Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / #178: Desmond Dunham-St. John's College (DC) High School

Transcript

#178: Desmond Dunham-St. John's College (DC) High School · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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  Welcome to season 3 of gila politics connection podcast.
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  Okay, that's enough of an inch. All right, let's get to it.
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  See what today's guest has in store for us.
• 0:40
  All right, here we are back again at the Gila physics
• 0:43
  connections track and field podcast.
• 0:46
  This is kind of a part 3 of a 3 part or that we've been doing
• 0:49
  here. If you haven't this is your
• 0:51
  first episode, go back two weeks ago we had the CEO of u.s. tfcc.
• 0:57
  A Sam seems that's a that's a lot of s words right there.
• 1:01
  Sam. Kicked us off talking about his
• 1:03
  background and what the u.s. tfcc a does and does for
• 1:06
  coaches. And then we had Tim burn on Tim.
• 1:10
  Was named recently, the boys Coach of the Year from the
• 1:14
  national boys, coach of the year for high school through the u.s.
• 1:17
  tfcc a sponsored by the US Marines, by the way, we got to
• 1:20
  give a shout out to the US Marines for sponsoring that and
• 1:22
  here kind of our three-legged relay here.
• 1:25
  We've got our anchor. Help me, welcome the girls, and
• 1:29
  National High School, Coach of the Year, from st.
• 1:31
  John's College High School in DC.
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  I haven't been there. So, I've got two, I'm trying to
• 1:35
  have a hundred questions for him.
• 1:36
  Help me. Welcome the wise.
• 1:38
  The wonderful mr. Desmond Dunham doesn't.
• 1:40
  How are you, sir? Hey, Mike, how are you?
• 1:42
  Thanks for having me today. I'm excited to be here.
• 1:45
  Yeah, we had a little technical that we had a, you know,
• 1:47
  Desmond's not the, it teacher at st.
• 1:49
  John's, we had a little technical difficulty but we
• 1:51
  worked it out and I'm really glad we did because his video
• 1:55
  wasn't working. And so if you are not watching
• 1:57
  head over to YouTube and check this out, but when he finally
• 1:59
  unveiled his video, this big Penn relays wheel Wagon Wheel.
• 2:04
  If you know what those are was right behind them.
• 2:06
  I was like, oh, that's a, that's a pretty good unveiled.
• 2:08
  Their, you know, I know you're in.
• 2:10
  See, I don't never know really think of DC as a Penn relays a
• 2:14
  tractor. But do you are you spin relays
• 2:16
  like you either pin or Drake's? I mean, are you a big Penn
• 2:18
  relays guy? Obviously, we are all Penn
• 2:20
  relays. Yes yeah.
• 2:22
  Relays is pretty prominent and prestigious meet on the East
• 2:26
  Coast. So that's something that a lot
• 2:29
  of coaches are carrying rope to put this on top of their, their
• 2:33
  ban on the way. Oh yeah, they're so fortunate.
• 2:36
  Yeah. What what, what is this wheel
• 2:39
  for? What would you guys?
• 2:40
  Win. This is 2007.
• 2:43
  We capture two pennies in the 4x4 4x8.
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  Would became the first u.s. American team to beat the
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  Jamaicans. And the same pin relate
• 2:54
  Carnival. So we captured a 4 by 4 4, by 8,
• 2:58
  and then we came back the next year and won the 4x4 in 2008,
• 3:03
  dude. Yeah.
• 3:05
  Hello man. Good Lord.
• 3:07
  I was a through most of my coaching career.
• 3:10
  I was at Drake, Relays guy and I still, it's one of my most
• 3:13
  favorite, it's just, you know, it's a different atmosphere
• 3:15
  between another on the same weekend, they're both real
• 3:17
  Amy's, but there are two different leads and both have
• 3:20
  their pluses, and both of them had their minuses.
• 3:23
  And both of those minuses are, whether by the way, don't get
• 3:25
  fooled. It's both get it but no more.
• 3:29
  Mike, I started cut you off, but I choose view our first pin,
• 3:32
  real a championship due to the weather.
• 3:35
  Because man, whether yeah, that whether we trained in all types
• 3:39
  of conditions, Ins and, you know, is through the adversity
• 3:43
  that you build that character and yeah and determination.
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  So we had torrential rain, pour 3 hour delay in the meat, and
• 3:52
  the weather, the the winds, the winds picked up and the
• 3:56
  temperatures dropped by over 20 degrees.
• 3:59
  So needless to say, we were ready, we hell, we were not the
• 4:05
  best team, but we were the most prepared team and we handle
• 4:09
  those adverts. Dishes really well.
• 4:11
  That's what it's great about track and racing because it's
• 4:14
  not necessarily the best team, it's the best on that day team.
• 4:17
  So, yeah, I love it, I love it. But I did get to go to years.
• 4:20
  When I was the sprinters coach at Mississippi State.
• 4:23
  We got to go to Penn relays, and we actually want a couple of why
• 4:26
  we won the 4x2, and I think maybe a spurt bed or something
• 4:29
  like that. Yeah, wow.
• 4:30
  It. But it's different.
• 4:31
  It's a whole different. Meet whole different town, whole
• 4:33
  different everything. But we're here to talk about you
• 4:35
  Desmond. So we're going to put a pause on
• 4:39
  the national coach of the year. Gratulations, by the way I mean
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  it's a, it's a big deal when I look at the list of the state
• 4:45
  winners, so it's 51. I think, right?
• 4:47
  We do the 50 states plus DC and, you know, it's names that I
• 4:51
  interact with and hear and see on a daily basis.
• 4:54
  They're the ones that are, you know, putting out great training
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  content. They're the ones that are 1 and
• 4:58
  state titles. So all 51 51 Voice, coaches and
• 5:02
  51 girls, coaches are like rock star.
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  I mean, amazing. And then somehow, and I would
• 5:08
  never want to be on this committee because it seems like
• 5:10
  the Hardest job in the world, they take those 51 for both
• 5:13
  boys, and 51 for girls and they come up with one National coach
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  of the year. I don't know how, I don't know
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  what to know half because it just seems impossible.
• 5:23
  So to come out on top and be the national coach of the year for
• 5:26
  the girls, man. That's a, that's a big deal.
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  Did you expect this at all? Like, were you like?
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  Oh yeah, this is the year. No, I was clueless, and I still
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  am, you know? I am truly honored like you say
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  to, for my My name to be among some of the names that have
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  already been previously. Awarded, I'm just truly, truly
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  honored. I'm still kind of pinching
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  myself because, you know, I'm pretty humble, and I have an
• 5:54
  amazing staff. I have an amazing team.
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  We weathered, you know, major storm during covid to keep our
• 6:03
  culture and, and, and, you know, I tribute a lot, you know, not
• 6:07
  just from this past year or so. You know, from covid on that,
• 6:13
  we, we became a different team, we handled those, you know,
• 6:19
  challenges that that depend Emmett gave to everyone.
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  I just think that we, we were able to recreate a culture that
• 6:28
  gave us a more dominant program. I love it.
• 6:31
  Well again, we're going to pause right there.
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  Let's take a step back and let's learn more about you.
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  Track obviously plays a role in your life.
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  I don't know how many Ee track. Coaches are out there.
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  That track isn't a big part of their life where does track
• 6:44
  coaching start for you Desmond. And what I mean by that is, you
• 6:47
  know, assuming you are an athlete, at some point in your
• 6:51
  mind, it had to switch coaching from something that's done to
• 6:55
  you. A coach tells you to go run X,
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  or if you played football, told you to go run this play and
• 7:01
  somewhere it had to switch and be like, oh wait a minute.
• 7:03
  Like I could, I could do this. Like this could be my career, I
• 7:06
  could be the coach, where does coaching as a lifestyle and a
• 7:10
  Start occurring for you. Yeah.
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  So I wanted to First, just back up a little bit more, my high
• 7:17
  school track and cross country coach was my life mentor and he
• 7:21
  was a father figure to me. And so it was when I first went
• 7:27
  out for cross country in high school, I only went out because
• 7:31
  I wanted to join the basketball team and he had them.
• 7:34
  You had to either run, cross country are play football.
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  I was 88 pounds. I wasn't about to hop on
• 7:43
  anyone's pitch to play football and so so yeah, it's interesting
• 7:50
  that, you know, writing a book about this story, I get
• 7:52
  Chronicles, my childhood my college days and also some
• 7:57
  clinical coaching moments. But during my childhood, I was
• 8:01
  always cut from from, from my school teams.
• 8:06
  I was cut from three basketball teams twice In elementary
• 8:10
  school. Once in middle school I was even
• 8:13
  cut from my Middle School cross country team which everyone is
• 8:18
  that? Yeah it's like hold of it.
• 8:20
  But yeah we had a ton of guys who came out for the team and
• 8:26
  and then it was my freshman year, running cross-country.
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  It just taught me so much more about myself.
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  It was also an outlet for me. I grew up in Gary Indiana.
• 8:37
  And yeah. So during that time that's why I
• 8:40
  I know Chicago. Yeah.
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  And but during that time it was the homicide capital of the u.s.
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  And and so it was it was a really nice outlet for me.
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  And again, I dealt with some things with my dad who was an
• 8:55
  alcoholic and so my high school track coach became this.
• 9:00
  Major figure in my life. So parked at move forward.
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  I end up attending how our University on the tracking
• 9:09
  process. We scholarship.
• 9:11
  Yeah, and very fortunate to move out here to DC.
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  And when my mother dropped me off, she says, look, this is
• 9:18
  your shot. You're not coming back home, so
• 9:21
  I knew, I had to make it work. So, I just got embedded in the
• 9:24
  community when I was at, Howard tutorial mentorship program, I
• 9:28
  started and a buddy of mine ended up saying, hey, we need a
• 9:32
  little help with a local track team and I was just falling in
• 9:37
  love, working in the community. And I was also destined to go to
• 9:43
  medical school. I was finished my undergrad in
• 9:48
  exercise physiology. I was still taking
• 9:51
  prerequisites. So I start working on my
• 9:53
  master's degree in nutritional science but taking pre-med
• 9:57
  courses. Yeah.
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  Bye-bye bye-bye medical research at IUPUI and it goes the list
• 10:04
  goes on and I was finally about to do a medical program at iup.
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  I and I started teaching and coaching and I just kept getting
• 10:17
  more embedded in the community and I'll never forget that.
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  My team actually did a going-away celebration for me.
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  I mean, I'm tears are pouring everywhere, I'm giving hugs.
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  And I mean, they're giving gifts.
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  And I mean, I just absolutely love this feeling of changing
• 10:37
  and having such an impressionable.
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  This is an impressionable giving these kids an impressionable
• 10:47
  experience and shaping and molding their livelihoods.
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  And so I ended up deferring a year and I said, well, let me
• 10:56
  just stay in it a little bit longer.
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  I also met a young lady who is now my wife, so that was also a
• 11:05
  little worried that part of the picture.
• 11:08
  Oh yeah. Yeah.
• 11:10
  And so I was teaching physics and chemistry at a local local
• 11:15
  high school Archbishop Carroll, High School teaching physical
• 11:18
  science. And after that year of teaching
• 11:23
  physical science and coaching another year, I had a
• 11:27
  conversation with my mother and I said, listen, I know you want
• 11:32
  me to be a doctor one day, but my heart is really into teaching
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  coaching. Being educating being a mentor
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  and this is where it is connects with my high school track coach
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  and cross country coach Chief, who somebody I wanted to be like
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  I wanted to emulate him. I wanted to do What he did for
• 11:57
  me for others. And and so I was really shocked,
• 12:03
  but my mother said, listen, whatever you do.
• 12:07
  I want you to be happy and I want you to be the best at
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  whatever you do. And my mother, someone who used
• 12:13
  to work 24 to 28 hours shifts to make sure that my sister and I
• 12:18
  had opportunities. So when she gave me the green
• 12:21
  light on it, I mean there was no looking back.
• 12:24
  I wanted to be the best and being the best meant that I
• 12:28
  wanted to touch as many lives as possible in a positive way.
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  And I haven't looked back since I'm 25 years in now and I'm
• 12:37
  still loving every bit of it. What, a good mom, I mean
• 12:41
  everybody wants their kid to be a lawyer, a doctor, a typical
• 12:45
  things, right? But mom to say, you know what,
• 12:48
  it's not about. I didn't want you to be a
• 12:49
  doctor. I wanted you to be happy.
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  I want you to contribute so if that's planted Lee wings or
• 12:53
  being a doctor or being a track coach.
• 12:54
  Yeah, I love You were on that path and you diverted thank
• 12:59
  goodness for the track Community.
• 13:00
  You diverted to track because you know, I 100% wholeheartedly
• 13:05
  believed like track coaches, specifically track.
• 13:08
  Could I just coaches? Now, track coaches are some of
• 13:10
  the most intelligent versatile people in this world, smartest
• 13:17
  people, in this world. And I always say, like, I
• 13:18
  sometimes I'll kind of jokingly say to someone that's a coach.
• 13:21
  And I'm like, you know, you could have done anything in this
• 13:24
  world and I mean, cure, Cancer. Go to the moon like you know
• 13:28
  whatever you think is like the most brilliant things in the
• 13:29
  world. You could instead you chose to
• 13:31
  be a track coach. Like you know, it's like I love
• 13:33
  track coaches but you could have, you know, that's some
• 13:35
  crazy things. So I love that you were on that
• 13:37
  path and then this track bug just bit you and kept you in.
• 13:42
  So we got to do two things real quick here though.
• 13:44
  So one we love shout outs, we almost named the podcast, the
• 13:47
  Gill shout-out podcast, we need to know the name of this, just
• 13:51
  such an influential track coach for you and then we got to know
• 13:53
  more about this book. I tried.
• 13:55
  Write a book and, you know, I'm from Alabama.
• 13:57
  So I barely got two words out and was like I'm over tell us
• 14:00
  any of the track coach and tell us any of this book track coach
• 14:03
  Roosevelt Pulliam, we called him cheap and I mean he just
• 14:07
  demanded such respect and admiration and just with get
• 14:15
  anything for his athletes and so Chief Roosevelt Pulliam and he's
• 14:21
  still in Gary Indiana, he's retired from coaching.
• 14:25
  What school in in Gary? He was at Gary horse, man.
• 14:29
  Yeah, yeah. Okay.
• 14:30
  I used to coach at Ball State University, so recruited a lot
• 14:33
  of Gary, and of course, the other side Fairlane, very
• 14:36
  familiar Roosevelt have success with beating Roosevelt while I
• 14:48
  was at Horace, Mann and yeah, Iran was some amazing guys.
• 14:53
  I ran with a Man, Anthony Williams.
• 14:56
  Who was the first African-American 5K state
• 15:01
  champion in the country? I'll never forget when he
• 15:04
  received this letter, from Ronald Reagan, congratulating
• 15:07
  him, and then I ran with another teammate, who was a three-time
• 15:13
  one, mile state champion. Eric's moved.
• 15:16
  Sorry about this but he went to Purdue.
• 15:19
  And after Alabama, I don't love and hate everybody.
• 15:25
  Yeah. So, I mean so that was the type
• 15:27
  of company that I had always school with eight hundred
• 15:31
  Runners that, this guy had a guy who won the state mild three
• 15:36
  times in a row, you know, as fast as time.
• 15:40
  Was 410. 411. Yeah, I was gonna say in
• 15:43
  Indiana. I mean, that's it.
• 15:44
  Yeah. Right place for high school
• 15:46
  track and field. What you mentioned, Howard
• 15:49
  University, we're going to get to the book here in a second.
• 15:51
  I love how it because when you say Howard, I think of two
• 15:53
  things, one is what? My favorite hurdlers in the
• 15:57
  whole world, David Oliver, who went to Howard Haven is amazed.
• 16:00
  He's amazing. And now he is just
• 16:03
  transformational with Howard's program.
• 16:05
  Howard's had a great tradition of track and field and cross
• 16:08
  country, killing me, he's killing me.
• 16:11
  Like, I'm so proud and happy for him.
• 16:12
  And then to one of my favorite shows in the world, my wife, and
• 16:16
  I are re binging it, I've been judged it all now we're
• 16:18
  rebuilding, it is blackish. And so when you say Howard, I
• 16:21
  think of the Andre Johnson though week because he's young
• 16:24
  so proud of his Howard It's Madge like that to do says like
• 16:26
  Audrey. Yeah that's where trail of
• 16:28
  school. No doubt about it.
• 16:29
  Yeah but DC is different than Gary.
• 16:32
  Now Gary has some City aspects to it because your real adjacent
• 16:36
  to Chicago but you're still in that Northwest Indiana,
• 16:38
  Farmland, rural area, DC. I don't, I've never been there.
• 16:43
  So it's is all off of TV shows. But DC is City through and
• 16:47
  through. I did have a good friend, go to
• 16:50
  its Georgetown, that's in d.c. right and he was like, oh yeah,
• 16:52
  it's concrete ever, there's no right.
• 16:55
  That. So, how did you like, why?
• 16:57
  Howard. I assume you had other choice.
• 16:59
  If you get Howard, you had other choices.
• 17:02
  It wasn't like your, you know, your safety is the only School
• 17:04
  you get into. You know.
• 17:05
  It's not easy to get into Howard very academic there.
• 17:08
  So why Howard versus maybe some other options?
• 17:11
  Yeah. So I didn't have a whole lot of
• 17:14
  options but but I do want to say that again, Chief played a major
• 17:19
  role. He said, hey, you're not going
• 17:21
  to the Olympics and I'm like, wait well, you know, But Zoe So
• 17:26
  Chief kept her real. Are he kept the real?
• 17:28
  And, and, you know? And I'm that way as a coach as
• 17:31
  well that this this is not about, you know, this is not
• 17:35
  about you trying to have a professional career in running
• 17:39
  this more about life and he felt like, Howard was going to give
• 17:43
  me, just a well-rounded experience.
• 17:46
  And so he taught us how to use running as a vehicle to in a
• 17:53
  platform to open up more doors. As for ourselves.
• 17:57
  And so he pretty much told me I was going to Howard and and you
• 18:02
  know, Chief is he's big, he's Burley.
• 18:05
  He's you don't you don't really go against cheap.
• 18:08
  So yes sir right? Yeah that sounded good and I was
• 18:12
  so excited that that I made that decision so that obviously
• 18:16
  worked out right. Yeah.
• 18:17
  Spoiler alert. It worked out, right?
• 18:19
  So tell us about this book. I actually did write a book.
• 18:23
  I self-published a book about my transition.
• 18:25
  Isshin from Collegiate, track and field to professional poker
• 18:28
  plants. I actually was a professional
• 18:30
  poker player before I came to Gill.
• 18:32
  It was in the Heyday of Poker when everybody thought they
• 18:34
  could do it. I was one of those guys, I
• 18:36
  thought they could do it. And so just kind of wrote a
• 18:38
  book, I was kind of on the early side, the oh now with YouTube
• 18:42
  bloggers and stuff like that, I was on the early side.
• 18:45
  I blogged my it was all written Blog, My transition from being
• 18:49
  in the SEC at Mississippi State to move into Vegas and then my
• 18:53
  time at Vegas. And so I kind of wrote a book at
• 18:55
  almost They more of like a hey guys don't do that.
• 18:58
  Don't go pro and poke like it's not what you think it is.
• 19:01
  Like there's a way better life, even if you're sitting behind a
• 19:04
  desk and eight hours a day, it's way better than playing cards
• 19:07
  for 11. But but but but I say that all
• 19:10
  to say that you know, writing a book is not easy.
• 19:13
  Whether you know that subject in and out whether it's about your
• 19:16
  own life which you know more about that than anybody, it's
• 19:19
  still hard to actually take all the things that are in your head
• 19:23
  and make them coherent on the Paper tell us about this book
• 19:27
  and why? Because I mean that's the you
• 19:29
  don't just decide on a whim to write a book and do it in a day.
• 19:32
  It takes maybe years it to really get it done and done.
• 19:35
  Right? Tell us about this.
• 19:36
  Yeah. So I'll never forget little bit
• 19:40
  over a decade ago, I was finishing up.
• 19:43
  I have given a great motivational speech to my team
• 19:46
  and and a lot of times, I would give these motivational
• 19:49
  speeches. I would talk about some of the
• 19:52
  obstacles and some of the Adversity that I also face.
• 19:57
  I always, you know, gave inspirational talks and speeches
• 20:03
  that were relatable to my students, my athletes.
• 20:08
  And and I'll never forget this one time particular time I
• 20:13
  finished. And I given a great speech at
• 20:16
  the end of a practice and then I had a young lady who stayed
• 20:19
  after the practice and she was, you know, super pumped and and
• 20:24
  inspired And she says, you know, coach Dunham one day, you have
• 20:29
  to write a book and that always stuck with me that you know,
• 20:35
  because what she was saying, was that people need to hear, you
• 20:38
  know, your story. People need to people need to be
• 20:42
  motivated. They need to feel like they're
• 20:44
  not alone and I think I do a great job with that with my
• 20:48
  athletes letting them know if you're not the only one going
• 20:51
  through this you know. And and and and so a lot of
• 20:54
  times I'm super Vulnerable telling these stories to them.
• 20:58
  And so I do remember telling my wife at one point, I would love
• 21:04
  to write a book and she thought it would be a great idea.
• 21:08
  Until I started writing it. What did she did?
• 21:11
  She did was a great idea if she's like, yeah, go ahead.
• 21:12
  Doesn't he, right? Right, right?
• 21:14
  Yeah, go, go, go go. Yeah.
• 21:15
  This will keep you busy on the weekends.
• 21:17
  That's great. Right.
• 21:18
  Exactly. You know, how it goes.
• 21:21
  I've been married for 14 years, baby.
• 21:22
  I know it. Yeah.
• 21:25
  So yeah, so then the pandemic hit and we we have to you know,
• 21:30
  lovely kids who are also soccer players.
• 21:33
  They both are in high school and we were always challenging them
• 21:38
  on, you know, having a project, having something to work on,
• 21:41
  right. And at the beginning of the
• 21:44
  pandemic, is it? Well what is your what is your
• 21:46
  project? You know, they call it, they
• 21:48
  call me out, they flipped it to. You did to me and so this, this
• 21:52
  book here, became my pandemic. Running against the odds.
• 21:57
  And it took me 18, I thought it was going to take about eight
• 22:01
  months. It took me 18 months but one of
• 22:04
  the things that I share in the book is that in elementary
• 22:07
  school, I was diagnosed with a speech impediment.
• 22:11
  I had a speech impediment where I was going to speech therapy.
• 22:13
  Really? I also have dyslexia.
• 22:17
  So, let's wait a minute. You ain't supposed to write a
• 22:19
  book, hold on, right? Just just those two strikes
• 22:22
  right there, right? And And so, it was something
• 22:28
  that I've always wanted to accomplish.
• 22:30
  It was, you know, any time I've had any adversity or fear, it
• 22:34
  was something that has been embedded in me being from Gary
• 22:39
  and all the other things I've seen and filling just super
• 22:42
  blessed that I wanted to also accomplish this for myself, I
• 22:49
  wanted to leave a legacy for my, you know, my family and I So
• 22:55
  wanted to lead, by example with my own kids.
• 22:59
  And so, I mean, I've done, this book is dedicated to so many
• 23:02
  people for so many reasons not particularly one but, but yeah,
• 23:08
  18 months. It was it was arduous.
• 23:12
  It was, you know, it was laborious task where I was up 5
• 23:18
  6 a.m. you know the deal and sun is coming up and I'm still
• 23:24
  upright During and after the kids had gone down.
• 23:27
  And so I'm super happy. It was an Amazon number one, new
• 23:32
  release and, and it still is still getting a lot of traction.
• 23:37
  Lots of traction. So is it idle autobiography?
• 23:39
  Was it kind of oh good work growing up and you know the
• 23:42
  family situation you mentioned your dad and obviously a strong
• 23:45
  Mom figured there and I assume possibly other family and
• 23:49
  friends that helped. You know I'm a big believer in
• 23:50
  that takes the village type of thing so that other people have
• 23:52
  poured into you all the way through Howard.
• 23:54
  And then Even through your coaching stops and medical and
• 23:58
  not medical school and all that kind of stuff.
• 24:00
  Yes. So I'm capturing from a
• 24:02
  Chronicles my childhood College days and then up to a pinnacle
• 24:06
  Kochi moment up to 2007. And so, it's a memoir.
• 24:11
  And, and I'm talking about all these challenges in my because I
• 24:15
  want people to know, again, they're not alone.
• 24:18
  When they go through things, they can use adversity as a, as
• 24:22
  a spring board, to allow them to Push themselves in until the
• 24:27
  directions in life and in really Define who they are.
• 24:32
  And so super important I share that and also it just Cheers.
• 24:38
  My DNA. How did I become so competitive?
• 24:42
  How did I, you know, become so passionate about the things that
• 24:46
  I do and I don't sleep much, you know, my family, my athletes are
• 24:51
  always on me about it because I'm always thinking about what
• 24:54
  is the next thing I can do or accomplish, or how can I how can
• 25:00
  I give my team an edge to become more competitive, better have
• 25:05
  more opportunities for from track and field or cross
• 25:08
  country. And so my my my wheels are
• 25:12
  always turning. So who is the book for?
• 25:15
  And before you answer that, you know like I'm a I'm a track
• 25:19
  geek, right? I mean my whole life and I ran
• 25:20
  it and coached it. Now I, you know, I live it, you
• 25:23
  know, 24/7 here at Gillis Lennox, but if I go into this is
• 25:28
  going to be old school, by going to a Barnes & Noble and I look
• 25:31
  at the running section, you know, a third of those are I'm
• 25:35
  not their customer, right? Marathon trainers.
• 25:38
  The even, you know, great people who you know I would consider
• 25:41
  peers at least I won't say friends but like a gym Spivey
• 25:44
  who you know, I think he's a great guy, love him and you see
• 25:46
  him at shows all time I'm not reading his book, I'm just not a
• 25:48
  5k kind of guy you know. So not every book is for
• 25:52
  everybody. In fact I would imagine you
• 25:55
  probably got Council as you're going into the books process.
• 25:59
  If you try to write the book for everybody you write the book for
• 26:02
  nobody. So who is your Target on?
• 26:06
  Who should be? You know, there's thousands of
• 26:07
  people that will listen to this episode here.
• 26:10
  Half of them are not the person, but half of them are like, who
• 26:13
  should I get this book? Who is this book for?
• 26:16
  Who's there at your target? Like, you know what?
• 26:17
  If you're this type of person, here's the the book for you.
• 26:19
  Because x y z, you hit a spot on my kit.
• 26:24
  You try to write it for everyone and you lose everyone.
• 26:28
  And so, yeah. The book is written for upper
• 26:30
  middle school as well as high school aged students athletes,
• 26:36
  Use running a lot but running is used quite a bit in the book
• 26:40
  from the metaphorical standpoint.
• 26:41
  So it's applicable to anyone who's even not a runner.
• 26:47
  I've also done a teacher's guy with the book so I was wondering
• 26:51
  Yeah well yeah so I'm starting to get this book embedded into
• 26:55
  curriculums. Recommend it for summer reading,
• 26:58
  I just finished a Spanish translation and then my wife,
• 27:04
  and I are now working on a new and that, that patient to the
• 27:08
  book, which is going to be a fiction based on a true story.
• 27:13
  And that's going to be the big one.
• 27:15
  That's the one we hope to see part 3 of the book, the pin,
• 27:21
  real a story, you know, on, on Disney Netflix, the big screen.
• 27:28
  So we're going forward and we're getting a lot of great traction
• 27:32
  as a result of it. Well, if you don't, it's never
• 27:35
  going to happen. Like, I guarantee you, it won't
• 27:37
  happen. So, I mean, like, like no other
• 27:39
  seems kind of scare me like when I hear, you know, young people
• 27:43
  who maybe don't have the marks that, you know, that are
• 27:45
  typically situated for a D1 and then Olympics.
• 27:48
  But they say, hey, I want to go to the Olympics.
• 27:50
  I'm like, sure, I don't know, maybe you can, I know plenty of
• 27:52
  people who wants Olympics, who did not go?
• 27:55
  Do you want? Because they didn't have the
• 27:56
  marks, they went to Great Schools at D2 D3 in the eye and
• 27:59
  because of maturation and kept at it, they did it.
• 28:02
  I can only guarantee you that if you don't try, you ain't getting
• 28:05
  it. Then I only gear I can give ya,
• 28:07
  that's awesome. And I love that.
• 28:08
  So running against the odds and I'm assuming you mentioned,
• 28:11
  Amazon bestseller. So I can get it on Amazon and
• 28:13
  wherever else. People will buy books.
• 28:15
  I don't know. I don't know where else you
• 28:16
  behind bars, ennobles, Barnes and Nobles politics.
• 28:18
  And prose Emmys is out there. What is it politics?
• 28:21
  That sounds like a DC-3 know what?
• 28:23
  That guy said, d.c.? Yes, I'll say yes.
• 28:25
  Okay. All right, looks like yeah.
• 28:27
  Susie said I was like, wow, that sounds pretty big here, in,
• 28:29
  Liberty City. Yeah.
• 28:32
  Okay, so let's work through your progression.
• 28:35
  You go to Howard. Got it right?
• 28:37
  You came back and you were teaching and working at in the
• 28:40
  IUPUI area. So I mean literally throws that,
• 28:43
  I just did a biomedical research, he was a sensitive.
• 28:46
  Okay, got it, got it. Yeah.
• 28:47
  So where was the first coaching job?
• 28:49
  Like the actual like, okay. I'm not going to medical school.
• 28:51
  So I'm going to go into coaching what was the first step?
• 28:53
  So, I had already, you know. So I was volunteered San
• 29:00
  Gabriels Catholic school and then I started teaching at
• 29:04
  Archbishop Carroll High School as well.
• 29:06
  Why tell him his will sciences. And then they at the time they
• 29:11
  die post your cross country team, but they didn't didn't
• 29:14
  need any help with their track and field team.
• 29:18
  So I was pretty discouraged. So I went looking for another
• 29:21
  school. So I started track and field
• 29:25
  Club, I was coaching at st. Gabriel's, and I was coaching at
• 29:29
  a local elementary school, Clark Elementary.
• 29:32
  So I was coaching three teams at one time and that was I was kind
• 29:37
  of the foundation and I'm so excited that I went that route,
• 29:42
  because being able to coach on the elementary school level
• 29:48
  really had me to hunker down on fundamentals, a lot of
• 29:54
  biomechanics, how to make running fun.
• 30:00
  And so, those are a lot of things that that I'm able to
• 30:04
  carry up the ladder with me. Me.
• 30:06
  And so I was so fortunate where then I started coaching more
• 30:10
  middle school, then it became high school and that's where I
• 30:13
  ended up going to Eleanor Roosevelt in Greenbelt Maryland,
• 30:17
  where we ended up making American history at Penn relays.
• 30:21
  So say that's a big school like I know that name for track and
• 30:24
  field. Yeah.
• 30:25
  Okay. So what was this history?
• 30:26
  Tell us more about that and so we want to pinch pennies which
• 30:33
  is the PIN relay will Are we Jamaicans in a nail-biting race
• 30:41
  4 by 8 and where there's a photo finish lean at the line?
• 30:48
  Race is going back and forth in entire time the Stadium's on
• 30:53
  their feet. One side of the stadium is you
• 30:56
  know plastered with the Jamaican Spectators it blowing.
• 31:01
  Whistles waving the flags. You got this in Jamaica.
• 31:06
  The other side is USA. And so, at one point, you really
• 31:11
  thought that they had put the race away.
• 31:14
  And until about the last hundred meters, they had about 30 meters
• 31:18
  on us. And we had a young lady by the
• 31:20
  name of Tasha Stanley who want went on to run for UNC.
• 31:25
  Yeah, yeah. Yeah, okay and so she, you know,
• 31:31
  just kind of put her head down coming off to turn the Jamaican,
• 31:36
  you know. Archie had popped her clutch and
• 31:38
  she was really she was really struggling to get to bring it
• 31:42
  home and there was a lien at the line and you know, and was
• 31:46
  what's amazing is that they had two young ladies on that team
• 31:51
  that ended up representing their country in the next Olympics are
• 31:58
  world-class competition. I mean these, it was a
• 32:00
  star-studded field and so nail-biter race.
• 32:06
  Lean at the line. And we came out for hundreds of
• 32:13
  a second on top. And then we ran 339 to win the
• 32:18
  4x4, in the pouring down rain. And then we came back the next
• 32:24
  year and we actually broke the four by eight National Record,
• 32:28
  which that still stands at 8:43. Holy cow.
• 32:32
  Yeah, yeah. Who was Tasha on that team as
• 32:36
  well. So Tasha was on that team.
• 32:38
  Yeah, yes I remember you can see because she ran quite well even
• 32:43
  after UNC like she had a career. So I remember correctly.
• 32:45
  Yeah. Wow.
• 32:47
  Yeah. Are you and we don't talk X's
• 32:50
  and O's regards to training and stuff, but you mentioned and,
• 32:55
  you know, if you see him on on YouTube right now, he can't
• 32:58
  imagine this guy weigh in 123 pounds, I was fully expecting
• 33:02
  you to tell me you played A football and you're obviously an
• 33:04
  athletic person but 123 pounds. I get it done on any football
• 33:09
  team? Sure.
• 33:10
  Yeah. I was a late bloomer.
• 33:11
  So, did you were you a distance guy through and through, like,
• 33:15
  and use that kind of your primary coaching?
• 33:18
  Yeah. So, I was 800 up to 10 K and
• 33:23
  right. And, and I was a late bloomer.
• 33:27
  So I, you know, manage my weight pretty well through high.
• 33:33
  As well as college and then decided to get more into
• 33:38
  basketball and weightlifting afterwards and and and that
• 33:42
  other number one sport eating. Yeah.
• 33:45
  Actually it's the question because you said you started
• 33:47
  cross-country, so you can be on the basketball team and then you
• 33:49
  drop the 123 pounds. Did you ever make the basketball
• 33:51
  team? We never made it.
• 33:52
  Okay. I just wondered.
• 33:53
  Yeah, first off, what you give me, like a Michael Jordan story
• 33:56
  of like, I got. All right.
• 33:57
  What's a year? I was the only one who thought I
• 34:02
  was Michael. Jordan.
• 34:03
  No like no one else on no one else saw it?
• 34:08
  Yeah. Looked in the mirror and you're
• 34:09
  like I'm like Mike and everybody else was like you were like my
• 34:11
  Cunningham less aggressive. Like you go get your at Eleanor
• 34:19
  Roosevelt that's a storied like I know that program it must have
• 34:23
  been during the around that time.
• 34:24
  I remember seeing them at the the track and field news
• 34:26
  magazines, leading the country in the different relays and such
• 34:29
  and I probably member Tasha's. Name is a high schooler.
• 34:31
  It's quite amazing. Did you is Is that where you
• 34:34
  were before? St.
• 34:35
  John's. Or was there a stop in between?
• 34:37
  Yeah it was a couple of stops in between.
• 34:39
  So I ended up leaving Roosevelt and I still feel like I left
• 34:46
  there a year to premature. I had some still has some
• 34:51
  amazing athletes there but my wife and I we had had our first
• 34:56
  child. It was a 40 some minute, commute
• 35:01
  one way and then Then I got the offer to coach at the University
• 35:06
  of Maryland and so yeah, I was the head cross-country coach at
• 35:10
  the University of Maryland for who I was volunteer coach for
• 35:15
  one year and then the head cross country coach for three years
• 35:18
  assistant track coach as well. And so I, you know, thought that
• 35:25
  that's where I really wanted to be but, you know, just with all
• 35:30
  the politics involved on the collegiate.
• 35:33
  Level and just, you know, it has to be a great fit.
• 35:38
  I really started missing some of the things I was able to do with
• 35:45
  my high school student athletes. I was missing that that
• 35:52
  connection to that impressionable age and I had
• 35:56
  some amazing athletes at the University of Maryland and still
• 36:01
  in contact with him to this day. Eight.
• 36:03
  But a matter of fact, two of them are helping me to coach at
• 36:06
  this time. So I don't regret that it was a
• 36:10
  great learning experience. But then I wanted to get back to
• 36:14
  high school and I wanted to have more wiggle room because I kind
• 36:18
  of consider myself a Serial entrepreneur.
• 36:21
  And, and, and so having the Summers off having to breaks the
• 36:26
  winter. I was a recruiting coordinator
• 36:29
  on top of that. So it was a grind and I started
• 36:34
  missing events with my for my kids and it wasn't really who I
• 36:40
  was. And so I got back, rounded got
• 36:43
  back to the high school and then I started teaching and coaching
• 36:48
  and DC at Woodrow Wilson, High School, which is now known as
• 36:52
  Jackson, read high school, and then, and then after 6 years,
• 36:57
  they're moved over to st. John's College High School, you
• 37:01
  know, glad you brought that up and I'm You had that experience
• 37:04
  honestly you know in my 10 years of coaching, it started on the
• 37:08
  high school level and then, you know, I think I'ma put a broad
• 37:13
  stroke here. I think like a lot of High
• 37:15
  School coaches, that may not be true.
• 37:17
  But as I was a high school coach, it was like, me and I
• 37:19
  want to coach and college, and I didn't even run in college.
• 37:22
  It wasn't like it was some kind of like throwback to me, but it
• 37:24
  was just like you know you want to be better.
• 37:26
  So you go to the supposedly better level, right?
• 37:29
  You go to college and then when you're in college like well, I
• 37:31
  better go from D3 D2 and I better go deep.
• 37:33
  D1 and all this kind of stuff, right.
• 37:35
  And I think back on my 10 years of coaching and you know you
• 37:40
  could tell my story has honestly because the way you put it,
• 37:42
  there is exactly how I put it. I had an amazing time.
• 37:45
  Amazing people amazing athletes my time at Mississippi State but
• 37:50
  Al Schmidt has our head coach and yeah, ugly Keith Powell
• 37:54
  Karen rat, a mire Houston Frank's.
• 37:57
  You know, the coaching staff couldn't have been closer, I
• 37:59
  mean Al Schmidt is still like a dad to me.
• 38:01
  I love this man. I mean, you know, he gave me my
• 38:03
  Break, right? But in when I look back, if
• 38:05
  someone were to say, hey named the number one memory from all
• 38:08
  of your coaching. First of all, that's hard, but
• 38:10
  but there's a distinct one. When I coach High School in
• 38:13
  Chicago, I coached it D LaSalle High School and we had this kit.
• 38:16
  This was 1994. So this is 25 years ago and I've
• 38:22
  had amazing experiences since then.
• 38:25
  But this is the memory. I had a young freshman in Robert
• 38:28
  threatt. I'll still I'll never forget his
• 38:30
  name. Wow, it was terrible.
• 38:31
  He was like a six minute. Tyler.
• 38:33
  Okay, it was just you know what I say terrible.
• 38:35
  Meaning you know right ones. No one's given Awards to a
• 38:38
  six-minute mile. ER, right?
• 38:40
  And at the JV conference meet he runs the mile and he runs under
• 38:45
  six minutes. He runs 550 something.
• 38:47
  Oh man, still came in last in the Catholic League was you know
• 38:51
  it was pretty good. I don't know if it still is but
• 38:53
  it was pretty good back then in Chicago and you would have
• 38:57
  thought he won the gold medal and I don't mean that by him
• 39:00
  like he was happy his pants, right?
• 39:02
  I was happy. We are Are all hugging, everyone
• 39:04
  celebrating everyone going nuts. And it's not like, I mean, we
• 39:09
  had to cook it. We had one kid actually two
• 39:11
  other freshmen, one ended up, being a state champion in the
• 39:14
  triple jump. I think that one went and became
• 39:16
  the starting defensive back for Georgia Tech's.
• 39:18
  I mean, we had some studs in this class and everybody was
• 39:21
  acting like we won the gold medal.
• 39:22
  Wow. I love those stories, 11.
• 39:26
  And I've worked with, you know, Trey Hardee, he wants an
• 39:28
  Olympics. I worked with him Steve Mullins,
• 39:31
  Marcus didn't, I mean just, you know, I've worked with the best
• 39:34
  of the best, you know, some of the best.
• 39:35
  Justin Gatlin is a dear friend of mine.
• 39:37
  I've worked with him. I won't take any credit for him
• 39:39
  but I've worked for them in still.
• 39:41
  Robert three is the number one memory.
• 39:43
  You know, college is different and I hear it a lot from High
• 39:46
  School coaches. I used to teach level ones for
• 39:49
  usatf and the number one question I get from High School
• 39:52
  coaches in the audience would be a, how do I coach college?
• 39:55
  And I'm like why right, right why, I know your teachers.
• 39:59
  I'm not going to bash that at all but I know and I'll say you
• 40:02
  get your Summers off. But I know what that entailed.
• 40:04
  It's not as off as we may think and all that kind of stuff and I
• 40:08
  know teaching has a struggle, especially today.
• 40:10
  I get it. But do you want to be away from
• 40:13
  your house? 24/7.
• 40:15
  Go coach College your every weekend.
• 40:17
  You're recruiting every weekend. You're out of me.
• 40:20
  There is no often. It's a Grind.
• 40:22
  The national, the national meat is, I could call it June 15th,
• 40:27
  guess what? Two weeks later happens, the
• 40:28
  start of recruiting for the next class.
• 40:30
  So you're, you know, two weeks and then, Or five weeks after
• 40:34
  that. The kids come back for cross
• 40:35
  country and track it never ever ends.
• 40:38
  I thought college coaches were going to wisen up here.
• 40:41
  Yeah I'm talking to you college coaches in covid because they
• 40:45
  canceled cross-country because of covid.
• 40:47
  They moved across country Nationals to March and I thought
• 40:51
  who they're going to wisen up. They're going to go.
• 40:53
  You know what, this is the right thing to do.
• 40:55
  Move it to Mars. Do indoor cross together.
• 40:57
  I know that you got to make some difficult decisions.
• 40:59
  I get it. But guess what?
• 41:00
  The falled in the fall is much more Relaxed, you're not
• 41:04
  traveling as much. You're not recruiting as much
• 41:06
  that the second part might not be true, but but you get a
• 41:09
  little bit of a break. I thought college coaches are
• 41:11
  like, you know what, boys? We have seen the light.
• 41:14
  That's not this permanent. Yeah, yes, what?
• 41:17
  Right, around your listen to, this is the end of October,
• 41:19
  they're getting real close to their in conference in Regional
• 41:21
  mode, right? We learned nothing at all.
• 41:24
  Nothing at all, at all events your athletes your Runners from
• 41:30
  over racing. Which you know I think is a
• 41:32
  major Issue 100% in the American system.
• 41:35
  I mean starters, love track all the way through high school to
• 41:40
  college. I mean, it is, it is, you know,
• 41:44
  and I'm not a big believer necessarily that we as high
• 41:48
  school and college in America, track and field need to exactly
• 41:51
  match up to the international scene because we're talking
• 41:54
  about a pretty small select number of athletes who even need
• 41:57
  to think about the international scene.
• 41:59
  But I believe internationally cross-country is a winter into
• 42:02
  spring. And I think like the world cross
• 42:04
  country championships are like a february/march.
• 42:07
  I think I'm I know distance people listening right now are
• 42:09
  yelling at me that I'm wrong but but I think it's around the
• 42:12
  time. So it kind of matches up with
• 42:14
  what the actual, you know, International side of it is as
• 42:16
  well. So yeah, I was really excited.
• 42:18
  Like, oh man, this is gonna be so good in there.
• 42:21
  Yeah, no, we're back, we're back, we're back here and still
• 42:23
  complain about. Rightfully complete.
• 42:25
  Right, right. But do something about.
• 42:26
  So, anyway, I love that you had that experience.
• 42:28
  Because first of all, you now know, right?
• 42:31
  You're not sitting here. His coaching high school going,
• 42:34
  you know, maybe I could have been a college, can maybe I
• 42:36
  could have done pretty good. Now, you're like, you know what,
• 42:38
  I did it. I was pretty good and you know
• 42:39
  what? It just wasn't for me and my
• 42:40
  family. Yeah, yeah.
• 42:42
  Yeah, exactly, exactly. So another fun fact, one of
• 42:46
  those Roosevelt girls actually went to Mississippi State
• 42:49
  Dominique Lockhart. Yeah.
• 42:52
  I know, she led off quite a bit on the DMR.
• 42:56
  Yeah, he had a great great experience there year years,
• 43:00
  this roughly, I would have been Thousand eight.
• 43:04
  Yeah, that's think I remember that name.
• 43:06
  After at my last year was 05 was I thinking as likely I like
• 43:09
  still keep you. I'm kind of an unofficial
• 43:11
  Mississippi State along because I just ran away.
• 43:13
  She work with Alice. Yeah, Houston.
• 43:16
  Yeah, yeah. Great, great experience.
• 43:18
  And now, the head coach is an 800-meter Runner we had on our
• 43:21
  team. I coached him.
• 43:22
  Chris Wood's. Now he's the head coach.
• 43:24
  It's just tells me I'm old. Is what that really tells me is,
• 43:27
  you know, former athletes on the head coach there.
• 43:28
  But not at all. Love them.
• 43:30
  Love them. Love them.
• 43:30
  So, what was what led to coming? Back to st.
• 43:34
  John's, you worked at we now known as Jackson read high
• 43:37
  school then you go to st. John's what was the transition
• 43:40
  there was about teaching or what?
• 43:41
  Well, no it was. I got a little burnt out.
• 43:45
  Jackson Reed is in the public school system and and so I was
• 43:51
  The the head coach I was the operations and Logistics coach
• 43:58
  and person. I did all the fundraising per
• 44:02
  season and it just became. I wasn't enjoying it as much and
• 44:09
  I again I really enjoyed the kids.
• 44:11
  I really enjoy working with my team.
• 44:13
  My parents were amazing but I thought that I was actually done
• 44:19
  coaching for a while and The, I finished and resigned after my
• 44:26
  six years and then a couple of months later I got a call from
• 44:32
  the, a be at St. John's.
• 44:35
  And I told him about my story said, well, let's just least sit
• 44:38
  down and talk to him and that one rule that I've always you
• 44:44
  know, held onto is if you have an opportunity to have an
• 44:48
  interview and have a, you know, Ian, you should at least take
• 44:53
  the time to, to take a look at things and and so as I'm telling
• 45:00
  him, some of the things that really, you know, burn me out at
• 45:04
  Jackson read what he's saying, well, you don't have to worry
• 45:07
  about that here, you don't have to worry about that here.
• 45:10
  You don't have to worry about that here.
• 45:12
  And then, and then, I think, you know, at the end of the
• 45:15
  conversation because I never I don't want to say, I wasn't a
• 45:21
  fan of private schools, but I love the public school system
• 45:26
  and I love with the public school system did for me.
• 45:28
  And my experiences just never saw myself coaching in the
• 45:34
  private sector at this stage in my career.
• 45:38
  And so we started having conversations about, you know,
• 45:44
  kids from low, socioeconomic backgrounds to You know, kids,
• 45:50
  who look like me, kids, who when I was in high school, you know,
• 45:56
  could I have gotten into a Saint John's.
• 45:58
  And Saint John's has done a really great job in terms of
• 46:02
  having diversity within the school.
• 46:05
  You know, kids from all walks of life, all, you know, financial
• 46:09
  backgrounds, socioeconomic backgrounds, and knowing.
• 46:13
  And I thought, man this could be a really good fit.
• 46:19
  Fun fact about the school is also where Kevin plain the
• 46:25
  founder and CEO of Under Armour Sarah.
• 46:27
  Right? So they made it clear that we
• 46:31
  want to have a coach who, who wears Under Armour, who wears on
• 46:40
  the are building a national level program.
• 46:43
  So, yeah, you know, he's building a track right now,
• 46:46
  we're we actually are doing that track for under Armor.
• 46:49
  They're building an outdoor facility.
• 46:51
  I've been somewhere I met early. That's all I know.
• 46:53
  But I know it's close to. Yes, in Baltimore where I'm also
• 46:56
  an Under Armour coach and an ambassador.
• 46:58
  So I worked hand in hand with their run division as well.
• 47:02
  Yeah, we probably talked to some of the same people and we were
• 47:04
  going through the negotiations. Yeah, they're good people.
• 47:07
  I've really quite enjoyed them excited for what they're
• 47:09
  building. Building actually.
• 47:10
  You're building something kind of unique.
• 47:11
  Not just a almost a, not just a track because I think every
• 47:14
  track is very special but something just unique as far as
• 47:17
  track and field is concerned for For their purposes for their
• 47:20
  athletes and their own testing and things like that.
• 47:23
  I'm excited for them. I'm happy that they're doing
• 47:25
  that is well, so tell us about St.
• 47:27
  John's it seemed like that was pretty important for you in
• 47:31
  regards to your public attitude and their private desires on if
• 47:36
  I said that. Right.
• 47:36
  But you know what there. But it was important to you hear
• 47:39
  about. Oh yeah, we have a diverse
• 47:41
  socio-economic, background diverse, ethnic background Etc
• 47:44
  because I would agree, I, you know, I grew up in Small Town,
• 47:46
  Alabama, where in our city, We had the public school where I
• 47:50
  went to school and then across the way, was the private school?
• 47:53
  And boy, the two did not mix. I mean, it was, you know, we
• 47:56
  didn't like those guys, and they didn't like that.
• 47:58
  Right there were a lot of reasons for that, that a lot as
• 48:02
  you mentioned. So it's a coed school.
• 48:07
  You mentioned, Kevin Plank, and your the girl's head coach.
• 48:09
  I can infer that. It's a public school.
• 48:11
  I'm sorry to both genders school.
• 48:15
  There would like and that coach, boys, and girls.
• 48:19
  Okay, okay. Yeah, yeah.
• 48:20
  Like how many students are there is a 9 through 12?
• 48:25
  Or is it Encompass? Everything would tell us a
• 48:26
  little bit more about the school itself.
• 48:28
  So not 9 through 12. We have about a 1150 students.
• 48:33
  Oh, wow. And almost 900 of those students
• 48:37
  play a sport. So, yeah, it was a school where
• 48:43
  a student athlete is, is supported with on a, with the
• 48:49
  Uris academic side but there's also the support on the athletic
• 48:55
  side. What are those other two hundred
• 48:56
  Joker's do right right, right. Well I mean we have a robust
• 49:02
  number of extracurricular clubs and so I know we have a super
• 49:08
  competitive robotics club and and but you can do everything
• 49:12
  including chess, you know. So there's something to do for
• 49:16
  everyone. None of those things.
• 49:17
  Could you do it my public school?
• 49:19
  Riding badhak steam that it laughed at like it out the
• 49:22
  football field. May I get out of here right
• 49:24
  right yeah. So and then when I got there
• 49:30
  yeah the cross-country team was homogeneous team and and of, you
• 49:35
  know, mine in the track team was homogeneous, you know, it was
• 49:40
  all white cross country, all black track team for the most
• 49:43
  part, some sprinkles here and there and I'm thinking, man,
• 49:47
  this this team does not Not reflect the population of the
• 49:51
  school and I'm proud to say that we went from 20 some Runners
• 49:55
  where each season we're knocking on 102 100-plus Runners.
• 50:01
  So a good amount of the school is out, running cross-country,
• 50:07
  indoor outdoor. So we'll see over 200 students,
• 50:12
  you know, and so it's a, it's a double-edged sword because I
• 50:17
  mean that's that, Much more work that that we have to do to
• 50:22
  manage those types of numbers. But I mentioned my staff
• 50:26
  earlier. I mean, I have an amazing
• 50:29
  coaching staff and so we're always working towards making
• 50:34
  sure we're meeting the needs of all of our student-athletes.
• 50:38
  What are some of the I want to say disadvantages?
• 50:41
  And maybe that's not the right word, some of the obstacles that
• 50:43
  you have to overcome because you mentioned it.
• 50:45
  First of all, you mentioned that many kids that stuff, no matter,
• 50:48
  no matter how big your Laughs right.
• 50:49
  Right but again and I'm just you know, so uneducated about DC
• 50:55
  when I think of 100 you know cross-country type Runners.
• 50:59
  I'm like where do you run? I've been outside, I've been in
• 51:02
  the Maryland area which is gorgeous you know the tree of
• 51:06
  it's just gorgeous but d.c. I'm like well that's that's it's
• 51:09
  all concrete and that's got its own and very car driven.
• 51:13
  You know, how do you, how do you handle some of those obstacles
• 51:16
  to actually get stuff done? Yeah.
• 51:17
  I mean we We do we scour, the area?
• 51:22
  We use local parks. We are fortunate where we do
• 51:26
  have Rock Creek Park next to us the unfortunate side of that is
• 51:31
  that most of the trails are asphalt.
• 51:34
  And so, and it's a pretty hilly terrain, so we really have to
• 51:40
  monitor minimize. You know, that type of pounding?
• 51:44
  We do a lot of strength, work, lot of strength, exercise.
• 51:48
  I've studied He'd other programs such as like, Saratoga Springs
• 51:53
  where they're one of the more, you know, historic dominant
• 51:57
  distance programs, they do most of their training on concrete on
• 52:00
  pavement. And so I've asked a lot of
• 52:04
  questions in terms of injury prevention, and I've learned a
• 52:08
  lot, just threw out the, you know, throughout the years, you
• 52:11
  know, making sure, you know, the Footwear is where it should be
• 52:16
  Orthotics. If need be The strength
• 52:20
  exercises and the shin area, those those intrinsic muscles,
• 52:25
  that needs to be stimulated on a daily or every other day basis.
• 52:31
  So little things where you know we have a lot of science
• 52:36
  involved with the why we do each and everything from the
• 52:40
  beginning of our practice, with an objective, all the way to the
• 52:45
  end of that practice, making sure there were meeting those
• 52:48
  objectives and And and unfortunately, you know, you
• 52:52
  learn a lot when you fail and, you know, that's where one of my
• 52:57
  advantages out of 25 years of coaching.
• 53:00
  I failed a lot miserably and so, but I've learned a lot.
• 53:08
  I'm the type of Coach where if we fall short of our goals,
• 53:14
  whatever those goals are with. If the individual or team goes,
• 53:17
  I look at myself in the mirror. At the end of the season, I meet
• 53:21
  with my coaches and all I want to talk about is what could we
• 53:26
  have done better as coaches to position, our team, to position
• 53:31
  our athlete? So I mean, we move with a lot of
• 53:33
  intentionality each and every practice, you know, we just
• 53:38
  don't go through those motions. And so I think that's one of my
• 53:42
  huge advantages. As a coach is that my art of
• 53:45
  working with kids, but also the society, Science, applying
• 53:50
  making it applicable to them as well.
• 53:54
  I'm a big believer in coaching education.
• 53:57
  It changed my coaching career coaching life and, really, still
• 54:01
  affects me even today. And I don't coach at all anymore
• 54:04
  and just how to teach and think and act and the Art of it, you
• 54:09
  know. I don't necessarily need the
• 54:10
  science of it anymore position. I'm in now but the art of how
• 54:13
  you coach people and progress people I think is extremely
• 54:16
  important. You made me think When you're
• 54:19
  talking about, you know, the things that you have to do in
• 54:22
  regards to like that Park, you talked about and like the pads
• 54:26
  are asphalt it down, you might mention it hilly.
• 54:29
  And I think, well, you got winners there, so you're not
• 54:32
  really doing maybe a lot of he'll work out there in the
• 54:34
  winters when it's icy and cold things like that.
• 54:37
  So it started making me think. Like when we do coaching
• 54:39
  education, I told you. I taught level 14 for many, many
• 54:42
  years and did several level twos.
• 54:45
  We seem to do coaching education on an Ideal basis.
• 54:49
  Like when we do a distance Clinic, we talked about yeah,
• 54:52
  this many miles and this in the long run and this kind of
• 54:54
  repeats, go to the track do this, then go find you a nice
• 54:56
  Loop over here in the park. And it's like, yeah, how many
• 55:00
  people have some people? Good number don't have that they
• 55:03
  don't have. There are plenty of track teams.
• 55:05
  Successful, track teams that don't have a track.
• 55:09
  We don't have a track. Yeah, well, Bingo, look, I
• 55:12
  didn't, I did not know. I did not set that up, but
• 55:15
  that's why I started thinking, like maybe there should be more
• 55:17
  coaching education and it. To be inside of level 1 and UST
• 55:20
  of cca's coaching Academy could be, you know, in today's world
• 55:24
  post, covid world, right there are tons of great, you know,
• 55:27
  paid Zoom opportunities for education and things like that.
• 55:30
  Maybe there needs to be more from.
• 55:32
  You mentioned, Saratoga Springs, which I'm not a distance guy and
• 55:35
  I've heard of Saratoga and you're like, yeah, they do a lot
• 55:38
  of, there's on concrete like, man.
• 55:39
  You know, they need to, they need to, they'd be great for for
• 55:43
  people like them. And for you that have been
• 55:44
  successful on concrete to like, give a seminar on that because
• 55:47
  there's someone in Right now go on man.
• 55:50
  I want to build a great cross-country team but I don't
• 55:52
  have any pads or Parks or yeah, I have nothing.
• 55:55
  I have nothing but concrete and you know this great coach at
• 55:59
  such and such as tell me, I need to do my loops on the grass and
• 56:02
  breath. I got there right already talked
• 56:03
  about Mi loose, man, so just may start thinking about like stuff
• 56:06
  like that. In my Segway in that says going
• 56:08
  saying into, what kind of coaching education do you and
• 56:12
  your staff have participated in maybe even still do?
• 56:15
  Wow. That I mean, Clinics coaching
• 56:21
  education, professional development.
• 56:23
  I mean, that is just the backbone of my coaching success
• 56:30
  and you know, you you're mentioning It's almost like
• 56:36
  we're in Matthew, you remember, a formula.
• 56:40
  And, and I'll never forget this. I mean, I learned this early in
• 56:44
  geometry and, you know, that you got all these theorems and and
• 56:50
  postulates and and and you remember them and as soon as
• 56:55
  things kind of switch up on that test a bit, you like hey we
• 56:59
  didn't learn this and it's the same thing you're saying in
• 57:04
  terms of Of if someone has different footing or different
• 57:11
  venue or different type of space, that was someone may have
• 57:16
  previously talked about. Well, if you understand, you
• 57:21
  know the the if you understand what you're attempting to
• 57:25
  accomplish, then you're going to be able to manipulate things to
• 57:30
  your liking. You going to be able to
• 57:32
  manipulate things too. What your athletes are about to
• 57:36
  experience. And so I want to say that I have
• 57:40
  a really great firm, understanding of developing
• 57:45
  Energy Systems. And again, what objective are,
• 57:48
  we attempting to accomplish here?
• 57:51
  And how can we do that on this surface?
• 57:54
  And so, you know, I like you say, I think that's of course,
• 57:59
  within itself of making sure coaches.
• 58:04
  Stand how to develop certain aspects of training to get the
• 58:11
  body to adapt to those stressors and making sure that that they
• 58:18
  can manipulate it in the sense of developing those necessary
• 58:22
  energy systems for the point of periodization appropriately.
• 58:28
  But when I first started, my coaching career, I was using my
• 58:32
  last dollars to attend. Coaching clinics and I'm very
• 58:37
  fortunate where my wife was super supportive of it.
• 58:40
  She thought I was nuts, but but I I make sure that I'm going to
• 58:46
  two to three clinics a year. I'll be at the national
• 58:49
  conventions. USA us tfcc a national.
• 58:55
  It hasn't been many conventions. I have not made my coaches.
• 59:00
  They are going to other clinics. They're listening to podcast.
• 59:05
  They're you know just picking up all types of literature and we
• 59:10
  have these discussions about, you know, what's the latest and
• 59:15
  greatest? Because the one thing that I
• 59:17
  don't ever want to do as a coach is to say well I used to do this
• 59:22
  workout so I'm going to give my team this work, you know it has
• 59:27
  to got to has to wash through the filter first.
• 59:31
  We might do the same workout but has to be a reason behind it.
• 59:34
  And so yeah, having a firm understanding of what you want
• 59:39
  to accomplish and why you're going to be able to take a
• 59:44
  workout that someone gave you that's on grass and transfer
• 59:49
  that I want to a track or transfer that onto a gravel, you
• 59:53
  know, parking lot. I mean whatever it is.
• 59:57
  And so my high school did not have a tracking and I saw how
• 1:00:01
  creative Chief was and, and, but he Understood are our Sport and
• 1:00:07
  he understood the science behind it.
• 1:00:09
  So we challenge each other a lot with my staff and and we always
• 1:00:15
  allow a little bit of intuition and science to dictate.
• 1:00:20
  Yeah, I like that word manipulation because, you know,
• 1:00:22
  the fear, the problem that we sometimes have in clinics and
• 1:00:27
  camps and stuff is, you know, the speaker is doing our thing,
• 1:00:31
  talking about, you know, the right energy systems are
• 1:00:33
  training, whatever and they give an example, Workout and then
• 1:00:36
  some of us take that because I like, oh well that's the
• 1:00:38
  workout, I'll do it, it's like, oh no, but but when you use that
• 1:00:41
  word manipulates like oh no, manipulate that workout to your
• 1:00:45
  like you going to have some thinking in here, just cookie
• 1:00:47
  cutter. Take what I did and go because
• 1:00:49
  it might not work. There probably isn't going to
• 1:00:51
  work out for you, because it worked for, for my set of kids.
• 1:00:53
  And our circumstances. I like that word of like
• 1:00:55
  manipulating they learn, but then learn how to take that into
• 1:00:59
  your specific situation. So let's start leading up here
• 1:01:03
  to the To season where you were the national coach of the year.
• 1:01:09
  I have to imagine you, correct me, but I have to imagine my
• 1:01:13
  experience has been that these guys and gals that are winning
• 1:01:16
  these national awards, it's not typically the One season.
• 1:01:20
  Obviously, the One season 2022 for you was big, but it doesn't
• 1:01:25
  happen. It's in a bubble, right?
• 1:01:26
  So I have to imagine 2021 is what led up to 20, 22, and 20,
• 1:01:30
  20 Legends, 21 Etc, build us up to this amazing.
• 1:01:34
  Season that you had this year. How did it kind of Crescendo
• 1:01:37
  into this you know? Really amazing honor.
• 1:01:40
  Yeah. So I kind of mentioned earlier
• 1:01:42
  about the pandemic that was a huge struggle.
• 1:01:47
  We really felt like we came together during that time it was
• 1:01:53
  a tough time for a lot of our you know athletes.
• 1:01:56
  It was a very tough time for even myself in some of our
• 1:01:59
  coaching staff but we felt like we really rallied together.
• 1:02:02
  I mean, we had several birth Will meetings.
• 1:02:07
  We would have keynote speakers to come in.
• 1:02:10
  So we felt like we were doing a great job, just staying afloat.
• 1:02:16
  We felt like you saw this in the business world where I mean,
• 1:02:21
  there was a lot of businesses that crash obviously, and and
• 1:02:25
  there were just some that couldn't keep the momentum
• 1:02:27
  going. And those are things that we
• 1:02:29
  always talked about. Hey, we know it's tough, you
• 1:02:32
  know, we embrace Taste it just we talked about this, it was I
• 1:02:42
  think it's called the Stockdale principle are where there was a
• 1:02:48
  prisoner of war and the prisoner of war, those who do the best.
• 1:02:55
  As being a prisoner of war is not the prisoner who thinks that
• 1:02:59
  they're going to be released the next day.
• 1:03:02
  But it's the prisoner who Holds that someday I will be released,
• 1:03:07
  but probably not going to be tomorrow.
• 1:03:13
  And it's just I have to just bite down hard and and endure
• 1:03:18
  whatever is going to come and embrace that and it gives you
• 1:03:23
  just more of a taste of reality. It also doesn't drive you crazy
• 1:03:28
  because when that next day comes and you're not released and
• 1:03:34
  that's kind of Of, you know, was that your attitude during covid?
• 1:03:37
  Like when you're saying that and I hate to.
• 1:03:39
  Yeah. But prison in prisoners versus
• 1:03:42
  covid. Although there probably a lot of
• 1:03:44
  similarities, it did feel like it never end.
• 1:03:46
  It was that kind of you guys has attitude.
• 1:03:47
  During code is like a, we don't know when this is going to end,
• 1:03:50
  we don't, it's probably not tomorrow, but we don't know if
• 1:03:52
  we're gonna get a track season, this upcoming spring Etc, was
• 1:03:55
  that kind of your mantra for the team, in the staff.
• 1:03:58
  Yeah. So and and, and and, and I'm
• 1:04:01
  with you on that to Mike where I definitely don't want to.
• 1:04:04
  A make the correlation that there are any that those two are
• 1:04:09
  nowhere near the same. But I think what it was at the
• 1:04:12
  beginning of the pandemic, we thought it was going.
• 1:04:15
  We all thought it was going to be something.
• 1:04:18
  Hey, we're going to, you know, we got the best scientists in
• 1:04:20
  the world. We're going to figure this out,
• 1:04:23
  right? We're going to just hunker down
• 1:04:25
  for, you know, two three weeks. And we were so naive.
• 1:04:29
  Yeah, it was so nice and I think that when it really He hit us,
• 1:04:36
  you know that this is a lot more serious.
• 1:04:40
  I mean then you could just see the emotional tanks, the just
• 1:04:46
  began to get depleted and I'm thinking you know man my
• 1:04:50
  emotional tank is being, you know, I also Run summer camps
• 1:04:54
  and I had, you know, I had almost 1,000 summer campers,
• 1:05:00
  ready for summer camp coming up. And so I'm balancing, you know,
• 1:05:08
  what's happening with my own family and trying to decide.
• 1:05:13
  You know, do we keep this summer camp going and we refinanced our
• 1:05:18
  house and I mean it was it was a lot and so but when I would you
• 1:05:23
  don't need sessions with my team, I'm a I'm like man I got
• 1:05:27
  to find this energy. I got to bring it and so I
• 1:05:31
  vividly remember those days and then having a Call Athletes
• 1:05:35
  because they just didn't look like themselves when we were
• 1:05:38
  meeting and they didn't have that, you know, that same Spirit
• 1:05:42
  about themselves. So, I mean, I really, you know,
• 1:05:46
  look at how we weathered the storm together.
• 1:05:49
  We really leaned on one another and then that's what gave us
• 1:05:55
  this, you know, this tighter Bond.
• 1:06:02
  We lost a little bit of our culture but But it was still
• 1:06:05
  enough there to piece it back and then we just started
• 1:06:10
  building from there. And you know, we we also have a
• 1:06:16
  lot of pride in the fact that we have a very comprehensive
• 1:06:19
  program. So I mean, we're we're solid in
• 1:06:23
  the throws, were solid in the jumps, you know, distance team,
• 1:06:29
  Sprint, team and we're going to rally for each other, you know.
• 1:06:34
  And hurdlers. We going to make sure that that
• 1:06:39
  the throwers don't feel like they're on an island and that
• 1:06:44
  the jumpers are, you know, not being supported by the distance
• 1:06:48
  running. So we did a lot of family and
• 1:06:51
  team building, you know, at the end of our Huddle's each day, we
• 1:06:54
  say 123 SJC representing the school 456 family, and I would
• 1:07:01
  always say, look we're not going to be saying that.
• 1:07:04
  Only because it sounds pretty because it sounds nice to
• 1:07:08
  develop any relationship and to have a strong relationship.
• 1:07:12
  It has to be intentional. I mean you and I both know you
• 1:07:15
  mentioned, you've been married 14 years and I've been married
• 1:07:19
  for 20 years. And and I talked about that, you
• 1:07:22
  know, we my wife and I we have to be intentional.
• 1:07:26
  Amen, about moving forward and developing our relationship and
• 1:07:31
  working through adversity. And when you have Everyone who's
• 1:07:35
  on board with that, then you're gonna you're gonna have a
• 1:07:39
  stronger unit and so we when the pandemic was over, we spent a
• 1:07:45
  lot of time doing team activities.
• 1:07:48
  So I also again lead, by example, where when we say
• 1:07:54
  family and I want you running for your brother or running for
• 1:07:57
  your sister that we've done the bowling nights, the movie
• 1:08:01
  Nights, the karaoke nights, we open up.
• 1:08:04
  With social emotional learning interactions with one another,
• 1:08:09
  whether I ask them questions are I give them, you know, a pitch
• 1:08:14
  and they have to meet different teammates and they always have
• 1:08:18
  to meet teammates that they don't have a conversation with
• 1:08:22
  and then when it gets to the point where they've spoken
• 1:08:24
  everyone, all right, who have you not spoken to in the past
• 1:08:26
  week so just finding Nifty and crafty things that our young
• 1:08:32
  folks can appreciate. So when they walk, Into our
• 1:08:35
  practice, they know, it's not all about running, they know
• 1:08:40
  that they're seen as a person that they get a chance to get
• 1:08:44
  some of those emotions out. You know, one of my favorite is,
• 1:08:47
  you know, tell a teammate how you feeling today and use a
• 1:08:53
  weather forecast to describe how you're feeling and Ali.
• 1:08:58
  Yeah. And so I mean those are like
• 1:08:59
  little things. You know what is your biggest
• 1:09:02
  fear and so They're meeting each other, they're learning about
• 1:09:07
  each other but they're also learning about themselves to
• 1:09:10
  yeah. And and so we really pride
• 1:09:13
  ourselves on that type of intentionality.
• 1:09:17
  So when those races are coming down to the wire or we need
• 1:09:22
  someone to even run the 4 by 4, you know, I get it, you know,
• 1:09:27
  and and it's a lot of jokes around you know that you can't
• 1:09:31
  find anyone and and people go hide in.
• 1:09:34
  In the woods or wherever, you know, not our team is, you know,
• 1:09:38
  coach and we need this, they need this.
• 1:09:41
  You know, what can I do to help? So we're working hard to
• 1:09:46
  develop, servant leaders because I mean part of the reason that
• 1:09:51
  we struggle and life and society and in this world is because
• 1:09:56
  we're really taught about me, me me and said about week and on
• 1:10:01
  the back of our shirts. You see a week?
• 1:10:05
  You see the greater sign that you see me and you know it's all
• 1:10:10
  about teaching teamwork. So later on it translates into
• 1:10:15
  community and Society, I always wonder you know we focus on
• 1:10:19
  track coaches for obvious reasons.
• 1:10:22
  I wonder if it's harder on the track side with track coaches in
• 1:10:26
  our athletes to convey that sentiment that truth right?
• 1:10:31
  That we as greater than me that because we're such an individual
• 1:10:34
  sport. You still have the hundred meter
• 1:10:35
  dash, you still got to run it and the shot-putter is not going
• 1:10:37
  to help you run that that hundred and vice versa versus
• 1:10:41
  the football team. Where it's like man you know if
• 1:10:43
  that offensive line doesn't operate, we don't matter.
• 1:10:45
  Good to run it back is and Brett right here on quarterbacks, you
• 1:10:49
  know, could be all class and if the receivers can't catch it,
• 1:10:52
  don't it don't matter, you know. So I was Wonder, like, one of
• 1:10:55
  these days I'm going to do an episode where we have, you know,
• 1:10:58
  other sports football, basketball, and baseball, or
• 1:11:00
  something volleyball and softball here and talk to them
• 1:11:02
  about. Here's some things that struggle
• 1:11:04
  and the Backside. But how do you get you know, is
• 1:11:06
  that, you know, I kind of Imagine because we're dealing
• 1:11:08
  with social in high school level 14 to 18 year olds.
• 1:11:11
  I kind of Imagine they all struggle with it in some form or
• 1:11:14
  fashion. So what talk to us about this
• 1:11:19
  year in 2022 that led to this award because I'm assuming you
• 1:11:24
  didn't get night that state. You once to do, we call it State
• 1:11:28
  at DC. Yeah, we call estate.
• 1:11:30
  Okay. All right, as I was just
• 1:11:32
  wondering, yeah, but Are you positive side where there should
• 1:11:35
  be your state? All right.
• 1:11:36
  Probably should just weird that it's not in my mind.
• 1:11:41
  I think it's not a state because it would be weird to go from 50
• 1:11:45
  to 51. It's not an even number, I think
• 1:11:46
  that's literally everybody's psychologically.
• 1:11:48
  Hang up saying with Puerto Rico, we should just do two at the
• 1:11:50
  same time and it'll be 52. We'll figure out the flag.
• 1:11:54
  People will figure out how to throw too much stars in there.
• 1:11:56
  Does that mean? Come on now, let's make it
• 1:11:58
  happen. Okay, that's it so far into
• 1:12:01
  Politics as I'll ever weighed on to this to this podcast.
• 1:12:04
  But so talk to us about State. First of all.
• 1:12:08
  Yeah, let's do this first because I love having High
• 1:12:11
  School coaches from different states to talk about how you
• 1:12:14
  actually qualify for the state because it's different in every
• 1:12:16
  state. I just love the differences.
• 1:12:18
  So how what is the actual process regionals?
• 1:12:20
  Area's, top to talk to us about, how does it occur in?
• 1:12:24
  D.c., how did you get kids to the state meet?
• 1:12:26
  Yeah, so we as the easy process you just have to register for.
• 1:12:32
  Okay, yeah, sign me. Yeah, I could actually make the
• 1:12:35
  same and most teams have a conference and then you you come
• 1:12:49
  and have a second championships for the DC State meet.
• 1:12:53
  And what's really neat about the DC State meet?
• 1:12:55
  Is that charter schools public schools and private schools can
• 1:13:01
  all compete at this one meat. So the Issue before hand would
• 1:13:07
  be that there is you got your private school teams.
• 1:13:10
  You got your public school. You got your Charter School.
• 1:13:13
  Well they all have leads of their own.
• 1:13:15
  So we initially had that discussion about having you
• 1:13:21
  know, the qualifying rounds and it just didn't make sense and
• 1:13:27
  and I'm big into making sure athletes, don't over race.
• 1:13:32
  So we came I'm up with the system.
• 1:13:35
  I mean it is highly competitive and you're looking at some of
• 1:13:40
  the top runners in the country you know coming out of DC.
• 1:13:43
  So it was it was just it's always a great opportunity to
• 1:13:50
  give schools from all backgrounds and no because you
• 1:13:56
  have some states that only allow public schools to when it's a
• 1:13:59
  state meet and then you have some private school
• 1:14:01
  championships but this is one where we can all come together.
• 1:14:05
  So it's kind of and I don't mean this as a slight it's kind of
• 1:14:08
  like an Invitational imitation. Yeah.
• 1:14:10
  And I mean there's no slight. Meaning like they're not out
• 1:14:14
  there and that's must be what works for DC?
• 1:14:17
  I mean DC's different than Texas and Kansas and Illinois.
• 1:14:20
  So you have to do what works there at school.
• 1:14:22
  I love it. Okay, so tell me about this
• 1:14:23
  year. Then what happened how did
• 1:14:25
  States go and what led to this award?
• 1:14:28
  Yeah, so our girls were super dominant at the state
• 1:14:32
  championship and we want it back.
• 1:14:34
  By over 100 points. Yeah, we swept several events.
• 1:14:40
  We broke State records in the four by one 4x2.
• 1:14:47
  We had a distance. Gal, who broke State records in
• 1:14:50
  this 1632 hundred, we swept the hundred, we swept the 420.
• 1:14:58
  Swept you saying 123 or using 3 Wildcat?
• 1:15:01
  Yeah you score six or eight or we score eight.
• 1:15:04
  We're okay. When you said sweep, I was like,
• 1:15:06
  man if he's about tell me they went all eight hole, that's very
• 1:15:08
  good. One, two, three, and then, you
• 1:15:11
  know, then yeah, we went on, we had a couple of teams that won
• 1:15:17
  national titles, for by 200 indoors for the girls are boys,
• 1:15:22
  shuttle hurdle, one of the best event.
• 1:15:25
  Yeah, right right? Yeah, I know, you can appreciate
• 1:15:28
  that. So we were just, we were hitting
• 1:15:32
  National marks and And we think we scored about 212 points, it
• 1:15:40
  was the most of the ever scored. The next team was 70 some
• 1:15:44
  points. So you know, track is, is unique
• 1:15:48
  in the sense of, if you, when is the state meet is end of middle
• 1:15:52
  of May, or is it end of June anime anime?
• 1:15:55
  So if the state meets end of May, there's no possible way
• 1:15:59
  that you start practice on, let's say, April 1.
• 1:16:01
  And when it in the end of May, like you got a pair, Try and
• 1:16:04
  track will expose you. It just will where I could
• 1:16:07
  probably take five good basketball players and only
• 1:16:10
  practice for four weeks and I could probably win some State
• 1:16:12
  meets. If they're that good.
• 1:16:13
  If I have the studs there, so did you win the state?
• 1:16:18
  Meet the year? Before it in 21?
• 1:16:20
  We did. Did you win it by 100 points.
• 1:16:23
  Know how many points did you want it by roughly 40 or 50?
• 1:16:28
  I'm kind of guessing. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:16:32
  Don't go fact. Check them and then yeah.
• 1:16:36
  What I'm wondering is you have a successful 21, you probably have
• 1:16:40
  some practices in the fall of 22 specific.
• 1:16:43
  Leave your distance for sure but not sure if you're able to run a
• 1:16:46
  year-long program but as you're building through was there any
• 1:16:50
  inkling? As you start track season like
• 1:16:53
  oh you know we won by like 40. I think we're going to double
• 1:16:57
  that I think we're going about to crush people.
• 1:16:59
  Or was it a surprise as you got there and just everything
• 1:17:02
  clicked and everything? You know you have to get lucky
• 1:17:05
  and a lot of these places to you didn't have to get to Lucky but
• 1:17:08
  you know some breaks happen. You know, the maybe you were
• 1:17:11
  seeded number two in the four by one in the number one team
• 1:17:13
  dropped, the Baton, you know, things like that.
• 1:17:15
  Did you have an inkling like oh this is gonna be pretty special
• 1:17:18
  or did it happen at the meet? Well, you know a couple Of
• 1:17:21
  things but that you know, one I try not to ever focus on winning
• 1:17:26
  itself. I mean that comes as a byproduct
• 1:17:29
  of doing everything else. But as we started to crunch some
• 1:17:33
  numbers, we always do an analysis.
• 1:17:36
  We started to understand that we're putting something special
• 1:17:40
  where this is probably going to be one of the most dominant
• 1:17:43
  performances that anyone has ever witnessed.
• 1:17:46
  And, and these are going to be is going to be legit competition
• 1:17:50
  here as Well, and so we did start seeing the writing on the
• 1:17:55
  wall that we. If we came out and compete at
• 1:18:00
  the way, we were capable of that.
• 1:18:03
  We knew that some special things with happened.
• 1:18:06
  And we really I really pride myself our staff.
• 1:18:09
  We really pride ourselves on, you know, peaking at the right
• 1:18:12
  time. I know some coaches, don't
• 1:18:15
  believe in peeking. I will always be a huge fan of
• 1:18:20
  peak, you know. I feel like I've won more
• 1:18:22
  championships because we were the most prepared team and not
• 1:18:27
  necessarily the better team and I wait a small hiccup here.
• 1:18:38
  We'll wait for Coach. Does the come back on here?
• 1:18:41
  It's probably my internet. Not his.
• 1:18:42
  There we go. All right.
• 1:18:43
  You're good. You talk about your love of
• 1:18:45
  peeking, which I think that should be a shirt.
• 1:18:46
  By the way, I love peeking. That's I love.
• 1:18:50
  Love it. Yeah, keep going.
• 1:18:51
  Give me one. And I was going to say that that
• 1:18:54
  I mean I feel like we've won more championships by being the
• 1:18:58
  most prepared team, you know, versus being the better are the
• 1:19:02
  best team and we were just emotionally Mentally and
• 1:19:07
  physically and physiologically prepared for that part of the
• 1:19:13
  Season, especially on the girls side.
• 1:19:16
  And it really showed at the end of May leading all the way
• 1:19:21
  through Nationals in June how do you keep you know we're talking
• 1:19:25
  about 14 to 18 year old girls here?
• 1:19:29
  You know I remember when I was that age as a boy yeah
• 1:19:32
  motivation and you know teamwork and things like that they were
• 1:19:36
  Important. But, you know, I'm still 17 18
• 1:19:38
  years old as you're progressing through the meat and you start
• 1:19:41
  this big lead and at some point, you know, kids are smart and
• 1:19:43
  coaches are smart at some point. You know the meats over its I
• 1:19:46
  got out. It doesn't matter what happens.
• 1:19:47
  We're winning we're by 60, if everything goes terrible will
• 1:19:50
  win by one but you know we can't lose.
• 1:19:52
  How do you as a high school coach working with 14 to 18 year
• 1:19:56
  old girls here? How do you keep them you know
• 1:19:59
  fully pressed on the gas, right? Because if some point they had
• 1:20:02
  to be like coach, it doesn't matter.
• 1:20:05
  I got no ice. What a win because I'm, you
• 1:20:06
  know, maybe I'm in the 200, I want to win, but, you know, the
• 1:20:09
  girl who's like, you know, I could get forth or I could just
• 1:20:13
  Coast eight and I don't matter because we still going to win,
• 1:20:15
  how do you keep them engaged? You know, be fully engaged fully
• 1:20:19
  present and 100 percent all the way through the end of that four
• 1:20:22
  by four. That's a great question, Mike.
• 1:20:25
  You know, I just want to say that, I mean Pride.
• 1:20:27
  We always talk about being Pride, you know, how you do.
• 1:20:31
  Anything is how you do everything in life and I want to
• 1:20:35
  see them apply I that on the track and I wanted to see them
• 1:20:38
  apply that when they're off the track and it, I don't think we
• 1:20:42
  were ever really looking at the score.
• 1:20:45
  You know, only time score became a factor is when the announcers
• 1:20:49
  announces for, but everyone was pretty much locked in ready to
• 1:20:54
  do their best at their particular and respective
• 1:20:59
  events, and they have their assignments.
• 1:21:02
  And so, you know, we created this culture Created this by in
• 1:21:08
  which was just super important that they learn this value as a
• 1:21:14
  as a life lesson. They when they graduate that
• 1:21:18
  we're seeing some of these same qualities about them in other
• 1:21:22
  things that they're doing so they were just no doubt about
• 1:21:26
  it. When it was their turn to step
• 1:21:28
  up to the ring or, you know, on the line that they're going to
• 1:21:33
  be ready to give their very best.
• 1:21:37
  No matter what, the score the meat was and I have to imagine
• 1:21:41
  you and your staff led by example, meaning you didn't
• 1:21:44
  coach less because the it was in the bag is like, no, no we stay,
• 1:21:49
  you know, you did not pick up that elbow in the shop but you
• 1:21:51
  can't drop. It's like coaches over.
• 1:21:52
  We got the right here. Still got to do the right thing.
• 1:21:56
  Right now, we got, we got we were pumped all the way through.
• 1:21:58
  I love that. Did you have any inkling after
• 1:22:00
  that meat and after the national meet successes?
• 1:22:04
  You're like, you know what? I think I might have a shot
• 1:22:06
  National Coach of the Year Awards.
• 1:22:07
  Have any inkling there at all. I never think about those types
• 1:22:11
  of things, you know. I, to be honest with you, you
• 1:22:15
  know, I don't feel like I'm the one deserving to get those
• 1:22:19
  things. I mean, I know, I'm at the helm
• 1:22:21
  and, and of course, when something doesn't go well, I'm
• 1:22:25
  the first one that people come to find, you get, whatever the
• 1:22:28
  opposite of the national Coach of the Year Awards.
• 1:22:32
  Yeah, I mean, but I have again, I mean, we, I call it that,
• 1:22:35
  Dream team of a staff, some close and personal friends who
• 1:22:41
  are coaches, my team student athletes, they are amazing, my
• 1:22:48
  parents are amazing. And so, I mean, it just, I'm
• 1:22:53
  very lucky to be in the situation that I'm in.
• 1:22:57
  This is a hobby for me and I absolutely love it.
• 1:23:01
  And, you know, I, I'm I'm even Talk that I get a stipend for
• 1:23:07
  for doing it. Well, I don't know how much
• 1:23:10
  make, but you deserve more and I don't need to because you won
• 1:23:12
  the. I don't mean it because you won
• 1:23:13
  the meet and you won the award. I will say that to any track
• 1:23:16
  coach you, I don't care what you make it, you should be making
• 1:23:17
  more. So before we get, because I do
• 1:23:20
  want to get to the staff because you don't score 200 points at
• 1:23:23
  your state meet and not scored pretty much every one of the
• 1:23:26
  disciplines that we have coaches for.
• 1:23:28
  So we're going to learn more about that staff here in a
• 1:23:29
  second but I do want to know what was it like when you are
• 1:23:33
  notified from the US. Tipsy CCA that you were the
• 1:23:37
  girls National coach of the year.
• 1:23:39
  Were you notified first that you were the DC girls coach of the
• 1:23:42
  year? And then later it, the national
• 1:23:44
  orbit that all have the same time and just what went through
• 1:23:46
  your mind when you found that out.
• 1:23:48
  Yes, I received the message from Christina with the u.s. tfcc CA
• 1:23:56
  and I was actually in Jamaica celebrating my 50th birthday and
• 1:24:03
  you know what? A lot of family and friends.
• 1:24:06
  ends and I was on my way to get a massage, and, and I end up
• 1:24:14
  just like jumping up for joy and I, you know, contacted my wife
• 1:24:20
  to inform her sent her the text because initially, I was getting
• 1:24:26
  these calls from from New Orleans and you're right here,
• 1:24:30
  like, I'm thinking it's damn and then I get the text from
• 1:24:33
  Christina and I was I was, I mean, I was, I was excited to
• 1:24:38
  receive that. So what you're saying is, it's
• 1:24:41
  good to be coach Des because we met, you're in Jamaica.
• 1:24:44
  Going to get a massage and you get the award like come on.
• 1:24:47
  That's the trifecta, man. That was it.
• 1:24:51
  That was a great moment. Yeah.
• 1:24:53
  Was that the DC coach of the year or the national?
• 1:24:56
  Do they do both of those at the national?
• 1:24:58
  Yeah. So, what went through your mind?
• 1:25:00
  I mean, yeah. Yeah.
• 1:25:03
  You know, I'm just from a So humility.
• 1:25:07
  I just really You know, fell a little bit of imposter syndrome.
• 1:25:14
  We talked about that a lot. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:25:16
  And it was just hard for me too. I mean even as we're talking
• 1:25:23
  about this is just still hasn't sank.
• 1:25:26
  I don't have this attitude, like, yeah, I do, I should have
• 1:25:30
  gotten it. I, you know, deserve to get it.
• 1:25:33
  I'm I'm, I'm living my best life coaching and I'm only as good as
• 1:25:39
  my last Season. So, you know, I mean, cross
• 1:25:43
  country right now. And, yeah, I do want to
• 1:25:47
  celebrate that with my coaches and I like to think that I do a
• 1:25:51
  great job of recognizing them and, and, you know, taking them
• 1:25:56
  out to dinner or having a dinner in my backyard and just always
• 1:26:00
  showing appreciation and gratitude for, you know, their
• 1:26:05
  friendship for their commitment. They're making a lot of
• 1:26:10
  sacrifices. Isis they help me to make more
• 1:26:13
  sacrifices. I mean, iron, sharpens, iron,
• 1:26:16
  and the energy that we have as a staff is just amazing.
• 1:26:20
  So, when I'm getting this award, it's just doesn't really feel
• 1:26:26
  right. I feel like that in, this will
• 1:26:30
  be something out. Throw into the ring that you
• 1:26:33
  recognized programs recognized coaching staffs, you know, where
• 1:26:38
  his, hey coach, who else is on your staff.
• 1:26:41
  So, we can duplicate this award. Yeah, and so that's where I am.
• 1:26:49
  Yeah, I agree with that 100%. We ran Gill Coach of the Year
• 1:26:53
  program for a while. I was heading that up and so,
• 1:26:57
  I'm a huge believer and proponent mainly in the college
• 1:27:01
  side here, the conference's that instead of giving out a coach of
• 1:27:05
  the year, give out the program of the year because I agree, you
• 1:27:08
  ain't winning a conference title, you win a State title.
• 1:27:11
  With one coach you just just I mean name it.
• 1:27:14
  You can't be no cross-country. I guess you can have one
• 1:27:16
  distance coach and can win Nationals across but track and
• 1:27:19
  field. Sorry not happening right on the
• 1:27:22
  coach of the year that we ran. The reason we kept it as a coach
• 1:27:25
  of the year program is we wanted.
• 1:27:27
  And we did, we wanted to recognize an individual coach
• 1:27:31
  that did something amazing because there can be St.
• 1:27:37
  John's could have 74. Teen in 15 foot pole, vaulters
• 1:27:44
  on your team, you don't win the state meet because you'll have
• 1:27:46
  any spiders and jumpers and throwers, but it's like, wow,
• 1:27:49
  that pole vault coach like developed 715 ft.
• 1:27:53
  That that's unheard of, no high school has, that code should be
• 1:27:56
  coach of the year or a coach that fund raised two million
• 1:28:02
  dollars for a new facility. Bingo, you should be coaching
• 1:28:05
  the you've done something heroic, right?
• 1:28:07
  But I do tend to think like even these Awards and this is Where
• 1:28:11
  well, I got one more question that we're going to jump into
• 1:28:13
  this amazing staff, but I do think of these awards that you
• 1:28:15
  should. Actually, my opinion, should be
• 1:28:17
  the coach, the program of the staff of the year.
• 1:28:21
  Yeah, yeah. Individual staffs of the states
• 1:28:24
  and then your National staff of the year because you just didn't
• 1:28:28
  get it done on your own. And if you are, you ain't up for
• 1:28:30
  this award because you ain't whether it's so Desmond talk to
• 1:28:35
  us about when you got notified after you get notified of being
• 1:28:39
  the national coach of the year. What kind of like fun cool
• 1:28:42
  thing, maybe happened like, you know, maybe the mayor of DC
• 1:28:46
  caught that be kind of a big deal.
• 1:28:47
  The Mayor DC calls right besides being a guest on this podcast?
• 1:28:52
  Of course, what other kind of cool thing.
• 1:28:54
  Fun thing is maybe happened since you got named the national
• 1:28:57
  Coach of the Year. Well, you know, we have a mantra
• 1:28:59
  with the team in this also, what our staff, if one of us win, we
• 1:29:03
  all win. So, to share this moment with my
• 1:29:06
  staff. It definitely.
• 1:29:10
  I mean, they They know that this award is also in their
• 1:29:14
  dedication as well, due to the hard work that they put in.
• 1:29:18
  So when we definitely feel like we all have, you know, our part
• 1:29:23
  of this award, we've all we all have had are having success with
• 1:29:28
  this. And then it's also just a great
• 1:29:31
  dealing with family and friends and, you know, my mother, you
• 1:29:36
  know, who's able to experience this and it's kind of where it's
• 1:29:40
  come full circle. Go and she said, look whatever
• 1:29:43
  you do, make sure you the best. Yeah and and so for her to see
• 1:29:50
  me accomplish those things and and my wife and kids were just
• 1:29:55
  super ecstatic and so just to share this moment with my staff,
• 1:30:00
  my family, my friends. That's that's all I need.
• 1:30:04
  You know, I don't, I don't I don't need a lot of notoriety, I
• 1:30:08
  don't need any notoriety. I just I want to be a part of
• 1:30:12
  those precious moments and, and I do consider this to be a
• 1:30:16
  precious moment for all of us. Yeah, absolutely.
• 1:30:19
  All right, so let's kick it, man.
• 1:30:20
  Let's, let's let's hear the staff I'm expecting.
• 1:30:24
  Well, I'm not expect. I didn't know these guys and
• 1:30:25
  gals are in your staff. Are rock stars because yeah,
• 1:30:28
  boy, aren't ya, 200 points? Come on, they're working and
• 1:30:32
  doing it right? With 14, 18 year, old kids, and
• 1:30:34
  making positive. Impacts tell us who start with
• 1:30:37
  you and what you coach for the program.
• 1:30:40
  You know what have And such and then lead us through the rest of
• 1:30:42
  the staff here. Alright.
• 1:30:45
  So I coach because I coach all events, you know, your high
• 1:30:49
  school coach, I knew that. Yeah.
• 1:30:52
  And I, you know, I have to know all events well and because I
• 1:30:55
  always want to, you know, just talk shop with the regimen
• 1:30:59
  that's put together for all of the events.
• 1:31:03
  I have a we have a young buck who's on the staff he is one of
• 1:31:08
  my former Club runners. His name is Michael lemon and he
• 1:31:14
  is our Sprints coach. And he also is a coach that has
• 1:31:21
  the characteristics to be a head coach.
• 1:31:23
  And so, we're kind of keeping that in mind that that he's,
• 1:31:29
  there were planting the seeds for him to take over the
• 1:31:32
  program. Once, you know, I decide to, you
• 1:31:37
  know, call it. I have a phenomenal.
• 1:31:40
  Hurdle coach Zack. We call him Coach Zack, Zack
• 1:31:47
  Ray. And he is one of my former
• 1:31:50
  Maryland athletes. I was very fortunate to coach
• 1:31:55
  him in the 400-meter hurdles. He was in NCAA regional
• 1:32:00
  qualifier but you know it was able to do a lot with him in
• 1:32:05
  terms of preparing him for the long hurdles and so he's our
• 1:32:09
  hurdle coach. And then we have a young lady,
• 1:32:14
  your Ana, Joseph, who is our, she's also our jumps coach, she
• 1:32:21
  has, I mean, our jumps program carried, a lot of weight for us.
• 1:32:26
  She is from st. Lucia, and she also competed for
• 1:32:32
  the University of South Florida, and she just has held multiple
• 1:32:38
  multi than records. In the hip.
• 1:32:42
  And so she's kind of the mama of the of the team.
• 1:32:45
  And also a good friend of mine. There's a got to phenomenal
• 1:32:51
  distance coaches of Tim McMahon. We've coached together for over
• 1:32:58
  two decades and I actually coached his son as a part of one
• 1:33:04
  of those Club Runners. When we first started back in
• 1:33:07
  the days, his son Quinton McMahon, I guess you got a
• 1:33:12
  pretty funny story about this where we had coached, maybe
• 1:33:16
  about 15 16 years together. And he coached with me at
• 1:33:21
  Maryland and, you know, he's a engineer by trade, very
• 1:33:27
  science-based. So we get along really well and
• 1:33:31
  we don't always agree, but we figure things out.
• 1:33:34
  So after we left Marilyn, he was a bit burnt out and we both were
• 1:33:40
  a bit and So I wasn't sure what was going to be the next steps
• 1:33:44
  for me, but then eventually I got, I took on the Jackson re
• 1:33:47
  job and he said to me that, dude, I'm done coaching, I'm
• 1:33:54
  going to be come a beekeeper and yeah, and he loves doing it.
• 1:34:00
  Matter of fact he's trees in Florida now on the trip, but
• 1:34:04
  then he says, do the only way I'll ever coach again, as if you
• 1:34:08
  coach at st. John's and That's the school
• 1:34:12
  where both of his sons went to school and his one son Quinton
• 1:34:18
  was the school record holder. You know, he ran 15 and some
• 1:34:22
  change and and I coached in Jackson read for those six years
• 1:34:28
  and then, man, I could not wait to make that call.
• 1:34:32
  I said, dude, you got your stopwatch you ready?
• 1:34:36
  What do you mean? And I said I'm the new head
• 1:34:40
  coach He could not believe it. All I heard was holy shit, the
• 1:34:47
  Moslem. Yeah.
• 1:34:48
  So he's back in action with me. He thought he had it safe
• 1:34:51
  because he was even naming the school.
• 1:34:53
  Not just you back, you coach him, but you got to be at st.
• 1:34:55
  John, he's like, yeah, by the lottery ticket and he never
• 1:34:58
  comes. Yeah.
• 1:35:00
  Yeah. So so he came aboard and you
• 1:35:04
  know, when we first started the school had no championships on
• 1:35:09
  the girls side. Not cross-country, indoor
• 1:35:13
  outdoor. And our first year, we swept it,
• 1:35:16
  we had the Triple Crown. We want to cross country by a
• 1:35:20
  few points. We won indoors by few, we won
• 1:35:25
  outdoors and I was, that was a, that was a special moment.
• 1:35:28
  I got a good buddy who runs a super competitive program at
• 1:35:32
  Elizabeth Seton, you know, Omar coach Omar and they had one in
• 1:35:37
  10 years in a row for on the track side.
• 1:35:41
  And then we had a conference team Bishop O'Connell who had
• 1:35:44
  wanted 11 times in a row. So we had our work cut out for
• 1:35:49
  us but but Tim was super instrumental and helping us to
• 1:35:54
  get this going Gabby. Grips key who was a former head
• 1:35:59
  coach at a couple of prominent private schools in in DC.
• 1:36:05
  But she also went to middle and long distance Power House.
• 1:36:11
  Our program, which is Bronxville and High School in New York and
• 1:36:16
  so she's coming with the plethora and that's the one
• 1:36:20
  thing I always say that I have a bunch of coaches, that could
• 1:36:23
  actually be head coaches and I was like it.
• 1:36:26
  Yeah. And then I have former another
• 1:36:31
  formula former 800-meter athlete from the University of Maryland.
• 1:36:35
  Ariana Tabata by Yoo-hoo. She's young, she's energetic.
• 1:36:43
  She was a 400 800 gal, so she did a lot with our
• 1:36:49
  middle-distance group and then we had a great throws Coach Joe
• 1:36:56
  Staton, who was just always consistent with our throwers
• 1:37:02
  very laid-back love, being around them.
• 1:37:07
  People person who We one of the events at the state meet that,
• 1:37:13
  we all celebrated with was the young lady who won The discus.
• 1:37:18
  We didn't see it coming and knew she would be competitive, but
• 1:37:23
  she showed up on that day and and I mean we all celebrated my
• 1:37:28
  that's awesome. I love it.
• 1:37:29
  Shout out to all you guys and gals because it takes every one
• 1:37:33
  of you from Joe and the throws Tim Ariana Zach.
• 1:37:38
  It doesn't happen. It literally does not happen.
• 1:37:40
  Everybody, without everybody coming together and I got to
• 1:37:43
  also shout out our operations manager, Thelma Ortega who, you
• 1:37:51
  know, just did a great job with all the logistics with the team
• 1:37:54
  and a lot of the grunt work making sure that we can spend
• 1:37:57
  time coaching. While she was taking care of a
• 1:38:00
  lot of those, you know, other other things that, that help to
• 1:38:07
  keep the everything well-oiled and And moving forward, I love
• 1:38:12
  it. Yeah.
• 1:38:12
  The we all need, we all need a Thelma in our life.
• 1:38:15
  Lastly, we all do. We can't live without it.
• 1:38:17
  Well, Desmet to wrap up today, you know, to have a successful
• 1:38:20
  program like this. You know, it's one thing, it
• 1:38:23
  takes a staff that's that's kind of table Stakes.
• 1:38:26
  You have to have a staff and the staff that's committed to
• 1:38:28
  working together staff, that's committed to lead by example.
• 1:38:31
  If you want your throwers to watch the 4x4, well I'm going to
• 1:38:34
  go out on a limb and say that Coach, Joe Stanton is paying
• 1:38:37
  attention to the farm before he's leading by example and all
• 1:38:40
  the other Accommodations we could put there but you also
• 1:38:42
  have to have support you mentioned the parents of your of
• 1:38:45
  your team, you know, Administration.
• 1:38:50
  Someone's got to drive the bus, give us kind of a rundown, or
• 1:38:53
  just some people that were super in.
• 1:38:54
  And, and I'm going to give you all leeway here.
• 1:38:56
  You're going to forget someone, everybody always does doesn't
• 1:38:59
  mean my masculine the pressure. I know I'll put you on the spot
• 1:39:02
  here but I just want to get a sense for, you know, for a
• 1:39:06
  program, a coach's program. That's listening right now who's
• 1:39:09
  like, you know, I want to be Good program.
• 1:39:11
  But I'm just I, you know, I just can't figure out what to get
• 1:39:14
  over the hump. You know, it takes, if you think
• 1:39:17
  about this puzzle, takes all these pieces to come together.
• 1:39:19
  And one of those pieces is Administration, one of those
• 1:39:22
  pieces is a good booster club parent Club piece.
• 1:39:26
  Athletes is a piece coaches coaches and it's all these
• 1:39:29
  puzzle pieces. So I just kinda want to give a
• 1:39:30
  full round picture that while you are amazing, in your
• 1:39:34
  coaching staff is amazing. And your athletes are amazing.
• 1:39:36
  That's not enough. It takes these other pieces of
• 1:39:39
  the puzzle. Who what are some of those other
• 1:39:41
  pieces for you there at st. John's, yeah, so, I mean, so two
• 1:39:45
  guys who did our Zilla retraining with our strength and
• 1:39:49
  performance training, Dominique G coach Lou.
• 1:39:53
  And you know these are pretty straightforward guys.
• 1:39:57
  That they understand our sport, they understand what we need in
• 1:40:01
  terms of the the performance training side of things.
• 1:40:05
  Our parents always asking how can I help, what do you need?
• 1:40:11
  Making sure that we, I mean, little things like having snacks
• 1:40:14
  and and if it's going to be a long day sandwiches and just
• 1:40:18
  keep the fuel there. If we need a team 10, you know,
• 1:40:22
  fundraising there's a lot of support around that and so and
• 1:40:27
  we have an amazing principal who makes it out to most of our
• 1:40:34
  championships. Chris, the Mist has he brings
• 1:40:39
  his family out sometimes? Yes.
• 1:40:41
  But, you know, you can always count on him being around to
• 1:40:44
  support to student athletes. And so it's a community it's a
• 1:40:48
  community that that we love that has grown tremendously.
• 1:40:53
  And you know, we don't have any intentions on stopping soon.
• 1:40:58
  Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
• 1:40:59
  How many seniors did you graduate from this team?
• 1:41:02
  Oh, let me see what we're. We did not graduate many so why
• 1:41:06
  not just get we did graduate. Two young, ladies that I feel
• 1:41:11
  like they are. They were the backbone of
• 1:41:15
  developing the culture that we need to be there.
• 1:41:19
  Weren't the most talented, but you didn't know that because
• 1:41:21
  they made up for it. In other ways they were super
• 1:41:25
  successful, they took first and second person third in the
• 1:41:29
  100-meter hurdles Amina Martin and Kylie Ritz.
• 1:41:34
  And so I'll always say that they were the ones that gave me that
• 1:41:37
  that they ignited me too. To want to do more for the
• 1:41:42
  program. And now one is at Barnard
• 1:41:45
  competing for Colombia. She's in her freshman year and
• 1:41:48
  then Kylie's at Fordham. And so we're traveling to bank
• 1:41:53
  Cortlandt Park this upcoming weekend so we'll get a chance to
• 1:41:57
  see Amina and some of our other former athletes who are
• 1:42:00
  competing. So it's I mean we I can I can
• 1:42:04
  name so many more young lady that the shot put the discus
• 1:42:08
  throwers. She Was also a basketball
• 1:42:11
  player. She was, I School Valedictorian.
• 1:42:14
  She's also going to play basketball.
• 1:42:17
  She might throw a little bit from Brown.
• 1:42:19
  And so, you know, we, I'm super proud of the group that we have
• 1:42:26
  and the contributions and sacrifices that everyone is
• 1:42:29
  made. I mean, that's just an
• 1:42:30
  overachiever takes a state champ, basketball player.
• 1:42:33
  Valedictorian goes to Ivy League to play basketball on a probably
• 1:42:37
  going to throw. Young lady.
• 1:42:39
  You just. You put me to shame.
• 1:42:41
  I haven't done that my whole life, and you rewrite the year,
• 1:42:44
  man, scream. And she's funny.
• 1:42:45
  And she's super funny. I won't do that because then
• 1:42:48
  she'll keep going and going, but yeah, we're just going to act
• 1:42:52
  like she's not funny. She has to have some little
• 1:42:55
  flawed. You're not funny, right?
• 1:42:57
  You're very smart. You're gonna answer one day but
• 1:43:00
  you're not funny. Well, coach Desmond here.
• 1:43:05
  Thank you so much. You know, this has been an
• 1:43:07
  absolute blast. You know what are the most
• 1:43:10
  valuable things you can ever give me and us here Gil.
• 1:43:13
  Thanks is your time. You know we had we went back and
• 1:43:15
  forth on getting your time. I know it's super busy time.
• 1:43:18
  Like I said you're going to Van Cortlandt this weekend near the
• 1:43:20
  middle of cross country season and we're going to see each
• 1:43:23
  other. You're going to be in Denver,
• 1:43:24
  right? I'll be in Denver and I can't
• 1:43:25
  wait to hang out with you in Denver and get to meet.
• 1:43:29
  You face to face the u.s. towards the, a convention is
• 1:43:32
  literally one of my most favorite things in the entire
• 1:43:34
  world. So, so, so happy that you joined
• 1:43:37
  us here today to give us some of your back.
• 1:43:39
  Out and you know, just to celebrate, honestly, uplifting
• 1:43:41
  honor what you've done as you lead st.
• 1:43:43
  John's College High School and more.
• 1:43:45
  You know your story is not done. I know you talked about like,
• 1:43:48
  well, you know, maybe wasn't Mike.
• 1:43:51
  I think it is Mike lemon, maybe he's the next head coach.
• 1:43:53
  Yeah. Sorry, Mike this dude ain't
• 1:43:56
  done. You keep learning because it's
• 1:43:58
  gonna be a while. But that's that's okay.
• 1:43:59
  Because it's going to make it that much sweeter.
• 1:44:01
  When you do become the next head coach there, St.
• 1:44:03
  John's but Desmond. Thanks again for joining us here
• 1:44:06
  on the Gila headaches connections podcast, really
• 1:44:08
  appreciate it. Thank you so much, Mike.
• 1:44:10
  So I'm going to see him in Denver and December and I'm
• 1:44:12
  going to see you next week. If you didn't catch the other
• 1:44:15
  two episodes, this is kind of set a three-parter that we did
• 1:44:17
  here go back. If you know, we didn't actually
• 1:44:20
  Define us tfcc a. So if this is your first time
• 1:44:23
  here in that, that's the United States track and field.
• 1:44:26
  See, I knew I was gonna miss a track and field coach has and
• 1:44:29
  crust. Crunchy cross country.
• 1:44:31
  Coaches Sam is going to obliterate me.
• 1:44:34
  We're going to start that all over again.
• 1:44:35
  I'm not cutting that out, UST of CA the United States track and
• 1:44:38
  field in Cross. Country coaches association.
• 1:44:41
  There were no real bit nailed. Nailed it, they do a lot for our
• 1:44:45
  coaching body out there. Right for college and high
• 1:44:49
  school. Go back, two weeks ago, episode
• 1:44:51
  176, we had the CEO Sam seems had him on.
• 1:44:54
  We talked about his background and then really jumped into what
• 1:44:57
  the u.s. tfcc, a does for coaching.
• 1:44:59
  And for the coaching body, it's highly important.
• 1:45:01
  I highly recommend you go back and listen to that.
• 1:45:04
  And then last week and episode 177, with Timber, and the head
• 1:45:07
  coach up, I want to be Alliterated, every time I say
• 1:45:09
  it, Tim the sulli z&m high school up in Delaware.
• 1:45:13
  He was the boys coach of the year and if you're interested
• 1:45:16
  last year's boys and girls, National High School, coaches of
• 1:45:19
  the years, Shelton Irvin down at Summer Creek, High School in
• 1:45:22
  Texas and Mike McCabe up at union Catholic in New Jersey, my
• 1:45:26
  God right there. Yeah, great people, right?
• 1:45:28
  We come on, great people, hang around, great people.
• 1:45:31
  That's really the Crux of it. All you could go back and
• 1:45:34
  listening because I think what you'll notice, if you go back
• 1:45:37
  and listen specifically to those four, Desmond today, Tim last
• 1:45:41
  week and then Shelton and Mike from last year, these are highly
• 1:45:46
  successful High School coaches here and I think if you go back,
• 1:45:50
  you'll start picking out some commonalities.
• 1:45:53
  You'll notice that almost every not almost every, one of them
• 1:45:56
  was really eager to talk about their staff over themselves.
• 1:45:59
  Every one of them, every one of my, if you notice I'm having to
• 1:46:02
  draw out Desmond, story, Desmond's, quick to talk about
• 1:46:05
  his staff, that's the same with Mike and Shelton and Tim There's
• 1:46:09
  other commonalities coaching education comes up.
• 1:46:13
  It was surprising to me because I didn't coaching the high
• 1:46:16
  school level fairly long. So I don't have this experience
• 1:46:18
  is a lot of these guys talk about the coaching education
• 1:46:22
  amongst their staff getting together and hearing from the
• 1:46:25
  throws coach. What do you do?
• 1:46:26
  Okay, well I'm thinking about doing, you know, how I can, I
• 1:46:28
  translate that over to my Sprint's job, Sprint's group,
• 1:46:30
  and the distance coach. And what does he and she doing.
• 1:46:33
  So there's a lot of commonalities inside the
• 1:46:36
  batsuit. I highly recommend you go back
• 1:46:38
  and listen. To all four of these coaches of
• 1:46:41
  the year, because they're just, they're awesome.
• 1:46:42
  They're awesome people. Awesome, staffs and they've done
• 1:46:44
  really some amazing things. So, shout out to the US Marines
• 1:46:47
  for sponsoring the u.s. tfcc, a high school boys and girls.
• 1:46:52
  Coach of the year. We'll see you guys in Denver.
• 1:46:53
  See you next week. Have an awesome week.
• 1:46:55
  We'll talk to you soon. Thanks Mike what an incredible
• 1:47:05
  journey coach has been on so awesome to hear their story in
• 1:47:08
  their own words, tremendous proof of the positive effect
• 1:47:11
  coaches, make on a daily basis. Help us spread the word of this.
• 1:47:14
  Great journey by sharing on your favorite social, media channel.
• 1:47:17
  And don't forget to take a minute to rate and review the
• 1:47:20
  podcast. You just might get a shout-out
• 1:47:22
  on a future episode. That's it for today.
• 1:47:24
  Join us next week, when we'll connect you with another amazing
• 1:47:28
  crunch.