Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / #166: Kyle Allison-Univ of Saint Francis (IN)

Transcript

#166: Kyle Allison-Univ of Saint Francis (IN) · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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  Welcome to season 3 of gila politics connection podcast.
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  See what today's guest has in store for us.
• 0:40
  Alright welcome back to the podcast.
• 0:42
  I am so humbled to be your host of Mike, Cunningham national
• 0:45
  sales manager for Gil Athletics, and today.
• 0:47
  Well we're going to have a little fun today.
• 0:49
  I'm super excited. Help me.
• 0:50
  Welcome the head coach of the University of Saint Francis and
• 0:53
  beautiful Fort Wayne Indiana. Help me.
• 0:55
  Welcome the wise. The wonderful, mr.
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  Kyle, Allison Kyle. How are you today, sir?
• 0:59
  I'm good. How are you?
• 1:01
  You know, as we kind of talked about when you do the
• 1:04
  pre-interview, you get to hear all the things again.
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  Kyle, you know, I and I've said this before, I mean, I could Of
• 1:10
  you coaches around the country. So, whenever anybody asks me how
• 1:13
  I'm doing? I'd say awesome.
• 1:16
  I mean, because I am, I am doing amazing.
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  I'm just exploring coaches and their lives watching a little
• 1:21
  bit of world Champs, and seeing coaches, you know, perform
• 1:25
  unbelievably with their athletes.
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  It's really quite amazed. Are you watching any of the
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  world? Champs?
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  Yeah, I stayed up, probably later than I you two last night
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  watching the moon shot. But you know whenever you have
• 1:38
  an opportunity to watch one of the Best in the world.
• 1:41
  And then probably the second best in the world will go box
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  and right across her to compete against each other.
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  It was a lot of fun to watch them compete and see Ryan kind
• 1:52
  of pull it off and it s. The last throes was a lot of fun
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  to watch you pronounce his name a lot better than I could tell
• 1:59
  me the name of the guy that got third Josh.
• 2:01
  Right? Josh.
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  Oh tunde, where did he go to school?
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  I know the other you want to South Carolina.
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  That's right. Yes it is.
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  Yeah. I mean, throws and professional
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  throws kind of become a world. Absolutely.
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  Try to pay attention to the best I can, I saw, you know,
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  obviously krauser and Kovacs get all the news and the media and
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  they deserve it because like I said, number one, and number
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  two, I mean, they're amazing. Love them, love their coaches.
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  Josh, I saw a post this morning so we're actually recording on.
• 2:33
  What is today's date, July 18th? You're listening to this on in
• 2:37
  August, probably. So this is there's no sir.
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  Boilers right. You've already seen all the
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  results here, but Josh I guess his throw was number 18 ever.
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  And I couldn't because, you know, here's a guy who doesn't
• 2:50
  have a lot of name, recognition organization, right?
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  That was again, krauser and Kovacs gets all that.
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  But I was like me. I literally, as I was, we were
• 2:58
  waiting to get to get online today.
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  I was like, you know, the number 18 throw ever and I'm like, wow,
• 3:02
  like what? I wonder what that feels like.
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  I also wanted that about Ryan krauser the number 130 ever, but
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  like the number 18 guy so far, and like you said, he's young.
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  So he he go number one, one day, right?
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  I mean, it's, you build, and build and build, but I just
• 3:15
  wonder, like, I won. If there's ever like did he sit
• 3:18
  back and think man shop, it's been going on for a long time.
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  Some amazing athletes have been in this event and are in this
• 3:26
  event in out of everybody in the world.
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  There's billions with a be people in this world and there
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  have been billions of people and he is the 18th best person to
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  ever do that. That kind of boggles me.
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  Actually, I don't know that we put enough like we think 18 it's
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  like a big deal. We got you know, krauser number
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  one, the 18th best dude, I'm not 18th best guy at anything.
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  I'm not going to keep this guy in my house and not only live
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  with four people. I'm not 18th best person on
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  anything. It's amazing to me.
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  That's what I mean, that's what track and field is, you know,
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  track and field is record-keeping.
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  It is the best to ever do it the in the long history of the
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  sport. And you know, any time that you
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  can say that you're one of the top, whatever in the world to do
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  it is just amazing. It is, it is.
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  But we're going to find out if you are top, 18 and them in
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  anything spoiler, he just said, but I bet that's not true.
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  So Kyle, let's Let's talk about your journey here, you know, I'm
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  just so happy again, that you'd be here with us today, you know,
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  our goal here is to uplift and honor coaches around the country
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  and a little bit around the world.
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  We've had some International coaches here as well.
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  That's why we started the podcast over three years ago now
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  two years ago going on three years.
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  And so I just love learning about coaches.
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  Why you got into coaching why you did the stops, you did the
• 4:49
  things that mean your impact on young?
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  People is immeasurable and I mean, that on any level if
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  you're listening right now and you're a middle school coach,
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  You're a division. One coach, Nei, Juco.
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  It doesn't matter. Your impact on young people is
• 5:01
  immeasurable, so I'm excited to learn about your journey Kyle.
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  So, let's talk about, you know, coaching.
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  I've said this many many times. There's a time in your life if
• 5:10
  you were an athlete. I'm assuming here a little bit,
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  but there's a time in your life when coaching was all about what
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  happened to you. So a coach coached into you.
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  But at some point in your life, something flipped and it was
• 5:22
  like, oh wait a minute, I could be a coat like this could E my
• 5:27
  career. Can you remember that when?
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  And how did you how did coaching become like?
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  Oh, I could actually like I can make a living, this could be my
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  judge other people, teach other people are lawyers.
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  Other people are business owners, I can coach track.
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  When did that happen for you? It had probably had to be some
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  point in time in college. I went to the University of
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  Indianapolis Greyhounds. Yeah.
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  Go Greyhounds, Scott. Feynman's a head coach there,
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  but like the majority of pretty big division 2 schools.
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  Cause I have a lot of event coaches that really impacted me
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  coach. Holman was a thorough Scopes
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  there he was an old retired teacher, who just won the throw,
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  and he made it fun. But honestly, ironically, one of
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  the one of the people that made me really want to get into
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  coaching, is my senior year. I had the opportunity to help
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  out a 7th grade, football team, and I just I wanted to get into
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  coaching. I really enjoy Sports, you know,
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  I decided I didn't care what it was and if it was basketball, I
• 6:31
  didn't care if it was football. I just I always enjoyed out what
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  x. So I coached 7th grade football,
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  and I work with a man named Don IV, who has kind of devoted his
• 6:41
  life to high school and youth Athletics.
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  He's the head softball coach indicator, Central, High School
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  and just outside of Indianapolis.
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  And he just, he made it fun, it was, you know, it's seventh
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  grade football made a lot of fun and Then, you know, kind of
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  going into my senior year. I was like, you know what?
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  He had so much fun being a coach for just these youth kids.
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  You know, maybe this is something that I want to do.
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  Maybe this is something that I want to get into full-time and
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  see if I can kind of devote my life and career to the next
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  level of Athletics. So, did you go into you of ND as
• 7:18
  a like, an education, major or what were, what did you actually
• 7:20
  go to major in and thought you were going to actually be?
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  We don't normally grow up thinking we're going to be
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  coaches right now. We can grow We're going to be
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  firemen or police or astronauts, right?
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  And eventually when we get to College reality hits, I'm like,
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  okay, I'm going to go be an accountant or something.
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  What did you actually go into major and become?
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  I originally was going to go into marketing.
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  I wanted, I really enjoyed medicine in Indianapolis is home
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  to Eli Lilly so I want to do pharmaceutical sales.
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  That's what I really wanted to do.
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  I got into it for two years and just realized it's a different
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  type of living, it's a different world.
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  Old. And then I actually changed my
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  major to education. My, my family is all Educators
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  my dad taught fifth grade for 40 years.
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  My mom taught high school for 40 years.
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  Wow, brother is a high school, basketball coach and teacher.
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  So education has always been kind of really big in my life in
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  my brother's five years older than me.
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  So he was actually coaching high school basketball when I was in
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  college. So probably Some pretty easy
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  influence to get into the coaching world with that.
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  So ended up graduating from UND actually with an exercise
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  science degree not education because I did realize I wanted
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  kind of more of that athletic side of things, maybe not quite
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  the teaching side of things. Yeah.
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  Well with all those teachers in the family I'm actually
• 8:45
  surprised. What did they think about you?
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  Actually starting out as marketing where they like?
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  Hey wait a minute. Now, we're family of teachers
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  Educators what are you doing? You know it's kind of you know
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  it's interesting. You hear about some of these
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  Please. It's like you know the family
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  full of police officers or firefighters and like that's the
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  comfort me walking into a high school and standing in front of
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  a classroom is just comfortable just because I grew up in it.
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  I actually spent to Total educational years without a
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  parent in the building that I went to school in.
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  You know, my dad was in the elementary school that I went
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  to. I went to the middle school for
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  two years where I didn't have a parent there and then I went to
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  high school for four years for my mom.
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  Are calm so you know probably caught them off guard a little
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  bit that I was interested in marketing but I had some really
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  awesome business teachers at my high school that really
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  encouraged me to explore that route and I really enjoyed it.
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  It just wasn't for me as a career.
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  Well, I'm glad they didn't pressure you because sometimes
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  those those families of police officers or you know, whatever.
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  Genre it's like, oh no you have to like this is what we do and
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  now you're the black sheep. When you go off and typically
• 9:58
  when someone goes off and does what they have passion towards
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  whether it's what the family tradition is or not good things
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  happen. So I'm glad that you get to
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  explore that Avenue and then what's interesting is how it
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  kind of tractor beam you back in though, it's like oh man.
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  I've actually been an educator but whole life.
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  Yeah, this is what I'm gonna do here, that's awesome.
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  So you coach seventh grade football, did you were you a
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  football player in high school? Oh yeah.
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  My most track athletes started off playing football and then
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  ended up throwing throwing the shop.
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  But in high school, I had a lot of success with that, but I
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  still love football, still a passion of mine every single
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  year. You always see at the NFL draft
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  is like, you know, these 20 of the top, 40 were track athletes
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  in high school. He's that's great.
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  I'd love. To see them continue to compete
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  in track and field but yeah you know, start off with football,
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  went over to track and it's been trapped I ever since what were
• 10:54
  you did you grow up in Indiana? You went to school there, I went
• 10:56
  to Warsaw High School Warsaw Indiana, Half hours worked with
• 11:00
  your boss. So we're you a Colts fan?
• 11:04
  Yeah. Yeah.
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  Been a Colts fan kind of, you know, I grew up when Peyton
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  Manning was quarterback, so hard to not be a Colts fan at that
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  point in time. And I was always the weird one,
• 11:16
  where, you know, I've always been a big guy 64.
• 11:18
  You know 275 pounds. I own a Peyton Manning jersey I
• 11:23
  over to Jeff. Saturday Jersey, you know,
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  always always loved the big guys even even to this This day, you
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  know, offense of lineman Clinton Nelson.
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  Those guys are the guys that I tend to always love the watch
• 11:36
  and see what they do didn't Center, they play, like some
• 11:38
  ungodly amount of years, like, Whitney a 17-year guy or some
• 11:41
  like that. Yeah, you played Four.
• 11:42
  He played for a really long time.
• 11:44
  Yeah, it's quite amazing. I'm not an NFL guy.
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  Dom, I grew up in Alabama so there are no NFL team.
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  So I'm a college football guy. So I don't pay attention to much
• 11:53
  to the Sundays but, you know, I think the average career and if
• 11:57
  L is something like just under three seasons, And so any time a
• 12:00
  Saturday or even Peyton Manning as you mentioned, I mean, played
• 12:03
  ten plus years. That's just an anomaly or Tom
• 12:06
  Brady playing. I don't know what you've been
• 12:07
  playing since 1980 or something like that.
• 12:08
  Yeah, it's it's pretty amazing, you know, a luck has to play
• 12:13
  into it, right? As well from injuries and what
• 12:15
  have you so it's really amazing. All right.
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  So you did seventh grade football, you know, you love
• 12:20
  track your big guy. So your shot putter, love that
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  events. Of course you are watching the
• 12:25
  world Champs last night for that event.
• 12:28
  What was your first Track coaching experience and did you
• 12:31
  as a football and track kind of guy?
• 12:34
  Did you ever social, you started with 7th grade football?
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  Did you ever have a moment of like, should I go coaching
• 12:39
  football or should I go coaching track?
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  Or was it always my passion for track Trump's my passion for
• 12:45
  football coaching? I mean, I continued to do track
• 12:49
  in college. I didn't do football and
• 12:51
  college. So a lot of times that's really
• 12:54
  hard to get your foot in the door, if you haven't done it.
• 12:57
  So I explored the the track. For out.
• 13:01
  You know, one thing that I did I tell my team today is I actually
• 13:06
  emailed every single Collegiate coach in the state of Indiana
• 13:10
  saying, hey, you know, I would really love this opportunity,
• 13:13
  even if it's just a volunteer with your program, I want to get
• 13:16
  into coaching, I would really appreciate the opportunity heard
• 13:20
  back from a couple of them said, no heard back from about three
• 13:23
  or four that said, hey, you know, let's get you on the
• 13:25
  campus. Let's interview.
• 13:26
  Let's see what we can do. All right, so, this is a topic
• 13:29
  that comes Zup. Every once in a while.
• 13:31
  I bet you had a hundred and sixty six episodes.
• 13:33
  This is come up. I'll exaggerate say sixteen
• 13:36
  times. So 10%.
• 13:37
  That's an easy number. And I love this because this is
• 13:40
  a passion of mine. So you said you emailed every
• 13:42
  coach in Indiana. I want to know.
• 13:44
  Did you an email each of them individually?
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  Or did you group them all? Put them in the blind, carbon
• 13:49
  copy? Or did you make the real Sin and
• 13:51
  put them all in the to those or did you individual tell me how
• 13:55
  you executed that I individually?
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  Email them all at Apollo, we go and I try to, I try to
• 14:01
  personalize it the best I could I mean I was 22 years old.
• 14:05
  So I probably screwed up every now and then.
• 14:08
  But yeah, you know, individually tried to email all of them.
• 14:12
  Trying to do my research, on it to, you know, wanted to go to a
• 14:15
  school that at least had a couple throwers.
• 14:18
  I didn't want to go to a school, you know, you get online.
• 14:20
  Nowadays seems like oh, you know, I want to help you know
• 14:24
  you're froze Group. Well, we have one total thrower.
• 14:26
  That's all we've ever had in the last six years.
• 14:29
  It just kind of makes you look silly.
• 14:30
  Yeah, so yeah, individual emails.
• 14:33
  I love that. And I love and not.
• 14:39
  Hate not the opposite, but you said some responded in some
• 14:43
  didn't? Yeah.
• 14:44
  And obviously I don't like the ones who didn't I don't like the
• 14:48
  action, not the people, but I can also understand.
• 14:51
  I mean, you yourself must get 100 emails a day.
• 14:54
  It's maybe that's a slight exaggeration, but a lot of
• 14:57
  emails a day, right? But I love that the ones that
• 15:01
  that took a second even in. I'm sure is out of the ones that
• 15:05
  did respond. Someone were probably pretty,
• 15:07
  pretty short, and Kurt like, hey, You know, we don't have a
• 15:10
  spot. Thanks for emailing done, right?
• 15:13
  And so maybe like you said said, hey yeah let's let's get you on
• 15:15
  campus take a look whatever. Yeah I love that in what the
• 15:19
  reason I love that is it just took a couple of seconds for the
• 15:22
  long ones in the short emails it just took a couple of seconds to
• 15:24
  respond and give some encouragement to someone who is
• 15:27
  trying it you know. So I really I really respect
• 15:30
  that out of those men and women who did respond and I respect
• 15:34
  that. You did not group email
• 15:36
  everybody that you individually email that that To me, you know,
• 15:40
  when I think about the definition of the word hustle
• 15:43
  that to me is the hustle. It's like, okay, I'm going to
• 15:45
  reach out to everyone. I don't care how long it's going
• 15:47
  to take. I don't care that.
• 15:48
  It's going to take a little extra to individualize.
• 15:50
  That's it, man. I love that.
• 15:52
  Do you, did you do that? Was that something new as a
• 15:56
  22-year old? Or has that been something that
• 15:58
  you'd done? Like coming out of high school?
• 16:00
  Did you email every coach to try to get on their team or was it
• 16:03
  something kind of new for you? Probably something pretty new,
• 16:07
  you know, you go in Your senior year and I didn't I didn't
• 16:10
  really fully didn't know like what?
• 16:12
  What a career in Collegiate Athletics.
• 16:15
  Look like you know a lot of kids see Nick Saban a lot of kids see
• 16:21
  you know Jim Harbaugh and it's these big name people.
• 16:25
  They don't see what it's really like, so I didn't really know
• 16:29
  what to expect. I didn't really know but I I
• 16:33
  knew at that point in time that like I had to have it in my life
• 16:36
  and so I was willing to make whatever.
• 16:39
  Sacrifice that I needed to make an appointment.
• 16:41
  I spent an entire weekend at 22 years, old emailing coaches,
• 16:44
  seeing if I get a response that was worth it to me.
• 16:47
  Hey, that's great. Because there are plenty of
• 16:49
  people, unfortunately, that think that they are above taking
• 16:53
  48 hours to just crank out email after email after email, you
• 16:56
  know I'm saying. So like I love that humbleness
• 16:58
  of like, who am I? I gotta put in work just like I
• 17:01
  asked myself to do it as an athlete and I want to coach, I'm
• 17:04
  probably gonna ask my athletes that.
• 17:05
  Well, golly, I better better lead from by examples, I love
• 17:09
  that. Bonus of just, just grind and
• 17:10
  get it done. Like, so that to me is the
• 17:12
  proper definition of hustle. Like a positive overexertion
• 17:17
  that. Hopefully, you've not had to do
• 17:18
  that again, but that you did it and got it done.
• 17:21
  And so did it bear fruit. Yeah.
• 17:24
  Did you know, I had actually turned into two very legitimate
• 17:28
  interview opportunities, one in which was my first coaching job
• 17:33
  in college athletics was able to become the throws coach at
• 17:37
  Manchester University. Which is the NCAA division?
• 17:40
  Three School in North Manchester, Indiana work for
• 17:43
  Brian cash dollar, who's been the head coach there now for
• 17:46
  Hangar 22, 23 24 years. It was actually kind of a
• 17:51
  perfect storm. They're only about 30 minutes
• 17:53
  away from my hometown. So, somewhat comfortable and the
• 17:57
  perks for great. They weren't going to pay.
• 17:59
  You a whole lot of money, but you got to sleep in a dorm room
• 18:01
  and they gave you a meal plan. So, it worked out really well
• 18:05
  for someone who was just willing to do, whatever it took to get
• 18:08
  into. All just products and they let
• 18:10
  me do that. So they're really, really
• 18:13
  grateful for Coach cash dollar to let me kind of figure it out.
• 18:19
  Yeah, I love Brian. What a great guy, love that
• 18:22
  school recently did a whole new facility and just it's amazing
• 18:26
  and they deserve it. Also I'm so happy that they were
• 18:29
  able to get that new facility they are and what they're doing
• 18:32
  there at Manchester. What was it?
• 18:35
  So you mentioned, you know, stay in the dorms, having a meal plan
• 18:40
  and to me, unfortunately, that's a common thing.
• 18:44
  I hear that a lot. I don't like it because I, you
• 18:46
  know, one of my advocacy is the All professionalization of
• 18:51
  Collegiate, track and field coach has in track, and field
• 18:53
  coach has in general, but on the college side of, you know, no
• 18:56
  more starting salaries of 15,000, 20,000, no more dorms
• 19:01
  and things like that. Actually, I'm okay with that.
• 19:05
  If the staff was fully built out like, oh, they had six full-time
• 19:08
  guys and gals that we're making 50 plus and whatever and it's
• 19:12
  like, oh yeah we needed an intern.
• 19:14
  I can I kind of? Yeah I don't like free labor in
• 19:18
  turn but you know, I'm I'm okay with that.
• 19:20
  As you did that though was there.
• 19:24
  When you thought you were getting into coaching, it's
• 19:26
  emailed all these coaches. So when you said Indiana, so
• 19:29
  you're talking about Purdue Indiana, I mean and there's big
• 19:31
  schools, amazing programs all throughout the state.
• 19:35
  Was it a letdown when I was like, man?
• 19:37
  I'm back in the day like I'm basically still a college kid
• 19:39
  here, I'm stumped still live in the dorm.
• 19:41
  Still Eton College were or was it?
• 19:42
  Like man, I am just so happy to have like, you know, what is it,
• 19:46
  a will work for peanuts, you know, it's like at least I get
• 19:49
  to eat and I get to coach at the same time, you know, it was So
• 19:53
  it was kind of one of those things where it's like I had an
• 19:55
  office with with my name on it. I was, I was coach Allison and
• 20:01
  that was something that was really important to me.
• 20:04
  And so it didn't bother me and, you know, the firstborn room
• 20:07
  that I lived in, it didn't have air conditioning, and Midwestern
• 20:11
  summers are brutal. Now, I remember I moved into
• 20:14
  that dorm room like the first week of August and it's 100
• 20:17
  degrees outside and I'm like, oh my gosh, I don't know if I can
• 20:19
  do this but then all of a sudden you get into it.
• 20:23
  To it. You start doing strength
• 20:24
  training, you start building relationships with the other
• 20:27
  coaches and other sports and then it's bigger than just you.
• 20:31
  It's bigger than what you want, you know, for your own personal
• 20:35
  life. There's a working living
• 20:37
  University here that they're people, that might be relying on
• 20:41
  you to be successful. And, you know, that's something
• 20:44
  that was instilled in me by my parents.
• 20:46
  You know, they work for the same school corporation, their entire
• 20:49
  careers and you know, for me to have an opportunity to Work in a
• 20:53
  small private institution that, you know, they're not a lot of
• 20:57
  employees that work at schools like that and for me to be
• 21:00
  selected, it didn't matter. I was going to be willing to
• 21:03
  work there and you know you talk about 15 18 thousand dollars has
• 21:06
  make a less than that but the money the money was that big of
• 21:10
  a deal for me, you know. Yeah, it'd be nice to have, you
• 21:14
  know, these nice huge paychecks but the opportunity to work
• 21:18
  with, with College athletics, you know, coach cash dollar,
• 21:21
  gave me the opportunity to It to do that.
• 21:24
  Then that meant a lot to me. And I was going to bust my butt
• 21:26
  for him to make sure that I didn't let him down.
• 21:31
  I'm going to challenge just a little bit.
• 21:33
  I don't think you're actually saying it this way.
• 21:34
  So this is it's not necessarily a challenge about you and what
• 21:38
  you just said there. But the challenge I like to
• 21:41
  always give when someone says, it's not about the money, it was
• 21:43
  okay, and I'm cool with that because I understand passion I
• 21:46
  get that. And you know what?
• 21:48
  I'm in love with people who have a passion to do art in their
• 21:51
  garage, that have the passion to create their own ham, radio
• 21:56
  station. You know, Hobbies, you got to
• 21:59
  have money. You know, saying and I'll fight
• 22:01
  back against anybody says, oh you can't do it for the money.
• 22:03
  Yeah, I get that. I mean that can be your maybe
• 22:06
  primary but I need money to raise a family have a life at
• 22:11
  cetera so I don't think it's the way you're saying it though.
• 22:14
  So I'm not really challenging what you said there and your
• 22:16
  experience Kyle just in general. When people talk about like I
• 22:19
  don't do it for the money. It's like well how do you get a
• 22:22
  house for your kids? How do you pay for school?
• 22:24
  You know, you get money is not evil being you know, doing evil
• 22:29
  things to Make money is evil. Money is good because you need
• 22:33
  it for your career. Like I was in a very different
• 22:35
  point in time in my life than I am.
• 22:37
  Now, you know, the point I was going to ask.
• 22:39
  Yeah, yeah, I'm married. I have a son now.
• 22:47
  That's a great point to though that Kyle about the stages of
• 22:51
  your life. So that's why I say I wasn't
• 22:52
  challenging what because that's why I didn't think you were
• 22:54
  saying the way you the way you said it was not how I'm
• 22:56
  challenging. What I hear from other sometimes
• 22:59
  because it feels like Is altruistic thing a point
• 23:01
  sometimes or like, oh yeah, I'm 40 and have a family and I'm
• 23:05
  making 15 grand because I love the sport.
• 23:06
  It's like, well, well then I kind of feel like you're being
• 23:09
  selfish because you're putting your family to the side to do
• 23:14
  coaching. And while coaching is the tops.
• 23:16
  I mean, obviously, not only my career, my former career, as a
• 23:19
  college coach, my career here, doing this interview and coach,
• 23:22
  of course, I think coaching specifically track and field is
• 23:25
  the tops. But it can't be number one.
• 23:29
  Yeah, you have to do this for others.
• 23:31
  You have to do this for yourself so that you can be the available
• 23:33
  for others. Okay?
• 23:34
  Off that soapbox art. Okay, so I always think about
• 23:38
  people's first jobs, especially in track and field as the tryout
• 23:44
  period even though you had a little bit of coaching at 7th
• 23:46
  grade football. And so there was real coaching
• 23:48
  there. So you get to experience you
• 23:50
  know, the good and bad of athletes in their attitudes and
• 23:53
  positive and negative, things like that.
• 23:55
  So I always think about the first coaching job though.
• 23:57
  Like, okay, I had this thought of what coaching is.
• 24:01
  Well, now I'm doing it and I either like, okay, yep, I love
• 24:05
  it or I'm going to accept it or okay.
• 24:08
  What was my degree in? Okay, I can go back and do that
• 24:10
  job. Yeah, let's go.
• 24:11
  Try something else. What was that experience?
• 24:13
  Actually coaching? So, now you're responsible for
• 24:15
  kids, the weight room, the the technique, the competitions.
• 24:19
  What was that experience? Like for you?
• 24:21
  Um, you know, I think back on that time now.
• 24:25
  Sometimes he, I'm Going into my ninth year of coaching
• 24:29
  collegiately and I'm like, I probably wasn't awful coach that
• 24:32
  first indoor season, I probably was horrible, but II actually
• 24:38
  very fondly, remember that first elbow season, I had a young lady
• 24:44
  who was a freshman who ended up being the the conference
• 24:47
  champion in the hammer. Wow, and I had a young man who
• 24:51
  ended up being the conference champion in The discus and he
• 24:55
  went on to get s in the hammer that You're in the conference,
• 24:58
  and I think that success led me to be hooked by was in it and
• 25:04
  it, you know, it wasn't just the kids who are winning the
• 25:07
  conference championships either. It was, you know, he coming in,
• 25:10
  you have a wide range of kids. You got a kid who may be a
• 25:13
  freshman who've, never been taught, by a legitimate throws
• 25:16
  coach before, or you may have someone who's a junior or
• 25:19
  senior, who's been in the program for two or three years,
• 25:22
  but to be able to see them get better to turn a 45 M guy,
• 25:26
  Hammer thrower. Her into 51 M.
• 25:28
  Hammer, thrower in your first year of coaching, they're just
• 25:31
  addicted to it and you love seeing the progress.
• 25:34
  You love seeing you know the delayed satisfaction of in the
• 25:38
  weight room in the morning, doing what you need to do to be
• 25:40
  successful and then going out there and getting the reward for
• 25:43
  it. That first year was was big that
• 25:47
  first year of having the success one with Junior, male thrower.
• 25:52
  And then a freshman female thrower, you know, the Freshman
• 25:55
  female thrower you're sitting, you're going on.
• 25:57
  We do this freshly. What can we do?
• 25:59
  You know how, how much better can we get?
• 26:02
  So I was in it after that first up or season.
• 26:05
  Did you learn the hammer in college?
• 26:08
  Yeah. I you know, I went to college as
• 26:10
  a shop up guy realize I was never going to be strong enough
• 26:13
  to be a really, really chocolate thrower.
• 26:16
  And then kind of gravitated over to the Hammer.
• 26:18
  I didn't have a spectacular, spectacular, collegiate career,
• 26:21
  you know, I never made it in CA division, two national
• 26:23
  championship, anything like that but I The new throwing event of
• 26:28
  the hammer kind of challenged me and I really like that, I've
• 26:32
  always kind of gravitated towards the hammer posts.
• 26:34
  You know my athletic career to be able to develop my athletes.
• 26:38
  Yeah I love the hammer. I've said it many many times.
• 26:41
  When I was a college coach, I would go early to practice just
• 26:44
  to watch The Hammer. The hammer throws are always
• 26:46
  early and before and away from everybody, I just loved watching
• 26:50
  practice. It was, it was like this most
• 26:52
  artistic ballet, violent event that there is an Just it's
• 26:57
  always been my favorite. I've been out of all the throws.
• 27:01
  So what were you during that first year?
• 27:03
  I love how like I have so much respect for you to say.
• 27:06
  I look back and I probably was a terrible throws coach
• 27:09
  specifically through endure because I think if you, if
• 27:12
  you've coached for some amount of time and I don't know what
• 27:14
  that time is five years, ten years twenty if you're not
• 27:17
  looking back at your first years or any back seasons and go,
• 27:21
  yeah, I'm better than I was then.
• 27:23
  I'm not sure you're doing it right, it's okay, you know.
• 27:27
  I think about, you know, when I first started coaching, I cooked
• 27:30
  a couple years of high school and I still that was a long
• 27:33
  time. 96 97. So feels like ancient age.
• 27:38
  You weren't even born in 96, the bottom of the six years old.
• 27:41
  All right, there you go. That's always my way of asking
• 27:44
  people their age without actually I see ya little
• 27:47
  interview its secrets are out there.
• 27:51
  I still when I catch those kids. You know, they're adults now,
• 27:54
  but I catch those kids on Facebook.
• 27:56
  I still like him. I just wanna say I'm sorry, I
• 27:58
  got no idea what I was doing but I work.
• 28:00
  I like what what what an idiot. I'm so sorry, man.
• 28:03
  I held you back and that's unforgivable.
• 28:06
  What were you? Where was your head space for
• 28:09
  coaching education? At that?
• 28:11
  Point still early in your career.
• 28:14
  So maybe you don't even know about coaching education besides
• 28:17
  asking other coaches which is a form of coaching education.
• 28:19
  What were you doing to learn? How to coach your craft better?
• 28:23
  Yeah, I luckily you know Brian cash dollar.
• 28:27
  It is an amazing coach. If you do not know who Brian
• 28:29
  cash dollars and he's just University, cinnamon email gets
• 28:32
  home agree when Moses for cosine hundred percent.
• 28:35
  One of the greatest guys out there, loves the sport loves.
• 28:41
  And as soon as we said that we froze up, Brian must have a hex
• 28:45
  on our internet here. So we're going to give Kyle just
• 28:48
  a second to get back on here and see.
• 28:50
  There he is. I said that Brian had a hex on
• 28:53
  our internet as soon as we started talking good about him.
• 28:54
  He was like I pause this we ain't having this.
• 28:57
  Yeah. Start over with Brian cash
• 28:58
  dollars. One of the greatest people in
• 28:59
  the world. Yeah, you know, I, you know, I
• 29:02
  get hired in August to work, Brian.
• 29:04
  And then in December, I'm in, I, we were in Orlando at the
• 29:08
  Coaches convention, put on, Coaches association.
• 29:12
  And you know, the fact that you're willing to pay for me to
• 29:17
  fly with you to Orlando, to get, you know, go to the convention.
• 29:21
  And then, you know, hey, your job while you're here is to go
• 29:25
  to as many seminars as you possibly can and to learn from
• 29:29
  some of the best of the best. That was kind of my first real,
• 29:34
  you know, coaching education in between the summer between my
• 29:37
  first and second year, I went on to get my usatf.
• 29:40
  Level 1 certification. And so you know that was always
• 29:45
  kind of the thing, you know, your level one continue going to
• 29:48
  the Coaches convention. Now, you know the coaches
• 29:51
  association has gone on to do a lot of these certifications and
• 29:55
  symposiums and take classes and you know, different things like
• 29:59
  that. But I think in my nine years of
• 30:01
  coaching Collegiate track and field, I've only not gone to the
• 30:04
  convention one time. And that was my first year as
• 30:07
  the head coach of st. Francis, I even did the virtual
• 30:10
  In the middle of covid to be able to hear from them.
• 30:14
  So coaching it patient's. A big deal, I don't care if
• 30:16
  you've been in it for 50 years, you still can learn from
• 30:18
  someone. What did you think about level
• 30:21
  1? So I was a big usatf house
• 30:22
  before the u.s. tfcc a Academy. So I did level 1 and did several
• 30:28
  of the level twos. The level 1 is always
• 30:30
  interesting to me because it's the broad scope of all the
• 30:33
  events and as a thrower and is a throws coach, that means you had
• 30:38
  to sit through endurance. Sprint's jumps, pull them.
• 30:43
  All right. What did you think about?
• 30:46
  Like when they start talking about endurance and stuff?
• 30:48
  Did you just sleep or was there anything that you learned?
• 30:51
  Or I'll even say, was there anything exciting?
• 30:54
  Like all me, I had no idea. They did this for 10K is or
• 30:57
  whatever, you know, I had the, I think I had the understanding
• 31:01
  that at some point in time. I wanted to become a head coach.
• 31:04
  Going into that already. So I had to pay attention, you
• 31:09
  know it's incredibly difficult even if you look on at the
• 31:13
  division, 1 division to division, three Nai level.
• 31:15
  There are very few throws specialty head coaches.
• 31:20
  So, I had to be willing to diversify who I was and open my
• 31:23
  education to other people. You know, I remember I'm sitting
• 31:27
  here even today, you know, we're in a cross-country.
• 31:29
  Sure, you know, I remember, I were a Manchester cross-country
• 31:32
  shirt, one day. And the looks that I got from
• 31:36
  people, it's like, why are you? You know, you're here in level 1
• 31:38
  and learning about endurance. It's like, yeah, I am, you know,
• 31:41
  there might be an athlete before race that walks up to me and is
• 31:45
  nervous and they might need a little word of encouragement and
• 31:48
  I want to make sure that I know what I'm talking about.
• 31:51
  You know, it goes back to, you know, coach cash dollar and
• 31:54
  trusted me to be a coach in his program and I need be the best
• 31:57
  coach that I possibly could be. Yeah, I wasn't gonna let the day
• 32:00
  go by without giving you mad respect, wearing a cross country
• 32:02
  shirt, my man. A, there's pretty good you
• 32:06
  easily could have just ripped the throws and rev st.
• 32:08
  Francis did you rip the cross-country team?
• 32:10
  So that's the next season up. So, I love it, man.
• 32:12
  That's really good. It honestly, really help because
• 32:15
  my very first year at Manchester, we had a very
• 32:18
  competitive in this cross country team, they qualified for
• 32:21
  NCAA division, three, National Championship that year won, the
• 32:24
  conference Championship as a team, I think that was their
• 32:26
  third year in a row that they have one place really high at
• 32:30
  the regional level. So cross country, He is a very
• 32:35
  addicting thing, if you can figure out the whole team aspect
• 32:39
  of it and me being a football guy, I love the team aspect.
• 32:44
  You know, you could have the best for runners in the nation,
• 32:46
  but if you're number five is a very good.
• 32:48
  Sorry, you're a loser. And so that's that's something
• 32:51
  that I really enjoyed and we had a lot of really awesome Hopper
• 32:54
  class with Runners on that team that they were willing to
• 32:59
  explain it to the throws guy, you know, I finally Burr.
• 33:04
  I would always say. Can you break that down into 400
• 33:06
  meters for me? Because I could I could
• 33:08
  understand the one lap around the track, you know, what are
• 33:11
  their 400-meter splits? And it's like, okay, well you
• 33:13
  just did this for you know, how many ever miles you just did it
• 33:17
  for five miles. Oh man, you know, that's, you
• 33:20
  know, 72nd for hundreds and it's like, wow.
• 33:22
  That's good. You know, you're running and and
• 33:25
  it just led me to just fall in love with kind of a completely
• 33:28
  separate Port across country. Yeah, that's interesting.
• 33:31
  You break it down to quarters because Velour, if you can tell
• 33:35
  me like, if distance Runners doing repeat 800 or repeat
• 33:38
  miles, like I get that like okay.
• 33:40
  Wow, they're doing for 15. Repeat miles old colleague.
• 33:44
  Jim sub 4 is amazing. So, if they're doing five of
• 33:46
  those at 4:15, that's really good, right?
• 33:48
  But when they start doing like, yeah, we did 1K repeats in my
• 33:51
  car, and I am lost. Their there is no race that I'm
• 33:54
  very familiar with that. So I didn't.
• 33:56
  Oh, one k-- time, so I get lost. I love that.
• 33:58
  You had kind of just break it down.
• 33:59
  Its kind of similar in the throes right?
• 34:01
  When someone talks about throws. Well, how do you throw a 6?
• 34:04
  Powerball 70 feet. Well, okay, it starts with a
• 34:06
  start and then you have to bed the position the middle.
• 34:08
  Then you have the power position Etc.
• 34:10
  Just kind of its just phases of what your coaching.
• 34:13
  Yeah. So what did you do?
• 34:15
  You know the hammer again? Just fascinates me.
• 34:17
  Not only because I love it and my favorite throwing event, but
• 34:20
  it's typically not something that you've done since freshman
• 34:23
  year. Like you probably started
• 34:24
  throwing the shot put in freshman year.
• 34:26
  So as you went through high school and then College, you
• 34:29
  know, the shot put in college is I'm going to do air quotes here
• 34:32
  the same as the shot, put in high.
• 34:33
  Well, meaning the event is similar, maybe you went from a
• 34:37
  glider to a spin or something like that, but it's still 16
• 34:40
  pounds and you're throwing it, the hammer you did not do
• 34:43
  typically not do anything. Like you might not even have
• 34:46
  known. What the hammer was in high
• 34:48
  school, and then you get to college and like, hey, learn how
• 34:50
  to turn and your, that's a whole new event, right?
• 34:54
  So, even as a first second year coach, it's still only your
• 34:57
  fifth or sixth roughly a year of even knowing what the hammer is.
• 35:01
  How did you what did you do? To help become a better, to
• 35:05
  understand the event better to coach, it better where you, you
• 35:09
  know, you're an Indiana. So you got one of the I mean,
• 35:10
  you got a lot of good thrust coaches in Indiana.
• 35:12
  But yeah, one of the top Hammer guys.
• 35:14
  And Larry judge down there, Ball State now, and then see, was
• 35:17
  there anybody that you reached out to was there?
• 35:19
  It was there any like you saw this one video?
• 35:22
  And man it was from bondarchuk and it just, it totally opened
• 35:26
  up my mind on how to throw was there any thing that you were
• 35:28
  doing to help understand that amazing event better?
• 35:31
  Yeah, I mean being a division, Into guy welven but froze in the
• 35:36
  early. 2010's kid boy, Johnson Cube way boy, was the guy you
• 35:43
  know, you through it and division to school.
• 35:46
  So I just remember I mean even to this day in my office I have
• 35:49
  a picture that kid way up just because I think he'd really kind
• 35:52
  of he does things differently and I love that about them, you
• 35:57
  know, being a Midwest guy. You know coach judge did the my
• 36:01
  level one training for throws. He He was the love of one
• 36:04
  instructor so literally learning from one of the best guys,
• 36:08
  right? Then and there and then you
• 36:10
  can't be a Midwest guy if you don't miss mention jug, of
• 36:14
  course. Yeah.
• 36:15
  You know, judge Judd is a legend, always will be a legend,
• 36:20
  you know, and just being at UND during my time, be the year that
• 36:25
  I competed in they actually had the division, two national
• 36:27
  champions the hammer and so we kind of can't come into a
• 36:31
  program there. Where Hammer was a big deal
• 36:33
  Deal. We had a bunch of really
• 36:36
  competitive female 4 hours and haven't really competitive mail
• 36:38
  for our and square. You know, we're talking about
• 36:40
  seeing a 65 to 68, M was kind of the expectation.
• 36:46
  And so I had a really amazing teammate.
• 36:49
  Will it little who coaches high school track of Brownsburg High
• 36:52
  School kind of has his own little throws group right now,
• 36:55
  who he was? He was just someone who was
• 36:59
  willing to be patient, understanding that you're not
• 37:01
  going to be great at it, your freshman year.
• 37:04
  But also the understanding of you, as a Freshman Learning, it
• 37:09
  is also the same as the person from Louis University is a
• 37:13
  freshman warming. It, it's a completely new start.
• 37:16
  It's a new event. And that's kind of how I teach
• 37:19
  to my kids today is it's kind of a Level Playing Field.
• 37:21
  Must if you're coming from one of these European countries for
• 37:24
  they, teach you at the age of eight, you are going to learn
• 37:28
  the hammer hopefully at the same time as your competitor.
• 37:33
  It's a The point I actually never thought about that way.
• 37:36
  I mean as an athlete coming in who's nervous about the hammer,
• 37:40
  I feel like that'd be kind of weight lift like take the weight
• 37:44
  off your chest of like oh wait a minute.
• 37:46
  Yeah I'm starting the same spot. Everybody do your point
• 37:49
  something very few exceptions unfortunately, to be honest with
• 37:52
  you, not just the international experience exception but I wish
• 37:56
  many many, many more high school athletes were able to do the
• 37:58
  hammer. So it is an exception.
• 38:02
  But what again, what a Again, just a relief of like, oh, I'm
• 38:06
  not up again, when you learn the javelin, you get, 22 states in
• 38:09
  the. Do the job of a lot of people
• 38:10
  get experience. I'm not starting from Ground
• 38:13
  Zero, but that hammer. Yeah, we're all on the same
• 38:15
  playing field. Yeah, yeah.
• 38:17
  And that's, that's something that, you know, we you forget
• 38:22
  coaching collegiately what it's like sometimes to teach someone,
• 38:26
  but basic the very beginning. Yeah.
• 38:30
  And so I think that's something that I've really tried to focus
• 38:33
  on him. Well, I'll tell my kids you got
• 38:34
  to do 1,000 turns before I even let you let go of the camera
• 38:38
  because if you don't know how to turn, you're never going to know
• 38:40
  how to throw it and just kind of really getting that groundwork
• 38:44
  in, you know, it's like the first time you throw a shot but
• 38:47
  I always tell the kids and we have a lot of multi-sport
• 38:49
  athletes. You know.
• 38:51
  Can you remember the first time you shot a basketball you know
• 38:54
  being an Indiana. Everyone shot basketball before.
• 38:58
  When's the first time you shot a basketball.
• 38:59
  Okay the five. All right.
• 39:01
  Well you're 18 now. You know you've had All this
• 39:04
  year of experience of shooting a basketball where it's just
• 39:06
  second nature to you. Congratulations, you're now a
• 39:08
  five-year-old. Again, when it comes to throwing
• 39:10
  the hammer in that it just, it takes time.
• 39:13
  You have to be patient with a new event, you're going to have
• 39:16
  really high highs really low lows and just kind of navigating
• 39:21
  those with those athletes. And that's, that's why we have
• 39:24
  seen success in the hammer is just being patient and
• 39:26
  understanding that it's a year process.
• 39:29
  It's years of time, not just instant success.
• 39:32
  That might be my favorite quote. Argyle.
• 39:34
  Oh congratulations. Your five-year-old like yeah,
• 39:37
  you've got to come up with a Saint Francis Hammer shirt with
• 39:42
  that. On the fat goes like a good
• 39:43
  Solutions or five years old. That is awesome, and such the
• 39:46
  truth. There are a carve out a few
• 39:50
  events in college where you are. That was a great visual for me,
• 39:54
  at least of going back to the bait.
• 39:56
  Like, you do not know how to turn it all and they him, I'm
• 39:58
  not trying to help you get better at turning.
• 40:00
  I got to start with teaching and I got to teach you how to Hold
• 40:04
  the handle. It's not necessarily intuitive
• 40:06
  on how you would handle the hammer, the hammer handle.
• 40:09
  I love that. And you start thinking about
• 40:10
  other events, like the hundred 110s and things like that, you
• 40:13
  know? The the Mi Tek, okay?
• 40:15
  I don't have to teach an incoming freshman.
• 40:17
  Mylar, how to run out of step one in front of the other.
• 40:19
  I got to teach them to get better.
• 40:20
  They get they got to get their splits better and things like
• 40:22
  that. But I don't have to teach them
• 40:25
  from stage. One that that goes down to, you
• 40:29
  know, probably the javelin a lot, the hammer for sure a lot.
• 40:33
  To sneak in the Steeplechase hurdle and technique.
• 40:37
  Right? Maybe maybe and then some multi
• 40:41
  athletes of course, you know, maybe specifically in the throat
• 40:44
  because I think most men multis come from Sprint's hurdles,
• 40:46
  jumps background. So you gotta learn, the throw is
• 40:48
  and stuff. So that's a really good point.
• 40:50
  Again, best quote I've ever heard of the hammer, congrats,
• 40:53
  you're five years old. I mean, I remember two years
• 40:57
  ago, we had a young lady at st. Francis student upbeat fourth in
• 40:59
  the nation that you have won the NAIA level and She was four
• 41:04
  years in the throwing Jeff, she was a senior and she was, you
• 41:08
  know, warming up. And she kind of had a bubbly
• 41:10
  personality. She didn't know stranger, she's
• 41:13
  talking to all the girls out there, warm it up and then, you
• 41:16
  know, they're like, oh yeah, I threw it in high school, you
• 41:18
  know that girl over there, we were in the same high school
• 41:20
  conference and you know, she was like, oh, okay, like I'm I am
• 41:27
  completely awesome and it like her her, she qualified as a
• 41:29
  sophomore and got dead last and then Her junior year was the
• 41:34
  covid year. And then her senior year she
• 41:35
  goes on Fourth and it was just kind of a very eye-opening
• 41:38
  experience again for me. Still is a really young coach to
• 41:42
  realize that, you know, there are other kids out there that
• 41:44
  are going to be more experience and you can't really control
• 41:48
  that but what you can't control us, just how you package it to
• 41:51
  your kids and get them to believe it, you know, you know,
• 41:54
  I always look things. So much more coach Centric and
• 41:56
  your job is to be athlete Centric as the coach, right?
• 42:00
  But when you said that I started thinking about Coaches.
• 42:04
  So you talked about the framing it that these other people
• 42:07
  athletically have done it longer.
• 42:09
  They're doing it is good and you're getting forth and then
• 42:12
  when it you know, that that's amazing.
• 42:13
  I think I literally just started thinking about that for coaches,
• 42:16
  you know, we put a lot of pressure on ourselves as coaches
• 42:18
  that we want to win the title whether it's your conference or
• 42:21
  national, we want to have all the all Americans and XYZ event,
• 42:26
  but maybe you're just starting and when I say just starting
• 42:28
  maybe your year 10 because there's plenty of 20, 30 40 year
• 42:32
  experienced coaches, He's out there that are doing amazing but
• 42:35
  you're up against every other coach that hopefully it to some
• 42:38
  degree has the same attitude as you.
• 42:40
  So they're learning, they're educating their recruiting
• 42:42
  athletes. Maybe they recruit a more
• 42:44
  athletic person than your kid etcetera, you're up against it.
• 42:47
  And so, you know, we've talked a lot here lately on the podcast
• 42:50
  about that winning is hard. And I think we forget that
• 42:53
  sometimes especially in track because we have so many events,
• 42:56
  and so many Meats, when you go to a basketball game that
• 42:59
  there's one winner, right? We don't, we don't count the
• 43:02
  person who scores the most points is the Enter, that could
• 43:04
  be the other team. There's one winning team, but we
• 43:06
  go to a track meet. There are, what is their 22
• 43:08
  events at College 20, 21 22, and then male and one female and
• 43:13
  woman. Yeah, male and female.
• 43:15
  So, so 44 events. So we get to see foot.
• 43:18
  So sometimes I think we forget like, oh, it actually is hard
• 43:21
  another. We have 44 winners but it's hard
• 43:24
  to win. Yeah, and if you take its, I
• 43:27
  mean for me going from an NCAA division, three school to an
• 43:30
  NAIA School, the level, right? Division. 3 is very competitive
• 43:35
  easy but NAIA, the top end is just ridiculous.
• 43:40
  Sometimes of just, you know, I had a young man, this last year,
• 43:44
  he 459 m in the hammer for eighth place in the nation and
• 43:49
  he got 3rd at our conference Championship, you know, just the
• 43:52
  top end to be good today in the day out, it truly is a grind for
• 43:58
  coaches and It's a Grind for your athletes to your athletes.
• 44:01
  That want to be successful in that want to be.
• 44:03
  Good, you know, winning matters to them.
• 44:07
  And then understanding how hard it is to win is something that I
• 44:11
  think it's kind of becoming a more of the Forefront of just
• 44:14
  like, how do you get them to that next level?
• 44:17
  How do you get them to go from being good to great because the
• 44:22
  super uber talented athletes are walking into the University of
• 44:26
  Saint Francis to run track and field, we have to develop our
• 44:30
  athletes. So let's explore that.
• 44:33
  Two topics there. I'd love to explore with you.
• 44:35
  One is, we'll put a pin on it helped me remember about
• 44:38
  developing your app plates in regards to how you said, you
• 44:42
  know, we're not getting the number one, kid nation at st.
• 44:45
  Francis. Which by the way, 99.9% of the
• 44:47
  universities aren't getting the number one or even top, ten by
• 44:50
  the way. But I'd like to explore that
• 44:51
  with you, but let's go back. So real quick.
• 44:54
  Let's make sure we connect the dots you go from Manchester to
• 44:57
  st. Francis Grace's.
• 44:59
  Yeah, I spent three years at University.
• 45:03
  My third year kind of kind of Full Circle what we talked about
• 45:07
  earlier, I got married and it became more than just me at that
• 45:11
  point in time. So I was kind of ready to move
• 45:13
  on and then find a position that work for my family at that point
• 45:16
  in time had the opportunity to apply for the job at st.
• 45:21
  Francis Mike McAfee, our athletic director entrusted a 26
• 45:25
  year old. I was only 26 the to take the
• 45:29
  reins, but it just kind of an interesting story and how I got
• 45:33
  that. Same prayer.
• 45:33
  It's his job. We had a baseball player who
• 45:36
  love the lift, and my office was in the waiting room, and I
• 45:39
  unlocked the door for him to lift, and he goes, hey, I was in
• 45:42
  Fort Wayne the other day and heard that the st.
• 45:44
  Francis track and field position was open, but because I was
• 45:48
  willing to make, you know, relationships with other sports
• 45:51
  teams and other athletes and not just be so track-focused.
• 45:55
  He felt comfortable to tell me. He talked to me, I opened the
• 45:58
  weight room for him and supervise him while he left and,
• 46:02
  you know, you About chance I hadn't seen it on any job
• 46:06
  posting. I hadn't seen it on any big
• 46:08
  national board but then, you know, applied for it.
• 46:11
  Interviewed for it. Got the job.
• 46:15
  We actually, our first me, was it like middle of September and
• 46:19
  I got hired two days prior to our first cross-country meet.
• 46:23
  So that was a very quick turnaround but been at st.
• 46:27
  Francis Emerson's, you know, I love that because you know,
• 46:30
  there's a lot of words, it's a great example of a lot of
• 46:33
  different words. He's right fate luck,
• 46:35
  Serendipity to your point. I love your point about, you
• 46:39
  know, what, I didn't just stick to just track people, you know,
• 46:42
  staying in my bubble because I got out of my bubble.
• 46:45
  This opportunity was presented to me being nice to people.
• 46:48
  I thought, I don't want to overlook that part of the story
• 46:51
  to. It's like, you know, you weren't
• 46:52
  doing something to get something, but you did get
• 46:55
  something about an amazing position there.
• 46:57
  So, I love that story, especially as we, you know, good
• 47:01
  or bad, the one message, Third link or topic or whatever that I
• 47:07
  will watch. Read a religiously, is the open
• 47:11
  coaching positions on? Let's run.com?
• 47:13
  Yeah, that is a lot of people right now that want to judge me
• 47:16
  that also go to that thread or whatever, you know, so you can
• 47:21
  judge all you want. It's the one I don't really look
• 47:22
  at any others, but that one I just find fascinating again,
• 47:26
  partly? Because of my passion of
• 47:27
  coaches, I like to see where people are going.
• 47:29
  I also love to see the people that are just wildly the Rolls
• 47:34
  and like what years? An idiot.
• 47:35
  But I also respect that there are people who know a lot of
• 47:38
  stuff that are in quote, unquote.
• 47:40
  Big time positions, important positions that do report on
• 47:43
  there. There is just as many, you know,
• 47:46
  post number 21 at says, Kyle Allison's going to the
• 47:49
  University of Arkansas and then 100 post later is the
• 47:52
  announcement of Kyle's and going to the you know it's like oh you
• 47:55
  guys to keep forgetting that people are on here you know.
• 47:58
  So but on that message on the thread, there's A lot of like,
• 48:04
  oh, every position when its open especially head coaching
• 48:07
  positions, it's already known before.
• 48:10
  It's posted and oh, you've got to know someone.
• 48:13
  So like if someone from the outside were to look at Kyle,
• 48:16
  how you got to st. Francis.
• 48:17
  It would have been like, oh, Kyle knew one of the hiring ades
• 48:21
  before the job was even hired or, you know, went to school
• 48:25
  with the SWA and saying Frank. That's how he got the job and
• 48:28
  come on. He's only been a coach for three
• 48:31
  seasons. What?
• 48:31
  Come on he obviously knew What? It's like actually scratch.
• 48:36
  All that didn't even know the job was open.
• 48:38
  I didn't know anybody there had to interview and earn the job
• 48:43
  just like it. Quote unquote is supposed to be
• 48:44
  right. Like most of the real world out
• 48:46
  there that's out there. So I love that.
• 48:48
  Kind of like said call it what you want, fate Serendipity, dumb
• 48:52
  luck. I love that.
• 48:54
  You had to, you know, first of all, that it came from a
• 48:56
  kindness act and then interviewed and had to earn the
• 48:59
  job, just like you're supposed to.
• 49:01
  So I love that. So I get to the topic I wanted
• 49:04
  to get to. I always do love to ask first
• 49:06
  time head coaches. So we're you ready or you
• 49:09
  prepared and your three years in.
• 49:10
  So I if you say yes, I'm going to cut the interview short right
• 49:13
  here right now Kyle. Okay, so you could already said
• 49:16
  no. So, what?
• 49:17
  I'm always interested now. So, how long have you been at
• 49:20
  st. Francis, I just finished my 60
• 49:22
  years going into seven, your social beautiful.
• 49:24
  So you're kind of still a rookie, but you're much more
• 49:26
  experienced rookie. But when you look back now,
• 49:29
  because one of the amazing things that we have today that
• 49:32
  we didn't have yesterday, Day is experience.
• 49:35
  We don't have you know perspective of what you know
• 49:38
  when we're going through. But now you do for six almost
• 49:40
  seven seasons what as the head coach when you got the job, what
• 49:45
  surprised you because there's a lot of people right now that
• 49:47
  think they want to be in your in your chair, they want to be a
• 49:50
  head coach that for whatever reason, whether think it's
• 49:53
  power, pay title whatever they think it is, what surprised you
• 49:59
  the most of like oh crap, I'm the head coach.
• 50:03
  Responsible for. Man, I don't know if it's a
• 50:10
  simple I you know, I'm responsible for the University's
• 50:13
  success in athletics and st. Francis was in a rough spot at
• 50:19
  that point in time. With the program, we only had 16
• 50:23
  total in the entire program. Men women cross strap, we have
• 50:27
  one total cross country runner on the men's side one, you got
• 50:32
  to have five, preferably you have 10, you know, and that's
• 50:36
  still Small. And so coming into it, we
• 50:40
  actually were in violation of not feeling a team, you do that,
• 50:44
  a couple years in a row, they're going to tell you you.
• 50:46
  No longer can sponsor the sport. And so kind of having that
• 50:50
  pressure of like, you know, we've had cross country for the
• 50:53
  last 40 years, we want to continue to have cross country.
• 50:57
  We need you to get out there. We need you to recruit, we need
• 51:00
  you to feel the teeth, you know, my first year I beg to tennis
• 51:04
  players into baseball players to come wrong.
• 51:07
  To try to get 25, you know. I think they prefer 48k, I think
• 51:11
  they probably ran north of an hour.
• 51:14
  You know, me directors hated me, but I, you know, I had to feel
• 51:19
  the team, you know, looking back at it.
• 51:22
  Now I realized why I was 26 years old and had the
• 51:25
  opportunity to become a head coach is because they were in
• 51:29
  great spot on. But you know, when you become a
• 51:32
  head coach at a school, you are an extension of that school.
• 51:37
  Sometimes one of the most publicly viewed extensions and
• 51:41
  you know, cross country and track and field, may not be the
• 51:44
  most Public's for out there, but you're going to travel across
• 51:49
  the United States. You're going to wear the
• 51:52
  uniform, you're going to have the university name attached to
• 51:55
  it, you have to make sure that you are representation, as I
• 51:58
  think that's something that I was like, holy smokes.
• 52:01
  Like I'm the guy I am. The person that makes the
• 52:04
  decisions. I am, you know, buying deeper
• 52:07
  Person that says, get on the bus and that's something that has
• 52:10
  always kind of stuck with me. What about the opposite side?
• 52:15
  So when you become a head coach, you're doing things that you
• 52:18
  maybe have never done your budgeting, you're setting the
• 52:21
  track schedule. You're setting the schedule,
• 52:23
  schedule, what time we get on the bus?
• 52:25
  You're recruiting. There's so many paperwork and
• 52:30
  stuff they have to do for your conference.
• 52:32
  And for Nationals, things like that, eligibility compliance at
• 52:36
  such a there's I It's, it's amazing.
• 52:38
  How many hats you have to wear as the head coach and
• 52:40
  specifically the head coach of track because you have six
• 52:44
  sports with many ones across many women's indoor, many
• 52:46
  women's outdoor. What?
• 52:48
  So the opposite side of that question then what was something
• 52:50
  that was new to you that man? You just picked up like that.
• 52:54
  Like you're like, man. I I thought that was going to be
• 52:56
  hard but why I feel like I have a knack for Administrative
• 53:02
  stuff. Yeah, it's yeah.
• 53:05
  It's something that like a task that can take two to three
• 53:09
  hours. I feel like I've been able to
• 53:12
  really, you know, I'm going to get it done.
• 53:13
  I'm going to grind it out because I'm here to coach
• 53:15
  recruit, you know, it's not fun, sitting through the compliance
• 53:20
  stuff, it's not fun, you know, preparing your budget for the
• 53:24
  next year, but if you're plotting if you have it kind of
• 53:27
  figure it out, we have it ready to go.
• 53:30
  Um then you can get to what you're here for.
• 53:33
  You know. Yeah.
• 53:34
  You have to do all of that stuff to be able to go to meet.
• 53:37
  You have to do all that stuff to be able to go recruit and so I
• 53:41
  feel like I do that really well. I feel like that's something
• 53:44
  that not a passion of mine. No one can says that that's a
• 53:47
  passion by being able to be organized and streamline that
• 53:52
  process has been able to allow us to do a lot of things because
• 53:56
  I'm not spending a ton of my time on being a, you know,
• 53:59
  Getting our bosses around. Getting the hotels, doing things
• 54:03
  like that. Just being able to get it done.
• 54:06
  That's a good look into what head coach actually means.
• 54:09
  It's not necessarily being in the circle and helping kids out,
• 54:13
  or being on the runway for the Javits being in the office,
• 54:15
  sometimes, filling out paperwork Etc.
• 54:18
  So a lot of people Aspire again to be in that seat that had
• 54:22
  coaching. See, what?
• 54:23
  Advice would you give them to help with that Parks?
• 54:26
  I think we'll put aside that they know how to coach.
• 54:29
  So they actually All X's and O's on the on the field and in the
• 54:32
  on the track. But when they sit in that chair,
• 54:35
  what's some advice their first year, and that you can give them
• 54:38
  to help? Prepare them, I would go and I
• 54:41
  would go and try to find a coach who's been at your University
• 54:44
  for 10-15 years. Who interesting?
• 54:46
  Why? I don't care what sport they
• 54:49
  coach go find them and be like, what's what's the hardest part
• 54:53
  of your non-compete job? You know, what do you feel like
• 54:57
  you have to spend the most time on And learn from them.
• 55:01
  How do they do it? How they've been able to survive
• 55:03
  the last 10-15 years? You know at a small school, we
• 55:09
  don't have super robust staff saline on.
• 55:11
  It's up to you. So you know, I walked up to our
• 55:15
  softball coach. Our softball coach has been a
• 55:16
  Saint Francis / dying, 13 years at that point in time.
• 55:19
  And I was like, okay I've never prepared a budget before and we
• 55:23
  just went from 16 kids on the roster to 40 in a year.
• 55:27
  What do I need to ask for? What are they going to tell me?
• 55:29
  No. What are they going to tell me?
• 55:30
  Yes. Or how do I get my point across?
• 55:34
  But I would say, you don't coach go go door while the other
• 55:37
  coaches in the office suite. It doesn't have to be a track
• 55:41
  coach. It can be a softball coach of
• 55:43
  baseball coach of golf coach. Who's been at the University for
• 55:46
  a while. They know how the university
• 55:48
  Works, they know how the NAIA or the NCAA works, and they're
• 55:51
  going to be able to walk you through and help truck.
• 55:55
  If you are a new head coach, right now over have aspirations
• 55:58
  to be a head coach. Ouch, I would highly recommend
• 56:02
  you hit the rewind button about four times go back, one minute,
• 56:04
  they are. Because what you just said there
• 56:06
  Kyle, I think that's some of the best advice I've ever heard
• 56:11
  mostly because again I'm always concerned about our bubble when
• 56:15
  we talk about track and field, we talk about the the popularity
• 56:18
  of the sport. We're always arguing amongst
• 56:21
  amongst our own fandom and a lot of our fandom is coaches.
• 56:24
  That's not a good thing. You know, we if the NFL only
• 56:28
  thrived on football coach It would not be the billion dollar
• 56:33
  Enterprise that it is. So, I'm always concerned about
• 56:36
  how do we get out of our bubble, how do we see what other people
• 56:38
  are doing successfully? Whether it's other sports or
• 56:40
  other businesses, other activities?
• 56:44
  Why is Esports so big right now? I'd love to learn more from from
• 56:46
  them and how they do things. We had Lamar Daniels.
• 56:50
  Now think formerly of Lourdes University on the podcast, I had
• 56:53
  them on just to learn about Esports, I knew nothing about
• 56:55
  it. That he also coached Esports was
• 56:56
  like, all right we're gonna have you the podcast just so I can
• 56:58
  have it was a complete lie. Selfish episode.
• 57:00
  I was all for me to learn, right?
• 57:02
  So I love that advice. Kyle about, hey, go find someone
• 57:06
  who's been at your University for longer than you your day,
• 57:09
  one go find out how have you done it?
• 57:13
  What are some of the pitfalls to look for?
• 57:15
  What are some of the gains that I can get?
• 57:17
  What are some easy wins? I can get?
• 57:19
  How to, how do you handle this side of paperwork?
• 57:21
  What do you do here? And then use that experience.
• 57:25
  Because that's one thing you can't force, right?
• 57:27
  I can force more training into and Technique and things like
• 57:30
  that, but I can't force years of throwing the hammer.
• 57:33
  I can't force years of being the head coach, and making mistakes
• 57:36
  and forgetting this schedule to bus, things like that.
• 57:40
  But someone else has done that at your University.
• 57:43
  I love that that pairs well with the advice I heard about on the
• 57:48
  success side. So the actual athletic side of
• 57:51
  your University is going and finding the coach, or coaches
• 57:54
  who've had success so who's winning conference, who's
• 57:57
  winning Nationals and say, hey. So how are you recruiting?
• 57:59
  And kids those kind of kids here, you know.
• 58:01
  So you can learn like, oh man, I never thought about tapping into
• 58:04
  the XYZ part of high school track if you are Juco or
• 58:09
  Internet, whatever, you know, that's the elite universities
• 58:11
  different. So what, amazing advice, right
• 58:14
  there Kyle about utilizing someone else in your athletic
• 58:18
  department to help gain that experience that you just have to
• 58:21
  do day by day. So you someone else's mistakes
• 58:24
  and triumphs man, that was really good.
• 58:27
  Okay, so here's something that I wanted to talk about.
• 58:29
  That is really interesting. So you were a D2 athlete, and
• 58:33
  then a D3 coach and now an NAIA coach, that's three fairly
• 58:39
  radical organizations to be. Right?
• 58:42
  You go from being and in an organization that allows
• 58:45
  scholarships D2. You go to an organization D3
• 58:49
  where there are no athletic scholarships and now you're in a
• 58:52
  IA, which I admittedly don't know as much but I know they
• 58:55
  offer scholarships. So you're back to a scholarship
• 58:57
  program but it's different. You're not under the NCAA.
• 58:59
  Say Branch, what are some of the differences in unique
• 59:04
  uniquenesses that you've seen as an athlete assistant coach and
• 59:07
  head coach in these three different organizations?
• 59:11
  Yeah, I mean, I remember, I just remember as an athlete felt like
• 59:15
  you were signing your life away to the NCAA at a certain point
• 59:18
  of time. You know, you're sitting at all
• 59:19
  these compliance meetings and, you know, this was 10 15 years
• 59:23
  ago now and a lot of things have changed since then, right?
• 59:25
  But, you know, II fully remember University of Indianapolis is
• 59:29
  The Great Lakes Valley Conference signing a piece of
• 59:32
  paper saying they're able to use my my name and image any
• 59:36
  publication that they see fit. And I just remember looking at
• 59:39
  that paper, just going to poke this kind of differ.
• 59:41
  I'm not used to the skin and if you disagree with it then you
• 59:44
  don't get your dog. Yeah.
• 59:45
  Yeah. There is no like, okay, well
• 59:47
  then we won't do it. No, no.
• 59:48
  It's just like, oh, well the you don't sign this, you don't
• 59:50
  compete. Yeah, it's a little intimate.
• 59:52
  I remember giving that piece of paper, you know during
• 59:53
  compliance and look at my athletes and they're like coach.
• 59:55
  It says I'm like yeah I know man.
• 59:59
  Yeah. That's interesting.
• 1:00:01
  I assume it's a little different nowadays.
• 1:00:03
  This stuff that's come out but you know, I think division to
• 1:00:08
  was a really good opportunity for me to see what top in
• 1:00:12
  Collegiate Athletics, look like without the we have to make as
• 1:00:16
  much money as we possibly can often that, you know, these
• 1:00:19
  teams and then you go to a division, three school, where if
• 1:00:24
  you love the sport, go spend time at a division, three
• 1:00:27
  school, you know, there are a lot of a lot of universities out
• 1:00:32
  there that give student athletes an opportunity to get amazing.
• 1:00:36
  Haitians and continue to do the sport that they love.
• 1:00:40
  I was very fortunate that when I was at Manchester, we were very
• 1:00:43
  successful. One a bunch conference
• 1:00:45
  championships, had all Americans was able to see what NCAA
• 1:00:48
  division. Three is at the highest level,
• 1:00:50
  but yeah, you know, you're asking kids to come on their
• 1:00:53
  dime. You're not giving them any
• 1:00:54
  scholarship money, you know, really focused on the academic
• 1:00:58
  side of things, having to submit, you know, your schedule
• 1:01:03
  to the university to make sure that they don't miss so many.
• 1:01:07
  Class because they want to make sure that they're there, your
• 1:01:09
  training schedule or your meat schedule.
• 1:01:13
  But, you know, maybe we were fortunate in the fact that
• 1:01:17
  Manchester allowed us to have protected practice time.
• 1:01:21
  So from 3 to 6 p.m. the university didn't have classes,
• 1:01:24
  okay? So what was really nice.
• 1:01:26
  We could always do that but like, you know, it's not like me
• 1:01:29
  coming from the Midwest. I get asked to take a bunch of
• 1:01:32
  people outside Mount Sac, you know, in California, because
• 1:01:35
  they're gonna miss too much class.
• 1:01:36
  And we didn't want to miss class and, you know, spent three years
• 1:01:40
  in the division, three model where it's, you know,
• 1:01:42
  student-athlete student-athlete student athlete and you go to
• 1:01:45
  the NAIA, which has kind of been branded as the Wild Wild West,
• 1:01:49
  you know, but that means you have not coach a Juco, my
• 1:01:52
  friend. Yeah, as a former Juco coach,
• 1:01:55
  would soon as you said that was like, oh, no, that's our moniker
• 1:01:57
  sir. Yeah, you can't take that.
• 1:01:59
  You can be the wild, wild East maybe.
• 1:02:00
  Yeah, but you can't either, but it's I think.
• 1:02:06
  NAIA allows the athletes be an athlete and allows the coach to
• 1:02:10
  be a coach and allows us to take care of our athletes, if they
• 1:02:13
  need to be taken care of, you know.
• 1:02:18
  Yeah, there aren't as many rules and regulations and things like
• 1:02:21
  that, but it still, is, you still have to be eligible.
• 1:02:25
  You still have to have compliance.
• 1:02:26
  He sought to meet all these standards to be able to compete.
• 1:02:30
  But it just allows us to care about the student care about the
• 1:02:35
  kid. Knowing that you don't
• 1:02:37
  necessarily know, all the incidentally rules who does
• 1:02:42
  specifically like division one what are some of the Nei rule
• 1:02:46
  differences? What I think?
• 1:02:48
  I know. So you correct me is when you
• 1:02:51
  start NCAA, when you start post-collegiate, your clock
• 1:02:55
  starts going. So you have five years to do for
• 1:02:57
  years. If you decide unless, you know,
• 1:02:59
  there's a military differences, I think might be the right word
• 1:03:04
  but generally soon as you start, Full-time post-collegiate, you
• 1:03:08
  have five years to do for years. You quit for two years, too bad.
• 1:03:10
  You don't get them back. You see you have one or two
• 1:03:12
  seasons up to that. I think in AI has you have five
• 1:03:17
  years to do for years, old ability?
• 1:03:19
  And and that's if you skip a year like if you decide to quit
• 1:03:22
  school after freshman year, and go become an accountant for five
• 1:03:25
  years and come back, you still have your eligibility.
• 1:03:28
  I believe you tell me what and what are you?
• 1:03:37
  So you technically have 10 semesters to complete your four
• 1:03:41
  years of Eligibility and it's 10, full-time semesters.
• 1:03:45
  So if you're a second semester athlete, if you're only doing
• 1:03:48
  track and field, you can drop below full-time status, that
• 1:03:52
  first semester, and your clock stops.
• 1:03:55
  And so that does lead to some I think last year at the NAIA
• 1:03:59
  National Championship that to people that one like the athlete
• 1:04:02
  of the year were in their late 20s.
• 1:04:06
  So, You do see that a little bit more, but again, especially with
• 1:04:10
  what's happened in the last, you know, three years with covid, it
• 1:04:14
  has allowed the athletes to maintain their eligibility and
• 1:04:17
  not be. Super worried about their clock
• 1:04:20
  running out without being able to fulfill their eligibility.
• 1:04:26
  What about I was like to ask this about the Nea, guys, and
• 1:04:29
  Juco has this as well. Why in the world, you have a
• 1:04:32
  marathon championship. Marathon in the AI is no more.
• 1:04:37
  What was that, right? Yeah, we we ended it last year.
• 1:04:40
  Last year my voice was heard. Yeah.
• 1:04:45
  It actually dropped it down to a half marathon.
• 1:04:48
  Okay. It got to the point where there
• 1:04:51
  was a newer younger generation. I think we're comfortable with
• 1:04:54
  getting rid of it. You know, that used to be the
• 1:04:56
  calling card of the NAIA in junior college.
• 1:04:59
  As, you know, we have a marathon come run, a marathon for us, I
• 1:05:02
  don't think people realize the Rubber Marathon at 20 years old,
• 1:05:07
  a man, especially our championships in Gulf Shores,
• 1:05:10
  Alabama. You know, it's 95 degrees, it's
• 1:05:13
  90 degrees and it just got to the point that like, just to say
• 1:05:17
  we have, it isn't worth it to find a kid passed out on the
• 1:05:20
  park bench. And so now that I'm the distance
• 1:05:23
  coach, now, you did level one. So maybe, you know this, I have
• 1:05:26
  a hard time feeling that thinking that the same persons
• 1:05:30
  that are training, probably, I assume for a 10K on the track,
• 1:05:33
  that's the longest track of ENT that that training is compatible
• 1:05:36
  with marathon training. And so because it's in gay guy
• 1:05:39
  and gal is typically also run a 5k and maybe some 1,500 Etc.
• 1:05:43
  I feel like the marathon training gotten the would get
• 1:05:45
  neglected and now you're putting that kid on a marathon and I
• 1:05:49
  don't care if it's in go short, which is I mean, temperature
• 1:05:52
  wise of course or you're doing in The Dakotas it's still 26.2.
• 1:05:57
  I just don't know that you're training properly for it, that
• 1:06:00
  was always my issue. It's like what do we do?
• 1:06:02
  I'm not sure you're doing what's right for the ass.
• 1:06:04
  It's maybe if you held the marathon, I don't know.
• 1:06:07
  This is a terrible idea to but maybe you have it in December.
• 1:06:11
  I don't know. I just but at the same time
• 1:06:13
  frame as your outdoor championships and it counted
• 1:06:15
  towards your outdoor title points by the way.
• 1:06:17
  So you kind of had to think about it, at least if you wanted
• 1:06:20
  to win a title, that just didn't seem smart.
• 1:06:23
  I just didn't, I just didn't like it.
• 1:06:25
  So I guess I'm so happy. My voice was heard.
• 1:06:27
  What was it? What was it?
• 1:06:29
  That actually stopped. It was, it was it.
• 1:06:31
  People talking about the the safety issue?
• 1:06:33
  Yes. Safety issues.
• 1:06:35
  And then like, I don't think people quite understand the cost
• 1:06:39
  of running a marathon, you know, having to having to close roads
• 1:06:42
  down having to be able to do a lot of that.
• 1:06:45
  And when, you know, the Nai is looking for people to be put in
• 1:06:49
  bids to move National Championship around the all the
• 1:06:51
  way. That's a really big negative
• 1:06:54
  side of it and, you know, that's more the business of Collegiate
• 1:06:57
  Athletics. But and then, you know, there's
• 1:07:01
  just been a lot of new things coming out about health and
• 1:07:04
  Steve athletes making sure that someone running 26.2 miles
• 1:07:09
  shouldn't be running, 30 miles a week and then going, hey, go
• 1:07:12
  wrong, especially in the NAIA, you can qualify for the you used
• 1:07:16
  to be able to qualify for the marathon just by running a half.
• 1:07:18
  Mmm. It's like II wouldn't want to be
• 1:07:21
  able to qualify someone in the 10K off just their 5K time and
• 1:07:27
  so it just really changes everything and then a half
• 1:07:29
  marathon you know a lot of people run 13 miles on a Sunday.
• 1:07:33
  It's a pretty A normal thing and so there was talk about moving
• 1:07:36
  into half but then it just got to the point.
• 1:07:38
  It's like well if we're going to do that just so you don't you
• 1:07:40
  don't have the half. It's now just 10K on the track
• 1:07:43
  is the yep. Take Kayla jack-wang.
• 1:07:45
  This event that we do. Yeah.
• 1:07:46
  I was gonna say even the half and you can cheat a lot of
• 1:07:49
  things in the half and what I mean by that is under training,
• 1:07:51
  not cheap. Yeah.
• 1:07:53
  Under training and still be okay.
• 1:07:55
  But boy, a marathon at under training just seems like a
• 1:07:59
  terrible terrible idea. So I'm sure there were many
• 1:08:03
  programs and coaches that Like that, you know, that hung their
• 1:08:07
  hat on the marathon and and that distance our business meetings
• 1:08:11
  of the Coaches convention, have been pretty Lively the last
• 1:08:14
  couple years talking about the marathon and should have stay
• 1:08:17
  in, should it go? And I think it's just for the
• 1:08:21
  betterment of the student-athletes, not put them
• 1:08:23
  into a situation that they're not prepared for to get rid of
• 1:08:26
  it. So earlier, did you say you're
• 1:08:28
  six foot, seven or six, four, six four two four, two four, six
• 1:08:33
  seven, Up in those meetings. All 64 via like look guys,
• 1:08:38
  unfortunately, I still see a little bit of success here, so
• 1:08:47
  my voice will start to go a little bit bigger.
• 1:08:49
  You stand up there, like, hey, look, man when we want shot put
• 1:08:53
  and Hammer stuff, we'll talk to you.
• 1:08:55
  The yeah, this is the joggers, I don't that.
• 1:08:57
  That was offensive. I should have said joggers.
• 1:08:59
  This is the distance guys and gals that are talking.
• 1:09:01
  That's right. Yeah, don't let them try to take
• 1:09:03
  away the hay. Or anything.
• 1:09:04
  All right, don't know. We're not.
• 1:09:06
  Okay, good. Good, good.
• 1:09:08
  So what about the Nai as a head coach?
• 1:09:11
  And, I know you don't have experience against being a D3 or
• 1:09:13
  D2 head coach. But like what what makes you
• 1:09:16
  enjoy any eye? And I'm assuming you enjoy any
• 1:09:19
  eye because you're still there and you've, you have been
• 1:09:21
  successful. So they're potentially have been
• 1:09:24
  other opportunities for you to move elsewhere.
• 1:09:26
  And of course, he talked about the different age and stage of
• 1:09:28
  your life. At this point, you got family to
• 1:09:29
  consider now when you think about other opportunities, so
• 1:09:32
  what's it about, then a that you enjoy.
• 1:09:34
  Oi that still keeping you there? Well I think the Nei does a
• 1:09:38
  great job especially in cross country and track and field and
• 1:09:40
  trying to allow student athletes to compete at the highest level
• 1:09:44
  for the Championships. You know, we own the track side
• 1:09:47
  of things with our standards than the A and B standard
• 1:09:50
  qualify for the national championship.
• 1:09:52
  It allows a really good opportunity for an athlete to
• 1:09:55
  see that as a goal to qualify for Nationals.
• 1:09:58
  So I think the Nai does result that.
• 1:10:01
  So what walk us through that for a for those of us who don't know
• 1:10:03
  how you Fight for Nationals, tell me how you.
• 1:10:05
  Yeah. So indoor track and field
• 1:10:07
  outdoor track and field. The Nai has two standards.
• 1:10:10
  They have an a standard, and a be standard.
• 1:10:13
  The, a standard. If you hit that Mark, you're in
• 1:10:15
  the championship, you're in. No matter what, the B standard
• 1:10:19
  is little different. The B standard schools, get 3 /
• 1:10:24
  gender. So you get three male three
• 1:10:26
  female rights of entry on that be standard.
• 1:10:30
  So you run into a situation sometimes where maybe you have.
• 1:10:34
  Seven people on a be standard. You have to pick which three
• 1:10:36
  gets go to Nationals. But again it still gives you
• 1:10:40
  that that student opportunity to go to a national championship.
• 1:10:45
  And so that's that's how we've always kind of.
• 1:10:47
  Determine we have a committee of coaches that set those standards
• 1:10:52
  every single year on what it is to qualify for the national
• 1:10:55
  championship on the, A and B standards and the three per
• 1:10:58
  gender per institution. Does that count?
• 1:11:02
  If an athlete, has the a mark in Hundred, but the be Mark in the
• 1:11:06
  200. Would you have to use one of
• 1:11:08
  your three for that be 200. Even though he or she's already
• 1:11:11
  in the hundred? Yeah, you have to use that be
• 1:11:13
  markets it fervent? Yeah.
• 1:11:16
  Yeah the other difference with it is you only get one relay on
• 1:11:21
  a beach. So say you qualify for buy one
• 1:11:24
  and a four-by-four, both on be standard.
• 1:11:26
  You only get two individuals. And one relay.
• 1:11:29
  You can't take multiple relays and the Beast, and okay.
• 1:11:33
  Yeah. You know my first year National
• 1:11:37
  qualifier we only had one be standard and you know she got I
• 1:11:42
  think he got like 23rd in the nation that year and the 60
• 1:11:44
  hurdles. But he hit the mark, we knew he
• 1:11:48
  was going to Nationals. He turned that right to go, we
• 1:11:51
  were able to use our be standard entry for them and be able to
• 1:11:54
  take in the Nationals. Now we're a lot more a
• 1:11:57
  standards, you know, it, but it's nice.
• 1:12:01
  I like, you know, talking to some of my friends at Cochin.
• 1:12:03
  See it. Into, they got rid of, you know,
• 1:12:05
  the the auto Provost system kinda, and it sounds like
• 1:12:10
  there's just a lot of going into that last weekend of the
• 1:12:13
  qualifying window going. Okay.
• 1:12:14
  Well, I think they might qualify but they may not were the NAIA
• 1:12:19
  as a very clear-cut if you hit this Mark, if you jump this
• 1:12:22
  high, if you throw in this bar, you're going Championship.
• 1:12:26
  You mentioned two relays doesn't any?
• 1:12:27
  I have different relays besides the 4 by 10, 4 by 4.
• 1:12:31
  Yeah. So Outdoors.
• 1:12:32
  We do 4x8 Foot, Right? My 44, try one on and then
• 1:12:36
  indoors. We do for bait for my for India
• 1:12:38
  more. Four by eight and the DMR
• 1:12:41
  indoors if you have a very competitive distance group at
• 1:12:50
  the NAIA level indoors, you can be very successful.
• 1:12:56
  When are they going to add like the shot put 4 by 1 or
• 1:12:59
  something? We need to add something.
• 1:13:01
  I do love the relays. And then you also have, I
• 1:13:08
  believe the race walk is in AI as well, right?
• 1:13:12
  Yeah, yeah. So they do 3K race, walk indoors
• 1:13:15
  5K race walk Outdoors, 5001 total race Walker on campus for
• 1:13:20
  a visit in my six years, as a head coach.
• 1:13:22
  Steve Francis, not something that we really dabble in, but it
• 1:13:26
  has again, similar to the marathon has helped some teams
• 1:13:29
  win national championships just because it is not a super
• 1:13:32
  popular sport or event in our sport.
• 1:13:36
  Those who do it, score a lot of points off.
• 1:13:38
  Yeah, and great. That's another event that likely
• 1:13:42
  you would be teaching from scratch like the hammer, you're
• 1:13:46
  all five years old rates Walker's because it's not, I
• 1:13:49
  don't know, I'm sorry, I don't know any states that do it for
• 1:13:52
  high school. I'm thinking New York and maybe
• 1:13:54
  like a main or something. Like it seems pretty East Coast
• 1:13:57
  heavy. If you look at those that are
• 1:13:59
  competing at the national championship, they may be at
• 1:14:01
  schools because any I doesn't have a huge prevalence kind of
• 1:14:04
  in that New England area. So you see See a lot of kids
• 1:14:07
  come out and compete in the midwest from, you know, your
• 1:14:10
  Massachusetts. Doing one's means we're Island.
• 1:14:12
  So they have to at least be doing road races.
• 1:14:14
  Something along those lines will Grace walk out there, right?
• 1:14:18
  So that's interesting what you think about any IA.
• 1:14:21
  So, as we wrap up today Kyle, what about St?
• 1:14:24
  Francis has you excited? You know, you're going into year
• 1:14:26
  7? You no longer have just one be
• 1:14:30
  standard to choose from. Now you probably have you
• 1:14:32
  probably actually have that tough decision of, which the way
• 1:14:34
  am I going to take out of X number of be standards Plus on
• 1:14:39
  top of the, a centers, which is amazing.
• 1:14:40
  So a lot of progress, I'm assuming you have more than one
• 1:14:44
  person on your cross country team now.
• 1:14:45
  Yeah, you know, you're pushing for Conference titles, you're
• 1:14:49
  pushing into the NAIA national rankings, things like that.
• 1:14:51
  What's got you excited here as we go?
• 1:14:53
  And look at your seven, eight nine, ten for you here at Saint
• 1:14:56
  Francis. Um, we have some of the young up
• 1:15:02
  and commerce on our team right now.
• 1:15:05
  We had a young man, this last Outdoor season.
• 1:15:07
  Spencer car Burger, he was fourth in the nation in the
• 1:15:09
  1500. Wow.
• 1:15:11
  As a freshman true freshman, he's got some real lofty goals.
• 1:15:15
  So we're really excited about him and then just continue to
• 1:15:18
  see what we can do at st. Francis, you know, one thing
• 1:15:22
  that not a lot of people talk about, we don't have any
• 1:15:26
  facilities, we don't have an indoor track.
• 1:15:29
  We don't have an outdoor track all of our successes by by
• 1:15:32
  grinding and just being who we are.
• 1:15:35
  So what do you do? To typically you might say and
• 1:15:39
  maybe you're going to say this part.
• 1:15:40
  Yeah. You find a local high school
• 1:15:41
  here in Fort Wayne. So there's some amazing high
• 1:15:44
  school facilities there to be real Frank with you.
• 1:15:46
  But I immediately started thinking about that hammer, you
• 1:15:49
  can't just do that anywhere. What?
• 1:15:51
  So how do you do it with no facilities?
• 1:15:53
  We luckily, we luckily have a very hilly grass area with about
• 1:15:59
  a 20-foot tall chain-link fence that we use for Hammer.
• 1:16:03
  But as we have gotten better, That facility starting to kind
• 1:16:07
  of get small really small because the back side of it
• 1:16:11
  which is at about 66 meters is people's yards and fences and
• 1:16:17
  you know we had a young man who threw right around 60 meters
• 1:16:20
  this year, if he would pull it to the left, just a little bit.
• 1:16:24
  We were getting kind of close to hitting some of those those
• 1:16:27
  fences. I can just see sitting out on
• 1:16:29
  your porch, drinking your coffee, like, hey, what it?
• 1:16:31
  That's not a golf ball. Yeah.
• 1:16:36
  You know we're in Fort Wayne for twins of decently large city,
• 1:16:40
  we're in in downtown Fort Wayne essentially, so there's not a
• 1:16:45
  ton of space but I talked to my team a lot about controlling
• 1:16:50
  what you can control. We can't really control the fact
• 1:16:52
  that we don't have those facilities right now, there's
• 1:16:54
  nothing like I can't go out there with back home and start
• 1:16:56
  making. You know, it's not going to get
• 1:16:58
  done and something you don't properly, I don't know me, but
• 1:17:02
  but we can't control, you know, the attitude that we bring Every
• 1:17:06
  day in our practice, we can control.
• 1:17:08
  Yeah, we have a little bit of facility was trying to maximize
• 1:17:11
  it to the best of the possibly can.
• 1:17:12
  So we tend to be a pretty crows heavy team.
• 1:17:15
  We do have an indoor track here in town that we rent News at 6
• 1:17:20
  a.m. in the morning, so kind of early risers.
• 1:17:24
  But you know, we're just excited about the team that we have are
• 1:17:26
  excited about the kids that we have on seem, very competitive,
• 1:17:31
  women's distance program here, but we've been in the top 25 in
• 1:17:34
  the NAIA, the last two years and cross country.
• 1:17:37
  Really looking forward to kind of those next steps with with
• 1:17:40
  that team to see what we can do, you know, a team in our
• 1:17:44
  conference Taylor universities when the women's cross-country
• 1:17:46
  title eight years in a row. Now, I would really love the
• 1:17:50
  opportunity to see if we can get our women to go get them shots
• 1:17:54
  fired Taylor. Now, they know they know that
• 1:17:57
  we're trying, everyone is trying when you've done it for a As I
• 1:18:01
  say, I don't know many championship when he coaches
• 1:18:03
  that, don't know that someone's gunning for.
• 1:18:06
  That's why you go to win is so that someone can gun for you,
• 1:18:09
  you know? So yeah, I just there, well, I
• 1:18:11
  love that Kyle of the well-roundedness of your team as
• 1:18:14
  well, you know, from cross-country to the 1,500-meter
• 1:18:17
  sophomore now that got fourth. Hurdlers obviously throw I
• 1:18:21
  should say. Obviously, on top of that with
• 1:18:23
  throwers and the No Excuses attitude there, I mean, it's one
• 1:18:28
  thing, you know, as Deal specifically with facilities
• 1:18:32
  throughout the country facility projects.
• 1:18:35
  It's one thing to have a successful team that's hard.
• 1:18:39
  Remember winning is hard. That is hard to win conference
• 1:18:43
  to be in the battle to win conference, to be top 20, top 10
• 1:18:47
  at Nationals. That's hard to do it without
• 1:18:51
  facilities. I don't know what's harder than
• 1:18:54
  hard. I mean, it's one thing.
• 1:18:57
  If you're just going to be distance, I guess which still
• 1:18:59
  doesn't make it easy. But, you know, you can do some
• 1:19:02
  roads and cross country courses and things like that.
• 1:19:04
  Not that doesn't, that's not the easiest, but to have throwers
• 1:19:09
  and jumpers without facilities, man, and to have no excuses with
• 1:19:13
  it. That's just so to me admirable.
• 1:19:16
  And I love that, I want you to have amazing facilities of it,
• 1:19:20
  both personally and professionally.
• 1:19:22
  I want that, of course, But I love the no excuses of like, all
• 1:19:25
  right. Well we're okay.
• 1:19:27
  That's what. We're the cards were dealt.
• 1:19:28
  So this is what we're going to play and we're going to play it
• 1:19:30
  to the best of our ability. Now he gets, what's made me the
• 1:19:33
  coach that I am today? You know, I've had to get
• 1:19:36
  creative. I've had to try to make sure
• 1:19:38
  that the kids still get the work done that they need to get done
• 1:19:41
  to be successful. And we talked about the Coaches
• 1:19:44
  convention, I've listened to a bunch of coaches talk, who have
• 1:19:47
  a lot of nice shiny, pretty things to be able to go coach at
• 1:19:51
  and I listen to coach soccer. Couple years ago and he was
• 1:19:54
  like, not all of us, have those shiny pretty things.
• 1:19:56
  There's some of us out here that are holding together hurdles
• 1:19:59
  with duct tape. You know, they're, they're
• 1:20:01
  fixing hammers on their own to try to make sure that they can
• 1:20:04
  get more life extended out of them.
• 1:20:06
  You know, we're getting to the point that we have healthy
• 1:20:08
  enough Budget on to do quite like that.
• 1:20:10
  But, you know, there's, there's a lot of coaches out there that
• 1:20:14
  do it with a lot less than what the normal is.
• 1:20:17
  And that's in my mind, I'm going to be on my soapbox that's where
• 1:20:21
  the Superstar punches left. Yeah, You know you know they're
• 1:20:24
  in it because they want the kids to have a really good
• 1:20:27
  experience. They want them to love track and
• 1:20:30
  field. They want them to love running
• 1:20:32
  and they're willing to do what it takes to make it happen.
• 1:20:35
  You know I'm a throws guy for morsel Indiana and I am trying
• 1:20:39
  to do the best that I can to make University of Saint Francis
• 1:20:43
  a very competitive and a I cross country and track and field
• 1:20:45
  program. If that means, I got to wake up
• 1:20:48
  at 4:45 every single day to go in there.
• 1:20:51
  That's the choice that I have made.
• 1:20:53
  To do what I need to do for my kids.
• 1:20:55
  I'm very fortunate in the fact that my wife was also a track
• 1:20:58
  and field athlete. So she kind of gets the grind a
• 1:21:01
  little bit too but you know, well where I'm at.
• 1:21:05
  Love the university. Love the, you know, the 75
• 1:21:08
  student athletes that I get to represent every single day was
• 1:21:11
  was Miss Allison, thrower or another event.
• 1:21:14
  She was, she was significantly better than I was going to ask.
• 1:21:18
  Who is the? Yeah.
• 1:21:19
  So I was always joke with her about it.
• 1:21:23
  Ironically enough, my wife through Hammer, a rival School
• 1:21:27
  of ours. Now Indiana Wesleyan, they're in
• 1:21:30
  our conference. So I was at the University of
• 1:21:32
  Indianapolis, she was an Indian Westland.
• 1:21:35
  We both for throwers and so she, she, it's nice.
• 1:21:40
  She gets it. She understands what it's like
• 1:21:42
  to be a part of a team. She understands what it's like
• 1:21:45
  to be. Team, mom, team wife team, you
• 1:21:48
  know, whatever it needs to be. She is in it for the team and I
• 1:21:52
  am That's huge to be able to come home.
• 1:21:56
  And if you've had a bad day for her, be like, yeah, you know,
• 1:21:58
  that happens sometimes and just have that support system there
• 1:22:02
  and, you know, she's a national qualifying NAIA Hammer, thrower
• 1:22:08
  significantly better than I was. She's she's going to do some
• 1:22:12
  really great things in athletics after her retirement.
• 1:22:15
  She's an athletic trainer has been able to do some really fun
• 1:22:18
  things with that. So it's just nice to have have
• 1:22:20
  her as an unpaid Kind of emotional support person.
• 1:22:27
  You mentioned, you have a little one.
• 1:22:28
  Don't try to start teaching turns just yet.
• 1:22:31
  Just have. Have you said little boy I think
• 1:22:34
  right? Yeah, yeah, just have him watch
• 1:22:36
  videos for now so that it's imprinted as a young and, but
• 1:22:39
  don't try start to learn teach the turns just yet.
• 1:22:41
  Okay. But my woman's Hammer forwards,
• 1:22:44
  love it because they'll come out and they'll drag the woman's
• 1:22:46
  hammers around, they seem to always PR after he touches the
• 1:22:49
  hammer. So, you know, haven't having him
• 1:22:52
  around The team. I have a feeling, he's probably
• 1:22:55
  gonna, you know, pick up a hammer, pick up a javelin.
• 1:22:58
  Try that out at some point or he'll try to go to Medical sales
• 1:23:01
  and find his way back into an amazing career.
• 1:23:04
  Yeah, there's nothing wrong about, absolutely man.
• 1:23:06
  Kyle, thank you so much. You know, I just really enjoyed
• 1:23:10
  your journey and what I love about it is how young it is.
• 1:23:13
  And what I mean by that is you've had a lot of success, a
• 1:23:16
  lot of experiences at this point in your career.
• 1:23:19
  But man, I like to use this analogy of, you know, because
• 1:23:22
  I'm in track, right? This race.
• 1:23:23
  So usually it's a quarter mile race.
• 1:23:25
  I'm always in my head visualizing but you're barely
• 1:23:28
  and I know sometimes it doesn't feel this way sometimes.
• 1:23:31
  It feels like you think you're at 350 and you're just slog.
• 1:23:34
  I just tried to get to the finish line but my man, you are,
• 1:23:37
  but yearly at the starting line and that should be exciting for
• 1:23:41
  you. I'm excited for you that you're
• 1:23:42
  barely on the starting line because that means there's so
• 1:23:45
  much more of that race to go if so much more experiences to
• 1:23:49
  learn so many more experiences to have, and Much much more
• 1:23:54
  positive impact on young people to come.
• 1:23:56
  You know, what you do at Saint Francis, what you did at
• 1:23:59
  Manchester, what you might do at another University.
• 1:24:01
  One day is immeasurable, I don't speak on this enough and I'm
• 1:24:06
  making it kind of my, it's my New Year's resolution for July.
• 1:24:10
  We're gonna wait till January 1, baby.
• 1:24:11
  I'm doing it right now. That, you know, I want to impart
• 1:24:14
  on coaches. You mentioned earlier about when
• 1:24:19
  you teach Hammer throwers when they're five years old, because
• 1:24:22
  they're learning. There's A lot of highs and a lot
• 1:24:23
  of lows, right? Because it's all your learning
• 1:24:25
  everything, it's tough and then you pick up something, then it's
• 1:24:27
  tougher and Etc. So I know in your profession
• 1:24:32
  which also bleeds into personal, especially as a wife who did it,
• 1:24:35
  right? You just even if she didn't,
• 1:24:38
  even if she was never even saw track, she still has to almost a
• 1:24:42
  deal with you. She's the deal with those
• 1:24:44
  experiences with you, right? So I know there are times when
• 1:24:47
  you come home and there has to be just, why am I?
• 1:24:50
  This is just hard. It's harder than than it needs
• 1:24:54
  to be and should be or man. Why are we getting the respect
• 1:24:57
  that track deserves another days?
• 1:25:00
  You think you're the king of the mountain, you know, best coach
• 1:25:03
  ever best life ever. No one has a better than you,
• 1:25:06
  right? But I just want to impart on you
• 1:25:07
  that on those down days even on the worst days.
• 1:25:12
  Your impact on young people is in measure on the reason I use a
• 1:25:16
  measurable is you said you'd send me five people.
• 1:25:18
  When you first got there, I think you said you had 16 thinks
• 1:25:20
  maybe 61 Three person that really got to me.
• 1:25:25
  Even if you kept 16, let's use an easy number and say, 20 and
• 1:25:28
  from Alabama. So, math is not my strong suit.
• 1:25:30
  Okay, so it's using using over here.
• 1:25:31
  Even if you kept 20 kids a year, almost a only 20 kids compared
• 1:25:36
  to 25 a year, they go off to be business owners.
• 1:25:41
  Doctors mother's father's. Grandparents one day homeowners
• 1:25:47
  Etc. They, they based a lot of their
• 1:25:51
  decisions off of the Impact that you and your staff has on them,
• 1:25:55
  you know, when when they were down at practice and you pick
• 1:25:58
  them up when you taught them a new skill and they PR, when you
• 1:26:01
  taught them a new event. And they become a champion that
• 1:26:04
  they thought they'd never that never entered their head.
• 1:26:06
  But you believe you believe in? You know, what a coach does is
• 1:26:08
  they see things in others before they can see it themselves,
• 1:26:10
  right? So when they think about that
• 1:26:12
  experience, they then go on and impart that to their Network.
• 1:26:17
  Whether it's a co-worker, a family member, a stranger, they
• 1:26:21
  let open the door. Of to the gym, right?
• 1:26:24
  They learned that from you and your coaching staff and so even
• 1:26:28
  on your worst days you are helping the world that this is
• 1:26:31
  no. Hyperbole, I am one for
• 1:26:33
  hyperbole, trust me. This is one where this is not
• 1:26:35
  hyperbole. This is God's honest truth, your
• 1:26:38
  impact on society because of what you do on the track and off
• 1:26:43
  the track with your athletes is again, I'll say it m measurable,
• 1:26:48
  it's not measurable. It is, is incalculable to know
• 1:26:51
  the positive impact that you You're coaching staff the other
• 1:26:53
  coaches that we've had on the podcast, the other coaches, that
• 1:26:56
  will be on the podcast and the people that I'll never have on
• 1:26:58
  the podcast for one reason or another.
• 1:26:59
  If you were a coach guys and gals trust me, even your borscht
• 1:27:03
  days. You are doing something that is
• 1:27:05
  so impactful in this world, it is thankful as grateful.
• 1:27:09
  I'm so glad we hire former athletes here, whether it's in
• 1:27:13
  sales, back in our back, and we have welders, and Packers, and
• 1:27:18
  Cutters, and they all played basketball and track and things
• 1:27:21
  like that. And they'll tell you is like,
• 1:27:23
  You know why I'm always on time because man I coach she imparted
• 1:27:28
  on me. Why that was important.
• 1:27:30
  And that's they're not still doing that sport.
• 1:27:32
  They're contributing to something much greater now that
• 1:27:35
  point because of guys and gals like you, my man.
• 1:27:38
  So I just wanna say thank you. You know, you don't hear that
• 1:27:42
  enough. I hope you had a lot, but I
• 1:27:43
  don't think you hear it enough as a coach.
• 1:27:46
  If you're listening and you're a coach, thank you.
• 1:27:49
  I again, I know you hear it, I hope you hear, but I don't think
• 1:27:52
  you hear it enough. Cough.
• 1:27:53
  But what you do man is incalculable and I'm just so
• 1:27:56
  thankful and so thankful that you would share that story with
• 1:27:59
  us today and I can't wait. Like I said it's so early you're
• 1:28:01
  not even at the starting line my man, I can't wait to look 10
• 1:28:04
  years from now and talk to you in 20 years from now and just
• 1:28:08
  hear the accolades, the highs the lows as you go through your
• 1:28:13
  journey and just continue the positive impact you have.
• 1:28:16
  So, thank you so much for joining us today and sharing
• 1:28:19
  your story. Yeah, thanks for having me on
• 1:28:21
  had a blast. Some man, thank you for being
• 1:28:24
  here again. I'm just so humbled that.
• 1:28:26
  You'd listen to us here on the podcast and join us next week,
• 1:28:29
  when we're do it all over again. We're going to another amazing
• 1:28:31
  person who happens to be a track coach, which is again, a lot of
• 1:28:35
  choices. This guy could be selling
• 1:28:36
  medical supplies which I guess is probably good.
• 1:28:39
  I guess we need that but it ain't coaching the hammer, my
• 1:28:41
  friend and I'm so thankful. He does have a great day.
• 1:28:51
  Thanks Mike what an incredible journey coach has been on so
• 1:28:54
  awesome to hear their story in their own words, tremendous
• 1:28:57
  proof of the positive effects coaches make on a daily basis.
• 1:29:00
  Help us spread the word of this. Great journey by sharing on your
• 1:29:03
  favorite social, media channel. And don't forget to take a
• 1:29:06
  minute to rate and review the podcast.
• 1:29:08
  You just might get a shout out on a future episode, that's it
• 1:29:11
  for today. Join us next week, when we'll
• 1:29:13
  connect you with another amazing crunch.