Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / #183: Ben Nicholas-Village Tech Schools (TX)

Transcript

#183: Ben Nicholas-Village Tech Schools (TX) · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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  Hey, welcome back to the Gila headaches, track and field
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  We're going to see what happens. So join us on December 12th, 5
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  to 7 p.m. Denver time on YouTube, Libor
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  right there, at the UST up, CCC a convention, okay, that's
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  enough of a commercial because we want to hop into this.
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  We've got Head coach and athletic director and I think I
• 2:13
  think this guy just graduated from college yesterday.
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  So this is going to be interesting to see what a young
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  ad who was also a track coach, how his life and work happens
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  here but help me. Welcome the head coach of
• 2:24
  Village Tech schools. Go check out their mascot, no
• 2:28
  contest, the coolest mascot. There is we're going to have to
• 2:30
  get into that and figure out what that is to but help me.
• 2:32
  Welcome the wise, the wonderful mr.
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  Bin Nicholas been, how are you, sir?
• 2:36
  I am doing well, thank you so much again for having me on.
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  This has been a dream come true. Just To be here and being kind
• 2:42
  of play able to put our story on tape.
• 2:43
  You know, our whole goal with the podcast, is to make it to
• 2:46
  where it would be someone's dream to be on it.
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  So, you know, that's humbling to hear.
• 2:50
  You say that. Man.
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  This is this receiver coli. I can't thank enough for the
• 2:53
  opportunity. Oh yeah, absolutely man.
• 2:55
  Hopefully we won't turn this into a nightmare for you and it
• 2:58
  isn't he great wasn't perfect. Well, speaking of nightmares so
• 3:00
  we're actually, you know, you're probably listening to this in
• 3:03
  the end of November and December War because I love podcast
• 3:07
  Evergreen. You might be listening to this
• 3:08
  in the year 2029. All I know but we're recording
• 3:12
  this on Halloween day and So speaking of nightmare and
• 3:15
  Halloween, I've got to jump right into it Village, Tech your
• 3:18
  mascot. This is the creepiest, coolest
• 3:22
  unique. Tell us what this is and how
• 3:24
  this came about. Okay, so we are the Viper squids
• 3:29
  and this is there's a little bit of a legend that goes with this
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  mascot and so all of our founding administrators have a
• 3:39
  slightly different Rendition of this story.
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  So I'm going to do my best to kind of compile them all
• 3:44
  together. So the Viper squid is this
• 3:48
  terrifying, deep-sea Legend creature.
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  And as they were putting together, the school, they are
• 3:55
  right in the charter, their figure that stuff out and they
• 3:57
  had decided that they wanted to be Village Tech.
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  I believe at this point that I decided they want to be purple,
• 4:02
  but I could not figure out a mascot.
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  And so they're kind of getting to crunch time of like the stuff
• 4:06
  is, do, we gotta go? They've been working nonstop for
• 4:09
  hours on hours and First, they took a break throughout the
• 4:13
  weekend. And so the, the now
• 4:15
  superintendent was away with his wife, to go to go back to see a
• 4:20
  college football game, and they're all kind of split up all
• 4:22
  over over Texas here a little bit.
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  And the way the story goes is that they frantically realize it
• 4:28
  did not have a school mascot, so they called each other up on the
• 4:33
  phone, he's driving and all kind of annoyed with each other at
• 4:36
  this point, because it's the weekend, they're trying to be
• 4:37
  alone and they're Going through it, they were like, oh, the
• 4:41
  varmints, should we be the Vipers?
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  And, and the legend has it. That one of the administrators
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  kids was doing a book report on an animal at the time.
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  And so she found Viper squid as an animal and was like, oh, this
• 4:58
  should be it. Like what is a Viper squid?
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  What goes up to? Well, it's a squid and so squids
• 5:04
  are one of the most Dominating forces in the ocean right there,
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  they're not, they're not aggressive in the sense that you
• 5:12
  don't provoke them. They're not coming out, but if
• 5:14
  you do provoke them, they will tear you up.
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  So they like that squids are very intelligent in the in the
• 5:23
  ocean they like that. The Viper squid supposedly
• 5:28
  Legend has it. One of its defense mechanisms
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  will it will literally turn itself inside out as a defense
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  mechanism to either. It's either to Campbell Or it's
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  just it's some of the spikes or something on the inside of it.
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  And so they like the idea that like when students are
• 5:44
  challenged, they will turn themselves inside out the look
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  within them to, to figure out the solution and then the eyes
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  of the Viper squid are just ginormous.
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  They're huge, they're nocturnal and all these things.
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  I can see the ocean. They like the idea is that
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  students eyes are not focused solely on the here but what?
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  It could be the future looking down the road.
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  So that's sort of the legend of the Viper squid.
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  At least the way that I've told it.
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  It's been. It's been told so many times.
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  That who knows? What's true, what's not?
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  I will tell you that that Viper squid, might not come up on your
• 6:19
  Google search. What might come up as vampire
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  squid to my favorite part of the story is that we have either
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  created a new legendary beast in the ocean or that was one heck
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  of a book report. You know what?
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  I love about that. First of all, I love that the
• 6:41
  origin story is not like, yeah, we were out sailing and got it.
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  Thanks, it's like, okay, no, no one.
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  No one had to die for this this story.
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  But what I like about it is, you know, we look back on things
• 6:54
  now, you know, we have perspective and experience and I
• 6:59
  love when there's like, Forks in the road that seemed.
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  So, so small, when we're deciding, but end up becoming
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  fairly Large right? If that kid had not been doing a
• 7:09
  book report on the you could be you could be the gazelles right
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  now, you could be the phrase hospitals.
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  Here's we're almost supposedly the Pioneers was a story that
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  I've heard that was the other person's kid doing that book
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  report. And they're like, you know, that
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  kids not that. All right, so let's just go over
• 7:25
  here with the the squid. So that sounds like fairly
• 7:28
  recently though. How long has the school been
• 7:29
  around? The school has been around since
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  2013. Wow.
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  Yeah. Okay.
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  Holy cow, we're pretty new in the school game.
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  We are in our permanent location here in Duncanville.
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  This is our fifth year, on our fifth year, currently being in
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  this prime location. So we started off in Cedar Hill.
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  This is even before I was at Village Tech and they were at a
• 7:52
  church. We had a bunch of Portables and
• 7:54
  we knew this was not our permanent location.
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  And so we moved to Duncanville and we are in our permanent home
• 7:59
  permanent location. So the other cool thing I like
• 8:02
  about. This is how many Meats do you go
• 8:05
  to and run into the same man? Yes.
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  God has you never? Never never.
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  I'll tell you this. It's kind of it depends on the
• 8:14
  day. Depends on like we're kids are
• 8:16
  and if they're locked in or not but it is kind of cool to be
• 8:20
  asked. So frequently, what the Viper
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  squid is I'm a competition standpoint.
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  It's like okay, you're not worrying about your own race.
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  You're worrying about us, right? That's a pretty cool thing.
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  Even if only for that moment, I like to tell our kids like it's
• 8:33
  a competitive advantage and they kind of enjoy it now.
• 8:36
  You know, I grew up as a high schooler, I was a tiger which is
• 8:40
  like the most common High School mascot there is.
• 8:43
  And then for college, I went to the greatest School in the
• 8:44
  University grad, school in the world, Troy University Troy
• 8:48
  State University. We were the Trojans, which isn't
• 8:50
  the most uncommon mascot as well vipers though.
• 8:54
  That's kind of cool. Man.
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  I like Viper squids. I love that.
• 8:57
  Yeah, the fiber squid? Yeah.
• 8:58
  Full name in there. That's right.
• 8:59
  Yeah, just a bike. That's a whole different.
• 9:01
  The whole different animal. That's well, thanks for the
• 9:04
  background. I was there was no way this was
• 9:06
  going to Happen without me trying to figure out what in the
• 9:08
  world and how the origin story? Well, let's take a step back and
• 9:12
  talk about your origin story Ben.
• 9:14
  Yeah, some point coaching assuming that you were an
• 9:18
  athlete at some point, in your life, could have happened in
• 9:20
  middle school, high school college after coaching flipped
• 9:24
  for you and became something that our, it was something that
• 9:27
  happened to you, coach bark out orders, told you to run or throw
• 9:31
  and do XY and z and at some point it switched and it was
• 9:34
  like, oh wait a minute, I could be like I could be a
• 9:36
  cold-hearted Like I could be the person leading and in charge of
• 9:39
  this great sport. Where does coaching begin for
• 9:41
  you? Yeah so I was I do I've always
• 9:45
  been a runner. I was always enjoying that that
• 9:48
  process racing my dad and the driveway and all that stuff,
• 9:51
  right? And so I did I did cross country
• 9:55
  when I was in middle school and then I actually was in marching
• 9:58
  band in high school and so my first two years of high school,
• 10:02
  I ran track but I did not run cross-country and so Coach
• 10:06
  Cowher on at Mansfield High School at our tractor home track
• 10:12
  meet was like, hey man, you should run cross-country like I
• 10:15
  don't know what's going on here, why haven't you been out?
• 10:17
  But you're doing this track thing, please come out.
• 10:19
  This is really cool recruit. I thought I was the coolest kid
• 10:21
  in the world. I was recruited by the coach, is
• 10:23
  the greatest greatest feeling. So, I ran my Junior and senior
• 10:26
  years and, and loved it. And thought, you know what,
• 10:30
  maybe, maybe coaching is my future, maybe teachings my
• 10:33
  future, but I don't really know. And, you know, You're a high
• 10:37
  school kid. The world is so large and bass.
• 10:39
  It's like, what do I do? Where do I go?
• 10:43
  And so I'm a, I'm a fourth-generation, Oklahoma
• 10:46
  State Cowboy. So I do.
• 10:47
  Wow, you know, I was going here for sure, absolutely love it.
• 10:51
  It's a, it might not be Troy, but it's also pretty up there on
• 10:55
  the top tier. It's number two, I get well,
• 10:57
  yeah, I'm married. I'm married to an Illinois grad
• 10:59
  and we're having a football season like no other.
• 11:01
  So Illinois has been over 2 and then Oklahoma state which
• 11:05
  Oklahoma State normally has good.
• 11:06
  Football seasons. You know, this won't make sense
• 11:11
  in the future but this lasting little rough, but we did just
• 11:16
  win change in. See them.
• 11:18
  Not into those, I'm sorry. We just one big 12 for
• 11:21
  cross-country. Both the men's and women's like
• 11:23
  the third or fourth in a row or something like that.
• 11:26
  I mean, he does a really fantastic job Dave Smith.
• 11:32
  I don't know. He kind of goes in and out on
• 11:33
  like popularity, like people like oh the guy's a genius,
• 11:36
  which is I get and then they'll forget about it.
• 11:38
  In think about other schools which again other schools and
• 11:40
  coaches amazing as well. But Dave Smith just seems to be
• 11:43
  so consistent with his team's, it's quite scary.
• 11:47
  So the only reason I actually know that is because our CEO son
• 11:52
  runs for Baylor. And so, so I pay attention the
• 11:55
  Big 12. Cross-country me to watch how,
• 11:57
  you know, are the Ryan Hodge does.
• 12:00
  And in saw like, Oklahoma State on the inside went like, one,
• 12:03
  two, three, four, and six or something like that.
• 12:05
  It was like, holy crap. I mean, who Who does that?
• 12:09
  It's amazing. And not a, not a fluke of a
• 12:11
  conference here, by the way, quite quite tough.
• 12:14
  So yeah, okay, sorry. Go, go, go.
• 12:15
  That's it. Is you're good?
• 12:17
  So So yeah, so I didn't really know what to do.
• 12:21
  I had about a pretty pretty. I was above average that wasn't
• 12:24
  great in cross country and track.
• 12:27
  And then my senior year of high school.
• 12:30
  I got put in the 800. I say, put because I did not
• 12:33
  want to go there and turns out. I was pretty good at the 800 and
• 12:37
  so I was able to drop down to about 156 by the end of my
• 12:41
  senior season with only about three or four races in there may
• 12:44
  be four or five anyway, College was not.
• 12:48
  Really a thing to run and then all of a sudden.
• 12:51
  What do I do? What's going to happen, what's
• 12:52
  going on? And so I didn't really know
• 12:56
  where I wanted life to head. So I knew I kind of wanted to do
• 13:00
  Sports journalism when I was in cross-country, my senior year,
• 13:04
  we had like the local newspaper interview.
• 13:06
  I thought that was the coolest thing ever.
• 13:09
  So I kind of I kind of I chose Sports media, showed you go to
• 13:14
  Oklahoma, State chose, not to go into coaching or teaching any of
• 13:17
  that but I never Ali put running on the back burner and I kind of
• 13:22
  sort of half-heartedly held this dream that I was going to run
• 13:26
  for for Oklahoma State and do all this stuff and the short of
• 13:29
  that is it didn't really work out the way I thought it was
• 13:31
  going to which I'm sure is the case for never does.
• 13:35
  Yeah. Yeah, I had this very average
• 13:37
  story. It's not nothing, great happens.
• 13:38
  There's no like perseverance moment where it's like all
• 13:41
  works, it works out. I was gonna say,
• 13:42
  congratulations, your normal, that's what the hell.
• 13:47
  And so, by the time, My junior year of college ran around.
• 13:51
  I kind of had a, it was more hate than love relationship with
• 13:54
  running II. Felt it.
• 13:56
  I felt like I was slighted by. I felt that.
• 13:58
  I was just the things that didn't work out.
• 14:01
  I had ran, I'd try to go on Oklahoma State's team, didn't
• 14:04
  really work out the way I hoped it would have Iran
• 14:07
  professionally. I put that in quotation marks, I
• 14:09
  made about 200 bucks from my racing career worth of gifts,
• 14:15
  small, whatever else from being invited these races.
• 14:18
  So I just I was really hate in life.
• 14:20
  I was really hate and running, and I got to my junior year and
• 14:23
  I had a class where I had to pick a local sports team early
• 14:28
  from the high school and I was going to cover that.
• 14:31
  Andrei Murray was my teacher. And I thought I was going to get
• 14:34
  away with this one in this class.
• 14:35
  I was going, I'm a pick the cross country team, I don't even
• 14:37
  have to go, I'm just gonna run, I'm not gonna do any work for
• 14:41
  me. Great.
• 14:42
  So I take a cross country team, I go and meet the cross-country
• 14:44
  team at Stillwater High School in Oklahoma, and And come out to
• 14:50
  a couple practices, watch them around.
• 14:52
  And I'm like, like something seems off here, like I don't
• 14:56
  know, like something felt weird. I didn't know was.
• 14:59
  And so I was talking to the coach and he was like, here's
• 15:01
  the deal. I'll let you continue to do
• 15:04
  interviews with my kids. If you come out and help me
• 15:06
  coach, I was like, I don't know. He's like, you need this great.
• 15:10
  Right? And I was like, I mean, yes, and
• 15:13
  he's like, well, then you're gonna come out and Coach.
• 15:15
  Wow, I started working with them and within a week.
• 15:19
  Fell in love that was that was the best, like best thing that
• 15:24
  could have ever happened to me. So as you think, it's stay right
• 15:28
  there because you're in the moment, right?
• 15:29
  Like you're kind of in your head right now.
• 15:31
  You can remember the first practice and the first, you
• 15:35
  know, long run, whatever you just said, after the first week,
• 15:39
  like, you were like this, this was it like this.
• 15:41
  This was a defining moment for you this week.
• 15:44
  What was it as you look back to that week?
• 15:47
  Was it the camaraderie? With the kids was it, I hesitate
• 15:51
  to say that you saw any improvements in the you know
• 15:53
  sometimes coaches get addicted to the Improvement, they take a
• 15:55
  kid from five-minute mile 2440 that's amazing but you had it,
• 15:59
  you know, just a week so you really probably couldn't do
• 16:01
  that. Was it being outside?
• 16:03
  I mean, you know, that's a great part of our gig, right?
• 16:05
  We get to go outside a lot and as teachers were inside, as
• 16:09
  sales professionals were inside so that's kind of a draw, what
• 16:12
  was it? As you think about that week,
• 16:14
  what was it? That was the hook.
• 16:17
  I think when I was in high school, cross-country what made
• 16:21
  the experience? So wonderful was the teammates
• 16:24
  that I had time. I really felt like we captured
• 16:26
  lightning in a bottle and to this day, my big Philosophy for
• 16:31
  RT. My team now is that the wins and
• 16:33
  losses and all that stuff is going to fade, but the
• 16:36
  relationship you have with your brothers and sisters.
• 16:38
  And that team is the most important thing that in 10 years
• 16:41
  time, whatever, our communication device is, you're
• 16:43
  able to pick that up and talk as if nothing ever happened.
• 16:46
  And so, I just assumed incorrectly, I assume that my
• 16:51
  team was a special one. And no one else could be like us
• 16:54
  and we're great. And so when I came in to
• 16:57
  Stillwater high school, I didn't necessarily see the, I didn't
• 17:01
  necessarily see like the same level of team but I saw the
• 17:03
  potential for that and I felt in that one week that I had
• 17:08
  something to give to this and there was a higher purpose and a
• 17:10
  bigger calling for e.g., just working with those athletes and
• 17:15
  that Yeah. Again Sport is important, in
• 17:18
  cross-country in the training and whatever and the fart legs
• 17:20
  are going to run and all that stuff.
• 17:21
  But more than that, I felt that I could make a team.
• 17:26
  I don't know. I got like a, make a team out of
• 17:27
  that and create a bond out of these kids that were doing this
• 17:30
  thing, but weren't necessarily connected the same way, I guess.
• 17:37
  Yeah. It was just, it was just, it
• 17:40
  really felt Divine. If I'm really honest with you,
• 17:42
  it really felt Divine that I really enjoyed Sports meet.
• 17:46
  Gia. I'm very thankful for the degree
• 17:48
  and I'm very proud of that, but when you're so close to what
• 17:55
  your purpose is, it feels like it's just resonance.
• 17:58
  It feels like it was just like shaking, so close to being in
• 18:01
  tune, but it wasn't quite there. And when I finally got into the
• 18:05
  coaching game, if you will, when I finally was able to start
• 18:08
  coaching, even as a college kid, who was really, just helping
• 18:12
  out, who's just kind of watching things, I wasn't even like a
• 18:15
  signing anything. Just there.
• 18:18
  It felt like finally everything was in tune and I don't know.
• 18:22
  It really felt the vine is the best way I can explain it.
• 18:25
  Sounds like you might have been searching for something.
• 18:28
  Yeah, I guess I had this. I had this hate relationship
• 18:32
  with running and I continue to do it because it's kind of all I
• 18:34
  knew and I done it for so long but yeah, I found it.
• 18:41
  I was like okay my purpose in this whole thing is not to be a
• 18:45
  runner. It's to be a coach like and
• 18:49
  that's, and that has been a complete momentum shift.
• 18:51
  Like don't get me wrong, I would still love to be fast, I still
• 18:54
  try to be fast and so trying to compete.
• 18:56
  I shoot if I got no chance with Olympics tomorrow, I would take
• 18:58
  it. But if I had a chance between me
• 19:01
  and then sending one of my kids to the Olympics, like, I would
• 19:04
  take that immediately. I don't know, which is a flip.
• 19:08
  It's a whole different mindset flip and just buying into
• 19:11
  something that's bigger than yourself I suppose.
• 19:13
  And hopefully, This sounds so selfish but like hopefully being
• 19:18
  an inspiration and a leader to two kids that maybe don't have
• 19:22
  one outside of that. I mean, you know, it's
• 19:26
  interesting, you brought up that word selfish.
• 19:28
  We haven't discussed that too much here lately, on the
• 19:31
  podcast. We had several episodes where
• 19:34
  this really came into play about, you know, we tend to
• 19:37
  think that selfishness and selflessness are complete ends
• 19:42
  of the spectrum and you must be one or the other, you're either
• 19:45
  selfish. Or will you are selfless you're
• 19:48
  over there and in fact it's kind of a in the middle game there
• 19:51
  you know to be selfless. You have to be selfish in
• 19:55
  aspects you know if you want to give of others will then you
• 19:58
  have to make sure you're taking care of yourself.
• 20:00
  So yeah, I don't think it's selfish when you talk about like
• 20:04
  I wanted to be a leader for someone else.
• 20:05
  That's a selfless attitude to get there.
• 20:09
  You got to do some selfish things of improving yourself and
• 20:12
  cutting out, cutting out, things and activities that don't align.
• 20:16
  And with this this this goal set.
• 20:17
  So I like that a lot. It's interesting.
• 20:21
  The way you were describing, like you found it.
• 20:24
  You talk about residents, right? Which is a vibration and Audio
• 20:27
  Waves coming together, you know, we all search for whether we
• 20:31
  want to admit it or not. We're all searching for people
• 20:33
  that are like us, you know, we all want our tribe, we all want
• 20:36
  our gang. We all want our group and some
• 20:39
  of us find it early, some of us try to fit in where we really
• 20:43
  aren't, you know, that square Pig round hole.
• 20:46
  Theory and we get into trouble. So what I love about this is
• 20:49
  that you found it still relatively early in your life,
• 20:53
  you know. We try to think that we should
• 20:55
  have everything figured out by the time we're 20, 25, 30 years
• 20:57
  old and reality. We're going to live to 70 80 90,
• 21:00
  100 years old. We got a lot of runway in front
• 21:04
  of us so to find that it so early.
• 21:07
  That's pretty special. No it was, I'm incredibly
• 21:10
  blessed for it and I think even in those first early years I was
• 21:14
  still kind of searching for. I knew that it was coaching a
• 21:17
  new was where I wanted to be, but it was kind of searching for
• 21:20
  like, how does that look, how does that?
• 21:22
  How does that feel? What part of coaching is
• 21:27
  important? And what's you know, the
• 21:29
  priority level of that. And so I you know every young
• 21:32
  coach I do it still to this day, I'm only 28 almost 29 old
• 21:38
  coaches do it too though. You get so caught up in the wins
• 21:41
  and losses sometimes and so especially early on I was trying
• 21:46
  to prove by my name. I am been Nicholas.
• 21:49
  I am going to be the greatest coach ever to live and just I
• 21:53
  had no idea what I was doing. I just was like, this is what
• 21:58
  we're doing and it's going to work and it's a huge huge
• 22:02
  Testament to Rusty Atkins, for sure at Stillwater high school.
• 22:07
  But then David crimes as well for just allowing this what it
• 22:12
  was a'ight 1 19. 20 year-old kid at the time.
• 22:17
  To just to come in and mess around basically that that they
• 22:22
  that they allowed me and came you so much grace and patience.
• 22:26
  And so, David crimes was definitely the the, how, how do
• 22:30
  we do this? How does this work out?
• 22:31
  How does, how do our bodies move through space?
• 22:35
  What are the biomechanics? What?
• 22:36
  All this stuff? Because I knew nothing of that
• 22:38
  now. And I'm still learning.
• 22:39
  I'm still growing and that area, but I was just like, oh well, we
• 22:44
  ran this because that's what we did.
• 22:46
  A school, that's not how coaching Works.
• 22:49
  Um, and then Rusty Atkins. Was the why like why does all
• 22:53
  this matter? Why does Sport matter?
• 22:55
  Why do these kids matter? And what I was a probably my
• 22:59
  first year. So My only spent two years there
• 23:00
  before I graduated I think is my first year but it might have
• 23:03
  been my second. I had this moment with him and
• 23:05
  and he's this, this stoic Native American man's man.
• 23:09
  Of few words, he's probably rolling his eyes.
• 23:12
  He's listen to this, but had this conversation with him.
• 23:15
  Him and I was like, basically like what's important in this
• 23:18
  life like what's important in this coaching world and he was
• 23:21
  like people first student s if there is time after both of
• 23:26
  those are completed, then sport third.
• 23:29
  It's like, that's the only thing that matter and that as a again,
• 23:31
  20 year old kid blew my mind of like holy crap, like sport
• 23:37
  third, what we're coaches, how can sport me?
• 23:39
  Third, that should be atleast number two, and no and it's not.
• 23:44
  And I still to this. Day, it took me some time, but I
• 23:46
  still to this day believe that, that these athletes, that we're
• 23:50
  dealing with, especially at the high school level, they're just
• 23:53
  kids, they're just kids, no matter how smart or wise, or
• 23:58
  mature, or tall, or fast, or whatever these kids are, they're
• 24:01
  still just kids and so who they are as people matter.
• 24:05
  First and foremost. Who they are at student.
• 24:10
  Before athletes student athletes are come second.
• 24:14
  And then if you got both of those taken care of, then you
• 24:17
  can worry about their athletic performance and what are we
• 24:20
  doing to get faster stronger, whatever in there.
• 24:23
  And so that was a huge huge thing that I am continually, you
• 24:27
  know, still growing through. I think everyone everyone does,
• 24:29
  but that was something I just shook my world.
• 24:32
  When I was my second year coaching, well let's unpack a
• 24:35
  couple of things there, that was super Austin, I love that.
• 24:38
  You know someone like a Dana and I Rusty could pour into you,
• 24:41
  right? I mean we can get started in a
• 24:43
  new career. We don't even know where in a
• 24:45
  career that that application. Oh, we found some we love and we
• 24:48
  can start a new career in then falter fast and hurt others and
• 24:52
  hurt ourselves and find out that you know it might have been our
• 24:56
  right path but we screwed up so many times and have people in
• 24:59
  our lives that correct us that we fall to the Wayside and go do
• 25:01
  something else you mentioned. You said something.
• 25:04
  So, I'm, I don't know if I'm saying famous But I do love
• 25:08
  doing this and it's a little harder sometimes, maybe it's
• 25:10
  easier with people that I just meeting for the first time then,
• 25:14
  but I really like to challenge people.
• 25:17
  Sometimes you mentioned Rusty, might be rolling his eyes right
• 25:21
  now. If my wife is listening, she's
• 25:22
  definitely rolling her eyes now. So you said, you know, when you
• 25:27
  first got into it and you're paraphrasing here a little bit
• 25:30
  when you're picking workouts and stuff you were doing what you
• 25:32
  did in high school, because that's how you were coach.
• 25:34
  And you said, you made the statement and that's not how
• 25:37
  coat. Coaching works, I'm going to
• 25:38
  challenge that because that is exactly how coaching Works to
• 25:43
  begin with. Now, you've got your some years
• 25:45
  in Germany. So you're talking from
• 25:46
  experience or like, oh well, you know, I started doing coaching
• 25:48
  education and learning from others and now I would never do
• 25:51
  what I did back then. However, that's 99.9% of us when
• 25:56
  we get into coaching, we only know what we know and that's
• 26:00
  what our coaches did to us for our workouts whether those are
• 26:03
  good or bad workouts you know sometimes they're good.
• 26:06
  It's like man. Thank goodness you Coach those.
• 26:08
  Oh, because you're starting off with a pretty good base.
• 26:10
  And then other times, it's like, man, maybe it's good that you
• 26:12
  had coach own so because you've learned, that's not what we
• 26:15
  should be doing at all, right? And that's actually why I think,
• 26:19
  you know, there's some amazing things going on in track and
• 26:22
  field on all levels. High school right now, there are
• 26:24
  kids running like what do we just have?
• 26:26
  Like so many four-minute milers and high school like more than
• 26:29
  we had like in the last decade plus added together used to be
• 26:33
  like once every two or three years.
• 26:34
  We have a kid this past year. I think we had three or four or
• 26:36
  five or so. It's just amazing.
• 26:40
  So we got some amazing things going on.
• 26:41
  I think we're just at the tail beginning of it ahead beginning
• 26:46
  of this thing. And here's why you know the
• 26:49
  coaches that are coaching now are better educated more in tune
• 26:54
  and have more opportunities to learn with you know YouTube and
• 26:57
  coaching education and zooms and things like that, right?
• 27:00
  So when they first got into coaching, they fell back to how
• 27:03
  they were coached and they had to learn along the way.
• 27:05
  Well, today's kids are And coached at a much higher level
• 27:09
  to begin with. So who are the future, coaches
• 27:13
  those kids, right? So when they become coaches and
• 27:16
  fall back to their training, while they're training, is going
• 27:18
  to be at a much higher level to begin with and they're going to
• 27:21
  continue to get better as they go through coaching education,
• 27:23
  things like that. So I think that's exactly how
• 27:26
  coaching Works how it starts. I should start.
• 27:29
  Yeah, I think, I think overall, as a society, we're getting more
• 27:36
  athletic. And faster.
• 27:38
  And I think, I think part of that is figuring out a little
• 27:42
  bit more of the sciences and figuring out how these systems
• 27:45
  and whatever work. But I think we're also getting
• 27:47
  to a point now where coaches care a lot more, but not that
• 27:50
  they not again, this is nothing coach count on is fantastic,
• 27:54
  that is not. That is not a reflection of him,
• 27:56
  but I think even before him before his time, sometimes they
• 27:59
  were coaches that were in programs that were doing it,
• 28:01
  because they've always done that.
• 28:02
  Hmm, sure. He'd been, they've been in this
• 28:04
  school system. They've been this thing and
• 28:05
  they're like, oh, why was a football coach?
• 28:07
  But now, I got put in cross-country or I was a track
• 28:10
  coach and now I got put in basketball or whatever the case
• 28:14
  is, and they're just there to do it, and make sure everyone's
• 28:16
  alive at the end of the day and go on.
• 28:18
  I think now furnace. Now we're not at a time and it's
• 28:22
  really cool moment to be in. We're coaches or care a lot more
• 28:25
  about what they're doing. And I think that care and that
• 28:28
  drive reflects. So there it early on, in my
• 28:33
  coaching, education, I think my first year.
• 28:37
  It was a coach at Deer Creek in Oklahoma.
• 28:39
  His name is David Ridin and he was there just so successful in
• 28:44
  everything they do there. The there, the Southlake Carroll
• 28:46
  Oklahoma is what I would say it was like I was young and dumb.
• 28:51
  I was like, coach, like what's the secret?
• 28:53
  Like what is it like give and he was like, listen you can have
• 28:56
  the scientifically best workouts in the world.
• 29:00
  But if you don't believe in your athlete, you don't believe in
• 29:02
  your kids and they know that you don't believe in him, it does
• 29:05
  not matter what's going to happen there.
• 29:07
  Going to be, they're gonna be failures.
• 29:08
  They're not going to be successful.
• 29:09
  He said, conversely you can spin around three times and run up a
• 29:13
  hill backwards once a week. And if you believe in your kids
• 29:17
  and those kids feel that belief and and passion and Care from
• 29:20
  you, he's like they're going to be Champions every day of the
• 29:22
  week. He's like it does not and so
• 29:24
  that's another big sticking point of me.
• 29:26
  What does that when you heard that from him?
• 29:28
  What did that? How did that change you?
• 29:33
  It took out you a lot of pressure off of me because I
• 29:36
  can't even to this day even though I've heard you know, I've
• 29:38
  been to the usatf stuff and I've been through all this deal, the
• 29:45
  science aspect of its kind of hard.
• 29:48
  It is kind of hard and and for any coach as listening to this,
• 29:52
  like it is not this easy process occurs.
• 29:54
  Like, oh, I get it. Now, it takes time and to study,
• 29:58
  and to learn and I'm still learning.
• 29:59
  And I'm, it's just part of Growing it.
• 30:02
  One thing I can do, I'm immediately took the pressure
• 30:05
  off as like I can believe in my kids and I can go all in and be
• 30:09
  and I to this day I'm blind with my kids now.
• 30:11
  It's like I don't necessarily know all the answers but we're
• 30:14
  going to figure it out together like here's a plan that I'm
• 30:16
  laying out for you and if you have a question on that you you
• 30:19
  don't agree with this for, whatever, like, challenge, me,
• 30:21
  tell me talk to me like ask questions, like I'm a hold of
• 30:25
  veto on it but like I want you to have that.
• 30:28
  So we are on the same page, we understand and maybe this isn't
• 30:30
  the best thing for Are you so giving that accountability to
• 30:34
  kids is huge for me. But I say all that to say, like
• 30:39
  we can do bad, we can do not great workouts and time but I
• 30:44
  fully 100% believe in my kids every moment every day and
• 30:48
  that's something I can go all in for all the time.
• 30:50
  So especially as someone who came from a non scientific
• 30:55
  background and you know, don't take that word.
• 30:58
  The highest of like PhD like, you know, biomechanics made.
• 31:01
  A juror or chemistry major. If is even physics major, right?
• 31:04
  It sounds like you. Maybe put a lot of pressure on
• 31:07
  yourself when you first got in. I did I did because even in that
• 31:13
  first year, I know I said this I was just doing what what
• 31:15
  Mansfield High School had done when I was a senior and these
• 31:19
  kids their performances weren't responding to it and it was just
• 31:22
  like, oh my gosh moment like what am I doing what is
• 31:25
  happening here? And part of it is learning that
• 31:30
  you can't have A great week of workouts and expect to see like
• 31:34
  five minute PRS the next day. Like, it's not how that works.
• 31:38
  Wouldn't it be fun, though? It would be so cool.
• 31:43
  But also again the same things that I did don't necessarily
• 31:47
  work for other kids because they're not me and I'm not them.
• 31:51
  And so you know coaching is a little bit of a game and that
• 31:54
  set and especially in cross country and track because you're
• 31:57
  not trying to be fast at the beginning of the Season or
• 31:58
  somebody basketberry end it's kind of Of a kind of a game and
• 32:02
  then a hope, and a prayer. Sometimes that you're like, man,
• 32:05
  I hope this works and I like all the signs are pointing to it and
• 32:08
  sometimes you can do everything right?
• 32:09
  And it doesn't work out. And so that's why it's so
• 32:13
  important to me that that who these who these athletes and who
• 32:16
  these people are when they exit, our program is so much more
• 32:18
  important than the wins and the losses and stuff.
• 32:21
  And my humble brag here, is that we won District here for
• 32:27
  cross-country and it's been a five-year journey to get to this
• 32:30
  point. And we've done it.
• 32:32
  It's great, it's amazing. But I'm incredibly incredibly
• 32:35
  proud of my boys and girls, not because of their trophy or their
• 32:40
  Championship that all that all that was going to fade and be in
• 32:44
  a landfill at some point. Like what's important is that
• 32:48
  they have grown together as a team, they are better people,
• 32:52
  they're more responsible, they're better communicators.
• 32:55
  They have empathy for each other.
• 32:57
  They care about each other. My one of my Seniors.
• 33:01
  Well actually both of them, are I have the number one and number
• 33:04
  two students in the class. This year, like valedictorian
• 33:08
  salutatorian are out there on my cross-country team.
• 33:11
  And I had an eighth-grade boy who was not necessarily doing so
• 33:16
  great in math this year. And without hesitation without
• 33:19
  like a coach I don't want you to can't.
• 33:22
  I was like, hey, like can you help?
• 33:24
  Can you help tutor this kid and immediately?
• 33:26
  Yes, coach like, no. No, hesitation, they were
• 33:29
  genuinely happy to do it. They have They had love for
• 33:32
  their teammates, you like that's what matters most and let all of
• 33:34
  this. And I mean, you know, yeah, it's
• 33:38
  a lot of pressure off of it, took a lot of pressure off me.
• 33:40
  Will you just It's explained. There were you just described
• 33:45
  there that kind of the definition of what I say because
• 33:49
  sometimes, you know, especially because of my Outreach on
• 33:52
  Twitter and Outreach here through the podcast.
• 33:56
  So I say a lot of the same things over and over again
• 33:58
  partly because well, it's important.
• 34:00
  So you need to hear it several times, you know?
• 34:02
  But I talked about and we mentioned this to you been
• 34:05
  before during our pre-recording I said, you know what you do as
• 34:09
  a high school coach as a high school track At coach as a track
• 34:13
  coach is immeasurable, it's invaluable what you do.
• 34:16
  And when I say that, I don't necessarily mean the kid, you
• 34:20
  take from 11 flat to 1040. The kid, you take from 450 to
• 34:24
  420. I mean, the positive impact that
• 34:28
  you make on young people on a daily basis and you kind of just
• 34:32
  gave like the definition to what I say, what I mean, when I say
• 34:36
  what you do is in measure, whether you have two kids on
• 34:38
  your team or 200 kids, it literally is Impactful to kids
• 34:43
  becomes 2000 because they become moms and dads and owners of
• 34:47
  businesses and clerks and you know, and they take those
• 34:50
  lessons and Leadership that you give them and spread to others.
• 34:54
  So your, you know, your tree is even at such a young age here,
• 34:56
  then your tree grows daily because of the impact you make.
• 35:00
  So I as you were explaining, I was like, man.
• 35:03
  That's that's the very definition of what I say. 100
• 35:05
  times a day, man. I love it.
• 35:07
  I love it. Well, let's I love that growth
• 35:10
  with your individual. That's their, let's continue
• 35:13
  with your growth because where we left off with your story.
• 35:15
  Is you go to practice, they are at Stillwater high school, and
• 35:20
  that first week, you're hooked, we, we had two years left of
• 35:24
  college. He worked with them for two
• 35:25
  years. So, what was next?
• 35:27
  What did you do? You kind of know now?
• 35:29
  Hey, at least I have a firm belief that this is what I want
• 35:32
  to do for a living and a career and a passion.
• 35:34
  What was the next steps for you as a coach?
• 35:37
  Okay. So as a coach, so I actually
• 35:40
  asked you take a little bit of a hiatus So College was ending for
• 35:44
  me and as a young dumb 21 year old kid.
• 35:48
  At this point, I thought I'm going to be at Stillwater high
• 35:51
  school forever. Nothing will ever change?
• 35:54
  There's no way that will not happen and it was probably about
• 35:59
  spring break, maybe right after that, that I got a call from the
• 36:05
  principal at Stillwater. I'm super great guy, he called
• 36:09
  me and he was like, Hey, listen, like we really love What you're
• 36:12
  doing the track and field program, your super great but I
• 36:14
  can't hire you, dude. Like I can't hire you.
• 36:17
  You can't work here, full-time. Like basically, sorry.
• 36:22
  And it was super respectful was it was much more professional
• 36:25
  than that, but what was that? Because you didn't have a degree
• 36:28
  in teaching or they didn't have a spot open.
• 36:30
  What was that? Reasoning both.
• 36:34
  But yes. So so his deal and I might be, I
• 36:38
  might be putting a spin on this now, but it's been in the past.
• 36:42
  His explanation was that I did not have a teach in Greece, we
• 36:45
  couldn't hire me as a teacher, he could hire me as a track
• 36:49
  coach. But that would only get me about
• 36:51
  a two thousand dollar stipend, right?
• 36:52
  And fortunately, a little little less than what you can live on
• 36:56
  even an Oklahoma. So, so right after that, I
• 36:59
  panicked. I was like, what am I gonna do?
• 37:01
  I don't know. It's gonna happen.
• 37:03
  And I actually took a job at a radio station in Oklahoma to put
• 37:08
  my sports, meet agreed to use and all The people at the radio
• 37:13
  station are wonderful. I grew a lot in that, that
• 37:17
  moment, but I was kind of miserable up there, but would
• 37:22
  you a DJ or behind-the-scene producer?
• 37:23
  What did you do? All of it.
• 37:25
  So I was actually report. I did like news and stuff.
• 37:28
  I did, I did a few like basketball games football games,
• 37:32
  calling those stuff I would host.
• 37:34
  There's like there's like a 6:00 or yeah, 6:00 news broadcast.
• 37:38
  I would do that. I would DJ they had like four
• 37:40
  stations. So I kind of do A little bit on
• 37:42
  eating those. But taking a step back, like,
• 37:48
  out of coaching. After I'd already been in
• 37:49
  coaching. I was just miserable.
• 37:52
  I was like, this is the worst like now I'm feeling that
• 37:54
  resonance all the time again, this is just awful.
• 37:58
  And so while I was there, I had an opportunity to I started,
• 38:03
  what I call the Bartlesville Track Club.
• 38:05
  It's still a thing, just so, so in that in that town, in that
• 38:10
  City, they have two little running.
• 38:13
  Clubs one's called, run the streets and taking like at-risk
• 38:16
  Youth, and they do five, k's train them to get a half
• 38:18
  marathon. That's super cool.
• 38:20
  And then they have this couch to 5K program that's really, really
• 38:23
  good. That's super cool.
• 38:24
  But if you are an adult that is a little bit, maybe more
• 38:28
  inclined athletically than a couch to 5K.
• 38:31
  There's not really anything for you.
• 38:33
  So I was like, oh my start, the particle track club and I met a
• 38:35
  lot of regular people and that was a great experience for that
• 38:38
  year and a half because I got to, I got to play around with
• 38:40
  them a lot. I got two experiments on like,
• 38:43
  Coaching looks like what our workouts that work for me.
• 38:45
  What do I like? What am I trying to see?
• 38:47
  How does this like it was a Hands-On?
• 38:51
  Right? Of as you can Google and Aiko
• 38:52
  try this. Because this is what it works
• 38:53
  but you get to see it in real time.
• 38:55
  And real life, like that was a really cool moment for me and to
• 38:58
  be able to put the the what and how to a lot of my y.
• 39:03
  So I did that while I was up there in Oklahoma, then I
• 39:07
  applied for Village tech and, and I was, I was really
• 39:10
  honestly, like, just really trying to get out The radio
• 39:13
  station. I'm really trying to get out of
• 39:14
  radio and get back into school somehow anyway and so my dad
• 39:20
  actually saw a Facebook post and was like Hey Village tag is
• 39:24
  hiring apply for it. So I applied for it.
• 39:26
  I had a couple interviews never thought I'd get it and I got it.
• 39:29
  So what did you apply Force? You still didn't have a ticket.
• 39:32
  All right. Yeah, I applied for a
• 39:34
  Communications position. So I was the communications
• 39:37
  coordinator at Village Tech. I came down.
• 39:42
  I'm pretty sure I said I have my interviews.
• 39:44
  I appreciate talking about my coaching and wanting to coach
• 39:46
  and whatnot. I don't know if they took me
• 39:47
  seriously or not at that point, but when I, when I got down here
• 39:52
  maybe a week or two into it, the, the, the ad, at the time,
• 39:57
  sent a mass email out, it was just like, I need a
• 39:59
  cross-country coach. Like, is anybody interested and
• 40:03
  I was like, be like me T. Be right here, right here?
• 40:07
  Yeah, the interview process. He's like, you got to be quick
• 40:09
  before. And I was like, yeah, he's like,
• 40:10
  all right, you're hired. I was like, okay because it
• 40:13
  Sweet. And so, so I'll be really happy
• 40:17
  we want. And I say this, with all the
• 40:19
  respect in the world because the coach then is now my assistant
• 40:23
  coach. Now he's, he won't even want to
• 40:26
  get back into coaching and he's their coaching.
• 40:28
  I'm, he's wonderful but the program prior to me getting in
• 40:33
  there was not necessarily a cross-country program.
• 40:36
  It was a wool run and then go to Maybe One race a year and see.
• 40:43
  What that's like wasn't really a crop.
• 40:45
  They didn't really have practices.
• 40:47
  They didn't really go to meet it, didn't really do that and
• 40:50
  that was kind of the same in track and field as well.
• 40:52
  And so I really kind of started from zero and I don't know if
• 40:59
  there's any new coaches getting in right now, I promise.
• 41:04
  Wherever you're at right now, it can be a little bit harder.
• 41:08
  It's probably hard. It's very challenging.
• 41:11
  I'm wishing you. Well, please reach out on.
• 41:13
  Happy to help, but it probably less.
• 41:15
  You're starting from literally zero probably could be worse.
• 41:21
  So we had no uniforms. We have, we still to this day.
• 41:24
  Don't have transportation for our kids where we have.
• 41:28
  We have some buses. We're trying to fix up.
• 41:30
  We don't have right now and we had no uniforms, No Buses.
• 41:33
  We didn't have a team tent. We have a cooler.
• 41:38
  We literally had nothing. And so my first day I guess I
• 41:44
  don't know how many like 10 12 kids come out for cross country
• 41:48
  and they're all different age ranges, right?
• 41:50
  So our pre-k through 12 Charter. So I've got middle school kids
• 41:52
  and a couple of high school kids not enough on anyone to have a
• 41:55
  full team on anywhere. I've got enough girls to be less
• 41:59
  than a team and if boys be less than to know, full team anywhere
• 42:03
  and so, is that okay, guys? Like what do we normally do?
• 42:06
  We start practice and this Grayson, he's a one of my
• 42:10
  seniors. Now, he's more, my top seniors
• 42:11
  was like coach, we don't do anything.
• 42:13
  A thing as what you mean? You don't do anything.
• 42:14
  He's like we don't, we don't practice like, what do you mean?
• 42:18
  What do we do? Okay, all right.
• 42:22
  He's like, he's like telling you coach.
• 42:24
  We don't do anything. Like here's what we're so we had
• 42:27
  to, we had to build everything from the ground up, from what we
• 42:30
  do. And so, I so lame.
• 42:33
  Sometimes I get caught up sometimes and just watching our
• 42:36
  kids warm up without being told to what they do, our warm-up lap
• 42:41
  now and they do our Dynamics, Without us like time to do this.
• 42:45
  Like let's go remember what it is and that's one of the coolest
• 42:48
  things to see where we came from, to be where we're at now.
• 42:52
  So we literally did nothing prior to this and so we trained
• 42:57
  for shoot. I don't know what I got hired
• 43:00
  on. I was right, right at school
• 43:02
  started. And so, you know, in the
• 43:03
  cross-country world, if you are just starting practice, when
• 43:05
  school starts, you're late and so we had reached out to a ton
• 43:11
  of meets ton of cross-country, meet sounds like please Let us
• 43:13
  in. Please, let us in, please let us
• 43:14
  know. And, and most of them were just
• 43:16
  like ads, too late, like, it's happening.
• 43:17
  It's too late. And I guess that's fair.
• 43:19
  There was one meat that was about the third week of school
• 43:23
  in Covington, Texas. It is a very tiny little town in
• 43:27
  Covington and they were so gracious to us and they were
• 43:29
  like, come Out, Come race, it'll be great.
• 43:33
  So I was scrounging around for uniforms, I had placed an order
• 43:38
  through the school. Nothing and come in yet so I
• 43:41
  have scrounging for we had some some women's track uniforms that
• 43:45
  we were wearing just wear your own black shorts or any shorts.
• 43:49
  Whatever. At this point just come out.
• 43:52
  The boys were like coached we really have to wear this and I
• 43:54
  was like, I promise it'll get better.
• 43:56
  Just just hold on. And we went to Covington, Texas
• 44:00
  middle of nowhere and raced and I don't know.
• 44:07
  I don't know how I felt after that one because we really only
• 44:10
  practice for three weeks. We did not win by any means.
• 44:13
  There was no moment of like, oh my gosh, like we've got
• 44:17
  potential. I always knew I was waiting for
• 44:19
  the Disney story you won't. They're really, really wasn't it
• 44:22
  just kind of happened and to. Okay, so my Country captain he's
• 44:29
  a year older than me. My cross-country captain.
• 44:31
  And then my best friend, who is a year you're you're younger
• 44:34
  than me and cross country, they came.
• 44:36
  He could they both came to help me out and this meat.
• 44:38
  And so they came to Covington with me and we're watching this
• 44:41
  race and it's just like, what are we watching?
• 44:43
  Like what is happening here? And it happened, it got done.
• 44:47
  And so I'm thinking in my head like I'm a big talker.
• 44:49
  I'm a big speech guys. I'm like, what am I going to
• 44:51
  say? And like, every parent was like,
• 44:55
  that was the coolest thing ever. And I was like, yeah, you know,
• 44:57
  we got like a hand To us, right? And they're like, no, like you
• 45:00
  don't understand, like we never go to races, this is like to
• 45:04
  have a race like what are we going to do next week?
• 45:06
  And I was like well we got another race lined up so we're
• 45:09
  going to go to that we're going to train and go to that one.
• 45:11
  Like it was just it was so cool and it's so cool to look back on
• 45:15
  it. Now to have like your
• 45:16
  fingerprints, all over the program and how it was built.
• 45:20
  But if you mean you've been on track for years, right?
• 45:23
  You've been on track for years and if you were to start a
• 45:25
  program literally with kids that have never run track before, Or
• 45:29
  there, I would bet. There are a lot of things that
• 45:32
  you would go through and you'd be like, why aren't you doing
• 45:36
  this? And I coach, you didn't tell us
• 45:37
  to it's like, oh shoot like okay, like you're right, we need
• 45:43
  to you need to check in for your event.
• 45:46
  Like you're 100 meters coming up.
• 45:48
  You've got to check in. What does that look like?
• 45:51
  Okay, you gotta go, there's a table over here.
• 45:53
  You gotta go. Let them know your name, one.
• 45:55
  Then, what can I go back home and sit back down.
• 45:58
  No, you can't go sit back down. Once they give you the sticker,
• 46:01
  you gotta put that on your hip, which one it's like, oh gosh,
• 46:04
  like every little thing, you gotta go through that.
• 46:06
  And so it was definitely a learning process in that first
• 46:09
  year. And, man, I wouldn't trade that
• 46:12
  for the world. It was so much fun.
• 46:13
  It was so much fun. Like the, the last race of the
• 46:16
  year was like, pouring rain. It was just disgusting outside.
• 46:20
  And like, come to we gotta run in this looks like yeah, we're
• 46:22
  gonna run in this and they're like, well, but it's raining.
• 46:25
  I was like, welcome to cross country.
• 46:29
  But no. Is this really cool moment of
• 46:31
  like taking taking these? I mean, really, truly young
• 46:33
  kids. My seniors in our eighth
• 46:35
  graders, then they're the core majority of the group that I,
• 46:38
  you know, brought up and it was like, what do you want out of
• 46:43
  this thing? Like, do you truly want to be
• 46:45
  successful in running? Or are you here?
• 46:48
  Because Mom and Dad are making you and like if that if it's the
• 46:52
  latter, then cool like that's fine.
• 46:54
  Like no harm, no foul. Like I'm going to be cool.
• 46:57
  We're all going to be Culebra. Be fine.
• 46:59
  But if you really if you really want to be successful in this
• 47:02
  thing, then here's the plan that we're going to lay out and I'm
• 47:05
  telling you now in its eighth grade year.
• 47:07
  It is not like I promise you it's not going to grate like but
• 47:10
  buy-ins the process of what we're doing and that's when the
• 47:14
  same way. Interact to we don't have a
• 47:16
  track. Your bill check, we are in the
• 47:19
  process of trying to build one. So if anybody's looking to
• 47:24
  donate my only stipulation is it has to be called the been
• 47:27
  Nicholas Memorial. Rack.
• 47:29
  It has to be purple. Yeah, I mean, come on, yes.
• 47:34
  Yeah, we don't have a track here and so for all these years, you
• 47:38
  know, my kids are just, I'm really proud of them because
• 47:42
  they've gone through so much adversity that normal quote on
• 47:45
  quote schools. Don't necessarily have to go
• 47:46
  through like we don't have a track.
• 47:49
  So are 400 meter Loop is a little bit short but it's around
• 47:53
  our main campus but you know what else happens at 6:00 in the
• 47:57
  morning. Early.
• 47:58
  Drop off for people to have before care.
• 48:01
  And so at six in the morning, even though we have reflective
• 48:04
  vests on cars are still barreling in trying to drop off
• 48:07
  their kids. And so my kids have to weave out
• 48:10
  in a Dodge cars, and so, that's not normal.
• 48:12
  That's not a normal thing that most schools should have to go
• 48:15
  through. At least, it's that kind of
• 48:18
  stuff that my kids have just, they just really have bought in
• 48:21
  and then and I don't know. I think I've done a tangent
• 48:25
  there a little bit cause I got the swelling and pride of my
• 48:28
  eyes or my kids here, but hey, that was the other name for the
• 48:32
  podcast when we were named and it was tangent is like a let's
• 48:35
  just go on tangents man. What up, what?
• 48:38
  I'm interested been, you know, it's you brought up some really
• 48:40
  good points there about, you know, first time going to a
• 48:44
  cross country meet or a track meet with these kids and it's
• 48:47
  the whole team because it's a brand new team and you know,
• 48:50
  they're all freshmen and what I mean by that is you know we've
• 48:52
  all had Had freshman zico, you got to teach them when and how
• 48:55
  and where to check in and you know, what do you do after that?
• 48:59
  And where do you know where the staging area is and the, the
• 49:01
  order of events. So you kind of know when you're
• 49:03
  going to be up and all that kind of stuff you were doing that
• 49:06
  with every body and you had no help.
• 49:10
  You know, when we have freshman today.
• 49:12
  Well we have seniors and juniors.
• 49:13
  I'm going to come on kid. Let me show you ever watch now.
• 49:16
  Yeah, you had none of that as you were sitting there in that
• 49:21
  first season. Susan, you know, the first these
• 49:25
  are my words. The first real cross-country
• 49:27
  meets, you know, and then the following one, not just one for
• 49:29
  the year. You know, you're, you're putting
• 49:31
  together a schedule and you mentioned, you one districts
• 49:34
  this year going back to that first season, was there any way
• 49:39
  you can Envision the growth of the program at that point?
• 49:43
  Or was it just like, I was just trying to survive day by day.
• 49:49
  I would love to tell you this answer of like, oh, I saw it
• 49:52
  from the beginning. I think the, the truth of it is
• 49:56
  that I saw that this team had potential but only because of
• 50:01
  their character only because of who they were and they kept
• 50:05
  showing up day after day and they kept doing the right
• 50:08
  things. They after day because they're
• 50:10
  the right things to do. And and and I'll be blunt.
• 50:14
  Not from everybody not from everybody.
• 50:17
  That first year, I mean shoot that first year, probably up
• 50:20
  till year. Three may be coming after the
• 50:24
  covid year, our culture was building of who we wanted to be
• 50:29
  as people and as a program and doing the right things but I
• 50:33
  don't know that it was there from everybody yet but there was
• 50:38
  a mean my seniors. Now my five boys seniors.
• 50:42
  Now my one-girl senior now I think from them.
• 50:50
  Those 8th graders I saw that like there was a potential to be
• 50:54
  a special team maybe not successful in the running since
• 50:58
  and athletic sense but just just the bond together.
• 51:02
  So the trivia answer is yes but no like yes I saw there's
• 51:06
  potential but no I didn't necessarily see it in the
• 51:09
  athletic sense but they were they were workhorses.
• 51:13
  And so so you kind of know like You know, the sky is kind.
• 51:18
  I mean, relatively kind of the limit in this thing, if they
• 51:21
  continue to put the work in and grew, it was after the Cobra,
• 51:23
  dear, it was after the code would your, I think going into
• 51:26
  like whatever, half of that 30 year that was been going into
• 51:31
  our fourth year, that was a moment that the culture clicked,
• 51:34
  it's that was probably earliest moment was like, oh my gosh,
• 51:37
  like we could, we could be something we can do.
• 51:40
  I was gonna ask you because I have this like Vision your
• 51:43
  building from your words. Scratch 0, right?
• 51:47
  And, you know, I don't know about you, but I'm kind of a
• 51:49
  Lego guy. I like I like Lego like build
• 51:52
  and I'm not a free Builder. Like I need the instructions and
• 51:55
  start here, and move up to her becomes the entire thing.
• 51:58
  And as your for me, when I'm building Lego, when I'm three
• 52:02
  quarters of the way done and I make a mistake, it's kind of no
• 52:05
  big deal. Like, I just pulled a breaks off
• 52:07
  and take a step back. And then structures like, okay,
• 52:10
  this is where I screwed up and you move forward, and then
• 52:12
  within, you know, an hour depending on the build, it's
• 52:14
  done. And it's the finished.
• 52:16
  Duct. When you're building Legos from
• 52:19
  the jump from the get-go, then you make a mistake, it becomes
• 52:23
  frustrating because you can't see what the final picture is
• 52:27
  with what slaying it for your own bag, one, and, you know,
• 52:29
  there's a bag 30, you know, depending on the set, you got
• 52:32
  here how? Do as you're building this.
• 52:37
  You had an in a lot of us did a lot of us listen to right now,
• 52:40
  this is not unique. Again, you know,
• 52:42
  congratulations, you're normal but as you were building this,
• 52:46
  you had a huge building block roadblock, come in front of you
• 52:52
  and that's covid. You're building this culture.
• 52:55
  You're building something new and then covid hits.
• 52:57
  You have no season. Kids go home for studies like
• 52:59
  that. How did you continue or did you
• 53:03
  even drive culture? Go through this really
• 53:06
  unbelievable time for teachers, parents kids in the like I think
• 53:13
  it was, you know, it was hard, we all didn't really know that
• 53:18
  code was going to be like. And so we my assistant at the
• 53:27
  time John Stivers we decided that like we just needed to be
• 53:32
  there for the kids and so we just kind of did some.
• 53:35
  We did virtual team meetings all the time.
• 53:38
  I bought Jack box games and we just try to play virtually all
• 53:40
  the time and sometimes it works. Sometimes it didn't.
• 53:43
  What is that? What is Jack box game?
• 53:44
  Like, it's like an online. You just need your phone to
• 53:47
  play. It's like party games.
• 53:49
  You just need your phone to play.
• 53:50
  So I would try to share my screen through like Google meets
• 53:54
  and we would just try to play these.
• 53:55
  We just Had his team bonding things.
• 53:57
  And it did not, it was not by any means successful.
• 54:00
  It was not this like everyone was on all the time.
• 54:03
  It was great. But we, we just knew that like,
• 54:07
  the isolation for us was not good as an adult that relatively
• 54:14
  fully-formed brain. Hey, speak for yourself or less.
• 54:18
  Yeah, my fiance would disagree with that, but We we just I
• 54:25
  don't know, we just had to be there and then when we were
• 54:27
  finally able to come back I'm sure I get clown for this.
• 54:32
  Another coaching circles but like the first two weeks we did
• 54:35
  nothing but just play games. We did we did no practices.
• 54:38
  We did know like training like all we gotta hit that we just
• 54:42
  literally play games and let the kids be kids and get back to
• 54:45
  each other and stuff. And that was a really it was
• 54:51
  kind of a blessing in disguise in the sense that like Like it
• 54:54
  kind of eliminate the people that didn't want to be there.
• 54:58
  We had some students again who were there and we're very
• 55:01
  thankful for them and thankful for their contribution, to our
• 55:03
  team, and our program, they're incredibly important to the
• 55:06
  history of who we are. But they were just kind of there
• 55:09
  because mom or dad were making it a be there or parent or
• 55:12
  grandparent or whoever it wasn't really for them.
• 55:15
  And fair enough life is too short to be doing stuff.
• 55:18
  You don't, you don't enjoy doing and covid-19 great Xing point
• 55:23
  for a lot of those kids. So we actually went from 30 some
• 55:29
  odd kids, which was the second biggest number, in our program
• 55:34
  history to like 11 or 12. Maybe we went back all the way
• 55:40
  to the beginning after the Kobe dear.
• 55:42
  And so for a little bit it was like what are we going to do
• 55:46
  like oh my gosh, like this is a nightmare.
• 55:52
  I'm not going to say it was like some, some some restful nights
• 55:55
  in that moment, but we just kept showing up and and The kids that
• 56:05
  were there even though it sucked we didn't have a big team like
• 56:07
  we had prior. The kids were there still
• 56:09
  mattered so that that would that was it Point Blank period like
• 56:13
  it was tough and but The kid, the kids over there mattered and
• 56:19
  that was the only thing that mattered that those, those kids
• 56:22
  were there. And we're gonna do everything we
• 56:23
  can for them. I like, I like your
• 56:25
  intentionality of, you know, track and cross country is
• 56:28
  important to you. That's your job title and things
• 56:30
  like that. These kids have a lot of other
• 56:32
  stuff going on. And so your intentionality when
• 56:34
  they came back from covid-19 instead of jumping straight in
• 56:38
  and hardcore back to training which is important to me, I did
• 56:41
  air quotes there, right? These kids need to be together.
• 56:45
  So in that was kind of probably a probably a Don't know if you
• 56:47
  were intentional on this, but that was maybe a big part of the
• 56:50
  culture coming back. I could jumpstart back to the
• 56:52
  culture because the culture is the people not the workouts,
• 56:55
  right? No, it was, it was intentional
• 56:59
  at the end of every year, I do, what's called the cross-country
• 57:01
  Olympics, and people, please steal this.
• 57:03
  Please use this whole. Let's hear this.
• 57:04
  You cross-country Olympics. And so our season ones are
• 57:08
  season ends. We take about ish, two weeks
• 57:10
  off, depending on kind of the counter lines up.
• 57:13
  We try to do it the week before, Thanksgiving break.
• 57:15
  And we do a full week. Of no cross country specific
• 57:19
  games, it's just different activities.
• 57:21
  So, I don't even plan for this year, but we're exactly.
• 57:28
  But in the past, we've done Capture the Flag.
• 57:31
  We do floor hockey, we have art contests sometimes.
• 57:37
  Well, I'll go into our like, art rooms and I'll just pull out a
• 57:39
  bunch of the junk materials are there about to get rid of, and
• 57:42
  I'll give them like an hour. It's like good luck.
• 57:45
  And they're like, what am I making?
• 57:46
  It was like the coolest thing that's a call.
• 57:49
  I'll give them. And then I'll have like other
• 57:50
  teachers come judge it later, and we'll get point.
• 57:52
  And so, I keep, so they break up in a That's their team for the
• 57:55
  whole week sometimes two, sometimes three, I don't know.
• 58:00
  It's all right. It's all right.
• 58:01
  Every year it's random, they have no idea what's coming and
• 58:03
  it because I don't know what's coming.
• 58:04
  So if I don't know what's coming, they don't know what's
• 58:06
  coming, but we'll keep tally of points and stuff through out
• 58:10
  there. And it's just like, Whose Line
• 58:12
  Is It Anyway? Like the right, all right.
• 58:15
  No Rhyme or Reason to why these points are assigned the way they
• 58:17
  are. And so, we'll keep tally the
• 58:20
  points. And at the end of the week, I'll
• 58:23
  buy like off. If Amazon, like some cheap like
• 58:25
  plastic metals and I'll write in Sharpie on the BackBeat, exe
• 58:29
  Olympics, 2022, 2023, whatever, and I'll sign those metal.
• 58:34
  I'll give those Metals out based on the teams that win and has no
• 58:37
  cross-country. We do academic competitions, we
• 58:39
  do like wait played among us a couple of years ago like we just
• 58:42
  do tons of stuff and that's been the biggest culture builder for
• 58:45
  us and we do at the end of the season.
• 58:50
  And it helps bring because the only reason the only way they
• 58:52
  can come visit. They finish the season out, they
• 58:53
  don't get to drop off halfway through and then come across
• 58:56
  country Olympics. So we do that.
• 58:57
  All season has been the biggest culture Builder, because it gets
• 58:59
  kids excited for the next year. It gets in the next year and so
• 59:03
  that was my mindset of going back into the light coming out
• 59:06
  of covid-19, @o we hadn't had a chance to I mean we did do a
• 59:10
  cross and you let me we had a chance to do it for like season
• 59:12
  and then we had whatever jumble of a cross country season it was
• 59:17
  before A little bit two straight weeks.
• 59:22
  We'll just do it. And when this publishes this
• 59:26
  will be right at, right? A past Thanksgiving, you have to
• 59:29
  promise that you'll interact on Twitter and tell us what the
• 59:32
  games were this year. I will I love that part of your
• 59:34
  culture. That's so unique.
• 59:36
  I love it. It's okay.
• 59:38
  So, so shout out to Grayson and Kade.
• 59:41
  Kade is one of my captains. I'll shout out the other one in
• 59:44
  a little bit here. They have 14 years in a row.
• 59:48
  Wow. And I'll be 100% very blunt,
• 59:51
  very honest with you, You, I have tried to stack these games
• 59:54
  against them. I have tried so I let the kids
• 59:57
  pick your own team. That's the only thing I don't
• 59:59
  really like, I don't have a hand in but I've tried to stack games
• 1:00:04
  against them. I have tried to help influence
• 1:00:06
  other teams to pit each other against them.
• 1:00:08
  It does not work. I don't know like what the deal
• 1:00:11
  is. Grayson has a sister Alissa who
• 1:00:13
  runs for us Alyssa is wonderful. She lives with her brother 24/7.
• 1:00:19
  I don't know and was coerced until I give giving up enough
• 1:00:23
  points for Grayson and K to win last year.
• 1:00:25
  They were, there was no way they were going to win last year.
• 1:00:27
  I had the whole thing stacked against them and somehow Grayson
• 1:00:30
  tricked Alyssa into like letting them do something or whatever.
• 1:00:33
  And that ended up giving up points to this moment, I don't
• 1:00:37
  know how it happened, but they win every year.
• 1:00:40
  And so at this point, like, I don't know, like I'm sure I'll
• 1:00:45
  have a different opinion once the Olympics are over, but Do I
• 1:00:48
  help them? Keep the streak alive?
• 1:00:50
  Do I try to end it for him? They're both seniors.
• 1:00:52
  Now, I don't know like what they come back next year.
• 1:00:54
  They just keep playing until until they finally lose the
• 1:00:58
  title. Like are they gonna be 40 year
• 1:01:00
  old leaves coming back here? Still playing that just won all
• 1:01:02
  these years. I don't know, you know you made
• 1:01:05
  a point earlier and you just demonstrated it perfectly.
• 1:01:08
  You know, the kids are not going to remember this Trophy, this
• 1:01:12
  place, this PR but they're going to remember Grayson talking his
• 1:01:16
  sister into However, good weeks, he did to get that.
• 1:01:20
  That's the things that they're going to member when they're at
• 1:01:22
  each other's weddings, starting businesses together, family, you
• 1:01:27
  know, friend reunions. That's what they're going to
• 1:01:29
  remember, man. That's so awesome.
• 1:01:31
  And you know, you don't think about it this way.
• 1:01:33
  But you know, I have to give you your props that comes from
• 1:01:36
  leadership. You know.
• 1:01:37
  These 16 17 18 year old kids would not have done that on
• 1:01:40
  their own. They would come up with
• 1:01:41
  something but not in that realm and they certainly wouldn't have
• 1:01:44
  thought about it in the scope of like, what is this going to look
• 1:01:46
  like in 20, 30, 40 years, So the leadership from you and your
• 1:01:50
  staff, man, that's Bravo. That's that's pretty.
• 1:01:53
  That's Pretty stinking cool, man.
• 1:01:54
  I love that. Thank you.
• 1:01:55
  I think, I think it's special. I think it's special because
• 1:01:58
  we're not special and I mean that just all the love and the
• 1:02:02
  world. My kids are the absolute
• 1:02:06
  greatest kids, I'll respect all fear, none, like mentality in
• 1:02:12
  this. Like I'll put my kids because
• 1:02:13
  anybody and in terms of like the greatest, whatever that criteria
• 1:02:16
  is, But, but they're not, like, they're not born from Olympian
• 1:02:21
  families. They're not, they're not bit by
• 1:02:24
  a radioactive spiders. They are just like normal kids.
• 1:02:29
  From a normal Place who have bought in and they've bought
• 1:02:33
  into each other. They bought into themselves.
• 1:02:37
  They've bought into their team, they bought into to me.
• 1:02:40
  Like that's the that's the specialness of this whole thing.
• 1:02:43
  So the cross-country Olympics is so much fun, but it could be so
• 1:02:48
  lame. If they didn't buy in and they
• 1:02:50
  were like no I'm not in this. Well.
• 1:02:53
  Okay, but why are you here then? All right.
• 1:02:57
  And so it's been It's been really cool to have them by, and
• 1:03:01
  it's just me. And again, started back in 45
• 1:03:04
  years ago. It's just like, I give you no
• 1:03:06
  reason to trust me, but trust me, like, I could go all in on
• 1:03:11
  this one thing and like if you feel like it's not working, you
• 1:03:14
  feel like it's not happening. Like come talk to me.
• 1:03:16
  Come like we'll figure this out because ultimately, I tell my
• 1:03:19
  kids, this started a year like I cannot coach without them but
• 1:03:24
  they can be successful Runners and athletes in a cross-country
• 1:03:27
  Team without me. So Oh, it is not this, like, it
• 1:03:31
  is not this, like, dictator relationship, where, like, do
• 1:03:34
  what I say, because like, I'm all powerful in this thing.
• 1:03:37
  No, no. Like, I need them more than they
• 1:03:39
  need me. And so, I want us to have this
• 1:03:42
  relationship back and forth. I I say this, I said it's
• 1:03:47
  cautiously, I want to be the coach that, like, if a kid were
• 1:03:51
  ever in trouble at 2 a.m. 3 a.m. they could call me immediately,
• 1:03:56
  I want to be that coach. I say that caution because I
• 1:03:58
  never want that. To happen.
• 1:03:59
  I pray that that never happens. But I want to be, I want to have
• 1:04:06
  that relationship where they feel like they can trust me.
• 1:04:08
  And I we can help like I can help.
• 1:04:10
  However, I can, well, let's change lanes here a little bit,
• 1:04:14
  but stay on the track. Then what have you done?
• 1:04:17
  You know, again, still relatively young, I remember
• 1:04:19
  your age and where I wasn't coaching, it's quite amazing and
• 1:04:22
  I probably thought I knew it all at your time and now realize I
• 1:04:27
  probably didn't know nothing. But what what have you done?
• 1:04:31
  What are You doing in regards to coaching education, professional
• 1:04:35
  development, anything from the formal stuff like USC, usatf and
• 1:04:40
  UST of CCA and Altis things like that to even informal stuff of
• 1:04:44
  like, yeah, I've got a group of Mentor coaches that I call and
• 1:04:47
  bounce off and we don't talk X's and O's here but that's what I'm
• 1:04:51
  talking. Like what have you done to
• 1:04:52
  continue to get better at the X's and O's and the other things
• 1:04:55
  that aren't the X's and O's that are critical to being a good
• 1:04:57
  coach. Why just did my usatf last year?
• 1:05:02
  And so that was a really big deal for me.
• 1:05:05
  Personally, I really want to do that whether they want to
• 1:05:07
  participate in that and I learned just a ton of from that,
• 1:05:12
  I did not get a chance to go to. I missed it this year.
• 1:05:14
  I don't know how I missed it on Twitter.
• 1:05:16
  I was trying to go this summer clinic for the oh, what is it?
• 1:05:21
  The Texas, the Texas Association for Coach I missed.
• 1:05:23
  I sometimes miss out. I usually go to their summer and
• 1:05:25
  then winter clinics or at least 10 virtually I don't know how I
• 1:05:30
  missed it that. Is this year, I still text David
• 1:05:33
  grinds, I still text him with questions and stuff.
• 1:05:36
  I had him come out and we're not gonna have him do a team meeting
• 1:05:40
  right before. District is my kids, they talk
• 1:05:42
  about controlling the inner narrative and your head of
• 1:05:45
  what's going on. One thing we Face a lot is like
• 1:05:50
  with the pressure from the outside.
• 1:05:51
  We can handle fine as our own internal pressure that I've
• 1:05:54
  found our kids. They we had an earlier meet this
• 1:05:56
  year. Sorry to go in this little thing
• 1:05:57
  whatever earlier meat, It's your where they like in this is my
• 1:06:00
  fault. I put way too much pressure on
• 1:06:02
  them II. Keep note cards like my talking
• 1:06:05
  points for each me, and I had all these things and I was like,
• 1:06:08
  oh I put so much pressure on them so much internal pressure
• 1:06:11
  that they crumbled on. It is probably our worst Feud of
• 1:06:13
  the year and it was like, what going back was like what
• 1:06:16
  happened? I was like It was it was within
• 1:06:19
  them. They could live up to their own
• 1:06:21
  pressure and I put so much on them and that made him is like,
• 1:06:24
  okay, so controlling that in turn are attempt to and then
• 1:06:27
  just like, Twitter is great, man.
• 1:06:29
  I love Twitter, I have found so much helpful stuff that I didn't
• 1:06:34
  even consider that. We do, we've done some stuff.
• 1:06:40
  We've done some different drills, this year that I really
• 1:06:43
  think for the most part have have kept us pretty.
• 1:06:46
  I mean, we're pretty well, injury-free this For
• 1:06:48
  cross-country, I pray that continues during track season
• 1:06:51
  two because we're injury-free, I don't know that they were 100%
• 1:06:56
  effective, but it were not effective.
• 1:06:58
  So but just implementing that kind of stuff as we go into the
• 1:07:02
  offseason. I've actually learned a lot from
• 1:07:03
  some strength and conditioning coaches, just on Twitter and
• 1:07:06
  just like tweeting at them deeming, them.
• 1:07:09
  Thanks to you. Ma'am.
• 1:07:10
  I coaching network has grown quite a bit, so, but you see, I
• 1:07:14
  just constantly asking out. I'm just constantly asking
• 1:07:17
  questions. Russians because again, I want
• 1:07:20
  to be the greatest coach ever. And whatever have my name in
• 1:07:22
  lights, but it's not about me. It's about the kids.
• 1:07:26
  And so like what what can I do to make sure that they are as
• 1:07:33
  properly prepared as possible and your we're always growing.
• 1:07:36
  We're always constantly doing things like mistakes happen, and
• 1:07:39
  whatever else, but there's the act of moving forward.
• 1:07:43
  Has been really important to me, and for our kids to as part of
• 1:07:48
  Walter is like, it's I do this a lot, next play, like whatever it
• 1:07:52
  is next play and everything else is just noise.
• 1:07:54
  So I'm like a walking quote machine.
• 1:07:58
  But well, I appreciate your comments about Twitter because
• 1:08:01
  if anybody knows me that's, you know II.
• 1:08:04
  Basically I live in my own metaverse and it's on Twitter or
• 1:08:07
  face sickly. And I love your sentiments there
• 1:08:10
  about how you've grown your network and reached out to
• 1:08:12
  strength and conditioning coaches, because that to me is
• 1:08:14
  the positive power of social media.
• 1:08:16
  And he's certainly Ali. There are some negatives that
• 1:08:19
  social media and as adults on. So there's a difference to me
• 1:08:22
  between young kids on social and what they consume in adults
• 1:08:25
  because adults we should have the ability and the expertise to
• 1:08:31
  drown out the bad people. The people that are saying
• 1:08:34
  things that, you know, you don't want in your life.
• 1:08:35
  Think, you know, there is a mute button on Twitter and pretty
• 1:08:38
  much every social media. There is a mute button to stop.
• 1:08:40
  Those people to wear your timeline.
• 1:08:42
  Never never has those people. Those, you know, whatever you
• 1:08:44
  want to call them trolls, whatever.
• 1:08:45
  Just people use, don't agree with, Because of their beliefs
• 1:08:49
  and philosophies Etc, you just tune out.
• 1:08:51
  My timeline is amazing, I have 99% positivity on my timeline
• 1:08:56
  because when someone speaks negatively, you're out, I don't
• 1:08:59
  have time for it, I don't have time for and I don't have a
• 1:09:02
  desire for it, so I love that you've been able to use Twitter
• 1:09:05
  in this example, as a positive thing for you.
• 1:09:08
  Let's do a quick commercial about Twitter then.
• 1:09:10
  So if you're on Twitter, been, how does someone get a hold of
• 1:09:12
  you on Twitter? What's your Twitter handle their
• 1:09:15
  been Nicholas? 47 is my My Twitter handle all
• 1:09:19
  one word, no dots dashes. No, I want me look, I don't
• 1:09:22
  think so. Yeah.
• 1:09:24
  See and usually 4747. Yes.
• 1:09:27
  What is the significance of 47? Usually the number means
• 1:09:30
  something. Yeah, I'll be all one word been
• 1:09:33
  Nicholas. 47 perfect. Um, was a big Brett Favre fan
• 1:09:38
  growing up. Oh my first, like number I ever
• 1:09:43
  got when I was in soccer, was number seven.
• 1:09:45
  So, I just kind of combine the two, and So teams don't have.
• 1:09:50
  I tell us all the time. So my number in cross country
• 1:09:53
  was also 47, cause that's how I picked it and they're like, oh,
• 1:09:56
  we didn't know cross country teams have numbers.
• 1:09:57
  They don't, they really don't have it at Mansfield High
• 1:10:00
  School. We were assigned a top, a
• 1:10:03
  bottom, a practice shirt, a bag. I think we had spikes that you
• 1:10:06
  were when we ran through those anyway.
• 1:10:08
  All of it was number 47. So it was time to turn it back
• 1:10:11
  in. You just turn it number.
• 1:10:12
  So that's how I explain it. It's not really a number, it's
• 1:10:15
  just like how we turn things in. So, Was it and I'm just kind of
• 1:10:19
  stuck with it. I like it specially attract
• 1:10:20
  numbers mean something so anytime, someone has a number
• 1:10:23
  right there. Twitter, handle or somewhere
• 1:10:25
  they're emailing like okay, that number means something.
• 1:10:27
  What is I love that? Well, check out been on Twitter,
• 1:10:30
  been, Nicholas, 47. He's a great, you know, we've
• 1:10:33
  been connected for a while now, Ben and I really do appreciate
• 1:10:35
  that. But check out Twitter and I
• 1:10:37
  thought I will never. Well, I shouldn't say never
• 1:10:40
  today. At least, I hope it will do
• 1:10:43
  nothing but speak great about Twitter and social media as it
• 1:10:45
  relates to what he called track to it.
• 1:10:48
  All the track came to. Yeah.
• 1:10:49
  And it's so cool. Girls are amazing.
• 1:10:52
  It's so cool. And I know comparison is the
• 1:10:54
  thief of Joy here but it is not open them how you frame it?
• 1:10:58
  There is so many times. I'll take like professional work
• 1:11:02
  out. I'll see things like, with the
• 1:11:03
  professionals running, Cade flat, as a huge.
• 1:11:05
  Like, I love Kate flat as well as kid ever will take his stuff
• 1:11:09
  and I'll just like show my team. And it's like look like look
• 1:11:13
  what like, what are you doing? And like, look what we're doing.
• 1:11:15
  Like I weigh the same level. No sure.
• 1:11:17
  We're in the same realm where the same universe.
• 1:11:20
  We're in the same sport. Like look at this thing, okay?
• 1:11:23
  Okay, he's doing eight sets of these things and we're only
• 1:11:25
  doing six, that's fine. Like it's about.
• 1:11:29
  I mean it's confidence in where you're at and compounds what
• 1:11:31
  you're doing. But it's like I tell my kids,
• 1:11:34
  like we're running a big boy program over here, running a big
• 1:11:37
  boy program and and like, yeah, we're going to adjust, and yeah,
• 1:11:41
  we're going to do things that us.
• 1:11:44
  But this is and for us being in a small school were three, a
• 1:11:46
  school and you IL I say this is what the big programs running
• 1:11:49
  all the time. Big Boys, run.
• 1:11:51
  We're doing the same thing that they're doing.
• 1:11:53
  There is no difference between you and them.
• 1:11:57
  And again that goes back to like we respect all but we fear none.
• 1:12:01
  Realistically is there any chance that we're going to win
• 1:12:04
  the 6A State title? No, because we're three a school
• 1:12:08
  and we're not even at going to state but I would bet every
• 1:12:11
  dollar I have that, we could beat them like every any given
• 1:12:14
  day. Like that's how much faith I
• 1:12:15
  have in this team. And that's and that's, that's
• 1:12:17
  kind of our Sure of what we believe on any given day.
• 1:12:19
  Like we're going to compete and until till Hell Freezes Over
• 1:12:24
  kind of a thing. So well, let's change lanes
• 1:12:26
  again. But this time that step off the
• 1:12:28
  track as I introduce you today. You also are the athletic
• 1:12:31
  director of a school of a three, a school.
• 1:12:33
  That's nothing to be, I am. That's a big deal, a big job
• 1:12:38
  talk to us. How do you know, I think
• 1:12:41
  important for track and I usually speak about this in
• 1:12:45
  college terms, but this definitely Revolves around high
• 1:12:48
  school as well for us to become bigger, badder better in track
• 1:12:52
  and field, we need more people in administration that are track
• 1:12:55
  people. So I love it and celebrate when
• 1:12:57
  a track coach becomes an AED at a college, you know, system ad
• 1:13:02
  whatever in high school when the athletic director was, or is the
• 1:13:06
  track coach, those are good things because now we have track
• 1:13:09
  people in the seats that are making, very important decisions
• 1:13:12
  about our sport, funding coaches, Etc, fessional
• 1:13:16
  development. So talk to us about Out.
• 1:13:18
  What's it like being an athletic director?
• 1:13:19
  What does that entail for you as the track coach?
• 1:13:22
  What do you what are the almost a airports.
• 1:13:25
  Are the major sports means you have a football basketball
• 1:13:27
  baseball team. These, those kind of things that
• 1:13:29
  you oversee, talk to us about that part of your professional
• 1:13:32
  life. So it is a constant Growing
• 1:13:35
  Experience. Let me tell you.
• 1:13:36
  It is not something that I thought I would ever be involved
• 1:13:40
  in and I'm very blessed and very thankful for it.
• 1:13:44
  I will tell you my love is coaching.
• 1:13:46
  I love of the to is coaching. Had to give up one, I'd give up
• 1:13:49
  being a DA immediately. As I feel like a lot of people
• 1:13:53
  who are in that kind of dual role, would we do at Village
• 1:13:59
  Tech? Most of the major sports.
• 1:14:03
  We do not do tackle football. So we do not do tackle football.
• 1:14:06
  We do participate in some flag football, but volleyball
• 1:14:11
  cross-country, basketball soccer, baseball softball, dance
• 1:14:15
  cheer track and field. Of course, That is that is well
• 1:14:22
  and it's a locked, it is a lot. And then also we do like chess
• 1:14:27
  speech and debate. We, I believe, I don't want to
• 1:14:30
  speak wrongly on this, but I do believe we're doing something
• 1:14:33
  with theater this year to that. That one's a little bit out of
• 1:14:36
  my realm. That one specifically.
• 1:14:39
  Yeah, we do a lot, we have the opportunity to go into tennis.
• 1:14:44
  We're kind of exploring that opportunity.
• 1:14:48
  Really where we're at is is if we have enough kids to feel the
• 1:14:51
  team and we obviously have the opportunity through our league
• 1:14:54
  to do it. We're Esports, we're doing
• 1:14:56
  Esports. We're yeah, diving into that.
• 1:15:01
  Yeah, we do a lot. It's crazy.
• 1:15:03
  So, what's that mean for you on a daily basis?
• 1:15:06
  You know, on a track coach, we have track coaches on the show
• 1:15:09
  every day, right? So we kind of know what the
• 1:15:10
  Rhythm and everyone's a little unique but, you know, we kind of
• 1:15:13
  the rhythm of practice in the afternoon etcetera.
• 1:15:15
  What does that mean to be oversight of all of?
• 1:15:17
  These Sports and all of these coaches as well.
• 1:15:20
  It is a lot of time and a lot of hours consumed and my well I
• 1:15:26
  guess you should be my wife at that point my wife Alyssa.
• 1:15:29
  At the point, this is going to be premiering.
• 1:15:30
  We're getting married on the 25th of November.
• 1:15:32
  Oh my God knows that to Holy Cow for the new member.
• 1:15:37
  So my fiance Alyssa is just absolutely the most wonderful
• 1:15:41
  human being. I love her so much and so dearly
• 1:15:44
  she puts up with so much. I am constantly.
• 1:15:47
  Something all the time, every time everywhere.
• 1:15:50
  And so on a day-to-day basis, it's literally well, talked
• 1:15:56
  about during cross country season.
• 1:15:57
  It's coming in at 6:00, 6:30, running practice, till 7:30,
• 1:16:01
  making sure all the boys and girls are out of the locker
• 1:16:04
  rooms in the class. I need to be in 8:15, starting a
• 1:16:08
  study hall at 8:15 and during that study hall till probably
• 1:16:12
  about 11 ish, normally it's just going through all the forms and
• 1:16:17
  going through all All the paperwork, going through all the
• 1:16:21
  purchase order stuff, we're trying to buy things.
• 1:16:24
  I'm just trying to crank through as many emails as I can possibly
• 1:16:27
  crank through. And so it's just really time
• 1:16:32
  consuming but it's really cool to you mentioned, you mentioned
• 1:16:35
  that you like one track people are in it.
• 1:16:37
  I also agree because I'm a big track person fact.
• 1:16:40
  Abstract, my first love, I know we talked about cross country a
• 1:16:42
  lot because I just happened. The track is my first love in
• 1:16:45
  this thing but it's cool because this All our Sports on our
• 1:16:50
  campus, but in our programs they hope they feel this way.
• 1:16:53
  They get the same amount of love, the bigger sports.
• 1:16:56
  Do basketball takes care of itself.
• 1:16:58
  I love basketball, huge supporter.
• 1:16:59
  Basketball our season starts like the 31st today.
• 1:17:03
  Monday for our middle school program, they take care of
• 1:17:07
  themselves. They don't they don't need a
• 1:17:08
  hype man out here. They're doing that all on their
• 1:17:10
  own. Like I don't even want to get
• 1:17:12
  the stuff that we ordered uniforms and need the balls
• 1:17:14
  equipment to go through all that stuff.
• 1:17:16
  But they do bad all on their own.
• 1:17:17
  Own, but the smaller swords that we don't necessarily have kids
• 1:17:20
  coming out to softballs and other one that's outside of
• 1:17:24
  cross country and track. Like I'm actively trying like
• 1:17:26
  how do we get people out? How do we get people to
• 1:17:29
  participate? But how do we get love shown to
• 1:17:31
  them too? And it's going through that and
• 1:17:34
  it's a constant Challenge. And, and my curse is that I feel
• 1:17:39
  like I can coach any sport any time with no background in it.
• 1:17:43
  Like, I was watching a volleyball game.
• 1:17:44
  The other day for our girls and I could coach.
• 1:17:46
  This like, I was like, they, The time out, I was like, this is
• 1:17:48
  exactly what I would say in this time out like, this is what
• 1:17:50
  we're doing, like, and all my coaches love and hate that we
• 1:17:55
  love your support, please. Coach runs for that fair enough.
• 1:17:59
  But no, it's just, it's just really busy, but it's really
• 1:18:01
  cool because I get to see Athletes are different because
• 1:18:07
  they didn't play different sports but as a whole they're
• 1:18:10
  similar in the sense that like again they're still just kids
• 1:18:14
  and they're still kids are trying to grow and they're
• 1:18:15
  trying to learn and they're trying to don't know seeing them
• 1:18:19
  step up and be leaders is like the coolest thing.
• 1:18:23
  It's in the past, I'll talk about it.
• 1:18:24
  Now, our basketball team and I got in trouble the other day
• 1:18:27
  about a month or two ago and so after they had had been properly
• 1:18:31
  talk to at the school, some of The leaders were like stepping
• 1:18:36
  up and making sure like the younger kids got to class.
• 1:18:38
  I have a picture on my phone of like one of our one of our
• 1:18:40
  captains like literally holding the back packs of two boys and
• 1:18:43
  like dragon in a class like it's cool to see them step up in
• 1:18:46
  those moments. I mean like listen this is what
• 1:18:48
  matters and this is and this is what's going to take to be
• 1:18:52
  successful as a team to be one unit.
• 1:18:53
  Like we're going all-in for. So it's really cool to see that
• 1:18:56
  in different Avenues other than Just cross country or just
• 1:19:02
  track. I think it also helps because it
• 1:19:05
  allows me to kind of bring that hype level that basketball
• 1:19:09
  players have and bring that same language that same talk that
• 1:19:13
  same energy to track and field because I think we're very
• 1:19:15
  humble and track and I think we got to quit that the the Fred
• 1:19:20
  Curley's of the world, the cage Flats of the world are looked
• 1:19:26
  down upon because they're outspoken.
• 1:19:28
  And I think there's a difference between being a Didn't cocky and
• 1:19:32
  then being confident and proud of what you're doing.
• 1:19:36
  And so I'm trying to bring that into our car Trac program a to,
• 1:19:39
  as well. Like, if you, if we are
• 1:19:42
  successful, we're doing what we're supposed to do.
• 1:19:44
  Be proud. Walk like it talk, like it act
• 1:19:46
  like it. But does it mean go out whenever
• 1:19:48
  teams? Can't be yelling at them and
• 1:19:50
  agree? No, pick a, right.
• 1:19:51
  We're not trying to do any of that, but don't let anybody talk
• 1:19:54
  down to you like, you know, when you play that game on the line,
• 1:19:58
  what are your PR is, what do we do?
• 1:19:59
  Tons of I'm running, I'm running it.
• 1:20:01
  Like here, it a like be confident what you're doing.
• 1:20:05
  Like, you don't, you don't partake in any of that like, be
• 1:20:07
  confident like I'm here to win. Like it's that, it's that kind
• 1:20:11
  of stuff. And so, I think that stems also,
• 1:20:12
  it's really cool thing that stems from basketball, from
• 1:20:14
  soccer, from baseball like those same mentality that they have,
• 1:20:18
  we're able to take into the track and field world.
• 1:20:20
  And again, the humbleness of track table to go back to
• 1:20:22
  there's in your job of an athletic director.
• 1:20:26
  What's the hardest thing for you?
• 1:20:28
  As you sit in that chair? And what I mean by that,
• 1:20:31
  Thinking about, you know, there's everything from parent,
• 1:20:33
  involvement officials travel fundraising participation.
• 1:20:39
  You mentioned what's, like, if you had to boil it down to,
• 1:20:41
  like, here's the, here's what keeps me up at night as an F, as
• 1:20:44
  the athletic director Ben Nicholas There are two main
• 1:20:50
  things participation in women's Athletics is one of them.
• 1:20:57
  I I have not been able to figure this one out and so if anybody
• 1:21:01
  has an idea, please let me know. We just don't have huge
• 1:21:06
  participation women's Athletics and I would love to grow that.
• 1:21:11
  And I've been working with some of our Lady coaches outside of
• 1:21:17
  Volleyball. It is tough.
• 1:21:18
  Sometimes like for basketball and I, so I think I think that
• 1:21:22
  that solution is getting good coaches and getting the right
• 1:21:25
  spots where they need to be and Powerful women leaders.
• 1:21:29
  And I think all of our code, honestly, genuinely all of our
• 1:21:31
  coaches in our women's sports are wonderful, powerful leaders.
• 1:21:35
  It just takes time from what we've traditionally had to where
• 1:21:40
  we're at now so that keeps me up because I'm a patient.
• 1:21:44
  I'm just like like I wanted to be done now, I don't stress
• 1:21:46
  about that. The second thing is facility
• 1:21:49
  stuff. We are still growing at Village
• 1:21:53
  Tech, we've been around since 2013, but I would say our
• 1:21:59
  Athletics program as a whole, a whole encompassing everything
• 1:22:03
  fire on the same page as only been around for five years.
• 1:22:06
  Really, since I had, since I took over, we've had Sports done
• 1:22:09
  in the past. We have been successful but it's
• 1:22:11
  kind of been these one-off little shoots where it feels
• 1:22:15
  like the school has gone all-in for basketball this year where
• 1:22:18
  they've gone got all in for this and not necessarily.
• 1:22:21
  We're one whole athletic department.
• 1:22:23
  And so I say all that to say, we're still growing, we have one
• 1:22:27
  gymnasium period and we're very thankful very blessed for it.
• 1:22:31
  That is not a criticism on that but I've got I got to I have for
• 1:22:38
  volleyball teams five, basketball teams.
• 1:22:41
  One gymnasium. Wow.
• 1:22:44
  Just still do stuff like that. Is a killer I've got to well.
• 1:22:50
  I have for soccer teams, they only play two at a time.
• 1:22:53
  Thankfully just based on the age levels, but we have to rent City
• 1:22:57
  League fields and the city's been great.
• 1:22:59
  Even super awesome with us. But nonetheless, they have other
• 1:23:03
  people use those. So we can't you can't just take
• 1:23:05
  them whenever we want. Same thing for baseball, same
• 1:23:07
  thing, for softball, our track team against Dylan, have a track
• 1:23:13
  and so we have to go to another school during their They call
• 1:23:18
  that the like, the free use hours or whatever they have for
• 1:23:22
  their public hours, for that, that's how we have to practice.
• 1:23:26
  And we did don't have transportation says, I'll just
• 1:23:29
  facilitate stuff and figuring that out.
• 1:23:31
  And so, Again, our kids are special because of what they've
• 1:23:37
  been doing and they don't know any different but I tell my kids
• 1:23:41
  all the time. I was like you've done a lot.
• 1:23:45
  Without even knowing it because it's normal to you.
• 1:23:47
  But it's not normal to have to go through all of these
• 1:23:49
  challenges and yet you have responded to this adversity as
• 1:23:54
  opposed to reacting to it, you could have reacted to it,
• 1:23:57
  throwing a fit and whatever else, and you've responded to
• 1:23:59
  it. That's a good a testament to our
• 1:24:01
  kids first and foremost, but our coaches to of saying, okay,
• 1:24:04
  here's here's the challenge we have.
• 1:24:06
  And, yes, I can complain about not having a track, and how are
• 1:24:09
  we going to do this? But the fact of the matter is,
• 1:24:11
  that doesn't get our team better.
• 1:24:13
  So, okay. We're going.
• 1:24:14
  Take this punch on the chin, but what do we do now?
• 1:24:17
  What do we do from here? And so, it's a growing process
• 1:24:20
  for sure. The school Village Tech is
• 1:24:24
  wonderful. I've highly believe in it.
• 1:24:26
  I'm thankful to be here, but it wasn't built for athletics.
• 1:24:30
  So, to introduce these things and to try to do them at a high
• 1:24:35
  level. Has been has been Been a fun
• 1:24:39
  challenge but nonetheless, I definitely have gray hairs now
• 1:24:43
  because of it. Well, you don't build Legacy by
• 1:24:47
  continuing on someone else's winning streak, right?
• 1:24:49
  You have to write build something.
• 1:24:51
  It's called building a legacy. I love it.
• 1:24:53
  Well bit as we start to wrap up here today.
• 1:24:55
  What has got you excited? You're coming off of a district
• 1:24:58
  assume. This is your first district
• 1:25:00
  Championship. That's a big deal.
• 1:25:01
  You go on into track season you're working to build a new
• 1:25:04
  facility one day. What's got you excited about
• 1:25:07
  Viper? A Viper squid.
• 1:25:09
  Samuel said, Viper Squad, Viper. Squid.
• 1:25:11
  Cross country and track and field.
• 1:25:13
  Yeah. So we just won our district
• 1:25:15
  championship. And if you will allow me to, I
• 1:25:18
  would love to shout out my team on this.
• 1:25:20
  These hundred percent. This, this has been a five year
• 1:25:23
  in the making deal, and this was the varsity boys that one.
• 1:25:26
  But I want to be very, very clear.
• 1:25:28
  This is the varsity, boys. But it's also our varsity girls
• 1:25:31
  and our Middle School, boys, and middle school.
• 1:25:33
  Girls, Trophy. And it's are few.
• 1:25:35
  I think we only have 22. Waited seniors.
• 1:25:40
  It's their trophy to it's been his work in process and progress
• 1:25:44
  for years and so everybody's had a hand in this thing and it is
• 1:25:48
  not this not just one teams trophy but I want to shout out
• 1:25:52
  my two captains, Cade Williams and Aiden Monahan.
• 1:25:57
  They have been the absolute just great as captains in the world.
• 1:26:02
  Just had the absolute heart and love for each other, but the
• 1:26:05
  team that desire to get better at And did 500 Miles this summer
• 1:26:10
  and he did 500 miles with Grace and who was our top finisher
• 1:26:15
  boy. So shout out to those 3 K date
• 1:26:17
  in Grayson Marco. Jacob, Josh and Elijah.
• 1:26:23
  That's our 7 right there. Shoutout to Dawson other senior.
• 1:26:28
  Shout out to Lydia one of our seniors.
• 1:26:32
  Let's see, I'm a girls team. There's, I know this can be a
• 1:26:35
  lot, but I really want to get them in here.
• 1:26:37
  So, ladies, Girls team Michaela, Alyssa Shadow to them, Peyton as
• 1:26:42
  well Skylar Julia that's my girls team.
• 1:26:46
  That's six said Dawson earlier Creed Isaiah gosh it's hard to
• 1:26:54
  do something up ahead Ashton, that's my high school boys.
• 1:26:59
  That's the entire High School, boys.
• 1:27:01
  And then both of my middle school programs to and Shadow to
• 1:27:04
  Gracie as well who was a huge employment and impact and In the
• 1:27:08
  last year, so she didn't run this year, but was huge impact
• 1:27:11
  there. So that's what I'm really
• 1:27:12
  excited for. I'm really excited that District
• 1:27:13
  Championship. I'm really pumped about it.
• 1:27:15
  We haven't stopped celebrating it yet, and it is combination of
• 1:27:19
  everything that they've done it again.
• 1:27:20
  Even if they had not one that I'd still be incredibly proud of
• 1:27:22
  them because we did literally everything we possibly could
• 1:27:25
  have done and we did it, right? And so I'm really excited for
• 1:27:27
  track season to see what comes next.
• 1:27:33
  Well, we'll see. I'm hoping that we have a couple
• 1:27:36
  of sub 5. Dollars at the end of this track
• 1:27:39
  season. We're right on that line.
• 1:27:41
  We're right at 5:05 ish. So I'm really open.
• 1:27:45
  We can push those past there but I'm just really excited for the
• 1:27:48
  future Village Tech in our program as a whole.
• 1:27:52
  I really truly feel that we have the best coaches coaches Staff
• 1:27:59
  that we've ever had coaching staff, you will.
• 1:28:04
  I don't know. I'm just, there's a lot.
• 1:28:05
  There's a lot to be pumped about.
• 1:28:06
  I'm just, I don't know. Just grateful for all of it.
• 1:28:08
  I'm really grateful for all of it.
• 1:28:09
  They're just just proud to be their coach.
• 1:28:13
  I really truly am. Well, I'm excited for you to,
• 1:28:15
  you know, leadership has never been more important than it is
• 1:28:18
  today. And so while I know you're
• 1:28:21
  extremely proud, it's quite obvious your face changes.
• 1:28:24
  When you start missed, mentioning, Grayson and all
• 1:28:26
  these other guys and gals out there.
• 1:28:29
  But, and you know what? But does it erases everything in
• 1:28:32
  front of those kids are great, they're going to be future
• 1:28:34
  coaches with one or more of them.
• 1:28:35
  Is going to be on the Gill connections podcast, one day in
• 1:28:38
  a decade or so, but it takes that leadership.
• 1:28:41
  So from you, And your staff and the teachers and the parents
• 1:28:44
  around there. None of this happens without
• 1:28:46
  Direction driving forward. And so, when you say you're
• 1:28:49
  excited, man, that's what begets excitement from others.
• 1:28:53
  I think it's going to be a great year.
• 1:28:55
  It's already been a great year. I mean, come on a district
• 1:28:57
  Championship is nothing to do it.
• 1:28:59
  That is a big desert more teams, that didn't when it did want it.
• 1:29:03
  So that's awesome. So when I, when I, you know, I
• 1:29:07
  run and I listened to your podcast and I listen to these
• 1:29:10
  coaches and stuff and I Inspired by them and I get inspired and
• 1:29:13
  learn so much from them. And so my hope is that like
• 1:29:17
  somebody's out there running and listening to this or maybe
• 1:29:19
  driving and listening to this, the district Championship is
• 1:29:22
  great, but that is not. That is that is an outlier to
• 1:29:26
  this whole thing. It really, truly is a very proud
• 1:29:28
  of it, but like, again, we're not special in the sense that
• 1:29:32
  like we were born from mutants or space aliens or anything like
• 1:29:35
  that. Like we're just a group of
• 1:29:38
  normal people who really bought in and believed and What about
• 1:29:42
  each other and work hard and grinded together?
• 1:29:44
  And that's, that's truly it. And so, if you're in the same
• 1:29:47
  position that you're just, like, man, how do I get my team
• 1:29:51
  better? Like, or we're beginning a
• 1:29:53
  program? Like I hope that like this is
• 1:29:55
  inspiring to the sense of just like just by in like it truly
• 1:30:00
  just buy it and if the end of the day, it does not work out.
• 1:30:03
  Because sometimes you can do everything right?
• 1:30:05
  And it still doesn't work out if the David didn't work out, but
• 1:30:08
  you gave everything that you had to it, you truly bought in and
• 1:30:11
  they're better people at the Of it that is I'll take losses for
• 1:30:14
  the rest of my life. If they are better, people
• 1:30:17
  exiting this program and I know that that's easy to say now, and
• 1:30:20
  you have the trophy but I thoroughly believe that and
• 1:30:24
  we've been through a lot of losing Seasons.
• 1:30:25
  So yeah you've made your point on that one.
• 1:30:28
  True love it man. Been.
• 1:30:31
  Well thank you so much. You know, one of the most
• 1:30:34
  valuable things that you can ever give anybody and us here in
• 1:30:37
  this situation, is your time. It just means the whole world to
• 1:30:41
  me. Again, you talked about how busy
• 1:30:42
  you are and what's keeping you up at night as an athletic
• 1:30:44
  director, plus the cross country and track coach.
• 1:30:46
  And you know, there are many many other things you could have
• 1:30:50
  and should have been doing. Then joining us here for this
• 1:30:53
  past hour and a half man. So I'm just so thankful so
• 1:30:56
  grateful that you would share your journey with our listeners
• 1:30:59
  today on the podcast. Or thank you so much for having
• 1:31:02
  me. Again, this has been a dream
• 1:31:03
  come true. Well, the real dream and it's
• 1:31:05
  weird because it's podcast recording, right?
• 1:31:07
  So when you're listening to this, my man been in Alyssa have
• 1:31:11
  gotten married. That's quite a man.
• 1:31:13
  So we're going to congratulate you in real time.
• 1:31:17
  Not real time. I don't know.
• 1:31:18
  This is the weird. Thank you.
• 1:31:20
  We're excited to be married. That's the real.
• 1:31:23
  Yeah, exactly. That's the real dream come true.
• 1:31:26
  So, shout out to been on Twitter.
• 1:31:28
  If you're, if you've made it this far, go to Twitter had been
• 1:31:31
  Nicholas. 47. And don't tell him how great of
• 1:31:34
  a coach he is, he is, don't tell me how great of a person he is,
• 1:31:36
  he is tell him. Congratulations on getting
• 1:31:39
  married, you know? Obviously, Alyssa is a great
• 1:31:41
  person to put up with a track coach, right?
• 1:31:44
  That's a tough thing to be spouse of a track and
• 1:31:47
  cross-country and athletic director.
• 1:31:49
  So Alyssa, I know you're still listening.
• 1:31:52
  Galatians I just know that it was an amazing wedding, so real
• 1:31:55
  proud of you guys for having done that and will do that.
• 1:31:59
  Whatever the time-space, Continuum.
• 1:32:01
  It's on that man been man. Thank you so much, man.
• 1:32:04
  Really do appreciate you being here today and making our
• 1:32:07
  podcast better man. Thank you so much.
• 1:32:09
  Thank you for having me and thank you for being here and
• 1:32:11
  listening once again, man, you know, our journey here.
• 1:32:13
  Uplifted honor coaches from around the country.
• 1:32:15
  I love, I love with a coach has been coaching for 40 years or
• 1:32:18
  four years because there's so much to unpack and to learn In
• 1:32:22
  the mentors along the way, I love what you talked about today
• 1:32:26
  with with Rusty and, you know, really why what's the secret,
• 1:32:30
  you know, what's the magic pill? And Rusty Atkins said, you know
• 1:32:33
  what their people first, their students seconds and then if
• 1:32:37
  there's time they're athletes there and I think that is so
• 1:32:41
  important as a coach and what we didn't get to Riff on and maybe
• 1:32:44
  we'll have to do it at a future guests or have been come back or
• 1:32:47
  maybe we'll take this discussion to Twitter been is how does that
• 1:32:51
  look like? For you, the person who chooses
• 1:32:53
  to be a track coach, we like to think and sometimes put coaches
• 1:32:57
  our first thing, right? But as we're learning here with
• 1:32:59
  Ben, he's about to become a husband, right?
• 1:33:02
  He's a teacher, he's a leader of kids of a student and student
• 1:33:06
  athletes. And he's a coach, how do we put
• 1:33:08
  that in the right priority? So, been promised me.
• 1:33:11
  Let's make sure we have that conversation.
• 1:33:13
  When we publish, when this is, people are listening.
• 1:33:15
  Let's bring that important discussion to Twitter and have
• 1:33:17
  people talk about priorities of your roles, because I think
• 1:33:20
  that's one, Important thing that we don't we don't always want to
• 1:33:24
  talk about. We like to just think coaches
• 1:33:26
  first and foremost in boy, we're sons and daughters, and husbands
• 1:33:29
  and wives. And, you know, parents it's
• 1:33:32
  there's a lot more roles that need to be above that.
• 1:33:34
  So thanks for being here again. Today, join us next week.
• 1:33:37
  We're going to do it all over again.
• 1:33:38
  We're going to have another amazing coach discussing their
• 1:33:41
  journey in this great profession and see what we can learn.
• 1:33:44
  All right, we'll talk to you next week, guys, have a good
• 1:33:46
  one. Thanks Mike what an incredible
• 1:33:56
  journey coach has been on so awesome to hear their story in
• 1:33:59
  their own words, tremendous proof of the positive effect
• 1:34:02
  coaches, make on a daily basis. Help us spread the word of this.
• 1:34:05
  Great journey by sharing on your favorite social, media channel.
• 1:34:08
  And don't forget to take a minute to rate and review the
• 1:34:10
  podcast. You just might get a shout out
• 1:34:12
  on a future episode, that's it for today.
• 1:34:15
  Join us next week, when we'll connect.
• 1:34:17
  At you with another amazing coach.
• 1:34:17
  At you with another amazing coach.