Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / #168: Gill1918 presents Track Tribe LIVE: (Part 3) "Getting Paid to Run" with Tyrone Ross hosted by Kyle Jones
Transcript
- 0:00Welcome to the Gill 1918 Project, a podcast series by
- 0:03coaches, for coaches powered by Gill Athletics.
- 0:06Think of this as the Ted Talks of track and field coaching.
- 0:09Short, insightful, and packed with valuable strategies to help
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- 0:21Check out the show notes below For more information.
- 0:23Now let's get into today's topic.
- 0:27I believe I believe it, man. I know that.
- 0:30Again, I, I try to stick to this man, this is so good.
- 0:33I I feel like we're 100% going to need a Part 2 and tell tell
- 0:38Mama Ross to fix me a. Plate too.
- 0:42I got you. I, I want to, I want to be there
- 0:45with a, with a pork chop. I don't eat pork, but you know.
- 0:48I want to be there whatever you need, whatever you need.
- 0:51My mother's fried pork chops will get you in trouble, but
- 0:54they. Don't even eat pork anymore.
- 0:55That's the funny part. Yeah, whatever.
- 0:57Whatever it is. Her spaghetti is real.
- 0:59Whatever, whatever it is, but I do know Jesus going to eat good
- 1:01when he come back. Yeah, the seven meal fit fried
- 1:06fish and spaghetti right. That's real.
- 1:08There you go. There you go.
- 1:11OK, So what I would love to do, because again, I try to stay
- 1:15relatively around our our one hour time frame, I feel like
- 1:19we're going to need to do a Part 2.
- 1:21I want to get some feedback from the audience.
- 1:23What are some other things they really want to know about?
- 1:26I know we dug into NIL today. We dug a little bit into what
- 1:30that transfer portal was like and when you can transfer.
- 1:32I think we touched on that just a bit.
- 1:35The stipulations that the schools are putting forth, how
- 1:38money is being transferred from, you know, or just used from a
- 1:43school's perspective versus the collective perspective and how
- 1:48the individuals, you know, where, how that money is
- 1:51distributed to you. We also touched a little bit on
- 1:55what it's like to run on a pro level and just how difficult it
- 1:58is to make money at that level and how long it takes to get
- 2:01paid, which is insane to me, you know, and you know, there
- 2:06there's a lot of experience that you have obviously at that
- 2:10level. Of course, I, I've never got
- 2:11there. I got to get through college and
- 2:14that was it for me. I tried to hit that hit that
- 2:17Olympic standard in 2004 for the decathlon.
- 2:20And I just, man, I, I took a beating, man, I tore, I stepped
- 2:25in a hole throwing a javelin and tore the muscle my back.
- 2:29So yeah, that was fun. I couldn't sit up on my own for
- 2:32like 667 weeks kids. So, you know, there, there's
- 2:39still a lot of information out here that parents need to know.
- 2:42I think you gave some really good pointers on questions that
- 2:45they should ask. If you did, if you missed that,
- 2:48y'all make sure y'all go back and catch all the notes on that.
- 2:53Is there are there any other final words that you'd like to
- 2:55share as we start to kind of wrap this thing up?
- 2:59And thank you everybody who's on board with us or bear with us.
- 3:02I don't know the words. What's the opposite of are they
- 3:05past tense of bear board? Oh, we do have a question here
- 3:11is all. And you see me looking to the
- 3:12rights. I got my screen.
- 3:13Oh, all good. Is all NIL through the school
- 3:17now and are the deals that can be made through?
- 3:20Are there deals that can be made through third parties?
- 3:23So is all are all NLLNIL through the school and are there deals
- 3:28that can be made through third parties?
- 3:30Great question. Yeah.
- 3:31So yes, they can be made through third parties.
- 3:34It's not only through the school, but it's primarily
- 3:36through the school now. So I can sign an agreement with
- 3:40my school for NIL and I can sign an agreement with New Balance or
- 3:44Nike. Like you see.
- 3:46Yeah, you can have third party or the local dealership is all
- 3:48the football players who drive the Hellcats.
- 3:51Yeah. So yeah, you can't have third
- 3:54party deals, but primarily they wanted because NIL was out of
- 3:57control. So now the power for schools and
- 3:59any school that opts in, there's very few that opted out, but the
- 4:03ones that opted out is it's only third party, but the majority of
- 4:08the schools and all the power for conferences opted in so they
- 4:12could pay the 20 1/2 million to their program.
- 4:16Now what's crazy is you got some football programs that are going
- 4:18to spend $40 million on a football roster next year, which
- 4:22means they blew through all of all of that 20 1/2, the portion
- 4:27of that 20 half, because we all know most of it is going to
- 4:29football and basketball, and then added another 20 +
- 4:331,000,000 on top from outside entities to be able to pay A to
- 4:37pay a roster of players. It's insane.
- 4:40Yeah, well, when you have schools and no disrespect, I'm
- 4:43let me state this and then you have Indiana International
- 4:47Championship, you know, and they have a a roster and you, you
- 4:52never would have seen this a few years ago because everybody went
- 4:56to those Power 5 or power Fours, right.
- 5:00And so now, now the money is changing the landscape and
- 5:03competitive edge across the country for other programs too.
- 5:08Right, I don't want to be quoted here.
- 5:11I think is is you can look it up, but I think Indiana has the
- 5:15wealthiest alumni base of all the universities.
- 5:20Also for the parents, for the parents out there, there's two
- 5:22things before we go, I was actually going to ask you if I
- 5:25could have a little time to say something because one of the
- 5:27things I always say is, is don't don't miss the moment.
- 5:29I don't want to miss the moment here, but to the parents really
- 5:33quickly. And I found this fascinating.
- 5:34I if I I may try to send it to you after this.
- 5:36But if you look at a map of where all the Division One
- 5:40schools are, they're all clustered on the East Coast and
- 5:45you got a few out here. I couldn't believe it, how few
- 5:47Division One schools they were here in California.
- 5:49It blew me away. Like the clusters all up and
- 5:52down the Eastern seaboard and a few in the middle of the
- 5:55country. And then there's it's disparate
- 5:57out here. So here's here's the last thing
- 6:01that I want to say, which I, which I think is important and
- 6:04kind of piggybacking on what I said at the beginning of the
- 6:09meeting. And I think this is really
- 6:11important based on some of the things that I hear from my, you
- 6:15know, my former teammates, friends that are my age that
- 6:18have kids and everything else. I, I don't, I don't have
- 6:21children. All I got is my plant back there
- 6:23and I try to keep a lie right? That plant be so thirsty
- 6:26sometimes and tap me on the shoulder like, hey, bro, can you
- 6:31remember to put some water here? So I'm not, I haven't been
- 6:36blessed enough to, to have children yet.
- 6:37I have a niece and 33 great nephews that I absolutely adore.
- 6:43So I'm not, I'm not a parent, but I, I absolutely honor my
- 6:46parents and I Revere them for what they've meant to me.
- 6:50And I referenced something about how I almost took my life when
- 6:54my Olympic dream didn't come true.
- 6:56So if you are a parent right now and you just, I don't care if
- 6:59you're watching this live or you eventually get to see it,
- 7:03parents are the most important people you will ever get to know
- 7:10in your entire life. If you do have the benefit of
- 7:14being a parent and you have a child, to me, because of what my
- 7:20parents represent to me, the best thing you can do for that
- 7:25child is 2 things and still in them.
- 7:29An unwavering belief in themselves and an unwavering
- 7:36belief that whatever they want for themselves is limited.
- 7:42And what I mean by that is this a limited view of what they may
- 7:48say they are. All I wanted to be was an
- 7:51Olympian. All I wanted to be was an
- 7:53Olympian. My mother would always say to
- 7:54me, son, you're more than just a runner.
- 7:57And I hated it. Son, you're more than just a
- 8:01runner. You're more than.
- 8:03That's all she would say, but I would be disappointed.
- 8:05You're more than just a runner. So I say all that to say,
- 8:08support your kids. Go to all of the events, do all
- 8:12the things, do all the homework, do all the tournaments, do all
- 8:15of that stuff. Send them on their way.
- 8:18Don't prepare the path for the child.
- 8:20Prepare the child for the path. And then at the end of that
- 8:24path, there will be disappointment, there will be
- 8:26fear, there will be frustration, there will be heartbreak.
- 8:29You know that it's going to happen, but let them know
- 8:33whatever they sunk their heart into, it's just a fraction.
- 8:37It was limited in their thinking.
- 8:39And then you say, I wanted you to experience that.
- 8:42But when I created you and God was blessed enough to give me
- 8:45you, He didn't just limit you to this.
- 8:50You can draw, you can sing, you can do all those things.
- 8:53Don't just football, football, football, track, track, track,
- 8:56basketball back. Don't do that.
- 8:58Let them do it. Let them go their way, but
- 9:00remind them. Give them constant reminders
- 9:03that I've given you more than just athletic talents.
- 9:05I've given you a wonderful brain.
- 9:07I've given you the ability to speak.
- 9:09I've given you the ability to be magnanimous and make friends.
- 9:12I've given you the ability of leadership.
- 9:14You're you're a future entrepreneur, you're a future
- 9:18financial advisor. You're not just a runner.
- 9:20So again, I'm not blessed enough to be a parent.
- 9:23But my parents, to me, I would. I can't express the love for
- 9:29what I've seen them go through and what they've done and what
- 9:31they mean to me and to me. If you are a parent, I think
- 9:36that's all you want for your kids is just to look at you the
- 9:40way that I look at my parents. And all I think about now, I
- 9:43have a life I never dreamed of, never dreamed that I would be
- 9:46living the way that I'm living. And it was only because my
- 9:48mother would say you're not. You're more than just a runner
- 9:51son. You're more than just a runner
- 9:53son. And when I went up, when I woke
- 9:55up that morning and I bought the ticket to kill myself, it wasn't
- 9:58resonating. I'm starting to get a little
- 10:00emotional, but it wasn't resonating.
- 10:02And when God held me off that sidewalk and that truck went by
- 10:08and it shook me out of it, I was forced over the next couple of
- 10:11years ago, Man, I could do all of these things.
- 10:13I can speak, I'm really good at this.
- 10:17I'm really good at that. I can, I can build companies.
- 10:20I can do all these other things. So anyway, love on your kids.
- 10:24Send them on the way. Let them do whatever it is they
- 10:26want to do. But when they fall, when they're
- 10:28on their knees, when they have nothing but broken tools and
- 10:31glass in their hands and there's nothing left, you go.
- 10:35There's more to you than this and there's so many black men
- 10:38that struggle with they would have, they would athlete, they
- 10:42were this, that or whatever the world is.
- 10:44You're tall, so you're this the average height of a Fortune 500
- 10:48CEO is 6/2, right? So anyway, not blessed enough to
- 10:53be a parent. But if you are a parent, love
- 10:55when your kids send them on their way, but give them
- 10:57constant reminders that there's so many different themes inside
- 11:01of them that they can pull out when something that they wanted
- 11:04to put their all in doesn't go their way.
- 11:06Yeah, I love that, man. That, that, that is an awesome
- 11:09message. And guys, I, I echo that.
- 11:11I appreciate you taking the moment and seizing that moment
- 11:15to share that because somebody needed to hear that.
- 11:17And I would impart something in Utah.
- 11:19Only reason why you got pulled back from that is because you
- 11:23have a purpose and you're still here because you need to still
- 11:26continue to deliver messages because in my opinion, this is
- 11:31just me. From what I've noticed our, our
- 11:33class in that, in that, that late 90s, man, we're all bridge
- 11:36builders, right? We all try to bridge the gap
- 11:40between our generation and the next or, and the one that came
- 11:44before us. I'm noticing that about our
- 11:47everybody that was kind of like 96 to 99 range kind of that
- 11:50late, maybe even 2000, right? Which is kind of that, hey,
- 11:54here's what the older or elders taught us, but also here's what
- 11:58we can learn from our youth. And I know our youth get a bad
- 12:01rap sometimes and they go, man, these kids are crazy.
- 12:04They do this stuff, man. I'm going to tell you that I
- 12:06don't know that there's, there's a more creative group or
- 12:09generation out there. So they, every generation has a,
- 12:13an outstanding thing about them. There's some drawbacks for every
- 12:17generation. There's some outstanding things
- 12:19about every generation too. So I appreciate you taking that
- 12:23because there are athletes here that really need to hear that
- 12:26because just like you, all I wanted to do was go to the
- 12:29Olympics. I didn't do anything.
- 12:30I didn't know anything else so amazing.
- 12:33So I appreciate you for sharing that.
- 12:35There is one more question before we go.
- 12:37I think Coach Ruby here is are there any financial indicators
- 12:41that parents or students can look for to see that track, that
- 12:45track and field is at risk of being cut in the future?
- 12:47That's an excellent question too.
- 12:49So are there any financial indicators that they can look
- 12:51for to see if track and field is at risk of being cut in the
- 12:54future? Yeah, I we can use, we can use
- 12:57an example from our home state that just went viral about the
- 13:02financial condition of the athletic department at Rutgers.
- 13:06A high school coach went to Rutgers.
- 13:07I just saw him and I know a few kids from my high school
- 13:10recently went there. But when you have an athletic
- 13:12athletic department that has that has lost in total $500
- 13:16million and I believe $78 million lost by the track
- 13:21program, I think that's a good sign that there will be some
- 13:23type of cuts at some point. I don't know how there's not
- 13:27across the across the athletic department.
- 13:30But what's going to be the first to go, you know, Olympic sports,
- 13:35right? So I would be very, very, very
- 13:39cautious of sending my child to any sport at Rutgers right now
- 13:44until you figure out what's going on there.
- 13:46And this is all public information.
- 13:48The donors are not donating. They move to the Big 10, which
- 13:51is supposed to be lucrative, but you somehow still lost all of
- 13:54this money. Something's wrong and it is a
- 13:58miss. And which means so even if they
- 14:01don't cut the program, there still needs to be investment in
- 14:04the program, which means they're not even to invest any of them
- 14:07in the money in the in the student athletes.
- 14:09So that's an example of what you look for.
- 14:12But there's a there's and this is easily searchable.
- 14:16You can look at the the athletic departments of all these
- 14:19schools, right, that your kid may being recruited by or
- 14:22whatever and look up their financials.
- 14:26They they have to you know, they report it more.
- 14:28The majority of them do and and you can see and if not, they
- 14:31went when they reach out and the coach want to talk to your
- 14:34child, ask. Yeah, yeah.
- 14:38And the small world portion again, thank you for that.
- 14:41To the room, first of all, that my high school track coach,
- 14:45Coach Esophie is the Sprint coach up there at Rutgers now.
- 14:49Oh wow, that's crazy. Yeah, so it's like, wow, the the
- 14:53small word, the guys and there was so much knowledge dropped
- 14:57here. I'm going to go back and listen
- 14:59to it because it was just the amount of amazing Nuggets that
- 15:02were shared here today. And I hope this was valuable for
- 15:05you as the reason, one of the reasons why I like to have these
- 15:08real transparent conversations with people who are very
- 15:10knowledgeable, who love the sport of track and field, love
- 15:13athletes, love coaching, love the entirety of what we do here,
- 15:18right? The community of track and
- 15:19frame. You guys, by the way, if you
- 15:22haven't yet, find us on the school app SKOOL.
- 15:25It's called the Track Tribe. I'm trying to bring all these
- 15:27people together who love track and field.
- 15:30Doesn't matter if you're a coach, a parent and athlete.
- 15:32Come on. We're going to try to grow this
- 15:33as much as possible. I would like to have these
- 15:36conversations to help our track community thrive and I'm telling
- 15:40you right now there's there's not a tougher group of parents
- 15:43out there than track parents because man, I'm going to tell
- 15:46you what happened and this is a quick story.
- 15:48I watched the football games and it started raining and everybody
- 15:51scattered like roaches when the light came on.
- 15:53I was in a track meet the other week.
- 15:55It started raining. Everybody started clapping.
- 15:57They threw their umbrellas up and they sat right there.
- 16:00The track parents don't move. They do not care.
- 16:02It can be sleeping frogs out there.
- 16:04They. 98° sitting out there in the sun, I am not going to miss
- 16:12my baby running in the ninth heat of the 100 meters.
- 16:15Right know when they run they on the boys section run 13 four but
- 16:19that's my baby. That's my, that's my baby.
- 16:24Is it? Is what it is it?
- 16:25Is man, that's my baby and like the track parents are some of
- 16:28the toughest parents out there and and the coaches are right
- 16:31there with them just as tough. And so, you know, if you're if
- 16:35you're attract community is free.
- 16:38By the way, the track tribe. I'll take on all and incur all
- 16:40those costs. So come on and join us and have
- 16:43a conversation, ask questions. We got tons of information in
- 16:46the classroom there. You can go in and learn about
- 16:49track and field. If you don't know anything, we
- 16:51got instructional videos. We add more and more resources
- 16:53every single month. So, you know, join the track
- 16:56tribe again, it's free, 100% free.
- 16:58It will stay free because I don't think that we need another
- 17:02pay wall for the sport that we love.
- 17:05Did that on purpose. And so and Tyrone, dude, I, I
- 17:08just, I can't thank you enough. We're definitely going to have
- 17:12to do a Part 2 to dive more into, you know, the collegiate
- 17:16scene and what athletes need to do to get prepared for that, you
- 17:21know, from your experience. And then maybe even if they're
- 17:24so blessed enough to make a transition to the pros and think
- 17:27about what that looks like as well.
- 17:30Because that's a, that's a whole nutshell.
- 17:32That's a whole ball game right there that they need to
- 17:34understand. You dropped a lot of wisdom here
- 17:38and I appreciate you all. And guys, if y'all didn't know,
- 17:41again, I said I was going to bring this up and we mentioned
- 17:43it very briefly. So small world moment #2 me and
- 17:48Tyrone actually ran in the same track meet together at the Meet
- 17:53of Champions back in 1997, one of the best races in the history
- 17:58of New Jersey. And we were having a
- 18:01conversation. I was like, hey man, I know that
- 18:03guy. I'm saying he was, he was a
- 18:05really fast guy back in Jersey, Man, I don't know.
- 18:07I don't know if y'all do that or not, but that.
- 18:10So that was a small, small world moment that, you know, I'm, I'm
- 18:13excited to hopefully see that race one day.
- 18:15Yeah. We're.
- 18:16Going to get it to. You Yeah, I'm, I'm really, I'm
- 18:19the geek man. So guys, that is it for the
- 18:24Track Tribe session tonight with Tyrone Ross, who dropped an
- 18:28incredible amount of wisdom. I hope that it was valuable for
- 18:31you. Thank you all to all.
- 18:33You are all people in the chat. Thank you for sticking with us
- 18:36through this conversation, man. You guys have been amazing.
- 18:39We had some some moments here where we're emotional and it's
- 18:43great. I love that transparency.
- 18:45We had some laughs. We had some teary eyes somewhat
- 18:49man, some of that was part of laughter.
- 18:52But again, please find us on the school app.
- 18:54And then Tyrone, how can they reach out to you if they have
- 18:57more questions? Because you've got a wealth of
- 18:59knowledge in the finance area. So if they need you and they
- 19:02want to ask more questions for about you know from you and you
- 19:05know what you know, how could they reach you?
- 19:07Yeah, I'm on all socials. If you go to LinkedIn and search
- 19:12my name, Tyrone V Ross Junior, I'll pop up there.
- 19:15Every one of my social names have four O 1 in it so I'm tyron
- 19:204 O one on Instagram, TR four O 1 on X and then on Instagram.
- 19:28I mean on Facebook. Again you can just put in my
- 19:29name but feel free to reach out, DM me.
- 19:32Happy to answer questions and be a resource if needed there.
- 19:35You go and your company website do you have?
- 19:38Fouro1financial.co. Allright4o1financial.co.co
- 19:44y'all, so make sure you go in and check out Tyrone and and I
- 19:48would reach out and get some information, especially if you
- 19:50guys are trying to get those nil things going on.
- 19:54Make sure that you tap them and and ask some questions, man, and
- 19:57you know, have some have your team put together, right?
- 20:00Get the people on your team that know what they're doing.
- 20:03They could protect you and put you in the best position to win,
- 20:05right? Because our net worth is
- 20:07determined by a network and you want to have somebody like
- 20:10Tyrone in your corner. And I'm also available for some
- 20:14really, really hard, difficult old school 400 meter workouts.
- 20:19Not only will I give you to you, I'll do it with your kids.
- 20:22Because I ain't got no teenage kids.
- 20:24I could beat up on a mom. But you, you come to Atlanta,
- 20:29we'll put you on the track with the with our kid.
- 20:32Let's do it. Let's do it.
- 20:34I'm. All for a tremendous some.
- 20:36Tempo tubes. Yeah, well, I don't know if he
- 20:39he might just try to give it to you, man.
- 20:40He's Yeah, I. Know I see I tried to all that
- 20:44we going to run these and pace 2 minutes rest repeat.
- 20:47You can pace because he's an 800 kid, but he can run to four too.
- 20:50He just rent like 2-2 flat sophomore.
- 20:54So yeah, he's he's really doing his thing over there.
- 20:58Get my get him out there and maybe even get my daughter to
- 21:00chase him too. I'm excited, Tyrone.
- 21:04Thanks again, man. In the tribe session, y'all
- 21:07appreciate you remember the track tribe.
- 21:09And if you need to e-mail the track tribe, you can do it at
- 21:11the track tribe@gmail.com. If you need to find me, it's
- 21:15easy. Track Coach Jones on everything.
- 21:18All right? Yeah, everything.
- 21:21Holla at me, y'all. If you got questions, feel free
- 21:23to shoot us a message. We'll see you in the tribe.
- 21:25I appreciate you. Thank you so much.
- 21:27It's been great. God bless we.
- 21:29Got you. Hey gang, Mike Cunningham here.
- 21:32Hey, I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Guild 1918
- 21:35Project series. It's really my mission, my
- 21:38passion to bring you massive amounts of value and I hope this
- 21:43one hit the mark. The Guild 1918 Project is really
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- 21:50your voice, to have your voice heard you have something to say
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- 21:56So please get a hold of me, e-mail, text message, Twitter,
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- 22:06Hope you enjoy today and we'll see you tomorrow.