Coach Chris Beene | 32x National Champion | Odessa College Track & XC | JUCO Hall of Famer - 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. This is Chris
Bean and you're listening to Arie Brothers Radio.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Ladies and gentlemen, Howdy you andlha, We're here, you were there,
and you are now rocking with the best. Thank you
for tuning in to another episode of AERI Bros.

Speaker 3 (00:25):
Radio.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Tonight, we're stepping back on to the track and the
cross country course with none other than Coach Chris Bean,
head coach at Adesca College.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
Before we get rolling, y'all know the drill.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Make sure you hammer that like button and our Subscribe
to aer Bros on YouTube, drop a comment, every view,
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Apple Podcasts, and let's not forget while we're here. We're
here to shine a light on the programs and coaches
and people and stories we wish we had access to
growing up. If you were somebody you know it was
chasing their dreams in cross country, track and field, the

(00:56):
wrestling or beyond, share this episode with them onto our
guest coach Chris Bean a couple of his key highlights
Over his coaching career, He's been inducted into both the
NJCAA Hall of Fame in twenty twenty one and the
Texas Track and Field coach Is Hall of Fame in
twenty twenty four. He led South Playing College to a
record thirty two national team championships, earning fourteen National Coach

(01:19):
of the Year and twenty five National Coach of the
Meat honors. He's developed athletes who went onto Olympic World
Championships a twenty plus, along with fifty plus national champions
and one hundred and fifty All Americans. He's now building
Odessa college reinstated program into a national powerhouse in honor
of his late wife, Corey. Without further ado, it is

(01:41):
an honored pleasure have you joining us this evening. We
do greatly appreciate your time. Coach Chris Bean, welcome to
the show.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
Thank you. I'm very happy to be here.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
Yeah, we are honored to chat with you. We've actually
we had a through line for you. But before we
get to that through line, anywhere you would like us
to send recruits parents, anyone that might have questions about
the college, were interested in the junior college route and
the Junior college Experience at Odessa College.

Speaker 3 (02:06):
The floor is yours, yes.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
Sir, Well, Regular Sports dot Com is kind of our
website where you can kind of go and look at
some of the stuff. And then obviously my email address
is C Bean and my last name is be as
a boy e E n e at Odessa dot edu.
So Cbean at Odessa dot edu. If you wanted to
send me an.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
Email, awesome, and we'll put all that stuff in the
show notes for you. So, coach, before we get into
your origin story, we do like to create through lines
with our guests and for our fans. You previously did
an outstanding, an amazing job at South Plains and not
too long ago, back in the beginning of the summer,
we had coach Wes Miller join us after the national

(02:49):
Championship to discuss the program over there, so we know
that you had a lot to do with their success
and everything they got going on over there. So that's
our little through line for you and for our friends.
As I mentioned, we are big fans of the junior
college system, so we follow along and yeah, it's great
to see what the schools are doing and how many

(03:11):
kids are making their way to four year institutions on
athletic scholarships and beyond in the World Championships and the
Olympic Games and the World Championships are going on right now.
Do you have any former athletes that are competing.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
We actually have a few. Natoya Gould from Jamaica is one.
Then let me actually Jessica Ramsey, I believe made the
team for the US and the shotput she was with
me at South Plains. Jeram Richards from Trinidad is competing

(03:44):
there and I know I'm gonna leave somebody out. I
don't know if Ernie Norwood's going to run in the
pool for the four by four or the mixed relay
or anything like that. I haven't heard if he's going
to go or not and run there. Obviously I thought
Fred Curley would be running. Obviously he's dealing with a
few things in his career right now that he's one,

(04:05):
I thought might might run as well, And that's all
I can think of.

Speaker 3 (04:11):
Cool, So yeah, it proof is in the putting.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
You can go to a junior college and be very
successful and make it to the highest of highest levels.
So thank you for sharing that coach way. We like
to kick things off here We all have our origin
stories how we got into the sport. Mine involves a
fish tank at five years old. Jimmy involves following me
around as a young kid to my high school and
college competitions. What's your origin story to the sport of

(04:35):
track and field and how did that lead you to coaching?

Speaker 1 (04:39):
Wow, that's I don't know if I've told that story
in a long time. I grew up in Lubbock, Texas,
West Texas and went to love it Cooper High School.
And it's one of those situations where I played a
lot of different sports soccer, football, basketball, golf, powerlifting, all
kinds of things in high school and uh really did

(05:02):
a little bit of track at one year. I didn't
do it in high school, and the coaches kind of
talked me into it. And uh, I had a coach
named Chris Berry who had went to Angelo State and
was a decathlete there, and I believe it or not,
he was in my wedding later in life. But uh, uh,
he kind of talked me into decathloning and to go

(05:23):
into Angelo and I made my way there and loved
the decathlon and loved track and field and got to
where I noticed that I kind of enjoyed helping others
coaching wise, you know, and practice and stuff when the
coaches couldn't be everywhere, and and that's kind of where
it kind of grew from. And uh, you know, I

(05:46):
had a buddy named A J. Moore who went down
to Texas A and M Kingsville and got the head
job there. And I was graduating December, and he kind
of took me with him, uh to Kingsville to be
kind of a ga to start my career. So I
got to skip all the high school stuff and go
right into being a college coach. And then when Corey
and I got married, she got a job in the

(06:08):
management training position with a TV grocery stores, and so
we had As soon as we got married, moved to Abilene,
and I talked to Wes Kittley, coach Kittley at Texas Tech,
who's really probably my number one mentor in track and field,
and I coached seven years with him, three at or
four at Ablen Christian, three at Tech, and he's one

(06:30):
of my close friends. And learned a lot from him
and Cliff Falcons that are uh they're still there at
Texas Tech. But he kind of helped me get my
career going, and uh you know, went from Abilene Christian
four years there, went to Texas Tech as an assistant,
moved to uh Whaleen Baptist to be a head coach
for the first time, and then the South Planes job opened,

(06:51):
and you know, spent twelve years there building that program,
and left coaching for a little bit and went back
to coaching, but at the high school level for a
few years. And then now I'm in Odessa trying to
build it here and see what we can do. Is
trying to build a legacy for this program.

Speaker 2 (07:08):
Your West Texas through and through Huh, I am yes, sir.
Is it as wendy as some of the coaches we've
had on say it is.

Speaker 1 (07:17):
It depends on the time of year, but it can be.
I mean, you know, it's kind of funny because some
people think that's a real negative, but I think once
you spend every day training in those adverse conditions and
actually prepares us for just about anything. We see. We
have the heat here, we have the cold here. You know,
we don't get as cold obviously as it does up
in Iowa or something like that, but in the wind,

(07:39):
I think definitely will make you a lot tougher when
you step out at the national meet and compete.

Speaker 4 (07:46):
Coach you've coached at every level. Do you have a.

Speaker 1 (07:49):
Favorite junior college for sure?

Speaker 4 (07:53):
Why is that?

Speaker 1 (07:55):
There's probably a couple of reasons. I really feel like
you probably make the most impact on kids as they're
coming out of high school into this level. You know,
the Division one stuff has gotten to where there's you know,
it's just different in the way that you know, the
athletes feel like where you deserve this or I deserve this,

(08:18):
and there's a lot of that attitude. And junior college
when they come here, for the most part, they're thankful
for what they get, and the attitude usually is different
because they know that they're usually at junior college because
they needed to start there and knew that this might
be their only chance to go to the next level.
So they're very thankful usually, and we don't have the

(08:41):
ridiculous recruiting windows and all that stuff Division one has
where you're out, you know, you're traveling all the time,
you're away from your family, and you know, I got
to spend see a lot of my kids play sports
and do things at the junior college level that sometimes
you don't get to do at the other levels.

Speaker 4 (08:59):
What do you see think some of the big biggest
misconceptions are of junior college athletics.

Speaker 1 (09:06):
I think the number one misconception is that we can't coach,
that we're here because we couldn't make it at the
other level, and so we go down and we're like
glorified high school coaches, And don't you're wrong. There's a
lot of good high school coaches because I've been at
that level. So I think that's also a big misnomer

(09:27):
as far as coaching goes. But I really feel like
sometimes a Division one coach might come recruit at our place,
and you know, they'll talk to us like, well, you
may not know this, but this is something I've learned whatever,
and I'm like, man, I knew that twenty years ago.
So I think that's the biggest thing. I see.

Speaker 2 (09:48):
You're reading the book that I wrote, that's what you
say to them, Yes, sir, so coach, we're in the
thick of I guess for you guys, maybe the beginning
of cross country season down here South Carolina High School,
we're kind of midway through, almost towards the end of
the season. How are things going at our desks right now.
I know you had some talented athletes outdoors in the

(10:10):
longer events. How are the team shaping up? I think
you got some pretty good pre season rankings.

Speaker 1 (10:16):
Yes, sir, our women are ranked number one, and it's
one of those funny things that if everybody's healthy and
we put it all together on the right day, I
think we are the best in junior college, but I
don't have a lot of depth. You know that we
got five and then there's quite a bit of a
drop right now between six and seven. Those are kids

(10:36):
that work really hard, and I love coaching them and
obviously do a great job for us. But our top
five are the ones that are really going to be
top twenty at the national meet if we run well.
On the men's side, we're ranked fifth, and it's one
of those situations that embassy stuff. We've had some delayed

(10:58):
stuff and things that we've been trying to work on
and and get a few through and and so if
everything kind of gets through like we're wanting it to.
I think we're fairly talented on the men, but it'll
also be kind of like the women where we're our
top five are kind of really good and there's a
little bit of a gap between six and seven.

Speaker 2 (11:19):
And the top five both on the men's and women's side.
Of those international students.

Speaker 1 (11:25):
They are well, I say that that's not true. On
the men's side. One of my top five guys is
Thomas Kubala. He's he's a Texas kid who went to
Oklahoma State and came back here. Kind of the junior
college experience I think was going to help him grow
and mature and get you know, some academic things worked out.

(11:48):
And long story short, he's done a great job. And
this is his second year with me, and he's last
year he got a little injured in track, but he's
healthy now and running lots of miles and in the
best shape of his life. But yes, predominantly we are
I would say seventy five percent international. And then we
do have some younger, you know, inter American kids that

(12:13):
are on the squad two fighting typically for that fifth, sixth,
and seventh spot on the team.

Speaker 2 (12:19):
And so from a from a recruiting perspective, is that
something that you've taken advantage of because of your time
in the coaching ranks and the connections that you made
in the networks, you made. Are you using something like
a scholar book or something like that.

Speaker 1 (12:34):
A little bit of all of that, Yes, sir, so,
my past history with some of the Division I schools
that worked with me before are helping me find a
few kids and place kids with me. And yes, we
scholar book is one. I've got a couple. I've got
a really good guy Jamaica that's helping us. I've got
another guy that deals a lot with like Tunisia and

(12:57):
some of those kind of countries that help has helped
us who ran in junior college, Chris rang Gifo's his name,
has done a great job finding kids for US and
other programs. And then I have a really good guy
that deals with some of the African countries for mainly
distance kids who helped me get Elizabeth orlanda that I

(13:19):
had last year from Tanzania who was national champion her
first year with me, and she's now at Clemson. But
she ended up being a qualifier and so she only
needed the one year with US, and now coach Elliott
has her over there at Clemson.

Speaker 2 (13:32):
I think I saw her run on Saturday. They were
at a meet at Furman University. I went over and
watched and there was a young lady from Clemson that
was head and shoulders above the rest of the field,
and the Clemson women actually beat the Furman women, so
they have a pretty solid squad this year. Be interesting

(13:52):
to see how the Tigers do this fall.

Speaker 4 (13:54):
Yes, sir coach, when did you take over the program
at Odessa?

Speaker 1 (14:00):
Last year was the first year, so I was still
in a high school kind of finishing things up, and
of course that was kind of at the end of
my wife's illness and all that kind of stuff. So
they had already talked to me about kind of recruiting
and doing some things start looking for some kids, but
it wasn't until the summer that I actually got hired

(14:21):
and started full time and all that kind of stuff.
And then so last year it was kind of cross
country only we did kind of get a few, I
say a few, a couple of quarter mileter herder kind
of guys from on the Jamaican side, and brought them
in that I got permission from my athletic director and

(14:41):
Wayne was really good with us on working with not
at all being cross country and letting us kind of
getting a few for the track side.

Speaker 4 (14:49):
So did you think in season one cross country guys
would be as ranked as high as you are.

Speaker 1 (14:57):
That's a difficult question probably to answer in my mind,
you know, in the way that I think about building
the program. Yes, I guess when I first got the job,
I wasn't sure that those contacts were still going to
be there for me to find kids. And I think
the program here at Odessa was really just kind of

(15:18):
wanting to start with bodies and didn't realize that I
would be able to find some of the talent that
we were able to find early and get them here.
And you know, we ended up being eighth at the
national meet in cross country on both sides the first
year with three months of recruiting, and then turned around
in the half marathon, our women were fourth and our

(15:40):
men were third, and we actually took a trophy home,
and so that was kind of a cool deal. And
then we went to indoor and picked up a few
in January and really really did well indoors, and then
outdoors there's not quite as many distance events, and so
we were still decent outdoors, but not quite what we
were indoors.

Speaker 4 (16:01):
Is this secret recruiting?

Speaker 1 (16:04):
Yes, And so I always tell everybody, you know, people
always talk about I'm a coach. I'm a coach. I'm
a coach. Well, not if you're going to be a winner.
You're a recruiter who gets to coach, uh, not the
other way around. And a lot of people will get
in this industry to be coaches. And if you can't
get the studs there, that's always the term that we use.
I hope that's okay. But if you can't get the

(16:26):
studs on your campus, then it doesn't matter how good
a coach you are. You're not gonna win, you know,
without getting some quality there. And that's one of the
things when you look back at South Plains that we
always did is now back then there was less international
and so we coached. I mean we got kids from
all over US and Texas and all that, and you know,

(16:46):
a lot of a lot of Division one coaches sent
us kids and we were very good and taking those
kids and developing them.

Speaker 4 (16:53):
What do you think makes you a good recruiter?

Speaker 1 (16:58):
I think I have kind of an out going personality,
and my competitiveness is as probably as fierce in the
recruiting battle as it is when I'm on the track
coaching and getting them ready for nationals and so you know,
I've even had athletes in the past whether it like, well, coach,
we think we may to go to this other school
or blah blah blah blah blah. And then I'll call

(17:19):
mom and dad and say, hey, why are you thinking
about that other school? And I'm not negative about the
other school. I just want to let him know why
I think we're better and uh in a lot of ways.
Once we built it in. Blaine Wiley, who was my
assistant coach for nine years at South Plains College and
who's at the Sprint and Hurtles coach at Alabama, was
a phenomenal coach and still is. I think he's one

(17:41):
of the best foreigner meter coaches I've ever met. And
he does a great job over there. And once I
got him on the staff at South Plains, you know,
together we just really bonded and did things really well together.

Speaker 3 (17:58):
Coach.

Speaker 2 (17:58):
What's more important when it comes to getting the kids
on board, getting the parents on board?

Speaker 1 (18:05):
You know, it kind of depends on the situation and
the kid. I mean, I always start with the kid.
I will tell you this. With a lot of the
kids I recruited, if they're single parent families and Mama's
the one taking care of them. Mama is very important,
and so you have to get mama on board because

(18:26):
she's about to send her baby, whoever it is, boy
or girl, to us and probably being away from home
for the first time. And so I think that's really
important when you're dealing with that kind of family dynamic. Now,
when you got both parents at home, I think you
got to sell the kid first usually, but then you've
got to sell the academics. I know one of the

(18:47):
conversations that I had that was a very unique. I
had a a kid that I talked into signing with
US years ago, and we got done and they were
dropping the kid off at campus and parents said, Coach,
you know why we picked out Planes over the other
schools we were looking at. And I said, I'd love

(19:07):
to know, because I'm like thinking, man, I'm going to
use this for recruiting purposes. And he said, well, you're
the only one that talked about academics. And I said, well,
that's weird, because that's why we're here. And he said, oh,
he goes to junior college. Just like all these other
coaches care about their facilities, They want to talk about
their teams, and how they're going to make you better,
and how they're going to be recruited. He goes, But

(19:29):
most of our conversations really delta round how are you
going to help my kid graduate? And I think that's
one of the ways that I separated myself a little
bit with others because that's the most important.

Speaker 4 (19:39):
Thing it Sorry, rich good, Obviously you want to win,
But at the end of the day, like you said,
you're there for academics. So how do you have that
conversation with a student athlete who might not be performing
as good as they want they're kind of teetering if
they want to be in school or not. But keeping
them in the books, keeping them going to class. We

(20:01):
know that that can kind of be the issue at
all levels, right, if you don't go to class, you
can't compete. So how do you keep a kid that's
not performing going to class?

Speaker 1 (20:11):
Well, I think it starts with the recruiting and making
sure they understand that that's a priority here, that there's
a reason it's student athlete, not athlete student. And I
think we kind of let that early and then you know,
then as we start looking at grades and all that
kind of stuff. You know, in South Plains. We did
more of that than we are here at Odessa, but
we would, you know, if kids weren't going to class
or weren't doing with the turn in assignments. They met

(20:32):
us at six point thirty in the morning and they
carried medicine balls around the Texan Dome until we made
the point very clear that you're going to, you know,
take the academic serious. Now it is harder, I think,
in today's times to do as much of that, but
it's still discipline. And I also preach that, you know,
we're not here for perfection, We're here for excellence. And
the bar of excellence can raise every day once you

(20:54):
reach a level of it. And so you have to
be excellent in every year of your life and not
just athletics. And so the academic side of it is
very important for your future. And you're raising a family
and way after athletics is over, and so if you
really want to be a person of excellence, then you
have to be one that does it in academics as well.

Speaker 2 (21:18):
How important is that academic and community support at the
junior college.

Speaker 1 (21:26):
You know, I think it's at Odessa College. It's it's
like next level here there's a lot of different uh
backup to the backup to the backup, if you will,
at Odessa College where they really have a lot of
things set up for for kids to be successful, you know,
at South Plains College, we had some of that, but

(21:48):
uh that was mainly I think pushed by me and
Coach Wiley with you know, doing things above and beyond
maybe what we had to do, you know with uh yeah,
I mean he and I even ran study halls at
night on her own and things like that, and we
spent a lot of time walking across campus and meeting
teachers so that in professors, so they you know, knew

(22:09):
that we were here for them. And I couldn't tell
you how many times that, you know, I would have
a professor say, you know, you're the first coach i've
met here, you know, which I always thought that was odd.
Now that wasn't, you know, always the case. But there
would be a few that just didn't have relationship with
coaches because nobody ever walked over and knocked on their
door and said, hey, let's talk about my kid in
your class and what do we got to do to

(22:31):
help this kid get better?

Speaker 4 (22:35):
Coach I like the medicine balls. I know it might
not work in today's day and ah, but Rich and
I are two kids that oh, okay, yeah, we don't
want to carry medicine balls. Well we might, but we're
going to go to class. So I appreciate that. Yes, sir, coach,
how are the international students like in Odessa?

Speaker 1 (22:55):
You know, it's it's something that you have to adapt
to for sure, you know the there, you know, like
when my Jamaican kids get here, they're like, well, it's
so hot, coach, And I'm like, you'll get used to it,
you know, and when we get to Nationals, be ready
because as hot as you think it is now, it'll
be hotter when we get to May in this area.
You know, even last year we went to Nationals in

(23:17):
Kansas and it was blistering hot for the last day
of competition. But they end up the thing about West
Texas that's so neat and it's so easy to sell.
There are the people here. You just get nice people
who want to help that. You know. We we have
professors that you know the other day brought us cookies

(23:38):
for our meat to go to uh, you know, just
to say hey, we're thinking about you and care about
you and take some chocolate chip cookies with you to
the meat And so when the kids have issues here
or feel lonely or whatever, there's always somebody there to
to talk to, to visit with. Our dorm people here
on campus are really good just checking on the kids

(24:01):
and making sure they're they're good.

Speaker 4 (24:03):
Rich, I think you're setting me up with all these
West Texas coaches. I think they're kind of telling me something.

Speaker 3 (24:08):
I've been telling you for quite a few years, my friend.

Speaker 2 (24:12):
Coach, I'm curious, what is the biggest challenge that you've
seen international student athletes face. Is it being homesick? Is
it the culture shock? Is it maybe a difference in
language and you know, slang and those different things are
bonding with the American students in your experience, What is it?

(24:34):
If it is, if it is something you know, it
doesn't necessarily be.

Speaker 1 (24:38):
But I think the first thing is getting them here.
You know, getting through embassies and things like that get
harder and harder, especially depends on certain countries, are really difficult.
But yes, they're the homesick part of it when they
first get here. A lot of them really struggle with
the food when they get here to start with, it's
just a lot of different foods here than maybe back home,

(25:01):
and you know, getting used to going to a cafeteria
where you have maybe limited options on certain things and
you're having to figure out a way to eat something
you may not have eaten back home. But yeah, I
don't know, I've never really had an issue with them
kind of blending in with our US kids and making
that work because most of the US kids have not

(25:23):
been around too many international kids, and so when they
start coming onto the team, there's they're they're just so
curious of you know, about the culture and the country
they come from, and so they very quickly I think,
befriend them and begin to ask them questions, and so
that typically blends and goes pretty quickly. And you know,

(25:45):
people always do the team bonding stuff and things with
a lot of programs, and I know with team sports,
when we start traveling together and working out together, I've
never really had too many teams that didn't just like
Mesh because of just track. You know, it's kind of
a melting pot anyway from all over the place, and

(26:05):
I think it's pretty natural as they compete together and
work out together and go through all the training together
that I don't really have to do a whole lot
of other stuff to make that work.

Speaker 2 (26:16):
Yeah, curious American international, specific country, who's the best trash
talk and when it comes to training?

Speaker 1 (26:26):
Uh, Man, I don't know about country, but I can
tell you it's always the sprinters when it comes to
the trash talk. And your sprinters are always, uh, the
ones that can run their mouth a little bit. In fact,
that was always kind of the joke with my athletic director.
He used to I know, if I can say this
on the station, but he used to say, you know,
there's uh the biggest a holes and our around or

(26:51):
point guards and sprinters. Uh. So we always thought that
was kind of funny, and truthfully it was funny because
some of the sprinters we had that were internationally. We
had a kid named Chavez Hart who you know, his
life was taken a few years ago back but from
the Bahamas. It was a great, great kid sprinder for us.

(27:13):
Went to Texas A and m and loved the kid.
And we had a bunch of those, you know, Fred
Curley when we had him from you know, from Taylor,
Texas was always a very quiet and hard working guy.
So we really didn't have a ton of the sprinters
that kind of had the big egos and all that,
so that was kind of a neat deal. We were

(27:34):
very fortunate, but I did see a lot of that,
so I kind of know where my athletic director was
coming from.

Speaker 4 (27:41):
Coach you said, Odessa is above and beyond with academic support.
Are there any majors that are unique to Odessa College?
And what is the majority of the majors that the
athletes are on the team?

Speaker 1 (27:54):
We kind of keep most of the stuff, at least
with our international kids in general studies because it's so
much easier for them to transfer out if you're with
that and not lose any hours when you get very specific.
If they go to somewhere else and they say, oh,
we can't go that route because of this or that
here at our school, then they may lose some of
their hours. So we kind of keep it very general

(28:15):
for them. You know, some of our US kids are,
you know, coming out of high school and stuff. With
all the hours that they have, they've already kind of
covered most of their basic stuff a lot of the time,
and so they're kind of able to go a little
bit more specific to a major. You know, our our
nursing school and stuff here that they've got here, and

(28:35):
I know there's a lot of nursing school everywhere, but
they just built a brand new building here on campus.
It's like a mock hospital. They have like a mock
ambulance rooms where you actually can do literal, live hospital
kind of things that I've never seen at a lot
of schools. I know that the engineering programs are pre

(28:55):
engineering programs here are phenomenal. We even have it where
they as they go up on the lines and stuff
to fix, you know, electrical lines and stuff like that.
You can do some of that. And then we have
things here with h fact and that are on the
other side of stuff with people that want to work
and go into certain degrees here. Our welding folks here

(29:19):
are like some of the best I've ever been around,
which I know those don't. We don't get to do
many of that of those programs because usually if they
come here for two years and do that, they're probably
not moving on. They're going to go to work for
the oil field or something like that around here. But
we have a lot of the different degrees that most

(29:40):
people have. But like I said, we try to keep
it fairly general at this level, so that when they
get to the next level, they can immediately go into
whatever major or double major or whatever that they want to.

Speaker 4 (29:51):
Rich. I think that's one thing people aren't aware of
of the junior colleges, of all those certificates and all
the programs that all these junior colleges have that no
one ever talks about.

Speaker 2 (30:02):
Yeah, and you know, trade jobs are in high demand
right now. There's such a shortage in so many different
fields in the trades. You know, welding is you can
make a lot of money welding. You know, get one
of those their certificates and be pretty well off. So
it's something that people need to know about for sure.

Speaker 1 (30:25):
Well, our area here in Odessa is so oil field
dominated in this area. I mean a lot of those
folks literally leave here in two years with whatever certificate
you're talking about and literally have a job like immediately
when they leave Odessa College.

Speaker 3 (30:45):
Yeah, they're making good money, yes, sir, good money, coach.
I'm curious over the years.

Speaker 2 (30:51):
You know, obviously, I graduated high school in nineteen ninety
four and recruiting was much different than how it is now.
Are you still making phone calls or things, mostly through
WhatsApp and and maybe some zooms.

Speaker 1 (31:09):
I guess I'm kind of old school because I graduated
high school in eighty nine, so I still I'm a little
more old fashioned that way. I'm doing some better stuff
with trying to get our social media stuff going here,
uh and getting that going. But uh, most of my
recruiting has done through relationship, to be honest with you.

(31:30):
You know these programs that uh, you know Coach Kittley
over at Texas Tech. Uh, you know, all my buddies
are over at Alabama, my buddy at Clemson. You know,
we have other schools too that I've had very good
relationships when I was at South Plains, and you know,
they're the ones that come across kids a hey, coach,
I may need to place this kid with you, or

(31:51):
or academically maybe they're missing, uh some part of their
core and they're going to have to go juco first.
And so I've done more of that, and then obviously
having the scholar books and things of the world where
they're already picking up the phone or sending you an
email saying, hey, would you be interested in this kid?
And here's their marks. That part of it has gotten easier.

(32:15):
I'll tell you what has gotten a little bit more
difficult for us is finding some of the US kids.
But I think with the new rules of a lot
of the Division I schools having to cut their rosters down,
I'm hoping some of that helps us because I don't
want to be all international in our team. I want
to be a school that has a good mix of that,

(32:37):
but I want some good US kids to be running
for me as well.

Speaker 4 (32:43):
Coach, we know being a head coach, you're CEO of business.
You're running a small business. It sounds like you're doing
a lot. You're going classes, you're talking with teachers, you're
doing the recruiting, you're writing out workouts. What does your
position look like the major? And how do you have
time to do it all?

Speaker 1 (33:03):
H Well, you don't sleep much. That's number one. You
know what. It's one of those deals that you and
I guess it's South planes. I was a lot more
round tight. And that's where having my wife at the time,
when she was alive and all that stuff was so
good because stress that I had accumulated during the day
or whatever. I was able to go home event and

(33:23):
she was so good. I struggle more now because I
don't have that with her being gone. But you know,
I still have a son that's a junior in high
school who's playing soccer. And you know, I grew up
playing soccer as well, love the sport, so I love
watching him play. So it's funny like right now, we
have our cross country set every other weekend, and then

(33:44):
the weekends in between, I go to Dallas every other
weekend that that we're not going to cross country to
watch him play soccer. So you know, there's a just
lots of hours doing things, and you just got to
get to where you can man your time and things.
You know, the things that don't matter you've got to

(34:05):
put on the back burner and not worry about those
so much and the ones and prioritize your day. And
I think over the years, I've been pretty good at that,
and you know, I've been able to delegate some things.
You know, when I need to coach Blackwell, who was
at New Mexico Junior College for several years and won
fifteen national titles over there as the head coach, works
with me and he's my assistant coach and our associate

(34:28):
head coach, is really the right term for him. He's phenomenal.
When I need him to do something get hotels or
travel stuff or whatever, he didn't even ask, he just
does it. So that's what was good with me and
Blaine Wiley. We just worked so good together that things
got done.

Speaker 3 (34:47):
Do you have a favorite aspect outside of the x's
and o's.

Speaker 1 (34:52):
Oh God, I love the bonding that you know over
the time with athletes, because I had a kid named
Darryl Burgess when I was at South Plains when I
very first got there. He was a hurdler from Miami
and he had run fourteen oh nine was his PR's
freshman year before I got there. I took him over.

(35:14):
I actually kicked him out of practice once for being
late and got all over him. And he was in
the weight room one day, and you know, he's one
of those guys that wanted to make sure his biceps
looked good but didn't really want to work his legs.
And you know, I got on to him and he
was a coach, what do you really think I could
run this year? I said, I think you could run
thirteen sixes. He looked at me, his eyes got real

(35:37):
bright and said, you really think I can run that?
Fast coach. I said, yeah, I said, you know, if
you'll get serious about the weight room in here and
what we're doing in the weight room and be less
about making sure your biceps look good for the girls,
you know, I think that we can do that. Well.
The kid ends up running thirteen forty six and says
the national record that year. And it was that process
of creating that relationship with the kid, and then all

(35:59):
of a sudden and he realized I really was in
his corner to be better than he even thought in
his own mind. And once you get that, I mean,
so the end of that story is at Nationals after
he set the national record, he was a one ten hurdler.
He didn't really run the four hundred hurdles for me,
But I had a kid who didn't want to run
the four by four and was kind of given some attitude.

(36:19):
So I walked over and said, hey, let's just put
Darryl on the on the four by four and we'll
finish the meat off that way. I said, where's Darryl out?
The said he's in his room, coach, So they went
and got him, brought him back out. I said, Darryl,
you want to run the four by four because you
dang right, I do. Coach, I said, we get your
uniform on. He came out, We put him on anchor.
This is a kid who's not run the quarter really
all year, and split forty seven something on the anchor

(36:43):
leg and we ended up getting third in the four
by four. We were actually in the lead and a
couple of forty five second guys came and got him,
but we were I don't even think. I think we're
like eighth going in, and we got third with a
guy who wasn't even supposed to be on my four
by four, but he was so excited about running the
national record earlier in the day, all that adrenaline just flowing.

(37:03):
He just had the race of his life there.

Speaker 2 (37:06):
It's funny way you can you can like see it
in real time to buy and happen, you know what
I mean, Like that light switch clicks and then you
see it. It's that's that's a beautiful thing.

Speaker 3 (37:15):
It is curious.

Speaker 2 (37:16):
You said you're a decathlete, so you've worn a lot
of different hats and competed in a lot of different events.
When it comes to the x's and o's, do you
have a favorite event that you like the coach hurdles.

Speaker 3 (37:28):
Hurdles.

Speaker 1 (37:29):
Yeah, I love coaching the hurdles, and you know why,
It's because I was terrible at him. Uh in the
decathlon because I you know, I'm six foot tall, almost
six foot tall, but most of my heights like in
my torso and not in my legs, and so the
forty two witch hurdles you just ate my lunch in
uh in college and uh so, because again it's it's

(37:52):
it's a competitive thing. I started coaching different events and
because that was one I struggled with, it was the
one I wanted to know the most about. It's the
one I wanted to learn how to coach. And you know,
when Darryl set the national record there, it kind of
you know, set a premise that you know, we could
have hurbers, you know. And then when when when Blaine came,

(38:15):
I coached the foreigner hurdles and then he kind of
coached the one ten herders, and so we kind of
worked together there a little bit. So I kind of
had to branch out and coach the areas that I
wanted him to be, coach the areas that he was
best in, and then I kind of figured out a
way to coach everything else.

Speaker 4 (38:36):
Coach you mentioned the med balls as a punishment. You
mentioned a story with Daryl where there was another athlete
that didn't have a good attitude. How much have you
had to change your coaching throughout the years based on
the times of today.

Speaker 1 (38:51):
Well, you know, the initial change was when I got
to South Plains because I was really kind of an
easy going guy and not I confrontation. Didn't really like
that part. It just wasn't who I was. And as
soon as I got to South Plains College, you know,
my athletic director very clearly, Joe tub was like, Hey,
we we're gonna have discipline here and we're gonna do

(39:14):
it the right way and we're gonna get rid of
the ones that don't. And I realized that one to
be successful, but two to keep my job, the discipline
was going to be very important. So I learned very
quickly to be that harder coach a little bit. You know,
Coach Wildy was the hug him and hey, Coach Britty
does care about you. That's why he's on your butt

(39:34):
kind of kind of guy. But I had to always
seem to be the bad guy. But I've mellowed over
the years, just with age a little bit. And so
now there are some times when I can go off
on the athletes a little bit and let them know that, hey,
that's not acceptable. But I'm not near as harsh as

(39:56):
I probably was when I was younger.

Speaker 4 (40:00):
Do you look back at when you were younger and
cringe a little bit, or now having a little bit
more wisdom, you're just like out, that's what a young
man does.

Speaker 1 (40:10):
Maybe a little of both. You know, there are some
things I look back go, man, I wish I'd done
that a little different or or could have done that
a little different. But as far as, uh, the wisdom
side of it, I mean, I'm still learning every day.
If you're not learning, you gotta you gotta quit coaching.
And I've got a lot of folks that you know,
Dave Smith's over at Oklahoma State, and he and I

(40:32):
coached together at Texas Tech. And you know, if I
got a distance question about what we're doing or training
or things like that, and you know, I pick up
the phone say hey, Dave Man, what do you think
about this? So you know, I have those guys around
the country that I really respect, and uh, were good
to me when I was at South Plains and uh,

(40:53):
those relationships, you know, are also how I grow. You know,
Dan Path was uh the guy that was at Texas
when I was coaching at Tech, and I've always had
tremendous respect for him. In fact, I think he may
know when his little toe that I know and everything
I've ever done in my career. But just talking to him, uh,

(41:13):
you know, sometimes I had to bring up Thesaurus to
be able to understand what he was telling me. But uh,
he was a phenomenal coach. It still is. I mean,
I think he does a lot of coaching education still.
And Boo was another one. You know, you guys know
who Boo is that was at l s U. And
he's another one I've learned a tremendous from or amount from.

Speaker 2 (41:35):
I didn't realize Dave Smith was at Texas Tech at
one point. Today's so I'm curious you got you got
Dave on in the phone and talk to him regularly
when you have distance questions? Are the are the cross
country runners and distance runners at Odessa? Are you dabbling
into double threshold training at all?

Speaker 1 (41:55):
A little bit? You know, It's funny that that conversation
tends to be one that they want to bring up
all the time, and we have done some of that
this year. In you know, my philosophy has always been
a middle of the road mileage guy, and because in

(42:15):
junior college, I've never had the depth to really be
the high mileage guy. And I also the low mileage guy.
Never was really that guy because I knew that there
were the benefits to you know, putting in the miles
and stuff for the body and all that. But this year,
I've got a couple of guys, you know, Thomas Cabala,
the guy who was telling me about earlier, that's the
Texas kid, and I have another kid from Aubrey. Those

(42:37):
guys have really benefited from running hundred miles a week.
And like I said, that's not typically been who I am.
But I'm really letting the kids dictate a little bit
by what I'm seeing on whether or not, you know,
the sixty seventy eighty miles is enough or if to
be really good and go to the next level, they
need more.

Speaker 4 (43:01):
Coach it to be. In the podcast, you listed a
bunch of names of athletes you've coached that are at
the World Championships right now. How awesome is that for
you to see all these athletes that you've worked with
and there coach Tim, coach sir.

Speaker 1 (43:18):
Oh, it's it is awesome. And you know, the Good Lord,
I think has blessed me with a lot of things
and that's one of them, because man, it's uh just
don't know, over the career, being able to to be
a small West Texas town kind of guy and uh
to go from you know, a Division two school to

(43:38):
being able to coach folks that you're watching on TV
and the Olympics and run on relays and win gold medals.
And you know, I coached Sally Kipiego who went to
Texas Tech after me and won the silver medal in
the ten k for Kenya.

Speaker 3 (43:52):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (43:53):
You know, those kind of things are really cool. And
it's also something that I like that my friends you
know that I hang out with or whatever, you know,
will ask me questions about and so it's really good
to you know, something just to visit about, especially when
track's kind of more relevant, you know, like every four years,

(44:13):
we you know, the Olympics were relevant and you know
the World Championships are kind of relevant at least when
the sports on TV.

Speaker 3 (44:22):
Coach.

Speaker 2 (44:22):
Are those twenty plus world or Olympic athletes that you've
coached what has separated them from from the pack.

Speaker 1 (44:31):
Well, obviously the talent level there coming in has got
to be to a certain level. You know, they were
extremely hard working athletes, but they were so talented. Natoya Gould,
that's the national record holder for Jamaica in the eight hundred.
I mean she came in her freshman year, ran tua
one for me and ran fifty one fifty four in

(44:53):
the quarter as a freshman. And you don't do that
in one year, no matter how good I'm coaching, without
the ability to work hard and be extremely talented. So
you know, I'll love all the posters and things that
always talk about you know, hard work, hard work, and
don't get me wrong, I know that's a big part

(45:13):
of it. But you do have to have the certain
level of talent that you're born with to be able
to get there. But the hard work, obviously is what
makes that work.

Speaker 4 (45:29):
There.

Speaker 2 (45:29):
Have you ever seen anyone that has doesn't have that
has the talent but doesn't necessarily have the hard work,
they can still get to the pretty high level.

Speaker 3 (45:39):
That's rare. Phase out after a certain point.

Speaker 1 (45:42):
There is a few that I've seen maybe that are
so talented they can make it, but that you're right,
they want. Those are typically kids that get hurt because
the you know, they don't train and do all the
things that you the extra things that you need to
do with you know, sleep and nutrition, and because they
don't care about the whole package and what it takes

(46:03):
to be good. So I don't know that I've ever
been around one that that went to the you know,
the Olympic level or World championship level that didn't have both. Now,
I have seen the ones that overwork themselves, and if
you don't understand recovery and how that stuff works, you know,

(46:23):
sometimes you have ones that burn out or get injured
because they literally are almost two over the top on
the work side of things.

Speaker 2 (46:33):
Yeah, a wise man once told me there's no such
thing as overtraining, just under recovery.

Speaker 1 (46:39):
I like that. I may have to steal that one.

Speaker 3 (46:42):
Yeah, absolutely go for it.

Speaker 2 (46:44):
Coach Jumpkious were winding down here, but how is the
season been going so far in the fall? Have you
guys had some meats? Have as as the top five?
Have they been tested?

Speaker 4 (46:54):
So?

Speaker 1 (46:54):
Yeah, we started off we went over to Ablin Christian
for the very first meet. On the men's side, I
didn't have anywhere near my whole group, and one of
my kids on the guys side was sick, so we
didn't you know, individually my guy wanted my Kenyan guy,
but as a team we were kind of average there
on the women we wanted and ran pretty well. I

(47:17):
think we went one, two, three, five, and like thirteenth.
So it was a pretty good showing on the girl's side,
and that was with one of my girls who came
in and stepped in a hole. That was one of
my international girls, got injured right off the bat, and
so we finally had her at the Texas Tech meet,

(47:37):
which was our second meet this past weekend, and we
were third overall, and I thought we ran pretty well.
You know, uh, West West Texas or w T beat us,
and you know their division two their ranked top two
or three every year and their girls team's good. And
then Texas Tech beat us, so you know we're talking

(47:58):
a division one, Division two and then we or third,
and uh did it pretty well or a pretty good
job of distance in ourselves. I think from some of
the other junior colleges that were at the meet.

Speaker 2 (48:09):
Give a shout out to coach sac Daniel over there
at West Texas former guests a radio he ran.

Speaker 1 (48:15):
He ran for me at South Plains College for a semester. Okay, okay,
well he was one of mine at one time.

Speaker 3 (48:20):
There's another through line.

Speaker 2 (48:21):
Yeah, well, coach, I'm curious. You know, you've coached at
all all the levels you've experienced, the Division one, Division two,
and ai A. What is the mindset of the Division
one coaches when they're competing against junior colleges. Is something
you know that they shy away from. They not minded

(48:42):
you know, the cream always rises to the top mentality,
How is it?

Speaker 1 (48:47):
You know, that's kind of a mixed bag. I think
I think I know from a coach's perspective, the Division
one schools want us at their meets. In fact, sometimes
they'll you know, not charge you an entry fee, pay
for hotels, things like that that they can do legally
because they want those kids to come on campus. And uh,
obviously they want to see them compete against their kids

(49:08):
because they're trying to figure out, you know, and recruiting.
Is this a kid I want to you know, spend
money on, you know, from the actual maybe the Division
one athlete side. You know, sometimes there's the well you're
at junior college and you must not be very smart
kind of thing that we've gotten in the past, and
you know, it really has nothing to do with that.

(49:29):
I mean, are no, You're wrong. I've had some kids
that really struggle with school and junior college. That's part
of it sometimes, but that's not all the kids and
I have. I can tell you the team I've got
right now here to Odessa College is very bright. Our
our cross country group last year was uh, I don't know.
I think our women may have been the highest GPA
as a team in all of junior college. I mean,

(49:50):
we've got a really good group and uh, I was
very excited about uh, you know what we did academically
last year and now that we're kind of adding more
track athletes. The international side that you were asking me
earlier about one of the struggles and sometimes the language
is a struggle there. But we've got such good professors

(50:11):
here at Odessa College that they really work with them
and you know, figure out a lot of ways to
help them. So, I mean, we've even got some folks
over in the dorms and our International Admissions lady, who
have you know, helped those kids like get coats and
jackets when it's cold and things like that. I mean,
we just got people that want to give. And again

(50:32):
that just kind of goes back to the kindness of
West Texas.

Speaker 3 (50:36):
There you go, Jim kindness coach.

Speaker 4 (50:39):
What's the rest of the season look like? What are
the key meats we should keep an eye on.

Speaker 1 (50:44):
Well, we're gonna be at the jamboree here uh in
about twelve days or whatever, So looking forward to that one.
And again since Dave Smith and I coached together, he
kind of, you know, last year, let us come and
run with that and really really good meeting. Gosh, man,
what a beautiful course and they've done so much to
upgrade that thing over the years, and so we love

(51:08):
that place. And then we're kind of gonna two weeks
later go to New Mexico Junior College because that's where
region's gonna be and we want to see that course
before we get there. And then two weeks later we
go back there for regionals and then we're going to
go to Iowa Central this year, who's hosting nationals for
both cross country and half marathon.

Speaker 3 (51:29):
Championships there, we all work, go ahead, go ahead, finish.

Speaker 1 (51:34):
Well, I was just gonna say, and we're praying that
it's not snowing and twenty blows zero, and I know
that they're praying for the other.

Speaker 2 (51:39):
Yeah, I'm curious, are you guys going to feel the
half marathon team again make a go at that as well?

Speaker 1 (51:46):
Oh yeah yeah, and we're going to be really competitive
on both sides there.

Speaker 2 (51:50):
Now is that something where are you doing any sort
of half marathon specific training or is it kind of
like we're just training for the eight k and the
sixth k or the five k and then we'll just
roll the dice and know that our training is preparing
us to run a half marathon.

Speaker 1 (52:07):
Well, I mean we our long run obviously, every week
that we do is in that ballpark. I mean, some
of my guys are running, you know, sixteen seventeen miles
in their long run, so they're getting obviously a lot
of what they need for that there. And I don't
know anybody that really, I mean, everybody kind of trains
for cross country and chases that title and then lets

(52:30):
their uh, you know, their mileage kind of speak for
itself when they go to run the half marathon. But
I'm so competitive in everything that I do. I can't
let anything just go. So when it comes to where
there it's a half marathon, cross country, indoors, outdoors. My
goal is, at some point in time, I want to

(52:50):
be the first coach ever to win all eight titles,
four on the men and four on the women. And
you know, we won five of the eight twice when
I was at South Plains College, and uh, I don't
know that anybody's ever ever won five in one year
other than coach Walleye and I myself when we were
there at South Plains. I may be wrong, but that's
to my knowledge.

Speaker 2 (53:12):
I'm curious as again, as someone who's coached Division one
two ANAI, do you think the half marathon would be
something that would be a cool addition to some of
those other divisions. I know Anai used to have a marathon,
I believe at one point and.

Speaker 1 (53:26):
When I was at Wayalem Baptist, I actually had a
marathon kid. He ran. He didn't score anything, but he
did run and finish it at the national meet, and
I mean, I don't know, it's I love it. You
know it used to We had two weeks in between,
so r I say you had a weekend in between
and then that you'd go back somewhere else for the
half marathon, and now it's four days after cross country,

(53:50):
and I think from that perspective, I love that idea
because budget wise, you're not killing your school to have
to travel to two D or super Place and all that.
So it's kind of a neat deal. I mean, we
enjoyed it. I love getting out there. Believe it or not.
I know I'm kind of a bigger guy and a
little bit overweight and trying to lose some of this.

(54:10):
But I got out of my bike and rode the
course with the kids and watched them compete. And I
love the half marathon. I think it's a lot of fun.
I think the kids look forward to it, and I
say that you're lower you know your kids that are?
You know if I got it, Like I got a
Jamaican girl right now who's a pretty good fifteen hundred

(54:30):
meter runner. I didn't run her last year in the
half marathon, and I think that she would have fought
me on it. But this year, I think that if
we decide to ask her to run, not only would
I think she'll help us a little bit, and I
think she'd be happy to run it. So I'm I
think the kids just I mean, when you put in
all that mileage's and you're running a five k or

(54:54):
an eight k, there's a test there. But there's something
in each most of these kids that like, you know,
I really do want to go run a half marathon
or you know, if we had the marathon, I'm sure
some would want to do that. I'm glad we don't
do that, but I wish that other levels had the
half marathon because I really think they would love it
as well.

Speaker 4 (55:15):
Yeah, coach, as preseason rankings come out, do you look
at them and go, man, they know we're here. I
want to sneak up on some people.

Speaker 1 (55:24):
Absolutely. In fact, that's the conversation I had with my
assistant coach. I was like, I didn't want to come
out ranked number one. I want everybody to think that, oh,
Dess is still rebuilding that thing and trying to get
it going. And then yes, get the nationals and go, hey,
here we are. But on the girl's side, once they
ranked us number one, and now if Elizabeth had not

(55:45):
left me and gone to Clemson, and I would have
kept her with this other five that I've got, we
would have been six deep. Pretty We'd have been pretty
tough for anybody, and we I think even going to
with that group going to Oklahoma State Jamboree, I think
we could have been a top three or fourteen with
all the division ones there. I don't know that we're
quite that without her, but you know, she was my

(56:07):
national champion last year, and I think our girls team
would have definitely got some eyeballs looking at us over
at the jamboree if I'd had all six of those girls.

Speaker 4 (56:18):
When it comes to the track program and building that,
I know you're a cathlete, but you have some amazing
distance runners. Are you trying to build it from the
distance and then expand to the other events?

Speaker 1 (56:31):
Yes, and typically that's not kind of been the way
I've done it. You know, when I was at South Plains,
we very much started in the middle and worked our
way out, so we were four hundred eight hundred, which
we ran. You know, we ran three zero once at
the national record when I was there at South Plains
College with three freshmen and a sophomore, So we ran
really fast with our quarter milers, and I had a

(56:53):
lot of eight hundred meter kids from time to time
that would run on that four by four. So we
started with that being kind of our bread and butter,
and then worked our way out and then we did
a lot. You know, I had a lot of really
good field event kids over the years when I was
there and here at Odessa. It's a really different plan
because they started with cross country first, so we had

(57:16):
to kind of do it that way. And uh then
you know, obviously with their adding to the facility each
year as we go with you know, hi jout pits,
pull vault pits and all the things you got to buy,
they've kind of broken that into segments and so like,
we don't really have any throwers yet this year, but
we have jumpers and hurdlers and sprinters and all that.

(57:37):
Next year we'll be able to kind of move into
the area of having throwers. Now I do have some
multi event girls, so they will throw the shot in
jab and all that, But before we really have it
truly what I consider full team with throwers and everybody,
that won't be till next year. So we're gonna try
to find this year a way to win it a
little different than I ever have maybe be competitive for

(58:00):
a national title there or two with you know, everything
from the jump, sprints and distance and find a way
to do it that way.

Speaker 4 (58:09):
I appreciate that insight as someone who only ran for
wrestling at a certain point, so I never really participated
in track in high school. I we've talked to some
coaches and you know, we've had some coaches say oh, yeah,
we're a distance program in track, and I had to
talk to Rich afterwards, like, well, what's he talking about?

(58:29):
I thought, shreck, you do. So I appreciate that perspective
and how you're building the team a different way. I
have full faith that you're going to get it done.
So excited for track as well. Before we get into
the final four, if Rich doesn't have another question for you,
is there anything about Odessa College or you as a
coach that we haven't covered that you want our audience
to know?

Speaker 1 (58:51):
Oh gosh, well, you know, man, I don't know. It's
a great air area. Like I said, I'm a West
Texas guy. You know. Coach Secrest who was here back
in the eighties, h James Segrist. I kind of like
to mention him because he was a legend. I mean,

(59:13):
he coached world class people here. In fact, I still
have like circuits and things that I have in folders
that have James Secrest's name on them that he created
and they that's the name of our stadium. So when
they decided to bring track back here and gave me
the job to do it, they built a stadium for

(59:34):
us here and you know, named it after James Segrist
And so that's probably I always tell people that, you know,
I've always seem like when I went to junior college,
I followed legends. You know, James Morris if you guys
know who he is, was at South Plains College and
just coached a ton of great kids there and everybody

(59:56):
loved James Morris, and so I kind of followed him.
So I had a lot to prove there and then,
you know, then I get this jobs and James Segrist
is is the legend here and so, uh, you know,
every day I wake up both jobs when I was
there and now that I'm here and realize that, uh,
you know, I have big shoes to feel and whatever
program I'm in, and I'm excited because I think that

(01:00:19):
uh of Dessa College is going to be big time
and hopefully sooner than later.

Speaker 4 (01:00:27):
Well, I'm sure at some other schools coaches are taken
over after you have to say, man, I got some
big shoes to fill. So I think it's the same
across the board. Rich, Do you have another question for coach?

Speaker 2 (01:00:39):
Well, I was just going to say, you know, we
do love Dee Brown over here at Earbrows Radio, but
we're going to be praying for sunshine for you, coach.

Speaker 1 (01:00:45):
I appreciate that De's an old friend. We uh uh
we hung out a little bit uh at cross country
a little bit last year, and so he and I,
he and I talk And it's funny because when I
was at South Plains, we were we were like mortal
enemies there. I mean we we just didn't even already
talk and there was a little bit of uh, you know,
I don't know if I don't know if it was animosity,
but there was just such a competitive spirit that we

(01:01:08):
just didn't hang out. And now, like I said, I'm older,
I'm a little different. Uh you know, you know, we
went and uh sat down and with some of the
other coaches and they you know, ate some food and
uh drank a little bit and hung out and just
enjoyed each other's company and and those were things that
I really struggled doing when I was a younger.

Speaker 3 (01:01:28):
Coach and I both just don't talk to coach Mark Bierbaum.

Speaker 1 (01:01:36):
Yeah, there's some truth in that statement. Mark's okay, we
just uh. But again, it's one of those things that
people always ask me, coach, you know so and so
doesn't like you or so and so. Well, I love
that because if you're liked by everybody, you're not winning,
and so uh. You know, I want people to to

(01:02:00):
I don't purposely go out of my way for them
to not like me, But I'm just saying, if everybody
likes me, I'm not doing my job. And the same
thing with some of those other coaches that I'm looking
forward to de throning. It's one of those deals that
I may not like him now, but I'd love to
like him down the road, because that means they ain't
win it.

Speaker 4 (01:02:17):
To be clear, if Coach beer Bram's listening, we are
fans just joking.

Speaker 1 (01:02:28):
Coach He's he's been good and we we talk at
meets and stuff. So he and I have a good relationship.
Just I don't know him as well as like I
know Dee Brown is you know those guys up there.

Speaker 4 (01:02:39):
So coach Final Four. But I have a I have
a one a of the Final four because you've mentioned
you're from West Texas a couple of times through and
through and being a huge pro wrestling fan that I am.
Back in the eighties when you were growing up, pro
wrestling was huge in West Texas. Did you grow up
watching pro wrestling?

Speaker 1 (01:03:00):
I actually did. The von Erks were the ones that
I loved watching when I was a kid, So all
of that group was really fun to watch when I
was younger. I probably kind of stopped watching it when
it turned into like you know, like the Rock and
those guys. I really did. I was kind of too
old for it at that point maybe, But yeah, when
I was a young kid, my granny was a huge

(01:03:22):
wrestling fan, and if I went over to her house,
wrestling was on her TV. So uh, and so we
watched the von Erics a lot when I was young.

Speaker 3 (01:03:32):
God you did, I will see.

Speaker 4 (01:03:34):
So another through line. We just had Ross and Marshall
von Eric Kevin's two boys on the podcast, and we've
had them on before. They are friends of the Area bros.
So that's why I asked that question, so that warms
my heart as a pro wrestling absolutely girl watching von Erics. Yeah, absolutely,
So the first real final four I got for you?

(01:03:56):
Are you a coffee drinker?

Speaker 1 (01:03:59):
I'm a sissy coffee drinker? Can I say it that way?
Because I don't drink it black? My assistant coach, does
you know? I'm a Starbucks guy? If I have to
drink coffee, I believe it or not. And I know
this sounds horrible. You know, I drink soft drinks and
I have for a lot of time, and I've kind
of gotten to where I've gotten rid of most of

(01:04:20):
those now because I'm trying to lose weight and get
a lot of the sugar out of my diet, so
I'm doing less. But my whole life, I've really, you know,
I've been a Doctor Pepper guy my whole life almost.

Speaker 3 (01:04:31):
Doctor Pepper's good.

Speaker 1 (01:04:33):
I always tell people on the eighth day got created
Doctor Pepper.

Speaker 3 (01:04:36):
There you go. Have you ever had cheerwine?

Speaker 4 (01:04:40):
I have not.

Speaker 2 (01:04:42):
It's like a North Carolina South Carolina staple. It's like
a cherry flavored soda. Similar, similar, not as I guess,
maybe not as spicy as Doctor Pepper, but it's it's delicious, nonetheless,
so gotch.

Speaker 1 (01:04:55):
I'll have to try that next time I see it.

Speaker 2 (01:04:58):
Coach, do you have any daily practices ritual as you
do on a regular basis to show up as the
strongest version of Chris Bean.

Speaker 1 (01:05:08):
Well. We One of the things that I learned from
coach Kittley when I was with him at Abilene Christian
when he won his twenty nine national titles, we always
had a team meeting on Monday and so that the
kids were informed that they knew what was expected of them.
And expectation is big. I mean, if kids know that

(01:05:29):
there's you know, high expectations for them to achieve, you know,
high things and to do things well. And you set
that meeting, you know, every Monday, first thing effect. You know,
we had our our team meeting today and got that
done at two thirty. So that's something I learned from him.

(01:05:51):
I have great respect for coach Kittley. I mean he's uh,
he's won thirty one national titles too at the Division
IE level and twenty nine at you know, at Abline
Christian at Division two. But I always think it's neat
that his protege has thirty two national titles, so I
get to tell him I have one more than he does.

Speaker 4 (01:06:14):
Coach, what are you listening to right now? Music? Podcast,
audio books? Are you reading anything?

Speaker 1 (01:06:22):
No, I don't. My learning comes more from talking to people.
I love sitting down with coaches, and you know, when
we go to convention, I'll learn a lot because I'll
go sit down with coaches and visit with them. You know,
music for me, it's funny. My daughter is just graduated
from UT Arlington and is twenty two years old, and

(01:06:43):
she's got me hooked. I listened to twenty one Pilots.
That's my I went to concert and saw them last
year in concert and they were fantastic. So they're probably
my favorite band right now. Like imagine Dragons and stuff
like that. So if I'm doing music, it's typically escape.
It's not anything you towards training or anything. And I

(01:07:04):
do continue to go through like I love the Jack
Daniels running formula stuff because I use the v dot
stuff with my runners because it really it allows me
to let that to be the science for me, if
you will, and then me to focus on the kids.
And I think the one thing that I'm unique because

(01:07:25):
I believe that if you listen to your body. It
tells you a lot of the answer as you're going.
And so I talk to the kids and say how
do you feel? Nearly every day. And when I'm asking
them that question, I'm not really saying, hey, how you doing.
I'm saying, how does your body really feel? Do I
need to change the workout today? And I think that
a lot of coaches get so in wrapped up and

(01:07:46):
I wrote this on a piece of paper, we have
to do it today. And as I go through the workout,
I'm very big at changing on things here, or deleting
something here, or occasionally adding something. So I'm just one
of those coaches that really listens to the athlete and
tries to make a lot of science decisions in my
mind to help them get better and to run at

(01:08:11):
a very high level. I think that's one of the
things I've done different and it has a lot to
do with recovery.

Speaker 2 (01:08:17):
Yeah, I love the bets stuff that I wish I
would have had that when I was going through my
competitive days, or at least I would have listened to
the people that were talking about it when I was
gone through my competitives. You know, there's just something to
be said of that like sub threshold level and being
at that and the response that you get from it,

(01:08:37):
it's unbelievable. And it's another one of those things where
you see those light bulbs when the kids get into
it and they understand it, and it makes it very
simple for the for the kids to understand it too.
You know, I pull up the calculator on my on
my TV board in the classroom and I just put
their time in and I'm like, all right, this is
what we're doing, and I make them do the math
and everything and it kind of helps them be a

(01:08:59):
student of the sport a little bit more so. Sure,
shout out to coach Daniel's rest in peace, coach last
what we got for you? A light harder one to
close it up. Maybe it's a unique food item in
West Texas. Maybe it's a beverage. We know we've had
a lot of coaches on their their golfers, their fishermen.

Speaker 3 (01:09:17):
Do you have a guilty pleasure?

Speaker 1 (01:09:21):
Yeah? I do love to play golf when I can.
I don't get to do that very much.

Speaker 4 (01:09:28):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:09:29):
I love Japanese food. I love to sit in when
they cook it in front of you and have all
the fire and all that kind of stuff, and my
son that's his favorite place to eat pretty much. So
I really enjoy taking my kids if I have a
guilty pleasure. I'm a movie guy, so I love if
they end up taking away movie theaters, I don't know
what I'm gonna do, because I love getting my kids

(01:09:52):
and going to you know, go to see an Avenger
movie or something like that, and sit there together and
get some popcorn and some uh doctor pepper. Yes. And
I love the the watermelon uhura kids.

Speaker 3 (01:10:09):
Yes, uh, And.

Speaker 1 (01:10:10):
We eat that stuff at the movie theater. So it's
it's just a way I love to bond with my kids.
I'm very much a family man, and again that's one
of the reasons that I love the junior college side
of it, because I'm allowed to continue to be, I think,
a family guy. And it's really hard sometimes with if
you're going to be competitive at the D one level,
it's so cutthroat the recruiting that, uh, you know, it's

(01:10:32):
hard to ever get days with family like I get
to do at junior college.

Speaker 4 (01:10:37):
We'll cut You're speaking to my heart because I am
a movie geek myself as well.

Speaker 1 (01:10:41):
Perfectly tell me what your favorite movie is, then do
you have one?

Speaker 4 (01:10:46):
Well, so this is gonna make me big. O'bowski is
my favorite movie.

Speaker 1 (01:10:51):
Oh gosh, that's the past.

Speaker 4 (01:10:53):
Not a cinema movie, but it's a movie that I
love through and through. What's your favorite movie?

Speaker 1 (01:11:00):
You know? It's funny. Almost all of my favorite movies
are action movie. I love the action movie side of
things and uh, you know, uh Reacher Jack Reacher is
one of my favorites. Probably my favorite movie though of
all time was gosh it just what Blake? Uh the

(01:11:23):
Last Samurai? You know?

Speaker 4 (01:11:26):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (01:11:26):
I love that movie because I love I don't know,
there's a coaching side of me that loves that when
they're he's talking about how the Japanese UH culture and
stuff with how they're they do things every day with
such love and perfection of their art, And I guess
that flows to me with with coaching when you get kids,

(01:11:49):
you know, I have one of the saying that I
always tell kids that you never really truly reach your
potential until you learn to love the process. And so
that's always one of the things that I always tell
our kids is I have another one that's habit will
take you further than desire that I got from a
preacher that preaches on wisdom, and I love that one

(01:12:10):
because what you do habitually doesn't matter how you feel.
You'll do it whether you want to or not. And
people that do it by feel will say, well, I'm
too tired today, or I don't want to get out
of this chair. So habits more important than what you desire.
And I also believe that just being committed to the
process and the love of the process is so important.

(01:12:33):
I think I'd have been a much better football player
in high school. I hated the process. Love the games
and love playing on Friday night, but I hated getting
beat up during the week. And so there's guys though,
in football that man, they love the process every day.
They love getting out of bed and going and you know,
playing football, and they love that physicality. I didn't like that.
But in track, I love being out there with the kids.

(01:12:55):
I love coach, and I love watching them learn and
and and figuring out stuff and getting better every day.

Speaker 4 (01:13:00):
And so.

Speaker 1 (01:13:02):
You know, that's that's probably one of the reasons I've
been somewhat successful in certain things.

Speaker 4 (01:13:08):
Enjoy the process. That's a mantra of the area bros.
As well. I must ask, did you have a favorite
movie this summer?

Speaker 1 (01:13:17):
This summer? Yes, it's bad because I'm trying to think
of which one was. Oh, I like The Fantastic Four.
That was a really good you know, being somebody that's
that's older and you know, you know from the eighties
and stuff, and some of that stuff was before that
the way they kind of set it up. But I

(01:13:40):
love the way they kind of went back, you know,
earlier times and stuff and kind of put that into
the universe kind of thing that they were doing. And
I thought it was kind of a neat deal. So
that was kind of the one I liked.

Speaker 4 (01:13:53):
I really enjoyed that movie, all right, Yeah, I enjoyed
that as well too. Knowing your superhero guys, I don't
know if you do shows, but if you do, and
you haven't, check out Peacemaker. They're on season two right now.

Speaker 1 (01:14:07):
I've seen, like when I scroll on Prime or whatever,
I've seen it. I just haven't started. If you haven't, guys,
haven't watched The Reacher. The series Reacher is the best
thing I've ever watched. It is phenomenal and that guy
is huge. I mean, it's funny because when we look
at Tom Cruise who played the original, and you look
at the guy who's playing this now, he's a monster.

(01:14:29):
But it is such a good all three series, and
I know they're making a fourth one. I can't wait
for it to come out.

Speaker 3 (01:14:37):
Jim So coach.

Speaker 2 (01:14:40):
Mick Benncourt is a He's an actor and new writer.

Speaker 4 (01:14:43):
He's an executive producer.

Speaker 2 (01:14:45):
Nick Bennencourt is an executive producer Reacher, and he was
also a guest of ours.

Speaker 3 (01:14:50):
Oh my gosh.

Speaker 2 (01:14:52):
He's had some crazy stories in his life as his
upbringing and stuff with his parents passing and living on
his own at a very early age. But he was
a wrestler, uh, and he talks very impactfully about how
or very powerfully about how wrestling had impacted his life
and it's just kind of given him that continue to
fight and do better. So he was gracious enough to

(01:15:14):
come on and join us for an episode. But yeah,
he's part of Reachers, So.

Speaker 1 (01:15:19):
Yeah, that's awesome. I love this show. I mean, it's
Castle used to be my favorite. I love Castle for
all the years my wife and I watched Castle together.
But I think that finally Reacher may have surpassed a
is my favorite series of all time.

Speaker 3 (01:15:34):
Okay, yeah, I'm gonna have to coach.

Speaker 4 (01:15:39):
Thank you so much for your time this evening. The
more and more we talked to junior college coaches like yourself,
I keep saying, rich the last chance you producers, they're
blowing and not doing junior college cross country because there's
some great stories and there's some great stories going on
right now in junior college cross country, and I can't

(01:16:00):
wait to see what you guys do at National. So
best of the rest of the season.

Speaker 1 (01:16:06):
Well, I appreciate it, and guys, thank you so much
for letting me do this. And to be honest, this
is the first time I've ever been on a podcast.
I mean, I've been interviewed, but nothing like this, you know,
where you know, you really get to talk for a
long time and answer a lot of different questions. And
so I really appreciate you guys. This was and you
guys made it easy for me to do. It's just
really been fun. So I appreciate you guys, And I

(01:16:28):
don't know, we'll give us a couple months. We'll see
what happens with our team and hopefully, like I said,
it's not too cold in Iowa when we get to nationals.

Speaker 2 (01:16:36):
Well, we do appreciate you, coach, and like I said,
we will be praying to the run and Gods come
November seventh and eighth. The sun is shining in Fort Dodge, Iowa.
No slight to those Iowa schools or our friends in
the Jayhall Conference either. We've got a lot of a
lot of people we're rooting for come November. But it's
been an honor and a pleasure to chat with you.
And yeah, we're looking forward to seeing what goes on

(01:16:59):
in the fall and in the future and challenging, you know,
some of those other schools in the fall, but you know,
getting back grinding it out with you, with your old
with your old stomping grounds in South Plains and seeing
what you can do.

Speaker 3 (01:17:11):
We're excited for.

Speaker 1 (01:17:11):
It, Yes, sir, thank you.

Speaker 3 (01:17:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:17:14):
All right, ladies and gentlemen, that is coach Chris Bean
from Odessa College. Make sure you go check them out
on the socials. Let them know the airbro sent you.
Give them a little bit of love. We will be
back on Wednesday night. We're gonna stay in Texas. We're
gonna be talking to Jesse Parker from blynd Junior College.
So that's a school that has been known to do
some pretty special things over the years in junior college

(01:17:36):
cross country, track and fields. So we're excited for that one,
and we're going to continue this Texas tour to see
if we can convince Jimmy that the West Texas or
Texas in general might be the next location for the area, bros.
So thanks for tuning in tonight. We will see Allo
on Wednesday

Speaker 4 (01:18:02):
To

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Coach Chris Beene | 32x National Champion | Odessa College Track & XC | JUCO Hall of Famer

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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;}Coach Chris Beene | 32x National Champion | Odessa College Track & XC | JUCO Hall of Famer