Coach Quinn White (Taylor University) — 2× NAIA National Champion | Faith, Culture & Farewell

We’re going belly-to-belly with Coach Quinn White, the legendary Taylor University XC coach who led the Trojans to the only two NAIA team titles in school history (Men 2020, Women 2022). With 12 straight Crossroads League titles, dozens of All-Americans, and 200+ scholar-athletes developed under his watch, Coach White has built an NAIA powerhouse grounded in faith, culture, and blue-collar work ethic.

As he prepares to retire after 16 seasons, we dive into his origin story, the “Mad Dogs” & “Jarheads” culture, double-threshold training (and why he protects athletes from junk miles), mental-health tools for coaches (“the gray dog”), and how Taylor keeps identity rooted in Christ first, athlete second. We also preview this season’s outlook (women #1, men #3 as of recording), the Florida State nationals course, and what’s next for Taylor XC.

If you love college running, team culture, and honest coaching wisdom, this one’s for you.

Watch the full YouTube replay
 Spotify
Apple Podcasts
Instagram
 Black Sheep Endurance (Rich’s coaching)
 Buy Us a Coffee


Show notes / chaptered topics

• Intro & mission – why we spotlight NAIA/JUCO/D2/D3 programs
  
  
• Coach White’s origin story – from third-grade race to Taylor runner to coach
  
  
• Building Taylor into a champion – men ’20, women ’22; combined title pride
  
  
• Culture: Mad Dogs & Jarheads – team unity, pre-race “Prince of Peace” tradition
  
  
• Faith-driven coaching – passion vs. identity; Christ at the center
  
  
• Training philosophy – double-threshold days, individualized mileage, staying healthy
  
  
• Mental health for coaches – the “gray dog,” panic attack to tools & therapy
  
  
• 2025 season outlook – women #1, men #3; Florida State course; schedule cadence
  
  
• Recruiting & the right fit – like-minded, team-first, blue-collar workers
  
  
• Family in the program – coaching his son & daughter; legacy & leadership
  
  
• Taylor academics & community – exercise science, business, education; chapel
  
  
• Books & frameworks – Inner Excellence, One Word (this year: Love),
  In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day; picture-book read-alouds (e.g., Jumanji)
  
  
• Final Four – coffee, daily rituals, music (Rush!), guilty pleasures (dark chocolate & gum)

• Closing – retirement perspective, gratitude, and what’s next for Taylor XC

Episode Transcript

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 Quinn
White and you're listening to Aery Bros. Radio.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Ladies and gentlemen, how do you Aloha? We're here, you
were there, and you are now rocking with the best.
Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Airy Bros. Radio. Tonight,
we're stepping back on to the cross country course with
none other than coach Quinn White of Taylor University. But
before we get rolling, you on all you all know
the drill hammer that like button. Make sure you are
subscribed on YouTube, drop a comment, every view, review and

(00:44):
share helps us grow and get back through the sports
we love. Follow us on onto, Instagram, YouTube, Spotify, and
Apple podcasts. And as always, let's not forget while we're here.
We're here to shine a light on the programs, coaches
and stories we wish we had access to growing up.
If you were so many you know their dream in
cross country, track and field, wrestling or beyond, please share

(01:04):
this with them. Now let's lice him up and welcome
coach Quinn White. He's led Taylor University to two NAIA
national championships. The men in twenty twenty the women in
twenty twenty two, the only two national titles in school history.
They've won twelve straight Crossroad Leagues championships with the women,
plus top ten national finishes for both programs a year

(01:25):
after year over thirty NAIA all Americans, plus two hundred
plus scholar athletes in cross country and track and field
under his leadership. He recently announced his retirement at the
end of the season of the cross country campaign, leaving
Taylor with a legacy of championship culture and christ centered coaching. Currently,

(01:47):
the men's cross country team is ranked third nationally and
the women's team is ranked number one. Without further ado,
it is an honored pleasure I have you joining us
this evening. We do greatly appreciate your time. Coach Quinn White,
welcome to the show.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
Thank you guys for having me.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
Yeah, it's an honor and the pleasure. We are big
fans of the NAI and everything that goes on in
those ranks and the championships, So Jimmy and I are
big fans. We've met a lot of great coaches, so
we're excited to chat with you. Before we do get
too far into it, anywhere you would like us to
send any potential recruits, any fans, anyone that is interested

(02:21):
or wants to learn more about the program or Taylor University.
The floor's yours, all right.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
So we do have platforms on x, Instagram and Facebook.
Instagram is probably our biggest and that's Taylor XCTF and
Taylor is a small college about two thousand, three hundred students,
and we are blessed to have some great runners there.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
Yeah, you sure do. You have done quite an amazing
job and the athletes did really well last year and
it looks like they're primed to do really well this year.
So we want to get into that with you. But
before we do that, we all have our origin stories
how we got into the sport, be across country, distance
running or track and field, and then how that may

(03:08):
have or led us into coaching. So we'd love to
hear your origin story.

Speaker 1 (03:14):
While my seed was planted years ago, I'm quite old.
Third grade playground race deal well, and it was probably
about sixty sixty meters total, thirty meters touch a fence
thirty meters back. Teacher says, go, I take one step,
slip and fall. I'm on the ground everybody, everybody leaves me,

(03:36):
and just the adrenaline's flowing. I get up, sprint to
the fence, may maybe catch somebody touch the fence, come
back and find out that I finished third, and the excitement,
the adrenaline, the seeds were planted right then. And then
I started doing a little bit of summer park races

(03:58):
that the parks would put on. Those were fun. Tried
some other sports. The only thing I was good at
was the warm ups. Basically it could beat about everybody
in the warm ups. Yeah. And then went to Taylor
University and ran cross and track and was blessed to

(04:18):
run under George Glass, very very great man, great legacy
at Taylor and in the NAI and then Chris Coy
who also did an exceptional job at Taylor. Those guys
really helped me get moving forward and planted the seed,
or I guess maybe even watered that a little bit.

(04:39):
And then I started coaching right off the.

Speaker 2 (04:42):
Bat, and you started coaching right at Taylor.

Speaker 1 (04:46):
Chris Coy. I had with Chris, I had an extra semester,
so he allowed me to participate by helping him out
a little bit. Then my first year out, I did
some junior high coaching and assistant high school track and
then about two years three years out, I was a
head track coach in Ohio.

Speaker 2 (05:07):
Okay, are you an Indiana native? I am, yes, so
Indiana right on the Ohio River. Okay, have you ever
spectated at the Little five hundred? I have not.

Speaker 3 (05:17):
No.

Speaker 2 (05:19):
One of Jimmy and I's favorite movies is Breaking Away.
So whenever we have our Indiana guests were always curious
if they've spectated or partaken in the Little five Hundred.

Speaker 3 (05:30):
Nope, coach, So we know how it's gone. We know
the men in rank third right now. The women are
ranked number one sixteen seasons in. How did it start?

Speaker 2 (05:44):
Well?

Speaker 1 (05:45):
Like I said, I coached high school for about twelve
thirteen years in Ohio and then there was a I'm
a full professor at Taylor. There was an opening at
one of their branches in Fort Wayne, and it was
time for me to move on from elementary school teaching.
So I got hired at Taylor, kept coaching at the

(06:05):
high school in Ohio, and then on main campus a
position to open in the education department. I went to
Taylor just just to be at that point, just to
be a prof about three or four years later, the
women's program had an opening. I felt something in my
heart's like it's time to get back into coaching. And

(06:26):
I was very fortunate to get that job. So I
have done dual roles since that point, a full professor
and coaching cross country and track.

Speaker 2 (06:35):
What do you teach?

Speaker 1 (06:36):
I teach education classes and my doctors and children's literature,
fun stuff, all.

Speaker 3 (06:41):
Right, how is a team looking? When you took over
the helm?

Speaker 1 (06:47):
So the girls had a nice program. They were usually
getting about third or fourth in the conference. We had
one person in the high eighteens. I think we had
two in the nineteens, and everyone else was in the twenties.
And they had a great culture. But part of that
culture was I'm gonna say also, they go by the

(07:10):
name mad dogs sour. Our teams have nicknames. There's mad
dogs for the ladies and there's jar heads for the guys.
And that's a that's another story that you got. Can
asking a little bit if you want, But part of
that was just being a mad dog or being a
jar head, you know, having fun and all that. And
I wanted to bring I wanted to raise the bar
a little bit. And I'll just start off with a

(07:31):
great story. So we're we're at camp and I'm telling
about some of the changes that I'm going to make,
and they said, Coach, we understand that you that you
want to change this a little bit, but there's one
thing that we don't want you to change. When we're
in the huddle before the race, we like to sing
Prince of Peace, the song Prince a Piece. And I said,

(07:53):
there's no way we're singing in the huddle. I said,
I don't sing. I've never seen teams sing. That's not
a time to sing. And they say, Coach, come on,
just just let's do it the first meat and then
you can make your final decision. So I said, all right,
I'll give you that. We're at our very first meet.
Fortunately I have my sunglasses on. They start singing and

(08:14):
I'm crying, tears are coming out of my eyes. It
put a It put just a calmness on everybody. It
gave everyone a piece. So instead of just being all
fired up, I mean, I don't know if we need
to be fired up for a five K or an
eight K. We if we're too fired up, we're gonna
go out too hot. This just relaxed them. We have

(08:37):
we have not changed that, and I hope when I'm
gone that that doesn't change either. It's it's just so
calming and peaceful. Before we take off.

Speaker 4 (08:46):
It's still prints a piece, Yes, same song, and we've
we've got we we interlock fingers, we say these are
our strengths and these are our weaknesses, and then our
teammates fill those weaknesses.

Speaker 1 (08:59):
And there's all kind little symbolisms and a lot of
things we do.

Speaker 2 (09:02):
That's awesome.

Speaker 3 (09:03):
That man, to be a part of something like that
must be special for the men and women at Taylor.
So I appreciate you sharing that with us. We all
know that coaching college athletics is a full time job.
You're running a small business, you're also a professor. How
do you manage that?

Speaker 2 (09:22):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (09:22):
Man, well, it's really it's really challenging. I think earlier
in my years, you know, I just had a lot
of energy and was able to I was a chicken
with these head cut off. You know, we talked to
I told you guys, I'm a d D. So it
kind of worked well, just moving, moving, moving. But then
you know you have children, they're starting to grow up.

(09:44):
That makes you even more busy. Yes, if that's start
looking at priorities. Eventually, I'll just be real upfront here,
and I think this would be a good platform for it.
I ran into some mental health issues the last four
or five years because I pushed myself to hard. I
didn't back off the coaching, and the teaching was was

(10:05):
I mean, it was just a challenge with all of it.
I have high expectations and I wasn't going to back down.
And I should have back down because I called a
visit from the Great Dog. The Great Dog just I
just I go numb. I have no emotion. I don't
want to be around people. And fortunately I've learned I've
got some tools to uh. When the Great Dog tries

(10:27):
to visit, now, we don't let him in.

Speaker 2 (10:31):
Joe, I think we might have to add that grade
dog to our repertoire because I think you both you
and I have had visits from the grade trying to
put that grade dog down. Rich.

Speaker 1 (10:44):
Yeah, and you gotta have tools to do it, because
what he's strong man. And it was a hard time
in my life, and I wouldn't say that I'm healed
from it, but I have great tools to get through
it now. And I just you know, I want people
to know because you know, we talk a lot about
athletes mental health, well coaches, we have our mental health

(11:06):
issues as well. So I'll give you one little example.
This is This is how crazy it was. This is
probably in the route you guys wanted.

Speaker 2 (11:14):
To go, but now we're here for it.

Speaker 1 (11:17):
About things. Two years ago, right before the finals of
the NAIA Track and Field Meet Championship, which was in Marion, Indiana,
It's about fifteen miles from my house, I had a
panic attack and I was on my kitchen floor and
I was crying for an hour, and I'm thinking, how
how am I going to get over the How am
I going to get over the track? How am I

(11:39):
going to get my composure back? That was probably my
biggest breaking point. There had been other situations and after
that got therapy, learned tools, and have been in a
much better spot since. But it was real.

Speaker 2 (11:52):
Yeah, well it is real, And I appreciate you sharing
because I think sometimes we think we're on an island alone.
But the more we talk about it, the more we
realize that we all have different struggles, and we go
through different periods and different times, and sometimes we feel,
especially as men, that maybe we shouldn't be talking about
that or have those sorts of things going on, but

(12:16):
we all do. And it's good to know because I
think the more that people know, the more people are
willing to maybe lean on people or ask for help
at certain times, you know, because it's we can't do
everything on our own, and sometimes as head coaches sometimes
it's hard to delegate or give let go of things
to give to other people. But I appreciate you sharing that.

Speaker 1 (12:39):
Yeah, yeah, sorry for the bummer.

Speaker 2 (12:41):
Then, no, not at all, not at all.

Speaker 1 (12:44):
I'm a straight shooter and yeah, I actually really wanted
to get that out there. I thought this would be
a good platform.

Speaker 2 (12:50):
We're happy to share our platform with you. So, coach,
how is the season going right now? I know, like
you said, preseason ranking number one for the women, number
three for the men. Got the top, We got the
returning defending national champion on the women's side as well.
Have you guys had any meets? How's the season been
so far?

Speaker 1 (13:08):
Yes, we had a meet last weekend at Indiana Westland.
Quite a few ranked teams were there, which was fun.
A good start. We look at the season as a whole.
It's great to win, but the focus wasn't on going
out and winning. The focus was on how can we
get better for the end. And it was actually a

(13:28):
really good start though. The ladies ran well. Our number
one girl, who was last year's national champion, she won
by over a minute and we were actually kind of
holding her back a little bit, so she's ready to roll.
Some of the other girls ran really really well, and
just like any meat, some people didn't. You know, we
talk about it's not going to be perfect and we

(13:51):
just need to learn how to deal with it with
whatever the circumstances are. But the girls ran well. We
understand that the course was actually long. When we finished,
we had the six best team time in school history,
and then when you do the math of how the
difference of time, we're probably about the third, second or
third fastest team time in school history. So they're they're

(14:12):
ready to go. They definitely have big goals. You know,
last year we lost NATS by one point three tenths
of a second and they are ready to make another
run for it. That was the girls. Guys guys had
a really good start. We have four front runners. Unfortunately
one of them was was quite off and that happens again.

(14:34):
We're not looking for perfection. It's it's just not super real.
But came back and practice this week was just so far.
Yesterday's our hard day. Outstanding practice.

Speaker 2 (14:45):
There.

Speaker 1 (14:45):
Their heads are in the right way, right spot. They
their priorities are correct. They know that it's the end
of the year, not necessarily present this. We're just we're
just getting our feet wet right now. So good start.

Speaker 2 (15:00):
What's the skate calendar looking like? How many races you
got before conference?

Speaker 1 (15:05):
Yep? So we'll go to Florida State in two weeks.
That's where nationals are. But when we won in twenty two,
it was down at Florida State. I love that course.
It's outstanding. Last year we were at gans Creek in
Columbia and D one is going to be there. Just
another beautiful cross country course. I mean, I love it
when people take pride in their courses like this. They're

(15:28):
like golf courses, but they're they're flat out cross There
we go. What was the what was the question.

Speaker 2 (15:36):
Meets before you said you go to Florida State State?

Speaker 1 (15:40):
We're going to go to Florida State. Hopefully it's one
race because we like to be pushed by our competitors.
We feel like we're going to be the best we
can be. We need to be pushed, so we're excited
to raise some d ones. There After that, we have
our home meet, and that will be my last home meet,
so it'll be quite special. I think quite a few

(16:01):
lumps are coming back, so be I can be in
a very emotional person and that's gonna be a tough day.
But the kids love our course. It's not flat, it's
not hilly. It's just good, good cross country. And then
we'll go up to Grand Rapids and run Great Lakes Challenge.
There'll be about forty some teams, tons of ranked teams,

(16:22):
then Conference and then Nats, so six total including Nationals.

Speaker 2 (16:30):
Well, a lot of the top teams be at that
top NAI teams to be down at that Florida State
meet to preview the course, you think.

Speaker 1 (16:36):
I hope. I'm not one hundred percent sure. I know
some of the people that we're interested in are not going,
But I mean we're just we're excited around Florida State.
We're excited to run LSU teams to typically go there.

Speaker 2 (16:50):
Yeah, yeah, if that would be probably good weather in
Florida too.

Speaker 1 (16:54):
It's gonna be It's gonna be an early one. I
think it's seven maybe seven thirties. The first race, I'm
not exactly sure. We get up four hours before, so
I think we're going to change our protocol on that.

Speaker 3 (17:04):
One coach, you mentioned six races before conference? Is that
by design?

Speaker 2 (17:12):
Each total?

Speaker 3 (17:12):
Six total?

Speaker 1 (17:13):
Total?

Speaker 2 (17:14):
Sixth total?

Speaker 3 (17:14):
Is that by design? When you first started where you're
running more, do you figure that's the sweet spot?

Speaker 1 (17:20):
We found our sweet spot? Maybe we ran one more race,
I know, you know, coming from the high school where
you're racing like crazy, it was so nice to be
in a situation we were basically running every other week,
which is really really nice, great great training in there,
and you're excited to race. You know. Sometimes we'll bring
athletes in, especially from Michigan, and they're running anywhere fourteen

(17:43):
to seventeen meets in a cross country season.

Speaker 2 (17:45):
I'm just like, you.

Speaker 1 (17:46):
Gotta be kidding me. So we think it's a really nice,
nice setup, and it just it works well for us.

Speaker 3 (17:54):
So running at Taylor and then coaching there for sixteen years,
how have you seen the ANAIA change?

Speaker 1 (18:03):
That's a really good question. A lot of different teams,
A lot of teams. I'm not sure when it happened
in the nineties, maybe went Division two and maybe some
of the quality at that time had dropped. But I'm
gonna tell you what, right now, these times are hot
that people are running. I think the bar just keeps

(18:25):
getting raised higher and higher. Milligan is a school that
we Chris Lane at Milligan. We love running against them
at nationals. He just keeps raising that bar. The Cumberlands
right now is raising that bar. Masters out in California.
I mean, the times that we are running right now

(18:47):
are really really fast compared to what was happening back then. However,
you know, maybe training different, different things like that. But
there was a time that NAI was just jam packed.
I mean, Adam State was in the NA when I
ran nobody.

Speaker 2 (19:01):
Western too, right? What's Adam? Sorry? Right? Western State? Adams
and Western State, we're.

Speaker 1 (19:06):
Both that ai yep malone yep.

Speaker 2 (19:12):
Coach. You know, we got two top ranked teams, but
you also won two national titles with one with the
men one with the women. What was so special about
those two teams? And how do your teams right now
compared to them?

Speaker 1 (19:27):
Oh, you're gonna have to remind me of that last part. Sure,
I'll just get into the first one excited the first
the first victory was really cool. We got we were
runners runners up the year before. My son was on
the team, so pretty cool to be able to coach
your son and my daughter was my assistant coach. So
to win a national title with my assistant coach being

(19:50):
my daughter, my son part of the team. He was
the seventh man that day, lost his shoe two hundred
meters into the race, but our top five ran outs standing.
It was so fun. We were excited for the university
to have the first national title for the university. The cool.
The other really cool thing that day, ANNYI does something

(20:13):
where they they'll do a combined team title, so they'll
take the women's score and the men's score, and we
won the combined so it was it was super neat
being the first team to ever win a national title.
But I'm going to tell you from a culture point
of view, to have to win the combined men and

(20:33):
women was just really really cool that day. The year
the ladies won, they went undefeated that year, which was
really special. We knew we were going to be good.
We just thought maybe we were a podium team, and
things really started clicking on my I have a blackboard

(20:53):
or a chalkboard wall in my office and I have
times of what our girls, the seven girls that year
ran and they averaged about US seventeen thirty four for
the five k. Their high school average was about nineteen twenty.
We actually had two girls that were our number one
girl was even in the twenties in high school. So

(21:16):
to see that progress is just outstanding, and that's something
that we've been real blessed with our athletes buy in
and just keep raising the bar and getting faster and faster.
So we're very thankful for that. Comparing the two the
men right now, we just did a we did a

(21:38):
workout tuesday on our course. We call it the Tux Farm.
It's a little little rolling mile loop that we like
to do and it was the fastest times we've ever had.
I charted every practice and it was the fastest we've
ever had. So right now it's like, Okay, we know

(21:59):
we're not there yet, but we need to just be calm,
we need to be patient, and we need to make
sure that we are staying healthy. Girls ladies wise, they're
just they're just they're ready to go. I mean they're special.
There can be teams to push us, but when we're
on there, they're going to be really, really good.

Speaker 2 (22:21):
And uh, Janie, she won four national titles last year correct,
one indoors and then two outdoors. Yes, as a freshman,
true freshman. Yes, I assume she handles the pressure pretty well. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (22:35):
Janie is a special individual. We all know she could
have gone d one. Why she didn't, you'd have to
ask her. I know that she wants to keep things
in priority schooling. Her education is vital to her and
she wants to make sure that running is not the
top thing, and I can definitely respect that. I think

(22:57):
that's one of the reasons that she chose Taylor. Both
of her parents went to Taylor, so she had she
had a connection there. Janie is a team player. She
could be, you know, she is a superstar, but she's
a team player. Culture. As I've mentioned before, culture is
key for us, and she she's just fantastic. Within that culture,

(23:20):
we have a philosophy of running with each other and
not against each other. It was pretty cool and that
was not my philosophy, was actually brought in by one
of my athletes, which is which I really appreciated. I
think my second or third year, Janie will do whatever
I ask. If I say, Janie, I want you run
with the top three ladies, she'll run with the top three.
If I say, would you like to go after it?

(23:43):
Today's totally up to you, She'll say, well, what's best
for the team. She she's a great teammate and she
works very hard. She right now is in fantastic shape.
And then we just have to literally hold her back.

Speaker 2 (24:00):
And with her credentials in high school, but her parents
being alumni, was that something? Was she on your radar?
Or should she reach out to you? This is kind
of it's kind of nice, but kind of crazy. Probably
ninety percent of the people that we have, maybe ninety
five reached out to us. The people that I have
reached out to, I try to go big if I'm

(24:23):
reaching out to someone and those haven't worked out too
often when they do it is definitely the right type
of person. But we are blessed with a fantastic university
and a lot of people want to be a part
of that university and a part of our program, which
is pretty cool. What is the right person, right athlete

(24:44):
for talent?

Speaker 1 (24:44):
So we're looking for like minded young men and women
we're Christian college, So Number one wants you to have
a passion for Jesus Christ. Teach you Lord and Savior.
That's a must. There are other Christian schools but might
have a quota of non Christians and they can do
whatever they want. I think it's fantastic. But for us,
I want Christ at the center. I want us all

(25:05):
with that genuine, same focus, so like minded. That's number one.
Number two, I want people to have a passion for running.
They don't just like it. It's not their identity, but
it's a gift they've been given and they want to
maximize that gift. They're willing to sacrifice to be better.
They're willing to be a team player. They're willing to

(25:26):
do they know that the little things are the big things.
That's the type of people I like. Blue Collar are
the guys. One of their one of their songs is
working Man by Rush and we are just blue collar,
just hard workers, and I love that. That's the type
of athletes I love.

Speaker 2 (25:47):
Coach one more, jim Sorry, you mentioned something important, something
we talk about a lot, because I think maybe as athletes,
Jimmy and I may have struggled with uh, you know,
being the difference between being passionate about it and not
being your identity. Can you touch on that a little
bit and how maybe you coach that because I think
sometimes athletes they get they get caught up in it,

(26:09):
and I think that to be at such a high level,
it has to be your identity or when you're done
with it and it's no longer your identity, people, That's
where athletes struggle at the end of their career when
they've identified as a runner or a wrestler. So how
do you coach it to be a passion but not
the identity.

Speaker 1 (26:27):
Fortunately, I just help out and I have good assistance
that helped me with that. But we are very clear
at the beginning when we're recruiting that that's what we're
looking for. So if it is your identity, you're probably
not going to be a good fit. If it's something
that you want to work on, we're definitely willing to
have conversations. I don't I don't have the great answer.

(26:49):
My answer is simply as a Christian crisis where we
need to put our identity. You know, they're Christian runners
out there and they are non Christian runners out there,
So I don't necessarily have the best answer for that
non Christian. But you know, you're right, it's even hard
for me. I mean, when I'm done coaching, there's going
to be a little bit of emptiness, you know, So

(27:10):
we talk about it. It's a part of our life,
but it's not who we are. It's only part of
who we are. There's so many other aspects. So for me,
you know, i'm a father, I'm a grandfather, I'm a professor,
I'm a friend, I'm a coach. And athletes have the
same thing. You know, they're a student, they're an athlete,

(27:32):
they're a friend. You know, there's a variety of different
roles that we all play, and it's important that we
play all those roles. That's maybe not the best answer,
but that's an answer.

Speaker 2 (27:44):
And as i'd say as a grandfather, you look great, coach.
So thanks, whatever you're doing, keep doing it.

Speaker 1 (27:49):
Thank you, coach.

Speaker 3 (27:50):
I want to go back to something you said about
the men's team that won that your son was on
and your daughter is the assistant coach. Did your daughter
run for you as well?

Speaker 2 (27:59):
She did?

Speaker 3 (28:00):
Yep, So what was it like coaching both your children.

Speaker 1 (28:05):
I'm fantastic we didn't have a problem with it whatsoever.
As a matter of fact, my son now is one
of my assistant coaches. We we all share that passion.
I have another son who does not run, but my
daughter that ran, and my and my son, we we
got along great. I have not had, did not have

(28:26):
any problems coaching them, and I was very thankful and
very blessed with that.

Speaker 3 (28:30):
Do you have any tips for parents that try to
coach your kids that do have an issue or put
too much pressure on their children and they don't have a
good time with it.

Speaker 1 (28:40):
Okay, well, putting pressure Jimmy, right, So I think you
know what lessons have we learned over the years And
one of the lessons I've learned is take the pressure
off the athletes. They they're already putting pressure on themselves.
I don't need to sit there and say you got
to do this, you got to beat that person. I
need you to. They know what we expect act and

(29:01):
my goal is just to set them up for success.
Hopefully that help them get in the right mindset. But
we have a philosophy all over the place. Here there's
my adhd man. We have a philosophy of let's race
like we practice and let's practice like we race. And
what we mean there is when we get to a race,

(29:22):
we've already been there and done that. This is what
we do on Tuesday, this is what we do in
our double thresholds. We want to run the same way.
And when we do that, and we can go into
a meet and say, gosh, this is just like practice.
But I got great people. Competitors are going to push
me and help me even maybe run faster. What a

(29:42):
great win right there for everybody. So with my kids,
I tried not to put pressure on them. I know
when they were younger, I guarantee when they were younger,
I put pressure on them. As you know, we see
the Little League parents and what they do at times,
and I'm sure I was a little bit like that.
But as I matured more and understand parent understood parenting

(30:04):
and coaching Moore, I fortunately backed off that. Now you
can ask them, they may say, no, you didn't, but
I think I did.

Speaker 3 (30:12):
I think that's something a lot of people need to hear.
Rich put a pain in that double threshold. And I
know you're gonna ask that, but could you said at
the beginning of the podcast, before we meet the men
and the women. They come together, they hold they and
lock their hands. They sing a song. You also said,
one of the most impactful moments as a coach for

(30:32):
you was when the men and women won the combined
So is it one big team men and women?

Speaker 1 (30:38):
Yes, it is. The guys don't sing the song all right,
just the ladies do. But it is one big team.
And it was not until I took over coaching. So
the ladies program, I believe started in nineteen eighty four.
The guys were probably back in the forties. Nineteen forties
they were separate the whole time. Were three years that

(31:00):
they were together because they were in kind of in
between coaches. And Chris Coy again fantastic coach mentor of mine.
He had both programs for just a couple of years
and then when I finally took over, Like, we have
to lean on each other. There's so much more support
when we're together. Our athletes eat lunch together, they eat

(31:23):
dinner together, they hang out together. It is really really special.

Speaker 2 (31:30):
Coach, what are those double threshold workouts? Like, you know
it's a hot topic these days. Are you doing the
double tea or you're not doing the double tea? And
you said, you let the cat out of the bag.
You guys do the double tea at Taylor. Is it
a weekly thing? Is it a bi weekly thing? How
do you all handle it?

Speaker 1 (31:46):
We started our double thresholds the night in twenty nineteen,
so we've been doing it for quite a while. It
was brought to me by one of my athletes. I
did not know it, and when he sat down with
me and said, hey, coach, can we look at doing these?
Actually he wanted to start with him. He said he
was his name is Josh Roth, and he was going

(32:08):
to He was three thousand and five thousand meter runner.
It was indoor, and he said, coach, I'd like to
experiment and try some of these double threshold things. And
I'm like, dude, this is this is a paradigm shift
for me. I don't know if I can do this.
And we worked and worked and worked and put a
program together and I'm going to give him most of
that credit. And he ended up winning the three k

(32:32):
that year, the national championship that was, and then we
had nationals. This is when cross country Nats came after
it was in April because of COVID in the fall,
and we put those double thresholds in right away and
have been doing them ever since. We do them. We

(32:52):
do our first one at six in the morning. We
do our second one at four in the afternoon. The
first one for the men, I think it's like four
four by ten minutes. Afternoon we do a couple of
different ones, but we'll typically do maybe it was three
by ten minutes. I'm sorry, I can't remember. We'll do
like four by eight or maybe ten by three minutes,

(33:16):
different things like that. The girls do eight minute reps
and six minute reps. We do them on non meet weeks,
so if we don't have a meet that week, that's
what Friday looks like.

Speaker 2 (33:29):
Is there a are there some growing pains for the
young kids that are coming in or these they love them,
they love them, they love them rich. We actually hold
the freshman back a little bit. We don't let them
do all the reps.

Speaker 1 (33:43):
That's a high mileage day and we are not a
high mileage program. We try to meet everybody where they're at.
So if some josh Roth, the individual I talked about
earlier when I took over, he was at ninety he
got up to one hundred and ten miles a week,
and again I'm just like, dude, this is not easy
for me. I'd rather see you eighty. But he's wired

(34:05):
that way and it worked out great for him. So
one of the things we have to do right is
we can't put everybody in the same box with mileage.
So you know, if we got someone who's only running
forty a week and then maybe cross training twenty on
top of that, they're putting half their mileage in right
there on a double threshold day. So somebody like that,
and we do have people like that, we're going to

(34:26):
have them cross train and use our boost micro gravity
treadmill more than they're out on the roads.

Speaker 2 (34:32):
Okay, is that young man, Josh, is she coaching right now?

Speaker 1 (34:36):
So well he's out making money. Oh okay, hopefully, Gosh listening,
hopefully you make a donation back to the team.

Speaker 3 (34:45):
Cause you mentioned being being I don't want to say
low mileage, but you don't prefer the high mileage. And
rich Ed he was the runner in college and him
and my dad always used to battle about it. All
you're running too many miles, you run.

Speaker 2 (34:59):
Into many miles.

Speaker 3 (35:00):
Talk about a little bit about your philosophy of not
wanting to do those big miles and what you think
the kids actually need for running A tank A.

Speaker 1 (35:13):
Okay, So why do I not like high mileage? I
think I think it's actually just I don't want to
break my athletes. And I think we push and we
push and we push, and they are so motivated and
they push themselves and they just want to keep more mileage,
more mileage, more mileage. And that's not always the answer.
I'd rather keep them just a little bit fresh. I'd

(35:34):
rather be just a little excited, like I feel good,
you know, and no, man, I am worn out. There's
so many miles this week. We found that we have
less injuries when we're a little bit lower. But you
still have to find the magic, right. You can't just
you know, like I've said, we've got a couple athletes
they're only on a forty mile program of running and

(35:56):
then maybe twenty more of cross training. If they were
just doing forty a week, they're going to struggle that.
You know, they're not going to have all that great
endurance that we want for the ten k. I mean,
let's see, well Jannye doesn't. Jennie doesn't do much more
than about forty a week. Forty forty five a week,

(36:16):
and that's up from what she did in high school,
which I believe was about thirty a week. So you know,
she I don't even I don't remember her time, but
she won nationals in the five k and the ten k.
Off of that, most of our guys are going to
average probably around eighty a week. Most of our girls
probably average forty to forty five, with the highest being

(36:37):
about fifty five. That's not true. Highest ever has been
sixty five with the girls, but yeah, I'm forty five.
Fifty maybe is more of the average. Start about that Rich.

Speaker 3 (36:47):
I know you could talk training and numbers as a
coach all night, but I believe he is our first
dual professor and coach. So let's get into Taylor University
the college. Let's talk about what the school offers. If
there's any majors that kind of stand out against other schools,
will highlight the campus facilities, things like that.

Speaker 1 (37:09):
You know, I can't compare our programs against other university
programs because I don't know what the other one is,
how strong or how weak they are. I just focus
on what we have right now. Exercise science is probably
one of our big ones, especially for our athletes. Business
is the biggest for the university. Education is about second.

(37:29):
That's what I teach in is in the education department.
I think one of the big things about Taylor is
our tagline is well right now, it's life to the full.
But we really focus on intentional community and what you
see is what you get. It's very authentic. Christ is
absolutely at the center. We have chapel three times a week.

(37:54):
What I love about chapel is it's not mandatory. They
don't take they don't take attendance, but you're expected to go.
So you know, just it's up to you do you
want to learn, you want to grow, And our chapels
are packed so packed that they're putting in a new chapel.
They're going to start a new chapel here in September

(38:14):
breaking ground for it.

Speaker 3 (38:16):
So you said, they don't take attendance, but if you
want to learn, you want to grow, you gotta go
right like life, right. Can you talk about maybe some
stories or some athletes that you had, because I know
you said that you have Christ has to be centered
before before you even stepping the door. But I'm sure
kids grow in their faith throughout their time at Taylor

(38:39):
have you have you seen experiences where kids were kind
of you know, maybe every once in a while you're
seeing them at chapel and next thing you know, they're
leading the FCA or athletes in action and they're really
diving into their faith.

Speaker 1 (38:54):
Yes, but I can't give examples like that. I think
the best example that I can have is our ladies,
and I'm gonna I'm gonna bring the team into it. Okay,
So we've got the chapel. You know, supposedly everyone there
has a relationship with Christ. It's at the university. You're
supposed to share your faith statement. You know when when
you're going through admissions and stuff. Trying of thought helped

(39:17):
me out again there, Jimmy h.

Speaker 3 (39:20):
People go through their faith.

Speaker 1 (39:22):
So the guys have something that they call jar heads
of clay from you know, jars of clay, uh, And
they get together and they are vulnerable with each other,
and they talk about tough things in their life and
things that they're going through, and they talk about great
things and they really genuinely support themselves.

Speaker 2 (39:40):
There.

Speaker 1 (39:41):
The ladies, Uh, there's this called intentional sisterhood and they
get together once a month, once once a week, both
of them are once a week and they do things
very similar what the guys do in the dorms. They
have Bible studies. Here's the deal, Like you could President
might get mad at me for saying this, but there's
a plethora of opportunities for you to grow in your

(40:03):
relationship with Christ. Like if you did them all, you
couldn't be a student, you couldn't be an athlete. So
one of the things that we do have to talk
about is not doing too many making sure that you're
staying strong in everything that you do. So we do
have great opportunities for them. Just about every person from

(40:23):
the time they start to the time they leave, they
are in a different spot.

Speaker 3 (40:28):
Do you feel being in a faith based institution it
makes your job easier. When kids come to you and
they're having trouble, you can throw a Bible passage at them.
You can talk about faith opposed to just coaching and
not worrying about teeter and over that line.

Speaker 1 (40:43):
It's definitely a benefit, without a doubt, it's a benefit. Yeah,
I'm just going to leave it at that.

Speaker 2 (40:51):
So you mentioned the jar heads, You mentioned the mad Dogs.
How did those come about?

Speaker 1 (40:57):
Okay? So jar heads, I want I am one of
the original jar Heads. There were four or five of
us freshmen my freshman year, and we would people everybody
on the team, but that's kind of was meant for these, uh,
for the four or five freshmen, and we'll get up

(41:18):
at six o'clock, go out and run, and people in
the dorm would say, you're getting up at six, you're
unscrewing the top of your head, you're taking your brain out,
and you're going to run. You know who gets up
at six and runs? So that's where jarhead came from.
And it's not from the military. I wish it was
from the military because they are absolute studs and we

(41:39):
don't try to diminish anything of what they do with
our with our jar heads. We absolutely look up to them.
But for us now, the culture of a jar head
is blue collar, hard working, knows how to have fun
because fun is a part of it. That's that's what
jar heads, That's what the heads are alike right now

(42:02):
and have been. The Ladies started their program in nineteen
eighty four, like I said, somewhere around eighty seven or so,
and my dates could be wrong. They they wanted They
actually were calling themselves the Lady jar Heads when it started,
and they're like, we need our own identity.

Speaker 2 (42:21):
So there was.

Speaker 1 (42:23):
An athlete who was from New Jersey. You guys are Jersey.
She's either Jersey or New York, and she said, we
need to be the mad Dogs, and so they're the
mad Dogs, but we spell it dogs dawg and that
that has stuck.

Speaker 2 (42:45):
Pierre.

Speaker 1 (42:47):
I mean when we do articles, when we do our
social media, we say mad Dogs and jar Heads. We
are under the Trojan umbrella. But it is really cool
the culture that both the mad Dogs and the and
the jar Heads have. And I think they take a
lot of pride and begin a mad Dog and be
in a jar.

Speaker 2 (43:05):
Head and taking that pride, they probably take also pride of,
you know, their preseason rankings and obviously have sights on
the top of the podium at the end of the season. Uh,
And that there's a pressure in and of itself that
comes with with that that you know they may put
on themselves, but also this being your your final season,

(43:26):
have you talked to them at all about maybe not
putting extra pressure on themselves to send you off with
you know that double double, you know, top of the podium. Yeah,
you know, I.

Speaker 1 (43:39):
Knew this was coming in the last five years or so,
when a recruit would come, I'd say, you just need
to understand that I may be here for four years
and I may not. I'm taking one year at a time.
I always thought that I would wait till the end
of the season because I did not want to have
a potentially negative impact on their national rate. And I

(44:02):
just felt this piece this summer is like, no, let's
get it out, let's share it, let's talk about it.
I'd rather not be at a banquet and say, hey,
what a great season. By the way, I'm done. I
just thought that's not a good way to do it.
Talk to the athletic director. I mean, talk to my wife.
She's she's the one, she's my anchor, she's the one
that gives me the most wisdom. And we all agreed

(44:23):
that the summer as soon as I after I tell
the athletes, we're going to make a public to everybody.
But they said, you know, this is a good time.
Let's go ahead and tell the athletes. So we told them,
and then and and the athletic director actually came in
and told him about the hiring process and said, here's
the deal. We're not going to do anything until the
season's over. And we we had conversations with the with

(44:48):
the mad Dogs and the jar Heads.

Speaker 2 (44:49):
We spent it.

Speaker 1 (44:50):
We spent a couple of hours just talking about it,
and there was some tears. Probably wasn't a couple hours,
but there were some tears. But we feel like it's out,
it's done. We know what's coming. You know you're gonna
have a new coach later. You're not running for me,
you know. I'm sure a little bit. Maybe they are,

(45:11):
but they're running for themselves. They're running for God, they're
running for their university, they're running for their teammates. I'm
just one part of that. If I become the big part,
things are way out of perspective and I did not
do a good job. One of the reasons, guys, that
I did decide that I wanted to do it this
before the season is because I knew that these athletes
could handle it. I know what they've gone through in

(45:33):
the past, I know what their personalities are like, I
know what the culture's like, and I know that they
can keep things in perspective.

Speaker 3 (45:42):
Coach, what do you think being an athlete at Taylor?

Speaker 2 (45:45):
What do you.

Speaker 3 (45:46):
Think when you leave you're leaving the program as and
what you added to the program.

Speaker 1 (45:53):
You know, all of us when we leave something, we
hope it's in a better place, right and I do
believe that many aspects of the program is in a
very very good, healthy spot. I think what excites me
is the person that's coming in, be it a male
or a female. Uh, they're gonna they're gonna have an
opportunity to have some success right away. Uh, they're gonna

(46:16):
have resources that we didn't have early on. Uh, they're
gonna have a fantastic course to to practice and race on.
We love our course.

Speaker 2 (46:25):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (46:26):
It's really just a great setup for someone and they
can dive right into the athletes and not have to
worry about some of the other things, you know, raising money.
We're gonna have to raise a little bit, but there's
decent money in there, and we've got nice facilities and uh,
we've got we've got great things set up for whoever's
coming in. And and that excites me that they get

(46:46):
a they get to just roll right off the bat.

Speaker 3 (46:50):
So we're doing Sorry, Rich, we're doing a little bit
of a retrospective. Do you have any moments as a
coach that you look back on and you kind of
just shake your head. I can't believe if I did that,
man with a bonehead move, or oh wow, I did it.
That was a really good, good move.

Speaker 1 (47:06):
A lot of bonehead moves. I mean, you know, I
started coaching high school nineteen ninety one, three years out
of college or two and a half years out of college,
and I was I was stupid, you know, pushing really hard.
I mean, some of the pushing was needed. And we

(47:28):
took a program that was consistently ninth or tenth in
the league year after year after year, and we built
it into a program that won five conference titles and
six district titles. But I think back to some of
those workouts, even when we were good, some of those
workouts I did were so dumb, and I pounded them.

(47:51):
I think it was about my third year of coaching
at Taylor where I said, why are we doing three
hard workouts a week? Man? These girls are not fresh.
So that's when we dropped it two. And of course
I've said all kinds of stupid stuff, which we're you know,
I'm not going to share that. But as we grow,

(48:12):
as we mature, hopefully things smooth out and get a
little bit better. And I would say I am where
I am today just because I coach on an eclectic approach.
Just I try to gather what I can from anybody
and everybody, very very little of it is me. I
try to surround myself with fantastic assistant coaches that have

(48:35):
strengths that I don't have, And that's that's so nice.
And I think the other thing that has really helped me,
which has ultimately helped our program, is learn from people
who are smarter than me. Learn from people who are
better than me, people who have won, people know who
know how to do it, but do it from a
variety of people and even a variety of disciplines. So

(48:59):
I would talk to our basketball coach who was fantastic.
I spent time with Jack Hazen during COVID and just
pick his brain as much as possible. I call it
Fridays Fridays with Jack, just constantly picking people's brain. There
was a coach at Biola named Jonathan Zimmerman that man
massively helped me just bringing stuff in. I'm getting emotional

(49:20):
just because where I'm at is because of other people.

Speaker 2 (49:27):
Sorry, I'm a passion. No, you're good I love it.
I'm trying to think of the quote of what it
is standing on the giant shoulders of giants. You know,
you're giving credit to the people that have helped you
and stuff. It's you know, you're standing on their shoulders.
Because of how much I forget what the quote is.
John Welborne uses it all the time. Jim, but coach,
I'm curious as this as being your last season, are

(49:49):
you are you taking a little bit more time at
each meet to kind of soak it all in. No. No,
but we've only had one.

Speaker 1 (49:57):
We've only had one, and I did not. I am
very zoom focused on day. You know, my grandkids, two
of my grandkids were there. I have three grandchildren aged three,
maybe one and a half and five months, and the
one and a half may be wrong.

Speaker 2 (50:14):
I don't.

Speaker 1 (50:15):
My daughter's gonna get mad at me because I don't know.
And I was able to be present enough to go
up and hug them and put things in perspective, and
then the zoom focus is back. And I did not
one time think of that, oh this is okay, this
isn't necessarily true until the end when they wouldn't let

(50:37):
the bus come up and pick the athletes up and
we had to walk four hundred meters with our tent
and everything I did. That was the only time I said, well,
I don't have to worry about coming back here next year.
But for the most part, I don't remember thinking, holy smokes,
this is my last time here at Indiana Wesley and whoops,
I just let the cat out of the bag. Who
didn't let us bring our bus up? Didn't think about

(50:59):
it at all, not one bit. Okay, being present is
something that I have really tried to focus on. I
was one of those that always was looking at the
next thing, or you're in cross, and okay, I like
caught cross, but let's think about indoor a little bit,
and an indoor, let's think about track, and then during track,
let's think about cross. And fortunately, at some point I

(51:20):
had an epiphany, present is the key, and so I
really really try to stay present.

Speaker 2 (51:27):
Okay, will you be saying on as a professor, I
will be yes.

Speaker 3 (51:32):
Okay, Amen, to be in present, coach. I think that's
something that everyone needs to hear. And I think that's
something I struggle with daily from second to second. Not
not like what am I doing tomorrow? Like oh I
gotta eat. Oh, I gotta do this, I gotta do that.
So yeah, I feel you there, Coach. Is there anything
about your career or Taylor University that we haven't spoke

(51:54):
on that you want our audience to know about.

Speaker 1 (51:57):
That's a good question. Not not that I can think of,
but I think I think I want to share a
couple of things. Though. You know, I talked about learning
from other people. But there's a lot of great literature
out there too, and right now, I don't know if
you guys have read Jim Murphy's Inner Excellence. That thing

(52:19):
is dense and it is transformative. It is there are
so much in there. You're highlighting three quarters of the pages,
Like why am I even highlighting everything to highlighted? So
we're we're real happy. We do this thing called one Word,
and we've done it now. This is year thirteen, and

(52:42):
it comes from a book called One Word That'll Change
Your Life, written by John Gordon and a couple other people,
and John Gordon, I love his work, very very practical.
And this year's word is love. Last year's word was joy,
and I think it really helps us keep things in perspective.

(53:02):
We've had we've had words you know, grit and embrace
and finish and all kinds of things. But the last
two I love. Last year's Joy was just that was
transformative for our team. And then love. We are so
excited to see where love goes. And one of the
things that Jim Murphy talks about with love is love
your competitor. You know, that's a paradigm shift for a

(53:24):
lot of us, right, No way, man, I love them.
I want to beat them. That's our rival. But they're
gonna make us. They're going to raise the bar for us.
We're going to help them raise the bar their bar,
and they're gonna help us raise our bar, and we're
just gonna keep going up. And you know, when we
look at it that way, it's really special. So we're

(53:44):
really excited that about love being our one word. And
I want to give one other book that I think
really helped change our program. It's by Mark Patterson. It's
called In a Pit with a Lion on a snowy Day.
Our girls were just starting to get pretty good, but
we get the Nats and tenth tenth seventeenth we couldn't.

(54:04):
And we're better. I mean we were in my mind,
we're a top five team, and they weren't believing it.
And I read in a pit with a lying on
a snowy day, and it's basically about being more fearless
and relying more on God. And when we brought that in,
we had a nice transformation and things have been rolling
ever since. So I just you know, people that are

(54:27):
listening out there, Coaches, athletes, get your hands on a
variety of different books learned from those you're not. Everything
is applicable, right, You grab what you want. You grab
what works for you, what you think is going to
help your team, you.

Speaker 3 (54:41):
Know, even.

Speaker 1 (54:43):
Me or other guests you have, you know, we just
picked the nuggets. We're not going to take something that
every single thing that the person shares. But man, there's
a lot of wisdom out there, a lot more than
we have individually.

Speaker 2 (54:56):
So in addition to summer mileages, there are summer reading.
No here's here's a really cool thing. So I'm a
children's literature prof And actually, if you do uh, you
go to YouTube when you type in doctor Quinn's read
aloud channel, you'll see some read alouds that I did
during COVID. But when we travel and we stay all

(55:16):
night in a hotel. I read a picture book or
multiple picture books to our team, which are always fun ones.
But it's then the questions are, how can we apply
this to the race tomorrow? And it is really cool
to see the athletes and I'm talking just fun picture
books like you would your kids would be reading, you know,
your your first grader, your second grader. Every year before uh,

(55:42):
every night before cross country Nationals, we read Jumanji by
Chris van Aldsberg and I just just to remind them
that there can be chaos, right, but this is a game,
This is a sport, this this isn't This is a
part of your life, but it isn't your life. There's
more more to it than that.

Speaker 1 (56:01):
And I think sometimes when we read these books and
things like Jumanji and then we have these conversations, it
helps take the edge off some of that pressure. And yeah,
it's and the kids love them.

Speaker 2 (56:14):
I like it.

Speaker 3 (56:15):
Coach you, I know you mentioned Jumanji. Do you have
a favorite children's book.

Speaker 1 (56:19):
I'm gonna say it's probably that, just because we've used
it so much and it's fun. I love to bring
voices in when when I read it and enthusiasm, but
anything from Chris van Alsberg is fantastic. I love Mo
Willems stuff. I don't know if you guys know any
Mo Williams. If you, I don't know if you guys
have kids or not, or how old they are. You

(56:39):
guys look way younger than me. But there's don't let
the pigeon drive the bus. There's a bunch of pigeon
books and elephant and Piggy and you know. I like
to have distinct voices for everyone, which is really fun.

Speaker 2 (56:53):
A little reading rainbow before yep, Rich, Do.

Speaker 3 (57:00):
You have anything else for Coach White before we get
in the final four?

Speaker 2 (57:05):
I mean, we could talk all night, but I want
to be respectful Coach time. He's got a wife and
grandkids and all kinds of stuff. I'm sure he's got
class tomorrow morning. Wipers a grade.

Speaker 3 (57:16):
Let's get into the five, all right, Coach, First one
I got for you. Are you a coffee drinker?

Speaker 2 (57:21):
Yes?

Speaker 3 (57:22):
How do you brew your coffee? And how do you
take it?

Speaker 1 (57:27):
I don't brew it. I usually it's either going to
come out of a carrier or I'm going to buy it.
What I love is we have a Cuban restaurant. I
live in Fort Wayne, which is about an hour from
where the university is, and there's a Cuban restaurant with
just the best coffee. Oh, I love their coffee.

Speaker 2 (57:47):
So he's a professor and a coach and he commutes
an hour. You're busy guy, Coach.

Speaker 1 (57:53):
Do you know why the great dog visits sometimes?

Speaker 2 (57:55):
Right? Yeah? Absolutely too much time in the car to think.

Speaker 1 (57:59):
I just listen to Rush.

Speaker 2 (58:01):
Let's go, Coach. Do you have any daily practices or
rituals you do on a regular basis to show up
as the strongest version of Quinn White?

Speaker 1 (58:12):
A variety of things, you know, try to start the
day with prayer. Not always the best at it, but
that's that's important. If I start to feel overwhelmed, I'm
gonna meditate or I'm going to go for a walk.
One of the things that is huge to me is
when I get home, my wife comes up to me

(58:33):
right away first thing and just gives me a hug,
and that it just kind of helps ground me with everything.

Speaker 3 (58:41):
Man, Rich ecred is a hug when I can no doubt, Coach,
you kind of sold me we're forever bachelor's But he
kind of saw me on that one Coach, you know,
I know you spoke about a little bit of this.
But what are you listening to right now? Music, podcasts,
audio books? Are you reading anything?

Speaker 1 (59:00):
I well, I'm constantly going through inter Excellence again because
it's just so dense and we want to be able
to make sure that we're pulling out good stuff for
our kids. Kind of a sidebar, but I just listened
to Stephen King's version of Hansel and Gretel today while
I was painting my front door, and I remember thinking, Okay, man,

(59:22):
this is gonna be dark. It's gonna be kind of good.
It was just kind of the traditional. He didn't spice
it up. I was hoping that he would. I like
Stephen king stuff at times. Music. I like a variety
of music. Rush is on my favorite band, but I
like just about any genre. Yeah, eighties, hard rock, grunge.

(59:50):
I mean, I liked it all.

Speaker 2 (59:53):
Do you have a favorite Rush song?

Speaker 1 (59:55):
Working Man? I like it, And that's all right. Rush
has so many good ones. Yeah, I crank Rush a lot.
Nice So Getty Lee, if you're out there, let's connect
coach last one to close it as a lighthearted one.
Maybe it's a unique food item in Indiana. Maybe it's

(01:00:19):
a beverage. Maybe you are a fisherman, maybe you're a golfer.
Do you have a guilty pleasure? Dark chocolate? Probably love
dark chocolate. I want you to piece of dark chocolate
after every meal if possible, including breakfast. And then I
think the second thing, and this is really good for

(01:00:39):
my personality, is I chew gum like crazy. And I
think it's a way for me just to kind of
put my intensity into the gum rather than other things.
I can be quite intense at times, and that's a
gum is very helpful.

Speaker 2 (01:00:54):
Okay, So do you have a favorite recommended chocolate brand?

Speaker 1 (01:01:00):
Like you're a deli? Seventy two percent is good one
of my favorites.

Speaker 2 (01:01:04):
Okay, how about chewing gum?

Speaker 1 (01:01:06):
It's a great question. Usually it's whatever my wife buys.
I'm looking around in my office to see if I
have anything. Uh, I can't remember what it is.

Speaker 2 (01:01:15):
Okay. Is it like a mind flavor? Yeah? Yeah, okay, cool.

Speaker 1 (01:01:19):
It's probably Mento's gum. That's probably what it is.

Speaker 2 (01:01:22):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (01:01:23):
Well, Coach White, thank you so much for your time
this season. You made Rich and I's life a little
bit harder come the National Championships because we got too
many teams to root for, and uh, we're not. We try,
we try to be straight down the middle because all
the coaches give us our time. But man, I can't
wait to watch the men and the women and Nationals

(01:01:44):
this year. I know you guys are going to do
great things and congratulations on a great career.

Speaker 1 (01:01:50):
Thank you guys, And I appreciate you guys supporting and
celebrating the sports of cross country, track and wrestling. And personally,
I think wrestlers make the best runner because they are
absolutely hardcore like that is that is as blue collar
as a gift. So yeap, thank you guys.

Speaker 2 (01:02:08):
We appreciate your supporting the multi sport athletes. It's one
of the things Jimmy and I love to talk about.
But yeah, it was honor pleasure chatting with you. We
do appreciate you sharing with us everything. And like Jimmy said,
we've got a lot of coaches that we've had on
from the ANAI and we support all of them and
we'll be supporting Taylors come Nationals and we'll be rooting

(01:02:29):
for you down in Tallahassee. Thank you all right, ladies
and gentlemen. That is coach Quinn White at Taylor University.
Make sure you check out all the links in the
show notes. Go give Taylors cross Country, track and Field
some love. Let them know the Area Bros sent you.
We will be back here tomorrow night with coach Jeremy
Sudbury from Iowa State. He'll be coming in to fill
us in on all things Cyclone cross country. So enjoy

(01:02:52):
the rest of your evening and we will see you
back here tomorrow night.

Speaker 1 (01:03:08):
Out to