Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / #339: Alisa Seymour-Collierville (TN) High School | Building a Powerhouse and Earning National Coach of the Year

Transcript

#339: Alisa Seymour-Collierville (TN) High School | Building a Powerhouse and Earning National Coach of the Year · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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You're listening to the Gil Athletics Connections podcast
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with host Mike Cunningham. Track and field world UNL tuned
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in to our humble servant Mike Cunningham for another
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extraordinary message for Gil Athletics Connections.
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Here we go. You press play on the number one
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track and field approaches podcast in the in America.
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You know why it's the number one pocket?
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Because my mom told me so and that's all I need to know.
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I appreciate you guys being here on the Gill Connections podcast.
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I'm so humbled to be your host, Mike Cunningham, National
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business Development manager of the track and field portion here
0:37
for Gill. And today this is a lot of fun
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for me. We've been doing this.
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If you if you're a long time listener, you know, this is kind
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of a tradition of ours every year.
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Our friends at the USTFCCCA, great friends, love that
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organization, highly support, love what Sam seems and the team
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do over there every year through the support of the US Marines.
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They go out and for every states, all 50 states, they name
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a state coach of the year for the boys and a state coach of
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the year for the girls. That's amazing.
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I mean, the committee, that's such a ton of work.
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God bless you guys and gals who are on that committee.
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That's a lot of work. But then, and that's an
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impossible task, but then you, you, you challenge yourself and
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you make yourself an even more impossible task.
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You take those 50 winners from the boys teams and 50 winners
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from the girls teams and you try to decide the one, the national
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boys coach of the year and the national girls coach of the
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year. And that's amazing to me because
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there are some real stories behind what led to this magical
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year. We've done this now for four or
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five years. I'm super pumped today to bring
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you the girls. So the national, the USTF, CCCA
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national Girls Coach of the year from Collierville, TN, which
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we're going to learn. It's like 3 states or something.
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I don't know. We'll figure that out here in a
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second. Help me welcome the wise, the
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wonderful Miss Elisa Seymour. Elisa, how are you?
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Hello. Hello.
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I'm so awesome. I'm so happy to be here.
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Thank you. Thank you for having me.
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You are awesome, a national coach of the year.
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Get out of here, holy. Yeah, I'm still shocked, you
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know, Bad Al, but I'm so super excited about it and it's been a
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great year, so I'm glad to be here to tell you all about it.
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That's cool. Well, we'll, we'll get more into
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it as we go through your journey.
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But I, I am always like to, to find out what was it like?
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I assume they called you or maybe it's an e-mail or
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something. When you got the call, you're,
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you know, one, I assume it's two separate things.
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You got a call that you were the Tennessee girls coach of the
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year. And then I assume and you, you
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correct me, you got a separate call saying, OK, we did that.
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That's awesome, Lisa, but even bigger, you're the national.
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What was that like? Well, actually, I think that was
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a bit of a delay when I was awarded the Tennessee Coach of
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the Year because I think they put someone's name on it by
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mistake. I think my nominator, I think
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that's what they told me. So I actually didn't know that
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at first. They had to send it to my high
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school and then my principal athletic director, they sent me.
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Then they then Kristen from USTMCCC has sent me an e-mail
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and then that's how I found out about that.
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It was a little bit delayed, I think, and but that was OK.
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I was really excited about it when I got it.
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But when I still didn't think that being national coach of the
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year would actually that I would actually, you know, get that I
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was really excited about. Who does right?
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Yeah. Absolutely right.
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And I was the Tennessee coach of the year for USTMCCCA last year,
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so this was my second nomination.
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So I was really excited about it and but I was actually in
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Buffalo Wild Wings in Savannah, GA at the USATF Junior Olympics
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with a few of my athletes and a couple of and a parent.
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And we were just having lunch and my district AD Jeff Curtis,
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he called and he said, come see more.
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And so I'm thinking, what could it possibly be?
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You know, it's July, like what's going on?
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And so he's like, I just want to tell you congratulations.
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And I said on what? And he goes, well, you want I
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said one what like, what are you talking about?
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And he was like, you know, you the national coach of the year.
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And I was like, are you serious? This for real?
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And he was like, yes, as I said, well, I'm gonna have to get off
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the phone because I need to see this for myself.
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Because he was like, it's all on Twitter.
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And I said, is it? You know, but I was at AI, had
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been at the track all day, you know, And so I looked and I saw
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it for myself and I just was floored, you know, I was
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Florida. To have my athletes there
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sitting there with me, you know, and it's just kind of made me a
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little bit of emotional. But yeah, I was, I was
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completely shocked because there are lots and lots and lots of
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great coaches in this country. So you told them it's definitely
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an honor. Yeah, and that's where, you
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know, when I look at the list, I love the the first list that
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comes out the the 50 states with all the boys and girls and I go
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through and, you know, I live in Illinois, so I immediately go to
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the Illinois ones. I'm from Alabama, so I
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immediately go to Alabama and then I look through and it's
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amazing. You know, I live my life, you
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know, you're with me on this one on Twitter.
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So I love seeing all the coaches that we interact with, you know,
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on there. And so that's always so cool.
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And that's hard. I mean, there's you mentioned
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there's so many great coaches in America.
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You're right, full stop right there.
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There's a lot of great coaches in Tennessee.
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So even these state winners, it's like, how do you how do you
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parcel it out? It's just it's so hard.
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And then to try to do that for the national, it's, it's
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unbelievable, but. And so like Jonathan Perkins
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from Mississippi, Clinton High School, he was nominated.
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And, you know, when I saw that he was also nominated from
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Mississippi, you know, I emailed him, congratulations, coach.
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You know, I'm being nominated, you know, from Mississippi, you
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know, because we run against each other periodically.
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And then I'm like, because he's awesome, you know, and then for
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me to win and I get an e-mail from him, congratulations on
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winning, national coach. She is like, whoa, you know, I'm
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in great company, you know what I mean?
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So I was like, wow, that's. So cool.
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Well, congratulations. That is a big deal.
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I love, I'm so grateful that the USTFCCA does this award.
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I'm so thankful that the US Marines support this award and
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behind the curtains for you guys and gals that are listening.
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So you're listening to this probably in December, we we
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published these right as we get into the USTFCCA convention,
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which I think we're in Dallas this year.
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That's a new one, but we're recording this in August.
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Are you going to join us? You're in Dallas, You're going
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to come to the convention. Yes.
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Yes, I'll be at the convention. This will be my third
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convention. Oh yeah, sweet.
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I was in Orlando last year and Denver the year before, and so
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this will be my third convention.
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But yes, I will be there. That's so stinking cool.
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All right, well, we'll learn more about this year and what
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led to this award because it's a big, big deal.
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Again, we're so proud of you and so happy for you, but let's
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learn a little bit more about you.
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So let's get in our Wayback Machine.
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Elisa, where does assuming you were an athlete and we have, you
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know, we're on episode 300 and something we have learned that
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not every coach was an athlete. That's not a prereq to become a
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track and field coach. But assuming you're an athlete,
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where does track and field start for you?
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Well, I was, I'm like I said, you know, I'm from Gary, IN.
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That's why I was born and raised and Northwest Indiana was a hub
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for a track and field back in the back in the day, you know,
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seventies, 80s, you know, and 90s.
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And so I was in 6th grade and I went to Emerson School for the
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visual and performing arts and they didn't have athletics.
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So that's why I started middle school.
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And I was a theater major. But one day someone in my class
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brought, came to school and was talking about, you know, running
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track for the Steel City Striders, which was a summer
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track program, which I had never, you know, really heard
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of. And so I was thinking to myself,
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you know, I just played outside a lot.
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I just came home and I was like told my mom and dad, I think I
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wanted to run track. And they were like, well, OK,
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but my parents are, you know, once you start something, you
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don't quit. So their speech was, you know,
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if you want to run, that's perfect and we'll support you.
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But if you start, you got to at least finish the season.
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And I don't know if they were too sure that I was even going
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to be able to do it, but if you really want to do it, we can do
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it. So, you know, I was like, Dad, I
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know I can do it. So he took me to practice when
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school was out. And we went and I watched the
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kids practice. And I told my dad I can beat all
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of these kids. And he was like, no, you can't
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say yes, I can't. I think I could beat them.
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Of course, I had never really run, you know, track before I
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got out there. And I remember Wilbur Harlan,
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who was the director of coach of the Steel City Striders.
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And I got out there and I ran and it was really fast.
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And everybody was like, oh, she can run.
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And my dad was like, oh, well, yeah, you can run.
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And that's where it it started. And so I started running track
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some of my 6th grade year and ran track all the way through
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high school. My team was coached by well, let
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me start. I've had the pleasure of having
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some great coaches. My summer track coaches were
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great. My middle school coach was great
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at Bailey Middle School and I even got a chance to practice
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with the high school team sometime and my high school
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coach was phenomenal. Rhonda Brady.
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Jill Anderson was the 1st 16 year old hurdler to go to the I
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think it was 1976 Olympics at the age of 16.
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She was 100 meter hurdle from Gary, IN and she was my high
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school coach. And so I've had the opportunity
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to be coached by, you know, the best for as I'm concerned.
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And my high school career was great.
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My middle school career was great.
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It was a lot of fun. And when I was in high school,
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our team won three back-to-back to back state championships.
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And I always like to highlight that love that you said that
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because Indiana is A1 class system, boys and girls.
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So when she says their team won the state championship, not one
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A2A5A6A, the only A in Indiana, everybody, you got 10 kids in
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your school, you got 10,000 in your school.
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We're all competing for the same.
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So I when you say you guys won three in a row, that is to me
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doubly good because it's the whole stinking state.
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I love that your lights just went out.
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Hold on, Let me go back out. Hold on one SEC.
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We did A50 state outdoor state championship Series A year or
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two ago. Now you got to go back and look
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it up, but we interviewed a coach from every state about
10:16
their outdoor state championship and that was one of the things
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that we learned about Indiana. One of the might have been the
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only state, I'm not sure if I remember or not, but I believe
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one of the only states, maybe the only state that has a one
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class. So when she says state title,
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the legitest of Allstate title. So I love that at least before
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we get into some more of your high school and your high school
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coaches, and I love that those are that's really kind of the
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meat and potatoes. What I love about this podcast
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is like giving flowers to those who mentored us, who, you know,
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helped us love the sport and things like that.
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You went into track early. You went in all in and track
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early. Why track?
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You were, obviously you don't do track.
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You don't do track period, but you don't do track.
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Well, if you're not athletic, it's just impossible.
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So you know, a lot of our young kids, and we encourage this, of
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course, play basketball or softball or soccer or whatever,
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any other sports or was it A1 track mind, literally.
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Well, in the city that I'm from, Gary, IN, it's pretty urban.
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We didn't really have a lot to choose from.
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You know, we had, I didn't know we had track.
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If I hadn't run track, my gym teacher, we played kickball and
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softball a lot. I probably would have played
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softball, but I didn't know anything about any softball
11:33
teams. You know, in the area back then,
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basketball was pretty dominated by guys.
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You had some girls basketball team, you know, in my 5th or 6th
11:44
grade. But most of the girls play
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basketball with the boys. And so, you know, I tried
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basketball, but that really wasn't, you know, my sport, you
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know, at that age. And then once I started track, I
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just was like, I'm really good at this, you know, Now, I
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probably could have, you know, been a cheerleader or something
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else like that. But track was just it.
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They weren't really. Oh, and I did try tennis before
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track, but they just want a lot, a whole lot of options.
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Yeah. Were.
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There any? Any family members that had
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track backgrounds or where were you the pioneer?
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I think my uncle, I think my uncle Dan may have run track
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maybe in high school at some point, but not really any, you
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know, prominent family members where it was like, OK, you're
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going to go in and run track. I'm not getting like this sense
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of like the family is this track family and of course you're
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running track Elisa. It was just like, oh, you want
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to do track? Cool.
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I love your parents attitude of like, cool, you started
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something, you finished something.
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So there that was part of that. That's part of the culture of
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the family for sure. I love that.
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And what high school? So I coached at Ball State for a
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couple years. I recruited Indiana a lot.
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What high school did you actually go to there in Gary?
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Well, I'm from, I went to Lou Wallace High School.
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Well, actually like I said, I went to Emerson School for the
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performing arts. We didn't have sports, but I
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played sports for my home school, which would have been
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Lou Wallace High School. Now, you probably know a lot of
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girls that came from Roosevelt or West Side High School that
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went to Ball State. A lot of the Lou Wallace girls,
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I went to Indiana State, but that's where I went.
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Lou Wallace High School. That's who I ran track for.
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OK, cool. I love that.
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So tell me more about your high school career.
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You talked very glowingly so far about your high school coach.
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Would love to learn more about her and, and what kind of like,
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like what kind of style did she have?
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And what I mean by that is, you know, there's many, many
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different ways to coach track and field.
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Was she a, you know, disciplinarian?
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Was she, you know, the family member?
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There's there's lots of different styles.
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What do you remember most about how Coach treated you guys?
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Well, I think she was all of that.
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I won't say that she was a real tough disciplinarian because we
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pretty much, you know, followed the rules or whatever we had to
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do. But she was all about teaching
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us life lessons. Everything we did, you know,
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pretty much was a life lesson. You know, we learned how to
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carry out stairs by watching how she carried herself.
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You know, I coach she, she didn't work at the school she
14:06
worked, you know, at the water company, but she had like a
14:08
really good job, you know, like so we thought.
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So we, you know, saw, you know, her career and you know how she
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carried herself. And, you know, we knew that we
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could want more and dream big just because of who our coach
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was. But she was, she was pretty
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tough. You know, you had to get the job
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done. You know, you, as the kids say,
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get it out the mud. You know, it was, this is what
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the workout is. These are the times we have to
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meet. You know, I remember one time
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because I ran cross country too. Oh, God, I was a sprinter, but
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everybody had to run cross country.
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And so cross country practice started, I think the week of my
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birthday. I think the first day was on my
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birthday because my birthday is in August.
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And I told her, as I think I started cross country as a
14:51
sophomore and I told her that I was not coming to practice on my
14:55
birthday. And she was like, you gonna come
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to practice on your birthday? And I said, no, I don't think
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I'm gonna be here. I was a little spunky.
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And so I said, no, I probably probably not coming.
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And I actually end up getting a stomach virus that weekend.
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And so I didn't go to practice on my birthday, which was that
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Monday. And she came to my house.
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She she came to my house and she was like, where where where's
15:18
Lisa? She's supposed to be?
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My mom was like, oh, was she sick?
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Like she really is sick. That's why she's not there.
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I was really sick for real. But that's the type of person
15:26
she would like. She came I.
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I love that story because it makes me immediately want to ask
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you, Lisa, have you had any of the kids you coach say, hey,
15:35
it's my birthday on Thursday. I'm not showing up for practice.
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And you're just like, yeah, right.
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And you're like, what? Of course you're coming apart.
15:42
What do you mean? And and little do they know,
15:44
because I assume you would, you did not have not shared the
15:46
story of them. Literally no.
15:48
Oh, Coach Seymour also tried that back in the day.
15:50
I love this like full circle when we're on Twitter and you
15:54
know, and you've seen it or coaches will be like, man, I
15:56
can't believe kids wear Crocs or I can't believe kids want to off
15:59
on their birthday and blah, blah.
16:00
And I'm sitting there thinking, I bet you tried some of that
16:03
back in the. We were all 1617 years old at
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one point. So let's give some grace here.
16:09
So I love that she gave you grace, but she also was very
16:12
much going to check up on you and where where are you at?
16:14
Yeah. Yeah.
16:15
You can do your birthday after track practice.
16:17
It's all day, right. Yeah.
16:19
I love that. That's so cool.
16:22
You mentioned you guys won three state titles.
16:24
I love that. You know, I think in track and
16:26
field, I've said this many, many times, we get spoiled a little
16:30
bit about winning because you know, there's what, 1617 events
16:33
for boys and girls. So every meet we go to, there's
16:35
winners and we forget that winning is hard.
16:38
Like it, it's really hard. You guys won three state titles.
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1 is a big deal by the way, guys.
16:45
And you guys and guys and gals have won one or chasing your
16:47
first one. Know how hard that is?
16:50
Tell us about that first one that you guys want as a team.
16:54
What was it like? What emotions do you remember?
16:57
Were you guys favorites going in?
16:58
Talk to me about that, because that's a special one, the first
17:01
one. Well, the first one that they
17:03
won, I was only in the eighth grade when they rent one in 92.
17:08
And then the next year when I came in ninth grade, we won
17:12
again and it was super exciting. Well, when I came already, we
17:15
already knew what the expectation was.
17:17
I came in with another group of great girls.
17:22
And so we knew what the expectation was.
17:24
We knew that this was not a team that we just going to come in
17:28
and sit around and, you know, we were expected to perform and,
17:32
you know, do your best, you know, at all times.
17:34
And so, like, we were new, they had already won a year before.
17:39
And so now with us coming in, it's like, OK, we have to
17:42
continue the tradition. And, you know, Roosevelt High
17:45
School was a force to be reckoned with.
17:47
You know, I rival school across across town.
17:50
And, you know, getting out of Northwest Indiana to go to the
17:53
state championship was tough. They took three from the region.
17:55
And so you just had to perform. I remember my, maybe it was my
17:59
sophomore junior year, I can't remember the exact year, but I
18:03
was fourth I think in the 100 meters.
18:05
But I was able to get the at large bid because Indiana at
18:08
that time took the at large bids and I got the at large bid to go
18:12
to the state championship. So if that lets you know, you
18:15
know what we were up against my own teammates and the other
18:18
girls that I competed against, you know, it was tough just to
18:21
get out of my own city, so. When you went to the state
18:25
meters, a freshman, you know, you already have kind of the no
18:29
nonsense coach, you know that they won the the the year
18:33
before. You don't want to drop the ball
18:36
on your year. Were you nervous?
18:38
How did you contribute as a freshman?
18:40
How did that? And then and then the final
18:41
right after that, 4 by 4 or whenever you found out you were
18:43
going to actually be the state champion.
18:45
What what is that feeling like? Some of us have no idea, Lisa,
18:48
what is that like? Well, I have been running tracks
18:51
since maybe, you know, like I said, 11.
18:53
So I was about 14 then, almost 15 when we won.
18:56
I knew I had to get out there and do my job.
18:58
You don't want to be the part. I think I was first leg on the
19:00
four by one or something like that.
19:02
And so, hey, get the baton around the track, execute the
19:06
same thing I teach my kids today.
19:08
You, of course, I was probably a little bit nervous, but I knew
19:12
that my teammates believed in me.
19:14
I knew my coach believed in me. And so, you know, we, we
19:17
believed in each other. We were there because we wanted
19:19
to win. So I.
19:21
Think it says a lot that you were a freshman on the lead off.
19:24
I I'm not sure how many coaches do.
19:27
Yeah, there's a little bit of like, oh, I don't know if I want
19:29
a freshman on the on the to pop it off.
19:31
Who knows what happened. So I love that it says a lot.
19:33
OK, you win. So they won your 8th grade year,
19:36
you win your freshman year, you win your sophomore year.
19:39
Yes, Yeah, 'cause you said three in a row.
19:41
All right. This is always amazing to me
19:44
again, because I just not that I believe I know how hard it is to
19:48
win. So when I hear of teams winning
19:50
multiples, I mean, you win one, but you're you're not, you're in
19:53
Mike's Hall of Fame because that's amazing.
19:54
You win 2. Holy cow, you win three.
19:57
Who does that? And so these coaches in these
19:59
programs that win multiple, I'm always amazed one, how did coach
20:03
keep you guys motivated? Like, you know, again, we're
20:06
dealing with 14 to 18 year old kids.
20:09
Let's I don't care how mature you are, you're still a kid.
20:12
So that, you know, I can see like entitlement and
20:15
complacency, like we don't need to practice as hard.
20:18
We're going to win. We've won the last three, you
20:20
know. And then so how did how did she
20:22
handle that? And then how did you in the
20:26
program and coach handle not winning that four?
20:29
I mean, you've won the last three.
20:30
Now you show up and you you don't.
20:32
So how did how did she work on keeping complacency from
20:35
creeping into the team? And then how did it, how did
20:38
that feel the the streak ended? They all did at some point.
20:41
Well, she would always, you know, talk to us.
20:43
And I don't ever really think that, you know, we thought we
20:45
were bigger than the the program, you know, itself.
20:48
I don't. We knew all of us were striving
20:50
to get scholarships, you know, to go to college because, you
20:54
know, unlike some of the kids today, it wasn't guaranteed.
20:58
You know, for us, we knew that, you know, our parents were going
21:01
to do the best that they could, but it was up to us to kind of
21:03
like make our own way. So I don't know if we ever
21:07
really thought that we were better than the program, you
21:10
know, and so she she did a good job, you know, keeping us
21:14
grounded and she would talk to us, you know, all the time by
21:16
continuing to work hard and continue to do the very best
21:19
that you could. And I think one of those years
21:23
we dropped the baton in the four by one or something.
21:25
I think one of those years that we didn't win, they got runner
21:28
up or something like that. But of course, we're
21:31
disappointed. But that didn't, you know, make
21:35
us any less great athletes. And so, you know, we learned a
21:37
lot of life lessons, you know, behind winning and behind
21:41
losing. So, you know, I don't think it's
21:43
changed, you know, who we were. I changed our program, made us
21:46
look at ourselves any differently.
21:48
You know, I just think it just, you know, is what it is.
21:51
You win some, you lose some. I would never wish this on
21:54
someone, but at least I bet who you are today is based on things
22:00
that have happened to you in the past.
22:02
And not winning all four years in high school was a good thing
22:05
for you. And dropping that baton in the
22:07
4x4 one was a good thing for you.
22:09
Not in the moment. And again, as a 1617 year old
22:12
kid, it's it's, you know, all grace to not think that this,
22:15
you know, eventually will lead to, but you, you Start learning
22:17
some of those you mentioned this, you Start learning some of
22:20
those lessons that only come from losing.
22:22
You know that. Oh, OK, you know, first of all,
22:24
the world didn't end this. You know, my life is not just on
22:27
what happens on the track, but I can come back and get better
22:29
next year, next meet, etcetera. So again, I would never wish
22:33
that on anybody. But boy, I bet at least it's
22:35
probably not who you are today without those things happening
22:38
back then. So this sounds so weird.
22:41
I'm happy for that. That sounds so weird too.
22:44
OK, You mentioned you know you're thinking about college
22:47
and scholarships. Before we get to that real
22:50
quick, as a as a senior, is coaching at all in your mind or
22:55
what? What are you thinking about
22:56
becoming one day as a high school senior?
22:58
Well, I, I really was interested in journalism, being like a
23:03
sports journalist or something like that.
23:06
My mom, though, tried to give me the major in physical education.
23:10
She told me, you know, you probably would be a great coach.
23:13
And I was like, no, like, you know, I don't want to teach.
23:17
PEI was like, no, I don't want to do that.
23:18
And she's like, but that's what I think you got to major in.
23:20
I said, no, I'm not going to do that.
23:22
I don't want to do that. So I majored in communications
23:26
and then switched over to journalism when I was in
23:28
college. So that's the path that I
23:30
thought I was going to be on. But I wound up doing exactly
23:32
what my mother said. That's.
23:34
Funny how that works out. So talk to us about that leap to
23:39
college. Where did you look at where you
23:41
end up going and how was that transition?
23:43
That's not always an easy transition.
23:45
What's that was I knew I wanted to go away from home.
23:47
I kind of wanted to leave my state.
23:50
I know a lot of my friends went to Indiana State and various
23:53
surrounding schools, but my grandparents are from the South
23:56
and you know, I always loved, even though Memphis is kind of
23:59
mid South, I always love, you know, down South.
24:01
And so I, when I got the call from the University of Memphis,
24:05
you know, I was so excited. You know, I was just like
24:07
whoever else is calling me up, you know, So they called and I
24:11
talked to Brenda Cash. Brenda Calhoun Cash.
24:14
I don't know if you know Lee Calhoun, his daughter.
24:17
Yes. Lee Calhoun, his daughter was my
24:19
coach. She and my high school coach
24:21
were teammates at Arizona State University before my high school
24:26
coach went to be a Tiger Bell at TSU.
24:28
And that has. I, I almost asked you when you
24:32
said she was, you know, whatever age in the Olympics, I was like,
24:36
man, back then she had to be a Tiger bell.
24:38
Like I, I know there were other great women sprinters and
24:41
hurdlers and other institutions, but Tennessee State really like
24:46
embraced women in track and field.
24:48
Specifically. They were the Trail Blazers, if
24:50
you will, for what they did. So I almost asked you, I was
24:53
like, was she a Tiger Bell? Because that sounds, that sounds
24:55
like a tiger bell right there. Oh, that's.
24:56
So she was at one point, but she also went to Arizona.
24:59
She competed in Arizona State as well before.
25:03
And so I was just really excited, you know, to come to
25:06
Memphis. And it was just a new
25:08
opportunity, a new place. I felt like when I went to
25:13
school, I wanted to be somewhere that I thought I could live.
25:15
And when I visited Memphis, I just loved it.
25:17
And so here we are today. That's so cool.
25:20
So you go to Memphis, a great school.
25:23
You know, I coached at Troy University for quite a while.
25:25
So we saw Memphis and at Mississippi State.
25:27
So we saw Memphis all the time and all the and you know, Kevin
25:30
there now does a great job. That's it's an amazing school.
25:33
Actually, it's kind of kind of a bummer they didn't get and maybe
25:37
I'm sure they're still working on things, but they didn't get
25:39
their, you know, PAC 12 or Big 12, whatever they were trying to
25:41
get into. I mean, it's it's a it's
25:43
probably the next school that I don't want to say needs, but you
25:46
know, should be in one of these big conferences.
25:48
It's great city, great surrounding area.
25:51
I mean, it's a it's a cool town and great campus.
25:54
I've been there many times. That's cool.
25:55
So you're a you're a tiger. You took the bell off and just
25:59
said I'm going to be a tiger. I love that.
26:02
Go Tigers. Go.
26:04
So talk to me about college. I love your academic track
26:08
there. I was a journalism major as well
26:09
in college so I get that that part of it.
26:12
You sounded like you graduated with a journalism communications
26:16
degree. I did.
26:17
I did. So I majored in journalism.
26:20
I interned at Fox News Chicago. Yes, I intern at Fox News
26:26
Chicago. And then I was a Chips Quinn
26:29
Minority Scholar, so I got a chance to go work for the New
26:31
York Times. So my degree is in broadcast
26:33
news, but I was also the sports sports editor for the Daily
26:36
Handsmen at the University of Memphis school newspapers.
26:39
So I did majoring in broadcast news, but I worked in print.
26:42
And then, like I said, I did my internship at Fox News.
26:45
And then I was a Chips Quinn minority scholar, so I was able
26:48
to get another internship, work for New York Times affiliate in
26:51
North Carolina. So I was on track.
26:54
To do and track coaching is not anywhere in your.
26:57
Mind, no, I'm not thinking about coaching track at.
27:01
All you went through, you had a good college career, you're
27:03
happy with it, but nothing during college.
27:07
No callbacks to high school that you're like, you know what I'm
27:09
supposed to be None of that. You're like, I'm a journal.
27:11
I'm gonna go be, I don't know. The next Barbara Walters.
27:14
I don't know. That's the half the audience.
27:15
I just lost them. They have no clue who Barbara
27:17
Walters were. You probably, you're so young,
27:19
you don't know Barbara Walters. But you, you don't know.
27:22
But I really wanted to be Hannah Storm, you know, Hannah Storm,
27:25
NBA inside stuff with a mob Rashad or Hannah Storm.
27:28
I, I just, I watch them every Saturday morning.
27:30
And I really, really wanted to be Hannah Storm.
27:32
But back then there, there I'm saying back then, like I'm super
27:35
old, but a lot of women were not sports journalists, you know,
27:38
And so that was a really hard field to crack into.
27:41
Not much money to be made at all.
27:44
So it was a little bit discouraging, you know, at
27:45
first. So.
27:46
Yeah, I I agree with that. And you know, one of the
27:50
highlights of the show is when we have minorities or we have
27:53
females on because, you know, a lot of their stories, especially
27:57
our coaches who've been, you know, 30-40, fifty years.
28:00
So they were in the time when we didn't have NCAA women's
28:03
athletics. A lot of them expressed that
28:06
they're like inkling to get into coaching is when they saw
28:09
another woman or they saw another African American coach
28:12
like. And I think it is really
28:14
important that sometimes and it sounds so I don't know if it
28:17
sounds silly, but it sounds so easy air quotes there.
28:22
But sometimes we just need to see someone else that looks like
28:25
us doing that for us to believe in ourselves.
28:27
Oh, well, wait a minute, I can do that.
28:30
So I love that. You know, Hannah Storm was a I'm
28:33
gonna call it an inspiration, if you will, but you were able to
28:36
see someone like that person looks like me.
28:37
Well, wait a minute. Maybe I can do this.
28:39
So I I love that that aspect of it hold.
28:43
On one second, I just want to back since you mentioned, you
28:46
know, like women and minorities. When I started running track,
28:49
there was a, a article that came out in the Sports Illustrated.
28:52
I don't remember what year was in, but it was talking about
28:55
Title 9 and women's sports. And this was years ago, maybe in
28:58
the late 90s, well, early 90s. And my dad, you know, he would
29:03
take Sports Illustrated magazine and he read this article.
29:06
And so when my dad read this article, it just kind of flipped
29:10
into OverDrive. Then track became more not as
29:14
recreational as it had. You know, at the beginning, he
29:17
was like, oh, so this is the way that my daughters can go to
29:19
schools, have two sisters behind me.
29:21
My SEC, my sister, that's the principal was Conference USA
29:24
champion in the discus. So she was a thrill and she was
29:26
Indiana State champion in discus.
29:28
So when my dad, you know, saw this, read this article, he was
29:32
thinking, OK, you know, they're going to be adding women, you
29:35
know, women's, more women's sports, more women's teams, more
29:38
money for women. And he has these girls.
29:40
He's like, these are how my kids gonna go to school.
29:42
So my dad and my mom, you know, they pushed, you know, after
29:48
seeing this. And so that was that was really
29:51
a way that drove us into athletics after he found out,
29:54
oh, they're pretty good. We can really do this.
29:57
Title 9 has become the boogeyman, if you will, the
30:02
excuse for dropping some of our programs out there.
30:07
I, I don't know that it's true. I, I think that's the, the
30:09
excuse our administrators and not superintendents, chancellors
30:15
might use, but Title 9 has probably not probably take that
30:21
word out. Title 9 has done more for women,
30:24
not just in sports. It's, I think it's a sports
30:27
related law or whatnot. And maybe not, maybe it's
30:30
actually even bigger than that. But for sports specifically, it
30:33
has done more to to give opportunities to go to colleges
30:35
is given more opportunities to become coaches, to be other, not
30:39
just a coach, administrators. What's the stat?
30:43
There's some amazing stat about how many female CEOs were
30:46
college athletes. I mean, there's there's a lot of
30:49
athletics and of course track and field in that does for
30:52
people. And so for women and minorities
30:55
to have that ability to not be sports people like only this
30:59
many people go in to become pros, right?
31:01
Nobody goes on to become pros, but that the the the lessons
31:04
that we learn, like we talked about what some of the the I'm
31:07
gonna call it negative lessons we learned as dropping the
31:09
baton, things like that. But there's lessons you learn
31:11
how to how to win, how to lose, etcetera, goes to make us much
31:14
better teachers, CE OS etcetera. And so unfortunately we had to
31:19
have a lot. I mean, that's just crazy, but
31:21
that's the world we we lived in and maybe still do
31:24
unfortunately, But I love that your dad saw that and kind of
31:28
really embraced it. It sounds like he's, you know,
31:30
had daughter. So he was like, all right, well,
31:32
let's get to it then. I love that.
31:34
That's so cool. A good dad.
31:36
Good dad. OK, so you're on track, pun
31:38
intended to be Hannah Storm. What's somewhere we take a left?
31:43
What? What happens here?
31:44
Keep. Keep us going.
31:45
So at the newspaper, the Lexington Dispatch that I worked
31:49
at in North Carolina, I remember the owner, I think it was the
31:52
owner of the newspaper, my news director.
31:54
He wanted me to move to Wilmington or take an interview
31:59
in Wilmington. And so I was like, I don't know
32:02
if I really want to go. So I don't think I went to the
32:04
interview, but I did do an interview with the Memphis
32:06
Grizzlies. The Memphis Grizzlies were
32:08
moving back to Memphis from Vancouver.
32:10
And so I got a job working for the Memphis Grizzlies and media
32:15
relations. And then something happened.
32:19
And I did that for a while. And then I just.
32:21
I wasn't. I didn't stay there.
32:23
Yeah. And so I think something, when
32:26
they first moved, they had a shift in what the jobs were, you
32:30
know, people got shifted down. They brought me in people from
32:32
Vancouver. It was the first year.
32:33
It was just a lot going on. And so I was like, well, what do
32:39
I want to do? You know, I could try to get
32:40
another job what I want to do. So I started substitute teaching
32:44
at a middle school here in Memphis because, you know, like,
32:47
I need a job. My mom was like, well, you can
32:50
come home, you know, and stay for free, or you can stay in
32:53
Memphis. But sweetie.
32:55
They charge for that, yeah. Like, you have things I can do.
32:58
So so I started, you know, substitute teaching.
33:02
And the principal there, Mr. Cole, he really loved me.
33:06
And I never subbed at any other school besides Fairview Middle
33:10
School. I still up there every single
33:12
day. And then after that, he
33:14
encouraged me. He said, you know, you are a
33:16
really good teacher. And even at that time, I still
33:19
wasn't coaching track. He was just, he told me, you're
33:21
really good teacher, You're great with the kids.
33:22
I think you should try this path of this, this career path.
33:26
So I did that. I went back to school.
33:28
But in the meantime, I started coaching a little bit with Blue
33:32
City Track Club, one of the longest standing track clubs
33:35
here in Memphis. And I really enjoyed working
33:37
with the kids. And that's kind of like where I
33:38
got my feet wet and then I, I did that and then I started
33:44
school working on my teaching certification.
33:47
And then I was able to get a job at Wooddale High School.
33:50
And that was my first coaching job.
33:52
They, they hired me. No experience, no nothing.
33:54
I became a head coach at 22 years old.
33:57
So I've never, I've never actually been an assistant,
34:01
which it has its negatives and its positives because it, you
34:06
know, there are times when I wish that I had maybe started as
34:10
an assistant, but I did have a lot of people to help to mentor
34:14
me, you know, as headers. But I was a head coach at 22.
34:18
So of course I had to learn a lot over the years, but that's
34:20
how I got my start. When up until that time where
34:24
you started working with the, did you say Blue City Track Club
34:28
up until that time, So all the time you're working for the
34:30
Grizzlies, the Lexington, etcetera.
34:33
Where was tracking your life? And what I mean by that was
34:36
like, are you, were you still like a track nerd?
34:39
Like were you watching every track meet that was on TV,
34:42
which, you know, it's probably only two meets.
34:44
That's a, that's a, that's a terrible dig in our sport.
34:46
We need it's our sport on TV more.
34:48
Were you like still like were you reading track and field news
34:50
or was track just kind of it was put to the side because you
34:53
know, you got a full time career and things like that?
34:56
I was not doing anything, track and field, I mean, other than
34:59
watching it on TV, you know, if it came on, you know, the
35:02
Olympics or, you know, whatever. But I will say that when I was a
35:07
college athlete, I was always a student at a sport.
35:09
I always ask my coach questions, you know, about this, that or
35:12
the other. Just trying to learn different
35:16
things about the sports. Maybe deep down inside I knew I
35:19
wanted to maybe be a coach, I guess I don't know.
35:21
But at that point, that's just not what I was doing, you know?
35:24
But I've always been a student at a sport.
35:26
I always wanted to be technical about this or learn how to do
35:29
that or, you know, so I mean, it was there apparently, but it
35:34
just was not on my brain at the moment.
35:36
We see it both ways that, you know, some, some people who turn
35:41
into coaches, they'll look back and be like, oh, you know what?
35:45
I did ask a lot of questions and not questions like, why are we
35:47
doing this? It was like, you know, I
35:48
generally wanted to know why were we doing this workout and
35:51
why, why did we do this one the next day and things like that.
35:54
And then they kind of realized like, oh, man, I was kind of
35:56
learning to be a coach then and in others, you know, like, man,
36:00
you know, I was 16 years old, Mike coach said run, I ran, you
36:04
know, I didn't ask questions. I did whatever the workout was.
36:07
So we we see it both ways. It's interesting that you now
36:09
can look back and go, you know, I, I, I was a technical.
36:12
I wanted to learn more about why were we doing this and how does
36:14
this go? So you're, you were kind of
36:16
priming the pump even back then. So I love that.
36:20
OK, So, you know, you're, that journey is fascinating.
36:23
You had to go back to school. That's hard for, for people, you
36:28
know, I, I look at people with master's degrees, I'm like, God
36:30
bless you. I've soon as I got my
36:31
undergrads, I guess all I need, I'm out.
36:33
I'm not doing more school. I couldn't handle it.
36:35
You go back to get your teacher certification.
36:37
I love that you were a substitute teacher.
36:39
My wife substitute teaches a lot as well.
36:41
And so anytime I, you know, meet a fellow sub, I know the, the
36:44
hard work and the appreciation those other teachers have for,
36:47
for good Subs and there's a lot of good Subs out there.
36:50
But you know, to keep that classroom continuity is pretty
36:53
important. So I love that you did that.
36:55
So you get to the, you said Woodhall High School, I believe.
36:58
Wooddale. Wooddale and you, they say, hey,
37:00
that's awesome, Love that you're here.
37:02
You're going to be the head track coach.
37:04
Yep. Who's the first person you call?
37:07
What's the first person like? All right, I need some help
37:10
here. Who?
37:10
Who do you? Who do you phone?
37:11
A friend. Well, Cedric Miller, who I went
37:16
to college with and he played football with my husband at the
37:19
University of Memphis. He was the football coach there.
37:22
And so he kind of helped me. He was young too, though, but he
37:25
kind of helped me, you know, to navigate and Miss McCullough, my
37:28
principal was was pretty good, but I was there.
37:33
Coach McClellan, I guess after that next year, he was the boys
37:36
coach. But we just, I just kind of
37:38
learned on the fly, you know, I you the track coach, I just kind
37:45
of learned on the fly and I just tried to take in as much as I
37:48
could, you know, from other coaches around me.
37:51
Danny Young from East High School, he actually wanted to
37:55
hire me before I went to wood there, but they didn't have any
37:57
positions. And so he kind of helped to help
37:59
me to navigate some things, you know, a little bit.
38:02
And of course, you know, nothing is perfect, but I just was kind
38:05
of I'm thrown in the fire, you know, I'm a head coach of high
38:07
school, you know, so it was definitely interesting.
38:11
You know, I learned a lot with the kids that I had.
38:14
You know, we didn't win any championships or anything, but
38:17
I'm still those, those are my first group of kids.
38:19
And so I still have very good relationships with the kids that
38:23
I coached my first time around. And so it's awesome.
38:27
Do you remember a time? An incident, a practice,
38:32
something that whether it was in that first year, maybe it was
38:35
the second, third year, maybe it didn't happen for a while.
38:37
But somewhere in a situation like this, typically something
38:41
happens. And it's not maybe not
38:43
necessarily a cute thing like, you know, a workout, rent, well,
38:46
well, or anything like that. But it's kind of a combination
38:47
of things that occurred where there's like this sense of like,
38:51
Oh yeah, this is the right thing.
38:53
Like why, why did I wait this long?
38:56
You know, just kind of like a self reassurance of like, OK,
38:59
I'm supposed to be coach here. Can you think of a incident time
39:03
experience like that? Not just really an incident, but
39:10
I just knew it was the right thing because I would see the
39:12
success that the kids were having, you know, just them
39:15
being able to grow, you know, as athletes, to grow as people.
39:19
And just with that first group, just still having those
39:22
relationships with those kids, I mean, I knew coaching was what I
39:26
was supposed to be doing when I when I was at wood there, I knew
39:29
that's what I was supposed to be doing.
39:30
I might not have known what I was doing, you know?
39:33
Really. Yeah.
39:34
That's two different things. I agree.
39:35
Yeah. But I knew, and I always dreamed
39:39
big, but I knew that this was what I was supposed to be doing.
39:43
I was excited about being there with those kids, even though we
39:46
did my school that I worked, that we didn't have a track and
39:51
there was a track maybe a mile and a half away.
39:53
So we have to run to the track every day.
39:55
Before we could actually even practice, parents or parents
39:58
would have to come and drive us. But like I said, you know, Mr.
40:01
Cameron, who he was one of my assistants and I was very
40:04
encouraging. So like I said, I may not have
40:07
known exactly what I was doing, but I knew that this was what I
40:10
was doing just because I can see the impact that I was having on
40:12
the kids. Yeah, that, that's interesting.
40:13
We've been talking about this a lot more and more on the podcast
40:16
that you know, the XS and OS part of it.
40:19
So when I hear you say I may not have known what to do, that to
40:21
me is like XS and OS, like how do I structure long jumpers,
40:24
sprinters, etcetera. But that the XS and OS for track
40:28
and field coaching and probably all youth coach.
40:30
And when I say youth, maybe up until the pros, maybe it may
40:34
include the pros that the XS and OS are actually the easy part
40:38
that it's all this other stuff. And, and I kind of, I'm trying
40:42
to find a name for all this other stuff.
40:43
And I keep just coming back to culture.
40:45
But you know, how you relate to the kids, how you recruit the
40:47
hallways, the, the I'm going to say the little things, how you
40:52
accentuate the positives that they do.
40:54
How do you handle the negatives when they try to get out of
40:56
practice on their birthdays and things like that.
40:58
That that all is probably more important than what we're seeing
41:02
when we talked to coaches is that is more important.
41:06
And we don't have a mechanism to learn that meaning when you go
41:11
to a clinic, In fact, you know, next week or two weeks from now
41:14
when you're at the USFCCCA convention and they do a great
41:17
job of all their speakers, but 75 plus percent of all the
41:20
topics are going to be here's how to coach a shot putter.
41:24
Here's what I do in the summer training for cross country
41:26
runners. Here's how we do relay handoffs.
41:28
And then there'll be a, you know, here's what we did to
41:31
change our culture at this school, or here's what we do to
41:36
recognize kids in their PRS or, you know, that's kind of a
41:38
culture builder thing like that. So, so I love that you had from
41:42
your past experiences with your high school coach, college
41:44
coach, all those build together to bring your culture.
41:47
The the the first culture you bring when you're the head coach
41:50
is OK, here's how we're going to do practice.
41:52
I'm going to love on you. We're going to talk about this.
41:55
We're going to work hard. We're going to have high
41:56
expectations. That all comes from the people
41:59
that did those to you that set those, those those expectations
42:02
in you to do that. So I love that.
42:04
Yeah. And I love that you can
42:06
recognize, hey, I probably didn't maybe not not know what
42:09
to do, but I knew how I was going to handle things.
42:12
So so how did you learn the how to do what, what was, you know,
42:16
typically coaching education, formal, informal, right.
42:20
Formal is the USATF level ones level twos, USTCCA Academy,
42:24
things like that. Informal.
42:25
Both are very important. By the way, informal is I sat
42:29
down with my coach and we talked about Sprint or training or
42:31
whatever. You know those, those are.
42:32
How are you dealing with the coaching education early in the
42:35
career? Well, I did go and sit for my
42:37
level 1 coaching. So that was one of the first
42:40
things that I did when I was there, you know, wood deal.
42:44
I did go and do that. And then my high school coach
42:46
would always, you know, tell me, make sure that you try to go to
42:49
your professional meetings. Make sure, make sure you, you
42:52
know, because I don't even think we, we didn't have like YouTube
42:54
videos, you know, not at that moment.
42:57
So it looks like I could just click on Instagram and see
42:59
something, you know, because and then, you know, finances too,
43:02
you know, you a young coach, young worker, you don't really
43:04
have the money to travel to these different places and do
43:07
these different things. But she would, you know, tell
43:09
me, you know what, maybe try this conference or maybe try
43:13
that conference. Or I could always call and ask
43:15
her questions. Like I said, there was some
43:17
coaches in the city that I could call.
43:19
You don't ask questions. But I mean, to be honest, I'm
43:22
always, you know, driving in my own lanes.
43:24
So I love a lot of things I learned.
43:27
I just kind of learned by doing and learned, you know, on the
43:29
fly and learn from making mistakes and, you know, trying
43:33
to, you know, OK, well, I did it this way this time.
43:35
That didn't work. Maybe I can do it this way this
43:37
time. And then it just keeps evolving.
43:40
So a lot of the things that I learned I just kind of learned
43:43
by doing and doing them wrong maybe, and then doing them
43:46
right. Well.
43:47
I think, you know, I have put coaching education in the two
43:51
buckets, formal and informal. I think you're kind of helping
43:54
me learn 1/3 bucket and that is self exploration.
43:58
And, and that can be hard, right?
44:00
If we don't have self-awareness that, hey, I can make mistakes
44:03
too, just because whether it's your first year or 30th year, I
44:07
can make mistakes too. And, and if I can recognize
44:10
that, that means I can adjust off of that.
44:12
And that's a type of coaching education because there's,
44:14
there's some of us, you know, who say, you know, I know how to
44:17
do this. I've been doing this for five
44:18
years, 10 years, 20. It doesn't matter what year you
44:20
put in there. I've been successful.
44:23
What do I, you know, I don't need to learn.
44:25
And it's like, woof, OK, well, I honestly look at someone like
44:28
that and it's the rare person that actually has that attitude.
44:31
But I do look at somebody who says that and go, man, how good
44:33
could your kids have been? Like, you know, if you'd have
44:36
continue to get better like they would have been, I know you've
44:38
had success and that's all, but how much better could they have
44:40
been if you'd have just, you know, had some little bit of
44:43
self-awareness and ego check yourself and learn from others
44:46
and yourself and things like that.
44:47
So you're kind of helping me craft out this third bucket of
44:50
coaching education. So I love that you had that
44:52
self-awareness. How many years at Wooddale?
44:57
So I stayed at Wooddale three years and then I went to
45:00
Sherwood Middle School for three years, which I think was a great
45:05
experience. I coached track at Sherwood
45:07
Middle School, and I remember who was it that told me, I think
45:13
it was Ron King, an official here in Memphis.
45:16
And he told me all coaches should coach middle school, you
45:19
know, because that's where I mean, you can become a great
45:23
coach in middle school. You can learn a lot in middle
45:25
school. But then what high school
45:27
doesn't want a middle school of kids that knows certain things
45:32
about right? And so coaching the middle
45:33
school is even more fun at times and coaching high school because
45:38
you get to teach them this is it's truly grassroots, You know,
45:41
I know nowadays we have all these elite elementary and
45:44
middle school kids, But when you're coaching middle school,
45:46
you get the opportunity to really, really teach the sport.
45:50
And as you're teaching the sport, you're learning the sport
45:53
and honing your skills while teaching the middle school kids
45:57
the sport. So Sherwood Middle School, shout
45:59
out to Sherwood Middle School and Eric Cooper, my old
46:02
principal. Great experience over there.
46:05
And we used to battle with American white middle school all
46:07
the time, and I think that was a great part of my career.
46:10
Stay there. That's interesting.
46:13
I coached summer track for like half a summer.
46:17
I boy the young kids when I used to teach level ones, I used to
46:21
always, you know, all right, how many college coaches do we have?
46:23
Raise your hand. How many high school, how many
46:25
middle school, how many youth and club coaches and those guys
46:28
and gals, I'd be like, God bless you.
46:30
I can't do it, I can't work. I don't have the patience for an
46:33
8 year old, 12 year old. And by the way, my two children
46:35
would attest to that because I don't have patience for them
46:38
either. A lot of times.
46:40
What is for someone who's done it on both sides, high school
46:43
and middle school, you get you started kind of getting into so
46:47
kind of double click into that. What are the differences?
46:50
You talked about teaching the kids.
46:52
You still have to do that on a high school level too.
46:54
But but I can sense that there's something there's a different
46:57
way or maybe a more basic level and that sometimes people think
47:00
that's a a derogatory term. It's not basic.
47:03
You got to get good at the basics where you can do anything
47:05
else, guys and gals. So tell us a little bit of the
47:07
differences of like coaching middle school versus coaching
47:11
high school aged kids. Well, middle school kids are,
47:14
they're way more rambunctious, of course.
47:16
But in my experience, because I taught in a, a urban financially
47:23
disadvantaged area, So a lot of the key is, you know, and some
47:27
of the suburban areas at that time did not have middle school
47:29
track. Let's just start there.
47:30
So inside of the city limits, they had middle school track,
47:33
but there's not always funding for it.
47:35
But just to see the light up, the kids face to light up, to
47:38
know that somebody cares enough to actually teach me how to do
47:41
these things. And I can be good at this
47:43
because kids start to dream early.
47:46
They don't just start to dream in high school is if they start
47:48
to dream early and you can instill in them you can be a
47:52
good track. Exactly.
47:53
You don't have to just play basketball or be a majorette.
47:55
Not that there's anything wrong with that.
47:56
But those kids, they want to learn.
48:00
Not that the high school kids don't, but they hang on every
48:02
word. You know, you're the greatest.
48:04
Whatever you say, they're going to hang on to it.
48:09
And they and they just because they're they're out there
48:10
because they want to be, you know what I mean?
48:13
And I just think that that's a great part about middle school.
48:17
I think I learned a lot about myself.
48:18
I learned a lot about the kids. I learned a lot about coaching.
48:22
And I think one of the bonuses for me the way that I coach is
48:26
because I, I'm a developer and that comes with having to
48:30
develop kids in middle school. You know, everybody on team is
48:34
not going to be a phenom. And back when I was coaching
48:36
middle school, nobody on the team was a phenom.
48:39
So that means that you had to develop, you know what I'm
48:42
saying? I was like, we didn't have
48:43
middle school kids running people.
48:44
You know what I mean? That that that wasn't a thing.
48:47
You know tracflation as they caught it.
48:50
Yes, yes, that's a real thing, man.
48:51
That's a real thing. And by the way, I blame coaches
48:54
for Tracflation. We want to talk about the tracks
48:57
and the equipment and the shoes and all that is part of it,
48:59
sure. But our coaches have gotten a
49:01
crap ton better over this past five years, kind of COVID and
49:05
on. So if you you mad at
49:07
tracolation, blame yourself, you the coach, you the one that's
49:09
coaching them. So I love that you brought that
49:11
up. That's so funny.
49:13
We didn't, we didn't really have that.
49:14
So you're developing everybody, you know, you're figuring out
49:18
who can do this, who can do that, who can launch them, who
49:21
can run the 400, who can run the 800.
49:23
So as a coach, you're having to learn, you know, how to coach
49:26
these different things because you got to develop all of these
49:29
kids because you don't. I didn't really have that one or
49:32
two people that necessarily that stood out.
49:35
You know, I had to develop everybody.
49:36
And so in middle school, that was just what it was.
49:39
Does Tennessee or even Memphis have a like a formalized track
49:44
season? Like is there a middle school
49:45
for middle school? Is there a middle school state
49:48
championship in Tennessee or does Memphis do?
49:50
Because Memphis, you know, we've kind of glossed over this a
49:52
little bit. Memphis has a heck of a track
49:54
history, by the way, the the, the city, not not just
49:57
University of Memphis that plays into it, but Memphis.
49:59
One of my best recruits ever got was Marissa Harris from OH.
50:04
Yes. Yeah, I signed her at
50:06
Mississippi State. Yeah, I mean, she was amazing.
50:09
It's an amazing area for track. So does for the middle school.
50:13
Does Tennessee have a middle school state championship
50:15
series? Or does Memphis do a city middle
50:18
school? Any kind of formalization up to
50:20
that back? Then back then it was just the
50:23
city championship, but now we have a TMSAA state championship.
50:27
Nice. Very cool.
50:28
I love that we do that here in Illinois too.
50:30
So I love that. I don't know that many states do
50:32
that. So I really, I really like that
50:34
you talk about the next step in high school and therefore
50:37
college and therefore Team USA development to me is more
50:41
formalization of middle school track and field in, in the in
50:43
the USA. I know we have clubs and summer
50:46
clubs and they do an amazing job and certainly they're helping
50:49
our youth become better high school and and therefore college
50:52
athletes. But if we could really formalize
50:54
middle school track and field in this country, I think that's the
50:56
next big trackflation, if you will, for for track and field.
51:00
I really do. OK, so three years at Wooddale,
51:04
three years at the middle school.
51:06
Where to next? So they opened a so now let me
51:10
just say this. That's two places with no track.
51:13
So right. So neither place had a track and
51:16
we practiced at a grass field. So the only time the middle
51:18
schools got to see the track was when we actually went to the
51:20
track meeting. They didn't go to track.
51:22
So I really wanted to by this time, I'm I'm bidding by the
51:25
track bug. Like I want to be a track coach.
51:27
Like for real, for real. And they built a new high school
51:31
in Southeast Memphis called Southwind High School.
51:33
And it had only been open one year and didn't even have all
51:35
the grades yet. And I interviewed there and then
51:40
I became the head track coach over at at Southland High School
51:43
and I was there 15 years. Oh, Lee, 15 years, yes.
51:47
Wow. So you really like, you were one
51:50
of the first ever track coaches there and so you really
51:53
developed that whole program. Yes, wow.
51:56
Did you get a facility? They had a facility, yes, they
51:59
built a brand new school, brand new track, stadium, weight
52:03
rooms, everything. So I was able to go to a place
52:06
where I could at least go outside to the track everyday.
52:09
How did you adjust to that? Because you know, what I mean by
52:11
that is, you know, you did six years of coaching without a
52:15
track or having to run a mile and a half to go get to a track.
52:19
Now you have a track that your workouts have to look
52:22
differently, your equipment needs.
52:23
How did you adjust to like, oh crap, I actually have a
52:26
facility. I can I can do other things.
52:28
Well, you know, it was a breath of fresh air on one hand, but
52:32
then on the other hand, everybody that's new to the
52:34
school has a new facility. So now it's like, who can use it
52:37
when it's mine, You know what I'm saying?
52:40
So that was that was definitely an adjustment period there
52:45
because you walk in like, oh, hey, I got to listen to football
52:48
coaches like, you know. What I'm saying it's not your
52:51
facility, it is the school specific, right?
52:53
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right.
52:55
But the good part about that was that Cedric Miller, remember I
52:58
mentioned him, who's the football coach at Wooddale was
53:00
the then football coach at Southwind.
53:02
So he was at the boys track coach too.
53:05
So we got a jail wheel together and we were able to cooperate
53:08
and and work really hard and both the boys teams and the
53:10
girls teams were really good. So it was just, you know,
53:13
Southwind is home, so. Now I we look at each
53:18
individual's part of your entire journey up to this, you know,
53:22
point when we record here, but there is also like big segments
53:27
inside of the of that overall journey.
53:29
So, you know, three years at one school, three years of the other
53:32
different levels, high school to middle school.
53:35
One you only had a grass field that they only saw the track
53:37
when you went to meets. The other one you had to run to
53:39
a track and now you're at a place where you have a track.
53:42
How did you, when you think about those 15 years?
53:45
It feels like my guess would be, I guess I shouldn't say, feels
53:48
like my guess would be a lot of your development as a coach came
53:52
during this part because like, oh, I have my facility.
53:55
I'm there for a long time. Meaning you can your program
53:58
continue to grow and adjust as you move through the years.
54:01
You know, you start your own culture there, you recruit in
54:04
the hallways, things like that. You learn how to get kids
54:06
recruited to colleges. You recruit kids to your team.
54:10
Talk to us about that time. How did you develop?
54:12
How did you grow as a coach during that 15 years at
54:15
Southland? So like I stated earlier, in
54:18
Memphis, Memphis proper, the middle schools had track and
54:22
field going into Southwind, which was a Shelby County
54:26
school, which is which was different from Memphis City
54:29
Schools. So you have a Shelby County
54:31
school and the suburban schools or the county schools did not
54:34
have track and field as a sport for middle school.
54:38
So when I get to the high school, a lot of the kids that I
54:42
get from my theater schools have never run track before unless
54:46
they run for maybe a sys program, Chevy U Sports, but a
54:49
lot of them, and never run track before.
54:51
So this was a totally new experience.
54:54
Yeah. Because you developed at one
54:56
place, you know, where at least you could run to a track.
54:59
And then they had middle school sports.
55:00
And you develop at another place, which is middle school,
55:02
and all the kids are hyper energetic and ready to go and
55:04
they play all the sports. And then you get to a high
55:06
school where you get high schools who's never actually
55:09
even run track because this is not a city school.
55:12
So that's a different challenge. Yeah.
55:13
Because now you have to figure out, well, how do I train these
55:17
kids who've never participated in track before?
55:20
Most of them, I think my first class of kids pretty much did
55:24
dance. And then I was a cross country
55:26
coach too. So I was a track coach and a
55:28
cross country coach, which was news.
55:30
I've never been across country coach.
55:32
And so I'm learning a lot, you know, just having to deal with
55:37
that. But I learned at South Wind, you
55:40
know, of course, how to develop kids.
55:42
I learned, you know, because I'm making my own budget, you know,
55:47
equipment needs, you know how to get sponsors, you know, working
55:50
with other coaches in the building, you know, the turnover
55:53
with assistant coaches because I'm a bit, I'm kind of intense.
55:56
So, you know, everybody don't want to be a track coach.
55:59
And you know, it's like you work for her.
56:02
Sounds like everybody doesn't necessarily want to be a track
56:05
coach with you as the head coach.
56:06
Hold on. You know, but you know what, I'm
56:08
so I'm so passionate about what I do.
56:12
And, and that's true because I'm a winner.
56:14
I want to win, you know, I want to get the best, you know, out
56:17
of everybody. And that takes work, you know
56:20
what I'm saying? When you coach track, you coach
56:22
in the rain, you coach when it's cold, you coach when it's hot,
56:25
you coach when it's, you know, all of the elements and it's
56:28
work. It's trick has so much equipment
56:31
to move, you know what I mean? And we rarely have trainers or
56:35
managers, you know, at the high school level that help you do
56:38
all of those things. So being a track coach is hard
56:40
work, you know, and you always, I think when you're a female
56:46
track coach or the only head coach in the building that may
56:49
be a female, you know, you got to have a little chip on your
56:51
shoulder because you constantly have to prove that you can do,
56:56
you know, the job, you know? Well, And so, yeah, being my
57:01
assistant coach can be a lot. I know a lot of people that
57:03
might tell you that. Hey, but the same can be said
57:07
about your athletes too, right? Not everybody can run track.
57:10
Some people don't want to run when it's cold, when it's rainy,
57:12
they want manicure track. You know, I only want it when
57:15
the weather's great. Well, guess what, welcome to
57:17
America. The track season's never going
57:19
to be great as far as weather and things like that.
57:21
So it's not for everybody. Thank God there's other sports
57:24
for other people. So, and thank God there's
57:26
there's track. If you so how have you, when you
57:30
look back at your first year there at Southwind versus your,
57:33
I think you said 15 years, your 15th year, How did you get
57:36
better as a coach? And that isn't maybe X's and O's
57:41
is one part of that, but how did you recruit assistant coaches
57:46
better? How did you figure out the
57:48
scheduling better? How did you figure out how to
57:51
handle 90% of my freshmen have no clue what a track is when
57:55
they come in to me. So I've got a really, but but I
57:57
also have 100% of my seniors do know because of it.
57:59
So how do I mesh that? Talk to us about that transition
58:02
for you as a coach. Well, as I was there, I started
58:05
to maybe use my resources, you know, wisely.
58:08
We started to get sponsors from businesses in the community just
58:11
trying to get out of community more.
58:12
And when it came to hiring coaches, I did have a lot of
58:17
turnover, you know, at first. But after you, you tried to find
58:21
coaches with certain levels of expertise because as I grew, our
58:24
teams grew and they got better. And as we got better than more
58:28
kids, you know, wanted to come to our school to be a part of
58:32
that team. And so you want to make sure
58:34
that you have coaches in place that can coach, you know, those
58:38
athletes. And so I was able to hire some
58:41
different coaches. They had expertise in different
58:43
areas and just to help, you know, the program continue to
58:46
grow because at South Wind we won the state championship in
58:49
2018. And so, and then we got runner
58:52
up in 2019 and then COVID happened in 2020.
58:56
So but it's just a progression. You can see the progression from
59:00
because we got third in 2016. So I got there in 22,008 and we
59:06
just worked and worked and worked and worked and you know,
59:09
we had some girls that we we went to state every year, but we
59:12
never missed the state championship at South Wind and
59:15
we always place, you know, in something and we would score
59:18
some points, maybe being the top ten, maybe not, but we always
59:22
were progressing. So by the time 2016 came, we
59:27
we're third in state and that year I had five girls to sign
59:31
scholarships that year, 5 in that class and then the next
59:37
year we then we graduated all those girls.
59:39
And then 2017 we took one girl to state.
59:41
And then in 2018, we won state with a bunch of freshmen and a
59:45
senior. Wow, that's I would have
59:48
thought, I would not have guessed, you know, third, I
59:51
thought you were going to say and then the next year we got
59:52
second and then we want you dip down to where it's like, man, we
59:55
only have one kid that can make it.
59:56
And then the very next year we win.
59:58
Yeah. Was there ever a time as you're
1:00:01
as you're from O8 up until 18 when you won your the title,
1:00:05
right, 18. Was there ever a time of
1:00:08
discouragement of like, man, we're just not going to want to
1:00:10
stay title here. We don't get the funding.
1:00:12
We don't get the same. Maybe your school probably
1:00:15
wasn't the biggest school. So, you know, we don't get the
1:00:17
same number of kids. Other kids get whatever.
1:00:19
It's hard to find no matter where you are.
1:00:21
By the way, it's hard to find good assistant coaches.
1:00:23
And I don't mean that to disparage our assistant coaches
1:00:25
of just like when I say good, meaning they come with like, oh,
1:00:28
I want to be a coach. Most just want to help out or
1:00:30
what? And there's a there's a place
1:00:32
for that. But there's also we need people
1:00:34
who want to like become better coaches and they're for their
1:00:37
kids and stuff like that. Was there ever a moment of
1:00:39
discouragement or was it always like, oh, yeah, we're on the
1:00:41
right track, boys and girls. It may not as happen as quickly
1:00:43
as maybe I want it, but we're we're going, we're getting
1:00:46
there. Well, all the time because you
1:00:50
know, we have a big, a big, we had a big rivalry with a school,
1:00:53
White Haven and I think. They had White Haven, yeah.
1:00:55
Sure. Yeah.
1:00:56
So that was, you know, and the coaching out with really good
1:00:58
friends and they would just beat us all the time and we would get
1:01:02
second, you know, we would be really, really good.
1:01:06
But it was, you know, the dynasty that they had put
1:01:08
together with Maya McCoy and, you know, all of those other
1:01:12
girls. And so at times it was
1:01:14
discouraging. And I've even had coaches to
1:01:15
say, hey, coach, you know, you guys did a great job.
1:01:17
I kind of like took your model and, you know, that's what I put
1:01:20
in my team. And we had the talent and, you
1:01:22
know, we won. And so, yes, there were
1:01:24
definitely times where I was, you know, a bit discouraged
1:01:29
because in my mind I'm thinking, I know I'm a good coach.
1:01:32
I know I'm trying my best to do the right things, but it just
1:01:35
hadn't happened for me yet. And that's that's one thing that
1:01:40
even in today's time with the younger coaches that I see, they
1:01:43
always like, oh, you know, you guys are doing so good.
1:01:47
I want to I want to be like you are.
1:01:48
Why can't I beat you? And I have to remind them that
1:01:50
it's the progression you have to put in the work.
1:01:53
I mean, everybody doesn't win the state championship in, you
1:01:56
know, the first year that they're coaching, you know, and
1:01:58
it took a while, but through that journey, you know, I've
1:02:01
learned a lot how to deal with administrations, how to deal
1:02:03
with parents, how to deal with kids, learn a lot about myself.
1:02:06
And so it didn't come fast for me, but I'm, I'm thankful to God
1:02:11
for that, that it that it didn't.
1:02:13
So you know. I would agree, and I would add
1:02:15
that I'm thankful for God that it happened the way it happened.
1:02:18
You know, I truly believe another topic that we talked a
1:02:20
lot about on the podcast here in the last few months is that you
1:02:24
are exactly where you're supposed to be right now.
1:02:27
And that doesn't mean you're stuck there and doesn't mean
1:02:29
you're in a good place either, by the way.
1:02:31
It just means that where you are today is exactly where you're
1:02:33
supposed to be. You know, it's kind of a a tough
1:02:37
tug of war, if you will, when you talk about young people or
1:02:41
young coaches or young athletes, young coaches that, you know,
1:02:43
want to win. Why can't we win right now?
1:02:45
How come I haven't won the state title in the first five years of
1:02:48
my career? Whatever.
1:02:49
And I call it this, you know, kind of tough tug of war because
1:02:52
on one hand you're like, well, I love their competitiveness.
1:02:54
I like that they want to win and that they're doing the things
1:02:57
that that, you know, you should be doing to win.
1:02:59
But on the other part of that, the, the, that rope for the tug
1:03:01
of war is I also want you to think long term, you're going to
1:03:04
be coaching hopefully for 20-30, forty years.
1:03:06
You know, you're not going to win 40 state titles.
1:03:08
I mean, no, I don't want to say no one does that.
1:03:11
I'm sure someone has amazing coaches out there.
1:03:13
But you know, it's like this weird tug of war is like, man, I
1:03:15
want you to be competitive. I love that.
1:03:16
Don't quit, but also realize it does not happen for everybody
1:03:20
that quick either that you know, it may take the 12th year, the
1:03:23
20th year, the 25th year. Oh, and by the way, you're not
1:03:26
defined by that. If you have your entire career
1:03:28
and you don't want a state title, that does not mean you
1:03:30
were not a good coach that you you can still be a Hall of Fame
1:03:33
coach and not have a state title, national championship on
1:03:35
the college level, etcetera. So again, we got to remember it
1:03:38
is so hard to win. It's not easy.
1:03:41
If it was easy, well, then it wouldn't matter.
1:03:43
So OK, so 15 years at a S wind and state title and state
1:03:51
trophies and college kids going to colleges.
1:03:54
That's amazing. Why'd we why'd we leave, and
1:03:57
where'd we go? So I had said that in 2020 I was
1:04:04
going to maybe retire from coach because even when I started,
1:04:06
even when I started, I said, oh, I want to do this.
1:04:09
I do it for like 5 or 6 years, you know, and I'm going to, you
1:04:13
know, go back into whatever else that I wanted to do.
1:04:14
Maybe now I want to be athletic director.
1:04:16
I don't know. But that didn't happen.
1:04:18
And so I said, well, you know what, in 2020, I'm going to
1:04:21
retire. I'm not going to coach anymore.
1:04:23
I just was like, you know, I'm kind of tired of it.
1:04:28
But then Kobe came. OK.
1:04:29
As I say, did you say that before COVID?
1:04:30
That's us. That was before COVID and then
1:04:33
and then COVID came and I was like, you know what?
1:04:38
I really can't because we didn't.
1:04:40
When Kobe came, we, they had told us we weren't going to have
1:04:43
a season. We had already started track
1:04:44
season. We had run our first track meet
1:04:47
and then we went to spring break on Monday.
1:04:49
Then we never went back to school.
1:04:51
And so I had a whole class of kids and I just said, you know
1:04:56
what, I owe it to them to finish.
1:04:58
So then what we did was, is that when a lot of other schools
1:05:02
stopped practicing, we didn't we whatever the guidelines or
1:05:08
regulations that they gave us, we, we worked within those
1:05:11
guidelines, but we always, we did zoom practices, virtual
1:05:14
practices, all kind of different stuff to stay relevant.
1:05:17
And then we still ended up going to the state championship.
1:05:19
Some of those girls did. We didn't win anything.
1:05:21
But because some of the other schools still practice, you
1:05:24
know, every day, they were still going to school, things like
1:05:26
that. Our district just was not.
1:05:28
And so I said, well, you know what, I can't quit.
1:05:31
I just can't because I owe it to these kids to finish.
1:05:35
And so they did and, and then it just, I don't know, I'm one of
1:05:42
those people I don't move to the Lord tells me to.
1:05:45
And he told me that it was time for me to make a change, and I
1:05:50
had no idea where I was going. I was fine there.
1:05:54
But then when Collierville called, I said, well, you know
1:05:56
what, Maybe I'll give it a shot and we'll see.
1:05:58
So from there to Collierville. Over here and Collierville's on
1:06:01
the same street. So think about this.
1:06:04
S winds in the middle, we're all on Shelby Drive.
1:06:07
So S Wind is 7900 E Shelby Drive and then Whitehaven is kind of
1:06:13
off of Shelby Drive way down on the other end, which is our
1:06:16
rival school and Collierville is 11/6 O 5 Shelby Drive.
1:06:21
So. Really.
1:06:22
Wait, so like how many miles in between?
1:06:25
I don't know, maybe four or five miles, maybe 4 miles.
1:06:28
No way. They've Collierville built a new
1:06:31
school, maybe about, I don't know, 10 years ago, maybe eight
1:06:34
years ago, and is right down the street.
1:06:37
Wow, that's amazing. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's
1:06:41
interesting. So those kids all like they know
1:06:44
each other. They grew up together.
1:06:45
They played on the same Little League baseball.
1:06:48
Team. Maybe some of them did, but it's
1:06:50
because the school I was at was in southeast Shelby County, and
1:06:53
Carville is a little ways down. I'm just a different school
1:06:56
district. Yeah, some of the kids do know
1:06:59
each other, but none of the kids from South Wind came to
1:07:01
Collierville with me. So this is a whole new team.
1:07:03
Wow. Well, Team was already in place.
1:07:06
So what did you do? It could be fair.
1:07:09
The answer could be nothing because you you had success at
1:07:12
at white, not white Haven Hoof. I almost got in trouble there
1:07:15
Southland. So I know as soon as I said I
1:07:17
was like, stop, stop, stop, stop Southwind.
1:07:19
You had success at Southwind. So you're building your style,
1:07:23
if you will. Same, you know, same question I
1:07:25
asked about your high school coach.
1:07:26
What was your style? The same, same, same question.
1:07:29
Could someone on your team could have been asked about you like
1:07:31
what's Coach Seymour's style? And they would, you know, talk
1:07:33
about, Oh, well, we do this and this and then this.
1:07:36
So you've got that now and it's successful.
1:07:38
What did you do, if anything different when you got to
1:07:41
Collierville? Because you, you just mentioned,
1:07:43
you wipe it out. It's a whole new team.
1:07:44
No one knows who you are in regards to, you know, they knew
1:07:47
who you are, but you know, no one's ever worked out for you
1:07:49
and stuff like that. So what do you do differently?
1:07:52
Well, I think I didn't really change too much about my
1:07:54
coaching style from South Wind to Carville.
1:07:59
Like I said, I'm pretty tough as far as a coach is concerned.
1:08:02
I'm a kind of a get in your face type of coach.
1:08:05
I just maybe say what I need to say a little differently.
1:08:08
I just coach maybe a little differently than I did, but I
1:08:12
think I get the point across to my kids same way I would have it
1:08:14
at another school. I just maybe just do it a little
1:08:16
bit differently. But I brought the same
1:08:18
principles, same work ethic, same drive, same everything to
1:08:22
this program. And just like I said before, I'm
1:08:25
a person that truly dreams, you know, big.
1:08:28
And so Carville is, you know, the top school in the state and
1:08:31
has the best facilities, you know, ever.
1:08:34
And of course, it's more to manage.
1:08:36
When I said dream big, I didn't think I was going to have a team
1:08:39
of 80 kids. I'm now the boys coach and the
1:08:41
girls coach. So I've coached both genders,
1:08:45
you know, and just navigating, you know, using the weight rooms
1:08:48
and, you know, the tracking because we pretty much have, you
1:08:50
know, everything that we need. Of course, there are always is,
1:08:52
there's always room for improvement.
1:08:54
But I just bought the same drive that I have the same
1:08:57
expectations, the same everything pretty much from
1:08:59
Southland over here. Was Collierville the first time
1:09:03
you coached boys? Yes.
1:09:06
So, so my question is not I, I, I have vowed in the six years
1:09:11
we've done this podcast to never ask a coach who's a woman.
1:09:15
What's it like coaching boys? That's not ever my question.
1:09:18
My question is actually much more general of you coached one
1:09:21
sex, women, girls all the way through.
1:09:24
Now you add a different sex, you have the the boys to it.
1:09:28
How was that adjustment? So not here my question and my
1:09:31
question is not you as a woman, how was it coaching the other
1:09:34
opposite? It's how did you add a whole?
1:09:36
They are different. Let's be real, at least in my
1:09:38
experience coaching boys and coaching girls is different.
1:09:41
There are differences. I should say you are used to 1
1:09:43
style girls. You added a different, you had
1:09:46
the boys to it. How was that experience?
1:09:48
Well, coaching the boys, I'm the same tough on the boys as I am
1:09:53
on the girls. The first year here, the boys
1:09:55
did really well. They were this close from
1:09:57
breaking the state record in the four by four.
1:09:59
We had a bunch of seniors that year.
1:10:01
It's just that on the boys side, we keep graduating kids and we
1:10:04
have so many sports, footballs and basketballs and all of that.
1:10:08
So, you know, it's a little it's a little bit more challenging.
1:10:13
And then our feeder schools are really good West and CMS with,
1:10:16
you know, and sending athletes. Our middle schools that are in
1:10:18
our town send it to us. So it's a little bit more
1:10:20
challenging, but they get the same work.
1:10:22
You know, they get the same, the same work, the same coach
1:10:26
Seymour the same and something that I did do differently here.
1:10:30
I'm I'm blessed because I'm able to have such a large staff.
1:10:32
I have 7 or 8 coaches over here. So I have enough people to go
1:10:35
around to help coach the boys and the girls in the different
1:10:39
areas. And so, you know, you see me now
1:10:42
as national coach of the year for the girls, but keep looking
1:10:46
at whatever. Comes dude, that would be
1:10:47
amazing. I I don't think I think I can
1:10:50
confidently say no one has won the boys coach of the year and
1:10:53
one side one year and then the girls that would be, I mean,
1:10:57
that'd be amazing. Well, I, I work hard at not
1:10:58
having repeat guests only because there's so many coaches
1:11:01
out there and I only do 52 a year.
1:11:03
I might make an exception for that.
1:11:05
At least if you when the boys here in the next year or two,
1:11:07
you coming back. Don't make me, don't make me put
1:11:09
that on my vision board. Are you boys coaches out there
1:11:12
that think I can only coach girls?
1:11:13
Don't make me put that on my vision board.
1:11:15
I heard you dream big, so yeah, yeah, yeah.
1:11:17
That'd be awesome. That'd be really cool, actually.
1:11:21
So what? What was I going to ask about
1:11:24
that? So my experience coaching boys
1:11:27
and girls, the difference is girls, and this is my experience
1:11:30
and I say women, I coached college, every woman that I
1:11:35
coached, every female that I coach.
1:11:37
It was almost like I had they thought they were not good at
1:11:39
all, ever, no matter how good they were or were not they were
1:11:41
it was it was a constant, you know, like uplifting of them
1:11:45
like, Hey, you can do this. You are one of the better ones.
1:11:47
I had a 22 foot 44. I think she done 44 long jump,
1:11:51
triple jumper. So all American.
1:11:54
I mean, she was, you know, awesome.
1:11:56
And every day was a battle. Like I'm just not that good
1:11:58
coach. Those girls are better.
1:11:59
I'm like, you know, so it's always uplifting.
1:12:02
Every boy. And I've coached 38.4 by ones, 3
1:12:05
flat, 4 by fours, coached pretty good, sees all the boys, no
1:12:08
matter how good or how bad, no matter how often they came to
1:12:11
practice or didn't come to practice, they all thought they
1:12:13
were going to win the Olympic gold medalist.
1:12:14
Yes, and. I was like that is the.
1:12:16
Same. OK, I was like, you don't even
1:12:17
come to practice like what do you mean you're going to win the
1:12:19
gold medal? So for them, it was almost like
1:12:21
I had to knock them off the the medal stand of like, you need to
1:12:23
start doing this first before what you can think about this.
1:12:27
I would rather be in a constant state of uplifting someone that
1:12:31
that had self doubts versus always like, you know, I don't
1:12:34
want to tear them down, but pulling them back to reality, if
1:12:36
you will. That was my experience between
1:12:38
male and female coaching. It was like, oh, and there were
1:12:40
certainly outliers in each one of those.
1:12:42
But man, it was just like, here's this 22 foot long jumper.
1:12:45
I'm like, you are freaking awesome.
1:12:47
What are you talking about? And here's this, you know, 1050
1:12:49
sprinter, like I'm going to win the Olympics.
1:12:51
I'm like 1050, you know, you don't even you missed practice
1:12:53
yesterday. What do you mean?
1:12:55
So that's been my experience coaching boys or girls, my
1:12:58
experience. Is awesome I would have to agree
1:13:00
I would have to agree boys no matter what they always think
1:13:03
they're going to be top dogs regardless now I don't have to
1:13:08
really push my girls to believe that they're that they can do a
1:13:11
lot of them you know they believe they can but and I tell
1:13:14
them to trust their training. You know, you that you can do
1:13:17
this, but with the boys all the time, it's like, you know, I'm
1:13:22
the best no matter what. I only be here one day, you
1:13:24
know, So that's definitely we definitely trying to change, you
1:13:27
know, that narrative, you know, social, being on social media
1:13:31
and posting all these wonderful pictures all the time is not
1:13:33
going to get you across the line 1st.
1:13:34
And so, you know, we live in a day and age where we really have
1:13:38
to, you know, hone in on that. But yeah, you're exactly right.
1:13:40
You're exactly. Right.
1:13:41
I love that you have a different experience that on the women's
1:13:43
side that it's, you know, like they don't necessarily have that
1:13:46
so much. I love that because I was going
1:13:48
to say, you know, that experience for me is also 20
1:13:50
years ago. That was before cell phones,
1:13:52
before social media, etcetera. And that certainly has changed
1:13:55
things. And I'm not putting this on the
1:13:57
social media saying that this they were the reason why it
1:13:59
changed. But I love that there was some
1:14:01
positivity as young people are growing up here throughout, you
1:14:04
know, now we're in 2025 that it's a, that maybe that's a
1:14:07
little bit less of a of a problem.
1:14:08
That's a good thing. I think in that opinion, up
1:14:11
until the the girls start thinking that they're going to
1:14:13
win gold medals no matter what, no matter where they should,
1:14:15
then they'll be like, oh God, now you guys are all in the bad
1:14:17
column. OK, so five years.
1:14:21
So 2021 was the first season at Collierville, is that correct?
1:14:26
232223, Yeah, OK. So so 232425 so this is the.
1:14:34
This is coming up to my 4th year.
1:14:36
OK, thank you. I'm from Alabama.
1:14:37
Matt's not my strong suit. Sorry.
1:14:39
So yeah, I had to, I had to use both hands to get to 3 and I
1:14:41
don't know how that happened. Yeah.
1:14:43
OK, so three years. So let's stay on the girls side
1:14:45
here. Specifically, we're going to
1:14:47
start leading up to the to the award here now.
1:14:50
So in 2023 first year, how was that season?
1:14:54
This season was pretty good. I'm trying to see we, the boys
1:14:59
and the girls, we won. We got runner up in sectionals
1:15:02
that year in 2023, so that was a pretty, it was a decent season.
1:15:07
And and remind us the the the process in Tennessee sectionals
1:15:11
to state or is there something? In between, OK.
1:15:14
So runner up as a team in sectionals.
1:15:16
OK, got it. Perfect.
1:15:16
Thank you. How do we do it state?
1:15:20
I I, we didn't do as well as stay with a bit of a
1:15:23
disappointment, but I do think that part of it was so it kind
1:15:28
of you had to change the culture just a little bit.
1:15:31
A lot of times, you know, kids will track as to more like
1:15:34
recreation, more like a club sport.
1:15:35
And but I did have to come in and you know, be like, look, you
1:15:39
can win, you know what I'm saying?
1:15:41
And so so a little bit of changing the culture.
1:15:44
So I think that first year at State, the kids had a little bit
1:15:49
of shell shock. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
1:15:50
You know what I mean? Just a little bit of.
1:15:52
I hear you saying different expectations because I don't
1:15:56
necessarily for any sport, by the way, but for track and
1:15:59
field, you know, people join, especially in high school.
1:16:01
I think there's a difference, somewhat of a difference as we
1:16:04
go to college. But on the high school side,
1:16:07
people, you get your lighting crew working for you.
1:16:12
People join track and field for many different reasons.
1:16:14
And you've seen this through your career.
1:16:16
You have the kids who join because I want to be good.
1:16:19
I want to go to college or whatever.
1:16:20
And there's kids are like, Oh yeah, I'm here because my, my
1:16:22
girlfriend Susie is here. That's right.
1:16:25
None of those are bad in my there's many, many reasons in
1:16:27
between, but none of those reasons are bad.
1:16:29
There's a place. This is what I love about track
1:16:31
and field. No matter tall, short, wide,
1:16:33
thin. You're here because your best
1:16:35
friend is here. You're here because you want to
1:16:36
live in gold melt. There's a space and track and
1:16:38
field for you to be successful. I believe that right?
1:16:42
So that's that's not wrong. You just changed the
1:16:44
expectations like hey, that's cool.
1:16:45
But we are going to have our eyes on the prize that that is
1:16:50
if we don't hit here, we're going to have a little
1:16:52
disappointing season. We're not going to be happy
1:16:54
because we're kumbaya here. That's OK.
1:16:56
Yeah, I get that. OK, so 23 so not that great at
1:16:59
state runner up in sectionals 24.
1:17:01
How'd that go? So. 24 we, you know, we start
1:17:06
early. We started our season working,
1:17:08
working, working, working, implementing some different and
1:17:11
new things. We, we went to the pen relays
1:17:14
the year before. Thank you.
1:17:16
Went to the pen relays the year before and I think the kids have
1:17:20
really truly bought in, you know, to a certain extent.
1:17:24
And then we go to the state championship in 24.
1:17:26
We score 131 points, the most points scored in AAA.
1:17:31
And have you hadn't won the state championship since in 39
1:17:34
years when Nicky McRae was a member of the track team.
1:17:37
And so that was the first state championship that the track team
1:17:40
had won in in that period of time.
1:17:43
So. So in one year you go from we
1:17:45
had a disappointing state meet to I set the state meet record
1:17:48
for points. That's interesting because I
1:17:51
think there's because I think there's coaches out there that,
1:17:56
you know, we, we maybe it's because of our sport.
1:17:58
You know, if we're a Miller, we think about running 431st and
1:18:02
then 425, then 4:20. We don't think about running
1:18:05
4:30 and then 410, right? We think of a progression.
1:18:08
So I think a lot of us in the coaching world think like, oh,
1:18:11
you know, we were 10th at state last year.
1:18:13
So maybe we can be 7th and then we can be 4th and we can be
1:18:16
third. You took a major leap.
1:18:18
What was the what was the big difference?
1:18:21
I mean, that's a large difference.
1:18:24
Well, like I said, we just that was winning state was always the
1:18:28
goal. You know the goal because you
1:18:31
know, coming from Southwind we had already won state.
1:18:33
So it's no need to really leave a school.
1:18:36
If you're going to go to a school, you don't go to a
1:18:38
school. Think I'm just going over there.
1:18:39
I'm not going to just, you know, we're going to win.
1:18:42
So the whole goal was to build the type of program with the
1:18:47
resources that we have to build the type of program to be able
1:18:51
to go, you know, and we, and now I don't know that we set out to
1:18:55
win, but, you know, 421 points. But the goal was we have the
1:19:00
personnel, we have the coaches, we have everything that we need
1:19:04
in place. We're going to go up here and
1:19:07
execute and do our job and not have a repeat of what we had the
1:19:10
year before. I think the kids have bought in.
1:19:12
They were excited. They believe, you know, in
1:19:15
themselves. I know that I can do and that's
1:19:17
just and we went up there to care business.
1:19:20
Was that the major difference then you would say is you had
1:19:22
another year to put in your program.
1:19:24
And so that means more kids are bought in.
1:19:26
The kids that were bought in, they get more bought in.
1:19:28
You know, there's just more time for you to run the system.
1:19:31
The the, I'm gonna call it the See more system.
1:19:33
You know if you want to say that.
1:19:34
The Seymour Way. The Seymour Way I.
1:19:36
Love it. Yeah.
1:19:37
So you had more time to implement that across the team?
1:19:41
Yes, it's more time to implement it and more time to get, you
1:19:45
know, the buy in from everybody, the buy in from, you know, even
1:19:48
the new coaches that we hired, the buy in from the kids, the
1:19:51
buy in from the parents, you know, because it's a it's a it's
1:19:54
a big thing and being new, you know, you have to get the buy
1:19:58
in, you know, from everybody. There's some rough patches and
1:20:00
some tough times, you know, in there and that's OK, but it
1:20:04
just, it helps to. Bring us all together.
1:20:07
And I think after having all of that, you know, we went to the
1:20:10
statement and said we're here for, we're on a business trip.
1:20:13
You know, we're not here just to have fun or play games.
1:20:16
We're here to bring this trophy home and that's what we did.
1:20:20
And forgive me 24, that state champion, the 131 points, that
1:20:23
was the boys. They're girls.
1:20:24
That was girls. Got it.
1:20:25
OK, good. Did you, as you were going
1:20:29
through the 24 season, were there times where you're like,
1:20:33
Oh yeah, I think we're going to win the state title and big
1:20:36
time? Or was it kind of a, was it like
1:20:39
a surprise? And what I mean by that, it's
1:20:40
like, you know, yeah, we went there, knew we'd be a favorite,
1:20:42
but then just everything hit on all cylinders and you end up
1:20:44
scoring 131. Well, I knew we had a shot.
1:20:48
Brentwood in 2024, Brentwood High School was really big
1:20:52
competition. They have some really good
1:20:53
coaches, great girls. I knew we had a shot, but I knew
1:20:56
we'd have to get past them in, in order to do it.
1:20:59
And the girls, I mean, they went up there and, and, and they just
1:21:02
showed out, you know, and my, I'm, I'm big on, you know,
1:21:05
execution. A lot of people are maybe big
1:21:08
on, you know, other things like the flashiness and the talking
1:21:12
trash and all the different things.
1:21:14
But I'm not really big on it. I'm big on, you know, execution.
1:21:16
And I want the state meet to feel like any other track meet,
1:21:22
you know, cuz we had gone to Atlanta, GA that year.
1:21:27
We've been, I went to a few other places and I never want
1:21:30
the state meet to feel like the biggest meet that they've ever
1:21:33
been to. You know, when you go to the
1:21:35
Penn Relays, you can come to Tennessee and run.
1:21:37
That's not, it's not even that many people in the stands as far
1:21:40
as where you have been. So when we wake up in the
1:21:44
morning, we do the same things we've been doing.
1:21:46
This is just another track meet and we go to this track meet and
1:21:50
you know, we execute and you know.
1:21:52
Is, is that new to Collierville when you talk about, because I
1:21:56
was going to ask about Penn Relays, like who goes there from
1:21:58
Tennessee and no one. And now I'm starting to
1:22:01
understand the method to the madness here.
1:22:03
I love this. But is that new to Collierville
1:22:06
where you went to Atlanta and you went to Penn Relays or were
1:22:08
you doing that through South Wind as well?
1:22:10
We did that at South Wind as well.
1:22:12
So at South Wind, when I first started there, they would the
1:22:16
different colleges would have meets like Mississippi State,
1:22:19
Ole Miss, they would have meets. We would go to the Jackie,
1:22:23
Joanna Kersey Relays in East Saint Louis.
1:22:26
We went to the Penn Relays. We would.
1:22:29
Where did that go? To Homewood?
1:22:30
All of that Where? Did that come from?
1:22:32
And what I mean by that is I, I don't know.
1:22:36
And, you know, maybe this is just me out of touch.
1:22:38
I'm not a coach anymore. I, I don't, I don't know that
1:22:41
that's happening a lot. I think we, you know, a big trip
1:22:44
is the state meet or a big trip is, you know, two hours away to
1:22:48
go to these college meets. And I know a lot of college, I
1:22:51
shouldn't say a lot, I know several schools, colleges that
1:22:54
host high school meets and there's a reason why they do
1:22:56
that and all that kind of good stuff.
1:22:57
And I love that because it gets them on college campus.
1:22:59
It helps the kids see like maybe I can go to college one day.
1:23:01
So I love all that. But it is, are you an outlier
1:23:05
doing that or like everybody in your conference is also going to
1:23:08
the Pen Relays and Georgia or Atlanta etcetera?
1:23:12
I won't say that I'm an outlier now.
1:23:14
I think maybe, you know, I was, but I think more people are
1:23:20
doing it now. One of our other schools here in
1:23:22
in in Memphis, Barla High School, they've started to
1:23:25
travel, you know, to different meats and stuff.
1:23:27
But I do think that, you know, at South, where I was one of
1:23:30
the, you know, the few high school coaches traveling if we
1:23:34
go to New Orleans to Sugar Bowl meats because you want better
1:23:38
your athletes are you have to expose them to different areas
1:23:42
of competition, get them in front of different coaches and
1:23:45
just show them that there's more than what their surroundings
1:23:48
are. And I learned that even take it
1:23:51
all the way back to high school. You know, Jackie join the
1:23:53
courtesy would have her meet in East Saint Louis.
1:23:56
And so we're from an urban community.
1:23:58
Not a whole lot of resources, but we went to that meet every
1:24:02
year and that was a highlight, you know, of our, of course the
1:24:06
state championship was a little bit different, but our coach did
1:24:10
take us, you know, different places, you know, took us there.
1:24:14
So my goal is to always give my kids the best possible
1:24:18
opportunity. You know, that I can, you know,
1:24:21
right now I have a team of different levels of talent, you
1:24:24
know, top, middle, you know, and you have to be able to
1:24:28
accommodate. It's not cookie cutter.
1:24:29
It's not one size. So you have to be able to
1:24:31
accommodate, be able to coach and be able to do different
1:24:35
things with the different kids that you have on the team to
1:24:37
make sure everybody has the right type of experience, you
1:24:41
know, for high school, track and field.
1:24:42
And so I just think that that's really important.
1:24:45
The state meets should not feel like it's the end.
1:24:48
I'll be out of everything. I love that.
1:24:51
I want to make sure people heard that, that the kids have the
1:24:54
right type of experience. Meaning I'm assuming not every
1:24:58
kid made it to Penn Relays things like that for for many
1:25:02
reasons, whether and take financial out of it, even though
1:25:04
I know that's a a reason for some too, But it's like, man,
1:25:07
you're not you're a freshman who's running 13 flat in the
1:25:10
100. I don't know.
1:25:11
You're not ready to go to Penn really.
1:25:12
You know, that's not that's not going to be a good experience
1:25:14
for you. So we're going to take you to
1:25:15
this meet whatever. So the right type of experience
1:25:17
I thought was a a pretty important statement there.
1:25:20
I, I love the way your goal is almost to minimalize the state
1:25:25
meet and, and that doesn't minimalize that the state meet
1:25:28
is important, but that you, you don't want them to be like, oh,
1:25:30
this is the biggest thing ever. And so they start tensing up and
1:25:33
all that, you know, it's like, man, I went to pin relays.
1:25:35
I ran in front of, you know, 20,000.
1:25:37
That's important. I need team title or team points
1:25:40
for the team title at at state. But there's 5000 here.
1:25:44
I'm I'm good. I don't have to get nervous
1:25:45
here. That's great.
1:25:46
And I think that almost to your statement of, you know, the
1:25:48
right type of experience. I think that probably does help
1:25:51
some percentage, but I have to believe because you deal with
1:25:55
1418 year old kids, that does not carte blanche help. 100% of
1:25:59
the kids, they're still kids. They're still going to state
1:26:02
meet. We've talked about one in the
1:26:03
state meet, one because it's important to coach, important to
1:26:05
us. I'm sure kids still do get
1:26:07
nervous going to the state meet. How do you coach a kid?
1:26:13
Think about, you know, I think about like someone on your team
1:26:15
is you when you were a kid. They're they're a freshman.
1:26:18
They're your lead lead off on your 4 by 1 and they're like
1:26:20
coach, I am nervous. How do you how do you coach a
1:26:25
kid through that the night before, the hour before during
1:26:28
warm up? How do you how do you help that
1:26:29
kid? How do you mentor that kid?
1:26:31
Well, you know, you know, people's all the time they have
1:26:34
this cliche saying trust the process.
1:26:36
Oh, I hate that saying so much simply because what is the
1:26:41
process like? Trust the process.
1:26:43
OK, So what is the process? So I tell my kids, trust God,
1:26:48
trust your training, trust yourself.
1:26:50
You know, you know what you've been doing, you know, you know
1:26:55
what you are doing now you just have to trust yourself to do it.
1:26:59
You know, trust your training because you do this.
1:27:02
You do this every day, every day, every week, every track
1:27:05
meet. So now trust yourself to go out
1:27:08
there and do it. And if you have laid the proper
1:27:11
foundation, and now, of course, the child is going to be nervous
1:27:15
if you throw them out there on third leg and they've never run
1:27:17
third leg before. But you do know to get the baton
1:27:21
around the track regardless whether you get on your left
1:27:24
hand or your right hand or whatever the case may be, you
1:27:26
know, the next person has to have it.
1:27:28
So that's how we minimize some of the fear, as I just know I
1:27:32
got to do my job. Yeah, just go out there and do
1:27:34
what you've been trying to do, whether it it might not even be
1:27:37
perfect, you might be carrying a baton in between your two
1:27:40
fingers, but you know, it has to be passed, you know what I mean.
1:27:43
So even if you don't get out the blocks best you know OK, OK,
1:27:46
after the dry phase comes acceleration and so you got to
1:27:49
get there so. So what I hear you saying is you
1:27:52
don't because because some people will do almost the
1:27:55
opposite and and both have been successful where, you know, the
1:27:58
state meet little Johnny, little little Jane.
1:28:01
This is the most important meet in the world and you know, and
1:28:04
you're ready for it. But Oh my God, you know,
1:28:05
everybody's watching. This is going to cement your
1:28:07
legacy. And I hear you kind of doing the
1:28:09
opposite of like almost like a been there, done that type of
1:28:12
attitude. Like you've done this in
1:28:13
practice a million times. You've done it in meets 100
1:28:16
times. You just do what you did to get
1:28:19
here. Almost you hear that a lot in
1:28:21
the college world qualifying for nationals.
1:28:23
It's like just do what you did to get here and you'll you'll be
1:28:25
successful. Trust me.
1:28:26
I I hear that kind of attitude of almost like that been there
1:28:29
done that type of, of a philosophy, if you will.
1:28:32
Yeah, just try to take the pressure off.
1:28:34
You know, this year when we ran the the 4 by 4 five points.
1:28:38
And so this year they're like code, you know, so silly.
1:28:42
I mean, that's silly. Did you let?
1:28:43
Did you let anybody else score? Any points?
1:28:46
I mean, how many points are there in total, for crying out
1:28:48
loud? Of course, yeah.
1:28:53
Without without naming. Nate, hold on.
1:28:55
I want you to finish your story, but I'm sorry, I'm just trying
1:28:56
to get over this amount of points you just said, which is a
1:28:58
silly without naming names because we're not trying to
1:29:00
minimize anybody here. You scored 155, you said what
1:29:04
was second place points? Don't don't mention the name,
1:29:06
people. Go look it up.
1:29:07
How many points do they have? Like 86?
1:29:09
Yeah, see, that's silly. You doubled them up,
1:29:11
essentially. That's crazy.
1:29:13
OK, go back to your story. We'll get to that in a second.
1:29:16
So they asked me, you know, because.
1:29:19
Seymour, do we really have to like run the 4x4 like, oh,
1:29:22
because you yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
1:29:25
And I said. Yes, we're here to finish this
1:29:28
out, but I did. Tell them, OK, but you don't
1:29:30
have to go out and, like, break the state record, Right, Right,
1:29:33
right. You know, just run, you know,
1:29:35
have fun. Yeah.
1:29:36
Yeah. But then they did still go out
1:29:40
broke the state record. Yes.
1:29:42
The record that was set now my previous.
1:29:43
Team Southwind. Of course, and some years ago,
1:29:47
so and they and they broke the state record in four by two as
1:29:50
well, but they had already broken both of those records
1:29:53
earlier in this season. So I'm like, you know, just, you
1:29:56
know, go and and do and I, I think I'm just, I just the God
1:30:00
has been good to us. I I think there's a lesson there
1:30:04
about. When we and again, it's, it's
1:30:07
just that weird tug of war. You want people to know that
1:30:09
these things are important, but you don't want them to be so
1:30:13
stressed out of its importance that they tense up, that they
1:30:17
crash out. You know, it's almost like,
1:30:19
yeah, take it easy, just have fun.
1:30:21
But yeah, it's important. You know, it's a weird tug of
1:30:22
war coaching and specifically track and field is so I love
1:30:26
that. OK, so 131 points in 2024 and
1:30:30
then 2025, you're like, well, that's not enough.
1:30:32
So you score 155 points and win the state title again.
1:30:36
Holy cow. How many kids did you lose from
1:30:38
the 24 graduating when I, well, I shouldn't say graduation.
1:30:42
Some kids decide not to run track anywhere they go play
1:30:44
basketball or whatever, they they don't want to run track.
1:30:46
I don't know how many kids left off that 24 team that you had to
1:30:50
replace for the 25 team. I think we lost.
1:30:55
Maybe one or two, two or three kids.
1:31:01
So you didn't have 2014, So you didn't have many seniors?
1:31:04
No. Wow.
1:31:06
And then this year? The 20.
1:31:08
Five team. We lost no, no, no, no.
1:31:11
We lost 1235 girls because we had some pole waters from the
1:31:14
24th season. We lost 5 girls and then this
1:31:17
year we lost 3. So, so not like Southwind where
1:31:23
you. Were third boom we only have one
1:31:26
kid even qualify and then but fairly consistently so so you
1:31:30
had a young team then that's been growing up with you here
1:31:33
yes and our middle school Kyrie W CMS.
1:31:36
Is is is on its way up, but Kyrie West has a really, really
1:31:40
good team out. One of our middle schools has
1:31:42
won the state championship like 4 years in a row, the TMSAA
1:31:47
state championship. So that, let's see, last year
1:31:53
was when we started to get a few of those kids like like one or
1:31:56
two and then so but then they but then they won stayed again
1:31:59
this year. So we really have a good feeder
1:32:01
system in our town. Then the middle school coach is
1:32:04
on the high school staff as well.
1:32:07
So are they doing when they work?
1:32:11
With the middle schoolers, are they using the same language
1:32:14
that you do and the same type of workouts?
1:32:18
Similar. Yeah.
1:32:19
And. They do train over here with us
1:32:22
sometimes, but not with us at our practice, but they have
1:32:25
their own practices. But they do train over here at
1:32:28
our facility and then they have their own track too.
1:32:30
But it's pretty much, I think a lot of the coaches while on my
1:32:34
staff pretty like minded. So I'm even though some of the
1:32:37
workouts may be different, the the strategies and the mindsets
1:32:43
are the same. I hear two things that you've
1:32:46
mentioned that I hear a lot. In other successful programs and
1:32:50
it doesn't guarantee that you're going to win the state title
1:32:52
because again, that's hard to do, but but programs who are
1:32:56
always in the hunt for the state title, those kind of things.
1:32:58
I hear two things. 1 is a middle school program like like a
1:33:02
dedicated middle school program. In fact, one former guest here
1:33:05
in the Guild Connections podcast, Marcus Lowe from
1:33:08
Kankakee, he is the head coach of Kankakee High.
1:33:12
Actually, he's the director of track and field for Kankakee.
1:33:15
So he overseas the middle school and the high school.
1:33:18
So the middle schoolers, so as early as 6th grade, they already
1:33:22
understand they're getting coached in his philosophy of
1:33:25
sprints and hurdles. They hear his term.
1:33:27
So when they come in as a freshman, you know, their
1:33:29
training age is 3 of what to expect in his program versus
1:33:32
like, I don't know, it's all track on TV.
1:33:34
Here I am, you know, so there's an advancement there.
1:33:38
So that's one thing I heard you mention that I've heard in other
1:33:40
places. And two, you talked about an
1:33:42
offseason program. I hear that in a lot of coaches
1:33:45
who go on to win trophies at state and how important that is.
1:33:48
How, how important for you are those two things for your
1:33:52
program? The, the, the middle schoolers
1:33:54
kids and the, the offseason, not, not just doing the, you
1:33:57
know, roughly 3 months that we have for a high school season.
1:34:00
Well, I think it's real important, you know, even.
1:34:04
Though when I came here, the first championship we didn't
1:34:06
have we had, I think we had one of those girls or two of those
1:34:08
girls that came from the middle school.
1:34:11
But you can't sustain a, you know how really top notch
1:34:15
program if you don't have good feeder program.
1:34:18
That's a good word. And by being in in car view in a
1:34:21
town where we have two middle schools who feed into our high
1:34:24
school, especially when everybody's working together,
1:34:28
you know, and kind of doing some of the same things.
1:34:30
Of course, middle school track, it's technical and it's a little
1:34:33
bit more, I'm not going to say more fun, but you know, the kids
1:34:35
are younger, but those kids want to be great as well.
1:34:38
So it just it all works together.
1:34:42
It all works together. I think it's great for our
1:34:45
community. Also with our offseason program,
1:34:49
try to be as creative as possible, you know, pool
1:34:51
workouts, out different types of stuff, grass, everything.
1:34:54
We have an indoor turf facility, so even when it's cold outside,
1:34:57
we don't really have to stop practice.
1:35:01
So the offseason is really important.
1:35:02
That's what we do our work. So, So what would what would be
1:35:06
your you know, we've got coaches.
1:35:07
Listening right now that some can't do an offseason program,
1:35:12
meaning they coach basketball or whatnot, things like that,
1:35:14
right? But some coaches maybe have
1:35:16
thought about it, but they're not sure how to start it because
1:35:19
there's no culture for it in their program.
1:35:21
What would be your recommendation on how to start
1:35:23
an offseason program with a caveat that please check your
1:35:27
state rules that it's even legal and all that kind of stuff
1:35:29
because there are different rules.
1:35:31
Some states are so strict, you can't have any access to your
1:35:34
kids until the first day of practice.
1:35:35
I feel like that's more unsafe. I know why they have that rule,
1:35:38
but I feel like that's more unsafe than than the opposite.
1:35:41
But So what would your recommendation?
1:35:42
Someone's listening and says, man, I want to start this, but I
1:35:45
don't. It's not even our culture.
1:35:47
My kids are revolt. Coach, what do you mean you got
1:35:49
an option? Well, you know, in Tennessee,
1:35:52
track doesn't really have any restrictions.
1:35:54
Other than the dead period, which in the summertime you can
1:35:56
do conditioning. And so I think what you do is,
1:35:59
is you start it a couple days a week, doesn't have to be every
1:36:02
day, maybe 2 days, maybe 3 days. Make it fun.
1:36:05
It's, it's, it's the basic fitness principles pretty much
1:36:10
for track and field in your conditioning, you know, some
1:36:13
plyometrics, you know, some sprinting, some grass workouts,
1:36:18
anything you can do to make it fun, but at the same time
1:36:20
getting the kids in shape and as your team adapts, then your
1:36:24
workouts in the preseason can adapt.
1:36:27
I think you took, I think you should begin with the end in
1:36:30
mind. Do you want to have an indoor
1:36:31
season or do you want to just do conditioning?
1:36:33
Plus, if you want to have an indoor season, then your
1:36:36
preseason conditioning may look a little bit different.
1:36:38
But if you don't plan to have an indoor season and you just want
1:36:41
to start some conditioning for your kids, then you can plan it
1:36:44
a little bit differently. But it's a no pressure
1:36:47
situation. I don't even, I mean, I take
1:36:49
attendance, but I don't penalize kids who don't come to
1:36:52
conditioning because I mean, they may be playing other sports
1:36:57
or doing other things. Just I'm hoping you're ready
1:36:59
when you come to practice. But you know, pre season is no
1:37:02
pressure and just you come, you work hard, you know, we teach
1:37:07
you and get you ready for the track season.
1:37:10
But I just think you should keep it fun.
1:37:13
Keep it make sure they're locked in, of course, but you know,
1:37:17
just start off with no pressure. If it's your first time ever
1:37:20
doing it, just get out there and have fun.
1:37:22
I love that advice because you know, sometimes when we want to
1:37:25
start something, we. You know, we can't help
1:37:27
ourselves. We're coaches, we just go hog,
1:37:29
right? We like, oh, it's going to go
1:37:30
24/7. I love your suggestions, like
1:37:32
start with two days a week or three day, whatever works for
1:37:34
you. Don't you know it's going to go
1:37:35
five days a week right off the bat.
1:37:37
Maybe that's year 2 or year three or something like that.
1:37:38
So that to be spoke a lot about like, you know, it's better to
1:37:42
get started with one day a week than it is to not do it at all.
1:37:46
So start with that. If that's what is right for your
1:37:48
program. How do you deal with knowing
1:37:50
that, you know, not knowing what your percentages are?
1:37:54
Because I'm just going to use arbitrary numbers here. 50% of
1:37:56
your kids go through an offseason, 50% don't.
1:37:59
How do you when the first day of practice comes?
1:38:01
So they're going to come in in different levels of fitness.
1:38:04
How do you handle your workouts that way?
1:38:08
Well, so it was funny because we had this question last year
1:38:11
when? I had some few new coaches and
1:38:13
we talked about this same thing right here.
1:38:15
So even before you come to tryouts, whether you've done
1:38:17
preseason condition or not, you know what the expectations are.
1:38:20
You may have to run a mile and this amount of time.
1:38:22
You may have to run this after we have tryouts, then that's
1:38:27
when we make the plan and then we decide who goes into what
1:38:30
group based on if we kept you from tryouts.
1:38:33
Then we put them in groups and design workouts based on where
1:38:36
they file and then they move groups as the season progresses.
1:38:40
So that's pretty much how we do that.
1:38:42
But everybody knows what the expectation is, you know, when
1:38:46
you come to tryouts and then based on what you did and we do
1:38:50
like a tryout and then we'll do another time trial and then
1:38:53
we'll do another time trial. And kids move groups based on
1:38:58
what they're, how they're progressing.
1:39:00
So I've heard of like group training, especially with like
1:39:02
distance or cross. Country runners, because so
1:39:04
you're just doing that, you're using that kind of same
1:39:06
philosophy with sprinters, hurdlers, jumpers, etcetera.
1:39:09
Yeah. Oh, that makes a lot of sense.
1:39:10
Now you said a word that I don't hear very often in track and
1:39:13
field tryouts. So and I think I heard you also
1:39:16
use the other word we don't hear for track and field very much
1:39:19
cuts. So you have a tryout program,
1:39:22
meaning not everybody gets to be on on the team well in the last
1:39:28
couple of years. We've kept mainly everybody
1:39:31
because we had like AJV team and a varsity team.
1:39:36
But we have so many kids that we will, you know, to be cut, you
1:39:41
really have to not come to practice, not to, you know, But
1:39:48
yeah, we will. I'm torn because on one hand,
1:39:52
you know I love. Again, you know, I mentioned,
1:39:54
you know, tall, short, big, small, whatever.
1:39:57
There's a place for you in track and field if you come to
1:39:59
practice and you know I'm with you.
1:40:02
On the other hand, you know, I don't know of another sport that
1:40:05
doesn't. Have tryouts and cuts, baseball
1:40:08
has tryouts and cuts, football typically.
1:40:10
And again, there's exceptions based on the how many kids are
1:40:13
coming up for the sport and things like that.
1:40:14
But other sports, that's just part of it.
1:40:16
You know, I'm going to try out for basketball, I'm going to try
1:40:17
out for football, etcetera and track.
1:40:19
It's always like everybody. And so I'm kind of torn.
1:40:23
On one hand, it's like, man, if if our sport wants to continue
1:40:26
to evolve and be more serious, maybe we should.
1:40:28
I also don't like a a coach and a coaching staff who has a
1:40:32
billion kids and they can't give a little bit more individualized
1:40:35
coaching because they do have a billion and we're already
1:40:38
understaffed compared to many, many other sports.
1:40:40
So I I also see cuts being the right thing for that as well.
1:40:44
So I was just interested, OK, It just depends on what type of
1:40:47
team you want to be. Yeah, that's right.
1:40:49
That's a great. Point.
1:40:49
Yeah, yeah, yeah. What type of team you know?
1:40:51
Do you want to have? We don't just, you know, because
1:40:55
we don't arbitrarily just cut people, but you know, you also,
1:41:00
you got to think about track and field where they say you go to a
1:41:02
meet and they only allow three people per event or they only
1:41:05
allow four people per event. And then you have all of these
1:41:08
kids who you have kept on your team who don't ever get to
1:41:11
participate, you know, on on a Saturday, they don't get to run
1:41:15
a big invitation. What kind of experience are they
1:41:17
having? That's right.
1:41:18
That's a great point. So you have to.
1:41:19
Think you have to really, you know, think about.
1:41:22
What type of team are you having?
1:41:24
You could cut down on a lot because there's nothing worse
1:41:27
than a kid who can't ever participate.
1:41:29
Why can't I ever go on an out of town trip?
1:41:30
So why can't you know what I mean?
1:41:32
And then if you haven't Tuesday meets as the coach that mean
1:41:35
you're at the track on Tuesday and Thursday and Friday and
1:41:39
Saturday because you got all these different levels of
1:41:40
athletes. And if you don't have the
1:41:42
coaching staff to do that, then you have to, you know, that's
1:41:47
right. That's a great point.
1:41:48
I I know. Of so many people who were not
1:41:52
what we maybe would call great athletes who became great
1:41:56
coaches and and what I mean great coaches, I mean they gave
1:41:58
other kids great experiences in our sport.
1:42:01
So when I think about that 8th Miller in your team, I'm like,
1:42:05
man, that that boy or girl might go on to become a teacher and a
1:42:08
track coach because they had such a, you know, they knew they
1:42:10
were eighth on your team, but they had such a great
1:42:12
experience. And then I also go, wow.
1:42:14
But what kind of experience if that kid never gets to run a
1:42:17
team or meet because of the restrict, you know?
1:42:20
Yeah, I, that's a tough one, man.
1:42:22
I, I, I see both sides, but boy, it breaks my heart that I just,
1:42:26
you know, I shouldn't say it breaks my heart.
1:42:28
I see both sides. I literally see both sides of
1:42:30
that man. I think you nailed it with you.
1:42:33
You said earlier you to coach one of my mentors, my mentor is
1:42:38
Boo Scheck Snyder, one of my favorite lines of his.
1:42:40
Oh, I love him. I love Boo.
1:42:41
I get to see him in two weeks. He's doing a.
1:42:43
Well, OK. When you're listening to this in
1:42:46
December, it has already passed here in August, in two weeks,
1:42:49
August 15th or 16th, just in a town next to us about 45 minutes
1:42:54
away. Boo and Vince Anderson are doing
1:42:57
yeah, yeah, doing an 8 hour clinic.
1:42:58
They're doing 4 topics each. Oh man, it's going to be
1:43:01
awesome. I can't wait.
1:43:02
I'm going over. I don't even coach him.
1:43:04
I'm going over. Yeah, Keba Tolbert were here in.
1:43:08
February with the Murphy Track Club for a clinic we had here at
1:43:12
the house. Oh, that's so cool.
1:43:14
Well, Keba has been on the. Podcast Boo has been on the fact
1:43:18
boo's our number one most listened to episode and Vince.
1:43:21
I'm going to get him on the he's already said he would get on.
1:43:23
I just need to get him scheduled and I need to get him on here.
1:43:26
So what was I talking about? Holy cow, you were talking about
1:43:31
Boo Boo's favorite. Thank you very.
1:43:33
Much I always need an assistant here as.
1:43:35
The coach, so you can always help me out.
1:43:39
One of my favorite lines from Boo was you to coach, be the
1:43:42
coach. And I think, you know, you're
1:43:44
kind of echoing that of like, hey, what kind of program do you
1:43:47
want? You're the coach.
1:43:48
You got to decide you can't do both.
1:43:50
You can't do all things. So how are you going to run your
1:43:53
program and then whatever which way ever you choose, go do it
1:43:56
awesomely. Like OK, go in and and make that
1:43:58
the best way. And I think that's what you've
1:44:00
done there at Collierville. So 130 points, 131 points, then
1:44:04
155 points. Where do you go from here?
1:44:07
Well, the record is 166 the all time.
1:44:11
Record is 166 now I don't across all classes.
1:44:16
Now our section has combined this year with Nashville and
1:44:24
Memphis, so, so I don't know what Nashville and Memphis in
1:44:33
one sectional so. Nashville had like 35 teams or
1:44:37
something in their. Section So they split them in
1:44:39
half and then they took our section and put us together.
1:44:43
So I don't know heck of a section be like, yes, so now we
1:44:47
have to have a. Subsection and a section which
1:44:48
is fine, I don't know what. The point total will be I don't,
1:44:51
I'm not really fixated on that type of thing.
1:44:52
Like I don't go in saying like I was going 155 points, you know,
1:44:57
I kind of have an idea of where we should be, but you know, 3
1:45:03
peating will be definitely icing on the cake.
1:45:06
I don't get any points right, right.
1:45:08
You you control the controllables, you can't control
1:45:10
where. Other people place their kids
1:45:12
and that because that affects your team's, you just, you know,
1:45:14
but can you win? OK, I put my kids in the right
1:45:16
spots. I coached them well.
1:45:18
And then, you know, we'll see where the chips fall.
1:45:20
Dude. Elisa, that's so cool, man.
1:45:22
That's that's amazing. So do you have a shot?
1:45:25
I know it's early. It's August.
1:45:27
You got a shot. You going to win the three peat?
1:45:31
We got a shot. We we only lost 3 girls.
1:45:33
And we've because the class was young when I when I got here,
1:45:39
this is the my first class that'll be graduating this year.
1:45:43
They were freshmen, you know, and so we definitely have a shot
1:45:49
and they want to go down in history as as doing that.
1:45:53
And so I think if we just keep our heads on straight and, you
1:45:58
know, make sure we don't get too much senioritis and you know,
1:46:01
depend on that, our young, our youngsters are really good.
1:46:04
Our youngsters are really, really good.
1:46:06
And I have a great coaching staff, a great coaching staff,
1:46:11
really, really dedicated great. And so I think, I think I'm not
1:46:17
making any predictions here, but yeah, don't do that.
1:46:19
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But I think that we.
1:46:22
Definitely have a shot. And we know that everybody's
1:46:24
gunning for us. You know what I mean?
1:46:26
We're not going to just go and take it from they're not going
1:46:28
to give it to us. You know, we have to work, you
1:46:30
know, just as hard as we've been working.
1:46:32
But you know, you sound like your coach back in the day right
1:46:37
there. Holy.
1:46:38
Cow, we still got to work, boys and girls, it don't matter.
1:46:41
That's right. I love it.
1:46:42
Elisa, man, congratulations again.
1:46:45
This is so cool. I mean, again, it's the
1:46:47
impossible task to to pick the national coach of the year since
1:46:51
we don't all compete, you know, together.
1:46:53
That would be a heck of a track meet, by the way.
1:46:56
But but to do what you're doing to leading young people, You
1:46:59
know, I say this for every coach, and I mean every coach.
1:47:02
I say this to Mike Holloway at Florida, good friend, 99% of the
1:47:06
kids you coach aren't going to go on to college or go on to
1:47:09
pros, right? But 100% of the kids you coach
1:47:12
are going to go and become moms and dads and business owners and
1:47:15
teachers and reporters. And that's your true, true
1:47:21
impact in society as you're raising up great young men and
1:47:24
great young women and you're giving them an amazing
1:47:27
experience in this great sport of going to state and that being
1:47:30
a big deal, going to pen relays, things like that.
1:47:32
I mean, those are memories. You know, 2034, that's what
1:47:35
they're going to remember. They're going to remember
1:47:36
winning the state title. They're not going to remember
1:47:38
their PRS or what they ran at this meet specifically and
1:47:41
things like that. They're going to remember, oh
1:47:43
man, never. We went to Penn.
1:47:44
I've never been to Philly. I've never been out of Memphis
1:47:46
and we went to Philadelphia. That's great.
1:47:48
You know, that's so awesome that you're giving those experience
1:47:51
to the those young boys and young girls, man.
1:47:54
And that's the the society the world is better for, for your
1:47:57
leadership, for your staff's leadership.
1:47:59
You know, we mentioned your administration and parents,
1:48:01
things like that. That is what this all boils down
1:48:04
into. Man, that's just so cool.
1:48:06
And it's cool that you get recognized with a really neat
1:48:08
looking award. They've done a great job with
1:48:10
the design of their award. And I can't wait to to see you
1:48:13
physically receive the award there in in Dallas in a couple
1:48:16
weeks and just be able to shake your hand, give you a hug and
1:48:18
just tell you you're doing a great job and I'm really proud
1:48:21
of you. We're all proud of you.
1:48:22
Well, thank you so much. I'm super excited.
1:48:25
I love doing what I. Do this is my 24th year coaching
1:48:31
track and field, so it just keeps getting better and I'm
1:48:34
just I'm just proud of the team, my staff and I'm just so
1:48:37
thankful to even have the opportunity.
1:48:40
I love it. I love it.
1:48:40
Well, thank you so much for sharing your journey with us, I
1:48:43
think. It's highly important and I
1:48:44
can't wait to see you in Dallas in a couple weeks.
1:48:46
All right well, I'll see you soon guys.
1:48:48
Thank you for being here this. Is a lot of fun.
1:48:50
I'm I'm recording. These early so I can't tell you
1:48:52
if like next week is going to be the boys coach or was or was
1:48:55
last week the boys coach. I don't know what order.
1:48:57
I think take a list. He's going to be first, at least
1:48:59
he's going to be first and then the boys cat coach next week.
1:49:02
So next week we'll do the boys coach of the year and then the
1:49:04
following week we'll be at the convention.
1:49:06
Typically on that Monday I do a live recording of the podcast.
1:49:10
So we'll have that as well as our normal weekly one.
1:49:13
And then we'll just keep having fun as we stare 2026 season 7 in
1:49:19
the eyes. It's coming up next and we've
1:49:20
got a lot of amazing coaches. They'll be sitting down with us
1:49:23
sharing their journey and I'm super happy we had this one here
1:49:25
today. So join us next week.
1:49:27
We'll do it all over again and have some fun.
1:49:28
See you guys if it. Goes to appreciate the coach,
1:49:34
the ones that pour people most. Every season needs a voice of
1:49:37
reason speaking the growth you got to prep before you carry the
1:49:40
load. Ice coffee to the soul.
1:49:42
For those of us who stay on the go.
1:49:44
Proper handoff to stay in the zone which you packing for the
1:49:47
road. There's more than one way to go
1:49:49
taking those SPN you told. It ain't practice if your
1:49:51
purpose ain't clear. Yeah, it can't happen until you
1:49:54
listen with both ears. You can't mentor without a
1:49:56
mentor. Years of experience you can
1:49:58
reinvent those years every plan's got to stand and deliver
1:50:02
to. And the price sacrifice Can you
1:50:04
give up you. It's a choice and a fight, not a
1:50:06
win or lose. It's not a ploy boy device.
1:50:08
Y'all can make more moves. It's not about how to it's all
1:50:11
about why. You don't know till you know who
1:50:13
you are inside 6 When you waste of time, choose none.
1:50:17
So y'all cross the finish line. The work ain't done so we learn
1:50:20
from the experts. But y'all got to put in the leg
1:50:22
work.