Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / BONUS: TTFCA Virtual Clinic 2024 (CoachTube.com)-Lamont Vaughn Grambling State NCAA Recruiting

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BONUS: TTFCA Virtual Clinic 2024 (CoachTube.com)-Lamont Vaughn Grambling State NCAA Recruiting · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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Hey gang, we're back with another bonus episode.
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Hope you're enjoying these awesome bonus episodes brought
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to you by great partners of ours around the country.
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This week our friends at TTFCA, the Texas Track and Field
0:12
Coaches Association along with coachtube.com are partnering
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with us to help bring you another NCAA recruiting bonus
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episode recently. Lamont Vaughn, Head coach of
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Grambling State University, spoke at the Virtual Clinic for
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TTFCA back in December speaking about this important topic.
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And we all TTFCA coachtube.com in US wanted to bring that topic
0:36
to you to help bring value to your program this year in the
0:41
upcoming 2024 seasons. I hope you enjoy.
0:43
Please stop by coachtube.com to see many thousands, hundreds
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great topics on track and field from shop foot, javelin, pole
0:52
vault and more. You're sure to receive a lot of
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value there. Let's get on with the show.
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Track and Field World Q&L tuned in to our humble servant Mike
1:11
Cunningham for another extraordinary message on Gil
1:14
Athletics connections. All righty, everybody.
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I'm here ready for our first session of the day with Lamont
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Vaughn, junior head track and field coach at Grambling State
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University. Go ahead and take it away,
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Coach. Good evening, everybody.
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Can everybody see or hear me? I hope everybody can.
1:49
Sounds like everybody can so for you know this presentation, this
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is basically the the state of track and field recruiting.
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I know that there's a lot of discussion going on about what's
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going on with transfer portal and this, that and the other.
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We can definitely get any questions that anybody may have
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regarding the transfer portal. A lot of what I I probably will
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talk about is kind of what goes into the mindset of many
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coaches. Not necessarily all, but but
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many of the coaches at at our level.
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I tell people all the time, track and field.
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You know, you can talk to five different programs at 5
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different times of the year and you might get 5 different
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answers each time. But I I I think the big thing
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for all of us, when we talk about track and field, we talk
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about recruiting. The big thing for us is always
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going to be we're trying to calculate post season success,
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OK? I talk to parents, coaches,
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athletes all the time. Texas Relays is a phenomenal
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meet. It's one of the better meets, if
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not the best Invitational meet in the country.
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It's a great meet, but there's not a single coach at that meet
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that gets paid for. What happens gets evaluated for
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what happens at that meet, including the coaches at Texas.
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I've known Coach Floreal for, Oh well, almost 20 years.
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Their distance coach, Greg Metcalf, I work for him at the
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University of Washington. They don't get paid for what
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happens at that meet, OK? They're evaluated.
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They are some of the highest paid coaches in the country.
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They're evaluated by what happens at their conference
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championships, at the regional championships and at the NCAA
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championships, that that's really bottom line for for all
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of us now. We may be doing it at different
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levels, you know, a Grambling state, my A DS.
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Not asking me necessarily what's happening at the NTA meet
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because we're trying to get ourselves to the point where we
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can get to that. But we are evaluated by what
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happens at the SLAC championships and and so in
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order to guide our recruiting, what I've done over the years
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and this is my 27th year coaching.
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What I've done and what I've asked my staff to do is
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calculate a three-year cohort so to speak of what's the average
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winner of of your events that you coach and what's the average
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last qualifier for final or and or the last performance that
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scores at our Congress championship.
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Those things those that range gives us basically a screen of
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several things. One, it lets us know what how
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that event is trending in real time.
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OK. I know that there's people that
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do 10 year averages or 15 year averages.
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So much has changed in in the sport in the last 10 to 15
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years. I think that three, sometimes
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maybe even five years is is a a more accurate snapshot of what's
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going on. How is that event trending?
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So for instance, like in our conference in the men's hundred,
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the average winner in our conference the last three years
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has been 10/17 at 100 meters to make a final.
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The average has been 1056. Now that's a pretty wide range.
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That's a pretty wide gap. But if you look at what it took
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to make the final this year, 1047 didn't make the final this
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year. So it's telling you when you
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look a little bit deeper, OK, our conference at the men's
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hundred is trending up and it's trending faster.
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So we now that now when you're looking at it, I'm saying, OK,
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if I look at a young man, I'm saying, OK, how close is that
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young man's consistent performances?
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How close is that person to either winning or making a
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final? OK, production always matters at
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at this level. My father coached high school in
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Tennessee for 32 years and he would always tell us your your,
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your production matters, what you do in the classroom, what
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you do on the track it map. And and that's either how you
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going to get a scholarship, keep your scholarship or if you're
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not on a full scholarship or you know or whatever level that
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you're on, that's how you going to raise your level of
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investment. OK.
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There's expectation that comes with that level of investment.
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OK. The first expectation always
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always is going to be, you know, athletic performance, you got to
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show up at at big meets, the post season meets and you got to
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perform. So that's that's first and
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foremost. Second is the academic
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performance. OK, the best, the best ability a
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student can have sometimes is availability and if they're not
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available due to academic issues, that's a problem.
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In my program, it's $1000 penalty per F up until in
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ineligibility. Once you become ineligible
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because of the APR rules, now you you have to take it because
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you know you just can't. You can't keep taking APR hits
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left and right. We won't have jobs if we
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continue to have a or if we don't have any APR issues, but
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if a coach continues to have APR issues and those things aren't
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being ripped, that coach is gone.
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And then the last measure of production that we, we, we look
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at is maturity. We don't need anybody that's in
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an abusive culture. You can put whatever word you
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you want in front of it. Drug abuse, alcohol abuse,
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sexual abuse, whatever. We don't we we just can't have
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that. So the production on all three
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of those fronts, not one of the three, not two of the three, all
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three when I worked at UCLAI had a head coach Mike Maynard that I
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work for and he said scholarship is a three legged stool,
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academic performance, athletic performance and your personal
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maturity, if you take either one of the legs out of away from
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that stool, you can't sit on it. And so you know, so that's what
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we're always looking at. Now again, those numbers, it's
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always us calculating probability possibilities are
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endless. I don't concern myself with what
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pop what's possible. OK.
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I concern myself with what's probable.
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OK. I had a young man, Jordan
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Bowles. When I coached at the University
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of Washington, Jordan Bowles was an 11122 five walk on that young
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man increased his probability of success because he did the work.
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He's a 3.2 student in economics at the University of Washington.
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That is not easy to do, especially when you you major in
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business, any type of business field at the University of
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Washington. It's not easy to do.
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The young man ended up a five time NCAA All American.
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He ran 4482 in 2037. But he did the work.
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He did the work. I never had to worry about him
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drinking and smoking and beating up on the girls and all this
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other crazy stuff. I never had to worry about him
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missing a minute of study hall. He was the first one in at
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practice. He was the last one out.
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We just had to kick him out the weight 1.
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So those type of young men, there's a space for them, but
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they're going to have to earn that through their actions.
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So I tell those type of young men, hey look, you know if
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you're walking on walk, on's not a dirty word.
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Try out's not a dirty word. If you're walking on and you're
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trying out the the attitude you need to take is don't make
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yourself easy to cut. If you're going to be late, if
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you're not going to do the work, if you're not, if you're going
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to be a distraction with your personality or your your social,
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you know, your social activity, you can go, you know, I mean
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these kids on scholarship, I I can at least write, you know,
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you know see what they can do until the end of the year and
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make some changes. But for a walk on or a tryout,
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you're going to get in the way of what we're doing.
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You got to go. So when we when we talk about
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these evaluations, it's hard. It's hard because we get so many
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kids so many emails all the time and and you're just looking
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you're trying to look deeper and deeper in the signs.
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But you know the signs are it's always leading.
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OK what is the probability of success for this person that at
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the end of the day that's what matters.
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My coach, Darrell Anderson used to be the TCU head coach.
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He's now back at my alma mater at Kentucky as an assistant with
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the with the men's friends. He used to tell us all the time
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you are what your top five times say you are.
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So you know, the advice that I give coaches is show me what the
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probability looks like. OK, show me the top five
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performances. Show me the academic record.
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Show me disciplinary record. Show me what their weight room
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experience is. Don't show me 4 by two splits or
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4 by 1 splits. I don't need those.
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Don't show me 40 *. I I don't need those.
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Show me the entire picture of who this young man or who this
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young woman is and how it helps our program be successful in the
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postseason. You know, it's it's it's just
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difficult to do that. So by doing that you know making
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it easier by showing us the top five performances or giving us
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an average of their top five performances the previous season
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doing their top five performances over the course of
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time that doesn't that doesn't necessarily show me, I'd rather
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see you know we on mile split what are those top average of
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the top five in the 2023 season. So I think giving us that
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snapshot now says OK this is where this is where this young
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man or young woman is. I've said on many occasions your
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your, your athletic record, you get the same, almost the same
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evaluation as your academic record.
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You you can make an A in a class and you've done really well in
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that class, but you're getting evaluated by your GPA.
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So a young man can run 10:40, but if his average is 1060,
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that's kind of way most coaches are going to look at it.
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They're going to look at him as a 1060 guy, not necessarily 1040
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guy. Now other things are are factors
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in there too. You know, where are they doing
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it? Who are they running against?
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Is the is the performance wind assisted or not those things
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kind of come into play too. So we we try to look a lot
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deeper than what most what most people think that we do.
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But if you if, if coaches save us the time, you know, sending
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us those top five averages, sending us the transcripts right
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off the top, sending us the NCAID numbers, giving us a a
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picture of the young young person giving us race videos of
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that. You can send all of that in one
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e-mail and that saves that Coach a lot of work and it gives a
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good snapshot into that. And nine times out of 10 most
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coaches will will respond back to you when you give that, that
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thorough of information. I've never heard of Coach.
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Any of my colleagues say that you know, well, you know if
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somebody sends all that information, that's just too
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much information. No.
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If they get the appropriate information that gives them the
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correct snapshot they'll take a look at it and most of us will
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respond So that that that's the best advice I can give when when
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when advocating for your athletes in in the recruiting
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process. But you know again at the end of
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the day the brass tack is production in the postseason
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that that's literally what it boils down to.
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My AD is not going to ask me what happens at at the Pelican
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Relays in Baton Rouge when we go down for Southern.
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They're not going to ask me, you know what?
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What? Why didn't we win a dual meet or
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a a a quad meet or or whatever. They're not going to ask me what
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happened in Texas relays. They're not going to ask me
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Mount SAC or Florida Relays. It at the end of the day when
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I'm sitting down when the season is done and and we're done with
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regionals or if we you know matriculate ourselves to the
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NCA. Meet the the.
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When I sit down with my AD. The next time I see him he's
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going to ask me you know how can we get better at the Congress
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championships. If we win a Congress
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championship he's going to ask me how can we win another That's
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that's where we that's that's the brass tacks.
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I mean I I hire staff. We hire staff based off of
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maximizing point point potential point possibility point
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probability in the in the postseason.
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You know I don't I'm not going to hire a coach that can't help
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us in the postseason. They can't get our athletes
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ready for the postseason. So we we all get evaluated at
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this level by what happens at the postseason.
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Are there any questions to any of that?
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Hello anybody. And if you have a question while
15:06
while we're while we're chatting, please feel free to
15:09
put it in the chat. I can.
15:11
I can see the chat as well so feel free to put those questions
15:14
in there. But if anybody has any any
15:16
verbal questions they want to ask, please feel free to to go
15:19
ahead and and and chime in. So there being none, I will
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continue. Let's see, let me share my
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screen here. So a lot of people will ask me,
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you know, coach, you know you don't have XY and Z on this
15:47
team. Why can't this kid get a
15:49
scholarship or what happened? That's usually a pretty good
15:53
question. The vast majority of that is,
15:57
you know, I mean we've got these scholarship limitations.
16:00
So a lot of coaches have decided you know hey I'm going to focus
16:04
on this event area. I want to you know, I'm, I've
16:08
got a Sprint background. I'm, I'm a half former half
16:11
mile. I'm a half mile, quarter mile.
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I'm a Sprint jockey. I'm a Denise Major.
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I was coached by Darryl and so I consider one of the best Sprint
16:20
coaches in the country. His best friend Michael Holloway
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is at Florida is is a multiple time national championship coach
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and Olympic coach and has all these great athletes.
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I cut my teeth on on those gentlemen there.
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So I'm I'm a Sprint hurdle junkie to the core.
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So as a head coach, I want to Sprint, I want to hurdle and
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then I have to decide what my support system is going to be.
16:46
We are more of a developmental program at Grambling in the
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distance races. This is comparative to, you
16:55
know, other conferences in the country.
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This is not a great distance conference by any stretch of the
16:58
imagination. Yes, we do want distance runners
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and we do want effective distance runners.
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But, you know, there's nobody in our conference that's going to
17:07
run 359 indoors, break 4 minutes for a mile on the men's side.
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There's no young lady that's going to you know run 43420 in a
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in a in a mile indoors. We we just don't have, we don't
17:19
attract those type of athletes in this conference and I can say
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that you know we won't ever have any it's just consistency shows
17:26
itself. This conference hasn't had
17:27
anybody like that in in a long while.
17:31
So most of us we we tend to to you know gravitate to what we
17:36
feel we're good at. And I I think I've been
17:39
successful you know both at a conference level and a national
17:43
level in the sprints and hurdles.
17:44
So we're going to, I'm going to put the money there and and you
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know my next event group that kind of joins right there along
17:53
with it usually are the jumps. I want long jumpers, I want
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triple jumpers, I want high jumpers, you know and then that
17:59
group that's after that is probably going to be our our,
18:02
our throwing group. So if you look at our staff, you
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look at myself as a Sprint coach and you look at my staff, I have
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a jump coach and I have a throws coach.
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I don't I really I don't even have a cross country coach right
18:15
now. That's something that we're
18:16
we're we're hoping to get into here in the hopefully the next
18:20
year or so is is bringing in a cross country coach.
18:24
But when I sat down with my staff the first thing that I
18:27
told them is look if you want to be a throws based program, find
18:31
your own program because this isn't the one, this is the one
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you know program you're on a staff where we're going to
18:37
spread and hurt. If you want a junk based program
18:40
and and you want to put all the investment in there, that's just
18:45
not what we're going to do. You know so you're going to get
18:48
X amount of support there, you're going to get X amount of
18:52
support and distance races and and cross country.
18:55
We're developmental program. We don't really put a lot of
18:57
money into into it for various reasons.
19:02
Now if you go over to Stanford, they're very serious distance
19:05
program. They tend to gravitate towards
19:08
cross country and and distance racing.
19:11
They've had a lot of good multi inventors and throwers.
19:14
They've had some good good jumpers here and there.
19:16
Sprints is not something that they traditionally have done.
19:19
They've done well at it, but it's not something that they go
19:23
all in and put all their chips in.
19:26
That's their choice. You you know you look at the LSU
19:29
Sprint jump dominated you look at the Florida's that Florida
19:32
has been become a little bit more diverse in the last couple
19:36
of years having very good. I think their women were third
19:38
at NTA cross country. So they they're being a little
19:42
bit more diverse but at the end of the day whatever decision
19:45
that we make as head coaches, it's expected to work in the
19:47
postseason. You know So those resources,
19:51
those decision making, all of that goes in into that and and
19:56
so each year can change. Like right now on the men's
20:00
side, I'm very short Sprint heavy.
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I'm trying to get more back into the 400 and the 400 hurdles.
20:06
So this recruiting cycle I've spent a lot more time at 400 and
20:10
400 hurdles probably will pick up a 408 hundred guy.
20:15
On the women's side, I'm very hurdle heavy, I'm very short
20:19
hurdle heavy. Got some quarter milers, I've
20:22
got some short sprinters. I'm probably more between the
20:26
two. Probably more into the short
20:29
sprints that I am the quarter right now.
20:31
So I'm putting a lot more emphasis in four 400 hurdles,
20:34
putting a lot more emphasis at 800 in recruiting.
20:38
So you know, but that's cyclical.
20:41
You know, two years from now, I may not be looking for a quarter
20:45
mile. And you know, right now we've
20:51
got about 5 long jumpers that are really, really good on the
20:54
women's side. So we're not really pressing a
20:57
lot into the long jump right now, but four years from now, we
21:01
could be going all in them. So that's why really it
21:05
fluctuates the way that it does. It's just what we have and and
21:11
and what what we have access to in in improving our roster.
21:16
Now there may be those special circumstances where, hey, look,
21:19
this is a kid we just can't pass up.
21:22
We've got to figure out how to get this.
21:25
So I've always challenged my staff out recruit.
21:29
If I have a young lady that's 11/8 and 100, you know, 11/8 and
21:33
100 probably will get you 7th or 8th.
21:36
But you've got, you know, a 58 foot shot putter or you've got a
21:44
510 high jumper that is willing to come here and that's better
21:47
than that, than that 11/8. We got to go get that and we got
21:52
to be intentional. So it still fits what we're
21:54
doing. You know, I've told you know
21:58
people who I've just started discussing cross country and
22:01
distance races with. If if if you want big money for
22:04
an athlete they need to be somebody that can qualify and
22:09
and you know be in that top 75 to 100 in in the region with a
22:15
legitimate chance at being a regional qualifier outdoors
22:19
within the region. If you want big money for that
22:21
one athlete. So it's a philosophical thing
22:24
and and literally coaches please don't feel like you know you're
22:31
bothering us if you're asking what our philosophy is for that
22:34
particular event. OK.
22:37
Most of us, most of us would rather you know answer that
22:41
question then have people assuming something about our
22:44
program. OK.
22:46
Some coaches are are tight to the best.
22:49
It just depends on who, who you're around and and where they
22:52
are, what mood you catch them in or what have you.
22:57
Which leads me really into, you know again we talk about
23:01
accessibility and availability of of the recruits that are
23:04
willing to come to a particular school for whatever reason, the
23:07
transfer port, I know everybody's concerned about the
23:10
transport Portland and how it's affecting high school.
23:13
High school athletes I've tended to lean on.
23:16
It's just an additional layer there.
23:21
There's several layers to recruiting.
23:23
You've got your high school recruiting, so you got your in
23:25
state kids, you got your out of state kids, you got your
23:28
regional kids. You know, we get a lot of kids
23:31
from Texas, we get a lot of kids from Louisiana.
23:34
I've got kids from Atlanta, got some kids from California, I've
23:38
got kids from Chicago, I've got kids from.
23:41
I actually got kids from Michigan and Wisconsin.
23:44
So our reach is pretty good. You know, it could be better in
23:48
some areas. We've got some Kenyans.
23:52
I'm slowly getting out of that for my own reasons.
23:58
In the distance races, I am looking for more domestic
24:02
distance runners. But that that's just a
24:05
philosophical change that we've made.
24:08
When I got here we were more of a distance program.
24:11
But so you got that high school and it's national as regional as
24:16
local then you've got the junior college level.
24:21
So that's always a a a layer that you consider.
24:27
I tend to shy away from most women in in junior college.
24:34
I've got to see a lot of things from a young lady in in junior
24:39
college. If a young lady has to go to
24:41
junior college because of academics.
24:43
I'm concerned about that and and I know a lot of my coaching
24:47
coaching colleagues are too, because women tend to mature
24:52
faster academically than guys do.
24:54
Women tend to lock in academically more more
24:58
frequently than than guys do. So I I need to ask some
25:01
questions of a certain certain level of questions for junior
25:05
college female athlete guys, I need to do the same thing, you
25:10
know, if you have to go academically.
25:12
But there's might be a different set of questions that I may ask
25:15
a guy on why he struggled academically either before he
25:20
got to the junior college, junior college or while he's at
25:22
the junior college. There are things that I may ask
25:25
the coaches that might be a little bit different.
25:27
Just a little nuance, nothing major, just a little nuance
25:30
things. What are, what are they seeing
25:32
maturity wise? So the junior college level,
25:36
it's it's it's been there for a while.
25:39
Then you got the internationals, you know, I've got 3 Kenyans on
25:42
my team. I've got two Jamaicans on my
25:45
team. I've reached far into Canada.
25:49
We've signed a young man from Columbia.
25:52
I've signed some Nigeria. Now the Nigerians, it's been a
25:56
problem since COVID because the the embassies aren't issuing new
26:02
student visas and they're so backed up the last couple of
26:04
years. It's been hard to sign a
26:05
Nigerian the last couple of years or as not even sign them.
26:08
It's just hard to get them in and and you know so that that
26:12
international that that's been that's been there for a while
26:17
the the new layer, yes is the transfer portal and right now
26:21
the transfer portal, it's not even the transfer portal.
26:23
College athletics is just it's all over the place.
26:27
The COVID babies are starting to kind of kind of kind of go by
26:30
the wayside. Now those 6-7 year seniors,
26:35
they're they're starting to kind of matriculate out now because
26:38
because of the COVID impact, the transfer portal.
26:42
I, I, I I tell coaches this all the time, it's not going
26:46
anywhere. It's not going in.
26:51
It may change, you know, small little nuance things, but that
26:57
transfer portal is not going. This is the age of student
27:01
athlete empowerment. And so I'm not going to sit here
27:06
and complain about the transfer portal is I've got to adjust.
27:11
I've got to decide, you know, each year, each season, what the
27:15
transfer portal is going to mean to me and the success of our
27:19
program. When I took over as the head
27:22
coach, as I was taking over as the head coach, I did lean on
27:27
the transfer portal a little bit harder than I probably would
27:30
have liked. But, you know, we were not a
27:33
good program when I took over and I needed to show the kids in
27:37
this state of Louisiana. I need to show the kids in
27:39
Texas, the kids in Georgia, the kids and wherever that we can
27:43
start moving people and and getting things going.
27:47
So we leaned on the transfer port a little bit now we're
27:51
we're starting to we'll see we're I'm in Birmingham right
27:55
now. We'll see how our program
27:56
performs this year. But I think we've started to
28:00
kind of turn the corner a little bit and I'm probably going to
28:04
lean more heavily into high school this year.
28:08
Even recently I thought about bringing some quarter mileage in
28:11
mid year through the transfer portal and to be totally honest
28:15
I just backed off. I said you know I think we need
28:18
to to get a little younger at 400 and develop a good group of
28:24
of young men and young women together and let them
28:28
matriculate through and use the transfer portal to maybe get
28:31
somebody who can make a significant significant impact
28:35
on to take a four by four over the top.
28:38
You know if I've got, you know, three or four guys that are, you
28:42
know 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th place points at at A at a SWAT
28:47
championships. Well I go get this 46, maybe 45
28:51
second guy. Now all of a sudden a three O 6
28:55
relay can now turn into a three O 3 relay.
28:58
And now if you get into, you know, the regional meet at three
29:01
O 3 and you know you got four guys fresh, can that three O 3
29:06
relay sneak in and run 3O13O2? Maybe, maybe not.
29:11
But that transport portal kind of gives you.
29:16
I'm going to use it to get over the hump as I developed some
29:20
high school kids that that's my choice right now.
29:25
Other programs are doing it different.
29:29
You know, I don't want to speak for Coach Holloway here, but you
29:31
know right now he's the king of the transfer portal right now.
29:35
But I understand why he's the king of the transfer port.
29:39
His AD is expecting him to win the 14th national championship.
29:44
Yeah, those 46 second guys are are great, but man, it's getting
29:48
to the point where 45 one's not making a making an NCA final
29:53
anymore. 45945 seven's not making an SEC final anymore.
29:58
So he's got to go get those guys that can make those finals and
30:01
and and keep keep the status quo going at a national level.
30:05
And it's Florida. You know they're running 257 and
30:07
a four by four. Why would a quarter mile and not
30:10
want to go there? You know he's turning guys from
30:13
45 second guys in one school to 43 second guys in Florida.
30:17
They're going to go and and and they're going to make a
30:20
significant impact to Florida's national championship hopes.
30:25
Those teams that are not national championship quarter,
30:28
you know, contenders, OK, they've got to do what they need
30:31
to do for themselves at the conference level or maybe even a
30:35
national level. Maybe their goal is to be a top
30:37
15 team. Maybe their goal is to be a top
30:38
25 team. Maybe their goal is to be top
30:40
three at conference. Maybe their goal is to be top
30:43
five at conference for wherever they are right now.
30:46
So it's just a matter of where that program is, what's expected
30:51
of them and what philosophy that head coach has does anybody
30:56
have. Well, I see a question in the
30:58
chat. Coach Irving here.
31:01
Speaking of philosophy, when recruiting a high school
31:03
prospect, do you tend to communicate with the high school
31:06
to get an idea of the athlete is a better fit or do you solely
31:10
rely on the individual, the athlete, the parent of the Colt
31:13
Club coach that initiated the contact?
31:17
Me personally, I want to talk to everybody.
31:23
I want to talk to the club coach.
31:25
I want to talk to the high school coach.
31:27
I'm always going to talk to high school coaches.
31:28
I I grew up in a in a family of high school coaches.
31:32
My dad actually started our our high school club.
31:34
But my dad my dad's passion was was the high school.
31:38
So in in respect to his career and what he's done for me as a
31:44
father a coach and and all the above, I'm always wanting to
31:47
talk to the high school coach. It is frustrating sometimes to
31:52
see the friction between club coaches and and and high school
31:58
coaches. It's frustrating to see the
32:01
friction that does tend to pop up between parents and high
32:04
school coaches and and you know when I talk to an athlete about
32:08
it you know these are these are 17 to 18 year old young people.
32:12
So when I talk to them about it, I say OK this is your career.
32:15
This is your education at to start making an adult decision,
32:20
you need to sit down with the adults and say, OK, we need to
32:24
come to a common consensus here on how me getting better helps
32:32
me advance and helps my team and helps the club.
32:38
Or what? How can we come on to 1 Accord?
32:44
Because, and I'm going to start sounding like my dad here, when
32:49
the adults aren't connected, the kids are the ones that slip
32:51
through the cracks, you know? So I want to help coaches,
32:57
athletes and parents connect the dots in a community, in an in an
33:01
environment around that athlete to that student athlete to help
33:05
them get better. Because a young kid, a 1718 year
33:09
old, sees the people that they care about, you know, not
33:14
communicating at a high level or arguing or whatever it is, how
33:19
do they manifest that? Is that manifested negatively
33:23
into their academics? Is that manifested negatively
33:27
into their social interactions? Is that manifested negatively
33:32
into their performance? You know, there's so many ways
33:36
we can lose a kid, you know? And I think if the adults are
33:42
the adults, there's so many ways we can reach a kid.
33:46
But I think we need to get on one accord.
33:48
So I don't solely rely on any, any, any one individual in the
33:54
environment surrounding a student athlete.
33:57
I want to talk to whoever. So as I advise an athlete, when
34:01
I'm talking to an athlete, I always ask them, hey look, can
34:05
we get on a call, a zoom or whatever with your support
34:10
system? And I leave it to the athlete to
34:13
say, OK, who's your support system?
34:16
You know? And I tell them, you know, if
34:18
it's parent, if it's grandmother, grandmama, you
34:21
know, granddaddy, aunt, aunt, uncle, cousin, whoever you
34:25
that's on your team, assemble your team.
34:28
If it's the club coach, if it's the high school coach, I I would
34:31
rather have all of them there. But you tell me what you're
34:35
comfortable with and I'm going to end up talking to somebody
34:38
else anyway. But when we're doing this group
34:42
setting, I want them, the parents, the coaches club and
34:48
high school to ask question that a 17 or 18 year old might not
34:52
know to ask, might not think to ask, might be scared to ask.
34:56
So sitting down with the adults to help a student athlete make a
35:01
good decision about what they need to do next, I think is an
35:07
extremely important in empowering these young people to
35:10
make the best decision for themselves.
35:15
You know you you guys see it as coaches the, the helicopter
35:18
parent. I call them agents sometimes
35:21
they want to negotiate deals and and I've told parents, whose
35:25
dream is it Is it yours or the kids, you know or oh, the one
35:29
thing I can't stand And and trust me, we a lot of my
35:35
coaching colleagues at this level, we we can't stand it
35:38
using track and field as a back door to football or a back door
35:42
to basketball. No, I I can't stand that.
35:46
I can't stand that I'm not going to spend money on a kid who's
35:50
only going to be with us maybe one part of the year.
35:54
And in, you know, a little known rule in the first year of
35:57
residency, if they're on a equivalency scholarship, which
36:01
is track and field and they go out for a headcount sport and
36:04
I'm giving you NCA terms here like football or basket and or
36:08
basketball in their first year of residency, they have to give
36:11
up the equivalency scholarship and that is because of
36:16
scholarship limitations. You know your big D1 programs,
36:20
it's 85 scholarships. So the day somebody even tries
36:22
out from track and field, they become the 86th scholarship
36:27
because football is all or nothing.
36:29
So that's a violation. And back in the day there were
36:32
some of the old school coaches that used to you know bully the
36:35
the track coaches or negotiate with the track coaches to to
36:38
hide A football player on track and field money.
36:42
So the NCA caught one of that and and got rid of that.
36:46
But a lot of parents try to negotiate that.
36:51
I've seen a lot of that lately because you know everybody's
36:54
signing the football signing date.
36:55
The first one just passed and you know kid didn't get offered.
36:59
So you know, well let me see if track will will will get me and
37:02
then I'll just go out football when I get there.
37:06
That happens a lot. So that's why I want more than
37:10
just the parent on there, or more than just the athlete or
37:13
more than just the club coach. I want the entire community
37:17
surrounding. So I hope that answers your
37:21
question. But like I said, getting back to
37:25
that, that transfer portal topic, ladies and gentlemen,
37:30
it's, it's it's really not going to go anywhere.
37:34
It's not going to go anywhere. This, like I said, this is the
37:36
age of student athlete empowerment.
37:38
So you're looking at the nil. It's not going.
37:41
It may change a little bit, but it's not going to go anywhere.
37:44
So my my thing is we need to get, we need to get used to it.
37:51
So we've got to frame ourselves differently.
37:53
We've got to communicate differently.
37:56
We've got to meet in the middle differently, have more
38:01
conversations like this where we can get questions and answers
38:06
out so people know exactly what what schools are looking for,
38:09
what programs, certain programs are looking for.
38:12
Now with the transfer portal, yes, it is affecting high
38:14
school, high school athletes, some of the negative, but I
38:18
don't think it's affecting at the level that people think.
38:23
So what has happened especially? OK, so let's look at the power,
38:30
power schools, because there's no long no longer a Power 5.
38:33
Let's look at the power schools. So they're they're looking at
38:37
the NCA meet. And if you're talking about, I'm
38:41
going to stay with them, Let's go with the women's hundred.
38:45
You know, in the last two, three seasons, you've seen more women
38:50
break 11 seconds at 100 meters than any other time in the
38:56
history of the sport at this level.
38:58
So for your elite programs, that young lady that's running 11/5
39:06
or 11, maybe even 11, four, they may not be getting the same
39:11
looks from the elite programs that they used to get when 11/4
39:16
went further. So I think it's affecting those
39:21
type of of of student athletes. It's not a slight to me it's not
39:27
affecting the 11611 eight 11/9 young ladies.
39:32
I think if it is affecting me, it's affecting them at that
39:36
power level. So I think those ladies need to
39:39
now maybe rethink and start looking at schools where 11611,
39:48
7-Eleven 8 go further, you know, and and I think that's probably
39:53
good advice Now. Yeah, it might break your heart.
39:55
You know, you're not going to be able to get a lot of money at
39:58
Texas. Or the organs of the world.
40:02
But you know again you still got that transfer portal if you go
40:07
to a school and and because now it on our end it affects us not
40:11
only recruiting high school kids, not only recruiting junior
40:14
college kids, not only recruiting transfer portal kids,
40:17
but you got to recruit them when they get here.
40:19
You still got to keep recruiting because you know, you get that
40:23
11/9 girl and she's all of a sudden develops pretty quickly
40:27
and start dropping 11311 two. Yeah, she might want to go to
40:34
Texas an A&M or something like that.
40:37
Who knows, you know, So those things are available to them,
40:41
you know, so you know, college coaches, we got to keep
40:44
recruiting not only, you know, the the kids at the levels that
40:48
we talked about earlier, but we got to recruit our own kids.
40:51
So yeah, that's just a change. That's a that's just a change
40:54
that that we have to adjust to and and I think everybody that
40:58
that's you know at the high school level, the junior college
41:00
level, the international level, we all got to make make these
41:04
changes in this sport. So I think we need to make a
41:05
collective change in how we communicate with each other in
41:09
this sport. But you know that that 48 second
41:15
kid and he he wasn't going to go to Kentucky on a scholarship
41:19
anyway. You know because 48 seconds
41:22
doesn't fly in the SEC. It just doesn't, it doesn't fly
41:26
nationally. So he might need to look at it.
41:28
Eastern Kentucky, which is still a very good program.
41:32
It just may not be the the most popular program.
41:35
So again, what I'm saying is we got to empower these student
41:41
athletes by giving them access to a wider range of programs.
41:47
If that's the best way that I can that I can state that
41:52
accessibility, communication, this, this day and age that
41:55
we're in, there's so many multiple ways to get in contact
41:59
with somebody. The the, the dinosaurs of the
42:04
sport that aren't into emails, aren't into text messages.
42:08
Those those, those men and women are starting to retire.
42:12
So a lot of us and I'm getting ready to turn 50.
42:15
So I'm kind of new school and old school a little, a little
42:18
bit, a little bit of both. I stay engaged on social media.
42:23
I stay I I answer emails. You know, you send me a text
42:28
message. I'll, I'll respond.
42:30
It may not be the answer you want, but at least I'll respond.
42:34
So build a relationship with those people who are making
42:39
contact with you and and they are discussing what what's going
42:43
on with their program in relation to your athletes.
42:46
Continue that dialogue. Reach out to them.
42:50
You know there there's a lot of things going on now, you know,
42:53
at this level, you know, and again talking with my dad and
42:58
and you know, he retired in the late 90s, early, actually early
43:03
2000s. You know the game has changed,
43:06
you know, you know that technology boom, says son.
43:10
I don't know how you do answer all these emails in a day.
43:13
I don't know how you answer all these text messages in a day.
43:15
Well, he didn't have to do it. My generation does.
43:20
So I have to speak a new language now and nil and the
43:24
transport portal is just adding to that language and the NCA
43:29
still figuring it out. I think, you know, they're
43:32
listening to the coaches, they're listening to the
43:36
compliance directors in the ADS about some of the the issues.
43:39
And you know the NCAA I think in the next five years is going to
43:43
probably make subtle changes to all of this stuff.
43:48
You know, I think there's some other things coming down the
43:50
pipe at the power level. I don't think Congress align
43:54
realignment and movement. I don't think it's done by any
43:57
stretch of the imagination. So there's going to be a lot of
44:00
different changes even even in coming even in in the next
44:03
couple of years. So we've got to be ready for
44:06
those things. But the the only way we get
44:08
ready ladies and gentlemen is going to be communication.
44:11
That's the only way that we're going to be ready for it is
44:13
continue to keep communicating. So with that, again, I don't
44:19
want to talk too much, but I think we've got what, 15 minutes
44:23
left here. Are there any questions that
44:26
that anybody wants to either put into the chat or they want to,
44:29
you know, jump on the mic and ask.
44:31
I hope, I hope I'm answering questions and helping you guys
44:35
out. I hope your silence means I'm
44:43
doing a good job, hopefully gotcha.
44:49
So visits everybody's different in in visits junior days and and
44:59
all of those things. If you have the opportunity to
45:02
go on an official official visit unofficial visit now the the
45:07
official visits are limitless now.
45:10
Oh Lord that that's that's that's a change.
45:14
The the old thing used to be the five visits.
45:17
Now they can go, they can go to as many they can go to and you
45:22
can only do one visit per school.
45:23
You can do infinite number of visits to these schools.
45:27
Now I don't know anybody in track and field that's doing
45:31
that. I know that's more popular in
45:33
football and basketball but those guys and those ladies are
45:36
working with budgets. We're we're not working with the
45:38
track and field. But if you have the opportunity
45:42
to go, I believe that the community should go.
45:46
I believe that the coaches, the parents, the athletes should go.
45:50
They should all be there if possible.
45:53
I know everybody's schedules get crazy.
45:56
You know, we're coaches, so our family time is, is precious.
45:59
But if you have the opportunity to go, go.
46:03
It's a great time to sit down with these programs, with these
46:08
student athletes that are currently there and get a
46:12
screenshot of what the truth is there.
46:16
You're not going to get the full truth.
46:18
You're only going to be there a couple hours official visit.
46:20
You're going to be there 48 hours.
46:22
You're going to spend 16 hours at that time sleeping if you're
46:26
getting your 8 hours. So you're only going to get a
46:29
snapshot of the truth. But going to multiple visits now
46:34
helps you frame questions to the student athlete.
46:39
What are you seeing? What are you feeling?
46:43
What other questions do you think that you got answered here
46:46
that you didn't get answered at the previous visit.
46:49
So that experience of doing that and writing those questions down
46:54
and coming prepared with those type of questions because you
46:57
know, you know, you're athletes, you got some kids that are that
47:02
will talk a coach's ear on and ask all the questions.
47:06
You got some kids that are on the polar end of that spectrum
47:09
where they won't say a word and it takes, you know, you know,
47:13
two months to pull out a full sentence to that kid.
47:17
Remember, they're still 1718 years old.
47:21
They don't have the maturity and the processing capability that
47:26
you have as an adult to get to go ahead and ask the question,
47:31
you know, And the one thing that I think hems us up is, oh, well,
47:36
you know, that seems like an obvious question.
47:38
No, it may not be in that situation.
47:41
Go ahead and ask the question. Even if you don't get the answer
47:45
you want, you got an answer and now you can say OK, well oh,
47:51
maybe this isn't the place for you or maybe this is the place
47:55
for you, depending on the truth behind that answer.
47:59
You know, ask follow up questions.
48:01
You know the one thing that that we want as college coaches, we
48:05
want people to to feel inspired by by, you know, talking with us
48:10
and and visiting with us. We want those things.
48:15
We want people to be excited to come and see us, excited to come
48:20
and talk with us. We we're we're feeling your
48:22
energy too and we're evaluating the student athletes and and the
48:26
environment that they're in too. So we want to see the energy we
48:29
want to, you know, we want to get questions asked.
48:31
Any coach that doesn't want a question asked of them, I don't
48:36
know if you really want to go and be under that person's
48:39
tutor. You know, because we're going to
48:42
have, we have questions as coaches and why shouldn't a a
48:46
coach, a high school coach or a parent or an athlete have
48:49
questions? So yeah, I mean I want people to
48:54
leave this campus and leave my presence saying, you know what,
48:59
I can see myself there. I can see myself working with
49:04
Coach. It's it's it's just kind of up
49:09
to them. But please feel free go on these
49:11
visits, ask these questions. Get the and if you can't go help
49:15
your student athlete, get to the point where they can ask
49:18
questions. OK, we've got another question
49:21
in the chat. Coach Irving again.
49:23
Many parents are convinced to purchase a recruiting service
49:26
for a good amount of money. We're going to talk.
49:28
Yeah, this is a good, good chat and talk about the pros and cons
49:31
of recruiting services and if college coaches look at emails
49:33
from a recruiting service. So I'm going to start with that,
49:36
that last bit, the, the emails from a recruiting service and
49:41
that may help you answer the first part of it.
49:45
Most of them get deleted. Most of them, OK, I don't care
49:52
what videos you can put on, you know what music you put on the
49:55
videos. And a lot of them get creative.
49:56
You can put all kinds of music on the video.
49:59
I'm sorry a young man running 11 flat is not going to get a
50:02
scholarship and 100 in this conference.
50:04
He's just not OK I you can put my favorite song on there.
50:08
He's not getting it, you know. So it's it's best to go ahead
50:15
and directly contact the the coaches.
50:21
The recruiting services to be totally honest probably are more
50:24
effective for international recruits because it allows us to
50:27
process their academic information.
50:31
You know, all of that. You know some of these European
50:33
recruiting services they'll they'll even let you know what
50:36
the kid can and can, you know how much they can and can't,
50:39
can't afford at at a particular school or they'll say, you know
50:43
can't afford $10,000 or something like that.
50:46
It's probably more effective on the international side than it
50:50
is the domestic side. I get them all the time
50:54
unsolicited to be told. I don't know how they find these
50:58
emails sometimes, but and then all of a sudden they just
51:02
non-stop. There's one, and I won't name
51:06
the service. There's one.
51:07
Every time I see it, I just delete it.
51:10
You know, we, we, I hate to say this, but it's it's true.
51:17
Recruiting services are almost like track and field camps.
51:21
To be totally honest. I've done, I've done track and
51:25
field camps several times over the course of 27 years.
51:29
I have never recruited a kid from a track and field camp.
51:32
Never. I've never signed a kid from a
51:35
recruiting service, a domestic kid from recruiting service.
51:37
Never in 27 years. Never, never.
51:41
And of the 27 years, 24 of them have been at college level.
51:46
I've never signed a kid, a domestic kid, from recruiting
51:49
service. And I'm not saying that that
51:53
that doesn't happen. In my experience, it hasn't
51:57
happened. You know, I can open them every
52:02
now and then, but consistency says probably not it.
52:09
For example, a young lady in the hurdles, a young lady in the
52:13
hurdles is, let's say she's running 13, nine and 100
52:16
hurdles. What does she need a recruiting
52:18
service for? She's running 13-9 in the vast
52:23
major of mid major conferences and HBCU conferences, 13, nine
52:27
is at least going to be in the top six or seven.
52:30
You know it may not you know and and here's the thing, 13-9
52:33
again. It's just like the transfer
52:35
portal and and all of that 13-9 is not going to make an SEC fun.
52:42
So the SEC is not looking for that 13-9.
52:46
You know, I've got a young lady right now.
52:48
She's a defending commerce champion of Hunter Hurl.
52:49
She ran 1392 in in in high school.
52:52
I got her because I knew her high school coach and I shot my
52:58
shot and I got, but a recruiting service wasn't going to jazz
53:03
that up anymore. I got the same information from
53:06
a high school coach that I got from a recruiting service.
53:07
I got the high school transcripts.
53:10
I got the NCAID number. I got her weight room
53:14
experience. I trusted him because I knew he
53:17
he was a really good coach. So he was able, he knows me.
53:20
So he was able to, you know, kind of articulate who she was
53:24
and you know, to me and he was able to articulate who I am to
53:29
her. So, yeah, and she didn't spend a
53:33
dime on that. I don't even know how much these
53:37
recruiting service cost. And then you know, I actually
53:42
recently in the last couple of years, well last a lot of weeks
53:45
had a conversation with one recruiting service because they
53:48
put out these recruiting standards for us.
53:51
But never have had a conversation with me or anybody
53:54
on my staff. So the their stuff was
53:57
completely inaccurate. But when I had a conversation
54:01
with them, they based it off some algorithm that they had of
54:05
what we had on our roster. And I told him, I said, well,
54:08
it's best to look at what the conference is like.
54:10
I told you guys. So yeah, I I don't.
54:15
I I don't. I don't.
54:17
Some can cost thousands depend on the package.
54:21
No, it's not worth that. Oh jeez.
54:24
No, it's not worth it. It is not worth thousands of
54:27
dollars and and here's what track coach is going to say, if
54:31
you've got a 1040 kid that can afford thousands of dollars on
54:36
on a recruiting service, you can afford that, then I don't have
54:43
to give you super big money because you just spent a lot of
54:47
your scholarship on the recruiting service.
54:50
If you can continuously do that, oh God no.
54:54
No. Do not tell a single parent to
54:56
spend thousands of dollars on a recruiting service in a sport
55:01
where the truth doesn't. You know the numbers don't lie.
55:05
You know it. Football.
55:09
I love football. Football's my my football was my
55:11
first love. You can rush for 1000 yards in
55:15
and you're a very good running back in the sweat.
55:19
That's not the same as rushing for 1000 yards against Alabama,
55:22
Georgia, Florida, Auburn and Texas A&M and all these other S
55:26
grade. It's not the same.
55:28
It's just not the same. You can average 20 points a game
55:30
in basketball in our conference. You're a very good scorer in our
55:34
conference. That's not the same as playing
55:36
against North Carolina and Kentucky and Duke every week.
55:38
It's just not the same. But 10 flat flies at LSU just
55:41
like it flies at ground you know, 13 flat in the women's
55:47
hurdles flies here justifies look like it flies at Louisiana
55:49
Tech. Like the sport doesn't lie.
55:52
So no, no, trust me, if you have an interest and you have the
55:58
performances, the consistent performances, that's going to
56:01
show your probability of success at that conference.
56:05
Either they'll find you or they'll listen to you if you
56:08
send an e-mail or a text message.
56:10
So pay your pay your cell phone bill and you know you're just as
56:16
good as paying for that, that recruiting service, it does the
56:19
same thing. So I I don't see that value in,
56:25
I don't see the return on that investment.
56:28
You know, that'll Oh yeah, that 11 flat kid is paying thousands
56:33
of dollars to get told no when the answer was already no.
56:39
You're not going to get a scholarship.
56:40
You're going to have to try out. You have to walk on what have
56:43
you. That's a waste of money.
56:46
That is an entire waste of money.
56:47
I that that breaks my heart to know that they're paying that
56:50
much. If you were paying 10-15
56:53
dollars, maybe that makes sense, you know, 'cause maybe they can
56:58
take all your information and contact more people quicker for
57:02
you. I can see that being worth it.
57:05
But thousands? No.
57:07
No, you're you're you're getting fleeced.
57:09
No. Any other questions?
57:13
How much time do we have right up against it, Coach.
57:16
Whenever you're I don't. I don't see any new questions.
57:21
So So what I'm going to do right now is I'm going to type a
57:24
message here. I'm going to put my e-mail and
57:27
my cell number in the chat. That's my e-mail.
57:31
If y'all can see that, I hope y'all can see that this is my
57:34
cell phone number. If I don't pick up, it's because
57:37
I'm doing something. So leave me a message and I will
57:39
always return your e-mail or your call.
57:47
Other than that, I'm good. But if anybody wants to chat
57:50
outside of that, feel free to to contact me on those those two
57:54
entities there. I thank you for your time.
58:06
If it goes to appreciate the coach, the ones that point
58:09
people most every season needs a voice of reason speaking.
58:12
The growth you got to back for you carry the load.
58:14
It's coffee to the soul for those of us to stay on the go,
58:17
proper handoff. To stay in the zone with you
58:20
packing for the road. There's more than one way to go.
58:22
Take notes. That's can you told it ain't
58:24
practice. If your purpose ain't clear, It
58:26
can't happen to you. Listen, what both is.
58:29
Can't mentor without a mentor. Years of experience you can
58:32
reinvent those years. Every plan's got a standard you
58:35
live up to And the price sacrifice can you give up you
58:38
it's choice and to fight not a win or lose.
58:41
It's not a ploy but device Y'all can make more moves.
58:43
It's not about how to it's all about why you don't know till
58:46
you know who you are inside 6. When you waste time choose none.
58:50
So we all cross finish line. The work ain't done So we learn
58:53
from the experts. We got the fun an.