Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / #266: June Villers-Waxahachie (TX) High School

Transcript

#266: June Villers-Waxahachie (TX) High School · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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  Track and field world Juvenal tuned in to our humble servant
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  Mike Cunningham for another extraordinary message on Gil
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  Athletics connections. All right, we're back here on
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  the Gill Connections podcast. Super excited to bring you
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  another superstar, man. I've had this week's guest on my
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  list for a while because I like leaders.
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  I first met today's guest doing some work with the Texas Track
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  and Field Coaches Association and really was just impressed
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  from the get go. And so she's been on the list.
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  And you know, we only get 52 a year.
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  So you got to kind of work your way up the list as we move
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  along. And so I'm super excited.
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  So let's hop into it. Help me welcome the head coach
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  for Waxahachie High School in the great state of Texas, the
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  wise, the wonderful Miss June Villars.
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  June, how are you today? I'm great.
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  Thanks for having me on here, Mike.
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  I'm excited about it. Absolutely.
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  Did I pronounce everything right?
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  That, you know, there's some names out there.
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  Waxahachie. Waxahachie.
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  I never know how to pronounce things.
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  Did I get it right? You got it all correct.
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  It's all good. Perfect.
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  And you know, I love mascots and I actually don't know
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  Waxahachie's mascot. I'm going to guess and then
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  you're going to correct me. I would think it'd be something
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  for some reason I have like either mule riders or like
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  Oilers or something. Two totally different guesses
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  there. What?
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  What is it actually? Not quite.
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  We're the Indians. Indians, All right.
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  I could have gone like tiger, You know, I think that's the
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  most common mascot in high school is tigers.
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  I would have had a good percentage there.
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  But the Waxahachie Indians love it.
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  It's. And you, you know, this may be
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  controversial. You still have that as a mascot,
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  meaning, you know, there's been a lot of changes.
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  Yeah. Yeah, it's very prideful here.
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  Yes, we we do. We're actually opening a new
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  high school in a few years and that was a big to do about what
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  their mascot would be. So there might be some looks at
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  that in the future. But our new high school is going
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  to be the Buffaloes. So that's that's how we do it
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  here. And I'm assuming Waxahachie.
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  This may be a bad assumption. Is the name of an Indian tribe.
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  Well, there's a lot of debate on that, but yes, yes it is.
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  My understanding is it's a combination of two different
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  Indian words put together. So meaning basically Creek and
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  so. Oh, that's cool.
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  All right. Good.
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  I was waiting for you say Indian word for like, Buffalo.
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  And I'm like, OK, well, that's going to make sense for the new
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  high school. Yeah, yeah.
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  Got it. Love it.
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  Cool. Just keeping it simple here,
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  right. That we have no idea why we're
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  named things and but we're we just move forward.
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  I like it. I love it.
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  All right, Miss June, you know, like I mentioned there in the
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  brief quick intro, you know I met you.
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  I think I officially met you at USTFCCC A1 year as I was going
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  in to do some hosting and MC ING for the TTFCA later on that
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  January. And then got to work with you as
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  we introduced different speakers that we have there at the TTFCA
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  Texas Track and Field Coaches Association meeting.
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  And you know, it struck me during that time, you know,
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  there's just there's different types of leadership out there.
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  Some is very easy to see others or not.
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  That is, that's not a judgement on whether it's a good or bad
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  leadership. It's leadership is is good with
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  you. It was evident.
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  Like there was just something about your presence.
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  It was like, oh, like this is a head code.
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  This is AT like there was just something like, Oh man, this is
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  a leader here. And so you immediately went on
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  my list. And so I was super excited to,
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  you know, work through the guest and everything to have you on
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  here. So I'm super excited just to
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  learn about your journey in this great sport, the things that
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  you've contributed, the different leadership positions
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  that you have held and do hold and and maybe you can get a peek
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  at like, well, what's the future look like for you as you
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  continue through through your career here?
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  So I'm, I'm excited for today and just to kind of kind of
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  learn from you here today. Great.
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  Awesome. Well, June, you know, somewhere,
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  you know, knowing that you're a track coach, somewhere track had
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  to start for you. Where does track start, assuming
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  you were an athlete? Does does track and field start
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  as an athlete? Talk to us about the beginning
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  for track and field. So when I was a kid, we moved
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  around a lot and I actually probably lived in about seven or
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  eight different places in Texas and then moved out to California
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  for a couple years and then got back here when I was a 7th
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  grader and I landed in DeSoto. And that's so that's where I
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  started my track career. My 7th grade year actually was
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  just in PE because the schools I had been in didn't have
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  athletics. So I kind of didn't really know
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  any better. And then my 8th grade year, both
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  my 7th and my 8th grade year, I had a wonderful PE teacher.
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  Her name's her name was Pam Debord.
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  And she ended up actually ended up being the assistant athletic
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  director at DeSoto and ended up being the athletic director at
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  DeSoto. And at that time, of course, I
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  didn't know that then, but she saw something special in me.
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  She took time. I was very shy, probably very
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  introverted. We had a field day at the end of
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  7th grade and she just saw some great things in me and took me
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  on. And that's when I started my
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  journey in cross country and track.
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  So otherwise, if it weren't for her, you know, we always have
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  those special people in our lives to get us started.
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  And Pam Debord was definitely that for me.
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  She's she's well known in the in the Dallas Fort Worth area.
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  You know, I have said this many times and I'll shout it from the
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  mountain tops, you know, a a track coach, and I'm sure it's
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  other sport coaches as well, but certainly for a track coach, a
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  track coach's true, true superpower is the ability to see
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  something in others before they can see it in themselves.
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  You didn't 7th, 8th grade go, Oh yeah, I'm, I'm going to be a
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  track star and, you know, go that route.
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  You're like, you know, you talked about being introverted
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  and shy. You were like, yeah, yeah.
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  I just, I don't even want the light.
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  I don't even know what I can be. Maybe I don't even think I can
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  be anything but Pam the board. I want to make sure I'm
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  pronouncing Pam. The board saw you and said, oh,
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  wait, no, no, there's a there's something in that this this
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  child, and I'm going to help pull it out.
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  That's so awesome. I love that.
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  Thank goodness for Pam to board. Yeah, she's still wonderful.
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  I still talk to her and she still looks out for me and, and
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  I just, she's a wonderful person.
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  And it was really my journey at DeSoto was all about having
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  mentors. Once I got into high school, I
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  started running for Coach Jones, Brent Jones.
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  And he in the long run was there for 31 years at DeSoto, started
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  to build that program and create, create the powerhouse
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  that it became. And so when I got to high
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  school, he was very influential. He made sure he, he kept his
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  thumb on me and made sure I I was doing the things I needed to
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  do, keeping my grades up. And he's the one that went out
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  and, and found me a place to run.
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  I ran at Wayland Baptist University, so I ran up there
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  and he, he was the one that worked that all out for me.
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  Otherwise I would have had a hard time paying for college and
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  getting there and and he helped take care of all that for me so.
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  When you look back at it now, you obviously track has been a
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  major part of your life at through high school and college
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  and we'll learn more about that here in a second.
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  Typically, you know, track kids are the most athletic as well.
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  What and maybe you did play other sports, but the but the
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  question is why track in regards to maybe other sports and did
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  you play other sports like what? What was the attraction for
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  track versus other sports? So I played soccer all growing
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  up. So I was I played middle back
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  and so I was used to running all over the field and probably the
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  speed was my strong point in soccer.
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  And I played up into up through my freshman year of high school.
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  And then at that point was when I really got interested in track
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  and, and wanting to excel there. And so that I kind of finished
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  my soccer career in high school and but pursued, but pursued the
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  cross country and the track there.
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  I'm probably a little bit better coach than I was athlete.
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  But like I said, I had great mentors looking out for me and
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  keeping me, keeping me centered. So it was good.
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  Yeah, you know that line you just said there, I'm probably a
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  better coach than I was an athlete.
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  You know, thank God for that because that's probably the
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  majority of us. There's only a few slots to be
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  really, really good, right. So what is it if you those who
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  can't teach, I used to tell people, you know that statement,
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  those who can't teach, I was like, well, I was a really good
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  teacher because that what that means is as I really could not
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  do it at all. I love that.
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  I love that. All right, so as you are going
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  through high school, Coach Jones pouring into you, Coach Debon is
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  always there for you as well. You start thinking about
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  college. What was the thought?
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  So you already told us we went to Wayland Baptist.
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  What was the thought for career like?
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  What did you go in to major in? Was track coaching at all in
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  your mind at this point? Or what were we thinking
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  professionally? It was not.
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  I actually started off pursuing a mechanical engineering degree.
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  I was pretty good at math and pretty good at physics and enjoy
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  doing those things. But in the end, when I got into
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  college, you know, those classes get pretty tough.
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  And I once I was into college, I didn't have the same mentors
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  that I guess I had probably in middle school and high school.
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  And so it was easy to kind of lose your way a little bit.
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  And I had AI think most of us can say we all had one rough
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  semester. And so after leaving that
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  semester, I knew I had to like step back and really think about
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  what I really wanted to do, what where my passion was.
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  And I actually talked to Coach Jones and he never mentioned
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  coaching or teaching because I think most teachers don't.
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  They're like, if you have math and science skills, then you
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  need to pursue those and make the money that goes along with
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  those. But I, I figured out that that's
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  what I want to do. I changed my major and I never
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  looked back. So I did eventually become a
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  math teacher, but I I changed my path probably my junior year,
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  and then everything became very different.
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  You know, a lot of times our majors are picked based off of
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  either someone we met that had that kind of job or our parents
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  or someone in the family. You initially went mechanical
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  engineer, which is super interesting because my first
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  major was computer engineering. My brother-in-law is a double
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  electrical engineering. So, you know, that's and I would
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  100% agree with you again, as a former computer engineering
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  major, holy cow, it, it sounds cool and it looks cool and it
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  probably is cool, but man, those classes get like, I give all
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  hats off to people who got engineering degrees.
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  Holy cow. Where was the the initial
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  motivation to become a mechanical engineer?
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  To become an engineer? I always was very good at fixing
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  things. You know, something broke in the
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  house. I was the one kind of mess with
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  it, tinkering with it and putting it back together.
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  I'm, I worked as a bike mechanic in high school and in college
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  actually Co ended up later Co owning a bicycle shop.
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  So I always was pretty good with my hands.
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  So that's kind of, I thought that would be a good path for
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  me. And, and maybe if you know what,
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  what adults don't tell kids is it's OK to fail.
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  You just got to pick yourself back up and and go again.
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  So I think a lot of people when they have that rough semester,
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  they that's what they need to hear.
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  And I think if I'd had that, I might have continued.
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  But I think I'm my passion is so when I'm out on that track,
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  that's what I'm the happiest I can be outside of being with my
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  own children and my husband. But I think I chose the right
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  career. But I do know that, I guess
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  that's my biggest thing. When my kids graduate, my track
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  girls graduate, I just tell them and make sure they understand
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  you're going to have a bad, some bad times.
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  Just got to reach out to people that are going to get you out of
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  that. So you're being the, the mentor
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  and voice to them today that I, I don't, I don't ever want to
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  look back and think about regrets and things like that
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  because I'm so thankful you did have that rest semester and went
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  into teaching because you wouldn't be on this podcast, you
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  know, if you're a mechanical engineer, trust me.
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  So glad you had that. But if you'd have had someone in
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  your ear going, hey, yeah, I know you just had a tough
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  semester, Boy, so did I when I was doing engineering school or
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  whatever. You just got to kind of stick to
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  it. It'll, it'll come back.
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  It's all right. And I think kids and you know, I
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  do it's, it's interesting you talk about that and you see it
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  every day. You know, I've got a 13 year old
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  and 10 year old. So I've got, you know, 13 year
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  old getting ready to another year of middle school and then
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  high school. But I think about like, you
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  know, these kids and we were too.
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  So I'm not putting it as like today's generation versus our
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  generation, but you know, they're under a lot of things.
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  When you were 18 years old, you're under a lot of things.
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  Just a lot of different stress and pressures and motivations
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  and demotivators. It is tough to be a kid.
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  You know, I still would trade in a heartbeat with any 18 year.
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  I'd go back to college or high school in a heartbeat.
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  But you know, they, they do have their own.
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  I think sometimes as adults, we, because of the different
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  stressors and pressures we have, you know, we got to pay the
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  bills, we got jobs and relationships, etcetera.
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  We have health, you know, with our families.
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  I think sometimes because of those stressors, we think, oh
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  man, you, you ain't got nothing wrong as a 16 year old, 18 year
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  old, 20, whatever, wait till you get to the real world.
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  And it's like, no, they are in their own real world and they
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  need mentors along the way that can help show them that it's not
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  the end of the world and that they can fail.
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  I love that you said that because I think that's 100%
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  correct and that none of this is fatal mistakes.
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  We can we can all pick up and move on and become teachers or
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  whatever ends up coming through the pipeline.
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  I love that. So you ran track all four and
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  maybe five years through Waylon? I did not my my track career was
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  short lived. I ran, I ran for Waylon just my
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  freshman year. And then I ended up due to
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  family reasons, I had to go back home and I start, I started
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  going to school at UTA. I attempted to start running at
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  UTA, but it didn't work out. I I was having to work in it in
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  school and everything. So I had other responsibilities
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  I had to pursue. Yeah.
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  So that, that makes a lot of sense.
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  You know, I actually, you appreciate your openness and
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  authenticity there. You know, I think sometimes we,
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  we take it for granted 'cause we do see so many kids that go on
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  to run college track. You know, it's the number one
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  most participated sport both in high school and college when we
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  had boys and girls, men and women together.
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  And, you know, when we're in the coaching world, I think we take
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  it for granted 'cause we see a lot of kids that go and run four
• 15:01
  or five years and graduate and think like, oh, that's everybody
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  does that. I, I got a lot of respect for
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  kids who do that and the like, it's tough it again and all the
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  family and financial and everything else that goes on
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  with it. I think it's harder than we
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  think and it's easy for us to just assume that everybody does.
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  I, I appreciate hearing that. So you end up with a math
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  education degree? What did we end up getting the
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  degree in? So I ended up having a math and
• 15:29
  kinesiology degree and graduated and then started actually at
• 15:35
  South Grand Prairie working with Sharon Bruner.
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  I don't know if you know who Sharon Bruner is, but she's kind
• 15:41
  of a legend around here too. So I was very lucky there with
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  that mentor. I've just been very, very lucky
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  over the years or got to work with her for a semester as my
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  student coaching and teaching and have worked with the cross
• 15:54
  country team there. And so that was quite, quite a
• 15:58
  great experience for me working with her.
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  And when I left there with finishing my student coaching
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  and teaching, they actually offered me the swim job.
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  There weren't any track positions up.
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  Of course I wouldn't track. I haven't heard any swimming in
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  this story yet, unless we just somehow skipped it.
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  I know, yeah. So.
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  So no, no, no. So I never did.
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  And I just wonder sometimes where I'd be if I'd accepted
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  that first position, you know, But I went on to, I said, no,
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  I'm, I'm, I'm looking for track. So then I went on to my student
• 16:34
  teaching at Red Oak and I was at Red Oak for semester.
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  What did you think? I just, I don't know.
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  I see it, you know, again, we're in the Track World.
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  So maybe I just see it commonly because in the Track World, you
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  know, I see a lot of times where a parent or a new teacher who
• 16:51
  has no track experience get gets asked to help out with the track
• 16:54
  team. And I and I, I don't know, I
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  just think it's just commonplace and we have to coach a coach.
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  I don't hear it in other sports. What were what did you think
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  when they were like, Hey, we'd love to.
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  And you can coach and you're like, Oh yeah, track.
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  And they go swimming and you're like, wait a minute.
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  Well, it was really something to contemplate because it the
• 17:12
  training I'm sure is. And I could, you know, I was a
• 17:15
  decent swimmer. I had grown up swimming a lot
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  and knew all the different strokes and everything.
• 17:20
  It was certainly something I thought I could probably do.
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  And a lot of the training concepts are very, very similar,
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  as long as you can teach the the strokes and all that similar
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  training concepts. But I just it, I just, I said
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  no, I knew what I wanted to do. And so I just continued to try
• 17:39
  to pursue that. That's so funny.
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  You know, we're in the midst of, I think the swimming Olympic
• 17:45
  trials are going on right now too.
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  So there is, there's got to be similarities, right?
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  Like I've never actually talked to a swim coach because I've
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  never, you know, I was at one school Ball State that we had
• 17:53
  swimming and they were very much and I feel like this is common
• 17:57
  for swimming, but I think people would say this about track too.
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  It was very much like 100 meter swimmers did like miles in my I
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  mean, it was just and I was just like, Oh my, my track background
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  was like, this can't be right. Like 100 meter swimmer.
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  I know they're not do the same things we do for 100 meter
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  sprinters, but there's got to be correlation of like speed
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  training, not, you know, just get conditioned for I I don't
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  know it is. I think it's that whole you have
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  to hold your breath thing. I think you have to be a little
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  more aerobic than a track person.
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  Yeah, yes, yes. Not disagreeing with that.
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  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Although I did learn when I was
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  at Ball State, I, I started dating an assistant coach there.
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  So I had, I had to, I had to go to swim meets.
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  You know, I know a lot of people complain about track meets, man,
• 18:40
  swim meets. I'll leave it at that.
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  If you haven't been to a swim meet, I know it looks really
• 18:47
  cool on TV with Olympic trials right now, go to your average
• 18:50
  high school or college swim meet.
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  It's tough. It's loud, it's humid.
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  It's all it's a long. It's really.
• 19:00
  Yes. So yeah, I didn't.
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  We didn't make me and the girlfriend didn't make it very
• 19:04
  long. All right, so you're at Red Oak
• 19:06
  High School. This is your first, I don't call
• 19:09
  it real, but this is your first coaching experience now, right?
• 19:11
  Well, it's my first job, right? Right.
• 19:13
  So I graduated in December, OK, And they had a math position
• 19:18
  come open. And so I took on the Red Oak
• 19:20
  position and I went and I volunteered, coached track and
• 19:24
  field at Red Oak, OK. Which is funny because one of my
• 19:29
  assistants I've had with me, one of my coaches that she's been
• 19:31
  with, she's been with me like 20 years.
• 19:33
  She was actually a student. I didn't.
• 19:35
  Yeah. So I didn't work with her
• 19:37
  because she was a hurdler. And at the time I didn't work
• 19:39
  with the hurdlers. But that's kind of our
• 19:43
  connection over the years. I ended up working with her
• 19:45
  later, but so I started there and took on that volunteer.
• 19:52
  I think it's really important for coaches, if they want to
• 19:56
  know for sure that this is what I'm going to pursue, they need
• 20:00
  to go volunteer coach. They really do.
• 20:03
  They need to understand the hours.
• 20:05
  They need to make sure that it's willing because the whole job is
• 20:08
  going above and beyond most of the time of your expectations if
• 20:13
  you're going to be successful. So if you're not willing to go
• 20:16
  volunteer, then you're probably not above and beyond person and
• 20:21
  if you want to be successful in this career path.
• 20:26
  Then you're going to need to be that person.
• 20:28
  I, I, I have a lot of agreeance and then a little bit of
• 20:31
  disagreements there, but I do agree.
• 20:34
  Like I like the idea, like I think more like in the college
• 20:37
  side, the graduate assistant positions, it's it's just
• 20:42
  assumed if you become a graduate assistant that you're going to
• 20:44
  go on to be a track coach. And I think it needs to be more
• 20:46
  of like, Hey, that's your internship.
• 20:48
  And you know what, at the end of that year or two years or
• 20:50
  whatever, if you do decide to go into coaching, great.
• 20:53
  You just had a great two year experience and you saw what the
• 20:55
  quote UN quote real world of coaching is.
• 20:57
  And if not awesome, you got a great grad degree on top of your
• 21:00
  undergrad. Go do whatever that's going to,
• 21:03
  you know, teach you whatever you're going to be there.
• 21:06
  The reason I say I have a little bit of disagreements is I I
• 21:09
  don't like yeah. And this is more of a college
• 21:12
  thing, to be real Frank with you.
• 21:14
  I don't like the world of volunteer.
• 21:16
  I think coach here's what it boils down to.
• 21:18
  I think coaches should be paid more.
• 21:20
  I guess you'll agree with me on that one, June.
• 21:22
  I think coaches should be paid more.
• 21:23
  And so I don't like the suppression of of of salaries of
• 21:26
  wages of we just bring on a volunteer coach.
• 21:29
  We don't need to pay for another position on staff.
• 21:31
  Just go get a volunteer coach. I don't I don't like that.
• 21:33
  That's the part I don't like. But on the high school side, it
• 21:35
  is it not even a little different.
• 21:37
  It is different. We're we're talking about a
• 21:38
  different type of coaching, coaching staff out there as
• 21:40
  well. Yeah, it's completely different.
• 21:43
  But like college, they're, they're so very different.
• 21:46
  Yeah, I, I completely understand that.
• 21:49
  Yeah, I think a lot of times volunteer coaches are expected
• 21:52
  to do a lot more than they need to at the college level, at the
• 21:55
  high school level, I think it shows that you're, you're
• 21:59
  motivated to do those things. You're motivated to learn more
• 22:03
  than cause a lot of people think I was a great athlete.
• 22:07
  I did college track, I did these events.
• 22:09
  I know, I know everything. You really need to show those
• 22:14
  upper level coaches at the high school level that you're willing
• 22:16
  to go and learn the way they do things and their philosophy and
• 22:21
  and not just track any sport. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
• 22:25
  And you know, on the high school side, when we're talking about,
• 22:28
  you know, a teacher volunteering, you know, or
• 22:30
  coaching even, you know, we forget.
• 22:33
  And you know, I, I'm getting a better sense of it because my
• 22:36
  wife has started substitute teaching.
• 22:38
  So she's not a teacher, but she substitute and she does long
• 22:41
  term Subs. And so she did like algebra last
• 22:43
  semester. So I think she's doing geometry
• 22:45
  this next semester. And you know, I've heard the
• 22:48
  stories, but I guess until you get on and the chamber media has
• 22:50
  to wait until my wife works for me to get this.
• 22:53
  But I, I now have the experience.
• 22:54
  I see, you know, the grading of papers and stuff.
• 22:56
  And I started thinking it's like, well, she ain't coaching
• 22:58
  even like there's people, you know, that she works with that
• 23:01
  at 3:00, she comes home in in in grades, they go to practice and
• 23:05
  then still have to. It's just amazing the amount of
• 23:09
  workload and then these selfless people like yourself that now
• 23:11
  also spend hours a day at practice, not even counting
• 23:15
  weekends for meets and things like that.
• 23:17
  It's a, you know, coaching track and field, even on the high
• 23:19
  school side could be a full time position and you do it on top of
• 23:23
  your actual full time position of teaching.
• 23:26
  OK, so you're at Red Oak, you do the semester of volunteering, so
• 23:30
  now you're coaching. I'm always fascinated, you know,
• 23:33
  being an athlete, regardless of the skill level, whether you are
• 23:37
  all American or you're just happy to be on the team.
• 23:40
  It's different being an athlete than coaching.
• 23:43
  You go from everything coach tells me, I internalize.
• 23:47
  How do I do it to make myself better to OK, now I have to.
• 23:51
  I have these eager little 131415 year old kids and their eyes
• 23:54
  just staring at me. What do I do with them?
• 23:57
  What was your experience? Talk about that first experience
• 23:59
  of coaching of actually, I'm going to call it barking out
• 24:02
  orders, but you know, putting them through their paces.
• 24:04
  How did that feel? What did you struggle with?
• 24:06
  Talk to us about that initial experience.
• 24:09
  Well, my first coaching position was at Palmer.
• 24:12
  It's a little too a school, not too actually far South of
• 24:15
  Waxahachie here. And I was cross country and
• 24:19
  middle school basketball, which I'd never even dribbled a ball
• 24:22
  before ever. But that's what you do when
• 24:24
  you're at small schools. And then I was the head track
• 24:27
  coach also. But so my very first experience
• 24:31
  was into coaching was you're going to go get your CDL so they
• 24:36
  don't talk about stuff like that.
• 24:37
  But we had to drive the bus, so I've got to go get ACDL.
• 24:40
  So there was AI need. I went back and went to coaching
• 24:43
  school that summer. So it was a very busy summer
• 24:46
  trying to get ready to be a coach even I had a great, great.
• 24:50
  Then mentor became friend. She was the girls coordinator at
• 24:55
  Palmer and she kind of led me through it.
• 24:59
  She was a basketball coach and she's the one that talked me
• 25:02
  into helping her with the basketball team.
• 25:06
  And I would say she was, her name was Emmy Ellis.
• 25:09
  She was very influential in teaching me time management in
• 25:15
  that if you only need this much time and if you can't get it
• 25:19
  done in that much time, then it probably wasn't worth doing.
• 25:22
  And so I even just going to her basketball practice, I was like,
• 25:27
  OK, we need to make sure we're using every second of our time
• 25:30
  in a positive way. And so that actually is very
• 25:35
  helpful to me that that you need to do just a few things and
• 25:40
  build on those each day. And so she she was very
• 25:45
  important to me too. I was there for four years and
• 25:47
  we became very close friends. And it seems strange that you
• 25:52
  would learn probably more from a basketball coach than anybody
• 25:54
  else and track 'cause I was willing to go and, you know, buy
• 25:58
  the videos. Back then you had to buy the
• 25:59
  videos, right? You spent a lot of money.
• 26:02
  Now you just, you can download, which is wonderful for all these
• 26:05
  new coaches. But I probably learned as much
• 26:08
  more from her as anybody that I worked with at the very
• 26:11
  beginning. Yeah, talk to us about that a
• 26:13
  bit more. That's that's interesting topic.
• 26:16
  You know, when you talk about time management, you know,
• 26:18
  specifically we're talking about track coaching, but again,
• 26:20
  because you, you're teaching, there's other things and you
• 26:22
  know, maybe hopefully you have a personal life and friends and
• 26:25
  relationships, etcetera. And you know, it's for track.
• 26:28
  I don't know if this is for other sports, but I know in
• 26:30
  track there's like we, we have kind of this like sadistic
• 26:35
  thought process sometimes of like, you know, we brag about
• 26:37
  the three hour, 4 hour, 5 hour practices seven days a week,
• 26:41
  things like that. And, and maybe that's available,
• 26:46
  you know, based on incatively rules for incatively, but for
• 26:49
  high school, we are still talking about 14 to 18 year old
• 26:52
  kids. You learn this with basketball.
• 26:55
  Talk to us more about like, so how did you transfer what you
• 26:58
  were learning from her on basketball to track?
• 27:00
  I I'm assuming this is a, a whole big assumption that that
• 27:04
  kind of traditional, like long practice type things is what you
• 27:07
  went through. Because again, that's kind of a,
• 27:09
  again, that's an assumption. It's a big swath.
• 27:10
  How did you start looking at practices different now that you
• 27:13
  were the coach and you were learning from from her?
• 27:16
  So as girls coordinator and the basketball coach, she was really
• 27:19
  good about each week sending out exactly what the team was going
• 27:22
  to be doing and where she needed each coach to be during what
• 27:25
  they were doing. And so, yes.
• 27:28
  Oh, interesting. OK, yeah, just like we're OK,
• 27:30
  we're going to start with transition drill fundamentals,
• 27:33
  you know, just there was no doubt what you were doing as the
• 27:36
  practice went on. And so I learned that skill from
• 27:40
  her. And so every week now I Sunday
• 27:43
  night or Monday morning, depending on when I can get it
• 27:45
  out, but I send that to all of our track coaches here on
• 27:50
  campus. And then I also send it to all
• 27:52
  our middle school coaches. And it's, you know, it's very
• 27:55
  detailed. It'll have all the drills we're
• 27:56
  going to do and for which particular event and, and all of
• 28:01
  those things. So I learned that that from her.
• 28:03
  I don't know that if I had seen that in action, if I would be as
• 28:06
  good at that now. Yeah.
• 28:08
  Yeah, that that's interesting. You know, June, specifically for
• 28:12
  you because I know of your interaction with TTFCA and
• 28:14
  stuff. You know, I'm always, I go to a
• 28:16
  lot of different clinics around the country, right, obviously
• 28:18
  Texas, Wisconsin, Ohio, etcetera.
• 28:21
  And, and it's interesting in the last 10 years, the, the, a
• 28:27
  little bit of, of a, of a shift in the different topics that are
• 28:31
  spoken on, you know, 10 years plus ago, every, you know, 99%
• 28:35
  of the topics would be, you know, how to coach distance
• 28:38
  runners better, how to, you know, go from glide to
• 28:41
  rotational and shot. It was all technique based
• 28:44
  majority of stuff. Now we're seeing in the, you
• 28:47
  know, in the past 10 years, a shift to, you know, some topics
• 28:50
  on, you know, culture of a track team.
• 28:53
  You know, even at USTFCA on the college side, they they'll have
• 28:56
  sessions on contract negotiations, things like, you
• 28:58
  know, things that are still part of very much of the coach
• 29:00
  profession, just not always coaching, you know, that kind of
• 29:06
  topic. Like I just I see that kind of
• 29:08
  topic of like timing, like, hey, here's something that I do and
• 29:10
  it's been successful. Like that would be an
• 29:11
  interesting topic, I think at at clinic.
• 29:14
  And I don't mean maybe you're going to tell me you already you
• 29:16
  already presented on that. I don't know, but that that's
• 29:18
  just interesting. Like how do we help the
• 29:20
  profession of coaches and coaching and and what you just
• 29:23
  described there? You you do you send that out to
• 29:26
  the athletes too, or just to the different coaches?
• 29:28
  I actually send that out just to the coaches.
• 29:33
  I know a lot of people are dead set on, you know, they'll have
• 29:36
  the week there, the workout that they're going to do the rest of
• 29:39
  the week posted in the locker room.
• 29:41
  I've actually never really done that.
• 29:43
  The kids kind of know though, you know, it's Monday, we're
• 29:46
  going to probably do one of three workouts, right?
• 29:49
  So they have an idea what's coming.
• 29:51
  But I haven't really posted that for the kids per SE.
• 29:55
  And I know a lot that works for a lot of people, but it's not I
• 29:58
  we have to adjust so much because of weather and just
• 30:02
  different testing and different situations.
• 30:04
  So I, I don't really like to put that out there.
• 30:07
  So because if I need to make a last minute change, I don't want
• 30:10
  it look to look like I'm not sure about what we're doing.
• 30:12
  Yeah, there's pros and cons and it looks like, well, you said
• 30:15
  this, you know how a 16 year old can be.
• 30:17
  Trust me. Yeah, we all we all know that.
• 30:19
  OK, that's interesting. So you learned that from a
• 30:21
  basketball coach. I love that actually, because I
• 30:23
  know the influence track coaches have had another sport.
• 30:26
  So I do love seeing that other sports coaches influence us as
• 30:30
  well. I love that.
• 30:31
  So you were there for at Palmer for you said a few several
• 30:34
  years. I was there for four years, four
• 30:36
  years. Yeah.
• 30:37
  So how did, how did, how did you think back to those four years?
• 30:41
  What was the growth that you had?
• 30:42
  You know, you went in as a very rookie coach after four years,
• 30:46
  you certainly don't know at all at that point, but you certainly
• 30:48
  start having a flow, a much better idea of how to run
• 30:51
  practices, coaching, education. You talked about with, you know,
• 30:55
  buying videos, which I can't believe we of course, I believe
• 30:57
  we used to do that, but it's so much easier today, that's for
• 30:59
  sure. Yeah.
• 31:02
  I think having to work in that small situation, so in track and
• 31:05
  field specifically, well, cross country, there were two years
• 31:08
  where I was the only coach. So I had 7th grade through
• 31:11
  senior kids on the same bus. You know, you have 7th grade
• 31:15
  boys and senior girls on the same bus.
• 31:17
  It gets quite interesting. So you know, you deal with all
• 31:20
  those social aspects that you don't really think about, but
• 31:23
  you know, you have a lot of fun with that.
• 31:25
  But, and then during track and field, I would had usually just
• 31:29
  one assistant. And so kind of the, the hardship
• 31:33
  and the beauty of it was though, that I had to learn all the
• 31:37
  different events. There's probably just three
• 31:40
  events that I feel like I could you really use some more work on
• 31:43
  the throws, of course, because you just, it's hard to get out
• 31:46
  there when you need to be with the rest of the team.
• 31:48
  And then of course, pole vault, it's so technical.
• 31:53
  But outside of that, I had to learn all the different events
• 31:56
  and I feel pretty confident most of those that I can go out there
• 32:00
  and do those. So that that was a good thing
• 32:02
  for me. It was very important that I
• 32:07
  felt like even though it was 2A, when you're at those smaller
• 32:09
  schools track, it's funny depending on which school you go
• 32:13
  to that you barely have coaches going out there or they're all
• 32:17
  in. It's it's very different
• 32:19
  depending on the school. So luckily I had one assistant
• 32:23
  that was all in and we worked very well together, but it was
• 32:28
  tough. I mean, you, I would have to get
• 32:30
  out there early with some kids and stay late with other kids
• 32:34
  just so you can make sure you can get in all the different
• 32:37
  techniques and or skills. And then the first year I
• 32:41
  actually, we didn't have a track.
• 32:43
  We had to put all the kids on a bus to Ferris every day and
• 32:46
  drive back and forth from Ferris four days a week.
• 32:48
  So yeah, I'm not sure I would do that now, but I didn't know any
• 32:53
  better then. I was just gonna say, you didn't
• 32:55
  know any better, right? With two coaches, how many kids
• 32:59
  were you had on the team? So we had, you know, initially
• 33:05
  that it was pretty kind of a small crew.
• 33:07
  That very first year we just had two girls make it to regionals.
• 33:10
  But by the time I left we had a dozen make it so in four years.
• 33:15
  So we probably had for varsity and JV, you know, it's a little
• 33:19
  school, but we probably had about 23, which it was a lot of
• 33:22
  kids. It was most of the kids.
• 33:25
  It really was just the kids who play softball that didn't run
• 33:29
  track because they were over, you know, obviously on the
• 33:31
  softball field. So if they weren't doing
• 33:33
  softball, they were running. And we even had two or three
• 33:36
  that did do softball. So because at that level, my
• 33:39
  best kids did five sports, so. Five sports.
• 33:44
  Well, my best kids were cheerleaders and they did
• 33:47
  volleyball and they play basketball and they ran track
• 33:51
  and my top three, they played softball.
• 33:54
  So yeah, they were busy kids. I love, I think we should
• 33:59
  continue to to, to promote multi sport athletes.
• 34:04
  There's a, my, my local high school I live in just outside of
• 34:07
  Champaign and Mahomet. They do a like when you go into
• 34:10
  their gym, they have a, I'm going to call it a plaque, but
• 34:13
  they have a, you know, a board that shows here are the two
• 34:16
  sport athletes and they have their names in the school and
• 34:18
  then they have a board. Here's our three sport athletes
• 34:20
  and they have those, you know, less names And then they have a
• 34:22
  couple of four sport athletes. And I was like, oh, what a way
• 34:25
  to sell. Like if I'm a student or an
• 34:28
  athlete in that school and I look, I'm like, man, Johnny's on
• 34:29
  the four sport. I only play one.
• 34:32
  Shouldn't I try? And like, even if they just try
• 34:35
  it and they don't succeed, it gets them experience in other
• 34:37
  sports. I love that five sports.
• 34:39
  That's amazing. Yeah.
• 34:42
  And you know what, I didn't even think about it.
• 34:43
  We had some run across. We had quite a few run across
• 34:45
  country so. Dude, they did it all.
• 34:49
  That that is amazing. What what an experience for that
• 34:52
  kid, you know, always involved, always having fun, trying
• 34:54
  different things. Obviously, you know, it was
• 34:56
  probably maybe a better cross runner than a volleyball, you
• 34:58
  know, But you know, yeah. And maybe someone was a stud on
• 35:01
  all of them. You know, athletes are athletes.
• 35:02
  So that's really cool. I love that.
• 35:04
  All right, so Palmer, what? What did you go to next and and
• 35:08
  why? So after those four years, the N
• 35:14
  Mesquite, which is a well back then it was 5A, but it was big
• 35:19
  school position came open and I was trying, my sister was going
• 35:25
  to be moving back and so I was like I probably need to get a
• 35:27
  little closer to Dallas and all that.
• 35:29
  So I took that position at N Mesquite and that was it was a
• 35:36
  good experience. It's very it was very different
• 35:39
  from what I was used to. You know, six of the big school
• 35:42
  level, which back then was 5A. Now it's 6A.
• 35:45
  You know, it's so much more competitive and you have kids
• 35:48
  that they're only track kids or maybe they do basketball and
• 35:51
  track, but you don't have those four and five sport kids
• 35:55
  anymore. So you have to kind of look at
• 35:58
  things differently and do things differently.
• 36:00
  You I had to figure out how to up my offseason workouts because
• 36:04
  we didn't have a lot of offseason kids where I was used
• 36:07
  to coming from. So you got to get creative
• 36:11
  there. So but then at the end of that
• 36:14
  year, I got a phone call from my high school coach saying that
• 36:20
  Coach Malone was retiring, which was his main assistant.
• 36:23
  The whole time I was at DeSoto she was retiring and he asked me
• 36:28
  if I would come and take coach with him and take her position
• 36:32
  and I said when I hang this phone up, I'll be at your door.
• 36:36
  As a no brainer. Yeah, I could not get there fast
• 36:40
  enough to be able to work with him and work for my old high
• 36:42
  school, so. So in that because I do have a
• 36:46
  great, I think it's a great. I have a question off of that,
• 36:48
  but go back to some, you know, when we're talking about on the
• 36:51
  college side, when someone says a positioned opened up, they're
• 36:55
  talking about I'm a I'm a coach at this school and another
• 36:57
  coaching job open up there. But as much as you know, you're
• 37:00
  on this podcast because you're a track coach.
• 37:02
  However, that's not primary. You are a teacher.
• 37:05
  That's the career. When you say, when you talk
• 37:08
  about when you're at Palmer in a position to open up like at N
• 37:10
  Mesquite, are you saying a track coach position open up until you
• 37:14
  apply for it and you then have to figure out, well, is there a
• 37:17
  teaching position also? Or were you saying that there
• 37:19
  was a teaching position opened up?
• 37:21
  And I'll coach whether it's a volunteer or assistant or if
• 37:24
  they need a head, how does that work?
• 37:26
  Call it professionally. So I was, I'd always only taught
• 37:29
  math and I was the department head at Palmer.
• 37:34
  And so, not to sound cocky or anything, but if you're a math
• 37:38
  teacher, you can, you can work anywhere you want.
• 37:41
  OK, the math teaching position part was never, never an issue
• 37:45
  for me. It was really about the coaching
• 37:48
  position. Is that because there's less
• 37:50
  math teacher? I'm assuming there's less math
• 37:52
  teachers. Like whenever I see people like
• 37:53
  on Twitter and stuff, when they put out like, you know, we need
• 37:55
  a coach. Here's the open positions.
• 37:57
  It's rarely like English and PE, although sometimes it's math
• 38:00
  science. It seems like those are maybe
• 38:02
  the less frequented teachers, but also that combo of them and
• 38:07
  they coach whatever sport specifically track here.
• 38:10
  Yeah, it's it's and it's worse now than it used to be.
• 38:13
  It's very difficult to find math and science teachers.
• 38:17
  Oh yeah. And, and actually I've been PE
• 38:20
  certified my whole career because I was a math kinesiology
• 38:25
  major and I had never taught PE. That was for track.
• 38:30
  And I I'm only speaking from my own experience, but they don't
• 38:34
  hand out a lot of PE positions to track coaches.
• 38:36
  That's unusual. Yeah, usually, usually those are
• 38:40
  not track coaches, they're they're other positions.
• 38:42
  So and that's, that's experience I had anyway.
• 38:44
  So at least on the the girls side, boys or men, if they're
• 38:49
  coaching football, then that can be, you know, obviously that
• 38:52
  changes everything. But so I never taught PE, only
• 38:56
  math all the way through. So when you said a position open
• 38:58
  North N Mesquite, that was a track coaching position and and
• 39:03
  obviously there still had to be a math position for you or that
• 39:06
  doesn't work out, I'm assuming. Yeah.
• 39:08
  OK. So then you go do math.
• 39:09
  OK. And so same thing, DeSoto, the
• 39:12
  assistant job opens up from your old head coach, by the way.
• 39:14
  That's amazing. We're going to ask about that in
• 39:16
  a second. And so you go there and you
• 39:17
  teach math there as well and coach with with the former your
• 39:22
  former coach. Yes.
• 39:23
  OK. And I'm hearing maybe I missed
• 39:26
  it all girls up to this point that you're coaching.
• 39:30
  Yes. Well, no.
• 39:32
  No, that's not true. Cross country.
• 39:34
  I coach boys and girls. OK, all right.
• 39:36
  And at DeSoto girls assistant coach.
• 39:39
  I was the girls assistant coach and for track and then the girls
• 39:44
  and boys assistant coach for cross country.
• 39:47
  Is, is it culture in Texas that boys and girls Staffs separate
• 39:52
  or is it just happenstance where you're at?
• 39:55
  I think certainly in track and field, the larger the school
• 39:58
  they separate, but at Palmer that was 2A and we were
• 40:03
  separate. Yeah, I I would have thought
• 40:05
  smaller school, less separate just because of people.
• 40:08
  Yeah, it overlaps, probably more.
• 40:09
  The smaller the school, the more it will overlap.
• 40:11
  OK, cool. All right, so now you get to
• 40:13
  DeSoto. Here's what I'm always
• 40:15
  interested in. So you become the assistant
• 40:17
  coach under your former head coach.
• 40:19
  So this is the person that used to bark out orders to you and
• 40:23
  now you're his assistant coach. That's a different dynamic.
• 40:27
  How did you know there's you know, I know for sure, you know,
• 40:30
  my my head coaches in high school were not very good
• 40:33
  coaches. I love them to death, but they
• 40:34
  were just not very good track coaches.
• 40:38
  But I still have a very much defer.
• 40:40
  You know, whatever I see my own coach.
• 40:41
  It's like I'll coach how you do it, you know, and now you got
• 40:44
  not that you're in the same because your assistant, but it's
• 40:46
  not athlete coach dynamic. It's now assistant coach.
• 40:49
  How did you, you know, worked that transition?
• 40:53
  That is a transition. Yeah, it it, it was a transition
• 40:57
  for both of us because when I got there, his main assistant,
• 41:03
  she was, she basically kept the ship, you know, she doing the
• 41:08
  laundry, checking on everybody's grades, checking make sure
• 41:11
  everybody's doing right in class, taking every time you
• 41:15
  could possibly imagine for every kid, all those type of
• 41:19
  organizational things. And then when I got there, I was
• 41:25
  the expectation was that we repacked bags for track meets
• 41:30
  every week. Well, we had about 60 plus
• 41:32
  girls. One year we had 88.
• 41:34
  So it just depend on the year. But the expectation was to to
• 41:39
  pack and laundry 80 bags a week. And I just finally had to sit
• 41:44
  him down and thought, Coach, look, I love you, but I'm not
• 41:49
  here to do laundry. We got to figure something else
• 41:51
  out. So and he he was good with that,
• 41:56
  but like I, I was like, please, you know, let me take the long
• 42:00
  jumpers. And, and he just kind of wasn't
• 42:02
  used to that. You know, he was used to kind of
• 42:05
  coaching everything and everyone kind of just helping him coach
• 42:10
  kind of thing. And so he did it.
• 42:12
  So it was a it was different for both of us because I was used to
• 42:14
  being the head coach and kind of calling the shots and he was
• 42:18
  used to calling all the shots all the time.
• 42:20
  So he handed over the jumpers to me and allowed me to take them
• 42:25
  and that was a great experience. And I think once he kind of just
• 42:29
  let go a little bit, we had a great time.
• 42:32
  It was it it To this day, I still call him Coach Jones.
• 42:36
  I can't call him by his first name, right?
• 42:38
  That that never changes. And so I just learned so much
• 42:43
  from him as far as training techniques and, and, and again,
• 42:50
  more of the organizational that I learned from the basketball.
• 42:52
  He just took it to another level with track and field.
• 42:57
  He's he was a Baylor coach, ran at Baylor and so he used a lot
• 43:00
  of the Baylor techniques and all that.
• 43:02
  So I learned a ton from him and we had a fantastic time.
• 43:07
  And the first year I was there, I was still relatively young,
• 43:12
  right? So I'm like, I get there.
• 43:13
  I'm about 2728, I guess. And so the kids felt pretty
• 43:19
  comfortable around me, I guess, for the most part.
• 43:23
  But it was funny. The very first year he was very
• 43:25
  clear to make sure everyone knew he was he was still in charge.
• 43:29
  And I appreciated that, you know, because it, it kind of
• 43:34
  helped put put me remember, remember why I'm here.
• 43:37
  I'm not, I'm not the head coach, I'm not calling the shots.
• 43:39
  I'm here to totally support everything he's doing.
• 43:43
  Yeah, that's a good point. I was talking about the
• 43:44
  transition of you, you know, to this is my head coach that told
• 43:47
  me, you know, what to do and run and all that.
• 43:49
  So now I'm his assistant coach. I I did not think about the
• 43:52
  other way. You know, Coach Jones looks at
• 43:54
  you and goes, yeah, June, you're still the 16 year old girl that
• 43:57
  didn't know how to tie your shoes when I was trying to get
• 43:59
  her to do a long run or whatever.
• 44:01
  You know, like he also had to go through that transition and
• 44:05
  sounds like he at least got to the point where, OK, you know,
• 44:11
  this is not 16 year old June. This is 27 year old June.
• 44:14
  She's, she's learned. She's a coach.
• 44:15
  I can trust her. OK, go take the jumpers.
• 44:18
  That that's a hard transition from him as well.
• 44:19
  I, I, I can see that. That's it's not just, you know,
• 44:22
  to expect it just to be easy peasy and you know, we all work
• 44:25
  in harmony from the get go. That's unexpected.
• 44:28
  So that's that's cool to see his transition as well.
• 44:31
  What are you doing? So you're taking over jumps.
• 44:33
  What are you doing with coaching education?
• 44:36
  I like to think of it as informal, informal, informal.
• 44:40
  You, you kind of described a little bit of like, you know,
• 44:42
  learning from him, things like that.
• 44:43
  That's called the informant. And by the way, both are
• 44:45
  important, formal and informal, you know, talking with peers,
• 44:49
  things like that. Formal is the, you know, USATF
• 44:52
  level ones, twos, USTF. Well, we didn't have USTFCA back
• 44:55
  then, I bet coaching clinics, TTFCA, things like that.
• 44:59
  What were you doing? Coaching education, both
• 45:01
  informal and formal at this point.
• 45:04
  Well so I guess informal. I was buying the videos and
• 45:08
  watching stuff all the time as much as I could.
• 45:10
  I was going to every clinic I possibly could get myself to and
• 45:13
  if I could afford to go. But you know, I also did the
• 45:18
  USATF jump training. I did the weight training
• 45:23
  certifications. So there were about three, I
• 45:25
  think probably three different USA certifications that I did
• 45:30
  that I learned a ton from. And that's probably where my,
• 45:34
  you know, one of my biggest mentors that I just he, anything
• 45:39
  I need, I can call him or text him and he'll help is Vince
• 45:43
  Anderson. Oh.
• 45:44
  Come on. Yeah.
• 45:45
  I know. So I mean, we were all we, you
• 45:48
  know, when I got to DeSoto, we were starting to get pretty
• 45:52
  good. We were showing up the state
• 45:54
  track meet, we were there, we had kids always, you know,
• 45:58
  really strong throwers and hurdlers.
• 46:02
  Our relays were getting better, but our Sprint relay and four by
• 46:06
  two, we just, we didn't have it. And then we got better and
• 46:09
  better, but we could never break 46, we could never break about
• 46:16
  46, three. We just couldn't get under it.
• 46:20
  And then I went to see him speak up at SMU and it changed my
• 46:24
  whole mindset on the two short relays.
• 46:28
  And after that, that's when we started to drop and we would, we
• 46:32
  didn't go under 46. It was it was not a good year.
• 46:36
  So that kind of changed everything for us.
• 46:40
  You know, I love, I love Vince to death and I love his speaking
• 46:43
  style. I'm sure it's very similar to
• 46:45
  his actual coaching style. You know, he he's the kind of
• 46:49
  guy every time I've went and listened to him speak, I'm like
• 46:52
  so motivated to go coach right then and there.
• 46:54
  I mean, it's just like, all right, let's go, you know, like
• 46:56
  I don't even coach anymore. I'm like, all right, let's go
• 46:58
  coach. You know, he's just so his it's
• 47:00
  the vernacular, it's the punctuation.
• 47:03
  I mean, it's just everything with, with Vince, the emotion,
• 47:07
  knowing that we don't talk X's and O's.
• 47:09
  But I am curious if there's something you can describe when
• 47:13
  you talked about, you know, we were struggling from to, to even
• 47:16
  get past 46 three and, you know, listening to him and
• 47:19
  implementing his things now, it was a bad year if we weren't in
• 47:23
  the 45 range and, and maybe it is all X's and O's.
• 47:26
  Maybe you can just give us a quick overview.
• 47:27
  But what, what, what was it was the secret sauce that you got
• 47:30
  from him that that changed the the whole direction of the
• 47:33
  relays. Well, we just, we learned how to
• 47:36
  do our run outs, our takeoffs in a three three-point stance
• 47:41
  instead of standing up. So we started doing that and
• 47:44
  then we also started doing his Max velocity drills.
• 47:47
  That just made a huge difference and I think our our base speed.
• 47:52
  Yeah, that, that makes sense. I, I would encourage you if
• 47:54
  you're listening, if you're ever at a clinic, I, I always say
• 47:57
  this about Bouchexnader and Vince is right in that same
• 48:01
  philosophy for me is if those guys, if Vince is at a clinic
• 48:04
  that you're at, it doesn't matter who, who else is
• 48:09
  speaking, you go see Vince and if you've seen Vince 10 times,
• 48:11
  cool, Go make it an 11th time. You will always learn something.
• 48:14
  You'll, you'll be reminded of something.
• 48:16
  There's the, the thing I'm interested with, you know,
• 48:19
  coaching education is there, there's today especially,
• 48:22
  there's no lack thereof for coaching education.
• 48:25
  Like there's no excuse if you want to learn more about
• 48:27
  coaching, any event, there's opportunity, whether it's
• 48:30
  streaming now, YouTube, obviously clinics, things like
• 48:34
  that. But because of that, we're,
• 48:37
  we're, we can easily become inundated with all of these
• 48:40
  things and, and a lot of good things, but we forget you, you
• 48:43
  have to then go implement them. And so we forget because a lot
• 48:45
  of times we do these clinics and say the fall and well, we're not
• 48:48
  coaching until maybe March or April or May when that thing
• 48:50
  comes up. So you have to constantly be re
• 48:54
  listening to those things and you are in a different spot in
• 48:57
  different times of your career as well.
• 48:59
  So you'll hear the same thing for the 7th time.
• 49:01
  And if that's the time it clicks.
• 49:03
  So always go see Vince Anderson anytime he's anywhere.
• 49:06
  He's amazing. He does a lot of class.
• 49:08
  I love it. He is really, I tell you, love
• 49:11
  when a guy like that says I'm going to stay involved in the
• 49:14
  sport and and do clinics and coach.
• 49:17
  He he is going there are legacy of coaches.
• 49:19
  You're one of them here, legacy of coaches that have produced
• 49:22
  better athletes because he has selflessly held this clinic in
• 49:26
  Dallas and then down in Houston and over in California.
• 49:29
  So I love that Vince is just going strong with the knowledge
• 49:33
  that he has from a lot of mentors into others now.
• 49:36
  So I love that. That's awesome.
• 49:37
  Very cool, very cool. Talk to me about, you know,
• 49:41
  Texas. I love Texas.
• 49:42
  It's I just got done back in April and May.
• 49:45
  I interviewed 1 coach, one person from every state to learn
• 49:49
  about their outdoor state meet and what makes it unique and how
• 49:51
  different it is. You know how different Texas is
• 49:53
  from Connecticut and California and everything.
• 49:55
  And so we had Stu, a guy you might know a little bit, Stu
• 49:58
  Cantor came on and did the the Texas force and did a really
• 50:02
  good job of what could easily be a confusing situation for Texas,
• 50:06
  not only just the, you know, in the UIL, but when you start
• 50:09
  talking about tabs and all that. Yeah, he did a great job of like
• 50:12
  even I understood it. So he did a great job.
• 50:15
  Talk to us about DeSoto talked about, you know, your
• 50:18
  transition. So you you're there as an
• 50:20
  assistant coach. Talk about your time and and how
• 50:23
  that transition the the athletes, how they got better
• 50:25
  success you've had at state meet, things like that.
• 50:27
  Kind of give us an overview of how that time period DeSoto
• 50:30
  went. I think I've really got to
• 50:35
  understand 400 training very well working for Coach Jones and
• 50:41
  many, many, many, many of the things that he did then, I still
• 50:44
  do now. I would say 60% of what I do was
• 50:50
  from what I learned from him. Then the other 40% came from my
• 50:55
  should say that Vincent Booth. So those are by far my, you
• 50:59
  know, two biggest college coach mentors of the business.
• 51:05
  But but getting a chance to just take on that long and triple
• 51:11
  jump, I had to really like I was, I knew I was the coach.
• 51:15
  I'm responsible. How these kids do reflects on
• 51:18
  what I've been able to put into them and and how quickly they
• 51:23
  learn and progress. So I became a real, real big
• 51:27
  advocate of progression drills. And so I still, that's how we
• 51:31
  teach our kids. We, we teach it from the very
• 51:33
  bottom and just build on that as we go throughout the year and
• 51:37
  not just the year, but as their freshmen and sophomores and
• 51:40
  juniors at builds and builds. And we try to remember that
• 51:43
  freshmen are not seniors. You have to modify for them if
• 51:47
  you really want them to progress, if you want them
• 51:52
  progress. So they got to start at the
• 51:53
  bottom again. So we have to kind of really
• 51:55
  figure out a way to split things up and and work things.
• 51:58
  My first, probably most biggest success for me was triple jumper
• 52:04
  Unique Hamilton. She was my first big trip to the
• 52:09
  state meet. She ended up placing second at
• 52:12
  that meet. I was nine months pregnant at
• 52:17
  the same time. So.
• 52:19
  So it was quite an event. Yeah.
• 52:21
  And so it it was pretty very special.
• 52:25
  She broke the school record at the state track meet.
• 52:27
  She placed second overall. We got to jumper up into the 40
• 52:31
  foot mark. And so that was my that was my
• 52:35
  first time that I was like, OK. And she didn't ever jump till
• 52:38
  she was a sophomore. And so that was so that I felt
• 52:43
  very happy about that. And that's how I started to just
• 52:45
  kind of realize that you have to do that with every event.
• 52:48
  You've got to learn those progression drills for every
• 52:51
  single event. And that's how you're going to
• 52:53
  develop athletes no matter what event it is.
• 52:56
  And so that was that was big time for me.
• 52:59
  And then I think her being able to do that showed Coach Jones
• 53:04
  and then the other people that I worked with that if and when
• 53:08
  Coach Jones did retire, that there would be that confidence
• 53:11
  that I could I could do the things that need to be done and.
• 53:14
  Did that happen? It did.
• 53:16
  So he was only going to stay three years.
• 53:19
  He said, I'm going to work about two or three more years.
• 53:21
  I'm going to retire and we're going to look at seeing
• 53:23
  hopefully, you know, you being able to move into this position.
• 53:27
  But we were having so much fun together and he he stayed five
• 53:31
  years and really he could have stayed longer.
• 53:34
  It would have been awesome. But he would move back to
• 53:36
  Arkansas and he said it was time to go.
• 53:39
  And so I moved at the time, Pam Debord going back to 7th grade,
• 53:44
  8th grade track, she was the athletic director.
• 53:47
  And so she that's how I got the the soda position.
• 53:51
  Hey, how cool is that for her? She, you know, again, she looks
• 53:57
  at you and goes, man, I remember you as a 6th grader and now she
• 54:01
  gets to promote you to the head coach of like, like for her,
• 54:06
  like to see your development. That's so cool, man, that that's
• 54:09
  really neat. I know you've seen some similar
• 54:11
  at this point now in a career as well.
• 54:13
  That's really cool. That's cool.
• 54:14
  Just to see a kid grow up into an adult and then becoming an
• 54:17
  experienced adult. That's really awesome.
• 54:19
  I love that for her to to be able to do that.
• 54:22
  So about five years as the assistant.
• 54:25
  Yes, five years of assistant in that very last year that I was
• 54:29
  hit with him, that was the first time we had one state.
• 54:32
  So that made it that was just kind of a.
• 54:35
  His last year, the 5th year. What a way to go out, dude.
• 54:40
  Oh man. OK, well hold on.
• 54:41
  I want to ask about that, but real quick just to get context.
• 54:43
  So five years assistant, How many years as the head coach?
• 54:48
  I was at, I was at DeSoto 15 years as the head coach.
• 54:52
  After the five I was there 20. OK, perfect.
• 54:54
  So go back to that's really amazing that it was his last
• 54:57
  year. That's just, you know, those are
• 54:59
  storybook things. You can't plan on winning.
• 55:02
  Winning is hard. I think we sometimes forget or
• 55:05
  we take it for granted in track and field that winning is hard.
• 55:09
  I think it's it's hard. It's easy for us to take it for
• 55:11
  granted because we go to track meets and there's 20 plus event,
• 55:14
  you know, 24 boys, 24 girls roughly.
• 55:16
  So there's always a winner. You know, we go to a state meet
• 55:20
  in Texas now there's six classes, if I remember
• 55:22
  correctly. So there's twelve team went team
• 55:24
  championships. You know, it's easy to just kind
• 55:27
  of take it for granted, but winning is hard.
• 55:31
  What was it like winning the 1st?
• 55:35
  I mean the state championship that there's very few people
• 55:38
  that can say they've done that. What was that like?
• 55:41
  Take us through the meet and like when you when did you
• 55:45
  realize you were going to win? And maybe it was the at the to
• 55:48
  go into the four four, which is exciting but nerve wracking to
• 55:50
  talk to us about that experience because that is that is amazing.
• 55:54
  So it was so very different from any any any other time.
• 55:58
  We hadn't won before, so we weren't watching the points.
• 56:02
  We were just kind of enjoying the meet.
• 56:04
  We had a hurdler. At least.
• 56:06
  I wasn't. Now we had a scorekeeper.
• 56:08
  Our throw coach, Ben Dodson, he was our scorekeeper at every
• 56:11
  meet. Kind of thought you had a shot
• 56:13
  though, like you didn't go in thinking like, Oh yeah, we're
• 56:15
  fifth or something and end up winning.
• 56:17
  We kind of thought maybe we could place in the top three.
• 56:20
  Oh wow. OK, so it wasn't like an
• 56:22
  automatic? And I just got, so I just got so
• 56:25
  wound up with just watching each event and the thrower going, you
• 56:27
  know, all those things that I, I wasn't asking what the points
• 56:34
  were. And so like right when we had
• 56:38
  them, like, 'cause you know, you're not there when you're
• 56:39
  warming up, you're not on the track, you're over, you're kind
• 56:43
  of displaced from, you're just running back and forth.
• 56:46
  You're trying to see the event and then you have to run back
• 56:47
  over to the warm up area. So you're kind of displaced from
• 56:51
  the meat. Honestly, if all the meats that
• 56:54
  you really don't get to see if you've got very many events
• 56:57
  running is the state track meet because you have to be over
• 57:00
  making sure the kids are focused and all that.
• 57:02
  But we really didn't realize that we had a shot at it till
• 57:07
  right before the four by four was going to start.
• 57:10
  And so we had to be, you know, the whole thing.
• 57:13
  We had to be first or second and another team had to be third and
• 57:18
  another team had to be 5th. And anyhow, we broke the school
• 57:22
  record that I remember. If there's one thing I can
• 57:24
  always remember, it's mall relay times.
• 57:26
  So we ran like a 344, which is by far the fastest we'd ever
• 57:30
  thought about running. And the kids just, they knew
• 57:34
  they had we, we let them know right before they took off what
• 57:36
  they had to do and they did it. So it was pretty exciting.
• 57:40
  Dude, what's it like when that happens?
• 57:42
  The scoreboard shows the final team scores and you're at the
• 57:46
  top spot. I mean, you know, you go through
• 57:49
  a lot of work as a track coach, you go through a lot of
• 57:52
  heartache as a track coach. Kids that didn't come out and
• 57:55
  you just knew they were going to be great or a kid, you know,
• 57:57
  grade wise flunks. I mean, there's just so much to
• 58:00
  to make this almost like this perfect storm has to happen and
• 58:03
  then it happens. What's it like when you finally
• 58:05
  see that scoreboard and you're at the top?
• 58:08
  No, it's just pure exhilaration. You're so excited because you're
• 58:11
  so exhausted by May. You're so exhausted.
• 58:14
  With everything and, and the state need is just, you're
• 58:17
  always so stressed out and you're stressed for them.
• 58:20
  And it is really remarkable to me that those kids, after what
• 58:26
  everything they've been through all year is that they can just
• 58:29
  stand out there and go or run out there and go do those
• 58:31
  things. You have a great respect.
• 58:34
  But when they win it and you know it's over and everything
• 58:37
  lined up the way you wanted to, there's no better feeling.
• 58:42
  That's amazing. Did you already know at that
• 58:44
  point Coach Jones was retiring at that year or?
• 58:48
  We did. The kids did not know, but he'd
• 58:51
  already let us know. The kids did not know.
• 58:53
  Wow. So yeah, did he tell?
• 58:55
  So no, typically we get all the team to get, you know, there's
• 58:57
  obviously the trophy presentation and usually there's
• 58:59
  A at the end of the meet, everybody gets together.
• 59:01
  Did he let them know then or? No, we didn't want to do it that
• 59:05
  way. We wanted him to enjoy every
• 59:06
  second of that. That was all about those girls
• 59:10
  and then us as a coaching staff enjoying it.
• 59:12
  We didn't want any, any distraction from that.
• 59:15
  So we didn't. Nothing was said to them until
• 59:19
  till the following week. Wow.
• 59:22
  That's amazing. It had to be some comfort though
• 59:24
  that OK Coach Jones, our leader is retiring.
• 59:26
  That sucks. We just want to state meet, you
• 59:28
  know, you, you automatically, I think even if you were like 50%
• 59:32
  of your team was senior, so they're graduating, I think you
• 59:34
  still ought to make. OK, well, what do we got to do
• 59:35
  to do it again next year? You you always have that.
• 59:37
  So there's all those thoughts. And then a week later he's
• 59:39
  retiring. Had to be some comfort that OK,
• 59:42
  yes, he's retired, but Coach Villers is moving into that
• 59:45
  role. Like, we're not, you know, we're
• 59:46
  keeping the band together here, basically.
• 59:48
  Right, right, yeah, it was a pretty smooth transition that
• 59:52
  year. Our kids, most of our kids that
• 59:54
  had run at the state track meet were juniors and so they were
• 59:58
  all going to be seniors my first year.
• 1:00:00
  And so that year was it was a pretty good transition.
• 1:00:03
  Had a great time with the kids. We we had a shot at winning at
• 1:00:06
  the next year because once you win it you.
• 1:00:10
  You want to win it again once you want it, you just want to
• 1:00:12
  keep, keep getting it done. So we had a great shot at it
• 1:00:15
  that year, but our, our best hurdler fell and broke her arm
• 1:00:20
  at the regional track meet. So she, of course, she was in
• 1:00:23
  both hurdles and the four by fours.
• 1:00:24
  So when you wipe out their events, it's, it's pretty tough
• 1:00:28
  to, to go forth. But we had a it, it went very
• 1:00:32
  well. Those kids were our our best
• 1:00:35
  kid, our best 4 runner. Runner was valedictorian ever
• 1:00:37
  class. So it was just a really special
• 1:00:40
  group we had. I had as my first year as a head
• 1:00:44
  coach, so I'm very grateful to have had those kids that year.
• 1:00:48
  So talk to us about the transition for you.
• 1:00:51
  You, you know, and I'm sure you know, I know you enough as a
• 1:00:55
  leader, as an assistant coach. There were things that you took
• 1:00:57
  on responsibilities that maybe the the quote UN quote, normal
• 1:01:01
  assistant coach didn't, but now you become the head coach and
• 1:01:04
  they're certainly responsibilities, whether you
• 1:01:06
  want them or not, that become yours.
• 1:01:09
  How was that transition? How did it affect your coaching,
• 1:01:12
  if at all? Like did you know, did you, did
• 1:01:14
  you find yourself able to coach less because of other things you
• 1:01:17
  had to do with head coaching? Did you you had to go find an
• 1:01:20
  assistant coach? I'm assuming talked about that
• 1:01:22
  part of the transition, the assistant coach to head coaching
• 1:01:25
  position. So not I kept trying to coach
• 1:01:31
  the jumpers and I did continue to coach the jumpers, but I
• 1:01:36
  guess me not being able to completely focus on them and you
• 1:01:40
  know, think 2 days out about what they were going to do, that
• 1:01:44
  was a change for me. I had to figure out how to get
• 1:01:46
  that done and then plan everything else.
• 1:01:50
  So it takes, it's kind of one of those things you don't know
• 1:01:54
  until you know. Now, I had been a head coach
• 1:01:57
  before, but not at this level of competition.
• 1:02:02
  So you can't mess it up. You got to get it right because
• 1:02:05
  you have lots of eyes on you. And so basically everything I
• 1:02:10
  was doing, I needed to do it as so that if I had to explain
• 1:02:15
  myself, I could explain myself. I'm not going to say anything to
• 1:02:18
  kids. I shouldn't say.
• 1:02:19
  There's just so many things that you really have to think about
• 1:02:23
  as a head coach that you just, you really don't know till you
• 1:02:26
  know, until you're in those shoes, you really don't know
• 1:02:29
  what they're dealing with. My first year was, was very
• 1:02:32
  smooth. Like I say, we had a lot of the
• 1:02:35
  same kids. The next year we had a big
• 1:02:38
  freshman crew come in. And so, you know, anytime you
• 1:02:41
  have a big freshman crew that's talented, you want to get it
• 1:02:45
  right. And so we, we spent a lot of
• 1:02:47
  time trying to, you know, develop them.
• 1:02:53
  They were they were talented group coming in.
• 1:02:55
  And so it was a little, the second year was a little bit
• 1:02:59
  rougher year because I had a new set of parents that didn't trust
• 1:03:04
  what we were doing. And you know, sometimes the
• 1:03:09
  squeaky wheel gets the oil. So we had some great, great,
• 1:03:15
  great kids and but that was a big stressor that I had not
• 1:03:20
  experienced before because when I was at Palmer I was the track
• 1:03:24
  guru. No one questioned anything I was
• 1:03:27
  doing. Everything we did was fantastic.
• 1:03:29
  Thank you, Coach, everything you're doing.
• 1:03:32
  So that second year at at DeSoto was different and it was pretty
• 1:03:37
  hard, honestly. There were, there were about two
• 1:03:39
  or three years there that it was pretty tough, but I just kept my
• 1:03:42
  head down and I'm like, I'm going to learn everything I can
• 1:03:45
  learn. There's not going to be anything
• 1:03:48
  that I'm not going to know. I'm going to do my best to know
• 1:03:51
  everything I can know to help these kids progress.
• 1:03:55
  You also have to learn how to, you know, when you're dealing
• 1:04:00
  with a parent that is very involved, you have to make sure
• 1:04:07
  though, that the kid, you don't think of the kid that way,
• 1:04:10
  right? Kids are kids.
• 1:04:12
  And so that's, that's a big learning experience.
• 1:04:14
  You're still going to do the same things you were going to do
• 1:04:18
  no matter what, because sometimes you know, you, you can
• 1:04:22
  do things a little differently. Sometimes you need that little
• 1:04:25
  push to make yourself better. And so I had, I had to learn a
• 1:04:29
  lot in those two or three years to to kind of defend what I was
• 1:04:35
  doing. I've had a couple of coaches on
• 1:04:38
  here that coached like exceptional, like next, like,
• 1:04:45
  you know, like a 40 foot triple jumper, amazing.
• 1:04:47
  Like that's a really, really good athlete.
• 1:04:50
  If she jumped 45, that's just a whole, you know, that's another
• 1:04:53
  realm right in high school. So we had Anna Cockerels high
• 1:04:58
  school coach on here. She was, you know, she is a
• 1:05:01
  phenomenal 400 hurdler who, you know, coming out of high school
• 1:05:03
  was like, you know, if this kid doesn't make the Olympics,
• 1:05:06
  something that is wrong. We had Quincy Wilson, the the
• 1:05:10
  sophomore sensation right now, his coach Joe Lee on the podcast
• 1:05:14
  as well. And I asked both of them.
• 1:05:17
  I was like, you know, and it's it's interesting because, and
• 1:05:20
  this leads this is going to lead to my question with you.
• 1:05:22
  When coaches start having success with athletes, other
• 1:05:26
  influences start coming in. Some of it is parental.
• 1:05:29
  Some of it is just like, oh, my kid is see, I've been telling
• 1:05:31
  everybody my kids good and look, there they are good.
• 1:05:34
  And so I want to make sure coach is taking care of my daughter.
• 1:05:37
  And then, you know, as they continue to rise, you start
• 1:05:39
  getting other influences of, you know, coaches talking to those
• 1:05:43
  parents or to those athletes of like, Hey, you know, if you were
• 1:05:45
  in my program or Hey, are you doing this because, you know,
• 1:05:48
  kid at your caliber should be doing XY and Z and maybe that's
• 1:05:50
  not in your program. So I love asking them, Joe and,
• 1:05:54
  and in a cockrels coach this I was like, so how did you, I'm
• 1:05:59
  going to say block out the noise.
• 1:06:02
  However, to your point, you also have to know you almost have to
• 1:06:05
  filter the noise. So what, what noise is going to
• 1:06:07
  make me a better coach to help that kid?
• 1:06:09
  And what is the noise that I just got to Sorry, guys, you
• 1:06:11
  just got to trust me. If you don't trust me, that's
• 1:06:13
  fine anyway, because I'm still the coach.
• 1:06:14
  And so we're going to do things. How did you as as your kids
• 1:06:17
  started getting better, because you're you're coaching better
• 1:06:19
  and you're the one leading them to this.
• 1:06:20
  That's the crazy part to me. And then you start getting
• 1:06:23
  questions from parents, outside influencers, other athletes.
• 1:06:27
  In today's world, I can go talk to another athlete in a
• 1:06:30
  heartbeat on social media so I know what they're doing for
• 1:06:32
  practice. And I come back to you and say,
• 1:06:33
  hey, how come we're not doing this?
• 1:06:35
  How do you handle them? And when you think about other
• 1:06:37
  coaches that are listening right now, what advice would you give?
• 1:06:41
  You kind of shook your head, yeah, when I said that filtering
• 1:06:43
  of outside, What do you think about that aspect?
• 1:06:45
  What would be your advice and how have you handled that?
• 1:06:49
  Definitely have to filter. You can't block it out.
• 1:06:52
  You you have to, but you also can't take it personally.
• 1:06:56
  What I learned I have just I've had some of the greatest
• 1:07:02
  parents. I have some of the greatest,
• 1:07:03
  greatest, greatest parents. But you you do have to also
• 1:07:09
  realize that there's times where it it's not going to matter what
• 1:07:13
  you do. You could have done something
• 1:07:16
  else. And so you sometimes you have
• 1:07:19
  those critics that 100% of the time there is something else you
• 1:07:26
  could have done better. And so you're just at all times
• 1:07:30
  trying to make yourself the best you can be.
• 1:07:32
  You're learning everything you can find.
• 1:07:34
  Those mentors don't respond to anything immediately.
• 1:07:40
  You really need to sit back and think about how you will
• 1:07:44
  respond. Remember, keep the kid at the
• 1:07:47
  center of every decision that you make.
• 1:07:50
  It is about the kid and you cannot take things personally.
• 1:07:54
  Now you can look internally and think, hey, am I really doing
• 1:07:57
  what needs to be done here? Am I allowing this noise to get
• 1:08:03
  to me and make decisions about a kid that I shouldn't?
• 1:08:07
  But as long as you stick to that, as long as you stick to
• 1:08:09
  that, you know what you're doing is correct.
• 1:08:11
  You feel strongly what you're doing is correct.
• 1:08:14
  You're talking to others about it.
• 1:08:16
  You're not just making a decision and and that's it.
• 1:08:19
  I really have always the coaches that work with me, assistants,
• 1:08:24
  different assistants over the years, I highly involve them.
• 1:08:27
  I don't get them into the drama of things, but I certainly am
• 1:08:32
  always bouncing things off of them because sometimes I see
• 1:08:36
  things I don't. I think it's really important
• 1:08:39
  that you work together as a fluid team of coaches so that
• 1:08:43
  you're really seeing things from different aspects.
• 1:08:46
  Cause some coach might see it different.
• 1:08:48
  And it's like, yeah, coach, I don't know.
• 1:08:49
  That's, that's not how I saw it. This is how I saw it.
• 1:08:52
  So I think you really need to keep those coaches where they
• 1:08:57
  feel like they can be honest with you and share things with
• 1:09:00
  you. I think you need to trust them
• 1:09:03
  with their coaching and make sure that you're mentoring them
• 1:09:07
  correctly. But you can get lost in it.
• 1:09:12
  The important thing is, is that you keep working and you you
• 1:09:15
  know that you trust what you're doing is the right thing.
• 1:09:18
  I love your advice about don't respond to anything in the
• 1:09:22
  moment. It's it's that old, you know,
• 1:09:24
  sleep on it philosophy. But you're right.
• 1:09:26
  We, we, we, we sometimes jump to the wrong conclusion.
• 1:09:32
  If we respond to me, we emotion is much easier to be involved if
• 1:09:36
  we're responding within the minute versus like, all right, I
• 1:09:39
  hear you. My initial reaction is maybe I
• 1:09:41
  don't agree with you, but I'm going to take time, whatever
• 1:09:44
  that time is for you, right? Hour a day, a week, and then
• 1:09:47
  process it. Now you bring logic into your
• 1:09:50
  response with a little bit of emotion still instead of a
• 1:09:54
  majority of emotions. I love that that that advice.
• 1:09:56
  I think that's really good advice.
• 1:09:57
  The other piece of advice you have there is don't take it
• 1:09:59
  personal. And that is certainly one of
• 1:10:02
  those things that is easier to say than to do.
• 1:10:05
  You know, there's a a real fine line between confidence and
• 1:10:08
  cocky. And I think the best coaches
• 1:10:10
  that I've seen, right, are just under that line.
• 1:10:14
  They're in confident. They're not they they, they
• 1:10:16
  certainly they're not lacking confidence.
• 1:10:18
  They have confidence in the in the program and the situation
• 1:10:21
  they brought into. And ego is not bad, but bad ego
• 1:10:24
  is bad. How do you have that confidence
• 1:10:28
  of what you're doing? I'm, I'm just going to use this.
• 1:10:30
  I don't even know her name and it's not her.
• 1:10:32
  I'm just going to use the example of the event.
• 1:10:33
  The 40 foot triple jump you've taken this kid from never jumped
• 1:10:37
  to 40B. That is really good coaching.
• 1:10:40
  So you have confidence that, hey, what I'm doing is working.
• 1:10:43
  And then if you start getting outside influence of like, well,
• 1:10:45
  you know, maybe if you did this, you'd be 41 or 42 or whatever,
• 1:10:48
  yada, yada. How do you not take it personal
• 1:10:51
  of like back off. Look what I, I didn't take it at
• 1:10:54
  32. I took it at 40 for crying out
• 1:10:55
  loud. I know what I'm doing.
• 1:10:57
  Just like sit down and trust me. How do you?
• 1:11:01
  What's your best advice to not take it personal?
• 1:11:07
  So I so one particular example that I that comes to mind on
• 1:11:11
  this, that that really no matter what you do, you're, you're
• 1:11:15
  going to someone's going to somewhat criticize what you're
• 1:11:18
  doing. I had a really good long jumper.
• 1:11:20
  She was always did very well at the state track meet.
• 1:11:24
  If not want it. And we were out at a meet.
• 1:11:28
  I won't say where we were. We were at a college meet and
• 1:11:32
  she was jumping big that day. And then she came down and, and
• 1:11:35
  she ended up jump in like 1911, which was the farthest that she
• 1:11:40
  had ever jumped. It was a big time.
• 1:11:42
  We are all thrilled, like just jumping up and down, happy.
• 1:11:45
  I think she was a junior when she did that.
• 1:11:47
  And the college coach came over there and said if she had just
• 1:11:52
  done this, she would have hit 20 feet.
• 1:11:55
  And I get it if you're talking to a professional, but that is a
• 1:12:00
  16 year old girl that is having the time of her life at that
• 1:12:05
  moment. And you should not rob children
• 1:12:08
  of that. You just shouldn't.
• 1:12:10
  And so she came over to me and she's like, oh, if I'd have done
• 1:12:13
  this. I said sweetie.
• 1:12:14
  He's wait, wait, that that coach said it in front of the athlete.
• 1:12:17
  Oh, sure. Well, yeah, 'cause she was over
• 1:12:19
  there talking to me, it's like. I I just had this vision of like
• 1:12:22
  supper to the coach, which I still wouldn't have agreed with.
• 1:12:24
  I'm with you to, but to stay in front of the athletes.
• 1:12:28
  Oh no. So, and he didn't mean any harm.
• 1:12:32
  He was literally just, you know, trying to tweak this one little
• 1:12:36
  thing that would have gotten her over 20 feet.
• 1:12:39
  But I think we need to be real careful with those developing
• 1:12:42
  athletes. Even if they're fantastic
• 1:12:45
  athletes, you still need to let them enjoy an achievement.
• 1:12:51
  They should not at that exact second be thinking about what
• 1:12:54
  they did wrong or what they could change.
• 1:12:57
  You know, let them enjoy that achievement.
• 1:12:59
  I'm reminded of, I heard it through Brooks Johnson when he
• 1:13:03
  was on the podcast and he was quoting George Williams, who I
• 1:13:07
  eventually also had on the podcast, George Williams of
• 1:13:11
  Saint Augustine's fame. And, you know, the quote is that
• 1:13:14
  George, you know, kind of made famous in the Track World.
• 1:13:17
  And it needs to be, it needs to continue to be made more famous
• 1:13:20
  is if you're not in the huddle, you don't know the play.
• 1:13:23
  And what he's talking about is when we look at other athletes,
• 1:13:27
  when we look at this long jumper and automatically go, oh, you
• 1:13:30
  know, if she would just fill in the blank And it's like, oh, you
• 1:13:33
  have no idea about that kid. You know, they have no idea if
• 1:13:37
  that kid was just coming off injury.
• 1:13:39
  If that kid, this is a female, a boyfriend just broke up with
• 1:13:42
  her. Her parents got everything that
• 1:13:46
  could and is going on. You have no idea.
• 1:13:49
  Don't make judgment, You know, And then, you know, Carl Lewis
• 1:13:51
  recently had a great quote kind of in that same token of, you
• 1:13:55
  know, Internet coaches because that's the same thing.
• 1:13:56
  You're not in the huddle. You don't know the play of, you
• 1:13:59
  know, his kid, Louie, I think is right.
• 1:14:00
  Louie Hinchcliffe and you know, if all of Carl would just fix
• 1:14:03
  his start and he's like, nice, he just won the national title.
• 1:14:07
  I think I know what I'm doing. Like we're, we're good here.
• 1:14:09
  I don't need your, your comments there.
• 1:14:12
  And then just recently, literally this morning, I'm
• 1:14:15
  about 1015 minutes into Justin Gatlin's podcast Ready set go.
• 1:14:19
  It's a great podcast. By the way, if you love this
• 1:14:21
  podcast, you'll love Jays podcast.
• 1:14:24
  They do a great job over there and he's got Wallace Spearman on
• 1:14:27
  who I love him. He's great and Wallace was known
• 1:14:30
  for air quotes here being slow in his 1st 200 of his 200 and
• 1:14:34
  then bringing it in for the final 200.
• 1:14:36
  And he he was talking about how people used to go, man, why
• 1:14:38
  don't you just run faster? And he was like, dude, first of
• 1:14:41
  all, I got APR of like you know, 991010101 or whatever.
• 1:14:44
  These guys are 98 kids. It ain't just as easy as like
• 1:14:48
  I'm doing the right that you know, I'm doing inside of my
• 1:14:50
  ability. If you have no idea what's going
• 1:14:52
  on, so I just always go back to if you don't, if you're not in
• 1:14:56
  the huddle, you don't know the play.
• 1:14:58
  It helped me when Brooks was explaining it to me.
• 1:15:00
  And then when I heard it straight from the man George, it
• 1:15:02
  really helped me not just with track and you know, watching a
• 1:15:05
  kid run going, Oh man, if they would just do this.
• 1:15:07
  It helped me with life. Like literally like honestly,
• 1:15:11
  when when I heard it from George like a week later, it was really
• 1:15:13
  weird how the timing worked out. Someone cut me off in traffic or
• 1:15:16
  something like that. And you normally I'd be like,
• 1:15:18
  you know, you jerk or whatever. And I literally stopped and was
• 1:15:21
  like, well, you know, I actually have no idea about that person
• 1:15:25
  that just cut me off. They could be a relationship,
• 1:15:28
  could have just broke up, could have just been released from
• 1:15:30
  their job. So something I have no idea.
• 1:15:32
  And by the way, he only cut me off.
• 1:15:34
  No one got hurt here. What are we really upset about?
• 1:15:37
  Let's move on. There's weird bigger things that
• 1:15:38
  are gonna happen to me that day, unfortunately.
• 1:15:40
  So I'm just reminded of that when you tell that story And and
• 1:15:44
  you know, I never want to shame, you know, judge another person.
• 1:15:47
  But to say that in front of the kid, I, I literally, as you're
• 1:15:49
  telling, I'm kind of watching the movie in my head and I'm
• 1:15:51
  like, oh, he's talking to you and he says it and I'm like, he
• 1:15:53
  shouldn't have done it. But in front of the kid.
• 1:15:55
  That's, you know, what's the, the, the, what the cool kids say
• 1:15:59
  cringe. That's a little cringe.
• 1:16:00
  Don't say it in front of the kid.
• 1:16:01
  And again, I agree with you, though.
• 1:16:02
  I do. I do think my heart tells me
• 1:16:05
  that person, that coach was saying it in all good intent.
• 1:16:09
  I, I really do. I really, I, I, I also believe
• 1:16:12
  that 100%. And which means we make mistakes
• 1:16:14
  and which means we get to forgive people and we, we move
• 1:16:18
  on. So Oh my gosh, that's amazing.
• 1:16:19
  OK, so talk to me as you're transitioning to head coach and
• 1:16:25
  you're talking about all the I love this new again, I'm kind of
• 1:16:30
  a visual person, this visualization that we're kind of
• 1:16:32
  coming up together here. You're coming up here June about
• 1:16:34
  filtering the noise, if you will, instead of because
• 1:16:37
  normally we talk about blocking the noise.
• 1:16:39
  I love your idea of like, you know, hey, there are some like,
• 1:16:42
  you know, always be evaluating yourself.
• 1:16:44
  So there's things to listen to. Don't take it personal.
• 1:16:47
  Don't change everything just because one person says one
• 1:16:49
  thing, But, you know, always be guarded of what's coming in.
• 1:16:53
  But some things have to come in. I I love that vision.
• 1:16:55
  How do you transition? Because it's one thing we're
• 1:16:59
  we're talking about this you personally as the coach now you
• 1:17:03
  become the head coach. So not only are you responsible
• 1:17:05
  for the athletes, you're responsible.
• 1:17:07
  And you started touching on this little bit of your assistant
• 1:17:09
  coaches. How do you put that into action
• 1:17:12
  with your assistant coaches? You've coached, you've coached
• 1:17:14
  many, if not all of the events in some form or fashion at this
• 1:17:17
  point. How do you help an assistant
• 1:17:20
  coach continue to become better? How do you, I'm going to say,
• 1:17:23
  correct them when you see them doing something that's not
• 1:17:26
  within your morals or ethics or coaching philosophy, How do you
• 1:17:29
  now, because you're responsible for them, how do you handle that
• 1:17:31
  side of head coaching? I think I keep them very
• 1:17:36
  involved. We meet kind of unofficially
• 1:17:42
  every day after practice. We come together and practice is
• 1:17:44
  over and we talk about, you know, if there was something we
• 1:17:47
  need to address tomorrow or do better or, you know, or gives
• 1:17:52
  everybody a chance to say if there was something really good
• 1:17:55
  that went on. Like a little huddle or
• 1:17:57
  one-on-one? Yeah.
• 1:17:58
  Kind of like a huddle, kind of like a little huddle after
• 1:18:00
  practice is over, we come over, we meet all together as the
• 1:18:03
  kids. You know, you're still waiting
• 1:18:05
  on kids to get picked up and all those things.
• 1:18:07
  So we, you know, we all do the throw coach, the jump coach, the
• 1:18:13
  high jump coach, we all the we all over there together.
• 1:18:16
  Did you learn this from someone or was this your kind of idea?
• 1:18:19
  Where did you learn that? From I would say I, I kind of
• 1:18:24
  think of our little coaching staff as kind of family, right?
• 1:18:28
  So I'm kind of hanging out with my family when practice is over.
• 1:18:32
  And so we try to kind of keep that feel any issues they're
• 1:18:36
  having, they can share. And I always try my best to take
• 1:18:41
  on any negative issues, you know, as far as discipline or if
• 1:18:46
  I need to talk with a parent that something's going on that
• 1:18:48
  we need to let that parent know. I try to deal with all that as
• 1:18:52
  much as possible and keep that off of them.
• 1:18:55
  But me being them allowing to be able to tell me what's going on.
• 1:19:00
  A lot of times we can address those things quickly with the
• 1:19:03
  athlete where it never gets that far.
• 1:19:05
  Or, you know, we can, we can do something special at the end of
• 1:19:08
  the week for a few kids and, you know, talk about how how they
• 1:19:12
  improved here. Even if they're not our best
• 1:19:14
  athletes on the team, that gives us a chance to do all those
• 1:19:18
  things. My coaches very much know that
• 1:19:22
  they can give whatever input they want to give, but they do
• 1:19:27
  know also that I do make the final decision.
• 1:19:30
  We'll talk it out and we'll go back and forth and they can even
• 1:19:32
  come back to me again if they're, you know, think
• 1:19:35
  something else, we should do something differently.
• 1:19:38
  But I also think because I I am responsible for the final
• 1:19:41
  decision that gives them, I think they have less stress.
• 1:19:46
  So ultimately it's she's going to take care of that for us.
• 1:19:51
  This allows me to just coach and not worry about all that stuff.
• 1:19:55
  But I think we function very well.
• 1:19:57
  They look out for me and I look out for them and we really do
• 1:20:01
  have a great time together. I, I love this idea of this end
• 1:20:05
  of practice huddle, end, end of practice huddle thing.
• 1:20:08
  Like, you know, one of the struggles we do have with the
• 1:20:10
  team aspect of track and field is that throwers inherently are
• 1:20:13
  over here doing their thing. Distance runners are, I'm going
• 1:20:15
  to say on the roads doing their thing.
• 1:20:17
  Jumpers are in the pit. It's very, it's almost part of
• 1:20:21
  our sport that we have to be in these individual silos on a
• 1:20:25
  facility and even outside the facility.
• 1:20:28
  So to bring the staff together daily just to, I'm sure some of
• 1:20:32
  them are very short and I'm sure there's some that are maybe a
• 1:20:34
  little bit longer, but it helps bring that, that if that staff
• 1:20:38
  can be together, it'll help bring the team together.
• 1:20:40
  So I, I really like that idea. I, I think that's something
• 1:20:43
  someone is listening that's going to take away from that and
• 1:20:45
  start implementing that. That's really cool.
• 1:20:47
  I love that as the head coach, you know, you talked about the
• 1:20:51
  role of mentors throughout your whole life and whole career.
• 1:20:54
  I love that. Was there anyone when you became
• 1:20:57
  the head coach? And again, there's, you know,
• 1:20:59
  you nailed it when you talk about you don't know until
• 1:21:02
  you're in that seat you can be at, try to be as prepared as
• 1:21:05
  possible. But until you're the head coach,
• 1:21:07
  you just don't ever see it all or know the pressures or
• 1:21:10
  responsibilities that you have. Was there any head coach that
• 1:21:14
  you called for advice, whether it was the old basketball coach
• 1:21:16
  that, you know, time management, things like that?
• 1:21:18
  Was there another sport head coach, another track head coach?
• 1:21:21
  Was there anybody you're like, hey, all right, so it's
• 1:21:24
  official. I'm taking over.
• 1:21:26
  What what, what, what is my blind side?
• 1:21:28
  What am I missing? What's going to be the thing
• 1:21:30
  that rocks me that I need to start being prepared for now or
• 1:21:33
  even today that you call and just like, hey, I've got this
• 1:21:35
  situation I've never had. Can you help me out?
• 1:21:38
  Is anybody that you've reached out there?
• 1:21:40
  Well, I've always had the connection with Coach Jones.
• 1:21:43
  I could always call him anytime I needed to, but in the moment
• 1:21:47
  and while I was there, our head boys track coach was Mark Brady.
• 1:21:53
  Anybody who knows Mark Brady just loves Mark Brady.
• 1:21:56
  He is the greatest and he had been, I'm not sure how many
• 1:22:00
  years he'd already been the head coach there, but he actually was
• 1:22:03
  a coach when I went to school there.
• 1:22:05
  And so I'd kind of known him a long time.
• 1:22:06
  And this was, and he ended up actually doing cross country
• 1:22:11
  with me. And so I got to know him really
• 1:22:14
  well. He stopped coaching football and
• 1:22:16
  he started coaching cross country and I got a chance to
• 1:22:20
  work with our head boys coach daily.
• 1:22:23
  And I, I hope that every program that the girls and the boys
• 1:22:28
  coach works well together because it is just the best
• 1:22:32
  situation for the coaches and the kids.
• 1:22:35
  But he'd, his, the boys had already been very successful for
• 1:22:40
  a long time, Our boys track club, at our boys track team at
• 1:22:43
  DeSoto. And so he'd been in the
• 1:22:46
  limelight a lot. And he had taken kids and
• 1:22:49
  they'd, you know, been on the podium and for different events
• 1:22:54
  of the state track meet. So, and he had done it for a
• 1:22:56
  long time. So the advice I was able to get
• 1:22:58
  from him, I just, you know it, he was always there.
• 1:23:04
  I could always go to him daily if I needed to and ask advice.
• 1:23:08
  He had a great time coaching. You know, a lot of times people
• 1:23:11
  are really intense and he could be intense, he could be intense
• 1:23:15
  when needed, but he had a kind of a very laid back coaching
• 1:23:18
  style and the kids would run through a wall for him.
• 1:23:22
  So getting him to, seeing him coach in that style allowed me
• 1:23:29
  to realize I don't have to be a jerk all the time.
• 1:23:32
  I don't have to be stressed out and I don't have to have this,
• 1:23:37
  you know, stern all, all the time as a head coach.
• 1:23:42
  And so I, I kind of learned that from him.
• 1:23:44
  It's, it's OK to have a great time while you're coaching.
• 1:23:47
  And if you're not having a great time, you're not doing it right.
• 1:23:49
  And don't you have more fun that way?
• 1:23:51
  Absolutely. Right.
• 1:23:52
  I mean, when we think about our professions, whether it's
• 1:23:54
  teaching or you know what I do here, Gil or attorneys or
• 1:23:57
  whatever, if you're just smiling and having fun more, it's just a
• 1:24:02
  more enjoyable job at the. I mean, why do we have to be?
• 1:24:05
  So, you know, I don't know how to describe it, but Stowick.
• 1:24:10
  Stowick. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:24:11
  Like, oh, everything's so serious.
• 1:24:13
  And, you know, maybe if you're a brain surgeon, everything needs
• 1:24:15
  to be serious. I mean, I want my brain surgeon
• 1:24:16
  to take things seriously. But at the end of the day,
• 1:24:19
  especially for us people that are in sports, at the end of the
• 1:24:22
  day, I know sports is our life. You know, it's, it's brought you
• 1:24:24
  to where you are. Obviously, you know, for me,
• 1:24:26
  sports is instrumental to me and my family, things like that.
• 1:24:29
  But at the end of the day, it is still just sports.
• 1:24:32
  There are a lot more serious things going on in this world
• 1:24:35
  than sports. Let's have some fun with it.
• 1:24:38
  For crying out loud, what what kid ever gets into a sport so
• 1:24:40
  they can be yelled at and you know, by the book and you know,
• 1:24:44
  never write, never can do anything right, Things like
• 1:24:46
  that. It's like I got into sport
• 1:24:47
  'cause I I love that I want to be around team mates.
• 1:24:49
  I wanted to run, I wanted to throw, I wanted to jump,
• 1:24:51
  whatever. Well, then we should, we should
• 1:24:53
  mentor that. We should, we should foster
• 1:24:55
  that. I love that, I love that.
• 1:24:57
  All right, As we start working towards transition of DeSoto,
• 1:24:59
  because next is after Desoto's Waxahachie, correct?
• 1:25:03
  Yes, this is my I've been here two years now.
• 1:25:05
  Where does you know, I know you have done some leadership roles
• 1:25:09
  inside ATTFCA. Where does that side start for
• 1:25:13
  you? You know, I'm called beyond just
• 1:25:15
  coaching at the school you're at, where does the thought of
• 1:25:17
  like, oh, I could help other coaches, you know, through my
• 1:25:21
  leadership? Where does that start for you
• 1:25:22
  and what are some different things that you've done and and
• 1:25:25
  are doing? So I'm very involved in the
• 1:25:28
  TTFCA vice president of that group.
• 1:25:31
  And like you said, you did that that podcast with Stuart Cantor.
• 1:25:35
  He is just an amazing person. He's done so much for track and
• 1:25:39
  field in Texas the last 7-8, nine, ten years.
• 1:25:45
  And that those, the clinic that he puts on, it's just so good
• 1:25:49
  for young coaches. I really advise coaches.
• 1:25:53
  Any chance you can get to a clinic and don't just go
• 1:25:57
  shopping, go to go to the sessions, go to the sessions.
• 1:26:02
  Every session has something to give.
• 1:26:05
  Network with those coaches. Sometimes you learn the most
• 1:26:09
  after the after it's over and y'all go have dinner together
• 1:26:13
  somewhere and you just get to talk for real about what works
• 1:26:16
  and doesn't work. Those are the best times as far
• 1:26:21
  as just kind of getting to know others and, and letting them see
• 1:26:26
  that even even when you're at your best, you're still making
• 1:26:30
  some mistakes at times or still some things you would go back
• 1:26:32
  and do differently. And hopefully you can share some
• 1:26:37
  enough insight that they can do well on their part.
• 1:26:42
  But when I, when I got here, actually Vince Anderson came
• 1:26:46
  like in October that first year I was here and, and did a, a
• 1:26:52
  session for us, A2 day session. And so at Waxahachie at.
• 1:26:57
  Waxahachie OK, cool. Yeah, Waxahachie last year and
• 1:27:01
  so he did a great job and so it kind of there's a lot of people
• 1:27:05
  don't know where Waxahachie is, they haven't heard of it.
• 1:27:07
  And so it kind of kind of helped some of the coaches come down
• 1:27:11
  here and see see what we have going on and and we had a great
• 1:27:14
  time with that Waxahachie. I love it here.
• 1:27:19
  It's very much when I got here, they took you in your family.
• 1:27:25
  It's almost like I'm back at Palmer.
• 1:27:29
  I share office with softball coach and basketball coach,
• 1:27:32
  volleyball coach, the soccer coach, we're all tennis coach.
• 1:27:35
  We're all in here together, which at DeSoto that's I had, we
• 1:27:40
  just all the track coaches were in a in an office together.
• 1:27:43
  And so to get that old feeling back where you're getting to
• 1:27:46
  know the other coaches and you're kind of all functioning
• 1:27:50
  as a team for the campus, it's it's a great feeling.
• 1:27:55
  And so you you talk about you have the feeling of family, you
• 1:27:59
  know, and that that term is thrown away, thrown around a lot
• 1:28:03
  because you know, family and I'm stuttering here a little bit.
• 1:28:08
  I'm going to say family is your family, your blood.
• 1:28:11
  However, you know that anybody knows my story, that is not true
• 1:28:14
  for me. But what we're really getting at
• 1:28:17
  is you came from DeSoto, which would be closer to say, in the
• 1:28:21
  whole family, because that's where you came from.
• 1:28:22
  So why? What was the impetus for
• 1:28:24
  transition from DeSoto to Waxahachie?
• 1:28:30
  I think after after COVID, you kind of see things a little bit
• 1:28:36
  differently. I had a loss in my life and I
• 1:28:40
  wanted to be able to spend a lot more time with my kids and there
• 1:28:46
  were just some changes I needed to make to be, I guess really to
• 1:28:51
  have be a happier person. I, the kids at DeSoto were
• 1:28:56
  amazing. I, I mean, I had some incredible
• 1:28:59
  kids that I would have taken home with me any day of the week
• 1:29:03
  to come live with me. I had the best, best, best kids.
• 1:29:08
  I had great parents, all of it. I just, I wanted to be able to
• 1:29:13
  be with my my own children more. And so we decided to, my husband
• 1:29:18
  and I, we decided we wanted to move down here and get a place.
• 1:29:21
  What maybe a little more. We're both kind of, you can hear
• 1:29:24
  it, I'm sure my voice. There's a little bit of country
• 1:29:26
  there. So we were, we were trying to
• 1:29:28
  get out away from the city a little more and this position
• 1:29:34
  came open. And Greg Reed, the former
• 1:29:37
  athletic director here, called me and asked me if I would come.
• 1:29:42
  The coach that was here long term, Dana Scott, did a
• 1:29:44
  wonderful job with the program and she was retiring.
• 1:29:47
  And he he kind of courted me and got me to get come down here.
• 1:29:53
  And it's it's it's been a really great place to be.
• 1:29:57
  The kids here are amazing. And we're getting better and
• 1:30:01
  better every day. Awesome.
• 1:30:03
  Well, I'm certainly sorry for your loss.
• 1:30:05
  I do love your intentionality though about your children and
• 1:30:10
  family and things like that. You know, it's easy for us in
• 1:30:13
  sports to, you know, I, I, I've explored this before years ago
• 1:30:18
  now at the, on the podcast and even on, you know, different
• 1:30:20
  forms on Facebook and stuff like that, you know, selfless versus
• 1:30:23
  selfish. And we, we, we initially kind of
• 1:30:26
  tend to think of it as like a light switch, like, oh, we're
• 1:30:28
  either always all the way selfish or all the way selfless.
• 1:30:31
  And we put coaches in the always selfless bucket.
• 1:30:35
  Like, you know, you do so much, you know, you talk about your
• 1:30:37
  own kids or you're doing that for other people's kids as well.
• 1:30:40
  And so we're all the way selfless.
• 1:30:41
  Well, that is, is also not right being 100% selfless because that
• 1:30:46
  sometimes puts our own families and children in this, maybe in
• 1:30:49
  this example, I'm not saying specifically for you here, Jim,
• 1:30:52
  but in general, the, the, the real thing is almost like a
• 1:30:55
  slider button. You really need to be almost
• 1:30:57
  like 50 percent, 4951 type percent of selfless and selfless
• 1:31:00
  because if you're not taking care of yourself, you're not
• 1:31:03
  able to take care of on the coaching side.
• 1:31:06
  If you're, you know, someone who's always at work, you know,
• 1:31:10
  coaching 24/7, recruiting 24/7, teaching 24/7, Well, it looks
• 1:31:15
  like you're being selfless, but actually you're being selfish
• 1:31:17
  because you're taking away time from spouses and children and
• 1:31:20
  things like that. So I'm glad to hear and love,
• 1:31:23
  love that for you that you're here, you making decisions of
• 1:31:26
  like, hey, you know, family's for I love track.
• 1:31:28
  I'm putting words in your mouth here a little bit here.
• 1:31:29
  You know, I love track, love teaching, love the career that
• 1:31:32
  I've had. But you know, at the end of the
• 1:31:33
  day, number one is my family Like that, that has to, if that,
• 1:31:36
  if that's not grounded, if that's not taken care of, all
• 1:31:39
  this other stuff does start to crumble eventually.
• 1:31:42
  So I'm glad you made those decisions and you and your
• 1:31:44
  husband were, you know, committed to doing that because
• 1:31:47
  sometimes that can be hard because it has changed.
• 1:31:48
  You said you were at DeSoto for what 15, 15 years, 20 years, 20
• 1:31:52
  years? Change is hard.
• 1:31:54
  That's hard to say. OK.
• 1:31:55
  Now at this point I'm going to go not necessarily start over.
• 1:31:59
  You're not starting a new program or anything, but you
• 1:32:01
  know, we are starting a new community, a new, a new
• 1:32:03
  neighborhood, new kids, new staff, new Co workers.
• 1:32:07
  So I do appreciate hearing that and again, appreciate your
• 1:32:10
  authenticity of with sharing that.
• 1:32:12
  I appreciate that. OK, so for the last time we have
• 1:32:17
  here, I always love what I have. My high school coaches here on
• 1:32:21
  the podcast especially are ones that are producing collegiate
• 1:32:25
  type athletes. So kids that are going to go on
• 1:32:28
  to NCAA schools or any IA or junior college coaches because
• 1:32:32
  the landscape of track recruiting is changing.
• 1:32:37
  We we've been on the here for about an hour and a half.
• 1:32:39
  It's changed in the last hour and a half that we've been
• 1:32:40
  recording this. What have you seen?
• 1:32:44
  And you take it where you want to take it, but where have you
• 1:32:46
  seen things change for college recruiting as it relates to
• 1:32:50
  college coaches and your role as a high school coach?
• 1:32:54
  Is it, do you see it changing for good and what is what has
• 1:32:57
  been the good things that have changed or have you seen it
• 1:32:59
  changing for the bad and what are some of the bad things maybe
• 1:33:02
  you've seen where? Where do you sit on the
• 1:33:04
  recruiting aspect? Well, I think with the obviously
• 1:33:08
  the portal has changed everything for us tremendously.
• 1:33:11
  I believe I, I think we really have to, you know, we were so
• 1:33:16
  used to talk about the what we call the T-shirt schools all the
• 1:33:20
  time, you know, 'cause you know, there's really only 7
• 1:33:23
  universities in all the state of Texas, right?
• 1:33:27
  I mean that you know you can name about seven of them, then
• 1:33:29
  you. Start I name 7.
• 1:33:30
  That's what I was trying to think.
• 1:33:31
  Can I name seven? Yeah, exactly.
• 1:33:33
  You're right. Yeah, So and and we're guilty of
• 1:33:37
  it and so certainly the kids and and a lot of times the parents
• 1:33:40
  don't know either that there's so many opportunities out there.
• 1:33:43
  But I do believe that, you know, obviously the portal has taken
• 1:33:47
  those T-shirt school opportunities almost completely
• 1:33:52
  away, unless, unless you are placing your winning the state
• 1:33:56
  track meet or you're replacing the top three and have had an
• 1:33:59
  incredible event, you know, at the state track meet, you're not
• 1:34:03
  going to get recruited by those anymore.
• 1:34:05
  They're going to go find people who are already pointing at the
• 1:34:08
  collegiate level and recruit them.
• 1:34:10
  And you can't blame them because they it's that's how they change
• 1:34:13
  the system. But I do think our kids, we
• 1:34:17
  still kind of think, and the coaches too, are still kind of
• 1:34:20
  thinking, well, this kids doing this, then, you know, they
• 1:34:23
  should be being recruited by this big, huge Division One
• 1:34:26
  school. And I can't believe they're not
• 1:34:27
  looking at them. Well, they're looking at
• 1:34:29
  everybody in the portal first. You're, you're low man, but so
• 1:34:33
  to so to get the information out to our kids about all the
• 1:34:37
  different opportunities, all the different schools there are out
• 1:34:40
  there, how the rules work, you know, Division One versus
• 1:34:44
  division two and, and all of those things.
• 1:34:48
  We meet with our kids and we go through those different,
• 1:34:51
  different opportunities. And you know, these are all
• 1:34:53
  Division One, these are all division two.
• 1:34:56
  Here are their recruiting times because those you know, you can
• 1:35:00
  go to any track and field website, college website and you
• 1:35:03
  can find the recruiting times. They're out there and sometimes
• 1:35:08
  that's a eye opener for kids and you can use it as the positive
• 1:35:12
  tool. All right, this is where you
• 1:35:13
  are. If this is somewhere you want to
• 1:35:15
  go, this is where you have to be.
• 1:35:17
  So you have to do the work to get here.
• 1:35:19
  What you're doing right now is not it's not going to work.
• 1:35:22
  So we try to use it as a positive thing so that they will
• 1:35:27
  work harder and, and, you know, perfect what they're doing.
• 1:35:30
  Maybe they'll fix the nutrition, maybe they'll sleep better, you
• 1:35:33
  know, if that's something they really want to do.
• 1:35:36
  But certainly recruiting has has changed quite a bit now there
• 1:35:41
  for a long time didn't really hear from college coaches that
• 1:35:45
  much when they were recruiting. It seemed like there were like
• 1:35:48
  seven or eight years there before COVID that you didn't
• 1:35:52
  hear from them a lot, like they didn't call and ask you about
• 1:35:55
  the athlete. But what I have noticed now
• 1:35:58
  probably the last, you know, five years is that we do get
• 1:36:02
  more phone calls from the college coaches lately.
• 1:36:05
  So, so how are their grades really?
• 1:36:08
  You know, how, how are they at practice every day?
• 1:36:11
  You know, they're wanting to know a little bit more
• 1:36:14
  information than they were at one time.
• 1:36:16
  And I don't know if that's because a lot of times there's
• 1:36:20
  smaller schools calling you now. And so they have to, they have
• 1:36:26
  to create a more positive environment when those kids get
• 1:36:29
  there. So they'll stay.
• 1:36:30
  So they're trying to recruit more positive kids, if that
• 1:36:34
  makes sense. So I think that is that is a
• 1:36:38
  positive. The negative is that the T-shirt
• 1:36:41
  schools are harder and harder to get recruited by.
• 1:36:43
  But the positive is I think that those college coaches are
• 1:36:46
  wanting to get to know the kids better before they get them.
• 1:36:50
  It's interesting you and I are a lot in aligned in what I think
• 1:36:55
  is the reasoning between I love the I don't think I'm sure I've
• 1:36:57
  heard it before, but the T-shirt school, I love that.
• 1:37:01
  I love that. The the name of that.
• 1:37:02
  That's awesome. You, you know, I, I think about,
• 1:37:06
  you know, my last coaching spot was at Mississippi State.
• 1:37:08
  So in the SEC and the SEC was a bloodbath back then, but that
• 1:37:11
  was before even Texas A&M in Missouri was in it.
• 1:37:15
  So what I hear sometimes from high school coaches is, oh,
• 1:37:19
  these I'm going to keep using this term.
• 1:37:20
  Oh, these T-shirt schools, they don't want to develop kids
• 1:37:24
  anymore. And I just used the SEC as a, as
• 1:37:26
  a kind of a thought example. You know, we had 12 teams, yeah,
• 1:37:30
  12 teams when I was there. And we certainly had walk ONS
• 1:37:33
  and book kids that were, you know, still really good kids out
• 1:37:35
  of high school. They just had to be in.
• 1:37:36
  We would develop them and hopefully make them all SEC and
• 1:37:39
  nationals and things like that. And then Texas A&M and Missouri
• 1:37:42
  joined and it's like, well, that makes it harder for a kid to
• 1:37:45
  develop and become a point score.
• 1:37:48
  And now you add Texas and Oklahoma to it and it's like,
• 1:37:51
  like, how could you like a walk on kid like without that walk on
• 1:37:56
  kid being really a full ride somewhere?
• 1:37:58
  We just don't I don't want to say we don't have time.
• 1:38:01
  I'm not speaking for, you know, other SEC coaches, but it just
• 1:38:04
  it makes it harder with the more teams on there.
• 1:38:06
  So that's one and two, I, I just want to dispel this myth of like
• 1:38:12
  these coaches, these T-shirt school coaches aren't developing
• 1:38:16
  kids. You know, when we think of that
• 1:38:18
  word development, we think of like an example of a, a 10/9 kid
• 1:38:21
  becomes a 10/3 kid. That's development.
• 1:38:23
  That's an amazing job. That's super hard.
• 1:38:26
  We, we tend to forget because I hear this a lot.
• 1:38:28
  Oh, they just get the fastest kids and throw them on the
• 1:38:29
  track. It's like if I get a 10/10 kid
• 1:38:32
  at high school, first of all, they're well and back when I was
• 1:38:35
  coaching, there were almost none.
• 1:38:36
  Now it seems like kids are running sub 10 in high school.
• 1:38:38
  That's nuts OS but whatever. Taking a kid from 10:10 to say
• 1:38:43
  what would would Hinchcliff run 995 S?
• 1:38:45
  Let's say 1010 to 995. That's development.
• 1:38:48
  And by the way, that's super hard. 1010 to 995, that is hard.
• 1:38:51
  Just like 10/9 to 10/3 is hard. So when you talk about the
• 1:38:56
  portal and how much easier because the kid kids were
• 1:38:58
  transferring back in the day, I don't know why we just think
• 1:39:00
  this portal is the first time kids were transferring.
• 1:39:03
  It may be easier or at least more secure for the kid.
• 1:39:07
  They don't have to go talk to the coach anymore, which that
• 1:39:08
  was kind of an unfair thing really, to be real frank with
• 1:39:11
  you. But so I, I get that.
• 1:39:13
  What I disagree about the portal.
• 1:39:15
  And I, I didn't hear you say this is because you specifically
• 1:39:18
  said about T-shirt schools. I love that you, you made that
• 1:39:20
  distinction because I hear, Oh, it's impossible.
• 1:39:23
  It's super hard for any kids to get recruited to Division One.
• 1:39:26
  And I'm like, well, why? And they're like, oh, well, the
• 1:39:28
  portal that's taking up all the scholarships, I'm like, OK, but
• 1:39:30
  that means those kids are coming from somewhere.
• 1:39:33
  And if, if the T-shirt school wanted them, that means they're
• 1:39:36
  pretty good, which that means I can assume they were on
• 1:39:38
  scholarship at the non T-shirt school.
• 1:39:40
  So if that kid leaves and goes, that means that scholarship's
• 1:39:42
  open. So maybe.
• 1:39:44
  And I thought you nailed it for me here, June.
• 1:39:46
  Maybe the opportunities to go to those T-shirt schools are
• 1:39:51
  getting slimmer for high schoolers, but the opportunity
• 1:39:54
  to still go run is still there. They're still, you know, using
• 1:39:57
  Texas, Sam Houston's Wayland Baptist UIW.
• 1:40:00
  There's still lots of opportunity.
• 1:40:03
  In fact, there's more programs today than there were yesterday,
• 1:40:05
  by the way. We're we're we've kind of got
• 1:40:07
  past the shrinking of programs, thank goodness, even though it
• 1:40:09
  still happens. So I love that aspect of it.
• 1:40:12
  Now what I'm really curious to dive into is because.
• 1:40:16
  I hear this is another topic about recruiting.
• 1:40:18
  You're you're you're seeing that more coaches because you said
• 1:40:22
  when you said more coaches are calling, you meant you the
• 1:40:25
  coach. Not necessarily.
• 1:40:26
  Yeah. Now that's interesting because
• 1:40:28
  there is that debate of should a college coach involve call the
• 1:40:33
  the the high school coach or not.
• 1:40:35
  And and I try to stay neutral on this one, but I think I'm on the
• 1:40:40
  side of no, because that's what I used to.
• 1:40:41
  I used to not call the high school coach right or wrong,
• 1:40:43
  maybe wrong. I just didn't because I'm like,
• 1:40:45
  I just always thought was like, what are you going to tell me,
• 1:40:47
  June? And what I mean by that is
• 1:40:49
  you're not going to tell me they're a bad person.
• 1:40:51
  You're not going to tell me they're I already know what
• 1:40:52
  their grades are. You might be able to tell me
• 1:40:54
  like, hey, just let you know. Yeah, sometimes they miss out on
• 1:40:57
  practice. I don't know if you're honestly
• 1:40:58
  going to tell me that or not. I don't know.
• 1:41:00
  Maybe you are. But even then, even then, I have
• 1:41:04
  a hard time because I have a hard time with this recruit.
• 1:41:08
  Internet, social media, machoism from coaches.
• 1:41:11
  Even if if I'm calling you about a kid, that means I'm
• 1:41:14
  interested. That means I think they can be
• 1:41:15
  well on my team. Even if you tell me yeah, they
• 1:41:18
  miss practice, am I really going to stop recruiting that kid?
• 1:41:22
  I don't know. I don't think so.
• 1:41:24
  I really don't. Here's the social media machoism
• 1:41:27
  I hear from coaches. A kid, you know, put a bad word
• 1:41:32
  on social media or whatever, you know, So I stopped.
• 1:41:34
  So I stopped recruiting them really.
• 1:41:37
  Because every kid that is awesome, all sports, football,
• 1:41:41
  baseball, basketball, etcetera, as long as they have the grades,
• 1:41:44
  they all seem to still land in college.
• 1:41:47
  They do. Even.
• 1:41:49
  Bad ones. Didn't Allen Iverson like start
• 1:41:51
  a fight in a bowling alley, like threw a chair at a kid and
• 1:41:54
  Georgetown didn't go? You know what?
• 1:41:56
  That's just a bad kid. We're not going to sign him.
• 1:41:58
  Bull crap guy was awesome. They're going to sign him.
• 1:42:02
  I just don't know. What's a high school coach going
• 1:42:04
  to tell me? Now you tell me what?
• 1:42:07
  What is the value there, though? Because, because some coaches do
• 1:42:10
  take that very like, Oh yeah, I'm definitely calling a high
• 1:42:11
  school coach. Tell me what?
• 1:42:13
  What does a high school coach bring value to the recruiting
• 1:42:16
  aspect? I don't know.
• 1:42:19
  Like I said, I'm not sure why the change has been.
• 1:42:22
  I just noticed with the smaller schools you're more likely to
• 1:42:27
  get that call. I I think it's because for them
• 1:42:33
  to keep their kids there, they have to have a very positive
• 1:42:37
  experience once they get there. I love that.
• 1:42:41
  That's my, that's my take on it. And I think they're they're
• 1:42:45
  trying to do because they because they have a bigger pool
• 1:42:48
  to pull from now than they used to, right?
• 1:42:50
  They've got better kids they can recruit, so right now they might
• 1:42:55
  lose them in a year or two, but that.
• 1:42:57
  Is also correct. So, you know, maybe they're
• 1:43:01
  trying to make sure that who they get in there is serious and
• 1:43:05
  creates a positive environment for them once they're there.
• 1:43:09
  Because I think that is one of the biggest reasons the kids get
• 1:43:13
  to college and they realize it's a job, which it is.
• 1:43:17
  It's a job in college. And they really lot of times
• 1:43:20
  lose that team atmosphere in college and and the camaraderie
• 1:43:26
  because it is so competitive. And I think maybe those smaller
• 1:43:29
  programs got to work more to create that better environment
• 1:43:32
  than the bigger programs do. I definitely think there is
• 1:43:35
  benefit not not just small program, even the teacher
• 1:43:37
  programs, because kids transfer amongst those schools as well.
• 1:43:42
  I, I wish we could and it's hard because it, it, it's the same in
• 1:43:45
  the professional world when you go to interview at jobs and you
• 1:43:48
  interview people. I wish we could just scrape off
• 1:43:52
  the veneer of BS that just happens.
• 1:43:54
  Meaning when it when someone, you know, when I interview
• 1:43:57
  people here, they it just inherently like, oh, what is
• 1:44:00
  what is Mike looking for? What's the kind of person I'm
• 1:44:02
  supposed to be here at the interview that he'll hire me?
• 1:44:05
  And it's like, bro, I just want you to be yourself because if
• 1:44:08
  that works and that's and that jives with me and you get hired
• 1:44:12
  here, things are going to be awesome.
• 1:44:13
  And if it doesn't, if you who you are doesn't jive and you
• 1:44:17
  don't get the job. Thank goodness for not only me,
• 1:44:19
  obviously, but for you. You wouldn't have wanted to work
• 1:44:22
  here. So in the recruiting aspect, I
• 1:44:24
  wish I was thinking about this today just kind of haphazardly
• 1:44:27
  when because because now they have unlimited visits, I think,
• 1:44:30
  right. So it used to be 5.
• 1:44:31
  Now kids can go everywhere anytime.
• 1:44:34
  I started thinking it's like because this veneer of, you
• 1:44:37
  know, one of your T-shirt schools in Texas is taking a
• 1:44:40
  little bit of a hit right now in IL and the what was it?
• 1:44:43
  The Camaros that the football recruit walked by in Texas and
• 1:44:46
  all this kind of stuff. I wish they would take away all
• 1:44:49
  of that because that's not reality.
• 1:44:52
  The the lobster dinner during your recruiting visit, You ain't
• 1:44:55
  eating lobster when you're on the team.
• 1:44:57
  I'm sorry. Maybe once a year for a
• 1:44:59
  celebrate. I don't know, but you're not,
• 1:45:00
  that's not real life. So I wish like maybe maybe
• 1:45:03
  recruiting visit should be a 24 hour window.
• 1:45:05
  And I know that's tough because of travels and things like that,
• 1:45:07
  but maybe you should only be on campus for 24 hours.
• 1:45:10
  Don't do this, You know, make it Disney World for three days and
• 1:45:13
  then when you get there, it's actually a parking lot.
• 1:45:17
  You know, I, I just think if we, if we strip that down and if we
• 1:45:20
  as coaches strip down and be like, Hey, here's who I am, you
• 1:45:23
  are going to like me or not like me and make that choice.
• 1:45:26
  Because if you like me and you think I'm the coach for you and
• 1:45:29
  you actually choose to go to school here, I think the
• 1:45:31
  likelihood of you staying for four years goes up versus I get
• 1:45:35
  to campus and like, wait a minute, coach was cool when I
• 1:45:38
  was here for a visit and now this is how he or she really
• 1:45:42
  coaches. I don't that's not how I want to
• 1:45:44
  be coached. And now you look to transfer.
• 1:45:47
  I just I wish that we could just wipe that veneer off of the take
• 1:45:51
  the shiny site off and let's get to the real and and make choices
• 1:45:54
  on on schools for both. This is for both high school and
• 1:45:57
  the whole the mix there High schoolers, man, Go find someone
• 1:46:00
  that during your visit talks to you for real and doesn't show
• 1:46:03
  you the shiny coin because the shiny coin is not real, not real
• 1:46:07
  every day. And that's not real life.
• 1:46:08
  It's not real life. So I love your perspective on
• 1:46:11
  it. I love it because it lines up
• 1:46:12
  with what I think. June.
• 1:46:14
  So it's always nice. All right.
• 1:46:16
  June, we're at near end of our time.
• 1:46:17
  First of all, so grateful. I'm always so thankful for your
• 1:46:20
  time. That's one of the most important
• 1:46:22
  things that you can give me to wrap us up as you are.
• 1:46:26
  Is is 2025 because we're in summer?
• 1:46:28
  Is 2025 going to be year three or year 2?
• 1:46:31
  It'll be Year 3. Year 3, So what's got you
• 1:46:34
  excited as you're looking into 2025?
• 1:46:36
  And I know you, you're, you're, you're always a year and two
• 1:46:39
  ahead. You're looking at, you know,
• 1:46:40
  2627, you already know what freshmen are coming and things
• 1:46:43
  like that. What's got you excited about the
• 1:46:45
  Waxahachie Indians? Because I know that mascot now.
• 1:46:48
  There you go. Yeah.
• 1:46:49
  So the first year I got here, it was like offseason was survival.
• 1:46:55
  I, I the like the third week of school, I was like, all right,
• 1:46:59
  we've worked them decently. Let's go do something fun
• 1:47:01
  Friday. I was like, all right,
• 1:47:02
  everybody's going to bring their spikes.
• 1:47:04
  We're going to go do blocks on Friday.
• 1:47:07
  And they all kind of looked at me crazy.
• 1:47:09
  And I was like, OK, how many of you have spikes?
• 1:47:12
  And only two of them had their own spikes.
• 1:47:15
  So that was a culture shock for me for sure.
• 1:47:20
  So the first year was getting them just total survival.
• 1:47:26
  OK, let's just keep them off from having to throw up in the
• 1:47:29
  trash can. All right.
• 1:47:30
  So but then this last year, the offseason was a lot better and
• 1:47:37
  we ended up having a lot more success in the spring and the
• 1:47:42
  kids kind of made a turn during the season.
• 1:47:45
  Our best kid we have she, she decided this last last year she
• 1:47:50
  didn't want to run farther than 100 really.
• 1:47:51
  She'd run the 100 and the 200, you know, But then this year she
• 1:47:55
  said she was going to work towards breaking the 400 meter
• 1:47:58
  record. So you've really made a turn
• 1:48:00
  when you've when that child has changed her mindset from being a
• 1:48:05
  hundred 200 runner to going to break the school record.
• 1:48:08
  And she did. She did.
• 1:48:09
  She worked hard all year. She broke the 400 meter record,
• 1:48:12
  she broke 4 records, broke the 1-2, the four and the four.
• 1:48:15
  She was on the 4 by 4. And so all the girls being able
• 1:48:20
  to see that happen and watch that development, they all
• 1:48:25
  developed, they all got better. But for them to see her mindset
• 1:48:29
  change and have that much success just by her work ethic
• 1:48:35
  changing, I'm very excited about the offseason and what will
• 1:48:40
  produce once that offseason is over.
• 1:48:42
  Yeah, you've got to install your culture.
• 1:48:44
  They had some culture there. You, they're a long time coach,
• 1:48:46
  but you, you had to put in your culture.
• 1:48:48
  And that takes time. You know, building culture is,
• 1:48:51
  is hard. Ruining culture is very easy, by
• 1:48:53
  the way. But growing culture is hard.
• 1:48:56
  So it's cool to see you putting in that culture.
• 1:48:58
  And it's going to be so cool to see what, what, what fruit bears
• 1:49:01
  this year in 2627 because you're a, you're a program builder.
• 1:49:04
  And so it's going to be really cool to to see that.
• 1:49:07
  Will I see you next month? Will you be down at Texas?
• 1:49:10
  THSCA down in San Antonio? I'm actually not going to.
• 1:49:14
  I'm always there, but I won't be there this year.
• 1:49:17
  My sister's getting married in Spain.
• 1:49:20
  Oh my gosh. Wow.
• 1:49:22
  Very cool. OK, well, that's.
• 1:49:23
  I've never been over that way, so I'm going to get to
• 1:49:26
  experience that. That's an acceptable excuse.
• 1:49:29
  We'll we'll allow that. But but maybe you see at USTFCA
• 1:49:31
  and definitely you'll see at TTFCA in January down in Waco.
• 1:49:35
  We'll have a we'll have a lot of fun down there.
• 1:49:37
  June. Thank you so much again.
• 1:49:38
  Most valuable thing you can give me is your time.
• 1:49:39
  So grateful. Even though it's summer, right?
• 1:49:42
  All teachers have summer off, I think is the myth out there.
• 1:49:44
  It's just a vacation land. Yeah, it's vacation land.
• 1:49:47
  Exactly. By the way, if you're not
• 1:49:48
  watching YouTube, she's in school.
• 1:49:49
  So it ain't just vacation. We just have three months off
• 1:49:53
  then. Trust me, I, I know that one
• 1:49:54
  very much. So appreciate you very much and
• 1:49:56
  grateful for you being here today.
• 1:49:58
  Appreciate you guys being here and listening, man Thank you.
• 1:50:01
  We've had a couple, right? Two weeks ago we had Emily Webb,
• 1:50:03
  the high school coach down in Niceville, FL.
• 1:50:05
  I really do enjoy these high school coaches.
• 1:50:08
  They bring a different perspective from our college
• 1:50:11
  coaches. And I think it's really
• 1:50:12
  important, you know, one of our missions is to help, you know,
• 1:50:14
  connect. There's a reason why the podcast
• 1:50:15
  is called Connection. So it's really good, I think for
• 1:50:18
  if you're a college coach listening to see what a high
• 1:50:20
  school coach goes through, thinks about the ebbs and flows,
• 1:50:23
  the ups and downs of that. And I think it's important if
• 1:50:25
  you're a high school coach to hear our college coaches because
• 1:50:27
  I think I'm starting to get more and more passionate about this
• 1:50:30
  recruiting thing, partly because I was a big recruiter.
• 1:50:33
  I do, I do love the recruiting, but I think and get more
• 1:50:36
  passionate about how do we bridge that gap of communication
• 1:50:39
  between our high school coaches and in our college coaches.
• 1:50:42
  And of course, you have that X Factor that throws in there and
• 1:50:45
  club coaches as well. And we've had a few club coaches
• 1:50:47
  as well. So I love exploring that.
• 1:50:49
  So join us next week. We'll do it all over again.
• 1:50:51
  Have another awesome coach here. Appreciate to you guys being
• 1:50:53
  here and have an awesome summer. If you're watching Olympic
• 1:50:56
  trials and stuff, we'll talk to you soon.
• 1:50:58
  See you guys. If it goes to appreciate the
• 1:51:00
  coach, the ones that point people most every season needs a
• 1:51:04
  voice of reason speaking the growth you got to prep before
• 1:51:06
  you carry the load. It's caught to the soul for
• 1:51:09
  those of us to stand to go proper handoff, to stay in the
• 1:51:12
  zone which you packing for the road.
• 1:51:14
  There's more than one way to go. Take notes.
• 1:51:16
  That's being you told it ain't practice.
• 1:51:18
  If your purpose ain't clear, it can't happen to you.
• 1:51:20
  Listen, what both is can't mentor without a mentor years of
• 1:51:24
  experience you can reinvent those years every plans got a
• 1:51:27
  standard to live up to and the price sacrifice can you give up
• 1:51:31
  you. It's a choice and a fight, not a
• 1:51:33
  win or lose. It's not a ploy.
• 1:51:34
  Boy the vice of y'all make more moves.
• 1:51:36
  It's not about how to it's all about why you don't know till
• 1:51:39
  you know who you are beside 6,000,000.
• 1:51:42
  Waste of time choose none so we all cross finish line.
• 1:51:45
  The work ain't done so we learn from the experts.
• 1:51:47
  We all got to put in the network.
• 1:51:49
  Kill athletics network. It's all about connections put
• 1:51:52
  together for the profession. To every track coach could be
• 1:51:55
  blessing.