Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / BONUS: OG Guest #3 Marc Mangiacotti-Harvard University

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BONUS: OG Guest #3 Marc Mangiacotti-Harvard University · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

• 0:00
  Here we go. We are continuing our OG series
• 0:04
  on the Guild Connections podcast as we look at wrapping up season
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  5 here in a couple of months and we look forward to season six.
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  We are just uplifting and honoring the 1st 10 coaches that
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  took a chance on us. And today we've got OG Mark
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  Mangiacotti. We sat down in his office in
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  Harvard, in fact, the next 3 Mark and then the next two here,
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  Brenner and Kaiba all in the same weekend when I was up in
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  Boston, sat down with Mark and learned his amazing, fascinating
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  journey through Houston and his wife and they're just amazing
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  relationship. And it continues today.
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  So here is celebrating OG #3 Mark Manchacotti, the OG series.
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  Hey gang, welcome to the Guild Athletics Connection podcast
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  where we bring you trek coaches from around the country and
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  connect them with you. I'm your host, Mike Cunningham,
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  and it is my honor and privilege to bring you the stories of
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  these men and women and learn with you what makes them tick.
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  This week I go to Harvard. That's right.
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  How you like them apples. I kick it with the several
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  coaches here in a row at the Harvard University campus.
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  This first one here is Mark Mangiacotti, associate track and
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  field coach there. Coaches the sprints and hurdles
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  on the men's side and horizontals jumps as well.
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  I've known Mark for a long time. He's always been a just a dear
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  friend and a real student of the game of how to coach track and
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  field. Really learned a lot about his
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  career and how he got into coaching itself, how he moved as
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  AD Three athlete up into the Division One world from the
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  University of Houston to Harvard and the few institutions in
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  between. And then we really get into what
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  makes Mark tick. And I'll tell you what, it's
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  just a great story about his personal life and his
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  priorities. And I think you're really going
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  to enjoy this. Please help me welcome the great
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  and powerful Mark Mangiacotti. Hey, Mark, thanks for joining me
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  here. You joining me?
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  Thanks for allowing me to join you, man, what a great tour here
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  at the Harvard athletic facilities.
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  Maybe as a way to get started, why don't you introduce yourself
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  what you do and? My name is Mark Manjicotti, and
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  I'm the Associate head track and field and cross country coach at
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  Harvard University. I specifically work with the
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  men's sprinters, hurdlers and horizontal jumpers here at
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  Harvard, and I am in my 22nd year of coaching collegiately.
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  22nd year, yeah. Is that right?
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  Yeah, absolutely. How many years here?
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  Is my 8th year at Harvard University.
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  Wow, holy cow. I don't think.
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  I think I realized the 22 years. Yeah, right out of college.
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  First, first, first. First year out of college, I
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  started coaching collegiately. Yeah, OK.
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  And we'll get through. We'll go through your timeline
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  of how you got there. You and I have known each other.
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  You know, you're you're interesting.
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  I'm not sure how I how we actually.
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  I feel like it was through coach's.
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  Education. It was through coach's education
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  and I was at the University of Houston at the time and we're
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  both eager to learn more and, and we invested in our, our
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  future in, in the sport of track and field and went to coaches
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  education during the summer months.
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  And and that's where you and I first met.
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  Was I at Mississippi State or was it?
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  Before no, you were at at the time you were at ball.
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  State. OK, so it was at Ball State.
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  OK. I remember coming to Houston to
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  recruit a kid. I think it was Ivory Williams.
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  He was out in what was east of Houston.
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  Beaumont. Beaumont.
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  Yeah, exactly. Still the best food I've ever
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  eaten with the recruits made ribs and rice.
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  Oh. Oh.
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  Wow, it was awesome. I was like, I need to do more of
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  those kind of recruits. We didn't get them.
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  In fact, I think with the, I think with the Butler Community
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  College actually was where he went.
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  And then you had a good professional career.
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  But when I was there for that recruit, Mississippi State was
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  playing Houston football. I just remember that, man, that
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  was awesome, man. That was a lot of lot of fun.
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  So how did you were at Houston? How long were you at Houston?
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  In total, I lived in Houston for six years in total.
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  Six years. So how did you, and you're from
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  this area, the Boston, so how did you get back here to Boston
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  to here at Harvard? Well, I think even more
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  importantly going before that is I graduated from Bridgewater
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  State College, which is a Division Three school just South
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  of Boston. And I started coaching there
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  part time right after I graduated from Bridgewater
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  State. And I was hired to be the men's
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  and women's middle distance and distance coach.
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  And another part time coach moved back to Florida because of
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  a family emergency two weeks before the season started.
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  And they didn't have anyone to coach the sprinters and jumpers.
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  And they asked me if I would like to cover those areas as
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  well. And they would give me both
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  paychecks, both stipends. And at 22 years old, I was young
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  enough and dumb enough to think that I could handle all of these
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  college athletes, both on the men's and women's side.
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  Everything from the 60 meter is indoors to the 10,000 meters
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  outdoors, including jumps. And you had just graduated, so
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  these are kids are on your team, which that has its own yes,
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  dynamic to it. Well, let's stay there for a
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  little bit. So you went to Bridgewater, Yes.
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  What'd you major in? I majored in elementary
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  education and physical education.
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  Was that what you thought you were going to do?
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  So right out of college, I, I taught first grade in the city
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  of Brockton where I'm from and I would right after school just
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  hustle right over to Bridgewater State because it was a part time
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  coaching position and I was, I was coaching afterwards.
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  I always thought that I was going to be an elementary school
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  teacher and then and then and hopefully coach at a high school
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  and had the opportunity to coach at Bridgewater State and really
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  just kind of caught the the coaching bug.
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  And while I was there, I realized I was in over my head
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  because I didn't really know much about sprinters and jumpers
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  because I was more of a middle distance runner in high school
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  and college. So I went to a coaching clinic
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  here in Massachusetts. I paid, you know, to go and
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  further my education, the sport. And the keynote speaker at the
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  convention was Tom Tolez. Oh, wow.
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  And I learned a tremendous amount of information from him
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  in his sessions, but I also asked questions before and after
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  every session. I thought I was being a burden
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  to him, but he really saw my thirst for knowledge and the
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  willingness to help people. So, you know, he told me if I
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  was ever in Houston to look him up and that I'd be welcomed at
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  any of his practices. And so at the end of that year,
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  my girlfriend at the time told me that she had accepted a job
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  as a physical therapist in Houston.
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  And, you know, the light bulb went off and I was like, well,
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  I'm going to finish out my coaching here and I'm going to
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  move down with my girlfriend. And I'm going to try to see if I
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  can learn from coach to Lez and, and be part of the University of
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  Houston, which obviously they have a very historic, they have
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  a great track and field history. And so year ended, I moved down
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  to Houston and you know, and and started working at a high school
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  because needed to pay the bills and and started my working my
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  way up at the University of Houston from being a volunteer.
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  I did a going to grad school at the University of Houston.
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  So I did like a did for a class credit.
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  I was able to work kind of like as a graduate assistant to get
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  class credit and then until Leroy actually hired me as an
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  assistant coach. And so he gave me my first
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  opportunity to be a Division One track and field coach at the
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  University of Houston. And then I was told people that
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  moving to Houston was the smartest thing that I've ever
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  done because, you know, I learned for some great people.
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  You know, I, I learned from Tom Tales, I learned from Kyle
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  Tales, I learned from Leroy Burrell.
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  I get to meet Carl Lewis. I was able to then connect to
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  like Dan Path and Vince Anderson of these other great people that
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  had worked for coach Tales. And so it was a great
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  experience. But I, the most important thing
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  is the girl that I followed down there, I married.
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  So my wife and I, you know, have we grew up four houses apart.
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  I've known in my entire life. And, and that's how, you know,
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  to answer your question a while ago, like that's how I ended up
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  back in the Boston area area was that my wife and I were living
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  in Houston. We had amazing experience, we
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  met amazing people. I had amazing coaching
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  opportunities, but we wanted to be closer to family.
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  And so my wife and I decided that we wanted to be back in the
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  Boston area. So I ended up at at Wheaton
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  College, Division Three school just South of Boston.
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  And so I worked at Wheaton for six years, and a lot of people
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  were very surprised that I went from Division One to Division
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  Three. They were surprised that I went
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  from such a big school to such a small school of 1500.
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  But I saw potential at Wheaton College.
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  And Paul Sousa was the head coach at.
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  Yeah, exactly. Yeah, Great coach, great person.
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  And I thought that was a place that I could really grow as a
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  young coach and given an opportunity to have my own
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  group, like make decisions, make mistakes and learn from them.
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  And I had a lot of fun working at Wheaton College.
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  I was fortunate enough that my last year at Wheaton College I
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  was there for six years and in my 6th year, the men's 4 by 1
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  won the national championship. The men's 4x4 won the national
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  championship. But not only did they win the
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  Division Three national championship, they ran the
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  fastest time in New England at all divisions in both the four
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  by one and four by four. So they beat all the Division
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  One teams into the in New England.
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  So that was a lot of fun. And because of that, I ended up
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  at Brown University. And so Michelle Eisenreich at
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  the time was the head coach of Brown, and she called and said,
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  I'm looking for a sprint's coach.
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  And I know you're in the area and you're doing a great job at
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  Wheaton. And so I worked at Brown for two
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  years and had a great experience at Brown.
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  It's a wonderful place. So that makes a lot of sense.
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  When this young coach was interviewing for the head coach
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  of the greatest university in the world, Troy University, when
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  he called me up and he said, hey, we've got a mutual friend,
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  Mark. He said I should call you.
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  Yeah, I missed. I didn't know the Brown part of
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  this actually forgotten Wheaton too.
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  So the number one question I have through all of that is
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  what's harder to coach collegiate track athletes or
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  first grade teaching first graders?
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  I would tell you that teaching first grade is nerve racking
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  because if you screw something up in track and field, people
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  are probably going to be all right in life.
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  If you're screwing things up in the 1st grade, you might be
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  setting this person on the wrong trajectory and that is is is a
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  lot of stress. I've got a third grade in the
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  kindergarten. I can't imagine.
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  Yeah, we, we, you know, we are so blessed with our teachers,
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  Man, that's a tough job. Coaching college.
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  Track and field is tough. To your point, man, first grade.
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  And in that time span, any teacher, really.
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  But holy how? Yeah.
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  And I can't imagine, you know what?
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  What years was that roughly? Oh that would have been like 98
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  to like 2000. Yeah, imagine now in 2020, My,
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  my, my son's in 3rd grade. And there are, I think in his
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  class, his classroom, not the whole 3rd grade.
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  There's like 10 kids that have their own cell phones already.
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  Oh, wow. I'm like third grade.
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  We live in a pretty nice, you know, neighbor city there in, in
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  Mohammed. There's a lead for like it's a
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  small town. Yeah.
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  You know, Wow, it's great. It's unbelievable.
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  So what did it's interesting you coached, you know, everything
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  from the 60 up to the 10K. So you, you mentioned you were
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  more in Bridgewater as an athlete.
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  You were more of a 800. Middle distance 100.
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  Yeah. Is that right?
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  What? What kind of athlete were you?
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  I was mediocre at. Best What kind of times?
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  No, I ran honestly like when I when I was a Division Three
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  athlete and I probably belonged in long distance, the 5K and
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  10K. But everyone always wants to run
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  shorter than what they probably really are.
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  And so 800 runners want to be 400 meter runners, 400 meter
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  runners want to be 100 runners, and 100 runners just want to run
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  the 60, No. 100 wants to move to the four.
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  And so, you know, I probably belonged in the longer
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  distances, but I didn't, my brain, my ego wouldn't allow me
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  to do that. I thought I was more of like an
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  800m runner and a Miller. And in high school I ran the
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  mall and two mile at every dual meet because we're trying to win
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  all the dual meets. It was important to our program
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  to have a good dual meet record and then didn't do a lot of
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  middle distance. So I actually went from being
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  more of a mile and two mile in high school to being more of an
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  800 and 1500 runner in college. And like I said, I probably
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  belong in the longer distances. And so when we ran in high
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  school on the in the four by eight, we won the the state
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  championship in the 4 by 4 by 8 indoors on this track here at
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  Harvard. And so this place has a special
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  place in my heart. But I was the 6th fastest 800m
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  runner on the team. It's just two of the guys ran an
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  open events and then came back for the four by four.
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  And Massachusetts had one of those rules that it was 111.
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  You can do 1 field event, one relay and one track event back
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  in the day. And so so I was lucky enough to
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  be on the full budget and even though I was our sixth fastest
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  person, we still were able. To.
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  Yeah, yeah. And so like, you know, if I ran
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  under 2O3 in high school, I was jumping up and down.
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  And so that was good for me. But I mean, I literally would
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  run the mile and two mile at every doom meet and then just
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  get all of a sudden to the to the late season be like, OK, now
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  you're an 800m runner. And I was clueless.
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  And then when I get to college, you know, I had some growing
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  pains and, and you know, I was struggling to get acclimated to
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  college life, academics. So it took me a while to kind of
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  iron things out right in my junior year and my senior year,
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  I ran on a full by it again at Bridgewater State College at the
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  Division Three New England Championship.
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  And I think I ran like 157 or 158 relay leg and like breaking
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  2 minutes was like such a big deal to me.
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  And I was, you know, it's and I know in today's day and age,
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  like, you know, that would make me.
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  You know, I still think breaking two, it's respectable.
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  It really is. We were, we had Family Day at
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  the University of Illinois track meet this past Saturday.
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  So I had my kid there and Debris Harris on the staff at U of I.
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  So I got to introduce him to my kid.
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  And my kid knows enough about track.
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  I was like, you know, he runs the eight, He ran the 800.
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  And I was like, yeah, you know, Debris ran so two laps on the
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  outdoor track 140 and I couldn't never feels 147.
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  And he's like 1:45. And I was like, holy crap.
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  I was like. 1. 45 like that's a honestly, you run 157 like
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  you're like, oh, you're because I was 1/2 mile too.
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  Yeah, I didn't even come close to breaking the two.
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  So you break 2. It's like, oh, OK, you're you're
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  respectful. 145 yeah dude. And I knew he was a stud anyway,
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  but just that's a whole different level.
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  So thankfully I work with student athletes that are way
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  more talented than I was. And I, I am a, you know, they,
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  they always say those who, who can't do coach and so.
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  When they asked me about, you know, what kind of athlete I was
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  versus a coach, and I say the same thing, you know, those who
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  can't teach, I go, well, I was a really good teacher and I really
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  couldn't do it. Yeah, it was very exponential.
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  I think track and field changed my life.
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  It taught me a lot of good values in life and set me up for
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  success and helped me get to where I am today because of, you
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  know, trials and tribulations. Because, you know, in a lot of
• 15:25
  sports, you know, basketball, football, you know, there's, you
• 15:29
  know, five people in the court working together, 11 people in
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  the field working together. And one person could have a bad
• 15:34
  day and the team could still succeed.
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  And in in it might not be as exposed versus, you know, in
• 15:41
  track and field. You're out there by yourself and
• 15:43
  everybody knows whether you did good or bad and you're on the in
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  the spotlight. And so at the as soon as the
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  race is over, you know, or the competition is over, you know,
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  like, was that good or bad? Did you win or lose?
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  And, and so I think the, the sport has really taught me a lot
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  of great values that helped me not just as a coach, but also in
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  life. And, And so I think being a
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  Division Three athlete was amazing.
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  And, and spending time at a Division Three school, I think
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  is one of the most probably, it's probably the best thing
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  that that happened to me as a coach, because you learn to deal
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  with not having all of the resources and figuring things
• 16:23
  out. And the first thing I learned in
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  an education classes, you know, if if you walk into your
• 16:27
  classroom in the morning before the students get there and the
• 16:30
  sprinklers went off the night before and everything's wet and
• 16:32
  they're going to have plumbers in there fixing the sprinkler
• 16:35
  system. You can't go down to the
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  cafeteria and just pop in a movie and have the, the students
• 16:40
  watch movies all day. You've got to figure it out, you
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  know, because they're there to learn and you've got to do your
• 16:45
  job. And so you have to adapt.
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  And being a Division Three coach, I know that, you know, we
• 16:50
  had to adapt told you we won the four by one national
• 16:53
  championship. We didn't have an outdoor track.
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  We figured it out. And so and so you just have to
• 16:59
  be able to adapt. And I think being a teacher,
• 17:02
  being a Division Three athlete working at Division Three helped
• 17:05
  me understand that like we're just going to get this figured
• 17:07
  out. So when things happen at
• 17:08
  practice or we don't have access to this or that, we just figure
• 17:11
  it out. And, and you think about some
• 17:14
  great, great coaches that were, you know, in, in, in my opinion,
• 17:18
  that were Division Three athletes or worked at Division
• 17:20
  Three schools, Todd Lane at LSU. You think about K Batover here
• 17:24
  at Harvard, Ron Gregg at Jacksonville University.
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  There's many others. And, and, and, and I think that
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  there's a lot of value in that. And, and having those
• 17:33
  experiences of being able to do more with less.
• 17:36
  Yeah. That's interesting.
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  You know, some of the coaches you mentioned are in the same
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  bucket. You know, there's a lot of talk
• 17:44
  about the great Division One coaches.
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  You know, obviously the the guys who went a lot of Pat Henry,
• 17:49
  Dennis Shavers and Carol Smith's and those guys and gals.
• 17:52
  And they do and they do a phenomenon.
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  It's a whole different set of circumstances that they're
• 17:56
  under. And I don't mean that in like
• 17:58
  all the positive. They have a lot of positives,
• 18:00
  but there's our own stressors and negatives that they have to
• 18:02
  absolutely issues that they have to deal with.
• 18:05
  I always tell people, you know, go look at the Division Three
• 18:08
  national championship final results do those are some
• 18:13
  amazing results, especially when you consider no athletic
• 18:17
  scholarships. Most of those kids were not
• 18:19
  Division One, division two recruitable recruited.
• 18:23
  It's it's unbelievable. They're some of the best coaches
• 18:26
  technically around in Division Three level.
• 18:28
  Mike IA 100% agree with you. I, I, I think that a lot of
• 18:32
  times people turn their noses up at Division Three and, and, and
• 18:37
  I, I think some of the best coaches, some of the hardest
• 18:40
  working athletes, the most appreciative people are at
• 18:44
  Division Three. And like I said, I was a
• 18:45
  Division Three student athlete and I had an amazing experience,
• 18:48
  right? Let's so you went from Division
• 18:50
  Three and Bridgewater to University of Houston, which
• 18:55
  yeah, yeah, I guess what's classified as mid major, what
• 18:58
  not Obviously they run some pretty non mid major times, but
• 19:02
  major but still larger in resources, larger say larger
• 19:09
  city only because you were not in Boston proper, you know, but
• 19:12
  Houston itself. So what was that like?
• 19:14
  And obviously, you know, you got to share some tales, secrets.
• 19:19
  One of the. All time greats.
• 19:21
  Well, going back to Division Three and other thing many
• 19:25
  people don't know is that Tom Perez was also a Division Three
• 19:28
  athlete. He was a Division Three hurdler,
• 19:30
  I believe was Whittier in California, really.
• 19:33
  And so one of people that I consider my mentors was a
• 19:37
  Division Three athlete himself and someone that has coached
• 19:41
  many, many world record holders, gold medalists, world champions
• 19:46
  and so changed. How?
• 19:48
  Coaching, absolutely, yeah. And I think that when I first
• 19:53
  arrived at Houston, it was, it was just amazing because they
• 19:57
  did, they had more resources than I've ever been exposed to
• 20:00
  in my coaching career and athletic career.
• 20:03
  And they had both an indoor and an outdoor track.
• 20:07
  And, and so it was, you know, they had their own strength
• 20:12
  coaches and pro athletic trainers.
• 20:15
  And, and so there were a lot of really great things.
• 20:17
  But, you know, it doesn't matter what division you're at, what
• 20:20
  size school you're at, you know the.
• 20:22
  You know, the the grind is still the grind and and the athletes
• 20:25
  are still student athletes And so so when I arrived there, it
• 20:30
  was it was really an eye open experience, but gave me an
• 20:32
  opportunity to a learn because it's such a knowledgeable staff
• 20:36
  and and and track and field is huge in Houston.
• 20:39
  You know H town speed, you know speed city.
• 20:42
  So and so it's it's a great place.
• 20:45
  It was a great place to learn, but also giving an opportunity
• 20:47
  to coach gave me the opportunity to understand athletes better
• 20:53
  and and also understand training better and giving an opportunity
• 20:58
  to make mistakes and learn. And so, you know, going to the
• 21:02
  University of Houston was eye opening for me.
• 21:05
  It was exciting. I wore that H on my chest with
• 21:08
  so much pride. It really like I was so proud to
• 21:12
  be part of their organization, even though in a in a very small
• 21:15
  way. And and so it was, you know, a
• 21:19
  great experience for me. You know, I did my master's
• 21:21
  degree while I was there in sports administration in my time
• 21:24
  there. And, you know, I worked in the
• 21:26
  school system and then worked my way up to, you know, working for
• 21:29
  the University of Houston. And what?
• 21:31
  Group did you work? With there, so I would my when I
• 21:36
  had my own group, it was mostly the kind of like the four eight
• 21:39
  group and where I had a background in middle distance,
• 21:42
  distance and then learning from, you know, coach Burrell and
• 21:46
  coach Chalez and and the other wonderful resources that they
• 21:49
  have there. It was kind of like that perfect
• 21:52
  marriage of of sprinting and in middle distance to work with
• 21:56
  that group. And then I also assisted coach
• 21:58
  Burrell and coach Tolez, Kyle Tolez with the jumps and
• 22:02
  everything that they needed, because when you go to a track
• 22:05
  meet, you can't always be everywhere and there's so much
• 22:08
  going on at once. So if Kyle was dealing with the
• 22:11
  pole vault, you know, I would help out with the horizontal
• 22:13
  jumps. If you know, Coach Tolez was in
• 22:15
  the warm up area, I'd be on the track.
• 22:17
  And so just trying to help the program any way that I could.
• 22:21
  So I had a small part in the actual coaching individual
• 22:27
  student athletes, but took as big of a position as I could
• 22:30
  helping the entire program because I wanted to learn and I
• 22:33
  want to learn all of the events. And so even though I'd never
• 22:37
  competitively came out of blocks, I've never competitively
• 22:40
  long jumped. I've never competitively gone
• 22:43
  over a hurdle, you know, these are the things that I love
• 22:46
  coaching and teaching now. So where does that come from?
• 22:48
  Because I talked to a lot of coaches that, you know, they
• 22:52
  want to be the best Sprint coach and so they don't even think
• 22:56
  about long jump and triple or high jump or the coaches that
• 22:59
  just want to be pole ball coach. There's a lot of just pole ball
• 23:02
  coaches, right? Where does this kind of breath
• 23:05
  of coaching come from? I think that I have a thirst for
• 23:09
  knowledge that like, I just like absorbing, you know, new
• 23:12
  information and trying things. And so I, I enjoy the process of
• 23:17
  learning and, and I think that if I just coached one event,
• 23:22
  honestly, I think I'd be bored. And so I, I enjoy the, the
• 23:25
  challenge of working with multi events.
• 23:27
  I enjoy the challenge of learning all of the big things
• 23:30
  and little things, whether it's big rocks or small rocks, like I
• 23:33
  love it all. And, but I also, you know,
• 23:38
  believe that, you know, speed power is speed power.
• 23:40
  So, you know, I have a lot of jumpers that can Sprint and
• 23:43
  sprinters that can jump and hurdlers that help on the
• 23:46
  relays. And so being able to work with
• 23:49
  that group, I feel like helps us at a track meet because they're
• 23:53
  all related in so many different ways.
• 23:56
  And so, you know, I, I do, I think that, you know, originally
• 24:00
  going back to what I said, my thirst for knowledge and, and
• 24:03
  wanting to work with all of these groups is, is a lot of fun
• 24:06
  for me. And it's, and it can be a
• 24:07
  challenge at times and it can be a grind, but I enjoy doing it.
• 24:11
  And, and I love working with student athletes.
• 24:14
  And, and so it gives me the opportunity to, you know, meet
• 24:20
  and work with a lot of wonderful people and also give back.
• 24:25
  And I think that's a really important thing for me in in
• 24:27
  learning life lessons and. Well, you, you had the Taleszas,
• 24:30
  which you know, they've given so much to this sport and coaching
• 24:33
  aspect as well as a coaching athletes coach to coach as well
• 24:36
  as a coaching athlete. And then you did some USATF
• 24:41
  education as well. Yep.
• 24:43
  Which level twos and stuff did you get there?
• 24:45
  So I did level 2 sprints, hurdles, jumps and then was.
• 24:52
  That was that Dennis and. Gary yeah, it was Dennis, Gary
• 24:57
  and Amy and Miami. And then when I did, and then I
• 25:02
  also did with Cliff Ravalto and Rock Lite, the combined events
• 25:06
  and then obviously Boo Jim and Keba for the jumps.
• 25:10
  And so, you know, so it was just great experience, great
• 25:15
  learning, it was a lot of fun and so happy that coaching
• 25:18
  education exists. It exists in in more levels than
• 25:22
  now than it did before and different groups.
• 25:24
  But I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing because,
• 25:27
  you know, information is, is information and, and the fact
• 25:30
  that we share things in our sport is awesome that we want to
• 25:34
  help each other. We want to be on the same page.
• 25:36
  We want to speak the same language.
• 25:38
  I think it's really important so that, you know, we're not all
• 25:40
  calling the same thing different, and we're all
• 25:43
  confused by everything. Yeah, that.
• 25:45
  Helps us all and I think you know, through level first of
• 25:49
  all, a lot of those teachers that you mentioned, you know,
• 25:51
  the Gary's and boos and such are very much in that same vein.
• 25:55
  They're not like you couldn't pigeonhole them.
• 25:57
  You may say Boo as a jumps coach, but that guy's coach
• 26:00
  Hunter Meter, you know, 4x4, what time the four by one at LSU
• 26:04
  when Boo was there, they won the national title and I don't think
• 26:06
  they had a single 100m guy on it.
• 26:08
  I think it was a 2400 meter hurdlers, I think a triple
• 26:11
  jumper and then maybe an open four.
• 26:14
  But there was no pure. They won the title.
• 26:17
  Yeah. So Boo obviously had a lot of
• 26:19
  influence there and Gary Dennison and Pat as well.
• 26:22
  And Gary, of course, another great long jump, triple jump,
• 26:25
  plus hurdles. So.
• 26:28
  Probably coach high jump for all I know, but that variety of
• 26:32
  knowledge and and again to your point, you know, on the on the
• 26:35
  basics, you know, power, speed and power on it's on the bottom
• 26:39
  of the pyramid are all the same in that sense.
• 26:41
  And then you kind of start working to specificity and then
• 26:44
  techniques and stuff like that. Yeah, that's interesting.
• 26:47
  And are you doing or have you done any?
• 26:50
  Because you mentioned about the different types of education we
• 26:52
  have out now. Back back when you and I did it
• 26:54
  together, it was just us ATF, besides camps and clinics.
• 26:58
  Now we have a very robust UTFUSTFCCCCA education as well.
• 27:03
  Do you do any of those? So I did the strength and
• 27:07
  conditioning, you know, anytime I get an opportunity to listen
• 27:11
  to Boo talk is always a great opportunity.
• 27:14
  And so he asked me to host a track and field Academy at Brown
• 27:23
  University when I was there. So I was able to host it and
• 27:26
  participate in it. And then when there was another
• 27:29
  strength conditioning certification offered in Rhode
• 27:32
  Island when I was still working at Brown, I took advantage of
• 27:34
  that as well. And obviously Cable, who's on
• 27:38
  staff here, teaches the sprints and hurdles at the Academy.
• 27:43
  So, you know, I feel very fortunate that I work with A
• 27:47
  great sprints jumps coach and you know, we're always going to
• 27:51
  have problems as as coaches. And I have this great network of
• 27:56
  of people that I can reach out to that are mentors, whether it
• 28:00
  be, you know, Boo and like you said, he's very well-rounded.
• 28:03
  Boo has made me a great sprints coach, even though that everyone
• 28:07
  thinks he's a jumps coach and he's such a good coach in every
• 28:11
  event. And, you know, we've used him as
• 28:15
  a consultant along with Dan Path.
• 28:17
  And, you know, I've blessed enough to through coaches
• 28:22
  education to have a lot of connections to a lot of other
• 28:24
  great coaches, whether they're peers or whether they're people
• 28:26
  that are my mentors. But I feel even equally as
• 28:29
  blessed that I work with somebody that, you know, if I'm
• 28:31
  having an issue with a student athlete or a group or, or a
• 28:35
  situation that I have someone in, you know, two offices away
• 28:39
  that I can go down and talk to and kind of talk through it with
• 28:41
  them. And, and I think that we really
• 28:43
  kind of complement each other well in that way that, you know,
• 28:46
  I don't always have to make a phone call.
• 28:48
  I can literally walk, you know, 10 meters down the down the hall
• 28:52
  and have a conversation. You get the 10m and the phone.
• 28:55
  Line, Yes, absolutely. And you?
• 28:56
  Know you mentioned Boo and I can't ever say enough good
• 29:00
  things about Boo a little bit. Like I think you mentioned it
• 29:03
  with the tales about how you felt like maybe he thought you
• 29:07
  were being a bug in the past or whatever.
• 29:09
  Same thing with Boo. When I first met Boo, I don't
• 29:12
  remember where the 1st place I was and I'd e-mail him and he
• 29:15
  would respond, Yeah, it was nobody.
• 29:17
  You. Know it was it was amazing.
• 29:19
  And then when I signed up for my first level 2, you know, I
• 29:23
  wanted to be that singular coach.
• 29:24
  I wanted to be the best sprints and hurdles coach.
• 29:27
  I didn't care about jumps. I didn't care about distance,
• 29:29
  things like that. So I try to do the sprints.
• 29:32
  Well, Mike Corn calls me up and says hey, it's it's full.
• 29:35
  But I do have a a jump slot and I was like, well, I guess I got
• 29:38
  to coach it, so I guess I'll go. It was the best.
• 29:42
  That's probably the best thing that ever.
• 29:44
  Happening sprints and hurdles the next year.
• 29:46
  And I had Dennis and Gary and I don't think it was Amy that you
• 29:50
  was in Asheville, but you know, they're great and they're
• 29:53
  fantastic. I mean, Dennis and Gary, come
• 29:56
  on. And if Amy was the other one,
• 29:57
  that was awesome, you know. But I still went back and worked
• 30:01
  with Boo more than anything. Yeah, I had said that I love my
• 30:05
  experience and, you know, level 2 sprints and hurdles and had
• 30:10
  great presenters, but I did. I also said that the next year
• 30:14
  when I was in the jumps group that I learned more about
• 30:17
  sprinting in the jumps group than I did in the sprints group.
• 30:19
  And I don't mean that negatively negative.
• 30:20
  It was just the truth. It was like Boo was such a good
• 30:24
  teacher. He's so knowledgeable.
• 30:27
  He's he's obviously a great coach, but what I think makes
• 30:30
  him a great coach is he's a great teacher.
• 30:32
  He takes advanced concepts and makes them very easy to
• 30:35
  understand. And I do the same thing at
• 30:37
  practice. I took that directly from Boo.
• 30:40
  Like the cues that I use and when I'm having conversations,
• 30:42
  just keep it simple. Like I work at Harvard.
• 30:46
  I get it. People probably think that I
• 30:49
  need to give some high level, you know, $1,000,000 word, you
• 30:54
  know, you know. Q And then the reality is like,
• 30:57
  just keep it simple because if you can do the simple things,
• 31:01
  great things are going to happen.
• 31:03
  And and and I, and I learned that from Boo is that when
• 31:06
  you're teaching people like, if you're the more you talk, the
• 31:10
  more you over coach, the bigger words you use, just the more
• 31:13
  confusing you get. And so just keep it simple.
• 31:15
  And, and I remember sitting and learning about, you know,
• 31:18
  basically bio mechanics and, and the physics of athletics and,
• 31:23
  and, and this man just made it simple.
• 31:25
  Yeah, and training theory part that for me that just yeah, just
• 31:29
  changed my whole coach. I coached for 10 years and had
• 31:32
  Boo at the end of my fifth year and you clearly can see a
• 31:36
  difference in athletes. I was able to produce my second
• 31:39
  five year blog versus my first without doubt.
• 31:41
  I mean, it's and that middle was actually my two years at Ball
• 31:45
  State. So my two years, one year
• 31:48
  without Boo at Ball State, one year with you had a great
• 31:52
  phenomenal long jumper, triple jumper.
• 31:54
  She had jumped just under. I think I got her at 20 feet and
• 31:57
  then forty, maybe 4041 and a triple after Boo.
• 32:02
  So she went 22 something that year and 40.
• 32:06
  I think she went dated 44 something and legal 43.
• 32:09
  Yeah. And it was just, yeah, a few
• 32:11
  and, you know, ran on our 4 by 4 split 52 or something.
• 32:15
  Like, I mean, there's just a whole different ball game when
• 32:18
  you think of things that are all different.
• 32:20
  Can you draw stick figures as well?
• 32:24
  No, I try, I try, but man can draw some stick figures.
• 32:29
  I think that's his spatial awareness.
• 32:31
  Put it in the 2D is is just phenomenal, phenomenal.
• 32:35
  So Houston was great and a lot of great people Who who was the
• 32:38
  head coach? Coach Burrell had just taken
• 32:41
  over. Yeah.
• 32:42
  So Leroy was the was the head coach a long time.
• 32:44
  Yeah. And he's he's done a great job.
• 32:46
  Yeah. Just an amazing job.
• 32:48
  Man, that's, that's interesting. I was having a conversation last
• 32:51
  year with a couple of coaches and we are trying to come up
• 32:54
  with coaches that had been at the same university for a length
• 32:57
  of time. Yeah, like.
• 32:58
  The average time is is shrinking, but we we were able
• 33:03
  to come up with a couple. I don't think we mentioned Leroy
• 33:05
  though. Yeah.
• 33:06
  Yeah, he's, I can't remember what year he actually started,
• 33:09
  but like, I mean, when his career was over as a as a
• 33:12
  professional runner, I mean, pretty soon afterwards when
• 33:15
  Coach Tolez announced that he was going to retire, he Leroy
• 33:18
  took over, so went from coach Tolez to coach Burrell and.
• 33:22
  Was that before 2000 or? I think I I it was right around
• 33:27
  there. I don't.
• 33:27
  You think it's 20 years? I want to say it's just it was
• 33:30
  just before 2000. Wow.
• 33:31
  Here's my recollection. So he's been, he's been the head
• 33:33
  coach for 20. Years.
• 33:34
  Yeah, I think so, yeah. And again, it feels like
• 33:36
  yesterday I was watching him on TV.
• 33:39
  Exactly, Yeah. Man, we're, we're getting old.
• 33:43
  Man, we're just. Yeah, and we're not getting
• 33:45
  younger. Yeah, exactly.
• 33:46
  So let's get here to Harvard. This is obviously a very unique
• 33:50
  institution academically. Hopefully everybody understands
• 33:56
  Harvard and the academics and such and how that plays into
• 33:59
  here. Over the past 8-9 years, you
• 34:02
  guys have had some incredible success.
• 34:06
  We were talking earlier, you know, one of my favorite trivia
• 34:08
  questions is, you know, what school holds the women's indoor
• 34:11
  200m national record. Most people would guess, you
• 34:14
  know, great athletic programs like a USC or an LSU or Miami.
• 34:19
  It's Florida, whatever. And it's it's Harvard.
• 34:23
  Yeah, it's a Harvard. What was her major?
• 34:25
  What did tell me her name? Gabby.
• 34:27
  Gabby Thomas So. What did someone who ran that
• 34:30
  fast major in? It, I believe she was trying to
• 34:33
  think she was looking into going to medical school.
• 34:38
  I think she kind of changed her train of thought and was still
• 34:42
  in the sciences, but as she went through her four years here,
• 34:45
  Kiba obviously coached her in the sprints, but she I think
• 34:51
  believed she was neurobiology and.
• 34:55
  Neurobiology. I can't spell neurobiology.
• 34:59
  And so, but she is a shining example of of someone that came
• 35:04
  here and did well academically, did well athletically and, and,
• 35:11
  and just really got it done at Harvard.
• 35:13
  And, and, you know, a lot of times people say, well, you
• 35:15
  can't, you can't run fast at Harvard.
• 35:18
  And, you know, we hear that, you know, in the recruiting process
• 35:21
  and it's just not true. Is that because you think
• 35:24
  because of the is there a type of the weather or is it the
• 35:28
  academics? It's probably a combination of
• 35:31
  things like. Academics, there's other great
• 35:33
  academic institutions that do really well.
• 35:35
  Absolutely. Hanford and UNC and yeah, you
• 35:37
  know, the Harvard of the S Troy University.
• 35:40
  Yeah. So there, you know, it's not
• 35:42
  unprecedented. Yeah.
• 35:44
  In fact, actually, you know, going back to D3, look at some
• 35:46
  of the D3 majors from an MIT and other colleges that I love
• 35:51
  looking at. USA TODAY at least used to print
• 35:55
  out an all football, all American team, but regardless
• 35:58
  division academic. And so you'd see these football
• 36:01
  players and they'd be neurobiologist and nuclear and
• 36:05
  then be like, holy cow, these kids are doing full time
• 36:08
  football and studying this. And they were, you know, they
• 36:11
  weren't just all Harvard, they were, you know, schools all
• 36:13
  around Carnegie Mellons and and things.
• 36:16
  So it it can't be just the academics.
• 36:19
  No, it's, you know, I think that being successful here at Harvard
• 36:24
  for me was not only understanding the athletic side
• 36:26
  of things, but understanding the academic side of things.
• 36:29
  And so when I started to better understand the academics here, I
• 36:35
  became a better athletic coach here.
• 36:37
  And so both myself and Cable are both first year advisors.
• 36:41
  So we advise, you know, first year students each year and
• 36:46
  they're not necessarily athletes, they're definitely not
• 36:48
  on the track and field team. And so I I have.
• 36:52
  So what's that? Entail And so we basically help
• 36:56
  first year students navigate, you know, the trials and
• 37:01
  tribulations of adjusting to college and so with picking
• 37:04
  classes, having the right balance resources that are
• 37:08
  available to them. So we have to go to a, you know,
• 37:12
  the first year you had to go to an orientation that was, you
• 37:14
  know, all day long. You learn everything about
• 37:16
  Harvard and all the wonderful resources that we have because
• 37:19
  there's so many that it's almost confusing.
• 37:21
  And then from there, each year we have to go back to 1/2 day
• 37:27
  one just to get a refresher because there's always new
• 37:29
  things and, and things to kind of go over and reminders.
• 37:33
  And so, you know, Kamer and I are both first year advisors.
• 37:36
  And so we've learned about like all of these wonderful things
• 37:39
  that are available here and things that student athletes go
• 37:42
  through and what when they're going to go through those things
• 37:44
  because of how the academics are set up here.
• 37:47
  And I think that being academic advisors here have really made
• 37:51
  us better coaches and understanding, you know, what
• 37:54
  goes on. So we recruit really hard.
• 37:56
  We recruit high level students, high level athletes and and we
• 38:01
  care about their academic and athletic success while they're
• 38:03
  here. And, and I think that's how our
• 38:06
  entire staff has really helped raise the bar in Harvard
• 38:11
  athletics. And so the team, you know, last
• 38:14
  year we were our men's program, two out of the last three years
• 38:18
  had the highest GPA in the country for the visual and track
• 38:20
  and field programs. And our guys are not taking, you
• 38:23
  know, you know, very, you know, easy classes, they're
• 38:27
  challenging themselves and, and so.
• 38:30
  You're telling me my public relations major, which was I was
• 38:34
  basically just in the studio newspaper, Yes, wouldn't have
• 38:36
  fly here. So no, but I, but I think the
• 38:39
  students take challenging courses, but they have courses
• 38:41
  that they take where they can explore and learn, you know,
• 38:45
  about other things as well and and you know, maybe not be as
• 38:48
  intensive, but still quality courses.
• 38:51
  But The thing is that, but they care about athletics as well.
• 38:55
  And so we recruit high level student athletes and people that
• 38:58
  are right fit for Harvard, that they want to be high level
• 39:02
  athletes, but they truly care about the academic side of
• 39:05
  things. And I think if someone just
• 39:07
  cared about academics, they wouldn't be a good fit for a
• 39:10
  track and field program. If they just cared about track
• 39:14
  and fields and didn't really care about their academics as
• 39:16
  much, like they probably wouldn't be a good fit.
• 39:18
  We have a good balance. And I think the proof is in the
• 39:21
  pudding because not only have we had the highest men's GPA in the
• 39:25
  country two out of the last three years, but we've also had
• 39:29
  all Americans and people qualifying for their, you know,
• 39:32
  junior championships, under 20s and, and you know, also, you
• 39:37
  know, their country's national championships and things of that
• 39:39
  nature. So we've had a lot of success
• 39:42
  and, and you know, it, you know, surprises people that we have,
• 39:47
  you know, success athletically. But you know, it's not a
• 39:49
  surprise that we have success academically.
• 39:52
  But but we, we get it done on both sides of the river.
• 39:54
  You know, I explained to you that, you know, one side of the
• 39:57
  river is Boston, the other side of the river is Cambridge, but
• 39:59
  we're all one campus. But you know, like I said, the
• 40:01
  Athletics is on the Boston side, but we get we get stuff done on
• 40:04
  both sides of the river. So to get into Harvard is no
• 40:08
  easy task that so these the kids, the guys and gals that
• 40:13
  make it in here obviously already at a high level academic
• 40:16
  place in their life. How hard is it?
• 40:21
  Would that not make it easier for them to transition to
• 40:24
  college because they're already used to, presumably, you know,
• 40:28
  rigorous academics and studying and papers and what have you?
• 40:32
  I think that's a great question. And I, and I think that the
• 40:36
  struggle of adjusting from high school to college is probably
• 40:41
  the same at every school in the country because the people that
• 40:43
  you're admitting are the right fit for your institution.
• 40:48
  And no matter what school you go to, it's going to be a struggle.
• 40:51
  And so yes, we have kids that are, you know, have great
• 40:55
  academic success in, in high school.
• 40:57
  When they come here, you know, they have to hit the ground
• 40:59
  running and, and make sure that they're working at a level that
• 41:04
  the professors, you know, kind of throw with them.
• 41:08
  And I think, yes, they are prepared for it, but they have
• 41:11
  the same adjustment that other student athletes all across the
• 41:14
  world go through, which is moving away from mom and dad or
• 41:18
  family members or having someone else cook your meals or, or
• 41:23
  going to school for 12 years with the same people and having
• 41:26
  a comfort level of adjusting to not only a new room, but a new
• 41:30
  person in that room. And there's a lot of things that
• 41:33
  that I think students go through when they go to college.
• 41:36
  And it, it's the same here. So, you know, the struggle of
• 41:39
  adjusting college is real. And it doesn't matter what
• 41:41
  school you go to, it's, it's, you know, you have to make sure
• 41:44
  that you have the right resources and, and communicate
• 41:48
  well so that you can adjust. And, and I think that we have
• 41:51
  the, the resources here where the, the students do adjust
• 41:55
  fairly well once they get to campus.
• 41:58
  And, and I think that, you know, other schools have their
• 42:01
  resources as well that help students adjust to, to their
• 42:04
  first year on their own. And, and so, so I think that,
• 42:08
  you know, academically, you know, we have students that took
• 42:12
  rigorous courses and, and did well academically in high
• 42:15
  school, But you know, the expectations are for them to
• 42:17
  come in and do the same. And, and if you're at a
• 42:19
  different school and you know, whatever their minimum GPA and
• 42:23
  SAT requirements are when they come in, the expectations are
• 42:26
  the same. You get to adjust.
• 42:27
  So it's maybe less of the academic pressure, which they're
• 42:31
  certainly, it obviously is cranked up into Harvard versus
• 42:34
  no matter what high school they went to, I would assume.
• 42:37
  But then when you add that mix of I'm not beholden to a family
• 42:41
  member, like, you know, I have to be home at 6:00 or 7:00, mom
• 42:45
  or dad or whomever is going to check in on me most times.
• 42:49
  Well, here I don't have that. I could be out till midnight.
• 42:51
  No one would even know. So you have to build it just to
• 42:54
  those. And you're in the city of
• 42:55
  Boston, which, you know, is there going to be a lot of, you
• 42:58
  can find yourself in a lot of mischief here.
• 43:00
  What What percentage of athletes are coming from this Boston, New
• 43:05
  England area versus the rest of the country in the world?
• 43:09
  You know, it's, it's, it's funny, We, we have the ability
• 43:11
  to attract people from all over the world.
• 43:13
  We have people from all over the United States, all over North
• 43:18
  America, the Caribbean, all over Europe, Australia, We have
• 43:23
  people from all over the place. And so it's a wonderful
• 43:27
  opportunity to to recruit the brightest and the best in the
• 43:31
  world. And so it's really a an
• 43:35
  opportunity to get to know people, get to know different
• 43:40
  parts of the world, get to know, you know, how their track and
• 43:43
  field systems work, because the high school system here in the
• 43:46
  United States is very different than in Europe, the club system
• 43:49
  versus the high school system. And so, you know, we, we truly
• 43:53
  do have an opportunity to recruit all over the world.
• 43:57
  And and yeah, we have people from the New England area, but
• 44:00
  like, it's, it's not like a high percentage of our student
• 44:02
  athletes. We just recruit the brightest
• 44:04
  and the best. We don't care where you're from.
• 44:06
  What's? It take roughly to get into
• 44:07
  Harvard. A really solid GPA, a solid SAT
• 44:13
  or ACT score, extracurricular activities.
• 44:17
  But the most important thing, honestly, I feel is being a good
• 44:20
  community member. And so if if you're a good
• 44:23
  community member and, and you know, admissions knows that,
• 44:26
  then you know, I think you you have a shot.
• 44:28
  You know, all the other things need to be in order as well.
• 44:30
  But but. Like a strict like man.
• 44:32
  If you're no. 30 something in the ACT.
• 44:35
  Yeah, it's, it's one of those things that it's, it's case by
• 44:38
  case because depends on, you know, is there a story and, and
• 44:41
  things like that. So it's, it's a tough, we get
• 44:43
  that question a lot, but it's a really tough question to answer
• 44:46
  because it really just depends. And so, you know, sometimes
• 44:52
  people have to go through a couple extra hoops, take a
• 44:55
  little bit longer to, you know, make the process work and, and
• 44:59
  some people, you know, are blessed and, and are already
• 45:02
  kind of ready to go. And, and so, you know, it really
• 45:05
  depends on the high school and, and where they're from and
• 45:08
  things like that, because, you know, some high schools have
• 45:11
  people taking the ACT and the SAT as a sophomore and some
• 45:15
  schools won't let them take it till their senior year and they
• 45:18
  don't encourage it. And so, you know, so the the
• 45:21
  process to getting to Harvard or is different for every single
• 45:24
  person that applies, whether they're a student or an athlete,
• 45:27
  it doesn't matter. The processes could look
• 45:30
  completely different. Right.
• 45:31
  Have you ever called to recruit or recruits coach to get more
• 45:34
  information? And they were surprised Harvard
• 45:36
  was caught like really hard. Like, are you really from
• 45:38
  Harvard? I will say that it's, it's, it's
• 45:42
  interesting because you know, I've, I had never experienced
• 45:48
  this before. When I, when I got to Harvard, I
• 45:51
  remember making a phone call one time and my parent was like, I,
• 45:57
  you know, I answered the phone and I said, you know, he's Coach
• 46:01
  Manchacotti from Harvard University, you know, and said
• 46:04
  the name of their their son and said, you know, like they
• 46:09
  available. And I remember the parent
• 46:10
  covering the phone and then yelling the kids name and saying
• 46:14
  it's the code from Harvard. And, and I was like, oh, that's,
• 46:19
  that's nice. And so it was like, yeah, that
• 46:22
  was at a level, yeah, a really level of excitement.
• 46:25
  I think, you know, people know that this place opens doors.
• 46:28
  And so, you know, the opportunity to find out if it's
• 46:30
  a possibility is exciting, I think in a lot of ways.
• 46:34
  And and so did. That kid, come here.
• 46:36
  Yes, good. Yeah, do.
• 46:38
  Well, and Yep, did well academically, did well
• 46:40
  athletically and and is doing great in life.
• 46:43
  And so, but it's I, I think the biggest thing is that people
• 46:48
  don't know that this is an opportunity because they think
• 46:51
  it's like such, you know, like a reach of a school.
• 46:54
  Absolutely. Yeah.
• 46:55
  That they like, oh, I, there's no way I could get to Harvard.
• 46:58
  It's not even in their mind, Right.
• 47:00
  But the reality is, like all of the Ivy League schools are
• 47:02
  wonderful. They're great academic
• 47:04
  institutions. They have great coaches, just a
• 47:07
  great. It's really it's a great
• 47:08
  environment overall. All eight schools are amazing.
• 47:11
  And you were talking about earlier, you know, it's amazing
• 47:13
  how schools the cost of of going to school now is, you know, the
• 47:18
  sticker prices vary. Sticker shock, correct?
• 47:21
  You mentioned it was 70 + 1000 all in.
• 47:23
  Correct. But you were mentioning maybe
• 47:26
  something that Harvard's doing with its endowment for all
• 47:29
  students of different income levels.
• 47:32
  Yeah. You know, they Harvard doesn't
• 47:35
  want someone to be admitted. You know, they did the work in
• 47:38
  high school and you know, they have the the GPA, the test
• 47:40
  score, the extracurricular activities and things like that.
• 47:45
  And then when they get accepted to Harvard, they don't come
• 47:48
  because they can't afford it, that that is not what they want.
• 47:53
  And So what they try to do is set up a financial aid system
• 48:00
  that allows it so that anyone that is accepted to Harvard can
• 48:03
  afford it. And so whether they want to pay
• 48:05
  it or not is up to them, but they can at least afford it.
• 48:08
  And so, you know, they they have very competitive financial aid
• 48:11
  that, you know, rivals like if you get into, you know, your
• 48:15
  state school and Harvard and you qualify for financial aid, it
• 48:19
  would probably cost the same or less to come to Harvard.
• 48:22
  You know, we don't have athletic scholarships, but we have maybe
• 48:26
  the most competitive financial aid in the world.
• 48:28
  This isn't Harvard and Harvard's endowment either the largest or
• 48:32
  one of the. Largest.
• 48:33
  Yeah, it's, it's the large, it's the largest in the world.
• 48:36
  It is climbing up to almost $40 billion.
• 48:38
  It's almost double of what the second largest is.
• 48:41
  So, yeah. So we're very fortunate and
• 48:43
  that's why we have all of these wonderful resources.
• 48:45
  I'll say, well, it's good that they're given.
• 48:47
  I mean, the endowment is supposed to be to give back.
• 48:49
  Yeah, as soon as to get to the university.
• 48:51
  The, the school does the, the university itself does an
• 48:55
  amazing job of making sure that the undergraduates have
• 48:59
  everything that they need on every level.
• 49:02
  And so it's, it's, they really invest back in the institution,
• 49:08
  you know, at the graduate level so that people are set up to,
• 49:10
  you know, go to Graduate School, go to medical school or just
• 49:13
  they're ready for the working world and that they're set for
• 49:16
  life. And, and they truly do care
• 49:18
  about the students that that come to Harvard and want to see
• 49:22
  them succeed while they're on campus and after they leave.
• 49:26
  Do most students go on to get a secondary degree or do they go
• 49:29
  into the. It really just depends on what
• 49:31
  their major is and what they want to do and their passion.
• 49:33
  So it's a tough question because it really just depends.
• 49:38
  Like on your team or what's the split of people who go straight
• 49:42
  into the workforce versus go on and become doctors and.
• 49:46
  I'd say a majority of them, a majority of them go right into
• 49:49
  work, but a lot of them end up going to get some sort of degree
• 49:54
  afterwards. But I think, you know, they
• 49:56
  finish their time here in, in, in having that life experience
• 50:00
  is kind of the next step for them.
• 50:02
  You know, we do have students that go directly to Business
• 50:03
  School or Med school and, and things like that.
• 50:06
  But I think a lot of people are, are itching to get out there
• 50:09
  and, and do work and, and it's, and it's, it's nice, but they're
• 50:14
  very fortunate because a lot of the student athletes here, you
• 50:18
  know, are recruited by companies and, and, and so one of the
• 50:23
  things is that they're being pulled into the workforce before
• 50:28
  they even graduate. I was going to ask about that.
• 50:30
  You have a very highly sought after student body from, you
• 50:35
  know, businesses around the world, not just America, right?
• 50:39
  So do you have to, what's it look like?
• 50:43
  What's the conflict for kids that are doing summer
• 50:45
  internships at different jobs? And I mean, is that a conflict
• 50:49
  or? I guess it could be, but it's
• 50:53
  it's not because we have student athletes that are passionate
• 50:57
  about the sport and they stay active in the summer and, and
• 51:01
  want to be contributors to this program.
• 51:04
  And so they get things done over the summer that they're supposed
• 51:07
  to do. They have to ever, do they ever
• 51:09
  have to leave early before first round and finals or anything?
• 51:13
  Like that or no, the students are pretty organized and they
• 51:16
  try to set up their summers so that it doesn't interfere.
• 51:19
  And like I, I coach the student athlete Miles Marshall and Miles
• 51:23
  from Houston, TX. And during his first year at
• 51:27
  Harvard, he had qualified for US juniors in the 800 and but
• 51:34
  wanted to have a summer experience.
• 51:36
  And so but he couldn't give his whole summer to whatever that
• 51:40
  experience may be because he wanted to run at the
• 51:43
  championship. And so that wasn't going to be a
• 51:45
  possibility. So he was able to find an
• 51:49
  opportunity in Vietnam working for coach for college where in
• 51:54
  Vietnam. Wow.
• 51:55
  And so it's an opportunity for varsity student athletes to go
• 51:59
  over to Vietnam and teach English and sport at the same
• 52:03
  time in very rural areas. And you could do eight weeks, 4
• 52:10
  weeks, 2 weeks. It's broken up different ways.
• 52:12
  And so he was able to have Harvard fun that trip so that he
• 52:15
  could go for the second-half of the summer.
• 52:17
  And so the, the student, yeah, you know, and, and so we've had
• 52:21
  a number of of student athletes here go through that experience
• 52:24
  and love it. They, they love the program.
• 52:26
  And, and so the students are really good at, you know,
• 52:30
  finding things that will work or communicating early enough that
• 52:33
  they know that, hey, I'm not going to be able to start until
• 52:35
  this day. And so, you know, we haven't had
• 52:37
  a lot of conflicts with summer opportunities because, you know,
• 52:41
  we want them to have those experiences so that when they
• 52:44
  graduate, they have experience that are well-rounded.
• 52:46
  Yeah. And being offered jobs before
• 52:48
  they even graduate, Right. So.
• 52:51
  But it's. Yeah.
• 52:52
  But we're blessed in that manner.
• 52:55
  I can't imagine going to Vietnam for something like that.
• 52:58
  That's amazing. Something else we talked about
• 53:02
  earlier today was this Harvard, Yale, Oxford, Cambridge.
• 53:07
  Is that what it is? HYOC, Correct.
• 53:09
  Yeah. So I'd never heard about this,
• 53:11
  but this is some track meet that you guys have been doing since
• 53:14
  18. 91. 1891 So what is this? It's like a dual meet, correct?
• 53:20
  Four teams. So, so the oldest international
• 53:25
  rivalry, international competition in track and field
• 53:28
  is actually the HYOC competition.
• 53:31
  And so it's Harvard and Yale versus Oxford and Cambridge.
• 53:33
  So you almost might, he almost could look at his US versus UK
• 53:37
  and it used to be where. Did Bannerster go to school?
• 53:41
  Oxford. Oh God, I can't remember.
• 53:42
  Yeah, Oxford. Or Cambridge.
• 53:43
  Yes, and he was a doctor. He, you know when that was the
• 53:46
  thing, when he broke 4 minutes and a mile.
• 53:48
  Not only was that an amazing thing, but he was in medical
• 53:50
  school. And so.
• 53:54
  And so it was started in 1891, and the student athletes have an
• 54:00
  opportunity every four years to go over to England and race
• 54:05
  against Oxford and Cambridge. And so Harvard and Yale, during
• 54:09
  our historic dual meet each year, it's obviously a rivalry,
• 54:13
  but on an HYOC year, when we're going to HYOC, the winner of
• 54:16
  each event gets to go on the trip, plus the Yale staff and
• 54:20
  the Harvard staff sit down and fill in the rest of the team to
• 54:22
  make sure they're well balanced. So how many kids total are?
• 54:26
  Going I believe it's between 50 and 60 between the men and the
• 54:29
  women and yeah. And so it's capped on each side
• 54:34
  on how many scores you could have.
• 54:36
  Most of the time the meat is scored on winners only.
• 54:39
  So if you win your event, you get a point, that's it.
• 54:41
  And so it's head to We go there every four years,
• 55:01
  but two years afterwards Oxford and Cambridge come here and so,
• 55:06
  so every two years it just switches back and forth whether
• 55:08
  it's on US soil or over in England.
• 55:12
  And so it's a historic it's the like I said, the oldest
• 55:15
  international track meet in the world predates the modern
• 55:17
  Olympics. And you've been on.
• 55:19
  To be I have not been on the trip, so I've been here for
• 55:22
  eight years and so I've watched them go on the trip on two
• 55:25
  different occasions. Who?
• 55:26
  Makes these decisions. Who do I need to talk to?
• 55:28
  So I actually opt out of it because I am a Co director of of
• 55:32
  the largest track and field camp in the country and and and we
• 55:37
  run it here, right here at Harvard University.
• 55:39
  And so, yeah, so. By numbers?
• 55:41
  Yeah. How many?
• 55:42
  Kids. So we have a 2 day clinic in
• 55:44
  July and I employ college coaches from over 30 different
• 55:52
  colleges and university from all over the country and and we get
• 55:56
  anywhere from 4 to 500 student athletes at it every year with
• 56:00
  division 1-2 and three coaches. We have some high school coaches
• 56:04
  that we've employed that have do a really nice job and it's an
• 56:08
  opportunity for high school student athletes to be exposed
• 56:13
  to some of the best coaches in the country.
• 56:15
  And I consider a lot of these coaches my friends.
• 56:17
  So it's an opportunity to go work and, and and learn from
• 56:20
  them. And, and so because of that and
• 56:24
  a good friend of mine, Latif Thomas
• 56:28
  ownscompletetrackandfield.com and and so the name of the
• 56:31
  clinic is the complete track and field clinic.
• 56:33
  And so Latif and I are Co directors of the of the the
• 56:37
  clinic and he does things that I don't like to do and I do things
• 56:41
  he doesn't like to do when we end up being a perfect marriage
• 56:44
  of of of working together and so.
• 56:47
  He's very active on. Social Oh yes, yeah yeah and so
• 56:52
  so through his marketing it became really really big and and
• 56:55
  so kids from around. The country or around the world?
• 56:57
  Nope, we have we have kids from around the world that come to
• 57:00
  this Started it. This is our this summer will be
• 57:03
  our 10th anniversary. So 10th year doing it.
• 57:06
  Started it when I was up. We started it when I was at
• 57:08
  Brown and at our first clinic, we had say like 150 people and
• 57:12
  we thought that was amazing. And then, yeah, word got out and
• 57:16
  we expanded and we, the number grew the next year.
• 57:19
  And then I came to Harvard and we have the facility, the OP.
• 57:23
  We have an indoor and outdoor track right next to each other,
• 57:25
  plus all these other facilities. So we're able to expand.
• 57:28
  And we got to a point where we were getting over 500 kids at
• 57:32
  this high school track clinic and we had over 250 people on a
• 57:38
  waiting list. And you know, we feel like we
• 57:42
  found a sweet spot of right around 400 where it's like the
• 57:44
  right balance of like an excitement because it's so
• 57:47
  there's a good number of people here, but the individual
• 57:49
  attention. So every single student athlete
• 57:51
  leaves feeling like I learned a lot.
• 57:54
  Do you? Break them off into groups.
• 57:55
  Yeah, So what? Do you keep the groups at?
• 57:57
  Roughly, so. It depends on the, the the group
• 58:00
  and how technical it is and how many coaches we have at it.
• 58:03
  You know, so the sprints and hurdles are like, you know,
• 58:06
  we'll have 100 hurdlers and 120 sprinters because we have the
• 58:11
  space for it. And, but then in the high jump,
• 58:13
  you know, we have two high jump areas.
• 58:15
  And so we're going to try to cap that between 35 and 40.
• 58:19
  And then long and triple jump is going to be because we have 4
• 58:22
  different areas that we can use. It's going to be around 50.
• 58:25
  So it really just depends on the yeah, the.
• 58:28
  So we call ourselves the Complete Track and Field Clinic.
• 58:30
  But the The Dirty little secret is the only event we Yellow
• 58:33
  Cabin. Oval.
• 58:35
  Is that because of safety? Or coaching.
• 58:37
  No, it's, it's, it's actually because of polls, because we
• 58:42
  would have to find out right before the clinic who signed out
• 58:45
  what size poll. And so we have plenty of polls
• 58:47
  here, but therefore Division One, you know, men and women.
• 58:51
  And so then we have to try to chase down polls from all the
• 58:54
  local clubs and stuff like that. And it just became too much with
• 58:58
  such a large group of, of, of student athletes coming.
• 59:01
  So unfortunately that's the only, that is the only event
• 59:05
  that we don't have almost. Complete track.
• 59:07
  Exactly. That's The Dirty little secret.
• 59:10
  We did have it at Brown, but when we came here it just became
• 59:14
  too much because of the number of people.
• 59:15
  But we we try to keep the coach to athlete ratio pretty tight so
• 59:22
  that like I said, we we are proud.
• 59:23
  Not only do we have a large clinic, we are proud that that
• 59:27
  we have a curriculum for each one of the groups.
• 59:28
  We have a tight schedule for each one of the groups.
• 59:30
  We have classroom sessions. We have learn by doing obviously
• 59:35
  and and we have great coaches at it.
• 59:37
  And and then that's why we sell out every year and we always
• 59:39
  have a waiting list. And yeah, so.
• 59:42
  I like the fact that it's not just a money grab that because,
• 59:45
  you know, obviously you could go to 750 and yeah, absolutely the
• 59:48
  experience level for those kids would obviously go down at that
• 59:51
  level, but you're very. The quality of the experience is
• 59:56
  very important to both Latif and I.
• 59:57
  Yeah, All right, That's that's funny.
• 59:59
  You said that. You know he doesn't.
• 1:00:00
  Things you don't agree with and vice versa.
• 1:00:03
  You make a great marriage. So that's my great segue.
• 1:00:07
  So that was Coach Manjicotti. Now let's talk about Mark.
• 1:00:13
  You're married to a beautiful young lady that you've known
• 1:00:16
  forever. I forgot about this.
• 1:00:19
  Growing up together, 4 houses down.
• 1:00:22
  So what do you like to do outside of track?
• 1:00:24
  Obviously track takes a long time.
• 1:00:26
  Or you know much of your time. What?
• 1:00:27
  What are you? What are your hobbies?
• 1:00:28
  Interests. Anyone that knows me well knows
• 1:00:32
  that I thoroughly enjoy hanging out with my wife, and we have a
• 1:00:38
  great relationship. She grew up in a neighborhood
• 1:00:39
  with all boys, including me. When I was six years old, I
• 1:00:43
  couldn't stand her. I hated her.
• 1:00:44
  Which when we now that we're adults, we know.
• 1:00:46
  When you're 6 and you don't like a girl, it's because you really
• 1:00:48
  like. That's right.
• 1:00:49
  Yeah. And so, you know, I ended up I
• 1:00:53
  have, I can show you my cell phone.
• 1:00:55
  I have a picture of Kerry and I at our first communion.
• 1:00:56
  I have a picture of us at our. I have a picture of us at our
• 1:01:02
  senior prom. I have a picture of us, you
• 1:01:05
  know, pretty much all through life, you know, going to the
• 1:01:07
  Museum of Science when we're kids and going through a lot of
• 1:01:09
  life experience. But I truly enjoy spending time
• 1:01:12
  with my wife. And one of the things we like to
• 1:01:14
  do when we do it a lot during the week, because I have
• 1:01:16
  practices and responsibilities here at Harvard, is we go out to
• 1:01:20
  eat. We love eating out.
• 1:01:22
  And so four years ago we started a New Year's resolution, which I
• 1:01:27
  typically do not have New Year, New Year's resolutions.
• 1:01:30
  And we decided to do 1 together and it was to try one new
• 1:01:35
  restaurant in the Boston area every month.
• 1:01:37
  You. Got a lot of choices.
• 1:01:39
  Yeah. And so when, when I grew up and,
• 1:01:41
  and Kerry grew up, Boston was mostly pubs, but now there's
• 1:01:46
  unbelievable amount of different world class, great food, great
• 1:01:49
  eating experiences. And so we decided to, hey, let's
• 1:01:53
  experience all of this, these opportunities here to have food
• 1:01:57
  in the Boston area. And so for the last four years
• 1:02:01
  we've been doing that. And not only, and not only have
• 1:02:04
  we had tried a new restaurant every month, we average just
• 1:02:06
  over two a month. And so we've done that for about
• 1:02:09
  the last four years, actually, this is the 4th year, 2020.
• 1:02:12
  And so it's something that we do.
• 1:02:14
  And so that we make sure that not only we get get out to eat
• 1:02:18
  each week, but like we're trying somewhere new each month.
• 1:02:21
  And rather than just doing the same thing over and over, that
• 1:02:23
  can get stale. And so, you know, we have the
• 1:02:26
  places that we frequent the most, but we also enjoy trying
• 1:02:30
  new restaurants. And so, so during the week while
• 1:02:33
  the season's going on, that's my wife and I love spending time
• 1:02:36
  together. We love hanging out and going to
• 1:02:40
  new restaurants and having food, but.
• 1:02:42
  What's been your favorite one? So there's a place in Somerville
• 1:02:45
  which attaches to Boston and it's called Sarma.
• 1:02:48
  And the chef is a James Beard award-winning chef and she is
• 1:02:54
  Turkish. And so it's Turkish tapas and,
• 1:02:57
  and probably 50% of the menu is vegetarian.
• 1:03:02
  And I'm not a vegetarian and I thoroughly enjoy me.
• 1:03:05
  But you get a vegetarian dish there and you want to lick the
• 1:03:08
  plate clean. It's so good, so flavorful.
• 1:03:11
  And they pass around food as the night goes on.
• 1:03:15
  So you order your own food from the menu, but they'll come by
• 1:03:17
  with specials and just show it to you.
• 1:03:18
  And if you want it, you just take it.
• 1:03:20
  And one of the specials they typically have is fried chicken.
• 1:03:22
  And it's the best fried chicken I've ever had in my life.
• 1:03:24
  And it's from a Turkish restaurant.
• 1:03:26
  Yeah. And so I've bragged about this
• 1:03:29
  place. I hype it up and I hype it up
• 1:03:31
  and people go to it and they're like, there's no way it's going
• 1:03:33
  to be as good as he said. And then when they come back to
• 1:03:34
  like, that's the best meal I've ever had.
• 1:03:36
  Yeah, it's it's a solid place type.
• 1:03:38
  Because it's small, so you get a variety instead of just ordering
• 1:03:40
  one. I was like that type of style.
• 1:03:43
  The the hotel I'm staying at is has a tapas restaurant in the
• 1:03:46
  Medora, Matadora, all that kind of stuff.
• 1:03:51
  And it's tapas and so you get a little.
• 1:03:53
  You try a lot. And then the other thing is my
• 1:03:56
  wife and I travel. So being a collegiate track and
• 1:03:59
  field coach is not a lot of time for that.
• 1:04:01
  But she comes spring. My wife come with us on spring
• 1:04:05
  break once in a while. She come to different meets here
• 1:04:07
  and there, like if we're at, you know, regionals for a week,
• 1:04:09
  first and second round and she'll come with us.
• 1:04:12
  But but you know, Christmas night, my wife and I don't have
• 1:04:17
  children, so we take a red eye somewhere.
• 1:04:21
  And so every year we will fly typically to Europe and in from
• 1:04:26
  Christmas night and till when the student athletes come back
• 1:04:29
  at the beginning, beginning of January, we travel because the
• 1:04:32
  student athletes aren't here. It's basically a recruiting dead
• 1:04:35
  period. So it's the perfect time to
• 1:04:37
  travel. So we always pick somewhere.
• 1:04:39
  This year we went to Portugal. We've been to Spain twice, Italy
• 1:04:43
  twice, and so it's a perfect time to travel.
• 1:04:46
  And so we definitely have the travel bug.
• 1:04:48
  Being a collegiate coach, there's not a lot of time to
• 1:04:51
  travel, but when we have it, we try to do it right.
• 1:04:53
  And the other time is at the beginning of August, when it's
• 1:04:59
  another time where you can't do home visits or anything like
• 1:05:01
  that. So we try to plan a trip at the
• 1:05:03
  beginning of August as well. And when you're doing this
• 1:05:06
  travel, are you just sightseeing or do you like go to art
• 1:05:09
  museums? We do everything, Yeah.
• 1:05:12
  We sometimes we plan trips that are go, go, go.
• 1:05:15
  And sometimes it's lay on the beach and sometimes it's a
• 1:05:18
  little bit of both, depending on where we go and the time of
• 1:05:20
  year. And so we just enjoy new things
• 1:05:24
  and, and, you know, new food, new culture, new everything and
• 1:05:28
  even new languages. You know, I, I've found that you
• 1:05:30
  know, when you travel to Europe, if you just learn how to say no
• 1:05:33
  disrespect, but I don't speak this language.
• 1:05:36
  Do you speak English? If you can say that in the
• 1:05:38
  native tongue, you've get the best treatment in the.
• 1:05:41
  World because you've shown an effort like.
• 1:05:43
  To at least try to communicate in their native language.
• 1:05:47
  But that's a good tip. Yeah, but if you just go in and
• 1:05:50
  say do you speak English, I just think you're stupid American.
• 1:05:53
  So. Especially when you had your
• 1:05:55
  Texan. Accent.
• 1:05:56
  Yeah, exactly. You always kind of had this New
• 1:05:59
  England accent, though you didn't pick up much down.
• 1:06:01
  There, yeah, no. Maybe it's softened a little
• 1:06:03
  bit, but it's always been new. England.
• 1:06:04
  So I took a class when I was in college at Bridgewater State
• 1:06:07
  called Voice Indiction. And it was to actually help you
• 1:06:10
  get rid of your Boston accent. And so it's because it's a
• 1:06:15
  primarily an education school. They wanted you to be able to,
• 1:06:18
  you know, project and enunciate the correct way.
• 1:06:21
  And so my accent is actually dramatically less than what it
• 1:06:25
  used to be. It's not a Boston accent.
• 1:06:27
  That's why I. Would say social Massachusetts,
• 1:06:29
  Yeah. Accent it's not a Boston there
• 1:06:31
  is a very disturbing if you've never been here, you know the
• 1:06:34
  very distinct. Yeah.
• 1:06:36
  And so my wife has more of the, you know, Boston accent.
• 1:06:40
  And we grew up four houses apart.
• 1:06:41
  We had the same accent. So mine's dropped a bit because
• 1:06:44
  of the class. But anyone that knows my wife,
• 1:06:47
  you know, when she says my name, it's not Mark.
• 1:06:49
  It's Mark because of the accent. She has that.
• 1:06:52
  It's that, I'll say subtle. I mean, it's, it is Boston, but
• 1:06:56
  it's, it's that, you know, she says.
• 1:06:58
  It is a unique type of yeah, it's not that hardcore.
• 1:07:01
  We, yeah, we grew up on in the South Shore.
• 1:07:03
  And so the very difference between, there's a difference in
• 1:07:06
  the accent between South Shore, Boston and North Shore.
• 1:07:10
  And if you live here, you actually know the subtle
• 1:07:11
  differences between it. But yeah, we're South Shore.
• 1:07:14
  All my Boston accent knowledge is from Mark's movies.
• 1:07:18
  Mark. Yeah, Mark Wahlberg.
• 1:07:19
  Yeah. That's all my.
• 1:07:21
  Dorchester Guy. I'm glad you said I got scared
• 1:07:24
  for a little bit, Mark, You know, we've known each other for
• 1:07:25
  a long time. And he started off by saying if
• 1:07:29
  anybody knows me, they know. And I was like, Oh my God, if he
• 1:07:32
  doesn't say his. Mark.
• 1:07:33
  I don't know, Mark. Yeah.
• 1:07:35
  God, he said that because I, you know, I love running into you
• 1:07:38
  guys at convention or if we're at Oregon or, you know, again,
• 1:07:42
  when those meets where we're at for a whole stinking week for,
• 1:07:45
  for a lot of times, it's always been your calling card and it's
• 1:07:49
  been, it's really interesting to see a relationship that's been
• 1:07:54
  so how long have you known your whole life?
• 1:07:56
  Yeah, she moved into our neighborhood when she was four
• 1:07:58
  years old. Did you meet her?
• 1:08:00
  Well, neighborhood, so she knew her right off the bat.
• 1:08:03
  Basically, yeah. So I remember the day that they
• 1:08:05
  moved in, her family moved in on a I think it was like a Friday
• 1:08:11
  and but I didn't see any kids. I remember this, a friend of
• 1:08:13
  mine, we were playing basketball and we were like, are they going
• 1:08:16
  to be any kids? And we're trying to figure out
• 1:08:18
  if the new people were going to have kids.
• 1:08:19
  And we didn't see any kids because they were just moving
• 1:08:21
  stuff into the house. And then the next day, I walked
• 1:08:23
  down the street and a bunch of my friends was standing around
• 1:08:27
  this, you know, red headed girl with pigtails on a big wheel.
• 1:08:30
  And I was like, who is this? And that's the first time I ever
• 1:08:33
  met met my wife was four years old.
• 1:08:35
  Yeah. And.
• 1:08:36
  When did you guys? At what age are you guys roughly
• 1:08:39
  the same age? We graduated high school the
• 1:08:41
  same year. What age roughly did you start
• 1:08:44
  actually dating when you become? I don't like her to want to
• 1:08:48
  date. Well, junior in high school,
• 1:08:51
  Kerry got her driver's license before I did.
• 1:08:54
  And so she, her parents had an old car that they had saved so
• 1:08:57
  that when she had her license, she could drive to school.
• 1:08:59
  And so she would pick me up on the way to school.
• 1:09:02
  And so we would drive to school together.
• 1:09:03
  And I definitely knew that I really liked her a lot.
• 1:09:07
  And a good friend of mine asked me to the junior prom like
• 1:09:11
  months in advance that we were going as friends.
• 1:09:14
  And then Kerry was asked by another guy that she was that we
• 1:09:18
  were both friends with. And so we went to the junior
• 1:09:23
  prom separately, but we danced half the night together.
• 1:09:27
  And so the next day was basically our first date.
• 1:09:30
  And so it was the day after our junior prom.
• 1:09:32
  And so we've been together ever since.
• 1:09:33
  Wow. Ever since Yep.
• 1:09:35
  Yeah, and we dated through rest of high school, college, moved
• 1:09:38
  to down to Houston with her and got married while we were in
• 1:09:43
  Houston. Yeah, we got well when we were
• 1:09:45
  living down there, but we got married up here because it's
• 1:09:47
  where our family is. And then we, you know, moved
• 1:09:51
  back up here and and bounced around a little bit in the New
• 1:09:54
  England air as far as my, my positions.
• 1:09:56
  But, you know, we've been together and we're living here
• 1:09:58
  in Boston and love it. That's awesome, man.
• 1:10:00
  What a great place to be. This city is, you know, it's one
• 1:10:04
  of my favorite cities. I, I travel around the country
• 1:10:07
  and a lot of people ask me, you know, what's your favorite place
• 1:10:09
  to go? And you always tell them
• 1:10:11
  honestly the favorite place to go is.
• 1:10:13
  Home. Come back home.
• 1:10:15
  But I don't get really excited about a lot of places because
• 1:10:18
  they're all the same to me at the airport there.
• 1:10:21
  And there's good places and there's bad places.
• 1:10:23
  There's good food, bad food, good people, bad people, you
• 1:10:26
  know, it's all the same. And mainly I'm in offices like
• 1:10:30
  this or I'm in a Convention Center.
• 1:10:31
  So the temperature or hotel. So it's like it's always 70°.
• 1:10:35
  It's cold and I'm usually inside somewhere.
• 1:10:38
  But Boston, I came here about, boy, eight or nine years ago,
• 1:10:42
  right when you started here for a different convention that
• 1:10:44
  actually got you probably remember this, a lightning
• 1:10:48
  strike hit downtown Boston that put out like all of Boston went
• 1:10:51
  to a. Blackout.
• 1:10:52
  We were supposed to be here for a intramural convention and
• 1:10:56
  because of the electricity being out, they had to cancel it.
• 1:11:00
  But they only canceled it one day at a time.
• 1:11:02
  They're like, yeah, we're not doing it today, so come back
• 1:11:04
  tomorrow. So I had the day off in Boston
• 1:11:06
  and I got I walked the the. Freedom Trail.
• 1:11:09
  The Freedom Trail. Yeah.
• 1:11:10
  And you see all this history I went to, I wish I knew what it
• 1:11:15
  which one it was because I'd go back.
• 1:11:17
  I'm sure simple Google search would tell me.
• 1:11:18
  But we went to this one bar that had this very unique semi
• 1:11:24
  circle, half circle bar. Very small.
• 1:11:26
  One guy in the middle shucking oysters.
• 1:11:28
  Oh, Union Oyster House. Maybe it's the oldest restaurant
• 1:11:31
  in the United States. In this bar was actually Daniel
• 1:11:34
  Webster Webster's Dictionary. It was his desk.
• 1:11:38
  Oh, really? Yeah.
• 1:11:39
  Wow, and Sam Adams makes a beer just for that bar.
• 1:11:43
  I wonder if it is the union. Yeah, that's why I don't know.
• 1:11:45
  Because my guess. Is big place yeah.
• 1:11:47
  This was just a unique bar. I don't know how we lucked in to
• 1:11:49
  get because it only sat, I don't know, six people maybe real
• 1:11:53
  awkward is that an angle like putting beer down half of it
• 1:11:55
  would spill out and in this one dude just Shuck oysters right
• 1:11:58
  there and it's like, dude, I am at a place that no one else.
• 1:12:01
  I mean, I may never run into someone who's been at this
• 1:12:03
  little bar drank this beer. What?
• 1:12:06
  An my, my guess is there was a Union Oyster House.
• 1:12:08
  And if it wasn't the old, it's it's known as it's the oldest
• 1:12:11
  restaurant in the United States. Yeah.
• 1:12:14
  So there is a lot of history here, American history, war, not
• 1:12:18
  war, like you name it, inventions like.
• 1:12:20
  Yeah. So it it is, it's a it's you
• 1:12:22
  know, it's, it's a unique place that I I find it to be an
• 1:12:25
  amazing place. Obviously, being from the Boston
• 1:12:27
  area, I find that Boston is the center of the universe.
• 1:12:30
  I'm a little bit biased. But it's probably pretty close.
• 1:12:32
  If you could just do something with the winners, I'd come back
• 1:12:34
  more. I mean, it's 20° outside right
• 1:12:37
  now. Very much like you said, we have
• 1:12:40
  a beautiful indoor. Track.
• 1:12:41
  That's right. Whenever I turn the lights on,
• 1:12:42
  it's always sunny and seven. Exactly right, man.
• 1:12:44
  Exactly. Hey, I know you've got to get
• 1:12:46
  going. We did an hour and 15 man, I
• 1:12:49
  could keep going too. You're so interested.
• 1:12:51
  I'm so happy for you. You know, getting knowing you
• 1:12:54
  for so long and knowing you at different places.
• 1:12:57
  You know this. This is your fit man.
• 1:12:58
  I appreciate it, man. It's, it's been, it's been great
• 1:13:01
  doing this and it's always good to see you.
• 1:13:04
  You're absolutely so great to our sport and appreciate you.
• 1:13:07
  Yeah, Thank you, man. Appreciate you so much.
• 1:13:09
  Yep. Thank you brother.
• 1:13:09
  Good to see you. Oh man, that just melts my
• 1:13:16
  heart. Mark's love for his wife is is
• 1:13:20
  second to none. He he needs to prove that to no
• 1:13:22
  one. But I tell you what he proves it
• 1:13:24
  over and over every time I see that beautiful couple together.
• 1:13:29
  Just shows you what love and how it can work out as a track and
• 1:13:33
  field coach with your priorities in order of what is most
• 1:13:38
  important. So Mark's got it going on and
• 1:13:41
  you know, I know you can too. So hey, if you've made it this
• 1:13:44
  far, thanks for joining us. I hope you've enjoyed connecting
• 1:13:47
  with Mark as much as I did. If you or someone you know would
• 1:13:50
  like to be a guest in the show, please contact me at HURDLE at
• 1:13:57
  gillathletics.com. That's right, Hurdle at
• 1:14:00
  gillathletics.com. In the meantime, we hope you
• 1:14:03
  feel led to share this podcast on your social media network of
• 1:14:06
  choice and join us next time when we once again connect with
• 1:14:09
  another great track and field coach.