Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / #168: Jim Sprecher-University of Lynchburg

Transcript

#168: Jim Sprecher-University of Lynchburg · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

• 0:04
  Welcome to season 3 of gila politics connection podcast.
• 0:07
  If this is your first time here, we're so excited.
• 0:09
  You hit the play button. Say if you like what you hear,
• 0:12
  check out our library of hundreds of Pascal's, that is
• 0:14
  sure to give you value for everyone else.
• 0:16
  We're so happy you've come back, quick favor.
• 0:19
  If you haven't already consider taking a minute to rate and
• 0:21
  review the podcast, the simple act helps amplify these Amazing
• 0:25
  Stories and we just love to hear your feedback.
• 0:27
  Heck, we may even read it out loud in a future episode.
• 0:30
  Okay, that's enough of an inch. All right, let's get to it.
• 0:33
  See what today's guest has in store for us.
• 0:40
  All right. One, two, three.
• 0:41
  Back. Here we are.
• 0:43
  I'm just gonna hop right into this because I have a feeling
• 0:45
  that this this is either going to be the shortest podcast we've
• 0:49
  ever done with this guest, or it might end up being the longest.
• 0:53
  So if you've already looked at the time stamp and it says seven
• 0:55
  hours, I'm sorry. No, apologies.
• 0:58
  But we've got some amazing Stories coming up.
• 0:59
  Today, I have known this gentleman for 20 years.
• 1:03
  Over 20 years, I used to work with them work for him.
• 1:09
  We're just we're great friends. A lot of history here, help me
• 1:11
  welcome the wise, the wonderful, the head coach of the University
• 1:14
  of Lynchburg, Jim Sprecher Sprecher, how are you doing,
• 1:17
  sir? I'm doing great.
• 1:21
  Great to see you. Yeah we don't we don't get to
• 1:24
  see each other as much as we have in the past that's for
• 1:26
  sure. Yeah, no, it's always good.
• 1:31
  We always have a good time together and share a lot of good
• 1:35
  stories and have a lot of good laughs.
• 1:38
  Well my experience with you has always been, you are a man of
• 1:42
  stories because you've lived and enjoyed some amazing stories
• 1:47
  with some amazing people. And so, I'm excited to honestly,
• 1:51
  this would be like the first time I get to like publicly
• 1:53
  share your stories. Most of your stories I tried to
• 1:55
  keep personal because it's, you know, I don't want to embarrass
• 1:58
  usually, But today we get to just expose them all man.
• 2:05
  Well, let's get started. Spraying lessons at gil Faizon
• 2:08
  guilty. Exactly, right.
• 2:10
  Except for we're recording it. So now, it is going to be
• 2:13
  everywhere. Well, let's hop in our way back
• 2:18
  machine here sprack. You know coaching is at some
• 2:22
  point for our coach coaching flips from something that occurs
• 2:26
  to you. Something that happened to you
• 2:28
  know, coach coached you somewhere along the way a switch
• 2:32
  flipped and He came like an aha moment.
• 2:35
  Like oh I actually could be a coach like that.
• 2:38
  This isn't just something that happens to me like this.
• 2:40
  I could actually be like a career for me.
• 2:43
  What's that? Aha moment for you.
• 2:44
  When did you start thinking? Like oh, I could actually like I
• 2:47
  can make a living, this could be my career.
• 2:53
  It actually started really early for me.
• 2:55
  Probably as early as middle school and growing up in
• 2:58
  Indiana, was a big basketball fan.
• 3:00
  And you know, instead of paying attention in class, I'd be
• 3:05
  drawing offensive and defensive basketball schemes.
• 3:08
  And and then of course in led to play at my plate football I'd be
• 3:12
  doing the same thing but by the time I got into high school I
• 3:16
  actually started writing a technical manuals and cutting
• 3:22
  out pictures. Sports Illustrated and take the
• 3:25
  long job that talk about, you know, the up.
• 3:29
  Approach and the takeoff and the landing.
• 3:31
  And, you know, I would everything I read about the
• 3:33
  event and I would write about it and then to take these pictures
• 3:37
  I would cut out and add it to the to this manual.
• 3:42
  And so, by the time I did get to Ball State, I was going to be an
• 3:46
  education major and I had a clear understanding that, that's
• 3:51
  what I wanted to do. Probably the biggest question
• 3:53
  was going to be whether it's going to be at the high school
• 3:56
  level or at the Collegiate level you We started off with
• 3:59
  basketball and football. Was there ever room in your
• 4:04
  head? For like you were going to be a
• 4:05
  basketball or football coach, or was it or did it become shaped
• 4:08
  as track and field in that, that that became the path. yeah, like
• 4:14
  a lot of app pleats track was actually should last for I ever
• 4:20
  did. I was for sport athlete but
• 4:23
  because I guess I was fast in those other sports people
• 4:26
  suggested. I give track to try and who knew
• 4:29
  that it was going to take me to the farthest.
• 4:30
  So yeah, you know, you know really up until, you know, maybe
• 4:37
  my senior year in high school, you know, I thought I'd probably
• 4:40
  be or basketball or football coach and you mentioned for
• 4:43
  Sports basketball. Because you're an Indiana was a
• 4:46
  mandatory. So that was one sport.
• 4:48
  You Football obviously track. What was the fourth sport?
• 4:54
  Of course, as most kids at that time, Little League Baseball.
• 4:57
  Yeah, I was waiting for you to tell me something cool.
• 4:59
  Like, you know, gymnastics is really big in Indiana, maybe
• 5:03
  swimming and Diving, which is also big and like the Indie
• 5:05
  areas I was, I was waiting to hear something that I did not
• 5:07
  know. And yeah, of course, I knew
• 5:09
  baseball, I knew that part. So as you finish up your career
• 5:15
  at your education, career at Ball State, you knew, I love
• 5:19
  this. Like I can I have this picture
• 5:21
  of you like sitting at your little middle school desk and
• 5:24
  writing these plays. I love that kind of picture
• 5:26
  especially you know, knowing you today and in the coaching career
• 5:29
  you've had. So I love that imagery.
• 5:32
  What was it? How was your first entree into
• 5:34
  actual coaching? So you get your undergrad, did
• 5:37
  you go immediately into High School?
• 5:39
  You said you were trying to think of high school vs College
• 5:41
  Did you go into a g, a position, most kind of that that first
• 5:44
  step into the actual career? Yeah, well, the last thing I did
• 5:51
  at Ball State was my student teaching.
• 5:53
  So I finished all my classes. I was doing my student teaching
• 5:57
  at looked like I was going to go into High School coaching but
• 6:02
  during that down time, I actually applied and back then
• 6:06
  it was wrote letters and I wrote over 100 letters to programs for
• 6:11
  mouth throughout the country. And you know, of course, like
• 6:16
  most I didn't hear from, but I did get Frances.
• 6:19
  And when it was all said and done, I actually got at four
• 6:22
  offers. The first one, is at Syracuse.
• 6:26
  The second one was at Tennessee. And then it really will down to
• 6:30
  21 was Miami of Ohio, which was in the Mac same conference with
• 6:35
  Ball State. And the other one was at Baylor
• 6:39
  and it's kind of an interesting story.
• 6:41
  How I chose Baylor, Miami of Ohio, was probably the most
• 6:44
  natural fit just because I was familiar with in there.
• 6:48
  A new me but that year, the instable a championships were in
• 6:54
  Indianapolis my hometown. And during that week of ncaa's,
• 6:59
  I got to hang out with the Baler staff and really enjoyed them.
• 7:04
  And even though I'd never been to Waco, Texas, I went down
• 7:08
  there sight, unseen. And so it just kind of people
• 7:12
  always ask, how did you, how did it all happen, it was really
• 7:16
  just meeting the people and, and of course, Eating coach heart
• 7:19
  and arrest. The staff really made me feel at
• 7:23
  home. I love that.
• 7:25
  I love your age and Stage for this example, that you just gave
• 7:29
  their about writing a hundred letters because we just had Kyle
• 7:33
  Allison on the podcast, head coach at University of Saint,
• 7:35
  Francis and Indiana. And he talked about when coming
• 7:39
  out of college at Manchester, he emailed every coach in Indiana,
• 7:44
  every college coach. And we've had other guests in
• 7:46
  the past that have talked about. You know, I sent out. 300
• 7:49
  emails. And my question is always, it's
• 7:51
  a little bit kind of like the, the hand writing letters,
• 7:54
  because you can only send those singularly.
• 7:57
  You can't just, you know, write one letter and send it, you
• 8:00
  know, one batch to through, you know, 100 coaches.
• 8:03
  But in emails, you can write, you can just blind carbon copy
• 8:05
  of thousand coaches, if you want.
• 8:07
  So, I always ask when a coach says, you know, I hustled, I
• 8:10
  emailed, you know, 100 coaches are 300, coaches, always ask
• 8:14
  where they individual and personalized or, you know, all
• 8:17
  one. And you just Everybody in the
• 8:19
  blind copy or God forbid, you put everybody in the two or the
• 8:22
  CC that's you know, that's forbidden.
• 8:24
  So I love this, you know, before internet you're not that old but
• 8:28
  you are pre email and things like that at this point of your
• 8:31
  career but I love that, you know, the option was letters.
• 8:35
  I stamp that's all that's my only option and you wrote a
• 8:37
  hundred letters to 100 programs. Where did you know that takes a
• 8:41
  whole difference. Workmanship.
• 8:43
  What, where did that come from? Well, even more.
• 8:47
  So than that, you know, me and back then.
• 8:49
  I didn't know how to type. Oh, you know, I'm hand Rhino.
• 8:51
  Know where all those are all handwritten letters?
• 8:56
  Yeah, I had no pictures, no idea.
• 9:04
  Now, you know me I just I'm just a hard worker and, you know, I
• 9:08
  cast a big net not knowing where it was going to take me and, you
• 9:14
  know, just had faith that, you know, the right doors would
• 9:17
  open. So you chose Baylor, I don't
• 9:20
  know, you know, I only think of, not only but I'm majorly.
• 9:24
  Think of Clyde heart for Baylor was Baylor Baylor back then
• 9:29
  where they already quarter mile, ER, you and Clyde heart was The
• 9:31
  quarter mile King. Yes, they already had a great
• 9:37
  reputation in the 400. They had a number of all
• 9:41
  Americans, and, you know, they already had that reputation.
• 9:47
  Just happened to be my first year at Baylor, Raymond Pierre.
• 9:53
  Really burst onto the scene and really became one of the first
• 9:57
  International level quarter-mile irsay had.
• 9:59
  And then there was a little freshman named Michael Johnson
• 10:02
  that showed up on campus. And between the two of then,
• 10:06
  they really kind of jump-started things to a whole nother level
• 10:09
  to an Olympic level. And then after that, Jeremy
• 10:12
  Warner and their Williamson and Sonia Richards.
• 10:15
  And then all course added to that Legacy ring, a one of the
• 10:21
  nicest people in the world, by the way.
• 10:22
  And, you know, Big Time starter for track and field.
• 10:25
  Meet, I always know I'm at a big meat when I see him like okay.
• 10:28
  Yeah, you know, I don't see him starting to many high school
• 10:31
  dual meets. He's always at the big ones.
• 10:33
  I love him. And when I first found out,
• 10:35
  yeah, I knew him as a starter before that I for track and
• 10:38
  field before I knew him that he was like this stud quarter mile,
• 10:41
  ER, and I kind of knew he was a bailar Gratz up.
• 10:43
  I should have assumed I guess, but when I found out like he was
• 10:46
  a really good for no meter Runner as well as like man's
• 10:49
  like that's that's awesome. I love people giving back to the
• 10:51
  sport and of course, Clyde heart.
• 10:54
  So, was that a draw? You said you met the guys, at
• 10:56
  the national median Indianapolis was, was coach Hart.
• 11:01
  A big. I mean, he is such a
• 11:02
  personality. And, obviously, Bases out.
• 11:05
  The Wazoo was that another big part of the draw of going sight.
• 11:08
  Unseen. I mean, this is before you can
• 11:10
  get to Google Baylor dot edu and go look at pictures of the
• 11:13
  campus. You had no clue.
• 11:15
  What maybe even where Waco was. Now, he was a big part of that,
• 11:22
  and not just because of his reputation.
• 11:25
  But if you know coach heart, he just a really good person and
• 11:29
  he's a lot of fun. And, you know, is it did, if
• 11:32
  that balance between mean, you know, be being at a national
• 11:37
  championship, which can be in a high-pressure environment and
• 11:41
  still be able to crack jokes and enjoy the moment.
• 11:43
  And so it was that gut. Feeling you under, you know, you
• 11:47
  hear about that, just made me feel.
• 11:49
  At home and then he felt comfortable.
• 11:52
  So, what was it? Like, I mean, you know, coach
• 11:54
  heart. I first, I was going to ask if
• 11:55
  you went golfing with him because I know he was a big
• 11:58
  golfer at least, but what was it like, actually working with him
• 12:02
  and working? You know, Michael Johnson's this
• 12:04
  freshman. He's not, who he is today.
• 12:05
  Shout out to, if you're, if you're on Twitter at MJ gold,
• 12:09
  he's a great follow. I'm so honored and blessed and
• 12:12
  humbled he follows me which cracks me up that he would want
• 12:15
  to see anything that I would post.
• 12:16
  But but what what was it like working with Coach heart, your
• 12:20
  impressionable. Your, you know, this is your
• 12:21
  first coaching job, and you've got the master with Coach heart
• 12:25
  and you have, the student is almost sounds like a Star Wars
• 12:27
  thing, right? Like the, the master and the
• 12:30
  student, but you have like these two amazing people at an amazing
• 12:33
  time. What was that?
• 12:34
  Like Yeah, well, the first thing I will tell you coach hard at
• 12:40
  that time was an associate athletic director.
• 12:42
  And so, you know, especially in the fall, he was really busy
• 12:49
  with those duties. So, even my first days of
• 12:51
  starting coaching, I had a lot of responsibilities.
• 12:54
  And the one thing I always will be grateful for Coach heart is
• 12:59
  that we were more than just managers or carrying clipboards,
• 13:04
  we actually had a lot of input to one, We were doing and a lot
• 13:09
  of insight. And so he really gave us at
• 13:12
  sense of of being able to contribute to the program.
• 13:18
  And of course, with that comes a lot of Pride and it's something
• 13:21
  I've always remember to this day.
• 13:22
  And so, I've always empowered my young assistant coaches, because
• 13:28
  how much it meant to me and then, as far as Michael is
• 13:31
  concerned, you know, the funny thing about him, you know, he
• 13:34
  was pretty good in high school. He was like a 21 flat guy, which
• 13:37
  Which, you know, you know anywhere else, that's pretty
• 13:39
  good. But there was a guy in Dallas in
• 13:41
  his hometown that went 20 flat and set to High School record
• 13:46
  named Roy Martin and in some ways you know, he was kind of
• 13:51
  under the shadow of you know one of the best guys in the world
• 13:55
  and the country and he went even the fastest guy in his in his
• 14:00
  hometown. So so yeah, you knew that he was
• 14:04
  going to be pretty special. But obviously at that, We did
• 14:08
  where Talent would take him. Yeah.
• 14:10
  I was going to say, can you even?
• 14:13
  I mean, it's one thing to have, it's easy to Look Backwards,
• 14:16
  right? And say oh yeah, you know, MJ
• 14:18
  when when we had I'm here and this one workout, we knew he was
• 14:21
  going to be the world record holder in the 200-meter dash one
• 14:23
  day, but that's probably not true when you're actually in
• 14:27
  there and you're working with them and seeing the different
• 14:29
  workouts. And he's probably crushing
• 14:30
  things. Did, you know, you had someone
• 14:33
  special which in but I'll define specialized like, oh, he's going
• 14:36
  to be an All-American. And maybe he'll win and suitably
• 14:39
  title, which is, that's kind of super special, or was there ever
• 14:42
  an indication that early and working with him?
• 14:45
  That it was like, oh no, we've got someone off the charts here.
• 14:48
  This this this kids going to the Olympics and maybe win a medal.
• 14:53
  Yeah, well, there was that moment, I remember we went to an
• 14:57
  indoor meet at Texas Tech, he ran to three hundred yard dash
• 15:02
  which of course, nobody runs now but back then was quite a common
• 15:06
  distance and he ran one of the fastest times ever in the three
• 15:11
  hundred yard dash and so knowing the significance of that.
• 15:16
  Yeah. You realize that you know we had
• 15:18
  something special the ironic thing at the time which Which
• 15:22
  the flood of people go back and remember about Michael, he had
• 15:25
  those back then they called a very unorthodox running
• 15:29
  technique, you know, you had very low knee lift, you know,
• 15:33
  basically everything they teach you to do and Sprint mechanics,
• 15:37
  he went against that. And and so a lot of people were
• 15:41
  like, wait a second, you can't, you know, run that fast do any
• 15:45
  that way. But ironically, you know, later
• 15:49
  on and I think coach Hart mentioned This is that if you
• 15:53
  look at, you know, that really the, maybe the arguably the
• 15:56
  three fastest men ever Jesse Owens, Michael Johnson and Usain
• 16:02
  Bolt. Two of those three Jesse and
• 16:04
  Michael ran, very similar to each other.
• 16:07
  So maybe we were thinking about it the wrong way and that in
• 16:10
  reality, you know, there are different ways of doing it.
• 16:15
  You know, I always say this, you know, behind me, I have all
• 16:17
  these books and in all these books are all the techniques.
• 16:22
  But sometimes they don't mention the style and I think that's
• 16:25
  where you take a technique and you apply it individually to a
• 16:29
  person. That's where I think that's more
• 16:32
  even sometimes more important. So as your will split said,
• 16:37
  exactly, we don't talk X's and O's, that'll be the closest we
• 16:39
  get to X's and O's brag. But that was really, that's
• 16:42
  really good. That's a little bit.
• 16:44
  You talked about the technique and we talked about the science
• 16:46
  and the Art of coaching. Those books might be the science
• 16:49
  part and the technique. And even the And everything else
• 16:52
  that goes into it is the art part of it.
• 16:54
  So I like that as you were working with him and you know,
• 16:59
  he's become iconic. I mean it's a little bit.
• 17:02
  Everybody has like the memories of where they were when this
• 17:05
  world record was broken or this thing happened, and I still
• 17:07
  remember exactly where I was, when he ran 1932.
• 17:10
  It's one of the few times, like, down to the hundredth of a
• 17:13
  second I can remember, but I remember exactly where whereas,
• 17:16
  where I was, of course, the shoes.
• 17:19
  You know, that's that. Would that played into it may be
• 17:21
  part of the culture. Culture.
• 17:22
  But as a is an 18, 19 year old kid, he was still a kid when you
• 17:27
  were with him during that time, are there any?
• 17:30
  Because I really want to tag him in a social post of something
• 17:33
  funny. Like, he, you know, was a
• 17:35
  goofball he tripped over the curbing, everyday came into
• 17:39
  practice, or is there like if think about your memory bank
• 17:42
  here and you've got a lot of stories in that memory bank.
• 17:44
  There, is there any like just a goofball, Michael Johnson story?
• 17:48
  You can remember during your time there?
• 17:52
  Well, probably, if I have any claim to fame with any success
• 17:55
  he had, is that he used to have this for Renda, the start and
• 18:01
  the first part of the he was very powerful.
• 18:02
  And you could actually hear him ripping the ground with each
• 18:06
  stride, as he exited the blocks, but he also used to stumble a
• 18:10
  lot. And so, especially in those
• 18:13
  early days of sales, try different things.
• 18:16
  And even to the point, where we switched his feet around, in the
• 18:19
  blocks to, you know, see if that was Reform and as far as I know,
• 18:23
  when we did that, I think he kept that for the rest of his
• 18:27
  career. And so that's just one of those
• 18:31
  moments where it's like, man, this guy can run really fast if
• 18:34
  you could ever just get away from the blocks.
• 18:36
  But then the ironic thing is I was also was there at the
• 18:40
  Atlanta Olympics of Penny, went that 1932 and I'll be there
• 18:44
  gone. If he didn't stumble away from
• 18:46
  the blocks during that race. So it was almost a full circle
• 18:51
  moment. It's funny how sometimes the
• 18:55
  littlest things but it's hard to see those when you're in your
• 18:58
  box that actually think about, you know, just switching the
• 19:00
  feet. You start thinking about
• 19:02
  everything else I do the position of the hips and this in
• 19:04
  the set position or you know the house the whole long or short
• 19:08
  the first stride is and you know it maybe it's just something as
• 19:10
  simple as like oh well just let small.
• 19:12
  Why don't we try to front foot to the back and vice versa and
• 19:15
  look what it did. That's amazing.
• 19:17
  So you gain amazing experience? I can only imagine you.
• 19:21
  I have this picture of you just Like every day you've got the,
• 19:24
  the traditional composition book and you're just, you know, heart
• 19:28
  heart says, I got to go the bathroom and you're writing it
• 19:29
  down me just, you know, just everything.
• 19:31
  How do I soak in and take everything?
• 19:33
  You didn't have a camera to record or, you know, tweets the
• 19:36
  like, you know, heart isms or anything like that.
• 19:38
  So you're just, you know, soaking it all in, it was a
• 19:41
  graduate assistants program, so that means you have to graduate,
• 19:44
  right? You have to eventually have to
• 19:46
  leave or go into a full-time position.
• 19:48
  What happened after you graduated?
• 19:50
  Where was the next stop? Yeah, that was interesting
• 19:54
  because after I finished up Baylor, I was back at that cross
• 19:58
  cross roads again and again, I was deciding.
• 20:02
  Am I going to stay in college coaching?
• 20:03
  Or I'm going to go high school and I did, we had that in Texas,
• 20:06
  we have the Texas coaching school and that was in Fort
• 20:11
  Worth that year. And once again, I had some
• 20:13
  offers to go coach high school and one of those was in Spring
• 20:17
  Texas, which is outside of Houston.
• 20:18
  And at the same time, A buddy of mine are in James who was Taylor
• 20:24
  said, hey, I think I got a job for us at Wayland Baptist which
• 20:29
  it was out there in West Texas. What he failed to tell me is
• 20:33
  that that was one job that we were going to split.
• 20:36
  And so again, we flew out there and once again John Courier, who
• 20:42
  was the head coach there picked us up at the airport and Lubbock
• 20:46
  and all I can see we're driving to Plainview Texas, which
• 20:50
  explains everything about where we were going And but coach
• 20:55
  career again just that long drive just talking to him.
• 20:58
  Just had that sense of comfort. And sure enough both took that
• 21:03
  job and we took that twelve thousand dollar job and we split
• 21:07
  it. And so he got six and I got six
• 21:10
  and and I turned basically, you know, a very good high school
• 21:14
  job just to stay in college coaching.
• 21:17
  But, you know, again, you never know where life's going to take
• 21:22
  you and, as much in, you know, the experience I had coaching
• 21:26
  out there. That's where I also met my wife.
• 21:29
  When And I always thought, you know, when and grew up in
• 21:33
  Brazil, but was going without their at Weiland and it's always
• 21:38
  thought, you know, how does a boy from Indiana, beat a girl,
• 21:41
  from Brazil out in Plainview. Texas.
• 21:44
  And so, and, you know, that, of course, is something that I'll
• 21:48
  always be thankful and grateful for that sounds like a good
• 21:51
  setup for a joke. You know?
• 21:53
  How does a boy from Indiana meet a girl?
• 21:57
  That's amazing. Yeah, I love.
• 21:59
  First of all, shout out to And James, I don't know if you don't
• 22:02
  know Aaron James, you should because one of the top pole
• 22:05
  vault coaches around now, at South, Alabama.
• 22:08
  And every year, they don't just have a kid that qualifies for,
• 22:11
  for the pole vault National Champion.
• 22:13
  They got a kid that's competing. The pole, vault national champ.
• 22:16
  It's quite amazing. What he does is a vault coach,
• 22:19
  but I love that, you know, you go to way he had, other offers
• 22:22
  you go to Wayland for six thousand dollars.
• 22:26
  Now, spread your ear in a, you know, starting to move.
• 22:30
  To your the last 100 of your 400-meter journey in coaching's,
• 22:35
  you were getting your, luckily, you're getting close to
• 22:37
  retirement. I always think that's a
• 22:38
  celebration, that's not a, like a negative thing.
• 22:41
  That's a positive thing. I love that you can get to
• 22:43
  retire one day, but you're not that old.
• 22:47
  Meaning six grand was not a lot of money back.
• 22:50
  This thing like we're talking about the 1920s and somebody
• 22:52
  make six grand and that's equivalent of like you know 200
• 22:54
  grams a day 6 grand. Oh my goodness.
• 23:01
  I'm going to just simply ask question, why?
• 23:06
  Well, that tells you a couple things about me either, I'm
• 23:11
  truly loved the sport or I'm just not a real smart guy and
• 23:16
  hopefully it's the sooner but more than the later.
• 23:20
  So well I will test its the former not the latter.
• 23:24
  Yes, yes, yes. Every once in a while, I have
• 23:26
  questioned the ladder with you but vice versa you have for me
• 23:29
  as well. So it's fair, it's fair and I
• 23:33
  love you know knowing your wife want an love her to death.
• 23:36
  And your, which begets, your children, who are just awesome
• 23:39
  people which is just amazing that they're not even children
• 23:41
  need more, they're adults which, you know, as having two kids, my
• 23:46
  two kids are older than when I knew your two kids back in the
• 23:49
  day and now your kids are full-fledged adults with
• 23:51
  families. And I'm I look at mine and I'm
• 23:53
  just like you're going to do that one day.
• 23:55
  Holy cow, that, that actually happens.
• 23:58
  So I love that, you know, you had this fork in the road of, do
• 24:01
  I coach high school or do I go to, you know, Plainfield In
• 24:06
  Plainville, they named their towns really well out in West.
• 24:09
  I know Levelland very well on its, it is level a me.
• 24:12
  They don't mince words there. I love.
• 24:14
  I don't know how Lubbock came around.
• 24:15
  I would love like means, but I'm sure it means flat and open and
• 24:19
  nothing except for championships.
• 24:21
  They seem to do that pretty well there at Texas Tech, but what I
• 24:24
  wonder is you know, UGA at Baylor during a fantastic time.
• 24:30
  So you're going to Nationals, you know, track and field news
• 24:33
  is writing articles about you about Baylor and Heart and m.j.
• 24:37
  and things like that. And then you go to wailing, I
• 24:40
  don't know the status of Whelan like, maybe Whelan was winning.
• 24:43
  I'm sure they were probably NAIA back then.
• 24:48
  Yeah, we were in Ai and they had a great reputation.
• 24:52
  They had it won some national championship.
• 24:54
  Okay? And you know, it's like, you
• 24:56
  know, we're competitive people and I was definitely going to go
• 25:00
  somewhere where we could be successful.
• 25:03
  Was there any ego involved of like man?
• 25:05
  I'm at I don't even know what Baylor might have been like the
• 25:08
  Southwest Conference maybe back then but you were at you know
• 25:11
  you started out a pretty high-profile job and now you're
• 25:14
  going to and I'm doing air quotes here small-time, you know
• 25:17
  wailing. No one's no one outside of
• 25:19
  Lubbock has maybe heard of whale about and I'm being big
• 25:21
  generalization here, but I'm wondering how it felt for you
• 25:25
  ego wise, like, oh, I'm going to I'm not a Bailer, any morning,
• 25:29
  go to Texas, and Texas Tech after that, I'm now Wayland
• 25:31
  Baptist. Was there any ego hit for you or
• 25:33
  was it more of like others? The next stop of coaching?
• 25:36
  I'm coaching. Yeah.
• 25:40
  No I really didn't have an ego involved in it.
• 25:44
  I've always been a man of faith and I know that, you know, I'll
• 25:48
  be at the right place at the right time and who knew that
• 25:52
  really if as much as Baylor got me into coaching Waylon maybe
• 25:57
  lip springboard my career and while we were there, we won both
• 26:03
  the men's and women's National Title endorse one thing you may
• 26:09
  not know We went to the Drake from Utah, right?
• 26:11
  Yeah, the Drake Relays and 1988 and we're still the only team
• 26:17
  ever to win all six relays in the same year and that's that
• 26:22
  summer, one of my athletes went on to the Seoul Olympics, where
• 26:28
  he won a silver medal for the Jamaican 4x4.
• 26:32
  Another one of my athletes went on later in his career to win a
• 26:36
  gold medal. Toward the United States and the
• 26:41
  4 by 1 in 2000. And so I had in this is all at a
• 26:47
  school of about 800 students. And so arguably at that time, we
• 26:53
  may have been one of the best college teams in the country.
• 26:56
  Regardless of classifications, we were being flown out west to
• 27:02
  the Fresno relays and mount sac relays.
• 27:07
  And even at the Drake Relays, In the Kansas realize which we want
• 27:11
  a lot of things. It was this David versus Goliath
• 27:14
  thing. Where this little school in
• 27:16
  Texas, was going up against the big division, one programs, and
• 27:20
  beating them head to head. And I remember a story where we
• 27:25
  were adding indoor meet at Oklahoma City and that would
• 27:28
  that, that time, we're for the national championships were.
• 27:31
  So most of the top teams would go there to run and not on a
• 27:36
  head-to-head situation. But we ran Other than Baylor did
• 27:40
  in the 4x4 and I remember coach Hart coming up to me afterwards.
• 27:44
  Saying Jim, I know I taught you a lot but you're not supposed to
• 27:48
  use this against me and So that obviously made me feel really
• 27:52
  good. Yeah, I could only imagine
• 27:54
  because again, coach Hart is such a figure for all the right
• 27:58
  reasons that, you know, I'd feel I would feel sheepish.
• 28:01
  I would feel bad like, oh, coach heart.
• 28:03
  I'm so sorry. We got lucky, you know, you must
• 28:05
  have run your Z team. I know you'll get them.
• 28:09
  Come on that's that's amazing. Again the student in the master
• 28:12
  like it's a little bit of like who's gonna be the next Master?
• 28:16
  It's quite amazing. So how many years were you there
• 28:20
  at Wayland? Well, of course, I couldn't live
• 28:25
  on six thousand dollars butter sugar, very long.
• 28:28
  And so after that, one year, I realized I needed to move on
• 28:34
  Aaron stayed there for an addition.
• 28:37
  No year. But I needed to go move on.
• 28:40
  And again, my next stop was at Louisiana Tech and it's kind of
• 28:46
  an interesting story there to. I you starting in high school
• 28:50
  starting in college I used to Suspend my Summers working
• 28:54
  summer camps in the Catskills of New York.
• 28:57
  And so I knew about this job opening at Louisiana Tech, and
• 29:02
  be a pay phone calls and written letters.
• 29:09
  I got this job working for Gary Stanley at Louisiana Tech only
• 29:13
  to find out later. It was my tenacity and, you
• 29:17
  know, to make sure that, you know, I was going to sell
• 29:20
  myself, no matter being Located and Rural, the rural Catskills
• 29:27
  was still going to make sure that, you know, I really wanted
• 29:30
  that job. I was going to get that job.
• 29:33
  You might have defined the word hustle before it became like,
• 29:37
  you know, the cool, you know, put it hashtag hustle, and put
• 29:40
  it in your bio on social media. Like this was just pure hustle
• 29:44
  of calling and writing and just making sure hey if you were
• 29:47
  going to reject me, it ain't going because I didn't make an
• 29:50
  effort here. Yeah, he says that I must have
• 29:56
  sent him a letter a day and each letter was something different
• 30:01
  one later. When might be on My Philosophy,
• 30:03
  one letter might be on training one letter, might be on, and he
• 30:06
  said that's real play. The thing that impressed him.
• 30:09
  The most was just, you know, he really just through basically
• 30:13
  love letters. Yeah, girly got to know me and
• 30:16
  and realize that, you know, here's a guy that, you know, I
• 30:19
  think could be a really good coach.
• 30:23
  I'm sorry, knowing Gary, knowing you and knowing now the term
• 30:27
  they were love letters of my coaching philosophy.
• 30:36
  This is where I get to insert a joke now Sprecher because so you
• 30:38
  might have written the coach Stanley, 25 letters back then
• 30:42
  stamps, were only a penny apiece so it only cost you a quarter,
• 30:44
  it's a these love letters. This episode is going to slowly
• 30:53
  maybe quickly devolve into just jokes between Sprecher and I am
• 30:57
  so sorry. So sorry.
• 30:59
  Okay. You go to La Tech, you're still
• 31:01
  not home, you know, we're still not the creeping back up to
• 31:04
  Indiana. You have, you're working your
• 31:05
  way there at least right, tell me about your time in lab tech
• 31:08
  is La Tech has been and I love that Gary was there because
• 31:10
  Gary's there forever just recently retired.
• 31:12
  Again, congratulations to coach Stanley that you get to be at a
• 31:15
  spot where you can Retire. That's a we miss you dearly in
• 31:19
  the coaching ranks but just so happy that you can spend time
• 31:21
  now with friends and family and you know, all the sacrifices
• 31:24
  that you've made you now get to. I don't want to say makeup
• 31:28
  because I want you to be doing those things during your career,
• 31:30
  but you get to do those things now without having to worry
• 31:32
  about the track meet on Saturday and entries and eligibility and
• 31:36
  all that kind of stuff. So, I love that you working with
• 31:38
  Coach stealing, their, how was your time at La Tech and that's
• 31:41
  a pretty historic program that has had a lot of success.
• 31:44
  That I'm afraid a lot of people don't know a lot about Out that
• 31:47
  program, unfortunately. Yeah, no, it was an awesome
• 31:53
  experience. I've always told people that
• 31:56
  Gary Stanley was one of the great minds and Sport and we
• 32:01
  just really clicked and we really, you know, found ways and
• 32:05
  not just making our program better, but even making the
• 32:09
  sport better and I'll give you an example.
• 32:12
  We used to have a home track meet and we decided to do this
• 32:16
  on a Saturday night and back then we would invite the local
• 32:20
  schools. In fact, in their work is called
• 32:23
  Northeastern, Louisiana and Northwestern Louisiana, and
• 32:26
  Southwestern Louisiana, and they were all very good programs and
• 32:31
  we brought him in on a Saturday night and we would start the
• 32:35
  event with a community 5K, which would start and finish on the
• 32:41
  track. We had, you know, we would have
• 32:45
  an event named after one of the Louisiana crates, like the rod,
• 32:49
  Milburn High hurdles We would also during the middle of the
• 32:54
  meat. We did a fastest kid in the
• 32:57
  city, 100 meter race to get the parents out and then we've
• 33:02
  concluded the event. Maybe I shouldn't say this but
• 33:05
  we had a fraternity and sorority 4x4 and the winning and the
• 33:10
  winning sorority and fraternity, got a keg and only in Louisiana,
• 33:14
  maybe could you do that? But we really made this huge
• 33:17
  event and of course we had four very good track.
• 33:21
  I am is going head-to-head and so that's an example where you
• 33:25
  know, we made the sport even better and I really enjoyed that
• 33:31
  part of it because as you know we're always trying to think now
• 33:34
  outside the box to make our sport more marketable.
• 33:38
  Not just for the person that goes out there to see some great
• 33:42
  athletes but also to find enjoyment out of it as well, at
• 33:47
  this point of your career now, you still got coach Hart.
• 33:51
  I'm going to say in your hip pocket mean you always have him
• 33:53
  to call to get advice to get, you know, work out, questions of
• 33:57
  how your coaching were there. Other people that you reached
• 34:01
  out to him, kind of alluding to, like, a coaching education,
• 34:04
  that's why I'm not even sure where it coaching education was
• 34:06
  at this point nationally with tack or usatf back then, what
• 34:10
  were you doing? At this point at La Tech to get
• 34:14
  better at coaching? Well, that's a great question
• 34:19
  because it's a really interesting story there.
• 34:23
  Yes, I did. My first education get my level
• 34:26
  one, which was Tac and it was down in New Orleans and at that
• 34:31
  time we didn't realize it. But friends of mine that I came
• 34:37
  acquaintances were with was a guys.
• 34:40
  Like you were for all in Louisiana was like Dave Anderson
• 34:44
  who became one of the great High School coaches in A guy named
• 34:49
  Tommy bad on, Sam coaching at Southwest Louisiana, which is,
• 34:55
  you know, University of Louisiana, boo.
• 34:58
  I remember meeting booth for the first time when he was a high
• 35:01
  school coach at st. James, and so it before he got
• 35:05
  into college coaching, and then of course you had Dan path and
• 35:09
  yet, Sam seems. And so I look back now, you
• 35:14
  know, and the thing is, we love track and field.
• 35:17
  And it was very common for us to load up in a van and drive
• 35:22
  halfway across the country. Get one hotel room, put eight
• 35:27
  people in that room to go see the Olympic trials, they're
• 35:31
  going to see the NCAA Championship so that, you know,
• 35:33
  senior championships or whatever.
• 35:35
  So yeah, I guess our education was something that we kind of,
• 35:40
  you know, form together and I don't really didn't realize it
• 35:43
  back then, but now look, but for these guys are at and it's like,
• 35:47
  man. I'm members sitting around in
• 35:49
  these long trips or in those hotel rooms rat, meat sharing
• 35:53
  these ideas and with each other. Yeah, shout out.
• 35:57
  You mentioned a lot of amazing people there by the way, but to
• 35:59
  specific shoutouts, Dave Anderson and boo.
• 36:02
  Both Gill connections podcast alums both have been on the
• 36:06
  podcast. So Dave, actually, I'll give
• 36:08
  him. I'll give him the OG status.
• 36:10
  He was one of the first maybe 20 to 30 people that we had on the
• 36:13
  show. You you're like number 168.
• 36:15
  Sorry it took me this long to To get up the nerve to ask you to
• 36:19
  get on the podcast. So I had to cut my teeth with
• 36:21
  people like Boo and Dave and those guys, first, you know,
• 36:24
  it's want to make sure I had my chops set before I got to you
• 36:29
  and I'm glad you actually kind of described and defined
• 36:32
  coaching education in that way because you know, certainly when
• 36:36
  I say coaching education and I think about coaching education.
• 36:39
  I think about the formal side. So us usatf level 1 and level 2
• 36:42
  s and now with UST fca's Academy.
• 36:47
  Altus doing a great job with coaching education, but the way
• 36:53
  you defined it is, I don't know if I want to say it's equally
• 36:57
  important because it may be more important.
• 36:59
  But that peer-to-peer side not only the peer-to-peer like
• 37:02
  people that are in the same age and stage of you but having
• 37:05
  again, Clyde heart someone who at that point had been around a
• 37:08
  long time and had success being able to just talk things out.
• 37:11
  Sometimes helps tremendously when we're putting together our
• 37:15
  philosophy and we're putting together our Actual X's and O's,
• 37:18
  and what, you know, how to how to coach the kids.
• 37:20
  But that part of it also takes into helps bring in all the
• 37:25
  other aspects of a coach. It's like, oh, wow.
• 37:27
  So you do your paperwork, how well, you do, budgeting this
• 37:30
  way. Like, there's other topics that
• 37:31
  are involved in coaching coaching good or bad and you
• 37:35
  know, you get to pick is not just on the track, you know,
• 37:39
  quarter mile repeats for a mile or whatnot.
• 37:41
  It's especially in Collegiate and I shouldn't say especially,
• 37:44
  because this happens in high school, it's scheduling its
• 37:46
  budgeting. It's Personnel.
• 37:48
  It's communication with your assistant coaches in your head
• 37:50
  coach and your athletic director and compliance.
• 37:54
  It's way more than just that's why we don't speak X's and O's
• 37:57
  here because that is one part and certainly it's an important
• 38:01
  part, but being a coach is a holistic, you are you have so
• 38:05
  much to do? I think those peer to peer
• 38:08
  coaching education conversations are just as valuable and
• 38:13
  something that we may not know that we're doing in the moment
• 38:16
  because you talked about you, Looking Back Now I'm like oh
• 38:18
  man. Look who I was talking with
• 38:19
  about track. Holy crap, that was my own
• 38:22
  coaching education, level 20 right.
• 38:25
  But that unofficial coaching education.
• 38:27
  Sometimes needs to be intentional.
• 38:30
  Making sure that we are reaching out to other coaches of higher,
• 38:33
  and same status to just pick their brain, so to speak, but
• 38:36
  being intentional to that. So, I love that.
• 38:38
  You're really in a Heyday of coaches with Tommy and Boo.
• 38:43
  And you mentioned Sam. Of course, I mean, just amazing
• 38:46
  people. That you had around you that you
• 38:48
  may not have recognized at the time of like, wow I've like I've
• 38:52
  got myself surrounded with some pretty good people here, who
• 38:56
  know how to coach pretty good. I maybe I should listen and ask
• 39:00
  questions. I like that kind of time space
• 39:02
  that you're in at that moment. So I include Gary in that by the
• 39:10
  way I did not say Gary's name of Gary's in that as well.
• 39:13
  So how did how long were you at law Tech?
• 39:15
  How did it go? How did your coach again not X's
• 39:19
  and O's but you know philosophy and you know, 30,000 foot level,
• 39:23
  how did it change at all during that time at La Tech?
• 39:29
  Yeah, I think that was an important part chapter of my
• 39:32
  career as well because you know, it's now I didn't have, you
• 39:36
  know, the Olympic level athletes now.
• 39:41
  I was taking kids and from Louisiana and Arkansas and Texas
• 39:46
  and really having to learn how to develop talent and I really
• 39:51
  kind of shape. The rest of my career.
• 39:53
  I found out that that's the thing that I enjoy the most and
• 39:57
  we were able to take some of these Is that were under
• 40:00
  recruited and all said, make them Conference champions, make
• 40:04
  them National qualifiers. As a team, we want some
• 40:08
  conference championships and some really good programs and it
• 40:13
  really helped me grow. That part of my career is
• 40:17
  learning how to, you know, one identify Talent into once.
• 40:23
  I had that Talent, really develop that.
• 40:26
  And so the ironic thing, After three years, I felt.
• 40:31
  And I think I was at 27. After that time in my career I
• 40:36
  felt I was ready to be a head coach.
• 40:38
  And so I actually, at 27 took my first head coaching job at a
• 40:45
  small school in Arkansas which at that time was called Arkansas
• 40:48
  college which now is called lion college and and had again in
• 40:54
  just a short time of one year had a lot of success, but Reason
• 40:59
  I link that because there's probably one other message I
• 41:02
  want to share as the reason I was only there for one year.
• 41:05
  Was that the ad at Louisiana Tech had left to go to UNC
• 41:13
  Wilmington and before I was going my way to Arkansas before
• 41:17
  you just going to UNCW. We passed each other in the hall
• 41:22
  one day. And he just wanted to thank me
• 41:24
  for the job that I did and realize that, you know, it was a
• 41:28
  tremendous. Impact on the program and that,
• 41:32
  you know, he would always remember that.
• 41:35
  And so the only reason I was at that school in Arkansas for just
• 41:40
  that one year that's because the following year that same ad
• 41:45
  brought me to UNCW, you know, I wondered you have and we'll get
• 41:50
  into it a long strange varied successful career UNCW.
• 41:57
  And I've always, you know, I've known as the Indie kid then
• 41:59
  Indiana guy. Ball steaks.
• 42:00
  That's where we first met with a little Baylor sprinkled in it.
• 42:04
  I always wondered how you got to UNCW so you had a former
• 42:07
  administrator, you were the assistant at La Tech but you had
• 42:10
  an administrator that you know, you had a connection with and
• 42:13
  they think goodness paid attention to track and saw the
• 42:16
  impact you made and that ended up taking you to Wilmington
• 42:20
  North Carolina as the head coach over there.
• 42:28
  Yeah. And if you've ever been to
• 42:31
  Wilmington it was just that first interview and that was
• 42:36
  pretty easy decision at that point.
• 42:38
  And and so yeah that that relationship with Paul Miller
• 42:44
  the ad and just the opportunity and then again it was not a very
• 42:49
  good program. Matter of fact, the first year I
• 42:51
  was there, we only had 23 athletes on each side and so it
• 42:57
  was definitely Program, we had the build but I thought that
• 43:01
  there was the pieces in place to be able to do that.
• 43:07
  I've always, you know, knowing working with you alongside you
• 43:11
  and now haven't seen your career up until today.
• 43:14
  The two things that I've always thought of you as a coach one
• 43:17
  you mentioned is taking that under recruited kid, the kid
• 43:21
  that doesn't have the time stamp today to be, you know,
• 43:26
  recognizable if you will However, you wanted to find that
• 43:28
  and making them really stinking good conference.
• 43:31
  Champs National qualifiers but also at the same token, I can't
• 43:37
  pigeonhole you. I'd like to be able to say that
• 43:40
  you're a Sprint coach that you're a 400-meter coach because
• 43:42
  the history with the you know, Baylor and things like that.
• 43:44
  And some of the quarter milers and four by four teams, you've
• 43:47
  had. However, I know you have also
• 43:50
  coached amazing, long jumpers and triple jumpers and pole
• 43:53
  vaulters hurdlers, you may tell me that I don't about this that
• 43:58
  you also coached amazing distance Runners and throwers
• 44:01
  I'm just not sure but was that an early decision for you of
• 44:05
  like I'm not going to be a Sprint's coach, I'm going to be
• 44:08
  a track coach or did that just kind of fall into place
• 44:12
  happenstance Now it was organic. I truly love track and field can
• 44:22
  be honest with you. I watched every minute of every
• 44:26
  televised moment of these World Championships including getting
• 44:29
  up each morning to watch the marathon.
• 44:31
  So I truly are love everything about track and field am going
• 44:36
  to be honest with you. I would say probably my favorite
• 44:40
  event that coach are the combined of this and if you lose
• 44:44
  That it's takes all the it takes you know but the screening and
• 44:49
  the jumping in the throwing and the distance training and puts
• 44:52
  it all and under one umbrella. And so I truly are one of those
• 44:57
  rare breeds that loves every event and as a result as a
• 45:02
  coach, I study every event just because not only do I want to
• 45:06
  get to know those events better but also take bits and pieces of
• 45:10
  those Advanced to apply it to the spread to apply it to the
• 45:13
  job. Ox to make me a better coach in
• 45:16
  those areas. Yeah, some of the top coaches
• 45:19
  we've had here on the podcast from Brooks Johnson.
• 45:23
  Of course, I had five other names that now is gave me.
• 45:25
  I'm so sorry but they they all talk about kochiya boob
• 45:30
  schexnayder, talk about not, pigeon, holing yourself and
• 45:34
  being a Sprint's coach or a jumps coach, which seems very in
• 45:37
  Vogue at and I'm going to come out today at 2022, you know,
• 45:40
  I've been involved in track for over 20 years throughout my
• 45:43
  entire career. Always Vogue to be, like I want
• 45:46
  to be, I'm going to be, I am the best Sprints coach in the world,
• 45:50
  or my conference, or my stay in or whatever.
• 45:52
  But some of the best coaches are have actually been those coaches
• 45:56
  that can work with the long jumper today, successfully the
• 45:59
  shot-putter tomorrow, schedule, out, next Saturday's workout for
• 46:04
  the 5K kids. I mean, in just a general sense
• 46:08
  of knowing the body and biology and Kinesiology physics all
• 46:12
  together. That's kind of been a Hallmark
• 46:14
  of like the top like you know there's some really amazing
• 46:17
  coaches out there and then there's like this upper echelon
• 46:19
  of like five that seem to be able to run the gamut and almost
• 46:23
  be like that multi coach being able to hit all the phases of
• 46:27
  track and field. Did where was that modeled for
• 46:31
  you? Because I'm not sure that maybe
• 46:33
  it was more common back as you were coming through.
• 46:35
  You know, the Gary Stanley are and Clyde heart are Etc.
• 46:40
  Was it modeled for you? Or was it just something?
• 46:42
  You said it was organic, but there had to be some point where
• 46:44
  you were Like, because we all get to make a decision, we get
• 46:46
  to be. All right, I'm gonna go all in
• 46:47
  and do not all of my coaching, education, and talk is going to
• 46:50
  be about Sprints and hurdles, or we could decide that I'm also
• 46:52
  going to go to the long jump presentation.
• 46:54
  I'm also going to go watch the marathon and learn from those
• 46:57
  guys, was there a model and Mentor for you on that.
• 47:00
  Or was it literally just I love the whole stinkin Sports.
• 47:03
  I'm going to do it all. Yeah, it was a natural love that
• 47:09
  then that was fueled by desire to win.
• 47:11
  And the only way you can win championships is to have
• 47:15
  athletes and those events. And so that's and so, when I
• 47:20
  went to UNCW with 23 athletes, I was just, you know, we hosted
• 47:24
  the conference Championship that year, and I remember telling,
• 47:28
  and I spend as much time talking to my athletes, as we did
• 47:33
  training and I remember right before the championship telling
• 47:37
  Kids, like, you know, unless casings other buses don't show
• 47:41
  up. You know, we're not going to win
• 47:43
  conference. Matter of fact will be last this
• 47:45
  place other than the four back weeks, but that didn't prevent
• 47:49
  us from having a great meat. Matter of fact, before I got
• 47:53
  there, it had one conference champion and that meet we had
• 47:58
  four Conference champions. So even though we did not have
• 48:01
  the manpower to win a team championship, we had the
• 48:06
  individuals to do. That and then, you know, you
• 48:09
  start selling a program that, you know, we don't have
• 48:13
  anything, but you started selling people on a dream and
• 48:16
  now fast forward. Four years later, we're hosting
• 48:21
  the championship again, these freshman who came in are now
• 48:25
  seniors. And and oh, by the way, we were
• 48:31
  going to contend for that Championship.
• 48:33
  But standing in the way was George Mason who, by the way,
• 48:36
  had just won the Indoor national championships and I'll be
• 48:40
  doggone if we didn't go out there and when our School's
• 48:44
  first championship in any sport, but we want it by 60 points.
• 48:49
  And so, you know, obviously there was a lot of faith that
• 48:54
  was put into our program with them.
• 48:58
  And here, we are literally 25 years later and the lives that
• 49:04
  have been changed with that group of athletes, that took,
• 49:07
  that chance will always be something that I'll cherish.
• 49:12
  So things are going successful on the track.
• 49:15
  Obviously, I mean, to win a with any conference championships by
• 49:18
  60 points. I mean, you know, that's to me.
• 49:20
  The conference Championship is my favorite event throughout the
• 49:22
  year. My love ncaa's.
• 49:24
  It's amazing. You know.
• 49:25
  Unbelievable performances and team.
• 49:27
  Championships are given out which I love and I love a Texas.
• 49:32
  Relays Drake. Relays is my all-time favorite
• 49:34
  meat, but there's something about conference because the
• 49:38
  whole team has to be in sync. I mean that person who gets 8th
• 49:41
  Place in the women's high jump, that one point.
• 49:44
  I've seen it, you've seen. It is the one point that wins
• 49:48
  the conference Championship or Sparks emotion that, wow.
• 49:52
  You know, she wasn't supposed to get a place at all and she got
• 49:54
  us a point. And then the other person who's
• 49:56
  supposed to get In the 200 now gets third and those Point
• 50:00
  differentials do it, you know it's I just love Conference
• 50:02
  Championship so it's going very successfully for you on the
• 50:06
  track. You're at that point when you
• 50:09
  win that your fifth year head coach he did a year at now.
• 50:13
  Lion College you done for years at UNCW.
• 50:16
  How is we alluded to you know coaches not just on the track
• 50:20
  and X's and O's it's all this other stuff that you have to do.
• 50:23
  How are you adjusting from really?
• 50:26
  You know, yesterday A, you were, you know, an assistant coach
• 50:29
  really kind of a first-time assistant coach.
• 50:31
  How are you adjusting to being in the big chair having to
• 50:35
  consider schedule and budgets and hiring and Staffing and
• 50:38
  things like that? Yeah, I've been blessed, I'm
• 50:45
  always at greatest assistance, you know, a great assistants who
• 50:49
  make great head coaches and I've always been done.
• 50:52
  One thing. I've always surrounded myself
• 50:54
  with good people so whether it's the athletes that I recruit or
• 50:58
  the people that I have on staff, and I've always tried to, you
• 51:02
  know, use other people's strengths and so, you know, of
• 51:07
  course, you know, back then, you know, I was literally computer
• 51:11
  illiterate But yet I had assistance that we're really
• 51:14
  strong and so you know, we tried to balance our staffs with
• 51:20
  people that were just good at certain things and together we
• 51:25
  created this energy to make our program great.
• 51:28
  And so you know I knew my limitations I knew my passions
• 51:33
  and I try to surround myself with people that would help
• 51:36
  balance that So I have to tell a secret about Sprecher I because
• 51:40
  I'm so proud. The I took this long to get them
• 51:43
  on the podcast because I wasn't sure.
• 51:44
  He knew how to use zoom when he says he was computer.
• 51:47
  Illiterate this at that is no like you know fun stick self
• 51:52
  derogatory type of thing. No no no my man here.
• 51:56
  When you get an email back in the day would print it right his
• 52:00
  response and then have someone else email the response which
• 52:02
  always killed because I'm like you know like I tried to show
• 52:04
  him where the reply button was. I'm like look man are you just
• 52:07
  hit, right? In type I know you know how to
• 52:08
  type it was it was hard going but but you have the old saying
• 52:14
  you can't teach an old dog, new tricks that is not true because
• 52:16
  my man here has learned a lot of new tricks I'm so so proud of
• 52:20
  you two doing that. You mentioned about surrounding
• 52:26
  yourself with good people and I agree knowing a lot of your
• 52:28
  assistance, former past assistance and current
• 52:31
  assistance. You, you have some kind of, I
• 52:34
  don't know if it's a magnet per se, although, you know, knowing
• 52:37
  when and you have to have some kind of magic magnet because you
• 52:39
  know, you married up my friend and you know, that better than I
• 52:41
  do. So you've always, you know,
• 52:44
  you've been able to track great assistance at work extremely
• 52:46
  hard for you and have skill sets that you don't.
• 52:48
  And I don't know if that's maybe just part of your interview
• 52:50
  process or not. But there is, you know, we Said
• 52:54
  this a hundred times on the podcast.
• 52:55
  Ego is not bad. Bad ego is bad.
• 52:59
  But you know, ego is that helps Drive.
• 53:00
  Our competitive Spirit, our self-worth are wanting attention
• 53:04
  to detail. Ego is good, you have ego.
• 53:07
  You cannot say you were egoless. I'm sorry, no one can bad.
• 53:10
  Ego is bad, sometimes we can get caught up as the head coach.
• 53:15
  Is the whether you whether it's at title, Heaven head in front
• 53:18
  of Coach, whether it's just the, you know, I'm the, I'm the big
• 53:20
  poppa here. Big momma, that the program.
• 53:24
  And it's hard for us to let go. It's hard for us to let our
• 53:27
  assistant be in charge of scheduling travel or to have our
• 53:31
  assistance, help out with being the equipment coach, you have.
• 53:37
  And because I've seen this firsthand, you have always done
• 53:40
  a great job of that, that D were delegating.
• 53:43
  How how has that been natural for you.
• 53:45
  And then maybe hard to answer because you're like, I don't,
• 53:47
  I'm just what I do, man, but you've had to be conscious about
• 53:51
  allowing assistant coaches to do things.
• 53:54
  That some had coaches would just never let them do.
• 53:59
  That's the bad ego part, by the way, even when they make
• 54:02
  mistakes, like you have been. You're So Graceful in a sense of
• 54:05
  when someone makes mistakes, it's not the end of the world,
• 54:07
  you're gone or that responsibilities taken away from
• 54:09
  you. It's okay.
• 54:10
  Well, here's, you know, something to consider next time
• 54:12
  that might have made this better.
• 54:14
  How have you been able to be so natural at delegation?
• 54:21
  well part of it starts book by my inner being and again I'm a
• 54:25
  man of faith and so I put my faith in others to I realize,
• 54:32
  you know, I cannot do everything and so I know that if I'm not
• 54:36
  careful, then it, you know, if I get, you know, to spread out and
• 54:41
  I'm compromised, the quality that I can produce three.
• 54:46
  I've been, I've had a great believe in empowering people,
• 54:50
  and I've always believed that when you give people the faith
• 54:54
  you give them the the Tuna T's they're going to make you proud.
• 55:02
  And yeah, I mean, we all make mistakes including us.
• 55:06
  And so, you know, we learned what we learned from that and I
• 55:09
  am never in my career fault at anybody for making a mistake
• 55:15
  because most of the time, it wasn't a lack of effort or are
• 55:18
  trying. It was just, hey, it just didn't
• 55:21
  work. And, you know, I always
• 55:23
  believed, hey, as long as you're giving it a good effort, you got
• 55:26
  a great attitude towards it. Then you're going to be
• 55:28
  successful. We talked about the mentors and
• 55:34
  peers for the X's and O's part and that's a very common thought
• 55:38
  process. I'm very passionate about the
• 55:41
  coach, not only very passionate about you off the track, you
• 55:45
  know your family life and personal life and making sure
• 55:48
  that those are prioritized higher than the actual coaching
• 55:52
  part and we may get to that in a little bit but on the other side
• 55:56
  of it I am interested in helping build well-balanced coaches.
• 56:00
  So Just the coach that can go out and Coach a long jumper
• 56:03
  amazingly but also coach, who can do their paperwork that you
• 56:06
  have to do correctly and recruit correctly and efficiently in
• 56:10
  proficiently, where there ever was there ever a time, where you
• 56:16
  were struggling, maybe with something, in the head coaching
• 56:18
  duties that you reached out to maybe was coach Hart, maybe
• 56:23
  other people that you reach towns like a mansion.
• 56:25
  So how do you handle? You know, back then we used.
• 56:28
  I don't I don't think you still have to do this today but we
• 56:30
  used to have to Log every one of our phone calls, I think.
• 56:32
  Maybe it's on an app or something today, or maybe it's
• 56:34
  unlimited calls and that's how old I am.
• 56:36
  I the rules have changed. I don't remember anymore, but we
• 56:38
  had to log everything, right and get them signed by the student
• 56:42
  died. Left buttock Council or whatever
• 56:45
  was there ever a time that you reached out to someone about
• 56:48
  that side that the non X's and O's just like me and I'm
• 56:51
  struggling with this part of the head coaching duties was over
• 56:56
  that or was it more internal? You just worked with your
• 56:58
  administrators. I mean, we all are, you know,
• 57:04
  I'm a firm believer that if you don't have the answers, go find
• 57:07
  the answers. And so, you know, I'm lucky that
• 57:09
  I do have a lot of other people. I can go to.
• 57:13
  I'll be honest with you, want to talk about the balance?
• 57:16
  I'm always said this. I think the best coaches in this
• 57:19
  country are the High School coaches, and you talk about
• 57:24
  people that have to find balance that you have to go and teach a
• 57:28
  full day of school. And then you Another full-time
• 57:32
  job on top of that with your team.
• 57:34
  And then, oh, by the way, once you've exhausted all those
• 57:37
  energies. Now you got to go home to your
• 57:40
  family. And so, I've always used a lot
• 57:44
  of high school mentors as well as far as that because they live
• 57:49
  it firsthand. And so I've I've, you know it to
• 57:53
  me. If you're successful, it does
• 57:56
  not matter what level that you're at, and Again I'm one of
• 58:01
  the, I'm a sponge and so I'm going to absorb, you know, every
• 58:06
  bit of energy and knowledge that I can, no matter what sport, no
• 58:12
  matter what level. You know, I tell people in a
• 58:15
  joke, I'll turn on the TV to watch the World Championships of
• 58:19
  tiddlywinks. I know, you know what that is,
• 58:22
  but if I can learn something about how to win, that's one
• 58:27
  with us. I'm going to do whatever it
• 58:28
  takes. And so, yeah.
• 58:31
  Yeah, I'm not afraid to ask for, help the sad part about turning
• 58:36
  on ESPN2 watch tiddlywinks is. That's probably on there, but
• 58:39
  not our world Champs and our Olympics and Prefontaine a
• 58:44
  diamond leagues, but tiddlywinks is on there for some reason.
• 58:47
  I don't know what this big tiddlywink culture that allows
• 58:51
  them to be on ESPN, not the greatest sport in the world
• 58:53
  track and field. I love how you said sponge and
• 58:57
  as you are, an aspiring head coach one day or in Assistant
• 59:01
  today, I really think, you know, speakers advice there, you know,
• 59:04
  hit rewind and listen to that again about reaching out and
• 59:07
  asking for help, but you can't. I'm sorry.
• 59:09
  No one person has been built and designed that can do it.
• 59:12
  All. We rely on a support system
• 59:15
  under in above and around us, right?
• 59:17
  So fellow head, coaches your assistant, coaches
• 59:20
  administrators ask for help, because if you don't get it, you
• 59:24
  just sink. And then everybody else gets
• 59:25
  hurt to. With, that's all, I love that
• 59:28
  analogy of the sponge and that has always been Of that I've
• 59:31
  recognized in you from the first time I've met him.
• 59:34
  So how many years spoiler alert? How many years on this first
• 59:39
  stop at UNCW where they are and how many more championships did
• 59:43
  you when you 11 the first one in four years?
• 59:45
  How did it go after that? We kept winning, and one from
• 59:51
  winning this School's first championship to eventually
• 59:56
  winning. Eleven both times I was there to
• 1:00:01
  win the most championships not just at UNCW, but at that time
• 1:00:05
  in the conference and another interesting part about that, we
• 1:00:09
  were the lowest funded program on campus and we were lowest
• 1:00:14
  funded program in the conference, but that didn't
• 1:00:17
  prevent us from winning. And I was there for seven years
• 1:00:20
  at first, go around. And then a little personal note,
• 1:00:25
  you know, growing up in Indianapolis.
• 1:00:27
  I grew up as the oldest of six and I came from a very
• 1:00:30
  close-knit family and in reality to this day, I was the only one
• 1:00:36
  that moved away. And so at that point in my
• 1:00:39
  career, you know, I had an opportunity to go back where I
• 1:00:46
  thought it was important that my Children at that point had
• 1:00:50
  relationships with their grandparents, Aunts, Uncles
• 1:00:54
  cousins. And so, I had two great mentors
• 1:00:59
  when I was at Ball State, the first one was Steve Cook.
• 1:01:02
  See, which he was my coach for my first three years before, he
• 1:01:06
  went off to the Naval Academy and the second one was Joe
• 1:01:10
  Rogers. And you talk about coaching
• 1:01:13
  education, you know, he wrote a lot of the curriculum for
• 1:01:17
  coaching education. That point he was going off to
• 1:01:20
  West Point and so not the most opportune time to go back to my
• 1:01:26
  alma mater but I did that and started in January.
• 1:01:31
  So I remember having a practice on Monday and then being at a
• 1:01:37
  meet at Purdue on Saturday and and so that was obviously a
• 1:01:42
  quick turnaround but you know as you know you're always get you
• 1:01:47
  named your son after your Your alma mater.
• 1:01:50
  And so there's always a draw and again, as a Collegiate athlete,
• 1:01:54
  there, the to go back there, but as much as it was
• 1:01:59
  professionally, it was also personally because of family.
• 1:02:04
  Yeah, I'm always disappointed that traces name is not ball or
• 1:02:08
  card or something. It's because I feel like he
• 1:02:10
  dropped. You drop the ball on that one to
• 1:02:11
  be real. Real Frank.
• 1:02:14
  Yeah, you go from Wilmington, North Carolina.
• 1:02:16
  And again if he mentioned it earlier, if you haven't been to
• 1:02:18
  a woman too, Carolina, it's pretty stinkin, nice to Muncie
• 1:02:24
  Indiana, which I loved, I'm not putting down Muncie Indiana, but
• 1:02:27
  he mentioned you went in January so I could literally see you
• 1:02:30
  mentioned being a practice on Monday.
• 1:02:31
  And then having you first meet on Saturday, I thought you were
• 1:02:33
  going to say, I went from Friday, 80 degrees on the track
• 1:02:37
  and then I went to Ball State and it was January so it was
• 1:02:40
  like 20 degrees, it's 44 track. So so what was it like going
• 1:02:45
  back? You know, I have we you may have
• 1:02:48
  been one of the first First people that kind of sparked this
• 1:02:50
  in me, but I have this, like, real affinity for a lumps that
• 1:02:53
  coach at their alma mater because when you would call as
• 1:02:57
  the head men's coach at Ball State, when you would call a
• 1:02:59
  recruit and tell him how great ball state was, you had one of
• 1:03:03
  the most authentic like examples possible.
• 1:03:07
  I went to Ball State. Like, you can't beat that.
• 1:03:10
  Like oh man, he loves the school so much he went there, you know.
• 1:03:13
  It's it's just so authentic, so I love that you went back.
• 1:03:17
  However, going back. Can cause a lot of memories good
• 1:03:21
  and bad and expectations and faults expectations.
• 1:03:24
  What was it like actually coming back to your alma, mater to
• 1:03:28
  coach there? Well, it was an awesome
• 1:03:34
  opportunity. It was amazing experience.
• 1:03:38
  Once begin, you know, we had to get things up and going.
• 1:03:42
  And so it started with recruiting I still remember this
• 1:03:46
  day again, you know, if you don't know, we had separate
• 1:03:50
  mental image program. So I was convinced Coach, Sue
• 1:03:53
  Parks was the women's Coach who you would later work for when I
• 1:03:59
  got there, I did such Good job of recruiting.
• 1:04:02
  I remember having our first practice sitting on the steps of
• 1:04:06
  Worthen Arena or basketball arena, and I had 100 guys
• 1:04:12
  sitting there on the steps and I had a roster limit of 50.
• 1:04:16
  And so as I was kind of laying some of the groundwork, I just
• 1:04:20
  remember saying, all right, guys, look at the person next to
• 1:04:24
  you, as I said, at the end of the semester, one of you is
• 1:04:26
  gone. Let's get to work and kind of
• 1:04:29
  just started that mentality. And again, we were taking a lot
• 1:04:34
  of guys that were kind of under recruited and guy like Zach,
• 1:04:38
  Riley went on to be a two-time All-American.
• 1:04:42
  I remember the story he was last in the Mac his freshman year and
• 1:04:46
  the hammer he won. The MAC is soft sophomore year
• 1:04:50
  and fructose 660 feet. And then was a two-time
• 1:04:55
  All-American after that. I inherited a guy named Adam
• 1:04:58
  Shunk to Even Place indoors, I mean the good email conference
• 1:05:05
  indoors in the high jump and by that outdoor season.
• 1:05:10
  He was fifth in the country and then I had a little guy that I
• 1:05:14
  needed at one pole vaulter that had nobody.
• 1:05:16
  The train was and so I recruited this guy if anything just to
• 1:05:21
  have. So my good guy had a training
• 1:05:23
  partner and I'll be daggone if you went from being a 14-footer
• 1:05:27
  to almost 18 footer and he too was a two-time.
• 1:05:30
  All-American. And so we did it but we did it
• 1:05:34
  with some unlikely characters. I guess ones that, you know, in
• 1:05:40
  some ways had a little bit of a chip on their shoulder that, you
• 1:05:43
  know, they had the will to be good, but maybe didn't have the
• 1:05:47
  respect. And so this team at can, a lot
• 1:05:53
  of a hunger to it. And a lot of Readiness to it, I
• 1:05:57
  still remember a young man that is first year with me.
• 1:06:00
  Is 51 seconds in the 400. And in two years, he went to the
• 1:06:05
  NCAA regionals running 47, almost 47 flat.
• 1:06:08
  And so we just had a lot of those types of kids in the
• 1:06:11
  program. That really made the overall
• 1:06:14
  program a whole lot better. Now this is the part of the
• 1:06:18
  podcast. We have to be careful Sprint
• 1:06:20
  because while he's at this stint at Ball State, he meets one of
• 1:06:26
  the greatest coaches, he's ever gotten the chance to be around.
• 1:06:31
  That was Lynch. We're but then I also was there.
• 1:06:33
  So but I joined the women staff, we didn't have a separate staff,
• 1:06:38
  which was, I think that was unique to me.
• 1:06:40
  Yeah, I guess that's all I knew is I was at Troy before, I guess
• 1:06:43
  it did. When I coach high school, we
• 1:06:45
  were just a boys high school. That's all idea.
• 1:06:46
  Once a Troy, we were combined head coach of Juco, we were
• 1:06:50
  combined and that go to Ball State and it's like, oh yeah, we
• 1:06:52
  are completely separate as far as staffs and things like that.
• 1:06:57
  But this is where we got to be careful spec because we have a
• 1:06:59
  ton of stories during our time. Only there for two years and we
• 1:07:02
  have a ton of stories because as soon as you said, Zack Riley, I
• 1:07:05
  start thinking oh man the battles between Zack and this
• 1:07:08
  kid from Western Michigan who was also good, but it was much
• 1:07:12
  bigger. You know, should have been a
• 1:07:15
  thousand times better than Zack and they battled it left and
• 1:07:18
  right. Every time conference in the
• 1:07:20
  Nationals this little guy named Dale Cowper, who ends up going
• 1:07:23
  to be the head coach of the University of Louisville?
• 1:07:26
  I love that. Oh, this guy that was working in
• 1:07:30
  western Michigan. By the time, you see this guy
• 1:07:32
  named Mike Turk was just doing a good job, but, you know, goes on
• 1:07:34
  to become the head coach at Illinois.
• 1:07:36
  I mean, just an amazing amazing time.
• 1:07:38
  Amazing, amazing kids athletes. And really, you know, I held my
• 1:07:44
  time I again, I was only there for two years.
• 1:07:45
  It's quite silly, but I hold those two years at ball, State's
• 1:07:49
  so special because of the people I worked with including you
• 1:07:53
  including Sue. Also, an Alum, see I can when I
• 1:07:55
  got sued before I got you on the podcast because you know, she
• 1:07:58
  was my boss, I had to make sure I took care of Sue.
• 1:08:01
  Working with Sue working for Su the ga /.
• 1:08:05
  We're other people. We had Jermaine Jones on your
• 1:08:08
  side, the kids that we had, Matt Conley's, who goes on now, is
• 1:08:12
  one of the best throws coaches in the country, but also, in our
• 1:08:16
  conference, the Scott Jones, the Dennis Mitchell's the window
• 1:08:21
  mcraven's Rich Cerrone. He's, I mean, we had just
• 1:08:26
  amazing a people in that conference from coaches down to
• 1:08:30
  Athletes. It really was something special
• 1:08:34
  during that time and you're at the head of IT coaching at your
• 1:08:37
  alma mater during this time. I mean, did it kind of hits you?
• 1:08:39
  It's again it's hard to be in the moment and see that it's
• 1:08:42
  much easier. When I can look back at the
• 1:08:45
  perspective of what 5 years and 10 years and fifteen years ago
• 1:08:48
  was, did it hit you kind of the special time that you were in
• 1:08:52
  during that time at Ball State? Well, again, lot of times it's
• 1:08:58
  hindsight is 20/20 and so now, you don't really lies in the
• 1:09:03
  moment. I did realize though, that, you
• 1:09:06
  know, arguably, the Mac for many decades was probably the best
• 1:09:11
  mid major conference in the country when it came to our
• 1:09:15
  Sport. And so, you know, I even look
• 1:09:18
  back to when I was an athlete and a 1984 guy on Thomas.
• 1:09:23
  Jefferson, who ran at Kent State?
• 1:09:26
  And on the win, the bronze medal in the 200.
• 1:09:29
  Also at that time, a guy named Earl Jones, ran to Eastern
• 1:09:34
  Michigan. Went on to win the bronze medal
• 1:09:36
  in the 800. And of course, you had Dave
• 1:09:39
  waddle from back in the 70s. That was the amount of champion.
• 1:09:42
  And so, so part of that. Again, the competitor in me, was
• 1:09:47
  young, I wanted to be just like, when I was at Baylor in the
• 1:09:50
  Southwest Conference, that was the track conference in the
• 1:09:53
  country. I've always been drawn towards
• 1:09:56
  competition and so instead of being intimidated by it, I've
• 1:10:00
  actually embraced it because I knew it was going to make, you
• 1:10:03
  know, our program better and so, you're right, you know, to, to
• 1:10:08
  contend for Mac title, you had to beat a lot of good programs,
• 1:10:12
  but you had to beat a lot of great coaches, do that.
• 1:10:16
  Okay, so it's at this point of your journey sprack that we
• 1:10:20
  actually have to sprinkle in not just bad.
• 1:10:24
  Use bad time, bad decisions just capital b capital a capital D.
• 1:10:32
  Help me with the timings. I forget the years was I was
• 1:10:35
  there o1 and O2 season. So somewhere around there, we
• 1:10:39
  get a new ad. Now it's interesting to talk
• 1:10:41
  about this lady who I would consider.
• 1:10:44
  Hmm, I wouldn't consider him a friend, but I have a lot of
• 1:10:47
  respect for him even though that's what they're caveat
• 1:10:51
  because of what we're about to talk about it.
• 1:10:53
  Maybe I'll tell Well, why I have a positive attitude towards him
• 1:10:56
  but we get this new ad, this guy from Notre Dame and the funny
• 1:11:01
  thing about this guy Grady knew he was going to go on and become
• 1:11:06
  quote. Unquote big-time add his name
• 1:11:08
  was Bubba Cunningham. I am quite OK calling him out,
• 1:11:11
  I've talked to him about it, we're good here but it was funny
• 1:11:14
  that you know, I'm Cunningham, I'm from Alabama.
• 1:11:17
  He was the Notre Dame guy and I remember telling us like wait,
• 1:11:20
  are you sure I shouldn't I be the Bubba.
• 1:11:22
  Like, I don't know why your Bubba kind of he liked it.
• 1:11:24
  That make any sense. But whether it was his decision
• 1:11:28
  or, I don't know that anybody makes a decision like this in a
• 1:11:32
  vacuum. So Board of Trustees, etc.
• 1:11:35
  Etc. President of the University.
• 1:11:36
  I have no idea where all this came from, but the decision was
• 1:11:40
  made to drop Men's Track and Field.
• 1:11:44
  I remember I remember D-Day, I remember I remember the day, you
• 1:11:48
  know? Just you talk about again, all
• 1:11:49
  these great things, all these athletes doing amazing, these
• 1:11:51
  other coaches were doing the men's team is doing really well.
• 1:11:54
  Well, in the mac and you think like oh man this this could go
• 1:11:56
  on forever. Like I could ride this ride for
• 1:11:59
  a long time and then the decision is, yeah, this ride is
• 1:12:03
  over and not only, is it over. We're closing the ride.
• 1:12:05
  We're tearing it down. Not many of us.
• 1:12:09
  Thank goodness. Have the experience of having
• 1:12:13
  the worst thing that can happen. Dropping your program talk to us
• 1:12:18
  about just what was the feeling? What was the emotion anger hate?
• 1:12:23
  Give up this. You know, you could be forgiven
• 1:12:25
  for, like, you know what, this just, I just give up.
• 1:12:29
  Talk to us about that feeling when you found out what was
• 1:12:33
  happening to the program, to your program, your alma mater
• 1:12:37
  program. Well, the first thing is that,
• 1:12:43
  you know, it was personal from the standpoint that he oh it was
• 1:12:48
  my alma mater and everything that I gave to a both as an
• 1:12:52
  athlete and now as a coach and at the same time you can measure
• 1:12:58
  progress. A different ways as well.
• 1:13:01
  And of course, you know, we had the most all Americans ever.
• 1:13:06
  So we're doing well, at a national level.
• 1:13:09
  We went from the bottom of the Mac to now at the top.
• 1:13:11
  The back, we went from the lowest GPA in the department to
• 1:13:18
  the fourth, highest GPA in the country.
• 1:13:21
  So every step of the way you're making progress and the way
• 1:13:27
  that, you know, you should, you know, as a program and but there
• 1:13:31
  are things that we didn't have on in our control at that point.
• 1:13:35
  And so, It was gut wrenching, as obviously most gut-wrenching for
• 1:13:42
  my athletes because they, like you said, it was kind of like
• 1:13:46
  the rug being pulled from, under us.
• 1:13:48
  And, so, first and foremost, my heart went out to them again.
• 1:13:54
  I know if it's an ego thing or whatever.
• 1:13:56
  But, you know, that no time War, again, being a man of faith, I
• 1:14:01
  wasn't concerned about myself, I knew that I would land on my
• 1:14:04
  feet. I knew that, you know, whatever
• 1:14:06
  was going to be next. I was going to be okay.
• 1:14:10
  I was just you know really heartbroken for athletes and and
• 1:14:14
  you know what was, you know, what were they going to do next?
• 1:14:18
  How do you first of all? I don't think that's ego.
• 1:14:22
  You mentioned that because ego it does center around.
• 1:14:26
  I so I didn't hear you say, oh, what am I going to do?
• 1:14:30
  What I've got to go. Find a job and you have every
• 1:14:33
  excuse to have said that because don't forget coach, Trucker here
• 1:14:37
  has mrs. Coach Becker has wife and two
• 1:14:40
  kids, one of them kept thinking, they were five years old.
• 1:14:43
  Even, they were much older than that, I don't know, his, it's
• 1:14:46
  strict race, had some issues. We still may be getting past
• 1:14:49
  those, but you have a family. So, for that to happen, you're
• 1:14:53
  losing your job. So 100%, no one would look down,
• 1:14:57
  shake their fingers at you for saying.
• 1:14:58
  What am I going to do? I have a family, I have to
• 1:15:01
  provide. What are we doing here?
• 1:15:03
  And your first reaction was, oh man, the kids, what are they?
• 1:15:07
  To do or some of them going to stay.
• 1:15:09
  Do we need to help get them on. What was your, what was the?
• 1:15:13
  You don't have this in your playbook?
• 1:15:15
  You have to write this on the Fly.
• 1:15:17
  What was your action plan? To help the student athletes
• 1:15:21
  move on, or stay? Was there an action plan?
• 1:15:23
  Was our help? Or was it?
• 1:15:25
  Yeah, I'm rooting for you. But okay, I've got to go I got
• 1:15:27
  to go get a job. Well, it's a good question.
• 1:15:32
  Can I always answer that? No, nobody has written a play
• 1:15:37
  book about that and so you do kind of have to figure it out
• 1:15:42
  and you know, I've always loved my kids and so in each kid with
• 1:15:48
  unique to what their needs were going to be or what the next
• 1:15:51
  steps were going to be and just like my, you know, I never give
• 1:15:55
  advice. But You know, but that advice
• 1:16:01
  is, you know, individual and it's just depends on each
• 1:16:05
  person. And even during that difficult
• 1:16:08
  transition, because I still keep up with most of those athletes
• 1:16:13
  from back then, they all landed on their feet and they all went
• 1:16:17
  on to do great things. And so now, I was kind of
• 1:16:22
  figuring it out along the way and, and luckily, you know, You
• 1:16:29
  know, we had enough faith in each other to help each other
• 1:16:33
  and everybody, you know, you know, ended up in a good spot.
• 1:16:38
  Life is not always fair. And I know you believe that
• 1:16:43
  knowing you and knowing your faith - which is important to
• 1:16:46
  you as the head coach. And you were as blindsided as
• 1:16:50
  anybody else, this was not something you knew was coming
• 1:16:53
  down the pipeline at all because I know you well enough that if
• 1:16:56
  there was ever like, hey next year, we're going to cut your
• 1:16:58
  program. You Never recruited you don't
• 1:16:59
  like, well I'm not bringing the kids in here, but you didn't, it
• 1:17:02
  was complete Blind Side. However, life is not fair as the
• 1:17:06
  head coach. I mean, the head coach is a
• 1:17:08
  central figure to the program. The buck stops here, right?
• 1:17:13
  Did you take and receive unfairly any animosity from
• 1:17:18
  parents, recruits freshman members of the team at all?
• 1:17:25
  Now, none at all, to be honest with you honest with you, I
• 1:17:32
  found out we were coming back on vacation and we were down in
• 1:17:35
  Wilmington on vacation vacation and I still remember driving
• 1:17:41
  down McGalliard, which is the main drag there and Muncie know
• 1:17:44
  by away a little plug for a month.
• 1:17:46
  She always in recruiting always call that fun, see Indiana, the
• 1:17:51
  Fort Lauderdale of Indiana about I remember going down the
• 1:17:57
  galliard and on my we're on our way home from vacation listening
• 1:18:01
  to the local radio and that was the announcement and that's how
• 1:18:04
  I found out about it was literally on the radio.
• 1:18:07
  So so yeah, it was definitely a complete Blind Side and it
• 1:18:14
  again, you know, I didn't know and I didn't have any animosity,
• 1:18:19
  you know, I was a sports man and one day I thought when I Hang it
• 1:18:25
  up, hang it up. And I'll be, you know, I'll
• 1:18:28
  become an athletic director. So I need the business side of
• 1:18:32
  College athletics. And so, you know, I understand
• 1:18:35
  it was a business decision. It was one that was not just
• 1:18:39
  made on our campus but a number of campuses in that conference
• 1:18:42
  at that point and you know, is disappointing.
• 1:18:47
  As it was I wasn't going to let it Define me.
• 1:18:52
  So you mentioned, you're coming back from vacation.
• 1:18:54
  Shin from Wilmington. So obviously you're not from
• 1:18:57
  Wilmington but obviously that area, affected your life like
• 1:19:01
  that. Became a part of your life,
• 1:19:02
  you're going back to Vacation, which I know it's a popular
• 1:19:05
  vacation spot but you could have gone.
• 1:19:06
  A lot of other places the tragedy, the wrong decision
• 1:19:11
  happens at Ball State and lo and behold.
• 1:19:14
  So how does it come back that you get to?
• 1:19:17
  We talk about bounce-backs with a kid that goes to a
• 1:19:20
  division-one school. Doesn't do well with his grades
• 1:19:22
  goes to a Juco and then bounces back.
• 1:19:24
  To that original. Do you want?
• 1:19:25
  It's called a bounce back. You know, you bounce back from
• 1:19:28
  UNCW. You went to UNCW one, a couple
• 1:19:30
  of costume. Recitals go to your alma, mater,
• 1:19:32
  and then bounce back to the UNCW.
• 1:19:33
  How did that come back up with the same administrator there?
• 1:19:36
  What was the timing that they're the head?
• 1:19:38
  Coaching job was back open? Yeah again this timing is
• 1:19:45
  everything and it was our athletic director at that point.
• 1:19:49
  Paul Miller had retired Peg back Bradley dot.
• 1:19:54
  This was our radd, she fought very hard for me to stay at UNCW
• 1:20:00
  when I went to both state and when we did drop our program at
• 1:20:07
  Ball State, she welcomed me. Back with open arms.
• 1:20:12
  Back to UNCW. And so a lot of people find that
• 1:20:16
  quite fascinating about my career that yeah.
• 1:20:19
  How did you factor was rumors for years?
• 1:20:23
  Is that we moved? Because I was gone, I was gone
• 1:20:26
  for four years but there was rumors that we actually leave a
• 1:20:29
  move back into the old house that we lived in down there in
• 1:20:32
  Wilmington. And so, you know, obviously the
• 1:20:35
  history that I had there before more importantly, the
• 1:20:39
  relationships that I developed and made going back.
• 1:20:42
  Back, very easy and very comfortable.
• 1:20:45
  I mean, you won several championships.
• 1:20:47
  During the first, the first part, the first half of the UNCW
• 1:20:51
  story, they had to be like, oh okay, bring him back.
• 1:20:54
  Let's keep winning and I think you correct me.
• 1:20:57
  It kept wanting you kept winning.
• 1:20:59
  You came. Did you fall right back into
• 1:21:00
  stuff and start winning? Or had there been a dip in those
• 1:21:03
  four years and you had to build back up again.
• 1:21:06
  Yeah, we had taken a step back and so, yeah, we did need to
• 1:21:13
  kind of build it back off from, not from scratch.
• 1:21:16
  You know, it was, it was a result some pieces in place but
• 1:21:20
  yeah, and more than anything even more than building back the
• 1:21:23
  talent base, it was, you know, building back to culture that we
• 1:21:26
  had. And again you know we were
• 1:21:29
  successful because we had kids that work hard and enjoy the
• 1:21:34
  process. A fact, one thing I'm always be
• 1:21:37
  really proud of is that, you know, I've had clearly 60 of my
• 1:21:41
  former athletes become college, coaches, and 28 of those were
• 1:21:48
  from UNCW and so, you know, we developed a culture there that,
• 1:21:54
  you know, not only did they enjoy the experience while they
• 1:21:57
  were there. They thought it was such great
• 1:21:59
  fun, that they continued on with that.
• 1:22:01
  And so, as much as anything going back was just Kind of
• 1:22:05
  re-establishing. Some of those foundational
• 1:22:08
  values that we had easier the second time because you didn't
• 1:22:13
  have to learn some things you already had inherent knowledge
• 1:22:15
  of, you know, location how we kind of do things in the
• 1:22:18
  athletic department, Etc. It was easier for the second
• 1:22:22
  time because one thing that also helped is, there was a couple of
• 1:22:25
  fifth years that were still there who I had coached us
• 1:22:29
  afresh at the end when they were freshmen and a kind of help get
• 1:22:32
  the team and you know, where are they?
• 1:22:35
  Needed to be and they knew me. So they knew what I expected and
• 1:22:40
  in reality, they were kind of assistant coaches in that first
• 1:22:43
  year because they helped me re-establish.
• 1:22:47
  You know those those principles as you are working through part
• 1:22:52
  to UNCW part 2. I feel like there's like a like
• 1:22:55
  a movie script here. This is the the the second part.
• 1:22:58
  The first one is always better than the sequel but I'm not sure
• 1:23:00
  that actually falls true here because of what happened during
• 1:23:03
  the sequel with many many more. Gives all Americans.
• 1:23:07
  We USA qualifiers quite impressive but as you're going
• 1:23:11
  through that second part of UNCW, any part of you, that's
• 1:23:16
  bitter about coaching because of what happened at Ball State
• 1:23:18
  because it's one thing what happened at Ball State, what
• 1:23:20
  happened about state was terrible, but it's personal for
• 1:23:23
  you because it is your program. So it's your alma mater, any
• 1:23:26
  bitterness at all about the profession of coaching at this
• 1:23:29
  point after what happened. Now, absolutely.
• 1:23:34
  None at all my daughter. Fact, you know, going in will
• 1:23:38
  tell you that she's the only person that she's met her life,
• 1:23:42
  that loves go to work each day and I've always told people that
• 1:23:47
  again, maybe that's why I took a job for six thousand dollars.
• 1:23:50
  But I always tell people that, you know, I get paid to have a
• 1:23:54
  hobby and so in reality, no, no, bitterness no regret, no
• 1:24:01
  animosity, none of that. Repeat then cut into my mind
• 1:24:06
  even during that meal during that transition.
• 1:24:09
  Okay? Because you know that question
• 1:24:10
  is going to come up again Okay, so fast forward here.
• 1:24:17
  We give us like the 30-second version of the success that you
• 1:24:21
  had at UNCW part 2. Well, again, we kept on winning
• 1:24:28
  kept on, let me conference championships, we had Penn
• 1:24:31
  relays Champions, we had nearly 200, NCAA Regional qualifiers,
• 1:24:38
  we had all Americans. We had a young lady in making
• 1:24:40
  national teams, you know, representing Team, USA again.
• 1:24:45
  Doing all the things that you want to you know, what you want
• 1:24:50
  to achieve. And so you know professionally
• 1:24:52
  it was going quite well and plus Back in Wilmington and months,
• 1:24:58
  you know, friends and just in a comfort zone.
• 1:25:01
  And so life was good and this is cue the music of like the, the
• 1:25:06
  scary music, you know, you know something, you know, Jason is
• 1:25:09
  right behind you. Freddy Krueger's about the pop
• 1:25:12
  out the awfulness of college sports, as it relates to our
• 1:25:18
  track and field starts rearing, its ugly head.
• 1:25:21
  Again, talk to us about the conversations that The rumors
• 1:25:26
  you don't to get into in regards to, you know, people and their
• 1:25:29
  decisions, but the uncertainty of your program.
• 1:25:32
  Now at UNCW was coming back again.
• 1:25:39
  Yeah, well, I want to first start off by acknowledging that,
• 1:25:43
  you know, I had a couple of great assistance.
• 1:25:47
  They ensure we're who was on staff with you on The Winning
• 1:25:50
  Side at Ball State. It was also one of your
• 1:25:53
  roommates. I thought he had such a
• 1:25:58
  tremendous job that I brought him down with me to back to UNCW
• 1:26:05
  to coach, both the distance Runners and the throwers.
• 1:26:08
  The best distance also coach throws coach in the country, in
• 1:26:12
  my opinion, I love him. He is awesome.
• 1:26:15
  Hands down, and at the same time, there's a dear friend of
• 1:26:19
  mine, I'd known for decades Donald Thomas who people tell.
• 1:26:23
  You just one of those, the gentleman in the score on the
• 1:26:26
  best recruiters and the score was looking for a job.
• 1:26:31
  And, and he was our recruiter and then I was basically
• 1:26:36
  coaching the Sprints and job. So, between the three of us, you
• 1:26:40
  know, we accomplished amazing things.
• 1:26:43
  But more importantly really About this tight-knit.
• 1:26:47
  Friendship literally, we would eat every single lunch every day
• 1:26:52
  here around together. And so when we were facing this
• 1:26:58
  difficulty of possibly, and by the way, it wasn't something
• 1:27:02
  that happened overnight. It was something that happened
• 1:27:05
  over a three-year period. Where they were going to drop
• 1:27:09
  the score. They saved it.
• 1:27:12
  They made some reductions to the sport.
• 1:27:15
  And then they eventually dropped our Sport and just the internet,
• 1:27:20
  the story they're against like, you know, they jabu.
• 1:27:24
  But you had a choice and it was either be bitter, be whatever.
• 1:27:28
  But we decided that hey, we can't control what others are
• 1:27:31
  going to do an intro. What we want to do, luckily
• 1:27:35
  there was not push back from the community from the sport of
• 1:27:39
  track and field for my rent, friends around the country that
• 1:27:43
  eventually they gave us an opportunity.
• 1:27:45
  Tunity to brace the money and a stipulation was We were supposed
• 1:27:51
  to raise three hundred fifty thousand dollars and three
• 1:27:53
  months and if we did that we could keep the sport around for
• 1:27:57
  another year. The biggest hurdle that we did
• 1:28:00
  have was our facility. We had a facility that was built
• 1:28:05
  in ankles 1988 and a never been resurfaced, anything done since
• 1:28:10
  then. So it was on its last leg and it
• 1:28:13
  was much need of being. Surfaced.
• 1:28:16
  So to be honest with you, people doubted that we could do that
• 1:28:23
  and I'll be daggone and three months if he didn't raise three
• 1:28:25
  hundred, sixty three thousand dollars and it wasn't bike.
• 1:28:29
  One operation came in, it was just all these little, you know,
• 1:28:33
  hundred dollar checks here. $25. They're just people really
• 1:28:37
  rallied around. Not just our program, but the
• 1:28:40
  score and we were able to save it.
• 1:28:43
  And so, Again, as much as you want to say, that was a very
• 1:28:48
  difficult time, which it was the things that transpired from.
• 1:28:53
  That will be something. I still to this day, have like
• 1:28:57
  three reams of emails and stuff from people around the world
• 1:29:02
  just you know giving us you know giving us you know faith and
• 1:29:07
  giving us encouragement to Who, you know, keep our programs and
• 1:29:13
  so yeah, very difficult time. Personally, but also very
• 1:29:17
  rewarding time professionally, you know, this is one of those
• 1:29:21
  situations. You mentioned all the emails and
• 1:29:23
  phone calls and people donate donors and things like that.
• 1:29:27
  That came through. This is one of those times
• 1:29:29
  where, you know, you'll never build a name and say, thank you
• 1:29:31
  to all of them or even most of them are you?
• 1:29:34
  Yeah, but I did I do want to shout out and give you a chance
• 1:29:37
  to shout out. My understanding is There was a
• 1:29:41
  very prominent selfless coach that came up from their
• 1:29:45
  University to be at like a board meeting or something like that.
• 1:29:48
  This coach I'ma let you name name you.
• 1:29:52
  You do the big unveil here but this coach had no reason to go
• 1:29:59
  do this to take time to go advocate for another track
• 1:30:02
  program. I just like to give shout outs
• 1:30:05
  to when people are selfless and positive in this man.
• 1:30:09
  Did it, do you? To tell the story and do the big
• 1:30:12
  unveil here of this. This selfless person.
• 1:30:16
  Yeah. Again, you really find out who
• 1:30:19
  your friends are during these difficult moments and it was a
• 1:30:23
  lot of people Curtis Friday, South Carolina really went above
• 1:30:27
  the young, and one person you were mentioning Harless matters.
• 1:30:34
  And at that time, our was supposed to head coach at the
• 1:30:38
  University of North Carolina, I'd known him for a long time.
• 1:30:43
  One of my former coaches was his high school coach.
• 1:30:46
  I knew him when he was the throws coach at Florida State,
• 1:30:49
  are you doing? He was at Western Carolina.
• 1:30:51
  So we went way back. But yes, he took the opportunity
• 1:30:55
  to drive down from Chapel Hill to sit in on one of our board
• 1:31:00
  meetings, just to again in front of people to just, you know, to
• 1:31:07
  express the value, what our program is not just to, you
• 1:31:12
  know, the sport of track and field, but what it meant to The
• 1:31:16
  UNCW Camp is what it meant to the Greater Community.
• 1:31:20
  And then it's those things that, you know, you're always going to
• 1:31:25
  remember. And that's why, you know, you
• 1:31:27
  talk about me how I used to print out my emails.
• 1:31:30
  I made sure to print out every single email and to this day, I
• 1:31:35
  have them in these binders and I don't think I've looked at them
• 1:31:38
  since then be honest with you, but just the Gratitude.
• 1:31:42
  I always have in my heart for those, I'll be honestly, I'll
• 1:31:45
  give you one. Story, we had helped.
• 1:31:51
  With a one of the local elementary schools had built a
• 1:31:54
  track around its playground. And when they opened it up, we
• 1:31:59
  went down there and helped dedicate this track.
• 1:32:02
  Now, I'll fast forward. Some years later, we get a call
• 1:32:06
  from that school and so lame, Donald and I go to this
• 1:32:11
  Elementary School and we walk out to the back and there's the
• 1:32:15
  entire school all around that track and Then they go on and
• 1:32:22
  tells how they had this jog-a-thon and how the kids in
• 1:32:26
  the school raise money for our program.
• 1:32:29
  And they presented us with this, which I still have a presented
• 1:32:35
  as with this big oversized check for over nine thousand dollars.
• 1:32:39
  And, you know, it was a lot of stories like that.
• 1:32:43
  There was a restaurant in town that every single one of their
• 1:32:47
  food sales, they would give a percentage of every bit of
• 1:32:50
  there. Sails back to our program and so
• 1:32:54
  it's those types of things that you know you can never think
• 1:32:58
  enough people because like I said, yeah it just hundreds of
• 1:33:03
  not thousands of people came rally in our support.
• 1:33:09
  So you're not still at UNCW. What, what was the impetus to
• 1:33:15
  change to leave and now head up the program there at Lynchburg,
• 1:33:21
  it's good question. And at that point again, here I
• 1:33:25
  am. Now, in my 50s, I'm at a
• 1:33:27
  crossroad again and the obvious thing was staying Wilmington.
• 1:33:30
  I had a lot of friends down there.
• 1:33:31
  Say Hey, you stay in town will get you a job and, you know, but
• 1:33:37
  my heart was in coaching and that Even know what better fact
• 1:33:39
  going back reached out to other people for advice.
• 1:33:43
  One was Michael Johnson at that point.
• 1:33:46
  You know, he went on to win a few gold medal said, a few will
• 1:33:50
  records and do a little thing. And of course, he had his
• 1:33:53
  performance center and so I reached out to him and he was
• 1:33:57
  quite honest with me about both, you know, working for him at his
• 1:34:00
  performance center or even doing some International coaching and
• 1:34:04
  I appreciate his honesty and his vagueness about that.
• 1:34:09
  And it was also done. I sure as I'm a coach and I want
• 1:34:12
  to stay in coaching, but I also realize, you know, the old Andy
• 1:34:16
  Griffith. You know, fool me once shame on,
• 1:34:18
  you fool me twice. Shame on me, that if I was going
• 1:34:22
  to stay in coaching, I needed to do something a little different.
• 1:34:26
  And so, once again, I started asking for advice, and my
• 1:34:31
  questions was about division, 3 coaching.
• 1:34:34
  And I'm kind of a purist at heart, you know, I'm one of
• 1:34:38
  those. Is that, you know, is your
• 1:34:40
  college at student athlete. And even though this change and
• 1:34:44
  it's changed a lot recently, I wanted to go somewhere where,
• 1:34:49
  you know, coaching coaching was back to my roots again of
• 1:34:53
  recruiting, kids, and coaching kids.
• 1:34:55
  So I'm not going to name the schools, but I actually had five
• 1:35:00
  offers at different division, three schools, and hopefully
• 1:35:06
  this will help some people. Found, you know, doing my
• 1:35:10
  homework and learning about programs.
• 1:35:12
  You know, there are different degrees of division, three
• 1:35:16
  programs, this like division one, some are more numbers
• 1:35:20
  driven, there's are more more, feels like more like it's full
• 1:35:25
  of and if there are some division, three programs that
• 1:35:28
  are all about performance. And and that's killer what I was
• 1:35:32
  looking for was, you know, I want to coach at a high level
• 1:35:35
  and so I was able to come To the University of Lynchburg back,
• 1:35:40
  then, much for college, who had had a tremendous amount of
• 1:35:43
  success, dr. Jack Tom's is a Hall of Fame
• 1:35:46
  coach and so I knew I was going to go somewhere where the sport
• 1:35:52
  was valued where it had history and and that's what I was
• 1:35:56
  looking for next. And I want to spend some time on
• 1:36:00
  that D3 aspect. So help us get a little bit of
• 1:36:05
  The the history. How long have you been there
• 1:36:07
  now? And maybe to a point, you know
• 1:36:11
  what successes have you had? What was the program like when
• 1:36:13
  you got there, but how many years have you been now in the
• 1:36:15
  D3 side with Lynchburg? Yeah, just finished my seventh
• 1:36:21
  season and one thing I do tell people as a couple things I
• 1:36:30
  want, you know, not knowing. Now what I knew back then, I
• 1:36:33
  probably wish I would have made the switch to division three
• 1:36:36
  earlier, just because it fits my values.
• 1:36:41
  Number two, and I made this comment and I was doing the
• 1:36:45
  technical, Symposium this past year at the National Convention.
• 1:36:49
  And I meant it in a way that here I spent my career as a
• 1:36:52
  division, one coach being treated, like I was division, 3
• 1:36:56
  only to go to a division three program.
• 1:36:59
  That was treated like a division one and really what I meant by
• 1:37:01
  that is, I learned that, you know, there are big differences
• 1:37:06
  in sports, whether you're in college or high school, when it
• 1:37:09
  comes from basketball and football down and there's big
• 1:37:12
  discrepancies in even at the division, ncaa's from division 1
• 1:37:17
  division, 2 but division, Three it in those things sports but
• 1:37:22
  what I found out in a sport like track and field and what I
• 1:37:25
  learned is that it is a matter what division you're at is what
• 1:37:30
  level of support do you have. And so, you know, I came here
• 1:37:34
  with the tremendous amount of support John Waters.
• 1:37:37
  Our athletic director was, is I tell people the best athletic
• 1:37:43
  director in the country for track and field coach.
• 1:37:46
  He will understand that. Hey, you know what?
• 1:37:49
  If I'm good and track and cross-country, I'm good in six
• 1:37:52
  Sports. And, by the way, this past
• 1:37:54
  season, we won six of our eight offers championships and he
• 1:38:00
  understands the value that having a good in this field,
• 1:38:04
  having a good track and field program.
• 1:38:06
  And it also helped that our president at the time dr.
• 1:38:09
  King garon also was a former college track athlete.
• 1:38:13
  And he had a passion for the sport and once he retired, our
• 1:38:16
  new president, president Allison.
• 1:38:19
  Morrison's, such gentler has a passion for for sports.
• 1:38:24
  And so I just came somewhere where Sports was valued and they
• 1:38:29
  really put their money where their, or their heart was and
• 1:38:33
  that was investing in young people, and if I really look
• 1:38:37
  back and but, you know what, made my career, what it was is
• 1:38:41
  that's what I've always been about, you know, I have this
• 1:38:43
  saying, a sale of a mop and I share this with all my young.
• 1:38:49
  Coaches and that once you capture a young person's heart,
• 1:38:52
  go do some amazing things for you.
• 1:38:55
  And I just happen to come to an institution that value that When
• 1:39:00
  we started the podcast back in January of twenty, twenty one of
• 1:39:05
  the very intentionality is of interviewing coaches and
• 1:39:09
  uplifting and honor. Their Journeys was to make sure
• 1:39:11
  to not get overcome by the height and type is sometimes a
• 1:39:16
  negative thing, but it's also a positive thing.
• 1:39:18
  And so we were very intentional. There are some amazing people in
• 1:39:23
  the power 5, side of track and field coaching, and we've been
• 1:39:26
  blessed to have a lot of them here from Mouse.
• 1:39:29
  Ha, Ways, Brooke Johnson, Karen, Dennis Beth, Alfred Sullivan.
• 1:39:34
  We've had just amazing power, five coaches but we were very
• 1:39:38
  intentional that, you know, when you have that title coach,
• 1:39:41
  whether it's the high school level Middle School, level
• 1:39:44
  division, 3 Nai Juco division, one pro that that's special like
• 1:39:48
  you, we want to uplift an honor, everyone that is a track and
• 1:39:53
  field coach. I also like to be a mythbuster
• 1:39:57
  almost name this podcast, a mythbuster meaning.
• 1:40:00
  I like to go find these myths that we carry in our profession
• 1:40:04
  of coaching and in track and field, and bust them.
• 1:40:07
  And so, one of the things I'd like to talk with you about I
• 1:40:14
  remember what you said there at that.
• 1:40:16
  You stfc a conventions, I tweeted.
• 1:40:18
  It was one of my more popular tweets.
• 1:40:19
  When I tweeted that quote that you said I spent I'm a
• 1:40:22
  paraphrase. I'm going to find that tweet
• 1:40:23
  retweet it when this comes out by the way.
• 1:40:26
  I spent, you know, x amount of years as D1 being treated like a
• 1:40:29
  D3. And now I'm here at D3 and being
• 1:40:32
  treated, like the one now you are paraphrasing.
• 1:40:34
  What the thought of a D1 versus D3 is and things like that,
• 1:40:37
  right? But your meaning was was well
• 1:40:40
  taken there. What is it about D3?
• 1:40:45
  You know, you've done, seven years there.
• 1:40:46
  Now what were some of the? So the myth we're trying to bust
• 1:40:50
  here today. Is that, oh, you know, if you're
• 1:40:52
  not a D1, if you're D1, you're a great coach because you're D1.
• 1:40:56
  And I love how you talked about the different levels even in D3
• 1:40:58
  because I think about that same thing in D1.
• 1:41:01
  You know there. It's certainly hard to say that
• 1:41:03
  a power at those power, five schools of 65 power.
• 1:41:06
  Five schools are competing against Ball State and Troy
• 1:41:09
  University really Or sit cetera. It's not the same, it's not the
• 1:41:14
  same sport. It's, you run the same distance.
• 1:41:18
  You ain't playing the same game. However, inside a power 5, there
• 1:41:22
  is a stratum there as well. In the ones on the bottom part
• 1:41:27
  of that power 5 stratum. Don't want to admit that
• 1:41:29
  publicly. The truth is truth.
• 1:41:32
  Okay. In D3, what?
• 1:41:36
  Coming from a D1 side, you know, ball stayed, Baylor, UNCW
• 1:41:40
  successful coaching. The D one side.
• 1:41:43
  Was there anything on the D3 side that you were concerned
• 1:41:46
  about was, you know, maybe you were like, oh man, no, athletic
• 1:41:50
  scholarships. Mmm, I don't know if I'm able to
• 1:41:53
  operate that way. Academics first, possibly I, you
• 1:41:56
  know, I'm generalizing when I say D3, your academics first and
• 1:42:00
  Kind of generalizing that it's not that on D1, that's not
• 1:42:02
  necessarily true there as well, but we're there.
• 1:42:05
  Anything that when you we're thinking going to accept the
• 1:42:09
  Lynchburg job that you're like, you know, I'm going to struggle
• 1:42:11
  with this but then came back to later, find out like, oh, wait a
• 1:42:15
  minute. What was I?
• 1:42:16
  So worried about, like, that's just part of life.
• 1:42:18
  I do this. Now, instead of this over here
• 1:42:21
  or anything that you can think of, that was just like, oh,
• 1:42:24
  scary but ended up being like this false scare.
• 1:42:31
  Absolutely nothing. Be honest with you because I did
• 1:42:35
  basically did hear what I've always done, which I started
• 1:42:38
  back at Louisiana Tech. When I first started building
• 1:42:41
  programs, and that was building excitement that we're building
• 1:42:46
  opportunities. And yes, we, we were over fifty
• 1:42:49
  thousand dollars to go to school and we have no scholarships and
• 1:42:55
  yes, we inherited 38 athletes but within One recruiting cycle.
• 1:43:00
  We had grown to 120 athletes. And but again, you got to
• 1:43:04
  remember, you're, you're surrounding yourself with people
• 1:43:08
  that love the sport, you know, they're paying that kind of
• 1:43:12
  money to be part of your program and so you know it is you know
• 1:43:18
  it sometimes you get kids that make decisions based on dollars
• 1:43:22
  and maybe like we've all learned that's not the best way to make
• 1:43:26
  a decision. But in this situation you know,
• 1:43:29
  you You had people that bought into it and you know, and again,
• 1:43:33
  maybe we don't have, you know, we have to do a lot of
• 1:43:36
  developing. But, you know, I sure what
• 1:43:38
  people since I've been here, we, you know, I've had all all
• 1:43:41
  american who was a 25-foot, long jumper.
• 1:43:44
  And I took a young lady that played soccer, and she was a
• 1:43:48
  three-time All-American and 1429 in the 1500.
• 1:43:53
  We took a young lady that her freshman year.
• 1:43:56
  She was the last person on the cross-country team and You're
• 1:43:59
  later, she's an All-American and cross country.
• 1:44:02
  And how do you go from last on the team to one of the best in
• 1:44:06
  the country? And even, you know, recently we
• 1:44:09
  all we had a young man that went 346 in the 1500 was all emit.
• 1:44:16
  Now, he's now three, time All-American and and you know,
• 1:44:20
  he was basically a 435 type guy in high school and you know, we
• 1:44:24
  had a young man and went 149 and the 800, you know, it was
• 1:44:28
  All-American. There's an outdoor.
• 1:44:30
  So, you know, I guess it's all how you, you know, value, you
• 1:44:35
  know, performance. And one thing I will say about
• 1:44:38
  track and field, we run a division one program and and we
• 1:44:44
  competed in the division one schedule.
• 1:44:47
  If you look at our schedule, you know, we're going across town to
• 1:44:50
  Liberty. We're going to meet at VMI to
• 1:44:53
  Rudy neotec to William and Mary. Hi kwami.
• 1:44:57
  We can go compete anywhere. Division, 1 competition.
• 1:45:01
  And unlike most division, 1 division, three Sports, they
• 1:45:06
  don't have those opportunities. So part of selling our program
• 1:45:11
  is, we want those that want to compete against the best, not
• 1:45:15
  just in division. Three.
• 1:45:17
  Yeah, that's the beauty of our sport, right?
• 1:45:19
  You're right. Lynchburg is not going to go
• 1:45:21
  play Florida State in basketball or football and a problem even
• 1:45:25
  though Flinch briquettes football, they're not going to
• 1:45:26
  do that. But in track, you're going to
• 1:45:28
  line up against the Florida. States.
• 1:45:29
  The UN sees the Texas best man or woman wins, right?
• 1:45:33
  You throw the farthest, it doesn't matter.
• 1:45:36
  With the emblem. You have.
• 1:45:38
  It's who's the best coach in best prepared for that that
• 1:45:42
  competition. Now having experienced, and
• 1:45:45
  obviously enjoying and thriving in the D3 culture?
• 1:45:50
  What are some of the advantages that D3 as a coach?
• 1:45:54
  And it may be personally, or professionally?
• 1:45:56
  What are some advantages of being in that D3?
• 1:45:59
  It. Well, I tell people this and
• 1:46:06
  because since I've done this, I've had a lot of people reach
• 1:46:09
  out to me for advice in our own Journeys.
• 1:46:12
  And again, you know, I never tell people what to do.
• 1:46:16
  I just tell them what I've experienced, and I let them make
• 1:46:18
  decisions based on that. But it truly, it goes back to
• 1:46:23
  what we got into this sport for and we simply do two things.
• 1:46:28
  We recruit athletes and I I love recruiting.
• 1:46:33
  I'm a people person. I like selling dreams and
• 1:46:37
  selling those opportunities and then you coach and you develop
• 1:46:41
  your kids and so that's simply all I do I recruit and I coach.
• 1:46:47
  And so when it comes to even as the Director when it comes to
• 1:46:51
  the paperwork in Ministry of side of it, it's a lot less than
• 1:46:56
  it is especially at the division one level and I get to do what I
• 1:46:59
  enjoy and that's the coaching aspect of it.
• 1:47:02
  And again, I have a tremendous support staff.
• 1:47:06
  Who was a former athlete of mine?
• 1:47:08
  At UNCW is been my distance coach for the last seven years,
• 1:47:12
  since I've been here. He's done it.
• 1:47:15
  He is literally, I share with everybody.
• 1:47:18
  And one of the great minds of the sport and has made our
• 1:47:23
  distance program. One of the top programs in the
• 1:47:26
  country. I don't have a lot of full-time
• 1:47:30
  help. I have a lot of gaas, but almost
• 1:47:33
  every single one of my gaas as been a former Athlete who
• 1:47:37
  competed for me and so they come, you know, into the
• 1:47:40
  position, hitting the ground running because again, this alma
• 1:47:45
  mater, they love this place or proud of their program, but
• 1:47:49
  because they've been athletes that when they even when they
• 1:47:51
  step into the coaching role, they're ready to go because they
• 1:47:55
  know the system, they know the expectations and so yeah you
• 1:48:01
  know it's nothing that you know, that nothing.
• 1:48:06
  I haven't done in other parts of my career that I do differently
• 1:48:10
  here and so I just tell people based on those things, I share
• 1:48:14
  with them, you make your own mind, whether you know division,
• 1:48:17
  3 is best for you. Okay?
• 1:48:20
  So we're going to wrap up with this because you brought it up
• 1:48:23
  about advice. You said you have people that
• 1:48:25
  call you. I like to leverage the thousands
• 1:48:28
  of listeners that we do have to not just have a one on one phone
• 1:48:31
  call conversation. We're going to blow this up and
• 1:48:33
  give advice. We have talked today.
• 1:48:35
  A Sprecher about we mentioned the ego and bad ego and I am my
• 1:48:40
  hands up here. I am the example of bad ego when
• 1:48:44
  it comes to career. Meaning my whole stent, you
• 1:48:48
  know, this from when working at the same institution as me, my
• 1:48:51
  whole career was to get to the SEC because I grew up in the
• 1:48:53
  South SEC, was the number one conference.
• 1:48:56
  You want to be the best, you got to beat the best and so is all
• 1:48:58
  about getting to the SEC. And I've said this, I think I've
• 1:49:01
  said this on the podcast so maybe this isn't breaking news,
• 1:49:04
  but maybe for you listening today.
• 1:49:05
  It So I went to Mississippi state had an amazing time.
• 1:49:08
  They're the people, you know, Houston Frank's was now at LSU
• 1:49:10
  heck, one of them? One of our athletes is now the
• 1:49:12
  head coach and Coach, this kid this kid, and now he's the head
• 1:49:15
  coach of an SEC program. Chris Wood's boggles me.
• 1:49:18
  It's amazing. He's doing a great job there.
• 1:49:20
  So I had a beautiful amazing time.
• 1:49:22
  Al Schmidt is my mentor like a father to me, so it's not about
• 1:49:25
  the people, Steve Dudley shout-out.
• 1:49:27
  Great people that I had at Mississippi state, but I have
• 1:49:29
  said routinely that. If I'd have stayed at Ball
• 1:49:32
  State, I'd probably still be coaching even today is a 45
• 1:49:36
  World actually, is you're listening to this today.
• 1:49:37
  Now, I just turned 46 last week. That's how old I am.
• 1:49:41
  I didn't have to print out my emails, though.
• 1:49:43
  I do. I learned that at an early early
• 1:49:45
  early, / late age, but my ego was driven on the bad ego.
• 1:49:52
  I needed my psyche at that time. Needed that SEC school on my
• 1:49:57
  chest or I wasn't worthy. In my opinion, it took me to 45
• 1:50:01
  to my 40s to actually learn, you know, people are people no
• 1:50:04
  matter who's on their chest or what they Do what they don't do
• 1:50:06
  for career, you know, we're I don't know where you are in your
• 1:50:10
  faith journey. I know where you are strike,
• 1:50:12
  but, you know, God made you, whether you are this, you know,
• 1:50:16
  this is, It's always terrible to give these top and bottom
• 1:50:18
  analogies, but whether you their garbage, man, which I love, I
• 1:50:20
  love our guard, we love our guards people, actually at our
• 1:50:23
  neighborhood, they're awesome to the quote unquote, president,
• 1:50:26
  whatever, you know that Gap. You think it is?
• 1:50:28
  God made each and every one of you so you're awesome, right?
• 1:50:31
  Someone out there right now. So here's here's how we're going
• 1:50:33
  to. We're going to use that advice.
• 1:50:34
  You give spread someone out there right now?
• 1:50:37
  Has that ego of? I can't coach.
• 1:50:39
  D 3 when I was getting back into coaching sprek, you probably
• 1:50:42
  know this too. Yeah, I was leaving the poker
• 1:50:44
  world and I was going to get back into coaching and I said,
• 1:50:46
  at least had this some self-awareness here, but it was
• 1:50:48
  again. I was bad ego.
• 1:50:49
  I was like, I am spoiled. I used to work at Mississippi
• 1:50:52
  State, where we got 10 pairs of shoes.
• 1:50:54
  For every one of our Earthly, we never wanted for anything.
• 1:50:57
  I can't go back to a Ball State or at Royce you.
• 1:51:01
  Our city. I can't, I got to work at a
• 1:51:03
  power 5 and now I look back and I'm like, thank God.
• 1:51:06
  No one was hiring or hired me because I got to come to Gill
• 1:51:09
  and, you know, I'm way happier than where I'm at and my wife
• 1:51:13
  and kids and all that kind of stuff, but bad ego kept me from
• 1:51:17
  may be taken that D3 job, like, I didn't even apply for a D3
• 1:51:21
  jaw. So, someone out there right now,
• 1:51:22
  lots of people may be out there right now.
• 1:51:24
  Are like D3? Yeah, that's my fallback plan,
• 1:51:28
  when in reality a lot of the D3 Coaches that we've had on the
• 1:51:31
  program man, happy healthy relationship, be with their
• 1:51:40
  family and friends. They have hobbies, they're
• 1:51:43
  happy, that's not to say my D1 friends right now.
• 1:51:47
  Trust me Mouse Holloway is very happy, he's got a great wife,
• 1:51:50
  great kids, and World Champs, and he's doing amazing.
• 1:51:53
  So this ain't a comparison. I'm just saying the D3 side.
• 1:51:56
  The D3 coaches, very, very, very happy.
• 1:51:59
  So, there's coaches out there right now, That are just
• 1:52:01
  thinking D3. Is there a fallback plan?
• 1:52:03
  Or I could never coach that. What advice would you give a
• 1:52:06
  someone's looking through the landscape?
• 1:52:07
  They're looking at Junior College jobs, Nei jobs D3, D2,
• 1:52:10
  D1, private sector, what advice would you give someone to maybe
• 1:52:16
  not pass on that potential D3 opportunity?
• 1:52:23
  I will say by experience. I remember going to my first my
• 1:52:28
  first years in division three, I was already on the national
• 1:52:32
  championships and cross-country indoor and outdoor.
• 1:52:35
  And when we get to these Championship needs and by the
• 1:52:39
  way, you need to get to one of those national championships, I
• 1:52:42
  do the fun that everybody was happy.
• 1:52:45
  The kids were having a blast, the coaches were so much more
• 1:52:50
  laid back and relaxed. And it truly was, you know,
• 1:52:57
  almost a celebration and not a relief.
• 1:53:00
  And a lot of times, you know, pressure takes many different
• 1:53:05
  forms. And you know, we've all been
• 1:53:08
  there before and instead of enjoying the moment celebrating.
• 1:53:13
  It was like, I'm so glad that got that over with and I've
• 1:53:16
  instilled that in our program, even though we won 12 National
• 1:53:20
  or 12 conference championships. Now we're trying to continue.
• 1:53:22
  And four national championships. We don't ever want to lose the
• 1:53:26
  joy of winning and having success because that's what
• 1:53:31
  we're you know, who are here to do that together.
• 1:53:34
  And and I think that's one thing that I took away and I remember
• 1:53:38
  going to that first national cross country meet and these
• 1:53:44
  teams, you know, these Powerhouse teams in division 3
• 1:53:48
  would have charter buses full of their athletes and all this Up
• 1:53:53
  and they would all be we'd be in Wisconsin and in the snow and
• 1:53:58
  they're all out there with, you know just shorts on paint it up
• 1:54:01
  and ritual running all over the course and and I remember you
• 1:54:06
  know, looking at Jake my assistant.
• 1:54:08
  I said man I said this is this amazing.
• 1:54:11
  This this this atmosphere, the this opportunity that these kids
• 1:54:16
  get is just something that I think that we've lost,
• 1:54:20
  unfortunately, you know it In college athletics.
• 1:54:24
  And so that's one thing I want to give advice.
• 1:54:27
  I would give is, hey, each person is different, but if you
• 1:54:31
  want to do something that you enjoy, and have fun with and
• 1:54:35
  that's your recruiting. Good kids developing those kids
• 1:54:39
  and then seeing them enjoy success.
• 1:54:42
  Then I think it's an awesome opportunity.
• 1:54:45
  I love how you said because there's less paperwork.
• 1:54:47
  You get to actually do what you got to do coaching for in the
• 1:54:49
  first place. Yet, you actually get to coach
• 1:54:51
  more like you get to enjoy that. I didn't you did say this but I
• 1:54:55
  think this was an extension of what you're saying there.
• 1:54:57
  You get to work even more on the relationship side because you're
• 1:55:00
  not just spending hours in the in the office doing paperwork.
• 1:55:05
  Well, it's right. You're right.
• 1:55:06
  I do need to get to a D3 Championship.
• 1:55:07
  I have really enjoyed the last couple of years I've done d2's,
• 1:55:10
  which has been fantastic. I was a, I was assigned more
• 1:55:14
  than d one side when I first got here but the last couple years
• 1:55:17
  have been T2 and just again, amazing people amazing athletes
• 1:55:21
  and I have said for Or a long time back, when I was coaching
• 1:55:25
  at Ball State and Mississippi State, I have always said you
• 1:55:28
  want to go maybe find some of the best coaches in the world
• 1:55:30
  that they might actually be on the high school side to be real,
• 1:55:33
  Frank with you. But go look at the D3 national
• 1:55:36
  results because to your point, a good number of them, I used to
• 1:55:40
  say all of them and I realized that was a falsity, but a good
• 1:55:43
  number of those boys. Men and women that are at the
• 1:55:47
  national championships for D3 were under recruit.
• 1:55:49
  I like that term actually or under recruited.
• 1:55:51
  They weren't the It's a division ones were going to look at and
• 1:55:54
  maybe even division 2's, I used to say all of them, but then I
• 1:55:57
  realized I'd see some other marks at high schools like, oh,
• 1:55:59
  you actually really good. Like, okay, this isn't just the
• 1:56:03
  land of under recruited, but go look at the national results.
• 1:56:05
  Go look at what it takes to win. Go look at what it takes to get.
• 1:56:08
  Second, third, fourth place. It every event, that it is
• 1:56:12
  evolved to where there is not a week event a D3, it's amazing.
• 1:56:19
  There are marks that I, you know, I, I can't coach myself
• 1:56:21
  out of a wet paper bag. Anymore.
• 1:56:23
  There are marks that are popping up on D3.
• 1:56:26
  What was this year? I just when this was published,
• 1:56:29
  it was now a couple weeks ago. But last night I had dinner with
• 1:56:32
  Tyler Wingard from Christopher Newport and we were talking
• 1:56:36
  about, you know, this past year Sprints and I love that it was
• 1:56:38
  two different people. What was it?
• 1:56:40
  10. 12 was the 100-meter leader and 2030 2040.
• 1:56:45
  Was the 200-meter leader. Yeah, we had two guys, is that
• 1:56:52
  broke broke the record but that, like 20.3 20.4 D3, my butt
• 1:56:59
  because you can't tell me that every Division 1, including all
• 1:57:02
  power Faisal to taking those two kids in a heartbeat.
• 1:57:05
  That's me just proves the level of coaching that is going on at
• 1:57:09
  D3 across the country in that, in that Division.
• 1:57:12
  And it's a a man. So, I'm just so happy to have
• 1:57:15
  one of those examples here. We've had several D3 coaches
• 1:57:17
  that have all just been Fantastic people who happen to
• 1:57:21
  Moonlight, as coaches for their profession, man.
• 1:57:23
  They're just great people first and coaches as a profession and
• 1:57:26
  you Sprecher, I'm really proud of us.
• 1:57:28
  We could have made this nothing but an inside joke Inside Story
• 1:57:32
  podcast. And I think even better is the
• 1:57:35
  value that you gave today for those who are honored enough to
• 1:57:39
  listen to us today. And I'm just so thankful for
• 1:57:42
  that. So, grateful for your, for your
• 1:57:43
  time today, And I like this just finish up by saying that, you
• 1:57:49
  know, I definitely be, you know, cherish our friendship and more
• 1:57:55
  importantly, I'm so proud of what you're doing for the
• 1:57:57
  profession now, because, like you like I've always said the
• 1:58:00
  same thing, you know, we can go to all the conventions and
• 1:58:04
  symposiums and learn the Xs and the O's.
• 1:58:07
  But you know what? That doesn't prepare you for
• 1:58:10
  life and so many times, you know, we're having to deal with
• 1:58:15
  things that Do not learn at conventions and so I do like the
• 1:58:20
  fact that you shine light on the profession and outside of the
• 1:58:26
  coaching aspect and and you know, whether it be your
• 1:58:29
  personal life or you know, how do you handle certain, you know,
• 1:58:32
  situation because be honest with you, you know, if it's not if
• 1:58:36
  we're not facing it now, somewhere down the road, we
• 1:58:40
  will. And so there's a little nuggets
• 1:58:42
  that we can learn. Then maybe when we're not, That
• 1:58:46
  situation will know how to respond to it.
• 1:58:48
  And I appreciate how you just are not there, just to make
• 1:58:52
  people better coaches, but people better mentors and better
• 1:58:56
  people themselves. Yeah, there's plenty of x's and
• 1:58:58
  o's out there. Amazing podcast, Zoom meetings,
• 1:59:02
  obviously coaching education. We purposely do a different
• 1:59:06
  here. We purposely do long form and we
• 1:59:08
  purposely focus on you. Jim Sprecher, who happens to be
• 1:59:12
  a coach because that's what it takes its First.
• 1:59:16
  It's a people profession. I mean you know what you're
• 1:59:18
  dealing with 18 to 20 30 people, I deal with the 22 to 70 year.
• 1:59:23
  Old people who choose to be coaches in this amazing
• 1:59:26
  profession and so thank you for those kind words.
• 1:59:28
  You know we're going to continue doing it.
• 1:59:30
  I said we're 168 in. I'm like Pokemon, man.
• 1:59:33
  I'm trying to catch them all. You know, there's thousands of
• 1:59:35
  coaches. I got a lot, there's only 52 a
• 1:59:37
  year that I get to do. So I'm just going to build and
• 1:59:39
  build and build until till they just pull the plug on me around
• 1:59:42
  here, which I'm trying to hide the cord.
• 1:59:44
  So they can't do that. So we're We're all good man.
• 1:59:47
  Sprecher one of the most valuable things that you can
• 1:59:49
  give me. Is your time, my friend.
• 1:59:50
  And so, you know, to spend two hours, we did good.
• 1:59:53
  I've been working to pull these into an hour.
• 1:59:56
  I wasn't going to rain this one in, man, I just let this one go
• 1:59:58
  and you know what? We had paid a man, you gave so
• 2:00:01
  much great advice from your experiences, you've had amazing
• 2:00:04
  highs, all Americans Team USA athletes Conference champions,
• 2:00:08
  taking a team GPA from the bottom to the fourth in the
• 2:00:11
  nation. That that's a hat to a feather
• 2:00:14
  in your cap. There, But also the some other
• 2:00:16
  lowest lows. And I'm so grateful that you'd
• 2:00:19
  be open and authentic and really share those stories with us
• 2:00:22
  because those are important. But someone else is going to
• 2:00:24
  unfortunately go through some of those experiences and my hope my
• 2:00:27
  prayer today is that based on your experiences and things that
• 2:00:31
  you and your athletes and assistant coaches and
• 2:00:34
  administration had to go through.
• 2:00:35
  I hope someone is able to learn from that and make it a better
• 2:00:38
  situation when it happens to them, that they can grow from
• 2:00:41
  that and make it better for themselves, and for our sport.
• 2:00:50
  That's our awkward way of saying spec.
• 2:00:52
  Thank you so much for being here today, man.
• 2:00:54
  Again, just so grateful for you. May have an awesome day.
• 2:00:59
  Thank you, Mike. Thanks Mike what an incredible
• 2:01:09
  journey coach has been on so awesome to hear their story in
• 2:01:11
  their own words, tremendous proof of the positive effects
• 2:01:14
  coaches make on a daily basis. Help us spread the word of this.
• 2:01:18
  Great journey by sharing on your favorite social, media channel.
• 2:01:21
  And don't forget to take a minute to rate and review the
• 2:01:23
  podcast. You just might get a shout out
• 2:01:25
  on a future episode, that's it for today.
• 2:01:27
  Join us next week, when we'll connect you with another amazing
• 2:01:31
  crunch.