Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / #261: Tabarie Henry-New Mexico Junior College

Transcript

#261: Tabarie Henry-New Mexico Junior College · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

• 0:10
  Track and Field World Juvenile. Tuned in to our humble servant
• 0:14
  Mike Cunningham for another extraordinary message on Gil
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  Athletics. Connections welcome.
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  Back here we are, the Gil Athletics Check and Field
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  Connections podcast. We're blazing through Season 5
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  here. You know we're at the probably
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  about the end of May when this publishes, so we're getting
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  close to half the year. It always amazes me how fast but
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  yet you know every day, still 24 hours how fast things go.
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  But I think it goes a little faster for me because I get to
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  have these amazing conversations weekly with great coaches from
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  around the country, but even around the world.
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  So today this is fun. You know, I, I don't know a lot
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  of people, most of most of the coaches that I know.
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  I know when they became coaches. There's really a handful of
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  really it. And we'll talk about this in
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  today's story but when it when I become friends or an
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  acquaintance with an athlete it tells me a lot about the athlete
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  because I'm no one to an athlete, right.
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  To coaches. You know I I work hand in hand
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  with coaches every day so there's a lot of rapport and
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  stuff with coaches. But athlete, you know I'm not a
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  coach anymore. I don't sell directly to
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  athletes right. I work with coaches.
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  So every once in a while and and it's happened a couple of times
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  and this might have been the first one an athlete and I
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  because you know that will follow on Twitter or something
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  like that. We'll just vibe and then maybe
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  somehow we'll luckily meet at a meet or something like that And
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  we're just it's kind of like just instant cool with each
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  other and that's kind of the story today.
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  So let's get into it. Help me welcome the assistant
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  coach from New Mexico junior college.
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  We're going to talk about Hobbs New Mexico too by the way.
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  There's no way we're we're not help me welcome the wise the
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  wonderful Mr. Tabari Henry Tabari.
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  How are you Sir? I.
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  Appreciate you, big man. I appreciate you.
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  Absolutely, it is. You know, it's hard not to call
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  you a kid. And I'm mean that respectfully,
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  because I met you as a kid, as a college kid.
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  So I had to be careful with you. It's like, no, no, you're a
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  grown man. You're an adult.
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  I, you know, you're a Sir, you know, for for me, for me,
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  growing up in the South, That's how you know guys and gals are
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  your sirs and mams. But with you, my man, it it's an
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  interesting story. With you and I, and I just, I
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  just love it. I just absolutely love it.
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  Love it. Love.
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  It appreciate it appreciate all the love it.
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  I think it was my last meet. I believe we was heading back
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  and I caught you in the airport and you give me a card and it's.
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  Like. You know you want to work, just
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  call me. That's right.
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  That's right. It's weird how you know This is
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  why. Well, we'll get into, let's just
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  get right into how you and I met.
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  So This is why I truly like, love, and am an advocate for
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  social media. You, you know, I know there's a
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  lot of negatives in social media, but but I think there's a
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  lot of negatives in everything. There's negatives in TV movies.
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  Heck the old dial telephones there was you know I used to
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  make, you know this is a self admit.
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  I think I used to make prank calls when I was in high school.
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  There was negative in in those old devices.
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  Right. And so I like to focus on the
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  positive. And so Tabar, you were at A&M
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  and I don't it's funny I don't know if people catch on to this
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  or not. So you know, and I and actually
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  you know what's funny? Back then my me on Twitter was a
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  whole different. Where I am today on Twitter, you
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  have 14,000 followers. You know, I send a bazillion
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  tweets seemingly every day. But throughout the year I send
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  a, you know, 100. I shouldn't say 100 thousands
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  and thousands of tweets. Back then I didn't and I don't.
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  I make a, a, a, a, a, a, a rule for me.
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  I don't follow. I only follow humans and I only
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  follow coaches. So I don't, I don't follow.
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  Like in your case here we'll we'll use the Texas A&M case.
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  I don't follow. Follow the Texas A&M cross
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  country track Twitter account. There, there.
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  It's not I know there's a human behind it, but that that's not a
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  human. They're they're they're speaking
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  as the program. So I I that's not me, right.
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  And I don't follow athletes. Now these, you know like a Texas
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  A&M track and field may follow me and athletes may follow me
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  and that's cool and I'll be positive towards them.
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  But I don't follow athletes because I don't serve.
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  You know I serve athletes through coaches.
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  I don't serve. So I don't know how you and I
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  started connecting through Twitter because I certainly
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  maybe I changed, but maybe I was following you back then maybe
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  because you and I became cool. I did follow you, but I'm sure
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  you did something cool. You know you ran fast and I
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  probably said, hey that's awesome man, Congrats.
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  Or hey, you know I love PRSI probably said hey man, P Rs are
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  pretty special. That's awesome.
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  Congrats to you and coach. You know because it doesn't
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  happen without a coach and I think the I think the first time
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  we met maybe maybe the airport is the first one.
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  So maybe it's the second one was at Drake, and it must have been
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  at Nationals, 'cause you don't. You didn't go to Drake.
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  Texas ain't even to go to Drake. So it must have been Nationals
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  at Drake. And we were.
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  I I think I was tweeting. I didn't realize you were like,
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  not even like 30 feet up into my right in the stands.
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  I, you know, tweeted and said, hey, man, good luck today or
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  something like that. And you're like, oh, you're
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  you're here. And we were like, oh, yeah.
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  And we turned around. I was like, oh, crap, there he
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  is, man, That's so cool. And you know what's been cool
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  about you, Tabari? It's one thing to kind of fanboy
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  over an athlete and we're going to get a little bit into, you
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  know, some of your accolades, and you certainly were, you
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  know, you were awesome. I mean, so it's one thing to
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  fanboy over that, 'cause I love track, 'cause I love fast people
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  and things like that and the really amazing things that
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  athletes do. But it's been cool to see your
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  transition from athlete to coach and what you're doing in your
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  career and what you're doing today.
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  That's been the, like the cool part to me is like, oh, I knew
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  21 year old kid Tabari and now it's like, Oh yeah, no, I know
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  Coach Henry, the things that you're doing and that's that to
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  me is the real cool part. It really is man, 'cause, you
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  know the the vast majority of athletes, the vast majority of
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  your athletes, even as good as the athletes you, you coach and
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  half coach, 99% of them are not going to go on to become pro
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  99.9%. You know, just so impossible
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  really to go pro, right? But 100% of those kids are going
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  to go on to be moms and dads and business owners and teachers and
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  coaches and things like that. So for you to see you go into
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  coaching and and really excel and have fun with.
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  I've seen you coach at a meeting now and you have fun with it,
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  that's what's special to me. That's what's cool that I got to
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  know, you know, young, 20 year old Tabari and he becomes Coach
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  Henry. That to me, I just that's the
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  kind of thing that kind of gives me.
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  I probably have never spoken this out loud.
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  Maybe this is kind of subconscious.
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  That's the kind of reason why I wanted to start a podcast like
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  this. So I get to know you, but
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  there's hundreds and thousands of coaches out there that are
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  very similar that you know, ran track, became coach in that that
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  journey from I'm an athlete to now I'm the coach.
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  That's just that's special to me, man.
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  That's really cool, man. So long story to say, I love you
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  to death, man. I'm sorry.
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  Glad for who you are, who you've become, and who you're going to
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  continue to be, Man. So I'm.
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  Not going to lie to you. Like out of all the people like
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  I follow and and and I come across, you always been genuine,
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  A genuine fan. You've been a support of mines
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  from from day one. Even when I was at Hawkeye or
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  when I was doing my speed. Speed is booming stuff.
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  You all retweet, you know like my stuff.
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  So you genuinely one of the true ones that I I can call a
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  supporter or a friend. That's right.
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  That's right, baby. Yeah, it it's a it's a low bar,
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  but high bar for me, if you're a track coach, that's a low bar.
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  You're a track coach. Boom.
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  You're, you're. I'm automatically in love with
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  you, bro. I just love you.
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  It's also a high bar because it's like, bro, you got to be a
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  track coach and that is that's hard, man.
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  So, so just so grateful for you. All right, man, That's enough of
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  my talking. Let's get into your journey.
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  Now we we want to focus on how you got into coaching and the
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  mentors along the way. However, it would be a
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  disservice for people listening to not do a little bit about
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  your background and track and field because you ran at such a
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  high level. So why don't you Let's start
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  with how did you get into track? Where did that start and why
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  track versus maybe other sport 'cause you're you were very
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  athletic, so I have to imagine maybe some other sports could
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  have played into your story. So, So in high school, I started
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  real late because I used to just like, hang out with my friends.
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  We should just hang out, drive around, go to the mall, go to
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  the movies. And then after a while, I just
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  got tired of doing that and I was like, I want to do
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  something. So about my 10th grade year, I
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  tried. I played football a little bit.
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  I didn't like getting hit. I didn't like and yelled at.
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  I didn't like that kind of stuff.
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  So I played a little bit of football.
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  I actually played with Antonio Brown.
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  A lot of people don't know that. Oh really?
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  So. So where did you grow up?
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  I grew up in Miami. OK, I I just have the islands in
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  my head. But I did know Miami, though,
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  OK? Yeah, I was born in the Virgin
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  Islands, left early, came up to the States and Miami.
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  So. OK, cool.
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  All right. So you played with Antonio
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  Brown. Yeah, played quarter Brown.
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  So, but that didn't, that didn't go too long for me.
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  And then I didn't like being at home.
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  I didn't like doing chores. So my mom was like, either you
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  work, you do some, do a sport before you go to school.
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  So I was like, you know, I'm going to try track.
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  So on announcement one day they were just calling out, hey, we
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  got track tryouts. And I was like, I think I'm
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  fast. So I went out there and Coach
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  Brown, Shelton Brown, one of my mentors, he saw me, I was in the
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  back hanging out with people in the back.
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  And he was just like, man, I never forget.
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  He said, he said, man, you you don't belong in the back.
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  You belong up front with the stallions, whatever.
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  And I was like, what is this dude talking about, man?
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  I'm just out here just because I don't want to be home so end up
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  getting a good relationship with him.
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  He developed me through my 10th and 11th grade year.
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  I hated it because we got to do cross country, we got to do Long
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  Run Hills and I just hated it so.
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  But after a while I figured him out.
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  I figure out what he was pushing me for and I put it all
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  together. And from my 10th to my 11th
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  grade year I just dropped dramatically.
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  I went from like 54 to like 48 in one year.
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  And then and then my senior year I went from like 4048 to 46.
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  So I was like #2 in the country right behind Calvin Smith.
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  So, and after that, you know, I just didn't have the grades.
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  I was a knucklehead in high school, so I was.
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  I'm glad you said that. I was going to ask because I'm
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  always curious with real high level athletes and you know,
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  we'll get to your actual PR here in a little bit.
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  We already know you're at 46, a senior.
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  There, there, that's enough right there, right?
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  We know what kind of athlete is. I always wonder if a kid like
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  you when they first start track in this example, like you know
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  day one, the first meet you go to and you run 48, you know or
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  do you. You talked about you ran 54.
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  That's what I love because you know, you know there's plenty of
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  coaches out there that you know are coaching 54 second kids
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  right now. It's like you know, 54.
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  You know maybe they need to run cross country or whatever.
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  You know it's like oh man, develop if if it's in, if
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  God-given the ability it's in there, you got to now coach it
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  out And so you start as a 54 and go to 48.
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  Holy cow. Yeah, 48 because like I said I I
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  just bought in and I was just like man, this guy's always
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  screaming and yelling at me. Let me just stop doing what he's
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  you know and and do what he tell me to do.
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  So it finally like clicked and once I stopped getting the
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  success, I I just got thirsty for it.
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  When you scream for power, you just want to you want to achieve
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  more. So I just kept doing it and kept
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  doing it, kept listening and I just kept getting better and.
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  And you, said Sheldon Brown. Jordan Brown, yeah.
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  You know, shout out to him because you know, he could he
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  first of all he saw this is the superpower of a coach to me.
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  You know there's a lot of superpowers.
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  You know, the humility, the learning, the coaching, the not
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  giving up on kids. To me the, you know, I define
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  all of that as the superpower of a coach is the ability to see
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  something in others before they can see it in themselves.
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  So when he came to you and said, hey, you don't you know you
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  deserve to be up front like you. You not you deserve you belong
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  in the front like that says like he saw something in you, man,
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  even if you're running 54, he he, he could have been like, oh
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  man, I thought he was a a stallion.
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  He's a Clydesdale. Yeah.
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  He used to be you know we'd figure out something else.
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  But instead he saw something in you and didn't give up.
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  And there's probably some you know some days where you know
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  you quit on a workout and it's like, oh man, just got to keep
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  at this kid. You got to keep at him and and
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  you kept at it as well and and look what it produced.
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  That's really cool. I love that.
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  So again, I love your story so much as a former junior college
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  coach, so you, you self professed knucklehead weren't
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  doing the grades very well. So what is a 46 second quarter
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  Miller do with not the greatest grades?
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  Man, you know we was, look, we was looking all over the the the
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  country for school. We was like D twos D3, like we
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  was emailing everybody. And then I had the opportunity
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  to go to Albany State for a semester.
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  A lot of people don't know that and it just didn't work out.
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  I was just doing the bad things like partying, smoking out.
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  It was HBC so and I was away from my family for the first
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  time. I was like 18 and I was just
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  acting crazy. And my stepdad that passed away
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  of COVID about two years ago, he called me.
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  He was like you coming home. They came up and got me.
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  I wasn't running fast. I wasn't doing nothing but just
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  partying. I was running like 47 seconds.
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  They came up and got me. And that summer I trained with
• 13:01
  Southern Brown again. And then he found me a junior
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  college. That's when I called.
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  I called South Plains first. They didn't answer.
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  Yeah, they they met. I could have went to South
• 13:10
  Plains. They did not answer the phone.
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  They didn't. So I blame blame Wiley because I
• 13:14
  called his cell phone. When I called his office phone,
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  he did not answer. And then I called Matt Kane.
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  He didn't answer, but I left a message.
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  He called me back right away, he coming back right away.
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  But since I was I was my brother's keeper, my cousin
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  Romero, I wanted him to come with me.
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  So I convinced him to take Romero and I was like, I'm not
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  coming unless Romero comes with me because I wanted him out of
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  the streets too because the knucklehead too.
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  So I told him I'm not coming unless Romero comes with me.
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  So and he put he pieced together a scholarship for Romero and he
• 13:44
  came up with me so and I was not going to go to school without
• 13:47
  without going to school with my cousin.
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  So that was my top priority to get him in school with me.
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  How did you? It's interesting.
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  You said, you know, we were looking for something.
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  You know, there's not a lot of, there's concentrations of junior
• 14:00
  colleges, right? You know, Kansas where you ended
• 14:02
  up, there's a lot of junior colleges there.
• 14:04
  California has a lot. There's a couple now in Texas,
• 14:07
  but in Florida and I don't, I I can't, I'm sure someone's going
• 14:10
  to tweet me. I can't think of any and
• 14:13
  certainly there has not been any any.
• 14:15
  Traditionally, a long time ago there was Miami-Dade Community
• 14:19
  College. I had a program long time ago
• 14:21
  now like it was. It was a long time ago when I
• 14:23
  coached junior college. It was a long time before that.
• 14:26
  And what what year was it? What year did you graduate high
• 14:28
  school? I graduated in 06.
• 14:34
  So the the internet's out there, but it's not like it is today.
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  Either it wouldn't even close. So still hard to find people and
• 14:42
  get their numbers or their emails and have an e-mail and
• 14:44
  things like that. Yeah.
• 14:46
  Do do you give Blaine some crap today?
• 14:49
  All the time. OK, good.
• 14:51
  All right. So make sure.
• 14:52
  So I tell my time, say dude, if you answered that phone, I'd
• 14:54
  have been, I'd have been on South Plains, man.
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  But you go with a really good friend of mine, a little bit of
• 15:01
  a shame that I haven't had him on the podcast yet.
• 15:03
  You go with Matt Kane with your with your cousin by the way,
• 15:07
  which I just learned that today that this was his cousin Romero
• 15:10
  doing big things with Coach Jenkins down at South Florida.
• 15:14
  They are doing. They turned it off.
• 15:16
  Oh my gosh. Amazing.
• 15:17
  We're just coming off the pin relays where they won the four
• 15:19
  by one, won the four by two, and we're second in the four by four
• 15:24
  I think it was. Ended up.
• 15:25
  Quite. You know, I've had Eric.
• 15:29
  Eric on the show before had no doubts what he was going to do.
• 15:32
  I don't know. I need to talk to him now.
• 15:33
  Like, is it on his plan or is it a little bit behind or a little
• 15:36
  like where? Where is he on his plan?
• 15:37
  But they're doing a great job. Mario, all all those guys down
• 15:41
  there are doing, doing a great job.
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  So you go Matt Kane, he's at Barton Community College.
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  Yeah. How so?
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  You're in. This is always amazing to me,
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  'cause I used to coach JUCO in Kansas and all of them are in
• 15:54
  just the smallest, smallest, smallest of towns you're coming
• 15:57
  from. Yeah, I can already see it in
• 15:59
  the face. You're coming from Miami.
• 16:01
  How did you like Great Bend KS? I wish I could swear on you.
• 16:06
  I hated great. I truly hated that place.
• 16:10
  Like I hated that place. But what did you?
• 16:13
  What did you hate about there was, you know, it was smaller
• 16:15
  than your neighborhood in Miami or you know it's W Kansas.
• 16:19
  There's, I mean there is nothing, I'm sorry guys that
• 16:21
  live in West Kansas, there's nothing to do there in
• 16:23
  relationship to comparison here to Miami.
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  I can live anywhere as long as I have Wi-Fi and a movie theater.
• 16:30
  But like, it was just, I don't know, it was coming from Miami.
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  It was just a culture shock. It was cold.
• 16:39
  It was stink because it was just like maybe South or north.
• 16:42
  I'm I'm assuming it was South of like a like a like a
• 16:46
  slaughterhouse maybe or something like that.
• 16:48
  And every morning we catch that Brie, that wind of just the
• 16:51
  manure and just the going to imagine going to class 7:00 in
• 16:56
  the morning. It's like 5° and all you smell
• 16:59
  is cow manure. Man, it was just the awful.
• 17:01
  It was awful. It was.
• 17:02
  It was just I could smell it. Now it's just terrible.
• 17:06
  And it's one thing to, you know, you paint a great picture there.
• 17:11
  But it's another thing that when your alternative is, you know,
• 17:14
  you're used to smelling the salt water off of the beach and you
• 17:17
  know, there's there's not one movie theater, there's ten movie
• 17:20
  theaters for you to choose from. And here you are.
• 17:23
  And I've been on campus. I mean, it's in the wind.
• 17:27
  Oh my gosh, the weather. Yeah, it's pretty tough.
• 17:30
  So did that make you, did that make you buckle down and
• 17:34
  realize, oh crap, I better do my thing so I can get out of here
• 17:37
  or this is going to be my, you know, this this will be my life
• 17:40
  or or did it make you. You seem to, I don't want to
• 17:43
  say, resentful, but you also seem to like not really like
• 17:45
  that area either. Which by the way, you live in
• 17:47
  Hobbs, NM Let's, let's temper down on Great Bend.
• 17:50
  I just thought about that. Terrible.
• 17:52
  Terrible here too. But the first day I stepped on
• 17:56
  campus, you know, just seeing all the, you know, athletes.
• 17:59
  Like, you know, when you meet the athletes, they, they're
• 18:01
  telling you they PRS, I'm sure someone are maligned.
• 18:03
  I'm just like, what the heck? Got 246 guys right here.
• 18:06
  We got a 47 guy right there. Got a 21 little guy right here.
• 18:09
  So you didn't even know before coming in?
• 18:11
  No. I didn't know none of these
• 18:12
  people. Like, I I just showed up on
• 18:14
  campus. Me and my cousin, we just drove
• 18:16
  up and all these kids just calling out their PRS and I'm
• 18:19
  sitting there like dude, I ran 46 five like do I like let me
• 18:24
  let me tighten up. So it just like the the the aura
• 18:29
  I guess like athletes just, you know posting their chests and
• 18:32
  who they are and what they're doing.
• 18:33
  And I I just locked in right away.
• 18:35
  You know I just like I got to beat these.
• 18:36
  I got to beat these people. Like I'm super competitive like
• 18:39
  that's one thing about me. I'm ultra competitive like so I
• 18:43
  just didn't want to lose like every Rep, every Rep, everything
• 18:47
  I did. I just wanted to beat people.
• 18:48
  That's just that was my my whole goal at Barton.
• 18:51
  You know, and I had Matt Cain, he was a great, great coach.
• 18:54
  He oh, he don't didn't play. So I knew I was, I was not not
• 19:01
  intimidated by him, but I just didn't want to get in trouble by
• 19:03
  him or let him down. So that was another reason why I
• 19:05
  just locked in right away. Yeah, he he might be.
• 19:08
  I I messaged him on Instagram the other day because he had
• 19:12
  another hurdler do unbelievable there at Florida State and I go,
• 19:15
  are you the most underrated, unknown hurdle coach in the
• 19:18
  world? You know, and it's not just
• 19:20
  true, you know. Obviously now he's getting some
• 19:22
  some fame because of what you know Trey has done there under
• 19:25
  his tutelage. But it goes back to when he was
• 19:26
  there with you guys. I can't remember the hurdler's
• 19:29
  name. Ryan Brafley Yeah, he knows his
• 19:31
  sticks. Brafley.
• 19:32
  That's right. Yeah.
• 19:34
  The one thing about coach can you know them sticks?
• 19:36
  Yeah, and he's coached many sprinters too.
• 19:38
  But just in the hurdle side right now it's just like man, I
• 19:40
  I kind of wonder if like no one really knows the people he's
• 19:44
  produced. So how was it?
• 19:46
  You know I I love Matt Kane to death a great friend of mine.
• 19:50
  How was it as an athlete for him?
• 19:51
  You you talked about him knowing his stuff and you know he didn't
• 19:53
  play. Was it what what type of, let me
• 19:56
  ask you this way for you at least your experience.
• 19:58
  What type of coach was he to you?
• 20:01
  Was he the yeller? Was he the counselor the guy you
• 20:04
  know put his arm around your your shoulders and say hey it's
• 20:07
  going to be OK. Tell me.
• 20:09
  Because Matt is such a great guy, but a little bit what you
• 20:12
  described about yourself, ultra competitive, that's how I would
• 20:14
  describe Matt as well. Yeah, he is.
• 20:17
  He never yelled at me because I didn't put my myself in
• 20:21
  situation to get yelled at because I not once I feared him.
• 20:25
  I just respected him so much to disappoint him.
• 20:28
  So he was, he was a great mentor.
• 20:30
  He was. He always had confidence in me.
• 20:34
  Like sometimes I'd be like, man, coach, I don't feel ready and
• 20:37
  he'll tell me how ready I am. He'll he'll sit in place
• 20:39
  workouts where I knew I was ready to run because he just, he
• 20:43
  was like he was a math wizard. Like he knows his numbers like
• 20:47
  say if I do a fast 350 in practice, he was like, man, you
• 20:50
  about to run 44, you about to run 45.
• 20:52
  So he's like he knew exactly what I can run.
• 20:55
  So it was just fun hearing him say, hey you about to run this
• 20:58
  today and I'll go out there and run it just like.
• 21:00
  So he just embedded so much confidence in me.
• 21:04
  He was always. He was a good motivator.
• 21:06
  Came over his house to eat all the time.
• 21:08
  You, you were just a great coach.
• 21:09
  He looked out for me. You like that for me and my
• 21:12
  family. Actually, me and my cousin, you
• 21:13
  looked out for both of us. Yeah, what?
• 21:16
  Where are you academically in like, thinking about the future?
• 21:21
  What are you thinking about becoming a a business owner, a
• 21:25
  teacher? Where are you?
• 21:26
  What's in your mind as far as a career as a freshman, sophomore
• 21:29
  there? There I was, just having fun.
• 21:34
  I'm not going to lie to you, I didn't have no goals on that.
• 21:40
  I just wanted to run fast and beat people.
• 21:41
  That's that's all I wanted to do.
• 21:43
  The day I stepped on campus, I wanted to be the best, one of
• 21:46
  the best junior college athletes ever out of Miami.
• 21:48
  I wanted them to just make my family proud and just beat
• 21:51
  people. I swear, I swear to you, that's
• 21:52
  all I wanted to do. And then my first year, I was
• 21:56
  just beating people left and right, like demolishing kids,
• 22:00
  like D1 kids. I just didn't care who you were.
• 22:02
  And I had a lot of, I had a lot on my shoulders.
• 22:04
  Like a lot of coaches said I wasn't worth the full.
• 22:06
  I'm not going to say no names, They're down, they're down in
• 22:09
  Florida. But a lot of coaches, this is
• 22:11
  like, you're not worth it. You only ran this, this, this,
• 22:14
  this, and I'm just like I'm beating your number one guy
• 22:17
  every time I step on the track. So it.
• 22:19
  I just had to chip on my shoulder the whole time.
• 22:22
  I I have a, you know, maybe we're we're going to bounce
• 22:25
  around her a little bit, you know, 'cause now you have a a
• 22:27
  career as a a track coach and as a college chair coach.
• 22:30
  When I hear stories like that, and by the way, completely from
• 22:34
  the outside, right, 'cause no one ever said that I wasn't
• 22:36
  worth a full because I was no good at all.
• 22:38
  So I was worth, I wasn't worth a a a penny.
• 22:42
  It it's easy to hindsight's 2020 to see you you know and know
• 22:46
  what your career ended up being to say Oh my gosh.
• 22:48
  How did not every College in the country not offer him a full
• 22:51
  ride. But I have a lot of empathy
• 22:54
  because we we typically only hear that when it's wrong.
• 22:57
  However that type of coach was also right 100 times.
• 23:00
  Like there are plenty of people that hey I just can't give you a
• 23:02
  full you know right now you're worth 50 or whatever And that
• 23:05
  kid ended up not being you know whatever worth a full is.
• 23:08
  You know that worth a full is a whole different definition for
• 23:10
  every school by the way. Some people say you know worth a
• 23:13
  full is only if you're a national champion but you know
• 23:16
  that's that's a very small select schools I would think but
• 23:18
  so I have a lot of empathy for that you know.
• 23:21
  But I also have an understanding of a 20 year old kid saying OK
• 23:24
  well I'll put that chip in my shoulder then and I'll show I'll
• 23:26
  show you and and maybe that's what you needed at that age too
• 23:29
  by the way. Maybe if everybody was offering
• 23:31
  you full you'd be like I don't need to press so hard I'm
• 23:33
  already got the full who knows. So I have a lot of empathy for
• 23:35
  for that kind of thing. Well in those coaches defense, I
• 23:38
  only ran 47 one at that time. So I I take that back and I was,
• 23:44
  I only had 47 one at a time. But my coach was saying, hey,
• 23:47
  this kid can run 46, this kid going to run 46.
• 23:50
  And the coach was like, I'm a coach now, so I get it like.
• 23:53
  I I'll just say how many times does that happen to?
• 23:55
  You though? Yeah, many times.
• 23:57
  I mean, come on. I'm not a coach.
• 23:58
  And I get kids that hit me up in my DM saying, hey, I've run 51,
• 24:03
  but I'm going to run 47. Help me.
• 24:05
  And it's like, OK, you might, by the way, I don't take that away
• 24:07
  you you might do that. But right now you're 51, and
• 24:10
  that's what everybody has to judge you on this.
• 24:12
  This sport is a very judgy sport in that sense of like, hey, it's
• 24:14
  easy to judge because it's on the paper, you know, let's talk
• 24:16
  about other things. What are you doing?
• 24:18
  Training meaning wise. So maybe you can get better
• 24:19
  there. But still 40.
• 24:20
  You know when you're talking about you're running 47 which
• 24:23
  that again you know this many people have run 47.
• 24:25
  Honestly, to run faster than that that that fraternity gets
• 24:29
  real low. So really the audacity of a kid
• 24:32
  to say, Oh yeah, I'm going to run 45.
• 24:33
  It's like, bro, you know, 100 people have run 45 in this
• 24:37
  world. What do you mean?
• 24:39
  And some doing and most don't, you know, so I have a lot of
• 24:41
  empathy when I hear that kind of thing.
• 24:43
  I'm always, you know, because I'm the.
• 24:44
  I'm going to defend a coach to the day I die.
• 24:47
  I'm always like, yeah, yeah, but that coach was right 100 times.
• 24:49
  I understand they were wrong with you, but they were right
• 24:51
  100 times and saved a a lot of money heartache, et cetera.
• 24:54
  OK. So you're just beating people
• 24:57
  left and right at Barton. You you you seem to have locked
• 24:59
  in. You're starting to understand.
• 25:00
  OK I got. I got to stop doing the things
• 25:02
  that are going to get me in trouble.
• 25:03
  You know I got to buckle down. I assume that means grades
• 25:06
  started picking up a little bit better.
• 25:08
  I had no issues and I had like over 3 point O like I I made
• 25:12
  sure I was in class every day. Yeah.
• 25:15
  I I just with the tutors, Barton did a great job with the
• 25:18
  resources they they had at the time.
• 25:21
  So I took that my academic series there.
• 25:23
  So what changed for you there? There's a kid right now
• 25:25
  listening. We we have a pretty good little
• 25:28
  athlete audience here. There's a kid listening right
• 25:30
  now that doesn't think grades matter or or you know, I
• 25:34
  shouldn't say that. I I think all kids understand
• 25:36
  grades matter. But how much attention and time
• 25:38
  do I want to put into it is what really is what they're trying to
• 25:41
  decide. What changed for you Was it the
• 25:44
  you know the proverbial last chance you of of Barton was it.
• 25:47
  Boy, I've let my parents down. I've let my cousin down.
• 25:49
  Like what? What?
• 25:50
  What changed for you? You went from, you know, what'd
• 25:53
  you say, a knucklehead to Now you're getting a three-point O
• 25:56
  and above what? What changed mentally?
• 25:58
  What changed for you? I just didn't want that feeling
• 26:01
  again from high school when I left high school with a 2.1 and
• 26:07
  I just didn't want that feeling again.
• 26:08
  So I made sure I stayed on top of my academics and I had my my
• 26:11
  cousin there. He was always on me like if it's
• 26:13
  if it's one thing he wanted to do because he he wasn't running
• 26:16
  the times like I was, but he made sure that I was always
• 26:20
  good. Like he made sure I was eating.
• 26:22
  He make sure like I was staying out of trouble.
• 26:24
  Like there was the infants, an instance where it was a fight or
• 26:27
  something. He always had my back because he
• 26:29
  had nothing to lose. So you know he was just a kid
• 26:32
  that came up here to protect me. He was always my protector a
• 26:35
  whole lot. So maybe because I didn't want
• 26:37
  to let my cousin down because he was just there to protect me,
• 26:40
  you know, So he made sure I was always, hey, get up, get up
• 26:44
  tomorrow, go to class, you know, or, you know, you know, go to
• 26:47
  bed and you got to practice tomorrow.
• 26:48
  So he's always like, on me. So maybe to him I locked in as
• 26:52
  well. That I think that's really
• 26:55
  important right there because like you know we all have the
• 26:59
  example on the track where I always use the quarter mile in 4
• 27:02
  by 4. You know they run you know 48
• 27:04
  seconds in the open quarter, but when they get on a relay team,
• 27:07
  they split 46 or 47 low. And it's like man, why can't you
• 27:11
  just do that in the open. And I always say, I think it's
• 27:14
  because instead of running for themselves like they do in the
• 27:16
  open, they're running for that team that has teammates in the
• 27:20
  relay here, what you just described there instead of I'm
• 27:24
  doing class or track for myself, for Tabari, oh, I my cousin
• 27:28
  care. I can't let him down or my
• 27:29
  parents, I can't let them down. You're now competing both on the
• 27:33
  track in in the classroom for someone else.
• 27:35
  I I think that's important. Having someone else to care for
• 27:38
  and that cares for you. I think that's.
• 27:39
  I think it's vital. Yeah, and then of course my
• 27:42
  family as well. So I didn't want to let that
• 27:44
  down. He, he drove all up, then came,
• 27:46
  he got me. He was just like, I'm not doing
• 27:48
  this again. So I just didn't want my family
• 27:50
  down as well. Or Coach Kane because he he just
• 27:52
  put us his audit, so I didn't want to let nobody down.
• 27:55
  So I was in class today. I think that's a a secret hack
• 27:59
  to life is doing something for other people.
• 28:01
  But my, my, I tell you what, my life got more enriched the more
• 28:04
  I dug in for coaches. Instead of just doing it for me
• 28:07
  and my career here. Now what I do is, you know,
• 28:10
  everything is reflected of me doing for coaches.
• 28:12
  My life has gotten a ton better, happier, etcetera.
• 28:15
  You know, I'm doing it for somebody else, not just for
• 28:16
  myself. I think that's a real, like, I'm
• 28:18
  going to use that example when kids ask me about stuff and it's
• 28:21
  like, hey, so who do you run track for?
• 28:23
  Yeah. Like, Oh yeah, myself.
• 28:24
  Like, yeah, you're gonna struggle until you find out you
• 28:27
  you need to be doing this for someone else.
• 28:28
  That for could be family coaches, your higher power.
• 28:33
  But I think living for someone else, doing for something else,
• 28:36
  I think it's what makes successful marriages,
• 28:38
  relationships, etcetera, that's that's really interesting.
• 28:40
  Tomorrow, OK, things are turning around for you academically.
• 28:44
  They continue to move forward athletically.
• 28:46
  You end up getting your degree for from Barton.
• 28:49
  You have a lot of choices. There's a lot of them assuming
• 28:52
  full rides coming. Now where'd you pick?
• 28:54
  Why did you pick it? And again, where was academics
• 28:57
  as far as a major or career when you decided where you're going
• 29:01
  to go? You know, I didn't.
• 29:03
  I'm not going to lie. I wasn't the the best in school.
• 29:06
  I tried my best. So I wasn't say I was the one of
• 29:09
  the smartest kids in the world or was not so academic.
• 29:13
  Still wasn't like one of my top priors.
• 29:15
  I just wanted to go somewhere that that they wouldn't be.
• 29:17
  So Dan Waters, he he's a he's a guru at recruiting.
• 29:23
  So Dan did everything he can to make sure I was at A&M.
• 29:27
  He came to my practices. He came to my meets.
• 29:30
  He called me emailed me, text me.
• 29:32
  He just showed up to practice, hang out with me, you know Coast
• 29:36
  Coast, Waters he just built a good relationship with me and I
• 29:40
  love that man from the day he started recruiting me till now.
• 29:43
  So he because waters was like one of the main reasons and plus
• 29:46
  they had a good for by 4 at the time.
• 29:48
  I think they had just wonderful by 4 the year before I came in
• 29:51
  with Justin Oliver and and and and and those I think Brian
• 29:54
  Miller and you know guys Kyle Van Hoosen whatever I think is a
• 29:59
  Kyle but they had a really good for about four and I saw them on
• 30:01
  TVI like their colors I like their spikes like I can't do not
• 30:05
  like I went there you know they had good colors good for by 4.
• 30:08
  I just want to go somewhere with a good 4x4 as well and all they
• 30:11
  had, they just checked out the box.
• 30:12
  The coach interior was was pretty cool too.
• 30:14
  He he recruited me and he spoke to me quite often.
• 30:18
  But Coast Waters was the main trigger, you know.
• 30:21
  He recruited me hard and busy. He built a good relationship
• 30:23
  with me. I trusted them so.
• 30:25
  I appreciate the openness and authenticity about colors and
• 30:29
  spikes too because again, we, I think we forget sometimes, you
• 30:32
  know, I I try not to push back too much, but again on Twitter,
• 30:37
  you know, I hear coaches judging kids, you know, for why they
• 30:40
  choose places or not choose places etcetera.
• 30:42
  And I go, we're still dealing with 18 year old kids and in
• 30:44
  your case, you know as a junior college, a 21/20/2021 year old
• 30:47
  kid, you're still kids. The, the, the logo does matter
• 30:51
  to you. You're a kid.
• 30:52
  The, the shoes, they do matter. You're you know you're you're
• 30:55
  not 30 years old deciding what house I'm going to buy.
• 30:59
  And by the way when we buy houses what do we think about
• 31:00
  the color, what's the house look like, the neighborhood.
• 31:03
  It doesn't change all that much as we get older.
• 31:05
  So I love that. So but it also struck me that
• 31:10
  you didn't, you didn't say I picked them because they gave me
• 31:15
  a full ride or I didn't pick them because they were the
• 31:17
  number one coach. Great coaches, by the way.
• 31:19
  I'm not knocking them. But you said they had a good
• 31:21
  four by four team. It seemed like it was important
• 31:23
  that you joined a program that you weren't going to be easily
• 31:27
  the number one guy and then go run 3:15, you wanted to run 3
• 31:33
  flat. Yeah, yeah, I wanted, yeah, I
• 31:35
  wanted. Why don't my goals?
• 31:36
  I always wanted to run under 3 minutes.
• 31:38
  Never had the opportunity to but I wanted it around in 2 minutes,
• 31:41
  3 minutes and I think A&M had the the team to do it and or
• 31:44
  just having a good 4x4 was always embedded to me from high
• 31:47
  school with Coke Brown you know got to have a four by four we
• 31:50
  got to end and meet beating people who like so I was like
• 31:53
  who have a four by four that I can beat people I said ain't so
• 31:56
  A&M was just stuck out to me and of course like I said Coast
• 32:00
  Waters did his did his job he included he did he did a
• 32:04
  fantastic job getting me there. Awesome.
• 32:06
  Love that and it's great. You know, that's a great town,
• 32:09
  great school, huge school. So certainly, certainly couldn't
• 32:13
  be faulted for choosing that school in that program, that's
• 32:16
  for sure. And Pat Henry, come on, bro.
• 32:17
  I mean, you know. The goat.
• 32:19
  Literally the goat. Yeah, exactly.
• 32:21
  Yeah. OK, so talk to us about A&M.
• 32:25
  This is where you and I meet. I I think we, I don't think we
• 32:28
  met when you're at Barton. No, he didn't.
• 32:30
  I think you know what? I you know what it was.
• 32:32
  I now that I think about this, 'cause you're with Matt, and
• 32:34
  Matt and I, we've been friends for long since, yeah, we're both
• 32:36
  in the junior college game down in Kansas.
• 32:39
  I bet 'cause he had a year where three kids meddled at Worlds.
• 32:45
  That was, that was my year. But I was I got 4.
• 32:48
  Yeah, yeah. No, no, you were the one 'cause
• 32:50
  I remember we talked to this. It's like, yeah, and he got 4.
• 32:52
  You know, it's like, holy crap, I almost did.
• 32:54
  You know, he already did the impossible with how many kids he
• 32:57
  had did. And it almost made it more
• 32:59
  impossible. Yeah.
• 33:00
  So I think it was more like we were.
• 33:01
  He and I were talking about you and Brathwaite and I can't
• 33:04
  remember the other guys. Lonzo Edwards.
• 33:07
  Lonzo Edwards, Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we already kind of talking
• 33:09
  about you. So I probably on Twitter saw
• 33:11
  something. I was like, hey man, I'm real
• 33:12
  good friends with your coach and that's probably how it kind of
• 33:14
  started. Always revolves around a coach.
• 33:16
  All right. You're at A&M, you're doing
• 33:18
  great. You guys are doing great in the
• 33:19
  four by four because A&M always even on quote, UN quote down
• 33:23
  years. You have a great 4x4 there at
• 33:25
  A&M. What?
• 33:27
  What did you end up getting your degree in in somewhere, although
• 33:31
  you you had a a post collegiate career, so OK, So what did you
• 33:34
  get your degree in and what did you do after you got your degree
• 33:37
  after eligibility was up? Well, shoot, I had my degree,
• 33:41
  was in leadership and and I was a minor in sports sports
• 33:46
  management. I went professional right after
• 33:49
  my last race. So you know.
• 33:52
  What? Why did you pick that as a
• 33:53
  major? That's a very A&M major, by the
• 33:55
  way. Leadership, you know, with the
• 33:56
  Cordis, Bree and all that. It's just funny that they have a
• 33:58
  major there. Why?
• 33:59
  Why that? Well, because of the academic
• 34:02
  standards, it was hard to get into anything else there, to be
• 34:05
  honest with you. So it's hard for junior colleges
• 34:08
  to to get into those programs. You start off straight as a
• 34:11
  freshman and get accepted into those programs.
• 34:13
  So that's probably one of the most likely major a lot of
• 34:17
  junior colleges have to get into.
• 34:20
  Fair enough from the school. That's that's the academic
• 34:22
  policies. Yeah.
• 34:23
  And you need a degree. In this world, you still need a
• 34:25
  degree. It almost doesn't matter what
• 34:27
  the degree in, but people really care about having a degree.
• 34:30
  So you got to get a degree. Yeah, that makes sense.
• 34:31
  OK, So you went, you went pro, man.
• 34:34
  What's that like? That's again, we talk about
• 34:35
  fraternities. How many people have ever run
• 34:37
  47? That actually is a very small
• 34:39
  fraternity. How many people have run 45?
• 34:40
  Even smaller. How many people?
• 34:42
  GoPro in track, no matter what sport but track.
• 34:45
  Come on, man, that's a handful of people.
• 34:48
  What's that like now that you don't have the team?
• 34:51
  Things change, right? You got to worry about
• 34:53
  scheduling, getting yourself to meet physio.
• 34:56
  Maybe you stayed at A&M and got some support there, but it's not
• 34:58
  the same as being on the team. How was what was that transition
• 35:01
  like? It was hard.
• 35:02
  It was it was hard. But it wasn't hard for me
• 35:07
  because I had the right people around me.
• 35:08
  I had I have Wallace Spearman there.
• 35:13
  I had Aries Merritt there. I had Muna Lee there.
• 35:16
  I had, I had just all kind of pros there.
• 35:19
  I had Ali and Francisque was there, so I had a good, I had a
• 35:23
  good support system around me. I had Saul, who was the trainer
• 35:26
  there. He took care of me.
• 35:28
  So I had just a great support system there.
• 35:31
  Nobody. I was not going to fail there
• 35:33
  with the support system. I had to be honest with you.
• 35:36
  It was hard, of course, because I was on my own, you know.
• 35:39
  But I had just like I said, I had those people around me to
• 35:42
  disguise me. So I had the right people to be
• 35:45
  honest. How do you transition from you
• 35:48
  know I'm an Aggie. We're going to the SEC meet.
• 35:51
  We're going to you know we're going to try to win.
• 35:53
  Then we're going to go to nationals.
• 35:54
  We're trying to win either the team title or the four by four
• 35:56
  title like we we we we to well now it's you.
• 36:01
  What What are you going to go do at this meet?
• 36:03
  What are you going to do to make the world Champs team?
• 36:06
  It's it's it's on you. It's no longer we it's it's you.
• 36:10
  Yeah, just had a plan with coach Henry.
• 36:13
  We picked and choose our meet. I had a great agent, Paul Doyle,
• 36:18
  so he just, he just always put me in a good situation.
• 36:20
  I had camps that I went over to overseas.
• 36:25
  I just had the right people in my corner the whole time.
• 36:27
  Not saying it was, it was it wasn't hard, but it, I mean it
• 36:31
  wasn't easy. It was hard, but I just had the
• 36:34
  right people to help me support. I had the great support since I
• 36:37
  had Britta Jackson. I just had great people around
• 36:40
  me to support me. So they tell me who, who to go
• 36:43
  to for physio, how much to spend, what means not to go to
• 36:47
  what means to go to how to talk to your agent, what not to say
• 36:51
  to your agent, what to talk to these.
• 36:52
  Like I just had the right people around me.
• 36:53
  Yeah, that's so important, right?
• 36:55
  I mean, it's just like family. I mean it's, it's support.
• 36:58
  It really is. How did you?
• 37:00
  This is a part I don't know about.
• 37:01
  We've actually, we've had Paul in the podcast before to talk
• 37:04
  about the American Track league. Love him, Love what he's what he
• 37:07
  does. And not not only as an agent,
• 37:08
  but what he does for our sport. How do you how did you how did
• 37:13
  you pick Paul? Like I like, I don't, I can't
• 37:16
  even, I don't even know. Like, is it like the recruiting
• 37:19
  process all over again or is it more of like, Oh well, and I
• 37:22
  don't know if this is true, but a recent muna, they have him, so
• 37:25
  they trust him. I'll just sign with him.
• 37:26
  How do you actually vet that part out?
• 37:29
  Yeah, that's that was a hard choice on agents.
• 37:31
  Again, it's like you said. It's like a recruiting process
• 37:33
  over they they winding down you. They tell you they can get you
• 37:36
  this, get you that. What Paul was just always
• 37:40
  genuine. He told me the truth.
• 37:42
  I met him at Worlds at O9AS, coach, Coach Kane was working
• 37:49
  with another agent and I mean there was there was in talks,
• 37:54
  but I always had Paul, you know, in my corner talking to me and
• 37:57
  telling me, you know he can do this and do that and and
• 38:00
  everything checked out. So it was just it was just a
• 38:04
  good connection with me and Paul.
• 38:06
  Yeah, he's a good dude. I I I could see that.
• 38:08
  I just always wondered, like, you know, with him and some of
• 38:11
  the other guys, it's like, I don't know, there has to be some
• 38:14
  separation because it, it happens in college, right,
• 38:16
  'cause again, everybody and their brother was recruiting you
• 38:18
  out of Barton, but something separated itself.
• 38:21
  You know, Dan separated himself in the in Texas A&M for you.
• 38:24
  So there has to be like, you know, all this recruiting and
• 38:26
  then something has to be like, all right, I trust this guy or
• 38:29
  gal or or, you know, not that you don't necessarily trust
• 38:31
  someone else. It's like, oh, I trust this
• 38:32
  person. And it's different, 'cause, you
• 38:35
  know, when you trust the Dan Waters at Texas A&M, it's like,
• 38:37
  oh, I'm getting a scholarship. When you trust an agent, you're
• 38:41
  trusting them with your dollars that that's a whole, you know,
• 38:44
  that's different to me. That's just, you know, that's my
• 38:46
  actual, tangible dollars that I'm trusting this person with.
• 38:51
  That's amazing. All right, Give us some
• 38:54
  highlights of your professional career.
• 38:56
  And then how did it? How did you decide for it to
• 39:01
  end? And what did you decide to do?
• 39:03
  How did you get into the quote UN quote?
• 39:05
  Real world, no longer gallivating around the world,
• 39:07
  running one lap at a time. My greatest highlight I don't
• 39:13
  know the year. My last year I didn't make.
• 39:17
  I was collegiate leader and I didn't make a final and then I
• 39:22
  turned around what a month later and made a world final.
• 39:25
  So that probably don't. That's right, I forgot about.
• 39:29
  That to not not make the NCAA final and then trying to make
• 39:33
  the biggest final of the year. That just showed my
• 39:36
  determination. You know, I just, I don't know.
• 39:39
  I just had a lot of my mind at that race.
• 39:41
  I don't, I don't know. It was just, I don't know.
• 39:44
  That was just a bad race. I but I got thinking.
• 39:47
  I got my stuff together and I just like again, I locked in for
• 39:50
  the last couple months and I was just determined to make another
• 39:54
  final that year. I was probably the one.
• 39:57
  Me and Lashawn was the only two that made back-to-back final
• 40:00
  that year coming from O9 or O8 and then O 9 or whatever.
• 40:05
  I made an Olympic. No, I can't remember, but I made
• 40:07
  back-to-back finals. Or one year or something like
• 40:10
  that. But yeah, I was probably one of
• 40:12
  our greatest highlights. Not making NCAA final turn
• 40:14
  around. I was crazy.
• 40:17
  I'm so excited that day. Never forget that day.
• 40:21
  What kind of AP Rs did you end up with?
• 40:25
  Jukar ran 44 seven and doing that A and MI end up running 44
• 40:30
  eight. I ran 44 a couple more times on
• 40:34
  the circuits. I had APR of 2071, one O 7 and a
• 40:42
  600. Probably one of my favorite ones
• 40:45
  right there. Something like that so.
• 40:48
  My, my favorite question I had, we had Jeremy Warner on the show
• 40:51
  and you know, all through the message boards on the Internet,
• 40:54
  it's like, you know, he, he would have been the world's
• 40:56
  greatest 800m runner. You mentioned the 600.
• 40:58
  Did you ever try the 800? Yeah.
• 41:00
  I tried the 800 a few times 153 low but crazy fact if I had
• 41:07
  never ran the 800 at A and MI think I'd have still been
• 41:11
  running till today because I ran the 801 just for practice and I
• 41:16
  think I I strained my soleus and ever since that day I never my
• 41:20
  Achilles was never right. After that, I said if I had
• 41:23
  never ran the 800 that day, I just, I swear I'd still have
• 41:25
  been running till today because I just have great work ethics
• 41:29
  and I just had that that that that moment that meet just
• 41:33
  messed me up the rest of my career.
• 41:34
  So your PSA to young kids, If you're a 400m runner, don't run
• 41:39
  the 800. At all?
• 41:39
  No, no, no. That's the.
• 41:42
  That's the coaching you right now go no, no, no, no, no.
• 41:44
  No, it just if I'd never run the 800 that day, maybe I maybe if I
• 41:48
  had to run the 200 or the 400 I probably messed up my stolias.
• 41:52
  But yeah, right. I never could get.
• 41:54
  I was running. I was on my second lap.
• 41:56
  I just felt something pop in my like lower leg and I'm just
• 42:00
  like, oh, I was like after after that day and my Achilles never
• 42:05
  was right. So that's the same injury that
• 42:08
  Porzingis got right now and that's what KD had and it it
• 42:13
  really trickles down to the Achilles and my Achilles was
• 42:16
  like that big for the rest of my career.
• 42:19
  Yeah, it was bad after that, after that day.
• 42:22
  So I was 100 that day. As someone who has Achilles
• 42:26
  problems in both, I can sympathize because Oh my God, if
• 42:30
  your Achilles ain't right, you can't do Jack man, that you know
• 42:33
  you're trying to run 464544. You're trying to run stupid
• 42:38
  fast. I can't walk sometimes it's so
• 42:40
  bad. That's crazy, man.
• 42:42
  That's amazing. That's what I you know when when
• 42:45
  people talk about athletes and they're running and I'm talking
• 42:48
  about from if that 54 second quarter mile are trying to make
• 42:51
  them a 52nd they talk about what they would just do the XY and Z.
• 42:55
  There's some luck that is involved in this meaning like
• 42:57
  what would you got unlucky that this happened and and I love
• 43:02
  your perspective there about hey by the way if I'd have ran the
• 43:03
  two or the four that meet it also still could have happened
• 43:06
  like you don't have this like Pollyannish thought of like oh
• 43:08
  man if I just ran the two and the four I'd have run 43 one day
• 43:11
  you know you understand like hey man this might have come going
• 43:14
  to happen no matter what I did that day.
• 43:16
  I could have been walking to my dorm room and it could have
• 43:18
  happened for crying out loud. So I love, love that realism
• 43:20
  that you have there, but man, we got you got to be super lucky
• 43:25
  throughout your athletic grade. First of all, you have to have
• 43:26
  the the natural genetics to do it.
• 43:28
  Second of all, you got to match up with the coach or coaches
• 43:30
  that you know do right with you and includes your whole group of
• 43:33
  the physio etcetera, your mindset 3.
• 43:35
  You got to not get injured and sometimes you get injured
• 43:38
  through zero fault of your own for crying out loud.
• 43:41
  That's that's really amazing. So and you said something you
• 43:45
  said something about genetics to be tough.
• 43:48
  I tell you these people a lot. Like they don't believe me.
• 43:50
  Like I I wasn't crazy talented like most of these like a like a
• 43:55
  Michael Norman. Like you have those numbers
• 43:57
  coming out. But one thing about me, I
• 44:00
  worked. I worked hard.
• 44:01
  So like it's it's like different levels.
• 44:04
  Like I I feel like yes, I was. I was blessed.
• 44:08
  But like I worked harder. I had to work harder than
• 44:11
  Michael Norman. Not saying you don't work hard,
• 44:13
  but look at his numbers compared to like my numbers out of high
• 44:15
  school. Like he was exceptional.
• 44:17
  Karani was exceptional. These kids was exceptional.
• 44:21
  Now, like the new kid that's running now, the.
• 44:23
  Quincy Quincy. Like I wasn't doing that in high
• 44:27
  school. I was just working my tail off
• 44:28
  in high school to get to our so not and every day I worked hard.
• 44:32
  So yeah I had a great career Yeah I was I had maybe some
• 44:35
  genetics in there but none of my nobody in my family ran track or
• 44:38
  did anything athletically. So I just worked harder than
• 44:41
  everybody I I worked people 9 out of 10 times.
• 44:44
  So I think that's how well blessed me my career not saying
• 44:47
  I mean a lot of people are like oh man shut up you was talented
• 44:49
  you were in 46 you were in 44. I'm like I had to work for that
• 44:53
  like I had to like grind it out and and grind grind grind
• 44:59
  compared to these kids that's running 2020 point ones in high
• 45:01
  school. And I like, I just, I envy those
• 45:04
  type of kids. I even envy the kids I'm
• 45:05
  coaching now because they're just so talented and they're
• 45:08
  just. I just like I wasn't doing none
• 45:10
  of this. They.
• 45:12
  Wanted 20 points in practice and 45 like it's like y'all like I
• 45:16
  was running 40 eights in practice and 40 nines.
• 45:18
  Like, I'm just envy these kids, but.
• 45:21
  I just. Worked hard.
• 45:23
  It's a weird combination. It's almost like, you know, like
• 45:26
  baking, like baking a cake. The the different parts that are
• 45:29
  in the recipe because you know you've certainly seen super
• 45:32
  super talented people that don't work hard they they don't get
• 45:35
  very far. You've seen kids who don't have
• 45:38
  the God-given talent but man their work ethic they crush they
• 45:41
  will do anything and they don't get very far to get the you know
• 45:45
  when you start thinking about the you know Michael Johnsons,
• 45:48
  Wade Van Kirk's Jeremy Warren. You know the the the the guys
• 45:51
  and gals specifically in this quarter mile area that had to
• 45:55
  run to get to where to run where they were running they had to
• 45:57
  have the God to give and talent and the work ethic and that's a
• 46:00
  that's a hard combination to actually get.
• 46:02
  So you may self diagnose and say yeah I I I don't think I had the
• 46:06
  natural talent of like those guys but OK then I I
• 46:09
  overcompensated by I was going to be the hardest worker out
• 46:12
  there and it's like man it's very you'd had just a little bit
• 46:14
  more genetics no fault of your own by the way a little bit more
• 46:17
  genetics Oh my gosh you you could have maybe been the next
• 46:19
  43 guy or something like that that's but that's rare air
• 46:22
  right. I mean we're talking about less
• 46:23
  than a handful of people that that do that.
• 46:26
  Yeah, I I was wondering about that kind of stuff that not only
• 46:30
  those two factors, you know, the genetics and the work ethic, but
• 46:32
  also the serendipity and luck to be in your event.
• 46:37
  So you could have when you're in high school and had to run cross
• 46:41
  country for it, you could have had a coach that said, yeah,
• 46:43
  tomorrow you're 54 in the quarter.
• 46:47
  Maybe we need to focus on the mile and two mile and you go
• 46:50
  there and you become, you know, maybe through your talent you
• 46:52
  become a respectable 4/30/10 flat guy, you know, 430 mile, 10
• 46:56
  flat, two mile, that's that's hard by the way, that's that's
• 46:59
  good. Don't go to college because of
• 47:01
  grades and you know who's recruiting, you know, 1010 flat,
• 47:04
  2 Millers and things like that. And you're AI don't know a
• 47:07
  mechanic right now or something. I don't know because I'm not
• 47:10
  shading mechanics by the way. You know, a guy like me needs
• 47:12
  mechanics. Trust me.
• 47:13
  But, you know we're we're not talking about a coach and you
• 47:15
  know, World Championship experience finalists for crying
• 47:18
  out loud. You know, it's just interesting.
• 47:19
  We we have to have the talent, the work ethic and the luck, the
• 47:23
  serendipity to find that right lane of our of our talent.
• 47:26
  Tracking your case and coaching in your case as well.
• 47:30
  All right. So how did you, how did you wind
• 47:32
  down a pro career? When do you know when and how do
• 47:36
  you know that this is the last, the last hoorah, the last race?
• 47:40
  And how do you prepare for what the next week is?
• 47:43
  I could tell you that right now. I told Coach, I told Coach
• 47:46
  because I finished up with Coach Kane.
• 47:48
  I told Coach Kane, I literally texted him.
• 47:49
  I wonder if I still have that screenshot somewhere.
• 47:51
  But I said the day I run, 47 seconds all out, I'm done.
• 47:56
  And one of my races, I ran 47 seconds all out, like all to the
• 47:59
  line I was The next day I said I'm done.
• 48:01
  And he was just like, OK, like, you know, he's like, you sure?
• 48:04
  I'm like, yeah, I'm done. OK.
• 48:07
  What? What happened?
• 48:08
  Were you injured? Was it mental?
• 48:10
  Was it? I gave it everything and that's
• 48:12
  just what the body had and. I don't know Mike, to be honest
• 48:15
  with you because I was, I was putting down some monster times
• 48:18
  and training like I was still training at a elite level and
• 48:21
  then I get to meet and it just don't click.
• 48:24
  And I'm sitting there just like now that I'm coaching.
• 48:27
  This is like it was a mental block.
• 48:28
  I think like mental block with me because I'll get to a point
• 48:34
  in the race and just like I blank out like it sounds like
• 48:37
  cliche. Like I'm dead serious.
• 48:38
  Like I get to race and just forget to what to do and that
• 48:41
  was happening. Like the the the backing of my
• 48:44
  career. Like I just lost the love of the
• 48:45
  sport. And like I commend Noah for like
• 48:48
  seeking out help and I can. I want everybody to go seek out
• 48:51
  help when it when they're in a dark hard place.
• 48:53
  I was in a dark spot, like lost my contract.
• 48:57
  I was working a regular job. I was paying rent to like a guy
• 49:02
  living upstairs. Like it was rough and like track
• 49:06
  was just wasn't fun anymore to me.
• 49:07
  And like, I was just in a spot, like, I'm burning more resources
• 49:12
  than making resources. And I just like, all right, I'm
• 49:16
  done. So I truly had a mental block.
• 49:19
  Like, I could, I think I still could have been running because
• 49:21
  I run to now sometimes. And I'm like, I'm still doing
• 49:25
  well. Not running elite times in
• 49:26
  practice, but I'm still running well.
• 49:28
  I know I have the ability and work ethics to still do it.
• 49:31
  So it's just to a point where I think I had a mental block.
• 49:35
  Seriously, I meant a lot. And like getting through races,
• 49:38
  getting to a point of like a racing, I just can't get, can't
• 49:41
  put my feet down. I just forget what I'm doing and
• 49:43
  then it ruined the back in my career.
• 49:46
  So go see, go get help, talk to somebody, see a sports
• 49:50
  psychologist and just continue to have fun with the game.
• 49:55
  If not, I'm going to be miserable like I was.
• 49:57
  A lot of people didn't know that.
• 49:58
  So yeah, yeah. It's that's interesting, 'cause
• 50:04
  I'm always fascinated with the athletic side of it.
• 50:06
  Like, when do you know or when is it forced on you?
• 50:09
  Sometimes through injury or contracts, etcetera.
• 50:12
  You know, just like you mentioned resources, 'cause you
• 50:15
  don't think about that with other careers, like like like
• 50:18
  now that you're a coach, Tamari, I would never say so.
• 50:20
  Tamari, when do you think you'll know when it's time to be done
• 50:23
  coaching? You're like, I don't know, I'll
• 50:24
  do it until I retire, you know? I mean, I just, you know, I'm
• 50:26
  just doing it. It's my job, right?
• 50:28
  But with athletics, it's the body sometimes that you know, it
• 50:31
  don't matter what you tell the body to do.
• 50:33
  The body says no, I'm not, I'm not running those times anymore,
• 50:35
  buddy. I'm, I'm too old or beat up or
• 50:37
  whatever. So it's just always interesting
• 50:38
  on the athletic side, how do you know?
• 50:39
  And then and then how do you you run that race at that 47.
• 50:44
  So was that Was that really your last race?
• 50:45
  Ever. That was my last race.
• 50:47
  I know if you get. How do you you know you
• 50:48
  practiced all week, you went to the meet, you ran 47, and then
• 50:51
  on Monday you didn't have a meet to prepare for I?
• 50:54
  Texted him Right after I ran. I was like, I was like my
• 50:57
  agreement was if I run 47 seconds full all outs, like I I
• 51:02
  was trying like I was hustling, bustling 47 something.
• 51:05
  And I was just like, yeah, I'm done.
• 51:07
  Like not like jokingly like I was like I was professional
• 51:10
  about it. I was like coach, you know, I
• 51:11
  just think I'm I'm going to have it no more.
• 51:14
  Like. And he was just like let's
• 51:15
  think, let's talk about it, Let's, you know, I just figured
• 51:18
  it out And I was like, Nah, I'm cool with it.
• 51:19
  I'm, I'm, I'm done. I'm back to work.
• 51:21
  Like I was just done. I was, and I was at ease with
• 51:25
  it, you know, I was, yeah. Oh, that's good.
• 51:27
  I didn't have any second thoughts.
• 51:29
  I didn't come back out there. I was.
• 51:31
  I was just done and. One more try that you know that,
• 51:34
  yeah. I was done.
• 51:36
  I was done. I was just burning resources as
• 51:39
  well and just Coach Kane's time. So, I mean, he didn't think I
• 51:43
  was wasting his time, but I just didn't believe in myself, no
• 51:45
  more so. Yeah, he's the kind of guy that
• 51:47
  would have fired you if you were wasting his time.
• 51:49
  Everybody looked Tabari. If you want to keep doing this,
• 51:51
  you got to go somewhere else because it ain't working for me.
• 51:54
  He probably wanted to fire me, but just the relationship with
• 51:56
  my I was one of his O GS, so I don't think he had the guts to
• 52:01
  say man, I'm dunking. I love it.
• 52:05
  Love it. All right.
• 52:05
  So you you made a a deal with yourself.
• 52:08
  If I if I run all out, like there's I can't sit back and
• 52:11
  think, oh, I I kind of laid off the gas.
• 52:13
  Nope. You you went all out and ran a
• 52:15
  47. So now you tell my resources.
• 52:18
  So what do you do? You're still young man.
• 52:20
  You still got to get a job. There's no retirement from this.
• 52:22
  What What do you do? What do you decide to do?
• 52:24
  Well, I felt, I felt back on like I I had I wanted to step
• 52:26
  away from track for a while. Like I was just at the point I
• 52:29
  was exhausted with track, mental drain from track and I I wanted
• 52:33
  to just take a break from track. So I stepped away from track for
• 52:36
  about a year and I was just doing like not saying step away
• 52:39
  from track but I was doing like I was looking at I was working
• 52:43
  at this studio or working with kids like like after school
• 52:48
  program. But with my role, I was picking
• 52:50
  kids up and like, teaching them how to run.
• 52:53
  It's just sports. Everything with sports, how to
• 52:55
  run, how to catch, how to shoot. Like it was just like a.
• 52:58
  Where was this? This is in Austin.
• 53:00
  I had remained in Austin the time when I was training and I
• 53:03
  had just picked up a job. I met this guy named Gary Shield
• 53:06
  and he just was fascinated about my career and he wanted to bring
• 53:09
  me on because just I was Olympian and he was like, man, I
• 53:12
  never, I never had an Olympian work for me.
• 53:14
  You know, he was doing like karate and kickboxing.
• 53:17
  And then I introduced him to like speed and agility.
• 53:20
  I was like hey, how about we started speed and agility
• 53:23
  program with me and we go around and we can sell this deal.
• 53:26
  Like I had Flyers posters and we're just using my resources on
• 53:30
  how to like get kids faster at a young age because like it starts
• 53:32
  I had I had this amazing pitch to them.
• 53:34
  I was like you got to have speed in all sports even introduce you
• 53:38
  and and and karate. And so I was just teaching speed
• 53:41
  and agility for about a year or two.
• 53:44
  And then I met another guy in Austin, Coach Brown, one of my
• 53:48
  other mentors. And at that point, then I'll
• 53:51
  start. I'll start coaching like elite
• 53:53
  athletes, like UT football players, UT basketball players,
• 53:57
  football, I mean soccer players. I was just bouncing around from
• 54:01
  gym to gym teaching speed and agility.
• 54:04
  When I'm when I met Coach Brown, he put me on to like all these
• 54:06
  high, high clientele athletes that needed speed and agility.
• 54:10
  And it was fun, man. I was.
• 54:12
  I was coaching Taj. I was coaching Nikhil Watts like
• 54:16
  all these football players that moved on to the to the high
• 54:20
  level programs. I was coaching all these you
• 54:22
  know, so that was pretty fun And then I got bored of that because
• 54:25
  it's it's quick. It's like you can't teach those
• 54:29
  kids get bored of that real soon.
• 54:31
  Like how to get 3 point start how to how to run a fast 40.
• 54:36
  You know that's like a four week deal like and then they move on
• 54:38
  like all right coach Rear. I got this much a little bit
• 54:42
  faster. I'm done.
• 54:42
  I want to move on to the next thing.
• 54:43
  So it was, it was fast. It was fast and it it ended
• 54:47
  quick. Oh, and then I was like, man, I
• 54:53
  need to get back into track. Like I miss track.
• 54:56
  So then I started teaching, you know, hurdle stuff, block
• 54:59
  starts. I started doing personal
• 55:02
  training with a couple athletes. I had a girl, 2 girls that ran
• 55:05
  400 for me. I was just coaching on just
• 55:08
  freelancing, coaching kids on the side.
• 55:10
  And I met. I remember Tyler.
• 55:14
  Tyler had DM me one day and he was just like, hey man, I got
• 55:17
  this coaching job up in Iowa. You want to I was like, shoot,
• 55:21
  yeah, why not? You know?
• 55:22
  And just I went up there and he gave me the opportunity and man,
• 55:26
  Iowa was Iowa was a different experience.
• 55:28
  So. Yeah, I was going to ask.
• 55:31
  I mean, you, you got a taste of it because of, you know, Great
• 55:33
  Bend, now you go there. Yeah.
• 55:37
  And you know I had, I had you know some success there with
• 55:39
  what I had and I wasn't enjoying that at all just because of the
• 55:44
  this the location I was in, not the not the program or or or
• 55:47
  Tyler, just the the location I was in.
• 55:49
  It was hard for me living in Iowa.
• 55:52
  What? What school was that?
• 55:53
  That was Hawkeye. I studied my.
• 55:55
  That's right, Hawkeye. So that's a Community College.
• 55:58
  That was a Community College, yeah.
• 56:00
  How did you? Well, I guess you don't have any
• 56:03
  experience with, you know, coaching at a four year, so kind
• 56:07
  of two years what you, you know of freelancing kind of bouncing
• 56:10
  around a little bit with different athletes and now
• 56:12
  Community College that kind of just seems as far as this
• 56:15
  segment of your life. That's OK.
• 56:16
  I get that. That's what I know.
• 56:18
  And and it's funny cause a lot of people just like, man, you
• 56:19
  Tabari, Henry, man, you Olympian man.
• 56:22
  You know, Coach Henry, these guys get you jobs and I'm like,
• 56:26
  bro, y'all. Just don't imagine, like, I
• 56:28
  tried every resource that I had to get into the NCAA game.
• 56:32
  And like, I couldn't scratch it. Like people's like, man, you're
• 56:37
  man, you're an Olympian, man. You'll get a job like tomorrow.
• 56:39
  And I was like, I wish, like, I applied to any job you could
• 56:41
  think of. When I was in Austin, nobody
• 56:44
  like my resume. I didn't have no resume.
• 56:46
  I didn't have no experience. What?
• 56:47
  What do you think that is? That's that's an interesting
• 56:49
  topic. So we had, I don't know if she
• 56:51
  overlapped with you or not. Did you have Laquedra Stewart on
• 56:54
  your team? OK, so we had Laquedra, who just
• 56:57
  won a state title, by the way, at the Texas State meet.
• 57:01
  She's amazing, right? We had a cool conversation and
• 57:06
  she expressed the exact same thing you said.
• 57:08
  She's like, man, I applied for a lot of colleges and I wasn't
• 57:10
  getting nothing. And it was interesting to me
• 57:12
  because if you read social media, you read the Internet.
• 57:15
  And I know all bad things, start with that sentence.
• 57:18
  Start with that when you read the Internet.
• 57:19
  But you hear that? Oh man, if you were a good
• 57:23
  athlete, you're going to get it any job you want.
• 57:25
  Oh, if you're an African American, you're going to get
• 57:28
  any job you want. And for La Kedra, if you're a
• 57:31
  female, you're going to get any job you want.
• 57:33
  And here for La Kedra, it's like, well, she checked off all
• 57:36
  three. Amazing athlete, big school, by
• 57:38
  the way. And so, you know, whatever St.
• 57:40
  cred you think that gives you African American and female and
• 57:43
  she's like, oh man, where I don't know where all these
• 57:45
  people are supposed to get their jobs because no one was
• 57:48
  accepting me. And here you are, big time
• 57:50
  athlete, a big time school African American.
• 57:53
  And where was the you were beating away all the job offers.
• 57:57
  There were so many. That's so I love busting myths.
• 58:00
  And so I hate that it happened because I wish you had gotten a
• 58:02
  job, you know, the jobs you wanted.
• 58:03
  But I love busting that myth of like, no, no, there's a lot more
• 58:06
  that goes into it than just your skin color and how good of an
• 58:09
  athlete you were. And whether you're male or
• 58:12
  female, for crying out loud. Yeah, it was tough.
• 58:14
  It was tough, man. It was just like, man, you know,
• 58:17
  So I said again, I had chip on my shoulder, I.
• 58:19
  Was wondering. Yeah, OK.
• 58:21
  I was like, I'm going to prove these.
• 58:22
  I'm going to prove to these people that I'm going to be a
• 58:24
  great coach. Like you didn't, you didn't take
• 58:26
  a chance on me. I'm, I'm going to beat you now.
• 58:28
  So I started at Hawkeye and you know, I was developing athletes
• 58:32
  from there. So I was starting from the
• 58:36
  lower, the lowest. And I was just like, I'm going
• 58:38
  to keep working my way up without the resources I have,
• 58:41
  like without the connections I have.
• 58:42
  I'm I'm going to prove to people I can do it without them,
• 58:44
  without the Pat Henry's, without the the Dennis Shavers or
• 58:47
  without whoever was people in my references.
• 58:51
  I was like, I'm not going to use them.
• 58:52
  I'm going to just get it, get it my way.
• 58:54
  And I started from, from Hawkeye and from Hawkeye.
• 58:59
  Coach Blackwell. I met Coach Blackwell and he had
• 59:02
  a job posting and like now I lied now.
• 59:04
  So then my resources did help me get that job.
• 59:07
  You know, I had a lot of people to help me get that bad Hobbs
• 59:10
  job. A lot of people called Coach
• 59:11
  Blackwell on my behalf and numerous people called Coach
• 59:14
  Blackwell and Coach Blackwell just took a chance on me.
• 59:16
  And you know, I can't commend him enough on the way.
• 59:21
  He developed me as a coach and a young man and he took me under
• 59:24
  his wings from day one and taught me the game and taught me
• 59:27
  how to coach, taught me how to recruit, taught me how to do
• 59:29
  everything. You know, he was major part of
• 59:32
  my career, like on the back end of my career.
• 59:34
  He just elevated me beyond my coaching career.
• 59:39
  You just taught me how to be who I am now.
• 59:42
  You know, I've routinely said that I'm really lucky and happy
• 59:48
  that part of my coaching journey, and so therefore my
• 59:51
  life journey, was I did a year in the junior college system,
• 59:54
  being in Chinook, Kansas, at Neosho County, part of it is
• 59:57
  just 'cause I I learned what second chances are.
• 1:00:00
  I learned what no resources are. You know, I learned to scrap and
• 1:00:04
  and get it done. Whether I have $1,000,000 or
• 1:00:06
  $1.00, I I, you know, it'll taught me how to figure it out.
• 1:00:08
  That's why junior college to me is still it's my favorite level,
• 1:00:13
  It's my favorite national meet. You know, I go there and I look
• 1:00:17
  at those kids and those are kids who, you know, to hear, hear
• 1:00:20
  this story. Needed second chances.
• 1:00:21
  May have needed a third, fourth chance people.
• 1:00:25
  Didn't think they were good enough.
• 1:00:26
  They needed a place to develop more, prove themselves.
• 1:00:29
  I love that. And it's the same with the
• 1:00:31
  coaches. I look at these coaches and I'm
• 1:00:33
  like, man, when you're a high school coach, you're always
• 1:00:36
  working to get your kids recruited to the next level.
• 1:00:38
  That's hard. It really is to have the network
• 1:00:40
  and the connections and to, you know, brawl your kids to try to
• 1:00:43
  go for this school or that school, etcetera, right.
• 1:00:46
  When you're a four year school, you're always recruiting kids to
• 1:00:50
  your program. That's super hard to stand out
• 1:00:52
  amongst all the different colleges and programs that are
• 1:00:54
  out there and all the different coaches to recruit kids to your
• 1:00:56
  to your program, a junior college coach.
• 1:00:59
  You're doing both all the time. You are constantly trying to get
• 1:01:03
  your sophomores on to the next level and you're always trying
• 1:01:05
  to get kids to your program. If you've never coached junior
• 1:01:10
  college, you have no idea how hard it is.
• 1:01:14
  And it's hard coaching four year and it's hard coaching high
• 1:01:16
  school, junior college, man, it's special.
• 1:01:19
  So what I bring that up because you're talking about Keith and
• 1:01:24
  we've talked about Matt. When I talk about how special it
• 1:01:27
  was for me during my junior college year, I I I now think
• 1:01:30
  about it. It actually was probably the
• 1:01:32
  people. So that's How I Met Keith when I
• 1:01:34
  was a coaching junior college and of course Matt, Lance,
• 1:01:37
  Brahm. I mean just all these amazing
• 1:01:39
  people that came through the junior college system that
• 1:01:42
  helped produce guys like you almost said kids, because guys
• 1:01:47
  like you. That is the real magic of
• 1:01:49
  coaching and the real magic of junior college coaching advance.
• 1:01:51
  I I absolutely love that. I love that you had and have
• 1:01:55
  Keith in your life to help mentor and develop you as a
• 1:01:59
  coach as well. All right.
• 1:02:00
  So you're at Hawkeye. Before we go to New Mexico real
• 1:02:02
  quick, I wanted to know again, kind of a myth or you know
• 1:02:06
  outside we can think this. It's very easy to think this.
• 1:02:09
  You know, Tabari, you are a a phenomenal athlete.
• 1:02:11
  You're running World Champs Olympics, things like that.
• 1:02:14
  You're hanging out with Reese Merritt and Muna Lee.
• 1:02:16
  You know these superstar, you know great people.
• 1:02:19
  You're at Texas A&M big school, You know, you travel all around
• 1:02:23
  the country, things like that. You go to Hawkeye.
• 1:02:27
  I have to imagine you're probably closer to coaching that
• 1:02:31
  54 second quarter Miller, than you are that 45 second quarter
• 1:02:34
  Miller. Correct me, correct me, why I'm
• 1:02:37
  wrong. How does your ego handle this?
• 1:02:42
  You know what I'm saying? You're used to hanging around a
• 1:02:44
  bunch of 45466 second people and now you've got to work with that
• 1:02:48
  54 person and make them a 52A50 etcetera.
• 1:02:51
  How does your ego handle that? Nothing changes.
• 1:02:55
  I've walked in the door and I just demanded excellence.
• 1:02:59
  Like I'm just like, hey, I don't, I didn't see numbers
• 1:03:04
  then. I just wanted to get kids
• 1:03:05
  better. I wanted to smile running a
• 1:03:08
  second PR or something like that.
• 1:03:09
  So nothing changed for me. I knew where I was at and I just
• 1:03:13
  wanted to get kids better. I wanted to just put smiles on
• 1:03:16
  kids faces because I love running P Rs when I was when I
• 1:03:19
  was running. So I know how it feels like just
• 1:03:21
  seeing that kid like run APR and then just go ecstatic, like
• 1:03:25
  that's that's just my highlight of my meet or my day.
• 1:03:27
  So like I went into that situation like I'm just getting
• 1:03:29
  these kids 22 to three seconds better.
• 1:03:33
  And lo and Bo, I did like I had a kid go from like 54 to like
• 1:03:38
  48. I had a hurdle to go from like
• 1:03:40
  15 to the like 14 flat. And these are like these are
• 1:03:43
  kids that just not, not not picking on them like they wasn't
• 1:03:46
  the best of the best. Like I had girls go from like
• 1:03:51
  well sevens to 12 ones. That's huge.
• 1:03:54
  That's that's huge and I'm excited for that.
• 1:03:57
  Like it might it might not look pretty to other people, but I'm
• 1:04:00
  excited for that because it's just these kids are happy, hey,
• 1:04:04
  they're happy. They're running this much better
• 1:04:07
  and like I had fun and then so it was it was fun.
• 1:04:10
  I had the same mindset I. Love.
• 1:04:13
  That nothing changes. I love that in front of me.
• 1:04:16
  Whoever was in front of me, I coach you.
• 1:04:17
  I don't care if you're good or bad because I remember when I
• 1:04:19
  was 54 and my coach didn't give up on me.
• 1:04:22
  So thanks to Sheldon Brown for for my enemy like not to give up
• 1:04:26
  on the kid because they're not running extremely fast.
• 1:04:30
  So, you know, it's easy to say I'll coach who's in front of me,
• 1:04:36
  and you tied it together really well there.
• 1:04:38
  You know, I don't know that Sheldon Brown, when he didn't
• 1:04:42
  give up on you as a 54 second quarter, Miller realized his
• 1:04:46
  reach was going to be what it is.
• 1:04:49
  Those kids at Hawkeye and those kids at in Hob, New Mexico
• 1:04:53
  Junior college, those are a byproduct of him and he's a
• 1:04:55
  byproduct of other coaches as well.
• 1:04:57
  But like him not giving it because if you're watching on
• 1:05:00
  YouTube you had to go see his actual face because it's one
• 1:05:03
  thing to say thing. If you're listening to the
• 1:05:04
  podcast, you can hear it and you can hear some tonality and
• 1:05:07
  excitement in his voice. But his face was he lit up there
• 1:05:11
  like it's genuine that you're like that 12 seven kid to 12/1.
• 1:05:14
  It's not going to show up in nationals.
• 1:05:15
  But dude, that was hard. That was a good they had to work
• 1:05:18
  hard for. We had to work hard to get.
• 1:05:20
  That's awesome and and I agree with you so, so much with that.
• 1:05:24
  I I, I part of my uplifting coaches philosophy is a coach
• 1:05:30
  who is coaching 12, seven girls to 12/1 and they think yeah but
• 1:05:34
  I'm not coaching 11 fives or 11 flats or whatever number you you
• 1:05:38
  know what you want to think of as elites Like oh this other you
• 1:05:41
  know our state meet it takes 11, seven to win.
• 1:05:42
  So what's a 12/1. I'm not really doing things It's
• 1:05:45
  like bro you are affecting that kids life.
• 1:05:48
  It literally doesn't. I literally don't care how fast
• 1:05:51
  your kids run. Are you giving them a good
• 1:05:53
  experience? Are they helping them improve?
• 1:05:55
  Are you helping them to see how track is in the greater span of
• 1:05:59
  life? Are you being a good role model?
• 1:06:01
  That's what I care about because there's a major part of this
• 1:06:04
  that you have no control over, and we've talked about this a
• 1:06:06
  little bit, is the genetics. 12 May, 12/1 might be her tap out.
• 1:06:09
  That may be the best God's ever going to let her be, but you
• 1:06:12
  helped her get to that. And that's that's part of the
• 1:06:14
  puzzle. I love that, Tabari.
• 1:06:15
  I love that. So why you go from Hawkeye in
• 1:06:18
  Iowa and you go to Hobbs New Mexico New Mexico junior college
• 1:06:22
  with Keith why that that doesn't necessarily stand out as A and
• 1:06:27
  you teach us maybe where I'm wrong here that doesn't
• 1:06:29
  necessarily stand out as a as a step up you can go to four year
• 1:06:32
  you didn't go to Division One you didn't go.
• 1:06:34
  I was trying to think of a JUCO in a big city.
• 1:06:36
  By the way, unless you go California, I don't know.
• 1:06:38
  There is one. But why?
• 1:06:40
  Why Iowa? To to middle of nowhere.
• 1:06:42
  Texas. New Mexico, by the way.
• 1:06:47
  Well, just the resources, you know, from what what they have
• 1:06:50
  and what they can do, they're just, I'll tell you when New
• 1:06:54
  Mexico got endless resources here.
• 1:06:57
  Like we sit on the oil. So, like, they never tell us.
• 1:07:01
  No. Like, hey, I want to go over
• 1:07:03
  here. They'd be like, OK, how much
• 1:07:04
  it's going to cost me. Tell them and they'd be like,
• 1:07:06
  OK, so like, just the resources he told me they have.
• 1:07:09
  That's all I needed to hear. Again, I I could have coached
• 1:07:12
  anybody. But he, he already had, you
• 1:07:14
  know, a great team. So it was just a A+ as well,
• 1:07:18
  like the kids that he had telling me he's signing and what
• 1:07:21
  he got on roster and I of course I saw them at National.
• 1:07:24
  So I'm just like, I'm getting these kids.
• 1:07:26
  I can't wait. So I had to up my game too
• 1:07:28
  because he, you know, I didn't really have that much
• 1:07:31
  experience. So you know, he always had his
• 1:07:33
  eyes on me at practice. Like, I'm like, dude, I think I
• 1:07:37
  got this over here. You know, you don't have to keep
• 1:07:38
  telling me what I should be doing over here.
• 1:07:41
  But you know, he after a while he just backed off and he was
• 1:07:43
  just like you got it. So it was just the, you know,
• 1:07:46
  just the relationship he he had from day one with me, so.
• 1:07:51
  How'd you like the city of Hobbs?
• 1:07:54
  Oh, it's terrible. It's terrible.
• 1:07:58
  It's terrible, man. But like I said, all I need is a
• 1:08:01
  movie theaters and Wi-Fi right now.
• 1:08:03
  I'm sitting on my PC. I'm listening to music, I play
• 1:08:07
  video games. I'm pretty good at video games,
• 1:08:09
  by the way, and I just. What?
• 1:08:10
  What? What games are you playing?
• 1:08:12
  What? What are you pretty good at?
• 1:08:13
  I play like PC games right now. I play 400.
• 1:08:16
  It's a fighting game. I'm really like I said, I'm
• 1:08:19
  super competitive. I play 2 KA, Madden, whatever
• 1:08:22
  game that's relevant I play. So as long as I have those, I'm.
• 1:08:26
  I couldn't live anywhere to be, to be honest with you.
• 1:08:28
  My my jam for getting close to two years now has been Fortnite.
• 1:08:32
  That's my my son. My son got me into it.
• 1:08:34
  Now I'm I'm a quester. I cannot not let a quest go
• 1:08:37
  undone. I have to get on every day,
• 1:08:39
  finish out the quest, and then I move on with my day.
• 1:08:41
  It's like a little little check the box for me.
• 1:08:43
  OK, dope. That's dope.
• 1:08:45
  I love it, love it all right. And by the way, Hobbs, you have
• 1:08:48
  to have gained like £100 because some of the best food I've ever
• 1:08:51
  had is in Hobbs though. No, I mean, yeah, food is good,
• 1:08:55
  but it's. Good.
• 1:08:56
  One thing about my genetics I would say is like like I could
• 1:08:59
  get, I could I could shred weight like.
• 1:09:02
  Oh, you're one of those bastards.
• 1:09:03
  Yeah, extra large pizza like and probably don't even gain a
• 1:09:11
  pound. You know, for every guy like
• 1:09:13
  you, there's a guy like me that gains those pounds every pound
• 1:09:15
  you shred I I gain those pounds, dude.
• 1:09:18
  I I could like go like 2 weeks in the weight room and come out
• 1:09:21
  and look like jacked or cut up like I just that's one genetics.
• 1:09:25
  I do have like like me, I could probably never put on weight
• 1:09:30
  either because, I don't know, Maybe because I'm stressed, I
• 1:09:32
  don't know. But I don't know what stress
• 1:09:33
  feel like but. You know.
• 1:09:35
  I just. I just don't put on weight.
• 1:09:37
  You were doing such a good job of allowing people to see who
• 1:09:40
  you are and love you and see what a fun guy now everybody's
• 1:09:42
  like. You're just a jerk. 2.
• 1:09:44
  Weeks and you get cut, I don't like.
• 1:09:46
  This guy anymore, but in like 2 weeks.
• 1:09:50
  All right. How?
• 1:09:52
  And we're going to find out. You're on Part 2 of Hobbs.
• 1:09:55
  How many years this first time were you at New Mexico Junior
• 1:09:59
  College? I want to say 3 1/2.
• 1:10:02
  OK, one of those 3. This feels like from my
• 1:10:07
  knowledge of your career, this feels like you're coming out
• 1:10:10
  party. This feels like, oh, OK, he has
• 1:10:13
  his, his group, he's doing a great job.
• 1:10:15
  You guys had a pretty fun run during that three, 3 1/2 years
• 1:10:19
  there. Yeah, we we did, especially on
• 1:10:22
  the women's side. The men was just up and coming.
• 1:10:24
  That was the first year the men's back hope it happens.
• 1:10:29
  But yeah, I had, I had just great, great talent around me.
• 1:10:33
  How did you develop as a coach? What were you doing coaching
• 1:10:37
  education wise? What were you doing?
• 1:10:40
  Recruit like how to learn recruiting a little bit.
• 1:10:42
  I don't want to say a little bit different recruiting, but
• 1:10:44
  there's there's there's different recruiting in every
• 1:10:46
  institution you go to. How are you developing your
• 1:10:49
  professionalism as a coach? Just building relationships.
• 1:10:54
  Like I know not to treat athletes like robots because I
• 1:10:57
  was an athlete. So I don't want to put athlete
• 1:11:00
  in that situation where they feel like robots.
• 1:11:02
  Like so I'm always, always genuine when athletes tell him
• 1:11:05
  the truth and like what I have, what I can do for him.
• 1:11:09
  I tell him all the time like I could change your life either
• 1:11:12
  athletically or in a real life. Like I can get those.
• 1:11:16
  I can get you graduated in two years, get you move on to a four
• 1:11:19
  year. I can get you associates.
• 1:11:21
  You can get a job off of that. You go back to your island, you
• 1:11:24
  can, you can work, you can go off in the States.
• 1:11:26
  If you're from the States, like I just provide that that Intel
• 1:11:29
  to him like the guidance of like what I do in my career and what
• 1:11:32
  I did in my done in my career and I just embedded that into
• 1:11:35
  them. Like you said, not everybody
• 1:11:36
  going to go pro, but they'll be going to be teachers or doctors
• 1:11:40
  or whatever. I just just that just that part
• 1:11:44
  because like you said each school recruit differently.
• 1:11:47
  Like my school only recruits internationals not only but we
• 1:11:51
  put more into internationals because we have resources
• 1:11:53
  compared to like other schools where they have to recruit US
• 1:11:56
  kids because they can't afford it.
• 1:11:58
  So we're we're into the international business like they
• 1:12:01
  call, they call people like me a passport coach, so.
• 1:12:05
  I've never heard that before. Yeah.
• 1:12:07
  I'm a little surprised I haven't heard that before.
• 1:12:09
  Is that right? Blogs, man.
• 1:12:11
  They call people like me passport coaches.
• 1:12:13
  Is that is that a negative thing?
• 1:12:16
  Yeah, it's a negative thing. Or is it?
• 1:12:17
  At least it's meant to be a negative thing, yeah?
• 1:12:20
  It's a, it's a. It's a.
• 1:12:21
  To us. You're a passport.
• 1:12:23
  I've never. I feel like I've heard
• 1:12:24
  everything in the coaching world.
• 1:12:25
  I've never heard that. They call people like me and
• 1:12:28
  passport coaches, people like people our Central, our Western,
• 1:12:33
  Barton, South Plains, Like they call those coaches.
• 1:12:36
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's cool though.
• 1:12:41
  It's cool. It's cool.
• 1:12:43
  It's cool. It seems like you would have a
• 1:12:45
  lot of legitimacy at the junior college route the way you're
• 1:12:49
  talking, for two reasons. One, you were born in another
• 1:12:52
  country. So you know even though you grew
• 1:12:54
  up in Miami there's still that like, hey, I'm you know, I was
• 1:12:56
  born in another country. And two, you came through the
• 1:12:59
  junior college system. You didn't go straight from high
• 1:13:01
  school to the four year and you really don't even know what
• 1:13:03
  you're talking about. What a two year and associates
• 1:13:06
  like no, no, I had to live that. By the way these.
• 1:13:08
  These coaches don't understand, like what we're doing for these
• 1:13:11
  athletes. You know we're like my Zimbabwe
• 1:13:14
  boys. These guys don't have like a a
• 1:13:17
  routine at home. They don't have a weight room.
• 1:13:19
  They don't have a track. We're we're providing so much
• 1:13:22
  resources to these kids and they quick as this slander us because
• 1:13:25
  we taking 2122 year old kids and and changing their lives like
• 1:13:30
  we're helping these kids out. Yeah, but yeah we look good
• 1:13:32
  coaching them. Yeah of course we packing our
• 1:13:33
  resume sure. But the impact we having on
• 1:13:36
  these kids lives bringing them over here and giving them a
• 1:13:39
  steady routine class meal someone to sleep consistently
• 1:13:45
  training weight room like these. They don't get those in the
• 1:13:47
  islands where we're or where we plug where we pulling these kids
• 1:13:50
  from. We're changing these kids lives
• 1:13:52
  we're not. Yeah we've been of course but
• 1:13:54
  they benefited from us as well they getting all the resources
• 1:13:58
  that we're providing for them. So it's it's a tug and it's a
• 1:14:00
  tug and pull there we're helping these kids out.
• 1:14:03
  So these cultures, I just wanted to get on here and and say that
• 1:14:06
  part like we're we're helping these kids.
• 1:14:09
  I'm with you 100% because first of all, until the rule changes
• 1:14:13
  that no international athletes can be in NCAA or NJCAA, so
• 1:14:18
  we're all within the rules. We're all allowed to recruit the
• 1:14:20
  whole world. So, so therefore it's not a
• 1:14:23
  violation of rules. So then I start thinking about
• 1:14:26
  exactly what you're talking about there.
• 1:14:28
  So you're giving a kid. I don't.
• 1:14:29
  I'm not a big border person, so I I would love an 18 year old
• 1:14:34
  kid from Alabama, a 20 year old kid from Zimbabwe.
• 1:14:38
  That doesn't matter to me if you're helping them get better
• 1:14:40
  and become better into society. Cool.
• 1:14:44
  I what what's the matter? And and every place is
• 1:14:46
  different. So if you find at Hobbs that it
• 1:14:48
  is better for you to recruit all internationals.
• 1:14:51
  And by the way, I never hear people complain about
• 1:14:53
  international athletes from Canada or the Europeans.
• 1:14:57
  I only hear about the Zimbabwe's and things like that as one.
• 1:15:00
  So there's a little bit of, there's a little bit of
• 1:15:01
  underlying there that that happens as well, I believe.
• 1:15:05
  But you're still helping people get better.
• 1:15:08
  And by the way, at the end of the day, your job is track
• 1:15:11
  coach, not life coach, even though that's a big part of
• 1:15:13
  coaching track. So your job is still to put the
• 1:15:15
  best four kids in the four by four or the best ten kids to go
• 1:15:18
  to nationals, whatever to to win.
• 1:15:20
  So and it's still hard, you know, whether you're getting
• 1:15:23
  elites out of coming to you or developmental kids, it's still
• 1:15:26
  hard to coach. You know, I I laugh when people
• 1:15:28
  using the A&M experience when they say, oh man, A&M gets all
• 1:15:31
  the best kids. They don't coach.
• 1:15:33
  You just got to, you know, drive the bus.
• 1:15:35
  It's like, man, if you get a 10, who whoever gets Quincy Wilson,
• 1:15:38
  he's a sophomore. So this is ludicrous to say that
• 1:15:40
  he still got two years before he even is going to college.
• 1:15:43
  Whoever gets Quincy Wilson is still going to have an extremely
• 1:15:46
  hard job to coach him. Thank.
• 1:15:47
  You thank you. You you like you don't
• 1:15:50
  understand how how many nights that I stay up because I have
• 1:15:54
  kids that's are pretty freaking good and I got to keep them very
• 1:15:58
  good or get them better. You know what?
• 1:16:00
  You know when there's coaches ruined kids like great kids out
• 1:16:03
  of high school like people don't talk about that the moment if I
• 1:16:07
  had came here and didn't didn't be successful, you know those
• 1:16:09
  people are all he suck. He suck.
• 1:16:10
  He suck. Like, it's harder coaching
• 1:16:12
  people with talent than less talent.
• 1:16:15
  People think when I get a bunch of 1010 kids out of high school,
• 1:16:18
  first of all, there's not a bunch of them out there.
• 1:16:20
  But you get a 10/10 kid to your programs like, oh, you don't
• 1:16:22
  have to, you know, they'll just run 1010, You'll run 38 point,
• 1:16:25
  you know, put them all together, taking a kid from 10:10 to 10
• 1:16:29
  flat. So it's only a point.
• 1:16:30
  It's only air quotes there .1 improvement.
• 1:16:32
  That's hard. Hard.
• 1:16:34
  That takes talent, just like it takes to your girl 100m example,
• 1:16:39
  a 12/7 kid down to 12/1 that is also.
• 1:16:41
  Hard That's. Hard.
• 1:16:42
  Both of them are extremely hard, and we have this elitism of, oh,
• 1:16:46
  it's easier once they're already.
• 1:16:47
  Fast it is not dude. Mike, listen to me.
• 1:16:52
  I'm getting grazed all over like to keep these kids satisfied.
• 1:16:55
  Like these kids are not stupid. Like coach what's the work out.
• 1:16:58
  Oh we got this this this this. And they want to they want to
• 1:17:00
  know in details why we're doing this.
• 1:17:02
  Like I'm just like, dude, trust me.
• 1:17:04
  I got you. Like, I'm asking.
• 1:17:06
  Just get your behind on the line.
• 1:17:07
  Let's go. Like these kids are smart.
• 1:17:09
  Like these kids want to get better.
• 1:17:11
  They see what's on the Internet, My my quarter mile.
• 1:17:14
  Actually just the other day, 'cause when are we doing a fast
• 1:17:16
  350? And I'm just looking at him
• 1:17:17
  like, dude, yeah, how? Do you?
• 1:17:20
  How do you deal with that now? I'm so lucky.
• 1:17:23
  My last coaching was O 5 Mississippi State.
• 1:17:26
  That was right as it was like Facebook had just started going
• 1:17:30
  to other campuses. So we really didn't have social
• 1:17:32
  media. We certainly didn't have cell
• 1:17:33
  phones like they have today. So there there was less of oh
• 1:17:38
  that that kids doing X or that kid.
• 1:17:40
  I saw their workout at such and such university.
• 1:17:42
  I didn't have that really because it was harder to talk to
• 1:17:45
  kids around you know for them to talk amongst each other.
• 1:17:47
  Now Quincy does a a workout and keep you know, you keep using
• 1:17:51
  Quincy and by the way if you know we're talking about Quincy
• 1:17:54
  Wilson, you know the greatest sophomore 400m runner ever maybe
• 1:17:58
  you're going to be the best. He does hold the high school
• 1:18:01
  indoor 400 meter national record.
• 1:18:03
  So he is the best high school 400m runner ever.
• 1:18:05
  Be that the former athlete of Minds record by the way which I
• 1:18:07
  love. But his coach Joe Lee at the the
• 1:18:11
  Bullis school great guy. He's been on the podcast if you
• 1:18:13
  want to know. We actually talked about this.
• 1:18:15
  I asked him specifically because you know it's one thing to coach
• 1:18:17
  a great kid in high school but this kid might be a once in a
• 1:18:22
  lifetime type of kid. That guy like Joe will ever
• 1:18:25
  coach and Joe's on a fantastic coach but he it's a special a
• 1:18:29
  little nugget right. So I asked Joe specifically like
• 1:18:32
  hey so what's it like coaching that that's different than even
• 1:18:36
  a 46 quarter Miller in high school.
• 1:18:38
  So we talked about that So if you're ever interested go back
• 1:18:40
  look at Joe Lee did a did a great job there on the podcast.
• 1:18:43
  So what was I going to ask you? That was a bad side because now
• 1:18:49
  I forgot what I was asking. So how do you.
• 1:18:51
  OK, so you're doing well at Hobbs.
• 1:18:53
  You're like, I feel like this is kind of your coming out party as
• 1:18:56
  a coach, like you're, I don't want to say you're legitimate
• 1:18:58
  now because you had coaching before.
• 1:19:00
  So that's that's a bad thing to say.
• 1:19:01
  But you're you're coaching, you're you're learning a lot.
• 1:19:03
  You're developing. I asked you how you're
• 1:19:05
  developing as a coach professional.
• 1:19:06
  You talked about networking. Are you doing any like, what
• 1:19:09
  about coaching education? You have a lot of experience of
• 1:19:13
  a, you know, gosh, Matt Keynes and Pat Henry's coaching you.
• 1:19:17
  But it's different when you now got to interpret that and and
• 1:19:21
  prescribe that out to your athletes, what are you doing
• 1:19:23
  coaching education? Are you doing any of the formal
• 1:19:25
  coaching education? Are you you calling?
• 1:19:27
  Matt came up and asking what what, what are you doing there?
• 1:19:31
  Man, it's it's it's funny because you know, like you
• 1:19:34
  thought you spoke about Lakija Stewart and she posts she posted
• 1:19:37
  something on Facebook couple weeks ago.
• 1:19:38
  It's like the Tree of like Pat. Henry Oh, yeah, yeah.
• 1:19:42
  Like that and it's it's crazy because like like I said I'm I'm
• 1:19:48
  not going to lie. I call coach Kane now every now
• 1:19:50
  and then when I get into like a like a blank like if something
• 1:19:54
  is not working I'll reach out to coach Kane on her.
• 1:19:57
  Each coach I call for different event if I'm in a hard spot.
• 1:20:00
  But like majority of my like the stuff I write out or do is just
• 1:20:05
  offer intuition. Kid you not like.
• 1:20:07
  I don't put out workouts like some coaches have like a just
• 1:20:11
  like a micro cycle of what they're going to do from.
• 1:20:16
  From summer to whatever. I don't do that.
• 1:20:18
  Like I I I have a planner and like, I just go in and
• 1:20:22
  improvise. But like, I literally come like
• 1:20:24
  week by week, like the meet is over with on on Saturday, Friday
• 1:20:28
  or Saturday. On my way back home, I'm writing
• 1:20:30
  the workouts for Monday because what I saw from the meet, XXY
• 1:20:35
  and Z, didn't look good in this point of the race.
• 1:20:37
  Let's attack this point like I just coach off the straight
• 1:20:40
  intuition and like experience. Like I don't really call
• 1:20:43
  coaches. I might see something online
• 1:20:47
  like it's a copy and paste sport you know that.
• 1:20:49
  So if I see something online that looks good and and and it
• 1:20:52
  fits my module of what I'm doing that week I might still that I
• 1:20:55
  might take that my ties might not be the same but I'm a steal
• 1:20:58
  that module and like improvising on what my team needs or my
• 1:21:02
  athlete needs. So it's just it's just intuition
• 1:21:05
  for me like so I don't really like call much coaches if I do
• 1:21:10
  it's just like when I'm in a hard spot with something
• 1:21:13
  something is not I asked them for advice or what would you do
• 1:21:16
  or what like what this look like to you and you know they give me
• 1:21:20
  that advice like like I call Blaine Wiley, Matt I I rarely
• 1:21:26
  call coach Henry to be honest with you you know but I still
• 1:21:29
  use his fall training like I use majority of A and Ms. fall
• 1:21:32
  training that's that's a staple of my my work.
• 1:21:35
  Coach Anderson I use a staple of his acceleration stuff.
• 1:21:38
  So it's a combination of like coaches that I use and just
• 1:21:42
  experiences that I have running or singing around when I was
• 1:21:46
  been running so. Yeah, I like that.
• 1:21:47
  I get concerned when you first start talking about, yeah, I
• 1:21:52
  really don't talk to a lot of people.
• 1:21:53
  I go by gut and I'm a big believer in gut and intuition as
• 1:21:57
  well. So that's not necessarily.
• 1:21:58
  But I do love the humility of like, hey, I do get stuck
• 1:22:01
  though, right? Dude, this this ain't 100% of
• 1:22:04
  time here. So yeah.
• 1:22:06
  So when I do get stuck because then then then to me, I'm
• 1:22:08
  listening for, well, what do you do then?
• 1:22:10
  Do you just, you know, I just pass it up and go back to what I
• 1:22:13
  know? Or do I call and ask for help?
• 1:22:15
  And so you have the humility. Yeah, call.
• 1:22:17
  For help and shut up that that that don't like they these
• 1:22:22
  coaches that I call, they give me their like, they give me
• 1:22:25
  input like somebody's coach. They just don't want to help the
• 1:22:28
  the young generation out like they want.
• 1:22:30
  They want the young generation to fail sometimes to be honest
• 1:22:32
  with you. No, it it might be a little
• 1:22:34
  different with you because of your background with you guys
• 1:22:37
  like Matt Kane and and Pat and you know, Dan and Blaine, I
• 1:22:41
  mean, you know that you you have like this cadre of of of people
• 1:22:45
  at that level. I wonder, do you get the
• 1:22:48
  feeling, 'cause you 'cause you have something that they want,
• 1:22:51
  right? You have you have athletes,
• 1:22:54
  really good athletes. Do you ever get the sense that
• 1:22:57
  there's any? What's the word I'm looking for?
• 1:23:01
  I don't think this is the right word.
• 1:23:03
  Falsity. Insincerity.
• 1:23:05
  That's the word, that they're only trying to help you, not
• 1:23:08
  these specific people, 'cause I I know these people and their
• 1:23:11
  character, but do you ever get the feeling that there's
• 1:23:13
  insincerity that people are trying to glom onto you because
• 1:23:16
  you, you have something that you can give them?
• 1:23:19
  I mean, not not it like, yeah, I get.
• 1:23:22
  I get coaches that just call. Just call.
• 1:23:25
  I'm like, why? Just I know you calling me just.
• 1:23:28
  Right. It's like, hey, what's up buddy?
• 1:23:29
  It's like, dude, I. Don't even know you only because
• 1:23:32
  you like yeah I get those but no, the people I'm I'm like
• 1:23:35
  Benny. I called Benny for workouts as
• 1:23:37
  well going to herbal stuff. So like these I got coaches
• 1:23:41
  that's in my in my pocket that I call and they there's the sink.
• 1:23:45
  Sincere coaches that yeah they want my they want my kids.
• 1:23:49
  But as soon they they call and check up on me because Benny
• 1:23:51
  called me probably on Wednesday because Blaine texts me probably
• 1:23:54
  like almost every other day like can't check up on me.
• 1:23:57
  Like these cultures that I I reached out to, they they check
• 1:24:00
  up, check in. They love you for you.
• 1:24:03
  Oh, and yes you can. You do have athletes.
• 1:24:05
  Not the other way around, like, oh, he has athletes.
• 1:24:06
  And yeah, he's maybe he's a good guy, I don't know.
• 1:24:08
  But I want his athlete, right? There's a that's a difference in
• 1:24:10
  how you have a relationship with someone, specifically a junior
• 1:24:13
  college coach here. I know Edgar is another one I
• 1:24:16
  called who I. Didn't hear that one.
• 1:24:17
  Who? I know Edgar.
• 1:24:19
  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Good dude.
• 1:24:21
  Yeah, I love him. Just saw him this past week.
• 1:24:24
  OK, so you're at New Mexico junior college.
• 1:24:26
  You're doing real well. The women are winning.
• 1:24:28
  I mean, it's really quite amazing, actually.
• 1:24:32
  And I'm gonna call it a pit stop.
• 1:24:33
  I'm kinda giving away the story, although you already know
• 1:24:35
  because you saw the the title of the podcast today.
• 1:24:38
  You saw it's New Mexico junior college but you take this pit
• 1:24:41
  stop, you go to UNLV. Now I love UNLV because I used
• 1:24:44
  to live in Vegas as a professional poker player.
• 1:24:47
  So I do love that school a lot. Why leave?
• 1:24:50
  Was it? I don't want to call it the
• 1:24:52
  dream. I don't want to put the words in
• 1:24:53
  your mouth, but was it the the goal to coach four year or
• 1:24:56
  Division One? What?
• 1:24:57
  What more money? That's a that's a valid excuse
• 1:24:59
  as well. Why?
• 1:25:00
  Why leave? Money was there as well, but
• 1:25:04
  that was a hard, hard, hard decision for me because I I felt
• 1:25:09
  like I it was time for me to go because I've done everything I
• 1:25:12
  needed to do to me. I thought my resume was solid,
• 1:25:18
  like I developed, I coached at elite level.
• 1:25:22
  I think I'd. I think I've done enough in
• 1:25:24
  junior college, like it was nothing for me else to do.
• 1:25:26
  I was winning nationals. I was winning Coach of the Year
• 1:25:29
  and I was like, well, now it's time for me to to try to move
• 1:25:32
  on. Like I wasn't necessarily
• 1:25:34
  looking for the big P5 school. I just wanted another step up to
• 1:25:37
  show people that I can still do it, I can still coach.
• 1:25:40
  So I really didn't wanted to leave, but I felt like it was
• 1:25:44
  just time for me to go. Like I was living underneath
• 1:25:48
  Keith Shadow. Like he he was great to me, but
• 1:25:51
  like that was time for me to like improve people.
• 1:25:54
  Like I can coach American athletes as well.
• 1:25:57
  Like I Of course I have American athletes on my roster now, but
• 1:25:59
  like or everybody thought like only can coach internationally.
• 1:26:02
  Yeah, interesting. And like, you only can coach
• 1:26:06
  this or that. And I was just like, you know
• 1:26:07
  what? How does that?
• 1:26:09
  I'm so fascinated by this as a guy who didn't recruit
• 1:26:11
  internationally, much by the way not because of choice.
• 1:26:13
  I just didn't know I I I didn't have a passport.
• 1:26:17
  How when you say you had to you felt like you had to prove that
• 1:26:21
  you could coach American kids. What is the difference it?
• 1:26:25
  Isn't they They the people out the outside people who, the
• 1:26:29
  Internet people, they they discredit like what these JUCO
• 1:26:34
  cultures are doing because they're international athletes.
• 1:26:37
  Because they think they're already like when they see a a
• 1:26:39
  JUCO kid run 45 flat in the quartermount, they automatically
• 1:26:42
  assume well they must have been running 45 flat when they came
• 1:26:44
  to them. Is that is that what you're
• 1:26:45
  talking about? They just think like it's it's
• 1:26:47
  just easy like. Like, they're just robots, but
• 1:26:49
  just because they're they're not in America.
• 1:26:51
  Yeah, well, they just, they just, they just like like an
• 1:26:54
  asterisk on your culture. Really.
• 1:26:57
  Yeah. But then look at the look at the
• 1:26:58
  greats. That's coaching.
• 1:26:59
  Now I'm not going to call no names, but look at look at the
• 1:27:02
  NCAA. They're all international
• 1:27:03
  athletes, but they they get praise for that.
• 1:27:06
  So what's the difference between me coaching the junior college
• 1:27:08
  athlete? Same running the same.
• 1:27:10
  That's what I can't wrap my head around.
• 1:27:12
  Same respect. I don't get the same, oh, you're
• 1:27:14
  doing a great job, but, but they're international athletes.
• 1:27:17
  But look at look at Coach X over there running.
• 1:27:20
  This guy's running the same time and my guys are running, but
• 1:27:22
  they get they oh, they're doing a great job, same age, same
• 1:27:26
  country, maybe same. Like, I don't understand, like
• 1:27:30
  the difference. I don't.
• 1:27:31
  I don't either. I I want to, I want to find out
• 1:27:34
  what's the difference between me coaching international athlete
• 1:27:36
  then Coach X over there coaching and that's an international
• 1:27:39
  athlete because they're a four year school.
• 1:27:41
  I mean they they got through the embassy.
• 1:27:43
  Yeah, they had the grades, my kids.
• 1:27:45
  My kid didn't get the grades or didn't have the opposite.
• 1:27:48
  So I don't it it kind of it hurts my feelings because I I do
• 1:27:52
  the same. I'm doing the same.
• 1:27:53
  Yeah, these other cultures are doing.
• 1:27:54
  Yeah, I don't get that that that's that boggles me as well
• 1:27:58
  because to your point, it's at every level.
• 1:28:00
  I was just at Penn Relays and I watched for the first time ever
• 1:28:04
  and exciting 4 by mile. You never would have heard those
• 1:28:07
  words out of my mouth. By the way, A4 by mile, what a
• 1:28:09
  terrible relay. But it was really exciting as
• 1:28:11
  down on the infield and they started announcing that this may
• 1:28:13
  be the first sub 16. So that's kind of cool.
• 1:28:16
  Four guys running sub four, right.
• 1:28:17
  So I kind of started paying attention to it.
• 1:28:19
  And Villanova wins. They win every pin, relays,
• 1:28:23
  distance relay, It's amazing. So three teams actually ran
• 1:28:26
  under 16. And so they announced, you know,
• 1:28:28
  the first college team to run under 16, Villanova.
• 1:28:31
  That was amazing. But then they said second place,
• 1:28:33
  which I think was Georgetown. I hope I don't get that wrong.
• 1:28:36
  Becomes the first no, becomes the American record in the four
• 1:28:42
  by 6/4 by mile because Villanova had must have had, you know,
• 1:28:45
  Villanova. I'm sure someone was from
• 1:28:46
  Ireland that I think they have a lot of big Ireland connection,
• 1:28:50
  but no one, no one's vilifying Villanova because they had Irish
• 1:28:55
  kids or Scott or whatever. You know what I'm saying?
• 1:28:58
  And rightfully so by the way, that they're not vilifying
• 1:29:01
  Villanova. That's hard to say by the way.
• 1:29:02
  So it's, you know, when I, when I was in the SEC, we had a
• 1:29:07
  couple of Jamaicans actually, you know, Steve Mullins and
• 1:29:09
  those guys, they were amazing kids.
• 1:29:10
  I love them, but I never thought about it.
• 1:29:14
  Never struck me, you know, Oh, Arkansas, I can't believe you're
• 1:29:17
  doing that. Or oh, Florida.
• 1:29:18
  I can't believe you had those kids.
• 1:29:19
  Or Georgia, you got them from this country.
• 1:29:21
  It was just like, oh man, you did a better job.
• 1:29:23
  You ran faster than I did, or you jump farther.
• 1:29:25
  That's amazing to me. So you.
• 1:29:28
  Actually get this and feel this heat, huh?
• 1:29:30
  I to me, yeah. I I I mean why?
• 1:29:33
  Why? Why?
• 1:29:34
  I'm why I'm not coaching NCAA right now.
• 1:29:38
  Yeah. Oh, you're doing a great job.
• 1:29:40
  But like, why? Nobody's taking a chance on me.
• 1:29:42
  So you're you're good enough to coach international kids, but
• 1:29:44
  you're not good enough to be on a four year and still coach
• 1:29:46
  international kids too, by the way.
• 1:29:48
  That that's just how I feel. I could be wrong.
• 1:29:51
  Maybe I'm overdoing it right now, but OK, that's how I feel
• 1:29:55
  like that. Not because it's international
• 1:29:57
  compared to like, I'm doing it with US kids.
• 1:30:00
  Maybe. Maybe they'll come after me
• 1:30:01
  then. But.
• 1:30:03
  OK. So you go to UNLV as a kind of a
• 1:30:06
  proving ground kind of thing. You did a lot in the JUCO world
• 1:30:09
  in a very short amount of time. How did we had a new coach,
• 1:30:13
  right? So they were transitioning cuz
• 1:30:15
  that plays into the story of the UNLV for you as well.
• 1:30:19
  So you had. Dorian was a new coach.
• 1:30:21
  Love him. Great guy.
• 1:30:22
  I love him a lot. Kind of putting together a whole
• 1:30:25
  new staff. You're in Vegas.
• 1:30:27
  How'd you like? I'm a bit.
• 1:30:28
  I'm partial to Vegas. I love Vegas.
• 1:30:30
  How'd you like Vegas? I don't know.
• 1:30:30
  Are you a gambler at all like? No, no.
• 1:30:32
  I like my money. I like to buy shoes.
• 1:30:34
  But I I I love Vegas. I.
• 1:30:36
  Said. I liked my money.
• 1:30:38
  I love my money, man. I I just look at my bank account
• 1:30:40
  every day. I just, I don't like, I don't
• 1:30:42
  like spending my money on. I don't like gambling, no.
• 1:30:47
  You're the right guy to live in Vegas then, because you won't be
• 1:30:49
  tempted. But no, I I barely went to the
• 1:30:53
  the Strip. Only time I went to the Strip
• 1:30:54
  was just like when I had recruits.
• 1:30:55
  But like, I'm sure I just love the freedom I had like living in
• 1:31:00
  from coming from Hobbs. Like I was in a box, like I was
• 1:31:04
  in a four by four. But then I went to Vegas.
• 1:31:07
  I was in like a 15 by 30, like it was like freedom to like do
• 1:31:14
  what I want to do. Like, hey, I want to go to the
• 1:31:16
  see the show over here or hey, I want to go to the shoe gallery
• 1:31:18
  over here, right, this X. Like it was just so many things
• 1:31:21
  to do that. So much to do.
• 1:31:22
  So much I I need you to talk to my wife because I want to retire
• 1:31:25
  in Vegas and she thinks the only reason I want to retire in Vegas
• 1:31:28
  is because of the poker rooms. And while that certainly is a
• 1:31:30
  draw to your what you just said there, there's so much to do.
• 1:31:34
  The museums, the parks, it it's a cool city, man.
• 1:31:38
  It really is. Expensive though, but it's it's
• 1:31:40
  cool. Yeah.
• 1:31:42
  Yeah, but y'all, y'all went up there and it was fun, you know,
• 1:31:46
  right. So how how did you like that?
• 1:31:47
  How did you transition? So now it's four year.
• 1:31:48
  That is different from junior college.
• 1:31:50
  First of all, you take off the plate of trying to get your kids
• 1:31:52
  recruited somewhere. You know that you're you're half
• 1:31:54
  your job, just freaked out right there.
• 1:31:56
  Now you're trying to attract kids to your school and you're
• 1:31:58
  coaching the kids that are already there as well.
• 1:32:01
  Yeah, it was. I mean, I inherited a a group,
• 1:32:04
  you know, I inherited the group that I had there and right right
• 1:32:07
  off the bat, like they they had tons of respect for me.
• 1:32:09
  You know, I never go to AI, never tell my kids who I am, to
• 1:32:14
  be honest with you. Oh yeah?
• 1:32:15
  I wondered. They don't know how.
• 1:32:17
  I mean what your P Rs are. Like like like Doran always
• 1:32:21
  introduced me as like he's he's this, he's that he's to me, I
• 1:32:26
  want, I don't want that. I don't want them to know that.
• 1:32:29
  I want them to know that I'm a great coach and always use me as
• 1:32:34
  a reference Like, hey coach, when you when you went to
• 1:32:36
  nationals, what did you eat or what did you do the night
• 1:32:39
  before? Like I I rather them.
• 1:32:40
  I rather tell them don't stories.
• 1:32:42
  And then hey, I was 44 guy like listen to me, I was no, I want
• 1:32:45
  you to listen to him because I'm a great coach.
• 1:32:47
  I'm a great advisor. You know you're bringing up
• 1:32:50
  something I'm I'm kind of gaining from here and I never
• 1:32:53
  thought about this with other great athletes and you know,
• 1:32:56
  mentioned UNLV, you know the former head coaches Yvonne and
• 1:32:58
  Larry Wade were on the show as well.
• 1:32:59
  Love them by the way. Great, great people.
• 1:33:02
  Great. Yeah, great people love them.
• 1:33:04
  They're our first, I think they were our first married couple.
• 1:33:07
  No second, second married couple on the on the podcast to talk
• 1:33:10
  about that dynamic of a relationship, does it.
• 1:33:12
  So there's other great podcast alums there but it's see and so
• 1:33:18
  I wonder like I just thought about Larry and other you know
• 1:33:20
  Jeremy Warner and stuff. It feels like and I'm going to
• 1:33:24
  say I'm going to use in the present tense that you are
• 1:33:25
  struggling you, you, you correct me here to our of your identity
• 1:33:30
  changing from athlete to coach. Not you struggling internally.
• 1:33:34
  Like, oh man, I still want to run or run fast.
• 1:33:36
  But the external, when people look at you, it feels like
• 1:33:41
  you're getting the feeling that people are still looking at you
• 1:33:43
  as athlete first, coach second. When you're like, no, Dang it, I
• 1:33:47
  am Coach Henry. That's who I am.
• 1:33:49
  Yeah, I I want, I want that stigma.
• 1:33:51
  Like, yeah, to me, I thought I had a a average career to me I
• 1:33:58
  could have done way better. But like to other people there's
• 1:34:00
  like, man, you had a great career.
• 1:34:01
  I appreciate you appreciate you a lot.
• 1:34:02
  But like I want people to know me as a great coach.
• 1:34:06
  Like that's the first thing I want them to to to recognize me
• 1:34:08
  as like man, you was tough when you ran but man you doing hell
• 1:34:13
  of a job coaching. Like I want that.
• 1:34:15
  So I never tell my athletes like who I am.
• 1:34:17
  I'll tell them like they'll say something stick to me.
• 1:34:19
  I'm like man, Google me like I'll tell them something like
• 1:34:21
  that like, but I won't tell them like verbatim like what did I do
• 1:34:25
  with my whole career And I just I'd be like Google me, man like
• 1:34:28
  who me in that and and show me like look at my resume like I'll
• 1:34:32
  say something like that. You find yourself using examples
• 1:34:35
  to your athletes of other former athletes of yours, not personal.
• 1:34:39
  Then like he talked about what did you eat before me?
• 1:34:41
  It's like, yeah, when we went to JUCO nationals, our athletes, we
• 1:34:45
  ate the you trying to use those examples.
• 1:34:47
  Yeah, I use those references instead of what I did in the
• 1:34:50
  race or anything like that because they they're not.
• 1:34:54
  They're like there wasn't like my type of athletes.
• 1:34:56
  Like they they're not. If I tell them, hey, go out
• 1:34:58
  there and run 21/2 at first, no, that's not gonna work for them.
• 1:35:01
  So I'll give like step by step on how to run the 400, not how I
• 1:35:05
  run the 400. This lean on them as a coach and
• 1:35:08
  it's like how I will run the 400 or what I think you should run
• 1:35:11
  this 400 like this. So yeah, I always give them
• 1:35:15
  little Nuggets. Unlike my career, I don't know
• 1:35:18
  who I am at all I can. See where that could be
• 1:35:20
  frustrating? Yeah, never do.
• 1:35:23
  But yeah, I went to UNLV and those girls love.
• 1:35:26
  Those girls bought in right away.
• 1:35:28
  Like, I had a system and they bought in right away.
• 1:35:32
  Like, right away, like I told them I had kids, I had girls
• 1:35:36
  that didn't make no finals at the Mountain West.
• 1:35:39
  The first day I got on campus, I said you going to be a finalist.
• 1:35:42
  You going to be a finalist, You going to be a finalist, You
• 1:35:45
  going to score points, you going to go to regionals.
• 1:35:47
  Like that was my plan. Like, I knew what the kids I
• 1:35:50
  had, I knew there was all, you know, there was not say, damaged
• 1:35:54
  goods, but they're like they they came from a bad situation.
• 1:35:58
  And I came in and I wanted to change that situation right
• 1:36:00
  away. So that was just my plan, like
• 1:36:03
  to get them better, you know? How did you change or did you in
• 1:36:08
  regards to recruiting? Oh, recruiting stayed the same.
• 1:36:11
  Dorian wanted the best of the best.
• 1:36:14
  And even though he was at UNLV, he wanted me to pull in the top
• 1:36:18
  recruits, the top international recruits.
• 1:36:20
  And I had coach all Coach Blackbeard resources, you know,
• 1:36:24
  all, all of Jamaican, the African, like I had all his
• 1:36:28
  resources. So I was.
• 1:36:29
  I was, I was good. Like, I didn't struggle
• 1:36:31
  recruiting there. Like you had to vet out the ones
• 1:36:35
  that just wanted to come, just to come to Vegas.
• 1:36:37
  I wondered like my question. I, and I know I asked the way
• 1:36:40
  it's this for UNLV and really like a USCUCLA and LA area and
• 1:36:46
  Hawaii. I'm always wondering like how do
• 1:36:49
  you like how many people want to take a visit just 'cause you are
• 1:36:52
  in Hawaii or just 'cause you're in Las Vegas?
• 1:36:55
  Like how do you vet that, especially now that they can
• 1:36:56
  take as many visits as they want?
• 1:36:59
  You got to vet those because if the family you, you'll know like
• 1:37:01
  the family be like, yeah, when we come over to visit you could
• 1:37:03
  hear him in the back and go like, you know those the ones
• 1:37:05
  that you don't want to recruit. So like I don't offer a visit
• 1:37:09
  right away. Like they really want to come
• 1:37:12
  here and not just come to Vegas because you know, the parents
• 1:37:15
  get to come. So you got to vet those out.
• 1:37:19
  But we were strong on the international scene during one a
• 1:37:23
  lot of Europeans because he had the module from Florida State,
• 1:37:27
  so he wanted to keep that same module and I was presenting him
• 1:37:30
  quite a few US kids from California that I thought can
• 1:37:33
  can develop and run a relay and but you know we me and Dorian
• 1:37:38
  had a plan and you know he agreed with my plan and
• 1:37:41
  unfortunately you know it didn't work out so.
• 1:37:43
  You know, I I hope one of my kids doesn't become so good that
• 1:37:46
  they get recruited by D1 because I'll be that guy in the
• 1:37:48
  background going, hey man, call up UNLV, get a visit.
• 1:37:50
  Let's, let's, let's like, I don't want to go to UNLV.
• 1:37:52
  That's cool. But we need to go do a visit.
• 1:37:54
  I gotta go to my stomping grounds.
• 1:37:56
  Come on. See, I I coached in Starkville,
• 1:37:59
  so we knew a kid was serious when they wanted.
• 1:38:02
  To come to this stuff, I've been there, ain't nothing there.
• 1:38:04
  I've been there before. We knew.
• 1:38:07
  So no one was trying to to to get a free ride to Starkville
• 1:38:10
  Vegas. They you had to want to come to
• 1:38:12
  Stark Vegas. OK, I talk about the transition.
• 1:38:18
  You know, Dory was a new coach and so therefore a new staff.
• 1:38:21
  Because this is one of the real for me.
• 1:38:25
  I don't want. I don't know if I'm overstating
• 1:38:26
  when I say heartbreaking parts of this profession.
• 1:38:29
  But when there's a new coaching staff, a coaching turnover on
• 1:38:32
  the head coaching side, man, it's yeah, I've gone through
• 1:38:35
  this with so many friends in the coaching industry.
• 1:38:39
  You know, if, God forbid, I get released from Gil tomorrow, but
• 1:38:43
  boss, if you're listening, don't, don't do that.
• 1:38:46
  But there's going to be another sales job in in in Champaign
• 1:38:50
  County where I'm at here in Illinois.
• 1:38:51
  It's not going to be in in track probably unfortunately, but
• 1:38:54
  there there'll be other opportunities for me to support
• 1:38:56
  my family right when this happens.
• 1:38:59
  On the college coaching side, there's almost never, it's a
• 1:39:02
  very small geographic place where there's another college
• 1:39:05
  for you to then go coach it it it's, it usually involves a huge
• 1:39:09
  transition to another part of the country which means your
• 1:39:12
  family, your lifestyle, everything gets uprooted.
• 1:39:16
  So we have this. So we we have, you know, we goes
• 1:39:19
  through another change. You're back on the market and
• 1:39:23
  you end up in a very familiar area.
• 1:39:24
  How do you, how in the world does it work out?
• 1:39:26
  Are you just maybe you are, you should be a gambler.
• 1:39:28
  It seems pretty lucky. How does the opportunity at
• 1:39:31
  Hobbs happen the time that you need it to happen?
• 1:39:33
  Well, like, again, the relationship I have goes
• 1:39:36
  backwards. I never, I never burned my
• 1:39:37
  bridges. When I left, I did it right
• 1:39:38
  already. I called him in the office.
• 1:39:40
  I told him I think it's time for me to go and you know he had
• 1:39:43
  his, his his thoughts and I had my thoughts and he didn't like
• 1:39:46
  it at 1st and then that was that was like a like we wouldn't, we
• 1:39:49
  didn't we didn't speak for about maybe a month maybe because you
• 1:39:53
  know he he was he was hurt by me leaving.
• 1:39:56
  You know I was like so but we was good.
• 1:40:00
  We we talked literally every day.
• 1:40:03
  Every day. We talked when I was at every
• 1:40:05
  morning like I was like a 3030 to 35 minute drive to campus
• 1:40:09
  called him up. We talked on my way to work.
• 1:40:12
  We talk on my way back from work.
• 1:40:13
  That was just our daily talk. We just talked about everything.
• 1:40:17
  Like how's his kids. How's the team.
• 1:40:19
  How's my team. Like we just he called me like a
• 1:40:22
  like a like a dad. And never we never like our
• 1:40:27
  relationship never changed like it was the same old same old
• 1:40:29
  like we talked trash to each other.
• 1:40:31
  Called him a bar, he called me. It's whatever.
• 1:40:34
  So like it it we just remained in contact and I did.
• 1:40:38
  I didn't want to go back because, like, I just felt like
• 1:40:41
  I was failing going back to college.
• 1:40:45
  So I, you know, I was getting a couple interviews and calls, but
• 1:40:49
  it just wasn't like what I wanted.
• 1:40:51
  You know, every job ain't a good job.
• 1:40:53
  So like, why not go somewhere where I'm, I'm appreciated and
• 1:40:56
  I'm loved and taken care of. So I went back and like it it
• 1:41:00
  was a hard, hard time for me because I did not want to come
• 1:41:03
  back because to me it felt like I failed.
• 1:41:06
  Like, oh, I'm running back home to Daddy.
• 1:41:08
  Like that's what it felt like. And I just, I didn't want that
• 1:41:11
  feeling. But I recruited that whole team.
• 1:41:14
  So, like, why not? Why not go back to what I
• 1:41:17
  recruited? You know, that whole team, that
• 1:41:19
  women's team. I recruited that team.
• 1:41:20
  So I was fine going back with familiar people that I knew.
• 1:41:24
  It wasn't like I'd inherited kids again.
• 1:41:26
  And I was like, I knew those kids, like I recruited them from
• 1:41:29
  the whole summer until I left. So.
• 1:41:31
  Yeah, I can see psychologically how because it's going not, it's
• 1:41:36
  going back like back down, it's going back to, you know, junior
• 1:41:39
  college versus 4 year, things like that.
• 1:41:42
  Going back to the place you were at under the same head coach,
• 1:41:45
  you know, a bit of different thing.
• 1:41:46
  If it's like, oh, Keith is somewhere else and now you're
• 1:41:48
  the head coach or something like that, that would have been a
• 1:41:50
  little different. I can see where there can be
• 1:41:51
  some psych psychological battles internal there of like, oh man,
• 1:41:56
  did I did I not succeed? And the reality is, has nothing
• 1:42:00
  to do with it, by the way. But I, I, I literally like, I
• 1:42:04
  know, I know I'm. I'm being genuine.
• 1:42:06
  I literally shed tears because I was going back like I feel like
• 1:42:10
  I failed. Like I'm like, Dang, no, nobody
• 1:42:13
  wants me. Like, like, I think I thought I
• 1:42:16
  did a great job with the women I had like nobody starts, still
• 1:42:19
  saw that like, so I like, I broke down on the phone with
• 1:42:22
  Keith. I'm like, man, I don't want to
• 1:42:24
  go back, man. Like I.
• 1:42:25
  And you know Keith, he's taught me.
• 1:42:27
  Like, what are you talking about, boy?
• 1:42:28
  Stop crying. You know, you the game, man.
• 1:42:31
  You come back here and and and beat people like do what you do.
• 1:42:34
  Do it. And I was like, you know, I'm
• 1:42:36
  like, you know, you're right. You're right.
• 1:42:38
  You know what? I'm gonna go there.
• 1:42:40
  Excuse my friends. I'm gonna F some people up.
• 1:42:42
  That's right. That's right.
• 1:42:44
  I'm back. I'm I'm coming back and I'm on a
• 1:42:46
  revenge tour. Like, I'm going to tear people
• 1:42:49
  from limb to limb. Like that's how that's that's,
• 1:42:52
  that was just like how he told me I should take your situation.
• 1:42:55
  And I'm like, you're right, I'm coming back to just tear people
• 1:42:58
  up. Well, you certainly are doing
• 1:43:01
  that, not knowing all the kids you've coached.
• 1:43:06
  And we don't talk XS and OS, so we're not gonna get into how
• 1:43:09
  you've done this. But you've got at least one.
• 1:43:13
  But you've got a couple of, you know, again, I I don't wanna
• 1:43:16
  call them once in a lifetime athletes because first of all,
• 1:43:19
  you're a pup. You've got a long, long time to
• 1:43:21
  coach here. You're gonna coach many, many
• 1:43:23
  great kids and athletes, but you've got some just straight
• 1:43:28
  killers right now. You are certainly succeeding on
• 1:43:33
  this quote UN quote revenge tour, if you will, with some of
• 1:43:36
  these kids. And what I love about it is, you
• 1:43:38
  know, I, you know, of course, you know, live my whole life on
• 1:43:40
  Twitter. So I see your tweets about them
• 1:43:42
  and you certainly throw some tweets out there of like hey you
• 1:43:45
  know new PR of this etcetera. But you're you celebrate the
• 1:43:51
  totality of it. It appears like you're you're
• 1:43:53
  you talk about like hey I'm happy for you that you did the,
• 1:43:56
  you know you're you're a little bit different on your
• 1:43:59
  celebrations and not just the PR time like you seem to maybe this
• 1:44:03
  is kind of stuttering on this little bit.
• 1:44:05
  You seem to celebrate the person that runs that time and not the
• 1:44:10
  time that this person ran you. You you got it.
• 1:44:14
  Lot of these, lot of these coaches, they in it for the
• 1:44:18
  wrong reasons like they do. They post and brag for the
• 1:44:22
  wrong. Like when I post I make sure
• 1:44:24
  it's not about me. Like I have to.
• 1:44:26
  I have to promote my kids. Like if I don't post anything
• 1:44:29
  then like nobody would know because I'm in junior college.
• 1:44:32
  So like and plus it's a recruiting, it's a recruiting,
• 1:44:35
  you know, it's a business. So I have to promote my kids.
• 1:44:39
  I really don't want to, but like why not?
• 1:44:41
  I have to because I'm in junior college.
• 1:44:43
  I have to put my, my, my stuff out there.
• 1:44:46
  Plus I have the like, the the influence on the Internet.
• 1:44:48
  So like somebody might see something and they might like,
• 1:44:51
  hey, I'm, I'm my hurdler, my hurdler.
• 1:44:54
  I'm not going to say the name. She's she's literally 410.
• 1:44:56
  You don't see a 410 hurdler out there.
• 1:44:58
  That's right. She's a little bitty girl and
• 1:45:00
  like, the thing she's doing it. I have to put that out there.
• 1:45:03
  But anyway, yeah, I do it for the kids.
• 1:45:06
  Like I ran fast. I I know I I did all of that but
• 1:45:10
  it's not about me anymore it's about them.
• 1:45:13
  Like when I post stuff like you you caught on to it.
• 1:45:16
  Like I post for the kids I don't you never see you never.
• 1:45:20
  My tweets never say I I did. I always said I'll shout out the
• 1:45:25
  kids name and what they and and I keep it pushing.
• 1:45:28
  You know I might say a little story time here and there
• 1:45:30
  because those stories have to be heard.
• 1:45:32
  Everybody have a story and everybody got somebody got to
• 1:45:34
  listen to it. So I post for them not me.
• 1:45:37
  Like I I I've done it. I look at my bio.
• 1:45:40
  I I don't need to talk about me anymore.
• 1:45:42
  I talk. So yeah you get it you I do this
• 1:45:45
  for them like anything I do is for them.
• 1:45:47
  I I just the situation I had at UNLV like I could have easily
• 1:45:52
  given up but I stuck. I stuck with the plan.
• 1:45:55
  I stuck with them day out like I still want to see this thing
• 1:45:58
  through. I'm still going to see I'll make
• 1:46:00
  finals at the Mountain West Conference.
• 1:46:02
  Like that's just who I am. Like I would never give up on on
• 1:46:05
  my my goal my goals with an athlete.
• 1:46:07
  So yeah, that's just that's that's just me like just just
• 1:46:11
  very loyal and just embedded to the kids and and what I want to
• 1:46:15
  what we do together that's that's that's all I'm embedded
• 1:46:18
  to. Seems like you're carrying on
• 1:46:20
  the I think legacy is the right word.
• 1:46:24
  But the modeling that a Coach Sheldon, a Coach Kane, these
• 1:46:29
  these guys and and and coaches that have stuck with you like it
• 1:46:35
  seems like you're now megaphoning, amplifying that out
• 1:46:39
  to your athletes. Yeah, we we stick with our goals
• 1:46:45
  and we never we just stick to our goals and we just work for
• 1:46:49
  it. You know we these kids are write
• 1:46:51
  down their goals from day one and say hey, what you want to
• 1:46:54
  do, what you want to run. And I'm like, all right, I'm a
• 1:46:56
  hold you to that. I'm real big on accountability a
• 1:46:59
  lot. A lot of my athletes don't like
• 1:47:00
  that. Like a lot of my kids at UNLV
• 1:47:03
  didn't like that. Like, I just hold kids
• 1:47:05
  accountable and I'm like, I'm going to let you know that
• 1:47:07
  you're messing up in the most political way I can.
• 1:47:11
  But my ability is a lost thing now with athletes.
• 1:47:15
  I think like when I was running like I was, I've held myself
• 1:47:19
  accountable. Like I didn't want to let my
• 1:47:21
  coach down. Some of these kids they their
• 1:47:25
  their goals don't align their their their daily lives like
• 1:47:28
  they want to do things, but they don't.
• 1:47:30
  You're fully transitioning into old man mode.
• 1:47:32
  I love it. Gosh, this 20 year old that I
• 1:47:34
  know. He's now the these kids these
• 1:47:36
  days. They it's it's just new.
• 1:47:39
  Like they say these new kids are soft, soft.
• 1:47:42
  But coaches have to like change their ways too as well.
• 1:47:47
  That's right. To adapt these kids.
• 1:47:49
  And I feel like I I can adapt to to any situation with these
• 1:47:52
  kids. I might say man, these kids soft
• 1:47:54
  man. But you know I was like, OK, OK,
• 1:47:56
  all right. I figured ways out to like push
• 1:47:58
  them to get to what they need to do.
• 1:48:00
  But yeah, I'm just all about the athletes now.
• 1:48:03
  Yeah, I love that. So when we're recording this,
• 1:48:05
  it's early May, so up next is Nationals, right?
• 1:48:09
  Yes, Sir. Where, where, where at this
• 1:48:11
  year? Monroe, LA Oh, that's.
• 1:48:14
  Right, ULM, you love these big cities.
• 1:48:16
  Man, this is amazing. Monroe, LA.
• 1:48:19
  I read it. I read it right here at the
• 1:48:21
  house, man, but I'll probably go down there.
• 1:48:23
  That that was a lot of fun. So I, you know, I, I, I, I did
• 1:48:27
  not do this on purpose. So when you were not in Hobbs, I
• 1:48:30
  came out to Hobbs for the first time for Nationals.
• 1:48:33
  When you came back, I was like, I'm never going again.
• 1:48:36
  I promise It wasn't first of all.
• 1:48:37
  I wanted to come in that meet, but we couldn't recruit at a
• 1:48:39
  time. I wanted to come and watch.
• 1:48:41
  Yeah, it was. It was good meet.
• 1:48:42
  It was really good meet. Keith showed me that.
• 1:48:45
  I don't know if it was there before.
• 1:48:47
  It's there now, obviously the that new Golf facility.
• 1:48:50
  Oh my gosh, dude. I was like, get out of here.
• 1:48:54
  It's resources here, yeah. I wish.
• 1:48:58
  If you love golf and facilities, you gotta go.
• 1:49:01
  I assume there's some pictures and maybe video on the MJC
• 1:49:05
  website, but this freaking golf facility, man, it's
• 1:49:08
  unbelievable. Junior College.
• 1:49:12
  Junior college dude, give me a break.
• 1:49:14
  I love it. I love it.
• 1:49:15
  All right. So you're getting ready for
• 1:49:16
  nationals to finish it off and maybe give us a an update on
• 1:49:20
  maybe your status as it sits today with New Mexico Junior
• 1:49:24
  College. But today, you know my my last
• 1:49:29
  day will be at nationals. Unfortunately, the school is
• 1:49:33
  going in a new direction. They're in the process of hiring
• 1:49:38
  new coaches, so no, no ill will. I appreciate this.
• 1:49:42
  Everything they've done for me, they just want to go in a
• 1:49:44
  different direction and I'm, I'm comfortable with that and just
• 1:49:49
  want to let everybody know I'm a free agent.
• 1:49:51
  And you know, you getting one of the best junior college, one of
• 1:49:55
  the best coaches in the country and I just come with passion and
• 1:50:01
  grit and energy and just determination to be one of the
• 1:50:04
  best coaches in the country. So that's what you're getting
• 1:50:06
  from me. But yeah, National's probably my
• 1:50:09
  last time coaching here at NMJC. He's going to be a lot of
• 1:50:13
  emotions there because, you know, I think I've done a lot
• 1:50:18
  here in the last five years. I've been here 4 1/2, maybe 5.
• 1:50:22
  So you know it's going to be tough.
• 1:50:25
  You know it actually is. When we talk about serendipity
• 1:50:28
  and chance and luck, it actually is serendipitous that Tabari is
• 1:50:33
  on the podcast now in this situation as a free agent here
• 1:50:37
  in the next couple of weeks. And then the timing of him being
• 1:50:41
  invited in the podcast, it actually, as much as I love him,
• 1:50:44
  I wish I could say Tabari, I'm doing this because I want to
• 1:50:47
  plug you and help you get in a job.
• 1:50:49
  I do want to do that, but he's not on the podcast because of
• 1:50:52
  that. It actually there's a list and
• 1:50:54
  it came up. It just worked out that time
• 1:50:57
  wise. I actually wish it was maybe,
• 1:50:59
  you know, a couple of months down the line and we're
• 1:51:00
  celebrating a new job. To be real frank with you, I'd
• 1:51:02
  rather that, but. But I do.
• 1:51:05
  You know, I'll give a a reference for Tabari right here.
• 1:51:10
  You know, I, I think many athletes and I don't think that
• 1:51:14
  this is a negative. A little bit to what Tabari was
• 1:51:16
  saying, you know, the the old man get off my lawn, he was
• 1:51:18
  transitioning into there. You know, I think when we talk
• 1:51:21
  about athletes being soft or selfish, absorb social media, I
• 1:51:26
  don't think that's today's athletes.
• 1:51:28
  I think that is what 18 to 22 year olds are.
• 1:51:32
  It could be 1418 year olds. I think that's what teenagers
• 1:51:34
  are. They're rebellious.
• 1:51:35
  I think that's what college kids are.
• 1:51:37
  They're in their own world. I truly believe.
• 1:51:40
  And I coached a few, you know, pretty elite level kids.
• 1:51:44
  To be an elite athlete you have to be selfish.
• 1:51:47
  You have to. You're always trying to figure
• 1:51:49
  out what coach is telling you. How does it make you better?
• 1:51:51
  That's a very selfish type thing.
• 1:51:53
  Coaching is the opposite by the way.
• 1:51:54
  You're learning all this stuff and now you're giving it to
• 1:51:57
  athletes. You're trying to figure out how
• 1:51:58
  to help them. So for Tabari that I I always
• 1:52:02
  judge somebody like this positively.
• 1:52:05
  For Tabari as a 20 year old to establish a relationship with a
• 1:52:09
  guy like me. Tabari got zero out of that
• 1:52:12
  relationship. There's no a 20 year old Tabari
• 1:52:15
  befriending me was not going to help him become a better
• 1:52:19
  quarter. Miller, he already had.
• 1:52:21
  He had all the people we talked about, your network.
• 1:52:23
  He had all the people surrounding him to do that.
• 1:52:25
  I I did not. I was not able to help him out
• 1:52:28
  there. Certainly at 20 years old, you
• 1:52:30
  can hear as far as you know, career wise, he didn't really
• 1:52:32
  didn't have a path at this point.
• 1:52:34
  So it's not like, oh man, if I befriend this dude Mike from
• 1:52:36
  Gill, maybe I'll, I'll get a job.
• 1:52:38
  He wasn't a pole vaulter. So that, you know, there's no
• 1:52:40
  like, oh, maybe if I befriend Mike, I'll get, you know, free
• 1:52:43
  poles. What am I going to do for 1/4
• 1:52:44
  mile or blocks if you already got blocked?
• 1:52:46
  You know, you don't need them. You don't carry them around.
• 1:52:49
  I didn't do shoes and cloth and all that kind of stuff.
• 1:52:51
  I'm not Nike, Adidas, Puma, whatever.
• 1:52:54
  So there was a zero in it for Tabari to befriend a guy like
• 1:52:57
  me. And he did.
• 1:52:59
  And he was genuine and nice and didn't when we were at the meet.
• 1:53:03
  And you're like, yeah, cool, you're here.
• 1:53:04
  Stay wherever you are, dude. You're like, hey, where?
• 1:53:06
  Yeah, man, I want. You.
• 1:53:08
  Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I have genuine respect for that
• 1:53:12
  there. There's this kid at DePaul right
• 1:53:14
  now, this really good hurdler. He's in the same vein.
• 1:53:17
  He's, you know, we met each other for the first time at the
• 1:53:19
  University of Illinois meet a couple of weeks ago.
• 1:53:21
  I'm just gassing him up, cuz he's yeah, I love AI, love that
• 1:53:23
  kid. I.
• 1:53:25
  Like that. Good kid, I.
• 1:53:27
  Hurdle guy. I know Zach can talk.
• 1:53:28
  Yeah, good kid and I love, you know, I'm a I'm a small, even a
• 1:53:32
  coach at Mississippi State. I'm a I'm a Troy JUCO type kid.
• 1:53:35
  So I love the the non Texas A&M no offense DePaul kid doing it
• 1:53:39
  baby I love that so and there's been a couple other kids so I
• 1:53:43
  I'll give a reference to Barry that he has been extremely
• 1:53:46
  mature from a young age I I don't need to speak on his
• 1:53:50
  coaching just go look what his athletes do and and this whole
• 1:53:53
  this is kind of a new thing we I I can't believe after 260
• 1:53:56
  episodes because we've never really talked about this and
• 1:53:58
  I've never heard this term this whole passport coaching thing
• 1:54:02
  this has to go there's a lot of xenophobia in that statement
• 1:54:06
  that has to go until they change the rules everybody is open to
• 1:54:11
  to to the world OK you have your rules and your grades and
• 1:54:14
  admissions and all those things we got to get off of that guys
• 1:54:18
  and gals come on you all you're doing coaches need to gaslight
• 1:54:22
  other coaches up and all you're doing is putting down another
• 1:54:24
  coach When you say that we got to cut that crap out got to got
• 1:54:28
  to got to got to so to Bari someone where you know this
• 1:54:33
  publishes around the end of this month end of May someone's
• 1:54:36
  listening to this and someone says I want to get I almost
• 1:54:38
  called you a kid again God sorry I want to give this guy a chance
• 1:54:42
  or hey boy this is exactly what I'm looking for next year I got
• 1:54:45
  a guy that's leaving to go to this school whatever there's
• 1:54:47
  going to be an opening heck I got my job at SCB state because
• 1:54:50
  they added a coach to the staff not a coach left they added an
• 1:54:53
  extra position that that still happens out there what's the
• 1:54:56
  best way to get a hold of you what what's your maybe Twitter
• 1:55:00
  handle maybe your e-mail what's the best way someone says Oh my
• 1:55:04
  God I want to reach out to the bar how how do I do this what's
• 1:55:06
  the best way Best way Cell phone you can call you can call text
• 1:55:12
  786-473-6960 You can reach me on my socials I fear God not them
• 1:55:17
  on on X Twitter for the O heads Facebook just Taj go by my
• 1:55:23
  middle name. Taj J Henry You know, call a
• 1:55:27
  friend. Ask a friend you know.
• 1:55:29
  Yeah, hey, that. Actually, I love that because to
• 1:55:32
  me that's the better reference. Not not calling a friend.
• 1:55:34
  I like calling because you know what's a friend going to do?
• 1:55:37
  You know, of course they're going to gas you up, right?
• 1:55:38
  I like calling old coaches though, because it's like, hey,
• 1:55:42
  you saw them at their best and worst, right?
• 1:55:43
  And and again, you also saw them as a 20 year old, so that's also
• 1:55:46
  different. But now you see them in this
• 1:55:47
  light. Tell me about them.
• 1:55:48
  You know that that's the cool stuff.
• 1:55:50
  I I like that. Yeah.
• 1:55:51
  Yeah, I love that. I think a lot of people just
• 1:55:52
  Remember Me from my college days, me running around.
• 1:55:54
  Yeah. So like, people, people probably
• 1:55:57
  still scatter me like that. But like you said, man, I was
• 1:56:00
  what, 1518 years ago like? Yeah.
• 1:56:03
  Not that kid anymore with the dreadlocks running around.
• 1:56:06
  Right. The hotel.
• 1:56:07
  So I'm just now just focus on my athletes and just focus on best
• 1:56:12
  coach I can be. Luckily people change.
• 1:56:14
  And I'm not saying what he was back then was bad.
• 1:56:16
  I mean, again, he showed a lot of maturity even at that level.
• 1:56:19
  But we do, we mature. And this is a young man who
• 1:56:22
  continues to mature, not only personally growth wise, but his
• 1:56:26
  coaching. His coaching continues to get
• 1:56:28
  better by the way, that's that's a crazy thing.
• 1:56:29
  He's coached great kids and it continues to get better.
• 1:56:31
  So and you heard the humility, that's an important aspect.
• 1:56:34
  So if you have a job that you think Tavari would be good at or
• 1:56:38
  you know, something hit him up, he gave you a cell phone e-mail.
• 1:56:43
  Why? I didn't mean to ask this too.
• 1:56:44
  This is kind of a segue. Why is your Twitter handle?
• 1:56:49
  I fear God, not them. Well, I was a huge, huge Lil
• 1:56:54
  Wayne fan and that's one of his one of his most famous phrases.
• 1:57:00
  And then it just stuck with me. I love that, OK?
• 1:57:03
  Just like when I get to the line, like when I was an
• 1:57:05
  athlete, like I just never fear anybody.
• 1:57:08
  OK. Creator, But like, yeah, yeah,
• 1:57:11
  well, I got in the blocks. I'll always say that.
• 1:57:12
  Like I just fear God, not them. Yeah, I love that.
• 1:57:14
  Gummy, gummy is just whoever around.
• 1:57:17
  I just not fair to know I'm not. I'm just fearless.
• 1:57:19
  I'm not saying yeah, I was just a phrase of mine, as I always
• 1:57:22
  say when I got in the blocks and.
• 1:57:24
  I love that, OK? Just I don't fear anybody.
• 1:57:27
  Yeah, I love that. That's cool.
• 1:57:28
  All right, Tabari, good luck here.
• 1:57:31
  In the next couple weeks, your athletes are, they have been
• 1:57:34
  doing some special things. I'm sure they'll continue to do
• 1:57:36
  special things, you know, for you, my friend.
• 1:57:40
  I just, I just want to give you encouragement of shedding off
• 1:57:45
  the two things, shedding off the chip of my shoulder.
• 1:57:49
  I I'm not a big fan of that attitude.
• 1:57:51
  To be real frank with you, it's been successful for you.
• 1:57:53
  So you know this could you can just let this go right off your
• 1:57:56
  your back here but embrace what you're doing and where and you
• 1:58:00
  have. I'm not saying you haven't but
• 1:58:02
  embrace what you're doing, the impact you're making wherever
• 1:58:04
  you are to where your two feet are and know that it's it's less
• 1:58:08
  about proving people wrong and proving yourself right.
• 1:58:11
  That's what the chip on your shoulder is.
• 1:58:13
  It's the you know it's proving other people wrong.
• 1:58:16
  They they don't affect you. You know, and by the way, you
• 1:58:19
  are where you are today because of those coaches who didn't
• 1:58:23
  offer you a full ride back in the day and those schools that,
• 1:58:25
  that, that haven't contacted you and what you are today is
• 1:58:28
  amazing, right? So to me when you hear about
• 1:58:31
  like the whether it's the athlete or the recording artist,
• 1:58:34
  that puts all their rejection letters up and it's like I'm
• 1:58:36
  gonna prove all them wrong. It's like, man, by them saying
• 1:58:38
  no to you is where you are today.
• 1:58:40
  And unless you think where you're at today is bad, like
• 1:58:43
  you're a bad person, you're in a bad situation, which that's
• 1:58:45
  clearly not the case here, that that's what you're you're.
• 1:58:47
  You're like proving that by saying that, so shed that it and
• 1:58:51
  continue to grow in that positivity of who you are and
• 1:58:54
  what you're doing today. And then I just want to
• 1:58:56
  encourage, encourage you and bless you on this transition
• 1:59:00
  from Tabari the athlete to Coach Henry.
• 1:59:05
  You, You know, you're continuing to do it.
• 1:59:06
  And I just want to, you know, for people and athletes and
• 1:59:10
  coaches and administrators to see who you are today.
• 1:59:13
  You have become Coach Henry and that is special and you're doing
• 1:59:19
  special things. You're affecting kids lives.
• 1:59:21
  You've got a couple kids that will eventually run in the
• 1:59:24
  world, champs and stuff like that.
• 1:59:25
  But you got a lot more kids that are going to go on to be amazing
• 1:59:28
  business owners, clergy, parents, because of the positive
• 1:59:32
  influence that you're making on them as Coach Henry.
• 1:59:34
  Not because you ran 45 seconds my friend.
• 1:59:37
  So I just want to bless you with that, encourage you and just
• 1:59:40
  love on you for what you've become and what you're going to
• 1:59:43
  continue to do. You're so you're so young in
• 1:59:44
  this coaching game, you still got techies brother.
• 1:59:46
  You're going to do so many more amazing things and just look
• 1:59:49
  back at this time. I know it's hard to right now in
• 1:59:51
  the moment, but you're going to look back at this moment and
• 1:59:54
  just laugh and be like, oh man, I was worried about that.
• 1:59:57
  What a joke because I've gone on to do all these things.
• 1:59:59
  So just want to encourage you with that my friend.
• 2:00:02
  Appreciate that. Appreciate that.
• 2:00:03
  Appreciate the love. Now you always, like I said,
• 2:00:05
  beginning of this interview, you always, always show me love.
• 2:00:09
  No matter what I was doing. You always was checking in and
• 2:00:12
  seeing how I'm doing. Every school I went to.
• 2:00:14
  Hey, I got blocks. Hey, I got let your head goes.
• 2:00:17
  No, I got this and that for you just hit me up.
• 2:00:20
  So you always was supporting no matter what?
• 2:00:23
  Yeah, you deserve it, my friend. That's I I saw it early.
• 2:00:26
  And you you give me the respect. You didn't.
• 2:00:28
  I didn't have to earn your respect.
• 2:00:29
  You gave me respect. And that's what I I always have
• 2:00:31
  a high like I I'll always give people respect 1st and then they
• 2:00:35
  prove that they don't deserve it, that you never have to earn
• 2:00:37
  respect for me. So you did that.
• 2:00:39
  In return to me you're automatically like oh man, you
• 2:00:41
  must be a cool guy. So let's until you prove
• 2:00:43
  otherwise Mike we will be cool. And I think that's again, this
• 2:00:47
  is the level of maturity for a 20 year old for kind of that's
• 2:00:49
  amazing. So all right my friend, we're
• 2:00:51
  past our time tomorrow. Thank you so much.
• 2:00:53
  I really do appreciate you. I know you are busy even though
• 2:00:56
  you're in Hobbs. It's not like you're hopping
• 2:00:57
  around, but you are busy. You've got a big transition
• 2:01:00
  coming up. And you know, as always, I'll be
• 2:01:02
  here for you for anything that I can do to help you.
• 2:01:05
  But someone is going to get a great coach not a great
• 2:01:09
  passport. I cannot believe that.
• 2:01:11
  Expect a couple of tweets coming out about this by the way,
• 2:01:13
  because that's that is ridiculous to me.
• 2:01:16
  Someone's going to get a great coach, a great person and a
• 2:01:19
  great member of the community with Tabari, no matter where he
• 2:01:22
  ends up. Something tells me it's going to
• 2:01:24
  continue to be a great place because he's going to make it
• 2:01:26
  that way. So thank you so much, Tabari.
• 2:01:27
  I appreciate you being here today, man.
• 2:01:29
  Again, truly grateful for your time.
• 2:01:30
  Thank you guys and gals for listening.
• 2:01:32
  Really do appreciate it. I'm sure by now we'll know the
• 2:01:34
  JUCO results. We'll we'll have to figure out
• 2:01:36
  how how he and and the guys did there.
• 2:01:38
  I'm sure I'm sure pretty well they're they're doing pretty
• 2:01:41
  well. So thank you again for being
• 2:01:42
  here. Come back next week we'll do it
• 2:01:43
  all over again. Have a great week, everybody.
• 2:01:46
  If it goes to appreciate the coach, the ones that point
• 2:01:49
  people most every season needs a voice of reason to speak in the
• 2:01:52
  growth you got to prep for, you carry the load.
• 2:01:55
  It's called to the soul. For those of us to stand, to go
• 2:01:58
  proper handoff, to stay in the zone which you're packing for
• 2:02:00
  the road, There's more than one way to go.
• 2:02:03
  Take notes. That's Dan.
• 2:02:04
  You're told. It ain't practice.
• 2:02:05
  If your purpose ain't clear, it can't happen.
• 2:02:07
  Been to you. Listen what both is.
• 2:02:09
  Can't mentor without a mentor. Years of experience.
• 2:02:12
  You can reinvent those years. Every plan's got a standard to
• 2:02:15
  live up to. Enterprise, sacrifice.
• 2:02:17
  Can you give up you. It's a choice and a fight, not a
• 2:02:20
  win or lose. It's not a ploy boy device.
• 2:02:22
  Y'all can make more moves. It's not about how to.
• 2:02:25
  It's all about why. You don't know till you know who
• 2:02:27
  you are inside six. When you waste the time, choose
• 2:02:30
  none. So we all forced the finish
• 2:02:32
  line. The work ain't done.
• 2:02:33
  So we learn from the experts. We all got to put in the
• 2:02:36
  legwork, kill athletics's network.
• 2:02:38
  It's all about connections put together for the profession.
• 2:02:41
  To every track coach could be blessed.