Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / #249: Greg Jaloszynski-12th Rock Ministries

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#249: Greg Jaloszynski-12th Rock Ministries · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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Track and Field World Juvenile tuned in to our humble servant
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Mike Cunningham for another extraordinary message on Gil
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Athletics connections. All right.
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Welcome back once again to the Guild Athletics Track and Field
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Connections Podcast, the podcast that uplifts and honors coaches
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around the country. I am really so blessed and
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honored to be your guest, Mike, not your guest.
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I was your guest back in December 25th, so if you haven't
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heard that one, go back there. But now I'm your host, Mike
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Cunningham, National Business Development Manager for Guild
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Athletics and Track and Field. So today, if you're a regular
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listener, you are become expectant.
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We just got off of amazing Baylor 4 by 4 series, right?
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We had the head coach, Mike Ford.
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We had the legendary Baylor coach Clyde Hart.
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You're used to amazing, awesome coaches from around the country
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and around the world. Well, we don't have that today,
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but we're going to find out some really interesting kind of, I
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don't want to call them behind the scenes, but things that are
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happening in track and field that you may not be aware of,
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that I think you should be aware of.
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So help me welcome as we learn about today's guest.
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Help me welcome from 12th Rock Ministries up in New York, Mr.
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Greg Jalisinski. Greg, how did I do on the last
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name? Did a wonderful job, Mike.
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Thanks man. You know, it's it's different
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saying it and then getting it recorded.
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That's a whole different ball game.
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I'm glad I can just move forward calling you Greg for the rest
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of. OK, Perfect.
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Good, good, good. Greg, thanks for being here
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today, man. You know, it's not lost on me
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that, you know, one of the most valuable things that you can
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ever give me is your time. So I do appreciate your time.
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I know you're a busy man with a lot of different what do you
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call them irons in the fire? I think it's the same.
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So I'm excited to learn about this iron and this big fire of
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what we're doing there up in New York.
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So why don't we start with everybody's kind of seeing the
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name. You know, normally it's, you
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know, Clyde Hart, Baylor University, right.
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So we've got Greg Gelins. Jealous.
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See. All right.
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I messed it up. I knew it was going.
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To mess up. Jello Ozinski and 12th Rock
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Ministries. So the first question is always
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going to be, well, what is 12th Rock Ministries?
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Why don't we start there? Absolutely.
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So 12th Rock Ministries, we our mission statement, our vision
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statement is to change the atmosphere of sport, news,
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sports by providing positive life lifting experiences to
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honor Jesus Christ. So the whole thing is we are
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trying to create an A cultural experience for the families and
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and the athletes that come into our programs that shows the love
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of Jesus. And we've seen over this is our
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24th year and we've seen amazing relationships that develop
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through the avenue of sports and it's just a blessing to be
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involved in families lives through the sports experience
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from kindergarten all the way up to masters level athletes right
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now. So we're we're seeing a pretty
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cool impact on on lives. So one of the most natural
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questions that's going to come up then is, well, what is 12th
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Rock? What does that mean?
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We understand ministries. We probably could have assumed
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when I said 12th Rock Ministries people were but probably
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hopefully assuming, oh, sports to connect not not just
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children, but people, but through sports to the life of
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Jesus Christ. What does 12th Rock mean then?
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So it's it's our personal testimony.
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It's it's my brother and I. It's our it's our personal
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testimony. We we've been in business since
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I was 14. My brother and I have been in
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business together. He was 12.
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We had a little landscape business through high school and
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then when we finished college, we started a landscape
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construction company and we started this ministry.
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At the same time we were running our business and the ministry
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kind of side by side and got to, I don't know, 10 years in both
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of us had three kids and mortgages and God was telling us
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go full time, full time ministry.
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So as we're reading through scriptures and kind of praying
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through it, talking about what we wanted to name the
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organization, we're reading the story of Joshua And when he's
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taking the Israelites to the promised Land and they came to
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the Jordan River that was at flood stage.
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And there's a line in Joshua three and four that says they,
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the Joshua commanded the high priest to put their foot in the
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river and watch what God does, basically.
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And that was us, man. We put our equipment on the side
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of the roads, sold it. People thought we were nuts
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because we had a really good company and pretty well known in
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the Hudson Valley. And they said, what are you guys
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doing? You got kids.
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They got to go through college. And that was our.
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That was our face step. And then it goes on.
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And Joshua, would you explain that Joshua commanded the
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Israelites to grab 12 Stones and put them placed them on the
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opposite side of the river in the promised land.
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And those stones were to display God's faithfulness to future
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generations. So 12 Stones and we we believe
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that Christ is that 12th stone. So we called it 12th Rock.
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And it's it allows us to have a name that's not super
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Christianese and allows us to tell our story because every
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event somebody asks us what's the deal with 12th Rock.
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And that's the opening that God gives us to share our testimony.
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So it's it's pretty cool. So our our goal is to make sure
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the future generations understand that God is faithful
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and that he shows up, and we've seen it countless times in our
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life. See, when people think doing a
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podcast is hard, I just tell them like I just asked the
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obvious question. That's all I do is like, oh,
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12th row. Well, what's that mean?
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There you go that that's there's your podcasting host, One O 1
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Instructions. Just ask the obvious question.
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Love that. Love that story.
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I love the cashing in all your chips kind of poker lingo there
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of a successful landscaping business kind of all, all you
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knew at that point that was your job.
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You know you've been doing it since, you know preteen for
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crying out loud all the way up to Pat post college and then
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went into ministries. We're very similar people.
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I did that as a coach, Greg I I, I dropped all my coaching.
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I was in the SEC at Mississippi State cashing all my chips and
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but instead of ministry I went to Las Vegas and played poker
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for a living. I think yours is a little bit
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more noble. Yeah.
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Yeah, that's a little. You're a little bit more like
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oh, who, who had the better morals and things there.
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So what has 12th Rock, what have you and your brother done up to
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this point? We're going to talk about
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present and I'm going to call it near future here in a second.
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But so as you got out of college, you dropped the
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landscape business, created the 12th Rock Ministries.
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How have you used sports and youth sports for this mission?
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So we started off in the basketball program that was our
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first thing and at the first year we were like 85 kids and
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next year it was like 250. And the following year it was up
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to, we got to a point where we were almost up to 500 kids
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participating in our basketball programs.
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And then we added like football and soccer and a phenomenal
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archery program. So really we kind of followed
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the school calendar with families and provided
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programming that wasn't available for kindergarten
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through 12th grade students in that area.
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A lot of the rec programs do provide stuff, but we were
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finding another level of that type programming.
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And then in the summer times we'd run camps like evening
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camps and stuff like that. So that's kind of where we cut
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our teeth and that's where we got, that's where we got our our
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our reach into the community was through basketball programming
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and then everything just continues to to build on that.
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So Pandemic kind of shut us down though basketball wise because
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we couldn't get into facilities. So we're we're in rebuild mode
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right now for basketball. But our archery program is
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vibrant and we've done camps from Maryland all the way up to
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Maine. We travel in the summertime and
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kind of mobilize our our ministry and work with different
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Christian camps and stuff running their sports programming
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so. And where are you?
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Someone's asking the question right now.
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I can just hear them screaming at their podcast app on their
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phone. Where are you?
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Where is it? You mentioned camps from
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Maryland to Maine. That doesn't really give us kind
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of a pinpoint where kind of are you centrally located?
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So where we are in an amazing location because we are one hour
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north of New York City. We're in Orange County, New
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York. So 40 like 3540 minutes from
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West Point, we where our property is, we are half hour
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from Pennsylvania border an hour from Connecticut and we're three
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hours from Boston. So we're pretty centrally
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located in, we're centrally located in New York and and
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basically the Northeast, I mean we're accessible from all
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regions. So it's pretty nice.
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And you mentioned starting with basketball and moved to other
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sports and you have a really viable archery program.
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How do you you, you mentioned kind of going along with the
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school year calendar, but there's a lot of sports that
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overlaps you. You have to make choices.
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How are you choosing where do you want to do basketball?
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How do you how do you fill out? You you mentioned getting up to
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500 kids. Quite a if you have five kids
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versus 500, that's amazing. You're still affecting young
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people's lives positively, but 500 requires assistant coaches,
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helpers. I mean, just so much more.
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How are you and how have you built that infrastructure?
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We rely so heavily on volunteers like in our prime when we're
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running that 500 kid program we're we're we're 200 volunteers
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strong. And so I usually oversee the
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basketball programming. My brother overseas the archery
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programming and we have a different set of volunteers for
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each of our programs. So we're running basketball as
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we're running archery and it's a different set of kids that's
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being reached. You know there's not every kids
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a ball sport kid and the archery program is really reaching into
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the special needs community as well.
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So we have quite a few kids that are on the autism spectrum that
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are shooting in our archery program right now.
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So we just we cater our volunteers to what their their
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their specialties are and we just really pour into and train
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our volunteers well. How long has this been going on?
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Now what? What year are we in?
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Well, 12 Rock has been around for 12 years, but we've been
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doing sports ministry for 24 years.
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Can you? Think I'm kind of putting you in
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the spot here. I feel like I'm putting you in
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the spot more of like you have a lot of examples.
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I'm going to ask you to pair it down to one or two versus
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normally I put some on the spot. They got to think of 1.
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Can you think of over 12 to 24 years, especially using sports
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And you know our, our listenership, our audience here,
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they themselves have typically been positively affected by
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coaches and by sports. Certainly maybe I've had
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children, their own children that have been positively
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impacted by coaches and sport. Can you think of a story, an
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example of one of the young men or women, young children that
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has come through your ministry that was changed whether they,
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you know, had no self-confidence in themselves before they came
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in and learned how to play the sport of basketball.
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Maybe they went on to be a basketball coach.
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Can you think of just an example of what 12th Rock has helped a
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young person come through you're?
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Going to ask me to wheel it down.
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Yeah, that's what I say. I think I put you in a spot to
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like OK, I can't examples here Greg.
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So I think that I I have a couple that really just like
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shoot to mind. One is a young man.
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So I'll start with a basketball player.
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He went into our programs. His dad's a local pastor.
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This kid is one of the most gifted athletes I've ever
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coached. I I last, my youngest, graduated
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high school. That was the last time I
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coached. Like, I kind of walked into the
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sunset with him. So he was the same age as my
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youngest son. So they did AAU together and
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stuff. But this kid is the most gifted
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basketball player I've ever coached, and I got, I texted him
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during his college career just to say, hey, I'm, I'm showing up
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to your game, 'cause he had, he played on two.
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They went to the final four or two years in a row with his
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junior college team and then I texted him.
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I said hey, I'm coming to your game because he had transferred
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schools and he just the the text message was amazing.
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He just said coach you, I don't know how much you've been.
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I don't know if you realize how much you have an impact you've
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had on my life and I'm in the place I'm in because of you
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because you believed in me in 4th grade.
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Now it's it's really it's it's awesome.
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It's not it's not hard to believe that this kids a good
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athlete but he's just an amazing young man.
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And then it turned out that he ended up having a heart
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condition so he couldn't play this year And the way he handled
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that as a young man and he just, I I had, I ran into his dad
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around Christmas and he's just like when you've spoken to my
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son's life over all these years and I was just treating him like
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he was my own kid. But so Tim's story amazing.
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The other one that was just unbelievable, blew my brother
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and I away was a young man that actually came to us last winter
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asking to raise support for his new ministry and but he's like
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can I come to your office? And he's sharing the story he
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was telling us at the time. We're going back 16 years ago.
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I think it was yeah, I think it was 16 years ago.
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He he did a basketball camp and we shared the gospel at the
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basketball camp and he accepted Christ like 3 weeks later.
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And his he's from a Jewish family.
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So then he started ministering to his parents, got them to come
13:36
to church and now he's got a ministry ministering to the
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Jewish community and he was seeking support and we were like
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out of a basketball camp. So like God does stuff like that
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all the time and it's just cool. And we have countless stories
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about our Archer program where kids just felt welcome, felt
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like family, felt safe. So that's that's the type of
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stuff he's doing and we're just excited to be a part of.
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It, you know, Greg you run. You have kind of two things
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there. One on that second story, you
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know, I think as coaches we sometimes think our job is to
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help a kid dribble the basketball better or you know,
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specifically here in our track sides to make them faster, jump
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farther, throw farther, etcetera.
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You know that's that's this part.
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If you're not on YouTube watching us, it's so small.
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Your positive impact on young people is the job 99.
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You know, you've heard me, if you're a regular listener,
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you've heard me say this 100,000 times.
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Now, 99% of your kids aren't going to college.
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And if you're in the college side, 99% of your kids aren't
14:36
going pro. But they're all going on to be
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moms, dads, business owners, clergy, accountants, etcetera,
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doctors. All these great things.
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The impact you make on them is the impact you make on society.
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You're making better people. So I love that story there about
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the second one. The first one, I actually
14:55
couldn't help. But as you're talking about that
14:57
young man saying thank you and I could see it in your eyes.
15:00
You didn't say this, but you said it in your eyes, Greg, you
15:02
were. I could hear you saying
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internally I don't need the thanks.
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I know I impacted his life. That's what I'm here on earth to
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do. That's that's awesome.
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But it definitely made you feel good when he said thank you,
15:14
right. So it made me think about it.
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We don't have much of an audience of of today of current
15:18
athletes but I know we have a huge part of our audience that
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is former athletes. I challenge you and and maybe
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I'm even challenging you. Greg.
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Think about that. Coach, track coach, basketball,
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it doesn't matter. Archery coach, maybe it's a
15:32
teacher that impacted your life and you haven't said thank you
15:37
in a while. That person right now is not
15:40
sitting around waiting, man. I wish Greg would tell me thank
15:42
you. I I really went to bat for him.
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But when you call that person or e-mail or text by the way, the
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mode of communication doesn't matter to me and I'm not big on
15:51
this. Well they texted, they didn't
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call or handwritten note versus e-mail.
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It's the this is really where the thought that counts comes
15:57
through. It is humbling yourself going to
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someone who made an impact on you and just making sure they
16:02
know, hey boy, thank you. I don't know that I'd be where I
16:06
am today without your belief or your trust or your pushing or
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what not. That's that first story just
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kind of really resonated with me of like, oh man, I'm kind of
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talking to myself here a little bit too, Greg.
16:16
I think I have a few people I need to make sure they know the
16:20
positive impact they. Make yeah because the the the
16:23
very reason I'm even doing what I'm doing is because of my 2
16:26
college coaches saying we were doing all kinds of stuff in the
16:29
community community camps. I'm like man, I got to keep
16:32
doing this stuff and I I did have the opportunity to thank my
16:35
basketball coach this past fall. Our team got inducted into the
16:40
Our Colleges Hall of Fame and he was there with our whole team
16:44
and I just got a chance to thank him and share with him because I
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mean I met my wife through that. So it's just it's coaches have
16:53
such an impact on on on kids and now we got we have kids now that
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have played in our program that are now coaching like local high
17:01
school teams and stuff and it's cool like they're calling us for
17:04
advice and it's just it's really cool.
17:07
One of the greatest I just had this image picture I've seen on
17:10
social media. I think it's Kareem Abdul
17:14
Jabbar, I think, and John Wooden, he he went to UCLA,
17:16
right? Not a basketball guy.
17:18
So I'm not sure. And it showed a picture of him
17:20
when he was an athlete and coach Wooden had his arm around him,
17:22
probably telling him about a play to do or whatever, yadda
17:24
yadda. And then Fast forward and it's
17:27
Coach Wooden is, you know, clearly a it's pat.
17:29
You know, Cream's in the NBA, probably past even Cream's NBA
17:32
time. And it just showed like, you
17:35
know, Coach Wooden loved him then as an 18 year old, loves
17:38
him now as a 50 year old. Like you know the impact of a
17:41
coach is not the the time on the track or the court it it's
17:45
lifelong if you're if you're doing it correctly, which most
17:47
of us and most of you are, which is is awesome.
17:50
So where are you when I say where not necessarily you know
17:54
the city and you know we talked about kind of where you're
17:56
located, but to do basketball camps, even archery camps
18:00
etcetera, you got to have a building land something like
18:03
that. What are you doing now and
18:04
what's what do you got planned here in the maybe near future?
18:07
So for the last 24 years we've been renting school buildings,
18:12
everyone we can get our hands on for the basketball programming
18:16
that came became a challenge during the pandemic.
18:19
That's why our programming kind of slowed down and we we
18:22
purchased a piece of land going on seven years ago now and with
18:28
the vision to build an indoor Sports Complex on it.
18:30
So we've been developing the land and using it at the same
18:34
time. So we run our Archer programs
18:36
spring, summer and fall on that piece of land.
18:38
We have 14 acres, beautiful field space to work in and then
18:43
in the winter time we use an indoor facility for that and
18:46
then we rent local tracks and stuff like that when we need to.
18:50
But we can do most of our programming on site.
18:52
And then we also are partnered with an AG tourism farm.
18:56
They're friends of ours for like 20 plus years.
18:58
We built a cross country course there, so we host major cross
19:02
country races out there and and use that venue as well.
19:08
Now when we're in the world of track and field, which that's my
19:11
own box, right, I'm always, it's very little outside of track and
19:15
field for other sports and such. It's typically that it's a track
19:20
person who is running track camps, running cross country,
19:23
making a cross country course etcetera.
19:26
But I'm Greg, I'm not hearing, I'm not really hearing much
19:29
about track background. What's What's your background in
19:31
in sports and track and field? So my dream as a kid was to play
19:35
baseball professionally. And then I fell in love with
19:38
basketball and I was like, I'm playing college basketball.
19:42
So that's what I did. I I was blessed and got
19:44
recruited to play and then end up playing baseball too.
19:47
I had zero track and field background and the reason we're
19:51
going we started going after track facilities because it's
19:55
it's a huge need in the Hudson Valley like regionally the
19:59
closest ones are down in New York City Staten Island and then
20:02
you got to go up you know Syracuse way.
20:05
So there's nothing anywhere close to us.
20:08
So being business guys you you have to diversify and out.
20:13
In all true honesty, I did the AAU basketball circuit and it's
20:17
exhausting and. Facilities are nice, but you
20:21
can't throw all your eggs in a basketball basket.
20:25
So you have to, you have to be diversified.
20:29
So when we started doing feasibility studies, we were
20:31
like well track and we started talking to the high schools and
20:35
the local colleges and they're like if somebody gets a track
20:38
facility built in this area, it won't be big enough, it won't,
20:41
there won't be enough time in it and that's what we're finding.
20:45
So we kind of we fell into track and field first with the
20:49
facility and then pandemic hit and we were like how do we put
20:54
food on our table, how do we stay in front of athletes during
20:57
the pandemic. So we figured out how to do
21:00
stuff outside and that's when we built the outdoor throws
21:03
facility and we built a cross country course.
21:05
We actually had two cross country courses during the
21:07
pandemic and we stayed open. We were, we were the only guys
21:11
open on the East Coast. So people were coming in from
21:15
all over the country to throw at our place and to run in our
21:19
track in our cross country races.
21:21
So there's a real lesson here because in the Track World we
21:25
tend to be very, I'm not sure if I'm using the word write myopic.
21:28
We tend to be very small sighted in that we need to get more
21:31
track fans to meet, more track people, more track This here,
21:36
you're not a track guy by any means what and you're talking
21:39
about you read feasibility studies, you're kind of maybe
21:42
making the pitch. That track is valuable to a lot
21:46
of people, not just someone who is a former runner or now a
21:49
coach. Yeah.
21:51
So what we're finding is it's about the experience for the
21:54
family, the athletes and that's kind of the goal of the facility
21:58
is that we want to make sure that everybody that comes to the
22:02
facility, everybody that comes to an event is taken care of.
22:05
So that's kind of been our approach with the the, the cross
22:08
country stuff and the track field stuff and then we try, we
22:11
surround ourselves with quality people.
22:13
So I'm like I don't know anything about this.
22:15
So we have, we're blessed. Dan Mecca that was former
22:19
Manhattan College is our throws coach and he's made amazing
22:23
connections for us and he's very well known in the track and
22:26
field world. And then we've got a great
22:29
relationship with USATF track and field officials.
22:33
So I we hire the best officials and we make sure that they are,
22:39
that they're quality officials and then we try to do the small
22:42
things. So we just take care of the
22:43
little things and what we found is that you're talking about
22:48
them. If you're looking at sports and
22:50
trying to have the greatest impact what sport has, most
22:53
athletes tend to vet a track team.
22:56
So for us we're trying to impact lives.
22:59
I'm looking at numbers. A basketball team is 12 to 15
23:02
players, a track team is 80 to 125 kids every team.
23:07
So greater impact, right. And even when you talk about the
23:11
throws the the care that we're taking with the throws athletes
23:14
they've it's it's incomparable to what they've seen at unless
23:19
they go to national level meats, right.
23:22
So we're trying to take care of that on an old farm field and
23:26
and they're loving it. So we stretch people a little
23:29
bit because they're like we don't do this like this in track
23:31
and field. I'm like well I see it
23:32
functioning like this and it works and it meets all the
23:35
safety regulations of what we have to do during the pandemic.
23:38
So this is how we're doing it and and I mean our meats were
23:43
packed and it was, it was phenomenal.
23:45
So talk to us about that. You started with the distance,
23:48
you know, with the cross country courses and then throws.
23:51
Now distance seems like the least expensive, right?
23:54
But you have to have land, you have to build cross country.
23:56
So it's not on the equipment side, certainly it's the least
23:59
expensive for us, right? We don't, we don't do anything
24:01
for cross country unfortunately, right.
24:03
But then you go to the track side, there's a lot of different
24:06
events. You can still talk about
24:07
distance runners, sprinters, hurdlers, throwers, jumpers.
24:10
And you went straightforward. Maybe the one of the more
24:13
expensive options. Not just throws, but hammer
24:16
throw. I mean, you know, hammer cages.
24:17
No, you know, there's no dollar store hammer cage out there.
24:22
Talk to us about why did you start there and then who?
24:25
Somebody had to have helped you. No offense.
24:26
I just don't see a baseball basketball guy going, oh, hammer
24:28
cages. This is easy.
24:30
Let's just figure out a hammer cage.
24:31
Like, how? How did that come about?
24:33
I No offense taken, but we have a constructive background.
24:36
Oh sure. Oh.
24:36
Sure, sure. Yeah.
24:37
Good point, Good point. So.
24:38
That has been hugely advantageous to us and Dan.
24:42
Coach Mecca is like he understands what the circle
24:46
needs to be, the surface. So we we got the 1st circle
24:49
right and he said just keep making them like this.
24:52
And so our the concrete concrete contractor we work with, he's
24:57
he's nailed it every single time when we have to move the cage
24:59
around our site. But our first hammer cage was
25:02
actually made out of trees that we cut down and it brought like
25:06
the throwers back especially the masters level guys they're like
25:09
man, this brings us back to like the the old days where we would
25:12
just find a field and throw in it but the hammer is so
25:17
attractive because nobody like schools don't allow you to throw
25:21
a ham like Jersey. We get a ton of people from New
25:23
Jersey, Connecticut, I mean all the way down from the DC area,
25:27
like we can't find a place to throw the hammer.
25:29
And for us it's, it's a construction site.
25:32
So yeah, go ahead and put holes in the ground, 'cause we'll just
25:37
we'll clean it up and but it's, I mean, right during the
25:41
pandemic, we had seven people qualify for Olympic trials at
25:45
the facility and out of a cage that, you know, we've made it
25:49
safe. And it's not like what we have
25:52
coming this spring with the gill cage that we're getting, but
25:56
we've made it work. And I think the athletes, I know
25:59
the athletes and the spectators have appreciated the fact that
26:02
we're making it work for the throwers because we've heard a
26:05
lot, a lot of them are like kind of the redheaded stepchild of
26:07
the track and field industry. And we're like we're rolling out
26:12
the red carpet for them and they're and they're they're
26:14
loving it and it's it's been super enjoyable.
26:17
This feels very if you build it, they will come type of
26:21
philosophy. Totally is.
26:23
Totally is, yeah. Yeah, 'cause now we're now,
26:27
we're a world athletic certified facility.
26:29
So like last summer we had pros throwing there, which was pretty
26:32
cool. And this new cage is gonna just
26:35
take us to the next level, as far as that goes.
26:38
When I came out last time, you have something kind of unique
26:42
out in the sector that we have to be cautious of.
26:44
Talk to us about that kind of we're literally talking about a
26:47
field here, guys. We're not.
26:49
We're gonna get into the facility in a second, but we're
26:50
just in the. Field.
26:52
So we've actually shifted where we're going to put the hammer
26:55
cage. So that silo is going to be the
26:56
focal point, like it's going to be dead center at the end of the
27:00
hammer sector. So here when you're throwing the
27:02
hammer, it'll be you'll be throwing, right.
27:05
Nobody's going to hit the silo. If they do, then you should have
27:08
TD crews there because. You just made a big challenge to
27:11
a lot of people, by the way. Oh, we're not going to hit it
27:13
all right, We'll. Figure it out.
27:14
Yuri's Yuri Sedic's record goes down.
27:17
That's that's how far so. Hey, notice that this is a non
27:20
Trek guy throwing out record holders.
27:22
That's awesome. I love it.
27:24
Well, we were fortunate we had Yuri Sedic actually came and did
27:27
clinics for us before he passed away.
27:30
Yeah, he did three clinics for us before he passed away.
27:34
Yep. Wow.
27:37
Yeah. So, yeah, we know the numbers.
27:38
We know we're starting to learn that.
27:40
We're starting to learn the lingo.
27:41
Yeah, I love it. I love it.
27:43
So we talked about Hammer. We got some cross country
27:45
courses. So what's the facility look
27:49
like? You must have this Taj Mahal
27:51
facility out there then. Nothing yet.
27:53
Right now it's all gravel. So we've we've broken because we
27:57
are a nonprofit and we're still raising funds.
28:00
We're trying not to put our families in significant debt.
28:04
We are. We broke the project into phases
28:06
and we're in the middle of phase three right now, which is
28:10
basically levelling the footprints of the entire the
28:14
entire piece of land, putting in all of our parking lots, putting
28:17
a bunch of infrastructure in so that we can keep using the space
28:21
and as we continue to raise money.
28:23
But the the end game is about a two acre facility under roof.
28:28
It's got a 200m track, 8 Sprint lanes, 1200 seats through the
28:33
track facility, separate areas for throwing and and the jumps.
28:38
And then on the other side of the facility is basketball
28:40
volleyball facility, SO4 collegiate basketball courts
28:44
which turn into eight volleyball courts.
28:46
And then the whole center court of building is, you know, cafe
28:50
and locker rooms and everything infrastructure you need to run a
28:53
quality sports facility. And so I don't know that there's
28:56
any small indoor facility. It's indoor, so it's not an
28:59
outdoor facility, but it's still because of the walls and the
29:02
roof, there's always a lot of infrastructure that goes along
29:05
with it. But what you just described is
29:07
not I I kind of, I'm kind of in my head visualized as you're
29:10
describing it. This doesn't seem like some
29:13
small shack that's going up that's going to have a 200m
29:15
track in it. No.
29:17
And and it's when we were going through the feasibility study
29:20
like with our performer company, they're like you guys have too
29:23
much, like you have too much space design in here.
29:26
We can tighten this space up. And for us it's about the fan
29:29
experience, it's about the spectator experience.
29:32
I've been in those facilities where they squeeze a track in or
29:35
they squeeze a basketball court in and it's a miserable
29:38
experience for the fans and the athletes.
29:41
So our whole goal is to develop a facility that's excellent for
29:45
everybody. We want people to come back.
29:47
We want people to enjoy the sport, whether they're a
29:50
kindergarten or dribbling, a basketball, or whether they're a
29:53
collegiate level athlete running the track.
29:54
You want them to have that amazing experience every time
29:58
they come because it keeps people coming back, you know?
30:01
And that's that's what we've been able to do with the stuff
30:03
we have now. We people keep coming back
30:06
because of the experience they have.
30:08
How do you, Greg, this just kind of popped into my head as I'm
30:11
thinking about this amazing facility that you're working on
30:14
and the amazing things that you guys have already done up to
30:17
this point. You know, this started with
30:20
which, you know, I think you said, you know, five kids
30:22
playing basketball basically, right?
30:25
And you know, obviously you worked up big numbers and really
30:28
kind of patchworked that those big numbers together, meaning
30:31
renting all these different gyms and things like that.
30:33
Now you're going to have this facility and I want to talk a
30:36
little bit more about the facility here in a second.
30:39
How do you and your brother, and really everyone that you involve
30:44
and allow to be involved? Volunteers, etcetera.
30:46
How do you keep the focus? #1 being How do we use sport to
30:53
help kids understand about God's love?
30:56
There's a lot of other things that are going to be pulling for
30:58
your There's all other things pulling your attention today.
31:00
Building the facility for credit?
31:01
Loud, but there's going to be upkeep, scheduling, maintenance,
31:05
everybody in your ear telling you how to do your job better.
31:07
By the way, when you run a athletic facility, how do you
31:10
keep the main thing, the main thing?
31:14
That's a wonderful question. We every, every time we meet
31:17
with our volunteers, every time we meet with our staff, it's all
31:20
about putting them back to mission and vision.
31:23
Everything we try to our prayer every day is Lord.
31:27
If we're not supposed to build this place, then you redirect us
31:30
and and shut us down. But he just keeps opening the
31:34
door and in the end we don't want it to go.
31:37
Look what Greg and Mark built. It's look what God built and
31:41
look what, you know, look what he accomplished through two guys
31:43
that just have, you know, the faith just step out and and keep
31:47
moving, you know. But we're going to kind of
31:50
switch gears. We're not going to try to be the
31:51
guys that run a facility and run all the programming because it's
31:55
a it's there's a it's a massive need.
31:58
Indoor space in in the Hudson Valley is a it's a massive need.
32:03
So for us, our ministry's going to kind of shift gears to like
32:07
making sure that when you walk through the doors you everything
32:10
is taken care of. You just worry about your
32:12
program and we've seen that. So influential in just dealing
32:17
with like we just hosted the Mac Mac Conference Cross Country
32:21
Championships this past fall and the committee was working with
32:25
them. They were like, you guys have
32:27
this taken care of and this like we take care of everything and
32:30
they just walk in the door and run the race and they're already
32:33
coming back next year. So that's the goal is like,
32:36
that's our form of ministry is like God calls us the excellence
32:39
in everything. So hey, you don't have to worry
32:43
about anything. Everything will be taken care
32:45
of. And that gives us an opportunity
32:47
to administer to the families, the coaches, the team, the
32:50
places that are renting our facility, the organizations that
32:53
are renting the facility. And then that we're not
32:55
spreading ourselves so thin either because I've been in
32:59
facilities where they're like, well, we can make money on this
33:01
program. We can make money on this
33:03
program. And then it becomes about like
33:05
paying the mortgage, paying the lights.
33:06
And for us, it's when it gets to that point, it's time to shut it
33:10
down because then we've lost focus.
33:13
Yeah, that's why I talk about the different priorities tugging
33:16
at you because you still do have to pay the mortgage.
33:18
It can't be this is all about paying the mortgage, but you
33:21
still have to pay that while also making sure how do you help
33:24
little 8 year old Timmy and Tina be able to come to the facility
33:27
and understand what the mission and vision is?
33:30
What kind of you mentioned you you had athletes in the facility
33:35
from in the program from extremely young all the way
33:39
through Masters. What's the vision for the
33:42
facility in regards to specifically track and field?
33:45
That's our audience here. I know you mentioned basketball,
33:46
volleyball as well, but for track and field is this going to
33:50
be you, you mentioned the need in the Hudson Valley.
33:52
Is this going to be a facility that runs a ton of middle
33:55
school, high school, young, younger, athlete meets, is this
34:00
going to be a NCAA championship type facility that are you know
34:03
hosting NCAA championships? What?
34:05
What's the vision for the track portion of the?
34:07
Building so for a track portion we would love to see after
34:10
school running programs and stuff like that track and field
34:13
programs. We have a it's it's we have a
34:15
huge call on our area people are looking to get their kids
34:17
involved in track and field early and so we're seeing that
34:21
in our camps and our clinics and stuff like that.
34:24
We've got a a tentative agreement with the locals like
34:28
the the organization overseas all of the high school
34:31
competitions. They're excited about it because
34:34
they're saying it's going to bring like the lower class
34:36
schools, the ability to have track programs because the the
34:40
cost to transport down to New York City is just insomnable for
34:44
these. So like we'll see Class B and
34:46
class, you know, C&B schools popping up track and field
34:50
programs because it's locally accessible.
34:53
And then the small colleges, they don't have track
34:55
facilities. They've already started talking
34:57
to us. So we'll see.
34:59
We'll probably see some, you know, small college conference
35:02
meets and stuff like that. We won't have the spectator
35:04
capacity to host the huge like NCAA regionals and stuff like
35:08
that but ACT championships those things will have the capacity to
35:13
do so. So it can go and and we have
35:16
amazing conversations going with the USATF masters level as well
35:21
like you should win the bid to host the outdoor championships
35:25
in 2024 or 25. I mean so we we have those
35:30
conversations going too. So what it's what's cool about
35:34
it is when we have our meets we're at we have middle school
35:37
and high school kids competing with open and masters level like
35:42
all together. So they're interacting all day
35:45
and it's it's just it's it's an amazing and unique experience
35:50
all in one. I like how well thought out that
35:52
was Greg, because you know typically when I work with
35:55
facilities, specifically indoor facilities like this one here,
36:01
when I asked that question about what's the vision of the
36:04
facility, the meets and things like that, a lot of times they
36:08
will say, oh, we want to host the World Indoor Championships
36:12
and I have to quickly remind them, well first of all it's
36:14
only been done once in the in the in the United States twice.
36:17
I think Indy did it once, but Portland with Vinland, Anna and
36:20
Oregon a few years ago, I was like, so first of all it doesn't
36:24
happen in the US first of all. Second of all, you know that's
36:29
not going to be the majority of your people.
36:30
Like on on a average Tuesday, the international team from
36:35
South Korea is not going to be here practice that, you know.
36:37
So you got to know your audience and I think a lot of people
36:39
sometimes because it's track and field and so we're very gold
36:42
medal focused and Olympics focused.
36:44
We automatically tend to think of World Indoors for an indoor
36:47
facility and Olympics, Olympic trials for outdoor facilities.
36:50
But you really, if you're going to build a facility like this,
36:53
have to know who is the audience, who are you actually
36:56
serving? Who is going to be there
36:58
Wednesday at 8:00 AM? Who's going to be there Thursday
37:01
at 8:00 PM? Not who's going to be there
37:04
Friday through Saturday during the Olympic trial.
37:06
You know, you got to know who your audience is.
37:08
So I like how you've actually thought about that and and it
37:11
ties very succinctly into the mission and vision of 12th Rock
37:14
as well. Yep, it does.
37:17
I haven't. I've yet to hear 12th Rock talk
37:19
about, yeah, our mission is to get Olympic gold medalist to
37:22
profess their fate so that we can affect young people.
37:25
I don't know. We want to bring young people
37:27
into our ministry and show them what we're about.
37:31
So that's really interesting. I like that.
37:33
So what's the time frame? Someone right now is like, hey
37:36
man, I want to come to Hudson Valley right now and start
37:38
throwing the the start running and jumping in meets how?
37:41
How are things? Going I wish, I wish I I wish I
37:43
knew the timetable. God only God knows the
37:45
timetable. That's right.
37:46
We were just talking about that this morning.
37:48
I mean in our humanness we would love to be open in 2025.
37:53
But that's it's really we are at the, we are at the point where
37:56
it's a funding piece, that's that's where we're at.
37:59
We have, we have all of our approvals in place.
38:01
All of our environmental studies are done, all of our feasibility
38:04
studies are done because we phased the project.
38:07
It's it's great 'cause we just moved the bond from piece to
38:11
piece. So as we complete each phase,
38:14
then we just move our bonds. So it's it's been good because
38:18
people can see progress. So what they can get involved in
38:21
right now is our outdoor throws facility is phenomenal.
38:24
We have 8 meets on the schedule for this year and then we have
38:30
four or five major cross country races on the schedule already
38:34
for this year. So those are things that they
38:37
can immediately get involved in. But yeah, the funding pieces
38:43
where we're at for the indoor facility.
38:45
This might be the only discussion I've ever had where
38:47
cross country and hammer throwing are the main 2
38:50
components. It's like we got a cross country
38:53
going over here, we got hammer meets over here.
38:54
It's just normal track, right? Yeah, I love that.
38:57
Well, we'll make sure we have it down in the notes too.
38:59
But where? If someone is listening to you
39:01
hearing this story here in the maybe they want to know more
39:04
about 12th Rock as well. Maybe like an about page, things
39:06
like that. What's the best place for
39:08
someone to go to to learn more about the ministries and maybe
39:11
push a donate button? You can just go right to our
39:14
main web page, 12th rock.org and then if they click on the Sports
39:18
Complex tab, they can see everything about the vision for
39:22
it. So we'll have that in the show
39:24
notes as well, but pretty easy to remember. 12th Rock and it.
39:26
And I believe if I remember right, it's not spelled out.
39:28
It's 1/2 TH. Yeah, so 12th Rock, 1/2 TH
39:33
rock.org. And I really if any of this
39:36
interests you, whether it's the location being up in Northeast
39:39
where it's the Sports Complex that has basketball, volleyball,
39:41
track and more. Whether it's the ministry and
39:44
maybe it's Hudson Valley. I don't know.
39:46
Maybe it's your former basketball person that has a kid
39:49
running track now and this interests you.
39:51
I really employee to go check out 12th rock.org and check out
39:54
the when he talks about the Sports Complex page there's some
39:56
really cool renderings and even more so you know renderings get
40:00
some people excited. Real pictures get me excited and
40:02
there's some really cool pictures of what they've
40:04
actually done and have going on there right now And then if
40:07
you're LED so to to help donate and bring this to fruition
40:10
pretty early Greg to to start wrapping up here.
40:14
You know, I'm always interested in legacy, right?
40:18
When you're talking about someone like Jesus, that like to
40:21
me that's legacy. It's like, you know, I I can
40:23
imagine, you know, someone interviewing Jesus Christ as a
40:27
30 year old like hey, you know, what do you want your legacy to
40:29
look like? And you know, you know, it's
40:31
like, well, the Bible, it start there, right?
40:33
It's the world's best podcast or biography.
40:38
There is right for you. And please know I'm not
40:41
comparing Greg to Jesus here for anybody.
40:43
I just thought about this. What a connection I just made.
40:45
I'm not making the connection. I'm not even.
40:47
Close. That was my set up.
40:49
Terrible set up there, Greg. When you look back and you think
40:52
about the facility that you're building, when you think about
40:55
the ministry that you have built and also continue to build, when
41:00
you think about 10-15 years from now, what do you want that
41:03
legacy to be that what what do you want people to say about
41:07
Greg, 12th rock the facility 1015 years from now?
41:12
I I love that question. For me, it's it's less about the
41:16
facility and more about who these young men and women have
41:19
become. And #1, for me, I want to know.
41:22
It's just like when my wife and I talk about our boys, it's like
41:27
we we are so proud of everything we've accomplished.
41:31
We're more proud of the fact that they follow Jesus.
41:34
So we want to know that kids understand who Christ is and
41:38
that they can have a relationship with them, with
41:40
him, and that they're going to impact their families and their
41:44
community someday. So my prayer is that kids like
41:49
Tim Linton and the Jason of Modios, like all these kids that
41:53
I've coached, they're now coaching, are impacting their
41:58
community in a positive way. And that are pouring into their
42:01
families and their wives and just being good husbands, being
42:05
good wives, being good contributors to society.
42:08
And if they got a little glimpse of that while they were part of
42:11
12th Rock, then praise God, yeah, that's.
42:15
I hope that that's what people think of us and not the facility
42:20
and not the, you know, experience that they had, but
42:24
more so like, man, these guys cared about us and they they
42:28
wanted me to be better so. Remember, you're rarely coaching
42:33
up future Olympians. Some of you listening are
42:36
certainly, I know there are, but the vast, vast majority of your
42:40
responsibility, just like you said there, Greg, you're raising
42:43
future husbands, wives, uncles, aunts, business owners, clergy,
42:48
countants, etcetera. That is a vast, vast, huge
42:54
responsibility that you have out there as a track and field
42:57
coach. And I know the vast majority of
42:59
you are doing an amazing job. And I think sometimes we just
43:02
need to reflect on that, Take a step back from that PR, clicking
43:05
that stopwatch and taking that tape measure and realize when
43:09
you're looking at the kids in front of you, how they look up
43:12
to you and the impact that you make on them.
43:15
Greg, thank you for that. Anything we missed?
43:16
Anything else we need to know? Can can we go real quick for.
43:19
I'm going to interrupt that question for another question.
43:21
I, I know there's a hammer thrower listening right now
43:23
going whoa, you do competitions because we're always trying to
43:25
find hammer competitions. Can we find that on 12th
43:27
rock.org as? Well, just go under.
43:30
If go under. Programs, throws, meets, yeah,
43:32
everything's. And we're also listed on direct
43:34
athletics. Athletics.
43:35
Yeah, everything's on there. See someone, Someone probably
43:39
saw that and was like, yeah, what is 12th?
43:40
I never even heard of 12th. Right now they know a little bit
43:42
more. That's awesome.
43:43
I'm glad we were able to do this.
43:44
So what do we miss? What?
43:45
What? What else do we want to say to
43:46
wrap up anything we missed? Anything you want to announce?
43:48
Anything you want to make sure? People.
43:50
Obviously we want people to go to 12th rock.org.
43:52
What? What else do we need to wrap
43:54
this up? Here today I I you issued a
43:55
challenge earlier to the coaches.
43:57
Mine is just stay in tune with what's going on in your kids
44:01
lives because it's they open up to you more than they will to
44:06
their parents. I've seen it so many times over
44:09
and over again and if you see that are the athletes just a
44:11
little bit off that day dig in a little bit.
44:14
Take the time to dig in and they will thank you for it in the
44:18
long run because that's it's a huge part of being a coach.
44:23
It's just being aware of what's going on.
44:25
And you know, I coach basketball, lacrosse and soccer.
44:29
And you can sell like, man, this kids off today and just take
44:32
take the time to figure out what's going on.
44:34
Because it could be as simple as you making a connection for them
44:37
to just get them some help. Because kids are going through
44:41
some garbage right now. And just take the time to take
44:45
your eyes off the sport for a second and worry about the kid
44:48
that's that's there because they're young and influential at
44:51
this age. Bingo.
44:54
Nailed it. I could regurgitate that and say
44:57
in a different way, but you nailed it there, Greg.
44:59
That's exactly right. Hey, thanks everybody for being
45:01
here. You know, we continue to work on
45:03
not only bringing you great, amazing coaches from around the
45:06
world, but we want you to see people like Greg and his brother
45:10
and then countless other volunteers and helpers and
45:12
donators as well. By the way, you know, I'm
45:14
putting Greg and his brother on the spotlight here, but he
45:17
represents hundreds, thousands of people that are making this,
45:22
have made it possible and are making it possible.
45:24
So I'd like to bring you people from behind the scenes.
45:27
You know, we had our CEO here, Gil, on the podcast, like for
45:29
you to see that there it's not just coaches that you know to
45:33
help you do your job. There has to be other support
45:35
systems. And what I really like the real
45:37
main reason I wanted Greg on the show here was we have to look
45:41
beyond track and track people. We need to find the Joe's,
45:46
Jimmy's, Greg's out there that have a passion for what we do as
45:49
track coaches, so the kids and the sport and bring them into
45:53
our sport and and have them help build us a better sport, a
45:57
better infrastructure for our coaches and our athletes.
45:59
So that's why I truly love you Greg.
46:01
I love track people, but I love you more because you're not a
46:03
track person. So just so thankful that you've
46:06
seen, obviously seen the light of our sport.
46:09
I'm glad that you didn't shy away from it because it can be
46:12
an intimidating sport from the outside and we are definitely a
46:15
better sport today than we were yesterday with you in it.
46:18
And we're going to continue to grow with what you're doing
46:20
there at 12th Rock Ministry. So thank you so much for joining
46:22
us today, man. I really do appreciate your
46:24
time. Thank you.
46:26
Thanks again for you guys being here, man.
46:27
Check us out next week. We're going to do it all over
46:29
again. Probably have a coach next week
46:30
and we'll see how things are going go. 12th Rock, 12th Rock?
46:34
Yeah, What's administries? 12th rock.org.
46:36
I'm not kidding when I say even a dollar helps.
46:40
That's the crazy part about this.
46:41
This is a mass consumption thing that we need here.
46:44
I'm sure Greg will be very happy.
46:46
If you want to donate 500,000 more for sure, but a dollar
46:50
helps a future kid one day, get in there and run that 60 meter
46:53
dash in that facility. A $1.00 donation right now helps
46:57
the hammer throw competitions to bring people in to help further
47:01
the mission. So just employee to go to 12th
47:03
rock.org and if you're led to please hit that donate button.
47:06
So guys, thanks again for being here today.
47:08
We'll see you next week. Have an awesome week.
47:21
If it goes to appreciate the coach, the ones that point
47:23
people most every season needs a voice of reason to speak in the
47:27
growth. You got to back for you.
47:28
Carry the load, ice, coffee to the soul.
47:31
For those of us to stand, to go proper handoff.
47:33
To stay in the zone with you packing for the road.
47:36
There's more than one way to go. Take notes.
47:38
That's can you told. It ain't practice if your
47:40
purpose ain't clear. It can't happen to you.
47:42
Listen what both is can't mentor without a mentor kiss of
47:46
experience. You can reinvent those years.
48:03
Six when you waste the time, choose none.
48:05
So we all cross the finish line. The work ain't done.
48:08
So we learn from the experts. We all got to put in the
48:10
legwork. Kill athletics.
48:12
Who's the network. It's all about connections put
48:14
together for the profession. To every track coach could be
48:17
blessed.