Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / #236: Justin Redfearn-Snow Canyon (UT) HS USTFCCCA Boy's COY

Transcript

#236: Justin Redfearn-Snow Canyon (UT) HS USTFCCCA Boy's COY · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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  Track and field world. You were now tuned in to a home
• 0:13
  servant, Mike Cunningham, for another extraordinary message
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  for Gill. Athletics connections.
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  We welcome to the show with the go to appreciate the coach, the
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  ones you point people most every season leads.
• 0:26
  A voice of reason. Speak in the growth.
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  You got to prep before you carry the load.
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  It's coffee to the soul for those of us to stay on the go.
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  Proper handoff. To stay in the zone which you're
• 0:35
  packing for the road. There's more than one way to the
• 0:37
  go. Take notes.
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  That's paying. You're told.
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  It ain't practice. If your purpose ain't clear, it
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  can't happen to you. Listen, both is You can't mentor
• 0:45
  without a mentor of years of experience.
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  You can reinvent those years. Every plan's got to stand to
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  deliver up to and the price sacrifice can you give up you.
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  It's a choice and to fight, not a win or lose.
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  It's not a ploy, but a device that y'all can make more moves.
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  It's not about how to. It's all about why you don't
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  know till you know who you are inside. 6,000,000 waist to tie
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  choose none. So be all for us finish line.
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  The work ain't done so we learn from the experts.
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  But y'all got to put in the legwork guilt.
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  Athletics is the network. It's all about connection put
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  together for the profession. To every track coach could be
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  blessed. Welcome back to the Gil
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  Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast.
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  If you joined us last week, we kicked off our two parter here
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  if you will. We had Ernst Martinez, the
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  USTFCCCA Girls National Coach of the Year.
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  By the way, these Coaches of the Year from USTFCCA are presented
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  by the US Marines and so just want to give a shout out to the
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  US Marines for supporting track and field.
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  Supporting Track and field coaches so blessed and honored
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  that they would come along this this award here with USTFCA and
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  help honor. Our coaches from around the
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  country, the state meet coaches and then the national coaches.
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  So last week, if you didn't go check it out, go listen to
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  Ernest Martinez. Awesome, awesome story down
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  there in New Mexico and we're going to do the flip side now.
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  So now we've got Part 2. So help me welcome the USTFCCCA
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  National Boys Coach of the Year from gorgeous Snow Canyon High
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  School. I said that like I've been
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  there. I just assume Utah it's
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  gorgeous. I just know it is.
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  Help me welcome the Why is the wonderful Mr. Justin Redfern.
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  Justin, how are you Sir? Excellent.
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  Thank you so much for having me, Mike.
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  I assume it's gorgeous. I've been to Utah once and it
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  was unbelievable. So Snow Canyon just sounds like
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  it's unbelievable. Yeah, we've got several national
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  parks and state parks around. Zion National Park is within
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  about 1/2 an hour. Of course, the Grand Canyon is
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  not very far as well. We're about two hours northeast
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  of Vegas. So still some desert, but a
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  little higher altitude and. We don't have the brown desert.
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  So it's. We have the nice red desert and
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  and white. We call color country down
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  through these Southern Utah. You said 2 1/2 hours northeast
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  of Vegas. I actually the the one time I
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  did, I did a big trip. I flew into Vegas and went up
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  and did Southern Utah University all the way up to Utah State.
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  So I got to see the whole thing is gorgeous.
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  Didn't go east of course, but all the way up through Salt Lake
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  City, BYU, University of Utah. Where are you?
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  Kind of on that quarter? You.
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  Know we would be before Southern Utah University.
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  So on your way, so just past the border of Arizona and Utah, so.
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  Just across the. Border We were about 6 to 10
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  miles north of the Utah. Arizona border, Yeah.
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  Okay, I know where you're at. Then you have.
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  Come right through I-15 and gone right through there.
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  Yeah, well then I know, cuz I remember I got in late.
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  To Southern Utah University, what's What town is that in?
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  Cedar City, UT. Cedar City And so, you know,
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  went to hotel and woke up the next morning and kind of, you
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  know, open the curtains and I was just like holy, like I
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  missed everything because I came in during the dark.
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  I was like, this place is amazing.
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  And then it was an entire trip. I just wows, I mean just the
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  mountains felt like I could just touch them there, right there
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  all the way through. Especially as we got up to the
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  valley in Utah State. Logan Logan area up there, man,
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  it's amazing. Are you from Utah originally?
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  I'm not. I'm actually from Northern
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  California, Stockton, CA. Yeah.
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  All right. Well Justin, first of all
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  congratulations, man. You know, I don't envy
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  committees that have to choose a national coach of the year
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  whether it's a little easier on the incident of lay side, right?
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  Because there's a there's a national championship meet.
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  So maybe you just automatically defer to the winner because
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  that's amazing to win that meet on the high school level.
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  Heck, we don't even compete our best teams and athletes in the
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  same state in one big state meeting in most of.
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  To them, right. So impossible task, it's
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  unbelievable. But when you do win, whoever
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  does win it and you're this year's winner, it is amazing
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  because it takes something to shine and and have a program and
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  athletes and staff to win. I assume you win the state
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  meeting. We'll talk about those here in a
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  little while. But congratulations man, it's a
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  huge deal. This is awesome man.
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  It's huge and I very humbled by it.
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  Did not expect anything like this to ever come my way.
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  I didn't get into coaching for things of this nature.
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  And I don't think really any coach says, hey, I want to get
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  into this so hopefully I can win something.
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  From a personal standpoint, yeah, I mean for our program to
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  be recognized on the national level, I just, I think it's kind
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  of every coach's dream, you know, to get to a point like
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  that. It's to fill some validation to
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  the time and effort that not only that.
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  Individually I'm putting in, but certainly my coaching staff and
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  boosters and parents and and of course the athletes themselves,
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  Yeah, it's a lot of hard work and and and again I'm not saying
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  anything that any other coach at any other program at throughout
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  the nation is not doing and and so for to be recognized, yeah,
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  it's truly humbling and I'm very grateful for an opportunity like
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  this. That's awesome.
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  Well, we're going to learn more about this magical season that
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  culminated in this award. But first, we'd like to get to
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  know you a little bit better. We always like to know the
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  journey of our different guests that we found that there is no
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  one path. You might guess that there's
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  like an average path. I don't think there is an
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  average path. There is so many different ways
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  to get to where we are today. Why don't we start with you?
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  Where does coaching and track and field start for you?
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  Well started when I was competing and in the high school
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  level I was in Stockton, CA and and we were actually bussed into
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  Lodi, CA because of just the growth that was going on in
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  California in the 80s. And so I was, I was blessed to
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  be a part of a really great program, very diverse at from a
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  coaching staff as well as all athletes.
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  It was a great community of of again, coaches and athletes and
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  I I learned to. I learned not only about myself
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  and and where I kind of fall into this whole thing of
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  competing and training and and being taught and being coached,
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  but then I also I I like to watch.
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  And so when I naturally I just started watching my coaches and
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  how my coaches interacted not only with me but with my
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  teammates and the culture that was created.
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  And it was a really positive and uplifting culture and.
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  I I just thrived in it. Mentally I thrived in it.
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  You know some days you know just like with anything I racing wise
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  I had my ups and downs like everyone but but I I I loved the
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  culture that I was being trained in and coached under and I think
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  that's really where the grassroots foundation came for
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  me. My head coach at the time and
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  coach Israel Ken Israel, he was amazing man.
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  He wouldn't while you with any. Of his athletic prowess and he'd
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  be the first to tell you that he's probably not the most
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  gifted of athletes or if anything but he had a way with
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  people and he had a way to communicate and bring in a very
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  diverse culture and group of of athletes and and we thrived.
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  We thrived under him. You know, I I sit in a pretty
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  unique chair. First of all, my whole job is to
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  talk to coaches, high school and college around the country every
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  day. And then here, you know, over
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  200 and something episodes, I've gotten real deep into a lot of
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  coaches. And one of the commonalities
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  that I have been able to kind of pick from coaches is the really,
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  really good ones. And there's some great ones that
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  just a little bit different notch up.
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  They are all observers. I like how you said that you
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  were an observer. Tell me more about that.
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  Did you was that track specific or did you notice that?
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  Trade of yours and other sports you might have played or even
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  English class or your parents were you kind of a natural
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  observer, kind of sitting back and seeing how things play?
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  Yes, I think initially, yes. You know, from my youth, I I
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  felt like I could watch a demonstration of some sports or
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  an activity that I was doing at a young age and I felt like if I
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  could watch. What was being done and what the
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  purpose of the activity was I felt like I could pretty much
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  replicate that and then and then of course self upset observe my
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  own okay. So now what do I need to do oh
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  you know and and how do I need to adapt to the situation.
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  So I think there was some of that innate, you know, ability
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  to recognize what was going on and and doing that my parents
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  both are have a lot of attention to detail and activities and
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  things that they do and I. I I'm certainly grateful for
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  them and and their guidance along you know sticking to the
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  task and not giving up on something, staying persistent
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  and putting forth it a good effort consistently and and so I
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  think that combination of just my own instinct of of wanting to
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  learn you know how to do something at a higher level
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  innately so. You mentioned the culture that
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  Coach Israel brought to the program.
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  Can you give us an example of what that with the positive side
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  of that? What's something you remember
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  where there was a, the way he spoke to the team, an example he
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  gave maybe how he picked captains?
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  What was an example of that positive culture?
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  Okay, now you're testing me a little bit.
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  Now you're getting on 40 years. Of.
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  Things almost. You know the thing that stood
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  out to me was Coach Israel. He was not a giant by stature.
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  I I I think maybe he was 5758. He was not a very big man but
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  man he had a big personality and he was very a little bit
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  flamboyant but but but reserved. I mean he, he he, he would get
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  excited. With you with your success, so
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  he would celebrate your success with you.
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  And never once. And I and and I again I'm I
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  guess in a way I'm now speaking for all my other teammates out
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  there during that time and and it may not be always the case
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  for them, but I felt that he did a great job including everyone
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  and everything. He celebrated all of our
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  successes. You know, we took time out of
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  practice to do that and and he did a, he did a newsletter.
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  We we called it we're the Tokay Tigers.
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  That was the name of our high school.
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  And he called that the the little letter that he put
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  together each week called tiger tracks and he would try to
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  celebrate and do a synopsis of our meat the week before and
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  kind of some records or moving up and down.
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  But he just did a great job, I I believe, of just including so
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  many people, so many diverse cultures and national, you know,
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  and people and nationalities and.
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  And just a great job making us all feel like we were all
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  important that we were all together in this, that our
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  success was built upon each other, whether it was the
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  success of our high jumpers and pole vaulters and throwers and
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  our sprinters and our distance runners.
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  I I think, you know, I I remember watching, you know,
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  jumpers stop their jump while we were running by in the you know
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  and the half mile and the mile and cheering us on.
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  I mean I remember personally going to some other the other
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  events to watch them and share my teammates and that's the part
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  of the culture that what I've tried to create and it's no
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  Canyon and in this program and and that you know no one part of
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  the program is above the other that we work together and we can
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  support and encourage one another and and and good things
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  are happening as a result of that and it was all started by
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  coach Israel in my opinion and and the other coaches obviously
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  they had to jump in and. Into that I don't ever remember
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  hearing a coach talk down to another coach or other athletes.
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  Everyone was supportive of one another.
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  I like that he started a manual e-mail newsletter back then.
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  That's really. And he they were detailed.
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  I mean, it wasn't just like giving bullets.
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  I I I feel like I would be a bullet guy.
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  Just. Like, yeah, for sure.
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  Basic I don't have time to do all this but he was elaborate
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  with it. He had like he was a good
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  storyteller with it and did an amazing job of like I said just
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  having some fun with it. It was fun to get I I I mean I
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  remember him I kept on you know I it's it's part of a little
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  remembrance book or whatever of of things that I.
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  And I look back finally on those things, whether my name is
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  mentioned in there or not, Just even remembering my teammates
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  and even remembering what they did have that recognition, so.
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  In our sport is tough compared to a football, baseball
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  volleyball. Regarding the team, right, It's
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  very easy for us to fall into individualistic patterns.
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  You know, the sprinters over here, the throwers over there.
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  So I'm always appreciative of coach.
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  That sounds like he was very intentional on.
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  We are a team, you may go do the Sprint and you may go do the
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  jump, but at the end of the day, we're we're a team first and
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  foremost. I really like that
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  intentionality. And and it was, and that's what
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  we try to do here with our. Program.
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  Awesome. So as you go through high
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  school, assuming you went to college, you're a teacher, so
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  that's a pretty good assumption. What was?
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  So where did you end up going? And more importantly, at this
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  point, what did you think you were going to go to be in
• 14:47
  college? Did you, you know, you're going
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  to go become an accountant or a business major or a teacher?
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  What did you think as you first went in?
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  Well, so I ended up at Southern Utah University.
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  It was actually Southern Utah State College.
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  It was the last year that they were a State College before
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  becoming the university. So I was there when they when
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  they had the voting to approve Suu at that time and I just was
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  there for one year. I only ran one year.
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  After that I I served A2 year LDS mission and so when I came
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  back from that. I decided to not pursue the
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  athletic side of my college career at that point.
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  I felt like I needed to move in a different direction at that
• 15:33
  time. Unconventional route to becoming
• 15:36
  a teacher and coach, ironically. I knew in 4th grade that I
• 15:41
  wanted to be a P/E teacher. Wait, 4th grade?
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  Seriously So. Both my parents.
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  Wait, wait. When I was in 4th grade, I
• 15:48
  wanted to be a fireman and astronaut, probably a police
• 15:50
  officer. You knew then I'm going to be a
• 15:53
  P. E teacher, let me tell you the
• 15:54
  why my 9 year old brain or Yeah, and I don't think I was even 10
• 15:59
  at that point. I was quite nine years old.
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  I had my first P/E teacher right, actually just assigned to
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  be our P/E teacher. And I remember going up to her
• 16:07
  saying, you get paid to play with us.
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  And she's like, yeah, I do. And I was like, that's what I
• 16:13
  want to do. Like to me that was like, that
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  was the greatest thing I'd ever heard.
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  That's I got She got paid to play games.
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  That reminds me of the she. Doesn't want to play, to get
• 16:23
  paid and to play games. That reminds me of.
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  The then that I was like hey this is what I want to do and I
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  think also you know with that. Some things we talked about
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  already, my ability to kind of observe, step back and watch,
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  see what's happening because of that as well.
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  I thought, oh, okay. I could probably teach that.
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  After it was explained to me, if I had to explain it to somebody
• 16:44
  else, I thought I could do it. And and again, I I don't know.
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  It's not like I consciously thought of that.
• 16:50
  It's not like I said okay, this is what I'm planning on doing.
• 16:52
  It was just innate. It was just something that came
• 16:55
  to me that says okay, Watch the fundamentals.
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  What are the basic? You know rules and fundamentals
• 17:00
  that need to happen here. Okay and let's go and try to
• 17:02
  execute it. And then it was like Okay.
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  Now I know what my opponent's trying to do now.
• 17:07
  So now I need to counteract that.
• 17:09
  And it was just again, I don't think it was something necessary
• 17:12
  taught to me. It was just something that maybe
• 17:14
  it was competitive instinct. I don't know that kind of kicked
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  in with that. But so after after serving that
• 17:22
  that church mission for two years, I I came back and.
• 17:26
  Like I said, it decided to go a little different direction and
• 17:28
  so I ended up going in the real estate world and I was in a real
• 17:33
  estate agent for 19 years here in the state of Utah.
• 17:36
  So real estate agent And no track and field, No coaching.
• 17:41
  Really. Interesting.
• 17:44
  So I went into that real estate field and development and so I
• 17:47
  was, I was in that and I really had an enjoyable time with that
• 17:50
  and and. And and it was a lot of fun.
• 17:53
  I mean, it was, I mean, obviously a lot of hard work,
• 17:55
  like any job is, but when you're selfemployed.
• 17:57
  And you're having. To push through things and make
• 17:59
  things happen, you've got to do it.
• 18:00
  And so I learned another skill set of sticking to the task and
• 18:06
  really pushing through things. Once you make a commitment to it
• 18:09
  that it's not going to just be easy, it's not going to, you
• 18:12
  know, just because I have my license, my I'm going to set my
• 18:14
  phone right here and all of a sudden my phone's going to start
• 18:16
  ringing with business. You know what I mean?
• 18:18
  So you quickly and again goes back to that same observing and
• 18:21
  I've watched some other agents, how they were doing things, what
• 18:24
  they were doing. I was asking questions and then
• 18:27
  jumping right in and doing it so.
• 18:30
  Do you thinking during that 19 years?
• 18:32
  My first thought is. Where was track for you though
• 18:36
  As a as a Obviously there's no coaching.
• 18:39
  But were you still like, you know, every Olympics I'm
• 18:41
  watching every Did you go to the local high school and watch a
• 18:44
  track? Where was track as a.
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  Fan, That's funny. You're talking about this year.
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  I think you're in my head a little bit.
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  Right now because. I get paid the big bucks.
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  I was an absolute track junkie. I've been that way since my
• 18:55
  life. I guess stepping back just
• 18:57
  slightly, I. I love watching the human body
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  perform, whether it was a high jump, whether it was a pole
• 19:04
  vault, whether it was a long jump.
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  I mean, you sit there and you look at what these athletes do
• 19:08
  and even at the high school level, what some of these
• 19:11
  athletes are doing, especially now, I mean, we're talking.
• 19:15
  I mean, you know, back in my day, you know, they were talking
• 19:18
  about the four minute mile, right?
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  And how many a few people were even doing that.
• 19:21
  Now we have regularly high school athletes not only beating
• 19:25
  that, but numerous athletes on the verge of beating that and
• 19:28
  stuff And so, so watching what the human body can do.
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  I was always amazed at that and I just, I was in awe at all the
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  events throwing the shop hood and discus and it's like how do
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  they do that? And anyway, I just was amazed
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  and so. My I I was a junkie.
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  I would. I would.
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  I would. I went to the Utah State meet
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  over and over. Every opportunity I got.
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  I would go to BYU and just watch their college meets at.
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  At times I'm sitting this dance, sometimes in my suit from real
• 19:58
  estate, sometimes in some khakis and other things, and I've got
• 20:01
  my stopwatch there, even though they've got the electronic
• 20:03
  timing and I'm getting splits and I'm checking things, I'm.
• 20:07
  I'm trying to you know anticipate what maybe some
• 20:11
  splits were, even if some of the sprinters, you know, you know 50
• 20:15
  meter splits and things like that.
• 20:17
  Anyway, I I loved it. I I, I followed it online.
• 20:20
  I even would follow back in California what was going on
• 20:23
  there even my high school what athletes were doing.
• 20:26
  So I've been a junkie as far as falling track and field for
• 20:30
  years. And you know when I whenever I
• 20:33
  get a new TV or a new service, first thing I do is go in and
• 20:38
  make sure that track and field, anything track and field comes
• 20:40
  up as recorded. I that tells you anything.
• 20:43
  Yeah, I like the, I like the stopwatch analogy that that to
• 20:47
  me is, you know, there's fans of track and field and then there's
• 20:50
  people who have their stopwatch and are doing every lap, every
• 20:53
  split that the equivalent on the field event is the guys who draw
• 20:56
  their own sheet. You know, we're doing the X's
• 20:59
  and O's. I'm like, Oh yeah, yeah, no, you
• 21:01
  you aren't a fan. That's a that's a super fan.
• 21:03
  That's a different level up there.
• 21:05
  That's awesome. I had a few weird looks in the
• 21:08
  stands from people. Who's this guy and why is he all
• 21:10
  dressed up but out in the stands in the hot track meeting anyway?
• 21:14
  But I I loved it. I I I love watching the
• 21:17
  athletes. I love watching the sport.
• 21:19
  I just love what, you know, watching what they're doing.
• 21:23
  Real estate agent, I've never been one, but from the outside
• 21:26
  I've used a couple. I'm curious, you know it seems
• 21:30
  like when I say it seems like I don't believe this because I
• 21:33
  know enough real estate agents, but it the the culture, the
• 21:38
  outside culture people who are not real estate agents, it kind
• 21:40
  of. Feels like, oh, that's an easy
• 21:42
  job to do. Like, you know, a lot of people
• 21:44
  want to get their real estate license and things like that.
• 21:46
  I know it's not because I know it's not.
• 21:49
  I'm curious, were there any things that you picked up either
• 21:53
  as an athlete or an observer of coach and and your coaching
• 21:57
  Staffs? That.
• 21:59
  Helped you be during your real estate career.
• 22:02
  Does that make sense? I don't know.
• 22:05
  I think it's almost the opposite.
• 22:06
  I think a lot of things I'm doing as a coach now, things I
• 22:11
  learned in real estate has helped me with people with such
• 22:16
  a diverse group of different people coming in.
• 22:19
  And I'm not talking diverse from price range standpoint.
• 22:21
  I'm just talking about people and their personalities and
• 22:24
  traits and and what motivates them, what inspires them and
• 22:27
  what does things. So I and and not just people
• 22:31
  that I would be working with, but also lenders and title
• 22:37
  people, title officers and title officers and everyone that's
• 22:41
  involved in the process and how all of those things need to work
• 22:44
  together. So I think I learned a lot of
• 22:47
  the importance of of creating A-Team and making sure you had a
• 22:51
  team of people that you trusted. But then also let them do their
• 22:55
  thing and not micromanage them and not stay on them constantly.
• 22:59
  And I mean, you have to still stay on things and and make sure
• 23:03
  you know you have deadlines and things that need to happen.
• 23:05
  But I think there's importance of letting people govern
• 23:09
  themselves and let this process happen and be supportive of
• 23:14
  them. I I remember many times, you
• 23:16
  know, my conversations along the lines of what can I do to help,
• 23:20
  How can I help you get the things that you need to get
• 23:23
  done. And even though it wasn't
• 23:25
  necessary directly, anything that I I needed to do as far as
• 23:28
  my responsibilities, but if I could help that other person be
• 23:33
  successful, get things done in a timely fashion, then it makes
• 23:36
  that whole team of people look really good and efficient.
• 23:40
  And so I think it was probably the opposite.
• 23:42
  I think I learned a little bit more on the real estate side
• 23:44
  that prepared me for. Coaching then vice versa.
• 23:48
  Okay, before we move past what was passed the real estate and
• 23:51
  how we get into actual coaching, we always.
• 23:54
  You know the the main goal here in the Guild Connections podcast
• 23:57
  is uplifting on your journey. The secondary goal is to bring
• 24:00
  immense value to those. We are so humbled to listen to
• 24:03
  us. So hopefully almost everyone
• 24:07
  that's listening is either going to buy or sell a home at some
• 24:10
  point or multiples in their life, right.
• 24:12
  With with today's prices. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 24:15
  Well, in today's world, it's a little.
• 24:17
  That's why I say maybe hopefully everybody, because it's a whole
• 24:19
  different world today. What is the best piece of
• 24:22
  advice? Almost 20 years of buying and
• 24:24
  selling homes? Working with a team, working
• 24:26
  with diverse people with different motivations on selling
• 24:30
  and buying homes and what they're looking for.
• 24:32
  What's the best piece of advice you can give a seller and a
• 24:35
  buyer? Well, there's an old saying.
• 24:39
  In real estate, buyers are liars and sellers are worse.
• 24:42
  Sellers are worse. So I think from that standpoint
• 24:46
  I the first thing is transparency and honesty.
• 24:49
  When you're dealing with a big purchase of people's lives, I
• 24:51
  think the first thing is you got to make sure people are are
• 24:54
  honest in their dealings with one another.
• 24:57
  Being upfront about everything, there's no reason to hide
• 24:59
  anything and obviously hiding things can get you in a lot of
• 25:01
  trouble. So from that standpoint, from a
• 25:04
  buyer standpoint and selling standpoint, be upfront, be
• 25:07
  honest with each other and you're very likely to have a
• 25:11
  very nice smooth transaction and and and have a good experience
• 25:16
  in it. It's when people start trying to
• 25:17
  deceive one another or skirt. The rules or laws or things like
• 25:22
  that or just being deceitful, it it did, it doesn't go anywhere
• 25:26
  and at least a bad reputation for not for them as well as as
• 25:29
  others involved. And and that goes right with
• 25:31
  real estate agents as well. Those state agents have to work
• 25:33
  together with other ones. And so even though you have
• 25:36
  fiduciary responsibility to your buyer or seller, whoever you're
• 25:38
  working with, you've got to be upfront and honest with everyone
• 25:42
  involved. And if you do that, then good
• 25:45
  things will happen. I thought you were going to tell
• 25:47
  me like bake cookies during your open house or something.
• 25:49
  I know. And it's that's always a good
• 25:51
  idea especially for the real estate agent put it with you off
• 25:54
  to the side for them, especially if they do an open house and
• 25:56
  have to be there for four hours. I love it.
• 25:58
  What's a very rewarding you know, homes are very important
• 26:03
  for people and for their legacy and for generations.
• 26:06
  So I I do, you know, have a lot of love for the the whole
• 26:10
  process. So after 19 years, you know you
• 26:14
  were, you know, I can only imagine.
• 26:16
  You know, you had to help people with their first homes ever.
• 26:20
  You know, we talk about like with kids, their first time out
• 26:23
  of their family going to college.
• 26:24
  Well, there are certainly people who first time they've owned a
• 26:27
  house saying I'm the first generation homeowner in my
• 26:30
  family. That's a special thing.
• 26:32
  It really is. After 19 years, why get out and
• 26:36
  what do we do next? You know, a lot of people have
• 26:39
  asked me that I I was successful in the real estate world.
• 26:43
  I I did. I did really well and it came
• 26:50
  down to a few things. I think for me part of it was it
• 26:58
  was I was losing some passion. And what I mean by that is not
• 27:01
  that I was losing the idea of getting up every morning and
• 27:04
  going to work and and doing a great job.
• 27:08
  It became pretty tiring. There's, you know in the fact
• 27:11
  that you know some of the people that you work with, they they
• 27:18
  change when it comes to money and the way they deal with you
• 27:21
  and the way they look at you, meaning.
• 27:27
  A lot of ungratefulness. There's a lot of things.
• 27:30
  You know, you're providing a service for people and you're
• 27:32
  doing it. You're doing your very best to
• 27:34
  do that. And you're being upfront and
• 27:35
  honest and and and and following the law and the rules and all
• 27:39
  the things necessary. And just sometimes it got it got
• 27:42
  to a point where I felt unappreciated and money didn't.
• 27:46
  The money doesn't. I never got into it for the
• 27:48
  money in the 1st place. Is the money good?
• 27:51
  Yeah, it can be really good. And it was.
• 27:55
  But I started losing my YA little bit.
• 28:01
  It wasn't because I never got into it for the money.
• 28:03
  I I got into it to provide for the needs of my family.
• 28:07
  But I didn't get into it for certain accolades or honors.
• 28:12
  You know, I just and I wasn't consumed by the dollar from that
• 28:16
  standpoint. I was consumed about helping my
• 28:18
  customers give them the best experience that I knew how to.
• 28:22
  And keep in mind, when I got into the business, I had never
• 28:24
  bought my home myself. I mean, I was young, so you know
• 28:30
  what I mean? So I was learning about that
• 28:31
  process as well. So I it was always about my
• 28:35
  clients. For me it was never about money
• 28:38
  or accolades or statue or anything like that.
• 28:40
  So so I I I kind of lost my fire so to speak.
• 28:46
  I lost that desire because it was it wasn't it wasn't fun
• 28:51
  anymore for me. It was becoming I I felt like I
• 28:56
  was just constantly dealing with someone's ego and and then and
• 29:01
  then like I said, I I don't know if it was the time at the
• 29:03
  society but there was a lot of ungratefulness for everything.
• 29:06
  And you know when I you do an amazing job and you get things
• 29:09
  done even in a timely fashion, then people are asking you well,
• 29:13
  you didn't have to work as hard on this one so you should be
• 29:17
  cutting things and doing things in the psychic.
• 29:19
  You always felt like somebody was like unappreciative and
• 29:21
  ungrateful for what has done. And so I, you know, you just it
• 29:25
  just wears on you. It wore on me.
• 29:26
  It from a personal standpoint, it just wore on me and I felt
• 29:29
  like I wasn't valued and even though I was making good money
• 29:36
  and and doing just fine. So you're you're feeling
• 29:40
  undervalued, maybe taking advantage of a little bit
• 29:44
  underappreciated, and you decide to go coach teenagers.
• 29:48
  I just want to make sure I'm connecting the dot.
• 29:52
  I just want to make sure I'm connecting the dots here.
• 29:54
  Go back to school. Go back to school to actually
• 29:58
  finish. Oh, really?
• 30:00
  Oh, yes. I didn't even think about that.
• 30:02
  You had to go back and get a degree, education degree in
• 30:04
  fact. So then I'm driving back to Suu.
• 30:07
  So now I'm in St. George in Santa Clara, and I'm
• 30:09
  driving an hour each way to go back and I'm taking 21 credit
• 30:14
  hours. Wow, 18 and 21.
• 30:17
  So I had 18, a couple times in 21 and then I was doing things
• 30:20
  during the summer. So I didn't have the time and
• 30:21
  the luxury of waiting, you know like a 19202122 year old I had
• 30:26
  to get done and so I yeah, I went back to school in my at 40
• 30:32
  years old and and. What was that experience like?
• 30:35
  That's in, you know, that that's not something a lot of people
• 30:37
  have. We either go in at 18 and end at
• 30:40
  22 or 23, you know, depending on how many years it takes us or we
• 30:43
  don't go or we go back to night school and take a class or two
• 30:46
  and that's. Always amazing like I I'm
• 30:48
  actually yeah I did the I did kind of the traditional route as
• 30:52
  far as you know went in and and got out in four or five years.
• 30:55
  I had a couple years in between but but anytime someone goes a
• 30:58
  year or two and then ten 20-30 years later a family etcetera
• 31:03
  and either night school. I'm not picking with her.
• 31:06
  I I love how you force fed it you know into a couple semesters
• 31:09
  but even those who take one class two classes a semester and
• 31:12
  and you know grind it out and get it done.
• 31:13
  It is amazing to me. I could not imagine today.
• 31:16
  I'm 47 years old. I could not imagine.
• 31:17
  And today going to school and and that's what you were doing.
• 31:21
  What What's that experience like going back to school?
• 31:24
  Well, I'll tell you what it took in my ego to get set off to the
• 31:27
  side. I mean, you know you're going
• 31:30
  with in with kids that. I mean, I almost have kids that
• 31:33
  age. Well, not quite at that time,
• 31:34
  but you know, my kids were certainly getting older and and
• 31:38
  yeah, I mean you're in there and you're like I could be some of
• 31:41
  your parents. So you know, especially those 19
• 31:45
  year olds, you know, three years old, I could easily have been
• 31:47
  their parent potentially. So yeah, it was.
• 31:51
  It was. It was.
• 31:52
  It was humbling that way, but it was.
• 31:54
  Also, it gave me that fire again.
• 31:58
  I gave me the fire that I felt like I lost in real estate.
• 32:02
  It gave me that okay, this is exciting.
• 32:05
  I feel like I I'm on a purpose again.
• 32:07
  I feel like I'm being appreciated again.
• 32:09
  I feel like I'm going in direction and I and even when I
• 32:12
  was in real estate, I knew at some point I was going to be a
• 32:14
  coach. I knew that at some point I was
• 32:17
  going to make a change. You know, I knew real estate.
• 32:22
  I could I could do till I die if I needed to.
• 32:24
  I mean, there's not a time frame you can go to whenever.
• 32:27
  So I always knew that at some point I was going to have some
• 32:31
  sort of transition in my life, whether it was a full going in
• 32:33
  full time as a teacher or just helping out as a coach, whether
• 32:37
  it's an assistant or if they wanted me to be a.
• 32:40
  Head coach, I would do that. But I knew at some point I was
• 32:42
  going to go do some coaching and it just came down to it.
• 32:45
  Just like, you know what? It's time.
• 32:48
  It's time to make this change and do this.
• 32:50
  I was feeling excited again. I was feeling like, you know, I
• 32:54
  had a purpose again. I was, you know what?
• 32:57
  I don't know, kill your midlife crisis.
• 32:58
  Whatever. You want to call.
• 32:59
  It at least, at least that was your midlife.
• 33:02
  Yeah, yeah. Back to school.
• 33:03
  Whatever. Right.
• 33:05
  So I so I did that and and I had.
• 33:09
  I had great professors. They, they, they, they actually,
• 33:15
  they actually were very accommodating to me.
• 33:18
  And what I mean by that is they didn't treat me like I was 21,
• 33:24
  all right, or 19 or whatever. Like most of my colleagues were
• 33:27
  there at the school. So they actually did reach out
• 33:31
  to me on experiences. Now my degree at SUSUU actually
• 33:35
  has, it's a physical education degree with an emphasis in
• 33:38
  coaching, so there's a lot of. Classes that are strictly
• 33:42
  coaching related. And so at that time I had
• 33:45
  already started to do some coaching and I guess we'll get
• 33:47
  to that in a little bit. But they actually would lean on
• 33:50
  me a little bit about my experiences, whether it was with
• 33:54
  parents, with athletes, with training, with training cycles
• 33:57
  and other things like that. And so I was one of the few in
• 34:00
  the room that was actually already starting that process
• 34:04
  and so. So I think that felt good a
• 34:07
  little bit that I wasn't looked down upon or that what I was
• 34:10
  doing wasn't right. They and I and I and I wasn't
• 34:16
  one that was saying I know more than the teacher does.
• 34:19
  It wasn't one of those types of situations either.
• 34:21
  I would certainly ask them questions and then I even talked
• 34:24
  to a few of them after. Like how what would you do with
• 34:26
  this athlete? I have an athlete that's kind of
• 34:27
  doing some of these things right now or or struggling in this
• 34:30
  area. How would you handle that?
• 34:31
  What would you do? Here's what I can give you.
• 34:33
  And so I kind of collaborated with them.
• 34:36
  And so there was a good, I think there I felt like there was a
• 34:38
  good relationship, you know, with with me going back to
• 34:41
  school with my professors and then also the students, They
• 34:44
  were fantastic. They did a great job.
• 34:46
  I never once felt like I was this old guy in the class.
• 34:50
  They treated me like one of their own.
• 34:52
  In fact, the one guy I kind of joked at the teacher I was, we
• 34:55
  had to take a test in one of my classes on my birthday.
• 34:58
  And I said, hey, can I get, can we get the answer to #40?
• 35:01
  For this one, you're like 40. Why 40?
• 35:05
  And I'm like, because it's my birthday today, it's my 40th.
• 35:07
  And then it stood in front of me.
• 35:09
  He turns around and he goes. You're 40.
• 35:10
  He just blew his mind. In fact, the towards the end of
• 35:14
  the test he turned back and he goes. 40 He thought I was like
• 35:18
  20. 627 years old. He knew I was older than them,
• 35:20
  but he had no idea and it just blew his mind.
• 35:23
  So anyway, it was a it was good. It was a good relationship
• 35:27
  there. The students were welcoming.
• 35:28
  They never felt, made me feel like, you know here's this old
• 35:32
  idiot up here. He doesn't know what he's doing
• 35:34
  with his life or whatever. You know what I mean?
• 35:36
  I I felt good, accepted and but then also respected too.
• 35:41
  I did have some experience and they did ask me a different
• 35:43
  thing. So even about kids, some of them
• 35:44
  had some young kids at the time and they're asking me about my
• 35:47
  kids and what I would you know and helping them a little bit.
• 35:50
  So I I look back on that experience as again is another
• 35:54
  good learning experience, life experience that has helped shape
• 35:59
  who I am today. You know when we were that age
• 36:01
  we thought 40 year olds were like 1 foot in the grave and
• 36:04
  then when we become 40 year olds and above it's like oh man, I've
• 36:07
  never felt better like I'm not in the grave.
• 36:09
  I still got 30 more years before I start worrying about that.
• 36:12
  You know it's it's really perspective is an amazing tool a
• 36:15
  a great educator. So you were you started coaching
• 36:20
  during this time as well So you you didn't you weren't busy
• 36:23
  enough with 18 and 21 credit hours you decide and and family
• 36:26
  and life. You decided well let's go ahead
• 36:28
  and jump right into this coaching thing.
• 36:30
  Yeah. So I started coaching some local
• 36:32
  youth here in the Hershey track and field when when Hershey had
• 36:36
  their own meat back. And so it started coaching with
• 36:40
  a few relay teams and a few individuals doing some things
• 36:44
  and we had some success and we got to go back to Hershey and
• 36:47
  and run there and do that and and So what became one relay
• 36:51
  team then became you know a second team and then it became
• 36:54
  all the age groups. So I started with the girls team
• 36:58
  and then it started with then it became all the girls.
• 37:00
  So the 9 and 10 year girls. 11 and 12 year girls, the 1314.
• 37:03
  Year old girls. And then it became the parents
• 37:07
  and others were like, hey, we don't coach the guys too.
• 37:10
  The girls are doing really good. In fact they're beating some of
• 37:13
  these guys. Teams can can can you help coach
• 37:17
  our guys too. So then I started coaching all
• 37:18
  the boys as well and then it became hey we need to take this
• 37:24
  to another level more than just what her she was providing.
• 37:27
  And so that's when I started my quick feet track and field
• 37:31
  program through USA track and field and and we started, we
• 37:37
  started going. I started coaching everything.
• 37:39
  I went and got my certifications through USATF and started the
• 37:46
  club and and then it just started taking off and we had
• 37:49
  some incredible athletes coming through and developing from our
• 37:53
  small community here in Southern Utah and Washington County, Utah
• 37:57
  and and we have some big success at the national stages of these
• 38:01
  young athletes and and so that's really started the coaching and
• 38:06
  taking off. You know, for someone who you
• 38:10
  know did the sport, went away from the sport, went into a
• 38:12
  whole different career, but always felt like, I think I
• 38:15
  heard you say, I always knew I was going to do something.
• 38:17
  I always kind of thought I was going to coach, like there was
• 38:19
  going to be something there. So it kind of was always in your
• 38:21
  belly of like, I'm going to be a coach.
• 38:23
  And then you get your first opportunity to actually coach
• 38:26
  and you're coaching little kids, little, little kids, right?
• 38:28
  Do you is, do you remember a time during that span?
• 38:31
  At first, could be the first week, could be the first season
• 38:35
  where it was like, Oh yeah, like I have been searching for this
• 38:39
  the whole time. There's no question, no
• 38:41
  question. As soon as I as soon as I
• 38:44
  started coaching, I just, I felt like this is my element.
• 38:48
  This is. Where I need to be and and
• 38:52
  that's one reason why going back to school became a big priority
• 38:57
  because I started coaching those little Hershey programs and the
• 38:59
  kids before I made it official to go back to school.
• 39:03
  So then it was like okay. Now I need to get done.
• 39:06
  Let's push through this. Let's get through this.
• 39:10
  I became a huge priority in my life to get done with school to
• 39:14
  get officially in the teaching and coaching and and it was nice
• 39:20
  to know that the stability of an income for my family was going
• 39:23
  to come through the inside of it and insurance and other things.
• 39:26
  Again I might like I told you I never got involved in real
• 39:29
  estate for the money in the 1st place.
• 39:31
  At that point it was just taking care of the needs of my family
• 39:34
  the physical needs of my family and and we can live with the
• 39:37
  normal means we know how to do that and so so that's where yeah
• 39:42
  I became passionate of that go after this let's go do this and
• 39:46
  and I jumped in with two feet and I just I haven't looked
• 39:49
  back. So I coached high school track
• 39:53
  and field and collegiate track and field.
• 39:55
  And my first year here at Gil, a local summer club asked, you
• 40:01
  know, they found out I coached in the SEC, You know, like, oh,
• 40:03
  you you want to help. And I was like, Oh yeah, yeah, I
• 40:05
  hadn't. I missed it still.
• 40:07
  So I it's like, sure I'll help. And you know, I find myself for
• 40:10
  the first time ever coaching 8 year olds, 9 year olds, 10 year
• 40:13
  olds, had always been high schoolers.
• 40:14
  And then the vast, vast majority were collegians and.
• 40:18
  I found out I can't do that. There's a special person that
• 40:23
  can do that. So really my question is how?
• 40:26
  How did you do that the the young ones that you're working
• 40:29
  with that is A and maybe maybe you didn't know, you know you
• 40:32
  hadn't coached high school or you know, so maybe this is just
• 40:35
  you just thought, oh, this is just how it is.
• 40:36
  It's takes a special person to coach these young ones.
• 40:40
  Oh well, it's a lot of patience, There's no question about that.
• 40:44
  But I also think that they were perfect for me to learn on.
• 40:48
  I think, and what I mean by that is they they had such a zest for
• 40:53
  life at that point, right? They are excited to come to
• 40:56
  practice. I mean, and it wasn't like we
• 40:59
  were killing them, but we were putting them through.
• 41:01
  I mean, I we were teaching them and we were pushing them a
• 41:03
  little bit and I just, I became obsessed a little bit with their
• 41:12
  success. And I just wanted to help them
• 41:16
  be as successful as they could. Not just in in the performance
• 41:21
  on the track, but just as young humans learning this thing
• 41:27
  called life and how to deal with themselves and their own motions
• 41:32
  that are going through them, as well as how to work with
• 41:35
  teammates and how come those teammates and how those
• 41:38
  teammates are so important to their success.
• 41:41
  They want to be successful. It can't just be by themselves.
• 41:43
  They've got to have the right people around them and the
• 41:45
  teammates around them. And so I try to create a culture
• 41:50
  that I felt was important, what I felt like was successful to me
• 41:54
  when I was younger and what helped me when I was younger.
• 41:59
  So I just it just became an an obsession, a little bit of
• 42:05
  helping them in all facets of their life and.
• 42:11
  And I mean, I had, we had some hard conversations with, with
• 42:14
  kids, you know, some that were struggling and making some bad
• 42:18
  decisions in school or even with their parents and siblings, even
• 42:21
  teammates in some aspects. Also, I had to deal with some
• 42:24
  parents, you know, that were creating problems.
• 42:28
  You know, I had some situation with another sport where I had a
• 42:31
  lot of athletes from a different sport that were kind of on the
• 42:34
  same team. And then they came over to get
• 42:37
  this training done. On track and field and they were
• 42:40
  successful track and field athletes as well.
• 42:42
  But they had some issues with each other.
• 42:44
  And so here I am having to take what was a problem in another
• 42:49
  sport and to try to, you know, make sure everyone's safe and
• 42:56
  and in a good environment, positive environment.
• 42:58
  And you know, you had to deal with some parents sometimes on
• 43:01
  things like that if, hey, I don't want my kid.
• 43:04
  Rooming with this one or you know, we were going to junior
• 43:06
  Olympics and things like that or I don't want to traveling or you
• 43:09
  know by, you know anyway, you know, and it's like these kids
• 43:13
  are 9 or 10 or 12 years old. It's like let me when because
• 43:18
  they're around me and they're in our environment.
• 43:21
  These issues are not here. And these whether young men or
• 43:25
  young or late young ladies, they're interacting with each
• 43:28
  other. They are supporting one another.
• 43:31
  They're encouraging one another. And all the drama that's
• 43:34
  happening wherever it's happening is not happening here.
• 43:37
  And we we just wouldn't allow that to fester into our
• 43:43
  environment, culture they're trying to create and so, but you
• 43:46
  know, that's part of coaching, part of dealing with all those
• 43:50
  things. And so I think, you know, my
• 43:53
  drive and passion was was just helping these athletes.
• 43:56
  I just wanted every one of them and I just wanted them to see
• 43:59
  that. That they had more in them than
• 44:02
  they thought they did, and that they could do harder things than
• 44:05
  they thought they could ever do in their life.
• 44:07
  And if I could get a kid to learn that at 9 and 10 years
• 44:09
  old, man, what a life lesson for a long period of time in their
• 44:14
  life. And so that's where the passion
• 44:17
  came from. You mentioned taking it to the
• 44:19
  next level. I'm a big coaching education
• 44:21
  nerd, if you will. Like I'm a huge, huge advocate
• 44:24
  of it, changed my life, changed my coaching career and my life
• 44:27
  as I went through different coaching education.
• 44:29
  You said you took level one. Do you remember taking level
• 44:32
  one? And do you remember who the
• 44:33
  teachers were? So I did it, and at Hayward, CA.
• 44:39
  So I drove back to Hayward, CA, which was Shabbo College there
• 44:44
  in in the Oakland area. There were several teachers
• 44:48
  there. I'm trying to remember, yeah.
• 44:49
  And I'll put you on the spot with that one.
• 44:51
  Ken Grace. Ken Grace.
• 44:52
  Yeah, one of them, Yeah. And actually we stated
• 44:56
  correspondence on on occasion as well through Facebook and other
• 45:00
  things, and did the Facebook page that they had created for
• 45:03
  that USATF there boy, put me on the spot.
• 45:08
  Yeah, I totally put you on the spot.
• 45:10
  It was more out of my own curiosity because I yeah.
• 45:13
  I taught. It was the one that I remember.
• 45:14
  Yeah, I taught over 30 level ones before I retired from that
• 45:18
  side to do more work here at Gil.
• 45:20
  So I just always love the teachers.
• 45:22
  I mean it's it's a it's hard for teachers and students.
• 45:24
  You remember that it was a, you know, all night Friday night,
• 45:26
  all day Saturday and a good chunk of Sunday.
• 45:29
  That is tough. It is really, really tough.
• 45:31
  And so I'm just always in awe of level ones and USTFCA and all
• 45:35
  this, all the coaching education it to get the value out of it,
• 45:38
  you've really got to be present 100% of the time, and that is
• 45:41
  tough for both teacher and student.
• 45:43
  Of course I you know. I felt like I was right in my
• 45:46
  element. I was like thinking let's just
• 45:47
  keep talking about it. You know, I I I didn't have any
• 45:50
  problem with the time frame and how long it was and love it.
• 45:54
  In fact, probably felt a little bit like, hey, let's, we got
• 45:56
  some more, let's talk some. More Let's dive a little deeper.
• 45:59
  I love it. I love it.
• 46:00
  So you, you're coaching, You create the quick feet track
• 46:03
  club. I love that.
• 46:04
  Again, just so in awe when I do these level ones, I'd always,
• 46:08
  you know, kind of take a survey of the coaches, like, all right,
• 46:10
  so how many people are high school coaches?
• 46:11
  You know, so many people would raise their hand.
• 46:12
  How many college And then I'd say how many are summer youth
• 46:15
  club coaches and you know, invariably some people and I was
• 46:17
  like, God bless you, you guys are the most patient,
• 46:20
  unbelievable people because I can't do at all what you do so
• 46:23
  love that you started a track club.
• 46:25
  You're pouring into 89101112. You know, it's just it's quite
• 46:28
  amazing. Did you?
• 46:30
  When you got your degree, was that was the next step.
• 46:32
  Now, because what's amazing to me about the degree is you're
• 46:35
  also doing this without any guarantee of a return.
• 46:38
  By the way, there's no oh, as soon as you get your degree,
• 46:41
  boom, here's your job. Like, you could have not had a
• 46:43
  job and an opportunity for a while either.
• 46:45
  Was there an opportunity after you graduated in the teaching
• 46:48
  sector? Yeah.
• 46:49
  So I I think one thing that really helped was the success of
• 46:52
  my Quick Feed program. We, you know, we I got the
• 46:54
  newspapers involved and you know different advertising.
• 46:57
  We went out and did fundraisers and.
• 46:59
  And you know, got community support with this as well.
• 47:03
  So we were able to build up a quality name in the community.
• 47:08
  And so when I finished my degree and had my student teaching
• 47:13
  opportunity again, just another side note on here while I was in
• 47:19
  school at Suu and doing getting my degree, there was an
• 47:22
  opportunity to be a freshman girls volleyball coach at Snow
• 47:27
  Canning High. Now that's, I mean, I'm a mile
• 47:31
  away from the school, so it's literally a school that my kids
• 47:35
  went to and it's right here in the backyard and ideally would
• 47:38
  be the perfect situation, right? You know, if I'm going to go
• 47:40
  back to school, get my degree, man, if an opportunity to come
• 47:43
  here to coach, it's like it's perfect.
• 47:45
  I don't have to travel or to do a lot of things.
• 47:47
  It's right there. Well, it was volleyball.
• 47:50
  I was just saying I had not heard volleyball at all in this
• 47:52
  story yet. Yeah.
• 47:53
  Well, there's there's volleyball in this story.
• 47:56
  So I I'm sitting there and I, so I have this flyer I get in one
• 48:01
  of my classes and I'm, I'm thinking about it.
• 48:03
  I put it inside of my car, my passenger seat, and I'm driving
• 48:06
  for this hour back and forth each day and during the whole
• 48:10
  trip up to from leaving from home to go to Suu and then go to
• 48:13
  my classes and then come back. Those trips, I'm just thinking.
• 48:17
  Should I do this? Can I do this?
• 48:18
  Do I even know anything about volleyball?
• 48:20
  Like would they even consider it?
• 48:21
  But I'm like okay. But if I'm going into physical
• 48:23
  education, I've got to know this stuff.
• 48:25
  I know the volleyball has changed the rules and the the
• 48:28
  game has changed since it's the 80s.
• 48:30
  You know when you you scored only on your serve so and the
• 48:36
  way the game was played was changed and I'm like I don't
• 48:40
  know anything about that. Can I do this?
• 48:42
  Anyway, so I I had this personal battle for about 3 days.
• 48:46
  For an hour long each way. So two hours a day.
• 48:48
  I'm just battling myself. Torture, absolute torture.
• 48:52
  And then finally I'm like, you know what She they probably
• 48:55
  already filled the position by now.
• 48:57
  Call up. Just see.
• 48:59
  Well, I called up and on my way on my way back home and coach
• 49:03
  answers and I said, hey, I'm calling about the position and
• 49:06
  it's still available and she's and she's like, yes, it is.
• 49:09
  I said, well, I'd love to meet you.
• 49:10
  She says can you come down? I said, well, I'm on my way.
• 49:13
  I'll be there in about 40 minutes.
• 49:15
  That's about a 45. Minute drive.
• 49:18
  And so I drive right to the high school and I meet Coach Parker
• 49:21
  and and and she's like, this is perfect, you're perfect for
• 49:26
  this. So anyway, so I got hired to be
• 49:30
  the freshman girls volleyball coach at Snow King High.
• 49:33
  Now keep in mind they'd actually just come off 4 consecutive
• 49:38
  state championships on that site.
• 49:39
  So it came from an elite program and Coach Parker's amazing.
• 49:43
  And so I jumped in with both feet.
• 49:46
  I said, okay, I'm going to learn this.
• 49:48
  Like some of these girls are learning this.
• 49:50
  And so I jumped right in and I did it for eight years.
• 49:56
  So I did it right through college.
• 49:58
  That was one thing. That and to keep in mind, it was
• 50:00
  a stipend. I was paid the small stipend
• 50:03
  right to do this. And so, but, but it allowed me
• 50:06
  to get into the school and allowed me to talk to
• 50:09
  administration, to talk to the athletic director.
• 50:12
  You know what I mean? And get to know teachers and
• 50:14
  coaches and athletes. And so I did.
• 50:18
  And so between the success of the Quickie program and that
• 50:21
  notoriety we were getting from the local newspapers and radio
• 50:24
  and other things like that. And and the community support
• 50:27
  itself along with now going to the high school, interacting
• 50:32
  with the students, having a good positive experience there,
• 50:35
  interacting with the teachers at Snow Canyon along with the
• 50:40
  administration there. I built up a report with them.
• 50:43
  So when it came time to for me to do my student teaching, I was
• 50:47
  actually assigned to a different high school and the principal
• 50:50
  found out about that and said no.
• 50:52
  He contacted Suu and said I need him over here.
• 50:56
  So unbeknownst to me until he told me this it you know, they
• 51:01
  said oh hey, your assignment has been changed from 1 high school
• 51:04
  to the other. So I went over to that, I went
• 51:07
  over to Snow Canyon and and I did my student teaching this up
• 51:09
  there. I graduated midterm, so it is
• 51:12
  like Decemberish midyear. So it wasn't like, you know,
• 51:15
  there's a job right away. And so anyway, so I did some
• 51:21
  substitute teaching and things like that throughout the spring.
• 51:25
  Most of it was at Snow Canyon. They just put me in a system and
• 51:28
  so I was just there at the school almost daily and then
• 51:33
  after after the school year ended that year.
• 51:39
  The administrator shouldn't call me in, and during the summer,
• 51:43
  while I was doing some training with my quick feed program, they
• 51:47
  called me in and said hey, well, actually it was a very it was a
• 51:53
  very, very low key interview. I was.
• 51:59
  They asked me to come in and interview with them and so of
• 52:01
  course I was all dressed up and everything but.
• 52:04
  They were very relaxed shorts and T-shirts in the summer and
• 52:08
  flip flops and things. And anyway, we just had a just
• 52:11
  conversation kind of like you and I are having right now.
• 52:14
  And then it became. Hey, do you wanna see your
• 52:16
  classroom? And so I said, So does that mean
• 52:19
  you want me to be around longer? And they're like, yeah, by the
• 52:22
  way, we wanna hire you. So anyway, so we came.
• 52:25
  But you know what? I've been interviewing with them
• 52:28
  exactly. At the time, I've been
• 52:29
  interviewing based on the volleyball and the things that I
• 52:32
  did there with the program and the coaches and athletes and the
• 52:36
  parents and. And and then of course the
• 52:38
  student teaching stuff is so anyway they created a position
• 52:42
  for me. I I can't speak enough to to to
• 52:44
  Warren Brooks the principal at Snow Cane at that time.
• 52:48
  He made it happen for me without without him I would not be at
• 52:51
  Snow Cane and I don't know where I'd be.
• 52:54
  So he he made it work and got me in and and then you know I just
• 53:01
  can say the rest of the history a little bit.
• 53:02
  You know, we started building up a program and.
• 53:05
  And they asked me to take over that program and but I was still
• 53:09
  doing volleyball too. So I want to lean into this
• 53:12
  volleyball thing real quick though.
• 53:14
  This is fascinating because in track we need more track coaches
• 53:21
  and so quite often I'm sure you had to deal with this in the
• 53:25
  track club. I I would not be surprised if
• 53:28
  you did. And I've certainly seen this in
• 53:29
  high school level where we have to train coaches.
• 53:34
  We have to mom or dad wants to help.
• 53:37
  And so you have to help them learn how to coach track and
• 53:39
  field and especially if they've never done it before.
• 53:42
  It's hard. Hey, go coach.
• 53:43
  Long jumpers, I don't know jump as far as you can.
• 53:45
  I don't know. And we know, you know, you know
• 53:47
  now being an experienced coach, there's a lot more to coach and
• 53:50
  long jumper than just as, hey, run fast.
• 53:51
  And when you get to that spot spot just jump farther.
• 53:54
  Right. So here is.
• 53:57
  And you hear that quite often with track and field.
• 53:59
  But I don't know that I've ever heard this in another sport and
• 54:03
  I'm quite a volleyball fan. So I learned volleyball in
• 54:06
  college. I dated a volleyball player and
• 54:08
  so I really became a fan. And here here at Gill our other
• 54:12
  side of our company is Porter Athletics which is a huge
• 54:14
  volleyball company. We make a lot of volleyball
• 54:16
  standards and things like that. So I'm.
• 54:17
  I love volleyball, man. We are in it here.
• 54:21
  So you had no volleyball experience.
• 54:24
  You knew a volleyball. But the rules of change and what
• 54:26
  he's talking about is it was right when I was in at Troy, so
• 54:28
  around 99, two thousand in that area.
• 54:30
  They went from, you know, the very traditional classic
• 54:33
  volleyball where when you serve, if you, you know won that point,
• 54:36
  you got a point. But if you if the other team was
• 54:38
  serving and you won that point, you didn't get a point.
• 54:41
  So it took forever. By the way, it was a very
• 54:43
  confusing system. They went to a more attacking
• 54:47
  type score where every point is is up for grabs.
• 54:50
  That team and they went to a libero situation, changed it a
• 54:53
  lot, but it's amazing. It's a great, great, fantastic
• 54:55
  sport. We live here in Champaign, IL
• 54:57
  with the University of Illinois is and we have one of you know,
• 54:59
  traditionally top 1015 women's program here every year.
• 55:02
  It's awesome. You go into not only coaching
• 55:07
  volleyball but you coach freshmen, which, I don't know,
• 55:10
  that might actually have been an advantage, although would track.
• 55:13
  I was scared to death with volleyball clubs, though you
• 55:16
  might have had some kids that still had some pretty good
• 55:17
  experience. But what I'm The other part that
• 55:20
  was really fascinating to me is you mentioned I think, did you
• 55:22
  say the volleyball coach's name was Coach Parker?
• 55:25
  Coach Parker seems very fluent in this 134 state titles.
• 55:31
  And Coach Parker, male or female, I don't want to make
• 55:35
  sure it all says so. She said to you, oh you you're
• 55:38
  perfect, Which that I was like, whoa, wait a minute.
• 55:41
  She knows what she's doing and she says this guy who knows
• 55:43
  nothing is perfect. How did you?
• 55:46
  You know, coaching volleyball is not like if you want to make fun
• 55:49
  of track and say, oh, it's easy to coach track, just tell them
• 55:51
  to run and turn left. Volleyball is not Throw the ball
• 55:54
  out and say, hey, get it over the net there.
• 55:56
  There is skill, there is technique, There are drills,
• 55:59
  There's plays. That's what I love most of
• 56:01
  volleyball. There's cool plays.
• 56:03
  How did you even begin to learn what to do to coach volleyball?
• 56:10
  Though I remember Coach Parker telling me that she why she
• 56:14
  loved an opportunity to work with me.
• 56:16
  Yeah, yeah. Was.
• 56:18
  Right, she said. The number one goal is I want
• 56:20
  you to them to have fun, make sure that they're having fun
• 56:23
  every day, that every day they walk out of the gym, that
• 56:27
  they've had a positive experience.
• 56:31
  And I felt comfortable along those lines cuz I felt like
• 56:33
  okay, I can build others, yeah, okay.
• 56:37
  Even if they've struggled all day long and even if they have a
• 56:39
  poor attitude all day long. Somehow, someway, I'm going to
• 56:44
  help make that young lady feel good about herself and about her
• 56:47
  situation when she walks out that gym.
• 56:49
  And so the first party was to help them have fun and then to
• 56:55
  learn the skills, she goes. I don't care if they ever win a
• 56:58
  match or game. I want them to learn how to play
• 57:01
  volleyball and learn the skills that are doing it now.
• 57:05
  Obviously I had to learn, so you don't know that teach.
• 57:08
  Those skills and do those skills.
• 57:09
  So again, going back to my. Young days where I felt like I
• 57:14
  was an observant person who could pick up on things.
• 57:17
  So when my practice was over, guess where I immediately went.
• 57:21
  I immediately went to her practice and watched and
• 57:25
  listened. I listened to what she was
• 57:27
  saying to the girls. I listened to, you know, the
• 57:30
  interaction that her and her assistant head coach would have
• 57:33
  with the young ladies. I would ask questions to them
• 57:37
  after the practice. Hey, you talked to this girl
• 57:38
  about this? What do you mean?
• 57:41
  What do you, what are you trying to convey?
• 57:43
  So then I would take that into the volleyball with the freshman
• 57:47
  girls and sophomore girls and things like that.
• 57:51
  And so I became a student, I became an absolute student of
• 57:54
  the of the sport and I dove right in and I'm like, hey,
• 57:59
  we're not in track season right now.
• 58:01
  We're in fall, we're in volleyball season.
• 58:02
  We're doing nothing but volleyball.
• 58:04
  And so I I I dove in and and learned it.
• 58:08
  And for eight years I was a part of.
• 58:11
  That program and and when she stepped down just to let you
• 58:14
  know over a 10 year courage she won 6 state championships had
• 58:18
  three second place finishes and one for season state finals.
• 58:23
  Amazing coach amazing you know amazing staff that she put
• 58:28
  together and of course incredible athletes and and she
• 58:32
  I learned some great skills coaching from her and to even
• 58:36
  apply. Into what what I'm doing on
• 58:39
  track and stuff and so so huge, huge thanks and as far as a
• 58:45
  mentor, as a coaching mentor. She did a great.
• 58:48
  Job in in doing that and helping me and and again was patient
• 58:52
  with me asking these questions and and trying to dive into not
• 58:56
  only that sport from a technical standpoint but also from an
• 59:00
  emotional standpoint, a mental standpoint, especially coaching
• 59:03
  the young, young ladies in those teenage years.
• 59:07
  And some of the struggles that they have, yeah, for sure.
• 59:10
  I love that we didn't lose you to volleyball and you're not
• 59:12
  like on the Porter Athletic Connections podcast, man, I love
• 59:15
  that. You know, I again, being such a
• 59:18
  nerd of the coaching education for track and field, I feel like
• 59:21
  we have a really good culture in our sport for coaching
• 59:24
  education. You know, there's a lot of great
• 59:26
  organizations that are doing amazing coaching education.
• 59:28
  Did you find that with volleyball at all?
• 59:31
  Was there a level one course she went to?
• 59:33
  And a level two? Was there anything like that for
• 59:35
  SO? Yeah, she's well versed in the
• 59:38
  gold medal squared. I think that's what they still
• 59:41
  call it, and that training philosophy there.
• 59:45
  And so she gave me the necessary.
• 59:50
  Paperwork so to speak you know training how to do it and and
• 59:55
  things of that nature and so I I didn't actually go to any
• 59:59
  specific clinics with her especially at that freshman
• 1:00:01
  level and and and and even sophomore level as I was doing
• 1:00:05
  this but she actually is an instructor so she goes around
• 1:00:10
  still to the stage so she's she's no longer a head coach and
• 1:00:14
  retired from the sport and and. I heard two daughters that
• 1:00:19
  played went to Vision one and played at a elite level.
• 1:00:22
  If I remember right, one of them that went to be ended up at BYU,
• 1:00:25
  played in the national championship game that they
• 1:00:27
  ended up losing to but went to that level.
• 1:00:30
  She was a libero therefore that. The other one went to New Mexico
• 1:00:33
  State initially and then ended up at transfer to Saint Mary's
• 1:00:37
  University there in the West Coast Conference and was an
• 1:00:42
  amazing player for them and you know different positions.
• 1:00:45
  Anyway she had a special needs son that that she after she
• 1:00:50
  coached her girls and focused on him and his life and what time
• 1:00:54
  he had left with them and and so so she stopped as far as the
• 1:00:59
  head coaching. And so to be in to her tutelage,
• 1:01:08
  even though I didn't necessarily go have any specific training, I
• 1:01:12
  I got it on a daily basis with her.
• 1:00:59
  But she's been still traveling the country and coaching
• 1:01:03
  throughout the years and so she's she's an elite.
• 1:01:16
  Quite an amazing story this volleyball side because
• 1:01:19
  especially knowing what she was, what Coach Parker was for the
• 1:01:23
  program and the state titles and runner, I mean, if you'd have
• 1:01:27
  told me was like, Oh yeah, you know we didn't really take
• 1:01:29
  volleyball all that serious. So, you know, me being the, the
• 1:01:31
  freshman coach, big deal, we weren't doing anything anyway.
• 1:01:33
  But to have this coach who obviously knew what she was
• 1:01:36
  doing, taught it to others, for crying out loud, and was like,
• 1:01:38
  yeah, yeah, you're you're perfect because.
• 1:01:41
  Seemed like goal number one was, hey, they got to have a good
• 1:01:43
  experience here. They're going to have fun.
• 1:01:45
  And you don't need to know the X's and O's for that.
• 1:01:48
  Yeah, I don't care how good you know the X knows.
• 1:01:49
  If you don't know that, you're not going to be very good in my
• 1:01:52
  system, is what it feels like. She was saying I can teach you
• 1:01:54
  the X's and O's. So that's that's fascinating to
• 1:01:56
  me. I love that.
• 1:01:57
  That's that's really interesting.
• 1:01:58
  But. No one is here to learn more
• 1:02:00
  about volleyball. We're here to learn more about
• 1:02:02
  track and field coaches. So get us back into coaching.
• 1:02:05
  You eventually take over. If I heard you right, the track
• 1:02:09
  and field program there at Snow Canyon.
• 1:02:11
  Yeah, so, So once I was hired as a teacher, there was Snow
• 1:02:17
  Canyon. I was of course coaching
• 1:02:21
  volleyball in the fall and then spring I was coaching track as
• 1:02:25
  an assistant coach and they had me coaching the sprinters and
• 1:02:28
  relay teams and sprinters and kind of jumpers and things like
• 1:02:32
  that. So I was focusing on on them.
• 1:02:38
  Sorry, I'm losing my screen here and so I was just an assistant
• 1:02:44
  coach and. Okay.
• 1:02:46
  Hold on, see, hold on. You said something there and I
• 1:02:48
  am on a tirade for this. My, my wife just got this for
• 1:02:52
  the first time. You just said I was just an
• 1:02:57
  assistant coach, so I am on a tirade to get rid of just and
• 1:03:01
  only in our vocabularies. You are not just an assistant
• 1:03:06
  coach, my friend. You were an assistant coach.
• 1:03:08
  Thank goodness you were an assistant coach.
• 1:03:10
  I'm sure that head coach was very, very pleased to have you
• 1:03:13
  as an assistant coach. And I bet you were very pleased
• 1:03:15
  to be an assistant coach. You were not just an assistant
• 1:03:18
  coach, my friend. All right.
• 1:03:19
  We got to work on that. All right.
• 1:03:20
  Thank you for correcting me on that.
• 1:03:22
  And I'm on a Crusade crusade for that, OK?
• 1:03:26
  I'm going to jump on your crusade and I'm going to make
• 1:03:29
  sure that doesn't happen at our. There we go.
• 1:03:31
  I will stop. It demeans it.
• 1:03:33
  It demeans it. And it is something to be
• 1:03:35
  uplifted, not demeaned. Okay, you're an assistant coach.
• 1:03:38
  Let's go. So I'm an assistant coach
• 1:03:39
  coaching sprints. Hurdles, jumps, relays.
• 1:03:44
  And I do that for that year. The head coach at the time, he's
• 1:03:47
  our head. He was our football coach, he
• 1:03:50
  was the defensive coordinator. He was just promoted shortly
• 1:03:54
  thereafter to be the head coach. So he's like, hey, this is your
• 1:03:59
  gig. You know this better than I do,
• 1:04:02
  so why don't you take over the head coaching?
• 1:04:05
  Position and I'll go do the football it.
• 1:04:09
  Track is in good hands now. They've got somebody, this is
• 1:04:12
  all his words. Got somebody who knows what
• 1:04:14
  they're doing is passionate about it.
• 1:04:16
  Like, let me step aside. You do your thing.
• 1:04:18
  Of course, you know really had to come down to administration
• 1:04:22
  to make the effect call ultimately.
• 1:04:24
  But that's what happened. Wow.
• 1:04:26
  And so at that point, I was then appointed to be the head coach
• 1:04:32
  for Snow Canyon High School. What's the state of the program
• 1:04:36
  Are we? Do we have high attendance, high
• 1:04:39
  roster, low roster? Do we have a tradition of always
• 1:04:42
  going to state with many, many athletes every year?
• 1:04:44
  What's kind of the status when you're first taking over here?
• 1:04:48
  The status was majority of our height of the track team was our
• 1:04:51
  cross country team, very few kids that were not on the cross
• 1:04:56
  country team. The program which is was
• 1:05:03
  struggling, it was in our region, we were right there at
• 1:05:09
  the last at the bottom, I mean we were not at the bottom.
• 1:05:12
  We might have been up one position in state.
• 1:05:15
  We would maybe get a handful of kids qualified for state each
• 1:05:21
  year. It was a struggle and we I knew
• 1:05:31
  when I was asked to do this, I remember coming home to my wife
• 1:05:33
  and saying my quick feed athletes, my 10 and 11 and 12
• 1:05:39
  and 13 year olds were faster than my high school athletes and
• 1:05:45
  I knew I was taking a huge step back as far as performance goes.
• 1:05:50
  But there was a good culture there from acceptance and
• 1:05:57
  participation of athletes. I think the athletes that were
• 1:06:00
  there in the program did feel welcomed, felt cared for, but
• 1:06:09
  there was something lacking and there was a there was and let me
• 1:06:14
  give you an example. Our athletes say in the in the
• 1:06:17
  mile or or 800 meters race would start, gun go off and
• 1:06:22
  immediately our athletes would go right to the back.
• 1:06:26
  I mean, literally they would like looking for their spot in
• 1:06:28
  the back and they would go through the race and then kind
• 1:06:33
  of have a massive kick at last, 150 meters, 100 meters pass.
• 1:06:37
  A few kids finish 18th out of 25 or something like that.
• 1:06:44
  And the mentality was, well, we're just happy.
• 1:06:48
  To be here, we're not good. We can't compete with these
• 1:06:52
  other programs in our region and certainly the state and you know
• 1:06:58
  we're just going to have fun and we're going to focus on, you
• 1:07:01
  know, we're. Going to go get a treat and
• 1:07:03
  that's kind of where it was. And and again, nothing against
• 1:07:07
  anyone or or anything, it's just that was what was created and I
• 1:07:11
  think a lot of it, even the kids created themselves because they
• 1:07:14
  would see one of our athletes have this big kick at the end.
• 1:07:16
  They would go and praise this kick and they would reinforce
• 1:07:23
  actually the wrong thing that the athlete was doing.
• 1:07:26
  But the athlete didn't know they were doing the wrong thing.
• 1:07:28
  They were just doing what they thought was right.
• 1:07:30
  And maybe you know just what they expected was supposed to go
• 1:07:34
  that they weren't very good. That these other teams were good
• 1:07:37
  and that they just couldn't compete with them.
• 1:07:39
  Cuz I heard people say it all the time that we're just not
• 1:07:42
  good like they are. And when I finally had to kind
• 1:07:46
  of start trying to the culture that needed to be changed and
• 1:07:49
  that was the biggest thing was changing this culture and this
• 1:07:52
  mindset of who we were. And so that first year cuz
• 1:07:57
  knowing from an assistant, from an assistant coach what was
• 1:08:00
  going on in the program and what they were thinking and feeling
• 1:08:02
  and believing, I knew what we had to change right away.
• 1:08:06
  And so my first year we created the saying of where champions
• 1:08:13
  train and that's on our back of our shirts.
• 1:08:15
  It's been on the back of our shirts from day one.
• 1:08:18
  And we were, there was nothing to champion about us.
• 1:08:21
  We didn't even have individual champions, let alone from a
• 1:08:25
  state level or a region level or or you know, even getting being
• 1:08:29
  a school record, even getting to be in the top of the school at
• 1:08:32
  some point. And our mindset certainly wasn't
• 1:08:36
  there. I mean, our mindset was very
• 1:08:38
  defeated. And so I remember a few coaches
• 1:08:42
  kind of giving me a hard time the next year when we first took
• 1:08:46
  over and they see on the back of our shirts where champions train
• 1:08:50
  and they're like so how's that working out for you so far you
• 1:08:54
  know and and when's the last time snow can't even win
• 1:08:57
  anything and and so and they were they were in jest jabs.
• 1:09:01
  I I didn't take him personally but but they knew the state of
• 1:09:05
  our program and and it wasn't that and I remember talking to
• 1:09:09
  my wife about it and going this is pretty bold to say this but I
• 1:09:16
  said I need these kids to start believing that they are better
• 1:09:21
  than they think they are. And I needed to start thinking
• 1:09:24
  about how champions train, how champions act, how champions
• 1:09:29
  deal with their their academics, how champions deal with their
• 1:09:32
  parents, how champions deal with their teammates, how champions
• 1:09:35
  deal with coaches, how how champions deal with everything
• 1:09:39
  in their life. And so that was the big gist of
• 1:09:43
  our program changing the culture and the belief of it.
• 1:09:47
  And we haven't changed from that motto and that same.
• 1:09:50
  I I don't know what's harder because both, I think both of
• 1:09:53
  these situations I'm going to describe to you are extremely
• 1:09:56
  hard taking a team like you're describing here.
• 1:10:00
  I'm hearing lack of confidence. I'm hearing settling like when
• 1:10:04
  you talked about you know they'd look for their place in the
• 1:10:06
  back, it's like Oh yeah, that's where we belong.
• 1:10:08
  You know air quotes that's where we belong.
• 1:10:09
  You know, not not having belief in themselves and in race
• 1:10:13
  structure and things like that. So taking them from there to the
• 1:10:18
  top or. You know you have some programs
• 1:10:21
  that are stuck right at like say third place which nothing wrong
• 1:10:23
  with third but you know if we want to win so you just need a
• 1:10:26
  little A10 percenter add on to get to the I'm not sure which
• 1:10:29
  one's harder how did you you you you I almost said you gave an
• 1:10:34
  example you you really didn't I understand you put champions
• 1:10:37
  train here that but you can't just do that and all right we
• 1:10:40
  started winning we put that on the back of our shirts and we
• 1:10:42
  started winning so that that's part of the culture that's a I
• 1:10:45
  always like you know you hear the proverbial.
• 1:10:49
  Puzzle piece, right. You think of a of a puzzle and
• 1:10:51
  sliding 1 little piece in. I actually think that is true.
• 1:10:54
  However, my my puzzle that I always picture is a little
• 1:10:57
  different. Not every piece is the same
• 1:10:59
  size, right? So like that shirt certainly was
• 1:11:02
  a puzzle piece but it was definitely smaller than belief
• 1:11:06
  and trust and train those were bigger puzzle pieces in there.
• 1:11:11
  So what did you do? Help us understand what are some
• 1:11:13
  things that you and the staff. And support staff, your parents,
• 1:11:18
  etcetera. What did you do to change that
• 1:11:21
  mindset? Because the training's not
• 1:11:22
  changing all that much. You were on staff.
• 1:11:24
  This isn't a whole new staff thing going on here.
• 1:11:26
  This certainly isn't. And I don't mean this in a bad
• 1:11:29
  way because I'm. I'm a fan.
• 1:11:30
  This isn't University of Colorado and coach Deion
• 1:11:31
  Sanders, 70 new players like, OK, these people had bad
• 1:11:35
  culture, so I cut them and I brought in my own to have a good
• 1:11:37
  culture. You're not doing that, this high
• 1:11:38
  school track and field. Why are you doing that?
• 1:11:40
  What did you do? What were some of the?
• 1:11:43
  Mindsets, training, What? What did you do to change this?
• 1:11:48
  We're talking about 1418 year old kids.
• 1:11:49
  These are tough, tough kids. I mean tough.
• 1:11:52
  Being tough to change their minds sometimes.
• 1:11:55
  Yeah. So OK so a lot of things and and
• 1:11:58
  and I and I'm glad you asked this question because this
• 1:12:00
  foundation that needs to be created started with.
• 1:12:03
  Soon as I was asked to take over the program I went to what is
• 1:12:08
  one of my assistant main assistant coach and coach
• 1:12:11
  Thompson. Amazing, man.
• 1:12:13
  I went to his house and I said okay, It's time for us to get
• 1:12:16
  involved, really close together, I said.
• 1:12:18
  They've asked me to take over the program.
• 1:12:20
  I need you and I need what you're going to bring.
• 1:12:23
  I need you to take over the sprints and and jumps a long
• 1:12:27
  jumping specifically. We don't do triple jump here in
• 1:12:30
  Utah, but I need you to take over the sprints and and jumping
• 1:12:34
  and are just general general training, weight room training
• 1:12:37
  adding this element to. To the, you know, the training
• 1:12:41
  program. That was not part of our program
• 1:12:44
  in the past. And so I started putting pieces
• 1:12:48
  in. Now, how did I meet Coach
• 1:12:50
  Thompson? I met him because I was training
• 1:12:52
  his one of his sons through quick feed and through
• 1:12:56
  interactions with him. I realized, oh, he's got this
• 1:12:59
  personal training personal, you know, training background,
• 1:13:03
  weight training background and some of this stuff.
• 1:13:06
  And then he was going back and doing some schooling.
• 1:13:09
  Anyway, we hit it off. Coach James Thompson and I, we
• 1:13:12
  just, we hit it off our our, our, our philosophies were
• 1:13:16
  similar. What our goals were were similar
• 1:13:20
  and he allowed me to get him in place, this part of our program
• 1:13:25
  in place so that I can go start working on the other ones.
• 1:13:29
  Because I keep in mind that was my Forte as coach.
• 1:13:31
  It was a sprinting jumper and throwing That was also my.
• 1:13:34
  Forte with this, so I'm ask. I'm now stepping aside from what
• 1:13:38
  is my kind of main thing and getting him involved in that and
• 1:13:43
  stuff. And so I had to trust him,
• 1:13:45
  right? You have to trust that you're a
• 1:13:47
  coach shop. Not only did I trust, but then I
• 1:13:50
  had to not micromanage him either.
• 1:13:52
  I had to allow him to bring his skill set and knowledge and
• 1:13:57
  experience with that. Now keep in mind a lot of that
• 1:14:00
  came from what he saw and observed what we I was doing
• 1:14:03
  with with the youth. We did go to a couple of clinics
• 1:14:07
  you know a couple of glacier clinics and stuff like that.
• 1:14:10
  So I got him to go with me to these so that we could hear
• 1:14:15
  these things and then of course talk about it and you know not
• 1:14:18
  only on the traveling to and from it but the hotel and like
• 1:14:21
  we were just all in in this in this process.
• 1:14:25
  So he has been, I mean he he should be getting this award
• 1:14:31
  along with me and other. I mean he he is amazing and I
• 1:14:35
  can't speak highly enough of of what the impact he's been for me
• 1:14:41
  and our program in helping us establish this culture with this
• 1:14:45
  and it's incredible. And so we started with that and
• 1:14:53
  and then of course the technical side.
• 1:14:54
  So the kids needed to know that, hey, we weren't just talking the
• 1:14:59
  talk, we were walking the walk as coaches.
• 1:15:00
  And then what I mean by that is first day of taking over the
• 1:15:04
  practice. We went through our warm ups and
• 1:15:07
  the details of our warm ups and we explained the why behind
• 1:15:09
  every single one of these warm ups, what we were doing, what
• 1:15:12
  the goal was of accomplishing that.
• 1:15:14
  Well, when we got done with the warm up time, I had my top
• 1:15:17
  athlete come up to me and say, hey, how's a great workout.
• 1:15:21
  Thanks so much, man. That was amazing.
• 1:15:23
  And I said workout practice, like that was the warm up.
• 1:15:27
  We even started practice. We're like 30 to 40 minutes into
• 1:15:31
  this and we're still in the technical side of what we need
• 1:15:34
  to do. And his eyes were like, Oh my
• 1:15:36
  gosh, like you're this is now way different.
• 1:15:39
  Than what we were doing before they were in and out of there
• 1:15:41
  less than an hour before and and not that we need to go two or
• 1:15:46
  three you know longer but we had to this was part of that
• 1:15:50
  changing. So once we helped the athletes
• 1:15:53
  and understand the why behind what we were doing and then we
• 1:15:57
  would go through the drills and other things that they needed to
• 1:15:59
  go through whether it was some speed endurance stuff and
• 1:16:01
  they're pushing their bodies to levels and you know anaerobic
• 1:16:05
  thresholds and stuff that where they're just you know having an
• 1:16:09
  out of body experience in their in their training.
• 1:16:12
  You know, to understand that hey, they can push through this
• 1:16:14
  and they can do harder things and and you know, let's do this,
• 1:16:18
  get up, let's get some active recovery in and come on.
• 1:16:21
  You know, you got this. Let's get one more.
• 1:16:22
  We got one more to get. And so you know, they knew that
• 1:16:25
  we weren't giving up on that. They knew that we were going to
• 1:16:28
  be there. We're going to give them
• 1:16:30
  everything they got. And so when we're talking to
• 1:16:32
  them about the effort that we're giving to them, they've asked
• 1:16:35
  for this. They've wanted to have coaches
• 1:16:38
  that were engaged with it. I said we're going to think
• 1:16:40
  differently than what we thought before.
• 1:16:42
  We're not going to settle for things.
• 1:16:43
  We're not going to just assume that other people are better
• 1:16:46
  than us. I also told them these other
• 1:16:48
  teams are not going to be like, oh hey, we're going to slow down
• 1:16:51
  so that you can, you know, have a top three finish and let no,
• 1:16:55
  they're not. For us to catch them, we've got
• 1:16:58
  to, we've got to train differently and we've got to do
• 1:17:01
  things differently. We got to raise our bar and
• 1:17:04
  level stuff. And you know, not everyone
• 1:17:07
  obviously buys into that. And so I had some students, some
• 1:17:10
  athletes and even some of our top ones, juniors and seniors
• 1:17:13
  that were like, hey, this is, this is too much.
• 1:17:16
  I I don't know if I can do this and even some just kind of even
• 1:17:19
  walk away. But I told Coach Thompson, I
• 1:17:21
  said, look, we've got to change the culture.
• 1:17:24
  And if we have to start with freshmen, then we're going to
• 1:17:26
  start with freshmen and we're going to change this culture
• 1:17:29
  right through. So let's go with who the which
• 1:17:31
  kids are going to be bought in that are excited, that are
• 1:17:35
  willing. I don't care if they ever make a
• 1:17:37
  varsity spot or not, but if they're going to show up every
• 1:17:39
  day and they're going to give us the effort that we need and
• 1:17:41
  we're going to continue to give the effort that we that they
• 1:17:44
  did, that they need and they deserve, then we're going to
• 1:17:47
  change this culture. And so it started with those
• 1:17:50
  things. It started with me going out and
• 1:17:52
  getting other coaches in those other events and all of a sudden
• 1:17:57
  we started having a full program.
• 1:18:00
  Now, now a kid can't come to me and say, hey, I'm over here at
• 1:18:04
  the discus and nobody's coaching me or I don't know what I'm
• 1:18:07
  doing or research. Well, guess what?
• 1:18:09
  I have a discus coach that just coaches this.
• 1:18:12
  I have a shot put coach that just coaches shot.
• 1:18:15
  I have a javelin coach that just coaches javelin.
• 1:18:17
  So my athletes now through creating the program have now
• 1:18:23
  individual coaches. I don't know of a coaching staff
• 1:18:27
  in the state of Utah and a lot of even throughout the nation
• 1:18:30
  even at the college level that has a coach.
• 1:18:32
  I have two high jump coaches. I have a long jump coach.
• 1:18:35
  I have you know a hurdle coach you know we have.
• 1:18:39
  I have distance coaches, two distance coaches, you know, And
• 1:18:42
  then I'm at the point now where I'm the head coach.
• 1:18:46
  I don't even have a necessary specific.
• 1:18:48
  Role other than I'm doing relays coach.
• 1:18:50
  Thompson say, hey, you love the relays, You're good at it.
• 1:18:54
  You know what? You take care of the relays.
• 1:18:56
  Plus it allowed him to get out early and I could stay a little
• 1:18:59
  later with the athletes, but you know what?
• 1:19:01
  But that's part of that networking in good nature that
• 1:19:03
  we've created in doing this and I still am involved.
• 1:19:06
  But, but I'm going around and I'm and I'm and I'm overseeing
• 1:19:09
  the whole program, all the coaches and all the athletes,
• 1:19:13
  every athlete sees me every day. And they know that I'm.
• 1:19:17
  I'm there watching them and watching them practice.
• 1:19:20
  And I'm even pointing them off to the cider.
• 1:19:23
  And I'm even watching other things that they may be
• 1:19:25
  struggling with mentally, emotionally, that maybe my coach
• 1:19:29
  that's coaching that specific event is working on the, so to
• 1:19:32
  speak, X's and O's on the tech side of it.
• 1:19:35
  And it's missing some other stuff.
• 1:19:38
  And so I'm able now to go see what those kids really need more
• 1:19:44
  than the technical side of things.
• 1:19:45
  Now, Mr. Realtor, you know we don't build a house all in.
• 1:19:49
  One could chunk, right? That's the proverbial brick by
• 1:19:51
  brick by brick. What was the first indication
• 1:19:57
  that things were going upwards? What was the first brick that
• 1:20:01
  you're like? Oh.
• 1:20:02
  Wait a minute that. We've never done that before.
• 1:20:04
  That's never happened. I think we're going to be okay,
• 1:20:08
  boys and girls. We're we're moving forward.
• 1:20:10
  Do you remember? Well, there's a couple things.
• 1:20:13
  First of all, it happened one with one of my 1 athlete in
• 1:20:15
  particular, He's a middle distance runner for us.
• 1:20:19
  Great kid, well respected by the peers.
• 1:20:22
  For all intents and purposes, the number one athlete on our
• 1:20:25
  team and. But he was a perfect example
• 1:20:29
  what I was talking about. He'd given an 800 meter race for
• 1:20:31
  a mile and he'd immediately jump to the back and have this
• 1:20:36
  massive kick at the end. And I mean, he'd passed, but
• 1:20:39
  he'd run a he'd run a 207208209, he would run, you know, a
• 1:20:44
  4544447 to 4:52 somewhere in there.
• 1:20:49
  And it was like clockwork. And it was the same race every
• 1:20:52
  time He'd finished the race and he's bouncing around at the
• 1:20:54
  finish line. Kids are dying at, you know, 420
• 1:20:57
  eights and whatever. And you know, they're spent and
• 1:21:01
  you know, they're struggling just to stand up and he's just
• 1:21:03
  bouncing around and I'm just, I got to the point like, OK.
• 1:21:07
  I. This has got to stop And these
• 1:21:09
  kids were again, his teammates were coming up hey that was a
• 1:21:11
  great kick and all these things and I'm like he ran the race
• 1:21:13
  wrong and so anyway, so I finally said OK and this was
• 1:21:18
  this was before I was the head coach.
• 1:21:19
  This was when I was the assistant coach and I told the
• 1:21:23
  head coach. I asked him.
• 1:21:24
  I said hey. I know I'm asking a lot right
• 1:21:28
  now, but I need your support. I'm going to take this kid from
• 1:21:31
  the distance program and I'm going to put him in my middle
• 1:21:33
  distance and do 400 meter work within 800 meter work.
• 1:21:37
  I need to get in this kid's head.
• 1:21:39
  I need to He needs to change the way he's training, the way he's
• 1:21:42
  racing, the way he's believing about his ability because he
• 1:21:45
  made comments like. Well, those guys are just really
• 1:21:47
  good. They're just.
• 1:21:48
  They're just on another level. I'm not.
• 1:21:49
  I'm not there yet. And it was always that.
• 1:21:51
  But like I said, he's bouncing around the finish line like I've
• 1:21:54
  got so much more in me. And I'm like, that's not the way
• 1:21:56
  the 800 feels you. Should not be.
• 1:21:59
  Bouncing around at the end of the race and so anyway so I we
• 1:22:03
  took him and the coach supported it and we went with it and I
• 1:22:06
  said to myself and I said to the head coach at the time said if I
• 1:22:10
  if this. Kid will trust us that this kid
• 1:22:12
  will. Believe in what we're going to
• 1:22:13
  do, then it's going to go a long way.
• 1:22:16
  These other kids are going to see it.
• 1:22:18
  They're going to dive into it. They're going to say, hey, we
• 1:22:21
  can have this experience of track and field as a team, but
• 1:22:25
  we can also be really successful at it.
• 1:22:27
  So we can have our cake and eat it too, right?
• 1:22:30
  We can have this fun environment.
• 1:22:32
  We like to be around each other. We like to travel together.
• 1:22:34
  We like to do things, but man, we also be really good.
• 1:22:37
  And so I I just like, I need this kid.
• 1:22:39
  This kid has got to be the one that's going to help change this
• 1:22:41
  program. And so I took him and I got in
• 1:22:45
  his head. I.
• 1:22:47
  I didn't let him get through anything.
• 1:22:49
  I mean, I didn't let him slide by anything.
• 1:22:51
  I kept him right on recovery periods, and I mean with
• 1:22:55
  exactness. And a week later I told him, I
• 1:23:00
  said, first of all, this next race, you're in the top three
• 1:23:04
  after the first lap. I said if you're not in the top
• 1:23:06
  three. I'm going to stand right here.
• 1:23:31
  And right before the race, I told him, you know, I came to
• 1:23:33
  where that spot was. And I showed him where I was
• 1:23:08
  going to stand on the track. And I said, I'm going to yank
• 1:23:10
  you off this track. I'm going to jump on the track.
• 1:23:12
  I'm going to disqualify you and the team.
• 1:23:14
  I said maybe I'll disqualify the whole team, I don't care.
• 1:23:16
  But I'm going to take you off the track if you're not in the
• 1:23:18
  top three in the first lap. And I looked at him with dead
• 1:23:22
  series in my eyes. I mean, I made it look like I,
• 1:23:25
  you know what I mean? Like all hell was going to break
• 1:23:28
  loose. I was willing to go to that.
• 1:23:34
  I told him. I said, See, I'm right here.
• 1:23:36
  Top three and he ran with a little fear in him a little bit,
• 1:23:41
  but he he went through and he came through and he's right
• 1:23:43
  there. Top three comes through working
• 1:23:45
  that 3rd 200 gets to that 600 meter mark.
• 1:23:49
  Now he's in second place and he's just he and the lead guy.
• 1:23:53
  And keep in mind, this guy's the defending state champ for our
• 1:23:56
  classification and he's on him and they're come off the turn
• 1:24:00
  that 500 meters and they're just going now this kid pulls away
• 1:24:04
  from him. He finishes that race and he
• 1:24:07
  goes under 6 Subs. Too he goes like. 158 He had a
• 1:24:11
  week before it was 209 and he goes 158 and is now #2 in our
• 1:24:16
  school history and he comes across.
• 1:24:20
  He's collapsed. No bouncing around.
• 1:24:23
  He literally climbed. Across the finish line.
• 1:24:26
  And he's looking up and his eyes are all big and he's, you know,
• 1:24:29
  just breathing. And he's just trying to figure
• 1:24:31
  out where he's at his delusion a little bit.
• 1:24:33
  And I remember going over to him and leaning over to him and and
• 1:24:37
  I was like, you did it. What I needed you to do Great
• 1:24:40
  job. You did?
• 1:24:40
  Look at what you did. And I said you're welcome.
• 1:24:43
  And I walked off and I just. Left him there and I just.
• 1:24:47
  And then later on and you know we got him up and things, but I
• 1:24:50
  just and then we started talking and he's like coach, I never
• 1:24:53
  knew I had it in and so that was the change of everything.
• 1:24:57
  So that was that was the start. Okay.
• 1:25:00
  So that's one kid now. Obviously a lot of our younger
• 1:25:04
  kids saw this. Then gosh, like, holy cow.
• 1:25:07
  And then they saw him excited and grateful.
• 1:25:10
  I'm like, oh man, now what can I do?
• 1:25:12
  Maybe I can go place this state of the medal and you know what I
• 1:25:15
  mean? Now all of a sudden this world
• 1:25:16
  opens of what he could do. And so that's what I needed.
• 1:25:22
  I needed those kids to see what could happen if we changed the
• 1:25:27
  mindset, if we changed the philosophy and we changed the
• 1:25:30
  belief. Yeah, we did change a little
• 1:25:33
  training, but those other things had to happen before the
• 1:25:35
  training would ever. Started with it took some time.
• 1:25:37
  If he didn't do those other things and and trust me and
• 1:25:40
  trust what we're trying to do, then none of it would have
• 1:25:42
  happened. So all of a sudden now he's
• 1:25:45
  believing we're champions training, right.
• 1:25:48
  So now that starts this cultural.
• 1:25:56
  I remember coming home being very frustrated going.
• 1:26:00
  They're not believing me. They're not trust me.
• 1:26:02
  Like, I remember walking in the hallways and the soccer girls
• 1:26:05
  were with see me and stop and walk the other way because they
• 1:26:08
  knew that I would say something to them, whether it was just
• 1:26:11
  even, hey, have a great day. It's good to see you.
• 1:26:14
  Oh, hey, when's your next soccer game?
• 1:26:16
  Nothing about recruiting for track and field, but they knew
• 1:26:19
  that. I'd already talked with them
• 1:26:20
  about it. I encouraged them to want it.
• 1:26:22
  I mean track and field was like the worst thing to say.
• 1:26:25
  To say I mean. They started club rugby and
• 1:26:30
  everyone was going there. Nobody was going to track and
• 1:26:34
  field. And so I remember thinking I'm
• 1:26:37
  just wasting my time. All this effort, blood, sweat
• 1:26:40
  and tears that you're putting into it and it's not going
• 1:26:42
  anywhere. And so for a couple years we
• 1:26:44
  just had where a few kids were buying into it, a few more were
• 1:26:48
  buying into it, but I was getting impatient now.
• 1:26:51
  Now it's like Okay. You guys, we've proven ourselves
• 1:26:55
  as a coaching staff that we're going to provide the avenue for
• 1:26:58
  your. And we're we're getting
• 1:27:02
  frustrated that we're not getting more kids.
• 1:27:06
  So I remember coming home thinking, I is this worth it?
• 1:27:08
  It might even might just wasting my time.
• 1:27:10
  And there was a few struggles. There, you know.
• 1:27:13
  For for me, is it worth it? And you know, should I just do
• 1:27:17
  the club stuff? I've got a lot better rapport
• 1:27:19
  there of. Course, a lot of.
• 1:27:21
  My parents and athletes from other schools rival high schools
• 1:27:24
  now are still asking me to train their kids because you know, all
• 1:27:28
  those kids were initially going to another school and they were
• 1:27:30
  winning state championships and they were winning state
• 1:27:33
  individual state championships and team championships.
• 1:27:35
  And here I am watching my athletes on the club side for
• 1:27:38
  six months of the year go and destroy my kids.
• 1:27:43
  And so anyway, so it was a little frustrating and it was
• 1:27:45
  like, can't you guys see that we can provide what you need if
• 1:27:49
  you'll just come and. So anyway, so COVID year,
• 1:27:53
  ironically that year we really felt like we were going to put
• 1:27:58
  our our foot down at a state level.
• 1:28:01
  And say. You better watch out for us
• 1:28:03
  because we're coming and I felt like we finally had the athletes
• 1:28:10
  in multiple events and the depth to run multiple relays and the
• 1:28:15
  depths to to do those things. Where before it was like, you
• 1:28:19
  know, you just have a handful of kids that try to do everything
• 1:28:21
  and just pray that they could get through it and not hurt
• 1:28:24
  themselves, right? And then you question or am I
• 1:28:26
  putting them in a situation where they are going to get hurt
• 1:28:29
  or defeated or whatever. So we finally felt like hey
• 1:28:32
  we're creating death, we're creating an environment and and
• 1:28:35
  that you know we've got a good momentum going and then COVID
• 1:28:38
  and we actually were able to get our Invitational and that
• 1:28:42
  weekend. And we had athletes from all
• 1:28:45
  over the state and even out of the country, you know across the
• 1:28:49
  states were calling me because we were we were still going.
• 1:28:53
  Our district made that call. It wasn't that I made that call.
• 1:28:56
  I we were subject to whatever they were.
• 1:28:59
  They said, you know what, we're going to do this.
• 1:29:02
  So it was little. You know COVID came out on that
• 1:29:03
  like that Wednesday from Utah Jazz.
• 1:29:06
  So and then we were Friday and Saturday and.
• 1:29:10
  So we were like what are we what what's going to happen and they
• 1:29:12
  said at this point we're going to keep conducting things and
• 1:29:15
  and so anyway so we ended up having our meet great
• 1:29:18
  performances by our kids and really started stepping the bar.
• 1:29:21
  But I think my couple of my milers went 4:15 and you know
• 1:29:24
  just really fast and really good and 150 fours and 150 threes and
• 1:29:29
  stuff. So we and then we had sprinters
• 1:29:31
  doing good things anyway. So we had a good meet, but we
• 1:29:33
  also had, it was like our state meet.
• 1:29:34
  We had athletes, top athletes coming in, Thomas, Boyd and.
• 1:29:39
  I was running for Stanford right now.
• 1:29:40
  He broke the state record around 404-1600 at the time and so
• 1:29:46
  anyway, so yeah, I mean we and went 8849 and the 32.
• 1:29:51
  So anyway, so we had some great performances and and again that
• 1:29:54
  was part of building this whole culture too.
• 1:29:56
  With our Invitational. Our Invitational went from few
• 1:29:59
  local teams to it's huge, I mean 6 plus teams coming it's.
• 1:30:04
  While. Split was coming and doing
• 1:30:05
  things live and we were you know, creating a fun and good
• 1:30:08
  atmosphere and you know for this meeting and again showing the
• 1:30:12
  kids, look, we're in, we're going all in and if you're going
• 1:30:16
  to be a part of this program, you want to be a part of this
• 1:30:18
  program, then the the, the level of, you know, expectations are
• 1:30:23
  higher are all the way around. And so anyway, so that was hard,
• 1:30:28
  because I felt like Dang. We finally are getting to this
• 1:30:33
  point where we're get ourselves on a state stage where we're not
• 1:30:39
  just a few athletes here or there, but depth of athletes are
• 1:30:43
  performing at a high level. And to have that taken out that
• 1:30:47
  was hard. That was a really hard one.
• 1:30:48
  And I obviously for the athletes, I mean, I remember
• 1:30:51
  getting the text at 3:00 in the morning for one of my athletes
• 1:30:54
  just like I don't know what to do with this.
• 1:30:55
  I don't know if it was my life. I don't know.
• 1:30:58
  And and I mean, and how do you respond as a coach?
• 1:31:01
  None of us even in the coaching degree.
• 1:31:03
  I I didn't there was nothing in there says this is what you do
• 1:31:06
  in a pandemic right. And this is how you handle
• 1:31:09
  athletes and this is what you should say to them and this is
• 1:31:10
  what you do And so we were all learning during this process but
• 1:31:14
  that was hard. I felt like oh man we just run
• 1:31:17
  this verge of really taking our program to the next level and
• 1:31:21
  and I initially my you know I felt like the rug was pulled out
• 1:31:26
  but ironically it just was what we needed.
• 1:31:29
  I mean in a way the. It was.
• 1:31:31
  There was enough momentum built at that point that when we came
• 1:31:34
  back that next year and we were able to go and do things like
• 1:31:39
  they responded. The kids were.
• 1:31:42
  And all of a sudden now track and field was a thing that was
• 1:31:44
  talked about and kids were talking to each other and
• 1:31:48
  encouraging each other and football coaches were supporting
• 1:31:51
  it and doing other things and so anyway and so they were backing
• 1:31:55
  things up and and soccer. I mean, like I said, I started
• 1:31:58
  having the full support of others.
• 1:32:00
  Coaches from our, from our teams and and fall volleyball and
• 1:32:04
  basketball and other things. And so all of a sudden some
• 1:32:07
  things started happening and kids started coming and all of a
• 1:32:09
  sudden they had success and all of a sudden they, you know, this
• 1:32:13
  whole snowball, right. They wanted more success.
• 1:32:15
  And then then other kids are like, hey, what are you talking
• 1:32:18
  about? What's going on?
• 1:32:19
  Oh, this is going on. Hey, well, maybe I should try
• 1:32:22
  it. And and so again, once the
• 1:32:25
  foundation was laid, the culture was created.
• 1:32:30
  The coaches were put in place. We allowed them to do the things
• 1:32:34
  that they needed to do to be successful.
• 1:32:35
  We supported them financially from the things that they
• 1:32:37
  needed. We fundraise.
• 1:32:39
  We did all the things we said, hey, we're gonna be a new
• 1:32:41
  program. We're gonna change everything
• 1:32:42
  about it. We got new equipment, we got new
• 1:32:44
  things. And you know what I mean.
• 1:32:46
  Everything I was saying Hey, you've got everything you need
• 1:32:49
  to be successful. These other programs haven't
• 1:32:52
  been doing this. Look at their stuff.
• 1:32:53
  Look at ours. We're putting our money where
• 1:32:55
  our mouth is. We're saying that we're this.
• 1:32:57
  We're saying we're this is where championship and you know what
• 1:33:00
  we're gonna do this. And we were all in my coaching
• 1:33:03
  staff and everyone we just were all in.
• 1:33:06
  We started getting parents more involved and just there's a lot
• 1:33:09
  of work right. I mean all of these things
• 1:33:11
  require. This enormous amount of work
• 1:33:14
  behind the scenes that nobody sees until.
• 1:33:18
  Your. Team shows up and they're like,
• 1:33:19
  wow, who's this team and? They're really good.
• 1:33:22
  And that's kind of what happened.
• 1:33:23
  I think we caught the world by storm.
• 1:33:24
  We just build it up and all of a sudden things just happened and
• 1:33:29
  these kids started trusting us and believing us.
• 1:33:31
  These guys are coming in. I mean, we're talking top
• 1:33:34
  athletes in our school and they're coming in and they're,
• 1:33:36
  they're giving me and my other coaching staff, they're
• 1:33:38
  undivided attention. They are.
• 1:33:41
  They are not. Trying to get out of things.
• 1:33:45
  They're not trying to shortcome things.
• 1:33:47
  They're like, hey, what do I need to do to be better?
• 1:33:50
  And not only in this sport, but how's this going to help me in
• 1:33:52
  my other sports? And when they started seeing
• 1:33:54
  that correlation on their football performances or soccer
• 1:33:58
  performances or basketball, like all of a sudden they're like,
• 1:34:01
  holy cow, I need this in my main sport.
• 1:34:04
  And then some of them started going, I really like this.
• 1:34:08
  I I think I want to pursue this more than.
• 1:34:11
  What I thought I wanted. So then like I said it just it's
• 1:34:15
  now the snowball effect where it started going and and I'll tell
• 1:34:19
  you what, we caught the perfect storm last year.
• 1:34:21
  I mean it just it was amazing and give us the little bit of
• 1:34:27
  the progression here you mentioned you know 20 the rugs
• 1:34:30
  pulled out from under you. So give us how did that, that
• 1:34:34
  snowball that's happening? Where how did the team do 2122
• 1:34:39
  and then now this magical year here in 20?
• 1:34:41
  321 we I would go to state and this is on the girls side.
• 1:34:48
  We go to State on the girls side and I've got 10 girls competing
• 1:34:53
  at State Okay. Eight of them end up scoring for
• 1:34:59
  us in some fashion other. Nice.
• 1:35:00
  Two of those were in just one race in a 4 by 8 relay, so 6
• 1:35:05
  girls. Scored We won state with six
• 1:35:08
  girls. I had a girl win 100 and 200.
• 1:35:12
  The four when we won the four by one and four by two, I had
• 1:35:15
  another girl take one of my take second.
• 1:35:18
  So we won two and 100. Then we went first, third and
• 1:35:21
  5th and the 200 I had a hurler took second and the 110th.
• 1:35:27
  Like I said, we want both of those relays.
• 1:35:31
  My 4 by 8 took I think 4th. Or 5th. 2 middle distance.
• 1:35:36
  I had a third and a fifth and the 800 and a third and the 5th
• 1:35:39
  and in the mile no field events, my 1 field event, my high
• 1:35:45
  jumper. She didn't score.
• 1:35:46
  She took I think 10th, but she was my only field event and we
• 1:35:50
  one stayed. With those girls.
• 1:35:53
  And it just opened up everything.
• 1:35:56
  It was a shock to us. We knew we had top end talent on
• 1:36:00
  this team. I mean, they had done it all
• 1:36:01
  year long. We just felt like we weren't
• 1:36:05
  going to compete with a couple of the other programs in our
• 1:36:07
  state because they were bringing 30 plus and we had 10 and we
• 1:36:14
  pulled it off. I mean a few kids on these other
• 1:36:18
  teams kind of struggle didn't make a final maybe that were
• 1:36:20
  expected to make a final didn't score as high as they were maybe
• 1:36:23
  expected to. Again, kind of a little perfect
• 1:36:25
  storm things happened. Next thing we know, we're going
• 1:36:28
  into the. Two hundreds and I got 3 girls
• 1:36:31
  in the finals of the 200 and every all field events at this
• 1:36:34
  point have been scored and we have the 200 going and then the
• 1:36:38
  four by four. And by the way we don't even
• 1:36:39
  have a 4 by 14. And so then I go in and they and
• 1:36:43
  I'm looking at we're looking at the scores and we go first,
• 1:36:48
  third and 5th. And then we look at it and go
• 1:36:51
  even if this other school wins, the four by four, which I, I
• 1:36:54
  they may have, we we had enough points to beat them.
• 1:36:59
  And so anyway, so that's where it started.
• 1:37:02
  It started with the from a championship standpoint, that's
• 1:37:04
  where it started. Our guys were good.
• 1:37:06
  I think we ended up 4th that year, great performances.
• 1:37:12
  We just didn't have enough depth.
• 1:37:13
  In fact, ironically, we didn't have any sprinters my distance.
• 1:37:15
  Runners and. Some filled events.
• 1:37:17
  We were really good with those and scored high, but I had no
• 1:37:20
  sprinters. In fact, I don't think our relay
• 1:37:21
  teams even made finals, you know, so we, our 4x4 did, but.
• 1:37:27
  But when we were good, but we may have scored two or three
• 1:37:30
  points on that one. So, so how do you, how do you,
• 1:37:33
  how do you build off of a fourth place in a state championship on
• 1:37:36
  the girls side? How do you build and rebuild
• 1:37:38
  going into 22? Well, I think part of it was we
• 1:37:40
  did have the areas we had success in.
• 1:37:43
  We had really good success. So my javelin thrower broke the
• 1:37:46
  state record as a sophomore and he threw 204 feet and he wins
• 1:37:53
  that event. And you know a shot putter that
• 1:37:56
  came in and took second at it. You know we had my distance
• 1:38:03
  runners. You know we had some good milers
• 1:38:05
  and half milers and score high and those and I put I think we
• 1:38:08
  had three scores in the 800, my 4 by 8 was good.
• 1:38:12
  And you know we we actually still have that 4A state record
• 1:38:16
  because they've only been doing the 4A as a classified event and
• 1:38:19
  and scoring event in Utah over the last like four years.
• 1:38:22
  Five years. So we actually still hold that
• 1:38:24
  record at the 4A level and and so you know what I mean like
• 1:38:28
  some good things happen. So some really good things at a
• 1:38:31
  high level happen on the boys side.
• 1:38:32
  We just didn't have the depth. Well, all of a sudden the next
• 1:38:36
  year we start getting start getting some more depth and the
• 1:38:40
  depth that we were training, they were freshmen and
• 1:38:42
  sophomores and they were coming up.
• 1:38:44
  We had some great hurlers, you know, as they were freshmen,
• 1:38:47
  they were, you know, just learning and started learning
• 1:38:49
  it. Going through the freshman was
• 1:38:51
  that they were competitive and they were, you know decided to
• 1:38:53
  train and and get after it and they'd become elite and and so
• 1:38:59
  anyway, so we again, this culture was created.
• 1:39:02
  They were just jumping and they just weren't good enough and
• 1:39:04
  ready to go to that next level. Three years ago and two years
• 1:39:09
  ago in 2022. That's when they realized that,
• 1:39:14
  Oh my gosh, we're really good. And we've got the potential to
• 1:39:17
  be really, really good. And and then again we started
• 1:39:21
  getting athletes in all events and not just middle distance
• 1:39:25
  runners or some throwers we started getting scoring in in a
• 1:39:30
  lot of events and that's what it takes to I mean that the women
• 1:39:35
  sometimes I look back still and go how did we do that how did we
• 1:39:38
  score 90 plus points with six girls and and they were amazing
• 1:39:43
  and so that just catapult it was like and I think the guys were
• 1:39:46
  like. Well, we want to win.
• 1:39:49
  They saw how the girls reacted and they saw what it.
• 1:39:51
  Was to be the. First ever in snow canning
• 1:39:53
  history to do that in almost 30 years and they're like well we
• 1:39:57
  want to I think there was just this like hey we're we're going
• 1:40:01
  to raise the bar. You know what I mean?
• 1:40:02
  Like we're going to do this. So we jump in and and then not
• 1:40:06
  only that did they have success on the track and we win state
• 1:40:08
  that year, but they started having success at a higher level
• 1:40:15
  in their other sports. And they.
• 1:40:17
  Started getting more offers and more recognition in these other
• 1:40:20
  offers and ironically speed and strength and you know some of
• 1:40:25
  the things that we're we're teaching and coaching there and
• 1:40:27
  the track side, we're coming to fruition and those other sports,
• 1:40:31
  oh, you're good and you're big and strong and you're fast and
• 1:40:35
  we want you to keep going here in in this.
• 1:40:37
  So, so these kids started getting this attention in their
• 1:40:41
  main sport and they're like, wow, this is great tracks doing
• 1:40:44
  great things for me. Man, I like this.
• 1:40:46
  I like feeling good. I like having success.
• 1:40:47
  I like getting medals around my necks and on the podium at a
• 1:40:50
  high level. And you know what I mean?
• 1:40:52
  And and and and. But The thing is, these kids
• 1:40:57
  weren't conceited. It wasn't I'm Better than you.
• 1:41:01
  They they knew that their success was dependent on who
• 1:41:04
  they had next to them in the blocks at the day.
• 1:41:07
  Before and that day of. So every day when they're
• 1:41:11
  coming, they know that everyone's given their their
• 1:41:13
  all. And and then we started creating
• 1:41:17
  this depth. And like I said, this last year
• 1:41:20
  ended up being this perfect storm.
• 1:41:22
  I mean, you know, we had, I think I had five guys in the
• 1:41:25
  finals of the 200. I had four guys in the finals of
• 1:41:28
  the 100. And that was ironically that was
• 1:41:32
  without my #1 sprinter going from last year.
• 1:41:34
  He hurt his hamstring. He.
• 1:41:37
  Ended up having to pull out, like he didn't even end up.
• 1:41:41
  Doing what we thought he was going to do.
• 1:41:42
  We didn't end up having him at all and any relays or
• 1:41:44
  individual. He was my top guy from the year
• 1:41:47
  before. And so I think where we would
• 1:41:50
  have been with, we would have had him on top of these things.
• 1:41:53
  And so you know, my four by one wins, my four by two wins, four
• 1:41:57
  by eight wins, 4x4 took second ironically, but broke our school
• 1:42:02
  record. My hurdlers, you know now when
• 1:42:05
  they were a few years ago, before they were struggling, you
• 1:42:07
  know, as as freshmen and learning.
• 1:42:09
  Now they're. Some of the top kids in the
• 1:42:12
  nation, my my 1300 hurdler, he was ranked #11.
• 1:42:17
  He should use it, you know, running low. 3732 went to
• 1:42:22
  Arcadia and ran there and and took second at Arcadia in the
• 1:42:28
  Invitational section of Arcadia. He's a senior this year and he's
• 1:42:31
  a, you know, multistate champion and the 300 hurdles and the one
• 1:42:35
  10s and you know he's getting a lot of offers and a lot of
• 1:42:39
  things now and. He's going to be one of the top
• 1:42:41
  juniors in the nation this coming year and and you know
• 1:42:44
  we're hoping that he's going to dip it'll go with low 36 this
• 1:42:47
  year And and anyway because again this culture that was
• 1:42:52
  created and and I've got two other hurdlers that are you know
• 1:42:55
  30 eights and and low 39 and you know and high 37 and so I mean
• 1:43:03
  we're good and so you start going through this and then I
• 1:43:06
  get a kid who shows up to learn the discus.
• 1:43:09
  Right Senior ends up finishing second at state throws 146 or
• 1:43:15
  something like. That.
• 1:43:16
  But he's learning for the first time shows it again.
• 1:43:18
  We look at my coach take takes a kid who's never done it before
• 1:43:22
  and does this have a shot quitter.
• 1:43:24
  You know he has his PR estate win, state throws 49 feet 11 and
• 1:43:29
  three quarter inches and cuz we are coming in with like 47,
• 1:43:33
  nine. You know but my coach just
• 1:43:36
  persistent just you're going to it's going to it's keep coming,
• 1:43:38
  it's going to happen. It's going to happen.
• 1:43:39
  You're going to pop this and this whole series.
• 1:43:42
  In fact I had another coach text me during the warmups saying
• 1:43:46
  this kid's on fire. This kid's probably going to win
• 1:43:49
  it today and sure enough, he goes out there and wins.
• 1:43:53
  You know, and yet he was not favored to win it.
• 1:43:57
  So we just had this perfect storm where kids mentally,
• 1:44:00
  physically, emotionally, just everything about it.
• 1:44:03
  You know, and they supported one another.
• 1:44:04
  They were cheering each other on all the way through.
• 1:44:08
  You know, I mean we had three high jumpers placed in the top
• 1:44:10
  six. We won it back back-to-back high
• 1:44:12
  jump, you know, and we've got other guys scoring.
• 1:44:16
  My javelin thrower won again. He won three straight years.
• 1:44:19
  You know, I mean like it just milers I had, I had, I had
• 1:44:25
  placed three guys in the podium, top six in the mile. 800 meters,
• 1:44:29
  same thing. We scored.
• 1:44:30
  We had several scores in that two mile.
• 1:44:32
  We had scores. Like I said, we went 4 by 8.
• 1:44:35
  I mean it was just, I mean as a coach we just sat back.
• 1:44:39
  We knew we were good. We knew we were going to be fair
• 1:44:41
  to win. We had a, we had a scoring
• 1:44:43
  somewhere in the 160 range. The other teams around, you
• 1:44:46
  know, the second was about 90 and stuff.
• 1:44:48
  We ended up at 214 points and we just.
• 1:44:56
  I don't know what to say other than.
• 1:44:58
  It just was a perfect storm. And we had built up to it and
• 1:45:02
  kids were buying in and they bought into the system, they
• 1:45:04
  bought into the training, they bought into just everything was
• 1:45:07
  going on and they didn't have grudges over who was faster than
• 1:45:10
  this. Like I said, we had to all these
• 1:45:11
  guys in the finals and they just ran and they celebrated their
• 1:45:15
  success with one another. You know, as a coaching staff,
• 1:45:18
  we'd look back and go, man, this is amazing.
• 1:45:20
  I mean, there was no egos, there was no nothing.
• 1:45:22
  There was just. And and we're putting these
• 1:45:25
  relays together. I mean, I mean, I have five guys
• 1:45:27
  in the finals of the 200, so who's my four guy?
• 1:45:31
  Right. And I mean, and so I plugged
• 1:45:32
  other guys in all season long and stuff and same thing for my
• 1:45:36
  4 by 1, I mean the guy who won the 200 meter state champs, he
• 1:45:39
  went 21, six putting 67. He wasn't even on my 4 by 2,
• 1:45:43
  four by two relay. He was long jumping and running
• 1:45:46
  the 100 and still was getting in.
• 1:45:49
  Several months. But you know what I mean So.
• 1:45:52
  It just worked. We just had that that special
• 1:45:55
  season where everything kind of came together and and but, but
• 1:45:58
  we've been building it. We've been building it for years
• 1:46:01
  and. And it just it just all fell
• 1:46:04
  into place and and we just had to step back and stay out of the
• 1:46:08
  way. That's I think that's the great
• 1:46:10
  lesson there is that you know to build a program of where you are
• 1:46:14
  today doesn't happen overnight. It there has to be little things
• 1:46:19
  that athlete believing. You know what I really found
• 1:46:22
  fascinating about your athlete that went from the 209 to 150,
• 1:46:24
  the guy you're going to yank off the track.
• 1:46:26
  You know, we see we tend to talk to ourselves worse than we would
• 1:46:31
  talk to someone we don't like. And what I loved about that
• 1:46:34
  story was, you know, he listens. He comes through in top three.
• 1:46:39
  But then he had a he had another choice to make at that point,
• 1:46:41
  that 3rd, 200. He easily could have been like,
• 1:46:43
  okay. Well, I did that and Coach is
• 1:46:44
  crazy because now I'm about to die and could have easily fallen
• 1:46:47
  all the way to the bag. Instead he was like, okay.
• 1:46:49
  Well, I'm here. Let's see what else happens and
• 1:46:52
  kept pushing and then obviously it goes, you know goes sub two
• 1:46:55
  quite amazing. I mean that's amazing but that's
• 1:46:57
  like the genesis story of building up to where you are and
• 1:47:01
  putting three you know five in the finals of the 203 high jump.
• 1:47:05
  I mean it's it's amazing the brick by brick to continue
• 1:47:08
  building, get a little bit better every year.
• 1:47:10
  Good things will happen. People want to be with winners,
• 1:47:12
  right. So as you start becoming
• 1:47:14
  successful more people come in. Other coaches are coming in to
• 1:47:17
  help and give their athletes and encourage their athletes to.
• 1:47:20
  On track, it's a great story of how to to build a program.
• 1:47:24
  It's always interesting to me for track.
• 1:47:26
  You know, when football wins the state championship in high
• 1:47:29
  school, you know they have all year to celebrate, meaning they
• 1:47:33
  walk that hallway in February. We won that title back in
• 1:47:36
  December, boys. In track we get done and we go
• 1:47:39
  to supper, we go home and we don't really get to celebrate.
• 1:47:43
  So you you're on an all time high here.
• 1:47:45
  You're winning the state meet by tons and tons of points.
• 1:47:48
  It's quite ludicrous to be real frank with you.
• 1:47:50
  And then, you know, you get into the the lows of summer.
• 1:47:54
  You're doing maybe summer track club.
• 1:47:55
  And then at some point, I don't know, I don't know actually how
• 1:47:57
  they do it. Whether they call you or send
• 1:47:59
  you a letter, at some point someone reaches out and tells
• 1:48:02
  you that you are the national, not Utah, which would.
• 1:48:07
  By God, that's amazing. If you were the Utah coach of
• 1:48:10
  the year, the national boys coach of the year, tell me how
• 1:48:14
  that went down. Did you think it was like a
• 1:48:16
  prank call from one of your buddies?
• 1:48:18
  What had that had that occur? Yeah, it's funny that you say
• 1:48:22
  that. At the end of school year, we
• 1:48:24
  finish up at State. We come home late that night on
• 1:48:26
  a Saturday night and we graduate Wednesday.
• 1:48:28
  Yeah, I mean, seniors are not even there.
• 1:48:32
  Nobody. It's.
• 1:48:33
  We hardly have any kind of celebration.
• 1:48:35
  In fact, ironically, we just got our state rings.
• 1:48:39
  Well, the first one, the first batch that came in today.
• 1:48:42
  Because we got. Them yesterday and today and and
• 1:48:44
  so here we are and some of them are gone.
• 1:48:47
  Like I got to give them to their families because they're off to
• 1:48:50
  college or off on whatever and so they're not even able to
• 1:48:53
  celebrate those. So it's ironic that you say that
• 1:48:55
  because yes, being in the spring, it ends and we're right
• 1:48:59
  at the end and you know, to have this performance and stuff and
• 1:49:03
  and. And we just sometimes anti
• 1:49:05
  chromatic because we can't really celebrate it as much as
• 1:49:07
  we were hoping to anyway. So yeah.
• 1:49:11
  So we're going through summer and going through the summer
• 1:49:14
  things cross country started and we're coaching cross country now
• 1:49:17
  and not volleyball anymore. We're coaching cross country now
• 1:49:19
  and this is starting our fifth year and coaching cross country.
• 1:49:22
  And anyway yeah, I, I, I I get this call.
• 1:49:28
  First of all, I I I do get the. That e-mail or or whatever
• 1:49:33
  saying that been selected to be the the Utah coach okay for
• 1:49:39
  voice track and field. So I get an e-mail regarding
• 1:49:41
  that my my athletic director gets me something or gets
• 1:49:45
  anyway. So he sends it to me and I'm
• 1:49:46
  like, wow, that's awesome. Right, Yeah.
• 1:49:48
  I look at the, you know, the coaches association and I have
• 1:49:53
  the utmost respect for that coaches association and people
• 1:49:56
  that are part of that and. And of course you know you as a
• 1:49:58
  coach you always have to hope to have more time to be involved in
• 1:50:01
  training and learning more from other coaches and your fellow
• 1:50:04
  coaches to add your toolbox of of things that to help you be
• 1:50:08
  better and and more successful and and so I've always looked at
• 1:50:12
  you know things like that and and opportunities and and and
• 1:50:16
  I'm always respected. I've read the articles in the
• 1:50:18
  past of coaches who've got things before and I'm like man
• 1:50:21
  that's so cool. You know that these coaches do a
• 1:50:23
  great job and. Man, we gotta keep going.
• 1:50:26
  We gotta keep fighting and we gotta keep building things.
• 1:50:28
  And for me, it was always an inspiration, kind of reading
• 1:50:31
  through some of the stuff and never once ever thinking that I
• 1:50:37
  would have an opportunity to be recognized on a level of that
• 1:50:39
  nature. So when that call came in.
• 1:50:45
  Yeah I'll be honest. I actually just got out of the
• 1:50:47
  shower and it was cleaned up and and things and and so and and
• 1:50:51
  normally don't answer call from an Outofstate area but for
• 1:50:55
  whatever reason I did and lo and behold it was Christina there at
• 1:50:59
  the the coaches association there and and and telling me
• 1:51:04
  about it and it's ironic that you talk about the prank call
• 1:51:07
  she's like. This is not a great call just to
• 1:51:10
  let you know. So anyway, because I think she
• 1:51:12
  could see and hear in my voice the the utter astonishment and
• 1:51:17
  and just humble this of of of what she was telling me and what
• 1:51:23
  she was saying to me. And and and of course, through
• 1:51:25
  my head I, you know, I was going through a lot of emotion, you
• 1:51:30
  know, a lot of emotions of, you know, where we were when I was
• 1:51:34
  in that same room. Talking to my wife about, I
• 1:51:37
  don't know if I should keep going with this and is it worth
• 1:51:39
  it to thinking about all of the effort that my coaches have put
• 1:51:44
  in and the time and effort that they put in to support me and
• 1:51:50
  support the kids. Because you know, they, I think
• 1:51:53
  that, you know they they had to put a first of all trust in me
• 1:51:57
  to allow them to be a coach and to be a part of our program and
• 1:52:01
  to know that. I was going to support them
• 1:52:05
  instead of them kind of catering to me as the head coach.
• 1:52:08
  It was just the opposite. I tried to create an atmosphere
• 1:52:11
  of what can I do for you, how can I help you be successful.
• 1:52:14
  What are what are the things that you need.
• 1:52:16
  And so I I hope they have felt the appreciation that I have for
• 1:52:23
  the effort that they're given to me and to our athletes on a
• 1:52:26
  daily basis. And and so I I I just was
• 1:52:29
  thinking about. All those coaches meetings and
• 1:52:33
  conversations and at the meets and wonder what we need to do
• 1:52:38
  and how do we take it to the next level and what how do how
• 1:52:40
  can we help these kids believe and trust in what we're doing
• 1:52:43
  and and the culture that we're creating here and and so anyway
• 1:52:47
  so I obviously the flood of emotions just of of going
• 1:52:50
  through all of those things and to think that somebody's
• 1:52:53
  recognizing Utah you know. And little Old Saint George, a
• 1:52:57
  smaller community in the state of Utah.
• 1:53:01
  On a national stage just just brought a lot of also pride in
• 1:53:06
  our community and support that I've been given.
• 1:53:08
  You know and what we've done from from quick feed and and the
• 1:53:12
  USATF to the high school level and and you know my principal
• 1:53:17
  Warren Brooks for hiring me and allowing me to have this
• 1:53:21
  opportunity and and then cook my principal mockers and our and
• 1:53:25
  our other administrators the support that they've given me,
• 1:53:28
  our athletic directors. You know you start thinking
• 1:53:31
  about all these things and and then again we booster club that
• 1:53:34
  we started to help our cross country and track and field
• 1:53:37
  programs be able to finance and fund some of the things that we
• 1:53:40
  need to do and and that we're hoping to do.
• 1:53:42
  And you know you just start thinking about all the people
• 1:53:46
  that are involved in this process and you think why me
• 1:53:50
  like why why is this happening to me.
• 1:53:52
  But but also grateful that that all the hard work has been being
• 1:53:56
  recognized. And so I I.
• 1:54:00
  People I said I I don't take credit for the the coaching side
• 1:54:03
  of it from that I I take credit for trying to put in the program
• 1:54:07
  as it is right now in place that you know hiring the right
• 1:54:10
  coaches to get into the right things and and getting the other
• 1:54:14
  people behind the scenes involved in the success of our
• 1:54:16
  program. I I said okay if there's I'll
• 1:54:19
  take credit for that but I you know the daytoday operations my
• 1:54:23
  coaching staff has been absolutely phenomenal and and
• 1:54:26
  and. You know and and and there's
• 1:54:28
  times where I've gone in and helped and given some they give
• 1:54:33
  it you know thoughts and advice and hey let's look at this and
• 1:54:36
  you know maybe this athlete needs some work here and maybe
• 1:54:39
  you know let's do a few drills or things to help them and do
• 1:54:42
  that. So I'm, I'm actively engaged in
• 1:54:44
  all those things and and interacting with my coaches but
• 1:54:48
  but also like I said trusting them and they're doing an
• 1:54:50
  amazing job and I need to. Just like my coaches are asking
• 1:54:56
  my athletes and I'm asking my athletes to trust the process,
• 1:54:59
  I've got to trust the process too and let my coaches coach and
• 1:55:02
  do things that I've asked them to do.
• 1:55:03
  And so I guess I'll take credit for those things.
• 1:55:07
  But outside of that, I it's truly a coaches a coaching staff
• 1:55:11
  award and and recognition for the program that we have created
• 1:55:15
  together. Before we hit record, Justin,
• 1:55:20
  you know, I told you I wish. All these coaching of the year
• 1:55:24
  awards, we're coaching staff of the year awards because no head
• 1:55:27
  coach does it on their own. However, I do have a lot of
• 1:55:32
  respect for the head coach because of what they have to do
• 1:55:38
  outside of the X's and O's of the actual coaches.
• 1:55:40
  Not saying that assistant coaches only on X's and O's
• 1:55:43
  protocol themselves. They have their own things that
• 1:55:45
  they also have to get done, but the head coach?
• 1:55:48
  Has to set the vision, the head coach has to set the tone.
• 1:55:52
  The head coach has to pick up the 34567.
• 1:55:55
  However many other assistant coaches that you have out there,
• 1:55:58
  you have to support them. It's the, you know, you've seen
• 1:56:01
  the triangle with the, you know, the CEO up top and all that.
• 1:56:03
  It's actually completely reversed where you're serving
• 1:56:06
  the assistant coaches so that they can serve their athletes.
• 1:56:10
  So I have a great respect for it.
• 1:56:11
  So I love the recognition of the award, of the hard work, the
• 1:56:16
  sacrifices. And outside of you, Justin and
• 1:56:20
  your assistant coaches, I have to imagine you correct me if I'm
• 1:56:25
  wrong here. Family support and sacrifice.
• 1:56:30
  You mentioned some administration support.
• 1:56:33
  You mentioned great coaching support from your soccer coach,
• 1:56:37
  football coach as well your your rest of your athletic department
• 1:56:39
  teachers. Who are teaching these kids?
• 1:56:42
  I imagine it's, and you've been describing this way, it's an
• 1:56:45
  entire ecosystem, if you will, to win this National Boys High
• 1:56:50
  School Coach of the Year award. No question, you know from from
• 1:56:55
  putting out a little announcement of how we're doing
• 1:56:58
  or how certain individuals are doing at school.
• 1:57:01
  I I tried to send for years. I started off so I wasn't doing
• 1:57:04
  what my. Coach did as far as doing a
• 1:57:06
  national newsletter, but I was doing a synopsis of our.
• 1:57:09
  And and recognizing athletes at all levels from whether it's a
• 1:57:14
  personal record that they said or or whatever but I would send
• 1:57:17
  out kind of these results to our our faculty and so and I'm sure
• 1:57:23
  there was several times they just went right in and deleted
• 1:57:25
  it didn't even read any of it but I but I I know a lot of them
• 1:57:28
  did and I I always made sure that they.
• 1:57:31
  You know when you have these students in class, say something
• 1:57:33
  to them. You know, recognize hey, I read
• 1:57:35
  where you had a really good track meter.
• 1:57:37
  You had a new personal record or you finished this or qualified
• 1:57:39
  for say, or whatever it was. I tried to make sure put these
• 1:57:42
  out. These are these are building
• 1:57:44
  opportunities for you as a teacher in Spanish and in
• 1:57:48
  physics and biology and math and whatever, for you to help build
• 1:57:53
  a report with this student. So that they're going to even be
• 1:57:56
  more engaged in your class if you're showing?
• 1:57:59
  That you respect them and what they're doing in their off time.
• 1:58:03
  Man that was going to go a long way and helping build this kid
• 1:58:06
  up. And if this kid is response to
• 1:58:09
  you in in a biology class well guess what the kid next to him
• 1:58:12
  is going to be like what's what's this kid do?
• 1:58:14
  I've I've got to do with this kid and so again going back to
• 1:58:17
  this culture of just trying to create this and so yes, from
• 1:58:20
  everything that we've tried to do in exposing the program and
• 1:58:23
  and advertising the program, talking about the program.
• 1:58:28
  First of all I haven't SHIELD away from doing it.
• 1:58:30
  But second of all it's it's we we celebrate the success of
• 1:58:34
  everyone and then then it's all it's come back.
• 1:58:37
  You know we've made the kids the priority.
• 1:58:39
  We've made their success a priority at whatever level
• 1:58:42
  they're at. I don't care if they're first,
• 1:58:44
  you know if they're running 100 meters and you know if a boy's
• 1:58:47
  running 100 meters and 16 seconds.
• 1:58:50
  If that's a new record for him, we're going to celebrate it.
• 1:58:52
  You know if it if the kids running the mile in 8 minutes
• 1:58:55
  and 30 seconds and. It's a new personal record.
• 1:58:57
  I'm gonna bring it up in front of the team and I'm gonna talk
• 1:59:00
  about the effort that that kid's giving in practice every day to
• 1:59:03
  improve. So it takes time to do that.
• 1:59:07
  But I can tell you, obviously I mentioned Coach Thompson and how
• 1:59:11
  what right hand man he has been for me for all this time.
• 1:59:15
  But there are so many others and.
• 1:59:19
  I, I, I, I, I need to mention a few of them absolutely have
• 1:59:23
  Coach Martin he he's now moved to Arizona with his family with
• 1:59:26
  another job opportunity and things like that.
• 1:59:28
  But he was my distance coach and and kind of helping build our
• 1:59:31
  distance program and he was one that at the beginning he and I
• 1:59:35
  was kind of standing in the infield and watching the races
• 1:59:38
  and watch the what kids interact and how they were.
• 1:59:40
  Perform and kind of what their mindset was.
• 1:59:42
  And we talked about how we need to change this culture.
• 1:59:44
  So we started talking about ways that we can do that this, you
• 1:59:47
  know they're in the middle of an infield watching the meet to how
• 1:59:51
  we can implement this in practice and what we can do.
• 1:59:53
  So he was, he was definitely part of this helping me change
• 1:59:57
  this culture of that and and so he did it.
• 2:00:01
  He did a great job for many years before we ended up losing
• 2:00:04
  him to that, but. So I so Coach Roberts, Travis
• 2:00:09
  Roberts and Allison Renstrom are taking over my distance program
• 2:00:12
  and they've been an amazing job. They're helping me in the cross
• 2:00:14
  country side of of things and and helping this program and and
• 2:00:18
  they've been instrumental in continuing what we kind of
• 2:00:23
  started building with with the distance program and then
• 2:00:25
  changing it to what it is now and putting multiple guys on the
• 2:00:30
  on the podium and kids going on to the next level to run and do
• 2:00:33
  some things. Coach Laura Martin has changed
• 2:00:38
  our shot putting program and she's done an amazing job in
• 2:00:41
  this. Last year she's she she's just,
• 2:00:46
  she just meshed right in. She's the newest member of our
• 2:00:48
  kind of our coaching staff when it came to kind of the ones that
• 2:00:51
  have been there and she just jumped right in and did things.
• 2:00:55
  Coach Mike McLennan, he's my discus coach again.
• 2:00:58
  We hadn't scored in the discus in years.
• 2:01:00
  I don't know if we've ever scored a point at in the state
• 2:01:02
  at the discus and he takes a kid, you know, never done it
• 2:01:06
  before and does it. And then on the girls side we
• 2:01:07
  had three. Podium finishes in the girls out
• 2:01:10
  of the discus and all three of those girls are back this year
• 2:01:13
  and so you know he's he's done an amazing job of teaching that
• 2:01:17
  and and we had a freshman boy who ironically we've actually
• 2:01:20
  lost because family moved but he placed as a freshman and threw
• 2:01:25
  in the 12727 to 1:30 somewhere in there I can't remember off
• 2:01:29
  the top of my head but he he scored for us as well and placed
• 2:01:34
  as a freshman so you know he was taking a kid that was brand new
• 2:01:38
  to the sport as a senior and one as a freshman and he podium.
• 2:01:41
  Both of them. So amazing job with that the
• 2:01:45
  Hickman brothers. Matt and Brian Hickman are my
• 2:01:47
  javelin throat. Coaches and we had four guys
• 2:01:53
  podium on the javelin this year and three of them were throwing
• 2:01:57
  it for the first time and and then I had a female take second
• 2:02:03
  and had her personal best at state to finish second and then
• 2:02:07
  I think she's third now in our school history but you know she
• 2:02:10
  she was our only javelin thrower on the girls side and she peaked
• 2:02:15
  at the right time and and and through that so the Hickmans
• 2:02:17
  have done an amazing job and of our javelin throwers are
• 2:02:20
  herbers. I need to shout out to coach
• 2:02:24
  Paige Robinson. She was she was kind of another
• 2:02:27
  right hand man of mine. She when she came in to our
• 2:02:31
  program she she she comes from a head Catholic background and she
• 2:02:35
  just jumped right in and and helped change again the culture
• 2:02:39
  that we were trying to create from a training standpoint, A
• 2:02:41
  belief standpoint, a fight, a toughness standpoint.
• 2:02:44
  And she helped us do that and did an amazing job while she was
• 2:02:48
  with us. We also lost her to a move.
• 2:02:50
  But ironically we have one of our former athletes who's only
• 2:02:56
  three years he was part of the COVID year.
• 2:02:58
  He was a senior during COVID and so he has come back learning
• 2:03:03
  under coach Robinson and he's taken our.
• 2:03:06
  Hurdlers who are some of the top ones in the nation and he has
• 2:03:10
  taken them and and training them still under her guidance he
• 2:03:14
  converses with her you know and but as far as the training and
• 2:03:17
  types of training that we're doing and and you know we're
• 2:03:20
  working with him as well and but he's done an amazing job as a
• 2:03:23
  young coach that can still go over the hurdles and do some
• 2:03:26
  things which is always nice but he's done an amazing job.
• 2:03:30
  Tyler Jessup has done an amazing job as a former athlete that's
• 2:03:33
  now kind of giving back to the program and he's done an amazing
• 2:03:37
  job there And then I've got a couple other guys that have come
• 2:03:41
  in and helped us and they're really starting to get their
• 2:03:43
  feet wet with some things. Well first of all I need to talk
• 2:03:45
  to about my high jump coaches. I have two of them.
• 2:03:47
  Coach Andrew Jensen, who again, we just lost to a move.
• 2:03:51
  Back up to Oregon where he's from originally his wife and
• 2:03:53
  just had their baby and their first child and they've moved
• 2:03:56
  back home and and anyway and with her work and and stuff and
• 2:04:01
  so anyway he did an amazing job and we were such a blessing to
• 2:04:05
  have him and his wife down here in our program and he helped us
• 2:04:09
  out with cross country as well and he's a huge loss for us this
• 2:04:12
  coming this year and because he's helping so many aspects but
• 2:04:16
  ironically and maybe blessing, definitely blessing for us.
• 2:04:20
  We had coach Blaine Watkins who has been helping us with a high
• 2:04:22
  jump as well so they too were working together and with that
• 2:04:26
  so we're going to have a seamless transition now and in
• 2:04:29
  taking over the program which is which is great and again we we
• 2:04:32
  you know we we podium to one of our only one of our only girl
• 2:04:36
  high jumpers along with with you know three guys and then just a
• 2:04:41
  fourth just missed it and so anyway so we're excited about
• 2:04:45
  that program we we lost two of those high jumpers to graduation
• 2:04:49
  but the defending state championship 68 and stuff he's
• 2:04:52
  back to defend it for hopefully a third time and stuff.
• 2:04:55
  So anyway so we've had a lot of success with those coaches and
• 2:04:59
  then again the other two coaches coach Garrett Quackenbush he's
• 2:05:03
  helped us from the distance side of things.
• 2:05:05
  He's also a younger guy who's in school right now and medical
• 2:05:09
  school doing some things here locally.
• 2:05:12
  He's helping us out with that and then coach Dre Smith who's
• 2:05:16
  one of our defensive coordinator on the football team.
• 2:05:18
  He's been helping out coach Thompson on the sprinting side
• 2:05:20
  and he's going to help be he's going to take a much more active
• 2:05:23
  role and some things this year. Kind of learned this last year
• 2:05:27
  because he's been on the football side for so long.
• 2:05:29
  But he loves the athletes. He loves the kids and he's so
• 2:05:31
  good with them And so Dre's going to do a great job with us
• 2:05:34
  and and helping us expand our sprinting program even more.
• 2:05:38
  And where coach Thompson can can work a little bit more
• 2:05:41
  individually with some of the others and he can help develop
• 2:05:43
  the younger ones and and kind of continue our success of the
• 2:05:47
  spinning program that we've created over there at Snow
• 2:05:50
  Canyon. And so as you can see, I got a
• 2:05:52
  large staff I've got for every one of the events and.
• 2:05:57
  And so we're really blessed to have that staff and and and
• 2:06:01
  coaches that have coached with us along the way and brought
• 2:06:04
  time and I can't thank him enough.
• 2:06:07
  You know, I I I wish. I like I said they they should
• 2:06:10
  be traveling with us and doing the things and and chatting here
• 2:06:13
  with you and and others. And I they are, they are.
• 2:06:18
  I told my I told. I told my outfits.
• 2:06:20
  And this is one thing I also learned when I was first started
• 2:06:22
  coaching because when I was doing quick feet, it was just
• 2:06:25
  me. So I started, you know that I'd
• 2:06:27
  start at 6:00 in the morning with my distance kids and then
• 2:06:30
  I'd have sprinters and stuff coming.
• 2:06:32
  Anyway, I stayed there the whole time.
• 2:06:33
  It was about 2:00 in the afternoon all summer long and
• 2:06:38
  I'd coach all the all the events and I did it by myself.
• 2:06:41
  So I was coaching the shop players and the discus and the
• 2:06:43
  the relays and the jumpers, and it's taxing and you can't keep
• 2:06:48
  it up. And so I learned early on in
• 2:06:50
  that coaching my club team that I need to get people around me.
• 2:06:56
  And then I realized that I need to get the better people around
• 2:07:00
  me better than me. So as soon as I start getting
• 2:07:02
  better people than me around me then that's a good thing and I
• 2:07:05
  have a coaching staff filled with better people than me and
• 2:07:10
  and so we've been able to find a lot of success in that and and
• 2:07:14
  again you know administration boosters and family wow.
• 2:07:18
  And I what can I say to about my wife you know she has she has
• 2:07:23
  been right there with me side by side during this whole
• 2:07:26
  transition from real estate to going back to school and the the
• 2:07:30
  coaching to to then head coaching and a lot of time away
• 2:07:35
  and away from our our family as well as you know
• 2:07:39
  responsibilities here at home and other things like that and
• 2:07:43
  but we all we're A-Team you know as part of it we're part of the
• 2:07:45
  same team. My wife is a piano teacher as
• 2:07:47
  well and she's a music education and and stuff and so we
• 2:07:51
  understand it. So when she has her recitals and
• 2:07:54
  she's getting kids big performances, I'm supporting her
• 2:07:58
  and helping her and going to those and you know, helping her
• 2:08:01
  with the things that she needs, like she's helping me with the
• 2:08:03
  things that I need during hosting meets and other things
• 2:08:06
  of that nature. And so we have a great team
• 2:08:09
  together and making this happen and you can't have that.
• 2:08:13
  You can't have the success that we've been able to have without
• 2:08:16
  again, all these people behind the scenes and and out there in
• 2:08:20
  front, in the front of the scenes, making it, making it
• 2:08:23
  happen all the way around. And so I feel truly blessed and
• 2:08:26
  honored and grateful for all the people that have been involved
• 2:08:30
  in this process with us as we created this program and team
• 2:08:34
  and and the support that we've been given again from
• 2:08:39
  secretaries at the school to again athletic directors and and
• 2:08:43
  administration. I I can't thank them all enough
• 2:08:46
  for the support that they give and and it's fun to see them at
• 2:08:51
  the meets, the big meets and then then coming up, going
• 2:08:54
  coach. You're slaughtering them like
• 2:08:56
  you're. Really good.
• 2:08:57
  Like, I didn't realize it's going to be this bad.
• 2:08:59
  And you know what I mean? And things like that and just
• 2:09:01
  and and just for them to see the passion that we feel that and to
• 2:09:07
  and to recognize it and to and to and to celebrate it too.
• 2:09:11
  I I you know it's it's been fun for track and field to be put on
• 2:09:15
  a pretty high pedestal at the school now where like I said it
• 2:09:19
  wasn't very long ago that it was the least talked about sport at
• 2:09:23
  the school and and almost almost like it was the worst thing that
• 2:09:28
  you could be a part of at the school and so yeah I I never
• 2:09:33
  thought we'd get to a level of this.
• 2:09:35
  You know I I always hoped and dreamed and and knew that if we
• 2:09:38
  stuck to the task that we were trying to create that we could
• 2:09:41
  could create something special but to know that it kind of did
• 2:09:46
  what it did this last couple years.
• 2:09:47
  I I'll be honest, it's kind of the stuff that dreams are made
• 2:09:51
  of and when you when you go into this and hoping that something
• 2:09:54
  like this could ever happen. So I.
• 2:09:57
  Reminded. I'm reminded the old saying if
• 2:09:59
  you want to go fast go by yourself.
• 2:10:01
  If you want to go far go with others.
• 2:10:03
  And that story from your coaching Staffs which which a
• 2:10:08
  lot of turnover in your coaching staff that that that's surprised
• 2:10:11
  me. I mean to continue with that's
• 2:10:12
  that's quite amazing and you know your wife you can't do it
• 2:10:16
  without your family support and your family and your
• 2:10:19
  administration teachers. It's quite amazing.
• 2:10:22
  You have great. Tried there and you continue to
• 2:10:26
  pull on the same rope and I think that's what caused this
• 2:10:29
  slaughter, if you will. That's where the points are
• 2:10:31
  coming from that these kids believe in themselves, from the
• 2:10:34
  coaching staff, know that others believe in them and they're
• 2:10:37
  running for that higher purpose. They're running for the team,
• 2:10:39
  not just their individual accolades.
• 2:10:41
  And I think it showed in the the great team score and then of
• 2:10:45
  course many, many accolades as you know, as we celebrate this
• 2:10:48
  national high school coach of the year as well.
• 2:10:51
  So you'll be joining us in Denver, yes.
• 2:10:54
  Awesome man. That's going to be amazing.
• 2:10:57
  And in podcast world that's actually next week because
• 2:11:00
  you're listening to this December 4th.
• 2:11:02
  I totally forgot to tell you all about this behind the scenes
• 2:11:04
  magic here Justin. It's actually December 4th
• 2:11:06
  today. So next week at the in Denver
• 2:11:10
  will be there. I can't wait to see you and
• 2:11:12
  Ernest, our girls National High School Coach of the Year there
• 2:11:15
  as well. Fun thing we're going to do on
• 2:11:17
  Monday. So December 11th whether you're
• 2:11:18
  in Denver or not, you got to pay attention to this.
• 2:11:20
  It'll be down in the show notes as well, but December 11th.
• 2:11:23
  At 5:30 Denver time, I think that's mountain time that would
• 2:11:27
  make sense, right? If you're there in Denver at
• 2:11:31
  USTF, CCCA, we're going to be doing a live.
• 2:11:34
  Recording for the podcast so you'll be able to come down.
• 2:11:36
  We're going to do just, we do 5 minute chunks at a time.
• 2:11:39
  We just get people in and out and just have a good time
• 2:11:41
  celebrating coaches there at the convention.
• 2:11:43
  And if you're not in Denver, that's Okay.
• 2:11:45
  It's live, it's on YouTube. So you'll be able to watch and
• 2:11:47
  participate over in the comments section.
• 2:11:49
  So check the link down below. Be there at 5:30 Mountain Time
• 2:11:53
  on Monday. And Justin, we'll see you in
• 2:11:55
  Denver as well. Man, you're going to be on the
• 2:11:57
  big stage. Are you going to like take the
• 2:11:59
  award and like make a, you know, a necklace out of it or a big
• 2:12:02
  ring or what? What are you what are you doing
• 2:12:03
  with this? This thing, I guess, First
• 2:12:06
  things first. Awesome.
• 2:12:06
  I hope I don't drop it and I hope I don't break it.
• 2:12:12
  I was told by Christina that she's going to mail it to us so
• 2:12:15
  that we don't have to worry about having something happen to
• 2:12:17
  it and travel back and forth. So I guess maybe she knows me
• 2:12:21
  well to know that something like that could happen.
• 2:12:24
  But yeah, yeah, just huge honor and great and.
• 2:12:28
  So thank you. This will be your first
• 2:12:30
  convention, yes, Yes. You're gonna love it.
• 2:12:34
  I mean, it's literally my favorite time of the entire year
• 2:12:37
  and that includes I get to go to the all the incident, a
• 2:12:39
  championships and a couple months again podcast land.
• 2:12:43
  A couple months ago I was at the Prefontaine Classic, the Diamond
• 2:12:45
  League final and still I will tell you my week in December at
• 2:12:50
  the USTFCA. It is.
• 2:12:51
  It's. Every quotes there, every coach
• 2:12:53
  in the country, their hair down season hasn't really started
• 2:12:57
  yet. Learning, coaching, education,
• 2:13:00
  speaking. It is a phenomenal time.
• 2:13:02
  You're going to absolutely enjoy.
• 2:13:03
  You're going to meet a lot of amazing people that have come
• 2:13:06
  before you and that are continuing to move with you as
• 2:13:09
  well. You're going to expand your
• 2:13:10
  network. You're going to you're going to
• 2:13:11
  love it man. Even though well you're in Utah.
• 2:13:13
  So yeah it's going to be amazing.
• 2:13:16
  It's going to be awesome. I love it.
• 2:13:18
  Well, just a man. Thank you so much.
• 2:13:20
  I'm so. I'm always humbled.
• 2:13:22
  You're you're a busy, busy person being a teacher and a
• 2:13:25
  track coach. 365 it's it's always constant.
• 2:13:28
  So I'm always humbled when someone would sit down with us
• 2:13:31
  here at the Guild Connections podcast and spend hour, we we've
• 2:13:33
  been going at this for two hours, my friend.
• 2:13:36
  I can go two more hours to be real.
• 2:13:37
  Frankly. I want to learn more and more
• 2:13:38
  and more and so I'm just so thankful for your time, your
• 2:13:41
  openness, your authenticity. Man, you absolutely nailed it.
• 2:13:44
  And I'm just so grateful for you and so, so happy for you and the
• 2:13:47
  program for the recognition that you're earning this year.
• 2:13:50
  Mike, thank you so much again for having me.
• 2:13:52
  And I I thank you I we're blessed and thank you for
• 2:13:56
  reaching out and and giving me giving me an opportunity to to
• 2:13:59
  talk about our community and our program and and then great staff
• 2:14:03
  that we have. You deserve it my friend.
• 2:14:05
  Thanks for being here guys. I am so so grateful that you
• 2:14:08
  would join us every week. Like I said, next week check us
• 2:14:11
  out on YouTube live. The link will be down in the
• 2:14:13
  show notes and we're still gonna have an episode too.
• 2:14:15
  So we'll also have another coach right here on the Guild
• 2:14:18
  Connections podcast doing it all over again.
• 2:14:20
  So super excited. So.
• 2:14:22
  Happy and blessed for Ernest Martinez, the girls, USTFCCCA
• 2:14:26
  Coach of the Year and Justin Redfern.
• 2:14:28
  No Fear in Redfern. I was thinking about that as we
• 2:14:30
  were going along. I think it's a great tagline.
• 2:14:32
  Please steal that. But Justin Redfern here is the
• 2:14:34
  boys, a National High School Coach of the Year from the
• 2:14:37
  USTFCCCA presented by the US Marines.
• 2:14:39
  Again, shout out to them for supporting this amazing program.
• 2:14:42
  Come back next week, man. We hope to see you here at the
• 2:14:44
  Gil Connections podcast. Thanks everybody.
• 2:14:46
  Have an awesome day.