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BONUS: The Podcast About Podcasts – Featuring IATC Exchange Zone · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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  It's bonus time. Here we go.
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  This month in February of 2025, we are doing a podcast about
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  podcast. We want to introduce you to
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  other track and field themed podcasts that are out there that
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  might be great for your listening pleasure.
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  So all month we're introducing a new podcast each and every day,
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  showing you who they are, what they are, how they are, why they
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  got started and even their favorite episodes and most
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  popular. And hopefully this adds to your
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  podcast listening library. So here we go.
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  Let's get started with today's podcast about podcast.
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  All right, here we go. Let's hop right into it.
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  Why don't you start with introducing yourself kind of
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  what your connection to this great sport is?
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  And of course, what's the name of the podcast that we're
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  talking about today? Well, thanks Mike for having me
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  on. It really is an honor to be on
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  on your podcast and and appreciate all the work you've
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  done spreading the word of track and field across the country.
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  But my name is Ben Dewey and I am a high school teacher, first
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  in Iowa in in Waukee Northwest High School, which is a suburb
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  outside of Des Moines. I'm also the girls track and
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  field coach there, heavily involved in the IATC for the
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  last six years. And I'm now the president of the
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  IATC, which is the Iowa Association of Track Coaches.
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  And you know, that's, that's kind of how I got started with
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  this a while ago. But you know, the, the focus of
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  our podcast and it's called the exchange zone, the IATC exchange
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  zone. And we're in year 6.
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  And the focus of our podcast, I guess to best summarize what we
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  hope to, to get across is to, is to promote the sport of track
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  cross country in the state of Iowa.
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  And, you know, cross country is a sport I think we all know as
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  as tracking cross country coaches, it doesn't get a lot of
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  attention. It doesn't get the attention it
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  deserves. And you know, six years ago,
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  that was that was the reason that we started.
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  And that's our focus every episode, is to continue to
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  promote the student athletes and the coaches here in our state.
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  This might be an obvious question, but what's the
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  significance of the name that I kind of think there's a double
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  entendre there that I'm trying to get out here possibly?
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  Man, I'm embarrassed to answer this question because someone
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  just brought that up the other day.
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  We had the big championship productions clinic up at Iowa
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  State, 600 people, coaches from across the Iowa, the Midwest
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  that came and, and one coach says, you know, you called your
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  your podcast, it's a great podcast, by the way, but it's
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  called the Exchange zone and you don't cover track and field.
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  And I'm like, yeah, you know what, that's a good point, but I
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  don't know what, you know, exchange zone.
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  I, I got to give credit to, to the, to the guy who helped me
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  start this. And that's Tim O'Neill, you
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  know, legendary track and field coach here in Iowa at
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  Assumption, Davenport. He, he, he's one of the best all
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  time coaches. And, and when he was president
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  of the IATC, him and I were the ones that collaborated on, on
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  getting this started and, and he came up with the, with the
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  exchange zone. And we've we've gone with it
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  even though, even though it's just during the fall and there
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  is no exchanges in cross country.
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  All right, I love it. I love Tim O'Neal too, by the
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  way, great good friend up here. Tell describe the style.
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  Is this a a solo podcast or your interview style?
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  What's kind of the style of the of the podcast?
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  Well, you know, it's, it's adapted over the years, you
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  know, you know, we felt like when we started six years ago,
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  you know, podcasts were popular, but they were just kind of, you
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  know, becoming a part of, of every person's day or, or people
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  were just starting to really pick up on podcasts.
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  And now we're consumed by podcasts.
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  I mean, they're, they're more popular than listening to the
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  radio and, and radio shows and maybe even watching TV shows.
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  So we've adapted with the times. You know, we started with just
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  me and Tim the first year and then I kind of did it solo year
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  2. And then I've I've brought on
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  Kyle Wagner, who is just a phenomenal Co host, very
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  knowledgeable at at cross country.
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  He ran at Loris, coached at for Martin Smith at Iowa State for a
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  couple years. Really, really bright young man
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  and he actually coached with me for a year when I was the head
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  coach at Ames Ames high. So for the last four years he's
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  been, he's been the Co host and, and we were a two man show.
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  And then this year we've gone to the, the interactive YouTube
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  live live video. And so we've had to hire a, a
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  company, a, a production company to, to run that for us.
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  And, and that was really a a big hit this year for for our
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  viewers. Very cool.
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  And what's the average length? I know there can be, you know,
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  Min Max's on there, but what's the average length of a show?
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  Yeah. I mean, we, we try to, as you
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  know, it's hard. It's hard to set a goal time
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  probably. And then like, Yep, I'm, I'm a
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  cold hard stop at an hour, but we try to be done at an hour to
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  an hour and 10 minutes. But as you are probably well
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  aware, it's hard to do that when you've got so many great coaches
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  and and great guests on the show and athletes.
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  And so that's our goal, about about 60 to 70 minutes.
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  You alluded to this a little bit, but what was the
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  motivation? What was the original idea of
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  why to start the exchange zone? Well, the IATC is, is, is the
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  group that's behind it. So they're the ones that
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  financially have supported this. And, you know, people might not
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  know, but starting a podcast, it can be cheap, it can be mildly
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  expensive and it can be expensive depending on what you
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  do. And they've, they've financially
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  backed us from the from the very beginning.
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  So with that being said, being at the IETC exchange zone
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  podcast, it's track coaches organization.
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  So the first motivation was to highlight the terrific athletes
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  and coaches in our state and bring, you know, bring them
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  recognition, bring them popularity.
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  So that's always been that's been our biggest motivation.
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  That's that, that's where we started as far as the as kind of
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  our blueprint. We kind of started out the first
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  couple years is and Tim has, you know, a ton of connections
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  across the country. So we we really did a lot of
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  interviews the first two years with, with high school coaches,
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  college coaches. And then the last three years
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  it's actually been more just cross country coverage in the
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  state of Iowa. And I know this is a, you know,
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  you're doing this for others to, to hopefully listen to our our
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  podcast. But now it's strictly just, we
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  are the one stop shop. No one else does like it.
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  And, and every week on Sunday nights, we just cover what
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  happened the week before and we bring on tremendous coaches and
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  athletes that come on to talk on the podcast to kind of go with
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  that. So we're basically just covering
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  the sport now. I love that.
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  That's really cool. You know, in business, you know,
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  good businesses will create an ideal customer profile.
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  So like here at Gill, you know, moms and dads might they do buy
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  some stuff from us, Construction companies buy stuff from us.
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  But our ideal customer, we are when we think about designing
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  products, marketing the catalog, things like that, the high
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  school and college track coach, that is our main focus.
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  Other people might also partake in our equipment, but we are
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  focused on those coaches. The same thing for podcast is an
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  ideal listener profile. Who is your idea?
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  Like when you're talking, when you're putting together your
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  ideas, who are you really aiming to listen to the show?
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  Great question. SO, you know, and we've, we've
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  thought very, very hard on this the last couple years and, and,
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  and Kyle's been instrumental in helping with this.
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  The 1st is, is, is the coaches and athletes.
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  I mean, I think I, I might be stretching on a limb here, but I
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  think, you know, a lot of coaches and athletes in our
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  state tune into the podcast because they, they love the
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  attention, you know, and, and, and we want to bring attention
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  to as many people as we can and many programs in, in high school
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  as we can. In our state, there's 300 and
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  some teams schools over four classes.
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  So I think, you know, kind of like when we started this six
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  years ago, we wanted to do this with the IATC to highlight the
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  coaches and athletes and their programs.
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  Well, that's our profile. We, I think coaches think it's
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  fun on Sunday nights to tune in and into, to hear us talk about
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  their team and their kids. So those would be the two main
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  ones. But then obviously it's just
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  the, the parents, the spectators, the fans, the
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  grandparents, That's our, that's our big, you know, obviously
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  there's not a, there's more spectators and fans and there
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  are coaches and athletes. And I think, you know, we try to
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  tie all that in to the best we can, but the the foundation is
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  the coaches and the athletes and, and recognizing them and
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  making it fun for them every Sunday night to get excited
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  about the sport. I think the future of content is
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  niche. And so I love, you know, we
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  already in our niche of track and field and now you're niching
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  down to cross country as part of track and field and you're
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  niching down to Iowa as far as cross country.
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  I just think there's so much value in that over there is
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  certainly a value for a national track and field, the podcast
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  show, etcetera, things like that.
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  But what you're doing there is a niche.
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  I just love it and think it's more valuable to more people,
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  specific people that are looking for that.
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  You know, you have been behind the mic, behind the scenes for
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  all the episodes. What has been your favorite
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  episode? And, and maybe another way of
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  asking it is what maybe been the most popular you can.
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  Those aren't necessarily the same episode.
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  Yeah, so I'll answer in two different parts.
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  My favorite episodes that that that I've done, You know, I it's
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  different now because we kind of have changed shifted our focus.
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  But in my in my basement office at Ames High School is old
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  building no windows. The very first episode was Bill
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  Bergen. And you know, one of the the
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  sport's greatest coaches of all time, you know, unfortunately
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  just just passed away a year ago.
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  The founder of the IATC he founded in his basement in 1967
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  and so that that I'll never forget that we we have pictures
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  of it and I worked for Bill actually for two years at
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  championship productions. So I know him very well or knew
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  him very well. But that was just a really
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  special first episode for us. And then I you know, we've had
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  so many good coaches. You know, Chris Bucknam at
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  Arkansas has been on. He obviously has deep ties to
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  Iowa, being in Northern Iowa Panther and you know, my dad ran
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  for him at you and I so I I I've known him for a long time.
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  So that that's always, you know, fun to have him on.
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  He came on years ago, but that was that was another favorite
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  episode. So those are the ones that stick
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  out from from a people standpoint.
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  But my favorite episodes are, are, are the ones where we're
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  we're getting ready for the state qualifying meet, you know,
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  and, and we're, we're going around the state and
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  highlighting every region site. You know, there's five regions
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  and there's eight teams in the region or 10 teams in the
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  region. And those are our most viewed
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  episodes right there. I mean, we the, the night before
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  those meets come out or the night before those meets start,
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  those are our our heaviest traffic episodes.
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  Yeah. Very cool.
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  You know, hosting a podcast is different than being on a
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  podcast or coaching. There's a lot of behind the
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  scenes thing that people don't necessarily know what goes on,
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  you know, as being involved and being as evolved, you know, from
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  a two person to a single to an interview style.
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  You've seen a lot of evolution of what you've done there at the
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  IATC Exchange Zone podcast. What have you learned?
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  What's something when you look back and like, man, I this
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  really taught me how to XY or Z? Well, Mike, I have no background
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  in media or any type of of journalism.
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  I don't know if journalism is the right thing.
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  Podcasting, Mike, anything dealing with the microphone, I
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  have no background. So what I learned is it wasn't
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  as hard as I thought it would be.
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  I remember the first episode, I was so nervous six years ago.
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  I was, I mean, way more nervous than sitting in Drake Stadium in
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  the finals of the Drake Relays, just shaking like, Oh my gosh, I
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  can't believe I'm doing this. And then five years later, we
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  started the video this year and that first episode on on Sunday
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  night in August, it was back. Like I was at the start again.
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  I was just shaking so nervously. But what I've learned is it's
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  not as hard as as, as I thought it would be.
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  And that, and you could probably agree with that.
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  Like once you just go and get in the rhythm and it's, it just
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  seems natural. But but I guess to answer the
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  question even in more depth is just the layers of listeners
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  that we have and my appreciation for their perspective, because
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  everybody has a different perspective, you know, and I
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  can't, we're interactive with our audience.
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  I want people to e-mail us, comment in the YouTube chat and,
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  and we have so many different types of people that listen with
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  different viewpoints. And as a host, you always maybe
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  you're just, you know, tuning into one viewpoint, like it's my
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  viewpoint or Kyle's viewpoint, but just hearing from so many
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  different people from small town Iowa to big school Iowa to, you
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  know, my team only has four kids and we don't even have a full
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  team. Just blending all of those
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  different perspectives has, has been the biggest thing that I've
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  learned since hosting this podcast.
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  And, and not just to think, you know, Ben Dewey knows it all.
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  It's actually all of us know it all.
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  And and we try to incorporate that with our our listeners.
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  That's very cool. I love that.
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  All right, last two questions. Where can listeners find you?
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  Are you exclusive on one of the podcast apps?
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  Do you have a YouTube? We talked a little bit, so bring
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  that up. Where can we we find the show?
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  Yeah, so we're on it on all of them.
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  Apple, Spotify, you know, the big one for us this year has
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  been YouTube. And that's, that's been a huge
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  boost in our viewership. You know, it was all about
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  downloads and now, now it's about views.
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  And we live, we live tweet video as well.
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  So through through X, we're live when we go on the air on Sunday
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  nights at 8:00 in the fall. But those are the main ones you
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  can find us at. That's cool.
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  I love it. Well, podcast listeners love to
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  listen to podcast. I'm assuming this could be a bad
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  assumption that you're a podcast listener.
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  What's your favorite podcast that you listen to that's not
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  track related? Not track related.
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  You know, I've really kind of grown to like the Ed Mylet show.
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  It's, it's, it's a motivational, he's a motivational speaker.
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  He's got great guests on. Actually came across it when he
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  had Danny Hurley on from UConn before was right after their
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  first national championship. And I listen to it and I've I've
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  just continue to listen to it. A lot of just positive
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  motivational stuff that I use for my track and field team.
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  So I've really enjoyed that. It's it's a very popular
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  podcast. And then, you know, I had to
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  shout out your guys's podcast as well.
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  I've listened to numerous interviews the the young lady
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  you had on last week, the national coach of the year was a
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  tremendous interview and, and I learned stuff from all those,
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  those coaches. And I told you before we came
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  on, you know, Kenny Wheeler, his interview last year from
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  Pleasant Valley and, and you know, just listening to people
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  you go against and, and that was really cool.
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  And and then big names you have on obviously are also fun to
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  listen to. So I know that's a track and
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  field podcast, but I, I did have to give you give you a shout out
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  there. You're allowed to break the
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  rule. If that's your answer, that's
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  OK. But yeah, we'll, we'll allow
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  that one. Ben, thank you so much.
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  Hey, so if you're listening right now, here's my challenge
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  to you. We're done with this episode,
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  right? So you can hit pause, use the
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  same app that you're using right now and just search the IATC
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  exchange zone. That'll bring it up.
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  My recommendation, the way I kind of like to try new podcast
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  is listen to their latest episode that kind of gives you
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  their up to date flavor and style.
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  And then some of those most popular and favorite episodes
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  that you like, go back in that library and look at some of
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  those other ones. You might like that as well.
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  And then of course, go to YouTube and check out, you know,
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  just search IATC, the exchange zone.
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  I'd love, you know, we do a live show at the USTFCCCA every year.
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  So I know what goes into that. I think you should probably
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  check that out. That sounds like a cool idea as
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  well, but that's my challenge. Go check it out.
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  Same output right here. IATC exchange zone.
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  And hopefully this is a podcast that will you can add to your
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  repertoire and enjoy more track and field and cross country.
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  Ben, thank you so much. Appreciate you very much for
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  sharing your podcast with us today.
• 17:16
  Yeah. Thanks, Mike, for having me on
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  and best of luck to your podcast going forward.
• 17:20
  And Gil? Thank you, brother.
• 17:22
  Appreciate that.