Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / BONUS: USTFCCCA 2023 LIVE: Marc Bierbaum-Iowa Western CC

Transcript

BONUS: USTFCCCA 2023 LIVE: Marc Bierbaum-Iowa Western CC · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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  Hey gang, you know we like our bonus material.
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  So from today all the way through USTF CCA, in celebration
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  of our live podcast recording at the convention, we're going to
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  play you last year's clips, each one individual from today all
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  the way up until Monday, December 16th when we go live on
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  YouTube at 6:00 Eastern Time. Join us if you're at the
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  convention, sit down. We're going to be talking about
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  your feelings, actions, thoughts about the way the NCAA is
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  changing and we're going to make some predictions for next year.
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  And every guest that sits down with us will you get a a
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  exclusive free gift? So join us December 16th, 6:00
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  PM Eastern Time for the Gill Live Connections podcast on
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  YouTube and at the USTFCCCA convention.
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  Here is bonus material. And Speaking of endeavors, let's
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  have our next guest. Why don't you introduce yourself
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  please? Director of the Cross Country
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  and Track program at Iowa Western Community College in.
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  Councils Iowa. So I for people who have been on
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  the podcast before that sit down.
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  I allowed them to flip the script because I grilled them
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  for an hour and a half, two hours.
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  Aaron Robeson was on just a little bit earlier with the
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  associate director of Henry Lace and his flip the script was what
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  are, you know, he's trying to pitch, He's trying to get me.
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  What's your favorite annual track needs?
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  And so, you know, mine were, you know, I love the pre classic, I
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  love the Division One indoor championships.
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  And my third was whether it's indoor or outdoor was the junior
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  college national championship. It's just my my heart is in
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  those kids that second chances weren't good enough out of high
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  school, We're told they weren't good enough academically needed
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  second, third, you know, I probably needed five chances.
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  So it really it's a, it's a meet that it's a system that means a
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  lot to me. What has been your you weren't
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  always a junior college. No coach, talk to us about your
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  experience. Why are you?
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  Why are you a junior college? Coach why I western kind of
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  happened because it's it's where I'm from.
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  I'm from that area, but I don't know it just happened.
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  I I coach and AI have coached high school, I've coached D1,
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  I've coached D2 and did. You coach what?
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  Happened. I have not a real reason per SE.
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  Coaching is coaching to me and, and I just, I don't care where
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  it is. I just would coach.
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  And this has been probably the most eye opening experience and
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  the most knowledge I've gained from coaching has been these six
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  years. I, I, I have absolutely no doubt
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  I, I would have been a better coach in all those other
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  positions if I would have been. Here first.
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  Why so? There's.
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  Oh goodness. You asked it, I said it, and
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  then you asked it. Just the situations that I've
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  had to. Grow from and and.
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  Learn and build the the connections.
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  There's so many more connections involved.
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  I, you know, I'm not just recruiting athletes, I'm also
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  helping my athletes. Get yeah.
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  That has been an interesting experience in learning from and
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  and the development is different.
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  And you know, I've got to develop kids in two years,
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  right? Yeah.
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  That's right to. Find you know, find their home
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  or to make you know, score points at nationals or regionals
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  or. You know, yeah, yeah, yeah.
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  I, you know, a high school coach has a really tough job.
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  You know, they're usually a teacher and a family coaching
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  and they're always trying to get their kids recruited to the next
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  level or even beyond recruiting, get them to the next level to go
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  to college, right? A four year coach has a
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  tremendously hard job. They're always coaching young
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  people. They're always recruiting to
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  their team. The junior college coach, you
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  have to do both every single year.
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  You're always recruiting and you're always helping them to
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  get recruited. Man, yeah, it's it's nonstop.
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  It's. Both ways and.
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  It's thinking, not just the the recruiting part of getting them.
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  Out is also. Thinking about the race strategy
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  and where they're going to fit best and finding that quickly
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  and learning where that's going to be and and then trying to
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  figure out, you know, everybody's got their dream
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  schools and is that dream school right Fit it heal us as junior
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  colleges because of these connections.
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  This convention, a perfect example because of the
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  communication we have with the four year school, gives us
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  better insights on what that fit could be for that athlete, even
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  though they may have a different idea.
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  Right, right. Different.
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  Sense. Yeah, no, it does because, you
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  know, I'm still amazed that we force 18 year olds to pick a
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  major that will affect them the rest of their lives.
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  Like when you're 18, you don't know what underwear you want to
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  put on today. I mean, what in the world do we
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  do? It's it's really a kind of a
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  whack. Like when you take a step back
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  and think about it, that's what to do.
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  So when they're trying to pick the school that they think is
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  the school they want to go to or the location they want to go to
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  or the level they think they might be aspired to, Wait.
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  There's nothing better than mentors and people that have
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  done it before and do better than a junior college coach
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  who's done this Many, many, many there's so.
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  Much growth and difference between 17 and 18 in 20 and 20.
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  One. Yeah.
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  Oh oh. Yeah, like your whole idea of
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  the. World is different.
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  Athletics, Academics. Social.
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  Any of them into you? Know so picking that picking
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  those colleges at that age, it's just a different view and then
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  you know you look at the junior college side of it when you go
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  and run these meets as a junior college athlete, you also are
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  looking you're running against D1, you're running against D2.
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  We're not running just. Right, right.
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  We're. Running against all the
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  different divisions, so then you're also seeing college track
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  upfront. You're almost.
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  On a free college visit for all these schools.
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  To see them compete. You're competing against them,
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  you're going to the facilities and you're warming up on their
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  on their campus. And all that and.
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  And you when you go on these visits on.
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  Perfect behavior. Yeah.
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  Yeah, now you got to meet. This guys yelling at, you know,
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  this guy yelling at their athletes, maybe they're this or
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  maybe they're athletes or this or that.
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  Different perspective. You know, you and I and fellow
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  friend of ours, D Ground talks a lot about, you know, there's
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  some upcoming projects to work. On here.
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  What do you you know, as we start to wrap up here a little
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  bit today, what's the? What's the?
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  Top misconception about junior colleges that you kind of see
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  over and over and you're like kind of banging your head
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  against the wall of like, man, if they would just know that
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  it's really this. Not that there's there's,
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  there's a few, but one I would one I'll touch on right now
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  because it's on my head would be the level, the level I, you
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  know, everybody wants to think of D1D2D3 any, you know, any IG,
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  but where, how do they want to label it?
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  D1's here. OK, cool.
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  You're right. D1's really high end.
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  But if you come to the Jubilee national meet or if you look at
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  T first page, there's a lot of high schoolers doing what that
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  is. That's the athletic net of
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  college. You're going to see some time
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  jumps and that you don't. It's the level.
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  The level is so high, but basically.
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  It's. Very high.
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  And that's one big misconception that I think and the other one I
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  would say is that there's this negative connotation about what
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  Jupo is and you know, only kids don't have grades and that's
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  just not true. We we have.
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  We have. High ACT scores, we have this.
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  With that, there's so many different up your draft stock.
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  So to speak. Maybe there's a school you want
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  to get into and they're they're not letting you on the roster,
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  they're not giving you a scholarship.
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  You come to, you get better, and then you make them give that to.
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  You well, stay tuned because we're going to have some things
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  coming up that I want to dive into here on the podcast and
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  some other forms and fashions about the junior college system.
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  You know, there's a lot of topics that we can't get into
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  tonight with public transfer portal and things like that,
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  that, you know, we need to make sure every high school coach
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  I've ever talked to will say I do it for the kids.
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  I I want them to go where they are best suited for and I think.
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  We need. To make.
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  Sure. That they understand that junior
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  college is the right route for a lot of kids.
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  I mean, it's, it's not the right route for every kid, just like
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  Division One is not the right route for every kid.
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  But it is absolutely a viable option.
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  I think we need to maybe take a, a harder look into as high
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  school coaches about it. All right, Mark, I've got 100
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  random questions here, and they're they're random, my
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  friend. I remember mine last year.
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  Yeah, one day. Don't pick that one.
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  One through 100. You get to pick the number, I
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  get to ask the question. 2. #288 MPH.
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  Even then at time travel, what are the rules in your time
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  travel universe? You know, there's the Back to
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  the Future where if you do something in the past, it'll
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  mess like you, you know, remember his, his picture was
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  erasing his, his image was erasing from the picture because
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  he met his mom as well. Don't love it.
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  There's the Marvel Universe, which creates a whole separate
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  branch of the timeline. What are your rules?
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  What are you doing in your time travel machine?
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  I said they were in. Yeah, can't go, can't go back
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  further than 100 years. Oh.
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  So you can't mess up multi generation and you can only mess
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  up basically generational. Sounds.
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  Right. That's actually a pretty good.
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  I was trying. You probably just named the
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  Marvel movie theme in 2026. We'll get to something like
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  that. That was good.
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  I put you on the spot. I appreciate that.
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  To do that. For doing that, I for everybody
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  who sits in the hot seat today, and it was the hot seat.
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  You had to think about that. That was good.
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  You're going to go home. You're going to call me like in
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  a week back. All right, here's my rules, man.
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  I was thinking about it. We've got a custom Christmas
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  ornament for the deal. Connections.
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  Podcast only podcast guests are getting, man.
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  So I don't want to see that on eBay.
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  Oh no. Be on the Christmas.
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  Tree Alright, thank you so much. Thank you, appreciate everything
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  you do Thank you, thank you. Hey, again, I'm super blessed
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  and honored that that I coach junior college track and you
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  know, I'm telling you it is an option for for a lot of your
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  kids. We need to make sure we're
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  taking a look at it academically, athletically,
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  location wise, cost wise, etcetera.
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  I think it's, I know it's a valuable option.
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  I coached it for a year. Heck, I've got a great junior
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  college where we live here in Champaign, IL, the athletics and
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  I hope my kids honestly go to Parkland Community College
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  because I don't want to pay a lot for their for their college.
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  That's really where I want them to go for college.