Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / #322: Andre' Kidd – Ferrum College | Finding Purpose Through Track & Field Coaching

Transcript

#322: Andre' Kidd – Ferrum College | Finding Purpose Through Track & Field Coaching · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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  You're listening to the Gil Athletics Connections podcast
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  with host Mike Cunningham. Track and field world UNL tuned
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  in to our humble servant Mike Cunningham for another
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  extraordinary message for Gil Athletics Connections.
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  All right, we're. Back here on the Gil Connections
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  Podcast again, just so humbled that you would press play today
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  right here on this episode. I'm excited.
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  I know, you know, I've done this 300 times and I think in the 1st
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  10 seconds of everyone, I say I'm excited.
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  It's true. It's because I am excited.
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  I love, love, love, love. Have so much curiosity about
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  learning about new people and their journeys and where they
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  got to where they are today. And that's exciting to me.
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  So I am always excited. And today, you know, we've
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  talked about the different types of guests that we'll have on
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  here, right? Some I will know, almost like
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  they're family to me. I've known them forever.
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  Maybe I coached with them, etcetera, etcetera.
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  And then others I've never, I've never met or had a deep
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  conversation with. And that's today.
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  And I love that because I know nothing.
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  I don't read their bio page. I know who he is and where he's
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  at and that's about it. And we get to explore together.
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  So let's hop right into it from Fareham College, the head coach.
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  Help me welcome the wise, the wonderful Mr. Andre Kidd.
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  Andre, how are you, Sir? I'm good.
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  Mike, how are you doing? Dude, first of all, you get a
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  cool name. I mean like I love just like
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  that. And it just flows like Andre
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  Kidd, like you. That's like a, you know, I grew
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  a big rap fan. That's like a cool, like rap
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  name or something. Man, I love that.
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  Yeah. Yeah, it's, it's, it's stuck
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  with me all my years. So a lot of people say the same
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  thing. Yeah, yeah, I love that.
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  It's cool. All right, Andre, we're going to
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  talk about your journey and learn more and more about you
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  here in just one second. But there's a couple things
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  maybe just right off the top or off the RIP that I, I want to
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  figure out and learn some things here.
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  So Fareham College, tell us where Fareham College is, what
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  classification you compete in all that kind of give us kind of
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  a 30,000 foot level at just about Fareham College.
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  OK, So Fareham, Fareham College is kind of nestled just South of
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  Roanoke, VA in near Smith Mountain, Lake Rocky Mountain.
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  And so it's just kind of nestled at the foot of the mountain.
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  We just recently as of this year moved to division Two.
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  We were a Division Three program last year, got the expedited
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  applications and stuff. So we're going to Vision 2 this.
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  Year so. So in 2025 you competed Division
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  Three or Division 2? We competed Division 3.
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  OK. And so 26 will be division two.
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  We'll we'll make sure we talk about that because that's got to
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  be I mean, that's interesting. There's got to be some changes.
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  You got to be preparing for some things here.
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  That's cool. I love that.
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  OK. I should say you have already
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  started preparing because if you're if you're starting now,
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  you you probably a little. Too.
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  Yeah, we're a little late in the game.
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  You're in the middle of the That'll be cool.
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  We'll make sure we talk about that.
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  Love that. I'm a big nerd.
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  I love knowing colleges, mascots and things like that.
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  I'm I assume that's the Ferrum F on your hat.
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  It is. I'm going to go with this is a
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  complete guess. I don't know because of the
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  color reminds me kind of a UCF. I'm going to go with like some
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  kind of golden knight or something like that, The Ferrum
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  Knights. Am I right?
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  Wrong? Completely wrong.
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  The Panthers. Panthers.
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  OK, that's cool too. I like that.
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  Are there Panthers in Virginia? We have mountain lions, that's
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  what they call them. Let me tell you the scariest
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  thing in the world. There's a Mountain Lion, by the
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  way. Yeah.
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  Yeah. You ever seen those videos of
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  where, like, a Mountain Lion is stalking?
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  Oh. Yeah, yeah.
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  You might as well just call me snack or lunch because I'm I'm
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  gone. Yeah, that's not happening.
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  It's not happening. It's not happening.
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  And about how many students there at Fairham?
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  So we average between. You know, this year could be
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  different between 800 and 1000, yeah.
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  Cool. Yeah, we're a little little on
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  small aside, but it it's very homey.
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  Love it. I love that we we need all
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  kinds. There's people who need to be at
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  schools of 500 students for colleges and there's people that
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  need to be at schools with 50,000.
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  So I I love, I love that. That's really cool.
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  All right, man, let's hop back in our way back machine and
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  learn more about you and how you got to the fair and Panthers
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  here. You know, somewhere along the
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  way, assuming you were an athlete.
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  And again, that's not a a great assumption because we've had
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  plenty of coaches that were not athletes and it's definitely not
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  a prereq to become a coach that you are an athlete.
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  But where does track and field start for you?
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  Man, I could go back. Elementary school, you know, I'm
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  not sure how old you are, but you know, growing up in
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  elementary school, we had field day of.
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  Course. You know, 50 yard dash, it's
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  kind of where it started with me.
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  I was luckily, you know, to go to a small elementary school.
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  So, you know, you averaging maybe maybe 15 kids a class or
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  something like that. So you would have the best of
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  the best of 50 yard dash. And then that just kind of, you
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  know, went on until, you know, my dad's side of the family, you
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  know, my grandma had 14 kids. So it's a lot of cousins.
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  So spend a lot of time racing, you know, racing cousins and you
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  know, you stand together 5 or 6, so you racing anything bikes.
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  So just kind of, I guess it's kind of instilled in me.
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  You know, I was a athlete, of course, football, baseball,
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  basketball, and then just kind of moved to middle school.
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  And then when I got to high school, track was kind of my
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  first love. So I played football and I
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  wrestled, started wrestling 7th grade I think it was.
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  And then just when I got to high school, I started running track
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  and just, that was my thing, man.
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  And and so just kind of went on after that.
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  So did you play football and run track all four years in high
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  school? I started football a little
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  late, little late bloomer, 10th grade.
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  But yeah, I did. I did track from 9th grade on
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  the track in wrestling or 9th grade all the way up.
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  And of course in wrestling you're running all the time and
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  couple of coaches say, hey, you should go run track.
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  So yeah. So we went out 9th grade year.
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  It was pretty decent. But you know, the thing for me,
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  man had the mentors along the way who really inspire you, you
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  know, to to kind of love track. Track is track is unique within
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  itself. And so yeah, that was, that was
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  my transition through high school.
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  So I I really kind of missed it after my senior.
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  Year so hang hang tight with me in high school here.
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  So first of all, I relate to that.
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  I didn't start football until 10th grade as well.
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  And I think for me, I didn't know 8th grade like I should be
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  talking to the high school coaches about playing as you
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  know, I didn't even know. I thought you just showed up
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  first day of freshman. It was like, yeah, we're
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  already, we're already set. We've already had a game or
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  whatever, you know, So I didn't start till spring and then
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  played that played football for us the the three years.
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  I guess so. So I get that that made a that
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  made a lot of sense to me. So I like to ask all of our high
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  school athletes that were football players and track, were
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  you a football player who, who did track or were you a track
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  athlete who did football? And I, you know, most people
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  know exactly what I mean when I asked.
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  That Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I was, I was actually, I was
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  more of a wrestler, you know, and, and so, I mean, I was, I
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  was smaller 9th grade. So I, I was a lightweight.
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  And so if it was just one of those things, man, your buddies
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  go out and you're like, hey, I should go, you know, play
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  football, 'cause I, I was really done with football probably, you
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  know, after middle school, you know, 'cause I was, I had
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  started wrestling in 7th grade and we were pretty good.
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  And so wrestling and then, you know, of course you're doing all
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  that running and wrestling. So I just wanted to stay in
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  shape and that kind of led the track and then track led to
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  football. Just talking to you buddies and.
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  Things that makes sense. My wrestling experience is very
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  small. Where I grew up in Alabama, we
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  didn't have wrestling, but then I moved from there to Chicago
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  and wrestling is a big, big deal there.
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  And so that was the first experience when I was coaching
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  high school there of seeing wrestlers and seeing what they
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  did and all that kind of stuff. And wrestling seemed to be, you
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  know, my small recollection of it seems like more of like a
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  distance running type thing. And what I mean by that is
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  they're they're just always running with garbage bags on
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  them. It's got to be the most
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  unhealthiest thing in the world, but I digress.
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  But but it doesn't seem like, oh, you'd pick like a sprinter
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  out of that. What?
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  What did you? Were you a distance kid?
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  A sprinter? What?
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  What did you do in the track? So you kind of, yeah, I kind of
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  did, you know, the 800 did the 400.
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  I ran hurdles, hurdles. So just kind of kind of stuck in
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  that area. So not you full out Sprint guy.
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  And it was because of wrestling, you know, I could turn a pretty
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  good 800 and 300 hurdles and things like that.
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  My only problem is is, you know, back then I was a little on the
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  shorter side. But, you know, it, I, I guess,
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  you know, wrestling kind of is competitive.
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  So it's kind of individual competitiveness.
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  Same thing with track and field, you know, it's, it's the
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  individual effort. And so that just kind of I, I
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  was useful wherever they put me. Yeah.
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  So, yeah, that makes sense. I I just couldn't see like
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  someone watching you slog, you know, miles at the 100° heat to,
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  you know, make weight and go on. Yeah, that guy should Sprint.
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  It's like, how would you assume that at all?
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  They're tough. I actually, you know, when you
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  said 800, I was like, oh, when you start thinking about, you
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  know, the kind of running training, that conditioning that
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  they do in wrestling, it's like, OK, that kind of makes sense.
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  And then you think about just toughness.
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  It's like, well, there's the 800 any event, but, you know, I just
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  think of that 800 specifically. So tell us about your experience
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  in high school running track and field.
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  And most specifically, like the relation.
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  You had a relationship with a lot of coaches because you were
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  doing a lot of sports, but specifically, how was your
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  relationship with your track coaches?
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  Relationship was great, actually.
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  The head coach just kind of took me under his wing and I'll tell
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  you a little bit about that later.
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  But yeah, man, he, he man kind of live.
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  He lived right down the road from me.
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  So he was also, he also coached football, so just a great
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  mentor. He kind of worked in the mentor
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  field and so he was around a lot.
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  I think he right now he's the principal.
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  So like I said, it would still connect to him when you see him
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  and still the same person. But we had a great relationship
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  kind of like that. My dad wasn't really in the
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  sports. He would show up, but you know,
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  as far as having that guy who understood sports, he was kind
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  of that guy just keeping you out of trouble and and making sure
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  you're doing the right things and making sure you got the
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  grades and stuff like that. So yeah.
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  Now I I was 14 to 18 years old at once as well.
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  Were you the kind of kid I I know I certainly was, that
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  needed someone to help me stay out of trouble?
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  Yeah, yeah. You know, elementary school,
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  middle school, man, it was, it was a lot of trouble.
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  But once I got to high school, it was it was kind of coaches
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  that kind of pulled you under the wing is like, hey, you know,
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  settle down and and, you know, get the grades and things like
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  that. So yeah.
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  It's like you, you enjoy playing cool, you better make grades.
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  Yeah, Because it all gets taken away from you if you.
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  Don't do that. Absolutely, Absolutely.
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  And what about like when you think about because you know,
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  spoiler alert, you become a track coach.
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  So you may not at 17 and I assume in high school and maybe
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  again, I shouldn't be assuming you're not thinking of coaching
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  like becoming a coach at all, right?
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  Yeah. You're, you're 16 years old.
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  You're trying to figure out what's lunch and when.
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  When do I get to go to practice right?
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  Absolutely. But sometimes our people who end
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  up becoming coaches, when they look back at, you know, sixteen,
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  1718 years old, they realize like, oh, I was asking coaches
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  different questions than the other kid.
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  The other kids were like asking like what time's practice over?
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  I was asking, well, why do we do that workout?
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  You know, where were you at at this age of like just thinking
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  about work, you know, the coach things that you do today.
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  Where were you in 1617 year olds or were you the type of kid and
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  this is, you know, all you get all grace if this is it because
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  you're 16 years old roughly at this point.
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  Or were you kind of like you remember in football they say C
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  ball hit ball, right? So in track, it's like, you
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  know, the coach tells you to run, you say, OK, I go run.
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  You know, you don't think about what I'm supposed to do.
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  I just go run, right? What kind of athlete were you in
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  regards to that? I think more I have more of the
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  thought process again, you know, it goes back to wrestling, you
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  know, and when you wrestle, you kind of you have to learn, you
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  know, when, when am I going to use this move in this situation
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  or, or you know, what does that look like?
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  And you know, people don't really kind of associate it, but
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  in wrestling, you have to think a couple steps ahead.
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  You know. And so, you know, the same thing
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  with track, like I told you, I ran hurdles.
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  I can gosh, you brought it back in my mind, you know, just
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  spending, you know, 30 minutes after practice, you know, trying
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  to, you know, working on a three-step.
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  You know, you didn't you didn't really see that back in back in
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  my days and I was just running hurdles, you know it, but I
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  would I had an assistant coach who actually coached my brother
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  in high school. So he moved high schools and so
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  he was there, man, I could just you, you brought it back to my
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  mind. And we would spend countless of
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  hours just learning three-step, learning a three-step, learning
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  a three-step, you know, and making sure my count was down
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  and, you know, the 300 hurdles and stuff like that.
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  So, yeah, so I would, I would say that I spent a lot of time
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  just observing, you know, and. What what what year did you
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  graduate high school? 2000?
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  OK, that helps me kind of gauge and age here.
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  So I'm fascinated by that. Let's talk about that.
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  Learning how to three-step in the hurdles and you know, we
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  don't talk exes and no, so we're not going to get into that, but
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  I'm curious because like I, I remember my, we have a lot of
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  similarities. Like when you talk about your
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  stories, I'm like, oh man, that's very similar to how we
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  did it. I, I tried out for the hurdles
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  one year as well. And, and you know, my coach put
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  the hurdles at 39, put them at their spaces and said, all
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  right, go. And, you know, I was five step,
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  You know, I, I think I took 10 steps from crying out loud,
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  right? There was no, like I got done,
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  you know, a couple times and he's like, I, you know, looks
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  good. You'll run this weekend.
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  There was no, like I, I didn't even know you were supposed to
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  three-step. First of all, I don't think he
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  did either, by the way, and I love him.
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  It was Coach Pascal love coach Pascal to death.
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  We just were in an age in a stage where they didn't do
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  coaching education. You know, they threw kids out
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  there and I hope they hope that we didn't get hurt, but they
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  just threw kids out there and said let's go.
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  So I don't even think I not, I think I know I didn't even I
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  didn't even know that there were supposed to be 3 steps.
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  So we didn't work on it all. When when you say you guys
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  would, you know, stay after practice and work on three
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  stepping? Was it like because you know
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  more now today again, how you would do that right?
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  Was it hurdles lower and hurdles in or was it like more, you
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  know, because I could see this as well.
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  Grit like no, Andre, you know, you almost had it there.
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  Try again. But they're all they're at 39.
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  They're at the regular space. And what what was the kind of
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  that coaching education? Yeah.
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  So, so I was, I was the Switzerland, OK.
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  So 4 stepper. 4 stepper and so yeah, we can keep them at
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  regular height. Just again, you know, it's a
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  smaller statue, skinny, skinny and small.
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  So we just you know, looking back on it, I think it was more
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  trying to get me quicker between the hurdles, which I was pretty
• 15:24
  fast with the switch leg, but it was I guess it was more training
• 15:28
  over the hurdle and pull your trailer, you know, X&O stuff.
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  But you know, it was just more, you know, just trying to get
• 15:37
  that three-step, trying to get three-step.
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  But you know, again, I look back on it man, it's just more, you
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  know, fuel for the brain. So, but yeah, I think just
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  pushing it every day, just kind of being that rhythm of trying
• 15:53
  to get a three-step or hitting a couple of hurdles that and I
• 15:56
  think I ended up hitting, you know, first couple of hurdles at
• 15:59
  three steps and then switch leg. You know, it was.
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  But yeah, no, it was. So you guys at least had a plan,
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  you know, so we didn't have a plan.
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  Our plan was like get on the starting line, Mike, and was
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  like, I don't know, five Step 4. So 3.
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  I didn't even think about how many steps are between.
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  I just remember going, you know, taking a million each between
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  each one, you know, so you guys at least had a plan.
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  It's like, OK, we're going at the four step, but let's try to
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  get as many three steps in as possible.
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  And you know, maybe today it's two hurdles, maybe tomorrow it's
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  three and but yet a plan. OK, that that's where I was kind
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  of wondering just where the level of of coaching education
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  was there. OK, so senior year you've
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  alluded to a few things. So you tell me where they fit in
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  because my next question is, OK, So what are we thinking about
• 16:40
  the next level of college? Talk to us about that.
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  But you alluded to some like I missed track and field and you
• 16:46
  know there's maybe a little bit bigger role that coach played in
• 16:49
  your life as well. Talk to us about that.
• 16:52
  Yeah, so, so after high school, you know, we graduate and things
• 16:56
  like that. I did have a couple of looks to
• 16:58
  go to college, but there was a my dad drove trucks, Mom worked
• 17:05
  in the factory. That factory ended up closing.
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  So, you know, I just kind of took the choice upon myself.
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  I went into the military. Hell yeah.
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  So I did. I did 4 years of active and then
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  four years of kind of like an active reserve.
• 17:22
  Dude, yeah. So what branch?
• 17:25
  So I was in the army, Yeah. So I went in the army, you know,
• 17:29
  18 year old kid man. Again, back to that running
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  phase. So I I came in and shake.
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  Yeah, right. Yeah, Good point.
• 17:36
  Yeah. Yeah, doing a lot of running and
• 17:38
  things like that, man. And it, it was probably some of
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  the best years of my life, just just growing up as a man and,
• 17:45
  and again, learning the tactical stuff, learning the brotherhood,
• 17:50
  learning the family, that the family stuff.
• 17:52
  It just, you know, you know, spend some time overseas
• 17:56
  actually in 2003. Yeah.
• 17:59
  Where where are you stationed? If, if I may?
• 18:01
  So just stationed in Fort Bragg, NC 82nd Airborne.
• 18:06
  So I jumped out of plane. Dude, I thought you were smart.
• 18:08
  Holy cow, you jumped out of plane.
• 18:10
  No one, no one smart jumps out of plane.
• 18:12
  That's just crazy. That's just crazy.
• 18:15
  So, So if you were Army and jumping out of planes, did you
• 18:18
  go to oh, gosh, that's about Fort Benning?
• 18:24
  I did, yeah. Yeah, I saw, I grew up across
• 18:26
  the border in Alabama. OK, we were maybe, I don't know,
• 18:29
  maybe an hour, but it's 45 minutes, Thirty minutes.
• 18:31
  We my family was there for. So we used to go to Fort Benning
• 18:34
  for commissary, you know, grocery shopping once a month or
• 18:36
  something like that. And I just remember that was a
• 18:38
  big like all airborne. That's where you.
• 18:40
  So you did some training down there?
• 18:42
  Yeah. Did some training in Fort
• 18:43
  Benning, GA Yep. Absolutely.
• 18:45
  Yeah. Then after all the training, I
• 18:48
  ended up in Fort Bragg, which was, you know, 2 and 2 1/2 hours
• 18:52
  away from home. But yeah, like I said, great
• 18:55
  experience and things like that. And, you know, again, you're
• 19:00
  running, you're doing it. And I think that's really where
• 19:02
  I kind of kind of thrived on it, man.
• 19:05
  We had, you know, the PT test and again the competitiveness
• 19:09
  comes out and you got the two mile run and I think I got that
• 19:14
  down to about 11 something like. That, yeah.
• 19:19
  Of course in the military, man, you have flag football, you can
• 19:23
  play flag football every evening out of their own league.
• 19:26
  And they also had some track, you know, you base had a lot of
• 19:30
  competition and track. So I could just I ran track.
• 19:33
  So yeah, those were those are the things that kept me busy.
• 19:37
  So you did four? Yeah, you were busy.
• 19:39
  So you did four years of active. You said you went overseas.
• 19:41
  Where? Where were you stationed
• 19:42
  overseas? Germany.
• 19:43
  Well, I went to to the Iraqi Freedom War.
• 19:47
  I was there. Were you?
• 19:48
  Really, bro? Man.
• 19:51
  All right. Well, you know, it sounds trite
• 19:53
  sometimes to say this, but thank you.
• 19:55
  Holy cow. That's amazing.
• 19:58
  That's, that's amazing. There's not not much for you to
• 20:00
  add because I just, you know, guys like you, I just look at
• 20:02
  them like, well, I can't do that like that.
• 20:04
  Like thank God for for you because I, I can't do it if you,
• 20:07
  if you're relying on me to do it, we are screwed.
• 20:09
  So, so, so thank you for that. So you did four years of active
• 20:14
  and then you did four years of reserve.
• 20:16
  Yeah. But why didn't you stay active?
• 20:18
  I'm just curious. Just knee injuries and out of
• 20:21
  planes. That'll do it.
• 20:23
  Yeah, Yeah. And that's, you know, that's
• 20:26
  kind of the downside of, I mean. I don't mean to laugh because
• 20:31
  you know you're in pain with that, but that's just funny.
• 20:32
  It's like, wow, I was jumping out of planes, my knees hurt.
• 20:34
  Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
• 20:36
  So I end up, you know, just going in kind of your, I was
• 20:41
  going to move stations. So kind of your last physical
• 20:44
  and doctor look, judging is like, you know, this is it.
• 20:47
  You know, either, you know, you go and live your life, but if
• 20:52
  you stay in the military, you're going to stay, you're going to
• 20:54
  be crippled. So we just kind of made your
• 20:56
  decision then and just kind of did like an, an, A reservist
• 21:01
  type thing. Yeah, yeah, we have one of my
• 21:04
  team mates here on our basketball side, Nick.
• 21:07
  He is in the Army, yes, Army Reserves went through college,
• 21:12
  ROTC and does that. And so in fact, literally right
• 21:15
  now, I think it was last week and this week or this week, the
• 21:18
  next week, he's on his two weeks full train.
• 21:21
  You know, I don't mean where he's at.
• 21:23
  He's he's in Indiana, but he's somewhere.
• 21:26
  So a lot, a lot of respect for for our servicemen, our reserve
• 21:29
  servicemen and women that, you know, it's a it's a calling man.
• 21:33
  That's really amazing. He did not jump out of plane.
• 21:35
  So his knees are are OK. So that's good.
• 21:39
  That's good. That's just so funny as I got my
• 21:40
  knees hurt because I jumped out of plane.
• 21:41
  Oh, that's, that's crazy. OK, So you get out of active
• 21:44
  duty, maybe this is where you're like, you know, I kind of miss
• 21:49
  track and stuff. Maybe I don't know where where
• 21:51
  do we go? I know you go reserve, but you
• 21:53
  know, you have to have a full time job as well.
• 21:55
  You don't have to. You should have a full time job.
• 21:57
  What? What do we do?
• 21:58
  Yeah, so we, so we get out now, you know, start at the local
• 22:02
  Community College. Actually, my sister was in a
• 22:06
  high school. When you say local, where?
• 22:08
  Where's that at? Where we at?
• 22:09
  So we're in Mortinsville. We're back in Mortinsville,
• 22:12
  Yeah. Started the local Community
• 22:14
  College, my sister's at high school and and kind of go by one
• 22:20
  day and and I knew some of the kids just by growing up, you
• 22:25
  know, growing up around her age and things like that.
• 22:27
  And one of them I knew I had knew I had ran hurdles in high
• 22:31
  school. Very close family friend.
• 22:33
  And he asked me to come out and help him one day.
• 22:36
  And so we went out and we helped and talked to the coach and he
• 22:40
  was like, yeah, you know, become a volunteer.
• 22:43
  So we've all, we started volunteering.
• 22:45
  And man, that year they had of course, in our state and their
• 22:50
  division, they had the, you know, the number 11 hundred 200
• 22:54
  runner. I mean, 5 or 6 guys, you know,
• 22:58
  scoring points for them end up placing second in the state.
• 23:02
  I mean, this is this is they had a consolidated high schools that
• 23:06
  year, a couple of years before that.
• 23:09
  So these guys were, you know, they they were legit, but you
• 23:13
  know, that was kind of my start getting into back in the
• 23:16
  coaching was starting there. And then, you know, I mentioned
• 23:21
  that Mentor ran into him and he said.
• 23:25
  This is the track, coach. Yeah, yeah, got it.
• 23:28
  OK, track. Coach yeah, from, from my, from
• 23:30
  my high school ran into him and he says, you know, I'm, I'm
• 23:34
  probably going to hang it up this year and, and I think I can
• 23:38
  get you in the head coaching. And I was like, OK, just tell me
• 23:41
  what to do. And so we ended up coaching at
• 23:44
  my high school for a couple of years.
• 23:47
  Wait a minute. So you go from four years of
• 23:51
  active military. So no.
• 23:52
  And I know you're doing track with no coaching.
• 23:53
  There's no coaching there. You can get out.
• 23:57
  You move back home, you start taking some Community College
• 23:59
  classes. You got, you know, you know,
• 24:01
  the, I shouldn't say they're friends because they're younger
• 24:03
  than you, but you know, you know, some kids and someone's
• 24:04
  like, oh, you hurdled right. Hey, man, you know, you want to
• 24:07
  help out, so you help out. They do really well.
• 24:10
  And then and then after that season, you take over as the
• 24:13
  head coach of of your alma mater, dude.
• 24:17
  And I'll say, you know, that time volunteering that that the
• 24:21
  head coach, then Ron, he and he kind of showed me the ropes.
• 24:28
  He showed me everything. Very grateful to him, very nice
• 24:33
  guys. Show me the ropes like this is
• 24:35
  this and this is that. And so I kind of went into that
• 24:38
  head coach, coach position just kind of knowing a lot.
• 24:43
  Kind of double click into that when you say Ron showed you the
• 24:47
  ropes and this and that, but give me some specifics.
• 24:50
  So like, because one of the things I don't think we do very
• 24:52
  well in our profession, the profession of coaching track and
• 24:56
  field and, and typically I'm talking about college here, but
• 24:58
  Heist, this is a great example of high school is I don't know
• 25:02
  that we educate our assistant coaches that we give them the,
• 25:07
  the responsibilities and mentorship for them to become
• 25:10
  head coaches. I think you just end up becoming
• 25:12
  a head coach a lot of times and then you have to figure a lot of
• 25:14
  things on the fly. And if our head coaches would
• 25:17
  invest some time and energy into our assistant coaches, when they
• 25:21
  become head coaches, they're they're starting off at a much
• 25:24
  higher level, you know what I'm saying?
• 25:26
  So it sounds like Ron was doing this a little bit here with you.
• 25:28
  What? What Like, So what are the
• 25:29
  things? Because again, you know, you've
• 25:31
  got hindsight, right? You you've coached now for a few
• 25:33
  years. So you kind of know like, Oh
• 25:34
  yeah, that's not normal. But Ron would let me do this or
• 25:37
  he would talk to me about X&Y&Z. What were some of the things
• 25:39
  that he did that were, you know, taking you under his wing?
• 25:42
  Yeah, I think Ron, you know #1 Ron kind of, you know, talked to
• 25:47
  me about the ends of outs of doing certain workouts with a
• 25:51
  certain group. You know, as we progressed, he
• 25:54
  kind of took and said, hey, you're going to take the Sprint
• 25:57
  group and, and, you know, just kind of walk me through it of
• 26:01
  workouts. And you know, again, I think
• 26:04
  assistance then, especially when you're a young assistant, you
• 26:09
  know, there's a, there's a different level of not being
• 26:13
  their friend, if that makes sense.
• 26:15
  You know, you can be a likable guy, but at the end of the day,
• 26:18
  you got authority. And so you know, for them to
• 26:22
  listen to you and them to respect you, I guess that's what
• 26:24
  I'm looking for. And so he just kind of took me
• 26:27
  on his wing with that. You know, this is the way they
• 26:30
  should respect you. This is the way you know, you
• 26:33
  have authority. This is the way that you carry
• 26:36
  yourself and things like that. So I wasn't anything that I did
• 26:39
  wrong, but it was just leading by example.
• 26:42
  And then also, you know, one-on-one talks about this is
• 26:45
  the way you do it. I love that, especially for your
• 26:49
  point about our younger coaches. There's lots of times, several
• 26:52
  times examples out there where you're only a year or two or
• 26:56
  three and you're a few years removed here, but you know,
• 26:58
  within a few years you're kind of the same Like it, it was not
• 27:02
  hard for you to look at that senior on that team and go, man,
• 27:05
  I was just there yesterday basically, you know, so, so I
• 27:08
  love that, you know, Ron saw that and and understood like,
• 27:11
  Hey, I, I got to nip this in the bud and I say nip in the bud as
• 27:15
  if you were doing something, but I need to get ahead of this and
• 27:17
  let him know, Hey, you're a leader here.
• 27:20
  You're not, they're they're not, they're not their teammate.
• 27:23
  You're not, you know, hanging out.
• 27:26
  You're not, it's hard to say you're not friends, right,
• 27:28
  because it's like, OK, you're not friends, but you are
• 27:30
  friendly. You know, we're not talking
• 27:31
  about, you know, you know, the stereotypical hard ass out
• 27:35
  there. That's not that's not what we're
• 27:36
  going after, but you're not hanging out.
• 27:40
  That's why I've said many times, I don't think it should be
• 27:43
  allowed that in college that a kid, you know, graduates a
• 27:47
  senior year on the college tech team in the very next year
• 27:50
  starts Aga position. And I'm like, I always use the
• 27:52
  example. I'm like, so on Friday you're
• 27:54
  hanging out with the boys playing Xbox and then on Monday
• 27:56
  your coach like, how did I don't, I don't know that that
• 27:59
  ever could work out properly, if you get my drift there.
• 28:03
  OK, so one year's assistant coach, Ron, I mean, kudos to
• 28:07
  Ron, obviously had a big impact on you.
• 28:10
  And then your your mentor from high school comes and says, hey,
• 28:12
  so I've been doing this for a while.
• 28:15
  He must have. I mean, So what did he he saw
• 28:17
  something in you because he didn't.
• 28:18
  There's lots of track alumni from your high school, but he
• 28:21
  came to you. Yeah, and again, it it goes back
• 28:25
  to, you know, I'll go back to him.
• 28:27
  Coach Bobby. That's what I what I called him.
• 28:30
  He kind of instill those characteristics in me, right?
• 28:33
  You know, just being a man, that's, you know, that's, you
• 28:37
  know, being taking responsibility and things like
• 28:39
  that. But he, he kind of, I think he
• 28:41
  kind of watched from afar at some of the things that I was
• 28:45
  doing. And then just like I said, man,
• 28:47
  he came and when we talked, he said, I think it'd be a great
• 28:51
  opportunity for you. I think it'll be, you know, the
• 28:56
  AD loves you and, you know, things like that.
• 28:59
  And, and I think you should just come.
• 29:01
  I've got a great group of young men that needs some guidance.
• 29:03
  And and so, you know, we went and and he kind of just he
• 29:08
  stayed there kind of like a volunteer the first year just to
• 29:12
  kind of watch over things. And I think after that he kind
• 29:15
  of knew, hey, you know, this is it.
• 29:18
  And, you know, we had another coach, Coach Jackson, who was on
• 29:23
  the girls team. So he was an older coach, very
• 29:26
  good buddy of mine. And so we just kind of worked
• 29:29
  together again, just kind of showing me the ropes, kind of
• 29:32
  telling me things that, you know, needed to be done and
• 29:35
  stuff like that. So yeah, so I mean, it was, it
• 29:38
  was. I loved it, you know?
• 29:40
  What was that like? You know, it's interesting to me
• 29:43
  when a coach of an athlete and then that athlete comes on staff
• 29:50
  because you know, when you're coach athlete, that's a
• 29:51
  different, you know, in fact, I, I just naturally like, if you're
• 29:54
  watching on YouTube, put my hands up, you know, coach is
• 29:57
  here and coach and athlete is here.
• 29:58
  There. There is a power dynamic, right?
• 30:01
  You know, kind of, you know, coach says run, you run, coach
• 30:03
  says jump, you jump, you know, and now you're on staff
• 30:06
  together. That's a different that, you
• 30:08
  know, I'm doing, you know, on YouTube, if you see I'm doing
• 30:11
  both hands together, like you're, you're more closer and
• 30:14
  maybe and you know, maybe there's a head coach, assistant
• 30:17
  coach, but there's also like mentor mentee.
• 30:18
  You know, there, there's some different dynamics going on
• 30:21
  here. How was that?
• 30:24
  Like, you know, my internal dialogue tells me like, oh, I
• 30:28
  would have a lot of deference to my head coach.
• 30:29
  Like that used to be my that used to be my coach.
• 30:32
  So I have a lot of deference to this, this guy.
• 30:33
  And you're supposed to be the head coach and he's still
• 30:35
  helping. It's like, oh gosh, he was just
• 30:37
  a head coach for, you know, many, many years.
• 30:39
  How did you handle being closer? You know, again, there's a
• 30:42
  mentor mentee, right? And there's respect for our
• 30:45
  elders. And I'm from the South too.
• 30:46
  So I kind of know how we were raised here a little bit, right?
• 30:50
  How was that dynamic of like, OK, it's my program, maybe
• 30:53
  there's some things I want to do.
• 30:55
  But the man, the guy who taught me, helped me get this job, has
• 30:59
  had success here. He's right there, too.
• 31:02
  How did you handle that? Were there ever any, I don't
• 31:06
  want to say nerves, but any kind of, you know, deference of like,
• 31:08
  oh, coach, you good with that? You good with my decision there?
• 31:12
  How did that all happen? You know, I think there was I
• 31:15
  think there was a little bit there, but he he was able to
• 31:20
  kind of step back and just kind of just, you know, watch things.
• 31:24
  If I had questions, you know, he would answer.
• 31:27
  But the thing about it is I think he was trying to
• 31:29
  transition more to that principal aides.
• 31:32
  So he was kind of in and out. You know, he would travel with
• 31:35
  us when we're going to meets and things like that.
• 31:37
  I guess just doing more this super supervision of the kids
• 31:42
  and things like that. But again, it was a great
• 31:45
  opportunity to have a mentor that I could bounce questions
• 31:49
  off, bounce ideas off of, make sure, you know, you were in line
• 31:54
  when it comes to your methods of training and things like that.
• 31:57
  And so that really kind of helped me out because Jackson
• 32:01
  was the same way, you know, because Jackson would throw
• 32:04
  little T bits and make sure you're doing this and make sure
• 32:07
  you're doing that. And, you know, you don't want to
• 32:09
  do this. You don't want to do that.
• 32:11
  You know, kind of just, I'm not going to say it was rough, but
• 32:14
  it was a very, very, very good learning experience that first
• 32:18
  year. Yeah.
• 32:20
  You know, that says a lot about him as well, because the same,
• 32:23
  yeah, I'm, I'm coming from the angle of the former athlete.
• 32:26
  The same can be said from the, you know, former head coach of
• 32:29
  athlete of like, hey, Andre, you are a kid.
• 32:32
  I know your last name's a kid, but you're, you're still a kid
• 32:34
  to me. You're still that 17 year old
• 32:35
  kid that showed up and, you know, whatever, blah, blah,
• 32:38
  blah. So for him to be able to also,
• 32:40
  OK, I need to take a stop. I, I, you know, I, I, I
• 32:45
  knighthooded Andre as the head coach, so I've got to.
• 32:47
  So if I made that decision, well, then I've got to, I've got
• 32:49
  to help him out, not overlord over him.
• 32:52
  You know, that's just a lot about him, too.
• 32:53
  Oh yeah. Absolutely.
• 32:56
  So how many years did you stay there?
• 32:57
  Is that coach of your alma? Mater So we were there two years
• 33:02
  and and, you know, in that meantime, I, you know, had got
• 33:05
  married and things like that. So we kind of moved, we moved to
• 33:10
  where she was from. And so we, we spent two years at
• 33:13
  my alma mater and then we ended up coaching our local high
• 33:17
  school where we live. And so again, they had an open
• 33:24
  head coach position. We applied for it and we, we got
• 33:27
  it. And so again, you know, it's
• 33:30
  just starting fresh. So this, this program wasn't on
• 33:36
  par with my alma mater, but you know, we worked in, you know,
• 33:40
  the thing about it is, is that year they got husband and wife
• 33:45
  combo from High Point University.
• 33:49
  And so they came in and so we just kind of worked together.
• 33:53
  They took over the distance program and and so we we were
• 33:58
  thriving. When you say married couple from
• 34:01
  High Point, that's you. No, no.
• 34:04
  So, so you know, my wife is from the town West of Martinsville
• 34:13
  that we ended up moving to where she's from, right?
• 34:18
  The high school that we're coaching at now, they hired a
• 34:22
  husband and wife, couple OK, graduated High Point, OK to run
• 34:27
  the cross country program. The cross country program?
• 34:29
  Yeah. You're doing the track program?
• 34:30
  Yes, Sir. OK, got it.
• 34:32
  Is your wife a coach too? No, no, she's a teacher, but not
• 34:37
  a coach. OK, I'm glad you said that
• 34:39
  because that's my next question. I haven't heard yet that you
• 34:42
  have gotten any kind of teaching degree, teaching certificates.
• 34:44
  Are you, are you working a full time job in coaching on the
• 34:47
  afternoons? What are you doing?
• 34:49
  You know, I assume they're not paying that well for a coach
• 34:53
  only stipend that you're like, yeah, this is all I do.
• 34:56
  You got to be making some money somewhere.
• 34:57
  Well, at that time I was working as a teacher assistant and going
• 35:04
  to school online. So because by then, you know,
• 35:09
  we're married, got a daughter, and then #2 comes in the boy.
• 35:16
  Changes everything. Yeah.
• 35:17
  And so, so yeah, we're, you know, working as a teacher
• 35:21
  assistant and and she's she was working actually get her
• 35:26
  teaching degree. So we were just kind of kind of
• 35:29
  rolling with that and coaching and, you know, track turned to
• 35:34
  football and football turned to basketball.
• 35:36
  So we're coaching 3 sports. Oh wow, yeah.
• 35:40
  So it was, it was a journey again, just for me, it was more
• 35:46
  head coach experience because I took over what did I have?
• 35:51
  JVJV football and then I think it was middle school basketball.
• 35:58
  Wow. But all head coaches.
• 35:59
  So again, different levels, just learning, you know, learning the
• 36:03
  athletes, I call them kids, learning the kids.
• 36:07
  And so after that, yeah, we just kind of we stayed there for we
• 36:14
  think for about 10 years. Oh wow, no.
• 36:17
  Less than 10 years, you know, we were doing that and, and by the
• 36:22
  end, you know, our son was getting a little older.
• 36:25
  And so I took a couple of years off, OK.
• 36:29
  And just trying to concentrate on, you know, you know, the kids
• 36:34
  were in school, son just started playing sports and like that
• 36:38
  kind of took a couple of years off.
• 36:40
  And and then I got a call man one day said that the local
• 36:45
  Community College that I was at cross country because the
• 36:50
  program hasn't been doing anything.
• 36:52
  And so asked me if I would be interested.
• 36:56
  I said, well, I'll go talk to the AD and kind of see where
• 36:59
  we're at. And so I started talking to him
• 37:03
  and, and we kind of made it happen.
• 37:05
  And so stepping into the cross countryside was a little
• 37:09
  different. But again, coach Laden, the
• 37:14
  distance coach who coaches cross country at the local high
• 37:16
  school, we just kind of sit down man, and, and he's a genius at
• 37:20
  that sport cross country. And so just kind of laid some
• 37:23
  things out for me. You know, this is what this
• 37:26
  looks like and that looks like it.
• 37:28
  And so we, we went with it and we started that program at the
• 37:34
  Community College and and they, you know, so I had to
• 37:38
  immediately come in and recruit and, you know, which is a
• 37:41
  different step, the whole process.
• 37:44
  So thankfully, with the help of the community, a lot of the kids
• 37:50
  were going for free. My first step was to start
• 37:55
  contacting those high school coaches that I knew.
• 37:57
  And so we just, we were able to build the team.
• 38:00
  And and so they were successful, you know, took them to
• 38:03
  nationals. They're fresh.
• 38:05
  So yeah, so it was, it was a journey.
• 38:09
  What were you, what were you doing during this 10 years of
• 38:11
  high school and this transition to Community College for
• 38:15
  coaching education? And when I say that, like I, I
• 38:17
  think of coaching education in two ways.
• 38:19
  There's formal and informal. Both of them are very important.
• 38:21
  I don't, I'm not sure actually. One's more important than the
• 38:23
  other, but formal is more of like the USETF level ones and
• 38:27
  twos, UFTFCCCA academies, Altis, etcetera.
• 38:31
  Informal is exactly what you just described there.
• 38:34
  Like, hey, I called up the local coach because he does a great
• 38:37
  job and we sat down to talk shop like that.
• 38:39
  That's that's a valuable coaching education as well.
• 38:42
  Any formal coaching education during this time?
• 38:45
  Yeah, I, I did some USA track and field stuff.
• 38:48
  I didn't do my certification, but just kind of going on the
• 38:51
  site and, you know, watching these videos and their videos
• 38:54
  and, and again, just just having, having I call him a
• 38:59
  pocket full of mentors. And just.
• 39:01
  Kind of talking with him and, and you know, what do I do about
• 39:06
  this situation if it comes up and how do you handle this?
• 39:09
  But I think once I moved to that Community College level, it was
• 39:15
  it was a lot of hit and miss, you know, just learning.
• 39:20
  I think that's where I really learned the recruiting process
• 39:23
  because at this Community College, they didn't have dorms.
• 39:28
  So you had to rely on a lot of local kids who were eager to to
• 39:35
  get their career started. Just kind of pitch it to them
• 39:38
  that, hey, look, you know, you're going to come here for
• 39:41
  two years and I'm going to try to get you somewhere else.
• 39:44
  And so we just kind of relied on that and just kind of really got
• 39:49
  into emailing coaches and that's another form of communication,
• 39:54
  just reaching out. I think that just kind of helped
• 39:57
  me just and then you go to, you know, cross country meets and
• 40:01
  you're learning, you know, you're watching, you know, some
• 40:04
  of these greats. You know, I would try to put
• 40:06
  myself, you know, near high point coaches and, you know,
• 40:10
  some of these this is programs that were, you know, what are
• 40:12
  they doing different than? I'm not, you know, and you ask
• 40:15
  questions. And so I think I really kind of
• 40:17
  learned on the fly, hey, what you need to be doing.
• 40:21
  That's kind of what's going through my mind.
• 40:22
  You know, one of the I like to do myth busting and one of the
• 40:25
  myths out there is that high school coaches can't coach
• 40:28
  college. And typically the excuse given
• 40:32
  is, you know, they don't, you know, they don't know how to
• 40:34
  recruit and things like that. And first of all, every high
• 40:37
  school coach I've ever had on the show, like if there any
• 40:40
  successful at all, they recruit their hallways unbelievably like
• 40:44
  you. You've got to, you know, so, so
• 40:47
  first of all, and that's not much different than recruiting.
• 40:50
  But here you're, you're giving a great example because I was
• 40:53
  going to ask him like, you know, so how did you learn recruiting?
• 40:55
  And I know that sounds dumb sometimes because it's like, you
• 40:58
  know, you just dial phone numbers and talk to kids and
• 41:00
  it's like, no, there's more to it.
• 41:01
  There's especially with junior college.
• 41:03
  I have a big heart for junior college athletes because you're
• 41:07
  always recruiting athletes into your program and you're always
• 41:09
  trying to get your athletes. It's, it's like both worlds,
• 41:11
  high school and college for your college, right?
• 41:13
  So so you said a lot of trial errors, up and downs, hit and
• 41:18
  misses, I think is exactly what you said.
• 41:20
  What Like how did you like? OK, so I love how you called the
• 41:24
  local high school coach to talk about cross country like
• 41:27
  training. You have a lot.
• 41:29
  You said what you say a pocketful of mentors.
• 41:31
  I love that imagery. That's really cool.
• 41:33
  What what or who or how did you call someone to be like, all
• 41:37
  right, look, so I'm calling kids, but I'm not getting here.
• 41:40
  You know, how did you, did you ask anybody for help on like the
• 41:42
  recruiting side? I didn't, but I, but I'll tell
• 41:46
  you this, you know, having a conversation wasn't anything new
• 41:52
  because I work in mental health case management.
• 41:54
  So I was talking every day. And so I, I think once you learn
• 42:01
  that communication form and with the high school coaches, it was
• 42:04
  like, you know, I see such and such is, is graduating this
• 42:09
  year. You know, we're trying to build
• 42:12
  something. So I was trying to build little
• 42:14
  roadways into the Community College.
• 42:17
  They're going to go for free, you know, so with the help of
• 42:20
  the local community and grants, they're going to go for free
• 42:23
  anyway. Why don't we get these two years
• 42:26
  out of the way and then we can get them on to a four year
• 42:29
  school. And that's kind of what we where
• 42:31
  we took the ropes. And, and so I started going to,
• 42:35
  I was at these, started going to these high school meets, you
• 42:38
  know, because then, you know, my son's running.
• 42:43
  So, you know, we're, we're Fast forward now.
• 42:46
  So, you know, he's running. And, and so, you know, I'm at
• 42:50
  meats and I started talking to kids and trying to just really
• 42:53
  trying to get local kids because there were three, there were
• 42:57
  about 4-4 or five high schools locally.
• 43:00
  And so just trying to get these local kids in for Community
• 43:04
  College. We had good numbers, but yeah, I
• 43:09
  mean just the recruiting process is basically starting with a
• 43:12
  conversation, you know, and, and kind of reach out and especially
• 43:16
  at track needs and things like that.
• 43:17
  So. You said hitting hits and
• 43:20
  misses. Tell me some a miss.
• 43:23
  And and unless you're talking about like, oh, you know, there
• 43:25
  are some kids I didn't get because, you know, we don't need
• 43:27
  to be talking about kids that didn't whether like mistakes
• 43:31
  that you made that you're like, all right, well, I made it once.
• 43:33
  I'll never make that again. Yeah, yeah.
• 43:35
  Now, I mean, for me it was, it was more, you know, kind of
• 43:41
  realizing what the Division 1-2 and three levels are when it
• 43:49
  comes to putting kids in their school.
• 43:52
  So I kind of learned a lot about, hey, if they're not at
• 43:56
  this a certain level. So what I'm hearing you say is
• 44:02
  maybe you had like a kid who was your number one kid and you're
• 44:04
  like, yeah, man, let me you want to go to the University of
• 44:06
  Florida, Let me call University of Florida.
• 44:07
  And you're like, oh, wait a minute, Joey, Just because
• 44:10
  you're our number one doesn't mean you're let's find a level
• 44:13
  where you can be successful. Yeah.
• 44:14
  OK. Yeah, That makes a lot of sense.
• 44:16
  And I tell you what, that's probably a lesson.
• 44:19
  Both sides, college coaches and high school coaches could
• 44:21
  continue to learn. Right.
• 44:23
  Like where there's a bunch of discussions today with high
• 44:27
  school athletes and high school coaches saying like, oh, because
• 44:29
  of these roster caps and such, like there's no more development
• 44:33
  on the Division One level. And it's like, well, OK, I'm
• 44:36
  sorry, there's no more development in college track and
• 44:38
  field. And it's like, oh, you're,
• 44:40
  you're only thinking of the power for the, the names that we
• 44:43
  see, you know, in your area, Virginia and no University of
• 44:48
  North Carolina and those kind of, you know, high points and
• 44:50
  stuff like that. And it's like, you know, there
• 44:52
  are amazing coaches on D2 level, D3 level and AI level.
• 44:55
  Like there's a lot of development absolutely is still
• 44:58
  going to occur. I just like, sorry that you're
• 45:01
  sorry that your kid might not be able to go to, you know, they
• 45:03
  grew up a big NC State fan. Sorry, they may not be able to
• 45:05
  go there right off the bat. Sorry, you know, we don't all
• 45:09
  get to go to the place we grew up being a fan of.
• 45:11
  Sorry, you know, So, yeah, I love that lesson learned.
• 45:15
  And I think that's, you know, sometimes that we all, we all
• 45:19
  still have that lesson to learn. And a lot of times, you know,
• 45:23
  not everybody should coach college.
• 45:27
  And by the way, not everybody should coach high school.
• 45:29
  But both levels, even though it's the same sport of track and
• 45:32
  field, both come with a lot of not issues.
• 45:39
  What would I think challenges every job does right and not
• 45:43
  everybody is made out to be the timber meant to be a high school
• 45:46
  coach and not everybody's made out to be Timber's college.
• 45:48
  Now the college scene is a little bit air quotes here sexy
• 45:51
  right, because we see the football team play on Saturday
• 45:53
  and things like that. So a lot of people think that
• 45:56
  they want to coach in the college level that you know,
• 45:58
  it's going to be so much easier and so much better and all these
• 46:00
  kind of things. And a lot of times that's that's
• 46:02
  not the case. Depending on the situation of
• 46:05
  the of the college. You get into the Community
• 46:07
  College coaching. Are you?
• 46:10
  How many years at the Community College?
• 46:12
  So we were there for, I mean, 6-6 or seven years.
• 46:18
  Let's. Just cost it and you keep saying
• 46:20
  we. Who do you refer to when you?
• 46:22
  Say, oh, just just me and my wife.
• 46:23
  Sorry. No, no, no.
• 46:25
  I love that because I like when people talk about my team, my
• 46:31
  athlete, my, and it's like, I mean, it's we, it's ours.
• 46:34
  It's first of all, they're not yours.
• 46:35
  It's not possession. These kids aren't possessions,
• 46:37
  you know? So when you kept saying we, I
• 46:39
  kept, I think that's who I thought I assumed, but I didn't.
• 46:41
  Yeah, that's your right. I love that.
• 46:43
  Like you, you seem to tackle things as a like, hey, it's
• 46:46
  whatever decision I make, it has to be with her.
• 46:48
  Like when we're together, this ain't this ain't me leading.
• 46:51
  She's following. We're we're we're leading
• 46:52
  together. Yeah, OK.
• 46:53
  I, I love it. That's a that's a cool
• 46:54
  distinction. That's why I just wanted to call
• 46:56
  that out. That's that's cool.
• 46:57
  I love that. I love that.
• 46:59
  So you're at the Community College for six years.
• 47:00
  Any point at this time, are you thinking like, oh man, you know,
• 47:04
  this is fun and all, but well, I'd rather get back to the 1418
• 47:07
  year old kid at high school. Or is it the opposite?
• 47:09
  It's like, oh man, this two year stuff is fun.
• 47:12
  What happens if I go to a four year institution?
• 47:14
  And I know spoiler you make it to a four year institution, but
• 47:16
  I'm just curious about your mindset about the profession.
• 47:20
  You know it at that time, I'm. I'm just, you know, I I enjoyed
• 47:25
  what I was doing just kind of, you know, I would, I would help
• 47:29
  there and then, like I said, I would go to go to my son's meets
• 47:33
  and, you know, kind of interact with his team and help them out
• 47:37
  and give them T bits. And so, you know, at this point,
• 47:41
  I'm I'm just enjoying it, you know, having a good time, man.
• 47:44
  And and actually coach White, who was that fair?
• 47:50
  We just kind of built this relationship and so I was
• 47:54
  actually sending athletes to Fareham and a couple of ODAC
• 47:58
  schools and Old Dominion Conference, just kind of sending
• 48:02
  athletes through these schools, man.
• 48:03
  And, and then we just started, we started racing with the ODAC,
• 48:07
  you know, and, and going to a lot of their meets and things
• 48:10
  like that. So I, I think it kind of sparked
• 48:12
  a little bit in me like, you know, this is pretty cool.
• 48:17
  You know, that, you know, even though there were Division
• 48:20
  Three, you just looking at it like, man, this is this is
• 48:24
  legit, you know, because I hear I am, you know, maybe 11:50
• 48:28
  athletes and they got teams of 40-50, you know, and I'm just
• 48:33
  like, man, this is that. I love that, you know, you just
• 48:36
  kind of looking like, man, I love to have that, you know.
• 48:39
  And so, you know, through conversations with Coach White,
• 48:43
  it was, you know, he very nice guy.
• 48:47
  And so, you know, we talk every meet and he'd say, you know,
• 48:52
  I'm, I'm looking at getting an assistant position, looking at
• 48:55
  getting an assistant. I said, well, let me know.
• 48:57
  You know, we'll apply, we'll see what they say and we'll kind of
• 49:00
  go from there. But man, just kind of looking at
• 49:05
  it. So I didn't really have a
• 49:06
  thought until somebody planted it, you know, And so, man, I'll
• 49:11
  tell you, I was, you know, if you did, I, I'm a, I'm a
• 49:16
  religious person, man. And, and so when I feel like
• 49:20
  when God opens that door for you, man, you walk through it.
• 49:23
  And by this time I had switched from mental health case
• 49:27
  management and I was doing youth and prevention.
• 49:30
  So we're, you know, we're, we're, I'm doing youth and
• 49:33
  prevention, going into schools, teaching classes and things like
• 49:37
  that. And, and so I was walking out
• 49:40
  the door one day, man, and I got a call and he says, this is the
• 49:45
  AD from Fareham College. And I said, OK.
• 49:50
  And so he said, he said, I want to talk to you about some
• 49:53
  things. And, and your name came up
• 49:55
  because the and coach White had pursued other, other
• 49:59
  opportunities. And and he said, I want to talk
• 50:01
  to you about some things. He was like, your name came up
• 50:03
  in several conversations. And mind you, I've sent I sent
• 50:07
  some kids to Pharaoh and things like that.
• 50:10
  And he said, just want to kind of sit down and talk with you,
• 50:13
  man. And we had a great conversation
• 50:16
  over the phone and, and next day we went up and kind of visited
• 50:20
  the college and talked a little bit.
• 50:23
  And so we end up talking to the president.
• 50:26
  And so we're, and, and you know, wasn't long after that that we
• 50:30
  ended up at Pharaoh. Wow, did that necessitate
• 50:35
  necessitate a move? Like did you have to move?
• 50:37
  No, so faring from my house is about 45 minutes.
• 50:41
  Oh, good. Yeah.
• 50:42
  OK, that's yeah, that's it's own that that's part of when I say,
• 50:45
  you know, college coaching is not for everybody.
• 50:46
  It's like, you know, I hope you like to move because if you're
• 50:48
  going to get another job, that's typically it's a move.
• 50:51
  So that's good. That's great for you guys.
• 50:52
  Yeah. And so, you know, again, you
• 50:56
  know, discussion, you know, with my wife and, and she said this
• 51:00
  is, you know, kind of what you and looking forward.
• 51:03
  And so, you know, we jumped on it and, and man, I'm telling
• 51:07
  it's probably one of the best moves of my life.
• 51:09
  Yeah, why? Why?
• 51:12
  So I just think it was the challenge.
• 51:15
  You know, he told me coming in that this was a program that was
• 51:21
  kind of on its last leg. And this is, you know, and I
• 51:27
  told him it was nothing new to me.
• 51:28
  I started the track program it at at the Community College and
• 51:33
  so I knew what I had coming in. And so just kind of having talks
• 51:39
  with him and, and you know, I told him that in order to build
• 51:44
  this program, you know, we're going to have to build a
• 51:46
  distance program. You know, again, that that was
• 51:51
  part of my background and understanding distance, that you
• 51:55
  need to build a distance program that that to me, the distance
• 51:58
  program is a backbone on your team.
• 52:01
  And so so yeah, man, we we came in and and few talks with him.
• 52:05
  I was able to hire an assistant Division One athlete.
• 52:11
  So he was he was down in Florida.
• 52:15
  And you know, again, I tell you, man, things happen in mysterious
• 52:17
  ways. And I was sitting in my office
• 52:19
  and I get a phone call and he asked about if I ever got his
• 52:23
  application, which I had never seen.
• 52:26
  And so I was like, well, let me see if I can find it and got on
• 52:30
  the phone with him, man. And it's just, you know, when
• 52:32
  you know, somebody's the perfect fit.
• 52:34
  And so brought him in and, and you know, just kind of just kind
• 52:40
  of took him under my wing, you know, showing him things that
• 52:42
  I've learned and over the years and, and things like that.
• 52:46
  And started out, I think he had, we had to piece together a men's
• 52:50
  cross country team, didn't have a women, but you know, he was
• 52:55
  able to step in and those kids were dropping 2-3 minutes
• 52:59
  offered at times and things like that.
• 53:01
  So so we were really excited to get started.
• 53:04
  Did you, you know, you have a little bit of a not a little
• 53:07
  bit, you know this, you have an untraditional path, meaning you
• 53:10
  know, military service, Community College, etcetera.
• 53:14
  Did you have an understanding of what Division Three meant in
• 53:17
  regards to like like probably the most obvious thing is the
• 53:20
  athletic scholarships versus you not having athletic.
• 53:22
  Did you understand the D3 kind of motto or philosophy?
• 53:28
  I did and, and so that just came with, again, just trying to, you
• 53:35
  know, be with those groups and run against those groups when
• 53:37
  we're at the Community College and again, just building
• 53:40
  relationships with those coaches.
• 53:42
  So I, I kind of knew a little bit coming in, but it was still
• 53:46
  a learning process, you know, you know, and I think, I think
• 53:51
  if you, for me, not knowing anything about something you
• 53:55
  got, you really got to dig in, you know, and a lot for me, I'm
• 53:59
  a, I'm a visual learner, right? You showed me show me what I got
• 54:03
  to do. And at that time when I came to
• 54:06
  Fairham, they were getting ready for the division two process.
• 54:10
  So they had a compliance officer and you know all that.
• 54:13
  So, so we're just able to ask questions and having people,
• 54:18
  gosh, the coaching staff is, is great.
• 54:20
  You know, you can again, lean on them if if there's something,
• 54:25
  you know, you're not doing correctly.
• 54:26
  But I think just being able to to mesh and have a good group is
• 54:32
  it's like, you know, again, people you can lean on and
• 54:35
  learn. You know, it's always a learning
• 54:38
  process for me. I'm just making sure.
• 54:41
  You touched on something that I think is important as well in
• 54:44
  regards to hiring. You know, we always call this
• 54:47
  the Gil shout out podcast. What's the assistant that what's
• 54:50
  his name that you hired? Bus Baker.
• 54:52
  Bus Baker Bus Buss, cool names, man, that's so cool.
• 54:57
  There's Mike, there's Mike over here.
• 55:00
  You know, I just kid buzzing. So I changed my name one day.
• 55:05
  So one of the things that again, my experience tells me that we
• 55:09
  don't do a great job of training our coaches and coaching our
• 55:12
  coaches is the hiring and staff evaluate, you know, become a
• 55:15
  head coach and it's like, cool, go hire someone and you're like,
• 55:18
  cool, what's that me? You know, I know how I got
• 55:20
  hired, but that doesn't necessarily like, what am I
• 55:21
  looking for? You know, there's and a lot of
• 55:24
  times that leads to our coaches hiring their their friends.
• 55:27
  And that's not always a recipe for success, not always a recipe
• 55:32
  for disaster either. So like this is a great example.
• 55:35
  He called James like, Hey, did you get my resume?
• 55:37
  And you're like, no, I don't even like, no, I didn't get your
• 55:39
  resume. Like you should have gotten
• 55:40
  that. If he submitted it, you know,
• 55:41
  you should have gotten that and things like that.
• 55:43
  So how have you been, you know, kind of professional development
• 55:50
  for yourself? A lot of times we talk about
• 55:52
  development. We talk about, you know, how to
• 55:53
  coach distance runners better. But how how have you been
• 55:56
  working on, you know, what I look for when I see resumes,
• 55:59
  what I look for when evaluation of my coaches, you know, and my
• 56:04
  staff development. If you know, if they're telling
• 56:06
  me we're Division 2, so we're going to get another coach in
• 56:08
  two or three years, How do I start looking for that type of
• 56:11
  person? Have you been able to do any of
• 56:13
  that at this point? Yeah.
• 56:15
  And I think for me, you know, my biggest thing is, you know, I've
• 56:21
  got to have a conversation with you, right, I got to make sure
• 56:24
  you're the right fit. And so I'm just kind of
• 56:27
  listening it, you know, if you, you know, like the conversation
• 56:32
  with bust man, it was it was more, you know, I knew he had a
• 56:40
  couple years removed from Division One.
• 56:42
  You know, what are you doing with your life right now?
• 56:44
  You know, what does that look like?
• 56:46
  You know, and how are you managing?
• 56:48
  And actually he was living in Florida, you know, and, and I
• 56:52
  kind of told him, Hey, this is a situation that you're coming
• 56:55
  into, you know, and, and I've got to have someone with me who
• 57:00
  wants to build and, and we're going to build it from the
• 57:03
  ground up. And, and so, and just what's
• 57:07
  your philosophy when it comes to running?
• 57:09
  What's your philosophy when it comes to it?
• 57:11
  You just, you know, and, and I agree with you, some, some
• 57:16
  people hire friends and, and it doesn't work out right.
• 57:19
  You need, you need someone that you can hire who has the same
• 57:24
  visions you have and, and who can, you know, who sticks with
• 57:28
  your philosophy, not going to try to, you know, step on your
• 57:32
  toes. And so just by having those
• 57:35
  conversations and you know, him and I sit with the AD, you know,
• 57:41
  through video chat, he was in Florida and, and the AD and I
• 57:44
  talked after and then he had the same feelings I had, you know,
• 57:48
  and so not really any of you questions.
• 57:51
  It was just more of a conversation.
• 57:53
  You know, this is, this is what we're looking at.
• 57:56
  And so I, I think just knowing and having the right people to
• 58:01
  fit what you're doing. And so I'm, I'm kind of an
• 58:04
  upfront guy, you know, if you like, if you were interviewing,
• 58:08
  you know, we're going to have a conversation.
• 58:10
  How am I doing so far coach? You're doing good.
• 58:12
  OK, good. It was recorded.
• 58:17
  So if you said I'd done bad, it's like, well, I guess
• 58:18
  everybody's going to know I'm not doing.
• 58:19
  That Yeah, No, no, you're doing great, man.
• 58:21
  You're doing great. And so, like I said, man, we
• 58:24
  we're we we came in our our fresh year and and I brought a
• 58:29
  couple of runners with me and so and so Jamal end up he was a
• 58:38
  time state champ. Nobody recruited him.
• 58:42
  That was one of the local high schools.
• 58:43
  I saw him at the region of me. Hey, what you doing?
• 58:46
  And so we talked and he was a great football guy.
• 58:49
  And so we got him. He went to the Community College
• 58:52
  for one year. And so funny is he transferred
• 58:56
  to Fareham to play football. And I happened to get the job
• 59:00
  and he was like, and I called him and I was like, hey, man, I
• 59:03
  was like, I'm I'm going to Fareham and I want you to come
• 59:07
  with me. He's like, I'm already going for
• 59:08
  football. He's like, yeah.
• 59:12
  And so, so we ended up with him and, and he talked a few more
• 59:16
  guys, but he ended up going to nationals our first year and,
• 59:21
  and becoming an all American. So, so like I said, it's, it's,
• 59:25
  it's exciting to see, you know, a kid like that or some of these
• 59:30
  kids who came from the, you know, junior college level.
• 59:36
  I mean his his hashtag or whatever on Instagram is the
• 59:39
  JUCO product. Yeah, yeah.
• 59:42
  Yeah, because, you know, that's that's him, man.
• 59:46
  And and it's no, I get excited to see kids like that.
• 59:50
  You know, who didn't get recruited much out of high
• 59:53
  school? And, and so that's kind of like
• 59:56
  my philosophy now is, you know, I'm, I want to find those kids
• 1:00:01
  who are not getting recruited. It's like I told you, you know,
• 1:00:04
  I pushed hard to get certain kids out and, you know, kind of
• 1:00:09
  get rejected. And so I was like, I'm out.
• 1:00:14
  Not going to say I'll never be that coach, but I want to give
• 1:00:18
  opportunities. I I agree with you
• 1:00:21
  wholeheartedly about the JUCO and JUCO product and things like
• 1:00:24
  that. You know, I'm so blessed that I
• 1:00:25
  got to coach a year of junior college and it's my favorite
• 1:00:28
  meet in the year that the junior college national meet.
• 1:00:30
  And it just, you know, I look at these kids and you know,
• 1:00:33
  they're, they're kids that needed second chances and
• 1:00:35
  sometimes 3rd and 4th, right? You know, where there was
• 1:00:38
  academics, where there was athletics, no one, you know,
• 1:00:40
  they weren't good enough out of high school for whatever that
• 1:00:41
  meet. You know, that's a terrible
• 1:00:43
  definition. But you know, these are kids
• 1:00:45
  that are just, you know, second chance, misfit, misunderstood
• 1:00:50
  kids. And I think there's a little bit
• 1:00:51
  of for me, it's like, oh, well, I think that's who I am.
• 1:00:54
  So maybe that's why I resonate a little bit with with those kind
• 1:00:58
  of kids and the coaches that are on that level.
• 1:00:59
  It's like, man, it's just and, and you know, on top of all that
• 1:01:03
  is just that that tug of war again, of, you know, when you're
• 1:01:05
  in high school, you're a high school coach, it's really hard
• 1:01:08
  to get your kids recruited. You know, you, you did it when
• 1:01:10
  you're in a four year school, it's really hard to get kids to
• 1:01:13
  your school. You know, you're doing it.
• 1:01:14
  Junior college is always doing both.
• 1:01:17
  You're always trying to get kids to your program and you're
• 1:01:20
  always trying to get them to go on to four.
• 1:01:22
  That's just, I don't know that people respect that alone enough
• 1:01:28
  for our junior college coaches. So I do mirror a lot of your
• 1:01:35
  sentiments there. The junior college.
• 1:01:36
  OK, How many years have you been at Fareham now?
• 1:01:40
  So this I just completed my first year.
• 1:01:42
  That's right. So you came in knowing, hey,
• 1:01:45
  we're transitioning from Division 3.
• 1:01:47
  So all the things that we teach you about Division Three because
• 1:01:50
  you get you know, we are still under Division 3 rules.
• 1:01:52
  All is going to be gone. I'm not the one there's
• 1:01:55
  foundations, but you know there's it's going to be
• 1:01:57
  different. So talk to me about that.
• 1:01:59
  And again, knowing that you have one year Division Three
• 1:02:01
  experience and 0 years of division two, but that changes
• 1:02:04
  all next year. What are some of the things
• 1:02:07
  because like obviously the most right in front of your face is
• 1:02:11
  oh, OK, I'm going from no scholarships to some.
• 1:02:14
  I assume you're getting some Scott, but I assume maybe not.
• 1:02:17
  I would hope, but probably not the full allotment of
• 1:02:20
  scholarships, but you're going to have some.
• 1:02:22
  So and you're coming in like you, you have a team.
• 1:02:26
  There are some kids on your team that are non scholarship because
• 1:02:29
  they're Division 3. So you have to be thinking like,
• 1:02:33
  okay, what am I going to do with the kids on the team?
• 1:02:35
  Like how much, if any, am I going to give scholarship when
• 1:02:38
  it's them? Everybody that I'm recruiting,
• 1:02:40
  there's, I should say everybody recruiting, I'm recruiting kids
• 1:02:43
  that are also potentially scholarship.
• 1:02:44
  Like how do you, it's hard if you were a Division two school
• 1:02:48
  for four or five years, 4050 years, that's tough.
• 1:02:51
  How do you, how do you have you been managing that transition as
• 1:02:54
  it relates to recruiting specifically?
• 1:02:56
  Yeah. It's, it's, I'm not going to say
• 1:02:58
  it's, it's been difficult. It's been a challenge.
• 1:03:01
  I think coming in, I knew we were going to make that
• 1:03:04
  transition to Division 2. So I had to amp up our training.
• 1:03:10
  You know, I had to amp up some things to get those kids that I
• 1:03:14
  have already to division two athletes.
• 1:03:17
  And so, you know, we, we amped up waiting rooms, we amped up
• 1:03:21
  training and things like that and just kind of basically told
• 1:03:24
  them, Hey, this is where we're at, you know, and, and, and, you
• 1:03:28
  know, just kind of being upfront with them when it comes to
• 1:03:30
  scholarships and and this is where you need to be.
• 1:03:34
  And so I think Pham did a wonderful job because all of
• 1:03:40
  their financial aid packages and things like that we're kind of
• 1:03:44
  grandfathered over. And so they were able to
• 1:03:49
  basically keep something that. But again, if you had an
• 1:03:51
  outstanding year, you know, we were able to put you on on
• 1:03:55
  scholarship. And, and for the ones coming in,
• 1:03:58
  you know, again, we had to kind of first set a standard.
• 1:04:01
  What does that look like? You know, kind of what does our
• 1:04:04
  recruiting standard look like? You know, what are we going
• 1:04:07
  after? What's going to save plus the X
• 1:04:10
  amount of dollars, you know, coming in and how how is that
• 1:04:13
  model look? So just trying to piece together
• 1:04:17
  that bus again, bus is a great help with that and just trying
• 1:04:21
  to, you know, get those recruiting standards together.
• 1:04:24
  What are we offering for X amount of time or what are we
• 1:04:28
  offering for this athlete, this athlete?
• 1:04:31
  Then you look at, you know, state kids, they're going to
• 1:04:35
  get, they're going to get some grants and things like that.
• 1:04:38
  So just kind of piercing it together.
• 1:04:42
  I, I think we got it now, but at, at the beginning it was a
• 1:04:45
  little tough just trying to, trying to see what that model
• 1:04:48
  looks like and what kind of kids we're going after.
• 1:04:51
  All right, something to to explore here.
• 1:04:54
  Help me understand. I haven't coached in 20 years
• 1:04:56
  now. So I coached for 10 years, made
• 1:04:59
  it to a fairly high level. I coached in the SEC.
• 1:05:01
  So, you know, I know training and I and I went from junior
• 1:05:04
  college to Division One and I went from mid major Division One
• 1:05:07
  to, you know, power for what I don't remember what we call BCSI
• 1:05:10
  remember what we called it back then, but SEC and and I want to
• 1:05:17
  get into that statement you made about like, hey, so we're going
• 1:05:20
  to vision 2. So we had to amp things up.
• 1:05:22
  I want to I want to kind of plug in there because I remember and
• 1:05:25
  I remember the guest is but I'm not going to well, no, I'll call
• 1:05:28
  him out because, you know, you just got to go listen to the
• 1:05:30
  past episodes. Keenan Briggs runs a jump squad
• 1:05:35
  out in California, I believe. Great guy, had him on the
• 1:05:38
  podcast. Great guy, love him.
• 1:05:39
  He's doing a lot of good things. And he made mention because we
• 1:05:42
  were talking about club versus high school coaches and all that
• 1:05:44
  kind of stuff and all that crap that this infighting that we
• 1:05:47
  have in certain cases. And he was saying something
• 1:05:50
  about he goes, you know what? Our club, you know, what we
• 1:05:53
  offer is we offer, you know, we do college type workouts and you
• 1:05:59
  know, I challenge that a little bit.
• 1:06:00
  I was like, So what does that mean?
• 1:06:01
  What do you mean you do college? Like, you know, I know many,
• 1:06:04
  many high school jumps coaches and they're not doing anything
• 1:06:07
  different than what our top jumps coaches are doing now.
• 1:06:10
  The the top jumps coaches are maybe their athletes are better,
• 1:06:13
  so they're running faster or jumping higher or farther on
• 1:06:16
  their training, but they're doing the same plyos, the same
• 1:06:18
  speed workouts, same accelerations, etcetera.
• 1:06:20
  And, you know, he kind of he, he, you know, you go back and
• 1:06:23
  listen, he he walked away. He goes, yeah, yeah, you know,
• 1:06:24
  but I do more film and he and I think he meant more preparation
• 1:06:29
  than what a high school coach has available to them.
• 1:06:31
  Because I I also fight back when I get a college coach that says,
• 1:06:34
  you know, with today's YouTube and coaching education, there's
• 1:06:39
  no excuse for a high school coach not to not know how to
• 1:06:42
  coach hurdlers correctly, distance runners correctly,
• 1:06:45
  etcetera. And I push back and go, yeah,
• 1:06:47
  all that stuff's available. You're right.
• 1:06:48
  But you're forgetting typically our high school coaches are also
• 1:06:51
  teaching from 7:00 to 3:00 And. And I, you know, I, I've gotten
• 1:06:55
  a more in depth look into teaching my wife for the past
• 1:06:58
  couple years have done, has done long term subbing.
• 1:07:00
  And this is just like, you know, it's not full time teaching.
• 1:07:02
  She's just, you know, helping a teacher while they're out
• 1:07:04
  usually on maternity leave for 2-3 months.
• 1:07:07
  And I see like the amount of grading she has to do, the
• 1:07:09
  amount of, you know, the normal stuff in your job of
• 1:07:13
  disciplinary and all this kind of stuff.
• 1:07:14
  And I'm like, that's what our high school coaches are doing.
• 1:07:16
  They're not able to just go for a weekend to go do level 1.
• 1:07:20
  Like some of them can, but not all of them.
• 1:07:22
  Oh, by the way, they have families and, you know, hobbies
• 1:07:25
  and, you know, all this stuff. So.
• 1:07:28
  So what I want to get out with you.
• 1:07:30
  When you said, OK, hey guys, we got to amp things up, we're
• 1:07:33
  going to division two, my first instinct was like, wait a
• 1:07:36
  minute, you know, if I go look at Division Three national
• 1:07:40
  results and I go look at division two national results,
• 1:07:42
  there's there's a lot of similarities.
• 1:07:44
  And what I mean by that is it is not easy to win the 100 meter
• 1:07:48
  dash Division Three. It is not easy to win the mile
• 1:07:51
  at Division Three like you got to, I imagine I'm probably not
• 1:07:54
  too far off. You got to run 4 flat sub four
• 1:07:56
  in the mile. You got to, I know you got to
• 1:07:58
  run 10 flat in the 100 in the division two.
• 1:08:03
  It's it's maybe slightly faster. Like I, I think this year, you
• 1:08:06
  know, 99 is what won the the 100 and and you know, sub four won
• 1:08:11
  the mile, those two examples. But I bet if I went and looked
• 1:08:14
  at those two, I guess 4 coaches training the coach of the D300,
• 1:08:18
  coach of the D3 mile, coach the D200 and coach of the D2 mile, I
• 1:08:23
  bet you their workouts look very similar.
• 1:08:26
  I can take that one more step and say, OK, go, let me look at
• 1:08:29
  the 100m Division One and the mile Division One.
• 1:08:32
  And again, another step in the speed.
• 1:08:36
  But I bet you if I look at their workouts, I bet they're very,
• 1:08:39
  very similar. So what I want to know is what
• 1:08:40
  do you mean when you say, all right, we had to, you know, all
• 1:08:43
  right, we're going D2, we got to step up.
• 1:08:45
  We got to step up in the weight room, we got to step.
• 1:08:47
  What does that mean? For me, it's it's it was more of
• 1:08:50
  a mindset. OK, OK, yeah, I think that I
• 1:08:56
  think where we were in Fareham and and again, it's not a knock
• 1:09:01
  to anybody. I think where we were, it was
• 1:09:04
  more of a walk on status. I hear you, I hear you.
• 1:09:08
  I'm. I'm, I'm, I'm here, you know,
• 1:09:12
  not used to lifting weights, not used to I.
• 1:09:14
  I don't think I'm with you. This makes more sense when you
• 1:09:17
  say mindset because the way you first said it was like, oh, we
• 1:09:20
  went from doing, you know, three sets of 10 in the in on the
• 1:09:24
  bench to six sets of 10. Cuz I need to, you know, it's
• 1:09:26
  like, well, that's crazy, right? But and So what I think here,
• 1:09:31
  here would be my correct and I'm the host.
• 1:09:32
  I get the correct, I get the challenge.
• 1:09:34
  I just turned your mic off. We'll just be done here.
• 1:09:37
  What I think the correction I might say there is you presented
• 1:09:40
  it as a D3 versus now we're going D2.
• 1:09:43
  I think it's more of hey, this is where our program was.
• 1:09:46
  I think you take away you could you could been an AIA program,
• 1:09:49
  Jugo program, high school. It's like, hey, guys, with me as
• 1:09:53
  the head coach, as the leader, we're going my expectations of
• 1:09:56
  you, IE mindset are going to be we're always on time.
• 1:10:00
  We, we, we, we do all of our workouts.
• 1:10:02
  We, we do the weight room so that I'm with 100%.
• 1:10:06
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. But you, it's just easy because
• 1:10:09
  you're living in it to say the, the, the transition from D3 to
• 1:10:12
  D2. Yeah, yeah, OK, I'm with you.
• 1:10:14
  I'm with you. OK, yeah, now.
• 1:10:16
  I just sorry to cut you off one more time.
• 1:10:17
  I just what I always want to make sure that I'm call it
• 1:10:21
  pushing back or, you know, part of my coaching advocacy, you
• 1:10:24
  know, my, my love for coaches is I don't, I won't stand for, for
• 1:10:28
  people to say that AD 2 coach is better than AD 3 coach just
• 1:10:33
  because they're D2. And and again, extrapolate that
• 1:10:35
  out that AD one coach is better than AD 2 coach, etcetera.
• 1:10:37
  That is ludicrous. Are there some D2 coaches that
• 1:10:41
  are better than D3? Absolutely.
• 1:10:42
  It's just the nature of it's a profession.
• 1:10:44
  If you, if I were, if I had to do the impossible and rank from
• 1:10:47
  #1 to #10,000, sure, someone's got to be 10,000 and someone's
• 1:10:50
  got to be #1 yeah, right. There.
• 1:10:52
  Are there plenty of D3 coaches that are better coaches than D2?
• 1:10:55
  Absolutely. Again, go look at nationals.
• 1:10:58
  And by the way, when I say a better coach, I'm not talking
• 1:11:00
  about the XS and OS 100% here. I'm talking about over the whole
• 1:11:05
  thing, recruiting culture, leadership, mentorship.
• 1:11:12
  That to me is the holistic of what makes a coach better than
• 1:11:15
  another coach. And so that's what I just when
• 1:11:17
  you said that, I was like, oh, that feels like AD 3 versus D2
• 1:11:20
  thing and I'm Andre, we can't do you do on that.
• 1:11:22
  You're smart enough to do that? Yeah, all.
• 1:11:24
  Right. So you came in and for your
• 1:11:27
  program now your new program here, it's like, all right, I'm
• 1:11:29
  looking around. It feels like this kind of like
• 1:11:32
  everybody just like, oh, we're just happy to be here.
• 1:11:33
  And this is walking on status. And maybe they missed, you know,
• 1:11:36
  I missed a practice. Big deal coach, I'll see you
• 1:11:37
  tomorrow or oh, I'm 10 minutes late.
• 1:11:39
  You know, big deal coach. That's what I did last year.
• 1:11:41
  It's like, OK, if we're going to get better, if we're going to
• 1:11:45
  raise our level, these are what champions do.
• 1:11:48
  And and by the way, and you as a leader, here's what a leader
• 1:11:51
  does. A leader steps in and says, hey,
• 1:11:52
  that's not acceptable. We don't we don't accept that
• 1:11:54
  here. So that makes sense.
• 1:11:56
  So what were some of the things, what were some of the things
• 1:12:01
  that you found challenging to help?
• 1:12:04
  And by the way, it's a process, right?
• 1:12:05
  So you're still, it's not like, oh, now we're, it's a, it's June
• 1:12:10
  of 2025, Mike, we're perfect. We've got the championship
• 1:12:12
  mentality. You're, you're always evolving
• 1:12:14
  that. You're always involving.
• 1:12:15
  What are some of the challenges that you've had with that?
• 1:12:19
  You know, just for me, some of the challenges that I came in
• 1:12:24
  with it again, is having those routines, having that
• 1:12:27
  establishment of, hey, you know, we're in the weight room three
• 1:12:32
  days a week. We're we're on, we're at
• 1:12:34
  practice, you know, this meet X amount of days a week and, and
• 1:12:38
  we're going to be on time, right.
• 1:12:40
  And, you know, even down to what we wear, you know, to, to, you
• 1:12:47
  know, college kids, I'm telling you, they'll show up in pajama
• 1:12:50
  pants, you know? Again, I don't think that's.
• 1:12:53
  I think it's high school too, bro.
• 1:12:55
  It's a whole different standard on what we wear outside these
• 1:12:58
  days. This is my old man chicken, my
• 1:13:00
  fist at the sky. And what are we wearing, boys
• 1:13:02
  and girls? Come on.
• 1:13:03
  Absolutely, absolutely. And again, you know, it's like I
• 1:13:07
  said, I think one of the other biggest challenges for me is
• 1:13:12
  realizing them to realize you're better than what you are.
• 1:13:19
  And, and I meant countless, countless scenarios of, you
• 1:13:24
  know, this is my PR and I, you know, kind of look at it and I
• 1:13:29
  don't, I didn't discourage them. You know, this is my PR and I
• 1:13:33
  tell them you're going to be better than what you were last
• 1:13:37
  year. Yeah, you know, but you got to
• 1:13:39
  trust the process is what I told them.
• 1:13:41
  And so, you know, we get to indoor and, you know, they kind
• 1:13:47
  of get their jumps. So they get there, they get
• 1:13:51
  there, you know, times or whatever like that.
• 1:13:55
  And they say, well, it's slower than I ran last year and you got
• 1:13:59
  to give it time. You got to give it time, you
• 1:14:01
  know, you got to give it time and, and, you know, Fast forward
• 1:14:04
  to outdoor and, and they're smashing their PRS and things
• 1:14:08
  like that. And you know, they're ecstatic
• 1:14:10
  and I'm ecstatic with them. You know, I'm, I'm jumping up
• 1:14:13
  and down with them, you know, but it, it's just for me, it's,
• 1:14:18
  and you're right, you know, it's not really amping up, but we're,
• 1:14:21
  we're amping that mindset that, you know, and it's not a
• 1:14:25
  division two, it's not a Division Three thing.
• 1:14:28
  It's, I want you to have the absolute best college experience
• 1:14:31
  you can have. You know, I, I want you, if it
• 1:14:35
  comes with a, you know, place in the nationals, it comes with
• 1:14:38
  place in the nationals. But the fact that you made it or
• 1:14:42
  the fact that you're in a conference championship, the
• 1:14:45
  fact that you know, it, it's and that's just kind of how we built
• 1:14:48
  things like, you know, and, and I tell them in order to be fast,
• 1:14:52
  you got to train fast. So your practice, a, a race is a
• 1:14:58
  race is a race, but your practice should be tough and you
• 1:15:01
  should challenge one another at practice to be fast.
• 1:15:06
  And so I, I think they just really bought into that and, and
• 1:15:10
  said, Hey, you know, we're better, you know, and I think
• 1:15:14
  they got that feeling now. And I could just tell in some of
• 1:15:17
  them that, Hey, you know, I, I, I had a junior mean kind of
• 1:15:23
  slacked off first couple years comes in this year and I've
• 1:15:27
  never been better, never felt better Seniors the same way
• 1:15:31
  because we've, you know, seniors that graduated because we've
• 1:15:34
  never seen this before in our, in our time here.
• 1:15:38
  And, and we don't want to leave. And I, I hate it that they had
• 1:15:41
  to leave, But you know, it's, and it's, again, just just
• 1:15:44
  trying to build that mindset of, you know, we're small, but we
• 1:15:48
  can make a name for ourselves. I think what you said there
• 1:15:52
  about and helping them to believe that they're better than
• 1:15:55
  they are, that to me when I say are their coaches better than
• 1:15:58
  others, that that's it. You know, the superpower of a
• 1:16:01
  coach has been able to see something in someone else before
• 1:16:04
  they can see it. So you believe in those kids and
• 1:16:07
  then the real work, again, the XS and OS might be the easy
• 1:16:10
  part. The real work of coaching is
• 1:16:12
  helping that kid believe that that's true and therefore doing
• 1:16:15
  the workouts that they need to make it come true.
• 1:16:17
  That's hard. That's hard for dealing with
• 1:16:19
  18/19/20 year old kids that really is.
• 1:16:22
  And you're, you're maybe in one of the tougher spots in regards
• 1:16:25
  to taking over a new program that didn't necessarily have
• 1:16:28
  success. It's one thing to take of our
• 1:16:30
  program with success and, and there's it's got it, that's got
• 1:16:32
  its own challenges. But when there's a not a
• 1:16:35
  championship mentality at your program and you want to bring
• 1:16:38
  that, it's like, oh man, they're used to doing XY and Z and
• 1:16:42
  that's, that doesn't cut it. Well, you know, and they and
• 1:16:45
  those kids have had some, you know, whatever they consider
• 1:16:47
  success, not maybe they didn't win qualify for nationals and
• 1:16:50
  stuff, but they've had some success.
• 1:16:51
  You know, they hit APR or something like that or they
• 1:16:53
  just, you know, they had fun because they showed up two out
• 1:16:55
  of two out of four days and things like that.
• 1:16:57
  You know, it's like, Oh no, yeah, we're going to have we're
• 1:16:59
  going to, we got to redefine what fun is.
• 1:17:01
  Fun is, you know, PR in and going to nationals and scoring a
• 1:17:05
  conference and things like that. So yeah, that that's extremely
• 1:17:08
  tough. It is and and, you know, and and
• 1:17:11
  so I, you know, very thankful that we got to do that, you
• 1:17:15
  know, and and then it just kind of filtered over into the
• 1:17:18
  classroom and and, you know, I had yeah, I'm telling Mike some
• 1:17:23
  of the toughest things. Man had a young lady senior
• 1:17:26
  applied for Graduate School, didn't get into the school she
• 1:17:31
  wanted. I mean, you know, you see them
• 1:17:33
  breakdown and you see them crying.
• 1:17:35
  You're like, man, you know, but the fight in her, I was like, I
• 1:17:39
  got to keep going. And, and so she was able to get
• 1:17:42
  into a second choice and things like that.
• 1:17:44
  But I've just being able to see that, you know, have a quick cry
• 1:17:48
  and, and get back at it, you know, and, and so I, I told our
• 1:17:52
  sister, because then that's when we know we're doing the right
• 1:17:55
  things, right? Because when life kind of
• 1:17:58
  punches you in the gut, you know, are you you going to
• 1:18:02
  follow or you can keep fighting And so.
• 1:18:04
  Which isn't that what life is about?
• 1:18:07
  It's about getting that punch in the gut and, and being resilient
• 1:18:10
  and making it back. And so if we're not teaching our
• 1:18:12
  young people that today, not in a harsh way, because we do, we
• 1:18:15
  should protect our young kids too.
• 1:18:16
  I don't want harsh things to happen in the the gut punches,
• 1:18:20
  But when they do, knowing that they have people in their corner
• 1:18:23
  that believe in them and help them understand, like, oh, OK,
• 1:18:26
  this isn't the end of the world there.
• 1:18:28
  There's something else out there that that that's what's
• 1:18:31
  important and that's what coaches do and that's what
• 1:18:32
  you're doing there at Fareham. I love that man.
• 1:18:37
  Andre, as we work into conclusion here, tell me what
• 1:18:42
  you know as you look at the future of Fareham track and
• 1:18:45
  field and you get to define future.
• 1:18:47
  It could be very short term, meaning in the next year.
• 1:18:50
  I mean, you got a big year coming up.
• 1:18:52
  I assume that this means new conference and things like that.
• 1:18:55
  Yep, maybe a new schedule and things like that.
• 1:18:57
  So as you look into the future, whether it's this year, five
• 1:19:01
  years, 10 years down the road, what's got you excited about
• 1:19:04
  Fareham track and field and cross country?
• 1:19:06
  For me, just the excitement of, of again, just being able to
• 1:19:11
  take a program to, you know, the ceiling for me never, you know,
• 1:19:17
  keeps getting higher, you know, and, and I think for me and, and
• 1:19:21
  for what we do, you know, I, I want to have a good quality
• 1:19:25
  program, right? Again, we're nestled in the, in
• 1:19:29
  the small area, but to have that, hey, I want to go to
• 1:19:33
  Fareham. I like, you know, I like
• 1:19:34
  Fareham. We're starting to get a little
• 1:19:36
  bit of notoriety, but I think, I think 510 years out, man, you
• 1:19:40
  know, we're, we're on, we're on that stage, man, where, you
• 1:19:43
  know, kids want to come in and, and you know, that believe in
• 1:19:47
  what I do, believe in what my assistants do.
• 1:19:50
  I'm just believe in our program. And so, you know, it's not about
• 1:19:55
  fame or fortune or anything like that, but it again, for me, it's
• 1:19:59
  just about developing young, young athletes to be the best
• 1:20:04
  that they could be. I think if I look, when I
• 1:20:09
  retire, if I look back on it, that I made an impact on a lot
• 1:20:13
  of lives and, and, you know, just enjoying what I do, I'm
• 1:20:17
  happy. And so I, I enjoy what I do.
• 1:20:21
  I don't. I don't think it's a job if
• 1:20:23
  you're happy. You know, you go in, you get to
• 1:20:26
  go in every day and impact somebody's life.
• 1:20:28
  It's really what I enjoy. And and you know, we, it's
• 1:20:32
  easier to train that way, right? I often tell them we got a
• 1:20:35
  family atmosphere. It's a big family.
• 1:20:38
  And so you got to want to be here.
• 1:20:41
  You got to want to be in this house.
• 1:20:44
  And if you don't, you're not, you know, and I tell recruits
• 1:20:46
  that all the time, this is the way we do things.
• 1:20:48
  This is this is our family. We try to keep drama down.
• 1:20:53
  Not going to say you're always going to have something.
• 1:20:55
  Yeah, but you know, we'll nip it in the butt.
• 1:20:58
  But this is a family. You got to want to be here,
• 1:21:01
  right? You got to want to train here.
• 1:21:03
  So I, I think when I look back on it to be successful and, and
• 1:21:08
  again as as a program, I don't have to be the number one coach
• 1:21:12
  in the country, but I like to be a respected coach and so.
• 1:21:19
  Coach with your stated goal of, you know, affecting young
• 1:21:22
  people, helping them grow up in our sport here in track and
• 1:21:24
  field. You know, I, I think what's so
• 1:21:27
  cool about you and what you've done so far?
• 1:21:29
  And you know, you're talking like you're an old soul.
• 1:21:32
  I love maybe you're an old soul, but you're not an old guy.
• 1:21:35
  You're, you're six years younger than I am, for crying out loud.
• 1:21:38
  So you know, you're still very young in your career.
• 1:21:41
  You know, it's, it's easy to get, you know, once we get into
• 1:21:43
  our 40s, it's easy to start thinking like, oh, well, you
• 1:21:45
  know, the end is near. And it's like, man, what I think
• 1:21:47
  about you and your career, you know, to use like a 400 meter
• 1:21:51
  analogy, I'm like, I, I don't know that you're barely out of
• 1:21:53
  the blocks. You know, it feels like, you
• 1:21:55
  know, you want to feel like like, oh, I'm at the 300m mark.
• 1:21:57
  I'm that last 100, you know, slogging in now.
• 1:22:00
  I think you're barely out of the blocks here.
• 1:22:01
  And there's a whole race in front of you.
• 1:22:03
  And it's so cool the variety of, of, of levels that you've been
• 1:22:07
  able to affect young people positively when you think about
• 1:22:10
  the high school side and you think about the Community
• 1:22:12
  College side and now the D3 to transition to D2 side.
• 1:22:15
  Like, and that's why I, I, I push back and fight when I see
• 1:22:19
  any kind of infighting, if you will, of like, Oh, this, you
• 1:22:22
  know, this level coaches are better than this level.
• 1:22:24
  It's like, dude, I don't care how many all Americans you
• 1:22:27
  coach. I mean, I want that for you
• 1:22:28
  because that'd be great for them and for you and all that kind of
• 1:22:30
  stuff. I care.
• 1:22:32
  Are you growing young people to be positive attributes to our
• 1:22:37
  society? And that to me doesn't matter if
• 1:22:39
  you're coaching middle school, high school, D1 elites,
• 1:22:42
  whatever, because again, track ends for us all.
• 1:22:46
  At least you know, the level of track that we want to be at
• 1:22:48
  right there is masters and that's great.
• 1:22:49
  I love that. But you know, Carl Lewis ain't
• 1:22:52
  running Master, right? I mean it was in his heydays
• 1:22:54
  when we like to think about Carl.
• 1:22:57
  So it is going to end and therefore you have to go on to
• 1:23:01
  something else, whether it's coaching, teaching, owning your
• 1:23:03
  own business, etcetera. And that is what coaches do.
• 1:23:07
  The positive impact that you make on young people.
• 1:23:09
  That's the immeasurable part. And I just think it's so cool
• 1:23:11
  what you've done so far and the the really few years you've
• 1:23:14
  coached. I know you if you get it feels
• 1:23:15
  like you a lot, but you know you've got think about it, you
• 1:23:18
  so you coached since roughly 22 years old, so roughly 20 years
• 1:23:22
  roughly, right? You're 42, you have at least
• 1:23:26
  another 20 years, right? I mean 62 if you, if you were
• 1:23:29
  able to retire at 62B. No, today's stock market, I'm
• 1:23:33
  not sure we're able to retire that early.
• 1:23:35
  But but even if you retire at 62 super early, that's you have a
• 1:23:39
  whole nother career. I mean, think about that, all
• 1:23:42
  the things that you have done in this 20 years and you have
• 1:23:46
  another 20 and you have the head start.
• 1:23:49
  You know, we don't even count. Your first couple of years, you
• 1:23:51
  didn't know what you were doing. You know what I'm saying?
• 1:23:54
  Now you know what to do and, and you're going to continue to get
• 1:23:57
  better, man, These next 20 years, 20 years plus are going
• 1:23:59
  to be awesome, man. I'm just excited to be on the
• 1:24:02
  sideline watching it because it's going to, I can't wait to
• 1:24:04
  see what you do with Faram in division two.
• 1:24:05
  And then who knows? You know, I always hope people
• 1:24:08
  are at their same institution for, for decades.
• 1:24:10
  So, but that's not always the case.
• 1:24:11
  So no matter what the the future looks like, it's, it's kind of
• 1:24:15
  cool to hear this journey and kind of bookmark it today in
• 1:24:18
  2025 and, and, and see where the future is going to go with it.
• 1:24:22
  Man, you're doing such a great job.
• 1:24:23
  I'm really proud of you. I.
• 1:24:24
  Appreciate it, Mike. Yeah, that's, I mean, I again,
• 1:24:27
  that, you know, that's my goal and it is how impactful can I
• 1:24:31
  be. And so and that's on all levels,
• 1:24:34
  man. And I like I said it, it's AI
• 1:24:37
  got 20 more to go at least at least I joke.
• 1:24:42
  I joke all the time with my assistant.
• 1:24:44
  I said, well, you know, even, you know, he's young, you know,
• 1:24:49
  I know one day he's probably going to, he's probably going to
• 1:24:52
  go. And I said, you're going to look
• 1:24:53
  back and you're going to run into me and I'm going to be this
• 1:24:55
  old guy walking around. You see that old guy over there
• 1:25:00
  I used to work with? Him, I used to work with him.
• 1:25:03
  That's the old kid right there. But no, I mean, you know, even
• 1:25:06
  down to him and that, and I've had conversations with him and,
• 1:25:10
  you know, I think you're young, you know, this is an opportunity
• 1:25:15
  for you. I don't know, you know, and, and
• 1:25:17
  he tells me because, you know, I'll be here such and such years
• 1:25:20
  and I, you know, and I said, listen, if an opportunity comes,
• 1:25:24
  you know, I understand, I completely understand, you know,
• 1:25:28
  and I'm and I'm not going to, I'm not going to hold you from
• 1:25:32
  an open door, you know, and things like that.
• 1:25:34
  So that's just sadly, if man you, you treat people right, you
• 1:25:38
  treat them with respect and you know that stuff comes back to
• 1:25:43
  you. That's.
• 1:25:43
  Exactly it. That's exactly it.
• 1:25:46
  Andre Mann, one of the most expensive and priceless things
• 1:25:49
  you can give me is your time. I'm just so thankful for you,
• 1:25:52
  man. And you know, we've had this on
• 1:25:53
  the books for a while because of my travel and I was on the road
• 1:25:56
  a lot and stuff like that. But I'm just so glad we we got
• 1:25:58
  to do it and just so excited for what you've done and excited for
• 1:26:02
  what's to come here the next few years.
• 1:26:05
  So thank you so much, man, for being here.
• 1:26:06
  Truly, truly grateful for you. Absolutely, man.
• 1:26:08
  I appreciate you having me. Like I said, it took us a while
• 1:26:11
  to link up, but I've really enjoyed it.
• 1:26:13
  I have it's like, like you said, sitting down, having a cup of
• 1:26:16
  coffee, man, It's it's it's outstanding, but it's good to
• 1:26:21
  see perspectives from someone else and and have a good.
• 1:26:24
  Conversation. Yeah.
• 1:26:25
  And that that's what you provide here.
• 1:26:26
  So, you know, our number one goal is always to uplift and
• 1:26:28
  honor what you've done And, and hopefully you feel like we've
• 1:26:30
  done that, but also to give people who are listening right
• 1:26:33
  now that perspective's like, oh man, here's how Andre did it.
• 1:26:36
  That's really cool. I, you know, I enjoyed that.
• 1:26:39
  Maybe I need to get a mentor. Maybe I need to go back and talk
• 1:26:41
  to my high school coach. Maybe.
• 1:26:43
  And this is probably a good challenge for everybody who's
• 1:26:45
  listening, including you, Andre, if your high school coach is
• 1:26:49
  still with us today, whether you had a, you know, remember you
• 1:26:54
  were 18 at the point. So whether you had a good or bad
• 1:26:57
  relationship. And yeah, I feel like most most
• 1:27:00
  of our individuals who go on to be coaches had a decent, at
• 1:27:04
  least a decent relationship with their coach.
• 1:27:06
  Not very many were adversarial. The track coach and then become
• 1:27:08
  a track coach. So.
• 1:27:09
  But my challenge to you guys, and this concludes you, Andre,
• 1:27:12
  is if they're still with us, give them a call, an e-mail, a
• 1:27:16
  letter, a smoke signal, whatever, and just say thank
• 1:27:20
  you. You know, we, I, I, I, you know,
• 1:27:25
  again, I push back a lot of stuff.
• 1:27:26
  I'm kind of a jerk when you think about it.
• 1:27:27
  I just always push them back on stuff.
• 1:27:29
  I see, like the other day I saw a tweet that said, you know,
• 1:27:32
  coaching is a thankless job. And I was and I was like, and
• 1:27:36
  that can't be true. And it's hard for me to say
• 1:27:38
  because I'm not coaching anymore, but I'm like, wait a
• 1:27:39
  minute. First of all, you know, toot my
• 1:27:41
  own horn here. I'm always thanking you.
• 1:27:44
  Thank you guys for and gals for what you do.
• 1:27:46
  But then I'm like, I know kids say thank you and I know
• 1:27:48
  administrators say thank you. And I know parents, it's easy
• 1:27:51
  for us to think about the negatives like, oh, you know,
• 1:27:53
  they they yelled, the parent was mad at me because of this and
• 1:27:56
  whatever and stuff like that. So OK, if that's true, or if you
• 1:27:59
  believe that's true, that this is a thankless profession, well
• 1:28:02
  then be part of the solution. And so for me, my challenge to
• 1:28:05
  you to be part that solution is call, get in touch with your old
• 1:28:09
  high school coach and just be like, man, I was just thinking
• 1:28:12
  about you. I just want to say thanks.
• 1:28:14
  Like your influence, like I'm a track coach a lot because of
• 1:28:17
  what you, how you treated me and our team and how you know the
• 1:28:21
  example that I saw from you and your leadership.
• 1:28:23
  So if you truly believe and that this is a thankless profession,
• 1:28:27
  first of all, thank you for being a track coach.
• 1:28:29
  If you don't do what you do, I can't do what I do, right?
• 1:28:32
  So I'm so grateful for you guys being track field coaches.
• 1:28:36
  So if you think that's true, go be part of the solution.
• 1:28:38
  Call, find a coach that was a mentor or find a mentor.
• 1:28:41
  If your if your high school coach is no longer with us, find
• 1:28:43
  a mentor that has, you know, poured into you, like you
• 1:28:47
  mentioned with your old high school coach there now the
• 1:28:49
  principal. And again, just say thank you if
• 1:28:51
  you've received value from a coach at a clinic, just again, a
• 1:28:54
  simple e-mail just saying, Hey, man, I was thinking about that
• 1:28:56
  clinic really helped me out with my hurdles coaching.
• 1:28:59
  Thanks. Be part of that solution.
• 1:29:01
  All right, guys, that's it for the day.
• 1:29:02
  Andre, thank you so much, man. I'm just so, so grateful for
• 1:29:04
  you. Super excited.
• 1:29:05
  I can't wait to see this transition.
• 1:29:07
  It's not going to be easy and you already know that.
• 1:29:09
  But I you know what, what good things are good things are
• 1:29:12
  typically hard. So I'm excited to watch that.
• 1:29:15
  And I'm so happy and thrilled that you guys were here to hear
• 1:29:17
  Andre's story. It's super important, super
• 1:29:19
  valuable for us to see those perspectives.
• 1:29:21
  And I think Andre did a great job.
• 1:29:23
  Thanks for being here this week. Do you want to catch me?
• 1:29:25
  We'll do it all over again. Thanks guys.
• 1:29:28
  The goals to appreciate the coach, the ones that point
• 1:29:30
  people most every season needs a voice of reason speaking the
• 1:29:34
  growth you got to prep before you carry the load ice coffee to
• 1:29:37
  the soul. For those of us stay on the go
• 1:29:39
  proper handoff to stay in the zone which you packing for the
• 1:29:42
  road. There's more than one way to go
• 1:29:44
  taking notes that's paying your toe.
• 1:29:46
  It ain't practice if your purpose Saint Clair.
• 1:29:48
  It can't happen until you listen with both is can't mentor
• 1:29:51
  without a mentor of experience. You can reinvent those years.
• 1:29:55
  Every plan's got to stand and deliver to and the price
• 1:29:58
  sacrifice can you give up you. It's a choice and a fight, not a
• 1:30:02
  win or lose. It's not a ploy boy device.
• 1:30:04
  Y'all can make more moves. It's not about how to, it's all
• 1:30:07
  about why you don't know till you know who you are inside
• 1:30:10
  6,000,000. Waste of time, choose none so
• 1:30:13
  y'all cross the finish line. The work ain't done so we learn
• 1:30:15
  from the experts but y'all got to put in the leg work.
• 1:30:18
  Guil athletics use the network. It's all about connections put
• 1:30:21
  together for the profession to where every track coach could be
• 1:30:24
  blessing.