Episode Transcript
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(00:07):
Ay the show. Hey Erica,how are you? I'm doing great?
How are you? I'm fantastic.I think we both enjoyed a little bit
of a I don't know, whatwould you call it winter break recently.
I think winter break would be perfect. Yeah. Yeah, And ironically we
were we were in the same state. I went to Arizona. Didn't you
(00:32):
go to Phoenix? Well, yeah, it was in Phoenix, Scottsdale.
Visit to my parents just took likea week. It was during my birthday,
so it was kind of fun.I just, you know, I
love Arizona. There's something about Ithink the landscape is just so different.
You almost feel like you're in adifferent place. Yes, you feel like
you're I don't want to say amovie because it sounds kind of crazy.
(00:55):
But I would look up and I'dbe doing something in the car, working
when Nick was driving, and Iwould look up and see all of these
beautiful mountains and vistas and all.And my husband knows all the names because
he went to University of Arizona.And he'll be like, that's a such
and such, and that's a suchand such, and I'm like, how
do you know all these things?He's like well, when you live here
for a long time, you justyou know, I keep forgetting that.
(01:15):
Nick went to Arizona. Yeah,yeah, Well my parents have been going
out there for a while and nowthey live there permanently. But they live
really I mean outside their backyard isa mountain view, you know, and
it's just i'd say, it's alldifferent until you get on the highway and
then you're like, oh, okay, people drive like insanely fast. But
either way, when I go there, it's I had lucky Sonny. It
(01:38):
was sunny for a solid week.It was it was amazing. So I
think one of the things I loveto do, which I don't get to
do here as much as the hiking. And they've got some you know,
trails right by their house. Butgetting the mountains and what did you do
a lot of trails do you remember, Well, they live near Superstition Mountain,
so there's a whole bunch of trailsyou don't know, and they don't
(02:02):
all have names. But we walkedlike we walk every day, and you
know they walk every day, andso it's just fun. Nothing super super
hard. But yeah, I alwayslook forward. But you guys biked.
I thought your photos and I wasamazed. You guys saw some great scenery,
so were you. We were atPhoenix and Scottsdale. We stayed in
(02:24):
Scottsdale and then shout out to KimHardcastle with twelve twelve Travel should be a
sponsor of the show, because she'samazing. We did this totally last minute
because we wanted to go on alittle trip, and she helped us.
She totally hooked us up with sometwo fantastic, luxurious hotels, one in
(02:46):
Scottsdale, the JW. Marriott,and then we stayed at some bougie spa
in Sedona. But we hiked ourbrains off and it was funny. You'll
you'll probably enjoy this part of thehiking. I like to hike, and
I am hyperactive, and I liketo just get going when I hike.
(03:07):
I want to just get moving.I can stop once in a while for
a drink, but I like toget moving. Nick likes to hike and
stop and look around, and stopand look around and take breaks, and
it is a source of an argumentoccasionally during the hiking and he's like,
why don't you enjoy the natural beauty. I'm like, let's get moving.
This is exercise. Well, youknow what, that's true. It is
(03:31):
exercise, but there's so much stuffto see because it really is just growing
up in the Midwest, Arizona isjust different. And yes, sometimes you
like to stop and just and thenavoid those little jumping hoya cactuses that can
kind of jump out and get youright in the leg. Oh yeah,
I did, get me careful anddowhere hear those. Yeah. So we
(03:51):
when we were hiking, we climbedup. So did you climb anything as
your hiking because some of the stuffwe did we literally, I think it
was camel act that you have toclimb up and then Echo canyon. You
have to do some climbing Tom's thumb. We did that one. We did
some really good ones in Scottsdale.Man, the food was so good.
Oh I know. We also wentinto Scottsdale and I did a little a
(04:16):
little shopping, you know. Hisbirthday, we go pet puppies and just
do fun stuff, get face masksand all this. And then my dad
just likes to walk around, youknow, my mom and I'll shop a
little. My dad will be like, He'll put get a couple miles in
before we're done. So it worksout great win for everybody. And you
said you had really sunny weather,we also had really really nice, gorgeous
(04:39):
cool weather. You know, itwas in the fifties and the sixties and
maybe seventy one day, but thatwas perfect for hiking. So oh yeah,
absolutely. And one of the highlightsfor me was we there's this area
in downtown Scottsdale where we've been before. There's a couple of restaurants we like,
but we ended up going to theFiesta Bol Museum and they have literally
a museum right in this really coolarea downtown and I've walked by it probably
(05:02):
a bunch of times and I've beenthere before, never realized it, but
we went in because one of theteams that I work with, Liberty,
made it to the Fiesta Bowl.You know. First that was probably cool,
wasn't it. Yeah, So Iwasn't able to go to the bowl
game, but I did go tothe museum and I met The offices are
right there, so I got tomeet Bailey. Shout out to Bailey.
(05:23):
She was awesome. She came downand said hello to us. We worked
with her while we were doing somepromotional stuff for the team and the league.
While they were there, so wejust got to see the museum.
It's really cool and very neat.Just they you know, represent all the
college teams and then the most recentbull participants. They've got their full uniforms.
A lot of cool history with theBowl game. So that was kind
(05:46):
of a neat highlight. It wasa little work, a little you know,
a little fun. Yeah, rideoff. Yeah. I like to
figure those out owning my own business. Absolutely, yeah, really fun.
Glad we did. That's your favoritepart. I've never been to Sedona.
My dad keeps telling me we gotto get up there, but my parents
have. I just haven't. Sowhat was your highlight there? Oh?
(06:09):
Man, I tell you. Weaated a place called Hudson that was amazing.
We ated an Italian place that wasamazing. But the hiking. That
bougie hotel we stayed in, Icannot remember the name. I can't say.
It's a French laberge bears spa somethinglike that. The massage I got
there shout out to JJ on Sundaymorning was amazing because it was the best
way to end. But we didsome really amazing hike. I think we
(06:32):
went to we went to Fay's Canyonkind of by accident, and that was
really cool. We saw this archthat was amazing. But we were trying
to go to Cathedral Rock. ButI'm not a big crowds person when I
hike, Like, I like mytime apart from people when I'm hiking.
(06:53):
I don't like to hike on topof people. So we went and stopped
at this visto and we were goingto walk over and go to Rock Creek
or something, and my husband startedtalking to this gen Z kid and I'll
call him a gen z kid becausethat's really what he looked like, a
gen z kid with his dog andhis girlfriend. And he was like,
Hey, is there a place wecan hike? And he goes, yeah,
just go up highline. It's great. It'll take you almost a Cathedral
(07:14):
Rock. And I was like,oh, really, we could hike here?
Yeah and around No it was wehiked almost six miles or over six
miles, and it was amazing.We got there was there were a few
mountain bikers at times, but youjust step out of their way and they're
(07:35):
super friendly. But we walked outon this on these vistas almost at Cathedral
Rock from this other place, andit was so beautiful, and it was
just us. We were just outthere walking. We're like, should we
hike up some more? It's like, yeah, we're here. And sometimes
we'd have to walk up some andto avoid a canyon, but it was
(07:57):
so beautiful and so peaceful, andwe're like, can you believe we're here
hiking? So it was really really, really fun. So I would say
it's hard for me to say highlightbecause I enjoyed every single day. We
met Nicks, the guy that wasthe best man in Nick's first marriage.
We met he and his wife andSally and Brad, and we went to
(08:18):
a Queen concert, like a tributeconcert, which was amazing. It was
just really really fun. I cannotstop saying the word amazing. I think
I need to get this asaurus outand find another Word's okay, because listen,
when you it's kind of like theperfect time. Winter break is wonderful
because it just gives you that chance. I mean, you live in Florida,
so you gets on all the time. But even if it was chilly,
(08:39):
I was in the tundra and itwas a great week to just kind
of visit, refreshed for charge,and then get back to work. Yeah,
although I was working when I wasthere. However, you know what
I'm saying, it's just nice toexperience something different and kind of bring some
more creativity back to the daily life. And here we are another episode of
(09:01):
the spin Checks. Yeah, andit's kind of funny we're talking about Arizona
because one of my clients is PBMand they sell high end building materials in
northern California. And there is astory behind this. Whenever we go out,
Nick and I see rocks or naturalstone or flagstone or something, and
there's so much flagstone in Arizona.I'm like, oh, I should take
(09:24):
a picture of this for PBM.I should send this to Nancy. Well,
speaking of Nancy, our podcast guestis John Wallace, her husband.
So what a nice segue, greatsegue. And John Wallace is a volleyball
coach. He's in the volleyball worldand one of my favorite sports volleyball.
So we were really looking forward toI was looking forward to getting a chance
(09:46):
to meet him. I know,you guys have a long history, long
friendship, work partners, all thatgood stuff. And yeah, we work
together at Santa Clara when he wasthe head coach at Santa Clara, and
he's doing some different things now withNike and at MIDI at a high school,
and he talks to us. He'sgoing to talk to us. We're
going to ask him a lot ofquestions about recruiting and what's it like to
(10:07):
have your kids recruited and your athletesrecruited, and probably we might even want
to talk to him about the transferportal and the NIL and some other things.
So he brings a great perspective justas a coach, as a father
of kids that play volleyball, amarketing perspective, so a lot of perspectives
(10:33):
and we talk today with John,So I'm looking forward to it. I'm
going to talk a little Final fourtoo. Texas is back to back wins.
He's got a close relationship with thehead coach, so we've got a
lot to talk about with John.We do we do? College volleyball was
having a moment. I think they'vebeen having a moment for a long time,
but it was in a lot ofa lot of publicity with just a
(10:54):
lot of the attendance and a lotof things going on. So we're going
to cover it all with John Wallace. I hope I haven't given everything away
with our spoiler alert, here wego. Well, I'm really excited that
we've got John Wallace with us.So John and I work together, as
we've said at Santa Clara, andJohn has gone and done some other amazing
(11:16):
things since then. John, Welcometo the spin Chicks. Thank you so
much for having me. I'm excitedto be here. Oh, I know
you're excited. So I'm looking forwardto very nice to meet you, John,
and looking forward to talking volleyball withyou. But I think before we
touch on volleyball, we're gonna haveto talk a little football. I mean
the Super Bowl, let's just John, give that was a great game night,
(11:43):
exciting. I think every play matteredand every motion was seen out there
playing out on the on the field, and yeah, for sure entertaining.
I think adding it in Vegas addedsome kind of allure to it and some
more excitement. Maybe it was acrowd, maybe it was all the stars
there to watch, but yeah,fun event for sure. Yeah, Vegas
(12:07):
is Vegas has got to be likea theyve got to go back. I
mean that just seems like such anatural fit for the Super Bowl. But
it was a great setting, andof course the teams. Listen, I
was having flashbacks to Alabama Michigan,you know in the CFP semifinal, because
it could have gone either way.It was two teams, but there were
some different focus points for sure.Well, how about if we just talk
(12:31):
about it. First of all,the stadium itself. How do you think
Mark Davis liked looking down and seeingRaiders and I'm sorry forty nine Ers and
Chiefs in his home stadium that hebuilt for the Raiders to move there.
I bet you he'd love that,didn't he. I'm sure he did.
(12:52):
I'm sure his dad was looking downeven more with more anger and more angst
about everything. And hopefully they willstart spending some money and they'll get some
players like the forty nine Ers haveand the Chiefs have and start winning some
things. So what was the takeawayfrom you? For you, John,
what's something that you were like,Because I know you're a big football fan
(13:13):
and you're a big forty nine Ersfan, But what was the takeaway from
you? For both coaches? Youknow, just said, it's really really
hard to win at that level.It's really hard, and I think the
biggest difference is that the Chiefs havePatrick Mahomes, who's on another level,
and in order to win, yougot to have one of the best,
if not the best, on yourteam plan. We saw the same thing
(13:35):
with the finals for women's volleyball.Texas had Madison Skinner and that was the
difference in the match. And lastnight the Chiefs had Patrick Mahomes and maybe
even one of the best coaches inAndy Reid, And so those combinations are
really helpful and met in games thatare so so close. Well, let's
(13:56):
talk a little bit about like thecoach relationship, because obviously you are a
coach, but I know we weretalking a little bit before we got into
hit record about there was a keymoment there where one of the players,
Travis Kelcey, very well known,was literally in the face of his coach
and we were just talking about allthe passion and all the emotion that's involved
in a situation like that, andit's very you know, people can focus
(14:18):
on certain things and maybe not necessarilyknow the dynamic. So, John,
have you ever been in a situationwhere you might have a player that's just
super passionate and emotional and how isthat work with a team dynamic and just
your coaching style. Yeah, lastnight when I saw that, I loved
it. I loved every single ounceof energy that Travis Kelsey was going out
(14:39):
and you read because it basically said, coach, I got this, trust
me, and he's passionate about it. He put his name behind it.
He was going to go out thereand do what he needed to do to
help the team win. And soI plowed athletes take that investment, investment
of like, hey, I'm outthere, I see this, I after
(15:00):
this. I can win, mywin my contact, I can do what
I need to do. Man,I'll put that. I'll put that kid
back in every single time because theyhave a little bit more on it for
themselves to execute. They need toexecute. So and I thought Andy Reid
handled it really well. He listenedand then he put his player in.
I mean it was I thought itwas pretty pretty cool. What's the pressure
(15:24):
and the expectation, like, Imean, at that level we can all
surmise. I mean, you've gotso much talent in the building, and
like you alluded to too, likewith with women's volleyball this year, that
just had an amazing final four andthe competitiveness and the team, I mean,
what what are the difference makers injust getting that championship. Gosh,
(15:45):
you know, going into that thethis n C DOUAA Women's Volleable Championship as
well as that game last night,was both coaches strategized to what they thought
was going to work right on paper. They studied for two weeks, they
had all this information and they're like, I think we can, we can
make this happen. And then onceyou get out there. I thought that
(16:08):
game last night had so many weirdtwists to it, different things that happened.
And these coaches, I thought theirtheir greatest asset was their ability to
adapt to how the game was goingand the flow with game while keeping their
players focused on the task that neededto be done. And the same thing
with I think what happened in thein the women's volley ball Championship Texas Texas
(16:34):
found something hot, which was theirserving and unfortunately Nebraska's players didn't have an
answer for that. Their coaches madesome some some adjustments and tried, but
it just didn't work out that way, which is unfortunate, fortunate, but
that happens in sport. I thoughtlast night, each adjustment those coaches made,
their players responded really well. Andhey, the team of the best
(16:57):
player ended up winning, and it'sjust it's not close for sure. So
we are talking about the National Championship, and you certainly can talk a lot
about playing in those kind of gamesbecause you've actually you played in the National
Championship when you were at Santa Barbaraand then when you were at Santa Clara,
you took your team to the finalfour. So you've talked some about
(17:21):
that and what it takes to getthere as a player. What does it
take as a coach? Is ita lot of film watching? Is it
trust from your players? Is ityou trusting your players? What do you
think it is? Yeah, Imissed all day above that preparation is such
a key part. And I thinkwhat we get stuck on as a lot
(17:41):
of coaches, we get stuck onsome like strategy in the court instead of
preparing our girls or our athletes tobe mentally and emotionally stable so they can
just be who they are. AndI think that's the key. The biggest
key is in championship matches is canyour team just be who they are or
(18:03):
does the moment get them and thepressure of the moment or pressure of the
situation, and I think that forsome reason, the narrative that the Texas
girls had, they were really comfortableand they could stay who they are,
and I could have a lot todo with you know, the players on
their team, you know, MadisonSkinner, Asia O'Neil being so good at
their positions. Were you know,Nebraska's a little bit younger, maybe their
(18:27):
leadership wasn't as solid, so theysome doubt crept in and when you have
doubt on those moments, it justkind of multiplies into into some areas out
there for sure. So we're gonnawe're going to go far back. We're
going to go back and talk toyou about one of your old roommates,
Jarrett Elliott, who is the headcoach at Texas, who did win his
(18:51):
one back to back national championships.So you've you've told me in the past
that when you and jaredal roommates.I think when you were at Pepperdine and
maybe he was at Southern Cal Isthat right? Yep? Yeah, that
you guys You would think that whenyou guys get together, you talk x's
and o's and write down, butyou guys actually had a different kind of
conversation about the sport of volleyball.Can you talk us through a little bit
(19:11):
of that and what that kind ofconversation was like, Yeah, when we
when we lived together, we werewe were somewhere in our twenties, and
all of our events that we wentto around volleyball were just festivals and a
lot of fun festivals. In Cabo. We go to Cabo, we go
to Colorado's place, a determined calledthe mother Load. We'd go to and
(19:33):
attend, and these festivals us lovethe sport even more, and we said
to ourselves, why let's bring thisfestival type atmosphere to our gyms and our
college teams. How do we makeit fun? How do we make it
great for the crowd? And thethings that I see Jared doing with his
crowd, having a DJ in theirgym and getting you know, teaching the
(19:55):
student body the cheers that they want, kind of like European soccer games to
get everybody kind of going in onedirection, and not just his team,
but his whole crowd. And Ithink that he's just trying to find a
way to make the game just morefun and more entertaining for his players.
So they look at that, it'slike this is the coolest experience ever.
(20:15):
We play in front of these bands. I do cheers and we have music
and we got this thing, andother girls from other programs are talking about
you know, hey, when yougo to playing Gregory Gym, this atmosphere
is the best because they have xyz. It's just just trying to make it
just a fun environment. So doyou think other programs have kind of taken
(20:37):
note and kind of done that becausevolleyball has had tremendous growth. I mean
this year, the key event wasNebraska hosting in the football stadium. I
mean, can you talk a littlebit about the growth of women's volleyball and
you know, how much farther,how much more can it grow? And
what may be those key things thatyou see in making an impact for that
to happen. Yeah, I thinkwhen Nebraska did get me ninety two and
(21:00):
fans at a football stadium to watchvolleyball is just the best thing for our
sport. It kind of kicked offthe year, and I'm expecting that we're
going to see more kickoff events likethat are really similar to that, and
I think other schools and other moreimportantly, other states are going to want
to compete with Nebrasket on that,and so I think it's it's gonna end.
(21:22):
It's gonna lead us to a reallycool start of our seasons coming up,
and I'm excited for that. Arethere for the ye, There's some
things in the work on different levels. You know, I have a Nike
job and are We're kind of seekingout some partnerships to get behind some preseason
tournaments that can become large and interms of fan base and competition with that,
(21:45):
I mean, ninety two thousand isgoing to be hard to beat.
But I would love to see otherstates getting involved and make this thing of
competition. I think states like likeFlorida, for example, would be great.
You know, a team like youtake Florida Florida A and M and
playing on their football stadium. Ithink they could rival that. I would
(22:06):
just like to see more competition likethat. Penn State would be fun.
These type of things I think wouldbe great for our sport. And again,
the girls would really enjoy it.They'd be so thrilled to be a
part of that. But I seefrom the grassroots. I coached juniors.
My daughter is a senior in highschool, and I'm at a lot of
junior events and the amount of girlsplaying our sport is off the charts and
(22:30):
growing, and they're so talented,so talented, and you know, ultimately,
I think the viewership is going tolatch on the volleyball because the athleticism
is there, the coaching is there, the professionalism there. So it's I
think we're entering a really cool timewith all of our pro leagues coming on
board, our college programs getting betterand and being showcased on a lot of
(22:53):
different TV or streaming, you know, options for us to watch. It's
beginning to explode for sure. Yeah, you look at the women's game in
general in terms of volleyball, andthen the success that women's basketball has had
this year at the collegiate level withIOWA selling out all over the place and
(23:17):
tickets costing fifteen hundred dollars on theroad. And then you look at South
Carolina and they lost all five startersand brought in this really new team and
they're selling out like crazy. Andthere's just programs Southern Cattle also with Juju
Watkins. You look at so manyof these and then now we're going to
go into softball, and softball isalso a really popular NCAA sport. How
(23:40):
excited are you, like, becauseyou've been a longtime women's coach, how
excited are you to see these gymspacked like this? And if somebody's like,
oh, I don't know women's sports, like, what message would you
want to give to them about that? You know, I don't know about
the messaging on that exactly, butI will say the the two names that
(24:03):
you mentioned, you mentioned Kayln Clarkand Juju Like. I was just listening
to ESPN and they were talking aboutusc uh and more. They were talking
about you Juju playing a game onTV. Sound yeah sorry, yeah,
Southern colt, right, but sheis one of the best players in the
nation. And Kayln Clark, You'renot just hearing Iowa you here, Kaylyn
(24:30):
Clark. And so we are beginningthe market player. And once we put
like a Madison Skinner out there,people are going to be attracted to go
watch a Madison Skinner play volleyball andthese other women play. And so what
I give credit to is our administrationsand connecting with our commentators and network platforms
(24:51):
to be like, it's not justus, we have great athletes to highlight
these athletes, and I think thegeneral public attrack to greatness, and these
girls are definitely showing greatness on thecourt. Well, there's definitely some truly
dominant programs in volleyball. We talkedabout it earlier. I mean Texas,
(25:12):
Nebraska. I mean, you've gotyour dominant conferences, and how have those
programs how you know, how canthey lead the way for other programs just
to build the sport as a whole. Yeah, I think they already are.
And I think it starts with youknow, there was a match I
(25:32):
think two years ago between Wisconsin andFlorida that sold out in Wisconsin and throwing
out attendance numbers. But I dogive credit to you can kind of go
back to our whole Title nine.And I hope people have so many you
know whatever unknowns about Title nine.But right now it's flourishing. And where
it's flourishing as administrators are getting behindthe growth of women's sports and they're seeing
(25:56):
the return in crowds and the beautyof the athleticism the women's basketball players,
or women's volleyball players, or women'ssoccer players. I mean, it's high
level stuff in terms of what's onthe field or on the court and they're
beginning to like say, hey,we got a great product here, let's
promote this, Let's get this out. And so I do give credit to
(26:18):
administrators for teaming up with networks tofight for TV time, and again,
I think it's just you need topayoff well. I think the talent also
is off the charts. I knowwomen's volleyball has always been strong, but
I just think now even more so, there's just a lot of dominant,
dominant players. And like you said, how much of it is players drawing
(26:42):
people in versus programs just being successful. Yeah, I think it's I think
we're going to head into for sure, program driven because we're going to see
the Big ten and ACC and theSEC a lot on their stream I mean,
you know, opportunities and TV.But I think what's going to make
(27:06):
people stay and watch is individual players, Like I really want to watch,
you know, a particular player playand support. And we were talking about
if we were to host this preseasongame so to speak, and people tuned
in, they're going to follow theseother universities. Not because they're they like
(27:27):
the universities, They're going to followthem because they like the individual players that
they like their style, of playor how hard they play, or how
athletic they are. And I thinkthat's where it's for us in volle ball.
It's gonna be really important to getsome stars out there and and then
promote them so then the general publicwho whoever's watching, is going to track
(27:49):
them down and get into the Bigten network and watch a game because they
want to watch a particular player play. Yeah. So you and John,
you guys are both at the finalor this year because it was in Tampa.
Yeah, tell me about that.I mean, what was Tell me
about the energy. Do you thinkit mimicked like what was going on at
Nebraska with the ninety two thousand orI mean, is the NCAAA kind of
(28:11):
presenting this as just with all thatkind of marketing, because as you were
talking about an environment, the largest, you know, it was the largest
crowd ever to watch an indoor NCAAvolleyball match on Friday Friday? Was it
Thursday or Friday? I remember,and alumals they actually went higher. They
(28:32):
actually had more people in the buildingand it was electric like electric both nights
and the you know, the firstnight the matches weren't great, the final
four and they weren't bad, butthey went in three and then the other
one went four. But I tellyou, even though it was a three
to zero win for Texas, thatstadium was rocking on Sunday. And you
(28:56):
know what I'm seeing that I'm excitedabout. I go back to when Mia
Hamm played soccer for USA, andyou gotta you go to soccer match at
a big stadium and there was filledwith twelve year olds with their faces painted.
And and I think when I watchedin Tampa, I'm seeing a lot
more of a younger crowd at theseevents. Young girls are going and watch,
(29:19):
giving them something to dream about,giving something to inspire towards, and
just seeing you know, other womenperforming at a super high level is motivating
to them. And again, that'sa whole like vallayball didn't really have that.
We used to be a crowd ofmiddle aged men watching and and yeah,
(29:45):
and now we're becoming a crowd offuture stars. And I think that's
that's going to really catapult our sport. So let's talk about the recruiting process
a little bit. We're going tochange the change the change. Spend here
for just a second. Your sonis playing at Santa Barbara and your oldest
daughter, your middle daughter is that'sJoe Whitney is going to Oklahoma next year.
(30:11):
So talk us through the recruiting process, like how different is the process
for a male than a female,And how different was it for you,
as a former coach for like thirtyyears at the collegiate level to be part
of the other side. And I'msure you were doing some recruiting for your
kids, but you know, whatwas that like and what's that process like?
(30:36):
Yeah, it was one of themore nerve wracking things that I've ever
been through. And and on bothends, I was trying to share a
narrative to a college coach, eitheron the med's side or women's side,
like this is what's special about mykid and she or he can do this
and they're gonna be a great teammateand blah blah blah. And they're looking
(30:57):
at me like, yeah, butyou know these other kids are better,
right, I'm like, no,no, no, my kids are really
good. I'm like, well,I can't say that. So I was
like I was stuck there. Andthen on the other side, I was
looking at my daughter or my soning, hey, you guys need to get
better. You're not good enough,but you're not being recruited by everyone,
(31:18):
and if you want to, youbetter get better at what you do.
And so then I was trying toget them, like we were doing privates
in the morning with my kid,and we're having these talking sessions about hey,
when you go to these tournaments,this is what you need to look
like on and off the court.It's just how you need to respond to
adversity. Trying to really coach themup, like cause I you know,
(31:40):
when you don't get a letter aday, you better be like, hey,
you guys just need to get better. So I was trying to get
them to be better. Meanwhile,they thought they were really good, and
so I'm like, Okay, noyou're not. You know, it's to
reality, like let's go. SoI'm kind of stuck in the middle there.
And meanwhile my wife, my wife'slike, hey, just don't have
(32:00):
fun. They're just having fun.They're playing stay out of it. So
hard for me. And your kidsare I mean, all three of your
kids are awesome kids, very differentfrom each other. But Joe, I
mean I remember Joe when he waslittle, like a little and with me
when she was little when I wasfirst at Santa Clara. So it's so
(32:22):
cute. Now when I see Joe, I'm like, oh my gosh,
she's tolder than you, John,and he's like a grown man now.
He's a really good volleyball player.So it's cute to hear you talk about
them, and you know things youwere trying to talk to them as well
about well did they find the rightfit? I mean, do you feel
that they found the right fit becausethey had to be students too, right,
(32:45):
students and athletes. Yeah, you'reright, Erica. And one of
the things we talked about is whenyou go to college and place or it
is the greatest time commitment that youhave there at the university and the people
you hang out with, you interactwith every single day. You live with
(33:07):
your volleyball team, you live withyour coaches. So you really need to
be in a in a spot thatyou that does fit, like you said,
and yeah, there's academics on sideof on as well. Right,
you know, my son is different. He's able to go to a lot
of different environments and still succeed.He kind of navigates as a loan wolf
(33:29):
type of guide. He can managewith everybody else and fit in where my
daughter and Whitney she it may bemale, female, or just or just
birth order, but my daughter Whitneyneeds a connection. She needs to know
that she's gonna go play for acoach who can really guide her and leader,
where my son Joe's like, I'mgonna go do this. And I'm
(33:52):
not saying one's it's going to bebetter than the other, but I do
feel like both of them found theright place for them to thrive and have
great success. Yeah, it's reallyexciting. So you're busy now going to
travel to see them play, andso what's that like just with your coaching
(34:13):
background now kind of being in thestands, can you actually sit in this?
I'm sure, mom, I wantto go out and watch, Mom
and dad because Mom, I'm sureit's like Joe Joe and you know like
that, and Dad is probably watchinggoing come on Joe. So, without
saying that out loud, what isit like? Well, first of all,
(34:37):
my son Joe goes to school inSanta Barbara. So driving down there
to a games like going to Heaven. I mean, it really is.
It's like we go to dinners.We enjoy it. But yeah, it's
hard for me. It's really hard. In fact, the en other day
we're driving home and Nancy's like,what are you doing? And I'm like,
I'm writing the coach a text.She's like, you're doing what I'm
(35:00):
writing the head coach a text aboutthe game. She's like, no,
you're not, Like no, Ithink yeah. Still yeah, so she
she's she put a kaibosh on it. I didn't get to send the text
will be the right thing. Andthen, as you know, Michelle,
(35:22):
my my daughter's going to go playfor a good friend of ours, Aaron
Mansfield, and I'm really I'm curiousabout what space he's going to allow me
to have. But it comes tovolleyball, start with zero zero. He
really respects your opinion. You arehis mentor in in in a sort of
(35:45):
way, so he very much respectsyour your But I would say start with
zero and go from there. Thatwould mean I think we're I need to
spend my energy on is is whatsec town? I want to visit and
watchball slash football? Right, SoI us, Carolinas. I think the
(36:15):
bottom here are going to be thenew bottom feeder of the West. So
well, wait what yeah, Okay, well, the campus is amazing,
John, so you come and youmake it your own determination. Okay,
have you been You've been to abunch of SEC schools, haven't you know?
(36:36):
I haven't you know when we werewhen we was at Santa Clara and
you look to see who you wantedthis schedule, the SEC was one of
the lower lower conferences in terms ofRPI assistance since not at the top,
not the very top, but everybodyelse, and it was it was tough.
You stayed away. We did goto Florida. He's got into well
(37:02):
you're going to see your former roommate, no coaching, right because I'm guessing
they're going to play Texas yep,oh yeah, yeah, okay, yeah,
So we'll spend some time in Austin, but I'd rather go to some
of the other places that I havenot been to, and yes, Alabama
being one of them. Tescaloosa forsure. We're going to be looking forward
(37:23):
to that. Cool. Oh there'sso many cool cities, like really,
yeah, SECS seems fun. Althoughthe football weekends, your your normal hotel
goes from like one fifty to overone thousand dollars a night, so easily,
yeah, you're going to have tofind some friends to stay with.
(37:47):
Yeah, that sounds exciting. Well, I think. I mean, so
do your kids like what so aftera match, like, are you able
to kind of talk to them alittle bit about the match and offer advice?
I mean, do you have thatdoes that kind of happen or do
you pretty much kind of stay outof that realm too and just let their
coaches handle that. Yeah, Erica, My we sat down rules a long
(38:10):
time ago when our kids were likefive, and it was I'm not allowed
to talk to my kids about thegame until they come to me and ask.
That was laid down by my wife. But he also coached coaches.
He coached coaches with me currently inclub and coach Joe in club and has
(38:32):
coached them for years. So howdo you know that was my That was
my way around her rules. I'msure it's a slippery slope and it just
looked for anyone in that position,but it also offers a good perspective and
you know, you develop your relationship. But and I'm sure you'll look back
(38:52):
on it. You know, there'stwo that I yeah, there's two things
that I tried to do and Iafter games, I try to read the
room, and I usually offer,like, let's go get a slurpee.
I call it, go getting aslurpee, and what flavor do you want?
And let's get on something that hasnothing to do with the event or
(39:13):
the game. And then lastly,I think about what I think is what
my Some of my best my bestconversations with my kids happened at ten o'clock
at night on the edge of theirbed and I sit down and the momsation.
Honestly, but no, that's whenthey kind of like have processed through
(39:39):
what they need to process through.They got a way, they got away
from the game, they answered alltheir social media stuff, they checked everything
out. Now they're like more presentand talk about what they went through,
and you know, I think theyI hope that they value some of the
things I try to give them perspectiveon. I very rarely tell them what
(39:59):
to do. We just kind oftalk about stuff, and that I think
allows them to or allows us tohave greater conversations. So, Erica,
this is something that you might notknow. John coaches Archbishop Mitty High School
team women's team, and his teamhas played Middy and Saint Francis are huge
rivals. And they have played eachother seventeen times, John and over the
(40:25):
last three years. And John's teamadvanced to the state finals with two wins
and Whitney, you know, sandwichbetween their Whitney's team win. So what
is the house like? You alwayssay, oh, it's no big deal,
but what is the house like?You know, seventeen times, that's
a lot of times to coach againstyour daughter. Yeah, and she has
(40:47):
I think eleven wins to my six, so that's helped, you know,
she kind of she will always havethat over me for the rest of our
lives, which is cool with everybodyin the family. We have a really
big extended family, immediate family.So if you go to one of our
volle ball games, we have twentyfive people there and they're all rooting for
(41:09):
Whitney, which is great, whichis the way it should be. And
so she has tremendous support from everybody. But when we get home, it's,
yeah, I just read the room. I'm either really quiet or I
just sit and listen, or allright, tell her outrade, you play,
you know, let's keep it simple. Eleven and six records, She's
(41:30):
won a lot except for those lasttwo at the end of the year that
wasn't fun. I was there forone of those that was really fun.
I was rooting for John and thefamily would look at me like, what
are you doing? So, oh, well, that sounds that sounds very
interesting. I'm sure just your dayto day life with all of that,
(41:51):
but glad that you can just bethere and kind of help them navigate through
everything. All right, Well,we were talking a little bit about you
coaching your kids, but obviously youcoach teams and coach club, You've coached
college. There's a lot going onfor these student athletes. Can you talk
a little bit about mental training andphysical training and how you know what you
(42:14):
emphasize and what's important and just tocompetitive success these days. Yeah, Eric,
that's a great question. And Ithink that today we need to coach
the person first before we can coachthe athlete, and with that we need
to prepare them to learn to acquireskills and how challenging it is, and
(42:38):
when it does become challenging, thedirection that we need to go in,
or how we think about it.So a lot of times, a lot
of the groups, you know,because in college you have a group of
four years. We had our girlsread some books, one of them being
a Growth Mindset by Carol Doick,just to give them perspective that it's within
(43:00):
their abilities to get better. Aslong as they put effort and intent in
that direction, then they're going toimprove. That does that mean to become
an All American note, but itdoes mean that they're going to show improvement
with whatever whatever they do. Andso what I see a lot of coaches
do is they coach the athlete firstwithout generating a basis of learning or relationship
(43:24):
with the players, and so theplayer does get better, but not as
quickly, not as efficiently, andwith a lot more struggles than when we
coach the person first and generate arelationship. And I've found in coaching high
school kids that has been so valuablebecause their insecurities are a little bit greater
(43:45):
than a more mature college athlete,so they really need this comfort space to
get better. And so I tookmy high school team and we meditate every
day. In the first five minutes, it's meditation, visualization, but it's
not about acquiring skill. It's justabout their emotional state, like where are
you right now? Are you areyou in the are you in your shoes
(44:07):
or are you in math class?Still, let's get present, let's be
open to learning for the next twohours, and let's go for it.
And so that prep work I thinkhas been really good. The other thing
is at the end of practice,do you do this with your high school
team too? I do with myhigh school team, and now I do
(44:28):
really do it with every team Icoach. But at the end of practice,
I say, hey, we're gonnatake a minute, and I just
want you to think about your greatestplace that you had today. It could
be one, it could be ten, but let's just think of one good
play that gave you that good feelingmoment and I want you to leave with
(44:49):
that. So then that the hopeis they carry that forward because I think
that there's an in sport or acquiringskill. We a lot of people say,
well, you'll learn from your failures, and I say, we learn
more from our successes and if somethingbecause because sport is a touch in a
field game, and if you feelsomething that you're doing it right, you
can go more towards that. Beingtold you're doing that wrong, it leaves
(45:14):
you up for some guess work tomake it right. So I want our
players to leave feeling good about something. I want them to get in the
car and their parent goes, howwas practice, Oh, man, I
had this amazing dig today. Iwant that as opposed to I don't know,
the coach said we had a badpractice, and the coach said we
weren't good. I wasn't great andI would need to get my elbow high
or whatever it is. It's like, no, no, no, I
(45:36):
just want you to say I havethis great hit today or dig today,
feel good about it. So hopefullyyou're going to want to come back to
practice the next day, and hopefullyyour parents walk away with like, my
daughter or my son did something goodtoday. This is all worth it.
So I'm trying to create that kindof environment with what we're doing. That's
(45:58):
a great answer, like a reallygetting in there. I agree. I
feel like kids at this age andI mean, I know we always say
generationally, oh, maybe it wasdifferent for us, but I think now
there's just a lot and for themto just always have something to take away
positive, I think that has togo a long way. And whether they
play in college or not, thoseare things that they'll use in everyday life.
(46:22):
And the fact that they can getthat outside their house, outside their
family unit with someone like you,because I'm sure it takes tremendous time and
patience. I think that's really tremendous. And one of the things that I've
learned or taken to my parenthood iscan we wake up in the morning and
get our kids think about what doyou want? Is your intent today of
(46:43):
how to be and not like it'smore in the world of like I'm want
to be I want to be focusedtoday, i want to be happy today.
I'm going to be joyful today,And like, Okay, let's sit
down as an intent and let's goforward with it. And if you do
it all the time, they're goingto eventually get it. Then they have
the personality and then at the endof the day, like how do we
reflect about our successes? So theygo to bed happy? And I'm telling
(47:07):
you it's really powerful. And Ithink of how we change the dynamics of
our kids and their self talk andtheir feelings about themselves and what they're doing.
But again, I think for usparents, it's work. It's a
lot of work to do that everyday, and sometimes we don't want to
get into that space when our kidwakes up, you know not, so
(47:27):
we gonna go cranky. We don'twant to have that. We don't want
to call them out for it.How do we get on the top of,
Hey, what do you want tobe today? And I think if
you do that, you can setthem off to school or to wherever they're
doing in a much better place.It's a great answer. I tell you,
John, you're you're a really goodcoach, but I think you're an
even better person. So I reallyappreciate you. I mean it, I
(47:51):
really appreciate you being on this podcastbecause you've given us some really good things
to think about and really good thingsto for our listeners to think about.
So absolutely. And your marketing,You've got that marketing mind amazing and like
I said, growth of volleyball,you've directly contributed to that in your own
way. So I can't wait tojust see it go. I know if
(48:15):
your mini teams or your club teamsplay the Mariah Carey Christmas song like your
Santa Clara teams used to before everysingle match during warmups Erica So Christmas every
day that Christmas season, before everysingle match, they played that song.
(48:36):
Did they do that at your currentor was that just a bronco thing.
You know what I love about coachingwomen and is that their approach to games
are a little bit different than boys. It's actually more fun and they find
joy and their their greatest joy ofit all is being together singing the same
(48:57):
song. That gives a teamm somuch unity and togetherness and they can all
just be who they are and bevulnerable and sing and guys would never do
that. Guys might do it after, but not before a game. So
like my MIDI team has their routineand their songs kind of brought into the
environment by the seniors club is theykind of have their stuff. But that
(49:22):
our team in two thousand and five, they used to sing all they want
for Christmas is a trip to theFinal Four, and they sang it all
year and that was because that wastheir goal and it came true and it
was quite amazing. It was offthe chart amazing. That's awesome. Yeah,
I think coaching, I think whencoaches figured that out. When I
was at South Carolina working with trackCurtis Frye had I think the number one
(49:44):
or number two recruiting class in thecountry, and the girls were always talking
about their lipstick and Mack this andMack that, and he was like,
I cannot stand all that. AndI was like, uh, maybe that's
how they have fun. Maybe it'sstress relief. And a couple more weeks
went by and indoors and he saidthe same thing, like, that's how
they have fun, that's your stressrelief. And he just let it go
(50:06):
and he was like, I justneed to step back. And those girls
were amazing. So you know whenI try to tap whatever they do,
if it's routine and we all doit together, right, then it becomes
our prep. And as long aswe can connect with your getting into your
ideal state of competitive mind that youwant to play in while you're singing a
(50:28):
song or putting on makeup or gettingyou know, your hair done, whatever
it is that they want to do, it's all good and we need to
then tie it to it's game dayand this is this is what we work
so hard for. Let's go andenjoy, let's prep for it, and
this is part of our prep.I love it. I love it.
Yeah, that sounds awesome. Well, John, it's been so great having
(50:52):
you on. It was fun talkingfootball and volleyball. But before we close
today we want to put you throughour spin cycle. So it's just you
know this quick answer question. Sojust say the first thing that comes to
your mind. Are you ready?I'm ready? All right, Here we
go. Joe Montana or Steve YoungJoe Montana Easy one buster posey or Jimmy
(51:22):
g Buster your posey. You gotthree world championships batting titles. I mean
you're salting the earth guy buster yourposy all day long. Morning person or
night I'll oh, mourning person.Yes, for sure, I already know
(51:42):
the answer to this question, butI'm gonna ask it anyway. Night in
or night out. I'm a nightin kind of guy. Yes, I
enjoyed my my my shutdown time withmy family all under one roof. It
makes me feel really good for sure. All right, last one, what's
(52:08):
for dinner? Well, these daysit's a salad. Hey, nothing wrong
with a good salad. So what'sin it? Though? How is it
prepared? It's lentils, it's vegetables. Oh yeah, we are heading away
(52:30):
from heavy meat diet to more vegetarianstuff. Okay, but I have one
more thing before we hang up,because we forgot to talk about it since
we brought his name up. Ourcatchers for our favorite teams are going to
be heading into the Hall of Fame. Will both Buster Posey and Yadi or
(52:53):
Molina be first ballot Hall of Famers? They both should be, for sure.
They're both great. They both haveleather teams to championships, and they
both have been if you talk toanybody who was on those teams said,
without a doubt, they were ourleaders and made the team be better at
(53:15):
baseball, right, That's that's whatthey did for their teams. I don't
know if they were great vocal leaders. I don't know YACHTI that well,
but Buster was a little bit morequiet. But I definitely ran the show
between the lines of the baseball baseballfield. Yeah, And I like to
joke with John that Buster retired ayear early so that he didn't have to
(53:35):
be on the ballot with YACHTI,because YACHTI is definitely a first ballot.
But I think with Buster's three championshipsMVPs, such a good hitter, such
a good guy, he will bea first ballot as well. I mean
three championships. How many how manyplayers have won three championships out there?
Still not a whole lot. Ohcurrently, Yeah, I mean to go
(54:00):
into the Hall of Fame. Thatyeah, answer that it's I think those
guys are no brainers, and theywere the They were the leaders of their
team, obvious on the field,coaches of their teams without a doubt.
Yeah, and lead looking very different. You know, Yachty had the next
tattoos, and you know, justYACHTI was such a good he was such
(54:22):
a good leader. And I thinkCardinal fans talk about YACHTI like giants fans
talk about Buster for sure. Yeah. Sorry, we had to geek out
there for just a minute. It'sfine. You guys can baseball geek out
all you want. However, Ido want to suggest that let's get on
our calendar's Louisville twenty four Final fourvolleyball. I think we need a spin
(54:44):
chicks for union. Let's do it. I'm in yeah, and I want
to hear all about how much youlike Tuscaloosa. You guys can't see Michelle's
face, but she's just clowning me. All right, Well, John,
it was so wonderful to meet you. Love volleyball, talk to like you
said, Louisville twenty four, I'min, I'm in the shell. That
(55:07):
was so much fun. I lovevolleyball. We really need to go to
the Final four next year, wereally do. John was like, he
just brings so much different perspective andI love some of his philosophies. Yeah,
he's definitely a deep thinker and hereally cares about the mindset of the
athlete. And I think that wasreally really clear. So should we get
(55:27):
T shirts it's say Louisville or Bustor the Final four next year? We
may need to, but it's gotme looking forward to well, all the
fall sports again. But just definitely, like I said, good perspectives,
very interesting. I love some ofhis ideas with marketing. I mean I
have no idea. His college roommatewas or no, I'm sorry. The
best man at his wedding was theTexas National championship coach. I mean,
(55:51):
I think of all the cool thingslike they must talk about, like just
from marketing and just volleyball in general. I mean that's kind of a dream
team right there. Yeah. Fun, it was really fun catching up with
him. He was a great guyto work with. I always loved hanging
out with him. I love hisfamily, so it's really great to catch
up with him. All Right,Final Four or Bust. So if you
(56:13):
enjoyed this podcast, like, leaveus a comment, ask us a question,
give us a guest suggestion, andvisit us on Let's See, We're
on X, We're on Instagram,What's our hand on Michelle book LinkedIn,
Where the spin Chicks, The spinChicks, Where the spin Chicks on everything,
and give us a follow And rememberspin Chicks. I know I always
(56:37):
spell it for you, but it'sc chi cks. You're welcome parents,
all right, See you next time.