September 28, 2025 • 48 mins
What makes a high school athletic experience truly special? For West Ottawa Superintendent Tim Bearden, it's that magical Friday night feeling – middle schoolers creating "white noise" in one section, the high school "Black Hole" roaring in another, dozens of cheerleaders, 120 marching band members, football players giving their all, and youth players taking the field at halftime. "You just look around and think, man, this is so cool. This is what it's supposed to be."
In this thoughtful conversation, Bearden opens up about his lifelong connection to athletics – from his days as a high school golfer and track athlete to becoming a state championship-winning volleyball coach, and eventually a proud sports parent of his kids and watching his daughter Kennedy score the Golden Goal for GVSU in the national championship.
Along the way, he shares how these experiences shaped his educational philosophy and approach to leadership. Bearden's journey reveals the true power of educational athletics. "Athletics as a platform teaches a lot of valuable lessons – in some ways, lessons that are more memorable and will stick with kids longer than lessons they learn in the classroom," he explains. His personal evolution as a coach mirrors what many parents experience – moving from an intense focus on competition to understanding that "if it's not a fun experience for kids, then we screwed up."
The conversation explores West Ottawa's commitment to inclusive athletic opportunities through initiatives like Panther Pathways, which removed transportation barriers for elementary students, and how the district's impressive facilities support student pride and participation. Bearden also addresses challenges facing high school sports, including the battle to maintain high school athletic involvement and the importance of preserving multi-sport participation.
Whether you're a coach, parent, educator, or simply someone who values the role of athletics in building character and community, this episode offers valuable perspective on what truly matters in high school sports. Listen now and rediscover why, even decades later, those team experiences remain some of life's most cherished memories.
This episode was recorded on September 23, 2025.
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!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's just this year, in our first home game, seeing
the middle school group have thewhite noise and having a couple
hundred, two, three hundredmiddle school kids in the stands
.
The other end of the standswe've got the black hole with
our high school student section.
We've got 38 or 39 cheerleadersI don't know how many Bill, 120
kids in the marching band.
All these kids playing football.
We've got the youth footballkids coming out into the field
(00:22):
at halftime and you just lookaround and you're like man, this
is so cool.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
This is what it's supposed to be.
Hey everybody, this is RodneyValinga with the West Ottawa
High School Athletic Program,and you're listening to the 29.1
Podcast, 29 sports, one team,the show that brings you into
the lives of student athletes,coaches and other faces in the
Panther sports community,bringing you the stories you
might otherwise never hear.
(00:54):
Join myself and AthleticDirector Bill Kennedy as we dive
in with you to get to know eachother a little bit better.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
A lifetime in athletics can offer a unique
perspective on what's importantand what truly matters.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
Today, on the 29.1 podcast, we are joined by West
Ottawa Superintendent TimBearden.
Tim walks us through a life insports, from his playing days to
coaching and eventuallybecoming a sports dad.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
This thoughtful conversation gives great insight
on the role of athletics inhigh school and how purposeful
decisions by a district canchange lives through sport.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
West Ottawa, Superintendent Tim Bearden up
next on the 29.1 Podcast.
Let's get it.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Hey everybody, welcome back to another edition
of the 29.1 podcast.
I'm Rodney Valinga and I'm herewith Panthers Athletic Director
Bill Kennedy.
Today's guest is a longtimeathlete who's been around sports
his entire life.
He was a varsity athlete inmultiple sports in high school,
became a coach at both the highschool and college level.
(02:08):
Later on, he was an athleticdirector for some time, then
eventually threw on the ZebraStripes and became a referee,
which he continues to do to thisday.
You can find him on both thetennis and pickleball courts now
where, like the rest of us, hewill struggle with hitting that
tennis shot and pickleball andthat pickleball shot and tennis.
It just doesn't work.
He now leads the district asWest Ottawa superintendent, a
(02:32):
position he has held for overfour years, and it's our
pleasure to ask who is it.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Tim.
Speaker 4 (02:38):
Bearden Tim, thanks so much for taking some time and
stopping in.
I know you're a busy man in allthe doings here at West Ottawa
so I appreciate the time.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Appreciate you guys having me.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Yeah, we're going to really kind of talk about the
roles of athletics and education, community student development
and Tim.
I want to start off with a veryimportant question.
What did you have for breakfast?
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Oh man, I had a protein shake pretty much every
day.
That's my go-to.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
That's one of your questions.
You asked a lot.
Being a teacher and all thattrying to connect with students,
right?
You would purposely go out ofyour way to ask them a question
about their day.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Yeah, where'd you get that research?
Hey hey, hey, I'm pretty good,go ahead.
Yeah, I don't know how it gotstarted, but as a teacher just
doing roll call, I would askevery kid some kind of silly
question to start the day.
And then one kid told me at onetime that I was the only adult
who had talked to him that day,and then that reinforced it to
me.
I'm like, oh, I got to keepdoing this and I've had kids
(03:32):
come back years later and say,man, that was so funny, that was
so great and we would get intofun.
It would only take five or sixminutes out of every class
period but it was worth it.
We made great connections withkids.
It was fun.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
Yeah, those little nuggets are how you build
relationships in the classroom.
I mean, I can go back as you'retelling that story about asking
silly questions.
I remember doing roll the firsttime and I would let kids
decide what they wanted to becalled in my class, and one kid
wanted to be called Smasher Joe.
So, I called him Smasher Joefor the entire semester.
(04:04):
You know, you're just meetingthem where they're at.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
I had a really quiet kid in class once and the kids
all got him Remember that song.
Shiny Happy People from RM.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
And so I just I don't remember what I asked him.
I said how are you doing today?
And he's like I'm a shiny,happy person.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
He was one of those kids that never said a word and
everybody just cracked up and itwas like for the rest of the
semester.
He was shiny, happy person.
So it's all about making thoseconnections.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
So we haven't had this in a while is it just two,
yep two now, and then it'll be acouple more later here, oh,
like fairly soon, okay, yeah,it's all about making those
connections and doing somethinglike that does.
Of course, you are also knownfor your dad jokes, bad jokes.
You want to hit us with a fewwell, I'll tell you.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
The one I told at graduation last year is my
favorite dad joke of all time ishow do you find will, how do
you track will?
Smith in the snow?
Just follows the, follow thefresh prince see so good.
Speaker 4 (04:59):
So there's a dad joke .
Tim does an awesome thing.
Every friday we get somethingcalled friday notes.
I get sent out and it alwayscloses with Starbucks star of
the week, which we get torecognize somebody in the
district that's done anoutstanding job and has been
nominated.
But then the dad joke.
At the end I'm always scrollingto the bottom Like, okay, I got
to see what the dad joke is.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
The funny thing is, the first time I did Friday
notes, I put a dad joke.
I send a dad joke to my kidsall the time when they were away
at school or something, and Iput a dad joke in and I wasn't
thinking anything of it.
I didn't mean for it to be likea weekly feature.
And so the next week I didn'thave a dad joke and I got a
bunch of emails from peoplesaying, hey, where's the dad
joke?
So I'm like, okay, and now Ihave a dad joke.
(05:39):
I get dad joke books forChristmas, I get all this stuff.
So now I became the dad jokeguy.
It wasn't really that big athing before, but it is now.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
It is now we hit up with you again.
Yeah Well, you'resuperintendent here at West
Ottawa High School when you knowa lot of time of decisions with
resources and facilities andprogram decisions are being made
, and understanding what thatdoes for developing student
athletes and young people fromyour perspective is quite
invaluable.
A perspective for you thatbegan as an athlete in high
(06:09):
school, a young kid in highschool.
You played some differentsports in high school.
What were they?
Tim?
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Yeah, so it's interesting From middle school
on.
So middle school I playedfootball, basketball, baseball,
like most kids my age did.
We started playing that waywhen I got to high school.
In fact this helps sort ofshape how I view things.
That was a time when schooldistricts had to pass millages
in order to support programs.
So for my freshman andsophomore year of high school,
(06:33):
our school district failed topass millages that would support
athletics, so we had nosub-varsity athletic teams.
So it really kind of shaped myhigh school experience a little
bit.
So I ended up playing golf andtrack as a high school athlete.
My best sports in high schoolwere actually probably tennis
and volleyball, two sports thatwe didn't have and I didn't have
an opportunity to play and wedidn't have the facilities for.
(06:55):
So I think when we're here atWest Ottawa, one of the cool
things about our programming iswe really do have something for
everybody.
I don't think there's anythingthat someone's involved in that
we don't have an outlet thatwould serve, whether it's
facility or program, and youknow that's a really cool thing.
But for me, high school golfmight've been the greatest thing
(07:15):
in the world.
You know where every day youjust go out and play golf with
your buddies and it was a lot offun.
But my family was not athleticfamily.
So for me playing sports evenas a young kid, my family was
not athletic family.
So for me playing sports evenas a young kid, my dad was never
the guy that coached our teamor anything.
I was always jealous of thekids whose dad carried around
the equipment bag.
I thought it was the coolestthing in the world to go home
with all the catcher stuff youknow.
So, as my kids grew up.
(07:36):
I really wanted to do that andcoached all my kids all through
their youth athletics and stuff.
So my experiences did sort ofshape how I view things and how
I have viewed them.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
What high school did you go to, Tim?
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Swartz Creek High School.
It's in the Flint area, justbetween Flint and Lansing.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
Yeah, so that's where Coach Terry Cutter, I think,
spent some time there.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
He was a substitute teacher there when I was in
school.
I talked to him about it.
He and his brother both weresubstitute teachers there back
years ago.
That's how old he is, Cause I'mpretty old and he was.
He was teaching there.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
He's still out.
He's still out.
Uh, assisting Reed Murphy nowwith the golf program and still
getting after it.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
So do you have a favorite memory from your own
high school days about playingsports?
And that stands out.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
My favorite memories.
Honestly, I have some great.
I will just stop there.
Speaker 4 (08:24):
That'll be the last one.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
All right, you just start with my favorite memory.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Just some good memories from competition and
stuff, but I think my favoritememories honestly were practices
and the time before and afterpractice.
I think, rodney, you and I weretalking the other day and I
said one of the things I wasjealous of with my own kids was
being part of a team.
And I'm like man, just takethat all in and really
(08:49):
appreciate all that, because asyou get older it's harder to
have that feeling and I justlove that feeling of hanging out
with your buddies afterpractice, after an event, after
a thing, being in a locker room,being around a team.
So we've endeavored to try tocreate as much of a team
atmosphere as we can, but it'sstill not the same.
It's the kind of thing thatreally, once you get past high
school and college, you probablymost people won't get to
(09:10):
experience something like thatagain in their lifetime.
So it's a really.
It's a really cool feature, Ithink.
Speaker 4 (09:15):
Yeah, that's something I feel like had kind
of led me in.
Something I guess I take intomy own professional work now is
that I feel like I am stillsomewhat part of that team
atmosphere when I'm on thesidelines or down on the field.
Even though I'm not competingor coaching, I'm still around it
and I'm supporting them in someway.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Yeah, that's really for a lot of us.
It's why we're sitting in thisroom today.
It's people that coach athletictrainers, people that
administrate sports, people thatwork in concessions.
You know, we've got the chaingangs on a Friday night.
We're all really stillsearching for that, or trying to
(09:55):
have it part of our lives.
When you think about the highschool experience of sports, how
does that fit into the missionof West Ottawa?
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Well, I really do believe in the idea of
educational athletics, thatathletics as a platform when
they're in school settings teacha lot of valuable lessons in
some ways, lessons that are morememorable and will stick with
kids longer than lessons theylearn in the classroom.
I don't remember really anythingfrom algebra too, but I can
remember a lot of competitivemoments in my lifetime, both
successes and failures, and Ithink that's true for kids
(10:25):
everywhere, that universallythat's so.
The educational experience ofathletics teaches kids a lot of
different kind of life lessonsthat they don't necessarily
learn in classroom settings andthey learn in a really powerful
ways.
I used to say all the time likeif we could put our varsity
physics team out on a Fridaynight in front of 3000 people
against Hudsonville's varsityphysics team, out on a Friday
(10:45):
night in front of 3,000 peopleagainst Hudsonville's varsity
physics team, it would reallyramp up the urgency of learning
physics.
You know, when your examination,your assessment, your final
thing is in front of a crowd, infront of a bunch of people, and
you're doing it with peopleyou've worked hard with and
committed to a common cause withover time.
That's a really special thing.
It's really unique.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
Bill, what particular lessons did you have?
Anything growing up where youkind of had a moment where
athletics taught you somethingspecial that you've hung on to
most of your life?
Speaker 4 (11:13):
Yeah, I mean, I think , just the value of working
really hard and taking pride ineverything that you do.
I was never.
I never scored a touchdown.
I played nine years of football.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
No scoop and score.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
No scoop and score.
I had a couple of picks, acouple of fumble recoveries, but
never got to the end zone.
But I took so much pride in youknow, the macho me would say I
took so much pride in stealinganother person's will because of
where I played I played alongthe line and it was a physical
position that those are some ofthose like memories.
(11:51):
But, like Tim said, I don'teven remember a whole lot of
college football games.
I remember all of the timeswith my nine roommates who are
also football players, aftergames back in our dorm as we're
recapping the game or and we'reall exhausted and just whipped,
and those are the things thatstand out.
And I'm still on a text threadwith all those guys and we're
(12:12):
just constantly badgering eachother with different things.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
So that's great, super fun.
What's the maybe onemisconception, tim, that the
public might have about the roleof athletics and education?
Anything that you see, that youhear and you're like, no,
that's not really what we'retrying to do.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Well, I think one big misconception is this idea that
coaches have some differentkind of motivations or different
interests than teachers andreally, at their core, teaching
and coaching are the same thing.
If you're good at one, you'regood at the other, and I've
rarely seen somebody who wasgood at one of those things and
wasn't good at the other if theywere really committed to it.
(12:47):
And I think people sometimesdon't see that or understand
that.
There's the stereotypical coachfrom a sitcom show that's got
the gray sweatshirt that sayscoach and he's carrying a
whistle and he doesn't seem tocare about anything else.
My experience coaching myselfand my experience being around
coaches is that coaches caredeeply about their players on a
lot of different levels, reallycare about them and are
(13:10):
committed to their craft.
You know that good coaching isgood teaching, that you build
things, that you start with theend in mind and you work
backwards those are all tenetsof good curriculum and good
classroom instruction.
Same thing is true withcoaching.
You know people think coachesshow up with a whistle and they
just start practice and coachesspend a lot of time planning
what their practice is going tolook like.
As a coach, I used to plan mypractices in 10 minute blocks.
(13:33):
I would start with the end, say, hey, here's what I really want
us to achieve by the end ofpractice day.
Okay, how do we get there?
And start with things thatbuild one on top of each other
it wasn't just throwing out aball and hoping that we would
figure it out and I think a lotof people don't don't realize
the amount of work that coachesput in before and after
practices and competitions to beprepared and to give their kids
the best possible experience.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
Yeah, I have a joke with my friend where it's like
hey, if you're in, you're in andyou'll know.
And coaches, they're in, oh,they're all in.
You coach a lot yourself, right?
You're an athlete in highschool, but your love of sports
continues.
You're a teacher and then youcoach in both high school and
college.
Maybe share with us the sportsyou coached, tim.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Yeah, I coached women's volleyball at the high
school level.
I was fortunate to win a statechampionship at Aston as a coach
there.
I coached at Mott CommunityCollege for seven years as the
head coach there and was thehead coach at Wayne State
University for four years inGLIAC and NCAA Division II, and
the whole time I was a headwomen's college volleyball coach
.
I was also a full-time teacherand at the time there I think
there were maybe two part-timecoaches in the GLIAC, so I had a
(14:36):
day job and then I was coachingat the collegiate level I had a
great experience.
It was awesome.
I really loved it.
Have some great connectionswith players and former players
who I to this day I'm stillreally good friends with.
But coach that I at varioustimes I've coached everything
coached baseball, basketball,track, coached track for years
(14:56):
at the high school level Reallyenjoyed that.
You know each thing is is uniqueand it's and has its own kind
of nuances.
But track and individual sportsare pretty cool because there's
not a lot of subjectivity to it.
You know you're either fasteror you're not.
You jump higher, you don't.
It's not a coach's decisionwho's who's the fastest and that
takes a lot of things out of it.
It also allows kids to reallysee their growth, incrementally
(15:19):
or in big steps.
You know they can track theirpersonal bests and I love that.
Coaches celebrate those thingsas much as they celebrate wins
in an event.
You know if a kid PRs, that'sas if you're out watching our
cross country or track kids.
You see some kid PR and finish12th and everybody's high-fiving
that kid and going crazybecause they had a personal best
(15:39):
.
And that's one of the reallycool things about athletics that
you know you can celebratethose improvements and see them.
Speaker 4 (15:46):
Yeah, we have the PR bell out at the track.
So PR happens in a track meetKid gets to go over and ring it.
Frank's got the PR bell in theweight room now.
So when I mean I'm down in myoffice and I hear the bell going
, I'm like all right, somebodyjust achieved something they
haven't done before.
Pretty neat.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
How did you balance?
Haven't done before, which ispretty neat how did you balance?
Jay billis came out with athing on instagram just a few
days ago where he talked abouthis different view on high
school sports now and what hesays is for a lot of these
athletes, this is it, andcoaches have a responsibility to
make that a good experience forthose athletes during that time
(16:22):
.
For you as a coach, tim, howdid you balance creating a good
experience with also beingcompetitive and, you know,
making hard calls about playingtime and all that with with
young kids?
Speaker 1 (16:34):
You know, we used to have this conversation with a,
with a friend of mine, roryMatter, who is a great coach in
the Flint area, and we wouldtalk about, you know, sometimes
taking a group of athleteswithout a lot of talent and
moving them from being not verysuccessful to being moderately
successful was a way better andmore rewarding coaching
(16:54):
experience than taking a groupof kids that was already pretty
skilled and moving them, maybeincrementally, to a slightly
higher level.
And we used to talk about whereit was most valuable to put our
best coaches, like when we putour best coaches at the freshman
or JV level.
Sometimes I think that's true,you know, and I think good
coaches don't really care somuch where they coach or what
(17:14):
level they coach.
I mean, people who arecompetitive, want to compete at
the highest levels, but theywant to work with kids, you know
, and they want to work withpeople, and that's how you
balance it, like if you'rereally in it for the right
reasons, it doesn't matter somuch where you coach, you can
have a great time.
I was joking with Pat and saidhey, you want to coach.
You know, before we came inPanther Pathways flag football,
he said that would be awesomebecause Pat Collins, because Pat
(17:37):
loves to coach and he loveskids and he loves people and he
loves to see them improve, andit really doesn't matter what
level that happens.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
Did you see personally you started out.
How old were you when you firststarted coaching?
Speaker 1 (17:49):
So I was a head women's volleyball coach at age
22.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
Wow, there we go.
Okay, and then how old were youwhen you stopped coaching?
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Well, I never really stopped coaching.
I coached my kids all the waythrough.
But my last year at Wayne Statewas in.
It was 1998.
That was my last season in thefall of 98.
So that was the last time Iformally coached.
But I coached my kids through.
Aau through youth sports,through Little League, and never
really stopped.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
For you, as everyone has people right.
Bill Kennedy is different todaythan he was a year and a half
ago For coaches.
How did you see yourself changeover time from being that 22
year old young man to 1998 olderexperience when you stopped
officially coaching like?
How did you change over time?
(18:37):
And then how did you see theprofession, maybe when you
stopped?
Speaker 1 (18:40):
That's a great question.
Some things are hugelydifferent.
I mean, being a dad reallychanged everything for me.
It changed a lot of myperspective and I look back at
some of the things I said anddid as a young coach.
I'm embarrassed by him.
Now I'm like gosh, I can'tbelieve that I thought that was
that important or it was thatangry about something that
really wasn't that big a deal,and I think that perspective of
having my own kids made a hugedifference for me.
(19:01):
But I think the biggest thingis, you know, is keeping the
main thing, the main thing, andwe get distracted by all these
little things that are ancillary, that aren't really important.
I'll give you an example.
This is funny the first call ona snow day, basically after I,
after I decided a snow day, isusually Bill asking me what time
coaches can practice.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
And when.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
I was coaching and if we had a snow day, I was
desperate to make sure we didn'tmiss practice time.
Right Now, in my advanced ageand with a different perspective
, I look at it and say is reallythat one practice going to make
that much difference?
If it is going to make thatmuch difference, we probably
didn't do a great job in thedays leading up to it.
You know, kids can enjoy theirsnow day, and so I've mellowed a
(19:49):
lot in that since I was overlyintense when I was young as a
coach, and now I think I look atthings way differently and with
a, you know, with a maybebroader vision about what's
really important.
I also think the fun factor isway more important than I
probably used to think it was.
If it's not a fun experiencefor kids, then we screwed up.
We did something wrong.
Sports should be fun.
Speaker 3 (20:08):
And you can do all the hard work and all the
physical challenges and that canbe fun.
I used to tell my teams all thetime.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
There's all different kinds of fun in sports.
You can have fun playingvolleyball at your family picnic
, family reunion, but it's notgoing to be the same kind of fun
that you're going to get whenyou've worked super hard with
your teammates to a commoncommitted to a common goal and
you play your absolute bestagainst the best team that
you'll play.
That's the ultimate fun in mymind.
You know, in athletics sothere's all different kinds of
(20:36):
fun and some kids aren't builtfor one or the other.
But still it's the job of thecoach, I think, to make it a
positive experience, to figureout how to find each athlete
where they are.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
Speaking of fun, you have four kids that went on to
play both high school andcollegiate sports, so you never
stopped coaching.
Can you share with us becausethere's a lot of success that
your kids had what was it likefor you just to be a parent in
sports?
A lot of parents will listen tothis podcast.
What was it like just for youto have those kids play those
(21:09):
sports, have that success andkind of enjoy that experience?
Speaker 1 (21:12):
It was super awesome, a joy of our lives.
I think this is the first fallin many years my wife and I said
we are not following one of ourkids to a sporting event.
My youngest, graduated fromNorthern last year, played
soccer there in NorthernMichigan, and so we don't have a
team to follow this fall.
So it feels a little bit empty.
It's kind of weird becausewe've done nothing but that.
(21:33):
Our social life was followingour kids and hanging out with
the parents of their friends andteammates, and so I do miss
that.
I miss it a lot of theirfriends and teammates, and so I
do miss that.
I miss it a lot.
But I think as a parent, one ofthe things that I really had to
learn was to bite my tongue,especially in the car ride home
or in the time afterwards.
I was used to watching games asa coach and I always thought I
(21:57):
had lots of things that I couldsay to my kids that would help,
and I think sometimes I did.
But the things I think I wasable to help them with and my
wife, who was also a collegeathlete, was able to help them
with were really more aroundkind of mental toughness,
emotional resiliency.
I think we were able to helpour kids in those respects more
than in terms of technicalthings about how they actually
(22:18):
played a game.
I think the other thing for meis as my kids were playing
sports in their high schoolexperience, I was their high
school principal at the schoolwhere they played athletics and
I really had to distance myself.
I love now I love standing downon the sidelines and watch a
game, but when my son playedfootball I never once stepped
foot on the sidelines.
I sat in the stands with agroup of parents, right in the
(22:38):
middle of everybody and just wasa parent and I think my kids
always appreciated that.
I always tried to keep thatseparation as much as I could.
It's really hard to do that.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
I think it's super hard.
I mean, even I just remember,with my kids playing sports,
being in the car driving home,and you start instructing them
on every little thing whenyou're younger.
With my older kids I stopped,but I think a lot of us kind of
had that same experience wherehey got to do this, you got to
do this, Especially when yourkids are playing the sports you
played.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
Yeah, you know what's hilarious is.
You know, I don't know ifyou've had this experience with
your own kids, but after a gamethe coach will stand and talk to
them for 20 minutes or 30minutes after the game, and then
we'll get in the car and we'relike well, what did coach say?
I'm like nothing.
They talked to you for 30minutes and said nothing.
The lesson was, my kids justdidn't want to rehash it again
Later on maybe later in the dayor the next day they'd say oh
(23:30):
yeah, coach said so and so andso it just wasn't the right time
.
I think that's an importantlesson for us.
Speaker 3 (23:36):
I think it's a very important lesson, because even
things we do in life, ifsomething doesn't go our way, we
have a.
Speaker 4 (23:41):
We don't want to talk about it for the next 30
minutes yeah, yeah, I wasfortunate enough to coach my son
, dakota, and coaching him infootball I definitely had to
bite my tongue in a lot of carrides, but I was reading a lot
of like tony dungy stuff backthen where it's, like you know,
three positives for everynegative.
It was always his philosophy,because I was at some work.
(24:04):
It was because I was so hypercompetitive.
I was coaching high schoolfootball at the time.
I had played, I had beenexposed to the game for so long
and I mean ultimately too, it'sI was a reflection of the way
that my dad talked to me on carrides home.
There was always a critique,you know, but that that's just
the way that my dad talked to meon car rides home.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
there was always a critique, you know, but that
that's just the way it was yeah,it's a tough thing as a parent,
I think, just to figure outwhat you're supposed to do in
that moment, you know, becausethere's always be supportive and
listen would be what I wouldsay and for me, all my kids were
way better athletes than I everhoped I could be, so they, they
always had something on me.
You got to experience reallythe pinnacle of being an
(24:46):
athletic parent with yourdaughter Kennedy.
Can you tell us her story?
Speaker 1 (24:50):
Yeah, kennedy played soccer at Grand Valley State
University, which is a fantasticprogram, and we had an awesome
experience there.
She had an awesome experienceand we did as parents.
Twice they won the nationalchampionship while she was there
and so her freshman year sheassisted on the national
championship, winning goal inovertime, and then her junior
year, she actually scored thefirst goal of the game and then
(25:11):
she scored the golden goal andthe goal in double overtime um
to win the national championshipand my wife and I would still
say one of the greatest days ofour lives.
Speaker 4 (25:22):
I can only imagine the sense of pride that you
would have.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
Well, it's not just pride, I mean, although that is
a big deal, but seeing your kidachieve something that they've
worked so hard to get to andfinally had the ultimate prize
at the end, which just justdoesn't happen very much, right
it was.
It was really special.
And I said my youngest daughterwon a state championship in
high school and it was the samekind of feeling, you know.
(25:48):
But the national championship,that was pretty cool.
My son played division onefootball and he still says
Kennedy gets the, kennedy getsthe nod as the top athlete
because she, because of thethose accomplishments you know,
yeah, I mean, Rodney, you had alittle bit of taste of that last
year.
Speaker 4 (26:07):
We went in the district basketball championship
.
You're watching your son outthere and I remember seeing you
on the court and just you weretalking to me about like, oh my
gosh, this really happened.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
Yeah, it was.
You know, as a dad, I have fourkids three daughters and one
son.
So this is my boy, this is thelittle guy that I've played
basketball with in the basementand the driveway doing all that
stuff, and all you're wishingfor is that they can have a
moment, and they got one, and itwas probably the most
(26:36):
fulfilling for me as a parent asever could be.
There's a picture.
There's so many great contentcreators nowadays.
There was a great contentcreator there at night that took
a ton of photos of our team,but he has a picture of Hudson
holding the district trophy andthere's guys around him with
hands on their shoulder.
They're half laughing, halfsmiling.
I got that picture up in myoffice.
(26:57):
Now it's framed.
It'll be there forever, butit's a nice moment.
As a parent, you don't alwaysget that.
I had an older daughter thatlost her high school career to a
knee injury.
Yeah, and that's the opposite,right.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
So yeah, that's a good point.
You know there's highs and lowsand everything.
My son lost a statechampionship game in football,
had an undefeated footballseason his senior year and lost
10 to 7 in the statechampionship game.
He was a defensive end.
I think they gave up 48 yardsof offense the whole game and
still lost and that was thelowest of the low.
I mean it wasn't because he gotto this pinnacle game, but I
(27:31):
mean that was such a hugedisappointment.
I think an important piece isit doesn't matter whether it's
athletics or it's anything elsewith us as parents.
My son when he was a little kidhe played Charlie and Charlie
in the Chocolate Factory, juston a whim.
He tried out for this playthrough school and he gets the
lead role and we're like, ohcrap.
Speaker 4 (27:51):
We don't know anything.
The lead role.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
We don't know anything about this about acting
about this thing.
And yeah, and they played atthe McComb Center which seats I
don't know, 1, which is seats Idon't know a thousand people and
their audiences were mostlylike elementary kids.
They would bus in, like thesewhole thing, but they'd have
like a thousand people in theaudience and that was super cool
.
You know, it doesn't matterwhat it is, see your kid get to
perform and and participate inand have fun and do something
(28:13):
that's really rewarding to themis is super special.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
Yeah, and when it doesn't go your way, it's still
okay.
Speaker 4 (28:20):
Absolutely it's.
It's one of those lessons,though, right Like you, you pour
work into something and you'rejust, you're just trying to get
to whatever it is.
The top level that I could pushmyself towards.
That's what I'm always tryingto work towards.
That Right Like that was my, mymentality.
And going to Robert Morris is Ihad D2 and D3 offers but I was
(28:43):
like I need to see if I can pushmyself.
I see a kid and this is justsomething that popped into my
brain, but the kid, trinidadChambliss, who's starting at
quarterback at Ole Miss rightnow.
I coached him at Forest HillsNorthern.
He went to Ferris becausethat's where his offer was, but
after the season they had lastyear, he wanted to see where he
(29:03):
could get and see if he couldcompete in that level.
And man alive, is he competingat that level right now?
Speaker 1 (29:10):
You know what?
That being said, as somebodywho coached at community college
in division two, a lot of timesI saw kids and parents get
really wrapped up in the idea ofcan I play division one?
And the reality was a lot oftimes the mid-level Division I
programs couldn't have won ourconference in Division II.
And the bigger reality is itreally doesn't matter If you're
(29:31):
competing, you're having fun,you're getting an opportunity to
do the thing that you love todo, you're going to have a great
experience.
And I think there's way toomuch of that kind of concern.
You know, I love the idea ofcompeting at the highest level
that you can reach, but I alsothink people get really wrapped
up into that for sure.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
this is a great place for facilities or programs.
You're here at an incredibletime with the football lacse
soccer stadium complex that wasfinished just a few years ago.
We have the pool coming intoplay.
Tim, if you go back to when youwere a young high school kid I
mean, I went my high school had98 students, Guess what.
(30:12):
We didn't have A lot, but thisday and age, now, there's so
much available.
There's three old guys in thisroom right now.
We know what it was like in the80s, 90s for you.
You're still in your 40s, Bill.
That's right, but isn't itsomething?
The world that we're in withSportsTown?
Speaker 1 (30:30):
It's amazing really.
Our facilities are absolutelyincredible and they're going to
reach an even new level with theconstruction of the pool and
the community center, butthey're really, really special.
I do worry a little bit thatthere's a sort of arms race
around facilities.
I think the most importantthing is do we offer the
opportunities that we want tooffer?
(30:50):
Do our facilities create asituation that will allow kids
to do the things they want to doand have the space to do them
and have the time to do them?
And if we've accomplished that,then I think that's what we're
looking for.
I also think it's important thatkids have things they can be
proud of, and I think they feelbetter, they treat things better
when they feel proud of it.
(31:11):
But the reality is to yourpoint, rodney, when I was in
high school, I never thought ourfacilities weren't great.
They were fine.
There are nothing compared tothe facilities that we have now.
As long as I was able to do thestuff that I wanted to do and I
had opportunity and access toit, then I felt good, and I
think that's true of our kidsnow.
Speaker 4 (31:31):
Yeah, and we have a lot of other things that make us
unique to West Ottawa, thingslike the Panther Fund and
Panther Pathways.
Can you share a little bitabout what those programs have
meant?
I mean, you've really overseenthe start and Panther Pathways.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
Yeah, panther Pathways is one of the things
I'm most proud of in my career,of seeing a school district do
so.
When we started talking aboutit we were looking at the
student athletes who made up ourvarsity teams.
We said at the time thestatistic was something like 67%
(32:12):
of the kids making up ourvarsity teams came from three
elementary schools in ourdistrict and we weren't getting
a lot of participants as theygot older, from kids from
different schools and within thedistrict.
And we weren't getting a lot ofparticipants as they got older,
from kids from differentschools and within the district.
We said, man, we've got to dosomething about this because for
a lot of these kids the barrieris they don't have access to a
program that will lead to thembeing a varsity athlete someday,
or they don't have exposure toa program that will lead to them
being in the play or playing aninstrument or being a computer
(32:33):
programmer or whatever thatlittle extra that maybe some
people have.
And so we created a program andit started with funding that we
got through COVID dollars,through us or funding, and we
created this program initiallyfor fourth and fifth graders
that would allow them to havecompetition with their friends
at other schools.
But the big thing that we didand I think to this day is the
(32:54):
most important piece is we founda way to provide transportation
to those kids and that made itaccessible to everybody.
Without transportation, thenthere were a lot of kids that
weren't going to be able toparticipate.
It was such a valuable thing.
We had elementary schools wherewe'd have a basketball game, a
fourth or fifth grade girlsbasketball game, and we had
(33:15):
families who just didn't, as acommon rule, come to school
events fill the gym.
I mean, I remember being at PineCreek when there wasn't an
empty seat anywhere in the gymfor a basketball game when Pine
Creek was playing Woodside andI'm like this is exactly what we
were hoping for.
We've got parents involved,we've got kids involved in a
productive, fun, happy way andthese kids are getting an
(33:36):
experience that exposed them tosomething and they can find if
maybe they have a passion for it, whatever it is.
So we offer programs andcomputer programming and STEM
stuff.
We have Minecraft, where kidscould come in and play that game
, and we have athletics,obviously, and when our asset
dollars ran out, we said this isan important enough program.
We're going to continue fundingit through our general fund and
(33:57):
we've been able to do that andwe said we're going to
prioritize it because literallythousands of kids are going to
be able to participate in thisprogram over the years.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
I'm just so thankful as a parent.
I'm not an administrator here.
You guys both are but yourability to pay attention to
detail and finding a particularvariable that flips it.
Hey, what's the one variablehere that's preventing this from
happening?
To dive in and find it andswitch it.
It's fantastic.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
Thanks.
Speaker 4 (34:25):
Yeah, I've always said you know, people will ask
you know what's West Ottawa like?
And there are a lot of schooldistricts that talk the talk.
West Ottawa walks the walk Likewe're going to identify an
issue, a problem, and we'regoing to get a bunch of smart
people in a room together andfigure out a way to work around
it.
Speaker 3 (34:43):
Yeah, it's really really amazing.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
And we're super fortunate that we have people
here who are all in for kids.
Bill is a great example in theathletic department and the
athletic office, but throughoutthe entire district people are
here for kids and at every level, and not just our teaching
staff and our administrativestaff, but our support staff of
people who work at the ticketbooth, the people who clean our
(35:07):
buildings, who work on thebuilding and grounds.
They take a lot of pride in it.
They're in it for kids and Ijust I don't know that I've ever
encountered anybody at WestOttawa who wasn't positive and
wasn't excited about what theywere doing for for young people.
People ask me all the time whatis like to move to this
district and I said it's likethis big school that has a small
school feel.
You feel like you knoweverybody, like it's a small
(35:29):
town, it's a small city and it'sa small school, but it's really
not.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
this is big environment with a lot of
different people we talked theother day on the phone and we
laughed as you're turning 60 oryou are 60 I already am but you
get a lot of perspective rightwhen we get we get these older
ages.
You just mentioned one, but Iwas going to ask you have you
had any moments in the last fewyears at west ottawa where an
(35:54):
athletic moment came and youthought, yeah, this is what it's
supposed to look like?
Speaker 2 (35:58):
You just mentioned.
Speaker 3 (35:58):
Pine Creek.
That game there, but what other?
Speaker 1 (36:01):
I remember the first home game we had in the stadium.
Mr Tolgeski's son, cole, threwa touchdown pass in the end zone
.
We won that game in our firsthome game in the stadium and the
excitement of everybody.
But I just happened to be downin the field and filming that
(36:21):
play and I sent it to.
Todd said hey, you know, I justgot this video of Cole and I
just know how much that wouldhave felt to me as a parent and
what that moment was like forthat kid.
And just think, man, you knowthe pageantry of a game at West
Ottawa, with the band, with thecheerleaders, with the crowd,
with that full stadium.
It's like this is high schoolathletics.
It's like a slice of Americana.
This is like a night that kidswill never forget.
(36:43):
It was awesome Just this yearin our first home game, seeing
the middle school group have thewhite noise and having like a
couple hundred, two, threehundred middle school kids in
the stands.
The other end of the standswe've got the black hole with
our high school student section.
We've got 38 or 39 cheerleadersI don't know how many Bill 120
kids in the marching band.
All these kids playing football.
(37:04):
We've got the youth footballkids coming out into the field
at halftime and you just lookaround and you're like man, this
is so cool, this is what it'ssupposed to be.
All these is so cool, this iswhat it's supposed to be.
You know, these, all thesepeople belong to something
bigger than us and it's allsuper fun.
They all have their own role init, but they're all part of
this really amazing event.
This is a really cool thing andI think that's super special.
Speaker 4 (37:26):
Yeah, I was at the gym this morning and a couple of
folks from power strength arecoming over because they trained
some of our athletes.
They trained some of the grandHaven athletes.
And I asked Caleb?
I said you've never been toWest Ottawa Stadium for a
football game yet, have you?
And he goes no, I'm like, okay,I'm going to talk to you next
week and I'll get yourperspective, because I think we
just do it.
It's different than anywhereelse you go.
Speaker 1 (37:47):
Yeah, my kids came to the last.
Three of my four kids were ableto come to the last game and we
went all the way up top in thestadium so they could see what
it looked like.
And they all brought theirsignificant others who were also
athletes at different levels,and just they were just blown
away like I've never seenanything like this and I said,
yeah, west ottawa does it rightyeah, and the band is just
(38:07):
killing it at halftime.
Speaker 3 (38:09):
Really too.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
Christian oviak and what he's done with the marching
band, and they were alreadygreat under mike hammond this is
a phenomenal band leader, butChris has brought a whole new
dimension and they're superexciting and it's really cool.
Speaker 3 (38:22):
And you know what's really great too?
I get to see some backgroundstuff, how well those two work
together, like they're workinggreat together.
They're taking on differentroles and they're just both
positive, moving forward.
I jumped out of line a littlebit, so I'm actually going to go
back here a little bit hereWith you.
You know, in the administrativeposition that you're in, you
(38:45):
have a very full plate.
But one thing that you still do, because this lifelong
commitment to athletics is stillthere you referee still.
When did you start putting onthe zebra stripes and getting
involved in that?
Speaker 1 (38:56):
Well, I've refereed for years.
I actually started as the firstjob I ever had.
As a young kid I'm 13, maybe or14 years old I started umpiring
in the community.
I had baseball in myneighborhood so I started doing
it then and we used to get paidcash and a little envelope.
I don't remember six or sevenbucks a game for umpiring a
little involved, but I don'tremember six or seven bucks a
(39:16):
game for umpiring.
But I did high school sports foryears.
I did boys and girls basketball, volleyball, baseball and
softball.
So I did those for a long time.
Really enjoyed doing basketball.
Now my knees are kind of shotso I don't know that I would.
My wife says I can't run enoughto do basketball anymore but I
still am doing collegevolleyball, something I wanted
to go back to when I was donecoaching and my kids were done
(39:37):
playing.
So that's allowed me to stayaround college athletics.
So you know I think I'm goingto be out at Southwestern
Michigan college this weekendreffing community college
tournament out there.
I was at Bethel university inIndiana on Saturday reffing the
women's volleyball match andjust having a great time and
being around athletes and kidsand stuff just makes me happy.
Speaker 3 (39:57):
What would a lifetime of not being athletics look
like for you, like how big apart of athletics is in your
life and what does it mean toyou?
Speaker 1 (40:05):
I mean it's interwoven and I think, in our
family and me and who I am, andI just always had a passion for
it.
You know, it's like I said,growing up my parents were not
particularly, you know, intoathletics.
It just, for whatever reason, Ibecame super interested in it,
not just as a participant but asa fan, somebody who reads about
it.
I just love the kind ofexperience that comes to it.
(40:28):
If it wasn't athletics, it'd besomething else.
I guess you know my brother's aprofessional musician and he
went a whole different way andhe's passionate about that.
So it's, it's just for me, it'swho I am.
I love sports.
Like last night, I live and diewith the lions.
The game was a blast that wecame out on top.
Speaker 3 (40:47):
He's a man to bring.
Had to bring up the line.
Oh geez.
Speaker 1 (40:50):
I forgot who they played Shoot.
Um yeah, that was Baltimore.
Speaker 3 (40:56):
Wasn who they played shoot.
Um, yeah, that was baltimore,wasn't sorry, that's probably.
I was surprised he walked inwith a smile on his face today
after I knew that they lost lastnight.
Speaker 4 (41:00):
Yeah, rodney knows, if the ravens lose on sunday,
just leaves me alone on sundayafternoon you know what I love
in sports.
Speaker 1 (41:07):
I love the little stories within the story you
know that there's always allthese different little dramas
that play out in an athleticcontest, and when the Ravens
lose it's drama.
Speaker 3 (41:15):
Trust me.
Speaker 1 (41:16):
No, it totally is.
You know, that's like likeplayoff baseball coming up, all
the little mini stories withinthe story, you know, the
one-on-one, a batter against apitcher, and the mind games and
the things that happen, and allthose things are super
compelling to me and I get that.
They interests, you know, and Ilove being at all of our events
(41:36):
.
I love going to our bandconcerts.
I love seeing our marching band.
I told my kids at the game lastweek we were like, yeah, come
for the game, but thehighlight's going to be the
marching band at halftime,because they have never seen a
marching band like ours, youknow, at the high school level.
So all those things are superjoyful to me.
Speaker 3 (41:54):
Yeah, and this is a sports podcast, so obviously
we're putting athletics.
But I mean, it's true, there'sso many other things that can be
interwoven in your life thatgive you the same thing.
It's just so important to havesomething to do and still, today
, you're still on the pickleballcourt.
In tennis, pickleball is thegreat equalizer.
You can still hit thepickleball court and it's like
this last bastion of athleticism.
(42:16):
You can not be able to move.
You can be obese.
Whatever the case may be, ifyour hand eye is still there,
you can still play.
But you still play the game,right Left hand pickleball.
Speaker 1 (42:25):
I like playing pickleball.
I play some tennis still andstill play volleyball now and
then you still play volleyball.
I can't really jump anymore butI still still pepper and goof
around and play with my son's anopen level beach player in
Chicago so I love going to watchhim play and doing stuff with
him.
Speaker 4 (42:40):
but he's got to be a beast at the net.
He's a pretty good athlete.
Speaker 1 (42:44):
Yeah, so he's.
He didn't pick up reallyplaying competitive volleyball
till the last few years, buthe's learned quickly.
He's a good athlete.
So, yeah, yeah, that stuff'sfun.
I love doing stuff to be active.
I paddleboard.
We're outside doing stuff allthe time.
Speaker 3 (43:00):
Let's finish up with two kind of big questions.
One how do you see the futureof high school athletics
changing, maybe during the nextfive years, about five to ten?
I know the last five years herethere's been massive changes.
What do you guys see maybe thenext five to ten years?
Here there's been massivechanges.
What?
Speaker 4 (43:15):
do you guys see, maybe the next five to ten man?
I just I think at some pointnil is going to come into the
equation.
I, I really do, and that's just.
Tim was there yesterday as wewere over hearing from mark
you'll and the mhsaa.
I, it's inevitable.
I don't know that it looks thesame as it does at the
collegiate level, but I I don'tsee us going another five to 10
(43:38):
years in that not being areality at the high school.
Speaker 1 (43:41):
I hate where we are in college athletics right now.
I think it's one of those weirdthings.
There was a problem and insteadof correcting it incrementally,
we swung the pendulum completely180 degrees the other direction
(44:04):
and created a whole new problemor a new set of problems.
So I hope that that doesn'thappen in high school.
One of the things I thinkthat's going to be interesting
in the next five to ten years inhigh school athletics is
participation and whether or notwe're able to keep kids into
high school sports.
With the proliferation of youthsports in other areas we're
already seeing battles, fighting.
(44:26):
You know academy programs andsoccer and you know outside
programs and other sports.
Whether we can hold on to kidsin the high school experience I
think was going to be really aninteresting story.
I hope that we can because Ithink it's an experience that's
so unique.
You know my kids played highlevel soccer, but you go play a
high level ECNL or academy gameand there's maybe 25 or 30
(44:47):
parents that are watchinginstead of going and playing in
front of several hundred of yourfriends.
It's a completely differentexperience.
And so my kids, that mydaughters played high level
soccer.
They loved playing high schoolsoccer because they got to play
in front of their friends andwith their friends that they
went to school with every day,and that was a different
experience.
I hope that we're able to hangon to that.
You know, in the face of thisproliferation of a lot of other
(45:09):
sports, I hope that we're ableto hold on to the multi-sport
athlete.
I really believe in it.
I think it makes kids betterand more well-rounded.
We had a great speaker at aprevious school.
Kate Markgraf played on ourOlympic soccer team.
She went to Notre Dame and shesaid when she was in high school
she went to a high school thatrequired her to play two sports.
(45:30):
It was required you had to betwo sports.
So she played soccer, but thenshe was like, in her words, she
thought it was asinine that shehad to play another sport.
She played volleyball and shesaid the ironic thing is is that
now, as an adult, she stillplays in a women's volleyball
league and doesn't ever playsoccer anymore because she got
burned out on it and thatexperience of being required to
play another sport actually gaveher a lifelong avocation.
(45:53):
I hope that we're able to hangon to that.
So I hope we're able to hang onto high school participation
and even grow it, and I hopewe're able to hang on to the
multi-sport athlete.
Speaker 4 (46:03):
Yeah, and I would say in the last two to three years
our participation has gone upconsiderably.
You know, and you look at oursoccer program, we're one of six
schools in West Michigan thatoffer three levels of soccer at
the boys level and the girls inthe spring, and we have 20 plus
kids at each of those levels.
So there's opportunities here Ithink that may not exist in
(46:26):
other places, just because we'reable to get that participation
number up.
Speaker 3 (46:30):
Yeah, Any final thoughts that you'd like to.
You know, maybe a message you'dlike to share with parents,
students, athletes just a finalthought on, maybe athletics at
our school.
Speaker 1 (46:40):
I think they're super fortunate to have the
opportunities they have here tohave an athletic director like
Bill, who is always looking forways to get more kids involved,
whether I think one of the coolthings that Bill's done is even
the kids that aren't involvednecessarily on a team but who
are involved in running thevideo scoreboard or they're
working on a broadcast side orthey're doing other things.
We found a cool way to keepthem involved and I tell the
(47:01):
story.
I told the story to my kids.
I hope you'll indulge me thislast thing Dan Dickerson, the
Tigers baseball announcer.
I heard him speak to a group ofkids years ago and he told a
great school.
He thought he wanted to be aprofessional baseball player but
realized pretty quickly hewasn't going to be good enough
to be a professional baseballplayer.
He was a marginal high schoolplayer but his high school coach
had a connection with theTigers and got him a job in the
(47:22):
summertime being a bat boy forthe Tigers and he had this
awesome experience gets to be inthe clubhouse.
He's around the players Didthat for two summers and then
one summer the second summerhe's talking to a guy who worked
in the ticket booth and saidhey, you ought to come up here
and work in the ticket booth.
We could pay you and you couldmake some money.
And so he goes up and he worksin the ticket booth.
While he's up there he hadopportunity with the vp of
(47:43):
ticketing to introduce him toernie harwell, who was a
legendary radio broadcaster forthe tigers.
He introduces him to ernieharwell and ernie harwell says
you should come sit up in thebooth with me.
And he goes up and he gets tosit up there where Ernie Harwell
broadcasts a game and he's likeI decided right then and there
I'm going to be a baseballannouncer.
He went to school, became aradio broadcaster, ended up
(48:04):
getting a job with the Tigers,working his way back up through
the organization, and now he's,you know, the voice of Tiger
baseball and he can go to everygame home and away and of Tiger
baseball and you can go to everygame home and away.
And his message to the kids wasthat no matter what you love to
do, you can figure out a way tomake a living at it.
So he loved baseball.
It wasn't going to be goodenough to be a player, but he
figured out a way to makebaseball his life, and so I've
(48:25):
told my own kids that I'd loveto tell our kids that whatever
you love to do, even if youdon't have a natural ability in
that area, you can find a way tobe around it your whole life if
you want to, and I think that'sa cool thing that we offer at
West.
Speaker 3 (48:40):
Ottawa.
Tim Bearden, thanks so much forcoming in.
Thanks for sharing yourexperience as an athlete and a
coach and a dad, and now yourperspective as our
superintendent really appreciateit.
Speaker 4 (48:51):
Yeah, thanks so much.
I know the calendar is busy.
Speaker 1 (48:54):
Hey, this was awesome .
Thanks for having me guys.
Speaker 3 (48:56):
Appreciate you All, right.
Well, thanks so much.
Remember everybody, we are WestOttawa, we are community, we
are each other and take care,we'll see you next time, thank
you.
It's just this year, in our first home game, seeing
the middle school group have thewhite noise and having a couple
hundred, two, three hundredmiddle school kids in the stands
.
The other end of the standswe've got the black hole with
our high school student section.
We've got 38 or 39 cheerleadersI don't know how many Bill, 120
kids in the marching band.
All these kids playing football.
We've got the youth footballkids coming out into the field
(00:22):
at halftime and you just lookaround and you're like man, this
is so cool.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
This is what it's supposed to be.
Hey everybody, this is RodneyValinga with the West Ottawa
High School Athletic Program,and you're listening to the 29.1
Podcast, 29 sports, one team,the show that brings you into
the lives of student athletes,coaches and other faces in the
Panther sports community,bringing you the stories you
might otherwise never hear.
(00:54):
Join myself and AthleticDirector Bill Kennedy as we dive
in with you to get to know eachother a little bit better.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
A lifetime in athletics can offer a unique
perspective on what's importantand what truly matters.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
Today, on the 29.1 podcast, we are joined by West
Ottawa Superintendent TimBearden.
Tim walks us through a life insports, from his playing days to
coaching and eventuallybecoming a sports dad.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
This thoughtful conversation gives great insight
on the role of athletics inhigh school and how purposeful
decisions by a district canchange lives through sport.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
West Ottawa, Superintendent Tim Bearden up
next on the 29.1 Podcast.
Let's get it.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Hey everybody, welcome back to another edition
of the 29.1 podcast.
I'm Rodney Valinga and I'm herewith Panthers Athletic Director
Bill Kennedy.
Today's guest is a longtimeathlete who's been around sports
his entire life.
He was a varsity athlete inmultiple sports in high school,
became a coach at both the highschool and college level.
(02:08):
Later on, he was an athleticdirector for some time, then
eventually threw on the ZebraStripes and became a referee,
which he continues to do to thisday.
You can find him on both thetennis and pickleball courts now
where, like the rest of us, hewill struggle with hitting that
tennis shot and pickleball andthat pickleball shot and tennis.
It just doesn't work.
He now leads the district asWest Ottawa superintendent, a
(02:32):
position he has held for overfour years, and it's our
pleasure to ask who is it.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Tim.
Speaker 4 (02:38):
Bearden Tim, thanks so much for taking some time and
stopping in.
I know you're a busy man in allthe doings here at West Ottawa
so I appreciate the time.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Appreciate you guys having me.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Yeah, we're going to really kind of talk about the
roles of athletics and education, community student development
and Tim.
I want to start off with a veryimportant question.
What did you have for breakfast?
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Oh man, I had a protein shake pretty much every
day.
That's my go-to.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
That's one of your questions.
You asked a lot.
Being a teacher and all thattrying to connect with students,
right?
You would purposely go out ofyour way to ask them a question
about their day.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Yeah, where'd you get that research?
Hey hey, hey, I'm pretty good,go ahead.
Yeah, I don't know how it gotstarted, but as a teacher just
doing roll call, I would askevery kid some kind of silly
question to start the day.
And then one kid told me at onetime that I was the only adult
who had talked to him that day,and then that reinforced it to
me.
I'm like, oh, I got to keepdoing this and I've had kids
(03:32):
come back years later and say,man, that was so funny, that was
so great and we would get intofun.
It would only take five or sixminutes out of every class
period but it was worth it.
We made great connections withkids.
It was fun.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
Yeah, those little nuggets are how you build
relationships in the classroom.
I mean, I can go back as you'retelling that story about asking
silly questions.
I remember doing roll the firsttime and I would let kids
decide what they wanted to becalled in my class, and one kid
wanted to be called Smasher Joe.
So, I called him Smasher Joefor the entire semester.
(04:04):
You know, you're just meetingthem where they're at.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
I had a really quiet kid in class once and the kids
all got him Remember that song.
Shiny Happy People from RM.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
And so I just I don't remember what I asked him.
I said how are you doing today?
And he's like I'm a shiny,happy person.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
He was one of those kids that never said a word and
everybody just cracked up and itwas like for the rest of the
semester.
He was shiny, happy person.
So it's all about making thoseconnections.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
So we haven't had this in a while is it just two,
yep two now, and then it'll be acouple more later here, oh,
like fairly soon, okay, yeah,it's all about making those
connections and doing somethinglike that does.
Of course, you are also knownfor your dad jokes, bad jokes.
You want to hit us with a fewwell, I'll tell you.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
The one I told at graduation last year is my
favorite dad joke of all time ishow do you find will, how do
you track will?
Smith in the snow?
Just follows the, follow thefresh prince see so good.
Speaker 4 (04:59):
So there's a dad joke .
Tim does an awesome thing.
Every friday we get somethingcalled friday notes.
I get sent out and it alwayscloses with Starbucks star of
the week, which we get torecognize somebody in the
district that's done anoutstanding job and has been
nominated.
But then the dad joke.
At the end I'm always scrollingto the bottom Like, okay, I got
to see what the dad joke is.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
The funny thing is, the first time I did Friday
notes, I put a dad joke.
I send a dad joke to my kidsall the time when they were away
at school or something, and Iput a dad joke in and I wasn't
thinking anything of it.
I didn't mean for it to be likea weekly feature.
And so the next week I didn'thave a dad joke and I got a
bunch of emails from peoplesaying, hey, where's the dad
joke?
So I'm like, okay, and now Ihave a dad joke.
(05:39):
I get dad joke books forChristmas, I get all this stuff.
So now I became the dad jokeguy.
It wasn't really that big athing before, but it is now.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
It is now we hit up with you again.
Yeah Well, you'resuperintendent here at West
Ottawa High School when you knowa lot of time of decisions with
resources and facilities andprogram decisions are being made
, and understanding what thatdoes for developing student
athletes and young people fromyour perspective is quite
invaluable.
A perspective for you thatbegan as an athlete in high
(06:09):
school, a young kid in highschool.
You played some differentsports in high school.
What were they?
Tim?
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Yeah, so it's interesting From middle school
on.
So middle school I playedfootball, basketball, baseball,
like most kids my age did.
We started playing that waywhen I got to high school.
In fact this helps sort ofshape how I view things.
That was a time when schooldistricts had to pass millages
in order to support programs.
So for my freshman andsophomore year of high school,
(06:33):
our school district failed topass millages that would support
athletics, so we had nosub-varsity athletic teams.
So it really kind of shaped myhigh school experience a little
bit.
So I ended up playing golf andtrack as a high school athlete.
My best sports in high schoolwere actually probably tennis
and volleyball, two sports thatwe didn't have and I didn't have
an opportunity to play and wedidn't have the facilities for.
(06:55):
So I think when we're here atWest Ottawa, one of the cool
things about our programming iswe really do have something for
everybody.
I don't think there's anythingthat someone's involved in that
we don't have an outlet thatwould serve, whether it's
facility or program, and youknow that's a really cool thing.
But for me, high school golfmight've been the greatest thing
(07:15):
in the world.
You know where every day youjust go out and play golf with
your buddies and it was a lot offun.
But my family was not athleticfamily.
So for me playing sports evenas a young kid, my family was
not athletic family.
So for me playing sports evenas a young kid, my dad was never
the guy that coached our teamor anything.
I was always jealous of thekids whose dad carried around
the equipment bag.
I thought it was the coolestthing in the world to go home
with all the catcher stuff youknow.
So, as my kids grew up.
(07:36):
I really wanted to do that andcoached all my kids all through
their youth athletics and stuff.
So my experiences did sort ofshape how I view things and how
I have viewed them.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
What high school did you go to, Tim?
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Swartz Creek High School.
It's in the Flint area, justbetween Flint and Lansing.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
Yeah, so that's where Coach Terry Cutter, I think,
spent some time there.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
He was a substitute teacher there when I was in
school.
I talked to him about it.
He and his brother both weresubstitute teachers there back
years ago.
That's how old he is, Cause I'mpretty old and he was.
He was teaching there.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
He's still out.
He's still out.
Uh, assisting Reed Murphy nowwith the golf program and still
getting after it.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
So do you have a favorite memory from your own
high school days about playingsports?
And that stands out.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
My favorite memories.
Honestly, I have some great.
I will just stop there.
Speaker 4 (08:24):
That'll be the last one.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
All right, you just start with my favorite memory.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Just some good memories from competition and
stuff, but I think my favoritememories honestly were practices
and the time before and afterpractice.
I think, rodney, you and I weretalking the other day and I
said one of the things I wasjealous of with my own kids was
being part of a team.
And I'm like man, just takethat all in and really
(08:49):
appreciate all that, because asyou get older it's harder to
have that feeling and I justlove that feeling of hanging out
with your buddies afterpractice, after an event, after
a thing, being in a locker room,being around a team.
So we've endeavored to try tocreate as much of a team
atmosphere as we can, but it'sstill not the same.
It's the kind of thing thatreally, once you get past high
school and college, you probablymost people won't get to
(09:10):
experience something like thatagain in their lifetime.
So it's a really.
It's a really cool feature, Ithink.
Speaker 4 (09:15):
Yeah, that's something I feel like had kind
of led me in.
Something I guess I take intomy own professional work now is
that I feel like I am stillsomewhat part of that team
atmosphere when I'm on thesidelines or down on the field.
Even though I'm not competingor coaching, I'm still around it
and I'm supporting them in someway.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Yeah, that's really for a lot of us.
It's why we're sitting in thisroom today.
It's people that coach athletictrainers, people that
administrate sports, people thatwork in concessions.
You know, we've got the chaingangs on a Friday night.
We're all really stillsearching for that, or trying to
(09:55):
have it part of our lives.
When you think about the highschool experience of sports, how
does that fit into the missionof West Ottawa?
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Well, I really do believe in the idea of
educational athletics, thatathletics as a platform when
they're in school settings teacha lot of valuable lessons in
some ways, lessons that are morememorable and will stick with
kids longer than lessons theylearn in the classroom.
I don't remember really anythingfrom algebra too, but I can
remember a lot of competitivemoments in my lifetime, both
successes and failures, and Ithink that's true for kids
(10:25):
everywhere, that universallythat's so.
The educational experience ofathletics teaches kids a lot of
different kind of life lessonsthat they don't necessarily
learn in classroom settings andthey learn in a really powerful
ways.
I used to say all the time likeif we could put our varsity
physics team out on a Fridaynight in front of 3000 people
against Hudsonville's varsityphysics team, out on a Friday
(10:45):
night in front of 3,000 peopleagainst Hudsonville's varsity
physics team, it would reallyramp up the urgency of learning
physics.
You know, when your examination,your assessment, your final
thing is in front of a crowd, infront of a bunch of people, and
you're doing it with peopleyou've worked hard with and
committed to a common cause withover time.
That's a really special thing.
It's really unique.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
Bill, what particular lessons did you have?
Anything growing up where youkind of had a moment where
athletics taught you somethingspecial that you've hung on to
most of your life?
Speaker 4 (11:13):
Yeah, I mean, I think , just the value of working
really hard and taking pride ineverything that you do.
I was never.
I never scored a touchdown.
I played nine years of football.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
No scoop and score.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
No scoop and score.
I had a couple of picks, acouple of fumble recoveries, but
never got to the end zone.
But I took so much pride in youknow, the macho me would say I
took so much pride in stealinganother person's will because of
where I played I played alongthe line and it was a physical
position that those are some ofthose like memories.
(11:51):
But, like Tim said, I don'teven remember a whole lot of
college football games.
I remember all of the timeswith my nine roommates who are
also football players, aftergames back in our dorm as we're
recapping the game or and we'reall exhausted and just whipped,
and those are the things thatstand out.
And I'm still on a text threadwith all those guys and we're
(12:12):
just constantly badgering eachother with different things.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
So that's great, super fun.
What's the maybe onemisconception, tim, that the
public might have about the roleof athletics and education?
Anything that you see, that youhear and you're like, no,
that's not really what we'retrying to do.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Well, I think one big misconception is this idea that
coaches have some differentkind of motivations or different
interests than teachers andreally, at their core, teaching
and coaching are the same thing.
If you're good at one, you'regood at the other, and I've
rarely seen somebody who wasgood at one of those things and
wasn't good at the other if theywere really committed to it.
(12:47):
And I think people sometimesdon't see that or understand
that.
There's the stereotypical coachfrom a sitcom show that's got
the gray sweatshirt that sayscoach and he's carrying a
whistle and he doesn't seem tocare about anything else.
My experience coaching myselfand my experience being around
coaches is that coaches caredeeply about their players on a
lot of different levels, reallycare about them and are
(13:10):
committed to their craft.
You know that good coaching isgood teaching, that you build
things, that you start with theend in mind and you work
backwards those are all tenetsof good curriculum and good
classroom instruction.
Same thing is true withcoaching.
You know people think coachesshow up with a whistle and they
just start practice and coachesspend a lot of time planning
what their practice is going tolook like.
As a coach, I used to plan mypractices in 10 minute blocks.
(13:33):
I would start with the end, say, hey, here's what I really want
us to achieve by the end ofpractice day.
Okay, how do we get there?
And start with things thatbuild one on top of each other
it wasn't just throwing out aball and hoping that we would
figure it out and I think a lotof people don't don't realize
the amount of work that coachesput in before and after
practices and competitions to beprepared and to give their kids
the best possible experience.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
Yeah, I have a joke with my friend where it's like
hey, if you're in, you're in andyou'll know.
And coaches, they're in, oh,they're all in.
You coach a lot yourself, right?
You're an athlete in highschool, but your love of sports
continues.
You're a teacher and then youcoach in both high school and
college.
Maybe share with us the sportsyou coached, tim.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Yeah, I coached women's volleyball at the high
school level.
I was fortunate to win a statechampionship at Aston as a coach
there.
I coached at Mott CommunityCollege for seven years as the
head coach there and was thehead coach at Wayne State
University for four years inGLIAC and NCAA Division II, and
the whole time I was a headwomen's college volleyball coach
.
I was also a full-time teacherand at the time there I think
there were maybe two part-timecoaches in the GLIAC, so I had a
(14:36):
day job and then I was coachingat the collegiate level I had a
great experience.
It was awesome.
I really loved it.
Have some great connectionswith players and former players
who I to this day I'm stillreally good friends with.
But coach that I at varioustimes I've coached everything
coached baseball, basketball,track, coached track for years
(14:56):
at the high school level Reallyenjoyed that.
You know each thing is is uniqueand it's and has its own kind
of nuances.
But track and individual sportsare pretty cool because there's
not a lot of subjectivity to it.
You know you're either fasteror you're not.
You jump higher, you don't.
It's not a coach's decisionwho's who's the fastest and that
takes a lot of things out of it.
It also allows kids to reallysee their growth, incrementally
(15:19):
or in big steps.
You know they can track theirpersonal bests and I love that.
Coaches celebrate those thingsas much as they celebrate wins
in an event.
You know if a kid PRs, that'sas if you're out watching our
cross country or track kids.
You see some kid PR and finish12th and everybody's high-fiving
that kid and going crazybecause they had a personal best
(15:39):
.
And that's one of the reallycool things about athletics that
you know you can celebratethose improvements and see them.
Speaker 4 (15:46):
Yeah, we have the PR bell out at the track.
So PR happens in a track meetKid gets to go over and ring it.
Frank's got the PR bell in theweight room now.
So when I mean I'm down in myoffice and I hear the bell going
, I'm like all right, somebodyjust achieved something they
haven't done before.
Pretty neat.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
How did you balance?
Haven't done before, which ispretty neat how did you balance?
Jay billis came out with athing on instagram just a few
days ago where he talked abouthis different view on high
school sports now and what hesays is for a lot of these
athletes, this is it, andcoaches have a responsibility to
make that a good experience forthose athletes during that time
(16:22):
.
For you as a coach, tim, howdid you balance creating a good
experience with also beingcompetitive and, you know,
making hard calls about playingtime and all that with with
young kids?
Speaker 1 (16:34):
You know, we used to have this conversation with a,
with a friend of mine, roryMatter, who is a great coach in
the Flint area, and we wouldtalk about, you know, sometimes
taking a group of athleteswithout a lot of talent and
moving them from being not verysuccessful to being moderately
successful was a way better andmore rewarding coaching
(16:54):
experience than taking a groupof kids that was already pretty
skilled and moving them, maybeincrementally, to a slightly
higher level.
And we used to talk about whereit was most valuable to put our
best coaches, like when we putour best coaches at the freshman
or JV level.
Sometimes I think that's true,you know, and I think good
coaches don't really care somuch where they coach or what
(17:14):
level they coach.
I mean, people who arecompetitive, want to compete at
the highest levels, but theywant to work with kids, you know
, and they want to work withpeople, and that's how you
balance it, like if you'rereally in it for the right
reasons, it doesn't matter somuch where you coach, you can
have a great time.
I was joking with Pat and saidhey, you want to coach.
You know, before we came inPanther Pathways flag football,
he said that would be awesomebecause Pat Collins, because Pat
(17:37):
loves to coach and he loveskids and he loves people and he
loves to see them improve, andit really doesn't matter what
level that happens.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
Did you see personally you started out.
How old were you when you firststarted coaching?
Speaker 1 (17:49):
So I was a head women's volleyball coach at age
22.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
Wow, there we go.
Okay, and then how old were youwhen you stopped coaching?
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Well, I never really stopped coaching.
I coached my kids all the waythrough.
But my last year at Wayne Statewas in.
It was 1998.
That was my last season in thefall of 98.
So that was the last time Iformally coached.
But I coached my kids through.
Aau through youth sports,through Little League, and never
really stopped.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
For you, as everyone has people right.
Bill Kennedy is different todaythan he was a year and a half
ago For coaches.
How did you see yourself changeover time from being that 22
year old young man to 1998 olderexperience when you stopped
officially coaching like?
How did you change over time?
(18:37):
And then how did you see theprofession, maybe when you
stopped?
Speaker 1 (18:40):
That's a great question.
Some things are hugelydifferent.
I mean, being a dad reallychanged everything for me.
It changed a lot of myperspective and I look back at
some of the things I said anddid as a young coach.
I'm embarrassed by him.
Now I'm like gosh, I can'tbelieve that I thought that was
that important or it was thatangry about something that
really wasn't that big a deal,and I think that perspective of
having my own kids made a hugedifference for me.
(19:01):
But I think the biggest thingis, you know, is keeping the
main thing, the main thing, andwe get distracted by all these
little things that are ancillary, that aren't really important.
I'll give you an example.
This is funny the first call ona snow day, basically after I,
after I decided a snow day, isusually Bill asking me what time
coaches can practice.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
And when.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
I was coaching and if we had a snow day, I was
desperate to make sure we didn'tmiss practice time.
Right Now, in my advanced ageand with a different perspective
, I look at it and say is reallythat one practice going to make
that much difference?
If it is going to make thatmuch difference, we probably
didn't do a great job in thedays leading up to it.
You know, kids can enjoy theirsnow day, and so I've mellowed a
(19:49):
lot in that since I was overlyintense when I was young as a
coach, and now I think I look atthings way differently and with
a, you know, with a maybebroader vision about what's
really important.
I also think the fun factor isway more important than I
probably used to think it was.
If it's not a fun experiencefor kids, then we screwed up.
We did something wrong.
Sports should be fun.
Speaker 3 (20:08):
And you can do all the hard work and all the
physical challenges and that canbe fun.
I used to tell my teams all thetime.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
There's all different kinds of fun in sports.
You can have fun playingvolleyball at your family picnic
, family reunion, but it's notgoing to be the same kind of fun
that you're going to get whenyou've worked super hard with
your teammates to a commoncommitted to a common goal and
you play your absolute bestagainst the best team that
you'll play.
That's the ultimate fun in mymind.
You know, in athletics sothere's all different kinds of
(20:36):
fun and some kids aren't builtfor one or the other.
But still it's the job of thecoach, I think, to make it a
positive experience, to figureout how to find each athlete
where they are.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
Speaking of fun, you have four kids that went on to
play both high school andcollegiate sports, so you never
stopped coaching.
Can you share with us becausethere's a lot of success that
your kids had what was it likefor you just to be a parent in
sports?
A lot of parents will listen tothis podcast.
What was it like just for youto have those kids play those
(21:09):
sports, have that success andkind of enjoy that experience?
Speaker 1 (21:12):
It was super awesome, a joy of our lives.
I think this is the first fallin many years my wife and I said
we are not following one of ourkids to a sporting event.
My youngest, graduated fromNorthern last year, played
soccer there in NorthernMichigan, and so we don't have a
team to follow this fall.
So it feels a little bit empty.
It's kind of weird becausewe've done nothing but that.
(21:33):
Our social life was followingour kids and hanging out with
the parents of their friends andteammates, and so I do miss
that.
I miss it a lot of theirfriends and teammates, and so I
do miss that.
I miss it a lot.
But I think as a parent, one ofthe things that I really had to
learn was to bite my tongue,especially in the car ride home
or in the time afterwards.
I was used to watching games asa coach and I always thought I
(21:57):
had lots of things that I couldsay to my kids that would help,
and I think sometimes I did.
But the things I think I wasable to help them with and my
wife, who was also a collegeathlete, was able to help them
with were really more aroundkind of mental toughness,
emotional resiliency.
I think we were able to helpour kids in those respects more
than in terms of technicalthings about how they actually
(22:18):
played a game.
I think the other thing for meis as my kids were playing
sports in their high schoolexperience, I was their high
school principal at the schoolwhere they played athletics and
I really had to distance myself.
I love now I love standing downon the sidelines and watch a
game, but when my son playedfootball I never once stepped
foot on the sidelines.
I sat in the stands with agroup of parents, right in the
(22:38):
middle of everybody and just wasa parent and I think my kids
always appreciated that.
I always tried to keep thatseparation as much as I could.
It's really hard to do that.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
I think it's super hard.
I mean, even I just remember,with my kids playing sports,
being in the car driving home,and you start instructing them
on every little thing whenyou're younger.
With my older kids I stopped,but I think a lot of us kind of
had that same experience wherehey got to do this, you got to
do this, Especially when yourkids are playing the sports you
played.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
Yeah, you know what's hilarious is.
You know, I don't know ifyou've had this experience with
your own kids, but after a gamethe coach will stand and talk to
them for 20 minutes or 30minutes after the game, and then
we'll get in the car and we'relike well, what did coach say?
I'm like nothing.
They talked to you for 30minutes and said nothing.
The lesson was, my kids justdidn't want to rehash it again
Later on maybe later in the dayor the next day they'd say oh
(23:30):
yeah, coach said so and so andso it just wasn't the right time
.
I think that's an importantlesson for us.
Speaker 3 (23:36):
I think it's a very important lesson, because even
things we do in life, ifsomething doesn't go our way, we
have a.
Speaker 4 (23:41):
We don't want to talk about it for the next 30
minutes yeah, yeah, I wasfortunate enough to coach my son
, dakota, and coaching him infootball I definitely had to
bite my tongue in a lot of carrides, but I was reading a lot
of like tony dungy stuff backthen where it's, like you know,
three positives for everynegative.
It was always his philosophy,because I was at some work.
(24:04):
It was because I was so hypercompetitive.
I was coaching high schoolfootball at the time.
I had played, I had beenexposed to the game for so long
and I mean ultimately too, it'sI was a reflection of the way
that my dad talked to me on carrides home.
There was always a critique,you know, but that that's just
the way that my dad talked to meon car rides home.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
there was always a critique, you know, but that
that's just the way it was yeah,it's a tough thing as a parent,
I think, just to figure outwhat you're supposed to do in
that moment, you know, becausethere's always be supportive and
listen would be what I wouldsay and for me, all my kids were
way better athletes than I everhoped I could be, so they, they
always had something on me.
You got to experience reallythe pinnacle of being an
(24:46):
athletic parent with yourdaughter Kennedy.
Can you tell us her story?
Speaker 1 (24:50):
Yeah, kennedy played soccer at Grand Valley State
University, which is a fantasticprogram, and we had an awesome
experience there.
She had an awesome experienceand we did as parents.
Twice they won the nationalchampionship while she was there
and so her freshman year sheassisted on the national
championship, winning goal inovertime, and then her junior
year, she actually scored thefirst goal of the game and then
(25:11):
she scored the golden goal andthe goal in double overtime um
to win the national championshipand my wife and I would still
say one of the greatest days ofour lives.
Speaker 4 (25:22):
I can only imagine the sense of pride that you
would have.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
Well, it's not just pride, I mean, although that is
a big deal, but seeing your kidachieve something that they've
worked so hard to get to andfinally had the ultimate prize
at the end, which just justdoesn't happen very much, right
it was.
It was really special.
And I said my youngest daughterwon a state championship in
high school and it was the samekind of feeling, you know.
(25:48):
But the national championship,that was pretty cool.
My son played division onefootball and he still says
Kennedy gets the, kennedy getsthe nod as the top athlete
because she, because of thethose accomplishments you know,
yeah, I mean, Rodney, you had alittle bit of taste of that last
year.
Speaker 4 (26:07):
We went in the district basketball championship
.
You're watching your son outthere and I remember seeing you
on the court and just you weretalking to me about like, oh my
gosh, this really happened.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
Yeah, it was.
You know, as a dad, I have fourkids three daughters and one
son.
So this is my boy, this is thelittle guy that I've played
basketball with in the basementand the driveway doing all that
stuff, and all you're wishingfor is that they can have a
moment, and they got one, and itwas probably the most
(26:36):
fulfilling for me as a parent asever could be.
There's a picture.
There's so many great contentcreators nowadays.
There was a great contentcreator there at night that took
a ton of photos of our team,but he has a picture of Hudson
holding the district trophy andthere's guys around him with
hands on their shoulder.
They're half laughing, halfsmiling.
I got that picture up in myoffice.
(26:57):
Now it's framed.
It'll be there forever, butit's a nice moment.
As a parent, you don't alwaysget that.
I had an older daughter thatlost her high school career to a
knee injury.
Yeah, and that's the opposite,right.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
So yeah, that's a good point.
You know there's highs and lowsand everything.
My son lost a statechampionship game in football,
had an undefeated footballseason his senior year and lost
10 to 7 in the statechampionship game.
He was a defensive end.
I think they gave up 48 yardsof offense the whole game and
still lost and that was thelowest of the low.
I mean it wasn't because he gotto this pinnacle game, but I
(27:31):
mean that was such a hugedisappointment.
I think an important piece isit doesn't matter whether it's
athletics or it's anything elsewith us as parents.
My son when he was a little kidhe played Charlie and Charlie
in the Chocolate Factory, juston a whim.
He tried out for this playthrough school and he gets the
lead role and we're like, ohcrap.
Speaker 4 (27:51):
We don't know anything.
The lead role.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
We don't know anything about this about acting
about this thing.
And yeah, and they played atthe McComb Center which seats I
don't know, 1, which is seats Idon't know a thousand people and
their audiences were mostlylike elementary kids.
They would bus in, like thesewhole thing, but they'd have
like a thousand people in theaudience and that was super cool
.
You know, it doesn't matterwhat it is, see your kid get to
perform and and participate inand have fun and do something
(28:13):
that's really rewarding to themis is super special.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
Yeah, and when it doesn't go your way, it's still
okay.
Speaker 4 (28:20):
Absolutely it's.
It's one of those lessons,though, right Like you, you pour
work into something and you'rejust, you're just trying to get
to whatever it is.
The top level that I could pushmyself towards.
That's what I'm always tryingto work towards.
That Right Like that was my, mymentality.
And going to Robert Morris is Ihad D2 and D3 offers but I was
(28:43):
like I need to see if I can pushmyself.
I see a kid and this is justsomething that popped into my
brain, but the kid, trinidadChambliss, who's starting at
quarterback at Ole Miss rightnow.
I coached him at Forest HillsNorthern.
He went to Ferris becausethat's where his offer was, but
after the season they had lastyear, he wanted to see where he
(29:03):
could get and see if he couldcompete in that level.
And man alive, is he competingat that level right now?
Speaker 1 (29:10):
You know what?
That being said, as somebodywho coached at community college
in division two, a lot of timesI saw kids and parents get
really wrapped up in the idea ofcan I play division one?
And the reality was a lot oftimes the mid-level Division I
programs couldn't have won ourconference in Division II.
And the bigger reality is itreally doesn't matter If you're
(29:31):
competing, you're having fun,you're getting an opportunity to
do the thing that you love todo, you're going to have a great
experience.
And I think there's way toomuch of that kind of concern.
You know, I love the idea ofcompeting at the highest level
that you can reach, but I alsothink people get really wrapped
up into that for sure.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
this is a great place for facilities or programs.
You're here at an incredibletime with the football lacse
soccer stadium complex that wasfinished just a few years ago.
We have the pool coming intoplay.
Tim, if you go back to when youwere a young high school kid I
mean, I went my high school had98 students, Guess what.
(30:12):
We didn't have A lot, but thisday and age, now, there's so
much available.
There's three old guys in thisroom right now.
We know what it was like in the80s, 90s for you.
You're still in your 40s, Bill.
That's right, but isn't itsomething?
The world that we're in withSportsTown?
Speaker 1 (30:30):
It's amazing really.
Our facilities are absolutelyincredible and they're going to
reach an even new level with theconstruction of the pool and
the community center, butthey're really, really special.
I do worry a little bit thatthere's a sort of arms race
around facilities.
I think the most importantthing is do we offer the
opportunities that we want tooffer?
(30:50):
Do our facilities create asituation that will allow kids
to do the things they want to doand have the space to do them
and have the time to do them?
And if we've accomplished that,then I think that's what we're
looking for.
I also think it's important thatkids have things they can be
proud of, and I think they feelbetter, they treat things better
when they feel proud of it.
(31:11):
But the reality is to yourpoint, rodney, when I was in
high school, I never thought ourfacilities weren't great.
They were fine.
There are nothing compared tothe facilities that we have now.
As long as I was able to do thestuff that I wanted to do and I
had opportunity and access toit, then I felt good, and I
think that's true of our kidsnow.
Speaker 4 (31:31):
Yeah, and we have a lot of other things that make us
unique to West Ottawa, thingslike the Panther Fund and
Panther Pathways.
Can you share a little bitabout what those programs have
meant?
I mean, you've really overseenthe start and Panther Pathways.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
Yeah, panther Pathways is one of the things
I'm most proud of in my career,of seeing a school district do
so.
When we started talking aboutit we were looking at the
student athletes who made up ourvarsity teams.
We said at the time thestatistic was something like 67%
(32:12):
of the kids making up ourvarsity teams came from three
elementary schools in ourdistrict and we weren't getting
a lot of participants as theygot older, from kids from
different schools and within thedistrict.
And we weren't getting a lot ofparticipants as they got older,
from kids from differentschools and within the district.
We said, man, we've got to dosomething about this because for
a lot of these kids the barrieris they don't have access to a
program that will lead to thembeing a varsity athlete someday,
or they don't have exposure toa program that will lead to them
being in the play or playing aninstrument or being a computer
(32:33):
programmer or whatever thatlittle extra that maybe some
people have.
And so we created a program andit started with funding that we
got through COVID dollars,through us or funding, and we
created this program initiallyfor fourth and fifth graders
that would allow them to havecompetition with their friends
at other schools.
But the big thing that we didand I think to this day is the
(32:54):
most important piece is we founda way to provide transportation
to those kids and that made itaccessible to everybody.
Without transportation, thenthere were a lot of kids that
weren't going to be able toparticipate.
It was such a valuable thing.
We had elementary schools wherewe'd have a basketball game, a
fourth or fifth grade girlsbasketball game, and we had
(33:15):
families who just didn't, as acommon rule, come to school
events fill the gym.
I mean, I remember being at PineCreek when there wasn't an
empty seat anywhere in the gymfor a basketball game when Pine
Creek was playing Woodside andI'm like this is exactly what we
were hoping for.
We've got parents involved,we've got kids involved in a
productive, fun, happy way andthese kids are getting an
(33:36):
experience that exposed them tosomething and they can find if
maybe they have a passion for it, whatever it is.
So we offer programs andcomputer programming and STEM
stuff.
We have Minecraft, where kidscould come in and play that game
, and we have athletics,obviously, and when our asset
dollars ran out, we said this isan important enough program.
We're going to continue fundingit through our general fund and
(33:57):
we've been able to do that andwe said we're going to
prioritize it because literallythousands of kids are going to
be able to participate in thisprogram over the years.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
I'm just so thankful as a parent.
I'm not an administrator here.
You guys both are but yourability to pay attention to
detail and finding a particularvariable that flips it.
Hey, what's the one variablehere that's preventing this from
happening?
To dive in and find it andswitch it.
It's fantastic.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
Thanks.
Speaker 4 (34:25):
Yeah, I've always said you know, people will ask
you know what's West Ottawa like?
And there are a lot of schooldistricts that talk the talk.
West Ottawa walks the walk Likewe're going to identify an
issue, a problem, and we'regoing to get a bunch of smart
people in a room together andfigure out a way to work around
it.
Speaker 3 (34:43):
Yeah, it's really really amazing.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
And we're super fortunate that we have people
here who are all in for kids.
Bill is a great example in theathletic department and the
athletic office, but throughoutthe entire district people are
here for kids and at every level, and not just our teaching
staff and our administrativestaff, but our support staff of
people who work at the ticketbooth, the people who clean our
(35:07):
buildings, who work on thebuilding and grounds.
They take a lot of pride in it.
They're in it for kids and Ijust I don't know that I've ever
encountered anybody at WestOttawa who wasn't positive and
wasn't excited about what theywere doing for for young people.
People ask me all the time whatis like to move to this
district and I said it's likethis big school that has a small
school feel.
You feel like you knoweverybody, like it's a small
(35:29):
town, it's a small city and it'sa small school, but it's really
not.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
this is big environment with a lot of
different people we talked theother day on the phone and we
laughed as you're turning 60 oryou are 60 I already am but you
get a lot of perspective rightwhen we get we get these older
ages.
You just mentioned one, but Iwas going to ask you have you
had any moments in the last fewyears at west ottawa where an
(35:54):
athletic moment came and youthought, yeah, this is what it's
supposed to look like?
Speaker 2 (35:58):
You just mentioned.
Speaker 3 (35:58):
Pine Creek.
That game there, but what other?
Speaker 1 (36:01):
I remember the first home game we had in the stadium.
Mr Tolgeski's son, cole, threwa touchdown pass in the end zone
.
We won that game in our firsthome game in the stadium and the
excitement of everybody.
But I just happened to be downin the field and filming that
(36:21):
play and I sent it to.
Todd said hey, you know, I justgot this video of Cole and I
just know how much that wouldhave felt to me as a parent and
what that moment was like forthat kid.
And just think, man, you knowthe pageantry of a game at West
Ottawa, with the band, with thecheerleaders, with the crowd,
with that full stadium.
It's like this is high schoolathletics.
It's like a slice of Americana.
This is like a night that kidswill never forget.
(36:43):
It was awesome Just this yearin our first home game, seeing
the middle school group have thewhite noise and having like a
couple hundred, two, threehundred middle school kids in
the stands.
The other end of the standswe've got the black hole with
our high school student section.
We've got 38 or 39 cheerleadersI don't know how many Bill 120
kids in the marching band.
All these kids playing football.
(37:04):
We've got the youth footballkids coming out into the field
at halftime and you just lookaround and you're like man, this
is so cool, this is what it'ssupposed to be.
All these is so cool, this iswhat it's supposed to be.
You know, these, all thesepeople belong to something
bigger than us and it's allsuper fun.
They all have their own role init, but they're all part of
this really amazing event.
This is a really cool thing andI think that's super special.
Speaker 4 (37:26):
Yeah, I was at the gym this morning and a couple of
folks from power strength arecoming over because they trained
some of our athletes.
They trained some of the grandHaven athletes.
And I asked Caleb?
I said you've never been toWest Ottawa Stadium for a
football game yet, have you?
And he goes no, I'm like, okay,I'm going to talk to you next
week and I'll get yourperspective, because I think we
just do it.
It's different than anywhereelse you go.
Speaker 1 (37:47):
Yeah, my kids came to the last.
Three of my four kids were ableto come to the last game and we
went all the way up top in thestadium so they could see what
it looked like.
And they all brought theirsignificant others who were also
athletes at different levels,and just they were just blown
away like I've never seenanything like this and I said,
yeah, west ottawa does it rightyeah, and the band is just
(38:07):
killing it at halftime.
Speaker 3 (38:09):
Really too.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
Christian oviak and what he's done with the marching
band, and they were alreadygreat under mike hammond this is
a phenomenal band leader, butChris has brought a whole new
dimension and they're superexciting and it's really cool.
Speaker 3 (38:22):
And you know what's really great too?
I get to see some backgroundstuff, how well those two work
together, like they're workinggreat together.
They're taking on differentroles and they're just both
positive, moving forward.
I jumped out of line a littlebit, so I'm actually going to go
back here a little bit hereWith you.
You know, in the administrativeposition that you're in, you
(38:45):
have a very full plate.
But one thing that you still do, because this lifelong
commitment to athletics is stillthere you referee still.
When did you start putting onthe zebra stripes and getting
involved in that?
Speaker 1 (38:56):
Well, I've refereed for years.
I actually started as the firstjob I ever had.
As a young kid I'm 13, maybe or14 years old I started umpiring
in the community.
I had baseball in myneighborhood so I started doing
it then and we used to get paidcash and a little envelope.
I don't remember six or sevenbucks a game for umpiring a
little involved, but I don'tremember six or seven bucks a
(39:16):
game for umpiring.
But I did high school sports foryears.
I did boys and girls basketball, volleyball, baseball and
softball.
So I did those for a long time.
Really enjoyed doing basketball.
Now my knees are kind of shotso I don't know that I would.
My wife says I can't run enoughto do basketball anymore but I
still am doing collegevolleyball, something I wanted
to go back to when I was donecoaching and my kids were done
(39:37):
playing.
So that's allowed me to stayaround college athletics.
So you know I think I'm goingto be out at Southwestern
Michigan college this weekendreffing community college
tournament out there.
I was at Bethel university inIndiana on Saturday reffing the
women's volleyball match andjust having a great time and
being around athletes and kidsand stuff just makes me happy.
Speaker 3 (39:57):
What would a lifetime of not being athletics look
like for you, like how big apart of athletics is in your
life and what does it mean toyou?
Speaker 1 (40:05):
I mean it's interwoven and I think, in our
family and me and who I am, andI just always had a passion for
it.
You know, it's like I said,growing up my parents were not
particularly, you know, intoathletics.
It just, for whatever reason, Ibecame super interested in it,
not just as a participant but asa fan, somebody who reads about
it.
I just love the kind ofexperience that comes to it.
(40:28):
If it wasn't athletics, it'd besomething else.
I guess you know my brother's aprofessional musician and he
went a whole different way andhe's passionate about that.
So it's, it's just for me, it'swho I am.
I love sports.
Like last night, I live and diewith the lions.
The game was a blast that wecame out on top.
Speaker 3 (40:47):
He's a man to bring.
Had to bring up the line.
Oh geez.
Speaker 1 (40:50):
I forgot who they played Shoot.
Um yeah, that was Baltimore.
Speaker 3 (40:56):
Wasn who they played shoot.
Um, yeah, that was baltimore,wasn't sorry, that's probably.
I was surprised he walked inwith a smile on his face today
after I knew that they lost lastnight.
Speaker 4 (41:00):
Yeah, rodney knows, if the ravens lose on sunday,
just leaves me alone on sundayafternoon you know what I love
in sports.
Speaker 1 (41:07):
I love the little stories within the story you
know that there's always allthese different little dramas
that play out in an athleticcontest, and when the Ravens
lose it's drama.
Speaker 3 (41:15):
Trust me.
Speaker 1 (41:16):
No, it totally is.
You know, that's like likeplayoff baseball coming up, all
the little mini stories withinthe story, you know, the
one-on-one, a batter against apitcher, and the mind games and
the things that happen, and allthose things are super
compelling to me and I get that.
They interests, you know, and Ilove being at all of our events
(41:36):
.
I love going to our bandconcerts.
I love seeing our marching band.
I told my kids at the game lastweek we were like, yeah, come
for the game, but thehighlight's going to be the
marching band at halftime,because they have never seen a
marching band like ours, youknow, at the high school level.
So all those things are superjoyful to me.
Speaker 3 (41:54):
Yeah, and this is a sports podcast, so obviously
we're putting athletics.
But I mean, it's true, there'sso many other things that can be
interwoven in your life thatgive you the same thing.
It's just so important to havesomething to do and still, today
, you're still on the pickleballcourt.
In tennis, pickleball is thegreat equalizer.
You can still hit thepickleball court and it's like
this last bastion of athleticism.
(42:16):
You can not be able to move.
You can be obese.
Whatever the case may be, ifyour hand eye is still there,
you can still play.
But you still play the game,right Left hand pickleball.
Speaker 1 (42:25):
I like playing pickleball.
I play some tennis still andstill play volleyball now and
then you still play volleyball.
I can't really jump anymore butI still still pepper and goof
around and play with my son's anopen level beach player in
Chicago so I love going to watchhim play and doing stuff with
him.
Speaker 4 (42:40):
but he's got to be a beast at the net.
He's a pretty good athlete.
Speaker 1 (42:44):
Yeah, so he's.
He didn't pick up reallyplaying competitive volleyball
till the last few years, buthe's learned quickly.
He's a good athlete.
So, yeah, yeah, that stuff'sfun.
I love doing stuff to be active.
I paddleboard.
We're outside doing stuff allthe time.
Speaker 3 (43:00):
Let's finish up with two kind of big questions.
One how do you see the futureof high school athletics
changing, maybe during the nextfive years, about five to ten?
I know the last five years herethere's been massive changes.
What do you guys see maybe thenext five to ten years?
Here there's been massivechanges.
What?
Speaker 4 (43:15):
do you guys see, maybe the next five to ten man?
I just I think at some pointnil is going to come into the
equation.
I, I really do, and that's just.
Tim was there yesterday as wewere over hearing from mark
you'll and the mhsaa.
I, it's inevitable.
I don't know that it looks thesame as it does at the
collegiate level, but I I don'tsee us going another five to 10
(43:38):
years in that not being areality at the high school.
Speaker 1 (43:41):
I hate where we are in college athletics right now.
I think it's one of those weirdthings.
There was a problem and insteadof correcting it incrementally,
we swung the pendulum completely180 degrees the other direction
(44:04):
and created a whole new problemor a new set of problems.
So I hope that that doesn'thappen in high school.
One of the things I thinkthat's going to be interesting
in the next five to ten years inhigh school athletics is
participation and whether or notwe're able to keep kids into
high school sports.
With the proliferation of youthsports in other areas we're
already seeing battles, fighting.
(44:26):
You know academy programs andsoccer and you know outside
programs and other sports.
Whether we can hold on to kidsin the high school experience I
think was going to be really aninteresting story.
I hope that we can because Ithink it's an experience that's
so unique.
You know my kids played highlevel soccer, but you go play a
high level ECNL or academy gameand there's maybe 25 or 30
(44:47):
parents that are watchinginstead of going and playing in
front of several hundred of yourfriends.
It's a completely differentexperience.
And so my kids, that mydaughters played high level
soccer.
They loved playing high schoolsoccer because they got to play
in front of their friends andwith their friends that they
went to school with every day,and that was a different
experience.
I hope that we're able to hangon to that.
You know, in the face of thisproliferation of a lot of other
(45:09):
sports, I hope that we're ableto hold on to the multi-sport
athlete.
I really believe in it.
I think it makes kids betterand more well-rounded.
We had a great speaker at aprevious school.
Kate Markgraf played on ourOlympic soccer team.
She went to Notre Dame and shesaid when she was in high school
she went to a high school thatrequired her to play two sports.
(45:30):
It was required you had to betwo sports.
So she played soccer, but thenshe was like, in her words, she
thought it was asinine that shehad to play another sport.
She played volleyball and shesaid the ironic thing is is that
now, as an adult, she stillplays in a women's volleyball
league and doesn't ever playsoccer anymore because she got
burned out on it and thatexperience of being required to
play another sport actually gaveher a lifelong avocation.
(45:53):
I hope that we're able to hangon to that.
So I hope we're able to hang onto high school participation
and even grow it, and I hopewe're able to hang on to the
multi-sport athlete.
Speaker 4 (46:03):
Yeah, and I would say in the last two to three years
our participation has gone upconsiderably.
You know, and you look at oursoccer program, we're one of six
schools in West Michigan thatoffer three levels of soccer at
the boys level and the girls inthe spring, and we have 20 plus
kids at each of those levels.
So there's opportunities here Ithink that may not exist in
(46:26):
other places, just because we'reable to get that participation
number up.
Speaker 3 (46:30):
Yeah, Any final thoughts that you'd like to.
You know, maybe a message you'dlike to share with parents,
students, athletes just a finalthought on, maybe athletics at
our school.
Speaker 1 (46:40):
I think they're super fortunate to have the
opportunities they have here tohave an athletic director like
Bill, who is always looking forways to get more kids involved,
whether I think one of the coolthings that Bill's done is even
the kids that aren't involvednecessarily on a team but who
are involved in running thevideo scoreboard or they're
working on a broadcast side orthey're doing other things.
We found a cool way to keepthem involved and I tell the
(47:01):
story.
I told the story to my kids.
I hope you'll indulge me thislast thing Dan Dickerson, the
Tigers baseball announcer.
I heard him speak to a group ofkids years ago and he told a
great school.
He thought he wanted to be aprofessional baseball player but
realized pretty quickly hewasn't going to be good enough
to be a professional baseballplayer.
He was a marginal high schoolplayer but his high school coach
had a connection with theTigers and got him a job in the
(47:22):
summertime being a bat boy forthe Tigers and he had this
awesome experience gets to be inthe clubhouse.
He's around the players Didthat for two summers and then
one summer the second summerhe's talking to a guy who worked
in the ticket booth and saidhey, you ought to come up here
and work in the ticket booth.
We could pay you and you couldmake some money.
And so he goes up and he worksin the ticket booth.
While he's up there he hadopportunity with the vp of
(47:43):
ticketing to introduce him toernie harwell, who was a
legendary radio broadcaster forthe tigers.
He introduces him to ernieharwell and ernie harwell says
you should come sit up in thebooth with me.
And he goes up and he gets tosit up there where Ernie Harwell
broadcasts a game and he's likeI decided right then and there
I'm going to be a baseballannouncer.
He went to school, became aradio broadcaster, ended up
(48:04):
getting a job with the Tigers,working his way back up through
the organization, and now he's,you know, the voice of Tiger
baseball and he can go to everygame home and away and of Tiger
baseball and you can go to everygame home and away.
And his message to the kids wasthat no matter what you love to
do, you can figure out a way tomake a living at it.
So he loved baseball.
It wasn't going to be goodenough to be a player, but he
figured out a way to makebaseball his life, and so I've
(48:25):
told my own kids that I'd loveto tell our kids that whatever
you love to do, even if youdon't have a natural ability in
that area, you can find a way tobe around it your whole life if
you want to, and I think that'sa cool thing that we offer at
West.
Speaker 3 (48:40):
Ottawa.
Tim Bearden, thanks so much forcoming in.
Thanks for sharing yourexperience as an athlete and a
coach and a dad, and now yourperspective as our
superintendent really appreciateit.
Speaker 4 (48:51):
Yeah, thanks so much.
I know the calendar is busy.
Speaker 1 (48:54):
Hey, this was awesome .
Thanks for having me guys.
Speaker 3 (48:56):
Appreciate you All, right.
Well, thanks so much.
Remember everybody, we are WestOttawa, we are community, we
are each other and take care,we'll see you next time, thank
you.
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