Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / #245: Casey Combest-record holder, coach, dad

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#245: Casey Combest-record holder, coach, dad · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

0:00
My dad was a was the king of the motivating.
0:03
You know, I can remember getting in the car, driving two hours
0:06
and before I got into the arena I was ready to go to war.
0:09
I mean it it wasn't a matter I didn't like anybody in the
0:12
building. It was a matter of I'm going in
0:13
here to get this respect. I want people to know what I do
0:16
and if there's a record or a field house record, I'm I'm
0:19
going to get it. And that was the mentality,
0:23
almost like a boxer, you know? And in the ring, it was
0:27
personal. Track and Field World Juvenile
0:40
tuned in to our humble servant Mike Cunningham for another
0:44
extraordinary message on Gil Athletics connections.
1:01
All right. Welcome back here to the Gil
1:03
Athletics Track and Field Connections podcast.
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So happy that you'd press play here.
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I'm humbled to be your host, Mike Cunningham, the National
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Business Development Manager for Gil Athletics.
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Now, the kind of crazy part about this is you already know
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who today's guest is. That's probably why you pressed
1:18
play, But I'm hoping our goal today.
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We talked about this before. Before we hit record is to maybe
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bring you a little different side of the story.
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So help me welcome from the great state of Kentucky.
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You know, really not only a, you know, obviously he was pretty
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fast, but a pretty good dude. And we're going to learn an
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actually excellent excellent dad.
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Help me welcome the Wise, the wonderful minister.
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Casey. Compass Casey.
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How are you, Sir? I'm good.
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Thank you family. Absolutely, man.
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You know Kentucky's not far from where we are here in Illinois
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and so we go into Kentucky quite often.
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So it's always good to have a Kentucky guy.
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I feel like you're I'm from Alabama so I kind of feel like
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we're we're kind of the one of the same.
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So Casey, you know it it's really always interesting when I
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have a guest here on the show that has their own Wikipedia
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page because there's a lot of history.
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You can go and just Google. To find out your back story, the
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many, many things that you accomplished.
2:20
You know you were under some amazing coaches throughout your
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career. So instead of going through
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athletically your career, although I would like to make
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sure guests know it was 24 years ago and it still stands today
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that this man set the National High School 60 meter record.
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It's amazing to set a record. It's amazing to set a record
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that last 24. Well, it's keep, it's still
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going 25 years. Who knows when that thing's
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going to get broken. So I just want to make sure we
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do know a little bit of his athletic background.
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But Casey, I'm interested with you when you think about your
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high school career and post that, you know, we're all about
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uplifting and honoring coaches and the positive impact that
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they make on young people. What's a coach or coaches that
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stand out to you when you think about the many men and maybe
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women that poured into you as a coach, into your athletic and
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personal career? Well, I think it all started in
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1988, and when Ben beat Karl, I didn't even realize my father
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even ran track. And then I went into his room
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and I discovered some medals in his his room.
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And then I asked him, I thought they were, you know, I didn't
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know if he was in the war. I didn't know what they was.
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But he finally told me that he was a track star.
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And I think just the excitement of seeing my dad jump off the
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recliner when being beat, Carl ran 976 or 978.
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It was just like, man, that's what I want to be.
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And I can remember the next day going to school and telling, you
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know, my best friend, you know, when I grew up, I want to be the
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next in car or being you know, and then coming home.
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And then my dad, you know, we started going to the track and
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he was he was wanting to to break a mile at 31 years old.
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He was wanting to go into 5 minutes.
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So I was jogging with my dad, you know, when I was 8 years old
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and then he knows I had some speed.
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So he taught me how to come out of the starting blocks and I can
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remember the first time I ever did the starting blocks.
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I said man, I don't like this, this don't feel right.
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And he said, well you don't look awful stupid when you get older
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being on the line with no starting blocks.
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So you're going to have to learn how to how to come out of these
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things. And from that moment on, man, I
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just kept kept working at it 10 a day, 20 a day, 50 a day.
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By the time I was in the Haskell, I was doing like 200
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starts a day. So that was my first
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introduction to track and field was watching being in car and
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then my dad introducing me to the to the sport.
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How did? Dad is he was you know the intro
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coach to you. You know your first coach was he
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going off instincts what he how he was coached Back then we
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didn't have all these YouTube and all the kind of stuff we
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have now. Where was he getting his like
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guidance of how to to guide his son?
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Well, to be honest with you, my dad's was a three time state
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champion in the quarter mile and his uncle coached him with.
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His uncle back in the 70s didn't know anything about track.
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He just had a was just a teacher at the school.
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So he called USC and got some workouts and that's how that's
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how we started learning about intervals and the blocks and
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etcetera etcetera. So it all started with my dad
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and my uncle teaching him and then he just kind of taught me
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what he knew, you know, as far as he, he was advanced on what
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he knew. And then I just took it from
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there. And then later on I met Bob
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O'Brien, who had just had graduated from Ball State
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University. And we kind of linked up at the
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same time because I moved towns to Owensboro from where I was
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born in Henderson. And then he was his first
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coaching job was me and he was fresh out of college.
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So, I mean he taught me how to do drills.
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He he ran every interval with me.
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He pushed me and from from his coaching we went on for till I
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was a senior in high school. So he was your high school coach
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until senior year all the way through high school, Yes.
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All the way through high school, How was it?
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I'm always interested in kids that are coached, especially in
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track by their dads 1st and then they get the full time coach,
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the high school coach here with Bob O'Brien.
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How was it adjusting to that? Because it's one thing to be,
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you know, being coached by your dad, which we're going to learn
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more about here in a little bit with your own experience of that
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is different than another man or woman you know they're not
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related. In that case, how did you adjust
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to the full time code? He probably I assume he did some
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things differently than dad and uncle.
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Well, one thing you did differently is, you know, my dad
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coached me in the summertime at, you know, once in high school my
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dad was was the overseer of what we did.
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But well, I was, you know, even though he was my coach, he was a
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lot like my training partner. And then, you know, let's just
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give an example. On Tuesdays I would run 10 * 228
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seconds, 27 seconds where he would give me a 4 minute
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recovery in between each point where with my dad he'd only give
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me 48 seconds recovery. So there was a big difference in
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taking it to the another level. I like to think that when I got
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with my dad in the summer, you know, I was went to another
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level because I was in better shape but.
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Probably went to a different level of also throwing up.
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I mean, that's a tough workout. I threw up every day for three
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consecutive years and a lot of, a lot of kids on my team, even
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their parents would ask me, you know, send me a trap practice
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picking their kids up. And I'd say, you know what?
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What? What do you do that for?
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Why are you doing that for? And I used to tell them the same
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reason why you come to see me run on Saturday.
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You know, this is what it takes if you want to see me perform at
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that level. And I knew that then, you know,
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because I didn't put the work in, I didn't threw up.
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Yeah, I felt like King Kong got there at the time.
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That's a that's a great response.
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Well, that's why you come to see me on Saturday, because I do
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this. That's right.
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I like that. Where did the idea of, and we
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don't get into X's and O's all that too much here because I
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haven't coached in 17 years so it would be inauthentic for me
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to talk about coaching. But you talked about, and I've
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heard you say it before 200 starts.
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That's a lot. Where did that idea of like, OK,
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I'm going to be really good at this, which means I'm going to
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put in a lot of time and effort into this.
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Well, you know, I'm a student of the game.
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I used to study guys like Armin, Harry, Charlie Green, Ben
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Johnson. So I knew that, you know, And
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like I said, going back to that day one with my dad, it felt
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awkward to me. So I knew that was a weak link
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in my track, so that I needed to work on that.
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I knew that the speed was there, the endurance was there.
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I would do any workout you wanted.
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But my weakest link was the start.
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So, you know, a lot of nights I would just get in my car and
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just go to track and just do starts and run out 10 or 15
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yards and come back, run out 10 or 15 yards and come back.
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You know, a lot of people would think that was crazy, but I
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wanted to create the start faster than anybody.
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I don't know if you're. Go ahead, go ahead.
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I'm sorry. So I mean all like all like I do
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is know this if if I can get out on them, then that thought in
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others, you know other sprinters is mine.
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When the race goes off, if I could get that jump on them and
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they got a they either if they even think, even blink to think
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it's a wrap, I got it. So that was one of the reasons
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why I worked on it so hard. I'm not sure if you're a reader,
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but there is an author who's actually he's a track fan.
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His name's Malcolm Gladwell. And he's an amazing writer and
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podcaster. I I highly recommend them for
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anybody. But one of the books he wrote
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was called Outliers and it talked about people that
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excelled like way more than even the greatest, right?
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Like, I mean the the true one percenters of 1%.
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And he talks about this study of the 10,000 hours that to be
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really good at something, it takes.
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On average 10,000 hours. So the the violinist that wants
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to be the first chair of the Boston Philharmonic, you know
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the number one orchestra in the world, it takes him or her
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10,000 hours to get good to even be start there.
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I I get, I I think about that, 'cause I think about your 200
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starts and you're starting all the time and every day like you
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were putting in, you were working on your 10,000 hours,
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You're perfecting that craft of the starting in the starting
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block. Yeah, I used to call myself the
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40 hour starter 40 week start. 40 hour starter.
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I love it. I love it, love it.
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So how was that? You mentioned Bob is like kind
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of like a training partner as well for you.
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What impact did he make? We talked about Dad gave you the
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spark when you saw his medals. What impact did Bob make on you
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and your high school career? At times, you know, he would say
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little things that could just ignite me.
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You know, I can remember one time we were in Kentucky
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Invitational and he, he says to me, this guy's the limit, you
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know, I mean, but I I always had this rule, like if I didn't
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break a record or if I didn't come close to what I ran last
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week, I felt like I let myself down.
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So it was always this ongoing thing to want to be better than
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I was last week. And he was always good at having
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me ready and, you know, giving me good advice and motivate me.
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My dad was was the king of the motivating.
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You know, I can remember getting in the car, driving two hours.
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And before I got into the arena, I was ready to go to war.
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I mean, it it wasn't a matter. I didn't like anybody in the
12:17
building. It was a matter of I'm going in
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here to get this respect. I want people to know what I do
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and if there's a record or a field house record, I'm I'm
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going to get it. And that was the mentality,
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almost like a boxer, you know? And in the ring, it was
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personal. Sounds like you had a lot of
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trust in in those two as your your coaches.
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Well, I mean, they put a lot of time in with me.
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They were my mentors and they wanted to see me do good and I
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wanted to perform good for them. I wanted to make them look good,
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you know, because my dad was just a guy that worked at the
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railroad for 41 years, who didn't go to college, who had
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scarship because he had children and he put that life on hold for
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him. So a lot of times before I got
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in the line, I thought about my dad, I thought about my
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grandfather's, I thought about some of them that were in my
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life that were passed on where your average person on the line
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is not thinking about. I feel more or this and that.
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It runs deep, you know? And I felt like I represented
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those people. I like that now after high
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school, and again, we we don't necessarily need or want to get
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into specifics, but I know you did have some running after high
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school. In fact, you worked with a
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couple of people that I know near and dear to my heart,
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Actually, Marshall Goss. At Indiana University, I know
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you had a little bit of a relationship with him, a lot of
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almost proximity for him because how close you were to to
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Bloomington and then Stan Nowruski down at Wallace as
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well. Dear friend of mine, what was
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the role of coaches post high school as you continue to kind
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of find your way in the right footing and where you're going
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to move on towards? Well, you know, after after my
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senior year, my grade wasn't very good and I put my hamstring
14:04
and I really wasn't school oriented.
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I mean, and when I looked back on it, I wished that I was
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because my life would have been a whole lot different today.
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But I can remember getting in trouble and my lawyer says to
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me, he says, man, there's the telephone, pick up a phone and
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call some university and said they give you a scholarship.
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But maybe we can get this trial extended and show you got good
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grades, you changed your life, you moved away.
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So I can remember calling Stan Nowruski.
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And anybody knows Nowruski, knows he's he can talk.
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So I tell him my situation and he says to me, well, when you
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come and I knew it at that moment right there, he wasn't
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judging me. He was going to try to help me.
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So I arrived in Hansville, Alabama in the middle of nowhere
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and he was there and he accepted me.
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And to tell you the truth, he's one of one of my favorite
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coaches standards. He's AI claimed the character.
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He's something else. He always made me laugh.
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He always made me smile and he was there when I needed him the
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most. And I can remember in August
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before I left to come see him. I says to the coach, if you'll
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now you can't remember I've been off a year.
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I didn't pull my hamstring and got in trouble.
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I'm stressed to the Max, but I tell the risk.
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I say, listen, go give me a scholarship.
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I'll get you 10 points at the national championships.
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And so when I arrived, I started, I went right back to
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work. I knew I was a kid.
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I'd go into a little auditorium that they had over there, and I
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just started working on my starts.
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And then when the risky's practice is over, I'd go back
15:47
and do it. And then my my roommate was Obi
15:49
Moore. So me and Obi, you know, we
15:52
practiced a whole lot on our own time in in in the Hansville
15:55
because there wasn't much to do. It was just a small town in the
15:59
middle of Alabama, you know and then I I actually got my
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assistant coach was Ed Witt and and for nowruski good guy he
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would drive from Nashville, TN every day to Antsville.
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And I learned a lot about balance with him and what I mean
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by that is, is which legs stronger than the other.
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So we take 5 yards take a stopwatch, hobble on one leg in
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time it and do the other leg in time it.
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So if it's not consistent, than one leg's weaker than the other.
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So that was one thing that I picked up on from coach Witt and
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questioner Ruski. I just owe him a lot of a lot of
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thank yous for for what he did for me, because I ended up
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winning the national championship.
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But I just it was hard for me to to from where I come from in the
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city to living on the cornfield. It was just difficult for me in
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the in the process that I was going through, you know doing
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some jail time and stuff. So but no, no.
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Risky was my guy. And that's our first time that
17:07
you and I's paths crossed 'cause I was coaching at a junior
17:10
College in Kansas. And, you know, it's it's
17:13
striking to me that someone from Kentucky is calling a place in
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Alabama small. That tells you how small
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Hanceville is. It really is.
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Tiny and I was in Hanceville equivalent over in Kansas
17:25
coaching a junior college and we're at Kansas State for the
17:27
indoor junior college nationals and you win the 60.
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And I remember I caught up 'cause, you know I've been
17:33
friends with Stan forever up to that point even.
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So I knew it was OK if I, you know talk to his athlete.
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You know you. And so I just caught up to you
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and I was like, hey, congratulations.
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And you're, you know, you're real nice.
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You're you're a good young kid. You know, you're like yesterday.
17:44
Thank you. And I said, you know what, the
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sport's better with you in it and winning.
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And you said, I agree. It's track that you're like.
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I agree. I was like, OK, I was like good,
17:54
good, good. But I, I I stand by that.
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I stand by that. So let's, let's Fast forward
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here a little bit because what's interesting to me, what we're
18:04
about to learn here in your current role, if you will,
18:08
current roles, some of that story you just told, I'm curious
18:13
how it's playing out today. So for those of you listening
18:18
who don't know. Casey has a son.
18:21
What? What grade is he going?
18:22
Is he into now? He's a sophomore this year.
18:26
Sophomore. OK, I couldn't, I thought
18:27
sophomore. So he's got a sophomore named
18:30
King, by the way, which I love. There are enough Mikes and Dan's
18:34
and Steve's in the world, so I love a good name.
18:37
So King is awesome. Bravo.
18:39
And King has got some talent, which you might guess because
18:42
you know you can't be genetics. And you know he's got pretty
18:44
good genetics here, right? So first of all, give us the.
18:48
30,000 foot level about King and your coaching him kind of give
18:52
us, catch us up to to today as a sophomore.
18:55
You know when when you first noticed he was going to be a
18:58
sprinter, did you force him into being a sprinter?
19:00
Did he know who you were? That makes sense.
19:06
You know, I like it. I got to tell the truth here.
19:09
I mean, you know, I've been telling everybody that King
19:12
going to be the world's fastest man before he's even born.
19:15
I mean, I kind of predicted that.
19:18
That's a heck of a prediction, OK?
19:20
And a lot of people think I named him King to be cocky.
19:24
But the truth of the matter is, is my grandfather's last name
19:26
King? And that's who my father got his
19:29
jeans from. And that's who I got my jeans
19:30
from. So I figured, you know, with the
19:33
third generation, it's King compass.
19:35
So that's why I named him King. But around four years old he
19:40
could jump off couches, jump on beds, run around the block
19:46
tremendously faster than any but 84 year old that I had run
19:50
across. He didn't even need training
19:51
wheels on his bicycles, so he had great balance.
19:56
So I started teaching him to start around of.
20:00
Course he did. And can I guess, can I guess
20:04
that his first Christmas gift was like a set of blocks right
20:06
off the bat? Well, we actually made him
20:08
starting blocks out of two by fours and.
20:12
And we started working on that, but he actually I was getting
20:14
trained by Trevor Graham at the time that he was born.
20:17
So he actually did his first start in the elevator in the
20:21
hotel room. So and then we just went from
20:24
there. But King is has outrun every one
20:29
of my times for my as As for his age right now and he's a whole
20:36
lot I call him the supreme version of Casey.
20:38
He's a lot stronger. He's he's he's a great kid.
20:44
He's not has no ego he has no background of of anything that's
20:53
going to harp him. He's a good kid he's got a four
20:55
point O he he trains a like I do and he believes in what he does
21:00
and I'm just backing a champion in the making so he grew up
21:06
around you running and so so he didn't like one day as a you
21:09
know 8 year old come across a newspaper article online or
21:14
anything like that and was like hey dad were you just sprinter
21:17
he he knew from the jump like oh this is what my dad does.
21:19
He's a he's a sprinter, he's a track guy.
21:21
Well, you know, being from where we're from and small towns or
21:24
where we go, you know, he gets asked a million times, You know,
21:28
you fasting daddy. You fasting your daddy?
21:31
Which I always used to say to him, yeah, he's faster than me,
21:33
That's the king. That's the king, you know.
21:35
So I I don't really ego myself team, but he, I always bumped
21:39
King up to everybody. And I think King bought into
21:42
believing that he's the king and that one day he's going to be a
21:45
world class sprinter. And every day he worked on his
21:48
craft and I never really told him much about what I've done.
21:53
Honestly. He looks it up on the Internet.
21:55
He's seen a lot of stuff about me, my documentaries, blah,
21:58
blah, blah. But I've always tried to make it
22:01
about King, you know, like I died a long time ago and you're
22:04
the you're reborn. You're the guy that's doing it
22:06
now. But I told him when he was
22:08
young, I'm going to teach you everything that I know.
22:10
And if I don't know, I'll seek and find so that I can teach you
22:13
the right way. And you know, being being around
22:16
world class Sprint, especially Trevor, even though you know
22:19
things went the way they did with him.
22:21
I learned a ton of knowledge from him.
22:23
You know, I spent eight weeks with him.
22:25
It was like a sponge soaking up water.
22:27
I mean, I remember down there everywhere, he said.
22:30
And a lot of that I passed on to King and like I never ran the
22:34
draft phase. Like Luminia 657, I didn't run
22:38
on draft phase. So a lot of things that I've
22:40
learned, I didn't pertain, I didn't put it into what I knew.
22:43
I took the knowledge and I put it into King.
22:46
And so far it's working pretty good.
22:49
Are you exclusively coaching him or does he also have like a high
22:52
school coach or how's that relationship?
22:55
The problem is, is every time that he gets on a high school
22:57
team. It's not nothing against their
23:00
disrespect for the high school coaches that are around our
23:03
area, They don't know much. They might be a music teacher
23:07
this or PE teacher that's getting an extra three $4000 to
23:12
coach the track team. And when you've been training
23:14
somebody like I have since they've been 12 months old, they
23:18
need to get on our level. We don't want to get on their
23:20
level because we're trying to proceed to the Olympic.
23:23
That's our ultimate goal, so. I don't run into a lot of
23:27
troubles with the schools. You know, you're a parent.
23:29
You don't need to come out here. I can't have parents coming out
23:32
telling me what to do, blase, blase.
23:34
But yet you go into the library getting a book on how to do this
23:36
stuff. So my point is, is that, you
23:40
know, I run King unattached. We try to run a lot of college
23:45
meets. We try to run into big meets as
23:48
well. But our our pursuit is to break
23:51
657. And I feel like I'm the best guy
23:54
for that job for right now. As things get older, like I told
23:58
King, you know, I don't mind to turn you over to somebody like a
24:01
Lance Brahman or somebody that knows what's going on, but I
24:04
can't turn you over to a local coach that don't know.
24:07
Is that going to get you to the level you need to be at?
24:09
Right? Yeah, I I completely understand
24:12
that. And, you know, I have a lot of
24:14
empathy for high school coaches around the country.
24:16
You know, I've interviewed a lot of them, obviously, done
24:18
business with a lot of them. You know, first of all, very
24:22
unfair comparison to, say, the average high school coach to the
24:26
experiences and coaching that you've had, right?
24:27
I mean, we're not talking about someone who was good in high
24:30
school. We're talking about someone who
24:32
was the best, actually, in high school.
24:34
So that's a tough comparison there.
24:35
And then, you know, we realize our high school coaches are
24:38
teachers and they're also moms and dads.
24:40
I mean, there's a lot going on. So I completely understand that.
24:43
I I would feel a little, I don't care how good of a high school
24:46
coach I was. I would feel a little, oh,
24:49
what's the word? Intimidated.
24:53
Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
24:54
It's like, oh, combis math. I remember that name.
24:56
And then you come out of like, oh crap, you're his dad.
24:59
Oh man. Yeah, that's tough.
25:02
Sure. Yeah, that's, that's a little
25:04
tough. That's like a yeah.
25:05
I tell all these coaches, you know.
25:08
Just ride the wave, man. You know you're going to meet
25:10
all kinds of college coaches. You can get all the glory in the
25:13
newspaper. I don't need any of this stuff.
25:14
I just want to know destination. And a lot of they don't.
25:18
They don't look back into that. That's a good point.
25:20
That's a good point. Well, what's it like?
25:23
You know when a high school coach is coaching a kid and
25:27
especially in track and field, there can be a lot of emotions.
25:31
And I mean that in the in the right way of like you know you
25:33
have a a disappointing practice or you just can't hit the mark
25:36
that you're trying to hit and your frustration maybe you get a
25:40
little upset with coach, maybe coach gets a little upset with
25:42
you. But you both then typically go
25:44
on your your own way. A kid goes home and does his
25:47
homework and eats dinner and gets ready for the next day.
25:50
Coach goes home to him or her family, etcetera, etcetera.
25:53
You and King don't have that luxury.
25:55
If you guys have a little head buddy and you both go home, how
25:58
do you deal with like do you try to set dad aside when you're on
26:03
the track or which is impossible to do that 100% by the way or do
26:08
you recognize that hey, I know I'm, I'm coaching and
26:10
everything, but I'm also dad on the track.
26:11
How? How do you balance that role
26:13
when you're actually training? Well, it's funny you say that
26:16
because I, you know, I've told King this, and he'll tell you
26:19
this too. When we get to the track, I
26:21
always say, you know, I'm not Dad no more.
26:23
I'm coach now. Well my son has respects me.
26:27
He looks up to me. He knows that I got the record
26:29
and he knows what it means to to the sport to me.
26:34
So you know we we really don't have any type of problems like
26:37
that. You know he knows I'm I'm a
26:39
strainer. So I mean every morning at 4:30
26:41
my son gets up and does 500 sit ups, 250 push ups before before
26:47
he needs breakfast and then he goes to school he does his.
26:51
A little wake me up at school and then at 3:30 we go to the
26:55
track and we really don't. Even though he's my son, it's
27:01
kind of he's my best friend. So we got this relationship
27:04
where it's like he knows who I am and I know who he is.
27:07
So he keeps constantly bragging on me, but yet I'm constantly
27:10
bragging on him. So it's it's it's a different
27:15
situation. It's kind of like Dionne and his
27:16
son. We're just.
27:20
We're together on this, yeah, But it's really about him now
27:23
and not about me. When when you look back, you
27:26
talked about your dad as your coach, Bob as your coach, Stan.
27:32
When you look back at the coaches who've had influence
27:35
over Trevor that have had influence over you, who do you
27:39
feel like you most align with when you're coaching King?
27:43
And what I mean by that is like, like do you run all the workouts
27:46
with him like Bob? Are you able to make him smile
27:49
and laugh like Stan? What?
27:51
What do you feel like you're most influenced by coaches to to
27:55
your style now with him? Well, I mean, you know, high
27:58
school coaches are different. You know, because they don't.
28:02
They don't know the level of intensity as a pro coach or the
28:06
OR how important it is to sleep a certain amount of time or to.
28:11
Eat or to rest or to hit speed, work at this point or endurance
28:17
at this point, waits at this point, plows at this point,
28:19
intervals, etcetera, etcetera. So I I always try to take what
28:23
Coach Graham taught me and where is this life or death?
28:27
This is serious and there's no going back to tomorrow.
28:30
We don't have time. So I I I have King's schedule
28:33
already written out before for the entire year of what we're
28:36
going to do. I'm not one of these coaches
28:37
that shows up and says, well, what are we going to do today?
28:39
I already know what we're going to do today, you know, and King
28:42
can can verify this as well. I almost tell him what he's
28:47
going to run before he runs. I almost already know the time
28:51
before we even walk in the building because we've done done
28:53
it in practice. So I mean that helps a whole lot
28:57
that way. I'm not feeding him some kind of
28:58
BS to where I can think, well, if I didn't run that fast then
29:01
it lowers yourself esteem. I try to keep it real with him
29:04
and and and set the bar high because we we train hard.
29:11
I'm glad you brought that part up because I wanted to make that
29:13
disconnection as well. So you had mentioned that when
29:17
you went into any field house for a competition that if you
29:21
didn't PR, if you didn't PR, you felt like you let your family
29:27
down, your coach down. You felt bad about like I I
29:30
should have PR every time. And you realize and that's, you
29:33
know, that's you as a 16/17/18 year old kid you now know as an
29:36
adult like it. I don't want to say it's
29:38
impossible, but it's impossible to PR every single time you step
29:41
on the track. How do you handle those
29:45
expectations? With King, you know you're
29:48
you're in a much older, wiser age and stage today than you
29:51
were as a 17 year old, but now you're working with a 15 ish
29:55
year old who may think if I don't PR well then I let
29:59
everybody down when we know that's not the truth because
30:01
it's a progression towards the big breakthroughs.
30:03
How do you handle that as well, not only his coach, but his dad?
30:07
Well, I'm telling you know, you can control your own destiny out
30:10
here. You know, we putting on all this
30:12
work. It's a war.
30:14
And you know you're talking to somebody who broke 76 records
30:16
out of 77 races in my lifetime. So it's I I tell King this all
30:22
the time, Life is a fight, it's a war.
30:26
And these people don't show up to see you win, King.
30:28
They they show up to see you lose.
30:30
So at the end of the day, you got to be razor sharp.
30:34
And when you ain't working, those boys in Texas are working,
30:36
they're working in Cali. So it's a constant.
30:40
Constant reinforcement of being ready now, even though we may
30:44
not PR every time. Which king has PR. 18 out of 19
30:47
races. We're primed.
30:50
We're ready. We're living it.
30:51
When we leave the track, we just don't say OK, father and son
30:55
deal. Our our life is based on track.
31:00
Every day, all day. I love him.
31:02
If he never ran a track meet at all.
31:05
He's my best friend, but he chose this.
31:08
This is what he bought into with me a long, long time ago And the
31:13
mentality is we're not backing down for nobody.
31:15
We're coming and we're not afraid to run nobody.
31:19
And that's why I run him in when he was in middle school.
31:22
I mean elementary, I run him in middle school meets when he was
31:24
in middle school, I run him in high school meets when he's in
31:26
high school. I run him in college meets
31:28
because I'm preparing him for the ultimate battle which is
31:31
years from now. So we're we're just in the
31:36
moment if they say. And we're trying to create
31:39
moments, but being it, being sharp every day with the starts
31:46
with the mind and knowing you don't went through hell and back
31:50
to get where you're at today, that it's a war and it's no
31:54
different. Then like I tell him, if you
31:56
signed up for the army, they put you in a plane and jumped you
31:58
out 18,000 feet in the area, you know there's a war going on.
32:02
Are you ready? Put me on the front lines.
32:04
And that's what I've instilled in Kenyan.
32:07
He's not scared to run anybody because he's prepared.
32:11
So that's that's one of the things that me and him are all
32:14
the same on and you know is that if we were mowing grass, we're
32:17
going to try more, more grass than anybody ever mowed.
32:21
That is competitiveness there. I love that Casey, as you were
32:26
growing up through the ranks, I have to imagine as you first
32:29
time you broke 670-660-9668, they're started becoming a
32:35
target on your back. It's like, well, this kids not
32:37
going to run 667 and then you'd go out and run 667.
32:42
And I have to imagine King has a lot of things that would maybe
32:46
potentially put a target on his back.
32:48
First of all his name is King, right?
32:50
Let's just be honest with you that that automatically maybe
32:52
puts a target on your back, his last name.
32:54
So his first name is King. His last name is Combus.
32:57
That, you know that maybe puts a Do you guys get when you're
33:01
going to these meets? Do you get do you feel more love
33:05
from people or do you get more pushback on people?
33:10
Well, it definitely helps that I've had a past and track and
33:15
opens the door a lot because you know, almost every meet director
33:18
or promoter knows or heard of me.
33:20
So that helps us get in the doors.
33:24
There's a lot of other coaches. That maybe have a athlete that
33:29
they don't like, the fact that I coach him and that they're but
33:35
they're not openly going to say that, but I've heard it, you
33:37
know. But at the end of the day, we've
33:39
had pretty good response. And I try to be as nice and as
33:44
upfront as I can be with me, promoters and other coaches.
33:50
But Kentucky has a good group of people running Kentucky track.
33:56
Like AKY Track, XC, Tim King, Frank Mcclavic.
34:00
You know, I go back 30 years with Frank Mcclavic.
34:03
He opened the door for me everywhere I went.
34:04
When I was before the Internet and all that.
34:06
He knew everybody. I used to call him.
34:08
I used to say, man, you know, everybody.
34:10
But we try to just entertain people with with the talent that
34:16
we have and and hopefully we inspire a whole lot of people
34:19
you know. He doesn't get caught up.
34:22
You know, he gets autographs, he takes photos with lots of
34:24
people, but he's not. He's humble.
34:26
He's the kind of guy that knows what he's there for, which I
34:30
respect that about him because a lot of kids would get the big
34:32
head and this and that. But no matter where we go or
34:36
how, how much success we had, it's always back to the drawing
34:39
board on Monday. Let's get back.
34:40
That's over with. This is the new deal.
34:43
So we just we try not to let negativity get into into into
34:49
our training good that's what I was first I was hopeful that you
34:52
there'd be more positivity than negativity we're never going to
34:55
be 100 have 100%. But I would just hope just from
34:58
in general of track and it'd be an acceptance of people that
35:01
you'd be welcomed and then therefore your son would be
35:03
welcomed. And you know we let the chips
35:05
fall where it may when it comes to the track.
35:06
That's what's great about this sport is we're going to find out
35:08
who the fastest is. We're going to line up and see
35:10
what happens and then you know so I hate just figure out who
35:13
who got first who got second right.
35:14
So I love that you have that if. Somebody out running, you got to
35:18
tip your hat to them. Because you don't work.
35:20
You don't work your butt off. Exactly.
35:21
If you did everything possible, what else can you ask for?
35:24
That's exactly right. So Casey, you know, just
35:28
interesting, this lineage of your dad coaching you and you
35:30
now coaching King. When you take a step back from
35:33
it, you know, take a step back from the track, take a step back
35:36
from sitting at the dinner table, what's it mean to you to
35:41
be his coach, his best friend and his dad?
35:46
It means everything that I ever had in my life.
35:50
Without him I'm I'm nothing. You know he's he's he's the
35:54
reason why I'm still here. He's he gives me strength.
35:57
He gives me energy. He gives me love.
36:00
He gives me respect. He's my son like I've done long
36:04
time man. I laid my life down for you
36:06
because I love you and I think I think he'd do that for me.
36:11
He's a special kid I can. I can say that I've got other
36:15
kids but. He's he's number one with me,
36:20
not because he can run, just because he's my best friend.
36:23
You know, we hang tight every day, all day.
36:25
We go everywhere together and you think that, you know, we get
36:29
tired of one another, but really we feed off one another, win or
36:34
lose. It's King and Casey together and
36:36
I bet there's more winning than losing going on there.
36:40
Well, we're going to, like I said, we're going to be prepared
36:42
to win if somebody beats us. We got a tip right to them.
36:45
But we're going to come back the next week.
36:47
We're going to be looking for where you're running, you know.
36:49
So as we start to wrap up here a little bit, Casey, what, What is
36:53
the end goal here? Is the end goal for you to help
36:55
him get a college scholarship? I know you mentioned the
36:59
Olympics is that the end goal? Is the end goal for, you know, a
37:02
lot of that. You know, I'm a dad of two, so
37:05
my my end goal is is a little bit fuzzier in the sense of like
37:08
my end goal is like, oh, I want your life to be better than what
37:10
my life was. What is your end goal when
37:12
you're thinking about your relationship with King?
37:16
Well, my end goal is and my only goal is for King is, is to be
37:21
able to get a college degree because I got all this knowledge
37:26
and I can't do anything with it because I don't have a degree
37:29
and. It's sad because we put all this
37:33
time in and you talking about those 10,000 hours, that guy
37:35
said, you know, we got lots more than 10,000 hours in into this
37:39
in three generations. And you know, my dad, he went to
37:43
work for the railroad. He didn't have a degree.
37:45
So it's been hard for me to survive in taking care of my
37:49
family and trying to do what's right and keep it positive.
37:54
So I always tell him, you know, I'm a second rate.
37:58
Citizen because I don't, I can't make the wages and and do the
38:01
things that a lot of families out here do with their kids and
38:05
I think but in this other aspect I spend my time with him.
38:12
So we have a lots of time. We talk about everything under
38:15
the sun together. But at the end of the day, I
38:19
think my son could be coaching in the future because he's a
38:24
student of the game. He's he's I'd like to think he's
38:27
learnt from some of the best minds in the country and well he
38:34
gets 657 or not, which I believe he will.
38:39
We want to keep that 60 meters in the Compass family and if we
38:44
can make it to the Olympics or make it on the pro scene, we can
38:47
make a living and around the world and meet lots of people
38:52
and. You know, we live in a different
38:55
world today. There's social media and fans
38:58
and just the vibe of track is alive today, where it was dead a
39:03
lot when we were young. And I wanted to be a part of
39:06
that because I feel like he, he deserves that and I just wanted
39:11
to be able to pass the torch on, you know, to maybe what if he
39:15
has a son, you know, or a daughter?
39:17
But the main thing is I wanted to know this one thing.
39:20
His daddy loved it. That's the ultimate, that's the
39:26
ultimate, that's the ultimate goal.
39:28
That's right. You know, Casey, as we go
39:32
through life, we end up having a lot of different roles that we
39:35
play for you, you've been a runner, you've been a track
39:39
star, you are a record holder. Those are roles.
39:42
Your son, maybe your spouse, you know different jobs that we
39:48
have, you know, salesman, etcetera.
39:52
But the number one role that we'll ever have is dad.
39:56
And that was the most interesting part of me having
40:00
you on the show today is was to be able to show and have you
40:04
exemplify, exemplify be the example of the dad that you are
40:10
for king, 'cause that's the ultimate again, that the true
40:13
win or lose. And you know, there's a lot more
40:15
winning going on than losing here.
40:16
But you know, we do lose. No one, no one bats 100%, right?
40:19
We do lose in some form or fashion.
40:21
But with Dad, you can win every day.
40:24
And so I'm just so proud of you, what you do with him, not for
40:28
him, with him and for him, but with him on a daily basis.
40:31
You know, you had a lot of choices in your life where you
40:37
could have made a lot of different choices, including
40:41
what you do and how you do with him.
40:44
But I know he's better for it because the decisions you've
40:48
made, you're better because of those decisions that you made to
40:52
ultimately stick and be dad to king.
40:55
That's the number one role over coach, buddy, friend, teacher,
41:00
all that stuff. Dad is the ultimate role.
41:02
And so just want to say how proud I am of you.
41:05
We're so happy for you guys. We're excited to watch along in
41:08
the journey. I mean that's kind of the fun
41:10
part about being a track and a track fan is you know, we get to
41:12
see the journey and no matter what, you know that kid, that
41:15
King, his life is better because of you.
41:19
And so I just want to say thank you for being that example and
41:23
just grateful for you and thank you for being here and sharing
41:25
your your side of the journey with us today.
41:28
I appreciate you. Thank you.
41:29
I appreciate everything you do for the sport and hopefully in
41:35
the future, this guy's the limit on what we do.
41:39
We we might have to do an update after, you know, like after high
41:42
school and after college. When he goes to his first
41:44
Olympics, we'll have to keep doing like little little life
41:46
updates because no doubt you're going to be involved with it all
41:48
the way, my friend. I appreciate you.
41:50
All right. Have a good one then.
41:52
Yes, Sir. If it goes to appreciate the
42:04
coach, the ones that point people most every season needs a
42:07
voice of reason speaking. The growth got to back for you.
42:10
Carry the load. It's coffee to the soul for
42:13
those of us to stay on the go. Proper handoff to stay in the
42:15
zone with you packing for the road.
42:17
There's more than one way to go. Take notes.
42:20
That's can you told it ain't practice.
42:22
If your purpose ain't clear, It can't happen to you.
42:24
Listen what both is. Can't mentor without a mentor.
42:27
Years of experience. You can reinvent those years.
42:30
Every plan's got a standard. You live up to and the price
42:33
sacrifice can you give up you it's choice and to fight not a
42:36
win or lose. It's not a ploy but device y'all
42:39
can make more moves. It's not about how to it's all
42:42
about why you don't know till you know who you are inside 6.
42:45
When you waste time choose none. So we all course finish line.
42:49
The work ain't done So we learn from the experts.
42:51
We all got to put in the legless go.