Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / #163: Gill1918 Presents Bill Lawson-IMG Academy (Rekortan Penn Relays Speaker Series)

Transcript

#163: Gill1918 Presents Bill Lawson-IMG Academy (Rekortan Penn Relays Speaker Series) · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

• 0:00
  Hey Yang, welcome back here to the Guild 1918 project special
• 0:03
  series here. Got a few kind of short clips
• 0:06
  coming up over the next few days, few weeks.
• 0:09
  The great team over at record Tan surfacing, shout out to Tim
• 0:13
  Jordan and Mary Beth Price. They put on a speakers series, a
• 0:17
  coaches speaker series at the Penn Relays this year 2026.
• 0:21
  And you know me, if there's any value to bring to coaches, I
• 0:24
  want to bring to all of you here listening on the Gill
• 0:27
  Connections podcast. So we've got all of the speakers
• 0:30
  and we've chopped them up to where their individuals will
• 0:32
  have the individual episodes. Again, grateful for record Tan.
• 0:35
  Go check them out. You know how to Google.
• 0:37
  So go check out Record Tan servicing and hope you enjoy the
• 0:40
  Gill 1918 Project. Welcome to the Gill 1918
• 0:43
  Project, a podcast series by coaches for coaches powered by
• 0:47
  Gill Athletics. Think of this as the Ted Talks
• 0:49
  of track and field coaching. Short, insightful and packed
• 0:52
  with valuable strategies to help you grow as a coach.
• 0:55
  We're bringing the once a year track clinic straight to your
• 0:57
  ears daily. Interested in creating your own
• 1:00
  episode? Everyone's welcome to
• 1:02
  participate. Check out the show notes below
• 1:03
  For more information. Now let's get into today's
• 1:06
  topic. Some of you all may be arriving
• 1:11
  at the pen relays, been here for years, but some of you may only
• 1:14
  have gotten here this year. And so a little bit about our
• 1:17
  brand. We have been at the highest
• 1:20
  level in terms of track systems since the 1960s.
• 1:25
  So we are the oldest track system in the world and have
• 1:30
  been at the Olympics, you know, beginning in Mexico City of
• 1:33
  1968. So we have been really, really
• 1:36
  fortunate to to have our brand out there.
• 1:40
  And, and one of the things that has been great here in the most
• 1:44
  recent past is for us to be able to make connections with some of
• 1:48
  the folks that recognized the brand from those days and could
• 1:52
  stand by it. And one of those was obviously
• 1:56
  Greg and his team at AP Ranch here most recently at Texas
• 2:00
  Christian University where we did an install of our jail
• 2:04
  series, but also at a great facility down in Florida called
• 2:08
  IMG Academy. IMG Academy obviously has great
• 2:13
  athletes coming out of there and all kinds of different sports.
• 2:17
  And from a track perspective, that's no different.
• 2:20
  We have a gentleman here, Bill Lawson, who's going to speak to
• 2:23
  us, who's got a long history in the Track World as a head coach.
• 2:28
  He's doing great things down at IMG and we're so grateful to
• 2:32
  have him. So, Bill, thank you so much.
• 2:35
  Thank you very much. Well, my biggest concern is not
• 2:39
  getting up here talking to folks.
• 2:40
  Lamont knows I love to talk. I was just wondering if I could
• 2:44
  pop up on the stage without any difficulties and after
• 2:47
  especially saw the two young ladies that talked about
• 2:49
  injuries. So I'm just glad to make it up
• 2:52
  here. You just mentioned, first of
• 2:55
  all, Tim, thanks. You just mentioned the 68
• 2:57
  Olympics. You know, for me, I've been as
• 3:00
  an collegiate athlete and a coach, this is my 51st year
• 3:06
  between being an athlete at the university level and coaching,
• 3:10
  46 years in the coaching business.
• 3:12
  I really fell in love with track and field during the 68
• 3:15
  Olympics. One young, some of us older
• 3:17
  folks noticed the first time was televised worldwide and was also
• 3:21
  in Technicolor and the first time they ever had slow MO where
• 3:26
  you could see things happening in slow motion.
• 3:29
  And I just thought, wow, this is the greatest thing in the world
• 3:32
  is something I think I really want to do.
• 3:34
  And I never seeing them talk about the 1500 meters and the
• 3:38
  and the metric mile being under 4 minutes.
• 3:40
  I go, wow, I wonder how fast I can run a mile.
• 3:44
  So I went outside with the yardstick measured how far it
• 3:47
  was around our house and how many times I'd have to go along
• 3:51
  around the place to to run a mile.
• 3:53
  And I got about four or five times around my grandmother came
• 3:55
  out and goes what the HEU doing coming after me with the Willow
• 3:59
  stick say I was running through her flower garden, which I was,
• 4:03
  and that into that dream pretty quickly.
• 4:05
  But it was a lot of fun anyway. So I started my career, grew up
• 4:09
  in Illinois as high school track athlete and you can imagine over
• 4:13
  51 years I've been on every surface in the world, starting
• 4:17
  with asphalt to cross cinder brick, red brick obviously.
• 4:21
  And we ran on actually a record tan track at the University of
• 4:25
  Northern Iowa where I went to school as a multiple time all
• 4:27
  American and had a fairly decent career there.
• 4:31
  I quickly realized with the the great speakers up here today
• 4:35
  that had an unbelievable Greg and everybody else athletic
• 4:39
  background. And I'm not up here.
• 4:40
  There's so much talk about my athletic background, but with my
• 4:43
  experience in different tracks and and as a head coach.
• 4:47
  So I want to thank you for for letting me do that.
• 4:51
  Started the University of Northern Iowa, went up into the
• 4:54
  Minnesota schools for while. Came back to Northern Iowa where
• 4:57
  my good buddy 9 Chris Buckman, who just retired from Arkansas,
• 5:01
  we saw that place through for 17 years and we got what I think
• 5:06
  was 19, 98. Dick Roberts, former coach at
• 5:11
  FSU, was selling Southwest track and that was I believe a
• 5:15
  byproduct of of the record tan. And we loved that.
• 5:19
  We won a conference championship the first time on that.
• 5:22
  Then I moved out to the University of Oregon by coach
• 5:24
  for six years and then came back out to Kent State University for
• 5:29
  17 years and after those 17 years had a lot of success
• 5:33
  there. I retired from Division One
• 5:35
  coaching, moved down to Florida. Lamont, how many days later was
• 5:40
  it? 543 days later, I got a call
• 5:43
  from IMG said, hey, we need a coach to fix our mental
• 5:46
  distance, distance program. It's OK.
• 5:50
  And I didn't really ask how much money I was going to get paid,
• 5:52
  which I should have. I didn't ask what I was going to
• 5:56
  be coaching, which I should have.
• 5:58
  And but also, I said you guys have medical.
• 6:03
  They said, yeah, I said I'm in. All right.
• 6:06
  So I got to renegotiate that contract at some point, but I'm
• 6:09
  definitely in. But it's been, it's been a
• 6:11
  blessing in my coaching career to be in this business.
• 6:14
  You know, like I said, as a college athlete and a coach for
• 6:17
  51 years, I've seen a lot as some of you have too.
• 6:21
  And I, I would be remissed if I couldn't say a few things.
• 6:25
  One thing I want to agree with what Greg said.
• 6:28
  These athletes today a little different than us like that we
• 6:31
  were 40-50 years ago. They want to know that you can
• 6:34
  when they care what you know. That's absolutely 100% true.
• 6:38
  And, and I feel that, you know, as a, as a now, I guess a high
• 6:42
  school coach, I started my first couple years in high school, did
• 6:45
  the collegiate thing for 41 years and back into this Academy
• 6:49
  business. Kids need that a firm.
• 6:52
  You got to affirm to them that they are good people, that
• 6:55
  you're going to help them out and help them through any
• 6:57
  situation possible because they're going to run a lot, a
• 7:01
  lot harder for you. I've lived my life and my
• 7:04
  coaching career by a book that I read in the early 2000s.
• 7:08
  Some of you may have read it good to great.
• 7:10
  It's one of the thing. It's one thing to be good.
• 7:12
  It's another thing to be great and the things we have to do to
• 7:15
  be great and if we want to be great, we have to be able to
• 7:19
  train on not only first class facilities, but also train with
• 7:22
  good coaching and have that hard desire to be good.
• 7:25
  So I really want to recognize Tim for you putting the deal
• 7:30
  together because you've worked with my son TJ and with all the
• 7:34
  people at IMG Academy. It was not easy for what I
• 7:38
  understand because I would call my son TJ and I go see what's
• 7:42
  going on. Oh, Dad, you won't believe it.
• 7:44
  You won't believe that stuff that went down today.
• 7:46
  I go tell him he spilled the tea and he'd tell me.
• 7:48
  And then I go, OK, we're going to make it happen.
• 7:50
  But Tim, you know, Vice President Rakutan has done a
• 7:53
  wonderful job. We appreciate the relationship.
• 7:55
  Also our project manager, Tim Wilson, he, we just called him
• 8:01
  the tall guy. And it was funny because my son
• 8:05
  is 6 foot 8 and I think Tim's about 6 foot 8 as well.
• 8:08
  That guy. I believe in service and loyalty
• 8:13
  retention, just like my good friend Mike Cunningham here.
• 8:17
  I've been with you how long? Like 30 years, Gil, ever since
• 8:20
  we didn't hire you at Oregon. I I promised I wouldn't do that.
• 8:26
  And bottom line is those guys were wonderful.
• 8:29
  But also should also mention Pat Hooks did a did a wonderful job.
• 8:34
  Reggie or sales manager and Mary Beth, where are you at?
• 8:37
  Are you still in here? Mary Beth did a great job of, of
• 8:41
  getting the relay batons force for our, for our Under Armour
• 8:46
  national meet, which is good by the way, at the end of May, we
• 8:49
  are going to be lit up running a National Championship meet at at
• 8:54
  Bradenton, FL. It's going to be a three day
• 8:57
  meet, not a four day meet. And there's going to be some
• 8:59
  extreme talent if you check that UA website right now, extreme
• 9:03
  talent that's coming in. We're also going to have a
• 9:06
  professional 800 race for the guys and for the girls.
• 9:09
  It's me totally live. But also thank you for that S
• 9:12
  Mary Beth, and also the good work that you did with Gill
• 9:15
  Athletics and helping us with those lane markers.
• 9:18
  We appreciate that as well. And the logoing, the guy I
• 9:23
  really enjoyed and I, and I'm not even talking about how much
• 9:27
  we appreciate the Wreckatan, the product and G13 series.
• 9:31
  The guy I really hooked up with was, was Mike, our painter.
• 9:35
  He was an absolute blast in this entire crew, not only the crew
• 9:40
  to put the track in. Hold on to your hats, guys and
• 9:42
  ladies. They did it in 18 days from
• 9:46
  start to finish, 18 days. But it's not OK.
• 9:51
  Listen, it's not typical. We know that.
• 9:54
  And I said I was going to say it's not to, but we were on a
• 9:57
  time zone, a time crunch at IMG. And I don't know how they did
• 10:01
  it. I don't know how they afforded
• 10:02
  it. We afforded it, but but it got
• 10:04
  done. And I just want to say heck of a
• 10:06
  job getting that done. And so so we, we, we got that
• 10:11
  done in those eighteen days. Right now Big Mike is back down
• 10:14
  at IMG Academy because they've come back in to put the G13
• 10:18
  system on our Jawan runway. The area around the shop foot
• 10:22
  and the hammer. It is a first class looking
• 10:25
  facility. It's unbelievable, Coach Lamont
• 10:28
  said. Right from me, he's connected to
• 10:30
  all the Sprint coaches in the state of Florida.
• 10:32
  What they say, coach, they came in a very first mate and they
• 10:36
  just go back like this. Go Dang, this is fast, this is
• 10:40
  fast. Our kids are running faster in
• 10:41
  December than they did all last year.
• 10:44
  Our girls on the track. We have the also the new wave
• 10:47
  light system from the Netherlands that again,
• 10:50
  Wreckatan was unbelievable, assisting us on installing that
• 10:55
  and making it perfect, coming back with, you know, product,
• 10:59
  helping us with the product and coming back anything that wasn't
• 11:02
  completely correct. Wreckatan kept back in and fixed
• 11:06
  everything to our our standards. And it was just a wonderful,
• 11:09
  wonderful less than a month working with these guys.
• 11:13
  The painting of the striping was perfect.
• 11:15
  Everything was done to our satisfaction.
• 11:17
  And so far our kids say coach, we feel better and faster on our
• 11:22
  track in practice and then we do it some of the means why?
• 11:25
  Hey, we're going to Penn. Well, same stuff.
• 11:27
  Let's get going. Let's get going.
• 11:29
  But the bottom line is it's been an unbelievable relationship
• 11:33
  with these guys. I, I would highly recommend
• 11:37
  anyone that's thinking about a new track system surface that I
• 11:41
  would highly endorse and recommend record time because it
• 11:44
  has just been amazing for us what the kids have been saying.
• 11:48
  As in the people that come run it at our facility at IMG and
• 11:51
  Brampton, Florida coach. Our kids don't complain about
• 11:54
  how they feel after a hard workout or a hard race.
• 11:57
  They feel like they've recovered.
• 11:59
  And then obviously thrown in our pacing light system and
• 12:01
  everything else go with it. It's just been an unbelievable
• 12:04
  opportunity for our kids to get better.
• 12:06
  And so I want to thank you guys once again for all that stuff.
• 12:10
  So anyway, I will answer any questions.
• 12:13
  I, I, I mean, you can probably tell passion, you know, I
• 12:17
  passion for the sport. I don't know how many more years
• 12:19
  I can do it, but I'm going to continue to do it.
• 12:21
  And I would love to talk to anybody that's considering
• 12:24
  putting a new system because I have been thoroughly impressed,
• 12:28
  as I've said around over 50 years.
• 12:29
  I've seen a lot of different things.
• 12:32
  Like I said, Mike and I have had a great ladyship.
• 12:34
  I'm a Guild guy all the way and and glad to see him front and
• 12:37
  center. But I'd love to answer any
• 12:39
  questions about things you've heard about other tracks.
• 12:42
  I think the biggest thing I would just say it's got the gel
• 12:46
  which gives it this nice feel to it, but then we put that coating
• 12:51
  on the top. It hardens up the top end of so
• 12:53
  we get that high performance return back as well.
• 12:56
  And our kids are running lights out fast on this track right
• 13:00
  now. Lights out.
• 13:01
  I cannot wait. I wish I could pop back in here
• 13:04
  in six weeks after our UA national championship meets of
• 13:07
  see, I told you because it's going to be let at the end of
• 13:11
  the May and we appreciate everything that you guys have
• 13:13
  done. I'd love to talk to any coach or
• 13:15
  answer any questions right now about the product that you know,
• 13:18
  I don't really want to talk about myself.
• 13:19
  I just want to talk about these guys and what they've done for
• 13:23
  us and how good of a partner they were in getting it done in
• 13:28
  a difficult time frame. I'm sure they've been some rules
• 13:31
  to get it done, but they got it done.
• 13:33
  We appreciate it. Thank you to you guys for that.
• 13:37
  Thanks coach, really appreciate all the comments.
• 13:40
  Appreciate your partnership and I am.
• 13:42
  Hey gang, Mike Cunningham here. Hey, I hope you enjoyed this
• 13:45
  episode of the Guild 1918 Project series.
• 13:49
  It's really my mission, my passion to bring you massive
• 13:52
  amounts of value and I hope this one hit the mark.
• 13:56
  The Gilt 1918 Project is really dependent on you if for you to
• 14:00
  build your own episode, to hear your voice, to have your voice
• 14:04
  heard you have something to say and teach other coaches out
• 14:08
  there. So please get a hold of me,
• 14:09
  e-mail, text message, Twitter, smoke signals, get a hold of me
• 14:15
  and let's help create your episode of the Guild 1918
• 14:18
  Project. Hope you enjoy today, they will
• 14:19
  see you tomorrow.