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August 18, 2025 62 mins
In Episode 386 of Airey Bros Radio, we go belly to belly with Coach Mark Del Monaco, the newly appointed Director of Track & Field and Cross Country at Tiffin University. A proud New Jersey native with coaching stops at Metro State, Cal State East Bay, and Minot State, Coach Del Monaco has built a reputation for developing nationally recognized NCAA Division II programs and producing All-Americans, record-holders, and champions.In this conversation, we cover:
  • Coach Del Monaco’s journey from La Salle University runner to DII head coach

  • His approach to scholarships, recruiting, and international talent pipelines

  • Building culture, character, and the right “fit” at Tiffin

  • The balance of administration vs. athlete-first coaching

  • Cross country and track insights, from double threshold training to facilities advantages

  • What to expect from the Tiffin Dragons in 2025 and beyond

Whether you’re a student-athlete, parent, coach, or fan of NCAA DII athletics, this episode is packed with lessons on leadership, program building, and the reality of college athletics outside the Power Four spotlight.👉 Subscribe, share, and leave us a review to help spread the word and support programs giving real opportunities to student-athletes.



  • Highlights & Key Topics:

    • New Jersey roots, La Salle background, and post-collegiate career in Boulder

    • Coaching journey through Metro State (Denver), Cal State East Bay, and Minot State

    • Building a winning culture at Tiffin University (NCAA DII, GMAC)

    • Scholarship breakdowns: how athletic, academic, and merit aid work together

    • Recruiting strategy – from Ohio talent pools to international athletes

    • Training philosophy: distance running, 800/1500m focus, double threshold work

    • Leadership lessons – from young coach to seasoned director

    • Program facilities, including Tiffin’s elite indoor track advantage

    • What to expect from the 2025 Cross Country and Track & Field seasons

  • Follow Coach Del Monaco & Tiffin XC/TF

  • Follow Airey Bros Radio

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
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 Mark Delmonico.
When you're listening to Aery Brse Radio.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Ladies and gentlemen, howdy and aloha, welcome to another episode
of Aery Brose Radio. We are here, you are there,
and you are now rocking with the best. We appreciate
you tuning in. Tonight we're stepping back onto the track
with fellow New Jersey native, a coach who's been building
standout programs across the country at the NCAA Division two level.

(00:40):
You already know why we do this. We're here to
shine a light on athletes, coaches and programs we wish
we had access to growing up. But before we get rolling,
you know the checklist? How are that like? Button? Drop
a comment. Your engagement helps more student athletes find the
right fit. Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, Spotify, and Apple podcast.
And as always, this episode is fueled by Black Sheep

(01:02):
Endurance for all your ultra marathon and nutrition coaching needs.
On to tonight's guest coach. Mark Delmonico is the newly
appointed director of Track and Field and cross Country at
Tiffin University. In Tiffin, Ohio, and he's someone who's been
building nationally respected programs in Division two for over a decade.
A couple of Coach Delmonico's highlights. He's coached ten All Americans,

(01:26):
thirty two school record holders, and a twenty twenty five
national champion. At Tiffin, he led Mie Not State to
its best ever finish in XC and track. He was
assistant coach with stops at Metropolitan State University in Denver
and cal State East Bay. He was a post collegiate
runner with Puma and then the Boulder Track Club. He

(01:47):
is a LaSalle alumni, and as I mentioned, he is
also a New Jersey native. Coach Delmonico is ready to
lead the Dragons into a new chapter. Let's get into it.
Coach Delmonico is an on our pleasure to have you
joining us this evening. We do greatly appreciate your time.
Welcome to the show.

Speaker 1 (02:05):
Yeah, thank you for having you guys. I'm really excited
to be here.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
Yeah, it's an honor. We always love conversations with coaches
like yourself. But when we have these little connections where
we can make the world even a little bit smaller,
it makes for a great conversation. So we're excited to
get into it with you. Have a couple through lines
for you. But before we do get into it, coach,
anywhere you would like athletes, families, recruits to find you,

(02:29):
to find the Dragons, anything you got on social media?
The floor is yours. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
On Instagram, you can find me a mark dot del Monaco.
That's probably the most successible I am on Instagram in
terms of reaching out to me. Our team is also
on Instagram, on Tiffin Underscore XCTF. Those are probably the
two main ways to get a hold of me or
our coaches and our program, and also ways to kind

(02:55):
of see what we're going on, you know, with all
the highlights and how student athletes are doing, how the
program is doing awesome.

Speaker 2 (03:03):
We'll put all that stuff in the show notes for
you as well. And so coach, probably the most important
question we're going to ask you all evening. You know,
you really put a smile on Jimmy's face. Within the
first thirty seconds of joining us. You said you're from
Central Jersey. Jimmy and I take a lot of pride
in being from Central Jersey. We travel around and a
lot of people say there's no such thing as Central Jersey.

(03:23):
But there is, and we have pride in it. And
I think because you said that, I already know the
answer to this question. But I'm going to ask you anyway,
is it pork Roll or Taylor Ham?

Speaker 1 (03:33):
It is park Roll?

Speaker 2 (03:34):
That boy, let's go.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
We knew you.

Speaker 2 (03:37):
We like to coach, excellent, excellent and so yeah. So,
as I was mentioned before too, our other through line
for you was that Jimmy and I spent I was
there for about four years. Jimmy was there for five
years in Denver. We lived near wash Park. And so,
like I said, we got this show rolling in the
spring of twenty nineteen in the Tivoli station. I actually

(04:01):
was a canning technician at the brewery there as well
for a short period of time. So we were well
well versed at the campus there. We loved it there.
We miss it dearly. We used to walk by and
I wish we could get back into the radio station.
But if it's taking us in other directions, but we're
doing what we're doing here, and we're excited to chat

(04:23):
with you this evening.

Speaker 3 (04:26):
Jim what do you got so coach? Where before we
get rock and rolling? Where in Denver? Were you living.
How long were you in Denver for?

Speaker 1 (04:35):
Yeah, so I moved to Balder originally after I graduated college,
joined professional pinning group out there and was with a
bunch of pro semi pros for about two years. My
own running wasn't going too too well, so I kind
of was thinking about like the next phase of my life.
And I had always wanted to get into coaching. So

(04:58):
a good friend of mine, John's upsick. He was actually
the head coach at Metro State at the time and
he had just resigned, so he there his assistant got promoted,
and I just happened to be having dinner with John
that evening and kind of told him like, hey, like,
you know, there's a new guy. I need any help.
I always wanted to be a college coach, and you
know what do I have to do? I guess and John, Uh,

(05:20):
John let me know that he kind of owed him
a favor, so he put in a put in a
word for me and took the took the bus down
to Metro down to the old Union station in downtown.
Actually got lost trying to find the coach's offices across campus.
I I had never really been to Denver, even though
it was really close to Boulder. I had mostly stayed
up in Boulder to do everything. So I was my

(05:43):
first time in Denver and I remember uh paulin or
texting the head coach at the time, Nick Moss, who's
now at Wisconsin Parkside, and I was like, yeah, I
don't know, I don't know where I am, don't know
where I'm walking. I felt really bad because it was
sort of like an interview and I was late and so,
but yeah, actually hit it off with him, and yeah,
it was a great three years in Denver. I lived

(06:05):
in I then moved to Denver after my second year.
I guess to kind of answer your question, so I
didn't like to commute all the way down to Denver
every day because we practiced in the morning, so to
get on the bus from Boulder Denver, I was waking
up at like four point thirty five o'clock every day.
And then it was only a part time gig, so

(06:26):
I was getting back on the bus to go back
up to Boulder to my main job. And those first
couple of months, like I would get back on the
bus after practice and I would just fall asleep for
that hour or so back up the boulder. So I
got tired of that and realized if I moved to Denver,
I could sleep in a little bit more and head
straight to practice and then go to my regular job.

(06:46):
So I lived in the cat Hill section right thought,
right on Tenth and Sherman, so kind of near everything,
was able to get on the creek path to run.
I love Wash Park. It's my favorite park in probably
all of America. I loved going I love going down
there and running on the gravel you know that gravel
loop that's right around the park. And when I was

(07:07):
still doing kind of road races, I loved running on
the inner loop, on the on the concrete. So but yeah,
I lived there for two years and then uh yeah,
I was kind of at another crossroads in life and
wanted to get into coaching full time. So that's when
I moved on to cal State SPAE.

Speaker 3 (07:23):
Well, coach, you are speaking our language. I don't want
to speak for rich, Butash Park is my favorite park
in America. We spent a lot of times there for
four or five years. You could see me walking barefoot
daily and Wash Park that was my spot every morning,
every night. So yeah, you're speaking our language there. But
just got the head coaching position director of track and

(07:45):
Fields cross country. I don't want to take that head
away from you, but if I did my if I
did my research correct, this is your first time as
a head coach or director of track and field cross country.
How's it feel to take over the program and what
are your initial thoughts?

Speaker 1 (08:04):
Yeah, so this is actually my second time as a right.

Speaker 3 (08:08):
Sorry, so this is actually, uh.

Speaker 1 (08:11):
The second time I've been the head coach or director
of a program. My first was at May Not State,
right after East Bay. But but yeah, it's exciting. It's
a much different feel this time around. I was twenty
nine when I took over mine not State. I was
very young, and you know, it was a lot of
learning early on. Now I'm almost eight years later that

(08:33):
I feel like I've learned a lot, have grown. I
was able to take a step back and just focus
on distance running for the last three years, but during
that time, you know, I was able to reflect on,
you know, leadership qualities and you know coaching, you know,
how to coach certain student athletes and having those tough
conversations and all those things that maybe the first time

(08:53):
around I felt like, you know, I felt a little
short in. So yeah, I'm really excited to, you know,
take the role here. If it's a powerhouse of a
program in Division two. You know, I'm I just want
to keep the ball rolling here and keep the success
coming for for the entire program now, not just the
distance group. You know, I want good throwers, good sprinters,

(09:14):
good jumpers. You know, we really really want to continue
to be uh, you know, a market name in track
and field and Division two?

Speaker 2 (09:22):
Is there a big difference from being a head coach
to being a director? Is there? Is there some more
hats you have to wear now?

Speaker 1 (09:28):
But you know, I was explaining this to me, I
have life director here, Tiffin, because they had never really
had a director title and had always been had track
and field and cross country or you know, when I
was just a head cross country coach, they had head
track and field coach and a head cross country coach.
So I kind of explained it to her that it
was just kind of like a fancy title that a
lot of programs are using nowadays, and that they'd really

(09:52):
not much of a difference in terms of my role
and my responsibilities. You know, whether I'm a head coach
or director of a program.

Speaker 2 (10:02):
And it's both men's and women's. Correct.

Speaker 1 (10:04):
Yeah, yeah, so it's men's and women's shock and field
and cross country.

Speaker 2 (10:08):
Okay, and when when I guess you gets gearing up
for fall, when one of the onhe of the student
athletes coming back.

Speaker 1 (10:15):
Yeah, so they'll be back. Yeah, they'll be back on
August seventeenth, so it's coming up really shortly here. The
cross country team will report and they'll be back about
a week early before school gets going. And then the
following weekend is when just the rest of campus moves in,
So that's when the track and field team will will
show up, and you know, we'll have meetings that first week.

(10:36):
We have a bunch of new coaches on staff this year,
so I'm kind of familiarizing them with their new event coach,
and then obviously we have new freshmen transfers things like that,
so it's kind of kind of a lot of ice
breaking that first week before we get going for practice.

Speaker 3 (10:52):
Could you mentioned the last time you were head coach,
you're a little bit younger, a little bit more mature.
Now you spent some time just focus and on the distance,
but now you are the CEO of the program. In
that time of just doing the distance events. What were
you kind of thrown in your toolbox as far as
this is how I'm going to run the program when

(11:12):
I get that head coach and position over, And what
do you plan on doing as far as delegating task
and events that you're going to give it to other people?
And what task are you looking forward to kind of
take it, take the wheel.

Speaker 1 (11:28):
Yeah. So yeah, the last three years, I mean I
really was able to take a step back and just
really hyper focus on cross country distant running. And I
would say during that time, you know, I really was
able to focus on maybe the training aspect, because when
you're the director of the head coach of a program,
you're worried about budgets, You're worried about roster numbers, you
worried about you know, meetings with your athletic director, you know,

(11:49):
all those types of things. So I didn't quite have
that burden as just a head cross country coach here
at Tiffin, So I was able to maybe focus more
on the student athlete side of things. And you know,
what did I have to do to you know, get
a guy or gout NCAA's or get a PR or
score at conference, win conference things like that, And I
learned a lot during that time without having the responsibility

(12:11):
of you know, finances of you know, fundraising. I never
really had to do that at my other stop. So
I learned a lot, you know, being at Tiffin in
terms of fundraising, how important that is and how that
can can really impact your program in a positive way.
And then talking a little bit about scholarships, uh, you know,
learn how to really delegate scholarships and divvy them out

(12:34):
and what you're looking for specifically into student athlete at
a high level program like this, you know, you're maybe
having asking kids that in the past that other programs
I've been at I maybe would have given uh, you know,
money too, but now you know, I'm asking them to
walk on or give them giving them a lower scholarship. Yeah,
in the new in the new role here, it's a
lot more administrative work. So it's a lot more uh,

(12:56):
dealing with budgets, dealing with uh, you know, paying invo choices.
You know, like like you said earlier, it's like being
a CEO of a company. So I'm dealing a lot
of a lot with that now. In terms of day
to day you know, I we have five full time
coaches that we're really fortunate to have that support from
our administration, so I am able to uh, you know,

(13:19):
delegate recruiting tasks, delegate you know, visits or equipment and
ordering stuff and all those kinds of things that you know,
if there was only me or one other person, or
in some some places it's just the head coaching and
graduate assistants that I would have to take on not
only the burden of the administrative side of things, but
also I got to make sure the locker room's clean,

(13:41):
I got to make sure the recruiting visits are set up,
and I got to make sure, you know, I'm texting
X amount of recruits every day. You know, I'm able
to give that stuff to our assistant coaches and with
our new staff, I've told them I really wanted to
know what they feel like their uh strengths are and
what their weaknesses are so that it can be a
high functioning program. And you know, we're not dropping the

(14:03):
ball in any one area. So you know, once we
get everyone together and back on campus here, you know,
really making sure that it's a it's a well oiled machine.

Speaker 3 (14:12):
So coach, you mentioned those scholarships and getting to talk
to all the different coaches from the different divisions. We
get to get into the nitty gritty of scholarships. And
being a young student athlete, I had no idea how
scholarships work. You always hear about people getting full rides
and getting money to go to this Division one school.
Little did you know? You like, yeah, you're getting five grand,

(14:32):
but you're also paying twenty grand to go to that
at Division one school. So how does scholarships work at Tiffin?
And what kind of student athletes are you looking to
give scholarships to? And what kind of student athletes are
you looking at? Hey, you might have to walk on
to earn a scholarship.

Speaker 1 (14:49):
Yeah, so here Tiffin. You know, the way we work
scholarships is, and I would say, because we are a
private school and school is maybe a little bit more
expensive than your your average state school, we look at
the whole financial package. So it's not just athletic scholarship.
So we have great merit aid here. We look at
the FASTPA, we look at other grants that you get

(15:10):
through the university, and we package that all together. You know,
I would say, if you look at any financial aid
offer we give a recruit, it's probably the athletic portion
of it is probably you know, a decent size of
the athletic or the scholarship offer, but it's not everything.
You know, you might be getting, uh, you know a
certain amount of dollars athletically, but you might be getting

(15:32):
you know, twenty thousand dollars academically, which will be a
lot more than you would be getting athletically. And so
when we package that all together and present it to
the recruit we factor all of those things in in
terms of times and marks and things like that. I
would say the bottom you know, tier of what we
look at is really can you score at the conference

(15:52):
meet for us? You know, and then from there, like,
you know, how far or how high can you score
at the conference meet? So can you get you know,
top eight, you know, just score? Can you be top three?
Which is all conference? Can you can you win the conference?
In Division two and track and field, you know, they
have certain marks that are considered provisional times or marks

(16:14):
that will get you on the national list. So then
we start to look at that as well, are you
someone that can come in and hit those marks and
be on the national qualifying list? And then most recently
Division two has gone to set Field. So that's eighteen
indoors and twenty two outdoors. So can you be in
the top eighteen and make the national meet? You've been
top twenty two outdoors to make the national meet. And

(16:34):
then once you're at the national meet, can you be
an All American? Can you be a national champion? So
it's really a tiered system. That's how we look out
of a lot of things. And there's always I always
try to tell recruits like, hey, just because you're coming
in maybe as a walk on or maybe on a
lower scholarship. You know, our national champion that we had
in the distance group, you know, she came in on

(16:54):
a lower scholarship and by the end she was on
a pretty high scholarship because she had gotten done really
well every year that you have been here, and so
there's always the possibility to earn more money.

Speaker 2 (17:05):
And so coach, as you're you know you've been out west,
you're back sort of getting closer and closer to home
on the East. What is your recruiting strategy. I'm sure
you've got networks all over the country. Now we've got
ties in Philadelphia and in New Jersey. Are we going
to see some some Jersey athletes wearing the Green and

(17:26):
gold pretty soon.

Speaker 1 (17:27):
Yeah, I would love to. I've I've lived you know,
four very different areas of the country, and I've always
tried to get Jersey kids, especially as at my not
state because they didn't charge out of state tuition. So
I always have looked at my home state and try
to get people wherever I was. But that that mid Atlantic,

(17:47):
that Northeast corridor so densely populated with universities and things
like that, it's it's hard sometimes to pull kids out
when you know they have a million options only you know,
anywhere from one to three hours away from you know,
where they grew up. My cousin, he's the head coach
of Union Catholic.

Speaker 2 (18:05):
Very nice, very very powerhouse Browne.

Speaker 1 (18:08):
Yeah, so coach Sydney McLaughlin and has coached a young
lady that just ran cool one as a sophomore in
high school. So he's done a great job. But yeah,
I've always always talked to him and tried to get
some of his athletes out to, you know, wherever I've been,
because I know they are usually running pretty fast with
throwing pretty far, jumping pretty high, you know, under him Uh,

(18:31):
but yeah, I would say Ohio is a really great
track and field state. You know, I would say recruiting wise,
for many of our event groups, you don't need to
go outside of Ohio. You know, we may venture into
western Pennsylvania, Michigan, or Indiana, but you know, there's a
lot of talent here in Ohio. I would say one
of the one of the big obstacles being in Ohio

(18:52):
is also a very densely populated state. In terms of universities,
you know, there's two Division three conferences and Vision two conference,
I think two Division one conferences between the MAC and
the Horizon League. So there are a lot of options.
Then you you factor in nai A schools as well.
So but you know, we we want the best kids

(19:13):
to come here. And I say that anytime I talk
to someone like you guys, or I talk to recruits
or even just alumni, I say, I don't really care
where you're from. I want the fastest people to come
to Tiffit University and come compete for us. One thing
that has really worked well for me since when I
was a distance coach here has been international recruiting. I've

(19:34):
developed a lot of really great connections through you know,
agents and companies that work with student athletes overseas. So
that has gone really well for me, and I hope
to continue to do that as well. So we're looking
all over. We have students from Arizona, from California, Ohio,
I think, uh, you know, we have six or seven

(19:56):
countries represented within our program this upcoming year. So yeah,
we just want the best, best, best guys and gals
that that we can get, and that as long as
they're a great fit for you know, for Tiffin.

Speaker 2 (20:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (20:08):
No.

Speaker 2 (20:09):
And talking about that great fit, you know, sometimes on paper,
kids can run fast, or throw far, or jump jump high,
or jump far, but that's not necessarily an indicator of
who they are as a human. So how are you
how are you sifting through that and finding those top marks,
but also finding the right humans that fit the right
vibing culture at Tiffin.

Speaker 3 (20:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (20:30):
I think that's that's one thing that has really changed
for me in twelve going on thirteen years of being
a college coaches. When I was at Metro State, you know,
I was twenty three, twenty four, I just wanted to
win and win all the time. And uh, you know,
if you were fast, I did. I didn't really care
about anything else, Like I just I wanted you to
be a part of the program or you know, it

(20:51):
didn't matter about your grades or who your character or
anything like that. And I think that's that's a big
trap that I see now. You know, later on in
my coaching career, when I see young coaches is you know,
they just want all the accolades and and all that stuff.
So but you know, more recently, I would say probably
in the last six or seven years. You know, I

(21:13):
always tell recruits the reason we're reaching out to you
is your times or your marks. You know, that's what
caught our eye. You know, that's you know, that's why
I sent you a d M or why we contacted
your coach or sent you an email. And then from
there just trying to fit, uh, you know, the mold
of what they want in a university or their college
experience and what we have to offer. So I like
to ask a lot of those questions, you know, when

(21:35):
I'm on the phone with them. Initially, you know, are
you looking for, uh, you know, a big city. You know,
you're looking for a city like Denver, because Tiffin is
a town of fifteen thousand people. So if you're looking for,
you know, a city like Denver, then you know we're
we're probably not the right fit for you. Are you
looking for a big university, a medium sized university or
small university? You know, you know, what what do you

(21:56):
want from there? And then you know, in terms of coaching,
you know what what kind of coach do you want?
What kind of team do you want? Do you want
a team that's really cohesive? Do you want a team
that is maybe not as connected but just wins all
the time, you know, things like that. So I like
to ask a lot of those questions and then based
on you know, the responses from whom whoever I'm talking to, uh,

(22:16):
you know, factor in like hey, this guy or goal
might be a really good fit for us, or you know,
hey they want a big university Tiffans University of about
three thousand students, Like I don't, I don't know if
that's gonna really fit for us. And then if we
move on from there and get them on campus. You know,
I rely on a lot on the guys and gals
you know, within our program when they get to hang

(22:38):
out with their recruit you know, because they're gonna they're
gonna have conversations and they're gonna talk about things that
you know, they would never talk about with me in
my office or on a recruiting visit. So you know,
we certainly have had some of our guys and gals
come back and say, yeah, like they told me they
can't wait to party when they get to campus and
things like that, and uh, and that's you know, you know,

(22:58):
maybe an instiant red flag that hey, I don't know
if it's gonna work out here, and so you know,
maybe we just say, hey, like we appreciate your interest,
but you know, we're gonna go in a different directions.
So yeah, and and the last thing I always say
to recruits is, you know, I really watch you here.
That's why I'm talking to you, That's why I have
you on a visit. But ultimately, like I want you
to be here. I want you to be invested in

(23:20):
in Tiffan University and and what we have going on here,
and be excited to be a student athlete and a
part of our program. You know, our distance runners during
the indoor season, we have a great indoor facility here
on campus, but we have a lot of varsity teams here,
so we have to share the space throughout the winter,
so we have to go at six am, you know,

(23:41):
during the indoor season with our distance runers. And I
would say, you know, when that alarm goes off at
five or five fifteen and you've got to roll out
of bed and it's you know, under twenty degrees outside,
if you're not excited to be here, you're probably gonna
hit the snooze button a few times and you may,
you know, just sleep straight through practice because really you're
here for all the wrong reason.

Speaker 3 (24:00):
So I really do.

Speaker 1 (24:02):
Factor in, you know, not only the times and all
those questions that I asked, but are you going to
be happy being at Tiffin? Because ultimately, this is your
college experience. This is where you're going to spend the
next you know, four or five years of your life.
And you know, is it a place that when you
graduate from here, you're going to look back on and say, Hey,
I'm glad I went there. I'm glad I competed for Tiffin.

(24:25):
I'm glad I you know, got a degree from there.
I had great, great coaches, great teammates, and you know,
overall I had a great experience.

Speaker 3 (24:33):
Could you mention those that checklist you have with questions
to make sure that the student athlete is going to
be happy with the program and the experience. You mentioned
being a campus of three thousand students. What are some
of the majors that that stand out for people that
go to Tiffin. What is the typical student athlete that's
happy there? And what does the typical Friday or Saturday

(24:55):
night look like for the student athletes when you guys
aren't traveling.

Speaker 1 (25:00):
Yeah, so I would say our most popular majors right
now on campus are are business, exercise science. We have
a couple of criminal justice majors within our program. Those
are probably the three most popular. We also have cybersecurity
computer science as well, but I would say business and
exercise science are probably the two most popular, uh, you know,

(25:21):
within the program. And then what is a I'm sorry,
can you repeat the last the last question?

Speaker 3 (25:28):
I guess, well, when you guys aren't traveling to compete,
what what what are the student athletes doing for for fun,
for extra curriculars As far as just being sleep, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (25:39):
Yeah, they're probably sleeping they're running so much. But yeah,
it's as as I mentioned, you know, we're a town
of fifteen thousand people, but you know, We are located
between three major cities, so Columbus, Cleveland, and Detroit are
all within about an hour and a half drive, so
Toledos fifty minutes up the road. So if you are

(26:00):
someone that still wants, you know, to go to a
concert or you know, go to a Cleveland Browns game,
Detroit Lions game, you know, Pistons, things like that, you
can certainly get out of town and do that. A
couple of the Europeans on our team, there was there
was some concert up in Detroit of some artists, and
I guess that was really popular overseas and they went
up and saw him. But you know, with them tiffing itself,

(26:22):
you know, I would say it is a quieter area.
We have restaurants, we have bars, we have coffee shops, bookstores,
things like that. We have all the like the fast
food amenities you could want, you know, Chipotle, McDonald's, Buffalo
Wild Wings. So you know, I I would probably have
to ask the guys in the gals what they do
on weekends if they're not just sitting in their dorms

(26:43):
of their houses and you know, hanging out waiting for
you know, the next practice or while we're on or
whatever we may be doing. But I would say it
never gets too mischievous. You know. In Tiffin that's probably
a good thing. They can focus on school, focus on academics.

Speaker 2 (26:58):
Yeah, it's like well, Coach Vieriro from Clarion said, whether
it's three in the afternoon or three in the morning,
everyone in town knows who you are, so you better
miss you're being a good person making decisions. Coach, I
want to go back to the coaching and that aspect
of your role and everything. Uh, a question we always
like to hear when we talk about that CEO role.

(27:20):
CEO role and things we like to do, maybe things
we pass off. Who gets to do the expense reports?

Speaker 1 (27:27):
Oh so I would say that that's probably evenly divided.
All of our full time coaches have credit cards. So
my idea likes to really get on me that I
need to be better about that and some and submitting
those and things like that. But now in my new role,
what I've really tried to do is keep track of that.
So with our assistants, you know, after meets or anything

(27:47):
that we're spending money on U you know, really tracking
it to make sure we have an accurate, you know,
count of how much budget we have and what we've
spent and all that kind of stuff. But yeah, all
of our coaches are responsible for submitting their credit card receipts.
It can be daunting. I certainly don't enjoy it. And
like I said, my my a d in and my
h my yearly evaluations. That's one thing she always harps

(28:10):
on me for.

Speaker 2 (28:11):
Okay, And as a distance guy, you know, we're always curious.
We've had the coaches from Wingate on a few times,
some of their athletes as well. And you know, the
popular trend in the distance world these days is the
double threshold training. Are are you all dabbling in the
world the double threshold? It all up at Tiffic we have.

Speaker 1 (28:28):
Yeah, So I started that two years ago. Now, it
was kind of one It was just becoming popular and
I really didn't know much about it, so I had
to read into it. I'm a big fan of Mike
Smith over at NAU, so I did a lot of
research and you know, what was it all about? And
so yeah, we we started it two years ago with
a couple guys and they had some some really massive

(28:49):
prs that that following spring. We did it in between
our indoor season, heading into outdoors for probably about four
four or so weeks, and we had guys. I had
a guy opened up ten k and twenty nine to
fifty five. I had another guy who was about a
nine I think he was nine thirty steeple nine twenty steeple.

(29:09):
He ran eight fifty seven and made NCAA's had another
guy run right below thirty two minutes in the ten
k in his debut, So you know, from then on out,
I was kind of hooked and kind of you know,
pinkering with you know what works really well for the
people we have. We don't do it with everybody, just
because the amount of mileage that is in that one day.

(29:30):
Our guys were doing anywhere between eighteen to twenty miles
on any given day between warm ups and cool downs
and the actual workouts. And I've also looked at like,
you know Andy Powell over at Washington, you know, he
does maybe threshold in the morning and some speedwork in
the afternoon. So I would say it hasn't always necessarily
been straight double threshold, but we it's worked really well

(29:54):
for our guys. This past year, we had a guy
run fourteen oh six, another guy run fourteen oh eight.
We had a three forty five, a five guy in
the fifteen hundred, So it really depends on who you
are and what you can handle. We try to be
as individualistic as you can within our program. You know,
when giving workouts in mileage assignments.

Speaker 2 (30:13):
Okay and including cross country, but across into track and
fields with from the eight hundred on up to the
ten k, do you have a favorite event that you
liked to coach.

Speaker 1 (30:23):
So I'm a distance guy myself. I could not sprint.
I don't think I ever broke sixty in the four hundred,
even with the wind for my back, I probably ran
sixty flat. But we had a guy from England, you
just graduated. Tiffin here is actually at my not State
with me and transferred here when I got this job,
and he put in my head probably about three four

(30:44):
years ago now that the eight hundred was my best
event in terms of coaching and success and things like that.
So I really just dove into that. I don't know
if I just you know, bought bought what he was selling,
I guess, and you know, just started really diving in
into eight hundred meter training, middle distance training and immerse
myself in you know different coaches and how they do things.

(31:07):
And a good friend of mine who's also the head
coach at Metro State who started the programs back up
Pete Julian coach Donovan Brazier and Craig Engles and Sinclair
Johnson for a little while, you know, he had a
really great group out in Portland, Oregon, which is middle
distance oriented, so picked his brain, watched a lot of
YouTube videos and flow track videos and you know whatever

(31:30):
I could get my hands on. So but yeah, I
would say the probably the eight hundred and fifteen hundred
is probably now my favorite events to coach and probably
where I've had the most success on the men's and
women's side, you know, which is funny to say because
I think I think my PR is only two twelve
in the eight hundred, Like, you know, I've coached women

(31:50):
that that could probably kick my butt. So but but yeah,
those are probably my two favorite events to coach, you know,
indoors and outdoors a little nerve racking because they're they're
very short, so not a lot of time for mistakes.
But uh, but really where where I feel like I've
grown as a coach. For from where when I started
to where I am.

Speaker 2 (32:07):
Now, Okay, did you happen to catch the eight hundred
at the US Championships, the men's eight hundred?

Speaker 1 (32:12):
So I did not. I was actually on a camping
trip in Colorado, so I just I just got back
on Monday. So every August first, I have a group
of friends who are just a bunch of old runners
now and we get together, uh, you know, for about
two and a half days or so, and we go
camping up in the mountains. So I was down down

(32:34):
near Pueblo, uh, and like Colorado Springs out to the
west and in Sangrad de Cristo Mountain Range there down
in Westcliff, and uh, yeah, it's it's uh. We had
no cell service, so you know, couldn't couldn't keep track
of the meet or anything. I knew, we knew it
was going on, but had no way of figuring out,

(32:54):
you know, how people were doing. And then when I
got back down on Sunday afternoon, you know, instantly checked
you know, Instagram and Twitter and got a couple of texts,
did you see this race? Did you see that race?
But but no, I wasn't able to able to see anything.
I heard about the eight hundred I was actually we
were back in kind of cell service range, but I

(33:15):
was on the roads. I didn't have like a TV
or access to anything like that. But but yeah, I
watched the highlights since super impressive. I'm super happy for
Donovan Brazier.

Speaker 3 (33:25):
I had.

Speaker 1 (33:26):
I was able to meet him three years ago when
Pete was coaching him, and I know Pete was with
him through kind of his injury woes after he won
the world championship set to you know, American records, so
to see him come back has just been absolutely amazing.
And then another one of his former athletes, and Claire Johnson,
I know she's been you know, she's been a fourth place,

(33:49):
so the first spot out to make the team was awesome.
And and then one of Pete's athletes got third, Emily
Mackay in the fifteen hundred. So so yeah, I wasn't
able to see anything, but definitely caught up on all
the results and how people did. Well.

Speaker 2 (34:03):
You're recharging the batteries out in Colorado, so we get
down with that, no doubt.

Speaker 1 (34:08):
Did you call the best thirty six hours of my summer?
No one, No one can bother me, no text messages,
no emails or anything that's awesome.

Speaker 2 (34:17):
I need that in my life.

Speaker 3 (34:18):
Yeah, I'll take thirty six hours in Colorado anytime you're
ready to go rich all right, coach, not the completely
derail the conversation. I want to get into the cross
country season coming up. But you brought up Colorado. And
we usually asked our Colorado friends at the beginning of
very podcast if they have a favorite fourteen er? Do
you have a favorite fourteener?

Speaker 1 (34:39):
So that's that's a great question. So on this trip
that I go on every year, we try to hike
a fourteener, I don't know if I was a favorite one.
We hiked Mount Sneffles last year and I got dropped
pretty handily by the group. I don't think I ate
enough beforehand, and so I was telling them this year,
I said, it's probably the only time on this trip

(35:00):
I was ready to just like if somebody pushed me
off the side of a cliff, like I would have
just accepted my fate and tumbled off the side of
that like I was just so dehydrated, so out of it.
But no, I don't have a favorite one. They're so
rewarding when you get to the top the views and
you know it seems like the clouds are right below you.

(35:20):
But no, I don't have a favorite one. I enjoy
doing it every year. It's definitely the highlight of the
trip for me, at least. I'm sure quite a few
of the other guys that are on there, you know,
they enjoy it as well. I was actually looking at
ordering like a poster or something on my plane ride
back the other day to just start checking them off,
because I've started to forget which ones we've gone up
and which ones we haven't.

Speaker 3 (35:41):
Well, coach, if it makes you feel any better, that
guy over there has dropped me on multiple fourteen ers
and multiple runs in Colorado, so we have that in common.
But get back to Tiffin. Cross country season is coming up.
Who do we need to keep an eye on and
what do we have to look forward to coming from
the team this year.

Speaker 1 (36:02):
Yeah, I'm really excited about, you know, our men's and
women's team. On the men's side, we have two guys returning,
Ramon Rodriguez and Louis Jannon from Spain and France and
remote the ramone qualified for ncaias I ran three forty
five last year in the fifteen hundred. Louis actually he

(36:24):
would have qualified for NCAAs. He ran twenty nine to
twenty and so, as I mentioned earlier, they take twenty
two guys to outdoors. He was twenty third, and I
kept telling him. I kept telling him all outdoor season.
I was like, oh, man, like I don't think you're
gonna make it. Like I hardly ever see anyone scratch
out of the ten k. And he was actually fighting

(36:45):
a little bit of a hip glute injury all of
spring season. But we get the scratch list, you know,
after declarations, and he would have been like eighteenth or so,
so he would have made NCAAs. But we shut him
down just because the injury was kind of get a
little bit worse and we didn't think going to nca
is kind of you know, at fifty percent, wasn't wasn't
worth it. So so those two will be leading our

(37:07):
men's team. And we've brought in some really great you know,
graduate transfers, uh two guys from England who have earned
three fifty one in fourteen thirty four for fifteen hundred
and five k. So we returned, you know, some really
good guys and you know, we want to make a
run at the on the at the conference title on

(37:27):
the men's side, so it's never been done before here Tiffin.
For all the success that that they have had, they've
been a really big sprint and throws powerhouse throughout their
their history, and that's probably what they're really known for. So,
you know, we hope we can kind of add a
little distance history to that this upcoming fall at a
trop at a cross country trophy to the Hallway on

(37:50):
the women's side, So we lost our All American and
national champion in Ness McCadam, but her sister, Greta McCadam,
will will be returning for us. It'll be here last
year running across country, and then we have a sophomore
and a senior Ali Danny and Audrey stand Zone that
will lead our women's team. So our women are probably
a little bit more they're probably middle of the GMAC

(38:11):
right now. You know, I'm really excited about our top three.
They've been training really hard all summer. We're definitely a
little bit young after those three, so we'll be relying
on some some freshmen and sophomores to really step up.
So you really never know how the transition is going
to go. For a freshman whether you're a guy or gal, uh,
coming up to college. So we're hoping, we're hoping it's

(38:31):
a little it's a little seamless on the women's side,
and you know, we can we can finish in that
upper half, you know, maybe make a run at top
three or top four on the women's side.

Speaker 3 (38:40):
So you men mentioned the women having good summer training.
I'm curious how you kind of monitor the summer training
because I've heard some legendary, legendary stories about my brother
over there having some epic summer training coming in for
the first week across country and being ready for NCAA's
and coach being like, I don't I don't know what
to do with you right now. I know, I know

(39:02):
we have apps and stuff that we can track kids
and track what they're doing. So how do you kind
of monitor it? Monitor that? And have you had situations
where kids are putting in a lot of miles in
the summer and then come in and it's like, well,
I don't know what to do with you right now
because we still have a whole season ago.

Speaker 1 (39:18):
Yeah, So if there's any NCAA compliance people watching this, like, uh,
you know, we we don't monitor we don't mandate anything.
We definitely am able to look at it like on
Strava and things like that. But we send them a
summer training plan and we expect them to follow it,
you know, and we break everyone down into mileage groups

(39:39):
based on, you know, what they did with us, if
they're sophomore heading into sophomore year above or if they're
coming off their high school senior year as a freshman.
So we send them a training plan say hey, this
is what you should be doing day to day. I
always tell them, I take the thinking out of it
for you, because all you have to do is look
at you know, your mileage group and what you have

(39:59):
to do for that day. It's all written out, all planned,
you know. I do tell them I understand that, you know, summer,
you might be on vacation with your families, or you
might have things pop up, and so I definitely give
them the leeway to switch things around if they need
or you know, I always tell them like, you're probably
gonna miss a couple of days here and there, but
you start missing two days here, three days there, four

(40:21):
days there. When you start adding that up and we're
only gone for eight or nine weeks, you know, that's
maybe like a week and a half of MISS summer training,
which is a lot. So we try to give all
that information to them prior leaving campus or if they're incoming,
you know, I send out a really long email of
just like, here are the expectations, here's what we're looking for.
You know, if you are having any issues, let's chat.

(40:43):
You know, I can help you the best I can.
The NCAA doesn't allow us to meet with them at
all in the summer, so I really don't have any control.
It's kind of one of those things that we gave
you all the information, all the resources, all the tools.
I hope you show up in eleven days here and
you're in shape and to go. But it's our summer

(41:03):
training and how we structure it. I started this last
year and it worked out really well for for our
men and women. We don't do any workouts, which may
not be the norm for a lot of programs in
the summer, so we just do straight mileage. We build
you up, you know. I work backwards from November when
our regional meet is, and we start sometime in late
May early June, build you back up, and then yeah,

(41:26):
we're just running miles every day. I found probably about
three years ago, giving them workouts. You know, they may
be on vacation somewhere and they can't find a track
or they can't find a hill or things like that.
So I said to myself, like, I'm just gonna tell
you just go run, like just you should be able
to go run for you know, thirty minutes, forty minutes,
fifty minutes, whatever it is, right out your hotel door

(41:47):
or right out your door back home in your hometown.
And then we start, you know, workouts, you know a
little bit closer to when they get back to campus.
So actually, this upcoming Friday, you know, they'll do their
first workout of the entire summer. So they'll do about
two or three workouts before they get back on campus.
And then after that we're back together and everything will

(42:08):
be a little bit more structured from there on out.
So it's maybe not the norm, you know. I know
some coaches like to start in July. They start doing
tempos and they start doing all that kind of stuff.
But like you said, you know, I don't want you
show up to in shape. You know, when August seventeenth hits.
I want to be able to you know, have you
grow a little bit and have you gained a little
bit more fitness. I definitely made the mistake probably I

(42:30):
think it was two years ago now. We had a
men's team very similar to the one uh that's coming
back this upcoming fall, and it was the first time
as as a coach, I had ever really been in
a position to win a conference title as a team.
And I probably had them rocking and rolling. The first
two meets. We were running like lights out. We looked
absolutely just invincible, and we were just hammering these workouts

(42:53):
on the tracker, on the grass, and you know, mid
October hit, you know, when the really important stuff role around,
and we just looked like we were running on fumes
at that point. So really really tried to learn from
that is you know, it's not all about how you
look in September, It's about how you look in you know,
late October and November. And it's okay if you get

(43:14):
off to a slower start as long as you're finishing
really strong at the conference regional at n NCAA meet.

Speaker 2 (43:21):
When's going to be the first test for the Dragons
this fall.

Speaker 1 (43:24):
Yeah, so we're going to have a home meet September fifth.
Right here in Tiffin, we host one whole meet a season,
so it's right down at our outdoor Athletics complex. It
will be a five k for the men and women.
It's flat, it's fast, so hopefully they can gain some
confidence for that, get a PR and then two weeks
later we'll be down at the Ohio Championships in Cedarville.

Speaker 2 (43:45):
You guys going to Parkside for pre Nationals.

Speaker 3 (43:48):
We are.

Speaker 1 (43:48):
We will be out there September twenty seventh. So my
old boss at Metro, Nick Moss, is a director there,
so he he kind of you know, wooed me, has
to come back out and told me a lot of
good teams are coming out to preview the course. So
it looks like it's going to be a good meet.
I saw outam State is going to be there at Colorado.

(44:09):
Colorado Mines will be there, I think CSU Pueblo. So
it'll be a really big test for us, and that's
probably where you know, our top people are top guys
and our top girls. That's where we're going to start
to really get going.

Speaker 2 (44:22):
I've heard it, We've heard it's a good course.

Speaker 1 (44:24):
Yeah, it depends who you talked to the first Probably
three quarters of a mile is straight up up this hill,
so it could be could be a little daunting when
you're standing on the starting line. My first year in Tiffin,
that's where they had regionals and they were getting some
lake effects snow, so it was it was probably twenty
but maybe felt like zero. I was wearing like two
pairs of everything just to keep warm, And I said later,

(44:48):
it's the most miserable I've ever been as a coach
across country course. But I was trying to trying to
be positive for for all the guys and the guys
that I knew if I was, you know, complaining, it
wasn't going to help the situation with them. But but yeah,
it's it's a great course. I would say, it's a
true cross country course. Times are out the window. You
just gotta just gotta go and compete.

Speaker 2 (45:06):
Yeah, well, will your regional meet be there or is
it somewhere different?

Speaker 1 (45:10):
It'll be back at Parkside as well. Yeah, then you know,
hopefully we have you know, a team or individuals at
NCAA's all.

Speaker 2 (45:17):
Right, awesome coach.

Speaker 3 (45:19):
Before we get into the final four, is there anything
about tiffing about the team that we didn't speak on
that you want our audience to know about.

Speaker 1 (45:28):
Uh No, I think you guys hit on everything. You know,
we're I always tell people I've seen the best of
both worlds in tiff in Division two, I guess. And
so we're really really fortunate here at tiff And University
to to have all of the bells and whistles. Uh.
You know, we have an indoor facility or an outdoor facility.
We have a lot of great support from our administration.

(45:49):
You know, we have a lot of a lot of
full time coaches. I've been at schools where it's just
been me and and one other coach, and like I said,
me and a bunch of gas. So you know, we're
we're really fortunate. And I can take a zero credit
for any of this. It was all existed before I
got here. I held a team that all the time
that I I don't go to people say I built this,

(46:10):
I did this, or I did that. Like Jeremy Croy,
who is here for twenty years. You know he did
all the building. You know where my office is in
the indoor track facility. This was a junk yard twenty
years ago. He got the team and all the roster
numbers and all that stuff to be able to build
this and so yeah, like I said when we started,

(46:32):
I'm just looking to keep the ball rolling, keep the
tradition going.

Speaker 3 (46:35):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (46:35):
You know, it definitely can feel a little overbearing at times.
I've only been on the job for three weeks, just
not wanting to be the guy to drop the ball.
But I'm excited about the opportunity to lead this next
chapter of the program and get a few more trophies
in the hallway, get a few more school records up,
you know, and keep like I said, you know, keep
Piffing as a marque name, and cross country and track

(46:57):
and field and Division two.

Speaker 2 (47:00):
I got one more coach from across country perspective. Not
that I don't appreciate all the events on the track
and the throws and the jumps and all that stuff,
but I'm a distance runner at Hart and I still compete.
I'm curious, you know, being from Mamath University, we were
leaving from campus. You're always running on the roads. Sure,
you guys had some good running spots when you were

(47:20):
at LASAL. In terms of cross country training, do the
kids do they have parks and stuff? Do you guys
get to go to that are relatively close.

Speaker 1 (47:28):
Yeah, it definitely is a lot of street running, like
you said, but we have a couple of places that
we rotate through. So you know, we have two bike
paths that are about anywhere fifteen twenty minute drive away
once completely gravel. They actually are connected at some point
the two bike paths, but the gravel one and paved

(47:49):
one go about fifty miles so can run a lot
some really good long runs or good tempos and things
like that. And then about two miles away from campus,
we have a really big park where we do a
lot of our grass workouts during the fall season, so
is a lot of pavement running. That is something that
maybe is a little bit different from you know, other
schools or even places that I've been, but you know,

(48:09):
we manage We have our outdoor athletics complex, which is
you know, completely grass. So we've gone down there it's
right next to our outdoor track and been able to
do thirty forty minute runs all on soft surface. So
I've already been here three years. I'm always looking at
Google Map, doming in on stuff and say, oh what
is this, what's this park look like? Or you know,

(48:30):
how far is this from campus? You know, you know,
maybe driving there myself and checking it out. So I'm
like any other coach, you know, we're always looking for
new places to train and you know, driving by someone like, oh,
that's interesting. You know, maybe we can do a work
out there.

Speaker 2 (48:45):
You know, things like that awesome cool.

Speaker 3 (48:48):
Well coach you mentioned you mentioned finding places to run
for cross country, but you also brought off the fact
that you guys have an indoor facility. How cutches that
have an indoor track for on campus?

Speaker 1 (49:01):
Oh, it's huge. I coached in North Dakota for five years.
It got down to negative twenty, negative thirty in the winter.
We had an old one sixty around the basketball court
and I even then I thought that was awesome. But
then I got here and we have a six lane
Mondo surface, and you know I was I tell recruits

(49:23):
this when I have them on the visit. I say.
When I got here, I wondered, you know, if I
kept the same training, you know, with the athletes, you know,
having a facility like this, what would it lead to?
And and you know, truth be told, I've coached fleets
from eight at Tiffin and they're the fastest athletes that
ever coached in my career, and so I think that

(49:45):
has a lot to do with the resources that that
are here at Tiffin. Not having to, you know, if
you're an eight hundred meter runner be outside and uh,
you know, twenty degree weather and try to sprint, you know,
not having to me out there shruggling to lane of
the track, just so you know, we could get something in.
When I was at Metro State, they don't have a
facility on campus, so we we were at Denver West

(50:08):
and I remember going to the hardware store and I
was poor myself, but I remember going to the hardware
store right down the block and Cap Hill and buying
a shovel and then hopping the fence at Denver West
and just start shoveling the track because I was like,
I don't want to miss training, you know, I don't
want to miss you know, a day of practice. And
we had to do hills. We found one of the
parking garages right on campus and did hills right there,

(50:30):
you know, on Metro's campus. So you know, here to
have all of that stuff and not have to worry
about any of that, it's a huge benefit, and not
just distance, but you know, we had a guy who
run forty five two, you know, a couple of years ago.
Last year in the four hundred, we have had you know,
the national runner up in one hundred meters, you know,

(50:51):
national runner up in the sixty meters indoors. You know,
I think a lot of that is just being able
to train without any interruption, you know, seamlessly out the year.

Speaker 3 (51:01):
Shout out to the Sixth Street garage.

Speaker 1 (51:04):
Oh yeah, yeah, I was. There are times where I
left my car in there just because I didn't want
to leave it on the street. And then I'd wait
till the gates went up, just and I'd park for free.
Though hopefully nobody from Metro's watching this, but I've.

Speaker 3 (51:18):
Been there, coach, I've been there.

Speaker 1 (51:20):
I'd part there and then i'd go. I'd ride my
bike down, pick up my car and then and drive out. Now,
I think there's a there's like a garage door that
goes down every night, so i'd really be screwed trying
to get my car out.

Speaker 3 (51:31):
So yeah, that war is my heart, because there's been
times I parked my car in the garage to avoid
having a shovel when I get out of class. So
I've been there, but yeah, we know, we know how
important it is to have that indoor facility, and talking
to all the coaches that we talked to, we know
that not all colleges have indoor facilities, so we know

(51:52):
how clutch that is. But coach, we appreciate you, Sharon Tiffin.
Everything you got going on, you got, We're sold. We
know you got some great things going on there and
you got a good mind for it. So we're excited
to see what you got going on. And with all
the ties, Jersey Ties, Denver Ties, you got two dudes

(52:13):
down in the South that we'll be rooting for you
this cross country season coming up.

Speaker 1 (52:18):
All right, I appreciate you guys having me on.

Speaker 3 (52:20):
Yeah, but before we let you go, we got to
get into nitty gritty, got to get into the final four.
So first question I got for you, are you a
coffee drinker?

Speaker 1 (52:29):
I have a coffee drinker.

Speaker 3 (52:31):
How do you brew your coffee and how do you
take it?

Speaker 1 (52:34):
Oh, I'm a true Jersey guy. I'll take a crappy
cup of diner coffee. So I'll go to McDonald's or
dunkin Donuts, you know, and get a couple of coffee
I'm not one of those Starbucks guys unless I have
to be. But if I'm making coffee at home, I
have a cureg So I just throw a K cup
on there and a little bit of cream, and you know,

(52:57):
that's how I make my coffee. I'm not straight black
coffee yet. I was total. I'll be I'll officially be old.
Uh you know when I start just drinking straight black coffee.

Speaker 3 (53:06):
Hey, it takes about two weeks to get your taste buds.
But once you get your taste buds, and you can
get a good, good bean. Because we're a little bit hipsters.
We like our we like our artists and coffee beans,
you can get a good coffee bean. It's just as good,
I believe with black.

Speaker 2 (53:24):
Coach, I used still use creams, so don't worry about it.
I'll do I'll do black with my iced coffee. But
uh yeah, I gotta I gotta think of heavy cream
in my in my refrigerator right now. Coach, do you
have any daily practices or rituals that you do on
a regular basis to show up as the strongest version
of Mark Delmonico?

Speaker 1 (53:44):
You know, I would say, especially since I've taken over
the last three weeks and the kids aren't on campus yet.
But I've really tried to get in routina just exercising.
I don't really compete anymore, so getting out the door
every morning to run, or I got into cycling over COVID,
so I really enjoyed biking quite a bit. I just
feel like it gets the day off to a good start.
I'm not perfect with it. There's definitely some days like

(54:05):
this morning where I'm just so tired and sleep in
a little bit. But but yeah, that and just trying
to have a good mindset showing up to practice because
I know I'm going to be the tone setter. So
if I stow up because I've had a really bad day,
you know, dealing with my athletic director or you know
some other administrative issue or budgetary issue, you know, I

(54:26):
try to leave that in my office as soon as
I walk out the door and and try to be excited,
you know, to see them and get practice going, because
you know, I even say this to them. I mean,
if I show up, I'm like, oh man, we got
a run and it's ninety degrees outside, Like they're definitely
not going to want to go outside. If I don't
want to go outside, so just try to have, you know,
a positive mindset heading out of my office every day

(54:47):
at three thirty.

Speaker 3 (54:50):
Coach, I can take that lesson from you that this
guy over here he knows sometimes he comes on here,
how you doing, And I'm like, oh, man, I know.
It just brings a ton down. So I know how
important that is. And I can only imagine how more
important than that is when you have a bunch of
athletes that are looking looking you for the queue and
looking to you for that positive attitude. Like you said,

(55:11):
you are the tone setter. Coach. What are you listening
to right now?

Speaker 1 (55:16):
Music?

Speaker 3 (55:17):
Podcasts, audio books? Are you reading anything?

Speaker 1 (55:22):
I'm not reading anything. I probably should be. I have
a kindle with a couple of books that I haven't
started yet. But music wise, I'm a country music guy,
which is surprises a lot of people. My best friend
from high school he got me into country music in college.
So yeah, I have Next Time Radio listened to the

(55:42):
Highway quite a bit, you know, when I'm driving to
work or driving around. I'm not an old school country guy,
so I don't listen to like George Strait or you
know people like that that much. But yeah, I'm a
country music guy. I say, I will probably say it's
more pop country is probably how most people would characterize it.
So that's probably what I'm listening to these days.

Speaker 2 (56:03):
You get down with Morgan Walling.

Speaker 1 (56:05):
Oh yeah, I definitely definitely love listening to his music.

Speaker 4 (56:08):
Are you familiar with Charlie Crockett. I'm actually he was
on a show on Netflix Okay that he he sang,
So I started listening to him a little bit after
I heard him sing on on that show.

Speaker 2 (56:22):
Okay, right off coach, last one we got for you.
It's a lighthearted one to close it out. We know
you're a Jersey guys. So maybe it's a pizza, Maybe
it's a you've spent some time in Denver. Maybe it's
a craft beverage. Do you have a guilty pleasure?

Speaker 1 (56:36):
Oh yes, and I would say most of my athletes
would probably if they're watching, they're probably gonna laugh. But
I love Mountain Dew, so I can, I can. I
can hammer a couple of cans the Mountain Do, which
my my friends this past weekend in Colorado were amazed
by that. While they were hammering craft brewise, I was like, oh, man,

(56:58):
I'm gonna drink this Baja Blast. They couldn't believe how
much sugar was in it. So but but yeah, I
love a good mountain Dew. I've gone into the Baja
Blast since they've kind of released it this summer, not
just at Taco bell So, but any one of my
athletes the last thirteen years, they would probably they'd probably
tell you if there's one thing that they know about

(57:19):
me is that you know I can I can have
quite a few dands of mountain do on on a
day day.

Speaker 2 (57:23):
Basis, Okay, all right, I think that's our first mountain
dew guilty pleasure.

Speaker 3 (57:27):
Jim, Yeah, I think it is. And forgive me, coach,
because it's been a while since I've dabbled with the DO.
But I used to be a code code red guys.
That's the thing.

Speaker 1 (57:38):
I believe it is. So, I mean, I for a
long time, I've been a traditional mountain do guy. But
now they've started making all these flavors and all these things.
So I think two years ago now, two of my
student athletes gave me a birthday gift with like voltage.
It was mountain dew, and so I guess started drinking
that and then Baja Blast came out start drinking that.

(57:59):
But for a long time I was just straight original
Mountain Dew. But yeah, I've sort of strayed a little bit.
I did drink Code Red when I was when I
was in college, but if I'm being honest, like I
never quite got into it because I was like, I'm
an original do guy, Like I'll, uh, you know, that's
that's just what I love.

Speaker 3 (58:20):
We had a diner we Scudder when we were growing up,
and I'd always get the Code Red. But I'm curious,
how often are you drinking mountain dew?

Speaker 1 (58:28):
Oh this is bad too. Probably yeah, I'm probably drinking
like maybe one or two cans a day. So most
of most of my team and a lot of my
friends think I have like a terrible diet. And they'll
be like, don't you eat like a lot of candy
and and stuff like that. And I'm not saying my
diet's good, but I don't eat a lot of sweets.
Like my mom She'll just she'll buy candy when I

(58:50):
go home, and like it's like I'm still seventeen in
her eyes, and like I'm just like Mom, Like I
don't I don't eat as much candy as you think
I do. I maybe ate a lot when I was
you know, it was junior senior high school. But I
was like, I don't eat a lot of candy. But
there's always a case of Mountain Dew usually in the fridge,
and they know I'm coming home. But uh, but yeah,
probably you know you probably wanted two cans actually have

(59:10):
a have a Baja blast, right, Yeah, I was drinking
right before I got on with you guys.

Speaker 2 (59:16):
So well, do you remember back in I guess it
was maybe like six o eight when they did the
throwback and they had the the cane sugar and had
the Oh yeah, guy.

Speaker 1 (59:30):
I had a good friend in college. He loved that.
I never I didn't think it was as good as
as probably the regular mountain dew or whatever you want
to call it. But but I remember drinking that. Yeah
when it came out.

Speaker 2 (59:41):
Yeah, that was my gem. I think I used that
in a couple of races.

Speaker 3 (59:46):
Well, coach, you got me craving mountain deal. I haven't
had it in probably a decade, but now I'm uh.

Speaker 1 (59:53):
Go get a Baja blast, all right, all right.

Speaker 3 (59:56):
At your request, but uh, coach, thank you for your time. Tonight.
Thank you for joining the Area Bros. Super Like I
said before, super excited to follow you and the program
this cross country season into indoor and outdoor track and
see everything that the Dragons got going on. So thanks
again for your time tonight.

Speaker 1 (01:00:16):
Yeah, thank you for having me. It was great chat
with you.

Speaker 2 (01:00:19):
Yeah, coach, we do appreciate your time and we'll be
rooting for the Dragons. We'll be putting that Tiffin pendant
up with all our other pendants that we're rooting for
coming off time. We're excited for you. We do appreciate.
Good luck in the fall and good luck with track,
and we'll circle back with you after the cross country season,
get you back on here to see how it went.

Speaker 1 (01:00:40):
Awesome, love to shout with you, guys. Thank you again,
No dons.

Speaker 2 (01:00:45):
All right, ladies and gentlemen. That is coach Mark Delmonica.
Make sure you check all those links in the show notes.
Go give the Tiff and Dragons Track and Field cross
country team some love. Let them know the Area Bros
sent you. That is it for us this week. We
do wish you a happy weekend. We hope you have
a great weekend as we're winding down summer here for
some of us that are getting back into school. We

(01:01:05):
will be back next week on Monday with John Stout,
former Southern Regional head wrestling coach, and then on Wednesday
we will be with Joey Martinez, the head wrestling coach
at Menlo University. So we're getting back on the mat
next week. We're going Belly to Belly and Joey weekend.
We'll see then
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