Airey Bros Radio Ep. 395 — Coach Mike DeRoehn, Lakeland University Wrestling: Rebuilding the Muskies, S&C & D3 Culture - Airey Bros.'s Radio

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Airy Brose Radio, be there or b
Square because it's all killer, no filler. Hey, this is
Mike Drone and you're listening to Aery Brose Radio.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Ladies and gentlemen, Howdy n Aloha, we are here, you
were there, and you are now rocking with the best.
Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Aery Bros.

Speaker 3 (00:28):
Radio.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Tonight, we're stepping back on to the wrestling mat to
go belly to belly with coach Mike Drone, head wrestling
coach at Lakeland University and the director of Strength and Conditioning.
But before we get rolling, y'all know the drill hammer
that like button. Make sure you're subscribed on YouTube, drop
a comment, every view, review and share helps us grow
and get back to the sports we love. Be sure
to follow us on Instagram, YouTube, Spotify, and Apple podcast.

(00:51):
And as always, let's not forget why we're here. We're
here to shine a light on the programs, people, coaches,
and stories we wish we had access to growing up.
If you were so many you know is chasing their
dreams and athletics, wrestling, cross country, track and fielder beyond.
Please share this episode with them now let's lace up
the boots, get onto the matt and welcome coach Mike
de Rone. Coach Daron's highlights. He's been coaching college wrestling

(01:14):
for nearly twenty years. He's been at Lakeland University, University
Wisconsin Platteville, and the University of Wisconsin. Osh Gosh. He
rebuilt Lakeland's wrestling program, bringing stability and growth in his
second stint as a head coach. He's also, as I mentioned,
the director of Strength and Conditioning, creator of Musky Tough
training program for all Lakeland athletes, and he's known for

(01:36):
culture building community service projects like headlocking, hunger and staff
development leadership. Without further ado, it is an honored pleasure
to have you joining us this evening, Coach Mike Daron,
Welcome to the show.

Speaker 1 (01:50):
Thank you so much for having me. Man, I appreciate
you guys providing an opportunity for me and all the
small college coaches, both uh in wrestling and as well
as the cross country, track and field. I mean, we
all know that there's so many great coaches, great minds,
great ideas that we can learn from, and man, I

(02:14):
really just appreciate that you guys really emphasize that and
help spread that out because man, I mean, as I
found in my coaching career, I think a lot of
times because we maybe have less resources and maybe a
little less staffing and things like you got to wear
more hats and you got to really know how to
do a little bit of everything. And so you know,

(02:37):
I'm sure you guys hear that on your you know
when you're interviewing how many coaches like at those small
college levels, Man, they're really they're they're they're getting it done,
you know, and so there's a lot to be learned.
I always say success leaves clues, and so you know,
appreciate the opportunity to get on and maybe share some

(02:58):
of those things for coaches who tuning in.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
Yeah, we are excited. And Jimmy and I are both
strength and conditioning coaches as well. We spent some time
in the gym, so we're excited to talk to you
about that as well. Those are those are our passions, wrestling,
strength and conditioning, running cross country, track and field. You know,
we were both lightweights. I was a one hundred and
three pounds as a senior in high school. Jimmy was
a one hundred and twelve pounder as a senior, and

(03:23):
you know, we always talk about the things if we
could go back in time as far as strength and
conditioning goes, what we would tell our freshman selves so
that we could probably maybe not be one hundred and
three and one hundred and twelve pounds as seniors. Yeah,
we're excited to pick your brain about that as well.
But before we get too far into it, to get
along with it, anywhere you would like us to send recruits,
any parents that it might have, questions, just fans of

(03:45):
ours that like to support the people we have on
anything you got going on social media wise or otherwise,
the floor is yours.

Speaker 1 (03:53):
Thank you. Yeah, we are really active on Instagram. That's
lu Muskie's Men Wrestling if you look us up on there.
Try to share pretty consistent content. And then our you know,
university page, it'd be Lakeland Muskies dot com. And then

(04:13):
obviously you can just click on the wrestling page there,
so pretty simple, you know, ways to find us. I'm
on Instagram, but not quite as much as the the
team page and stuff, so I think that would be
a good place to start.

Speaker 2 (04:29):
Okay, awesome, excuse me. I had to work out today
with the kids. I'm a little horse, so I apologize,
but we will put all that stuff in the show
notes for you. And you know, we all have our
origin stories in terms of how we got into the sport,
might be you know, family tradition or otherwise. So we'd
like to start there with you. What is your origin
story into the sport?

Speaker 1 (04:52):
Yeah, I got started. I started late, actually started as
a freshman and I high school really inspired by I
had an older I have an older step brother who
he was involved in wrestling and he was having success,
and you know, it was kind of one of those

(05:14):
you know, classic stories of like I grew up watching uh,
you know, the w w F stuff and uh Saturday
Mornings was I can't remember what it was called, but
that was my kind of view of wrestling and love
the uh the von Erics that you guys had on too.
That was such a cool movie that they came out
a few years ago. On those guys. But uh, you know,
so yeah, I got uh you know, started just uh

(05:37):
following my stepbrother Kyle his in his footsteps and you know,
obviously quickly got up to speed on what real wrestling
is and had tremendous high school coaches and stuff that
I'm looking back on it it's like you don't even really,
you don't realize it because you're they're just your high
school coaches. You don't realize how great they are. My

(05:59):
first two years, I had a guy named camp Sinclair
who was he's a multi time Hall of Fame coach,
and and then we had Randy Cleary, who he was
a head college coach at Plymouth State College at the time,
and you know, he came down to Plymouth High School
and so heck, my last two years of high school,
I had essentially a head college coach running our room.

(06:22):
And he's now a Hall of Fame high school coach
as well, and so you know, they've just laid a
terrific foundation for me and clearly like what it means
to be a coach and doing things a certain way.
And so yeah, really really feel fortunate for that origin

(06:43):
story there, because you know, the longer that I coach,
I realized how special those guys really were and they
continue to inspire me, you know, to this day. It's
it's amazing.

Speaker 3 (06:56):
Did you grow up in New Hampshire, Yeah, yes I did.

Speaker 1 (07:00):
Yep, I know there's not a whole lot of wrestling
out there. You know, it's a you know, it's not
necessarily your traditional wrestling state. But I you know, I
was born in Connecticut, grew up in New Hampshire, and
uh yeah, just really fell in love with the sport
that way. And it was funny because my college coaches,

(07:22):
Chad Brackie and Dave Carlson, they were both actually from
Wisconsin and they were they were like young when they
came out to coach us at Plymouth State. They were
kind of like twenty something year old guys, and they
were young just like, hey, let's do it. And they
came out there and stuff, and so that was the
the connection to get me out here. When I got
done with school, my coach Chad Bracky had moved back

(07:45):
out here to Wisconsin and encouraged me to come out
and join him, and so that was what kind of
got me out here. And now I've been out here
for for years and consider it. I mean, this is home.
You know. So grew up in New Hampshire, but out
in Wisconsin though for many years now.

Speaker 2 (08:02):
So and who's got harsher winners? Sorry, oh man, I
don't know.

Speaker 1 (08:10):
I think I think Wisconsin actually, dude. Yeah, I mean
there's been some obviously, you know, New Hampshire gets gets
super cold and gets some snow. But man, I just
there's been some. You know, it's not quite as bad,
you know, but there just gets to be those like
every winter there's like that one or two weeks it's
just brutal, you know. And it's not so much the snow.

(08:32):
It's like, like, dude, it's it's with the wind chill.
It's fifty below and it's like, you know, it's dangerous,
you know what I mean. And I remember going to
a Packer game years ago and it's just like like
stomping on my feet to kind of keep them, you know,

(08:52):
keep keep keep the blood flowing type of thing and stuff.
So yeah, it does. It gets gets harsh, but you know,
like ye, man, another good motivating factor to stay in
the wrestling room. Yes, Sonny, and I always say it's
Sonny in seventy. You guys say it's Sonny in eighty.
So yeah, Sonny in seventy in the room. Dude.

Speaker 4 (09:12):
Yeah, did you start catching when you were in Wisconsin
for your master's degree?

Speaker 1 (09:20):
Yeah? So well I started out actually when I first
came out, I went to school as a PE teacher
and thought I would do that. It was kind of
one of those things, like looking back in college, I
was one of those guys that, like when I was
coming out of high school, all I knew was like, Okay,
I definitely know I want to go get a college degree,
and I know I want to keep wrestling. But then

(09:42):
I got into college and I didn't really know what
I wanted to be doing. And so, you know, like
most kids, you know, you're there wrestling and you're kind
of taking some of those of the variety of gen
ed courses and stuff, and you know, you start taking
some of those PE courses and I'm like, so you're
telling me that I could get paid to play dodgeball

(10:03):
and have my summers off. Sign me up and sign
me up, and so uh yeah, so it kind of
went the went the PE route and uh so started
out as a teacher and thought I would do that,
and you know, it was okay, but that that oh
that wrestling man, that wrestling. So I was out in
Wisconsin for a little bit and then I actually I

(10:25):
was working doing some working in the summers for Kenny Churto.
Actually after my first year of teaching, and uh you know, Kenny,
he'll work you to the bone.

Speaker 3 (10:36):
Man, he's a shirt on your bags.

Speaker 1 (10:40):
Yep, yeah, yep, He's got all kinds of stuff. But yeah,
I worked for Kenny that first summer after I was
teaching for a year, and and then he was like, hey, man,
you should, you should really think about coming on full
full time with me. And so I did that for
a little while. But you know, and that was cool
because you're working with like all the high level wrestlers

(11:01):
and great motivated kids and stuff. But you know, I realized, like,
you know, you're even the kids that are there for
like four six weeks, I mean, you're still not their coach,
you know, And there's something to be said for like
that relationship building portion of it and stuff and really
building that long term relationship and stuff. And so yeah,

(11:22):
I was I was working for Kenny, and I had
been on Intermatt and actually saw that Wisconsin Oshkosh they
had in their job thing it said they're looking for
an assistant coach for someone who has interest in eventually
becoming the head coach. And so that was posted by
a guy named Larry Marcianda and he's he's an amazing

(11:44):
he's a Hall of Famer too. Man, It's again, it's
just incredible. Have been super fortunate to be around these guys.
But he was a retired high school coach who basically
got talked into like trying to rebuild the uw Oshkosh program,
and so he agreed to take it for a couple
of years, was looking for a young guy, and so
I came out and you know, started coaching at u

(12:06):
WO and I I taught there my first year or two.
I was teaching during the day and then coming over
for practice and kind of realize, you know, if you're
gonna do that, you know, if you're gonna you know,
compete at a high level, it's gonna take a full
time focus. And so I kind of, uh took a
leap of faith and I opened a I started a club,

(12:30):
just a private club, and you know, left teaching and
just was coaching. So I could kind of make that
work by running my club. And then you know, coaching
at u WO that was just a part time, stipend
type job. And so it was one of those like things,
looking back on, I probably wouldn't like recommend it to
my guys because it's like, you're just you're just living

(12:51):
the wrestling gypsy life a little bit, and uh, you know,
just uh kind of following my passion and you know
that time, you know, it's like don't have any health
insurance and stuff, and you're limping off knee injuries and
everything else, but you're just you know, you're on the
mats every day doing what you love. And so yeah,
so that's kind of how I got my start in

(13:13):
coaching there at at UWO and eventually took over the
program for for coach Marcianda and you know, got my
my teeth wet there and or my feet wet, i
should say. But yeah, and even that that was like
a that was a part time coaching gig the whole time.
You know at that time that that program wasn't that

(13:34):
well supported. Ironically, like after my first year there, the
administration actually they tried to drop the program and we
were fortunate that we kind of rallied the troops and
we were able to actually coach Gable, Dan Gable actually
called the athletic Director, and that was when he was
kind of really on this push for like America needs

(13:56):
wrestling and like unsolicited.

Speaker 2 (13:59):
Man.

Speaker 1 (14:05):
No man, it was still wasn't like big Internet type
stuff going on, and you know, coach Cable came and
you know, he called and said, hey, what can I
do to help? And he kind of helped us get
some things established with our advancement office and so we
ended up creating an endowment fund to help to save
the program, and Coach Gable came out did like a

(14:27):
kickoff thing at UWO and so so that was a
crazy time just kind of navigating that whole thing and like,
your program gets dropped, but then it gets saved. But
then of course, you know, it's tough recruiting because people
are going like, I don't think they're gonna be you know,
you want to be careful going there. So that took
us a while to kind of get that stigma broken off.

(14:50):
But you know, that whole time that I was coaching
at uw O is just a part time job, and
so I was hoping maybe you know, I got my
masters and I was working some stuff, and I was
hoping that they would eventually, you know, see the value
in it. But they didn't, and so I ended up

(15:10):
moving on after that. But that's when I was also
I was coaching our Wisconsin Wrestling Federation. I was a
state coach, so I coached all the schoolboy cadet and
junior national teams and stuff, and so we're really fortunate
here in Wisconsin that like that position, that state coach
position at that time, that was a you know, a

(15:33):
part time position that paid enough between you know, running
my club coaching at u w O and then being
the state coach where I was able again just to
kind of piece things together so that I could coach
full time. So yeah, that's going back aways now, but
that was kind of my start in college coaching.

Speaker 3 (15:54):
Safe to say, you love wrestling.

Speaker 1 (15:57):
Oh man, Yeah, I can. I can't get away from it, man,
I actually uh not, you know, I don't know. We
bounce around a little bit. But like I you know,
I was at Osh Gosh, and I came to Lakeland
and I went down to u w Platteville, like you
guys mentioned, and after the COVID shutdown, you know, my

(16:17):
wife we actually met at Lakeland and then we went
down to Plattel together we started our family and stuff,
and the COVID shutdown, you know, brought us maybe about
three and a half four hours from her family, and
so when we didn't see them for a while, she
kind of just like most people said, Hey, you know,
I'd like to move back and you know, raise our

(16:39):
kids around my parents and just be closer, and you know,
like a lot of people did. He kind of re
evaluated some things after that COVID shutdown, and so it's
a long winded way of saying that I thought I
was going to be done with coaching. I thought I
was going to be done with wrestling. I moved back,

(17:00):
we moved back to her hometown here, which it's you know,
close to Lakeland. I took a job just as a
high school strength coach, and you know, I didn't have
any time to do just I did just a very little.
I had one like middle school girl that I did
some private lessons with. But for the most part, I
was out of wrestling for a year, and uh man,

(17:21):
that was not good for me. I uh really, you know,
came to it, it was. It was good in a
way because it helped me to really evaluate, like, dude,
I love wrestling and I don't. I don't do very well.
Like I kind of felt like I was like in
some ways, there was many days where I was like, dude,
what is wrong with me? Like I just am not

(17:42):
feeling the same, Like I just don't feel good, you know.
And I would just say like I just really missed,
you know, coaching and wrestling being every just everything, man.

Speaker 2 (17:53):
Just uh.

Speaker 1 (17:54):
So fortunately I was able to find a way back
into coaching. Might say that that in itself is part
of God's plan, the fact that we relocated up here
and it's about a half an hour away from Lakeland,
and so, you know, after that year away, I was
really missing it. And you know, it was like August

(18:15):
of twenty twenty two. I was like, well it was
probably late July, but it was August when I got started.
But I got a call from the athletic director just saying, akay,
now the coach that we had here is he left
pretty you know, unexpectedly, and it's close to the school
year and we're looking for a coach and we heard
you're back in the area. So we're wondering if you'd

(18:35):
be interested. And I told the athletic director, I'll see
you tomorrow, you know, I'll be there. And so no,
thank thankfully got an opportunity to come back, and it's
just been so much better. I mean even that you
know that year that I was out of coaching, and
then when this opportunity came up, I asked my wife
what she thought. She was like, yes, please, she's like,

(18:56):
go back to coaching. You are, you know, it's better
living with you when when you're a wrestling coach. So yeah,
I don't know, I'm I'm I know, I'm kind of
rambling and zig zagging all You're good.

Speaker 2 (19:10):
I'm curious how many wives have ever said you're better
as a wrestling coach.

Speaker 1 (19:15):
Yeah, I don't know, man, I don't know. You guys
interview all these coaches. I don't know if you if
you've heard that, if I if I'm the first one
or not. But uh, you know that that's actually a
really good point. I never really thought about that.

Speaker 2 (19:27):
Yeah, I mean just because it's such a you know,
if you're if you're doing it at a high level
and you're doing it with passion, it's it can be
it can take a lot of time, you know. And yeah,
you know, sometimes coaches their own families, you know, they
get they don't get as much as of your time,
you know, and that can that can be tough sometimes.
So yeah, you know, I've.

Speaker 1 (19:48):
Had to learn to balance that too, you know, and
and I'm always working on it. You know. It's uh,
certainly you know certain times, but you know, i'd always
say too, I don't know that like balance is a
really good way because it's kind of hard. I think
more in terms of like a color, like a spectrum.

Speaker 2 (20:06):
You know.

Speaker 1 (20:07):
It's like, you know, because especially when when wrestling is
such a part of who I am, and my wife
understands that she can appreciate that, and so thankfully, like
it kind of all like it blends. And certain times
of the year, you know, like the summer. I mean,
I was obviously involved in wrestling doing camps, but we
did a lot of family stuff here in the summer.

(20:27):
She's in education as well, and so got a lot
of flexible time in the summer when our kids are off,
and so we took advantage of that. And now we're
kind of we're back into the school year and kind
of that wrestling stuff is bleeding in a little bit more.
But you know, fortunate they have a very supportive wife
and my two daughters, you know, there they come to

(20:50):
you know, the home matches, and every once in a
while maybe jump on the bus with us to come
to a way meet, and you know, and I just
try to do some things too, like the way I
build out my schedule, Like, for example, this time of year,
you know, we train in the mornings, like we'll do
some strength conditioning stuff like Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and then

(21:11):
I so strategically, I'll like block off Tuesday and Thursday
so that I can make sure I make breakfast and
drop my kids off at school Friday afternoons, I can
pretty much always in the preseason here, I can get
out of work on time to go and pick them
up from school. And you know, try to really be

(21:33):
intentional about using our weekends before, you know, before we
start like full speed practice and then obviously all the
tournaments on the weekends. Is still trying to get some
like fall camping in and stuff like that on the
weekends with family, just because you know, otherwise I could
easily be gone every weekend too.

Speaker 2 (21:52):
You know, what are you cooking for breakfast? What's your specialty?

Speaker 1 (21:57):
Oh man, I am, I'm I'm kind of a breakfast guy. Usually,
like whenever we do family trips and stuff like, well,
we'll usually kind of divide up who's doing what meals,
and I usually do the breakfast and so it's something
I enjoy. I mean, obviously, during the school year, you know,
I'm doing probably some something quick, you know, some eggs
and toast. But this morning was some oatmeal with some

(22:20):
blueberries and a little brown sugar for my for my
kids and for my wife. But a lot of times
I like a little oatmeal with the with some almonds,
you know, just just stuff like that, you know. I Uh,
I actually on way in days for my team that
that's something if you ask my team, like you say, hey,
what what's your favorite post weighing, uh meal, Well, coach

(22:44):
Daron makes blueberry pancakes, and so uh I got to
bring the griddle. You know. It's like the guys are
going to the skin checks, I'm stirring up the batter
and throwing them in and start making those pancake man,
and I'm dropping in the blueberries, and uh you know
that's something that the guys really enjoy, and so I

(23:06):
like doing that.

Speaker 2 (23:07):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (23:08):
I kind of spoiled them one time last year after weighans,
we were at a tournament and I made uh I
call them Mike griddles. Instead of a Mick griddle, I
call it a Mike griddle. Where it was you know,
a nice little little little egg, a little turkey sausage,
and then the uh make the little pancakes as like
the instead of an English muffin, you know, and uh,
you know, try to have something like that. So yeah,

(23:30):
I love uh, I love cooking breakfast. And whether it's
for my family or or for my team, it's kind
of a cool thing to do.

Speaker 3 (23:37):
Coach.

Speaker 4 (23:37):
You ever have kids from other teams getting on and
maybe steal jacket to get a get a sandwich.

Speaker 1 (23:44):
No, but uh, but I do get some looks and
and I'll like especially when they're coming back from the
weighans and like right when they hit you know, usually
the weigh in areas like some back racquetball court or
something at in the field house, and like they'll come
back in and I can just tell, like they can
smell the pancakes coming through, and I see them turn
their head. They're like, what the heck, dude, and then

(24:06):
they're like, coach, that coach is making pancakes, and uh,
you know, I mean it's you know, I haven't gotten
any any transfers out of the deal just yet, but
you know, maybe they're like, dang man, that guy's that
coach is making pancakes. So maybe maybe one of these
days it'll be enough to entice a kid come on
or something like that.

Speaker 2 (24:26):
I don't know, I mean that is at first, I think, Jim,
I don't know if we've had any coaches that cook
post away and breakfast.

Speaker 4 (24:33):
Ritch I'm seeing a short dock, uh you know, coach
coach getting kids weighing in and then cooking breakfast and
then coaching on the side of the man.

Speaker 3 (24:42):
I see a little dock there, don't you.

Speaker 2 (24:44):
Yeah, get them up for it.

Speaker 3 (24:46):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, yeah.

Speaker 1 (24:48):
You can check that stuff. Look on our look on
our Instagram page, and you can kind of see, you know,
it depends like well, I'll mix it up. Like a
lot of times they'd like the blueberry pancakes. But at
the time sometimes I get, you know, hey, who wants playing?
Who wants blueberry? I'll slice up some bananas or I'll
slice up strawberries, uh whatever, and I'll say, you know, hey,
whatever you guys want. I think that's an important thing too.

(25:10):
It's like, especially at the D three levels, providing them
with a great experience and uh, you know kind of
definitely when I was a younger coach, I was more
like we got to get ready to wrestle, and all
you know, you're in this dumb you know, you're young
and dumb and your things ready to go right ready,
get get ready to warm up. You know it's like,
well we got two hours, dude, just just relax, Like

(25:33):
let's uh get the guys to come off of the
weighings and have a nice breakfast. And that's something that
they talk about, you know, and uh, I think that's
that's important, is you know, beyond just the the wins
and losses, is some of those things that uh, that
make it a really good experience for for the kids
because they are working their butts off for us, and

(25:53):
you know, it doesn't take that much to to try
to do something a little different and you know, just
provide them a good experience.

Speaker 4 (26:01):
You know, there's two things I want to go back
to that you mentioned, But I do want to address
what you just said because Rich and I have had
those experiences where we were those young dumb coaches and
it was go hard, go harder, no fun. Only if
you went in it's fun, and then as an older gentleman,
you wind up. I don't think that works any these up,

(26:24):
So I appreciate that. You also mentioned working for Ken
Chertal in the summers, and I will say I've said
this before. I don't think you're a coach or a
wrestler unless you've worked at least one of Kenny's camps.
I think it's right a passage in the wrestling community.
You mentioned getting to work with athletes and stuff. You know,

(26:47):
you don't get to spend as much time as them
if you were coaching. But I will say because of
those camps, I saw a lot of national champs, NCAA,
all Americans, even Olympians when they were when were tikes
because I was coaching the camp. So I think there's
good and bad. You know, I got paid in T
shirts and laundry bags, but the experience is worth its

(27:09):
weight in gold. That's what I will say about working
one of Kenny's camps.

Speaker 1 (27:13):
Yeah, no, for sure, man. I mean I I learned
so much, you know, whether it's just being around like
all those I mean I was a Division III college
wrestler and so and you don't even know what you
don't know you're coming out and uh. And like I said,
I had great coaches, but they were pretty much you know,
your your hey, double single high crotch stand up. You know,

(27:34):
pretty solid fundamentals. And I mean as an athlete, I
remember going, uh right, soon after college, going and working
for Kenny and then learning some different things that really
fit for me as an athlete. I mean I was
past that time, but like learning some like the different
variations on slide bys and throwbys and you know, mixers

(27:55):
and just you know, other other things, and then being
around such high level technicians. It was it was awesome.
And man, you know, like you said, I mean, I
love wrestling, and so heck I didn't. I thought it
was awesome, right, I mean we stay in a hotel,
and you know, did you guys ever did you work

(28:16):
as camps? I could get in those coaches meetings.

Speaker 2 (28:18):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (28:19):
Then he would always buy some pizza and stuff, and
we'd be talking wrestling there.

Speaker 3 (28:23):
There was none of that. We went up too.

Speaker 4 (28:25):
So he came down to my coaches club and I
worked that one, and then over Thanksgiving break we went
up to his place where he had the club and
he had a bunch of kids in for like a
Thanksgiving day camp, and that's where we worked, and we
stayed in uh that hotel everyone has stayed in and
stayed college.

Speaker 1 (28:43):
Yep.

Speaker 3 (28:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (28:44):
And the other thing I wanted to talk about is
you mentioned when you went to college. You went to
college because you wanted to get a degree and you
wanted to wrestle. And I did the same thing, and
I didn't know what I wanted.

Speaker 2 (28:58):
You just went to collet for rest to I wanted.

Speaker 4 (29:01):
To get a degree. Like, I don't think I didn't
want to get to a degree. It might have took
me twelve years to graduate, but I went to college, right,
So I say all that is, I didn't know what
I wanted to do when I went to college, and
you said you didn't know what you wanted to do.
How do you talk to kids about that? Either in
the recruiting process or when you have them in the

(29:21):
room and you realize, hey, this major isn't working for you,
and I don't know what I want to do.

Speaker 3 (29:26):
Well, I'm eighteen years old. I just want to wrestle.
How do you address that?

Speaker 1 (29:32):
Yeah, that's a great question, man. I always tell kids, like,
as nice as it is, you know, you're on a
intro call with a kid and ask them what they
want to study and stuff, like they'll tell you stuff
but I always say, hey, you know, just keep an
open mind. I don't know what the numbers are, but
you've probably heard it's it's probably fifty to fifty that

(29:55):
some kid, you know, they pick a major just because
they don't know what else to stay. Everybody, you know,
from their family and their coaches and whoever at church
and whoever, say oh, oh, you're going to the school,
what are you going to study? And they're like, ah,
I don't know. And they probably just picked something randomly
right or like or somebody told them they were you know, hey,

(30:16):
you're good at math, and you should think about engineering,
so like, yeah, I'll be an engineer or whatever.

Speaker 3 (30:20):
And uh so.

Speaker 1 (30:21):
Many times they get in and they just start taking
classes and they're like, well, this sucks. I don't want
to I don't want to do that, you know. And
so you know, I like to explain to kids on
the front end think about it a little bit like
as you're exploring schools, you know, it's kind of like
you want to go to a restaurant that you can

(30:44):
open up the menu and be like, man, there's a
lot of good things to have here, Like I could
get a burger, but I kind of want to get
a casadilla, but you know at the same time that
pasta district's pretty good and you want to you know,
you make sure that you go somewhere where there's you know,
you know, there's going to be something good to eat there.
And so when you're picking your colleges, you make sure

(31:05):
we're looking at the majors and being like, Okay, well,
you know, I do have an interest in you know,
criminal justice. My uncle's a cop and whatever, and I
really respect him. But you know, but my mom works
in healthcare and maybe there's a health care management or
you know, something along those lines where so just make
sure that they're coming in with, you know, even if

(31:27):
they're saying like, oh man, I've always wanted to be
an engineer. And at uw plat though most of our
team was engineers, like probably seventy five percent, but there
were so many kids that came in and what they
thought an engineer did was was not the case. And
many times then they would have to pivot and they'd

(31:48):
end up doing something like a kind of related to engineering.
But a lot of times it was something that was
in the realm of like our building construction management major
or UH oh, we had this like manufacturing technology major
that was you know, it had elements of that, and

(32:09):
so I just think it's important that you communicate on
the front end with that stuff. And and then also,
you know, like you say, even it's maybe that kid
after his freshman year, you know, as you're going through
obviously you're going to have your individual meetings with guys
throughout the year and checking in, and I think it's
important to kind of like have a honest conversation with

(32:33):
him and say like, hey, man, like you're you're eighteen
or nineteen, and you know you're at a spot like
what what would you love to do? Like not what
you have to do, but if you're thinking, like, man,
I would love to do this every day, Like we
all have to work, and you know there's there's always
some things that aren't you know, no, no work situation

(32:55):
is absolutely blissful, perfect right, But it's like all right,
if you you're at a time in your life where
you get to pretty much decide, hey, that's something I
think would be a really cool thing and that's something
I would have all passion for. And so that's what
I encourage guys to do. And you know, case in point,
I was thinking about one of my freshmen from last year,
who you know, he's uh, he was studying business, probably

(33:19):
because somebody said, well you got to pick something. So
he business sounds good, sure the way people can stop
asking me. But uh he said, well, I love like
charter fishing, and I'm like, yeah, that's cool. Like so
that should give you direction, Like that's why you're pursuing

(33:39):
this business degree. So now it's like you're not taking
this class because you have to. It's like, dude, like
for every time when you're in these classes, picture like, Okay,
how could I apply this to my charter fishing business? Right?
And it just gives you that that purpose and that why.
And so I mean, I think that's an important thing,

(34:02):
is just to be having that conversation and just helping
them maybe kind of understand and connect the dots a
little bit. You know, We've got some guys that are
in like a like a sport management major, and I'm saying, dude,
I mean wrestling clubs. Now, that's that's a very normal
thing for wrestling people to do. And so if you

(34:23):
you know, you're not just taking these classes just to
take them. If if you want to make a career
out of wrestling, you're going to want to have some
some business education and some acumen, and so you know,
making sure that they really then you know, have that
like that that direction of where they're going to, that destination,

(34:44):
and it adds a little bit of some why behind
the classes they're taking. So that's I don't know, just
my thoughts off the top of my head.

Speaker 2 (34:54):
Coach with it from uh from Lakeland's perspective. You know,
you mentioned at Platform you had like a construction management
and we've talked to the coach at Carney in Nebraska
they had a similar that and you know, again we
didn't know about majors like that coming out of high school.
You know, it was like your standard. You know, we
come from an education family, so it was like teaching

(35:17):
was the thing. What what?

Speaker 1 (35:19):
What?

Speaker 2 (35:19):
Are there any unique things at Lakeland that that maybe
set it apart from some of the other schools in
the area or in the country.

Speaker 1 (35:26):
Yeah, absolutely, So one of the most unique things about
Lakeland in general. I'm really glad that you asked that,
because so Lakeland is the only school in the Midwest
that offers what's called cooperative education for every major and
so you can at Lakeland. What's really unique is that

(35:50):
you can. We have a bunch of partner companies, but
it could be just something that you're you're already aware of.
But our students can apply for a job that's kind
of related to their eventual career and they can earn
academic credit for that while they're also getting paid and

(36:12):
obviously they're building a really great resume on top of that.
And that's for every major. So like, we had some
guys when I was coaching at UWP that were engineers
and they would do a co op, but that like
took them away from campus. Like a lot of times
we'd have to like say, all right, well you're not
going to wrestle that year because you're doing co op.
They could be in a whole other state working as

(36:33):
like a full time engineer, and and Lakeland kind of
has it all blended in, so it's more of like
you're working a part time job. And so you know
when I say it's for every major, Like we've got
guys that one of our guys that graduated last year
in accounting, he worked as an accountant while he was
learning to become an accountant. And I mean the dude

(36:56):
was getting paid while he was doing it, and so
he ended up graduate in three years because he was
able to fast track it because he was getting his
academic credits and while he was doing that. He is
my second guy in two years. That they second guy
that graduated in just three years because of that co
op program and they're they're working, so you think about
saving money, you know, kind of stinks for uh, you know,

(37:19):
I want him to obviously wressell for four years, but
they're not all wired like we are that are like, well, dude,
of course I'm gonna stay for a fourth year and wrestle, right.
But yeah, so that's kind of like like the most
unique thing, and so uh, we do have a number
of very unique majors too. Lakeland is uh is really

(37:39):
kind of has been known for, like, you know, doing
some things a little bit different. So actually Lakeland was
the first school years ago that offered like online classes
when that was like you can't do that, you know
that they they were the first Universe college that did that.
But you know, beyond your traditional like you know, we

(38:02):
have obviously our business and accounting and uh, you know,
criminal justice and things like that, but we also have
stuff like like a hospitality management major, or we have
a food safety and quality major. You know, so there's
there's a just a variety of those things. And again

(38:22):
so even in that you know, if you're in that
maybe it's food safety and quality, you know, you might
be you're obviously taking your classes, you're taking your gen eds,
you're taking some actual like like you know, science classes
on food science. But then you might also be working
for like we have versus Johnsonville, which they have brats.

(38:50):
You know, if you're Wisconsin, you got to get the
bratwars going right, And so uh, Sargento Cheese is another
partner company. Like those are local companies, are like within
ten minutes of Lakeland, and so they'll hire a lot
of our students to work while they're you know, getting
those degrees. And so it's really unique from that standpoint.

(39:13):
It's just it's a nice thing this like for kids
too to you know, going back to Jimmy's question about
like what about the kid that doesn't doesn't quite know
like what they want to be doing. Well, if you
have an opportunity early on to work in what in
the career field that you think you want to work
in and then you get into it and you're like, oh, dude,

(39:36):
this is not what I want to do. Well, good, like,
now you got that that trial run as opposed to
you know, just blindly just going through the motions for
four years getting that degree and then you know, maybe
you do an internship, you're the spring of your senior
year and then you realize like, oh no, what did
I do type of thing. So I think it's a

(39:57):
very unique thing at Lakeland offers so that you know,
kids can they can get all the benefits of that,
but they can also figure out maybe that's not what
they don't want to do, you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (40:09):
Yeah, I was gonna I was gonna say that as
a physical education teacher and a special education teacher, I think,
you know, you get to your student teaching, but like
you said, that's your senior year or so, you know,
it's tough. You get to that point you're like, this
is a little bit crazier than what I thought it
was going to be. You know, it'd be nice as
an education major if you got some of those experiences

(40:31):
early on, or they encourage you, Hey, you know you're
this age, you can start substitute teaching, we recommend that
you kind of come in, get a feel for it,
understand it. And I think that would be from an
education perspective, I think that would be good for overall
for teachers.

Speaker 1 (40:45):
Yeah, I had a guy who this guy it's a
really unique story, but this guy's name was Eddie Terris,
and he he had no business even wrestling in college
in the first place. He was from the Upper Peninsul, Michigan,
and he was a bad high school wrestler. He was
just one of those guys that had a passion for

(41:06):
it and basically just came, you know, he had he
had already gotten admitted to Lakeland on his own. I
didn't even know who he was. He just came and
was like, Hey, I love wrestling. I'd like to give
it a shot, and whatever. I'm like, all right, you know,
we'll give you a shot. And the poor bugger, I
think he got pinned like twenty times as a senior
in high school, like in the in the up, like
it's not like he's in PA or New Jersey, right

(41:26):
like I mean, and he'd be the first to tell
you like wow, like he didn't really know what he
was doing. And but man, what a dude like he
just uh, he came to to Lakeland and yeah, he
I usually I have n't come back once or twice
a year and just kind of talk to my team.
But his kind of message, I'm just gonna keep showing

(41:56):
up and seeing what happens. And then you know he's
obviously he keeps showing up, and you know, you're around
some better partners and getting some coaching and things like that,
and he's getting kind of, you know, gradually better. Not
lighting the world on fire, but definitely getting better. And
you know, we'd bring in another recruiting class and it
was well, this guy was a you know, an all
state kid, and this guy was this and then maybe

(42:18):
you know, you know, eventually, you know how as it
goes with some schools, kids will come in and they
changed their mind or whatever. And Eddie kind of would
always be like looking around and be like, hey, where
where was that state champ the coach brought in? And
you know, maybe the guy faded away or whatever and
found his back door, but Eddie would just keep showing up, man,
and uh so you know, you fast forward where the

(42:42):
guy ended up just continuing to work and by his
senior year It's one of those kind of great stories
where he actually qualified for the national championships and you know,
was qualifier for the D threes. And but my point
in sharing this story is he got to his last semester.
He was a criminal justice major, but thought he wanted

(43:05):
to be a social worker and then he got to
that spring of his senior year and was like, oh shoot.

Speaker 3 (43:12):
And.

Speaker 1 (43:14):
Then he kind of went on a little bit of
a you know, a crazy path afterwards. And it was
a little like unfortunate because I mean this is going
back quite a few years ago now, but you know,
it was a little unfortunate. But he, Uh. The crazy
thing is he's such a great story of resilience, not

(43:35):
only for like what he did as far as sticking
with it and wrestling, but as he continued to just
navigate his way through life. This is a sign and
this is it's definitely a twenty twenty five thing that
you can do anything in twenty twenty five. And so
what Eddie does now, this will be something that you

(43:56):
guys can look up and if you're a listener, if
you're into this stuff, I don't I don't do like
video games and stuff, but you know, obviously that's pretty popular,
even though you know, adults and stuff. And so Eddie
learned how to ride a unicycle, and so he would
like ride around campus on his unicycle and everybody would
always be like, there's that wrestling kid. You know, he

(44:17):
was so cool like he was. He'd ride it along
the sidelines at like our women's volleyball matches in a
singlet and he'd be raising the roof and people would
be like, oh my gosh, this is crazy. Right, well,
you want to talk about like like just making the
most of your situation. So Eddie got really good at
riding a unicycle, and he also is was pretty good

(44:38):
at playing like Call of Duty. And so right now,
what he does is he has a YouTube channel called
ed Boy Gaming, and I think he has like over
two hundred and fifty thousand subscribers. And what he does
on a daily basis is he plays Call of Duty

(44:59):
while riding a unicycle. And his whole thing is his
whole like shtick is I eat chair players for breakfast.
So he talks trash to people that are playing Call
of Duty while they're sitting in a chair. And he
has all kinds of like followers and and he just
like he does it up and he was always like
a character anyway, just an amazing personality. But so you know,

(45:24):
I'm probably not using that in the recruiting pitch in
the living rooms with with the moms and dads, like dude,
you could ride a unicycle and play video games for
a living, but you know, it truly is a sign
of like, man, you can pretty much do anything. And
you know, I'd like to think that, you know, whether
it was it may not have been his h necessarily

(45:46):
all of his academic the courses that he took. Obviously,
he came out of Lakeland as a well rounded person
and he had the sense of resilience that you know,
I'm just gonna keep showing up. And he did it
in wrestling, and he kept showing up in life, and
he was in real estate a little bit, and he
was doing a little podcasting and stuff, and then he
he because he kept showing up, man and putting in

(46:08):
the work. Now he's found this and he's got one
of those uh, I don't know, I think it's like
a platinum one of those YouTube I'm like, this is amazing,
you know, and so what a great story of resilience
and then also it's like one of those things that
I mean going back to the you know, what do
you tell a kid, Well, you never know what you're
gonna do. Man, you don't know you can you know,

(46:28):
I often say when when man plans? God laughs. And
so you don't know if you know you're gonna get
that degree, but where it's gonna take you, and it
might not always be. I mean, like I said, I
went to school to be a PE teacher and did
it a little bit, but I kind of like, you know,
I've been coaching wrestling, and I guess in a way
it's like I'm I'm kind of a PE teacher, but

(46:49):
I only teach that one unit, that wrestling unit, and
we just teach that all the time. But I mean,
as you guys know, you use your your teaching degree
when you're planning practices and building out your your program,
your curriculum, right, and so you know, I think it's
it just goes back to that idea of you know,
I if you have a passion for learning, education and

(47:13):
stuff and you do want to wrestle, you may not
end up in that one singular career path, but the
courses and the people you meet and the life lessons
you learn from participating in the sport are that's all
part of your college education and it's gonna stick with

(47:34):
you if you do it right, if you have if
you're around the right people, it's gonna stick with you.
And who knows where the heck you can take you to?

Speaker 2 (47:41):
You know, rich what's Armato eighty success has just shown up?

Speaker 1 (47:48):
Oh that's awesome. I didn't know that I did. I
hadn't heard that before, but yeah, Eddie, you guys should
look him up. Man, he's uh, he's got quite a
quite a thing going on there.

Speaker 4 (47:58):
So so coach, we can talk to y'all on.

Speaker 3 (48:02):
We know you got a family.

Speaker 4 (48:03):
We're fifteen minutes in and we haven't even got back
gotten into the wrestling team. What the team's looking like
this year? How is it being back? Al aland.

Speaker 1 (48:16):
Yeah, well, uh, this year, we're excited about the group
of kids we have. You know, I didn't talk about this,
but like, did you guys realize I'm in my second
stint as the head.

Speaker 2 (48:27):
Coach at Yeah?

Speaker 3 (48:29):
I said, yeah.

Speaker 1 (48:30):
So when I was coaching the first time, we had
a really you know, a solid, competitive, healthy program, not
lighting the world on fire, but really a competitive team
for sure. And then I was coaching at uw Platteville,
and uh, when I came back a few years ago,
the coach that was there, when he left, a bunch
of the kids that he had recruited, they left too,

(48:51):
and you know, it was in it was in rough shape.

Speaker 4 (48:54):
Man.

Speaker 1 (48:55):
I think we had to be in the least competitive
team in the nation. I don't say the worst, because
the guys that we had were awesome, but I mean
when I took the program over, we literally had three
wrestlers to start with. One of them was a one
forty one pounder, one was a one eighty four, and
one was a one ninety seven. And so I I

(49:16):
basically had to figure out I mean, I'm like, all right,
well I look to wrestle. I guess I can be
that fourth guy. So everybody has a partner. But uh,
you know, honestly, I had to obviously find somebody about
that kid's size. And so, you know, obviously I'm in
the weight room as a strength coach, and I'm walking
by the weight room one day the windows and I
see this this small guy, but he's got the weight

(49:39):
belt with the forty five pound plate around his waist
and he's ripping out like really good pull ups, man,
like top to bottom, full range of motion. And I'm like, okay,
well that guy's probably a wrestler. Like no, you don't
see some kid on the golf team doing that, you know.
And so I went in and asked him, hey, man,
you are a wrestler. His name was Shoeishi Hashimo. He

(50:00):
was an exchange student from Japan. And he said no,
that was no, I don't wrestle him. Well, do you
want to learn? And he was a junior in college. Man,
and you know, long story shorty, he he joined the team,
and so I had He was about one hundred and
forty five pounds, and so I had a practice partner.

(50:22):
And with only four guys that first year, man, I
could pour the time into him. And I mean it
was rough, dude, it was. It was really rough starting out.
But like I said, God bless them, man, those guys,
they all stuck with us. They all graduated. Two of
them graduated in three years. What's cool too, is one

(50:43):
of them he was gone last year and thought he
was ready to be done. He came back this year.
He's getting his masters, and he was like no, like
I need to be I need to be back. I
want to use my last year of eligibility. And so
that was our start. Man, it was rough. You know,
we did not compete very well, but we obviously brought
in you know a couple of recruiting classes, and you

(51:04):
know that, like I called that first year that I
was back that twenty I think it was twenty two
to twenty three. I called that like year zero because
I started in August, didn't recruit the team or whatever.
So then we brought in that first group of kids
and got a lot of you know, solid, really solid wrestlers.
We've been really building with a lot of kids from
like in northern Michigan stuff there. There's a lot of

(51:28):
kids there. We're getting some Wisconsin kids, we get a
few Illinois kids, and now slowly those guys have you know,
they're juniors now and so they have some experience and
it's been really fun. Like I mean, we're not lighting
the world on fire just yet or anything. But again,
when I go back to like that year that I

(51:48):
stepped out of coaching, it was really good for me
to get a better perspective on focus on process, recognize improvement,
and eventually we're going to celebrate achievement. But it's like,
you know, I don't I don't beat myself up now.
It's oh geez, we're not even then the top twenty
five in the country. I'm a terrible coach. I don't
know what I'm doing or whatever. It's just more like

(52:10):
just you know, hey, let's let's do the best we
can with the guys we have. And uh, we've been
getting better, you know, last year, so we went with
that that group of guys, they became sophomores, and so
from there, like freshman year to their sophomore year, we
improved as a team dramatically. We uh we improved like

(52:32):
literally every statistical category on our team from year to year.
We improved our number of wins and pins by over
one hundred from one year to the next. And so
you know, now that class of guys is juniors, and uh,
you know, it's whatever. We just started school back up.

(52:53):
And so you know, he always got it as a coach.
In the beginning of every season. I feel like, you know,
I got to kind of management excitement a little bit.
But I mean, because they're juniors, they've stuck with us.
I think we're just we're going to continue to be
inch and along we brought in a really great class
of kids too. That's something I'm really pumped about is

(53:13):
now those those juniors can mentor those freshmen because even
you guys know, like even if it's a kid, he's
a couple of time All state whatever, we got a
kid who was an All American in Fargo. There's still
a learning curve to collegiate wrestling and even just how
to how to do school, like how to be a
college kid and all that. So we have those juniors
now that can mentor these young kids, and uh, you know,

(53:35):
I don't know, we're gonna we're gonna, you know, work
work hard and work smart, and we're gonna see how
good we can get.

Speaker 4 (53:47):
In that year that you took took off, you said
that you kind of calm down a little bit as
far as, oh, we don't have to be top twenty five.
Did that happen in that year or was that happening
along the way and that year just gave a little
bit more gratitude for being in the room.

Speaker 1 (54:04):
No, it was, it was again, it was it was
probably all part of the plan because that last year
I was coaching at uw Platteville, I feel like I
had lost perspective on what I was doing. I mean
in some ways. I mean I just I was really
hard on myself, and you know, I know we were

(54:26):
you know, we finished the season twentieth twenty second somewhere
in the national rankings, and you know, we had a
really competitive team. We had like eight guys that were
all region and we're in a highly competitive region. But
we didn't qualify anybody to the nationals that year. And
so I was like, oh, I'm a failure as a coach.

(54:49):
Like I even believe they stick, they keep me around.
You know, when you're in it, you're so like blind
being like how many coaches would love to be in
the top twenty in the country in the national rankings
or you know, have a lot of that stuff. And
it was when I when I stepped away, it helped

(55:09):
me to kind of process that stuff a little bit more.
And then so when I did take over at Lakeland,
I think that really helped. Where I'm not I'm not
judging total success just based on results. I mean, like everyone,
we're trying to rebuild and get back to being a
nationally competitive team for sure, but you know, I'm I mean,

(55:30):
we're hustling, and I'm like I said, I'm excited about
the kids that we have. But you know, part of
that process and stepping away was just regaining a healthier
perspective and being grateful for you know, number one, just
being like, dude, you're in the wrestling room, Like, man,
how awesome is that you're in there. I'm still wrestling
around with college kids. I'm like, having a healthier perspective

(55:53):
on things, even as simple as as crazy as this
is going to sound like like I might get more
fired up for the road trips than the kids do
because I'm like, dude, you're gonna have a charter bus.
We're gonna watch DVDs and they're like, what are these?

Speaker 3 (56:07):
Right?

Speaker 1 (56:08):
You know, We're we're gonna have some Jimmy John's. We're
gonna go. I mean, it's awesome, dude, and uh, you
know we're traveling around. It's like just just getting a
better perspective on the whole picture and what we're doing.
And you know, of course, in the matches, you know,
you're in the gym in the corner, I'm fired up,
and you know, of course, I want to I want

(56:28):
to succeed, and I want the guys to succeed. But uh,
you know, I'm not going to be beating myself up
anymore for you know, just focusing on the process and
plugging away and doing the best you can and and
like I said, just recognizing, you know, the the good
things that are happening regardless, you know, not not just
like well, if you're at the national tournament, you're good

(56:50):
and if you're not, then you're bad. It's like, no,
there's there's a lot a lot of other metrics and
things that we look at.

Speaker 2 (56:57):
So it's so important to have that gratitude perspective when
in life and in general, but especially coming back into
a programer starting a program, you know, celebrating the small
successes and focusing on the process. It makes such a
huge difference in just your overall day to day well

(57:18):
being in kind of state of mind. I'm curious, can
you touch on musky tough?

Speaker 1 (57:25):
Yeah, So that was actually part of when I was
at Lakeland the first time. So I was they didn't
have like a strength coach back then, and so being
the wrestling guy who was in the weight room, they
were like, hey, you should go get certified and then
you can be our strength coach. I was like, all right,
so I did that, and so that's I kind of
got that launched. And so back then it was it

(57:47):
was very new. And then when I came back, we
don't call it musky tough now it's just more like
musky athletic performance. And so just with my background, I'm
CSS and I've been a strength coach now for for years.
Just you know, love like the difference of you know,
working with additional teams, and I think there's a lot

(58:11):
to be said for like there can be a lot
of especially at a small school like Blakeland, like a
lot of like camaraderie built with other teams. You know,
I train like our our women's volleyball team or our
women's softball team, and uh, you know when when we
have home meets, they come to support the guys certain

(58:32):
times the year, I know last year there was probably
a six week block in there. There was a phase
just logistically where it worked better to have the men's
wrestling team in lifting at the same time as women's volleyball.
And so again you're you're building some of those connections
and they're like oh, you guys got a home meet tonight, Like, yeah,
we'll go check that out, and uh so, And of
course we're more inclined as we get to know those

(58:54):
other student athletes on campus and go and watch them
and support them. So I think think that's a really
cool thing about it.

Speaker 3 (59:05):
You know.

Speaker 1 (59:05):
I I loved like the interview you guys did with
Coach Hartman, the lifting guy. I don't know it was
a couple of weeks ago or whatever, but you know,
I share a lot of the same philosophy as far
as I like to say, like you know you as
far as the weight room goes like train like an athlete.

(59:25):
You know. He was talking about how many coaches talk about, oh,
we need the sports specific thing, and it's like, well, yeah,
I call it general specific, Like there's some certain things
that you're gonna do, you know. As an example, maybe
it's with our you know, our our volleyball or even
our our softball athletes where you know, you want to

(59:46):
be at least aware of things. You might do some
different things with them as far as uh, you know,
if we're going to be pressing, you know, overhead, maybe
you don't want to have them doing something you know,
like a lot of barbell overhead lifts because the scapula
can't really like slide and move, so that's where you'll
get some of those shoulder impingements. But with those athletes

(01:00:08):
we need to press vertically, we need to develop upper
body strength, so we make sure that when they're pressing,
they're they're doing kettlebell work and so obviously the center
of mass rotates and stuff. It's just a great way
to like train upper body strength while also kind of
having some awareness of like, Okay, you know, let's let's

(01:00:29):
keep our shoulders healthy as we're doing that. And it
can't be a pink five pound kettlebell either. It's got
to be a weight that is going to be challenging,
but you can do it with a lower risk of
creating a shoulder impingement. So that's why I say, like
it's it's general specific in terms of like I'll look
at okay, well, how do how do the how do

(01:00:51):
athletes move? In general? Like, so when I'm building out
programming and stuff, I'm looking at it from a standpoint
of like, well, first of all, like what direction of
like what direction are we putting force into the ground
and athletes do that. You know, we obviously go go
up and down, we go forward and back, we go
side to side, and so that would be that first

(01:01:13):
part of like if I was building out, say like
a three day a week program for for an athlete,
you know, maybe one day is going to be kind
of more of a vertical vector focus. So that would
be our if we're applying force, we're doing something explosive,
that's where it's gonna be maybe our our clean or

(01:01:34):
our trap bar jump or our box jump, something along
those lines. And then that's also probably gonna be where
we're going to hit some squat, we're going to vertically press,
we're gonna vertically pull that type of stuff. But then
if we get into a second day, maybe we're going
to think about applying force like laterally and rotationally and

(01:01:55):
like that frontal and transverse plane, and so you know
we're gonna be thinking about doing some uh you know,
maybe it's lateral lunges, uh, various you know, crossover lunges
and things, just trying to think about you know, injury
prevention type stuff. That way, you know it's gonna be

(01:02:17):
involved a lot of different rotational type stuff. And then
maybe on that third day, we're thinking about applying force
kind of more forward and back, and so that's gonna
be more of your maybe your your kettlebell swings and
things where you're like horizontally like propelling a weight out
that way. You know, that's gonna be maybe your your
horizontally your bench or your your kettlebelt. You know, your

(01:02:39):
dumbbell presses, it's gonna be your your rose if you're
if you're horizontally pressing, your horizontally rowing for your lower
body strength movement, it's probably gonna be more of like
like your trap bar dead left where you're hinging at
the hips. But again it's about moving forward and back
and so you know, and and then within that, like

(01:03:01):
I said, like that general kind of concept is where
you can then kind of plug and play exercises that
fit the the movement patterns that you're going to train
as an athlete, and then you can kind of make
some adjustments to by sport and by gender and work
around injuries and things like that.

Speaker 2 (01:03:20):
So does that make sense absolutely? I'm curious do they
have a track and cross country at Lakeland?

Speaker 1 (01:03:26):
They do, It hasn't really been i would say formal,
but we are We have an athletic director here, he's
in his second year and he's really trying to get
some things going. And so he just maybe three or
four weeks ago, hired a new coach and she's a

(01:03:47):
full time track coach, track cross country coach, whatever, and
so that's that's a brand new thing. So I think
that's a positive sign that it's a sign of his leadership,
but also that he understands the value in what those
athletes can bring to our campus.

Speaker 2 (01:04:05):
Yeah, I was just curious of what your go to
movements for.

Speaker 1 (01:04:09):
Runners distance athletes. You mean, yes, sir, well, distance athletes.
I think I'll go back. First of all, like how
many times I have to help, or at least I
shouldn't say help, But it's just a philosophy thing. It's
like so many times I hear distance athletes coaches say, oh,

(01:04:31):
you know, we're in an endurance sport, we need to do lightweight,
high reps, body weight type stuff. And I'm always like, well,
you know, you're you're actually kind of filling that bucket
when you're doing your road work for the most part.
And so it's not a it's not a one stop shop,
but I just I want to support what they're doing

(01:04:55):
on the road. And so we'll actually do some more
like it's relative to their size and their strength level
and stuff, but more compound lifts to to build some
strength in order to support their their body when they
are getting that pounding out on the road and things

(01:05:15):
like that. And so, I mean there's enough studies out
there that show too, like when distance athletes are improving
their their their overall strength levels, well then they're running
economy improves and so they're obviously a more efficient runner.
They're pushing the ground away a little bit harder, which
is then propelling them a little bit faster down the

(01:05:39):
road as they go. And so you know, it's it
depends a little bit on the time of year obviously,
but uh, you know, I uh, I'm a big believer
in stuff like you know, trap bar deadlift and uh
you know probably probably front squad or split squats things
like that. Again, uh, pressing overhead pressing just as far

(01:06:02):
as uh, especially in terms of like you know, having
a lot of stability through the trunk. Obviously, if you're
if your core your trunk is is kind of weak
and you know you're gonna get you're gonna be very
inefficient as your your body's moving side to side, and
so you know, that's one of those things too where
people think like, well, why why do we even need

(01:06:23):
my upper body? Like I'm a runner, I use my legs,
and it's like, yeah, but you're you're there's a lot
more going on. It's like you're not run with your
arms at your side and you're just going like this.
It's like there's there's a lot of upper body movement.
And then yeah, most of the time obviously distance they're
they're running at that pace, but there's also times where
where they need to be able to to throw and

(01:06:45):
they need to be able to do that without you know,
becoming inefficient in their running patterns by by swaying side
to side and things like that. And so you know,
I think a lot of you know, different variations of
like single arm carries is really good for runners. I'm
a I'm a Russian kettlebell guy, so I do a

(01:07:07):
lot with that as far as like they're explosive hinge
but also like like single arm kettlebell stuff is awesome
for for all athletes. But in terms of like what
we're talking about as far as like anti rotation. So
as you're you know, you're hiking the kettlebell between your legs,
obviously there's it's naturally gonna want to like turn your

(01:07:30):
shoulders if you're not staying aware, So you don't want
to be rigid, but you want to make sure you're
keeping your your eyes forward, your your shoulders more square,
and so there's a lot of development that happens in
the obliques on the opposite side as you're doing any
of this single arm kettlebell work swings and snatches and
and cleans and things like that that those are some

(01:07:52):
of those things that people don't always think about when
there's like so focused on like specific muscles in this exercise.
A lot of times there's there's like other benefits that
we're getting. We might be yeah, we're doing a kettlebell
swing and it's yeah, it's a lot of posterior chain.

(01:08:13):
It's great for your hamstrings and things, but there's other
things going on that as the athlete or maybe like
a sport coach that really hasn't deep dive, there's other
things that we might be doing that for because we
know there's some of those those additional benefits. So sorry,
it kind of went.

Speaker 2 (01:08:31):
I love it. That's what we're here for. We like
I said, we love wrestling, we love cross country and
track and field, but we know the benefits of being
in the weight room and moving your body and general
specific training is going to make you a better athlete.

Speaker 1 (01:08:45):
It it's you know, to illustrate this, the year that
I was a high school strength coach, there was a
girl that ended up just really buying and she was
a distance athlete, and she was a state maybe a
state runner up as a junior in I think that

(01:09:06):
what would it be ten thousand meters or whatever in
trap five thousand high school?

Speaker 2 (01:09:12):
Thirty two hundred probably is the longest.

Speaker 1 (01:09:14):
Okay, so shows what I know, right, But but then
she ended up having some like stress fracture stuff going
on in her low back and things, and it ended
up like she was having a great cross country season
her junior year and then it ended up just not
working out where she ended up even having to throw

(01:09:37):
in the towel on the season. And so once she
got healthy from that, you know, we got her back going.
She was cleared. We get her in the weight room,
and just because of kind of the like you said,
the kind of the thought process that you're a small
little distance runner, you're doing this stuff. So she would
come in the weight room and maybe like I'd have

(01:09:57):
her start doing some trap or deadlift, and she would
like take like, okay, I'm got I've got the bar
and I got a ten on each side. So she's
moving sixty five pounds and it's like I was like,
you know, we we got to get you to understand this,
like you need so you know, I'm not saying you're
gonna do a six hundred and fifty pound you know,
powerlifting type thing, but you know, I'm fortunate that I'm

(01:10:21):
I'm one that like if I need something as a coach, uh,
I just go and buy it. I'm it's probably not
the best idea, but like like I've bought a bunch
of like velocity based training units, Like I'm always one
too if if it's something I need for my team,
I just I just assume by it myself and that

(01:10:42):
way I just know I have it. I don't have
to check it out or whatever. But basically to get
that kid to understand what she needed to be doing.
Have you guys done much with VBT? Have you have
you used anything like no man, if you want to
if if this is ever a thing like with you guys,
if you want to educate your your cross country athletes

(01:11:04):
on hey, this is what you're doing. You just so
velocity based training. There's different ways to do it, but
typically it comes with a box and it's called a
linear transducer, and so you just attach it to the
bar and as they lift the weight, say up and down,
it gives you a readout of how fast you're moving

(01:11:26):
the bar, right, And so when you think about the
the force velocity curve, the slower the weight is moving,
then theoretically it's because it's so heavy that you can
only move it like let's say, if it's typically below
point five meters per second, then you're typically then you're training.

(01:11:48):
When you do that over a long period of time,
you can develop absolute strength. But as you slide your
way down the curve, if the weight's moving light, So
with this girl, for example, she's picking up sixty five
pounds and it's moving like one one point three meters
per second, and so that's way down here on the
on the velocity side of the curve, and so it's

(01:12:09):
kind of like, you know, if we're trying to support
your you know, your overall strength and stuff. The weight
that you're lifting is too light for us to do that.
And I literally said, like, I mean, as a distance runner,
I just feel like, if you're gonna do that, I'd
just rather have you not lift because it's probably just

(01:12:31):
junk volume that's probably gonna take away from what you
want to do on the road. And so getting that
VBT device on there helped her to understand to the
point that, again it's relative. She was probably ninety pounds herself,
she's tiny, but I mean she got to a point
that because I would put that VBT device on there

(01:12:52):
and it would show her that bar speed and where
then she's you know, developing a little bit of strain
and she's actually lifting. You know, that is such a
great tool to teach kids, like the value of Hey,
if you're if that bar is if the weight on
the bar is so light that it's moving so fast,

(01:13:12):
you're not training to develop strength. Now, there's periods where
you know you're gonna you're gonna want the bar to
move fast, right where so you might have some of
those exercises designed in there in a you know, a
peaking phase two or three weeks out before a bigger
event or something. But when we're trying to build some strength,
we need to make sure that we're we're moving some weight.

(01:13:34):
And so I definitely encourage you guys to to look
into some of that stuff. They're they're getting to be
much more cost effective. A great tool for teaching kids
how to select the right weight because a lot of
times too, as you know, like working with high school boys,
to them, heavier must always be better, right if you're benching,

(01:13:55):
you're squatting, you're deadlifting, whatever, Well, I just got to
keep putting more weight on the bar. But you know
when you look at when you when you measure the
bar speed and also that gives you like a you know,
with the weight and the speed gives you a power
output in wattage. And so as wrestlers like, yes, we

(01:14:17):
need a great foundation of strength, and it is critical
for every athlete. But we all know like like if
you're if you're strong as heck, but you're super slow,
like you you stink out on the wrestling that like
you suck you know, you you have to have that
that explosive pop. And so when you have a VBT

(01:14:39):
device and you can get a high school boy to
understand like, hey, dude, yeah, it's cool that you're say,
you know, you might be squatting that weight, but it's
moving so slow. Let what if we take twenty five
pounds off and let's see, so instead of doing three hundred,
maybe you're going to do two seventy five. But now
instead of moving at a like point three meters per second,

(01:15:01):
you're maybe gonna move it more towards like zero point
five or point six. Because you reduce the load just enough,
but you increase the speed, then obviously your your power
output increased, right, And so there's value to that as
an athlete when you think about your long term training
adaptations is, hey, do you want to be Like I

(01:15:22):
would say, like, hey, powerlifting that is its own sport, right,
Like we don't we shouldn't be powerlifters as far as
like that's not our end goal. There's elements of powerlifting
that we need to bring into training athletes. But I
mean it's not just hey, lift as heavy as you can,

(01:15:43):
regardless if it's gonna move super slow. Just grind it
out like that is what coach Hartman does with that
guy that he was talking about squat in one thousand pounds, Like,
that's amazing, right, But that doesn't always transfer directly to
being an explosive athlete out on the resting matter on
a basketball court, volleyball court, whatever.

Speaker 2 (01:16:03):
So I think that's something that a lot of high
school football coaches need to hear.

Speaker 1 (01:16:07):
One man, when I was at high school strength coach
for a year, had a great guy who was super
growth minded, and man it was it was super fun.
We got working with them and got the boys bought
in a lot of like max velocity sprinting, like testing
it out with the like Dasher lasers and stuff like that,
getting them to buy into that concept that you know,

(01:16:28):
there's nothing in the weight room that we do that
you're moving your entire body in such a coordinated fashion
at that maximum velocity like that a power clean or
whatever is amazing, but it's not a max effort sprint.
So that in itself is a great exercise for athletes
is hey, we're going to do some some fly tens

(01:16:49):
and stuff, you know, even with your distance runners, just
to you can expose them to Uh, it's a really
high level stimulus as far as you know you're attacking
the floor or the ground You're getting a huge contraction
in the in the hamstrings, and so that in itself

(01:17:11):
is an exercise. It could play a benefit in injury
prevention as well. And then I'm talking like like three
max effort reps, like maybe a like a ten or
twenty yard build up into a ten yard fly at
max effort. That is it's a it's a great stimulus
for just overall power, but it's also an awesome you know.

(01:17:35):
It's it's it's kind of like I don't want to
say a vaccine for your hamstring pulls and stuff, but
they have to they have to experience that that maximum
contraction in some way. Otherwise when they if they have
to go and make a push and run somebody down
towards the end of a race, they might they might
strain that handy, you know what I mean?

Speaker 2 (01:17:56):
Yeah, no doubt.

Speaker 4 (01:17:59):
Couch training wrestle on blueberry pancakes. We could chat with
you all night. Is there anything about Lakeland Wrestling that
we haven't spoken that you want our audience to know
before we get into the final four?

Speaker 3 (01:18:14):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:18:16):
I mean maybe they pick up off of the vibe,
but we do try to just you know, make sure
that we're providing the kids with a really family type experience. Personally,
as a coach, like, my mission, especially as a college coach,
is to I really try to focus on blending the
academics with their athletics with like, my purpose is to

(01:18:41):
help produce a very well prepared, successful person. And a
lot of coaches say that. I'm sure a lot of
coaches do that, but that's like something to me that
is so important that as as you can tell, I'm
into wrestling, I'm into strength training all that stuff, but
to me, like I would feel as a fit as
their coach if I just trained them up and they

(01:19:04):
they were all American national champ whatever and then you know,
God forbid, they wouldn't graduate or like one of the
things I listened for. I mean, man, I listen to
a lot of these you know, interviews, not just your podcast,
a lot of podcasts and stuff, and it's like, you know,
it always kind of gives me a little bit of
like a oh, man, I hope that's going to turn

(01:19:25):
out okay. Where you know, a guy graduates, he's a
national champ or whatever, and somebody, hey, so what is
what's so and so doing? Uh next, and like ah,
I'm not sure he's going to try to figure that out.
And I'm like, eh, I really hope to help these
guys to you know, hopefully you know, have a have
a career position at least as they're as they're going out,

(01:19:48):
you know, make sure that they're they're not just coming
in for the wrestling, but they're really well prepared, successful people,
and you know that. I think that's a big part.
I actually, Uh, I'm real fortunate that in November, I
actually found out recently I'm going to be inducted into
the Wisconsin Wrestling Hall of Fame and uh, and you

(01:20:09):
want to talk about like reading some of the letters
that uh, I found out after the fact that some
of my former wrestlers wrote, Dude, I had to stop reading,
like I started crying because of some of those life
lessons they talked about about, like you know what they
took it and none of them talked about like coach

(01:20:31):
Daron's front head is so sick. It was like, dude,
what he taught us about life and the example he
said and and that, and it was like wow, that
really and and how how appreciative they were, especially now
these are guys that are you know, thirty or whatever,
but they're they they're in a career, they have a family,
and they can appreciate those life lessons. So you know,

(01:20:53):
as much as we're trying to win, we're just really
prioritized like let's uh, let's make sure we're producing good men.

Speaker 4 (01:21:01):
Well, first, it's all about congratulations on the Hall of
Fame and we are definitely picking up on the vibe.
So hopefully our fans are because you are a ballfire coach.

Speaker 3 (01:21:11):
And you got us.

Speaker 4 (01:21:13):
We can't wait to uh cheer for the team this year.
And we got a new team rich to add to
the board of teams that we'll be cheering for. You
know how I feel about cool mascots, Jim, Yes, I
do the Muskies.

Speaker 1 (01:21:27):
The Muskies, man, I know, it's one of those things
where you say, like shoot, like uh, you know, when
you're a wrestling coach and your team mascot is a
fish like man, that's a tough one. But we actually
lean into it because as a program, like you know, again,

(01:21:48):
it's our team mascot, so number one. I don't know
if this is probably a first for Airy Brothers Radio too,
but like the Muskie is actually the Apex predator of
fresh water. And so if you're gonna be a fish,
at least you're like top of your food chain type
of thing. And so, uh, from that same way, so

(01:22:08):
we talk about like our breakdown, it's like hey, ap
on three like apex spreader a ap on three, Right,
we break that down, but we lean into that.

Speaker 3 (01:22:17):
Man.

Speaker 1 (01:22:17):
Uh. Actually, the the core values of our program are.
We put it on our shirts. We put all over it.
It's f I s H. It's a it's fight, integrity,
success minded and hardworking and so uh you know, it's
it is a unique mascot. And you know, yeah, it'd
be cool if we were like the Saber too Tigers
or some other you know, more typical name, but uh,

(01:22:41):
you know, but we're the Muskies and and we're we're
leaning into it. Man. I definitely got to get you
guys some gear.

Speaker 2 (01:22:47):
Thank you.

Speaker 4 (01:22:48):
Yeah, final floor Rich, let's do it, coach. Are you
coffee drinker?

Speaker 1 (01:22:55):
I am, dude, I U I am a black coffee
I like to say, like, you know, drink coffee, swing kettlebells.
That's kind of a nice little life role. So yep,
I'm a big time coffee drinker. Black coffee sip on
it all day.

Speaker 3 (01:23:13):
He do you brew your coffee?

Speaker 1 (01:23:15):
Just drip coffee, you know pretty much? Uh? Usually it's
have you guys ever had Dork County coffee?

Speaker 2 (01:23:25):
No?

Speaker 1 (01:23:26):
All right, man, I'm gonna send you guys out a
care package. I'm gonna get you some Dork County coffee.
So it's just it's ground, you know. But it's just
I just do a drip coffee, and I'm I don't
do any of the cream or sugar or anything like that,
but I do love like flavored coffee. And so you know,
Highlander grog and uh, you know, they have all kinds

(01:23:47):
of cool stuff. You know, they have different themes, depends
on the season and stuff. And so I'll send you
guys some Dork County coffee. But that's my favorite.

Speaker 2 (01:23:58):
All right, let's go shout out Door County Coffee Coach.
Do you have any daily practicers or rituals you do
on a regular basis to show up as the strongest
version of Mike Drone?

Speaker 1 (01:24:12):
Yeah, I mean it kind of ebbs and flows a
little bit, you know. I I'm usually I'm an early riser.
I love to get out and get some exercise in
the morning. You know, even it's something as simple as
just you know, I kind of go with the Now
that I'm getting a little older, I go with the
weighted vest. I don't go for a run anymore. I just,

(01:24:33):
uh see, my idea of cardio is a coffee run.
But I'll throw on the weighted vest and I'll just
get out for like a three mile walk while I'm
listening to you know, podcasts or audiobook or just just thinking,
just planning. But then in my garage here I have
you know, weights and stuff, so I like to do that,

(01:24:55):
you know, So those are those are probably those things.
I have an f C A co which is Bible
that has a really nice a daily devotional. So that's
something that I like to do. And I'd say, you know,
all those things. Get up in the morning, drink coffee,
get out for a walk, get some fresh air, swing

(01:25:16):
some kettlebells in the garage, read the FCA.

Speaker 2 (01:25:19):
Bibles right up, our older Jim.

Speaker 4 (01:25:22):
Heck, yeah, and you mentioned audio books. So next question, coach,
what are you listening to right now?

Speaker 3 (01:25:30):
Music?

Speaker 4 (01:25:30):
Podcasts, audio books? Are you reading anything?

Speaker 1 (01:25:35):
I mean besides Eric Gross radio? Right?

Speaker 2 (01:25:37):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:25:40):
No, I do love your podcast. I am a I'm
a I'm a learner by nature. I don't know if
you guys have ever taken like that Strength Finders thing,
but that's something that it's kind of identified, so like
a little survey you can take and it kind of
tells you more about your personality. But I'm a learner
based on that thing. And so I love listening to

(01:26:01):
podcasts soaking up knowledge books. I I do like audio books,
but I tend to get distracted. I like I It's
one of those things. I I'm just better when I
have the book in my hand. So, you know, this summer,
read some great books, uh, stuff that maybe the listeners
would be interested in. For the restling coaches, I would

(01:26:23):
encourage them to go out and get Tiger Style by
Brian Smith, the Missouri coach. Awesome book. You know, he's
a he's a builder and and just a really amazing coach.
The Twelve Week Year. That's a really good book that
I read this summer. The Seven Commitments of a Team.
That's a new John Gordon book. I thought that was good.
It was a little it was a little you know,

(01:26:48):
not hokey, but it was a little predictable. I guess
I thought going through that one, but it was a
good read. It gave a good framework for it. So,
you know, music wise, I'm kind of all over the place.
Do a lot of Christian rock. I actually sing in
my church, in our in our on our praise team
and stuff, and so a lot of times I'm I'm

(01:27:09):
listening to those songs because I have to learn them
in order to sing on Sundays. So you get down
with Phil Wickham, Yeah, yeah, absolutely, we do a lot
of his songs. Yeah, Phil Wickham is good. He's got
a really unique sound. But uh yeah, all all kinds
of that stuff. I mean anything from old like like recently,

(01:27:31):
I've been on this kick of like kind of throwbacks
like Third Day from you know, back then if you
remember remember Third Day at all, but uh them and
like Jeremy Camp and Mercy Me and stuff like that.
But uh, I've also been on this might be the
old school wrestler of me too, but like I've been
on this kick man listening to uh remember MTV unplugged,

(01:27:53):
like Alison Chains unplugged and uh and that Pearl Jam unplugged. Man,
those those things have been like I brought those back
recently and like that Alison Chains unplugged is just that's
awesome to me. So that's kind of some of the
stuff I've been listening to lately.

Speaker 3 (01:28:10):
Coach, we get that, Yeah, we get down with that.

Speaker 4 (01:28:13):
We had an Alison Chains unplugged wormhole that we went
into for a while a couple of years back. I
Rich obviously grew up during that. I was probably still
in diapers, and I remember like, Hey, you ever listen
to this on PUG He's like, Bro, you're kidding meuse
but you mentioned mercy me. I got a funny story
for you. I went to a Christian wrestling camp called

(01:28:35):
Internal Warrior. Coach Sam Calvita ran it. He's the training center,
the training lab.

Speaker 3 (01:28:44):
Yeah yeah, yeah, he ran it. And this is before
all that.

Speaker 4 (01:28:47):
But every morning he would wake us up to I
can only imagine. So anytime I hear that song, I
get like chills.

Speaker 1 (01:28:57):
Makes you think about that camp and yeah, that's awesome, man.

Speaker 2 (01:29:02):
Coach. Last, what we got for you to close out?
It's a lighthearter what it could be anything. Maybe there's
a unique food that you enjoy in Wisconsin. Maybe it's
a beverage. I know a lot of wrestling coaches are
avid golfers. Do you have a guilty pleasure?

Speaker 1 (01:29:17):
Yeah, I mean I I like to enjoy. There's probably
a lot of things, you know, food wise and stuff
like that, but I would say a guilty pleasure. This
might seem kind of crazy because you're saying like, oh,
you're a ball of fire. But what I really like
to do, man, is uh sleep. Yes, Monday afternoon, I

(01:29:39):
like to take a nap man, Like Sunday, I am
a nap guy. And uh sometimes I'm sure my wife
is like, what are you doing? Man? But uh, I
don't know. And if if you're really all right now,
we're gonna be real here and it must be weird.
But I love to like watch like like crime shows

(01:30:00):
like forty eight Hours and Dateline and stuff. But at
the same time, it's almost like I'll watch that and
then I'll like doze off while I'm watching that, And
so that's kind of a guilty pleasure. I know that's
kind of kind of weird, but that's probably probably it
for me that I love taking naps.

Speaker 2 (01:30:16):
That's great, nothing weird about that.

Speaker 3 (01:30:18):
Now we be like naps over here. Bros. Yep coach,
thank you so much for your time.

Speaker 4 (01:30:24):
This was an amazing interview, and I hope the right
people find this interview because you're doing great things over
there and we can't wait to follow what you got
going on this season and see what the team do.

Speaker 1 (01:30:37):
Yeah, man, hey, I appreciate that. Love what you guys
are doing too. Thanks for spreading the good word for
all of us are small schools out there, and just
just appreciate your passion too, man, Like you guys are
wrestling junkies like me, and you know this is amazing,
like this podcast, you guys gotta love it, like you're
talking all these coaches that are just you know, their

(01:30:59):
passion about what they do and stuff. So really appreciate
you guys for what you're doing and just you know,
spreading the word out there. So thank you so much.

Speaker 2 (01:31:09):
We appreciate you. One of the goals is why we
do this is you know, it brings us together as brothers.
You know, we've come closer and closer and closer as
we've gotten older, and we know a lot of people
go the opposite ways as they get older, so that's
one thing. But one of our goals is we're proud
of being from New Jersey and we want to try
to get at least one New Jersey athlete on every
team of every coach that we talked to. So hopefully

(01:31:32):
someone back maybe a Region six, here's this and decides
they want to go be a Muskie, and that would
just fill our hearts and make us happy. So that's
that's the mission that we're doing over here.

Speaker 1 (01:31:43):
Coach, I've been to the state tournament in Jersey before,
and I know that the quality and I mean it's
it's great. And we do have kids on our team
that come from far mostly I would say they're, you know, Midwesterners,
but we got three Cali guys on our team. We
got a kid from Georgia on our team and stuff.
And so if a guy Jersey and I, you know,
like I said, I grew up on the East coast,
so I can connect. So if there's some kid out

(01:32:05):
there that you guys connect with, they want to do
something different and come check out Lakeland University, man, I
hope they'll look us up and I'd love to talk
to him.

Speaker 2 (01:32:15):
Absolutely well, coach, we do appreciate you, We do appreciate
your time, and we wish you the best of luck.
Is the school gets underway or is underway, and the
wrestling season is upon us. So, like Jimmy said, we'll
be rooting for you this season and we wish you
the best of luck.

Speaker 1 (01:32:31):
Thank you so much, guys, good luck to you as well.

Speaker 2 (01:32:33):
Thank you all right, ladies and gentlemen. That is coach
Mike Dern from Lakeland University. Make sure you check out
those links in the show notes. Go give the Muskies
a holler, let them know that the area bro SENI
give them a little bit of love. That is it
for us this week. We do appreciate you checking us
out and tuning in. We will be back next week.
We're lacing up the spikes, we're getting out on the
cross country course. We got three episodes for you next week.

(01:32:56):
Jake Holt will be joining us on Monday night from
Crowder Universe. Then on Wednesday evening Quinn White from Taylor
University n AIA top notch program, and we're going to
d one on Thursday. Jeremy Sudbery from Iowa State University.
He's going to be joining us at the top ranked
men's cross country program preseason. So we're excited for next week.

(01:33:19):
We were in the throes across country season. You' all
have a great rest of your week and juring your
Friday and during your weekend. Be safe and we'll see
you next week.

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Airey Bros Radio Ep. 395 — Coach Mike DeRoehn, Lakeland University Wrestling: Rebuilding the Muskies, S&C & D3 Culture

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Airey Bros Radio Ep. 395 — Coach Mike DeRoehn, Lakeland University Wrestling: Rebuilding the Muskies, S&C & D3 Culture