Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / #176: Sam Seemes-USTFCCCA

Transcript

#176: Sam Seemes-USTFCCCA · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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  Welcome to season 3 of gila politics connection podcast.
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  See what today's guest has in store for us.
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  All right, we'll come back here to The Gila flicks.
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  Connections podcast, super excited.
• 0:44
  I know I say that every week, but I really am excited on a
• 0:47
  weekly basis. Today's guest, though he's a, he
• 0:50
  was a coach. He's not a coach today, but he's
• 0:52
  extremely influential, and really instrumental to what we
• 0:57
  do as track coaches on all levels.
• 0:59
  High School College, all the D's and AIA Juco, Etc.
• 1:04
  So, I'm really excited to kind of dig in not only to his past
• 1:07
  and his Trek background but also what the organization does.
• 1:10
  And what it's doing and talk about convention this year.
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  So let's hop right into it. Help me.
• 1:13
  Welcome the CEO. That's some big letters there of
• 1:17
  the u.s. tfcc, a we're going to unpack that.
• 1:19
  We're going to ask him, why so many C's here as well.
• 1:21
  Today we're get all the secrets out today.
• 1:24
  Help me. Welcome the wise, the wonderful
• 1:25
  mr. Sam seemed Sam.
• 1:27
  How are you, sir? I'm great.
• 1:30
  I don't know about wise or wonderful, but I'm great.
• 1:34
  Well, I've known you long enough that I'm allowed to say that
• 1:36
  because it's the truth sir. So, you can take your humility
• 1:40
  somewhere else because I know you too well for that sir, hey,
• 1:43
  you know, the first question Sam that everybody has.
• 1:47
  So the organization is the u.s. tfcc CA and everybody likes to
• 1:52
  make jokes and keep saying the Seas.
• 1:54
  And you know, other people have said, the alphabet crew and all
• 1:57
  this stuff help us unpack So what does u.s. tfcc a stand for
• 2:02
  and why is it important to have those seas in there?
• 2:07
  It's important because it's inclusive when I got hired in
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  January of 2005 or garden December of 04 and started.
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  In January of, I felt like there was a lot of division, not that
• 2:23
  they're still in some some today.
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  And so when we recreated the organization and or really
• 2:32
  reorganized your organization and recreated the Name.
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  I felt that we needed to be very inclusive, and we are one of
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  those sports, that's kind of a mixed bag to a certain extent,
• 2:46
  but it's definitely tracking feel as definitely curved cross
• 2:50
  country. There's a big crossover between
• 2:52
  coaches doing both and felt like those Sports needed to unite.
• 2:58
  So, that's exactly how that name came about, to specify that it
• 3:05
  It's track and field across country and its coaches.
• 3:09
  I love that and definitely, you know, for me coaches to me is
• 3:11
  the most popular, most important, see in there.
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  I don't want to get too far ahead because we want to learn
• 3:17
  about you, Sam. But so, when you started in 05,
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  was it the UST FCA? Did they not have CC in there at
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  all? Was that part of the Rebrand,
• 3:26
  right? It was going to check my memory
• 3:29
  here but it was United States track coaches, coaches
• 3:33
  association OU SPCA. So, not even so we didn't even
• 3:38
  have field and cross country in the name.
• 3:40
  No. Oh wow.
• 3:41
  Yeah, very cool. Let's good.
• 3:44
  Hit see. I've learned something already
• 3:45
  in the first three minutes. I, you know, I knew that see
• 3:47
  that's why I say why is you know all the stuff we're going to
• 3:49
  unlock all the memories here today Sam it's a little bit
• 3:53
  interesting in that there have been several predecessor
• 3:57
  organizations and track and field really kind of
• 4:04
  represented. I think they're across was mixed
• 4:07
  into that at the time it just wasn't specified.
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  But predecessor organizations of this went back all the way to
• 4:16
  the 1938 Collegian coaches association.
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  We could track coach Associates had a number of names and
• 4:25
  obviously it was pretty much all volunteer.
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  Leadership kind of thing is think back to your high school
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  senior class. You had a president a vice
• 4:34
  president. Secretary-treasurer kind of
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  thing. And that's pretty much how how
• 4:39
  this worked until I got hired as supposedly a full-time employee
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  as a full-time employee. But there was no money to do any
• 4:49
  payback it at the time but there was a number of predecessor
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  organizations all the way back to 38.
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  I've heard some folks say George Dale's and many people knew and
• 5:02
  was work around Association for For years and was a historian
• 5:08
  that it was actually, the first coaches association.
• 5:12
  I can't say it. I've verified that, but I
• 5:15
  certainly put a lot of credence and what George had to just say,
• 5:19
  well I think George is middle. Name was historian so checks.
• 5:23
  Yeah, absolutely. And and that makes sense in the
• 5:25
  sport of track and field. You know, we go back to our
• 5:28
  heritage heritage with here. Egill, he started, I think it
• 5:31
  was 1919, the first NCAA Championship.
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  The first track and field and say a championship.
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  The first ever anything NCAA Championship.
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  Obviously, it happened to be track and field so it makes
• 5:43
  sense that track would lead and as we lead in national
• 5:46
  championships and now we make a perfect sense that we would lead
• 5:49
  in a coach's Organization for the sport.
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  Yeah. And That Was Then, 1921 actually
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  only one ended. Our son was held in Chicago.
• 5:59
  Yeah. And you know names like Harry
• 6:02
  Gil. He was part of the bleep.
• 6:04
  Harry was a coach at Illinois. Oh, and they won the first, they
• 6:07
  won. The first championships.
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  Course is a men's only Championship then, but a name
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  that people connect with football more than they do
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  track, but Amos Alonzo Stagg was one of the organizers of it as
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  well and I'm sorry, I'm not a better historian like George was
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  but there was another another what we recognize as a football
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  coach named but really was another person who started that
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  Along with the gentleman Thomas Jones, who was the track coach
• 6:41
  and athletic director at Wisconsin.
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  So that group really started NCAA championships and it was
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  the first of any NCAA Sport. And you may remember last year
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  was actually the hundredth year of the, of the Championships.
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  There was a couple of years that were missed one, there was a
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  warrior missed and unfortunately, in 20 we also
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  missed because of of It but it was 100 ition back last year.
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  Well I do love that, you know, Harry Gill and others, you know
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  said hey let's get together and have a national championship and
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  lo and behold Harry gills. Team one.
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  I like that. That's very convenient.
• 7:20
  I love that good planning. But yeah, exactly.
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  They wanted to start in 20, but he didn't think his team was
• 7:26
  strong enough. So he's like, that's wait till
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  next year, boys. Okay.
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  Let's let's put a pin there and you asked if CA because we could
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  do the whole podcast just on the It's an amazing and obviously
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  you know someone who loves track and field coach has, I could
• 7:39
  talk 100 days in a row on you know what we do as an
• 7:42
  organization and help the profession grow forward.
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  Let's take a step back Sam. So you're the leader of the u.s.
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  tfcc a you're uniquely positioned to be this position
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  that you're in. I think that's probably why.
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  You were the first full-time, Valen paid CEO there, talk to
• 8:00
  us, about your background and track and field where you an
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  athlete? A coach.
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  Ater kind of run us through your kind of history there with this
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  sport. Well, I would say this won't be
• 8:11
  the most exciting part of our conversation today.
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  But I grew up in a really small town in Kentucky.
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  We had 496 people and the city had its own red on red light.
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  There was one. So you know, Sports were what
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  people did in Kentucky, it was a basketball state back then, for
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  sure. And even though you live in a
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  small town you know we had 496 people in town but our 2500
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  seeds. Wow.
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  So, you know things revolved around Sports and and school and
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  in the little community. So you played every every every
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  sport. I like them all.
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  I don't know of any that I didn't didn't like, but I really
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  got driven into track and that we had a pastor to move into
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  what town and his son was is a pretty good high school pole
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  vaulter. This is back in the 1960s, in
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  Kentucky, which track wasn't it big in?
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  But he had jumped like 13 feet, something High School in the
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  vault. And so, just as something to do
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  on a summer day, got into, you know, we'd watch this kid job
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  and then others of us started to kind of, you know, John from
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  swing on a steel, steel pole. And had great sawdust landing
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  area to land in and I got more immersed in it and it then, and
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  Guy semi good for the area of that.
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  I that I lived in and got more immersed in it and just really
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  liked it. My first year in college.
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  I went out for the track team at Western Kentucky quickly found
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  out that I wasn't very good and so I ended up the last four
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  years that I was at Western being the track manager and
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  Western Kentucky, especially back in the seventies you there
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  there wasn't much of a staff, there was a coach and an
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  assistant coach and both of them had teaching teaching
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  responsibilities, even though our teams were really good back,
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  then both cross and and tracked. And so I wouldn't say that I was
• 10:39
  a coach but I got some responsibilities because I would
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  oversee an area or something for a while because just, you know,
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  so that the kids had some oversight and Direction.
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  I'd be a stretch to say that. I was coaching well and I love
• 10:54
  that. You are a pole vaulter.
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  I mean of all the events that I could have pegged you for Sam, I
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  would not have pegged. You as one of the, the uniques,
• 11:01
  the pole vaulter. That's, that's amazing.
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  And a steel pole, vault pole vaulter for crying out loud.
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  Oh yeah, it was great. Well, it's fiberglass.
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  I did jump on a fiberglass my senior year, but I don't know
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  that treated it much different than yeah.
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  Right. So when steel pole, when you
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  went away, Esther, Kentucky and eventually became the track
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  manager. And we're, you know, again
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  staffs are real small, not only were staff small, they were
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  doing they were teachers as well, like you mentioned, what
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  were you going like? What did you think?
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  Your career was going to be? What did you go to school to
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  become? And then how did that get
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  derailed? And now you're the CEO of usdf
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  season CA and absolutely no idea what I went to school for other
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  than it was kind of the thing to think thing, too.
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  And thing to do. And I did, I mean, I went to
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  school at Western Kentucky, it was 25 miles from where from
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  where I live where I live I guess I always thought that I'd
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  be a, you know, maybe a high school coach for something back
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  in the day cuz it's kind of what people did seem like it were in
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  athletics. But I good or bad.
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  I really had no aspirations. I've just you know I got to
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  school, I found out there were professional Feels and avenues
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  that I never heard of, you know, I was lucky to grow up in a
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  really small town, didn't think. So, at the time, but, you know,
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  small towns, kind of protect its inhabitants and, but you're
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  pretty restricted what times in a small town, unless you're just
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  some really brilliant person. And today you probably got more
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  Avenues and we had back then when there was no internet and I
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  think we got to TV channels or whatever.
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  But you know it's just a lot of things that you didn't know.
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  So when I got to school you know I was find out all these things
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  I'd never heard of before and all these abandoned his butt but
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  I went in really with you know good or bad no expectations or
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  or really Direction. I was 17 when I started college
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  and you know, I wasn't very disciplined and I wasn't very
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  forward forward forward. Thinking either about the
• 13:22
  future, I would I was pretty much not day-to-day, but I love
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  that. Hey some days, I'm like that.
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  So I still today so I get it, I get it.
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  What was it? You said you grew up in a small
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  town you know, 400 almost 500 people.
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  That's my I grew up in less than eight thousand and I know how
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  small that was. So 500 which was basically my
• 13:44
  high school. That's that's not small, that's
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  tiny, you grew up in Kentucky, definitely a basketball state
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  then. Probably could say it's a
• 13:52
  basketball staying. Now the football has gotten
• 13:54
  better and it's a great track steak.
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  So you probably played a lot of different sports.
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  What was it? About track?
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  That kind of hold you in. You could have been a football
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  manager, you could have been a baseball coach, a basketball
• 14:06
  analyst, what was it about track?
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  That was kind of tractor beam em.
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  And that's where you ended up. Ultimately going towards I'm not
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  sure maybe a couple of things, you know, it isn't as I mention
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  I got into pole. Vaulting, you know, had some
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  success. You know, as humans we always
• 14:23
  like to drift toward areas we have success.
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  Also in Louisville Kentucky, they still have it today, I
• 14:31
  think, but it's not like it was they had the Mason-Dixon games
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  and back, then. The Mason-Dixon games were held
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  in the largest arena in the world.
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  Freedom Hall, the first-ever 220 yards.
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  Hard track was what was there and even though, as I said kind
• 14:51
  of a, you know, Town helps raise you a little bit when it's
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  small. My dad passed away when I was 6
• 14:58
  years old. So a lot of people in town kind
• 15:01
  of help take care of me and stuff.
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  And so a couple of people in town took me to the Mason-Dixon
• 15:09
  games early on and I was able to see John Thomas had jump and Bob
• 15:16
  Hayes, run the 60 and tiger bills run.
• 15:20
  And, you know, I saw some stuff that was just fun one.
• 15:24
  You went to a big town to you, went to this huge Arena.
• 15:28
  You saw this sport that probably most people around where I live,
• 15:32
  never even knew existed, indoor track and field on boards and
• 15:35
  stuff. And I don't know, somehow it
• 15:37
  just was appealing appealing to to me, but those are probably
• 15:42
  Really the two things that kind of first got me going down that
• 15:48
  path. And then when I was at Western,
• 15:51
  I got really immersed in it. The head coach there when I
• 15:55
  first got there with dr. Burch Oglesby, who was very
• 15:58
  successful. I forget how many ovc titles
• 16:01
  they won in a in a row and then the second year, I was there dr.
• 16:06
  Ogilvy was has a be department, and he went full-time there and
• 16:10
  they guide by the name of Jerry be.
• 16:13
  He came in as a coach as a coach and he really immersed me in the
• 16:19
  in the sport. And let me get involved in it,
• 16:23
  not just from manager, standpoint, but organization,
• 16:26
  and and doing things. And I just, I don't know.
• 16:31
  It's like a cup of tea, you know, I just like the taste of
• 16:34
  it and it matched in and and we were successful when I was at
• 16:38
  West or not because of me, but we had good.
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  You know, we were second Sixth and Sixth at the Cross Country
• 16:44
  Nationals why I was there? Well, we got one Cross Country
• 16:47
  Nationals one year, we were top 15 top 10 for outdoor track, a
• 16:53
  timer a time or two. So we had a really good program.
• 16:56
  So it's fun to be around that you know, because it was a very
• 17:01
  successful successful program. So I think all that just led to
• 17:06
  get more and more involved and really developing an appetite
• 17:11
  for the Sport. I mean I borrowed a friend of
• 17:15
  mines of Volkswagen Beetle 1972 and drove from Bowling Green
• 17:20
  Kentucky to Eugene Oregon. See the first Olympic trials
• 17:25
  that I'd ever ever seen. So, since 1972, I've been to
• 17:32
  every Olympic trials and I've been to every NCAA outdoor
• 17:36
  Championship. Wow man, Sam, you know one of
• 17:40
  the real blessings for me As the host of the podcast here is
• 17:45
  sometimes, as coaches. We forget why we got into the
• 17:48
  profession and why we got into the to the sport.
• 17:52
  So I love hearing because we don't think about it when you
• 17:54
  were at the Mason-Dixon games and you're watching just
• 17:56
  amazing. I love he said you know, you're
• 17:58
  in a big city you're a little less.
• 17:59
  That was a big deal right there but these experiences that you
• 18:02
  had way back then how they've influenced your life up to
• 18:07
  today. You didn't know what while you
• 18:08
  were in it. But now looking back, you know,
• 18:10
  we have experienced and to look Gone.
• 18:13
  We can see like, oh wow, that was all building to what my
• 18:15
  career was going to end up being, man.
• 18:17
  I love that. It's just so such a great, like,
• 18:19
  peel back of what you think about.
• 18:21
  And think, you know, about people to see like this, this
• 18:24
  spark has been, you know, building and growing through
• 18:27
  many. Many different experiences like
• 18:29
  that. That's amazing.
• 18:30
  So, what was it after? You get through, Western
• 18:32
  Kentucky, obviously had a good experience there that to your
• 18:35
  point about we love, you know, as humans, we kind of like
• 18:37
  success. We like good experiences so you
• 18:40
  sounds like you had a good experience with the track and
• 18:42
  field. World at Western Kentucky.
• 18:44
  What was your first foray into the professional world?
• 18:46
  You go back home and become a farmer or a red light.
• 18:50
  Stop the Fixer-Upper. No.
• 18:54
  Actually the 73 and state championship Outdoors was in
• 19:00
  Baton Rouge at Ella's shoe and they have an eye really nice
• 19:05
  facility now. But then they had a really nice
• 19:08
  facility as far as measuring against against against us.
• 19:12
  It was a standalone wouldn't have football stadium, had a
• 19:16
  double deck Stadium. It was, you know, really nice
• 19:20
  and I thought, man here, be a great place to go for track and
• 19:22
  field and actually that summer the head coaching position came
• 19:28
  open there and gentleman by the name of Bill McClure who had
• 19:33
  been at Abilene Christian back in the days of Bobby Morrow.
• 19:38
  And all those successful Abilene Christian teams, he was an
• 19:41
  assistant to To to Oliver. Gosh, what was Oliver's last?
• 19:48
  I can't remember. But anyhow, he was a coach at
• 19:50
  South Carolina and LSU hired him to come in and Bill was putting
• 19:55
  a staff together, but believe it or not, it LSU in 1976, when I
• 19:59
  went there in the fall, they had a full-time head coach, they had
• 20:05
  a part-time assistant coach. No, women just a men's program
• 20:10
  that was in a graduate assistant and so I got brought in as a
• 20:16
  graduate assistant and then the after doing that for two years,
• 20:21
  I got hired full time to be an assistant.
• 20:27
  So now they had two full-time full-time, assistants.
• 20:31
  And so, that's how I got into coaching and also into LSU and
• 20:39
  kind of first job out out of college where you primarily
• 20:42
  coaching vaulters and jumpers or what were you working with?
• 20:45
  No, I coach. The the throws.
• 20:49
  Hmm. Yeah.
• 20:50
  Now how did almost a how did you do that?
• 20:52
  And what I mean by that is what kind of coaching education.
• 20:56
  What were you like? How did you go into throws?
• 20:58
  Or did we miss that? Where you kind of doing that in
• 20:59
  Western Kentucky as well. You mentioned going to different
• 21:01
  groups to be there. Well, Western Kentucky, we had
• 21:05
  some really good throwers. We actually had Three guys who
• 21:09
  throw over 60 and in the shot and the early early 70s.
• 21:15
  We had two guys who threw over 200 feet in the in the in the
• 21:18
  discus or very strong in the jab.
• 21:22
  And the glad it got maybe through 220 or something of that
• 21:24
  sort. But that was an area that I
• 21:27
  spend a lot of time with on the field when I was at Western.
• 21:33
  I would say, most of the things that I learned one from coaches
• 21:38
  Edge, Cage, that was from coaches and and and prague's,
• 21:43
  Jerry Bean, who was a head coach?
• 21:44
  That was really good about taking me places.
• 21:48
  He had a lot of friends and the coaching world and you know, I
• 21:54
  was just the guy over on the side listening to these people
• 21:57
  talk about, you know, training or meats or throwing.
• 22:00
  And who knows? Who knows what?
• 22:02
  So it's just more picking picking things up and things I
• 22:06
  saw at. Western be an assistant coach
• 22:10
  there. When I first went, there named
• 22:12
  Alan launder who was from Great Britain, who was a really,
• 22:17
  really good. Technical coach saw a lot of
• 22:20
  things that that he did. He was later on when the
• 22:23
  national coaches and Australia, Australia.
• 22:27
  So, just kind of picking things picking things up along the
• 22:31
  along, the way, along the way. So, but I definitely wasn't
• 22:36
  wasn't wasn't School. In coaching other than
• 22:40
  observation conversation that sort of thing the state of
• 22:45
  Louisiana. If you're not familiar with the
• 22:47
  state of Louisiana, you might not know this but it's
• 22:51
  culturally a really strong track coaches culture.
• 22:57
  I noticed a culture twice there, you know, the sport is very,
• 23:00
  very healthy in the state of Louisiana and it's because there
• 23:03
  are some coaches and when I say some it's five handfuls of
• 23:07
  coaches. That are really know their stuff
• 23:09
  in really do a good job of. I'm gonna say, coaching,
• 23:13
  education of spreading some formal, and some not formal, but
• 23:15
  just some amazing, you know, boo schexnayder has come from their
• 23:17
  Tommy, but Don, I'm just about people that I even know it, it's
• 23:20
  it goes before them, was it like that when you were there like
• 23:24
  where they're, you know, Dave Anderson's.
• 23:25
  I'm sticking up, like, there's just some unbelievable
• 23:27
  tahliejohn tally. Just amazing coaches, that have
• 23:30
  given themselves and their education to others and have
• 23:34
  received education from others. Was it like that back then or
• 23:37
  did that grow from? this time of LSU being really
• 23:39
  strong another state schools in the state being strong, there
• 23:44
  were some good High School coaches when I came to Louisiana
• 23:47
  and fall of 7076 and for the size of the state, some really,
• 23:54
  really good, you know, athletes, I don't know that it was really
• 24:01
  coach education driven as much as maybe they'd had a good coach
• 24:06
  in high school and And then some of them obviously traded
• 24:10
  information back and back and forth and you know had some
• 24:15
  success. Also I think originally back
• 24:19
  then was still in the area where the head football coach was a
• 24:23
  track coach at a lot of schools and I know sometimes, you know,
• 24:30
  and try, you know, we're quick to criticize football sometimes,
• 24:34
  but one of the things that football coaches brought Brock
• 24:38
  track back in the day as most football, coaches are pretty
• 24:42
  organized and some of that overcomes complete EXO, not
• 24:51
  knowledge. So I think a lot of people were
• 24:54
  able to coach some Advance because they learned
• 24:59
  organization and if they got a good athlete and they start to
• 25:03
  dig into that event more, find out about it to be able to help
• 25:07
  out that That's to that student. So but yeah, it was Jonas, had
• 25:12
  good eye. Good High School, coaches,
• 25:14
  probably more more today and especially for a steak that, you
• 25:20
  know, tracks not monster emphasized here, but a lot of
• 25:25
  people going out and really done a, just just really done a good
• 25:29
  job. And a lot of those coaches that
• 25:31
  were good have stayed as track coaches.
• 25:35
  You know, there are several I could go through a name it.
• 25:38
  They Coached high school track for 40, some years and they
• 25:41
  weren't just throwing a baton out and saying, hey, for
• 25:44
  practice a little bit today, they were actually they were
• 25:47
  actually coaching and so I think some of that has has bled over
• 25:55
  over over time. Yeah, I think, you know,
• 25:57
  Louisiana as a state is not one of the most populous states out
• 26:01
  there, as we think, about off California, Texas at cetera, but
• 26:05
  I think it over achieves in the amount of Has who coach the
• 26:10
  coach if you will not just coach on the field?
• 26:12
  But, you know, help out with coaching education and things
• 26:14
  like that just quite amazing, the actual culture inside of
• 26:19
  coaching and coaching education in that state.
• 26:21
  I just, I just love it. It's amazing.
• 26:23
  Well, how long were you remember the exact year?
• 26:25
  But I think it was probably about 80 to could have been
• 26:28
  before. That thing is about a 2.
• 26:31
  We actually got together where the guy who coached her longtime
• 26:35
  coach unfortunately passed away in a running goal. was a trauma
• 26:39
  high school and we formed Louisiana, high school, track,
• 26:43
  coaches association and started having clinics and things of
• 26:48
  that sort in a meeting once a year and some stuff of that sort
• 26:53
  that they still have that today and it's grown and I think that
• 26:58
  helped to a certain certain degree, it certainly given a
• 27:01
  pathway for those who are really interested to, you know, to get
• 27:05
  to get involved and In know, when Bill McClure's here, one of
• 27:10
  the first things we did in 78 was we started because LSU was
• 27:16
  fortunate. I wanted first indoor facilities
• 27:18
  in the South. We started an indoor High School
• 27:21
  meet and you know kids started coming from all over.
• 27:27
  So track got you know, widened out over the year that people
• 27:31
  were involved in it and then we started a State High School
• 27:36
  indoor meet Got together with the LHS AA.
• 27:41
  Got them to support it and we put it on and finance it and
• 27:44
  stuff started that probably about 81 or so I may be off a
• 27:50
  year or two. So all those things I think of
• 27:52
  added to contributing. So some of those coaches, you
• 27:57
  know, they had more of a year to work with some students and more
• 27:59
  beer to get involved in track. And I think that's helped a lot
• 28:03
  of a lot of folks. You know, a lot of folks out
• 28:06
  every state can point to an Visual.
• 28:08
  But you know like I saw the other day and some ranking
• 28:12
  Jesuit High School in New Orleans.
• 28:14
  Have ranked number two, in the nation and cross country.
• 28:17
  I mean, who are things for cross country?
• 28:18
  Team in high school from Louisiana being really?
• 28:22
  Really, you know, nationally nationally, good, you know.
• 28:28
  And, and there's just, there's a lot of, there's just a lot of
• 28:33
  athletes that have turned out gun, Mondo to plan assist from
• 28:37
  Lafayette. Yeah, I'm here at Louisiana over
• 28:40
  in the middle of the Acadiana and his father, obviously was a
• 28:45
  great, you know, high school, you know, athletes wasn't.
• 28:48
  But there's been, there's been tons of those through though.
• 28:52
  Yeah, through the year. I mean through these who years
• 28:56
  down here. So how long were you at LSU?
• 28:58
  And what was next? I was at LSU for for 13 years
• 29:06
  went through. I saw he must have a lot of
• 29:09
  coaches. Well, they really they really
• 29:11
  didn't win less head coaches there.
• 29:15
  Then we did presence of the university and athletic
• 29:18
  directors. Why was there?
• 29:20
  So they change more more more frequently but eventually Bill
• 29:24
  mature male McClure moved from coaching and do it ministration.
• 29:29
  And then Billy Maxwell was hired as a head coach there and then
• 29:37
  he He left, and we had a couple of really bad accidents on the
• 29:43
  team. We had one of our lead officials
• 29:47
  died. We had two student-athletes that
• 29:50
  what year one died in a fire. One died crossing the street
• 29:55
  right off of campus and it's pretty emotional deal and he
• 30:00
  stepped he stepped aside. I was a tantrum for a year and
• 30:04
  then Pat Henry came, you came in and So I left and they're in 80
• 30:13
  after the 80s 89 88 season and did nothing for for a few months
• 30:20
  trying to figure out where I was going to going to go platform
• 30:23
  few coaching. Jobs, didn't get any sniffs any
• 30:27
  sniffs anywhere. And then a guy who I shared
• 30:32
  office with, when I first went to LSU, he was a wrestling GA.
• 30:37
  I was at Rach GA, he had become, they had started a sports
• 30:41
  foundation in New Orleans and he was the chair of the sports
• 30:47
  foundation. And he called me one day and
• 30:50
  said Sammy said the mayor had contacted me because he had had
• 30:55
  a letter sent to him about bidding for 92 Olympic trials,
• 31:01
  and he's interested in bidding on it and we are and hey we
• 31:07
  don't even have a All weather tracking and and what can we
• 31:11
  what can we do to put together? Put together a bid and as well?
• 31:16
  I don't know, but I'll talk to you so.
• 31:18
  So I came down and so I worked as a contract person for them
• 31:23
  for about a year, putting a bid together, going around talking
• 31:27
  to people about it and so on and so forth.
• 31:29
  And we actually got a bid for the host and Olympic trials in
• 31:33
  92. So then I spent two years
• 31:36
  Working Day and Night on that. That trying to put it together
• 31:39
  because we had, we didn't have a stadium.
• 31:41
  We didn't know what, we had one, but it was getting ready to be
• 31:43
  torn down. So we saved it.
• 31:46
  Had no all-weather track had really had no money and an
• 31:49
  organization. So it was it was one of those
• 31:53
  great life experiences where you got to build something and also
• 31:57
  interact with people get people on board, everybody kind of
• 32:01
  tugging in the same direction and and so I did that for a
• 32:05
  little over a little over 22. Are some getting that getting
• 32:09
  that together. So let me make sure I get this
• 32:11
  right because this sounds Preposterous am, did I hear you
• 32:15
  say you went to go over C and help bring the Olympic trials to
• 32:19
  a town that had no track, no stain.
• 32:23
  And you got it. The secret like the impossible
• 32:26
  task here. People were pretty pretty
• 32:30
  shocked. There were the bids Were Like Us
• 32:35
  Eugene. Oregon.
• 32:37
  Not Knoxville Tennessee, Durham North Carolina.
• 32:42
  And I'll see you at all. And you know, all had all had
• 32:48
  stadiums and some history and so on and so forth.
• 32:53
  But New Orleans least our sales pitch was we had a lot of things
• 33:00
  going going for us, we they had hosted Super Bowls at that time
• 33:07
  that Hosted final fours. They had hosted Republican
• 33:11
  National Convention. You know, we had hotels we sold
• 33:16
  we had weather like Barcelona. We were hot humid Barcelona was
• 33:20
  going to be like that and that it would be more than a track
• 33:24
  meet. It would be an event and we
• 33:27
  stayed by that and We sold it and sold it and sold it and good
• 33:33
  or bad, you know, they bought it.
• 33:36
  I remember we went to this, the Athletics Congress back then we
• 33:40
  went to the tack convention. Skies name was Mike, Malay, who
• 33:44
  was my former suitemate at LSU and Mike and I the mayor gave us
• 33:51
  twenty five thousand dollars and we went to the tack convention
• 33:57
  in Washington. D.c. it was in the Hyatt Hotel.
• 33:59
  Hotel or next to the Capitol and we took up shrimp and oh what do
• 34:08
  they have it? The drinks at Pat O'Brien's has
• 34:11
  hurricanes and served them all over the all over the place, and
• 34:16
  got people's attention, one way or the other.
• 34:19
  And I remember Owen Cassell. Who was the head of attack at
• 34:24
  that time, former Olympian ran at University of Houston?
• 34:29
  And he came up to me said, what the heck you guys going to do
• 34:33
  have this in? Ted, Gormley stadium and we said
• 34:36
  exactly that's where we're going to have it.
• 34:38
  Well, hold on new tag normally Stadium.
• 34:41
  Because when he was in Houston, that's where the Sugar Bowl
• 34:45
  track meet was that was December every year which was a big meet
• 34:48
  back in the day and that's where he'd come to come to run.
• 34:52
  And I think a lot about fell over when we said when we said
• 34:56
  that because right new tech normally wasn't in the best
• 34:58
  shape. Back when he was he was running
• 35:01
  which was in the early 60s or so.
• 35:04
  So it was all, it was all fun. It was a, it was a learning
• 35:07
  experience, a city really got behind it.
• 35:10
  I actually think people in New Orleans thought, the Olympic
• 35:12
  Games were coming here, so it was upset that we that we got
• 35:17
  it. I'm not Eugene, you throw a
• 35:20
  great great paper covering track that covered track, the old and
• 35:25
  Athletics, the Register Guard. And during Year build up in 92,
• 35:32
  they actually sent a photographer and a reporter down
• 35:37
  here at spent the entire week, going around, trying to figure
• 35:41
  out what we had done to get the to get the get the bid, your
• 35:46
  assignment come friends with, well, a lot of people in Eugene,
• 35:49
  but especially that right, that writer.
• 35:52
  And we've laughed about that several times.
• 35:54
  Was that, that? I don't know, I can't name very
• 35:56
  many writers, but can go is top of mind.
• 35:59
  I had was a kin or who L cameras at the Argonian and for Curtis
• 36:05
  Anderson and oh gosh, I think Ron Bellamy yeah.
• 36:11
  Okay, so is so you pull the times you pull off the Hail
• 36:18
  Mary, Hail Marys. You sell a track meet.
• 36:20
  Nah, I'm sorry. Not a track meet the Olympic
• 36:23
  trials. Your competitors are Knoxville.
• 36:27
  Come on track. I'm going to subtract on USA.
• 36:29
  A very great track area and track culture organ.
• 36:33
  What else needs to be? Said, Seattle, and you pull it
• 36:36
  off with a great city that has no track or really Stadium at
• 36:40
  that point. What a Hail Mary and a
• 36:42
  connection. That's amazing.
• 36:44
  After that experience, when you started looking for the next
• 36:47
  thing, did you did you kind of have a little bit of a Superman
• 36:49
  complex, like man, if I can do this, I can do anything no
• 36:55
  Superman and Superman in my mind or body don't match up.
• 37:00
  Don't match up at all. I just it was just a great was
• 37:04
  just a great. It was just great.
• 37:06
  It's just a great experience but I didn't I didn't get any head
• 37:10
  swell. Now, I know you know you know
• 37:12
  what, I just thought about, I bet you much like you describe
• 37:17
  your experience of like the Mason-Dixon games of going there
• 37:20
  and seeing Bullet, Bob Hayes and other amazing and getting to
• 37:24
  compete their etcetera. I bet you there is a good
• 37:27
  number. Not one.
• 37:28
  I bet you. There's a number of Kids that
• 37:31
  were at that Olympic trials and New Orleans and would not have
• 37:34
  been able to go to Knoxville and Seattle and you g like they
• 37:37
  lived right there. This is only time.
• 37:39
  They are going to see a big meat like that that have gone on to
• 37:42
  become amazing track coaches and teachers I just bet it.
• 37:45
  I bet there are people that were like man this was right here in
• 37:47
  my hometown and I fell in love with the sport and I decided
• 37:50
  right then and there I was going to become a track athlete or a
• 37:53
  track coach. I bet you, you know, you and
• 37:56
  your group, the group that all did this, you affected a lot of
• 37:59
  Change specifically in that area and in the states, quite
• 38:02
  amazing. Well, it's possible and then we
• 38:06
  read it. We did a stadium that was built
• 38:10
  back in here in the WPA projects and the third and authorities.
• 38:15
  You know, like said they were getting ready to demolish it.
• 38:17
  I'm not sure they could have because probably got more cement
• 38:20
  and iron in it than a Ford Taurus does have.
• 38:24
  But one of the things that we also did was we built the full,
• 38:29
  we call it practice track, but as a full, eight Lane track with
• 38:33
  all the field, It's and so on and so forth.
• 38:35
  That was just open so people could go out there and run at
• 38:39
  any time of day or night and it gave all the high schools around
• 38:44
  here, a place to go and go and practice and stuff like that.
• 38:48
  So I think some of those things did help community-wise out
• 38:52
  because it gives more access to people to facilities and so on
• 38:57
  and so forth. It's my favorite Park in the
• 38:59
  whole world for that track is because it's the only Park City
• 39:02
  Park whatever. In the world, I'll say the
• 39:05
  United States at least where there's a sign that says hey
• 39:08
  watch out for Hammer throwing? That's like, what a great Park.
• 39:12
  No one else has that like you gotta you gotta heads up and
• 39:14
  look out around here man. I love it.
• 39:16
  Yeah. So what was the next adventure?
• 39:20
  Actually, a few months after the the trials, I went to work for a
• 39:26
  group called Martin Short Martin surfacing.
• 39:28
  Hmm, got a name, John Beynon own and I work for for them up until
• 39:37
  that company changed hands about oh I don't know seven eight
• 39:42
  years seven, eight years later, down the road and worked on
• 39:48
  doing layout. For running tracks and selling
• 39:52
  son, running tracks around around the country, most some
• 39:56
  some overseas, but mostly within the mostly within the US.
• 40:00
  Oh, and the bait. Mainly International know I was
• 40:04
  saying to us, but we do it in the Caribbean and South America
• 40:08
  Central America, okay? Yeah, area because they were
• 40:11
  trying to grow and Venture Mentor out some.
• 40:15
  And then later on, I went to work for a group.
• 40:19
  Up out of Italy called called Mondo at the same thing with
• 40:24
  them. But just in the just in the in
• 40:27
  the you in the u.s. in Canada a little bit.
• 40:31
  So did that for another five years or so?
• 40:35
  And then I think internally the or organization of proceeding
• 40:42
  this. They some of the coaches had
• 40:45
  decided they wanted to try to move to a full-time person And
• 40:50
  try to drive more of a structured organization at that
• 40:54
  time. So they had a search committee
• 41:00
  to look for people and they approached me about interest and
• 41:09
  talk to them and I kind of had an interest, I kind of didn't
• 41:13
  had have interest but I I was very curious about the Position,
• 41:20
  what could be done, what couldn't be done, sort of thing
• 41:25
  and So eventually they offered me the job and I took it
• 41:34
  probably followed my heart a lot more than my brain at the, at
• 41:40
  the time, I knew quite a bit about the situation.
• 41:44
  It was in, I didn't know everything about it.
• 41:49
  But it was it was interesting. So I started and not only, did
• 41:55
  they not have any money, I think they were like twenty eight
• 41:58
  thousand dollars in debt. So we started in the hole and I
• 42:03
  was a single employee and not the smartest guy in the in the
• 42:08
  world. So I went in it, I went into it
• 42:11
  with the attitude is that we're going to build this into
• 42:15
  something or I'm going to make it.
• 42:19
  It crashing Crash and Burn to the ground one way or the other,
• 42:23
  you know, him. No in between and that may sound
• 42:27
  like a bad or an uppity attitude, but I really think
• 42:34
  that's the only way you could kind of approach it because it
• 42:39
  wasn't one of those things you could walk around on eggshells
• 42:41
  about you, had to either, you know, dive in and be willing to
• 42:45
  make mistakes and hoping that you made more good decisions
• 42:48
  than you maybe. And you made a mistake.
• 42:50
  So so that's kind of how how I tried to jump in and charge
• 42:57
  charge forward with that with that, with that at it, with that
• 43:00
  attitude. And then, you know, the first
• 43:04
  year we're trying to get our feet underneath us and I hired a
• 43:12
  person to come and be like in a assistant and fortunately We
• 43:19
  then you can hire somebody pretty cheap.
• 43:22
  I still wasn't paying myself anything and you know here in
• 43:27
  New Orleans. So eight months after that we
• 43:29
  had Katrina hit and we had just moved into the Superdome we're
• 43:35
  working out of my house and then we had just moved into the
• 43:38
  Superdome two weeks before Katrina hit and it kind of got
• 43:43
  set up bought some phones, couple of extra computer stuff
• 43:49
  like And after Katrina, we walked out of there with
• 43:52
  winning, have a foul left kind of thing.
• 43:55
  So as the interesting for our first year but horse that person
• 43:59
  left, as soon as Katrina was over.
• 44:02
  And so we just go he's dug in and and headed forward after
• 44:07
  that with the same attitude of hate going to make this into
• 44:10
  something and or we're going to, we're going to crash and burn.
• 44:16
  One of the two will pause for a second because I have to have
• 44:18
  that ask A selfish question, as a sales professional in the
• 44:22
  sport of track and field not being a coach anymore.
• 44:26
  Same similar path, coach. And then you moved into business
• 44:29
  life, you mentioned. Two companies, Martin servicing
• 44:33
  and mondo with John Beynon. One of the I'm not afraid to say
• 44:37
  it Legends in our sport again, another person that you may not
• 44:41
  know outside of, you know, binding surfacing, which is John
• 44:44
  Beynon, he's an amazing human being, I love that guy to death.
• 44:47
  You mentioned Mondo, John Isaacs.
• 44:49
  I consider like a mentor to me so, you know, two, great
• 44:51
  organizations to great kind of people.
• 44:54
  Staffs support staffs how did you find selling track surface?
• 44:58
  That's a little bit different world than coaching and
• 45:00
  sometimes as coaches we don't even think about it until it's
• 45:03
  time to get a new Surface. How did you enjoy that?
• 45:06
  The sales side of the track and field industry?
• 45:13
  I like it. I wouldn't say I'm a sales
• 45:18
  person and I used to joke. You know, if I would have went
• 45:21
  to the Xerox sales school, they would have kicked me out.
• 45:25
  P on day one. I I'm, I'm a relationship type
• 45:31
  person, I believe in relationships.
• 45:35
  I've always believed in two way streets, that, you know, you
• 45:38
  give and you take, Both parties. And you've got a long long
• 45:42
  relationship and and I'm I'm not a mastermind but I'm a really
• 45:48
  good grunt. I'm good at grunt work and so I
• 45:53
  don't mind mine working so I took sales as just jump in and
• 46:02
  try to work with people and work hard and fortunately that worked
• 46:08
  out for Work or work out for work.
• 46:12
  It worked out for me for for good, for good while it's great
• 46:16
  learning experience doing some just sales in general, which I
• 46:21
  never ever considered doing learned a lot about industry.
• 46:28
  Another side of things that I had never been involved with
• 46:33
  before. So so it was it was it was
• 46:36
  interesting and I think, you know, maybe maybe they I'll tell
• 46:39
  you different, but I think while I was with both companies, we
• 46:42
  were, we had, we had success and, and move, move fault, move
• 46:47
  forward, and did things that maybe they hadn't done before.
• 46:51
  I think that what you just Express their about sales is a
• 46:55
  character not issue. It's a character.
• 46:59
  Think when, you know, because you talked about a win-win, you
• 47:02
  know that, hey, the business has to win, but the customer has to
• 47:04
  win. And if we both win, we can do a
• 47:06
  lot of things for a long time. When we, when we both people in
• 47:09
  the Team can win some, you can win with the other person losing
• 47:14
  but you can't do that for very long and that's sometimes how
• 47:18
  people when they get into sales. And when I say sales here,
• 47:20
  recruiting as well, by the way because that that is sales is,
• 47:25
  you know, hey I want I got this job or whatnot but that other
• 47:28
  person sir doesn't feel good. Well guess what?
• 47:30
  The other person stays in the industry, you ain't in the you
• 47:33
  doing any work with them anymore.
• 47:34
  So I love that when win the hey yo, but both have to win and
• 47:37
  both can be happy walking out of a situation.
• 47:39
  If that occurs more than it doesn't, you can do a lot of
• 47:42
  those things over and over and repeatability.
• 47:44
  There's I think that's a character thing when you
• 47:47
  approach that part of the profession in that manner, Yeah,
• 47:54
  I would I would agree with, you know this, you know people that
• 47:57
  buy things. Even if they don't buy from you,
• 48:03
  they're going to eventually buy something again.
• 48:05
  So you've got another, you know, you've got another shot and and
• 48:09
  everybody's not going to sell everybody, right?
• 48:13
  Right? You know, either as much as much
• 48:15
  as you may may, try different people like different things.
• 48:19
  Different people like to deal with different, with, with
• 48:21
  different different folks, and I know in sales, that's hard for a
• 48:25
  lot of people to swallow, but it's just, you know, it's It's
• 48:31
  the truth and I would say that's something that's pretty factual
• 48:35
  in life across the board. But in sales for sure it's not a
• 48:41
  place you want to be able to yourself.
• 48:43
  Well, I'll alter and add a little bit to what you said
• 48:46
  there. If someone doesn't buy from you
• 48:48
  they're going to buy again. So you'll have another shot.
• 48:50
  If you do the right thing and treat them with respect, no
• 48:53
  matter what their decision is whether they buy from you or
• 48:55
  competitor whatnot. You'll have a shot at that next
• 48:58
  time. Bye.
• 48:58
  If you get all. All caught up in your feelings
• 49:01
  and and feel disrespected. Like it's you that they didn't
• 49:04
  choose and you choose to express that that way.
• 49:07
  You ain't getting the shot at the next one.
• 49:09
  Yeah. So okay, now we're at us tfcc a
• 49:14
  you are in your interview and you tell them, look, we're
• 49:16
  either going to take this to the moon or we're going to bury it
• 49:19
  in the graveyard. I hope that wasn't part of your
• 49:21
  actual interview process talk to us about.
• 49:25
  I don't think I ever had mentioned that I think that was
• 49:27
  just in my nothing about home. In my own mind about once I was
• 49:33
  hired, I don't know what I thought about it before, but I
• 49:36
  think once I was hired, you know, you've got to try and
• 49:39
  figure out a pathway to where you're going.
• 49:42
  And I think that's something that I just realized early on,
• 49:50
  you know, you either got to go left, you got to go right, there
• 49:53
  is no Road Straight Ahead. Yeah, the living in the middle
• 49:56
  is not a great place, right? And we learned this from The
• 49:58
  Karate Kid, we Member what mr. Miyagi said you walk on the
• 50:01
  right side of the road good, you walk on the left side of the
• 50:04
  road good, you walk in the middle of the road, like, great,
• 50:09
  so that's where I learned. That was from mr.
• 50:11
  Miyagi. He taught me so much in my life,
• 50:13
  those movies. Okay.
• 50:15
  So let's set the scene here saying, let's let's repeat it.
• 50:19
  With some of the things you said here we're going into the u.s.
• 50:21
  tfcc a it's not even the u.s. tfcc a at that point, it's not
• 50:25
  it's changing as an organ wants to change as an organization.
• 50:29
  It's in debt. Your first year, I just missed
• 50:35
  it. I moved to Vegas, right.
• 50:36
  As Katrina was hitting so Katrina hits.
• 50:39
  You had offices, things were set up.
• 50:41
  You're like, okay, we're going to, we're going, we're going to,
• 50:43
  we're going to take this rocket to the moon here that all gets
• 50:45
  wiped out. How did you do it?
• 50:47
  Say my there's a lot of excuses to quit right there, by the way,
• 50:50
  how did you keep persevering and build your team that was around
• 50:54
  you to build? What is today?
• 50:57
  The u.s. tfcc a One. I think I ever thought about
• 51:05
  about quitting after Katrina, as far as the New Orleans area was
• 51:12
  concerned. I, I'm single number one, so I
• 51:16
  didn't have a family to take care of, but I had very few
• 51:21
  problems compared to 99% of the people that were around here.
• 51:26
  So one thing I think Trina, You early on was do not have
• 51:34
  sympathy for yourself because the other part you the person
• 51:41
  down the street from you has got it much worse and then you then
• 51:46
  you do so you know you just kind of put your head down and just
• 51:51
  go forward. So I I never really thought
• 51:54
  about quitting. Fortunately, I had a friend in
• 51:58
  Baton Rouge, let me see. Yes, house for a while, and LSU
• 52:04
  was nice, enough to Dennis, Schaefer to let us, let me, let
• 52:09
  me work out of their conference conference room up there because
• 52:14
  we were going to try and have a convention in December, which
• 52:18
  I'll Stand Alone, which would never had before.
• 52:21
  Because the other organization kind of went on the backsides of
• 52:25
  USA TF F convention. So we were doing that for the
• 52:30
  First time something I'd never, you know, put on either.
• 52:34
  And so there was there was there was a lot of things to to be
• 52:39
  done you didn't have time to think about oh should I probably
• 52:42
  ever quit and as a another direction we had started trying
• 52:47
  to get back at that time division, 2 and division 3 in
• 52:54
  the NCAA had funding for indoor track as far as Per diem and
• 53:01
  travel expenses in division. 1, they still did not have per diem
• 53:09
  and travel costs for indoor outdoor track.
• 53:11
  You could choose to take end or you could choose to take out
• 53:14
  door, but you couldn't do you couldn't do both and we were on
• 53:18
  a campaign to try to get that for to be Division 1.
• 53:27
  And there was a gentleman Owen at Quinnipiac who was on the
• 53:33
  back, then they called it in division, one of the
• 53:34
  Championships cabinet, who used to be a track coach at Boston
• 53:39
  College and I found that out. We hooked up, he was in favor of
• 53:46
  it. He helped me quite a bit but
• 53:47
  back then, the Championships cabinet.
• 53:50
  It's been restructured. Now in the NCAA D1 but back then
• 53:53
  had 49 members on it. And so they were I have a vote
• 54:01
  at one of the meetings that fall that fall, and I can remember
• 54:05
  going out and sitting, in my car, probably the third week of
• 54:11
  Katrina because you couldn't use a phone first week or two, but
• 54:15
  once you could get some foam men, I'd go out and set my car
• 54:18
  in the morning to make calls to people who are on this
• 54:22
  championships cabinet trying to plead our Fleet are our case.
• 54:26
  I think I finally talked some of them more than once but I
• 54:29
  finally, Talk to ain't 43 of the 4049, but that's how I'd spend
• 54:33
  my. Spend my morning setting in a
• 54:35
  car, calling it people trying to convince them, that we needed to
• 54:39
  have a back then, a little over a million bucks put toward it's
• 54:43
  more than that now. But then it's million something
• 54:46
  dollars. Put into indoor track cover
• 54:50
  expenses for travel, it's funny because if I talk to 43 I would
• 54:55
  say Thirty and forty three. Just They didn't even know.
• 55:00
  It wouldn't fund it at the time, kind of saying.
• 55:04
  So, you know, there wasn't my point to that is, we did get it
• 55:08
  done, but my point to that is, you don't have time to think
• 55:10
  about what not to do. You just for saying that things
• 55:13
  that you needed needed to do to move forward.
• 55:17
  So, let's talk about two paths with you UST of CCA.
• 55:21
  And when I say you, I know there's a team behind you with
• 55:24
  you that we're with you that all pull in the same direction here.
• 55:29
  One Direction be in the actual Association itself and then the
• 55:33
  other path being what you that you and with the organization
• 55:37
  have done for the sport. Would that great example right
• 55:39
  there is, you know, you were behind helping to get the indoor
• 55:43
  track funded for per diem and travel.
• 55:46
  Let's start with the association side as you look back over.
• 55:50
  You said you started around 05. May I started here at 0600.
• 55:54
  That's amazing. 17 years now here with the u.s. tfcc a you're
• 55:58
  going. Into what are some of the major
• 56:01
  things that you and the team have done to help grow the
• 56:05
  organization into the healthiness that it is today
• 56:09
  inside the organization, not the sport right now we're going to
• 56:11
  go down that path in a second. What are some things that you
• 56:14
  have done that? You look back Milestones that
• 56:16
  have helped grow the organization healthy.
• 56:21
  It's really hard to separate a separate those but I think in
• 56:27
  the organization itself, first of all, let me say so UST.
• 56:33
  FC c. A is a is a Professional
• 56:37
  Organization for track and field, and cross country
• 56:39
  coaches. And that's our main main purpose
• 56:45
  is to serve and represent the the coaches.
• 56:52
  And I think one of the things that we've done is that we've we
• 56:59
  developed and brought a structure to that.
• 57:03
  And I would like to thank in developing and building that
• 57:08
  structure that we've been inclusive to Bringing people
• 57:14
  bringing people in. I'm not talking about staff, I'm
• 57:18
  talking about coaches. So where we can do business
• 57:27
  where we can, Do it in a, in a structured format, that's got
• 57:34
  some direction direction to it. And I think one of the things
• 57:39
  that, that we've done a pretty good job of is from a service
• 57:45
  standpoint. Of Meeting those needs and
• 57:50
  probably an area of creating needs of people didn't know,
• 57:53
  hey, this would be, this would be, this would be good.
• 57:57
  So we took some things that they've done before tried to
• 58:01
  make sure we kept doing those or try to improve those and brought
• 58:07
  some other things to the table as time as gone by.
• 58:12
  And I think that has helped build a confidence level.
• 58:18
  In people, and we've tried to, we still need to keep working on
• 58:26
  this because I'm embarrassed. Sometimes, when people say well,
• 58:36
  What are you going to do? Well, it's, I'm a hired help.
• 58:44
  It's the coach's organization. You know, what do you want to
• 58:49
  do? Where do you want to go?
• 58:52
  What's the old deal is like, it's only as good as what people
• 58:55
  put into it now. Yes, where the people that are
• 58:57
  responsible for it, on a daily basis, but, but people have to
• 59:03
  be involved in. I mention that first year we
• 59:07
  made the decision to have a convention on Our own memory
• 59:12
  serves me, right? I think we had two hundred
• 59:14
  thirty four people there. And believe me that was counting
• 59:18
  anybody that passed down the hallway.
• 59:19
  So you know, that could have been a vendor, it could have
• 59:23
  been just whoever sigh, you know how many coaches were actually
• 59:27
  there. I don't think it's much under
• 59:30
  that. But I mean that included.
• 59:31
  Absolutely everybody. You know, now we do account on
• 59:36
  Convention of coaches and then a Account, because we can have all
• 59:41
  these people there, but if they're not coaches, like
• 59:43
  representing, it's worthless. So, you know, over the years,
• 59:49
  we've grown to where we have over, 1800 coaches.
• 59:52
  Usually usually now plus plus a plus others.
• 59:57
  And so, I think through some of those things people have seen
• 1:00:02
  the reality, seen the stability, those sorts of things of the
• 1:00:09
  Ization. So it's helped.
• 1:00:10
  It's helped the growth, it's helped the belief that we can do
• 1:00:15
  some do something. You know we've had some
• 1:00:18
  accomplishments along the way that I think of you know,
• 1:00:22
  reassured some people as as well.
• 1:00:27
  And, you know, I've been lucky to have our staff is pretty much
• 1:00:32
  for the most part. Young Folks part of that
• 1:00:36
  Financial Times. It's the first job.
• 1:00:39
  Or a second job and I've been really lucky on people that we
• 1:00:46
  have higher. They pretty much been Asus and
• 1:00:53
  have been committed, kind of to the to the cause and they're all
• 1:00:58
  been a lot smarter than me. So they bring things to the
• 1:01:01
  table. That allow us to do some some
• 1:01:03
  extra things that I think. I think we provide a lot of
• 1:01:07
  services. Are we have four people?
• 1:01:09
  Will it work in Communications? And I can guarantee in the
• 1:01:14
  United States. There's nobody even close to
• 1:01:16
  putting out the materials that they do.
• 1:01:19
  That could be the entire world. I'm just not familiar with every
• 1:01:22
  little hole in the wall in the world but but maybe but maybe in
• 1:01:27
  in the world it's it blows my mind.
• 1:01:29
  The stuff that they that they put out, regard to the
• 1:01:32
  association and the sport with a four-person for person.
• 1:01:39
  A staff. So you know that's that's been
• 1:01:42
  good and again having a foundation and and enhancing the
• 1:01:50
  structure and delivery from the association stand standpoint.
• 1:01:54
  So I don't know if I hit your answer.
• 1:01:57
  Exactly. Exactly.
• 1:01:59
  But it's, it's hard to some some something like that up in just a
• 1:02:03
  sentence. Well, I think it actually goes
• 1:02:05
  back to something. You said, originally, you're a
• 1:02:07
  beginning today is You know people like success they like
• 1:02:10
  when things win and grow and they're healthy.
• 1:02:13
  You know one of our sayings around here is healthy things
• 1:02:15
  grow. So when we when things grow
• 1:02:17
  think about your garden your kids healthy things grow, right?
• 1:02:21
  And then you talked about, we talked about like at Western
• 1:02:24
  Kentucky for you, you know, having a good experience and so
• 1:02:27
  growing from you know, two hundred and something.
• 1:02:29
  Everybody's, you know, the the vendor that walks down the guy
• 1:02:34
  who's serving coffee at the, the meetings, like our account him.
• 1:02:37
  We need every number. We can't 1800 coaches and I know
• 1:02:41
  there are a good number of non coaches at the conventions.
• 1:02:44
  I'm one of them writes. I know there's a lot of knees
• 1:02:47
  that are at this convention as well.
• 1:02:49
  That is significant, right? That people have obviously seen
• 1:02:52
  a good product put out there and you went and told their coaches
• 1:02:55
  and told the other coach and told other people and said, hey,
• 1:02:58
  you know, you might want to check this out.
• 1:02:59
  I like it because of X Y and Z, and I think that's what you and
• 1:03:03
  the team have put together real quick.
• 1:03:06
  You mentioned your Communications team and I'm so
• 1:03:09
  Sorry I can see his fate, you know, I live on Twitter, I can
• 1:03:11
  see his face from Twitter. I want to say it's Tom Lewis,
• 1:03:13
  did I get that? Tom Lewis is head of our
• 1:03:17
  Communications area. Tyler May 4th is our social
• 1:03:22
  media person, but yeah, calms time Tom's brought a ton of
• 1:03:31
  energy and I don't know if expertise yes, but more just
• 1:03:42
  variable knowledge. He's able to to wear a lot of
• 1:03:48
  wear. A lot of hats that happens
• 1:03:50
  pretty much in our office that hardly.
• 1:03:52
  Anybody has one hand had on, but yeah, he said he's done a great
• 1:03:55
  job of build a building that building that out without just
• 1:04:00
  you know he said free said pretty much free rein to to
• 1:04:04
  build. He just hadn't had necessary.
• 1:04:06
  Money to buy all the nails and lumber he needs.
• 1:04:11
  Well, I was going to say for Tom and the rest of the team Bravo.
• 1:04:15
  I mean, again, I agree with you, I don't know that there's any
• 1:04:18
  other organization out there, that's putting out the content.
• 1:04:21
  The the positive enriching content that they are, it's
• 1:04:25
  quite boggling. In fact, I'm a little shocked
• 1:04:28
  that you said it's basically a team of four out of thought,
• 1:04:30
  like, okay, like this has got to be a team of 10 that are doing
• 1:04:34
  this because the volume in the quality Of the volume is super,
• 1:04:38
  super high. So, shout out to Tom and the
• 1:04:39
  rest of the team. They're quite quite excellent
• 1:04:41
  and really, that's what we need. We got to have more content for
• 1:04:44
  other media, Outlets to pick up and start driving on their own.
• 1:04:47
  So, I just wanted to give a quick shout-out to that team
• 1:04:49
  because I it is, it is seen and noticed a hundred percent.
• 1:04:53
  So, okay, let's talk about that other routes of your leadership
• 1:04:58
  here at the u.s. to CCC a. You gave the example of helping
• 1:05:02
  drive through what was known as the championship cabinet to have
• 1:05:06
  division. Indoor track per diem and
• 1:05:08
  travel. What are some other things that
• 1:05:11
  we can think of? As you know, our listener is
• 1:05:13
  thousands of coaches. We have media, listen to us,
• 1:05:16
  athletes. Everybody's, you know, knows
• 1:05:18
  about the sport. What are some things that we
• 1:05:20
  kind of maybe take for granted right now today in 2022 that you
• 1:05:24
  have helped lead through the coaching body.
• 1:05:26
  You were spot on there, you're the conduit.
• 1:05:29
  But if the coaches don't want it, it don't happen.
• 1:05:32
  What are some other things for the sport of track and field
• 1:05:34
  that you guys have helped lead through.
• 1:05:36
  Oh well, I'll start by going back in San again.
• 1:05:40
  You know, I responsibility is to be a professional association
• 1:05:44
  for the coaches and certain serve the coaches, you know,
• 1:05:50
  part of what you want to accomplish is to enhance the
• 1:05:56
  profession of coaching. And, and grow it.
• 1:06:04
  Well, to do that. You got to grow the sport.
• 1:06:10
  So that's where I was saying. There's a lot of dovetail.
• 1:06:12
  Hand-in-hand between between the two you can say hey I want to do
• 1:06:15
  this, I want to improve this one improve this, but if you can't
• 1:06:20
  Elevate the sport, then your hands are tied, hide behind you
• 1:06:26
  as an administrator said to me, one time track and field and
• 1:06:30
  cross country need to get out of being.
• 1:06:34
  Part of the witness protection program.
• 1:06:36
  You know, you need to show you have value, you need to include
• 1:06:41
  a include others. You need to broaden your broaden
• 1:06:44
  your scope and and we've tried to, we've tried to.
• 1:06:47
  Do you do that? I mean, I, you know, I can
• 1:06:51
  remember when the NCAA outdoor track knee.
• 1:06:56
  I can't tell you when this started, but, but I remember,
• 1:06:59
  well, you get to it when you're in high school.
• 1:07:02
  So it's definitely in the Yes. But I know it ran through the
• 1:07:06
  70s is the NCAA Championship that made has been the final
• 1:07:10
  day. It was on ABC Wide World of
• 1:07:13
  Sports Live, with Jim McKay, probably the greatest sports
• 1:07:16
  announcer, you know, ever, it wasn't some temperature person.
• 1:07:22
  It was Jimmy Jim McKay and you know, all of a sudden, one of
• 1:07:28
  the things I noticed I can't say I didn't know it before but it
• 1:07:31
  was more prominent. Now, I was in this job.
• 1:07:34
  Here we are in 2005 and we've got a we got men and women now
• 1:07:43
  not just men we got men and women and women 2005 and we got
• 1:07:48
  a 1 hour. One week delayed highlights show
• 1:07:56
  of the Championships. That's not forward.
• 1:08:01
  That's backwards. You know, we're talking 35
• 1:08:06
  years, 35 years, we have gone forward, we've gone backwards
• 1:08:11
  and so I can definitely remember.
• 1:08:17
  I think it was five. Maybe it was six.
• 1:08:18
  I think it was five. Going up to Craig silver, who
• 1:08:23
  was a producer at CBS who did track.
• 1:08:27
  I knew Craig. Because when I was at LSU, we
• 1:08:30
  hosted championships a couple times and he was a producer for
• 1:08:34
  it. And I told him before we went to
• 1:08:38
  the meat, which was out in Sacramento, but that ain't
• 1:08:41
  cracked, we have lunch or talk. Well, you know, one day, when
• 1:08:44
  you've got some time, he said I get in on next day said, give me
• 1:08:48
  a, give me a holler and we'll go Have lunch.
• 1:08:50
  So he and I went to lunch and I said, look, I got a question
• 1:08:56
  question for you. Hearing said, I said, why are we
• 1:09:00
  not on live TV? and he said, well, he said, one
• 1:09:06
  of the things I can tell you why is because nobody's ever asked
• 1:09:10
  that question before, I'm like, are you kidding me, right?
• 1:09:16
  So he said, that's a great question said, I maybe it could
• 1:09:23
  be, so he and I started working working on it.
• 1:09:28
  And the next year we went live on TV.
• 1:09:33
  Now wasn't like, it was today, but We had X, our actually went
• 1:09:38
  to two days and was a live show and part of Friday and part of
• 1:09:43
  Saturday and I'd gotten some coaches together at summer, we
• 1:09:46
  work some schedules, you know, to kind of help help that out.
• 1:09:51
  And so we started getting some some TV.
• 1:09:54
  Now, CBS was doing it because that was part of the NCAA
• 1:10:00
  television rights which really was built around the basket
• 1:10:04
  men's basketball. And so, we started getting a
• 1:10:08
  little bit more every year and then all of a sudden, they go
• 1:10:16
  out and build the basketball tournament by itself on its own.
• 1:10:20
  Nothing else is included. And so CBS, and Turner take
• 1:10:24
  that. And then on the other side, they
• 1:10:28
  bid out every time, going to say everything else, maybe one
• 1:10:31
  everything, but I kind of think it most other things in a
• 1:10:34
  package and ESPN got the rights to track and cross can cross
• 1:10:41
  country, and it's late in the year.
• 1:10:43
  And so it's like, you know, are we going to have any TV this
• 1:10:49
  time? What what what, so, what so
• 1:10:51
  ever, you know, because they weren't obligated to have Life
• 1:10:55
  TV in the contract, which I think was a mistake, but I'm
• 1:10:59
  bias on that. So I threw the commissioner of
• 1:11:04
  the Sunbelt right Waters at the time.
• 1:11:08
  He was friends with Burke. Magnus, who is the VP of
• 1:11:12
  programming at ESPN? He gave me Burke's self cell
• 1:11:17
  phone and I called him up out of the air and today, you know,
• 1:11:22
  it's who I am. And I'd love to meet with you
• 1:11:24
  sometime or something. And he said, well maybe we can
• 1:11:28
  sometime or whatever. And so, I tried a couple of
• 1:11:30
  times to hook up with him and couldn't and I told him, I said
• 1:11:35
  Burke. Yes.
• 1:11:36
  Said yeah. I'm in New York every now and
• 1:11:37
  then because I knew he was down there some cuz they had offices
• 1:11:40
  are that's Russell and I said you know, maybe we are at the
• 1:11:43
  same time some time let me know when you're going to be there
• 1:11:46
  and he did and I said oh great. I said man I'm going to be there
• 1:11:50
  that week 2 which was a complete lie.
• 1:11:54
  So I flew to flew to New York and stay with a friend of mine
• 1:11:59
  and he dropped me off and have lunch with her.
• 1:12:01
  And I said, you know, I don't want to go backwards here, you
• 1:12:05
  know, I want to build a sand. Out.
• 1:12:06
  He said Sam I don't know, we're gonna have anything this year or
• 1:12:09
  not. He said, I promise you, we'll
• 1:12:11
  try to at least do an hour of the last day.
• 1:12:16
  If we can do anything else, we will.
• 1:12:17
  So they came back and they did they did a I think an hour hour
• 1:12:21
  and a half the last two days, maybe, or maybe they didn't two
• 1:12:24
  hours the last day or something. So we've kept working on that
• 1:12:27
  built that out with them. Of course, now we have the whole
• 1:12:30
  championship and D1 live on television all four days.
• 1:12:35
  It's nice and packed. Package, it's short, it's three
• 1:12:37
  and a half hours of person, two days, two and a half, the next.
• 1:12:40
  So I feel like we made some huge Headway there and although it's
• 1:12:46
  the ncaa's contract, you know, where the odd man out doesn't
• 1:12:54
  own anything that we've kind of, we've kind of synergized at to
• 1:12:58
  make that to make that make that happen.
• 1:13:01
  And I think that's given the sport a lot more visibility.
• 1:13:06
  Not as much as it needs but it's brought a lot of visibility to
• 1:13:10
  the sport that we didn't have before brings visibility to our
• 1:13:15
  coaches to help them them grow because maybe people didn't even
• 1:13:22
  know about it, you know, before and you can talk about screaming
• 1:13:25
  and streaming is great. But the problem is streaming is
• 1:13:29
  you're talking to your own crowd, that's who's going in
• 1:13:33
  because you it's like driving from A to B.
• 1:13:36
  Be your driving to see your own family.
• 1:13:40
  One of the things linear does is you start to catch other people
• 1:13:43
  who are not track people or across the country.
• 1:13:47
  People they're flipping through the channels they're looking for
• 1:13:49
  something good there. Baylor fan or a Texas Fan.
• 1:13:53
  There are Michigan fan. They're just a sport or sport
• 1:13:56
  fan and we need to capture those.
• 1:13:58
  I think that has helped know we got a long way to go, but I
• 1:14:03
  think we've done a lot for that and we can say Oh gosh, too bad
• 1:14:07
  D2 and D3 aren't on and it is bad.
• 1:14:09
  But I think it's set a tone to help D2 and D3 because it's
• 1:14:13
  helped to grow to grow grow track.
• 1:14:16
  It's made us in a way at least at the national championships
• 1:14:20
  outdoor a more consumable product because of the time
• 1:14:24
  frame, you know, these all day, all night, all we needs, are
• 1:14:31
  they just don't. What human beings do do today.
• 1:14:37
  So I feel like that we've done a great job and given schools and
• 1:14:41
  helping to increase the visibility of schools helping to
• 1:14:45
  increase visibility of student athletes helping to increase
• 1:14:48
  visibility of the sport. And in that instance, at least
• 1:14:53
  making the sport more consumable to the general to the general
• 1:14:59
  general public. Now we need to do that an indoor
• 1:15:01
  track. In my mind, we need to do that
• 1:15:04
  to to track in general every week.
• 1:15:09
  Not just at the championship and we've started it with
• 1:15:14
  cross-country somewhat, two years ago, we took on our own as
• 1:15:21
  an offspring of the NCAA Championship.
• 1:15:23
  We did a deal with the NCAA and ESPN to broadcast the D1.
• 1:15:31
  Cross country championships. Of which we've done twice and
• 1:15:34
  will do again, this November 1919 and then it's been a great
• 1:15:40
  success. We need to get on a bigger
• 1:15:42
  linear Network, we need to get more exposure and support from
• 1:15:46
  our own Community, but I combat reaching out to the other, you
• 1:15:51
  know, to be a player, but we've put together a great to our live
• 1:15:56
  show, first class Talent, presenting it.
• 1:16:03
  True live television me, we have a crew of 48 people that works
• 1:16:08
  on putting that putting that on with.
• 1:16:11
  I think last year we had 15 cameras out on the sport and to
• 1:16:15
  drones and things of that sort. So we've done that.
• 1:16:19
  That cross-country telecast, we produce it ourselves.
• 1:16:23
  Hmm. We pay for it ourselves and it's
• 1:16:26
  all part of growing. The sport.
• 1:16:28
  Exposing the sport, exposing the student at exposing our coaches.
• 1:16:33
  So that they can can can grow. You know, NC State should be all
• 1:16:40
  about Lori Hennis but as a coach and hopefully professionally and
• 1:16:44
  helps Lori because she gets exposed gets a contract
• 1:16:47
  extension or more more salary. Same thing when they see Mike
• 1:16:54
  Smith and in a you or maybe this people that get second and
• 1:16:58
  third, I think it was at Oklahoma State in the odd Kovac.
• 1:17:03
  Year, first time we did TV, three of the five, top five
• 1:17:09
  teams were coached by women. Who, you know, people that you
• 1:17:16
  didn't catch that, but that came across that exposes.
• 1:17:20
  Now we've got female coaches who can coach, you know, then Coach
• 1:17:24
  men then Coach women they cannot just coach it, they can do it at
• 1:17:27
  a high level so that goes back to the profession back to having
• 1:17:32
  a Professional Organization, is we can raise a sport expose,
• 1:17:36
  these people that are leading and mentoring these student
• 1:17:39
  athletes and being successful, then it should raise their
• 1:17:43
  professional. I'll and hopefully down the
• 1:17:45
  road. We can raise the profession as a
• 1:17:48
  whole and that I go back again for the third time.
• 1:17:50
  I think I'm saying it, it all ties, it all ties together, you
• 1:17:54
  can't say you can't set up, you can't separate it at least in my
• 1:17:58
  in my mind and of course, you know, excuse me.
• 1:18:02
  We try to elevate those all the all the time.
• 1:18:06
  I know I've got a I could probably make a pretty long list
• 1:18:09
  of people that are very tired of hearing from me about ideas and
• 1:18:12
  things we things we I'd do but so we try to invest a little
• 1:18:16
  that we have back anything at any dollar.
• 1:18:21
  It comes in, here it goes right back into the sport and trying
• 1:18:24
  to elevate it in the associate Association and its and its
• 1:18:29
  members. But TV has been a been a really
• 1:18:32
  big deal on it. It's been a real battle because
• 1:18:35
  we don't own it. I mean just like we changed it
• 1:18:39
  changed the sport Outdoors at the championship when we went to
• 1:18:42
  heaven. Separate days for men and women
• 1:18:46
  you know it brought storylines and a lot of people were for
• 1:18:50
  that lot of people were resistive of it.
• 1:18:52
  But it's been really, it's been really successful.
• 1:18:57
  It's really been been clean. So, you know, some some of those
• 1:19:02
  things. But I like saying things that
• 1:19:04
  we've done, if help build help build the sport, put it in a
• 1:19:09
  better situation where by far not even close about What should
• 1:19:14
  be done? I mean we back in again.
• 1:19:18
  Remember the year I think it was maybe 10 could have been done.
• 1:19:22
  We we partnered with a group to start T first track and field
• 1:19:27
  results reporting system. And a couple years later, we had
• 1:19:30
  cross-country into that. And, you know, so collegiately
• 1:19:35
  there's a bank of data there. That's I don't know if anybody
• 1:19:39
  in the world has something like that because they're not just
• 1:19:42
  stats, they're accurate staff. That's because you don't just
• 1:19:46
  scrape meet results. Some place, they have to be
• 1:19:48
  submitted under certain guidelines, and we teamed with
• 1:19:52
  the NCAA on that. They made it part of
• 1:19:54
  Championship qualifying, which was a and bullet it needed.
• 1:19:58
  And and it was a good show of what you can do if you work
• 1:20:04
  together. So the NCAA worked worked with
• 1:20:06
  us on that and we work with them.
• 1:20:09
  And you know, that's been a great thing that wasn't there
• 1:20:12
  before. I mean, it was so So Antiquated,
• 1:20:15
  what we used to, what we used to do, you know, track and field is
• 1:20:19
  all about or has been over the years about about measurements
• 1:20:24
  and and I would say being somewhat creative and we
• 1:20:29
  probably use technology less than any sport out there today.
• 1:20:33
  Today, we've, we've kind of got away from our roots of being
• 1:20:37
  being leaders in some of those in some of those things.
• 1:20:41
  But but that's another big thing, I think it will.
• 1:20:44
  That with that we've brought it's brought.
• 1:20:46
  It's also brought some credibility to support because
• 1:20:49
  everything is visible is not much backroom any, any more like
• 1:20:53
  they're used to. Like, there used to be who did
• 1:20:56
  what, when, and when, and where everything's pretty pretty
• 1:20:59
  exposed exposed. Now, it's saved money and time
• 1:21:04
  for four people NCAA championships.
• 1:21:08
  I can remember the first one that I ever did and 81 LSU.
• 1:21:14
  The sport committee would be in there for about 10 or 12 days,
• 1:21:18
  trying to put the entries together and draw the Heat and
• 1:21:23
  so on and so forth. You know, now including the meat
• 1:21:26
  itself, therefore, I don't know, five days or so, maybe maybe
• 1:21:31
  five and a half or something. So, it's brought a different
• 1:21:36
  side to the to the sport but there's a lot more that we could
• 1:21:40
  do. Do, do do off of all.
• 1:21:44
  Off of that. So again, hopefully I kind of
• 1:21:47
  touched on your question on, if I hit it directly but those are
• 1:21:51
  two of the You know, bigger things I think it's it's just
• 1:21:56
  directly influenced the sport, you know, we're trying to work
• 1:22:01
  on some stuff. I'll all the time.
• 1:22:03
  I think my biggest frustrations are one.
• 1:22:09
  We don't have a as a sport, we don't have a bigger Vision.
• 1:22:12
  Then we, then we do and to that, man.
• 1:22:22
  We Move really slow. We we move real slow, we move
• 1:22:27
  slowly as an association unfortunately that's on
• 1:22:30
  ourselves but groups that are around us.
• 1:22:35
  Also have a big effect on how slow things move whether it's be
• 1:22:40
  the NCAA usatf High School associations we've got we've got
• 1:22:47
  a raise, our value. Not just on our own bases.
• 1:22:55
  Or our own scoreboard. But on the scoreboard of those
• 1:23:00
  that really, we have to go through to grow our to grow
• 1:23:06
  ourselves because as you increase your value, in their
• 1:23:11
  perspective, whatever that may be and it's different with
• 1:23:14
  different groups. You have more access And a big
• 1:23:19
  challenge that we have today is access to be able to change
• 1:23:27
  things. That's not like an iceberg
• 1:23:32
  moving. What is becoming clear Sam and
• 1:23:38
  I'm going to put you on the spot here.
• 1:23:40
  We need to do a part 2 one day because there is so much more.
• 1:23:44
  You know, we talk about division 1 first round.
• 1:23:47
  Regionals everyone call first round of the Championships and
• 1:23:50
  many, many other things that we haven't in won't get into today
• 1:23:54
  because I want to start pivoting to the convention itself but
• 1:23:56
  promise me. So if you're haven't even said
• 1:24:00
  this out loud to you. Dear listener.
• 1:24:02
  This is kind of a part 1 of 3 weeks in a row here that I'm
• 1:24:05
  just really really proud of. So today obviously you're
• 1:24:07
  hearing Sam seems here the CEO of u.s. tfcc a next week.
• 1:24:12
  We've got the u.s. tfcc, a boys National High School, Coach of
• 1:24:16
  the Year, mr. Burn over at cells in IAM I
• 1:24:19
  probably just butchered that name.
• 1:24:21
  I know I did, he's the head coach there, and Delaware, he's
• 1:24:24
  going to be our guest. And then the week after that,
• 1:24:26
  we've got st. John's High School Academy out
• 1:24:29
  of DC Desmond Dunham the girls National Coach of the Year here.
• 1:24:33
  It's something we started last year we had both boys and girls,
• 1:24:36
  National High School, coaches of the years as guests last year.
• 1:24:39
  Go back and check them out. They're amazing.
• 1:24:42
  And we're gonna do it again next year in 2023.
• 1:24:45
  I'm gonna put you on the spot. Sam, will you?
• 1:24:47
  Come on and do a part 2 when we come into the collet October
• 1:24:51
  time frame, when we interview next year's, High School,
• 1:24:54
  coaches of the year, there's so much more to explore and that
• 1:24:56
  Avenue with n-c-double-a and then also reaching into the high
• 1:24:59
  school level at such. A I'll put you on the spot.
• 1:25:01
  Will you come back next year to do a part two?
• 1:25:04
  If you're brave enough to listen to The Voice, I have sure.
• 1:25:08
  Okay. Now that doesn't mean we're over
• 1:25:09
  today because now we're going to Pivot, thank you for that Sam.
• 1:25:12
  I'm going to I'ma IMA put it in my calendar.
• 1:25:14
  We're going to go and get it scheduled and everything here
• 1:25:17
  was Let's start pivoted to the convention.
• 1:25:19
  Here, you mentioned that the convention was Associated.
• 1:25:22
  It was kind of two conventions in one.
• 1:25:24
  If you will, you made the decision to break out into its
• 1:25:28
  own Silo, specific us tfcc a convention 200 something in the
• 1:25:33
  first year and now it's a it's a mad.
• 1:25:35
  I can't imagine the planning that your team and you have to
• 1:25:39
  do for this. Think it's amazing.
• 1:25:41
  I as a vendor I know what planning we do for and it's a
• 1:25:44
  lot. I can't imagine the whole
• 1:25:45
  enchilada man. God bless you.
• 1:25:47
  You and your team for that alone.
• 1:25:49
  Talk to us. There's people out there,
• 1:25:51
  listening right now. It's 5050, right. 50% of the
• 1:25:54
  people are listening and they've been to the convention.
• 1:25:56
  And they're going to be here in 2023.
• 1:25:58
  We're going to be in Denver and I think we're 2022.
• 1:26:01
  I think we're in Denver and next year as well.
• 1:26:03
  Is that correct? So we're Denver, two years in a
• 1:26:06
  row. They're going to be there
• 1:26:07
  because it's amazing that go for the coaching education they go
• 1:26:10
  for. I love the growth of it.
• 1:26:12
  Now we have director of Ops tracks.
• 1:26:13
  We have women in coaching symposiums.
• 1:26:16
  They're going to be there and there's 53. 50% of the people
• 1:26:18
  right now, listening that have either a never even heard of the
• 1:26:22
  u.s. tfcc a convention, or they've always been hesitant for
• 1:26:26
  whatever reason, whether its cost location, I don't know,
• 1:26:30
  does it matter? It's valid for them, talk to us
• 1:26:33
  about the convention and why should coaches attend?
• 1:26:36
  If at all possible for them, Well, I think it's it's an
• 1:26:45
  opportunity for growth and also think that there is some some
• 1:26:54
  place right now, that's our convention, maybe it should be
• 1:26:57
  something something else, or maybe down the road, it's
• 1:27:01
  different. But there's got to be someplace
• 1:27:04
  that you unite and figure out. What do you want to try to do?
• 1:27:10
  Where do you want to try to, try to go?
• 1:27:13
  I'd like to thank. How can we get that better sort
• 1:27:18
  of thing. So we tried to do some, I'd say
• 1:27:23
  well-rounded things at Convention, as you said, you
• 1:27:27
  know, there's educational sessions.
• 1:27:29
  Part of those are focused on X's and O's or if we call it and
• 1:27:33
  track techniques part of that is around professional development.
• 1:27:38
  How to maybe help you grow within your, your your
• 1:27:42
  profession, some of it is built around director of Ops, some of
• 1:27:48
  it would just come in a bigger and bigger role and how teams
• 1:27:51
  are managed, how they move from day to day, how the assistant
• 1:27:58
  coach sessions, that we have high school sessions that we
• 1:28:04
  have, as you said, women and coaching groups.
• 1:28:08
  We have a lot of educational side to side to it, but we also
• 1:28:12
  have a business sign that goes on within four.
• 1:28:16
  NCAA D1, D2 D3, both track and cross-country Nai, right?
• 1:28:22
  And cross country, Juco track and cross cross country.
• 1:28:28
  So they have business that goes on on there about the structures
• 1:28:32
  and business of their own associations.
• 1:28:37
  Or Divisions. And then, you know, I don't
• 1:28:43
  know. Some people joked about Dez, I
• 1:28:45
  think it's important. We've tried to build some social
• 1:28:48
  elements in because of two reasons.
• 1:28:51
  One, I think it's important for people to have opportunity to
• 1:28:55
  get to know other people, people go to track meets and you know
• 1:29:00
  maybe the other coach at the long jump, you know, you're
• 1:29:03
  getting to converse with with them but you're not conversing
• 1:29:06
  with the coaching Community a deal.
• 1:29:08
  One got a D3 guy or a distance guy, and a shot guy, you know,
• 1:29:13
  kind of thing. So, there's a, there's a
• 1:29:17
  environment for that at convention and then there's a
• 1:29:21
  huge environment for networking and networking is important.
• 1:29:28
  I think from two or three, standpoints, one, if you're
• 1:29:32
  going to stay in the profession and if you're going to create
• 1:29:37
  some opportunities for yourself, Self within Africa, you have got
• 1:29:40
  to meet people. I think a lot of people probably
• 1:29:45
  get their next job from somebody, they met around it.
• 1:29:49
  Conveyed conventional a lot of times or so, there's a face,
• 1:29:52
  there's a familiar name. You've got a phone number or
• 1:29:56
  something of that sort. Secondly we have sessions about
• 1:30:01
  education but also think you find out a lot of stuff just by
• 1:30:06
  talking to people in the hallway, one on one or three or
• 1:30:10
  four of you standing there talking about some Certain
• 1:30:14
  situation and an event or something of that sort.
• 1:30:17
  You asked me earlier, how I, you know, learn some things without
• 1:30:21
  maybe coaching coaching Ed and a lot of it was just these
• 1:30:25
  situations I got in. I was lucky because especially,
• 1:30:29
  well, with Jerry being taken me around and see, young college
• 1:30:33
  student, but also Bill McCormick learn.
• 1:30:36
  I knew everybody in the in the profession he played a
• 1:30:42
  leadership role within the NCAA committees and so on so on and
• 1:30:45
  so forth that, you know, so I would I'd go to like a dinner or
• 1:30:51
  set in the hotel lobby with guys who were the icons of the sport.
• 1:30:55
  Now I wouldn't contribute anything to the conversation but
• 1:30:58
  I was listening and I probably learned more that way than any
• 1:31:01
  other you know, in any other any other other way.
• 1:31:05
  And I think that happens. Is that at conveyed convention.
• 1:31:09
  So the networking plays in the job role, but it also plays in
• 1:31:14
  the educational educational role.
• 1:31:17
  So I think that that well-roundedness of not just one
• 1:31:22
  thing it is is offered I think that's a that's a big big plus.
• 1:31:29
  It is It's the damn you do. Damn, you don't, you know, we
• 1:31:39
  need to follow the wishes of the coaches, but coaches also need
• 1:31:44
  to be inspired to thank differently to get a vision to
• 1:31:50
  think about there's other ways to do things to think about.
• 1:31:54
  We need to make the sport better to not.
• 1:31:57
  Just think about your own program, but think about the
• 1:32:01
  hole, And that's been really hard to do and in general, but
• 1:32:11
  you got to have some place for that to try to come together and
• 1:32:14
  it's okay if people think differently and it's okay if
• 1:32:19
  people argue and have different points but you need a place for
• 1:32:24
  all that to play all that to play out.
• 1:32:27
  And I think convention, you know, Besides that pretty much
• 1:32:34
  every sport has something whether it's professional or
• 1:32:39
  college or even the high school to a certain extent, most
• 1:32:44
  business entities have that there's a place where people
• 1:32:51
  aren't doing this for their health, they're doing it because
• 1:32:54
  it's it's good. We try to work on improving it
• 1:32:59
  all the time and Hope. We have and hopefully we
• 1:33:03
  hopefully we can but I think that it's a place where
• 1:33:10
  everybody can find their way and that they can walk away.
• 1:33:16
  I hold feeling good about about being there.
• 1:33:19
  I think my measuring stick for for folks, not only do we can we
• 1:33:23
  get something accomplished at convention which sometimes it's
• 1:33:26
  just about a bonus but somebody's come to Convention,
• 1:33:31
  do they walk away. Away feeling like their time was
• 1:33:33
  well spent their money was well spent and if so then I think
• 1:33:38
  that's that's that's a success and things that we do in
• 1:33:42
  addition to that or just are just just bonuses.
• 1:33:47
  You mentioned earlier about, elevating the sport.
• 1:33:49
  You can't Elevate the profession of coaching without elevating
• 1:33:52
  the sport. Some of the things that have
• 1:33:54
  come along in your tenure have been the coaches Hall of Fame
• 1:33:58
  dinner celebration, banquet, it's amazing.
• 1:34:01
  And again, For someone who, you know, my whole life is coaches,
• 1:34:05
  it's really just amazing to be able to honor.
• 1:34:07
  Unbelievable people who choose to be coaches.
• 1:34:10
  Everybody who gets inducted year this year, you get art Venegas
• 1:34:13
  and Jahan culbreath, and I can't remember.
• 1:34:16
  I just learned, I never knew I read her bio the Cal Poly coach.
• 1:34:20
  I mean, these people could be business owners entrepreneurs
• 1:34:26
  and they chose coaching track and field.
• 1:34:29
  It's they're just, they're so multi-talented in.
• 1:34:31
  Since it's unbelievable. The Bowerman has been something
• 1:34:35
  that has come along during your tenure.
• 1:34:37
  These are things that you're doing this.
• 1:34:40
  I'm opposed this in a question. Are these things that you're
• 1:34:42
  doing in the way that you present them?
• 1:34:44
  Meaning the Hall of Fame was around before you, I believed.
• 1:34:47
  But now I believe, it's now it's as big to do.
• 1:34:50
  It's a big event are those things that you're doing as part
• 1:34:52
  of the elevating, the sport like like for the Bowerman, everybody
• 1:34:56
  says it's the Heisman for track and field.
• 1:34:58
  I like to say it the other way around that the Heisman is the
• 1:35:01
  Bowerman or football. I like to flip that around there
• 1:35:04
  but are these things that you and the organization are doing
• 1:35:05
  to help raise Elevate the sports that we're elevating, the
• 1:35:09
  profession of coaching. A little of both, you know, the
• 1:35:13
  Hall of Fame coaches Hall of Fame that was started before us.
• 1:35:17
  It was it was good at he got started, but It wasn't really an
• 1:35:26
  outstanding event. I would say, now you say way,
• 1:35:28
  it's more about the honor, they need event, but it's a great
• 1:35:33
  night. I've always been one of these
• 1:35:36
  people is, you know, here coach will, they don't respect us.
• 1:35:41
  Well, probably they don't one of the reasons that people outside
• 1:35:45
  of our sport, maybe don't respect us is because I find
• 1:35:49
  within our sport. We have a great tendency not to
• 1:35:52
  respect ourselves, so if we don't have respect for ourselves
• 1:35:56
  within the sport, how in the world can we expect people
• 1:35:59
  outside of the sport to respect does.
• 1:36:02
  So it's we try to elevate that to into a sense of really making
• 1:36:10
  it special. How to respect respect people
• 1:36:14
  and and remember it, but a lot of people contribute, you might
• 1:36:17
  be a hell of a coach today. There were some guys and ladies
• 1:36:21
  before you who great coaches as well, and did some things under,
• 1:36:28
  probably more stressful, Citrus circumstances I'm with left and
• 1:36:32
  then you did. So it's a matter of respecting
• 1:36:35
  our past and and recognizing them.
• 1:36:39
  And to me providing Education, and some hysterical historic
• 1:36:45
  historical, sometimes hysterical that was, that was a good slip
• 1:36:48
  up there. That's that was true, Oracle
• 1:36:50
  perspective on things. It's it's hard to appreciate
• 1:36:53
  what you have. If you don't know what happened
• 1:36:56
  for you, you know, we all need to be me included better.
• 1:36:59
  History students. So we started well and 05 we
• 1:37:04
  Crank that, you know, right off. Now I can tell you, it's add a
• 1:37:06
  whole different look now than it was in 05.
• 1:37:09
  But you know, last few years have been About 1,500 people and
• 1:37:13
  you know, nice set down the fair fair that night.
• 1:37:16
  I'm sure there will be will be this time too and there's so
• 1:37:21
  yeah, it's a great, it's a great, it's a great great,
• 1:37:25
  great, great event. And then you know, the Bowerman
• 1:37:29
  was something that I talked about for I don't know two or
• 1:37:33
  three years before we actually Did it that was more of a thing
• 1:37:40
  to try to bring some visibility to our sport.
• 1:37:44
  I mean, we've got all these great student athletes out there
• 1:37:47
  who are great performers. Some even not just collegiately
• 1:37:51
  but worldwide and they don't get visibility.
• 1:37:55
  So my idea behind this was a way to create some visibility more
• 1:38:01
  visibility to the to the sport. It's To me, it's been, it's been
• 1:38:10
  great. It has been John Anderson.
• 1:38:18
  Caught ESPN. Call me one day.
• 1:38:20
  I know it's about the third or fourth year of it, and after the
• 1:38:24
  finalists were announced and he said, Sam, this is really turned
• 1:38:27
  into into something now and I said well, you know, I'm I'm
• 1:38:33
  glad it's what we've been striving for.
• 1:38:35
  He said no, no no, you don't. And he said we got people here
• 1:38:38
  in the office today. They're arguing about who should
• 1:38:40
  be, and who shouldn't be. He said, that's when you know
• 1:38:44
  that it means, it means something and so we, yeah, you
• 1:38:48
  want to honor the correct person.
• 1:38:51
  You hope nobody gets left out and you want it to have meaning
• 1:38:55
  and substance, but at the end of the day, you know, there's
• 1:39:02
  people argue about that these days and, and rightfully so
• 1:39:06
  because There are so many great athletes.
• 1:39:08
  I mean it's it's unbelievable. It's unbelievable.
• 1:39:13
  How good, how good these people are and how, you know, type the
• 1:39:17
  fight for those finalists are you know not even counting the
• 1:39:20
  last the last the last person there you know as well and it's
• 1:39:26
  been a it's been a great has been a great event.
• 1:39:29
  You know we've had help I can remember the first year we did
• 1:39:33
  it which was another deal which we didn't know what the heck we
• 1:39:35
  were doing but But a guy at Nike Tinker Hatfield, oh yeah, design
• 1:39:41
  the award. And for us, Tinker ran for Bill
• 1:39:46
  Bowerman at Oregon and as a architect-designed guy he came.
• 1:39:53
  He came from track but he reverted back and take her came
• 1:39:56
  up with the Jordan brand, which everybody wear.
• 1:39:59
  But so he came in the first year, presented the award and I
• 1:40:04
  can remember him telling me afterwards, he said, so, Sam.
• 1:40:07
  He said, this is incredible. We need to expose these people.
• 1:40:12
  He said the first person win on the women's side, was Jenny
• 1:40:16
  Beringer. He said, I've been all over the
• 1:40:19
  world with the greatest athletes in the world and to the top
• 1:40:24
  events in the world. He said, Jenny and her remarks
• 1:40:30
  was as good or better than anybody I've ever seen.
• 1:40:33
  Wow. And, you know, I haven't been
• 1:40:37
  where he spend, but I thought she was great as I did Galen
• 1:40:42
  when he got his at here as well, but we have to understand.
• 1:40:47
  We have left us out. We can't get keep it a secret
• 1:40:49
  back in the being, in the secret society.
• 1:40:53
  You know, we we need, we need to let these things out.
• 1:40:56
  So so I think it's been a good, it's great to honor the
• 1:40:59
  athletes, but I think it's been a good tool for the for the
• 1:41:03
  sport and at At the same time Scott Strickland who's the
• 1:41:08
  athletic director at the University of Florida you know
• 1:41:13
  you always need a little always helps to get a little bump you
• 1:41:16
  know you're not out looking for allocates but but you I can have
• 1:41:19
  a little bump. Somebody tells you you took the
• 1:41:21
  right Road here and Scott walked up one night after he was there
• 1:41:25
  and he said Sammy said as one thank you for inviting me.
• 1:41:29
  He said Mama tell you he said I've been to the Heisman three
• 1:41:32
  or four times as an event that Night.
• 1:41:36
  This is better. Wow, now maybe he was lying.
• 1:41:40
  I don't think he was but if he was it was a great lie.
• 1:41:43
  But, but so I but my point there is, I think it's been done
• 1:41:48
  professionally and think it's been a good boost and
• 1:41:52
  acknowledging these kids. And then, I don't know if you
• 1:41:55
  know this or not, you pray do. But so this summer in June, we
• 1:42:00
  started the first ever Collegian Track and field cross-country
• 1:42:05
  athlete Hall of Fame. Hmm.
• 1:42:06
  Yeah. And feel like there's a lot of
• 1:42:11
  things we're going to do different that's next year, who
• 1:42:12
  you learn from the first one. But for first time, and as many
• 1:42:16
  people as we needed to get in to get it started, it was a big
• 1:42:20
  success. Everybody had a great time.
• 1:42:23
  It was people who were inducted or their family member of the
• 1:42:26
  deceased were just overwhelmed again.
• 1:42:30
  We need to learn to respect and know.
• 1:42:33
  Our past so that we can have respect in the future and know
• 1:42:38
  what we're building building off of.
• 1:42:41
  So these events are important in letting people know what we do
• 1:42:46
  and who we have been associated with, you know, people from way
• 1:42:50
  way. Back may have known.
• 1:42:53
  Is my phone Ralph Metcalfe? Oh yeah.
• 1:42:57
  But who knew, you know, that Ralph Metcalfe was a five-time
• 1:43:02
  US Congressman. Hmm.
• 1:43:04
  I'm City of Chicago and all the other things that that he did.
• 1:43:08
  So these people weren't just track athletes, you know as use
• 1:43:13
  may have mentioned earlier, we've got people who were great,
• 1:43:17
  great people and over over the years, we haven't done a good
• 1:43:24
  job of connecting, recognizing engaging, providing
• 1:43:32
  opportunities for those people to be a part of our to be a part
• 1:43:36
  of our sport. So that's motivation to start to
• 1:43:40
  start those things and to try to bring the track and field
• 1:43:43
  Community together around some things that aren't controversial
• 1:43:48
  should just be some laboratory so that we can, you know, move
• 1:43:53
  forward and and get that little boost we For the next day,
• 1:43:58
  sometimes. So yeah, we've tried to reach
• 1:44:01
  outside and do some some ancillary event deals for for
• 1:44:07
  certain for certain reasons. But at the end of the day, it's
• 1:44:10
  all tied to to me the coaching to the profession or to or to
• 1:44:15
  the sport. Well, as we start to wrap up
• 1:44:18
  here today, Sam, we talked about the convention globally.
• 1:44:22
  What can we expect this year? It's our first year in Denver,
• 1:44:25
  right? We've been Arizona.
• 1:44:26
  We've In San Antonio, we've been Orlando, which by the way my
• 1:44:30
  family thanks you for hosting in Orlando, because that was the
• 1:44:33
  only way they were going to get down for Disney World.
• 1:44:35
  So the, you know, my wife said, make sure you tell him, thank
• 1:44:37
  you for picking Orlando and get back there by the way.
• 1:44:40
  But what can we expect its Denver?
• 1:44:42
  It's a new hotel. We were in JW.
• 1:44:43
  Marriott switch are amazing. I'm at Hilton guy and I still
• 1:44:47
  can say that. The JW Marriott were and are
• 1:44:50
  amazing. Now we're in the Gaylord
• 1:44:53
  property brand-new, right? Just opened up guess now would
• 1:44:56
  be two years. One year, it officially be
• 1:44:58
  opened over. It's a little over two years, a
• 1:45:00
  little bit. It's really nice property.
• 1:45:04
  You know December or probably won't be having any outdoor
• 1:45:06
  lunches up there but it's a really nice property.
• 1:45:10
  A little change of pace Denver's got a very accessible airport
• 1:45:15
  obviously for people to get get into.
• 1:45:17
  So that's that's a good thing. Little bit of a Midway point
• 1:45:20
  between west east north north south.
• 1:45:23
  So what so that should match it shouldn't Match.
• 1:45:27
  Well it's got a lot of good Gathering points areas for
• 1:45:31
  folks, and it's got good. Good meeting space and stuff.
• 1:45:34
  So facility wise it should be really well.
• 1:45:38
  It's close to the airport. So be easy for easy and cheap
• 1:45:42
  Transportation getting back and forth from the airport to the
• 1:45:45
  hotel because most people sure there's some people can drive in
• 1:45:49
  and Colorado but most people will end up flying flying flying
• 1:45:52
  in. So that's that's convenient.
• 1:45:54
  A lot of conveniences I think. Yeah I think I even saw, there's
• 1:45:56
  a shuttle. Back and forth for it.
• 1:45:58
  Does this? The I've only been to, I think
• 1:46:01
  maybe only one Gaylord property the one in Nashville, I believe.
• 1:46:04
  And I was floored at how the footprint.
• 1:46:07
  It seemed very much more. So the JW Marriott seem very
• 1:46:10
  vertical to me. I mean, they're huge, like, you
• 1:46:12
  go to Julia Merritt? There's no need to leave campus.
• 1:46:15
  All your food entertainment. It's all right.
• 1:46:17
  There, the Gaylord seem to be more horizontal.
• 1:46:20
  Does this property allow for more expansion of, you know, so
• 1:46:24
  you can fit 25. I'm gonna put a challenge out
• 1:46:26
  there. 500 coaches for the convention?
• 1:46:29
  Is that allow for that? Or is it more similar footprint?
• 1:46:31
  As far as the number of people that we can handle at the
• 1:46:33
  convention? Then going 1600 rooms?
• 1:46:37
  You know, we have people share, share rooms stuff.
• 1:46:40
  So what I think we're pretty good shape from a from a room
• 1:46:44
  standpoint is handle the crab on that we will that will that will
• 1:46:49
  get. It's kind of a mixture probably
• 1:46:51
  between where we've been before and what you're saying in
• 1:46:56
  Nashville's a gay It's very different property than the
• 1:46:59
  Gaylord and Nashville which to me is okay difficult Hotel I've
• 1:47:04
  ever been in to negotiate where yes we're a great bro.
• 1:47:07
  I'm not the smartest guy but I do have some sense getting
• 1:47:10
  around it. There's no logical footprint.
• 1:47:12
  I agree with you. Yeah.
• 1:47:13
  Used to have conventions every now and I was always lost as
• 1:47:16
  whatever everybody else. This is more you've got a
• 1:47:20
  convention area that's connected and then Hotel areas that are
• 1:47:25
  inherent hours and okay. It's pretty, it's pretty easy.
• 1:47:28
  Getting pretty easy to get around there for the most,
• 1:47:30
  especially after you've been there for a day.
• 1:47:33
  Yeah, right. And so right now, there's still
• 1:47:36
  someone just on the teetering on the edge of going to the USD of
• 1:47:40
  see a convention website, just Google u.s. tipsy a convention
• 1:47:43
  2022. It'll bring you right up to the
• 1:47:46
  dedicated just to the convention website and it'll give you the
• 1:47:48
  schedule. You got to go check it out.
• 1:47:49
  It's amazing. You can book your hotel room
• 1:47:52
  right there. Discounted rates.
• 1:47:53
  By the way that you'll never get at these really luxurious.
• 1:47:57
  So tells you you're never gonna get these rates.
• 1:47:58
  So someone's on the fence teetering, they've heard about
• 1:48:02
  the coaching, education, the professional development, the
• 1:48:05
  hallway talk. There's so much more we haven't
• 1:48:08
  got into Sam will do this on part two.
• 1:48:10
  I still want to know if you endorse the hallway, triple jump
• 1:48:13
  competitions, that breakout which are just ridiculous.
• 1:48:16
  Just crazy talk that these guys and gals do that, but you also
• 1:48:19
  have amazing keynote speakers and your, hopefully you remember
• 1:48:25
  my brain. Is fried here.
• 1:48:28
  One of the keynote speakers you had a few years ago wrote the
• 1:48:31
  book lead for God's sake. I cannot do you remember his
• 1:48:35
  name? I'm embarrassed.
• 1:48:39
  Like a grand jury. Holy cow.
• 1:48:44
  If you're not watching on YouTube, he has it right there
• 1:48:46
  on his desk. I love that he because of your
• 1:48:49
  having him at the keynote, he was a guest on the Gillis
• 1:48:52
  headaches connections podcast. He was one of the original.
• 1:48:54
  I think he was around number 50 and we're at, you know, 176.
• 1:48:58
  Today, Todd has become a friend. He's an amazing human being.
• 1:49:02
  Who is this year's keynote speaker?
• 1:49:05
  Let's, let's set this over the edge.
• 1:49:06
  Someone's going to go back there.
• 1:49:07
  It right now because of this keynote speaker, who we got this
• 1:49:09
  year? Well, they won't look at because
• 1:49:12
  of keynote speaker because I can't tell you who it is because
• 1:49:14
  I don't know. We're in the midst of deciding
• 1:49:16
  if we're going to have a keynote here, okay?
• 1:49:19
  Or we're going to drive it from a business from a business
• 1:49:22
  standpoint. Yeah.
• 1:49:23
  Here. Every now and every few years,
• 1:49:25
  we try to drive it from a business scenario.
• 1:49:29
  But last year, we had Bob Garfield, Bob was a former CEO
• 1:49:34
  of NASDAQ form. A cross country Runner, and Iona
• 1:49:41
  pretty successful. Yeah, great successful Jazz
• 1:49:45
  gentleman who I thought. Brought a pretty great
• 1:49:48
  perspective to things. But, you know, we've had some
• 1:49:51
  good keynote folks, but we try to move around.
• 1:49:54
  So we're right now in the midst of trying to decide which way,
• 1:49:57
  to which way to go this year. So I don't have a name to pop
• 1:50:00
  out there. I'd say somebody's on the, you
• 1:50:03
  know, teetering bed, back and forth, you know, Sure out and
• 1:50:08
  try some. Hmm.
• 1:50:09
  You don't like it, you feel like it's a waste of time, waste of
• 1:50:12
  your finances coming out. Then you know, don't cut, don't
• 1:50:16
  come back but you know, you're not going to know if the
• 1:50:20
  restaurant down the street is great or bad, unless you go in
• 1:50:26
  and try it yourself, some, you know, your buddy can tell you,
• 1:50:29
  it's great. Maybe that entices you to go.
• 1:50:31
  Your buddy could tell you, he didn't have a good experience
• 1:50:34
  there, maybe that turns you away, but you're not going to
• 1:50:37
  know. Until you try it until you try
• 1:50:39
  it yourself. That goes back to a little deal
• 1:50:41
  about our sport. You know, try some stuff.
• 1:50:45
  We are very stubborn about not willing to try new things and
• 1:50:53
  you have to, that's what the world is.
• 1:50:55
  That's what the world is doing. I saw an article the other day
• 1:51:00
  where they were trying to identify what's the next big
• 1:51:05
  sport that's going to make the big move until the I'm like,
• 1:51:08
  hmm. So this is without consideration
• 1:51:10
  for collegiately. This is not without its the
• 1:51:14
  weather and overall without consideration for football men
• 1:51:18
  or women's basketball baseball, or softball.
• 1:51:21
  So, what were they? They named 9 and I can tell you
• 1:51:25
  how those nine track and field wasn't one, cross-country wasn't
• 1:51:30
  one that tells me that, no, we don't need to throw the baby
• 1:51:37
  out. With a sink but we need to alter
• 1:51:41
  what we're doing and find better ways to do it while trying to
• 1:51:46
  accomplish the same things that we've been to so good.
• 1:51:49
  At accomplishing over the year which is offering opportunity,
• 1:51:54
  helping kids to achieve, achieve their best and mentoring young
• 1:52:00
  adults into into human to human human beings.
• 1:52:04
  Good human beings down the road, Sam.
• 1:52:07
  This may Teeter people the other way, but if you need me to stand
• 1:52:10
  in for the keynote speaker, I'm available.
• 1:52:12
  I'm just saying that may scare people off but I'm just letting
• 1:52:15
  you know that I'm available if needed for you.
• 1:52:17
  Okay, I remember that. It was not evident as I start to
• 1:52:21
  get older, my memories now. Are you are all good either,
• 1:52:24
  you'll be excused for that one. Trust me, trust me Sam man.
• 1:52:27
  Again, thank you so much for being here.
• 1:52:31
  This is easily. One of the most obvious, we need
• 1:52:34
  at least two parts to it, you know?
• 1:52:36
  Your Tori. And the organization story is so
• 1:52:40
  important to our Sport and to our profession of coaching track
• 1:52:44
  and field much like you talked about with the great George
• 1:52:46
  Dale's about, we need to be better historians, we need to
• 1:52:48
  understand our Sport and then uplifted and make, you know,
• 1:52:51
  respect ourselves, so that others will respect us.
• 1:52:54
  That's a lot of the goals here at the Goliath etics connections
• 1:52:56
  podcast. You know, we called it
• 1:52:57
  connections. For a reason when you were
• 1:52:59
  describing the, the hallway effect at the convention.
• 1:53:02
  I mean that's what we're just doing.
• 1:53:03
  An audio hallway is what we're doing here and telling the He's
• 1:53:07
  allowing the people who lived the stories to tell their
• 1:53:10
  stories. The Karen.
• 1:53:11
  Dennis has the mic Holloway's Judd Logan's.
• 1:53:15
  I mean, boo schexnayder is just the Giants.
• 1:53:18
  You mentioned cross-country deal, G Taylor from BYU, we've
• 1:53:21
  had on you know for them to share their stories and for
• 1:53:24
  others to hear how they got started and how the success
• 1:53:27
  they've had in the mentors along the way.
• 1:53:29
  It's kind of a mini little convention.
• 1:53:31
  And so, you know, to be partnered with the UST of CA the
• 1:53:34
  way we have for a long time. Now, it's something that weird
• 1:53:36
  eagerly proud. Of and we're so thankful of your
• 1:53:39
  leadership. And, again, I know the title of
• 1:53:42
  today's podcast is Sam seems, but I know behind Sam and not
• 1:53:45
  even behind with Sam stands. Many, many names that we didn't
• 1:53:49
  mention that have helped continue to push the boat
• 1:53:52
  forward. Pull It Forward.
• 1:53:54
  Push. Pull and tug, and to move our
• 1:53:55
  sport in our profession of coaching track and field
• 1:53:58
  forward. So Sam, I'm just so thankful for
• 1:54:00
  you and your time today. I'm going to go on record and
• 1:54:03
  say that you said there was no way, you would go close to two
• 1:54:06
  hours. We're at the One hour and fifty
• 1:54:08
  three minute Mark and we've already agreed to do a part 2 my
• 1:54:10
  friend. So your story matters and I'm
• 1:54:12
  just so humbled to be able to share it with our listeners
• 1:54:15
  today. Great.
• 1:54:16
  Well, thanks for your support of the sport and for Gil support
• 1:54:20
  of, not only the sport, but of our association is one of our
• 1:54:23
  UST FC supporters as well. Absolutely.
• 1:54:25
  We're very very proud of that. Again, this is week one of kind
• 1:54:28
  of three weeks in a row of us tfcc a right?
• 1:54:31
  So today we had CEO of the United States track and field,
• 1:54:35
  and cross country coaches association it Maybe a mouthful
• 1:54:38
  but it's a really important mouthful.
• 1:54:39
  So I love all the seeds that are in there next week.
• 1:54:43
  We'll have Tim burn from sales in IAM Delaware, high school.
• 1:54:46
  He was the boys National High School, Coach of the Year award
• 1:54:49
  that thank you. You know, we talked about
• 1:54:50
  outside entities and bringing others in.
• 1:54:52
  Thank you to the US Marines, for sponsoring this great award at
• 1:54:56
  of all the state, boys, and girls, State coaches of the Year
• 1:55:00
  Tim was voted as the boys, high school coach of the year and
• 1:55:04
  then two weeks from now, right? So yeah, one to next week's.
• 1:55:07
  Tim the week after that will be Desmond Dunham.
• 1:55:09
  He is the head coach at st. John's Academy and d.c. that's
• 1:55:13
  right. We got d.c., they were in there
• 1:55:15
  and he was the girls coach of the year.
• 1:55:17
  So I'm just so excited to come back next week and learn kind of
• 1:55:20
  what these guys did to help their teams.
• 1:55:23
  Become number one, and they were voted coaches of the year, but
• 1:55:26
  the whole country, that's a big deal and we can't wait to share
• 1:55:30
  them with you. So join us next week and we'll
• 1:55:32
  keep the u.s. tfcc A train going.
• 1:55:34
  Thanks everybody. Have a great week.
• 1:55:44
  Thanks Mike what an incredible journey coach has been on so
• 1:55:47
  awesome to hear their story in their own words, tremendous
• 1:55:49
  proof of the positive effect coaches, make on a daily basis.
• 1:55:53
  Help us spread the word of this. Great journey by sharing on your
• 1:55:55
  favorite social, media channel. And don't forget to take a
• 1:55:58
  minute to rate and review the podcast.
• 1:56:00
  You just might get a shout out on a future episode, that's it
• 1:56:03
  for today. Join us next week, when we'll
• 1:56:05
  connect you You with another amazing crunch.
• 1:56:06
  You with another amazing crunch.