#313: Chad Blank-Clarinda (IA) High School

Episode Transcript
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(00:02):
You're listening to the Gil Athletics Connections podcast
with host Mike Cunningham. Track and field world UNL tuned
in to our humble servant Mike Cunningham for another
extraordinary message for Gil Athletics Connections.

(00:24):
Yo, you're back right here on the Gil Connections podcast.
I'm so pumped. We're recording this on a
Friday. I don't know you're listening to
this on a Monday, so hopefully you don't have the Monday Blues,
but man, we've got the Friday yeas.
I'm super excited. We're going to hop right into
this. Help me welcome the head coach
from Clarinda High School. We're going to learn more about
where because you're I know you're already asking where in
the world is Clarinda High School?

(00:45):
It's in Iowa. We're going to learn more from
the head coach there. Help me welcome the wise, the
wonderful Mr. Chad Blake. Chad.
How are you, Sir? Doing great today Mike, how you
doing? Man, like I said, it's Friday,
baby. And you know what?
This is my job so I'm always doing good got.
To be one of the best gigs in the world.
Just got to talk track all day, you know?
It's hard to complain. It really is.

(01:06):
It's got, you know, if I'm complaining, it's about
something petty. It's like, oh man, you know, I
didn't get my my filet for lunchor something.
I don't know. I don't need I got some leftover
spaghetti here in a little bit, but so tell us Chad, where is
you know, where in the world is Clarinda High School Clarinda,
IA. Yeah, Clarinda, we're in the
southwest part of the state here.
We're about 5-10 miles from Missouri, about 30 miles from

(01:30):
Nebraska. So we're pretty tucked down in
here, really. There's not a lot of reasons to
come to Clarinda unless you wantto go to Clarinda.
Yeah. So not, not a town you're just
going to drive through for whatever reason, you know?
First thing we learned is Chad does not work for the visitors
Bureau of Clarinda. Yeah, don't tell the mayor.
Don't tell the mayor. I assume, you know, it's Iowa.

(01:50):
There's a lot of small towns andyou know, we know of Des Moines
and Ames and Iowa City and things like that.
Davenport We don't really know much about Clinton, so pretty
small town. Yeah, we're about 5000.
So if you want to go do your shopping, you're probably gonna
have to drive to Council Bluffs,Omaha area, maybe down to Saint
Joe's. So you got to make a hall if you
want to kind of do a shopping day.
Yeah. Yeah.
We don't have a Walmart here in town.

(02:10):
We got to drive about 20 minutesfor a Walmart.
We go No. So, you know, you gotta, you
gotta make some trips every oncein a while.
How far is Council Bluffs? It's about an hour.
Oh yeah, yeah, OK. Council Bluffs.
So it's funny, I grew up in a small town in Alabama.
I think we had, when I was there, maybe 7-8 thousand
people. And it really resonated with me

(02:30):
when you said we don't even havea Walmart.
Like that's kind of the basis. Like we had just gotten a
Walmart when I got to high school there.
So I was like, oh, it's a big deal.
So it's funny, small town, not antics, but you know, kind of
economics. We got a Walmart.
We're good. That's how you justify your
population, yeah. That's it, that's it, that's it,
that's it. Well, man, thanks again for
being here today. You know, you got a lot going on

(02:51):
in your life, man. So I'm really, really grateful
for you being here. And we're just excited to learn
more about you and talk some track and maybe we can, you
know, we want to uplift and honor what you do as a track and
field coach, and we want to bring as much value as possible
to those who listen to us. I think we're going to think I'm
feeling good about this one. I feel like we're going to
extract a lot of good stuff here, man.
So Chad, get us started, man. Let's get in our Wayback Machine

(03:13):
and find out about you. Where does track and field start
for you? Maybe I'm assuming you were a
track athlete, but we're learning that not everybody was
a track athlete. Whose coaches?
Where does it begin? Yeah, well, I'm going way back.
I remember going to maybe like some small town youth meets when
I was when I was a kid. I remember Hamburg put one on
and on a gravel track, which those are still a thing around

(03:34):
here. Sometimes we have an all way on
track, but I remember run on a gravel track.
I ran on a gravel track all the way through high school.
Even what was our home track wasgravel.
So yeah, I ran a few youth meets.
I remember not being so bad at it.
I guess I was more into other sports when I was younger.
And then, you know, middle school, you know, you actually
get the school team. You know, I'm like, hey, I'm

(03:54):
not, I'm really not too bad at this.
So and then in high school, at the start, it kind of became a
thing where it's like, OK, I understand how this is going to
help me in football, basketball,you know, baseball and all these
other things. I can get more explosive.
I can get more athletic and then, you know, my sophomore
year we got a really good coach.She was actually a pole vaulter
and sprinter at Mizzou. So it was really blessed to have
her as a coach there through my sophomore and junior year.

(04:16):
And that's when I really was like, hey, I think track can be
something that I can I can do not just be something I'm doing
to stay in shape or get more explosive, but I think I can do
this a little bit. So you know, that's for me is
really when it started, probablysophomore through that junior
year is when it really started to click, you know, and call
just started calling and things like that.
So yeah, sophomore, junior year,really, really started taking it

(04:37):
serious. So you mentioned other sports,
you were playing other sports aswell.
Yeah, yeah, I was A4 sport athlete all the way through
football, basketball, track, baseball.
Love to do. That all right.
Yeah, I was in band as well. I was in a play.
I just like to do stuff. I just like to be in things.
Well, one, I know that's a little bit of a small town
mentality because if you don't, there's no teams, right?
But I love that, you know, because we talk about the value

(04:59):
of multi sport athletes, right? Not just for the school and for
the team, but for the for the athlete, right?
Our local high school here whereI live in, in Mahomet, IL, just
outside of Champaign. They do, it's such a big like
culture part for them. They when you walk into the
field house, they've got a plaque every year that says,
Hey, here are the 2 sport athletes at our school.
You know, there's a there's a ton of names and then they have

(05:20):
one for three sport athletes andthen they have one for four.
And you know, there's only like one or two.
Like that's a rarity to play four and the band for crying out
loud. Yeah, yeah, it's definitely even
becoming more rare. And you know, I graduated, I
think there was 26 kids in my graduating class, went to a
super small high. School we.
Had less than 100 so it was like, you know, if you if the

(05:41):
athletes aren't going out for everything, we're not going to
be very good so you know the thesame starting 5 for basketball
most of the time those guys werestarting in football, they were
starting in baseball they were on our 4 but you know it was all
those things so you just had to go out for things and you know
kind of build a little bit of school pride that way too you
know you get really prideful forfor what you got and but. 26.
26, 26. Dude, I graduated with like, I

(06:03):
think like 126 actually, which is not huge by any stretch.
I immediately moved to Chicago after that small town in
Alabama. And I was talking with one of my
fraternity brothers and he went to school at one of the big
schools in Chicago. And he gets his yearbook out and
he's kind of looking through it.And I was like, it's like, dude,
how many kids did you graduate? And I think he said something
like 1000 or 1200. You know, I couldn't fathom

(06:26):
that, right? You know, a small town, guys.
I'm like, so for 26, you knew, Imean, obviously you knew
everybody in your you knew everybody in the school, right?
100%, yeah. So out of 125 in my senior
class, I knew, I think I knew everybody and I knew probably
the vast majority of the entire school, maybe some freshmen I
didn't know, right. So I asked them.
I was like, I was like, so how did you know everybody?

(06:47):
Like, you know, 1000 in your class?
And then you know the whole school.
And he just laughed. He goes, dude know everybody in
the school. He goes, I didn't know everybody
in my class just like that. I I couldn't fathom.
Yeah, fathom that. Now the reverse is I can't
fathom 26 either. I mean, right?
26 is all. I mean, I, I know everybody.
I know everyone's siblings. I know everyone's parents.

(07:08):
I know what their parents do fora job like, you know what I
mean? You just know everything about
everybody. So it it is nuts.
Yeah. So tell me more.
As you said, the sophomore junior year kind of feels like
this important transition of like, yeah, I'm on the track
team now. It's like, oh, no, I'm I'm a
track athletes. Tell us more about this coach.
She came from Missouri. Yeah, yeah, she, yeah, she ran a

(07:29):
Mizzou. So we did a lot of more quality
based work. You know, we actually split into
event groups too, which sounds funny with that small of school,
but we actually like, hey, sprinters are doing this, Mids
is doing this and you know, a lot of small schools just like,
hey, we're all just going to do a workout together.
So we kind of split into things and really started to to work on

(07:50):
being a sprinter in a bumper andthings like that.
And it's kind of a late bloomer too.
So into that sophomore junior year started to get, you know,
just stronger in the weight roomtoo and things like that.
And you know, for me, one thing that really started to click is
district's my sophomore year, I was 20, so top 24 basically make
state top 2 auto and then the next 12 I was that 25th person

(08:10):
and it was like point O something I remember.
I mean that that hurt. I wanted it.
I was in the open one against two of my rivals who were
seniors and I wanted to beat them so bad and I almost got
them. I remember that I was like my
mindset really changed. I was like, this is something I
want to do. I don't want this feeling
anymore like I want to be a guy.So that I, I vividly remember
that and was like going back through, hey, all these reps and

(08:32):
practice that maybe I didn't go 100%.
Maybe I went back just trying toreally change that mindset.
And you know, I lean back on that a lot of like a really
changing point, not only in track, but other sports tools.
Like if I want to be good I got to go do it.
You know, I can't think of the word I want to use to describe
that. I can only think of the
opposite. You know, some athletes have

(08:53):
some entitlement. So when they when they miss out
by point O one or by one place, it's like, well, this isn't the
sport for me, like I'm better atfootballer, but you showed the
opposite of like that seems likea real like almost trigger point
of like, Oh, this ain't happening again.
Like whatever I can do to like it.
This kind of challenged you. 100% and that's something it's
just kind of how I was raised. My dad would like to hear that

(09:14):
he was he was hard on me. I remember, you know, coming
back from games, even even in middle school, like you know, he
would never no excuses. Like your performance is on you
and if you want to be good, you got to go do it.
And you know, if you lose, you got to look in the mirror, you
got to reflect and how you're going to get better.
No excuses. And that's really my favorite
thing about track is you can't have excuses.

(09:34):
It's on you. If you want to be good, you
better, you better have some good self reflection skills.
So you know, I always took that as a challenge.
And I really don't care if I'm playing darts or pool or golf or
anything in between. I want to win and it's just kind
of how I'm wired. So someone beats me.
I want to do whatever I can to beat them.
That's. Cool.
Do you remember coach's name? That sophomore?
Junior. Yeah.
Tommy Linhart. Yeah, yeah.

(09:56):
Tommy. Tommy yeah.
TO my E, yeah. Oh cool.
And she's Mizzou. That's awesome.
We, we love shout outs for othercoaches, so we'll keep that in
mind. Now.
Just the two years though, for for Coach Tommy.
Yes, yes. So into my senior year, she
actually had a kid like the weekbefore track started.
He wasn't able to coach, which hurt me.
You know, you get all the success with the coach.

(10:17):
And then we got another coach, Al Doble, who was actually one
of our assistant football coaches.
Still a great track coach, Much different philosophy on things.
Went from more, you know, Sprintbased focus to we're going to
run really hard, we're going to run a lot.
And I think that's and that's fine.
You know, everyone has a different philosophies and I
think that's the first time in my life that I really started to

(10:39):
think about training philosophies and how it's going
to affect me because I became more of a 204 hundred guy there
into my senior year. My two and four got way faster
than junior year. My 100 actually got slightly
slower. And I remember just thinking
why? And that to me might have really
kind of been a a turning point to of that more coach mind says
like that's, you know, you're a high school boy.

(10:59):
I'm just going to go work hard and do what my coach says now to
Hey, if we train this way, I getbetter at this.
If we train this way, I get better at this.
I can't remember which guest it was, forgive me, you know, after
300 episodes, but one guest thatwe had on, I distinctly remember
had a different coach, I think it was in college, but had a
different coach every year. And I was like, oh, right.

(11:19):
That's I was like, oh man, that's kind of stink, you know,
And you know, because I think wewould all say like, you know,
what are the questions we talk about with recruiting for
college coaches is like, you know, asking the college coach,
well, how long are you going to be here?
Like I, you know, and which is always a crazy question because
you know what they're always going to give you the answer of,
yeah, forever, you know, whatever.
But so I you know, I told the guest like, oh man, that that

(11:41):
stocks man. You know, you look back, you
probably would want the other. He goes, you know, maybe he
goes, but I got to see four different styles, which made me
start understanding like, oh, coaching is not just some kind
of science formula that that there is different ways.
And that led me to coaching. I wonder, you know, I think if
we went back with it said, Oh, Iwish coach Tommy would have
coached your senior year as well.

(12:02):
Like he would have said, yes, I want that.
But instead, I wonder if this unlocked this could sounds like
an unlocking for you of like, oh, wait a minute, Maybe there's
you know, there's something to this coaching gig.
Yeah, I think so, for sure. And you know, like it's
personality wise and training wise, like everything was, was a
lot different. And you know, as as a kid who
wants to has high goals and was hoping, you know, the coach he'd

(12:24):
had the last two years would coach him a senior year and
everything. Like I remember that like
playing like a big role psychologically for me.
And, you know, but I still trusted, I still trusted Coach
Doble. He coached me on other things,
you know, and I just had to buy into what he was doing.
And I definitely became a different runner throughout that
year for sure. Not in a bad way, just just

(12:45):
different. And I think that absolutely kind
of kind of sparked the the coaching, the coaching side of
me really thinking about philosophies and and different
things like that. As you are going through senior
year track season, so we start turning our eye to what college
am I going to go to and what am I going to major in.
Before I ask you about that stepthough, but as a senior, was

(13:06):
coaching as a profession at all in your mind at this point?
Kind of I wanted to go be a strength conditioning coach.
I didn't know if I really wantedto coach track.
I just knew I loved sports. I mean, if you see my senior
year, my favorite sport, I, I don't know if I would have been
able to answer you. I loved them all.
Whichever sport was in season, that's the one I like the most.
So like, how can I kind of be involved in all this?
So I thought, you know, maybe being a college strength

(13:28):
conditioning coach, being able to work with different teams,
that's kind of what I wanted to go do, but I didn't know
coaching track definitely was not something I thought I'd do
all right. I was always kind of a track
junkie. I love the numbers of it.
I was always on, you know, it used to be quick stats down to
varsity bound. I'm always looking at that, you
know, and who ran what each night.
So. Help us get some time frame
here. What year did you graduate high

(13:48):
school? 2016.
Oh dude, Chad Jesus, Oh my God, 2016 I.
Get that? Yeah, I get that.
Yeah. I mean, I knew you're young.
Look at, you know, you're young.But 2016 I started I started
Gill in 2006. Yeah.
So my my 10 year anniversary, I get my plaque and you're
graduating high school. That's where we're at in life.

(14:09):
Yeah, yeah, that's I love that. Thanks for that 2016.
Amazing What? OK, perfect.
I love that. I love that you're you know,
you're painting this picture. I can see this now.
You're just a you're a sports dude, man.
Oh, we're in basketball season. Love it.
Let's watch the playoffs. Let's make the playoffs.
Track season. Cool.
What about the Olympic? You know, football.
Awesome. I'm AI don't know what would you

(14:30):
what would you have been a fan of it in football?
What team? So actually I'm.
In high school. OK, All right.
Cool. Cool.
My mom's from Eugene, so that's kind of from Oregon.
So yeah, yeah. Kind of like that.
Yep. So like them and then pro team,
you know, it's weird. In Iowa, you get people who are
Vikings fans, Bears fans, Chiefsfans, a lot of Chiefs fans

(14:51):
around here. Yeah, have a pro team.
I just love watching football. That's what I was wondering cuz
we're similar in that we grew upin states where there is no pro
sports, right? There's no, there's no
basketball team in Iowa, right? And there's no baseball team,
you league team. That's it, Yeah, but no, no pro.
Same thing. Alabama.
No. So kind of the same thing.
People grew up Falcons fans or Saints fans or but no one, you

(15:15):
know, there's nothing. So we really hung on our high
school and college sports. That was our our big deal.
So yeah, OK, so I love that you're just a sports dude.
You're like, well, OK, well, what's multiple sports?
Strength and conditioning. Maybe that's what I'll do.
I love that. So, OK, so talk to us.
Where where did you end up going?
What did you major in and what were you thinking for?
For like what you'd become? Yeah.
So I end up going to Briarcliff Small College in Sioux City, me

(15:40):
and coach Nate trying and we getwe clicked right away through in
the recruiting process. So I mean, I committed there
probably April my senior year. Now you, you did a lot of
sports. Are we talking about when you
say committed for track? For track, yeah, for track.
So I didn't really get a ton of looks and other things, you
know, being a smaller school andI didn't really go to camps and
stuff like that. It's kind of tough to get the
name out there. I actually think track was

(16:01):
probably my third best sport in high school, but it's just
easier to get recruited from a small school.
I mean a. Football, Basketball.
Track. I think base, I think baseball
is my best. You you looked more like a
baseball player. It makes sense, yeah.
Yeah, baseball, football, track than basketball I think anyway.
But yeah, you know, recruiting track at times a time, you know,
you see the time, you can recruit the time.
Whereas you know I'm playing eight man football or you know

(16:24):
I'm playing it in this. Were you really playing eight
man? Eight man football.
Wow, dogs live, Yeah. Yeah, just say that's where the
dogs live. Dogs.
Live, yeah, Got to be an athletedown there in eight man
football. I got to do it all.
So what? You know I played eleven man.
I played normal non dog. I guess I don't know, right?
What do you what are the three positions you you remove?

(16:47):
So, OK, it kind of depends whichformation you come out and you
can do, you can do a lot of different things.
You still kind of have 5 people on the line of scrimmage, but
you can kind of do a little bit different formations.
Like you could come out in a conventional live formation and
just not have any wide receiversout there.
You could have 5 on the line quarterback, full back tailback.
OK, so it's not a standard like yeah, we we no more tackles.
There's no no. No, it just kind of depends.

(17:09):
You could come out and spread itout and you could have three
down lineman. You could have your wide
receivers out. You could have people in the
slots. Like, so that seems air quotes
here easy as an offense, meaning, you know, you get to
dictate what you're going to pull out there.
How do you adjust on that defensively then?
Like, you don't know if they're gonna come out with five
offensive lineman versus 3 versus receivers or no
receivers. It's nearly impossible, Yeah.

(17:31):
Most of the eight man scores you're gonna see is the 50 plus
on each side. Is that right?
Like, like arena league? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yes, exactly. It's an offensive game for sure.
That's why I like him so much. Yeah, Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's cool. That's cool.
I like that. All right, well, this is not a
football podcast, so we'll we'llkeep moving on.
So you get a briar Cliff. That's a great school.
Yeah. Very cool.
Yeah. How did you transition?
You know, maybe easier than someother track athletes.

(17:54):
I'm always interested when freshmen go to college, how you
handle the fall semester becauseyou've never had typically
you've not had a fall semester of training, but you you did,
you were in sports, but now it'sall track though.
So how did you handle that transition?
For me it was, it was weird doing track year round, to be
honest. I, I miss doing other stuff.
So me and a few other guys on the track team who happen to be
multi sport athletes, like some guys play football, what not, we

(18:15):
go out and just play catch and you know, I, I played some
intramurals, don't tell my coachwe're supposed to put some
intramural basketball in there and everything.
So it, it wasn't a super crazy adjustment since I kind of
stayed active with other things.I I mean, I kind of always
wanted to see what I could do ifI just focused on one thing.
So that was, it was fun. I mean, I liked being around a

(18:37):
bunch of track guys. I thought it was a good time.
And what did you go in as a major and because you might not
have come out with that same major?
Yeah. So I went in as kinesiology with
like exercise science. That's what I wanted to go do.
And then not down the road, but that's that's why I went for my
first two years. I liked it a lot.
You know, I learned a lot throughout those first two
years, but those anatomy classesgot a little tough.
So yeah, I bet. OK, we'll get back to academics

(19:00):
and find out what you finished with.
Talk to us about your experienceas a Briarcliff athlete and your
relationship with coach or coaches.
Yeah, yeah. So like I kind of talked about
earlier, Nate trying and he's he's really why I committed
there. He's a great guy.
We still talk to this day. He's the he's the head coach for
the girls at Bishop Heelan now they're in Sioux City.
So we still stay in contact, getto see each other like Drake

(19:21):
Relays and state and stuff like that.
So yeah, him and I clicked rightaway.
You know, he throughout the recruiting process, not only
talked to me about track, but would always ask like, Hey, you
got a basketball game last night.
How'd it go? I had football how you know, how
things like like that go and that went a long way for me.
So end up committing there. And the year before I committed
to Briarcliff. I mean, they were they were
fast. I mean, they had some some guys

(19:42):
going, you know, 41 low in the in the four by one or three
twelve in the 4 by 4. You know, for NAI, it's, it's
moved. So went there, had a really good
sign, had a had a good successful first two years.
Kind of caught the injury bug towards the end of my my college
career, which is also kind of how I went into kind of that
coaching coaching realm there. I was able to coach there my my

(20:05):
last year a little bit so. You know, I've met a lot of
great people and and wouldn't trade it for the world.
You know, it was, it was fun. How how was the style you
mentioned, you know, Coach Tommyand what she brought to the
table and the, you know, soundedsimilar as to, you know, almost
like a 180 for your senior year type of training.
What? What kind of training from Coach
Nate there at Briarcliff and howdid that come into the play

(20:28):
there? Yeah, I'd say it it kind of
resemble a lot of what I did in my senior year of high school.
There's a lot of speed endurancestuff.
It's a ton of that stuff, you know, which you know I was used
to. So, so you didn't like throw up
the red flag on senior year and be like, all right, I'm going to
do this because you're the coach.
But man, I I'm, I'm I like the speed stuff or whatever.
And then use that in recruiting as far as like, hey, so coach

(20:49):
Nate, what do you tell me some average weeks that you look like
you, you were more just like, I trust the coach.
Right, pretty much, yeah. I mean, I wasn't going to be I'm
not one to doubt a coach. I never really was.
I was like, I'm just going to godo it to the best of my ability
and kind of see what happens. I mean, you know, I I did see a
lot of success from the trainingmy senior year, same as I did in
my sophomore and junior year. And you know, coach Nate, he
tried to recruit me more as a 204 hundred guy.

(21:10):
So I thought going into the program like that, you know, it
made sense. I got a lot better, you know, at
200 and 400. My my top end speed endurance is
kind of what it was my best now at that point.
So yeah, I did ask him those questions like, hey, you know,
what's a week setup look like? And it was a lot of tough
workouts. You know, something about being
an 18 year old boy that that pride, that ego comes in.
It's like, I want to go do thosedifficult things.
Like I want to be a part of doing those difficult things,

(21:32):
you know, So that's kind of another reason why I picked
picked to go to Briarcliff. Yeah, and pause it real quick
because I am just, I'm a terrible interviewer and host.
How did I not ask you? You're in Iowa as a high school
or go back to high school here for a second.
You know, one of the great cultures of Iowa is the Drake
Relays. And I've heard that qualifying

(21:54):
for the Drake Relays in some instances is a bigger deal than
qualifying for the state meet, which is also at Drake Stadium,
by the way. Talk, talk to us.
How how did you interact? Did you get to go to Drake
Relays and stuff as a high schooler?
Yeah. So my my senior year, I was the
last spot in the hundred. I was 32nd I got in 1112 was the
cut off that year I was. Fast.

(22:15):
It was moving. Yeah.
Thank. I thank God for a little
tailwind that day I got in. And, you know, for a small one,
a kid going to Drake is like, I mean, that's that was awesome.
That was, you know, I'm looking to my left and right.
I'm seeing Urbandale, Waukee, IACity.
You know, it was, I remember it was one of my first times in
high school that I felt out of place.

(22:35):
I was like, oh boy. Interesting.
This is the this is the big leagues.
But no, I was able to make it mysenior year and I remember that
helping me so much that state mysenior year, like, hey, I've
been there, done that, like I'vebeen here.
I know the way of the land. I was able to relax and run.
So I did. I did make it in the 100 my
senior year, which was really cool.
And now it's super fun coaching and bringing kids up there now

(22:55):
too. It's super cool.
And I'm able to use that experience that I had
understanding what's probably going on in their heads
mentally, you know, being out ofschool and going up there and
hopefully help them out a littlebit with that.
What was that like walking in, you know, you mentioned seeing,
you know, Urbandale and Iowa City and all these kind of
schools and then like, you know,like there's people in the
stands like was were you nervous?
Were you? Is this another challenge

(23:17):
accepted or had a no? I, I was super nervous.
I was ready for the challenge, but I, I remember being nervous.
I remember trying to put my bib on, like couldn't get my bib.
And I was like, you know, my warm up stuff was off because
they walk you down so much before and I'm like, this is
just a different experience. Yeah.
And I do actually, I remember, Idon't know if he remembers this.

(23:37):
I was talking to Corby Sander. He was the only other one, a kid
who made it in the 100. I remember talking to him and we
kind of knew each other from state track and stuff.
And we were just kind of like, boy, I'm a little nervous.
I remember that kind of called my nerves a little bit.
I was like, OK, it's not just me, you know, But you know, went
and ran there. It was a fun experience.

(23:57):
It was really cool. I did not run very well,
probably because a little too nervous, probably a little too
hyped up. But yeah, it was fun.
It's a good time. And it's always amazing to me
the first time a kid qualifies for the state meat or a big meat
like Drake or a kid in college qualifies for nationals.
And it's like, man, you know, all the meats you've raced
before, you know, conference is a big deal, things like that.

(24:18):
Those are all extremely important, but those extra,
those state meat, national meats, Drake relay qualifiers,
those are it's just different. And how do you prepare for it?
How does a coach even prepare you for it?
You kind of just got to go in there and get nerves and either
fail or succeed and then realize, like, wait a minute,
these are all still humans. This is still a 400 meter track.
Like there's still a lot of the same things of every other meet

(24:39):
I've been too. So yeah, that's really
interesting. 100% it's almost just trial by fire.
You just gotta go let sink or swim and learn that.
That's right. That's right.
So did you when as your Briarcliff athlete, you guys
went to Drake as well? Yes, yeah, we went to Drake,
which was, I was super fun, you know, and a lot of my relays
were all Iowa preps. So going back to Drake with all

(24:59):
Iowa high school graduates, thatwas, it was always special for
us. It was super fun.
I remember my freshman year, I think we went 4 by 1, four by
two and then college Sprint medley, 202 hundred, 408
hundred, we ran that. I ran a 4x4 there as well, I
think my sophomore year too. So that was that was a lot of
fun. It's always fun to go back there
and and be able to run. You know, it's interesting with
Drake, my favorite meet in the whole world.

(25:21):
I, I don't, I've never heard a anegative.
What I mean by that is around the topic of like, Oh, it's the
same like, like, you know, you've heard of kids who, you
know, grew up in maybe they grewup in Des Moines and they don't
want to go to Drake because it's, you know, it's the home
school, hometown school. I want to go somewhere else, you
know, whatever, blah, blah, blah.

(25:42):
With Drake Relays. You know, these kids go to Drake
relays, then you, you know, go to the same place for the state
meet and then they go to Iowa schools and you still go to
Drake. Like I never hear anybody going,
you know what, I didn't want to go to Briarcliff because we went
to Drake and kind of done that. My whole high school.
Like everybody's like, I've heard of plenty people saying I
chose a school in Iowa or I chose a school because they are
a Drake school. Like they go to the Drake relay.

(26:03):
It seems like it's just like, I don't know, a black hole is not
a great cut. That's a negative.
But it's like this vortex just keep sucking people in.
And once you're in, it's like, no, I wanna keep going.
Yeah, 100% yeah. And I thought that was actually
a huge perk for me going to Briar Cliff, like you said,
wanted to go to a school that still went to the Drake Relays
and was able to go be successfulat the Drake Relays.
That was a really big draw. I don't even know if I can put

(26:25):
my finger on what it is about it, but there's just something
when you walk in the stadium that's just special.
And hearing Mike J's voice too. I mean, that's just, it's
electric every time. So I I could be there every
weekend and not get tired of it,I don't think.
It's a real special culture and it's, it's kind of like, I wish
I, I wish I could verbalize whatthe recipe is because I'd like

(26:46):
to recreate it. But man, it is, it's special.
You're right, it really is special.
And good friend Blake Bolden, Gil podcast guest.
The director of the Drake Relaysis doing a fantastic job, just
an amazing job there. So love what he's doing and what
his team and you know, it takes a lot of people to pull that
thing off. So they do an amazing job.
All right, let's get back to Briarcliff.

(27:07):
I was just thinking, I was like,man, how did I not bring up
great relax like Briarcliff. So first couple years you're
studying anatomy and Physiology,Physiology, things like that.
Running seems like it's going well, but then you kind of
somewhere around that second or third year an injury bug hit and
education change what what happened there?
Yeah, so I started kind of catching an injury bug.

(27:29):
Felt like if it wasn't one thing, it was the other thing.
And that was really new to me. I never had to really go through
that. I'm not really sure what it was.
Some some hip problems, some calf problems, just not one
thing is the other kind of powerthrough that?
The tail end of my sophomore year was able to make national
still, which was nice. But from there, like I won't
even lie, I kind of trickle, trickle downwards from there.

(27:50):
It's tough to hang on, but I then realized also at the end of
my sophomore year, maybe strength conditioning wasn't
something I wanted to do. I got pretty coached with my
close, with my strength conditioning coaches and their
hours were crazy. I was like, I don't know if I
want to do that. I wanted to go to grad school,
you know, things like that. But I knew I wanted to help
people. I knew I wanted to be involved
in people. And this is kind of when it

(28:11):
started. I'd be like, I kind of want to
coach in high school. So what can I do to get into the
high school realm? Coach something, coach a few
things and you know, again, backto that self reflection piece.
I know I'm not smart enough in any subject to teach a high
school class. Those high school are going to
be smarter than me. And so like, I'm not mad at
talking to people. What can I do?
So I was like, you know what, I'm going to go try to be a

(28:33):
school counselor. So started taking psychology
classes, majored in behavioral psychology those last few years
and and got my masters. Some people it it sounds like a
180, but. I was literally about to say,
dude this is a 180. That's exactly what I was going
to say. But like, I'm still able to help
people, I'm able to be around sports, and those are the two
things that kind of drive me. So it really kind of fits.

(28:54):
You know, you wouldn't think there's a lot of similarities
between a strength conditioning coach and a school counselor.
You probably picture 2 completely different people when
you think of that. But at the end of the day, I
think what makes them tick is things that are very similar.
It's like I want to help people be the best they can be.
Strength conditioning is just, Iwant to do it in the weight
room. I don't know, I just chose maybe
do it socially and academically,and I still do the sports stuff

(29:15):
on top of that. So it's kind of best of both
worlds for me, really. I don't believe we've had a
school counselor on the podcast before.
That's really interesting. So what does?
And we'll come back to Briarcliff the last couple years
and graduate and all that kind of stuff.
But like, so tell me, like if you were to tell me, I thought
you were going to say you ended up actually, I thought you were
going to say you were a PE teacher.
You ended up because you got a lot of.

(29:37):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, there's that joke
about, you know, the PE teacher talks to the kids and says, you
know, who's the smartest teacherin school?
And they're like, oh, you know, Mr. Blank, the math teacher, you
know, Miss Simmons, the the science teacher.
And he's like, note me because Iget to play kickball all day and
I make the same amount of money that they do.
Our PE teacher says it every. Time.

(29:58):
I'm pretty sure I'd tell that every day too if I was a PE
teacher. But what?
So tell me what? Tell us what a school counselor
does. Yeah, so I mean, honestly, the,
the biggest piece of my job is just talking to students, you
know, helping students who maybearen't, aren't showing up to
school or struggling with gradesand things like that.
And you know, another big perk of my job is I'm able to talk

(30:19):
with our our athletes a lot too.And I'm able to kind of help
them through recruiting processes and things like that.
So, you know, I think it helps me with with track stuff too.
I mean, I get to pull kids in and just kind of see where
they're at mentally, physically,kind of how you doing that way
it kind of doesn't cut into practice time too much.
So I said that's a big piece of my job was just kind of working
with more at risk. But then I also get to just kind

(30:40):
of talk with kids all day prettymuch.
So it it works out pretty well, yeah.
Well, you hit the nail on the head.
You know what, you know, almost to 100%, every person who
becomes a track coach says, you know, I wanted to help people
that I didn't know. You know, some people early on
don't know that they want to be a track coach, but they're just
like, you know, I just wanted tohelp people and they gravitate
towards coaching and school counseling and teaching and

(31:03):
things like that. That's really cool.
All right, we'll get back into that.
So let's jump back again to Briarcliff injury.
But and you know, injuries are it's really interesting the way
you're describing that, you know, just kind of one thing or
another and you never had it before.
You know, when I look at athletes, you know, at the
highest level, you know, the guys and gals that are winning
gold medals at the Olympics and things like that, I literally

(31:24):
like, just look at them like, you know how lucky you got, like
injury could have derailed you. And plenty of people have been
derailed because of injury and done and tried everything in the
world to prevent them, recover from them.
It's like, you know, look at Usain Bolt.
I'm like, wow, you escaped getting hurt.
Yeah, that's how you were. That's one of the big pieces of
the puzzle that helped you go onto set world records and gold

(31:44):
medals and stuff. So it can be definitely
frustrating. And it sounds like it got so
frustrating for you that eventually it kind of took you
off the track as an athlete. Yeah, yeah, I did.
And it was it was weird. I I was kind of hurt all
sophomore year, but still kind of had that mindset of where
like use power through it, you know, it'll go away type of
thing. You know, that's kind of how it

(32:05):
kind of how it was in high school.
So I just kind of kept that samething and then it lingered for
over a year and then finally started athletic trainers and
stuff and try to run through it my junior year and just just
couldn't, couldn't get it done. So it did kind of help me
transition into that coaching role though, where I was able
to, you know, my senior year, they honor my scholarship and

(32:25):
everything is like, hey, we could have you on kind of help
out coaching. And I was able to, you know, you
know, kick the brains of some college coaches, which was
great. Coach Jordan Mullen, I'm not
sure if you know him, he's the head coach at Ankeny now doing a
lot of lot of really good thingsthere.
Ran up. He was a hurdler at Iowa.
He was the sprint's coach of Briarcliff there my senior year.
So it kind of helped me form that relationship with him and I

(32:46):
learned a lot of things from him.
So it worked out just fine. Obviously it's frustrating that
I wasn't able to run, but it ended up working out pretty well
I think. How did that work out?
And what I mean by that is, you know, I think it should be a
rule that if you're going to be Aga, you cannot GA at the same
place you undergrad. I just I find it impossible

(33:06):
that, you know, Chad, the quarter Miller on Friday is, you
know, down with the boys. We're playing Xbox, whatever,
blah, blah, blah. And then Monday I'm Aga, I'm
coach blank because there has tobe a separation.
You know, I just there's no way that that happens properly in in
the works. Here you are as an undergrad.
How did you, you know, one day you're you're Chad, the teammate

(33:30):
who's struggling with injuries. But boy, he look at that's our
leader. He look, he's still working out
and doing hard. And the next day it's like I,
well, I'm coach blank today, guy.
I'm not going to line up with you.
I'm going to time your repeats or whatnot.
Right. The way I would describe it, it
was more of kind of like a olderbrother type relationship rather
than like a coach relationship. It's like, hey, we can mess

(33:50):
around, we're still friends. But bottom line, when like we
got to work, we got to work. And that's kind of how it was
anyway before that. I mean, that's kind of how we
were as a team. So the transition wasn't too
bad. And then, you know, also having
the other coaches around too it,it kind of helped out, helped
out a lot. But we had a really good group
that year. Unfortunately, COVID cut that
year short, but we had a really,really good crew.

(34:12):
Actually had a future Olympian on that crew, Ben Jeffries, who
who was on the Great Britain Olympic team for the open four.
Wow, yeah, so we we had a squad that year.
It was really exciting to kind of help help with that a little
bit. But yeah, the transition wasn't
wasn't too bad as much like, heyguys, this is kind of what I'm
going to be doing now. And they're like, all right,
that's fine. So.

(34:33):
What, what about the transition for you?
You know, we've explored this many times on the podcast where,
you know, as an athlete, it's a very selfish pursuit.
That's not a negative thing. But you know, you're, you're,
you're listening to coach. What does coach tell me, You
know, how to eat, how to train, how to rest and OK, how do I put
that in my body so that I can run faster or jump farther?
That's a, it's very selfish. Like I'm listening.

(34:53):
How does it improve me? Coaching is literally the
opposite. It's all this information I'm
taking in on how to improve myself as a coach and things
like that. What workouts and now it's going
through me to my athletes. So it's a very outward how did
how did the coaches help? How did you, you know, mentally
go from OK, I want to be the best quarter miler I can to OK,

(35:13):
now I got to help my teammates and and I know you kind of
already had that because you explained like, you know, that's
kind of my role as an athlete, But now it's it's completely on
that side. There is no running a Rep with
me. There is no kind of know me to
be your anchor at the meet this weekend.
I can only tell you what to do and help you while you're doing
it. Right.
It was, it was an adjustment forme mentally to be honest,
because I wanted my teammates todo the best, but to be honest, I

(35:35):
wanted to beat them every time, you know, and that's kind of the
track mind says like, Hey, I want you guys to be awesome
because at the end of the day, we're A-Team.
But I want, I want to beat you, you know, so just that
competitive mind and then transitioning that into the
coaching size, like I've got to put that part of my mind.
It's got to be gone. I cannot bring that into
practice. Like they are like you want them
to be as good as they possibly can.

(35:56):
Like if they beat your PRS, celebrate that, you know, things
like that. So that, that was the biggest
adjustment for me, I think is trying to turn that side of my
brain off a little like, hey, they're having success.
I need to be, I need to be happyfor them.
Not that I wouldn't have been when I was an athlete either,
but you know. It's it's different.
It's different 100%. Yeah, it's different.
So that was a big adjustment forme, but it was nice to be able

(36:19):
to go through that then that way, you know now and I'm
coaching. That's just kind of just how it
is. Did you ever, did it ever bite
you in the butt? Did you ever remember a time
where you're, you know, you're trying to be Coach Blank, you're
trying to transition there and you know, one of the, one of the
guys smarted off to you because,you know, we're boys and it's
like, no, Dang it, we're trying to nail anything.

(36:41):
You can remember where there's like, Oh yeah, there's some
things I, I conflict I had to get over.
Oh, nothing that really rose up too much.
Yeah. But you know, as a Sprint squad,
and you know this from coaching,there's there's a lot of egos on
a Sprint squad and there is and there's nothing that rose up too
much. But there definitely was maybe a
little bit of, I don't want to call it maybe animosity, but

(37:03):
there was there was some stuff there that some of the kids
maybe didn't like being told by me.
I was I was their teammate a fewweeks ago.
Now I'm trying to tell them whatto do.
But that's when, you know, CoachMullen would kind of come in.
He could he read that really well.
He understood that too. So, but that was that was that
was kind of a difficult transition going into that.
You know, we, we, we all respected each other at the end

(37:26):
of the day. But there is some underlying,
you know, sprinters like to compete, sprinters have an ego
and sprinters want to be the best.
So it's tough to juggle that sometimes. 100% we focus on the
coaching side of this, that equation, but an equation has
two sides. So absolutely that, you know,
there's an athlete side of like,what are you talking about,
dude? You know, we were just arguing
over what Madden team to play and now you're telling me to run

(37:47):
another quarter. Yeah, you, who are you?
Give me coach, give me that. Give me my real coach, right?
You know what, you might have heard that or felt that at
times. So I and I, and I have a lot of
empathy for that. Again, 100%.
It's hard to go from, you know, again, your homeboy to your
coach. That's why I think it should be,
you know, I had to say illegal. But the GA should not be able to
do that. And I, I think if you're going

(38:08):
to do it as an undergrad, boy, there better be some major
protections for for all because they could go South.
Really. Oh yeah. 100 percent, 100%.
Do you tell us talk to us about the feeling, though, when you
know it's one thing to run APR. That's again a very personal
selfish thing of like, man, I ran the fastest I've ever run

(38:29):
and now be happier for other people that they run PRS.
How did do you remember kind of that feeling of like, oh, man, I
I think I'm like, how about thisis probably gonna be a better
way to ask it. Do you remember a time during
this period that you kind of thought like, I am Coach Blank?
I'm not Chad, the former teammate, Like I'm Coach Blank.

(38:49):
I really helped someone. Yeah.
So I actually that's a good question.
I do remember that it was indoor, indoor conference meet.
We finally were able to stack upa 4 by 4.
And that's something I was striving for to be on kind of
even that senior year. So for them to actually stack it
up, it was kind of mixed emotions for me.
That was one of those times I'm kind of referring.
I'm supposed to be on that. Exactly like I had to suppress

(39:10):
that. And I remember the kid, one of
the kids that was on there, he was, he is a nervous Nelly.
He was probably our our 4th bestguy on there.
He was a nervous Nelly. And I remember just bringing him
over and kind of talking him through it.
And he ran a, he ran a great leg.
They qualified for nationals that day and everything.
I kind of remember that being kind of like a turning point is
like, OK, I can't do this. I have their respect.

(39:30):
Like if I just kind of shut off that selfish side of my brain
and just help like things are going to go really well.
So I, I remember that and remember the team being super
excited, hugging after a great time.
And that's kind of when it, whenit clicked for me is like, all
right, I think I can do this. I I think I'll be all right.
You know, what strikes me about that?
First of all, it was a good question, right?

(39:51):
Because it's it's kind of the the first seed that's planted or
the first growth that comes fromthe seed of coaching.
But what's interesting to me, the real thing to point out to
that is you. We've been having more and more
discussions on the podcast aboutand through Twitter as well
about, you know, coaching the XSand OS might actually be the
easy part and, you know, air quotes there.

(40:12):
But the easy part and it's all the other stuff, the coaching.
The people, the personalities, egos, all this other
amalgamation of stuff, leadership, character,
character, your character, your athletes, characters, etcetera.
And so when I asked you that question, you didn't answer.
Oh yeah. You know, I remember coach, let

(40:32):
me create the workout for one. And boy, they nailed it.
Like, Oh yeah, see, I can, I know how to help the quarter
mileage get back. You didn't mention an X's and
O's example. It was 01 of the kids was
nervous and I got to kind of just put my arms around them,
walk off and and talk, talk themoff the ledge, if you will.
And then they, and then that, that helped the kid.
They ran well. And your response to that was

(40:55):
like, oh, wait a minute. Maybe like you, you kind of
recognize it. It's easier for us to say like,
oh, you're a Sprint guru, so youknow how to train quarter milers
in 100m. And in reality, it's like, Oh
yeah, you're a coach because youknow how to help people.
Right. Yeah.
And that's a huge piece of it. I mean, especially, I mean,
coaching high schoolers, you never know what's going on,

(41:17):
what's going on at home, what's going on mentally when they show
up to practice, like you're trying to get them locked in
for, hey, this is what we're doing right now.
If you do it at 100%, things aregoing to go just fine.
I love that example. I, I think it just keeps
emboldening this thought process.
We keep exploring on Twitter and, and the social media in the
podcast about, you know, the XS and OS might be the easy part.

(41:38):
It's all the other stuff. And so that that's kind of been
my mission, passion, encouragement for like track
clinics when you go there, it used to be not that long ago, 90
to 95% of the topics would be how to jump farther, how to
throw farther, how to run faster, all this kind of stuff.
It's getting maybe around 802075257030 where we're getting
more culture, team building, mental side, you know, those

(42:02):
kind of things, which I think islike I said, I think we're
learning that that might be the the bigger part and the harder
part. How do you, how do you, how do
you what, what class do you takethat says, hey, how to identify
that this kids nervous what to say and how to say it away from
the gang? You know, I don't know that
there's a class for that. So it's an amalgamation of a lot

(42:23):
of a lot of things, including empathy there.
So OK, cool. I love that.
Thank you for sharing that story.
That was, I love that that was, that was really good.
It's a great example for our coaches to hear that it wasn't
you didn't, you didn't tell themto fall back on your block
starts that you worked on. You didn't talk about, you know,
the lactic threshold workout we did is like, oh man, you know,
let's let's talk about you're, you're prepared, you know, it's
all the other stuff. That's awesome.

(42:44):
So you go through this senior year like an undergraduate
assistant coach kind of position.
You end up graduating with not sports like what did you end up
counseling? What was your actual degree?
I had a, what was it psychology degree.
OK. Yeah.
And you know, normally I believeif you're going to become a

(43:06):
psychologist or psychiatrist, like it's a sure you get your
undergrad in psychology, but youhave to go to grad school.
Is this same for a school? Did you have to go to grad?
School, same thing. Yep, Yep.
I actually did it online throughBuena Vista.
Got my master school counseling.So yeah, I got up in 2022 and
while I was doing that I was coaching, coaching here.
So worked out pretty well. Cool.
And so when you say here, Clarinda?

(43:27):
Yes, Yep, in Clarinda. Yeah, this is.
It's my first gig. Yeah.
So, so you you graduate your undergrad, you go back home,
you're helping a coach and taking your online master's
class. And then so I mean, we know
you're Clinton now. So you graduated and did you get
a counselor job like right off the bat?
So I I worked for while I was getting my master's, I was head

(43:48):
boys coach then just boys. We went Co a little later on but
then I was working for the AEA as a was a school based
interventionist, so as basicallybeing a school counselor in
Clarinda but through the AEA. And then what?
What's? I'm sorry, what's?
AEA area education agency. So it's just like an Iowa thing
where they have different area education agencies where like,

(44:10):
OK, I work for the AEA, but theylike place people in schools
like, hey, this school might need this support.
So if you go to that school, yeah.
And then it kind of worked out nice where one of our counselors
was kind of stepping into into another position right when I
got my master's. And then I just kind of filled
that role. Worked out really well, kind of

(44:31):
crazy. So yeah, they've been doing
that, been doing that since. Yeah, that doesn't happen.
I mean, wow, no. For me to.
Especially. Coach and all that.
It's crazy. And especially small town, small
school. I mean, there's just, you know,
less people, less turnover, you know, Wow, dude, you you lucky
that's I'm learning. Just lucky, dude.
I got, I got, I got. Really.

(44:52):
Lucky with this rule, I mean, I the head track job, being able
to get that right out of collegewas awesome and then right when
my masters is done, being able to get exactly what I want to go
into it was crazy. It was it was nuts how it
worked, but dude, I'm blessed yeah, blessed with that.
Count your blessings. Absolutely so.
So you've been the head coach there.
Now you said that was in 22. So this is your third year.

(45:13):
Well, I I got the head coach. Job right after undergrad so
this is Year 5 for me. With boys this is year 3 as the
Co Ed boys and girls said got it.
So how have? You evolved in those five years.
You know, it kind of started sixyears, right, in your senior
year of college. But how, you know, when you look
back in, you know, you can't do the, you know, well, I've had so

(45:36):
many years of, you know, you've had 5-6 years.
You're a pup. You're, you're, you know, if we
use a race analogy, you're barely in the blocks of this
race, right? But you have evolved hopefully.
Let me say it this way. I hope you've evolved.
You're not the same coach today as you were five years ago.
What do you when you kind of look in the mirror, what do you
see how you've changed in a positive light over these five
years? Yeah, I I hate to kind of use

(45:58):
something. We already talked about, but I
think I've I've evolved more andI'm trying to cultivate more
leadership in being a good person over anything else and
work ethic and different things like that.
I think my first few years I wasso dove into, OK, our sprinters
have to be doing XY and Z. This is the program.
Like they just need to do this. Our minutes to be doing this
distance needs to be doing this right now.

(46:18):
It's more of OK, this is how we need to act.
This is how we need to treat each other.
This is the work ethic we need. I need these people to be
leaders. And hey, this is how a leader
acts all the time. And this is what leaders do.
Trying to cultivate that a lot more so.
And I think this is common. You're you're, I hate to tell
you that you're average, meaningyou're common like this is.
And it's a good thing. You said when you first started,

(46:42):
you were more and more, you know, our spinners got to do
this and you know, so XS and OS and then you said, and then I
kind of realized like, oh, you know, there the the other side
of it, we got to come up with a good name.
So we have XS and OS for like the, you know, the work outside.
I need something more than just culture for the rest.
I got to come up with something there, but you realize that.
So how did you realize that? And then maybe you as

(47:03):
importantly, what did you do? Meaning did you go to a clinic
topic that was about culture? Did you, you know, fall back to
your undergrads, a class or a teacher like, you know, you
recognized it, which that's that's the Super hard part.
But then how did you, what did you do to OK, now let's evolve
that way. I think what really clicked for

(47:23):
me. Is our performance at big meets
was not very good and I kind of rolled back to OK why let's talk
about why and I thought it kind of came down to our mindset and
we didn't we we didn't have enough leaders on the team to
really take people under their wing in the moment maybe got too
big I'm a firm believer like hold on right there that's good

(47:45):
I love this we're. Going to keep double clicking in
here because this is this is gold.
This is the this is what people listen to the podcast for right
here. This is excellent.
OK, I love that you you had to find what what's the problem?
Oh, we're not performing as wellat the big meets now.
You, you still can have a decision tree there.
It's like, OK, well, that's because I'm not training them
hard enough That that that that I could hear someone saying

(48:07):
that, right. And you took the other path.
I love that. What?
You weren't doing it before? So that means you either didn't
see the importance of it or didn't have the knowledge or
didn't have the awareness of it,right?
So talk to us about what did that mean?
So what did you change, right. It kind of came back.

(48:28):
You know, my mindset as an athlete was I'm always going to
perform at the best I can. I'm going to go compete.
It kind of started clicking the more I got to know some of the
kids. That's not always their mindset.
They get around some people and they're like, oh, they're just
better than me. I'm just going to kind of go
through the motions. I'm going to lose anyway type of
mindset or, you know, different things like that.
And I was like, OK, we've got towe've got to break that.

(48:50):
We've got to break that because we can't be a great team in
April and be average in May. Like we've got to, you know,
everyone remembers May, like youlook like years, like, Hey, how
do we do a conference, district,state, you know, so those are
the meets we're always striving for.
OK, how can we do that? Because we can't PR and break
school records the last week of April.
Now all of a sudden we're slow the next three weeks.
Like what really happened to me?I was like, it has to be

(49:13):
something mentality wise. So we've got a we've got a kind
of change. We we need leaders.
We need to change this mindset. We found a lot more success
since then, not just in May, butjust overall too.
So, and it's honestly made my job a lot easier as a head
coach. I rarely have to yell at kids
anymore. I rarely have to hold them
accountable because it's very athlete LED.

(49:33):
Like they know the expectations.If they see their teammates
aren't doing that, they're goingto hold them accountable.
You know, this is a track coach.When you got 80 kids out of me,
you can't keep an eye on all of them.
You need you need leaders withinthe team.
And I feel like that's been a really, really big piece for us
here these last few years. So what are some?
Give us some like? Tactical, what did you do?
Did you start naming captains? Did you start holding?

(49:55):
Did you start doing ropes courses to you know, please tell
me you didn't do that. But you know, what are some
like, OK, what did you change toactually build this Leisure
Great example you gave us there about, you know, you got 80 kids
and I don't care how many coaches you have.
Some of us are blessed to have alot of coaches.
Most of us are blessed to not have a lot of coaches.

(50:16):
There's a lot of time where they're on their own.
And so are they being productiveparts of the team or are they
being their individual selves? That's not productive for the
team because they don't have coached watching over them.
So what are some things that youdid that you changed when that
awareness came? Yeah, so it it.
Actually kind of goes back, I saw this Mike Tomlin quote like
3 years ago that don't, don't run from coaching, you're coach

(50:38):
for a reason. And he gave an example.
He was like some coaches say, well this kid just can't do
this. Well, this kid just can't do
this. He's like that's, that's running
away from coaching. So I was like, OK, in my head I
have said many times, well this kid just isn't a leader.
Well this kid just can't do this.
And I was like, man, I gotta, I gotta, I gotta be better.
So instead of saying that, I realized maybe these kids just

(51:00):
don't know how to be a leader. They don't know how to do this.
So it's again, advantage for me being a school counselor.
I can pull these kids in and we can go through situations.
We can talk about this stuff. It's like, hey, saw this
yesterday at practice. I think we should do XYZ instead
of that. Like I think you would get a
better response, you know, because sometimes kids would try

(51:21):
to be leaders and it wouldn't bewell received And the kids are
like, well, I'm not going to be a leader.
Then if that's how it's received, It's like, well, did
you go about it the way you should have, right, instead of
just giving up? That's work to be better at
this. So just kind of teaching them
like, what is leadership? What is what is that?
What is that like, you know, and, and kind of going from
there. Last week we had.
Colin Hunter from Byron Center up in Michigan and we talked a

(51:47):
lot about how young kids are easily dismissed by adults and
what you just said there about like, oh, they're not a leader.
Oh, they're not that. I think that happens to young
kids from air quotes, every adult out there.
I think sometimes their parents are telling them that.
I think sometimes they're teachers, sometimes they're

(52:09):
youth, their minister, you know,I, I think we, it's easy for us
to dismiss young people because they're young people.
And so you had, I love, I mean, first of all, bravo to you for
having that awareness. Like, oh, wait a minute, I got
to stop doing that. You know, I am, you're working
with a very precious age group, 14 to 18.

(52:31):
Even our 18 to 22 year old college coaches don't think, I
mean, they're, I know they look like grown men and women.
They're still kids. What do they say?
The brain isn't fully formed into like 25 on average.
So yeah, they're still pups. Remember, the easiest way to do
this is remember when you were 21, you, you had it all
together. No, no.
So you're dealing with this 14 to 18 year old age group where,

(52:53):
you know, a lot of people are, you know, all they want to do
is, you know, play video games. All they want to do is scroll on
their phones. Oh, they don't.
We don't have the same leadership.
When I was a kid, you know, all this kind of stuff.
And you had that same mentality in parts, right?
And then you were able to like, wait a minute, hold on.
I loved it. I, I wrote down that quote.
Don't run away from coaching. It's easy to say that and just
dismiss it. But OK, if if you recognize

(53:14):
that, well, you coach, go be that.
My favorite quote is from Bouchexnater, another Gale
Podcast alum who said you coach beat a coach, meaning.
Yeah, I, I think it was, I thinkit was almost the exact same
quotes there of like, all right,well, that person's not a very
good leader. What are you going to do about
it? Oh, that person's not a very
good sprinter. I mean, like, you can easily see

(53:35):
that, right? If I were to say the kids not a
very good sprinter, it's like, oh, well, I'm a coach, I'll go
make them faster. OK.
Well, you're a leader. You're a coach, You're a
teacher. You're a an adult.
You're an adult. They're bottom line right there.
You're an adult for this kid. They're not very good leaders.
What are you going to do about it?
Right. And you decided, well, I'm going
to do something about it, right,100% and.
I'm almost disappointed in myself for, for running from

(53:55):
coaching for, for a while and sell those things, you know,
Wait, OK, I, I again appreciate that.
Honesty, and I'm sorry to butt in here, I appreciate that, but
it's almost the exact same thingwe were just talking about, but
in a different level for you, unless you died not being able
to understand. Oh, these are kids and I should
be teaching them. You got to learn it at some

(54:17):
point too. And so whether you learn it as
a, you know, maybe some kids learn at 18 years old, if like,
wow, I can be a leader for otherpeople.
If I see someone struggling, well, what am I going to do
about it? I'm helping.
Some of us don't learn until 2030.
Forty, 50-60 years old. So thank God you learned this as
a 25 ish year old person, you know, not a 45.
Like you're ahead of the game. So that's so.
So give yourself some grace, I guess is what I'm saying there.

(54:37):
I appreciate that. Yeah.
Yeah. Well, I appreciate that.
For sure. And like I said, you know,
we've, we've seen a lot more success since kind of trying to
take this mindset. And I don't think we're, no
offense to the team we have right now, we're not as skilled,
we're not the most skilled team we've had, but we've shown the
most improvement and we've broke3 school records already this
year. And you know, I just feel like
it goes a long way. It goes a lot longer than a lot

(54:57):
of people think. So are you?
Are you doing anything? Kind of cool and you may not
even think it's cool or unique, you know, because you do it
everyday. So it may be just like that's
just what we do, but help us. Somebody's listening right now
going wait, Chad, wait, I'm in this, I'm in this right now.
This is where I'm at. Do you pick captains a unique
way? And when I say unique, you may

(55:17):
not think it's unique. So talk to us about what are you
doing to be the coach and help these guys and gals with
leadership and ownership of their team?
Yeah, so the first thing I talked.
To him about is you got to lead by example before anything else.
You no one will listen to a hypocrite.
You can't be doing XYZ and, and try to tell people to, to do it
a different way. And we, we don't, we don't pick

(55:40):
captains. I'm a big believer the kids are
going to just gravitationally gotowards those leaders.
You will know who the the captains are without having to
have to see on their chest. I'm, I'm a firm believer of
that. So the biggest?
Thing lead by. Example and get to know your
teammates like we're also not going to listen to if you don't
have that relationship built with them.
So I think if you do those two things, you lead by example,

(56:01):
you're doing the right things, you're working hard, you're
being nice to people, you're getting to know people.
I think I think things kind of take care of themselves.
And you know, also we talk a lotabout mindset.
It's like a bad, a bad mindset'scontagious.
So is a good mindset. So you're attacking these
difficult things everyone else is going to, But if the fastest
person on our team is has an awful mindset, we're in trouble

(56:22):
because that's going to trickle down to everybody.
So having that mindset, being respectful, working hard, doing
those little things, getting to know your teammates, little
things go a long way. Any books or?
Articles or podcasts that you like?
Do you have a book club or anything like that or?
No? No, I thought about a book.
Club there's a few books and they're kind of cliche books.
Chop Wood, Carry Water is a goodone.

(56:44):
The subtle art of not giving up.That's a really.
Good one too, because I feel. Like kids try to kind of put on
a facade that they don't really care what people think, but they
they care what. People think so.
A few of those things and you know, worrying about what other
people think about you all the time.
Do the right thing and things are gonna be okay.
Can you imagine? Maybe you had this in your life.
I know I certainly had where I thought that right?

(57:07):
I didn't want to look foolish infront of people or I wanted to
fit into some crowd. And so I acted how I thought
they wanted me to act. And I don't really remember.
It was, I'm old now, so it was acouple decades ago.
But I remember where I was just like, you know what, I don't
care anyway. It was almost like, it almost
sounds negative. I almost like it just stopped
caring. That's like, I just don't care
anymore. If you don't like me for who I

(57:29):
am, I don't give a right. Exactly.
And it's like, well, someone's got to like, like, you know,
there's 8 billion or whatever people on the plane.
Like someone's got to like me, right?
And I remember as I started kindof like understanding that that
new feeling of like just being myself of like how freeing it
was like, oh, I don't have to act like this.

(57:50):
I don't have to the fake this over here.
And I know, you know, again, you're dealing with 14 to 18
year old kids, right, bro? I mean, you talk about clicks
and what's cool and not cool andall this kind of stuff.
So I think it's even harder for them.
But man, if they could just see who they are, look in the mirror
and like, OK, that's who I really am.
Life gets so much better. It gets way.

(58:13):
Better and you can just start focusing on you and doing what
is right instead of what other people want all the time.
Like a little bit more stress free.
Yeah, for sure. I think it's big.
I think it's really big. I love it.
Well. Chad, I love when I have my high
school coaches here because I love I just have like all these
like curious as the as an old man through social media, like I

(58:35):
see all these, you know, arguments and discussions
happening. And so I'm always like, you
know, it's great to have these. And that's what I'm a big
believer. I'm a huge advocate of social
media. I think it is AI think it can be
a positive thing. And I don't think the things
that we blame it on are strictlysocial media.
I think their life. So, you know, and then you can
either run from it or you can bethe light in that.

(58:56):
So I was like with our high school coaches, you know, your
boots on the ground, man, you'rein the as a counselor.
Jeez, you are literally in the mix of what 14 to 18 year old
kids are doing. So I've got just like AI don't
know. I've got a litany of questions.
I just kind of want to pepper you.
But before I do that, anything else that we should have talked
about here, you know, up to 2025there at at Clarinda, anything

(59:18):
that you're doing unique or you want to make sure?
Yeah, I mean, I wanted to share this story.
I just want to make sure we we don't miss anything there.
No, man, I think we've done a pretty.
Decent job covering, covering a good a good amount of it.
I don't know, I'm not too unique.
I guess I just kind of yeah, you, you know, that isn't,
isn't. Isn't that the reality though?
I, I mean, I know and this isn'ta 2025 thing.
This was the same in 1985 and 1995 and things like that.

(59:41):
But you know, we all, and I hateto blame media, but you know,
the things that we consume tell us that we want, you know, we're
special and you're unique and all that.
And it's like, you know, at the end of the day, we're all quite
average. And I'm sorry, yeah, there's
things that you can be unique in.
But overall we're, you know, we're dudes and dudettes that
are trying to live a life. And hopefully, you know, the

(01:00:02):
majority of us are, you know, realize that the positivity is,
is being with a group and, you know, being good to people and
not shutting people away for various stupid reasons and
things like that. So.
So it's kind of weird to say like, hey, you know, sorry.
The good news is you are average.
You know, if you if you weren't,it's like what's wrong with you
actually, you know, if you're not average.
So for sure, I think it's I think it's a positive thing to

(01:00:23):
say there, Chad. OK, man.
So you are in. Is the senior class at Clarinda
still around 26 or has it grown?So I didn't graduate from
Clarind. I graduate from a small town
West of here. Oh, I had Clarinda in my head.
Oh, that's all right, Yeah. But Clarinda's about 80, about
80 kids. OK, Yeah, OK.
I had because. I we started by asking where

(01:00:44):
Clarinda was. So I just in my head, yeah,
sorry about that. Yeah, no, all good, but you're
in the. Neighborhood, though, yeah.
Close 30 miles. East of where I grew up.
OK, because I. Was going to ask because, see, I
thought you went back to Clarinda as you graduated there
when the Briarcliff came back. And so I was gonna ask, like, do
you work with some of the teachers that taught you, but
you were in a totally different school.

(01:01:04):
Yeah. Yeah.
All right. I'm caught up now, Jen.
All good, all good. Talk to me.
About. 1418 year old kids, you were in the muck of it and all
we hear. It's easy for us to hear through
social media and the news and all that stuff about just how
lazy this group is, how for athletes, how D1 or bust, no

(01:01:25):
matter how good or not good theyare, you know, probably most of
them are average, right? You know, we hear all this, you
know, they, they don't talk to each other.
There's, you know, they're only,you know, Instagramming and
TikTok in and all this stuff. What's your experience when
you're working with this, this age group?
Yeah, I I try not to. Fall into the trap of just
generations just like this you know we we're the ones that are

(01:01:48):
kind of teaching them so if anything it kind of falls back
on on us if 200% when someone. My age complaints about young
people I'm like, but you're their dad, but you're their mom
like who are they They get it from then you're the parent.
Don't run away from parenting. How about that?
Exactly that. There we go.
Let's put that on a. Shirt Yeah, that would be very
helpful, but no, I mean, this group they're very social media

(01:02:10):
driven. That's that's kind of I mean
that's how it's probably going to continue to go, you know, and
I can even see it from the time I graduated to now.
It's a it's a lot bigger piece even from from 2016 from when I
was. Did you have a cell phone in
high school? Yeah, I got my.
I think I got my first. Smartphone my sophomore year of
high school, that's when it kindof started to become a thing.
So yeah, so. But now everyone does, man,

(01:02:31):
everyone. But.
But did you have a lot of socialmedia?
With that smartphone, not really.
I think I have Facebook. I think that was it.
I was gonna say they went much right.
Yeah. I'm not, you know, I'm not
posting anything crazy. On Facebook, my grandma's on
there, you know, I can't, I can't, I can't do anything too
nuts, you know? But yeah, this generation, I
mean, I don't fall into the lazything at all.
I think they work really hard. I think they work just as hard

(01:02:53):
as the kids were when I was in high school.
Do you think they're a little bit more loose than kids were
when I was in high school? There's like a a lot less, they
don't get as embarrassed as I think kids used to.
And I think that maybe as you doto social media and all, like
the tick dances and things like that.
I feel like if I did that in high school, I think my friends
would have maybe just beat the crap out of me, to be honest.

(01:03:15):
But now it's like a cool thing, so whatever.
But yeah, but yeah, they, they, I think they're fairly the same
as that used to be even 10 yearsago when I was in high school,
to be honest. They have access to.
So much more just like we do as adults have access to so much
more information. Meaning that it's so easy right

(01:03:35):
now to go on TikTok, YouTube Shorts, etc, and research
quarter mile or training or 100mtraining.
Do you see, do you get challenged more?
And maybe it's not necessarily challenge, but even just
questions of like, hey, how comewe're doing this?
Or hey, I saw this. Heck, they can go see what their
rivals are doing. Someone from Des Moines

(01:03:56):
Roosevelt is posting, here's what we did today.
It's like, why aren't we doing this today?
For sure and. I actually tell the kids I like
that, come talk to me. It's like there's a right and
wrong way to do it. You know, if you if you have a
question, maybe not in front of the whole team, go well, why the
heck we doing this? Coach Blank, come, come talk to
me one-on-one. I actually like that because for
me that means they care. That means they're curious about

(01:04:17):
it and I'm not going to get my feelings hurt if they're
questioning things because as a coach, I should always have a
reason of why I'm doing things anyway.
So I should be able to answer the question.
So it honestly just cultivates alot of really good track
conversation back and forth between me and the athletes.
And I'm, I love that we have a lot of kids that really like
track, which is really cool. But no, they, they see a lot of

(01:04:38):
that stuff though. A lot of that stuff like fly by
hand off or hey, they did this work out or I saw Harvard's
coach did this. He posts on Twitter all the
time. And I'm like, no, hey, we're
seeing the same stuff, fellas. We're seeing all the same
things. They're like, hey, I saw this on
Instagram last week. Did you get it from there?
I'm like, do I say yes? But the answer is normally yes

(01:05:00):
it is. I love that Mark and Kayla.
At Harvard do an amazing job. First of all, they're they're
great educators both again, Gil podcast.
They were they were some Ogs. They were like #4 and 5 or #3
and five or something like that.Great human beings.
You got to go listen to their, their journey.
It's quite amazing. But they are they're great
educators and great value givers.
And so, yeah, their their tweetsand Instagram are just chock

(01:05:23):
full of value, man, and they they do an amazing job.
That's funny that I don't know, I guess I look it through my
lens. So I know like, you know, Chad's
looking at that and Collins looking at that, but I don't, I
don't think about like, Oh yeah,Joey is, you know, the kid is
looking at that and Tina, the kid is looking at that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I didn't ever because I didn't really think
about it that way too. That could yeah, that's
interesting. What recruiting wise how and you

(01:05:48):
know, you're in a small school. I'm not going to necessarily
want to think one way or the other that maybe don't have kids
that are being recruited, but certainly there's so many
opportunities out there maybe have.
How do you see the connection between college coaches and you
as the high school coach in the recruiting process?
Yeah. So that's been really.
Fun for me to even learn more about here in my younger
coaching career for me as an athlete, it was pretty cut and

(01:06:11):
dry. Like a lot of you know, D twos
or Nai is reaching out, you know, and I've been very
thankful and blessed to have some really high quality
athletes come through and had a 6-8 high jumper, 23 foot long
jumper or like, yeah, we've had some we've had some studs come
through 17 foot girls long jumper.
We set a girl medal at Drake Relays last week in the
hundreds. So we've been we've had some,

(01:06:32):
you know, really good run here. So we've had, we had some really
cool recruiting processes, like we got a letter from USF a few
years ago for our 6-8 high jumper and like, you know, stuff
like that. So it's been what I was trying
to tell kids is you got to go towhat fits you D1.
Maybe that's what fits you D2. Maybe that's what D3 and AI.

(01:06:53):
It doesn't matter. You go, you make a priority list
of what is important to you and you make sure that that college
fits XY and Z. If you think that it's D1, OK,
great. I would recommend that.
That's not one of your priorities.
Maybe it's it's financial, our our team fit or what is the
program like? Or do they have good athletic
trainers? Or what's their food like?

(01:07:14):
Or more important than all those, do they have the major I
want? Is it going to be the right
price point that I want? Things like that?
So kids are starting to buy intothat quite a bit, which is
exciting. We've had several people go to
Northwest Missouri State. It's about 45 minutes away from
us, so that's an easy one for us.
I saw you actually had Fort Lewis's old track coach on a few

(01:07:36):
weeks ago. We sent a kid there last year,
Treyton Scott Bader. So that was super fun.
And then just had a kid go to Morningside.
Another another kid going to youand I.
So it's exciting. So you mentioned I I was looking
up because I want. To make sure I had the right
name for this. I, I thought this was
fascinating. You know, we, we talked about,
you know, we're starting the Gill 1918 projects.

(01:07:57):
So Tuesday through Sunday, 10 to30 minute, you know, kind of Ted
talks of track and field, you know, by coaches, 4 coaches and
a couple a week ago, Brian Hallett had an episode this the
decision matrix for the recruiting process.
It made me think about exactly what you just said there about,
you know, write out your priorities.
And so I would encourage any high school coach and parents,

(01:08:21):
kids, etcetera, go listen to Brian Hallett's decision maker.
He did a great job. He was talking about an Excel
sheet. So he's trying to explain it an
Excel sheet in in audio. He did an amazing job.
But he, you know, really implemented some like private
sector like weighting averages to it as well.
That I thought was just like, I mean, I was like, bravo O'Brien,

(01:08:43):
like this will help a lot of kids.
So I would encourage you to takea look at that and share it with
your parents. And I just thought Brian did a
fantastic job. Another thing you said there, it
is interesting. You know, I, I, I, I want to,
and I am on the anti D1 or bust,right?

(01:09:03):
Because I think, you know, you need to go to the right school
for you. And, and it's not all, but I
don't think it's as simplistic as as we, we like to make it in
regards to like, hey, you run 48seconds in the quarter, Jamal,
but you know, D1, you're going to get eaten up or powerful,
you're going to eaten up. You need to go look at D2.
You can have a great D2 experience and be all American.

(01:09:23):
And that's right. That's correct.
And then we had Shelton Irvin from Atascocito High School on
the podcast a few months ago. The Tascocito set the national
record in the four by one last year. 38 something.
It started with 38. That's all you need to know,
right? It's unbelievable.

(01:09:44):
I can't. It's crazy.
Just dumb. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
He did a great. Job, the kids, it's amazing and
his journey was that he went to I think it was universe.
I wasn't Houston. I can't remember.
He went to a school. I thought it was University of
Houston, but maybe he's not tracking, but then transferred
to Texas. He he he he was OK at his first

(01:10:05):
school and that's why he wasn't Houston.
I'm I'm getting this all mixed up.
Go listen to it and you'll know the real story.
But anyway, he transfers to Texas where he's not like, like
he air quotes should not have been an athlete.
He was good, but he wasn't, you know, he wasn't 1 of 48 or
something like that. But then he talks about through
the journey of what being at a University of Texas for track

(01:10:25):
and field, what they did for himtoday.
Now as a track coach, like the people that were there, some of
his teammates, his coaches, other coaches, you know, pro
coaches that were there to traintheir athletes and things like
that. And it really made me pause
about like, you know what, again, 99% of kids are not going
to GoPro. So maybe so so that could be the

(01:10:49):
argument of like, well, then go to a briar Cliff and have a
great experience and go to national, you know, experience
nationals and NEA nationals. That's a big deal, bro.
I don't care if it's D Warner, NEA or JUCO, that's a big deal.
You made it to the top meet of your area.
That's huge, huge. What a great experience in the
pomp and circumstances that happened, the gifts and all that
kind of stuff. So, so cool, but then can't it

(01:11:09):
also be like, hey, maybe you should go to LSU, Texas, Troy
University, you know, the big universities that are out there
because of everything else that,you know, if you're not going to
go pro, maybe you're the 10th best quarter, quarter mile or
half mile or and but, but all the people that are around you
make you a better 30 year old and 40 year old and 50 year old
one day. You know, it really just kind of

(01:11:31):
I don't think there's a cut and dry answer, but it really like
made me pause and like, Oh, he Ihad a better experience not
being a stud at Texas, but he's a better coach today and a
better like he had all these like, you know, I hate to say
connections, but like he easily could pick up the phone and call
people for help for coaching. And it was like, it's because he
went to Texas. It was really it changed me a

(01:11:54):
little bit in regards to the like man, go to go to prior
Cliff, go to Dre, go to Davenport.
You know, you don't have to go to I where I will stay.
Go there if you if that's the right place for you, but you
don't think that you're not as worthy or having as good or you
have less of a chance of having a great experience because you
didn't go to Iowa or Iowa State.That's not true for sure.
Yeah, that's a really good point.

(01:12:15):
I've actually. Never really heard that side of
it to be completely honest with you.
Dude, go go listen. I'll have to watch it.
It was this. This is May.
Right. So yeah, it was this year,
because it was after the Texas Track and Field Coach
Association, after January, so it was somewhere around February
or March. But Shelton Irvine, the
Tascocita, Yeah, it really it changed me, bud.
It really did. I I again more of kind of going

(01:12:38):
from a cut and dry like, yeah, you don't have to go.
Do you want this? Do you want to bust mentality
will bust you up right. And then and again, do you want
to bust is not the right thing. But his journey, it was like,
wow, he is a better person because he did go walk on at
Texas, you know, like and didn'thave the same experience.
He didn't he wasn't a conferencechampion or anything like that.

(01:12:59):
But boy, all the other stuff, right?
It made him better, it was. Interesting stuff, you.
Don't think about too in a recruiting.
Process. So that's, yeah, that's not at
all I think you know. Your job is a tough job here is
the expectation of, of the financial part of it, though, I
think, right. So, so when you're, you're
working with a kid and they're like, man, Coach Blank, I grew

(01:13:21):
up a, a Hawkeye, man. I want to go to, you know, I
want to be a foreigner hurdler at Iowa.
And it's like, dude, you run 58 and that's cool.
That's great that I'm not belittling you.
But you know those kids. He's, you know, Joey's got kids,
you know, 49 and 50s and maybe 51 is like his eighth kid.
And it's like, but so that's fine if you want to go and walk
on, if Joey would let you know in this example.

(01:13:42):
But the if the expectation is, yeah, I want to go to the
University of Iowa to be a pointof hurdler and I think I should
get a full ride. Now.
That's where your conversations with the parents and the kids
and and those are difficult, right?
Because you're, you're, you're what they hear you say is you're
not good enough for a full ride,right?
You're good. Enough, you're a good enough
person, but it's a business. It's the time wise, right?

(01:14:05):
It's like, you know, maybe you can get money at this other
place. You know, maybe there is a place
for you. That's a difficult place to be
as a as a high school coach and and a counselor, right?
100% you hate to be. The one to kind of crush their
dreams. But at the end of the day, you
got to have some realistic expectations, you know, And you
know, if you're kind of, if you can't get there, the track, I

(01:14:27):
think it becomes a little bit easier because it's very black
and white. I think other sports will become
a little bit harder. I don't know bro, first of all I
would agree. With you, because I think
recruiting for track is easier than football.
We talked about this a little earlier, right?
You you could have been a stud at your school, like you could
have rushed for, you know, 2000 yards a season.
But it's like, OK, well, he's playing no offense.
I know eight man's where the dogs are at and everything, but

(01:14:49):
but it's like he's playing eightman and, you know, he's going up
against defensive lineman that were, you know, 5/10 1:10.
You know, he's not going to go to big 10 for, you know, you
have to evaluate so much more where it's like, you know,
you're in little middle of nowhere Iowa and you're running
1040. It's like, well, that's still
100 meters there, say 100 meterswhen he gets to big 10 or
whatever, you know, So yeah, it's like so so so I want to

(01:15:13):
agree with you that it's easier to have those expectations to
track. But yet every day I'm reading on
Twitter how coaches are being, you know, and contacted by high
school kids at 58 second quarterMiller, and saying, yeah, yeah,
I'd love your school, love a full ride.
And it's like, what do you mean,bro?
Like, did you even look at the right results?
Because you're right, it is easy.
It's right there. I can look at every result.

(01:15:34):
Tifers has changed the game, if you will.
Internet has changed the game. And yet we still have these
mismatched expectations, right? Yeah, 100%.
And I think, you know, with having conversations with any of
our track kids, it's like, well,OK, to go D1, it's going to take
XYZ, D2 and take XYZ. And then so far, it's been
fairly easy to have those conversations.

(01:15:56):
Just trying to, you know, have realistic expectations.
But, you know, maybe that day where the kid thinks they're
better than they are might be a little bit more difficult for
sure. Yeah.
Yeah. I mean.
Like that 6-8 high jumper. That's a great example.
Yeah, right. I mean, that's really good.
Again, not taken away. Is he still in high school or
did he go on? He graduated.
Yeah, he graduated. Is he still in college or did he

(01:16:17):
graduate college yet? He is working, I think he's.
Just working. Didn't didn't go college.
Yeah. Oh, OK.
I just want to be respectful. I don't.
Want to? No, you're good.
I want to call out some kid. Who's just like 7-8 right now?
I'm like, oh God, I'm sorry, man.
Yeah, I was wrong. You're all right, you know, 6-8.
6-8's really good. No, every, every high school
coach in the country would take a 6-8 high jumper.
The vast majority of colleges would absolutely take 6-8.

(01:16:38):
But I don't know that the power 4 is taking 6-8 or if they are
that they're doing much more than a books or 15%, you know,
depending on a lot of factors, right, what other events are
doing, etcetera, etcetera. And so you know that, but that
kid gets a he gets a letter fromSouth Florida.
Absolutely they should be, you know, that that kid made pop 7
and they're like, OK, we can maybe start talking, right?

(01:16:59):
But it would be hard to maybe it's hard having some
discussions of like, hey, man, Iknow you maybe want to go to
South Florida, but they're offering you 10%.
But hey, look, man, Briarcliff is offering you 75 or what,
whatever. You know, it's like, man, you
know, that's where you get caught up on what's the chest
and it's like what's right for your major location finance.

(01:17:20):
To me, that is still the biggestthing.
Like when coaches complain aboutkids asking for full rides, I'm
like, bro, I got no problem withthem doing that.
Now you I also have no problem you educating them, but college
student debt, if a kid can go toget a full ride, take it.
Go somewhere where there's a full ride again, major and
location and everything. You know, those are table

(01:17:42):
stakes, if you will, but financial, I mean, that's a
huge. Thing and the kids are starting
to get a lot more educated on that too.
I mean, I remember when I was going through the process, it
was something, I don't know, youdidn't really think about all
that much. Obviously you've got your offer
back and you didn't really, you know, you compared and
contrasted. But I feel like there's a big
push now, like, hey, college is like there's, I think college is
a scam. A lot of kids are saying that

(01:18:02):
and stuff like that. Well, you know, it's up to your
discretion, I suppose. But isn't it hard to like, just
be like, yeah, you're. Right or you're wrong, right and
it's like that's yeah, yeah, depending on how you yeah,
depending on how you do it, yeah.
But if you have. The option to go pay $40,000 or
$10,000, probably going to pick the $10,000 one.
You know, that's what I do anyway.

(01:18:24):
But but you know, again, it's hard.
You were talking. About 1718 year old kids who
don't really like what's $40,000to them meaning like they don't
really know, they don't make anymoney.
They don't know what a salary isand what, you know, expected
salary. Most of them don't, you know,
they barely know how much their pop tarts for breakfast cost.
So what's a big deal of 40,000 ayear?
I'll just get a job that's 100 as soon as I get out of college.

(01:18:44):
It's like good luck. Yeah, exactly.
Like they don't have a great. Concept of how much money that
really is or when they're like, yeah, you'll get $40,000 at 5%
interest rate when you're when you're graduating.
Oh yeah, don't even talk about interest rate.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. What's 5%?
That's nothing. You know, so are you having
these as a? Counselor, I mean I know our
coaches on a daily basis and ourteachers are having these are

(01:19:05):
you more having these? Are you having these
conversations more because you're a counselor?
Is that kind of what a lot of for your seniors that you see
and even junior absolutely and again another.
Advantage of me being a counselor and a coach is I have
it's time to have these conversations with kids, which
is, which is really, really niceand help them out any way I can.
And you know, I'm, I'm still learning to a lot about it.
But again, I'm just trying to make sure that they find

(01:19:28):
colleges that fit them. You know, think, hey, just 5%
sounds like not much, but over Xamount of years, that's a lot of
money. All right, so let's think about
this. How do you keep your ego out of?
It, you know, ego's not bad, badeco is bad.
And what I mean by that is it's cooler.
Some people could consider it cooler that I send kids to Iowa

(01:19:49):
and Iowa State versus Iowa Western, Briarcliff, etcetera.
How do you keep your ego of like, hey man, maybe Iron
Western is the exact spot that Jamal should be going to, you
know, Right, right. And I think.
You know, that's something again, as a younger coach, I
think I may be struggled with a little bit is like, I kind of I
want to be that guy. Like, yeah, well, I sent this
kid here. I sent this kid here, you know,

(01:20:11):
and overtime like, well, if I want a coach can be successful,
I've got to throw my own ego outof the way a lot of the time,
you know, and it's about the kids.
It's not about me. It's about them and their
journey and what they want to doand things like that.
So it is definitely admittedly something I struggled with early
on. It's like, you know, I had that
6A high jumper and a 23 foot long jumper.
I'm like, you guys need to go here, here, you know it ended.

(01:20:34):
Up not being something they wanted.
To do at all so and that, that'stheir choice and that's fine.
I'm OK with that. But yeah, obviously I think I'd
be a fool to say it's not super cool to send someone D1.
But at the end of the day, you understand it's about kid, you
know, and what's going to fit them academically, financially,
team wise, campus feel, you know, anything like that.

(01:20:56):
Put the kit first. You know, you got to got to kind
of remind yourself of that sometimes, so I wish.
You know, a lot of times coachesin their BIOS or in a tweet or
something, they'll say, you know, You know, over my 10
years, it's, you know, Clarinda Clarita, sorry, Clarinda, or
whatever school I've sent, you know, 20 kids to D1.

(01:21:16):
I'd rather they say maybe how many kids they sent to college,
right? Like because.
When when I see. That I go wait a minute.
I bet you I can find a tweet from that coach that also says
something anti D1 or bust. And it's like, but you you're
you're you're piling into it. You're yeah, yeah, yeah, you're
promoting it. You're saying how many kids you
sent to D1? That means you, you, you, you,
you lessen D2D3. You know, it's like, yeah, so

(01:21:39):
I'd rather want to say, you know, I sent X amount of kids to
college or, you know, it's actually more impressive
because, you know, as great a coach as you you are today,
Chad, and as you're going to be in the next 5-10 twenty years,
genetics is still the ceiling ofwhatever your kids are going to
be. And you don't get to pick the
kids that are coming to your program, right.
So I'm more impressed if, you know, Chad, one day you put out
a tweet that says, hey, in my 10th year, you know, we have had

(01:22:02):
over 100 kids every year. I'm like, wow, like that's like
that that means people want to be a part of your program.
That tells me you're doing a good job.
Like some guy or gal who's a jerk.
Kids are not attracted to that. So it's like, yeah, you know,
we, we have 50 and then we went down to 30 and you know, it's
like, well, man, if you had 100 plus or whatever number, like
consistently you're doing something dude.

(01:22:24):
Like that's that's cool because,you know, maybe you just don't
have the talented the kids to goto college.
That's not your fault. You're coaching well as you're
coaching well, you know. Right For sure.
Yeah. And that.
Honestly is where you bring thatup.
That's a goal for us to try to get to 100 boys and girls
together. We're we're at 85 this year, so
we're growing. Just want to get that number.
Just want to keep growing. How?
How big's the school student? Wise, yeah, about 80 per class

(01:22:44):
so. Buzz that quick math.
So 320 ish three. Yeah, 3:20-ish. 9:00 to 12:00.
You're a counselor, not a math teacher.
That's cool. Yeah, right.
And so you have 80, so 36, so roughly 30 ish.
Almost 30% of your student body is on your track team.
Yeah, yeah, which is awesome. See.
OK, that's the equation. I wish people would put out on

(01:23:05):
tweets and stuff like that, like, hey, 30% of our student
body are on the team. You know, 25% are like, that's
the, I mean, kids are attracted to success.
They're attracted to fun, happy things, you know, positive
things. They really are.
And so if, if you're a big percentage, you know, twenty,
2530% of the school, if you're doing something right, they have

(01:23:26):
other choices, right? Yeah, for sure.
Yeah. For sure.
Well, we're thankful we don't have soccer in the spring, which
is really big, but you have tennis and golf though that you
know that stuff. But yeah, I I know everybody's.
Mind goes to sports of course they have other choices there
but you know what they have other choices get a job play
video games be the chess club you know walk their dog they

(01:23:51):
they have a lot of go hang out with their friends go make
TikTok videos they have a lot ofchoices for sure yeah it ain't
about. Just the sports buddy A.
Lot of choice. Go be a super academic, you know
I'm going to study my math more instead of go to track practice.
You know what I'm saying? They got a lot of choices buddy,
and they choose to be a part of your program.
That to me is the bravo part of it, man, I appreciate it.

(01:24:14):
I love that. Last question.
Here kind of about recruiting asyou've had, you know, coaches
reach out and things like that. There's this, you know, I'm
always trying to help bring people together.
There was a reason why we call it the Gil Connections podcast,
right when we try to connect people.
So there's an argument kind of two sides to a coin.
Should the college coach contactthe high school coach to talk

(01:24:35):
about the kids or should they just go straight to the kid and
the parents and things like that?
I see both because I was the noncontactor, but I see both sides
now in today's world, what's your, you know, kind of thought
and opinion on that side of it? Yeah, that's a good question.
I. Feel like we've had a little bit
more success when the coach kindof contacts me and then I kind
of sit down with the kid and we talked about the cause a little
bit. A lot of times I see when the,

(01:24:57):
when the coach contacts the kid right away, whether it's like on
Instagram or Twitter or whatnot,the kid will just like, yeah,
this coach reached out. I'm not really interested.
I guess I'm like, well, why? Why not?
So for me, I feel like we've hadmore success when they contact
me. I mean, I guess that's up to
them and their personal kind of recruiting, you know, strategy
kind of what they want to do. I actually think the, the best

(01:25:19):
way I've seen it is coaches being at like the state meet and
stuff like that. Our one of our distance kid just
committed to Washburn and the Washburn coach gave, it was 30
seconds after he finished the state cross country race.
Hey, hey, we'd love to have you down.
Gave him his card and it loved it.
Went on a visit, committed 2 weeks later.
So wow, that was that. Was really cool, he thought.

(01:25:40):
That was the best. He thought he was walking for a
while, so I thought that was cool too.
So I think in person still is great.
I know college coaches are super, super busy, but man, when
you can get a kid in person, like at a meet, like they're
like, it shows you care different things like that.
I think that's probably the bestway.
But you know, I think either wayis is fine, but we've had some

(01:26:02):
good success with coaches reaching out to me and then me
talking to the kid a little bit,get them in contact and stuff
like that. So I love that you mentioned
Washburn. The head coach, not he's not the
distance coach, but Cameron Babbalso go podcast along.
I just always here's my thing when I point out who the podcast
alums are. You know, we're at episode 300
and 1314 where we are around here in this point here with

(01:26:25):
with you, Chad. Well, that means we've had 303
hundred other coaches. I I had someone tweet me the
other day, hey, how come you haven't had Mouse Holloway on
the show? And I was like, bro, he was
guest #30 like he's an OG, he's been here before all these guys
and gals, right? It's like, you know, so I'm just
really, we have such amazing coaches in our library now.
Boo schecks later Dan path via Thomas, Diljeet Taylor.

(01:26:49):
I mean, just amazing, amazing coaches.
So I'm always just kind of wanting people to like whatever
app you're on right now or if you're on YouTube, just go back
to like just scroll. You know, it's easy to scroll
these things and go look at someof the amazing people.
I just don't want them to get lost in the shuffle.
So you mentioned Washburn and Cameron Babb was he's an
amazing, amazing coach and he was a lot of fun.
All right, Chad, start wrapping us up here today.

(01:27:11):
Man, you know, you are you're soyoung.
I love this, but I know you are you still going to have an eye
towards the future You're not just looking at today as you
look forward to 20/5/2020 six, 2728.
What's got you excited there at Clarinda High School?
Yeah, we got, you know. This is my fifth year here.
I feel like we got a lot of goodthings rolling.

(01:27:32):
Culturally, we're in a good spot.
Kids know what to expect. And now it's starting the fun
part of, you know, seeing these kids as freshmen all the way
through seniors and seeing the development and stuff like that,
that's super fun. So I got a lot of really good
young groups coming through and,and we're excited to see, see
what we can do with those, with those groups.
We just said we had a kid in 800.
He opened up the season at a 218.

(01:27:53):
He went 206 last night. So we're we're really excited
about little things like that. We got a really good senior
class graduating and, you know, talking to these younger guys
like, hey, they're gonna graduate at some point.
Someone's gonna have to take their spot, you know.
So we're excited to just keep building.
You know, we always want to justcontinue to build and build and
build and see what we can do from there.
That's so cool. Yeah.
That's great, man. I love it.

(01:28:13):
You're doing a a great job there.
You know, I just you know, I wasAII coached high school for two
years in college for 8:00. So I you know, my mind is more
always thinking about our colleges and they get the more
pub right, You know, as far as like social media and things
like that. But I tell you, I am just
fascinated with our high school coaches, man.
It's again, 99% of your kids aren't going to go on to

(01:28:35):
college, right? But 100% of they're not going to
go on to compete track in college, but 100% of them are
going to go on become moms and dads and business owners and
teachers and coaches and counselors and all that.
And, and your impact, your positive impact on these young
kids is it's immeasurable. You know, most of them aren't
probably going to tell you thankyou.
And maybe, you know, certainly some are going to tell you today

(01:28:56):
as an 18 year old and some are going to come back as you get
older, Chad, as 30 year old parents and you know,
professionals and they're going to come back and be like, man,
you know, coach, I remember whenyou set me straight, when I
thought I knew it all and you, you, you gave me that tough talk
or whatever, You know, you, you encouraged me to, you know,
that's how I ran two O 6 is because of your encouragement.

(01:29:17):
And it's a big deal to these kids.
It's hard for them. They don't have the kind of
brain capacity to understand, tosay thank you today, but you're
making a huge impact on them, which then they go out and make
a huge impact to society. So, you know, I, I think what
our coaches, our track coaches and our specifically here, our
high school coaches are doing. It's just it's not rewarded
enough. And that's why we started this

(01:29:39):
podcast to kind of shed some light, whether your your fifth
year in coaching or your 50th year and everything in between.
It's it's extremely valuable andit's rewarding.
Yeah. Well, I appreciate the kind.
Words, Mike. I mean, that's, that's why we do
it. So it's, it's fun to do.
I'm blessed with the great staff, great family, great kids
to work with, great administration, everything like
that. So it makes my job pretty easy.

(01:30:01):
I mean, I don't have a lot of barriers that I got to go
through to, to help these kids out.
So it's been great. It's been a great five years and
looking forward to what we can keep doing so well.
I can't wait to be on the side. Here watching, you know, again
to see, excuse me, where you're at here at five years.
So again, to, you know, use thattrack analogy as you get down
through the race, as you get, you know, through the halfway
point, you're not even you don'teven think about halfway.

(01:30:22):
You're not even close. It's just going to be cool to
continue to see you develop. You're going to you're the kind
of coach, the kind of person who's going to continue to
develop, continue to prove you're going to continue to
become a better counselor. You're going to continue to
become a better a track coach, abetter person, partner, friend
to a teammate for your other teachers and stuff.
They're just going to continue to to improve and and help other

(01:30:42):
people. Man, I can see it.
I'm just I'm I'm happy to be on the side and watching them, man.
It's going to be a fun ride. I appreciate it.
Thank you, Tom. Well, man, thank you for your
time, man, you. Know it's track season like I,
I'm still always in awe of the people who during track season
who agree to do this and give metheir time and effort and
authenticity. And so I'm just grateful for
that. It's one of the most expensive
things you can give me, especially in light of today, my

(01:31:02):
friend, thinking about you and your family today, but just
again, grateful for you for being here and and sharing your
journey with us. I appreciate it, Mike.
You know any excuse I. Have to talk about track for a
little while. I'm going to take it so so
thanks again. I appreciate you having me on.
It was a really good time. So so thanks.
I love it guys and gals. Thank you for being.
Here again today, you know, it'samazing.
We keep rolling, we're adding toit, right?

(01:31:23):
We're adding the Daily Guild 1918 project to it as well.
And again, I encourage you to goback that recruiting, all of the
ones, but some of the amazing topics so far at the beginning
of the Guild 1918 project. But that recruiting one may just
be in my brain of like, oh man, it really like I was thinking to
myself as a high school coach ora parent of a high schooler or
even the athlete, I'm like, oh, this would help you with all

(01:31:43):
these choices I have in front ofme.
Help me narrow down maybe the top three or four.
I could just provide clarity. So just encourage you to go
listen to that one and all the other ones as well and be back
next week, next Monday. So tomorrow will Tuesday through
Sunday, hopefully if we have thecontent, we're going to have
Guild 1918 projects for you. If you want to have your own
project Guild 1918 Project podcast, reach out to me.

(01:32:04):
This is by coaches for coaches. You're doing this.
As soon as I hit stop, I'm goingto challenge Chad here to create
his own one as well. That's what happens now on the
Monday podcast. Everybody gets challenged to do
1, but reach out to me. It's super, super simple.
Trust me, anybody can do it. And you, your voice does matter.
So join us next week, join us tomorrow, and we're going to
continue rolling and bringing you massive, massive amounts of
value. Thanks everybody.

(01:32:24):
Have a great day. If it goes to appreciate the
coach the ones that point peoplemost every season needs a voice
of reason speaking the growth you got to prep before you carry
the load. Ice coffee to the soul.
For those of us stay on the go proper handoff to stay in the
zone which you packing for the road.

(01:32:45):
There's more than one way to go.Take notes that's paying you're
told it ain't practice if your purpose Saint Clair.
It can't happen until you listenwith both ears.
You can't mentor without a mentor.
Years of experience you can reinvent those years.
Every plan's got to stand and deliver to and the price
sacrifice can you give up you. It's a choice and the fight not
a win or lose. It's not a ploy boy device.

(01:33:06):
Y'all can make more moves. It's not about how to it's all
about why you don't know till you know who you are inside
6,000,000. Waste of time, choose none so
y'all cross the finish line. The work ain't done so we learn
from the experts but y'all got to put in the leg work guilt.
Athletics is the network. It's all about connections put
together for the profession to where every track coach could be

(01:33:26):
blessing.

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