Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / #180: Petros Kyprianou-University of Illinois

Transcript

#180: Petros Kyprianou-University of Illinois · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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  Welcome to season 3 of gila politics connection podcast.
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  See what today's guest has in store for us.
• 0:40
  Alright, welcome back here to the Gill of headaches, track and
• 0:42
  field connections podcast. I'm so humbled that you'd be
• 0:45
  here today. If this is your first time,
• 0:47
  listening, thanks for pressing play.
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  You press play on a good one. I think this is going to be
• 0:51
  really good. I'm excited about today's guest
• 0:53
  and if this is your Hunters time back here.
• 0:56
  I'm just so humbled. I mean you know I we were
• 0:58
  talking pre-interview here. This is not an easy podcast to
• 1:01
  listen to. We're going to be on the mic
• 1:03
  here today for an hour hour and a half, two hours.
• 1:05
  Heck with this guy, I could go for hours with this guy all day,
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  because he's one of the most Don't have creative, most
• 1:11
  awesome people that I know in this profession.
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  So just so thankful that you're back here today to listen.
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  So let's get into it. We're going to talk to the new
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  director of track and field at the University of Illinois.
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  It's funny that we're doing this on Zoom because he's like, I
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  don't know, a mile down the road, help me, welcome the wise,
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  the wonderful mr. Petrovsky periodic, Petra's, how
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  are you, sir? Hey Mike, I'm well, thank you,
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  thank you for having me. Yeah, we could have, you know,
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  you're so busy but we could have done this in person but you're
• 1:38
  so busy, man. That's her.
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  To get. Get some time from you.
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  Yeah, it's nice. And I can literally bike to you.
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  Yeah. See the the the opposite is not
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  true. I cannot bite you.
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  I tried biking. I used to live.
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  Like I don't know. Maybe two, two and a half miles
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  from the factory when I first moved here and I want I thought,
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  you know, I should bike to work like that's what?
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  Like good. Healthy energetic people do
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  right. I don't know if I got too
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  excited in like, went too fast to begin with.
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  I didn't even make it halfway. I had to turn around My now wife
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  girlfriend, fiance the time I come back in and just fall on
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  the floor and she's like what happened?
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  She thought like I got hit by a car or something.
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  And I was like, I can't make it. I called in late for work that
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  day. Oh my God.
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  So you will not see me biking. Anywhere we were supposed to do
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  an embarrassing story about me to kick this off.
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  That's this is about you, my friend.
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  Okay, petrol. So I wasn't kidding.
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  You know, I've known you for a long time, consider you Dear
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  friend as well as of course a customer.
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  You're so, you're so good to us and we're so humbled by that and
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  I mean that we could go for hours because your story is so
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  interesting. You've accomplished so much and
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  you've surrounded yourself with so many people.
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  But we do have a time limit today because you're so busy.
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  So let's hop right in here man. At some point and I know you
• 2:59
  were an athlete but at some point coaching switched for you.
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  It's switched from something that was done to you.
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  Hey, Petros go do this goal. If that etcetera and Are along
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  the line. It had to switch in your brain
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  like oh, wait a minute. I could be a coach like this
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  could actually be my profession. Weird is coaching begin for you
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  as an idea of a career. Yeah, actually that's a great
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  question because it just came very naturally.
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  You know it was one day I believe I was maybe 16 or 17
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  years old and you know, I started to jam with her.
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  I used to play volleyball in high school.
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  You know, where I grew up. Men's volleyball is pretty big.
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  So play volleyball then you know, throw the Javelin in the
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  spring, but I was good, but nothing great.
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  So between 16 and 17, you know, I kind of got into Pressed into
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  polti. So, I had this good friend of
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  mine that he was a teammate of mine.
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  And actually, he lives in New York is a real estate agent.
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  Socrates he he's II. Let me show you how to pole
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  vault. So he kind of walk me through
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  how to just hang on the pole and go across the pit and all that,
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  and it kind of like that interaction and then a few weeks
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  down the road, there was a kid that wanted to pick the, the
• 4:17
  pole vault and there was nobody around to show him.
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  So I started kind of doing NG what Socrates did to me and that
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  was very enjoyable. But I never really never.
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  It was very natural because seeing that kid going from, like
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  I don't know five feet 289 ft in within an hour.
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  I was pretty satisfying and really intriguing to me but I
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  kind of just put it on the side cuz you know like everybody that
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  age wants to go to the Olympics and, you know, be a great
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  decathlete. I was a decathlete in the making
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  of the time. So as the years went by, I
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  always helped, you know, other teammates, even athletes,
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  teammates of mind that they were really Elite athletes and they
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  wanted me to help them out and, you know, just catch your steps
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  or tell them how their form look like and that interaction slowly
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  developing 20. Why don't you just come and
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  watch me in Barcelona? When I go over there without my
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  coach I'll pay for your ticket as okay.
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  Looking part. Barcelona is not not a bad deal.
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  So I'll go over there, watch high jumper, you know, perform a
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  friend of mine, you know. We were teammates and he does
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  well and then I started liking him more and more.
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  So here we are right around 2000 where I was a senior in college.
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  And that's where, you know, had a lot of injuries and you know,
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  these idea of me going to the Olympics.
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  It was not, you know, a reality just because, you know, I as
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  their ambitious guy. I very, very technical, you
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  know, I was one of these guys to have perfect techniques but no
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  horsepower and you do need some sort of horsepower to to, to go
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  to the Olympics and then decathlon.
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  So, anyway, you know, the hard decision came and I was like,
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  you know what, I'm gonna just try these coaching thing and
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  I've done it for free. I've done it for little to no
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  money and it was very, very satisfying.
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  I'm not gonna lie. So that's how I started.
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  Now, you mentioned first of Was your teammates named Socrates
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  that was his name Socrates. Yeah and that's I love that.
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  Yeah I'm tired of boring names. I've lived with a man.
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  My whole life Mike and I'm surrounded by Scots and Steve's
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  and Rob's I do have a guy named River which I think is cool
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  because I know. Yeah, unique.
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  Now you know, River, but Petros is unique.
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  Socrates has that's amazing. I love that.
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  Can be more Greek than that, right?
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  Exactly. OK, that's what we're missing.
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  The punch line. Here is tell us.
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  You didn't grow up and, you know, as a former coach of
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  Georgia And you've lived in Florida, you didn't grow up in
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  southeast America and u.s. tell us actually where you grew up.
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  We kind of missed the hole punch line there.
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  Yeah, yeah. Actually.
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  The southeast is common. I did grow up in the Southeast
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  corner of Europe. A little little bitty island of
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  Cyprus. It's an island nation, Greek.
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  There's two sides, Greek and Turkish, I grabbed on the Greek
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  side, you know, it's a beautiful island.
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  Very, very diverse is like the crows road.
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  So if you know, I Guy, Europe, Middle East.
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  You know you got a lot of folks there from literally China or
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  Asia all the way to Australia and, you know, good great place
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  to grab and be open to every culture.
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  Very great food and all that. So I grew up in a small town
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  called Limassol by the port. Not the So Glamorous areas but
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  you know very very proud of my bringings upbringings just
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  because you know kind of teaches you a lesson here and they are
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  and learn how to appreciate little things and strive for
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  excellence in everything. You know, borderline dangerous
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  place, but we had everything we needed, we had each other and,
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  you know, we made it through. But when I was 17, I went to the
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  military which is a Mandatory service over there, I served for
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  four year you know, very interesting training and
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  experience their you know they gave us training and inserting
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  in different things and they put me on the buffer zone you know
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  cypresses divide any to. So the Turks basically
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  occupying, the 37 37 percent of the northern part of Cyprus.
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  So they're still a little bit. Issue there, you know.
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  So you got the Turks gotten guarding the north side, you got
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  the Greek guarding the South Side.
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  So you know, I was placing the Border where, you know, you are
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  basically a sniper and you're not.
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  Now, listen, I'm 17, 18 years old.
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  And I'm told if somebody crosses gets into the buffer buffer
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  zone, you supposed to shoot the person, I never shot anybody.
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  But that was our, I guess job. Did you talk to me Europe in the
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  Tense, you know, I have pictures, you know, training
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  throwing the discus in the mountains and all that.
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  So so I was training up there but it was very interesting,
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  kind of when you're 17, you go to military.
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  When you come out, you you, you grow up pretty quickly.
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  So, I went to college after that.
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  So I was not your typical freshman.
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  I can only imagine you prayed every day.
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  Please, no one come into the Zone, just stay where you are,
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  please don't make me make this decision, man, and you're right.
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  You know, I could imagine making that decision as a 40, something
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  year old, a 17 at 17, I didn't know, you know, I didn't know if
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  I want to brush my teeth every morning.
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  I'm sorry, I'm 17. Do you know, what am I thinking,
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  right? Whoo.
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  Okay. Well, how did so tell us a
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  little bit before we jump to college and eventually coming
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  over here to the States? You know, here in America, we
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  sometimes can rightfully complain about lack of
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  facilities, you're not every high school has a facility.
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  Maybe not every high school has a great track and same with
• 10:21
  college. Cetera.
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  But we have a great system, right?
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  We have high school, we have college.
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  We have usatf and AAU Junior all the way through senior, we have
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  a fairly good support system. What is it like, where you're
• 10:34
  growing up in Cyprus for track and field as far as the
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  opportunity to do track and things like that on different
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  levels? Yeah, I mean, I'm not gonna lie
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  to you, it's, it's almost like a third world country especially
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  in the 90s early 90s. When I started, We were training
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  on dirt basically one even I wouldn't even call it Cinder
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  track which you know, gives you a little bit of traction but you
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  know, Cypress is very the climate and the terrain is very
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  similar to Southern California, where it's pretty dry.
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  It doesn't rain a lot, but it's like semi-tropical.
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  So the good thing is, is not mud.
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  It was dirt. So it was pretty, you know, use
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  those big, big spikes, we use now for throwing the javelin own
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  grass. So those Our spikes, sprinting,
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  and long jumping, and all that, and in pole, vaulting, and all
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  that good stuff. And then as the years went by,
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  you know, the only track surface existed in soccer fields.
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  Now, soccer over there is big as you know, in Europe so that was
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  like a sacred moment for us to even be on that facility
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  training and only the elite of the elite by five athletes in
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  the whole island, we're allowed to train in there.
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  So as you got him, Better and and you know got a little more
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  connections per se you know the president of the track club
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  likes me, I got an hour of training on an actual track,
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  which is, you know, like a very old-school don't picture any
• 12:04
  month or any high class tract like that, you know?
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  It's it's I mean, the rubber just just playing Rubber and you
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  know, was resurfaced once every 20 years, maybe.
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  So that's that's how we grew up. But again, you grab to
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  appreciate More and and you want more when you're here because,
• 12:25
  you know, we're in the Land of Plenty and and sometimes you get
• 12:29
  caught up complaining about things, but we also know that,
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  you know, our employers or are depending where we are, you
• 12:37
  know, they have the capability to give us what we need.
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  And and most of us are very, very lucky extremely like, and
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  but when you're coming from these humble beginnings, he
• 12:47
  does, you know, when you go back, I always go back to that
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  track every single time. I'm I was actually there a
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  couple of weeks ago, recruiting and I went over there and walk
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  that track is still dirt, Believe It or Not.
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  Wow, the high school. Yeah.
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  Now the they're more. They're like to now, to full
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  synthetic tracks there, which is huge for that town, but we are
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  in 20 22 and, you know, still still trying to catch up with
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  the world. Wow, man.
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  So, talk to us about college. And how did you get to the
• 13:19
  states and why come to the States?
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  You obviously, I have a lot of fondness for your home area and
• 13:23
  Home Country and Hometown talk to us about that Journey.
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  Yeah, so I went to the university in Aristotle,
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  University of Thessaloniki in northern Greece.
• 13:35
  Is that the, is that the fighting olives, who, what is
• 13:37
  that? You could, you could say that,
• 13:41
  you know, they don't have mascots over there.
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  They just do their, that's the best part of college and college
• 13:47
  sports. Yeah, that's what I really love
• 13:49
  about. You know, the u.s. system The
• 13:51
  NCAA that there's the spirit and the excitement about, you know,
• 13:55
  you being a part of something wherever there's like just go
• 13:58
  train and shut up and just get out of our way, you know?
• 14:02
  So I went to that University are still not University of the
• 14:06
  sound making northern Greece, study of physical education,
• 14:09
  Sport Science. I stayed there like a couple
• 14:12
  extra years after that. Actually about one year I worked
• 14:16
  there as a coach was a strength coach for, for Kabul, basketball
• 14:20
  and volleyball. Eames.
• 14:23
  And then I got into soccer, strength conditioning.
• 14:26
  As you know, is the big thing over there.
• 14:28
  So that was really my main profession at the beginning.
• 14:31
  Did you, did you, did you go to study science?
• 14:34
  Because you knew at that point you wanted to be a coach or we
• 14:36
  still kind of open. Yes.
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  So my my goal was like, okay, I like this.
• 14:41
  I know actually I was, I was more into I want to go and be a
• 14:45
  physical education teacher in a high school, so I can do a
• 14:49
  better job, you know. With the sport of track and
• 14:52
  field. That was my really main idea
• 14:54
  which, you know, evolved into full-time coaching.
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  Because I started, you know, I always helping around like I was
• 15:00
  telling you earlier with teammates and friends and all
• 15:04
  that. So, I will be done with my
• 15:05
  training and then I'll be there, you know, helping others and
• 15:09
  then actually that the, the full time coaching thing or
• 15:13
  evolvement into coaching, is when my coach at the time, he
• 15:16
  was the national coach. I was very, very lucky to have a
• 15:19
  really good coach my enduring. Our Collegiate time.
• 15:23
  You basically told me Petrus. I'm sorry you're not very good
• 15:26
  flat out just like that. You're not very good.
• 15:28
  I can't train you anymore. I'm coaching Olympians, you're
• 15:32
  no good and I appreciate that because that's how I am.
• 15:35
  I'm not going to talk to anybody like that nowadays because but I
• 15:40
  appreciate the fact that hey, I can't help you anymore but up
• 15:44
  until then he will give me everything I needed.
• 15:46
  He was all Technical and then helped me a lot and I'm very
• 15:50
  grateful to him. And all my coaches.
• 15:52
  So he did the same thing to another guy that he was better
• 15:56
  than me. So I was like, you know what?
• 15:57
  Hey Stavros, I wonder why do I coach you, let's just train each
• 16:02
  other. Create this thing where, you
• 16:04
  know, you're better. I'm gonna be like the back
• 16:07
  burner. I'm gonna push you in Sarnia
• 16:08
  Vance. I'm very good techniques.
• 16:10
  I can watch you better and you have more horsepower than me.
• 16:14
  I'll give you my techniques and then we'll go do things.
• 16:16
  So a year from that moment in 2000.
• 16:21
  Doesn't one, I believe it was. He breaks the, the Greek
• 16:25
  national record his age group which was the U23.
• 16:29
  So we went and we went out on our first national team trip
• 16:33
  together and and that really was it for me as I do, this is what
• 16:37
  I want to do period. My very first athlete, you know
• 16:40
  went from 6400 points to 72 for that time and that really really
• 16:49
  good. So I was like, you know what?
• 16:50
  This is it This is what I'm going to do and and that's how
• 16:54
  really became a full-time thing but I always had a deep love for
• 17:01
  the weight room. The strength, conditioning speed
• 17:02
  strength. So that really provided me a
• 17:05
  salary and track and field coaching provider me my passion
• 17:10
  and love because there was no coach and I was making two
• 17:12
  hundred dollars a month being almost like a national coach,
• 17:15
  and yeah. So those two together kind of in
• 17:19
  the way help. Develop as a coach along with a
• 17:25
  lot of great mentors and coaches.
• 17:27
  I've had, but it all started in northern Greece.
• 17:32
  That's where I really got the baptism.
• 17:36
  Yes, I like doing it. And I think it says something
• 17:39
  about you Petrus, when coach said, hey, you're just not that
• 17:42
  good. I can't coach you anymore
• 17:44
  because, you know, at that point you kind of had a decision
• 17:46
  point, you know, that fork in the road so to speak, you could
• 17:49
  have easily gotten jaded and Said well man, this sport just
• 17:52
  sucks. I'm not good enough.
• 17:53
  He doesn't. My coach doesn't believe in me,
• 17:55
  fine. I'll go do X Y and Z but instead
• 17:58
  you were like okay, there's some reality there that's that's
• 18:00
  okay. I can accept that.
• 18:02
  We're not going to be perfect at everything that we want to be
• 18:05
  perfect and good at, but I love. But I have passion for the sport
• 18:08
  and serving others. So what else can I do then?
• 18:10
  Oh, okay, I can help you. You also get a cut.
• 18:12
  Well then let's just go have an experiment and see what happens.
• 18:15
  And it ended up with this National, you know, record and
• 18:18
  going to international travel me.
• 18:19
  That's, that's quite amazing. Like, You could have, you could
• 18:22
  have taken a very much different turn there.
• 18:24
  Yeah. And that's something that, you
• 18:26
  know, I always forget or not thinking is important enough to
• 18:29
  share with some of our young athletes and I've had a lot of
• 18:32
  athletes that, you know, they get to the crossroads like man,
• 18:35
  this is too much I got hurt. I'm no good.
• 18:38
  I'm going to quit. I'm going to go do something
• 18:40
  else and you know I mean I've had athletes that has so many
• 18:45
  you know, bad luck. I mean from hitting hurdles for
• 18:48
  Devin Williams, probably the best example I've had.
• 18:51
  Oh, that poor guy. I mean, you know, bring his toe
• 18:54
  just walking or or, you know, hitting the hurdle on the
• 18:57
  underneath and falling, you know, I mean, just so many, but
• 19:01
  the guy just kept coming back and back and standing up.
• 19:04
  And so quitting is not really an option.
• 19:07
  What, there is an option, you can take a step back, take a
• 19:10
  breather and just, it's like like an approach in the long
• 19:13
  jump. You know, sometimes your
• 19:14
  approach might not be long enough, you just need to step
• 19:17
  back and get gain a little more momentum and then the bigger gem
• 19:20
  will come. So, That's not analogy.
• 19:23
  I always give to athletes a struggle that you know hey I
• 19:27
  wasn't talented. I get it like you said I mean
• 19:29
  that was a reality check and you know I was mad but at the same
• 19:32
  time I was like, you know, that's his right.
• 19:34
  I mean I'm no good. I'm not, I'm not winning
• 19:36
  anything. I'm not really bring any value.
• 19:38
  I mean I'm not paying him. So I'm going to take all that
• 19:43
  you know this for years. He gave me like this is all
• 19:46
  these enviable knowledge and experience seen him train
• 19:50
  Olympia. Ends and all that and and and
• 19:53
  and go try to do myself and better and that's what happened.
• 19:56
  So why the decision to come to the US had that come up.
• 20:00
  So in 2003, I was, you know, 2001 to 2003, I was a full-time
• 20:06
  strength coach, that's all I did actually, I work with a bunch of
• 20:10
  great teams in soccer and that's where, you know, I made my
• 20:14
  father-in-law and my biggest Mentor met my wife and all that.
• 20:19
  And in The three hours kind of sick of it, like being a part of
• 20:24
  a team sport, where, you know, your likelihood, your future
• 20:30
  depends on 30 guys. You know that you go in and they
• 20:35
  can kick the ball into the net, you know, and then everybody
• 20:38
  gets fired and you're the guy that got them strong and fast
• 20:41
  then you get you get moved on. And so I just wanted to, you
• 20:45
  know, like everybody all of us we are, we are in search of
• 20:48
  respect, iron way, I mean, that's all we.
• 20:51
  Strive for. And and when you don't have
• 20:54
  that, when you don't see it and you poured your heart and soul
• 20:57
  into something, you're like, you know what, I gotta.
• 20:59
  I got a search for something better and not necessarily
• 21:02
  easier, but that would give you in the end of the day.
• 21:07
  Maybe end of the decade for me, the time it was not, I was never
• 21:10
  in a hurry, I was never trying to do something that you know,
• 21:15
  it was not done before or anything.
• 21:17
  Spectacular, I just wanted to do simple things.
• 21:21
  In a very high level. And so in 2003, I decided, you
• 21:26
  know, I'm going to go to the US. So in 2004, I should January
• 21:31
  2nd, 2004. I, you know, decided I'm going
• 21:34
  to go and do my masters in 2003 started basically talking to dr.
• 21:39
  Nick Sturgess. You know, Greek, a great
• 21:42
  professor at the University of Nebraska Omaha, where, you know,
• 21:45
  he's one of the world renowned ba mechanist.
• 21:49
  So, So by mechanics is something that really intrigued me since
• 21:52
  day one that, you know, the study of the human movement that
• 21:57
  was just, you know, and love with it.
• 21:59
  And so he offered me. Hey, we can get you provision
• 22:04
  only admit it because I was not, you know, I barely spoke English
• 22:07
  at the time, you know, I was trying really hard.
• 22:09
  Is that right? Yeah.
• 22:11
  Yeah. I was not barely spoke English.
• 22:13
  So he's like, hey, you gotta, you gotta go and pass the GRE
• 22:17
  and here's a guy can barely speak English.
• 22:19
  You got you Get a GRE score and get into master's degree.
• 22:23
  So, long story short, I managed to get provisionally accepted, I
• 22:27
  go over there and again, no scholarships nothing.
• 22:30
  And here's a guy, how about two thousand dollars in his pocket?
• 22:34
  Now, I'm not going to tell you had twenty dollars in my pocket.
• 22:36
  Like this old folks, a thousand dollars to two thousand dollars,
• 22:39
  you can do something, sure. So it was basically good enough
• 22:43
  for about about a semesters tuition at the time.
• 22:50
  Okay? Not including, you know, housing
• 22:53
  meals and all that. So it really good friend of mine
• 22:56
  that we went to school together in in Greece doctor.
• 23:00
  Now he's a he's a professor at Creighton University former high
• 23:04
  jumper Demetria Scottsdale. Is he led me sleep on his floor
• 23:11
  in his apartment. So that's how I you know my
• 23:14
  first six months will look like So the guy was very kind to, you
• 23:18
  know, share his car, mean food, everything with me.
• 23:21
  And and the funny thing is, as I started doing my Master's there
• 23:26
  in about six months at position, I was volunteering at the UN
• 23:30
  know, Nebraska Omaha has track and soccer teams.
• 23:33
  I was helping out in the waiting room and track.
• 23:37
  So, in about six months from the day, I came to the US, they
• 23:42
  offer me an assistant coaching position at the time paying
• 23:45
  around. Eighty-Four thousand a year.
• 23:48
  And to me that was how I was, like, I'll call my girlfriend
• 23:52
  now wife, am I at the time? I was like, I'm rich were Rich
• 23:55
  24 Grand a year. That's the most money we've ever
• 23:58
  seen. Literally.
• 24:00
  So I was the happiest person alive, not gonna lie to you.
• 24:04
  So we started that and you know obviously one thing led to
• 24:08
  another and then Dimitri's the guy that helped me and share his
• 24:12
  house with me. He is girlfriend at a time now
• 24:15
  wife. It was a fifty-four fifty-five
• 24:18
  hundred Point have deathly so we brought her over and she
• 24:22
  competed for you and no and she breaks the division to have
• 24:25
  phone records. I want year.
• 24:26
  So so I'm very grateful to that family.
• 24:29
  Don't get him. We're today we're friends, you
• 24:32
  know, I visit them every time I go over there so we started
• 24:37
  that. And then after that, about a
• 24:41
  spent about two years in Omaha, you know, that my Master's there
• 24:44
  and then, you know, An offer from Boise State University
• 24:48
  came. So I moved on over there and I
• 24:51
  was leaving the dream. I was nine, my goodness, I'm a
• 24:53
  division, one coach, and an amazing place, you know, making
• 24:58
  all this money. It wasn't that much more than
• 25:02
  24,000. But I was, it was more and I was
• 25:04
  so happy that, you know, I could provide and, you know, we could,
• 25:08
  I'm getting paid to coach tagging feel.
• 25:10
  I couldn't even comprehend that how exciting that was, and what
• 25:14
  a beautiful indoor facility over there.
• 25:16
  Boise State, just loving every minute minute of it.
• 25:20
  I spent three years there. I started a PhD there in motor,
• 25:25
  motor, behavior model, controlling Behavior.
• 25:28
  I never finished it just because I realized that's not for me.
• 25:33
  I mean I got the knowledge I needed to to to give to the
• 25:38
  athletes and make me a better Coach.
• 25:41
  So in 2008, August 1st 2008, that's when I made the move to
• 25:46
  To the University of Georgia's, and assistant coach coaching
• 25:50
  pole, vault, and combined events in jumps and, you know, 2008 to
• 25:56
  2015, we've done some great things, and then 2015, beginning
• 26:02
  of 2015 and became a head coach until 2021 and let's pause
• 26:06
  there. So, my own little curiosity
• 26:08
  here, what is, so you go to Omaha and Boise to beautiful
• 26:13
  area? I've been to Omaha once or twice
• 26:14
  been to Boise several times. What is, I've never been to
• 26:19
  Cyprus or grease. What's the weather, like, is
• 26:21
  this similar weather pattern to you?
• 26:23
  Or is this a stark difference in change?
• 26:26
  Yeah. Now remember Cyprus, never is a
• 26:29
  place that never gets colder in the 55.
• 26:31
  You said Southern Cal like whether that's right.
• 26:33
  Yes. So you know the the January move
• 26:36
  to to Omaha that was that was a shock and I can assure you.
• 26:40
  I was not prepared, I did not think about that, but I liked it
• 26:44
  because you know, in a way Way and this might sound really
• 26:48
  crazy but I like four seasons when it's cold.
• 26:51
  I needed to be cold. When it snows, I need to be real
• 26:55
  snow, you know, sticking and join us know when it's hot, I
• 26:59
  need to be hot. So we kind of had that in Omaha,
• 27:03
  in a Way Boise was probably the most ideal in Four Seasons
• 27:12
  Georgia, you know, it was it was hot or cold really hot, or
• 27:15
  really cold. Nothing in between.
• 27:18
  And now here is basically the same as Omaha, but but the
• 27:23
  transition, it was a little bit shocking because I did not
• 27:26
  expect, you know, if he had, I gone in September and kind of
• 27:29
  get adjusted to it, right? I went from like 78 to minus 10
• 27:34
  at the time and I remember this lady at the airport, you know, I
• 27:40
  came with a backpack, basically little roller back and she's
• 27:43
  like, son, I hope you have a real winter jacket because I
• 27:46
  Shut up with like a like, a little fleecy, you know, and I
• 27:50
  said, what do you mean? I say go, son, go to the mall
• 27:53
  and get you a real winter jacket because you will need it here.
• 27:58
  So, it's interesting your background because, you know,
• 28:02
  99% of the coaches we've had here and, you know, you're this
• 28:06
  actually, you know, we like round numbers, right?
• 28:07
  You're actually guest number 180, so 180 plus coaches because
• 28:11
  we had some coaching staffs on here, but most of our past
• 28:15
  guest, they grew up in Erica. And so they grew up being a
• 28:18
  Georgia fan or an Illinois fan or most of us grew up being Troy
• 28:22
  State University fans. We realize that first and
• 28:25
  foremost, you grew up where, you know, there wasn't that, you
• 28:29
  know, you didn't have a mascot for your college for crying out
• 28:32
  loud. I'm interested in your take, you
• 28:34
  know, we get a D1 or bust mentality, and I'm talking about
• 28:39
  that in general statements here. Meaning we grow up on Saturdays
• 28:42
  watching, Illinois and Georgia, play football.
• 28:45
  You didn't You came over to Nebraska Omaha, most people
• 28:49
  outside of Nebraska Omaha, Nebraska don't know, Nebraska
• 28:52
  Omaha Boise State's kind of a, don't you call them in the
• 28:56
  middle there a little bit above middle, right?
• 28:59
  What they've done with football and again, it's because of
• 29:01
  football, right? What was your attitude and
• 29:05
  thoughts about? You came here on a division to
• 29:07
  school and then you go to Boise and then you go to, you know,
• 29:10
  one of the football, Mecca's Georgia, what was it, you know,
• 29:14
  the Pomp and Circumstances and things that Around Athletics.
• 29:17
  What was that? Like for a kid who grew up with
• 29:20
  none of that assumably. Yeah, I mean to me I was more
• 29:24
  excited that I was closing up to Chicago to go watch the Bulls
• 29:28
  because I grew up as you know you know like everybody in the
• 29:31
  world. Yes, Michael Jordan.
• 29:33
  Huge fan. I still today time and You're
• 29:36
  gonna laugh at this but one of the very small reasons why I
• 29:40
  chose to move to Illinois is that I'll be close enough to go
• 29:43
  watch the Bulls, you know, even though, Oh they're not.
• 29:46
  They're nowhere near where they used to be growing up myself,
• 29:49
  but it just like that aura that mistake to me still there.
• 29:53
  I mean, it's crazy as it sounds. I still live in the 90s in that
• 29:57
  in that matter but to me, I never really care about
• 30:01
  football. I remember when I got to Omaha
• 30:03
  that strength coach day or the history coach played, he played
• 30:06
  for the Huskers. And Huskers in Nebraska is like
• 30:10
  you know religion and I couldn't understand it because they
• 30:13
  weren't very good. Now I was Going for me.
• 30:17
  It's like it's like the Ricky Bobby you know, movie if you
• 30:20
  have if you have first you're last kind of way.
• 30:22
  So I'm looking at the the rankings and then we're nearer.
• 30:26
  But he said, yeah, in 97 I was, I was on the national
• 30:29
  championship team on Nebraska when we won the national
• 30:31
  football and I was like, oh my gosh, these guys actually good.
• 30:35
  So I started like creating this this this thing about.
• 30:40
  Oh my gosh, football is as big as soccer over there.
• 30:43
  So let me start watching and start getting really hooked and
• 30:46
  Loving it, you know, loving the this for, you know, start
• 30:48
  meeting football coaches and talking more about the speed
• 30:52
  part in football, and we start having like, common ground and,
• 30:57
  and, and I became a big fan, you know, obviously, a Boise State
• 31:00
  winning those Fiesta Bowl University was huge.
• 31:03
  And, you know, my first born was born right before I know, right
• 31:08
  after them one that last testable I belong 2008 in
• 31:13
  January. So I was like, man, that that
• 31:16
  You know, this is huge. And they go to Georgia, they
• 31:18
  struggle for a while and then but you could see the, yeah,
• 31:22
  the, the the upward swing and the the money involved in that
• 31:25
  sport. I was my goodness.
• 31:27
  I could not believe it even though it was about the same as
• 31:30
  soccer in Europe but you know but also seeing how much that's
• 31:35
  poor help my Sport and that so if it wasn't for them we
• 31:38
  wouldn't have all this. So just kind of got really
• 31:41
  interested in it and really enjoyed it but growing up like
• 31:45
  you, you Said earlier, you know, there was no mascot.
• 31:48
  There was no Spirit, whatever, the TV provided and we had like
• 31:51
  two channels, you know, one will be showing him PA all the time.
• 31:55
  They didn't show NFL, they show NBA or UCLA.
• 31:58
  I remember UCLA clearly and I'm a big family back in June a
• 32:02
  courtesy. And I am very thankful to be,
• 32:05
  we're really good friends. So, that's how I knew UCLA.
• 32:09
  And you know, that's the only school I knew really in the
• 32:13
  NCAA, that's it UCLA and nothing else.
• 32:17
  And obviously coming to the u.s. I got more interested and and
• 32:22
  then I learned where starts and how big the NCAA is and how
• 32:26
  important it is to be on, you know, the the Athletics Beyond
• 32:31
  College. You know, we're similar, I think
• 32:34
  we're about the same age so I agree. 90s is the best decade by
• 32:37
  the way and I lived in Chicago during that time for a few
• 32:40
  years. And so I just became a I'm not
• 32:42
  even to be a guy and I became a bulls fan.
• 32:45
  I literally just saw this Yesterday, it was a graphic of
• 32:49
  the US with the 50 different states and it had the
• 32:51
  best-selling NBA jersey, team-wise in each state, right?
• 32:56
  And so, of course, Illinois was the Bulls, right?
• 32:57
  But so was Indiana. Ohio, Kentucky, all the way down
• 33:03
  to Texas, like the whole Midwest, and someone called the
• 33:06
  United States of the Chicago Bulls fans, like it's quite a
• 33:09
  quite amazing. Even down into Texas and stuff,
• 33:12
  like, Bulls is. The number one selling jersey.
• 33:15
  That's it. Really?
• 33:16
  The cultural phenomenon during that point in, you know, I don't
• 33:20
  want to say it's all about Jordan but is all about Jordan.
• 33:24
  Yeah. If Jordan wasn't there it does,
• 33:26
  it doesn't happen. And so, did you have any again?
• 33:30
  Go for Nebraska, Omaha division to to Boise State division?
• 33:33
  One was there? Like, did you even understand
• 33:37
  you do now? But did you understand the
• 33:39
  differences between Division 1 division to division 3 in it?
• 33:42
  Did you even know of NAIA and Juco and things like that?
• 33:45
  You're gonna Get a laugh at this.
• 33:47
  I did not. So we are in the, in the, in
• 33:49
  the, in a minivan. I remember with Tim Hendricks.
• 33:52
  It was my head coach at Nebraska Omaha and I remember we
• 33:55
  finished. Second at our conference.
• 33:58
  It was the north. What it was it in north-central
• 34:02
  any? See you think or something?
• 34:04
  Yeah, we were in South Dakota or something like that.
• 34:06
  So I think South Dakota one and then we got second, then we're
• 34:09
  in the, in the van coming back and I said, ATM doesn't mean
• 34:13
  we're moving up to division one. Now, I Division one now because,
• 34:17
  you know, it was younger. He, yeah, yeah, yeah, you go
• 34:21
  Division 1, right? And he looked at me like an
• 34:24
  aside. Hell are you talking about?
• 34:26
  He was like, really country guy, like really straightforward
• 34:29
  German like guy? He's like, what the hell are you
• 34:31
  talking about? No, we're going to regionals,
• 34:37
  but then I, you know, I educated myself and, you know, it was
• 34:41
  better. You know, that's interesting,
• 34:44
  though. Should all of Athletics be That
• 34:46
  a college athletics, be that kind of not because I'm not a
• 34:48
  soccer fan at all. I grew up in Alabama, we didn't
• 34:51
  have soccer, at least in my neck of the woods and literally it
• 34:53
  was in the woods but I've read about and kind of Now understand
• 34:58
  a little bit about the division one door, you know, a league be
• 35:00
  lie or whatever it is and yeah, yeah exactly.
• 35:02
  How you do, you get kicked out and other teams can get moved up
• 35:05
  into the league? That would be interesting for
• 35:08
  the NCAA because, you know, back in the day, you may be probably
• 35:12
  know this now, but you probably certainly didn't know this back
• 35:14
  then, back in the day, Division. 2 national champs.
• 35:19
  Got to compete at the end of the division.
• 35:21
  One, I heard it from a friend. Yeah, a good friend of mine.
• 35:26
  Yeah, good friend of mine in Troy, Alum, Charles Oliver
• 35:29
  coach. Oh, he was a really great 400
• 35:32
  meter runner back, when Troy was division 2 and he got to run at
• 35:34
  the division 1 national championship.
• 35:37
  And I was like, well, that's quite fascinating.
• 35:38
  I was like what happened to that?
• 35:39
  He's like yeah I think some Division 1 coaches got tired of
• 35:42
  d 2 kids coming up and beaten as I was like yeah that's over was
• 35:45
  cut that out. I think that's a I think I
• 35:48
  honestly think I should bring that back.
• 35:49
  That's interesting. And that I'm a bing, you know,
• 35:52
  obviously because I started from from 0 to now, you know, I think
• 35:59
  there's a lot of great coaching at that level that people don't
• 36:02
  understand. You know, whether it's division
• 36:04
  2 or meet major D1 or whatever, I think the best coaching,
• 36:07
  that's where it happens and I think it's a reward you should
• 36:11
  be as a and I hope I hope I don't want to put him on the
• 36:16
  spot. Here or anything like that but I
• 36:17
  hope Sam on some point. You know, they we all kind of
• 36:20
  come together, but I you know what?
• 36:22
  Let's just give them a chance, you know, get the the national
• 36:25
  champion or the top three or whatever, just plug them in and
• 36:28
  take less, you know, we don't have to take 24 to the outdoor
• 36:31
  meet, let's take 20 and then, you know, take for, from
• 36:35
  division to or division, figure something like that now just,
• 36:37
  yeah, you know, because I've heard so many stories, how
• 36:40
  exciting it was, you know, a good friend of mine, Steve
• 36:43
  Gordon. One of my best friend's triple
• 36:44
  jumper. He lives in Omaha.
• 36:46
  Aha. You know he was the D2 National
• 36:49
  Champion, he got to jump against, you know, Walter Davis
• 36:52
  and all these great jumpers you know?
• 36:54
  So I think that's great for development, really?
• 36:58
  Yeah I think it's super interesting especially in our
• 37:00
  sport right? Because you know it's not about
• 37:02
  Georgia spends billions of dollars on football but Troy can
• 37:05
  only spend a million then so there's going to be a lot of a
• 37:07
  gap. It's like man coaching is
• 37:09
  coaching his coaching. If a kid can coach at you know
• 37:12
  Texas A&M Kingsville in the triple jump can go up against
• 37:15
  the Illinois, triple jumper. Let's see it.
• 37:17
  Who cares? What the mascot is?
• 37:18
  Let's and what division? Yeah, it's interesting and it
• 37:22
  will show really recruits to and I always a big, a big fan of
• 37:27
  folks that you know, and even recruits not choosing making
• 37:31
  making their choice on buildings and palm trees and you know,
• 37:37
  whatever, whatever that might be.
• 37:38
  That you know, suits you as an athlete, but suits you as a
• 37:42
  student-athlete look you know, like just go to a place that
• 37:45
  will really take you. You, you know, and I keep
• 37:47
  telling people what's the degree that mean doesn't mean anything.
• 37:51
  You know, I you don't even know the school.
• 37:53
  I went to and I think I do pretty well professionally,
• 37:56
  right? So just go somewhere that don't
• 37:59
  get caught up with all this shine and all that, you know, we
• 38:01
  all been to great places and and all that and now with social
• 38:05
  media, you know, unfortunately that's you know, and we all try
• 38:10
  to do great job on social media, so we can attract good people.
• 38:13
  But at the end of the day, I have a lot of respect.
• 38:16
  Kids that that go to places or they know what they want and
• 38:20
  that goes for coaches to, you know, I have so much respect for
• 38:23
  coach has that stick around at a place that doesn't really have
• 38:29
  all the glory in the world, but they make it work and they're
• 38:33
  happy and that's what in the end of the day, you just gotta be
• 38:35
  happy where you are and you know, go ahead.
• 38:39
  Yeah, besides a year that I'm very glad I did as a Jew coach,
• 38:43
  my career is Division 1. So when I First came here to
• 38:46
  Gill most of the meats. I went to were division one.
• 38:49
  I was just kind of, you know, came from the SEC, so they just
• 38:51
  make me go to all the division, one meets, right?
• 38:54
  But as we become the NCAA equipment sponsor, I've gotten
• 38:57
  to go to the division two championships and I am and I've
• 39:01
  been, you know, you know me better.
• 39:02
  I've been to every do you want championship and athletes
• 39:05
  compete? And I watch the D to me and I
• 39:08
  just look around like me. I think like people who aren't
• 39:11
  in D2, have no idea what's going on here.
• 39:13
  This is quite amazing. Oh yeah.
• 39:16
  Eizan athletes amazing coaches. I mean, and I just look at him
• 39:20
  like, man. What if they just had one shot
• 39:22
  to compete against the Texas has and UCLA like, you know, because
• 39:26
  competition begets competition, I'm like, yeah, I just think
• 39:28
  there'd be even more amazing, this happened.
• 39:31
  So, be quite interesting when you went to Boise.
• 39:34
  First of all, when you said your first born was born.
• 39:37
  First, one was born say that three times fast.
• 39:41
  You see that Fiesta Bowl. Was that the Boise State?
• 39:43
  Oklahoma, football game. Oh my God.
• 39:45
  Greatest, if you have And seen that game.
• 39:46
  Oh my God, you gotta go find it on.
• 39:49
  ESPN Classics, the best game ever wins it on a Statue of
• 39:53
  Liberty play and then the kid proposes to his girlfriend right
• 39:58
  there on the field. I still remember exactly where I
• 40:01
  was. When I saw that game greatest
• 40:03
  game in the entire world. How was Boise State in regards
• 40:07
  to, you know, you had a great indoor facility there.
• 40:11
  Rest in peace that indoor facility it's gone.
• 40:13
  He had Nationals there. How was That time and what led
• 40:17
  to leaving there and going to Georgia.
• 40:20
  Yeah, so like I said earlier going to Boise State I was so
• 40:24
  excited that I would be a division one coach and that
• 40:27
  indoor facility, you know, Mike? Manor, was the head coach there,
• 40:32
  you know, he was a very energetic guy, very technical
• 40:35
  throws coach. That really like the, the idea,
• 40:38
  I mean, Mike, it was, I'm not gonna lie to you.
• 40:40
  Mike was the guy that first used talk about national
• 40:43
  championships at Boise State and to me, He made me think like man
• 40:47
  this guy really wants to win. And and for me he had very high
• 40:53
  standards. I remember, you know, being in
• 40:54
  our team meetings and you know, and we're like, hey, I can't
• 40:58
  give a full scholarship to the cath, unless you 70 100 points.
• 41:01
  And I'm like, hell, yeah, that's that's how you do it.
• 41:04
  That's how you do it. Now, whether you can get a 7800
• 41:07
  point to Catholic, which in later on, they did with Kurt
• 41:09
  Felix and all that winning the, the decathlon National Title
• 41:13
  there, but To me, when, when I see a place like that, like, why
• 41:20
  not us? Why not this place, you know, I
• 41:23
  mean, yeah, it isn't made major, that might not have the big
• 41:25
  budget, the big salaries, and all that, but but we're talking
• 41:28
  about coaching here, so, that's when really God me to be like,
• 41:32
  okay, you bring in a good decent athlete, you develop them, you
• 41:35
  coach them, it doesn't matter how good they are.
• 41:38
  As long as they have talent, you going to bring it up.
• 41:40
  And and I remember at Boise State, 2007, we were ranked
• 41:45
  fourth in the country. Entry in those rankings, you
• 41:47
  know how us tfcc a that they post every week.
• 41:50
  I believe it was sometime in February.
• 41:52
  We were ranked fourth, you know, had Ryan Grinnell there.
• 41:55
  You know, later on my assistant coach, you know, Ryan was ranked
• 41:59
  top three in both the long jump, triple jump behind, Cham.
• 42:02
  We had a cup of Greek long jump, triple jumpers.
• 42:05
  So to me, that's started being really, intriguing is how, you
• 42:09
  know, what winning a national championship as a team will be
• 42:12
  so cool, you know, because you get deep into this team.
• 42:16
  I think that is so important and you do everything for the team
• 42:19
  but without really thinking too much about a thing because
• 42:22
  that's the beauty of track and field.
• 42:23
  That if you take care of yourself you take care of the
• 42:26
  team but you also think about the team.
• 42:30
  So Mike Manor, really got that little you know, thought in my
• 42:34
  head that having high standards really takes you far, you know,
• 42:39
  and, and clearly we've done well, I mean, we've had a couple
• 42:44
  of teams that finished up 15 of the country's in the country at
• 42:47
  Boise State which I feel that was amazing for that place.
• 42:52
  But then towards the end, my third year you know as we all
• 42:56
  do, you want to you want to evolve you know you want to you
• 43:00
  know support your family a little bit more and and not the
• 43:03
  time that that place is a little bit limited on that but I really
• 43:08
  miss that facility that indoor facility, my gosh, I mean I've
• 43:12
  never been to a better and I mean this I've been some amazing
• 43:17
  in the facilities to me. That was the best in the
• 43:20
  facility in the country, personally, bias or not.
• 43:24
  That was just amazing places to jump, fast straight away.
• 43:31
  The, the curves, everything, like, from the Mondo surface to
• 43:34
  the equipment, everything was just amazing.
• 43:37
  The location had room in the back to have your own weight
• 43:41
  room so that it was still there after I left.
• 43:45
  Because Clearly, you know, they hosted the NCAA indoors then
• 43:48
  took 2012. It was nice for me to go back.
• 43:52
  And after that, I just wanted to go a little more competitive
• 43:58
  league, you know. Clearly the SEC, you know, it
• 44:00
  was booming at the time it now I was like, you know what, maybe
• 44:04
  that will get me a little bit closer to becoming a head coach
• 44:08
  eventually because I want to lead a team to something
• 44:11
  special, you know, do something that was not done before in
• 44:15
  Georgia. To be a good fit for that
• 44:18
  because I knew it's a place that can be great.
• 44:21
  And as you know, I mean at the time Georgia was nothing great
• 44:26
  but they had one ability, two thousand six or seven.
• 44:29
  They had won the SEC in the women's side indoors, but no,
• 44:32
  we're nationally and I got never, I was never a big fan of
• 44:35
  conferences like I never cared what the team does conference
• 44:41
  wise because you're not competing against everybody.
• 44:44
  And when you compete against everybody, Things kind of tend
• 44:46
  to spread out and and that's where you really show your
• 44:50
  coaching in my opinion, I get nothing against conference
• 44:53
  championships and all that. But to me, it made me feel like,
• 44:56
  okay, if I'm there, I might be able to bring them a little more
• 45:03
  talented kid. I don't have to, it doesn't have
• 45:05
  to be, you know, all the Europeans and foreign kids to
• 45:08
  attract the same. I this and you know like Ryan
• 45:11
  Grinnell for example, Ryan was it 8:40 long jumper coming out
• 45:14
  of high school In like 48 feet in the triple jump, and then,
• 45:18
  you know, later on, he became 20 66 and 57, you know, but I
• 45:25
  failed, you know, maybe you have access to some better athletes
• 45:28
  and all that. And I was wrong because coaching
• 45:30
  is coaching like you said, you just gonna be exposed to maybe
• 45:35
  more like a bigger concentration of talent, but you still got to
• 45:40
  pick the best one and now you're competing with, you know, floor
• 45:45
  dust. Texas.
• 45:46
  And I mean, you got all this Powerhouse, has these amazing
• 45:49
  coaches and staff and all that. And, you know, it made him more
• 45:53
  complete, but he makes you better because you start to
• 45:55
  Reinventing yourself in different ways.
• 45:58
  So it was a good experience. So that's why I really failed
• 46:03
  that making that move. It was needed at the time.
• 46:08
  Now, I could have stayed at Boise State and eventually
• 46:10
  become a head coach because Mike moved on to UCLA.
• 46:14
  I don't know, I don't know. Not be opposed to that and you
• 46:17
  know, if I, you know, if Mike was already on his way to UCLA
• 46:22
  but it happened two years after I left or yeah, two years but I
• 46:28
  don't regret the fact that I made that move just because he
• 46:31
  was it was best for my family at the time.
• 46:32
  I had a young newborn, you know, we need a little more financial
• 46:36
  support and and Georgia offer that and it wasn't a lot more.
• 46:41
  Don't don't get me wrong there but he was It was just that
• 46:47
  environment of, okay. You got more options, you got
• 46:50
  more access. Yeah.
• 46:52
  Yeah. You got the Atlanta area.
• 46:55
  So it was, it was, it was an easy move and, you know, the
• 46:58
  time we didn't own a house didn't, you know, it was very
• 47:01
  easy to move at the time and and and we moved them.
• 47:06
  We made that move his family. So I love that.
• 47:08
  You mentioned about when you went to Georgia and you're like,
• 47:11
  oh, well, now going up against Florida and Texas when I went
• 47:14
  from Ball State to Mississippi State, I thought I'd It.
• 47:16
  I'm like oh man. Now anytime I call her a crew
• 47:19
  that they're going to know Mississippi State like a nod to
• 47:21
  introduce Ball State and where they are and who we are and all
• 47:23
  this stuff. And I remembered the first kid,
• 47:26
  I recruited was LZ Coleman. He set the National Record, high
• 47:29
  school for then do 400 up in Newberg and New York and someone
• 47:33
  klz like so who you know, who all you interested in?
• 47:36
  He's like, yeah, I'm going to go to visit, you know, Florida,
• 47:38
  Baylor, USC, and I can't move. Maybe was Texas and I was like,
• 47:43
  oh crap, wait a minute, I got a recruiting It's Mouse.
• 47:47
  I got to recruit against, you know, Texas.
• 47:50
  Oh my, this didn't get easier. It's got hard the guys that
• 47:56
  either I called my mentor Mouse. How do I, how do I beat him?
• 48:00
  You know, I did, by the way, he came to Mississippi State
• 48:03
  anyway, but I do want explore something, you said they're
• 48:05
  Petrus. You know, I think this is super
• 48:08
  interesting. You talked about, you said,
• 48:11
  Mike, Manor, put in your head that high standards are a good
• 48:15
  thing and New your quote that you said was yeah, why not us.
• 48:19
  Why can't why? Just because we because just, I
• 48:22
  hate that word just that's going to pull into this, that were
• 48:25
  just Boise State, so we can't do it.
• 48:27
  That's for the Georges and the Texas has and Florida's and
• 48:30
  things like that, right? How do you so that word?
• 48:34
  Just like, I, you know, 24/7, I'm on Twitter, right?
• 48:38
  And someone will say, well, I'm just a throws coach.
• 48:40
  I'm just a high school coach. I'm just a insert whatever and
• 48:44
  I'll push back a little bit like, hey, get that.
• 48:46
  Edward just out of your vocabulary.
• 48:48
  You know, you are a throws coach, that's that's important.
• 48:50
  You are a high school coach and that is highly important.
• 48:52
  You are a coach at Nebraska Omaha, that's important.
• 48:55
  That's a big deal for the people that you positively impact.
• 48:59
  Their it's not just if you think you're lowering yourself.
• 49:01
  Well what does that say about the people that you serve your
• 49:04
  team, right? So how do you balance?
• 49:06
  How did you balance this? Hey, we're Boise State.
• 49:10
  There's no reason why we can't win a trophy at Nationals or
• 49:13
  even win the national title versus Ego.
• 49:17
  And I don't mean ego. Ego Is Not a Bad Thing.
• 49:20
  Bad ego is a bad thing because there's also that side because
• 49:23
  it's easy to flip over and go. Well, why can't I get good kids
• 49:27
  here? I'm great coach.
• 49:29
  Why can't I get? Why can't I be at Nationals?
• 49:32
  Why can't I get invited to this cross country meet with my team,
• 49:35
  you know, there's this display of like, hey, you know, we High
• 49:39
  esteem but also humility. How do you balance that?
• 49:44
  Yeah, I mean, it's confidence. Really.
• 49:46
  I mean you you have to be genuinely confident without any
• 49:51
  second thoughts and Mike had that.
• 49:53
  And that's what really liked about him.
• 49:56
  Because now if you pair that with good technical coaching and
• 50:01
  in the ability to sell what you have, it makes you an amazing
• 50:05
  coach just like, you know, Mouse over or Pat Henry or any of this
• 50:09
  Ultra accomplished coaches out there, you know, you got to have
• 50:14
  that but at the same time, I mean their personal lives there,
• 50:19
  they're humble. They're they're giving their you
• 50:21
  got to get them like you know I like everybody else when you
• 50:25
  start winning you all of a sudden get criticized, a lot,
• 50:28
  you know, it's a common thing, then you become he's that he's
• 50:33
  this, you know, people don't know if you don't know the
• 50:36
  person, you can make a lot of assumptions.
• 50:38
  But if you get to know that person that in your eyes, see
• 50:43
  you see a big ego or whatever or or oh, that guy's, you know, a
• 50:48
  bad person or whatever. But you don't know until you
• 50:52
  meet them and you see their surroundings, how giving they
• 50:56
  are, how like, you know, welcoming, they are how they
• 51:01
  treat their athletes, in terms of pushing them, getting them
• 51:04
  where they want to. Because not everybody wants to
• 51:06
  be an Olympian, you know, I mean, they might say it, but you
• 51:10
  know, like Nick Saban said everybody talks about, not
• 51:13
  becoming national champions but nobody talks about what you need
• 51:17
  to do to prepare to be a national champion.
• 51:20
  Champion, right? And I think that's what makes my
• 51:22
  house great. That's what makes all this.
• 51:24
  This this this coaches at any level really great because they
• 51:29
  have that ability to break that down and that's the confidence
• 51:32
  package that comes with it. That sometimes they might give
• 51:35
  me some understood, you know, but if you go and see their
• 51:39
  personal lives, usually this folks with this Ultra confident
• 51:43
  and presence to lead because you need that to lead.
• 51:47
  If you're not confident, nobody's going to follow you.
• 51:50
  And it has to be genuine. It has to be genuine but at the
• 51:53
  same time being confident, that doesn't mean you're not going to
• 51:56
  be giving, you're not going to be rewarding.
• 51:59
  You're not going to be mentoring, you're not going to
• 52:01
  be nurturing, you know, all those things come and you know
• 52:06
  you can't please everybody, they say you know if you if you want
• 52:10
  to make everybody happy go sell ice cream, you know.
• 52:12
  But in our in our profession, in any profession, you know, that's
• 52:16
  not true. Lactose intolerant people still
• 52:18
  aren't happy with you. There you go.
• 52:20
  Well you still lie what you call an extrovert or something.
• 52:23
  Yeah. Every time someone posts that,
• 52:27
  you know, if you want to be happy, go sell ice cream all
• 52:29
  day. You know, like they'll stuck
• 52:30
  though, sometimes people are pissed because they don't,
• 52:34
  that's great what, that's interesting.
• 52:36
  I'm reminded of a great quote from another amazing track coach
• 52:42
  division to Hall of Famer George Williams.
• 52:44
  And his famous saying is, if you're not in the Huddle, you
• 52:47
  don't know the play. So it's From the outside to go.
• 52:50
  Yeah, he's a mouse. You can't talk to Mouse at a
• 52:54
  meat, he's in, its like the first of all, you don't know
• 52:56
  what's going on and second of all just tell you from personal,
• 52:58
  no, he's an awesome guy actually.
• 53:00
  He said he was a lot of trophies, but you know what?
• 53:02
  He's still a man. Just a regular old person who is
• 53:05
  a bowler. Me just a regular, dude.
• 53:07
  Same with you. Petros, you know, from the
• 53:08
  outside, some people from working, not with you working at
• 53:13
  a meet with that, that your I'd be like, oh, Petros, you know,
• 53:16
  he just never talks to anybody, but bought it's like, well, do
• 53:19
  you know what he's doing? At a meet, he's working like
• 53:21
  he's owned it. I've seen you in here at me to
• 53:23
  your zoned in on from the warm up to the to the cooldown.
• 53:26
  So until you know what a person is going through.
• 53:29
  It's easy to cast judgment but it's always wrong to cast
• 53:32
  judgment, sir. It really has yet to know the
• 53:35
  person. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 53:36
  There's a difference between I think coach kyprianou because
• 53:39
  that's your job and then Petros the person that does are two
• 53:44
  different things. I'm a little different at work
• 53:46
  than I meant the house. You know, I'm working here but
• 53:48
  I'm at the house, I'm much more. Laidback pretty laid back at
• 53:51
  work too though. Okay, so you go to Georgia, what
• 53:55
  I'm interested in here is so when you came to Georgia,
• 53:59
  Georgia was okay. They'd had some studs one or two
• 54:03
  studs 34, but they weren't winning national titles.
• 54:06
  They certainly weren't in discussions for national titles
• 54:09
  SEC titles. How did you with, with the staff
• 54:14
  that you were there with? So you were an assistant coach.
• 54:17
  How did you help build that culture up and then eventually
• 54:19
  take over Over as leadership and then really kind of pour in
• 54:22
  because now it's all coming from you as far as the culture had,
• 54:25
  you pour gas on that culture at that point.
• 54:28
  Yeah. So when I got there in 2008-2009
• 54:32
  you know in 2009 I believe we finished 11th in the country
• 54:35
  okay. And it was due to basically a
• 54:39
  javelin thrower winning in a 400 hurdle, getting third that was
• 54:43
  it and everybody celebrating and talking how great we are and all
• 54:47
  that and I'm looking at you know, Don Babbitt at the time
• 54:49
  you know We were sitting there talking and as I Petrus, this is
• 54:53
  our national championship, and I'm like, I'm like, you know,
• 54:56
  that's, that's as smart to say, and as challenging to think so,
• 55:04
  I never forgot that, you know, Don done is a very smart guy.
• 55:06
  So when, when, when he says something like that, to me was
• 55:10
  like, man, you know, he's a hundred percent, right?
• 55:12
  So what do we need to do? Why don't we have more of this,
• 55:15
  Javelin throwers or more of that 400 learn and as The the years
• 55:20
  went by, you know, it was bad. I mean, you couldn't get top 20,
• 55:26
  you know, I didn't really get things going, you know, as an
• 55:29
  assistant, you got to prove yourself.
• 55:30
  Hey I can go recruit this girl from from Greece or from Sweden.
• 55:34
  The come in. Start winning the SEC, triple
• 55:37
  jump title but not good enough to like get top three at the
• 55:41
  NCAA so good but not good enough.
• 55:44
  So 2013 12 2012 that's when really started killing kids.
• 55:50
  In 1112 that's when you know I got Morgan Le Lo the pole
• 55:53
  vaulter that she was second the country.
• 55:55
  Then you know, Cory home and they have to decathlon and then
• 55:59
  you know, Garris can lie Michael Weber this?
• 56:02
  They all start coming and that's when, you know, Georgia was
• 56:05
  start getting top 10s with two jumpers or decathlete and a high
• 56:10
  jumper and I'm like, man, that's all he takes.
• 56:14
  But again, you're not the director, you're not the head
• 56:17
  coach. So you you Do what you can do
• 56:21
  that it has from you to take care of your group, you have the
• 56:25
  force in and thankfully, you know, Wayne or not, a time, my
• 56:29
  boss had the time, you know. He saw that a this group is is
• 56:33
  winning is doing something. So I'm going to put a little
• 56:36
  more money there and that's a very simple way to, you know,
• 56:41
  help the area but you know, there's other issues where you
• 56:44
  get you get to as a head coach. You have to make sure that the
• 56:48
  team overall you Have a goal and, you know, we had a great
• 56:54
  coaching staff, you know? I mean, all of us, really.
• 56:58
  I mean, you have gone badly a Jon Stewart, you had, you know,
• 57:01
  great coaches, great leadership. But I think is when Greg
• 57:05
  McGarity, the athletic director, the hire me later on as a head
• 57:09
  coach, he came in from Florida, he was the number two of
• 57:12
  Florida. Greg.
• 57:13
  McGarity came in 2010 that he really changed the culture
• 57:18
  because It was not okay to be outside the top 20.
• 57:22
  It was not okay to be bottom half of the in the SEC so he
• 57:27
  started applying that. That good pressure.
• 57:29
  I always call. And as you know, pressure is a
• 57:32
  privilege. If you're being pressure, that
• 57:34
  means you're onto something good and it was not okay for him to
• 57:40
  be outside the top 25. And I remember in 2000, was it
• 57:46
  2014? We got third, we got First
• 57:50
  trophy was my first trophy as an assistant coach.
• 57:54
  With I remember Kendall Williams one that pentathlon, got another
• 57:59
  pentathlete finish fourth, then we won the hind jump, we won the
• 58:02
  long jump. What s the long jump and had a
• 58:05
  girl give forth in the mile and that was it and we got third how
• 58:11
  am I guys that quality? That's that's what screams and
• 58:15
  you got to be good at the advanced that nobody else is
• 58:17
  good at and be really good. Those events and but nobody
• 58:22
  really would, I guess, look at it.
• 58:26
  But that was like, it was all great.
• 58:28
  McGarity, I think. Because I am a gay one of these
• 58:31
  guys that I like a lot of things fly in front of me, but when I,
• 58:36
  when I listen to great leader, I like to take a few words because
• 58:41
  I remember he said, besides the is not, okay?
• 58:43
  And he will not be the guy that he would get on the podium and
• 58:46
  pound his fist on the podium and said, you gotta win you.
• 58:49
  This we need to win, we should be winning.
• 58:52
  He had a very special way of really like twisting certain
• 58:58
  things without making you hurt. You know what I mean?
• 59:01
  Like he would make a comment. You see it.
• 59:04
  You own it. For example you know you see a
• 59:07
  trash on the track and you walk by you see it you only you pick
• 59:11
  it up and you throw in the trash can little things like that.
• 59:14
  It start building. I'm in my head that this guy
• 59:17
  actually he's a great leader. He was Not the aggressive power
• 59:22
  figure, you know, like guy looks like an action hero that stands
• 59:26
  on the pot pain diem and he gives his speeches that, you
• 59:29
  know, I'm a different cat like he was.
• 59:32
  So I like to, I like that kind of leadership where it's not,
• 59:36
  okay to be average is not okay to be bad, you gotta be better.
• 59:42
  You don't have to like pound in and rub it in people's faces
• 59:45
  every day. You know, there's a lot of
• 59:47
  different ways in leading and that's how I like it personally.
• 59:50
  And I think one of the biggest mentors I had it is Greg in
• 59:57
  learning that from him even as an assistant.
• 59:59
  So for 10 years straight that I was around him, I was like, man,
• 1:00:04
  this guy is he's a treasure. You know, a little bit old
• 1:00:11
  school but understanding the modern era and obviously coming
• 1:00:15
  from Florida and winning all these.
• 1:00:17
  You know, he was the guy that hired the coach, that one, the
• 1:00:21
  the football national championship and and all that.
• 1:00:24
  So you know that guy's bringing credibility.
• 1:00:27
  So everything he said to me, he was really ingrained in my in my
• 1:00:30
  in my mind and even sent an assistant, you can do a lot
• 1:00:35
  because I keep telling you, I'm even now all my assistants ever
• 1:00:39
  ever since I I've been a head coach that you guys are not
• 1:00:42
  assistance. I don't like that term.
• 1:00:44
  Your head. Coaches are rearing been area.
• 1:00:46
  You're a coach assistant coach is somebody that assist with
• 1:00:49
  raking, the pit or pulling a tape measure and I said coach,
• 1:00:53
  is it actually your coaching your recruiting and developing
• 1:00:56
  kids? So you are responsible for your
• 1:01:00
  team. You have your own team that is
• 1:01:01
  part of the bigger team. It's like a, any CEO running a
• 1:01:06
  program, an organization every Department.
• 1:01:10
  I mean, that department head, it's a head, it's not an
• 1:01:14
  assistant. So, to me, once you give that to
• 1:01:18
  your coaches, not only you Empower them, but you, you give
• 1:01:23
  them the the chance to create and, and you hire that person.
• 1:01:28
  So, if you hire the person, you don't trust them.
• 1:01:32
  What, who are you, you know, and I'm a very proud of a lot of the
• 1:01:37
  other people that I hired and either they win.
• 1:01:40
  On to becoming head coaches or moved on to bigger programs and
• 1:01:43
  all that. But but the biggest thing is
• 1:01:46
  what Greg. McGarity said that first day he
• 1:01:51
  to go over and he had like, a lacrosse ball and Squishy the.
• 1:01:59
  The thing you play cornhole that little bag, he said you know,
• 1:02:04
  the lacrosse ball is as your job and The same bag is your life
• 1:02:11
  and your career and your family. So he dropped them and you know,
• 1:02:15
  the job bounced up. He said if you're not good
• 1:02:17
  enough and you get fire or you let go or whatever, you can
• 1:02:21
  bounce back, you there always a job.
• 1:02:23
  But if you so basically long story short, it's not to like
• 1:02:26
  give us the balance that you can be great and you can have a good
• 1:02:30
  life, you know, with your family.
• 1:02:32
  So and the Sea and own it and all that.
• 1:02:35
  Like I think to me that's what really molded me as a As a
• 1:02:41
  leader in the morning era, really?
• 1:02:44
  That's a, that's an amazing part of leadership for an athletic
• 1:02:47
  director of an SCC program. Is, you know, it's from the
• 1:02:51
  outside you here and now, experience did as an assistant
• 1:02:55
  coach, you know, it's hard driving.
• 1:02:56
  It's, you know, no one will say, it's it comes before family, but
• 1:03:00
  there's a lot of hints and culture that demand that.
• 1:03:05
  So for him to stand up there and say, hey, here's two things, he
• 1:03:09
  lived it that way. He was one of the lowest paid
• 1:03:11
  ades, he's retired. Now he lives in Ponte Vedra
• 1:03:15
  where I used to live last year and you know, but they, he lived
• 1:03:20
  it like that. He never went for the big money.
• 1:03:22
  You never one for the flash. He was driving a Rob Ford,
• 1:03:27
  Toyota and I'm driving this fancy car, you know, recruiting,
• 1:03:30
  you know how it is and I'm like, Greg you have a free car, it's
• 1:03:35
  not like you're right, you're right.
• 1:03:36
  They the dealership is giving it like you sponsored by.
• 1:03:40
  This big. He's like Tetris why?
• 1:03:43
  Hmm. Plus I said, is it because your
• 1:03:46
  Scottish origin and you're stingy you don't want to pay
• 1:03:48
  gasps. You know, I was pulling his leg
• 1:03:51
  he said, now you don't get it. Do you he said is not about the
• 1:03:55
  flash is not about and this is a guy that led.
• 1:03:58
  He's the guy that I'm responsible for Georgia's
• 1:04:00
  national champions, right? He left the year before they
• 1:04:04
  want. So he build all that.
• 1:04:06
  So that goes back to what you said earlier about.
• 1:04:10
  How do you balance the humility with the big, you know, powerful
• 1:04:14
  confident in right? No.
• 1:04:16
  So to me that's probably the best example is amazing.
• 1:04:20
  Yeah, wow. So, you know, it's different
• 1:04:23
  being a head coach, as an assistant coach and you know
• 1:04:26
  that now. But you didn't know that as an
• 1:04:29
  assistant coach, as you were transitioning transforming
• 1:04:33
  through Georgia, did you want to be a head coach?
• 1:04:37
  And then the part two of that is, of course, once you got the
• 1:04:39
  head coaching job, Were you ready for it?
• 1:04:42
  Actually? I wasn't looking to be a head
• 1:04:45
  coach and You're gonna laugh at this.
• 1:04:47
  But I was interviewing for a job at USC with the current director
• 1:04:52
  of Georgia. Yeah, Carol.
• 1:04:55
  Yeah. So Carol and I were talking
• 1:04:58
  about and I was actually considering and because I hate
• 1:05:02
  that's it's like going back home.
• 1:05:04
  Same, whether it's on the California, you know, I was
• 1:05:07
  loving every minute of it and and While I was gone, you know
• 1:05:12
  the the position open a Georgia like I was completely unaware of
• 1:05:17
  what's going on. So I go back and in three days I
• 1:05:21
  was offered the head coaching job at Georgia outside.
• 1:05:25
  But in Greg asked me said, are you ready for it?
• 1:05:27
  Do you want this? Like do you want this to?
• 1:05:29
  Because, you know, I was very lucky and fortunate to have won
• 1:05:33
  a few. I think three assistant National
• 1:05:36
  coach of the year. So, Greg, Greg is a guy.
• 1:05:40
  The idea of the time like he pays attention to everything,
• 1:05:43
  everything like he knows all the assistant coaches in the country
• 1:05:47
  like he's one of these ladies that knows every Sports staffs.
• 1:05:51
  Yes, he's very good at that. So as I Greg, I, you know, I
• 1:05:56
  think I'm I mean, I've been here for seven years.
• 1:05:59
  I mean, I want to make a move and, you know, I want to, I want
• 1:06:02
  to go to a place that, you know, I really wasn't crazy about
• 1:06:07
  being a head coach, but I wouldn't say no, if you're all
• 1:06:09
  For a head coaching job but I wasn't really reaching for it,
• 1:06:13
  you know, and I come back and and I was hope for the job and I
• 1:06:19
  accepted it and, you know, next thing, led to another.
• 1:06:23
  And again, that's another kind of show of your where your ego
• 1:06:27
  and humility is because, you know, a lot of people, they have
• 1:06:31
  no problem telling me even right here on the podcast, they know
• 1:06:33
  they're being recorded and thousands of people going to
• 1:06:35
  listen to this. No problem.
• 1:06:36
  Tell ya. I wanted to be a head coach.
• 1:06:38
  They can't really Explain it terribly.
• 1:06:42
  Well most of them say they want to be the head coach because
• 1:06:44
  they wanted to lead and I believe that 100% some people
• 1:06:48
  want to be the head coach because they want to be the
• 1:06:49
  boss. Hmm and they don't remember that
• 1:06:51
  the other side of it comes of of responsibility and I'm missing a
• 1:06:57
  word here but you know your the buck stops with you you know
• 1:07:01
  it's good or bad and sometimes it's bad, right?
• 1:07:04
  You and the hand you were like, you know I wouldn't turn it down
• 1:07:07
  but I just want to coach and Coach well, and And have a
• 1:07:10
  program doing that direction. Yes, the leading part that I
• 1:07:13
  like a lot. Clearly, you know, you lead your
• 1:07:16
  own group, like I said earlier your head coach of your own
• 1:07:19
  group but I, you know, I was, I knew he was going to come, but I
• 1:07:24
  was about 38 at the time and I was like, yeah, I like to be a
• 1:07:29
  head coach before I turn 40 was just like a like a silent gold.
• 1:07:33
  I had in my head, but at the same time you know, I think I
• 1:07:37
  can do a lot more as, you know. To be the best jobs in combining
• 1:07:41
  his coaching the country, and I've done it.
• 1:07:44
  And in a way the time and I was like, yeah, I know he's gonna
• 1:07:50
  come sooner or later. So I wasn't really pressuring it
• 1:07:53
  even after I left Georgia. I mean, I consider going back as
• 1:07:56
  an assistant, just enjoy coaching and just do my thing.
• 1:07:59
  And, you know, I talked to actually people about being an
• 1:08:02
  assistant and going back to that.
• 1:08:05
  But to me, I'ma just like Mouse is and Pat Henry, Ian and caryn
• 1:08:11
  and all the great accomplished National Championship level
• 1:08:13
  coaches. These are coaching head coaches,
• 1:08:17
  like, they're actively coach, right?
• 1:08:19
  So to me, I would never become the director without coaching.
• 1:08:24
  I would never do that, might as well be an administrator.
• 1:08:26
  Why are you just? I mean?
• 1:08:28
  What is your purpose? You got to leave by lead, by
• 1:08:31
  example that just might very strong opinion about leading a
• 1:08:34
  team, you've got to be an active coach, so you can compete with
• 1:08:38
  your coaches you want them to Pete, you want him to be like,
• 1:08:41
  okay, bring me the best athlete. I'll give you the money, and
• 1:08:45
  let's go to work and compete and see who's going to accomplish
• 1:08:48
  the best and I'll reward you if you do it.
• 1:08:51
  So to me, that's why I do that to be the director of the head
• 1:08:57
  coach, but I would never give up the actual coaching those events
• 1:09:02
  that I enjoy coach. There's only 14 people in this
• 1:09:07
  world who get to call themselves ahead.
• 1:09:09
  SEC, coach soon-to-be, 16, Texas and Oklahoma.
• 1:09:15
  What was one of the biggest challenges?
• 1:09:17
  So you go from the office down here to the office in the
• 1:09:20
  corner. Head coach gets in front of the
• 1:09:23
  word head gets in from the coach no more assistant.
• 1:09:25
  Everybody's looking to you now. Hey what do you want to do
• 1:09:28
  scholarship? A lot of and hey, what do you do
• 1:09:29
  with scheduling? You want to do budgeting Etc.
• 1:09:32
  What was one of the biggest challenges that maybe you just
• 1:09:34
  didn't see coming that you had to deal with?
• 1:09:38
  Yeah, it's the fact that You know, you hold people
• 1:09:41
  accountable in different way where before?
• 1:09:44
  Yeah, it's like, I mean we've had a coach.
• 1:09:47
  I'm not gonna name names or anything like that that you
• 1:09:49
  know, they come in while I was an assistant to come in and say,
• 1:09:52
  Hey, you know, this, this, this, this female Sprinter, or I don't
• 1:09:58
  remember it was Springer throw or something like that, like,
• 1:10:00
  they are looking at us. We're their number one choice
• 1:10:04
  behind this and this cool. And then, I'm like, how are we
• 1:10:08
  number one if we're behind? And so, but then, when you say
• 1:10:11
  that's an assistant, you're thrown out the window.
• 1:10:14
  But if you say it as a head coach, like you hold somebody
• 1:10:19
  accountable. Like hey before you say that
• 1:10:22
  think twice or have like more concrete.
• 1:10:25
  So and I'm not, you know what, you call like a hard-ass or
• 1:10:29
  whatever, but I am going to be very transparent and honest.
• 1:10:33
  It's like, like I'll see. I will tell you a tea, you know.
• 1:10:36
  One of my all-time favorite coaches.
• 1:10:40
  Like I ain't she could take as I hate this and this recruiter.
• 1:10:44
  No good. Like you, if you want to be
• 1:10:45
  great, you can fight for this like you got to do this.
• 1:10:49
  And the next thing, you know, I mean, she's the one that brought
• 1:10:53
  Matthew bowling it, if it wasn't for Athea, Thomas, Matthew
• 1:10:56
  bowling would not be a Georgia. I don't care what people think,
• 1:11:01
  she's the one even myself. When she brought his name to me,
• 1:11:04
  I was like, are you sure? 46:9.
• 1:11:07
  I think it was here on the 400 was and he great.
• 1:11:09
  But no, he's a Petra's. This kid is going to be good and
• 1:11:14
  next thing, you know is the most marketable kid in the NCAA.
• 1:11:18
  It's all 80 wasn't Petros, it was in Georgia was all like tea.
• 1:11:21
  So that's she took the challenge and took him to the next level.
• 1:11:28
  And you know, she she leaves, she's a leader and not just her,
• 1:11:32
  but all a lot of the assistants actually Doubt, you know,
• 1:11:36
  because there's a lot of assistance and I please that
• 1:11:39
  didn't work out well for me or I didn't work out for them either
• 1:11:43
  because if you don't have the same mindset it just not going
• 1:11:47
  to work. You know, that doesn't mean
• 1:11:48
  they're bad, you know. It just it just a different way.
• 1:11:52
  So that's I think the head that comes before the coach Mo boils
• 1:11:58
  down to can you hold people accountable and get them to
• 1:12:02
  believing what you have to offer.
• 1:12:05
  Because in the end of The day, you're going to get rings.
• 1:12:07
  If you win, y'all going to get the bonuses, y'all going to get
• 1:12:10
  all that? And and the ones that really
• 1:12:14
  took that challenge they were rewarded.
• 1:12:17
  Yeah, that's an interesting example.
• 1:12:18
  You gave their about bowling and Althea.
• 1:12:21
  And by the way, Althea is a gill connections.
• 1:12:24
  Alum, go search, the app that you're using right now and go
• 1:12:27
  listen to her podcast. It's she's amazing.
• 1:12:29
  But I thought there were several kind of parts to parse out
• 1:12:32
  there. One is that, you know, Matthew
• 1:12:35
  everyone knows. You now, of course, and
• 1:12:37
  deservedly. So you're right for SEC.
• 1:12:39
  He was kind of, you know, okay. You know what?
• 1:12:42
  At that point, right? But she had the conviction to
• 1:12:45
  stay with it. I thought that was interesting,
• 1:12:46
  how you pointed it out, but then also you're the head coach.
• 1:12:49
  You easily can squash it. You could have easily said, look
• 1:12:53
  80 move on. Go find the 45-point kids.
• 1:12:57
  That's that's what we, let's get rid of this kid from Texas.
• 1:13:00
  Is this is not it, but instead you trusted her, you're like,
• 1:13:04
  okay, you're proving that you're putting the Acts out there.
• 1:13:07
  You have conviction, okay, I'll trust you and, of course, it
• 1:13:10
  worked out. And sometimes, you know, that
• 1:13:11
  doesn't mean it's going to work out.
• 1:13:12
  Sometimes it doesn't work out, but that you had the ability to
• 1:13:15
  say, okay, my assistant is putting in the work.
• 1:13:18
  I trust her I've got to show her that I trust her.
• 1:13:22
  Okay let's let's go. Let's go get them and then he
• 1:13:24
  did and of course you know history writes itself at that
• 1:13:27
  point. Yeah.
• 1:13:27
  And she has proven herself with Lena are being and I mean she
• 1:13:30
  got me in her run 49 8. Yeah, I mean that's her best.
• 1:13:34
  I mean she's Solidified and developed Elijah Godwin.
• 1:13:39
  I mean, all these things, all these kids you see on Georgia
• 1:13:42
  roster right now on the track. I mean that's all 80 recruiting
• 1:13:46
  in developing. And to me, I take a lot of pride
• 1:13:49
  in that in developing, you know, a Matthew bowling exploded.
• 1:13:53
  But then he still came in and warn the 200 title is not just
• 1:13:58
  signing him but developing him to, to me that's a, that's an
• 1:14:03
  elite coach, that's a very high-level coach that That gets
• 1:14:06
  it, she doesn't or he/she, whatever don't bother with
• 1:14:10
  anything, but that, that's what I'm doing.
• 1:14:12
  They don't care what people think or say this is all I'm
• 1:14:14
  going to do. Instead of some other coaches
• 1:14:18
  have had that they get caught up with, they want to be liked,
• 1:14:21
  they just want to be liked and they shake hands and kiss babies
• 1:14:24
  and that's all they care about and that's okay.
• 1:14:27
  I mean if that's their prerogative that's that's fine
• 1:14:29
  but I just like the, the hard-working Folks that, you
• 1:14:35
  know, she's doing the same thing as a head coach now, I mean, she
• 1:14:37
  never checked. That's what I really like about
• 1:14:40
  coaches like 80 that they never stopped.
• 1:14:44
  And but they know how to shut down and be a person because
• 1:14:50
  she's good at that too. And to me, I learned from her in
• 1:14:53
  that, in that regard. Because to me, one of the things
• 1:14:57
  that resulted into taking the year off, leaving Georgia On My
• 1:15:01
  Own is because I was so, So I was like borderline burned out
• 1:15:06
  from not taking break and not understanding there's more than
• 1:15:09
  more in life than recruiting a coaching Elite athlete.
• 1:15:13
  So, you know, you learn from your assistance to, but you got
• 1:15:18
  to have the right ones and we all make mistakes.
• 1:15:20
  We all gonna buy. We also going to have that the
• 1:15:22
  good ones that will learn from. And, and maybe down the road,
• 1:15:26
  you might end up working for them.
• 1:15:27
  You never know. You know, before we transition
• 1:15:31
  to the post Georgia, did you When you became head coach and
• 1:15:34
  as you're learning the new road to navigate and you're building
• 1:15:38
  that road, as the head coach, where there anybody any mentors
• 1:15:41
  that you leaned on anybody that you called?
• 1:15:44
  It was just like, hey man, how do you do this?
• 1:15:47
  I'm struggling with X, you seem to kill it with that.
• 1:15:50
  What am I missing? Was there any mentors that you
• 1:15:52
  were kind of able to lean on in the NCAA?
• 1:15:56
  Not really just because I wanted to do things differently and
• 1:15:59
  that's what all, you know, they were, you know, when they see in
• 1:16:02
  the Act of our our 6-year head-coaching stand there.
• 1:16:11
  We I have had three different folks that I talked to one being
• 1:16:15
  my father-in-law and boss at the time.
• 1:16:18
  Soccer coach. He's a guy that every practice
• 1:16:22
  he would sit down right by 67 pages of notes about each
• 1:16:26
  athlete or each player and how they were moving their body
• 1:16:29
  language their behavior everything.
• 1:16:32
  So but that Over the years. I mean you have this invaluable
• 1:16:38
  database, where you can go back and, you know, see how you
• 1:16:41
  handle things or a lot of in a very similar to Leading any
• 1:16:45
  sport really doesn't have to be necessarily soccer.
• 1:16:47
  Then the other guy was Vasily Chromo by arguably the best
• 1:16:50
  coach I've ever had. You coach me personally and he
• 1:16:55
  took me as a very average athlete and really that's who I
• 1:16:59
  credit all my good techniques, you know Russian.
• 1:17:03
  Ian coach where, you know, I got influenced a lot by his coaching
• 1:17:10
  style in the weight room, especially but then how
• 1:17:13
  efficient he was in teaching the technique without doing too
• 1:17:17
  much. So him and then obviously, you
• 1:17:21
  know, the people you have around you that that you learn without
• 1:17:26
  even asking like you, you watch for example, I mean, I observe a
• 1:17:29
  lot clearly miles is a guy that I've watched How he's done
• 1:17:35
  things that he evolved in many ways.
• 1:17:39
  I mean, even, I even took the as simple as how do you travel a
• 1:17:45
  lot of head coaches force, their team to dress up, head to toe,
• 1:17:49
  you gotta look professional and at this and I'm seeing miles in
• 1:17:52
  Florida with their Jordans and their, their, their warm-up
• 1:17:55
  suit. And I'm like, yeah, that's as
• 1:17:58
  simple as that. Why will you have to travel all
• 1:18:00
  tighten up and, you know, uncomfortable, just let them be
• 1:18:04
  comfortable, you know, but look nice at the same time so little
• 1:18:08
  things like that. To me go long ways when I see
• 1:18:11
  and observe, you know, even even conversations with with with
• 1:18:16
  coaches all over the world, you learn so many things, but those
• 1:18:20
  two folks really helped me and the third one really is great.
• 1:18:24
  McGarity. The third even today that I
• 1:18:27
  asked him, you know, I call him and even posed Georgia, you
• 1:18:30
  know, as mad as he was. That I left.
• 1:18:32
  He was really I mean he will not talk to me for a month but you
• 1:18:38
  know, he actually went when when coaches will call him for
• 1:18:42
  reference I you talk back to them about me.
• 1:18:44
  Meaning he's crazy. Like he he got up and left, she
• 1:18:49
  had it all there and he got up and left, you know?
• 1:18:52
  Like he. But he was so honest, that this
• 1:18:55
  ad is really appreciate that. That hey, Petrus is not your
• 1:18:58
  normal. He's not going to leave for
• 1:19:00
  another job. He's going to leave because He
• 1:19:03
  needs to break or something led to that and you know.
• 1:19:07
  But so those three guys completely different.
• 1:19:10
  You have one, right? You know finally low, you know
• 1:19:13
  learning the leadership style I'm taking notes but still
• 1:19:17
  vasilich room of really helped me in in solidifying my training
• 1:19:22
  style and Greg McGarity really a combination of both but really
• 1:19:26
  the NCAA mentorship and how to to become great and and in a
• 1:19:31
  very different way. Not You know, the yelling and
• 1:19:35
  then aggressive part of you have to win.
• 1:19:39
  Why do you have to win? That's what I learned from Greg.
• 1:19:42
  Yeah, I'm interested in. I think mentorship is extremely
• 1:19:45
  important and I've seen it in my coaching career.
• 1:19:48
  I saw it, you know, before in between coaching and Gil, you
• 1:19:51
  know, professional poker player. I saw, I had mentors in
• 1:19:54
  professional poker playing and then here as in the corporate
• 1:19:58
  world, I have mentors. And I've seen coaches, you know.
• 1:20:00
  Again, you know, I'm so blessed. I am the guy that shakes hands
• 1:20:03
  and kiss babies. You got to learn to do that.
• 1:20:05
  You can either coach and do that.
• 1:20:06
  You got to earn the right to do that in my kind of job.
• 1:20:09
  But I talked to coaches, you know, every day all day 24/7 and
• 1:20:13
  I see the role and power of a mentor.
• 1:20:17
  And so, you know, I'm always encouraging assistant, coaches.
• 1:20:20
  Hey, find the head coach. If you want to become a head
• 1:20:22
  coach, find a head coach to become a mentor and it's and
• 1:20:25
  that's not just, you know, go pick one in.
• 1:20:27
  Make them a new Mentor, it's got to be the right fit and feel and
• 1:20:30
  comfort but I wonder and that's why To that question.
• 1:20:34
  I worry about coaches, that become a head coach in the SEC
• 1:20:39
  for the first time and I shouldn't say SEC power 5
• 1:20:43
  because there's so much competitiveness among the power
• 1:20:47
  5. We're all trying to eat from the
• 1:20:49
  same small pie. There's only one national
• 1:20:52
  championship trophy given out at championships, right?
• 1:20:56
  So I like, I was wondering, I was like, man.
• 1:20:58
  You know, Petrus becomes the head coach of Georgia.
• 1:20:59
  Can you really call Mouse? And be like, hey now, so help me
• 1:21:02
  out and mouse. And mouse is such a great guy.
• 1:21:04
  He probably would, but there's just a little bit of like, you
• 1:21:07
  know, Petra's I can't give you the all of it.
• 1:21:10
  Yeah, you're gonna come beat me and take my jaw, you know, I
• 1:21:14
  just felt like, that would be kind of hard and so, I
• 1:21:16
  appreciate you, you know, laying out those different kind of
• 1:21:18
  mentors and the different roles that each one of those mentors
• 1:21:22
  play. Not just this General Mentor,
• 1:21:24
  like, hey, this one was specific here.
• 1:21:25
  This one was specific here. I appreciate that.
• 1:21:28
  So you mentioned, use the b word burnout and it's really
• 1:21:32
  interesting. I'm reading and study in right
• 1:21:35
  now, something called the six working Geniuses and it talks
• 1:21:39
  about the six parts of work. And work is our work.
• 1:21:43
  Our profession, our work at home as husbands and wives planning
• 1:21:47
  vacations and families, and things like that.
• 1:21:49
  And it talks about a little bit, like the introvert, extrovert
• 1:21:53
  type of thing, you know. Introverts, you know, being out
• 1:21:55
  in the u.s. tfcc, you convention takes energy from them.
• 1:22:00
  But for extroverts, it gives us energy.
• 1:22:02
  It's a little bit like That it's kind of like what skills has God
• 1:22:06
  given you that give you energy and so boy, make you do more of
• 1:22:10
  that. And then there's things that
• 1:22:11
  just pull, you're just not good at.
• 1:22:12
  You're not wired for it. And, you know it, the, the guy
• 1:22:17
  Patrick Lencioni is the, the author of this book and this
• 1:22:20
  assessment, he's amazed. He did the ideal team player,
• 1:22:22
  the five dysfunctions of a team. He's just an amazing product
• 1:22:27
  productivity and work type of author and thinker.
• 1:22:30
  But he talked about the word burnout and he's like, you know,
• 1:22:32
  we Use the word burnout and we kind of give the analogy a lot
• 1:22:35
  of times of a car running out of gas, right?
• 1:22:38
  And with burnout, we say, oh you need to take time off.
• 1:22:41
  When you run out of gas in a car, pull it to the side of the
• 1:22:43
  road doesn't make it go. You have to give a fuel and that
• 1:22:47
  actually burnout is probably more of you were doing too many
• 1:22:51
  things spending too much time in those activities that take
• 1:22:54
  energy from you. Instead of actually giving you
• 1:22:56
  more work, you get more done. If you're doing it in your
• 1:23:00
  strengths and your competencies so, real quick, shoutout I'd
• 1:23:03
  encourage you to Google six working Geniuses and go.
• 1:23:06
  Look at that. We're working on that right now
• 1:23:08
  internally. But you used the word burnout.
• 1:23:10
  So, talk to us about Georgia and the transition.
• 1:23:14
  And where'd you go? What you do, and why did you do
• 1:23:17
  well? That's I mean, that's something
• 1:23:19
  that even today. People ask me, why did you
• 1:23:22
  leave? I mean, you guys were killing
• 1:23:24
  it. Like you warned and top, three,
• 1:23:27
  consistently and, and, and I think you said it while you're
• 1:23:31
  giving me the abstract of the And it's and it's point when you
• 1:23:37
  spend your energy or part of your energy in dealing or not
• 1:23:41
  dealing, but trying to do things that suck your energy, it will
• 1:23:45
  hurt where you're good at and what I was doing that it really
• 1:23:50
  crushed me and really absorb my energy is trying to improve the
• 1:23:55
  facilities and that's the elephant in the room.
• 1:23:58
  That's what you know, everybody could not like comprehend.
• 1:24:03
  Petra's left, he got fired. He did this.
• 1:24:05
  He did that. I might, why don't you guys
• 1:24:07
  understand that? This is not all about money.
• 1:24:09
  I was all for a big contract. It's public.
• 1:24:11
  You can go see if you can talk to the ad, really good friend of
• 1:24:14
  mine. Josh Brookes great guy, amazing
• 1:24:16
  leader. The thing is, when you're trying
• 1:24:21
  to in, I really want an inter-facility, I'm not gonna
• 1:24:25
  lie to you, I really felt for that really tried, you know the
• 1:24:29
  ades everybody wanted that but then you know it's beyond
• 1:24:33
  Control sometimes when a track coach is demanding or over years
• 1:24:38
  trying to like, you know, with different ways.
• 1:24:42
  You know, I even brought folks that were willing to give
• 1:24:45
  millions and you're still going nowhere.
• 1:24:49
  It's really frustrating. And you do, you know, Georgia
• 1:24:53
  has given me the chance to be who I am today.
• 1:24:55
  I mean, there's no question about it.
• 1:24:57
  I'll always be grateful to them. You know, my kids walk for the
• 1:25:02
  first Plays that. I mean, it just, it's so much
• 1:25:05
  more than just a paycheck. And, and, and the paycheck was
• 1:25:09
  big. I was very well compensated.
• 1:25:11
  There, that's a plays that really took care of me and my
• 1:25:16
  family, and my staff and everybody and best in the
• 1:25:19
  country hands down. I just couldn't get in again.
• 1:25:25
  Maybe I wasn't good enough, good enough.
• 1:25:27
  Maybe that was not my strong suit to find a way to get that
• 1:25:32
  in their Built and it got to a point.
• 1:25:35
  I was so frustrating. So like you would just add a man
• 1:25:37
  just completely dead and I could just quit in.
• 1:25:40
  There was not a wall that Petra is going to just go through the
• 1:25:43
  wall. He like other days are other
• 1:25:45
  times get things he wanted or whatever it just wasn't going
• 1:25:48
  anywhere and it for me was important for other coaches.
• 1:25:53
  I'm not going to name names or anything like that.
• 1:25:55
  The salaries most important hey including some of my closest
• 1:26:00
  Circle relatives. Collect a paycheck and shut up.
• 1:26:04
  Like, you're making all this money.
• 1:26:05
  What are you doing? Like, and talking to my mentors
• 1:26:08
  about it? Because that was a two-year.
• 1:26:09
  It wasn't a quick reaction, it was 2020 that I started thinking
• 1:26:14
  about this and had discussions with my family and mentors and
• 1:26:19
  all that. Like, it didn't happen
• 1:26:21
  overnight. But when I came to that decision
• 1:26:24
  and handed my resignation betcha, basically, in February
• 1:26:27
  of 2021, nobody knew we still finished third in the Country,
• 1:26:32
  both men and women. So I was doing my job, my
• 1:26:35
  assistants doing great job and everything.
• 1:26:39
  I just couldn't find a way to make peace with it.
• 1:26:45
  Maybe it's my fault hundred percent.
• 1:26:46
  Maybe I'm just on this stubborn guys and and and maybe you know
• 1:26:51
  that got me so frustrated where it was a big mistake time will
• 1:26:54
  tell, you know. But at that time over two years
• 1:26:57
  of me like working with the try to make peace with it.
• 1:27:00
  I just couldn't make peace with it.
• 1:27:02
  Like you know, you want to sign this big-time recruit and you're
• 1:27:05
  trying and you're trying and you're trying and sometimes you
• 1:27:07
  get get them. But when you don't, you can't
• 1:27:10
  make peace with him. And why would why would they go
• 1:27:13
  be trained by me? Like, I'm the best.
• 1:27:16
  Maybe you're not fast enough for them.
• 1:27:19
  So, I just couldn't, I just couldn't make peace with that,
• 1:27:22
  and that's why I, it made me, you know, take that step.
• 1:27:26
  And now I never said, I'm retiring from the NCAA.
• 1:27:29
  I said I'm going to take a year off went to Florida, spend a
• 1:27:34
  year there, you know, in our beach home, a little bitty house
• 1:27:38
  about a mile from the water. You know, it was going back
• 1:27:43
  thinking about it now. It was probably the best thing
• 1:27:45
  I've ever done. Just the fact that now I didn't
• 1:27:50
  stop coaching. I've still coaching some
• 1:27:52
  professionals, they are some good ones with, you know, we end
• 1:27:54
  up getting some more on Metals, Kendall Williams and gerd doing
• 1:27:58
  what he did, but it was so much Better knowing that I don't have
• 1:28:05
  to go fight for facilities. I don't have to and again it's
• 1:28:08
  not Petra's versus Georgia. No.
• 1:28:11
  It's Petros versus Petros, you know, Petra's versus coach Capri
• 1:28:16
  on. Oh, you know, it's like one of
• 1:28:17
  those things then it was an internal fight where I want to
• 1:28:20
  provide for my kids for my team. Like I didn't want the facility
• 1:28:25
  for me to go there and have coffee outside of the elements
• 1:28:28
  because he does get cold there so he does and It was for me to
• 1:28:33
  have more viable sessions and in have my own peace and all that,
• 1:28:39
  that's what I wanted. So, but I always wanted to come
• 1:28:44
  back to the NCAA because that's what my talent is.
• 1:28:47
  I think that's where my, you know, and I interview for a big
• 1:28:51
  prominent job that I didn't get. And the idea that school when I
• 1:28:56
  took the job at Illinois, I finish second and that's my job
• 1:29:00
  and know the ad called me and he said, I'm glad you you're back
• 1:29:04
  and that's a competitor. Wow, he said you are.
• 1:29:07
  This is your call. Like, you should stay in this
• 1:29:09
  because you make everybody better.
• 1:29:12
  You make yourself better. So for me that was very
• 1:29:15
  encouraging. Ya hear that from him?
• 1:29:17
  And when Illinois and I started talking I was like they have
• 1:29:23
  everything I need, you know, it's not about money.
• 1:29:26
  This move. This everything is not about
• 1:29:28
  money, but I have plenty, I have Off to support my family too and
• 1:29:36
  it doesn't have to be these extravagant you know, lifestyle
• 1:29:40
  or whatever which is fine for some people.
• 1:29:42
  But for me it just doesn't. I just need to have what I need
• 1:29:45
  to have. You know, I'm going to have a
• 1:29:49
  nice car. I'm going to have a decent house
• 1:29:51
  but I'm not gonna, you know, take it to the next level just
• 1:29:54
  to prove a point, you know, and an amazing garage.
• 1:29:57
  That's part of yes? What?
• 1:29:58
  Yes, have that. Yeah, and a lot of that is
• 1:30:02
  Thankful to Great relationships. I've had invite folks that like
• 1:30:06
  yourself, you know, help me out and, and your company and all
• 1:30:10
  that. But it's important to me to have
• 1:30:14
  practicality and functionality. Not flash.
• 1:30:19
  There's a big difference and so Illinois, he really had exactly
• 1:30:24
  what I needed and that's why I came back.
• 1:30:27
  Well want to give a quick shout-out because you mentioned
• 1:30:29
  you were down in Jacksonville which I mean come on.
• 1:30:31
  That's a pretty good. Place to go take a year
• 1:30:33
  sabbatical if you will but you were working on your sabbatical.
• 1:30:36
  Yeah but I gotta give a shout out.
• 1:30:38
  You were at Episcopal High School there as well which you
• 1:30:41
  know, I was that was one of the first one of the first first 10
• 1:30:44
  or so big facilities that I ever did was there.
• 1:30:47
  There's their program down there and remember that with that
• 1:30:50
  weight room that shed, big shit. But you know, yeah.
• 1:30:53
  I just love the ad and the track coach at the time, just it's a
• 1:30:56
  great place. So shout out to Episcopal High
• 1:30:58
  School who, you know, had you there and you know they got a
• 1:31:01
  lot of benefits. It from in there, as well.
• 1:31:03
  Now, many high schools had a guy of your caliber helping out with
• 1:31:07
  strength conditioning for all their Sports.
• 1:31:09
  Those are six and one baby. Is that right?
• 1:31:12
  Oh well yeah, that's awesome. So why Illinois and what I mean
• 1:31:16
  by that is you know you know, full disclosure for anybody who
• 1:31:19
  doesn't know, Gil Athletics, you know, sort were named after
• 1:31:22
  Harry Gill. Who was the head coach at
• 1:31:24
  University of Illinois way back in the day, we've been around
• 1:31:27
  since 1918. So you know our roots are right
• 1:31:29
  here in Champaign, Illinois. I mean 90% of our people
• 1:31:33
  graduated from Illinois. And my wife is an Illinois,
• 1:31:35
  grad. I mean, we are deeply entrenched
• 1:31:38
  with the university and with the city.
• 1:31:40
  So, when I say why Illinois, I mean, that in the sense of you
• 1:31:44
  had a, you have options. You always have a used,
• 1:31:46
  specifically always have options.
• 1:31:48
  I think you nailed it. When he talks about that ad,
• 1:31:51
  calling you to congratulate you, because that person did not have
• 1:31:54
  to do that. You, you were a byproduct at
• 1:31:56
  that point to them, they had their person who needs to call
• 1:31:59
  Petra, who needs to call the person?
• 1:32:00
  They disappointed and said no to it.
• 1:32:02
  Say hey, congratulations man. That's this is where you belong.
• 1:32:04
  So shout out to that person. But why Illinois?
• 1:32:07
  What attracted you to come here? It's you're gonna get all four
• 1:32:11
  seasons. Yeah, I know that.
• 1:32:14
  Yeah, there will aware of that. Um clearly Illinois is just like
• 1:32:19
  Georgia it reminds me a lot of Georgia when I first got there
• 1:32:22
  in 2008 you know thanks for a little bit behind teams were not
• 1:32:27
  really taking over the world per se but Had Administration some
• 1:32:35
  leadership that, you know, that with the proper coaching program
• 1:32:40
  recruiting and it is a par 5. It is, it is a big school is
• 1:32:45
  still big tan. I mean, Big 10.
• 1:32:46
  Right now? Financially has nothing to shy
• 1:32:50
  away from the SEC, really? If the agency is really this big
• 1:32:54
  thing, we we think it is for me, those things don't mean
• 1:32:57
  anything. I absolutely nothing I'll be the
• 1:33:00
  exact same coach. I mean, I I looked at schools
• 1:33:03
  meet Majors, I looked at, I mean, I interviewed a places I
• 1:33:07
  have absolutely no problem if they had what I wanted and the
• 1:33:11
  teller was not it. I would I would take him that no
• 1:33:14
  problem because my biggest thing and called it a, you know, you
• 1:33:21
  know, pet peeper some or or a strong suit for others.
• 1:33:25
  I want to, I Want To Make History.
• 1:33:28
  I want to make, I want to win win, you're not supposed to win.
• 1:33:32
  You know, we made Georgia where you supposed to win, but
• 1:33:36
  Georgia, the time was not supposed to win.
• 1:33:38
  They were not supposed to be like, what is Georgia doing
• 1:33:41
  around. You know, the big Power houses
• 1:33:43
  that we in every year. Why are you up there?
• 1:33:45
  You shouldn't be. There you don't belong now.
• 1:33:47
  Georgia suppose, I mean, you are George, are you supposed to win
• 1:33:51
  and and, and it's not because of me is because the place was
• 1:33:54
  always like that, we just needed to, you know, set it on fire a
• 1:33:57
  little bit and and they're gonna they're gonna win a lot more.
• 1:34:00
  They're going to win before. Before and after pictures, but I
• 1:34:05
  want it to be there when hopefully Illinois does the same
• 1:34:11
  thing. And now what I like more about
• 1:34:15
  Illinois coming in as opposed to coming into different places
• 1:34:19
  that I worked is the fact that they have a nice indoor
• 1:34:22
  facility, they have a very nice, the facility.
• 1:34:24
  I mean people I have no clue and I'm not gonna lie to you until I
• 1:34:28
  visited how great this place is. One of the biggest campuses
• 1:34:33
  55-plus thousand students, the support.
• 1:34:37
  Oh my goodness, like I never, I never even met a track-and-field
• 1:34:43
  booster, until I came to Italy known.
• 1:34:45
  And I was a Georgia for 13 years, like, nobody will come
• 1:34:49
  out and say, I'll give a seven-figure the nation to build
• 1:34:53
  a track. Never, I was not, I was not
• 1:34:56
  like, I mean, and I met this folks and they're so passionate,
• 1:35:02
  you know, going back to even Harry Gil, you know, the first
• 1:35:06
  ever coach to win a National Title in the NCAA was here in
• 1:35:10
  Illinois. You know, how passionate they
• 1:35:13
  say athletes or former athletes, they're like in their 70s and
• 1:35:16
  80s now about coaches or what they've done here.
• 1:35:20
  They all come together and the class of 77, I believe they I
• 1:35:25
  met them all the other day and they owner.
• 1:35:28
  They're late Coach Gary when a key you know they love that guy
• 1:35:32
  so much. I want to be that guy.
• 1:35:34
  I want to be the person, we're all these guys come back to be
• 1:35:38
  like this guy made me the best version of myself.
• 1:35:42
  I want all these Olympic medals and all that and then you've had
• 1:35:46
  athletes, like Tanja. Beautiful Bailey, an amazing
• 1:35:48
  coach now come out of this place coach at this place.
• 1:35:52
  So I like, I like playing chess and you know, if every
• 1:35:56
  accomplished Chess player when they are in a match.
• 1:36:00
  You know their biggest gift is seeing Beyond two moves at a
• 1:36:04
  time and and I'm not I'm not a great chess player, I love
• 1:36:10
  playing chess. I so I can see that if we were
• 1:36:15
  to look to most ahead that Illinois has that they has that
• 1:36:18
  factor and and we were very fortunate to sign some folks to
• 1:36:22
  come meet year that they could make a big difference.
• 1:36:27
  But that will be, hopefully the beginning of more Elite athletes
• 1:36:32
  to come in. And look at it, look at this
• 1:36:33
  place because it's as good as any like, you know, folks talk
• 1:36:39
  about the location and I try to to turn it into a positive your
• 1:36:44
  between three large CDs. You.
• 1:36:47
  No one being the third largest cities in the US with the ni L
• 1:36:51
  and all these resources. You get.
• 1:36:52
  Now, you have all this support, all these networking right here
• 1:36:57
  in your backyard. Yard, you have an amazing
• 1:36:58
  coaching staff, which I don't even know what I mean.
• 1:37:01
  I can't even I pinch you myself for the folks.
• 1:37:04
  I was fortunate to attract, you have everything you need.
• 1:37:10
  So why not us, why does it have to be somebody else?
• 1:37:13
  So, I like to see Lee knowing getting up there and, and that
• 1:37:17
  was part of my decision coming here because I knew wasn't easy
• 1:37:22
  and per se, a little bit to myself that, can you do it at
• 1:37:27
  this? Right, right?
• 1:37:28
  You did it on Georgia King? You.
• 1:37:30
  Can you do it? If you can, it's a motivation
• 1:37:32
  where it's motivation is the sauce of life or the salsa or
• 1:37:37
  whatever you want to call it. If you're not motivated to have
• 1:37:41
  that challenge to keep you going, you going to deep fry
• 1:37:44
  yourself and you're going to be a nobody.
• 1:37:47
  So for me that was my, that secret sauce that really needed
• 1:37:53
  to give me that extra push. And that motivation, I don't
• 1:37:56
  care what people say that. That.
• 1:37:58
  Why did you go there? Why did you go to a sexier place
• 1:38:01
  or whatever? This is a sexy place to me.
• 1:38:03
  That's what appeals to me. And and I want to get it done.
• 1:38:06
  And and, and when I see coaches taking and go back to 80, you
• 1:38:12
  know, 80 could have waited and taking, you know, more and I bet
• 1:38:16
  you she had opportunities, but you took a chance on vanity
• 1:38:19
  because you're not supposed to win there and I think you will.
• 1:38:23
  Yeah, you know, I can tell you spent many, many years in the
• 1:38:26
  southeast Of America because you talked about the sauce of life.
• 1:38:30
  You talked about deep frying, I was like oh yeah you know you
• 1:38:33
  spent some time down down and I were you but I hear you you know
• 1:38:37
  it's interesting. I don't have permission to tell
• 1:38:40
  the story so I won't tell the who the person is but a deep
• 1:38:43
  deep mentor of mine, a former Big Ten head coach.
• 1:38:47
  Once told me that the only other job that they would take is
• 1:38:51
  Illinois because of all the advantages Illinois.
• 1:38:54
  Has you know, many many people have said for a long time.
• 1:38:57
  If you Illinois would just get a border around the state of
• 1:39:01
  Illinois, because Illinois is one of the top five, six, seven
• 1:39:03
  states for high school track and field.
• 1:39:05
  It's quite amazing. You don't have a rival School in
• 1:39:09
  state, right? So you know, Purdue has Indiana.
• 1:39:13
  Iowa has Iowa State, you know, you get a recruit against people
• 1:39:15
  grow up loving. You have Northwestern who
• 1:39:17
  doesn't have a truck program, which needs to change, by the
• 1:39:19
  way. But you have such a great state.
• 1:39:23
  You are also known as an international recruiter partly
• 1:39:26
  because of your own Roots of where you came from.
• 1:39:29
  Do you have plans that you and the staff have a plan to border
• 1:39:33
  around Illinois? Or does it go?
• 1:39:35
  Or is that not the first priority?
• 1:39:37
  And there's, there's a bigger priority there?
• 1:39:39
  No, it is. It is the first priority because
• 1:39:43
  you have to log in your backyard, you know?
• 1:39:46
  It's like, you know, I'm looking to get a fans backyard now to
• 1:39:52
  fans my doberman because I don't want my daughter meant to run
• 1:39:55
  around to the neighborhood. And we have a lot of Dobermans
• 1:39:58
  in the state of Illinois. So we have to keep that fans.
• 1:40:02
  But the problem is with Illinois's that we have to prove
• 1:40:05
  to the elite athletes of Illinois, out of high school
• 1:40:10
  that don't look elsewhere. I mean we're as good or better
• 1:40:13
  than these choices because that was lost, you know, past your
• 1:40:17
  ears. Yeah, I think Tanya, Tanya might
• 1:40:20
  have been the last one that actually, you know, all her
• 1:40:22
  program right now, they're all from around here, actually
• 1:40:26
  Spencer. And all these great athletes.
• 1:40:27
  She's coaching she got him and develop them and we want to do
• 1:40:32
  the same thing in a way where but they got to buy in where
• 1:40:36
  unfortunately we have to or fortunately.
• 1:40:39
  We have to start with some foreign transfers coming in
• 1:40:42
  media, which that's what we did. And start making some noise
• 1:40:47
  where we catch their attention because let's be honest, we
• 1:40:50
  can't give a full scholarship to every single person because
• 1:40:53
  that's what is required by every single one of this semi My
• 1:40:57
  talented athletes, that could be zags.
• 1:41:01
  IMac is another great example. Yeah, it's at the castle, you
• 1:41:04
  know, from Chicago area, you know, he went to Wisconsin.
• 1:41:08
  That's a guy that I would love. Love to have had in college, but
• 1:41:12
  my body native is an amazing coach was smart enough, seen it
• 1:41:16
  got it developed it and made him a we're medalist, you know, in
• 1:41:21
  the decathlon. So but we have to show to these
• 1:41:25
  kids that hey Look at us because it goes both ways is not like us
• 1:41:31
  so we brought back or we're bringing.
• 1:41:33
  I don't know if you was here before but we brought the Junior
• 1:41:36
  Day. We have two Junior days every
• 1:41:38
  year where we going to have all these Juniors or younger come
• 1:41:41
  out and we talk to them and show them around.
• 1:41:43
  And so we just got a spark the interest to show them.
• 1:41:47
  Hey we have a tremendous coaching staff.
• 1:41:49
  Look at this facilities. I mean academically, this is a
• 1:41:53
  top 15, top 13 plays in the country.
• 1:41:56
  We have Have one of the best program business programs and to
• 1:42:01
  preneur ship programming in the world.
• 1:42:04
  I mean, why, why are you not looking at it?
• 1:42:06
  I mean, it's a vibrant place. You got folks from all over the
• 1:42:10
  world want to come here. So you have people all the way
• 1:42:13
  from Asia come out here to get this education and that's in
• 1:42:17
  your backyard. Why would you want to go
• 1:42:18
  somewhere else? Because his his guard leader is
• 1:42:21
  God. I don't know what it is, but
• 1:42:22
  we're gonna change that. And and I know the coaches I
• 1:42:26
  mean I've And a nice interview with the local.
• 1:42:29
  My split and these guys are love the place.
• 1:42:32
  I mean, they, they're eager to to have the only known kids stay
• 1:42:36
  in Illinois. And and as much as I want to
• 1:42:40
  give everybody a full ride, we got to be selective and we got
• 1:42:43
  to get to a point that we make good choices for the program
• 1:42:46
  first, but at the same time not led.
• 1:42:49
  The the ones that you know, can make Illinois proud, get away,
• 1:42:54
  you mentioned, bring it back and I don't know the If they've ever
• 1:42:57
  had, I don't follow that close to bringing back jr.
• 1:43:00
  Day, what other things that you can share with us?
• 1:43:04
  I know you don't want to. I'm not going to allow you even
• 1:43:06
  to peel the whole book, cover back and show everything.
• 1:43:10
  But what other kind of thoughts and ideas?
• 1:43:11
  Do you have for the program? And Does it include something
• 1:43:14
  that you were? I'm going to say you were famous
• 1:43:16
  for probably because a guy like me just geeked out on it.
• 1:43:19
  You had these amazing team. Banquets, with unbelievable
• 1:43:23
  speakers, you mentioned jjk. I think she was one of your
• 1:43:26
  speakers. Flair Ric Flair.
• 1:43:29
  People was a speaker, little controversial.
• 1:43:33
  Now Herschel Walker. I think was one of your
• 1:43:35
  speakers. He was a UGA lumps.
• 1:43:36
  That also makes sense. There right Hyperion.
• 1:43:40
  Chris Tucker. Was my favorite crystal, that's
• 1:43:42
  right. Oh my gosh.
• 1:43:44
  Do you plan on bringing that to Illinois as well only if so can
• 1:43:47
  I be? I should be your first Speaker I
• 1:43:49
  think you got to start. You guys started the bottom
• 1:43:51
  before you get to the Tucker's of the world but what other
• 1:43:54
  ideas do you think you're kind of trying to put into play?
• 1:43:57
  Pay for Illinois. Yeah, it is, it is very
• 1:43:59
  important. Like you said, I mean that's
• 1:44:01
  something I wanted to do to reward the student athletes on
• 1:44:04
  the team. It just kind of let it let them
• 1:44:06
  escape from the student-athlete uniform, you know, and then you
• 1:44:11
  know have denim Brian and Chris Tucker.
• 1:44:13
  So Dan O'Brien started he gave us these whole life long lesson
• 1:44:19
  and all that and then Chris Tucker gets up there and he pick
• 1:44:22
  some mad bowling and because he's fast and you know it was
• 1:44:25
  such an amazing experience. For everybody really.
• 1:44:31
  The bad thing is some of the younger ones.
• 1:44:33
  They didn't know who he was. I made them watch Friday and
• 1:44:35
  rush hour. Yeah, you and I know, but I need
• 1:44:39
  the whole team watch Rush Hour but before they came before he
• 1:44:44
  came, but in the good thing is, when you create friendship was
• 1:44:47
  they with these folks, you know, they don't even charge you.
• 1:44:50
  I mean, they come out there and they want to do it, they want to
• 1:44:52
  do it for themselves and for the team and that's what I really
• 1:44:56
  cherish about my friendship. With his folks.
• 1:44:58
  Jackie, especially, you know, she she made it happen, you
• 1:45:02
  know, in last minute, Ric Flair was a little bit simpler because
• 1:45:06
  his stepdaughter was on the cross country team, but got by
• 1:45:10
  Rick will do anything. You know, I still have the
• 1:45:13
  basketball shoes, he gave me. And the funny thing is he is
• 1:45:16
  like Blues. I couldn't wear it over there.
• 1:45:19
  Now I can and inside the, the soul is says, I'm having I'm
• 1:45:24
  having a hard time keeping these alligators down.
• 1:45:27
  You know, just Like his his smack talking about during his
• 1:45:31
  eight days but we have a lot of fun.
• 1:45:34
  With these kids bringing these guys in and and and here in this
• 1:45:38
  area, I think I'll be able to do something similar.
• 1:45:41
  I just got to get a little creative but as you know and
• 1:45:45
  you're as good or better in those things, you know, you got
• 1:45:49
  to really Market, you know, we have a saying in Greece.
• 1:45:52
  If you don't praise your own house it will come down on your
• 1:45:54
  head you know, free translation. So so you got to really say that
• 1:46:00
  in Greek. So in English, you said, if you
• 1:46:02
  don't praise your own house, it'll come falling down.
• 1:46:04
  How do you actually say that in Greece?
• 1:46:06
  For me? How am I then?
• 1:46:07
  Been nipsey's, the Speedy, soothe our base, in a supply go,
• 1:46:10
  see alarm, write that down. By the way, the Greek listeners
• 1:46:17
  will appreciate that. So it is, it is a big thing, you
• 1:46:22
  know, where that's where these marketing.
• 1:46:25
  I mean, a lot of marketing, professors probably know.
• 1:46:27
  And they teach the roots of that saying, you know, because it is
• 1:46:32
  important to when you have a great product, you have to
• 1:46:36
  promote it. If it's not a great product,
• 1:46:38
  don't bother, you know. Now there's some gifted folks
• 1:46:41
  that can promote a faulty product in, and we see that a
• 1:46:44
  lot in, you know, Facebook ads and all that.
• 1:46:47
  But if you have a 99.9% of universities of college,
• 1:46:53
  programs are all great in half something great to promote in.
• 1:46:57
  And it's so cool to see that even like smaller programs
• 1:47:01
  having you know produced you know Katie and I jog you know
• 1:47:04
  the pole vaulter that one Olympic titles came from from
• 1:47:07
  Ashland I if I'm not mistaken I mean that's a big Pride I mean
• 1:47:13
  and it's huge for the program and people that look even go to
• 1:47:16
  that problem. So I like to do stuff like that
• 1:47:20
  and for some people it come off as arrogant or, you know, look
• 1:47:23
  at him bragging. But, but it's your product you
• 1:47:27
  To sell it. Otherwise, somebody else is
• 1:47:29
  going to sell theirs and and you're not going to sell any of
• 1:47:31
  yours. Well, I got you your first
• 1:47:34
  keynote speaker. And this is a serious
• 1:47:35
  suggestion. Have you heard of the guy spice
• 1:47:37
  Adams? He's hilarious.
• 1:47:41
  Go look up on Twitter. He's hilarious.
• 1:47:43
  He's a former he's a track guy so he does a lot of.
• 1:47:45
  He's got a lot of funny, he's a comedian, he does a lot of funny
• 1:47:48
  track but he'll do like, you know, you know, warm-ups at the
• 1:47:52
  track and he's a throw or I think back in the day, he's
• 1:47:55
  hilarious. He was played for the Bears as
• 1:47:57
  well. So he's got, he's Illinois
• 1:47:59
  connection to go. Look up spice Adams, highly
• 1:48:02
  hilarious track guy, Illinois, guys, far as the bear.
• 1:48:05
  I'm not sure where he actually went to school.
• 1:48:06
  I think, I think you actually did go to school in the
• 1:48:08
  Chicagoland area, but There's your first kind of.
• 1:48:10
  He'd be good for you. Wait Petrus, as we wrap up
• 1:48:13
  today. Give us you mentioned your
• 1:48:16
  coaching staff, here. I don't do this enough.
• 1:48:19
  I need to do this more, but talk to us about your coaching staff,
• 1:48:22
  who you got. You did, get some amazing humans
• 1:48:25
  that happen to be track coaches, which I just love.
• 1:48:28
  And then in this rough us up with which gets you excited
• 1:48:30
  about this. This first year coming up as the
• 1:48:32
  Illini coach. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:48:34
  Clearly the staff have put together is the staff?
• 1:48:37
  That is that really? Works for me in my culture and
• 1:48:43
  the way I want to do things in building Illinois to into NCAA
• 1:48:49
  success. You know, the first move I did
• 1:48:52
  is, you know, retain our Cross Country, Coach, Sarah have meant
• 1:48:56
  that, I believe she's a tremendous coach, you know, she
• 1:49:01
  was the first person I spoke to we spent about an hour and a
• 1:49:03
  half and, you know, our our minds were instinct.
• 1:49:09
  The first five minutes. So I was like, okay, that's a
• 1:49:12
  let someone that, you know, I can't help in terms of, you
• 1:49:15
  know, providing a platform where she can lead her group's better
• 1:49:20
  shaking be the best version of herself in developing the talent
• 1:49:25
  and and she knows the state of Illinois better than all of us.
• 1:49:28
  So it was important for me to have somebody like that and kind
• 1:49:32
  of be my Insider and kind of helped me navigate certain
• 1:49:38
  situations. Whether his campus
• 1:49:40
  Administration or whatever. And then my second higher, it
• 1:49:45
  was Jovani small guy that he was home.
• 1:49:48
  I my first hires at Georgia. Also, one of the, the most
• 1:49:53
  hard-working loyal People, You Meet had tremendous mentors, he
• 1:50:00
  has a great eye for talent. Great, way of developing Talent,
• 1:50:05
  kids love him. I mean, I've had with He was my
• 1:50:09
  director of Ops at Georgia, and when he left, I mean, I had the
• 1:50:13
  group of Olympians have coached Couture orgy and them, they were
• 1:50:16
  sad. I mean, they were sad that he
• 1:50:19
  left and they gave me a hard time for the replacement, like,
• 1:50:24
  who, who are you going to replace?
• 1:50:26
  They gonna do to me, all those things are in my head.
• 1:50:29
  So when it was time to find that Springs coach that can actually
• 1:50:32
  bring good folks here and attract good talent here.
• 1:50:36
  There was not another name. That was the first last name I
• 1:50:38
  had In my head. So that was my first hire.
• 1:50:41
  He and his family, you know, big big great human beings.
• 1:50:48
  He knows my system he gets me and like I said, just just works
• 1:50:53
  really hard and every way and then you know, the next one that
• 1:50:58
  I always I'm I think I probably made the only head coach in the
• 1:51:01
  country that employees or has a pole position just for Poland,
• 1:51:06
  nothing else and I I think I hit the jackpot with that one.
• 1:51:11
  You know. Dennis Mitchell.
• 1:51:12
  You notice lie. He he was the head coach at
• 1:51:15
  Akron for 30 years, not only has head coaching experience but
• 1:51:19
  also got a crime to be top ten in the country.
• 1:51:22
  So to me, to me that was probably the best thing.
• 1:51:26
  Now I had to get him out of retirement because he announces
• 1:51:29
  retirement I asked around and I call him actually to ask him for
• 1:51:34
  references who I think is a good coach out there.
• 1:51:39
  And he gave me some names. He was very thorough.
• 1:51:42
  And then and then I said, hey can you like which one of these
• 1:51:46
  guys is just like you because I didn't know he would consider
• 1:51:50
  and they were tired. Yeah.
• 1:51:52
  Next day he called me as I hey I talk with my wife and zeit.
• 1:51:56
  Are you interested in me? I said you kidding me.
• 1:52:00
  And you know he drove down the next day and we made a deal but
• 1:52:05
  Pavel to me is very important and For many ways, many reasons,
• 1:52:12
  I feel if you have the right place that right coaching place,
• 1:52:15
  that's a way that can produce a lot of NCAA points.
• 1:52:20
  And a lot of success. Since the funny van, it's very
• 1:52:23
  crowded engaging. I'm gonna, I'm gonna spill some
• 1:52:28
  of our happenings here. We're going to have a band play
• 1:52:31
  at our like a live band, which the lead singer was a 225 high
• 1:52:35
  jumper. So I'm not gonna say names and
• 1:52:38
  all that. that I can find it, but so, I want to showcase the
• 1:52:43
  pole vault while these guys are playing, they're going to be
• 1:52:46
  playing right next to the pit, which, you know, I can't wait
• 1:52:50
  for this, race runways. By the way.
• 1:52:51
  Yeah, you guys, but so it's going to put on a show and
• 1:52:56
  creates an environment where I want this to be like a polo
• 1:53:00
  makeup and we had a similar thing going at Georgia.
• 1:53:04
  We rise Johnson, another great. Great Polo coach that, you know,
• 1:53:09
  I miss dearly because he was not just a polo.
• 1:53:12
  A coach. But he was also a PT physical
• 1:53:14
  therapist, which use my, I mean, he's my right-hand guy.
• 1:53:18
  One of the probably one of the best hires have I'm proud of
• 1:53:22
  myself and making. But anyway, so going into
• 1:53:28
  talking with, with Dennis, I was really excited because he has
• 1:53:32
  the reputation. He coached two world champions,
• 1:53:35
  he coaches in NCAA Champions got the team.
• 1:53:38
  So to me, not only, he's an amazing, povo coach and human,
• 1:53:41
  but also He can help me as an advisor him anyway.
• 1:53:46
  So I think I hit the jackpot with him and and and then I hit
• 1:53:51
  another jackpot when I got JC Lambert, you know, throws coach
• 1:53:56
  that, you know, coaches own wife to a world champion title.
• 1:54:01
  So not only that guy knows the state of Illinois better than
• 1:54:04
  anybody but he can develop anybody.
• 1:54:08
  I mean, the guy just his personality His wife's
• 1:54:12
  personality as both coaches and recruiters and ambassadors of
• 1:54:17
  the state. And my gosh.
• 1:54:18
  I mean, I'm just I'm just so excited about him and and what
• 1:54:22
  he brings to the table and what he can do for us in for himself,
• 1:54:26
  really because I think he's the next John Smith, his mentor
• 1:54:31
  which, you know, he goes under the radar.
• 1:54:32
  I think that guy is the best throws coach in the country.
• 1:54:34
  I don't care about all this social media gurus and all that.
• 1:54:37
  I think Johnson is probably the best throws coach out there.
• 1:54:41
  I would tend to agree. I thought JC when you announced
• 1:54:44
  JC, I was like, oh, this this is a Hidden Gem.
• 1:54:48
  That shouldn't be hidden because he's done an amazing job at
• 1:54:50
  Carbondale. He has an amazing pedigree from
• 1:54:52
  Connie and John being his coaches.
• 1:54:55
  He's no flash. But he's all cash, baby.
• 1:54:59
  He gets it done? Yeah, it's gonna be a big one.
• 1:55:02
  Yeah, he's reputation precedes him, and then, you know, I hire
• 1:55:06
  Sarah, Linden, a young youngster, you know, former
• 1:55:11
  heptathlon. Up until last year.
• 1:55:14
  But people don't understand that.
• 1:55:16
  Not only Sarah brings like the younger connection with the
• 1:55:19
  student-athlete and the more modernized approach positive,
• 1:55:24
  the rain for a positive reinforcement but also she was a
• 1:55:27
  D3 National coach of the year. I don't know if you knew that,
• 1:55:30
  but in coach. So that's somebody that I
• 1:55:34
  brought into personally, mentor, and share all my secrets and
• 1:55:38
  eventually, you know, just let her run the So for now she is my
• 1:55:44
  right-hand person in terms of really keeping the recruiting
• 1:55:49
  intact with the jumps and combined events kind of helping
• 1:55:53
  with everything and kind of be the connection with Juanita
• 1:55:56
  Sanchez. A rockstar director of
• 1:55:59
  operations, I have that. She is a tireless worker, a very
• 1:56:03
  kind human, that really cares for the program, loves our
• 1:56:08
  coaches. So this staff as a group Works
• 1:56:14
  real well together. So let's say I learned a lot
• 1:56:17
  from my mistakes in the past and Al are alive from my Slumdog
• 1:56:22
  hires. So I thought that I try to
• 1:56:26
  measure all this and hopefully I can keep these folks together
• 1:56:29
  for a long time. Yeah, that that's another aspect
• 1:56:32
  of head-coaching. We don't talk about is that
• 1:56:34
  consistency within your staff, which helps with the consistency
• 1:56:37
  with your coaching of the athletes and recruiting
• 1:56:39
  etcetera. Yeah Petros man.
• 1:56:42
  I've got you to 10:00 and it is 10:00 on the dot baby.
• 1:56:44
  We did it. We hit, we nailed it.
• 1:56:46
  I feel like, I feel like I was coached really well by you.
• 1:56:48
  I hit the time I supposed to hit Coach, man, Petros man, you
• 1:56:52
  know, we're totally excited to have you here and champagne.
• 1:56:54
  You have known you for a long time, part of your career.
• 1:56:57
  Like I said, consider your friend as well as you know, dear
• 1:56:59
  customer again, we're just so, so thankful for you.
• 1:57:02
  So it's great to have you in in champagne and have you living in
• 1:57:05
  our West Side? Neck of the woods over in
• 1:57:07
  Muhammad as well, have to come check out that doberman and in
• 1:57:10
  the, in the garage. Age when you get that all set up
• 1:57:13
  because I know you working on it.
• 1:57:14
  Where can I go? You will I know you will but
• 1:57:16
  again congratulations becoming the new director here at the
• 1:57:19
  University of Illinois. You have put together an amazing
• 1:57:21
  staff. We're excited.
• 1:57:23
  We have a vested interest that Illinois.
• 1:57:24
  Track is good. We you know, it's our DNA as far
• 1:57:27
  as track and then right here in Champaign so we're excited.
• 1:57:30
  We're excited to see indoor season outdoor season and just
• 1:57:33
  the layering of what, what is 2024, what is 2025 2026?
• 1:57:38
  Just excited for what you're going to put put out there on
• 1:57:40
  the track. Thank you so much.
• 1:57:42
  Yeah, it will, it will take time but it is very exciting to do
• 1:57:45
  this with with my staff and hopefully look back on one day
• 1:57:49
  and be like, hey look what we've done together, you know, and you
• 1:57:53
  know, they say you want to go far.
• 1:57:56
  If you want to go fast, you go alone.
• 1:57:57
  You want to go far go together. So that's something that you
• 1:58:01
  learn as you age because as youngsters we think we can do
• 1:58:04
  everything by ourselves. But you know, you need unique.
• 1:58:06
  Good help. And I think I got it.
• 1:58:08
  I love it man, I love it. Well, thank you for being here,
• 1:58:10
  man. Petros No, the most valuable
• 1:58:12
  thing that you can ever give us. And you give us a lot.
• 1:58:14
  My friend is your time, I know how busy you are.
• 1:58:17
  So thank you again, just for being here, being so humble to
• 1:58:19
  authentic, you know, I think there was a lot of value given
• 1:58:22
  for coaches that are listening today that want to be a head
• 1:58:25
  coach that think they want to be head coach that want to Excel.
• 1:58:29
  And I really think you know this lesson of why not us.
• 1:58:33
  I just kind of came through, you kind of set it without even
• 1:58:36
  thinking about it in the different stops to you're like
• 1:58:38
  well why not us, why can't we do this here?
• 1:58:40
  And I'm just excited. It's kind of a refreshing thing
• 1:58:43
  for me, as if I'm My Own Self as well as far as what I do here at
• 1:58:46
  gil. So I appreciate that and again,
• 1:58:47
  thank you for being here this morning now.
• 1:58:49
  Thank you. Hi.
• 1:58:50
  Lil hours. It baby.
• 1:58:52
  Well, thank you for being here, join us next week.
• 1:58:53
  I hope you will hope you got a lot of value, and I hope you
• 1:58:55
  will join us next week. We're going to do it all over
• 1:58:57
  again. Have another amazing rock star
• 1:58:59
  just like Petros here and again thank you for listening to The
• 1:59:01
  Gila buttocks connections podcast.
• 1:59:02
  Have a good one Thanks Mike what an incredible journey coach has
• 1:59:13
  been on so awesome to hear their story in their own words,
• 1:59:16
  tremendous proof of the positive effect coaches, make on a daily
• 1:59:19
  basis. Help us spread the word of this.
• 1:59:21
  Great journey by sharing on your favorite social, media channel.
• 1:59:24
  And don't forget to take a minute to rate and review the
• 1:59:27
  podcast. You just might get a shout-out
• 1:59:29
  on a future episode. That's it for today.
• 1:59:31
  Join us next week, when we'll connect you with another amazing
• 1:59:35
  courage.