Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / BONUS: Greg Schmidt at 2024 USTFCCCA LIVE interview!

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BONUS: Greg Schmidt at 2024 USTFCCCA LIVE interview! · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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  Bonus time every year at the USTFCCCA convention down in
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  December, we do a live podcast event where we sit down with
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  coaches from around the country for 5:00-ish minutes and talk
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  about a certain topic. This year, December of 2024, we
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  sat down with coaches to talk about the NCAA.
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  What's going on with the NIL transfer portal?
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  Roster caps all. Those kind of good things, and
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  there's some interesting feedback and tidbits from
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  everyone who chose to sat down with us.
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  So here we are, the audio version of that.
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  You can catch the video version over on.
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  YouTube. Just search up the GAL Athletics
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  podcast and look for our live events content and you'll find
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  the three that we've done 20/24/2023 2020 2 and we'll do
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  it again in 2025 because. He's going to want to feed me
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  and so and I want to be fed so, so hey, so guys, he'll be the
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  next one and then we're done. OK.
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  All right. Going against a hungry Mike so I
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  I got to make sure I keep this. That sounds like a a YouTube
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  show, the hungry Mike's. I just appreciate him not
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  calling me hungry. Hungry hippo.
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  That's always that's always nice of him not to to call me that.
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  Start out by introducing yourself, Sir, and you know the
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  rules. And you're a little bit more
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  experienced than some of us Mic up to the mouth so everybody
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  can. Oh yeah.
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  You got to eat the mic. If I get sick afterwards, I'll
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  blame you, but. Just ignore those those ones.
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  Greg Schmidt, head, cross country, track and field cause,
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  University of Bridgeport men and women.
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  And a Gill Connections podcast alum do you got to play you're
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  listening to right now? So I don't need to really plug
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  it, but go check out the library amazing coaches that we've had
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  as we're getting closer and closer to 300 man, it really
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  kind of boggles my mind that we're getting near 300.
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  All right, so you know the. Topic.
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  Of the day we are talking about the NCAA and all the changes in
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  IL roster caps. I mean, just there.
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  There's just so there's so many avenues to go down to it.
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  What's your thoughts, feelings, actions on all this change?
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  Well, well, the more that we allow negative things to be
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  allowed through the NCAA, you know, it's kind of started with
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  the NIL. Oh, I'm in the way.
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  You, you bump stuff, that's all. Oh, I did that last time too.
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  I think you did. Don't you need your parents to
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  teach you not to put elbows on the table?
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  Well, I'm, I'm old, I need to rest.
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  But the, the more that negative decisions are made, it's, it's
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  just going to make it easier for things to kind of snowball out
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  of control in my opinion. Now, especially track and field,
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  but pretty much most Olympic sports, we're in a tunnel on the
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  train tracks and we're like, hey, look at that pretty light
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  coming towards us, not really seeing what's happening to us
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  and so. You think we're a little blind
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  to some of this? I think we're blind to some of
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  this and you know, talk with a lot of the coaches, which I've
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  been doing all week long, all week long.
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  It's been 2 days. But when I hear, oh, well, no,
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  this is just going to affect a few programs.
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  This is just going to affect, no, it's going to be, I don't
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  even want to say a trickle down effect.
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  It's it's going to be a direct. Effect.
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  To so many programs you know the the haves are going to get
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  stronger, the have nots are going to get weaker.
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  This started with nil. Someone earlier said Grand
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  Canyon between the haves and have nots.
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  Yes, and you know, being a Division 2 coach, the the D ones
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  that you know, you have to have those roster limits now, first
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  of all, they're going to struggle, but those athletes,
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  they're not going to go to every single D2 and D3.
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  They're going to go to ones that already have the resources.
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  So the the D twos that are just trying to get by, they're not
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  going to get those kids. So the D.
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  Who's that are? Higher are going to get stronger
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  as a result. You're think I'm thinking it's
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  going to, you know, naively thinking it's going to trickle
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  equally amongst D2D3. It's a you're saying that
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  whatever chasm because, you know, in between all divisions
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  there are haves and haves, nots, whether it's budget easy to get
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  in at school versus, you know, harder schools, things like
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  that. You're saying that even amongst
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  those, and you're right. I wish there was a better word
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  for than trickle right trickling are going to help the people
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  that are already good. Oh yeah, has them in that world
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  as well. Well.
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  There's, there's a, there's a naivete that all division twos
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  are equal, that you're allowed to have that amount of
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  scholarships and you have that amount of facilities and
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  funding, right. And a lot of schools don't, you
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  know, they're, they're trying to deal with enrollment.
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  And you know, me, I don't mince words.
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  I mean, I think the worst thing that happened not just to
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  college athletics, but higher education was letting you know,
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  for lack of a better term, nitwit knucklehead businessmen
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  to kind of take over and educators actually stepping out
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  of the role. So when you think about the
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  bottom line, which is what they're doing, they they don't
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  really care about your athletic programs getting.
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  Stronger. Yeah.
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  You take out Little Joey and Little Jane and replace it by
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  dollar signs only. Exactly.
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  And it's and it's more about the bottom line of everything when.
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  Yeah, how many people got into education and coaches for the
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  dollar signs? They got into it for the Jane's
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  and Joeys. Right.
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  And the professors, the professors as well as the
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  coaches, they, they want to be part of education because
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  coaching is a form of education as much people don't really
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  recognize that it really should be.
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  And you know, I, I get frustrated with my fellow
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  coaches, which I love what you do because you highlight the
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  coaches here. But when, you know, I hear
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  things like, well, I don't want anybody on my team that's not
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  faster than 21, seven or whatever the case might be.
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  OK, well, are you coaching at that point or are you just
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  trying to get the best athletes possible in order to do that?
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  There's not a lot of education going on.
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  Yeah, I don't know that you're necessarily going to this Ave.,
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  but it's an Ave. that I always fight back against is that
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  they're not developing just 'cause they get fast kits.
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  Oh no, I don't think I. Don't think you're really I.
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  Don't think that I I I just think at that.
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  Point I see what you're saying about roster management versus,
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  you know, we like to define development as oh, I took a a 10
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  minute 2 Miller high school boy and now they run 8 flat or
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  whatever in the 3K whatever. But you know a kid who runs 8
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  flat in the two mile out of high school.
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  That would never happen, right? Actually, never say never,
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  never. You guys are coaching these
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  days. But taking that kid from I
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  should have stuck. I usually do this analogy with
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  100 meter dash. I should have stuck with air.
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  But you take a kid who's running 8:30 in the two mile out of high
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  school and they and you make them, you need them to run 820.
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  That is still development and still as hard.
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  By the way, I'm not comparing one's harder than the other.
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  That's still hard And and and I say.
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  This all the time. There's a diminishing return as
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  you get better. So if you're a thrower going
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  from a 40 foot high school shot putter to a 45, sometimes it's a
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  little bit, most times it's a little bit easier than taking a
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  guy that's 60 foot turned into a 62.
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  Footer would you want the job Speaking of shot put, of trying
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  to take what what's Ryan Krauser's PR 74 feet something
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  76 yeah yeah would you like to be the one who's responsible for
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  taking him from 76 to 76 foot too?
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  Exactly yeah. Hard every quarter of it's.
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  Developed, yes. Every quarter of an inch is a
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  struggle. At that point.
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  It's just like a sprinter taking a guy who's just developing from
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  24 down to like A229, yeah, a little bit easier task than
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  going from a 20.1. I don't know, easier.
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  I, I, I, I stay away from those words.
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  Well, it's the diminishing. Both is hard.
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  Both are hard. Both are hard.
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  And, and really the truth of it is both are developing and
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  that's the real real. Truth, right?
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  And I, I just think we've, we've gotten away from the coaching
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  being in a form of education. And I agree with that thinking a
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  lot of that. I appreciate you bringing that
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  up because you can easily replace that your coach with
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  teacher. Absolutely.
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  Oh yeah, and by the way, your English teacher is a coach too.
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  Just he or she's teaching, coaching Shakespeare or whatever
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  grammatical. And, and for me, that's, that's
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  what the disappointing thing is, like I said, in higher education
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  as a whole, it's, it's moved away from education and it's
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  more of a business now. And you know, I'm not that old.
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  I've teach. For 20 years, Is it too late to
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  turn back? Because no.
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  I think, I think the fact that there there is such a removal of
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  a lot of universities that universities are going to have
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  to focus more on what is the best thing for us.
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  It's going to be promoting our education and promoting our
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  academic programs. And then the athletes that come
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  in specifically for that is what's going to help it out.
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  Yeah, in my opinion, all. Right, prediction time.
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  So we're going to be able to check this in a year from now.
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  What's a prediction you have? Could be your program, could be
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  elite, could be high school, just something in track and
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  field. What's a a prediction?
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  I I think. That there's going to be a lot
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  of jostling with Grand Prix track and field starting off,
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  Yeah, I think. Grand Slam, negative Grand Slam.
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  Yeah, Grand Grand Prix was he might have a marketing issue
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  because I also called it the Golden Spikes Tour, which, Oh,
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  really? That's like from 1980 I think to
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  be honest. With you, yeah, No, I think, I
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  think that with with that, there's going to be a little bit
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  more competition and our sport as a whole does need to grow and
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  we need to fine tune to figure out better ways to market.
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  Itself, do you have issues that there are no field events?
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  Yes, I do. Yeah.
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  And I, I saw what, you know, they were saying about it of,
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  you know, I could save track but I can't save field.
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  Yeah, yeah. We just need somebody like that
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  to step in for the field side of things.
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  Yeah. And show.
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  Yeah. You know, I think Drake does a
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  great job with a lot of the field events they do with the
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  pole vault in the mall, in the street and things like that.
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  So the more we can do to kind of market our sport a little bit
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  better 'cause it is an exciting sport when it's on property.
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  I'm here with that. I love that.
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  Hey, thank you so much man. I'm extra so grateful for you.
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  Thanks for not going to the comedy club.
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  Instead, you stayed here this time.
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  I appreciate that very. Much I I would have gotten a
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  tepid response anyway, so I'll stay here instead.
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  Thank you, brother. Appreciate you man.
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  Alright. Yeah.
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  Marcus, do you have? I can't see it.