September 1, 2023 • 35 mins
Jason Negro is the head football coach at St. John Bosco HS in Bellflower, California. A suburb of Los Angeles. Bosco is a member of the Trinity League which in my mind is the ELITE HS FOOTBALL CONFERENCE IN THE COUNTRY. He took over the reins of his alma mater in 2010. Since then, he’s built a NATIONAL POWERHOUSE. The Braves are coming off a big win at St. Thomas Aquinas who were riding a 27-game win streak and rated in the top 10 nationally among high schools. Since Coach Negro returned to Bosco in 2010 their overall record is 144 – 24 and traditionally are rated in the top 10 nationally. What stands out the most to me is the consistency of the program in all facets of the sport. The confidence, performance, discipline, academics, and character displayed by the players, coaches, and administrators. I always know what to expect with St. John Bosco!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Up On Gaine Presents Taylor Scouting. Coach Randy
Taylor is bringing his forty plus years of knowledge to you.
This is Taylor Scouting and now here's coach Randy Taylor.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Hey, I'm on.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Today with the podcast. Jason Negro is joining me. He's
the head football coach at Saint John Bosco High School
in Bellflower, California, suburb of Los Angeles. Bosco is a
member of the Trinity League, which in my mind is
the elite high school football conference in the country. Coach
(00:39):
took over the Rain in twenty ten. Since then, he
has built a national powerhouse. No doubt. The Braves are
coming off a big win at Saint Thomas Aquinas, who
were riding a twenty seven game win streak at the
time and raided in the top ten nationally among high
schools with a two and zero record. They face another
(01:00):
nationally recognized program, Friendship Collegiate Academy out of Washington, d C.
These guys don't shy away from anything. Since coach Negro
returned to Bosco in twenty ten. Their overall record is
one forty four and twenty four and traditionally I rated
in the top ten nationally. I've been able to spend
a good deal of time on the Bellflower campus and
(01:23):
watching the bravest practice and in games across southern California,
and what stands out the most to me is the
consistency of the program and all facets of the game.
There's the confidence, performance, discipline, academics, and character displayed by
the players, coaches, and administrators. I kind of always know
(01:46):
what to expect, what to expect when I go over
and see Saint John Bosco. You know, there's like a
fluidness to their program. It's like that duck on the
pond right above the water. Everything's calm below the water.
Those are going a mile a minute. They're going like crazy.
And the guy that's stirring the drink for the braves
(02:06):
is Jason Negro. And I want to welcome coach to
LeVar Arrington's up on Game Network and the Tailor Scouting Podcast.
Coach Negro, thanks for joining us on the show.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Brother, appreciate you having me. Randy.
Speaker 4 (02:21):
It's always a pleasure to have an opportunity to talk
with you. Talk a little bit of football, a little
bit of recruiting. We go way back and I just
appreciate you giving me a platform to talk about the
things that we're doing here at Mosco.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
My pleasure, Coach, I know you're a big culture guy.
Let's start with a two part question. How do you
create the terrific culture you have here at Basco and
do you have a tangible plan to come.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Well?
Speaker 4 (02:52):
I think the first and foremost in terms of trying
to build the culture is about It's all about human capital.
It's a term that I like to use, and basically
what it means is trying to go out there and
surround yourself with the most talented people, the ones that
are going to share your vision, share your philosophy, and
go out there and try to impact as many young
(03:13):
people as we possibly can when we have the opportunity
to do so. And one of the fortunate things for
me being a product to Saint John Bosco High School
as a student and graduating from here and being educated
by the Salesians of Don Bosco in this Catholic school manner,
all boy education has basically set the framework for the
culture of our program and I've just basically been an
(03:36):
extension of that. I've taken the leadership values that the
Sollegians have passed down to me and implemented that educational
system into my program. And I surround myself with talented people,
not just my coaching staff, but the training staff, the administration,
the teacher, the faculty, everybody associated with the program. And
(03:57):
then you know, you bring the families in that kind
of fit, that mold, and it just basically organically is
able to work. And going back coming about us being consistent,
I think the culture is the number one thing that
has allowed us to be consistent from year after year
because they just understand what the expectations aren't and they
(04:17):
just kind of roll along with it.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
Is there a buy in outside of the football program
with everybody else that's involved on a fringe with.
Speaker 4 (04:28):
You guys without question? I mean I kind of set
the standard. I set the expectations. I'm constantly throughout the
course of the year. I'm not a real big meeting
guy where we have meet weekly meetings or I'm going
to kind of draw up, you know, upon their time
and monopolize that. But I do set different parameters as
(04:48):
we go through the course of the season, whether it
starts in January ends in December, where we're going to
come together as a staff as a collective unit, talk
about the culture, talk about the expectations of the program
and what we're.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Trying to accomplish.
Speaker 4 (05:01):
And I think that if everybody here is a consistent
message that's happening over and over and over again, they're
going to have to buy in to what my philosophy is.
And if not, they're just simply not going to fit
in to what I'm trying to do here. They're not
going to fit into my staff, you know, and they're
going to have to make their way, you know, onto
somewhere else that might align with their philosophy and their
(05:24):
belief system. But that's one of the reasons why we've
been so successful, because I have a lack of turnover.
My guys have been a part of this program for
a long time, very little turnover in my coaching staff.
And I think that's kind of a byproduct of the
buy in culture that what you're talking about.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Can you put your philosophy into words?
Speaker 2 (05:43):
I think so.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
I think the greatest thing that we are responsible for
as educators or coaches is to try to provide unique
experiences for young people and to help them develop during
this four year phase of their lives. To where they
can be successful in the next phase, which is the
collegiate you know time, whether they just go to become
a student, or whether they go to college to become
(06:06):
a student athlete, or some kids you know, might even
matriculate into the military.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Or even to the workforce.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
So it's our responsibility and the philosophy of mine is
to provide unique experiences by our young people help them
develop into the person that they want to become in
a four year window. So it's pretty simple philosophy. However,
I think that if you stick to that and you
run everything that you can in your program through that philosophy,
(06:33):
it's going to allow you to accomplish those goals.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
When you're planning your practice schedule and your daily practice plans,
are you consciously using your philosophy and instilling that culture
into your kids? I mean, you do you think about
it as you're doing this practice.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Plan without question?
Speaker 4 (06:54):
I mean, I think everything that we do, every decision
that I make, is strategic. We're not kind of a
fly by the seat of your pants type program. There's
meticulous meetings that happen with me and my coordinators or
my staff here with my director of football Operations, in
terms of, you know, how can we take this particular practice,
or how can we take this particular event and kind
(07:16):
of infuse our philosophy or infuse some of the elements
that are necessary in order to build the culture that
we're looking for. You know, how are you going to
be able to utilize the time that you're with your
kids to you know, use that as a teachable moment
or an opportunity for you to be able to, you know,
implement some of these things that you're looking for. So absolutely,
(07:37):
I think you have to plan that way. At the
end of the day, I feel that I'm a teacher
rather than just a coach.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
You know.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
So teachers, I think the best ones that I've ever
been around, or the ones that I've experienced or who
have taught me through my many years of education, are
the ones who are organized their plan. They're able to strategically,
you know, implement whatever the daily lesson might be, and
then they're able to go out there and execute it.
And that's no different than the coach. And that's no
(08:03):
different in the approach that I take as the head
football coach.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
You know, here at Bosco, you mentioned your director of
football Operations. I want to say thanks to Jesse Christensen
who does unbelievable work for you guys and the Braves,
So thank you for me.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Will you coach without question?
Speaker 4 (08:22):
I mean, you know again, it's about human capital and
you've got to try to go out there and invest
in people. This is something that we did about, you know,
ten eleven years ago as we developed this position on
campus as a director of football operations. It's alleviated a
lot of the stress and the pressures off of me
that go into a program that's this large and allowed
me to kind of focus my attention on the coaches,
(08:43):
focus my attention on the student athletes, and then she
could take all the kind of peripheral things that need
to be accomplished.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
You know, we're a national brand.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
We travel all over the country, so there's a lot
of things that have to be done from a logistical standpoint.
Social media has exploded over the last ten years, so
we've really kind of ticking a deep dive into that.
How do we build our brand and let people know
about the culture that we're trying to create through that
And without a position and without somebody who's capable like her,
(09:12):
we would never be able to accomplish it. Well, I
mean it's it's a team effort here at Saint Jombosco.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Yeah, I've seen it a lot there. That's been fun
going over to watch you guys. Does this your culture philosophy?
Does it ever become routine at any point once you
have your program bought in? Does it become a habit?
I guess is the best way to put it so
that everybody's pulling on the rope in the same direction.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
I certainly hope.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
So.
Speaker 4 (09:39):
I mean, the ultimate thing is is we want to
create positive habits within our kids, and we want to
create a routine. The one thing that you have to
be cautious though, when you use the term habit or
you use the term, you know, routine, is you don't
want to become complacent. I think that's the thing that
is the cautious kind of the gray area when you
(10:00):
when you're working with with those types of terms and
those types of phases, you know, you definitely don't want
to You definitely don't want to be in a situation where,
you know, routine becomes complacency because then all of a sudden,
somebody's gonna catch up to you. Somebody is gonna do
something that's going to overtake the success at which you have,
and that's something that I'm constantly working on.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
You never want to be on automatic pilot.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
Right, oh, without without question. I mean, you know, we're
not a copy and paste type program. We're not a
just change the date, you know, at the top of
the page and roll to the next one. That's not
what we're you know, trying to do. But then you
also have to sit there and say, well, if it's
not broke, why fix it. So there's a lot that
really goes into this, and I think that's one of
the reasons why I really lean heavily on my staff here,
(10:48):
my coaches, my my operations department, the training staff. How
do we kind of infuse this new life into the
program without disrupting what we've already created that's been really amazing.
So it's kind of a fun process. It's a challenge
to me, like, how can you put these little tweaks
within your program that's going to allow you to continue
to climb and not plateau, But yet it's also not
(11:10):
going to become so boring, a monotonous a routine that
kind of retards your ability to be successful.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
We'll just talk about the game preparation. Each game has
its own set of issues, like when it's a rivalry
game or a projected cake walk. I know you never
want to hear that. Does each game take on its
own individual process and lessons that you're trying to teach
each kid about how they should respond to each game.
Speaker 4 (11:43):
Yeah, we look at every single game as an isolated event.
I mean, we're not one of these programs. I mean,
obviously everybody knows that modern days in the future. I mean,
you know, that's one thing that we can't hide from
or you know, we can't get away from, or everyone
knows October thirteenth. October thirteenth, that's we know that. However,
you know, we do a really good job in this
(12:03):
program of taking each individual event and categorizing that into
a small window of a seven day period that's going
to allow us to start on Saturday, end on Friday,
and everything in between is kind of geared toward that
particular assessment or that culminating event that is on Friday. Now,
(12:25):
if you stack all those together, hopefully it's going to
put us in position on October thirteen to be successful
enough to win one of the most challenging games that's
you know, presented to us on our schedule. But at
the end of the day, we look at each and
every one of these opportunities without thinking into the future.
We want to really isolate this particular game this week,
(12:47):
Saint Thomas aquinas is in the past. That was great,
We enjoyed it, we experienced it. However, Friendship Academy starting
Sunday morning for us, since we played on Saturday, immediately
was our focus. It was immediately a point of our attention.
And that is what we have really kind of put
our mindset toward over the last couple of days, and
(13:07):
we're going to continue to do so all the way
till kickoff at seven o'clock on Friday.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
John Wooden seems to be someone that's played a role
for you and a lot of your background or philosophy.
Talk about John Wooden a little bit and that what
he did and maybe his pyramid, how that affects you.
Speaker 4 (13:29):
Well, I mean, I think that the biggest thing is is,
you know, with the pyramid specifically, it's it's provided structure
at the bottom, you know, and then it kind of
culminates to a peak. And I talked to my kids
about it all the time. You know, this is an
ongoing process within our program. And I think that if
you can identify the things within your program that you
have to constantly work on to be great or to
(13:52):
be elite, then that's what you have to kind of
work on. And if you were to flip that pyramid
over and you put winning at the forefront, if that
was the most important thing, then it's going to topple
over and you're not going to be very successful. Or
you may be successful, but your program is going to
be a roller coaster. You're going to have your really
high peaks and your really low valleys. And that's not
(14:14):
what I want to do. I want to build a
foundation and I want to be able to continue to
work toward that mountaintop. And I think that's just a
philosophy that I've been able to absorb from some of
the teachings, whether it be John Wooden or any other
elite football coach, basketball coach, or any elite leader in
our country. It's kind of how I've built my philosophy
(14:36):
and built my coaching style around. Is those ones that
are trying to peak at the right time, trying to
not be a one hit wonder and to have a
consistent approach to doing something excellent for a long period
of time.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
Are there any other people off the tap of your
head or events you use in your program's development or philosophy?
Speaker 4 (14:59):
Well, you know, I think that's kind of ongoing, to
be honest with you. I look at some of the
great coaches out there in the country. I try to
draw upon them, and because I'm here at BOSCO, I
have the unique opportunity to go out and meet some
of these really elite coaches.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
And spend some time. I mean, why is that?
Speaker 4 (15:14):
Because we have a lot of talented players and they're
going to give us access. So I've had opportunity to
sit down with somebody like like a Nick Saban, you know,
one on one and talk to him about philosophy or
what he's trying to accomplish within his program, and I'm
trying to obtained as much information as him. Spent a
lot of time with Kirby Smart in the University of
Georgia program. Dabosweeney is another one at Clemson. You know,
(15:37):
when Dabo Sweeney back in the spring of twenty nineteen,
I had an opportunity spend some time out there and
go watch their spring practice as they were coming back
from spring break, and Coach Sweeney, you know, gave me
the opportunity to come in and spend some time in
his staff meeting where he met with his entire football
organization and you know, introduced me to every and allowed
(16:00):
me to come in and take notes and just to
watch his leadership style and what was important to him
and some of the things that I was able to
uncover behind the scenes about how you know, he approaches practice,
how he approaches his kids' academics, how he approaches the
relationships that he has not only with his players, his families,
his coaches, his staff. Was absolutely you know, once in
(16:22):
a lifetime chance for me as a high school coach
to learn from somebody. And I spent a lot of
time reading about Bill Belichick. Spend a lot of time
reading about Bobby Knight. You know, although he was kind
of on the crazier side of things, I still think
his philosophy and his approach to trying to make his
kids performing an optimal level was pretty unique and special.
(16:43):
So that's kind of where I've done. And I'm somebody
that's evolving too. I don't believe that you could just
have a set in stone philosophy or vision to something.
Things have changed, the environment around us has changed. We
have to change and adapt as well. And I think
I've been able to be pretty good at that. And
I think that might be one of the reasons why
(17:05):
we're continuing to have success year in and year out,
is because our ability to not be so rigid, but
to be flexible to change with the times that are
happening around us.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
So's talk about leadership. How do you identify leaders and
or leadership?
Speaker 4 (17:23):
Well, I think, you know, the most important thing is
the by example leader is what I'm looking for. I'm
looking for, you know, kind of a leader that's transformational,
not not somebody that's going to be you know, transactional
where he's kind of like one.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Of these type guys.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
I wanted to see somebody who's going to lead by
their actions and what they do on a day to
day basis. It's not a popularity contest here in our program.
You know, I don't really have big distinguishing gaps between
people's roles. Like you're a coordinator, so therefore you get X,
Y and Z. You're a position coach, so you only
(17:58):
get Y and Z, and then you're, you know, kind
of a helper or volunteer. You only get the Z
portion of this, you know. I try to have a
consistent approach. I let my leaders emerge. You know, I'm
not a coach that that signs captains. We don't have
captains in our program. I don't have leadership groups or
anything like that. It's just basically we're all in this together.
(18:19):
We're one united, you know entity. I do have weekly
meetings with my seniors, you know, with an assistant coach
that meets with them privately. They talk about some of
the things that are going on or some of the
things that might be necessary for that week, and then
they report back to me because I do want to
have a pulse of what's happening within my program. Because
(18:40):
as the head coach, I'm all over the place. You know,
I'm not sitting in meeting meetings. I'm not sitting in
you know, some of the weight room sessions. I don't
get to be around all of my kids as much
as I want to. But the seniors have that responsibility
to be able to address their concerns with the coach
comes back to me, and I think organically that's how leadership.
(19:01):
And I empower my people to be leaders within their
own areas, and it's their responsibility to adhere to the
expectations that I have, which are high, and they better
not fall short of them or they run the risk
of being replaced. So it motivates people to work hard,
it motivates people to be productive, and they have to
(19:22):
be in alignment with what I'm looking for as a
head coach.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
But when you find that leadership is there, how do
you use it? How do you use it for the
rest of your program?
Speaker 2 (19:35):
That's a great question.
Speaker 4 (19:36):
I think you have to allow them the ability to
go out there and to display their leadership to others.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
That's a big one.
Speaker 4 (19:45):
You know, if you have this great leader and you've
identified that they have the ability to do so well,
then you have to provide them a little bit of
rope to go out there and to kind of put
that leadership upon the players. And I think it's also
important for the kids, parents, the coaches, the staff members
to see that we do have able, bodied, intelligent people
(20:06):
that are leaders within their own rights. That it doesn't
always have to come from the top, you know. That's
the thing also, is I don't want to become a stale,
stagnant type, repetitive guys.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
Some of these kids.
Speaker 4 (20:19):
I've got three kids in my program that are four
year starters, so they've heard the same speech, the same
you know, monotony of information coming from me over and
over again. Well, if I can identify a leader that
might have the ability to go and to give my
kids a little bit something different than what I'm going
(20:40):
to be able to give them, I certainly give them
that chance to go out there and do it. And
I think that keeps the freshness in the program that
you're looking for, and the stagnant, you know, culture that
could potentially arise from that is eliminated. So I think
you got to draw up on their their talent and
you got to let them be able to display them,
(21:04):
you know, in different you know times or different events
within your program.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
Do's just talk about recruiting. I got a couple of uh.
I think a two part question. Generically, how do you
handle the recruiting process? And do you need a plan
for each level and each player.
Speaker 4 (21:25):
Yeah, and this is something that you really would understand
within our program is we have varying levels of talent
within our program and what I like to choose to use.
You know, in terms of the recruiting philosophy is I
believe our kids fall into specific bands, if that makes sense.
So there's a Power five elite guy that I don't
have to do a whole lot. You know that we
(21:47):
won to ley Ley Brothers, DJ and Matteo. I didn't
do a lot for their recruitment. You know, they're both
kind of freaks at their positions. Their recruiting kind of
took off by themselves. I mean, I just kind of
had to put them in a in a situation where
they can display their talents and let them go. Then
there's the next band of athlete that's kind of a
group of five or a Power five guide potential, and
(22:09):
we have to really kind of push their recruiting, help
them become more identifiable, improve their games, have conversations with coaches.
We've built a lot of recruiting equity in our program
where college coaches now call us and they're going to
listen to us when we say this kid is capable
of playing at university your university, They're going to listen
(22:30):
to us. And it's taken years for us to get there.
That didn't start. You know, twenty one years ago, when
I started in this game, I had no equity in
the recruiting game. Now I have a lot of equity
because our kids I've gone to these universities been successful
and they've gone out there and been able to be
you know, positive impact players for those programs. But where
(22:51):
I think here at Saint John Bosco, we do our
best work is that lowest band that we have, the
high academic kids, the lower Division one one double A
NAIA Division two three athletes. Placing those guys that may
not even start for Saint John Bosco and putting them
in a university where they can use their academic abilities,
(23:15):
their athletic abilities to go play and get scholarship. You know,
at some of these schools, that's that's where we kind
of make a living. I have coaches that are responsible
for that. I have an elite leveled coach that works
with my elite level guys and their recruitment. And I
also have you know, a coach his name is John Hall,
you know him very well, who kind of works with
(23:36):
that lower tier type player. And again, the only reason
why I speak to lower tier because they might be undersized,
they might be under you know, they don't have as
much speed or they don't have as much strength, they're
still very very good high school football players. They have
a destination that they could go to in college. It's
our responsibility as a coaching staff to find where that
might be.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
This year's team, coach, it is, I think rated number
one nationally. What do you like about this group of kids?
Speaker 4 (24:07):
I think I like their workman type attitude that they
bring every day, that they haven't rested on the Laurels,
and they haven't really rested on the success at which
we had last year. You know, last year, we're coming
off a national championship program, you know, in twenty twenty two,
and these kids had every excuse to kind of ride
that success into the twenty three season potentially go into
(24:30):
a cruise mode where I'm going to have to constantly
try and find ways to motivate them, to keep them humble,
to keep them, you know, hungry to come into this season.
I haven't had to do that. I think that goes
and all the credit should go to the coaching staff
as well as to the players and the leaders within
that program that has allowed us to stay grounded.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
In what our overall you know, goals are.
Speaker 4 (24:55):
And that's to continue to try to become the best
football team that we can we can and week out
not necessarily worry about the rankings. That's going to sort
its all self out as the season kind of goes through,
and at the end of the day, it's what you're
going to be judged against about what you were able
to accomplish in December, not what we're accomplishing here in August.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
So I think it's kind of organically happened.
Speaker 4 (25:19):
I'm most pleased with with, you know, the players and
the coaches and their approach that they continue to strive
for excellence and to realize that we can accomplish something
that no team ever has here at Moscow, and that's
become back to back CIF State and potential national champions.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
That the uh you've done. I know, and I know
John Hall and you guys have done such a great job.
Like you said, are there some NFL prospects in this group,
any any grad year who we should look for?
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Yeah? Possibly.
Speaker 4 (25:53):
I mean, you know, we've had quite a run over
the last ten years of NFL players. You know, we've
had two kids drafted in the first around Josh Rosen
as a quarterback. Trent mcduffiew's a starting nickel for the
Kansas City Chiefs. Just won a Super Bowl, you know,
championship with the Chiefs last year. Out of the University
of Washington. We've had players like Chris Steele, Wyatt Davis,
(26:16):
Jacob cot Mariner, Damian Mama, Nico Falla. All those guys
have played been a part of NFL rosters. Jayden would
be with the LA Rams just made their practice squad,
and so did Terrell bind them.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
With the LA Chargers.
Speaker 4 (26:30):
So we've had a lot of kids that have kind
of gone on to play it at the NFL level,
which is obviously incredibly challenging and difficult to do. Such
a small small group of individuals that are able to
do that, and this team currently has three or four
guys that I think if they continue to progress in
the way that we feel that it is possible to do,
(26:50):
and they stay healthy and they have some luck along
the way, that they're going to be able to do
that as well. But you just never know. Right now,
we're going to focus on the here and now. We're
not going to try to put the cart in front
of the horse and think about college life or think
about the NFL right now. We have to be the
best versions that we are. And that's a high school
football player in week three of the season trying to
(27:12):
go win a football game on Friday night. And I
know it sounds cliche, but if you have that approach,
and my kids know this very well about me, that's
what we're going to focus on. That's gonna be the
point of attention for this week. And we're gonna worry
about Friendship Academy and see what happens, and then on Saturday,
we're gonna worry about Saint Francis.
Speaker 3 (27:30):
It sounds a good coach.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
You know.
Speaker 3 (27:33):
There's something that even high school coaches now have to
deal with, and that's the NIL. How do you handle
that well?
Speaker 4 (27:41):
To this point, I kind of leave it in the
hands of the parents and the athletes. This is not
an area that I'm even that overly educated in. I'm
learning about it. I'm starting to get a better understanding
of what it is. I don't even think the NCAA
understands it because right now they're just paying these kids
to come to these universities. It's all illegalist Obviously, they're
(28:01):
gonna somehow organize this and get a grasp of it.
But the NCAA doesn't even know anything. They say, no
pay for play it right, that that's happening my kids.
You know, if they can go out there and they
can get you know, revenue or generate revenue off their name,
image and likeness, and they could get directed to a university,
it's going to pay them to do that. Then all
the power goes to them until they can regulate it,
(28:24):
sanction it, organize it, and have some ability to control it. Well,
then I got to leave it into the parents. They're
the primary educators. They're the ones that are responsible for
the actions and the decisions that their sons are making.
All I'm going to do is be a secondary educator
and kind of assist along the way. I'm going to
try to learn as much as I possibly can. I'm
(28:44):
going to try to inform them, educate them, instruct them
the best way that I can. But again, I got
to be cautious because it's not my child. It's their
responsibility to parent them to the best that they can.
And then I'm just here as to be a support.
I mean, we're in the infancy, Randy, it's at the
very very beginning of this whole thing. You know, you
(29:06):
asked me this question five years down the road, I'm
having a completely different answer. But right now, I think
that's the approach that I'm taking. I think it's the
intelligent way to go about it, to inform myself as
much as I possibly can, learn as much as I
possibly can. But at the end of the day, I
have to defer this to the parent and allow them
(29:26):
to be able to make the best decisions for their
child and his future.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
Why should a top young player come to Saint John Basco,
Let's hear you know this is your recruiting or not.
You don't recruit, but I.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
Know right no, I mean, I'll be honest with you.
Speaker 4 (29:41):
We recruit every athlete or very student that comes to
our school. I mean, I think that's one of the
things that's a misconception about our school is they think
we actively go out there and have recruiting trips and
all this kind of nonsense.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
But that is not true.
Speaker 4 (29:55):
The term recruiting is actually a really realistic term that
we use here at our school. We have to recruit students.
We need, you know, enrollment, or we don't have a school.
We don't have feeder schools. We don't get money from
the state, we don't have kids that are deemed this
is the school that you're going to. We have to
do a really good job within our program to provide
(30:18):
something that is going to attract kids and parents to
want to send their kids here. So with that being said,
I'm going to work hard on trying to provide a
place that is a destination for a kid to reach
his potential within this four year window of time in
order to be able to get what he's looking for,
and that's free education at the collegiate level.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
It's simple.
Speaker 4 (30:41):
BOSCO is a place of development academically, spiritually, and culturally
as well as athletically to try to get kids to
be able to reach their maximum potential or their genetic
ceiling as we like to use in terms of their
matriculation to the college phase of their lives. So it's
(31:02):
a big responsibility, you know, for myself, my staff, obviously,
parents and many times are investing in their child's education
now so that way they don't have to invest in
it later.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
It's going to be given to them.
Speaker 4 (31:17):
And that's a hard, you know, kind of you know
situation to have to deal in or world to live in. However,
what we've been able to do in terms of the
development of our athletes both off the field in the
classroom in terms of meetings and film work and teaching
them the game, the football the off season, and the
strength and conditioning which we do in the weight room
(31:39):
and on the field in terms of body development and
the changing to the composition of their bodies as well
as the football work in the techniques and the knowledge
that we're providing them on the field. Those three things
are trying their parents are using in order to get
their kids to the next level. And we create no
greater platform in the country than Saint John Bosco. If
(32:00):
you want to be a collegiate scholarship athlete that's prepared
when you arrived day one on.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
Campus, this would be a great destination for you.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
How did they reach your program?
Speaker 4 (32:11):
Well, you know what, honestly, it's kind of not too
hard to find. I mean, you know, we're kind of
on every social media channel out there. You know, we
have a phenomenal campus here in Bellflower, wet tract kids
from all over the Greater Los Angeles area. You know,
the evolution of social media has really helped us you know, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook,
(32:33):
We're on all those channels. We have a great website.
We're an open you know campus in terms off, somebody
wants to come here and shadow, they want to spend
the time, you know, here and go through a tour,
meet with our admissions department, call the school, turn on ESPN.
We've you know, we played on Saturday on ESPN, and
we've had a lot of outreach from people kids through
(32:55):
our emails, through our social media, you know, direct message
component to that, how do I become a Saint John
Bosco student? I want to play for you? Direct them
right to the missions office, let them go to their work.
And then if the kid I'm as serious about that
approach or their family is serious about that, you go
through the proper channels in terms of the undue influence
(33:16):
and the pre enrollment contact that we all know about
here at Bosco, then they have an opportunity to come
and do that. So it's kind of a finnicky thing.
It's something that we take a lot of pride in.
We're not going to make excuses for being successful or
having kids that want to be a part of this program.
And we're going to embrace it, and we're gonna relish
in it, and we're going to continue to go out
there and try to give these kids the best chance
(33:39):
that they have to be a part of an elite
program that competes at a national level.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
I would suggest all viewers go to coachtube dot com
and learn more from Coach Negro. I thought this is
a great site for coaches and athletes and parents to
go to to learn about you and a lot of
other coaches. So thanks Coach Negro. I really appreciate you
(34:04):
being on with us today. Finished strong brother.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
Thanks man again.
Speaker 4 (34:08):
I thank you for the platform that you're giving and
what LeVar Arrington is doing in terms of highlighting high
school athletics and coach Tube is something that's, you know,
pretty amazing, and I think people need to take an
advantage of a resource that's out there that can really
help them within their decisions as to you know, where
do you want to attend a school or what you
know is in your best interest as a student athlete.
(34:31):
Anytime you have educational resources that are out there that
can allow you to learn or become a better person
in whatever you're doing, is always beneficial and I'm going.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
To support it.
Speaker 4 (34:42):
So thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak
to you, speak to whoever might be listening, and anytime
you need me, I would be more than happy to
come on here talk a little bit about football or
a little bit about our program or what we're trying
to do for the high school student athlete.
Speaker 3 (34:57):
I appreciate you, coach.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
Thanks a lot, Ran you take care and go Braves.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
Go Braves. Thanks for joining us again for Taylor Scouting
on the up on Game Network. You can find my
podcast on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, anywhere you get your podcasts,
or watch us on YouTube at up on Game Presents
Taylor Scouting, Rate and review us, follow me on x
(35:23):
at our Taylor FB Scout and college prospects can get
evaluated through my X page. Just direct message me or
follow me and I'll check you guys out. We'll see
you next week with another episode of up on Game
Presents Taylor Scouting
Welcome to Up On Gaine Presents Taylor Scouting. Coach Randy
Taylor is bringing his forty plus years of knowledge to you.
This is Taylor Scouting and now here's coach Randy Taylor.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Hey, I'm on.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Today with the podcast. Jason Negro is joining me. He's
the head football coach at Saint John Bosco High School
in Bellflower, California, suburb of Los Angeles. Bosco is a
member of the Trinity League, which in my mind is
the elite high school football conference in the country. Coach
(00:39):
took over the Rain in twenty ten. Since then, he
has built a national powerhouse. No doubt. The Braves are
coming off a big win at Saint Thomas Aquinas, who
were riding a twenty seven game win streak at the
time and raided in the top ten nationally among high
schools with a two and zero record. They face another
(01:00):
nationally recognized program, Friendship Collegiate Academy out of Washington, d C.
These guys don't shy away from anything. Since coach Negro
returned to Bosco in twenty ten. Their overall record is
one forty four and twenty four and traditionally I rated
in the top ten nationally. I've been able to spend
a good deal of time on the Bellflower campus and
(01:23):
watching the bravest practice and in games across southern California,
and what stands out the most to me is the
consistency of the program and all facets of the game.
There's the confidence, performance, discipline, academics, and character displayed by
the players, coaches, and administrators. I kind of always know
(01:46):
what to expect, what to expect when I go over
and see Saint John Bosco. You know, there's like a
fluidness to their program. It's like that duck on the
pond right above the water. Everything's calm below the water.
Those are going a mile a minute. They're going like crazy.
And the guy that's stirring the drink for the braves
(02:06):
is Jason Negro. And I want to welcome coach to
LeVar Arrington's up on Game Network and the Tailor Scouting Podcast.
Coach Negro, thanks for joining us on the show.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Brother, appreciate you having me. Randy.
Speaker 4 (02:21):
It's always a pleasure to have an opportunity to talk
with you. Talk a little bit of football, a little
bit of recruiting. We go way back and I just
appreciate you giving me a platform to talk about the
things that we're doing here at Mosco.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
My pleasure, Coach, I know you're a big culture guy.
Let's start with a two part question. How do you
create the terrific culture you have here at Basco and
do you have a tangible plan to come.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Well?
Speaker 4 (02:52):
I think the first and foremost in terms of trying
to build the culture is about It's all about human capital.
It's a term that I like to use, and basically
what it means is trying to go out there and
surround yourself with the most talented people, the ones that
are going to share your vision, share your philosophy, and
go out there and try to impact as many young
(03:13):
people as we possibly can when we have the opportunity
to do so. And one of the fortunate things for
me being a product to Saint John Bosco High School
as a student and graduating from here and being educated
by the Salesians of Don Bosco in this Catholic school manner,
all boy education has basically set the framework for the
culture of our program and I've just basically been an
(03:36):
extension of that. I've taken the leadership values that the
Sollegians have passed down to me and implemented that educational
system into my program. And I surround myself with talented people,
not just my coaching staff, but the training staff, the administration,
the teacher, the faculty, everybody associated with the program. And
(03:57):
then you know, you bring the families in that kind
of fit, that mold, and it just basically organically is
able to work. And going back coming about us being consistent,
I think the culture is the number one thing that
has allowed us to be consistent from year after year
because they just understand what the expectations aren't and they
(04:17):
just kind of roll along with it.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
Is there a buy in outside of the football program
with everybody else that's involved on a fringe with.
Speaker 4 (04:28):
You guys without question? I mean I kind of set
the standard. I set the expectations. I'm constantly throughout the
course of the year. I'm not a real big meeting
guy where we have meet weekly meetings or I'm going
to kind of draw up, you know, upon their time
and monopolize that. But I do set different parameters as
(04:48):
we go through the course of the season, whether it
starts in January ends in December, where we're going to
come together as a staff as a collective unit, talk
about the culture, talk about the expectations of the program
and what we're.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Trying to accomplish.
Speaker 4 (05:01):
And I think that if everybody here is a consistent
message that's happening over and over and over again, they're
going to have to buy in to what my philosophy is.
And if not, they're just simply not going to fit
in to what I'm trying to do here. They're not
going to fit into my staff, you know, and they're
going to have to make their way, you know, onto
somewhere else that might align with their philosophy and their
(05:24):
belief system. But that's one of the reasons why we've
been so successful, because I have a lack of turnover.
My guys have been a part of this program for
a long time, very little turnover in my coaching staff.
And I think that's kind of a byproduct of the
buy in culture that what you're talking about.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Can you put your philosophy into words?
Speaker 2 (05:43):
I think so.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
I think the greatest thing that we are responsible for
as educators or coaches is to try to provide unique
experiences for young people and to help them develop during
this four year phase of their lives. To where they
can be successful in the next phase, which is the
collegiate you know time, whether they just go to become
a student, or whether they go to college to become
(06:06):
a student athlete, or some kids you know, might even
matriculate into the military.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Or even to the workforce.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
So it's our responsibility and the philosophy of mine is
to provide unique experiences by our young people help them
develop into the person that they want to become in
a four year window. So it's pretty simple philosophy. However,
I think that if you stick to that and you
run everything that you can in your program through that philosophy,
(06:33):
it's going to allow you to accomplish those goals.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
When you're planning your practice schedule and your daily practice plans,
are you consciously using your philosophy and instilling that culture
into your kids? I mean, you do you think about
it as you're doing this practice.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Plan without question?
Speaker 4 (06:54):
I mean, I think everything that we do, every decision
that I make, is strategic. We're not kind of a
fly by the seat of your pants type program. There's
meticulous meetings that happen with me and my coordinators or
my staff here with my director of football Operations, in
terms of, you know, how can we take this particular practice,
or how can we take this particular event and kind
(07:16):
of infuse our philosophy or infuse some of the elements
that are necessary in order to build the culture that
we're looking for. You know, how are you going to
be able to utilize the time that you're with your
kids to you know, use that as a teachable moment
or an opportunity for you to be able to, you know,
implement some of these things that you're looking for. So absolutely,
(07:37):
I think you have to plan that way. At the
end of the day, I feel that I'm a teacher
rather than just a coach.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
You know.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
So teachers, I think the best ones that I've ever
been around, or the ones that I've experienced or who
have taught me through my many years of education, are
the ones who are organized their plan. They're able to strategically,
you know, implement whatever the daily lesson might be, and
then they're able to go out there and execute it.
And that's no different than the coach. And that's no
(08:03):
different in the approach that I take as the head
football coach.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
You know, here at Bosco, you mentioned your director of
football Operations. I want to say thanks to Jesse Christensen
who does unbelievable work for you guys and the Braves,
So thank you for me.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Will you coach without question?
Speaker 4 (08:22):
I mean, you know again, it's about human capital and
you've got to try to go out there and invest
in people. This is something that we did about, you know,
ten eleven years ago as we developed this position on
campus as a director of football operations. It's alleviated a
lot of the stress and the pressures off of me
that go into a program that's this large and allowed
me to kind of focus my attention on the coaches,
(08:43):
focus my attention on the student athletes, and then she
could take all the kind of peripheral things that need
to be accomplished.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
You know, we're a national brand.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
We travel all over the country, so there's a lot
of things that have to be done from a logistical standpoint.
Social media has exploded over the last ten years, so
we've really kind of ticking a deep dive into that.
How do we build our brand and let people know
about the culture that we're trying to create through that
And without a position and without somebody who's capable like her,
(09:12):
we would never be able to accomplish it. Well, I
mean it's it's a team effort here at Saint Jombosco.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Yeah, I've seen it a lot there. That's been fun
going over to watch you guys. Does this your culture philosophy?
Does it ever become routine at any point once you
have your program bought in? Does it become a habit?
I guess is the best way to put it so
that everybody's pulling on the rope in the same direction.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
I certainly hope.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
So.
Speaker 4 (09:39):
I mean, the ultimate thing is is we want to
create positive habits within our kids, and we want to
create a routine. The one thing that you have to
be cautious though, when you use the term habit or
you use the term, you know, routine, is you don't
want to become complacent. I think that's the thing that
is the cautious kind of the gray area when you
(10:00):
when you're working with with those types of terms and
those types of phases, you know, you definitely don't want
to You definitely don't want to be in a situation where,
you know, routine becomes complacency because then all of a sudden,
somebody's gonna catch up to you. Somebody is gonna do
something that's going to overtake the success at which you have,
and that's something that I'm constantly working on.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
You never want to be on automatic pilot.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
Right, oh, without without question. I mean, you know, we're
not a copy and paste type program. We're not a
just change the date, you know, at the top of
the page and roll to the next one. That's not
what we're you know, trying to do. But then you
also have to sit there and say, well, if it's
not broke, why fix it. So there's a lot that
really goes into this, and I think that's one of
the reasons why I really lean heavily on my staff here,
(10:48):
my coaches, my my operations department, the training staff. How
do we kind of infuse this new life into the
program without disrupting what we've already created that's been really amazing.
So it's kind of a fun process. It's a challenge
to me, like, how can you put these little tweaks
within your program that's going to allow you to continue
to climb and not plateau, But yet it's also not
(11:10):
going to become so boring, a monotonous a routine that
kind of retards your ability to be successful.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
We'll just talk about the game preparation. Each game has
its own set of issues, like when it's a rivalry
game or a projected cake walk. I know you never
want to hear that. Does each game take on its
own individual process and lessons that you're trying to teach
each kid about how they should respond to each game.
Speaker 4 (11:43):
Yeah, we look at every single game as an isolated event.
I mean, we're not one of these programs. I mean,
obviously everybody knows that modern days in the future. I mean,
you know, that's one thing that we can't hide from
or you know, we can't get away from, or everyone
knows October thirteenth. October thirteenth, that's we know that. However,
you know, we do a really good job in this
(12:03):
program of taking each individual event and categorizing that into
a small window of a seven day period that's going
to allow us to start on Saturday, end on Friday,
and everything in between is kind of geared toward that
particular assessment or that culminating event that is on Friday. Now,
(12:25):
if you stack all those together, hopefully it's going to
put us in position on October thirteen to be successful
enough to win one of the most challenging games that's
you know, presented to us on our schedule. But at
the end of the day, we look at each and
every one of these opportunities without thinking into the future.
We want to really isolate this particular game this week,
(12:47):
Saint Thomas aquinas is in the past. That was great,
We enjoyed it, we experienced it. However, Friendship Academy starting
Sunday morning for us, since we played on Saturday, immediately
was our focus. It was immediately a point of our attention.
And that is what we have really kind of put
our mindset toward over the last couple of days, and
(13:07):
we're going to continue to do so all the way
till kickoff at seven o'clock on Friday.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
John Wooden seems to be someone that's played a role
for you and a lot of your background or philosophy.
Talk about John Wooden a little bit and that what
he did and maybe his pyramid, how that affects you.
Speaker 4 (13:29):
Well, I mean, I think that the biggest thing is is,
you know, with the pyramid specifically, it's it's provided structure
at the bottom, you know, and then it kind of
culminates to a peak. And I talked to my kids
about it all the time. You know, this is an
ongoing process within our program. And I think that if
you can identify the things within your program that you
have to constantly work on to be great or to
(13:52):
be elite, then that's what you have to kind of
work on. And if you were to flip that pyramid
over and you put winning at the forefront, if that
was the most important thing, then it's going to topple
over and you're not going to be very successful. Or
you may be successful, but your program is going to
be a roller coaster. You're going to have your really
high peaks and your really low valleys. And that's not
(14:14):
what I want to do. I want to build a
foundation and I want to be able to continue to
work toward that mountaintop. And I think that's just a
philosophy that I've been able to absorb from some of
the teachings, whether it be John Wooden or any other
elite football coach, basketball coach, or any elite leader in
our country. It's kind of how I've built my philosophy
(14:36):
and built my coaching style around. Is those ones that
are trying to peak at the right time, trying to
not be a one hit wonder and to have a
consistent approach to doing something excellent for a long period
of time.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
Are there any other people off the tap of your
head or events you use in your program's development or philosophy?
Speaker 4 (14:59):
Well, you know, I think that's kind of ongoing, to
be honest with you. I look at some of the
great coaches out there in the country. I try to
draw upon them, and because I'm here at BOSCO, I
have the unique opportunity to go out and meet some
of these really elite coaches.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
And spend some time. I mean, why is that?
Speaker 4 (15:14):
Because we have a lot of talented players and they're
going to give us access. So I've had opportunity to
sit down with somebody like like a Nick Saban, you know,
one on one and talk to him about philosophy or
what he's trying to accomplish within his program, and I'm
trying to obtained as much information as him. Spent a
lot of time with Kirby Smart in the University of
Georgia program. Dabosweeney is another one at Clemson. You know,
(15:37):
when Dabo Sweeney back in the spring of twenty nineteen,
I had an opportunity spend some time out there and
go watch their spring practice as they were coming back
from spring break, and Coach Sweeney, you know, gave me
the opportunity to come in and spend some time in
his staff meeting where he met with his entire football
organization and you know, introduced me to every and allowed
(16:00):
me to come in and take notes and just to
watch his leadership style and what was important to him
and some of the things that I was able to
uncover behind the scenes about how you know, he approaches practice,
how he approaches his kids' academics, how he approaches the
relationships that he has not only with his players, his families,
his coaches, his staff. Was absolutely you know, once in
(16:22):
a lifetime chance for me as a high school coach
to learn from somebody. And I spent a lot of
time reading about Bill Belichick. Spend a lot of time
reading about Bobby Knight. You know, although he was kind
of on the crazier side of things, I still think
his philosophy and his approach to trying to make his
kids performing an optimal level was pretty unique and special.
(16:43):
So that's kind of where I've done. And I'm somebody
that's evolving too. I don't believe that you could just
have a set in stone philosophy or vision to something.
Things have changed, the environment around us has changed. We
have to change and adapt as well. And I think
I've been able to be pretty good at that. And
I think that might be one of the reasons why
(17:05):
we're continuing to have success year in and year out,
is because our ability to not be so rigid, but
to be flexible to change with the times that are
happening around us.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
So's talk about leadership. How do you identify leaders and
or leadership?
Speaker 4 (17:23):
Well, I think, you know, the most important thing is
the by example leader is what I'm looking for. I'm
looking for, you know, kind of a leader that's transformational,
not not somebody that's going to be you know, transactional
where he's kind of like one.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Of these type guys.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
I wanted to see somebody who's going to lead by
their actions and what they do on a day to
day basis. It's not a popularity contest here in our program.
You know, I don't really have big distinguishing gaps between
people's roles. Like you're a coordinator, so therefore you get X,
Y and Z. You're a position coach, so you only
(17:58):
get Y and Z, and then you're, you know, kind
of a helper or volunteer. You only get the Z
portion of this, you know. I try to have a
consistent approach. I let my leaders emerge. You know, I'm
not a coach that that signs captains. We don't have
captains in our program. I don't have leadership groups or
anything like that. It's just basically we're all in this together.
(18:19):
We're one united, you know entity. I do have weekly
meetings with my seniors, you know, with an assistant coach
that meets with them privately. They talk about some of
the things that are going on or some of the
things that might be necessary for that week, and then
they report back to me because I do want to
have a pulse of what's happening within my program. Because
(18:40):
as the head coach, I'm all over the place. You know,
I'm not sitting in meeting meetings. I'm not sitting in
you know, some of the weight room sessions. I don't
get to be around all of my kids as much
as I want to. But the seniors have that responsibility
to be able to address their concerns with the coach
comes back to me, and I think organically that's how leadership.
(19:01):
And I empower my people to be leaders within their
own areas, and it's their responsibility to adhere to the
expectations that I have, which are high, and they better
not fall short of them or they run the risk
of being replaced. So it motivates people to work hard,
it motivates people to be productive, and they have to
(19:22):
be in alignment with what I'm looking for as a
head coach.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
But when you find that leadership is there, how do
you use it? How do you use it for the
rest of your program?
Speaker 2 (19:35):
That's a great question.
Speaker 4 (19:36):
I think you have to allow them the ability to
go out there and to display their leadership to others.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
That's a big one.
Speaker 4 (19:45):
You know, if you have this great leader and you've
identified that they have the ability to do so well,
then you have to provide them a little bit of
rope to go out there and to kind of put
that leadership upon the players. And I think it's also
important for the kids, parents, the coaches, the staff members
to see that we do have able, bodied, intelligent people
(20:06):
that are leaders within their own rights. That it doesn't
always have to come from the top, you know. That's
the thing also, is I don't want to become a stale,
stagnant type, repetitive guys.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
Some of these kids.
Speaker 4 (20:19):
I've got three kids in my program that are four
year starters, so they've heard the same speech, the same
you know, monotony of information coming from me over and
over again. Well, if I can identify a leader that
might have the ability to go and to give my
kids a little bit something different than what I'm going
(20:40):
to be able to give them, I certainly give them
that chance to go out there and do it. And
I think that keeps the freshness in the program that
you're looking for, and the stagnant, you know, culture that
could potentially arise from that is eliminated. So I think
you got to draw up on their their talent and
you got to let them be able to display them,
(21:04):
you know, in different you know times or different events
within your program.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
Do's just talk about recruiting. I got a couple of uh.
I think a two part question. Generically, how do you
handle the recruiting process? And do you need a plan
for each level and each player.
Speaker 4 (21:25):
Yeah, and this is something that you really would understand
within our program is we have varying levels of talent
within our program and what I like to choose to use.
You know, in terms of the recruiting philosophy is I
believe our kids fall into specific bands, if that makes sense.
So there's a Power five elite guy that I don't
have to do a whole lot. You know that we
(21:47):
won to ley Ley Brothers, DJ and Matteo. I didn't
do a lot for their recruitment. You know, they're both
kind of freaks at their positions. Their recruiting kind of
took off by themselves. I mean, I just kind of
had to put them in a in a situation where
they can display their talents and let them go. Then
there's the next band of athlete that's kind of a
group of five or a Power five guide potential, and
(22:09):
we have to really kind of push their recruiting, help
them become more identifiable, improve their games, have conversations with coaches.
We've built a lot of recruiting equity in our program
where college coaches now call us and they're going to
listen to us when we say this kid is capable
of playing at university your university, They're going to listen
(22:30):
to us. And it's taken years for us to get there.
That didn't start. You know, twenty one years ago, when
I started in this game, I had no equity in
the recruiting game. Now I have a lot of equity
because our kids I've gone to these universities been successful
and they've gone out there and been able to be
you know, positive impact players for those programs. But where
(22:51):
I think here at Saint John Bosco, we do our
best work is that lowest band that we have, the
high academic kids, the lower Division one one double A
NAIA Division two three athletes. Placing those guys that may
not even start for Saint John Bosco and putting them
in a university where they can use their academic abilities,
(23:15):
their athletic abilities to go play and get scholarship. You know,
at some of these schools, that's that's where we kind
of make a living. I have coaches that are responsible
for that. I have an elite leveled coach that works
with my elite level guys and their recruitment. And I
also have you know, a coach his name is John Hall,
you know him very well, who kind of works with
(23:36):
that lower tier type player. And again, the only reason
why I speak to lower tier because they might be undersized,
they might be under you know, they don't have as
much speed or they don't have as much strength, they're
still very very good high school football players. They have
a destination that they could go to in college. It's
our responsibility as a coaching staff to find where that
might be.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
This year's team, coach, it is, I think rated number
one nationally. What do you like about this group of kids?
Speaker 4 (24:07):
I think I like their workman type attitude that they
bring every day, that they haven't rested on the Laurels,
and they haven't really rested on the success at which
we had last year. You know, last year, we're coming
off a national championship program, you know, in twenty twenty two,
and these kids had every excuse to kind of ride
that success into the twenty three season potentially go into
(24:30):
a cruise mode where I'm going to have to constantly
try and find ways to motivate them, to keep them humble,
to keep them, you know, hungry to come into this season.
I haven't had to do that. I think that goes
and all the credit should go to the coaching staff
as well as to the players and the leaders within
that program that has allowed us to stay grounded.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
In what our overall you know, goals are.
Speaker 4 (24:55):
And that's to continue to try to become the best
football team that we can we can and week out
not necessarily worry about the rankings. That's going to sort
its all self out as the season kind of goes through,
and at the end of the day, it's what you're
going to be judged against about what you were able
to accomplish in December, not what we're accomplishing here in August.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
So I think it's kind of organically happened.
Speaker 4 (25:19):
I'm most pleased with with, you know, the players and
the coaches and their approach that they continue to strive
for excellence and to realize that we can accomplish something
that no team ever has here at Moscow, and that's
become back to back CIF State and potential national champions.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
That the uh you've done. I know, and I know
John Hall and you guys have done such a great job.
Like you said, are there some NFL prospects in this group,
any any grad year who we should look for?
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Yeah? Possibly.
Speaker 4 (25:53):
I mean, you know, we've had quite a run over
the last ten years of NFL players. You know, we've
had two kids drafted in the first around Josh Rosen
as a quarterback. Trent mcduffiew's a starting nickel for the
Kansas City Chiefs. Just won a Super Bowl, you know,
championship with the Chiefs last year. Out of the University
of Washington. We've had players like Chris Steele, Wyatt Davis,
(26:16):
Jacob cot Mariner, Damian Mama, Nico Falla. All those guys
have played been a part of NFL rosters. Jayden would
be with the LA Rams just made their practice squad,
and so did Terrell bind them.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
With the LA Chargers.
Speaker 4 (26:30):
So we've had a lot of kids that have kind
of gone on to play it at the NFL level,
which is obviously incredibly challenging and difficult to do. Such
a small small group of individuals that are able to
do that, and this team currently has three or four
guys that I think if they continue to progress in
the way that we feel that it is possible to do,
(26:50):
and they stay healthy and they have some luck along
the way, that they're going to be able to do
that as well. But you just never know. Right now,
we're going to focus on the here and now. We're
not going to try to put the cart in front
of the horse and think about college life or think
about the NFL right now. We have to be the
best versions that we are. And that's a high school
football player in week three of the season trying to
(27:12):
go win a football game on Friday night. And I
know it sounds cliche, but if you have that approach,
and my kids know this very well about me, that's
what we're going to focus on. That's gonna be the
point of attention for this week. And we're gonna worry
about Friendship Academy and see what happens, and then on Saturday,
we're gonna worry about Saint Francis.
Speaker 3 (27:30):
It sounds a good coach.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
You know.
Speaker 3 (27:33):
There's something that even high school coaches now have to
deal with, and that's the NIL. How do you handle
that well?
Speaker 4 (27:41):
To this point, I kind of leave it in the
hands of the parents and the athletes. This is not
an area that I'm even that overly educated in. I'm
learning about it. I'm starting to get a better understanding
of what it is. I don't even think the NCAA
understands it because right now they're just paying these kids
to come to these universities. It's all illegalist Obviously, they're
(28:01):
gonna somehow organize this and get a grasp of it.
But the NCAA doesn't even know anything. They say, no
pay for play it right, that that's happening my kids.
You know, if they can go out there and they
can get you know, revenue or generate revenue off their name,
image and likeness, and they could get directed to a university,
it's going to pay them to do that. Then all
the power goes to them until they can regulate it,
(28:24):
sanction it, organize it, and have some ability to control it. Well,
then I got to leave it into the parents. They're
the primary educators. They're the ones that are responsible for
the actions and the decisions that their sons are making.
All I'm going to do is be a secondary educator
and kind of assist along the way. I'm going to
try to learn as much as I possibly can. I'm
(28:44):
going to try to inform them, educate them, instruct them
the best way that I can. But again, I got
to be cautious because it's not my child. It's their
responsibility to parent them to the best that they can.
And then I'm just here as to be a support.
I mean, we're in the infancy, Randy, it's at the
very very beginning of this whole thing. You know, you
(29:06):
asked me this question five years down the road, I'm
having a completely different answer. But right now, I think
that's the approach that I'm taking. I think it's the
intelligent way to go about it, to inform myself as
much as I possibly can, learn as much as I
possibly can. But at the end of the day, I
have to defer this to the parent and allow them
(29:26):
to be able to make the best decisions for their
child and his future.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
Why should a top young player come to Saint John Basco,
Let's hear you know this is your recruiting or not.
You don't recruit, but I.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
Know right no, I mean, I'll be honest with you.
Speaker 4 (29:41):
We recruit every athlete or very student that comes to
our school. I mean, I think that's one of the
things that's a misconception about our school is they think
we actively go out there and have recruiting trips and
all this kind of nonsense.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
But that is not true.
Speaker 4 (29:55):
The term recruiting is actually a really realistic term that
we use here at our school. We have to recruit students.
We need, you know, enrollment, or we don't have a school.
We don't have feeder schools. We don't get money from
the state, we don't have kids that are deemed this
is the school that you're going to. We have to
do a really good job within our program to provide
(30:18):
something that is going to attract kids and parents to
want to send their kids here. So with that being said,
I'm going to work hard on trying to provide a
place that is a destination for a kid to reach
his potential within this four year window of time in
order to be able to get what he's looking for,
and that's free education at the collegiate level.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
It's simple.
Speaker 4 (30:41):
BOSCO is a place of development academically, spiritually, and culturally
as well as athletically to try to get kids to
be able to reach their maximum potential or their genetic
ceiling as we like to use in terms of their
matriculation to the college phase of their lives. So it's
(31:02):
a big responsibility, you know, for myself, my staff, obviously,
parents and many times are investing in their child's education
now so that way they don't have to invest in
it later.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
It's going to be given to them.
Speaker 4 (31:17):
And that's a hard, you know, kind of you know
situation to have to deal in or world to live in. However,
what we've been able to do in terms of the
development of our athletes both off the field in the
classroom in terms of meetings and film work and teaching
them the game, the football the off season, and the
strength and conditioning which we do in the weight room
(31:39):
and on the field in terms of body development and
the changing to the composition of their bodies as well
as the football work in the techniques and the knowledge
that we're providing them on the field. Those three things
are trying their parents are using in order to get
their kids to the next level. And we create no
greater platform in the country than Saint John Bosco. If
(32:00):
you want to be a collegiate scholarship athlete that's prepared
when you arrived day one on.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
Campus, this would be a great destination for you.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
How did they reach your program?
Speaker 4 (32:11):
Well, you know what, honestly, it's kind of not too
hard to find. I mean, you know, we're kind of
on every social media channel out there. You know, we
have a phenomenal campus here in Bellflower, wet tract kids
from all over the Greater Los Angeles area. You know,
the evolution of social media has really helped us you know, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook,
(32:33):
We're on all those channels. We have a great website.
We're an open you know campus in terms off, somebody
wants to come here and shadow, they want to spend
the time, you know, here and go through a tour,
meet with our admissions department, call the school, turn on ESPN.
We've you know, we played on Saturday on ESPN, and
we've had a lot of outreach from people kids through
(32:55):
our emails, through our social media, you know, direct message
component to that, how do I become a Saint John
Bosco student? I want to play for you? Direct them
right to the missions office, let them go to their work.
And then if the kid I'm as serious about that
approach or their family is serious about that, you go
through the proper channels in terms of the undue influence
(33:16):
and the pre enrollment contact that we all know about
here at Bosco, then they have an opportunity to come
and do that. So it's kind of a finnicky thing.
It's something that we take a lot of pride in.
We're not going to make excuses for being successful or
having kids that want to be a part of this program.
And we're going to embrace it, and we're gonna relish
in it, and we're going to continue to go out
there and try to give these kids the best chance
(33:39):
that they have to be a part of an elite
program that competes at a national level.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
I would suggest all viewers go to coachtube dot com
and learn more from Coach Negro. I thought this is
a great site for coaches and athletes and parents to
go to to learn about you and a lot of
other coaches. So thanks Coach Negro. I really appreciate you
(34:04):
being on with us today. Finished strong brother.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
Thanks man again.
Speaker 4 (34:08):
I thank you for the platform that you're giving and
what LeVar Arrington is doing in terms of highlighting high
school athletics and coach Tube is something that's, you know,
pretty amazing, and I think people need to take an
advantage of a resource that's out there that can really
help them within their decisions as to you know, where
do you want to attend a school or what you
know is in your best interest as a student athlete.
(34:31):
Anytime you have educational resources that are out there that
can allow you to learn or become a better person
in whatever you're doing, is always beneficial and I'm going.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
To support it.
Speaker 4 (34:42):
So thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak
to you, speak to whoever might be listening, and anytime
you need me, I would be more than happy to
come on here talk a little bit about football or
a little bit about our program or what we're trying
to do for the high school student athlete.
Speaker 3 (34:57):
I appreciate you, coach.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
Thanks a lot, Ran you take care and go Braves.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
Go Braves. Thanks for joining us again for Taylor Scouting
on the up on Game Network. You can find my
podcast on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, anywhere you get your podcasts,
or watch us on YouTube at up on Game Presents
Taylor Scouting, Rate and review us, follow me on x
(35:23):
at our Taylor FB Scout and college prospects can get
evaluated through my X page. Just direct message me or
follow me and I'll check you guys out. We'll see
you next week with another episode of up on Game
Presents Taylor Scouting
Host
LaVar Arrington
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