Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / 2022 USTFCCCA LIVE podcast: Marc Bierbaum-Iowa Western CC

Transcript

2022 USTFCCCA LIVE podcast: Marc Bierbaum-Iowa Western CC · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

• 0:05
  Hey podcast listeners, we're super excited about December
• 0:08
  11th at 5:30 Mountain Time Denver Time when we're going to
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  go live once again on YouTube to record a live Gil Connections
• 0:16
  podcast. To celebrate, we're giving you
• 0:18
  bonus clips every day until then of last year's 2022 guests that
• 0:23
  came onto the live Gill Connections podcast.
• 0:26
  Check it out, look in the show notes below and you'll see the
• 0:29
  URL. Check us out December 11th 5. 30
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  pm Denver time. All right, you're in the hot
• 0:38
  seat, buddy. You don't know what's going on.
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  Let's go ahead and introduce ourselves.
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  Mark Berom, director of Cross country and track at Iowa
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  Community College and Councils Iowa.
• 0:48
  How'd you get to? Council Bluff, Iowa.
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  I actually grew up about 35 miles away.
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  River, Iowa. Yeah.
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  River, Iowa. So I need to visit, yes, because
• 1:00
  I need to visit for 100%. But so before Gil and after my
• 1:05
  coaching career, I actually was a professional poker player.
• 1:09
  And so I started back then and still goes to today.
• 1:12
  I collected poker chip from everywhere that I play poker so
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  I got them all framed up in the house.
• 1:16
  Number 300 and 56376 was this past weekend and I know council
• 1:21
  gloves has some casinos and I have been to.
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  I got like hit list of where I need to go, so I need to get out
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  to. Get out.
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  There. Several.
• 1:27
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 1:27
  Yeah. No, no, there's not just one out
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  there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I love that.
• 1:30
  So tell me, Mark, how many years you've been coming to the
• 1:33
  convention and what are you doing here?
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  What's what? You look forward to.
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  This is the 4th, 1:00. I've been to the networking.
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  You see friends and especially the coaches that I only see when
• 1:45
  we come here, almost basically. But that part's fun.
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  And then now be in junior college, just helping the
• 1:51
  sophomores find homes. So you get the network with the
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  coaches and tell me about. Our kids, you know, I'm a
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  former. I think we spoke briefly through
• 1:57
  Twitter that I'm a former junior college coach.
• 2:00
  Also coached at, you know, high school and power Five and the
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  junior college route to me is still one of the most precious
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  things. Like I love going to the junior
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  college national meet. It's just a it's a different
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  breed, not only athletes but also coaches.
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  You know, high school coaches work their tail off to get their
• 2:16
  kids recruited. College coaches for your college
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  coaches work their tail off to recruit kids to their program.
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  You're doing both ends, but this is the proverbial light handles
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  at both ends for sure. Yeah, it's.
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  It's. It's very misunderstand levels,
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  I think, you know, I think we have Olympians, you have
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  everything from each end in that indoor meeting we're talking
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  about. That's probably the most
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  recruited track in the country. In high school, college, it
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  don't matter. It's just.
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  Recruited. Every coach.
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  It's like the convention at an indoor meet, right?
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  It's pretty. Awesome.
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  So I think. Junior college level, It's
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  misunderstood and people really, really look into it.
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  There's some talented kids, opportunities to do some really,
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  really good things moving forward.
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  Future wise, yeah. In Iowa, Western has done it at
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  a high level for a long time, even all the way up there in
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  Western Iowa. Don't get it twisted.
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  There's a lot of track going on in your neck of the woods.
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  Sure. What are you most looking
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  forward to here in the 2023 season?
• 3:13
  Oh. Goodness, there's.
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  So much there really is. You know, getting started.
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  I think getting started's. Gonna be.
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  It's exciting. We have a full new staff.
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  Yeah, so I've been there. This is my fifth.
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  We were there, but I'm the the director of the program.
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  This is the first year for that. I've been in the system, of
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  course. So we've had a whole new staff
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  just to get them started and get the new kids going.
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  We got a couple of new. Kids.
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  Going in January, just to get them apart, the team and just to
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  go and see, see where we're going to be, that's awesome.
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  See if we can't defend the defend the title or do
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  something, I mean it's it's hard to win.
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  To do it more than once. Winning is hard.
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  It's hard and I think we especially maybe in track and
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  field, I think we lose sight of that because we have 100 meter
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  bash winner and a relay winner and team winners of course, and
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  it's like that's hard. There's only one person that
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  gets to win that's really tough And there's.
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  And with the team stuff, there's so many.
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  Pieces to. With all those different events.
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  Yeah, a lot of things gotta go right and.
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  Last year we were pretty, you know, we were very lucky where
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  things were right. Indoor force on the women's side
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  and men, you. Know women?
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  Not out there, too. Men did.
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  And just keep safe. You can't keep that rolling.
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  I love it, man. Well, you're a winner today
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  because you get to play our fun little question game one through
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  100. You get to pick the number. 78.
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  Alright, we're gonna go 78. Is there a significance about
• 4:34
  78? I was born in 78.
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  I love it. You're two years younger than
• 4:37
  me, you young whipper snapper. Alright, real or fake, who's
• 4:40
  your favorite WWE wrestler of all time?
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  And I guess I shouldn't have wrote WWE 'cause it could be in,
• 4:47
  Wai don't know, WWF. Yeah, yeah, yeah, right.
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  Yeah, See, that's how old school we are.
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  It was WWF before they got sued by the feds and the wildlife.
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  All the. Ones on the card number one I.
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  Know you. Get to pick one.
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  He's your. He's your.
• 5:03
  Wow, he was fun. He was.
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  Fun. He was fun.
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  Yeah. I saw I I saw him all coded
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  live. Did you?
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  Yeah, Omaha. He was the the guy that spit the
• 5:13
  green stuff out of his mouth. Yeah, he like it.
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  That guy's. Name.
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  Yeah, not Tonka, but I I remember here.
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  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that as a kid that was cool too.
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  And we all recreated it with our bottles of water and everything.
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  Yeah. So it's so mark to to wrap up
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  here today. You know there are going to be
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  some number of people that are either watching us right now or
• 5:31
  live or going to listen to the podcast.
• 5:32
  Drawn that are the offensive coming to the convention.
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  This is your 4th 5th this year. What would you say for someone
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  who's on the fence of coming here to the convention?
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  The USTFCCCA convention? Oh.
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  Man, if you love track and field, this is the place.
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  This at one time of year you have the fittest hotel in the
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  country. We went to.
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  We went and worked out this. Morning.
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  And you won't have that many people in that fitness.
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  What time did you work out? I went in about 7. 30 Yeah, I'm
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  the 5:00 crew, so all the coaches that were in there, in
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  there weren't many. That was the diehards now.
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  That's too early for all the networking at the.
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  Nighttime at Wednesday. I might need a spotter.
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  I'll be in there again at around 5:00 AM.
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  I want to see you in there. I'm doing the ten sets of 10 on
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  the incline Dumbo right now, so it's a little tough.
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  All right, man. All right, let's get our Sophie
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  in here. Brother and I appreciate you
• 6:22
  being here on the show. Trust me here in the live
• 6:24
  version. Thanks a lot World Records
• 6:30
  Shortest Gill Athletics Connections Podcast ever.
• 6:32
  Check us out December 11th. 530 Denver Co Rocky Mountain Central
• 6:37
  Time. Check us out on YouTube in the
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  link below in the show notes.