Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / BONUS: OG Guest #6 Kurt Thomas-Univ of Alabama-Birmingham

Transcript

BONUS: OG Guest #6 Kurt Thomas-Univ of Alabama-Birmingham · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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  Back in 2020, before COVID hit, we had this crazy idea to start
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  this podcast and do it long form, interview someone for our
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  two hour. We've had three hours and that
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  took a lot of bravery, a lot of guts.
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  And so to celebrate the 1st 10, the O GS that trusted us,
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  trusted me to sit down with us. We're rerunning the top, the 1st
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  10 O GS every Thursday in the month of September and October
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  here in 2024. And we're up to #6 my good
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  friend used to be my GARGA at Mississippi State, the wise, the
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  wonderful Mr. Kurt Thomas. He's the head coach at the
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  University of Alabama, Birmingham.
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  We actually sat down. This was a new experience,
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  right? Sat down in his hotel room at a
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  track meet to record this. So again, things have changed.
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  Audio is terrible. This is a snapshot in time.
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  This is what, four or five years ago?
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  But I just wanted to uplift and honor these top ten trusting
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  coaches, amazing human beings. So here we go with OG number
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  six, Kurt Thomas. Hey Yang, welcome to the Gala
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  Athletics Connections podcast where we bring you the stories
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  of track coaches from around the world.
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  I'm your host, Mike Cunningham, and it is my honor and privilege
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  to bring you the stories of these men and women.
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  This week. I've got one of my longest
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  friends in this coaching career, head coach of the University of
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  Alabama Birmingham, Kurt Thomas. Kurt and I have known each other
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  since my days at Mississippi State when he was our graduate
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  assistant there and has gone on to become the head coach at UAB.
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  Has worked at University of Tennessee under Vince Anderson.
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  And just what a great guy and a great coach and has done a great
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  job with several different coaching Staffs at UAB.
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  And recently put together one of the best facilities in the
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  country, was recognized as the American Sports Builders
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  Association Track Facility of the Year with their new facility
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  there at UAB. So help me welcome the wise and
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  wonderful Kurt Thomas. Hey, thanks for joining us,
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  Kurt. Yeah, maybe, you know, we're
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  we're addicted to these cell phones.
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  Maybe you can pause that for just just a minute while we
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  talk. Head coach's job is never done.
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  That's a good point. And we've, we've already had
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  that, you know, we've been in here almost an hour talking
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  before we started recording. We've already had an athlete pop
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  in, we've had trainers texting, so I'm surprised Matt hasn't
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  called or. You're right, yeah.
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  Or Jordan. Or one of.
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  Them exactly right. Hey so we're in your hotel room
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  in Boston. What is university from Alabama
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  Birmingham doing in Boston? What are we doing here?
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  So there's just really good track meets.
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  I think Harvard and, and Boston you put on, they put on these
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  two meets, one each day, one on Friday, one on Saturday
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  together, even though they're not the universities aren't
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  associated with each other. But really for us over the
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  years, you know, every, every school is looking for kind of a
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  big meet this weekend because it's getting closer and closer
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  to the conference championships. And we used to try to get into
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  big meets. But then the problem with that
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  is that sometimes big meets, large schools don't necessarily
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  let us all in or are just really strict with entries entry
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  standards. And so, you know, we're flying
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  across the country trying to get to these big meets and, and very
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  few of our athletes or just half of our athletes are getting in.
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  So we wanted a more competitive meet where we could take as many
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  athletes as we as we can. And, and this just kind of fell
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  in our lap. I'd never been up to Boston at
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  that point and never really heard of these meets.
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  And it just kind of worked out the, the prices for travel kind
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  of worked out and they just do a really good job.
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  And Boston, you and Harvard are two miles apart from each other.
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  So it's really easy to get around and we can get most of
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  our kids in and, and, and our kids can show up and be
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  successful if they're running really, really well.
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  They can, you know, be in the top ten or top five in some of
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  their events. Our hurdlers and 60 meter
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  athletes can make finals without feeling like they have to set a
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  world record to do so. And, and so they can just kind
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  of show up here and have some success.
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  And, and Boston's track, for those that did have not paid
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  attention to track and field, Boston's track runs really fast.
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  There's been phenomenal, otherworldly distance races
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  going on here the last several years, usually in December.
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  And then again, they just hosted a couple meets recently that
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  people just run really fast and they have a lot of pros.
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  This is a great running town. New Balance and soccer near
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  based out of here. And so even the elite fields for
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  Saturday at the Boston You meet are insane.
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  There's several world championship athletes in an
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  Olympic medalist. It's it's going to be the Emma
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  Coburn's going to be there. Corey McGee, they're all,
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  they're all running. Aisha Pratt Lear is, is running.
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  I mean, it's it's a so even for our our athletes that are that
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  are just fans, they get to see. Yeah.
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  So, so it just worked out and Boston's a really neat place.
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  And so we can keep coming. Back you know it.
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  It might be a little known secret about that Boston track
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  because I've heard that theme continually over this past week
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  about their Oval even, you know, gave their head coach, you know,
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  he boldly stated this is the fastest Oval in the country, if
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  not the world. Yeah.
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  Yeah. I told him I was like, you know,
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  you know, guys at A&M and Arkansas are.
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  Going. To talk to you about that.
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  But but you know, he made a good point about like looking at
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  facility records, I could be stripped out the NCAA meets and
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  the pro meets and stuff like that.
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  You know what, what are those facility records then?
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  And you know that that's a good point.
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  Actually. It's almost like there should be
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  kind of asterisk. Well, and I always wondered
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  because obviously in Birmingham, we we operate out of the cross
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  Plex a lot and, and you know, it's a great track, but then,
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  you know, some people say that it's not as fast as others and
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  others tracks are faster than others.
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  You know, I don't know any of this, but they're all
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  constructed a little differently.
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  And so it'd be interesting to see why Boston's feel so fast or
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  seem so fast. Like is it a little bit wider?
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  Is it, is the straightaways a little bit long?
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  You know how's it constructed compared to others.
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  He brought up one aspect that I would not not have thought about
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  is the way the turns start, the difference between a fixed bank
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  and a hydraulic hydraulic, the way the the turn start, like I
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  guess on a hydraulic, basically the turn starts as soon as the
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  incline starts, which I hadn't thought about that aspect.
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  And then the other aspect that kind of didn't like for my
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  simpleton brain makes sense is on the hydraulic, you know,
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  you're, you're built on other, other pieces of, you know, it's
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  metal and then concrete and things like that.
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  And so there, there would be some, it may be Microflex, but
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  when you, when your foot contacts, it doesn't take much
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  to dissipate some of that energy where in a fixed track, like
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  it's just it's there. It's more solid.
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  I guess so brought up good points.
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  And I guess, you know, really, when you look at the rubber
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  meets the road, what are the, the records and what are people
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  run there? And you know what people keep
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  saying it over and over, like the Harvard guys.
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  I I think to your point about this unique structure here, the
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  Harvard meet on Friday. By the way, this may be the
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  first time I'm saying Harvard with a hard R, I've been saying.
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  Harvard, Yeah, you got to try it while.
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  You're in Boston, Yeah. But the Harvard is doing this
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  meet on today, today's Friday and Boston tomorrow, and that
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  people are kind of splitting their kids up that.
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  So even like Harvard has a recognization of that meet.
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  So is is it a full meet today? And a full meet?
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  Tomorrow it is for the for the most part, Harvard is has a
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  pentathlon. They have all the short sprints
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  and hurdles, all the field events, but then they only have
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  a 400 and a mile. They don't have any of the other
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  longer spread. 200. Yeah, or, and and even the
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  longer distance events. And so it's kind of like ADMR.
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  No, not at all, which is nice because it's kind of a short
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  compact meet. You know, the several of our
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  distance girls are going to run the mile today and then go back
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  tomorrow and try to run 1003 K and stuff like that.
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  And so it's a little bit of a condensed meet and, but then you
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  know, like our team is made-up of 2/3 of it is field eventers
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  and sprinters and hurdlers. And so, so they get a chance to
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  go out there and compete and, and.
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  So they do like long jumpers will long jump at.
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  Harvard, yeah, for the most part, yeah.
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  And then we have multi event athletes are going to do a few
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  events today and a few different events tomorrow to kind of keep
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  working on all those five events for the pentathlon.
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  And and I think it's nice that we come all the way up here.
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  It's a long trip and today isn't a long day, You know, it's,
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  it's, we all know track meets can get long and, and we, we
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  love our sport, but it's nice to kind of show up and know that in
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  a few hours you're going to be done.
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  And then we turn around and get ready for tomorrow at Boston.
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  Right. And I would assume you probably
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  don't fly out till Sunday. So do you get a chance?
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  You, you mentioned Boston, the city and you know you're in
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  Birmingham, which is a pretty nice city itself.
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  You know for sure Boston does have some special things and
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  things like that. Do you get a chance to?
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  We don't, unfortunately, no, it's usually this is the first
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  year that we had almost all day yesterday we went to the track,
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  but we also got in very late on Wednesday.
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  And so yesterday was just trying to catch up on some rest and the
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  girls, most of the girls were studying and and taking care of
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  school. And so, so so we did yesterday.
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  We could have had could have done something if we would have
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  maybe tried a little bit harder. But but most of the years we're
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  not getting here until afternoon of yesterday, going to the
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  track, feeding them, getting up today, going to the track, you
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  know, it's pretty. Pretty business trip.
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  You're here in front of me and. And this is actually, it's
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  beautiful weather here today, yesterday, the last few years
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  it's been bitterly cold and windy like it's supposed to be
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  in Boston. And so, you know, there's not a
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  lot to do outside. You know, the, the weather
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  isn't, isn't set for us to, to be a tourist, but it's always
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  disappointing because I've been to Boston privately and, and,
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  you know, enjoyed, it's a great city and we haven't really got a
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  chance to do anything cool like. That yeah, so.
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  Well, but you know, Harvard is so historic.
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  I think the kids love going to campus.
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  Alone. And you know, we were talking
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  yesterday with some of the Harvard staff, you know, they've
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  done an amazing job with their facilities.
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  You know, their football stadium is the oldest.
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  It's got to be football stadium. It's all started there.
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  Yeah, it was. Took me down the Hall of
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  Champions. It's amazing.
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  Unbelievable. Anyway, we're not here to talk
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  about Harvard, even though we're here in this this beautiful town
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  here. Kurt, you and I have known each
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  other. How long?
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  2004 I thought about this the other day, 2014.
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  Years, it's felt a lot longer. Than it really has.
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  In a good way. Yeah, it's just, you know, you
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  get to Mississippi State and and the other thing that is, is
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  well, as we know each other, think about this.
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  We we only spent one year together.
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  I know. I.
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  Right. That year with Karen Rademeyer,
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  Ilion now Houston Franks, Mike Cunningham, Kurt Thomas, Steve
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  Dudley was obviously our assistant head coach under Al
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  Schmidt. It was just one year.
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  Now one year passes by like that, but at the time, like I
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  felt like we spent five years. That's a good point.
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  Yeah. We had a lot of good times at
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  Mississippi State. No doubt I cherish.
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  My I think you got the staff going against each other to to
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  do a staff decathlon. I think that was partially your.
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  I said me. Yeah, I tell my student athletes
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  about the time I did decathlon a lot, but we were on a bus trip
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  and and between you and Karen and myself and whatever else, I
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  think you kind of started because you weren't going to do
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  the decathlon. With us, but you, but you were
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  willing to. I would do this.
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  To set it up somehow, you were, you were the Don King of the
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  staff Decathlon. And so so we did it.
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  Did that come out of the the the Challenge race with, oh Lord,
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  what was our trainers name? Kelly, Wisconsin now Kelly
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  Bacchus. Yeah.
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  Was there a child? I don't remember.
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  You don't remember that? No.
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  Was that the year before? No.
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  That was because Kelly and I got there the same year.
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  Yeah, OK, yeah. How do you not remember this?
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  So, you know, she was running her mouth and I started running
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  my ego and she thought she could beat me in 100 meter dash, which
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  was ludicrous. Not that I'm fast, by the way,
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  and by any means. I was like, I can take this.
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  And so, yeah. So we got out there and all the
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  kids lined up the track. That's right.
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  And of course I. Remember that demolished her.
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  She's now, you know, she's at University of Wisconsin, Yeah,
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  as a trainer for the track. Team.
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  I saw her last year at NCAA. Yeah, I was saying all the.
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  Time, yeah, it said hi. It's really cool to see a
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  familiar face at a different school.
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  Yeah, you know, and she went there.
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  She she loves the Badgers. So that's pretty neat that she
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  ended up. Is that right?
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  She went there and. Oh yeah, she's from Madison.
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  I didn't know that was even cooler than.
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  Yeah, she's home. Yeah, good for her.
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  And she's awesome. So Kurt, let's talk about we we
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  kind of started getting in there.
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  You know, we met at Mississippi State because you became our
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  grad assistant there. You did your undergrad at
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  Tennessee, but you're originally from New Mexico.
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  That's correct. So how how did that all work
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  out? How did you get to Tennessee?
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  Yeah, So the the easiest way to so I was born and raised in New
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  Mexico. My mom's from New Mexico, her
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  side of the family, but my father is born and raised in
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  East Tennessee. So you know that.
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  Oh, yeah. Yeah.
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  The, the Tom. I mean, we, we can track our
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  lineage back to the early 1700s in East Tennessee.
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  It is pretty neat. Yeah.
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  And so, so growing up, you know, visiting grandma and grandpa, we
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  went to White Pine, TN. It's right outside of Knoxville.
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  And so I grew up as a die hard Tennessee fan since the day I
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  was born. That's, you know, that, that's
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  what I, what I, who I cheered for.
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  And so, but you know, I started thinking about this when you
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  asked me to do the podcast was like, how did I get where I am
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  right now? You know, and I just fell in
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  love with track. You know, I was an above average
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  sprinter in, in the state of New Mexico in high school, but I, I
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  just loved it and I didn't, I didn't want to stop.
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  And so I walked on to the University of New Mexico, turned
• 14:09
  a scholarship. And who was the coach back then?
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  His name was Mike Mceachern. It was.
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  Oh yeah, it was before the Henry.
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  'S OK, the Henry's have Olympics there.
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  Yeah, yeah. They were high school coaches in
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  Albuquerque at the time and a man named Mike Mceachern was a
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  coach there, actually an Olympian high jumper named Milt
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  Adi was my Sprint sprints coach. He had been a he's Canadian, but
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  Jamaican by way of Canada and and was a 7-8 high jumper at
• 14:36
  UTEP. Holy cow.
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  Yeah, and then and then he was, he was our sprint's coach as
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  well. I'm amazed at, I used to go to
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  the New Mexico high school track clinic for a few years in a row
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  and so I got to learn more about New Mexico track heritage and I
• 14:51
  think I knew about the Henry's. And when we say the Henry's, Pat
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  Henry and his brothers, I guess, right, Matt and Mark.
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  Mark, that's what I was thinking too.
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  That they were the ones that that coached in New Mexico.
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  Right. You know, they they're from New
• 15:05
  Mexico. And Scotty, Stefan, Mario
• 15:09
  Satania and then some of the athletes, Brian.
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  Urlacher. Is that right?
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  Brian Urlacher and I grew up together, and he's from
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  Lovington, which is about 10 miles away from my hometown.
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  And his grandfather and my grandmother were like best
• 15:22
  friends whenever we were kids. His little brother Casey and I
• 15:26
  went to church together and youth group together.
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  So I've known Brian since junior high.
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  Did he ever do track his? Senior year, he they were in a
• 15:33
  smaller class in Lovington was he ran 22 flat.
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  Yeah, he's a Hall of Famer now he's got a.
• 15:41
  Brother ran 22, yeah. Because he was a he was a
• 15:44
  safety. In high school, I think it was
• 15:46
  the big middle linebacker guys. Yeah, no, he was, you know, he
• 15:49
  was 63, you know, 195 but but could move.
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  And I think he long jumped me long jump like 22 feet in high
• 15:56
  school or something. Like, I think somebody was a
• 15:58
  shot put or something. Honestly.
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  You know, my picture of him is from, you know, the NFL.
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  So he's like this big strong dude.
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  Yeah, he was a. Yeah, I always, you know, I
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  challenge anybody to go look at the New Mexico Track Hall of
• 16:11
  Fame and you'll see like it. It's amazing how many people out
• 16:14
  of New Mexico, not a very populous state.
• 16:16
  No, not really. It's it's amazing.
• 16:18
  Yeah. So you graduate there.
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  You grew up a huge Knoxville University of Tennessee fan, so
• 16:23
  you walked on there. And who was your coach there at
• 16:27
  at Tennessee? Oh, so no, actually, so at
• 16:30
  Tennessee I Oh, no. You went to Mexico?
• 16:31
  Sorry. I walked on the University of
• 16:33
  New Mexico. That's right.
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  My brother was there, you know, family there and everything.
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  But I just, I just wasn't happy. Had nothing to do with track or,
• 16:40
  or, or anything else. It just just wasn't happy.
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  And so with my family being in my dad's other family being in
• 16:47
  in Knoxville, I just up and moved.
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  I just up packed my car and drove across the country.
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  My uncle had just relocated to Knoxville.
• 16:55
  He had he had lived somewhere else for work for a while even
• 16:57
  though grandma and grandpa and everyone were still there and so
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  I just moved in with him. I took a semester off from
• 17:05
  school to get my in state residency in Tennessee.
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  The 2nd semester I took like a class just to get into the
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  sensing system. Yeah.
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  And, and, and so I spent a year, not really a full time student,
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  but that second semester I just called up Bill Webb and you
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  know, in classic Bill Webb form in the, you know, now, now that
• 17:30
  I'm a coach, like we get calls all the time about recruits and
• 17:33
  things like that. You're like, well, you know,
• 17:35
  you're not real sure. And so he quickly passed me on
• 17:38
  to Vince Anderson. He said, well, why don't you
• 17:40
  talk to the Sprint coach? And I just said, my name is Kurt
• 17:43
  Thomas. I, I want to be a coach.
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  Can I come out and help? Did you, How early did you know
• 17:49
  you wanted to be a coach? This did This started in the
• 17:51
  University of Mexico or even earlier.
• 17:53
  Yeah, probably when I got first got to college because I think
• 17:55
  technically my degree program at the time of my major was
• 18:00
  education. I just.
• 18:02
  But in in New Mexico, I didn't even know summer track existed.
• 18:06
  Whenever I was growing up, I didn't know indoor track
• 18:08
  existed. Track to me was seeing Michael
• 18:11
  Johnson in the Olympics in Atlanta and then my high school
• 18:16
  season from March to May. Like that's all I knew about
• 18:19
  track and field. I knew nothing else.
• 18:22
  So this is pre. Internet Day, so it wasn't like
• 18:24
  you're not that. Old.
• 18:25
  I think the Internet technically existed in the late what?
• 18:28
  Year is this? Yeah, yeah.
• 18:29
  But not like it is now that's. Yeah, yeah, you can't just.
• 18:31
  Look at the Internet on our hips every day now with our phone.
• 18:34
  That's that's what I mean. I know there's Internet, but it
• 18:36
  wasn't like we weren't. No, all that information.
• 18:39
  Wasn't searching of our iPads. Everything.
• 18:40
  Not at all. And so would you just ask me?
• 18:48
  So yeah, we got off track on the Internet.
• 18:51
  I just liked your comment about I'm not that old.
• 18:53
  Like so you, Vince Anderson and how you got into coaches.
• 18:58
  You knew yeah, when you got to new.
• 18:59
  Mexico, I just thought I'll just become a teacher, a high school
• 19:03
  teacher and I'll, I'll coach, you know, I, I played soccer and
• 19:06
  football in high school along with track and I love sports and
• 19:09
  like that, that's what I'll do My both my parents were
• 19:12
  educators and so I just knew I wanted to.
• 19:14
  Coach, Did you have a coach in high school that and did?
• 19:19
  A couple of them, so both my track coaches, the the Sprint
• 19:22
  coach's name with Eldon Smith and he was just an Old West
• 19:25
  Texas hard nosed coach. But but but he cared a lot.
• 19:30
  And then the distance coach who's been the head coach in my
• 19:33
  high school, Hobbs High School, for a long time.
• 19:35
  I think he just recently retired as Bob Jackson and he is a
• 19:38
  phenomenal distance coach and a head coach is very, very wise.
• 19:41
  He had run distance at Eastern New Mexico back in the 70s and
• 19:45
  they had a lot of really good teams.
• 19:46
  And he just he he knows running and knows track and field, which
• 19:50
  is few and far between, unfortunately in our sport in
• 19:53
  high school. And, and they just really cared
• 19:55
  a lot. And and so, you know, I just
• 19:58
  wanted to be a coach, but I like I said, I didn't know anything
• 20:02
  existed really outside of that, like in college, coaching
• 20:04
  certainly wasn't. In my my thought.
• 20:07
  Your your purview was the high school and that March through
• 20:10
  May or yeah, March through May season.
• 20:12
  Yeah, that sounds cool. I can do that.
• 20:14
  And then the funniest thing about is so growing up as a just
• 20:16
  a Tennessee football fan, I get to campus and I remember I feel
• 20:21
  like there's probably a football game and, and I was wandering
• 20:24
  through Stokely Athletic Coliseum there, Tennessee,
• 20:27
  that's where their indoor track was and that's where the track
• 20:30
  offices were. I didn't know where I was.
• 20:32
  And they had had a long hallway filled with all American
• 20:37
  plaques. I mean, for track, for track,
• 20:40
  just for men's track. And George Watts, I didn't know
• 20:45
  who he was at the time, saw me and said there's a lot of them
• 20:48
  aren't there. And I'm like, there sure are,
• 20:50
  you know, and, and, but so at that point, I had no idea
• 20:54
  Tennessee was any good at track. No clue.
• 20:58
  And so, you know, I eventually called up Bill Webb and then
• 21:02
  Vince Anderson. And Vince is, you know, I think
• 21:06
  he does a great job of the kind of paying a Ford of trying to,
• 21:10
  you know, help other people out that love the sport and want to
• 21:14
  be involved. And so he said, yeah, you can
• 21:15
  come on out. I wasn't a full time student.
• 21:17
  I had a. You can come out to help.
• 21:19
  Yeah. So just on the job, I
• 21:21
  volunteered. Yeah.
• 21:22
  Yeah. That's one thing that you
• 21:23
  volunteered, but Vince Anderson at the University of Tennessee
• 21:26
  was like, yeah, sure. Yeah.
• 21:28
  Wow, that's interesting. And one of the more meaningful
• 21:31
  things, and I probably don't do as good a job as as I should.
• 21:35
  I remember the first day I walked in his office, he, he
• 21:39
  asked me who I was and, you know, and then kind of tell him
• 21:42
  about by myself and a hurdler from Tennessee that ended up
• 21:45
  being a world championship finalist.
• 21:47
  Dwayne Wallace walked in because he was training Dwayne at the
• 21:50
  time and Vince introduced Dwayne.
• 21:53
  He's like, he's a, he was an All American hurdler.
• 21:56
  He's he's a professional with Adidas now.
• 21:58
  And then he introduced me like I was somebody and I was, and he's
• 22:01
  a former sprinter from New Mexico.
• 22:04
  He's here to help and I'm nobody.
• 22:08
  These guys are everybody. Justin Gallon was a freshman on
• 22:10
  that team. You know, Leonard Scott, who was
• 22:13
  a collegiate record holder in the 60 at one point, was on that
• 22:16
  team and he, he and Vince introduced me like I was
• 22:19
  somebody. Interesting.
• 22:21
  So I'll never forget that. Not only that he did that.
• 22:23
  That's one thing. That's an amazing skill.
• 22:25
  Like he's being very cognizant of that.
• 22:29
  But that you picked up on that too, that you were like, oh,
• 22:32
  wait a minute. Like he's like, maybe I have
• 22:34
  value. Like he's.
• 22:35
  Yeah, introducing you like you have value automatically.
• 22:38
  By the way, you hadn't proven at that point it was just because
• 22:41
  of who you are. Maybe because you're in track
• 22:43
  and, you know, maybe because you're just a human.
• 22:45
  Yeah, you have value that's. Interesting.
• 22:47
  It was. It was really neat.
• 22:48
  That's a there's a lesson right there.
• 22:50
  That's interesting. And, you know, I try to remember
• 22:53
  that whenever I'm introducing a new, you know, whether we have a
• 22:56
  walk on or, or even a recruit or something like that, you know,
• 22:59
  try to, you know, remember, like what you've done when I'm
• 23:03
  introducing you to somebody else.
• 23:04
  Because especially in our world where we have a lot of recruits
• 23:08
  and, and parents and, and athletes that we're trying to
• 23:11
  introduce to the recruits, you know, like, like everyone's done
• 23:13
  something. You know, Allstate sprinter from
• 23:16
  Hoover High School or, you know, third in the Conference USA
• 23:21
  championships last year, whatever it is, You know what,
• 23:23
  we or, you know, I'll joke with some of my really smart girls
• 23:26
  that that they got a 37 on the ACT, which is impossible, but
• 23:32
  they're really smart. And and so, you know, when
• 23:34
  whenever we're talking about that stuff, I'll bump them up a
• 23:37
  little bit and say they're like, yeah, that, you know, so and so
• 23:39
  got a 37 on their ACT in high school and just because they
• 23:43
  they earn that stuff. Yeah, that, that's.
• 23:45
  Interesting. You know, it's it's easy to just
• 23:48
  like if if we were in a social setting, you know, I've known
• 23:51
  you forever. Like this is my buddy Kurt.
• 23:52
  He's a track coach at UAB. It's like, no way this you know,
• 23:54
  this is my buddy Kurt. Guess what?
• 23:56
  You know, he's he's a great coach.
• 23:57
  He does a great job. He's the head coach, you know, a
• 24:00
  great father and husband. You know that you are a great
• 24:03
  person. And so was the next person and
• 24:05
  the next one. Yeah, that's that's interesting.
• 24:07
  I like that to explore that little bit more.
• 24:09
  So Vince, let's yeah, so I, I literally just volunteered the,
• 24:13
  the spring semester is 2001. Like I said, they they had the
• 24:17
  catalyst that 14 they wanted the NCA championship, They won an
• 24:21
  SEC championship. Justin was a freshman, ended up
• 24:25
  sweeping the 100 and 200 outdoors that year.
• 24:27
  And Steven Harris is a phenomenal 8000 point to
• 24:30
  Catholic lead on that team. I mean, it was just an
• 24:33
  unbelievable team. And like I said, I, I had no
• 24:35
  idea their team was any good. And, and I, I just came out and
• 24:39
  because I had a work schedule myself, I was, I only came out
• 24:42
  like three days a week and so. What kind of things did you do?
• 24:46
  Set up hurdles of, you know, put up blocks basically because I
• 24:50
  was just a volunteer, I basically just stuck with
• 24:52
  Vince's group and whatever Vince told me to do that basically
• 24:56
  practice, set up. It was what it was.
• 24:58
  And then I'm just kind of stay out of the way.
• 25:00
  And, but I also remember it was indoor season and I spent two
• 25:05
  years in New Mexico as a sprinter and I don't feel like I
• 25:08
  really learned how to Sprint. I spent maybe an hour listening
• 25:12
  to Vince and I'm just sitting there on the sidelines watching
• 25:15
  and and I got it. Yeah, I was going to ask you,
• 25:18
  did you pay attention to you know what and how Vince taught
• 25:23
  the absolutely. As a kind of like like, oh okay,
• 25:26
  maybe I should be. I think the technical aspect is
• 25:28
  what stood out to me and I think that's what I took away from it.
• 25:32
  You know, looking back, there's always so much time that my
• 25:34
  gosh, I should have asked more questions or whatever because I
• 25:37
  think I, I wish I would have known like, OK, why are you
• 25:40
  putting this work out here? Versus.
• 25:43
  And, and again, I I got so eventually I became a manager
• 25:46
  for the team. Once I got into school full time
• 25:48
  and, and they had a position open, I became a manager, which
• 25:51
  was was good and bad. It was never bad, but because I
• 25:57
  was a manager, I was sent to go work with the, the, the shop
• 26:02
  putters and the decathlees. And you know, I, I had other
• 26:04
  duties every day so I could spend I, I spent less time with
• 26:08
  Vince on a daily day. Well, every day I spent time
• 26:11
  with them, but. But I was concentration with
• 26:13
  Vince. Now you, you had Bill and and
• 26:15
  whoever. Yeah, and we were.
• 26:18
  You know, not bad to spend time with the.
• 26:19
  Bill no, not at all. I think that's the other great
• 26:21
  thing that came out of it was my love and appreciation that I
• 26:24
  have now for the decathlon, for the throws, for the javelin.
• 26:28
  It's javelin is easily besides just flat out spring my my
• 26:32
  favorite event. I love the javelins and you
• 26:34
  know, we had some phenomenal throwers on there.
• 26:36
  Bill Webb is a world class javelin coach.
• 26:39
  The decathletes taught me how to throw the javelin.
• 26:42
  You know, we'd just be joking around to practice and I was
• 26:44
  like, Oh, you kind of want to do this and stuff.
• 26:45
  And and so, so so I learned other aspects to to the sport of
• 26:50
  track and field because again, New Mexico kid didn't even know
• 26:55
  indoor track existed. Show up at Tennessee still
• 26:58
  sprinting was all I really cared about at the time because I
• 27:01
  didn't know anything else in high school.
• 27:03
  The 3200 isn't the most exciting race, but then you get to SEC's
• 27:08
  and, you know, you're at the NC Championships and you're
• 27:10
  watching Daniel Lincoln and and the other Arkansas guys clip off
• 27:16
  10 KS and, and we had some Alister Craig, Alister Craig,
• 27:19
  That's who it was. Yeah.
• 27:20
  And and so you, you had this appreciation for everything
• 27:24
  that's just made learning there like that much better, right?
• 27:28
  And and so you you had eligibility left because you
• 27:32
  only did you ever think about no walking on in Tennessee or did
• 27:36
  you already like, hey, I'm going to close that chapter of my
• 27:38
  life? Yeah, I think I just moved.
• 27:39
  On and never, literally never thought about like, could I
• 27:44
  still make the team? Strangely enough, when I first
• 27:46
  got to Tennessee, I had it in the back of my head that I might
• 27:49
  be able to to make the football team.
• 27:53
  Did you play football in New Mexico?
• 27:54
  Not not even played since high school, Yeah, but even when I
• 27:57
  was in New Mexico, I'm like, I I bet I can make this team.
• 28:00
  But you know, I I was running track.
• 28:02
  I shouldn't couldn't have put anything else in my plate and
• 28:04
  obviously wouldn't have got me where I am now.
• 28:07
  And so but because my love for Tennessee football, in the back
• 28:09
  of my mind, I wish you want to try out.
• 28:11
  I want to see and, but by the time I made it to Knoxville, I
• 28:16
  just wasn't in very good shape. You know, I had had stopped
• 28:20
  working out and, and really training and stuff like that.
• 28:22
  And so by the time I got there, like I just kind of ready to
• 28:25
  move on. But there were there were plenty
• 28:27
  of times where they had some guys coming back from injuries
• 28:30
  and the team would be traveling and I was still, you know, on
• 28:33
  campus and helping the guys through the workout.
• 28:35
  And a guy named Shannon Wheatley that was a great 400m runner
• 28:38
  that just unfortunately stayed injured there a lot.
• 28:41
  Adrian, he is Adrian Wheatley's younger brother.
• 28:44
  I thought Adrian was, yeah, Adrian was great.
• 28:46
  Adrian was a 400 meter guy. Adrian's the new Sprint coach at
• 28:50
  North Carolina. His younger brother Shannon was,
• 28:54
  was a probably a better 400m runner, but just kind of stayed
• 28:57
  injured, had this foot injury that just never really got him
• 29:00
  fully healthy. And so there were plenty of
• 29:02
  times, you know, the workouts that has six one 50s and
• 29:05
  Shannon, I would run one one 50s together.
• 29:08
  And and so at that point, I'm like, OK, I can still run a
• 29:10
  little bit, but Shannon was like a 40, 46 point guy was never
• 29:13
  going to. Run 46 point.
• 29:15
  I could, I could clip off some slow 150's with Shannon on, you
• 29:19
  know, come back from. India, Were you more of 100m guy
• 29:21
  or 400? Meter guy one. 100M guy, yeah.
• 29:23
  What was your PR? So in college, I ran a windy at
• 29:27
  at UNLDI ran a windy 11/8. Yeah.
• 29:31
  OK. I'm sorry.
• 29:32
  No, 10/8. No, no, no, not 11-8.
• 29:33
  That's not. You.
• 29:34
  I was not going to make fun of you.
• 29:35
  I just shook my head. Yeah, OK.
• 29:38
  I was like, cool, I'm just going to pass by.
• 29:42
  I was like, man, you thought you could OK.
• 29:44
  I ran 11/8 when I was 30. Did you?
• 29:47
  Yeah, I did. I ran 11/8 once, yeah.
• 29:50
  It was in a 60 meter dash though, so I'm not sure it
• 29:52
  correlates, but I did do it. So you spent two seasons at
• 29:57
  Knoxville? No.
• 29:57
  No, no. So by the time the year that I
• 29:59
  volunteered and by the time I got into school and and finished
• 30:02
  my degree, I was there for 4/4 full years.
• 30:05
  So you were on the 6th year? I was exactly from the time I
• 30:09
  graduated high school to the time I graduated college was a
• 30:12
  full six years, but. Would you know getting your
• 30:13
  degree in. History because at that point,
• 30:16
  once I started working with the team, I knew I wanted to
• 30:19
  coaching college and and another you know someone else I give
• 30:22
  tons of credit to is Hassan Stamps.
• 30:24
  Hassan was an athlete there for a hurdler and a great.
• 30:28
  Coaches came from that team because wasn't Debris Harris on
• 30:31
  that team? Debris was.
• 30:32
  On that team, I just saw him last week and.
• 30:34
  Then there's a couple other guys, a head coach at UC Irvine.
• 30:40
  I'm drawing a blank on his name now.
• 30:42
  He's best friends with Jeremy Fisher, the the the great jumps
• 30:47
  coach. It's going to kill.
• 30:49
  Yeah, I know exactly. You're talking about that, but
• 30:51
  but he was a volunteer coach when I got there.
• 30:53
  So, so he and I think he, I don't know how he got to
• 30:56
  Knoxville, but, but he was there and so he really helped me along
• 30:59
  and, and he actually, he knew that whenever the managerial job
• 31:02
  opened up, he's like, Hey, I think they have an open job you
• 31:04
  should go do. Because that second year I was
• 31:06
  there, I was in school full time and I was just volunteering for
• 31:08
  the first couple of months every day at practice completely on my
• 31:11
  own. And and then I, you know,
• 31:13
  started getting got the job for it and so.
• 31:17
  Why'd you pick history versus like a a biology or bio
• 31:21
  mechanic? Yeah.
• 31:22
  So at that point, trying to train, I don't even remember
• 31:26
  what my final degree program was in New Mexico when I
• 31:28
  transferred, but I lost credits. I think I technically started
• 31:32
  Tennessee in kinesiology, but realized like it was going to
• 31:35
  take me longer to graduate somehow.
• 31:38
  And then once I realized like, I want to be a college coach, it's
• 31:41
  like, well, what's kind of the easiest way to get a degree in
• 31:43
  the next few years? And, and I love history.
• 31:46
  I always have. And so it, it made it an
• 31:49
  interesting way to go through school because there's not a
• 31:53
  degree in coaching necessarily. That's probably why you and I
• 31:56
  are such good friends. When I transferred to Troy
• 31:59
  University and at that point I knew like, I just want to be a
• 32:01
  college track coach. And I was learning so much from
• 32:05
  much like you, you were learning so much from the Vince and Bill
• 32:07
  Webb and I was learning from guys like Marshall Goss and such
• 32:10
  that I was like, I just need, I just need a degree.
• 32:13
  So what's the easiest thing so I can focus my time on track?
• 32:16
  And literally I went through and was like, oh, public relations,
• 32:19
  I can do that. Yeah.
• 32:21
  That's how I picked my major. Yeah.
• 32:23
  At first it was like elementary. I was like, oh, a PE teacher.
• 32:25
  And that's not that hard. But then I saw how much science
• 32:27
  was involved. I was like, yeah, I'm like, very
• 32:28
  good at that. So he was like, oh public a
• 32:31
  degree of BS and BS like. Yeah, that's right.
• 32:34
  Yeah, right up your alley, yeah. So you get your undergrad at
• 32:39
  Knoxville, and obviously you're part of just some, I mean, what
• 32:42
  a time it was. Unbelievable.
• 32:43
  At the university, it was a golden age of Tennessee tractor.
• 32:47
  And you know, we have a common friend because of your time
• 32:50
  working with Justin. And I had met Justin and got to
• 32:52
  know him when he was in high school.
• 32:54
  And still both of us, as they are lucky to call him a friend.
• 32:57
  He's a such a great guy. People know him as the athlete,
• 33:01
  of course, but boy, he's a good guy, you know?
• 33:06
  And then you so you want to get into coaching.
• 33:08
  So what did that? Look like so and again, I think
• 33:11
  I didn't really have a set plan of how to go about it.
• 33:14
  You know what, because of Hassan and, and I remember we took a
• 33:17
  level one coaching course together in at Vanderbilt and
• 33:21
  Hassan, Jabri, myself and someone else was in the car with
• 33:25
  us when got our level one coaching certification.
• 33:30
  Like the end of their their. Career so and it was Adrian,
• 33:33
  Adrian Wheatley. So Adrian had finished running
• 33:35
  and was just had a nine to five job in Knoxville.
• 33:39
  Jabri was still training because he stayed and trained in
• 33:42
  Knoxville. Coach Watts for years.
• 33:44
  He was still training. And then I guess Hassan was
• 33:47
  finishing up his degree. He was a, he was done with
• 33:49
  eligibility, but he was a, you know, a student coach or
• 33:51
  whatever. So you guys are a bunch of 2223
• 33:53
  year olds taking level one. There's a lot of coaches that
• 33:55
  are, you know, coaching for a while and don't have their level
• 33:58
  ones in level 2. That's interesting.
• 33:59
  So we all, we all did level one together.
• 34:01
  Who taught you? Lori Shepherd.
• 34:03
  It was Lori. Yeah.
• 34:04
  And strangely enough, I didn't. I don't remember this, but
• 34:06
  Willie Randolph, who's it now at FA?
• 34:08
  He and I know each other real well now, but I think he was an
• 34:11
  assistant or something at Vanderbilt at the time.
• 34:14
  I Lauren Seagraves was also one of the clinicians.
• 34:18
  Maybe Andrew Alden? I don't remember.
• 34:21
  So. So we went through that.
• 34:23
  So at that point I kind of realized like, OK, I'll figure
• 34:26
  out how to get into coaching. And then I had a job at a local
• 34:30
  health club and John Ferguson, who runs Delta Timing and he, I
• 34:37
  think originally he was the founder of Delta Timing a long
• 34:39
  time ago. His wife was the women's Sprint
• 34:42
  coach and head coach at Tennessee when I first got
• 34:44
  there, Myrtle Ferguson. Well, so John would come into my
• 34:48
  health club and, and I think just through track, he, he kind
• 34:51
  of recognized each other. So he, he'd come in every day
• 34:53
  and we just kind of chit chat about track and stuff like that.
• 34:55
  He knew way more about track than I did at the time.
• 34:59
  And and then the I had about a year before I was going to
• 35:02
  graduate, he just asked me, what do you want to do?
• 35:05
  And I, I think he was trying to get me come work for him, which
• 35:08
  would have been fine. You know, going around the
• 35:09
  country and Tommy meets is not, not a bad thing to do.
• 35:13
  But I told my one to coach and he said, well, how you going to
• 35:15
  go about that? And I'm like, well, I didn't
• 35:17
  really know. And I hadn't gone to coach Webb
• 35:22
  or, or Vince and said, like, Hey, can you help me?
• 35:25
  So he gave me some numbers. He gave me a mouse's number.
• 35:28
  He gave me a Grover Hinsdale at Georgia Tech, Steve Dudley at
• 35:32
  Mississippi State and somebody else and I just got called them
• 35:35
  all and just said like I want to try to get you have Aga position
• 35:38
  or whatever. No one really had anything and
• 35:40
  and then so. Did you kind of know or at least
• 35:43
  think that you had to go the GA route instead of like I think so
• 35:45
  full time assistant at that point?
• 35:46
  I think so. That was just kind of the next
• 35:50
  logical step in coaching, you know, to to get on somewhere for
• 35:55
  not very much money, but maybe at a bigger program.
• 35:58
  I and at the time being at Tennessee, like I don't think I
• 36:01
  understood that there were smaller programs and that
• 36:04
  there's harder ways of doing things and less budget and
• 36:06
  everything. That's interesting because you
• 36:08
  came from that New Mexico and Hobbs and you jumped right to
• 36:13
  the top. And like I said, those those
• 36:15
  years for Tennessee are pretty unmatched and a lot of other
• 36:20
  programs at that point and now you're in that side of that.
• 36:24
  And and I, you know, I think I doubt it's good and bad.
• 36:26
  I mean, I think that's way good coaching should go sometimes.
• 36:29
  Is that, you know, I ended up at Tennessee and then so I'm around
• 36:32
  the the best athletes in the world.
• 36:33
  Tom Pappas was still training there.
• 36:35
  I worked with Tim Mack on a weekly basis and leading.
• 36:38
  I had nothing to do with it, but I I filmed just almost all of
• 36:41
  his jumping workouts leading up to his gold in Athens that year.
• 36:47
  So I was around the best. I just didn't know that there
• 36:51
  were small programs trying to, you know, just recruit as many
• 36:54
  kids as possible. You start out in the JUCO route.
• 36:56
  Like I didn't know that stuff at all.
• 36:59
  And so I think it appealed to me that like the Georgia that I was
• 37:03
  calling Georgia Tech and Florida and all these places.
• 37:04
  So I didn't know like, oh, I may just have to find a job that's a
• 37:08
  small place in a, in a place I've never lived before,
• 37:11
  anything like that. And, and you know, and it worked
• 37:14
  out. Steve Dudley called me back and
• 37:16
  said that he had a position open for me.
• 37:18
  This was a year before I actually moved there.
• 37:21
  This was like September because I think he knew the, the GAS
• 37:25
  that he had were leaving. And so, so I kind of knew where
• 37:30
  I was going and I spent most that year besides finish up my
• 37:32
  degree and everything, you know, taking the taking the grad
• 37:37
  school exams and, and just trying to get into Mississippi
• 37:39
  State and kind of planning to move to Starkville, Ms., which
• 37:43
  again, I'd never in a million years would have thought it
• 37:45
  would happen, but you know, it all worked out.
• 37:47
  Yeah. And so you spent the O 5 and O
• 37:49
  six seasons as the grad assistant in Mississippi State.
• 37:53
  O4-O. Five.
• 37:54
  I moved there in August of O4-O. Four and O 5.
• 37:57
  Because that was Steve Mullen's first year.
• 37:59
  That was only your year with. Fall of O4, I was there for O
• 38:02
  four and O five seasons. Yep.
• 38:04
  Yeah. So you're there O 5 and O six.
• 38:06
  That's correct. Yeah.
• 38:07
  Yeah, that's I go all by the seasons.
• 38:09
  So I was there for the O Five season and then the next year I
• 38:12
  got hired full time because I took your job.
• 38:15
  Oh, that's right. Yeah.
• 38:16
  Because I you came and I was like, I can't deal with this
• 38:19
  kid. I got to get out of country.
• 38:21
  Yeah, I went to car plane and drove you to it.
• 38:24
  And so I so I coached there as a full time assistant in the 06
• 38:28
  and 07:00. Finishing up your degree still
• 38:30
  though, you got. Your I did not, I did not finish
• 38:32
  my master degree, obviously, I started in grad school and then.
• 38:36
  Still to this day, Yeah, right. I still never finished it
• 38:39
  because at the time, you know, I didn't expect to get hired.
• 38:44
  I think Al was interviewing other people and things didn't
• 38:47
  work out and it was September. I was already training all the
• 38:49
  jumpers and and the women's sprinters anyway because someone
• 38:52
  had to do it and so and you had already left and so he's trying
• 38:56
  to find your replacement. Yeah, because I left fairly
• 38:58
  late. I, I it's not like I left in
• 39:00
  June or July. I think I left like end of
• 39:02
  August, if not the 1st of September.
• 39:04
  It was pretty late in the. I don't remember the timeline at
• 39:07
  all, but I remember, you know, him bringing in people to
• 39:10
  interview and things didn't work out.
• 39:12
  And so I remember, like I said, we're a month into training and,
• 39:15
  and he called me in the office and, and asked me if I wanted
• 39:17
  the job. So I was, I was already in grad
• 39:20
  school for that semester and I, I dropped one class just so I
• 39:25
  could, because you know, Steve Dudley, he said, now you got to
• 39:28
  go recruit. And so trying to split my time a
• 39:31
  little bit more. So, but then I probably only had
• 39:35
  like two or three classes left to finish.
• 39:37
  But that second, the season, the 2nd semester of that year, I
• 39:42
  said, you know, I'm just going to concentrate in coaching and,
• 39:44
  and just try to take a semester off, assuming that I would just
• 39:47
  kind of pick it back up the next year.
• 39:49
  And, and I didn't. And then assuming that like
• 39:53
  whenever I left Starfall, I, I had come to the conclusion like
• 39:56
  I'll probably be here for a few more years and then I'll send
• 39:59
  UAB called and, and I, and I decided to leave.
• 40:02
  And so then once, once I left and, and UAB doesn't have any of
• 40:06
  my, my degree program at the time was teaching and coaching.
• 40:09
  I guess it wasn't necessary education, but it wasn't fully
• 40:12
  kinesiology either. So my master's was degree was in
• 40:16
  that and, and UAB just doesn't have that same type of program.
• 40:20
  And so I'm starting. From scratch.
• 40:22
  So I I just, I just never finished.
• 40:24
  So after the O six season you go to UAB as the assist.
• 40:28
  So Yep, Ray Stanfield hired me. That's right, I was there.
• 40:33
  It's a women's only program, so there's only two other
• 40:36
  assistants. There was a distance assistant.
• 40:39
  Ray coached all the distance athletes and then me.
• 40:41
  So I coached everybody else. And that was I moved there in
• 40:46
  August of O7 for the O8 track season.
• 40:49
  O eight season was your first one.
• 40:50
  So you've been there for 13 years, 10 plus seasons.
• 40:54
  Wow. And how many years now is the
• 40:55
  head coach, 11, 11, so fairly quickly, I mean within three
• 40:59
  years. And was that a because I think
• 41:02
  Ray left, retired Texas, was it a foreground conclusion that
• 41:08
  you'd be the head coach? Or I think Ray wanted it that
• 41:11
  way. He and I worked really well
• 41:12
  together and I think he just wanted to give me the
• 41:14
  opportunity and, and he had a good enough relationship with
• 41:16
  the AD that that they, they made me the interim coach of that
• 41:20
  first for a full year. And then so I think they just
• 41:25
  gave me the opportunity because Ray kind of nudged him in that
• 41:28
  direction and and they trusted Ray, I guess.
• 41:30
  Ray been there for a long time. He'd been there for about seven
• 41:33
  or eight years and they won a conference championship in cross
• 41:36
  country and finished second. So I think they just kind of
• 41:39
  trusted him that like, and he he when he took over the program,
• 41:42
  like O2 or O3 or something like that, It it, there was very few
• 41:46
  people even on the team. And so he hired Andy Edgarth.
• 41:50
  Really. Oh, wow.
• 41:51
  Yep, that was, I think that was Andy's very first college
• 41:54
  coaching job. He'd come from like a
• 41:56
  performance center up in Minnesota where he's from or
• 41:59
  something like that. And, and then came to UAB.
• 42:02
  And so he hired some really good assistants and they turned the
• 42:04
  program around. So whenever I, I inherited a lot
• 42:06
  of Andy's old athletes, so they knew how to train, they knew how
• 42:09
  to lift, they're already pretty good.
• 42:13
  You know, I, I just kind of helped him along and then we ran
• 42:15
  a little bit faster, but. And so, so, so Ray had done a
• 42:21
  really good job there and then. And whenever I took over, like I
• 42:26
  said, it was, I was interim for a year.
• 42:28
  And my first, we also had hired Althea Thomas the year before,
• 42:33
  so she was with my assistants. Yeah.
• 42:35
  And then I had the luxury of hiring Blake Bolden as my first
• 42:40
  distance. I had to replace Ray as a
• 42:41
  distance coach. And so I had known Blake.
• 42:44
  Yeah, it was. He and Blake and I are great
• 42:48
  friends to this day and I owe him a lot.
• 42:51
  But he, I knew him through Houston frames at Mississippi
• 42:55
  State. Yep.
• 42:56
  And so I just knew that he was still, you know, coaching and
• 42:59
  around or whatever. And then and he and I hit it off
• 43:02
  and he did a really good job for me.
• 43:03
  Yeah, that's easy with him. He's a one of the all time great
• 43:06
  guys. And hard working I mean.
• 43:08
  He's just just great guy. Yeah, I'm going to have him on
• 43:10
  the podcast. He doesn't know it yet, but he's
• 43:12
  he's got a good. Don't listen to this.
• 43:13
  Play. He's awesome.
• 43:14
  Yeah, exactly. And so how old were you when you
• 43:18
  became the headcoat, not the? Interim I was 30.
• 43:20
  So I was very like, because that's it's a different ball
• 43:23
  game when you're the head coach versus the assistant.
• 43:24
  You know, I think at the time and I kind of have figured this
• 43:28
  out about myself a little bit, like when, when things are
• 43:30
  really tough or, or, or, you know, maybe a little
• 43:33
  overwhelming for some reason, I dig a little bit deeper.
• 43:37
  And, and so like I just, I told Blake and Althea when I first
• 43:40
  took over and we had our first time, he was like, I don't have
• 43:42
  all the answers, but I think we're smart enough that we can
• 43:45
  figure it out together. And, and of course you have two
• 43:49
  highly ambitious assistants, Althea and and Blake, and I
• 43:52
  think they're looking me for answers.
• 43:54
  And we're all the same age. And so I said, we don't have all
• 43:58
  the, I mean, together, we can figure it out because we all,
• 44:00
  Blake had been at Florida State for a little bit.
• 44:02
  He had been, you know, in Iowa State.
• 44:04
  He had, he had run professionally for a few years.
• 44:07
  Althea had been at LSU and and had coached with her father and
• 44:10
  just say her dad. 'S a legend.
• 44:12
  Yeah. And so we knew track and field,
• 44:15
  but now we had to apply it all. And so, so it was, it was pretty
• 44:18
  overwhelming. And I was having my first son,
• 44:21
  my first child that same year. It was, it was a lot, but you
• 44:26
  just try to make good decisions, try not to screw up.
• 44:29
  And you know, I think I, I remember looking back like,
• 44:33
  well, Tennessee, how do we do things?
• 44:35
  And, and, you know, Tennessee wasn't the only way to do
• 44:37
  things, but there ain't such a great organization that that,
• 44:41
  you know, I was like, if I kind of lean back on what I remember
• 44:43
  and what I've been taught, like, probably not going to screw up
• 44:47
  too bad. And so was there ever a sense of
• 44:49
  anxiety because, you know, now you're responsible for all the
• 44:52
  kids on the team, not your segment.
• 44:54
  On top of that, you're also beholding to your bosses, you
• 44:58
  know, paperwork and reporting on how things are going and kid
• 45:01
  gets in trouble. And.
• 45:03
  Hey, head coach Thomas, what's going on?
• 45:05
  Was there ever since that or was it more like, yeah, I'm ready,
• 45:07
  I'm OK with this, No. Every new, every situation was a
• 45:11
  new learning process. And again, having two good
• 45:14
  assistants helped out a lot of we, we had a couple of of rough
• 45:17
  incidences with student athletes.
• 45:18
  And you know, Althea did a great job of kind of helping me along
• 45:22
  with that when it was like one of her athletes had done
• 45:24
  something wrong. And, and we had to kind of go
• 45:27
  into administration and kind of talk through it and stuff like
• 45:29
  that. Never anxiety.
• 45:33
  Just like we have to get this right.
• 45:35
  We have to figure out and make a good decision.
• 45:37
  And, you know, in that way, like whenever the situation arises
• 45:40
  and something bad happens, like you can't freak out or
• 45:43
  overreact. You just have to like, figure
• 45:44
  out, OK, what's the right thing to do?
• 45:47
  And so there was more of, you know, a little bit of stress
• 45:50
  here and there, a little bit of more sleepless nights, but you
• 45:54
  just work really hard at it and hopefully figure it out.
• 45:56
  I can see that with you, you're a very same line kind of guy.
• 46:01
  Your, your peaks aren't very high, your valleys aren't very
• 46:05
  low either. You're not a super excitable
• 46:08
  guy. But then on that same token, you
• 46:09
  don't get down very much either. You're very steady.
• 46:13
  I think is the is the right term with that.
• 46:15
  So I could see that with the, which is a great asset to have
• 46:18
  because then you become the rock and people lean on.
• 46:21
  You and. And things like that to get to
• 46:23
  get advice from. So you've been as the head coach
• 46:25
  for eight, eight seasons, ten seasons now.
• 46:29
  This is my 11th. Yeah.
• 46:30
  You surf. Yeah, they all.
• 46:31
  Yeah. And you've also recently gone
• 46:35
  through something that not a lot of coaches get to go through,
• 46:39
  and it's a very sometimes confusing process.
• 46:42
  You just got a brand new facility.
• 46:44
  Beforehand, you were training on a 250 meter square.
• 46:49
  No, strangely enough, it was that it was 400 meters, but it
• 46:53
  was square. I remember the square.
• 46:55
  Oh yeah, you better believe it. And it was uphill.
• 46:58
  There was once GPS watches got popular before they dug it, dug
• 47:02
  up the whole track, some of our distance runners clocked the
• 47:07
  elevation change and, and, and so, so the 200 meters was uphill
• 47:12
  about 10, there's about 10 foot total incline and then from 200
• 47:16
  to 400 is about a 10 foot decline.
• 47:18
  It's probably great for practice.
• 47:19
  So it was, I mean, you know, for we would do a lot of downhill
• 47:22
  running in certain points of the season and it the uphill wasn't
• 47:26
  quite enough, like get a good acceleration work.
• 47:30
  The interesting thing was I think most of my athletes got a
• 47:32
  whole lot better at running the 1st 200 meters of a 400 because
• 47:35
  it was uphill. So if I said, hey, I want these
• 47:38
  in 32 today, they had to work harder.
• 47:41
  Or if they were just barely hitting 3233, you know, I knew
• 47:44
  they were going to be OK if we got on a flat track.
• 47:46
  Right. Yeah, that's interesting.
• 47:47
  You had to compensate for that as you're evaluating what times
• 47:50
  to prescribe and what times are they hitting.
• 47:53
  And of course, coming downhill for running one 50s and and some
• 47:56
  some girl would run seventeen nine.
• 47:58
  I'm like, yeah, that's probably closer to 18, three or four.
• 48:02
  I wish there was someone way smarter than me that could
• 48:06
  figure out the exact time changes, differences, you know,
• 48:10
  based on the elevation or whatever.
• 48:11
  Just like, like wind. But yeah, like a wind date,
• 48:13
  yeah. So now you don't have that
• 48:15
  problem because you have a gorgeous brand new track.
• 48:18
  I've, you know, I've toured it and it's, I mean, it's, it's
• 48:21
  nice. In fact, it was the American
• 48:23
  Sports Builders Association Facility of the Year.
• 48:25
  That's, you know, there's. A lot of facilities that came
• 48:27
  out in the last year, that's a that's a pretty high bar.
• 48:30
  Yeah, we've been very fortunate with that track and and you
• 48:33
  know, I people will tell me all the time that like maybe we're
• 48:36
  deserving of it because we waited so long, you know that.
• 48:40
  And so whenever I got to UAB, we had the square track and then
• 48:43
  they had just paved it when I got hired.
• 48:46
  And so because it was asphalt before, and so the team drove
• 48:48
  off campus to local high schools every day.
• 48:51
  But you got some great high school tracks.
• 48:53
  That was a real problem is, you know, UAB is a permanent
• 48:56
  institution, obviously known for its medical and things like that
• 48:58
  and has had some great athletic teams and recently been in the
• 49:01
  news with the football dropping and bringing it back and doing
• 49:04
  really, really well. The school records that may be a
• 49:07
  really good, you know, drop men's track at one point as
• 49:11
  well, which is, you know, maybe that's the bad aster iconic.
• 49:13
  But in your area, Birmingham from the mountain Brooks and
• 49:16
  Hoovers and maybe Spain Park has a nice talking over.
• 49:20
  There's several really like not good, really nice track
• 49:24
  facilities. And then you had this, this
• 49:26
  square. It was really it was an eyesore
• 49:29
  in that sense that the institution in that town did not
• 49:31
  have anything. Yeah, you know, and I think it
• 49:34
  wasn't UA BS fault necessarily, because UA BS only been around
• 49:37
  since 1969. Is that right?
• 49:39
  Yeah. We just, we're celebrating our
• 49:40
  50th year. And so it's just a very young
• 49:43
  institution and it, it was a commuter school, it was a
• 49:45
  medical school. So it didn't even have athletics
• 49:48
  until the, well, I think they started basketball and in
• 49:51
  baseball like in 79 or 80 and they didn't even start track
• 49:55
  until the late 80s. So, so there wasn't a reason to
• 49:58
  have a lot of that infrastructure, whereas, you
• 50:00
  know, most really old universities or, or, and even
• 50:03
  high schools, like you build a football team and you put a
• 50:06
  track in it. You know, it's just so you
• 50:07
  already have those things. Well, yeah, that's a good point.
• 50:09
  With football, you didn't even have it on campus.
• 50:11
  Football you use Legion Field. They didn't even.
• 50:13
  Start football till the late 90s.
• 50:15
  Is that where that's that's when the late. 90s.
• 50:16
  So they started out as like a club sport in the early 90s and
• 50:19
  they did D3DD2, you know, to kind of work your way to D1.
• 50:24
  They were one AA for like a year or two and in their first years,
• 50:27
  Division One was like 96 or 97. That's when they dropped men's
• 50:30
  track because it went D1 and they had to drop men's track
• 50:33
  because of title. Nine, that makes sense because
• 50:34
  my brother Chris Baptista is number 2 long jumper, triple
• 50:38
  jumper there and he came to Troy so I met him in the fall of 96
• 50:44
  That sounds right. And they had just.
• 50:45
  Dropped Yeah, that's exactly right.
• 50:47
  And so, so, yeah, a lot of that stuff just wasn't already at
• 50:50
  UAB, but then the local high schools are great.
• 50:53
  Vestavia and yeah, Vestavia, yeah, in Mountbrook have mondo
• 50:57
  facilities. And so that that's where the the
• 50:59
  teams used to go before they paved the track when I got
• 51:01
  there. But they're like a 25 minute
• 51:04
  drive from, you know, so it's just, it's just difficult to
• 51:05
  navigate the logistics of it. So, and actually the, the team
• 51:09
  that I inherited having a paved rubber track, regardless of the
• 51:13
  shape was awesome for them. They could stay on campus.
• 51:17
  They can walk from class straight to the track.
• 51:18
  So it was great. But then over the years it got
• 51:21
  rock hard. And so he was more of an injury
• 51:24
  issue for a little while. And, and so it, and at some
• 51:29
  point it just wasn't good enough.
• 51:32
  You know, it just wasn't up to par.
• 51:35
  And like I said, it was getting way too hard.
• 51:37
  Like there was a point where we were going to have to stop
• 51:41
  training on it daily in order to stay healthy.
• 51:44
  Were you seeing it like an increase in injury and.
• 51:47
  Things like that, little stress fractures here and there.
• 51:50
  And, and so it, it was just, and so I think there were larger
• 51:54
  plans in order to to, to have a track to get a new track.
• 51:58
  But that's, that's a lot of money.
• 52:00
  You know, there's a lot of things that that.
• 52:05
  Yeah, go into it. It's not just go buy a hurdle or
• 52:08
  something like that. It's, it's a multi $1,000,000
• 52:10
  facility no matter what decision you make.
• 52:14
  So what was the process like? Because there had been talk
• 52:16
  about getting a track for a while.
• 52:17
  I mean, it's not something you wake up on Monday.
• 52:19
  So we're going to get a new track.
• 52:20
  That happens this year, right? So it's a process to raise the
• 52:23
  money and then and to get that higher up in the priority list
• 52:30
  of the athletic director and president, things like that and
• 52:32
  the board. So you've been told for a while
• 52:34
  you're going to get a new track, and then it took a while and
• 52:36
  then finally, like how good did it feel when you first saw the
• 52:39
  1st dirt being dubbed? That's always the first
• 52:42
  progress. OK, It's actually going to
• 52:43
  happen. Yeah.
• 52:44
  You know, I think the, the thing that that stuck out to me was
• 52:46
  whenever we had, we had a meeting to interview the
• 52:49
  architects and so we got to interview them all and, and, you
• 52:54
  know, kind of pick our architect so to.
• 52:56
  Speak. Start becoming real if you were
• 52:57
  involved in that process. Yeah, they let me be involved
• 52:59
  the entire time and. That's not very common that they
• 53:01
  must have a lot of trust with you then either.
• 53:03
  That or they didn't have anyone else better to do it.
• 53:05
  I don't know which one, but and you know, I think at this point
• 53:09
  I think they trusted that no one else really understood track and
• 53:13
  field. So why not have me?
• 53:14
  Do you know which which I'm appreciative of?
• 53:17
  Why? Don't have the kids from Hobbs,
• 53:18
  NM? Exactly.
• 53:19
  Yeah, that's a natural progression.
• 53:23
  And so, yeah, whenever, like we were picking the architect and
• 53:27
  so we knew that it was actually happening.
• 53:29
  So everything's a little intertwined because before they
• 53:33
  cut the football program in 2014, I'd had some conversations
• 53:37
  with the donor and, and the AD at the time about how much does
• 53:42
  a track cost? Like what, what do you think we
• 53:44
  can do? Then they cut football and that
• 53:46
  was such a huge whirlwind of of media and and the RAD was.
• 53:52
  Crazy. Yeah, RAD resigned and and, you
• 53:55
  know, and so all of a sudden we didn't have a football program,
• 53:58
  but we had a track program and we were actually going to start
• 54:00
  a men's track and field program because they had to have a
• 54:03
  whatever the NCAA minimum is that we had to have another
• 54:06
  men's sport in order to stay Division One.
• 54:09
  So we had started the process of starting a cross country program
• 54:13
  with plans. I had to write out A5 year plan
• 54:15
  of adding men's track scholarships and budgets and
• 54:18
  everything. And, and, and, you know, so we,
• 54:22
  we actually started a cross country program.
• 54:24
  We had walk ONS from campus and a couple of freshmen that were
• 54:28
  coming into UAB anyway and it heard that we're going to start
• 54:31
  a cross country program and still wanted to run.
• 54:33
  So we had about 10 guys that the season probably wouldn't have
• 54:35
  been real pretty, but what they're going to get to run.
• 54:37
  And we were going to have a men's program.
• 54:39
  And then six months after they cut the football program, UAB
• 54:43
  was able to bring it back. And so we had to then for UAB,
• 54:47
  it was, it was bizarre to say the least.
• 54:49
  And so we had to stop the cross country program.
• 54:54
  But then, you know, the football program raised so much money and
• 54:57
  they built a beautiful football operations building and indoor
• 55:02
  covered pavilion practice facility.
• 55:05
  So they had to dig up our track. Oh, that's where that went.
• 55:08
  So, yeah, so because that's the only space really, because we
• 55:12
  shared the the practice space, we shared the track space, the
• 55:14
  in the interior was football practice space.
• 55:17
  And so so we did that and, and the football program started
• 55:22
  digging it immediately because they had all the money and they
• 55:25
  built their facility in like 9 months.
• 55:26
  It was unbelievable. And so we had to go off campus
• 55:29
  for three years to local high schools, but the local high
• 55:34
  schools that the nice tracks around town, we're just way too
• 55:37
  far away to navigate with classes and stuff.
• 55:39
  So we went to a local high school that was very generous
• 55:42
  and just let us go out there anytime we wanted to.
• 55:44
  But it's still 6 miles away each way and you deal with a little
• 55:48
  bit of traffic and, and you know, we have some equipment
• 55:51
  there at the high school, some equipments on campus, you know,
• 55:54
  having a shuttle back and forth with practices and stuff like
• 55:57
  that. It was, it was not easy.
• 56:01
  And so we really, we endured that for three years, but then,
• 56:04
  you know, once. And so we knew that a track was
• 56:06
  coming at some point whenever we were off campus.
• 56:10
  Like they knew they had to do it.
• 56:11
  But but it's also hard when you're telling recruits, parents
• 56:14
  and even our current athletes like had a meeting, you know, I
• 56:17
  think we're about a year away from starting, you know, and
• 56:19
  they, they're appreciative of that.
• 56:21
  But like, you also don't see anything happening.
• 56:23
  Yeah. Especially hard for an 18 to 22
• 56:25
  year old or you know, as you said, your recruits 1617 year
• 56:27
  olds to have that vision along with you as adults.
• 56:31
  Hopefully we have some patients and I can't blame an 18 year old
• 56:35
  for not having the patience of saying, yeah, yeah, that's
• 56:37
  great. But you know, I can go to school
• 56:38
  over here and they have one. Exactly.
• 56:40
  Yeah, I get that. So the process you mentioned
• 56:44
  interviewing the different architects and speaking into
• 56:47
  that. And then, of course, you got to
• 56:48
  decide what surface you're going to go with, and your equipment
• 56:50
  and stands and electricity. Oh, by the way, you're trying to
• 56:55
  coach a team with the logistics of going off campus On top of
• 56:58
  that. What was life like during that
• 57:00
  time period? Just really, really busy.
• 57:02
  You know, we had biweekly meetings of about the track from
• 57:08
  the, the very beginnings in the planning and everything all the
• 57:12
  way up until it was fully finished.
• 57:14
  And so, you know, I think it between staff meetings and
• 57:16
  travel and, and, and going off campus attract and stuff like
• 57:19
  that, There were plenty of times that I, I just felt like, you
• 57:22
  know, as as soon as I left practice, I had to go straight
• 57:25
  to a meeting. And so sometimes like there was
• 57:27
  a couple days out of the week, I didn't feel like I was ever in
• 57:29
  the office. And so it was just busy.
• 57:32
  But you know, you, you, it was important and it was, it was
• 57:36
  interesting. And so, you know, you just add
• 57:39
  it to your schedule just like anything else.
• 57:41
  Yeah, pretty good. What was his actual title?
• 57:43
  Project manager. The son, Brian Templeton.
• 57:46
  Yeah. Brian Templeton is is amazing,
• 57:48
  but against small. World so you know, I I meet your
• 57:51
  project. Was it project manager's title
• 57:52
  essentially? Yeah, yeah.
• 57:53
  Yeah, Brian Templeton, and he's the son of our former AD at
• 57:57
  Mississippi State. Yeah, he hired both you and I
• 57:59
  was small. Mr. Templeton did.
• 58:01
  He was A and he's a SEC Hall of Fame type AD he was there
• 58:05
  forever and then and then great. Yeah.
• 58:07
  His son Brian works at UA. He did a great.
• 58:08
  Job. He did an amazing work job and
• 58:12
  he, he cared about our project. And there were he had to help
• 58:15
  us. And sometimes he did a little
• 58:17
  bit more on his own, move our equipment from one location
• 58:22
  where they had to move it and then to a different location.
• 58:24
  And, and he, he got a truck with us and, and put it in the back
• 58:28
  of of truck and, and just, and helped us move it ourselves and,
• 58:33
  and not a lot of people would have done that.
• 58:34
  And so now he he was phenomenal with the whole thing.
• 58:37
  So you've got it now. First of all, are you, you got
• 58:39
  to start hosting some meats. Absolutely.
• 58:41
  Very good. Yeah.
• 58:42
  Is there anything that maybe you know, looking hindsight back
• 58:47
  with the facility, anything you would do differently now that
• 58:50
  you have that 2020? Really, I don't know if I would
• 58:55
  do anything differently. You know, we, we share the
• 58:58
  interior grass with men's women soccer.
• 59:02
  You're right next to like. Professional soccer, yeah.
• 59:05
  So we yeah, the UAB stadium is also shared by a professional
• 59:10
  USLI believe is the league professional soccer team.
• 59:12
  So we have this beautiful soccer.
• 59:14
  Team. And that's where they play.
• 59:16
  But because of the wear and tear with the men's and women's
• 59:19
  soccer program, plus the Legion playing there, it is is amazing
• 59:23
  of a field itself, just the grass and then the drainage and
• 59:25
  everything, it gets worn out. So that's so they don't always
• 59:29
  practice out there. So they practice on the interior
• 59:33
  of the track. So we share that space.
• 59:35
  But that also actually kind of worked out a little bit as well
• 59:38
  because now we have an amazing hammer facility separate.
• 59:43
  From the interior of the track. Finish line area, so safety
• 59:47
  wise, so that's a lot better for throwing the hammer.
• 59:50
  And it's a really it's kind of a neat little venue.
• 59:52
  I like it because it's. You know, ideally you want it in
• 59:55
  the, in the field, you know, for everything, but it's, it's so
• 59:58
  it's not, but it's right off. It's not, you know, some places
• 1:00:00
  we go and it's 10 miles off the track.
• 1:00:03
  It's, it's right there. So it's still part of the
• 1:00:06
  facility, just not inside? Yeah, yeah.
• 1:00:08
  You can see it right there, you know, and it's, it's nice and
• 1:00:11
  it's just right there next to the soccer and track, right?
• 1:00:14
  And I love your, you know, your pole vault and long or on the
• 1:00:19
  outside all tracks surfaced in. I mean, it's just, it adds to
• 1:00:23
  the just the overallness. I guess.
• 1:00:25
  Yeah, really, I don't like I said, there's really not a lot I
• 1:00:28
  would change about the facility itself.
• 1:00:30
  I mean, there's a little, you know, any facility isn't perfect
• 1:00:32
  as soon as you open it. You know, we, we, we want to
• 1:00:34
  eventually try to add some more storage and in a few other
• 1:00:37
  little things like that. But just from the, the
• 1:00:39
  functionality of the, of the facility itself, it's, it's
• 1:00:42
  awesome because we share a Plaza with the soccer stadium, right?
• 1:00:47
  Which is a huge Plaza because they have food trucks and, and
• 1:00:50
  games and all kinds of stuff for the professional teams.
• 1:00:52
  And so we kind of have the end of the, the concession stands
• 1:00:54
  and ticket office and bathrooms are all right there part of the
• 1:00:57
  soccer and track facility. So it's this, this amazing event
• 1:01:01
  area. And so, yeah, I don't really
• 1:01:04
  think I would change anything about even our, our D zone is
• 1:01:08
  huge. It's massive.
• 1:01:10
  And you know, when you design it, like all D zones are pretty
• 1:01:12
  big. And then we got out there like
• 1:01:15
  holy moly, this thing is huge. I mean, you know, you could
• 1:01:18
  easily put 2 high jump pits out there and the steeplechase is
• 1:01:21
  right there and in the javelin. So it's, it's, it's great.
• 1:01:24
  I I would not change a thing about it at all.
• 1:01:27
  Are you hosting a home meet this year?
• 1:01:29
  We are, yeah. I I really pushed to try to,
• 1:01:32
  everyone in the state knew that we were getting a new track.
• 1:01:34
  Everyone in the city and then just track people knew that we
• 1:01:37
  got a new facility and everyone like we have a lot of requests
• 1:01:39
  to try to use it or get on it or, or for us to do something
• 1:01:42
  with it. And so I didn't want to lose
• 1:01:44
  that opportunity. It's brand new.
• 1:01:45
  Everyone knows about let's go and host something.
• 1:01:47
  Strike ball the irons, Yeah. Exactly.
• 1:01:49
  And so, so we're going to host a high school meet in March and
• 1:01:53
  then the very next, over the next two days, we'll host a
• 1:01:55
  college meet March 20th, March 20th and 21st.
• 1:01:59
  And it may not be huge this first year, but you know,
• 1:02:03
  there's plenty of local teams that that either can't afford to
• 1:02:06
  travel very far or just don't want to that early on.
• 1:02:09
  So we'll host and it's a great facility.
• 1:02:11
  And I think even for the high schools, you know, they, they, a
• 1:02:14
  lot of them, you know, go around to the local schools, Hewitt,
• 1:02:17
  Trussville or Hoover or some of these other places.
• 1:02:19
  And so they compete there a lot. High school kids get really
• 1:02:22
  excited to compete on a college campus, you know, and, and, and
• 1:02:26
  I think the fact that we're in the city, there's a lot of City
• 1:02:28
  Schools that don't necessarily get the same opportunities to go
• 1:02:31
  to some of these bigger meets other places now that some of
• 1:02:34
  the suburban schools do. And so, you know, we, we want
• 1:02:38
  all the City Schools just to be able to drive down the street
• 1:02:40
  and compete on our, our track as well.
• 1:02:42
  And so hopefully the high school meet will go well.
• 1:02:45
  We're excited to host it and. Where is there ever a talk or
• 1:02:49
  will there ever be a talk about hosting the high school state
• 1:02:52
  meet? I'm not sure where the state
• 1:02:53
  meets now. I've always wanted to I don't
• 1:02:57
  that, you know, that's probably more political than I that I
• 1:02:59
  know about that now. So the, the large class is down
• 1:03:02
  in Gulf Shores at the beach. So that may be tough to pull
• 1:03:05
  away, but the smaller classes kind of bounce around every few
• 1:03:09
  years. I don't, I don't think anyone
• 1:03:10
  place really wants to keep hosting it.
• 1:03:13
  I don't think they're the the the AHSA is always happy
• 1:03:16
  necessarily about keeping it in certain locations.
• 1:03:20
  And so I, I would love to host it.
• 1:03:22
  We wouldn't necessarily host. We would love to to.
• 1:03:24
  Be the. Facility, yes, exactly.
• 1:03:26
  I think it'd be great. I mean it's, it's central
• 1:03:28
  location in the state. So obviously it's really nice
• 1:03:30
  facility, you know, and so, so that'd be nice to try to try to
• 1:03:33
  get that at some point in the future.
• 1:03:35
  My senior year, our child through my high school career,
• 1:03:38
  our state. News at Selma if that track
• 1:03:40
  still exists. They hosted the small class
• 1:03:41
  there, just that. Was my.
• 1:03:43
  That was our track and then at Troy we hosted the small class
• 1:03:47
  one through 3 down there for maybe the whole time I was.
• 1:03:50
  Down there several years, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we actually
• 1:03:53
  like we hosted like worked it the whole nine, man.
• 1:03:56
  Yeah, it was, it was, it was a chore, but it was it was fun.
• 1:03:59
  It was just cool to see kids, no matter what class or level of
• 1:04:02
  competition they're in, when they win their ultimate prize,
• 1:04:05
  It's it's special, man. That'd be that'd be super cool
• 1:04:08
  to have at UAB. What about hosting your
• 1:04:12
  conference Conference USA right? With that, are you in rotation
• 1:04:16
  now? Not yet.
• 1:04:19
  I would like to be We, we need lights, we need some stand.
• 1:04:22
  You know, there's some extra things about the facility that
• 1:04:25
  aren't quite there yet that that I think are are hopefully coming
• 1:04:27
  in the near future. And of course, you know, in the
• 1:04:29
  conference championship season in in May, you have to go
• 1:04:33
  usually in the evening for heat purposes and stuff like that.
• 1:04:36
  And so, so we're not in the rotation now, but I've kind of
• 1:04:39
  pushed AD and even told them our Conference USA people that like
• 1:04:42
  we just have a brand new facility we'd like to try to get
• 1:04:44
  in that rotation at some point. So, so I think it'll probably
• 1:04:46
  happen the next few years. Yeah, I mean, because it's a
• 1:04:48
  great conference. I mean, good Lord, to have that
• 1:04:51
  meet in Birmingham would be awesome because that's a tough
• 1:04:54
  conference, a tough conference for me.
• 1:04:56
  Well, and we, you know, we host the the Conference USA indoor
• 1:04:59
  meet every year at the Cross Plex.
• 1:05:01
  And so I think a lot of the teams are hopefully comfortable
• 1:05:03
  coming to Birmingham. I think it's relatively
• 1:05:06
  inexpensive for for. The rest of the team a.
• 1:05:09
  Lot of them can drive versus, you know, like this year
• 1:05:12
  outdoors we're going to UTSA and and so a lot of the Florida
• 1:05:16
  schools in Charlotte and us and Southern, you know, like those
• 1:05:18
  are long trips. We're we're kind of centrally
• 1:05:21
  located, I guess compared to other schools.
• 1:05:23
  And so, so yeah, hopefully in the future we'll we'll get it.
• 1:05:26
  Is a great place to host. I mean, obviously the cross
• 1:05:28
  specs with its facilities and stuff is, is top notch.
• 1:05:31
  But you know, the host NCAA every year, you know, the host
• 1:05:35
  NCAA as, as you know, if you've worked those meets as well as
• 1:05:38
  had kids there, you know, but again, the city though it's easy
• 1:05:41
  to get to the cost of hotels and such are are not astronomical
• 1:05:46
  like other cities like Boston that we're in here now.
• 1:05:50
  So hey, we're getting man, you've, you've done an hour.
• 1:05:52
  That was pretty quick. Yeah, it was.
• 1:05:54
  Yeah. What we didn't get to is who
• 1:05:58
  Kurt is. So we talked a lot about Coach
• 1:06:00
  Thomas, which is phenomenal. You know, I love doing these
• 1:06:04
  things because you know, again, I've known you for a long time.
• 1:06:07
  I thought I knew all about you had no clue about East Tennessee
• 1:06:11
  and you're always learning stuff new that that that's that means
• 1:06:15
  the world to me and spend time and to do to do that and we
• 1:06:18
  should do that more. But you have you know, I know
• 1:06:20
  your your wife and your two kids.
• 1:06:23
  We have something in common in the sense of you named.
• 1:06:27
  We don't have time to get into the hallway but tell them.
• 1:06:32
  So my, my first son's, his name is Tolliver Knox Thomas Tolliver
• 1:06:36
  is an old family name, my father, my grandfather, my great
• 1:06:38
  grandfather. But you know, Tennessee means a
• 1:06:41
  lot to, to my wife and I, she graduated from Tennessee, same
• 1:06:45
  as I did. And, and you know, just
• 1:06:47
  Tennessee in general, the state and she's from, she was raised
• 1:06:50
  in Nashville. And so she I got to pick my
• 1:06:55
  son's name on my birthday that year.
• 1:06:58
  So we whittled it down to a couple things.
• 1:06:59
  I wasn't going to throw a curveball.
• 1:07:00
  At her was was Mike ever. I don't think so.
• 1:07:03
  Yeah, sorry, but. And so we settled on Tolliver
• 1:07:08
  Knox, Thomas Knox. Knox after Knoxville.
• 1:07:11
  Knoxville. Yep.
• 1:07:12
  Had nothing to do with Lane Kiffin's son or, or Brad Pitt's
• 1:07:15
  son. Yeah.
• 1:07:16
  When Blake Kiffin was. Yeah.
• 1:07:18
  When Lane Kiffin spent his one year there, they had their first
• 1:07:21
  child or maybe their second child, whatever.
• 1:07:23
  And supposedly his name is Knox because he coached in Knoxville
• 1:07:27
  that year. It all kind of happened at the
• 1:07:29
  same time, but we just picked it because it sounded good.
• 1:07:31
  You know, it's it was a nice name and everything.
• 1:07:33
  And so he goes by Knox. That's cool.
• 1:07:37
  And then of course, I have a younger son.
• 1:07:38
  Knox is 10 now. It's amazing.
• 1:07:41
  I know it's unbelievable. And he's they just get so big so
• 1:07:45
  fast and they, they know a lot too.
• 1:07:47
  It's scary. And then my younger son is, is
• 1:07:50
  named Lucas David Thomas. He's 8 years old.
• 1:07:52
  David after Davidson College. No, no, it didn't go academic.
• 1:07:57
  We had several uncles and and family members named David.
• 1:08:00
  It's a strong biblical name, so so we named him Lucas David, and
• 1:08:04
  then of course, my wife Jill. Then I have a dog named Rosie
• 1:08:07
  that I actually got when I was in Starkville.
• 1:08:08
  That's right. Yeah.
• 1:08:10
  Well, that's awesome, man. You've got to go do a job now
• 1:08:13
  Coach Thomas has to get. You've got kids knocking at the
• 1:08:16
  door. You've got two meets to do here
• 1:08:19
  in Boston. And how many athletes did you
• 1:08:21
  bring? We have 25 here.
• 1:08:24
  You've got to scuttle 25 athletes, plus trainers and
• 1:08:26
  coaches, food and get back on the plane and what have you.
• 1:08:30
  So just promise me we'll do a Part 2 one day.
• 1:08:33
  Absolutely. And get more in the family
• 1:08:35
  because, you know, I've had interactions with your kids and
• 1:08:38
  you're doing a great job as a dad, man.
• 1:08:40
  It's really cool to see that. And I know it's all because of
• 1:08:42
  jail so. Absolutely.
• 1:08:45
  I will never argue with that. She she keeps all of us in line.
• 1:08:48
  But Mike? It's been great.
• 1:08:49
  You know, it's been neat that we, you know, through track and
• 1:08:54
  field, you know, you would come through Birmingham a lot and
• 1:08:57
  especially when the cross Plex was being built and everything
• 1:08:59
  else like, you know, track and fields kind of kept us where we
• 1:09:02
  kind of have to see each other three times a year and stuff
• 1:09:04
  like that. And so so we will, we will get
• 1:09:07
  this opportunity again. Awesome brother man.
• 1:09:08
  Appreciate you joining us. Thank you so much.
• 1:09:10
  Yep, what a great time had there with Kurt.
• 1:09:13
  We spoke a lot about his coaching career, didn't get into
• 1:09:16
  his beautiful family with his wife and two kids, who I just
• 1:09:19
  completely adore. I've had many, many pizza dates
• 1:09:24
  with the with the kids there at Post Office Pies in Birmingham.
• 1:09:27
  And so I really wanted to delve into that, but just ran out of
• 1:09:31
  time as he's getting ready to go do his actual job.
• 1:09:34
  And they actually had a really great meet there in Boston at
• 1:09:38
  Harvard and Boston University. So looking forward to catching
• 1:09:41
  up with Kurt again in the future and discussing more about his
• 1:09:44
  family and how he juggles that along with coaching and the kids
• 1:09:50
  that are on his team. Hey, if you've met it this far,
• 1:09:53
  I really appreciate you joining us.
• 1:09:55
  Your time is extremely valuable. Hope you enjoyed connecting with
• 1:09:58
  Kurt as much as I did. If you or someone you know would
• 1:10:00
  like to be a guest on the show, contact me at HURDLE at
• 1:10:06
  gillathletics.com. That's right,
• 1:10:09
  hurdle@gillathletics.com. You can tell I'm at the airport
• 1:10:13
  recording right now. In the meantime, we hope you
• 1:10:16
  feel led to share this podcast on your social media network of
• 1:10:19
  choice and join us next time when we once again connect you
• 1:10:22
  with another great track and field coach.
• 1:10:24
  Bye bye.