:02
  because you're you're in the muck, meaning you have parents
• 1:31:03
  right now. So please be careful.
• 1:31:05
  Answer how you want to answer this.
• 1:31:07
  What are the majority of customers of parents complaints?
• 1:31:15
  Is it, and I'm trying to think of tracks.
• 1:31:17
  I was going to say playing time, but you know, we know what that
• 1:31:19
  means for us, you know, getting on the actual track.
• 1:31:21
  Is it you work them out too hard?
• 1:31:24
  What what are the like? What's a parent coming to you
• 1:31:26
  for these days in general? So for me, I don't right now, I
• 1:31:35
  can honestly say I don't get too many track parents Good, because
• 1:31:42
  I got I got a young lady who's on my team right now.
• 1:31:46
  Two actually, their parents are Tri parents, but their parents
• 1:31:52
  also are very supportive. They want, you know, they if
• 1:31:56
  they have kids, are not performing.
• 1:31:58
  I got a dad who want to know why.
• 1:31:59
  Hey, what, what's going on? Because he's her summer.
• 1:32:05
  No summer coach. Is that OK?
• 1:32:07
  Stay there. I told you I was going to
• 1:32:09
  interrupt you because I would think that that would be harder
• 1:32:14
  because that guy knows something.
• 1:32:15
  He he coaches summer training. He knows whatever level, what
• 1:32:18
  whatever. I'm not here to compare to
• 1:32:19
  whatever he knows something. I would think that'd be the
• 1:32:22
  worst parent because it'd be like, oh man, they're
• 1:32:24
  scrutinizing everything I'm doing.
• 1:32:26
  And if I don't do it exactly like they would do, which is
• 1:32:29
  rare that you would, but I'm here and that's actually a
• 1:32:32
  pretty good relationship. Yeah, we actually, we actually
• 1:32:35
  work well because I I, you know, I have a certain expectation
• 1:32:41
  too. And me knowing what I know, I
• 1:32:44
  know, I know that I know how a certain performance should grow,
• 1:32:48
  you know, I know how athletes should grow.
• 1:32:50
  So man, we're pretty much on the same page.
• 1:32:54
  And then the best thing about it is those parents who are Tri
• 1:33:01
  parents, that's they they're really supportive, like they
• 1:33:05
  want their kid to do good, you know, So you letting him know,
• 1:33:09
  like I let him know, Hey, I'm not getting I'm not getting the
• 1:33:12
  best work efforts out of her. You know what I'm saying?
• 1:33:15
  He don't mind coming to practice to show itself so that she can
• 1:33:19
  work harder. You see what I'm saying?
• 1:33:21
  And to be to be honest, I actually brought him on this
• 1:33:26
  year because he just knows what he's talking about.
• 1:33:32
  And you know, I don't think I don't how I look at it is Phil
• 1:33:38
  Jackson kept his assistant coaches because they were good
• 1:33:42
  coaches. You know, he surrounded himself
• 1:33:45
  with coaches and I think every every assistant coach that was
• 1:33:48
  under field, Jackson went off to be a head coach, right.
• 1:33:52
  So knowing that I have not only a coach, but a parent who knows
• 1:34:01
  this thing like I do, I think it gives a certain type of
• 1:34:06
  expectation not only for that athlete whose parent it is, but
• 1:34:11
  for the rest of the kids. Because that athlete has to see
• 1:34:17
  has to be a practice with all the other girls and all the
• 1:34:21
  girls have to see that mindset and that, that work ethic that
• 1:34:25
  she's bringing, you know, So having dad there to set that
• 1:34:32
  expectation to have a meeting, you know, in which I don't think
• 1:34:38
  it's, I don't think it's taken away from her performance.
• 1:34:41
  I think it's done nothing but be beneficial because now it puts a
• 1:34:45
  certain type of account accountability on it.
• 1:34:48
  And you know, you're not going to want to, you're not going to
• 1:34:55
  want to not do well in front of your parent, right?
• 1:34:58
  So knowing that I have a parent around who's showing these
• 1:35:02
  girls, hey, I want to see you all succeed.
• 1:35:04
  And I'm also a parent, right? You know, I think that that
• 1:35:08
  pushes. I actually think that that push
• 1:35:11
  the push is going to help push the program, you know?
• 1:35:14
  It always boggles me when I hear of track parents complaining to
• 1:35:20
  the track coach because track is so pure.
• 1:35:23
  It's so easy. It's like, look, you're let's
• 1:35:26
  start with does your young lady show up for practice or not?
• 1:35:29
  OK, Yes or no? No, Well, that's why she's not
• 1:35:31
  on the track. You know, does she have a good
• 1:35:33
  attitude when she's at practice? Yes, No, no.
• 1:35:35
  Well, that's probably why she's not on the track.
• 1:35:36
  And then when it comes time to actually running or throwing,
• 1:35:38
  it's like she's running 30 seconds and I have 5 girls that
• 1:35:43
  run 26. There's only so many late, like,
• 1:35:47
  like football and basketball would be harder in my opinion,
• 1:35:50
  because it's like, you know, it's more subjective, right?
• 1:35:53
  It's like, well, my son could be just as good.
• 1:35:56
  And it's like, you know, it depends on who's in front of
• 1:35:59
  them. You know, it's a little harder
• 1:36:01
  sometimes with track. It's like, man, here's the tape
• 1:36:03
  measure. You tell me where the extra
• 1:36:05
  engines are coming from, man, it ain't happening on this thing.
• 1:36:08
  So it always boggles me when I hear about parents for track.
• 1:36:10
  I'm like, but then I also realized, you know, there are
• 1:36:13
  some I I, you know, I do live in a neighborhood and I live in a
• 1:36:15
  community that's very sports minded.
• 1:36:17
  I've seen plenty of parents who it's like, man, you got to step
• 1:36:20
  back guys, guys are crazy, man. What are y'all doing?
• 1:36:23
  Yeah, yeah. I mean, and The thing is for me
• 1:36:27
  as a parent, if you feel like you know more than a coach, why
• 1:36:32
  aren't you coaching? Coach, baby, go coach.
• 1:36:34
  Yes. Why aren't you coaching?
• 1:36:36
  And then, if anything, how about you come be a help?
• 1:36:38
  How about you come tell me what you know and see how I take it?
• 1:36:42
  Hey coach, you think I could sit down with you?
• 1:36:44
  I got some ideas. I want to run, you know, because
• 1:36:49
  you know if I can get from you that you know what you're
• 1:36:51
  talking about. I'm a listener bro.
• 1:36:54
  It's a different conversation, yeah.
• 1:36:56
  I grew up understanding that you're going to be learning the
• 1:36:59
  rest of your life, right? Right.
• 1:37:02
  So if I could learn something from you, I'm going, I'm going
• 1:37:08
  to listen now. It's up to me, to you.
• 1:37:11
  It's up to you to use it, right? You know, you could tell me
• 1:37:14
  anything but whether I'm going to use it or not, right?
• 1:37:17
  Right, right. You know, you probably will
• 1:37:21
  never know. But I live in such a small
• 1:37:25
  community, it's already gotten out that I used to coach.
• 1:37:27
  And so like the track coach is always like, man, Mike, like
• 1:37:30
  she's always talking to my my wife.
• 1:37:31
  If we could ever get your husband to coach, I'm like, Nah,
• 1:37:33
  I'm not. I'm not doing those days are
• 1:37:34
  sailed. I don't have time and I'm not
• 1:37:36
  doing it. But I'm always like, I wonder if
• 1:37:38
  one day there's going to be a track coach that has no clue who
• 1:37:41
  I am. But like, what do you know,
• 1:37:41
  Mike? I'm like, all right, let's sit
• 1:37:43
  down that's what I've been waiting for, buddy all right
• 1:37:51
  took let's start wrapping up man.
• 1:37:52
  You know one of my favorite questions to wrap up an
• 1:37:55
  interview is what's got you excited, man?
• 1:37:57
  What's got you excited about the future there at Bloom Township?
• 1:38:01
  Whether it's you, you and I have no clue.
• 1:38:04
  You know I do no research. So whether you have like the
• 1:38:06
  state's number one shot putter or you got a team that is going
• 1:38:10
  to you think is going to win regionals for the first time,
• 1:38:13
  whatever you get to, you get to tell us what's got you excited
• 1:38:16
  there. As the head girls coach of Bloom
• 1:38:18
  Township I. Think what got me excited this
• 1:38:20
  year is my young group of girls who don't have too much track
• 1:38:27
  and field experience, but they in these last two years,
• 1:38:32
  especially my freshman who are sophomores now.
• 1:38:33
  And then I have a senior, her first year running last year was
• 1:38:38
  a junior like her first year ever running and she ran 1298 to
• 1:38:42
  finish the season. And I have a group of sophomores
• 1:38:47
  who feed off of it, you know, and they just been working.
• 1:38:51
  They just been working at having know that group work through the
• 1:38:54
  summer with Marquis Lowe and the Vipers.
• 1:38:58
  I'm I'm just excited for the young, but the young runners
• 1:39:01
  here at Bloom Township and the future here of track and field
• 1:39:05
  at Bloom Township, knowing that, you know, we, we got a approved
• 1:39:09
  for a new indoor facility. It's going to.
• 1:39:12
  Be top of the line. You know, so I'm, I'm very
• 1:39:17
  excited about the growth and the future of track and field here
• 1:39:20
  in Chicago Heights. That's it, man.
• 1:39:22
  That's, you know, as someone who deals in facilities, it's not
• 1:39:26
  always about facilities for for sure.
• 1:39:29
  There's plenty of teams your team has been successful
• 1:39:30
  without, you know, these kind of facilities, but they do help and
• 1:39:33
  they help in several different ways, right?
• 1:39:35
  One is, you know, let's be real, we're in Illinois, we're in
• 1:39:37
  Chicago land. It gets cold.
• 1:39:39
  There's sometimes where you just are not able to do some of the
• 1:39:41
  workouts that you want to do or don't be able to do them for as
• 1:39:44
  long so that that starts getting evaporated away.
• 1:39:48
  You know, also that there are kids and, you know, for a guy
• 1:39:51
  from Alabama, they're very close to my heart who are like, I'm
• 1:39:53
  not doing track. It's cold in January and
• 1:39:56
  February. I'm not doing it now.
• 1:39:58
  You'll have more kids join the team.
• 1:40:00
  They're like, oh, OK, at least I get to be inside, Like, OK,
• 1:40:02
  that's cool. You know, so it's going to be as
• 1:40:05
  transformational as you and your coaches have been over the past
• 1:40:09
  few years. This is going to be, it's not
• 1:40:12
  the BLN doll, but it is going to be an accelerator.
• 1:40:15
  For you guys, this is like putting gas into the fire.
• 1:40:17
  You're gonna get the fire started.
• 1:40:18
  It's a good fire. This is just another little
• 1:40:20
  squirt of gas to help blow those flames up.
• 1:40:23
  Man. I think it's going to be really
• 1:40:25
  cool for you guys. I'm excited to watch from the
• 1:40:27
  sidelines. Man, I'm, I'm, I'm excited for
• 1:40:30
  these young ladies and the just the future of Ronnie here at
• 1:40:36
  Balloon Township period. Because we, we, we usually don't
• 1:40:40
  get big numbers out, but I'm hoping that, you know, that can
• 1:40:44
  attract the bigger numbers and attract the numbers those kids
• 1:40:48
  who are, who are coming in from the feet of schools that will
• 1:40:52
  push them to stay. Because we get a lot of talent
• 1:40:54
  that transfer out simply because they certain other schools that
• 1:41:01
  you know, that they offer a little bit of a better facility,
• 1:41:04
  you know, So I think that this will be a super game changer for
• 1:41:07
  us to keep all of our feeder school kids who are top of the
• 1:41:12
  line and track to want to come to Bloom Trail, you know, in
• 1:41:16
  Bloom Township. So.
• 1:41:18
  I I think so. I think you guys better get
• 1:41:19
  prepared honestly for more numbers and overall, you know,
• 1:41:24
  your coaching's going to have to change a little bit too.
• 1:41:26
  You know, as far as you because you'll have a place to go to do
• 1:41:28
  some things that you haven't been able to do in the past.
• 1:41:31
  You guys have to prepare for that as well.
• 1:41:32
  All right, took, I have two things for you before we leave 2
• 1:41:36
  homeworks, I'm starting to sign more homework season 7 that's
• 1:41:39
  the first assignment. That's it.
• 1:41:40
  That's number one. You're going to go find Orange
• 1:41:42
  Man. I think I keep calling him
• 1:41:44
  Orange Man. There was a show back in the
• 1:41:46
  day. You're too young.
• 1:41:48
  Have you ever heard of? Because I know you didn't watch
• 1:41:50
  it. X-Files.
• 1:41:51
  Yeah, I did watch The X-Files. Yeah, there was the Smoking Man,
• 1:41:54
  right? He was always, you know, each
• 1:41:55
  show up like that's they never knew his name.
• 1:41:57
  There's that, The Smoking Man said this is the Orange Man.
• 1:42:00
  Go find Orange Man and tell him, hey, thank you.
• 1:42:03
  You know that that actually impacted me a lot and I'm
• 1:42:06
  grateful for it. I love that that's your first
• 1:42:08
  homework. Your second homework is kind of
• 1:42:09
  tangential on that. I want you to consider whether
• 1:42:14
  it's that Itka or, you know, the Guild 1918 project, you have a
• 1:42:18
  lot to share with others. Some of it is X is X's and O's
• 1:42:23
  for sure. But your thought process on
• 1:42:27
  young kids, I actually think your story about the blow up at
• 1:42:34
  Rich SI think you said, I think there is something for you to
• 1:42:38
  build around. Talk around that about
• 1:42:41
  professionalism in high school, coaching track and field, how to
• 1:42:48
  take a step back as a track and field coach, right?
• 1:42:51
  Like I'm thinking of like titles that would like entice people.
• 1:42:53
  Like what's he talking about and talking about like, hey, if you
• 1:42:56
  want a longer career, let me tell you some mistakes that I've
• 1:42:59
  made. I will help you.
• 1:43:02
  I wish I would have known these mistakes as a young coach.
• 1:43:04
  Let me tell them to you today and help you.
• 1:43:07
  I think there's something with that that will help others.
• 1:43:10
  You know, I'm always trying to find people who like yourself
• 1:43:12
  that I think have a lot of value to give.
• 1:43:14
  And so how do I help extract that value out through talks,
• 1:43:17
  through podcasts, etcetera. That's what, 2 homeworks, 1, go
• 1:43:20
  see an orange man, tell them thank you.
• 1:43:21
  And two, think about some type of topic that you could become
• 1:43:26
  the man around. Like, OK, when Tuks talk's
• 1:43:28
  always talking about professionalism or mistakes or
• 1:43:30
  whatever, I think there's a lot of benefit to continue because
• 1:43:34
  you stand on the shoulders of giants inside this state.
• 1:43:37
  Here at Illinois, there's a lot of Illinois high school coaches
• 1:43:39
  and only college coaches that you've heard and listened to
• 1:43:42
  that I've helped you become where you are today.
• 1:43:44
  You now it's your turn to continue to work towards being
• 1:43:47
  one of those pieces for the younger coaches that are
• 1:43:49
  starting out today, or not even coaches today that fair.
• 1:43:54
  Yes Sir, yes Sir. Each one teach one.
• 1:43:56
  That's it, man. We're all part of a puzzle, and
• 1:44:00
  if you don't think you have value to give, you're wrong.
• 1:44:02
  First and foremost, you're dead wrong.
• 1:44:04
  And I know you don't think that. That's what I love about you,
• 1:44:07
  but we all have value and we just have to find, you know
• 1:44:09
  what, just like we talked about, we have to find our role inside
• 1:44:13
  that. Some of us are going to host
• 1:44:14
  podcast, some of us are going to be on podcast.
• 1:44:16
  Some of us are going to get on stage to talk.
• 1:44:18
  Some of us are not. Some of us are going to be the
• 1:44:20
  hallway talkers talking to other coaches going yeah, you know,
• 1:44:23
  I'd here's what I did one time and it didn't work out.
• 1:44:26
  We all have value to give. It's just about finding that
• 1:44:29
  right Ave. and sometimes we need to be pushed for that right Ave.
• 1:44:32
  as well. So that's what my hope is for
• 1:44:34
  you, my friend. And I really appreciate it, man.
• 1:44:37
  I've really enjoyed myself. Really enjoyed talking to you,
• 1:44:40
  man. I'm actually, I'm really
• 1:44:42
  encouraged. I I want to do, I think I'm
• 1:44:44
  going to jump on top of doing more content.
• 1:44:47
  You should you know 100%. The small 32nd talks. 100%.
• 1:44:53
  Trying to encourage I want. I want someone to start.
• 1:44:57
  Everybody keeps going to like Instagram Reels and TikTok and
• 1:44:59
  stuff like that. Something that's really hot
• 1:45:01
  right now is YouTube Shorts. And when I say they're hot,
• 1:45:04
  meaning like that, they're like, you know, YouTube's owned by
• 1:45:07
  Google. So when you Google something,
• 1:45:09
  YouTube Shorts pulls up a lot of times.
• 1:45:10
  So I want someone to really start a YouTube Shorts channel
• 1:45:14
  exactly what you just said there, because I think the
• 1:45:16
  longest a YouTube short can be is 2 minutes, I think.
• 1:45:18
  So 30 seconds to 2 minutes. You're walking the track.
• 1:45:22
  Hey, I just wanted to talk about warmups.
• 1:45:25
  You're using a kind of an X's and O's example, but I, you
• 1:45:28
  know, think about warmups and I wonder, do we do them too long?
• 1:45:30
  Are they too short? And then maybe another topic is
• 1:45:33
  like, hey, I just saw a young man from another team pick up a
• 1:45:36
  piece of trash at this track meet.
• 1:45:38
  And you know what? That tells me a lot about that
• 1:45:40
  coach or those parents. Like I think there could be
• 1:45:43
  something there. And then as you continue to
• 1:45:46
  build out your library of YouTube Shorts, something's
• 1:45:48
  going to like click for you. Like a topic like, oh, I really
• 1:45:51
  like talking and learning and learning more about leadership
• 1:45:55
  or recruiting or whatever. And then that becomes like, oh,
• 1:45:59
  now that that's the kind of thing I can build out to do a
• 1:46:01
  talk at itca or on a podcast, etcetera.
• 1:46:03
  So yeah, I bless you on that, man.
• 1:46:05
  I want to. That's my, that's my next goal,
• 1:46:07
  man. That's my next goal.
• 1:46:08
  Yeah, you're the radio. Yeah, you're the radio
• 1:46:10
  photography guy. Dude, you absolutely should be
• 1:46:12
  doing some kind of YouTube chores or something.
• 1:46:14
  Absolutely. So you're a content guy.
• 1:46:15
  That's exactly what that is. That's that's exactly it.
• 1:46:18
  Well, I bless that. Let me know how I can help with
• 1:46:20
  that. You know, we have the Gill 1918
• 1:46:22
  project podcast as well, which are 10 to 30 minute self
• 1:46:25
  recorded episodes. If you want to kind of, you
• 1:46:28
  know, put your thoughts down and figure out a little talk there,
• 1:46:31
  we'd love to have you on that as well.
• 1:46:32
  But anything we can do, anything I can do to bless you with that
• 1:46:35
  because that's going to help the rest of our coaching body.
• 1:46:38
  You know, I'm all, I'm all in for it, man.
• 1:46:39
  Anything I can do for you and. I appreciate that man.
• 1:46:43
  Man, thank you so much. Man.
• 1:46:44
  The most valuable thing that you can give me is your time, man.
• 1:46:47
  I, you know, I always tell people this is a hard podcast to
• 1:46:50
  be on. This ain't let's sit down for 20
• 1:46:52
  minutes, man. This is let's sit down for two.
• 1:46:53
  And I think we're, yeah, we're getting, we're pushing two hours
• 1:46:55
  for our total time here. And so just so grateful for that
• 1:46:58
  because I know you are busy. You're busy with school, you're
• 1:47:00
  busy with the kids and things like that.
• 1:47:02
  So I really am grateful for that.
• 1:47:03
  So thanks so much for being with us today.
• 1:47:06
  Thank you, Mike. Thank you for this opportunity.
• 1:47:09
  I, this is a real testament to the work that I feel like I've
• 1:47:12
  been putting in. And you know, you blessed me
• 1:47:17
  with this man. So I appreciate it for you
• 1:47:19
  taking your time out to give me this opportunity.
• 1:47:21
  Thank you, you deserve it my friend and thank you guys for
• 1:47:23
  being here again. You know, as we are in the start
• 1:47:26
  of season 7, man, it is It's just it's mind boggling the
• 1:47:30
  amount of coaches, the amazing quality of these human beings
• 1:47:32
  that choose to be track and field coaches.
• 1:47:35
  They could all go on to be amazing things.
• 1:47:36
  It could be a National Geographic photographer,
• 1:47:39
  national winner type of thing, right?
• 1:47:41
  But instead, he's out there coaching our young people in the
• 1:47:43
  great sport of track and field. And that is, I'm eternally
• 1:47:46
  grateful for stuff like that, man.
• 1:47:48
  So thank you guys for being here listening to a story.
• 1:47:50
  Join us next week. We'll do it all over here.
• 1:47:52
  See you guys. To go to appreciate the coach
• 1:47:57
  the ones that point people most every season needs a voice of
• 1:48:00
  reason speaking the growth you got to prep before you carry the
• 1:48:03
  load ice coffee to the soul. For those of us who stand to go
• 1:48:07
  proper handoff to stay in the zone which you packing for the
• 1:48:09
  road. There's more than one way to go
• 1:48:11
  taking notes that's paying you're told it ain't practice if
• 1:48:14
  your purpose ain't clear it can't happen until you listen
• 1:48:17
  with both is you can't mentor without a mentor of experience.
• 1:48:21
  You can reinvent those years. Every plan's got to stand and
• 1:48:24
  deliver to and Christ sacrifice. Can you give up you.
• 1:48:27
  It's a choice and a fight not a win or lose.
• 1:48:30
  It's not a ploy boy device. Y'all can make more moves.
• 1:48:32
  It's not about how to it's all about why you don't know till
• 1:48:35
  you know who you are inside 6,000,000 Waste of time choose
• 1:48:39
  none. So y'all cross finish line.
• 1:48:41
  The work ain't done so we learn from the experts but y'all got
• 1:48:44
  to put in the leg work your athletic, choose the network.
• 1:48:47
  It's all about connections put together for the profession to
• 1:48:50
  every track coach could be blessing.