Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / #214: Fatimah Shabazz-Hartford (VT) High School

Transcript

#214: Fatimah Shabazz-Hartford (VT) High School · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

• 0:10
  Track and field coach, the ones that point
• 0:24
  people most every season. He's the voice of reason.
• 0:27
  Speaking, the growth gotta prep for you carry the load.
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  Talk to the stove. For those of us, stay on the go
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  pop, the handle, staying in the zone.
• 0:34
  What you packing for the role is more than one way to go taking
• 0:38
  those tests. And you told it ain't practice
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  it before it became clear. You can't happen to you.
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  Listen with both ears, can't Mentor, without a mentor, kids
• 0:46
  of experience, you can reinvent those kids.
• 0:48
  Every plans got to stand and deliver in the price sacrifice,
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  can you give up Hugh its choice and to fight not to win or lose?
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  It's not a boy, but if I see, y'all can make more movies, not
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  about how to All about why you don't know what you're you know
• 1:02
  who you are inside. Six, many ways to die.
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  She's not absorb. Your faults Finish Line.
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  The work ain't done. So we learn from the experts to.
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  Y'all got to put in the legwork Gil athletic shoes Network.
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  It's all about Connections put together for the profession to
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  every track coach could be blessed.
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  A. All right, thanks for joining us
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  here, we are back on the Gila buttocks, track and field
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  connections, podcast, I'm super excited I'm going to jump right
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  in and help me welcome from Hartford High School in
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  beautiful cold. I don't know, it's June July
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  time. So hopefully it's at least warm
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  Vermont. Hartford High School.
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  Help me welcome Miss Fatima Shabazz Fatima, how are you?
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  I'm great Mike, how are you doing today?
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  You know in Vermont I think it's always zero degrees so I feel
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  like I'm doing better than you, but what is it really?
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  Real, let's dispel some myths here.
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  What is the temperature for now? I'll have to look at my phone.
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  Well, some my laptop, it's 80 degrees, which is shocking.
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  We've had a few 80 degree day so far, but it will not stay
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  consistent until about two more weeks.
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  We have had some cold ones to spend rainy but it's actually 80
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  today. So when it, when it dips down,
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  right? Right now you in the June July
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  timeframe, how far it is. It dip though.
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  I would say I want to say about last week or so, maybe two weeks
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  ago, it was about 50 degrees. Okay, let's put in June to bad.
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  Yeah. And it actually felt amazing and
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  that's scary because that means I've adjusted to the weather
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  here. Yeah, I'm scared to get it.
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  I was just in Austin, Texas, for 10 days.
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  And then flew to Eugene, Oregon. And in Texas, it was like 100
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  110 And that I think Eugene and it was like 60 in that variable
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  degree, it was like, 60 is not that cold.
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  You're right, you know, in the scheme of things but it was cold
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  after spending a week in 100 plus 2.
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  Well, that's enough of me in my travels Fatima.
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  I'd love to learn more about you again.
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  So thankful, you know, we get into a crunch sometimes.
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  As we do this show weekly, we want a weekly be able to give
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  you a present to you a new coach, from around the country,
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  and sometimes because of my travel schedule.
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  Oh, and by the way, your Travel schedule.
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  Coaches we get into a little bit of a time crunch so I'm just so
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  thankful here, Fatima stepped up to the plate.
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  I made a plea, a 911 SOS help me out.
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  I need someone tomorrow and just so thankful for you for Tina
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  that you're able to not only be willing to step up, but had the
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  time to spend with us here today.
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  I'm just so grateful for you. No problem.
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  Happy to be here. Awesome, pretty frequent
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  listener to the podcast. So I'm happy to get a chance to
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  join. You.
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  It's okay. I'm always, I always like when
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  someone says that, I like to put them on the spot here, a little
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  bit. What has been your favorite
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  episode that you've listened to it?
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  I have to, I really enjoyed and maybe I'm biased, but I really
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  enjoyed listening to Kaiba. That's at Harvard Coach K but
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  and I'm pretty sure. Althea Thomas has.
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  Come on, right? Yeah, those are my two.
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  I might want to mix it up. So I know I've listened to both
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  of those coaches on different podcast, but those are my
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  favorite. Oh, I think coach cable was like
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  pretty early like probably like in the 50s or something.
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  Somewhere. Along that line, I'm gonna need
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  you. Officially the guild track and
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  field connections historian. That's exactly.
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  Right Kaiba was one of the first.
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  Mmm. I'm gonna say five, six.
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  Seven right around there. We We actually when I first
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  started this back in January of twenty, twenty was in Boston for
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  for a meet in person, meetings and things like that.
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  And so when she got three Mark Mangia kathi, Brenner Abbott and
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  Kaiba. All have a good kind of in the
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  same day. Like I went to one office and
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  then I went to another and amazing, yeah, Kaiba, you know,
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  such a what, an amazing background he has, and was going
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  so well, and then he had a meeting.
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  So we actually had to cut it short, but we got him to come
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  back and do like a part to weep Picked up right?
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  Where we left off and I think around 70 or 80?
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  Or maybe 100. But but you need it.
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  That's the one I listened to her.
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  Yeah, yeah. You mean to greet me.
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  First of all Kaiba, love him to death.
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  Come on. Like I just ran into Brenner a
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  bit from Harvard in the airport coming home from Nike.
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  They were getting ready to head over to England.
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  They do some kind of Oxford ivy league competition.
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  It's really unique. It's really, really special.
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  And then Althea Thomas, you know, who I've known.
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  Since she was an a Needs what a, what?
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  A good leader, what a personality thing.
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  Amazing. That's exactly.
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  I'm glad you appreciate you, listening, and you picked up
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  two, great ones if you're listening and you've not
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  listened to either of those, go back to the back, catalogue.
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  All right, guys. Thanks.
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  That's right. That's right.
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  The historian has deemed it the for you to go back.
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  And that's exactly what you're listening to number 200 and
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  something. So that means there are 200 and
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  something passed. And I don't necessarily expect
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  you to go from number one all the way through, although I do
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  know of at least one person, One, that's doing that with a
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  message me the other day. They're on 125 or something like
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  that. And I was like bless you because
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  these are long podcast here. Yeah, so I appreciate that.
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  Okay, Fatima. So again, appreciate you
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  listening. Appreciate you being here.
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  Let's kind of jump into our way back machine here coaching at
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  some point assuming you were an athlete had to switch for you
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  and your, in your mind and your brain had to go from something
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  that was done to you. Hey, go run this, This lift,
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  this throw this to like, oh, wait a minute.
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  Like maybe I could be a coach. Where does coaching begin for?
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  You coaching actually started. In two different aspects of my
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  life. My own, my senior year of high
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  school in my senior year of college, senior year of high
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  school had like a little mini little league five-year-old team
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  on my brother. He constantly runs like
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  nonprofits that are geared towards, you know, students,
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  having a chance, or kids having a chance to participate in
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  athletics. And I, it started off as just me
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  showing. Showing up and going along with
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  from the help of mouth on one day.
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  And I ended up one day we were driving home after a practice
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  and he was like, you know, I'm a coach short.
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  Would you like to help me this season?
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  And I thought about it and I was like sure, so my first team was
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  like a little 5 through 6 year old team.
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  First timers first team sport, I got a chance to run up and down
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  the court with them and it was amazing.
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  I didn't know then that I wanted to coach, I didn't do it the
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  next year because I actually went off to college but all it
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  was a great experience. And it's something that I always
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  remember just like trying to just figure it out all having a
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  great support system but just figuring out how I wanted to
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  like run my practices and you know, giving like good equal
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  playing time and also dealing with the emotions of five and
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  six-year-olds basketball court. so it was a good time and then
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  my senior year of college my senior athletic season actually
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  more. So I, I think most athletes more
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  than likely experience, especially if they're not really
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  gearing to go pro in the sport. I just found myself in a place
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  where, you know, I'm looking at the schedule, like, oh my gosh,
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  this will be my last Morehouse. Relays.
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  Oh my gosh, this would be my last time going to this meat and
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  I was really sad about it. And I started talking with my
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  coach a little bit about it and just having a conversation of
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  what that felt like and I really thought no more about it.
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  But then as I got deeper into my season as a student-athlete
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  there were some parts of my season where I would finish my
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  race. And I would like I would think
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  like well maybe I could have done something different or
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  maybe this could have happened. So I started really talking to
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  my coach at that time. I event coach about like, hey,
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  last season, we did this but We haven't done this in a while, or
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  I feel like I need a little more of this, and my coach at that
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  time. Marcus Broussard.
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  He always listened and responded.
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  So like what my needs were as a student-athlete and like, I
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  could show up to practice the next Monday.
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  And what I asked for was on the menu or at some point that week
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  or he will tell me, you will understand why you want to do
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  this, but we're not going to actually do this as a little too
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  late in the season or will work that in.
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  So like, That was my first opportunity to really have a
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  voice in what I was doing on the track and you know, how it felt,
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  and how my body was responding. And then the following year my
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  head coach at my University actually go ahead, I'll pause
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  there because there's two interesting aspects there, go
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  back to that High School experience, you know, typically
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  when we go into coaching, even if it's a I'm gonna call it
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  volunteer, you know, you're in high school still, so you're not
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  getting paid right opportunity. Typically fall back to how How
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  we were coach? I mean that's right
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  representation matters, right? So we see how someone did it to
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  us and either we like that and feel good about it.
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  So we would emulate that or we didn't like that and so we would
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  maybe try to do the opposite when you were working and God
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  bless you for working with five and six-year-olds.
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  Oh my God, I have two kids of my own a middle schooler and fourth
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  grader. And anytime there in sports, I
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  just can't coach young kids. I guess I found out.
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  I actually can't coach older kids either, but, you know, I'm
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  just so thankful. There is someone who can say,
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  after every practice and you know, competitions, I was go up
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  and say, thank you like, you know, because I can't.
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  So thank you for with and see everybody.
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  Yeah, yeah, yeah. You are doing this.
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  No one because I am not stepping in here, but I'm curious with
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  those young kids. Who did you have someone on the
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  high school level that like, you emulated or, you know, from that
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  side of things like you didn't just go out there and say, okay,
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  I'm just going to make things up.
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  Yeah. To be some kind of
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  representation there, you're smiling.
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  Yeah, I know because I'm thinking about my coach, my high
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  school coach. I I play for Reggie league,
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  coach Reginald, Lee, Columbus Brookhaven, he was, I don't
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  know. Like, I know you're checking
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  field guy but like, on the side of basketball, like your WNBA
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  player, Helen, darling, um, britni Hunter, one of, like, the
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  first High school, athletes to Duncan the McDonald's all star
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  game on. We had a really high caliber
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  basketball program, both on the guys side and the girls side.
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  And my coach, like I didn't play my senior year, my focus went
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  straight to running after I really like realize, like, oh,
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  I'm pretty decent in this. I can't say I was like a state
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  champion, but I'm pretty decent at this and, like my coaching
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  even now. Now, like it's a reflection of
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  my basketball coach just knowing how he, how he ran practice, you
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  know, just like the structure like what his expectations were,
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  they were always clear. And like, that's a big
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  reflection of who I am today and coaching and also my brother.
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  My brother, actually, was my first basketball coach that was
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  rough because, yeah, I practice didn't stop when the basketball.
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  Output up, it was, you know, riding home.
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  I had to hear about, you know, thanks to work on.
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  And you know, sometimes I just wanted to like sit there and
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  just look out the window. But my brother's actually, the
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  person that first told me I was going to run and I was as I was
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  running because I missed the rebound too many rebounds in
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  practice, I was saying to myself, this man does not know
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  what he's talking about and my brother is like you know every
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  time you miss a rebound for that, I'm gonna have you run,
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  he's just like you're going to run so much today your honor End
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  up being on somebody's track team was like, no way I do not
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  like runny and that actually he was right?
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  Oh I had no clue that I would run and a lot of it is because
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  of culturally. He in the spring we had to
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  either play. A you play softball or run
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  track. I had no desire to do either.
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  Well, specifically, softball or track.
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  Oh, my grandparents, couldn't really like afford like doing
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  the AAU circuit. And I had to think about it.
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  I do I want a ball flying at me, or do I possibly want to just
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  run? So I ended up running and why my
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  basketball coach was the track coach at that time to one of the
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  assistants. So that's how I got into it and
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  like, between my brother and my basketball coach, like that's
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  when I decided I was going to coach a little league team that
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  was the influence. And when I made mistakes or
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  things went wrong, I thought of like just Conversations and
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  things. They told me and how they
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  reacted and it's like a big part of my coaching today.
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  Yeah, I'm glad I'm actually very glad that you have come from on
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  the high school side, more of a basketball background.
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  You know, one of the things that we thought about exploring, I
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  mean obviously you know we're tracking field focused first and
• 15:01
  foremost and I think, you know, after, you know, 200 plus
• 15:05
  coaches were certainly learning a lot from other track and field
• 15:08
  coach has, but I think it's funny, it came up in on Twitter
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  today in a direct message. There is something to learn from
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  other sport coaches, you know, basketball swimming football,
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  Etc. Basketball and again not on the
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  X's and O's and you know, learning how to run a post route
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  isn't necessarily probably going to help us in track.
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  But the thought process of how you treat kids and how you, you
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  know, how you think about your own career even in a football
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  setting versus basketball golf coach, Etc.
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  So I'm actually quite excited that you kind of come from that
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  background and also shows that That you don't have to have been
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  a back track background from the get-go to go on to do stuff in
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  track like oh no a bad. It was basketball first and then
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  I realized I didn't want to stop all in my head so let's look and
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  feel. So I really like that.
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  Now on the other aspect that you talked about with your college
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  coach and we're doing it going to school on Kentucky, State
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  University, Frankfort Kentucky. Yes, yes.
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  Yes, great. Oh man.
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  I love what knowing mascot. I almost want to say the mule
• 16:14
  Riders. It's not the mule writers.
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  What is? No.
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  Not at all. Where the Thoroughbred throw
• 16:19
  bread? I knew it was something.
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  Yeah, I knew it was something there.
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  Okay. Thoroughbreds.
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  I love that green and black or the school colors.
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  Red green and yellow? No, I'm done.
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  Kelly green, and go green and gold.
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  Okay. I was, I was close enough.
• 16:30
  Time a count that as a win, but they're, you talked about the
• 16:35
  philosophy of coaching the person not Nest, not the event.
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  So you talked about, Coach Broussard was, you know, listen
• 16:43
  to you and sometimes did put the the ideas into play and then
• 16:48
  when he didn't kind of explained it to you about that as well.
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  What impact has that made on you and your coaching career?
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  It's a major part of it. Oh I didn't do it at first.
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  I didn't understand how to do it at first how to like
• 17:07
  successfully or not really a from a success standpoint but
• 17:13
  how to really have those conversations with
• 17:16
  student-athletes about the why? And so while Marcus like it's
• 17:25
  he's actually one of my friends who's also my my college
• 17:28
  teammate wild like that was something that worked for me.
• 17:33
  When I first got into coaching, I didn't understand how to
• 17:35
  deliver it to the athletes right away.
• 17:38
  And it actually took me started coaching fall 2011.
• 17:44
  It took me about two or three more years to successfully
• 17:47
  understand why how to do it and that came from one of my close
• 17:51
  friends, Antonio Wells, He's down at on Winston-Salem.
• 17:56
  We worked together for two years at Kentucky State University.
• 18:00
  He was actually like my first hire oh he had left coaching for
• 18:06
  a little bit and I called him up one day like hey, my friend,
• 18:10
  like we need another coach, we're short a coach, you know,
• 18:15
  what are you doing? And he was like, I can be there
• 18:18
  next week. And I was like, what for real
• 18:21
  but working with answer, Tonio gave me the opportunity to
• 18:26
  really see why. I like, I felt like I had two
• 18:29
  experiences where sometimes coaches were like, this is what
• 18:33
  we're doing and don't ask questions and so I kind of took
• 18:37
  that on you know what are we doing today?
• 18:39
  Oh we're running, you know like and it wasn't necessary, right?
• 18:43
  So working with Antonio gave me the opportunity to like really
• 18:48
  see how he executed practice and how he talked through what
• 18:53
  What's on the menu? What?
• 18:55
  What practice look like. Why we were doing things, and
• 18:58
  then we will have conversations. And like he would critique me
• 19:01
  like, hey, you should add this or, you know, why are we doing
• 19:05
  this? And I realize like how important
• 19:08
  questions were for track and field athletes and not just for
• 19:13
  the athlete will really for the coach because like sometimes I
• 19:16
  take someone to ask you to question the question is to say
• 19:19
  oh well that doesn't actually sound right or maybe I shoulda
• 19:23
  just Store, you know, a simple question to athlete of, how are
• 19:26
  you doing today? Because the workout that you
• 19:29
  have planned for them, may not work.
• 19:31
  So just having that impact from. I got really honestly Antonio's,
• 19:37
  another coach. Should I add to a list of how I
• 19:41
  got into the sport and how I grew in a sport and how I coach
• 19:45
  the sport down? So you know, you said a lot of
• 19:48
  great things between me and I'm sure for the next four hours of
• 19:52
  this podcast, you're going to say.
• 19:54
  Another smart things, but you said you just said something
• 19:58
  there that was. I think it can be kind of
• 20:02
  glossed over, but I think it might be one of the most
• 20:04
  important things that have been said, on this podcast.
• 20:07
  You said I wrote it down. I learned how important
• 20:10
  questions were for athletes and coaches.
• 20:13
  That's really that when you start thinking about, you know,
• 20:17
  a huge coaching education fan. And Advocate, that to me, is
• 20:22
  what coaching education is and should Should be it's asking
• 20:25
  questions. It's it goes back to that.
• 20:28
  That skill of curiosity, okay? Why why do you do that?
• 20:34
  Hey, why don't we do this like that?
• 20:36
  To me is a really fascinating aspect of improving as a coach
• 20:41
  and not just X's and O's, but the the profession of coaching
• 20:46
  track and field. He want?
• 20:47
  Why do you take a vacation every week after national state?
• 20:51
  M? Hey, why do you Shut your phone
• 20:54
  off at 7:00, every whatever, you know, things like that.
• 20:57
  I think those that's that was a really insightful lesson that
• 21:01
  you learned and I'm really glad that you learn to kind of early
• 21:04
  in life as well. Of, I've learned how important
• 21:06
  questions were for athletes and coaches.
• 21:08
  I just want to make sure I highlighted that I thought that
• 21:11
  was extremely insightful there. So, go back to when you started
• 21:17
  looking at colleges and ended up choosing Kentucky State.
• 21:20
  What was the idea? What did you think?
• 21:23
  Your career was going to be where you going in to become a
• 21:26
  nurse, a business owner, a teacher.
• 21:29
  What did you think was going to be the real?
• 21:32
  Alright, started school. A, a double major in business,
• 21:41
  marketing and accounting and that lasted for all of about a
• 21:45
  semester. I didn't, of course, my freshman
• 21:50
  year, I hadn't really got into my core coursework.
• 21:54
  I mean, well, I was taking my core classes, my math and
• 21:57
  science and English, and all of those things.
• 22:00
  But then I had already started to really think about, you know,
• 22:04
  my thing was oh, I don't want to sit in an office.
• 22:06
  All day crunch numbers. I'm sorry, business and
• 22:10
  marketing. Hmm, interesting.
• 22:12
  Okay. All right, right.
• 22:15
  So like and I ended up going into education and I'm so happy
• 22:21
  that I wouldn't say education. And I swear, as I was, as I was
• 22:26
  thinking this morning I was thinking about my brother
• 22:28
  randomly while I was walking my dog, my oldest brother Al.
• 22:32
  Oh, I was just thinking about like the impact he's had on my
• 22:35
  life from coaching to education. Because my brother, I was 16
• 22:41
  years old and I wanted to go get my own job and I applied to all
• 22:45
  these places and I was actually one of those people that fell
• 22:48
  into the scheme of like I'm not sure if you tried it out all
• 22:51
  our, you applied, where I thought, I was gonna sell now, I
• 22:54
  was one summer, I forget what the company is called, but I
• 22:58
  thought I had landed a secure job and then I Googled it and I
• 23:01
  was like, this is a little sketch.
• 23:03
  I'm not gonna do that one, but my brother came home that same
• 23:06
  night and it was like, I have a job for you for the summer and I
• 23:08
  was like, uh, but I wanted to do this on my own.
• 23:12
  But my brother had found a summer camp for his, his
• 23:17
  children to attend, and my brother was like and you're
• 23:20
  going to work there too. And I was like, what?
• 23:23
  I only like your kids. I do not really care for kids
• 23:27
  like that. No, I'm not.
• 23:29
  And my brother had already like arranged my interview and all of
• 23:33
  those things, and I was, oh my gosh.
• 23:36
  And so I get to this interview. I really don't want to be there
• 23:39
  and I actually did blew the interview panel away and I'd
• 23:44
  really to this day I guess it was just because I was myself a
• 23:48
  man that I was going to point that out.
• 23:50
  Yep. So I blew the interview.
• 23:53
  You panel away. I was tired.
• 23:56
  It was like the best summer of my life.
• 23:58
  I fell in love with kids and I still didn't plan to go into
• 24:04
  education until the middle of that freshman year school year.
• 24:10
  I ran away from education for a long time.
• 24:14
  Got out of college went into was a preschool educator, but I was
• 24:18
  also still a volunteer coach at Kentucky state and I saw Along
• 24:23
  the line. I was like I really don't want
• 24:25
  to teach I want to coach and so I work my way through the
• 24:29
  program as a volunteer coach to part-time coach associate head
• 24:35
  and when I left Kentucky State, I was the head coach of the
• 24:38
  program and I just like teaching for me will such a benefit
• 24:44
  because like just learning classroom management and
• 24:47
  learning how to navigate different personalities and
• 24:52
  having good. Conversations with students, it
• 24:55
  really impacted my coaching. So I started off I went to kiss
• 24:59
  like you say that. He's like you say that
• 25:00
  education, major and I left Stila educator on educator by
• 25:08
  Sport and I really enjoyed it. So it is it's amazing to me that
• 25:14
  we ask 17 18 year old kids like we'd all say their kids choose a
• 25:20
  career for the rest of your life by choosing your mate since
• 25:23
  Yeah, it's still kind of boggles me when I it and I, you know, I
• 25:26
  just, I fell into the same trap and I changed majors of course,
• 25:29
  and things like that. But now, look at my two kids.
• 25:31
  I'm like, yeah, maybe you don't want to go to college right off
• 25:33
  the bat, like still go spend a year doing other things, taste
• 25:36
  other things and figure it out. But to commit yourself at 18
• 25:39
  right man. Let's just grew up like, your
• 25:42
  whole life was going to be engineering or teacher or, you
• 25:44
  know, something. Like I've always had this
• 25:46
  position but most of us go to school and gosh, we don't even
• 25:49
  know what shirt we want to wear the next day.
• 25:50
  How in the world does that big major that?
• 25:53
  We're spending a lot of money on to, by the way, right?
• 25:56
  Well, I love that. And I think, you know, an
• 25:58
  interesting point you brought up there about that interview and
• 26:01
  you know, you didn't want the job until you kind of were just,
• 26:04
  you know, you were yourself and you said you blew them away.
• 26:07
  And I think that's really an important lesson for all of us
• 26:10
  as coaches. And as head coaches, that are
• 26:12
  interviewing assistant coaches. Like, we need to be more real
• 26:17
  and just be ourselves and let the job fall where it may either
• 26:20
  get the job, but don't get the job because If you interview and
• 26:25
  you act to the head coach, how you think the head coach wants
• 26:29
  you to be? And then you get the job.
• 26:31
  Well, you put on an act, that's not who you are.
• 26:34
  So you're not actually be really good at the job.
• 26:37
  You're satisfactory wise. The head coach is going to sniff
• 26:40
  that out pretty soon and be like, oh, wait a minute.
• 26:42
  Well, you told me you were in the office at 7:00 a.m. every
• 26:44
  day and yet, I can't get you an office till noon, but I expect
• 26:47
  the 70 and, you know, it's just going to be a bad situation.
• 26:51
  Whereas if you go in and you you yourself and you get the jobs
• 26:55
  like, oh, that's gonna be a really good fit or even better
• 26:58
  just as good. You don't get the job.
• 27:00
  Well, good, because that wouldn't have been a good fit
• 27:02
  for you. You would have been miserable.
• 27:04
  You know, Dave Smith head coach of Oklahoma state was recently
• 27:07
  on the podcast and he talked about doing an interview where
• 27:11
  he drove in the van with the coach for eight hours and I was
• 27:16
  like, what a great like that should be the integrating that
• 27:18
  eight hours but that should be the interview, okay?
• 27:21
  You're an interview to be a my staff.
• 27:22
  Cool. Let's get.
• 27:23
  The car and we're going to we're going to go a 3-hour a little
• 27:25
  loop. I mean you get real when you
• 27:28
  just in the car and you know stopping the gas station for
• 27:30
  snacks and like it's hard to keep up an act in that
• 27:33
  situation. I think that's how all interview
• 27:35
  should go for track and field. Okay.
• 27:38
  So your Kentucky State, you finally go into the education
• 27:42
  side which was probably the the side that you were designed for
• 27:47
  from the get-go. But we have to find our way the
• 27:49
  path is never straight, right? It's up and down and through the
• 27:53
  Hills and Valleys and such you graduate from Kentucky State.
• 27:57
  What was the first coaching you mentioned?
• 28:00
  You went through a really kind of unique process through
• 28:02
  Kentucky State as a coach. Did it start like the very next
• 28:05
  year as a volunteer coach or was there a I walked off the track
• 28:11
  as an athlete and May and I hit the ground running probably the
• 28:17
  next month of like understanding what the job entails.
• 28:23
  Old and what it would look like and how I would balance, you
• 28:28
  know, working as well. So It was the next month and
• 28:36
  fall came August came and I was a volunteer coach.
• 28:40
  So it was a pretty quick process.
• 28:46
  Actually, I have to take some steps back, I hadn't even
• 28:48
  graduated yet. Um, my I had a great.
• 28:52
  Yeah, I was my eligibility was done but I still had to student
• 28:57
  teach and so I was still in class.
• 29:01
  Class on campus and on campus and I was coaching.
• 29:07
  So so I'm always curious about that when you hear of undergrads
• 29:11
  that get hired as grad, assistants.
• 29:13
  So like you said, in May, your homeboys homegirls with the team
• 29:19
  and August. You are now coached, and you
• 29:22
  can't be the same and how that goes.
• 29:25
  So, how did you, you know, when August came and you were a
• 29:28
  volunteer coach? So you're helping out.
• 29:29
  You're doing things. You're also student teaching.
• 29:31
  You're walking around campus to go finalize your last few
• 29:34
  classes in Sally who was used to hand, the Baton to her and met
• 29:41
  now, you're telling her. Well, here's what we need to do
• 29:44
  for pre-season training. How did that transition go for
• 29:49
  you? It was rough.
• 29:53
  I feel like because I was still a student, I wanted to still do
• 29:58
  all of the student things but I recognized that I was in a
• 30:02
  different boat of leadership and so I taper it off like I still
• 30:09
  hung out with my teammates but it hanging out look different.
• 30:15
  We still did like our family meals and you know of course I
• 30:18
  was with them outside of class and outside of studying which
• 30:23
  ended up being like not really being able to really be with
• 30:26
  them. And I think that was one of the
• 30:28
  best things for me was to have like that distance because while
• 30:33
  I was still a student I wasn't like an employee of the
• 30:38
  institution, it just still didn't feel right to live a
• 30:43
  college life with college students even though they were
• 30:48
  still technically my peers because I How to be a leader.
• 30:53
  Oh, what did help though was the fact that I had been Captain?
• 31:00
  I have been captain of my team since my freshman year.
• 31:03
  So I already in their eyes, I already was a leader and I
• 31:10
  wouldn't sit here and say, I was the perfect leader, but I was
• 31:13
  already their leader, and I just took a different role and I
• 31:18
  continue to be there for them, but I like quickly had to make
• 31:23
  decisions of you know hey we're going here.
• 31:26
  Are you going? I'm like no I cannot go.
• 31:31
  Oh and it was that was rough for me because The team like we were
• 31:40
  my coaches, really big on family.
• 31:42
  So those are my girls, those are my guys like, you know, that's
• 31:46
  who I spent a majority of my time in college with created,
• 31:51
  like life lifelong friendships, you know, like my my teammates
• 31:58
  like their kids are like my God kids.
• 32:00
  And, you know, we were at each other's like graduations and you
• 32:06
  know, Weddings and everything. And, you know, it was rough but
• 32:14
  it's something I knew I had to do.
• 32:16
  So, I had to slowly distance myself and in many ways I was
• 32:21
  just, like, really waiting for like, a few my teammates to
• 32:24
  graduate, like, come on, hurry up.
• 32:25
  So we can hang out again, it's a part of, you know, I don't know
• 32:33
  enough about the other sports football, baseball basketball,
• 32:37
  but, So I'll just use it as track.
• 32:39
  It's a curious part of track and field for me where, you know,
• 32:42
  one day. You know, I use the example One
• 32:43
  Night in May. You're playing Xbox on Friday
• 32:46
  nights. Would you, would you, would you
• 32:47
  people? They said your family and August
• 32:50
  you are disciplining them because they were late for
• 32:53
  practice. I think I actually think like,
• 32:56
  you know, this may be a unpopular opinion.
• 33:01
  I almost think like, it shouldn't be allowed.
• 33:03
  You know, I can't like if I think about teachers.
• 33:06
  So if someone Weights high school at 18, they start to go
• 33:10
  away for four years, even if it's a local school and I'm back
• 33:13
  to teach, they're not teaching, they don't turn around and teach
• 33:15
  their peers, I don't know, I don't know of any professors
• 33:19
  that you I'm in class with you today and then, in the fall, I'm
• 33:23
  now your teacher may be a TA maybe.
• 33:25
  I don't, I'm not sure, but it just always curious to me about
• 33:30
  that. So anyway, so with you Fatima,
• 33:33
  you know, when you, when you go into a volunteer role, And for
• 33:37
  you unique, in the sense of like you're still doing your student
• 33:40
  teaching, during this fall semester, at least, it still
• 33:44
  allows you to now see the different part of track and
• 33:47
  field. Because again, you were an
• 33:48
  athlete for, you know, for 25 years now you're seeing things
• 33:50
  in a different light of like, oh man, I too am upset when the
• 33:54
  kids aren't on time, but I used to be right time myself and it
• 33:57
  allows you to get that taste of coaching track and field and
• 34:02
  easily be able to say oh yeah this isn't for me or Or you do
• 34:08
  it and it's like, oh my goodness!
• 34:11
  Yes! The oh Mike!
• 34:13
  This is what I was put on Earth for what I mean because you
• 34:17
  continue to do it. So I have to assume some part of
• 34:19
  that. The latter example, there is
• 34:21
  true, what parts? In that volunteer position.
• 34:25
  Were you like? Oh man, yeah, this is, this is
• 34:28
  me. This is what I was put here for
• 34:33
  I think. I don't know, I would say it's a
• 34:37
  mixture. I think the exposure that my
• 34:43
  head coach allowed me to get very early on, like not so much.
• 34:48
  My first volunteer year because I was still in school, but once
• 34:54
  I graduated, and I got a chance to really, like, spend more time
• 35:02
  and travel, um, just being It around other coaches.
• 35:07
  Oh, like open my eyes to, oh my gosh.
• 35:11
  I think I could do this long-term.
• 35:13
  And then, when I started to attend conventions, and get the
• 35:18
  chance to really meet people from like every Walk of Life,
• 35:25
  Division, 1 division, 2, NAIA that, open my eyes.
• 35:31
  And then even more, when I started to attend a lot of like,
• 35:35
  be like, Coaching education is. So like my first moment to
• 35:40
  really like, step out of my comfort zone and like meet new
• 35:46
  coaches was when I first did a dorm certification and that's
• 35:51
  actually where I met like out the autonomous like we were, we
• 35:55
  weren't in the same class she was doing, I think like Maltese
• 35:58
  or Sprints and hurdles and I was doing endurance but like being
• 36:03
  able to see these These people and interact and be in class
• 36:08
  with them. I'm at a small division to
• 36:12
  institution. And at that time, I believed out
• 36:15
  there was at UK. She was like just down the road.
• 36:18
  I think she was like transitioning to LSU at that
• 36:21
  time when she was there, but to like interact with these people
• 36:26
  and like, see, like the different levels of the journey,
• 36:32
  that was really big for me and being being able to just see
• 36:38
  like what it took and Why just understand?
• 36:44
  Like, I don't know like how my journey just get a picture of
• 36:48
  how my journey could look like you who I needed to have in my
• 36:52
  corner and who I needed to talk to and that was big for me even
• 36:58
  now, like, being. Oh, I miss College athletics,
• 37:02
  but like, still having a lot of those people in my corner
• 37:07
  checking in being able to reach out.
• 37:10
  Like, that's me. Good for me because working in
• 37:14
  High School athletics, it's a, it's a different monster and
• 37:20
  it's actually taught me so much that I didn't think it would
• 37:23
  teach me. I value it a lot and I actually
• 37:27
  funny story. I remember you saying earlier
• 37:29
  like whew, thank you for doing that when I coached
• 37:32
  five-year-olds. I actually I didn't do it this
• 37:34
  year this year, but my first two years living in Vermont actually
• 37:39
  worked with Somewhere track clubs K through eighth grade.
• 37:46
  We really came through nine kids going into high school and you
• 37:51
  wanna see like where you're coaching education is and if you
• 37:59
  can apply those skills go go teach little four and
• 38:02
  five-year-olds how to run. And you lose so many coaches at
• 38:06
  that ever became a requirement. We will see so many tents and
• 38:12
  business is like nah, I'm good interesting but still fun and I
• 38:20
  don't know. The journey has been amazing.
• 38:22
  Let's let's not work that girl, let's keep going the journey
• 38:25
  because it's interesting. If I heard you, right?
• 38:28
  You went from volunteer coach to assistant coach to head coach at
• 38:31
  Kentucky State, how did that transition?
• 38:34
  So talk to us about the volunteer coach to assistant
• 38:36
  coach to more full-time. Well, I I mean, a big part of it
• 38:42
  was funding my program, didn't have a lot of resources so when
• 38:49
  I first talked about coaching my coach was like, Hey, you know, I
• 38:52
  really don't have any money like to take care of school or
• 38:55
  anything, but if you would like to come out here and do
• 38:57
  volunteer, capacity is fine. And honestly, I hadn't even
• 39:01
  thought about it. I honestly like, I was so new to
• 39:03
  it. I didn't really know those kind
• 39:05
  of opportunities, really existed, and it wasn't a
• 39:08
  thought. So start off a volunteer.
• 39:11
  Here transitioned into like a part-time assistant.
• 39:17
  Guess it was like 2 years in or year and a half in maybe it was
• 39:22
  my second year, I'll have to actually pull my resume.
• 39:24
  I really don't remember. I just know and volunteer will
• 39:27
  you teach them what are you teaching during the volunteer?
• 39:31
  My first year I was a student teacher and then the second year
• 39:39
  I was, I was a part-time like super, super part time,
• 39:43
  part-time coach, and I was teaching on preschool.
• 39:47
  And then, let me see, get keep my ears together December. 2013
• 39:56
  and it's this started fall 2011, December 2013.
• 40:00
  I actually moved from a part-time coach roll into the
• 40:05
  associate head. Cross-country coach assistant
• 40:09
  coach position. I stayed in that role for from
• 40:14
  2013 2. July of 2015 as a full-time
• 40:26
  coach. Um, the only reason I changed at
• 40:29
  that capacity was because we had this really crazy budget cut at
• 40:33
  my University and all of our assistant coaches were made part
• 40:37
  time, and I had to like, make a really big decision because
• 40:41
  financially, it wasn't something and I felt like I could
• 40:45
  navigate, but I love coaching so much and my head coach.
• 40:50
  Which was actually laid off, and we had like a program, that was
• 40:54
  just looking like, what do we do next?
• 40:57
  So, I stayed around, I just picked up.
• 41:00
  I, I picked up additional job, already worked like a little
• 41:04
  part-time job. I picked up one more job.
• 41:07
  I stayed around and I had the opportunity and like 2016 to
• 41:13
  step into a role within Athletics, or I was working as a
• 41:19
  compliance. Officers, I went back full-time.
• 41:22
  That was crazy, trying to navigate three seasons and do
• 41:25
  compliance for All Sports. I realized after a year like no,
• 41:30
  I cannot do both. I also at that point had assumed
• 41:36
  the role as the interim head coach.
• 41:39
  So, I told them like I cannot do both, it's just too much for me
• 41:44
  to be a compliance director, the coach of six different teams.
• 41:50
  It just wasn't feasible. I felt like I wasn't giving as
• 41:54
  much of my time to my Athletic program and then I had like a
• 41:58
  personal life. So I just feel like that was,
• 42:01
  okay. And so I ended up having my
• 42:05
  interim tag removed under. We got transition through a few
• 42:10
  athletic directors. She removed that tag. 80 and
• 42:13
  Thomas. And she gave me the opportunity
• 42:16
  to lead my program. And I'm thankful, that she gave
• 42:19
  me that opportunity because she, she was going to.
• 42:21
  I fly to director. She could have easily came in
• 42:23
  and say, well, I see you're here holding the seat, but I have
• 42:26
  someone else that I would like to bring is here and she didn't
• 42:30
  do that to me. And I, did, I still do.
• 42:34
  I appreciate the fact that she gave me that chance to to figure
• 42:39
  it out and build my team. So those are journey.
• 42:44
  And of course I was one of those coaches that the pandemic hit
• 42:49
  and more institutional Cuts came and I remember being in the
• 42:55
  meeting and her like everybody to make some budget cuts.
• 42:57
  Gonna take about a 50 staff members will cut about 50 staff
• 43:03
  members and I No clue, like I like sat there and I watched the
• 43:07
  meeting. You know I had no clue that I
• 43:10
  will be in that number. Oh and I was cut and I was I was
• 43:15
  like whoa but I'll I see it as a blessing.
• 43:20
  Now it was rough because I had just like recruited the previous
• 43:25
  year. Biggest recruiting class ever
• 43:29
  likes his, I have been there and I had been a part of the program
• 43:33
  for 13 years. Now, biggest recruiting class
• 43:37
  had a nice team that came in from all over the country was
• 43:41
  really excited. Cesar got cut short, we were
• 43:46
  doing some days and it hit me and I was like, wow, what do I
• 43:51
  do next? I feel like, I only know
• 43:54
  coaching I ended up moving here with my partner.
• 43:58
  A few months later, and Vermont gets a Vermont.
• 44:02
  Let's progress, let's pause right.
• 44:04
  Therefore, we go to the Vermont side.
• 44:06
  I know everybody's interested. How does this Ohio, Kentucky,
• 44:09
  girl, get to Vermont because it's, but I'm curious, you know,
• 44:13
  the team is a listening to that story of your time.
• 44:17
  You know, over a Year's there at Kentucky State, you know,
• 44:22
  getting a part-time assistant coaching job, then, getting the
• 44:26
  full time adding compliance to your plate, big budget cuts,
• 44:32
  which I remember that. And getting to get in the head
• 44:36
  job, you know, there were a lot of areas for you to quit like
• 44:43
  like like there are a lot of times as you're telling a story.
• 44:45
  I'm like, oh, you know, she just said, hey, I'm done.
• 44:48
  I'm going to go find another job, like, no one would have
• 44:50
  blamed you. What kept you from quitting, you
• 44:53
  kept fighting for this institution, what kept you
• 44:57
  fighting there? Oh, there's a lot of, there's,
• 45:05
  there's many things that kept me there.
• 45:07
  One, It's my alma mater and not only is it my alma mater but it,
• 45:17
  it was my grandfather's alma mater.
• 45:19
  Like I learned about Kentucky, State University because of my
• 45:21
  brother. I mean, I'm not my brother, my
• 45:23
  grandfather. Oh, it was like a piece of being
• 45:30
  like, truly a part of my grandfather's Legacy.
• 45:33
  He was a football athlete. I actually found out right
• 45:36
  before I left Kentucky State University.
• 45:38
  I he was actually on the track team and I had this joke on my
• 45:42
  Brother, like why do you think he didn't tell us?
• 45:44
  Was he not that good of a truck guy or it's better?
• 45:48
  You don't know that part of the Legacy.
• 45:50
  Exactly. But one of us my alma mater and
• 45:58
  I just sense. I arrived to that campus for my
• 46:01
  visit like I was like Just breathe Kentucky State.
• 46:08
  Just just just part of me I built so many friendships and it
• 46:14
  was such a environment for me to just mature and find out like
• 46:22
  really who I am is. So I felt like I could never
• 46:28
  give back to Kentucky State. What Kentucky State gave to me,
• 46:31
  which was like being the youngest of my of my siblings.
• 46:36
  They gave me like younger siblings in a sense.
• 46:39
  So I have a big family but having that second family, it
• 46:48
  paves the way for my career. So as things were going wrong,
• 46:53
  And at times, it felt like this, the the ship was sinking, I
• 46:57
  still have my loyalty, loyalty to the university.
• 47:04
  What everyone else? That see the Brilliance of my
• 47:07
  historically black college and despite like budget cuts and
• 47:12
  different issues that arrive at universities?
• 47:15
  I still saw how amazing of a place it was and that's how I
• 47:21
  was able to recruit kids. And not really our big
• 47:23
  scholarship budget and not really how A lot to offer except
• 47:27
  for the fact that I let parents and kids know that I was on love
• 47:30
  on her kids, I was going to I would make sure Sure that to the
• 47:34
  best of my ability, they weren't just going to come run for me,
• 47:38
  but they were going to graduate and we will make sure they were
• 47:41
  pursuing careers, you know, that fit for them.
• 47:46
  I knew that It was important, not just to me and not just to
• 47:56
  our alumni, but it was just like Kentucky State such an important
• 48:00
  part of black history and black education.
• 48:04
  You know, it's paved the way just like many historically,
• 48:08
  black colleges have. And so it was important for me
• 48:14
  to make sure that I continue to help a program build the program
• 48:21
  built and or really grow. And so, I stayed like my coach
• 48:27
  was let go 2015. I didn't know what that was
• 48:31
  going to look like. I knew that they were going to
• 48:33
  hire a new coach. I knew that coach wouldn't be
• 48:35
  me. I didn't know if I had a job.
• 48:37
  I outside in the meeting, with our assistant, athletic director
• 48:42
  at that time as he was transitioning into a role of the
• 48:45
  ad. He's like, Yeah, I'm bringing in
• 48:48
  Torri Edwards. And I was like, what?
• 48:52
  You're bringing into our universe?
• 48:53
  To be the head coach. And I was already serious.
• 48:56
  He was like, yeah. And almost like I love that
• 49:00
  idea. Like I guess I'll learn from
• 49:02
  Tori hours and he's like, yeah, I'm bringing in sorry Edwards.
• 49:06
  We're gonna try to like really put this program like just
• 49:09
  elevate it and just the time, working with Torri Edwards, was
• 49:16
  it was amazing because I never had like the experience of
• 49:20
  working under a female head coach.
• 49:24
  I have one female Coach Sue MI. Entire athletic Career.
• 49:30
  One in high school, one in college.
• 49:32
  And the one in college was also like my head coach was big on
• 49:36
  bringing in former student athletes.
• 49:38
  I was my teammate as well. Oh, but I had never worked under
• 49:42
  a woman in leadership in track and field.
• 49:44
  So that that experience by itself was amazing.
• 49:48
  She taught me so much how to just navigate our program while
• 49:54
  it was a small division to, but to treat it like it was a
• 49:57
  division one. Program and many great things
• 50:01
  came from that. But let's stay on that element.
• 50:04
  Let's assume that talk first, a quick comment.
• 50:06
  You know, the way you were describing that about Kentucky,
• 50:09
  today is real interesting. I felt like I could have asked
• 50:13
  you to Define why you stayed with your family, because the
• 50:17
  answers were very similar, right?
• 50:19
  You talked about like hey it wasn't perfect.
• 50:21
  There was some ugliness they were some heartache Etc but we
• 50:25
  stayed together. I mean that's a family, right?
• 50:27
  Like the fair. Right the perfect.
• 50:29
  You know, Mom, Dad, brothers, sisters, uncles, but we stayed
• 50:32
  together through the proverbial thick and thin.
• 50:35
  And that's how you describe. It was really special, you know,
• 50:37
  someone who my alma mater Troy University in Alabama, you know,
• 50:41
  I my son's name is Troy. I mean, that's how important
• 50:44
  that University is to me, you know, I have a lot of empathy.
• 50:49
  And for the way you described that the school for you, like
• 50:53
  that, that really that was special.
• 50:56
  Now you mentioned working under Tori.
• 50:58
  Words and you never had worked with a female in leadership for
• 51:03
  track and field. I'm always love, love to explore
• 51:06
  those kind of topics, to help the coaching profession continue
• 51:10
  to afford, can you help us understand if, for your
• 51:12
  experience? Why was that important for you?
• 51:17
  It was it was important because just like, you know, people say,
• 51:23
  you know, sometimes you need to see other people in a row.
• 51:30
  That's how it was for me and it wasn't like I didn't see other
• 51:35
  women that were head coaches. I saw women that were in that
• 51:39
  role but to actually work with a woman and understand how a woman
• 51:45
  in that role could navigate all just being one of the only women
• 51:52
  in a space like working in an athletic department.
• 51:55
  You know, a lot of times many a lot of times it's predominantly
• 52:00
  male And says, see a woman navigate and not take any mess
• 52:05
  from. Anyone was what I needed before.
• 52:10
  I could really step into a role as a head coach.
• 52:13
  I'm so happy that my University was like, oh, perfect team in a
• 52:18
  row. I'm so happy.
• 52:19
  Like because like, I needed to work with story at works.
• 52:23
  Like, I needed to see. And, and the awesome thing about
• 52:28
  it was, it was actually her first time ever being a head
• 52:31
  coach Mike, she gotta work. She had been like a volunteer at
• 52:35
  UK. She worked in like a several
• 52:38
  different roles as an assistant coach volunteer coach, but this
• 52:41
  was our first time to and it was like we were in a many ways
• 52:45
  doing this together for me. It was like my first time
• 52:48
  working under a woman and understanding like the way she
• 52:54
  thought, how I didn't see as clear as she did and it was her
• 52:58
  first time being in a leadership role.
• 53:01
  Where there was like this big great expectation because she
• 53:04
  was toriel works and it was like and she just showed me so much
• 53:10
  of her Humanity as she navigated that role, I think, just like
• 53:16
  fighting for our team and making sure we had two things that we
• 53:21
  needed. And it was like, you know, I had
• 53:24
  worked with so many people that were Alum of our program and a,
• 53:29
  you know you have a different one like you.
• 53:30
  Say, you're at Roy alone and you have a level of love when it's
• 53:36
  when it's home, right? But for her to not have any ties
• 53:42
  to our University, she's she wasn't an HBCU graduate, Note II
• 53:47
  to Kentucky State University. The love that I saw her, give
• 53:52
  our student athletes, you know? The love.
• 53:54
  She put into the work. She did.
• 53:56
  It was amazing. And I really needed her.
• 54:01
  Like I needed to see a woman. Do that job and I'm so happy to
• 54:06
  just watch her navigate through the highs and lows and we were
• 54:11
  able to have conversations about when there were Loaves and
• 54:16
  understanding how she felt about it and what could be changed.
• 54:20
  And you know what we needed to do and I'm thankful like there's
• 54:25
  so many people to thank and my coaching Journey but That was
• 54:30
  the first woman in our workplace.
• 54:34
  First female coach and just see, just this what she did and her
• 54:41
  time at the University, I'll never forget it.
• 54:44
  Yeah, I guess it's like a core memory for me of being able to
• 54:48
  have that. Like, I went from watching the
• 54:50
  woman on TV as a kid, so working with her away.
• 54:56
  Yeah, that's I think, you know, representation matters.
• 54:59
  And I'm yeah. Amazed and specifically in our
• 55:02
  sport. You know, the amount of
• 55:05
  African-Americans who participate in the sport as
• 55:08
  related to the amount of African-Americans who coached
• 55:10
  the sport that is, extremely disproportionate brand name with
• 55:15
  the female participation to the female coaching in there are
• 55:21
  certainly, you know, I appreciate the societal.
• 55:27
  What's the word pressures? Maybe, I'm not sure if that's
• 55:29
  the right word towards women in society.
• 55:32
  As far as, you know, caregivers and Others and how that relates
• 55:36
  to work. But man, you know, I see, I see
• 55:39
  lots of women in the professional sector in the
• 55:44
  business owner sector etcetera, that are that are navigating it
• 55:48
  and you know, it's so weird. That makes me feel like we can
• 55:50
  navigate Womanhood and motherhood as a professional
• 55:55
  track a a as a professional track and field coach meeting
• 55:58
  high school or college track coaching.
• 56:02
  But we it feels like we have to do Coaching differently though
• 56:06
  to do that and I'm not saying that's a bad thing.
• 56:08
  Like I say that as a good thing, I'm not real keen on how we do
• 56:12
  coaching, I'm not sure it's real healthy with our 24/7 365 days a
• 56:16
  year attitude towards the profession of coaching.
• 56:20
  I'm not sure that's real healthy.
• 56:22
  And it certainly seems to be not healthy for keeping women in our
• 56:26
  profession, whether they go through motherhood or not, but
• 56:29
  just keeping them in our profession at all.
• 56:31
  It does not seem very congruent. That accomplishing that goal for
• 56:36
  sure. So it's always love when, you
• 56:38
  know, when we have women on the podcast or we have people who
• 56:41
  work for women. It's I can tell, you know, what
• 56:43
  impact did that make? Because I've never yet have
• 56:46
  never had anybody say, you know, no impact.
• 56:48
  It was a dude or if it was a girl wouldn't matter to me, you
• 56:51
  know, like know there's something different, especially,
• 56:54
  unfortunately, it's special. And what I mean by that is
• 56:57
  because it is still so rare. So, when we do, see a woman in a
• 57:01
  leadership role in our sports, like, whoa, It's I mean I wish
• 57:04
  that was just common place, you know, you know roughly okay.
• 57:10
  So we're at that point. Thank you for sharing that
• 57:12
  Fatima and honestly, you know it says something about your
• 57:15
  character there, you know, when they go out and hire someone
• 57:18
  else and I know that someone else in this specific case was
• 57:21
  Torri Edwards. And, you know, she has a lot of
• 57:23
  athletic background that, you know, boy, I'd be jealous.
• 57:27
  I'd love to have half of her athletic accolades, but it says
• 57:30
  a lot about your character for someone in your love for the
• 57:33
  University. I think a lot of people would
• 57:36
  have been like turned off. Like wait a minute.
• 57:38
  You're passing me up for her. She hasn't done anything.
• 57:41
  I don't care that, she's done this many teams and ran this
• 57:44
  fast, whatever blah. But instead you took that as
• 57:47
  like alright. Well, first of all, I love this
• 57:48
  University is I love this program and it sounded like you
• 57:52
  were kind of the posture of like, well, I'm going to learn
• 57:54
  from it and we're going to learn together as you two were, both
• 57:58
  navigating that. So, I think that shows a lot
• 58:00
  about the positivity of your character there, which I think,
• 58:02
  says, a lot about you, okay? Okay, but now we're at that
• 58:05
  point, we're trying to figure out, okay?
• 58:07
  Obviously have this great love for Kentucky state but you're in
• 58:11
  Vermont. All right, so talk to us.
• 58:13
  How did we transition up to Vermont?
• 58:15
  Why'd we go up there? And what are we doing up there?
• 58:20
  I, I will try to think in August.
• 58:26
  I've lived here for three years. I actually live in New
• 58:30
  Hampshire, it's like almost if I'm sure you've been a little
• 58:35
  bubble and maybe New Albany Indiana.
• 58:39
  It's the same. As far as like that border and
• 58:41
  imaginary line. They put on a map.
• 58:44
  Yep, it's interesting. It's like you cross the street.
• 58:47
  You're in Lebanon, are your New Hampshire you cross the street
• 58:51
  again here in Vermont you cross the river.
• 58:53
  Otto steaks. Um, but I actually moved here,
• 58:56
  August 20 2010, the middle of the pandemic with my partner, my
• 59:00
  partner is a Doctoral research scientist at Dartmouth College.
• 59:08
  Well, so, we did relocate here, August, 20, 2001.
• 59:15
  When I relocated, I was, I guess at that, point two months since
• 59:22
  I had left Kentucky, State University.
• 59:25
  I had no idea of what was next at that time.
• 59:28
  I knew I had to get a job everybody, but I wasn't sure of
• 59:31
  what. And I just started looking at,
• 59:37
  you know what that would look like for me.
• 59:40
  I still I was not ready to stop coaching so I ended up Looking,
• 59:48
  I started looking for jobs and it's funny.
• 59:52
  I had three job offers in one week.
• 59:57
  Actually, for interview, I actually forgot about because I
• 1:00:01
  was so overwhelmed with the amount of interviews.
• 1:00:05
  It was like, no callback, no call back.
• 1:00:08
  And I started getting like phone calls and interviews.
• 1:00:12
  Exactly it. Rains, it.
• 1:00:14
  Pours. Navigate pandemic and figure it
• 1:00:30
  out. It's so funny.
• 1:00:32
  Yeah, yeah. Well yes, in a job that I wanted
• 1:00:36
  to do and like just, I mean, I'm a, you know, former student
• 1:00:41
  athlete. I still needed some kind of
• 1:00:42
  fulfillment out of the deal, right?
• 1:00:44
  Um, but I ended up having the opportunity between being a
• 1:00:50
  insurance agent and a teacher and it was a long-term sub
• 1:00:59
  position that I had applied for and I had went on an interview
• 1:01:06
  with the insurance agency. Got offered the job, did the
• 1:01:12
  interview with the high school. I was offered Job.
• 1:01:17
  And I was thinking about like the commute and again, I'm in
• 1:01:22
  Vermont, I'm in at that time, I'm living in Vermont, New
• 1:01:25
  Hampshire, border town and all that, or border state.
• 1:01:28
  I'll and I was like, I don't know if I really wanna drive to
• 1:01:33
  my job, my job was going to be 30 minutes away.
• 1:01:35
  Now let's go back to Kentucky stay.
• 1:01:37
  I was driving every day to work from Lexington to Frankfurt, 30
• 1:01:40
  minutes. Yeah, you know, rain, sleet,
• 1:01:43
  snow, whatever, but race Lee is snow and Kentucky, and rain
• 1:01:47
  sleet, and snow in the upper body.
• 1:01:49
  Valley in the Northeast are two different things over opposites
• 1:01:54
  emphasis on Paul. I think actually I think bold
• 1:01:58
  polar in that by the way variable.
• 1:02:01
  So when I was in my interview for the insurance agency, we had
• 1:02:06
  just had a really big snowstorm and my partner and I thought at
• 1:02:10
  the time, we were actually excited for the story was our
• 1:02:13
  first big snow snow. I know that didn't last long
• 1:02:17
  first big snow, it's I want to say, like 20 inches in.
• 1:02:25
  Maybe six hours. Yeah, I see your face.
• 1:02:27
  Yeah, the first, the first first time it's know where like, you
• 1:02:32
  know, the meme with like SpongeBob and Patrick and
• 1:02:36
  Squidward where Squidward's like staring out the window at you
• 1:02:39
  know the two of them frolicking. Now it was our neighbors as my
• 1:02:43
  partner and I frolicked outside at 5 a.m. playing in the snow
• 1:02:47
  until the wrong with these people.
• 1:02:49
  Yes. What's wrong with them?
• 1:02:51
  We're from the Midwest, that's why.
• 1:02:55
  But when I went to do my interview, they were like, yeah,
• 1:02:57
  by the way that snowstorm we actually got 26 inches and I'm
• 1:03:02
  like blankly staring at like the 30-minute travel that I made and
• 1:03:08
  how they were six inches. They it was six inches more and
• 1:03:14
  I'm like oh my gosh. So that was when I started
• 1:03:17
  spinning, huh? I did not accept that job.
• 1:03:23
  I accepted a job at the high school teaching, biology or
• 1:03:27
  Space, and Science. Had a blast had the job for a
• 1:03:30
  few months teacher came back from maternity leave.
• 1:03:34
  I went in as a full-time sub and so in that moment about I guess
• 1:03:44
  I'm a month into subbing had a brief conversation with the
• 1:03:48
  athletic director. About sports.
• 1:03:51
  And I was like, yeah. I used to coach and I was like,
• 1:03:54
  I'll send you my resume if you guys have any Opportunities.
• 1:03:59
  And he's like, okay. And he sees my resume, he's
• 1:04:02
  like, oh, okay, he's like, oh yeah, I joined the program.
• 1:04:17
  And it was different. I had no clue of what I was
• 1:04:24
  getting into. Just being able to take a
• 1:04:32
  majority of the team. They enjoy being out there but
• 1:04:36
  they weren't out there really too.
• 1:04:40
  I don't know. They weren't really looking any
• 1:04:42
  care if they won, or if they want to title or anything, they
• 1:04:46
  just really enjoyed it. And I didn't understand that
• 1:04:49
  feeling. Honestly, I didn't understand
• 1:04:50
  that right away. Like, you know, like I want to
• 1:04:53
  win, I want to like have some fun while doing it.
• 1:04:57
  I do understand the fun, but I didn't understand that.
• 1:05:00
  And then I'm sorry to see why I like, you know, like these kids
• 1:05:04
  like they're out here with their friends.
• 1:05:07
  It's just like, almost, like I wouldn't say a club team, but
• 1:05:11
  they're just enjoying it. And that's what I was thinking
• 1:05:14
  was a club, like, plenty of people don't chess club or the
• 1:05:16
  debate. Yeah.
• 1:05:18
  And don't have any, like, I don't wanna become a
• 1:05:20
  Grandmaster, but I enjoyed the event and I enjoyed the people
• 1:05:24
  in that event, and so take that to the track team or the exactly
• 1:05:28
  football team. And so, my time there I
• 1:05:31
  discovered the reason why people weren't really that influence
• 1:05:35
  because like lacrosse has Big hero baseball and so people
• 1:05:41
  didn't really necessarily care about track and field that much,
• 1:05:44
  right? And then my first season with
• 1:05:45
  the program, we ended up breaking, the school record in
• 1:05:49
  the 4 by 8, and we started to build on some momentum, like the
• 1:05:55
  program had had some Stellar athletes over the years and but
• 1:06:04
  over time like with lacrosse being Of the major sports more
• 1:06:09
  students are really interested in doing that and just having
• 1:06:13
  the opportunity to like show kids like we can do this.
• 1:06:17
  Like let's keep doing it. Let's keep trying it.
• 1:06:20
  I'll actually ended up recruiting like almost every
• 1:06:23
  kid. I top that first year there and
• 1:06:27
  buy at the latest their senior year which all those kids
• 1:06:30
  graduated last weekend they had all end up joining like at least
• 1:06:34
  50% of the kids. I had a class.
• 1:06:37
  A joints but um just like seeing the love for the sport to grow
• 1:06:45
  because again like lacrosse baseball, that's the go-to.
• 1:06:50
  So that Following fall after my first year actually took over
• 1:06:54
  the cross-country program as the head coaching for track and
• 1:06:56
  field assistant coach first-year coach have been like some
• 1:07:03
  transitions of coaches over the years.
• 1:07:07
  And I just pretty much asked the kids to lie just run with me,
• 1:07:10
  just trust me. And first year, we all know the
• 1:07:14
  girls TI previously, already won the conference title.
• 1:07:21
  Had lost a few athletes, but those kids because I had a few
• 1:07:26
  of them for track and field. There was already like some
• 1:07:29
  trust and some by inch and like I think having those kids in the
• 1:07:34
  spring, allowed them to say, hey coach.
• 1:07:37
  Is going to give her all she's going to come, put the work in
• 1:07:41
  with you guys and it's gonna not gonna Lead You astray.
• 1:07:44
  And we ended up on both sides, which like was the first time in
• 1:07:48
  school history? We won our conference title for
• 1:07:51
  the Boise city girls for cross country and so that was like the
• 1:07:57
  beginning. And then I started it was my
• 1:08:03
  second year this past year coaching.
• 1:08:06
  Our track and field program for the summer, we won State and
• 1:08:12
  like my whole reason for coaching that program was like
• 1:08:17
  to like build that love for track and field like lacrosse
• 1:08:21
  popular is growing but to live show kids there's other sports
• 1:08:26
  which you know I feel like track and field support for everyone
• 1:08:30
  you know you can absolutely anyone can do.
• 1:08:35
  Track. It doesn't mean you're going to
• 1:08:37
  be the greatest. That's right.
• 1:08:38
  What you can find your greatness like you can literally find that
• 1:08:42
  event that fits you that you can work at that, you can get better
• 1:08:46
  at. So, I just like every year, I've
• 1:08:51
  just been trying to add to the program on.
• 1:08:56
  I don't really consider. myself, like, I don't know.
• 1:09:03
  I know I'm a part of the the Winnie.
• 1:09:06
  Um, but like I think the the biggest part of the winning is
• 1:09:11
  the student athletes. Like they're really putting in
• 1:09:15
  everything, they can they're showing up.
• 1:09:18
  And I think the result of that was a last of spring 2020 to
• 1:09:24
  season, our boys, they got there.
• 1:09:27
  It was like their highest finish and years for the outdoor season
• 1:09:31
  and then we rolled around and Into the indoor season, and we
• 1:09:36
  won State and it's like, the continued buying.
• 1:09:40
  It's the continued. Like, let me bring my friend out
• 1:09:44
  here and try and see what they can do and it's just amazing to
• 1:09:49
  see it grow like the conversation.
• 1:09:52
  So, okay, this is what I'm going to try next year.
• 1:09:54
  Or, you know, I really like this coach.
• 1:09:59
  What else can I do? Like, it's great to see because
• 1:10:03
  I can feel it. In the Northeast is in Vermont,
• 1:10:09
  really like it's more. So like I feel like student
• 1:10:13
  athletes are more so into the distance of it, which is fine.
• 1:10:18
  Oh, but it's amazing to see the program grow at Hartford, and
• 1:10:25
  it's growing elsewhere. And we have some beautiful or
• 1:10:28
  high-caliber programs in the state of Vermont that, you know,
• 1:10:32
  those kids love it. And despite the fact that, you
• 1:10:35
  know, some of these other spring sports are even winter sports
• 1:10:38
  because we do have winter track and field indoor track.
• 1:10:43
  Even though, like, people are pushing over to basketball and a
• 1:10:48
  lot of those teams sports like, people still have a love for the
• 1:10:51
  sport, and I love it because like, when I got, when I arrived
• 1:10:55
  to Vermont and started working with the team, we had a decent
• 1:10:59
  sized team but but now we're like we're about a few kids shy
• 1:11:04
  of Eating a second bus. So yeah, that's what we are.
• 1:11:09
  So Dopey things grow, I love that.
• 1:11:12
  Yeah, it's exciting. I think a big part of it is like
• 1:11:15
  my athletic. Director is a product of the
• 1:11:18
  program. He graduated.
• 1:11:21
  I won't put his age out there. He graduated little while back.
• 1:11:27
  He, he loves, and he doesn't, it's not just his love for a
• 1:11:30
  track and field, but he just loves Athletics and that's why I
• 1:11:35
  think we click so well, because of how he thinks about
• 1:11:40
  student-athlete welfare, like how he thinks about the needs of
• 1:11:45
  a student athlete outside of just, oh, I want to win, do you?
• 1:11:50
  You need like that mental health aspect.
• 1:11:53
  You need like someone in as your strength and conditioning coach,
• 1:11:57
  and we have all of those things and I didn't know high school
• 1:12:01
  programs could have so much, and that's a big part.
• 1:12:05
  Art of like why our programs are successful in her continuing to
• 1:12:09
  grow and not just track and field but also our look like I
• 1:12:14
  lacrosse program. Just one state two weeks ago.
• 1:12:18
  Our boys are girls one last year and it's just I don't know
• 1:12:23
  hartford's, just doing something, right?
• 1:12:25
  And a lot of that right is making sure the kids are not
• 1:12:31
  just from I guess. So, when just win, win win, but
• 1:12:35
  making sure they're winning in the classroom and when he from a
• 1:12:38
  mental health aspect. So, you know, I love to dispel
• 1:12:42
  myths. And one of the myths that we
• 1:12:45
  talked about frequently here. Is that a high school coach
• 1:12:48
  can't coach College, which is Super interesting to me because
• 1:12:53
  a lot of our guests, the college coaches started out as High
• 1:12:57
  School coaches. So I don't understand how we
• 1:12:59
  have this myth and yet the majority, I would say the
• 1:13:01
  majority, a lot of coaches have come from the high school level
• 1:13:05
  to that kind of come to my mind, one from your neck of the woods.
• 1:13:08
  A young man named Mike, Holloway also known as Mouse.
• 1:13:11
  He coached high school before he coached Florida and then just
• 1:13:14
  recently. Now, new women's head coach at
• 1:13:17
  University of Arkansas. Chris Johnson also started as a
• 1:13:20
  high school coach. I just, you know, so This is
• 1:13:22
  fascinating to me because I think this might be might you
• 1:13:25
  might be our first college coach who went to high school.
• 1:13:28
  What I'm interested in you know, knowing that we don't talk X's
• 1:13:31
  and O's. We can assume that some
• 1:13:34
  differences between coaching college, going to high school is
• 1:13:38
  the amount of training and maybe that maybe the level of training
• 1:13:42
  because you're dealing with younger training age kids, may
• 1:13:45
  be assumed that part but what else have you seen that you've
• 1:13:48
  had to adjust maybe more philosophy.
• 1:13:52
  She or how you treat or talk to the kids or alumni and parents.
• 1:13:57
  And I don't know what are some of the things that you've
• 1:13:58
  noticed you had to do not lower. Like I'm not painting.
• 1:14:02
  The picture of college is here and high school is down here.
• 1:14:06
  I'm just saying they are differences.
• 1:14:08
  What have you noticed that you've had to do differently
• 1:14:11
  from your college coaching experience to?
• 1:14:12
  Now, your high school coaching experience I don't know if I
• 1:14:20
  want to say this is going to sound weird or people won't
• 1:14:23
  believe me, but I honestly haven't changed anything.
• 1:14:27
  Like now, as far as like a trainee, aspect workouts, like
• 1:14:35
  value maybe, you know, but as far as like, who I show up as
• 1:14:40
  everyday, I haven't really adjusted that because like, for
• 1:14:45
  instance, as a college coach now, I had many Times where I
• 1:14:50
  was the only paid coach and I had a coaching us a staff that
• 1:14:58
  was volunteers and gaas and part-time and no time and
• 1:15:06
  managers, right? But no matter what, and no
• 1:15:09
  matter how loaded my schedule was, I tried to always make sure
• 1:15:14
  I showed up for my student athletes and not just a show up
• 1:15:17
  of, oh, oh, making sure that your event, you know, that's a
• 1:15:24
  meat but no excuse me. For a second.
• 1:15:27
  Allergies are kicking my butt up here.
• 1:15:29
  Oh, I made sure I showed up for student-athletes outside of the
• 1:15:34
  sport, you know, student athletes.
• 1:15:37
  Like I'm very like big on the holistic student athlete and
• 1:15:47
  Tell us what your knowledge, that's a fun word to say.
• 1:15:50
  Tell us what that means to you. When you say the holistic
• 1:15:53
  coaching for me like literally soon navigate like as I
• 1:15:59
  navigated myself, I'm not just a teacher and a coach like I am
• 1:16:06
  someone who likes to hike and I like to read, I like to travel
• 1:16:12
  and like some of those things like get more time. others and
• 1:16:18
  sometimes, you know, I don't get to do things I want to or Just
• 1:16:26
  like, I can't show up as the same person and in coaching, I
• 1:16:32
  want my student athletes to be able to show up as who they are.
• 1:16:38
  And I want them to not just focus on like you when we talk
• 1:16:42
  about the accident X's and O's and athletic shirt, I don't want
• 1:16:45
  them to just focus on being an athlete like for college
• 1:16:51
  athletes high school, athletes k through eight, you know, their
• 1:16:55
  student athletes. And part of being that student
• 1:16:59
  isn't just the academic side, you know, in order to be a
• 1:17:04
  student, you know, while you do spend the majority of your day
• 1:17:08
  and classes and doing homework, like there's other things that
• 1:17:11
  are involved, like, I have student-athletes from previous
• 1:17:15
  experience at the Collegiate level 2.
• 1:17:18
  Now, I high school that are actors and actresses there in
• 1:17:23
  placed they enjoy like going on family vacations on their
• 1:17:30
  involved in things that are outside of my Sport and I've
• 1:17:35
  seen and I won't like really Put it on a specific sport, but as
• 1:17:41
  an administrator, I just being a coach.
• 1:17:45
  I've seen where like that time that kids have outside of the
• 1:17:48
  sport. It's not respected and and I
• 1:17:53
  don't just see that in sport. I see that in people's careers
• 1:17:56
  like people get they have employers that don't respect her
• 1:18:02
  time and if I'm going to believe in a person to be there,
• 1:18:07
  Themselves and be authentically them.
• 1:18:10
  Then I have to respect that. What I want of them isn't 24/7
• 1:18:17
  while we talk about people like having the opportunity to be
• 1:18:22
  like these lifelong Learners, and, you know, like how do you
• 1:18:25
  time for me? I need time to process what the
• 1:18:28
  Y and you know, what's happening in my classroom and what's
• 1:18:32
  happening on the track? And, you know, my time to
• 1:18:34
  process is being away from it. You know, so I recognize that
• 1:18:40
  with my student athletes. I and so I like to show up for
• 1:18:44
  them. I guess I was like, long story
• 1:18:46
  getting to it. I show up for them outside of
• 1:18:49
  the sport. If they have a band concert on
• 1:18:52
  there, you know, if they are presenting their artwork, I'm
• 1:18:57
  there, you know, like I'm showing up for you because you
• 1:19:00
  show up for me, whether it's an hour or two hours out of your
• 1:19:04
  day, you show up and give me 100%.
• 1:19:08
  So even if I can't show it to all of your events all every
• 1:19:12
  event, I want to show up for you when I can and I want you to see
• 1:19:15
  that I value your time and who you are outside of the sport,
• 1:19:22
  it's all for me. It's always been like that and I
• 1:19:26
  haven't changed like as a college coach.
• 1:19:29
  I had kids that were there like coach come to my plague coach,
• 1:19:33
  I'm running for this office position.
• 1:19:36
  Can you help Me coach, can you just show up?
• 1:19:39
  Sure. Sure, I'll be there and I feel
• 1:19:44
  like I navigate life like that. Like, you know, you get tired as
• 1:19:47
  a coach and a teacher or whatever you're doing.
• 1:19:50
  But like I try to just show up for people and I think that's
• 1:19:54
  important for your student athletes for the people.
• 1:19:58
  You love for your friends, like you just show up and they don't
• 1:20:02
  know, you're, you know, you're tired as all get-out.
• 1:20:06
  Or you have like, Some paperwork you need to get done, you just
• 1:20:09
  like I think I guess that's really part of being an adult,
• 1:20:11
  you have to figure out the balance and how to get it done
• 1:20:14
  but that's what hasn't changed for me.
• 1:20:17
  Like I haven't stopped showing up, I haven't stopped believing
• 1:20:21
  in student-athletes. Has people that deserve more
• 1:20:24
  than me to think that I should feel their day with my sport.
• 1:20:29
  I haven't stopped thinking about how the impact of environment
• 1:20:35
  that's centered around family. I use, that's the same, like, I
• 1:20:39
  believe in having parents and grandmothers and cousins apart
• 1:20:46
  of the program and inviting them to events and, you know, making
• 1:20:51
  sure they know I value them. And the other thing that I
• 1:20:55
  haven't changed, as I make sure like my partner and my partner
• 1:20:58
  has been with me, I'm living my life with my partner for the
• 1:21:01
  last five years, I make sure that I'm bouncing like my ideas
• 1:21:06
  in my thoughts. Off of her because if any wise
• 1:21:10
  want something like nobody, that doesn't sound right?
• 1:21:13
  That's what's gonna give it to me, I suppose gonna like, tell
• 1:21:16
  me like, yeah, you could have just that, maybe you shouldn't
• 1:21:19
  say that, you know, have you thought about it this way?
• 1:21:21
  You know, because I need feedback from all angles and
• 1:21:25
  that's something I heard you say earlier about, you know,
• 1:21:29
  sometimes people get caught up in just their sport buff.
• 1:21:32
  Like for me like I have my people that I love and track and
• 1:21:36
  field the coaches that High-value, I like absorb
• 1:21:39
  everything they say and I process it, but I also really
• 1:21:43
  like, have several basketball coaches.
• 1:21:44
  I love to like see what they're doing and what they're saying,
• 1:21:48
  how they're treating their student athletes.
• 1:21:50
  I like to look at people outside of the profession, like, you
• 1:21:54
  know, like my partner's, The Sciences, I like to look at
• 1:21:59
  track and field and teaching the way she looks at her science.
• 1:22:03
  And when like, I find myself in a room with like her, Science
• 1:22:07
  Buddies. Like I'm taking it in.
• 1:22:09
  Sometimes I'm not understanding life.
• 1:22:14
  I'm still back. I'm coming shortly.
• 1:22:21
  But like, I like to like, Absorb?
• 1:22:25
  What's around me? Because I feel like everything
• 1:22:28
  can benefit my student-athletes and so I haven't changed
• 1:22:31
  anything. I've changed the volume and I
• 1:22:38
  That's it. I really have changed Valium.
• 1:22:41
  Like I even like I'll tell the kid, like, hey, I used to do
• 1:22:46
  this with my my college age athletes, but don't worry, the
• 1:22:49
  times are different, the volume is different.
• 1:22:53
  I want to see how your body reacts, or, you know, I used to
• 1:22:56
  do this but guess what? We're not doing that.
• 1:22:59
  I learned that's not the best practice.
• 1:23:03
  So Honestly, I don't think I've changed some really important
• 1:23:08
  things. You said there were about
• 1:23:10
  identity, you know, you talked a little bit about both athlete
• 1:23:15
  athlete's identity of, you know, track and only track.
• 1:23:19
  And I, you know, I can't do it this Sports and things like
• 1:23:21
  that. And then you spoke about the
• 1:23:24
  role of identity and us as a coach.
• 1:23:26
  And I think that's so important, you know what you said there
• 1:23:30
  about? You know, the role of coke.
• 1:23:33
  I think of it as like, Like, if I were to say Fatima, write down
• 1:23:38
  the top, 10 roles you play, you know, you're a daughter, your
• 1:23:44
  partner, your coach. I'm certain that you're a best
• 1:23:48
  friend and there's roles that you had, you know, you said
• 1:23:51
  you'd like, hiking, you're a hiker, that's a role, you know,
• 1:23:56
  and I right when I talked with poaches around the country about
• 1:24:01
  their role of coaching, what I see in.
• 1:24:04
  A lot of instances is that we put coaching as number one, and
• 1:24:10
  we forget that there are some really much much more important
• 1:24:14
  roles spouse, father, mother, son, daughter, Etc.
• 1:24:20
  You know where you sit with your faith Etc.
• 1:24:23
  That are way more important than coach when in society because
• 1:24:27
  it's more and in our niche of track and field we put in and
• 1:24:32
  I'm, you know, I think this is a positive we put She has this
• 1:24:35
  pedestal, and I'm with that, right?
• 1:24:37
  Understand that there are higher pedestals there as well.
• 1:24:40
  So to understand that. Yeah, we love track and boy, we
• 1:24:44
  want to talk it. 24/7 and we want our athletes to be so
• 1:24:48
  dedicated and focused. But to your point, these kids
• 1:24:52
  are they have hobbies of the chess club and they want to
• 1:24:56
  become a scientist and they enjoy spending time with their
• 1:25:00
  little sister or whatever. There's a million million
• 1:25:03
  million things and that Is not only is that, okay?
• 1:25:06
  But man, that's really important, right?
• 1:25:09
  Really important rounding out who you are as an individual's.
• 1:25:13
  I think he said some really, really fantastic things there
• 1:25:16
  and I like to hear, you know, I'm actually very, very happy
• 1:25:18
  the way you answer the question of what do you do differently as
• 1:25:22
  a college coach versus a high school coach?
• 1:25:24
  Because it's interesting, you're very unique of that Twist of
• 1:25:26
  like, you came from the high school side and went to high
• 1:25:28
  school were, usually it's the reverse and again, I told you, I
• 1:25:31
  like to bust these myths. So like I think you These
• 1:25:34
  strengthened my argument, if you will of that, there's not much
• 1:25:39
  of a difference there is diff hundred percent difference in
• 1:25:41
  training AIDS and we talked about volumes and things like
• 1:25:43
  that. Absolutely.
• 1:25:45
  Then maybe there is a difference in, okay?
• 1:25:48
  If your own College if you're in college on a team and
• 1:25:51
  specifically maybe if you're on scholarship.
• 1:25:53
  Okay. You know, there's some things
• 1:25:55
  you're going to have to make sacrifices for because it's your
• 1:25:56
  job, you're getting paid, you know, that kind of thing, we're
• 1:25:58
  in high school, it's like, man, you may have to miss a day
• 1:26:01
  because you've got to go to band practice.
• 1:26:02
  I don't know. I mean, I'm not be on the High
• 1:26:04
  school track team, so it's hard for me to say no, you know, in
• 1:26:07
  that instance. But but I like that there was
• 1:26:12
  like, oh, yeah, no, I still. It actually kind of goes back to
• 1:26:16
  coach broussard's lesson of you. What?
• 1:26:18
  I heard you, you describe, you didn't say these words.
• 1:26:21
  But you kept describing you've continued to coach the person
• 1:26:24
  not the event. Like, oh, I have to learn about
• 1:26:27
  these people someday, they're going to come to practice and
• 1:26:30
  they're going to be high and boy, we're going to have the
• 1:26:32
  greatest practice in the row and sometimes Some bad things
• 1:26:35
  happen, they're just low. And so you know because I know
• 1:26:38
  them as a person I know we're going to have to expect
• 1:26:40
  something maybe a little differently bracket so I love I
• 1:26:44
  love this uniqueness of college to high school because it me it
• 1:26:47
  strengthens my resolve that a high school coach 100% can be
• 1:26:52
  successful coaching College in Reverse is true as well.
• 1:26:57
  That a college coach like, take I always like to pick on my
• 1:27:01
  buddy Mouse take Mouse, and take them back to Columbus and broke.
• 1:27:04
  Even high school. It's like, man, do you think
• 1:27:06
  you'd be successful? I think so.
• 1:27:08
  And I think most people would say yes because oh, he knows how
• 1:27:11
  to coach. I don't think that I think that
• 1:27:14
  has something to do with it. I think more of though.
• 1:27:16
  Oh malsu knows how to relate to people.
• 1:27:19
  Yes. That's why he would be
• 1:27:20
  successful. Not because he knows the X's and
• 1:27:23
  O's may be better than the majority of us.
• 1:27:26
  Yes, he knows how to deal with people and young people.
• 1:27:29
  That is why he would be successful at Brookhaven High
• 1:27:31
  School. My old high school, this
• 1:27:33
  college. That college professionally
• 1:27:37
  etcetera. That's why he's successful in,
• 1:27:39
  there's many, many other examples like that in the high
• 1:27:42
  school and college side of things, man.
• 1:27:45
  I really do. Amazing.
• 1:27:48
  I'm a prepare. You might because coach coach
• 1:27:51
  might get on you because he's a, he's a linen McKinley alone, so
• 1:27:55
  just be ready. Yeah, I knew he was Columbus.
• 1:27:59
  I can never remember what. Yeah, but you're right.
• 1:28:33
  It's always tough with the podcast.
• 1:28:34
  We have to wrap up the podcast at some point, right?
• 1:28:37
  So there's an ending here, but the cool part is your journey is
• 1:28:39
  not ending. You're still, you know, to use a
• 1:28:43
  track analogy. Maybe.
• 1:28:44
  Maybe you're at the 200 meter Mark of a 400-meter race.
• 1:28:47
  Maybe you still got many, many years ahead of you, whether it
• 1:28:51
  continues in the high school setting or college setting or,
• 1:28:55
  maybe not in track and field at all, you're very multi-talented
• 1:28:57
  here. So, that's the really cool.
• 1:28:59
  Part is like the journey continues, the positive impact
• 1:29:02
  that you make on young kids. It continues even today.
• 1:29:06
  And so I just love that for you and love that for the kids that
• 1:29:09
  you get to impact on a daily basis, right?
• 1:29:13
  Thank you, yeah. So what goes on from here, you,
• 1:29:16
  your partner is in a doctoral program which, you know, I am
• 1:29:20
  from Alabama. I Can Tell She's post post
• 1:29:22
  doctoral, most would know what that means.
• 1:29:24
  She already has herpes. Yes, she already has her doctor.
• 1:29:28
  She got it in the middle of the pandemic.
• 1:29:30
  She finished in the middle of the paint, it Mick.
• 1:29:32
  So yes. So soon.
• 1:29:34
  He's doing our research, okay, will she go on to teach
• 1:29:37
  somewhere? Like is there, is there a
• 1:29:39
  possibility? Maybe you go a little warmer.
• 1:29:43
  We are, she is, she will be on the market, pretty soon.
• 1:29:51
  In many ways already on the market, so she'll be out there.
• 1:29:56
  I can't really be sure toxin was showing like where she we're
• 1:30:00
  thinking, but she is I mean, she She, she does science as well.
• 1:30:06
  Like, that's my hero for said that on the podcast.
• 1:30:11
  They do science. Well, he does science as well.
• 1:30:14
  I see, I mean, she she's the, she's the coach Holloway of
• 1:30:20
  science. I feel like and I'm not just
• 1:30:24
  saying that. Cause she's my partner, she's
• 1:30:25
  amazing. So yeah, she she does suck as
• 1:30:28
  well. Like she's amazing though, very
• 1:30:31
  cool. Well Fatima again, thank you.
• 1:30:34
  So. You know, lots of laughs today.
• 1:30:37
  Lots of intra mean again just your store, your journey of the
• 1:30:41
  love of Kentucky stayed. And how that, how that showed up
• 1:30:45
  and how it shows up today with, what you do with young kids
• 1:30:47
  there and Hartford Vermont. I mean, it's just it's quite
• 1:30:51
  quite amazing. I'm really.
• 1:30:52
  So, like proud of you. There are many times in your
• 1:30:55
  story where I was like oh she could quit here and no one would
• 1:30:59
  have been like oh why'd she quit?
• 1:31:00
  Like oh it's understandable. You also could have felt Sorry
• 1:31:05
  for you. So a lot of self-pity like oh I
• 1:31:07
  was a college coach. What I can't I can't go down air
• 1:31:11
  quotes there to cook it high schoolers instead it feels like
• 1:31:16
  it sounds like every step of the way when a new challenge was
• 1:31:20
  presented you faced it head-on and made it the absolute best
• 1:31:24
  that you could and your support team friends and family Etc.
• 1:31:29
  That could do could be with you for that.
• 1:31:32
  And so I'm just I'm really just proud of you fatigue.
• 1:31:34
  Obviously man young people have benefited from that attitude
• 1:31:38
  instead of being held back from that attitude.
• 1:31:42
  So it's really, really awesome. I think your journey today is
• 1:31:45
  going to really help a lot of people that listen to and
• 1:31:48
  understand like wow man, what if a team of your road?
• 1:31:52
  I surely can do this and it's better attitude.
• 1:31:56
  Yeah. Well, thanks for being here.
• 1:31:59
  Today. If a team, you certainly win the
• 1:32:01
  award for the most unique name and I love that, you know, I
• 1:32:04
  think there's enough mics and David's in the world.
• 1:32:07
  So I'm always encouraging much more interesting name.
• 1:32:10
  So I love love that and I love your journey and it just skinned
• 1:32:13
  so grateful that you join us here on the podcast this week.
• 1:32:17
  Thank you. Happy to be here and just this
• 1:32:21
  was exciting. It was fun.
• 1:32:23
  Thank you for inviting me. Absolutely.
• 1:32:26
  Thank you for being here. And listening, you know, we
• 1:32:28
  dropped a lot of podcast alums in this episode as well.
• 1:32:31
  So, again a good encouraging, you know, our official historian
• 1:32:34
  over here now is agreement as well go back.
• 1:32:37
  Look at the back law. Go find a coach much like
• 1:32:40
  Fatima, that will challenge you and encourage you.
• 1:32:43
  That is the real value from this podcast, as finding people, that
• 1:32:49
  you can be encouraged by encouraged by their story, and
• 1:32:53
  the ones that are going to challenge you.
• 1:32:55
  If you're one of the coaches out there that think, Maybe you're a
• 1:32:58
  college coach, and you think I can't hire a high school coach?
• 1:33:00
  Or I hear this, the equal amount of times.
• 1:33:03
  I'm a high school coach, I can't coach College.
• 1:33:06
  That's Not My Level. I challenge you, and there's
• 1:33:09
  plenty of past, guess? He's just like Fatima here, that
• 1:33:13
  will prove you wrong because coaching is coaching and it's
• 1:33:18
  more about the person than it is the event, because a pretty good
• 1:33:22
  hot take. That's, we need to make sure
• 1:33:23
  people here that right there. All right.
• 1:33:24
  Thank you again for being here this week, come back next.
• 1:33:27
  Week, we'll do it all over again.
• 1:33:28
  Have a great week everybody.