Retired superintendent and principal Greg Pettit takes us through an inspiring journey from his humble beginnings in Hamilton, Ohio, to his impactful career in education. Greg shares stories from his childhood that taught him the essence of hard work and family values, recounting adventures with neighborhood friends that shaped his commitment to motivating teachers and students. We explore Greg's evolution from a high school athlete receiving a worn-out jersey to a college football player, underscoring resilience and the unexpected paths to success.
Greg's story continues as he transitions from being a hall monitor to the youngest head football coach in Ohio, highlighting the profound influence of mentorship and leadership. He speaks candidly about his personal life, including his partnership with his wife, Fawn, and how their shared dedication to education has impacted their family. We dive into Greg's tenure as a principal and superintendent, where he implemented innovative programs that transformed school environments, earning national recognition and creating lasting change for students and communities.
Throughout the episode, Greg emphasizes the importance of integrity, leadership, and leaving a meaningful legacy. He reflects on the powerful role educators play in shaping students' lives, sharing heartfelt stories where his support made a difference, even saving a student's life. This conversation celebrates the ripple effect of inspiration and community appreciation, urging educators to focus on relationships and integrity as the foundation of effective leadership. Join us in honoring Greg Pettit's journey and insights, inspiring listeners to make a positive impact in their own communities.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, my name is Allie Schmidt.
This is my dad, dan.
He owns Catron's Glass.
Thanks, allie.
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kitchen's best, the clear choice.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Welcome to the Be Tempered Podcast, where we
explore the art of findingbalance in a chaotic world.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Join us as we delve into insightful conversations,
practical tips and inspiringstories to help you navigate
life's ups and downs with graceand resilience.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
We're your hosts, Dan Schmidt and Ben Spahr.
Let's embark on a journey tolive our best lives.
This is what's up everybody,welcome to the Be Tempered
podcast, episode number 29,.
29, rolling right along.
We have a super inspirationalman in here today, someone who
(01:04):
was my high school principal mysenior year.
He's been a superintendent.
He's a retired superintendentand principal in Ohio.
His name is Greg Pettit, andGreg has served in several
administration positions sincehis retirement in 2014.
He's completed teacherevaluations for several school
districts in Indiana and Ohioand he's also a motivational
(01:27):
speaker and his topic is Be theTeacher of the Year in your
Students' Eyes.
And he has earned numerousaccolades and appearances at
several schools and universitiesand, as we've discussed here
earlier, he's also coached a lotof sports, a lot of football,
and is currently helping atHamilton High School.
So, mr Greg Pettit, we welcomeyou to the V-Temper podcast
(01:50):
Welcome.
Speaker 4 (01:50):
Thank you so much.
It's just a real honor to behere.
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Yeah, we appreciate you making the trek, especially
to come up here in person, andit's great to see you after
20-some years and you look great.
You look just like I rememberyou in high school.
Oh my goodness.
Speaker 4 (02:08):
Have you had your eyes checked, but I appreciate
that.
I really miss you and yourfamily and all the National
Trail people, and it's justgreat to be here.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Yeah well, we're glad to have you and excited for you
to share your story.
So with that would you give usa little background of kind of
growing up and then we'll getinto you.
Know what got you intoeducation?
Speaker 4 (02:29):
Okay, sure, well, I was born in Hamilton, ohio, grew
up in Hamilton.
My mom and dad were justhardworking blue collar people.
Actually, my mom was a whatthey called back in the day,
just a home body.
My mom was what they calledback in the day, just a homebody
.
Home mom.
She took care of things aroundthe house and she was just
(02:52):
somebody that taught me respectand manners and et cetera, et
cetera.
And my dad was a machinist, andsometimes you talk about
absentee fathers.
Well, my dad kind of was, butit wasn't for the reasons that
you might think.
I mean, my dad worked two jobspretty much my whole life, or as
(03:13):
a child anyway.
And so you know, six days aweek, you know he'd go into one
job in the morning and work asecond shift job, and so I would
only see him a lot of times ifI stayed up late at night or
when he got home from thatsecond shift machinist job, um
and or uh on on sundays, uh anduh.
(03:33):
You know, taught me a lot awork ethic.
You know, when I was growing updidn't really realize it.
You know, kind of how comedad's not at my games or
whatever.
But then you know, as you getolder, you know you realize he's
putting food on the table, yeahand uh.
So it taught me a lot about, uh, hard work and dedication.
And you know I had, uh, twobrothers and two sisters, all
older.
Uh, I was a baby, um and uh,just uh great people and I love
(03:59):
them to death and and um, uh, sothat's pretty much.
I grew up in Hamilton.
You know kind of a funny story.
I grew up in a neighborhood butin my backyard was a paradise,
basically because behind myhouse was about 10 to 15 acres
(04:20):
and it was a woods.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
There was a lot of young people who don't know what
this is, but there was asoapbox derby track.
Do you guys remember soapboxderby?
Speaker 4 (04:31):
Okay, it's kind of a thing of the past now, but back
in the day it was a big deal andso soapbox derby track in the
backyard, basically a baseballfield and a public swimming pool
.
So you know, I grew up thinkingthat every kid in America had a
soapbox derby track in theirbackyard, you know, but it was
(04:52):
just a wonderful childhood, youknow, really and truly.
We didn't have a whole lot ofmoney, but we were rich.
You know we never went withoutand it was just a great
childhood, great childhood, andyou know.
So I went to Lincoln ElementarySchool, wilson Junior High
School and Taft High School andand and so it was.
(05:15):
It was just a great place togrow up.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Yeah, yeah, sounds like it to have that in your
backyard, If you want to goswimming.
You go swimming If you wantedto do the derby car.
I mean, that's amazing.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
Absolutely, and you know pretty much.
That was our life growing up asa child in the 60s and early
70s and it was basically, youknow, football out in the field
behind us, baseball and swimmingand running around the woods.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Everything any kid would dream of.
Speaker 4 (05:46):
Yeah, you know, and I waited the longest time to tell
people this, but there was alsoespecially my kids to tell them
this until they were older.
But there was a railroad trackthat ran behind our yard as well
, way back by the woods, and afriend of mine and I, you know,
we used to jump the trains and,and a friend of mine and I, you
know, we used to jump the trainsand ride those trains, you know
(06:07):
it was.
It was crazy and stupid anddangerous and but yeah, we'd
ride him for about a mile andthen jump off, and you know.
So I'm lucky to be here, Iguess for sure.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Now we were talking about this earlier, you you had
posted a picture on Facebook ofyou on, I believe, an eight-foot
unicycle.
Yes, what's that all about?
Speaker 4 (06:31):
Well, I'll tell you what it was amazing.
At Lincoln Elementary School wehad a gym teacher that moved up
from Sarasota Florida and hisname was Jim Smith, and Sarasota
Florida was the home ofRingling Brothers Barnum Bailey
Circus.
And so, mr Smith, he started agroup called the Mini Circus and
(06:55):
anybody that is familiar withthe Mini Circus will tell you
that it was an amazing thing.
I mean, we did everything thata circus did, including trapeze.
You know, my sister rode a sixon a bicycle where she would
pedal the bicycle and theseacrobats would do all kinds of
(07:17):
things hanging on the bicycleand, of course, the unicycles
Tumbling things like that, butunicycles.
I got to the point where I rodea 10-foot unicycle.
I rode in parades.
I rode at the LouisvilleGardens at halftime show.
(07:37):
We did halftime shows at theCincinnati Royals basketball
games back in the day, so it wassomething else and to this day,
if they could build a unicyclebig enough for me, I think I
could get on a unicycle and rideit if my knees didn't give out
or whatever.
But yeah, it was great.
As a matter of fact, a few yearsafter that, now we're talking
(08:01):
about mainly about elementaryschool kids.
After that, now we're talkingmainly about elementary school
kids, aids kids or junior highkids for the most part, and some
high school kids.
But a few years after that,five or six years after that, we
actually had a guy named DannyHaynes set the world record for
riding the tallest unicycle atthe time, and I forget I think
(08:23):
it was a 30-footer or somethinglike that, but they did it in
the Champion Union Hall parkinglot in Hamilton and he had a
harness on him for safety andthey built this unicycle, but it
was a world record at the time.
Wow, that's crazy.
And so the Hamilton Mini Circuswas just an unbelievable thing
for young people.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
You had me at 10 feet .
I'm thinking like a basketballhoop, like sitting on it riding
a bike.
Yeah, 30.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
And you know what?
I rode a eight foot unicycle ina parade downtown Hamilton and
I fell off of it.
And if you've ever fallen off aunicycle, it's not fun.
For the most part you comestraight down and you're laying
on your feet, kind of like aparachutist, I guess you could
say.
But it's still not fun.
And that was the one time thatI did take a spill.
(09:08):
So it was downtown Hamilton,but anyway it was a great
experience.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Yeah, so your childhood.
I mean, that sounds likeanything any child would dream
of.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
Yeah, and you know, and at the time of course you
just think that it's normal andyou think that everybody in
America is doing this stuff.
But you know, looking back onit, it was unique.
Yeah, for sure, very unique.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
So you go through that whole experience amazing
experience as a kid.
You get into high school.
Talk about high school a littlebit.
Speaker 4 (09:38):
You know, high school is really where my trajectory,
I guess you could say, reallychanged as far as what I wanted
to do.
Because going into high schoolI think I felt like most of the
boys and girls not necessarilygirls as far as champion paper
goes, but I thought, you know, Iwould just graduate and go to
work at champion paper or one ofthe big paper mills in Hamilton
or Beckett paper, or else I'dgo into the service.
(09:59):
I wasn't really thinking aboutcollege or anything.
And then that's where it allchanged.
I was a football player TaftHigh School at the time, which
is Hamilton High School now TaftHigh School.
Hamilton Taft High School wasgrades 10 through 12.
And I was a sophomore and I wason the JV football team and
(10:19):
barely, barely started for theJV football team Wasn't very
good player.
Barely started for the JVfootball team, wasn't a very
good player, average, I guessyou could say average football
player.
And so you know how everyfootball team has a parents'
night.
You know where they introduceyour parents and things like
that.
So, second game of the season.
And again, keep in mind, Ibarely started on the JV team,
(10:43):
so I wasn't real good.
And so we get to parents' nightand we come out and we warm up,
you know, and we go back intothe locker room where our head
coach, coach Bob Muschietti, hesurprised us with brand-new
jerseys.
So we're out there in our oldjerseys warming up, and when we
(11:06):
come in we put on brand-newjerseys, okay.
So we line up at the equipmentroom to get our new jerseys real
quick and get them on, becausewe got a game to play and the
seniors go first, of course, andthe juniors, and you know, here
they come holding up their newjerseys and man, oh man, look at
these, you know, andeverybody's all jacked up and
pumped up because these jerseysare awesome.
And so, finally, the sophomores, you know, we get up there and
(11:30):
again, my buddies are turningaround and holding up their
jerseys.
Yeah, they're all jacked up andpumped up.
And I get up there and the coachI'm number 58, okay.
And the equipment manager,whoever it was at the time, he
handed me this old, raggednumber 57 jersey and I go well,
(11:53):
sir, I'm number 58.
And he said, well, this is whatyou get tonight.
And I turn around and I'mbummed out.
I'm going why don't I get a newjersey?
I'm bummed out, I'm going whatyou know why don't I get a new
jersey?
And I turn around and, walkingback to the locker, and the guys
after me are getting the newjerseys and and all this stuff
and and um, and you know, as, onmy on my way back to get
(12:16):
dressed, there's a few snickersand, you know, laughing at me a
little bit and and I'membarrassed.
You know, I'm going what youknow what the heck is going on
here.
So we get down to the lineupfor the pictures and I'm sitting
there thinking to myself, I'mlooking around, everybody's got
on these new jerseys that sentme and I'm lining up with my mom
(12:40):
and dad and my dad and themthey could tell that I'm
embarrassed.
And you know, uh, before I goon, you know, uh, these days, as
a superintendent or as aprincipal, you know I'd be
getting a call from parents.
How dare you, how can you putmy son, you know, in a ragged
(13:01):
jersey and and all that kind ofstuff, because that's the way
things were or things arenowadays unfortunately.
But my dad looked at me and hesays well, son, he says it looks
to me like you better work alittle harder.
And I made up my mind thatnight I was so mad I said I'll
(13:23):
never wear a ragged jersey again.
And that was the night I becamea football player.
I mean, the next day, the nextmorning, we didn't have a
reserve game.
The next day, the next morningI got out of bed early and it
was right in front of HamiltonTaft High School, which is now
Hamilton High School.
There's Eaton Road Hill.
I don't know if you've everbeen down it, it's a Huge hill.
(13:44):
So my buddy, jerry Lauer helived right behind the high
school and his family wasmasonry people, they were
bricklayers and they always hadbricks laying around the yard
and stuff.
And so I went over and Igrabbed a couple of bricks and I
started running up and downEaton Road Hill.
I started working out and again, I was never going to wear a
ragged jersey again.
(14:05):
Yeah and um, and I mean I now,when I was working out, we had a
universal gym.
Yeah, you guys may be too youngto remember universal gym, or
do you?
I remember?
Okay, so it's just a littleunit, blah, blah, blah.
But man, I started working outand I wore that thing out and at
the time of the ragged jerseyincident I was probably 5'10",
(14:30):
5'11", about 175 pounds orwhatever.
Well, I worked hard the wholewinter and suddenly I hit a
growth spurt, roseburg, and byApril of that year, of next year
, I was 6'2" and about 2'10".
I'd grown that much and I'dgotten so much stronger and
(14:52):
everything else, and by the endof the football season too, I'd
gotten a lot better, just fromworking out hard.
And then the moment changed mylife.
It was in May after that yearand Coach Muschietti and Coach
Merz, I got called down to CoachTerry Merz, just a great mentor
(15:13):
to me, and Coach Bob Muschietti, again our head coach, was just
a great mentor to me.
I got called down to his office.
And you know, if you got calleddown to Coach Muschietti's
office it usually wasn't good.
Okay, and so I'm all the waydown there.
What did I do?
I don't think I did anythingwrong, et cetera, et cetera.
And you know, we get down tothe office and they sit me down
(15:36):
and Coach Muschietti and CoachMurs, they both said Greg, they
said we want to know if you'vebeen thinking about where you're
going to go to college and playcollege football and the first
thing that came to my mind was,no, I really haven't.
But they said, well, that'swhat you're going to do and
(15:57):
we've seen how hard you'reworking, so you're going to be a
great player for us and we wantyou to start thinking about
going to college and getting adegree and playing college
football.
And I said, okay, coach, that'swhat I'll start doing.
And then fast forward to thenext football season.
That was my junior year.
(16:18):
I was all GMC first team, allGMC player center, and again we
talked earlier, dan, that theGMC is truly one of the best
conferences in Ohio.
I mean, you know you're talkingPrinceton and Fairfield and
Lakota, the Lakotas andMiddletowns, and you know
Coleraine, you know back in theday, all the state titles and
(16:41):
everything, but you know apretty good football conference.
And so I was All-League and Iwas All-League the next year and
got some state honors andthings like that.
And then suddenly I'm gettingrecruited and suddenly I was
fortunate enough, I got to take,you know, a few visits and had
a few offers and ended upaccepting an offer to go to Kent
(17:03):
State and play football at KentState, and so that kind of
started me on my journey togoing to college, getting a
degree, and that's what led meinto education.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
What an awesome story .
So my question is when youthink back to that uniform being
handed to you, do you think itwas intentional?
Do you think they were tryingto spark something in you, or
they just didn't have thatnumber, you know?
Speaker 4 (17:32):
I, you know, I don't really know.
All I know is how it affectedme.
Oh, yeah, yeah and um, and soI'm not really sure.
Uh, I, I think I heard a littlewhile later uh, you know, I
think we had 76 guys on the teamand I think they had 75 jerseys
, okay, I think.
But the only thing that went inmy head was it wasn't about
(17:54):
they didn't have my number orthey didn't have this.
The only thing I was thinkingof was they must think that I'm
the worst player on the team,and it did.
It sparked me.
I mean, you know, from then on,I was never going to wear the
ragged Jersey again.
Yeah and uh, and I wasfortunate enough a few years
back to to get inducted into theHamilton hall of fame uh, in
athletic hall of fame, and um,and I told that story because it
(18:19):
it changed my life.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
And it's super impactful and I hope that any
any young kid listening to thisright now.
You know, like I think of myson, who's a freshman in high
school.
He's 125 pounds and he'shitting the weight room Just you
know, you try to encourage himand encourage him, and you never
know how an instance like thatis going to affect someone
because it could have easilywent the other way.
Oh, absolutely.
Yeah, you could you could havesaid ah, this is what you think
(18:41):
of me, I'm done and I quit, andwho knows where your life would
be now.
Speaker 4 (18:43):
Sure, and you know, in my current position as the
director of football operationsfor Hamilton, you know I've told
that story and Harvey Crouch,our head coach, has asked me to
tell that story a few times andI've told it to our younger kids
.
And last year I remember thissophomore kid that was a lot
like me and he wasn't playingand he was frustrated and wasn't
(19:07):
getting to play and stuff and Itold him that story and this
year that kid is an all-GMClineman this year.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
That's awesome.
Speaker 4 (19:14):
And I don't know if it was because of my story he
worked pretty hard, yeah.
But you know, yeah, you neverknow what switch you're going to
switch on a kid or turn on to akid, and that's what I've
really tried to do my whole life.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
So that go ahead Ben.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
Oh no, I was going to say, hopefully some parents
hear that story too.
Yes, you know, you talk abouthow parents back then.
Hey, maybe you need to work alittle bit harder, you know.
Speaker 4 (19:40):
You know absolutely, and you know, and obviously as a
principal superintendent, youknow I've dealt with a lot of
parents and and you know all ofthem are good, they really are,
they've all.
All of them have a good intheir hearts and you know, some
of them just go about things adifferent way and things like
that.
But yeah, you're absolutelyright, I've, I've always tried
to.
You know.
Again, you know we talked aboutthis earlier.
(20:00):
It just seems like I justalways want to help people if I
can.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
So well, and being affected like that with a, with
a story like that, it's, it's,it's awesome to see how it
projected you.
So you go to Kent state and andso I decide, you decide your
major is going to be uh.
Speaker 4 (20:17):
I decided to major in broadcasting uh, believe it or
not.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
Uh, to prepare for this moment, to prepare for for
today?
Speaker 4 (20:25):
Actually, TV and radio.
But you know, backing up, Iforgot to mention this In high
school, at Taft High School, weactually had a radio TV program
and you would go to radio, yourjunior year, TV, your senior
year.
You'd do radio for four periodsa day and then you'd take your
academic subjects the rest ofthe day.
We had our own radio stationand everything and it was
(20:45):
awesome.
You know, because I'm a musicfanatic, I love music, play
guitar Not very well, but playguitar and stuff and just love
music, and so that was awesome.
So yeah, I went on to major inthat.
Actually I went to Kent Statefor one year, Quite frankly
didn't like it at Kent State andI transferred to Eastern
Kentucky and Roy Kied, legendarycoach at Eastern Kentucky
(21:11):
Actually Eastern Kentucky, 79,80, 81, 82, played in the
national championship game,Division I, AA, and won it twice
.
Long story short, unfortunately, at the end or in the spring of
my sophomore year at EasternKentucky I had my fifth
concussion and that ended mycareer.
(21:33):
Even back then the doctors weresaying you know, you shouldn't
play football anymore and it wasa rough day.
It really was.
But I went on to graduate fromEastern Kentucky, had a major,
again, a degree in broadcasting.
But my last semester of collegeat Eastern Kentucky I got a call
(21:55):
from Dale Robertson, who was ahead football coach at Hamilton
High School, and he wanted me tocome in and coach for him.
And so at that time I startedthinking, okay, well, first of
all, I accepted the job andsecond of all, and I decided
that, oh, maybe I want to gointo coaching and teaching, and
so I took some classes my lastsemester, but I went ahead and
(22:17):
got my degree in broadcastingand then I went into the season
as a.
I was hired as a hall monitorwhile I was going back to school
getting the rest of my creditsfor my teaching degree.
And that's where another twistin my life happened, Because,
(22:38):
going into coaching my firstyear as a young 21 years old,
actually, I was my wife and Ihad just gotten married, right
before that, in July, and had aone-day honeymoon where we were
at the Marriott in Springdale,Ohio, and I was back and it's a
(22:59):
funny story, I was back on thegarbage truck Monday morning
because my summer job was I wasa garbage man for the city of
Hamilton, and so that was myhoneymoon back on the garbage
truck and my wife also went backto her summer job.
But we both ended up back on thegarbage truck and my wife also
went back to her summer job, butwe both ended up, uh, uh,
that's where the twist came in.
So so Dale Robertson hired meas a football coach and now they
(23:20):
need I needed a job, uh,basically for the school systems
and but I didn't have ateaching degree yet.
So, um.
So Dale said or uh, they said,well, we want you to interview
for this hall monitor's positionover at Garfield Junior High.
And that's when I went in and Imet one of the guys that
(23:40):
influenced my life more thananybody, principal named Jim
Brown.
Mr James Brown and if you talkto anybody that knows of him,
with Jim Place, who you had onthe show last week, we'll tell
you all about Jim as well.
But anybody that's ever been inHamilton, he is the goat of
education in the history ofHamilton, greatest of all time,
(24:01):
and he was the principal atGarfield Junior High.
And so I go in to interview him.
I've never met him before.
I go in to interview with him.
And here's what he said to meright off the bat.
He said if we can get you inhere.
We're going to be great, reallywe're going to be great.
And I get a little choked up.
I want to talk about it.
(24:24):
Um, he's a great man, but andthen so so he hired me and so
I'm the hallmark.
But here I am thinking, okay,I'm probably at the lowest
position in the school system,okay, and this guy's telling me
that you're going to be great,you know, if they get me.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
So, and and I imagine for you, you know, and I, we
can see the emotion, which whichI love because you know, you're
talking how many years ago yeah, that was 1983 and look at how
it's, how, how much it impactedyour life for someone like him,
who who is, you know, theMichael Jordan of of Hamilton
(25:04):
school system absolutely to lookat you and to say, if we get
you, we're going to be great.
Speaker 4 (25:09):
yeah, I, how how that impacted you and look at what
you've done Absolutely, and thenyou know so.
So I go about doing my jobevery day, uh, with that passion
in mind for him.
Yeah, I'll do anything for him,you know Absolutely.
And um.
So and he taught me because,backing up a little bit, when I
(25:31):
first started coaching footballbefore I went to work for him, I
just thought that footballcoaching was all about yelling,
screaming and being a hard coreand this, that and the other
around Jim Brown, I startedrealizing how positive
(25:55):
reinforcement and being positivewith kids, telling them how
good they are, how good they canbe, is the key.
Yes, the leadership it reallyis.
Still having discipline, ofcourse, yeah, but telling these,
telling them how to, how to bepositive individuals and be
(26:15):
positive with the kids, andthat's the way I coached and
that's the way I taught fromthen on.
And so he really had a bigimpact on my life and he has a
lot of people.
I'm not the only one that wouldtell you a story about Jim.
He's just a great man.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
Yeah, what a fantastic story and sounds like
a fantastic man, so.
So so you're the hall monitor,you're, you're, uh, you know an
assistant football coach, andand and things start progressing
.
Speaker 4 (26:41):
Your life, you're married, children yes, yes, I am
, I'm gonna blow my nose.
Oh and um, yes, I am, I.
I have three children my wifeFawn best thing that ever
happened to me, without question, anybody who knows her will
(27:02):
tell you that and my wife Fawn,she was a teacher for 30 years.
She traveled around with me toassume my different jobs that I
had and she was a teacher inHamilton actually for 15 years
and then the other places, for atotal of 30.
My daughter, kayla.
I have a son Cody and a sonColt Colt's, the youngest at 28
(27:24):
right now and Kayla is 37 now, Ithink, or 38, something like
that.
And you know, as time goes on,you kind of lose track.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
Well, I've got six grandkids too.
You say that I want to makesure my kids hear that, because
everybody I have five kids andeverybody always asks me is
their age?
And I always have to like okay,I got to start in order and go
backwards.
Absolutely, I feel youAbsolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 4 (27:51):
But yeah, they've, uh , uh.
They're all very successful.
Take after their mom.
They're great kids.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Yeah, so you're moving on up and finally you get
your teaching degree.
I did, I did.
Speaker 4 (28:06):
As a matter of fact, I was going back to get my
teaching degree and my master'sand for some reason it just
clicked, and I have no idea why.
But I just felt like, well, Ihave to get my teaching degree
and my master's.
And for some reason it justclicked, and I have no idea why.
But I just felt like, well, Ihave to get everything, I have
to get my master's, I have toget my doctorate, I have to do
it all.
A big reason for that isbecause the State Department of
Education started changingthings.
(28:27):
It used to be right before Istarted if you had a master's
degree, you could be anadministrator.
Before I started, if you had amaster's degree, you could be an
administrator.
Okay, but now, right, right,when I was right in the middle
of it, they changed everythingto where you had.
Not only did you have to haveyour master's, but you had to
have 15 hours above that.
And then they changed it to youhad to have 15 hours above that
(28:47):
to be a superintendent.
So, as my wife will tell you,I've been.
I was in school forever, youforever.
I was at Xavier working on mymaster's and my teacher's
certificate, and then I went toMiami working on my doctor's
degree, which I did not completebecause I didn't have to I
started realizing that all thesesuperintendents were getting
(29:10):
hired.
They didn't have their doctor'sdegree.
So I was about done with goingto school as a student anyway,
because it was taking quite abit of time.
But what happened, too, was Iwas very fortunate as I was
working.
I was at Hamilton for two yearsand then I went to New Miami
and I had an opportunity to notonly get a full-time teaching
(29:32):
job but they also would allowthat to be my student teaching
okay.
So so that was fortunate there,and and that leads into another
another story and and leadsinto some of the other stuff
that that you know we're talkingabout here, because this is all
about ultimately, it's allabout leadership and helping
other people and helping kids,and a lot of this stuff is how I
(29:55):
learned to do that, and thenthere'll be some stories of me
doing that.
But and you know I'm nothingspecial, but it's just that you
know that was always been mything.
I just really wanted to help,especially young people, young
students, and so anyway.
So at New Miami, I have taughtthere one year and I had a
football player who was anoffensive tackle, a good player,
(30:19):
a great kid, hard worker, this,that and the other.
And so end of the summer, youknow, I've been working with
this kid and other kids andhelping them any way I can the
weight room, et cetera, etcetera.
But three weeks before thefootballs, or three weeks before
two-a-days were to start in1986, I was still at New Miami
(30:44):
and I get a call from PrebleShawnee and Preble Shawnee, one
of their coaches, had just quit,three weeks or two weeks before
two before two days wassupposed to start, and they
wanted to know if I would takethe head coaching job.
And I'm 24 years old.
And and then one of thecoaching guys in one of the
(31:05):
coaching associations said well,that would make you the
youngest head coach in Ohio.
And I said, okay, well, prebleShawnee at the time had won two
games in the last six years orsomething.
They were arguably the worstprogram in Ohio.
Okay, and so I figured, okay,well, that's the only reason
they want me.
I mean, they're bad, you know.
(31:26):
But anyway, I took that job.
But I called this young man upwho I'd been working with at New
Miami and told him what wasgoing on and I was leaving New
Miami because I had his headcoaching job offer and this
young man was crying.
He was upset.
I was upset too.
(31:47):
I didn't want to leave him andsome of the other kids that were
on the team, too great kids.
Well, this young man was ArveyCrouch.
Arvey is the head footballcoach now at Hamilton High, who
just hired me three years ago tobe his director of football
operations.
And Arvey's a great guy.
He's a great football coach.
(32:07):
He's turned Hamilton's programaround.
He was at Mount Healthy for anumber of years and took them to
the playoffs almost every year,and now at Hamilton High.
The last two years at HamiltonHigh we've won two playoff games
for the first time inHamilton's history and Arv he's
just done a great job.
But he was my player and he wasthat player that was crying his
eyes out when I was leaving andI was crying because I was
(32:30):
leaving, etc.
Etc.
So, anyway, so on to PrebleShawnee real quick.
There's a couple of funnystories again about how you can
help kids, et cetera, et cetera.
So I go into my first meetingwith my players, again two weeks
before two-a-days, okay, andI'd never met any of them.
I was in the locker room, I wasin the coach's office with my
(32:53):
coaching staff, and then I goout into the locker room to meet
my 35 players, grades ninethrough 12.
And I had heard that four oftheir best players had
transferred to other schoolsbecause they didn't have a coach
, and they were pretty goodplayers that ended up being
really good players, but anyway.
So I go out and this is myfirst meeting with the kids and
(33:14):
I look around and out of 35 kids, I bet you 15 of them got a dip
or a chew in their mouth.
And they're sitting there witha spittoon in their hand.
Oh boy, and I'm going.
Okay, this ain't good.
And I said, all right, boys.
I said listen.
I said I'm going to tell youwhat I said.
We're going to win a lot ofgames here, but I'll tell you
what I'm going to do.
(33:35):
I'm going to turn around, I'mgoing to go back in that coach's
office and I'm going to comeback out and start this meeting
in five minutes and I betternever see another dip, I better
never see another chew, anotherspit tune as long as I'm here.
And one of the coaches from theprevious year said Coach, he
said you may not have anybodyleft.
He says these kids are off thefarms, man, they've been dipping
(33:57):
since they were 10 years old,you know.
I said well, I said that's theway it'll be then.
So I turned back around andwent back out to the meeting and
there wasn't a single one ofthem that had a dip in their
mouth or anything else.
So we set the tone right there.
And then so a couple weeks laterwe go out to our first practice
(34:18):
and you know again nothing butpositive, positive, positive,
because you know these kids havehad nothing but negative for
their whole career.
And so we go out to the firstpractice and I said all right.
I said after we warm up I saidgive me the first offense up
here.
And I said give me the bestdefense that we can put out
there.
And we got on a four-yard line.
All right, four-yard line onthe game field.
(34:41):
Hand the ball off to ScottCotton.
I don't know if you know thatname.
Scott is the superintendent nowat Twin Valley South over here,
great player for me.
Hand the ball off and we score.
And I blow the whistle.
I call the guys in.
I say listen, practice is over.
They're like all right.
(35:01):
I said practice is over.
I said because here's why, ifwe can get four yards of play
every time, we're going to win alot of games.
Blew, the whistle Broke andthat was it for that day, for
the first practice.
And then from then on, longstory short, we come out of the
(35:22):
gate and we won the first fourgames.
We're 4-0.
Wow, yeah, I opened up withNational Trail.
As a matter of fact, that yearwe come out of the gate 4-0,
then we lost to Brookville andthen we won our fifth game
against Oakwood.
Oakwood was the playoff teamthat year.
We beat them 8-0.
So we're 5-1 out of the gate.
Wow, all right.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
And I mean they wanted to make me mayor of
Camden.
Speaker 4 (35:47):
All right, but no, we had great kids.
We ended up 5-5 that year,because then we hit the gauntlet
I was talking about earlierEaton, brookville, valley View,
blah, blah, blah, dickie.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
Yeah, just kidding.
Speaker 4 (36:00):
Well, we beat Dixie Ben's a Dixie guy from what I've
been told, but anyway.
So I was there four years andthe last year just to show you
how bad the program had been.
The last year there we had thebest record in the history of
the school.
(36:20):
My last year there, six and four, yeah, yeah, best record in the
history of the school.
And what happened was theyfailed a tax levy and they
canceled football for the nextyear.
So I was devastated because wehad started.
Nine sophomores on offense hadthe best offense in the league.
Wow and um, you know, we werereally.
We were going to be really goodin my mind.
(36:41):
I'm thinking state championship, I'm thinking league champions,
state champions, you know andum, because we were going to be
good.
So I was going to hang in there, blah, blah, blah.
But then I got a call from BenHubbard at Fairfield at 1986
State Champions Division I hewanted me to be a defensive back
coach and then the offensivecoordinator after that.
And you know, at first Ithought I was going to hang in
(37:06):
there.
I said well, ben, can you giveme a couple days to think about
it and call me back?
Yeah, so he gave me a coupledays and he called me back.
Yeah, um, so he gave me acouple days and they called me
from europe because he wascoaching the european, the
australian whips, which was asummer, uh, football league,
kind of a semi-pro footballleague.
And he called me back and hesaid, and I still wasn't sure
(37:29):
what I was going to do.
And you know, I know I'm 28years old, I'm still a pretty
young pup by those footballstandards.
And Ben said well, greg, hesays I've taken a look at your
salary and here's what I canoffer you.
The bottom line is you raise?
I had my daughter and my secondson, my boy was on his way and
(37:53):
he says it'd be about a $12,000raise for you, greg.
I said Ben, I'll be theretomorrow.
I mean, you know, got mouths tofeed and stuff like that.
So, anyway, so I go toFairfield and again I'm trying
to fast forward some of thisstuff because again, this is
what comes in people that I'velearned from.
I learned a lot from BenHubbard.
(38:13):
So when I went into Fairfield hewanted me to coach defensive
backs my first year and I toldhim I said, well, you know, ben,
I said, of all the positions, Ireally don't know DBs.
That well, I said.
And he says, ah, you'll be fine, you'll learn it.
I said okay.
So I called my buddy, randyWalker, who was the head coach
at Miami University yeah, he's agood friend of mine and I said
(38:34):
Randy.
I said listen, I don't knowanything about this DB stuff and
you know, can I come up forspring ball?
I think yeah, it was earlierthan that, so it was spring ball
.
I said, can I come up and workwith Terry Heppner?
Terry Heppner was his Dcoordinator and defensive back
coach and Terry went on toIndiana and of course Randy went
on to Northwestern as a headcoach and stuff, and so I went
(39:00):
up there and I learned more fromTerry Heppner in a half an hour
than I knew about football.
Yeah, and unbelievable.
But listen, who was on thatstaff?
Okay, well, not only that staff, but in the four years there, I
would go up there all the timeand work with these guys.
Sean Payton, head coach of theDenver Broncos right now.
Aaron Cromer, offensive linecoach for the Buffalo Bills.
(39:23):
Pat Narduzzi, who was the headcoach at Pitt, was a GA on that
team.
Kevin Wilson, who was theoffensive coordinator of the
house.
Speaker 1 (39:32):
I mean so all these guys that you know.
Speaker 4 (39:36):
I didn't even know Pat Narduzzi would be a great
football coach at Riskin Stateand at Pitt and at Sean Payton I
mean New Orleans.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
Super Bowl.
Speaker 4 (39:47):
And these guys are younger than me and blah, blah,
blah.
And it was just amazing who youlearn from and where you take
stuff from.
Speaker 2 (39:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (39:56):
And so so I was at Fairfield for a while and then,
uh, middletown.
Uh, I left Fairfield afterabout five years.
And then Middletown.
Guess who hired me atMiddletown for a year?
Jim Brown.
Going back to the first guythat hired me, he hired me.
And then, right after that iswhen I went to National Trail
and so I made a.
(40:17):
I made a decision at that timeto get out of coaching and go
into administration, and and,and and I decided I'm going to
carry an awful lot of stuffabout being a principal that I
took from Jim Brown and allthese people.
Speaker 2 (40:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (40:38):
Because it was all about kids.
For me, it was all about kids.
Now I'll tell you this.
The first day at National Trail, I'll never forget this.
I go into my office, I sit downat my desk.
I'll never forget this.
I folded my hands and I justsaid to myself now what you know
, because I really didn't knowwhat to do, quite frankly.
(40:59):
But anyway, so that startedthat.
Speaker 2 (41:02):
Yeah, so that started you in administration, which
led from being a principal intobeing a superintendent.
So kind of talk about, from aneducation standpoint, the
difference between being a highschool principal to going to a
superintendent so you're runninga high school to now you're
running a district.
Speaker 4 (41:19):
Sure, so talk about that.
Yeah, you know I'll tell youthis and a lot of people will
say this over the years, and Iagree with it 100% High school
principal job is the hardest jobin any school district I've
heard that.
I've heard it from many peopleand I experienced it.
You know, I was a high schoolprincipal at four different
places and it's a very difficultjob.
(41:44):
And, just backing up for asecond, I forgot to mention, you
know, when I left.
Well, no, that'll come later,never mind.
But you know thesuperintendency.
(42:05):
It's just a different ballgameas far as the difficulties of it
, et cetera, et cetera.
And the principal's job is farmore difficult and really and
truly, you have way more of animpact on young people.
And you know, starting off atNational Trail, you know, when I
first came in there, dan, youknow I've got to be honest with
(42:25):
you.
Here's what I heard fromNational Trail and I don't know
if you experienced this or not,but here's what I heard from
National Trail there's not awhole lot of spirit in the
school.
The kids don't really, you knowjust, they don't really like
school, et cetera, et cetera.
Some people said that they hada nickname of what National
(42:47):
Trash, national Trash, which Ididn't like that at all, et
cetera, et cetera.
So one of my goals was okay,I'm just going to come in and
I'm going to coach this schooland coach these kids like a
winning team and I'm going tomotivate the best I can and I'm
going to do anything I can toquote, turn this place around if
(43:10):
it even needed turning around.
And you know, one of the firstthings that we did at National
Trail was that I got a big, hugePepsi contract and negotiated,
you know, a huge Pepsi Cokecontract and that allowed us to
build a brand new track for thekids, that allowed us to do some
(43:32):
things through the baseballfield, that allowed us to give
some things to the band and tothe ffa program and different
things that allowed money.
It was so funny because thenegotiations started with uh
from coke, oh, we'll give you anew scoreboard.
In the yeah in the gym, I saidnow, look, we're looking for a
lot more than that.
And and then pepsi would comein well, we'll give you a new
(43:55):
scoreboard.
I said, look, we're ondifferent pages here.
I said we need money and youknow I've got some stuff I need
to do here.
And then it finally got up toan incredible number.
I think it was $150,000 theygave us and it was unheard of
for a school that size.
And then, plus, they gave usmoney every year.
But the only reason I say thatis because that provided kids
(44:24):
with a lot of things andopportunities that they could be
proud of and that they couldwant to come to school and
they'd want to excel and want tosucceed, and I just thought
that was really important.
We also put in what was called aRenaissance program, which was
sponsored by Jostens and it wasa national program, and
basically and this was one of myfavorite things that I've ever
that I've ever done in educationand that's why I wanted to talk
(44:45):
about it today the Renaissanceprogram was a motivational
program for all students.
Motivational program for allstudents, and one of the things
that was part of it was thedifferent levels cards that
these kids could get and whatthese cards was.
For example, if you had a GPAone semester of 4.0, you get
(45:08):
this certain card that youcarried around with you and it
was good for prizes and it wasgood for appetizers at
Applebee's or whatever the casemay be.
But the thing I liked about thecards was this card over here
was for any kid that failed aclass the last semester and
(45:33):
didn't fail any the next quarter.
They were just as important asthe A student and that was
probably the best thing we everdid, because I would have kids
coming in.
That said, I've had parentscoming in.
My kids never got an award,especially an academic award,
(45:53):
and I just felt like those werethings that needed to be
recognized and, man, it justtook off big time.
I mean, we would haveassemblies where we would just
it would just be a celebrationwhere the kids would get their
cards and they would be honored.
So we would have kids thatmaybe last year was suspended
every other week or was indetentions and suddenly they're
(46:17):
walking out and getting academicawards.
You know, changed the whole,changed the whole scope of
everything at National Trail.
It really did.
And and I rode a motorcycleinto the gym one day I remember
that Because you know our themewas get your motor running,
which was get your brain runninghere we go.
(46:38):
It was a kickoff to the seasonand then it ended up that we
were honored and we were namedone of the top renaissance
programs in the country and wewere flown to Washington DC, our
whole team, and we made a big,giant presentation at the
National Renaissance Conferencein Washington DC.
So National Trail and I stillhave that picture at home of
(47:02):
everybody and you know all theteachers that were in on it.
All the teachers were involved.
I mean, you know, even the onesthat weren't on the core
Renaissance team.
They all did a great job.
Our whole staff was excellent.
You know, we had great peopleat National Trail.
Had a great board.
I have nothing but good thingsto say about them all and just a
lot of good people there.
Speaker 2 (47:23):
Yeah, and I remember you coming in my senior year and
of course we had Matt Kemperwas our coach and he had been
there for three years and youknow we were starting to change.
My class was a pretty strongclass.
Especially our girls werereally good in volleyball and
basketball.
Um so you know things.
Uh, my senior year was, youknow, as as great as I think
(47:43):
anybody's could be, so and ithas a lot to do with you and the
leadership and everything.
So it's it's interesting for meto hear.
You know, I don't remember thePepsi thing, but I do remember
all the changes.
I remember the track we had asender track before that and
then we go to an all-weathertrack and the improvements to
the baseball field and all that.
(48:04):
You don't think about thatstuff as a kid, but now as an
adult, looking back, people wantnice things and as things get
nicer then people's appearancemaybe will improve, their, their
attitude will improve and andthings did Absolutely.
You talk about Preble Shawneeschool record being six and four
.
My senior year we tied theschool record, you did.
Speaker 4 (48:25):
Yeah, that's right.
I remember that kind of kind ofsimilar Um, it was Matt Kemper
and his staff did a great joboff and offing those guys.
Yeah, great, great staff.
Speaker 2 (48:35):
Yeah, no, that's awesome.
So you go from trail, youbecome principal at other
schools and then at some pointin time you make the jump to
superintendent.
Talk about that.
Speaker 4 (48:45):
Okay, Well, I retired .
I went from National Trail toTrotwood, Madison, where Jim
Brown hired me again Third time.
Must have liked something aboutme.
I was a freshman academyprincipal over there for three
years and then I went to PatrickHenry, which is in Northwest
(49:06):
Ohio.
As a principal I retired fromup there 2014.
I retired from there and then Igot a job at Bettsville
Bettsville Local School District.
Now, Bettsville was the secondsmallest school district in Ohio
, okay, and second to the islandPut-in-Bay oh yeah, Second to
(49:30):
that, Okay.
So the funny story about thatwas that was right when the Ohio
graduation tests were big.
So, like the first week ofschool, I wanted to talk to my
sophomores at the high schoolabout the OGT, which was the
Ohio graduation test, and howimportant it was.
So I get on the announcementsand I'd say, hey, I'd like to
(49:55):
meet with all the sophomorestudents.
I'll meet you in the gym hereat 10 o'clock or whatever it was
, and so you know, I'm thinkingwe always would have our
meetings with our classes in thegym, with their classes in the
gym, so they come down there,all 10 of them, All 10 of them,
(50:17):
and then that's when it reallyhit me oh yeah, I'm at the
smallest school district in Ohiobut it was good.
It was a good two years, whatit was and great.
And then they combined with OldFort School District because it
was so small and I told themthat I wasn't interested in
(50:38):
being a superintendent becausewe were moving back to Hamilton.
And then, when we moved back toHamilton in 2014, Hamilton City
Schools hired me as aadministrative support person,
which I went in and I would, youknow, sub basically for
principals and or I would workevery day with any of the
(50:59):
buildings that needed someadministrative support.
And then I was a drug andalcohol coordinator for Hamilton
and then I Most recently abouta year ago, I became the interim
superintendent at Union CountyCollege Corner School District
over there and had a really goodsemester there.
(51:22):
They offered me the job but Ididn't at the time, didn't want
to do it, but I spent a semesterthere and they got him a really
good person in after that.
It was just an interim position, but that was a semester there
and they got him a really goodperson in after that.
It was just an interim position, but that was a wonderful
position and again, I was justglad that in my career, I got to
experience the superintendencyas well.
Speaker 2 (51:43):
Yeah, that's awesome and your impact on kids is
evident.
One thing I want to talk aboutthat is kind of unique.
You know you played collegefootball but you had a couple
sons that played collegefootball and uh, we were talking
about that earlier because oneplayed at Virginia tech and uh
the the.
You know, I I.
(52:04):
My goal someday in life, when Ihave time, is to go to all the
different colleges, collegefootball stadiums and to to see
these entrances.
Sure, you know.
And Virginia Tech, you know.
They play Metallica's InnerSandman.
Speaker 1 (52:20):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (52:20):
It's going crazy.
I mean, I'm getting goosebumpsjust even thinking about it.
Your son plays there.
Mm-hmm, talk about that.
Speaker 4 (52:28):
Well, you know, I'll tell you something.
I probably saw Inner Sandmanlive probably 25, 30 times or
whatever, because we would go tomost of the home games almost
all of them probably and everysingle time that Inner Sandman
would start, of course,everybody's jumping in the
beginning and you can feel thestadium rocking.
(52:52):
You really can, and there'sbeen some.
They measured it on the.
Richter scale and all that kindof stuff, how loud it gets, and
I mean every single time.
There was never a time that Idid not have tears rolling down
my face, just pumped up.
I mean I could have gone outand played.
No, I guarantee it, it wouldhave been goal line defense for
(53:13):
one play and then the oxygentank.
But yeah, every single timejust chills running down your
spine and just tears rollingdown your eyes and just it's an
incredible thing.
And you know, my other sonplayed at Central Michigan and
I'll tell you what thatatmosphere up in Mount Ple
pleasant was unreal too.
(53:34):
Um, you know, some of the macschools they don't draw a whole
lot of people to their games,right, but central michigan was
one that it would be 25, 30 000every game in a 25 000 stadium
stadium, you know, and uh, andit was an incredible experience
as well.
And and, um, you know, cody'sfirst game that he started as a
(53:55):
starter was at the Big House inMichigan.
So that was quite an experience, you know.
And the other one with Colt.
You know, colt goes to VirginiaTech so we get invited down for
his official visit day and justreal quick.
You know, frank Beamer was alegendary coach at Virginia Tech
and just one of the finesthuman beings I've ever met in my
(54:18):
life.
And when we sat in his officefor about an hour, I mean I'm
just in a daze because it wasjust.
It's just so unbelievable.
You're sitting there with alegend and he's just so down to
earth and you know, if he wasjust sitting here with us he'd
just be a normal guy and I meanit was just incredible.
And Colt was.
(54:38):
You know, it's funny because wewere making a trip, a
recruiting trip, to all theplaces.
It was in the summer and allthe places before senior year,
and we were going to all theplaces that Colt had been
offered.
So we were making this trip andVirginia Tech was going to be
the first place that we went,and then we were going to go to
Marshall, and then we were goingto Kentucky and then Tennessee
(55:01):
and then Louisville and kind ofmaking a little swing.
And so when we left VirginiaTech, one of the last things
that one of the coaches that wasrecruiting him said to Colt was
well, you know, where are youlooking at and stuff like blah,
blah, blah.
But he says you know, I've gotthree offers out for offensive
(55:22):
linemen and I'm only going totake one of them.
Speaker 1 (55:26):
Now, that's a ploy, that a lot of staffs use.
Speaker 4 (55:29):
But anyway, that's what he said.
So we're on our way to Marshallafter we left there and Colt's
going.
You know, dad, what should I do?
And I said, well, let me askyou a question.
I said what if Colt called youright now and said, hey, I just
got a call from the kid inVirginia that accepted the offer
.
And he said, man, I'd bedevastated.
(55:51):
And I said, well, there's youranswer.
And we didn't have very goodservice.
So we pulled over into a gasstation and he got on a pay
phone or something or the otherand called the coach and
committed at that time.
But it was just a wonderfuleight years, basically, with the
(56:11):
boys.
Speaker 2 (56:13):
That's a pretty cool and unique experience.
I don't know that.
A lot of people you know all myNational Trail friends probably
don't know that, so that's areally unique thing.
So well, this is awesome.
As we start to land this plane,what advice would you give to
current or future school leadersto help them navigate the
(56:36):
challenges they face in today'seducational environment?
Because things today,especially post-COVID, are way
different than they were in 1997when I was in school, right?
So what advice do you give someof these administrators?
Speaker 4 (56:49):
Well, you know, the first thing is, you know, jim
Brown and some other people toldme a long time ago, when you
make decisions, what would thosedecisions look like if they're
on the front page of thenewspaper the next day?
And that should drive you intodoing what's right and what's
honest and integrity.
So much of my things, and it'sgotten me in trouble sometimes,
(57:12):
but honesty and integrity hasbeen, has been, my, my thing the
whole time.
You know, and I just, I justthink if you, if you work hard
we had a thing called TPR whenit's a Renaissance program and
up at Patrick Henry, one of thehigh schools, at work program
and TPR stands for treat peopleright, and you know, if you
(57:33):
treat people the right way, youknow, I think a lot of things
are going to work out prettywell for you.
You know, and, and you know youneed to listen.
I wasn't always a great listener, you know, I was always a doer
and and you know, a lot of timesI had a thing of, well, my way
(57:55):
is the right way to do it andthat wasn't always the right way
.
And you have to be able tolisten to people, you have to
input and you have to reallyappreciate the input that you
get from people.
And there's a lot of goodprograms out there, people, and
(58:17):
you know there's a lot of goodprograms out there, um, but if
you can't execute those programsand if you can't motivate the
people around you to execute theprograms that you're wanting to
install um, then then you'refighting behind the eight ball a
little bit and um.
So I I think you know, thebiggest thing that I always
tried to do and wasn't alwayssuccessful at it, but tried my
(58:38):
hardest always was honesty,integrity, do the right thing.
And, as cliched as it sounds, isit best for kids?
Right, is it best for kids?
Because there was a lot oftimes that I had to do things.
Well, I was told to do thingsby, maybe, board members or
(59:02):
whatever.
That I didn't feel was best forkids and I wouldn't do them and
I would hold to my principlesand sometimes that didn't work
out so well for me.
Speaker 1 (59:11):
But that's okay.
Speaker 4 (59:12):
I'd look back on it now and I wouldn't change a
thing.
But that's okay, I'd look backon it now and I wouldn't change
a thing.
Speaker 2 (59:16):
Well, that's good you talk about listening.
God gives you two ears and onemouth.
Oh yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 4 (59:22):
And that's the other thing.
I read my Bible every morningand I ask God to please guide me
today.
I thank you for another day andguide me.
You know everything that comesout of my mouth, I want it to be
something that glorifies you,and I just want to live the
right way and I want to helpother people and et cetera, et
(59:44):
cetera.
So, you know, and that's theway to try to live.
And, speaking of that, wedidn't get to touch on it, but
in two places that I went, I gotto start a Fellowship of
Christian Athletes program.
Okay, places that I went, I gotto start a Fellowship of
Christian Athletes program andthat was just very rewarding.
You know, we had a lot ofpeople that uh, uh, it really
helped turn their lives aroundand things like that.
So, um, so that was, that wassomething I was really proud of
(01:00:05):
as well.
Speaker 2 (01:00:06):
That's, that's awesome.
What legacy do you hope to haveleft behind in the communities
that you've served?
Speaker 4 (01:00:14):
Well, you know, I hope that what they say is you
know what he turned thingsaround here.
Maybe he really pushed us toanother level.
And when I say he, you know, Ialways mean the people that work
with me, not for me.
(01:00:34):
I always say the people thatwork with me because I couldn't
do anything by myself, but Ijust hope that I always want to
leave a place better than whenyou got there.
You want to leave it better thanwhat it was, and so I think
that's the main thing, yeahthat's great, and so that's.
Speaker 2 (01:00:55):
I think that's the main thing.
Yeah, that's great.
Any closing thoughts, any wordsof wisdom, any goal or not
goals, but any quotes thatresonate with you on a daily
basis or that have got youthrough some challenging times
that you could share with ourlisteners.
Speaker 4 (01:01:06):
Sure, you know, jim Place has me over to talk to
some of his classes over atUniversity of Dayton.
You know, of course, jim was onthe show a few weeks ago and
one of the things that I do inthe presentations up there, as I
say from a teacher'sperspective, is you know, they
may not remember what you taughtthem, but they'll always
(01:01:29):
remember how you treated them.
Speaker 1 (01:01:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (01:01:32):
And that was, you know, just always something that
stuck with me and alwayssomething that I tried to pass
on to all the teachers.
You know again, Dan, do youremember what you did in math
class?
No, but you probably rememberyou know those teachers that you
had in high school, in collegeor whatever that you remember
(01:01:56):
how they treated you.
As a matter of fact, I actuallyhad a teacher in high school
one time and she was a prettymean lady and she actually said
to me one day she said, you know, you're never going to amount
to anything.
Speaker 3 (01:02:15):
That's what she told me.
Speaker 4 (01:02:16):
And okay, okay, maybe she's right, who knows.
And that was what I swear.
Well, a few years later, when Iwas working for Hamilton, I
went back for an in-service andthere she was and I went up to
her and I said you know, hey,mrs, do you remember me?
I'm Greg Pettit.
And I said you know, I justwanted you to know that you were
(01:02:40):
a little bit wrong.
I said I've got my master's andI'm working on my doctor's
degree and, a little bit cocky,I probably didn't even say
anything to her.
But you know, the point of thatis, why would you say that to
somebody?
You know, why would you saythat to a kid?
And so I always tried tonothing but positive.
(01:03:02):
You know, really and truly as aprincipal I would have, and you
knew some of these kids, youknow, at Trail and some of the
other places, but some of thelowest acting kids, kids that
got in trouble all the time,couldn't stay out of trouble
with the law or whatever, someof them were my favorite kids.
Speaker 2 (01:03:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (01:03:19):
They really were, you know, because you know it just
felt like that.
We and to this day I've hadsome of them contact me, you
know, and say, hey, thanks, andthat's really what it's all
about.
I had a girl, one of my formerstudents, maybe a year or so ago
, you know.
She called me on the phone andsaid you know, I just want you
(01:03:42):
to know, mr Pettit, you rememberthat day that you talked to me
because I was down, because blah, blah, blah, this, that and the
other, and I said, yeah, I saidI do remember that.
And she said, well, you helpedme so much that day and I
thought, well, you know, good,I'm so glad about that and, and
you know, I always knew that youwould be successful and and
things like that.
(01:04:03):
She says, no, you don'tunderstand.
She says I was, I was really totake my life.
Wow, he said that's how down Iwas.
Speaker 2 (01:04:10):
And she said you're the reason I didn't, and you
know stuff like that.
Speaker 4 (01:04:16):
Well, that's an impact.
You know stuff like that.
You know really, uh knows thatyou can have an impact on kids.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:04:19):
And that's, that's powerful, and you know, when
we're we're kind of trying to dothe same thing with this
podcast and you know, andgetting getting stories like
yours out and there's there's somany good people in this world
and and all we see, if you watchany news which I don't, but if
you do is negative, negative,negative and and people like you
who have made a massive impacton countless who knows how many
(01:04:43):
numbers of kids, just like thosewho made an impact on you, like
Mr Brown right.
Um, all, the, the, the teachersthat that were part of your team
, and all those differentschools.
That's what life's all about,right?
Speaker 1 (01:04:58):
It's all about helping others.
Speaker 2 (01:04:59):
It's all about helping kids, especially the
kids.
You know Ben and I are veryinvolved in our kids' lives and
coaching youth and you knowtrying to help high schoolers
here and there and even if it'sjust, you know, every morning
I'm at the Y with my two boysworking out and you know there's
high school kids in thereshooting hoops and doing things.
Man, hey, it's great to see youin here at five in the morning.
(01:05:22):
You're going to come in herebefore school and get your shots
in or get your workout, and Imean that's.
You just never know what thosekids go to go home to.
Speaker 4 (01:05:30):
Oh, absolutely, you know, especially in the role
that I'm in now at Hamilton.
You know high poverty level inHamilton now a lot different
than it was, you know, 40 yearsago or whatever.
And you know again, part of myrole right now is the director
of football operations and Ireally look forward to it,
because most of my work happensin the offseason and that is.
(01:05:51):
You know, I'm getting readyright now to have my meetings
with the seniors right now Okay.
Where, where.
What are you doing?
Are you going into the military?
Are you going to college?
Are you going into the workworld?
Whatever it is you're doing,I'm here to help you find that
way.
We're helping with resumes,we're helping with everything
you know, whatever it is thatthey want to do, and so that's a
(01:06:12):
big part of it, and I reallyenjoy that.
I really enjoy it because,again, you can have a great
impact.
If you have a great impact withjust one kid, it's totally
worth it.
Speaker 3 (01:06:23):
Absolutely, totally worth it 100%.
You got anything to add?
No, I just love it so much.
I mean the whole conversationtoday about building and how Mr
Brown affected you so much.
And then a couple years later,you're yeah, you're leaving for
another job and a player hasthat same, basically the same
feeling about you, you know, andthe passion you had for that
kid and that young man, andthat's what it's all about I've
(01:06:46):
been so blessed, it's justunbelievable.
Speaker 2 (01:06:49):
Yeah, yes, you know from from growing up with?
uh, sounds like the um, theDisney world of backyards you
know, to getting into the circus, to going into high school and
be handed a ragged jersey youknow, player number 76 when
there's only 75 jerseys.
(01:07:09):
That changes your lifeAbsolutely.
That changes your lifeAbsolutely and motivates you to
go from maybe the worst footballplayer on the team to probably
one of the best by the time youwere a senior, to go into
college, to go, you know, intobroadcasting and then to become
a teacher, just because Mr Brownsaw something in you.
Speaker 4 (01:07:32):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (01:07:33):
And then the leadership that you took from
there to all these differentschools and teaching and being a
principal and then asuperintendent.
Now, now, you know I I wouldimagine right now has probably
got to be just an enjoyable timebecause you got your, you know
your kids are through school,you live that amazing eight
years watching your boys playfootball.
Now you got grandkids.
Now you're still involved infootball, which is a passion and
(01:07:56):
and, and you know, affectingyoung men in a in a positive way
.
I mean your life is full.
Speaker 4 (01:08:04):
It sure is.
And you know we mentioned myboys, but I'll tell you my
daughter, you know she has fourof the grandkids and, uh, four
of her own children, mygrandkids, and uh, and she's
just incredible.
I, you know, and I of her ownchildren, my grandkids, and
she's just incredible, you know,and I told her this a couple
weeks ago.
I said you know what?
You are the nanny of our family, and what I meant by that is
they used to call my mom nannyand my mom was just a wonderful
(01:08:28):
woman as far as being thepeacemaker, being the one that
holds everything together andstuff, and that's what my
daughter's doing now and youknow that's bigger than football
and anything else, you know,and so she does a great job.
Her name's Kayla, but you knowshe went to National Trail for a
little bit, and so did Cody,before we moved and stuff.
(01:08:51):
And Kayla actually was ready tograduate from Eaton when I
moved her her senior year, andyou know so I was the worst dad
in the world for about twomonths, but anyway.
Speaker 2 (01:09:02):
I've been blessed.
I've been blessed.
Well, mr Greg Pettit, Iappreciate you making the trek
from Hamilton to come up hereand spend time with us in the
studio.
It's it's been great seeing you.
It's been great hearing yourstory.
You, you, you had a an impacton my life, my senior year when
you came into trail and um, youknow I I'm grateful for you and
(01:09:23):
for your, for your mentorship,um, not only to me, but to to
anyone who's come in contactwith you.
Speaker 4 (01:09:28):
Well, thank you so much.
It's just a, uh, an honor to behere and and I hope I can keep
on doing some good in life, andyou will, and you will.
Speaker 3 (01:09:38):
Hamilton's blessed to have you.
Speaker 2 (01:09:40):
Well, thank you very much, For sure.
Well, everybody, thank you forlistening.
We always appreciate your ears.
And again, we ask you know,especially if you know Mr Pettit
and you were impacted by him inyour years prior and even if
you weren't, maybe you're ateacher, maybe you're an
administrator out there who'sgained some knowledge by his
experience Be sure to share theshow with those who you think it
(01:10:03):
can impact, because itdefinitely can.
So everybody go out and betempered.
Speaker 1 (01:10:08):
Hi, my name is Allie Schmidt.
This is my dad, dan.
He owns Cajun's Glass.
Thanks, allie.
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it's your home, you expect morelike the great service and
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(01:10:29):
and services.
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Locally owned, with localemployees for nearly 30 years.
Hi, my name is Allie Schmidt.
This is my dad, dan.
He owns Catron's Glass.
Thanks, allie.
Things like doors and windowsgo into making a house, but when
it's your home, you expect morelike the great service and
selection you'll get fromCatron's Glass.
Final replacement windows fromCatron's come with a lifetime
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Also ask for custom showerdoors and many other products
(00:20):
and services.
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kitchen's best, the clear choice.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Welcome to the Be Tempered Podcast, where we
explore the art of findingbalance in a chaotic world.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Join us as we delve into insightful conversations,
practical tips and inspiringstories to help you navigate
life's ups and downs with graceand resilience.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
We're your hosts, Dan Schmidt and Ben Spahr.
Let's embark on a journey tolive our best lives.
This is what's up everybody,welcome to the Be Tempered
podcast, episode number 29,.
29, rolling right along.
We have a super inspirationalman in here today, someone who
(01:04):
was my high school principal mysenior year.
He's been a superintendent.
He's a retired superintendentand principal in Ohio.
His name is Greg Pettit, andGreg has served in several
administration positions sincehis retirement in 2014.
He's completed teacherevaluations for several school
districts in Indiana and Ohioand he's also a motivational
(01:27):
speaker and his topic is Be theTeacher of the Year in your
Students' Eyes.
And he has earned numerousaccolades and appearances at
several schools and universitiesand, as we've discussed here
earlier, he's also coached a lotof sports, a lot of football,
and is currently helping atHamilton High School.
So, mr Greg Pettit, we welcomeyou to the V-Temper podcast
(01:50):
Welcome.
Speaker 4 (01:50):
Thank you so much.
It's just a real honor to behere.
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Yeah, we appreciate you making the trek, especially
to come up here in person, andit's great to see you after
20-some years and you look great.
You look just like I rememberyou in high school.
Oh my goodness.
Speaker 4 (02:08):
Have you had your eyes checked, but I appreciate
that.
I really miss you and yourfamily and all the National
Trail people, and it's justgreat to be here.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Yeah well, we're glad to have you and excited for you
to share your story.
So with that would you give usa little background of kind of
growing up and then we'll getinto you.
Know what got you intoeducation?
Speaker 4 (02:29):
Okay, sure, well, I was born in Hamilton, ohio, grew
up in Hamilton.
My mom and dad were justhardworking blue collar people.
Actually, my mom was a whatthey called back in the day,
just a home body.
My mom was what they calledback in the day, just a homebody
.
Home mom.
She took care of things aroundthe house and she was just
(02:52):
somebody that taught me respectand manners and et cetera, et
cetera.
And my dad was a machinist, andsometimes you talk about
absentee fathers.
Well, my dad kind of was, butit wasn't for the reasons that
you might think.
I mean, my dad worked two jobspretty much my whole life, or as
(03:13):
a child anyway.
And so you know, six days aweek, you know he'd go into one
job in the morning and work asecond shift job, and so I would
only see him a lot of times ifI stayed up late at night or
when he got home from thatsecond shift machinist job, um
and or uh on on sundays, uh anduh.
(03:33):
You know, taught me a lot awork ethic.
You know, when I was growing updidn't really realize it.
You know, kind of how comedad's not at my games or
whatever.
But then you know, as you getolder, you know you realize he's
putting food on the table, yeahand uh.
So it taught me a lot about, uh, hard work and dedication.
And you know I had, uh, twobrothers and two sisters, all
older.
Uh, I was a baby, um and uh,just uh great people and I love
(03:59):
them to death and and um, uh, sothat's pretty much.
I grew up in Hamilton.
You know kind of a funny story.
I grew up in a neighborhood butin my backyard was a paradise,
basically because behind myhouse was about 10 to 15 acres
(04:20):
and it was a woods.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
There was a lot of young people who don't know what
this is, but there was asoapbox derby track.
Do you guys remember soapboxderby?
Speaker 4 (04:31):
Okay, it's kind of a thing of the past now, but back
in the day it was a big deal andso soapbox derby track in the
backyard, basically a baseballfield and a public swimming pool
.
So you know, I grew up thinkingthat every kid in America had a
soapbox derby track in theirbackyard, you know, but it was
(04:52):
just a wonderful childhood, youknow, really and truly.
We didn't have a whole lot ofmoney, but we were rich.
You know we never went withoutand it was just a great
childhood, great childhood, andyou know.
So I went to Lincoln ElementarySchool, wilson Junior High
School and Taft High School andand and so it was.
(05:15):
It was just a great place togrow up.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Yeah, yeah, sounds like it to have that in your
backyard, If you want to goswimming.
You go swimming If you wantedto do the derby car.
I mean, that's amazing.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
Absolutely, and you know pretty much.
That was our life growing up asa child in the 60s and early
70s and it was basically, youknow, football out in the field
behind us, baseball and swimmingand running around the woods.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Everything any kid would dream of.
Speaker 4 (05:46):
Yeah, you know, and I waited the longest time to tell
people this, but there was alsoespecially my kids to tell them
this until they were older.
But there was a railroad trackthat ran behind our yard as well
, way back by the woods, and afriend of mine and I, you know,
we used to jump the trains and,and a friend of mine and I, you
know, we used to jump the trainsand ride those trains, you know
(06:07):
it was.
It was crazy and stupid anddangerous and but yeah, we'd
ride him for about a mile andthen jump off, and you know.
So I'm lucky to be here, Iguess for sure.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Now we were talking about this earlier, you you had
posted a picture on Facebook ofyou on, I believe, an eight-foot
unicycle.
Yes, what's that all about?
Speaker 4 (06:31):
Well, I'll tell you what it was amazing.
At Lincoln Elementary School wehad a gym teacher that moved up
from Sarasota Florida and hisname was Jim Smith, and Sarasota
Florida was the home ofRingling Brothers Barnum Bailey
Circus.
And so, mr Smith, he started agroup called the Mini Circus and
(06:55):
anybody that is familiar withthe Mini Circus will tell you
that it was an amazing thing.
I mean, we did everything thata circus did, including trapeze.
You know, my sister rode a sixon a bicycle where she would
pedal the bicycle and theseacrobats would do all kinds of
(07:17):
things hanging on the bicycleand, of course, the unicycles
Tumbling things like that, butunicycles.
I got to the point where I rodea 10-foot unicycle.
I rode in parades.
I rode at the LouisvilleGardens at halftime show.
(07:37):
We did halftime shows at theCincinnati Royals basketball
games back in the day, so it wassomething else and to this day,
if they could build a unicyclebig enough for me, I think I
could get on a unicycle and rideit if my knees didn't give out
or whatever.
But yeah, it was great.
As a matter of fact, a few yearsafter that, now we're talking
(08:01):
about mainly about elementaryschool kids.
After that, now we're talkingmainly about elementary school
kids, aids kids or junior highkids for the most part, and some
high school kids.
But a few years after that,five or six years after that, we
actually had a guy named DannyHaynes set the world record for
riding the tallest unicycle atthe time, and I forget I think
(08:23):
it was a 30-footer or somethinglike that, but they did it in
the Champion Union Hall parkinglot in Hamilton and he had a
harness on him for safety andthey built this unicycle, but it
was a world record at the time.
Wow, that's crazy.
And so the Hamilton Mini Circuswas just an unbelievable thing
for young people.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
You had me at 10 feet .
I'm thinking like a basketballhoop, like sitting on it riding
a bike.
Yeah, 30.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
And you know what?
I rode a eight foot unicycle ina parade downtown Hamilton and
I fell off of it.
And if you've ever fallen off aunicycle, it's not fun.
For the most part you comestraight down and you're laying
on your feet, kind of like aparachutist, I guess you could
say.
But it's still not fun.
And that was the one time thatI did take a spill.
(09:08):
So it was downtown Hamilton,but anyway it was a great
experience.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Yeah, so your childhood.
I mean, that sounds likeanything any child would dream
of.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
Yeah, and you know, and at the time of course you
just think that it's normal andyou think that everybody in
America is doing this stuff.
But you know, looking back onit, it was unique.
Yeah, for sure, very unique.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
So you go through that whole experience amazing
experience as a kid.
You get into high school.
Talk about high school a littlebit.
Speaker 4 (09:38):
You know, high school is really where my trajectory,
I guess you could say, reallychanged as far as what I wanted
to do.
Because going into high schoolI think I felt like most of the
boys and girls not necessarilygirls as far as champion paper
goes, but I thought, you know, Iwould just graduate and go to
work at champion paper or one ofthe big paper mills in Hamilton
or Beckett paper, or else I'dgo into the service.
(09:59):
I wasn't really thinking aboutcollege or anything.
And then that's where it allchanged.
I was a football player TaftHigh School at the time, which
is Hamilton High School now TaftHigh School.
Hamilton Taft High School wasgrades 10 through 12.
And I was a sophomore and I wason the JV football team and
(10:19):
barely, barely started for theJV football team Wasn't very
good player.
Barely started for the JVfootball team, wasn't a very
good player, average, I guessyou could say average football
player.
And so you know how everyfootball team has a parents'
night.
You know where they introduceyour parents and things like
that.
So, second game of the season.
And again, keep in mind, Ibarely started on the JV team,
(10:43):
so I wasn't real good.
And so we get to parents' nightand we come out and we warm up,
you know, and we go back intothe locker room where our head
coach, coach Bob Muschietti, hesurprised us with brand-new
jerseys.
So we're out there in our oldjerseys warming up, and when we
(11:06):
come in we put on brand-newjerseys, okay.
So we line up at the equipmentroom to get our new jerseys real
quick and get them on, becausewe got a game to play and the
seniors go first, of course, andthe juniors, and you know, here
they come holding up their newjerseys and man, oh man, look at
these, you know, andeverybody's all jacked up and
pumped up because these jerseysare awesome.
And so, finally, the sophomores, you know, we get up there and
(11:30):
again, my buddies are turningaround and holding up their
jerseys.
Yeah, they're all jacked up andpumped up.
And I get up there and the coachI'm number 58, okay.
And the equipment manager,whoever it was at the time, he
handed me this old, raggednumber 57 jersey and I go well,
(11:53):
sir, I'm number 58.
And he said, well, this is whatyou get tonight.
And I turn around and I'mbummed out.
I'm going why don't I get a newjersey?
I'm bummed out, I'm going whatyou know why don't I get a new
jersey?
And I turn around and, walkingback to the locker, and the guys
after me are getting the newjerseys and and all this stuff
and and um, and you know, as, onmy on my way back to get
(12:16):
dressed, there's a few snickersand, you know, laughing at me a
little bit and and I'membarrassed.
You know, I'm going what youknow what the heck is going on
here.
So we get down to the lineupfor the pictures and I'm sitting
there thinking to myself, I'mlooking around, everybody's got
on these new jerseys that sentme and I'm lining up with my mom
(12:40):
and dad and my dad and themthey could tell that I'm
embarrassed.
And you know, uh, before I goon, you know, uh, these days, as
a superintendent or as aprincipal, you know I'd be
getting a call from parents.
How dare you, how can you putmy son, you know, in a ragged
(13:01):
jersey and and all that kind ofstuff, because that's the way
things were or things arenowadays unfortunately.
But my dad looked at me and hesays well, son, he says it looks
to me like you better work alittle harder.
And I made up my mind thatnight I was so mad I said I'll
(13:23):
never wear a ragged jersey again.
And that was the night I becamea football player.
I mean, the next day, the nextmorning, we didn't have a
reserve game.
The next day, the next morningI got out of bed early and it
was right in front of HamiltonTaft High School, which is now
Hamilton High School.
There's Eaton Road Hill.
I don't know if you've everbeen down it, it's a Huge hill.
(13:44):
So my buddy, jerry Lauer helived right behind the high
school and his family wasmasonry people, they were
bricklayers and they always hadbricks laying around the yard
and stuff.
And so I went over and Igrabbed a couple of bricks and I
started running up and downEaton Road Hill.
I started working out and again, I was never going to wear a
ragged jersey again.
(14:05):
Yeah and um, and I mean I now,when I was working out, we had a
universal gym.
Yeah, you guys may be too youngto remember universal gym, or
do you?
I remember?
Okay, so it's just a littleunit, blah, blah, blah.
But man, I started working outand I wore that thing out and at
the time of the ragged jerseyincident I was probably 5'10",
(14:30):
5'11", about 175 pounds orwhatever.
Well, I worked hard the wholewinter and suddenly I hit a
growth spurt, roseburg, and byApril of that year, of next year
, I was 6'2" and about 2'10".
I'd grown that much and I'dgotten so much stronger and
(14:52):
everything else, and by the endof the football season too, I'd
gotten a lot better, just fromworking out hard.
And then the moment changed mylife.
It was in May after that yearand Coach Muschietti and Coach
Merz, I got called down to CoachTerry Merz, just a great mentor
(15:13):
to me, and Coach Bob Muschietti, again our head coach, was just
a great mentor to me.
I got called down to his office.
And you know, if you got calleddown to Coach Muschietti's
office it usually wasn't good.
Okay, and so I'm all the waydown there.
What did I do?
I don't think I did anythingwrong, et cetera, et cetera.
And you know, we get down tothe office and they sit me down
(15:36):
and Coach Muschietti and CoachMurs, they both said Greg, they
said we want to know if you'vebeen thinking about where you're
going to go to college and playcollege football and the first
thing that came to my mind was,no, I really haven't.
But they said, well, that'swhat you're going to do and
(15:57):
we've seen how hard you'reworking, so you're going to be a
great player for us and we wantyou to start thinking about
going to college and getting adegree and playing college
football.
And I said, okay, coach, that'swhat I'll start doing.
And then fast forward to thenext football season.
That was my junior year.
(16:18):
I was all GMC first team, allGMC player center, and again we
talked earlier, dan, that theGMC is truly one of the best
conferences in Ohio.
I mean, you know you're talkingPrinceton and Fairfield and
Lakota, the Lakotas andMiddletowns, and you know
Coleraine, you know back in theday, all the state titles and
(16:41):
everything, but you know apretty good football conference.
And so I was All-League and Iwas All-League the next year and
got some state honors andthings like that.
And then suddenly I'm gettingrecruited and suddenly I was
fortunate enough, I got to take,you know, a few visits and had
a few offers and ended upaccepting an offer to go to Kent
(17:03):
State and play football at KentState, and so that kind of
started me on my journey togoing to college, getting a
degree, and that's what led meinto education.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
What an awesome story .
So my question is when youthink back to that uniform being
handed to you, do you think itwas intentional?
Do you think they were tryingto spark something in you, or
they just didn't have thatnumber, you know?
Speaker 4 (17:32):
I, you know, I don't really know.
All I know is how it affectedme.
Oh, yeah, yeah and um, and soI'm not really sure.
Uh, I, I think I heard a littlewhile later uh, you know, I
think we had 76 guys on the teamand I think they had 75 jerseys
, okay, I think.
But the only thing that went inmy head was it wasn't about
(17:54):
they didn't have my number orthey didn't have this.
The only thing I was thinkingof was they must think that I'm
the worst player on the team,and it did.
It sparked me.
I mean, you know, from then on,I was never going to wear the
ragged Jersey again.
Yeah and uh, and I wasfortunate enough a few years
back to to get inducted into theHamilton hall of fame uh, in
athletic hall of fame, and um,and I told that story because it
(18:19):
it changed my life.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
And it's super impactful and I hope that any
any young kid listening to thisright now.
You know, like I think of myson, who's a freshman in high
school.
He's 125 pounds and he'shitting the weight room Just you
know, you try to encourage himand encourage him, and you never
know how an instance like thatis going to affect someone
because it could have easilywent the other way.
Oh, absolutely.
Yeah, you could you could havesaid ah, this is what you think
(18:41):
of me, I'm done and I quit, andwho knows where your life would
be now.
Speaker 4 (18:43):
Sure, and you know, in my current position as the
director of football operationsfor Hamilton, you know I've told
that story and Harvey Crouch,our head coach, has asked me to
tell that story a few times andI've told it to our younger kids
.
And last year I remember thissophomore kid that was a lot
like me and he wasn't playingand he was frustrated and wasn't
(19:07):
getting to play and stuff and Itold him that story and this
year that kid is an all-GMClineman this year.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
That's awesome.
Speaker 4 (19:14):
And I don't know if it was because of my story he
worked pretty hard, yeah.
But you know, yeah, you neverknow what switch you're going to
switch on a kid or turn on to akid, and that's what I've
really tried to do my whole life.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
So that go ahead Ben.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
Oh no, I was going to say, hopefully some parents
hear that story too.
Yes, you know, you talk abouthow parents back then.
Hey, maybe you need to work alittle bit harder, you know.
Speaker 4 (19:40):
You know absolutely, and you know, and obviously as a
principal superintendent, youknow I've dealt with a lot of
parents and and you know all ofthem are good, they really are,
they've all.
All of them have a good intheir hearts and you know, some
of them just go about things adifferent way and things like
that.
But yeah, you're absolutelyright, I've, I've always tried
to.
You know.
Again, you know we talked aboutthis earlier.
(20:00):
It just seems like I justalways want to help people if I
can.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
So well, and being affected like that with a, with
a story like that, it's, it's,it's awesome to see how it
projected you.
So you go to Kent state and andso I decide, you decide your
major is going to be uh.
Speaker 4 (20:17):
I decided to major in broadcasting uh, believe it or
not.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
Uh, to prepare for this moment, to prepare for for
today?
Speaker 4 (20:25):
Actually, TV and radio.
But you know, backing up, Iforgot to mention this In high
school, at Taft High School, weactually had a radio TV program
and you would go to radio, yourjunior year, TV, your senior
year.
You'd do radio for four periodsa day and then you'd take your
academic subjects the rest ofthe day.
We had our own radio stationand everything and it was
(20:45):
awesome.
You know, because I'm a musicfanatic, I love music, play
guitar Not very well, but playguitar and stuff and just love
music, and so that was awesome.
So yeah, I went on to major inthat.
Actually I went to Kent Statefor one year, Quite frankly
didn't like it at Kent State andI transferred to Eastern
Kentucky and Roy Kied, legendarycoach at Eastern Kentucky
(21:11):
Actually Eastern Kentucky, 79,80, 81, 82, played in the
national championship game,Division I, AA, and won it twice
.
Long story short, unfortunately, at the end or in the spring of
my sophomore year at EasternKentucky I had my fifth
concussion and that ended mycareer.
(21:33):
Even back then the doctors weresaying you know, you shouldn't
play football anymore and it wasa rough day.
It really was.
But I went on to graduate fromEastern Kentucky, had a major,
again, a degree in broadcasting.
But my last semester of collegeat Eastern Kentucky I got a call
(21:55):
from Dale Robertson, who was ahead football coach at Hamilton
High School, and he wanted me tocome in and coach for him.
And so at that time I startedthinking, okay, well, first of
all, I accepted the job andsecond of all, and I decided
that, oh, maybe I want to gointo coaching and teaching, and
so I took some classes my lastsemester, but I went ahead and
(22:17):
got my degree in broadcastingand then I went into the season
as a.
I was hired as a hall monitorwhile I was going back to school
getting the rest of my creditsfor my teaching degree.
And that's where another twistin my life happened, Because,
(22:38):
going into coaching my firstyear as a young 21 years old,
actually, I was my wife and Ihad just gotten married, right
before that, in July, and had aone-day honeymoon where we were
at the Marriott in Springdale,Ohio, and I was back and it's a
(22:59):
funny story, I was back on thegarbage truck Monday morning
because my summer job was I wasa garbage man for the city of
Hamilton, and so that was myhoneymoon back on the garbage
truck and my wife also went backto her summer job.
But we both ended up back on thegarbage truck and my wife also
went back to her summer job, butwe both ended up, uh, uh,
that's where the twist came in.
So so Dale Robertson hired meas a football coach and now they
(23:20):
need I needed a job, uh,basically for the school systems
and but I didn't have ateaching degree yet.
So, um.
So Dale said or uh, they said,well, we want you to interview
for this hall monitor's positionover at Garfield Junior High.
And that's when I went in and Imet one of the guys that
(23:40):
influenced my life more thananybody, principal named Jim
Brown.
Mr James Brown and if you talkto anybody that knows of him,
with Jim Place, who you had onthe show last week, we'll tell
you all about Jim as well.
But anybody that's ever been inHamilton, he is the goat of
education in the history ofHamilton, greatest of all time,
(24:01):
and he was the principal atGarfield Junior High.
And so I go in to interview him.
I've never met him before.
I go in to interview with him.
And here's what he said to meright off the bat.
He said if we can get you inhere.
We're going to be great, reallywe're going to be great.
And I get a little choked up.
I want to talk about it.
(24:24):
Um, he's a great man, but andthen so so he hired me and so
I'm the hallmark.
But here I am thinking, okay,I'm probably at the lowest
position in the school system,okay, and this guy's telling me
that you're going to be great,you know, if they get me.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
So, and and I imagine for you, you know, and I, we
can see the emotion, which whichI love because you know, you're
talking how many years ago yeah, that was 1983 and look at how
it's, how, how much it impactedyour life for someone like him,
who who is, you know, theMichael Jordan of of Hamilton
(25:04):
school system absolutely to lookat you and to say, if we get
you, we're going to be great.
Speaker 4 (25:09):
yeah, I, how how that impacted you and look at what
you've done Absolutely, and thenyou know so.
So I go about doing my jobevery day, uh, with that passion
in mind for him.
Yeah, I'll do anything for him,you know Absolutely.
And um.
So and he taught me because,backing up a little bit, when I
(25:31):
first started coaching footballbefore I went to work for him, I
just thought that footballcoaching was all about yelling,
screaming and being a hard coreand this, that and the other
around Jim Brown, I startedrealizing how positive
(25:55):
reinforcement and being positivewith kids, telling them how
good they are, how good they canbe, is the key.
Yes, the leadership it reallyis.
Still having discipline, ofcourse, yeah, but telling these,
telling them how to, how to bepositive individuals and be
(26:15):
positive with the kids, andthat's the way I coached and
that's the way I taught fromthen on.
And so he really had a bigimpact on my life and he has a
lot of people.
I'm not the only one that wouldtell you a story about Jim.
He's just a great man.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
Yeah, what a fantastic story and sounds like
a fantastic man, so.
So so you're the hall monitor,you're, you're, uh, you know an
assistant football coach, andand and things start progressing
.
Speaker 4 (26:41):
Your life, you're married, children yes, yes, I am
, I'm gonna blow my nose.
Oh and um, yes, I am, I.
I have three children my wifeFawn best thing that ever
happened to me, without question, anybody who knows her will
(27:02):
tell you that and my wife Fawn,she was a teacher for 30 years.
She traveled around with me toassume my different jobs that I
had and she was a teacher inHamilton actually for 15 years
and then the other places, for atotal of 30.
My daughter, kayla.
I have a son Cody and a sonColt Colt's, the youngest at 28
(27:24):
right now and Kayla is 37 now, Ithink, or 38, something like
that.
And you know, as time goes on,you kind of lose track.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
Well, I've got six grandkids too.
You say that I want to makesure my kids hear that, because
everybody I have five kids andeverybody always asks me is
their age?
And I always have to like okay,I got to start in order and go
backwards.
Absolutely, I feel youAbsolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 4 (27:51):
But yeah, they've, uh , uh.
They're all very successful.
Take after their mom.
They're great kids.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Yeah, so you're moving on up and finally you get
your teaching degree.
I did, I did.
Speaker 4 (28:06):
As a matter of fact, I was going back to get my
teaching degree and my master'sand for some reason it just
clicked, and I have no idea why.
But I just felt like, well, Ihave to get my teaching degree
and my master's.
And for some reason it justclicked, and I have no idea why.
But I just felt like, well, Ihave to get everything, I have
to get my master's, I have toget my doctorate, I have to do
it all.
A big reason for that isbecause the State Department of
Education started changingthings.
(28:27):
It used to be right before Istarted if you had a master's
degree, you could be anadministrator.
Before I started, if you had amaster's degree, you could be an
administrator.
Okay, but now, right, right,when I was right in the middle
of it, they changed everythingto where you had.
Not only did you have to haveyour master's, but you had to
have 15 hours above that.
And then they changed it to youhad to have 15 hours above that
(28:47):
to be a superintendent.
So, as my wife will tell you,I've been.
I was in school forever, youforever.
I was at Xavier working on mymaster's and my teacher's
certificate, and then I went toMiami working on my doctor's
degree, which I did not completebecause I didn't have to I
started realizing that all thesesuperintendents were getting
(29:10):
hired.
They didn't have their doctor'sdegree.
So I was about done with goingto school as a student anyway,
because it was taking quite abit of time.
But what happened, too, was Iwas very fortunate as I was
working.
I was at Hamilton for two yearsand then I went to New Miami
and I had an opportunity to notonly get a full-time teaching
(29:32):
job but they also would allowthat to be my student teaching
okay.
So so that was fortunate there,and and that leads into another
another story and and leadsinto some of the other stuff
that that you know we're talkingabout here, because this is all
about ultimately, it's allabout leadership and helping
other people and helping kids,and a lot of this stuff is how I
(29:55):
learned to do that, and thenthere'll be some stories of me
doing that.
But and you know I'm nothingspecial, but it's just that you
know that was always been mything.
I just really wanted to help,especially young people, young
students, and so anyway.
So at New Miami, I have taughtthere one year and I had a
football player who was anoffensive tackle, a good player,
(30:19):
a great kid, hard worker, this,that and the other.
And so end of the summer, youknow, I've been working with
this kid and other kids andhelping them any way I can the
weight room, et cetera, etcetera.
But three weeks before thefootballs, or three weeks before
two-a-days were to start in1986, I was still at New Miami
(30:44):
and I get a call from PrebleShawnee and Preble Shawnee, one
of their coaches, had just quit,three weeks or two weeks before
two before two days wassupposed to start, and they
wanted to know if I would takethe head coaching job.
And I'm 24 years old.
And and then one of thecoaching guys in one of the
(31:05):
coaching associations said well,that would make you the
youngest head coach in Ohio.
And I said, okay, well, prebleShawnee at the time had won two
games in the last six years orsomething.
They were arguably the worstprogram in Ohio.
Okay, and so I figured, okay,well, that's the only reason
they want me.
I mean, they're bad, you know.
(31:26):
But anyway, I took that job.
But I called this young man upwho I'd been working with at New
Miami and told him what wasgoing on and I was leaving New
Miami because I had his headcoaching job offer and this
young man was crying.
He was upset.
I was upset too.
(31:47):
I didn't want to leave him andsome of the other kids that were
on the team, too great kids.
Well, this young man was ArveyCrouch.
Arvey is the head footballcoach now at Hamilton High, who
just hired me three years ago tobe his director of football
operations.
And Arvey's a great guy.
He's a great football coach.
(32:07):
He's turned Hamilton's programaround.
He was at Mount Healthy for anumber of years and took them to
the playoffs almost every year,and now at Hamilton High.
The last two years at HamiltonHigh we've won two playoff games
for the first time inHamilton's history and Arv he's
just done a great job.
But he was my player and he wasthat player that was crying his
eyes out when I was leaving andI was crying because I was
(32:30):
leaving, etc.
Etc.
So, anyway, so on to PrebleShawnee real quick.
There's a couple of funnystories again about how you can
help kids, et cetera, et cetera.
So I go into my first meetingwith my players, again two weeks
before two-a-days, okay, andI'd never met any of them.
I was in the locker room, I wasin the coach's office with my
(32:53):
coaching staff, and then I goout into the locker room to meet
my 35 players, grades ninethrough 12.
And I had heard that four oftheir best players had
transferred to other schoolsbecause they didn't have a coach
, and they were pretty goodplayers that ended up being
really good players, but anyway.
So I go out and this is myfirst meeting with the kids and
(33:14):
I look around and out of 35 kids, I bet you 15 of them got a dip
or a chew in their mouth.
And they're sitting there witha spittoon in their hand.
Oh boy, and I'm going.
Okay, this ain't good.
And I said, all right, boys.
I said listen.
I said I'm going to tell youwhat I said.
We're going to win a lot ofgames here, but I'll tell you
what I'm going to do.
(33:35):
I'm going to turn around, I'mgoing to go back in that coach's
office and I'm going to comeback out and start this meeting
in five minutes and I betternever see another dip, I better
never see another chew, anotherspit tune as long as I'm here.
And one of the coaches from theprevious year said Coach, he
said you may not have anybodyleft.
He says these kids are off thefarms, man, they've been dipping
(33:57):
since they were 10 years old,you know.
I said well, I said that's theway it'll be then.
So I turned back around andwent back out to the meeting and
there wasn't a single one ofthem that had a dip in their
mouth or anything else.
So we set the tone right there.
And then so a couple weeks laterwe go out to our first practice
(34:18):
and you know again nothing butpositive, positive, positive,
because you know these kids havehad nothing but negative for
their whole career.
And so we go out to the firstpractice and I said all right.
I said after we warm up I saidgive me the first offense up
here.
And I said give me the bestdefense that we can put out
there.
And we got on a four-yard line.
All right, four-yard line onthe game field.
(34:41):
Hand the ball off to ScottCotton.
I don't know if you know thatname.
Scott is the superintendent nowat Twin Valley South over here,
great player for me.
Hand the ball off and we score.
And I blow the whistle.
I call the guys in.
I say listen, practice is over.
They're like all right.
(35:01):
I said practice is over.
I said because here's why, ifwe can get four yards of play
every time, we're going to win alot of games.
Blew, the whistle Broke andthat was it for that day, for
the first practice.
And then from then on, longstory short, we come out of the
(35:22):
gate and we won the first fourgames.
We're 4-0.
Wow, yeah, I opened up withNational Trail.
As a matter of fact, that yearwe come out of the gate 4-0,
then we lost to Brookville andthen we won our fifth game
against Oakwood.
Oakwood was the playoff teamthat year.
We beat them 8-0.
So we're 5-1 out of the gate.
Wow, all right.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
And I mean they wanted to make me mayor of
Camden.
Speaker 4 (35:47):
All right, but no, we had great kids.
We ended up 5-5 that year,because then we hit the gauntlet
I was talking about earlierEaton, brookville, valley View,
blah, blah, blah, dickie.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
Yeah, just kidding.
Speaker 4 (36:00):
Well, we beat Dixie Ben's a Dixie guy from what I've
been told, but anyway.
So I was there four years andthe last year just to show you
how bad the program had been.
The last year there we had thebest record in the history of
the school.
(36:20):
My last year there, six and four, yeah, yeah, best record in the
history of the school.
And what happened was theyfailed a tax levy and they
canceled football for the nextyear.
So I was devastated because wehad started.
Nine sophomores on offense hadthe best offense in the league.
Wow and um, you know, we werereally.
We were going to be really goodin my mind.
(36:41):
I'm thinking state championship, I'm thinking league champions,
state champions, you know andum, because we were going to be
good.
So I was going to hang in there, blah, blah, blah.
But then I got a call from BenHubbard at Fairfield at 1986
State Champions Division I hewanted me to be a defensive back
coach and then the offensivecoordinator after that.
And you know, at first Ithought I was going to hang in
(37:06):
there.
I said well, ben, can you giveme a couple days to think about
it and call me back?
Yeah, so he gave me a coupledays and he called me back.
Yeah, um, so he gave me acouple days and they called me
from europe because he wascoaching the european, the
australian whips, which was asummer, uh, football league,
kind of a semi-pro footballleague.
And he called me back and hesaid, and I still wasn't sure
(37:29):
what I was going to do.
And you know, I know I'm 28years old, I'm still a pretty
young pup by those footballstandards.
And Ben said well, greg, hesays I've taken a look at your
salary and here's what I canoffer you.
The bottom line is you raise?
I had my daughter and my secondson, my boy was on his way and
(37:53):
he says it'd be about a $12,000raise for you, greg.
I said Ben, I'll be theretomorrow.
I mean, you know, got mouths tofeed and stuff like that.
So, anyway, so I go toFairfield and again I'm trying
to fast forward some of thisstuff because again, this is
what comes in people that I'velearned from.
I learned a lot from BenHubbard.
(38:13):
So when I went into Fairfield hewanted me to coach defensive
backs my first year and I toldhim I said, well, you know, ben,
I said, of all the positions, Ireally don't know DBs.
That well, I said.
And he says, ah, you'll be fine, you'll learn it.
I said okay.
So I called my buddy, randyWalker, who was the head coach
at Miami University yeah, he's agood friend of mine and I said
(38:34):
Randy.
I said listen, I don't knowanything about this DB stuff and
you know, can I come up forspring ball?
I think yeah, it was earlierthan that, so it was spring ball
.
I said, can I come up and workwith Terry Heppner?
Terry Heppner was his Dcoordinator and defensive back
coach and Terry went on toIndiana and of course Randy went
on to Northwestern as a headcoach and stuff, and so I went
(39:00):
up there and I learned more fromTerry Heppner in a half an hour
than I knew about football.
Yeah, and unbelievable.
But listen, who was on thatstaff?
Okay, well, not only that staff, but in the four years there, I
would go up there all the timeand work with these guys.
Sean Payton, head coach of theDenver Broncos right now.
Aaron Cromer, offensive linecoach for the Buffalo Bills.
(39:23):
Pat Narduzzi, who was the headcoach at Pitt, was a GA on that
team.
Kevin Wilson, who was theoffensive coordinator of the
house.
Speaker 1 (39:32):
I mean so all these guys that you know.
Speaker 4 (39:36):
I didn't even know Pat Narduzzi would be a great
football coach at Riskin Stateand at Pitt and at Sean Payton I
mean New Orleans.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
Super Bowl.
Speaker 4 (39:47):
And these guys are younger than me and blah, blah,
blah.
And it was just amazing who youlearn from and where you take
stuff from.
Speaker 2 (39:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (39:56):
And so so I was at Fairfield for a while and then,
uh, middletown.
Uh, I left Fairfield afterabout five years.
And then Middletown.
Guess who hired me atMiddletown for a year?
Jim Brown.
Going back to the first guythat hired me, he hired me.
And then, right after that iswhen I went to National Trail
and so I made a.
(40:17):
I made a decision at that timeto get out of coaching and go
into administration, and and,and and I decided I'm going to
carry an awful lot of stuffabout being a principal that I
took from Jim Brown and allthese people.
Speaker 2 (40:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (40:38):
Because it was all about kids.
For me, it was all about kids.
Now I'll tell you this.
The first day at National Trail, I'll never forget this.
I go into my office, I sit downat my desk.
I'll never forget this.
I folded my hands and I justsaid to myself now what you know
, because I really didn't knowwhat to do, quite frankly.
(40:59):
But anyway, so that startedthat.
Speaker 2 (41:02):
Yeah, so that started you in administration, which
led from being a principal intobeing a superintendent.
So kind of talk about, from aneducation standpoint, the
difference between being a highschool principal to going to a
superintendent so you're runninga high school to now you're
running a district.
Speaker 4 (41:19):
Sure, so talk about that.
Yeah, you know I'll tell youthis and a lot of people will
say this over the years, and Iagree with it 100% High school
principal job is the hardest jobin any school district I've
heard that.
I've heard it from many peopleand I experienced it.
You know, I was a high schoolprincipal at four different
places and it's a very difficultjob.
(41:44):
And, just backing up for asecond, I forgot to mention, you
know, when I left.
Well, no, that'll come later,never mind.
But you know thesuperintendency.
(42:05):
It's just a different ballgameas far as the difficulties of it
, et cetera, et cetera.
And the principal's job is farmore difficult and really and
truly, you have way more of animpact on young people.
And you know, starting off atNational Trail, you know, when I
first came in there, dan, youknow I've got to be honest with
(42:25):
you.
Here's what I heard fromNational Trail and I don't know
if you experienced this or not,but here's what I heard from
National Trail there's not awhole lot of spirit in the
school.
The kids don't really, you knowjust, they don't really like
school, et cetera, et cetera.
Some people said that they hada nickname of what National
(42:47):
Trash, national Trash, which Ididn't like that at all, et
cetera, et cetera.
So one of my goals was okay,I'm just going to come in and
I'm going to coach this schooland coach these kids like a
winning team and I'm going tomotivate the best I can and I'm
going to do anything I can toquote, turn this place around if
(43:10):
it even needed turning around.
And you know, one of the firstthings that we did at National
Trail was that I got a big, hugePepsi contract and negotiated,
you know, a huge Pepsi Cokecontract and that allowed us to
build a brand new track for thekids, that allowed us to do some
(43:32):
things through the baseballfield, that allowed us to give
some things to the band and tothe ffa program and different
things that allowed money.
It was so funny because thenegotiations started with uh
from coke, oh, we'll give you anew scoreboard.
In the yeah in the gym, I saidnow, look, we're looking for a
lot more than that.
And and then pepsi would comein well, we'll give you a new
(43:55):
scoreboard.
I said, look, we're ondifferent pages here.
I said we need money and youknow I've got some stuff I need
to do here.
And then it finally got up toan incredible number.
I think it was $150,000 theygave us and it was unheard of
for a school that size.
And then, plus, they gave usmoney every year.
But the only reason I say thatis because that provided kids
(44:24):
with a lot of things andopportunities that they could be
proud of and that they couldwant to come to school and
they'd want to excel and want tosucceed, and I just thought
that was really important.
We also put in what was called aRenaissance program, which was
sponsored by Jostens and it wasa national program, and
basically and this was one of myfavorite things that I've ever
that I've ever done in educationand that's why I wanted to talk
(44:45):
about it today the Renaissanceprogram was a motivational
program for all students.
Motivational program for allstudents, and one of the things
that was part of it was thedifferent levels cards that
these kids could get and whatthese cards was.
For example, if you had a GPAone semester of 4.0, you get
(45:08):
this certain card that youcarried around with you and it
was good for prizes and it wasgood for appetizers at
Applebee's or whatever the casemay be.
But the thing I liked about thecards was this card over here
was for any kid that failed aclass the last semester and
(45:33):
didn't fail any the next quarter.
They were just as important asthe A student and that was
probably the best thing we everdid, because I would have kids
coming in.
That said, I've had parentscoming in.
My kids never got an award,especially an academic award,
(45:53):
and I just felt like those werethings that needed to be
recognized and, man, it justtook off big time.
I mean, we would haveassemblies where we would just
it would just be a celebrationwhere the kids would get their
cards and they would be honored.
So we would have kids thatmaybe last year was suspended
every other week or was indetentions and suddenly they're
(46:17):
walking out and getting academicawards.
You know, changed the whole,changed the whole scope of
everything at National Trail.
It really did.
And and I rode a motorcycleinto the gym one day I remember
that Because you know our themewas get your motor running,
which was get your brain runninghere we go.
(46:38):
It was a kickoff to the seasonand then it ended up that we
were honored and we were namedone of the top renaissance
programs in the country and wewere flown to Washington DC, our
whole team, and we made a big,giant presentation at the
National Renaissance Conferencein Washington DC.
So National Trail and I stillhave that picture at home of
(47:02):
everybody and you know all theteachers that were in on it.
All the teachers were involved.
I mean, you know, even the onesthat weren't on the core
Renaissance team.
They all did a great job.
Our whole staff was excellent.
You know, we had great peopleat National Trail.
Had a great board.
I have nothing but good thingsto say about them all and just a
lot of good people there.
Speaker 2 (47:23):
Yeah, and I remember you coming in my senior year and
of course we had Matt Kemperwas our coach and he had been
there for three years and youknow we were starting to change.
My class was a pretty strongclass.
Especially our girls werereally good in volleyball and
basketball.
Um so you know things.
Uh, my senior year was, youknow, as as great as I think
(47:43):
anybody's could be, so and ithas a lot to do with you and the
leadership and everything.
So it's it's interesting for meto hear.
You know, I don't remember thePepsi thing, but I do remember
all the changes.
I remember the track we had asender track before that and
then we go to an all-weathertrack and the improvements to
the baseball field and all that.
(48:04):
You don't think about thatstuff as a kid, but now as an
adult, looking back, people wantnice things and as things get
nicer then people's appearancemaybe will improve, their, their
attitude will improve and andthings did Absolutely.
You talk about Preble Shawneeschool record being six and four
.
My senior year we tied theschool record, you did.
Speaker 4 (48:25):
Yeah, that's right.
I remember that kind of kind ofsimilar Um, it was Matt Kemper
and his staff did a great joboff and offing those guys.
Yeah, great, great staff.
Speaker 2 (48:35):
Yeah, no, that's awesome.
So you go from trail, youbecome principal at other
schools and then at some pointin time you make the jump to
superintendent.
Talk about that.
Speaker 4 (48:45):
Okay, Well, I retired .
I went from National Trail toTrotwood, Madison, where Jim
Brown hired me again Third time.
Must have liked something aboutme.
I was a freshman academyprincipal over there for three
years and then I went to PatrickHenry, which is in Northwest
(49:06):
Ohio.
As a principal I retired fromup there 2014.
I retired from there and then Igot a job at Bettsville
Bettsville Local School District.
Now, Bettsville was the secondsmallest school district in Ohio
, okay, and second to the islandPut-in-Bay oh yeah, Second to
(49:30):
that, Okay.
So the funny story about thatwas that was right when the Ohio
graduation tests were big.
So, like the first week ofschool, I wanted to talk to my
sophomores at the high schoolabout the OGT, which was the
Ohio graduation test, and howimportant it was.
So I get on the announcementsand I'd say, hey, I'd like to
(49:55):
meet with all the sophomorestudents.
I'll meet you in the gym hereat 10 o'clock or whatever it was
, and so you know, I'm thinkingwe always would have our
meetings with our classes in thegym, with their classes in the
gym, so they come down there,all 10 of them, All 10 of them,
(50:17):
and then that's when it reallyhit me oh yeah, I'm at the
smallest school district in Ohiobut it was good.
It was a good two years, whatit was and great.
And then they combined with OldFort School District because it
was so small and I told themthat I wasn't interested in
(50:38):
being a superintendent becausewe were moving back to Hamilton.
And then, when we moved back toHamilton in 2014, Hamilton City
Schools hired me as aadministrative support person,
which I went in and I would, youknow, sub basically for
principals and or I would workevery day with any of the
(50:59):
buildings that needed someadministrative support.
And then I was a drug andalcohol coordinator for Hamilton
and then I Most recently abouta year ago, I became the interim
superintendent at Union CountyCollege Corner School District
over there and had a really goodsemester there.
(51:22):
They offered me the job but Ididn't at the time, didn't want
to do it, but I spent a semesterthere and they got him a really
good person in after that.
It was just an interim position, but that was a semester there
and they got him a really goodperson in after that.
It was just an interim position, but that was a wonderful
position and again, I was justglad that in my career, I got to
experience the superintendencyas well.
Speaker 2 (51:43):
Yeah, that's awesome and your impact on kids is
evident.
One thing I want to talk aboutthat is kind of unique.
You know you played collegefootball but you had a couple
sons that played collegefootball and uh, we were talking
about that earlier because oneplayed at Virginia tech and uh
the the.
You know, I I.
(52:04):
My goal someday in life, when Ihave time, is to go to all the
different colleges, collegefootball stadiums and to to see
these entrances.
Sure, you know.
And Virginia Tech, you know.
They play Metallica's InnerSandman.
Speaker 1 (52:20):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (52:20):
It's going crazy.
I mean, I'm getting goosebumpsjust even thinking about it.
Your son plays there.
Mm-hmm, talk about that.
Speaker 4 (52:28):
Well, you know, I'll tell you something.
I probably saw Inner Sandmanlive probably 25, 30 times or
whatever, because we would go tomost of the home games almost
all of them probably and everysingle time that Inner Sandman
would start, of course,everybody's jumping in the
beginning and you can feel thestadium rocking.
(52:52):
You really can, and there'sbeen some.
They measured it on the.
Richter scale and all that kindof stuff, how loud it gets, and
I mean every single time.
There was never a time that Idid not have tears rolling down
my face, just pumped up.
I mean I could have gone outand played.
No, I guarantee it, it wouldhave been goal line defense for
(53:13):
one play and then the oxygentank.
But yeah, every single timejust chills running down your
spine and just tears rollingdown your eyes and just it's an
incredible thing.
And you know, my other sonplayed at Central Michigan and
I'll tell you what thatatmosphere up in Mount Ple
pleasant was unreal too.
(53:34):
Um, you know, some of the macschools they don't draw a whole
lot of people to their games,right, but central michigan was
one that it would be 25, 30 000every game in a 25 000 stadium
stadium, you know, and uh, andit was an incredible experience
as well.
And and, um, you know, cody'sfirst game that he started as a
(53:55):
starter was at the Big House inMichigan.
So that was quite an experience, you know.
And the other one with Colt.
You know, colt goes to VirginiaTech so we get invited down for
his official visit day and justreal quick.
You know, frank Beamer was alegendary coach at Virginia Tech
and just one of the finesthuman beings I've ever met in my
(54:18):
life.
And when we sat in his officefor about an hour, I mean I'm
just in a daze because it wasjust.
It's just so unbelievable.
You're sitting there with alegend and he's just so down to
earth and you know, if he wasjust sitting here with us he'd
just be a normal guy and I meanit was just incredible.
And Colt was.
(54:38):
You know, it's funny because wewere making a trip, a
recruiting trip, to all theplaces.
It was in the summer and allthe places before senior year,
and we were going to all theplaces that Colt had been
offered.
So we were making this trip andVirginia Tech was going to be
the first place that we went,and then we were going to go to
Marshall, and then we were goingto Kentucky and then Tennessee
(55:01):
and then Louisville and kind ofmaking a little swing.
And so when we left VirginiaTech, one of the last things
that one of the coaches that wasrecruiting him said to Colt was
well, you know, where are youlooking at and stuff like blah,
blah, blah.
But he says you know, I've gotthree offers out for offensive
(55:22):
linemen and I'm only going totake one of them.
Speaker 1 (55:26):
Now, that's a ploy, that a lot of staffs use.
Speaker 4 (55:29):
But anyway, that's what he said.
So we're on our way to Marshallafter we left there and Colt's
going.
You know, dad, what should I do?
And I said, well, let me askyou a question.
I said what if Colt called youright now and said, hey, I just
got a call from the kid inVirginia that accepted the offer
.
And he said, man, I'd bedevastated.
(55:51):
And I said, well, there's youranswer.
And we didn't have very goodservice.
So we pulled over into a gasstation and he got on a pay
phone or something or the otherand called the coach and
committed at that time.
But it was just a wonderfuleight years, basically, with the
(56:11):
boys.
Speaker 2 (56:13):
That's a pretty cool and unique experience.
I don't know that.
A lot of people you know all myNational Trail friends probably
don't know that, so that's areally unique thing.
So well, this is awesome.
As we start to land this plane,what advice would you give to
current or future school leadersto help them navigate the
(56:36):
challenges they face in today'seducational environment?
Because things today,especially post-COVID, are way
different than they were in 1997when I was in school, right?
So what advice do you give someof these administrators?
Speaker 4 (56:49):
Well, you know, the first thing is, you know, jim
Brown and some other people toldme a long time ago, when you
make decisions, what would thosedecisions look like if they're
on the front page of thenewspaper the next day?
And that should drive you intodoing what's right and what's
honest and integrity.
So much of my things, and it'sgotten me in trouble sometimes,
(57:12):
but honesty and integrity hasbeen, has been, my, my thing the
whole time.
You know, and I just, I justthink if you, if you work hard
we had a thing called TPR whenit's a Renaissance program and
up at Patrick Henry, one of thehigh schools, at work program
and TPR stands for treat peopleright, and you know, if you
(57:33):
treat people the right way, youknow, I think a lot of things
are going to work out prettywell for you.
You know, and, and you know youneed to listen.
I wasn't always a great listener, you know, I was always a doer
and and you know, a lot of timesI had a thing of, well, my way
(57:55):
is the right way to do it andthat wasn't always the right way
.
And you have to be able tolisten to people, you have to
input and you have to reallyappreciate the input that you
get from people.
And there's a lot of goodprograms out there, people, and
(58:17):
you know there's a lot of goodprograms out there, um, but if
you can't execute those programsand if you can't motivate the
people around you to execute theprograms that you're wanting to
install um, then then you'refighting behind the eight ball a
little bit and um.
So I I think you know, thebiggest thing that I always
tried to do and wasn't alwayssuccessful at it, but tried my
(58:38):
hardest always was honesty,integrity, do the right thing.
And, as cliched as it sounds, isit best for kids?
Right, is it best for kids?
Because there was a lot oftimes that I had to do things.
Well, I was told to do thingsby, maybe, board members or
(59:02):
whatever.
That I didn't feel was best forkids and I wouldn't do them and
I would hold to my principlesand sometimes that didn't work
out so well for me.
Speaker 1 (59:11):
But that's okay.
Speaker 4 (59:12):
I'd look back on it now and I wouldn't change a
thing.
But that's okay, I'd look backon it now and I wouldn't change
a thing.
Speaker 2 (59:16):
Well, that's good you talk about listening.
God gives you two ears and onemouth.
Oh yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 4 (59:22):
And that's the other thing.
I read my Bible every morningand I ask God to please guide me
today.
I thank you for another day andguide me.
You know everything that comesout of my mouth, I want it to be
something that glorifies you,and I just want to live the
right way and I want to helpother people and et cetera, et
(59:44):
cetera.
So, you know, and that's theway to try to live.
And, speaking of that, wedidn't get to touch on it, but
in two places that I went, I gotto start a Fellowship of
Christian Athletes program.
Okay, places that I went, I gotto start a Fellowship of
Christian Athletes program andthat was just very rewarding.
You know, we had a lot ofpeople that uh, uh, it really
helped turn their lives aroundand things like that.
So, um, so that was, that wassomething I was really proud of
(01:00:05):
as well.
Speaker 2 (01:00:06):
That's, that's awesome.
What legacy do you hope to haveleft behind in the communities
that you've served?
Speaker 4 (01:00:14):
Well, you know, I hope that what they say is you
know what he turned thingsaround here.
Maybe he really pushed us toanother level.
And when I say he, you know, Ialways mean the people that work
with me, not for me.
(01:00:34):
I always say the people thatwork with me because I couldn't
do anything by myself, but Ijust hope that I always want to
leave a place better than whenyou got there.
You want to leave it better thanwhat it was, and so I think
that's the main thing, yeahthat's great, and so that's.
Speaker 2 (01:00:55):
I think that's the main thing.
Yeah, that's great.
Any closing thoughts, any wordsof wisdom, any goal or not
goals, but any quotes thatresonate with you on a daily
basis or that have got youthrough some challenging times
that you could share with ourlisteners.
Speaker 4 (01:01:06):
Sure, you know, jim Place has me over to talk to
some of his classes over atUniversity of Dayton.
You know, of course, jim was onthe show a few weeks ago and
one of the things that I do inthe presentations up there, as I
say from a teacher'sperspective, is you know, they
may not remember what you taughtthem, but they'll always
(01:01:29):
remember how you treated them.
Speaker 1 (01:01:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (01:01:32):
And that was, you know, just always something that
stuck with me and alwayssomething that I tried to pass
on to all the teachers.
You know again, Dan, do youremember what you did in math
class?
No, but you probably rememberyou know those teachers that you
had in high school, in collegeor whatever that you remember
(01:01:56):
how they treated you.
As a matter of fact, I actuallyhad a teacher in high school
one time and she was a prettymean lady and she actually said
to me one day she said, you know, you're never going to amount
to anything.
Speaker 3 (01:02:15):
That's what she told me.
Speaker 4 (01:02:16):
And okay, okay, maybe she's right, who knows.
And that was what I swear.
Well, a few years later, when Iwas working for Hamilton, I
went back for an in-service andthere she was and I went up to
her and I said you know, hey,mrs, do you remember me?
I'm Greg Pettit.
And I said you know, I justwanted you to know that you were
(01:02:40):
a little bit wrong.
I said I've got my master's andI'm working on my doctor's
degree and, a little bit cocky,I probably didn't even say
anything to her.
But you know, the point of thatis, why would you say that to
somebody?
You know, why would you saythat to a kid?
And so I always tried tonothing but positive.
(01:03:02):
You know, really and truly as aprincipal I would have, and you
knew some of these kids, youknow, at Trail and some of the
other places, but some of thelowest acting kids, kids that
got in trouble all the time,couldn't stay out of trouble
with the law or whatever, someof them were my favorite kids.
Speaker 2 (01:03:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (01:03:19):
They really were, you know, because you know it just
felt like that.
We and to this day I've hadsome of them contact me, you
know, and say, hey, thanks, andthat's really what it's all
about.
I had a girl, one of my formerstudents, maybe a year or so ago
, you know.
She called me on the phone andsaid you know, I just want you
(01:03:42):
to know, mr Pettit, you rememberthat day that you talked to me
because I was down, because blah, blah, blah, this, that and the
other, and I said, yeah, I saidI do remember that.
And she said, well, you helpedme so much that day and I
thought, well, you know, good,I'm so glad about that and, and
you know, I always knew that youwould be successful and and
things like that.
(01:04:03):
She says, no, you don'tunderstand.
She says I was, I was really totake my life.
Wow, he said that's how down Iwas.
Speaker 2 (01:04:10):
And she said you're the reason I didn't, and you
know stuff like that.
Speaker 4 (01:04:16):
Well, that's an impact.
You know stuff like that.
You know really, uh knows thatyou can have an impact on kids.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:04:19):
And that's, that's powerful, and you know, when
we're we're kind of trying to dothe same thing with this
podcast and you know, andgetting getting stories like
yours out and there's there's somany good people in this world
and and all we see, if you watchany news which I don't, but if
you do is negative, negative,negative and and people like you
who have made a massive impacton countless who knows how many
(01:04:43):
numbers of kids, just like thosewho made an impact on you, like
Mr Brown right.
Um, all, the, the, the teachersthat that were part of your team
, and all those differentschools.
That's what life's all about,right?
Speaker 1 (01:04:58):
It's all about helping others.
Speaker 2 (01:04:59):
It's all about helping kids, especially the
kids.
You know Ben and I are veryinvolved in our kids' lives and
coaching youth and you knowtrying to help high schoolers
here and there and even if it'sjust, you know, every morning
I'm at the Y with my two boysworking out and you know there's
high school kids in thereshooting hoops and doing things.
Man, hey, it's great to see youin here at five in the morning.
(01:05:22):
You're going to come in herebefore school and get your shots
in or get your workout, and Imean that's.
You just never know what thosekids go to go home to.
Speaker 4 (01:05:30):
Oh, absolutely, you know, especially in the role
that I'm in now at Hamilton.
You know high poverty level inHamilton now a lot different
than it was, you know, 40 yearsago or whatever.
And you know again, part of myrole right now is the director
of football operations and Ireally look forward to it,
because most of my work happensin the offseason and that is.
(01:05:51):
You know, I'm getting readyright now to have my meetings
with the seniors right now Okay.
Where, where.
What are you doing?
Are you going into the military?
Are you going to college?
Are you going into the workworld?
Whatever it is you're doing,I'm here to help you find that
way.
We're helping with resumes,we're helping with everything
you know, whatever it is thatthey want to do, and so that's a
(01:06:12):
big part of it, and I reallyenjoy that.
I really enjoy it because,again, you can have a great
impact.
If you have a great impact withjust one kid, it's totally
worth it.
Speaker 3 (01:06:23):
Absolutely, totally worth it 100%.
You got anything to add?
No, I just love it so much.
I mean the whole conversationtoday about building and how Mr
Brown affected you so much.
And then a couple years later,you're yeah, you're leaving for
another job and a player hasthat same, basically the same
feeling about you, you know, andthe passion you had for that
kid and that young man, andthat's what it's all about I've
(01:06:46):
been so blessed, it's justunbelievable.
Speaker 2 (01:06:49):
Yeah, yes, you know from from growing up with?
uh, sounds like the um, theDisney world of backyards you
know, to getting into the circus, to going into high school and
be handed a ragged jersey youknow, player number 76 when
there's only 75 jerseys.
(01:07:09):
That changes your lifeAbsolutely.
That changes your lifeAbsolutely and motivates you to
go from maybe the worst footballplayer on the team to probably
one of the best by the time youwere a senior, to go into
college, to go, you know, intobroadcasting and then to become
a teacher, just because Mr Brownsaw something in you.
Speaker 4 (01:07:32):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (01:07:33):
And then the leadership that you took from
there to all these differentschools and teaching and being a
principal and then asuperintendent.
Now, now, you know I I wouldimagine right now has probably
got to be just an enjoyable timebecause you got your, you know
your kids are through school,you live that amazing eight
years watching your boys playfootball.
Now you got grandkids.
Now you're still involved infootball, which is a passion and
(01:07:56):
and, and you know, affectingyoung men in a in a positive way
.
I mean your life is full.
Speaker 4 (01:08:04):
It sure is.
And you know we mentioned myboys, but I'll tell you my
daughter, you know she has fourof the grandkids and, uh, four
of her own children, mygrandkids, and uh, and she's
just incredible.
I, you know, and I of her ownchildren, my grandkids, and
she's just incredible, you know,and I told her this a couple
weeks ago.
I said you know what?
You are the nanny of our family, and what I meant by that is
they used to call my mom nannyand my mom was just a wonderful
(01:08:28):
woman as far as being thepeacemaker, being the one that
holds everything together andstuff, and that's what my
daughter's doing now and youknow that's bigger than football
and anything else, you know,and so she does a great job.
Her name's Kayla, but you knowshe went to National Trail for a
little bit, and so did Cody,before we moved and stuff.
(01:08:51):
And Kayla actually was ready tograduate from Eaton when I
moved her her senior year, andyou know so I was the worst dad
in the world for about twomonths, but anyway.
Speaker 2 (01:09:02):
I've been blessed.
I've been blessed.
Well, mr Greg Pettit, Iappreciate you making the trek
from Hamilton to come up hereand spend time with us in the
studio.
It's it's been great seeing you.
It's been great hearing yourstory.
You, you, you had a an impacton my life, my senior year when
you came into trail and um, youknow I I'm grateful for you and
(01:09:23):
for your, for your mentorship,um, not only to me, but to to
anyone who's come in contactwith you.
Speaker 4 (01:09:28):
Well, thank you so much.
It's just a, uh, an honor to behere and and I hope I can keep
on doing some good in life, andyou will, and you will.
Speaker 3 (01:09:38):
Hamilton's blessed to have you.
Speaker 2 (01:09:40):
Well, thank you very much, For sure.
Well, everybody, thank you forlistening.
We always appreciate your ears.
And again, we ask you know,especially if you know Mr Pettit
and you were impacted by him inyour years prior and even if
you weren't, maybe you're ateacher, maybe you're an
administrator out there who'sgained some knowledge by his
experience Be sure to share theshow with those who you think it
(01:10:03):
can impact, because itdefinitely can.
So everybody go out and betempered.
Speaker 1 (01:10:08):
Hi, my name is Allie Schmidt.
This is my dad, dan.
He owns Cajun's Glass.
Thanks, allie.
Things like doors and windowsgo into making a house, but when
it's your home, you expect morelike the great service and
selection you'll get fromCatron's.
Glass Vinyl replacement windowsfrom Catron's come with a
lifetime warranty, includingaccidental glass breakage
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Also ask for custom showerdoors and many other products
(01:10:29):
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