Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / #226: Lyle Weese-Montana State University

Transcript

#226: Lyle Weese-Montana State University · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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  Track and field world. You were now tuned in to a home
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  servant, Mike Cunningham, for another extraordinary message
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  for Gill. Athletics connections.
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  We welcome to the show with the go to appreciate the coach, the
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  ones you point people most every season leads.
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  A voice of reason. Speak in the growth.
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  go. Take notes.
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  can't happen to you. Listen, both is You can't mentor
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  without a mentor of years of experience.
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  deliver up to and the price sacrifice can you give up you.
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  know till you know who you are inside. 6,000,000 waist to tie
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  choose none. So be all for us finish line.
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  But y'all got to put in the legwork guilt.
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  together for the profession. To every track coach could be
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  blessed. All right, here we are back
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  again on the Guillethetics Connections podcast.
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  So glad that you pressed play today because I'm super excited
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  as we continue to roll through Season 4 here.
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  We're getting close to the end as we get into the last quarter
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  ish of the year. Can't believe it's gone by so
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  fast. Super excited what we have
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  brought. Going to bring up to you for
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  season 5, but we're going to. In season four with a bang as we
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  motor along here in this last quarter.
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  So let's get to it. Let's talk to the head track
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  coach, cross country coach at Montana State, The wise, The
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  wonderful Mr. Lyle. Weiss, Lyle.
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  How are you Sir? I'm doing great, yeah.
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  Happy to be here and talk with you real quick.
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  Awesome, man. You know, behind the scenes
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  listeners, we had a bear of a time to to get this actual
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  recording, not scheduling. Lyle was awesome.
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  We scheduled this quick, man. I really super appreciate that
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  we have technical difficulties that I've never had before.
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  And Lyle, as I said before he record, someone did not want us
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  to record today. So we have battled through
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  whatever demons, whatever you want to say.
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  We've battled through the technology demons to get this on
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  wax today, man. Yeah, we persevered.
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  And now we're here. No, no pressure.
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  But that means like we have to drop some real fire knowledge
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  here for listeners and everybody day.
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  No, no. Like I said, no pressure.
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  Well, Lyle, you know, somewhere along the way, assuming you were
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  an athlete, coaching had to change for you.
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  It had to somewhere. It's usually a gradual change.
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  But somewhere had to go from something that was done to you
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  go run this, lift this etcetera to something of like, oh wait a
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  minute, like this could might actually be a career for me.
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  Where does track and field coaching track and field?
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  Where's all that begin for you? Yeah, so when I started college
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  I didn't have any intention of becoming a coach.
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  And as the years progressed, I obviously got more and more into
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  track and field and cross country.
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  And just love the environment of it.
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  So as I reached graduation, I think I was thinking about it a
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  little bit in the back of my my mind.
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  But yeah, after I graduated from college, I kept running and in
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  training. But then I started throughout
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  the time I, you know, I moved to Minneapolis.
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  I lived there for a year, was part of the training group
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  there, and I lived in college. Moved to California and as part
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  of a training group there, in my time in California, I started
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  helping out at a Community College, Hartnell Community
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  College in Salinas, CA. So yeah, that was my first
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  coaching role. And yeah, I just really loved
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  it, enjoyed it, was that, yeah, just great athletes, just so
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  excited. So yeah.
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  I'm so excited to have someone believe in them at heart now.
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  So yeah, I was there for a couple years and then my wife
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  and I, we decided to move back to Montana.
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  And yeah, I start out here at Montana State as a volunteer
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  assistant in 2009. And then I went to part time and
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  then full time and then head cross country and now this is
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  already my going into my sixth year of both the head cross
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  country and. Head track and field position
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  so. That's amazing in a snap, right?
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  Exactly. Well, let's back up.
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  Let's find out how someone who didn't necessarily think they
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  were going to become a coach ends up becoming a Division One
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  track and field coach. For crying out loud.
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  Talk to us a little bit about where you went to high school.
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  You said moved back to Montana. So can I guess that you grew up
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  in Montana? Yeah, so I went to a high school
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  about a two hour drive 120 miles from Montana State here.
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  Beaverhead County High School. It's a County High school, so
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  there's the it's the only high school in the entire county, the
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  town of. It's in the town of Dillon,
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  which is about 5000 people, but there's not another town, over
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  2000 people, maybe within a 60 mile radius.
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  So it is really, definitely rural.
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  There were about 100 or so kids in my graduating class.
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  But yeah, then the only high school in the whole, whole
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  county. I think the county is larger
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  than a couple of states. So is that right?
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  Yeah, Yeah. Beaver County and Montana is
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  gigantic. Is Montana the state where
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  there's more cattle than there are people?
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  Or is that why it's one of those two states that used to be a
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  pretty funny? Fact, Yeah, yeah, I assume there
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  probably still are more. 1000 people.
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  There's some something just over 1,000,000 people in the state of
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  Montana. Wow.
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  Yeah. But yet your county was bigger
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  square footage wise, square miles wise than some states.
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  That's amazing. Yeah.
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  What does it, You know, I thought I grew up in a small
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  town. I grew up in small town Alabama.
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  We had less than 10,000 people. More than 5000, but less than
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  10,000. And I, you know, I know how we
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  grew up. You know, we had no mall, no
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  movie theater, no bowling. You know what is?
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  A kid growing up in Montana with 5000 people, for crying out
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  loud. What?
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  What does a kid like that grow up doing?
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  Well, yeah, We kept ourselves busy.
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  Yeah, there. There were always things to do.
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  Yeah, definitely a lot of outdoor activities.
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  Everyone. Most everyone.
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  Participates in sports, so especially in middle school,
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  like everyone does all the sports and similar in high
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  school where a lot of people do multiple sports and you are
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  pretty involved in the community.
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  But yes, it's a different world, and even living in a place like
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  that now versus then, without so much stuff.
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  Available via the Internet and electronically definitely were a
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  lot more. It was even more remote even
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  back then than it is now with the easy connection through
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  technology. That's a good point.
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  Well, with all that to do, what led you into running?
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  You know, it started. I did well with that.
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  We always had to do the physical fitness test, so.
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  When we ran the mile, I do well with that.
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  And then usually in middle school we have one track meet or
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  one or two track meets at the end of the year.
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  And yeah, I would do well when there were the distance events.
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  I'd all do well with some other stuff too, but that kind of
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  excel right away at the more distance aerobic side of things.
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  So that was the start. And then, yeah, I wasn't like,
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  super. Super into distance running.
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  But I kind of did it because I was good when I started out and
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  then over time got more of a yeah, I love it in connection
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  with it and then especially once I got to college then yeah,
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  being part of a team where everyone else is, you know super
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  invested and and really challenging themselves was yeah,
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  just a lot different and it was really exciting.
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  So I think that's what I really loved about the collegiate
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  experience and. Why?
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  I want some to help off that for others too.
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  You mentioned in the high school before we get on to the college
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  side here that most of the students participate in some
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  sport or maybe activity there at the high school.
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  What was it like on your high school team in regards to like
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  the coaches and how they interacted with you?
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  Was there much coaching? You know, sometimes we have
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  plenty of athletes who. We're doing kind of their own
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  thing, you know, The coach didn't know anything we had.
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  We had one guest. I wish I could remember who it
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  was who trained themselves out of Runners World magazine.
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  The coach didn't know anything is like that.
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  Sounds like a good workout. Go do that.
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  Yeah, so we had a smaller team in high school, but we were
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  able, you know, we had a full team and coaches that were,
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  yeah, they were really into it, really into the people and
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  supporting the people on the team.
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  Definitely. Like when I was in high school,
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  it wasn't like a strong history of, you know, we weren't
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  consistently even winning a state in Montana and we were in
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  not even. We're in the second largest
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  classification, but still not really strong classification.
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  So yeah, not like definitely the sports cross country distance,
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  especially back then, was not. They were not what the town was
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  known for. So yeah, definitely have great
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  supportive coaches. But yeah, it was maybe a limited
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  number of people competing at a super high level.
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  And you mentioned you go on to running college.
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  I mean, that's no short thing here.
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  I mean, no matter what level that takes, obviously some
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  natural talent, but some coaching and some internal will
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  as well. How did you get up to that
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  stature? So I just maybe going back to
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  high school a little bit, I didn't run very much.
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  I mostly ran just during the season and maybe ran 25 miles a
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  week. So when I got to college, quite
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  a few of the first days of practice were the longest I've
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  ever run. I remember the first time we did
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  a workout, I think it was a Temple Run and we went like 4
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  1/2 miles and I went faster for that, 4 1/2 miles on a pace per
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  mile than I'd ever done in a race in high school.
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  OK, hold on. Stay.
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  Stay right there. With that memory, though, I
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  couldn't imagine, you know, you get.
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  You get comfortable, especially as a high schooler.
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  Come on, let's give a lot of grace to high schoolers.
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  You know your pace. You know your paths.
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  You know your miles. You know what your quote, UN
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  quote long runs might be then. And then you said on the first
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  day of college practice you go longer.
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  Maybe then you ever had faster certainly than you ever had any
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  like, oh crap moments during that, like, oh, maybe this
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  wasn't really what I should be doing.
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  No, not not really. I.
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  I don't know where like the confidence of kind of feeling
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  like I could do like whatever it was anyone else was doing.
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  I think just cuz I didn't know any better, but I just assumed I
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  could do that. Yeah, I remember having blisters
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  on my feet because I'd been going and really been running
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  during the summer and I showed up and I was running a lot more
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  like, oh man. So I do remember like it was a
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  lot more, but I was mostly just excited about it and kind of for
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  the challenge. And what did you go into college
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  thinking you wanted to be? You know, I grew up wanting to
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  be a firefighter and a policeman and all that kind of stuff.
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  What did you go in thinking? I'm going to major in this
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  because I want to become a. So I didn't know for sure and
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  it's the most broad thing was the business program.
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  So I started in the business program.
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  I ended up mostly for the running thing for five years and
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  ended up. Double majoring in Economics and
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  Business finance. I mean, econ majors, that's no
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  small major here. What did you think you were
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  gonna become? You gonna become an accountant
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  or something? I guess I assumed something in
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  the business world. I didn't have, like, a great
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  idea of what. Yeah, I was.
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  Really. I guess I was.
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  Intrigued by the stock market when I was 18 or 19 years old,
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  but I didn't really know what it entails or even what possible
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  jobs could be in that. But I was having general,
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  general interest in that. And tell me we haven't actually
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  named where you went to college. Please tell me you went to
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  Montana State. Yeah, so I went to Montana
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  State. Oh, I love that I I have such a
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  place in my heart for for alums who coach at their alma mater.
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  I mean, to me, it's like the most purest.
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  Like when you go to recruit, you know, every coach is out there
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  calling it recruit, telling them how great their school is.
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  You have such proof, like, you know how great it is.
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  I went to school here. Like, that's how much I believe
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  in this school. So I love.
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  I was really hoping I was like, oh, man, tell me what to Montana
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  State. Don't tell me you went to
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  Montana. That would be a tough
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  conversation. That's awesome.
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  So you went to. So you're a bobcat, right?
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  A bobcat out of high school as well.
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  Yeah, yeah. So I yeah, I had a great
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  experience here and. Yeah, it was definitely like
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  coming from my training background.
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  It took a while, but then yeah, I reached pretty high levels as
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  an athlete. And yeah, I just had a great
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  experience. That's awesome.
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  So what was your relationship like with your college coaches
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  as compared to your high school coaches?
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  Yeah, so I think like the group of athletes on the team were
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  awesome. And the head coach was great,
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  named Dale Kennedy. He was, he was the coach here
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  for at least 35 years at Montana State.
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  Actually, yeah, longer than that.
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  But I think the overall he had over 50 years of coaching
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  experience and then now since he's retired from Montana State
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  in the spring of 2018, he has been coaching at the high school
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  level. So he's keeping going.
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  Yeah, I hope. So in 2018 he had 50 years of
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  coaching experience between high school, junior college and at
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  Montana State. So now he's going to be going on
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  60 here pretty soon. That's.
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  Those high school kids know how lucky they are.
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  I mean to have someone of Dale's experience.
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  Good Lord, he's seen it all at this.
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  Point, yeah. Man, so bad on.
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  Kids. Yeah, I know.
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  I know that. That kids, they really love
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  having him there and yeah, just really seem really appreciative
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  having someone like that with that much experience and
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  knowledge. So but but yeah, Coach Kennedy,
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  he, he was, he was a great coach for me.
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  I was a pretty independent person so I didn't need someone
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  to tell me exactly what to do all the time.
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  He set some guidelines and yeah. Definitely knew what you were
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  doing, but he wasn't a micromanager in terms of what
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  we're doing for for training on a daily basis.
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  But we always knew what to do. We had a good plan, but we had
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  some freedom within that. And how did the, so you're
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  explaining how there's a the training got more and it got
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  faster. How did you adapt to that?
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  Did you adapt positively? Like, did you start seeing a lot
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  of good improvements? Yeah, I adapted to it pretty
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  quickly right away and had a fairly good freshman year in
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  cross country and did. I had a pretty good indoor
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  season as well and then I competed during the outdoor
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  season and I did start to struggle at that point just
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  because you know I'd never done much more than about it six or
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  eight months season. So continuous like that, the end
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  of my freshman year was. Pretty challenging and I
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  struggled a lot during that outdoor season.
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  Because you mentioned in high school you basically just ran
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  the track season. Yeah, yeah, pretty much.
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  I was just run during the cross country season and then during
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  the track season and there would be times where I get out a
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  little bit in between seasons but nothing very consistent and
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  you have a few some runs here or there.
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  Yeah, I'd love to know what you're.
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  Annual mileage was senior year of high school, and even just
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  compared to freshman year, I mean, it had to be, I don't
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  know, maybe double. I mean that's you're doing a lot
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  more running in the college side compared to what you did in the
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  high school. Yeah, I remember some of the
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  older kids on the team when I first got there.
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  We're talking about like 100 miles a week.
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  And I just remember thinking like I didn't run 100 miles all
• 18:01
  summer, but. You know, like 100 miles.
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  Wait a minute. Yeah, yeah.
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  But after a few years, I was definitely, yeah.
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  Also running 8090 miles a week during the summer.
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  So yeah, there's some weeks I don't, but.
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  There's some weeks I don't drive 100 miles back and forth the
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  world, that's crazy. I can't understand.
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  Obviously never a distance runner here.
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  So I just that to me is stuff is like fantasyland, like 100
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  miles. That's crazy.
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  Like, I mean literally like that's crazy.
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  That'd be like the like a shot putter coming to me and going,
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  yeah, yeah, I practiced with 30 foot shop or 30 pound shot puts.
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  I'm like, that's just crazy, man.
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  Why would you do that? You know, this is not smart 100
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  miles per week. I just, that's not smart for me.
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  It's not smart for me to do. That's for sure, man.
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  So you know, again, I have a real soft spot in my heart for
• 18:52
  alums who coach their alma mater.
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  You know, you did five years of an undergrad there.
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  You've been there now since. What year did you get there?
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  09, right. So you've been there what, 14?
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  You know going on 15 years now So you got a lot of memories on
• 19:08
  that campus. Is there a special for your
• 19:10
  undergrad? Is there like a a special place
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  like whether you hit a PR and and a race of the track or a fun
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  time, just a great memory of that campus as it relates to
• 19:20
  your your track and cross country.
• 19:23
  Yeah, That's a good question. I think there's memories all
• 19:27
  over the campus and the campus has changed quite a bit, but at
• 19:32
  the same time there are some places that are the same.
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  So I think that mixture of old and new and yeah, just looking
• 19:40
  at the facilities with then versus now even the student
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  population there was probably 9 or 10,000 students on campus
• 19:51
  when I was there and now there are about 17,000 so.
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  Quite a bit larger, but yeah, I not a whole lot of like specific
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  memories, but yeah, we still have some of the same or the
• 20:05
  same dorms as when I was there. So when I'm talking to recruits
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  about you know, North Hedges like yeah, I was in North Hedges
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  20 some years ago, but. Distance runners, especially
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  cross country distance runners have, they're famous for having
• 20:20
  like their their loops. You know, here's the 10 mile
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  loop we always go on. Do you still have like pads and
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  loops that are the same from when you're in undergrad?
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  Yeah, there's definitely some runs that they do that we we
• 20:33
  used to do. There's one during, you know,
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  when there's a lot of snow on the ground, there's a loop that
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  goes like a Six Mile loop around the hospital called the hospital
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  loop. But it's good today, Good day.
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  Yeah. But yeah, they still do that one
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  quite a bit. And yeah.
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  A lot of that. There's a lot of trails in town,
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  probably like 100 miles of trails here in Bozeman and then
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  so yeah, a lot of those trails are out running and I ran on
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  after college and still get out and run on a little bit.
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  The team runs on them, so that's really cool.
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  And as you go through college, you mentioned you'd after
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  college you go on to run up in Minneapolis and then over in
• 21:16
  California. We'll talk about those in one
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  second, but as you're transitioning through to that
• 21:20
  side of your life, no, no thought of coaching at all still
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  at this time. Yeah, I think as I was
• 21:29
  graduating, I thought of it as something I would like to get
• 21:32
  into, but I kind of didn't see the path for it because I had
• 21:37
  like that the economics and the business finance major, I felt
• 21:41
  like I should get started on that as also still wanting to
• 21:47
  compete so. I didn't know exactly what that
• 21:51
  path forward could be, but definitely had an interest in
• 21:56
  it. I just didn't know exactly what
• 21:58
  that path was gonna look like. Yeah, see, I love that.
• 22:01
  That's been one of the really amazing things.
• 22:04
  One of the many amazing things that come out of the podcast is
• 22:07
  the different paths. You know, when you're, you know,
• 22:10
  18 year old and 22 year old, kid and athlete, you think just by
• 22:15
  the nature of what's been happening to you, you know,
• 22:17
  coaching happening to you, you think like, oh, they're all
• 22:19
  exercise science majors, maybe at worst they're physical
• 22:22
  education majors, but they're all biology.
• 22:25
  They're all something like maybe they're even coaching majors,
• 22:28
  but which there is none, right? It was just like, you ever think
• 22:30
  about that? And then you know as you sit
• 22:32
  down with 200 plus coaches here on the podcast and it's like Oh
• 22:34
  yeah, business majors, finance majors, certainly some
• 22:38
  kinesiology exercise fizz majors, absolutely a few of
• 22:41
  those but more I think I wish I would keep track of this.
• 22:45
  I think more often than not it's a non exercise science
• 22:50
  Physiology if you will. Type degree versus business
• 22:55
  teaching is probably the most common.
• 22:56
  I bet if if I would have kept track of everything, but not
• 22:59
  like science teaching, but like, you know, English and history,
• 23:02
  history buffs in the coaching world, I've found out That's
• 23:05
  interesting. So you wanted to continue
• 23:08
  running. I'm assuming that meant you were
• 23:11
  pretty good. You know, if I wanted to
• 23:15
  continue running out of college, I'm like, yeah, I'll run my
• 23:17
  local 5K. That's where I'm going.
• 23:18
  You moved to Minnesota, for crying out loud.
• 23:23
  Yeah, so after college I moved to Minneapolis and joined USA
• 23:27
  Minnesota when that was when it was called that.
• 23:32
  And I was there for about a year in that group.
• 23:35
  That was Dennis Parker, who was a coach there.
• 23:38
  So that was a really, really good group there.
• 23:42
  And then after that, how did you.
• 23:44
  So hold on cuz what's interesting is I think today
• 23:49
  it's easier you mentioned about like growing up in your
• 23:53
  hometown, how much maybe you didn't say this word easier or
• 23:57
  different for sure kids are growing up in your hometown
• 23:59
  versus when you did because of electronics, social media,
• 24:02
  Internet etcetera. So I think today in 2023 it is
• 24:06
  easier to find these type of training groups and I'm not
• 24:09
  talking about just distance, although those are the ones that
• 24:10
  maybe get the most. I don't say publicity, but, you
• 24:14
  know more popular. But I still think that's hard.
• 24:17
  Like there's no, like I don't go to runningclub.com and find the
• 24:21
  Bowerman Track Club and Hanson and you know Atlanta Track Club.
• 24:26
  There's you still got to kind of find them.
• 24:29
  How in the world did you find it back then?
• 24:34
  I so I graduated in 2003, so there definitely was stuff on
• 24:41
  the Internet about it some. Yeah, there there weren't a
• 24:45
  whole there weren't very many post collegiate options.
• 24:49
  I think Nike Oregon Project was. Kind of getting going around
• 24:55
  that time and there was that fitness Team USA Minnesota and
• 24:59
  then maybe Hansen's would had just started or maybe they had
• 25:04
  more of a marathon focus at that point point.
• 25:09
  So yeah, there were just like a few options and I probably heard
• 25:12
  about them from different people and saw some information on the
• 25:16
  Internet and yeah, so decided to join Team USA, Minnesota and
• 25:22
  what made you move to Minnesota? I mean that's a that's a hall
• 25:26
  and you said Minneapolis. So that's way different
• 25:28
  population wise from what you're used to.
• 25:32
  Yeah, so mostly, yeah. I just thought it was a great
• 25:39
  support system and felt like it was.
• 25:43
  I wanted to be a part of a group and not training on my own at
• 25:46
  that time, so. Yeah, I thought.
• 25:49
  I just thought it was really important to be part of part of
• 25:51
  the group and you mentioned you're married, Is this pre
• 25:55
  marriage? So we yeah, that was pre
• 26:01
  marriage. But yeah, my wife and I were on
• 26:05
  the, we were both on the team together.
• 26:07
  I was a year older than her. She's a year younger.
• 26:09
  So yeah, we started dating in 1999, so.
• 26:15
  And then we were engaged about not too long after I graduated.
• 26:19
  And then we got married in 2005. Yeah.
• 26:23
  Because you know what kind of in the thing.
• 26:26
  Yeah. The reason I ask is, you know
• 26:28
  single versus married or you know soon to be married, that
• 26:32
  makes decisions a lot different as well.
• 26:34
  You know there's you can't just not just you anymore.
• 26:36
  Just packing up and moving to Minneapolis is like, well, I got
• 26:38
  to, we got to make sure we're both on board here.
• 26:42
  Yeah, yeah, for sure. She still had a semester of
• 26:45
  college to finish up and then she moved to Minneapolis and
• 26:48
  then then she ended up moving to California or we moved to
• 26:52
  California together too so and then back to Bozeman.
• 26:55
  So yeah, she's especially then like we didn't necessarily,
• 27:01
  we're kind of excited just to see different areas and
• 27:06
  experience different things didn't like have anywhere we
• 27:09
  absolutely had to be. So it was kind of a fun time to
• 27:13
  move around and see, Yeah, different places.
• 27:15
  Well, how did Minneapolis go? That's one of my favorite super
• 27:19
  cold cities, you know, during the winter.
• 27:21
  But I do love Minneapolis and the surrounding area.
• 27:23
  How'd that go with a group and, you know, whole different
• 27:26
  atmosphere? There's no more going to class
• 27:28
  like you. Just you run and probably got a
• 27:31
  job and figured all that aspect out.
• 27:34
  Yeah. So the group was great.
• 27:37
  Dennis Barker was great. It was definitely hard, a
• 27:41
  challenge for me, not having something other than running.
• 27:45
  So I think I had like a part time job.
• 27:49
  But I always felt like I had more direction in college.
• 27:52
  Like I was really working towards something when I was
• 27:53
  looking towards my degree and then it was a little harder when
• 27:56
  I was just focusing on running, especially right away.
• 28:00
  So I think that first year was kind of tough, but yeah, it was,
• 28:05
  it was, it was good there. I I thought being from Montana
• 28:08
  that I would be used to the cold in a lot of ways.
• 28:12
  I was. I just wasn't used to how
• 28:15
  consistently cold it it is. So that was an adjustment to
• 28:19
  you. Surprisingly, I thought, man,
• 28:21
  that's going to be, you know, the same or better there.
• 28:25
  But I think the winter I was there, there was something like
• 28:28
  60 days in a row or something crazy like that where it didn't
• 28:31
  get above freezing and. That is a little more unusual in
• 28:35
  Montana where there's some fluctuations in weather once it
• 28:39
  gets cold or it gets cold and then oftentimes have warm stall
• 28:44
  come through. But it was so much more
• 28:45
  consistent there that that was a little different too.
• 28:48
  We had a when I coached at Ball State University, we had a high
• 28:51
  jumper from Edina. So just outside of Minneapolis
• 28:54
  and you know, we'd always, you know, what's the weather today
• 28:56
  and Edina and it was nuts. So something, you know, the word
• 29:01
  negative in front of a temperature should only happen
• 29:04
  like maybe once a year, like crazy time of the year, right.
• 29:07
  It was like, oh, every day. Oh, yeah, you know it was -2
• 29:09
  today. Oh, wind chill was -30.
• 29:11
  It's like, how do you live? How do you run?
• 29:15
  I I'd be all put, you know, in my park and everything and and
• 29:18
  you guys would be out there running.
• 29:19
  I don't know how you do it, man. It's it's quite amazing.
• 29:23
  I had a really great question after that too.
• 29:25
  I just, I talked to myself right out of my question.
• 29:30
  Well, how did it go? Did you?
• 29:31
  I typically think of the distance clubs as more marathon
• 29:35
  focus. Did you move towards the
• 29:37
  marathon or did you stay? And I didn't even ask, Are you
• 29:38
  more mile 5K10K? Where did you stay focused as an
• 29:42
  athlete during that time? Yeah, mostly I raised like a
• 29:46
  mile 3K3K people and 5K and then after after once I was out of
• 29:53
  college the probably the event I ran.
• 29:57
  For definitely the event I ran most at that the championship
• 29:59
  races would be the 3000 meter steeplechase.
• 30:04
  So, So yeah, I ended up running the 2004, 2008 and 2012 Olympic
• 30:11
  trials, but didn't necessarily race very well in any of those.
• 30:16
  So yeah, but yeah, I had kind of a long steeple career.
• 30:23
  Yeah, Steeplechase is my favorite distance race.
• 30:26
  Like I think that you know this is going to be unpopular opinion
• 30:29
  maybe to you and definitely to some people listening.
• 30:31
  That should be the the longest we do on the track.
• 30:34
  Like 3000 steeple and under would be awesome for me.
• 30:38
  I've seen a few good 5 k's I've never yet to see.
• 30:42
  Actually I lied. There's one 10K that I watched.
• 30:44
  I was like oh that's pretty interesting.
• 30:45
  And I'm talking about, you know, when I was like several of the
• 30:48
  places I was at, we had good runners at Ball State, We had,
• 30:51
  you know incidentally cross country qualifying team every
• 30:54
  year. So we had really good 10K kids
• 30:56
  there. Mississippi State, we had some
• 30:58
  good 10K kids. But I, you know, so even though
• 31:00
  we had a routine interest, it's like oh man, like could you get
• 31:03
  done like half time ago? This is just so long.
• 31:05
  I do say that the what was it, the 2012 Olympics when Galen
• 31:09
  were up and Meb, I can't remember.
• 31:13
  It was his training partner and they went 1-2 and then say
• 31:17
  again. Mo, Farah Mo, that's it.
• 31:20
  I would say MEB and I know it's not right.
• 31:21
  Mo. They went 1-2 I think in the 10K
• 31:25
  and I remember. I still remember being in my
• 31:26
  inlaws watching that. It's like this is like this is a
• 31:28
  good 10K. Man, that's really cool.
• 31:30
  That's the only one. But Steep will chase my friend.
• 31:34
  I don't care if you run it in 15 minutes or 8 minutes.
• 31:37
  That is an exciting race. That is fun.
• 31:40
  And you said you ran the 8:00 and 12:00 trials.
• 31:42
  That means I saw you race. That's funny because I was
• 31:45
  definitely front and center at all the races for 2008 and 2012
• 31:48
  trials. Man, that was a lot of fun.
• 31:49
  What's that experience like? I mean, you know, I, I get to
• 31:52
  see it differently from where I sit.
• 31:54
  So at the O 8 and in 2012 trials, we did all the equipment
• 31:58
  there at Oregon for the trial. So I get, you know, so I'm a lot
• 32:01
  of times I'm in the infield or I'm, you know, I'm in very
• 32:04
  intimate places that a lot of people don't get to go.
• 32:06
  But every once in a while I get to go into the stands and kind
• 32:08
  of just be the fan of it. And and I remember 08 and 12
• 32:11
  just being, I mean, just rocking.
• 32:14
  I mean, people were cheering for everybody.
• 32:17
  People were cheering for you. They wanted you to do well.
• 32:20
  What's that like as an athlete, to be in that environment?
• 32:25
  Yeah, it was. Those races are always so
• 32:28
  exciting and that the fan support is great.
• 32:34
  I think in a lot of ways though, like when you're competing, it's
• 32:36
  not all that much different. It's still just the track and
• 32:42
  the barriers and your competitors different.
• 32:45
  The lead up to it. Yeah, a lot more people are
• 32:49
  reaching out and talking to you and wishing you luck and all of
• 32:53
  that. And then when you walk into the
• 32:54
  stadium there's more people there.
• 32:57
  Or once you get to the start line, the races, the races are
• 33:00
  really similar to you know whether.
• 33:03
  It's a dual meet or whether it's, you know, it's the Olympic
• 33:09
  trials or or somewhere else. Is that because you're just
• 33:12
  especially for an event like the steeple, you know it's one thing
• 33:15
  in the 15 and the five, you know you got people around you and
• 33:18
  there's jostling and things like that and there's breakout packs
• 33:21
  in in sometimes especially well you know, again not a distance
• 33:25
  front of here. So you can definitely push back,
• 33:26
  and I'm sure I'll get comments on Twitter about this.
• 33:29
  I feel like in a 10K there can be some parts of the race where
• 33:32
  you can just zone out. Like I'm just going to run the
• 33:33
  next mile. I don't have to really think
• 33:35
  about a lot of things. You don't get that liberty at
• 33:37
  all in the steeple. Every, you know what, 8090
• 33:41
  meter, whatever it is, there's a barrier.
• 33:42
  You've got to make sure you are focused, that you aren't zoned
• 33:45
  out. And then of course every lap you
• 33:47
  have the water, which has its own issues with it.
• 33:50
  But when you say that, you know it's the race, is the race, so
• 33:53
  you've got to be in it. Is that because it's the steeple
• 33:55
  or is that your mentality, your mentality when it comes to
• 33:58
  racing? I think probably just more so
• 34:03
  the mentality, my mentality, But yeah, the races are definitely
• 34:08
  different, like 800 starts and you don't have much time.
• 34:12
  If you make a mistake, you're a lot more difficult to make up
• 34:16
  for it. And then the people chase you,
• 34:25
  just yeah. In some ways it's easier to
• 34:28
  concentrate because all you're thinking about is the next
• 34:32
  barrier, seeing it in a good rhythm.
• 34:36
  So and then yeah, the 10K. I kind of.
• 34:41
  I really like watching the 10K on the distance coach, but.
• 34:47
  Just like at our conference meet, no matter what's going on,
• 34:49
  there's always something exciting in the 10K where
• 34:51
  someone will be like so far behind and then we'll come back
• 34:54
  and get 8th place when you think like, oh man, there were 200
• 34:57
  meters behind at one point. Is this right?
• 35:00
  Yeah. Our our other event coaches like
• 35:03
  our longtime jumps coach Tom Idol, he his favorite event to
• 35:07
  watch was the 10K and he would always like a conference.
• 35:10
  You'd always stay around late on Friday and be excited to watch
• 35:14
  the 10K. Yep, there's the other issue.
• 35:18
  My bedtime is like 9:00. Man, y'all don't get started
• 35:20
  till like 9:00. I do love that.
• 35:22
  It's for because conference meets are my my favorite meets
• 35:25
  of all of the meets I do like. It's kind of like the first
• 35:28
  kickoff of points. You know, typically you have it
• 35:30
  maybe a Hammer event or something, but it's the first
• 35:32
  running event and this kind of sets the tone for the next two
• 35:35
  to three days depending on your your conference schedule.
• 35:38
  Yeah, yeah, for sure. Our conference is like that with
• 35:41
  the people in the 10K being on Friday.
• 35:44
  So it's always fun to get off to a good start with those those
• 35:49
  events right away. Yeah, Steeple and the 10K, is
• 35:52
  that unique. I don't know that I've seen the
• 35:54
  steeple in the first day. Yeah, we we just have a two day
• 35:59
  conference meet. So that's yeah we schedule it
• 36:04
  then steeple final, 10K final on Friday and then prelims and the
• 36:08
  other events and then 5K final Saturday.
• 36:10
  Yeah, well, that's tough. That's those are tough kids
• 36:12
  there. Two day, 2 day meets man a
• 36:14
  conference meet. That's tough.
• 36:16
  Yeah. All right.
• 36:17
  So you're in Minneapolis, you're freezing because that's what you
• 36:20
  do in in Minneapolis. And then you decide and and I
• 36:24
  almost said, you went to warmer weather, but there's certainly
• 36:26
  cold weather. Not Minneapolis cold, but there
• 36:28
  is cold weather in California. You head up north.
• 36:31
  Where did you go to California and why?
• 36:33
  Why? Why the change of scenery?
• 36:36
  So I went to. The Big Sur distance project,
• 36:41
  and before that it was called the Team USA, Monterey Bay.
• 36:47
  But Bob, Bob, 70 was the coach there.
• 36:50
  But that, yeah, there was a really solid group of guys
• 36:54
  there. That group ended up not lasting.
• 36:57
  The funding for it didn't end up lasting that long.
• 37:00
  So it was pretty much once I moved down there like a year or
• 37:04
  so. That was it for that group.
• 37:07
  So then I was just training on my own.
• 37:09
  I started working in an appraisal office, real estate
• 37:12
  appraisal office and then later started volunteering it Hartnell
• 37:18
  Community College. So yeah, I was pretty busy there
• 37:22
  for a little bit and then once I started volunteering then I
• 37:25
  decided to do like an all my master's program.
• 37:29
  So I didn't got to basically a master's in athletic
• 37:33
  administration online. Which didn't seem as hard after
• 37:37
  working in the private sector, working eight to five, writing
• 37:42
  well pretty much 8:00 to 5:00. But writing reports, narrative
• 37:48
  appraisal reports, doing that school work didn't seem as hard.
• 37:52
  So I could get through that a little quicker.
• 37:54
  So and you got your masters in athletic administration.
• 37:57
  So there was definitely like, OK, I think this might end up
• 38:00
  being my path where it's coaching or maybe something in
• 38:03
  athletics. Yeah.
• 38:06
  Yeah. So once I started kind of the
• 38:08
  end of 2006, volunteer well, started to volunteer at Heart
• 38:13
  now, yeah, kind of got the idea that that's the direction I
• 38:18
  wanted to go. So probably that spring 2007
• 38:23
  maybe started in the masters program and maybe finished in 15
• 38:28
  months or so. So I asked you earlier about
• 38:32
  that first day of college practice, and you know, you're
• 38:36
  running farther and faster than you ever have.
• 38:38
  You know, was there ever a crap maybe this, you know?
• 38:41
  And there's nothing wrong with being a regular student.
• 38:43
  I don't have to be a student athlete.
• 38:44
  You know, I'm always curious, especially for Someone Like You
• 38:47
  who did a couple of years outside of your college
• 38:51
  athleticism, weren't necessarily eyes on the prize.
• 38:54
  I'm going to be a track coach. So now you're at Hartnell.
• 38:56
  You're actually coaching. That's different than being an
• 38:59
  athlete. That's different than looking at
• 39:01
  the paper. All right.
• 39:01
  Today's 5 by 1 mile. All right, I'll.
• 39:03
  I'll do that. It's now figuring out what are
• 39:05
  you going to have the athletes run and how do you conduct
• 39:07
  yourself around the athletes to motivate them, keep them
• 39:10
  engaged, etcetera, believing in you, in the in the workouts.
• 39:15
  What was it like that first year of Hartnell?
• 39:18
  Because because you still had a a fork in the road, you could
• 39:21
  have done that first year at Hartnell and be like, oh,
• 39:24
  actually, you know what, I this is different than I thought.
• 39:27
  Let's pivot and I'm gonna go become an administrator or
• 39:30
  something. But you obviously kept at it.
• 39:33
  Yeah, so it was a pretty smooth transition because the there
• 39:41
  there was a distance coach and I was assisting or helping out
• 39:45
  with them. So it was a pretty small
• 39:48
  coaching end of it. So it was made the transition a
• 39:52
  little easier. I didn't go into like
• 39:54
  immediately, like being the lead event group coach for this group
• 39:58
  of people went in there. More like, yeah, just in a
• 40:04
  supportive role for them, spending some time with them.
• 40:09
  Just stuff. Yeah, really, really like the
• 40:12
  athletes that were on the Hartnell team.
• 40:15
  And it was only there for, you know, two years or less than two
• 40:19
  years. But I still follow and still
• 40:22
  know so many of those kids from the time at Salinas or from in
• 40:28
  Salinas at Hartnell Community College.
• 40:29
  So yeah, the transition was pretty easy, just because I
• 40:32
  didn't like immediately have a bunch of responsibilities, more
• 40:37
  supportive role. But you got to see what the
• 40:39
  distance coach was doing on a daytoday basis.
• 40:42
  So you get to see, like, all right, either I don't want to do
• 40:44
  this or oh, yeah, OK. I can lean into that.
• 40:46
  How did you, as you were kind of, I don't want to say
• 40:48
  shadowing because you, you were involved and you know very much
• 40:52
  a supportive role, which that's extremely important as well.
• 40:54
  What did you think about in that role as you saw what he or she
• 40:58
  did in their role? Yeah, it was, it was really fun
• 41:03
  and interesting. So that the coach there, Chris
• 41:07
  Zapata, he's just done an incredible job at heart.
• 41:10
  Yeah, he has. I know.
• 41:11
  Zapata, right? Yeah.
• 41:13
  And he he's awesome. And he was pretty young then,
• 41:17
  too. And he was so intense and it was
• 41:21
  so interesting. Just he was a lot different than
• 41:25
  my college coach, Dale Kennedy. And I was amazed at how he did a
• 41:32
  great job of challenging the kids and a lot of them maybe had
• 41:36
  very little running or very limited running for a
• 41:39
  background. And and yeah, they started on
• 41:43
  the team and the training was intense and he demanded a lot
• 41:48
  from them and they just loved it.
• 41:50
  They just loved being in a situation where people had high
• 41:55
  demands of them and we're going to push them to do things that
• 41:59
  were, you know, you know, pretty daunting, especially for a lot
• 42:06
  of them didn't have much for training background.
• 42:08
  So it was, it was great to see that that and for me to have an
• 42:14
  experience around a coach that was so different than my college
• 42:17
  coach. And you know, Coach Kennedy was
• 42:21
  demanding to in his own way, but more like consistently over
• 42:26
  time. But yeah, Coach Zapata,
• 42:30
  especially then young, he was fired up and he was challenging
• 42:33
  those kids and they were loving it.
• 42:37
  You said you're there for, call it two seasons.
• 42:41
  Where to next after that? Yeah.
• 42:44
  So I either started late 2006 or early 2007.
• 42:51
  And then, yeah, we moved back to Bozeman after that in the fall
• 42:54
  of 2009. Move back with the idea of
• 42:58
  coaching at Montana State or just this is closer to home and
• 43:02
  we know Bozeman, a little bit of both.
• 43:06
  But yeah, mostly to get the experience as start as a
• 43:13
  volunteer coach and then be closer to family and friends as
• 43:19
  well as definitely a part of it. But yeah, kind of with the idea
• 43:23
  to get the experience as a volunteer assistant and then
• 43:26
  move from there. And catch me up in the number of
• 43:30
  years when you graduated to win from Bozeman and then came back
• 43:34
  as the volunteer assistant coach.
• 43:35
  How many years is that? Yeah, I graduated in 2003 and
• 43:40
  then came back in 2009. Okay.
• 43:42
  So there's no more athletes that?
• 43:44
  Were freshmen or even recruits when you were there as a senior
• 43:48
  OK? Because I'm always curious
• 43:49
  about, like, we had this conversation a lot with an
• 43:52
  athlete who becomes a GA at the same school that they were an
• 43:57
  athlete at. Because it's like a man on
• 43:58
  Friday you're hanging with the The Crew, playing Xbox, and then
• 44:02
  on Monday your coach now, like, that's a.
• 44:05
  Heck of a transition to happen in a weekend, essentially.
• 44:07
  But you you didn't have to worry about that.
• 44:09
  They were all gone, but Coach Kennedy was still there.
• 44:12
  So you have that, you know, Okay.
• 44:13
  And I'm very familiar with Coach Kennedy.
• 44:15
  That's that was my coach. What was it like?
• 44:18
  Because I'm always and I might have a different viewpoint of
• 44:21
  volunteer coaches and obviously that's changed somehow.
• 44:25
  It still doesn't seem like there's a lot of clarity on how
• 44:27
  that has changed, but it has changed.
• 44:29
  In regards to incidentally check and field, but what's it like
• 44:32
  being a volunteer coach? And what's it like being a
• 44:34
  volunteer coach for your old coach?
• 44:37
  That's a different role. That's a different relationship,
• 44:41
  yeah. So I think whenever anyone
• 44:45
  starts as a volunteer coach, they probably feel like they
• 44:49
  want more responsibilities than they have.
• 44:52
  And that was definitely, like my feeling, too, like, really
• 44:55
  wanted to get it started and stuff.
• 44:56
  But at the same time, like you know, I knew then and I
• 45:04
  definitely know now like when the there needs to be that
• 45:09
  consistency of someone that is the full time staff member that
• 45:14
  is there all the time and they need to be doing most of the
• 45:19
  work, most of the interactions with the student athletes.
• 45:23
  So yeah, that it was. It was great being around those
• 45:29
  teams, seeing the interaction. Coach Kennedy was, he had a lot
• 45:36
  on his plate at that time because he was still basically
• 45:40
  the lead sprinter event coach and he was still coaching the
• 45:45
  distance. So there was definitely a lot of
• 45:47
  times where I was had a fairly significant role there just
• 45:51
  because of how much he had to do.
• 45:54
  So I did get some a lot of great experience.
• 45:57
  But yeah, no overall, really, really good time.
• 46:01
  And at this point, before you earn the parttime position, are
• 46:05
  you, is it 100% you're going to be a track coach at this point
• 46:09
  or is there still like, all right, man, if a different
• 46:11
  opportunity, whether it's an administration or something uses
• 46:14
  my degree or my passions, comes along, I can pivot there?
• 46:18
  Or is it like, Oh yeah, no, no eyes on the prize.
• 46:20
  I'm going towards becoming a track and field coach.
• 46:24
  Yeah, I was pretty locked into being track and field coach at
• 46:28
  that at that time. Yeah, even the job that I had in
• 46:32
  California was a really great job and but then that like
• 46:36
  financially I would have made a substantial amount of money.
• 46:40
  So like kind of at that point I'd already made that decision
• 46:43
  that even though like the financial side of this was never
• 46:46
  going to, yeah, be as lucrative as other option, so, so.
• 46:52
  Explore, explore that for us, Lyle, because you know one of my
• 46:56
  roles in and what I do for coaches, you know, I'm a, you
• 47:01
  know, there's no bigger fan of track and field coaches.
• 47:02
  I've dedicated my entire life to uplift and honor and guys and
• 47:07
  gals like you because you deserve it.
• 47:08
  It affected my, you know, my coaches in my life.
• 47:10
  I am who I am today because of the coaches that I had pouring
• 47:13
  into me in high school and college and then through my
• 47:16
  college coaching career. And what's weird that weird.
• 47:19
  What's odd to me is this. I'm not sure if you know, I went
• 47:23
  to school in Alabama, so my word, my, my choice of words
• 47:26
  aren't always great. I know what I want to convey,
• 47:28
  but I'm not sure if I'm using the right word.
• 47:29
  I think it's dichotomy of a lot of coaches are, you know, first
• 47:34
  of all, all of our coaches are not paid enough for what you do,
• 47:38
  the positive impact that you make on young people.
• 47:41
  You're you're undervalued. Even the guys and gals that are
• 47:44
  making the the biggest amount, they should be making more and
• 47:46
  certainly you Lyle you should be making more.
• 47:48
  Your staff should be making more.
• 47:50
  The number of sports you coach, the number of athletes you coach
• 47:53
  it. It all speaks to to more salary.
• 47:56
  However I hear a lot of coaches who will say oh I'm not in it
• 48:00
  for the money, oh you shouldn't be you know we're in it for the
• 48:03
  kids and that's great. I mean and that's part of the
• 48:05
  value the positive impact you make on young kids like I said
• 48:07
  that's it's invaluable. It's quite amazing.
• 48:11
  However, we live in the real world where there's housing
• 48:14
  costs and there's children, there's passions, there's
• 48:18
  charities, there's hobbies. And so, like, I want you to make
• 48:21
  more money. What was it?
• 48:25
  If you can think of a, whether it was something very finite,
• 48:30
  like a very specific memory, like, Oh yeah, when this
• 48:33
  happened, that was that. That was that meant more to me
• 48:36
  than the lucrative job that I had.
• 48:38
  Or if it was over a time span of like man, the way this, the way
• 48:42
  coach Kennedy treated me or or whatever the way I worked with
• 48:45
  Zapata, what made you make a pivot to from something that
• 48:50
  paid very well? In your words to something,
• 48:54
  well, I know it didn't pay very well because you went to a
• 48:55
  volunteer, so it didn't pay well at all, at all.
• 48:59
  There's no matter what you were making at another job that was
• 49:01
  way more than as a volunteer. What was that fascinates me.
• 49:05
  Not that life is all about money.
• 49:07
  I'm never telling you to go make a choice based on just the
• 49:10
  money. That's definitely not true.
• 49:12
  However, I don't like when we dismiss how important money is.
• 49:16
  To our life, our families, etcetera.
• 49:18
  So can you think of like a, you know, where there was a spark
• 49:21
  and it was like, Oh yeah, like, I know I'm going to make less
• 49:23
  money, but boy, I'll be happier or was it something over time?
• 49:28
  Can you think of, remember anything about that?
• 49:32
  Yeah, yeah. So I definitely understand the
• 49:35
  financial side of it. And yeah, Bozeman Mt has just
• 49:42
  becomes this super desirable place.
• 49:44
  So everything is just incredibly expensive here.
• 49:47
  So yeah, like we, I think all of us coaches are, yeah, trying to
• 49:53
  adapt to to that And a lot of the places where universities
• 49:57
  are at are so expensive. So it is important that we have
• 50:01
  solid salaries that so that we can, yeah, have some, you know,
• 50:08
  better balance between our work and life and with our family and
• 50:11
  stuff. But I think I really like the
• 50:18
  track and field community. So there's that that side of it,
• 50:23
  like the the individuals that you meet and those relationships
• 50:30
  and stuff. I do think that there are, you
• 50:32
  know, great people everywhere. So I don't think it's just track
• 50:35
  and field, but I'd say generally like I relate more do and just
• 50:40
  have just really enjoy being around the track and field cross
• 50:43
  country community. The the thing that I think I
• 50:51
  that drew me to be a college coach was the combination of the
• 50:57
  college experience for me and how much I enjoyed it.
• 51:02
  And then the other thing as I the goals for a lot of jobs are
• 51:10
  not as clear and for in athletics they're clear and
• 51:17
  really, really challenging. And that's the part I liked
• 51:21
  about it. Like I would do like I did
• 51:24
  really, really good work. You know, people are doing
• 51:27
  really good work, but you weren't really judged, like to
• 51:32
  that degree. I think I liked the Super
• 51:35
  challenging environment of college athletics and I think I
• 51:43
  felt myself getting really bored and more of a office environment
• 51:50
  where yeah, things are always going to be, there's always
• 51:54
  going to be challenges, but not you wouldn't be graded at the
• 51:59
  level that you would do in college athletics.
• 52:03
  That's interesting. I've never heard it described
• 52:05
  like that because when you're a coach or an athlete, there's a
• 52:11
  mark to hit, right? There's always a PR, so there's
• 52:13
  always a mark to hit in regards to that.
• 52:14
  And then of course, inside of the conference, there's team
• 52:16
  points and then maybe nationals, etcetera.
• 52:19
  But I never thought about it that way or heard it expressed
• 52:21
  that way of like what would track like the gold is known
• 52:25
  like. I can't.
• 52:26
  There's not a single event, there's not a single athlete, a
• 52:29
  single program that doesn't know what the goal is in regards to,
• 52:32
  like, if you PR with athletes, a lot of the other goals are going
• 52:34
  to happen and there's some things are outside your control.
• 52:37
  I can't control the other team, but boy, if I can control my men
• 52:40
  and women on my team to hit P R's, well, we're going to be
• 52:43
  okay. Where in other jobs it's less
• 52:47
  that. It's there's still goals to your
• 52:49
  point. There's still challenges.
• 52:52
  But there's not a lot. There's not a lot of PRS Yeah,
• 52:55
  that's that's really interesting.
• 52:56
  I never thought about that and and I wonder how the play
• 52:59
  because I'm always interested in the, you know, coach, whether
• 53:02
  you're the head coach or an assistant coach.
• 53:03
  You have you, you oversee people, you're a manager, you
• 53:08
  have a group, whether you're a Sprint group, throws group,
• 53:10
  distance group where in jobs that's not always the case.
• 53:13
  You can maybe say earn your way into where you're managing
• 53:16
  people, but you could just be one of the people.
• 53:19
  So I've always wondered like. The psychology of the person who
• 53:22
  goes into coaching. And remember I coached for 10
• 53:24
  years so that I'm speaking with some experience here as well in
• 53:27
  my own mindset of do we get into coaching track and field because
• 53:31
  I get to oversee people and that's not, I'm not saying that
• 53:34
  a bad way. You know, there there are
• 53:35
  certainly people that can do that in a bad way, like, oh, I
• 53:37
  want oversee people so I can tell them what to do.
• 53:40
  But sometimes there's a little bit of like, oh, I like to have
• 53:42
  control. I like to be in control and I
• 53:45
  have control over these 10 to 15 individuals because they're the
• 53:48
  hurdlers and I'm the hurdle coach.
• 53:50
  So that was just one of the the the psychology there.
• 53:52
  But I like how you put that up like there's a there's a finite
• 53:55
  goal. I know how to I I'm easy to
• 53:57
  grade. They either PR'd or didn't.
• 53:59
  PR essentially at the end of the day, especially through our
• 54:01
  developing years, high school and then through college as
• 54:04
  well. Yeah, yeah.
• 54:08
  It's definitely just such a unique environment of like, you
• 54:12
  know, kind of even at the NCA level, pretty much everyone is,
• 54:19
  you know, would be an A student in track and field.
• 54:22
  But even being an A student doesn't matter.
• 54:25
  It's like then you still have to go out there to the conference
• 54:29
  championships or national championships and you could be
• 54:32
  an A+ student and you could still get second.
• 54:35
  I think that's some part that's interesting and fun about it.
• 54:38
  Yeah, that is interesting. So keep us rolling.
• 54:42
  Here you go. As a volunteer coach, you earn a
• 54:46
  part time position. You are earn a full time
• 54:50
  assistance position at any time as you're growing through and
• 54:55
  and and I respect that there is going to be a different level
• 54:59
  for you when I asked this question because it's your alma
• 55:01
  mater as well. That's a different take.
• 55:03
  Besides you gone to a different university as you're moving
• 55:07
  along. I can't imagine how happy you
• 55:09
  were when you've got your first part time checks like oh good, I
• 55:12
  actually, I can't earn money from this.
• 55:13
  That's great. It's good, it's good.
• 55:15
  And then full time there's a whole different.
• 55:17
  Feeling of somewhat of a relief of like Okay, I earn a fulltime
• 55:20
  salary now of benefits, etcetera, especially with a, you
• 55:23
  know, spouse and maybe family, etcetera.
• 55:26
  Was there any thought as you're going through those stages of
• 55:28
  like I'm going to be the head coach here one day?
• 55:31
  Like that's a goal of mine. I want to be the head coach of
• 55:33
  my alma mater or were you still just in the moment of like all
• 55:36
  right I'm, I finally hit my goal.
• 55:38
  I shouldn't say finally I hit my goal of becoming a college check
• 55:40
  coach. I I don't know where that's
• 55:42
  going to take me. So let's just keep rolling.
• 55:45
  Yeah, a little bit of both that. Yeah.
• 55:50
  I love Bozeman. I love Montana State.
• 55:53
  So yeah, was always like trying to stay if that if possible.
• 56:02
  But yeah, I wasn't like just slowly focused on that.
• 56:05
  The other thing is, for those that know Coach Kennedy, when I
• 56:10
  showed up here in 1998 versus, you know, when I was back here
• 56:15
  in like even 2015, everyone was always saying like everyone else
• 56:19
  was aging, but he wasn't. So it kind of seemed like he was
• 56:24
  just going to be here forever and he was going to always be
• 56:27
  coaching here. But there were, there were times
• 56:30
  where he started saying along the way that he'd like me to
• 56:34
  take over as a head coach if that ended up working out.
• 56:38
  So a little bit of both that became a bit of the vision.
• 56:41
  But the same times, sometimes we didn't see it because you're
• 56:45
  like, oh man, I think, I think Dale is getting younger again
• 56:48
  because he looks younger now than when he did in 1998.
• 56:51
  So I don't know what's happening.
• 56:53
  I'm sure many. That's like, I can see that
• 56:56
  story being told 100 times over because we do have some great
• 57:00
  coaches who coach for a long time.
• 57:02
  They're healthy individuals and they they're doing something
• 57:04
  they're very passionate about. I think of the John McDonald's
• 57:07
  and Curtis Fries where many people like I'd love to be the
• 57:10
  head coach here, but this guy ain't going nowhere.
• 57:12
  So I better figure out something and I can see Dale being one of
• 57:17
  those, you know, selfawareness is really important.
• 57:24
  And you know we have something today that we didn't have
• 57:26
  yesterday That's perspective. We have 2020 hindsight, right.
• 57:30
  Any as you're going through this and maybe as you're getting
• 57:32
  closer to being named the head coach any what's the word I'm
• 57:37
  looking for? Did you have like any
• 57:40
  expectations? I mean, oh I'm going to be the
• 57:42
  head coach or was it still like, Oh no, I've still got to earn
• 57:45
  this. I've got to interview.
• 57:46
  It's not mine. It's not, it's not to be given
• 57:49
  to me. I still have to earn it, yeah,
• 57:53
  for sure. Like, as much as you know, Coach
• 57:56
  Kennedy supported me. Becoming the head coach, like
• 58:00
  that is the athletic director's decision.
• 58:03
  So there was always a lot of unknown and it was pretty clear
• 58:11
  that was going to have to be earned.
• 58:12
  It wasn't going to be just like this was going to be handed to
• 58:15
  you. So yeah, I didn't know along the
• 58:19
  way. Even through the whole interview
• 58:22
  process, didn't know exactly. So there was definitely
• 58:26
  sometimes where I didn't know the way it was going to turn
• 58:28
  out. So definitely didn't feel like
• 58:30
  I've ever handed anything or anything, was a foregone
• 58:35
  conclusion. And it's definitely more
• 58:37
  stressful that that way. But doesn't at the end of the
• 58:40
  day, again, you can kind of look back and and see how you're
• 58:42
  feeling and how you're feeling today about it.
• 58:45
  Isn't that better? I mean, don't you feel better
• 58:47
  like, Oh yeah. Well, there was no guarantees.
• 58:50
  I was going to get, I had to earn it versus like, Oh yeah,
• 58:52
  they were going to give it to me no matter what, blah, blah,
• 58:54
  blah. You know, it's still nice.
• 58:55
  You're the you're the man of the chair, but you know you're
• 58:58
  giving it instead of like earning it.
• 59:00
  Does that resonate? Oh yeah, yeah, for sure,
• 59:03
  Definitely. I'm thankful for how the process
• 59:07
  played out. And then they went through that
• 59:09
  whole process. And yeah, I think like, so.
• 59:15
  I'm definitely like more on the reserve side.
• 59:18
  So I think that that was a bit of a challenge like throughout
• 59:22
  my whole career. But like people, different
• 59:27
  people have different visions of what a head coach is.
• 59:31
  Some people vision, like the head coaches being out there
• 59:34
  and, you know, being a lot of discussions about themselves and
• 59:39
  you know, the program is focused on them.
• 59:42
  And I wasn't. I didn't.
• 59:45
  Personality wise, I didn't fit that.
• 59:47
  And also I didn't think that was the best way to build a program
• 59:50
  either. So whether that ended up fitting
• 59:55
  someone else's vision of what the head track and field coach
• 59:58
  or director of the program would be, just thankful that it ended
• 1:00:02
  up being me because I didn't know exactly how that was going
• 1:00:05
  to play out. Yeah, I hear what you're saying
• 1:00:07
  there. I like that you you knew and
• 1:00:10
  know who you are until you you had a vision that fit that
• 1:00:14
  instead of trying to portray yourself as what you thought
• 1:00:18
  maybe they would want, especially if that's outside of
• 1:00:21
  who you are personality wise, character wise sometimes as
• 1:00:24
  well. I think that's that's really key
• 1:00:26
  because I, you know, I see sometimes people interviewing
• 1:00:30
  for jobs and instead of being themselves they they act or say
• 1:00:36
  things that they think. The head coach, I'm talking
• 1:00:39
  about assistant coach position here, a head coach wants to be
• 1:00:43
  and all that can do is lead to disaster.
• 1:00:46
  Even if you get what you think you want and that's the job.
• 1:00:49
  That's right. So if you act one way that's not
• 1:00:51
  you and you get the job, well, you can't act all that long.
• 1:00:55
  Eventually you comes out and then, you know the head coach is
• 1:00:58
  like, well, wait a minute, this is not who I hired.
• 1:01:01
  And you're like, well, this is who I am.
• 1:01:02
  And it's like, it's just butting heads all day at that point.
• 1:01:04
  That's just makes the head coach miserable.
• 1:01:07
  You're going to be miserable. The kids, athletes, staff.
• 1:01:09
  It's just, it's just not good. And I think more people need to
• 1:01:13
  embrace when they don't get the job.
• 1:01:16
  Like OKI when I went, when I go and interview, I'm going to be
• 1:01:19
  who I am. And if I don't get the job who
• 1:01:24
  thank goodness cuz that means it would not have been a good fit,
• 1:01:27
  means I would have been miserable.
• 1:01:28
  They would have been miserable. So I like how you were like all
• 1:01:30
  right, I know who I am. It seems like you had a lot of
• 1:01:33
  self-awareness. Like I know who I am.
• 1:01:35
  I know how I want to how I would lead the program okay.
• 1:01:40
  But it's still in your hands to make that decision now, like you
• 1:01:44
  see who it is. You got to decide if I'm the
• 1:01:46
  right fit for your vision, Mr. and Mrs. AD.
• 1:01:49
  And luckily for everybody involved that that they saw the,
• 1:01:53
  they saw the light, they made the right decision.
• 1:01:56
  Yeah, definitely. Being authentic is especially
• 1:02:01
  that is the word. Years of being around student
• 1:02:05
  athletes like if when they're that many eyes and.
• 1:02:11
  As a coach, like if you're not being who you are, they just see
• 1:02:15
  that immediately. So got to be who you are and be
• 1:02:22
  okay with that and both the time people really enjoy that or
• 1:02:27
  really embrace that because yeah they just throughout all of
• 1:02:33
  society I think people are just looking for people to who are
• 1:02:37
  authentic. Hey you just said something
• 1:02:40
  really important not just in coaching but who we are in
• 1:02:43
  people and society. So what you what you and how you
• 1:02:46
  portray on social media to your neighbor on a podcast in your
• 1:02:51
  job to your spouse your family etcetera.
• 1:02:54
  I love. I had to write that down.
• 1:02:55
  I love that be who you are and be okay with that.
• 1:02:58
  That's that's so critical. Like that's really, really
• 1:03:02
  important. Where, you know, sometimes we're
• 1:03:06
  taught through our own experiences, but most of the
• 1:03:09
  time the things that we learn and how and who we become are
• 1:03:12
  kind of an amalgamation of all these different people, our
• 1:03:15
  parents, our teachers, our coaches, our coworkers, our
• 1:03:18
  spouses. When you think about that quote,
• 1:03:21
  you just said there be who you are and be okay with that.
• 1:03:26
  Where do you think that comes from?
• 1:03:27
  I know that's a very kind of an odd question unless someone
• 1:03:30
  specifically told you that quote and you loved it and so it's
• 1:03:33
  become a mantra of yours. But where does that?
• 1:03:35
  I mean, that's a great, like, gosh, if more people would have
• 1:03:38
  that as their life quote, we would be much better off in my
• 1:03:42
  opinion. Yeah, I think it comes from a
• 1:03:46
  lot of areas, but probably most just being interaction with.
• 1:03:53
  Even my own interaction with student athletes, and then
• 1:03:57
  especially student athletes among student athletes, when
• 1:04:04
  when people are new to a group, they are often really, yeah,
• 1:04:10
  just trying to figure out where they fit in.
• 1:04:12
  And sometimes they are so much different for those first few
• 1:04:16
  weeks or first few months until they settle in.
• 1:04:20
  And I think a lot of times they're just.
• 1:04:22
  Trying to be what they think they want other people to what
• 1:04:27
  what other people want them to be.
• 1:04:31
  So yeah, just seeing that adjustment of this that the
• 1:04:35
  coaches with the student athletes, but a lot like the
• 1:04:38
  student athletes interaction interacting with each other.
• 1:04:42
  I mean I just hear the words acceptance and not just
• 1:04:45
  acceptance of others. That's certainly important and
• 1:04:47
  we need to be better at that as members of society.
• 1:04:50
  But acceptance of yourself, like I, it's so clear to me, Lyle and
• 1:04:55
  I love this for you. You know who you are and you
• 1:05:00
  love who you are and and that's what makes you who you are And
• 1:05:03
  not a carbon copy of someone else or gosh worse, a carbon
• 1:05:07
  copy that has flaws of someone else, you know, because you're
• 1:05:10
  not really that person. Man, I love that.
• 1:05:12
  I like I said I love that for you, love that for your
• 1:05:14
  athletes. I love that for your staff.
• 1:05:16
  It's like, oh, yeah, you know who I know what to expect from?
• 1:05:19
  Lyle. Yeah.
• 1:05:20
  This is who he is. This is who he shows up every
• 1:05:21
  day. So I'd love that acceptance,
• 1:05:23
  man. That's that's really good.
• 1:05:24
  OK, so you go from you go from undergrad at Montana State,
• 1:05:29
  become a volunteer coach, become a parttime coach.
• 1:05:32
  You become a fulltime assistant coach.
• 1:05:34
  There's not many more roles for you to take on here at Montana
• 1:05:37
  State. And then you become the head
• 1:05:39
  coach. My favorite, favorite questions.
• 1:05:42
  It's a question that I will ask every person when they get their
• 1:05:45
  first head coaching job and this is different because you were
• 1:05:49
  you don't. No one knows Montana State
• 1:05:50
  better than you for crying aloud going into stepping into the
• 1:05:53
  head coaching roles. You most people, they get their
• 1:05:56
  first head coaching role. They don't know where the
• 1:05:57
  bathroom they're trying to learn how to get to their office.
• 1:05:59
  You know all that. All that's table stakes.
• 1:06:01
  You've done all that. You get your your the first day
• 1:06:04
  you walk into the office as the head coach, the new head coach
• 1:06:07
  of the Montana State Bobcats. Were you ready?
• 1:06:10
  Were you prepared for it? Yes, I felt like I was prepared.
• 1:06:18
  You always are learning things with constantly, like figuring
• 1:06:21
  things out. And it's different when you are
• 1:06:27
  like no matter how aware you are with everything, it's different
• 1:06:34
  being in the moment and having to react to all the things that
• 1:06:40
  come at you, right? But.
• 1:06:44
  Definitely. I felt like, you know, I had
• 1:06:49
  just a lot of experience in the program, but knew a lot of the
• 1:06:52
  history of the program. The assistance assistant coaches
• 1:06:58
  were people that were on the staff with a few newcomers.
• 1:07:03
  But yeah, people that I was had known with the other coaches.
• 1:07:08
  It wasn't like a whole group of new people coming in.
• 1:07:14
  So, so yeah, I felt like I was ready.
• 1:07:16
  There's always things. And then I think kind of going
• 1:07:21
  back to like, being who you are. I think I get right at first
• 1:07:24
  when you come to head coach, like you're trying to be who you
• 1:07:27
  are, but then you can't help but feel like, well, what do they,
• 1:07:30
  what does everyone want me to be?
• 1:07:32
  What are the expectations? That's right.
• 1:07:35
  Yeah, yeah. So there were some definitely
• 1:07:38
  some challenges along the way, but I felt I.
• 1:07:42
  Help prepared, Probably going going back a little bit to the
• 1:07:46
  interview process with having such a longterm great
• 1:07:51
  relationship with Coach Kennedy. So many of the questions in the
• 1:07:55
  interview process with the different groups that I met with
• 1:07:58
  or what would you do differently?
• 1:08:00
  And those were really challenging because sometimes
• 1:08:02
  coach Kennedy was in the room during that.
• 1:08:08
  I'm like, really? You're going to ask that again?
• 1:08:10
  I think like every group I went into would be like the group of,
• 1:08:14
  you know, the staff. And then it was like other
• 1:08:16
  people on campus and they all asked that and I'm like, okay,
• 1:08:20
  this is getting more and more difficult to cover again and
• 1:08:23
  again. But I think that was even
• 1:08:25
  getting started. It was like, well, what are we
• 1:08:27
  going to do differently and trying to have a vision for what
• 1:08:30
  that looks like without seeming like you're being critical that
• 1:08:36
  that your mentor. And Coach Kennedy, though?
• 1:08:39
  Yeah, not just your former boss. That's right.
• 1:08:41
  That's a totally different relationship that you and Coach
• 1:08:44
  Kennedy had, right? Yeah.
• 1:08:45
  Yeah, that would be, yeah. I don't know if there's a word
• 1:08:49
  more than awkward. It's like my coach, I love you.
• 1:08:52
  But I would do this. That's right.
• 1:08:54
  Right. Yeah.
• 1:08:55
  So what was as you get into the the big boy chair, you know at
• 1:09:00
  all, you know the buck stops here, all those kind of things.
• 1:09:02
  You know you are the head of of the program.
• 1:09:04
  So more questions are coming to you, more demands are coming
• 1:09:07
  from you you have and not knowing we didn't necessarily
• 1:09:11
  talk about this, but not knowing what responsibilities Coach
• 1:09:13
  Kennedy gave you as you were coming through parttime,
• 1:09:16
  fulltime, etcetera. But now you know you if you're
• 1:09:19
  not directly doing like you may have an assistant doing it, but
• 1:09:21
  you are still responsible for scheduling, budgeting, doling
• 1:09:27
  out scholarships, like how many are we going to go to sprints,
• 1:09:29
  how many are going to go to distance, etcetera.
• 1:09:31
  What are we, who and how are we going to recruit?
• 1:09:34
  You have a great facility there. So you're hosting meets facility
• 1:09:38
  usage. There's just so alumni, you're
• 1:09:41
  much more involved now. Alumni is a support.
• 1:09:44
  There's so much more responsibilities that come with
• 1:09:48
  that title of head coach. As you look back now, was there
• 1:09:52
  something that you thought you might struggle with that you
• 1:09:56
  actually found like, oh, you know what?
• 1:09:57
  I actually kind of found my group pretty fast on that.
• 1:09:59
  I didn't struggle as much or as hard as I thought I would with
• 1:10:03
  this. Yeah, That's a good question.
• 1:10:11
  I I would say maybe like the really difficult decisions.
• 1:10:19
  Like, you know, like when you're making a change to your staff or
• 1:10:24
  decided to hire, or if something isn't working out with a student
• 1:10:28
  athlete making decisions there. I think for the most part those
• 1:10:35
  those are really challenging, but they're also usually like
• 1:10:41
  you get to a point where you know the right decision and then
• 1:10:45
  once you feel like it's the correct decision.
• 1:10:48
  That it's not as hard. So yeah, those tough
• 1:10:52
  conversations I think are definitely difficult that you
• 1:10:58
  have to have along the way. But I think that those yeah, so
• 1:11:06
  those are I don't know if those would say would say those are
• 1:11:09
  easier or not as bad as I expected.
• 1:11:13
  Yeah. But I think maybe just like got
• 1:11:15
  through the fear of them and. Realize that those are just
• 1:11:19
  decisions you have to make. Yeah, I think that's, you know,
• 1:11:22
  my experience for my own career and definitely through my career
• 1:11:25
  here at Gale Athletics and through my career here as the
• 1:11:28
  host of the podcast. I think that might be what you
• 1:11:31
  talked about with staff with hiring.
• 1:11:36
  You know, we can sugarcoat and say letting someone go, firing
• 1:11:38
  people, things like that. I think that is one of the most
• 1:11:41
  under trained under thought of part of a head coaching and and
• 1:11:46
  I wondered you know because we were kind of talking about
• 1:11:47
  administration and things like that too.
• 1:11:48
  I wonder if that's is the same with administrators when someone
• 1:11:51
  moves into a whether it's an SWA role and oversight role have
• 1:11:55
  they been trained of OK you now oversee these three or four
• 1:11:58
  whatever how many head coaches you know here's how you should
• 1:12:02
  be reviewing them every year. I know you're going to do an
• 1:12:04
  indoor review, but most of the time it's like, all right, do do
• 1:12:06
  an annual review. It's like, all right, well, I
• 1:12:08
  got the questions from HRI. Guess that's what I'm supposed
• 1:12:10
  to ask and to get the answers from.
• 1:12:11
  But, you know, what do you take from that?
• 1:12:13
  And and do you understand that like, like around here we have a
• 1:12:17
  saying that if anything surprises you at your annual
• 1:12:20
  review, it's not your fault, it's it's your supervisor's
• 1:12:23
  fault. Because it shouldn't be.
• 1:12:24
  You shouldn't wait until the annual review to to talk and
• 1:12:26
  say, hey, man, I've got a concern about the way you do
• 1:12:28
  this or that or or you know, you're deficient here.
• 1:12:31
  We need to get some training for you, etcetera.
• 1:12:33
  But none of that is taught that I know of, none of that is
• 1:12:36
  taught to a new head coach that that is not part of your
• 1:12:38
  orientation of like, okay, hey, you're going to have a staff
• 1:12:40
  now. You're going to oversee 234567.
• 1:12:43
  The heck in today's world, now we we can have up to 6 or 12,
• 1:12:46
  whatever. You're going to have a staff, so
• 1:12:50
  let's talk about how you're going to review staff.
• 1:12:51
  Let's talk about how you're going to hire your new staff,
• 1:12:53
  what you, what you're going to look for and how to interview.
• 1:12:56
  That's a skill. And you know what?
• 1:12:58
  There's going to be those tough decisions sometimes you're going
• 1:13:00
  to let someone go. Well, let's talk about how
• 1:13:02
  you're supposed to lead up to that.
• 1:13:03
  It's not supposed to be just the day of and that person has no
• 1:13:05
  clue. But that's that's terrible.
• 1:13:07
  You've done a bad job as a manager and as a head coach by.
• 1:13:09
  The way if that person had no clue out of the blue, I'm fired.
• 1:13:12
  It's like, where in the world never did I hear about this at
• 1:13:15
  all, Right. So I think that's a really
• 1:13:19
  undervalued and under trained aspect of becoming a head coach.
• 1:13:25
  You kind of just learn it on the go, which that's not a that's
• 1:13:28
  not a great way to do it. The other things like a schedule
• 1:13:32
  you can just repeat, right. It's like, all right, I'm going
• 1:13:33
  to make changes one day, but I don't know how.
• 1:13:34
  So I'll just do the same schedule we did last year.
• 1:13:36
  But that's not the worst thing in the world.
• 1:13:38
  Budgeting, you know, people have done their own personal budget.
• 1:13:42
  So you understand that you know, you got X amount to spend and
• 1:13:45
  you know and there's a lot of help with that, right.
• 1:13:47
  So you know, colleges and administrators are very
• 1:13:49
  cognizant about your budget. So you get a lot of hand holding
• 1:13:52
  if you need on how to do your budget and things like that.
• 1:13:55
  But the personality, the personnel side, it's it's just
• 1:14:00
  not talked about. It's just like, yeah, go hire
• 1:14:01
  someone. Yeah, go fire someone.
• 1:14:03
  Like, man, that's important things.
• 1:14:07
  And that if we get some training, maybe we don't hire 10
• 1:14:10
  people over 10 years, we hire one and they stayed for 10 years
• 1:14:13
  because I did it, right. So.
• 1:14:14
  So it's interesting about that aspect.
• 1:14:17
  Let me ask the flip side of it, Was there something you came in
• 1:14:20
  and maybe you actually kind of the way you answered, you might
• 1:14:22
  have actually answered this question.
• 1:14:23
  Was there something as you were coming into the head coaching
• 1:14:25
  position that you thought like, oh man, this is going to be
• 1:14:29
  tough for me. I'm going to have a hard time
• 1:14:31
  budgeting or whatever alumni. And it actually flipped and was
• 1:14:35
  like, oh, yeah, you know, what was?
• 1:14:38
  Wait, is that the question? I always asked the two questions
• 1:14:40
  in verse. Was there something that you
• 1:14:41
  thought was going to be easy that became hard?
• 1:14:42
  And was there something that you thought hard was going to be
• 1:14:44
  easy? I can't remember which one I
• 1:14:45
  asked you. You kind of answered it because
• 1:14:47
  you're, I kind of felt like you're saying, like, I thought
• 1:14:49
  maybe that would be, you know, those big decisions were going
• 1:14:51
  to be harder. But you you worked your way into
• 1:14:53
  and it's like now you've got a pretty good cadence with it.
• 1:14:56
  Yeah, yeah. And I think things that I
• 1:14:59
  thought maybe would be easier that were harder.
• 1:15:08
  Yeah, I think, I think there's just kind of like an unknown of
• 1:15:12
  when you're assistant versus when you're a head coach of like
• 1:15:16
  how am I going to be able to do all of that or are the things
• 1:15:22
  that I don't know that I'm going to have to do.
• 1:15:25
  So yeah, I'm kind of going the opposite direction on this one
• 1:15:30
  too. But I'd say like I I was pretty
• 1:15:33
  I was helping out quite a bit with a lot of.
• 1:15:35
  Stuff as an assistant. So I was pretty involved.
• 1:15:39
  And so I think that I yeah, kind of again, answering off the end
• 1:15:46
  of this, but I felt pretty comfortable with a lot more of
• 1:15:50
  the administrative past and all of that stuff and it ended up
• 1:15:54
  not being as as much as I thought it was going to be.
• 1:16:01
  So it's definitely a lot. And there's always more.
• 1:16:05
  But I think like especially just getting started with it, I felt
• 1:16:10
  it didn't feel as overwhelming as I thought.
• 1:16:13
  Yeah, you know, I kind of fumbled through the questioning.
• 1:16:15
  You did a great job answering. But I think that shows how
• 1:16:18
  little we talk about this in the coaching world.
• 1:16:21
  You know, 99, I should say 9990% of the conversations we have is,
• 1:16:25
  hey, what kind of workout did you do for that steeple chaser,
• 1:16:27
  Hey, how did you set up that schedule so that you guys peeked
• 1:16:30
  right at conference and IT regionals, etcetera.
• 1:16:32
  Those are the majority conversations.
• 1:16:33
  They are important. I mean that's at the end of the
• 1:16:35
  day, like you said, I love that part of my job cuz I know how to
• 1:16:38
  be graded. How did Sally do, How did Johnny
• 1:16:40
  do? That's how we go, right?
• 1:16:43
  But there is so much more. You are running a business, you
• 1:16:46
  have a budget and you have plans and annual reviews and things
• 1:16:49
  like that. So there's other very important
• 1:16:52
  things that we're just not talking about enough in my
• 1:16:55
  opinion and I do know you know USTFCCCA is doing classes and
• 1:17:00
  and talks about this like I saw there was last year, the last
• 1:17:03
  couple years there was a talk about contract negotiations as a
• 1:17:06
  head coach, things like that. That's great because we're not
• 1:17:09
  having those conversations. So we need to be pushed into
• 1:17:12
  having those conversations so we can continue to grow the
• 1:17:14
  profession of track and field coaching.
• 1:17:16
  It's extremely important for our coaches and obviously pushes all
• 1:17:20
  the way down to it's important for our for our athletes and
• 1:17:22
  future athletes as well. So I appreciate you, you did a
• 1:17:25
  great job answering my very fumbling question there.
• 1:17:28
  So thank you for, for that. As we start to wrap up today,
• 1:17:32
  you know again and I'll never stop saying it's such a soft
• 1:17:37
  place in my heart for alums who coach at their alma mater.
• 1:17:40
  I mean there's just nothing more special than that to me.
• 1:17:42
  As you look into this upcoming year, whether it's, you know,
• 1:17:46
  cross country which has started when we're recording and we're
• 1:17:48
  going into track season in the next couple years, what's got
• 1:17:51
  you excited about Bobcat track and field and cross country?
• 1:17:57
  Well, we've just seen good growth over all of our entire
• 1:18:00
  program. We've seen we've had great
• 1:18:05
  support from our administration, great support from our boosters.
• 1:18:12
  So we're very fortunate in that way.
• 1:18:16
  It seems as though all of our event groups are kind of all
• 1:18:20
  rising together and we're seeing improvements.
• 1:18:26
  We're we definitely have a lot more interest from recruits,
• 1:18:31
  higher level recruits. So that's exciting.
• 1:18:36
  The profile of the university continues to increase with our
• 1:18:40
  sports programs and you know increasing enrollment.
• 1:18:44
  President of our university is just an awesome president.
• 1:18:48
  She yeah, just done an incredible job.
• 1:18:51
  So there's just a lot of momentum.
• 1:18:53
  The town of Bozeman like I mentioned, although downsize is
• 1:18:57
  getting really expensive, yeah, it becomes such like a popular
• 1:19:02
  destination for vacations and stuff like that.
• 1:19:08
  So yeah the just a lot of potential for growth in the
• 1:19:12
  whole program we. Yeah, last year was the first
• 1:19:18
  time our men's team had made the NCA Cross Country Championships
• 1:19:22
  and their numbers were weird. Yeah, So we're really excited
• 1:19:26
  about that and I think we have a chance to get back again this
• 1:19:29
  year. And for women's distance squad,
• 1:19:33
  I see us maybe in a similar position to where we were a few
• 1:19:37
  years ago with our men's distance program, but something
• 1:19:40
  was really starting to come together.
• 1:19:42
  Great foundation. Where we could be you know in
• 1:19:48
  that discussion for making an NCA championship is a women's
• 1:19:52
  distance program. So that's been nice to or just
• 1:19:56
  really, really exciting to see that growth of our our women's
• 1:19:59
  distance program. And then yeah, we have been
• 1:20:03
  consistently better at the conference level for indoor and
• 1:20:06
  outdoor track for men and women over the last few years.
• 1:20:10
  We obviously NAU. Is a really strong program both
• 1:20:17
  in cross country and in in track.
• 1:20:18
  So we're always seem to always be chasing them.
• 1:20:21
  And I know like you know five years ago it felt like we were
• 1:20:24
  always like you know second. But a lot of ways like we
• 1:20:27
  weren't we were always like second, third, fourth, maybe 1/5
• 1:20:31
  every once in a while and now we're like consistently like
• 1:20:35
  second or third quite often. So we're kind of like getting up
• 1:20:40
  to where we where we want to be and where we can keep building
• 1:20:45
  and where hopefully we could be a real challenge for Northern
• 1:20:50
  Arizona. There are conference
• 1:20:51
  championships, yeah, get our Mens and women's teams into
• 1:20:56
  NCA's and cross country. And then we've had, you know,
• 1:21:00
  representation at the NCA indoor and outdoor meets the last few
• 1:21:04
  years. Keep that going.
• 1:21:05
  Keep getting even more people to the NCA championships.
• 1:21:11
  That obviously track and field scoring is unique for the NCA,
• 1:21:16
  but we've been you know in the top 30 the last two years with
• 1:21:22
  the NCA championship, scoring the NCA, but the men's outdoor
• 1:21:26
  championships. So yeah, kind of keep doing
• 1:21:30
  that. Have people score at the NCA
• 1:21:32
  championships all more Allamerican.
• 1:21:36
  Last year was really exciting. We had we had three men make it
• 1:21:42
  to Nca's and the three case steeple and then.
• 1:21:46
  Three in the steeple, yeah, Yeah.
• 1:21:51
  That has to make you feel good. Come on, Mr. Steepler.
• 1:21:53
  Yeah, that's pretty cool. Yeah, that was exciting.
• 1:21:57
  Duncan was second for the second year in a row and then three
• 1:22:01
  case steeple. And then we have Levi Taylor and
• 1:22:05
  Rob McManus back that both qualified for NCAA
• 1:22:08
  championships. And then we had Camilla know
• 1:22:11
  qualify in the 10K. Outdoor and Ben Perrin qualify
• 1:22:15
  in the 10K. So we ended up having five
• 1:22:18
  distance total, four from the men's distance squad.
• 1:22:24
  So that was really exciting. We only had 12 on our distance
• 1:22:27
  roster last year, so four of them ended up making it the
• 1:22:32
  NCA's. So yeah, just last year was an
• 1:22:37
  exciting year to keep building on that.
• 1:22:39
  Our CEO has a saying that healthy things grow and all I
• 1:22:44
  heard through that was growth, growth of the team, growth of
• 1:22:47
  the cross country team, growth of the individuals, your staff
• 1:22:51
  healthy things grow man. And it seems like things are
• 1:22:53
  very healthy up there in Bozeman.
• 1:22:58
  Thank you. I love it man.
• 1:22:59
  Hey, I'll make you a promise. If not, if, when?
• 1:23:04
  Your kid, whether it's male or female, qualifies for the 10K.
• 1:23:06
  I'm going to watch it this year. It's in Oregon, so it won't be
• 1:23:09
  100 degrees like we were in Austin, but I'm going to be
• 1:23:12
  there. I'm going to.
• 1:23:13
  I'm going to watch that 10K. I'll make it an exciting 10K to
• 1:23:16
  watch for for me, Okay. I'll have a routine interest in
• 1:23:18
  it. All right?
• 1:23:19
  Is that a deal? Sounds good, yeah.
• 1:23:21
  Ben. Parent should should be in
• 1:23:23
  there. Hopefully so, yes.
• 1:23:25
  He's a he's a great racer, so it should be fun for you to watch.
• 1:23:28
  Well now if they need any motivation, you can tell him
• 1:23:30
  like, hey, there's a guy that you have no clue who he is, Mike
• 1:23:32
  Cunningham, he said. He'll watch your race if you
• 1:23:34
  qualify. That should be enough to push
• 1:23:36
  them over the edge and and have them PR for you and get there to
• 1:23:39
  to Oregon next year. Oh yeah, for sure.
• 1:23:43
  Why? Oh man, thank you so much.
• 1:23:45
  You know, I'm always amazed at when we have guests here on the
• 1:23:49
  show because I know how busy you are.
• 1:23:50
  No matter when we're doing this or whether we're doing this in
• 1:23:53
  the summer, the fall, the spring.
• 1:23:54
  It's a 365 day responsibility to be a coach and it's definitely a
• 1:23:58
  365 day responsibility to be the head coach of a program such as
• 1:24:03
  yours. So I'm so thankful for your time
• 1:24:05
  and so thankful for you persevering through our audio
• 1:24:07
  technical issues that we had. It was 100% worth it.
• 1:24:10
  You did an amazing job, and I'm just so grateful that you would
• 1:24:13
  join us here on the Gill Athletics Connections podcast.
• 1:24:17
  Well, yeah, Thanks so much for having me.
• 1:24:18
  Thanks for thinking of us up here.
• 1:24:20
  And we. Yeah, enjoyed.
• 1:24:22
  I enjoyed talking with you, Mike.
• 1:24:23
  Awesome, Lyle. Thank you guys for being here.
• 1:24:25
  You press play once again. I'm just always so impressed.
• 1:24:27
  So thankful for the many, many listeners that we have here on
• 1:24:30
  the podcast. We've got some amazing guests
• 1:24:32
  coming up. We've even got a couple of live
• 1:24:33
  events. Coming through, we're going to
• 1:24:35
  be live from the Prefontaine Classic coming up in September
• 1:24:38
  and we're going to do a live event at the USTFCCCA, what we
• 1:24:43
  call it, the Winter Convention Coaches Convention in Denver,
• 1:24:46
  Co. So I hope you join us there live
• 1:24:48
  on YouTube as well as in person if you're there at one of those
• 1:24:51
  shows. So while man, thank you again so
• 1:24:53
  much, join us next week, we'll do it all over again right here
• 1:24:56
  on the Gill Athletics Connections podcast.
• 1:24:58
  See you, everybody.