Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / #85: Kenny Anderson-Central Methodist University

Transcript

#85: Kenny Anderson-Central Methodist University · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

• 0:05
  Welcome to the Orthotics connections podcast.
• 0:07
  I'm your host Mike Cunningham national sales manager for Gil
• 0:10
  Athletics. Our goal today is to connect you
• 0:13
  with coaches, from around the world, to learn their Journey.
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  Share their stories, and just figure out who they are and what
• 0:20
  they're all about. So, without further Ado, let's
• 0:23
  get on and find out what today's guest has in store for us.
• 0:31
  And welcome to the Gila phottix connections podcast, man, we are
• 0:35
  in season 2 which is just mind-boggling to me.
• 0:38
  I'm just so thankful that people spend the time and energy to
• 0:42
  listen to our podcast here. Really, you know, it started to
• 0:46
  just uplift and honor coaches around the world.
• 0:49
  Now, I can say now that we've had our first International
• 0:51
  coach, I'm just so, so exciting. Humbled that you, you still pay
• 0:55
  attention. I'm just so thankful for your
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  time and I'm really thankful for today's guest.
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  So help me. Welcome head, coach of Central,
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  Methodist University Mr. Kenny Anderson.
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  Kenny, how are you sir? I wonderful.
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  How are you? And and thank you for having me.
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  Oh man, my pleasure, you were one of the coaches that were
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  nominated. That's always special to me that
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  when someone nominates another coach that they would I don't
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  know if they're setting them up more.
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  Well yeah I don't know why they nominated me.
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  We'll find out there. That's our goal today is find
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  out why in the world Old was this guy nominated here, right?
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  Well, I'm sure it was. There are many, many good
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  reasons. And I'm excited to learn more
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  about him. So you are the head coach at
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  Central Methodist University. And this is your first year.
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  Yes, I was hired in July. So I've been here since the
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  summer wow, what a year to get hired as any job but to get
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  hired as a head coach crazy crazy.
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  But a blessing, definitely a blessing with everything going
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  on right now just to have a job. Doing something left to do is a
• 2:01
  blessing. Yeah, that's cool.
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  That's a that's a really good at it.
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  Look at their there's our first reason right there.
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  He was nominated what a great attitude.
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  That's awesome. Awesome attitude.
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  Well, we're going to talk more about your head coaching job
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  here at Central Methodist and what you're doing, you're doing
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  some exciting things. I'm super pumped to learn, not
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  only what you're doing to learn more about that but also how and
• 2:22
  why you're doing the things that you do.
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  I think that's I think there's some really interesting topics
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  they are we Got a lot to get through, if you're, you probably
• 2:31
  can't see. Even if even, if you're watching
• 2:32
  this on YouTube, you can't see my desk here, but every guest
• 2:37
  that we have here, I put out on Twitter and if you're not
• 2:39
  following me on Twitter, that's a mistake.
• 2:41
  He got a shame. Oh, that's right.
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  And you'll know why he said that as well here in a little while.
• 2:46
  But but yeah, check me out. If you are interested in
• 2:49
  participating in the future podcast, I'm at it's super easy
• 2:53
  to remember. I'm at Mike Cunningham.
• 2:55
  No dots, no spaces, no, cut the checks.
• 2:57
  Nothing like That, but I do like to give a shout-out to our
• 3:01
  future. Guess, when we record and ask
• 3:04
  what questions, you may have, you know, the Twitter fam out
• 3:06
  there and let me tell you what everybody is interested in Kenny
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  Anderson. So I've got a ton.
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  My desk is just full of these pry.
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  Look, like we look like the guy who doesn't know social media, I
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  printed out every post I wouldn't forget it and I didn't
• 3:21
  want to have it on my phone, so I had to put it in the order.
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  So let's let's get started. We'll intersperse these
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  questions throughout the The interview today, but I'd like to
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  learn more. Can you went to a school that I
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  find really fascinating? Kind of loved it.
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  Actually, as I was growing up and going to college myself, you
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  went to the great School. Florida, am the great FAMU
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  Rattlers. Yes, sir, tell me.
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  Are you so talk to us about how you got the family?
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  Are you from Florida? What Drew you to FAMU?
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  And how did you do? How was how was college for you?
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  Most certainly so, yes, I am from Florida.
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  I'm from Jacksonville. FAMU was kind of School to where
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  I always knew, that's where I wanted to go show.
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  My dad actually ran track at FAMU.
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  He was a 400 hurdler and so he would take me as a young kid,
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  you know, we would go to homecoming, football, games and
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  activities. And then, when I graduated high
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  school, I had three older cousins that were already in
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  Tallahassee. So, it was like, I always wanted
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  to go there. That was my Each choice.
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  I don't want to go anywhere else so that's how I ended up if a
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  you that's really cool and can I assume were you a track athlete?
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  Athlete's yourself. I didn't know.
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  Dad was a foreigner, that's cool.
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  So honestly basketball is my first love.
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  I started playing basketball first at the age of five and
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  then I started running track probably probably around nine or
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  ten, but I always had like hoop dreams so I thought I was going
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  to To college to play basketball.
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  But I'm my senior in high school, I was like, 55 and I
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  wasn't going anywhere to play basketball at anybody's
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  University. So you know, I ran track your
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  high school. I was average, nothing special.
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  I made it to State my senior year in the 300 hurdles and
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  Florida, but that was probably like the highlight of my high
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  school career. And then at FAMU my first year,
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  I ran Ran first semester actually.
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  And then so I went on an academic scholarship and I
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  walked on the tracks in, okay? And after my first semester
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  being away from home, I kind of was a wild child and my grades
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  slipped. And so my dad said, if you lose
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  your academic scholarship, you're coming home because I'm
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  not paying for school. So I had a decision to make and
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  Kind of focused on my grades and you made the right decision.
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  Yeah, good idea. Good idea.
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  You know I don't want you to diminish your accomplishment.
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  There you mentioned that. You know the Highlight you
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  weren't you said you weren't that good and your highlight was
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  you made it to State. You made it to the state meet
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  first of all and you made it to the state, meet in the State of
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  Florida. I grew up in Alabama and that is
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  a place where I made it to state to but you know No, that wasn't
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  the greatest accomplishment in the world.
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  They were some not so great. You know, that we had, like six
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  divisions in Alabama, man, which there any that many in Florida,
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  we have, you know, there's way better talent and more people in
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  Florida, but that's awesome. So, you're 300.
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  So you followed kind of dads? I don't wanna say it's
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  footsteps, but he was a foreigner there.
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  You kind of followed along dad's path.
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  Yes, very much. So he Was a coach.
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  He was my coach basketball. Coach track coach all the way
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  through grade school middle school.
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  He kind of, like, let me go, and he was just a dad, a parent
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  then, but yeah, I grew up around Sports so he coached football
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  basketball and track. So Friday nights, I was on the
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  sidelines, the ball boy basketball season.
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  I was at the games track season, I was at the track meets.
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  So this kind of grew up around Sports all my life.
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  You grew up a big basketball fan.
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  So what I don't know, The are. So, what era of basketball did
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  you grow up? You go up in Jordan, Eric, OB
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  are waiting? Jordan Jordan fan all day, every
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  day. That's right.
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  And that was the right answer, by the way.
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  Absolutely. All these, you know, and I
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  actually like I respect and love LeBron.
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  First of all guy, who was given Millions as a 17 18 year old and
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  to this day, you know, family man, father husband, amazing.
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  Philanthropic person like that. To me I mean that's the epitome,
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  like oh man, if we could all be like that, holy cow.
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  This this world would be changed and Jordan did his own good
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  things and he also was a gambler which I love as well.
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  But did you watch that that 3430 on I did?
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  Yeah, I did. And again like no disrespect to,
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  you know, I think the bronze gray, I think Kobe's great, you
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  know, they were some great players before Jordan, I just
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  joining us the god to me. Greed.
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  So you were going to be hoopster and you know, going to film you
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  but you were not academic scholarship which is amazing
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  because you know I can't even spell academic at that it was
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  there was no academic scholarship for me.
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  So interestingly tell us what you ended up getting your major
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  and this might be the first. This might be the highest major
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  that I know of of a guest on the connections podcast.
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  So I got my degree in electrical engineering.
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  So I thought my dream job was to wrote work in robotics.
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  I wanted to build robots. Yeah.
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  My senior design project. I actually built a robot that
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  the school still has today. But if basically, if you're
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  sitting on your couch, it's a remote control.
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  Like drink, go get her. So like, sitting on This is the
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  greatest and this is why we need smart people.
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  I need a robot to go to the fridge and get me.
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  My drink is that what this is exactly Senators on you ever use
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  a remote, the same remote as a TV and you can decide do I want
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  a Coke or, you know, whatever the options are and you just
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  push a button and it goes and gets it and brings her back.
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  That is awesome. That is what higher education is
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  all about right there. I love it.
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  That's so cool. So that's amazing.
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  And again, Electrical engineering, holy cow.
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  There's so much involved with that.
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  I mean that's that's a lot of math.
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  A lot of the physics, that's really quite amazing but you
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  didn't go that route. Where were you?
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  As you're getting this engineering degree at a great
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  school where was coaching in your mind as you were being an
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  athlete. So I actually did, I work in the
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  field a little bit but I started coaching my fifth year and So,
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  it took me five years to graduate, so my faith, you have
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  started with a YMCA basketball team, second grade, and I just
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  absolutely loved it, and we were actually pretty good.
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  So, once I graduated college, I got a job with Proctor & Gamble
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  in Cincinnati. OH, Ohio.
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  Yeah. I, so I worked there for two
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  years and while I was working there, I was coaching Middle
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  School basketball and high school track.
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  So really it was that the YMCA team my last year in college
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  that this kind of got me interested in coaching.
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  And then when I got to Procter Gamble, I really didn't like
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  sitting in an office all day. I didn't like staring at a
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  computer all day. It was a monotonous thing every
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  day so I really had a joy and coaching.
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  Nope. Passion for coaching, you know,
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  every day, I will look forward to, I can't wait to get off so I
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  can go coach, you know, so I can be around, the kids will be
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  around my team. So when two years, when I'm
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  always curious about when people say they didn't want to be in an
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  office, first of all, because that's my job now, but you were
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  getting that degree was there. Not like, did you not think you
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  would be in an office being a ee major, like what were you
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  thought? What did you think the
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  profession was going to be versus what reality is?
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  You in the head with. So I didn't, I wanted to do
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  Robotics and I didn't get a job in robotics.
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  So the job that I was offered, it was in a research facility,
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  that's what I was. It was boring to me.
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  I just it was born. The money was great.
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  Don't get me wrong, but I wasn't having fun doing that.
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  So you wanted there's a question not not a I don't want to assume
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  anything. So you want to be more in the
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  lab of building Robotics and stuff not sitting at a desk Cody
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  Or, you know, that case got it. Okay, that that makes that makes
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  a lot of sense and it makes a lot of sense like it is.
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  It does amaze me when there's athletes that go into jobs
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  sitting at a desk because I'm like, wait a minute.
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  Your whole like you're not only your past khaleja life, but High
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  School like you're used to going out and doing stuff in the
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  middle of the afternoon or getting up, you know, before
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  work or school and going and doing stuff.
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  And now we're about to ask you to basically sit down for eight
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  hours, straight, nine hours straight.
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  And that's, it's very in compact.
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  Like there needs to be like a transition period.
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  To getting it to that, like, put you the desk for eight hours
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  when you're a forty-year-old, but you know, when you're 20 and
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  30, have how about, we do some kind of half and half, right?
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  Exactly. So the coaching bug bites you
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  you're up in Cincinnati, working for a great company by the way
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  and obviously get paid pretty well but you're coaching Middle
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  School, basketball and track. When so talk to me about
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  continue on, how does it mean? Eventually spoiler alert you end
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  up becoming a full-time track coach what where how does it
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  keep morphing I so little back story while I was in college, my
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  girlfriend played basketball at and so that's him at FAMU.
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  Yes, F A. So while I was there, I would
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  help out as a practice player every now and then with the
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  basketball program, when I could and the one of the assistants at
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  FAMU, Got the head coaching job at Lynn University in Boca Raton
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  Florida. So we kept in contact, you know,
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  throughout everything. So my second year at P&G, I was
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  looking for opportunities, whether it was a graduate
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  assistant position, a volunteer position.
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  I just wanted to get into college coaching, I wanted to
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  College full-time, so, She had a volunteer spot open and for me,
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  my thought process was all right, nobody can take away my
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  engineering degree. I have that show.
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  If this doesn't work out, I can always find a job, right?
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  Engineering because I have an engineering degree.
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  So I like it's just me right now.
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  I'm by myself. So I'm a step out.
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  I'm going to take a chance and see what happens.
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  And if I fall flat on my face I'll figure it out.
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  But I just took a chance. So originally, I accepted a
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  volunteer position. I was going to find a job down
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  in Boca and just help out but it came up her assistant left.
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  So she offered me a full-time position.
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  So that's how I got into coaching.
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  So originally, before I started coaching track, I was coaching
• 15:00
  Collegiate basketball. We're does that.
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  I love the confidence, you know, there's a fine line between
• 15:07
  confidence and Cockiness, right? But I heard all confidence there
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  about, hey, it's just me. So I don't worry about a wife or
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  kids and things like that. Like it's just I just have to
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  fail or succeed on my own here. And if I do fail, okay, well,
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  I've got this. I got a great degree from a
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  great University. I'll be able to get back into
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  the that, the private sector. Where does that confidence come
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  from? Is that From being raised, is
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  that from running track? Where that's all.
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  I love that, that confidence. It's all Faith, it's all Faith,
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  you know, this trusting in God you know believing living living
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  right. Doing what you're supposed to
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  do. As I think that's that's the
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  biggest thing, just the face the confidence and and my Lord and
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  Savior knowing that he has my back.
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  So he's not going to put anything on me that I Can't do.
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  And then if you go to him, you ask him for guidance, you know,
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  he'll put you in the right situations, right?
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  Where you need to be at the right time.
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  Has that been lifelong? Because that from the average?
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  Yeah, that's cool. I like that.
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  So you started out as a basketball coach.
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  Yep. And you eventually become a
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  track coach. Yeah, that's a great story.
• 16:28
  I got, I'm ready for that one. All right, let's hear that story
• 16:31
  because I have some questions. So, Lynn University we had a
• 16:37
  very, very good season head coach.
• 16:39
  One coach of the year. We made the n-c-double-a
• 16:44
  division to, we were division to, we made the National
• 16:46
  Tournament lost in the first round.
• 16:48
  But after that year because we had such a great turnaround.
• 16:54
  I was offered a job by Stetson University.
• 16:57
  So I went there, the vision one, that was my dream, you know, I'm
• 17:02
  division. One college, college basketball.
• 17:06
  I felt like I made it but I wasn't ready and I'm going to be
• 17:09
  products. Like I wasn't ready for the
• 17:12
  lifestyle. I wasn't ready for the demands
• 17:16
  of what it took to be successful at that level.
• 17:19
  So I kind of struggled a little bit and I struggle with time
• 17:24
  management, I struggled with you know organization that I
• 17:28
  probably should have stayed at Lynn another year just to
• 17:32
  prepare myself and get ready. You know I was just trying to
• 17:35
  move as fast as possible up and it kind of like backfired so at
• 17:40
  the end of the year it really wasn't a good fit for me.
• 17:44
  I definitely learned a lot but I wasn't ready.
• 17:48
  So what was Stetson coaching men or women basketball?
• 17:52
  All women. And by the way, thank you for
• 17:56
  your openness and honesty there about, you know, you weren't
• 17:59
  ready in the time management, what was it about coaching
• 18:02
  basketball at the division? One level that kind of that, you
• 18:06
  weren't ready for what you mentioned time management.
• 18:09
  But what else? Well the vision to where we were
• 18:14
  it was more of a balance, a balance with work and a balance
• 18:20
  with life. And so I was kind of used to Had
• 18:22
  to wear. All right.
• 18:23
  Yeah, we have our responsibilities and things that
• 18:26
  we have to do, but I also could go and do my thing outside of
• 18:31
  basketball outside of coaching and at Stetson it was more, my
• 18:37
  life is coaching. And so there's times where, you
• 18:42
  know, I wanted to get away, I wanted to do this, I wanted to
• 18:44
  do that. When I we got scouting reports,
• 18:46
  we got we got this, we have that, you know, we're traveling
• 18:49
  we're actually flying to go places now.
• 18:52
  So So I was just an adjustment for me at that time that I
• 18:58
  wasn't ready for. Yeah, that's interesting in
• 19:02
  having coached, no basketball at all.
• 19:04
  But just interesting, you know, you're at Stats and I know
• 19:06
  Stetson. Well, they used to be in our
• 19:08
  conference when I was at Roy. Back in the day, the Mad Hatter,
• 19:11
  I was called The Mad the manufacturers, but, you know,
• 19:14
  it's a, it's a smaller school. It's not like, we're talking
• 19:17
  about a Georgia Tech or Georgia. So it's a smaller school and
• 19:20
  women's basketball versus men's. And I Only say that because of
• 19:23
  the amount of TV exposure etcetera which was even more
• 19:26
  dispersed back when when you were there.
• 19:29
  But it's interesting that that it was a all-consuming
• 19:32
  profession at at Stetson. Yeah.
• 19:36
  Well I think it's, it's definitely the type of program
• 19:41
  that you're working for us. Dancing in the past.
• 19:45
  Before I got there we're pretty good, you know, 21 Seasons a
• 19:48
  year and it NCAA tournament. Okay.
• 19:53
  The year before I got there, they had won the conference and
• 19:56
  made the NCAA tournament come that the level of basketball is
• 20:01
  there? We're not just trying to be
• 20:04
  good, you know, we're trying to get to another level.
• 20:06
  Yeah, it was different. That makes sense.
• 20:10
  Huh? That's interesting.
• 20:10
  So, what did you do about it? So, after that year, I moved
• 20:17
  back home and I started coaching high school track.
• 20:20
  So back to Jacksonville. Yes.
• 20:22
  Did you coach at your alma mater?
• 20:25
  No, I did. What would that inspire me?
• 20:27
  What school did. What, what school did you go to
• 20:31
  a coach that the Rival School arrival?
• 20:33
  High School? What school did you go to?
• 20:35
  And what was the Rival? I went to Stanton prep and I
• 20:39
  coached at PacSun year and then I work at the bowl school.
• 20:45
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 20:46
  Is that where that party boat went?
• 20:47
  Did he go to the Bulls? No Tebow went to nice.
• 20:50
  Nice. That's right.
• 20:51
  Yeah the Bulls is there. Some famous people that have
• 20:53
  come out of the balls, though? I'm Not down.
• 20:56
  Yeah. Okay anyways, another Jacksboro
• 20:58
  guy. Yeah so so you move back home
• 21:02
  and started but so what Drew you to go back home and Coach track
• 21:06
  of versus basketball. Track hired me.
• 21:10
  First, I love the basketball, basketball job and attract job
• 21:22
  open at my alma mater. And then there was a track job
• 21:26
  open at the Rival, High School, I applied for the basketball,
• 21:30
  and track job at my alma mater, but they gave it to who's
• 21:34
  actually a friend of mine and she's older than me.
• 21:37
  Her name is Marlon Jackson. She ran track.
• 21:39
  And Estate. So they gave it to her, which
• 21:42
  I'm fine. So, I just went to the Rival
• 21:44
  school. I'm shocked.
• 21:45
  No one would pick you up quickly for basketball.
• 21:48
  I mean, the experience you had, it seems it was seems like your
• 21:51
  resume was more polished for basketball than it wasn't track
• 21:54
  at this point, Holly for sure, very sure, but everything
• 21:58
  happens for a reason. That's right, exactly.
• 22:00
  So how did that go and what happened after Jacksonville?
• 22:06
  - state championship State, runner-up couple Regional
• 22:09
  championships. That's actually where the, the
• 22:13
  cut the check came from. All right, well, let's get into
• 22:16
  it because I was definitely a question.
• 22:19
  So I was I'm gonna give Tom Sage.
• 22:22
  Shout out to thyme Sage, he's on the, the wonderful meeting of
• 22:25
  the unknowing Minds podcast. I'm going to give Tom credit but
• 22:29
  there was no way. I was not going to have this
• 22:31
  interview without asking about your Twitter handle.
• 22:34
  So, Tom Sage appreciate it. He Ask on Twitter, where did the
• 22:38
  nickname? The handle from Twitter?
• 22:40
  Come from? And then of course he hashtag.
• 22:42
  Hashtag cut the check. I love the course.
• 22:45
  When I posted it, I get for cut the check.
• 22:48
  There's actually a cut, the check.
• 22:49
  There must be something to. I don't know.
• 22:51
  It's on my culture unfortunately.
• 22:52
  But so what is it? What is this?
• 22:53
  Cut the check. How did it come?
• 22:54
  Where'd it? Come from?
• 22:55
  What is this thing? So I had a you program and
• 23:00
  coaching track mostly high school athletes that were
• 23:03
  looking to run at the next level. so, It was really kind of
• 23:10
  show me the money. To college coaches.
• 23:14
  So it was a way for us to be politically correct and cut the
• 23:18
  check. Show us the scholarship.
• 23:20
  Money guy. They actually had what made it?
• 23:23
  Hot, we got shirts. I have to send you a picture of
• 23:27
  the shirt. Yeah, and I like took off to
• 23:29
  where people were actually like buying shirts and so I had like
• 23:32
  a little small brand And then I just kind of stuck with it only
• 23:38
  this guy makes a statement called cut the check and then
• 23:40
  gets people to cut him a check. There's some stuff in there.
• 23:48
  That's awesome. So keep going obviously, we're
• 23:50
  successful man, state championships and regionals
• 23:53
  again in the State of Florida, one of the top five states for
• 23:56
  high school track and field. No, arguments there, where did
• 23:59
  it go from there? I had a lot of, you know, kids
• 24:02
  that I work with run at the next level.
• 24:05
  Level I think one in particular the last one right before I got
• 24:11
  the job at Johnson C Smith, she kind of helped me broaden my
• 24:16
  network, her name Monet Boeing. She's at Howard now.
• 24:21
  Running track at how it would David Oliver, but we would
• 24:24
  travel around the south Louisiana, North Carolina
• 24:28
  Virginia, just going to the New Balance stuff like that and I
• 24:34
  met coach Cheek from East Carolina.
• 24:39
  Was I sent one of my athletes. It's Audrina.
• 24:44
  Single Sabrina, Singletary. She signed with ECU and then he
• 24:48
  was also you know, looking at Monet.
• 24:50
  So I will go up there and kind of like spend some time with him
• 24:54
  and just you know getting to know him.
• 24:56
  He was kind of one of my first mentors at the Collegiate level
• 25:00
  and so when Monet Nay graduated. I didn't really.
• 25:06
  She was like my last senior. So everybody else was like,
• 25:09
  baby. So I was like, well, let me try
• 25:11
  this college thing again, let me see if I can and I have a little
• 25:16
  bit more experience. I'm a little bit older.
• 25:18
  Now it's still me by myself so I can maneuver and go wherever.
• 25:25
  So I was just like looking for opportunities to, you know, get
• 25:28
  in on the Collegiate level and that glare.
• 25:33
  My Johnson comes in. Well, you know I was trying to
• 25:36
  do a podcast without mentioning his name.
• 25:39
  I guess we'll get into it but before we get to the mod, a
• 25:44
  couple questions, I'm a huge advocate because I changed my
• 25:48
  career about coaches education where are you at this point?
• 25:52
  So as you're about to get into Johnson C Smith, where are you
• 25:56
  in coaching education, where you doing any usatf or UST of cca's,
• 25:59
  where you just reaching out to talking?
• 26:01
  You mentioned udon. I actually don't know how to
• 26:03
  pronounce his new towns. You Don.
• 26:06
  By the way, shout out to you Don cheek.
• 26:08
  He and I have we have yet to talk.
• 26:10
  I got to get him on the podcast. Be honest with you, we have a
• 26:12
  lot in common. We're both big Christian,
• 26:14
  hip-hop Christian rap fans. He does he is Awesome by the
• 26:17
  way. He's also the intro and I think
• 26:19
  even the altro for the Athletics LLC YouTube show.
• 26:23
  Yeah, we rebroadcast out here on the Gill connection so that
• 26:26
  music you hear when you're listening to those bonus
• 26:28
  episodes, that's him. And he is an amazing artist.
• 26:32
  I mean, like, amazing love his work.
• 26:34
  He does an amazing job. So what are you doing for
• 26:37
  coaching education? Are you just talking to their
• 26:38
  coaches or you just simply relying on what, how you were
• 26:41
  coached? What are you doing there?
• 26:43
  I started with how I was coached and then this kind of doing my
• 26:49
  own research and I was talking to coach cheek, I had an
• 26:54
  opportunity a few times being in Jacksonville to go watch a
• 26:58
  practice and ju with Coach Greg. Yeah.
• 27:02
  Great guys. Well, so just kind of not really
• 27:05
  familiar with the coaching education platform and the
• 27:10
  opportunities that were available.
• 27:12
  They're just kind of doing research on my own and really
• 27:17
  trial and error. Yeah, being a being an engineer,
• 27:23
  everything is like a science project to me.
• 27:25
  So having that approach going into training, somebody
• 27:30
  everybody is different. So you can't Train everybody the
• 27:33
  same way. So just kind of taking that
• 27:36
  philosophy in that my set, I just trying to learn to see, you
• 27:40
  know, what works. So at that point it was just
• 27:42
  kind of like, I'm just trying to, um, science project
• 27:47
  everybody. I think most people start that
• 27:49
  way. First of all, I think we mostly
• 27:52
  start with how, where we coached, that's all we know.
• 27:55
  Right. So you know what, you know, and
• 27:57
  you don't know what you don't know.
• 27:58
  And then you start like, okay, wait, you see what other people
• 28:01
  have done some things? And so you're like, well maybe I
• 28:03
  need to insert that in somehow and then you know, for my
• 28:06
  experience the ones that become the coaches have become like
• 28:09
  lifelong very good like they consistently produce good
• 28:13
  athletes and improved athletes, they get into coaching education
• 28:17
  and a lot of different forms. Some of it's not just the formal
• 28:20
  usatf, and you stick CCA and Altis courses.
• 28:23
  It's also peer conversations and stuff.
• 28:27
  That's interesting. So, did you have as you going
• 28:29
  into Johnson C Smith and, you know, you kind of had These are
• 28:32
  gonna be my words. You correct them.
• 28:35
  A bad experience at Stetson. And I don't mean that at Stetson
• 28:38
  you. You self-aware.
• 28:40
  Lee said that word self-aware lie.
• 28:44
  It is today. You had some self-awareness.
• 28:48
  I think that's the better way member.
• 28:49
  I went to school in Alabama, so we just make up words, man.
• 28:54
  Did you have any concerns going into, you know, Johnson C, Smith
• 28:57
  while it's I'm doing air quotes here division to that's a that's
• 29:00
  a high level program and they put out Some amazing athletes
• 29:03
  some amazing coaches. Have gone through there.
• 29:04
  So amazing athletes. Have gone through their.
• 29:06
  Did you have concerns about that work-life balance?
• 29:09
  As you were approaching Johnson C Smith, no, And the reason
• 29:16
  basketball and track the demands, a, my opinion are
• 29:21
  different. So, Basketball, you know,
• 29:26
  scouting reports. You know, I take up a lot of
• 29:32
  your time especially like, when you have back-to-back game so,
• 29:35
  you know, going to sleep, you know, three or four in the
• 29:37
  morning to get out for the next day, scouting report at 6:00 or
• 29:41
  7:00 it's a little bit different at the Collegiate level from
• 29:44
  coaching track. So I wasn't concerned in that
• 29:47
  regard as far as like a balance. I knew that, you know, to get to
• 29:51
  the highest level, there are, you know, demands different
• 29:53
  demands Where You Are. Depending on the the institution
• 29:56
  and location and you know what you're trying to accomplish.
• 29:59
  But as far as having a work-life balance, I wasn't worried at
• 30:05
  this point because now I knew I kind of had an expectation if I
• 30:10
  wanted to be at the highest level, this is what I need to be
• 30:13
  prepared for, so that time from Stetson to before Johnson C
• 30:18
  Smith. I felt like I was better
• 30:20
  prepared and more, I was ready for for that.
• 30:24
  Admittedly never having coached those quote-unquote, team sport,
• 30:30
  right? So basketball and football.
• 30:31
  I did play football in the great state of Alabama.
• 30:37
  It sounds like when you're talking about those scouting
• 30:39
  reports that those are very outwardly, focused basketball,
• 30:43
  maybe is more outwardly focused. I have to, I have to know what
• 30:46
  the opponent's strengths and weaknesses are and then how
• 30:48
  we're going to match up and we're tracking field and I have
• 30:51
  Coach track, and field is more inwardly focused meaning Have to
• 30:55
  get my athletes prepared. It doesn't matter who's going to
• 30:57
  be in the race. It may be that changed a little
• 30:59
  bit with distance. I have a coach distance so you
• 31:01
  know there's maybe some more tactics there, I guess, but in
• 31:04
  the jumps and the Sprints in the hurdles it's more about well
• 31:07
  what can you do to improve on that day when you get first or
• 31:10
  last will let that sort it out. But how do you go from here?
• 31:13
  1050 kit. Had to go to 1049 1048 Etc
• 31:16
  rights. That see exactly that.
• 31:19
  Honestly, that's the first kind of example, analogy or That hurt
• 31:25
  that makes sense in regards to that.
• 31:28
  So, basketball is definitely. It's not only, you know, how do
• 31:32
  we get better as a team, but now we have to study what these
• 31:36
  other teams are doing and how they play.
• 31:38
  So, it's not only your team is the other team, track and field.
• 31:41
  Let's just worry about us. Let's focus on how we can
• 31:44
  improve, how we can get better. Great, I like that.
• 31:48
  Well, that makes sense. When you hear, you know,
• 31:53
  sometimes there's track coaches See will post some pretty
• 31:58
  egotistical stuff. Sometimes you are sport is
• 32:00
  better, right? What's the the old-school famous
• 32:03
  saying? Yo, our sport is your our Sports
• 32:05
  training, is your sports punishment, or, you know, that
• 32:07
  kind of crap but there's differences, right?
• 32:10
  Like how you coach and prepare basketball is different than how
• 32:13
  you coach, and prepare track and field and football.
• 32:16
  And I assume field hockey and Lacrosse.
• 32:18
  I don't know. I never liked from Alabama.
• 32:20
  We don't have those things down there, but so it's not one is
• 32:24
  better than the other per se. Although we are biased.
• 32:27
  We're going to say track and field is better because it is
• 32:30
  but it's different, right? It's how you coach basketballs
• 32:33
  different than how you coach track and field, there should be
• 32:36
  some similarities may be like, how you physically train your
• 32:38
  basketball players. There's some things that we can
• 32:40
  for sure, learn from track and field, that's just interesting.
• 32:44
  Yeah, okay, let's get the Johnson C Smith.
• 32:49
  All right. What a great campus.
• 32:50
  By the way? I do love the school, I love the
• 32:52
  the track. How I mean, we need to hear the
• 32:56
  real story here. No editing.
• 32:58
  No beeps. No, no non-disclosure
• 33:00
  agreements. What's it like working with
• 33:02
  lemonjon sun' Lamont Johnson is a character?
• 33:07
  What, wait, what I said, we need to know the real stuff.
• 33:09
  We all know that he's a character.
• 33:14
  He's very, very Lively all the time.
• 33:19
  So if you're a listener to the connections podcast, as we're in
• 33:23
  the season 2 now, you know, one of our original, the, the the
• 33:28
  first, like, 20 people to take a chance on me, and this crazy
• 33:32
  idea back in January of 2020, to be on the podcast.
• 33:35
  Will always be very, very special to me and the Mont
• 33:37
  Johnson, who I've known for a long time.
• 33:39
  And I'm so thankful for that, he was guest number 16 and he was
• 33:43
  for the longest time and this probably won't surprise you was
• 33:47
  the longest interview for quite a long time.
• 33:50
  I think we went, I think we went on for two hours and I know
• 33:54
  we're past two and a I think we were two hours 40 or something
• 33:56
  like that. Maybe they'd be close to three.
• 33:58
  I don't know. We do so many now.
• 33:59
  It's hard to remember each one. He's an amazing man.
• 34:02
  Love him to death. He is a character and because
• 34:06
  he's a character, he participated in our our Twitter
• 34:09
  questions for you Mr. Kenny Anderson.
• 34:11
  So I'm just going to ask this just point blank.
• 34:15
  Just how he asked by the way if you want to follow coach them on
• 34:18
  Johnson. There at on Twitter, I've got to
• 34:20
  find out why he what his handle is for years is cut the check
• 34:23
  that made a lot now, it makes a lot.
• 34:24
  Of sense his part for. I don't know what that is.
• 34:29
  I always when I go to type it in, I type in instead of part, I
• 34:32
  type in lame, like I thought maybe oh, Lane for your lane
• 34:34
  fours and fives are the preferred Lanes.
• 34:36
  Maybe that's what he's going for.
• 34:37
  But it's part for, I got to figure out what is that about?
• 34:40
  And what happened to part? 1, 2 and 3.
• 34:41
  I got to figure that part out. Oh no.
• 34:44
  That's a good question. Yeah, yeah.
• 34:45
  So he asked in member guys and gals that are listening.
• 34:49
  So Kenny was an assistant for the mod.
• 34:51
  So there's personal history here.
• 34:54
  But he wanted to know and I don't even understand the
• 34:57
  question. But at he's Lamont asks has
• 35:00
  asked Kenny how is it that when he was at Johnson C Smith Kenny
• 35:04
  had 247 pictures and the head coach Lamont only had five.
• 35:09
  What does he talk? Are you talk?
• 35:10
  Did you have 247 pictures of yourself up on your wall or
• 35:14
  something? What's going?
• 35:15
  Not know, when we will go out to track meets, I have a knack for
• 35:21
  finding the camera. It doesn't matter.
• 35:25
  That's a good neck matter where I am like I know when the camera
• 35:31
  is on so I could be across the field and if somebody could be
• 35:34
  taking pictures I feel bad you know it's like a sixth sense,
• 35:38
  you know I'm just playing but I would have a lot of we get back
• 35:43
  from track meets, I would be in a lot of the photos.
• 35:47
  And he would, he was, he did, he didn't try to use some lame,
• 35:51
  excuse for like, while I was working.
• 35:53
  That's why I wasn't in the photos that what he tried to
• 35:54
  counter with. And I don't know, it's not me
• 35:58
  because I'm not the one, you know, taking the picture.
• 36:00
  I just don't happen to be in the right place at the right time
• 36:04
  more often than not, I like it. Well, he had a follow-up, which
• 36:08
  is another is another good question.
• 36:11
  Well I don't know I don't know if these are really good
• 36:12
  questions guys but you know it's lamotte so go ahead.
• 36:16
  Yeah. So he asked how you ordered Blue
• 36:20
  Jackets, but you didn't order the head coaching this seems
• 36:24
  like a major faux pas for an assistant coach.
• 36:27
  It sounds like you were, you were tasked with order and
• 36:29
  coaches for the staff and you forgot to order your head coach.
• 36:33
  The jacket. No, not even not even.
• 36:37
  What's the real truth. What's the real?
• 36:39
  The real truth is, you know, Lamont likes his shoes.
• 36:44
  He likes to you know, when we go up to a me, Especially a
• 36:48
  championship mean, you know, he likes to look the part and he
• 36:52
  wants to look different, which is fine, you know, your the
• 36:56
  heck, I love it. You know, you understand out.
• 37:00
  So when ordering jackets, the assistance, we got the normal
• 37:04
  stock blue sweat suits, Coach Johnson asked for the white
• 37:11
  jacket, you know. So he wants to, he likes the
• 37:14
  all-white that's just think so I ordered him the white jacket.
• 37:19
  Now when we show up to the track meet and we got the Blue
• 37:22
  Jackets, he's like well, where's mine?
• 37:24
  Well, didn't you ask for the white jacket?
• 37:27
  It was like, yeah, but I wanted the blue jacket as well.
• 37:30
  So yeah, he wanted both, he wanted both but he didn't say
• 37:33
  that. That is my jacket.
• 37:35
  That's a head coach right there. Like I asked for the White and
• 37:39
  the blue you're supposed to just know that.
• 37:42
  Yeah, the jacket situation. So he has like he has all the
• 37:47
  white stuff that we had all the blue stuff.
• 37:52
  Well you know, being a head coach communication is key and
• 37:57
  the very well and it sounds like maybe he missed the ball on that
• 38:00
  one. Yeah I'm not taking that one.
• 38:02
  I cannot I think that's fair. I think it's fair.
• 38:04
  You mentioned shoes and I do love the time that we you know
• 38:09
  if I'm on a zoom call with the mot or FaceTiming, he is always
• 38:12
  in front of his what seemingly looks like hundreds of shoes.
• 38:17
  Mmm, so good friend of ours, coach with Man, Keith Whitman
• 38:21
  out in Ohio. He asked if you have the same
• 38:23
  eye for shoes that mod does. Nah, not even close.
• 38:27
  Not here, you got a shoe guy. I'm not a shoe guy, man.
• 38:31
  I want to be, but then I'm like the ice, don't really like
• 38:35
  shoes. So I just kind of pick the same
• 38:36
  ones over and over. I'm also, I'm a die-hard
• 38:40
  cheapskate and here, yeah, their shoes are them kind of
• 38:43
  expensive, right? Person that to me, you know, you
• 38:47
  don't even wear them like that, right?
• 38:50
  Yeah, exactly. Think it's more about and I can
• 38:52
  kind of understand this because I'm a little bit of a pack rat
• 38:55
  hoarder collector, kind of guy. It is more about just having the
• 38:58
  collection. It seems like is outside looking
• 39:00
  in from a shoe collector, but it seems like it's just about
• 39:03
  having the shoes. Not necessarily wearing them or
• 39:06
  using them. Which again, I can understand
• 39:08
  that collect a lot of things that I don't ever use.
• 39:10
  They just my wall or wherever. Yeah, all right, well that's
• 39:13
  enough. Well, actually that's enough of
• 39:15
  the mod but I guess we do need to talk about.
• 39:17
  Well, how was your time at Johnson C Smith?
• 39:19
  How many years? Were you there?
• 39:20
  How'd that? Go.
• 39:22
  So getting there. It all started off at social
• 39:26
  media. Me getting the job.
• 39:31
  So he had posted that, he just accepted the head coaching
• 39:36
  position and so we followed each other on social media.
• 39:41
  And I reached out to him, just asking again for an opportunity.
• 39:49
  Volunteer, I just wanted to break in so I know how hard it
• 39:52
  is to break in on the Collegiate level.
• 39:54
  Like once you have your foot in the door, you know, you have,
• 39:57
  you know, more opportunities but actually getting that
• 39:59
  opportunity. That first initial opportunity
• 40:02
  are shot. Like, you have to get in where
• 40:05
  you fit in, in my opinion. So, any opportunity that you
• 40:07
  have, you know, you take it and then you make the best of it
• 40:10
  once you get in. So I just wanted to, to get in
• 40:14
  somewhere, you know, Charlotte is really, really nice.
• 40:19
  And then I had the, I was blessed with a job to wear
• 40:22
  before the pandemic. I was able to, I was working
• 40:25
  from home anyway, so I had the option to work from home.
• 40:28
  So I was working in Medicare, so I could work anywhere in the
• 40:32
  country. I just had to be, you know,
• 40:34
  logged in from a certain time during the day but I could do it
• 40:38
  anywhere as long as I had internet and so I asked for an
• 40:41
  opportunity to come volunteer and just see what it's like.
• 40:46
  And, you know, he offered me a A position part-time position and
• 40:51
  so that probably, you know, just working with him.
• 40:56
  I definitely learned a lot because he he was kind of he
• 41:01
  wasn't a micromanager. So he allowed me to be me.
• 41:06
  He allowed me to learn. He allowed me to make mistakes,
• 41:11
  you know, all within you know what he wanted to do.
• 41:14
  What his vision for the program was but he allowed me to do my
• 41:18
  thing. I'm very, very appreciative of
• 41:22
  that. What, you know, scholarships,
• 41:25
  you know, you kind of just gave it to me, you know, you're in
• 41:27
  charge of, you know, recruiting and everything like that gear
• 41:31
  equipment. He let me look at the budget and
• 41:36
  get experience with that. So just kind of preparing me
• 41:41
  for, you know, whatever. The next steps would look like,
• 41:46
  he allowed me to get a lot of hands-on experience.
• 41:50
  I'm assuming because of your athletic background as a
• 41:53
  hurdler. So, in my head, I'm just like,
• 41:56
  oh, you must be coaching hurdler, but what are you
• 41:57
  actually coaching? Where are you focusing on?
• 41:59
  At this point in your career coaching wise?
• 42:01
  I was sprinting hurdles, her toes and primarily when I was at
• 42:08
  Smith my first year I had the women's Sprint's at hurdles I
• 42:14
  love that he really kind of peeled the the Window back or
• 42:19
  the, the veneer back. So you can see behind so the
• 42:23
  budget and recruiting and equipment and things like that.
• 42:25
  That's, that's a lot of trusts. He must have you guys must have
• 42:29
  clicked fairly fastly to have that kind of trust I would, I
• 42:32
  would think so. And then a lot of my references,
• 42:37
  the people that I knew, I'd been talking to knew him, so coach
• 42:40
  cheek. He was good friends with Coach
• 42:42
  cheek, Sammy Dabs out in Texas and then Coach Oliver and Coach
• 42:51
  Murphy at Howard. You know, spoke highly of me, so
• 42:55
  kind of the people that I knew he knew and, you know, it just
• 42:59
  kind of worked out that way. Well, he certainly does put his
• 43:03
  money where his mouth is. He talks a lot about hiring High
• 43:06
  School coaches and that, you know, you talked about, you
• 43:08
  know, breaking into that Collegiate level.
• 43:10
  So I love that. He talks a lot about it and he
• 43:12
  actually follows through. I don't think you're actually
• 43:14
  even the only one. I think there's been several of
• 43:16
  his assistants have come from the high school.
• 43:18
  Level. So, that's just that's awesome.
• 43:20
  I, you know, there's a mythical divided between College coaching
• 43:26
  and high school coaching. It is different but I think
• 43:29
  there can be some. I know I've seen plenty of
• 43:31
  people who have coach in the high school level achieve
• 43:33
  success on College and vice versa.
• 43:35
  Collegiate coaches have gone to high school which is different
• 43:37
  and Achieve success there. So I love that he kind of says
• 43:41
  it in then he actually does it as well.
• 43:44
  How many years? How many seasons were you there
• 43:46
  at Johnson C Smith? I was there Well, one and a half
• 43:50
  with covid. So, two years after my first
• 43:56
  year, we had a hurdler that you know, she was okay before I got
• 44:04
  there, 15-second hurdler, and we got her down to 14 laps in a
• 44:10
  year and she was You know division 2.
• 44:14
  You have the, you know, qualifying standards provisional
• 44:17
  and you know, automatic and she had hit provisional and if she
• 44:23
  would have ran, she ran 1406 if she would have ran 1398, I think
• 44:30
  she would have qualified for Nationals.
• 44:32
  So that was like, a big Improvement for I heard, you
• 44:35
  know, you know, we had a very, very good season with her and
• 44:39
  then our recruiting class was was The, my opinion legit, you
• 44:44
  know, we had a couple of, you know, all Americans state
• 44:48
  champions coming in and after my first year, I actually, you
• 44:53
  know, was offered another job to a division, one University, but
• 45:00
  I decided to stay and the reason I decided to stay is because I
• 45:04
  did that before previously, you know, going from Lynn to
• 45:08
  stansson, right? I'm not about to make the same
• 45:12
  mistake. Again, not that it would have
• 45:14
  been a mistake. But you know, the situation
• 45:18
  happened twice. I don't want to repeat it.
• 45:20
  So you know, I wanted to learn more.
• 45:24
  I want any other recruiting class, you know, we did a great
• 45:27
  job as a staff bringing in that class so I kind of wanted to
• 45:30
  coach them and you know, be with them.
• 45:34
  And then year to covid, I just changed everything, man.
• 45:40
  No one saw this coming. This was right man.
• 45:42
  This was Left those at Mike Tyson uppercut right here.
• 45:45
  No one saw it and you just out we're out.
• 45:47
  We're done, man. So covid comes and obviously we
• 45:51
  know what, you know, what happened there, and all that
• 45:53
  kind of good stuff and hopefully by the time we're listening to
• 45:57
  this, we are in the middle of an indoor season and getting back
• 46:00
  to normal, whatever that looks like but have some normalcy and
• 46:04
  have some competitions and such. But what led you to pursue other
• 46:08
  opportunities though? I really wasn't looking.
• 46:10
  So, Yeah, I was comfortable at Johnson C Smith, I liked living
• 46:18
  in Charlotte. I liked, you know, the balance
• 46:21
  that I had. So I was I wasn't looking for
• 46:24
  another opportunity. They just kind of came before
• 46:31
  taking the job here at Central, I actually accepted another job
• 46:37
  as an assistant down in Florida. At a division, one University,
• 46:47
  but with covid and everything there was some uncertainty, so
• 46:53
  this but do you feel so you're at Central Methodist, do you?
• 46:58
  And I'm a yeah, I was born in Florida so I know the pull of
• 47:02
  Florida is there is there a pull for you ever to get back down to
• 47:06
  Florida? Not really.
• 47:15
  I don't necessarily have to be in Florida.
• 47:18
  I feel like anywhere I go. I can be successful.
• 47:23
  I definitely would like to get closer to the South because
• 47:28
  that's where all my family is and I'm out here by myself but
• 47:31
  as far as I got on necessarily have to be in Florida, I don't
• 47:35
  necessarily you know have to be in the South, it just would be a
• 47:40
  preference if I could get it back.
• 47:43
  On there, right? That makes that makes a lot of
• 47:45
  sense that support system of having family and such around or
• 47:49
  at least close-ish is vital, I think.
• 47:52
  Absolutely. So you said you think you can be
• 47:54
  successful anywhere. So let's talk about where you
• 47:56
  are right now. So you're at Central Methodist
• 47:58
  University, I admittedly. Don't know.
• 48:01
  A lot about Central Methodist University.
• 48:02
  I think you are in Fayette Missouri.
• 48:05
  Yes, I am nailed it. I know you're the Eagles.
• 48:09
  I said that so confident, like, oh, I'm out of got that one
• 48:11
  wrong. Your division to nai-nai.
• 48:17
  Okay. Alright, okay.
• 48:19
  So what attracted you to this job, why?
• 48:22
  It must have been really attractive because you left
• 48:25
  Lemak. So what What attracted you to
• 48:28
  head out to Missouri, the opportunity really, you know,
• 48:32
  kind of presented itself. So the athletic director here,
• 48:36
  miss Natasha Wilson. And I first, I want to thank her
• 48:40
  for it, you know, thinking of me and you know, Allowing me to,
• 48:43
  you know, take over the program and you know, lead the program.
• 48:47
  She actually was the assistant ad at Johnson C Smith my first
• 48:51
  year. So she got the year to for me at
• 48:55
  Smith she got the 80 position out here and when the position
• 49:01
  opened up she called to see if I was interested.
• 49:05
  Nice that's good. He must have made it a positive
• 49:07
  impression them. I would like to thank so.
• 49:10
  Yeah. Well I mean we could just say we
• 49:12
  know so mean The job. I mean it could have been like
• 49:15
  oh yeah, he made an impression. Alright, he's never working
• 49:16
  here. Well that's a great segue to one
• 49:21
  of our Twitter questions, good friend, Ryan Banta.
• 49:23
  He's at sprinters compendium. Add on Twitter, he asked because
• 49:27
  being a new higher during covid. What has been the biggest
• 49:31
  challenge for you as a coach? Honestly, I think I look at it.
• 49:38
  Look at it from a different perspective.
• 49:39
  So coming out here as a new coach, I don't know anything.
• 49:43
  Thing. So as far as like, restrictions
• 49:44
  there anything to me, this is the Baseline.
• 49:47
  You know? Because I don't know what it was
• 49:48
  like out here before. You know, if I was at Smith with
• 49:53
  restrictions, all right, it's different because now I've gone
• 49:56
  from, you know, full access and now we can't do XY and Z.
• 50:00
  But here being a new coach is like, okay, this is what I'm
• 50:03
  allowed to do. These are, you know, the
• 50:05
  policies in place. So for me there's a this is all
• 50:08
  new. I don't know anything different.
• 50:11
  So as far as challenge, Is from a logistical standpoint and that
• 50:15
  aspect. It's not really difficult
• 50:19
  because I don't know anything different.
• 50:21
  That's what I was about to say. It sounds like that that you
• 50:24
  don't know what you don't know. And since you didn't have the
• 50:26
  history there, he was like well that's all I've ever known.
• 50:29
  It's Central matters at this point.
• 50:30
  Yeah, right. He goes on.
• 50:32
  Ask, what are you doing to bridge that Gap?
• 50:34
  Because of it. I'm gonna change his question,
• 50:35
  just a little bit here. So what are your plans?
• 50:38
  I'm going to take the Gap forward.
• 50:40
  What are your plans as we move through covid and get into?
• 50:43
  Where there will be a eventually we will be into a normal Rhythm,
• 50:46
  right? What are Your plans as you move
• 50:49
  forward with the program here this season and maybe into next
• 50:53
  fall at next preseason. This season really is about us.
• 50:58
  It's about finding out who we are, building a relationship,
• 51:03
  building the culture building, the family atmosphere as
• 51:06
  setting, the tone for what we want to look like in the future.
• 51:09
  So really this year's all about us and recruiting, you know,
• 51:13
  Finding young men and young women who fit our system here.
• 51:18
  A fit the mold here at Central Methodist, and this is not for
• 51:21
  everybody out here, so just finding people that can come in,
• 51:25
  can help us, you know, on the track and be successful.
• 51:28
  So, that's really what we're trying to do right now, how
• 51:32
  we're trying to build this kind of setting the, the foundation,
• 51:36
  you know, laying the groundwork for what is going to look like
• 51:39
  in the future. Recent guest, Kurt Downs, coach
• 51:43
  up at Border City Athletics Club, he asked, what was your
• 51:46
  thought process? When taking over the program
• 51:49
  that kind of sounds like you just nailed that question.
• 51:51
  There is about recruiting getting getting the culture set
• 51:54
  and type of kids that would achieve success in Fayette yet.
• 51:59
  So taken over I'm a firm believer that energy is
• 52:03
  contagious. So, coming in, especially if you
• 52:07
  like seeing my, my social media and everything.
• 52:09
  I'm a very, very energetic person.
• 52:11
  I like to have fun. I like to dip, that's me.
• 52:15
  So, I want to You my staff, my team, anybody that I have around
• 52:22
  to be like to take on my personality.
• 52:24
  If we all think the same, we all move the same.
• 52:27
  Then we're all going in the same direction.
• 52:31
  So this coming in taking over that's that's the first thing.
• 52:37
  You know I kind of wanted to do I wanted to learn what it was
• 52:40
  like before. What are some things that you
• 52:45
  know the student athletes? You know, enjoy Oi where can we
• 52:49
  make some improvements? And you know, I want you guys to
• 52:53
  learn who I am. Why I am the way I am and how I
• 52:57
  can help serve you have. You must they struggled with
• 53:02
  that part because of the covid restrictions, it's not like you.
• 53:05
  I'm assuming you've not been able to just go in the track
• 53:08
  every day with your team and that's how you kind of get to
• 53:10
  know them and maybe one-on-ones, what struggles have.
• 53:14
  You had to know the team honestly.
• 53:18
  Here we haven't had too many like restrictions and that area
• 53:23
  as far as me being able to be around my team.
• 53:26
  Obviously. No, wearing the masks and stuff
• 53:29
  or at practice and, you know, in the weight room and doing things
• 53:31
  like that. But before I got the job, well,
• 53:36
  when I got the job, you know, we had a zoom call and I just kind
• 53:39
  of ask questions of, you know what they were looking for in a
• 53:42
  coach, you know how I could best serve, you know, I think you
• 53:47
  know this Profession is a profession of servitude and you
• 53:52
  know for coaches we don't have jobs unless the kids are here.
• 53:56
  All right. So you know just kind of Artful,
• 54:01
  we want to exert, not exert, but, you know, give off our
• 54:04
  philosophy, our mindset and everything like that, but we
• 54:07
  also got to make sure the kids are happy, you know.
• 54:10
  So I hear a lot of coaches, say, all the time, you know, I don't
• 54:14
  feel like I'm working a day in my life because I enjoy what I'm
• 54:17
  doing. Well, if the kids aren't
• 54:19
  enjoying what they're doing then like what's the point and my
• 54:22
  opinion. So the experience the, the
• 54:26
  totality of the experience needs to be that for them just like He
• 54:30
  has for us, you mention philosophy, which makes me think
• 54:34
  of the word culture we had. Well, I say, I think it was
• 54:38
  awesome but from listening downloads, you guys all thought
• 54:42
  this was also too, we had Judd, Logan Jed, Logan is a division
• 54:45
  to coach at Ashland University, big-time throws coach but and,
• 54:49
  as I said, many, many successes and national champions and
• 54:52
  championship teams, but he has a real culture there of what it
• 54:57
  takes to be a thrower in his program.
• 55:00
  Kurt Downs. Asked, he would love to hear
• 55:02
  about how you've created such a solid team culture in such a
• 55:06
  short amount of time, you've been there less than six months
• 55:10
  and in this and you mentioned not as not as many restrictions.
• 55:13
  But there have there certainly have to have had some sort of,
• 55:16
  um, certain restrictions on differences than in the Falls
• 55:18
  that you've had in the past. How have you created this team
• 55:21
  culture in such a short amount of time?
• 55:25
  I think goes back to to energy and everything.
• 55:30
  That I ask of my student athletes.
• 55:34
  I'm willing to do. So not only saying, you know,
• 55:39
  this is what I need to do but also doing and again it goes to
• 55:44
  my personality. So I'm the type where you know
• 55:48
  the the work-life balance is very very important to me.
• 55:51
  So when I'm at work and I'm at work, when I'm at home, I'm at
• 55:54
  home. But also while I'm working and I
• 55:58
  work hard but I want to have fun doing it.
• 56:00
  It goes back to, you know, the the experience I don't feel like
• 56:04
  I'm working a day in my life that I enjoy doing this.
• 56:07
  This is my Escape. You know, when I'm at track
• 56:10
  practice or I'm in the weight room, that's my happy place, so
• 56:13
  to speak. So for my athletes, I want them
• 56:16
  to have that same mindset. I want when they come to track
• 56:21
  practice, all right, I'm getting away from.
• 56:24
  You know, school, I'm getting away from stress, you know,
• 56:27
  boyfriend, girlfriend, whatever, you know, Issues work Financial,
• 56:32
  whatever the case may be, I just want you to come and do
• 56:35
  something for you by your practice and have fun doing it.
• 56:38
  So, I where I practice, you know, every day is not a easy
• 56:42
  day, but, you know, music is going on.
• 56:45
  There's laughter were joking. And I'll, you know, going back
• 56:49
  to Coach Johnson in the camera, will have the cameras at
• 56:52
  practice, you know, flicking it up taking videos and just making
• 56:55
  it enjoyable. So I I feel like, you know, when
• 56:59
  you see that, At and it's every day then you know, the team
• 57:04
  culture kind of builds itself. So yeah, that's interesting.
• 57:11
  Doug, petrick get another Twitter question here.
• 57:14
  He's at Doug petric and the number one he asked what keeps
• 57:17
  you motivated? So doing a lot of what those
• 57:19
  activities that you just mentioned energy and positivity
• 57:24
  for the leader who's running with that type of mentality.
• 57:29
  We get tired too, right. I mean your life is not sure
• 57:33
  your life is perfect, right? But it's not right there.
• 57:34
  Stress hurts and bills and you know other things that go on
• 57:38
  that that'll stress and bring you down, how do you stay
• 57:41
  motivated to when you are around those athletes to be that
• 57:46
  positivity energy type of person.
• 57:53
  It's a challenge in the sense that every day is different.
• 57:59
  So I think that motivates me more because no two days are
• 58:04
  going to look the same being an athlete.
• 58:06
  And having that, you know, people talk about the Mamba
• 58:09
  mentality or a no, Jordan, Jordan is a clutch player, you
• 58:14
  know. So I feel like every day I have
• 58:19
  to be clutch. Every day, you know, I can't let
• 58:23
  them see. Me sweat.
• 58:24
  I can't be weak even when I, you know, not feeling well, I have
• 58:28
  to show up to work because my job here is to serve my student
• 58:32
  athletes. So, you know Jordan the flu
• 58:34
  game. I just think about that, like I
• 58:38
  can't get sick, I can't have a bad day because my bad day is
• 58:45
  going to rub off on them. Again, energy is contagious.
• 58:48
  So if I come in and have a bad day and I don't feel like being
• 58:52
  at practice, how can I get the best out of them, right?
• 58:56
  How can I, you know, make sure they're on their top on the top
• 59:00
  of their game. If I'm coming in and I'm
• 59:01
  sluggish, if I'm late, if I'm not giving all that, I have
• 59:05
  every day is it? Right.
• 59:07
  Yeah, it is. But again, I enjoy this and it
• 59:11
  beats sitting in the office all day.
• 59:15
  I felt a personal attack on you so that makes me think of your
• 59:23
  mental health because again, and I love that.
• 59:27
  Your energy is contagious but we do live in the real world.
• 59:31
  And what I mean by that is that life is not unicorn kittyland.
• 59:35
  If you watch Little Italy, I love the movie, right?
• 59:36
  You do, there are going to have to assume that there are times
• 59:40
  when living this far from your family, brings you down an
• 59:45
  unexpected, Bill. The stress of having to put
• 59:48
  together, probably three to four different schedules depending on
• 59:50
  what occurs with covid, right? Things like that.
• 59:54
  What are you doing? Then for your mental health, if
• 59:57
  you're going to always show up for practice as this 100, right?
• 1:00:03
  But you're not always inside 100.
• 1:00:05
  So what are you doing? Your mental health, meaning
• 1:00:09
  Hobbies, you mentioned music earlier, what do you do to kind
• 1:00:14
  of distress, get away from the track side, the stress side of
• 1:00:19
  it traveling. I like to travel and it kind of
• 1:00:24
  helps with. I'm still going to throw it
• 1:00:27
  into, bringing it back to the team.
• 1:00:29
  So I recruiting and traveling. So I don't mind getting in the
• 1:00:34
  in the car and taking a A road trip.
• 1:00:37
  And be like, that's relaxing. I like to drive.
• 1:00:41
  So a 10-hour trip, you know, that's my me time, you know?
• 1:00:45
  I might spend an hour talking to myself, formulating, my
• 1:00:49
  thoughts. I might spend another hour.
• 1:00:51
  I'm a big OJ's fan, I'm a big Temptations fan.
• 1:00:56
  You know, old school type of vibe, so I might know, just kind
• 1:00:59
  of shit like, listen to music. That's one way I escaped by
• 1:01:05
  think. For me, like the the work-life
• 1:01:09
  balance. And so when I'm away when I'm
• 1:01:12
  home, I'm not really thinking about track, you know?
• 1:01:15
  So yeah. Yeah, right, that's interesting.
• 1:01:18
  Talk to tell me more about the sorry.
• 1:01:19
  I won't interrupt you, but I love that you talked about.
• 1:01:21
  When you're home, you're home, when you're in the office here
• 1:01:23
  in the office. So I'm a movie guy.
• 1:01:27
  I like to watch movies so I can sit and watch movies and I'll
• 1:01:31
  just Quiet, I'm very, very reserved, surprisingly.
• 1:01:38
  Yeah, if you see my social media, you think I'm like,
• 1:01:41
  always like loud and tension. That's not like, in the room.
• 1:01:46
  I'm going to sit back and just watch.
• 1:01:49
  And if I'm asked a question, I'll speak or explain over the
• 1:01:53
  most part. I like to observe people.
• 1:01:54
  I like to watch And yeah, I like movies.
• 1:02:00
  I play the saxophone Growing Up. So and the keyboard a little
• 1:02:03
  bit. So that's a hobby of mine.
• 1:02:06
  Now I put you got to be careful telling me that stuff.
• 1:02:09
  I put I put Michael Roberts on point.
• 1:02:12
  He told me he played the guitar, and I goaded him into playing
• 1:02:15
  the guitar. You're in your office, though.
• 1:02:16
  Some office. I don't have any, okay.
• 1:02:19
  All right, I'll put you on the spot, man.
• 1:02:23
  I love hearing that stuff. That's amazing.
• 1:02:24
  What movies have you watched recently or a fan of The last
• 1:02:28
  movies I've watched Wonder Woman that was the last movie is
• 1:02:32
  Wonder Woman. I've watched.
• 1:02:34
  So I've been watching the Mandalorian hmm.
• 1:02:40
  I heard the Wonder Woman was horrible.
• 1:02:43
  Yeah, not really, it wasn't, it wasn't as good as the first one,
• 1:02:48
  but to me is like a typical DC movie all the DC movies in my
• 1:02:52
  opinion, haven't been very, very good.
• 1:02:55
  So it was just, I wasn't surprised.
• 1:02:57
  We're going through and we're watching in order, not the order
• 1:03:01
  of release, but the order of the of timeline, all the Marvel
• 1:03:05
  Cinematic Universe, all the MCU. So we just watched Incredible
• 1:03:09
  Hulk, last night's. And now we've got Thor and
• 1:03:12
  either. Injures or Iron Man 3.
• 1:03:13
  I get the whole list, man. We were like 20 of these things,
• 1:03:16
  man. So we're going through all those
• 1:03:19
  and so we just watch Soul as a family.
• 1:03:21
  The other night. What a, that's a really like
• 1:03:23
  actually was a deep movie. Like I don't think I got it all
• 1:03:27
  watching it one time. Yeah, I definitely have to watch
• 1:03:30
  it again. I think, you know, as a young
• 1:03:33
  person and probably went over a lot of their heads to me, it was
• 1:03:37
  more of an adult movie. That's a good point in, but
• 1:03:40
  maybe they're the ones that need to that movie.
• 1:03:42
  The the most. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:03:45
  That's a really good point. Yeah, really good.
• 1:03:49
  And, you know, very emotional and you talk about your life and
• 1:03:53
  your purposes and your passions and I was like, but I don't
• 1:03:55
  think I caught it all liked it, thats a pretty high level.
• 1:04:01
  Pixar movie Man. This ain't inside out where it
• 1:04:03
  was all about the motion and that was a really good movie.
• 1:04:05
  Like there's a lot of lessons and stuff there to look at and
• 1:04:07
  draw back on. But so me and it's like, oh man,
• 1:04:10
  I'm probably gonna have to watch this one again, the get the
• 1:04:13
  whole Essence but it was really, really good.
• 1:04:16
  Really good. So we've been tiptoeing around
• 1:04:21
  two topics. Social media and therefore
• 1:04:27
  recruiting. Uh-huh.
• 1:04:29
  All right, so you said there, you've had practice has regular
• 1:04:32
  practice. I was on the assumption that you
• 1:04:34
  had no practice and so you had a lot of time to be on Twitter.
• 1:04:41
  So talk to me about this, this melding of social media, and
• 1:04:46
  recruiting, in fact, coach missed ready on Twitter.
• 1:04:49
  He's the head coach down at Southeast, Louisiana, great,
• 1:04:52
  man, I love this. This guy to death.
• 1:04:54
  One of my favorite facilities, he asked about till he says,
• 1:04:58
  tell us a little bit about your social media Acumen and how
• 1:05:00
  important it is for you and the recruiting game.
• 1:05:02
  So talk to us about recruiting and social media and how it
• 1:05:05
  melds for you and this day and age, social media to me is
• 1:05:12
  everything and the reason for that for one before.
• 1:05:19
  Now how many people have heard of Mitchell Methodist.
• 1:05:25
  Good point. So the first question is, since
• 1:05:29
  a method is where is that? And so I feel like social media
• 1:05:35
  helps with your branding with marketing.
• 1:05:39
  Especially so for me coming from a corporate background where
• 1:05:43
  branding and marketing is everything why not apply that to
• 1:05:47
  this? It is a business even though
• 1:05:51
  like we enjoy what we're doing. At the end of the day college
• 1:05:54
  sports is it is a business and you you see Brands like you
• 1:05:59
  know, Duke basketball, you know, you think of Coach K Alabama,
• 1:06:04
  you think, you know, Nick Saban so like those Brands and I'm
• 1:06:06
  not, you know, comparing myself to them by any means.
• 1:06:09
  I'm just saying from a marketing and branding standpoint anytime
• 1:06:13
  that you can promote your University.
• 1:06:15
  Promote you know the things that you're doing in the classroom as
• 1:06:18
  well as the track why not take advantage of that.
• 1:06:21
  So For me, so go ahead. No, no, go, go, go, go, go for
• 1:06:26
  me. Social media is a way for a lot
• 1:06:29
  of people to see our name, see our brand see what we're doing.
• 1:06:33
  That wouldn't have access to us. Otherwise is Twitter, your main
• 1:06:39
  Outlet, are you? I use Facebook, Instagram, and
• 1:06:42
  Twitter and all three have different Dynamics, you know,
• 1:06:46
  Facebook is more of your Older crowd.
• 1:06:51
  So you have to appeal to that. Instagram is a different Dynamic
• 1:06:55
  just because it's mostly pictures.
• 1:06:56
  And then splitter is something different because now you have
• 1:06:59
  pictures and different things like that but you can have words
• 1:07:02
  to it. So are you doing different posts
• 1:07:05
  of all and all three? Sometimes.
• 1:07:08
  Yes. Oh God bless you, son.
• 1:07:10
  I love you. So, and you got to appeal to
• 1:07:14
  your market. So if Facebook, if I want people
• 1:07:20
  to, you know, donate, you know, fundraise and everything, that's
• 1:07:24
  a different market. So what I say, how I say it,
• 1:07:27
  what I post on Facebook is different from.
• 1:07:31
  You know, I can clown a little bit more on Twitter versus
• 1:07:34
  Facebook. I have to be a little bit more
• 1:07:36
  politically. Correct?
• 1:07:37
  Just depending on your audience, I love that.
• 1:07:40
  I wish you need to run like some kind of social media 101 class
• 1:07:45
  for track coaches because you're spot on.
• 1:07:48
  I'm a huge. And if you're a listener to
• 1:07:50
  show, you know, I've said this a million times.
• 1:07:52
  Huge advocate of social media, I love social media, I know there
• 1:07:54
  are downfalls and there are negatives to social media.
• 1:07:58
  If you haven't watched that Netflix show.
• 1:08:01
  Oh gosh, what is that show? Have you seen that documentary
• 1:08:03
  where they talk about Facebook? Don't watch it, but I know what
• 1:08:08
  you're talking about. Social dilemma.
• 1:08:10
  I think it's yeah, yeah, it's really good.
• 1:08:12
  In fact, it made me I watch this now.
• 1:08:15
  Two or three months ago, I think it was.
• 1:08:17
  I don't, I turned off all my notifications for all my social
• 1:08:21
  media. Like, I still see, like, if I go
• 1:08:24
  on to Twitter, I'll see all my notifications, but it doesn't
• 1:08:27
  pop up on my phone as soon as someone responds to me or
• 1:08:30
  something like that, right? And it has been the best thing
• 1:08:32
  and I'm a huge. I mean, I'm on social media,
• 1:08:34
  24/7. It seems like feels like
• 1:08:36
  sometimes, but It's been a blessing to turn those
• 1:08:41
  notifications to only see the notifications when I go on to
• 1:08:43
  Twitter or Facebook or Instagram has been.
• 1:08:47
  It has changed something up here, mentally for the positive,
• 1:08:50
  but here's my beef with track coaches.
• 1:08:56
  Now I don't normally say beef about try cuz I love track
• 1:08:58
  coaches and it's not just track coaches.
• 1:09:00
  I'll be fair here. It's a lot of people that have
• 1:09:02
  multiple social media channels. They post the same thing on
• 1:09:06
  Facebook, Twitter, and maybe Instagram to the T.
• 1:09:10
  Like the same picture. The same were all at the same
• 1:09:11
  time and I start wondering why am I following you on Twitter
• 1:09:14
  and Facebook? I don't need to see both host.
• 1:09:16
  I should just follow me on once all unfollow you on one of
• 1:09:19
  their, you know, it's just weird bad.
• 1:09:21
  So I love that you are actually that you recognize that there
• 1:09:24
  are different audiences. And there are different mediums
• 1:09:27
  for the social medias. I really do.
• 1:09:30
  I like that. My favorite is Twitter because
• 1:09:31
  the it's more of a back and forth, right?
• 1:09:35
  You know, communication and that's what I think is the
• 1:09:37
  positive for social media. So coach must ready.
• 1:09:43
  Continue. We're going to, we're going to
• 1:09:44
  kind of balance intertwined, this social media and recruiting
• 1:09:47
  together because we're sure to goes on to ask he's noticed that
• 1:09:50
  you've been signing some young Canadian athletes, what's pushed
• 1:09:53
  your attention up to our friends up there?
• 1:09:58
  I don't discriminate it just so happens that they fit what we're
• 1:10:03
  trying to do here. I think being a smaller
• 1:10:08
  University where we're located I say this, it's not for
• 1:10:15
  everybody, our team culture is not for everybody, how we do
• 1:10:20
  things is not for everybody, so just kind of finding the right
• 1:10:24
  people to be successful here. I don't care what, you know,
• 1:10:29
  where you're from. It just so happens that, you
• 1:10:31
  know, we've had, you know, some success with kids from Canada.
• 1:10:36
  We actually have one freshman on the team now that comes from the
• 1:10:42
  border City Athletic Club With, you know, Kurt, we decided to
• 1:10:46
  more and then we have another young lady going to be here in
• 1:10:50
  January. She was at a to come in Texas,
• 1:10:53
  but she's from Canada as well. But I just think the for us it's
• 1:10:58
  you know, our University, you know, our president dr.
• 1:11:01
  Drake and you know what he's trying to accomplish here.
• 1:11:04
  As far as you know what we're doing in the classroom as well
• 1:11:06
  as Athletics. The school size here, this kind
• 1:11:10
  of location and you know our team.
• 1:11:14
  Culture. You know what we built so far
• 1:11:16
  and what people see on social media.
• 1:11:19
  So intertwining they just, you know, happen to be great fits
• 1:11:25
  for what we're trying to accomplish.
• 1:11:28
  I've got a good point about how many people had heard about
• 1:11:30
  Central Methodist. Before you on Twitter, you have
• 1:11:32
  a just over a little bit over 2,000 followers, the debt that
• 1:11:36
  the bulk of that occur in these past six months.
• 1:11:39
  Or so, as you've gone to Central Methodist or what was, what was
• 1:11:43
  it Twitter for you? Like a Johnson C Smith, as far
• 1:11:45
  as followers and activity. And, and that such I was the
• 1:11:50
  same. I don't really, I don't know
• 1:11:51
  like the difference of how many followers I have now been, you
• 1:11:55
  know, very serious, you know, when I was at Smith, but I
• 1:11:59
  haven't changed as far as, you know, kind of posting and, you
• 1:12:03
  know, the stuff on social media, everything that I'm doing now, I
• 1:12:07
  was able to do at Johnson C Smith so I just think the for me
• 1:12:12
  is being consistent and Then posting obviously like we as
• 1:12:18
  people we post like mostly like the good stuff, what we want
• 1:12:21
  people to see, you know, everybody doesn't see like the,
• 1:12:23
  you know, the tough days or things like that but I tried to
• 1:12:27
  post things that show not only what we do as a team but who I
• 1:12:32
  am as a person. So you know, the family
• 1:12:35
  pictures. Yeah.
• 1:12:36
  I like to dance. I was actually at FAMU I was in
• 1:12:39
  a dancing group, The Family Strikers.
• 1:12:43
  So I like to dance and hold on. We got to talk about that
• 1:12:49
  because I know nothing about dance and the only dance that I
• 1:12:53
  can you say FAMU and dancing. I have course.
• 1:12:55
  Go to the historic band at halftime.
• 1:12:58
  Okay. Are you talking about that kind
• 1:13:00
  of dancing? Are you talking about some kind
• 1:13:02
  of interpretive dancing? Let's hear this.
• 1:13:05
  The family you Strikers is an artistic group that has
• 1:13:11
  performed that I haven't performed.
• 1:13:13
  Any of these places but 106 & Park the Apollo America's Best
• 1:13:23
  Dance Crew next. Best Dance Crew.
• 1:13:24
  They were on that show, not too long ago.
• 1:13:28
  So what kind of dancing is this? It's hip-hop, it's contemporary.
• 1:13:33
  It's all kinds really. I might embarrass myself.
• 1:13:37
  So is this kind of Jabberwocky ish?
• 1:13:41
  A little bit, okay? And I mean that in the pods like
• 1:13:43
  I love. Yeah, they're so cool, right?
• 1:13:45
  But it's like the only hip-hop dance crew, I could think of
• 1:13:47
  besides you know you got served or something like that, a
• 1:13:51
  combination of all of that, okay?
• 1:13:54
  So start that when you get the family or were you doing my
• 1:13:57
  sophomore year? My sophomore year?
• 1:13:58
  I think? Interesting.
• 1:14:00
  Yeah, so my claim to fame, we opened up while I was in college
• 1:14:06
  at a concert for Lil Wayne really.
• 1:14:11
  Yeah, dancing interesting. That's cool.
• 1:14:15
  That's way cool. No one else.
• 1:14:17
  No one else is going to be on the show.
• 1:14:19
  That's going to goes claim that. So when I, when I post things
• 1:14:24
  and I post videos and I'll post this dancing that's who I am as
• 1:14:28
  a person and I want people to see that I want this.
• 1:14:32
  I want people to see you know sometimes I'll post workouts and
• 1:14:36
  everything like that, but let me show you like outside of you
• 1:14:39
  know, practice. What we do on a day-to-day
• 1:14:42
  basis, and this is like how it is for Real.
• 1:14:45
  Yeah, I love that on Facebook. You know, Twitter, you can only
• 1:14:48
  like her love, whatever the button is on Facebook, you know,
• 1:14:50
  you have a couple different options right now like and love
• 1:14:53
  and care and angry and sad or whatever.
• 1:14:57
  When I look at you, all the coaches are in my Facebook
• 1:14:59
  Network, the post of their families or their Hobbies, or
• 1:15:04
  those kind of things. Those are the post that I love
• 1:15:07
  that. I physically, you know, go over
• 1:15:08
  to the heart and the ones where it's like, oh my ass.
• 1:15:11
  We're an X or we did. Why it's like yeah, that's good.
• 1:15:14
  That's your job. I mean, that's nice.
• 1:15:15
  I'm glad you for your job because, you know, it's awesome.
• 1:15:18
  It's putting food on the table, but you're who you are as a
• 1:15:22
  person is way more important to me than what you do.
• 1:15:25
  You know, I love those kind of posts.
• 1:15:27
  I've gotten to know Quinn pack. He's a high school coach up in
• 1:15:30
  Colorado and he's a birder. Like, I literally, I have no,
• 1:15:34
  I'm not embarrassed to say this. All I had him on the show just
• 1:15:38
  so I can learn about birding. I've never had heard about it.
• 1:15:40
  I know inverter and whatever and it was just so fascinating and
• 1:15:43
  now I'm like drawn to his post because they're all about him
• 1:15:47
  and his daughter going out and finding these birds and
• 1:15:51
  categorize catalog in that, that's his collection, right?
• 1:15:54
  He collects these birds then him and his son who's a thrower.
• 1:15:57
  And they're practicing that to me.
• 1:16:00
  That's what I'm interested. I'm interested in the Quinn
• 1:16:02
  packs, the kidney Anderson's, not the coaching Anderson's and
• 1:16:05
  Coach packs. That's your job.
• 1:16:07
  I love that. I support it with what obviously
• 1:16:09
  with what we do here in Gil. But the person, you know, your
• 1:16:13
  why that's that's so important because I love that you you show
• 1:16:16
  that side of it too and not just a strict business.
• 1:16:19
  Here's coach Anderson doing this and doing that.
• 1:16:21
  That's awesome, man, that's truly you, that's what people
• 1:16:24
  are attracted to. So that's, that's awesome.
• 1:16:26
  I agree. One of the many things that you
• 1:16:28
  do on Twitter that I love as it relates to social media, and
• 1:16:34
  recruiting every kid that you sign.
• 1:16:38
  You you give them there? I don't know how to put this,
• 1:16:44
  you make it seem like they just won the frickin Super Bowl and I
• 1:16:48
  mean it's an all positive ways. I mean you are you know up next
• 1:16:52
  for the CMU Eagles, great decathlete, blah, blah blah,
• 1:16:55
  blah blah. And you got this cool graphic
• 1:16:57
  which we're going to talk about here in a second, you know, this
• 1:16:59
  hurler, you know, coming to Fayette Ms. I mean, you, it is a
• 1:17:04
  big deal that they're signing a college scholarship.
• 1:17:06
  I mean, I like, I really do believe, you know, there's been
• 1:17:07
  a lot lately, social media post about, you know, if you sign a
• 1:17:11
  D1 scholarship, You're awesome D2 scholarship, you're awesome
• 1:17:14
  D3. Like, if you're going to if
• 1:17:17
  you're participating the next level dude you that's a it's a
• 1:17:20
  dream, it's a deal. That's a big, big deal.
• 1:17:23
  And you really, I mean these kids have to feel so stinking
• 1:17:28
  good when they see like oh my God this coach I just signed
• 1:17:31
  with like he just gave me like the Superbowl mock-up here.
• 1:17:35
  This is amazing. Where did that start and why do
• 1:17:38
  you do that? I think it's very, very
• 1:17:41
  important. Um just to back up a little bit
• 1:17:47
  to talk about like why they choose C mu.
• 1:17:50
  I think it's not only the energy but the the connection and the
• 1:17:55
  relationships that we build. So before they even, you know,
• 1:17:59
  decide to commit or decide to sign with us, definitely
• 1:18:04
  building the relationship is like number one for me and it's
• 1:18:08
  not only what they can do for me on the track.
• 1:18:11
  But how can I help? Them.
• 1:18:13
  How can I help them be successful in life?
• 1:18:16
  You know, I tell people all the time at some point in your
• 1:18:20
  career, if you're an athlete is going to end, whether you go to
• 1:18:24
  college, what it whether you run, post-collegiate, Lee is
• 1:18:28
  going to end, how are you preparing yourself to be
• 1:18:31
  successful? Whenever that day comes?
• 1:18:34
  And how can I help you? My job here?
• 1:18:37
  As a coach is to serve you. It's to build.
• 1:18:42
  The relationship is to be an extension of your parents, just
• 1:18:45
  to help you to become the best version of yourself that you can
• 1:18:48
  be. And so, from there, likely build
• 1:18:51
  that trust. So I'll coach athlete
• 1:18:53
  relationship is always built on. Trust, you know, communication
• 1:18:56
  trust and family, that's kind of the, the principles of what we
• 1:18:59
  do here. So when you know, somebody in
• 1:19:03
  your family does something well or, you know, has an
• 1:19:07
  accomplishment, you're very, very excited.
• 1:19:10
  For them, you know, you want to show love, you want to promote
• 1:19:13
  them, you know, my cousin did this.
• 1:19:15
  My mom did this, my brother did this, for me, it's the same with
• 1:19:19
  the athletes that I work with. So they decided, you know, I'm
• 1:19:24
  choosing to trust in Central Methodist.
• 1:19:26
  I'm choosing to trust into coach Kenny to help me to become
• 1:19:30
  better to me like that. That's very, very important.
• 1:19:33
  And so, I'm very, very appreciative as a coach for you,
• 1:19:36
  to say, I want to come here because, not only do I like this
• 1:19:40
  unit, Diversity, but I trust you as a coach to take care of you.
• 1:19:44
  So with that it's announcing our partnership together.
• 1:19:51
  Everybody is special, everybody is different and I treat
• 1:19:54
  everybody like like that, you know, we're all family.
• 1:19:58
  I want to see everybody be successful.
• 1:20:00
  So I'ma show love. So that's kind of like how it
• 1:20:04
  started. And then, you know, everybody
• 1:20:07
  does it, you know, the signee post is a post and and things
• 1:20:12
  like that, I don't want to be like everybody else.
• 1:20:15
  So I'm always trying to figure out what can I do to make it
• 1:20:19
  seem that you know I care, like, I want to be different.
• 1:20:25
  I don't, I don't want to do generic.
• 1:20:27
  I'm not a generic person, so I'm always trying to figure out ways
• 1:20:31
  or, you know, try to switch, things up to make it different.
• 1:20:36
  We see the final product, right? The announcement of the athlete
• 1:20:39
  signed. I have to imagine that the
• 1:20:42
  athlete, like, that's the athletes.
• 1:20:44
  Probably not surprised that you did that because I'm assuming
• 1:20:47
  throughout the recruiting process and maybe not
• 1:20:50
  necessarily the graphic, but the the gee that you're talking
• 1:20:53
  about is is shown all the way through the recruiting process.
• 1:20:56
  So when when they sign they've already signed they've already
• 1:20:58
  committed. You then put out that post there
• 1:21:00
  probably like if that's what I would expect from that's why
• 1:21:01
  chosen exact and that's how I want it to be.
• 1:21:05
  So for me is not just it's not just track and field, it can't
• 1:21:10
  be distracting field, it's about life.
• 1:21:13
  So if they have other activities so there you know playing other
• 1:21:17
  sports. I'm at the game.
• 1:21:19
  You know I've been fortunate enough.
• 1:21:21
  You know was for IA. We don't have any live
• 1:21:23
  restrictions as far as being out recruiting.
• 1:21:25
  So I have a couple of signees that play basketball.
• 1:21:28
  I go to the basketball games, you know, basketball is not
• 1:21:31
  really going to help me in the track world, but I'm showing
• 1:21:34
  support, you know, I have one athlete, who's an Archer.
• 1:21:37
  So I've been to arching competition.
• 1:21:40
  I've been to dance competitions, so it's just showing that I
• 1:21:46
  really care and I mean it and not just our you come sign to my
• 1:21:50
  school, we going to run back. Fast and once you graduate that
• 1:21:54
  shit. No.
• 1:21:55
  So the seems bigger than track and field for you that's bigger
• 1:22:00
  than their Hunter M PR, their long jump PR.
• 1:22:03
  You mentioned about, you know, I love that kind of cold slap in
• 1:22:08
  the face that hey, no matter how good you are, it is going to end
• 1:22:11
  one day. You know the athletes competing
• 1:22:15
  in track and field at least on the Collegiate side.
• 1:22:17
  Obviously there's Masters and such.
• 1:22:19
  Where does that come from? Is there a coach?
• 1:22:22
  Ouch, that kind of fed into you there.
• 1:22:24
  A teacher, a family member where that that has to be taught.
• 1:22:27
  It's not necessarily always in Early learn, we have to, we have
• 1:22:31
  mentors in life, where does that come from?
• 1:22:37
  A combination of a lot of people I have.
• 1:22:44
  A great deal of mentors who have poured in to me.
• 1:22:49
  And a lot of the things that they poured into me, hasn't just
• 1:22:53
  been basketball, or hasn't been just track.
• 1:22:58
  It's been, how do you navigate life?
• 1:23:01
  And so when I have the opportunity to do so, that's
• 1:23:05
  what I want to do and if and I can take a moment to kind of
• 1:23:09
  give my roses to some of those people right now, please.
• 1:23:14
  And I it's a lot because I feel like the whole, you know, saying
• 1:23:19
  it takes a village, it definitely takes a village and
• 1:23:21
  it hasn't been just like, you know, one person.
• 1:23:25
  So I'm going to start with, you know, my family.
• 1:23:28
  Both of my parents are Educators, so that kind of, you
• 1:23:32
  know, instilled in me, you know, my mom's a principal, my dad's a
• 1:23:38
  coach and she'll like education, and you know, that kind of
• 1:23:42
  mindset has been you know, the Forefront of, you know,
• 1:23:45
  everything that I've done in life so far and then you know,
• 1:23:50
  while I was in high school, my band director, he poured a lot
• 1:23:55
  into me and I just trying to, you know, helping me to, you
• 1:23:59
  know, grow and everything like that and then so Coaching
• 1:24:04
  mentors. A lot of people that I talk to
• 1:24:08
  now, we don't really get into like, the X's and O's of
• 1:24:13
  training or anything is more. How to deal with people how to
• 1:24:18
  manage people, how to talk to people how to communicate and
• 1:24:21
  how to, you know, at this point in my career, you know, as as a
• 1:24:26
  head coach like I'm leading 70 people staff athletes and
• 1:24:31
  everybody is different. So just kind of Of helping me
• 1:24:34
  navigate what that looks like and how I can be successful.
• 1:24:38
  So, got to give a shout out to coach cheek at ECU coach Murphy
• 1:24:43
  and Coach Howard, coach Oliver at Howard.
• 1:24:46
  Definitely got to give a shout out to coach, vaugn at Grambling
• 1:24:49
  State, you know, coach Johnson at Johnson C Smith coach, Nadia
• 1:24:55
  Alexander at BAM. You called him Estrada at, you
• 1:25:00
  know, Southeast in Louisiana. He actually, you know, allowed
• 1:25:03
  me to Our new over Thanksgiving too kind of like Shadow him for
• 1:25:07
  a couple of days. I'm appreciative of that.
• 1:25:10
  And then I have a group of peers that, you know, we used to talk
• 1:25:16
  we haven't talked since you know, since the holiday break
• 1:25:19
  but Coach Josh, he was at Troy. He was at Corpus Christi right
• 1:25:24
  now. But when Josh yeah I know job
• 1:25:26
  other Miss Renaldo at Grand Valley State kamiya and Virginia
• 1:25:31
  Wesleyan, Josh Campbell at Pratt and If I miss everybody, please
• 1:25:41
  forgive me. I haven't talked about my
• 1:25:44
  beloved alma mater, and a couple episodes and you just rattled
• 1:25:47
  off four or five Troy coaching alums.
• 1:25:51
  So yeah, means the absolute World already on the show.
• 1:25:54
  You don't have to suck up, man. That's so nice of you to say
• 1:25:57
  that and always it's a tough to put you on the spot about
• 1:26:00
  mentors and peers and such because you're always afraid of
• 1:26:04
  forgetting someone and it's not that you are forgetting that
• 1:26:07
  person. It's just you know there's a
• 1:26:09
  hundred people that Obviously have poured so much into you.
• 1:26:12
  Man. That's that's amazing.
• 1:26:13
  I love that you're taking that. I'm going to use your word here
• 1:26:17
  taking that energy that they poured into you and you're
• 1:26:20
  converting it and flip it into young kids today, you know, 18
• 1:26:23
  to 22 year olds, man, I love that two more.
• 1:26:26
  Oh, go ahead. Yeah.
• 1:26:28
  Sharon Williams at Buffalo and Coach Allison at Temple.
• 1:26:33
  Awesome. Yeah.
• 1:26:34
  Hey, we, you know, I'll do a whole show about nothing but
• 1:26:37
  shout outs because, you know, the whole goal here, Is to
• 1:26:40
  uplift and honor, coaches. We're focusing on you.
• 1:26:42
  You're the star of the day, but let me tell you what.
• 1:26:44
  No one is one person by themselves.
• 1:26:46
  You're being a great example of this of that people, not just
• 1:26:50
  other coaches. And that's obviously what we
• 1:26:52
  focus on, but your parents love that, their educational
• 1:26:54
  background band directors, teachers leaders, in our
• 1:26:59
  communities. They pour into us, and that's
• 1:27:01
  what makes us who we are. So, I love these coaches, you're
• 1:27:04
  just amazing example of this amalgamation of great people
• 1:27:08
  speaking and leading a Your life and now you become one of those
• 1:27:12
  people to other people, right? It's a cycle a positive cycle
• 1:27:16
  that continues on of being uplifted and then uplifting the
• 1:27:20
  others being taught teaching others.
• 1:27:22
  You know, it's just a if we continued those positive Cycles
• 1:27:26
  we break a lot of history. Historical bad Cycles.
• 1:27:31
  So back on the recruiting front, you mentioned coach Boone, Dana
• 1:27:35
  bun, great friend, love her. And another guy that I actually
• 1:27:39
  I've never met but we've had some different Zoom calls.
• 1:27:42
  He seems like a great guy actually is on tavius Johnson.
• 1:27:45
  I don't know. Yeah, coach.
• 1:27:46
  Yeah, he's coaches EJ on Twitter.
• 1:27:49
  They want to know more about this, recruiting here, so Z J's
• 1:27:53
  as antavius. He asked if he could borrow any
• 1:27:55
  of your recruiting budget time, I'll answer for you.
• 1:27:58
  No, you can't borrow any of his recruiting budget and Dana wants
• 1:28:03
  to know how much scholarship money.
• 1:28:05
  I mean it's an e. I so I really don't know much
• 1:28:08
  about it. Maybe I'll have 100
• 1:28:08
  scholarships. I don't know.
• 1:28:09
  Dana wasn't, how much scholarship money?
• 1:28:11
  Do you have left? And because it seems like you've
• 1:28:13
  signed it, at least 100 people. She says this fall alone, I
• 1:28:20
  still have a little bit left. Look at we had a commitment.
• 1:28:28
  Over the weekend. And I've posted his video today
• 1:28:31
  then I got as soon as we finish the Recording today.
• 1:28:37
  I got another one that needs to go out, but really, it goes to
• 1:28:43
  where we're not any different than any other university.
• 1:28:46
  Honestly, as far as we don't have this extended amount of,
• 1:28:51
  you know, any more than anybody else has.
• 1:28:54
  I think it's more. So a testament to what we are
• 1:28:58
  doing as a staff and how we are building.
• 1:29:02
  And the type of athletes that We're getting to want to come
• 1:29:06
  here. So before we even, you know,
• 1:29:08
  talk about money, like most of the kids are really sold on.
• 1:29:13
  All right, I feel comfortable at, you know, Central method is,
• 1:29:15
  as far as academics and, you know, they have, my major is
• 1:29:18
  going to help me and that aspect.
• 1:29:20
  And then, you know, I rocked with the staff, you know, coach
• 1:29:24
  can't, I love coach Kenny Iraq, you know, I ride with him, I
• 1:29:27
  feel like he has my best interest at heart.
• 1:29:29
  And then once we get them to that point, You know, there are
• 1:29:33
  already sold on us, you know. So if we're able to, you know,
• 1:29:36
  offer any assistance, it's that's a plus.
• 1:29:41
  So I just feel like we're finding work as a staff.
• 1:29:46
  We're doing a excellent job of finding the right fit for where
• 1:29:49
  we are here and it's kind of taken off.
• 1:29:55
  You know, a lot of people are seeing what we're doing.
• 1:29:57
  A lot of people see the graphics, a lot of people see,
• 1:30:01
  you know, No, I want to see, you know, what's going on there?
• 1:30:05
  I'ma Do My research. I've never seen such, I never
• 1:30:08
  heard about Central Methodist. I don't know anything about
• 1:30:11
  them, but let me research the school, you know?
• 1:30:14
  Let me hit up coach. Kenny to see what he's talking
• 1:30:17
  about to see, you know, who he is, and then it's just taken off
• 1:30:21
  from there. Well, I like the Dana says it
• 1:30:24
  seems like you signed a hundred people and we do it.
• 1:30:27
  Well actually I'm assuming you have not signed 100 people I
• 1:30:30
  have 13 girls and seven guy so far one-fifth of what she
• 1:30:39
  thinks. But I like that because it shows
• 1:30:41
  the power social media. It's like you know you can and
• 1:30:44
  it's not lying but it's it's able to amplify what you're what
• 1:30:50
  you're working on. When you do those post you have
• 1:30:54
  some, I mean, really amazing Graphics.
• 1:30:58
  A little birdie tells me that you do those Graphics is that
• 1:31:01
  that true? Not quite okay, all right.
• 1:31:06
  Not quite so I do the videos and like the video productions, I
• 1:31:13
  did that the actual by commitment Graphics.
• 1:31:16
  I have a guy that I work with. That helps me with those, okay?
• 1:31:21
  I was about to say man, a lot of money and graphic designing to
• 1:31:24
  and stuff very much. Yeah, but the graphics is self.
• 1:31:29
  He helps me with that. But the videos for the
• 1:31:31
  commitments, I Those and the music stuff.
• 1:31:35
  What do you, what program are you using for that?
• 1:31:37
  I use telling my secrets, but I ain't no secrets in those
• 1:31:41
  people. Come on.
• 1:31:43
  You're right because it's open but Diva video.
• 1:31:47
  That's the app that I use for making the video edits.
• 1:31:51
  You know what I love about, you know, when people talk about
• 1:31:53
  giving away my secrets and stuff like that, so you're on social
• 1:31:56
  media, maybe, you know, this guide, you have you ever heard
• 1:31:58
  of Gary vaynerchuk or Gary Vee? Oh, you love this guy out.
• 1:32:03
  When we're done, you got to go check him out, he's at whatever
• 1:32:05
  social, he's on every single social media.
• 1:32:07
  He's amazing. He-he's, a, it's hard to
• 1:32:10
  describe what he is actually. He's so he owns a media
• 1:32:12
  business, the 250 million dollars a year and media ads.
• 1:32:15
  He'd do you remember? Did you see that Planters?
• 1:32:18
  Add a little baby. Mr. Planters and mr.
• 1:32:21
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was him, he created his
• 1:32:23
  agency. I should say, created all that,
• 1:32:25
  like heat. So he's big time he's working
• 1:32:26
  for Planters and Ford and all those kind of big dogs, right?
• 1:32:31
  But he started out as a guy like me and you, he started Family
• 1:32:33
  business, his dad owned a Wine Liquor Store in Jersey.
• 1:32:38
  He went, he begins his dad to let him take over the marketing
• 1:32:41
  and all that kind of stuff. They went from three million a
• 1:32:43
  year to like 60 million a year. He's just he's a motivator
• 1:32:47
  etcetera but he gives away all of his Secrets, right?
• 1:32:50
  And I was like why would you tell people what you do on Tick
• 1:32:52
  Tock and Instagram? Like I'm he gives it all the way
• 1:32:54
  he was. This is what I'm doing.
• 1:32:55
  This is how I'm doing here's the program I'm using he does it.
• 1:32:58
  All right. And people are like why why do
• 1:33:00
  you give the secrets away? And he goes because I know 99%
• 1:33:04
  of you Joker's will still never do it.
• 1:33:06
  It don't matter if you know Viva or whatever that program you
• 1:33:08
  was. It's like I bet we here's a
• 1:33:10
  here's what I begged and he said we're actually recording this in
• 1:33:13
  December, but we're not going to publish this.
• 1:33:16
  We got a couple people in front of you, right?
• 1:33:17
  You're going to publish. I think this will be January
• 1:33:19
  sometimes when people are actually listening to us.
• 1:33:21
  Right now I'm going to go on a limb here and say when this
• 1:33:25
  publishes in January, if we look back in June's will give a full
• 1:33:28
  six months here. Roughly I bet we don't see any
• 1:33:31
  more people. What you do honestly and but by
• 1:33:36
  that time though I'm a be onto something, you know, something
• 1:33:41
  different. So I'm always trying to get
• 1:33:44
  better so every day is 1% better.
• 1:33:48
  If we get better 1% every day at the end of the year, we are
• 1:33:52
  three hundred and sixty five percent better than we were last
• 1:33:55
  year. So As far as, you know, as a let
• 1:34:03
  me back up, let me slow down, because I'm getting excited now,
• 1:34:05
  I love it, I love it. This is where the gold happens
• 1:34:08
  right here. Listeners, turn it off.
• 1:34:10
  As far as coaching no coach. Is really coming up with
• 1:34:17
  anything new. At this point, we are all
• 1:34:20
  Reinventing the wheel. No matter what your philosophy
• 1:34:23
  is, you know, how you train you know we're all pretty much doing
• 1:34:28
  the same thing for the most part.
• 1:34:30
  Generally speaking, you know, so what is it that sets you apart?
• 1:34:36
  And then once you figure that out, how do you improve on it so
• 1:34:41
  it's you find your Niche, you find, whatever.
• 1:34:43
  That is sets you apart. But then, you know, we as a
• 1:34:48
  people, we evolved. So naturally people are going to
• 1:34:51
  catch up so when they catch up, are you going to stay stagnant?
• 1:34:56
  Or are you going to get better? So I'm always trying to figure
• 1:35:00
  out how can I improve. And for sure by June, we gone,
• 1:35:05
  it's going to be something different.
• 1:35:06
  All right? I feel like we are work in in
• 1:35:09
  some form or fashion. We could, we could just have had
• 1:35:13
  this podcast about me because I love that.
• 1:35:15
  It's like I'm with you 100%. So I want to have this
• 1:35:17
  conversation with you here, Kenny.
• 1:35:19
  So you said We all have things that make us that we're all
• 1:35:25
  doing the same thing but we had different skill sets on how we
• 1:35:29
  do it. We do things that set us apart,
• 1:35:32
  that's what you said. What do you do?
• 1:35:34
  What are your skill sets that set you apart from everybody?
• 1:35:38
  If we're all kind of coaching the same way roughly I get what
• 1:35:41
  you're saying there What Makes You Different my Love for the
• 1:35:51
  people that I work with. I think I'm genuine.
• 1:35:59
  I think it's it's not, it's definitely not about me.
• 1:36:07
  I could care. I could, you know if I don't I'm
• 1:36:12
  saying this. But as far as like winning
• 1:36:15
  championships, you know, doing you know things like that, it's
• 1:36:20
  a gold, but it's not the primary focus, you know, my job here and
• 1:36:26
  I feel like my purpose, you know, we just talked about the
• 1:36:28
  movie Soul and, you know, finding that spark and that
• 1:36:32
  purpose for me is seeing the people that I'm able to work
• 1:36:36
  with humble. To work with seeing them become
• 1:36:39
  successful. Seeing them, a complex
• 1:36:41
  accomplishing. I can't say the word
• 1:36:44
  accomplishing. I can't say but, you know, I'm
• 1:36:46
  trying to achieving success. Yes them doing that gives me a
• 1:36:54
  lot of satisfaction and I feel like my purpose is to serve
• 1:37:00
  whatever however I can serve if it's you know helping you you
• 1:37:05
  know in the classroom helping you get an internship if it's
• 1:37:08
  helping you you know come closer to Christ because being at a
• 1:37:15
  Christian School that's acceptable here to where we can
• 1:37:20
  have conversations about that. And so we've had conversations
• 1:37:23
  with athletes about, you know, Prayer about you know, different
• 1:37:29
  things like that. And so for me, the servitude
• 1:37:35
  part is what sets me apart? I believe because you're not
• 1:37:40
  going to my opinion. You're not going to find
• 1:37:42
  somebody that's going to care for you.
• 1:37:44
  Like IMA care for you and I could be biased.
• 1:37:46
  It could be cocky. It could be confident.
• 1:37:49
  Yeah, I really don't care. You know what you call it but
• 1:37:51
  I'm a I'm a make sure that I'm putting you in the best
• 1:37:54
  position. Successful, but you and I don't
• 1:37:59
  take that lightly. Well, I think it's I'm a little
• 1:38:05
  this this is a rare moment. I'm not normally a little
• 1:38:08
  tongue-tied here. It's one thing to say that Kenny
• 1:38:12
  but here's what I believe, I think people get found out real
• 1:38:15
  quick and I think your actions over the past several years have
• 1:38:20
  proven that. It's not just talk for you.
• 1:38:23
  If it was just talk, well, you would have had people calling on
• 1:38:26
  your behalf for jobs. You wouldn't have had people
• 1:38:28
  that you worked with at other institutions when they go to
• 1:38:31
  other schools. Reaching out to you.
• 1:38:34
  I think parents especially when they're talking on the subject
• 1:38:38
  is their kid and their future. And where are they going to go
• 1:38:40
  to school? And are they going to go far
• 1:38:42
  from home or the these kids all have options.
• 1:38:46
  You're not the last stop for these kids, right?
• 1:38:48
  They you had to prove your worth in your University's worth over
• 1:38:52
  other people, right? I think parents and even kids,
• 1:38:55
  especially they can smell BS fairly quickly and if they
• 1:38:59
  can't, they will eventually And it's so, you know, having this
• 1:39:04
  draw to your University, this this call it little school in
• 1:39:09
  Fayette Missouri and people talking about you and people
• 1:39:12
  like said you were nominated for this, you know, more importantly
• 1:39:15
  than what you're saying is what you are doing actions that
• 1:39:20
  you're taking and they're obviously being noticed.
• 1:39:24
  It's three types of people in the world, you got quitters,
• 1:39:28
  everybody knows what a quitter is.
• 1:39:30
  You have survivors Survivor is your surviving Average status
• 1:39:36
  quo and you have drivers. All right?
• 1:39:39
  So anything that we do hear anything that I do, I want to
• 1:39:43
  thrive, you know, whether if I'm good at it or not if I'm not
• 1:39:48
  good at it, then I'm going to work my butt off to make sure
• 1:39:51
  that I am good. But you know, I feel like as a,
• 1:39:55
  you know, person all of us, whatever our purpose, whatever,
• 1:40:01
  our spark, whatever, Calling is like, we shouldn't be surviving
• 1:40:05
  in it. We should be driving.
• 1:40:08
  Be the best you that you can be be the best possible version of
• 1:40:12
  yourself and whatever you do. If it's coaching, if it's, you
• 1:40:16
  know, sales, if it's podcast, have been teaching.
• 1:40:20
  If it's, you know, art whatever. What does it matter?
• 1:40:25
  Just make sure that every day you're being the best that you
• 1:40:28
  can be and that's all we can do quitters Survivor.
• 1:40:32
  Hours and thrivers. That is a great way to end this
• 1:40:35
  episode by man. Honestly, I'm just so thankful
• 1:40:38
  for you, you know, I like to tease coaches, especially young
• 1:40:41
  coaches when they get into the profession about like, why would
• 1:40:45
  you, why would you choose coaching track?
• 1:40:46
  Like and I mean that because like there's some amazing you're
• 1:40:50
  one of these examples here. Kenny amazingly, smart talented,
• 1:40:54
  gifted people like I bet. If I took every track coach in
• 1:41:00
  this country and made them go do other things.
• 1:41:02
  I bet you We could cure cancer, but you, we could end poverty, I
• 1:41:05
  really believe that. I mean, the coaches in this
• 1:41:08
  profession. Selfless leaders, thinkers
• 1:41:13
  created creators creative people.
• 1:41:16
  It's amazing. So, when I think about, you know
• 1:41:19
  what, we just heard with your life, Kenny from material over
• 1:41:22
  here and say a dancer. But being a musician being a
• 1:41:26
  engineering major. Come on, man.
• 1:41:27
  That's a many people do on that, you know, basketball coach.
• 1:41:32
  Being a leader for a track clubs and track Schools.
• 1:41:38
  You could do anything. You know I'm saying and you
• 1:41:42
  choose to coach the greatest sport in the world track and
• 1:41:45
  field and affect the livelihoods of 18 to 22 year olds on a daily
• 1:41:50
  basis, man. I'm just so thankful for that.
• 1:41:52
  I really am. That's so awesome.
• 1:41:53
  I love you to death for that. Well, thank you so much for
• 1:41:57
  being a show today. Kenny man, this was awesome.
• 1:41:59
  I'm so glad that someone nominated you.
• 1:42:01
  And I'm so. So humble that you would, you
• 1:42:03
  would join us. You would agree to and join us
• 1:42:05
  today. Thank you.
• 1:42:07
  I enjoyed myself today. Thank you for having me on the
• 1:42:10
  show was a pleasure and I'll keep doing your thing, you know,
• 1:42:15
  with the podcast and all of that.
• 1:42:18
  Yeah this is thank you for having me is you know just a
• 1:42:21
  blessing to get nominated you know for people to think about
• 1:42:24
  me and that regarding you know a blessing for you to allow me to
• 1:42:29
  come and spend some time to talk.
• 1:42:33
  I expect some kind of fancy graphic when we published.
• 1:42:37
  That's just I'm just going to tell you you know, you say it
• 1:42:40
  but I want to, I want to act. I want to see the results.
• 1:42:44
  No, don't worry. I got you.
• 1:42:46
  Oh, Kitty, man. I'm just so honored honestly,
• 1:42:47
  that you'd be Here today and folks that's a wrap.
• 1:42:50
  Honestly, just want to thank Kenny for being on the show
• 1:42:52
  today. Really appreciate your
• 1:42:54
  authenticity and openness to share with us today.
• 1:42:56
  We talked about a lot of things and I'm just so, so appreciative
• 1:42:59
  of you listeners if you have enjoyed today's episode.
• 1:43:02
  I know, I sure did. Please consider subscribing to
• 1:43:05
  the show. And honestly, even more
• 1:43:07
  importantly, if you found value in today's conversation, I
• 1:43:10
  believe others in your network would too.
• 1:43:12
  So, I love that. We talked a lot about social
• 1:43:14
  media today because that's exactly what I'm going to ask
• 1:43:16
  from you right now. Would you Hit that share button
• 1:43:19
  and let your network on Facebook, Twitter, tick-tocks
• 1:43:23
  mostly knows whatever you like to use.
• 1:43:25
  Would you let your network know, not only about this great
• 1:43:27
  country. We had here today.
• 1:43:28
  You're going to have smoke signals to your to your
• 1:43:30
  repertoire now. So he's always advance and he
• 1:43:32
  just thought it was like, I got to do smoke signals, but I do
• 1:43:35
  believe that, you know, guys and gals like, Kenny in the other
• 1:43:39
  guests that we've had, there's so much value that they bring
• 1:43:41
  with their stories and their leadership.
• 1:43:43
  And I think others in your network would enjoy that.
• 1:43:45
  So, until next week, when we Join us again.
• 1:43:48
  We will once again connect you with another amazing track
• 1:43:51
  coach. Thanks everybody.
• 1:43:52
  Thanks Kenny. Thank you.