Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / BONUS: The AD Podcast EP20: The Importance and Benefits of Track & Field Programs for Athletic Departments

Transcript

BONUS: The AD Podcast EP20: The Importance and Benefits of Track & Field Programs for Athletic Departments · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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  Hey podcast listeners, from time to time someone invites me, your
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  humble host on to their podcast. Recently the host of the
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  Athletic Directors Podcast, The AD Podcast.
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  Welcome to me on to their show and really to talk about the
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  importance of a healthy track and field program for an
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  athletic department. Something that was really near
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  and dear to my heart. And we get into topics such as
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  why track is important for all other sports, volleyball,
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  football, baseball, basketball, etcetera, and how it's important
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  for the culture of the athletic department.
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  And we even get into how to make some money as far as budgets
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  when it comes to track and field.
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  So I think you'll enjoy this. I appreciate you guys listening
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  to these bonus episodes. So help me welcome from the AD
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  podcast myself, Mike Cunningham. Enjoy.
• 0:50
  Bring your school's legacy to life with the Wall of Fame by
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  Vital Signs. Our interactive display
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  highlights your greatest moments and top performers, both past
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  and present across athletics, academics, and the arts.
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  But it's also so much more. With our one-of-a-kind content
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  program, we help you every step of the way so you can tell more
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  compelling stories that will engage your whole community.
• 1:14
  In episode 20 on the 80 podcast, we're joined by Mike Cunningham,
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  a former high school and collegiate track and field coach
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  who is now the National Business Development Manager for Gill
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  Athletics. For those who have never heard
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  of Gill Athletics, they are an American manufacturer of track
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  and field equipment that is utilized by track and field
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  programs of all shapes and sizes.
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  Together, we discussed why track and field programs are so
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  important and beneficial to athletic departments, College
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  Football Playoff rankings, how to compete and developing
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  department culture using interprogram award challenges.
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  This podcast is created by two NI AAA teaching faculty members
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  who want to talk sports life and help interscholastic ADS
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  worldwide navigate their current situation and questions.
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  I'm Freddie. I'm Scott.
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  We hope we can get you to laugh, learn and enjoy us along with
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  our AD guests and providing a little levity to the profession
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  of athletic administration. This is the AD podcast where we
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  fully understand what AD truly stands for.
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  You're working all day. After dark and handling all
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  duties, Freddie, this one's coming out literally the week of
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  Thanksgiving for everyone listening, you already told me
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  your your better half's already prepping for Christmas.
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  Oh yeah, like I said, while we're recording this, she's
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  actually out doing some shopping and I've actually probably, you
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  know, 10 minutes before we start recording this hit the.
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  The purchase button on a couple of you know online things that
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  have already hit the the Black Friday markets, you know, so I'm
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  trying to get ahead of the ahead of it.
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  So in December, I'm not you know running around usually in
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  December, right. You know, you know we can talk
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  us as a DS educators whatever. You know, we're all the way up
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  until Christmas break and then you know, usually as soon as
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  Christmas breaks out then that's when I go out and do all the
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  Christmas shopping and and and you know, so that last minute
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  stuff, so. I'm trying to get a little ahead
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  of the game while it's in a little dead period, if you want
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  to say, between fall and winter sports here in South Carolina.
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  I on that same thought, I know I'm in trouble when I start
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  seeing the Google Christmas list get shared with me by my wife
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  and I'm like crap, I'm already behind.
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  And then and then I said there are anniversaries in December.
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  So then I have a reminder on my phone to remember, you know,
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  what's the traditional anniversary gift when that comes
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  around, right? Smarter, not harder on that one.
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  And it's funny because I'm better at that than she is.
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  But the Christmas list hits me and I'm like, it is first week
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  in November or something along those lines.
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  I'm like no, no, no, no, no. My, my, my shopping happens in
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  December and and I still find the same deals that y'all find
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  on Black Friday. And they they're still out
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  there. But they might not be the same
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  thing that my wife might have put on that list.
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  And that's OK with me. I I sleep fine at night.
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  Yeah, I'm just, I'm trying. I've never been ahead of the
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  game on this. I'm trying to actually get ahead
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  of the game. The problem is, is if I buy a
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  gift a month ahead of time, even if it's a week ahead of time,
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  it's very hard for me not just say here, here, have it.
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  Well I don't I don't want to wait for you to open it.
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  So it's, you know we'll we'll see when these things start.
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  You know, you know, showing up on the doorstep in the in the
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  next couple weeks if if they actually make it all the way to
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  Christmas. How's the little one doing?
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  Which one? The newest edition.
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  The newest so far I was yeah he actually sitting right next to
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  me just knocked out so I had to give him give him a bottle
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  before this. So hopefully he'll he'll sleep
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  through it. But for those, if I'm talking
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  and also and I go away for a second, then you know that the
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  six week old is, is is needing me.
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  Hey, Fat and Happy. You got the food comb.
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  The food comb is the best kind of sleep you get and that's
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  about the hit coming Thursday this week for you all.
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  You know you get some of that tryptophan in you out of that
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  Turkey good night and there's some great football on Thursday
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  and Friday. Got to love I love Rivalry Week.
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  We'll we'll eventually get there because you know, good old, you
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  know the when the rivalries come around at the end of the
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  football season. So we'll get there with our
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  guests because I think he's going to want to talk about some
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  some fun football on that one. Ready this one.
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  We're you know for all of you listening this week, we are
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  going into the benefits of a healthy track and field program.
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  None of you saw that coming. None of you saw that topic
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  coming at all. You're all like probably going
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  to talk about something mental health again or maybe we're
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  going to go into the lines of you know the Nadcs coming in in
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  December. We do have an episode on that
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  coming with some two very awesome guests that are very
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  nice to hop on with us. Another podcast in the
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  Interscholastic AD realm coming on to join Friday night.
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  But we're going to talk track and field because there are so
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  many benefits to a track and field program in the high school
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  setting that I don't think a lot of people either take it for
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  granted, don't do it right or aren't set up for success in
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  that in that regard. And our guest today is going to
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  literally help us navigate that one because it's an important
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  topic. So without further ado, let's
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  bring on our expert for the day and all things track and field.
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  We're going to Champaign, IL. He is a Troy Trojans fan,
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  learned that he went there and named.
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  He loves it so much he named his son Troy.
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  Spent 10 years coaching track and field in the collegiate and
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  interscholastic ranks. Currently serves as the National
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  Business Development Manager for Gill Athletics.
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  He's been with the company for 17 years.
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  Gill Athletics, for all of you that don't know, is an American
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  manufacturer of track and field equipment that is utilized by
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  track and field programs of all shapes and sizes.
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  Club, high school and collegiate.
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  Welcome to the Pod Coach Mike Cunningham.
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  Scott Freddy, This is a real honor.
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  You guys do a really amazing job with this podcast.
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  I'm a huge fan of podcasts. Not only do I host my own listen
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  to a ton of them, including yours, but I also teach a class
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  at a junior college podcasting one-on-one to help people create
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  their own podcasting. So anytime I see guys that are
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  doing in this realm and doing it really well first class, I'm
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  just getting excited. So super excited to be here
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  today. Super excited about athletic
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  directors and track coaches, football coaches.
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  My heart and love is in specifically track coaches
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  because of what track did for me in my life.
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  But man I love coaches and athletic directors and the
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  positive impact that they make on young people around this
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  country. So I'm excited to talk a little
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  track and a little AD today with you.
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  Mike, thanks for joining us. Yeah, I think your background is
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  just very specific and in terms of just going to it, I know I
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  I've list. I ended up you found me on I
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  believe LinkedIn or no it was Twitter.
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  I think it was Twitter. We found each other.
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  I started listening to the the Gill Gill Athletics Podcast and
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  love. I love what you do.
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  It's fun it's fun learning things about.
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  I wish I would have known about it like sooner because.
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  There's a lot of fun tidbits you get out of that about track and
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  field that you have no idea exists and I think that's that's
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  kind of what spurred on this topic when I started sending it
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  to Freddy like hey we don't ever we've never talked about track
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  and field and again like the thought on that again a a lot of
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  schools right track and field it's it's usually one of your
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  bigger programs. I know my I mean we don't have
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  cuts anyone's welcome. I mean it's like.
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  One of the nicest programs you we offer no matter no matter
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  what level you're at in high school athletics.
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  And so I just, I just think that there's a lot of benefits from
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  this topic and just kind of diving into some things that
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  maybe people haven't thought about or maybe they don't really
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  talk about or maybe they haven't even tried with their their
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  track and field programs. Yeah, you know, to get some
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  facts on the board to kind of support what you just said
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  there. You know track on the boys side
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  for high school is the #2 most participated sport.
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  Football, I don't want to say of course, but football is #1 and
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  on the girls side, track and field is the number one most
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  participated sports. When you add boys and girls
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  together, you know the participation numbers are off
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  the charts. So you know if you if you don't
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  have a healthy track and field program, it's a little bit like
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  you're you're behind the 8 ball. What What are you doing that you
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  know other schools most of your schools are doing and I think
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  one of the greatest things, even though I love the sport itself
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  of track and field, another added benefit for a school is it
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  helps your other programs. You will have a better
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  basketball, football, baseball, etcetera.
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  Soccer, volleyball. You will have a better sports
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  program in your department if you have some.
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  Just some attention. Doesn't even take a ton, just
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  some attention towards track and field.
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  Any thoughts on that, Freddy, before we dive into sports talk
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  and then we'll we'll we'll eventually dive in the track and
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  field. Yeah, well, I mean, my only
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  track story other than being an AD is as a 7th grader.
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  They wouldn't let 7th graders play school soccer where I was
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  if for whatever reason. I don't know what the reason
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  why, you know, but so I went and ran a track and you know, loved
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  it, had a great experience. The only problem was is.
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  Again, being a 7th grader, never really, really on track before I
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  get there. And the coaches like, oh, you're
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  a soccer player, go to run distance.
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  Yeah, I'm not a distance runner. I mean, I was terrible, you
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  know, especially with 7th graders going against the 11th
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  and 12th graders, right. And so, yeah, that was not a fun
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  experience. I should have, should have done
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  like the 800 or the 400 or or maybe even just tried out
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  sprinting because I was actually pretty fast.
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  I don't, you know, I wouldn't be able to compete with the juniors
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  and seniors, but I think I would have had a little bit more
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  success. So.
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  That was, you know, my only track experience was, you know,
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  like say well, I like, we'll get into it.
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  My only track experience was the the coach saying, hey, you're a
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  soccer player, go run distance. And that was not that.
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  That was not good. We missed out.
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  You could have been like a superstar.
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  It's not where you start, it's not where you start, it's where
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  you finish. It's no different than any other
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  sport. You're not a necessarily a
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  superstar quarterback as a freshman.
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  You got to learn and develop. It's the same with sprinters and
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  jumpers, etcetera. You could have been the man in
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  the track and field. I mean, I guess, I mean, but you
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  know it was definitely A1 and done, you know, right.
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  I was, I was definitely a, you know because once I got to that
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  8th grade it wasn't a oh I had you know I had a great time
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  hanging out with you know track and.
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  But it wasn't do I need to continue with track or go to
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  soccer. It was 100%.
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  I'm going back to soccer, so. I I didn't even have the chance
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  for track in the spring. I played golf so I that's what I
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  did in college so that was unfortunately track was not an
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  option for me. I did do it in middle school so
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  I don't know if that counts but I I did do it in middle school.
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  Yeah I did do it in middle school so been around that.
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  Outside of that it's it's all athletic directing with with
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  track programs. I was blessed with two great I
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  was at 2 separate school districts as the district AD and
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  and one of them are one track program at the largest high
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  school that I was at. They, I mean we had the upwards
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  of 150 participants and I mean our our, our JV team would would
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  roll. I mean we couldn't find enough
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  JV meets to go to just to give kids stuff and we'd be rolling
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  two buses for that. So I mean like you know you're
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  sending 100 kids to just go, you know have some fun and that was
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  the that was the thing the coach I had, the head coach I had for
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  that program which is phenomenal.
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  Just getting the kids that maybe don't do something in the spring
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  to come out and do it, or maybe get some of the football players
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  that you know are like. Well, I only do football and
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  like wrestling or whatever, which again, totally do
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  wrestling. That's a great thing for
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  football players. But they they're like you don't
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  do something in the spring pro typically.
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  You know, they would maybe go and do baseball or whatever,
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  but. Or be a thrower.
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  But some of them would come out and he would just be a heck of a
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  recruiter to go recruit them out to do running events and be like
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  why not do fun conditioning And you get to go to meet and you
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  get out of school and like why would you not do that?
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  Like why are you going to just go and you have to stay at
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  school and then you're going to go to the weight room and then
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  you're going to do offseason conditioning there and it's
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  like, what are you working for? Like next season, sure.
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  But you can work for something more fun and maybe even do
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  decent at it. And the JV meets were pretty
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  darn cool in Eastern Washington. We would have some good schools
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  that would host really fun JV meets and.
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  It was just it was a good time. So I I again, this is a fun.
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  I think this is a fun topic just because I had really good.
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  I had fun track coaches. So to work with ready.
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  Want to soft toss me the College Football Playoff or do you want
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  me to just start going in? No, I mean, I'll, I'll throw it
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  out there. I told Scott before we hit
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  record. We we've got to talk college
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  football. Like I said with especially with
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  this coming out, you know really before Thanksgiving and rivalry
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  weekend and all that and. Getting close to that final
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  ranking we we do have to talk about again I'll go ahead and
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  get it out there. Clemson's finally starting to
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  look a little better. You know we, I don't know if
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  it's worth starting to figure out you know Garrett Riley if,
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  if or what I mean I really think you know the defense has been
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  playing all right you know all all year but the offense has
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  been able to click. I do think we found our feature
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  running back and and MAFA. And I think he's you know should
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  have been the feature running back from the beginning of the
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  year but you know it is what it is.
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  But I think we're we're finally hitting our strides we just got
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  to hopefully finish strong against South Carolina.
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  You know we got North Carolina this weekend but by the time you
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  hear this that game has passed. So hopefully you know hopefully
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  we did a good showing on that one as well.
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  But yeah, we we're we're, we're playing for a decent.
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  A bowl game this year you know you know maybe after Christmas,
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  right. You know so now it's it's it's
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  try try to get after Christmas bowl versus before Christmas.
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  But no definitely had to throw out.
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  We got to talk about your your Alba Modern and and in
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  Washington you know there's a lot of undefeated teams so
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  really you can put them all in you know different areas and
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  there's there's there's very really you know one through 10.
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  It could be all of them really could be deserving of the top
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  four spots because you know a lot of those teams are won
• 14:48
  losses and you know lost to a good team, whatever.
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  But you know they got, they got Washington on the outside
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  looking in right? Y'all were y'all were the the
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  the child that got shut out the house right now.
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  So how? How's it?
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  How? How's it doing for the for the
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  dogs? As a fan, absolutely frustrating
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  to the PAC 12 gets no respect. And I and I and I get it.
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  And I get it. You know, we don't, we're not a
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  a a blue blood Football Conference.
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  We are considered the Conference of Champions views across all
• 15:16
  sports. We actually have the most
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  championships. But I mean that goes into water
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  polo, that goes into, you know beach volleyball.
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  I mean it goes into all the stuff is we're on the West Coast
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  and most of the LA schools. So but what's my pet peeve is?
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  Going into the season, Washington had one of the
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  hardest. Scheduled football schedules.
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  So we had one of the, we have one of the top ranked ones, USC
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  also had that. And so right now when you look
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  at the the committee, you know how all their criteria that they
• 15:46
  bring up. Well, it's, you know, it's, you
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  know, notable opponents and conference schedule.
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  OK, great. You can go through Ohio State
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  and you know Georgia. Georgia has a decent conference
• 15:57
  schedule. Their hardest game's going to
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  hit them when they have to play Alabama in the SEC conference
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  game. That might be a game that most
• 16:04
  likely good old Nick Saban's going to show up again and guess
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  what, Going to find the West because he just knows how to
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  pick a part. Kirby Smart.
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  So I mean like that's that's coming, but it's not.
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  That doesn't count right, because it hasn't happened.
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  It's not on the schedule technically, but the one that
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  gets me is Florida State, Florida State, you're good old.
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  I'm going to the ACC for you and I'm going to pick apart them.
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  Right now, they're only ranked opponent on that schedule and
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  given Clemson could have had a chance was LSU.
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  Well, LSU isn't even a even in the discussion in the SEC and
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  they've been rolled by multiple teams now.
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  So now you're looking at it like, OK, your strength to win
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  is that University of Washington has had to go toe to toe with
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  Oregon, who's six, who is by hand and I'll say this out loud,
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  is the best all around team in college football right now.
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  Their defense is solid. They run the ball better than
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  most and Bo Nicks can Chuck it. Not as good as Michael Pennix,
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  but but he can. And and he's not going to win
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  the Heisman because we're going to probably have to see them
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  again in the PAC 12 championship.
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  But we've had to go through Oregon.
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  We've had to go through USC who is a good team that are horrible
• 17:11
  defense which they just fix that by firing their DCI.
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  Don't know if that's going to fix it.
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  We had to get through Arizona who is now a is now ranked and
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  they had they had taken a lot of these teams to you know fight
• 17:23
  overtime wins or sorry for them losses.
• 17:27
  Now we're on the we beat Utah. Utah's a solid team.
• 17:31
  And then now we're going to Oregon State who's number 10 and
• 17:35
  Oregon State's not to laugh about because Jonathan Smith,
• 17:38
  who's the old OC out of Washington, has that team
• 17:41
  cooking because he took your quarterback back home from from
• 17:44
  Clemson. So and we're having to go on the
• 17:46
  road for that one. And then we end with WSU, who's
• 17:49
  down. But it's a rivalry game.
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  So I mean, you know, note that up, but we've had to go through
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  now at this point 4 top 15 program, top 20 programs if you
• 17:58
  go recent rankings on those. And now we get Oregon State.
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  And we still don't get any love to go above Florida State
• 18:06
  University. Now, don't.
• 18:08
  Get Florida State, Florida State.
• 18:09
  Struggle through the ACC. I mean, it wasn't like they were
• 18:12
  blowing out everybody. There was some very close games.
• 18:14
  And I'm not saying we blew out everyone in the PAC 12, but
• 18:17
  we've we've won. We have hands down the Heisman
• 18:20
  leader right now because Caleb Williams fell behind and Bo
• 18:24
  Nicks is fine, but I'm not an Oregon fan, obviously and.
• 18:29
  But my, my, just the pet peeve is that we still can't just get
• 18:33
  into that fourth spot. And that's the hard one for me.
• 18:36
  I mean, Michigan, look at Michigan's, the only two teams
• 18:39
  on Michigan's, they had one of the softest football schedules.
• 18:44
  If you look through all of their games that they've played soft,
• 18:48
  all soft competitors not even ranked going into it for them,
• 18:51
  except for Penn State, who didn't look great.
• 18:54
  And then they get Ohio State, which then that's just
• 18:57
  hopefully. A1 loss team out of there
• 18:59
  hopefully drops one of them out, but I'm not also going to hold
• 19:01
  my breath because we're going to probably have to see Oregon
• 19:03
  again. Barring that they don't hiccup
• 19:06
  to. I'm trying to think of who they
• 19:09
  play this. I don't think they play anyone
• 19:10
  of note this weekend. Maybe they have Arizona.
• 19:13
  I'm not. I don't even know who Oregon.
• 19:15
  I didn't look ahead. But Oregon will have to play
• 19:17
  Oregon State in in what's called the Civil War.
• 19:20
  I would hope the beads can maybe have a chance to upset them but
• 19:23
  then I don't. I don't remember then that's a
• 19:24
  two loss team and I I'm not sure.
• 19:26
  I think Oregon State has to beat us and Oregon to have a chance
• 19:29
  to play in the in the PAC 12 title game.
• 19:32
  But then it it gets really interesting for me when if
• 19:35
  Oregon wins out, we win out, then that means we're going to
• 19:38
  be facing Oregon in the PAC 12 conference game.
• 19:40
  We're undefeated then, and they have a one loss.
• 19:44
  So then who does the head to head go to on that one?
• 19:47
  When we have a higher ranked conference schedule or a
• 19:50
  football schedule ranking a strength of schedule over
• 19:52
  Oregon, we've both beat each other once.
• 19:55
  Like are you then looking at the margin of victory on those two?
• 19:59
  Yeah, but as you know, I mean I I mean like I said I think if if
• 20:02
  Florida State loses they're out AC, CS out.
• 20:04
  I mean it's it's I mean I I don't think they need to be any
• 20:09
  higher than four because like I say AC CS very weak.
• 20:13
  Again we started strong. We had a ton of schools in the
• 20:15
  the the AP rankings. But then we you know North
• 20:18
  Carolina started falling off. Georgia Tech was doing well, but
• 20:21
  they've started, you know, sliding off and but I.
• 20:27
  Mean Duke was yeah Duke Duke was great.
• 20:29
  Again, I'm a I'm a secret Duke fan because #5 jalen Calhoun was
• 20:33
  one of my was one of my students.
• 20:34
  So I I got a pull for him but you know it's but you know we
• 20:40
  got talk SCC we got SCC guy. You know if you know we all know
• 20:44
  ACC or you know PAC 12 is not going to get much love right.
• 20:48
  And when it comes to football and when it's close like that if
• 20:52
  if Georgia and Alabama see each other in the in the the SCC
• 20:56
  championship and Alabama does pull it off.
• 21:00
  Who's not say they put both of them in there, I mean and then
• 21:03
  that knocks out a a Washington or an Oregon or you know a
• 21:07
  Florida State if it if things are close like that.
• 21:10
  I do think if Washington wins out I think they they'll be in
• 21:15
  there. But it's going to get
• 21:18
  interesting, especially if you know, if Ohio State, Michigan
• 21:23
  game is close and then if Alabama ends up ends up beating
• 21:27
  Georgia, if if those two things happen it it's going to be very
• 21:31
  interesting. Mike you're more than welcome to
• 21:35
  chime in on that S you said you're an SEC Homer so I was I
• 21:38
  was just we're we're letting you have the moment.
• 21:41
  Yeah, so I'm an unapologetic SEC Homer.
• 21:43
  You know, if we're playing playing tiddlywinks, I would
• 21:45
  think the SEC would win the national Tiddlywink National
• 21:48
  championship. OK.
• 21:49
  They they. There is no wrong in the SEC and
• 21:51
  a former SEC coach myself at Mississippi State.
• 21:55
  You know when you you talked about pet peeve, Scott, you know
• 21:57
  the real pet peeve here is that? Today you know this changes next
• 22:01
  year right. We do a four team playoff 'cause
• 22:04
  that's the that's the real problem.
• 22:06
  You know I'm OK. When we go to 12 and you know
• 22:08
  the 13th team wants to complain, it's like sorry, let's move on.
• 22:12
  But I I think Washington at 5 has an absolute argument.
• 22:16
  They really do because there's amazing teams right behind as
• 22:19
  well 678910 are they're they're really good teams and in a true
• 22:23
  playoff system like we do with one AA and division two and
• 22:26
  Vision three I think it'll just be a better game and.
• 22:30
  And not because like I'm not necessarily.
• 22:33
  I don't like you know the Alabama dynasty and things like
• 22:35
  that. Like I'm I'm fine with that to
• 22:36
  be honest with you. But I like when it's proven
• 22:39
  through a playoff that OK these two teams are the best teams
• 22:42
  that day through the playoff not based off of someone's vote
• 22:45
  someone you you mentioned how do you pick between if Washington
• 22:50
  beats Oregon now you both have won losses.
• 22:51
  How do you pick that like it should be?
• 22:54
  Washington is the better team because they beat Oregon the
• 22:56
  later in the season in the. PAC 12 championship.
• 22:59
  So I'm excited for a better champion, for a better playoff
• 23:02
  system, and we'll just get more SEC teams in that 12 team
• 23:06
  playoff. I Oh my gosh yeah Freddy.
• 23:10
  To your point, I I'm afraid of what happens when Alabama upsets
• 23:14
  Georgia in the SEC title game and if or if if Oregon and
• 23:18
  Washington do show up the only way PAC 12 team makes it and is
• 23:21
  undefeated. Which UW's the only one left if
• 23:25
  if Oregon? Throws us a loss in that game.
• 23:29
  Screw it. There's no way.
• 23:30
  I've A1 loss Alabama that had to go through Georgia and they have
• 23:34
  solid, more solid wins. In my in my opinion, by that
• 23:38
  point, Alabama's had to come back from their loss to Texas.
• 23:43
  Yeah, but that also throws out Texas too, right?
• 23:45
  I mean Texas is sitting right there if if all these scenarios,
• 23:49
  Texas has been. Scenario There's no I I can't.
• 23:52
  Steve Sarkeesian. No, I can't.
• 23:54
  He used to. He used to be our head coach at.
• 23:56
  University of Washington So there's no there's no good blood
• 23:58
  there. And we we threw them down last
• 24:00
  year in the bowl game, so it's all good.
• 24:02
  There's no chance the hookah mate, hookah mate making the
• 24:05
  playoff even even even if everyone in front of them lost.
• 24:08
  You know with this four team playoff though, you can't take
• 24:12
  out emotion with the voting, right?
• 24:14
  So when you when you think about Washington or Oregon, one loss
• 24:17
  or not? You know, it's really odd how,
• 24:21
  and I agree. Traditionally, PAC 12 has gotten
• 24:23
  no respect for the the play, the teams that they've had, right,
• 24:27
  the, the West Coast bias, etcetera.
• 24:29
  But this year it's kind of really odd, right, 'cause this
• 24:31
  is the last year of the PAC 12 and the PAC 12 is arguably
• 24:35
  having the best year ever. So there's emotionality into
• 24:38
  voting of like, well, let's give the PAC 12.
• 24:41
  Like it? You can't fault me if I vote for
• 24:43
  one one lost Washington or Oregon because it's PAC 12 and
• 24:46
  it's the last two raw get them in the play offs.
• 24:48
  I I wouldn't be shocked if if it if one of them got in.
• 24:52
  Well, I don't want to just prolong the sports talk because
• 24:55
  I could talk PAC 12 football all day long.
• 24:57
  The problem with the PAC 12 and football is we're we have a ton
• 25:00
  of parity from top to bottom. And so, like, we're in the SEC
• 25:04
  and we have a Homer fan there. Like they, it always has been
• 25:08
  perennially. Like the top two in the SEC just
• 25:11
  roll through their conferences, their conference schedule, and
• 25:13
  then boom, they collide. Georgia, Alabama or, you know,
• 25:15
  Georgia, LSU, right. Like George, you know, right.
• 25:18
  Whoever Whoever's kind of rolled through it, they those two just
• 25:21
  roll through the schedule. No problem.
• 25:23
  In the PAC 12, we always beat each other up.
• 25:25
  You you have these, you know, rivalry games that come out of
• 25:28
  nowhere and Oregon gets upset by Oregon State or wash it back in
• 25:32
  the day. Washington State.
• 25:33
  Washington, UW back in the early 90s when we won our title.
• 25:37
  Washington state, we came into a ranked third.
• 25:39
  Washington state wasn't even ranked.
• 25:41
  Beat us. Gone right.
• 25:42
  Washington state other way around.
• 25:44
  They were four ranked four in the country.
• 25:47
  We beat them gone. You know the day, the days that
• 25:49
  they had Drew Bledsoe at the helm and stuff.
• 25:51
  I mean just and that's how it's gone where we just we end up you
• 25:55
  know USC, we had a kicker. We had a kicker at UW when I was
• 25:59
  there, we beat. We were enough.
• 26:01
  We weren't worthwhile. Steve Sarkisian you know we we
• 26:04
  just were. We're not good.
• 26:06
  But are we upset USC when they're two, I mean, they're
• 26:10
  like, right, Like USC got knocked down because of our
• 26:12
  field goal kicker booted a 56 yarder in the rain, like.
• 26:16
  And so it's just we beat each other up.
• 26:17
  And that's the hard part. Like Arizona looks really good,
• 26:19
  but they're not. They're they're barely going to
• 26:21
  make a bowl game. But they've taken half of us
• 26:23
  like they've took all of us to overtime.
• 26:25
  I mean, and so that's the hard part is, is we're so parable
• 26:30
  from the top to the bottom that we just beat each other up every
• 26:32
  year and then we don't have a chance.
• 26:34
  Like we don't have a, we don't have that juggernaut program.
• 26:37
  Oregon, when Chip Kelly was doing it was probably the
• 26:40
  closest thing we've had where they they do, they would roll
• 26:43
  through everybody. You know, they had like a 40
• 26:44
  point spread on every, I mean margin of victory in the PAC 12
• 26:48
  for a few years there with Chip. And then they would, you know,
• 26:51
  play a goose egg against an Ohio State or an Alabama or Auburn
• 26:56
  and just not win it so. In the SEC we have mental
• 26:59
  parity, and what that means is we think we're better no matter
• 27:03
  what school South Carolina, Mississippi State.
• 27:05
  And so when we go to the bowl games and we lose by the way we
• 27:08
  we don't have a great bowl game record.
• 27:09
  We just get to say, Oh yeah, we just didn't care because we
• 27:12
  weren't playing for the national title and we just move on and
• 27:15
  still think we're better. And that's the thing we my my
• 27:17
  buddy, my buddy Brian. He, him and I are just die hard
• 27:20
  PAC12 fans like we're we're just totally torn that this is the
• 27:24
  last go around this year for you know, PAC 12 sports.
• 27:28
  And and it's so funny last year in the bowl season, I mean we we
• 27:32
  had a the PAC 12 had a great bowl season.
• 27:34
  Utah won. Oregon State won.
• 27:36
  UCLA won their game. We won.
• 27:38
  I mean like Oregon won. It's just like because again
• 27:42
  you're right. Like we don't play for national
• 27:44
  titles. So, so the we make, you know we
• 27:47
  make the post Christmas bowl game like Freddy's talking and
• 27:49
  then you're like, whoa, we're going to go play, play the best
• 27:52
  game of the year because we need recruiting.
• 27:54
  So I will say before we move on though being a PAC 12 guy when
• 27:59
  we talked about this at the very beginning of football season I I
• 28:03
  really think you know again I'm I'm a I'm a call a Colorado fan.
• 28:07
  I like I like what prom's doing. I think I think they they they
• 28:12
  let some games go that they should have won but you can't
• 28:14
  fault the studs he has on on his team just because you know he he
• 28:20
  doesn't have an offensive line. He doesn't have a defensive
• 28:22
  line. I mean he doesn't, he don't have
• 28:23
  any big boys that can protect the quarterback and we've seen
• 28:27
  once once Chidor has time to get set over, right.
• 28:32
  I mean because he's going to drop Dimes wherever he needs to
• 28:34
  to put them. But what I mean, you know, just
• 28:37
  I guess being a PAC 12 guy and I go, I know everything they're
• 28:39
  going to be in a different conference and all that next
• 28:41
  year. But you know what?
• 28:44
  What do you feel about once he gets some, as he called, you
• 28:47
  know, some dog offensive lineman in there.
• 28:49
  I think they're going to be, they're going to be contingent
• 28:52
  again, I don't know if they're going to make it in the top 12,
• 28:54
  but I think they'll definitely, you know, because they, they've
• 28:56
  gone toe to toe with everybody except for Oregon, right?
• 28:59
  I mean they they went toe to toe with USC and and could have won
• 29:02
  that one, but they couldn't keep the door up, right?
• 29:04
  Good old Dan Laning always has a chip on his shoulder.
• 29:06
  So when when Dan Laning took Oregon into Colorado he I mean
• 29:10
  how many 4th downs did he go on? I think they faked the punt
• 29:13
  twice. I mean like.
• 29:14
  He had he was just over Prime's craft in the PAC 12 and he let
• 29:19
  him know it unfortunately or I guess Colorado went into Oregon.
• 29:22
  It's not an easy environment in Austin.
• 29:24
  They there's nothing else to do in Eugene OR other than track
• 29:26
  and field and so when you when when football for you know
• 29:30
  Saturday shows up they that's all they have to do there.
• 29:32
  That was my worst experience. Any Oregon fan listening you you
• 29:35
  you'll know it was my worst experience going to Austin
• 29:37
  Stadium as a Husky fan in terms of an of an away crowd.
• 29:41
  That was ridiculous. I'm not even going to get into
• 29:43
  it. I would rather.
• 29:44
  Love going to Oregon State. They're a friendly crew
• 29:46
  Washington State and and and even our in house rival is more
• 29:50
  friendly than going down to the Ducks.
• 29:52
  So on that line. But to talk about it, shoulder
• 29:56
  Sanders I think is still in the top 10 for passing yards in the
• 29:59
  country. Yeah like and and he's, he's
• 30:01
  getting sacked. Yeah, what, 8/10/12 you know
• 30:05
  times and and even if he's done get sacked, he's still getting
• 30:08
  touched and he's like come on. It's like.
• 30:11
  Michael Pennix, It's Boenix. It's, it might be Drake May.
• 30:19
  Caleb Williams was up there, but he's had some rough ones lately
• 30:22
  where he didn't get the passing yards.
• 30:25
  But Shudura, I believe was last time I saw the stat was top five
• 30:28
  in passing yards and he was only like 500 or 600 yards behind
• 30:32
  technically Michael Pennix, which is the leader right now in
• 30:36
  term. Lord knows the Huskies don't run
• 30:39
  the ball. So we we definitely are chucking
• 30:41
  that rock again. I think you're right.
• 30:45
  I think if you get if you get some offensive big boys in there
• 30:49
  at Colorado. The Big 12 better watch out.
• 30:51
  Colorado ain't ain't no joke anymore.
• 30:54
  And and they're getting also they're getting Utah and Arizona
• 30:57
  next year. The Big 12 isn't just going to
• 30:59
  be your. You know pro typical Midwest
• 31:02
  states having some you know southern states having fun.
• 31:05
  It's it's literally, I mean Colorado and Utah are going back
• 31:07
  to the Big 12. You know they're pro typically
• 31:09
  there before they came to the PAC, PAC 10 and Colorado's going
• 31:13
  to be a legit program and Utah Willingham has has that thing
• 31:17
  well oiled on the defensive side.
• 31:18
  If they would have had Cam rising at the helm Utah would
• 31:21
  have been way better of a program.
• 31:23
  The quarterback they have just doesn't have that system down
• 31:26
  and unfortunately their defense can hang in there, but they
• 31:28
  can't win it and so. Michael looked like you're about
• 31:32
  to try and. Make yeah well I was going to
• 31:34
  you know Freddie I agree with you about Colorado because you
• 31:35
  know the thing that we forget about and I kind of preached
• 31:38
  this to our track coaches. But the same goes with football
• 31:40
  and you know maybe you know it even more with football is
• 31:42
  winning is hard And we forget Colorado won one game last year.
• 31:48
  Not only they won way more this year, like you said, there was a
• 31:51
  few that they kind of maybe like get away that they easily could
• 31:53
  have pulled the upset they've been in every game except
• 31:56
  Oregon. And people and people talk
• 31:58
  about, well, he had, you know, he brought in 70 new kids or
• 32:01
  whatever, you know, blah, blah, blah.
• 32:02
  Hey, if you've ever coached football, bringing in 70 new
• 32:05
  kids is hard. You you got to figure out how to
• 32:07
  get them into the system, how to figure out the culture.
• 32:10
  And he's growing all of this new that that's hard.
• 32:12
  I think what he's done, he gets trashed a lot because of the
• 32:15
  prime and the swag. That's probably also why he's
• 32:18
  got fans like me, because of the swag and the prime and things
• 32:20
  like that. But.
• 32:22
  I think what he and his staff has done is really remarkable.
• 32:26
  70 new kids or not brand new into a program that had a
• 32:29
  culture of winning one game, man.
• 32:31
  Bravo to what those guys have done and and exciting to see
• 32:35
  what might happen in the future if you know, if he stays and you
• 32:38
  know those. Those are always question marks
• 32:40
  on any coach. But you know you never know
• 32:41
  what's going to happen in the future.
• 32:42
  But I I like it. I'm a fan.
• 32:45
  I tell you what, I never watched Colorado football till this
• 32:48
  year. Every game I've got it on,
• 32:50
  though, I'm watching. I stayed up past midnight to
• 32:52
  watch that Colorado, Colorado State game that went to overtime
• 32:55
  because I'm like, you got to be kidding me.
• 32:57
  This is, I mean and and that stadium, I haven't ever seen
• 33:00
  their stadium packed out like it was.
• 33:02
  I mean every game they went to, the the heartbreaker you're
• 33:05
  you're thinking of is they lost to Stanford and they lost to
• 33:08
  Arizona State and they were just unfortunate losses.
• 33:11
  When I think Stanford, they're up 28 to 0 or 28 something at
• 33:16
  halftime, Yeah. And even even prom said he was a
• 33:20
  little too relax going into halftime.
• 33:23
  And he's like, oh, you know, we've got this one, we're
• 33:25
  rolling. And then they couldn't score to
• 33:26
  save their lives in the second-half.
• 33:27
  And yeah, I mean that they needed those two, right?
• 33:31
  Those were the two on the schedule.
• 33:32
  When we're looking at the schedule going, all right, these
• 33:34
  are the ones that are going to get them to a bowl.
• 33:36
  And you know, they they slipped away.
• 33:38
  But they, hey, that's what that's what sports are, right?
• 33:40
  They're not one on paper. Because I think they're are they
• 33:42
  four and they're are they two games out from a bowl game?
• 33:45
  They're two games out. Yeah.
• 33:46
  They got to win. They got to win the next two,
• 33:48
  they get in. Oh, so they have to have Utah
• 33:49
  left then? Because that's their rivalry
• 33:51
  game technically in the PAC 12. That's brutal.
• 33:55
  And then I I wonder who else they play.
• 33:58
  They got, they got. Who do they they play tonight to
• 34:01
  tonight's? Oh, the 17th, because I was
• 34:04
  looking at it earlier. I got a team that they could
• 34:07
  possibly again, depending on how they play.
• 34:10
  I'm I'm going to look it up real quick depending on how they
• 34:11
  play. Depends on if they can get that
• 34:14
  one. It's not a Utah.
• 34:15
  It's a Washington state. They got Washington State
• 34:18
  tonight. OK, now that's winnable.
• 34:20
  Washington State just doesn't. They haven't been able to put it
• 34:22
  together this year. So I mean, they they could win
• 34:25
  that one. But again, if Utah's, I mean,
• 34:26
  they could do it, but Utah's a A.
• 34:28
  That's going to be a hard task. Yeah, that'll be a hard one.
• 34:31
  I think that's the fun part of what prime and attitude and what
• 34:35
  they've done has made it for this year is, to your point, you
• 34:37
  know, any other year we'd be like, well, they're they're not
• 34:39
  going to win versus Utah, that's a loss.
• 34:40
  And here we're like, you know what, the way they play, they
• 34:43
  might win. And so that makes it exciting to
• 34:44
  watch. And just hats off again, they I
• 34:48
  think every home game was sold out.
• 34:51
  Like it's like one of the hottest tickets to get just to
• 34:54
  go watch the Colorado Buffaloes. Apparently they're now the
• 34:58
  greatest show on turf. So, and I love, you know, the
• 35:00
  beginning of the season, Little Wayne is like walking them out
• 35:03
  of the the tunnel and you know, a little mini, yeah, a little
• 35:07
  mini concert. You know the the Anyway, I I
• 35:10
  know we we've been gone for 30 minutes on on this stuff.
• 35:14
  So we're we like sports. Y'all.
• 35:17
  I think that's just the easiest thing to say.
• 35:19
  I digress on the Huskies. Hopefully, hopefully by the time
• 35:22
  you're listening to this, we made it past Utah and the CFP
• 35:26
  finally on it. Will, I'm.
• 35:28
  This should be coming out on a Wednesday.
• 35:29
  You should be listening right now on a Wednesday of
• 35:31
  Thanksgiving week. I hopefully the CFP finally, you
• 35:34
  know, had some common sense and listened to this podcast and
• 35:36
  they're like, yeah, we should probably put we should probably
• 35:38
  put Washington at 4. Undefeated Washington at 4:00
• 35:40
  sounds good. I digress.
• 35:43
  We're going to hit an ad break when we come back.
• 35:45
  We're going to dive in with Mike on track and field programs and
• 35:49
  what they can do for a high school athletic department.
• 35:52
  Stay tuned from Wall of Fame and we'll see you in a few.
• 35:56
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• 35:59
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• 36:02
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• 36:09
  Congratulations to Scott and Freddie on the kickoff to a
• 36:12
  great inaugural season and thank you for tuning in.
• 36:16
  Mike we started talking about it, we went into some really
• 36:19
  good tidbits and then we really got lost in all things college
• 36:21
  football, which. Every once in a while Freddie
• 36:24
  and I do go down that roll down that line pretty quick.
• 36:27
  But let's let's let's bring the train back to the tracks and go
• 36:31
  down the line of go away from football and go into track and
• 36:36
  field at the high school level. And just maybe just go into what
• 36:40
  you've seen benefits of a healthy track and field program,
• 36:42
  maybe the the the key pieces to have for that.
• 36:46
  And then maybe just, you know, digress from that into the
• 36:49
  different ways that a track and field program can bring.
• 36:53
  Not only value to a student athlete, but value to an
• 36:56
  athletic department. I think again I, I, I before we
• 36:59
  started recording, I said you know everyone, we all, you know,
• 37:01
  football drives the bus because football puts seats and tickets
• 37:04
  and all that. Whether you're collegiate for
• 37:06
  sure, if you're collegiate, but even in the inner scholastic
• 37:09
  realm that's you know again gate revenue is a big thing for
• 37:12
  athletic department. So maybe just go down.
• 37:14
  Let's just start there, start around those pieces.
• 37:16
  Yeah, absolutely. You know, I think a healthy
• 37:18
  track program is. Really vital for an athletic
• 37:20
  department. You know, I already mentioned
• 37:22
  about the participation rates on high school on the collegiate
• 37:24
  side, same thing. It is the most participated
• 37:27
  sport out there over football, basketballs, etcetera.
• 37:31
  But I think it's even more important on the high school
• 37:33
  side. You know, you had mentioned
• 37:35
  earlier about the conditioning and things like that.
• 37:37
  You know, I actually don't even think about it in that realm to
• 37:40
  be real honest with you in regards to the condition.
• 37:42
  I think of it more of the speed, agility and just.
• 37:46
  How do you, how do you know, how coordinated can you be there?
• 37:50
  There's kind of a fun, I'm sure this does not reach the football
• 37:53
  side, it hits the track side. On the Twitter, there's a fun
• 37:57
  little thing that says Nike releases their offseason shoes
• 38:00
  for football players and it's a a disc issue and it's a Sprint
• 38:04
  spike and it's a long jump spike, meaning like if you want
• 38:07
  to be a better football player or basketball player, track is
• 38:10
  the place to go. You'll get faster.
• 38:13
  If you throw, if you're a lineman, you'll get better
• 38:15
  coordinated. That's, you know, I was an
• 38:16
  offensive lineman in high school.
• 38:17
  I know how important coordination is.
• 38:20
  So if you go throw, you'll get better coordinated.
• 38:22
  If you're a jumper, you'll be more explosive.
• 38:23
  That's pretty good for a receiver, I think, right?
• 38:25
  If you go become a better high jumper, well, that I think
• 38:27
  that'd be pretty good for ADB and A and a high jumper or a
• 38:31
  wide receiver. So track is really not just and
• 38:35
  I don't like to make it like a secondary like, oh, it it's
• 38:37
  really good for football. It's really good for athletics.
• 38:41
  The the other part you know there was a a really good video
• 38:43
  that just came out with some of the Miami guys.
• 38:45
  You know I I don't think we we talk about how to be a
• 38:49
  competitor very much. So it's really easy to talk
• 38:52
  about how to become a faster receiver and you know more
• 38:54
  coordinated to be a thrower and an offensive lineman things like
• 38:57
  that. But sometimes we just need to
• 38:59
  compete, whether it's competing for a spot on that football
• 39:02
  team, competing against the person across the line from you,
• 39:05
  and that's what track does when you line up.
• 39:08
  In 100 meter dash, the 800 meter the shot put man, it's it's mano
• 39:14
  E mano. There is no excuses there.
• 39:17
  You can't complain that the quarterback threw it behind you.
• 39:19
  You can't complain that the point guard didn't pass to you.
• 39:22
  It is you. Do you beat the person to your
• 39:25
  left and the person to your right or do you not?
• 39:28
  And I think we sometimes forget about that.
• 39:30
  That's a trained skill as well as how do we train young people
• 39:34
  to be competitors. I'm trying to think of a thought
• 39:37
  on that because no, it's just the things that you hit on.
• 39:40
  I was trying to think of like where what have I seen in track
• 39:43
  programs before? And I, we kind of hit on it in
• 39:47
  the very beginning, right? I had a track coach that was
• 39:49
  just very good at recruiting like other athletes.
• 39:52
  And a lot of times I think you get lost in the fact that you
• 39:55
  could be good at other sports, right?
• 39:56
  Like and it's not a hard, it's not hard in regards to like the
• 40:01
  barrier to learn the skills per SE like.
• 40:04
  Again, like position work or something like that.
• 40:05
  And you can learn the the different techniques and speed
• 40:09
  and off the blocks or you know that you know different, you
• 40:11
  know thoughts if you're in a longer distance race, like the
• 40:13
  thoughts of how to control your effort during certain legs of
• 40:17
  it. But I mean you get some of
• 40:19
  those, those high end speedsters, whether they're
• 40:22
  volleyball girls, whether they're football players,
• 40:25
  whether they're soccer players in the fall, right?
• 40:28
  And you get them on like relays. There's some there's some crazy
• 40:32
  athleticism that lives in your schools with those individuals
• 40:36
  that maybe they never even thought they had a chance for a
• 40:38
  state title and track. But because they can run name
• 40:42
  the, you know, 102 hundred 400 real well that's all they do.
• 40:46
  And then they go do like a field event because they're like I I
• 40:49
  love to learn how to throw a discus or a javelin or a shot
• 40:53
  put and and I just was thinking the one that you said where you
• 40:56
  know how to compete. Sometimes that aspect, even
• 41:00
  though they played basketball, football, volleyball, soccer,
• 41:03
  wrestling their entire life, they learn how to compete at a
• 41:07
  whole different way when they decided to go out for the track
• 41:10
  program, not thinking they can make a varsity spot on something
• 41:12
  you. Know.
• 41:14
  Yeah, and it's for, it's for the the the internal person too.
• 41:18
  I and I, you know I didn't mention earlier, but my brother,
• 41:21
  he was our number one cross country runner at our.
• 41:27
  The high school again he was, he's 10 years younger than me so
• 41:30
  I was never there with him. But you know he went to the same
• 41:32
  high school I did, but he was the number one runner there for
• 41:35
  cross country and then went over the track and and and did it now
• 41:39
  cross country track was was perfect for him because like I
• 41:42
  said it was a competition within himself.
• 41:45
  You know he played church basketball.
• 41:46
  He did things like that. He did some team things.
• 41:48
  He played in the Y and but he was one of those type that like
• 41:52
  you said, he would get frustrated if somebody didn't
• 41:55
  make a good pass. Or he would get frustrated if,
• 41:58
  you know, if he was wide open and you know, they didn't see
• 42:01
  him or if he went to go assist, you know, a a person versus
• 42:06
  taking the shot and they ended up just, you know, whiffing it.
• 42:10
  You know, he was the one that would get upset about that.
• 42:13
  But then he went to cross country, he went to track and it
• 42:16
  was him competing with him and you know, was very good at it
• 42:21
  because he knew, OK, well, if I mess up, that's on me.
• 42:24
  And you know, so and if I excel, that's on me so that you know it
• 42:28
  definitely can can hit, like you said, a different type of
• 42:32
  personality and person as well. On the on the track, we actually
• 42:35
  celebrate the individualism, right?
• 42:37
  And what I mean by that is in basketball, you made a great
• 42:40
  point there. If someone decides that you know
• 42:42
  they want to be the the assist king for their conference or
• 42:45
  state, you know they can manipulate the game, right?
• 42:48
  To always throw the pass or or the opposite, right.
• 42:51
  It's typically scoring right? So if I want to be the scoring
• 42:53
  leader, I can manipulate the game by shooting more instead of
• 42:56
  passing, right? And if you do that, you end up
• 43:00
  averaging 30 points a game. You might get the accolade, but
• 43:03
  that's maybe not. What could for the team and then
• 43:05
  you end up losing right. Well on track it's like man I
• 43:08
  want you to be the fastest and and it's OK if you try to be the
• 43:11
  fastest because we're going to get the 10 points off of that or
• 43:13
  you want to be the best thrower. Go be the best at there's no
• 43:16
  detriment to the team for you going and doing the best scoring
• 43:20
  for track and field unlike in a basketball or maybe a baseball.
• 43:24
  I'm not a big baseball guy, but definitely in football there's
• 43:26
  ways to you know, again try to manipulate and pad your own
• 43:28
  stats that make you look great in All American or Allstate but
• 43:32
  would be detrimental to the team.
• 43:35
  That's a great point on that one.
• 43:36
  I again, like I even talked about the the participation on
• 43:39
  the JV side and like you can again it's one of the most
• 43:44
  participated sports in terms of just volume of kids that can go
• 43:47
  out and do it. So like to give everyone an
• 43:51
  opportunity to go run and try it and then sometimes you find the
• 43:55
  diamonds in the rough, right? The kid that thinks that they're
• 43:57
  not having any chance of making a varsity spot or time and then
• 44:00
  you know over a three month season you drop time pretty good
• 44:05
  if you put your mind to it and do the work and listen to your
• 44:08
  coach and and and and and put the effort in.
• 44:12
  I I just there's a lot of times that we would we would host the
• 44:16
  J at our league would rotate JV meets every week and so those
• 44:20
  kids at all of our schools and we're all large high schools in
• 44:23
  Washington state You could you could you know have JV kids show
• 44:27
  up and then we would have awards and I still like they got the I
• 44:30
  mean it might not be the same level of you know the Saturday
• 44:33
  meet that's the you know the the high end invite that the varsity
• 44:36
  crews going to but in the week like they get out of school they
• 44:40
  get to go run throw whatever their event jump and they get to
• 44:44
  go do that and then they get a same taste of it to kind of keep
• 44:48
  that competitive fire alive. And then at the end of the year
• 44:52
  we have it. We had a championship JV like
• 44:54
  tournament. So like all those kids could
• 44:56
  qualify like they're qualifying for the quote UN quote state
• 44:59
  tournament. But they're not the because we
• 45:01
  had because again we had to do something because of how many
• 45:04
  kids were participating. It's like well we can't just
• 45:07
  have it just end for them like they should work for something
• 45:09
  too because then we're not building anything up.
• 45:12
  And that was that was the thought process of the track
• 45:14
  coaches don't make me think, don't make me sound like like
• 45:16
  the a DS we're all sudden really smart about track.
• 45:19
  It was just the track coaches were like, no, we need to do.
• 45:23
  I was the AD overtrack for our league so it just helped my
• 45:25
  'cause that I had really good track coaches that just could
• 45:29
  put it together and they're like, no, we need to do these
• 45:31
  things and you're like done. Like I'll I'll go sell this to
• 45:34
  the the league. Like that's not an issue.
• 45:36
  We'll find money for awards. Well, you know we'll do a
• 45:38
  schedule for hosting sites and and and rotate it and then we
• 45:41
  can rotate you know what, you know what track has the best
• 45:43
  chance for a a good championship environment.
• 45:46
  And so, I mean, one of our tracks had a, a video board,
• 45:49
  massive, you know, massive stadium seating.
• 45:52
  And so, like, yeah, on a Saturday that was before
• 45:55
  anything happened for the varsity crew, literally you
• 45:58
  would send four or five busloads of kids to the site.
• 46:01
  And I mean, they had the video, we had the automatic timing, we
• 46:04
  had the whole 9 yards as if they were literally running the state
• 46:07
  meet for our league. And and and that was just for JV
• 46:10
  like it. It's just I think there's a lot
• 46:12
  of fun opportunities with track programs that maybe you don't
• 46:16
  think about or you're like. I mean, you always talk about
• 46:18
  the spend on per kid in an athletic department, right?
• 46:21
  How much football, lacrosse or your heaviest equipment sports.
• 46:25
  So track's not too far behind in terms of pole vaults, in terms
• 46:30
  of javelins, shop puts, disk, you know, all the blocks.
• 46:34
  I mean things that you travel with it it's, it's not a cheap
• 46:37
  sport in regards to having your equipment that you're traveling
• 46:40
  on buses with. But also it's not a cheap sport
• 46:42
  when you're when you decide to finally host an invite or you
• 46:46
  know, want to be a host site for maybe your league.
• 46:48
  I mean now you have to have all the right stuff for
• 46:50
  measurements. You have to have all the right
• 46:51
  stuff for just the field events And is it, you know, up to code,
• 46:55
  is it certified? I mean I can roll in through
• 46:58
  that. But I think a lot of times you
• 47:00
  you look at how much money you put into a program per kid and
• 47:05
  then and then you know how many kids did it right and and you
• 47:08
  you we cut in other sports because we don't have enough.
• 47:11
  But like track is 1, where like the amount of money per kid
• 47:14
  spent on equipment is a very low threshold for the volume of kids
• 47:20
  that can go through both boys and girls, right.
• 47:22
  That can go through it and then put that over four years and
• 47:26
  it's just like it's a really, it's a really interesting ROI
• 47:29
  for an athletic department. Yeah, you know, you're right on
• 47:32
  about the cost of equipment for track and field, and it's almost
• 47:35
  like you could run a whole company making that stuff weird
• 47:39
  Guild athletics. Part guys.
• 47:40
  If you haven't heard of them, look them up.
• 47:41
  Guild Athletics. You know, cross country is a
• 47:44
  little different. We don't do, you know, we don't
• 47:46
  do shoes or you know, anything like that.
• 47:48
  But cross country is definitely one of the more cheaper, at
• 47:50
  least expensive. Cast the cost per kid type of
• 47:54
  sport out there and you know, I I know it's programs that have
• 47:56
  you know 100 cross country kids. I mean that's that's amazing.
• 47:59
  And when you think about the cost of that you're really more
• 48:01
  focused on your cost of travel for your meets and scheduling
• 48:04
  things like that. But you know, a singlet, shorts
• 48:06
  and and shoes. There you go.
• 48:10
  I will. I will say, though, you know,
• 48:11
  this hasn't knocked anybody but those singlets.
• 48:13
  They're very thin material. But those some of those
• 48:17
  companies think very highly quality of those very payout for
• 48:20
  that spandex, man, it is some thin spandex, but you pay out
• 48:23
  for it. Hey, I couldn't cut in cross
• 48:26
  country just because of the shorts, the split side shorts.
• 48:28
  I'm like, yeah, I'm good man. I'll work somewhere else.
• 48:32
  But on the track and field side, you bring up a great point there
• 48:35
  Scott in regards to the equipment.
• 48:36
  I think it, I think it it gets perceived as more expensive than
• 48:40
  some other sports like a football because it's a big
• 48:42
  outlet when you do a pole ball pit and it's set up for sure.
• 48:45
  I mean you're you're probably $30,000 for that and we look at
• 48:48
  it as well there's only we only have 5 vaulters or gosh maybe
• 48:51
  you have a big vault program you have 10 vaulters that that'd be
• 48:53
  a lot and it's like man that's for 10 kids you have to look at
• 48:56
  the entire sport. I I don't look at the the five
• 48:59
  man sled and go man that cost how much and that's.
• 49:02
  Only for five lineman or 10, you know, whatever lineman we have,
• 49:05
  I think of like, no, I need it for the whole football program.
• 49:07
  That's what the, the pole vault side is there for.
• 49:09
  But you know, there's ways to mitigate that And you know,
• 49:13
  because of the participation, well, that means we need home,
• 49:16
  we need track meets And so that means people need to go to
• 49:19
  places to actually do those meets and man with entry fees,
• 49:23
  parking fees, concession stands, I know of many.
• 49:28
  I mean. Many high schools that are
• 49:31
  hosting invitationals and regular home meets throughout
• 49:34
  that are making their whole budget for the year.
• 49:37
  So when we talk about it's a, you know it really kind of
• 49:40
  grates on us a little bit when we hear track is a non revenue
• 49:42
  sport and we typically talk about that in the college side.
• 49:46
  But I tell you what if you are, if you have a, if you have a
• 49:49
  track and it doesn't even have to be like the most amazing, you
• 49:51
  know, we've seen some of these Taj Mahals of.
• 49:53
  Track facilities. It doesn't have to be that if
• 49:56
  you have a track facility and you can and this is the key, get
• 49:59
  buy in from the community, the teachers etcetera, because you
• 50:02
  need people to work to meet that, that that is a pretty
• 50:04
  tough point here with the officials and things like that.
• 50:07
  If you can host meets boy, if you don't pay for your entire
• 50:11
  budget for the year, you'll make a big intent indent on it.
• 50:14
  You'll get 5070% coming back through through entry fees
• 50:18
  etcetera. Yeah, we, yeah.
• 50:20
  Until my coach figured it out, you know, you know, But.
• 50:23
  I always told my coaches, didn't matter which sport it was.
• 50:25
  If you host a tournament, if you host an Invitational, that's
• 50:28
  your fundraiser. You keep that money.
• 50:31
  If you host a regular season game part of our district, that
• 50:35
  money comes to the athletic department, right?
• 50:36
  That's what helps fund the athletic department.
• 50:39
  Well, you know, depending on how big your region is and your
• 50:42
  conference and all that. You know, hosting a conference
• 50:46
  regular season quote UN quote, meet versus an Invitational.
• 50:50
  It could be the same size, right?
• 50:53
  And, you know, so, you know, my coach, my coach was the first
• 50:57
  one to host an Invitational, right?
• 50:59
  You know, we're always hosting this Invitational because like
• 51:01
  you said, we're going, they're going to make a killing off of
• 51:03
  parking and admission and concession and all that.
• 51:07
  But it was always when I came to him and said, all right, we had
• 51:09
  a conference meeting, we're hosting this conference date.
• 51:12
  They're like, 'cause they know they're fixing, like you said,
• 51:14
  they're fixing to put in a ton of work.
• 51:16
  But the money's going to the athletic department and you
• 51:19
  know, it's it's trying to get that buy in, you know, too is to
• 51:23
  be all on the same page, right. Football coaches feel it all the
• 51:26
  time, right. They don't, they don't keep that
• 51:27
  gate. You know if you had a big, we
• 51:29
  had AI was at a school that actually basketball brought in
• 51:33
  more than football did. But you know basketball didn't
• 51:36
  keep that. And so it's it's it's benefits
• 51:39
  to the entire program. Yes, you're going to get a
• 51:42
  percentage. You're going to get a cut.
• 51:44
  But it benefits the entire program, not just physically and
• 51:48
  and more participation, but with with money as well.
• 51:51
  You know, it's an interesting topic because there's other ways
• 51:53
  of doing it too, right? So we, when we're we're all
• 51:55
  three of us, when we're talking about big invitationals, I think
• 51:58
  we have in our head, you know, you know, maybe 20 teams per
• 52:00
  side and there's 1000 kids. And that means, boy, you better
• 52:03
  have a lot of volunteers. You got to officiate.
• 52:06
  You're going to be out there from 8:00 in the morning until
• 52:08
  8:00 at night. That's a pretty typical track
• 52:10
  and I'm very anti that to be real honest with you.
• 52:14
  But there are other ways to do it and do it well, you know, we
• 52:18
  we forget sometimes, like even if I host a dual meet, even if I
• 52:20
  just get my crosstown rival to come to our place and I host a
• 52:23
  meet, I I I'm probably not going to make a lot.
• 52:26
  You know, there's no entry fee typically.
• 52:27
  And you know, I think there are ways for us to make a gate at
• 52:31
  track as well. But let's just say there's no
• 52:32
  gate. I I did make money that day
• 52:34
  because I didn't pay to go to an Invitational, so I didn't have
• 52:37
  the bus. I didn't have the food, the
• 52:39
  entry fee etcetera. So that is a a positive.
• 52:41
  We we don't, we don't look at it because no money came in but
• 52:45
  money didn't go out. That's a positive for a high
• 52:47
  school budget, for sure. We always charge, we always
• 52:51
  charge parking for those we've charged parking.
• 52:54
  And so again you know you you you're paying $5 to park but
• 52:58
  that gets four to five people in, right.
• 53:01
  And so you're you're looking at a dollar ticket.
• 53:03
  But then you know the biggest thing was we know if you can
• 53:05
  open a concession. Right.
• 53:07
  That that's where you're going, especially at a track meet
• 53:09
  because you know, you may have one kid that runs one event or
• 53:12
  does one, you know, throwing and they're sitting there for 4-5,
• 53:17
  six hours. They're going to get hungry and
• 53:18
  as you know, especially if they got money to burn, they're
• 53:20
  they're going to go spend it at the cassettes.
• 53:22
  If we could roll the grills out, we would.
• 53:24
  Absolutely. We we just had on the Gill
• 53:26
  Connections podcast, Tyler Rathke.
• 53:28
  He's now down at Rogers Heritage Heritage in Arkansas, but he was
• 53:32
  a long time at Raytown. South I believe in Missouri.
• 53:35
  He got to where his Invitational he actually had the local TV
• 53:39
  station. It was on live TV which what
• 53:43
  high school track heck what college track meet is on.
• 53:46
  I almost said national on TV. So you know there's ways for
• 53:50
  coaches to do this. Now I have a.
• 53:53
  Ton of empathy for our coaches and athletic directors as well,
• 53:56
  right, 'cause let's not forget, they're not doing this full
• 53:58
  time. Their teachers, their spouses,
• 54:02
  they have families. They're trying to figure out
• 54:04
  grades for that semester. They probably and hopefully have
• 54:07
  charities and passions that they also like to do.
• 54:10
  So I have a lot of empathy for our high school coaches out
• 54:13
  there because boy, there is a lot going on so.
• 54:18
  I get it that there is not time to do this or that, but there's
• 54:20
  ways to incrementally continue to improve your program and get
• 54:24
  to these type of things, to these type of invitationals or
• 54:27
  home meets, etcetera. Again, if you're not hosting an
• 54:31
  invite, get your coach on online to try to figure and maybe you
• 54:35
  help with figuring out workers for that and whatnot because
• 54:38
  those are one of the just easiest ways.
• 54:42
  I shouldn't say easy. It is definitely one of the ways
• 54:45
  that that program which other programs don't have that success
• 54:51
  can bring in you know revenue generation especially for those
• 54:54
  of you that are a DS. Listen to this this podcast
• 54:56
  right now that that's a way to generate revenue.
• 55:00
  And if you when you get really good at it, when you get really
• 55:03
  good at hosting the track meet, it is pretty well oiled because
• 55:07
  you get people that are just lifers that like they know how
• 55:10
  to handle the the backup timing and they know how to handle the.
• 55:13
  If you're lucky enough to have fat timing at the at the
• 55:17
  facility and it's plumbed in and you're just using cameras.
• 55:21
  I mean timing goes out the out the door really quick for you
• 55:24
  because you just have a backup sitting there for timing and it
• 55:27
  takes away 10 people if you have a 10 lane track, 12 people if
• 55:30
  you have the backup timers. And so, unless I'm am I talking
• 55:32
  off on that mic, or have I or have I hosted an invite a few
• 55:35
  times? Yeah, you got it down a little
• 55:37
  bit there. Absolutely.
• 55:39
  And then you get a good announcer and someone that's
• 55:42
  like, loves track. I mean, there's a lot of people
• 55:44
  in communities that just love track.
• 55:45
  And you have no idea until you put it out there that, hey,
• 55:47
  we're looking for some, you know, notable people that want
• 55:50
  to come and help. A lot of times it's pretty easy
• 55:53
  to do that. You find an official, you know,
• 55:55
  starter pay that person some decent money because they're
• 55:57
  having to handle the, the, the big stuff up front with the gun.
• 56:01
  And I don't know, it's just if you can get it once you get the
• 56:04
  framework organized. That's just how my brain goes,
• 56:06
  right? Have it on paper, figure it out
• 56:07
  who's you know, who's doing what and you can figure it out.
• 56:10
  And you have the teams that wanna come again, from entry
• 56:13
  fees to gate fees to parking to concessions to whatever other
• 56:17
  fun things you can, you know, you know, for all I care, bring
• 56:21
  out the family fun zone and bring some inflatables out.
• 56:24
  You know, I don't like. I don't know, because if you're
• 56:26
  there all day, might as well have somewhere for the kids to
• 56:27
  go. So they're not getting in your
• 56:28
  way. That's the thing.
• 56:30
  We have to do a better job in track and field, honestly.
• 56:32
  You know, when when my son was born, you know, of course
• 56:34
  everybody's first question was, oh man, is he going to do track?
• 56:37
  And I was like, man, I hope not. Have you seen those things there
• 56:39
  last forever? They're all day.
• 56:41
  That's what's great about football.
• 56:43
  Basketball, you know, it's a 3 hour block.
• 56:45
  You know, basketball is always indoors.
• 56:46
  I kind of like that now as a parent of two kids, instead of
• 56:48
  being outside all the time soccer.
• 56:50
  We're always outside, but they're always controlled right
• 56:53
  here. Track starts at 8:00 in the
• 56:54
  morning, eight in the night. That's got a We've got to rein
• 56:57
  that in. There's a there's a place for
• 56:59
  those meets, there's a place for those big invitationals on the
• 57:01
  college side, the pen relays, things like that.
• 57:03
  Those are great, but we have to rein those in on our regular
• 57:06
  meets. We have to get to where we're in
• 57:08
  a two or three hour block where someone remember we're the most
• 57:11
  participated sport. In the in the country, right.
• 57:13
  So you are more likely when you're out grocery shopping
• 57:16
  today, you're more likely to run into someone who ran track in
• 57:19
  some form or fashion in high school, then played football or
• 57:22
  baseball or golf. So we have all these people who
• 57:26
  did this sport. How come we can't get them to go
• 57:29
  pay 5 bucks to go to their local high school track beat and see
• 57:33
  their neighbor's kids run, jump or throw it, right?
• 57:37
  We they do it for basketball. There's people who in football,
• 57:39
  plenty of people go to those games who are not die hard fans.
• 57:42
  Whether they played it or a neighbor plays it or a spouse
• 57:45
  played it and so they go because they'll watch the spectacle.
• 57:48
  That's what we got to get to. We got to get to where it's a
• 57:49
  spectacle where it's something worth going to for two or three
• 57:52
  hours, pay 5 bucks, go to the concessions, go to the fun zone.
• 57:57
  That that's that. We got to do a better job in
• 57:59
  track and field for that for sure.
• 58:01
  I did want to bring out like if you don't have all the equipment
• 58:03
  to host an invitation or a meet by yourself.
• 58:08
  We've done it too. I mean you you, you pair up with
• 58:11
  a a local high school. You know, maybe it's your rival,
• 58:16
  maybe it's not. But you know you you try to pair
• 58:18
  up with another high school and say hey we'll do this, we'll do
• 58:21
  X and you know we'll do this half, y'all do that half.
• 58:24
  And at the end of the, you know at the end of the meet you split
• 58:26
  the the income down, down the middle.
• 58:30
  And you know that that's an easy way because out there school I
• 58:32
  was at, we had a great track program.
• 58:35
  We had, you know, we had all the mats, we had all this, the
• 58:37
  blocks, we had all that stuff. But we didn't have the starting
• 58:39
  system, we didn't have the clocks.
• 58:41
  We didn't have all that stuff. So we teamed up with a a school
• 58:45
  that was about 20 minutes down the road that had all of that.
• 58:48
  They didn't want to host it at their facility because maybe
• 58:51
  their facility wasn't as nice as ours.
• 58:53
  So they actually brought all their stuff over to us and they
• 58:55
  used the timing and then we were the one that actually hosted it.
• 59:00
  Let me tell you, coaches are gonna be the first one to tell
• 59:03
  their athletes. No excuses right?
• 59:05
  Whether it's being late, whatever.
• 59:07
  That's a very common thing cuz usually typically in a 1418 year
• 59:10
  old there's gonna be a lot of excuses, right?
• 59:12
  I have that same thought press with our coaches because I
• 59:15
  believe in them so much. We had a coach and you know,
• 59:18
  forgive me, we're we're an episode like 250 on our podcast.
• 59:21
  I think this gentleman was episode number like 90, so I
• 59:25
  forget his name. But we had a high school coach
• 59:28
  from Kentucky come on to the podcast, high school track coach
• 59:31
  and he had no facility, not a bad facility.
• 59:33
  He had no track facility. But he really wanted to host a
• 59:37
  meet. He wanted to, you know, to have
• 59:38
  Senior Day and those kind of things that we traditionally
• 59:41
  have and. Man, let me tell you what this
• 59:44
  guy created a track meet at his at his facility at his high
• 59:48
  school. No facility at his high school
• 59:50
  using the things that he had he got permission to it's it's the
• 59:53
  picture he showed me. It's amazing.
• 59:55
  He got permission to dig a big hole right in front of the
• 59:58
  schools. That's where he did long jump
• 59:59
  right off the sidewalk into the the hole with sand.
• 1:00:02
  He did the throws over in the softball baseball complex off of
• 1:00:05
  the the home plate And then he had this kind of like lap in his
• 1:00:08
  parking lot and it was roughly, I think if I, if I remember him
• 1:00:10
  right, he told me he's like, you know, 160 meters.
• 1:00:12
  Or something like that. So they would do the 160th, the
• 1:00:15
  one lap dash and the two lap dash and then the the four by
• 1:00:19
  one lap and the four by two. He let no excuse happen to have
• 1:00:26
  a home track and field meet, have a senior day for his
• 1:00:29
  seniors. And I thought that was like the
• 1:00:31
  most like. That to me is the embodiment of
• 1:00:34
  what track coaches and coaches in general do.
• 1:00:37
  That is amazing to me because I bet you, I guarantee you those
• 1:00:40
  athletes learn more about his resolvency of hosting a track
• 1:00:45
  meet than they did about track and all those kind of things.
• 1:00:47
  Those are the kind of kids that are going on to college and in
• 1:00:50
  our society that are going, man, wait a minute, my track coach
• 1:00:52
  held a track meet with no track. I can do this in my job.
• 1:00:55
  Come on, I can figure this out. That that to me is just amazing
• 1:00:58
  and really is what coaching high school athletes is all about.
• 1:01:02
  That's the that's the epitome of interscholastic athletics at
• 1:01:04
  large right there, Mike. I mean, you do.
• 1:01:08
  You do the most with the least and you figure out how to be
• 1:01:12
  gritty and you get the job done because we're in the memory
• 1:01:14
  making business and all those kids are probably not going to
• 1:01:18
  do this for the rest of their lives when they graduate, so.
• 1:01:22
  I was going to say, you know, you, you're talking about the
• 1:01:24
  memory, you know, then everyone's going to remember
• 1:01:28
  that event, right? You know, 50 years, they're
• 1:01:30
  still going to be talking about. We had a We had a track meet in
• 1:01:32
  a parking lot. I mean, and so I mean that's
• 1:01:35
  that's the the what Interscholastic is about is
• 1:01:37
  those memories, what we have to remember as coaches, 99% of our
• 1:01:43
  kids, probably 99.9 are not going to go on to do this in
• 1:01:47
  college, even though it's the most participated sport there.
• 1:01:49
  And definitely 99.999 aren't going pro in track and field,
• 1:01:54
  right? But every kid that a coach works
• 1:01:57
  with, they're all going to be parents.
• 1:02:00
  They're all going to be spouses. They're all going to be business
• 1:02:02
  owners, clergy, teachers, maybe future coaches.
• 1:02:05
  And that is the real positive impact that coaches are making
• 1:02:08
  on young people. And that to me is immeasurable.
• 1:02:11
  That is the real benefit to society is what coaches are
• 1:02:14
  doing with young people for resiliency, grittiness.
• 1:02:17
  I love that grittiness. That is the most amazing part of
• 1:02:20
  what our coaches are doing in high school.
• 1:02:23
  Yeah, I think we could always use a little bit more grittiness
• 1:02:25
  and and. Handling adversity, I think
• 1:02:28
  that's those are the new skills these days that we have to be
• 1:02:30
  teaching kids. But to your point and just a
• 1:02:33
  slam at home, the whole point of what we do is to make
• 1:02:36
  well-rounded individuals that are actually productive in
• 1:02:39
  society, right, Like and if and if if.
• 1:02:42
  I don't know many coaches. I should say this.
• 1:02:45
  The good coaches, that's what they're doing.
• 1:02:47
  And when they produce the good, you know, the well-rounded kid,
• 1:02:50
  you usually have success that comes from that because the kids
• 1:02:53
  know what to do. They're responsible, they're
• 1:02:55
  respectful, they're hard working and they'll go run through the
• 1:02:59
  brick wall, no pun intended, for a track episode.
• 1:03:02
  But like, they'll go do the work to get it done and then you'll
• 1:03:06
  see success on the backside. And that success might be
• 1:03:09
  running 160 meter lap in a parking lot because that is what
• 1:03:13
  your coach chose to make the best out of.
• 1:03:16
  You know, you said a word there that probably is the most
• 1:03:18
  important word in any athletic department's high school.
• 1:03:21
  College doesn't matter. And that is culture.
• 1:03:24
  You know, I truly think culture is more important than the X's
• 1:03:27
  and O's, whether we're talking about football plays or whether
• 1:03:29
  we're talking about how do I make an athlete run faster.
• 1:03:32
  You know, when you look at programs around the country, in
• 1:03:35
  any sport that go from, say, the bottom to the top, it's
• 1:03:38
  typically not because some coaches came in and they knew
• 1:03:41
  how to call plays better or they knew how to coach hurdlers and
• 1:03:44
  throwers better. It typically is because they
• 1:03:46
  brought in a culture of love for each other and fun and and again
• 1:03:51
  the grittiness getting back to it, that is typically how we
• 1:03:54
  have success in our sports and that's how we typically have
• 1:03:56
  continued success in those sports as well.
• 1:03:59
  So I think culture that's another one of those things we
• 1:04:01
  don't, we like to talk about it because it's a buzzword.
• 1:04:03
  You know we, you know, there's plenty of books about it and
• 1:04:05
  things like that. But we don't talk about when
• 1:04:07
  when we go to clinics, track clinics, football clinics.
• 1:04:09
  I've been to all of them, basketball clinics, 90% of all
• 1:04:13
  those clinic speakers are going to talk about how to, how to run
• 1:04:15
  this kind of offense or how to coach this type of event.
• 1:04:19
  Very few are about, hey, how do you get buy in from parents?
• 1:04:23
  That's culture. As an athletic director, how do
• 1:04:25
  you get, you know, we need help officiating the long jump in the
• 1:04:29
  shot put at track. Why isn't the basketball coach
• 1:04:32
  raising his hand? Oh yeah, I'll, I'll do long jump
• 1:04:34
  for you because you track coach, you came to my basketball game
• 1:04:37
  and you helped run my concessions or you ran my shot
• 1:04:39
  clock or whatnot. That is healthy culture on the
• 1:04:41
  athletic director side of how do we have AI?
• 1:04:44
  Hate to use the Word family, but how do we use, how do we have
• 1:04:46
  this group of coaches and assistant coaches and and
• 1:04:50
  etcetera? How do we have them working
• 1:04:51
  together to be successful in all of their sports, not just the
• 1:04:54
  one that they're assigned over? You just hit that dead on the
• 1:04:58
  nose. I I don't think you have to
• 1:05:00
  worry about using the trap terms of culture and family.
• 1:05:02
  I think the kicker is, is a lot of times you don't win in an
• 1:05:06
  athletic department. Your head coaches don't
• 1:05:07
  understand that they're all a part of the same team.
• 1:05:11
  And when, when you when you can get a group of head coaches that
• 1:05:15
  are in different seasons and different times of the year that
• 1:05:18
  are in different sport specific, you know, specific sports.
• 1:05:23
  When you can wrap their heads around that they're all on the
• 1:05:25
  same team with the same kids because they are and they see it
• 1:05:29
  and they can do it. It it matters to the culture
• 1:05:33
  that when you can get them to come and support and you get
• 1:05:36
  other kids to come and support and this holy moly that's that's
• 1:05:39
  a whole nother podcast episode that we could talk about is is
• 1:05:42
  department cultures. Because those are hard things to
• 1:05:45
  do to get those individuals on the same page to do what you
• 1:05:50
  just said. Mike.
• 1:05:51
  Because that is powerful and that does provide culture that
• 1:05:54
  transcends into the kids. Because they see that coaches
• 1:05:57
  care that other programs are going to other program stuff and
• 1:06:00
  they're not in the same season, right?
• 1:06:03
  That's the big one and that's why I think.
• 1:06:05
  Especially if you share those kids.
• 1:06:07
  Yeah. If you share those athletes and
• 1:06:09
  you don't wanna go support them in the other sport, I mean that
• 1:06:12
  that's a culture killer right there.
• 1:06:14
  That's exactly that's what I was gonna tell you.
• 1:06:16
  Nailed it right there Freddie. Back to track and field.
• 1:06:18
  And that's why I think track is the, you know, it's part of a
• 1:06:21
  healthy athletic department is because the kids, no matter what
• 1:06:25
  event can go and no matter what sport, can go into somewhere in
• 1:06:28
  track and field and have success, some form of success.
• 1:06:30
  They're not all going to be all state and all that kind of
• 1:06:32
  stuff, but they can have success and get better, which will help
• 1:06:34
  their sports. It's the same in that atmosphere
• 1:06:38
  of the coaches. They have to be able to support
• 1:06:40
  each other. If you have a coach, I don't
• 1:06:42
  know. I'm going to say this is my
• 1:06:43
  opinion, but I'm pretty sure this is close to a fact here.
• 1:06:46
  If you have a coach that says you should only be doing this
• 1:06:48
  sport year round, don't go do other sports.
• 1:06:51
  And I'm not talking. I'm talking about a track coach
• 1:06:52
  that says that too. By the way, in high school, if
• 1:06:55
  you are, if you are all about having that kid play only your
• 1:06:58
  sport, you don't have that kids best interest at heart.
• 1:07:01
  You have yourself at heart and that.
• 1:07:04
  Well college college coaches when they come to recruit want
• 1:07:07
  to know that you are a multi sport athlete.
• 1:07:09
  They don't want the the specialized athlete that all the
• 1:07:12
  the I'm going to call them out that all the club and travel of
• 1:07:15
  all teams think that they that you're supposed to be because
• 1:07:18
  you know they want a well-rounded investment right.
• 1:07:21
  They don't want. They, you know, play a pitcher
• 1:07:23
  whose arm is shot because he he throws, you know, year round.
• 1:07:27
  He doesn't. They don't want a soccer player
• 1:07:29
  whose AC LS are going to bust the first match because that's
• 1:07:32
  all they they do that you know, there's there's different, you
• 1:07:36
  know things. And you know when I use the
• 1:07:38
  exact and being a Clemson guy, I use the example of, you know, CJ
• 1:07:41
  Spiller. Wright was one of the best
• 1:07:43
  running backs we have, but he was also a phenomenal track
• 1:07:46
  athlete and you know, it was able to do both obviously at the
• 1:07:50
  high school level and at the college level and it it helped
• 1:07:53
  both sports, you know, doing both.
• 1:07:56
  I don't know if we can beat that.
• 1:07:57
  I don't know if we can beat that topic any further, gentlemen,
• 1:07:59
  that again we could have. We should probably have another
• 1:08:03
  podcast episode that that dives into culture within your
• 1:08:06
  department in regards to. Coaches supporting kids across
• 1:08:11
  the sports that they do and again I think you can get into
• 1:08:14
  the trap trap phrase again, you know multi sport athlete.
• 1:08:18
  Again, it's one thing to say that's another thing to do it
• 1:08:20
  and to lift it up as something that like no, I'm a you know I'm
• 1:08:26
  a I'm a grizzly. That means we do all these
• 1:08:29
  activities not I'm a grizzly. I only do I only do my sport.
• 1:08:33
  I do all of these activities right.
• 1:08:34
  We share kids. We support kids across it.
• 1:08:37
  Total side note there is there was AI met an athletic director
• 1:08:41
  that does it and then I had a gentleman that was kind of like
• 1:08:47
  under me with being AI was mentoring him and his college
• 1:08:50
  did it and it was it was it was a something cup.
• 1:08:53
  It was an inner. It was an inner department
• 1:08:56
  piece, an award. Competition inner inner
• 1:09:00
  department competition. I'm really losing this thought
• 1:09:02
  now at this point but he it was at his college did it and I was
• 1:09:06
  like man that would be genius to try and we started going down
• 1:09:08
  the line of of it was over COVID that we were trying to come up
• 1:09:11
  with it because we had the time to think about this.
• 1:09:13
  But you know it there's a lot of points given it was the whole
• 1:09:16
  point of it was programs got points for kids that did well in
• 1:09:21
  the program in that sport in that in that season but then
• 1:09:25
  there's a ton of points given to programs that went and.
• 1:09:29
  Went to other programs and either help run their events.
• 1:09:33
  Either helped either became their cheer sections.
• 1:09:37
  Either became and and there's points to it.
• 1:09:38
  We never we never inked it. But he he came from a smaller
• 1:09:41
  college. I want to say it was in Saint
• 1:09:44
  Louis is where he played baseball at.
• 1:09:46
  And they had it and it was it was I mean their AD at this
• 1:09:49
  college made made it a point like we need like he was on the
• 1:09:53
  baseball team. But they would go and their
• 1:09:55
  coach would send out, hey, we're going to the volleyball game
• 1:09:57
  tonight, guys. And you had to have so many
• 1:09:59
  people show up and and have you got to have a picture.
• 1:10:01
  I mean, there's all these pieces to it.
• 1:10:02
  It was a lot of work. Don't hear me like this is
• 1:10:04
  something easy to do. No, we we did that, we did it.
• 1:10:07
  We called it Tigers, Tigers supporting Tigers and it was
• 1:10:12
  again it was a competition, inner, inner competition and
• 1:10:15
  just like you said it was a percentage that of your team had
• 1:10:17
  to go and you had to take a picture of you know at the event
• 1:10:22
  and you know usually I I said you had to take a picture like
• 1:10:25
  during the third quarter. And and you know not at the very
• 1:10:29
  beginning of the game and everybody leave but you know you
• 1:10:33
  got you got more points if you you know if more like percentage
• 1:10:38
  was there you know of your team than not.
• 1:10:40
  And we got, you know if if you created signs and I mean like I
• 1:10:45
  said there was there so many different points that you could
• 1:10:47
  do and it was great because then you know, you know it was, it
• 1:10:52
  was kind of a nerve wracking to the the girls tennis players
• 1:10:55
  whenever you know. 50 football players showed up you know and
• 1:10:59
  get nobody in it. Nobody attended to tennis
• 1:11:01
  matches might you may have a couple parents here and there
• 1:11:04
  but then you get 50 football football players show up who are
• 1:11:07
  rowdy right and and is you know cheering for everything and and
• 1:11:11
  coming up with chance and doing like volleyball serve chance and
• 1:11:15
  and things like that at a tennis match.
• 1:11:17
  It was great. Again, some some girls kind of
• 1:11:20
  folded and didn't play as well because I got nervous, but it
• 1:11:23
  was still an amazing atmosphere to to watch.
• 1:11:26
  You know how you know how student section is down in
• 1:11:28
  volleyball when the when the servers are going to serve and
• 1:11:31
  they you know the ball gets dipped down and they're about to
• 1:11:32
  throw it up and they're you know the student second goes and the
• 1:11:36
  ball hit you know gets to the top and then you know they hit
• 1:11:38
  they they come over the top to hit the ball over the net and
• 1:11:40
  then you know they go boom. I I can already see that with 50
• 1:11:44
  football players in tennis the the opponent tennis player
• 1:11:47
  getting ready to throw the ball up in the air for the serve and
• 1:11:49
  there's just like boom. I just.
• 1:11:54
  I can just see so many moments of.
• 1:11:56
  Of those coaches being like, what the heck is this Freddie?
• 1:12:00
  Why do you have a cheer section? As athletic directors, I'm sure
• 1:12:03
  you have said this and thought this and preached this that, you
• 1:12:06
  know, when you go away as an athlete from high school sports,
• 1:12:10
  it's gonna be, you know, we get 10/20/30 and maybe our own
• 1:12:13
  experiences as former athletes ourselves, we forget what the
• 1:12:17
  scores were. We forget what we won.
• 1:12:19
  But boy, we remember that bus ride that, you know, we did this
• 1:12:24
  and with that tennis match we all went to, like, man, we've
• 1:12:26
  never been to tennis and we went to tennis.
• 1:12:28
  Remember that? That's crazy.
• 1:12:29
  That's what we remember. The people that we meet and
• 1:12:31
  experiences that we have along the way.
• 1:12:33
  And those are typically not on a field or a court.
• 1:12:36
  It's the culture that builds around it.
• 1:12:38
  I love that you guys did that, Freddie.
• 1:12:39
  It's really cool. Tigers supporting Tigers.
• 1:12:41
  Is that what it was? Yeah because again that was our
• 1:12:44
  that was our mascot. So we just and then at the end
• 1:12:47
  of the year we had AI forgot what we called it but we had an
• 1:12:51
  award that that team because we did end of the year awards for
• 1:12:54
  you know best female team, most improved male team whatever we
• 1:12:58
  did things like that but the the the big award was the the the
• 1:13:03
  supporting award and and so it was it was fun and you know you
• 1:13:07
  had some you had some programs that didn't do anything.
• 1:13:10
  And you know, then that was a conversation that, you know, you
• 1:13:13
  would have with the coach at the end of the year.
• 1:13:15
  It's like, all right, look, you know, y'all, y'all didn't get a
• 1:13:17
  chance to get out and and you know, a lot of it was, well, I'm
• 1:13:20
  sorry I didn't have any time. I said, well, you got
• 1:13:22
  assistants, you've got captains. I mean you've got, you know, you
• 1:13:25
  know, if if you are an outside coach that has a very busy job,
• 1:13:31
  I get it. But you know, you've got other
• 1:13:34
  people that can stand in. You've got a A-Team parent that
• 1:13:37
  can stand in and and and help this so.
• 1:13:40
  You know it's it's just finding a way to be part of the the the
• 1:13:44
  school. Hey, I I want to encourage you
• 1:13:47
  and and listeners you know podcasts like this are extremely
• 1:13:50
  important. I have a a huge passion for
• 1:13:53
  people being able to find their own voice literally through
• 1:13:56
  podcasting but also through other social media.
• 1:13:57
  I'm a huge social media fan for the positivity side of it.
• 1:14:01
  You know people learn and you know this as teachers people
• 1:14:03
  learn in different ways right. So some people need to hear
• 1:14:06
  something. Some people need to read it.
• 1:14:07
  Some people need to just be thrown in and kind of feel it
• 1:14:09
  and and watch a video. There's all these different
• 1:14:12
  ways, right. So one of the the more
• 1:14:14
  underutilized parts of social media and you know, I think
• 1:14:16
  about this from the LinkedIn side of of your podcast here is,
• 1:14:20
  you know, they have articles on LinkedIn.
• 1:14:22
  You can write not just a post, you can actually write an
• 1:14:24
  article and then you can share that in other social medias.
• 1:14:26
  I would encourage you guys from your own experiences like what
• 1:14:29
  you just described there, Freddie Wood, Tigers sporting
• 1:14:31
  tigers. But you, I know you're getting a
• 1:14:33
  lot of amazing guests that are also giving those type of like
• 1:14:36
  real tactical. Like it's one thing to say you
• 1:14:38
  need to build a great culture that that's awesome, that's real
• 1:14:40
  ethereal. I can't really touch or do
• 1:14:42
  anything with that. But when I hear Tiger supporting
• 1:14:44
  Tigers, I'm like, oh, wait a minute, maybe I can do something
• 1:14:48
  like that at my school. I would encourage you to write
• 1:14:51
  articles on LinkedIn about these real tactical type things, like
• 1:14:55
  that example there, Freddie, and the other examples that you get
• 1:14:57
  from some of your your guests, 'cause that that is what's going
• 1:15:01
  to help people. There's like, I know there's
• 1:15:02
  someone listening right now that is like man culture.
• 1:15:04
  I get it. A healthy track and field
• 1:15:06
  program. All right, I get it.
• 1:15:08
  How how do I like what's the the tactic what's the 123 list for
• 1:15:13
  me to do and build it in my own way in in my school because you
• 1:15:17
  know some schools have 100 kids some schools have 8000 kids.
• 1:15:19
  So it's going to look a little different in every place.
• 1:15:20
  But man, I I just want to encourage you guys.
• 1:15:23
  You're building an amazing database of really smart
• 1:15:25
  intelligent people. I'm sorry that I'm kind of below
• 1:15:28
  the average for you here but other people way above the
• 1:15:30
  average. I'm going to encourage you to to
• 1:15:32
  figure out how to take these tacticals tactics and spread the
• 1:15:37
  word more, and I think athletic directors in schools and student
• 1:15:41
  athletes will be better for it. Thanks Mike.
• 1:15:45
  I that actually that that that you're not wrong I we do we that
• 1:15:50
  would be a great another outlet for us to do.
• 1:15:52
  I I appreciate the encouragement on that.
• 1:15:54
  Don't sell yourself short on on this episode.
• 1:15:57
  I think there's plenty of tactical takeaways that I
• 1:16:00
  guarantee you some individuals. Again, we have a good
• 1:16:04
  listenership of a DS. Whether they're veteran or new,
• 1:16:07
  I I think there's some stuff that just got brought up in this
• 1:16:10
  episode that they can audibly take away.
• 1:16:14
  But I thank you for the encouragement.
• 1:16:15
  I think I've definitely I've I've written a couple articles
• 1:16:18
  for our Our Interscholastic Administrators magazine that
• 1:16:22
  goes out for a DS, but. I like the LinkedIn idea because
• 1:16:27
  we do. I think we just, I think we're
• 1:16:30
  about to hit 1000 people on LinkedIn that follow the page.
• 1:16:34
  Yeah, and it's mainly principles, ads and soups.
• 1:16:37
  So bravo, man, that's a big number.
• 1:16:41
  Again, we tend to forget some of these things.
• 1:16:43
  We we, we think if we don't have a million, what are we doing?
• 1:16:45
  That is awesome. That is a. 1000, if if we hit a
• 1:16:47
  million, Freddie and I are retiring and we're going to go
• 1:16:49
  do something, we're going to go take the money and we're going
• 1:16:51
  to sell the podcast. At that point if if I ever, if
• 1:16:54
  we hit a million on either of those platforms, it starts with
• 1:16:58
  one, you got to hit 1000 before. It's not even a million a DS
• 1:17:00
  exist. So if we hit a million, I don't
• 1:17:02
  know who who y'all listening to us, but it's more than like the
• 1:17:05
  you know, the couple of 4 to 800 that we get on a on a weekly
• 1:17:09
  basis I. Dude thanks for the
• 1:17:12
  encouragement though Mike. Seriously all joking aside like
• 1:17:15
  that is that is something that we could easily dive into
• 1:17:17
  because we do have a a good base of maybe something with some
• 1:17:21
  more tactical takeaways too from some of these.
• 1:17:24
  You got anything to add before we wrap this this piece up and
• 1:17:27
  then we're going to take another one more ad break.
• 1:17:29
  I'm hoping if Freddy's not fully busy and dad mode there that I
• 1:17:32
  can have him do an an ad Lib for a box out on this ad break but
• 1:17:37
  just prepping him for that one. Mike, do you have anything to
• 1:17:40
  bookend? No, It's good, man.
• 1:17:41
  I just, you know, I just love what you guys do.
• 1:17:44
  And so I always want to, you know, I love social media
• 1:17:46
  because of of encouragement and I and I try to combat the
• 1:17:48
  negativity. So that's why you didn't think
• 1:17:50
  you were, you didn't think you were going to get homework when
• 1:17:52
  you invited me on here. But that's where I I just love
• 1:17:54
  encouraging people because I get encouragement from what you guys
• 1:17:57
  are doing for me. So it's kind of my payback,
• 1:17:59
  honestly, it's like, well, how can I add value to you?
• 1:18:01
  So just love what you guys do and just want to help you
• 1:18:03
  continue to grow and spread the message.
• 1:18:07
  I appreciate it Mike. I definitely will take.
• 1:18:09
  We're gonna. I mean Freddie and I can sit
• 1:18:10
  down. I have a feeling he has a few
• 1:18:12
  things that we could easily write for sure on that Y'all,
• 1:18:14
  we're gonna change up this second ad break.
• 1:18:16
  Before we go back to finish off with Mike and send him on his
• 1:18:19
  way today, here's some words from the mouth itself for one of
• 1:18:25
  our favorite sponsors. Box out.
• 1:18:27
  Freddie's in dad mode. We have a We have a special
• 1:18:29
  appearance by Riley right now and and so.
• 1:18:33
  I'll take it from here for them Box Out.
• 1:18:35
  For those of you looking at Speaking of social media, that
• 1:18:37
  how Mike just put on there, Box Out is a easy to use platform.
• 1:18:42
  For all of you that are not social media managers or don't
• 1:18:45
  have a sports information director at your disposal, it
• 1:18:47
  is. You can make graphics at the
• 1:18:49
  speed of sports. It is so quick even I can do it
• 1:18:53
  for my phone, for the podcast when I forget that I didn't make
• 1:18:56
  a graphic and we're sending out an episode.
• 1:18:58
  I can do it for my phone in seconds because it saves your
• 1:19:00
  templates and they're already set templates.
• 1:19:02
  And the best part is, is it's just plug and play.
• 1:19:04
  You type in what you need for words, you change out your color
• 1:19:07
  codes and your logos, put in a picture and out it goes.
• 1:19:09
  And they even have multi format, which is fantastic.
• 1:19:13
  Multi format you can go across whether it's going into Twitter
• 1:19:17
  X, whether it's I don't even know which way it used to call
• 1:19:20
  that anymore, but Twitter X, whether it's going into
• 1:19:22
  Instagram or Facebook or LinkedIn, it is extremely easy
• 1:19:26
  to to use and they have templates for everything from
• 1:19:29
  holiday occasions. To signing days to name your
• 1:19:32
  type of sport and it goes into line up cards across the board.
• 1:19:37
  So if you haven't looked at box out definitely look into them.
• 1:19:41
  We use them for the podcast and many others use them as well and
• 1:19:45
  we've had quite a few of their current customers on with us
• 1:19:47
  especially if you've ever listened to our media program
• 1:19:49
  one which is one of our most listened two episodes.
• 1:19:51
  So on that note again we think one of our main sponsors in box
• 1:19:56
  out and. Unfortunately, I wish I would
• 1:19:58
  have had Freddie and Riley be able to give that one, but
• 1:20:01
  hopefully I didn't fully butcher it again.
• 1:20:04
  No, that's good. I'm back, said it in the middle
• 1:20:07
  of trying to feed Burp and be a part of the podcast.
• 1:20:10
  So we're multitasking right now. And we're not editing any of
• 1:20:15
  that out. Y'all because we are UN.
• 1:20:17
  Unequivocally, ourselves all the time on this podcast.
• 1:20:20
  So again, boxed out graphics at the speed of sports.
• 1:20:24
  If you haven't checked them out, check them out and meet Freddie
• 1:20:27
  in person and Robbie, I believe at NADC in December.
• 1:20:31
  That's coming up for all of you making the trip to Orlando.
• 1:20:33
  So Mike, we're going to wrap this one up with you.
• 1:20:37
  One thing we like to do is Freddie and I think one day
• 1:20:40
  we're going to go on a food tour.
• 1:20:41
  I don't know if that's actually going to happen, but if we're
• 1:20:42
  coming to you in Illinois, where are we going to eat?
• 1:20:46
  Oh man, that's a great question. You know one of my all time
• 1:20:50
  favorite places here in Champaign Urbana is this kind of
• 1:20:53
  farm to table place called Big Grove.
• 1:20:56
  It's been there now for oh gosh forever and they just, you know
• 1:21:00
  I've never had a bad meal there. I've I've had a lot of great
• 1:21:02
  meals at a lot of bunch of places but I tell you what Big
• 1:21:04
  Grove, I've never had a bad meal.
• 1:21:06
  Everything from shrimp and grits to obviously the burgers things
• 1:21:09
  like that. I just love it when we bring in
• 1:21:12
  customers and things like that. That's always our our.
• 1:21:15
  Our lunch or dinner spot is the big Grove.
• 1:21:17
  Love it to death. I've been learning to love
• 1:21:19
  shrimp and grits. I've learned to love I my
• 1:21:22
  favorite type of grit. And I'm going to again.
• 1:21:25
  I moved to Georgia. We've been here over two years
• 1:21:27
  now. Come on now.
• 1:21:27
  Not grit. It's that type of grit.
• 1:21:29
  It's still grit. I was going to give them the
• 1:21:31
  pass. I was going to give them the
• 1:21:32
  pass. My my favorite grits smoked
• 1:21:36
  gouda. Grits.
• 1:21:38
  You know Freddie, he's on a diet, so he just eats one grit
• 1:21:40
  at a time, so. No, no.
• 1:21:42
  OK. If you're gonna be a true
• 1:21:43
  Southern, it's it's always Grits.
• 1:21:45
  I'll I'll make it worse for myself.
• 1:21:47
  My wife and I are in the store trying to find grits, and I'm
• 1:21:49
  like, I don't even know what grit what aisle grits are found
• 1:21:52
  in. Little did I know that y'all eat
• 1:21:55
  grits for breakfast, so I didn't.
• 1:21:58
  Well, I don't. I like savory grits and I don't
• 1:22:00
  eat them with my breakfast. I eat them with dinner items.
• 1:22:02
  So I know, I know, I know. They're they're y'all are
• 1:22:05
  listening. They're shaking their heads
• 1:22:06
  right now and I threw y'all in there just to try to save my
• 1:22:08
  butt. It's not saving much grits.
• 1:22:12
  They're on the breakfast aisle for non Southerners listening to
• 1:22:15
  this podcast from a Pacific Northwest born and raised boy
• 1:22:22
  and I don't know how you eat it in the the north but you know we
• 1:22:24
  it's it's grits with don't even know with with a ton of butter
• 1:22:29
  and and and some cheese if if you're a cheese person ton of
• 1:22:32
  butter and ton of cheese and you just lather it up and and you're
• 1:22:36
  good to go. Couple eggs over easy and just
• 1:22:38
  mash it up in there too. Freddy to your point, that's my
• 1:22:42
  favorite kind, though right now is is smoked gouda grits ton of
• 1:22:46
  smoked gouda. And a lot of butter.
• 1:22:48
  Butter so I at least know how to.
• 1:22:50
  I make them myself, so at least I know how to make them.
• 1:22:53
  I might not know where to find them, and I might not know that
• 1:22:55
  you have to say grits every time.
• 1:23:00
  All joking aside on the fact that I'm not from the South, but
• 1:23:03
  I live there. Mike thanks for your time but I
• 1:23:08
  this was fun it's always fun when IA lot of some a majority
• 1:23:12
  of our guests don't just come through our e-mail a lot of
• 1:23:14
  times they come through us from X Twitter LinkedIn and and it's
• 1:23:19
  just a direct message Hey I listened to you Hey I saw you I
• 1:23:23
  thanks for reaching out because I don't I again I wouldn't have
• 1:23:25
  come across your podcast the Gill connections and or thought
• 1:23:30
  of let's talk track. Yeah, the reach out was because
• 1:23:35
  a little bit back to that encouragement with the LinkedIn
• 1:23:37
  idea for you. I saw somehow you came across my
• 1:23:40
  Twitter as well. And I pretty much live on
• 1:23:42
  Twitter like I'm literally on there.
• 1:23:44
  I don't know, paid out. It might push 8 hours a day.
• 1:23:48
  Sometimes I'm on there a lot. You know, I saw someone
• 1:23:52
  retweeted or something. I saw what you did and I saw
• 1:23:54
  what you were doing. And what you're doing is you're
• 1:23:56
  uplifting people who coaches and athletic directors who work with
• 1:23:59
  1418 year old kids, high school young kids.
• 1:24:02
  And you know what? Again, that's just invaluable.
• 1:24:04
  It's immeasurable what they do and of course our teachers as
• 1:24:07
  well. But I'm focused on the sports
• 1:24:09
  side here. And so when I saw here's another
• 1:24:11
  outlet that's, you know, uplifting these men and women
• 1:24:13
  who are daily working with these young people positively man, it
• 1:24:17
  was easy to say, hey man, you guys are doing an awesome job.
• 1:24:20
  Please keep it up like we need to hear these voices more so I'm
• 1:24:24
  just so grateful for what you do and and putting a a spotlight on
• 1:24:27
  these men and women who you know again the positive impact they
• 1:24:30
  make on 1418 year old kids is just it's immeasurable.
• 1:24:33
  So I appreciate you spotlighting them for the hard work that they
• 1:24:36
  do. Mike, how can people find
• 1:24:41
  connect with you? On our website we will put your
• 1:24:44
  e-mail and we put the web, you know the link, but not everyone
• 1:24:47
  listening will go to our website for that.
• 1:24:49
  So just audibly, how what's the easiest way for some people to
• 1:24:52
  connect to you if they have some questions about track or maybe
• 1:24:54
  they want to reach out to you about Gil Athletic Athletics for
• 1:24:57
  their track equipment? Yeah, the Super easy if you're
• 1:24:59
  on Twitter, I realize not everybody is.
• 1:25:01
  It's it's on Twitter. And that's literally my name at
• 1:25:04
  Mike Cunningham. All one word I was lucky enough
• 1:25:06
  to. To steal it from someone else,
• 1:25:08
  to be honest with you because I was doing a lot of advertising
• 1:25:10
  with Twitter back in the day and it will always be Twitter to me.
• 1:25:13
  By the way you mentioned Twitter XI, don't know what that stuff
• 1:25:16
  is. It is Twitter.
• 1:25:18
  So at Mike Cunningham at Twitter is obviously the Super simplest
• 1:25:21
  way but not everybody is on Twitter.
• 1:25:22
  So e-mail is probably the the next best way and real simple.
• 1:25:25
  I'm actually, you know I'm a big hurdles fan.
• 1:25:27
  So if you just e-mail HURDLE hurdle at gillathletics.com that
• 1:25:33
  goes straight to me And then I'm also this probably I don't know
• 1:25:36
  if anybody's ever done this. I'm crazy enough to do this.
• 1:25:38
  My cell phone is open 24/7 through text, etcetera, so you
• 1:25:42
  can always reach out to me by text at 217-898-3038.
• 1:25:46
  I figured, you know, if you Google my name and cell phone
• 1:25:49
  and Gil, it pops up. So I I I don't have any secrecy
• 1:25:52
  on my cell phone number to give that out as well.
• 1:25:54
  So we'd love to hear from anybody.
• 1:25:56
  I'm a huge passionate, you know my my name on Twitter, not just
• 1:26:01
  the handle, but the name is. I love track and field coaches
• 1:26:03
  because that is my mission every day is to bless, uplift, give.
• 1:26:07
  Value to the men and women who coached this amazing, amazing
• 1:26:09
  sport. And you know what?
• 1:26:11
  They don't do it without athletic directors supporting
• 1:26:13
  them as well. Servant leadership is huge from
• 1:26:15
  you guys and gals out there. So reach out to me through
• 1:26:18
  Twitter, e-mail, cell phone, smoke signals, Braille.
• 1:26:21
  I don't care. Let's just communicate.
• 1:26:23
  That's the important thing. And a whole another one for
• 1:26:26
  y'all Annie, this is again. Thanksgiving week we got We're
• 1:26:30
  into some single digit weeks coming for the National Athletic
• 1:26:33
  Directors Conference in Orlando. Gill Athletics will be there,
• 1:26:37
  right Mike? Absolutely.
• 1:26:38
  My crew will be there. Perfect.
• 1:26:40
  Love this show. It's an amazing show.
• 1:26:42
  So find. Find the Gill Athletics crew.
• 1:26:44
  Tell them the AD podcast sent you.
• 1:26:45
  I don't think that gets you a discount, but just might as well
• 1:26:48
  say it. You never know.
• 1:26:49
  So they know where the marketing reference came from.
• 1:26:51
  As well as you're going to see Freddie and I, There we are.
• 1:26:54
  I don't know if Freddie's Freddie is your mic hot right
• 1:26:56
  now or no, you on it can be, Yep.
• 1:27:00
  We're Friday night, right? We're Friday night was 614 Lt. 6
• 1:27:03
  Friday 6/14 Monday Morning 6/13. All things Google.
• 1:27:08
  All things Google Monday morning, bright and early.
• 1:27:10
  Bring your coffee. Bring your breakfast.
• 1:27:13
  We'll have some fun Monday morning with you in the
• 1:27:14
  classroom, as well as Friday night probably.
• 1:27:17
  Get ready to go have a drink afterwards.
• 1:27:18
  We're happy to go do that with you afterwards.
• 1:27:20
  But from 6 to 10 Friday night in Orlando, we're talking all
• 1:27:23
  things digital communications and you know, all the new things
• 1:27:27
  that are out there for a DS, we'll be talking that one too.
• 1:27:30
  So you haven't signed up for those?
• 1:27:31
  Definitely sign up for them again.
• 1:27:33
  You'll see box out down there, while fame's going to be down
• 1:27:35
  there, Gill Athletics is going to be down there and we'll hope
• 1:27:38
  to see you there. If you're already listening, you
• 1:27:42
  found us. I like I said the last episode,
• 1:27:44
  I think I'm done saying where we're at. adpodcast.com is the
• 1:27:48
  website if you want some more information there, as well as
• 1:27:51
  obviously where you're listening right now is where we'll always
• 1:27:54
  be coming out to you on. Until next time, I'm Scott.
• 1:27:59
  I'm Freddie and Riley. And I'm just Mike.
• 1:28:03
  And thank you for listening to the AD Podcast, where we fully
• 1:28:06
  understand what AD truly stands for.
• 1:28:08
  If you're working all day after dark and handling all duties,
• 1:28:12
  love your kids. Happy Thanksgiving, y'all.
• 1:28:14
  We'll see you next time. Bring your school's legacy to
• 1:28:26
  life with the Wall of Fame by Vital Signs.
• 1:28:28
  Our interactive display highlights your greatest moments
• 1:28:30
  and top performers, both past and present across athletics,
• 1:28:33
  academics, and the arts. But it's also so much more.
• 1:28:36
  With our one-of-a-kind content program, we help you every step
• 1:28:39
  of the way so you can tell more compelling stories that will
• 1:28:42
  engage your whole community. If it goes to appreciate the
• 1:28:55
  coach, the ones that point people most every season needs a
• 1:28:59
  voice of reason and speaking. The growth you got to prep
• 1:29:01
  before you carry the load. It's coffee to the soul for
• 1:29:04
  those of us to stay on the go, proper handoff to stay in the
• 1:29:07
  zone which you're packing for the road.
• 1:29:09
  There's more than one way to go. Take notes.
• 1:29:11
  That's Dan. You're told.
• 1:29:12
  It ain't practice. If your purpose ain't clear, it
• 1:29:14
  can't happen to you. Listen, what both is.
• 1:29:17
  Can't mentor without a mentor. Years of experience, you can
• 1:29:20
  reinvent those years. Every plan's got a standard.
• 1:29:23
  You live up to and the price sacrifice can you give up you.
• 1:29:26
  It's a choice and to fight not a win or lose.
• 1:29:28
  It's not a ploy boy device. Y'all can make more moves.
• 1:29:31
  It's not about how to It's all about why you don't know till
• 1:29:34
  you know who you are inside 6. When you waste time choose none.
• 1:29:38
  So we all course finish line. The work ain't done So we learn
• 1:29:41
  from the experts. We all got to put in the leg 'n.