October 21, 2024 • 49 mins
Celebrate a journey of triumph, nostalgia, and inspiration as we welcome 2024 West Ottawa Hall of Fame inductee, Ato Condelee. A three-sport standout and 2013 Male Athlete of the Year, Ato shares memories of his high school sports career and the unexpected honor of entering the West Ottawa Hall of Fame. The episode is filled with laughter and positive reminiscing, capturing the excitement and joy of reconnecting with your past and the people in it.
The conversation takes a personal turn as we explore life beyond sports and how the lessons learned in high school currently shape Ato in his life. Each memory shared brings a sense of gratitude for the influential figures and cherished experiences that shaped Ato's journey.
From the value of hard work and mentorship in athletics, to the competitive nature of college sports, Ato's story is one of resilience and personal growth. Reflecting on his transition from high school to Ferris State, he emphasizes the balance of confidence and humility needed to thrive both on and off the field.
As we wrap up, we celebrate the opportunity of getting to know each other a little bit better and making connections. Join us for an episode filled with humor, nostalgia, and invaluable insights from a remarkable athlete and human being.
This episode was recorded on October 4, 2024.
Podcasts now dropping at 5pm every Sunday evening for that late weekend chill, or listen Monday AM during that morning commute or workout. Please like, follow, subscribe, or leave a review. Even share with someone who might like to listen. Thanks for taking the time to get to know each other a little bit better. The people who make West Ottawa Athletics what it is. Go WO!
Special thanks to Laura Veldhof Photography.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I didn't appreciate how much Kingma made an impact
to me until after the fact, as Igot older and, just like Meshur
, I didn't know what he wasdoing, like he was investing in
me personally.
So yeah, he's the reason whyyou know we won a state
championship that year, for sure.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Like, without a doubt , without a doubt, coaches and
other faces in the Panthersports community, bringing you
the stories you might otherwisenever hear.
Join myself and AthleticDirector Bill Kennedy as we dive
in with you to get to know eachother a little bit better.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
Coming back to your old stomping grounds is
something every athleteeventually does.
Ever take that nostalgia drivein your car late at night.
Speaker 4 (01:07):
Today, we're joined by 2013 West Ottawa grad Atu
Kandali, who was recentlyinducted into the West Ottawa
Athletic Hall of Fame.
A three-sport athlete duringhis time with the Panthers, Atu
also earned the 2013 MaleAthlete of the Year Award.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
Yeah, we were real lucky to spend some significant
time with him during the threedays he was here.
Getting to meet somebody newand a West Ottawa legend who has
become a mature, thoughtfulhuman being is something that's
going to stick with us for quitea while Atu Khandali on the
29.1 podcast coming up next.
Let's get it All right, well,hey everybody, welcome back to
(01:52):
the 29 one podcast.
It is homecoming week.
Let's go here at West.
Auto High School.
It's been very busy.
We've had powder puff football,powder puff volleyball, Hall of
Fame induction at the newperforming arts center.
It's been quite a week and wehave a guest here.
Got to spend some time with youthis week.
I've really enjoyed it.
Who?
Speaker 1 (02:11):
who is it?
I'm r2.
Kindly what's up.
What's going on?
Speaker 3 (02:15):
and, uh, gracious enough, your wife lauren is here
.
Lauren, nice to have you yeah,hi everybody you're in town,
obviously for the hall of fameinduction ceremony.
You were inducted, bill and Iwere talking earlier.
This is a little different forus because every podcast we've
done so far we've known peoplelike and this is a bit of a bit
of a stretch for us, but it waslike it was kind of meant to be
(02:36):
I, we talked yesterday about it.
Uh, your name kind of jumpedoff the page and we when I was
looking at that, I was talkingto bill, we got to get somebody
on.
This is all the fame it hasbeen.
I have to say, just personally,over the last two days.
It's been fantastic.
I really feel like you know wehave a nice connection.
It's been nice spending sometime with you guys.
So likewise.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
Yeah, so every year when we sit down for Homecoming
Week, we get into Hall of Fameinduction.
Coming week we get into hall offame induction and this being
the first, this was the firstyear that we hosted the hall of
fame induction here at westottawa.
We put in a great class out toyour 2013 state champ in the
long jump yeah, six, seven.
(03:17):
In the high jump yeah, footballscholarship at ferris state
very deserving person to go intothe Hall of Fame.
When we started havingconversations about what's the
class, look like your name kindof, your accolades kind of
jumped off.
Talk to me a little bit aboutthe phone call, the email, that
first contact that you had withold Jack Carlson, who the Hall
(03:40):
of Fame is Jack's passionproject.
I don't know if you could tellor not.
Yeah, but talk to us about,like, hearing about this for the
first time.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Yeah Well, first of all, thank you for all those
compliments.
I honestly I um, I wassurprised, I was shocked.
I didn't really think that Iwas worthy enough to be inducted
into the hall of fame and Itold that to somebody and they
were like, really, I was like,yeah, like.
I, I don't know, I just neverlooked at myself as someone that
(04:07):
was like hall of fame worthyfor sports.
I just, I played sports and Idid my best and then I moved on.
Um, so it was cool.
It was cool Like just JackCarlson reached out and I was
like a little surprised at first.
It's like what it's like?
Yeah, man, you're, you're inthe hall of fame.
I've got to send you somesheets, you know, here's your
brag sheet.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
I'm like did you almost hang up?
I think it was.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
I almost did I like I had to read it a couple of
times.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
I'm like hall of fame .
I was like what?
Speaker 1 (04:37):
is this Like an ad or something from West Ottawa?
Credit card information, what'slike, oh cool.
So, yeah, it was awesome, itwas, it was a.
It was the first time I like, Iactually like took a, took a
step back and I was like man,high school that was a long time
ago, but now I'm starting tothink about it.
Wow, maybe there was somethings there that made an impact
(04:57):
.
So that was just really coolfor Jack Carlson to reach out
and yeah, we're here.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
You guys are settled over over in the detroit area,
right?
Uh, so let's talk about yourlife there a little bit.
What's fun is you?
You drove over and you told meabout your car ride.
You had two dogs in the caryeah, you guys got a couple dogs
.
Oh yeah, what's their names?
What are they?
What?
Speaker 1 (05:15):
type of dogs are they so?
One is a toy size australianshepherd and her name is phoebe.
She's like three years old, Ithink.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
What does toy-sized mean?
Sounds fierce.
She thinks that she is.
Speaker 5 (05:28):
She is what should be an 80-pound dog in an 18-pound
body.
Okay, she's a guard dog.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
She doesn't play any games.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
The other one's Tina, and she's a shit zoo mix with a
wiener dog, so think about whatthat might look like.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
I don't know what to say, right now I'm a little
shocked.
My brain started to try and putthat image together and just
got stuck.
Yeah, I don't tell you she'scool, though, man she's great
she's like a fluff.
Speaker 5 (05:58):
She's just a fluffy wiener dog.
Yeah, like long fluffy.
Oh, that's really funny.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Yeah, yeah and then you guys, you're, you're an
engineer, and lauren, you werein the medical field, now you're
in real estate.
Yep Got a connection withBill's wife Yep.
Speaker 5 (06:08):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (06:09):
How's the market in Detroit?
Speaker 5 (06:11):
Horrible.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
Okay, it's not enough .
Inventory no.
Speaker 5 (06:14):
There'll never be enough inventory or people that
are actually ready to buy.
Speaker 4 (06:19):
Yeah, dealing with very similar things here along
the lake shore.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Really nice to have you guys here, Obviously with
the hall of fame.
I just want to give a shout outto the ones who were inducted.
So we had Courtney LockerKnobber and then Ron Allen,
Karen Dykema.
One thing that I thought wasreally fun about the was the pan
.
I call it the Panther Heisman.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Did you?
Did you like it, that trophythat you have?
Speaker 1 (06:39):
I liked it, like I thought it was pretty cool, who
designed that thing?
Speaker 4 (06:43):
So that we get those through Jostens.
Okay, they're nice, which is abig national brand in the awards
space, but that's been thetrophy since the beginning back
in 97.
Wow, and Jostens basically hasthat mold and they get us four
of them every year now and, yeah, it's definitely, I think, one
(07:03):
of the coolest parts it's gotsome way to do all of that is
that trophy?
You got a spot for it.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Yeah, I'm gonna show it to my kids.
Yeah, I don't know where it'sgonna go in the house yet
probably, probably in front ofmy bed or something, maybe in
front of my work desk probablyin the office.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
It's more appropriate than in the bedroom, maybe
hanging up in the kitchen orsomething like right in the
middle of everything, oh boy ohman, your uh sporting, life here
a lot of people know it, wedon't because we weren't here.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
I, I lived in the area since about 2000, but my
kids didn't start going to highschool here until 2016, so not
really involved.
Bill comes in I came in fall of2018, fall of 2018, so I said
this to you too I didn't knowtoo much about you before we got
started, so it's been fun tokind of learn about it the
history of West Ottawa anddifferent people that have been
here.
You and I did something funyesterday.
(07:50):
It was nice.
We went on a walk at PantherStadium and just to kind of get
that nostalgia going.
I want to kind of play aroundwith that and see what that
would do.
It was fun to be over there.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Yeah, that was man, that was awesome.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
It was really cool.
We're going to play a few clipshere and there, so we're going
to start out with one.
This is Atu going back toPanther Stadium for the first
time in quite a while, so we'regoing to play here in just a
second.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
We did football on track at the same field.
Obviously yeah, and you knowthat smell of grass.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Yes, they just mowed the grass there.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
For some reason, like I don't know what it is, I
don't know if anyone else feelslike this, but like I always
used to get like nervous when Ismelled that.
Oh, because it would remind meof like, okay, it's, it's game
time, but like it was like thecalm before the storm,
(08:48):
no-transcript reason.
I was just like, oh, mygoodness, here, here, it is the
day's, here, it's time to go.
Oh, that's great so I smell itright now.
I'm just like I kind of getthose weird like nerve feelings
even though I'm not doinganything.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
I agree with the smell of the grass, though, yeah
, it takes you back immediatelyand unfortunately, in high
school football.
Now, especially here in WestMichigan, our kids will not play
one game on grass this year.
Yeah, really there are no grassfields left.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Like I feel like everybody is on turf now.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
You miss like the sense of like football, though,
Like I feel, like everybody is,on turf.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Now you miss, like the sense of like football,
though, like I don't know, likein my head, like that grass is
you got to smell it, like thatfresh mowed grass.
That's like, it's just, it'sgot a nostalgia to it.
Speaker 4 (09:39):
Man, you get into that second half and it's got
some dew on it and it's just.
Yeah, now the nostalgia is therubber beads that end up in your
shoe after a game.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
I came back from soccer last night and I got I
got home I was gonna go for arun and have my running shoes on
, like what is in there?
You know you have something inyour shoe.
Oh, I didn't know what's inthere.
I was like, oh yeah, it's allthese rubber beads, I take my
shoe off, dump it down.
There's at least a pile of 10to 15 on my kitchen floor.
It was pretty funny yeah it's awhole different ballgame.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
There was nothing like playing in the mud.
Speaker 5 (10:07):
Yeah, everyone coming home clean from a football game
yeah yeah, it's great from ajersey laundering standpoint
right.
Speaker 4 (10:15):
Like the moms don't have to get out the stain stick
on the white pants anymore, yep.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
Yeah, Tide stock has dropped.
Speaker 4 (10:21):
No doubt about that.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
You had some really good teams back in the day.
You played as a sophomore, yougot started right.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Yeah, I got pulled up on varsity as a sophomore.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
Let's play this little football memory when we
were out there.
Okay, I might repeat some ofthe things we just said, but
let's do a little bit more.
Yeah, a long time you startedas a sophomore on football
varsity.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Yeah.
So sophomore they pulled me upand that that was a big
challenge for me becauseeveryone's huge.
I mean, you got guys like youknow, desmond Morgan, you know,
um, zach Boersma, right LikeRyan Verhuis got pulled up with
me as well, but he was kind ofahead of the curve, you know he
(11:01):
was.
He was absolute monster atfootball so he started.
Yeah, he started playing atcornerback, you know,
immediately.
So I was, I was trying to get,get in the field of things.
But, uh, sophomore year, yeah,varsity football, that's when it
all started and, you know, juststarted adjusting, moved to
receiver and then, yeah, therest was history.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
You know, junior senior year would you remember
any uh big plays out here like I?
Speaker 1 (11:28):
I am oh yeah, you know what's really cool.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Yeah, so there's huddle.
It's still got you guys onthere, so there's, I watched, uh
, I watched ryan, I watched youon huddle there's some fun stuff
on there you're pretty shiftytoo yeah yeah, yeah, so I didn't
, yeah, so, so that's that'swhat I was kind of known for.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
Like I would like to I call it juke, I would like to
juke people out.
I do remember some pretty coolplays, like especially against
Grand Haven.
It was over there on that farright side of that field, like
probably right around the middle, on you know their 45, their 30
.
And I kid you not, man, likewhen I I got the ball it was
(12:07):
like a little bubble pass.
I did like this juke move andjuked like four or five players
out and but like that's, that'skind of like what I was known
for when I played football.
I wasn't super, I don't know,maybe someone called me fast.
I wasn't like super, likeexplosive or like accelerated
after I got the ball.
I was always getting likecaught from behind.
I don't know why.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
You hated that.
That's the worst thing, isn'tit?
I hated it, man.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Like I just never could really like get out right,
but like I could get you knowfive or 10 or 15 yards by juking
people.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
I saw one play on huddle yeah, when it might have
been.
I think it I'm wrong.
I'm wrong, but you took it, didyour joke.
You got all the way to thatcorner.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Yeah, and they took you out of the one-yard line.
Oh, I remember that one, do youknow?
Speaker 1 (12:47):
him.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's funny.
I don't know who that wasagainst.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
Yeah, I don't know either.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
But I'm going oh, he's going to the house, me on
one end and then Ryan on theother end, and if they were
playing over top of me, you knowRyan would go ahead and just
score.
Our offense was pretty good.
I remember Trevor Van Tuberagain.
Do you know him?
He was the quarterback for thattime, yeah him, and yeah, he
was pretty good.
But yeah, we had a pretty solidfootball team man let's keep
(13:21):
going.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
All right, let's do it, let's keep walking well do
you want to go on the field?
Speaker 1 (13:25):
let's go yeah, let's go on the field be nice yeah,
I'll run around on you and scorea touchdown.
Speaker 4 (13:29):
Yes, you will it's so fun being out on that field.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
It was such a riot like, yeah, it's so weird for
you to write to go revisit thatplace yeah after all those years
and doing all that stuff, butyou had some really great teams.
It was a big part of your lifefor quite a long time?
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Yeah, it was.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
Playing up as a sophomore.
We have the kid that'll startat quarterback for us tonight as
a sophomore, maybe talk to us alittle bit about what that?
You kind of alluded to it alittle bit, that sophomore year.
You're not as strong as yourkids that you're going against.
You're, in some cases, maybethree years younger than some of
(14:07):
those 18 year olds that areplaying varsity football.
Talk about, I guess, thatsituation and being a youngster
and playing against really grownmen.
Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
I would say, if I could go back and and just like
replay everything that I felt, Iwould say don't put so much
pressure on yourself, especiallyas a sophomore man.
You've got this year and thentwo more years before college
even begins.
So just get out there, take itall in, man, enjoy it, try to
(14:40):
laugh.
I was talking to Rodney aboutthis yesterday.
Man, like all that pressurethat we put on ourselves as, as
kids in sports, it's all in ourmind and it affects our game
negatively.
It doesn't affect our gamepositively.
I feel like some of the bestathletes, they know how to have
fun out there and enjoythemselves.
I went against kids in collegethis is my college career at
(15:02):
fairs today.
I went against kids receivers,top receivers, right In D2 at
the time, and these guys, wouldyou know, do some light trash
talking, you know, but they werealways like uplifting, like
joyful.
I couldn't, I didn't understand.
I was like I was always likereally super focused.
But these guys were coming outin the field laughing, talking,
having a good time scoringtouchdowns.
(15:24):
I'm field, laughing, talking,having a good time scoring
touchdowns.
I'm like.
I'm like what's going on?
I'm over here, serious, focusedon, like my plays, trying to
make sure I got my footpositions in the right.
No, I'm getting beat fortouchdowns sometimes.
I'm trying to figure out why.
It's because my head man, I puttoo much pressure on myself.
So if you're a sophomore goingagainst guys that are junior and
seniors, man, I'm telling'mtelling you right now most of
(15:46):
those kids out there, they'reprobably already going to put
too much pressure on themselves.
Go out there and have fun,enjoy yourself and I guarantee
you that's going to show well inyour game.
Like you're going to besurprised at what you can do
when you just really just getoutside of your mind and just
say, all right, no pressure,whatever happens in this play,
it doesn't matter, I'm havingfun.
That's when you really startshining.
Speaker 4 (16:06):
For sure.
Yeah, I think you just got tocut it loose right.
It's so hard to do.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
It's tough.
Let's move on to track andfield Specifically.
That was a big thing for you inyour time here.
High jump, long jump were kindof the things that you did.
We also went over to the longjump pit the other day.
Speaker 4 (16:26):
You went to the old pits right that you would have
used, which are probably not ingreat shape.
They're worn out, yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
I almost.
Yeah, rodney and I were overthere yesterday.
I was going back through themabout me and my coach, coach
Kingmo.
We were doing our steps,basically like stepping out how
many steps we're going to takeuntil we jump on the board for
long jump, and so I decided youknow, hey, I know I'm 29 years
old, right, yeah, but I'm goingto go ahead and give it a shot.
(16:55):
And then I did.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
Yeah, and this is what happened.
Yeah, well, go ahead and showwhat happened.
Speaker 5 (16:59):
This is why your hips hurt.
All right, I'll hold that, areyou?
Speaker 3 (17:03):
ready.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Yeah, just kidding.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
What are we doing?
Speaker 1 (17:05):
You're going to jump?
I'm just kidding, yeah.
I'll jump.
Let's do it, are you?
For real.
Let's do it one more time.
Here we go.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
Oh, I think you made it through the pit Dude.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
I almost tore my hamstring trying to jump.
I slipped on that wood.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
Alright, you guys, you can let out your laughter.
Now Go ahead.
These two are just holding eachother, trying not to laugh out
loud.
Lauren, how was that day foryou?
I haven't heard about that.
Speaker 5 (17:36):
We were walking to the beach last night An average
dog walk.
He's like my hips hurt.
I'm like, oh, how come?
I don't know Old age 29 yearsold.
I didn't even know about thisactivity until it was spur of
the moment.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
It started out as a light joke, which turned into a
bigger one.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
Come on, don't act, bill you already know don't act
like you.
Don't have those days whereyou're like man, I can just put
the football pads back on and doone more, one more play, and
then you just give it your all.
It doesn't matter what age youare, you want to do it right.
Speaker 4 (18:14):
I always tell coach, I've got.
I got one three down series.
Yeah, and between my old manstrength and the stuff that I
learned in college, I stillthink I could get to the
quarterback see, this is, thisis the illusion.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
This is the illusion, I think I could get to the
quarter my
Speaker 3 (18:32):
son.
When my son was 12, we'd go tosome courts and play basketball
and I'd beat him.
Yeah, I'd manhandle him alittle bit, he's 12 well, he
wasn't manhandling, he was 12.
He was 12 and uh, so he keepsgrowing up about 15.
I can still kind of do it.
16 started to change a littlebit, yeah, and now it's not even
close, but in my mind he goes,he goes.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
You can't play against me anymore I'm like,
yeah, I can, and I know I'mwrong, but I cannot give up that
psychological battle.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
I am not going to defer and say I cannot, even
though, yeah, it's more thanlikely, see, I'm still doing it,
but it's more than likely, Ican't.
I just can't do it, yeah we allwant to believe we can go out
and do it still, and you did,yeah it wasn't a state record,
but uh, you did hit sand and itwent up in the air a little bit.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Wow, that's, that's that's generous.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
No, that's generous.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Very generous on what actually happened.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
Well, in 2013,.
We didn't need to be generousbecause you were a state
champion.
Talk about that for us.
Twenty three feet three quarterinches yeah, it's a cool story
because it was seven seconds ofglory, right, we talked about
that a little bit yesterday.
Talk about that if you don'tmind.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Yeah, that was the most focus I ever was in sports,
even in college, like in anysport.
I played college football atFerris State University.
I was very focused.
Right, you had to be veryfocused in college, but I
remember that whole year in highschool, 2013, in track and
field season, the only focusthat I had in my mind was
winning state and long jump.
I knew I could do it justbecause, like the previous years
(19:57):
, I was all state and I was likealways progressing, doing
better each year, and I knew,like this is the last year, I
can do it.
So I knew I would probably onlyhave about what?
Seven seconds to actually startto finish, from starting to
actually jumping on the board,to landing in the sand for being
finished at state, to landingin the sand for being finished
at State.
But there was hours and hoursof spent in practice with Coach
(20:21):
Kingma just working on my steps,my footing position getting
stronger.
I spent so much time in thesquat rack and the weight room
just trying to become asexplosive as possible, working
on my form.
There's so much detail thatwent into that, man, but I kid
you not.
I was talking to you about thison the phone when you called me
when I was at my form.
There's so much detail thatwent into that, man, but I kid
you not.
I was talking to you about thison the phone when you called me
(20:42):
when I was at my house.
Don't underestimate hard work.
Hard work pays off.
It really does.
I know it's cliche, but it does.
It does pay off when you'retruly focused, you have tunnel
vision and you give it your all.
You really give it your all.
You're actually putting in allthe work that you need to put in
.
You're staying late afterpractice.
You're doing the extra workthat nobody else is doing.
(21:03):
It will show.
It will show at the end result,and it did for me, you know, in
2013.
I think about it all the time.
I'm like man, like I take thatto life now, too.
I'm like look, this is what.
This is what happened.
I, in the beginning, I had agoal, I focused on it, I paid
(21:23):
attention to detail, I did allthe work that I needed to do and
the results was I was a statechampion.
So I apply that now to to mybusiness right.
I apply that to how I lead myfamily and how I treat my wife.
You know, try to do the extralittle things to take care of
her.
My church right.
I try to be the God-fearing manthat I know God has called me
to be in my community.
So all those things are thesame principles that I learned
(21:45):
in track and field in 2013.
I apply it.
I apply it everywhere now.
Speaker 4 (21:49):
Our volleyball coach always talks about hard work and
her the line that she uses ishard work beats talent when
talent doesn't work hard.
Yeah, it's good.
Speaker 3 (21:59):
Oh, that's right on the money.
You had a lot of people comealongside you when you were
younger.
You spoke about ChristyJernigan the other night at the
banquet, which is fun, and youlooked at the crowd and were
kind of pointing at differentpeople.
You had already mentioned CoachKingma.
When we were out by the pit wetalked about him a little bit
too.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
You talked about Kingma.
We, when we were out on the bythe pit, we talked about him a
little bit too.
You talked about Kingma lastnight.
There was a different look onyour face.
Yeah, kingma, yeah, he's.
He's a game changer.
He was, he was, he was.
He set apart as a coach, forsure, and his, his level of
detail in an investing in, likethe person, instead of just the
actual result it was that's whata coach is supposed to do.
I didn't appreciate how muchKingman made an impact to me
(22:45):
until after the fact, as I gotolder and just like, matured.
I didn't know what he was doing, like he was investing in me
personally.
So, yeah, he's the reason whyyou know we won a state
championship that year, for sure, like, without a doubt, there
was so many moments like I, Ilike wanted to quit or, you know
(23:07):
, just didn't want to do itanymore or, you know, just got
frustrated, you know, as teenageathletes do.
But he always brought me backdown to earth, talked to me, sat
me down and just gave me wisdom.
Man, so that's what you need.
It's a young teenager that'strying to win state.
You know, you gotta, you gottaknow that person, you gotta
(23:28):
invest in them, so he took thetime to do that you know this is
, this is educational athletics.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
when you get those other levels we get to, but
educational athletics is reallya lot of us right when it goes
well.
Can you speak to, maybe just asa young man, all the different
coaches you had, because at 15,your father passed away.
That was a big moment in yourlife.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
Maybe speak to that a little bit, if that's okay.
Yeah, that was a tough year.
Maybe speak to that a littlebit, if that's okay.
Yeah, that was, it was a toughyear.
Yeah, my dad, you know,suddenly passed due to cancer in
2010.
And I was a.
I was a 15 year old kid.
Speaker 3 (24:05):
Oh man.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
I mean, I'm I'm like a like what am I?
I'm like a freshman andsophomore in high school and,
you know, as soon as my dadpassed, I've got.
Two weeks later, I've gotconditioning that summer with
the football team and I mean,this is prime time.
Like you're, you're stilllearning a lot about, you know
(24:27):
whether or not you're even goodenough to play football.
So you're, you're giving ityour all, like you're trying to
prove yourself to the team.
I jumped right back into it,man.
So I had to rely a lot on, like, the coaches that I had at
football, track and fieldbasketball, and it was really
important for them to like takeme under their wing and like
start to mentor me, because Iwas kind of missing that right,
(24:47):
that that part at home, and Ihad other people.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
You had lots of brothers, big family I had big
family.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
You know, ryan Verhuis and his family, bob
Zucker, mrs Zucker were werehuge part in that kind of
leadership, mentorship role,parental figure my mom obviously
was.
She held on the whole entirefamily, so that was huge for us.
But as far as like that fatherfigure, you know I was really
looking for that in sports aswell and I was kind of missing
(25:15):
that, you know, part.
So I really relied on thecoaches that taught me and I
know I mentioned coach Kingma.
I mean, he was just, he wasjust a huge help in that and he
just taught me so muchdiscipline, hard work.
One of the biggest ones waslearning how to be calm under
pressure and then also, whenthings don't get right, learning
(25:37):
how to react in a positive way,Like as a kid.
You don't even understand thatman.
There'll be so many momentswhere things go wrong and I'm
like I just want to freak out,get frustrated, cause that's
what you do as a kid, likeyou're, like you don't know how
to handle that Right, especiallyif you're a quarterback.
You, you know it's fourth,fourth quarter games on the line
.
You're down by six points andyou're at the 10-yard line, your
(26:02):
opponent's 10-yard line, andyou throw an interception.
Speaker 3 (26:09):
How do you deal with that?
It's hard to do as an adult tostay calm all the time.
Goodness gracious, we'retalking 15, 16, 17, 18-year-old
kids.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
Right.
But that's what happened when Igot coached by some of these
coaches at West Ottawa.
They taught me these things inpractice and it helped me,
especially in the year of 2013,with track and field learning
how to stay calm when thingsdon't get right, so that you can
be successful and that you canwin a state championship but not
(26:36):
only that, man, that translatesso well to life as well.
How many times do you gothrough troubles and challenges
in life that you get beat downon?
How are you going to react?
Right?
You don't learn that growing upas a kid, that's just going to
carry over.
It's not like you justautomatically wake up one day
and you learn it.
Speaker 4 (26:50):
So, huge help, huge help.
Yeah, that's the beautifulthing about educational
athletics and what has drawn meto kind of do what I do yeah
because you see kids go throughthese little mini struggles,
right?
um, they drop a point on avolleyball court or they miss a
pass in a football game, andit's how do they get up off the
(27:10):
mat?
Because those life lessons thatthey're going to take forward
in their life they're going topop up again.
Right, we're never going to besuccessful at everything we do.
And if you are successful ineverything you do, maybe you
need to try something different.
Right, like, it's okay to fail,because that means you're
trying to advance yourself.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (27:29):
That's good.
Speaker 3 (27:30):
It's really good, bill, thanks.
Speaker 4 (27:33):
That hit me.
I love that one.
I'm, that hit me.
Yeah, I felt that one.
I'm beside him quite a bit, hehits me.
That got me.
I was like, okay, all right,you gotta, you gotta fail man
yeah, there's growth.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
There's growth in in the struggle.
There's growth and failure.
Yeah, yeah, it's good to learnthat, though younger it is you
know 100.
Speaker 4 (27:53):
That's why we we do what we do and we really try to
encourage our student athletesto learn how to overcome those
failures on the court on thefield.
Speaker 5 (28:04):
Lauren, what's your take on some of this stuff that
you're hearing in here and seepeople who saw him as a kid kind
of in this big-headed, you know, chest-puffed-out top of the
world to like really gettingbroken down over the years and
then built back up in a totallydifferent way and like getting
(28:26):
to like be married to that partof him and then just kind of
like dabbling in and steppinginto, you know, his life as a
kid here.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
And.
Speaker 5 (28:34):
I don't know.
It's always cool to me to likesee other people see him where
he is now.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
Oh, that's really nice.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
Yeah, like when you're, like when you're when
you're a teenager, you don'tthink anything stinks, man, you
think you're on top of the worldit.
Speaker 3 (28:49):
Well, and, to be honest, when you're a top
athlete, yeah of the world.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
Yeah, nothing else matters.
No.
So you know, pride is huge likethat's that starts to sink,
sink in and it's like who'sgonna tell you anything?
Speaker 5 (29:02):
I was that kid you're never taught that pride it's a
bad thing.
As a kid, everybody tells youto be proud of yourself like
that's always been a good.
It's not till you get to anadult adulthood where you're
like, oh pride ain't that great,like I can't really pound my
chest anymore.
You know, I'm not I never knew.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
I never knew humility to be strength.
Yeah I was never taught thatright and as you grow up as an
adult you learn very quicklythat pride doesn't get you
anywhere no no one wants to bearound it.
No, it's ugly trying to stealthat young athletes at a young
age.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
It's, it's good yeah, it's a hard balance because we
even talked about trash talk theother day.
It's like you got to have alittle moxie to you when you
play.
You got to have that.
But there's always a finebalance which is so hard to find
.
Speaker 4 (29:46):
Yeah yeah, I, I really enjoyed trash talk.
Speaker 3 (29:49):
Yeah, I know we talked about it yesterday too.
It's like I always like totrash talk the kid and we talked
about this a little bit sofunny.
But I was I.
I tried always to be funny,yeah, when we did trash talking.
So it's like, you know, justnot be super tough, you suck
whatever.
Right now we're gonna bringsomething fun into it and it's
like, hey, I'm glad you're inthe game, but you're gonna be
sitting down about two minutesyeah you know, yeah, I just I
(30:12):
played positions that were notlike I wasn't scoring touchdowns
or catching passes or I wastrying to steal someone else's
will.
Yeah, you're a wild animal onthe outside, unleashed dude
that's the only way to kill me.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
Man, steal someone else's will.
Honestly, there's nothing wrongwith trash talking if you can
do it and like the trash talking.
That doesn't work is just likebeing negative to someone else.
Oh yeah, that doesn't work it's.
It's like the reversepsychology type, like you're
giving them compliments hey man,I like your socks.
Today you're telling me.
(30:48):
I got a lineup next to someonethat just said I like your socks
.
Oh, he's in my head immediatelylike hey man, I like your smile
, you got a great smile.
You know that Like what?
Why is my opponent telling meI've got a great smile?
Speaker 5 (31:01):
You know you didn't give compliment Trash Dog.
No, no, I didn't.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
No, I didn't at all, but I wasn't very good at it.
Maybe you received it.
I wasn't very good at it, right.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
I tried high school here and you head over to Ferris
State.
Yeah, really nice career withthe Ferris State Bulldogs under
coach Tony Anise Legend.
We know you played there.
We know you had a successfulcareer.
Talk about, maybe how, thecompetitive part of it.
What do you have to do tocompete at that level?
Speaker 1 (31:26):
Yeah, I mean, you walk into practice, or I should
say, two days right.
You walk into two days rightthe first summer and you quickly
realize, after doing seven,seven on sevens, what is it
called.
Speaker 4 (31:36):
Seven on sevens.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
Once you do seven on sevens that you're no longer the
best athlete on the field, thatevery single athlete that's on
there was the best in highschool.
It's a reality check for sure.
Humility sinks in quickly butit's good.
It's good, everyone needs to gothrough that, right, everyone
needs to go through that.
And then you kind of get this Imean, eventually you got to get
some reps right, but eventuallyyou get like this, you adapt.
(32:05):
You get like this competitiveedge, like if you're a
competitive athlete and most ofthose kids that are either on
scholarship or at that collegethat are playing sports are
pretty competitive.
So you kind of get like thiscompetitive edge in you that
says you know what, I'm justabout to go out here and just
school, everyone Like I'm, I'mtaking it on, I'm taking it face
(32:25):
on, I'm, I want to be the best,and that kind of instills in
you.
And then you really just startgetting after it.
Man, like it.
It's kind of crazy how, how itall happens.
It's kind of like you know youget put in an environment where
everyone's better and then youjust adapt to that environment.
You know like it's likecounseling, like you hang out
with wise counselors.
You become wise, right, but youhang out with fair enough,
(32:47):
that's true.
Watch your life fall into pieces.
It's the same thing in football, man, you.
You get in front of people whoare the some of the best
athletes in the state and it'slike, all right, I'm about to
become either like them or evenbetter, because that's that's
who you're surrounded with thewhole time.
So I just remember being very,very competitive and like just
going all in and football, youknow, but it did pay off.
Speaker 3 (33:09):
Yeah, it did.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
Yeah, I had a season or two, did I?
I played pretty well for for acouple of seasons.
I remember one season I had.
It was my best season.
I think it was my redshirtsophomore year.
I had four interceptions.
It's kind of wild how thathappened.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
That's fun, it must be fun to play at that level?
I obviously haven't.
So it must be really fun toplay at that level and have
success, like what a rush thatis, just as an athlete.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
Yeah, it was.
That's cool.
Huh, that is just as an athlete, yeah it was cool.
Huh, it seems like a lifetimeago though.
Speaker 3 (33:40):
And it is.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
But yeah, I do remember.
I remember like there's nothingbetter than just like you get
in the, you get in the game andit's like you're like third
quarter, right In the middle ofall of it, the fans are going
crazy and you're standing acrossyour receiver and it's like a
third down situation and theysay hut, and you're backpedaling
(34:04):
and the receiver goes deep andyou know they're throwing it to
your side and that ball's in theair.
That moment between being theball being in air and then you
running over there and thengetting an interception and then
catching it and you're likethose are the moments
interception and then catchingit those are the moments right
there that were worth it.
All those, all those workouts,staying late after practice you
(34:25):
know the competitiveness incollege football.
All of that was worth it whenyou go through those types of
moments.
So that was fun, cause I had.
I had four of those.
I had four of those moments andI had some tackles and stuff.
You know.
You know my redshirt sophomoreyear that I remember when I was
like man, that was but those,those interceptions really stand
out, huh yeah, like I mean, ifyou watch them on tv.
Speaker 4 (34:47):
When you somebody gets a pick, they are hype right
like yeah, yeah yeah yeah,we've talked to talked to a
couple of west ottawa alums whohave gone on to the collegiate
level and that's been a verycommon theme, as we've talked to
them about that adjustment fromhigh school to college and kind
of that initial like holy cow,this is different.
(35:08):
Everybody's the best at theirschool, everybody's the best in
their county.
Some of the top players in thestate and now every dude on the
team is exactly on that leveland it does create that.
It humbles you.
Yeah, that first year though Ithink, especially in college
(35:29):
football, you got to get throughthat first year.
Got to get through it.
I was talking to we have a youngman, carter Sculpin, who's at
Davenport and he was at our gameat Caledonia last week.
He's a freshman at Davenport.
I was asking him how hisexperience is going and he's not
sniffing the field.
He knew going in he's going tobe redshirted and all of those
(35:50):
things.
I'm like you're going to makeit through right.
He goes.
Oh, absolutely, he's got theright mindset.
He knows that this year was agrowth and development year for
him.
So that's really cool to kindof see our high school kids
start to kind of understand thementality that you have to take
to really survive?
College athletics it'sdifferent.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
You'll be surprised what you can do to when you're
put in those situations Likeyou're put in a situation where
your back's against the wall.
It's like eat or get eat,especially in college football.
Man, these boys don't.
I mean, these are grown men,these are 20, 21-year-olds.
Some of these guys are 6'7",6'8", 300 pounds muscle.
(36:30):
They don't.
You're a young, you're a youngfreshman kid coming in.
Some of these guys run fourthrees and a 40 yard dash.
Some of these guys areprojected to get drafted.
Right, who are you coming in?
And they've got a.
They've got a whole recruitingclass of guys similar to that
coming in next year.
So don't think that you'regetting comfortable.
So you got to show it every day.
(36:51):
So it's kind of like you get inthat mindset where it's like,
all right, I don't have a choicebut to go all in to get
competitive.
And it pushes you and you man,you'd be surprised at some of
the results, what you canactually do when you actually
put go all in.
You know you, you getcompetitive.
You, you focus on just like thesmall things.
You're just like all right, I'mgoing on them.
(37:11):
This is, I'm here for this,right.
You know, type mindset, typemindset Like, ah, let's go.
Speaker 3 (37:17):
All the while getting your engineering degree yeah
that was wild.
Tell me about that.
You had a funny story aboutgoing to practice and then
having to go to class.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
Oh, my goodness, we had our engineering building,
rodney Bill, I kid you not, wehad our engineering building
like a mile away from thefootball field.
Right, we would practice Hardpractice building.
Like a mile away from thefootball field.
Right, we would practice hardpractice, college football
practice.
Not like, just turn off yourmind and be athletic.
No, you're, they're runningplays, they're switching plays.
You got to know the place.
(37:46):
You don't know the place you'rerunning.
Like, oh, you don't know thatplay coaches.
Like Nope, you're running.
So you're, you're mentallyexhausted.
Right, it's full focus, it's.
It's a very difficult level toperform at.
But right after practice, afteryou're dead tired, you're
sweating, you can't even move amuscle.
You got an engineering test onheat transfer.
Yeah, what's?
Speaker 4 (38:07):
heat transfer.
Right, you didn't know, youdidn't know what he you didn't
know he could be transferred,did you?
Speaker 1 (38:11):
Yeah, go, go, take a.
Go take a two and a half hourtest on heat transfer, a mile
away.
By the way, your practice endslike 10 minutes before the test
starts.
Oh, the professors, by the way,they don't care, you're a
football player, oh, and ifyou're late you're not taking
the test.
Doors are locked, so you betterbe there in 10 minutes.
So, yeah, that was funny.
(38:32):
I used to, I used to get usedto finish practice.
I I didn't have time to go tothe locker room and take a
shower like everyone else.
Right, you take your footballpads, you take off your helmet
and you run.
You got.
You got your football pants on.
Still, you got your cleats on.
I kid you not, I'm walking upthe stairs, I'm like cleats in
the engineering building.
It's like on the fourth floor.
Sit down.
(38:53):
You get your pencil.
Right, you got your backpack onthe football field.
You take your backpack, youtake your pencil out.
Take your pen out.
You're ready to go.
Switch your mind to engineeringNow.
Start thinking about heattransfer and how those
principles apply.
It was pretty cool, but I mean,like I said, backs against the
wall, right, just no, nodifferent than football
competing against all these toplevel high school athletes,
(39:15):
right?
No different than footballcompeting against all these top
level high school athletes,right, that are now in college.
Same thing You're like.
It's got to get done.
Yeah, go ahead.
My wife's raising, raising herhand.
Speaker 5 (39:23):
I thought I was going to sneeze.
I liked it I loved it.
Speaker 1 (39:27):
That was the sneeze thing.
That was the sneeze.
Speaker 3 (39:28):
You know what was really funny is you were, we
might leave this thing, causeit's kind of funny, but you
weren't full cough, so your handwasn't high to the sky, you
were like it was about just likea little bit of a shoulder, I
might be sneezing, I know.
I'm bringing it up to here.
Speaker 5 (39:39):
I want to let you know and then you pulled back.
Speaker 3 (39:41):
That was great.
Thanks, Eddie.
We have a little thing if weleave this in which we might is
that if someone has to cough onthe podcast, they'll just hold
their hand up of?
Speaker 4 (39:56):
yeah, hand up, I might be sneezing, might not
like a little bit for a secondhere.
That's good.
What was the experience likeplaying for coach anise?
Oh so, my paths have crossedwith him over the years.
First when I was a young coachuh, he was the head football
coach at muskegon high.
Then he went to grcc and thenferris and we've had some kind
of interactions over the years.
I actually worked for his wife.
She was the h HR director inForest Hills where I came from.
(40:18):
What was playing for CoachAnise?
Like?
He's an intense individual, hewas the best coach.
Speaker 1 (40:25):
When I say best, when it comes to winning, he was the
best coach I've ever played for.
I mean, he was X's and O's, butthen, on top of that, he
invested in the people that herecruited more than any coach
I've ever met in my entire life.
When it came to winning, heknew how to bring the best out
(40:48):
of you in form of your athleticcapabilities, push you past the
limits that you think you canachieve at.
He did that very well, man.
Man, he did that extremely well, and that's why he's one of the
most winning coaches inmichigan.
So playing for him was justit's more of like an honor.
Man, I was like you listenright, like when he talks you're
(41:09):
silent.
There's no like talking backright like you just listen to
him and he is right a lot of thetimes and he would know how to
put you in different positionson the field or different
coverages on the field,especially for a defensive back
or corner, like he would.
(41:30):
He would know how to maximizeyour athletic capabilities.
Who does that?
Who knows how to do that?
And he did that on theoffensive side and the defensive
side.
He was more on the offense butlike he knew exactly the players
that he had, he was like no,this guy's starting, this guy's
starting because I know the typeof plays that they can make in
this down, in this situation.
Speaker 4 (41:50):
Yeah, he's a guy that could coach every position on
the field.
Speaker 1 (41:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (41:53):
At really any level could coach every position on
the field.
Yeah, at really any level.
Yeah, I would say that over theyears, knowing him and
understanding kind of where hestarted at Muskegon High and the
investment that he made intothe student-athletes at Muskegon
High School, and then he'scarried that really forward at
GRCC and now at Ferris andultimately winning a national
championship Now he's got thatunder his belt.
(42:14):
Didn't they get two?
They may have.
Speaker 1 (42:17):
I don't know, maybe it's just one.
Speaker 4 (42:18):
I thought they won two.
Yeah, I can't remember.
Speaker 1 (42:20):
At.
Speaker 4 (42:21):
GRCC.
He won like oh, he was.
Speaker 1 (42:23):
What two, three.
Speaker 4 (42:24):
Yeah, and they don't even have a program anymore.
Speaker 1 (42:25):
They don't even have a.
He went in there and built itup.
Speaker 3 (42:30):
That's funny, coach at times.
These all these big programsonce that coach leaves, better
watch out yeah, yeah, well he.
Speaker 4 (42:36):
He left grcc because they were going to fold the
program and he ended up atferris and in my opinion he
should have probably had theopportunity to coach the
division one level at a westernor a central or eastern.
I think some of those schoolsprobably look back and are like,
oh, maybe we pass that guy up.
But now I think he's very, veryhappy with what he's got going
at Ferris and they're investinga ton into the program.
(42:58):
Did you see the new buildingthat they're putting?
Speaker 1 (43:00):
up I didn't?
Speaker 4 (43:01):
It's crazy.
Speaker 3 (43:02):
See.
Speaker 1 (43:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (43:04):
Haven't been there in a while either, right.
Speaker 1 (43:05):
That's all that goes.
I haven't.
Speaker 3 (43:08):
Let's get to.
Uh, we'll finish.
You've had a lot of people inyour life that have affected you
, made you a better person.
All that, lauren, you've seenit as someone's wife, atu, does
some mentoring.
Can you speak to just you know,from when you met him to who he
(43:29):
is now?
This radical change to be ableto now be mentoring young people
and young men what's that likefor you as someone that looks on
?
Speaker 5 (43:37):
Oh yeah.
So I mean it's kind of coolseeing, like I said, everyone's
seeing him and who he is now.
And there's many that mightbelieve like, oh, you know, he
was just a kid had a little bitof an attitude, great athlete,
but good to see him where he is.
But like the things that he'sbeen through and the progress
and the ups and the downs to gethim to where he is now is has
(44:00):
been really I've had theprivilege of of knowing him for
eight or nine years now, youwere friends for a long time
before you dated, right, yes, wewere friends.
Speaker 3 (44:07):
Are we gonna get into the story?
Because it's funny?
We, yeah, we can, we can we'regonna um, okay, so his best
friend, ryan verhouse.
Speaker 5 (44:16):
he played at Saginaw Valley State.
I attended there for undergrad,so he would come with Ryan's
parents to tailgate and we justkind of convened together as
friends.
So I saw him for the first timeand I looked at one of my best
friends, ellie, and I said whois that?
That is a good-looking man.
Tell her.
(44:37):
She said girl, get in line.
I'm like, you know, I figuredshe's like listen, I love you
and I think you're beautiful,but she's going to end up with
some supermodel, like not even aquestion.
So I'm like, all right, fine,he's cool though, you know.
So that was like I gave up onour potential romantic life.
(45:00):
I quit sketching his name in mynotebook.
We were going to be friends andit was cool because we got to
see the authenticity of eachother as friends before
romantically, but there was areally radical change with Aji
that we all recognized as afriend around the 2020 season
and that was when Motor CityChurch came to downtown Detroit
(45:24):
and we were for the lack of abetter term we were party
animals.
When we knew each other asfriends, we loved being in the
club, we were super social, wehad a totally different friend
group than we do now, and thenhe just kind of stopped showing
up to places that we would bepartying and it's like what
happened to.
And one day I remembersomeone's just like apparently
(45:48):
he found Jesus.
And you know, when you hearthat, you're like, oh okay, but
then it was like, oh no, this is, this is for real.
Like he's different now.
Even when he comes around, he'she's different now.
And so over those four years,and this last year very
specifically, there's been justmassive growth and I always knew
(46:08):
him as being like so full ofpride.
You couldn't tell this mannothing.
He was all that in a bag ofchips and he carried that.
You you know from high schooland from college and everyone
always telling him he's thegreatest, he's the greatest,
he's the greatest.
And um then he just like feltat us this place of humility and
just became a servant for hiscommunity, for me, for his
(46:30):
friends, for his family.
Speaker 3 (46:31):
And it's been, it's been amazing, it's been super
cool to see yeah, it's nice tobe around people that mature and
kind of grow up, and it's niceto hear a story like that.
Speaker 4 (46:39):
How long have you guys been married now?
Speaker 5 (46:40):
Since April.
Speaker 4 (46:41):
Okay, so, oh yeah, a hot minute yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:45):
A hot minute.
A hot minute.
Speaker 3 (46:47):
Well, you're still.
There's still some fun you'regoing to have here at West
Ottawa.
Speaker 1 (46:56):
Yeah, we have a nice uh, it's homecoming.
Speaker 3 (46:57):
We play jenison at west ottawa stadium tonight
you're gonna win.
Speaker 1 (46:59):
Honored, let's go, are you?
Yeah, we're gonna win.
We're gonna get it bill.
We're gonna win, we're gonnaget it.
Speaker 3 (47:02):
We're gonna get after it today, yeah we're gonna get
after it today, so that's thatgame's tonight.
You're gonna be in the newstadium for the first time.
Speaker 4 (47:07):
I can't wait, I can't wait, I can't wait to there,
you and ron allen, who went intothe Hall of Fame the other
night together.
It'll be his first time in thestadium.
I can't wait to get you down onthe field, introduce you at 645
.
We'll slide you off to the sidewhen the band comes out onto
(47:28):
the field and the team lines upin the tunnel and we hit the
hype video and the smokemachines and all of the stuff
that goes into this intro.
Speaker 3 (47:35):
I'm telling you, you as a competitor you're grabbing
the pads, you will be running in.
Sorry, go ahead.
Speaker 4 (47:39):
Bill, your energy is going to be off the charts.
Can we run with the team.
Speaker 5 (47:43):
Like are we in the huddle.
I think that's a great idea,but I don't know if that hammy
is going to pull.
Speaker 3 (47:49):
Hold you back.
Speaker 1 (47:52):
I can't wait.
This is going to be exciting.
This is going to be exciting.
Speaker 3 (47:55):
We're going to go down memory lane one more time.
I want to thank you first ofall just for being here for both
of you.
We've always said this podcastis about meeting new people, and
I'm just really happy we tookon the challenge of meeting
somebody new that we didn't know.
And let's come back in fiveyears when you got a couple
little ones.
Speaker 1 (48:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (48:16):
I know I'll get a couple little mini mics, some
little headphones.
I'm so excited yeah.
And then if you have a son,your son's going to be this
prideful little guy who'spuffing that chest out.
Speaker 1 (48:29):
I'm not ready.
It's a boy, it's a boy.
Speaker 4 (48:31):
We're having a boy.
We're having a boy.
His first words I'm him Yep.
Speaker 1 (48:39):
I'm already looking forward to it.
All the principles I'm going tohave to teach him.
Him talking back to me.
It's going to be great.
Speaker 3 (48:45):
We're going to do a little nostalgia trip to end
this.
Thanks for coming on.
This is uh to the old Pantherstadium timer of the old days.
Speaker 1 (48:53):
I remember coming here as a kid and watching the
varsity play when I was like insixth grade, seventh grade and
eighth grade and it was just, itwas completely different,
because everyone looks huge atthe time and you're like, oh,
I'm never going to play on thatfootball field.
Or like, oh, these guys arehumongous.
I'm terrified of every singleperson that walks off that
football field.
But I'd have come in here andI'd'd run up and down these
(49:14):
stands, man, I'd get hot dogs,I'd run around in that grass
area, my mom and dad would be inthe football stadium and some
of my brothers would be on theteams, right, I don't know, it
was just cool, man, it's like.
It's like growing up here wasthis, was a place to watch
sports for your high school.
I was like this is, this is astomping ground, you know.
I didn't appreciate how much Kingma made an impact
to me until after the fact, as Igot older and, just like Meshur
, I didn't know what he wasdoing, like he was investing in
me personally.
So yeah, he's the reason whyyou know we won a state
championship that year, for sure.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Like, without a doubt , without a doubt, coaches and
other faces in the Panthersports community, bringing you
the stories you might otherwisenever hear.
Join myself and AthleticDirector Bill Kennedy as we dive
in with you to get to know eachother a little bit better.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
Coming back to your old stomping grounds is
something every athleteeventually does.
Ever take that nostalgia drivein your car late at night.
Speaker 4 (01:07):
Today, we're joined by 2013 West Ottawa grad Atu
Kandali, who was recentlyinducted into the West Ottawa
Athletic Hall of Fame.
A three-sport athlete duringhis time with the Panthers, Atu
also earned the 2013 MaleAthlete of the Year Award.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
Yeah, we were real lucky to spend some significant
time with him during the threedays he was here.
Getting to meet somebody newand a West Ottawa legend who has
become a mature, thoughtfulhuman being is something that's
going to stick with us for quitea while Atu Khandali on the
29.1 podcast coming up next.
Let's get it All right, well,hey everybody, welcome back to
(01:52):
the 29 one podcast.
It is homecoming week.
Let's go here at West.
Auto High School.
It's been very busy.
We've had powder puff football,powder puff volleyball, Hall of
Fame induction at the newperforming arts center.
It's been quite a week and wehave a guest here.
Got to spend some time with youthis week.
I've really enjoyed it.
Who?
Speaker 1 (02:11):
who is it?
I'm r2.
Kindly what's up.
What's going on?
Speaker 3 (02:15):
and, uh, gracious enough, your wife lauren is here
.
Lauren, nice to have you yeah,hi everybody you're in town,
obviously for the hall of fameinduction ceremony.
You were inducted, bill and Iwere talking earlier.
This is a little different forus because every podcast we've
done so far we've known peoplelike and this is a bit of a bit
of a stretch for us, but it waslike it was kind of meant to be
(02:36):
I, we talked yesterday about it.
Uh, your name kind of jumpedoff the page and we when I was
looking at that, I was talkingto bill, we got to get somebody
on.
This is all the fame it hasbeen.
I have to say, just personally,over the last two days.
It's been fantastic.
I really feel like you know wehave a nice connection.
It's been nice spending sometime with you guys.
So likewise.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
Yeah, so every year when we sit down for Homecoming
Week, we get into Hall of Fameinduction.
Coming week we get into hall offame induction and this being
the first, this was the firstyear that we hosted the hall of
fame induction here at westottawa.
We put in a great class out toyour 2013 state champ in the
long jump yeah, six, seven.
(03:17):
In the high jump yeah, footballscholarship at ferris state
very deserving person to go intothe Hall of Fame.
When we started havingconversations about what's the
class, look like your name kindof, your accolades kind of
jumped off.
Talk to me a little bit aboutthe phone call, the email, that
first contact that you had withold Jack Carlson, who the Hall
(03:40):
of Fame is Jack's passionproject.
I don't know if you could tellor not.
Yeah, but talk to us about,like, hearing about this for the
first time.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Yeah Well, first of all, thank you for all those
compliments.
I honestly I um, I wassurprised, I was shocked.
I didn't really think that Iwas worthy enough to be inducted
into the hall of fame and Itold that to somebody and they
were like, really, I was like,yeah, like.
I, I don't know, I just neverlooked at myself as someone that
(04:07):
was like hall of fame worthyfor sports.
I just, I played sports and Idid my best and then I moved on.
Um, so it was cool.
It was cool Like just JackCarlson reached out and I was
like a little surprised at first.
It's like what it's like?
Yeah, man, you're, you're inthe hall of fame.
I've got to send you somesheets, you know, here's your
brag sheet.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
I'm like did you almost hang up?
I think it was.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
I almost did I like I had to read it a couple of
times.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
I'm like hall of fame .
I was like what?
Speaker 1 (04:37):
is this Like an ad or something from West Ottawa?
Credit card information, what'slike, oh cool.
So, yeah, it was awesome, itwas, it was a.
It was the first time I like, Iactually like took a, took a
step back and I was like man,high school that was a long time
ago, but now I'm starting tothink about it.
Wow, maybe there was somethings there that made an impact
(04:57):
.
So that was just really coolfor Jack Carlson to reach out
and yeah, we're here.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
You guys are settled over over in the detroit area,
right?
Uh, so let's talk about yourlife there a little bit.
What's fun is you?
You drove over and you told meabout your car ride.
You had two dogs in the caryeah, you guys got a couple dogs
.
Oh yeah, what's their names?
What are they?
What?
Speaker 1 (05:15):
type of dogs are they so?
One is a toy size australianshepherd and her name is phoebe.
She's like three years old, Ithink.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
What does toy-sized mean?
Sounds fierce.
She thinks that she is.
Speaker 5 (05:28):
She is what should be an 80-pound dog in an 18-pound
body.
Okay, she's a guard dog.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
She doesn't play any games.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
The other one's Tina, and she's a shit zoo mix with a
wiener dog, so think about whatthat might look like.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
I don't know what to say, right now I'm a little
shocked.
My brain started to try and putthat image together and just
got stuck.
Yeah, I don't tell you she'scool, though, man she's great
she's like a fluff.
Speaker 5 (05:58):
She's just a fluffy wiener dog.
Yeah, like long fluffy.
Oh, that's really funny.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Yeah, yeah and then you guys, you're, you're an
engineer, and lauren, you werein the medical field, now you're
in real estate.
Yep Got a connection withBill's wife Yep.
Speaker 5 (06:08):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (06:09):
How's the market in Detroit?
Speaker 5 (06:11):
Horrible.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
Okay, it's not enough .
Inventory no.
Speaker 5 (06:14):
There'll never be enough inventory or people that
are actually ready to buy.
Speaker 4 (06:19):
Yeah, dealing with very similar things here along
the lake shore.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Really nice to have you guys here, Obviously with
the hall of fame.
I just want to give a shout outto the ones who were inducted.
So we had Courtney LockerKnobber and then Ron Allen,
Karen Dykema.
One thing that I thought wasreally fun about the was the pan
.
I call it the Panther Heisman.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Did you?
Did you like it, that trophythat you have?
Speaker 1 (06:39):
I liked it, like I thought it was pretty cool, who
designed that thing?
Speaker 4 (06:43):
So that we get those through Jostens.
Okay, they're nice, which is abig national brand in the awards
space, but that's been thetrophy since the beginning back
in 97.
Wow, and Jostens basically hasthat mold and they get us four
of them every year now and, yeah, it's definitely, I think, one
(07:03):
of the coolest parts it's gotsome way to do all of that is
that trophy?
You got a spot for it.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Yeah, I'm gonna show it to my kids.
Yeah, I don't know where it'sgonna go in the house yet
probably, probably in front ofmy bed or something, maybe in
front of my work desk probablyin the office.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
It's more appropriate than in the bedroom, maybe
hanging up in the kitchen orsomething like right in the
middle of everything, oh boy ohman, your uh sporting, life here
a lot of people know it, wedon't because we weren't here.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
I, I lived in the area since about 2000, but my
kids didn't start going to highschool here until 2016, so not
really involved.
Bill comes in I came in fall of2018, fall of 2018, so I said
this to you too I didn't knowtoo much about you before we got
started, so it's been fun tokind of learn about it the
history of West Ottawa anddifferent people that have been
here.
You and I did something funyesterday.
(07:50):
It was nice.
We went on a walk at PantherStadium and just to kind of get
that nostalgia going.
I want to kind of play aroundwith that and see what that
would do.
It was fun to be over there.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Yeah, that was man, that was awesome.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
It was really cool.
We're going to play a few clipshere and there, so we're going
to start out with one.
This is Atu going back toPanther Stadium for the first
time in quite a while, so we'regoing to play here in just a
second.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
We did football on track at the same field.
Obviously yeah, and you knowthat smell of grass.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Yes, they just mowed the grass there.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
For some reason, like I don't know what it is, I
don't know if anyone else feelslike this, but like I always
used to get like nervous when Ismelled that.
Oh, because it would remind meof like, okay, it's, it's game
time, but like it was like thecalm before the storm,
(08:48):
no-transcript reason.
I was just like, oh, mygoodness, here, here, it is the
day's, here, it's time to go.
Oh, that's great so I smell itright now.
I'm just like I kind of getthose weird like nerve feelings
even though I'm not doinganything.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
I agree with the smell of the grass, though, yeah
, it takes you back immediatelyand unfortunately, in high
school football.
Now, especially here in WestMichigan, our kids will not play
one game on grass this year.
Yeah, really there are no grassfields left.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Like I feel like everybody is on turf now.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
You miss like the sense of like football, though,
Like I feel, like everybody is,on turf.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Now you miss, like the sense of like football,
though, like I don't know, likein my head, like that grass is
you got to smell it, like thatfresh mowed grass.
That's like, it's just, it'sgot a nostalgia to it.
Speaker 4 (09:39):
Man, you get into that second half and it's got
some dew on it and it's just.
Yeah, now the nostalgia is therubber beads that end up in your
shoe after a game.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
I came back from soccer last night and I got I
got home I was gonna go for arun and have my running shoes on
, like what is in there?
You know you have something inyour shoe.
Oh, I didn't know what's inthere.
I was like, oh yeah, it's allthese rubber beads, I take my
shoe off, dump it down.
There's at least a pile of 10to 15 on my kitchen floor.
It was pretty funny yeah it's awhole different ballgame.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
There was nothing like playing in the mud.
Speaker 5 (10:07):
Yeah, everyone coming home clean from a football game
yeah yeah, it's great from ajersey laundering standpoint
right.
Speaker 4 (10:15):
Like the moms don't have to get out the stain stick
on the white pants anymore, yep.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
Yeah, Tide stock has dropped.
Speaker 4 (10:21):
No doubt about that.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
You had some really good teams back in the day.
You played as a sophomore, yougot started right.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Yeah, I got pulled up on varsity as a sophomore.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
Let's play this little football memory when we
were out there.
Okay, I might repeat some ofthe things we just said, but
let's do a little bit more.
Yeah, a long time you startedas a sophomore on football
varsity.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Yeah.
So sophomore they pulled me upand that that was a big
challenge for me becauseeveryone's huge.
I mean, you got guys like youknow, desmond Morgan, you know,
um, zach Boersma, right LikeRyan Verhuis got pulled up with
me as well, but he was kind ofahead of the curve, you know he
(11:01):
was.
He was absolute monster atfootball so he started.
Yeah, he started playing atcornerback, you know,
immediately.
So I was, I was trying to get,get in the field of things.
But, uh, sophomore year, yeah,varsity football, that's when it
all started and, you know, juststarted adjusting, moved to
receiver and then, yeah, therest was history.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
You know, junior senior year would you remember
any uh big plays out here like I?
Speaker 1 (11:28):
I am oh yeah, you know what's really cool.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Yeah, so there's huddle.
It's still got you guys onthere, so there's, I watched, uh
, I watched ryan, I watched youon huddle there's some fun stuff
on there you're pretty shiftytoo yeah yeah, yeah, so I didn't
, yeah, so, so that's that'swhat I was kind of known for.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
Like I would like to I call it juke, I would like to
juke people out.
I do remember some pretty coolplays, like especially against
Grand Haven.
It was over there on that farright side of that field, like
probably right around the middle, on you know their 45, their 30
.
And I kid you not, man, likewhen I I got the ball it was
(12:07):
like a little bubble pass.
I did like this juke move andjuked like four or five players
out and but like that's, that'skind of like what I was known
for when I played football.
I wasn't super, I don't know,maybe someone called me fast.
I wasn't like super, likeexplosive or like accelerated
after I got the ball.
I was always getting likecaught from behind.
I don't know why.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
You hated that.
That's the worst thing, isn'tit?
I hated it, man.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Like I just never could really like get out right,
but like I could get you knowfive or 10 or 15 yards by juking
people.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
I saw one play on huddle yeah, when it might have
been.
I think it I'm wrong.
I'm wrong, but you took it, didyour joke.
You got all the way to thatcorner.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Yeah, and they took you out of the one-yard line.
Oh, I remember that one, do youknow?
Speaker 1 (12:47):
him.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's funny.
I don't know who that wasagainst.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
Yeah, I don't know either.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
But I'm going oh, he's going to the house, me on
one end and then Ryan on theother end, and if they were
playing over top of me, you knowRyan would go ahead and just
score.
Our offense was pretty good.
I remember Trevor Van Tuberagain.
Do you know him?
He was the quarterback for thattime, yeah him, and yeah, he
was pretty good.
But yeah, we had a pretty solidfootball team man let's keep
(13:21):
going.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
All right, let's do it, let's keep walking well do
you want to go on the field?
Speaker 1 (13:25):
let's go yeah, let's go on the field be nice yeah,
I'll run around on you and scorea touchdown.
Speaker 4 (13:29):
Yes, you will it's so fun being out on that field.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
It was such a riot like, yeah, it's so weird for
you to write to go revisit thatplace yeah after all those years
and doing all that stuff, butyou had some really great teams.
It was a big part of your lifefor quite a long time?
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Yeah, it was.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
Playing up as a sophomore.
We have the kid that'll startat quarterback for us tonight as
a sophomore, maybe talk to us alittle bit about what that?
You kind of alluded to it alittle bit, that sophomore year.
You're not as strong as yourkids that you're going against.
You're, in some cases, maybethree years younger than some of
(14:07):
those 18 year olds that areplaying varsity football.
Talk about, I guess, thatsituation and being a youngster
and playing against really grownmen.
Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
I would say, if I could go back and and just like
replay everything that I felt, Iwould say don't put so much
pressure on yourself, especiallyas a sophomore man.
You've got this year and thentwo more years before college
even begins.
So just get out there, take itall in, man, enjoy it, try to
(14:40):
laugh.
I was talking to Rodney aboutthis yesterday.
Man, like all that pressurethat we put on ourselves as, as
kids in sports, it's all in ourmind and it affects our game
negatively.
It doesn't affect our gamepositively.
I feel like some of the bestathletes, they know how to have
fun out there and enjoythemselves.
I went against kids in collegethis is my college career at
(15:02):
fairs today.
I went against kids receivers,top receivers, right In D2 at
the time, and these guys, wouldyou know, do some light trash
talking, you know, but they werealways like uplifting, like
joyful.
I couldn't, I didn't understand.
I was like I was always likereally super focused.
But these guys were coming outin the field laughing, talking,
having a good time scoringtouchdowns.
(15:24):
I'm field, laughing, talking,having a good time scoring
touchdowns.
I'm like.
I'm like what's going on?
I'm over here, serious, focusedon, like my plays, trying to
make sure I got my footpositions in the right.
No, I'm getting beat fortouchdowns sometimes.
I'm trying to figure out why.
It's because my head man, I puttoo much pressure on myself.
So if you're a sophomore goingagainst guys that are junior and
seniors, man, I'm telling'mtelling you right now most of
(15:46):
those kids out there, they'reprobably already going to put
too much pressure on themselves.
Go out there and have fun,enjoy yourself and I guarantee
you that's going to show well inyour game.
Like you're going to besurprised at what you can do
when you just really just getoutside of your mind and just
say, all right, no pressure,whatever happens in this play,
it doesn't matter, I'm havingfun.
That's when you really startshining.
Speaker 4 (16:06):
For sure.
Yeah, I think you just got tocut it loose right.
It's so hard to do.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
It's tough.
Let's move on to track andfield Specifically.
That was a big thing for you inyour time here.
High jump, long jump were kindof the things that you did.
We also went over to the longjump pit the other day.
Speaker 4 (16:26):
You went to the old pits right that you would have
used, which are probably not ingreat shape.
They're worn out, yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
I almost.
Yeah, rodney and I were overthere yesterday.
I was going back through themabout me and my coach, coach
Kingmo.
We were doing our steps,basically like stepping out how
many steps we're going to takeuntil we jump on the board for
long jump, and so I decided youknow, hey, I know I'm 29 years
old, right, yeah, but I'm goingto go ahead and give it a shot.
(16:55):
And then I did.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
Yeah, and this is what happened.
Yeah, well, go ahead and showwhat happened.
Speaker 5 (16:59):
This is why your hips hurt.
All right, I'll hold that, areyou?
Speaker 3 (17:03):
ready.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Yeah, just kidding.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
What are we doing?
Speaker 1 (17:05):
You're going to jump?
I'm just kidding, yeah.
I'll jump.
Let's do it, are you?
For real.
Let's do it one more time.
Here we go.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
Oh, I think you made it through the pit Dude.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
I almost tore my hamstring trying to jump.
I slipped on that wood.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
Alright, you guys, you can let out your laughter.
Now Go ahead.
These two are just holding eachother, trying not to laugh out
loud.
Lauren, how was that day foryou?
I haven't heard about that.
Speaker 5 (17:36):
We were walking to the beach last night An average
dog walk.
He's like my hips hurt.
I'm like, oh, how come?
I don't know Old age 29 yearsold.
I didn't even know about thisactivity until it was spur of
the moment.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
It started out as a light joke, which turned into a
bigger one.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
Come on, don't act, bill you already know don't act
like you.
Don't have those days whereyou're like man, I can just put
the football pads back on and doone more, one more play, and
then you just give it your all.
It doesn't matter what age youare, you want to do it right.
Speaker 4 (18:14):
I always tell coach, I've got.
I got one three down series.
Yeah, and between my old manstrength and the stuff that I
learned in college, I stillthink I could get to the
quarterback see, this is, thisis the illusion.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
This is the illusion, I think I could get to the
quarter my
Speaker 3 (18:32):
son.
When my son was 12, we'd go tosome courts and play basketball
and I'd beat him.
Yeah, I'd manhandle him alittle bit, he's 12 well, he
wasn't manhandling, he was 12.
He was 12 and uh, so he keepsgrowing up about 15.
I can still kind of do it.
16 started to change a littlebit, yeah, and now it's not even
close, but in my mind he goes,he goes.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
You can't play against me anymore I'm like,
yeah, I can, and I know I'mwrong, but I cannot give up that
psychological battle.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
I am not going to defer and say I cannot, even
though, yeah, it's more thanlikely, see, I'm still doing it,
but it's more than likely, Ican't.
I just can't do it, yeah we allwant to believe we can go out
and do it still, and you did,yeah it wasn't a state record,
but uh, you did hit sand and itwent up in the air a little bit.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Wow, that's, that's that's generous.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
No, that's generous.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Very generous on what actually happened.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
Well, in 2013,.
We didn't need to be generousbecause you were a state
champion.
Talk about that for us.
Twenty three feet three quarterinches yeah, it's a cool story
because it was seven seconds ofglory, right, we talked about
that a little bit yesterday.
Talk about that if you don'tmind.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Yeah, that was the most focus I ever was in sports,
even in college, like in anysport.
I played college football atFerris State University.
I was very focused.
Right, you had to be veryfocused in college, but I
remember that whole year in highschool, 2013, in track and
field season, the only focusthat I had in my mind was
winning state and long jump.
I knew I could do it justbecause, like the previous years
(19:57):
, I was all state and I was likealways progressing, doing
better each year, and I knew,like this is the last year, I
can do it.
So I knew I would probably onlyhave about what?
Seven seconds to actually startto finish, from starting to
actually jumping on the board,to landing in the sand for being
finished at state, to landingin the sand for being finished
at State.
But there was hours and hoursof spent in practice with Coach
(20:21):
Kingma just working on my steps,my footing position getting
stronger.
I spent so much time in thesquat rack and the weight room
just trying to become asexplosive as possible, working
on my form.
There's so much detail thatwent into that, man, but I kid
you not.
I was talking to you about thison the phone when you called me
when I was at my form.
There's so much detail thatwent into that, man, but I kid
you not.
I was talking to you about thison the phone when you called me
(20:42):
when I was at my house.
Don't underestimate hard work.
Hard work pays off.
It really does.
I know it's cliche, but it does.
It does pay off when you'retruly focused, you have tunnel
vision and you give it your all.
You really give it your all.
You're actually putting in allthe work that you need to put in
.
You're staying late afterpractice.
You're doing the extra workthat nobody else is doing.
(21:03):
It will show.
It will show at the end result,and it did for me, you know, in
2013.
I think about it all the time.
I'm like man, like I take thatto life now, too.
I'm like look, this is what.
This is what happened.
I, in the beginning, I had agoal, I focused on it, I paid
(21:23):
attention to detail, I did allthe work that I needed to do and
the results was I was a statechampion.
So I apply that now to to mybusiness right.
I apply that to how I lead myfamily and how I treat my wife.
You know, try to do the extralittle things to take care of
her.
My church right.
I try to be the God-fearing manthat I know God has called me
to be in my community.
So all those things are thesame principles that I learned
(21:45):
in track and field in 2013.
I apply it.
I apply it everywhere now.
Speaker 4 (21:49):
Our volleyball coach always talks about hard work and
her the line that she uses ishard work beats talent when
talent doesn't work hard.
Yeah, it's good.
Speaker 3 (21:59):
Oh, that's right on the money.
You had a lot of people comealongside you when you were
younger.
You spoke about ChristyJernigan the other night at the
banquet, which is fun, and youlooked at the crowd and were
kind of pointing at differentpeople.
You had already mentioned CoachKingma.
When we were out by the pit wetalked about him a little bit
too.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
You talked about Kingma.
We, when we were out on the bythe pit, we talked about him a
little bit too.
You talked about Kingma lastnight.
There was a different look onyour face.
Yeah, kingma, yeah, he's.
He's a game changer.
He was, he was, he was.
He set apart as a coach, forsure, and his, his level of
detail in an investing in, likethe person, instead of just the
actual result it was that's whata coach is supposed to do.
I didn't appreciate how muchKingman made an impact to me
(22:45):
until after the fact, as I gotolder and just like, matured.
I didn't know what he was doing, like he was investing in me
personally.
So, yeah, he's the reason whyyou know we won a state
championship that year, for sure, like, without a doubt, there
was so many moments like I, Ilike wanted to quit or, you know
(23:07):
, just didn't want to do itanymore or, you know, just got
frustrated, you know, as teenageathletes do.
But he always brought me backdown to earth, talked to me, sat
me down and just gave me wisdom.
Man, so that's what you need.
It's a young teenager that'strying to win state.
You know, you gotta, you gottaknow that person, you gotta
(23:28):
invest in them, so he took thetime to do that you know this is
, this is educational athletics.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
when you get those other levels we get to, but
educational athletics is reallya lot of us right when it goes
well.
Can you speak to, maybe just asa young man, all the different
coaches you had, because at 15,your father passed away.
That was a big moment in yourlife.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
Maybe speak to that a little bit, if that's okay.
Yeah, that was a tough year.
Maybe speak to that a littlebit, if that's okay.
Yeah, that was, it was a toughyear.
Yeah, my dad, you know,suddenly passed due to cancer in
2010.
And I was a.
I was a 15 year old kid.
Speaker 3 (24:05):
Oh man.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
I mean, I'm I'm like a like what am I?
I'm like a freshman andsophomore in high school and,
you know, as soon as my dadpassed, I've got.
Two weeks later, I've gotconditioning that summer with
the football team and I mean,this is prime time.
Like you're, you're stilllearning a lot about, you know
(24:27):
whether or not you're even goodenough to play football.
So you're, you're giving ityour all, like you're trying to
prove yourself to the team.
I jumped right back into it,man.
So I had to rely a lot on, like, the coaches that I had at
football, track and fieldbasketball, and it was really
important for them to like takeme under their wing and like
start to mentor me, because Iwas kind of missing that right,
(24:47):
that that part at home, and Ihad other people.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
You had lots of brothers, big family I had big
family.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
You know, ryan Verhuis and his family, bob
Zucker, mrs Zucker were werehuge part in that kind of
leadership, mentorship role,parental figure my mom obviously
was.
She held on the whole entirefamily, so that was huge for us.
But as far as like that fatherfigure, you know I was really
looking for that in sports aswell and I was kind of missing
(25:15):
that, you know, part.
So I really relied on thecoaches that taught me and I
know I mentioned coach Kingma.
I mean, he was just, he wasjust a huge help in that and he
just taught me so muchdiscipline, hard work.
One of the biggest ones waslearning how to be calm under
pressure and then also, whenthings don't get right, learning
(25:37):
how to react in a positive way,Like as a kid.
You don't even understand thatman.
There'll be so many momentswhere things go wrong and I'm
like I just want to freak out,get frustrated, cause that's
what you do as a kid, likeyou're, like you don't know how
to handle that Right, especiallyif you're a quarterback.
You, you know it's fourth,fourth quarter games on the line
.
You're down by six points andyou're at the 10-yard line, your
(26:02):
opponent's 10-yard line, andyou throw an interception.
Speaker 3 (26:09):
How do you deal with that?
It's hard to do as an adult tostay calm all the time.
Goodness gracious, we'retalking 15, 16, 17, 18-year-old
kids.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
Right.
But that's what happened when Igot coached by some of these
coaches at West Ottawa.
They taught me these things inpractice and it helped me,
especially in the year of 2013,with track and field learning
how to stay calm when thingsdon't get right, so that you can
be successful and that you canwin a state championship but not
(26:36):
only that, man, that translatesso well to life as well.
How many times do you gothrough troubles and challenges
in life that you get beat downon?
How are you going to react?
Right?
You don't learn that growing upas a kid, that's just going to
carry over.
It's not like you justautomatically wake up one day
and you learn it.
Speaker 4 (26:50):
So, huge help, huge help.
Yeah, that's the beautifulthing about educational
athletics and what has drawn meto kind of do what I do yeah
because you see kids go throughthese little mini struggles,
right?
um, they drop a point on avolleyball court or they miss a
pass in a football game, andit's how do they get up off the
(27:10):
mat?
Because those life lessons thatthey're going to take forward
in their life they're going topop up again.
Right, we're never going to besuccessful at everything we do.
And if you are successful ineverything you do, maybe you
need to try something different.
Right, like, it's okay to fail,because that means you're
trying to advance yourself.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (27:29):
That's good.
Speaker 3 (27:30):
It's really good, bill, thanks.
Speaker 4 (27:33):
That hit me.
I love that one.
I'm, that hit me.
Yeah, I felt that one.
I'm beside him quite a bit, hehits me.
That got me.
I was like, okay, all right,you gotta, you gotta fail man
yeah, there's growth.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
There's growth in in the struggle.
There's growth and failure.
Yeah, yeah, it's good to learnthat, though younger it is you
know 100.
Speaker 4 (27:53):
That's why we we do what we do and we really try to
encourage our student athletesto learn how to overcome those
failures on the court on thefield.
Speaker 5 (28:04):
Lauren, what's your take on some of this stuff that
you're hearing in here and seepeople who saw him as a kid kind
of in this big-headed, you know, chest-puffed-out top of the
world to like really gettingbroken down over the years and
then built back up in a totallydifferent way and like getting
(28:26):
to like be married to that partof him and then just kind of
like dabbling in and steppinginto, you know, his life as a
kid here.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
And.
Speaker 5 (28:34):
I don't know.
It's always cool to me to likesee other people see him where
he is now.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
Oh, that's really nice.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
Yeah, like when you're, like when you're when
you're a teenager, you don'tthink anything stinks, man, you
think you're on top of the worldit.
Speaker 3 (28:49):
Well, and, to be honest, when you're a top
athlete, yeah of the world.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
Yeah, nothing else matters.
No.
So you know, pride is huge likethat's that starts to sink,
sink in and it's like who'sgonna tell you anything?
Speaker 5 (29:02):
I was that kid you're never taught that pride it's a
bad thing.
As a kid, everybody tells youto be proud of yourself like
that's always been a good.
It's not till you get to anadult adulthood where you're
like, oh pride ain't that great,like I can't really pound my
chest anymore.
You know, I'm not I never knew.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
I never knew humility to be strength.
Yeah I was never taught thatright and as you grow up as an
adult you learn very quicklythat pride doesn't get you
anywhere no no one wants to bearound it.
No, it's ugly trying to stealthat young athletes at a young
age.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
It's, it's good yeah, it's a hard balance because we
even talked about trash talk theother day.
It's like you got to have alittle moxie to you when you
play.
You got to have that.
But there's always a finebalance which is so hard to find
.
Speaker 4 (29:46):
Yeah yeah, I, I really enjoyed trash talk.
Speaker 3 (29:49):
Yeah, I know we talked about it yesterday too.
It's like I always like totrash talk the kid and we talked
about this a little bit sofunny.
But I was I.
I tried always to be funny,yeah, when we did trash talking.
So it's like, you know, justnot be super tough, you suck
whatever.
Right now we're gonna bringsomething fun into it and it's
like, hey, I'm glad you're inthe game, but you're gonna be
sitting down about two minutesyeah you know, yeah, I just I
(30:12):
played positions that were notlike I wasn't scoring touchdowns
or catching passes or I wastrying to steal someone else's
will.
Yeah, you're a wild animal onthe outside, unleashed dude
that's the only way to kill me.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
Man, steal someone else's will.
Honestly, there's nothing wrongwith trash talking if you can
do it and like the trash talking.
That doesn't work is just likebeing negative to someone else.
Oh yeah, that doesn't work it's.
It's like the reversepsychology type, like you're
giving them compliments hey man,I like your socks.
Today you're telling me.
(30:48):
I got a lineup next to someonethat just said I like your socks
.
Oh, he's in my head immediatelylike hey man, I like your smile
, you got a great smile.
You know that Like what?
Why is my opponent telling meI've got a great smile?
Speaker 5 (31:01):
You know you didn't give compliment Trash Dog.
No, no, I didn't.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
No, I didn't at all, but I wasn't very good at it.
Maybe you received it.
I wasn't very good at it, right.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
I tried high school here and you head over to Ferris
State.
Yeah, really nice career withthe Ferris State Bulldogs under
coach Tony Anise Legend.
We know you played there.
We know you had a successfulcareer.
Talk about, maybe how, thecompetitive part of it.
What do you have to do tocompete at that level?
Speaker 1 (31:26):
Yeah, I mean, you walk into practice, or I should
say, two days right.
You walk into two days rightthe first summer and you quickly
realize, after doing seven,seven on sevens, what is it
called.
Speaker 4 (31:36):
Seven on sevens.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
Once you do seven on sevens that you're no longer the
best athlete on the field, thatevery single athlete that's on
there was the best in highschool.
It's a reality check for sure.
Humility sinks in quickly butit's good.
It's good, everyone needs to gothrough that, right, everyone
needs to go through that.
And then you kind of get this Imean, eventually you got to get
some reps right, but eventuallyyou get like this, you adapt.
(32:05):
You get like this competitiveedge, like if you're a
competitive athlete and most ofthose kids that are either on
scholarship or at that collegethat are playing sports are
pretty competitive.
So you kind of get like thiscompetitive edge in you that
says you know what, I'm justabout to go out here and just
school, everyone Like I'm, I'mtaking it on, I'm taking it face
(32:25):
on, I'm, I want to be the best,and that kind of instills in
you.
And then you really just startgetting after it.
Man, like it.
It's kind of crazy how, how itall happens.
It's kind of like you know youget put in an environment where
everyone's better and then youjust adapt to that environment.
You know like it's likecounseling, like you hang out
with wise counselors.
You become wise, right, but youhang out with fair enough,
(32:47):
that's true.
Watch your life fall into pieces.
It's the same thing in football, man, you.
You get in front of people whoare the some of the best
athletes in the state and it'slike, all right, I'm about to
become either like them or evenbetter, because that's that's
who you're surrounded with thewhole time.
So I just remember being very,very competitive and like just
going all in and football, youknow, but it did pay off.
Speaker 3 (33:09):
Yeah, it did.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
Yeah, I had a season or two, did I?
I played pretty well for for acouple of seasons.
I remember one season I had.
It was my best season.
I think it was my redshirtsophomore year.
I had four interceptions.
It's kind of wild how thathappened.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
That's fun, it must be fun to play at that level?
I obviously haven't.
So it must be really fun toplay at that level and have
success, like what a rush thatis, just as an athlete.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
Yeah, it was.
That's cool.
Huh, that is just as an athlete, yeah it was cool.
Huh, it seems like a lifetimeago though.
Speaker 3 (33:40):
And it is.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
But yeah, I do remember.
I remember like there's nothingbetter than just like you get
in the, you get in the game andit's like you're like third
quarter, right In the middle ofall of it, the fans are going
crazy and you're standing acrossyour receiver and it's like a
third down situation and theysay hut, and you're backpedaling
(34:04):
and the receiver goes deep andyou know they're throwing it to
your side and that ball's in theair.
That moment between being theball being in air and then you
running over there and thengetting an interception and then
catching it and you're likethose are the moments
interception and then catchingit those are the moments right
there that were worth it.
All those, all those workouts,staying late after practice you
(34:25):
know the competitiveness incollege football.
All of that was worth it whenyou go through those types of
moments.
So that was fun, cause I had.
I had four of those.
I had four of those moments andI had some tackles and stuff.
You know.
You know my redshirt sophomoreyear that I remember when I was
like man, that was but those,those interceptions really stand
out, huh yeah, like I mean, ifyou watch them on tv.
Speaker 4 (34:47):
When you somebody gets a pick, they are hype right
like yeah, yeah yeah yeah,we've talked to talked to a
couple of west ottawa alums whohave gone on to the collegiate
level and that's been a verycommon theme, as we've talked to
them about that adjustment fromhigh school to college and kind
of that initial like holy cow,this is different.
(35:08):
Everybody's the best at theirschool, everybody's the best in
their county.
Some of the top players in thestate and now every dude on the
team is exactly on that leveland it does create that.
It humbles you.
Yeah, that first year though Ithink, especially in college
(35:29):
football, you got to get throughthat first year.
Got to get through it.
I was talking to we have a youngman, carter Sculpin, who's at
Davenport and he was at our gameat Caledonia last week.
He's a freshman at Davenport.
I was asking him how hisexperience is going and he's not
sniffing the field.
He knew going in he's going tobe redshirted and all of those
(35:50):
things.
I'm like you're going to makeit through right.
He goes.
Oh, absolutely, he's got theright mindset.
He knows that this year was agrowth and development year for
him.
So that's really cool to kindof see our high school kids
start to kind of understand thementality that you have to take
to really survive?
College athletics it'sdifferent.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
You'll be surprised what you can do to when you're
put in those situations Likeyou're put in a situation where
your back's against the wall.
It's like eat or get eat,especially in college football.
Man, these boys don't.
I mean, these are grown men,these are 20, 21-year-olds.
Some of these guys are 6'7",6'8", 300 pounds muscle.
(36:30):
They don't.
You're a young, you're a youngfreshman kid coming in.
Some of these guys run fourthrees and a 40 yard dash.
Some of these guys areprojected to get drafted.
Right, who are you coming in?
And they've got a.
They've got a whole recruitingclass of guys similar to that
coming in next year.
So don't think that you'regetting comfortable.
So you got to show it every day.
(36:51):
So it's kind of like you get inthat mindset where it's like,
all right, I don't have a choicebut to go all in to get
competitive.
And it pushes you and you man,you'd be surprised at some of
the results, what you canactually do when you actually
put go all in.
You know you, you getcompetitive.
You, you focus on just like thesmall things.
You're just like all right, I'mgoing on them.
(37:11):
This is, I'm here for this,right.
You know, type mindset, typemindset Like, ah, let's go.
Speaker 3 (37:17):
All the while getting your engineering degree yeah
that was wild.
Tell me about that.
You had a funny story aboutgoing to practice and then
having to go to class.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
Oh, my goodness, we had our engineering building,
rodney Bill, I kid you not, wehad our engineering building
like a mile away from thefootball field.
Right, we would practice Hardpractice building.
Like a mile away from thefootball field.
Right, we would practice hardpractice, college football
practice.
Not like, just turn off yourmind and be athletic.
No, you're, they're runningplays, they're switching plays.
You got to know the place.
(37:46):
You don't know the place you'rerunning.
Like, oh, you don't know thatplay coaches.
Like Nope, you're running.
So you're, you're mentallyexhausted.
Right, it's full focus, it's.
It's a very difficult level toperform at.
But right after practice, afteryou're dead tired, you're
sweating, you can't even move amuscle.
You got an engineering test onheat transfer.
Yeah, what's?
Speaker 4 (38:07):
heat transfer.
Right, you didn't know, youdidn't know what he you didn't
know he could be transferred,did you?
Speaker 1 (38:11):
Yeah, go, go, take a.
Go take a two and a half hourtest on heat transfer, a mile
away.
By the way, your practice endslike 10 minutes before the test
starts.
Oh, the professors, by the way,they don't care, you're a
football player, oh, and ifyou're late you're not taking
the test.
Doors are locked, so you betterbe there in 10 minutes.
So, yeah, that was funny.
(38:32):
I used to, I used to get usedto finish practice.
I I didn't have time to go tothe locker room and take a
shower like everyone else.
Right, you take your footballpads, you take off your helmet
and you run.
You got.
You got your football pants on.
Still, you got your cleats on.
I kid you not, I'm walking upthe stairs, I'm like cleats in
the engineering building.
It's like on the fourth floor.
Sit down.
(38:53):
You get your pencil.
Right, you got your backpack onthe football field.
You take your backpack, youtake your pencil out.
Take your pen out.
You're ready to go.
Switch your mind to engineeringNow.
Start thinking about heattransfer and how those
principles apply.
It was pretty cool, but I mean,like I said, backs against the
wall, right, just no, nodifferent than football
competing against all these toplevel high school athletes,
(39:15):
right?
No different than footballcompeting against all these top
level high school athletes,right, that are now in college.
Same thing You're like.
It's got to get done.
Yeah, go ahead.
My wife's raising, raising herhand.
Speaker 5 (39:23):
I thought I was going to sneeze.
I liked it I loved it.
Speaker 1 (39:27):
That was the sneeze thing.
That was the sneeze.
Speaker 3 (39:28):
You know what was really funny is you were, we
might leave this thing, causeit's kind of funny, but you
weren't full cough, so your handwasn't high to the sky, you
were like it was about just likea little bit of a shoulder, I
might be sneezing, I know.
I'm bringing it up to here.
Speaker 5 (39:39):
I want to let you know and then you pulled back.
Speaker 3 (39:41):
That was great.
Thanks, Eddie.
We have a little thing if weleave this in which we might is
that if someone has to cough onthe podcast, they'll just hold
their hand up of?
Speaker 4 (39:56):
yeah, hand up, I might be sneezing, might not
like a little bit for a secondhere.
That's good.
What was the experience likeplaying for coach anise?
Oh so, my paths have crossedwith him over the years.
First when I was a young coachuh, he was the head football
coach at muskegon high.
Then he went to grcc and thenferris and we've had some kind
of interactions over the years.
I actually worked for his wife.
She was the h HR director inForest Hills where I came from.
(40:18):
What was playing for CoachAnise?
Like?
He's an intense individual, hewas the best coach.
Speaker 1 (40:25):
When I say best, when it comes to winning, he was the
best coach I've ever played for.
I mean, he was X's and O's, butthen, on top of that, he
invested in the people that herecruited more than any coach
I've ever met in my entire life.
When it came to winning, heknew how to bring the best out
(40:48):
of you in form of your athleticcapabilities, push you past the
limits that you think you canachieve at.
He did that very well, man.
Man, he did that extremely well, and that's why he's one of the
most winning coaches inmichigan.
So playing for him was justit's more of like an honor.
Man, I was like you listenright, like when he talks you're
(41:09):
silent.
There's no like talking backright like you just listen to
him and he is right a lot of thetimes and he would know how to
put you in different positionson the field or different
coverages on the field,especially for a defensive back
or corner, like he would.
(41:30):
He would know how to maximizeyour athletic capabilities.
Who does that?
Who knows how to do that?
And he did that on theoffensive side and the defensive
side.
He was more on the offense butlike he knew exactly the players
that he had, he was like no,this guy's starting, this guy's
starting because I know the typeof plays that they can make in
this down, in this situation.
Speaker 4 (41:50):
Yeah, he's a guy that could coach every position on
the field.
Speaker 1 (41:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (41:53):
At really any level could coach every position on
the field.
Yeah, at really any level.
Yeah, I would say that over theyears, knowing him and
understanding kind of where hestarted at Muskegon High and the
investment that he made intothe student-athletes at Muskegon
High School, and then he'scarried that really forward at
GRCC and now at Ferris andultimately winning a national
championship Now he's got thatunder his belt.
(42:14):
Didn't they get two?
They may have.
Speaker 1 (42:17):
I don't know, maybe it's just one.
Speaker 4 (42:18):
I thought they won two.
Yeah, I can't remember.
Speaker 1 (42:20):
At.
Speaker 4 (42:21):
GRCC.
He won like oh, he was.
Speaker 1 (42:23):
What two, three.
Speaker 4 (42:24):
Yeah, and they don't even have a program anymore.
Speaker 1 (42:25):
They don't even have a.
He went in there and built itup.
Speaker 3 (42:30):
That's funny, coach at times.
These all these big programsonce that coach leaves, better
watch out yeah, yeah, well he.
Speaker 4 (42:36):
He left grcc because they were going to fold the
program and he ended up atferris and in my opinion he
should have probably had theopportunity to coach the
division one level at a westernor a central or eastern.
I think some of those schoolsprobably look back and are like,
oh, maybe we pass that guy up.
But now I think he's very, veryhappy with what he's got going
at Ferris and they're investinga ton into the program.
(42:58):
Did you see the new buildingthat they're putting?
Speaker 1 (43:00):
up I didn't?
Speaker 4 (43:01):
It's crazy.
Speaker 3 (43:02):
See.
Speaker 1 (43:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (43:04):
Haven't been there in a while either, right.
Speaker 1 (43:05):
That's all that goes.
I haven't.
Speaker 3 (43:08):
Let's get to.
Uh, we'll finish.
You've had a lot of people inyour life that have affected you
, made you a better person.
All that, lauren, you've seenit as someone's wife, atu, does
some mentoring.
Can you speak to just you know,from when you met him to who he
(43:29):
is now?
This radical change to be ableto now be mentoring young people
and young men what's that likefor you as someone that looks on
?
Speaker 5 (43:37):
Oh yeah.
So I mean it's kind of coolseeing, like I said, everyone's
seeing him and who he is now.
And there's many that mightbelieve like, oh, you know, he
was just a kid had a little bitof an attitude, great athlete,
but good to see him where he is.
But like the things that he'sbeen through and the progress
and the ups and the downs to gethim to where he is now is has
(44:00):
been really I've had theprivilege of of knowing him for
eight or nine years now, youwere friends for a long time
before you dated, right, yes, wewere friends.
Speaker 3 (44:07):
Are we gonna get into the story?
Because it's funny?
We, yeah, we can, we can we'regonna um, okay, so his best
friend, ryan verhouse.
Speaker 5 (44:16):
he played at Saginaw Valley State.
I attended there for undergrad,so he would come with Ryan's
parents to tailgate and we justkind of convened together as
friends.
So I saw him for the first timeand I looked at one of my best
friends, ellie, and I said whois that?
That is a good-looking man.
Tell her.
(44:37):
She said girl, get in line.
I'm like, you know, I figuredshe's like listen, I love you
and I think you're beautiful,but she's going to end up with
some supermodel, like not even aquestion.
So I'm like, all right, fine,he's cool though, you know.
So that was like I gave up onour potential romantic life.
(45:00):
I quit sketching his name in mynotebook.
We were going to be friends andit was cool because we got to
see the authenticity of eachother as friends before
romantically, but there was areally radical change with Aji
that we all recognized as afriend around the 2020 season
and that was when Motor CityChurch came to downtown Detroit
(45:24):
and we were for the lack of abetter term we were party
animals.
When we knew each other asfriends, we loved being in the
club, we were super social, wehad a totally different friend
group than we do now, and thenhe just kind of stopped showing
up to places that we would bepartying and it's like what
happened to.
And one day I remembersomeone's just like apparently
(45:48):
he found Jesus.
And you know, when you hearthat, you're like, oh okay, but
then it was like, oh no, this is, this is for real.
Like he's different now.
Even when he comes around, he'she's different now.
And so over those four years,and this last year very
specifically, there's been justmassive growth and I always knew
(46:08):
him as being like so full ofpride.
You couldn't tell this mannothing.
He was all that in a bag ofchips and he carried that.
You you know from high schooland from college and everyone
always telling him he's thegreatest, he's the greatest,
he's the greatest.
And um then he just like feltat us this place of humility and
just became a servant for hiscommunity, for me, for his
(46:30):
friends, for his family.
Speaker 3 (46:31):
And it's been, it's been amazing, it's been super
cool to see yeah, it's nice tobe around people that mature and
kind of grow up, and it's niceto hear a story like that.
Speaker 4 (46:39):
How long have you guys been married now?
Speaker 5 (46:40):
Since April.
Speaker 4 (46:41):
Okay, so, oh yeah, a hot minute yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:45):
A hot minute.
A hot minute.
Speaker 3 (46:47):
Well, you're still.
There's still some fun you'regoing to have here at West
Ottawa.
Speaker 1 (46:56):
Yeah, we have a nice uh, it's homecoming.
Speaker 3 (46:57):
We play jenison at west ottawa stadium tonight
you're gonna win.
Speaker 1 (46:59):
Honored, let's go, are you?
Yeah, we're gonna win.
We're gonna get it bill.
We're gonna win, we're gonnaget it.
Speaker 3 (47:02):
We're gonna get after it today, yeah we're gonna get
after it today, so that's thatgame's tonight.
You're gonna be in the newstadium for the first time.
Speaker 4 (47:07):
I can't wait, I can't wait, I can't wait to there,
you and ron allen, who went intothe Hall of Fame the other
night together.
It'll be his first time in thestadium.
I can't wait to get you down onthe field, introduce you at 645
.
We'll slide you off to the sidewhen the band comes out onto
(47:28):
the field and the team lines upin the tunnel and we hit the
hype video and the smokemachines and all of the stuff
that goes into this intro.
Speaker 3 (47:35):
I'm telling you, you as a competitor you're grabbing
the pads, you will be running in.
Sorry, go ahead.
Speaker 4 (47:39):
Bill, your energy is going to be off the charts.
Can we run with the team.
Speaker 5 (47:43):
Like are we in the huddle.
I think that's a great idea,but I don't know if that hammy
is going to pull.
Speaker 3 (47:49):
Hold you back.
Speaker 1 (47:52):
I can't wait.
This is going to be exciting.
This is going to be exciting.
Speaker 3 (47:55):
We're going to go down memory lane one more time.
I want to thank you first ofall just for being here for both
of you.
We've always said this podcastis about meeting new people, and
I'm just really happy we tookon the challenge of meeting
somebody new that we didn't know.
And let's come back in fiveyears when you got a couple
little ones.
Speaker 1 (48:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (48:16):
I know I'll get a couple little mini mics, some
little headphones.
I'm so excited yeah.
And then if you have a son,your son's going to be this
prideful little guy who'spuffing that chest out.
Speaker 1 (48:29):
I'm not ready.
It's a boy, it's a boy.
Speaker 4 (48:31):
We're having a boy.
We're having a boy.
His first words I'm him Yep.
Speaker 1 (48:39):
I'm already looking forward to it.
All the principles I'm going tohave to teach him.
Him talking back to me.
It's going to be great.
Speaker 3 (48:45):
We're going to do a little nostalgia trip to end
this.
Thanks for coming on.
This is uh to the old Pantherstadium timer of the old days.
Speaker 1 (48:53):
I remember coming here as a kid and watching the
varsity play when I was like insixth grade, seventh grade and
eighth grade and it was just, itwas completely different,
because everyone looks huge atthe time and you're like, oh,
I'm never going to play on thatfootball field.
Or like, oh, these guys arehumongous.
I'm terrified of every singleperson that walks off that
football field.
But I'd have come in here andI'd'd run up and down these
(49:14):
stands, man, I'd get hot dogs,I'd run around in that grass
area, my mom and dad would be inthe football stadium and some
of my brothers would be on theteams, right, I don't know, it
was just cool, man, it's like.
It's like growing up here wasthis, was a place to watch
sports for your high school.
I was like this is, this is astomping ground, you know.
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