Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / #164: Clayton Turner-Gill Athletics Construction Equipment Specialist

Transcript

#164: Clayton Turner-Gill Athletics Construction Equipment Specialist · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

• 0:04
  Welcome to season 3 of gila politics connection podcast.
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  Okay, that's enough of an inch. All right, let's get to it.
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  See what today's guest has in store for us.
• 0:40
  Hey, welcome back to the podcast.
• 0:42
  I'm Mike. And if you're on YouTube, you
• 0:44
  see, Clayton is here with me and you've already known that.
• 0:47
  He's our guest today, because, well, because you can read and
• 0:49
  it's the episode title as we explore coaches from, literally
• 0:53
  around the world. Every once in a while, I like to
• 0:56
  highlight some of my favourite people, which are our teammates
• 0:59
  here at gil. Efflux.
• 1:01
  And today, I've got a good one. He's I don't know.
• 1:04
  Have you done your one-year? No, sir.
• 1:06
  This guy isn't even got. I've got 16 years here.
• 1:09
  We're at a 16 to 1 ratio. Here, I've done 16 and my man,
• 1:13
  Clayton Turner has had not even one, but let me tell you what
• 1:17
  he's affecting business way more than I did in my first year.
• 1:19
  So, help me welcome, today's guest, the wise, the wonderful
• 1:22
  mr. Clayton Turner Clayton.
• 1:23
  How are you, sir? Good.
• 1:24
  How you doing? May I say this a lot on the
• 1:28
  podcast but I have the best job in the world, you get to
• 1:31
  experience it. You see it a lot.
• 1:33
  But, you know, I got to get to interview and talk to coaches
• 1:36
  around the world and just amazing ones.
• 1:39
  You know, we had Lonnie Green. Head coach at Kentucky, on here
• 1:42
  recently, Adam catch an amazing High School coach out in
• 1:45
  Albuquerque, New Mexico. And honestly I think you are
• 1:49
  think your teammate number for that we've had on the podcast.
• 1:52
  I really enjoyed these one because I'm going to learn
• 1:56
  something about you that I didn't know even after working
• 1:58
  with you, barely intimately for you know, close to a year.
• 2:01
  But I love for our listeners to get to know you, you know, if
• 2:06
  you're listening out there and you've done any work with us
• 2:09
  here in your use, humble us. Choose our products you have, if
• 2:13
  you don't know Clayton, if you haven't worked with him, you
• 2:16
  have been touched by him. You know, we have the
• 2:18
  industry-leading dealer Network out there and so Clinton's kind
• 2:23
  of the remember Wizard of Oz, the guy behind the curtain.
• 2:27
  Yeah, that's clean. He's the guy in look behind the
• 2:29
  curtain, that's pulling the levers, making things work, and
• 2:32
  focuses on our construction equipment.
• 2:34
  So I think I want to start their Clayton and we're gonna get
• 2:38
  into, trust me. We're going to get into Track.
• 2:40
  This guy has an amazing track history and even did some track
• 2:44
  coaching. We're going to get into that.
• 2:46
  But I thought, you know, the title of today's episode is the
• 2:50
  gup-x construction equipment, specialist in maybe.
• 2:54
  People don't know what that means out there.
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  So, talk to us about what you oversee here, product wise at
• 3:00
  Goliath latex. So basically what I do is I
• 3:02
  oversee all of our equipment that goes into the ground
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  essentially. Well, that's all boxes.
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  Take off boards cages. Samp.
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  It forms all that. So I basically oversee that get
• 3:16
  it to schools companies and just make them have an excellent
• 3:21
  facility. So I like that you said you know
• 3:23
  things that go in the ground so you mentioned ball boxes because
• 3:27
  they go in the ground so not so much a Pulpit.
• 3:30
  Although you know, we work with all the equipment but your main
• 3:33
  focus is not necessarily the pulpit, it's the pole vault box
• 3:37
  because that goes in the ground. Yeah, correct.
• 3:39
  And you The sandpit forms, maybe it's a take-off boards Etc and
• 3:44
  those products are typically not so much purchased by a track
• 3:49
  coach. Now the track coach, if you're
• 3:51
  listening you have a lot of input on the pole, vault pit and
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  hurdles and poles and things like that.
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  But typically during a construction phase, who are you
• 4:01
  usually interfacing with? I'm usually contacted by
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  contractors with coaches input Architects, just basically just
• 4:10
  overall Suction people is who I mostly do with on databases.
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  You know I got and I'm such a you know this I'm such a coach
• 4:18
  Advocate and I've done many many, many facilities in my 16
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  years that just means I'm old, by the way.
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  No no there's no Bragg. It just means I've been around a
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  lot but I'm continually it just hurts me.
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  It's because it's continually most of the time.
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  In these processes there are two distinct parts to a new
• 4:36
  facility. One is the construction.
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  So the actual building of the track that's where Are you come
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  in with Vault boxes? Sandpit, forms cages, you
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  mentioned Hammer cages, discus, cages, Etc, circles towards the
• 4:47
  whole nine? Rarely it's a very unique
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  situation when a coach is actually consulted.
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  During that phase when it comes to the air quotes here, fun
• 4:58
  stuff that hit the pits, the hurdles, implements things like
• 5:01
  that. Oh yeah, they get into the coach
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  but when they're designing the track, it's quite common.
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  They don't even ask the people that are going to be on that
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  track. Every day.
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  Well, how many Sam pits and wear it?
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  Which way? Should they be located?
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  How big and how many of all boxes and which way because of
• 5:19
  wins and things like that? Exactly, it bugs, me like no
• 5:22
  one's a businessman effect so much that I wrote an article on
• 5:26
  LinkedIn about it like, hey, coach, you're getting new
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  facility. Okay.
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  Now, what in that? Now, what is you need to be
• 5:31
  without getting yourself fired. Coach, get into the process as
• 5:34
  much as possible. Now, you mentioned track and
• 5:37
  field products, which of course, the vast vast majority of our
• 5:40
  Listeners here know about my know more than we do a lot of
• 5:45
  products that go on there, but what are there?
• 5:47
  Other things in your purview, maybe not track and field we do.
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  I do a lot with soccer surprisingly, a lot with
• 5:55
  baseball and I think I think a lot of people like would agree
• 5:59
  with you that we had, people don't know that we do all these
• 6:02
  different sports, we have tennis as well going on the porter
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  side, we have volleyball that ideal a little bit with but not
• 6:10
  Not that much. But yeah we do baseball tennis,
• 6:14
  soccer, all the whole nine yards and it's again kind of that same
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  theme of in the ground essentially.
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  Yes, maybe not putting something like in the ground but but with
• 6:27
  soccer goals and stuff, you can anchor it into the ground and
• 6:30
  all that. But but most of the time, it's
• 6:32
  on Wheels and and you can move it off the field on the field
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  but like baseball. We're dealing with stuff like
• 6:38
  the foul poles, which go In the ground that dugouts.
• 6:41
  Yeah. Yeah.
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  And you mentioned tennis, hmm? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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  We got a couple tennis systems that go in the ground there
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  sleeved indoor outdoor and I think, people wouldn't really
• 6:52
  know that right now outside looking in.
• 6:53
  Yeah, were you surprised so, you know, we're going to get into
• 6:57
  your athletic and coaching side of life here where you went to
• 7:01
  school, and the great college that you graduated from, who
• 7:04
  just signed a football deal with Alabama, by the way, I want to
• 7:08
  sell that. Yes, I didn't see what year it
• 7:11
  is. But yeah, Alabama, we don't want
• 7:12
  to spoil yet where you went to school, but just just wait until
• 7:16
  you find out where you went to school and then realize Alabama
• 7:18
  and then we're going to play football.
• 7:21
  Good luck. Yeah, good luck.
• 7:22
  Thanks. So when let me lose my complete,
• 7:26
  trying to thought what? Okay, so you knew of Gil,
• 7:30
  spoiler alert, Clayton is from the area.
• 7:33
  He's a local call, you know, than an hour of Champaign,
• 7:36
  Illinois. So you knew of Gil, new Guild
• 7:38
  growing up as you go. I went through track and college
• 7:40
  track. Did it surprise you?
• 7:43
  When you got here and was going through the interview process
• 7:46
  and we started talking about baseball and soccer.
• 7:50
  Did that, were you just like these guys pulling my leg?
• 7:53
  Absolutely. So, I showed up for my interview
• 7:55
  and if you haven't been to the factory, there is football.
• 7:58
  Go outside. There's a soccer go outside and
• 8:01
  I pull up in my car, and I look out, and I see football and
• 8:04
  soccer goal and like, huh, I did not know that that Gil
• 8:08
  Athletics. That.
• 8:10
  But really put the Athletics and I but, yeah, great Point.
• 8:13
  Yeah, did it. Like when you saw that was it
• 8:17
  like, a concern of, like, wait a minute.
• 8:19
  I thought this was a track position or maybe the opposite.
• 8:22
  You're like, okay, that's kind of cool.
• 8:24
  I'd be interested in learning more.
• 8:26
  How did you take that? I took it as the way, you just
• 8:29
  put it. I'm a, I'm a multiple sport guy.
• 8:32
  I love all sports equally, but, but I was ready for the
• 8:38
  challenge. I didn't know enough about goals
• 8:42
  and all that good stuff. But I knew how to play the game.
• 8:44
  Just not what we used to play the game now, I'm famous for
• 8:47
  challenging Our Guest Clayton and we've got our first
• 8:50
  challenge right off the bat. Oh gosh you just said you love
• 8:53
  all sports equally. So you watch as much Cricket on
• 8:57
  TV as you do football because you love it equally it feels
• 9:00
  televised. Absolutely televised a lot sir.
• 9:03
  Now if my package yeah ESPN Ocho.
• 9:09
  I hear you, I hear you. Well, let's talk about, let's
• 9:12
  let's go back in our way back machine.
• 9:14
  Let's start with track and field.
• 9:15
  It will kind of lead up to, you know, how you found out about
• 9:18
  the job and interview process and put a nice little bow on it.
• 9:21
  So talk to us about what were you track athlete and any other
• 9:24
  sports would you do in high school, high school?
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  I was a for sport athlete for three years.
• 9:30
  Fourth year I took took a little more exception to track and
• 9:33
  field but I did football, baseball, basketball and track.
• 9:37
  Why? Up until my senior high school,
• 9:39
  Cool was that I don't know how big your high school was.
• 9:43
  It was that more because it was a smaller high school.
• 9:45
  And so I came from a small high school.
• 9:47
  So you know, if you don't have multiple sport athletes, you
• 9:49
  don't have teams or was it more? Just like, you just had a lot of
• 9:52
  luck. You love dolls were taken away,
• 9:54
  so you wanted to play them all. Yeah, kind of both, I go to.
• 9:59
  Okay, I went to school high school, just 30 minutes, south
• 10:02
  of Champaign, about 300 kids my whole entire school 80 and in my
• 10:06
  graduating class, But yeah, I mean, I loved all sports I
• 10:11
  played and can't say I was great at them but but yeah, it was
• 10:18
  kind of a necessity for for small school for someone to do a
• 10:21
  lot of sports and I was the culprit of that.
• 10:24
  The culprit. What was your favorite out of
• 10:26
  those? Four, maybe really.
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  I don't let any pressure that you wait for a track company.
• 10:31
  Make it that was there one that you?
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  You know, you're like, man if only, I'd been 64 and 300 out of
• 10:37
  done more in this, It or whatever.
• 10:40
  Well, the first love ever was basketball personally.
• 10:43
  See, I don't just gonna learn something.
• 10:44
  Yeah, I thought you can say football.
• 10:46
  I love that. It was basketball.
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  I love basketball mascot. Trivia.
• 10:50
  Yeah, it's so we wouldn't tell looking at, yeah, that I was
• 10:53
  shocked when he said basketball. Yeah, was So with basketball,
• 11:00
  like if it was a case of like, man, if I was 63 18, I have no
• 11:04
  clue what average basketball player.
• 11:06
  Height and weight is like, you would have gone on to do
• 11:09
  basketball. Absolutely not.
• 11:11
  Oh really, I was not great at it but I love it but I love the
• 11:15
  sport. Yeah, I think there's some of
• 11:17
  the world's greatest athletes, some of them and I just fell in
• 11:21
  love with it. My dad coached my sister, when I
• 11:23
  was a little kid and I was just in the gym shooting around and
• 11:26
  found myself buying a video game and just falling in love.
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  Sport. Wow.
• 11:29
  What position did you play? I was a guard, your guard.
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  Okay. Couldn't handle the basketball
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  at all. That seems like a problem.
• 11:35
  Yeah, I don't know much about basketball, but that seems like
• 11:37
  a problem. They called it a hybrid.
• 11:40
  I think, the, like, I was soft, turn, be used for someone who,
• 11:44
  who, who's shorter? But can't magically God, bless
• 11:48
  him. He tries so hard.
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  Yeah, exactly. In which one out of those?
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  Four were your least favorite. I know, I'm putting in the spot,
• 11:55
  this is tough because you put your heart and soul in each one
• 11:58
  of those Those, which one would you like?
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  You know, in fact, you said you only did only did three your
• 12:03
  senior year, which one did you drop in?
• 12:05
  Can we assume that was probably the less passionate one for you.
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  Um, you can say that I drop baseball going to my senior
• 12:12
  year, it was mostly because of a conflict with track in the
• 12:14
  spring, my dad to sit down with our ad Ron, hornaday, and
• 12:20
  literally map out every day. What practice, I'd be at.
• 12:23
  Well, game, I'd be at what game? I'd be pitching.
• 12:26
  What game might be throwing or what?
• 12:27
  Me a Beat I got and that was the whole mess and took a toll on my
• 12:31
  arm so. But I probably say that's that's
• 12:37
  probably good. That baseball.
• 12:39
  So where does track fit in here? You get it all for years.
• 12:42
  You mentioned you were thrower. So do you work that side of it?
• 12:45
  How did that fit into sports and your passion?
• 12:49
  So, early on we had a track and field unit PE and the head coach
• 12:55
  now test goal for the football team and hero mine.
• 12:58
  Grab me and was like, we're going to shop but today I'm
• 13:00
  like, okay, you guys are gonna you're gonna be pretty good at
• 13:02
  it. What grades is a special?
• 13:03
  Sixth grade? 6 grade.
• 13:04
  Okay, six, good, you have any clue in sixth grade?
• 13:07
  What throwing or even track was, no, but I was a bigger kid, and
• 13:11
  I'm like, okay, if I can throw this 8 pound ball far, am i?
• 13:15
  That's kind of cool, right? Right.
• 13:17
  Because the alternative is go to run a couple miles.
• 13:19
  Oh, yeah. Yeah.
• 13:20
  Right. The whole nine yards.
• 13:22
  That's not me. So, so Andy Romine, put a shop
• 13:26
  in my hand and I threw it and it was Significantly farther than a
• 13:29
  lot of the kids in the grades and the kids that are doing 7th
• 13:33
  and 8th grade track. And he looked at me, he's like,
• 13:35
  you're going to be, you're going to be good at this one day, that
• 13:38
  file that back in the memory and went to State a couple times.
• 13:41
  When I was a young kid didn't do much but but I ended up liking
• 13:46
  it a lot. You remember?
• 13:49
  Excuse me. Do you remember that first throw
• 13:53
  or maybe they are maybe that first practice and like, what
• 13:56
  was the feeling? Was it just like a normal?
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  Talks you had to have struck while you were immediately good,
• 14:03
  but you still had to scrub. It's a first-time skill or had
• 14:05
  to be like oh may I I hurt my elbow because I did this or some
• 14:08
  like that. But do you remember that feeling
• 14:11
  of whether it was like, oh my, I found out who I am.
• 14:15
  Yeah. Or was it just more of like?
• 14:16
  Okay, I'm an athlete is just another thing, I'll do it.
• 14:18
  Eventually you got real good, which will discuss.
• 14:21
  First of all, it was. It was ugly.
• 14:23
  So I can just imagine the whole Shuffle and growing.
• 14:26
  So, yeah, it was ugly. I remember exactly what I threw
• 14:30
  that day. It was twenty, nine nine.
• 14:31
  Wow, Like A fifth or sixth grade kid.
• 14:33
  I think I might've in fifth grade.
• 14:35
  You remember that? I mean, that means and pretty
• 14:38
  impactful in coach, Roman knows this day when I threw two.
• 14:42
  So, wow. So it became did it because I
• 14:45
  should ask did it become a challenge of like, okay, I
• 14:48
  through 29, which a twenty nine nine.
• 14:51
  Okay. How do I get to 30?
• 14:52
  Then how do I get to 40? And how do I get?
• 14:53
  Yeah. How do I get to the Olympics?
• 14:55
  Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
• 14:57
  When you're that young, you don't really Focus too much on
• 15:00
  on all the little, like, nuances of throwing.
• 15:03
  So, it was a lot of just, man it out there for a, for young kids.
• 15:08
  So, so, yeah. Did you immediately go and start
• 15:13
  watching YouTube videos or anything like that?
• 15:15
  Or was it still just? Okay, it's practice time.
• 15:17
  That's when I'll focus on it. Brilliant, that started later on
• 15:20
  in high school. So we had a lot of other that
• 15:22
  mean, you're doing all these other sports as well.
• 15:24
  So yeah, you have a good excuse of, not just focusing
• 15:27
  everything. All right.
• 15:28
  Yeah, so when you go through middle school and in Illinois,
• 15:33
  we have a really strong support of Middle School track and field
• 15:38
  program all the way up to we have a middle school state
• 15:40
  championship for track and field, which is awesome.
• 15:43
  That's not the common in them, a lot of other states.
• 15:47
  When you got to high school, what was what was it, like,
• 15:51
  transitioning to now doing football?
• 15:53
  Basketball, baseball, and track and field, is this kind of the
• 15:57
  way life is. Scola, you're always doing cams
• 16:01
  here, having like two or three practices a day for various
• 16:04
  Sports and Club teams, Legion teams, all that good stuff for
• 16:08
  baseball and it was just, I think, I think my class
• 16:12
  especially just had fun with it and we and it wasn't like we're
• 16:15
  going to practice his. We're going to go hang out
• 16:17
  friends, which I think which was I think was huge for us when
• 16:20
  you're little and pay dividends later on high school.
• 16:23
  It's that group going to hang out and you just have to be
• 16:27
  doing football drills. Or after the basketball run dry.
• 16:30
  Yeah, that's interesting. You know, if you're not watching
• 16:33
  on YouTube, you know, Clayton's face there, you really kind of
• 16:37
  lit up there when you're like me it's just me and some friends.
• 16:39
  Yeah, whatever is in support of the day, their practice of the
• 16:42
  day was as you look back on it. Now, you know, one of the things
• 16:44
  that you have today that you didn't have then is perspective,
• 16:48
  like you can look back like, oh, you know, this, you know, this
• 16:51
  was not as bad as I thought it was or this actually wasn't as
• 16:53
  great as I thought it was. When you look back on that time
• 16:57
  with friends. And was that a big driver for
• 17:00
  your athletic career moving forward?
• 17:02
  Yeah, I would, I would definitely say so dropping that
• 17:06
  to for support my senior year was tough.
• 17:08
  Because yes, losing a lot of my friends did baseball as opposed
• 17:11
  to track, right? So dropping that was super hard
• 17:17
  but I knew his best thing for my future and later on down the
• 17:20
  road it definitely paid off where I right.
• 17:22
  So walk us through High School career you pick up the discus
• 17:26
  and we don't have jab unfortunately or the More, but
• 17:29
  maybe did somewhere track. How did High School career go
• 17:31
  throwing wise throwing wise? Started off.
• 17:34
  All right, I'll just an average freshman sophomore and then, my
• 17:38
  junior year, I was still doing baseball and act like it's a bad
• 17:42
  thing. It wasn't a bad thing.
• 17:44
  But, uh, I kind of hit my peak in my junior.
• 17:47
  I had state championships, which I through 49 9 and 3/4.
• 17:52
  Can you believe that? Yeah, yeah, I think I got ninth.
• 17:56
  Wow. My best friend, the whole wide
• 17:59
  world guys. I think.
• 18:01
  Second runner-up. Okay.
• 18:03
  From same school. Yep.
• 18:04
  Okay, I'm School, best friend. Yeah, senior year I hit my
• 18:08
  stride in The discus little bit. I think mid-1850s and then 50
• 18:13
  close to fifty three feet in the shot.
• 18:15
  I was third in the state but I was second on my team.
• 18:18
  Yeah, it's the same. That's right?
• 18:20
  Yeah, yeah. How did that going back to that
• 18:23
  junior year? You got nine, their best friend,
• 18:25
  got second. You know.
• 18:27
  There's a lot of Of forks in the road in our lives.
• 18:30
  That we make decisions on how we don't think about how important
• 18:33
  they are necessarily in the moment.
• 18:35
  But sometimes we can look back at them and realize.
• 18:37
  Wow, thank goodness. I didn't go this way that I
• 18:39
  chose to go this way. So second on your team, your
• 18:43
  your and maybe the best friend plays into it, but your teammate
• 18:46
  gets second, you get 9th, you know, some people could have
• 18:49
  taken that as what am I do? I'm not even the best on my
• 18:52
  team. Let's just go play baseball, you
• 18:55
  know, because because track that's one of the goods and
• 18:57
  bad's is about track and it's very individual, like, yeah, you
• 19:00
  know, where you stand on your team and state where baseball
• 19:04
  you can kind of hide a little better basketball.
• 19:06
  You can hide a little bit. Yeah, like I'm part of the team.
• 19:08
  I still play minutes but you seem to have taken that as a
• 19:11
  challenge of like, okay, that's cool.
• 19:13
  He got second, I got night. Well, that means like you didn't
• 19:16
  project. It doesn't feel like you took
• 19:18
  your projection of well, dang it, you know - on him you took
• 19:22
  it more of like well then I better get better.
• 19:24
  Yeah. Oh definitely and it definitely
• 19:26
  helps having having your best friend there because I would go
• 19:28
  back and forth on what we're doing and all that good stuff.
• 19:31
  There's article about us in the Decatur Harold.
• 19:33
  Yeah. But us watching pitch, perfect
• 19:35
  together and baseball movie. Yeah.
• 19:38
  And then yeah. No.
• 19:40
  It was a little single. Just the musical in the paper
• 19:46
  calls. Hey, what you guys doing?
• 19:47
  It's like watch Pitch, Perfect. There's some things you just
• 19:50
  don't tell reporters or record. Just like you are now anticipate
• 19:56
  but But getting Ninth Place was definitely a springboard into
• 20:01
  the next year. It's like, okay, we can do that.
• 20:04
  How good can we be? And we had a great Runner, Eric
• 20:07
  Ponder, he was very good at school mi mi.
• 20:11
  So we got fourth place, her senior year with three guys as a
• 20:14
  team. Yeah, I took third in the shot
• 20:19
  sixth in The discus. And my best friend, Steven
• 20:21
  Gibson took first in the discus. And second, the shoplet did was
• 20:26
  either of those Your favorite event for you?
• 20:28
  Or did you love both of these chocolate?
• 20:30
  Yes, I write Y. Is that I don't know.
• 20:33
  I'm I really small hands that's hard for me to hold the disc is
• 20:36
  but I just never really got it. And I will go down saying The
• 20:41
  discus is one of the hardest or events.
• 20:43
  If not the artist you just made every Javelin.
• 20:46
  Coach listening right now because well yeah Javelin would
• 20:51
  definitely be. Yeah.
• 20:52
  One or two going back for the good news.
• 20:54
  Is you made every discus coach right now but yeah.
• 20:56
  That's right. Finally One stands up for The
• 20:58
  discus. That's right.
• 21:00
  What did not that this necessarily is?
• 21:03
  There's a correlation here, but we're you a glider or rotational
• 21:09
  in the shop, but I was a glider. Okay, and so did that caused
• 21:13
  some consternation, but discus, I assumed you were a rotational,
• 21:20
  and yeah, okay, but you weren't getting it in again, you know,
• 21:23
  making a really bad correlation here because it's not
• 21:25
  necessarily that if you're a rotational a shot, We're
• 21:28
  rotating like this case is easier because it is different,
• 21:30
  it work even though you're spinning around.
• 21:32
  Right. So you just had just discussed
• 21:35
  just wasn't I just never got it. Yeah, she's never gotten a
• 21:37
  Groove in it and that's, that's fine but but I got a little bit
• 21:43
  better in college and really focus on it as much as it may be
• 21:46
  tougher in college going to the 2k discus.
• 21:48
  I think it was possible. It's bigger than you think they
• 21:50
  ate me alive? Yeah.
• 21:51
  So stay in high school real quick.
• 21:53
  What any mentors coaches teachers?
• 21:57
  It was, you know, just real instrumental in your development
• 22:00
  already, mentioned any real mind, but Stan winky, longtime
• 22:04
  foes coach it at a Tuscola. I can't remember.
• 22:07
  Last time we didn't have a 50-footer shot-putter, 150,
• 22:11
  discus thrower, nice cool which is amazing.
• 22:14
  Yeah, sure. Yeah.
• 22:15
  Just the longevity of it and just death leads to.
• 22:18
  We put out their test scores, just been crazy.
• 22:21
  What was it about his style or leadership that helps bring you
• 22:24
  along and kept the love of track and field?
• 22:27
  People fall in love attract as a sixth grader and by 10th grade,
• 22:30
  they're out of the lures of basketball or another sport.
• 22:36
  Did he help bring Stoke that passion for you?
• 22:39
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. He I think he saw more nuts than
• 22:43
  we saw in ourselves and that's huge fur for a young athlete,
• 22:48
  but he taught us more about the mental side of track and field
• 22:52
  which is huge. I'm sure he, I know you know but
• 22:56
  it's it was Huge for young athletes, the mental side of it
• 22:59
  all because he would take us to like our sectional site, which
• 23:02
  is like an hour and a half away, just so we can get the feel of
• 23:05
  it and see it. And, oh, wow, I feel ya.
• 23:08
  And just little things like that to meet us mentally tough.
• 23:11
  Like we'd have like her man challenges.
• 23:13
  Like the end of practices where we would do like a little game
• 23:17
  just to make us more mentally sharp and ready.
• 23:19
  Yeah. You know, I think you hit the
• 23:22
  nail on the head. I've said this before, you know,
• 23:24
  the power of a great coach, And really not even have a great
• 23:28
  coach. Let me back up there.
• 23:29
  The power of a coach like that specialness of being a coach.
• 23:33
  You said it exactly like you nailed it is they see things and
• 23:38
  others before that person. Can see it in themselves.
• 23:41
  Yeah. Like they can they can look at
• 23:42
  different kids and be like yeah you know you can be good here
• 23:45
  like you can contribute and with that kid, maybe like you're
• 23:48
  crazy. I don't even I can't spell this
• 23:50
  case or what you know and that coach you coaches that's kind of
• 23:53
  the specialness of being a coach's.
• 23:55
  You're there to pick people up and make them Believe in
• 23:57
  something that they can't believe, but you keep it.
• 24:01
  You can because you've seen it, you see it in them.
• 24:02
  So I love that for Coach. Yeah, so as you finish out
• 24:06
  Tuscola finishing, you know, third as a team it's a that's
• 24:10
  amazing with three people. We got forth with three people
• 24:14
  or three. Okay, yeah.
• 24:15
  Remember, I'm from Alabama, so numbers, you know, we work
• 24:17
  together. So you've, no, well, I've messed
• 24:19
  up numbers. What were you thinking?
• 24:23
  School-wise College wise, major. And where was?
• 24:27
  Because you You do become a coach for a little while was
• 24:29
  coaching at all in your mind and high school.
• 24:32
  Or was it still just something that was done to you?
• 24:34
  You know, you were coached at ya and I'll start off with, with
• 24:38
  the school with how that went first.
• 24:42
  Originally, it was football, was going to be the main driver.
• 24:46
  That's why I thought, because I knew this, so that's why I
• 24:49
  thought when I said what was your favorite, I would have put
• 24:51
  football down for you because I knew football was a thought of
• 24:54
  for the next level. So you were kind of looking at
• 24:56
  football. Unity's for.
• 24:57
  Oh yeah. And that was the only love I got
• 25:00
  from any coaches or programs was for football and I took visits
• 25:06
  and all that good stuff. There's a couple visits that
• 25:08
  turn from football to track with two birds.
• 25:12
  So what were you always when you were kind of Fame football?
• 25:16
  First in your mind, were you thinking?
• 25:19
  Oh yeah but I want to also do track where of our go or was it
• 25:21
  like well football is what showing me love.
• 25:23
  So I'm just thinking football right now if things Lined up the
• 25:27
  way. They could have maybe close the
• 25:31
  door but it wasn't oh yeah, oh yeah, I you know, color
• 25:33
  thankfully some football players who are great at tracker.
• 25:35
  Like, no know if I'm going to do, Alabama, you guys got to
• 25:38
  guarantee that I can also be on that track team.
• 25:40
  So you just had the door open. Not I'm definitely doing both.
• 25:44
  Yeah, I first. Yeah.
• 25:46
  And I know, I know how hard it was being a track athlete in
• 25:49
  college. I couldn't even imagine doing to
• 25:50
  sports. Oh yeah, yeah, it's amazing.
• 25:52
  And it, yeah, I mean, it really is.
• 25:54
  Yeah, like the text saying. Him kid who?
• 25:56
  Yeah. Put offensive line.
• 25:59
  And through Foster, he started as a senior as a the center
• 26:03
  Bryce, Bryce Foster, I think is his name.
• 26:05
  Yeah, phenomenal. And really started out.
• 26:09
  And got really good in the shot. He was good in high school, but,
• 26:11
  you know, 716 pounder. You never know what's gonna
• 26:13
  happen. Yeah, that's right, outstanding.
• 26:16
  I don't know how that doesn't mean on me, but but yeah,
• 26:22
  college football was was definitely an option and turns
• 26:25
  out, not a whole lot of football.
• 26:26
  Coaches one, a 511. Offensive lineman or a
• 26:31
  linebacker thinking runs a fuck like a five-second 40.
• 26:34
  So, it was quick lived. I got a couple of looks and
• 26:39
  offers and all that good stuff, but eventually track came to the
• 26:44
  Forefront. I mean, I had more accolades in
• 26:46
  football than I ever did in track and you Allstate we, let's
• 26:49
  not go. All, so I know this man here in
• 26:51
  Illinois which is a top 10 for sure.
• 26:54
  And some might argue top five football state for high school
• 26:57
  football man. So that's Bravo.
• 26:59
  It was to a out of eight. A so no man, you have any to a
• 27:04
  player's. Wish they could have been
• 27:06
  Allstate. We take away.
• 27:08
  We take a word just and only'. In this podcast, I talked to
• 27:11
  coaches they say I just call. If I'd won four National.
• 27:14
  Yeah, you know how many coaches? Yeah, it was like you know you
• 27:16
  heard this right? How many times you hear when we
• 27:18
  were together a D2? Which we're going to talk about
• 27:20
  that experience for you as well? Love to get your feedback on how
• 27:23
  that was for you here as a teammate.
• 27:26
  But ya know not, it was only to a Bull crap.
• 27:30
  There you competed against what you compete against, man.
• 27:32
  So Bravo for that. I give a lot of kudos to the
• 27:36
  team success. We are one game away from the
• 27:37
  state championship lost by two. So it is what it is.
• 27:41
  But but the accolades are were pretty nice.
• 27:45
  As you were looking at these colleges deciding what's going
• 27:48
  to happen between football and or track Etc.
• 27:51
  What was your mindset academically?
• 27:52
  What were you thinking about major?
• 27:54
  And at that point. So my sister was a big driving
• 27:56
  factor and that she's more Probably not ever be so kudos to
• 28:01
  her and I love my sister very much tailored for listening.
• 28:04
  You know, she is Taylor. This is the first time I've
• 28:07
  heard your name, trust me. My man talks about you guys love
• 28:09
  you. So so much.
• 28:11
  So and thank you Taylor because, you know, our lives are led by
• 28:14
  leaders and so obviously Taylor whether she thought she was as
• 28:17
  your sister or not, was I obviously an influence and
• 28:21
  therefore I leader for you and your allies.
• 28:23
  So Taylor shout out. I'll just shout out track
• 28:25
  coaches, man. Leadership is leadership is
• 28:27
  leadership. So Taylor, thank you so much,
• 28:28
  so, How to tailor affect you academically, just seeing how
• 28:31
  the sex, how successful like she wasn't business world.
• 28:34
  I think really, really drove the knife for me to really get into
• 28:38
  business like a business side and I knew being an athlete or
• 28:42
  what you could call an athlete you were at my job.
• 28:47
  Folks is just boosting people love.
• 28:49
  I mean, come on, you weren't a fan of being an athlete.
• 28:51
  And like I knew I wanted to be on the business side of
• 28:54
  Athletics in, whatever capacity that may be, and that's kind of
• 28:57
  what drove me to. Doing what I did college.
• 29:00
  So where'd you end up choosing the Gradle Harvard of the
• 29:03
  Midwest Eastern, Illinois, University.
• 29:07
  Everybody had a guess in their head when you said they're like
• 29:09
  oh Northwestern or which is a great school about 45 minutes.
• 29:16
  South of us, we've enjoyed great relationships with their track
• 29:20
  coaches and Illinois State meat is held there.
• 29:22
  Of course, just a really, really good school.
• 29:25
  Absolutely not much differently than where I went to school.
• 29:29
  The real Harvard of the South Troy University.
• 29:31
  So so you go to Eastern Illinois.
• 29:33
  And do you play football, or almost a just track.
• 29:37
  I did track and field. I was a walk-on just II.
• 29:45
  Knew I wanted to do a sport in college football.
• 29:48
  Probably wasn't the best Avenue for me.
• 29:51
  And so I know my sister went to Eastern.
• 29:53
  So, I went to visit a couple times and got a preferred
• 29:56
  walk-on spot and just walk down there and I made my way.
• 30:00
  See again those Forks in the road you easily because you
• 30:04
  aren't recruited for a scholarship at Eastern easily
• 30:07
  could have said, well then it's just not for me.
• 30:09
  They don't want me that I don't want to work because it's hard
• 30:11
  work. Yeah.
• 30:11
  As you know easily because it was going to be, I'm gonna be
• 30:14
  the best student I can be, which would have been a bad.
• 30:16
  Yeah. The avenue to go.
• 30:19
  Yeah. Definitely.
• 30:19
  But there was more of like, you know what?
• 30:21
  Okay, that's fine. And I don't know, necessarily
• 30:23
  that was a chip on your shoulder.
• 30:24
  Like, well, I'm going to earn a scholarship I'm gonna show them
• 30:26
  for. I'm not big on that.
• 30:27
  Yeah. But that might be Having two or
• 30:29
  maybe just been, you know, I liked athletes and friends of
• 30:33
  mine who are athletes. I'm going to do that.
• 30:34
  Yeah. And it was great way to make
• 30:36
  relationships and you like me to go to university that, not a
• 30:39
  whole lot of people from Tuscola went to.
• 30:42
  I think there's more now than thank goodness.
• 30:45
  Is that right? Not?
• 30:45
  Not as many to, I would assume clinics closed.
• 30:47
  Maybe one of my classmates, maybe two went to Houston.
• 30:50
  Oh, really surprised, you know, just because of closeness
• 30:53
  majority. Yeah, but I went there when
• 30:56
  enrollment was down and it's pack up and that's great, but I
• 31:01
  just loved him this structure in my life that I had for my whole
• 31:05
  life doing sports. So structure was huge and I
• 31:08
  think that really guided me and really helped me out my first
• 31:10
  year and all the years I went there.
• 31:13
  I like that. You said that.
• 31:14
  You know what, I coach specifically when I coached High
• 31:16
  School way back in the day, you probably weren't even born when
• 31:19
  you're born 96. Yeah.
• 31:21
  So, that's what I was coaching High School in 96 over at as you
• 31:24
  were born, you know, I used to say this a lot within different
• 31:28
  coaching. Stuff, you know, a kid, a 16 17,
• 31:31
  18 year old kid, 19, 22 year, old kid, young adult.
• 31:35
  Maybe at that point, they probably won't say it out loud.
• 31:38
  The majority of them won't say it out loud.
• 31:39
  How you just said it? There began again, you have
• 31:41
  perspective. They crave structure.
• 31:45
  They crave rules now? They won't tell you, I don't
• 31:48
  like you. No bedtimes at X, Y, and Z, and
• 31:50
  practice time is, are over. But when they're faced with the
• 31:53
  alternative of like, okay, do whatever you want, that gets old
• 31:56
  real quick and they don't like that.
• 31:58
  So I like that. Now able to varrick's, I don't
• 32:00
  know that you as an 18 19 year old kid would have been able to
• 32:03
  verbalize. Oh yeah.
• 32:04
  I like structure. I like practices at X.
• 32:07
  And then when that's done, I gotta go eat because I gotta
• 32:08
  study hall at seven because he's not verbalize that now, that's
• 32:11
  exactly right. So do I need to help you more
• 32:15
  here? Do I need to hey, Clayton you
• 32:17
  at? 4:00, you got to do it.
• 32:20
  But if you're seeing the productivity is down, maybe
• 32:24
  maybe well spoiler, we do not need to have those conversations
• 32:27
  on, man, you're killing. You did a great job.
• 32:30
  So you join the Eastern Illinois, track team who was, I
• 32:32
  know they've gone through. Maybe this is just more
• 32:34
  recently, different throws coaches, who was your throws
• 32:36
  coach? At least to start, Jessica
• 32:38
  sommerfeld, yeah. Oh yeah.
• 32:40
  Absolutely. No.
• 32:41
  Did she was your coach all four years?
• 32:43
  Nope. OK.
• 32:43
  That was the first coaching change I ever had.
• 32:46
  Oh, so like let's say that she was my head coach.
• 32:50
  Tom Akers was the actual hell. Yeah.
• 32:53
  But yeah that's my first coaching change ever.
• 32:57
  How did you react to that? Um, It was.
• 33:01
  All right. I mean it was it was just
• 33:03
  another fork in the road like you saying just a different kind
• 33:07
  of style and thank God we meshed yeah.
• 33:11
  How did we don't talk X's and O's but how did the change and
• 33:17
  coaching? Not the coaching change.
• 33:19
  But you know, college you're starting for Labor Day instead
• 33:22
  of February March and high school.
• 33:26
  You probably. Maybe not.
• 33:27
  I almost said you probably lifting more but your football.
• 33:30
  Sure, but you are doing lifting in that sense.
• 33:32
  You're not. Here's the hardest part.
• 33:34
  I think freshman have is you start practice at call it Labor
• 33:37
  Day? Well, you don't get to compete
• 33:39
  until usually January sometime in December.
• 33:42
  We're in high school, you know, you may start March 1 and you
• 33:44
  got to meet two weeks later. So you've got, it's like that
• 33:46
  delayed gratification. How did that transition?
• 33:50
  How did you handle that? Just keeping a vision, just
• 33:52
  keeping like, knowing what your goals are and just reaching them
• 33:56
  day by day, I knew coming in because I had to go from
• 34:00
  Rotational. Oh yeah, 1216 pound.
• 34:04
  But and I was small, I was like under 200 pounds when I first
• 34:09
  walked onto that canvas. So and mass moves Mass.
• 34:13
  So I was not throwing that shot but very far equals ma something
• 34:17
  like that, but uh, but yeah, it was just keeping the vision of
• 34:22
  where you wanted to be at the end of the season.
• 34:23
  I think was really driver and just competing with yourself
• 34:26
  every day. You mentioned goal-setting, are
• 34:28
  you a big goal setter? I was when I was an athlete
• 34:33
  little bit now since I'm not an athlete but I'm still lifting
• 34:35
  weights. Finally good stuff like doing
• 34:37
  all that but I like to set some goals.
• 34:39
  Yeah, we work here in the business side, we have different
• 34:43
  goals. Yeah but sales numbers yet to
• 34:44
  hit and different projects that you're working on that way of
• 34:47
  goes along the way. How do you think being an
• 34:50
  athlete and knowing more distance and weight lifting type
• 34:54
  goals? How has that helped you as you
• 34:56
  are transitioning to the business World side of it.
• 34:58
  I would say so because because My world bids are Paramount.
• 35:02
  Oh yeah right in putting them out there and being proactive
• 35:05
  and how you you attack it and how you follow up and all that.
• 35:09
  I think the competitive nature deep down in me, comes out in
• 35:13
  those type situation. Yeah, yeah.
• 35:14
  Great point. You know, when we talk about
• 35:16
  with Clayton, dealing more with contractors and our contractor
• 35:20
  dealers, much, much, more contract driven so like, yeah,
• 35:25
  we're sometimes typically in a pole, vault pit or hurdle
• 35:29
  situation there, As a, there could be a hard bid, things like
• 35:32
  that and there's a purchase order that will come through a
• 35:34
  dealer. So you may purchase from one of
• 35:36
  our great dealers like mff buttocks or BS in sports or vsf
• 35:39
  buttocks or your preferred Gil Athletics dealer same with
• 35:44
  Clayton, but dealing with contracts because we're talking
• 35:47
  about construction. So you've got a lot of dates
• 35:50
  that you have to hit that. You've got to help the factory.
• 35:52
  Get this part of the order out or we're in trouble.
• 35:54
  Because yeah, we're part of that schedule.
• 35:56
  Remember, they're not just building a track, they're
• 35:57
  building a building. They're getting track surfacing.
• 36:00
  They're renting equipment to smooth out.
• 36:02
  Dirt all this concrete crazy stuff, 27 concrete, yeah.
• 36:07
  So you think the structure and goal setting of being a college
• 36:11
  athlete, in a college students, they're saying those things in
• 36:14
  there that happen have to happen.
• 36:15
  Academically have helped you be successful because again, guys
• 36:19
  and gals ultra-successful this first Year, my man is killing.
• 36:22
  You would not know he hasn't even been here for a year.
• 36:25
  So you feel like that's helped you with some of the success
• 36:28
  here? This first year, I would say so,
• 36:30
  Definitely with the structure of like having have beds in having
• 36:33
  a hard date, I think has has definitely helped me out like
• 36:38
  being like a workout, 28 am being in study hall at 5:00 all
• 36:42
  that good stuff like there's deadlines every day for college
• 36:45
  athlete whether they want to know it or not.
• 36:47
  But yeah I think it's definitely definitely played a part in.
• 36:50
  It surprised there's deadlines at work to in.
• 36:52
  There you go. Is your own time and you got bit
• 36:55
  due dates. And yeah, you got people that
• 36:57
  say, you know, I need an answer by noon.
• 36:59
  Yeah. It doesn't change just when you
• 37:03
  are good to go with the way to eat an apple.
• 37:05
  So how did how did that transition?
• 37:07
  I think we've ever explored this again, not getting into the X's
• 37:10
  and O's, but how did that transition from a glider to a
• 37:14
  rotational in the shot? While also dealing, like you
• 37:16
  mentioned the 12-pound to the 16 path while also dealing with.
• 37:20
  I've never done fall practice for shopping while also dealing
• 37:23
  with. I'm on my own because I'm
• 37:24
  college now you know I don't have mom or dad to help wake me
• 37:27
  up or you know, drive me here x y&z, how did that route?
• 37:30
  Occasionally challenge, go for you and two new events.
• 37:33
  Because, oh yeah, what was that kind of right off the bat as
• 37:37
  well? The okay, we're going to teach
• 37:38
  you the hammer and the jab as well.
• 37:40
  Yeah. Javelin a little bit later drum
• 37:44
  because I would hope to. Yeah.
• 37:45
  Yeah but Hammer I'm like your prototypical body style for a
• 37:50
  guy pretty long arms for how stocky I am and but but I hurt
• 37:55
  my back my freshman year and I just never really got in the
• 37:58
  groove of it but But no switching over from glad
• 38:03
  rotational. I think, I think most coaches
• 38:06
  say it takes like two and a half years you to really get in
• 38:09
  really getting like liking your own Rhythm man.
• 38:12
  I took me forever. Yeah.
• 38:13
  Sorry it took me forever. Yeah.
• 38:15
  And we do a little mock meat first day on campus, flow Mach
• 38:18
  me first day first day for throws not-not-not Springs.
• 38:22
  The throws. It was like okay, it sounds like
• 38:24
  in September. Yeah, it's like okay.
• 38:26
  Let's see how much you done over the summer.
• 38:28
  Wow. And I had to spin and through,
• 38:32
  like, 35, 34 feet. Do you even have a 16 pound her
• 38:35
  over summer? No, yeah.
• 38:37
  So the first saw, the mock meat was 16?
• 38:39
  Yeah, yeah. You had to be like, oh man, that
• 38:41
  I make a mistake here and I think I think coaches might have
• 38:43
  thought, did I make a mistake here to just sort of feels like,
• 38:48
  oh boy. I the video.
• 38:50
  I'll show you coach. I don't know that.
• 38:52
  I'm this good of a coach and also Zane Chapman was also
• 38:57
  coached her. Yeah.
• 38:58
  Check out the Zane from drinking.
• 39:00
  Yes, sir. And was he an athlete?
• 39:02
  Or he was an athlete at eiu. Get his master's there.
• 39:05
  I believe. And then was a volunteer coach
• 39:08
  after because as soon as he left the track program I came in.
• 39:11
  Okay so he wouldn't really overlap but it was but we did
• 39:14
  overlap as far as him being a coach.
• 39:15
  Yeah. So he was there so he was
• 39:17
  watching you struggle, a struggle?
• 39:20
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 39:22
  But challenges and he saw something that no one else saw.
• 39:25
  So he didn't just automatically go look man, you know, being a
• 39:28
  student's not bad just being annoying.
• 39:31
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 39:34
  I don't know what he saw. Maybe he could tell you, but
• 39:37
  yeah, he, he kept the fire in me that I didn't know what was it
• 39:41
  so so how did it go? Obviously, it got a little
• 39:43
  better because you at least stuck with it.
• 39:45
  Yeah, how'd it go. When, how long did you have
• 39:48
  Coach Summerfield? And who was the next coach?
• 39:51
  I had her for four years? Yeah.
• 39:53
  Okay. For years.
• 39:54
  That's good. Yep.
• 39:56
  I had a red shirt. One of those years.
• 39:59
  So, and then I Got my red shirt Year back and then we had a
• 40:03
  coaching change. So so I had her for four years
• 40:06
  and it was good for years. Yeah.
• 40:08
  Did you stay with a business degree?
• 40:10
  I did yeah. Mixture of both Sports and
• 40:14
  business like most sports admit I'm Type.
• 40:16
  Yeah, okay sir. Yeah.
• 40:18
  And so as you go into your senior year and this is really
• 40:21
  phenomenal to me, again, you know, I admonish you about
• 40:24
  saying, you know, I was only 28 that it doesn't matter so you
• 40:28
  don't get to say it when we used to know.
• 40:30
  Only whatever the Congo High ovalle talk about the success.
• 40:33
  You had your senior year. So what do we start out that
• 40:36
  mock meat 39 as like 34? 35 30?
• 40:39
  Look out something something not good, 30 feet 10 meters.
• 40:43
  Yeah, 10 meters, there you go, 33, roughly, right.
• 40:47
  The first day on campus. How did senior year ago and in
• 40:50
  for you, it started out with start out with a bang and I got
• 40:57
  to 11th. I think on the eiu, all-time
• 40:58
  list the shot. As a senior but outdoors, I was
• 41:03
  a junior and we ended the season with, with being conference
• 41:09
  Champion. The shot no reason, you won a
• 41:11
  division, one Conference Championship.
• 41:14
  I'm and the pouring rain. It was pouring buckets.
• 41:17
  I mean, you had to know I was gonna bring this up because this
• 41:19
  is so impressive. He showed me the picture of the
• 41:24
  the competition and he's right, you know, there's rain
• 41:26
  everywhere was amazing but my man went from throwing 10
• 41:29
  meters. Be 3, feet, roughly the first
• 41:31
  day on campus persevered. This is the to me.
• 41:34
  That's the most important part of the story because again,
• 41:37
  there's so many Milestones where you get images like.
• 41:38
  Yeah, it's not for everybody, not everybody gets to go on a
• 41:41
  new college track, right? Yeah.
• 41:43
  I get my shot and I move on to it but you didn't tip kept
• 41:46
  working at kept working at it and you win the Ohio Valley
• 41:50
  right? Yeah.
• 41:50
  Nile Valley shotput conference Champion.
• 41:54
  Wow. Yeah, you know what I've never
• 41:55
  done. Never, that's amazing.
• 42:00
  Did that feel like, whoa, blow to backtrack a little bit.
• 42:04
  The conference meeting was pouring down rain.
• 42:06
  I was leading through three throws and then the final throes
• 42:10
  came up and the sixth row came up and found myself in third
• 42:14
  place for the final throw in your the last throw.
• 42:18
  Yeah correct because I won the the prelims I guess.
• 42:22
  So I had to throw a lifetime best in the pouring down rain
• 42:27
  and make the movie of this. Holy cow.
• 42:30
  Yeah, and I remember standing there on the side about to go
• 42:34
  for my sixth and final Throne coach, Brenda manual the goat.
• 42:38
  Brandon manual? He he looked at me did well,
• 42:42
  didn't look at me? He just look straight forward
• 42:43
  and said, I thought you said you're gonna win me a
• 42:44
  championship. I was like, Oh, okay, so it's
• 42:48
  like that. So, when through and I don't
• 42:54
  know what happened. I saw it go past past this
• 42:56
  little red line, they had out there and I'm like, okay, that
• 42:58
  looks farther anybody else during the day.
• 43:00
  So then I freaked out and our photographer.
• 43:02
  Got some pretty cool pictures out so you didn't have that.
• 43:05
  Like, I'm thinking about when Brian krauser set the world
• 43:08
  record, I distinctly remember, it was amazing.
• 43:11
  He threw it. And you as he's finished out,
• 43:14
  the rotation at the end. So it's back is towards the
• 43:16
  Sect. Yeah, he puts his hands up in
• 43:19
  the air also, he knew it, he just knew, you know, and again,
• 43:21
  he's done this for so long. He knows what the Ayah thing
• 43:24
  feels like coming off of his hand where he wants it.
• 43:27
  Where we're at happens, normally, as like that and you
• 43:31
  had his hands in there. Maybe was an Olympics for the
• 43:32
  gold. I'd remember it was, it was the
• 43:34
  throw and he was like it was like the Babe Ruth calling your
• 43:36
  shot. Like yeah, he turned around and
• 43:38
  he hadn't seen it sold in the air.
• 43:40
  There's an amazing picture of that by the way somewhere and
• 43:42
  internet and like he felt it, you didn't have that.
• 43:45
  You don't have that when you release your like oh I I just
• 43:47
  want a conference champions. Like, okay, that felt good.
• 43:49
  I did the right things. It will so, so he has a lot more
• 43:52
  time to do that. When the shop puts in there that
• 43:54
  I do. Yeah, that's flying.
• 43:55
  A lot farther. Great Point.
• 43:56
  Yeah. And by the way, sorry, real.
• 43:58
  Pause or whole shout out to Ryan krauser.
• 44:00
  Go check out his YouTube channel.
• 44:02
  Just go to youtube.com. Ryan Crowds Are shop hood or
• 44:05
  something like that. He is giving some really cool
• 44:08
  behind-the-scenes, looks at his training, he built his own shot,
• 44:13
  put circle out in his, his Ranch.
• 44:16
  He has there some cool fit, he does a lot of cool fish and
• 44:19
  stuff as well, but really go check out Ryan Krauser's,
• 44:22
  YouTube channel one day. Maybe Clayton.
• 44:24
  I have his own YouTube channel. Who knows in it?
• 44:26
  But you're right. He does.
• 44:27
  He has a lot of time that's fair.
• 44:28
  Yeah, you're throwing you know? 23 24, 25.
• 44:32
  I mean, it's it's ridiculous what he's doing.
• 44:34
  Yeah, but you didn't have that feel of like as you release
• 44:37
  like, oh, I got it. I got a hold of one.
• 44:40
  I did two degree besides, Britain's voice in my head.
• 44:44
  Now give me on to go, get him a championship.
• 44:47
  I was thinking the whole time that I just need to just stay on
• 44:51
  balance and just nail the front. Get my hand over to Borges.
• 44:55
  I've been falling away for from a little bit and I knew, I went
• 45:00
  over the toe board, and felt my hand extend all the way Mike.
• 45:03
  Yep. That's it.
• 45:04
  So, it landed past the red line. So at that point you still don't
• 45:07
  know you want. But you know like, oh, okay,
• 45:09
  that's big. I got a shot.
• 45:10
  Yes, the thing went far when they measure it and say the
• 45:14
  number and you know your brain connects that it's Farthest.
• 45:17
  And it's a PR. What does that feel like?
• 45:19
  So so I didn't even hear what it was.
• 45:22
  I knew I want. Oh wow.
• 45:24
  Yeah, I was freaking out before it even.
• 45:27
  Yeah. Well, the first person idea that
• 45:29
  it. Yeah, and the first person to
• 45:31
  greet me after it, landed was my best friend from high school who
• 45:34
  threw at Belmont and is a picture of it.
• 45:37
  It's great. Yeah.
• 45:38
  Was he competing? Yeah.
• 45:39
  Wait. So you beat him?
• 45:41
  Yeah. So the guy that beat you in high
• 45:43
  school you came back and beat in college.
• 45:46
  Yeah, he was more of a hammer discus guy.
• 45:49
  He's very long as a super long wingspan.
• 45:50
  First. Still, that's great.
• 45:52
  Revenge. I love that.
• 45:54
  He take it any day but he, but yeah, he's first person to greet
• 45:57
  me whenever landed. That's awesome.
• 46:00
  Yeah, so it's, it was literally like, a movie, like something
• 46:03
  I've never experienced that's really good.
• 46:06
  You might have to send me that picture.
• 46:07
  I might have to use it for check out Twitter as you listen to
• 46:10
  this. I have to make sure I post
• 46:11
  because it really is like so when they make a movie, man, I
• 46:14
  mean, come on. That's, that's quite amazing.
• 46:16
  So, Your senior year, besides winning division, one Conference
• 46:19
  titles. What were you thinking?
• 46:22
  As you're getting closer to your degree?
• 46:23
  What were you thinking? The next step?
• 46:24
  Where you like, oh yeah, I'm going to be a coach.
• 46:26
  Or was that even in your mind? So I had a, I had a graduate
• 46:30
  year because I had a red shirt so so I got accepted into the
• 46:36
  master's program at eiu. That same day I won conference.
• 46:39
  So I was cool today and no doubt.
• 46:41
  Yeah, yeah. So so I accepted the master's
• 46:44
  program, the did my ear. R then, which happen to be 2020.
• 46:49
  Ha, ha. So famous 2010.
• 46:51
  Yeah. So I was as strong as I've ever
• 46:54
  been in my life. We had a new coach, new
• 46:56
  everything. So I was fully prepared to make
• 46:59
  like, not only like like a conference run but like go on to
• 47:03
  like regionals. So in who's coaching youth Rose
• 47:06
  wise now because Jessica, yeah, there's gone.
• 47:08
  Jessica was gone at the time and it was Noah Castle currently
• 47:11
  University of Northern Iowa doing phenomenal, they're shut
• 47:15
  out coach Castle. Who Darius King.
• 47:18
  Yeah, which Darius, yep. And Janna discus thrower Tom.
• 47:25
  Yeah, so so yeah. He we bonded very well, we are
• 47:28
  the same age, two weeks apart. Yeah, I got my masters and he
• 47:33
  just went straight from college into coaching.
• 47:34
  So the mutual respect. I think was there we were bouncy
• 47:38
  bounce, stuff off each other all the time and so, so yeah, it was
• 47:42
  like a little bit of experience to have a coach that was
• 47:45
  literally the same age as you. You but it was awesome.
• 47:49
  And so what did you do you get your master's degree or working
• 47:52
  on your Masters its 2020. So I know you know we all
• 47:55
  unfortunately know what happened that year.
• 47:57
  What's the next step for you professionally?
• 47:59
  So I was thinking about using the six-year to throw because I
• 48:06
  was literally strongest I've ever been best shape I've ever
• 48:08
  been in my life, but I thought professionally, I should
• 48:12
  probably move on and start doing something a little bit more
• 48:15
  productive as far. Like building resume and all
• 48:17
  that good stuff. So, I became the graduate
• 48:20
  assistant coach for Eastern. The throws it.
• 48:23
  How that go? Well, I learned a lot, it was,
• 48:28
  it was a great time. A lot of great athletes coming
• 48:30
  through there and it was, it was an experience that I'm glad I
• 48:34
  had. It's always different alluded to
• 48:37
  this earlier and I've spoken about this and different
• 48:39
  interviews that, you know, coaching, when you're an athlete
• 48:43
  is a selfish Endeavor. And what I mean by that is the
• 48:46
  coach Ouch is is working with you as an athlete, you're trying
• 48:50
  to digest everything that's happening to help you become
• 48:52
  better. That's why as a selfish.
• 48:54
  It's not a - yeah, it's you wear as a coach, the things that
• 48:58
  you've learned and the things that you are implementing, our
• 49:02
  selfless. You're trying to help someone
• 49:04
  else and others, get better. So how did you transition from
• 49:08
  that athlete of okay. Everything every wait, I lived
• 49:11
  every rep I take is for me to get better to okay.
• 49:14
  Now gotta change that and help bees Guys and gals get better.
• 49:18
  It's not about me in that sense anymore.
• 49:20
  Yeah. And I think the hardest part was
• 49:22
  trying to put on a professional face when all your friends
• 49:26
  because you just graduated from them being Tina, exact, that's
• 49:30
  we've explored that a little bit that has to be an extremely
• 49:33
  hard. How did you deal with that?
• 49:36
  Well, I was kind of, I was kind of a mentor coach athlete.
• 49:41
  So we're junior senior year. Yeah, and I studied this for Ty
• 49:46
  and and I think I put enough good eggs in their head.
• 49:51
  Have good influence. So really, that wasn't a
• 49:54
  problem. I don't think it was ever really
• 49:56
  a like a conversation to have. It was just, it was just it was
• 50:00
  just finding a happy medium where you can be friendly, but
• 50:03
  yet still have that Authority and at this point, are you
• 50:05
  thinking? I'm going to be a coach.
• 50:07
  This is what I'm going to do or were you still like I'm going to
• 50:09
  be in the business World. Hopefully, With sports attached
• 50:12
  to it in some form or fashion. I will say I found out that I
• 50:18
  don't think coaching was like was my calling.
• 50:22
  So I mean in that and I was a tough pill to swallow.
• 50:25
  I just feel like coaches have to give literally 100% of their
• 50:28
  life to that to that sport to those athletes.
• 50:31
  And I just don't think I could have did that for all for all
• 50:34
  the passion into it that all the coaches do for pennies, by the
• 50:37
  way. Yeah, yeah.
• 50:38
  And and at that point is not necessarily Really about the
• 50:41
  money but but I just don't think that passion would have been
• 50:45
  there and that's and that's what athletes deserve.
• 50:48
  Yeah. Right.
• 50:48
  That's right. So I like that.
• 50:50
  You had that self-awareness? Yeah, I've Got Friends in this
• 50:52
  game that on there. You know, 30th birthday.
• 50:55
  They're like hey man, I don't have this passion like maybe
• 50:57
  even doing this for call it 10 years at this point.
• 51:01
  Engrave you to know that back as a twenty two-year-old
• 51:03
  three-year-old. So it's good to have that self
• 51:05
  awareness. That man, I love this sport.
• 51:06
  I love coaches and coaching but that's not me.
• 51:09
  That's not who my identity is. Still do it on the side a little
• 51:12
  bit. Like there's still, there's
• 51:14
  still some coaches that I've had in the past are like, hey, what
• 51:16
  do you think about this like High School coaches and all
• 51:18
  that? So, so it's not it's not too far
• 51:21
  away anymore but but it's, it's not the Avenue that I want to go
• 51:26
  down. So you go into working and how
• 51:28
  did you find out about the girl? I thought, Exposition when your
• 51:32
  former colleagues Austin Hogue former tech school, graduate
• 51:36
  Eastern Illinois, thrower. All right, we have a lot of the
• 51:38
  same past, but he He worked here was your colleague Phil minutes,
• 51:43
  great. And he was actually my throws
• 51:46
  one of my throat's coaches high school.
• 51:48
  So and I know that you worked at gil and I was like, holy, that'd
• 51:51
  be cool because because from from the time I was six, fifth
• 51:55
  grade. I had a dislike, a guild this
• 51:57
  case my hand. So it's like it's like, okay,
• 51:59
  well I know the brand. So let's see what I can do here.
• 52:02
  So he helped me out with getting resume together, getting getting
• 52:05
  all the bells and whistles needed to come and do an
• 52:09
  interview. Yeah.
• 52:10
  So yeah. Guided me along that path when
• 52:13
  you know most people rightfully so don't know what our building
• 52:17
  even looks like. I mean you may have an idea of
• 52:19
  what what it's like here is that a manufacturer track and field
• 52:23
  and other sports equipment but until you roll up and see the
• 52:27
  offices and then, of course, you know, I always say on the other
• 52:29
  side of the wall, the things that we do back there, it's like
• 52:32
  voodoo magic to me. You could probably wrap your
• 52:34
  head around it, ways better than I can, because they're smarter,
• 52:36
  but I just am amazed when we bring in a stick of steel.
• 52:39
  Cut, it welded paint it. And Boom, it's a pole, vault
• 52:41
  standard. I got just what the that's
• 52:44
  beyond me. So what did you think?
• 52:48
  Your first time you roll up for your interview during your
• 52:51
  interview? One of the first things we do is
• 52:52
  give you a tour so you can kind of get an idea.
• 52:54
  So I always like to describe it as like Willy Wonka's chocolate
• 52:57
  factory for track people, you're like okay well there's this is
• 53:00
  there. Whoa, there's hurdles over
• 53:01
  there. Whoa, and then for you you're
• 53:02
  like well there's a ball golpe. Okay.
• 53:05
  That's that's odd wait. That's a basketball hoop.
• 53:07
  Oh well. Okay, this is different.
• 53:09
  What were you thinking that? Store and you kind of see at
• 53:12
  all. I think growing up.
• 53:14
  I was just like I still can't believe this isn't champagne.
• 53:17
  Yeah. Because a lot of people don't
• 53:19
  realize, well, he's from the area don't realize that it, this
• 53:22
  is in Champaign, right? And we are one of one here.
• 53:24
  So yeah, that was my first thought rolling up and then as
• 53:29
  I'm walking through it's like it's like because I'm ever you
• 53:32
  pointing out to me something that I sell often which it is
• 53:35
  formed like a discus ring throws form like to know what that is
• 53:39
  and like I have no idea but Now, but if we're not there my okay,
• 53:42
  that's that. Yeah, right.
• 53:44
  But if I might be like I really don't know anything so but it
• 53:50
  was it was it was incredible the first time that I don't want in
• 53:54
  there. It's like this is how it's done.
• 53:56
  Yeah I couldn't even fathom. Yeah.
• 53:59
  A little overwhelming. Yeah.
• 54:00
  Like a fire. Hose are trying to get a fire
• 54:02
  hose. You're like I think I asked me
• 54:04
  about this is test. What are you going to remember
• 54:05
  from this thing? Yeah, how nerve-racking this is
• 54:10
  one of your first. Interviews for a job.
• 54:13
  You've got other interviews but in your first I'll call it
• 54:14
  corporate type of interviews. We get to several people.
• 54:18
  I don't want to say grilling you because when I really griller,
• 54:21
  but it still nervous because you don't know who these people are.
• 54:24
  Yeah, you know, kind of your fate is in their hands, have a
• 54:27
  thing, how it was it nerve-racking.
• 54:29
  I'm not very confident by the way, to give you a Kudos, glad I
• 54:33
  could put on that face. That the poker face for you, but
• 54:36
  but I've actually met Scott before Scott Phillips.
• 54:39
  Yeah, it's got felt before As I was a coach, we're picking up
• 54:42
  some implements, and I had to meet him here to get it.
• 54:45
  Yeah. So, I suppose.
• 54:46
  So, I knew his face. I think he's coming.
• 54:49
  I know you. I was like, I know you too.
• 54:51
  So so yeah, I kind of knew that but other than that, I was wind
• 54:56
  coming in here. Yeah.
• 54:57
  Yeah, we did a great job. Obviously you were the obvious
• 55:01
  choice to come in and, you know, we because of where we are and
• 55:07
  things like that. We hire a lot of rookies.
• 55:09
  I'll say, you know, and Tell you what you've come in and do and
• 55:12
  done an amazing job. What has been when is your
• 55:16
  one-year anniversary August 23rd?
• 55:18
  Oh man, we're still, that's a way to your toggles.
• 55:21
  Yeah, so you're still, you know, a couple months away from your
• 55:25
  one-year anniversary and I've always said and we say it kind
• 55:29
  of corporately here. You really don't know the job
• 55:31
  until one year end. Oh yeah, you've gone through the
• 55:33
  whole cycle of track season itself.
• 55:35
  You've got another cycle of construction season.
• 55:37
  Things like that. What you've been a part of some
• 55:41
  Seeing things indoor and outdoor track facility national
• 55:44
  championships. What has been like in this close
• 55:46
  to one year, like your biggest surprise of like, positive
• 55:49
  surprise. Like, oh man, I didn't know that
• 55:51
  I get to talk to this person or I get to do this event or
• 55:55
  anything that sticks out to you. I think being around the NCAA
• 55:59
  championships and being around all those people, all those like
• 56:02
  people that like maybe seem like social media who's like throwing
• 56:06
  super far running super fast. And it's like, wow, I'm actually
• 56:09
  like here like I was There's an athlete.
• 56:13
  But I'm there now as a representative for girl
• 56:15
  buttocks, so, so it's just as exciting.
• 56:18
  Absolutely your, for those who don't know, Clayton is our
• 56:21
  representative for the D2 National meet so he is the one
• 56:24
  coordinating with the on-site people for the equipment that's
• 56:28
  going to be needed. And then he's there and he's
• 56:30
  doing everything from packet. Pick up to you know, Biz Dev
• 56:34
  activities, Etc. He's always over by the throws
• 56:37
  by the way, he never goes to watches.
• 56:40
  He does watched people. I'll give him that, but he ain't
• 56:42
  watching anything. It's about the pros.
• 56:44
  Yeah, exactly. What was it?
• 56:47
  Like, the first year, the first D2 Championship that you went to
• 56:50
  was at Pitt State. Great, facility Quakes coaching
• 56:52
  staff, great meat, that was there, what was it like, like
• 56:57
  was there like an aha moment, like maybe the first time the
• 56:59
  gun cracked or the first first shot?
• 57:02
  Put that one out. I was like, oh my gosh, like
• 57:04
  like I'm here, you have unfettered access by the way,
• 57:07
  that's kind of a little bonus of working for Gil.
• 57:09
  You do walk wherever you want to watch the me.
• 57:12
  What was it like that. First National Championship.
• 57:14
  Honestly, it really started on practice days because like I'm
• 57:19
  still kind of like the athlete mindset worst like it's like
• 57:23
  okay I'm gearing up for National Championship, my gold up, I'm
• 57:25
  gearing up to set up the national championship.
• 57:28
  Not not be in it but but I kind of got like a little Jitters.
• 57:32
  It's like it's like okay this is here like this is big time and I
• 57:36
  am felt that something that feels like oh this is this is
• 57:39
  back at it like we're back at it again.
• 57:41
  It's like no bump. Rick's yeah.
• 57:44
  But that's probably the aha moment.
• 57:47
  Did you have, you know, there's this D1 or bust mentality in the
• 57:53
  world and a lot of it is centered around.
• 57:56
  What's on TV for football? So, yeah.
• 57:58
  You know, we see the University of Illinois football team on TV
• 58:02
  more than we see Western, Illinois, or Eastern Illinois,
• 58:05
  Etc. And those are both Division 1
• 58:07
  schools. That was a bad example there.
• 58:09
  But more than we see, Illinois, Wesleyan things like that.
• 58:14
  So were you surprised when you went to the division?
• 58:16
  Two national championship? You come from a D1 world and
• 58:19
  while you may not have Fight for National still.
• 58:21
  That was a goal, a say, like that's what you definitely.
• 58:24
  I would bet you definitely looked at the division 1
• 58:27
  National Championship results. Every year in college was like,
• 58:29
  oh well, those guys throwing, that's what I got to.
• 58:31
  Okay, let's go get it. T fries every day, because every
• 58:33
  Sunday. So we're stats.
• 58:35
  D2. Did you go in and be honest.
• 58:38
  Did you go in thinking? Like, okay, honestly, just not
• 58:41
  be one but then come out with like, oh my gosh, like these men
• 58:45
  and women are amazing. Yeah, I know, i-i'm not.
• 58:50
  An advocate for any one. I mean, it's like I know that
• 58:54
  there is excellently to every single level.
• 58:56
  There's, there's no exception. So I have a lot of friends who
• 59:01
  were at the division, two level, who would kick my butt up and
• 59:04
  down in the throes ring, right? So, absolutely no no ill
• 59:10
  feelings for, for, for the levels that are below division.
• 59:14
  One. Absolutely not.
• 59:15
  And if you did, you just watch the first competition and I was
• 59:18
  away really quick. If you're smart, you're like, oh
• 59:19
  my goodness. My yeah, that beats Mine by my
• 59:22
  meter so amazing coaches. Yeah, that all levels and
• 59:25
  amazing a doubt. What does it take?
• 59:27
  Help us understand the process. You know, you worked on division
• 59:31
  to indoors with Pitt State and then division to Outdoors at
• 59:35
  Grand Valley State to amazing meets.
• 59:37
  You did an amazing job you and your team getting the equipment
• 59:39
  set up, things like that kind of give us a 30,000 foot.
• 59:42
  Level of what actually is involved with being the official
• 59:46
  equipment sponsor for these meats.
• 59:47
  It's not a spoiler alert, it is not snap your fingers and Things
• 59:50
  just show up. Like yeah, you started meeting.
• 59:52
  So probably the, I mean, in August, you probably within the
• 59:54
  first week or two, I was like, today you knew start doing these
• 59:57
  meetings, definitely put a bug in my ear.
• 59:58
  Yeah he was kind of a 30,000 foot level.
• 59:59
  What goes into these meats for us.
• 1:00:02
  So, so right off the bat around I think it was Christmas time.
• 1:00:06
  Maybe a little bit before maybe like Thanksgiving like that.
• 1:00:09
  Time in between, we got on the phone and talk to our site for
• 1:00:14
  the guys, in March for Pitt State.
• 1:00:18
  So so we get a brief overview about Who we are.
• 1:00:21
  And we're going to be our site like this eye contacts for
• 1:00:24
  division 2 and then we start talking about what their
• 1:00:27
  facility has and if we need to supply it or not, but we need to
• 1:00:31
  bring and all that good stuff. How much do we need to bring and
• 1:00:35
  and then that's a big long process itself, getting all in
• 1:00:39
  that all checked off because you forget one thing.
• 1:00:42
  It's it here about it. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:00:45
  Yeah, you do so. So just the checks and balances
• 1:00:48
  with that and then getting all just takes to kidding this
• 1:00:53
  stuff. They're getting yourself there
• 1:00:55
  knowing when to set up, when you can access the facility, all
• 1:00:58
  that good stuff. And then the meat schedule, you
• 1:01:00
  got to work around that. And then once, once it's all
• 1:01:04
  done, you got to pick it up, move it back.
• 1:01:07
  What's been? You've been to two great meets.
• 1:01:09
  I was at both of them with you and just phenomenal team. adil's
• 1:01:13
  again, I'm you know the coaches are just I mean, first class it
• 1:01:18
  really, it's really unbelievable on the division, two level.
• 1:01:21
  What has been the biggest Ike fun moment for you out of those
• 1:01:25
  two Meats? Was there like a performance you
• 1:01:26
  saw or coach, you got to meet that you thought made, I've
• 1:01:29
  never been able to meet so, and so anything that just like,
• 1:01:32
  super fun, I don't know about just one single event, but just
• 1:01:35
  the overall energy, mmm-hmm something that that I really was
• 1:01:40
  never part of because it will be seized weren't terribly
• 1:01:42
  populated. I mean lot more teams here at
• 1:01:44
  the national level, but Wow, like the atmosphere just overall
• 1:01:50
  with Team battles and all that good stuff big time and there's
• 1:01:54
  some some individual performances I'm gonna try to
• 1:01:57
  say the names because, but but yeah, it just overall energy was
• 1:02:04
  just outstanding. That's a good way of putting it.
• 1:02:06
  I would agree with that. Even all the events.
• 1:02:09
  But I would maybe on the division two level personally, I
• 1:02:13
  might give that specific to the throws crew because there's Yeah
• 1:02:17
  I mean don't mess around with division 2 throws coaches man
• 1:02:20
  and athletes. They are some phenomenal me.
• 1:02:23
  Go check the results. Go look at what these kids are
• 1:02:26
  throwing and there's coaches behind those throws.
• 1:02:28
  It really is. And there's a fun group of
• 1:02:31
  division, 2 throws coaches, that are just great people that are
• 1:02:33
  hyped up and just really just get it done.
• 1:02:36
  They get the job done. Definitely, what are you as we
• 1:02:39
  start to wrap up here today? Clayton, what are you?
• 1:02:41
  You know, maybe it's your first year, anniversary.
• 1:02:44
  Anything you're looking forward to Now, you kind of get this.
• 1:02:47
  Open what we do on a yearly basis and it continues to grow
• 1:02:49
  and get better. You as you continue to learn
• 1:02:53
  more about the business side of things, gain more experience and
• 1:02:56
  therefore more responsibilities. Anything that you're looking
• 1:02:59
  forward to just construction season.
• 1:03:01
  It's summertime construction season.
• 1:03:03
  People want to update their facilities, so just getting to
• 1:03:06
  think of that I think is going to be really exciting seeing all
• 1:03:10
  the different abilities that they're going to pop up whether
• 1:03:12
  we get the better not, it's still great to see who's all
• 1:03:15
  making moves, and being the facilitator. at ease, but I
• 1:03:19
  think just growing the division also going the division is Is a
• 1:03:27
  something that I take pride in and I think a lot of people
• 1:03:30
  don't actually realize what we do or don't have as far as like
• 1:03:35
  the other sports are concerned. So I think growing the division
• 1:03:37
  that way and just seeing it Blossom is up, he's special.
• 1:03:41
  Well, you're doing a lot special my man and maybe before I just
• 1:03:46
  lay my accolades on you because you deserve it.
• 1:03:48
  You know, a lot of people know me through this podcast and
• 1:03:51
  through, you know, I'm an old man.
• 1:03:52
  So a lot of people know, we just go Was cold.
• 1:03:54
  And I know a lot of people, I'm sure one of the top questions
• 1:03:57
  people that are listening right now.
• 1:03:59
  Want to know what's it like working with Mike Cunningham?
• 1:04:02
  Some people would even say what is it like working with the mic
• 1:04:05
  coming in? Now I have all rights to edit
• 1:04:11
  this response folks so this was not rehearsed.
• 1:04:14
  He has no head. No clue.
• 1:04:15
  I was asking that. So but truthfully and not me,
• 1:04:19
  let's be real here. What's it?
• 1:04:20
  Like working with this team? I mean you know we've got some
• 1:04:23
  Just a one first-class world. Champion people here.
• 1:04:28
  What's it like being in this team?
• 1:04:30
  Great. It's a very welcoming everyone's
• 1:04:34
  there to lend a helping hand. I think that is great for any
• 1:04:36
  new, professional, or someone who really serviceable question
• 1:04:40
  and maybe someone else had like, like has the answer but having
• 1:04:45
  like River here, who is younger than I am and like, just having
• 1:04:51
  him around it like, as well, to get a younger.
• 1:04:53
  GE feel to it, I think is huge as well, but I think just
• 1:04:57
  definitely the guidance that I've gotten in this nine months
• 1:05:02
  has been great. That's all.
• 1:05:04
  And that's something that I wish every business had.
• 1:05:07
  Well, you know, if you go back, we've had like, I said, I think
• 1:05:10
  this is teammate. Number four.
• 1:05:11
  So River, who he mentioned, who was like, pole-vaulter, Coastal
• 1:05:14
  Carolina, he was on the podcast back in December.
• 1:05:17
  I believe of 21. We're getting to a point now
• 1:05:20
  where we've done a long. The time I can't remember all
• 1:05:22
  the dates. Vander.
• 1:05:23
  Lat our customer service manager, director fulfillment
• 1:05:26
  who was an All-American throw at Indiana University.
• 1:05:29
  She's been in the podcast. Brian Corral who, you know?
• 1:05:32
  Well, from instant Ablaze and our d, our field service rep.
• 1:05:35
  He's been on the podcast now, we've had Clayton coming up in
• 1:05:39
  the next few months. We're going to have Rob Mathias,
• 1:05:41
  he's yellow. Yeah, he can't wait for that one
• 1:05:43
  of them, he's in. Yeah, that's going to be unique.
• 1:05:45
  I mean, a great, great. I mean, what a, what a what, an
• 1:05:49
  anchor, yeah. Or no doubt, no doubt.
• 1:05:52
  It's really quite amazing. But you know, Clayton it's easy
• 1:05:56
  to say this recorded and for posterity reasons that, you
• 1:06:00
  know, what a great teammate you are man, you know, you came in
• 1:06:05
  just fresh and green and rookie as it can be.
• 1:06:08
  In a very challenging role, you know, it's one thing to be in a
• 1:06:12
  row like a Rob River Scott that focuses on pits poles and
• 1:06:16
  hurdles and those are fun and you get to see those things.
• 1:06:18
  But unfortunately a lot of the work that you do it goes in the
• 1:06:21
  ground you don't even see Very hard to go to a track and go.
• 1:06:25
  Hey, you see that sand pit form? Well, no, I see sand.
• 1:06:28
  Yeah, we don't sell sand. Yeah.
• 1:06:30
  But, you know, you have taken a very challenging part of the
• 1:06:34
  market. Very challenging part of our
• 1:06:37
  Sport AS specifically a track and field, but also have added
• 1:06:40
  baseball, tennis, soccer, Etc, field hockey lacrosse.
• 1:06:44
  Yeah, we didn't even mention those passports for all sports.
• 1:06:48
  That's right. And you've just done an amazing
• 1:06:50
  job talking to contractors, that's different than talking to
• 1:06:53
  Ooh, a coach working with Architects that is extremely
• 1:06:56
  different than talking to coaches, but yet you keep that
• 1:06:59
  passion and love for the sport. And for the coaches of the
• 1:07:02
  sport, always at the Forefront, I can see it when you're working
• 1:07:05
  with a contractor on a cage, which is a different
• 1:07:09
  conversation than having it with the coach.
• 1:07:11
  But I can see it in your the way you do.
• 1:07:12
  Things the eyes of when you're doing things that you're like,
• 1:07:15
  oh yeah, I'm doing this. Because at the end of the day
• 1:07:17
  that coach is going to have a kick-ass cage because of how
• 1:07:22
  I've worked with this. Architect, Contractor to measure
• 1:07:24
  its installed correctly, they purchased the right one form
• 1:07:27
  that that's the case that that program and that coach deserve.
• 1:07:30
  So you've done a great job, appreciate it.
• 1:07:32
  Super excited. You know just like in athletics
• 1:07:35
  just like your freshman year almost throw it away it's like
• 1:07:38
  oh man laughs. Oh man I don't even think about
• 1:07:40
  it you know as you continue to build on year to coming up, your
• 1:07:44
  five year, ten man. I'm just so excited.
• 1:07:48
  Yeah for what you're going to be able to accomplish here for
• 1:07:50
  coaches and for our teammates here man.
• 1:07:53
  I look back at what I did in my first year.
• 1:07:54
  I didn't do 10% of what you did the first year, but I look at
• 1:07:58
  like, oh, I built onto it. Look at them, you know,
• 1:08:00
  contributing down 16 years, man. I'm so excited that your story
• 1:08:04
  where it is today and that it continues to be written and I
• 1:08:07
  can't wait to do a ten year anniversary podcast with you
• 1:08:11
  find out the, you know, you'll be like, oh yeah, I was so
• 1:08:14
  naive. I used to think XYZ and then I
• 1:08:16
  experience taught me ABC, so you're doing a great job, man.
• 1:08:19
  Super pump that you join us on the podcast today, man.
• 1:08:22
  I know how busy. You are so, you know, you got a
• 1:08:25
  ton, built up on your desk and down email, and your voicemails
• 1:08:28
  man. So, just so thankful for your
• 1:08:30
  time. Can't wait for next year
• 1:08:31
  division. 2 is where we going indoor.
• 1:08:33
  Virginia Beach. Yes.
• 1:08:34
  Hey, that's an amazing facility not to brag.
• 1:08:37
  I did all the track side on that, man.
• 1:08:39
  I love that facility, thinking of that, wait to see that and
• 1:08:42
  then Outdoors we are Colorado. Colorado Mesa, is that right or
• 1:08:48
  Pueblo Pueblo? That's it.
• 1:08:50
  Yeah, I had the Mesa. Throws coach in my head.
• 1:08:54
  I had a great conversation with him at Grand Valley Pueblo,
• 1:08:57
  which I've never been out there. So, but it is, have you seen
• 1:09:00
  pictures of the track? Yes.
• 1:09:01
  Oh, it's gorgeous. The mountains in the back,
• 1:09:04
  Tommy? Yeah, fix iPhone.
• 1:09:06
  But it's probably Colorado, there.
• 1:09:07
  It's all high elevation. So we probably make sure we're
• 1:09:09
  in shape. So we got walk across the track
• 1:09:11
  and I'll get out of breath, bro. Okay, I gotta make sure we do
• 1:09:13
  that. Alright, next year is going to
• 1:09:14
  be awesome. And Clayton, thank you so much
• 1:09:16
  for being here today, if you had listened and you like this,
• 1:09:19
  maybe this is your first time being here.
• 1:09:21
  Thank you for being here. One of the Just advices.
• 1:09:24
  I can give you. This is your first one is go
• 1:09:26
  back in the the catalog of guess, we've had super super
• 1:09:30
  amazing coaches here from Bishkek Snyder of LSU, Dwayne
• 1:09:34
  Ross, the new coach at University of Tennessee was on a
• 1:09:37
  couple of years back. Sue Humphreys, high jump
• 1:09:40
  extraord, coach extraordinaire the detail.
• 1:09:43
  Your tailor from BYU just really the, the top of the top coaches.
• 1:09:48
  As I mentioned, Adam catch from Albuquerque High School, couple
• 1:09:51
  coaches from Kentucky High School Just a super coaches.
• 1:09:54
  So just thankful for your time being here today and look
• 1:09:57
  forward to seeing you next week, right?
• 1:09:59
  Thanks a lot, guys. Have a good one.
• 1:10:09
  Thanks Mike what an incredible journey coach has been on so
• 1:10:12
  awesome to hear their story in their own words, tremendous
• 1:10:14
  proof of the positive effects coaches make on a daily basis.
• 1:10:18
  Help us spread the word of this. Great journey by sharing on your
• 1:10:21
  favorite social, media channel. And don't forget to take a
• 1:10:23
  minute to rate and review the podcast.
• 1:10:25
  You just might get a shout out on a future episode, that's it
• 1:10:28
  for today. Join us next week, when we'll
• 1:10:30
  connect you With another amazing courage.