North Idaho College Wrestling | Coach Derek Booth on JUCO Success, Recruiting & Nationals - Airey Bros.'s Radio

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Airy Brose Radio be there or B
Square because it's all killer, no filler. This is Derek
Booth and you're listening to Aery Bros. Radio.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
All right, y'all, we are back and we're going belly
to belly tonight. We are with one of the top
junior college wrestling coaches in the country, Coach Derek Booth,
the head coach at North Idaho College, is in Beautiful
cort Atlanta, Idaho, and he's joining us this evening. But
before we get into it, if you have any questions,
we are live, so go ahead and join the conversation.

(00:42):
Drop those questions in there. If you have anything you
want to know about North Idaho College or a coach
Booth in the program, shoot those over to Jimmy and
we'll fire more away as we're going. Make sure you're
subscribed on YouTube, follow Ari Bros. On Instagram, leave us
a five star review on your favorite podcast platform, and
if you're enjoying the show, you're getting any out of
anything we're doing. Obviously, if you think this would resonate

(01:03):
with one of your athletes and your family or friends,
send that over to them. But also if you're getting
any value, Please buy us a coffee click on that
link as well. Now on to Coach Booth. He's entering
his third season at the Helm of NIC and has
already built an elite program. He's coached ten NJCAA All

(01:23):
Americans and one national champion. He led NIC to a
fifth and sixth place national finishes the previous two years,
capture NIC's first Region eighteen teen titles since twenty thirteen.
Last year, he was named the Region eighteen Coach of
the Year. He helped NIC qualified nine wrestlers to the
NJCAA Nationals in twenty twenty four. We're going to hear

(01:45):
about how they qualified in twenty twenty five. Coming up
before the program, Coach Booth was a star wrestler and
I see himself earning All American honors and helping NIC
win a national title in twenty thirteen. He's back as
a coach, continuing the programs tradition of excellence. Buckle up,
this is going to be a great episode, Coach. Without

(02:05):
further ado, we are excited and honored to have you
join us on ARI Bros. Radio tonight. Thank you for
your time and welcome to the show.

Speaker 1 (02:13):
Thank you appreciate it, look forward to the conversation.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
Yeah, we are excited. And in one of the ways
we like to kick things off with everyone is, you know,
Jimmy and I we both have our origin stories. Jimmy
was maybe not as got to pick his as much
as I did. He kind of got pulled in toe
being eleven years younger than me. He spent a lot
of his early youth in gyms and a cross country
courses and at track meets, and it was kind of

(02:37):
a natural progression for him. But you know, we like
to hear about your wrestling origin story and how that
led to coaching as well.

Speaker 1 (02:48):
Yeah, so mine, I mean very similar to what you
were just saying.

Speaker 3 (02:52):
You know, I got three older brothers, so my childhood
was spent you know, in a matt room before I
could wrestle, right, traveling to turn them in all the above.
You know, my dad started our our wrestling program here
in town way back when, and you know, he had
never wrestled a day in his life. He just you know,
knew people that did and thought it was a you know,
a great thing, a great sport. So he wanted to

(03:14):
get involved and kind of ran that for us as kids,
you know, and then that kind of evolved, you know,
as I got older. But as a youth, I played
you know, I played all sports.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
You know.

Speaker 3 (03:25):
I was big into baseball, played football, you know, and wrestling,
I don't think was my first love.

Speaker 1 (03:30):
You know.

Speaker 3 (03:31):
I played on travel league baseballs and and that was
kind of my first calling.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
You know.

Speaker 3 (03:35):
It was the sport that everybody was doing, all my
friends were involved in, so that was what kind of
I spent more time doing, and wrestling was just kind of,
you know, it was kind of the family thing at
that point what I had to do, you know. But
as time grew on and you know, got a little older,
started becoming you know, a little bit bored with the
team sports. I guess, you know, when you're playing football

(03:57):
and baseball, you you know, I'm the type that one
to be kind of hands on and have, you know,
something to do at all times. So you know, I
found myself getting bored in those avenues. And you know
the thing about wrestling is, you know, it's all you,
all the time.

Speaker 4 (04:10):
You know.

Speaker 3 (04:12):
So as I got older into middle school in high school,
I kind of started to key in on on wrestling
a little bit more than As a youth, and through that,
you know, started traveling the country a little bit more,
doing some more stuff in the sport, and you know,
began to really fall in love with it. So, you know,
I think when I was like a sophomore in high
school is when I really started to key in on
the sport of wrestling and kind of give other things

(04:34):
up to pursue wrestling, you know, at a greater depth.

Speaker 2 (04:38):
Okay, and then that led you to Nice. You're an
All American who were on the national championship team.

Speaker 3 (04:46):
Yeah, so you know, being local, right, I'm from the
town town just over fifteen minutes fifteen minutes away from
North Idaho's campus. So North Idaho and Nice's program is
something you know that I've been around since I was
a youth, coming to you know, on campus, watching college duels.
You know, I've kind of always seen this place as
an opportunity, as a place you know that I hold

(05:07):
in high regard and always kind of wanted to be
a part of. So after high school, you know, it
was it was a pretty easy choice, you know, to
come over here and continue my you know, academic and
athletic career here. And I see, you know, wild chasing
you know, national titles, all American status, those type of things.

Speaker 2 (05:23):
So okay, and I'm curious to Jim. I'll pass it
over to you here in a second. But as someone
who's living in South Carolina now and who moved from Colorado,
I'm curious. Obviously we know the recruiting was probably involved
in the process, but how does a guy from just
outside of Cortland to Idaho find his way to Coker
University in South Carolina.

Speaker 3 (05:43):
Yeah, funny story. I mean, right at the time, it's
not a place I'd ever heard of or that was
on my radar at all. But you know, in North Idaho.
Alum was actually an assistant coach out there. He graduated
the year before I came to NIC and he was
a ga out at you.

Speaker 1 (05:58):
Know, out at Coker.

Speaker 3 (05:59):
So he got in my ear, you know, my sophomore year,
and you know, when it came down to it, obviously
had some other schools I was looking at, but for me,
I wanted to go see something new. You know, South
Carolina and Idaho are very different, so I wanted to go,
you know, somewhere I haven't been before, you know, see
a different culture. Wrestling is a little bit different yeah,

(06:20):
so I was. I jumped at that opportunity and you know,
had a great time out there, and you know, South
Carolina has a beautiful place with great weather.

Speaker 1 (06:27):
So nothing nothing bad to say about my time out there.

Speaker 5 (06:30):
Yeah, coach, before I put a halt on the conversation, Rich,
did you get socials?

Speaker 4 (06:37):
No?

Speaker 2 (06:37):
Not, I jumped right into it.

Speaker 5 (06:38):
So, coach, can you let everyone know where they can
find North Idaho College wrestle on any recruits, kind of
direct them where you want them to reach out to you.

Speaker 3 (06:48):
Yeah, first, first and foremost, I think go on to
our athletics web page and I see athletics dot com.
Click on the wrestling tab. You can go in there,
find all of our results, our roster. We do a
pretty good job of keeping that thing up to date.
You know, there's a wrestling questionnaire if anybody's interested, right,
you fill that out that goes directly to our emails.

(07:09):
That'll give us all our information about you and we
can reach out that way. You can also follow us
on Instagram and Facebook. Our instagram is Nicee Underscore Wrestling.
I know there's multiple accounts, but that's our main you know,
and I see wrestling account, so follow us there. That's
where most of our stuff, you know, social media wise,

(07:29):
goes to.

Speaker 5 (07:31):
All right, hopefully we can get some recruits your way
because I always knew of North idahollic Rich said, I
was a junior college guy. I believe there was a
North Idaho guy in my bracket at JUCO. So always
paid attention to the program. And one thing I found
interested in doing research for this podcast is you always
wanted to be a coach. You thought you were going
to go back to your high school and be a coach.

(07:52):
And I kind of can feel that because when I
was wrestling, I just wanted to open up a club.
I just wanted to finish college and open up a club.
I didn't get to do that. But you are doing that,
and you're doing that at a place where you were
part of a national championship team. So what's that like
for you being the head coach of a school you
went to.

Speaker 3 (08:12):
Yeah, I'm very blessed and very grateful, you know, just
for the opportunity to do this right. This this position
is you know, in high regard all over the country.
You know, I think coaching at North Idaho is one
of the top jobs you can find, especially at this level.

Speaker 1 (08:27):
So I've always wanted to coach RED.

Speaker 3 (08:29):
Originally I thought I would maybe go back and a
coach at the high school level. And then, just like you,
before I took this job, I was, you know, kind
of working on putting plans together to start a club
up here and go that route. But yeah, this this
opportunity came and it was something that you know, I
had to jump on right away and you know not
look back.

Speaker 5 (08:48):
So we know of the how good the program is.
And I know when you took the program over, they
didn't have a coach. They kind of needed someone and
you kind of jumped in there. So how did it
start and how's it going?

Speaker 1 (09:03):
Yeah, the start, you know, it was a little bumpy
to start.

Speaker 3 (09:06):
I took over, you know, a couple of months into
season that first year, you know, there was no no
coach on campus. I was actually asked to volunteer, so
I was working full time and then I was you know,
running practices for the team in the afternoons, just you know,
on my own time for the first three or four weeks,
you know, and then that turned into you know, the

(09:26):
opportunity to stay on that year as the interim coach.
You know, and that that year taught me a lot
because when I took over that year, there was no
schedule done. You know, nothing was really set up as
far as the team goes, right. The roster was what
the roster was. As far as that first year, right,
there was no opportunity for anybody to recruit kind of
and and get things set up. So there was a

(09:48):
there was a steep learning curve, and it had to
be done really fast because you know, we competed I
think a month into me taking over, right, So I
had to to learn the guys, you know, who they are,
how they operate. They had do the same with me, right,
how I run things, structure things, you know, and really
get on the same page. Before that first year, you know,
really got going. You know, since then, you know, things

(10:11):
have been a lot better. Right, There's been a lot
of stability. You know, for myself and my staff. We've
we've really figured out over these first three years, you know,
what we're trying to build, who we are as a program,
what kind of culture we're trying to establish, you know,
and that's helped us a lot. And you know, the
type of kids were recruiting, you know, the people we
realign ourselves with you know, programs we want to send

(10:33):
kids onto.

Speaker 1 (10:34):
You know all the above.

Speaker 2 (10:37):
Coach, was that a situation where the when you came
in and they were asked you to volunteer, was a
program in jeopardy at all?

Speaker 3 (10:44):
Not necessarily the program there was just I mean, it's
kind of a tough situation to talk about, but just
with the prior coach, there was some moving parts, maybe
some promises made not made, and then there was just yeah,
it was just a tough position. So you know, at
that time, I was willing to do whatever, you know,
whatever it took for the program and to get it

(11:04):
back on the right foot, whether I stayed on or not.
You know, myself and my coach from when I was here,
my assistant Carrie Stanley, kind of put our heads together
and you know, we're just trying to do what was
best for the program. At the time, didn't seem like
the program was ever in jeopardy. It was more outside
of wrestling type of stuff.

Speaker 2 (11:23):
Gotcha, Well, appreciate you sharing that. I'm just curious with
the state of the world with wrestling the way it is.
Sometimes things are on the chopping bock and we don't
ever want to see We always encourage new programs coming
on board. We hate to see programs leaving. So glad
that that wasn't wasn't the case.

Speaker 4 (11:42):
Coach.

Speaker 5 (11:42):
Do you feel I know you said you grew up
you knew of North Idahow do you feel that being
the only wrestling in the state it actually helps you guys?

Speaker 3 (11:55):
Yeah, I think it. I think it helps and hurts,
you know, for different reasons. You know, obviously recruiting it
helps a little bit because you know there's not options
for you know, recruits to look at. I guess outside
of us, you know, and in the Northwest, the opportunities
are scarce anyways. You know, you've got to travel a ways,
you know, to find to find different schools. On the

(12:18):
opposite end is you know, for us, you know, traveling
and stuff like that, it makes it a little bit
more difficult when there's not you know, close opportunities for
us to go and get and you know, we'd also
love to have you know, a four year school in
the state, you know, where we can you know, send
guys off to or pull guys from, you know, however
that may work. So you know, there's opportunities in the
state and I'd love to see something, you know, ad

(12:40):
whether it's at the juco level Division one would be amazing.
I think, you know, if Boise State could get their
program back, that would be ideal. We'd love to see
that happen. But you know, I think it's twofold. I
think it kind of helps and hurts, you know, just
depending on how you look at it.

Speaker 2 (12:56):
You know, it's interesting to say that. You know, things
are kind of a little scarce in terms of programs
in the in the Northwest, but three the better, if
not best programs in the junior college division are all
in that kind of zone up there. You got yourselves
Western Wyoming and clock and miss Ale out there kicking
a lot of butt.

Speaker 1 (13:17):
Yeah, we uh, I mean that's good. It's good for us, right.

Speaker 3 (13:20):
We love having our you know, our rivalry with clockingists, right,
that makes that makes wrestling for both programs fun. When
you've got two good teams that are, you know, consistently
going to see each other every year, right, that's good
for the sport, especially our level.

Speaker 1 (13:33):
Western.

Speaker 3 (13:34):
Yeah, they've been a great program the past few years.
Their coach is doing a great job. He's got a
system and you know, it's it's obviously working. So you know,
that's that's where we're trying to get back to. Is
you know that consistent looking at national.

Speaker 1 (13:47):
Titles year in, you're out.

Speaker 3 (13:48):
You know, I think year by year we're starting to
build it right back up to what it needs to
be and where it has been in the past. So, yeah,
those guys right, and we find ourselves basically, you know,
recruiting against those three teams for a lot of the
same guys, you know, year in and year out. You know,
they don't come to us, they come to one of them.
If they don't go to one of them, they come
to us. So you know it's a constant battle, but
you know, it's it's it's part of it.

Speaker 2 (14:12):
It's a good, healthy, friendly rivalry, I hope. Yeah, coach,
you know, with what we do with talking to the
cross country and track and field coaches, it's it's more
of a thing there with different divisions in the junior college,
but with wrestling, it all kind of comes together. Is
there are there are there dormitories and scholarships and stuff

(14:32):
like that available at North Idaho.

Speaker 3 (14:36):
Yeah, yeah, we do have on campus housing. We have
a really nice dorm here on campus, which is sweet style.

Speaker 1 (14:43):
Right.

Speaker 3 (14:43):
So basically you have a general living room that you
share between two bedrooms on each side, you know, small
kitchen net, each got your own kind of like I
don't know, cabinet and stuff for clothes and and sink
and stuff like that. And then it's a shared bathroom
between the suite. So they have a pretty gets set up,
you know as far as dormitories go on campus. And

(15:03):
then yeah, scholarships, right, we definitely have you know, great
financial packages we can put together for recruits that you
know obviously have earned them, you know n j C
A wise for wrestling, right, we get twenty letters of intent,
so you can only sign the maximum of twenty student
athletes to a scholarship.

Speaker 4 (15:22):
Right.

Speaker 3 (15:22):
With that being said, every every athlete could get a
different amount, different amount of aid, right, just based on
what we have as a school. So we have a
set amount that we can split up, you know, kind
of how we see fit between those twenty letters of intent.

Speaker 2 (15:36):
Okay, obviously you have twenty letters of intent, but you
have a larger roster than that.

Speaker 3 (15:42):
Yeah, So for us, basically we are asked to bring
in around thirty five student athletes per year right, year
one when I was here, brought in forty six to
forty eight, right, and that was quite a lot, you know,
So this past year we brought it kind of whittled
it down to about forty to start. You know, with
what we do in our sport, you're gonna lose you know,

(16:04):
five six seven kids in the first couple of months,
just you know, with the college wrestling. So we always
bring in a little bit more than our ass thirty five,
but yeah, thirty five is kind of our roster, our
roster number here at North Idaho coach.

Speaker 4 (16:19):
How many of those guys are living on campus.

Speaker 1 (16:22):
Right now?

Speaker 3 (16:23):
We're about fifty to fifty, so a lot of the
freshmen do live on campus. And the way like our
scholarships work, you know, moving forward, is if they're a
scholarship guy and we bring them in, they'll have to
live in the dorms right away. You know, if we're
paying for any living expenses, then they'll have to live
in the dorms. If they want to live on off campus,
they can, but they'll have to pay, you know, for

(16:43):
that portion themselves.

Speaker 5 (16:46):
One thing I'm interested in, and I don't think we've
asked any of our junior college coaches is but we
know you got to rebuilding the roster every two years, right,
so you got to be on the phone all the
time talking of care maybe tax message, I don't know
what it is these days. But you got to talk
to recruits a lot. But do you have to talk
to other college coaches a lot as well as far
as feeding your guys to them?

Speaker 3 (17:09):
Definitely, you know, like I was saying earlier, that's one
of our main jobs, right is to get these these
guys here compete at a high level, you know, graduate
or be ready to move on after a year or two.
So you know, we want to open as many doors
as we can to prospective college programs, you know, at
the four year level, whether it's NAI Division two, division one,

(17:30):
so these guys have options when they want to leave.
So yeah, we we're always looking to make you know,
relationships with for your schools, and I think you know,
just the history of the program, you know, in the
name of the program. We have a lot of coaches
you know that know of our guys and you know
how they train and how ready they are to move on.
So we have a good relationship with you know, every
school in our area as far as northwest with NAI's

(17:52):
Division twos and stuff like that, you know, and we're
really starting to build some of those relationships with with
Division one coaches as we start moving our guys onto
those institutions. So, you know, right now, I think last
year we had, you know, all of our sophomores that
wanted to go on and compete, you know, found a scholarship,
whether it was NAI or Division one, you know, and
same thing this year. Any any guy that wants an

(18:13):
opportunity once they leave here, you know, will help find
that and establish you know, that that connection.

Speaker 5 (18:20):
And what's the kind of mindset as far as cycleing
those guys through, but creating a culture where you can
have the new guys come in and kind of fit
right into that culture.

Speaker 3 (18:32):
Yeah, I think it's just establishing what that culture is,
you know, with those guys when they first get here,
and then those guys that have been here for a
year or two, right they helped show the guys the
new guys kind of the way. You know, I think
that's really the best way to do it is have
those guys that are living it, you know, show those
guys that are are new to campus. You know, how
to act, how to carry yourself on and off the mat,

(18:54):
you know, how they do their schoolwork. You know, just
all the all the little things that we preach to
them day in and day out. You know, if you
don't have buy in from those guys that have been around,
you know, they're not They're going to show the guys
that are new to campus, you know, the wrong way
of doing things, and then they don't buy in, you know,
and then it's a it's a spiral from there. So
you know, for us when we first got here, it
was kind of establishing that and you know, implementing that

(19:17):
with the guys that were here so they could show
the new crop coming in, you know, year year after year,
you know what's expected of them.

Speaker 2 (19:26):
And how how are you got second that region two
weeks ago?

Speaker 3 (19:31):
Yep, Yeah, so we took second this year, you know,
down a little bit obviously. You know, we came into
this year, you know, really high expectations, you know, the
injury bug bit, you know, and it's one thing that
you can't really control most of the time when that happens.
You know, we lost four of our five returning All
Americans throughout the year to season ending injuries, so it's.

Speaker 1 (19:54):
Something we've had to work through. You know.

Speaker 3 (19:56):
Luckily, we have a pretty deep roster with a lot
of talent here, so we were able to fill holes
and and still you know, make a pretty good run
at this national tournament coming up. But yeah, you know,
losing that that region tournament isn't something that sits right
with us. We you know, after capturing it last year
for the first time in thirteen years, you know, that's
something we want to to keep, you know, keep here,
you know, year after year. So you know that one,

(20:19):
you know, we felt some type of way after that.
But you know we're gonna we're gonna go into this
national tournament ready to rock.

Speaker 2 (20:26):
Now, will you guys just be training from now until Nationals?

Speaker 3 (20:30):
Yeah, So our our regent tournament was pretty early, right,
so we have basically three full weeks before the national
tournament here March seventh and eighth, right, So healing some injuries,
giving guys a little bit of time, you know, being
smart with our training, so our bodies feel good, our
mind is right.

Speaker 1 (20:46):
You know.

Speaker 3 (20:46):
Just everybody says peaking at the right time, but I
don't think it's necessarily peaking, you know, just we just
want to feel our best, you know, as far as
being smart with our recovery, you know where our diets
at and everything, you know, to put our best foot forward,
you know.

Speaker 1 (21:00):
March seventh and eighth.

Speaker 2 (21:03):
You know, we always talk about wrestling being a grind,
and you mentioned earlier that just the nature of the
sport kind of weeds a couple of kids out that
just aren't maybe cut out for college wrestling. But you
mentioned the injuries. We talked to coach Jerry Bollen from
Millersville out in Pennsylvania. He's a Jersey guy and he
had some dealing with some injuries, and I was curious
with the injuries that you've seen, are they practice injuries,

(21:27):
match injuries, or they kind of freak things or ego
things where guys aren't giving up positions because they're being
trying to be stingy and they're just not being smart
enough to be like I'm going to live to fight
another day and give up that position.

Speaker 1 (21:40):
Yeah, yeah, it's all the above. You know.

Speaker 3 (21:44):
We had one at the very beginning of the year
in a wrestle off match, you know, matches down to
the last ten seconds of the match and just takes
a step backward and fractured his ankle, you know, and
that's you know, how do you ever, you know, expect
that to happen, you know, some other ones in a
wizard position and guy rinches on a wizzard and blows
his elbow, you know.

Speaker 1 (22:04):
So it's it's kind of been all over the board,
right nothing, you know.

Speaker 3 (22:07):
And then we had one in practice on a simple
takedown and just the way a kid finished, you know,
it's head low and a knee you know. So there's, yeah,
it's been everything this year. You know, one of those
times that's you just kind of want to get through
and you don't know, you know, he kind of holding
your breath at times and you know, hoping nothing else happens.

Speaker 5 (22:25):
Yeah, coach, you said you wanted to get to a
region title, but I believe you guys had a pretty
good out and I believe you had a someone beat
a defending national champion one hundred and twenty five pounds, correct.

Speaker 3 (22:39):
Yeah, Yeah, so you know, our guys did restle well
for the most part, you know.

Speaker 1 (22:45):
You know, Elijah Cater won twenty five.

Speaker 3 (22:46):
He's returning All American for US, took six last year
as a freshman, and Annie v Hill right from Clackmus
is defending national champ and those guys have had you know,
three three battles this year and everything's come down to
one score, right. I think Cater's been beaten in both
the duels four to one on you know, two third
period takedowns that went the other way. So you know,

(23:08):
he was able to you know, change a little bit
and you know, flip the script this time as far
as getting that third period takedown and ended up winning
that reachion title, you know, kind of getting a little
bit of revenge. You know, they're you know, in at
home in front of his home crowd, so that was
that was good to see.

Speaker 5 (23:24):
Who else should we keep an eye out for at
jucos this year, you know, as far as teams or
are you guys, who should we have.

Speaker 3 (23:34):
Our our pounder Sam Selveria. You know, he's got a
twenty one and one record on the year. His only loss,
you know, so far this year has been to Miguel
Estrada from the University of Iowa. So he's he's wrestling
at a really high level. You know, that kid loves
to compete. He's as tough and hard nosed as anybody
out there. So we're really excited to see, you know,

(23:56):
what he brings to that national tournament. You know, we
got we've got nine guys through so right, we're looking
for all of them to do big things. But you know,
our other region champ was Ray Griffin at heavyweight get
out of Utah. You know, super, super intelligent when it
comes to the sport. You know, he took a year
off out of high school and you know he actually
walked on to us at the beginning of the year,

(24:17):
you know, just as an opportunity, you know, and he's
he's gotten better every single day. He's one of those
kids that is living the right lifestyle, you know, wants
to get better. And you know it's shown from the
beginning of this year. You know, there was a lot
of things we were doing wrong and a lot of
things to fix, and you know, now he's put himself
in you know, i'd say the hunt for a national championship.
He's you know, beat the number two kid in the

(24:38):
country in the region finals and has kind of shown
that he can wrestle with anybody.

Speaker 4 (24:44):
Coach.

Speaker 5 (24:44):
One thing we say here is doing this podcast gives
us a reason to follow and root for people and
during cross country. Rich and I found ourselves watching our
first junior college cross country championships since he probably ran
in case. Yeah, so we've been found along so we
can't wait to follow the guys. And when I asked

(25:05):
you that question, you said, us or other teams? What
other teams are you guys gonna be competing against at
the top, Tay, you know, bring home some hardware?

Speaker 3 (25:15):
Yeah, I think, you know, returning national champs. I think
Western Wyomingia's is definitely the favorite going in. They got
a super solid squad this year. You know, ten guys
you know in their lineup are all all pretty dang tough.
So you know, outside of them, I would say, you know,
Clock Miss is in the Hunt Indian Hills out of Iowa.
You know, we flew out there in the in November

(25:36):
and and dueled them in their.

Speaker 1 (25:37):
Place, so we know how good they are.

Speaker 3 (25:40):
You know, they're a tough team that could you know,
possibly find eight to ten guys on a podium too,
So you know, outside of that, teams maybe we haven't
seen as much. I would say, you know, the Usuals
are pret out of Kansas. They're always tough, you know,
they always show up at the national tournament with a
good squad in Iowa Central. You know that team they
always they always some guys that are going to be

(26:01):
at the top of the podium, so they are always
a threat, you know, year in year out.

Speaker 2 (26:06):
You know, coach, you talked about your what forty nine
pounder and there's only loss this season is to an
Iowa guy. And where Jimmy and I come from, you know,
maybe there's a little bit of a stigma of going
to a community college or junior college or maybe recruits,
you know, as we talked about earlier, they don't think
they're going to get the looks or they might go, oh,
I'm not going to get the competition I need. But

(26:27):
you know your you're one wrestlers. There's only losses to
a guy from Iowa. So can you talk about the
competition you know mentioned traveling to Iowa. Obviously you guys
are getting looks for some some pretty good athletes and
some some good competition. I think it's it's important to
kind of dispel that myth that oh it's a junior college,
I'm better than that, or I you know, I need

(26:49):
to go somewhere else, so I need to get that
D one offer that D one school, even if I'm
you know, sitting behind three other people.

Speaker 3 (26:58):
Yeah, you know, everybody's got a different path. And you know,
a lot of the kids we do recruit our guys
that you know are looking also at some Division one
schools are wanting that Division one offer, right, those kind
of guys that are you know a lot of times
right on the fringe. They said, everybody's got their their
own path. You know, if they get that offer where,
you know, that's great. We'd love them to go to
a four year school right away if that's what they want,

(27:20):
you know, because ultimately we want guys that want to
be here. You know, we don't necessarily want to be
like a second or third you know, you know choice. Right,
a guy's got a Division one offer on the table
and he's like, oh, you know, I guess I'll go
to n I see, right, because then they come and
they're not too happy about being here. But for us,
right as as a program, as an institution, right, we're
looking for guys that want to come in, want to compete,

(27:42):
you know, get better, you know, chase national titles. You know,
guys that want to transfer to for your schools. You know,
mainly Division one, right, if that's if that's their goal,
you know, that's what we're looking to do in competition
for us, Right, that's one thing we don't shy away from.
You know, we're not we're not trying to have a
per for duel record if it means you know, going
to wrestling Utah Valley in a duel or you know,

(28:04):
wrestling all the best ANAI schools around us. You know,
that's we do that year in, year in, year out,
because you know, like I said, that opens up opportunities,
you know, for them to go to four year schools
and coaches to get eyes on them. So you know,
the things we do is right, we'll travel to Iowa,
you know, outside of our normal schedule and and take
on the best team and wrestle at the Grand View Open,
and you know, do some things that you know other

(28:26):
teams might not do, you know, to help our guys out,
you know.

Speaker 1 (28:29):
Find the best competition. That's that's what we're here for.

Speaker 2 (28:33):
And I also think another kind of myth that needs
to be spelled is a lot of times people think
of junior colleges there and they're in the middle of
the nowhere in some podunktown but you're probably in one
of the most beautiful places on earth.

Speaker 1 (28:47):
Yeah, we're here. We're very very lucky.

Speaker 3 (28:50):
You know, if anybody's seen, you know, an overview of
our campus, we are. You know, we're set right on
a little inlet of you know, Lake Cordlaine and the
Spokane River where they meet, right. We got a beach
about two hundred yards from our wrestling room. Cordelay and Idaho,
you know, is a beautiful town, you know, setting the
lake and the mountains surrounding it. So you know, we
have tons of opportunities you know, outside of wrestling. You

(29:12):
know that that is really awesome, right, Our guys can
get their minds off you know, wrestling in school by
you know, going out in a great town. You know,
it's very safe, beautiful town here. So we're very blessed
with with what we have.

Speaker 2 (29:25):
Guys doing some polar bear plunges in the lake and
the during the season for recovery purposes.

Speaker 3 (29:30):
We yeah, we have, we have done that year one,
We did that this year. We you know, we were
pretty lucky that you know, a hotel in town that
we kind of do some work with, you know, invited
us in and fed us breakfast and let us use
the pool and the hot tub this year, so instead
of the polar plunge, they got the hot tub.

Speaker 1 (29:48):
So that was pretty nice.

Speaker 2 (29:49):
Okay, all right, back when we're from back in New
Jersey a lot of times so they'll do fundraisers for
for polar plunges and they use those as fundraisers, whether
it's for the PBA, different things. So maybe that that
could be an option for y'all get some college kids
out there to get them, get them in the cold
water and raise some money.

Speaker 3 (30:07):
Yeah, we our guys definitely, I mean use it as
an ice ice bath throughout the year too, right instead
of you know, maybe sitting in the ice bath in
the training room, they go and jump off the dock
in there because it's you know, just as quick and
easy you know, to go do that and sitting there
for five to ten minutes instead of you know, sitting
in the whirlpool.

Speaker 1 (30:22):
So yeah, we definitely, you know, use it as much
as we can.

Speaker 2 (30:27):
Is that the lake they use for the Iron Man too?

Speaker 1 (30:29):
Yep? It was late quarterly so do.

Speaker 2 (30:31):
They not have the triathle on there anymore?

Speaker 1 (30:34):
So they swapped from the full iron Man to the
half here in town.

Speaker 3 (30:39):
So it's just a little bit different the set up
and everything and where they where they do it at.

Speaker 1 (30:42):
But yeah, it's still here, gotcha.

Speaker 5 (30:45):
Coach you said you came into the season with high expectations,
And one thing I know from wrestling at JUCO and
coaching at you COO is you have to worry about
the present moment because next year might not come. I've
been part of teams that were supposed to have some
great recruiting classes and then no one showed up, right,
they went the other places, they didn't go to college,

(31:05):
things like that. So how do you focus your guys
on the present moment in the present season?

Speaker 3 (31:13):
Yeah, I mean, you know, you can only control what
you can control, right. We preach to our guys stay
where your feet are, you know, and you know, live
in the present moment. Don't don't worry about tomorrow too much. Right,
Tomorrow's not not a given, so you know, kind of
worry about today. Be the best version of yourself today,
you know, and everything else you know will take care
of itself, like you said, right, as far as you know,

(31:37):
recruiting goes and building a program, right, you really just
never know you can you can have the best thing
on paper. You know, guys don't show up. It happens, Right,
We've we've been through that in the last two years. Right,
you think you have a top recruit and then you
know a guy can commit to it, you go school
and then still go to Vision one. So you know,
those type of things happen year and in year out.

(31:57):
So you know, I think for myself, just learning that
and understanding that you know early on is like, hey,
it's gonna happen at some point, we're just gonna be
ready for it. When it does. You know, we're gonna
take it in STRIDEA. We're gonna move on and we're
going to find the next best thing.

Speaker 4 (32:12):
Good answer.

Speaker 5 (32:13):
You handled that way better than I did when I
was cutching the junior college.

Speaker 4 (32:17):
Yeah, what were you saying?

Speaker 1 (32:20):
Oh, it's never it's never easy.

Speaker 3 (32:22):
You know, day by day there's there's always always things happening,
you know, and we'll probably get to it here soon.
But like the landscape for us is is changing every
day with you know, everything the NCAA does and all
the different policies and stuff that are you know, possibly
going into place, So you know, it's always it's always
news breaking around here.

Speaker 4 (32:39):
So talking about that, do you have you heard anything?

Speaker 5 (32:42):
Are guys going to be able to go to junior
college and not use eligibility at the NCAA level?

Speaker 4 (32:47):
Have you heard anything?

Speaker 1 (32:50):
You know?

Speaker 2 (32:50):
There?

Speaker 1 (32:50):
There hasn't been anything pasted, right.

Speaker 3 (32:52):
I think a lot of people think it's already a
thing because it was all over social media, you know,
with the lawsuit that happened, But that's not that's not
a sign, you know, thing written in stone that that's
going to happen.

Speaker 1 (33:03):
Do I think it'll happen, Yes, I think it'll happen.

Speaker 3 (33:05):
I just don't know when, you know, And there's I
think there's been rumblings, but you know, nothing's happened yet.
So I'm not gonna, you know, kind of elaborate too
much on that unless I know some for sure.

Speaker 5 (33:18):
So we don't want to jinxtick because we want that
to happen because we think that will be awesome for
junior college coaches and colleges. Have you got to talk
to any kind of recruits your parents kind of what
their mindset is. Do they see it as like a
prep year as far as going to junior college?

Speaker 1 (33:34):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (33:35):
So I mean when that when that then news came
out and everybody thought it was, you know, a thing
right away. You know, almost every kid were recruiting, you know,
send a text like hey, coach, is this real?

Speaker 1 (33:44):
Is this for sure? You know?

Speaker 3 (33:46):
And then as it's gone on too, it's people are
still asking like, hey, is that going to happen? You know,
can I go there for two years? Get ready and
still have four years at Division one? So it's something
that's going to change the landscape for sure, and it's
you know, it's would be quite an oportutunity for you know,
for a lot of kids to come compete at a
high level, you know, not just be in a room,
but really compete and not lose any eligibility.

Speaker 2 (34:08):
You know.

Speaker 3 (34:08):
I people should be excited about that because it's going
to be a great opportunity and and juco wrestling is
just going to skyrocket, right It's going to be it's
going to be so tough if that if that ends up.

Speaker 2 (34:19):
Happening, well, selfishly, I want to have it, have it
happen because I still have a year of cross country
eligibility and I know someone will take a bet on
a fifty year old Yeah there go coach on the
flip side of that, though, with the with the roster
caps and stuff that we're hearing about at the NCAA
Division one levels, have you been noticing an uptick with

(34:40):
people maybe knowing that those opportunities might not be there
at the Division one level, are now thinking more seriously
about the junior college experience to maybe up their uh,
you know, marketability.

Speaker 1 (34:54):
Yeah, I think so. And I think that's kind of
just beginning. Right.

Speaker 3 (34:57):
This is going to be the first year that you
those NCAA schools that opted in will go through that.
So I think they're still figuring it out as as
far as how things will look for them and what
their rosters will be. So I think, you know, here
in the next couple of months, you know, once season's over,
you know, there will be guys leaving, leaving schools, you know,
changing right, looking for new homes. But I really think

(35:19):
for us, it's going to be more of a of
a next year. You know, once these schools go through it,
and and they're already having their recruits and they know,
you know, two or three years out who they have
coming in, you know, I think that's where it's going
to impact us more, you know, especially Yeah, just this
being the first year, I think it's kind of, you know,
kind of a gray area of what everybody's doing. Once
it kind of gets settled, I think that following year

(35:41):
is going to be you know, kind of kind of
clear of who's doing what, who's doing the thirty man
roster caps, you know who's not. And then you know,
if they're recruiting a kid and you know, I won't
say promise them, but like, hey, you go here for
a year and then maybe we'll we'll look at you
after that. I think those type of conversations are going
to happen happen a lot more.

Speaker 5 (36:02):
Did you get your masters in coaching or business administration?

Speaker 1 (36:07):
So my master's was in sports administration.

Speaker 5 (36:11):
How did that help as far as take taking over
a program? Was there stuff that you saw when you
kind of took on that interim position where it was like, oh,
this will help here, this will help here. Was there
other stuff like oh that someone wrote that in a
book and never actually did it because it doesn't work.

Speaker 1 (36:27):
Yeah. I mean I think it helped a lot.

Speaker 3 (36:30):
A lot of aspects of it, you know, I think
the classes that took on, like the social media aspect
and how you have.

Speaker 1 (36:35):
To use that in sport nowadays was big, you know.

Speaker 3 (36:38):
And one thing that I really remember from you know,
that that degree and going through those was you know,
my sport law class. And you know, I had this
old professor that was, you know, an attorney in town,
and he said, you know, I'm not teaching you the
law so you can get yourself, for guys, out of trouble, right,
I just want you to know enough to not get
in trouble, you know. And that's you know, I use

(37:01):
that and look at that, you know, twofold and a
lot of things that we do, you know, try to
stay ahead of the curve and everything instead of you know,
doing something and trying to find our way out of it.

Speaker 1 (37:11):
You know.

Speaker 3 (37:11):
So it did help, you know, and it definitely helps,
you know, being a young coach going you know, having
that degree and being able to you know, talk to
administration and know where they're coming from, because that's kind
of the route I was looking at, you know at
one point. So you know, I think it helps myself
and those those conversations and making relationships knowing kind of
you know, their side and where they're coming from, you know,

(37:33):
when it comes to our sport and all the other
athletic programs you know on campus.

Speaker 5 (37:39):
So kind of payback and off of that, we like
to ask all the coaches what their CEO position looks like. Right,
being a college coach, you're pretty much running a business.

Speaker 4 (37:49):
You have to dollgate.

Speaker 5 (37:50):
It might be a little bit different at the junior
college level based on full time assistance volunteers. So what
do you do yourself? Are you doing it all yourself?
Are you able to a delegate or you getting on
the mat every day?

Speaker 4 (38:02):
What's help like?

Speaker 1 (38:06):
I mean I delegate a little bit definitely.

Speaker 3 (38:08):
You know, I have a full time assistant here and
then you know, a part time assistant here, so you know,
but I still like to be involved in all aspects
of it, you know, the delegation goes, you know, as
far as like recruiting, that's a big one that we
delegate a lot of time on. You know, as far
as like planning and stuff like that. As far as
season goes, I do take a lot of that, you know,

(38:29):
and then we kind of all split, you know, as
far as practice planning and you know, us getting on
the mat. You know, we always have one of us
that's kind of running practice and then the other two
are either hands on with guys that are moving around.

Speaker 1 (38:41):
You know, type of thing on a day by day basis.

Speaker 3 (38:43):
So we definitely are all young, you know, so we
like to still mix it up with the guys as
much as possible.

Speaker 2 (38:51):
What's what's practice looking like?

Speaker 4 (38:53):
Coach?

Speaker 2 (38:53):
You know, we hear a lot about people talk about
play wrestling and flow and sparring and those different things
terms that didn't really exis in nineteen ninety four when
I was on the mat, you know, and also hearing
a lot about injuries and those sorts of things. How
is how do those things incorporated in the practice. Have
you found that those components can cut down on the
injuries and help with with guys staying fresh?

Speaker 3 (39:17):
Yeah, I think each one has its has its own benefit,
and we do a lot of each of them.

Speaker 1 (39:22):
You know.

Speaker 3 (39:23):
We we sit down and you know, we make plans
and kind of talk it through of you know, what's
going to be best for what day as far as
you know, a play wrestle match, you know, and when
we do play wrestling, we call it play wrestling. It's
about a fifty forty to fifty percent you know kind
of kind of go where guys are giving each other
looks and feeling their way through through positions and techniques,

(39:44):
and then we'll we'll do like what we call a
spar match, which you know is kind of high and
higher intensity you know, training and drilling which is at
like a seventy to eighty five percent, you know, and
then you obviously have your live wrestling where you know,
at that point it's you know, you're getting after it, right,
you're kind of not necessarily throwing caution to the wind,
but you know you're trying out everything you were working

(40:05):
in that play wrestling, and you're just doing it at
a higher pace. So you know, we definitely see a
benefit to all of them, you know, and right now
towards the end of season, maybe we're doing a little
bit more play wrestling and lighter, you know, lighter on
the spa and drilling than we would you know maybe
at certain times during the season.

Speaker 1 (40:24):
But yeah, they're they're all great. We use them all.

Speaker 3 (40:27):
You know, Like like I said before, we want our
guys to constantly evolve, so you know, we're we're always
open minded on certain things we're doing and trying to
be better ourselves and figuring out you know, the perfect
way to get our guys, you know, to the next level.

Speaker 2 (40:42):
Are you finding that freshmen coming in they have experience
with all those different types of training? Do you have
to teach a lot of that? I know we're trying
to explain that to high school kids in South Carolina.
It was like either it was either all or nothing.
There was no kind of in between. And I'm just
curious if you're seeing that out at where you are.

Speaker 3 (41:02):
Yeah, I mean, it's definitely still a little bit of
a teaching curve sometimes. You know, sometimes it's hard for
guys to really know what a play wrestle match should
look and feel like, you know, because a lot of times,
you know, you it depends on your partner, right. Your
partner's got to give you a look and a feel
and be able to work through things, right. So if
if you're trying to work through position and guys just

(41:24):
give up, you know, that's that's defeating the purpose. So
we do have to definitely deal with that, especially at
the beginning of the year as we see it, you know,
maybe for the first time with freshman you know, because
you're only as good as that partner is. You know
that you're working with that day. So yeah, we definitely
still see it a lot and it's things to work through.
But you know, as our guys evolve, and you know,
as the years go on, we start to see it.

Speaker 1 (41:46):
You know, obviously it was a little higher level year
by year.

Speaker 5 (41:52):
Coach one last one I got for your frid Chers
and have anything before the final four.

Speaker 4 (41:56):
But we mentioned how nice the town is.

Speaker 5 (41:59):
That's a schools in anything on campus as far as
majors that are unique to North Idaho that kids can
go there just for that or is it kind of
general liberal arts junior college.

Speaker 1 (42:13):
So we do.

Speaker 3 (42:14):
We do have all the general right liberal arts, you know,
all the associate degrees you know, a normal junior college
would have. We have really good trades here though, you know,
a good amount of our guys do, like a welding program,
diesel tech, you know, auto body that type of stuff.

Speaker 1 (42:29):
You know, we're also the number one.

Speaker 3 (42:31):
Nursing school in the state of Idaho, so you know,
that's a really big poll for our for our school,
you know, especially as a smaller school in the state.
You know, to have a nursing degree and a program
and that's that's that high regard.

Speaker 1 (42:44):
It is awesome you know, and other things that.

Speaker 3 (42:47):
We offer our right the outdoor pursuits, right, you can
we have programs here where you can go do you know,
white water rafting, snowboarding, you know, adventures and stuff you
can go on through the school that are that are
pretty awesome.

Speaker 2 (43:00):
See, this is the why we have these conversations because
these are the things no one told us about when
we were in high school.

Speaker 5 (43:05):
Jim Yep, coach, I'm curious because we've heard nursing come
up a couple of times, and a lot of that
has been across country, so there are females all across country. Team,
I'm curious. Yeah, have any wrestlers in the nursing program.

Speaker 1 (43:20):
We don't know, not at this moment.

Speaker 3 (43:22):
We have we do have some of the trades currently
you know that are going through those, but we don't
have anybody in that nursing you know program right now.
I think that takes you know, the right individual to
be able to you know, balance the two because obviously
the nursing program is probably the most involved here, you know,
with the time commitment and everything like that. So you
know that one would be you know, kind of a

(43:43):
special occasion, you know, the right type of kid that
can come and do both.

Speaker 2 (43:47):
Yeah. Yeah. We've had one or two coaches that have
said that two of their athletes in the nursing programs
actually didn't finish their their senior years of eligibility because
of the the workload and the intensity of the nursing programs.

Speaker 4 (44:03):
Yeah, yeah, coach.

Speaker 5 (44:06):
Sure, anything about North Idaho that we haven't spoke on
that you want the audience and recruits.

Speaker 3 (44:12):
To know, No, it's a it's a great place. You know,
North Idaho is beautiful, beautiful country. A lot of people
don't even know we exist up here in the Panhandle,
but you know, go give it a look, you know,
type of PUS, type us up on Google, give North
Idaho College a look.

Speaker 1 (44:29):
You'll be blown away.

Speaker 3 (44:30):
You know, with the location and everything that we have
to offer, you know, as a as an institution and
as a town here in Quarterlay in Idaho. You know,
we're also right next to Spokane, Washington, which is a
bigger city, you know, thirty five minutes away, with an airport,
Division one basketball over there. You know, so there's a
lot of things around. You know, you'd be happy to

(44:50):
we'd be happy to answer any questions any recruits any
parents or anybody you.

Speaker 1 (44:53):
Know have about the program.

Speaker 3 (44:56):
So yeah, we're just you know, we're excited to to
keep building in this thing and moving forward.

Speaker 2 (45:03):
Coach, I got two more for you, one touching on
quarter lane and being in the Panhandle. I'm always curious,
I think Jimmy's we always we always are concerned after
spending a winter in Leadville, what are the winners like
in quarterline?

Speaker 1 (45:18):
Year by year? This year very very mild.

Speaker 3 (45:21):
You know, we had snow for maybe maybe two weeks
total this year, you know, And the crazy part about
it is, you know, the week that it really snowed
was the week of our region tournament. So they're trying
to throw a wrench in things there. But you know,
year by year, right, we can get a lot of
snow up here, you know, being you know, an hour
and a half south of the Canadian border, you know.
Or this year we we really barely had any and

(45:43):
it looks like spring outside right now. You know, it's
fifty to fifty degrees here today, you know, beautiful outside.
So it just depends year by year, right, we could
get a foot of snow and it could stick around
for a month. And this year, you know, we had
a couple of inches and they gone in a couple
of days, so.

Speaker 2 (45:58):
Okay, interesting. And then last one. You know, where Jimmy
and I are from. In New Jersey, wrestling clubs are
They're probably more popular than Starbucks. What is what is
the club culture? Like, I know Ivan is up there
down there in Boise. Do you guys have a good
club culture culture in in Idaho and in the Northwest.

Speaker 3 (46:17):
Yeah, I'd say, you know, in the Northwest up here,
at least in Idaho, it's more of you know, every
every club is kind of consistent with the high school,
you know, as far as a feuer program. Down south,
they have more of like the clubs where kids from
all different schools are coming to train together, which is awesome.
You know, I want that to start up here. You know,
we have one over in Spokane in the Northwest Training Center.

(46:39):
You know, with with those guys over there, they do
a great job of you know, pulling guys in from Washington, Idaho,
you know, to train together and travel the country. So
I think it's something that in you know, in the
Northwest here that can still be built. You know, if
somebody's looking to do something like that, I think it's
a great opportunity. That was kind of what I was
looking into before I you know, took this job and.

Speaker 1 (47:00):
Went, you know, full into what I'm doing now.

Speaker 3 (47:02):
But yeah, I think, you know, I think, you know,
wrestling is good here in Idaho, and I think it's growing.
And I think, you know, Chris owing down at USA
Idaho is doing a great job with you know, kind
of building the whole state together. He comes up here
in Idaho and does camps and clinics you know, up
in North Idaho.

Speaker 1 (47:18):
So yeah, I think we're I think we're growing and
we're going in the right direction.

Speaker 2 (47:23):
And from a high school state tournament perspective, how many
divisions does Idaho have?

Speaker 3 (47:28):
So it just they just added another one this year,
so now they they're up to six A. So yeah,
it's you know, not my favorite thing.

Speaker 1 (47:40):
You know.

Speaker 3 (47:40):
I wish we'd go down to maybe two and have
a big school small school. You know, I think that
really shows where you're at as a state. But you know,
it is what it is. As college coaches. Right, We're
going to go and we're we're gonna watch guys from
every single level. I think there's you know, really good
guys in the small school divisions that don't get as
many looks, you know, as as some of the bigger
schools in the state.

Speaker 2 (47:59):
But yeah, six A is the largest.

Speaker 1 (48:03):
Yes, yeah, okay, coach.

Speaker 4 (48:06):
How many tournaments were there when you were in high school.

Speaker 3 (48:11):
As a freshman it was four A and then I
think by my senior year we moved up to five A.

Speaker 5 (48:17):
Is there like a Tournament of Champions or anything like
that in Idaho?

Speaker 3 (48:21):
They don't. They don't currently have anything. You know, We've
talked about it. I know a lot of the coaches
have talked about kind of having like some sort of
super state, you know, but it just gets difficult with
planning and stuff because you know a lot of those
kids are looking to go to postseason nationals and you
know all these national tournaments that they got coming up,
you know, after the state tournament, so you know, making
weight again and then you know, getting ready for other things.

(48:43):
It's it's kind of been something that's hard to dial in.

Speaker 4 (48:47):
All right.

Speaker 5 (48:48):
We are one state purist because of New Jersey, so
we like to see what everyone else is going going on.

Speaker 4 (48:57):
So I appreciate you sharing that with us.

Speaker 1 (49:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (49:01):
Yeah, I've been to a few of the you know
a few of the different state tournaments. I went to
New Jersey when I was on the East coast right
with the one division and that was, you know, definitely
the best state tournament I've been to to date. So yeah,
I'm I'm on board with that one one division state tournament.

Speaker 1 (49:15):
It's awesome.

Speaker 5 (49:16):
Thank you. Yeah, we are biased to Atlantic City. Never
never been to PA or California states, but I'm going
to say it's probably in the most convenient location as
far as staying at a hotel and walking to the boardwalk.

Speaker 3 (49:33):
Hall Is is one of the kind I've you know,
been to a few state tournaments since then, and some
are you know, some great tournaments. I was a great tournament,
but you know, the atmosphere and everything surrounding that one
in New Jersey was was just different.

Speaker 5 (49:46):
Yeah, on the floor, Rich, let's do it, coach. Are
you a coffee drinker, I'm.

Speaker 4 (49:54):
Not good for you.

Speaker 2 (49:57):
Any caffeine or no caffeine.

Speaker 3 (50:00):
Definitely drink caffeine, you know, and I'll drink coffee here
and there, but it's definitely more energy drink when I
need it, you know. Unfortunately during season, it's a lot.
Off season, I try to cut them out kind of completely.
But yeah, definitely definitely need caffeine on some of the trips.
We gotta drive and you know, bouncing around.

Speaker 1 (50:18):
Here and there.

Speaker 2 (50:18):
So do you do a lot of driving.

Speaker 3 (50:22):
We do do a good amount of driving, you know,
for us, Like I was saying, location wise, you know
the near school, big bench just added that's two hours
for us. But before that it was, you know, a
five to seven hour trip one way, you know, for
a duel. So and those are van trips, van trips
most of the time, you know, any any longer than
the five to seven hours will get up us and
and you know trip down that way so we don't.

Speaker 1 (50:44):
Have to drive.

Speaker 3 (50:44):
But yeah, the the five to seven hour trips will
drive those.

Speaker 2 (50:48):
Okay, do you have a go to energy drink?

Speaker 3 (50:51):
Ooh, that's a tough one. I'll switch it up. It
doesn't really matter what it is, all right.

Speaker 2 (50:57):
I'm just curious. Maybe there's ones out in Idaho that
we haven't heard about. You, coach, do you have any
daily practices or rituals you do on a regular basis
to show up as the strongest version of Derek Booth?

Speaker 1 (51:14):
Yeah, I just I mean, I try to remind myself
just to be grateful you know what I have.

Speaker 3 (51:21):
You know, I never thought i'd have, So just you know,
remind myself, you know, what it took to get here,
and just be grateful for this opportunity, and you know,
try to share that with my guys. You know, that's something,
you know, if they can be grateful for for where
they're at, you know, day by day and just having
having a day, you know, grateful to be alive that day.
You know, that's I think something that I can share
with with them, and I try to remind myself of

(51:43):
every single day.

Speaker 4 (51:45):
Yeah, man, coach, what are you listening to right now? Music? Podcast, audio? Books?
Are you reading anything?

Speaker 3 (51:54):
Podcasts? Mostly, I'd say, yeah, I always have. I always
have something on in the office. It's usually podcast and
I am reading for the second time. I've read this
book already a couple of years ago. But it's a
good one that I think relates to, you know, our
program and where we're at. It's called Good to Great
if you've ever heard of that book, But it just

(52:16):
talks about you know, some businesses and how they went
from being good businesses to great and the practices they
use and you know, how they made that Jump, So
that's something I've read before, and I think it has
a lot of great elements that I'm you know, I
try to remind myself about and pull into, you know,
what we're doing here.

Speaker 5 (52:34):
So Rich and I are huge podcast fans. It's probably
a lot of the reasons why we originally started the podcast.

Speaker 4 (52:41):
Curious what do you listening to? Podcast wise?

Speaker 3 (52:45):
Well, I got the I got the wrestling podcast that
I always listened to, right you know, bosh Mania, Flow Wrestling,
those ones. But I also listened to a lot of
Sean Ryan's show, Cam Haynes, Joe Rogan here and there,
but those are kind of the main ones. Nickels and
Dimes with bow Nickel here and there too, So those
are kind of the main ones that I cycle through

(53:07):
for sure.

Speaker 2 (53:09):
Coach being in Quartelaine, are you a hunter?

Speaker 1 (53:12):
I do? You know, I try to get out as
much as possible. You know.

Speaker 3 (53:17):
Unfortunately, wrestling season on hunting season, you know, overlap a lot.
So you know, luckily for us, you know, I can
get to hunting camp in you know, thirty minutes you know,
from campus, so it's pretty convenient.

Speaker 1 (53:29):
Right.

Speaker 3 (53:29):
We got a great deer out population, you know around town,
so I do get out. You know, I did a
lot more growing up when I had more time. But yeah,
I like too, and my families big into it. So
we're you know, there in the weekend every weekend, and
when I can make my way up, I try to
as much as possible.

Speaker 2 (53:46):
You doing a bow hunting, rifle hunting everything.

Speaker 1 (53:49):
I'm all, I'm a I'm a rifle hunter. You know.
I wish I would have got into bow hunting.

Speaker 3 (53:54):
I think it looks it looks a little bit more fun,
a little bit more intense, and maybe a little harder.
But you know, it's just something that I never, you know,
had the time to get into, you know, back in
the day.

Speaker 1 (54:03):
So you know, maybe here in the future I'll pick
it up.

Speaker 3 (54:07):
Any fly fishing, fly fishing. My my assistants A big fisherman.
You know, I grew up fishing a lot too. I
have a little fishing boat. But I don't I don't
get to go out as much. I you know, I
wouldn't say falling out of love, but I just don't.
You know, it's not my big passion anymore.

Speaker 2 (54:22):
You're a busy guy. You got a program to run.

Speaker 1 (54:25):
I started paying started playing golf, too much to take.

Speaker 2 (54:28):
That'll take up some time for sure. Yeah, coach, that's
what we have for his lightheard one. It could be anything.
Maybe it's a maybe it's a unique food item out
there in idahood that we don't know about. Maybe there's
a craft beer or something. Do you have a guilty pleasure?

Speaker 1 (54:45):
Hmm? I mean I don't. I don't have a great diet,
so that the food is out here is great.

Speaker 5 (54:52):
You know.

Speaker 3 (54:53):
Obviously we're known as potato states, so you know that
you can get anything when it comes to that.

Speaker 1 (54:57):
But you know, guilty pleasure, that's it's a good one.
I don't. I can't really think of anything, you know.

Speaker 3 (55:04):
Yeah, I do spend a lot of time in the
summer playing golf, so you know that that is one thing.

Speaker 1 (55:10):
You know.

Speaker 3 (55:10):
Food, I'll eat anything. I'm not too picky, you know.
I would say if there's one thing that's not on
my list of foods or anything to.

Speaker 1 (55:16):
Eat, it would just be it would be olives. I can't.
I can't eat all us anything else we can. We
can do it, Okay, I'll.

Speaker 4 (55:27):
Out to dinner.

Speaker 1 (55:28):
Hey, there we go. I'll get I'll get extra and
I'll send them your way.

Speaker 4 (55:32):
My god.

Speaker 2 (55:33):
There are a lot of wrestling coaches that have taken
up golf as they've gotten into coaching. You notice that.

Speaker 4 (55:37):
Jim I picked well.

Speaker 5 (55:39):
When I was listening to the podcast you were on
Coaches Research, I kind of thought because you mentioned like, oh,
it's a bit, you know, a business thing. I feel like,
to be a proper grown male adult in the business world,
you have to play golf.

Speaker 3 (55:55):
I think so a little bit, you know, And I
found it too. It's like it's it's a good way
to be to be competitive, right, like in a sport aspect,
like I want to be good right anytime I go
out there, I don't want to hit a bad shot.
But it's also very easy on the body and like
kind of lighthearted, you know. So it's kind of a
good a good mix, you know, and change up from
wrestling where you're beating up the body, you know, for

(56:15):
six or seven months, you can go out do something
still be competitive, but you know it's pretty light.

Speaker 1 (56:19):
And easy going.

Speaker 2 (56:21):
Tell that to John Daily.

Speaker 1 (56:24):
Well, I guess it depends how you play golf.

Speaker 4 (56:28):
Coach.

Speaker 5 (56:28):
Are you ever going to the range you're just hitting balls,
or are you just always going and doing eighteen usually eighteen.

Speaker 3 (56:35):
Yeah, I'm not a big practice on the range guy.
Get to get bored doing that, you know.

Speaker 2 (56:39):
A little bit, John Daily, Yeah, just go.

Speaker 3 (56:42):
Just go play. I'll get better by playing, right. It's
just like wrestling, right. You don't get better at wrestling
by running, You get better at wrestling by wrestling. So
same concept.

Speaker 4 (56:51):
Good.

Speaker 2 (56:52):
I know I have a golf outing as a fundraiser.

Speaker 1 (56:54):
Yep, we do.

Speaker 3 (56:55):
We definitely do, so we're never gonna win it. We're
usually just trying not to take a lot here as
a wrestling squad.

Speaker 4 (57:03):
Coach.

Speaker 5 (57:03):
One question that I thought of doing the podcast, I
forgot to ask and then he kind of brought it
up as far as energy drinks and you're always on
the road driving and going to dual meets. I'm curious,
do you guys do a lot of door meets or
is it mostly opens or do you split it?

Speaker 4 (57:20):
How's that work?

Speaker 3 (57:22):
No, looking at a roster right now is mostly dual meets.

Speaker 1 (57:28):
We're we're pretty even though.

Speaker 3 (57:29):
Right we we have three or four open tournaments on
our roster. But with that being said, not all of
our guys wrestle at all those, you know, So we
have an open here in town that we host, we
have a duel the night before, right, our starters wrestling
that duel, and then they won't wrestle in the open.
But you know, as far as our roster, our schedule goes,
it's it's pretty dang even. You know, we might have

(57:53):
like ten duels and like four four or five opens
on the roster. But like I said, not every guy's
going to to every one.

Speaker 5 (58:01):
Do you find that's unique for junior college as far
as having that many dual meats?

Speaker 1 (58:07):
Well kind of, but you know it depends. You look
at some of the division ones. You know, they they're
really dual heavy.

Speaker 3 (58:14):
At the end of the year when they're conference DoLS, right,
they're they're mandatory to have so many conference duels. You know,
one thing with us out here is we we can
kind of build our own schedule every year, right, so
we can pick and choose, like, hey, next year we
might only have five duels and more opens, or you know,
maybe we we figured out through this year that you know,
it was more beneficial to have duels and less open

(58:34):
so you know, we can kind of tweak it, you know,
year by year.

Speaker 1 (58:38):
You know, however we see fit.

Speaker 5 (58:40):
Right, Sorry, I killed the flow there, Rich, I had
an ass that does gonna eat at me if I didn't. Yeah,
I think that's awesome because on the East Coast and
I was in Division three Middlesex County College, we did
mostly opens. There was definitely our division and stuff, but
it was like you did probably try meets, like two

(59:03):
try meets, and that was kind of your dual matches.
So I think that's awesome that you guys get a
good amount of doal meets in and they're with some
high quality junior college teams.

Speaker 1 (59:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (59:13):
Yeah, that's one thing for us is we have such
a good home environment. You know, like you come watch
our duels, they're pretty intense. You know, we get a
good crowd, We have a we have a great you
know community you know for wrestling in in Quart Lane
and surrounding areas a lot of you know, former cards
that stick around this area because how beautiful it is
that we're able to pull in you know, good crowds,

(59:33):
you know when we have good duels. So we love
you know, just a Friday night, Saturday night, you know
dual inside inside our gym to really show off because
we don't get that environment really anywhere else.

Speaker 1 (59:44):
We go.

Speaker 3 (59:46):
You know, even some of the NAI and bigger schools. Right,
a lot of times we wrestle with the lights on
in the middle of a wide open gym with nobody there.
So you know, anytime we can get our guys in
front of our crowd where it's intense, you know, that's
kind of the best depiction of what like a national
championship match would be like. So yeah, we're just we're
we're pretty pretty blessed with with what we have.

Speaker 2 (01:00:09):
Well, we do look forward to following you in a
couple of weeks here and seeing how the boys do
and rooting for you. And like Jimmy said, we love
doing this because it gives us more and more schools
and more and more athletes and coaches to root for
and follow. So we'll be we'll be rooting for you
all and hoping nothing but the best for you to
come nationals.

Speaker 1 (01:00:28):
Oh, we appreciate that.

Speaker 3 (01:00:29):
We're you know, we look to go out there and
perform well and you know, hopefully bring a few more
individual national titles and all Americans home and you know,
get a team trophy if possible. So yeah, we're excited,
and you know, we we thank you guys for just
for covering the sport first and foremost, but giving us
a platform to chat a little bit about you know,
North Idaho and what we have to offer and who

(01:00:50):
we are. So we appreciate both of you guys, and
you know, you ever need anything for us, or you
ever find your way you know, out west, just you know,
let us know and we'll take care of you.

Speaker 2 (01:01:01):
We do appreciate that. And you know, like you said, ultimately,
we're just trying to create conversations for our younger selves.
And maybe there's an up and coming Jersey wrestler out
there that uh likes the outdoors and and here's this
and maybe becomes one of the first East Coast guys
on the roster out there. First Jersey guy. If you
haven't had any yet.

Speaker 3 (01:01:20):
Well yeah, I did have a kid, you know, out
of New Jersey my first year here.

Speaker 1 (01:01:24):
So we've we've dipped all over the.

Speaker 3 (01:01:26):
Country, you know, for sure, we've I think we've probably
hit almost every state in in our you know, in
our history. So we have some guys from out that
way that are you know, possibly going to be here
next year too, you know, East Coast Southeast. So yeah,
be on the lookout for those you guys might know
who they are, but cool.

Speaker 1 (01:01:43):
I't say anything yeah to.

Speaker 4 (01:01:45):
It, so don't worry.

Speaker 2 (01:01:47):
No one's listening, Coach.

Speaker 1 (01:01:48):
Yeah, nobody's listening.

Speaker 5 (01:01:50):
So coach, thank you so much for your time. Really
enjoy this conversation and diving into North Idaho wrestling.

Speaker 4 (01:01:59):
Thank you so much much.

Speaker 1 (01:02:00):
Yeah, I appreciate it. You guys have a good one.

Speaker 3 (01:02:03):
Take it easy, and you know, look forward to maybe
doing this again someday.

Speaker 2 (01:02:07):
Absolutely count on it. All right, ladies and gentlemen, we
do appreciate you joining us for our regularly scheduled Monday
night conversations. This is a blast with Coach Booth from
North Idaho College. We will be back on Thursday night
and we will be heading back onto the cross country course,
so we will see you at seven on Thursday. I
hope you have a great week and we'll see you then.

(01:02:27):
Take care.

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North Idaho College Wrestling | Coach Derek Booth on JUCO Success, Recruiting & Nationals

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}North Idaho College Wrestling | Coach Derek Booth on JUCO Success, Recruiting & Nationals