Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / #296: Matt Farmer-VS Athletics

Transcript

#296: Matt Farmer-VS Athletics · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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  You're listening to the Gil Athletics Connections podcast
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  with host Mike Cunningham. Track and field world juvenile
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  tuned in to our humble servant Mike Cunningham for another
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  extraordinary message for Gil Athletics Connections.
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  All right, we're back here season 6.
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  We're still rolling strong here in the sixth year of the
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  podcast, which again, just, you've heard me say it a few
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  times already. It just quite amazing to me.
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  You know, it doesn't happen without you guys and gals here
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  press and play and listening to the podcast on a weekly basis.
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  And just so humbled, so grateful for you being here today.
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  Excited about today's guest. I probably should, I don't do
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  this very often, but I should probably introduce myself, Mike
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  Cunningham. I'm officially the national
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  business development manager here at Gill Athletics, which
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  just, you know, it's a fancy title for.
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  I'm the podcast guy. I get to host this and do a lot
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  of fun things and truly grateful for that.
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  So let's get into it today. You know, if you're a regular,
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  if you've listened to any of our episodes here, you know, our
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  goal is to uplift and honor coaches from around the country,
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  around the world. And we do that.
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  We've had some amazing coaches, had one just last week.
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  We'll have another one next week.
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  And then from time to time we'd like to bring you our dealer
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  partner. So we have a, you know, the the
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  best dealer network out there. And today we've got one of the
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  best dealers out there and we're going to talk about, well, what
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  the heck does that even mean? And why might you look at buying
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  a track equipment from from this company and maybe this person
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  specifically? So let's hop into it and figure
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  it all out to figure it all out. So help me welcome from VS venue
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  sprinkle VS athletics. You know, usually I say the
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  wise, the wonderful, and that holds true.
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  But I'm going to call him the man, the myth, and you're going
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  to find out why. Help me welcome Mr. Matt Farmer.
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  Matt, how are you, Sir? Thank you Sir.
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  Pleasure to be here. I appreciate you having me on.
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  I've never given an introduction that long for you.
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  Normally. It's like as is Matt.
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  Talk to him. Matt, man, thanks so much for
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  being here, man. You know, I say this to all of
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  our track coaches and this holds true for guys like you as well.
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  You know, one of the most valuable things that you can
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  give me is your time. I know you're busy.
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  You know, there's hopefully you have your phone on silence.
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  I didn't say that before we hit record because I know you, it's
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  non-stop with you. And that's that's a lot of part
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  of the fun of the job as well. So, so excited for that.
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  So appreciate your time. Matt, talk to us a little bit.
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  You know, I talk about dealers and dealer partners and VS
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  Athletics and Gil athletics and sometimes and, and completely
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  understand why, you know, a coach may think this, you know,
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  they think of like VS athletics and Gil athletics like oh,
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  they're competitors and that couldn't be farther from the
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  truth. Talk to us a little bit about
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  what you do as a dealer and as a salesman.
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  Just talk about kind of like that side of it as it relates to
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  Gil and track equipment etcetera.
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  Sure. I'm the national sales manager
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  at VS Athletics. And so essentially that means
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  I'm in charge of kind of picking out spots in the country where
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  we want to be a little bit more active and, and where there's
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  more population based and finding people that want to sell
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  for us in those areas and then recruiting them to to come and
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  work for us. Essentially, my day is filled
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  with talking to coaches, emailing, texting, calling,
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  school visits, flying around the country.
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  If somebody's getting a new facility and, and just going and
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  talking to them and and selling our products, your products and
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  just trying to make the world a happier place as far as track
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  and field is concerned. Making the world a happier
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  place. I like that.
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  That's pretty good. That's you do a good job of
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  that. Actually, I really like that a
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  lot. Well, you know, the customers,
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  coaches, athletic directors have a lot of options out there.
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  I like to think that someone who is in the sport, maybe been
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  involved in the sport in different aspects, whether it's
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  coaching, athlete, things like that, might have more to give to
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  a coach as far as experience and things like that.
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  So let's talk about your experience.
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  Where does I usually say like assuming you did track, I know a
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  little bit here that we did some track.
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  Talk to us about track for you, man, because and start maybe
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  from the beginning because I know it starts before you even.
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  So where does track start from a farmer?
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  So let's talk about the the VS side of this First.
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  We started, we talked about there's a kind of a lot of
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  Johnny come lately. He's in our business and
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  nobody's as quite as authentic as old as Gil.
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  Athletics lost my little headset there.
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  Nobody's got as much as Gil, right?
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  You guys were, you've been around for centuries.
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  We started in 1984. The 84 Olympics got awarded to
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  LA and our founder, Brian Springer was, was an official in
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  the, in the LA area and it's tracking field official.
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  And they needed somebody to basically supply with equipment
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  and there were not a heck of a lot of options as it related to
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  Southern California. And so Brian got to work and
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  said, OK, well, we can, we can figure this out.
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  And so that's kind of how we started was in 84 or the pre
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  planning stages of the 84 Olympics.
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  And then I joined on in 1992 after I graduated from college,
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  just answering phones and packing boxes and being a
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  general kind of, you know, they say you start from the bottom
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  and work your way up. And that's, that's my life
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  story. It's been, it's been that from
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  the get go. So that's kind of the, the basic
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  story of, of VS and Spring Co Basically what happened.
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  Spring Co was selling equipment and venue sports was a uniform
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  and shoe supplier here in Southern California, in the
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  northern part of Southern California.
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  And we we merged companies and basically change the name, admit
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  it into VS like you had said when you entered me venue
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  venues. There you go.
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  So that's kind of the that's kind of the genesis of how this
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  thing got going from a from our dealer side of it.
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  My my story is we're a lifelong many decades, many generations,
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  track and field company. My my grandfather, my dad's dad
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  was the state champion by the soda.
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  By the way, I love that little slip that you had there.
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  You're going into your family, which I'd absolutely, and this
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  is where we continue to go here. But you said we're a lifelong
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  track company. You meant family.
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  But I love how the family company.
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  Track in the business. I thought that was so funny.
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  Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it was a sorry, the, the
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  the family is definitely a track and field family.
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  My, my grants. My dad's dad was the state champ
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  in Minnesota in high school in the shot and the high jump.
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  And then he he ended up being a football player at University of
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  Minnesota. He played, he was the running
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  back on the freshman team and I'm not quite sure of the
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  dynamic there, but it was either in 1939 or 1940.
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  They won the national title two years in a row.
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  University of Minnesota did in 40 and 41.
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  So he was on the freshman team one of those years and was kind
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  of going to work his way into being the A or B, starting
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  running back on the on the team the next year and then got hurt
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  in a hunting accident. And this basically his career
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  was over. And then he became an insurance
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  salesman and A and a dad and moved on.
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  But he was the start of kind of the track and field thing.
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  And then my my dad was, jeez, he was the 1961 NCAA 440 yard
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  hurdle champion, ran 50.8. He's going to kill me if that's
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  wrong. But something along those lines
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  on dirt. He wanted at, you know, the Penn
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  Relay Stadium back there at University of Pennsylvania.
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  And that was back basically Occidental College was where he
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  ran. And they were a pretty dominant
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  track and field powerhouse back in those days at at the Division
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  One level. And then he went on to coach and
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  he was at he coaches alma mater Occidental.
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  And then he got the call from the University of Michigan to
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  start their cross country program.
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  And so we left when I was a little guy, probably 2 in the
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  early 70s. And he went back there and he
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  coached every running event at University of Michigan.
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  So sprinters through cross country and the hurdles and
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  relays and pretty, pretty good job.
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  Didn't necessarily get along with the higher ups and, you
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  know, and started looking for greener passengers about 3-4
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  years in and University of Washington came calling.
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  And so then he did the same job at the University of Washington.
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  Coached all the sprints, relays, hurdles and, and distance stuff
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  for the UW. And then after about nine years
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  of that, he got the head coaching job at San Diego State.
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  So he kept improving our weather.
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  I like to say as as I got older, so he wasn't sending the state
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  until until after I left for college.
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  And then he went to Gustavus Adolphus and loved the Division
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  Three experience. He really enjoyed the D3 kids
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  from the standpoint of there wasn't a daily discussion about
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  my scholarship money. It was I'm here because I love
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  the sport. And it really was a kind of a
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  nice book into his coaching career at the end of it.
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  And then he ended his career back to the Occidental as the
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  athletic director. So instead of hire, instead of
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  being fired, he got to hire and fire.
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  So it was a it was a great way to end for him.
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  He's enjoying his retirement now about 30 miles South of me.
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  You know, I knew your dad was a big time athlete.
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  I don't know that I knew he he was coached for such a long
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  time. I knew he was a coach, but I I
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  for some reason in my head had him as you know, Southern
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  California and, you know, club and high school, you know, being
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  involved. I didn't know, you know,
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  basically starting the program at University of Michigan going
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  to Washington. Sandy, that's really incredible.
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  What what was it like growing up?
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  As you know, it's something to grow up as an athlete.
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  And we certainly talk about your athleticism as well here in a
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  little bit, but it's not, that's another thing to grow up as a
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  coach's son. I mean, you're, you're seeing
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  the things that he's, I'm going to call it going through as all
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  of our coaches go through in their profession.
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  You're seeing it first hand when he's coming home and when he's
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  traveling and things like that. What was it like growing up a
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  coach's kid in the sport? It's a great experience.
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  I mean, I, you know, all of my birthdays, my birthday birthday
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  recollections are we would go to the University of Washington,
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  bring nine of your buddies and we'd play five on five
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  basketball in the arena and then we were done.
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  Playing basketball. We'd get out in the Husky
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  Stadium and they'd water the field down.
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  We'd play tackle football on the Astro surf out there in the
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  rain, and then we'd get in rowing boats and go row on on
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  the Lake Washington. It, it's just a great
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  experience. And my, my, basically how I got
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  into kind of what it is that I do is I would ride on the buses.
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  He, he, I was that annoying little kid who'd walk up and
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  down the aisles and talk to each of the guys about and I'd make
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  predictions. I'd have a sheet and I would
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  say, OK, Mike Cunningham today you're long jumping.
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  I think you're going to go 23, seven and I'd, you're going to
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  triple to 48 feet. And that would either be a good
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  thing or a bad thing. And they tried to reach at you.
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  I'd make predictions and they were always pretty darn close.
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  Like people would always kind of crack up.
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  I've had people for years come back to me and, and say, Hey, I
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  hated your predictions, but it was kind of funny to, to see how
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  close you were on all that stuff.
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  And so I love growing up as a coach's kid.
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  He, you know, I there wasn't enough.
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  He wasn't home as much as I would have loved, right?
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  I mean, that's that's part and parcel with being a coach as
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  you're gone on the weekend so he can get to see a lot of my
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  sports stuff. But every chance he had, he was
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  there. Did you grow up knowing?
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  Sometimes we take it for granted of what our fathers or family
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  members do because we see them all the time.
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  So we know about track or, you know, records and things like
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  that, but did you know how good of an athlete he was growing up?
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  Like as you're growing up, did you realize like, oh, wow, my,
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  my dad was a stud? Or was it just like, Oh yeah,
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  you know, he was good. He did track and you know he's a
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  coach. Mike, really?
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  I mean, he was the two time California State champ in the
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  400 meters or 440 yards back then.
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  And he, you know, he ran like 48 flat in high school on dirt.
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  He was, he was very good in the 59.
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  I think it's 5960 was when he won.
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  And being a California kid growing up, that's all you heard
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  everywhere you went. They'd look at the name and go,
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  you Dixon's kid. Yeah, yeah.
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  Oh, your dad was this. I can remember when I watched
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  him run at the, you know, the stadium at, at Edwards Stadium
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  at Berkeley. And he was amazing.
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  And, you know, he, he was really good.
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  He won the 180 lows back then. They had the 180 lows kind of
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  cool. 5 hurdles, just a Sprint Sprint with little teeny hurdles
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  in the way. It was bring that little.
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  Race, Yeah. I love it.
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  Yeah. That was entertaining.
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  So, yeah. So the answer to your question
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  is yes. I knew all about how terrific an
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  athlete he was. And that stuff was all over the
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  house. All of his, my mom was an
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  amazing keepsake person. And so I mean medals and ribbons
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  and pictures and just memorabilia was was our house
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  was a really tacky guys sports bar growing up.
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  So how did, how does Matt, how does Matt get into track?
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  And did you try to do other sports or was it like, yeah, I'm
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  Dixon's kid, so I'm I'm going to do track?
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  Yeah, I, I kind of realized early on that I was, I, I, I
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  enjoyed the, the, the fun stuff, the high jumping and the
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  throwing the discus and the things that weren't as painful
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  as just picking out the 400 and, and trying to do what he did.
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  That's awfully, that's not the, I don't think that's a, I was
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  probably too, maybe a little bit too, too smart to say, OK, I'm
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  going to be good at that kind of stuff.
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  I, I, the high jumping is fun because you're jumping around on
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  a high jump pit. And that was a great time.
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  And so that was always kind of where I thought my, my bread was
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  going to get buttered. And, and that's what I was in
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  high school was a, was a high jumper, long jumper, triple
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  jumper type who, and I dabbled with the decathlon kind of
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  playing with it. I, I think I did my first one
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  when I was about 12 and we just would do them all in one day.
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  I'd go to work with my dad in the, in the summertime and I'd
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  say I'm going out to the track and we just, I, we just, I just
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  do one with my buddies and kind of, yeah, kind of just get
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  things going and, and you learn. And then I learned as I got
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  older, I'm not really good enough at any one of these
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  things. I better just do them all
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  average and and then be able to make a little bit of a name.
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  No pressure to do the the long hurdles or even the open 400
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  because of of dad. No, not at all.
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  Matter of fact, none of that. He, I mean, he, he had mentioned
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  to me you should try them a couple times.
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  And I did run, I did run them once in college and fell on the,
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  in the 10th hurdle, the four, the 400 meter hurdles.
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  So I was, I was done with that. And I think that was probably my
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  senior year of college. It was kind of after things were
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  were just winding down and it was just kind of a fun, fun
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  little deal up in Santa Barbara. But there was always the the
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  being around track like it when we were at Occidental, I was my
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  dad loves to tell the story and I and it's 99% factual.
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  They had he had looked through you remember how they used to
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  keep age group old records so they'd have the five year old
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  long jump record and there used to be.
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  So my dad assessed the records and thought that there was a
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  chance for me in the one year old 100 yard dash shut up.
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  So, so he lined the team, the track with his team and you
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  know, ready, set, go. And I ran down and I think the
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  American record was like 26 six or something.
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  And I ran 26 two the first time and people were going crazy.
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  And I of course said I want to do it again.
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  I want to do it again. And he said I'm running twice as
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  fast the second time. And I just made a left turn 90°
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  straight into the middle of the field.
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  He said. You're 1.
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  So I held the American records in a one year old 100 yard dash
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  for a little bit of time, I think.
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  I don't know exactly how long. It's just kind of a funny, funny
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  little tidbit to add to the family lore.
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  That feels like something that shouldn't happen.
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  You know, There's enough parents out there that I feel like it'd
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  be abusive one year olds if we really got into it.
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  Yeah. Yeah.
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  And. I think it's gotten to that.
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  Point now. Yeah, yeah, yeah, this.
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  Is much more of a fun thing. I remember either like O 8 or 12
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  at the Olympic trials out in Eugene and you know, there's
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  those two days in between the, you know, super long weekends
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  and I had to go to the track to get something.
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  And this is kind of my, it must have been O 8 because it was
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  kind of my first, first time ever in, in Eugene.
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  And as I'm walking towards the stadium, I hear that now.
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  I didn't know they did like fun runs and stuff in Eugene during
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  that time at the, at the track. And so as I'm walking to the
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  track, I hear the announcer going, all right, heat seven of
• 15:29
  the five year old 100m. And I was like, holy, first of
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  all, there's five year old dashes.
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  They're on heat set like, Oh my God, there was just, you know,
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  walk in and there's just kids, kids, kids everywhere.
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  And they're just 100 meter dash, 100 meter dash.
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  I was like, holy cow. I remember actually calling my
• 15:50
  wife immediately and I was like, you're not going to believe.
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  I mean, this is just the most craziest thing in the world.
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  I'm glad they started at 5 maybe.
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  I think that was the youngest. They didn't.
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  Go and I'm glad they started at 100 meters instead of 800.
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  Oh my God, never come back again.
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  Yeah, exactly. Yeah, Good.
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  We're probably apartment to do that somewhere that we'll do
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  that in eight years. Yeah, about 800 meters.
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  Exactly what were you? You know, Mike, I love asking
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  this question of our coaches that we have on the show of when
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  they are going to college. You know, most, some but not but
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  most not aren't thinking that they're going to become a track
• 16:20
  coach. They're going to go to college
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  to become a teacher like or study business and maybe be an
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  accountant or own their own business.
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  What did you when you were looking at going to college?
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  What was the thought process? I assume you didn't go, I'm
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  going to be a truck sales equipment guy.
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  One day you were like, I'm going to be something an astronaut.
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  What was what were you thinking going into college?
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  So the vision I knew early on what I wanted to do and I was
• 16:43
  the my sophomore year of high school, I was selected as the
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  sports editor of the newspaper, our school paper, and I
• 16:51
  basically recruited a bunch of athletes to come work in the
• 16:53
  journalism department. I recruited a football player
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  and a baseball and a basketball player.
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  And so we had it wasn't your typical sports writer nerd
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  writing these stories at our high school paper.
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  It was kind of it was something you wanted to talk to these to
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  these guys and you wanted to be a part of it.
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  And so I did that sports editor gig for three years and I went
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  to school full well knowing that I wanted to I wanted to be a
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  sports writer. And in fact, my senior year of
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  high school, this is a great story.
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  Our our, our creative writing teacher says he gave his hand
• 17:26
  out three by 5 cards to everybody in class.
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  And he says, OK, write down what I'm going to be doing in 10
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  years on the back of this card. Write your name on the front.
• 17:33
  OK, so we went back to our 10 year reunion and Mr. Andrews
• 17:36
  shows up and he passes out the cards to everybody and I flip
• 17:40
  mine over and says I'm going to be a sports writer for the Los
• 17:42
  Angeles Times, which had happened it basically when I
• 17:46
  graduated college, I decided I was going to try and right for
• 17:50
  them and so I wrote all their high school tracking cross
• 17:52
  country and some of their college tracking cross country
• 17:54
  over the next six years. Yeah.
• 17:55
  So I did that for six years and currently working for VSF.
• 17:59
  Yeah. So did you study like journalism
• 18:02
  or English? What?
• 18:03
  What did you end up studying? You see, Irvine, where I went to
• 18:06
  school, didn't have a journalism program per se.
• 18:08
  So I worked in the sports information office all through
• 18:10
  school, kind of. So I was the announcer for the
• 18:13
  swim meets and I'm announcer for the sports, for the soccer,
• 18:17
  women's and men's soccer games. And then the The Post of that
• 18:21
  was making sure that all of that stuff was in the newspaper and
• 18:24
  calling the LA Times in the Orange County Register and, and
• 18:27
  whoever we were playing, if it was playing Fresno State, you'd
• 18:30
  call, you know, Fresno B and make sure that everything or fax
• 18:33
  the information the box scores over.
• 18:35
  So that was kind of my intro in the sports writing was I, I knew
• 18:38
  that's what I wanted to do and, and got to announce a lot.
• 18:41
  And I ended up, after being a sports writer, I ended up going
• 18:44
  into the announcing thing and I still do it to this day and I
• 18:46
  love it. Right.
• 18:47
  So, So what was the degree? What did you end up getting?
• 18:50
  So UC Irvine is a rather academic school, and you know me
• 18:53
  pretty well to know that that's not necessarily my SO I I'm
• 18:58
  definitely a sports guy. So the the easiest path through
• 19:01
  UC Irvine is through the social science department.
• 19:03
  So I was a social, I was a sociology major.
• 19:05
  Yeah, yeah. That's super cool.
• 19:08
  You were, you had ESPN dreams before, you know, really as ESPN
• 19:12
  was getting started kind of thing.
• 19:14
  That's really cool. Yeah.
• 19:15
  That had to be pretty fun to see, you know, different kinds
• 19:19
  of sports and then have to try to figure out how to announce it
• 19:22
  or how to write it or how, what stats are, you know, because is
• 19:25
  there a more stat driven maybe baseball, but is there a more
• 19:28
  stat driven sport than track and field?
• 19:29
  So you know how soccer stats are calculating things like that.
• 19:32
  That's that seems pretty cool. It is.
• 19:34
  You would. You would not believe how
• 19:35
  difficult it is to figure out who had an assist on a soccer
• 19:37
  goal for someone who's not a soccer player.
• 19:39
  Sure, sure, because you're just watching the ball, you're not
• 19:42
  paying attention to okay, Eric kicked it to Johnny, who kicked
• 19:45
  it in the goal. You're just going Johnny scored
• 19:47
  the goal. So it it was, it took, it was a
• 19:50
  learning curve for sure. And then had to figure out and
• 19:52
  learn like, okay, so I have all this, whatever, there's a soccer
• 19:55
  match or a track meet or whatnot, you had to figure out,
• 19:57
  well, what does the newspaper actually want or need because
• 20:00
  they can't print. That the whole enchilada, they
• 20:02
  have to, you know, a certain space allotted to each different
• 20:06
  event. Stuff like this you had to learn
• 20:07
  kind of like, OK, the LA Times likes this, the Fresno B likes
• 20:10
  this. The school newspaper likes this.
• 20:12
  Sure. Yeah, there's a general rule of
• 20:13
  thumb as to what stats, you know, baseball, you wanted bats,
• 20:16
  you want number of hits, RBI's and runs scored, right.
• 20:20
  And then if you now it's, you have to call them for your
• 20:22
  batting ever on the backside. So there's, there's a little bit
• 20:24
  that goes into it, but it was really, it was really an
• 20:26
  enjoyable job and it honestly had sports writing paid a little
• 20:30
  bit more money, I probably would still be doing it.
• 20:33
  Like I I I genuinely love getting paid to go to sporting
• 20:35
  events, but 50 bucks a high school football game wasn't
• 20:39
  wasn't going to cut the muster. Yeah, I, I was a print
• 20:43
  journalism major actually in college as well and, and thought
• 20:47
  that was going to be my route. And now just with the status of
• 20:49
  newspapers, I'm kind of glad I didn't go that I, I, you know,
• 20:53
  guys like you and I would have pivoted pretty quickly to a
• 20:56
  digital side to it or even an audio side to it.
• 20:59
  But it just, it's funny to look back and think like, oh man, I
• 21:02
  really wanted to work for a newspaper.
• 21:04
  And it's like, man, are there news?
• 21:05
  There ain't many newspapers around anymore.
• 21:07
  You know, it's, I'm kind of glad I could have dodged that bullet,
• 21:11
  if you will. So did you, were you in college?
• 21:14
  Did you focus on the decathlon? Is that were you a multi?
• 21:18
  Yeah, yeah. So I went to, I went to UC
• 21:20
  Irvine. I was I was a jumper in high
• 21:22
  school and like I said, I dabbled in a few decathlons and
• 21:25
  I think I was 5th in the Junior Olympics in the 1718 division.
• 21:29
  So there was there was something there, but I was, you know, like
• 21:32
  a 610 high jumper and the 2310 long jumper and I triple jump
• 21:36
  4710. So the jumps were kind of my
• 21:38
  thing and 150 foot discus store. So there was a weird kind of
• 21:43
  skill set, not much leg speed at all.
• 21:46
  I think I was like an 11 three guy in high school and I think
• 21:49
  that was by somebody's horribly timed hand time.
• 21:52
  Most of the time it was 11/5 type.
• 21:54
  But but again, with my dad's generation, I knew that that
• 21:57
  stuff was in there just hadn't ever.
• 21:59
  We never really worked those muscles to kind of try to figure
• 22:02
  out what they were. So I got into a great program at
• 22:04
  UC Irvine. They had a couple of 7200 point
• 22:06
  decathletes when I was there as a freshman and they were great
• 22:09
  training partners. They were, you know, they were
• 22:10
  22 year old men and I was rolling in there as an 18 year
• 22:13
  old and a cocky little 18 year old who just said, OK, I'm
• 22:17
  sticking with these guys no matter what it was.
• 22:19
  And it worked out great. I ended up that that freshman
• 22:22
  year I won the US under the, well now they call it the U20.
• 22:25
  It was the, IT was back then it was called the TAC Junior
• 22:29
  National Championship. And that was, I think I scored
• 22:32
  7015 to win the, the US junior title with the big implements
• 22:36
  and the big hurdles. Now they've gone to the, the
• 22:38
  smaller stuff. So that was that was kind of
• 22:40
  cool. So I got to make the the world
• 22:41
  junior team and go to, of course my world junior trip was to
• 22:44
  Canada. The one previous was in Greece.
• 22:47
  So the 8016 got to go to Greece, we got to go to Ontario, Canada.
• 22:52
  Feels a little bit of a let down.
• 22:54
  Sure, sure. So it was cool.
• 22:55
  I got to wear the wear the gear it that that was an incredibly
• 22:58
  humbling experience from both a mental and A and a Wow.
• 23:02
  You got some work to do physical standpoint, but it was great.
• 23:06
  I I mean, I met a ton of people. I was on the team with a ton of
• 23:09
  Olympians, Quincy Watts. I'm just a whole bunch of really
• 23:12
  great guys and gals. It was it was a really fun
• 23:15
  summer. I mean, we talked about the
• 23:17
  really, really small club that it is to be an Olympian.
• 23:21
  I mean, that's it. It's, it's a whole different,
• 23:24
  you know, there's this many people, it's only a little bit
• 23:28
  bigger by the way, but still extremely small of people who
• 23:31
  have actually who have qualified for a Team USA team that you
• 23:34
  wore USA across your chest. Yeah, it's pretty fun to.
• 23:38
  Me. That's way cool dude.
• 23:40
  Yeah, well, it's funny because you think about it nowadays, you
• 23:43
  wouldn't sniff it now the way the quality of track and field
• 23:46
  is now. But the fact is, you know what,
• 23:47
  Hey, it's all relative, right? So.
• 23:49
  Yeah, yeah. The quality, you don't, you
• 23:51
  know, this is a little bit like when people talk down a little
• 23:54
  bit about like a a small school state champion.
• 23:57
  Like if there's six different divisions, it's like, oh, you,
• 23:59
  you were the small school. It's like, well, that kid
• 24:01
  doesn't that kid didn't pick what schools or what school they
• 24:05
  they had the competition in front of them and beat them.
• 24:07
  So same thing with this. And you're right.
• 24:08
  You know, track today is, you know, I used to coach and I'm
• 24:13
  like, I don't know that I could have coached as good as these
• 24:15
  guys and gals are doing today. It's unbelievable what what is
• 24:17
  happening out there. But you back then, you didn't
• 24:20
  have anything to do with what how the quality or not quality,
• 24:23
  whatever. You had the people in front of
• 24:24
  you and you did it. That's so cool.
• 24:26
  How was that experience like? Yeah, you kind of went around
• 24:31
  the country, you know, living in Michigan, Washington, you're,
• 24:33
  you know, you're a southern Socal guy.
• 24:35
  We get very caught into, you know, Socal.
• 24:37
  So we know our people and America and blah, blah, blah.
• 24:40
  And we know there's other countries and things like that.
• 24:42
  But you went to attract me where you competed against someone
• 24:45
  from Greece and maybe someone from Kenya and someone from
• 24:48
  Canada. But like, you got to actually be
• 24:51
  on the track with like, like for me at least, it's maybe it's
• 24:55
  because I just, I've never, you know, and never even thought I,
• 24:58
  I didn't have the genetics to, to be able to do anything like
• 25:01
  that. That seems like kind of like a a
• 25:03
  worldview, eye opening experience of like, oh, there's
• 25:06
  a lot of people from a lot of different countries that are
• 25:10
  really good as well. It was, it was very eye opening.
• 25:15
  And you know, my I was my roommates were Mike Stoltz, who
• 25:17
  was a multiple time Olympian in the shot, but Kami Kashmiri, who
• 25:22
  was the national high school record holder in the discus
• 25:24
  throw. And it was just an amazing
• 25:26
  experience to see the level of commitment that those guys had
• 25:29
  to everything they did in the intensity level.
• 25:31
  I mean, if if you're playing cards, it was life or death.
• 25:33
  It was, it made me think, I used to think going into that, that I
• 25:36
  was a pretty competitive person, but there's a whole another
• 25:38
  level so that I couldn't quite get to as far as that was
• 25:42
  concerned. But it was, it was very fun to
• 25:43
  get to compete against, you know, the Germans and, and there
• 25:47
  were the Russians had a team back.
• 25:48
  There were all of the, IT was actually Russia, just an amazing
• 25:52
  experience. Do you remember who the coaches
• 25:55
  were for? For the team?
• 25:57
  Oh boy. It's it's a while back.
• 25:59
  I you get Grace on this one. Yeah.
• 26:00
  Yeah, so I do. Guy Kochel is the name of was
• 26:04
  the head coach and he was at Indiana State, Illinois State.
• 26:07
  They'll say I know that name somewhere.
• 26:09
  Yeah, yeah, yeah, right. Yeah.
• 26:10
  Guy Kochel was was the head coach and he and I drove from
• 26:17
  oh, we went to the trials in 92 together or in 88, the trials in
• 26:21
  Indy and then drove over to get on the bus basically in
• 26:24
  Columbus, OH and and start start meeting the team and having a
• 26:28
  great time together. Wow.
• 26:29
  When you were doing this, you're involved in a lot of different
• 26:32
  aspects of sports. Your dad's a coach.
• 26:35
  I'm not really necessarily hearing that.
• 26:36
  You were like, like nothing's told me yet.
• 26:38
  They're like, oh, I'm going to become a track coach as well.
• 26:40
  Not any thoughts of that at this kind of this 18 to 22 year old
• 26:44
  time. Sure.
• 26:45
  So there there were. There were times where I would I
• 26:49
  would coach. I coached high school, a few
• 26:51
  different high school teams at Santa Margarita Catholic High
• 26:54
  School in South Orange County when we lived there.
• 26:56
  And then we moved out to kind of an eastern part of, of Southern
• 27:00
  California called Marietta. And I was the head girls coach
• 27:03
  at Marietta Valley High School and for nine years when I lived
• 27:08
  there and then I coached when my kids went to Rancho Bernardo
• 27:10
  High School, I helped with the the jumps and, and kind of
• 27:13
  multis jumps situation there. So yeah, I've always tried to
• 27:17
  stay involved in it. But I think now that my kids are
• 27:19
  out of it and then and in college and and doing their own
• 27:22
  thing, the afternoons are are for me, which is nice.
• 27:25
  Yeah, no joke, right? Would but no thoughts of ever
• 27:28
  going into college track and field coaching.
• 27:31
  Never once. No.
• 27:33
  Never. Once.
• 27:35
  Never, no, never. I, I saw what it I saw what it
• 27:39
  did to my dad. I mean that the recruiting thing
• 27:41
  was really hard on my dad. He would, he would, he would
• 27:45
  come home and he would make his phone calls, right call, call
• 27:47
  the kids and he would have what he thought was the greatest
• 27:50
  kinship in the world. And then the next night he'd
• 27:53
  call the kid and the kid would say, oh, I chose Arizona State.
• 27:56
  And it, it damaged him. I mean, there were, you know,
• 27:59
  I'm not going to tell you there weren't holes in our walls.
• 28:01
  And you know, the plaster. It's, it's, it was pretty
• 28:05
  frustrating for him. And that, that kind of part of
• 28:07
  the, the business was tough. And then like I told you, he
• 28:10
  loved the D3 thing because there wasn't a lot of scholarship
• 28:13
  money and having to haggle over money all the time.
• 28:15
  I can't, I don't, I can't envision what it's like right
• 28:17
  now for these college coaches with NIL on top of scholarship
• 28:21
  stuff. It's got to be a really I don't
• 28:23
  envy their position at all. Yeah, I tell people.
• 28:25
  I probably have told you this, you know, we're, we're getting
• 28:28
  close to, you know, 300 episodes.
• 28:29
  So the over 300 coaches we've had on the show from all levels,
• 28:33
  high school, D1D23 and AI JUCO, etcetera.
• 28:36
  And I always say the D3 coaches, they just have a, they just have
• 28:40
  a bigger smile on their face. Everybody loves their jobs and
• 28:42
  you know, and every job has their ups and downs.
• 28:45
  But the D3 coaches, like I sometimes feel like, man, they
• 28:48
  have cracked the code. And I wonder, you know, I
• 28:51
  coached for 10 years for I came to here.
• 28:52
  I'm like, I wonder if I would have figured it out by now.
• 28:54
  Like what I've figured out, like, you know what, D3 is not
• 28:56
  bad. Maybe that's the route to go for
• 28:59
  coaching track, they seem. It is amazing and the quality is
• 29:02
  getting so good at the D3 level is out of control.
• 29:06
  Yeah, there is no like, oh go D3 and it don't matter if you're
• 29:09
  good or not. You know, you'll do the go go
• 29:11
  look at D3 nationals and by the way, 90% of those guys and gals,
• 29:16
  no slight to those athletes, but they were, I don't know if
• 29:20
  unrecruited is the right term, but you know, USC and Texas,
• 29:24
  we're not looking at those kids, right?
• 29:26
  And they, they're, they're eligible to transfer to USC.
• 29:29
  He's in Texas is now. I mean, it took what 10 O to win
• 29:32
  the 120 point or 21 low or something to it's just, it's,
• 29:36
  it's ridiculous. It really is.
• 29:38
  There's no hiding in this sport anymore, that's for sure.
• 29:40
  You, you got to step up anywhere if you're going to win in this
• 29:44
  sport. So you graduate.
• 29:49
  Hit me with that timeline. I know you're coaching things.
• 29:51
  When did you start working for VS?
• 29:54
  Like how long after? So VS basically VS or Sprinko at
• 29:59
  that point more from being the equipment supplier, sort of the
• 30:03
  equipment supplier for the 84 Olympics into he bought a bunch
• 30:07
  of Accutrac timing system. So he had probably six or eight
• 30:09
  of those. And he had timers that would
• 30:11
  come in and pick up the gear and we would time Long Beach State
• 30:14
  and Fullerton and UCLA and US CS meets and UC Irvine, my home, my
• 30:18
  home school. So I got to know the owner of
• 30:21
  the company, Brian Springer, because he was our finish line
• 30:23
  timer. So I would run across the finish
• 30:24
  line in the highs and run over to him and start look over at
• 30:27
  the Accutrac photos and say, what did I run?
• 30:29
  What did I run? And he finally about the fourth
• 30:31
  meet in said, you're really aggressive.
• 30:33
  I do you want to come work for me when you're when you're done
• 30:36
  doing this? And I said, sure, that sounds
• 30:38
  great. And it was it it was.
• 30:40
  I don't know if this is your interpretation when you first
• 30:42
  got to see the warehouse at Gill, but when I first walked
• 30:44
  into the warehouse at VSI was in love.
• 30:46
  It's shot puts and stopwatches. And it was it was like a candy
• 30:51
  store. I was like, I was like, I won
• 30:52
  the golden ticket. Willy Wonka.
• 30:53
  Yeah, that's exactly how I describe it.
• 30:56
  When they, you know, I, yeah, I knew track equipment from being
• 30:59
  a coach for so long, but I had no idea, like, what it means to
• 31:03
  make it and store it and what, you know, what's that look like?
• 31:05
  And I remember given they give me the tour and I literally,
• 31:09
  that was the way I described. I was like, oh, this is like
• 31:11
  Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory for track and field equipment.
• 31:14
  You know, there's all these machines doing stuff and there
• 31:16
  comes, you know, spits out a pole vault pit or pole, pole or
• 31:19
  disk. It's just, it was just like, I
• 31:21
  never thought you actually have to make this stuff.
• 31:24
  It really is cool and and it's super interesting in my opinion.
• 31:28
  Yeah, I I agree with that. So what did you start out with?
• 31:31
  You said you started out kind of in the factory or I'm sorry,
• 31:34
  yeah, in the storage like. So yeah, I start, there were
• 31:38
  there were basically two of us answering phones at that point.
• 31:40
  We were that small that there was there was Brian and there
• 31:43
  was a guy named Jeb Burgess who was our sales manager and Jeb
• 31:45
  had an office with a door. And then Rich Binola and I sat
• 31:49
  out and answered the phones, and Rich worked the 7:00 AM to 3:00
• 31:53
  PM shift because he was still competing.
• 31:56
  So he would get to leave right at 3:00.
• 31:58
  And then I'd come in and work 8:30 to 4:30.
• 32:00
  And then Jeb would have to answer the phones and at 5 from
• 32:04
  4:30 to 5:00, basically. And so we handled customer
• 32:07
  service and then we'd go out and tape up boxes.
• 32:09
  And if we had, you know, 400 boxes go on that day, I think
• 32:12
  actually the number was probably closer to 200 boxes would be a
• 32:14
  good day. We'd help the UPS guy, put him
• 32:16
  on his truck. And so it was kind of everything
• 32:18
  to suit the nuts kind of learning the business and it, it
• 32:21
  really helped me in my sales manager position that I'm in now
• 32:25
  knowing costs and, and understanding freights.
• 32:27
  And yes, people, there is a such thing as freight Amazon.
• 32:33
  Amazon has diluted everybody. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I.
• 32:36
  Don't know. How they're doing it, Yeah.
• 32:38
  No one in our no one in our world is Amazon.
• 32:40
  All right, guys, The cows. Yeah, just take that.
• 32:41
  Can I have free freight? I don't.
• 32:43
  I don't know how Amazon's doing. Well, I do.
• 32:46
  It's killing them by billions of packages a day.
• 32:49
  And. We forget, by the way, with
• 32:50
  Amazon that we all upfront pay, what is it, 120, a 130?
• 32:54
  I don't know what it is nowadays.
• 32:55
  So we all upfront pay 130. And remember there's lots of
• 32:58
  people with memberships. You can ever forget this with
• 33:01
  memberships. There is a certain percentage,
• 33:04
  let's just say it's 20% that don't use Amazon at all, but
• 33:06
  still pay that 120. Just like your Netflix.
• 33:08
  There's plenty of people who have Netflix accounts who don't
• 33:10
  ever watch it. So that's just the free money
• 33:12
  that they get. It's all supplementing the guys
• 33:14
  like, you know, because I'm married, I'm a super user.
• 33:16
  So I got, you know, the guy comes to my house like five
• 33:19
  times a day for some reason. I'm like, what are you doing?
• 33:21
  Hey, Mike. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 33:22
  It's like, Joe, what's up, man? One time Joe drove by and he was
• 33:26
  very sad because he didn't stop. And I was like, oh, wow, this I
• 33:28
  didn't know that was. I just thought we had a
• 33:30
  permanent stop anyway, Yeah, so you get to learn a lot.
• 33:33
  You get to kind of thrown right into the to the frying pan if
• 33:36
  you will. For sure.
• 33:37
  Yeah, it was, it was. And it was a great experience.
• 33:39
  I I got, I got a little frustrated with it.
• 33:42
  And I remember telling Brian, the owner of the company that,
• 33:45
  hey, in the days when it's slow, why don't you let me kind of
• 33:49
  create my own job and start going to schools, get out of
• 33:51
  here when the phone, when we only need one person to answer
• 33:54
  the phone and going and glad hand and going and make sure
• 33:58
  that we're top of mind for people so that when they do want
• 34:01
  to buy something, they go, Oh yeah, Matt was just in here last
• 34:03
  week. Let me get no buzz.
• 34:04
  And so he let me create that position, which was really kind
• 34:07
  of forward thinking on his part. And I, you know, on top of I was
• 34:10
  the sports writer for the Orange County edition of the LA Times.
• 34:14
  And so those coaches were calling wanting me to write
• 34:16
  about their kids and rank their team.
• 34:18
  And so that kind of created a little buzz for Spring Co as
• 34:21
  well. And so you, you kind of killed
• 34:23
  two birds with one stone there. So I wore a lot of hats in the
• 34:26
  early going and really I enjoyed it.
• 34:28
  Yeah, I was wondering you might have answered this question here
• 34:31
  because, you know, like with a kid, an athlete goes and becomes
• 34:34
  a GA. To me, that's still a fork in
• 34:37
  the road where they can decide, yeah, I'm going to continue on
• 34:39
  and become a track coach or I'll go use my degree and become
• 34:42
  whatever. When you first start a job, it's
• 34:47
  similar to that GA, like you, you still have a, you know,
• 34:50
  after one or two years, you could easily have left Sprinko
• 34:52
  and gone full time sports writing.
• 34:54
  No one would have said anything because you know you didn't like
• 34:56
  X or Y or Z, but you got to kind of it seems like you kind of
• 35:00
  liked the seeing how the this. I hate this term but I'm going
• 35:04
  to use it how the sausage is made and then also got to kind
• 35:07
  of explore your own Ave. in in the profession.
• 35:10
  So I did. I did kind of think the grass
• 35:13
  was greener and I left for 2 1/2 years and I went to work for
• 35:18
  Reebok. A guy named Peanut Harms that,
• 35:20
  you know, was that was basically the national team guy.
• 35:24
  Well, actually he's the West Coast team guy.
• 35:26
  And he said to me, his LA guy was just bombarded with just way
• 35:30
  too much work. And he said, hey, I need you to
• 35:32
  cover San Diego, Arizona and Vegas.
• 35:35
  And I want you to sell nothing but high school basketball,
• 35:40
  football and baseball. And then, you know, you're a
• 35:42
  track guy. So we'll, we'll get you selling
• 35:44
  Reebok tracks, bikes at that point.
• 35:46
  That was just right when the Dan and Dave thing had started.
• 35:50
  So it was kind of a cool. Well, it was on the tail end of
• 35:52
  the Dan and Dave thing, but but they had a little bit of
• 35:54
  authenticity where it came to track and field.
• 35:56
  So I left and did did some college basketball and high
• 35:59
  school basketball and pretty quickly realized the tracks
• 36:03
  where your bread should be buttered.
• 36:04
  So so I I came spreading back and it and it made a lot more
• 36:08
  sense to be back here. Was it?
• 36:10
  More that you weren't a basketball or a baseball guy?
• 36:13
  Or was it more that it was just shoes?
• 36:16
  Or was it maybe it was more organized?
• 36:19
  And what I mean by that is, you know, it's corporate, it's
• 36:21
  Reebok, you know, those kind of things versus, you know, you
• 36:23
  know, a little bit more you get to call your own shots a little
• 36:27
  bit more in the Springfield. So what?
• 36:28
  What was it that was like, yeah, this, this isn't for me.
• 36:33
  I think I just missed track and field.
• 36:34
  You know, I'm a track guy and we got away from it and, and I
• 36:38
  love, I love basketball games, but I'm not near as passionate
• 36:41
  about as I am about going to track me.
• 36:44
  And baseball even less so. And, you know, and football
• 36:49
  probably even even less so as far as, as far as going to
• 36:51
  events. And, and it was, it was a lot of
• 36:54
  having to call the equipment guy at the University of Hawaii and
• 36:57
  say, hey, your guy's wearing a pair of Nike shoes.
• 36:59
  He's supposed to be wearing Reebok.
• 37:01
  That's part of the contract. So you had to put a little bit
• 37:03
  of the heavy too. Not much.
• 37:05
  Not my favorite part of life. Yeah.
• 37:07
  I'd much rather just be everybody's friend and try to
• 37:09
  figure it out. Yeah, yeah.
• 37:11
  That, that makes sense about the the pull of track and field.
• 37:14
  You know, we when we're in it, we'd like to say the great sport
• 37:17
  of track of field or how awesome it's the number one sport,
• 37:20
  things like that. But I think sometimes we still
• 37:22
  take it for granted and sometimes we need that get away
• 37:25
  and like, wait, I miss it. I do wanna get back over here.
• 37:29
  When I left coaching, my statement literally to myself
• 37:33
  was like, well, how how can I get completely away from track
• 37:35
  and field and see if it still brings me back?
• 37:37
  And so, you know, of course I went to Vegas and played cards
• 37:39
  for a living. That was the farthest away from
• 37:41
  there is no track in in cards, which that actually didn't hold
• 37:44
  true because I met someone who's still very involved in track and
• 37:46
  field through that. But you know, through that
• 37:49
  journey of that, it was like, you know, I do miss being on the
• 37:53
  track or I do miss the hurdles, or I do miss, you know, talking
• 37:58
  about splits. And it's a, it's a unique sport,
• 38:01
  man. It really is.
• 38:02
  And it's, it attracts a lot of great people, that's for sure.
• 38:06
  Yeah, your your thumb and four fingers are probably, Oh my God,
• 38:09
  moving hurdles up and down. I I didn't have I didn't have
• 38:12
  fingerprints for a long time, bro.
• 38:14
  There's a lot of blood split spilled and it was all because I
• 38:16
  was just moving it up 303336 You know it, you know, you know it.
• 38:21
  So talk to us about, you know, how long you've been there at
• 38:24
  venue and then and how long. All right, not how long.
• 38:27
  So how long and then kind of the progression because now you're,
• 38:30
  you know, you do a little bit different job, you do some of
• 38:32
  the same things. Obviously maybe you're packing
• 38:34
  less boxes today hopefully, but you've progressed to where now
• 38:37
  you're overseeing people that were kind of you 10/15/20 years
• 38:42
  ago. Yeah, Yeah.
• 38:43
  So we've got a pretty good, a pretty good situation.
• 38:46
  Rich, my business partner loves to be in the office and he loves
• 38:50
  to function inside of square rooms.
• 38:52
  I cannot deal with that in the least.
• 38:55
  I need to be outside and on the go and kind of creating and, and
• 39:00
  do things off the cuff. And so we're, we're pretty good
• 39:02
  business partners from that standpoint in the fact that he
• 39:05
  handles all of the managerial type things, the purchasing, the
• 39:09
  overseeing, the purchasing and the hourly wage people, people
• 39:12
  calling in sick, whereas I'm just trying to make the phone
• 39:15
  ring 24/7. And so that's been, it's been a
• 39:18
  really good little partnership from that standpoint.
• 39:21
  We both kind of morphed from from being phone answers.
• 39:23
  So whenever one of the employees complaints about this job, blah,
• 39:27
  blah, blah, we, we did it. We did it.
• 39:29
  And I know that they're sick of hearing it, but we did, we've
• 39:31
  done all of them. So it's kind of a we've, it's
• 39:34
  kind of a you've, we've been there and done that.
• 39:37
  So work your way up. And you know, he, he mentions
• 39:42
  Rich Menoy, the business partner.
• 39:43
  So the same app you're using right now if you search Gil
• 39:45
  athletics and Rich Menoy, Rich has been on the show.
• 39:48
  I, I, you know, don't ask why Rich was on before Matt, I don't
• 39:51
  want to get into that whole tug of war.
• 39:53
  He's the boss. He's the boss.
• 39:56
  But fascinating story from Rich as well.
• 39:57
  Again, authenticity out the wazoo as far as being a hurdler.
• 40:01
  Being a very good world class hurdler, travelled the world
• 40:04
  hurdling for as long as he could.
• 40:07
  Step on that track. He he went through and raced in
• 40:10
  the hurdles and you know, that's my favorite event.
• 40:13
  So I'm, I'm more partial to Rich than I am Matt, Although the
• 40:16
  multis are my maybe #2 maybe, maybe I have a lot of respect
• 40:19
  for, for the the athletes and have athletes of the world.
• 40:21
  Of course, though, you know, one of the things I love this
• 40:25
  background. I love this, you know, it's your
• 40:27
  dad that's quite amazing. Your grandpa, for crying out
• 40:29
  loud, That's amazing. So I love that authenticity.
• 40:31
  One of the things that I really love about VS athletics.
• 40:35
  Talk to me a little bit about this state meet series, this
• 40:39
  indoor. I mean, you guys kind of created
• 40:41
  this thing and you it's almost a labor of love.
• 40:44
  I mean, it's, it's really cool because you're given
• 40:47
  opportunities for kids to compete in California and it may
• 40:51
  be a type of track that they maybe wouldn't have if it
• 40:54
  weren't for you guys and the helpers that you have.
• 40:57
  Sure. So a glaring weakness in the
• 40:58
  track schedule out here is that California doesn't have indoor
• 41:01
  track. And it just quite frankly,
• 41:03
  because we don't need it. It's, it's really, you know, I,
• 41:05
  I put on a jacket last night because it got below 70° when I
• 41:09
  went out to dinner. It was miserable.
• 41:10
  Mike, I think it's, I think it's 17 outside, by the way, just so
• 41:13
  you're aware. Yes, yes, keep going, keep
• 41:15
  going. So, so Bob Fraley, the old
• 41:18
  coach, long time guru at Fresno State, he had a donor who said,
• 41:25
  I want to get you guys an indoor track.
• 41:26
  And so within within Salem Arena, actually, no, it was in
• 41:31
  within their within their, their arena on campus where they play
• 41:34
  basketball. The only thing they could fit
• 41:36
  was 160 yard banked track. And So what they had to do was
• 41:43
  it was 11 laps to the mile track.
• 41:44
  So what is that? I guess maybe that's 150 yards,
• 41:47
  but they wanted into a track and bomb they fielded into a track.
• 41:50
  There were one of the few California schools that did.
• 41:52
  And so they were tired of having to go to Flagstaff for and the
• 41:57
  back boy back then, maybe even just University of Washington.
• 42:00
  I don't even know what was close back then.
• 42:01
  So they had a nice little following of teams that would go
• 42:04
  up there and run meets and and then they would always put on a
• 42:07
  high school meet, like kind of that Presidents Day weekend in
• 42:09
  February. And essentially that just that
• 42:13
  track just started. But when Bob retired, it started
• 42:15
  to kind of fall out of favor. The the university didn't
• 42:18
  question anything Bob did because he was a guru.
• 42:20
  And we're having that weekend And well, then basketball
• 42:23
  started to take it over and, and the track started to get stored
• 42:26
  outside. And we finally, rich worked with
• 42:28
  Bob and said, Hey, we'll put the meat on.
• 42:30
  Let us put the meat on. We want to keep it going.
• 42:32
  It's good for the kids to have an indoor exposure.
• 42:35
  And because kids, California kids want to leave the state,
• 42:38
  they want to go and run indoor track, they want to go other
• 42:40
  places and they're going to need some experience with it.
• 42:42
  So we, we put on that and basically it was a series of all
• 42:47
  comers meets with a qualifying stand.
• 42:49
  So if you run under 9.0 in the 660 meter hurdles you're in and
• 42:54
  you, you know, you pay your entry fee before you leave the
• 42:57
  meet at the all comers meet. And we show up at the meet, you
• 42:59
  get AT shirt and a lane and we run it off and it's an all day
• 43:02
  thing. Well, that track, they stopped
• 43:04
  storing it inside. They stored it outside.
• 43:07
  It got basically dilapidated to the point where it was done.
• 43:10
  There have been probably 10, the 12 people I've heard over the
• 43:12
  years who wanted to buy it, us included.
• 43:14
  And Fresno State was haggling over we want 150 grand, we want
• 43:18
  200 grand. And people were saying you're
• 43:21
  not using it just here, we'll give you 1000 bucks.
• 43:24
  It was going to cost 100 grand to move it because it would
• 43:27
  require I think 3 different flat beds easily.
• 43:31
  So it's just nobody with big enough pockets decided they want
• 43:33
  to do it. So the meat is more from being
• 43:36
  inside the arena. It's called Save Mart Center
• 43:38
  inside the Save Mart Center to outdoor at Arcadia High School.
• 43:42
  And you know, Arcadia is a good venue for us because Arcadia
• 43:45
  Invitational is the biggest meet in the Southland.
• 43:47
  Kids all want to get on that track.
• 43:49
  And so it was a logical thing for us to kind of reach out to
• 43:51
  Arcadia and, and put it on there.
• 43:54
  So I think there are about 20 qualifying meets now throughout
• 43:57
  the throughout the state of California and get in here and
• 44:01
  get in here and get going and you get the qualifying numbers.
• 44:03
  We'll see you that weekend. And, and we have at it, it's a
• 44:05
  it's a long day, but it's cool. So we can, we can, we don't call
• 44:09
  it an indoor championship. We call it the the VS California
• 44:11
  Winter Championships, all, all indoor distances and kind of
• 44:15
  kind of cool stuff. So.
• 44:17
  You know, I, I do love the opportunity.
• 44:19
  You know, we had one of the coaches from North Carolina who
• 44:22
  same thing that, you know, they all throughout the country, we
• 44:25
  don't have enough inventory of indoor facilities.
• 44:27
  So same thing in North Carolina. They're like, I we don't have
• 44:30
  enough indoor facilities. So we should still give our kids
• 44:32
  the opportunity to know what a 60M feels like a 300 and things
• 44:36
  like that. And so they host these, you
• 44:37
  know, they started calling polar bear meets in while they're not
• 44:41
  indoor, at least the kids when they go to college, maybe for
• 44:43
  the first time, they aren't just completely floor that there's a
• 44:45
  60 instead of 100 and things like that.
• 44:47
  So just creating opportunities I think is what is the real like
• 44:51
  what I love about what you guys are doing there because it gives
• 44:54
  the kids the opportunity to not just have to wait until outdoor
• 44:56
  season, you know, gives gives again more opportunity and I
• 44:59
  think that's a a great thing for our sport.
• 45:01
  Yeah. And both Rich and I had this
• 45:03
  vision about track and field. We both got into this knowing we
• 45:06
  weren't going to be millionaires or even frankly, 100
• 45:09
  thousandaires. We're we're just going to make a
• 45:10
  little bit of money enough to to survive.
• 45:12
  But we're in the sport that we love and we want to further the
• 45:15
  sport. And so if we can present more
• 45:17
  opportunities and get some more of those football kids to run
• 45:19
  track and pull some kids out of baseball and into track in the
• 45:22
  springtime, that's a win for us. And so we really are about
• 45:26
  trying to help the sport grow. Yeah, I mean, there's, there's
• 45:28
  some money to be made in it, but that's not the that's not the
• 45:30
  driving force behind why we get out of bed every.
• 45:33
  Yeah, I love that. So we talked about Grandpa, we
• 45:35
  talked about Dad and his legacy. We talked about you and the
• 45:38
  things you accomplished. You were Team USA.
• 45:40
  That's that's crazy. But it doesn't stop there.
• 45:45
  What happens? Do we Do we have little farmers
• 45:48
  running around doing track as well?
• 45:50
  Not so little farmers so little yeah both of them both of them
• 45:54
  are are pretty good. Josh just finished his college
• 45:57
  career and JC is in in the midst of hers at BYU.
• 46:00
  So you know the the the young, the younger one JC is a third
• 46:06
  year student running at BYU for Diljit.
• 46:09
  She's she was an 815 hundred 800 Miller in high school pretty you
• 46:14
  know like 451 Miller and A2 11800m runner and she was fifth
• 46:18
  in the California State meet large schools and cross country
• 46:21
  around 1740 up at Woodward Park. She's we had a pretty good skill
• 46:24
  set and her, her, she was a soccer player all growing up.
• 46:29
  She's 6/1 as an adult. And I was very, very tall.
• 46:32
  And so she was always a soccer player of the center forward
• 46:35
  growing up. And it was essentially kick the
• 46:36
  ball high to JC and she's going to head it in the goal.
• 46:39
  And so that attracted a lot of attention collegiately from.
• 46:42
  So she actually committed to the University of Arizona as a
• 46:45
  freshman in high school to play for them soccer.
• 46:48
  And yeah, yeah. And this is before she'd ever
• 46:52
  even basically run a step of tracking in her life.
• 46:55
  And by the time the summer before her senior year came
• 46:59
  around, she she she said, boy, I don't, I don't, I don't know
• 47:04
  that I think I love track more than more than soccer.
• 47:06
  I think this is I think I need to tell the Arizona coach that I
• 47:10
  I want to I want to pursue track and the, the the handshake deal
• 47:14
  was always going to be you can go run for coach Harvey at at
• 47:17
  Arizona, but we all know how that goes, right?
• 47:19
  You're going to you're going to get roped in and then it's going
• 47:21
  to be so well. So she set up an appointment to
• 47:25
  talk to him and he said, Oh, I was been meaning to talk to you.
• 47:27
  We have a conference call with all of the freshman Siamese for
• 47:29
  next year's team tomorrow morning at a zoom call.
• 47:33
  OK, The Zoom call says. The coach says I've taken the
• 47:36
  job at University of Florida, so I'm letting all of you out of
• 47:38
  your letters of intent. And she was like.
• 47:42
  Wow, I mean this is a bit like a sign there too you.
• 47:46
  Know well, there it is. I mean, there it is.
• 47:47
  But I mean we were, we went from basically having college paid
• 47:50
  for now to the start of senior year.
• 47:53
  We don't have any, we don't have a seat for her.
• 47:55
  The music has stopped. So I said write down your list.
• 47:58
  You know, luckily I'm in this business.
• 48:00
  And so I said, write down your 10 schools that you want to go,
• 48:03
  that you think you want to run for, and I'll probably know six
• 48:06
  of them and we'll just start the process here and let's go.
• 48:09
  And so one of the ones on the list was, was BYU.
• 48:14
  And I said, Are you sure that's for you?
• 48:15
  We're not, we don't, we're not a, we don't go to church on
• 48:18
  Sunday. We're just not, we're, we're,
• 48:20
  we're, we're, we're a strong family, but we don't, not, not
• 48:24
  churchy and, and, and especially don't know anything about the
• 48:28
  Latter Day Saints community. And she said, she said that I
• 48:31
  just want to go somewhere where I'm, I'm in the middle of the
• 48:35
  pack and I'm and I'm struggling to get to where I'm getting
• 48:38
  noticed. Like I love, I love, yeah, I'd
• 48:41
  love to get my butt kicked every day.
• 48:43
  And her high school scenario was I LED every interval and she
• 48:48
  went every race, but she won, you know, quite a few races.
• 48:50
  There were there were some really good girls in San Diego.
• 48:52
  She had to race, but she wanted a training situation where she
• 48:55
  would get worked over on a daily basis.
• 48:57
  And so I've reached out to Dilji and she said, well, actually
• 49:01
  we're having girls up for football recruiting weekend next
• 49:04
  weekend. Is she open?
• 49:05
  And she worked it out with the cross country coach and went up
• 49:08
  and, and Dilji called me that Monday and said, I think she'll
• 49:12
  fit in here. I do because Dilji, no, she's
• 49:14
  not LDS. And so she's from an outsider's
• 49:17
  perspective, She said it's not for everybody.
• 49:19
  And she said, I'll be very blunt with you and very honest with
• 49:21
  you. If I don't think she can handle
• 49:22
  it, she said, I'd love to have a girl with her talent level, you
• 49:27
  know, just kind of as a, as a throw in here, basically as a
• 49:29
  last minute recruit. And, and so when Dilji talked
• 49:34
  about the finances that they could cover for her and, and the
• 49:37
  possibilities JC signed within within with that signing period
• 49:42
  and it was done like that. I mean, a coach has to be like
• 49:45
  salivating when they hear, you know, 450 in the mile.
• 49:48
  Let's be real here. That's good.
• 49:51
  I, I know there's faster, but there's a lot slower as well.
• 49:54
  450 completely legit here and doesn't want to go to some place
• 49:58
  that, well, I'd like to be the number one kid, blah, blah,
• 50:00
  blah. I assume you hear that a lot
• 50:02
  from, from good kids and things like that.
• 50:04
  This kid wanted to be I, I want to get my butt kicked.
• 50:08
  I think is the quote you said, like you got to think as a
• 50:10
  coach, like, oh, this, this kid must be tough.
• 50:12
  Like you don't just do that and, and, and you're made of glass
• 50:15
  here. You must be tough.
• 50:16
  And that's the kind of kid I want to work with here.
• 50:18
  Holy cow. Super tough.
• 50:21
  I don't know that I've ever met a tougher kid.
• 50:23
  I mean, I can't I can't tell you the things that she's she's
• 50:26
  dealt with in her, you know, six year, seven-year running career
• 50:29
  and it's, it's I'm so proud. What a what a phenomenal kid.
• 50:33
  And you know, I'm probably have the numbers on.
• 50:35
  She might have run 453 in high school, but she was.
• 50:37
  She was. You know, she was she finished,
• 50:39
  I think she was 8th in the state made in California.
• 50:41
  So correct She was she was she was one of the one of the ones
• 50:43
  kind of on the periphery of being a being a ringer.
• 50:46
  So she she had a great rural high school career in colleges.
• 50:49
  College has gone great. She's ended up running, she got
• 50:51
  fourth in the Big 12 in the 5K last year and then she was
• 50:56
  indoors and outdoors. And then I think she was she was
• 50:59
  on their DMR that that was that was I think they were second in
• 51:03
  the conference and then they end up winning the national title.
• 51:06
  She was the alternate they they subbed in somebody for but she's
• 51:09
  run sixteen O 9 for 5K now and converted and 4:17 in the 1500s.
• 51:14
  So things are going really, really well.
• 51:16
  You got a great group of girls to run with.
• 51:18
  Holy, that big, that Big 12, you know, it's a whole different
• 51:20
  conflict and and tough. I was at the Big 12, you know,
• 51:25
  David's son ran for Baylor and you know, so I go to for Ryan's
• 51:29
  senior year and he's, you know, because of storms and all that,
• 51:35
  they don't race until literally midnight.
• 51:37
  So I'm there, you know, cheering.
• 51:38
  I've known him since he was a little kid, you know, so I'm
• 51:39
  cheering him on and he gets he gets 10th or something like
• 51:42
  that, or maybe, maybe night. Maybe he's one away from scoring
• 51:45
  And well, there was a little bit of separation and I was like,
• 51:47
  Oh, you know, it's a good race. He did run he PR D and then I
• 51:51
  started thinking, you know, started looking at what the
• 51:53
  actual top eight were. That Big 12 is a distance
• 51:57
  conference, bro. So if she gets fifth in the
• 52:00
  5000, I mean, honestly, 5th place 5000 on BYU's team, I
• 52:05
  guarantee you is really good. Yeah, 5th in that conference.
• 52:09
  That's legit. That's so cool man.
• 52:13
  Yeah, so things are going her way.
• 52:14
  She had a little, she qualified for regionals last year and got
• 52:17
  hurt, so she had a little surgery.
• 52:19
  So she redshirted cross country and ended up winning the
• 52:21
  national title just a couple weeks ago.
• 52:24
  She's going to redshirt indoors and then run outdoors and, and
• 52:26
  the game plan is because of her height and her athleticism,
• 52:29
  she's going to steeplechase eventually.
• 52:30
  So that's kind of where her bread's going to get buttered.
• 52:32
  That's the best distance event in my opinion.
• 52:34
  So I it should, it should cap out there.
• 52:36
  It should be the 3000 steeple. Nothing.
• 52:39
  Easy, you're going to you're not making any friends saying that
• 52:41
  you. Know I've said it many times and
• 52:44
  I'll keep saying I've seen some good 5000 meter races.
• 52:47
  I really have. There's been some fun ones that,
• 52:49
  you know, competitive and things like that.
• 52:50
  I can't think of a single 10,000 and that includes when I
• 52:53
  coached. And so I had kids, you know, not
• 52:54
  that I coached him, but you know, we had kids in the 10,000.
• 52:57
  I was still like, no, I can't, you know, I can't do this guys.
• 53:00
  Ryan's was cool because I knew Ryan, but man, I've not.
• 53:04
  It's too many laps, bro. It's too many laps, too many
• 53:06
  laps. You missed out on Hampton
• 53:07
  Samuel. New Mexico falls with 900 meters
• 53:09
  to go in the men's 10K last year at the NCAA.
• 53:11
  Gets up and wins the race that was That was one of the best
• 53:14
  things I've seen in my 50 plus years of track.
• 53:16
  He could have done it in 1000m race and it would have been it
• 53:19
  would have been as exciting we might.
• 53:21
  Have been. Now the steeple.
• 53:23
  Come on now. Yeah, that's I love.
• 53:26
  I love this perfect disc. I mean, 3000 is really good and
• 53:29
  obviously barriers and water in there makes it a lot of fun.
• 53:32
  Great, great, great race. Love that you mentioned Diljit.
• 53:35
  By the way, Diljit's podcast alum #2 most listened to episode
• 53:40
  we've ever had behind the great Bush ex Nader.
• 53:42
  So again, I would highly encourage you to go listen to
• 53:45
  Diljit. Great story.
• 53:46
  And I do love, you know, she's real.
• 53:48
  She died. I don't know that she
• 53:50
  understands what sugar coating means.
• 53:52
  There is no sugar coating. She understands people and young
• 53:56
  people how to work with them. But you're going to get the
• 53:58
  truth from from a Dilji Taylor, so.
• 54:01
  Think about, think about that program, how you've got 17 girls
• 54:04
  that are the number one girl on their high school team coming in
• 54:07
  and all of them are used to being baby.
• 54:09
  And she is incredible at making sure everyone understands it's
• 54:16
  team first. It's all about team their their
• 54:19
  number one gal, Lexi. Lexi this year didn't run at
• 54:22
  regionals because of a very serious injury.
• 54:25
  And there was never a thought in Lexi's mind that I'm going to
• 54:28
  sit out the national meet. I'm running it hurt and it's it.
• 54:31
  I don't know exactly what the injury ended up being, but it's
• 54:33
  something rather serious. And she ran and finished the
• 54:36
  best she's ever finished in the after meet and they won in a
• 54:38
  landslide. It was it's she she does an
• 54:41
  amazing job. I agree.
• 54:43
  She really does. I love what they.
• 54:44
  Do and it was cool to see a a double win, right, like the many
• 54:48
  and the women win like that, just in different coaches.
• 54:50
  It's not like the same like I just thought that was kind of
• 54:52
  kind of cool, man. I just thought that was really
• 54:54
  interesting. And 100% American is Yeah.
• 54:58
  On those. Yes.
• 54:58
  Yeah. Interesting.
• 55:00
  Yeah, interesting. Yeah.
• 55:01
  It was good. So lot of fun.
• 55:02
  So. So that's JC.
• 55:04
  And then Josh, My, my oldest is he just turned 25 two days ago.
• 55:10
  He is, he is on the staff now with Steve Rainbolt at Wichita
• 55:14
  State. Just took a a job being
• 55:16
  Rainbolt's assistant multi coach and, and, and Heidi's assistant
• 55:20
  jump coach. So he's been there since October
• 55:23
  1 and loving it. And they, they've got a great
• 55:27
  group. I think they're, I think there
• 55:28
  are 11 multi vendors in, in the group.
• 55:31
  So it's, it's a pretty phenomenal group.
• 55:33
  And, and, and basically Rainbolt either takes the guys and gives
• 55:37
  Josh the girls or takes the girls and gives Josh the guys or
• 55:40
  takes half of the half the event and says, Josh, you go deal with
• 55:43
  the shot all the, all the deal with the discus guys today.
• 55:46
  So he's, he's learning from a guru Steve Rainbow St. coaching
• 55:50
  tree is, is as phenomenal as there is anywhere in this
• 55:53
  country. And so if, if that's the path he
• 55:56
  decides he wants to go down as an adult, this is he's in a
• 55:59
  great place to start. So he just, he just graduated
• 56:02
  from UC Irvine. He got his master's, an MBA and
• 56:06
  Irvine luckily put up with him for for five years and and he
• 56:09
  graduated there with that MBA and he was a three time all
• 56:13
  American in the decathlon for the Anteaters and ended up 177
• 56:17
  O3 made the trials and and then by virtue of his finish at the
• 56:22
  trials and some other amazing things, he got to be on the full
• 56:25
  cup team. So he got to go to Germany this
• 56:26
  summer and wear Team USA on his chest.
• 56:29
  Pretty pretty cool, pretty cool summer.
• 56:32
  Pretty great way to end things and so.
• 56:34
  What's it like, first of all, quick plug again, Steve Rainbolt
• 56:38
  Go podcast alum. Go listen to his story as well.
• 56:40
  What's what's it like? You know, my kids are 8th grade
• 56:43
  and 5th grade and, you know, they're starting to have some
• 56:46
  accolades in their own little things that they do.
• 56:49
  You know, my little girl has got Allstate and choir and things
• 56:52
  like that. And my son has been Allstate for
• 56:54
  middle school for bass fishing of all things.
• 56:57
  He's what? Oh, yeah.
• 56:59
  He's addicted, completely addicted, which I love it.
• 57:01
  He it's awesome. I mean, it's his whole life.
• 57:05
  But, you know, to see your kids, I mean, you knew these kids when
• 57:08
  they were in diapers and, you know, they couldn't pick up a
• 57:12
  spoon to feed themselves, you know?
• 57:14
  And now they're, you know, representing Team USA and
• 57:18
  they're on a squad and contributing to a squad that
• 57:21
  wins national titles and gets all Americans.
• 57:25
  You yourself or good athlete, your dad.
• 57:28
  I mean, there's a lineage there. I mean, just what is that like
• 57:31
  as a dad? I can't, like I can't even wrap
• 57:34
  my head around it yet, even at this age and stage of where I am
• 57:36
  in fatherhood. It's excruciating.
• 57:39
  It's it's so much more nerve wracking than when you do it
• 57:42
  yourself. You're you're in control.
• 57:44
  There's no control as a parents and all you ever want from the
• 57:48
  time these kids are little is AI want them to like what they're
• 57:52
  doing athletically, BI want them to have some success and and CI
• 57:58
  want them to make friends while doing and, and both of them have
• 58:03
  had a ton of them. But as far as the, the nail
• 58:06
  biting and the the parenting is brutal.
• 58:10
  It is just an absolutely excruciating experience.
• 58:12
  And and you know, the the JC the my daughter was, was kind of a a
• 58:19
  man child from the time she was little.
• 58:20
  She was always the biggest kid by a head.
• 58:22
  And so there was not really ever going to be an issue there.
• 58:26
  But but Josh was, you know, he was me.
• 58:27
  He was a skinny little little guy and a really good little
• 58:31
  athlete, but just not, not the biggest kid, not the strongest
• 58:34
  kid, not the fastest kid, but a really good athlete.
• 58:36
  And then as he got to be 19/20/21 years old and, and
• 58:40
  muscle started to happen and, and then technique started to he
• 58:44
  got some real coaching instead of listening to his dad.
• 58:46
  Things really started to take off.
• 58:48
  And it was it's it's been so much fun to watch.
• 58:50
  What? What kind of observer dad are
• 58:54
  you as as the kids were, as he was competing and now she is
• 58:58
  competing. Are you the nervous Nelly?
• 59:00
  Are you the quiet sit at the very top and let let everything
• 59:03
  happen? Do you try to get involved as
• 59:06
  far as like talking during the not during the event, but you
• 59:09
  know, in between events? What kind of dad are you because
• 59:12
  you've seen and you've been around a lot of other great
• 59:14
  coaches and things like that. So you you know, this ain't just
• 59:17
  some dad off the street. You know what's going on here.
• 59:19
  What kind of dad are you on that?
• 59:21
  So you know the guy at the NCA meet that you can hear from the
• 59:24
  other side of the bleachers that screams I.
• 59:27
  Don't. Know who?
• 59:28
  I don't know who that is, but he's everywhere.
• 59:31
  I'm not that loud. Probably.
• 59:34
  I'm. I'm probably the second loudest
• 59:35
  guy. And it's.
• 59:38
  Yeah, I mean, as a cheerleader, though, not just, you know, my
• 59:41
  my son, he used to sleep like he used to sleep like this.
• 59:44
  So we called him Super Jay. His name's Josh.
• 59:46
  We call the Super Jay from a very early age.
• 59:48
  And so I've always abbreviated that the soup.
• 59:50
  So I would just, I would yell soup from, you know, wherever I
• 59:53
  was sitting if he was throwing the discus.
• 59:55
  And I'm on the other side. But.
• 59:57
  But I'm probably louder than the average parent for sure.
• 1:00:00
  You know, probably a little bit embarrassing for the kids, but
• 1:00:05
  my heart's in the right place. Yeah.
• 1:00:06
  Hey. You know, when you're parents,
• 1:00:10
  come on, you get a lot of grace of life.
• 1:00:12
  Well, you know, you've been through a lot with this 20 year
• 1:00:15
  old or whatever, you know, whatever age they're at, you've
• 1:00:17
  been through the ups and downs and there's plenty of both of
• 1:00:20
  those as as a parent, man. Well, that's cool man.
• 1:00:23
  You know, that's a, you know, there's successes both
• 1:00:27
  academically and athletically and socially.
• 1:00:31
  You know, you don't bear all the, the, the fruits of it, but
• 1:00:35
  you're, you're a leader for them.
• 1:00:36
  I mean, they, they got to see leadership from you and the
• 1:00:40
  family as far as what's the right thing to do and the right
• 1:00:42
  things to pursue. And so it's a great example of,
• 1:00:45
  of you and, and what you do and how you conduct yourself,
• 1:00:49
  looking at the successes that your kids have had and, and will
• 1:00:51
  have, you know, they're not done.
• 1:00:53
  He's going to go on and do some great things in coaching and
• 1:00:55
  she's going to continue doing some amazing things
• 1:00:57
  athletically. So kudos to you, dad, man, it's
• 1:00:59
  not easy. I know what I'm in.
• 1:01:01
  Like I said, I'm in the thick of it at this age and you know what
• 1:01:03
  those ages, you know, you've been through my ages that I'm at
• 1:01:06
  with my kids. So kudos to you, man.
• 1:01:08
  That's really cool. It's a great example for a guy
• 1:01:10
  like me on on fatherhood. Brother really is.
• 1:01:12
  Yeah, wouldn't, wouldn't change it for the world.
• 1:01:14
  It's been, it's been a pretty amazing deal.
• 1:01:16
  I love it. I love it.
• 1:01:17
  It's hard to pivot from that subject, but I am what I'm
• 1:01:21
  curious about here, Matt, you know, you have gotten to do a
• 1:01:24
  lot of cool things. We we need to talk a little bit
• 1:01:26
  about some of the ESPN things you've done as well that, you
• 1:01:28
  know, kind of go along with that theme of the journalism that
• 1:01:32
  you've done. But you've got to be at a lot of
• 1:01:34
  different meets, Olympic trials and things like that and other
• 1:01:36
  meets. And you've got to see a bunch of
• 1:01:38
  different athletes. You've got to see athletes that,
• 1:01:41
  you know, maybe you barely kind of recognize who they were and
• 1:01:44
  they even become a gold medalist and stuff like that.
• 1:01:46
  What's been like when you think about all these memories of
• 1:01:49
  track and field that you have been able to see, what's been
• 1:01:52
  like, like what's one or two like?
• 1:01:54
  Just top memories of like, oh man, I got to see this or that
• 1:01:57
  happened in front of me or I was there when this happened.
• 1:02:00
  What's kind of some of the like, boy, I kind of pinched myself.
• 1:02:03
  Can't believe I was there to to see that.
• 1:02:05
  You know, as a, as a track fan, probably the 84 Olympics was,
• 1:02:08
  was the pinnacle of my track and field world.
• 1:02:12
  Getting to see Carl Lewis and, and, and those type of things.
• 1:02:16
  That was that was a pretty amazing Olympic Games and and I
• 1:02:20
  was there for Gabrielle Anderson Shice the the marathon are
• 1:02:23
  finishing staggering across the last 100 meters and those those
• 1:02:26
  they're just kind of things that stick out in your mind is and
• 1:02:30
  and I was, you know, 15 at that point.
• 1:02:32
  So I wasn't necessarily all sold on track.
• 1:02:34
  I still thought I was going to be some basketball player.
• 1:02:38
  Luckily I got smart in a hurry, but that was probably the
• 1:02:41
  highlight of, of track and field for me, the 84 games.
• 1:02:46
  And then you know, it stuff with my kids is, is just the is I
• 1:02:50
  know what my what my daughter went through and to get fifth in
• 1:02:53
  the California State meeting cross country was, was pretty
• 1:02:55
  amazing and, and something I'm super proud of her for being
• 1:02:58
  able to do. And you know, Josh, getting to
• 1:03:01
  where Team USA stuff in Germany was, was an amazing experience
• 1:03:05
  and just something he'll remember for the rest of his
• 1:03:07
  life. And I'm so happy that they
• 1:03:09
  figured out a way to to get him on the team.
• 1:03:11
  And, you know, my, my man Kevin Reed pulled pulled some strings
• 1:03:15
  there and Josh qualified. And so it's, you know, those are
• 1:03:17
  those are probably the highlights for me as far as, as
• 1:03:20
  far as the Track World goes. Yeah.
• 1:03:24
  Wait, you're just throwing it on thick on this good dad thing,
• 1:03:26
  because I know you've been around world records, you've
• 1:03:28
  seen those happen, you've seen gold medalist walk right next to
• 1:03:32
  you, you've talked and, you know, maybe even become friends
• 1:03:34
  with some gold medalist and things like that.
• 1:03:36
  And yet, besides the 84 Olympics, which, you know,
• 1:03:39
  we're, we're of a similar age here, Matt.
• 1:03:42
  That's the, you know, that's what got me in the track.
• 1:03:44
  It was watching the 84 Olympics as well.
• 1:03:47
  So it's a kind of a iconic the Olympics of all the other ones
• 1:03:50
  that I've seen and you know, amazing things have happened. 84
• 1:03:53
  still that sticks out for for lots of reasons and yet your
• 1:03:56
  highlights are oh man, you know watching my son watching my
• 1:04:00
  daughter cross country in 5th place and my son where that's
• 1:04:04
  your highlights. That's awesome bro.
• 1:04:06
  You're such a good dad, dude. That's the.
• 1:04:07
  Way well, it's, it's funny, I think back about my dad when I
• 1:04:11
  he, he was a world class or national class swimmer at the
• 1:04:14
  age of about 16. And he hadn't made a decision
• 1:04:17
  whether he was going to be a track guy or a swimmer at that
• 1:04:20
  point. And at the 56 Olympic trials,
• 1:04:23
  his dad drove him down. They were they were in Northern
• 1:04:25
  California. His dad drove him down to the
• 1:04:26
  Coliseum to watch the 56th. And Charlie Dumas was the first
• 1:04:30
  man to clear 7 feet in the high jump.
• 1:04:31
  And from that moment on, my dad never swam again.
• 1:04:34
  He said, this track is what I'm doing.
• 1:04:35
  This is the most amazing thing in the world.
• 1:04:37
  So when I called my dad on a pay phone when I first jumped 7 feet
• 1:04:40
  for the first time, he doesn't he's never cried in front of me.
• 1:04:44
  But that was that was a teary moment.
• 1:04:46
  He said I cannot believe you just told me that like that was
• 1:04:49
  that was the moment in his life that changed, made him into a
• 1:04:52
  track person for life. Well, and think about that.
• 1:04:55
  He saw 7 feet, which was magic. I mean, it's a barrier, right?
• 1:04:57
  And that's the first guy to see. He saw like no one jumped 7
• 1:05:00
  feet. And now I saw the very first one
• 1:05:02
  and now my son jumps it. I mean, that's, I don't know if
• 1:05:06
  that's full circle. That's like unbelievable.
• 1:05:08
  It's like, wait, I never, no one jumped 7 feet and I didn't know
• 1:05:11
  my future son would be one that would jump 7 feet.
• 1:05:14
  That's so cool, man. That's what makes this sport
• 1:05:16
  magical. I don't think other sports have
• 1:05:18
  the, the, the plethora of, of stories that can happen like we
• 1:05:22
  do. That's, that's amazing to me.
• 1:05:24
  It really is. Yeah, well thank God for rubber
• 1:05:26
  take off runways and and magic shoes.
• 1:05:29
  A little different from when the first guy did it.
• 1:05:31
  Sure, sure. Sure, I get it.
• 1:05:31
  I get it. The the crossbar was a little
• 1:05:34
  bit more forgiving as well. It was a lot.
• 1:05:36
  Yeah. Yeah, for sure.
• 1:05:37
  For sure, those steel triangle crossbars.
• 1:05:40
  I, I still don't know, like who invented that and thought that
• 1:05:43
  was a good idea. Like, hey, let's, let's make it,
• 1:05:45
  let's make it a triangle and metal.
• 1:05:47
  By the way, I I don't. Know that's a that's a testament
• 1:05:50
  to our man Harry Gill. I think he came up with that
• 1:05:52
  formal idea and then he just got smarter as he went along.
• 1:05:55
  Yeah, I, I, I never wanted to depend on Harry because I was
• 1:05:58
  like, you know, that's just a bad idea.
• 1:06:01
  Of course. What else were the alternatives
• 1:06:02
  back then? But but then I'm like, well,
• 1:06:04
  there weren't a lot of people doing that kind of stuff back
• 1:06:07
  then when Harry was doing it either.
• 1:06:08
  So it probably was probably was Harry GAIL.
• 1:06:10
  Yeah, Yeah. Man.
• 1:06:11
  Oh, man. God rest his soul.
• 1:06:13
  All right, Matt, wrap us up here.
• 1:06:14
  So, you know, today you serve as the national sales manager,
• 1:06:17
  serving coaches around the country, around the world and
• 1:06:20
  track and field equipment. What's the what's the future
• 1:06:23
  look like, man? What do you get?
• 1:06:24
  What's got you excited here for the next season coming up or the
• 1:06:27
  next couple of seasons, whatever.
• 1:06:29
  However you define future, what's got you excited?
• 1:06:31
  Well, immediately on the horizon as you and I are both going to
• 1:06:34
  meet up in Orlando on Sunday night here and have a a week at
• 1:06:38
  the Sam's scene with on US Track and field cross Country Coaches
• 1:06:41
  Association convention. It's always the highlight of my
• 1:06:44
  year. Like you mentioned, it is up
• 1:06:45
  here for you too. Having the majority of your
• 1:06:49
  college clients and friends and peers and people you want to
• 1:06:52
  meet all in one roof at one time is is a pretty amazing
• 1:06:57
  situation. And Sam's, Sam's a genius for
• 1:06:59
  being able to pull this off Great job.
• 1:07:01
  Yeah. And you know, we might get to
• 1:07:03
  sniff and see Tiger Woods and and Charlie Woods and John Daly
• 1:07:06
  and Little John and all that stuff too.
• 1:07:07
  So, yeah, that's the that's on the immediate horizon.
• 1:07:10
  And then I'm just super looking forward to outdoor season and
• 1:07:15
  kind of seeing how the Wichita State Shockers can can get
• 1:07:18
  things done for for my for my son coaching and, and then
• 1:07:22
  obviously my my BYU Cougars now with JC going to run some
• 1:07:24
  outdoor track. So I'm just super excited about
• 1:07:27
  about the things here coming up in the springtime.
• 1:07:29
  We've got a bunch of good track meets coming up.
• 1:07:32
  Our VS series starts Saturday, the outdoors, the winter
• 1:07:36
  championships, the first meets are are this Saturday.
• 1:07:38
  Wow, yeah. So we've got that.
• 1:07:40
  We've got that, Bruin. So, so yeah, things are good,
• 1:07:44
  man. And I don't know about you, but
• 1:07:46
  post Olympic year, as always, there's a little bit more track
• 1:07:49
  and field plus, because kids watch it on on TV and go, I want
• 1:07:55
  to do that next year. I want to be the next Usain Bolt
• 1:07:57
  or I want to be the next Gout or whatever the new hot name is,
• 1:08:01
  right? So yeah, I'm super excited to
• 1:08:04
  see what this track season holds.
• 1:08:06
  It should be a good one. You know, I just thought about
• 1:08:08
  this. I agree with you.
• 1:08:09
  And then I'm, as you were saying that, I was thinking like, Oh,
• 1:08:11
  well, maybe we get it extended this this time because 28 is LA
• 1:08:16
  how? I mean, you're going to be kind
• 1:08:17
  of in the muck in the middle of all this going on with LA 28.
• 1:08:20
  How's have they started putting up Olympic rings everywhere yet
• 1:08:24
  or what's going on there? Luckily for me, I will spend a
• 1:08:28
  heck of a lot of time in Los Angeles.
• 1:08:29
  That's. True.
• 1:08:29
  That's right. That's right.
• 1:08:31
  Yeah, yeah, I still have some hair left.
• 1:08:32
  It would be all gone if I but it's yeah, it's kind of we're
• 1:08:38
  trying to figure out what the trials are going to be.
• 1:08:39
  Have they awarded the trials yet to either Eugene or somewhere in
• 1:08:42
  LA? It seems every time the meets
• 1:08:44
  been in America, the trials have been where the games.
• 1:08:49
  Right. The last I heard was that it's
• 1:08:52
  going to be in Eugene. But like right after somewhere I
• 1:08:55
  heard that and said that I think Max came out or maybe the
• 1:08:58
  chairman of the LA 28 came out and said, no, we are committed
• 1:09:02
  to having the trials in LA. But have you, have you heard how
• 1:09:06
  they're creating the track for LA28I mean, that's just bonkers.
• 1:09:11
  If you, if you haven't heard Google it, it is bonkers what
• 1:09:14
  they're doing. It also makes complete sense
• 1:09:16
  when you know the LA landscaping that there is no land out there
• 1:09:20
  anymore. So it's crazy what they have to
• 1:09:23
  do. So they can't have the trials on
• 1:09:25
  that because of timing and everything.
• 1:09:27
  So I don't know. It'll be interesting to see
• 1:09:29
  where that actually ends. My feeling is because it's where
• 1:09:32
  it's been for the last, you know, feels like 20 of them.
• 1:09:35
  But I know that's not true. It'll be in Eugene.
• 1:09:38
  I just, you know, that's just my feeling of what?
• 1:09:41
  It ain't, it ain't broken, Eugene.
• 1:09:43
  There's no need to fix it. Absolutely wonderful as.
• 1:09:46
  I say I'm a little bit of a Eugene apologist for many, many
• 1:09:48
  reasons. You know it, I'm OK with that as
• 1:09:51
  well going to to Eugene, but. Sure.
• 1:09:53
  Selfishly, I love the trials to be held at, you know, at one of
• 1:09:56
  the venues here in Southern California.
• 1:09:57
  Yeah, we can, you know, we can roll our truck up and open it up
• 1:10:00
  and sell fuse and spikes and batons and stopwatches and
• 1:10:03
  everybody and their brother. It'd be be very easy to open up
• 1:10:05
  the store and make it mobile. But yeah, if it's, you know, it,
• 1:10:09
  there's going to be a huge buzz no matter what.
• 1:10:11
  So, so things will things will be getting good here over the
• 1:10:13
  next three years. I imagine our friends at Mount
• 1:10:15
  SAC will have something to say about this Olympic trials as
• 1:10:18
  well. In fact, you know, they're
• 1:10:19
  hosting D2 nationals coming up here in the next cycle as well.
• 1:10:22
  So that'll be exciting to to have at that great facility as
• 1:10:25
  well. So that'll be a lot of fun.
• 1:10:27
  Matt Farmer, thank you so much, man.
• 1:10:29
  You know, I love authenticity. That is one of my like hallmarks
• 1:10:34
  of like, like I can get into things that are authentic.
• 1:10:37
  And you know, the farmer family. I mean, I thought it started
• 1:10:39
  with that. I didn't realize this went back
• 1:10:41
  to grandpa here. I certainly knew it went through
• 1:10:44
  past you with with your children and, and how they're doing.
• 1:10:47
  And it's just so exciting to see, you know, what you've done
• 1:10:50
  in this sport. And I don't mean just
• 1:10:51
  athletically, although you have, you know, 7 foot high jumper.
• 1:10:53
  Let's not kid ourselves. That's pretty freaking good.
• 1:10:56
  7000 points in the decathlon is also really stinking good.
• 1:11:00
  But what you've done coaching you, you've affected young
• 1:11:02
  people in a very positive manner of being their coaches.
• 1:11:05
  You have kids that you coach who have gone on to do things in our
• 1:11:07
  industry and that go on and coach now that's amazing.
• 1:11:10
  That's a fingerprint of what you put onto our sport, your
• 1:11:14
  journalism, what you you know, you do some things with the ESPN
• 1:11:16
  TV as well. When we do the NCAA champs and
• 1:11:19
  stuff like that. You know, it's the the the I
• 1:11:23
  call it I still call it the indoor series, but the the VS
• 1:11:25
  winter series. I mean those, again, these are
• 1:11:28
  just parts of the puzzle of that moves our sport forward in a
• 1:11:32
  very positive manner. And so it's really cool to see
• 1:11:35
  that, you know, we, we see those things on the Internet, but you
• 1:11:38
  know, now to actually hear from one of the guys that actually
• 1:11:40
  does it and puts in the blood, sweat and tears, that's really
• 1:11:43
  cool, man. It's, it's really exciting.
• 1:11:44
  I'm really glad to be able to share your journey with our
• 1:11:46
  listeners today. Yeah, Mike and I appreciate you
• 1:11:49
  having me on this. This podcast has been a really
• 1:11:51
  cool addition to the track and field world.
• 1:11:52
  Like you said, kind of moving the pits forward, moving the
• 1:11:54
  little bits and pieces forward with track and field.
• 1:11:56
  And you're a huge part of that. So thanks for having me and I'll
• 1:11:59
  see you in Orlando. That's.
• 1:12:00
  Right baby, That's right. Well, I appreciate you saying
• 1:12:02
  that, man. Hey and guys, so track and
• 1:12:04
  field, you need guilt track and field equipment.
• 1:12:06
  Guilt track and field equipment. Just Google VS athletics.
• 1:12:08
  It's really that simple. Or you can always message me and
• 1:12:11
  I'll give you Matt's. I'll give you Matt's personal
• 1:12:13
  home phone number. I'm not afraid.
• 1:12:15
  I'll give it to you and you can call him at any time.
• 1:12:17
  The crazy thing is answer I know how he does it.
• 1:12:19
  He never stops working. So he lives in the city that
• 1:12:22
  doesn't sleep. I think that's what we call Las
• 1:12:23
  Vegas. But he'll he'll get you take
• 1:12:25
  care of. He's one of the best and one of
• 1:12:27
  my close friends. I'm really grateful to be able
• 1:12:29
  to call him friends. So thank you so much for being
• 1:12:31
  here this week. Join us next week, we'll have
• 1:12:33
  another coach on the on the podcast and.
• 1:12:35
  Have some fun. Thanks guys.
• 1:12:36
  Have a good. If it goes to appreciate the
• 1:12:38
  coach the ones that point people most every season needs a voice
• 1:12:42
  of reason speaking the growth you got to prep before you carry
• 1:12:45
  the load. Ice coffee to the soul.
• 1:12:47
  For those of us stay on the go proper handoff to stay in the
• 1:12:50
  zone which you packing for the road.
• 1:12:52
  There's more than one way to go. Take notes as can you told it
• 1:12:55
  ain't practice if your purpose ain't clear, it can't happen
• 1:12:58
  until you listen. With both is can't mentor
• 1:13:00
  without a mentor, shares of experience could reinvent those
• 1:13:04
  years. Every plan's got to stand and
• 1:13:06
  deliver to and the price sacrifice can you give up you.
• 1:13:09
  It's a choice and a fight, not a win or lose.
• 1:13:11
  It's not a ploy boy device. Y'all can make more moves.
• 1:13:14
  It's not about how to it's all about why you don't know till
• 1:13:17
  you know who you are inside 6,000,000.
• 1:13:20
  Waste of time, choose none. So we y'all cross the finish
• 1:13:23
  line. The work ain't done so we learn
• 1:13:24
  from the experts. We y'all got to put in the
• 1:13:26
  network Guild Athletics is the network.
• 1:13:29
  It's all about connections put together for the profession to
• 1:13:32
  every track coaching.