Local Area FCA Blog

Podcast: Jason Hudson FCA Force Soccer

nsallee@fca.org (Nate Sallee) — Tue, 17 Jun 2025 16:07:04 GMT

Ep. 43: Coach to Coach Podcast - Jason Hudson

Dr. Jason Hudson joins us on the podcast.

Jason will be heading up our FCA Force Soccer club beginning in the Fall of 2025!

He is a pastor by day at Redeemer Church in Fort Thomas. Website: https://www.redeemerky.com/

He's also done his doctoral dissertation on the role of technology in worship and spiritual growth.

FCA Website: https://nkyfca.org

Instagram: @nkyforcesoccer

NKY FCA Huddle Report

nsallee@fca.org (Nate Sallee) — Wed, 11 Sep 2024 13:40:05 GMT

Please complete this to keep us in the loop as FCA staff so we can support you well!

Provide any feedback (good, bad and/or ugly) and let us know what you need in order for your huddle to be optimized.

The Man in the Middle

Wed, 27 Mar 2024 13:51:51 GMT

At 7'4" and 300 pounds, Purdue center Zach Edey is "the man in the middle." He occupies a lot of space for rebounds and scoring. Purdue's hopes for winning a national championship are weighing heavily on Zach Edey's shoulders.

Long ago another "man in the middle" was nailed to a cross on a hillside outside Jerusalem. He was jeered at, taunted, spit on, and reviled by those passing by and even by those who were crucified on either side of Him.

For six hours Jesus hung on the cross.

Jesus Christ is "the man in the middle". The hope of the world was pinned on Him. He was dying for the salvation of the entire world.

"For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God." (I Peter 3:18)

This Easter, Jesus Christ, "the man in the middle," wants to get in the middle of your heart. He wants you to accept His payment for your sins.

You can receive that payment by saying something like this:

"Lord, thank You for being the "the man in the middle", for dying for my sins on the cross. Thank you for your payment for my sins. Get in the middle of my heart and change me from the inside out. Amen

For more infomation go to: https://thefour.fca.org/

"Mr. Irrelevant" - Brock Purdy

Tue, 24 Jan 2023 15:49:19 GMT

In the NFL draft, the final pick is tagged with the label "Mr. Irrelevant".

Irrelevant.

"Unnecessary. Not meaningful. Serving no purpose. Of no significance. Having no bearing on the matter at hand."

In 2022 Brock Purdy was the final pick of the NFL draft. He was Mr. Irrelevant.

Yesterday, Brock Purdy, was far from being "irrelevant". As the quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, he led his team to a convincing win over the Dallas Cowboys and sent them into the NFL conference championship game against the Philadelphia Eagles.

Brock Purdy was not "irrelevant". He is not who the NFL draft says he was.

And yet with all his relevance to the success of his team, there is another level of relevance for us all.

Not what the success or lack of success of our teams tells us who we are, but who God says we are.

And God says, "You are relevant. You matter. I see you. You make a difference."

The cross of Jesus Christ spells out our relevance. Jesus says to you, "You are worth dying for. You are worth 6 hours on a cross with nails in my hands and feet. You are worth it."

Coach, take your relevance as a gift from God. He gives that to you. Relevant because God says you are. A relevance of being, not of doing.

Lord, help us remember to take our relevance from who we are in relationship to You and that is one of a beloved son or daughter. No matter how good it gets or how bad it gets. Even if we feel irrelevant.

Marty Mayer

Northern Kentucky FCA

Podcast: Brad Rhoads - Grace Marriage

nsallee@fca.org (Nate Sallee) — Tue, 13 Dec 2022 19:55:47 GMT

Ep. 42: Coach to Coach Podcast - Brad Rhoads

Sign up for the Coach and Spouse Getaway: nkyfca.org/getaway

"Taking your marriage from stagnant and complacent to active and creative" - Brad Rhoads

Coaching can be tough, and so can marriage...the two together can put even the best relationships to the test.

This is why Brad Rhoads with Grace Marriage jumps on the podcast.

Website: https://www.gracemarriage.com/

He shares his journey from a college tennis player to a lawyer, to a switch to full-time marriage ministry.

He and his wife presented back-to-back years at our KY FCA Coach and Spouse Getaway and crushed it!

Walk away with some great insights and tips on how to have a marriage that is full of life and fun

Support the show

Instagram: @nkyfca

Have you heard of this transfer portal?

Tue, 13 Dec 2022 16:10:16 GMT

It's been around longer than you think!

The transfer portal.

The door through which many athletes are choosing to walk. Transferring from one college program to another. 'Tis the season!

After conferring with their coach and the compliance office, athletes can be in the transfer portal within 48 hours.

Two thousand years ago on the cross as the promised rescuer, Jesus Christ entered another portal, not an athletic portal but a spiritual portal.

"For He delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His dear Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." (Colossians 1:13)

When Jesus died on the cross, He entered the transfer portal of sin and darkness and transferred all of mankind to His kingdom, a kingdom of forgiveness and light. A kingdom of freedom.

How do you activate your transfer?

You simply accept His death as sufficient payment to get you out of the domain of darkness, a domain each of us entered when we were born. "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23) "The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:23)

(See: https://thefour.fca.org/ )

Exiting the portal of darkness is simple. Opening the door for you to come out was costly. It cost Jesus His life.

Lord Jesus, thank you for transferring us from the kingdom of all the dark places of our lives and transferring us to the kingdom of Your Son. Thank you for entering into that portal of darkness and taking me out of there! From darkness to light.

Coach, there will be lots of mention of entering and exiting the transfer portal in the next few weeks. Each time you hear of the "transfer portal" may it remind you that Jesus transferred you out of the portal of darkness into the Kingdom of His Son.

Marty Mayer

Northern Kentucky FCA

Area Representative

Podcast: Bill Curry

nsallee@fca.org (Nate Sallee) — Mon, 03 Oct 2022 20:32:09 GMT

Ep. 41: Coach to Coach Podcast - Bill Curry

Coach Bill Curry gives us what Jeremy Sheetinger calls "audio gold" on this episode!

Some of the topics include:

- Stories from playing for Vince Lombardi and with guys like Bart Starr and Johnny Unitas.

- Coaching stops at Georgia Tech, Kentucky, Alabama, and Georgia State.

- "6 Characteristics of a Champion"

- "Power of the Huddle"

- Reflections on navigating coaching and personal life

Follow Bill on Twitter: https://twitter.com/coachbillcurry

Bill's Website: http://billcurry.net/

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NKY FCA Website: https://nkyfca.org/

Rusty Parks - Real Life Story

nsallee@fca.org (Nate Sallee) — Fri, 02 Sep 2022 14:11:23 GMT

Ep. 40: Coach to Coach Podcast - Rusty Parks

Episode Info

Rusty Parks currently serves on staff with FCA in Central KY. On top of that, he collaborates with other staff to host a state-wide FCA wrestling camp.

Pulling from decades of experience and relationships that span across the country they've developed a world-class camp experience.

In this episode, you'll hear Rusty's story, some of the lessons learned during his coaching career, and a couple of classic stories from his days driving the bus for his team.

Wrestling Camp Information: https://www.fcawrestlingky.org/

FCA Challenge App is Live!

nsallee@fca.org (Nate Sallee) — Wed, 26 Jan 2022 19:22:01 GMT

1 App, 3 Challenges designed for Coaches, College Athletes, and Athletes

DOWNLOAD NOW

Join other coaches and athletes from all over the Globe in one of the FCA Challenges going on.

Hop in at any time and you'll be setup with the same Bible reading plan with supplemental resources that thousands of others are doing!

Compatible with Apple, Google Play, and Amazon

Up for the Challenge?

If you're a coach or athlete desiring to grow in your faith, the FCA Challenge app is for you. Developed by Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA), these Bible-reading challenges equip you to daily read God's Word.

Features:

Reading Plans: Three distinct reading plans are offered for coaches and athletes at any level: Coaches Challenge, Athletes Challenge, and College Athletes Challenge. Each Challenge has its own pace and is designed for everyone to read the same passage each day.

Devotions:

Authored by coaches, athletes, and FCA staff across the globe, devotions provide deeper insight into the Bible.

Daily Reminders:

Do you ever get frustrated after you start a Bible-reading plan only to quickly fall behind? The FCA Challenge app can provide daily reminders to help you stay on track.

Community:

Media content and messaging channels amplify how other coaches and athletes are simultaneously learning from the reading. You aren't alone; we're in this Challenge together!

Other Resources : Find more FCA resources to strengthen your walk with Jesus.

Mo Isom-Aiken - Real Life Story

nsallee@fca.org (Nate Sallee) — Wed, 17 Nov 2021 23:29:04 GMT

Ep. 39: Coach to Coach Podcast - Mo Isom Aiken

Episode Info

Sign up for the FCA Coaches Challenge Here: https://fcacoacheschallenge.org

Join hundreds of coaches as they study through the New Testament of the Bible together in 2021. A weekly reading plan, optional daily text reminders, and the power of knowing you're not alone in the journey! Sign up today!

This is a unique episode where we hear from Mo Isom-Aiken as she shares with a group of local High School athletes here in NKY.

Mo has an incredible athletic pedigree:

LSU All-American Goalkeeper

Sportscenter Top 10 Play for scoring a 90-yard goal

SEC All-Freshman Team

Trained as a placekicker for the football team

LSU's all-time school record in women's soccer with 35 victories and 25 shutouts.

Her family and faith are top priorities in life and it has led her to become an author of 3 books as well as fulfilling speaking engagements around the country.

More info on her books and other resources can be found on: https://www.moisom.com/

The goal of this episode is to give a fly-on-the-wall perspective of Mo's story but also an increased awareness of a day in the life of an athlete living in 2021.

We hope it's encouraging, inspirational, and eye-opening...and that it ultimately helps you grow as a coach!

College Athletes Challenge

nsallee@fca.org (Nate Sallee) — Mon, 08 Nov 2021 18:21:17 GMT

College Athletes Challenge - 2 Timothy 4

In 2 Timothy 4, Paul urges Timothy with a last charge. The term "charge" is often translated to mean "testified". Paul testifies that we must be prepared to spread God’s word in season and out of season . Much like our sports, we must be prepared for practices and workouts while out of season, as well as being prepared for games, competitions, or meets while in season. Paul warns us that we must have great patience during these seasons because people will turn away from the sound truth of God’s Word and rely on their own desires. These people will surround themselves teachers that only preach myths that they want to hear. Paul encourages that when our teachings are rejected, we mush stand firm and continue to spread the truth of His Word, all while persevering through afflictions (after all, this is exactly what God has called us to do).

The second half of this chapter assures us that God will always be with us, even in our deepest and darkest times. Paul explains in verse 16 that he was lonely after being left by Demas, however he knows that he was never really alone because God was right by his side. God gave Paul the strength to spread truth even amidst his struggles. This, again, emphasizes our need to spread the Gospel in whatever season of life we are in. No matter our struggles and doubts, we should always put God’s story first.

CHALLENGE

Are you prepared to share the Gospel?

To learn a simple and repeatable way to share, check out The FOUR

AUTHORS

Sophie Margelot & Mackenzie Mitchell

Softball - NORTHERN KENTUCKY UNIVERSITY

QUESTIONS

1.) Which of God's attributes are magnified in this passage?

2.) What does this passage say about standing firm in truth? In other words, how are you challenged to "finish strong" in life and stay faithful to Jesus?

3.) Are there people (maybe even "friends") in your life that are hindering your faith?

4.) What is God revealing to you most in this week's reading? How does it apply to your situation?

5.) How is the Lord stirring your heart to share the Gospel with someone this week?

Podcast: "Win at Home First "- Cory Carlson

nsallee@fca.org (Nate Sallee) — Wed, 13 Oct 2021 17:55:02 GMT

Ep. 38: Coach to Coach Podcast - Cory Carlson

Episode Info

Sign up for the FCA Coaches Challenge Here: https://fcacoacheschallenge.org

Cory Carlson joins us on the podcast and shares some important insights on how to win at home and with your team!

Topics include:

- Date Night tips

- The Five Capitals in life and how to prioritize each

- Identity

- The powerful impact of coaching

Cory's Story:

As an entrepreneur, former executive, husband, and father of three, Cory Carlson understands the pressures working parents face. He is passionate about helping business leaders win both at work and home.

Twenty years in corporate America gave Cory some amazing opportunities as he worked his way up to the executive level. But he also saw brokenness: work without purpose, strained marriages, and absentee parents. Business leaders especially were often not living life to the fullest.

When Cory discovered leadership coaching, it helped him become a better leader, husband, and father. So he left his corporate career to help other leaders achieve a healthier work-life balance. Currently, Cory lives in Cincinnati with his awesome wife and three amazing children.

Cory's Website: https://www.corymcarlson.com

LinkedIn: Click Here

Buy "Win at Home First" book on Amazon: Click Here

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Please subscribe on whichever app you use!

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Nate (00:00):

This is the coach to coach podcast, episode number 38 game time.

Music (00:21):

[inaudible]

Nate (00:24):

Hey, what's going on guys. Welcome to the coach to coach podcast, where we believe every kid deserves a coach that cares, and every coach deserves someone in their corner. I'm your host, Nate Sully. And this podcast is sponsored by the Northern Kentucky fellowship of Christian athletes. We are incredibly grateful to our donors, our supporters, our board members, volunteers, prayer partners, everybody that contributes to this movement of God. We call it Northern Kentucky FCA. We have another great episode coming at you in just a second. We are going to be talking with Corey Carlson today. Corey is currently an executive coach that lives right here in the Cincinnati area. He is a entrepreneur, former executive, a husband, and a father of three. He is crazy passionate about helping leaders when both at work and at home in his message, I believe is going to be super valuable to those of you that listen, that are currently coaches, but also all of our, uh, all of our FCA family and friends, uh, that'll be around as well.

Nate (01:24):

You'll be able to take something away from this episode. Absolutely. That will help you in your personal and professional life. He is the author of win at home. First. It's an inspirational guy to work life balance. It was an Amazon number one new release in three different categories, and then listed in the Forbes article as seven books. Everyone on your team should read. He also has the one at home first podcast and is active on some social media channels. So I cannot wait to hop into this conversation with Corey Carlson. All right, guys, we are here with Corey Carlson today. Corey, how you doing brother?

Cory (01:59):

I'm doing great, Nate. Thanks for having me today.

Nate (02:02):

Yeah, I'm glad it's worked out well. I've already given the listeners a little bit of, uh, just kind of the highlights of your bio, but would love to just hear a little bit of more, um, elaboration on just a little bit about Corey kind of background and how you got into what you're doing these days.

Cory (02:19):

Yeah. Thanks Nate. Well, I mean, what I, what I do now, I never thought I would be doing, which is, you know, now it's it's coaching, speaking, writing, but I never thought I was going to do it. I went to university of Missouri, graduated a civil engineering degree and I started my career in civil engineering. I had always thought I'd be the corporate guy and climb that ladder and eventually be an executive CEO. That's kind of what I always thought I would do. And start a career in Kansas city. He got promoted, moved to Denver, was there for awhile. Then got promoted, moved to Cincinnati where we live now. And about nine years ago, I was kind of in over my head where I was VP of a hundred million dollar division. I found myself taking my identity to work where if I had a great month, I thought I was the man.

Cory (03:10):

If I had a bad month, oh, I thought I was gonna get fired. I was kind of looking around the corner. See if my boss was walking down the hall to terminate me. And it started to affect my, my life. I mean, I was skipping gym workouts. I was tense at home. I just, I needed help. So I reached out to my boss and he said, get an executive coach. I've always had one. So I did, I jumped on that, had an executive coach and Nate just say it. And it changed my life. It sounds extreme, but it is true. One. It did change my life and then obviously changed my career because now it's what I do. But what ended up happening with the coaches? I just, it shifted priorities. It shifted what I focused on, what I, what people were telling me. It was important.

Cory (03:52):

I was able to discern what is really important. So I became a better father leader husband at that company. I took one more corporate move where I was president of sales for a national contractor. And a lot of the things I was being coached on, I was actually coaching everyone else. When I saw them become better spouses, better parents, and yet profitability for the company improved. I was like, I want to do this for a living. So I few years ago started leaving the corporate to build the coaching practice. And that's what I do now. So I went from basically being a client because my life got upside down to now. I'm trying to help other executives when both at work and at home,

Nate (04:33):

Man. Yeah. A lot of that just being, I think it's the most powerful when you're now a walking testimony of something that somebody built into you and you're giving it away when you've been personally impacted in that way. I know that's a big deal and then I'm sure it was helpful. And you're saying you were teaching the other, teaching others what you were learning along the way. I'm sure that helped you really internalize it and walk out where you were taken into.

Cory (04:56):

Oh, absolutely. I mean, I think we all become better teachers and our discipleship is better when we're actually turning around and sharing with others because through part of the teaching, you may expose your own weakness or, oh, wait, I better work on this area as well. So yes, by, you know, quickly employ, I remember know teaching my different employees. Like I would say I learned a triangle for example, Nate. So he learned to try and go, Hey, here are these three points I remember teaching. And maybe I would've forgot the third point while I'm teaching someone else. I'm like, okay, why don't you focus on these two in next week? We'll get to the third one. But today you just worry about these two. Cause I'm like, I don't remember the third one. So sometimes I would teach a little too fast, but it was, it was just fun.

Cory (05:40):

And it was, you know, a big difference. I see with those that I lead and you probably see the same thing is we can give them all the information they want, whether it's a triangle or it's a square or it's, you know, these five teaching points. There's plenty of information. You and I both have bookshelves behind us as we talk. So we're not lacking information. But what I see to be the, the gap is implementation is to get individuals to app actually implement what they're hearing on a podcast or in a book, you don't have to implement all of them, but there's some, hopefully something from like this podcast, our conversations, some every listener and grabs at least something to try to do differently than they did yesterday.

Nate (06:21):

Yeah. Yeah, no, that makes, it makes a ton of sense. I certainly don't need any more. One of my, uh, took the StrengthsFinders test, uh, I guess it was, I don't know, probably not three or four years ago now, but one of my, one of my strengths was learner, which I was like, oh, cool. That sounds, that sounds awesome. That sounds good. But it describes in kind of the, the full picture of a learner. What is a strength can also be a weakness to where as a learner, all kinds of research, take in, take in, take in, consume all this information and then not actually do anything different about it. And that's like the whole point of taking in the information is that is to implement. And, and this was a question I was going to maybe ask later on in the episode, but I'd love to just go ahead and maybe mention it. Now you've worked with a lot of different leaders. What's the biggest issue in that sense of like the information to the implementation. What's the biggest obstacle from taking somebody from knowing, knowing what to do and actually seeing the results and seeing the transformation?

Cory (07:15):

Yeah, I think a lot of the issue with implementation is that they don't have a guide. They don't know what to implement. And what I mean by that is if, well, before I had a coach, I would listen to all the podcasts and one podcast would say, Hey, here's this, if you want to be a better leader, use this triangle with your team. Then I go to the next podcast is like, you want to be a better leader, uses a square. And then you go, the next podcast is like, you want to be a better leader, use this circle. And I would just it's that paralysis by analysis. I was like, I don't know which of these shapes to use. And, and so I would bump into that quite a bit. And then when I got a coach, it was like, Hey, they're all great.

Cory (07:55):

Just go with the triangle because I know it works. It's going to work. Let's go. And it's a great, no, that's all I need. And then off I went, so I think what ends up happening as we're consuming all this different information, we're, we're getting kind of locked up because we don't know which of the great information we should use. And so I think, I think there's a little bit of that where it's just having the discernment of what to use and then the confidence to go forward and keep pushing through. Because as you do roll something out, your first person that you share it with, maybe, you know, it's like or they don't, they themselves don't implement it very well. And then you give up and you're like, oh, I forget it. I'll just go back to my old ways. So I think it's just that the discernment to decide what to implement and then the discipline to continue with the implementation. Yeah.

Nate (08:42):

Yeah, no, that, that's, that's a great point. And I've even heard it on those that are trying to figure out, um, different Bible translations knowledge, you know, which one, which one's the best, you know, and I've heard somebody say, well, the one you, the one you'll read the is the best one, whichever one is the one that you feel best with and you're going to read, uh, that's the one you go with. It's not necessarily, which was the best one. That's like, Hey, whichever one, you're going to read, take that and run with it. No, that's good. That's awesome. Well, the first time I had always, I been, you know, we'd have some mutual connections and some different things. I think I discovered on social media originally, um, real quick plug, like you're one of the best, uh, LinkedIn, uh, Facebook, uh, connection. So know, make sure you look Corey up on social media after this, because you just create a lot of value on there.

Nate (09:29):

I just remember the different, um, one minute videos or tips you give out. But when we met in person, the first time we ran into each other at crossroads Florence and the atrium, and then one of the things we had discussed was the thing that, that you saw maybe even experience yourself, but you were seeing with leaders, coaches, or business people. Like I was just the lack of a big night. I know they haven't had that dedicated time with their spouse. And just how, how, how frustrating it can be to hear stories of man it's been three, four or five years since they've had a date with their spouse. Um, so I know that that's something that you definitely address and in some of your messaging, your content, but, uh, just for, for our coaches and our listeners today, what would be some tips that you found of what makes a good date night or, or how to, you know, how to maybe take a couple steps towards having a, uh, having a big night rhythm?

Cory (10:21):

Yeah. With Day night. It was a problem in our marriage where we didn't go on dates. You know, we were so busy, we do a lot of double dates. This is, and just, we just didn't make it a priority. We didn't think it needed to be. We thought we were kind of fine. And in fact, we weren't, I've after seeing in my own marriage, what a lack of date night did the lack of commitment. The, we became roommates, all those components, we had to do something different. So through some, you know, basically a Bible study class that we were at in the church, we went to an in Denver, started talking about just dating, you know, your spouse, dating your kids, dating all the, you know, kind of, and it sounds so overwhelming when you hear it, but then it's, well, why I'm out with some guys having fun.

Cory (11:09):

That's when my wife can have it a fun, intentional date with the kids, vice versa. When she's out with her girlfriends, I can then have intentional time with the kids. And then we can, we also have our nights date nights. So there starts to be a lot of overlap that takes place like this weekend. My wife is in Florida with girlfriends. That that is so huge. Now it's a heavy lift for me because I got to take the kids everywhere. I feel like all I'm doing is making lunches and walking dogs and, you know, driving kids around it mixed doing with my job. But by starting to, you know, allow people to kind of date their friends, date, their kids date, each other, that was a game changer for us. So that was one piece, but then zooming in on the dating, the spouse, you know, for Holly and I w by just going on dates and spending time together, there's connection.

Cory (11:58):

Otherwise we in fact will become roommates and it doesn't have to be a heavy lift. It doesn't have to be go the route, you know, most expensive steak house. It could just be going for a walk going coffee, but it's that making eye contact, letting them know that you see them, you appreciate them, you hear them. So, you know, that's kind of been, been a big piece, but what I found is a lot of people don't go on the dates because they, you know, they're too busy, this particular season, whether, you know, whether you're an executive or your coach it's oh, well, you know, it's, we're in the season right now. I can't go on any dates. We'll get it. We'll we'll date at the end of the season. Well maybe, I mean, who knows it will the marriage still be there? I mean, it, to be honest, will it still be there in a day?

Cory (12:44):

Doesn't have to be this Friday night deal. If he can't do it because of, you know, the sporting event don't do a Saturday morning breakfast, just do whatever it could be. It could be at night, it could be a day. It could be a brunch. It doesn't matter. But just the time away, you neither, one of you, you're looking at your phones, neither one of you, you know, there's not kids around, you're just hanging out, talking, connecting. When I work a lot with executives that, you know, they, they go weeks, months without going on a date. That is, I mean, that is that's kryptonite to a, to a marriage for sure.

Nate (13:22):

No. Yeah, no. Well said. And I think one of your recent posts even talked about something that you guys have tried where you have two different locations for a day. Uh, do you want to elaborate on that a little bit? A little bit?

Cory (13:33):

Yeah, for sure. Well, I noticed that Holly and I would always, when we go out to dinner, we would be talking about, it felt like kids and schedules the whole time. And we just couldn't like get off of that topic, talking to my coach. And he just had made the comment to do two different locations. And so we started doing that and it has been a game changer. So we'll go to two locations. The first location is really to talk about the kids, the logistics pull out, maybe the phones out we're, we're talking

Nate (14:06):

About

Cory (14:08):

It. It really is a business meeting. And that's what we talk about. And then we go to the second place and that it's no more logistics is no more business meeting instead. It's a couple connection. Yes. Do the kids get brought back up? Yes. Does do we end up talking about something budget related again? Yes. But at the end of it, but big picture, the first parts of business meeting, the second, one's more about connection. Where do we want to go? What are we dreaming about? What, how are you feeling now? And it's just, it's, it's been awesome. We have absolutely loved doing it. Yeah,

Nate (14:43):

No, that's great. Awesome. Well, switching gears a little bit. I know something that you've been certified in. I think its term is five capitals and it's something that our church I'm connected to crossroads. As they've mentioned on different times, it's been a part of, um, a life and eyes. Uh, we do an annual retreat kind of looking at the next year and we try to evaluate these five areas, but I just think it would be super helpful for, for the coaches because, um, I know we're going to talk, you know, we've already talked about the home side quite a bit, but I do think there's this, there's this lie that, um, if we, if we don't give a hundred percent of ourselves to the bottom line, whether that's our win loss record as a coach or as the bottom line of the financial side on a, on a, as a business leader, then somehow if it's always like a, trade-off like if you can't have all the, all the areas it's constantly, you know, you're going to be getting behind or not winning the way you want it with your team or at work, if, if you're not giving a hundred percent of that.

Nate (15:39):

So we'll just love to hear, um, just an overview of the five capitals and maybe how that's helped you along the way.

Cory (15:46):

Yeah. Five capitals is a coach organization that I am certified through. As you mentioned, one of the key frameworks that they use is in fact called the five capitals. There's many other tools that they use. But when I first learned the five capitals, which was about nine years to go, I mean, it was a game changer. And in my personal life, we talk about with the family, as you mentioned for you and your wife, but then also has a business application, which we'll we'll hit on as I share it. But the idea of the five capitals they're they're based off different Bible verses, and I won't necessarily unpack all those on this or even, and then also the parable of the talents and a few other pieces. But the five capitals is this idea that there is this different currency in Jesus. In John 10, 10 says that, you know, he's came to give life life to the full, and this idea that if we live these five categories in that right order, then we can in fact have life to the full.

Cory (16:46):

The hard part is a lot of times we don't live in the right order because the world tells us to live them differently. Our own flesh tells us to live them differently. So life can feel busy. It can feel chaotic. So the five capitals in the right order, the first one is spiritual. And it is about your relationship with God. You know, if you're a coach you're listening and you like that idea of, of these five cows, we talk about what I, what I share a lot with the spiritual piece is I've got atheist who are clients and say, it's spiritual. And it's for a lot of us who believe in, in Jesus and God, it is that it's our connection there. But if you've got an atheist on your team or someone you're talking with, it's, it's just, it's a greater purpose. Like what is life outside of you and your own self?

Cory (17:35):

And, you know, Harvard business review did a study years ago that all great ideas come from the shower. And it's this idea that no one, no spouse's nagging, no phone is ringing kids. Aren't crying. You're just sitting there thinking. And that's that idea of, Hey, how are we growing in our spiritual capital to spend more time with God, spend more time in the word. If you're, if you have that atheist on your team, how are they spending any journaling time? Are they thinking, are they doing reflective questions? Why did they lose their temper on the field? The other day, that idea is it's the spiritual capital. And so it's growing in wisdom and power. So that's the first one. The second one is relational. So, you know, at the first command is to love God. The second one is to love others. Yeah. It's a relational capitals by who you're doing life with.

Cory (18:21):

And so that's a spouse. That's your kids. That is your, your close friends, maybe your teammates, but it's who are you investing in? And then who's investing in you. And what's interesting about the relational is especially for the men that are listening is if we're not careful, we've been so absorbed in our career. We've been so absorbed in the sports program or the company we worked for that we've let go of friends. And there are, I remember when I wrote the book, when a home first I came across, this quote is super timely, but it was a, uh, a quote slash kind of joke, but no one ever talks about Jesus's greatest miracle. And it's the fact that he had three close friends in his early thirties,

Cory (19:07):

You know, cause that's so true because we have great friends and I school then college, and then we start our families. We start our careers. And before we know we've said no to different friends. And so that relational capital is a huge one to make sure that you're spending time with friends with loved ones, because I know you've had other guests, offices of Brian told him, he talks a lot about the lone Wolf gets taken out. And, and, and I totally agree. And so for anybody listening to make sure that it's not about quality, I'm sorry, it's not about quantity of friends. It's about quality. Like, are there people in your life you're having conversations of depth with right now? I'm just talking sports, not just talking weather, but conversation of depth,

Nate (19:48):

Right? Yeah. And someone, I would just want to insert there real quick too. I've noticed just in my own life, it was a lot of my friendships were already kind of ready, made up through college because you have roommates. I was on a, I was on the baseball team. So you have that locker room, you have this core pool of people you're already spending a ton of time with. And a lot of those relationships are kind of already architected for you. But like once you get out of that scenario, it happens in both places too. You don't have a set, you know, workout time that you have to be there in the waiting room to go work out with your team. You got to figure that out yourself, you don't have this set friend group that you're already spending all this time with and you have to go create that. And I think that's a huge adjustment and probably part of that reason. But now that's, that's a great point.

Cory (20:35):

So the third capital is physical and this is about time and energy. How are you managing your schedule or is your schedule managing you? And what's interesting about the physical capital is if we're not careful, it, our schedules, you know, control all of us, you know, whether you're a corporate executive and it is the schedule of, you know, I got the quarters coming up, I got to make sure I get everything done by year end or end of first quarter, or you're a coach and it's here comes a season or here's spring training. And then here's the season. And we just say, you know, yes to everything. And don't really think it through. I had a mentor share with me that the quantity of our nose will drive the quality of our yeses. So meaning, you know, depending on how many times we say no to different things, when we say yes, we actually can in fact show up, we can show up with excitement.

Cory (21:36):

We can show up and be present and actually be present where we're present. And so that physical capital is a big one to make sure that you're controlling your schedule, whether it is, you know, if it is sports season, then make sure you're saying no to the stuff that's not contributing to your top priorities. Save it for next time. You know, there's a, the, the thought of, if you can't say heck yeah, then say no. And so if it does not align with your purpose, if it does not align with investing in those around you, then it's, it's probably time to say no. And maybe in a couple of months revisit it. Yeah. And then physical capital is you can't do anything if you don't have the energy. So it's taking care of your body. What time you going to bed? What time are you waking up putting the phone down and actually just having some time to let it to the brain slowed down.

Cory (22:24):

So that's this idea of the physical capital. The fourth one is intellectual capital. This is about insights and ideas. I'm bringing different strategies to the team, bringing creativity to, to your work, whatever that could be. And so that intellectual capital what's interesting is, you know, it's, it's down there forth. A lot of times we are told it needs to be at the highest. Yeah. But I, you know, I've heard it said before, like in the sports world, what makes, you know, being an offensive or defensive coordinator. So challenging is once you show that secret play is now known, everyone knows the secret play and therefore it's not. And that's why intellectual capital can be down is because information is free and available. Thanks to Google, thanks to phones, grabbing videos, and posting a play up on the internet. And so intellectual capital is important, but it's not as important as a lot of us get tripped up thinking it is.

Cory (23:16):

And then the fourth, the fifth capital is financial capital, which is, which is money. And it's money is obviously important. We we've got to steward our resources well in a sports department and a family and a company, but it can't be the end all be all. If you are driven for profit, if you are driven for revenue ticket sales out of the, you know, the box, then there's things you're going to sacrifice. You're going to make poor choices. If you're, you're, you're gonna start cutting costs because you care about the bottom line. And so it can get you tripped up. So those are the five capitals to live in that order, both as a personal lens, which we can talk about further as well as even a company corporate lens.

Nate (24:01):

Yeah, no, that's really good. And it just, I was just kind of writing them down and, uh, I, I know I was aware of all five, but I think I had not heard the order recently. And what's interesting as I look at this, you have spiritual, relational, physical, intellectual money. My general vibe from just American society in general, it might just be a perfect flip as far as just like the general, uh, our culture. Like it's like money first. And then you got to get it's all intellectual get degree stuff. Then you got to get healthy. And then there's kind of this friendship community is down there too. And then spiritual it's like truth is kind of either it's either just your truth or whatever it might be, um, on the, on the bottom rung there. I just thought that was interesting that, you know, kind of the, the way that, that God's kind of designed it to thrive is, is, is really almost like a flip of a lot of the messages that the world world sends us.

Cory (24:54):

That's absolutely right. Nate, the world tells us to flip it in some of us. I mean, this is a great self-awareness tool for anyone listening to, is to think through on your bad days, how would you rank them? You could the kind of thing, the acronym halt, you know, when, when you're hungry, when you're angry, when you're lonely, when you're tired, there's a, w there's the F or the capitals that we lean into. Like for me, on my worst day, it's financial, you know, guys, some different financial took kind of wounds from growing up where my dad had a couple of moments of losing his job. My mom had cancer then eventually passed away when I went to college. And so I had to get loans and I just, the devil comes after me with the lie of, Hey, it's all on you. Hey, you're on your own.

Cory (25:45):

And so I'll hear that. So even to, to, to this day, the devil will try to use that same lie. Just have it look a little differently because I'm the sole provider for our family. So if I don't have enough prospects coming in or speaking engagements, I start to get all nervous. And so financial becomes my number one on my bad days, which leads to number two will intellectual. That means I better consume more books. I better listen to more podcasts because maybe I'm not getting hired because I'm not the best coach ever, or I'm not the smartest guy then. So the third piece is physical where I start just working all the time, uh, because I'm sending LinkedIn things, I'm sending emails, I'm listening to podcasts, I'm working within the fourth one. If that doesn't, if that's not working, then I'm going to see my friends got any ideas. And then the last one, if none of that's working, I'll ask God if he's got any ideas. And so that can be how it is. So from a self-awareness tool for listeners to think through how are you on your bad days, pay attention to that. And then what can you do to recalibrate to get them in the right order? Yeah,

Nate (26:43):

Yeah, yeah. That's so good. Uh, whether it be, just be just a quick handle on that, like yeah. So evaluate the bad days. And then what would be a good first step for a coach? Who's kind of hear this for the first time. Uh, just for them to reflect it. Is there any, is it just kind of like, Hey, look at each five and give them rank them from one to 10 and kind of why, or, or how would you might coach somebody if they just kind of wanted to do like a self-evaluation of these in their life?

Cory (27:07):

Yeah, absolutely. So the first observation be, how would you rank them on your bad days to what does that order? So what comes to the top? Is it financial because you are the sole provider, is it intellectual because you were always told growing up that you're the smartest in the class, and you still think that, that you need to be the smartest in this, in the athletic department and you still need to be the smartest in the conference like that still is playing tricks on you. Maybe it's physical, you always were the best athlete and physically, you could pretty much kind of conquer anything you go after. And so you still got some identity wrapped around your physical ability. And so just have some awareness of what your, the worst one is just so you can figure out how you, how to conquer it. And then the next one is take each of those five and just kind of evaluate on a scale from zero to 10, where would you rank yourself?

Cory (28:00):

I mean, I was spiritual. Are you in the word daily? Do you feel that you are spending time in solitude, reading scripture, praying and really just in reflective and you may, it may be a season of your life. You're like, actually, if I'm being honest, man, my spiritual is pretty, is pretty weak. I go to church, uh, you know, once a week or whatever that's about it. So if that's the case and let's look to increase that relational, where does that rank 10 being your marriage is thriving. You got great engagement intention with your kids. You got some good buddies you spend time with, maybe you in fact, go on guide trips or a women trips. Like my wife is right now, or is this a wake-up call? And then the physical capital one is, is your schedule controlling you? Are you skipping out on gyms?

Cory (28:46):

Are you eating crud? Because you're just at the mercy of your busy-ness, then maybe that's the wake up call. So those are just some of the ideas Nate to kind of think through. But man, it's a, it's a framework that I look at a lot. I, I, I know on my good days, my capital in the right order, I know on my bad days, I some got tripped up and it's a reflective question I ask at the end of every week and what were my capitals and what do I need to do to get the lower scored ones better for next week?

Nate (29:16):

Right? No, that's so good. Yeah, for me, I think on my, on my bad days, I think it ends up being, um, I don't respond and try to over-correct on the physical, but I know like my, if I get overly stressed or the calendar is kind of controlling me, then I go to go to the pantry and eat, eat some, eat some junk, or get some chips or whatever, kind of the short term thing. Or I'm definitely guilty of being, uh, embedded in my phone when I know we need to get more sleep and then, you know, either phone or Netflix or whatever that is in that exact moment, it feels like, oh man, we're kind of coping here, but I know we're paying for it in the future days. It's I just think it is. It's just, it's a it's um, you know, even as we're talking, it's just a bit of a reminder for me to be aware of those and, and to not just kind of take that, that short term feeling of, of making it better, but actually just looking at the whole picture.

Nate (30:08):

And I th I think too, one of the things I want to make sure we're touching on is, uh, actually in the early episodes of this podcast, I didn't know you were going to eventually write a book called when home first, but, uh, I would say it, the, my son offline was keep growing, keep learning and keep changing lives on your team and in your home. And I was thinking, as I was thinking about that as like, I just deeply believe that you could win a ton of ball games and transform lives or that a business guy can have incredible profits and also truly care about his employees and have them having thriving lives. But I do think there's this lie of, like, you can't have both, and you're saying you you've seen people when you even had seasons of life potentially where kind of all five capitals or earn a healthy level. I mean, is that even possible? Because I feel like a lot of our world just says like, no, you gotta, you gotta grind grind, grind on this one area and everything else has to be tossed to the wayside to be successful. I mean, w what would be your response to somebody kind of thinking that or feeling that

Cory (31:08):

100% is possible. Absolutely. Now within that a hundred percent possible there's days that it's going to get off track, there may be a week or two that it gets off track and that's okay. Recalibrate come back. I mean, if, if you're in the middle of an intense sport season or a four week run, and you look at it, then it's a conversation with your spouse, Hey, babe, busy, busy season. This looks to be the great, you know, the great run that we're going to have as a team. So, but on the other side of this, like, this is what Holly and I have done over time is I've had busy travel schedule. This is back when I was in corporate, and I can still have busy travel schedules now, but we will play in a staycation on the back end. So we, anytime you have a busy season, look to bookend it with some rest and relationship where before you go in that busy season, do some intentionality.

Cory (32:05):

And then on the other side, do some intention items. So I think that, you know, that's just an idea of it. Doesn't have to be, Hey, I got this new job at this new school. I'll see you in five years, babe, because on the end, who knows what that's gonna look like? Right? So I think that's what was one thing is if someone's listening, it's like not every day is gonna be perfect, but to know that you can recalibrate, you can T you know, make some changes. And I think the big thing, whether you're a coach or you're an executive is ideally the family is the team that you're with forever, where we have all I'm guilty of it. We've gone to the company or a coach has gone to the team and you give your all, well, then you get fired. And, you know, you have your kind, your, your head down your tail between your legs and you go, and your family is kind of in shrapnels cause you haven't given them any intention.

C ory (33:00):

And so the big thing that I work with executives on, and so for any listener to hear is, you know, we can't give our all to something that just views us as temporary. We are the temporary coach. We are the temporary executive. We are the temporary. It may be a long, amazing career, no doubt about it. But when we take our identity to something that's temporary, and then that goes away, we're a wreck. And so to put our job in the right place, that is not our identity. It doesn't get all of our yeses. Instead. We make sure we are investing in our kids, that we are being intentional with them, taking them, go get ice cream, sitting on the couch and hanging out with them with zero phone nearby, throwing the ball with them, like real intentionality. Same thing with dates with our spouse is real intention.

Cory (33:49):

I, with our spouse, seeing how they're doing, how is their job going? How's their, you know, career going and having real conversations with them. Because if we don't do that, if we don't put some discipline intention around home, we in fact will lose at home. Great. You had an, you were an amazing coach. Awesome. Well, unfortunately there, you got some shrapnel in your life and that's what I want to avoid with anyone I run into, because unfortunately for me, I want to work for at different times where I lost at home. And my, my passion is to make sure that no one loses at work and home again.

Nate (34:27):

No, that's great. And it's super encouraging a to know it's possible. And to know you can just kind of compensate, you know, for those high seasons. Like my wife has, she has one more month of high school volleyball season, and then they're performing really well. And, you know, they do a lot, but we ended up having an unexpected move. It was a really good thing, but a situation where we moved houses, um, over the month of August was kind of our closing time while we were going to take our 10 year anniversary trip in there. But we had to end up canceling on that. But right after her season, we have a big FCA event on November 5th. And then after that, we're going to actually, it's going to be delayed, but we're going to take that, that, uh, that anniversary trip after that to kind of book in this really high season, uh, for both of us.

Nate (35:08):

So we kind of unintentionally already kind of followed that advice. And I was like, man, that makes a ton of sense. Like there was going to be a week where it, we did, we recently had a week where it was super hard between volleyball, FCA stuff. We kind of have a, uh, a family, um, a funeral would be around and, and it was just a really, really hard week. But to know that there's, we're going to come up for air on purpose, you know, a little bit later, I think does take the pressure off of everyday having to be perfect, but just look at the whole corner of the whole year, the whole season, and are already managing that as well. Yeah. Super helpful.

Cory (35:39):

And I love that example, Nate, because what ends up happening, whether you're an executive or you're a coach, you've got a plan for your team. Like these are the practices we're going to have this. We're going to be doing on Monday, Wednesday, Fridays with trains going to look like these are the different drills. We'll do this with Tuesdays and Thursdays look like, then we've got our games and we travel here, we're home here and we've got it all laid out. But then we go look at our family schedule or our family plan. We wing it. We've got no idea. I'll figure that out later, but you took attention. I say, Hey, we've got a busy season. We want to put something on the back end of that. And I think that's the big thing is we often are guilty of winging it home, but given all of our strategies, all of our creativity, all of our intentionality to work and we just kind of think we can get by at home and it doesn't work.

Nate (36:28):

Yeah. I don't, I, I I'm. Yeah. I came from some trial and error to just going back to the date night just for a second is I didn't trust myself for those to happen unless I put them in the calendar. So I just have a, it's literally in our Google calendar for every, or week on Thursdays, I think it is, or Wednesdays or in Bible season, like until Jesus comes back, like there's no end date on that to where I at least have to deal with that. Each time that comes up on my calendar, even if we can't do that night, I'm always trying to figure out like, where can we move that? Or how else, you know, okay, well, we did this whole thing. This, we went to a wedding together and it had some good stuff and coffee after whatever. So that kind of counts. So I'm always having to deal with it when I put it on. I just go ahead and put it in there first. Um, then I know it's going to happen because without it, I just know I'm not going to wing it. Well, I don't trust myself.

Cory (37:11):

I mean, it's the rocks in the jar. We all have heard, seen that a different metaphor where those are the non-negotiables get the non-negotiables in the calendar and it's amazing how everything else still kind of falls into place. But if you don't get those rocks in, they don't happen.

Nate (37:29):

Yeah. That's good. Well, Corey, thank you so much for, for bringing it today, man. It's just a super, super appreciative of your time. Uh, if people want to connect with you or kind of see some of your content or get in touch with you, how would you, where would you direct them?

Cory (37:45):

Well, I appreciate the nice plug on social media. Sometimes it feels like a black hole at times where you're just putting stuff out there and you never know what's going to happen, but yeah, at Carlson Corey on everything, LinkedIn is definitely where I hang out the most. Um, but yet, and then I also have a website, Corey M carlson.com. You can go there. I send out a weekly email to leaders and sharing information that, um, I'm learning as well as what's going on with clients. Yeah.

Nate (38:11):

Well, if I'd have been in better podcast status, I would have already read the one at home first, but a book. But I did go ahead and order that this morning off Amazon. So I've looked forward to getting that this weekend, I'll be diving in, uh, and, and seeing what all is in there. But I know you've had a, um, a lot of, a lot of good feedback from that. So thank you for putting all that time and effort into putting that together. I know getting a book out is not easily done. So thanks for pushing through. I know it's a blessing to many and uh, just this podcast today, hopefully it's been helpful and people can, people can grow from it. So I appreciate it.

Cory (38:42):

Yeah. Well, thanks for ordering the book. Yeah. The book is on Amazon. It's also audible. You can hear my voice, do the audible. So for those that listen to it, but yeah, I mean, I'm grateful for the book and it's, it has impacted folks and it's really just sharing tools in my own testimony that I'm wanting to get out there. So, yeah. Thanks Nate, for getting the book and having me on here today.

Nate (39:03):

We'll see ya!

Music (39:11):

[inaudible]

Nate (39:12):

All right, everybody. That was our conversation with Cory Carlson. So grateful. He was able to come on the show and share some wisdom with us today. If you want to go a little bit deeper or for more information on this podcast, you can go to N K Y fca.org/podcast to see previous episodes. And you can also check out our blog for the show notes as well while you're on there. One other favor we'd like to ask is just to share this episode with at least one person in your life that you think it might be helpful to. If it's been valuable to you and serve you well, please don't keep that to yourself. Pass it along to, to a friend, maybe even in the coaching network, uh, of, of your own. And we would just want to serve more people. That will be a, be a great way to help us do that.

Nate (39:56):

One takeaway that I need to look at myself is to do that five capitals evaluation. It has been a while since I've looked at it personally, but just look at those five areas and take a quick account and reflect a little bit and just see where you're at scale of one to 10 on those areas. And then where do you go on those bad days as well, taking, just trying to apply. What was it, what was even said? The information is out there. Our heart is to truly serve you and to help you grow to be all that God's called you to be. So I'll, I'll do the throwback sign-off line, keep growing, keep learning and keep changing lives on your team and in your home.

Summer Spiritual Growth Plan 2021

nsallee@fca.org (Nate Sallee) — Thu, 13 May 2021 14:34:56 GMT

Register Below to join us as we grow spiritually this summer!

Includes weekly:

- Bible Reading (1 chapter per week)

- Memory Verse (1 verse for 8 weeks then refreshers)

- Prayer Theme

- Nate offers weekly meeting in-person/zoom for guys

- Katelyn offers weekly meeting in-person/zoom for girls

"The Cost of Grinding" - Rick Thompson

nsallee@fca.org (Nate Sallee) — Mon, 19 Apr 2021 18:56:47 GMT

Ep. 37: Coach to Coach Podcast - Rick Thompson

Episode Info

Sign up for the FCA Coaches Challenge Here: https://fcacoacheschallenge.org

Topics covered:

- Identity

- Coaching Boone county and Shaun Alexander

- The importance of relationships

- Hard work...and rest

- Concept of the sabbath

- Experiences trying to win games and also thrive in all areas

Rick Thompson enters his sixth season on the Lions’ coaching staff and his fifth as the Defensive Coordinator at Mount St. Joseph.

Before joining the Mount, Coach Thompson was the Head Coach at Boone County High School.

He has had a long and distinguished high school coaching career that includes stops at Beechwood High School and Campbell County High School.

Though he had other stops earlier in his career, Rick called Boone County HS home for over 25 years. He served as the Defensive Coordinator for 11 seasons before being named Head Coach in December of 1997. In his lone season away from Boone County in 1988, Thompson served as a Defensive Graduate Assistant for Dave Currey at the University of Cincinnati working with the Defensive Line.

As the head coach at Boone County for 15 years, Coach Thompson was the head coach twice for the NKY All-Star game, was on the Best of the Bluegrass All-Star Game coaching staff (2012).

He helped direct his high school team to two state semifinal appearances, five regional finals, and five district championships.

Thompson is a graduate of Northern Kentucky University and earned his master’s degree from Xavier University. He is happily married to his wife Mary Kay and has two children, Chloe and Bryson. They reside in Florence, Kentucky.

Holy Week - FCA Coaches Challenge

nsallee@fca.org (Nate Sallee) — Wed, 31 Mar 2021 14:28:12 GMT

Devotional from the FCA Coaches Challenge leading up to Easter.

WEEK 13 | Luke 17 - 21

SOMETHING TO CONSIDER

It’s 5:30 a.m. My mom woke me up, and I rolled out of bed still half-asleep, brushed my teeth (sort of), and got into our minivan.

Why? Our church was holding a “sunrise” service on Easter to remember the Resurrection .

Remember .

This week, Holy Week, remember the events that lead up to that glorious Resurrection morning.

Jesus announced, “It is finished” while on the cross shortly before he breathed his last. What was finished? The debt that we each individually owed God because of our sin. Through Jesus' sacrifice and punishment on our behalf, the debt was fully paid forever. He laid down his life so that we can have a relationship with God again. A once-for-all sacrifice for all who would receive it. This gift of salvation is an invitation. A bloody, yet beautiful, invitation. With arms stretched out as if to say, “I love you this much.”

Jesus set up a way to remember this sacrifice before He went to the cross by establishing communion. His challenge to us: “Do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19) .

With each word you read this week, remember that Jesus taught about the Kingdom of God, all while fully knowing His betrayal was imminent. The cross was coming. Yet, He didn't stop or stay silent. He remembered His purpose.

He remembered you.

CHALLENGE

Intentionally remember the journey of the cross this week.

Prepare your heart and mind.

Find extra time to read the Word.

Watch the The Passion of the Christ movie or The Chosen series on TV.

Get quiet in worship. How will you remember?

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

1. Have I believed in Jesus and received the identity he has for me? (Check out thefour.fca.org )

2. Do I place my self-worth on my performance or on my position as a child of God?

3. Does my family and team know I love them regardless of their performance?

4. What feelings stir in you knowing Jesus endured the cross so that we have the opportunity to have a relationship with him?

AUTHOR

Nate Sallee

Northern Kentucky FCA

FCA Coaches Challenge - Luke 7-11

Thu, 25 Mar 2021 13:52:21 GMT

One of the devotions of the FCA Coaches Challenge

WEEK 11 | Luke 7 - 11

SOMETHING TO CONSIDER

Two events in the last fifteen years shaped my life. The first occurred during a rainy, dark morning as I drove home from a church meeting. I cried at the realization of a besetting sin that, once again, resurfaced in my life. Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner! Except this time, I named the actual sin. I honestly acknowledged my fleshly and sinful desires before the Lord.

The second event occurred in May 2019, as I was diagnosed with stage four prostate cancer.

The first event made me realize who I am before God. The second event made me realize more of God’s great love for me. Seeing Jesus was no longer a “someday” event, but a closer reality than ever realized.

A woman in Luke 7 seems to clearly understand these two truths: who she is before God and His great love for her. She sneaks into a Pharisee’s party knowing Jesus is there. (Have you ever snuck in somewhere? I snuck into the drive-in movie once when I was in high school by hiding in the trunk of the car. I got caught!) This woman takes a place behind Jesus and pours a vial of very expensive perfume on his feet.

The Pharisee rebukes Jesus for allowing her to do this. Jesus responds with a story about two people who owed their master money. One owed a very large debt. One owed a much smaller debt. The master forgave them both.

Which forgiven person would experience deeper love and gratitude?

The Pharisee correctly answers by saying the one who owed the Master the greater debt. Jesus commends the Pharisee and refers to the woman with the perfume: “…her great love proves that her many sins have been forgiven; where little has been forgiven, little love is shown" (Luke 7:47 NLT). The one who has been forgiven little, loves little. The one who has been forgiven much, loves much.

Do you realize how much you have been forgiven?

CHALLENGE

Remember the One who completely knows you and fully loves you.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

- Have you ever had an experience that made you realize who you really were before God? Would you care to share that experience?

- Do you have people in your life who know who you really are? (The part with no secrets.) Who are they?

How do you daily express your gratitude for the forgiveness you've received?

AUTHOR

Marty Mayer

Northern Kentucky FCA

Join Hundreds of other Coaches around the world as they read the New Testament together in 2021.

www.fcacoacheschallenge.org

College Athletes Challenge - First Word on Philippians 1

Mon, 15 Mar 2021 13:01:02 GMT

College Athletes from all over the country connected with FCA have banded together to study the same chapter of the Bible each week! NKU was charged with creating some supporting content to one of the weeks. The following is the devotional "First Word" for Philippians 1.

WEEK 7 | Philippians 1

FIRST WORD

Being a part of the mission of Christ is a lot like being on a sports team. There are highs and lows, but you can trust that you have faithful teammates working toward the same goal. But what happens when your teammates aren’t on the same trajectory as you? Or, you have a coach that doesn’t want the best for the team? Your team crumbles. Paul’s letter to the Philippians offers encouragement and advice on being faithful followers of Christ while spreading the Good News. We are called to build each other up so that whatever evil we may face, we stand firm together.

In the first part of Philippians 1, Paul offers thanks and prayer to the loyal followers in Philippi. Paul understands, and is even joyful that he has partners in spreading the Good News. Although he is writing to the Philippians, we are all partners in defending and confirming the truth of the Good News. Paul prays that we will grow in knowledge and understanding so we can bring glory and praise to God: “May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation—the righteous character produced in your life by Jesus Christ—for this will bring much glory and praise to God” (Philippians 1:11 NLT).

The next part is about Paul’s circumstances and advancing the gospel. Paul writes this letter while in prison because of his faith in Christ. However, he has joy rooted in Jesus that does not depend on external circumstances. His imprisonment has caused believers to gain confidence and speak boldly of God’s message without fear. Paul is an example of using your present circumstances, whether good or bad, to bring glory to God. He is willing to lay down his life for Christ: “For to me, living means living for Christ, and dying is even better. But if I live, I can do more fruitful work for Christ” (1:21-22).

In the final part, Paul encourages followers to live as citizens of heaven: “Above all, you must live as citizens of heaven, conducting yourselves in a manner worthy of the Good News about Christ” (1:27). We cannot just talk the talk, but we must walk the walk. The same saying applies in sports. We can go on and on about how good we are at our sport, but if we do not put in the work, then we are likely to fail. However, the wonderful thing is we are not called to walk the walk alone, but together with Christ-followers: “Standing together with one spirit and one purpose, fighting together for the faith, which is the Good News” (1:27). Paul concludes Philippians 1 with a sobering statement: “For you have been given not only the privilege of trusting in Christ but also the privilege of suffering for him. We are in this struggle together” (1:29-30). Paul informs us that we may face suffering for Christ, and that should consider it a privilege. Yet, Paul remains confident in Christ, no matter the cost. We must stand firm and do the same! Through suffering, our eyes are opened to the weight of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross.

CHALLENGE - This week's challenge is to dive into the following questions:

What does it mean to “conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the Good News about Christ”?

Describe what suffering might look like in your life. Can suffering be more than physical hardships?

What does it mean to you that “we are in this struggle together?”

AUTHOR

Kailey Ivins

Women's Soccer

Northern Kentucky University

Make the Big Time Where You Are!

Tue, 02 Mar 2021 20:21:52 GMT

Coaches Encouragement

"I am just an assistant coach. I don't feel I can make a big difference."

"I just got out of college. This is my first year. I don't feel I can make a big difference on this team."

"I'm just a coach at a very small school. I don't have the influence that coaches have at larger schools."

Maybe you have said or thought those things at one time in your career. Maybe right now you feel like you are not able to make a big difference or as big a difference on your team as before.

Let's look at the story of a young woman who did an amazing thing for Jesus. And it really caught His attention.

"Jesus was at Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper. As He sat at table, a woman came in carrying a small bottle of very costly perfume, oil of pure nard. She broke it open and poured the oil over His head." (Mark 14:3)

Notice that the bottle was small but the contents were costly. And she poured those costly contents over the head of Jesus.

It is not the size of the bottle that is important. It is the contents of the bottle that matter.

You may see yourself in one of those earlier mentioned positions ("just an assistant...just a first-year coach...coach of just a small school"). You may feel those are "small bottle" situations, but if you will pour yourself out on Jesus, it will change the world.

It's not how much you give to Jesus; it's a matter of whether we will give Jesus all we have.

I'll bet there wasn't any perfume left in the bottle after the lady poured it out on Jesus. In fact another translation says that the lady "broke it open." She broke the bottle.

When I was in high school my two favorite colognes were Royal Lime and English Leather. Sometimes I put on a bit too much and you could smell me coming from a distance. (Actually, I could never put on too much of English Leather. That was my first favorite!)

Coach, you can make a difference whatever your role is or how little experience you may have or whatever the size of the school is at which you coach. Just give everything to Jesus and see what happens. And if you want, pour on an extra splash of your favorite cologne and see if anyone notices!

Lord, I feel like a small bottle sometimes but I know what is on the inside can make a big difference. I break myself open for you and Your Kingdom. Help me to smell up the place with the fragrance of You.

p.s. Coach, I will let you borrow my English Leather leather, if you don't have any cologne at home!

Marty Mayer

Northern Kentucky FCA

NKU FCA House = God Showing Up!

nsallee@fca.org (Nate Sallee) — Thu, 04 Feb 2021 16:34:16 GMT

A few people have asked about the house I was working in today. Here’s the scoop!

3 years ago NKU’s chapter of Christian Student Fellowship (CSF) reached out to us (FCA) interested in selling us this property. It is within walking distance to all ball fields and sport facilities and sits right off campus. We wanted it then, but it wasn’t the right time financially and otherwise. Fast forward to summer of 2020.

Nate and I had been feeling a leading from the Lord that was hard to explain and not super clear, but seemed to be pushing us toward finding a property for FCA or potentially for our family to live closer to NKU. Something involving a property and using it for ministry near campus. We looked and looked. Prayed and prayed.

Finally one day I got to a point of being a bit overwhelmed and told God, “We are ready to do whatever you want us to do, but we have no idea what that is and I gotta get off Zillow because I’m losing my mind. So we are gonna need you to make it really clear when the time is right. ”

Literally that same day, Nate comes home and says, “You’ll never guess who emailed me today...”

The CSF house never sold. That day he received an email from their organization with a second ask for us to consider purchasing. We were blown away. How had it not sold? It’s in an incredible location. We asked and it seemed that several attempts had failed due to red tape, NKU president transitions, and Covid ripple effects. 3 years.

It seemed clear in that moment that God meant it for us. But how? How do we afford it. They were even willing to drop to 2/3 the original asking price �� but even still it was $100,000. We didn’t have it.

Heading into a meeting with a mentor of Nate’s, he was all but ready to walk away. His mentor challenged him to take a swing, after all Ephesians 3:20 does say, “Now to Him who is able to do EXCEEDINGLY ABUNDANTLY above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.”

Nate went up to the house and prayed asking God if this is a distraction or is this of him. He sensed God saying, "I got this." Not knowing fully what that meant...he took a swing and asked for help. He invited friends, family, and complete strangers to consider helping us make this thing happen.

Within 2 weeks we had over $100,000 ready to go.

It’s hard to describe the feeling of witnessing God do something spectacular, dare I say miraculous. I feel so loved and special that he allowed me to be a part of it. Front row seats to his power and the unbelievable generosity of the body of Christ.

My joy overflows as I reflect on this experience. By God’s grace we got this house. By his grace we will finish rehabbing it. And by his grace we will use every inch of the space to honor him.

Thanks to all who have given so freely of their money, time, and talent. This has been an awesome display of teamwork. If you’d like to get involved, feel free to reach out to me or Nate.

Thank you Lord.

- Katelyn Sallee

FCA Field Ambassador

"Building Trust, High Performance, and Future Leaders"

nsallee@fca.org (Nate Sallee) — Fri, 18 Dec 2020 18:40:47 GMT

Ep. 36: Coach to Coach Podcast - Meredith Heater

Episode Info

Sign up for the FCA Coaches Challenge Here: https://fcacoacheschallenge.org

Meredith Heater, NKY FCA Area Representative and Volleyball Coach

Playing career:

Greenville University Volleyball Player

Coaching:

Multiple Junior College Stops

Fontbonne University

Cincinnati Christian University

Synergy Volleyball Club

Topics:

Player to Coach Communication

Affirmations

Journaling

Expectation Management

Other Resources mentioned:

Grief Recovery Handbook: https://amzn.to/3mtByp8

3 Dimensional Coaching: https://www.fcacoachesacademy.com/

Support the show: http://www.nkyfca.org/donate

Nate (00:00):

This is the coach to coach podcast, episode number 36 game time.

Nate (00:21):

[Inaudible],

Nate (00:23):

What's going on guys, welcome to the coach to coach podcast, where we believe every kid deserves a coach that cares, and every coach deserves someone in their corner. I'm your host, Nate Sallee. And this podcast is sponsored by the Northern Kentucky fellowship of Christian athletes. I know I say it just about every episode, but I just cannot thank our wonderful team enough of board members, of volunteers, of donors, of our staff, and just so many people that make things just like this possible. And thank you for listening. Take some time out of your commute or shoveling snow this time of year, whatever you got going. Our goal here is to capture the collective wisdom that we have right here in Northern Kentucky, greater Cincinnati and beyond from coaches and just get their story, get lessons learned and try to get better together because we can all learn from one another across all the different years of experience that we have. And this episode is no different. Our guest, this episode is Meredith Heater. Meredith has been in the area for a little over two years. I believe it is now. She has coached at the collegiate level at a couple of different places. Most recently was Cincinnati Christian university. And then now she has joined staff with FCA, but has 12 years of collegiate coaching experience. And she's coached girls and boys club volleyball at this point as well. And just have some amazing takeaways. And I'm looking forward to getting into this conversation and seeing what you can learn from Meredith. So I'm not going to put it off any longer, let's hop right in to our conversation with Meredith Heater. All right, guys, we are here. It is. When we're recording this, it is winter. It is cold outside. So we're going to try to heat it up today. And bring on Meredith heater. Meredith, how are you doing today?

Meredith (02:11):

I'm doing great. Nate, how are you.

Nate (02:13):

Doing well, just finishing up a week. We're recording on a Friday. So looking forward to the weekend. But Hey, just to kind of, kind of get us started, just give us the history lesson. You're new to the area relatively. But yeah, just give us the background on Meredith kind of your, your journey into coaching and how you got to where you're at today.

Meredith (02:31):

Sure. so I grew up in Orlando, Florida have been playing volleyball since I was about 10 years old. Started playing in elementary school and moved through middle school. High school eventually was able to play in college at a small college Christian college in Greenville, Illinois called Greenville university. It was Greenville college back in the day when I was there and and played volleyball there as a middle blocker. Got my first taste of coaching while I was still a student and was able to coach some local club teams while I was a college student. And then right after college ended up coaching collegiately for about 12 years. Coached a couple of different junior colleges, spent six years at Fontbonne university in St. Louis, Missouri, which is a D three college. And then recently my husband's job moved us Cincinnati area. We live in Northern Kentucky and I was coaching for Cincinnati Christian university for the past two seasons their women's programs. So I've coached club all along with that. And recently just started coaching boys as well with my son getting into the game and my daughter plays as well. So it's kind of a family affair. My husband actually played college volleyball as well for a club men's team. So kind of runs through all of us.

Nate (04:01):

Awesome. Yeah. You had yeah, you met, met John there at Greenville and he was golfing there as well. Right. So he was, yeah,

Meredith (04:09):

Yeah, yeah. He didn't, he didn't play either one as a high school sport and then he ended up playing both in college. He, he did baseball, wrestling and football in high school and then switched over to golf and volleyball in college. So he's, he's got an interesting story too.

Nate (04:25):

That's awesome. Well, we're super pumped to to have you not only in the area, but we'll also mention yeah. That Meredith recently came on staff here in 2020. So she came back from her support raising trip on March 10th. And if you know anything about middle of March of 2020, that's right before all the COVID shutdowns. So it's been quite the ride this year. But we actually met all the way when you were at Cincinnati Christian at the time and got through I'm trying to think. Did you go through the 3d at CCU or is that it?

Meredith (05:01):

I did transformational leadership at CCU, but not 3D.

Nate (05:06):

So we got partially through that before CCU is now RIP to CCU great times. I'm a, I'm a seminary alum there as well, but they, they shut her down. And now it's just straight Bible college, which led you to, to where you're at now, which is awesome. You still got to stayh in sports and still coaching. So you've had, gosh, you've had 12 years of college coaching experience and then several more years with club kind of all ages, you've played a lot of stuff. So what would be some of your, when you reflect back, what would be top two to three lessons you've learned over the years as a coach?

Meredith (05:44):

I think the biggest lesson I learned, especially with the college girls that I coached was to establish a relationship early and not just be the coach to play a relationship, but really be a mentor, be a positive influence in their life. Be a sounding board, be a place where they can come and just chat about what's going on with school or what's going on at home or, or whatever's going on. But to really establish that relationship with them first, make sure that they know that I care about more than just the skills that they're trying to get better at on the court. But I care about them as a, as a player, as a person as a young woman, who's trying to grow up to be probably a wife and a mom in some respects. And so I just, I really saw my purpose throughout those years. Coaching was to be more than just a coach was to reach them at a heart level was to reach them in their minds. Obviously I wanted them to be better volleyball players, but I knew that volleyball is essentially going to end at some point. I mean, we would all love to play sports until we're a hundred years old, but our bodies usually tell us otherwise. And a lot of the athletes I worked with were not going to go play professionally. You know, so college was kind of the last step for them. And I wanted to make sure that whatever impact I had on them was going to carry over off the court as well as on the court. So there were a lot of things that we tried to do in our program that, that showed them that, Hey, we, we take interest in who you are. We take interest in what you're about. How can we help? How can we be better for each other? How can we be better teammates and better friends? And how can I be a better coach to you? So, yeah, there was, there's a lot of great things we did over the years. My favorite was something we probably started four or five years ago. It was called affirmations where we just would take an athlete on every bus trip. We'd take an athlete and everybody would go around and say, just praise them with some kind of affirmation. Sometimes they were athletically related, but most of the time it was personality related or it's just something about them that we really loved and cherished. And we would take that time and everybody would say something hopefully different so that they, you know, got you know, somewhere between 12 and 15 different words of affirmation said to them about why we appreciated them as our teammate. That was one of my favorite times I've done it with junior high kids. I've done it with college girls and everything in between. And everybody seems to really enjoy that time together.

Nate (08:19):

Yeah. It's such a, such a simple thing, but such a powerful thing too. I know you have to, the things that you've been exposed to, transformational leadership calls it affirmations, three-dimensional coaching calls it spotlight, but the principles are the same as like, if we just took the time to look somebody in the eye and tell them something we appreciate about them without any like flattery or, or try to get something from them. But just saying something that's probably, as you're already thinking, but just verbalizing it to them. And that's becoming increasingly harder these days. I mean, it's not that comfortable even as an adult, but you think about middle school, high school, even college. I mean, gosh, how much communication is happening and text at best, maybe FaceTime, but so much of it's like Snapchat, DMs and everything else where it's a full-blown face-to-face man. It's just so powerful. It's simple too. That's good.

Meredith (09:09):

Yeah, that was definitely one of my favorites. Another one that I, I only did one year, but I look forward to doing in the future. As I, as I coach some club teams was journaling. We passed out these tiny little kind of like composition notebooks, but they were only about three by four inches. So it's something they could throw easily in their backpack and, and keep with us as we traveled. At first it started out as, you know, a way for them to write down their goals, kind of keep track of some things that they wanted to focus on. We had a word a week that we would focus on as a team. So at the beginning of the season, we came up with about, you know, 10, 10 words that we wanted to describe us as a team and to develop our culture around. And then we would focus on one a week. And so sometimes those goals would be related to that word of the week. Sometimes those goals would be related to a teamwork plane and what kind of stats they wanted to get. And then it turned into just an, another place for them to express themselves in the journal. So we would, we would say, Hey, we just had a really rough practice or a really tough loss. And I just want you to express your feelings and we didn't collect those often. But when we did as coaches, we would write back to them also and just kind of give them the feedback that sometimes they need, they needed to see on paper. And a lot of it was positive feedback. We just, again, we wanted to give them those affirmations that we wanted them to have something they could reference back to and be like, okay, my coach really does see me doing this in practice, and they see the improvement that I've had from beginning of season till now. And it just allowed us another way to communicate, because I felt like sometimes in the middle of practice, some of those short little things that I would say were going in one ear and out the other, whereas if they had something to reference back to I thought that would be better in the long run. And it, it definitely opened up a lot of communication with, with seeing what some players were feeling and how they were reacting to the way some people were talking to them in practice and ways we could make things better. So it was, it was definitely eye-opening and something I'm gonna use in the future.

Nate (11:12):

That's great. Just to have that feedback loop. I remember being exposed recently to a guy who's a CEO in Cincinnati, but he did a really big, deep dive, even wrote a book about millennial engagement in the workplace. So we could just transfer this millennial engagement in athletics or younger, but he said so much of previous generations assume they were doing a good job unless they were told otherwise, whereas millennials and younger assume they're doing a bad job until they're being told that they're doing, what's being asked of them. That there'd be a notice for doing the right things. And I don't know about you, but I see that play out at time. The assumption of worst case scenario happens a lot and we can fight it. We can hate it, whatever you like, but I think that's just the reality that we need to deal with. And I think that's a great way to do it.

Meredith (11:59):

Yeah. That's very interesting. I'll have to pay a little more closer attention to my millennials and younger people in my life.

Nate (12:07):

Yeah. That's awesome. Any other, any other top lessons from your time? Yeah,

Meredith (12:13):

I think so. The other thing that we just enjoyed was having time together off the court and I know 3d talks about check-ins or drop-ins maybe in visiting, visiting your student athletes at home. And that was a little difficult cause all my student athletes lived on campus, but I tried to make it a point to, you know, meet them outside of the gym and outside of my office during season, whether we go to coffee or dinner or or, or just chat one night when we're traveling down in the hotel lobby and checking in on, you know, the boyfriend situation or the parents or the school, whatever that is. Having some, some of that one-on-one time where we could just be friends essentially. Because once they graduated my program, I mean, they were 22 and I did see them as a friend and obviously I wanted to be a mentor in one capacity, but I wanted, I wanted them to see me as a friend just going through a different stage of life which I was for the majority of my career. And so I look back now and it's just awesome to see all my former players having kids and get married and starting their career and investing back into coaching and seeing that coaching tree is awesome. You know, sometimes they'll reach out and they're like, how do you deal with this? What would you do in this situation? And I'm just glad that they, they feel like they can still reach out to me, even though it's been, you know, 12, 13, 14 years since, you know, we've had a relationship as coach and player. So that's been awesome.

Nate (13:44):

Well, especially the college age I've heard it referenced, it's that last stop at the train station before the real world hits. It's like this interesting in between ground where there are quote unquote out of the house, but it's that last season of life before they're fully kind of flying on their own. And it's really cool to kind of transition them them. Well, so speaking of you said that they reached out to you like, man, this is coming in. How did you deal with this? Let's talk about some of the challenges that you've had. What have been some of the hardest points where you're like, man, why am I even doing this, you know? I'm sure you've probably thought about quitting at different times. Like what's been some of those really, really challenging times. And how did you get out of it?

Meredith (14:22):

Gosh Uh the first one that comes to mind is parents as a college coach, you would think, Oh, I don't have a lot of, you know, input from parents and, or a lot of interaction. And, and I, I had some great parents along the way who I consider friends who are great support, but I also had, you know, one or two that ruined it for a season because their expectation was different than, than what I was doing. And so they had an expectation, you know, their daughter would play this amount of time or was this good and was offered these, these scholarships. So that should translate into our program as her being a starter or six rotation player or whatever their expectation was. And, and I wasn't living up to that, you know, we've, we had some conversations I always told the players, you know, you, you come to me if you have an issue and most of them did. Um and then there was usually a parent that would kind of step around that line and, or cross that line and around that boundary. And, I would let them know, Hey, I will, I'll have this conversation with your daughter. She's an adult. And I respect how you feel, and I appreciate you bringing it to my attention, but it's a conversation for her and I to have personally, and she knows the expectations I have for her. I meet with each of my, my students multiple times through the season that says, Hey, here's the areas I want you to improve. If you're looking to get more playing time, this is a way you can do that. So I felt like I'd laid out my expectations correctly. And most parents after that initial contact of them being able to get whatever they had off their chest, didn't say anything else. Um I think I had one instance where she quit in the middle of the season a week or two before the season ended. And dad went off on my AD in the parking lot. But those were few and far between over the course of 12 years. And and so, you know, I think just being honest and having those face-to-face conversations, it's tough, but to let them know that you at least heard them and that you're willing to have the conversation with their daughter that I guess that's the biggest takeaway I got from those hard experiences that I feel like screenplay over. Yeah.

Nate (16:36):

Yeah. Well, it sounds like you took, you went on the offense on that. It's probably a big reason why you only had so few of those interactions because you were the expectation manager, just like your saying is so key. It's like putting that out on the front end, revisiting those, it kind of goes, goes what we were talking about. Like there's no assumptions on where they stand, if you're communicating consistently, like, okay, here's where you're at. Here's what you need to do to improve, to play more like all of that really helps I think minimize the, the hard ones. And like you said, trying to funnel everything towards that. One-On-One face-to-face interaction as much as he can. I'm sure there's a lot of good as well. Yeah. A lot of times. Yeah. It's amazing what can happen if they get that one at one kind of spot for your chest? Do you handle that well? And then how many times, I mean, I'm sure it was tempting to just fire right back and I'm gonna multiply it so well done on kind of going through that. Any other, any other like challenges or low points, I'm sure there's several, but any of them that kind of rise to the top on your mind?

Meredith (17:41):

Yeah. I mean, the, the experience with CCU closing was probably the toughest thing that I went through trying to deal like it was, it was really odd after we got the news, it was like October 30th of 2019, when we were called into the chapel they told the staff and faculty at the same time that an email went to the students. And so in the middle of this chapel, I'm finding out that I don't have a job as of December or, or possibly sooner, a lot of coaches were let go sooner. Our seasons still had two weekends of travel. Wasn't sure that was going to happen. And then the girls start texting me cause they're freaking out. And I'm like, Hey, I'm finding out just like you, I will, I will. As soon as I get out of here, we'll meet at so and so's house, which was a house on campus. But like the days after that, it was, it was like a funeral on campus. It was, it was really tough to deal with the grief. And I think anybody that's had some kind of tragedy if you will, on your team you know, has, has been through something like that where you have to, and this is when those one-on-one relationships are important where you'd have to just rally around them and you have to cry with them and you have to hug them and you'd have to say, I will help you in any way that I can, which was all I could do. You know, I, I helped them get to places if they wanted to keep playing, then I helped them, you know, find a place to play and get transferred. And and I was there for them to say, yeah, I know the stinks. Like I know the situation is horrible and I'm sorry, and I wish I could do more to help you to help you. And I'll do everything I can to make this transition better for you. But in the midst of that, grieving myself, knowing, okay, is coaching, you know, is coaching ending for me? I thought I did this my whole career. And now I'm like, I don't know. Maybe God has something else in store for me around the corner, but it's so crazy not knowing what that is. So I really would say that that season of my life was really, really hard.

Nate (19:38):

Yeah. And yeah, it's something that, gosh, this is like a coach coach podcast, but I think grief and loss is a really relevant thing to, to give a little bit of attention to, because how often, not only when you have terrible tragedies where your athletes might've, you know, there might be a student that, that passes away that's at their school or a close relative, or honestly just kind of the, the loss of either a season or the end of their career, whatever that is. There's just a level of, of grief. That's inevitable. It might be varying degrees, but loss is going to happen in our athletes lives. And how do we help walk them through that? I think is a really, really key thing. And, and you can't do that unless you have the relationship like you were talking about. So that, that that's phenomenal that you kind of have that foundation to mourn when they were mourning. And then I'm sure I know you celebrated what the, when they were, when you won matches, but there's now those different times for everything. And literally be with him through that. I think that the presence is powerful in that sense. And I'll just give a quick plug before switch on. There was a book I went through that I had some personal growth in after the loss of my dad at 21. It was years later, I went to this book called the grief recovery method, I think is the exact term. We can link it in the description, but I went through that process and there was something that I would say I was, I was mostly, I was totally like functioning and felt like I had grieved for the most part, but I felt like there was a small section. It was kind of over in the corner that hadn't been quite cleaned out yet. You know, it was like, I would say about 15 to 20% of my, of my grief, you know, the grief getting to a hundred percent wasn't quite there. And going through that process of like, okay, fully reflecting on it, learning from it, completing it, and then moving on. I think there's, there's some, obviously there's going to be some wounds there, but but to help people kind of get the most out of it, I can get can God can use everything. God can redeem even the hardest stuff. So not discounting the pain that's happening at the moment, but also coaching them through, Hey, this, you know, God's teaching you something, there's another door opening. We just can't see it yet. And having to haven't had the courage to keep going as is a really important thing for, for volleyball and then later in life, too. So that's awesome. Well, sweet, w you have, you've gone through a three-dimensional coaching and we've referenced that already. A couple of times now have led multiple people through it, as well as being one of our awesome staff members. So now having gone through it, and you're currently a coach now, and you're kind of processing this in real time on what you're going to implement in the future, what would be just any feedback or main takeaways from the three-dimensional coaching training that you went through?

Meredith (22:28):

A couple of the things that I really loved about the training that were, that were new to me was was the purpose statement, the purpose statement for a coach to something for them to, you know, focus back on and why we're doing what we're doing, especially when those hard moments come or that that parent gets angry with us, or that, that player, you know mouths off at us or whatever it might be that, that we struggle through. It makes us want to quit coming back to that purpose. Why am I doing what I'm doing? Why is the Lord led me here, called me here? And and being able to focus on that I thought was really good and it helps. It really just helped me to kind of form my thoughts and focus on, okay, what are the specific things that I want to pass on to these players? Because I have hopefully a positive impact on their life during the season. So that was one thing that I just loved about 3d coaching. A lot of the the plan that they give you at the end to the different things that you can implement were some things that I'd already done. And then like the one word option I love that turned to, to come up with one word to focus on for the year or for the season, or maybe it's one word per player, having some of those discussions on about, Hey, what do we want to get out of the season? Hey, what's your focus for this? How can we encourage one another to be better teammate? I'm all about those things, but I felt like 3d really gave you the tools and the plan going into your season or going into your off season. Even, there was a lot of different things about serving together and things like that, but I'd always had in the back of my head, Hey, these are great ideas. Okay. How do I, how do I decide which ones are right for, and which ones are right for right now or off season or in season or post season. So I think it really helped me just kind of make a, like a, a yearly plan and be able to carry that out in the future.

Nate (24:22):

Yeah, that's great. Well, and to be intentional on that, because if we're, if we're not proactive there and have a plan, there's so many coaches I've talked to, they're like, Oh man, I would've loved to have done X, Y, or Z, or I even had intended to, but in the coaching world, I mean, mass distractions are coming your way constantly. There's so many different things that can be pulling you away, but to just take that time to, to map out a whole year, then, then it's just a matter of executing on it versus like, Oh, there's all this stuff. Sounds really good. I hope I can get to it, but it seems much more doable when it's down to pen and paper.

Meredith (24:57):

Yes, absolutely.

Nate (25:00):

That's really good stuff. Well, Hey, we also want to get better. We want to grow, but we also want to take a second to have at once while to have some fun on here. So is there a time or a story that you have that you look back and you're like, Oh man, that's gotta be one of the top embarrassing moments or one of those times where I just could not stop laughing. It was going on.

Meredith (25:21):

I definitely have some of those traveling with the girls on a charter bus you know, 10, 15 times a season led to lots of memorable moments and lots of time together. One of our favorite things to do besides watching movies was to play heads up on our phones. So it's it's a game and an app where you hold your phone on your forehead and everybody else shouts clues at you, you're trying to get the word on your forehead. And we would play that often. And I, I remember specifically this one time, one of my players, Megan was, was doing heads up and she wasn't holding on and something happened on the bus. I don't know if they hit the brakes or took a turn. And she just went flying across, across the charter bus and into a window. And and the rest of us just, you know, lost it and she popped up. She wasn't by keep going, you know? And so we just, we had lots of memories like that. Just playing games and enjoying each other's company on the bus and

Nate (26:27):

Just heads up. She was literally having to get her head back up to float across on this. It's amazing.

Meredith (26:33):

Yes, exactly. Awesome time.

Nate (26:38):

Yeah. yeah, just to kind of, just to kind of wrap up a little, if you were to consider Meredith as a college student and just getting started with coaching, what would you tell her as far as something you wish you knew then that, you know now?

Meredith (26:56):

Oh gosh, so much stuff. I think the biggest thing would be start those one-on-one meetings immediately. I think when I was younger and I was so focused on the volleyball and I was so focused on, I got to get these girls in the same gym. I gotta see what we have. I gotta see what we need to work on. And I was so focused on the skills and the volleyball and the preseason, the training, trying to get us ready for that first game. But I really do think that the relationships have to come first. I think the trust and the building up happens after the relationship happens. So I think the more the more one-on-one meetings you can have leading up to your season is awesome. The more you can show them that you care, who hear what they're going through, you'd find out what else is going on in their life, what their family's like, the more you can invest in them as a person. I think it really helps on the, on the backside with when, when you challenge them on the court or on the field. And when you challenge them, you know, to give, to give you everything and to run through a brick wall for you, they're going to do that. And if they have that relationship with you if you've just hammered them inside the gym the whole time, it might not happen as well. Just depends on the athlete I guess. But I do really think that relationships are key. And I think I learned that the hard way a couple, couple of years down the road, not from the very beginning. So so I that's, that's what I would tell my younger self, for sure.

Nate (28:29):

Yeah. That's powerful staff and just an encouragement. If you're a sport that has a larger roster than 9 to 12 girls on there, Hey mate, you know, divide and conquer, you know, it's okay if you have a staff for a reason. So if it's football team, you know, position coaches, like that's kind of, there'll be overwhelmed as a head coach for those head coaches listening that you, you know, therefore I need to have one-on-ones with all 60 coaches. I mean, there was a, you know, there there's some, there's some things that you can do, one head coach to the whole 60 football players or archery team or whatever, or the track team or whatever. But a lot of times it's, you have those different spots where you can focus in on it. And you know, don't, don't let this be an overwhelming burden. Let it be something that, that hopefully you can enjoy to just find a way, pick something and go with it. Uh and I think it would be, you know, you'll have the long-term impact of relationally, but also at the end of the day, I think the short term results athletically will come as well. Well, Meredith we, we appreciate taking time wrapping up a quarantine with the fam all sorts of stuff. We're just rolling with the punches during Covid times and just grateful to have grateful to have you on staff. And I know you've already made a difference in the lives of people here in Northern Kentucky, greater Cincinnati, and then,already plugging in hard way. Umaking a difference in coaches here in Northern Kentucky. So just thanks for all that you do and, and your heart to,continue to, to answer the call that God has on your life.

Meredith (29:56):

Thank you. I appreciate the time to share.

Nate (29:58):

Yep. Excellent. Well, have a good one. We'll talk to you soon.

Meredith (30:01):

Thanks. [inaudible]

Nate (30:13):

Well, there, you have it guys. Our conversation with coach Meredith heater, super grateful for her coming onto the show. I love what she had to say about building trust with our players, laying that foundation and having that expectation management, that open line of communication and how that can make a ton of difference on and off the court. So thanks again for, for sharing those nuggets of wisdom. Well, Hey, I don't know about you, but 2020 has been a bear. A lot of really, really challenging things. A lot of really, really good things we could celebrate as well. That may not be getting pushed out as much, but I'm looking forward to 2021 as you probably are as well. One thing we want to put on your radar is the FCA coaches challenge. You can go to FCAcoacheschallenge.org and sign up. You can join hundreds of other coaches across the state, across the country who are going to be reading through the new Testament through 2021 together, it'll be a synchronized reading plan. They'll send you an email on Sunday once a week to give you the reading plan for that week. You can also sign up for a daily text reminder for the passage for that day. And we know when the leader gets better, everybody gets better. This would be a great way to grow personally and spiritually. And I got to tell you, I know it would be a blessing to you and you would not be alone to be joining hundreds of other countries.

Memorizing Scripture

Thu, 03 Dec 2020 20:42:15 GMT

In today’s digital age, we’re now exposed to more “expert” and personal opinion now than ever before. Sometimes we resonate with what we read, and sometimes we don’t. We can feel emotions of sadness, anger, discouragement or we emotions of joy, excitement, praise. Where do these come from? What lens are we reading some online content through?

I’ve been known to put my foot in my mouth a few times (okay, a lot of times). When I was 15 and accepted Jesus, I began what I called “preaching the Gospel” to my friends. What it really was was me judging them and telling them they were wrong. Was I wrong? Yes – and no. Sure – I saw sin in their own lives, but I wasn’t even acknowledging the sin in my own heart. Then my mentor shared with me the importance of memorizing scripture.

Memorizing scripture can be useful for so many things in life. My biggest encouragement of why we do it is because the Bible is also references as Truth. When so many lies/opinions try to creep in, what’s the standard we hold to? Truth is something that can help us drown out self doubt, worry and anxiety and be reminded of the promises and love God has for us. When we use the Bible as a way to battle sin, God’s truth and love begins to penetrate your heart so that those negative thoughts/ideas can’t make it in. Here’s the verse that got me started with the desire to start memorizing it:

"Psalm 119:11 – I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you."

As a Christ follower, I want to serve and love Jesus with everything I am. With that desire comes a natural opposition from the enemy and my flesh to keep me from fully experiencing God’s abundant life. I’ve found myself over the years struggling with self worth, different sin and just an understanding of what the future holds. In those times, I’ve searched personally to find reason and sometimes found some short term success.

My best way of staying rooted is memorizing scripture. I’ve found that once I have it memorized, in times of struggle/temptation, the verse tends to spew out and drown out my negative thoughts and replace them with the Father’s love.

You may have NEVER memorized Scripture or even thought about it. I want to share how I’ve been able to memorize scripture and then encourage you to start doing it – TODAY!

Pick a verse that has meaning. Of course when I first started this journey, I wanted to memorize whatever was shortest. Jesus wept. Cool. Got it. Nothing wrong with that, but it didn’t do much to move me to Jesus. My first impactful memorization? Philippians 2:1-11. I have a pride issue. I have to continually remind myself who I serve and how he did it!

Write it down. And the write it down again. And the a 3rd time. Post that thing on your desk, mirror, dashboard (not over the speedometer please), anywhere where you continually look. How about this – post it as your background on your phone. We look at our phones 5,000 times a dah (rounding down).

Share with someone what you are memorizing and get accountability. If I take this memorization journey alone, it’s much less likely I’ll do it. If I have someone checking in on me and asking if I have my verse(s) memorized, I’m going to want to actually tell them yes. Most of the time those conversations are great because you have a teammate helping and you both get tot share how God is moving.

Start small. Pick 1 verse. You don’t have to start with a chunk. You can do a topical search on the Bible app and find verses with a certain area. Even better, ask someone what they’re memorizing/have memorized in the past and why. Nothing wrong with getting a little help from your community.

Have a verse lined up to be memorized next . If you are trying to memorize a section, set a goal to memorize a verse/week. When you have more to look forward to, you are always growing your heart for the Word. Also – make sure to always revisit the verses you memorize and make sure you know them! Nothing wrong with brushing up!

There’s lots of resources out there. I started my early journey with a curriculum called Topical Memory System. It will give you a top and a couple verses to memorize in It. It begins with your identity in Christ and works through different topics. It can be found online.

There’s also an app called The Bible Memory App. This app allows you to pick a verse and memorize it by writing it, filling in blanks and sharing it with others. Highly recommend.

Growing closer to Jesus is what we all want. Having a foundation of truth and other weapons of the Word to fight against evil will help us do that. Reach out to us if you have any questions/need suggestions. You got this!!!

Chris Cornett

FCA

The Great Demonstrator

Mon, 30 Nov 2020 19:03:16 GMT

When I first started coaching track at Bellevue High School, I tried to demonstrate to an athlete how to throw the discus. (I had no clue!)

The girls' track coach, the late Pep Stidham, saw my feeble attempt and walked over to the discus ring to rescue me and said, "This is how you do it!" Yup! That's how you do it! I (I learned a lot from that man!)

Coaches are usually great demonstrators.

Football coaches demonstrate correct stances or how to "swim move" an offensive lineman.

Volleyball coaches and tennis coaches demonstrate how to hit a serve with maximum velocity.

Basketball coaches demonstrate how to shoot a free throw properly or block out under the basket.

Track coaches demonstrate how go give and receive a handoff or how to get set in starting blocks. (And after you have learned, how to throw the discus!) (I know I left out some sports! Forgive me!)

A demonstration is better than just an explanation, better than just reading about the technique.

Jesus was a great demonstrator. Many years ago on a cross on a lonely hillside outside Jerusalem, Jesus demonstrated His love for the world.

"But God demonstrates His own love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)

Jesus demonstrated His love by dying, not just by delivering great sermons, not just by healing or raising people from the dead. Ultimately, the great expression of the love of God was by dying on a cross for us all.

Ever wonder if God loves you? Look no further than the cross. You will find your answer in a man whipped and beaten and nailed and mocked and dying.

If Jesus had two more words to say on the cross, perhaps He would say, "For you."

Lord, thank you for dying on a cross for me. For demonstrating such immeasurable love through such a horrific sacrifice. I accept your death as payment for my sin, for all that I have done and all that I will ever do. Amen

Coach, next time you demonstrate a technique to an athlete, may it remind you of God's great demonstration of love for on a cross by dying for your sin.

Marty Mayer

Northern Kentucky FCA

Stay Ready

Tue, 24 Nov 2020 17:07:31 GMT

Are you ready?

Joe Burrow is down. Carted off the field and into the tunnel.

Meet Ryan Finley. According to announcers, Ryan hadn't seen much playing time and probably wasn't thinking about playing yesterday. Five minutes after Joe Burrow went down, Ryan Finley is on the field as the new quarterback for the Cincinnati Bengals.

You just never know. You never know when it's your turn.

Many years ago, a young man by the name of Joshua was sitting on the bench watching the main man Moses lead the nation Israel through the wilderness to the Promised Land.

But something happened to Moses just as the entire nation was about to enter their new home. Moses died. Let's read how the story unfolds:

"After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses' aide: ' Moses my servant is dead, Now then you and all these people get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give them...'" (Joshua 1:1-2)

Even though Joshua was Moses' aide, there doesn't seem like a smooth transition for Joshua to assume leadership. No official ceremony where Moses shakes Joshua's hand and says, "Go get 'em, Tiger!"

Just one minute you are the second string guy, the next minute your name is called by God: "Joshua, you're in!"

For most of us it may be a matter of being ready to do the small things. Being ready to speak a word of encouragement to someone. Maybe to notice the guy on the street with the cardboard sign and say, "Hey, my name's Marty. What's yours?" Maybe it means stepping up and doing chores you always left for your spouse to do.

For many of these things, we don't get second chances. Several weeks ago I was on a zoom call, and Bobbie was returning to the house with groceries. I heard her coming into the door, but I stayed glued to the zoom call which was on the laptop right by the door she was entering. For some reason, I thought my presence on the zoom call was more important than helping her in the door with the groceries. When I finally got up to help, all I was able to do was shut the door! A swing and a miss.

I wasn't ready. To quote Harrison Ford, "He chose poorly!" (remember...Indiana Jones?!)

Lots of "be ready" stories in the Bible. The point is, big deal (like Joshua) or a smaller deal (helping Bobbie with the groceries, well, it really was a big deal!) just be humble enough to be ready.

Lord, help me to be humble enough to be ready. To not miss opportunities, big or small, you give me to be kind or to assume positions of leadership. Help me to step up or step down.

Coach, be ready today for what God may send your way.

As a friend told me once, "Make a choice, take a chance, expect a change." (from David Hammerstrom!)

Marty Mayer

Northern Kentucky FCA

Is Your Prayer Life Getting Robbed?

nsallee@fca.org (Nate Sallee) — Mon, 21 Sep 2020 18:07:25 GMT

A House of Prayer?

Was Jesus ever angry? Yes!

There were certain things near and dear to his heart that Jesus chose to have what some call "righteous anger" over. One of the few things recorded of where Jesus was angry had to do with a group distracting others from prayer.

In the Gospels there's a scene where Jesus was in a temple and has a whip. He's snapping it around. He's flipping tables over left and right and chewing out those in his presence.

Why? Because something sacred was being hijacked. Prayer was being crowded out by people making some shady cash.

There were people in the temple who were exploiting those who were coming and were looking to buy animals to offer as sacrifices. There's a whole ancient sacrificial system that we don't have time to get into. The punchline is that they were making sacrifices for forgiveness of their sin. Anyway, there were people who had set up shop inside the temple selling birds, etc. to be sacrificed and turned it into a market.

Jesus tells them, "It is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you make it a den of robbers." (Matthew 21:13)

Here's my point about prayer. Jesus said his house (the temple) shall be called a house of prayer.

Once Jesus gave his life and sacrificed himself on the cross, he becomes the final and ultimate sacrifice needed to pay the penalty for our sin. Thank God we don't have to sacrifice animals anymore. Jesus paid it all. For you. For me. For everyone who would choose to put their faith him.

Beyond that, Paul says later in 1 Corinthians 6 that we, our bodies, are temples of the Holy Spirit.

I had to ask myself recently...if my body is a temple since I've trusted Jesus...a nd temples are to be a house of prayer...

Do I live a life that includes consistent prayer?

OR, Are there "robbers" or distractions in my heart and mind that take away from the incredible opportunity to talk with God on a personal level?

These are healthy questions to ask yourself, I encourage you to take inventory and lean into prayer.

Want to know more about what it means to say put your faith in Jesus?

Here's the Gospel is 4 simple truths: https://thefour.fca.org/

Have a great day!

Nate Sallee

Empty Stands and Full Hearts

Tue, 08 Sep 2020 19:21:10 GMT

The team charged onto the field to the sound of ...silence!

They scored their first touchdown with 2:00 remaining in the first quarter.

No band. No fight song. No applauding crowd.

In fact, not much of a crowd at all, only a few parents huddled in small pockets well distanced from each other.

Such is the fate of high school football USA for the 2020 season.

The absence of crowded stands can leave a coach or a team feeling unsupported and alone.

Unless you remember, what Jesus always remembered.

At a time in Jesus' ministry when He was saying some difficult things, many of his followers deserted Him. But Jesus said this to His disciples, "The one who sent me is with me; He has not left me alone." (John 8:29) Jesus knew He was never alone.

Your high school athletic association may limit the number of tickets to allow only a small number of fans in the stands. But Jesus is still in the house. He will never leave you alone.

"And remember I am with you always, even to the end of the age." (Matthew 28:20)

"I will never leave you, nor will I ever forsake you." (Hebrews 13:5)

Lord, may I always remember Your Presence and might that be enough. Whoever shows up or whoever doesn't show up, You have promised to be there.

Coach, the stands may be empty, but let Jesus fill your heart.

Marty Mayer

Northern Kentucky FCA

"Knowing Your Purpose as a Coach" Ben Brown Boone County HS

nsallee@fca.org (Nate Sallee) — Tue, 18 Aug 2020 17:18:32 GMT

Ep. 2: Knowing Your Purpose As a Coach

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"Building a Championship Culture" with Dale Mueller - Part 1

nsallee@fca.org (Nate Sallee) — Tue, 11 Aug 2020 03:10:15 GMT

Ep. 20: Building a Championship Culture

Episode Info

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Dale Mueller hops on the podcast for the first of TWO episodes.

Yes, so much to unpack with Coach Mueller that we blocked out multiple episodes.

Dale was a collegiate baseball player at Cornell University and is most recognized in NKY and beyond as a very successful head football coach.

After multiple coaching stops his longest tenure was a Highlands High School where he amassed several state championships.

Topics include:

- How his "why" behind coaching drove him

- Why he didn't cut players

- One surprising reason he picked football as his sport to coach

- His strategy for youth camps

and much more!

Please share with at least one person you think would appreciate it!

Nate (00:00):

This is the coach to coach podcast. Episode number 20..Game time

Music (00:18):

[Inaudible].

Nate (00:18):

Hey, what's going on guys. Welcome to the coach to coach podcast, where we believe every kid deserves a coach that cares, and every coach deserves someone in their corner. I'm your host, Nate Sallee. And this podcast is sponsored by the Northern Kentucky fellowship of Christian athletes. We've been so honored and excited with the feedback and the response we've gotten so far. We're 20 episodes in and wow. What about the wisdom we've been able to capture so far and talk with many of you right here in Northern Kentucky. Hey, if you don't want to miss any of the new episodes coming up, you can go online to nkyfca.org/podcast And join our coaches email list. And we'll alert you of new podcasts episodes and upcoming coaches events. Or you can also subscribe in iTunes or whatever app you're listening to that way. You'll get a heads up on all the new content coming your way. Well Hey, for this edition, we try to come out on the first and 15th of each month. This next month is going to be a two-part series with coach Dale Mueller. Dale is a local legend in the Northern Kentucky area, especially in the football world. He's been at Newport, Withrow, and the most notably Highlands, high school, consecutive state titles. I don't want to wait, have you wait any longer? Let's hop in with coach Dale Mueller.

Nate (01:32):

Well, I wanted to kind of start off with A lot of people in the Northern Kentucky area. I'm sure at least know your name, but we'd love to just get your listeners just a quick backstory on, on Dale. Kind of look at your story and then how you got into coaching in the first place.

Dale (01:47):

Well, I, my family was originally from Newport. We moved to Fort Thomas when I was four years old. I always loved sports. I was a baseball, football, basketball player. I really wasn't that good in basketball. So gave that up after my freshman year my, my parents were divorced. My mom was really my role model. I can remember her being an elementary school teacher in silver Grove schools. If I had a day off, I would go to school with her and just spend the day with her. I can remember her teaching some students and gosh, one young guy coming to school with his toe, just almost cut off. His whole jeez foot was all bloody. His sock was just code, you know, just, just all red with blood. And it was before you worried about bloodborne pathogens. And my mom took his sock off and you know, my mom just adored me, but she loved this kid. Like she loved me and, and washed his foot, got the principal there. I mean, I just love what my mom did is a teacher. And so I had just had great respect for her. I really always wanted be a teacher. Like my mother, my mom got cancer when I was in high school breast cancer and battled it for 10 years, it spread to her brain. She went on to be a elementary school librarian in the Covington school system, and just wanted to be such a, a great teacher towards the end of her life. She didn't want to give up being a librarian, but the cancer was giving her having a problem with her balance. So the principal would actually meet her on the first floor, get behind her and literally push her butt up the steps so she could get to her library. She would do, her deal, you know, being a librarian and then come home and go and do it again the next day. And so my mom never really wanted me to be a teacher because she always said why for a man, you didn't make enough money and you couldn't really make a living, being a teacher and support your family. So I went to college. My degree was in mechanical engineering. I worked for Lincoln electric company makes welding equipment, but then my mom died when she was 54. I was 27 and I decided I was going to become a teacher and called Mike Murphy, who was my high school football coach and Highlands who had gone on to Newport and wound up getting an emergency certificate at Newport and started becoming a teacher and coach. My wife was absolutely awesome when you're making way more money, a time previous job, but she was just awesome. And we moved, we were living in Pittsburgh at the time, moved moved back to Fort Thomas and you know, her goal. She was from New York state. Her goal in life was really never to marry somebody from Kentucky and moved, moved to Kentucky. But you know, she was just absolutely awesome supporting me.

Nate (05:01):

Wow. Where did you go to college again? I though you went to Cornell. That's what I thought. Yeah. You're a baseball guy there too.

Dale (05:06):

I was, baseball was my sport. I mean, I loved being on the high school football team, but baseball was really what my life revolved around until I was 20 years old.

Nate (05:17):

Yeah. I remember we had some parallels on that and we were both, both catchers and we were both. If we were able to hit a double or something, we would have somebody do a speed up runner. We wouldn't be able to run the bases and then score, actually score the run. Take some of the fun out. Yeah.

Dale (05:30):

Yeah. I hated that. I hated this beat up rules. I was, you know, always kind of obnoxious and when the they'd put in a speedup run or I would walk off the field, I would say it takes more time to put in a speed up runner. Yeah.

Nate (05:46):

That's awesome. Excellent. So you, man. Yeah. So your, your mom had a deep influence on your desire to teach and to coach and you really kind of came to that point. You said mid twenties. And then, so you've made it to Newport at this point, you're teaching your former coach was that Newport. So did you just come under him as an assistant? Was that your first

Dale (06:05):

Yeah, first thing I was at assistant middle school football coach at Newport next year I was a varsity coach. And then I really wanted to be a head coach and the head football coaching job at Withrow came up after my second year being a coach and I applied for it. They said they promoted from within and this Cincinnati public schools that all of the Cincinnati public schools with Withrow Aiken and Walnut Taft use all of them tried to promote their coaches from within. So I said, well, gosh, I want to be in the Cincinnati public schools. So I became a teacher and assistant football coach at West high in Cincinnati. I was there for two years. Yes, yes. And then the head coaching position opened up again after two years and Withrow and so then I became the head coach.

Nate (07:01):

Okay. Yeah. And then how did you end up back at, back at Highlands eventually?

Dale (07:06):

Well, I, I was at Withrow for six years. I really loved being the head football coach at Withrow. And, and then I though decided I wasn't going to coach anymore because I, you know, at the time I was making $2,800 my whole total year end commitment and at Withrow and I loved it. And really, I wouldn't mind going back again and doing and never leaving Withrow cause I just love being a head football coach at withrow but I just couldn't justify having four kids making $2,800 for my year, which a big commitment

Nate (07:49):

Did you break down the hours on that?

Dale (07:52):

Yeah. And they were all young and I decided I wasn't going to coach anymore. And so I went, I resigned right after the season, wasn't going to coach anymore and then change my mind that same year and decided then that it was going to coach again. So I became the head coach at Sycamore was there for three years and then they had a coaching, the head coach at Highlands resigned, Tom Duffy was the head coach. He resigned and they called me and asked me if I'd be interested in coming to Highlands. And I really wasn't, but as I talked to him more and thought about it more and I decided, yes, I wouldn't do it. So then I came home.

Nate (08:37):

That's awesome. Excellent. Well, yeah, that's good. I didn't even know some of that. That's thanks for putting the pieces together a little bit, whether it be at Withrow or even Newport, they experienced there. And then obviously at Highlands, what do you feel like would be two or three keys for, from developing a football program? Obviously it wasn't from scratch. It was already, they were already existing, but you know, it kinda, you come in as a, as a head coach for example, and you're trying to set a culture and a new kind of era of the program. What are two or three big themes that you knew we needed to do these things right? If we're going to really grow and be a successful?

Dale (09:14):

Well, the biggest thing I felt was that sports can have a substantial, positive impact on young people, whether you win or lose a high school football game, really isn't that important in the grand scheme of things. But what's important is the kind of man or woman that you are 10, 20, 30, 40 years down the road. And the, the things that you develop, the skills, the habits, the beliefs that you develop playing high school sports are the same skills that you use to be a successful husband and father, a member of your community. So I really believed that high school sports were meant to have a positive, lifelong impact on people. And not only would you have a positive impact then on that player, but then the type of husband he was going to be that and father, he was going to be, that would have an impact on his own kids make a generational, have a generational impact. And so, so the big thing, the first thing was to have a positive impact on the people that you were coaching. And so then if you believe that, then you wanted to get as many guys out as you possibly could. So getting guys out for the team is really important. And so we tried to do that as young as we could. We tried to make, have youth camps where guys felt that, that, you know, we liked them and it was a fun thing to do. And it was something that was worth their time and they'd want to be involved in an, in, in the school. We wanted to have the guys in the schools see that it was valuable to be a part of the football team. And though the guys were getting something out of it and they enjoyed it and the coaches liked them. And you know, people would often say all gosh, Highlands recruits because kids from other schools would often transfer to Highlands. And we weren't going out and recruiting kids from other schools. But we were trying to treat kids with great respect and make it a place that it was good for everybody that the guys that wanted to be college division one scholarship guys, this was a great place to go. And the guys that were terrible football players, but just wanted a place where they could be a part of the team. This was a great place to go. So we really tried to teach, treat the players great and get a lot of guys out. And then from there, you know, all the other things were then revolved around that. You know, we, we try to have a two platoon system so that all these guys coming out had something to be involved that be involved in that, that it wasn't just 18 guys that were playing on the team. So we tried to have one unit play off offense and sub those guys too. You know, we we've really tried to play a four wide receiver or offense and play a new four guys, every play. So four guys would play and then four other guys would come in and instead of playing five offensive lineman, and if we had eight good offensive line, we tried to substitute all of them. So, so instead of having 18 guys that played in a varsity game, we wanted to have, you know, maybe 20 on offense and 20 on defense and maybe another 10 different guys on special teams. So we had 50 guys playing varsity football each week and 50 guys playing JV football every week and 50 guys playing freshman football and all those guys feeling a part of it. So, so those were really the big things that we felt developing, having a positive impact on guys getting guys out, yeah. Getting them involved and and then making it a valuable experience for those guys, everybody being involved in the game.

Nate (13:09):

I'll never forget when my wife was kind of just gleaning from you a little bit during her first year, coaching volleyball at Highlands, she told me one of the things that you guys did it with your youth camps is you'd have some of your upperclassmen, senior guys have flexing contests. So with the little kids, I mean, literally just making it, we want a fun, awesome experience for the kids and you knew, and it was, it was really wise that they were just gonna have a really positive impression of Highland's football from, you know, starting that early. And I just thought that was, that was genius. Obviously you helped them on the skills and some of the technical side that early, but a lot of it was like, I want them leaving, wanting to be a part of this program. And it's sounds like you really created a program that was very attractive for, for people within the school, obviously. And then beyond, you know, talked about, you know, you don't have to recruit if your program is just that magnetic and people want to be a part of it. They'll do all sorts of stuff to try to be a part of it.

Dale (14:05):

Absolutely, you know, we were coaching guys and football and guys really go two directions. I mean, there's been so many wonderful men in history of the world. You have just gone on and done great things, but there've been so many men who have done just incredibly stupid things too, that jails are filled predominantly with men. You know, men make just, you know, loads of mistakes. And so, so having a group of men that are trying to do good things for, for being a high school football player and trying to have a positive impact on younger guys, it, it helped you develop. So, so as much as the flexing was helping the young guys get involved, it was the old guy, the older guy,

Nate (14:54):

Cause they were having their influence on them

Dale (14:56):

Absolutely. Absolutely. You have a flex contest was always a fun thing. And I would be the judge. And of course the young guys

Nate (15:03):

Always win. That's amazing. Well, I, I don't want to, we can, it would take a long time to go through all the different wins and trophies that you've accumulated over the time. I know there was a season where I think it was six out of seven years. You guys came home with the state title, which is just, which is just incredible. One thing I know I've heard NFL teams talk about as well, that it's, it's, it's really a lot harder to come back and repeat. So if you want a championship to come back the next year and win another one is even more difficult, because there was all this, you know, cause you've already, you'd been to the mountain top, so to speak how do you, how did you guys keep from being complacent and able to sustain that type of success or that type of outcomes?

Dale (15:51):

Well, I think it would be different, you know, on an NFL team, but in a high school, it's all different guys every year. So the coaches maybe say all well, yeah, we won a state championship. That's you know, that was our goal. We can relax, but it's all new guys in high school. So if you're in high school now it's your senior year well you only get one chance at your senior year. So as a coach, you've got to understand that those are the guys that it's all about. So this year is by far, the only year that's important and that's the most important year. So, so what happened in the past really doesn't matter at all. It's just these guys playing on this team. So if you're going to be a high school coach, I really think you have to say, okay, it's all a series of one years. This year is the only year, this year.

Nate (16:49):

Yeah, no, that's good. That's good. I know. I'm sure you played multiple sports along the way then obviously at the college level with baseball changing gears for a second, who would be one or two coaches in your path that really had an impact on you that built into you and you feel like, Hey, I'm different because I was coached by this, this man.

Dale (17:12):

Well, there have been just a tremendous amount, a great influences on my life from all my youth coaches, middle school, freshmen, high school, varsity coaches, the head coaches I coached under the assistant coaches that I coach with the players themselves had a tremendous impact on me. But really by far the most important impacts that people that have coached me they've had the most important impact on my coaching or, you know, the two women, my, my mom and my wife, Patty, you know, both of them were intelligent, energetic, hard, working, loving people who cared a lot about me, but also sharpened me. You know, if I was doing something wrong, weren't shy to say, gosh, you could do this better. So I do feel a great impact from all the people who have coached me, but really those are the two that by far have coached me the most. And really my mom for my first, you know, 20 plus years in my wife room, it will last 40 plus years.

Nate (18:35):

That's great. Yeah. That's awesome. Could you take maybe one or two nuggets that you took away maybe from your mom or one of the main, again, I know there's probably a thousand for both, but might there be one or two nuggets that you took you know, from your mom, for example, that really, that stayed with you even to today as a principal, etc

Dale (18:56):

Well you know, some, some of the things from you know, like my mom, you know, I mentioned her battle hunting up, you know, when she was struggling with cancer and she had such a great positive attitude towards the end. She was living with me and we were going out to a restaurant and she was in a wheelchair and we're going across the street in the wheelchair. And it was a little bit of, a bit of a busy street. So I was kind of speeding up and I hit a bump and launched my mother out of the wheelchair phase first into this busy street. And, you know, you can picture being kind of ticked off when you're in a wheelchair and get launched out into a street. And my mother just thought it was the funniest thing is so positive towards me, kid me about it. And really what could have been one of my worst experiences in my life. I think of that moment, although I did something incredibly stupid, I think about it with such, you know, joy in the way that she responded. And so her response to me in that instant was you know, was, was such a positive thing for me. So, so to try to react positively, even when, you know, maybe somebody has done something stupid.

Nate (20:28):

Yeah. Oh man, that's really good. A new thing Katelyn and I have done for our family is to try to think of one word, a one word theme for our year. And it was interesting that you said that cause our, for our, for 2018, our word has been respond, it would apply in different ways. When, when tough things like getting launched into the street happens on how are you going to respond Positively?

Dale (20:49):

Sure.

Nate (20:49):

We're intentional in how we're going to respond to when hard things come, but also just taking action and responding to the needs or things that we see around us. And it's been really impactful to, as to how we react to respond is so critical just in, in all of life, but especially on a sports team or in coaching. How do you respond when, you know, your star quarterback, takes a sack, or throws a pick or whatever, like what, what he, what he receives when he gets back to the sideline can really get steer him one way or the other too

Dale (21:20):

Patty and I were with our, with our three older grandchildren and a couple of their friends in our minivan. We just bought this minivan, which wasn't new, but it was new for us. And it was, it's a nice mini van and we were at Newport on the levee and it's all loud and we're trying to, I'm trying, I mean, I'm driving and trying to be in a hurry. And as I park, I go and rub up against you know, concrete, one of the worst sounds. Yeah. And so, you know, it's dented in the side and Patty says to me, you know, if it was, it was going to happen sometime or other, you know, we were going to get a dent in it. So it's good to get it over with, well, what a wonderful way to respond. And so I, myself, through my life, I certainly haven't always positively responded. I know, like I said, my mother or how, you know, you're working on it. I have not always responded in, in positive ways. So for me to say, Oh yeah, I always respond. Like that would be a complete lie, but it's it's, it's been very helpful for me to see them who are two just tremendous impacts on my lie, impactful people in my life to respond such in positive.

Nate (22:41):

No, that's great. I know you said, how long have you at this point, what was your full on starting at Newport middle school? And so your last year at Highlands, how long were you? How long were you a coach?

Dale (22:54):

I think 33 years. Incredible. Yeah. Wow.

Nate (23:00):

Yeah. Well, over, over three decades, what would be a couple of, of big adjustments where by you're 30, I'm doing something totally different than when I, when I started out. Were there any kind of big shifts either in your, your mindset or how you went about things or what would be again, there was probably a hundreds of them, but where there maybe top two or three lessons or things you learned along the way that you really shifted your coaching and your last, last several years?

Dale (23:30):

Well, I really always had that same basic concept of trying to have a positive impact and getting as many guys out for the team, trying to play as many guys. I can remember Newport my withrow. My first year we would call three plays and we were our first series. We would run those three plays one after another, as fast as we could. And we would just call those three plays, regardless of the down and distance. That was what we were going to do the whole way and how we did have the option that we could have said, okay, back in the huddle. But we always had that idea. We wanted to play as fast as we could get as many plays. So, so we could just have as many guys in the game and playing as many things as possible. So, so really a lot of it stayed the same, but I was always seeing things that I had done wrong that I could have done better. You know, everybody that I coached, I saw that things that I did wrong, that I, I could have done better. One time when I, I was at Withrow, there were four guys that had been drinking before the, this school parade. It was like a homecoming parade during the school day. And they drank a bunch during the school day and it was obvious. And, you know, they were the principal had them in and the administration. She really wanted me to remove them from the team. And I did. Yeah. I removed him from the team and that's kind of, I think a politically correct thing to do now is nowadays somebody does something wrong. You have removed them from the team. You show them, you know, we're not gonna tolerate that, but I completely changed that. And I completely disagree with kicking guys off the team. I want to be inclusive, not exclusive. A friend of mine said, you know, we're a band of brothers. You just don't do that to your brothers. You know, you know, you don't break rules. You gotta, you gotta do what the team's doing. Well, you know, my own brother, I wouldn't kick him off the team if he was arrested for, for being drunk. I might be upset with him or if the same with me, he wouldn't kick me Out of the family. So, so after that, I never kicked anybody off the team. I might treat them harshly, but I still have accountability. There's consequences. That's right. That's right. But nobody was to be kicked off the team. I mean, there might be some terrible things you could do, but nobody ever did those kind of things. Yeah. But I really wanted to keep it guys on the team. Um you know, scheme wise, I, we changed some things scheme wise, early on. I always was under the center of the idea of being in a shotgun, taking a shotgun snap was it was foreign to me. Yeah. I never even really considered that quarterbacks that I coached Withrow would have been awesome because now in a quarterback, in a shotgun, you're going additional running back through. And it really wasn't until Jared Lorenzen's junior year, we played Moeller. And the first in this thing, we called the recreation bowl. We lost him 22 to 21 and we should have beat him, but we were under center all the time. And Jared said to me, could we try some shotgun stuff? And I said, gosh, well, you know, I've never really thought about it. You know, I said to him, well, how would that, you know, how would we run the counter? And he said, well, we could do it like this. And I went, Oh yeah, yeah. Well, how would we do the pitch? We couldn't do the pitch out of shotgun. He said, I could just take it and do this. And so he had thought it all through and I said, okay. So after that first game, we said, we'll do some, some under center and some shotgun, well, two games later. We were doing everything under the shotgun we got in, you know, in my later career we had a practice getting under center to spike it because we had never done that. Yeah. We couldn't do it.

Nate (27:51):

It speaks to the relationship you had in your chair that he felt the freedom to go to you and offer up some suggestions. I mean, that can be an intimidating thing as a player. I mean, you really have to have that rapport, even be able to have the guest to mention that to people. That's excellent. That's good. Obviously it worked out pretty well.

Dale (28:08):

Yeah. Yeah. It worked out better really for us. And it did for Jared, you know, I mean, Jared went on to play in the NFL and, and so it did work out for him to win a super bowl. But for us, it, it really transformed what we were doing authentically. The whole shotgun thing really helped us offensively.

Nate (28:29):

Well, not on a quick side note, if, if Jared ended up listening to this, that it's been really inspiring, to watch his journey the last year or so, and just pursuing a new level of, of just personal growth and health and just yeah. Encouraging rock on, man. It's been awesome to watch.

Dale (28:44):

Oh yeah. Jared is truly just one of the purely nicest and good people that I know. I mean, when he was high school quarterback, NFL player, he was always such a unselfish, low ego, just good person that, that as much cared about other people's successes.

Nate (29:10):

That's great. Yeah. That's good stuff. Well, let's we'll go ahead and, and, and wrap for this, for this part of the conversation. That's all we might do two different parts there. So we'll go ahead and wrap up this episode and then we'll talk more, we'll go to kinda come back and talk through handling kind of the family side. And, you know, you have a lot of different hats to wear as an AD and time was of a huge premium. And then, you know, how do we handle all that? So I'm gonna, I'm gonna wrap up for a second and then we're gonna get you one on the next.

Dale (29:38):

Great

Nate (29:55):

Well, there you have it guys. Part one with our conversation with coach Dale, Mueller, what a guy I love hanging out with him. He always has a smile on his face and there's just a joy about him. I know he's finishing strong as a grandfather these days. So grateful. He took a few minutes to share his heart and his coaching journey with us. Wow. Well, what about a couple of things? He, he uses sports as a way to have a positive impact on people and created a championship culture. You can't say the guy didn't care about winning. He was getting state titles left and right, but also had a way to really build those connections, build those relationships and have a generational impact. Wow. That was such a powerful vision for me. One that gets me excited. Well, I can't wait. Make sure you subscribe. So you don't miss this next episode. As we get part two, we get more of more of the personal family live with Dale, and then we have other episodes coming down the pipe as well. Before we go, I wanted to share a quick Bible verse Proverbs 27:17 says as one man as iron sharpens iron. So one man sharpens another. So let's make sure that we are encouraging, always learning, always growing. And also if you have leaders on your team that you want to send to leadership camp, go to nkyfca.org/camp until next time keep changing lives on your team and in your home.

"Oxygen for Your Soul" by Jon Gordon

nsallee@fca.org (Nate Sallee) — Mon, 06 Jul 2020 17:33:12 GMT

The Power of Words

Truett Cathy asked, "How do you know if a man or woman needs encouragement?"

He answered, "If they are breathing."

With so many suffocating in pessimism today we need encouragement, optimism and faith to provide us with oxygen for our souls.

The word encourage means "To put courage into." We all need to encourage and put courage into ourselves and others.

Today let's:

Attack This Day with Enthusiasm - The word enthusiasm comes from the root word "entheos" which means filled with the divine. Let's tap into a greater power and strength to keep going. Faith in God doesn't make life easier. It makes you stronger.

Feed the Positive and Weed the Negative - Your mind is like a Garden. You need to weed the negative and feed the positive each day to create a fertile environment that produces amazing fruit. The more you feed yourself with the positive the more you can feed others. If you don't have it, you can't share it. Weed, Feed, Share!

Be Thankful - You can't be stressed and thankful at the same time. When you are feeling blessed you can't be stressed. Think about what you are thankful for right now. Write it down. Think about it throughout the day.

Talk to Yourself instead of Listen to Yourself - Don't listen to the fear and negative thoughts that fill your mind with Doubt and Discouragement (two of the 5 D's). They are lies that try to hold you back and keep you from living your destiny and purpose. Instead speak truth to the lies. The truth is you are here for a reason. You are here to do great things and you have greatness inside of you. The truth is you will prevail through this time.

Live and Look Forward - Your vision is greater thank your circumstances and your purpose is greater than your challenges. Stop looking backwards. Your life isn't there anymore. You can't change the past, but you can find focus, optimism and peace in the present to create your future. Stop looking at the negativity on the screen and look up to the heavens. Then look out into your future and think about what you truly want to create. If you can see it you can create it. If you have a vision you also have the power to make it happen.

Someone told Zig Ziglar that motivation doesn't last to which he replied, "Neither does bathing. It's why you have to do it each day."

Encouragement works the same way. We are facing a difficult time. There's a lot of pain and suffering. The struggle is real but so is your power to overcome.

Remember to encourage and put courage into yourself and others each day. Don't worry about the future. Just encourage yourself daily and give your soul the oxygen it needs to be fully alive and thrive.

Stay Positive,

-Jon

jongordon.com

"How to Win With Your Time, Money, Family, and Team" Eric Sztanyo

nsallee@fca.org (Nate Sallee) — Tue, 23 Jun 2020 17:04:36 GMT

Ep. 35: Coach to Coach Podcast - Eric Sztanyo

Episode Info

Subscribe so you don't miss out on future episodes!

Eric Sztanyo, an FCA advisory board member and local business leader joins us on this episode of the Coach to Coach podcast.

He lives in Ft. Thomas with his home team which includes his lovely wife Witni and their 5 children.

At Boone County High School, Eric played both golf and baseball during his time and has some really encouraging points and insights as he shares about his time there. He also dives into some helpful tips after years of trial and error as he navigates marriage, family, work, and rest.

Topics:

- The role of the fear of failure

- The value of the coach's role during the teenage years

- Getting creative on finding rest so that you can be more productive

- How self-discipline with your time and money and translate into big wins for your team and family down the road

- Keeping perspective and priorities in a healthy place.

You can check out Eric on social media and his website:

Tik Tok: @manyo_the_realtor

Website: https://www.teamsztanyo.com/

Transcript

Nate (00:00):

This is the coach to coach podcast, episode number 35 game John

Music (00:21):

[inaudible].

Nate (00:23):

Hey, what's going on guys. Welcome to the coach to coach podcast. Where we believe every kid deserves a coach that cares, and every coach deserves someone in their corner. I'm your host, Nate Sallee. This podcast is sponsored by the Northern Kentucky fellowship of Christian athletes. We continue to be grateful for this incredible team that we have of donors, volunteers, prayer partners, and advisory board members. One of which we'll hear from later today. Hey, if you haven't already, we would so appreciate if you would just take a moment to leave us a review and hit that subscribe button. So you don't miss out on any new episodes coming down the pipe. As a reminder of the vision of this podcast, is to capture, the collective wisdom of coaches and leaders and Northern Kentucky, greater Cincinnati and beyond. So they'll all get better together because we believe a coach can win a ton of ball games, but also transform lives in the process, both in their home and their team, and even in their community. This episode, I'm so excited. We're going to have Eric Sztanyo. Eric is a Boone County native. He played multiple sports and now is just a awesome business leader. And one of our advisory board members, and he just spent a lot of time coaching his team of five at the home we, he has five kids, but as also learned a lot of really good things on how to handle a really tough schedule, like many coaches has, being in the real estate world. He just has some key insights on how to thrive personally, but also be really successful at what other, whatever team that you're leading. So I can't wait for you to hear from Eric and to hear a little bit of his story and his wisdom. I'm not going to leave you hanging any longer. Let's hop right in with our conversation with Eric Sztanyo. All right, guys, we are here with my man, Eric, Sztanyo, Eric, how are you doing this morning?

Eric (02:10):

I'm doing great. Thank you for having me.

Nate (02:12):

We're breaking into a little bit of a new category. You're a first FCA board member to be on the podcast and yeah, just, I would love to give a little bit of backstory on Eric and kind of your background. I know you're a Boone County grad, so just kind of give us the quick bio on Eric.

Eric (02:30):

Yeah. Quick bio. I'm married 14 years to my wife, Whitney. We live in Fort Thomas. Now we have five children ages nine, seven, four, two, and newborn. But yeah, grew up in actually grew up in Florence, Kentucky. My family moved down here in the late eighties. I was seven years old. Yeah. I went to Yealey went to Ockerman, went to Boone. I went to college in Nashville, but moved back here, actually did volunteer for a ministry called young life for five years after college and lived out in Anderson township for about eight years during doing that. And then as we started having kids, we wanted to move back to Kentucky and a little bit closer to grandparents, which is always nice. So that's, that's us. That's where we're at.

Nate (03:18):

Yeah. It's a smart move. Getting close to grandkids. I remember we talked when we first met, we connected just on the, on the baseball front a little bit. So I just would love to hear a little bit more. Maybe. I don't know, the, I don't know the full timeline, but maybe Ockerman Boone times. I know you probably had some coaches along the way. Did you play any other sports than baseball or what else did you play?

Eric (03:40):

Yeah. Yeah. A sports was huge for me. I was the youngest of three boys. My dad played sports. My grandpa played sports, so I played baseball and basketball through middle school. Um, I actually didn't, uh, carry basketball forward in to high school. And honestly that was like a, you know, we can talk about the coach there, but I was a year younger than the kids in my grade. And so honestly I was afraid to fail at that point. I mean, that's what it comes down to it. So I never tried out, but most all of my friends were the basketball players. And then I picked up, uh, I picked up golf, uh, and played golf in high school as well. And a big reason for that. My, my brother played golf, but also the golf coach was the JV baseball coach. So I was kind of planting the seed to try to get on the baseball team.

Nate (04:31):

Yeah, exactly. That's awesome. The deal. Yeah. You mentioned a couple of coaches there along your whole path, kind of through high school at any point, you know, who were, who would be one of the two, one or two coaches that really just stuck out to you that made an impact on you. Good or bad if it's negative, don't name names, but if it's awesome we want to hear that too.

Eric (04:54):

Yeah, yeah, no, to, uh, I was thinking about that, you know, the first one that really stood out was all the way back and Knothole, you know, being seven, eight years old, I had this coach, his name was Kevin and he was just fantastic, energetic. He didn't even have a son on the team. He just loved to coach. One of those guys, who's incredibly enthusiastic, had a nickname for everybody. Everyone wanted to play. And the big thing with him, which was amazing looking back on it is like he took a handful of us every summer after the season, we would go and travel to a major league baseball city and go watch a game. So we would take our parents, our parents would go, or one of our parents and there'd be a crew of maybe like 10 of us, you know? And we went to Chicago and Cleveland and St. Louis, I think Atlanta and Milwaukee, like we wouldn't all to all these different ballparks. It was incredibly, that was incredible. Like my love for the sport and baseball is just, so that was like, just when I look back on that, how, I don't know the memories of that are just incredible. Um, and then getting into the other coach, I feel like had big impact on me was, uh, Jay Maulchy at Boone County. So he's known for being the basketball coach there for, you know, I don't know how many years, probably 20 plus years. And his son was, uh, his youngest son, Kyle, I graduated with in 99. And again, that was one of the reasons I didn't try out for basketball was like his son was on the team and there was a slew of other guards. I'm like, Oh man, I'm hitting the coaches, sons competition. I don't know if I'm gonna make it. But honestly, like he, he always encouraged me to try it. I never did. It's actually one of the regrets I have like looking back on high school, but then he was my baseball coach, my senior year, just his values of hard work, discipline, character, integrity, all of the things that like when you're a high school idiot kid, like you don't really appreciate. And you're like, man, I don't want to run these stairs or whatever. You know, you're just like frustrated about looking back. I just, all those things were not only helpful for that the season and the coaching, but I'm sure you hear this all the time from people on the podcast, but yeah, those, those are the characteristics that when I'm looking at my sons, I have four sons now I'm like, these are the things I want them to learn. And, uh, sports are such obviously a fantastic way to teach those traits. And I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir here, you know, all the coaches listening, but, um, yeah, those things have stood. So with me and I often they often come to mind different lessons from that time period. Yeah.

Nate (07:32):

Yeah. That's great. Well, a couple of things I took away where you're Knothole coach, I think there's something really important and foundational about bringing that energy, the enthusiasm, you know, having the joy injected into the game, making sure the kids are having fun, just so that there's like this an intrinsic love for the game as a foundation. And then later on in high school, that's when you start really, it's more of the, we're going to work our tail off, grind it out, you know, grow even if it looks like discipline and some unpleasant things. But by that time, hopefully you love the game so much that you're willing to go through those hard things to just to get better, even if you don't love it at the moment. So I just, it's really cool. Just that progression of having that good foundation and then being able to push and challenge more once that's already laid. And that's great.

Eric (08:19):

Yeah. You know, just one other thing to cap that off that I'm thinking about is, you know, looking back at me as a teenager and even into college, I was afraid to fail. Like that was something I was afraid to fail. You know, I was kind of a perfectionist kid and a lot of, a lot of kids might have that tendency having those different coaches, you know, thinking about, uh, coach Maulchay in particular encouraged, you know, those were foundational moments that I go back to now of like, Oh no, you push it's okay to fail. It's okay to lose. It's worse to in those are the regrets I have going back and like not trying, that's like the real failure. And now that I'm later in life and I'm carrying that into being a father and a husband and a business owner, I've been able to have enough failure in my life where I'm actually grateful for it now. Um, because I know when I fail, it's like, okay, now I can diagnose what I did wrong and, and get better and push and push forward and learn from it. So yeah. All of those were integrated with those coaches. I'm really grateful for that.

Nate (09:25):

Yeah. That is a big, I had similar points to that, the fear of failure or just so it's so deep and a lot of kids probably wouldn't even articulate it when it's going on of why they're choosing to do certain things, but probably in their heart of hearts. It's because I don't want to look bad. I'm insecure. I don't want to be embarrassed at any point. And I was thinking as, as a coach, if the more we could do to try to remove some of that fear of failure could really empower some kids. And I think a lot of it has to do with kind of one of the things that this podcast has been only to capture the heart and have the relational connection with the kid. And then they trust you when you say, Hey, it's okay to fail right here. Hey, we're trying to, we're trying to teach you how to hit the ball the opposite way you might Duff three balls right now. And it's okay because we're going to figure this out kind of deal. And it's given it providing a safe place, man. That's so good. I would say the same thing, you know, you know, part of why, um, Eric's on the show today is, Hey, he has a great, great heart for sports and a great heart for the ministry of FCA. Uh, but also just some, some really key things that he's been able to, uh, test and Lifehack and figure out through trial and error. And there's, there's two things that I've talked about with a lot of coaches that dude, I have zero time, like time was a big stressor for me and my family. You know, how do we manage that? And then we'll also get into, uh, some tips a little bit later on the real estate side. Cause Eric is our real estate agent. And, um, is also just in kind of the finance world a little bit, might have some tips on how do we maximize our finances as well. Cause there's kind of an ongoing joke that you certainly don't coach for the money. So that's for sure don't ever divvy out the hourly rate for your stipend that you get. Um, cool. Well, yeah, so dad five, you pretty much have your own basketball team, even though they're not playing basketball, you're not leading an athletic program, but you've had to figure out some ways to have a full time job. Now you're kind of owning your own business a lot of ways. How do you, how do you pursue health? Hey, you want to be very successful in the business side, but also healthy on the home front thriving marriage and not be completely fried. So what are a couple of ways that you've been able to sort of hack those on paper, which looked like you couldn't have it all, but w what are some learnings along the way?

Eric (11:44):

Yeah, that's a great question. Yeah. I know coaches their time is, you know, crazy, especially when you're in season. It feels like when you have five kids under 10, that I'm in season all the time. It's a, yeah, it's, it's a lot. It is a lot, you know, to do that and run the business. And in my mind, shift, you know, my mindset shifted, uh, you know, a lot when we were running after one of my wife and I, we met through that young life ministry. We were very, very ministry oriented and we were living a very kind of single narrative, single life narrative. And that we were, we were volunteering, volunteering like upwards of 30 hours a week, or more trying to run after these high school students and get them the good news of the gospel. So we learned some time things there, but then when you shift that over to the family narrative, everything kind of changed. You know, it's a much different culture for us early on. We were able to get around some families that were a little bit past us, which has always been extremely helpful for us being around families who are maybe three, five, seven years down the road and kind of like hack their best tips. Um, one of the first ones we got was a family who was implementing and practicing a Sabbath. Uh, every week I, I grew up in the church and knew about the Sabbath, and we went to church every week, but like the concept of, you know, so we did the church morning thing, but then it was just kind of like a normal day. But th th the idea of having an entire day of rest was a new concept to my wife and I, but we've been practicing it now for probably 13 years. And when we first started, it was incredibly bizarre and difficult, and we had no idea. We actually had no idea how to rest. Like it was incredibly difficult because we couldn't turn off our brains. Like all of the things we knew we needed to do were just stacking up and putting pressure on us and causing us stress. And it's like, this is terrible. I hate this. Like, I don't want to do this. And then we just, we kind of just pushed through that and we're like, look, this is, this is not only in the Bible. Like, this is a, this is a 10, this is like on the top 10 list, right. This is a 10 commandment. Like we need to keep pushing through and trying to figure this thing out. And eventually what happened over time was, um, we started to learn how to rest a little bit better. And, uh, we noticed that if we didn't have that day in the week, the rest of the week went really bad. And that was like a big aha for us. Like, Oh, wait a minute. We're actually getting recharged that something's happening on this day. There's something special about this time. And whether it's a full day or, you know, if you can't pull off a full day, I don't, I don't think that really matters necessarily. Even if you like, can carve out just a little bit of chunk of time to reset, we realized like it was having a big impact on our week. And so then it shifted from like this thing, like we were trying to do to, to the thing that like, no, we have to do this. It began, you know, that analogy where, um, you stick the rocks in the jar and then you like stick the smaller rocks in the jar. And then like the pebbles and the sand and the water, like, it may be, it probably started out for us as the water, you know, like the last thing you put in, and then it completely flipped for us as we started to appreciate the value of it and the, the, the blessing of it. Um, and it became the big rock. And so like, when we looked at our week and planned out our week, the Sabbath became the rock we put in first. And there's all kinds of ramifications to that, right? Like if you're going to take some time or take an entire day where you're shutting it down, and for us, that means turning off our phone, shut it off the email. Like as much as we possibly can. We're, we're, we're turning off the distractions of the world and we're also making it like super enjoyable. We have like good food and we, you know, that's, that's the day we do a lot of fun things with the kids now and go for hikes. And like all the things we actually like enjoy to do, we spend time reading the Bible with the kids, you know, cause we have time on that day, but then you have to figure that out the rest of the week, obviously, right? Like, because your week doesn't stop, you just have to plan for it. You just have to plan back. You just kind of reverse engineer and plan back. And so we've been able to, to kind of figure that out. And I think I was reading Mark were reading Mark in a Bible study I'm in this week actually. And you know, Jesus is saying, Hey guys, you don't get it. Like the man wasn't made for the Sabbath, right. The Sabbath was made for man. Like God put this in the first week of creation. And he said, you're my image bearer. I want you to do this too. You know, on the seventh day he rested and Jesus is like, this is for you. And that was such a, you know, a light bulb moment for us. I mean, you can read some of those things in the Bible and you can kind of like cognitively agree with them, but until you actually put your faith in it and like, you have to figure out how can I actually get seven days of work into six days? And you're, if you try it, like, you're literally saying to God, God, I need you somehow to miraculously do the math with my time that you're going to get more done in these six days than I could do in seven. Yeah. I mean, for us, we've just, it's proven to be like so many things we've tested, put God to the test on, uh, it's proven itself to be true. It's proven to be life giving and refreshing the pinnacle of our week every week. Yeah. That's, that's something that's fantastic for my family. And then I'm training my kids in it. Like they're going to be, you know, they're going to have that, you know, rhythm as they grow up and get married and have kids as well. So it's yeah, that's, that's maybe why it's

Eric (17:49):

Weird to think of that as a time hack, you know

Nate (17:55):

it's a little bit counterintuitive, but it's, we've totally seen results from it as well. Like there was times in volleyball season, Katelyn's coaching at Highlands. And a lot of times with our kind of our off day, our Sabbath day is Saturday and we'll go get Krispy Kreme donuts. We'll drive all the way to Anderson. We don't care. We want some fresh, hot Krispy Kremes and the kids love it. We, you know, we make it, uh, make it a thing where we turn it off and we've seen some good things from it. So in season, and she's got a tournament on Saturday and that's not happening, we got to adjust and make it work and get creative that way. But what's been interesting is how much we're able to do when we have to, I don't know what the name of it. There's some principle out there. It's like, if you have two hours to do something, you'll take two hours to do it. If you have 30 minutes to do something, you'll take 30 minutes to do it on a lot. Certainly that breaks down at some point. But in general, when we have, when we have a time constraint, a lot of times we'll figure out how to get it done. So just on a practical level, I just, I was just seeing the ability to, to compress it and also cut out some of the, some of the fat, some of the stuff that doesn't really matter, that kind of expands and find your way into your day. Like you're probably not going to be doing some time-waster stuff when, you know, Hey, I'm about to take a whole day off or even a half day. Sometimes. Yes. Another thing, one of our other guests Brian's Tome from crossroads has a great picture. I guess if you're in a fight and you're boxing and your arm was completely extended out, like you had thrown a punch, but your arms still totally out like the end of the punch and you just keep trying to like punch forward without ever like recoiling and bringing your arm back then, you're never gonna, you're actually gonna do better. If you take some time to kind of recoil and recharge, you actually be more productive. And I just kind of flies in the face of, of our typical athletic culture. More is always better. Just keep going, keep grinding business world athletic world. It's been proven, like taking breaks actually is good. Like there's a reason you can't just do all four sets of your bench press back to back to back. Like your muscles would just, they just can't do it. They're not designed to do it. So I think it's a really interesting, yeah, counterintuitive, but I, we seen totally a higher level of, of health personally, relationally, it's been better as a family. And then, you know, there is, there's something to be said for, Hey, there's that deadline, if you'd go ahead and put that open block on your schedule and you hold to it, it kind of has that, that deadline field where like, okay, now I have to get, what's the most important things to get done so that I can have can have this.

Eric (20:29):

And so again yep. Yeah. And it's, you know, that's such a good way to put it. It's counterintuitive, but that's the nature of the kingdom of God, right? It's always like this upside down thing and then you do it and you're like, Oh, that shouldn't have made sense, but it does. And you're right. And you know, towards the end of the, we do it from Friday night to Saturday night, which I know for a lot of coaches is probably unrealistic. It's, you know, it's weird for real, I'm a real estate agent. And so, you know, it's probably a kind of a crazy time as well, because house has go on the market and people want to go see them. And Saturday mornings a big data show houses. But I just tell my clients, I'm like, look, this is, this is just, I set the expectation with my clients as much as I can now, sometimes things bleed into it and you know, there are timeliness and contracts that have to be done, but we do our best to protect that time. And, and to your point, yeah, I'm Friday afternoon when I know it's, it's like when you're running that last lap or you know, that final sprint of a race when you're heading towards, cause you look forward to it so much and you're like, so you work real hard at the end of your week. And then you're like, ah, yes. Now I can enjoy this time and rest and recharge exactly like you're saying

Nate (21:37):

And something just for me, a couple of practical things that I've picked up is making sure that nothing urgent, like I could in my own mind, know that nothing urgent needs to happen for the next, whatever it is, you know, in the off season, especially I can, I have that. We have that full 24 hours and I can go to sleep at night knowing that there isn't an email that's left hanging. There isn't anything else that's left unprocessed. Like I'll even take that last half hour of the day. He's like, is there anything that needs to be done in the next 24 hours? Knock that out. And I can, I can go into that rest time. That's a great way for me to shut my mind off is knowing I've kind of covered myself. Like there's nothing that's, can't be done after this is over. And then for me, another way to just try to mentally switch from work mode to family mode or just personal mode, if you're single is I'll come home and I'll be having my whole like kind of FCA gear outfit on I'll come home. And before I go in, I'll have to mentally kind of coach myself up on. Okay. All right. Now for me, it's being a husband, being a dad, you know, loving my family and I'll be FCA area director here in another day or so, and then I'll go and actually change clothes too. So the FCA polo comes off and I just get into something comfortable. And it's almost like that wardrobe change represents something to where I can actually mentally get into a different spot too, because I think that it's probably, it sounds like what it was for you too early on. If you're trying to have a Sabbath or, you know, this big block of time for rest, you can be there at home with family or be home, you know, chill, but mentally your mind can still be going 90 miles an hour on work stuff. And so just trying to find those ways to flip the switch.

Eric (23:19):

Yeah. It would be important. Sure. Another, another big tool in our tool belt in terms of how we manage our week and five kids and business and all that, um, just real quickly on this is, uh, I have, uh, my wife and I have a family meeting every single week where it's like laptops out, Google calendar open. Um, you know, we're, we're trying to, to kind of really plot out the next week or two, because if we're going to have a Sabbath, we got to figure out where we're going to do all the other things. And recently in the past few years, another piece of that has been, we use a Trello board. I don't know, you know, some people might be familiar with Trello, but it's really just a task management kind of. Yes, exactly. And, and inside of our home, even. So I'm taking a lot of the tools and skills I use in my business life, or, you know, in your teaching or coaching life, take those home with you, you know, and now we're prioritizing tasks. And like with my wife, we're like, okay, what are we going? And, and you know, some of the w usually our Sunday is our like home work day. And when you've got a two year old and a toddler, like the honeydew list, you can only do like two things. You know, if that before the two year old has like re wrecked and undone everything, you've, you've just, just tried to do so. But we, we talked through and that's part of the priority is like, okay, I'm going to do this one thing, a Witni. And then I'm going to watch Miriam our two year old for the next two hours or whatever, you know, that we have that meeting. Um, we, you know, pretty much every week that, and that's a really big help to our family. It's, it's hard. It can get tense. Cause there's like so much you're trying to get in, get done during that time. And the kids are all, you know, screaming or whatever, but, um, that's been a really big tool for us as well in terms of how do we actually plot through and manage the week and stay sane and, and get the top things done. We need to get done.

Nate (25:15):

That's awesome. Yeah. Thanks for sharing. Good stuff. Yeah. I want to touch on the kind of financial side as well. Just want to, yeah. Tap in, pick your brain a little bit on the, on the real estate side. We, you know, we'll have anywhere from a college kid. Who's just starting out coaching. Yeah. It's got a separate job. Then we have a lot of coaches that are teaching and coaching or maybe retired coach. So I know any tip you give what an apply across the board to all his different life stages, but what would be one or two kind of just real estate tips that could really have a big ROI, um, and just help kind of financially in the longterm.

Eric (25:51):

That's a good question. I mean, I think, again, this goes back, uh, in my story, we were living kind of a very mother Teresa-esque like narrative, when we were doing young life, it was like simple, have no money and just pour yourself out for people. And I, and I think there's so much value in that lifestyle. However, once we, once I got married and started having kids, the narrative shifted, right. And it's like, Oh, it might be really helpful to have money for, to feed my children, you know, um, volunteer youth ministry doesn't pay the bills, all that. Well, um, for us, yeah, there was, there was some education that happened early on, you know, a lot of people out there may have read the book, rich dad, poor dad, if you haven't, you know, I recommend that. But you know, the big takeaway from that book is kind of, um, buy assets and not liabilities. Right. That's a big one. So, um, how do you save money to buy things that could make you more money and potentially free up more of your time, as opposed to always trying to buy the newer fancier thing? For, for me personally, I actually learned this from my parents at a young age, but I became a really good saver of money. You know, I'm probably like the cheapest real estate agent in my office. Like my car looks like it has leprosy. Like I have a, I drive a 2004 Hyundai Elantra that has, is about to pass its 200,000 mile birthday. And like, and, and, and think about this for a minute. Like, I, you know, I live in real estate agent world at my office where everyone's about like image and prestige. And so there's rolling up in a BMW man. Everyone's got BMWs and Lexus and Teslas, and here I roll up in my like jalopy, you know, but I, that thing has been paid off since 2010. Like I haven't had a car payment on that thing, you know, minus maybe little maintenance things here and there for 10 years, I did the math on that recently. I'm like, I'm just say $30,000. Oh, I could buy a duplex with $30,000, like, which, and I did like, like, I didn't realize that, but there was other things, you know, things like that I've done in my life. Like, you know, I've, I've gone to like 20 Chick-fil-A grand openings. You know, I started this, uh, where they give you free coupons. You know, if you camp out on their concrete, it's like, it's like a, for a year, right? Yeah. You get like 50, you get a couple hundred bucks worth of food, certain point in my life that was totally worth it. And, and it still is like, anytime there's one around here, I'm going to it and not taking my kids. But I did. I like for Ray, I'm a huge reds fan, right. Four years, uh, I started this little bobble head racket where, you know, they're giving up the free bobbleheads at different games. And, and when they first started doing that, I would see these dudes carrying these garbage bags, like across the river, like leaving the stadium. I was like, what are those guys doing? And I came home one night and I, eBay'd like, Whoa, like I wonder if they're like on eBay and it's being sold for like $30. I was like, I immediately clicked on my little, like a entrepreneur brain. And for the next like five years, the day tickets would go on sale. The reds game. I would like buy every $5 seat I could for all the bobblehead games. And I'd call up all my friends and say, Hey, I got a free ticket with you for you. We can hang out, mark, your calendar, I just get the bobblehead. So like, yeah. And then that worked great until we all started getting married and having kids. And it's like, Eric, this nosebleed seats really not worth the two and a half hours before the game I have to be here. That's like that, you know, all of that was like, I was, um, I'm constantly looking for things like that. Where can I save money so that I can transfer it over? Like, I'm, I'm trying to, um, I want to buy assets for me, you know, uh, that has turned into more real estate, like, you know, in recent years, but I want to buy things that have the ability to grow. Because one day my milestones, I don't get a retirement as a real estate agent. Right. They don't, that's not a thing you're self employed. So I've got to figure out some other way to, um, create income for my family and my kids. So if I were to give one piece of advice on the real estate side, I know I've been talking a long time here. I tell every young man, I meet that you should buy a duplex. Like if you're getting married or even if you have roommates and you can do it figure. And for me, that was honest, that was borrowing money. Like I didn't have the money. My parents would help me buy like our first home and I'm still paying them back. Like, that's a thing, a buy a duplex is such, it's, it's such a way to get your foot in the door. The other, the person that's living on the other side is essentially paying your mortgage. And now you can either live there for as long as it makes sense. And then when you move out, you rent it out and you've got something that's giving you a couple hundred bucks every single month like that. I think that's a no brainer and, and a great thing to do when you're young, even when you're not young, like that whole idea of house hacking buying some rental real estate is such a, such a good idea that will start to build momentum for you.

Nate (31:16):

Yeah. And another thing too, obviously I'm not in your, in your position, but something that we just did personally on the other side of it is to always kind of shop around the mortgage interest rate. Yeah. Cause we just refinanced to, from a, it was a 30 year loan that we were just tell you, it was 26 years left and we refinanced for a 15 year and we were more than a 1% drop in the interest rate. So we, we increased our month, our monthly mortgage payment by a little bit, but we dropped 11 years off of, the previous loan. And I did the math on that. And that was like, that was going to be a hundred thousand dollars swing over the course of 30 years. But I didn't even really know to even look for that until I got to talking with people like you to even just think through some of those things. So it's awesome. Yeah, it is. No, it's, it's just, you know, this stuff's important. This is as coaches. Cause we all, you know, with those of us, with kids, we love our kids. We want the best for them now and down the road too. So it just, there's some things now it might feel like, well, I have a fixed income as a teacher. There's the pension. Like, there's really nothing. There's no wiggle room, but there actually is some pretty cool things that, that can be done to really set you up for success.

Eric (32:25):

Yeah. And you know, if you hear the pattern of what I'm saying, it's, it's kind of self-discipline with how you're spending, um, not having shame or like trying to keep up with other people, you know? Um, and, and some don't want to do that and I get it. Like a lot of people don't want to do that. I got a lot of Americans don't want to, um, you know, a lot of Americans are in debt, you know, like it's like pretty clear and they were influenced by marketing and advertising and culture. And so you kind of have to go against the grain to do this. Um, you know, the, there's another book called the millionaire next door. Uh, and it's the big idea of the book is like millionaires. When you poll them, they look nothing like what you think a millionaire looks like, the guy who's driving a fancier car and is like wearing a Rolex is usually broke. And the guy who's driving a Ford ranger, that's beat up and like living in a modest, like three bedroom, one bath ranch is like, multi-millionaire, that's like literally the stats on it too. And, and so we kind of have to, you know, part of that is just shifting your mindset and not being caught up in the, you know, in the race of culture and all that.

Nate (33:44):

Yeah. It's a big one and we've even, we've even had, you know, we're still growing in it, but we, yeah. Budgeting and different things. That's probably a whole separate episode, but just planning for splurge stuff too. Like you put it in the budget for like blow money, like Katelyn and I both have a certain amount. It's not a lot, but it's like, Hey, I have, there is zero judgment. Here's your money. You can spend it on whatever the heck you want. And you're not going to hear anything back from me and vice versa. And so kind of injecting some freedom in that, to where you don't feel it, where it's only restricted. Like, Hey, we're going to go ahead and plan and not feel bad about going out on a date night to this restaurant or whatever, because we've already planned for it. And we know that it's within our, our means, so that's, that's really good.

Eric (34:25):

That's so good. I mean, you know, to the, the budget we have on childcare and date night right now is so much higher than I would ever have wanted it to be like, but you've got to weigh these. You've got to weigh these things, right. This is going back to the same idea of the Sabbaths of like how much value are you getting when you are recharged like that? Well, the same thing goes, if my wife is mothering five kids and homeschooling them at home, like if I don't spend money on some, like some nanny help, uh, and, or like a date night where she can actually go get out of the house and be a human being and being an adult for, you know, like the even though for me, like as a non spender, the budget, I've had to change my mindset on that because like that, the value of that for my marriage and the value of that for her being a mother, you know, you, you've got to work that stuff into, so that blow money, you know, whatever you want to call that category. I would, yeah. While I'm saying like, yeah, save it. I'm not saying save every nickel. Like you need to make strategic investments, choices. Yeah. W with, with how you're spending so that you're building more into your marriage, you're building more into your kids. Um, you know, it all comes down kind of back to your family vision.

Nate (35:47):

Yeah. It's great stuff. Well, Hey, Eric, thanks so much for bringing it. I hope it's been helpful. Uh, just on the, on the time side and on the money, sending notes, two big things that we're always kind of working with just as humans, but certainly coaches as well, just kind of the stress is, can be pretty high on those two fronts. How can people kind of check you out, you know, website, social media, different things, and just kind of learn more about you?

Eric (36:10):

Yeah. Well, first I just want to say thanks for having me, Nate. I don't know if I bring any credibility to this podcast or not, but I appreciate you having me on, and I want to say thank you to all the coaches out there who are, who are busting it, and doing really good work and, and investing into the kids. I mean, um, I'm a beneficiary of that in my life and I'm really grateful and thankful for those coaches who were there for me. And so I just want to encourage you guys who are out there and girls, uh, coaching. I just want to say thank you and keep going because, um, certainly you've had an impact on, on, on my life. And I appreciate that. Yeah. You know, you can find me on different social things. My last name, I guess you'll probably have it spelled weird, but it's teamSztanyoyo.com is kind of my agent site. And then I'm also like a cash buying site, which is we buy N K Y houses.com. And then, and then, and you can find me on ticktock where Nate and I are hanging out and making funny dance videos.

Nate (37:14):

that's right. Nickname from my Boone County high school days. So I brought it back. I love it. Well I've even if I wasn't, I'm not, obviously not in the market at the moment, I'm just, I've just loved reading some of your stuff. Cause you just have the heart of a teacher. So I'm just always, I'm learning one minute at a time on tick-tock and then different articles and stuff on, on your website. So I just love that. You're always trying to push helpful stuff out, uh, informational and, and, and just serving in that way. So yeah, I mean, just appreciate you as a friend, a supporter of FCA and just all the wisdom that we've, we've swapped back and forth. And gosh, I think, I think we'd go back working on seven or eight years now, but, uh, yeah, I just so appreciate you guys and looking forward to what God has for our families FCA and the coaches that'll be listening to this. Thank you.

Music (38:06):

[inaudible]

Nate (38:13):

Well, there it is guys, our conversation with Eric, a couple of things that really stuck out to me was the fear of failure that he experienced as a student athlete that he shared. And as coaches, I think that's one of the most important things that we could try to lower is the fear of failure and creating that safe environment. And it was really cool just to hear some of the coaches that are really impacted his life along the, a couple of the tips that really stuck out to me as well was just this ongoing theme of self-discipline being intentional with your time and with your money. And that translates into so many parts of life. And I believe is really key to having just a thriving, personal family life, but also getting it done on the court or on the field as well. I'll hope you were taking some notes and have some plans to, Hey, maybe take a Sabbath, maybe take a, either a chunk of time or that whole day and try that out and see what that feels like. See if you don't come back more refreshed and more ready to go, and then maybe revisit some financial stuff too, that might relieve some of the stress that you have on a day to day basis. I know that can be a stressor for me at times, if I'm not intentional and wise about it and then share with at least one person who you think might benefit from podcasts, that would do so much to help us get the word out, to help more coaches and to support the show so we can get more content out. But until next time, keep growing, keep learning, keep changing lives on your team and in your home.

"Lower the Burden of Your Admin Work"

nsallee@fca.org (Nate Sallee) — Thu, 11 Jun 2020 18:47:37 GMT

Ep. 34: Coach to Coach Podcast - Kevin Cristello

Episode Info

Subscribe so you don't miss out on future episodes!

Kevin Cristello, Assistant Athletic Director for Football at Virginia Tech University joins on the podcast.

Kevin shares how coaches can streamline their admin/operations work so that they can have more time for the best parts of the job...the players, and the game.

We've never heard a coach say they stopped coaching because they stopped loving the game or the kids...it's usually something outside of that. One of the struggles we've heard about is the amount of admin, paperwork, and secondary work that has to be done to run a program. Hopefully, this helps!

Topics:

- Ways coaches he had impacted him

- Handling job transitions

- How to set yourself up for success when it comes to admin

- Getting the right kind of help

- Improving year after year

- Hilarious recruiting story :)

Playing career:

- 2 sport athlete at Simon Kenton High School

- 4-year Defensive Lineman at Morehead State University

Coaching stops:

- Morehead State

- East Carter HS

- Kentucky Christian University

- Eastern Kentucky University

- Nebraska University

- Coastal Carolina

- Virginia Tech

--------

“There’s a difference between taking pride in your work and having an ego that’s not open to feedback on how to make something better.” - Kevin Cristello

Transcript

Nate (00:00):

This is the coach to coach podcast, episode number 34 Game Time.

Music (00:22):

[inaudible].

Nate (00:22):

Hey, what's going on guys, welcome to the coach to coach podcast, where we believe every kid deserves a coach that cares, and every coach deserves someone in their corner. I'm your host, Nate Sallee. And this podcast is sponsored by the Northern Kentucky fellowship of Christian athletes. Once again, we are so grateful to our donors, our prayer partners, our leaders, our advisory board. So many incredible people that have linked arms with us in recent years to see the movement of God that is Northern Kentucky FCA and the life change that we experience on a regular basis. Hey, real quick, before we get going, if you found value in previous episodes, could you take just a moment and give us a rating on whatever app you're using? It would really help us get the word out and serve more coaches. As a reminder, the purpose of this podcast is to capture the collective wisdom and Northern Kentucky, greater Cincinnati and beyond so that we can all get better together. It's possible to lead a high performing team and also transform lives in the process, but it takes intentionality and it takes one another. I'm so excited for this episode. We are talking with Kevin Cristello. Kevin is currently assistant athletic director for football operations at Virginia tech university. He is a Northern Kentucky native, went to Simon Kenton high school and has had several stops along the way, including Eastern Kentucky university, Nebraska, coastal Carolina, a couple of others that I'll let him get into it, but he has a lot of wisdom to bring to the table when it comes to the side that isn't maybe as fun or intuitive for everybody as coaches. And it's the admin, the operations, how do we maximize our time and get things done in a way where we can focus on the things that we got into coaching in the first place, the players, the game itself, trying to really enjoy that. And he has some great insights on how we can maximize our time and empower others, and really be able to hopefully just enjoy coaching at a whole new level and lighten the load a little bit off of the shoulders when it comes to gosh, all the red tape and the paperwork, everything else, he just has some great philosophies on things that he's learned over years of experience at different levels on how to just navigate all of those different things. So I'm not going to hold you off any longer. Let's hop right in to our conversation with Kevin Christello... All right, guys. We are here with Kevin Christello. Kevin, how are you doing today? Doing well, How about yourself? We're hanging in there. We're we're zooming it up. Just like you've been most the day as well. Just to give our listeners a little bit of a bio. I've known Kevin since college years, but to know kind of, kind of his quick background, I know you started out at, grew up in independence. Did you go to Twenhofel middle school?

Kevin (03:12):

Oh, I actually grew up in Morning View, Kentucky. Okay. Yeah.

Nate (03:16):

Technically morning view. That's right. Yeah. There's like Demossville, Morning View and different pockets. I don't want to not, uh, not include those. So I went to yeah, grew up in morning mornings view Twenhofel, Simon Kenton, stand out football player went to Morehead state university, which is where we met his wife. Erin was the, she was the maid of honor in our wedding. We ended up just having a cool, cool time there. Then you go on. You stay on as a GA Morehead. And then I think I have this right. Is it, is it East Carter and then KCU

Kevin (03:48):

it was KCU first.

Nate (03:50):

KCU first. And then East Carter and then gosh. Yeah, bring me up to speed on the, on the other stops.

Kevin (03:56):

Then I went to Eastern Kentucky university. I was there for about six years as a director of football ops, got an opportunity to go out to university of Nebraska and be assistant director of football operations out there. Was there for a short 12 months stay. Um, then got a job at coastal Carolina university was there for two years as a couple of different roles there, both in recruiting and in football ops, chief of staff eventually. And now I am a assistant A.D. For football at Virginia tech.

Nate (04:28):

Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah. I've been really excited for you guys. You're just now getting your, getting your feet wet there, Virginia tech, and that's right. When all those Corona stuff hit as well. So you're probably still kind of just finding your bearings, aren't you?

Kevin (04:39):

Yeah. I'm still trying to figure out, um, whenever, you know, I've been in a couple of different levels, uh, whenever you get to the power five level, you no longer, um, have one or two people that can answer what you have to answer. Uh, for example, I can compliance. There's not one or two people. There's eight to 10 people. So just trying to navigate narrow that down, who handles what still, uh, in different areas of academics and all different styles.

Nate (05:05):

Yeah, that's good. Well, let's go back to kind of life as a athlete, growing up through the ranks, we just mentioned all the different stops you had on post your playing career. But I know you've played under several different programs and teams and coaches growing up. Who, who do you think really left a Mark on you as a coach and why?

Kevin (05:29):

Well, I, uh, I'll say this Nate. I, uh, actually being from the great state of Kentucky, had hoop dreams my entire life, uh, only played football really my senior year and kinda crazy how it kind of led me to the path I'm in now. But you know, growing up, playing basketball, I would have to say my dad kind of was my coach, which was good and bad. Uh, kind of, I remember this because he was all, he was hard on me because he wanted me to do well. Um, and then when I started playing football, he knew nothing about football. Never played it. Parents wouldn't let them. And I do remember him telling me after one game and I'll never forget it. And I'll probably tell my kids, unfortunately, but he said, I don't know anything about football, but all I can tell you is if that's the kind of effort you're going to give, then you better change it.

Nate (06:18):

Simple and clear.

Kevin (06:20):

Simple and clear. And I understood it because, you know, um, he was, he was very, uh, passionate about working hard didn't care if you were good. He obviously wanted me to be good, but he cared more about the product of what basically I was putting out. There was a product conversion of my family. And if we weren't going hard, he let you know about it.

Nate (06:41):

Yeah. And it's such a, such as, again, just a simple thing, but man, there's some depth to that just on the spiritual side where, you know, one of Katelyn's life versus my wife Colossians 3:23 with work at everything with all of your heart as if you're doing it for the Lord, not for man, but then this idea of we're, we are a representation. We're an ambassador for ourselves, for our family. And for those of us that have faith where we're kind of representing what it means to be a Christian athlete at that point too, and people are watching. Yeah,

Kevin (07:10):

for sure. And then I would say the second person is probably my old high school basketball coach, Scott Humphrey. He was very influential in how I am today because he was extremely hard on me. And I felt like he didn't like me. I was one of those kids. Like the head coach hates me. He doesn't like me. He's always on me, but he is the one that actually helped me get to Morehead State university. And he was our basketball coach.

Nate (07:37):

Oh, interesting. So your basketball coach helped you on the path to your, you know, going to the next level of football wise.

Kevin (07:43):

Correct. I only played one year of football, so there really wasn't a whole lot of film and, you know, coach, uh, they're at Simon Kenton, did a great job, but, helped me get recruited, but coach Humphrey had some contacts and really helped me to get to Morehead. And, really one of the, it's a funny story going in the Morehead because I was like first day of school walk on and in a non scholarship program. So that's the kind of the joke that I tell people to kind of start my career, but I, you know, worked hard and everything that I've done has been through hard work and just, uh, you know, the faith that I've had and the people that's been around me.

Nate (08:22):

Yeah. That's a great, that's great way to sum it up. I've seen that with you as well. I remember hearing some of the stories when you're at the D ops. at EKU and you probably have to do it at different times too, but you would be driving ahead, it'd be a road trip for that weekend and you have to be driving ahead on the interstate four or five hours ahead of them for the restaurant or the hotel or wherever you were going to make sure everything was going to be all set and ready to go for the team. And he got gosh, a hundred plus people behind you that are expecting things to go well.

Kevin (08:49):

For sure, making sure that the food showed up, when did the bus leave or there's problem with this and kind of, it's a, but I will say those, those type of obstacles, you know, being a Kentucky Christian university, a smaller Christian school with about four or 500 enrollees, and doing a lot of things has really, set me up for kind of where I'm at today, because I know how this is supposed to look, I know how this is. I'm not one of those people that while I haven't done it before I've, I've seen it and kind of been through it.

Nate (09:23):

Yeah. That's amazing. Well, whether the budget has been minuscule or huge at different different schools, you've kind of seen it all. What have been some, some key takeaways that you've picked up from different coaches, whether it be, you know, coach hood at EKU or at Nebraska, or even currently, at Virginia tech that you feel like, man, this is, this is an important piece. If you're trying to build a successful program or successful culture, man, I would say, man, I would put this up on the top five of things to be implementing.

Kevin (09:55):

Yeah. Well I can say like whenever I was at Kentucky Christian and Morehead state, you always had to be mindful of your budget because you didn't have a big budget. When I got to EKU, I thought that I hit the jackpot, you know, looking back at it now, it wasn't great, but it was better than those places. Cause it was a higher level. But the one thing that Dean Hood told me and kind of stuck with me as, you know, he's a man of faith and he kind of told me we've got to be good stewards of this money because it's not ours that kind of resonated with me. And I was like, you know what, that's a great point. I'm treated as if it's ours and do good things with it. And he was big on, you know, doing stuff for the kingdom and just where you spend your money and how you spend it is key.

Nate (10:41):

Yeah. That's a, that's a good way to approach it. Yeah. Just our, our time, our resources, whether it's our personal finances or the budget that we're given, how are we maximizing that and being good and being good stewards, being good managers. Yeah. That's awesome.

Kevin (10:54):

Correct. And the other thing I took from Dean hood, which is great. Now you go through your experience younger and your career. And as you get older and you learn from different people another thing I took from him was this world is about relationships. And I've been at a lot of different levels and kind of the relationships you have with people good or bad is what this world's about and have having a relationship with coaches, people, teachers, the custodians, everybody, the same relationship. Cause that's what kind of God wants us to do is have relationships with everybody, including themselves.

Nate (11:30):

Yeah. And that's so good. I've heard it said recently that relationships, aren't a means to the end in the kingdom, that they are the end like that kind of, that kind of wraps it all up our relationship with God relationship with others and being able to treat people the same across the board. Like not the exact same, just because we have different types of relationships with people, but to not look down on the janitor, for example, and not be so intimidated by somebody above you that you're, that you're not able to connect with them either.

Kevin (12:03):

I take personal pride in like whenever I was at EKU, we had five managers that was easy. And I was in charge of him that was easy to learn their name. And we had like two filmers. I Went out to Nebraska and they were 15 filmers and they were 15-20 managers. So I tried to take time and learn everybody's name where they're from. And I try to kind of always know they'll joke about it because I'll go, okay, you're Daniel from Richmond and Richmond, Virginia, or you're such and such from such and such. So I try to associate that way that they know that I care about them because I do genuinely want to get to know them. And they are people when, just in my experience, you know, it doesn't matter. I'm at Virginia tech now, but that's not changing that doesn't identify or who I am. You know what I mean? Then I'm in a power five school. People when they go to the AFCA convention or something, they look, they say, Oh, I'm in college, you're in high school or you're a middle school coach. So I'm better than you. And that's not the way to look at it. C

Nate (13:11):

Yeah. That's good. Well, Hey, I didn't, I didn't prep you for this question, but it just came to my mind. I've seen you go through some of these transitions because you have these different stops and along the way it was right around Christmas time. We we've had a couple of different times where you've come back home and we've had you over for dinner, that sort of thing. And your perspective on not having a job at that moment and not really just not knowing what's, what's coming around the corner, that next year, the way you handled, that was always just really impressive and inspiring to me. So I'd love for you to just kind of share what was going on in your mind and heart in between those stops between EKU and Nebraska, coastal and where you're at now.

Kevin (13:51):

Yeah. Um, you know, I've been, I've been fired and let go twice in my career. Neither one of them was my fault. So what I basically learned in this whole process is it's not really things are out of my control. I don't control it. So, uh, and I think what you're referring to is icon upbeat and positive because I always knew that it's out of my hands and the big guy upstairs is gonna take care of me. That's kind of the way I've always treated it. I've I really never interviewed for a job that I've got.

Nate (14:25):

Hmm.

Keith (14:26):

I've never went out and sought out things. I didn't seek out the Eastern job. I didn't seek out the Nebraska, coastal Carolina. I didn't seek out any of these jobs. They have come to me. And I think a big part of that is just because of my attitude. And I'd like to think of, because of my faith of who I am and just me being me and not worrying about the things I can't control.

Nate (14:50):

No, that's great. Well, there's, there's a couple of layers that I'm thinking of. Two, one is the serenity prayer. I posted that a couple of weeks ago, just on social media right as all this Corona craziness was starting, but it's about, you know, except the things we can't change, the courage to change the things we can and the wisdom to know the difference. But you've also talked about the work ethic that you've taken pride in. Ever since your dad said, you know, you're going to need more effort. I don't know anything about football, but I need the more effort. And I think the process you've just been so faithful at the process that that's kind of been the inputs that you've needed to, to get those referrals that you may or may not have even been asking for. But it people it's amazing how much people are watching the in and day out. We don't even realize it.

Kevin (15:33):

Again It's based on, like I said, relationships that you have with everybody. Cause the reason I've got these jobs is because the people hiring have called people and that people have done their homework and they just have said, I don't know why they must have any mixed up with somebody else, but they've said good things about me. And it's kind of led me to where I am and you know, I haven't really had a whole lot growing up. I don't really hold that against my parents. They did the best they could. But I've also, that's kinda, that's molded me into how I am today. I didn't have her free ride. Things weren't easy growing up. But, um, because of that, I know I want better for my kids, but I also, I still have a picture in my office of my childhood home. And I also have my locker tag when I was at Morehead state. This'll tell you, I came in at number 106, that locker tag up with my picture of my house growing up just to kind of as a reminder to where you've come from and where, you know, where are the big guy upstairs taking me?

Nate (16:40):

Yeah, man. So good. Well, Hey, let's, let's switch gears just a little bit. One of the things that I've seen personally with Katelyn coaching her volleyball team, and I hear over and over again, just in the coaching world is really feeling it can be overwhelming. When you think about all the different pieces you gotta do. And so many times you get into coaching so that you can coach the sport, coach the players and be around the game. And hopefully some of the motivation is to change their lives in the process, but there's a whole lot of admin operations type things that they just have to get done in order for that to even take place. And you've seen so many different programs I get with different types of budgets. So if you're talking to a middle school, high school youth, college, I know there's probably different, different levels. You might say different things too, but what are some like go to principles that would apply across the board on how do we, how do we most efficiently take care of all the admin ops things so that we can focus on that? The reason, the real reason why we're there?

Kevin (17:42):

Yeah, for sure. And I think the number one thing is to always remember your why and why you're doing things. You know, why I got into doing it cause somebody helped me coach Humphrey. Uh, other people have helped me. So I want to help kids along the way. But the thing that's really kind of helped me out is I wore multiple hats. There's a bunch of stuff that's got to get done is prioritizing what it needs to be done. Because currently I'm working on, you know, I'm in charge of budget that I'm in charge I'll say it this way. I'm in charge of everything except coaching a position. Gotcha. So you've got to prioritize based on that, that changes based on time of year and what's going on. So I would say just make sure you have a list. I'm a big list person. So I have a list of things that gotta get done. And then I prioritize that and try to see, is this going to make this kid better? This is going to make us better and then take it from there.

Nate (18:40):

Yeah. Would you suggest over time, like if you're going to be coaching in a program or being around a program more than one year, trying to document as much as you can, as far as, well gosh, last year during spring break time, I was doing this during the summer. I was doing this and just trying to have those bullet points. Because you're never going to do it again the next year. Right. Is that, do you recommend having, having that kind of like year long template almost?

Kevin (19:03):

Yeah. So what I've always had started whenever I was at EKU is I've had a yearly calendar and it's mostly just an overview of what's going on, but I also have made notes on that. So the following year, when you get back to, let's say spring ball, you're looking at it a month ahead and you look at your notes and say, Ooh, don't forget. We've had these issues. These kids didn't get their check or we gotta make sure this is going on with practice times. And what I've done here recently is I've even taken that to another level. And I have what I call a kind of a policies and procedures. Now I call it policies and procedures. It's not a typical, Hey, like a rules. This is the first rule it's Hey, during, when I got, I got this job in January, this is how we did this. This is what next year I need to make sure we have done. Or we had a staff meeting. Coach said he wants to get this done better. Our Bowl game for example, I got, I was fortunate enough to go to the bowl game and I just was a sponge and wrote down everything that needed improvement on. So that next year I'm not sitting there thinking, cause I've done that before is I sat there. What, what was that that we had to get? I just pulled it out to my policy and procedure and there it is.

Nate (20:24):

Yeah. That's great. I've heard that weak ink is better than a strong memory. So just go ahead and write that baby down.

Kevin (20:31):

For sure. And Nate I'll tell you another thing that I've kind of grown out of is, you know, I'm very prideful of my work. I want to do a good job, but I think there's a fine line between being prideful and ego. So having the ability to this day, like being able to say, Hey coaches, I know I set this camp up or I did this, I did that. And I worked very hard at it. What can I do better and getting feedback. And sometimes it's good stuff. And sometimes it's like, well, if you don't have a clue or, but you got a welcome that kind of stuff, because that's how you learn. It's how you get better.

Nate (21:08):

Yeah. Just to have that continuous improvement mindset. I'm assuming if you're in charge of managers and film people and everything else you've had to, I mean, you're only one person. You can't do everything that you need to get done. So you've had to work through other people. What have been some, some things that you've picked up kind of on that side of things, how have you, how have you learned to delegate well,

Kevin (21:29):

Well, it all starts with, to be honest with you with trust and building trust, uh, with the people, um, and kind of helping anytime I hire somebody and I've hired people throughout interns, whatever is, can I trust them? It's a big trust thing or they kind of are kind of people what's their character like, and trust, if you get people in there that you can trust or you start building that trust with, then you can start working on helping, managing them and help their technique and their styles to fit with you. And basically what the head coach wants.

Nate (22:03):

Yeah, no, yeah. Always being submitting to that and thinking through it. That's really interesting. So it's not just, Hey, this guy's a rockstar at Microsoft Excel. It's like, no, I want to know first and foremost, can I trust this guy? And I can teach him some of the tools later,

Kevin (22:17):

correct. If I, if I'm hiring, for example, if I was hiring an assistant at some point, if I ever did I look, can I trust this person? Can I trust them that they're not going to not only talk about me behind my back? Or can I trust them? Hey, I give you an assignment to do, can I trust you to get it done? Now I can coach you up and how I want it done, where eventually I kind of, you know, release the chain a little bit to where you feel more comfortable. Cause at the end of the day, my, um, it's my area and I'm in charge and I'm responsible. I always tell them if this gets messed up is the head coach going to call you in and yell at you or is he gonna yell at me? I need to make sure that I can trust that we're speaking the same language right now. We gotta make sure they're speaking Hokie.

Nate (23:07):

Yeah, there you go. That's right. Well, I know huddle is a tool that's used across the board and just about everybody is using huddle at this point for video and everything. Are there any other tools I'm just trying to get really practical here for a second. Are there any other tools or resources that you currently use or have used in the past that you think, gosh, high school, middle school, different program might really benefit from this?

Kevin (23:32):

You know, HUDL is nationally for recruiting, and video services and that sort of thing for me right now, I use a service called Teamworks, which is calendar, communication..and if I did not have Teamworks, it'd be difficult. I know a lot of people use this old adage of this (legal pad) has never had a virus. Yeah. But if I didn't have Teamworks, I'd be in trouble. And Teamworks basically just kind of provides me with the checklist. Um, if we switch a time as far as, as a practice time, or I need to communicate with the guys, I can send them a quick text and I know that that's not, not everybody has access to that. Yeah. But you know, and I've had Teamworks almost at every stop except, you know, Kentucky, Christian and Morehead.

Nate (24:27):

No, that's good. So that's, is that a pretty, pretty high end subscription?

Kevin (24:33):

It really just depends like kind of base it on where, what level you're at, what you can pay. But, um, I recommend it, uh, at anywhere I'm at, if we don't have it, we're we'll be getting it.

Nate (24:47):

Yeah. Priority one. That's good. Well, and earlier, just for the listeners, he was pointing to a legal pad saying that doesn't have a virus, but you also, there was a, some level of we've gotta embrace the technology. Just think about, we wouldn't be able to do this or so many different things if we didn't have the technology that we have now, uh, it can, it can be a distraction at times, but I do think there's a lot of good to it as well.

Kevin (25:06):

Correct. There's a lot of, and especially when you think in terms of recruiting and how the social media aspect of things and what recruiting has turned into these days, it can be a positive thing and it can be a negative.

Nate (25:21):

Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, let's, uh, it's kind of to summarize a little bit. We have... Say you're say you're a high school AD/football coach and you have all this stuff going on beyond just getting buying Teamworks. Is there anything else that would be on your, on your short list to, Hey man, if we get these two, three, four things going our lives are going to be a whole lot better.

Kevin (25:46):

Um, I mean, other than like making sure you're you have a good list of what you kind of get done. Really I I've been I'm truthful when I say this Teamworks is the only thing I've ever used other than the old school, writing it down and having a list. I, to this day, I have a big whiteboard in my office and during travel, whenever season's going, I'll have a home checklist and in away checklist. And that way it's a visual for me, if my assistant or anybody that needs to come in there and I've given people responsibilities, they can come look, what's done. I can check it off. And it gives them a chance to stop by and see me too.

Nate (26:24):

Yeah, that's good. Is that so teamworks, you can, I'm assuming you can delegate different tasks and schedule things and it should just tell me a little bit more about it. Now I'm intrigued, man.

Kevin (26:36):

so basically what it is, it's a communication platform. Okay. So everybody is on it. So if right now, if I need to know, Hey Johnny Smith, I need to note his information. I can, I got an app. I go on click his name and it's going to give me his student ID number, his email address, his mom parent information. Uh, if he's on scholarship, it's going to put endless amount of information in there. That way I have it at the Palm of my hands and for us right now, I can see if coach says, Hey, I need to talk to Johnny soon. He can get here. I can click his name and it'll show me his schedule and I'll have quick access to see when I can get them.

Nate (27:17):

No, that's really good. Wow. Yeah.

Kevin (27:20):

Yeah. The travel from an operations standpoint, it kind of centralizes all my information as far as my bus meals, hotel, all that stuff.

Nate (27:32):

No, that's good. And by the way, this isn't sponsored by Teamworks. He's not getting paid to attend, but maybe you should be man. Be good. Be good. Little set up there.

Kevin (27:40):

Yeah. I mean, I I'm adamant about them and they do. They it's, it's a great program if, uh, if you're able to get it to help your program.

Nate (27:48):

Excellent. Cool. Well kind of final question here. If you had, you know, say you were talking to a young coach, that's just starting out just trying to get the footing on, you know, maybe they've gone away. They've played in college at a certain level. They're come back to trying to stay in the game and they got their first coaching gig. What would you tell that man or woman who is just starting out based on kind of the years that you've had?

Kevin (28:13):

I would just tell them to, don't try to... I see a lot in the younger, some younger people where they try to get in there and they're full of energy and they want to do this. To kind of just trust the process and just be relational driven. Um, listen to the vision that your head coach or whoever, whatever path you're taking and just be yourself. Cause at the end of the day, that's, what's going to get you through is just being yourself. If you're somebody else it's kind of like dating. If you try to act like somebody, you're not eventually they're gonna find out

Nate (28:46):

that's right. Wow, man, there must be something to that because there's been multiple other coaches that have said something similar to that in recent recent interviews where, Hey, don't try to just copy cat. Some other person, you know, find your own style, hone that. Don't just try to be the exact. Maybe it was an, even though there's a good coach, don't try to be exactly like them because you're unique yourself and you have your own specific things that you can give. And I love that. That's good. Right.

Kevin (29:14):

And I, a good friend of mine in this profession is Adam Clark. And he's the ops guy. He's the same position in that North Carolina State. And we worked together in Nebraska and we worked well together, but we are slightly different. Yeah. He is him and I am me and he's not trying to be me and I'm not trying to be him, but it's just important to be yourself. Because like I said, at the end of the day, your true colors are going to show.

Nate (29:40):

Yeah. And he also mentioned just kind of, kind of falling under the head coach's vision. You're doing that right now. You would encourage them to do it. And I've also heard it said that before you can be a great leader, you have to learn to be a great follower.

Kevin (29:53):

Correct? Correct. And you've got to make sure the old adage of the good Lord gave you two ears, one mouth you're listening and listen to your players. Um, and just, just trying to help.

Nate (30:05):

That's good. As a, as a send off here, do you have things back? It could be any level, but just wanted to see if we have a little laugh or before we wrap up, let's, what's been one of the most embarrassing moments either as an ops person or on the field. If you're like me, there's several, but is there anyone that comes top of mind?

Kevin (30:27):

Well, there's a, there's a lot throughout the time, but I can say one that kind of keeps running through my head now is whenever I was at Kentucky Christian, we, uh, we were having spring practice or spring game and we had recruits coming in. They weren't supposed to be there for a couple more hours. So I was physically cutting the grass. So the game field, the practice field at that time, getting ready for the game and the recruits and parents showed up as I was pushing the push mower. You, uh, talk about, Hey, we're here for the visit. So that was kind of a little different for me.

Nate (31:03):

Well, key word then did you say push mower? Push, push mower. Push mower. Yeah. They have turf now. So they're in a much better situation, but gosh, that's hilarious.

Kevin (31:18):

Yeah. Hey, come to Kentucky. Christian, hold on one second. Let me get, let me, prime this to get started here.

Nate (31:25):

Oh man. Well, good stuff. Well, thanks so much for hopping on here and giving us some of your wisdom. I appreciate you guys. You guys are dear friends, even though you're jet setting all over the country, different stops. I know. Just appreciate your all's friendship. And thankfully for things like zoom and Marco polo, and we're even breaking out some tik toks now connecting through that. So you're saying the other day, so keep up the great work over there at Virginia tech. I know it's going to be a fun ride for you guys and just really appreciate you as a person. Thanks for bringing it today. And we'll talk to you soon.

Kevin (32:00):

I appreciate it. Thanks for everything you do.

Nate (32:12):

Well, there it is. Guys. Our conversation with Kevin Christello.. Really appreciated his insight. I hope one of the byproducts of this episode is that you're able to have some more sleep and get some better rest at night, knowing that what you need to get done is getting done and that you're able to find a tool that works for you to communicate well and to be able to empower some help. That way you're not carrying the load all by yourself. Hey, if you haven't already, we invite you to go ahead and hit that subscribe button so you don't miss out on any future episodes coming up. We're going to continue to work hard to try to bring you valuable content. That's going to help you personally and professionally. If you want to learn more about Northern Kentucky, FCA, just head on over to NKYfca.org until next time, keep growing, keep learning, keep changing lives on your team and in your home,

Lead...For God's Sake!

nsallee@fca.org (Nate Sallee) — Fri, 29 May 2020 20:15:51 GMT

Ep. 33: Coach to Coach Podcast - Todd Gongwer

Episode Info

Subscribe so you don't miss out on future episodes!

For nearly thirty years, Todd Gongwer has been building his expertise in leadership

and team dynamics by serving in a variety of senior-level roles in business and

athletics. From an entrepreneurial start-up to public company to college athletics,

As a best-selling author, speaker, and teacher on leadership and cultural

development, Todd has spent the last decade working with some of the most

successful coaches, teams, business leaders, and educators in America.

His principles have been embraced by countless leaders, including coaches and

athletes from championship programs in the NCAA, NBA, MLB, and NFL. Stories of

the profound impact of Todd’s message have been featured on ESPN the

Magazine, ESPN.com, Bleacher Report, and Forbes.com.

Todd continues to work with many of the most successful coaches in sports and is a popular speaker at major universities (Darden School of Business), high-profile

sports teams (Clemson Football), national associations (American Baseball

Coaches Association), and high-profile businesses (Home Depot) throughout the

country.

--------

Special discount for our Coach to Coach community!

Kardia Training Group Virtual Coaching Platform: Click Here for discount rates

Character AMP tool for Coaches/Parents/Players: www.characteramp.com

Discount Code: "Todd150" for $150 off!

------------------

He lives in Indiana with his wife and three children, Kaden, Kira, and

Wadson.

"If you lose sight of the proper perspective, everything else seems to fall through the cracks."

"I had a lot of coaching and business friends who were pursuing great things at the expense of the most important things."

“A key is not only becoming more self-aware because that’s becoming more of a hot topic right now but learning to act on that self-awareness.”

Transcript

Nate (00:00):

This is the coach to coach podcast, episode number 33 game time

Nate (00:24):

Hey, what's going on guys? Welcome to the coach to coach podcast where we believe every kid deserves a coach that cares and every coach deserves someone in their corner. I'm your host Nate Sallee and this podcast is sponsored by the Northern Kentucky fellowship of Christian athletes. We have an incredible team of donors, of volunteers, board members, supporters prayer partners that all contribute to this movement of God, of Northern Kentucky FCA, and part of the vision behind this podcast is to capture the collective wisdom in Northern Kentucky greater Cincinnati and beyond so we can all get better together and really have success not only with our teams on the field, but to be able to transform lives in the process. I couldn't be more excited about this episode as we interview Todd Gongwer. Todd has written one of the iconic coaching books of our era lead for God's sake. I remember hearing this book a few years ago. I got through it in two sittings. It's an incredible story about a basketball coach who is friends with a business leader as well. And Todd has some incredible experience in both worlds at the business level but also in college athletics as a basketball coach at the collegiate level. He's spoken for championship programs in the NCAA, NBA, MLB NFL has been featured on espn.com Forbes Bleacher report and his book, some of the people that have endorsed his book Lou Holtz said he wished he'd read it 30 years ago. Dabo Swinney said it's one of his all time favorites. Urban Meyer, one of the most powerful books I've ever had, John Smoltz, former MLB player, powerful life changing it truly is an incredible message that he is passionate about. And he gives us some insight into some of the lessons he's learned personally as a coach, as a leader, things that he wished he would have known himself and why he's so passionate about moving forward. So you're going to get a lot out. I hope you have a notepad ready and willing to take some notes. Hey and real quick before we get started, if you could take just a moment and rate this podcast. If you've enjoyed previous episodes before, it would really help get the word out and get the message out and be able to help more coaches. And I can't wait for you to hop right in. I'm not gonna hold you back anymore. Let's hop into our conversation with Todd Gongwer. All right guys. We are here with with Todd [inaudible]. He's the author of Lead for God's sake and he is man, just a really respected leader this time. Just really you giving us some time. What I love about you is you've kind of been in both worlds that one of your most popular books lead for God's sake is you've been in the business world, you've kind of done that organizational side, but you're also exactly been in the hat of most of our listeners, which are current coaches, at the college level. Yeah. Would just love to just have you have you jump in and just share maybe some, some big learnings kind of through your, your coaching journey specifically.

Todd (03:26):

Yeah. So it's interesting, man. You know, I look back and you know, hindsight's always 2020 but in our lives, I think especially as followers of Christ, you know, we, I mean God has orchestrated so many really cool things that a lot of times when we're going through and we just, we have no idea how he's working on us, what he's developing within us. And I think obviously that's a lesson for right now. I mean, I think there is no doubt God's doing a work in a lot of hearts right now and a lot of really cool ways with regards to relationships and focus and priorities and all those things. So, but when I look back on my days in coaching and for me, and I was really, really passionate about sports, I was passionate about basketball in particular, you know, had 12 years I think as an assistant college basketball coach had a great mentor, coach Mike Lightfoot, who just, you know, he was awesome. He was a guy that understood the bigger why and was always about impacting the kids, not only in their lives, but eternally. So I took a ton away from just being a part of that program. But even as I think back on that question, I look, you know, coaching, I got out of coaching in 2004 officially, but then from that time my kids were starting to grow older. So I coached in youth sports, basketball, soccer, baseball in every way, shape or form, both my son and daughter. And when I look at that time from then, you know, even up until about a year, year and a half ago, when, when you take the college coaching experience and those coaching experiences, you got literally hundreds and hundreds of games, thousands of practices. You know, I mean, and just, and just some amazing, amazing experiences. I think you're looking back for me, and especially because I started coaching at a young age. I was in my young twenties and it was so about climbing the ladder, you know, pursuing success and, and my title meant everything to me. Back then. It was like, you call me coach, you know, and, and even when I, when I look back on, you know, how I, I dressed my appearance, I mean how I carried myself. It's not that any of those things, they all matter. You know what I mean? They're, they're not, they're not completely insignificant things at all. But at the same time, when you fast forward to today, and even the opportunities I've had in the last decade to work with some of the top coaches in the country, some the top programs in the country, you know, keeping things in proper perspective is just, it really is everything. And again, this goes back to the why of the book that, I mean, I learned that through that is, is no matter how focused we can be on our why and the right why sports has this tendency to inch us out of that focus and then to the competitive nature that all that's within all of us that are in sports. You know, you're not going to be a coach if you don't want to win the games. You know, you've got that competitive and there's nothing wrong with that. You know, I think, and I'll probably botch this up, but I think the, the, the term competition actually in some way, shape or form of is derived from a root that had to do with cooperation. You know, and I think often we just, we lose sight of that. And, and again, yes. You know, one of the things, biggest things that I took away is how easy it is to lose sight of the fact that listen, why, why are we really in this sport? Are we really given the opportunity to compete? And if it really is about just me beating you, you know, we're setting kids up for some, for some tough times as they even move out into culture because you could operate that and that way completely in the business world too. And in fact, you can be very successful if that's the obsession that becomes the obsession. But it's a dangerous game when it gets out of balance. And for many of us, just like, it's easy to lose sight of the proper perspective when we were in sports. And keeping the competition in the right, you know, place. It becomes easy in the business world to to lose perspective. And remember this is about relationships. This is about impact. This is about making each other the best that we can be. When you're a coach you have the unbelievable opportunity to teach, to help kids move into the next phases of their lives and to again, proper perspective is huge. It cannot be all about killing the opponent and that's just a tough balance. I think that's probably as much as anything kind of an underlying theme of everything that I learned in sports was, man, if you lose sight of that perspective, everything else starts to fall through the cracks so to speak. On the outside.

Nate (08:02):

Yeah, that's big. It really stuck out not only the perspective and being connected to your why. It also sounded like the ongoing maintenance of staying connected to that why is is really key. Because like you said, the default trajectory of sport is to pull you slowly, even it might just be an inch at a time, but pull you slowly, slowly away from that. So, how have you maintained that perspective, whether it be family, business or coaching or what have been some ways that you've fought against that, that resistance? Because if you're like me, I've definitely fallen off. They've taken an exit ramp at times.

Todd (08:40):

Yeah. There, there is no doubt. And I am, I am like, I'm a competitor big time. I mean my kids get frustrated with me when we play ping pong. I mean, you know, like it doesn't matter what we're playing. Yeah. I, I think, I truly believe Nate. It's, it's, it's kinda crazy cause again, looking back on my life, I'm 50 years old now and I looked back and I'm like, man, I really believe God. One of the reasons he gave me this book and this message, and it's so resonated in my heart because he knew I needed something to like remind me every day. And so like this is what I do for a living now is help teach that proper perspective. Why do we really do, what's your real purpose? How do you remain true to that? And so, you know, for me a big way to stay true to that has been, yeah, that's a huge part of my message. When you're teaching it, it's easy to go, Todd, come on you say. And so like, like even, you know, I mentioned coaching my kids and, and for years coaching AAU basketball, you know, and as my kid got older and older, my son, it was a very, very competitive environment obviously. And but you know, always trying to remain true to that ultimate message of why we do what we do. So it was teaching the message helped my daily routines are really big for me. Maintaining a proper kind of balance and focus in my life, my quiet time every morning. I think that's a huge time of just kind of centering ourselves and reflecting and I think fewer and few people tend to take that time. I mean, I protect that time crazy. People get frustrated with me sometimes cause I won't, I don't want to do an event at, you know, even with coaches, like you know, we start at 5:30 AM and so be there at six Todd and I'm like, you know, I'm not going to because that's early morning is my time. I get up and I and I that first 45 minutes to an hour, I really want to ease into my day with quiet reflection and prayer with time in the word. I mean real time in the word, not five minutes of here's two scriptures and a little story. That's nothing wrong with that. But I've really found that for me, especially the last 15 to 20 years, I mean that's changed my life just exponentially is just taking time to really read in the word. And you know that quiet time prayer, reading the word. So I think that's been a big part of kind of maintaining the proper perspective cause we start every day like that. It's reminder, Hey, these are the things Jesus was teaching and I just didn't see him getting up all the time and go, come on guys. You know, like get after each other, come on, get at you and beat each other. You know what I mean? Like, like it's not, it's nothing bad in the competition, but it wasn't his primary focus to teach them to compete against each other. You know, when they came out with words of who's the greatest and all that other stuff, what'd he tell him? You know what I mean? I mean like, come on. So I think really staying true to you know, his words, his teachings, that's, that was a big part to her has been a big part of helping me try as best can to stay, to stay in the proper perspective.

Nate (11:57):

Yeah, that's, that's really good. And just in the same way that we as former athletes, current coaches, what have you, we know what it's like to have a disciplined training program and it's so much harder. Once I got out of, of collegiate sports, there's no team accountability, there's no strength coach. It's going to be breathing down your neck if you miss a workout, you know? So it's just really interesting how we kind of have to read, almost figure out how we're going to have that, have that time or have that way to continue to take care of ourselves physically, mentally, spiritually. It's not going to happen by accident. We do. We almost have to take time to write up a template, you know, workout plan, you know, I'm playing, I've also heard somebody say that they've place their time that they have with the prayer with God, however long it may not be as long as you are speaking of, but they'll put it in their calendar as if it's a and appointment, a meeting. Like it'll be in their calendar as now. This is like time with God for this however long and to protect it as if it was another meeting with a really key person in your life. And I was like, why? Why have I not viewed it that way? Has it? Why hasn't it not laid it on my calendar in the same way that I would have, you know, put this on the counter, you know, key meeting. Yup, absolutely. Absolutely. Well, Hey, I would love to hear, and interesting enough on this podcast is when I was really, it was the catalyst for me to read lead for God's sake. I'd heard about it at like a glazier football clinic, different things, but we interviewed a local basketball coach, Joel Steczynski, and he had, he had read it and he was reading inside out coaching. So we were talking about that. But I was like, man, I've got to read. I can't be doing my job if I don't read lead for God's sake. Read it within just a couple of sittings. Really appreciated the simplicity of it, the story, even the, the, the drawing, the simple stick figure drawing. I'm like, man, I love this because it's not like you gotta be a doctor to be able to discern all this stuff. So just tell me a little, I would love to hear just kind of the backstory of what was your, what was the inspiration for, for late, for God's sake.

Todd (14:10):

Yeah. So you know, it's interesting I shared with you kind of, you've heard my, my coaching part of the journey. You mentioned at the beginning though, you're like, Hey Todd, you had a cool business background. So yeah, that was my life. I grew up family, four boys. My grandfather had started a small business. My father really built that small business into something really unique in our area, especially in, and and so I, I, it's a food service company that I was involved with really at all facets from a very, very young age. And you know, I tell people all the time when you're the, the son of the owner of the company, you know, that can be really good or really, really bad. And, you know, my dad was one of those that was like, you know, made it made real. His point of emphasis was, you better work harder than other people. You better prove yourself. You better be better, you better be an earlier, you better be like, you know, all that stuff. Not all of it was completely healthy, but you know, but for the most part it was, it was really a you know, drove us to work hard and so it was great work ethic. Part of that was awesome. So, but I love the business world and I love the opportunities that I had in leadership early on. And then eventually to take, you know, more formal leadership roles to have my own business and own my own businesses over the years. Eventually as I'm running in these two worlds parallel in the nineties coaching, because it was an NAIA school, I kept my day job. So now I'm working 70 80, 90 hours a week in, in both of those I didn't have a kid so I could do that. But I was also just obsessed with studying leadership out of necessity more than anything else. So really became, you know, with the three of those things going on all through about 95 to 2002, three, you know, in that area for just really began to actually, right a lot of the stuff that I felt I was learning thing and combining. And, and even then I felt God was kind of laying on my heart and I had the opportunity, I had a CEO come to me and wanted me to kind of lead a cultural transformation in his company, maybe a part of the senior team. It was both feet in, you can't do this part time. So I left coaching for that and did that for three years. And then we, that company was bought by our largest competitor, which was a public company. And I was able to serve then as a senior executive for that organization for a few more years. And so through that time, really bringing a lot of these philosophies more into the forefront and testing them and really to a point where I felt called the write. It felt like God laid and title on my heart. And when the season was finally right, where I knew I had the time to write it and not sacrifice my family and all that other stuff. During that time, you know, as I set out, I wanted my kids to have something. If anything should ever happen to me and a lot of friends in the sports world, the business world, I felt were pursuing great things at the expense of the most important things. And even, and, and honestly I look back on that, even friends I say, I always say friends in the sports world, the business world, but even friends that were in ministry too, you know, cause we can lose sight of priorities and perspective in any of our pursuits. I think that's important for us to, you know, think about all of us.

Nate (17:28):

I gotta hop in for a second right on that. Sorry. When you said it doesn't matter what area you can, we can always lose sight of that. I used to think that it was only athletes that had an issue with finding their identity in their sport and that becoming who they were. And then now I've realized it is, it could be the same exact thing, copy and paste with a coach. You can find your as coach so-and-so and that's your, that's your source of self worth. So why wouldn't you be obsessed with maximizing that? And then I found that even more, I mean other people, same thing in the business world. So I just, I just want to make sure, man, that is such a big point you just made, that all of us can find our worth and significance from something that isn't really worth putting all that that much stock in.

Todd (18:11):

Yeah, absolutely. And so that, that was my, I mean again, like I said, I shared all, these are my own battles too. If people ask me about the characters in the book, Todd, who were those characters? Come on, you had an, and I always tell people, I said, look, first of all the coach, I said, it's 99% of coaches that I've ever been around was that character because every coach battles that at some point in their life. Yeah. And I said the business person and I said, including though myself, like I was that guy, I was that guy that was on one hand trying to do this and saying these things. On the other hand, the motives still weren't that pure and the business world's same way. You know, everybody knows a grant and I tell people like all these business people are pursuing, you see so many of them are, are, can relate to grant but I can do. Right. That was me. You know, unfortunately in both cases I never was that highly successful head coach and I never was that, you know, multi-million or billionaire CEO guy. But my heart was right where those hearts were. Yeah. You know, leading up to that, I think that had a huge part in and really shaping or equipping me to be able to write what God wanted me to put on paper for that. So, but I, I never intended to write it as a fiction. I had it laid out step one, step two, step three and you know, struggled for weeks trying to write this thing. Nothing came out right. Finally just felt like God was saying, Todd, start over the short story and literally Nate, I mean, I had no clue how to write fiction. I've barely read any fiction at that point in my life. And I was like, okay, I'll try it. Maybe it'll be a couple chapters or a couple pages or chapters and then I'll, then I'll get my brilliant commentary. And literally when I started, it just poured out like nothing that I'd ever experienced. And so, you know, honestly that, you know, when I, when I got about halfway or two thirds of the way through, I could tell that God was, was doing something way bigger than me. And as I began to hand the manuscript out, I've continued to have more and more people coming back to me. You know, people that were nervous I was handed it to and they were like, Oh my gosh, what are we gonna tell Todd? There's no way Todd could written a book, you know, that I want to read. And then all of a sudden they come back and they're going, Oh my gosh, Todd, you're right. You know, like you didn't write this like, you know, and I was like, I told you, you know, so really, really cool experience. And even since that time, that's been cool and dealing with all the, you know, when you get, I tell people there's really, it meets you where you are, so you get coaches from all over the board that that come back to me. Guys like Tony Bennett Dabo Swinney those guys read the book. They love it because they, that's who they have been in our today. Ben, that coach in the latter stage center. Yeah. It's not that they didn't battled coach rocker at the beginning. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. Then there's other guys out there that maybe battled it more and it hits them and it says, Hey, you need to get back to why. You know, why do you really do what you do? You say this, but do you really care about the kids? Is it really about impacting them for the kingdom? You know, do you really understand the ultimate impact you had the opportunity to have on these kids' lives and hearts? When I, when it went out and started getting out to others and I started getting feedback from, you know, people were coming back. It just took off organically with Lou Holtz and Jim Tressel when he was still coaching. And obviously urban Meyer was a huge one and it just kinda, you know, really,

Nate (21:40):

I know that the Stoops are big fans as well

Todd (21:43):

Yeah, yeah. Oh exactly. I mean like all those guys, man, I was just finding out from different people all over the country. Like, you know, this coach has read and he's talking about it at this conference and this, you know, John John Beeline is that a Indiana high school coaches conference and he's holding the book up to all the state basketball coaches and you know, you gotta read this. Every coach needs to read. So it's been awesome that a lot of these guys, I don't even know, I've never heard, you know, all of a sudden someone will, you know, shoot me a text going, Hey, they're talking about this at the NCAA tournament, you know, champions breakfast or whatever, you know. And so it's been really just a real blessing to be on the journey. It's been a God thing. And you know, I tell people all the time, obedience has been my number one goal through the whole journey. Mmm. It's slow. It's been slow as you know, maybe as a part of a result of that because I haven't, you know, tried to just push out 10 other books and do another and nothing wrong with that. But my journey is I just felt like I've been called to be different in some of these things and take my time on this and I hope and pray that the next book, the SQL comes out sooner than later and even a prequel.

Nate (22:56):

Yeah, that'd be good. To put ourselves kind of with that hat on of the, of the coach inside the book. One of the questions or one of the frustrations that I think resonates so well as, Hey, there's no leadership on this team. I don't have any leaders. You know, we need to get step up and lead and well, obviously that's part of the title. And so that's a big, that's a huge question. Why is it, do you think, because I've done this myself, I've actually thought this and had to work through this. Why is it you think that we have this default mode of if we're leading a team or a group of people and we don't see leadership in them that we kind of go to do, they don't have any leadership versus holding up the mirror and saying, what am I currently doing that isn't bringing that out on them? You know, why do you think that's our default mode?

Todd (23:46):

Man, Nate, that's such a, that's a love that question. I think that's, I think that's so huge. You know, when people ask me the core or when I sh I should say when I've asked for the core themes of the book and I've, and it's funny cause I did a survey a couple of years ago and I did it on Twitter and Facebook. I just kind of went on and said, Hey you guys, give me two words that best describe what the book taught you or what the themes were. The book was and it was obviously purpose and servant leadership and selflessness and and love and relationships and all of these and it was amazing. I literally had, I don't know of the hundreds and hundreds of responses I got, I think I had over 40 some responses before I actually got to the one that spoke most specifically to what I believe the core theme really is and that is self awareness. Yeah. What you just described is the tendency is so, I mean this is so prevalent in our society. Our tendency is so when we have a problem. Yeah. You know, I mean we turn the TV on. That's all you see my fault man. I'm so mad at these politicians. I'm so mad at the people that think differently. I'm so mad at the president and the speaker of the house, like everybody is getting so angry at everybody else. You know what it is is, is basically what it comes down to. It's basically a numbing salve that we put on the pain of, you know, the results that are going on around us that, that in some way, shape or form, we still caused. But we, God forbid, we ever look back and try to go, Hey, how did I contribute to this problem? Because I mean like, you know, 99.9% of the time, if we're involved in it in some way, especially if we're a leader, we contributed to the problem and we just, so, you know, such a tough one. Um it's a tough one to teach. That's one of the core things of a lot of the workshops and things that I do now is trying to help leaders really develop more of a, of a, not only becoming more self aware because that's it's becoming more and more of a hot topic among coaches and stuff, but learning to act on that self-awareness. Yeah. You know, reconcile reconciling the relationships that we screwed up with. And that's another part. If you, if you think back now the question you asked me and you think through the whole process, I don't want to give the story away, but you know what I'm talking about. Like coach, there had to be that moment in that moment of, okay, not only am I aware of it, well how am I going to act now to do something and what are those steps? Yeah, I mean that's just such a, that's a such a huge part of leadership and our culture doesn't, we're not doing a lot right now in terms the broader cultural themes that our young people are seeing. We're not doing a lot to really teach them to look here first. I think. I think you guys are, I think FCA is because dealing with heart stuff and dealing with forgiveness and things like that, but unfortunately the broader culture, we're getting killed in that area right now.

Nate (27:01):

Well, and a neat byproduct of confronting the even harsh reality sometimes is, I mean you have, you get some, you get some humility out of it. You know, God says if you lift yourself up, you'll be humbled. And if you hummed yourself, you'd be lifted up. And another, the thing for me though is now that I've like processed it more, and it's still an ongoing thing for me, is I realized I actually have control over my thoughts, feelings, and actions, and I can actually do something about me, whereas I can't control someone else. Even if it's somebody I spend so much time with. I can't control my spouse a hundred percent. I can't control my kids a hundred percent I can't control, other student leaders or volunteers. But I can control who I am, what I'm living out, my thoughts, feelings and actions. And that's, that's more empowering. So initially it stings and it hurts. But then I'm like, Oh, but if I'm, I have areas to grow, I can actually do something about that in real time. And it's actually become very encouraging. But initially it kind of stinks.

Todd (28:02):

Yeah, no doubt. That's so good. Nate, you're, spot on, man. That is, you hit the nail on the head. I mean, that's, we control, we control in terms of changing and effect. We control our competing, our contribution, whatever percentage of the contribution it may be, we control that demolished you. You hit the nail on the head, man, that's great.

Nate (28:23):

And that can still have a huge, massive impact and influence, but it's just not going to be, you know, we don't, yeah, we don't have the steering wheel per se. We'll have one. One question we always love to kind of wrap up with is there's coaches that listen that have been at the game for 20 plus years, but we also have just a really big heart for that. Coach who's just starting out that just gotten that first assistant coach position. Or maybe they come back from college or maybe they're a senior in high school and they're already coaching ten-year-old 10U volleyball already at AAU level. You know, we see that happen more and more. What would be one or two things that, that you would tell a coach that's just kind of getting their feet wet, just getting going that you wish you would've known when you got your start?

Todd (29:06):

Well, again, and I, this is going to sound self-serving, I promise. It's not. Hopefully everybody will remember who I said is responsible for writing that book and that I, I just had a lot of hell. I mean, I, I thank God he gave me the opportunity to put the pen to the paper, so to speak. But I truly believe it was a message that he really wanted me to communicate a conduit as a conduit. You know, that, that when, when I hear that come back from folks, I wish I'd read this 30 years. And especially like from Lou Holtz, a lot of people, you know, that's so meaningful and I know that's way beyond anything I could ever do. And so I look back, what is that mean? That that's basically because I feel the same way. I wish I would've had the book. I wish I'd have read it when I was 20 you know, because what it did is, is what it does, I think is it helps us set that right heart set right from the beginning going, okay, what is my real why? Why do I really do what I do? Am I really in touch with this? Can I, can I get over the self deception component in my life? Be honest. And if it's not right, what do I need to do to set it straight? Because the thing that I, I tell coaches all the time, really is this. There really are a lot of folks that are coaching for the wrong reasons. It's about my own affirmation, my tendency to want control of things, my fear of dependence on anybody else. I got to have the, you know, I mean there's all kinds of things that could be impure here that can sneak into there from a standpoint of insecurity and things like that. You know, eventually cracks in the foundation can be seen if we don't recognize that right from the beginning, go, wait a minute, this is more about me. I need to change that. It needs to be about if I'm, if I'm going to be in this and influence young people, it really needs to be about them and what's best for them. We need coaches and leaders that are like that. I think, you know, reflecting on that, reading the book, I think it gives you a chance to do that. But really taking the time to reflect on that and even maybe even writing a purpose statement for yourself, this is why I do what I do and this is why I really believe God created me in the first place. These things need to remain aligned. If you write those two things down, it's pretty, I mean, you know, again, it's plain and simple. Go back and read it every Friday. Okay, right. You know, remember why you're here and it really isn't about my advancement, my, you know, so I think that's a big one. Um you know, the concept of self awareness and reminding, you know, really, really having a good mentor in our life that you seek out to, to say, look, please, I'm inviting you to tell me the insecurities that you're seeing or the ways if I'm over the top, obsessed with this or that, you know, helped me remain true to why I'm here on this earth. I think those are two really big keys. Kind of kind of write it out for the beginning and coming to grips with it, but then having a gel so to speak in your life. I think those are, those are the things that I didn't, I didn't, I wasn't intentional enough with, I had some to some extent, but not until later did I really recognize that, the real importance of that. So yeah, those are, those are the two big things.

Nate (32:27):

Awesome. And it's so encouraging. I know we're just so aligned in just with our, some of our FCA stuff too, like when a coach comes to the end of our three-dimensional coaching, one of the tests they have is to write down their transformational purpose statement. They have to have that thing that they can re revisit of staying connected to their why. And then I was going to, you haven't heard this story yet, I don't think, but there was a small school here in Northern Kentucky right across there on the river, right across from, from Cincinnati called Bellevue, a small A school. But their girl's basketball coach reached out to his alumni and asked if the alumni would be willing to buy a copy for one of the current players of lead for God's sake. So they have this kind of mini event where the alumni from this high school purchased a book for the current players. And just that, just as an encouragement to you the impact is having right here in our area. It's, it's been pretty cool,

Todd (33:20):

Man. I love that. That is, that's awesome. That's awesome to hear. That is, that's a kind of thing that, you know, again It's a blessing. I felt credibly blessed and honored to be a part of the journey. God has me on this thing and I hear stuff like that and I'm just like, man, that's so awesome. So awesome. So thanks for sharing.

Nate (33:42):

Yeah, yeah, coach Sorrell, good guy. I'm really pumped that he, that he did that and, and Hey, I just want to make sure that you have some room. How do we get, obviously if you're listening to this and you don't know who Joe and grant and these guys are from the book, obvious. Next step is to get a copy. So where can we get the book? What other things do you have on your website or what are the things are you up to these days?

Todd (34:03):

Yeah, so obviously the, the books available in most major retailers, so if you go to your Barnes and noble Books-A-Million most of those stores around the country are carrying it. You can get it. Obviously online. Amazon a lot of times is the best price. So you know, those are, those are obviously options. They don't, one of the couple of things I'm really excited about, especially this time at this time, Nate is, is, you know, we, we developed kind of a kind of a virtual university that is specifically for like the coaching staff that wants to go through a series of small videos. It helps develop values. It helps develop the, you know, helps a coach talk about the foundation, who do we really want to be, what does effective leadership going to be for us? Why do we do you? It's a series of like there's three modules, it's like 30 videos and so it's a, it's a virtual training option for coaches that I think during this time might be something that coaches want.

Nate (35:06):

It's a great season for that. They have more time. And honestly, I was just thinking earlier the the budgets, the expenses that aren't happening as much as we're mourning the lack of spring sports and everything, there's probably a little more margin in the budget to maybe invest in some of this stuff.

Todd (35:20):

Yeah. Yeah. You can't go to the clinic right now. Right. This is a clinic, it's a clinic that comes to you and you can do with your staff and everything can be done. You can do it on your phone, watch a five, six minute video. There's a PDF, there's like a 50 page workbook that has individual questions and then there's group study for your staff. And so that's the one thing. The other thing that I'm even more, and, and I'll give you like a website that you can go to to find that stuff. But the other thing that I'm even more excited about right now is this thing called character amp that we're doing. And it's a tool that basically helps the coaches keep character at the top of the mind every week. One character attribute. So if you have a six to set up for like a 16 week season, every Monday there's a video that that gets, gets texts to the coaches, the players and catch this, you'll love this. All of the parents. So they get the same video and then here's where it really gets good. Then after the video to all of them, then we have a separate one that's maybe a minute and a half that goes directly to the coaches. Says, okay, coaches this week we're talking about respect for officials. Now here's what I want to challenge you with with regards to respecting officials. Remember what we're trying to model here and why we're trying to model this with the kids is that, and then Hey parents, this week you saw, we're talking about respect reds, I want to challenge you when you're in the stands. Now I want to challenge you what you're talking about with different people in different cities. You know, like with your kids when you get to the car and you're talking about the officials here, like what are you teaching them? And so we're addressing all three components. It's been a really, really cool thing. And so you know, we're, we're working on right now it's being set up to where coaches if they want to do it in the off season, cause a lot of coaches are going, she's Todd, we need something to help us connect with our kids. And this is a tool that will throughout, you know, on a weekly, like multiple days throughout the week, it'll hit them up and you're all doing the same thing. You come back together on a zoom call on Friday and go, Hey, how'd this go? What did we talk about? What'd you learn this week? But you know, so some cool things there. So both of those are resources that, and I hope it can be an encouragement to coaches and athletes at this time.

Nate (37:42):

That's great. Well, we'll put all the, all the links in the description of the, of the episode, but where, where could a coach go to get the, the character and the last thing you just mentioned?

Todd (37:50):

Yeah, so the character amp is, if you just look up character amp.com just like it sounds, cha character amp because it's a character, amplifier.com amp. So character amp.com. We'll get that. The coaches one is that, is that my kind of my website, but it's Kardia TG, K, R, D, T, G and then the U virtual university. And if you go into there, you can see on both of those names because we're doing a lot of programs and stuff. And I'm, I'm spacing this right now so I'll have to get it to you. But there's like coupon codes so they can get like a, a huge discount on both of those for listening to go into it from this program. So awesome. I'll make sure to get you that before so you can like put them in there. Here's the coupon code. Yeah,

Nate (38:40):

We'll pass those along for sure. Yeah. Well, hi Todd. Thanks so much. Thanks for bringing it today. Bringing the energy, sharing your heart and just for all you do for the coaching world and beyond, you've been a blessing. You've, you've made an impact more than you know, here in our area and yeah, this blessing to you and your family moving forward.

Todd (38:58):

Hey, thanks. Thank you so much, Nate. Thank you for what you guys are doing. You and my buddies in FCA all over the country, man. I, I, it's near and dear to my heart for obvious reasons and man, just keep doing what you're doing. I just, I love it and we're such, such a need for it nowadays. No matter what sports is, sports is gone for a period right now, which is great. In essence because it's, it's helping a lot of athletes that maybe wouldn't otherwise be thinking about it. Go back to that perspective as you know, what, what really matters in sports more than anything else and those relationships and the things that you guys are teaching about the heart. That's the stuff that's still stands. So you're doing what you're doing man.

Nate (39:39):

Appreciate that. Yeah. Our playing careers all have an expiration date and might come soon so.

Todd (39:44):

That's right, thank you. Thanks Nate.

Nate (39:55):

So there you have it guys. Our conversation with Todd Gongwer, what a great man who is serving and is open was an open book, really brought it. I hope you took some notes. A couple of things that I took away was not only arriving at a healthy perspective but really need to maintain that perspective even though life comes at you and basically get messy and you need some people around you to be able to do that. So I hope that you'll take him up on some of the offerings he has, whether it be the book. There was a link in there about the coaches, virtual university, and then Todd, one 50 is your discount code for the character amp tools. That man, that sounded pretty awesome to me to have all think about having coaches, players, and parents all on the same page and the unity that that would bring and working through some of the same issues simultaneously. That sounded really encouraging. Well, Hey, if you have not already, please subscribe to whatever app you're listening on, your favorite streaming app that'll help us serve you better that you won't miss any upcoming episodes. We're really trying to bring a quality content that's going to be helpful and encouraging and bringing value to you. And if you found this valuable, please share it with at least one person that you know that might appreciate this message. Well, until next time, keep growing. Keep learning and keep changing lives. Your team and in your home.

"How to Partner with Parents and Thrive During Your Season"

nsallee@fca.org (Nate Sallee) — Fri, 15 May 2020 19:31:18 GMT

Ep. 29: Coach to Coach Podcast - Keith Madison

Episode Info

Coach Keith Madison joins on the show for this episode!

Hear Keith's journey from a small town in western KY to making to Triple-A with the Expos/Reds, Coaching for 25 years in the SEC, then what he's up to now in "retirement"

Fast Facts:

- Played professionally in the Expos and Reds organizations

- KY HS Baseball Hall of Fame

- 783 Wins as Head Baseball Coach, University of KY

- University of KY Hall of Fame

- American Coaches Association Hall of Fame

Email Coach to be added to his text devotional list: keith@scorebaseball.org

Join the American Baseball Coaches Association: www.abca.org

Transcript

Nate

What's going on, guys. Welcome to the coach to coach podcast, where we believe every kid deserves a coach Sallee the Northern Kentucky Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Hey, we've done a little bit of a hiatus, but we are back. We had a website update. We've transferred all of the previous episodes onto the new version of our website nkyfca.org, and if you want to go the podcast page for previous episodes Go to nkyfca.org/podcast, you could also subscribe, and whatever app you're using to listen in, well, hey, we're coming back with a banger! Coach Keith Madison, former UK baseball coach. He played baseball and was drafted out of high school, played with the Montreal Expos and the Cincinnati Reds organization up to the Triple-A level, then got into coaching. He has over 25 years of collegiate coaching experience at the University of Kentucky. He started. He was one of the youngest coaches to ever get a head position at the division one level in the SEC and has just been a great man of faith and advocate for the game of baseball and advocate for his faith and men, He has been just such a blessing to literally thousands of people, not just players, and coaches as he's had direct working relationships with. That plus mission trips. He's on the board for the American Coaches Baseball Association, and he just been a personal friend of mine and someone who's meant a lot to me in the process in my own journey. So I can't wait for you to to dive in and get the wisdom from Coach Madison here in just a minute. But just to remind you of the vision behind this, we know that we all get better together and coaching can be a little bit lonely, has his own challenges, as it has incredible rewards. But this podcast is designed to capture some of the collective wisdom that we have in northern Kentucky, greater Cincinnati and beyond, and to be able to encourage each other to continue to learn to be able to win ballgames, absolutely, but to also be able to transform lives in the process. So hey, I don't want to leave you hanging in any longer. I want to hop right into our interview with Coach Keith Madison. All right, guys, we're here with Coach Keith Madison. Keith, how you doing today?

Coach Madison

I'm great Nate Thanks for having me Thank you.

Nate

We are in, Um, just an interesting set up right now. The time we're recording this is writing kind of thick of, ah, of the corona virus. Something by the time you hear in this, you know, some of the dust has been settled, but just so thankful to kind of redeem the time through this and to just let you know a little bit about Coach Madison, his story and some of the impact he's made at different levels along the way. So I have Ah, I've given. I'll have given the, uh, the listeners kind of a little bit of, ah, of a quick bio or resume from your coach. But before we hop into everything, I just want to take a second and let you know just personally how you've you've impacted me. It's, um, different points. You've kind of giving me a start on a couple different times. One was all the way back when I was about 12 years old and it was able to go to UK is baseball camps and you had kind of helped make that happen. Uh, they're in the middle school years, and it just gave me a lot of confidence. I was just a little Jessamine County kid doing the little league thing. We didn't really do big select a au teams, anything like that. I just got a lot of confidence in that. Remembered your character talks always at the end of the day and just super grateful for that. And then back in 2015 just a few years ago, you really helped me start to start ministry up here in northern Kentucky, where you were our very first banquet speaker. We were able to give you a little bit of something, but we were just getting the fundraising train rolling, and you said, Hey, I'm not worried about that. I just want to get you started. So if you have something awesome if not, don't worry about it. So just kind of two at 12 years old And about it was that 27 you kind of met me at some really cool times. So I don't want to miss that opportunity just to say thank you so much for meeting me where I was at a couple of different times.

Coach Madison

Well, you're welcome. And I and I had sort of forgotten about the camp experience until you just reminded me. But I do remember that now, and I remember speaking at the FCA dinner, and I met some really neat people there. And Nate, I was really impressed the way you had a good core of people at the very beginning, sort of surrounding your ministry there and helping it get off to a good start. So I felt very confident that you were gonna make an impact. There in Northern Kentucky.

Nate

Excellent. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you so much. Well, hey, um, I kind of gave that maybe some of the quick hits on the biography, but love just here. Just kind of snippets from your backstory, your faith journey. Kind of both on the field, baseball-wise and then all the way through the triple-A level. And then ultimately, coach in the UK

Coach Madison

Yeah. I mean, you can well imagine that my faith journey in my baseball journey or sort of intertwined, because when you when you're really passionate about something on and I grew up just being crazy about baseball and basketball, and I tried to play those sports as much as I could, I just couldn't seem to get enough of it. And I remember, I was the youngest in my family, and I had back in the back in the sixties and rule Kentucky about the first opportunity that I had to play organized basketball. I was at the seventh-grade level, and I had just earned a starting spot on the seventh-grade basketball team. I was fired up. I was already thinking I was going to be playing basketball at the University of Kentucky. I mean, I was. I was one of his kids always listen to the games. I had the posters of the players up in my room. Yeah, that was so Pop and my family, my mom, Ed, were the kind of parents they every time the church doors are open, we were there. And, um, I remember my dad telling me that we were gonna have a revival meeting at our church. And I remember thinking that revival is going to start the same night that our first basketball game is supposed to be. And I just knew that my dad was gonna make me miss the basketball game, and I was just all torn up about Dad and I waited, waited and finally I think it was the day. The day before the game, Uh, I brought it up then I said, Dad, I know. I know. This revival starts tomorrow night. It's also the 1st basketball game and ah, he stopped me right there. And he said, Son, uh, you know, you're at the age now where you need to start making decisions on your own, and I'm gonna let you decide where you play basketball. It's more, and I do. Where do you come to church with us and I'm gonna let you make that decision. I was shocked. I just couldn't believe that he wasn't going to force me to go to church. But I spent some time alone. I thought about that, and I don't know where there was fear of letting my dad down or what? But I decided to go to church. Yeah, well, that night at that church service where I was supposed to be, uh, at the basketball game, let me back up a little bit. I had this conversation with my basketball coach on the day of the game. I said, Coach MEREDITH, um, you know, I don't have to tell you this. I know you told me you were gonna let me start tonight, But, um, you know, our church is having a revival meeting, and I and I feel like I need to be there, and, uh, this was my introduction into a coach being supportive of me in my life. And he said He said, Keith, you go to church. He said, You know, we got another game later this week and you can come to that game or if the revival is still going on, You come next week. He said, Don't worry about that. You do. You do what you think is right. And so I had a father who was given me some personal responsibility in my faith journey. I had a coach he was understanding. Oh, it was, uh it was a perfect scenario. Uh, I went to church that night, and that was the night I surrender my life to Christ mind. I had, you know, I had been to church but wan't really interested. My family, they were following Christ and I was just one of those kids. I was so involved in sports. It's all thought about until that night. And God really worked on my heart that night. So Ah, that's that's kind of How about faith journey started actually started pretty much the same. Time is a sports journey. So, um, throughout my high school basketball and baseball careers, I, uh, yeah, I tried my best. I knew how to walk with Christ up like everybody else, made mistakes. But then, um, hi at an opportunity after my senior high school to sign a professional contract with the Montreal Expos. And once I signed with them, That's when things really started changing for me and not all. Not always in a positive way date. It was Sometimes, you know, sometimes, ah, playing pro pro sports can have a negative impact on people's lives spiritually. So, um, you know, I was this country boy from Kentucky and all of a sudden I'm thrown into a situation where I'm I'm playing ball with guys from Southern California, New York for a Rico, Texas, and I don't want to be known. Is this Ah, you know this hillbilly kid from Kentucky? So I basically followed those guys around. I was usually the youngest guy because most of these guys were college had played college baseball. I signed right out of high school, So I really followed those guys into some into some, ah, places I shouldn't have gone and and maybe in lifestyle, I should have been living in. So, um, I started drifting away from my relationship with Christ, and I remember going to bed at night and putting my head on the pillow and just asking God to forgive me for making them stakes I've made that day. I did that so often. This is where I really made a big mistake. I finally thought, you know, God's card hearing about this, so I'm just gonna pray. So then I just just shut him out completely and started going my own way, and that's when things started spiraling in the wrong direction for me and I and I. I didn't have a lot of peace in my life. I had a lot of guilt, and, uh, so even though I was sort of living this dream that a lot of young baseball players wanna live, I wasn't having the joy and the peace of the happiness that I could have had because I was falling people instead of following Christ, though it wasn't until several years later that I got married and start having a family. Then I started really focusing on this relationship with Christ, and that's when my life started really getting better not as a baseball player but as a coach and and a husband and a father that really wanted my sons to have the same opportunity to have a relation, different price that I had when I was young. Um, and I'll say this even though, as he has ah, middle school, our player in a high school player and all that. I mentioned that I went to church. I was walking with Christ, but what I wasn't doing as I was not getting in the word I did not have that foundation of being in the word. So when I got away from my family and I got away from my home church, I really started drifting in the wrong direction. And it wasn't until I was an adult that I started realizing, Hey, the more I stay in the world in, the more I have spend quiet time with God, the stronger I'm gonna be in my faith and the more peace I'm gonna act. So that's that's ah sort of reader Reader's Digest version of my testimony and my and my faith journey up until adulthood.

Nate

Awesome. Thanks so much for sharing and, uh, some key pieces there. I definitely resonate with sort of that foundation you had growing up is a family with father in different sides of my family and having that almost that season of kind of drifting away, too. I did something similar in college where I wanted to be that that light, um, in the locker room, You know, they're Morehead State and, uh, you know, made some pretty poor decisions and you go in. My biggest mistake is I went in alone trying to make a difference and be a light and slowly just kind of went into the fold, the kind like a river, saying with some of the seniors and different influences, nobody ever, um, did anything totally inappropriate. It was just I kind of got that. The social pressure was really and ended up doing, you know, doing some stuff I'm not proud of. And ah, but really had a formative experience to kind of get back on track. And, um, getting the word was a big part of that for me as well. So it's really good stuff. Well, yeah, let's transition a little bit. Just kind of the on the on the field piece. A little bit. You had, um they said he had was drafted right out of high school. And then, um I believe he said at some point, you kind of hit some plateaus, I guess. Athletically, what was How did you How did you transition from kind of the end of your playing career into coaching, You know, what was that happen and what was going through your mind and heart during that time?

Coach Madison

That's a great question and, uh, transition, Not about my choice. It was the choice of the Cincinnati Reds that decided to make that transition for me. Uh, I was really blessed with a good arm. That's the reason I was able to sign right out of high school. And actually, at age 19 I was already a Triple A in the Expos organization, which is, and incredibly rapid progression. I felt like I was just knocking on that major league baseball door, and then I started having some injuries like a lot of people do. I had never had injuries before, and I and I probably didn't deal with that quite as well. I tried to push through some injuries and play through some injuries that I probably shouldn't have and created more problems. So I ended up getting released by the Expos as a 20-year-old. I was desperately missing baseball, and I remember calling a scout up that head that I'd built a relationship with, and he happened to be a scout with the Cincinnati Reds. Got the name of Larry Dodie, who eventually became the scouting director for the Reds and after that, became the journal manager for the Pittsburgh Pirates. But he was a great baseball guy and I called him up and I said, You know, I got released and you may know about that. Um, I still feel like I could do this, you know? I feel like my arms rested now. Feel healthy And he said, I'll tell you what, I'm in Bowling green I lived about 30 miles from Bowling Green. He said, uh, won't you meet me at Bowling Green High School of one o'clock tomorrow and let's see if there's anything left in that order. So I did, and I drove down there, and this is like, uh, this is like, out of a movie or something. But I remember pulling in next to his car. He pops his trunk open, holes out of catchers met and a bucket of baseballs, and this cap edges may for about 20 minutes. And so I'm warming up this guy out, and and, uh and I'm thinking, for I'm First of all, I'm thinking, Hey, if I start throwing really good, is he gonna be able to handle it. Fastball, He's He's a little bit on the pudgy side. He's wearing glasses. I'm thinking man i'm going to hurt this guy. But he was He was fine with that. So, uh, I threw after right after I warmed up really and through about 20 pitches, he throws his catcher's mitt down. He said, Hey, I think you're ready to play again. He said. The Reds have a spot for you. So signed with the Reds. Played three years on the Reds organization, made it back to Triple A and then tore my A C L in my left knee and I'm a right-handed pitcher. And that was my That was my blame, would ya? And back in those days, this was 1974. When you had that surgery, they would put gonna tip to toe cast for six weeks and stove, my leg just rolled up. And I just never really, really came back from the injury, though after trying to come back to an injury for about a year, the Reds finally I made that decision for me. Hey, uh, you know, I think you probably need to find another career S o You know, I thought, What am I gonna do? You know, I was one of the things that I did right was that I, uh, got major case. You're in all seasons through those minor. Here's so that that following year I graduated from Western Kentucky University and I had my degree, though I decided, Hey, I know more about baseball than anything else because I played all these years of minor league baseball played understand risk coaches and makers, I think I'm gonna give coaching. So I took a high school coach guard in Lake Wales. Florida was I had a cousin that, uh, that had a teaching job. Open some doors for Sharon and I. I was married time So. We got teaching job there and and started starting to coach at the high school level. Eventaully I met at Ron Polk, a legendary coach from Mississippi State at a baseball convention. And so we got to know each other. You'll be a graduate assistant shift and getting one of our Johnson and his distant coach didn't want to work. So they let either pitching coach or a nationally ranked college team, which was a big responsibility. And it was, uh it was fun. And so, uh, I was there for one year date. And remember, we're on a bus. They're in Starkville, Mississippi, and we're heading down to all the mute. First you play Auburn, a Syrian, a sec, Siri's and I'm getting on the boss and coach, folks that Hey, did you hear The Kentucky baseball job is open? I said, Yeah, I think I heard something about it and he said, Why don't you? Why don't you apply for that job? He said, Send your resume And I said, Coach, I'm 25 years old, you know, they're not gonna hire a 25 year old guy. And, uh, actually, I said, I'm 26. I was 26 a time and and so he said, Hey, go ahead and send your resume in. Uh, I'll make a phone call for you. So I did. I sent the resume and didn't think a lot about it. Meanwhile, the season was ending at Mississippi State. I had an interview at a junior college in Illinois and I got offered the junior college job, and that was about three hours from where my mom and dad live in Kentucky, in western Kentucky. So Sharon and I were up there visiting them. I go with the interview on the way back from the interview. They had offered me the job. Um, I told Sharon I can't tell you how excited I am to be. I'm gonna be a head coach at a junior college. This is so cool. And she said, You mean you liked it here? I said, Yeah, and she's just said you didn't like and she said, No, there's nothing here but corn. I knew that that probably wasn't gonna work. She had, uh we got married the last year of my moderate baseball experience, and then she kind of followed me to Florida to teach and coach down there. Then she followed me to start with Mississippi, and she had never, ever said anything like that. She's always just been totally supported, totally in. And this time she was. So I get back to my mom and dad's house after that, shocking on conversation with her that she wasn't going to really be in the middle of a cornfield in little boy. And so I told my dad when I got the trusted. You know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna call Cliff Hagan. Cliffhanger was that, like director of university? Lucky this time he was a famous N b a basketball player, All American, a Kentucky, somebody I had never met. But I'd always admired and looked up Thio. I heard my dad talking about him a lot and he said that you're gonna call Cliff Hagan. I said, Yeah, I'm gonna call Cliff Hagan. So I cold information got the number of the university Kentucky got put through to the athletic department. Somehow or another, the secretary put me through the cliff Hagan and I said, Mister, hey, my name's Keith Madison, pitching coach at Mississippi State University. I sent a resume to you a few weeks ago, and I just wanted to check in and see if the head coaching position at Kentucky is still open. He said, Yeah, yeah, we'll open piece. I've talked to some people about it, and so I said, Could I come up and talk to you about the position? He said, Can you be here at 10 o'clock tomorrow morning? And I said, Yes, sirs, The next morning I got up really early. Grove. The Lexington knows about 2.5 hour drive. Had a great meet with Mr Hagen, and then Sharon and I I was just excited. Get to meet Cliff Hagan. I didn't think I had a shot to make a long story just a little bit longer. Drive back, Thio dark for Mrs. And I had not been in in our apartment minutes. And the phone. This is before cell phones so that the phone rings I pick up the phone. He said, Keith, this is Cliff Hagan. And, uh, I want to bring you up for a more formal interview. So they fly me up to Lexington. I'm all excited. Spend the day with Mr Hagen and some other people in the athletic department. Come back to start full. Very similar. I hadn't been back very long. All he calls and says, Hey, the job's yours if you want it, man, I was Oh, Bob. I'm 26 years old. Gonna be a head coach at my home state, the largest university in my home state. All that. So I'm going to intel sharing about sharing. You're not gonna believe this. I just got offered the job to you over Kentucky, and she started crying. And she's not a crier at all. I said, What are you crying about? This is this one of the best thing that ever happened to me And she said, I'm pregnant was found out that while I go to the head coach of viewers Kentucky and that I'm gonna be a dad. Well, the same moment and it was overwhelming. So that's that. That's where the journey started for me as a hit baseball coach at the verse. Kentucky in 1978 Summer 78. And that winner and January. We had her first son, Austin. And, uh, and, as they say, the rest is history. I spent 25 years coaching, uh, at a school that I used to listen to the basketball team, play on the radio, just one of those fans. So it was. It was a blast. I loved it.

Nate

That's excellent. One. That's a perfect segue, way to one of our other questions. We actually got a hold some of our local high school coaches to see if they have a question for you, and this one was from Walton, Verona's head baseball coach and one of our core volunteers, Clint Coleman. And he was just curious. When you stepped in. You're the head coach at SEC school. And you, yeah, you know, recently married and then very recently just started being a dad, especially that spring season. How did you find that balance of, you know, having a high performing team and have success on the field, but also kind of winning at home over some lessons learned along the way through that?

Coach Madison

Yeah. You know, I think of of three words, and they all start with the letter P, uh, one is perseverance. You have to practice what you preach as a coach. You know, you ask your players two person fear, persevere and thio fight through adversity. And coaches have to do the same thing because just like the coaches that are listening right now during your season, that demands on your time are incredible. It takes a lot of time to coach, you know, the travel, the time on the practice field. They're one on one time with your players and all that. It's very demanding. And then you you know, most of us have families at home that need us as well. Uh, so that leads me to the next word that starts with a P. That's prioritize. You have to You have to get your priorities straight. Really? Uh, and I basically and I know a lot of people don't want to hear this that really love these things. I really loved fish. I mean, that's my hobby. I love the love. You catch a big bass, and I just you really get fired up to be able to do that. But I learned that, you know, do I really have time to To coach, to be ad, To be a husband and to spend a lot of time fishing. And the answer is no. So dressed. I I had I had to leave off the fishing part, Uh, for other people, it might be golf, you know, nothing else. But I just think you have to You have to to set good priorities. And I had had a wise man tell me one time I was It was during the spring, and I was really struggling with this whole thing of who has been on Amen. Sharon spending all this time with my sons and and I'm just not doing a great job with this. I feel like I'm not being at being a good husband. And he said he asked me a question. He said. He said, Well, I want you make a list of what your priorities should be I said Okay, so I wrote the number one, God number two, uh, family and then number three career. And then I made a list of a few other things I was involved in, and I showed it to look at it. He said, You got this all wrong...you put God first.

Nate

It's pretty good, right? Yeah.

Coach Madison

And he said, Yeah, you got this wrong And he started writing down things He said, Here's what I think your priority should be. So number one, he could. Family number two. He put career, and then he listed a bunch of other things. I said, Wait a minute, Carol, Worst God in all this, he said. That's where you're missing, he said. You need to put God number one and each one of these things. Put God number one in your family. Put him number one in your career put him number one and all these other things that you've got listed. And then God will help you prioritize things. And that really stuck with me. And it helped me a lot because you know what? Uh, during the season, coach, it really spend more time with their players. They'd grown family. If you think about waking hours, spend more time with with our players, so but weeks, the time we spend with our family, if we put God first in our family life and that's gonna be very rich, it's going to be very rewarding. And it's not gonna be perfect, but it's gonna It's gonna be good animus. Oh, uh, you know, Harold Morris just helped me so much with that. You know, he he, uh he told me how to get my priority straight, and that made all the difference. So and then I'm gonna I'm gonna use one more word that's got the pee in it. And that's prayer. I really believe that prayer is a huge thing. I I think if we during that season during that busy time of our lives, if if we leave God out of hole over all the things were involved in. We're gonna work on a struggle. Yeah, but we start each day off asking God to help us be the best coach we can be. Be the best, dad we could be. Be the best husband, weaken B and ask him to guide our steps. Is gonna make all the for what?

Nate

Yeah, that's right. That's so good. Yeah. So, um, I love that I've heard that put in a similar way, but it's almost like God doesn't want to just be on the list of of those priorities. He he's he's with you all the time. So I've heard, you know, God's presence is a matter of awareness. So while you're in your career while you're at home, he's always with us. Tow only. Give him this little kind of david out slot in our lives versus just embracing, um, him being with us the entire time. I think I think it is a big shift. Um, and honestly, good prior releases from some guilt and shame, you know, of of not feeling, you know, having that different approach. I just think it's fantastic.

Coach Madison

Yeah. You know, another way to put it is you know, you know, Beware your feet are and wherever our feet are at that time, God can use us. That's right. If we're asking God to use us in the in the moment, whether it's oh, no baseball field or on a basketball court, on the football field or on a tennis court wherever we may be coaching. If if we ask God to use us at that time, then he's gonna help us get more accomplished in a short amount of time, in which, and then do the same thing with our family. So, uh, yeah, God's always equipments. We just need to allow him to use us in that moment.

Nate

Yeah, just raises that quality. Well, in that last one, you mentioned what was prayer, and that's something that we've been hearing a lot about A CZ. Well, not necessarily prayer, but the, uh, the parent coach relationships. And you talked about parent players. How do you see prayer impacting? Or, you know, however, you challenged people in prayer not just personally in the morning, maybe to kick start things. But what are some other ways that that prayer can have an impact coaching, pitching sport?

Coach Madison

Yeah, if it's okay I'm gonna go. I'm gonna tell a quick story tonight. Help me illustrate how I think we get utilized prayer to be to be better coaches. Um, back in the early Chinese, there was a teacher up in Minnesota and his name was guy down and he was a young teacher and he was really struggling in the classroom. A za matter of fact, it only been teaching two or three years and decided at the end of the year, I'm getting out of teaching. I'm not affected. No, I'm miserable. So I'm gonna do something else. And he just became very negative and, uh, frustrated, frustrated in the classroom and frustrated and in his life. And you wanted to make a change. So it just so happened that once he made that decision, you went to a football and he noticed while he was at the football game, he was just sitting there, observing the game and obviously pulling for his team. He noticed that when the coach called time out, the football players would run over to the sideline and they would listen to the coast and he could see the coach giving him instructions and then answer the time out, they would run back on the field and try to try their very best execute exactly what the coach wanted to do, and he's sitting up there in the stands. They could walk in. What can I get that type of response in my classroom? You know, I see the coach doing it and and poise. Players are really paying attention. But in the classroom, I'm just not getting that, though. It became even more discouraged. And after the weekend, he goes into the classroom. Uh, obviously before the students get there before first period and he sewed, urged and so negative that instead of going up to his death, he just sort of slides in to a student's desk right by the door. And he's it just kind of feeling sorry for himself and thinking about I can't wait up. The fear's over. I'm getting out of here and and on and on. And then he realized that, Hey, the bell's gonna ring a few minutes and the girl's gonna need this seat, so I need to get up. And for the first you really started thinking about the girl. That's sad every morning for a period, and he started thinking, I really don't know her And then he started thinking, I've never really seen her smile. I've never talked to her And he was a Christian. He started praying this girl. So the next morning comes into the classroom. He sits in another desk, and he praised for that's too. He goes to it to a different debt every morning for the rest of the school year. Now listen to the end of the story. This is beautiful. Three years later, he was named Teacher of the Year Mom, and it all started because he started praying Chris students and he started and he did it by actually spitting desk and making it riel. Yeah, so I tell that story to talk to talk about, You know, if we want to be successful as coaches, a great start is praying for our athletes, and I'm going to take it a little bit further that we need to pray for athletes every day. We need to pray from a of our athletes every day. Every every play. Goat has a different situation at home. Some of them have a great situation at home. They're well provided for their loved. But maybe there was. Communicating with their with their Ah son or daughter is to be critical of the coach. So we need. We need to pray for those parents. And also there are parents that go home and they don't get a decent meal at home. Maybe they go home to to single parent that's worked all day, and they have peanut butter for dinner every night. And you know why we need to pray for those parents as well. And if I work? If I were speaking for the parents of the players, I would say you could get sprayed for the coaches. Now if you could get that dynamic make of coaches prank. Yeah, players. The coach is praying for the parents and the parents, praying for the coaches and their sons and daughters and their teammates. You're gonna have a experience with that team during that, so I think prayers.

Nate

That's awesome. You can see it where it can be, especially that the parent coach relationship can really be a partnership where you're both trying to do, do right, you know, do the best you came for the kids or it can be kind of ah, at the serial type deal. But I just think that the act of praying for one another, um even if even if maybe a parent feels like the coaches of the enemy like the Bible talks about praying for your enemies and I just like it humanizes the other person. I mean, when that teacher is sat, uh, in that seat that he was literally putting himself in their shoes and probably had a tangible way of thinking like what is their lifelong right now and give him a give him a deeper, deeper perspective and humanized every exit.

Coach Madison

right when I pray for you. Um, it helps me just a few more. I can't see You exactly like God sees you, but it helps me to see you more that way If I never break you, I'm gonna be very quick Your faults that if I pray for you on a regular basis that I'm going to see a different way I'm gonna be allowed you through God's eyes I'm gonna be a war. I'm gonna be a veteran. You, uh oh, and better coaches. If we pray for our players.

Nate

Yeah, that's so good. Well, hey, is there anything that you want to just shift a little bit too? Maybe just talking about legacy. You know, you've had your playing career. You're coaching career, you've retired, but you certainly aren't down and down and back. Went back down to Florida is playing golf every day And you do a ton of speaking events. Uh, mission trips with American baseball. Coach says shoot so many things going on. Um, what would you say your most grateful for when it comes to your legacy as a coach. And I think you have a great just picture of you're able to see people you've built into already. But, you know, maybe who are what you're grateful for when it comes to light.

Coach Madison

Yeah. You know, I I don't know. I don't know if I didn't Oh, what? Not legacy? Oh, I don't know if I know what it will be. Ah, I know what I don't think I'd be, But I know as a coach, just because of Valdez and all that you or influence on what player? As a first other. I know that some of the fires I coached at the University of Kentucky. Some of the ones, you know, I'll just go to school. They were hard to deal with. You know, I go to bed at night, strain through then because otherwise I didn't no clue what they're going to be doing. Yeah, it's interesting that many of those guys, her guys that are really good friends to me, right? And some of the guys I was really good when I was coaching. I'm really not in as much as we can just as coaches. If we can Hank and hand with athletes, I give up on him. Every one of us needs somebody to believe in. And if that if that player that you as the coach believe and then they're gone, you're gonna get a mosque or accomplished and you're gonna lasting and what worked up or or relationship with you many, many of my former, and is on a mission to go. Some of those guys are among the best friends now, even though you know, I made a media to track six o'clock in the morning and and run for disciplinary reasons, all those things, uh, you know, as a coach in time. Do you think that guy's gonna hate me rest of his life? And that's really not the way it is. I think we have an opportunity. Is coaches, too? Instill discipline and athletes, but at the same time, disciplined, in a strange way, is a part of that loving your athletes because discipline them. That means you really don't care enough about him to hang in there with, and it's easier just to get right up. Yeah, but if we can hang in there was and beer with them through their trials through the times when they might be a knuckle it, then we're gonna build a lifelong relationship. And I love that about coaching. As a matter of fact, my little league coach passed away last year. We stayed in touch up until the very day he passed away. He called me the day that he died, and, um, I mean, that's that's a great memory I have. And it's. It's also a testimony to the legacy that he had on my life. My high school baseball coach, the same thing. He's still a lot and and I love seeing him love talking to him. Ah, So I think if we persevere with athletes and if we hang in there with him and go through the tough times with him, it builds upon That is early.

Coach Madison

Yeah, that'd be great. I You know, I, uh, I really actually retired from coaching. I started so young. I think that retired young as well. I was 51 years old, one when I step away from coaching at the University Kentucky and a lot of people thought I was crazy for leaving at such a young age. But I really felt like God was calling me out of coaching, and I and I couldn't understand why. And then I did some work with gay. And then I went on my first mission trip, Um, through an organization called Score International. I had never been on a mission trip before, so I go down the Dominican Republic, where baseball is just absolutely huge. Oh, yeah, we put on free baseball clinics for probably 500 kids that week, and I fell in love with it. And so Score International invited me back the next year, and the next year we put on cleaning for about 2000 kids. And these past few years we've been averaging, put on putting on these clinics for about 6000 kids in a week. I've been doing that every year since 2004 and that's become a big part of my life because we can, don't worry, teach his baseball. We get to share our faith with them, and we've seen a lot of kids come to Christ through those baseball trips and and all that and and then I've really gotten involved with the American Baseball Coaches Association. Um, I'm chairman of the board of that association. Now it's a 12,000 member board of Remember group, and, uh, so, uh, that's if you're a baseball coach out there and and you're not remember the ABC? I strongly encourage it because you get a lot of neat benefits and Dick goes and magazines and things that help you become a better coach. It's very education oriented. Um, I'm involved in those things, and, uh, you know my work with scorn. Their national is really, really special. And I worked with the ABC, a publisher of a magazine called Inside Pitch That's Ah magazine, designed to help coaches and in baseball. And now it's become maybe because I'm with the ABC as well. It's the official magazine, the ABC A. So 12,000 coaches get that magazine quarterly. So that's been a fun thing in my life. And I get to ah e get talked about my faith in that magazine. Oh, way had a lot of people that contribute to the magazine. The great baseball people like Nick Man, Jonah Kentucky Dan McDonald. Well, uh uh, those have been fun things to me, so Now I understand Black God called me out of coaching at such an early age because it's really opened up a lot of doors and give me an opportunity to, uh, to do a lot of things that I'm really passionate about

Nate

hat's that's awesome. Yeah, well said, Well said, uh, I want to also give you some room just to kind of sharing a little bit about what you're up to these days. I mean, you're not on F. C A staff, but dog on it your so aligned and kind of our vision of ministering to and through coaches. And I know you've done so much coaching coaches after your coaching career. So, yeah, I just want to give you some room to talk about ABC a score and some of the other ways that at the country's listening to maybe connect with you or or get on that list of content that you're pushingout.

Nate

Yeah, that's excellent way if if coaches wanted to know more about well, but, hey, handful of college coaches probably listen probably not too many. But if you haven't taken a team down to the Dominican with Coach Mass, and I highly encourage you to that, I think it's just, uh, score baseball that order. Is that right?

Coach Madison

Yes, it's Ah, my. Let me give you my email address. It's Ah, it's Ah Keith at score baseball dot org. And if you're interested in ever going on a trip with me as a coach toe put on these clinics with the kids, you don't have to be a baseball coach. You condone, just go down and help us. A lot of people do that, or if you want to take your entire team down to the Dominican Republic on spring break or during the summer, I'd love to help you set that up. But, uh, again, my my email address teeth at score baseball dot org's. And then also another thing that I'm doing it absolutely love. Um, usually about five or six mornings. Ah, weak. I'll send out a brief ex message to the list is up to about 400 coaches now. It's just a Bible verse, a quote, a word of encouragement. If you're interested in getting on that list, just send me an email. I can get you on that list to get those text devotionals each morning.

Nate

Excellent. Thank you so much. Way, coach again. You're done a great job. Just really just staying in the game and make it an impact wherever you're at. So you're just an inspiration to me. I'm just grateful for you in your time. Thank you for all you do, uh, early for baseball, the game that we both love. But for all the coaches and the athletes, you come across and I just know you, you continue to touch thousands of lives, and I know it's gonna have just generational impact and just grateful for you. Ah, and Sharon. And just how you're continuing to run your race.

Coach Madison

Well, thank you a lot Nate. I appreciate that, and let me encourage you to keep on keeping on up their northern Kentucky with the coaches and athletes that you impact and that will work together on all of this.

Nate

All right, we'll do well. Hey, blessings. And I have a great rescue day. Thank you, Dave. Well, there you have it, guys. Our conversation with Coach Keith Madison, their central well of wisdom there. Thanks so much for staying with us to the end. Hey, what about that approach of parents, players and coaches all praying for the other two parties? Gosh, what would it look like if we had more team from or organizations operating that way? I feel like everybody would have a much better experience the relationship to be better and shoot the performance level would have to increase if that were true. And just some of the Nuggets that he uses far as perseverance priorities in prayer. Man is such a great guy who's he's done it well on the field and also lived a great life off the field and inspired a lot of people, so glad we were able to have some time with him. Hey, moving forward. If you have any more questions? We would love to take your questions as faras topics or potential guests you would love to have on the show. Just send me an email at in K Y F C A dot or GYU be able to find our our contact information through that. And also, if you would check out our coaches Page and K Y F C A data work slash coaches and you can see resource is like three-dimensional coaching and different things that we would love to help you along. So until next time, keep growing. Keep learning, keep changing lives on your team and in your home.

"Cultivating Key Habits and a mindset for High Performance"

nsallee@fca.org (Nate Sallee) — Thu, 14 May 2020 17:37:31 GMT

Ep. 30: Coach to Coach Podcast - Keaton Belcher

Episode Info

NKY Sports Hall of Famer Keaton Belcher joins us on this episode of the Coach to Coach podcast.

Playing career:

Multi-sport standout athlete at Pendleton County HS (Basketball and Golf)

Belmont University Men's Basketball

Coaching :

Currently Ryle HS Boy's Basketball Coach

Previously Pendleton County HS Head Coach

Eastern KY University Graduate Assistant

Topics discussed:

- Playing in the KHSAA Sweet Sixteen and multiple NCAA tournaments

- Habits and a mindset that helped him maximize his potential

- The coaches that developed him and why

- Family influence on his success

- Current coaching philosophy

- Coaching Dontaie Allen (Current UK Men's Basketball)

- Advice for young coaches just starting out

Transcript

Nate

This is the coach to coach podcast episode number 30..game time. Hey, what's going on, guys? Welcome to the coach to Coach Podcast, where we believe every kid deserves a coach that cares, and every coach deserves someone in the corner. I'm your host, Nate Sallee and this podcast is sponsored by the Northern Kentucky Fellowship of Christian Athletes. We have an incredible team of board members of donors, volunteer leaders and other student leaders that help contribute to the movement of God and in the life change that we're seeing in our region. The vision of this podcast is to collect the amazing wisdom in northern Kentucky, Greater Cincinnati and beyond when it comes to coaching, when it comes to having a high performing team but also thriving personally in our homes with our marriages and families. And we have some incredible interviews already that have been recorded, you could go to nkyfca.org/podcast to see all of our previous episodes. But hey, I'm excited for this particular episode. A friend of mine, Keaton, Belcher. You get to hear a little bit of his story But he came up as a standout high school basketball player, got a chance to play in college and is now in the high school coaching ranks for boys basketball, where he was at Pendleton County, his hometown alma mater. And then now he's currently the head varsity boys basketball coach at Ryle High School. So he has some incredible wisdom that he's picked up from coaches that have impacted him along the way. Some habits and some mindset things that allowed him to go from a very small school, small town to the division one level, be recruited, playing college. And he also has some insight on to coaching different styles and what that could look like and his personal philosophies on some things. And then he shares a little bit about how it was to coach Dantaie Allen, current University of Kentucky basketball player, in what some of that journey was like since some really good stuff. Okay, I don't want to wait any longer. Let's hop right into our conversation with Coach Keaton. Belcher. All right, guys, we're here with Coach Keaton. Belcher. Keaton, How you doing this morning?

Coach Belcher

Fantastic. Trying to survive in a thanks for having me on

Nate

Yeah, as we're recording this we're still in the thick of all the corona stuff and we're both in the comforts of our own home and make it some adjustments, but Well, hey, I'll have given the listeners a little bit of, ah, background on the intro can we just get a history lesson on Keaton? Kind of growing up and eventually getting into basketball and eventually coaching.

Coach Belcher

Well, I grew up in an extremely small town in Butler, Kentucky, which is on the north side of Pendleton County. And when I say extremely small when you enter the city limits, there's a sign that says Welcome to Butler. Population like 596..I was always proud of I went to college in Nashville, Tennessee, to say that I was from a town with less than 100 or less than 1000 people. So I grew up my parents to live in the same house that I grew up in had two younger brothers. Ah, lot of the sports influence comes from my parents. They were very flexible and letting us choose the sports that we wanted to play. They got us involved at a young age. So at one point in time, I played soccer, baseball, basketball and golf. By my senior year of high school, I decided to only focus on two of those which were my best to, and that was golfing basketball. So luckily that I was good enough at one of the sport's to earn a college scholarship, where, after my playing days at Pendleton County High School, I played at Belmont University, and, you know, I've always been a sports guy. So I was pretty much on Cloud nine for four straight years because as a senior in high school, I was lucky enough to point on a team that played in the Sweet 16 basketball tournament. And then my 1st 3 years at college, we made the tournament. So for a kid from Butler, Kentucky, I couldn't have asked for a better high school career or a better college career for me, So I had a lot of great influence, is not only for my parents, my brothers, but also coaches. I I was really blessed to be put in the right position to learn and grow as a student-athlete under some great coaches.

Nate

That's awesome. What? What kind of drew you to basketball eventually. What kind of led you to kind of focus on on the basketball side?

Coach Belcher

Well, it didn't that I was six foot eight. If you don't see too many six-foot-eight golfers out there. My childhood hero was Larry Bird and I would study how he did things and how he played. And he was similar He came from a similar background than I did a very small town, a rural area I grew up on tobacco. We had a very, very similar skill set when we played like a guard, even though we were a big guy. So I was drawn to him at an early age. Um, and that kind of influenced me to my ah high school career in a basketball career. So when I got back to school, I was pretty skilled for high school or so luckily, Belmont. But coaching staff of Belmont saw that I could play a little bit and I could shoot it pretty well for a six-foot-eight guy. So you know, that just kind of stuck and Oh, that that led me to Nashville for five years.

Nate

That's awesome. Well, while we don't have current live sports on TV, I did catch a clip of Larry Bird like a throwback game. And it was the one where he he told the other team what he was going to do. He's like, I'm gonna run off this curl step over in the corner, hit this three and beach yellow and then they showed it where he played, developed it. He went over and exactly what it told him he was gonna do. It was amazing. I was like, Man, I need to watch some more labored clips for back in the day.

Coach Belcher

And as much as I admired him, Nate, I was never able to do that. I was never going to tell my opponent what I was gonna do and actually complete the task. But yeah, he was a special player and and he was so fun to watch. And even though I came, I was a lot younger than when he played. I was born in the eighties. There's so much stuff on YouTube and old videos, and I have a couple of his book. So I really followed him and pattern my game around him.

Nate

Yeah, that's awesome. Well, hey, we're gonna have ah, a little bit of fun for a second before we Before we dive in, we'll be talking probably mostly basketball the rest away, but would just love to hear you say that you don't see a whole lot of 6-8 golfers. What would be your most embarrassing moment on the golf course? Because I know you've played a ton of golf and they're probably several, but what's what's one comes top of mine.

Coach Belcher

You know what I thought about this question because you sent it in an email and nothing over the top goofy that I've been embarrassed by. The only thing that I can think of when I was a senior in high school, I was in a back that back when I was in high school in this was 04 or five, I was a senior in your region. To get a stay, they took the top two teams and the top three individuals that didn't weren't on those two teams that qualified for state. So my goal is to qualify for the state golf tournament that year. So it comes down to we're in a four way tie for the last individual spot to get a state. And on the first hole, Eagle Creek Country Club, the Grant County. I had it A. My approach shot went to about eight feet, and I thought that I was gonna qualify for State because I was the only guy that hit it really closed. I thought I was gonna make the body part, and I ended up missing the pot, and I ended up double early enough bogeying the second hole, which knocked me out of the playoff. Really embarrassed because not only that, I missed that birdie putt on one did not qualify for State on Ho 18. I double bogeyed. That made me tie to go to the play off. I didn't know this at the time, but power just bogeyed 18. I would have qualified for that last individual spot, so I think I shot 78 that day, which that was definitely the peak of my golf career. At age 18 is a senior high school. I'm nowhere near that now, but I was just embarrassed because I had so many chances to qualify that didn't I remember telling my dad in the parking lot that day, like like, this really stinks? But, you know, it would be it would make up for it with the state in basketball, which we did

Nate

nice, kind of flipped and served as a little bit of motivation on the big games. I'm sure it hurt at the moment. Yeah, I do forget that there's a little bit different when you're a good golfer. You have less of those moments that have been somebody like me. Who just goes and knocks it around a little bit because I was in a I was in a scramble one time a Twin Oaks playing, and it was called A Round for Robin. It was a benefit, and there I guess it's Latonia technically, but we were playing off the middle tee box. So there's that other tee box in front of you, and they had a little, little, uh, kind of colored golf balls. They're kind of mark where you tell from and I rare back and I swing too hard cause I don't know what I'm doing. I'm just I'm used to baseball just as hard. You can start bareback, smoke a ball, and it goes like it stays like six inches off the ground and it slice and hard, and it hits one of those golf balls and it splits it right into and had the top half of it flies up like it got shot out from the ground somewhere. And they were like, How in the world did you do that? Like you could never like? I could have tried that 1000 more times and not even get close to hitting that. But I was just when you're bad at golf

Coach Belcher

I'm turning 34 in July that summer, and I've been around a golf buggy around golf a long time. I've never heard anything like that before,

Nate

so yeah, that was mine. We'd made sure you take the picture and, you know, kind of commemorate that.

Coach Belcher

You should have kept that golf balls like a memorabilia and put it The man cave signed it or something.

Nate

Yeah, that would've been good. Uh, let's talk a little bit about a little bit more of your journey from I know you said you're just the pride you take in going from Butler, the small town to individual-level basketball. What were some of the habits or some of the mindset things that you had to have? Because I'm guessing there wasn't Ah, whole lot of D-I recruits at Pendleton County High School at the time. So you kind of had to really probably figure out how to stand out. But also just compete with everybody else is trying to get a D-I scholarship when you're probably not getting a whole lot of exposure from other kids that are doing the exact same thing.

Coach Belcher

Great question. And as cliche as it sounds, it was just a work ethic. Nowadays, AAU is huge, like, way bigger. Than it was 15 years ago. Personal trainers now our big When I was in school and we were in school, Nate, you didn't hear about a whole lot of personal trainers like kids going to work out with this guy for an hour. And the parent's paying. I'm like we never did that. As you said, there wasn't many individual players in Penalty County, so I knew that there were only 3 players to ever Pendleton county high school that signed a Division One basketball scholarship, and I wanted to be the third. So that kind of motivated me from a small town. And to be honest with you here is kind of how got to that boy. I simply took my ball in my back, went to my backyard and shot for least an hour a day like nobody else was out there. So it's a little bit of a self-motivation thing where I remember I had a shooting journal and I would just chart every day how many I made and how many I missed. And over the course of time, that translated to the games where I was so confident myself with my shot that I really started to blossom as a player. And again, it didn't hurt that I was six grew to be six foot eight. So, uh, when I got to college, I played on the perimeter. As a three men are a four-man so man, I really just dedicated, like every summer to enhancing mind or golf to my by athletic ability in my skill set. So that's really how I got to be a solid player. The whole recruiting thing. I was playing. Alan played Hey, you basketball on the national level for one year and I was in Houston, Texas, and I hit it. I remember hit back to back threes from the corner and Beaumont assistant coach Casey Alexander was at that game, and I had absent being offered a scholarship by them, and they signed me. But Casey Alexander is now the head coach of Belmont because Coach Board retired last year. So it was kind of the right place right time thing for me was two shots, and he saw that I was bigger than the average card. So I got really lucky in that sense to play for a great coach in a great school.

Nate

Yeah, that's awesome. Well, there's Yeah, I've been digging into this idea of comparison and how, for the most part, comparison is pretty is usually a negative thing. You know, you don't want to just compare yourself like, Oh, at least I'm better than this person when we're talking, especially like just in life in general, right? Like social media compares to be unhealthy, different things like that. But there's one type of comparison which I think is really healthy, which it's not necessarily trying to be the best. That trying to be your best and you shooting every day you journal in your constant competing against yourself. I think there's something really powerful on that that could get lost in the shuffle when were constant, just looking, looking elsewhere to compare to other people instead of just locking in every day and say, How can I be my absolute best and see where that takes me? So I love that. That's awesome.

Coach Belcher

I'll never forget where I was when Coach Berg called and offered me a scholarship. I was at Longhorn Steakhouse in Cold Spring, Kentucky, and I left my phone in my car and this was back before iPhones. This is a gnocchi, uh, whatever. Where you could play snake on it, whatever from the original. Choke yourself and I had a voice mail from Coach Bird, and it said that they want it all for me. A scholarship, remember driving home and crying on my drive home because I was so proud that I finally and this was probably late October, early November of my senior year. Yeah, I was really proud of that. moment. I'll never forget where I was when that happened.

Nate

Yeah, it's amazing. Another habit that I know you mentioned a future horn a little bit. You were at got induction to the Northern Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame recently, and I was really impressed by one of the Nuggets that you shared of relating to practice. I'm assuming is probably went through college. Is it true that through your entire basketball career, you never missed one practice? Is that right?

Coach Belcher

I actually missed one

Nate

Only 1. Wow,

Coach Belcher

I never missed a game and I missed one practice in high school, So I sure did. I read sharing my freshman year Belmont. Um, so four years of high school ball and five years of college ball on this zero games would practice, and the whole all that credit goes to my parents for telling me how important it was to showing up. They always told me that showing up was half the battle and I still our high school players that a za coach and I tell my students that like guys, if you just show up, you've conquered a lot or heady times. I can't tell you how many times that I never I didn't really feel well and didn't feel like going. It's hard to goto 100 practices a season and, you know, clear your best every day or you got other things going on in your life. So showing up being reliable was extremely important to me and also being punctual. If our practice starts at three o'clock, you better be there on the court by 2 50 that tells me that you are extremely, um, into what we're trying to do.

Nate

Yeah, that's so good. Just be having that consistency and being reliable because there are times you just don't use Don't feel like it. And then what's nice is if you build that, have it now, later on in life. And you don't have that organized team to really pull you in to keep you gonna work, announced, staying healthy. You already have that just so embedded in you that half the battle just showing up and getting that done. I know that's gonna serve you and all the players that you coach, um, pretty well along the way.

Coach Belcher

And that takes a lot of luck, too, because I never had any major injuries I really I'm a big proponent of putting multi sports. I think that helps your your body reset and your mind dead. So because I played baseball, golf in basketball in high school, it really gave my body and break. So I never really had any bad knee injuries or back in trees or ankle injury. So I was fortunate to play in those practices and games.

Nate

Yeah, it is a small miracle. Then I have a bad ankle injury playing that much basketball you mentioned your parents had. He left a huge mark on you all on the way On that, I met them. They're wonderful people. What are some of the, you know, between Pendleton and Belmont? You know, water, maybe. Or maybe you're a kid. What's maybe one or two coaches that really left? Ah, positive mark on you along the way.

Coach Belcher

Yeah. You know, there are three coaches that come to mind that influenced me the most in my athletic career. One was my great school coach. One was my high school coach, and one was my college coach. Uh, critical coach was again a Mark Manes who's from Pennington County. He played a pencil county high school in the early eighties. His son was our starting point guard in high school, and he knew at a young age that if he got my classmates together that we could have something special about time. We graduate high school and, you know, being right. So the reason that I focused on that I still focus on fundamentals today. Our practices is because of him. So I was in second grade. He took a bunch of us to local church, Jim's local school gyms. He just honed and preached fundamentals in our mind and something as simple as making a right handed layup the correct way. Making a left handed Lampitt correct way, uh, doing a pull back dribble the correct way. Little little things like that. He had a dribbling around chairs at a young age, the correct way to pass the ball. So, ah, lot of our success in high school should be granted towards Mark Manes for showing us how to play the right way at a young age. The second coaches Buddy Biggs, my high school coach of Pelting County. Um, like I said earlier, timing's everything. When we were entering our freshman years of High School of Big's got the job of Penalty County, and he was the coach that we needed. He was extremely difficult to play for, and what I mean by that is his practices were very, very hard and demanding, and we hated going to practice every day. And in fact, we don't really like him all that much at the time. But he is what needed. We needed to be pushed out of our comfort zone and what I learned the most from coach bases had a motive. A student athlete had a push them and push them and get them to the level they need to get to. And he definitely definitely did that with us. And lastly, but certainly not least his Rick Bird, my college coach. You will be in the Naysmith Hall of Fame one day one day he made 100 career games at Belmont, which is because when he took the job 34 years ago, Belmont was an average in A I school on the basketball level and he took them to a a mid major power that would consistently beat high major teams. Like when I was in school, we went to University of Cincinnati and B. You see, we went to the University of Alabama and beat Alabama. We almost beat Duke in the state tournament. Look, we lost by one point, and what I learned most from Coach Bird is he cared way more about how he acted, that how he played. You had to had to wear a shirt and tie to the airport when you flew the games. You had to take out your you're off your iPod earbuds. When you walked into a restaurant, you had to say yes or no, sir. But besides being a fantastic offensive minded coach, little things like how to run a program, we're really fate, really some of the keys that stuck with me as a coach today, So I would say that Mark Manes, Buddy Biggs and Brick Bird of the three guys that have influenced me the most.

Nate

Yeah, that's awesome. Thanks for sharing. And I just reminded me of some of the small things, whether that would be the fundamentals back in grade school or taking there earbuds off on coming off, going into a restaurant, just the John Wooden quote, or I don't know if he has an exact quote, was talking about taking care of the little things. Like he was even talking about how to make sure you put the socks on, right? You know, the little things add up to be the big things. And, you know, that's even in the Bible talks about if you're faithful with the little things to be faithful with, with more in a kind of responsibility s so that they actually liked really well into basketball tomb. I was speaking of that. How does your head is your faith effect? Kind of the why and the how you, coach know you had some years of Pendleton County and you get you get currently at trial. Um, how is that? You know, some of that background affected your kind of philosophy or strategy in coaching.

Coach Belcher

Well, Nate, I've always believed that if you do try to do the right thing and treat people right, a TTE some point, God is gonna bless you with good things. So, again, this is parent influenced at a young age that we were going to Sunday school involved in youth group and going to church at a non non denominational church compote pre Christian, where Larry Travis preached and they just instilled in us, treat people the right way, worship God, pray consistently and just know that whatever happens, he is deciding what happens in your life. I've tried to use that athletics my entire life. I remember in high school and college, praying during the national anthem during games on my own. Now, before games is a coach, we pray the locker room I lead a prayer, and the Bible verse that I've always stuck with is Philippians 4 13 I could do all things through Christ who strengthens me, and I've always used that in high school, right on my game shoes, because even during adversity and tough times, God is there for you. And I try to share that with our players, like Look, it's never gonna be smooth and easy and simple. We're gonna have to work for it sometimes. So I've always used that that Phil Phil 13 Bible verse to try to help me and help our team be successful.

Nate

Yeah, that's that's a great one, and something I've learned is to read a little bit before in a little bit after some of the big ticket Bible verses. And what's really interesting about that verse as well is it goes into talking about having being rooted in heaven foundation and being content. In all circumstances, he says, I've been I've been the highest of highs, and I've been the lowest of lows. But here's the you know, but I found contentment because I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And I just love that because you know that any season's gonna have the roller coaster ride, you're gonna be on on Cloud nine and then you'll get beat on a buzzer beater and you just have the back and forth, but just have to be rooted in something beyond the score board, which usually translates into a high performance on the court. But to have that have that foundation regardless, that's really good. It's really important to deal. Well, we can't We can't chat with, uh, with the coach who has coached Dante Allen without asking, asking a little bit about just who he is. Um, as a person, you know how you what was the experience? Like coaching him and kind of what you see his? Ah, his future to be in the coming years. It

Coach Belcher

was like being around the rock star for six years at Pendleton County. I mentioned earlier that I was the third Division one player. He has became the fourth in the 60 year history of Pennington County High School. So again, it doesn't happen very often. But the level of talent you know, Dante's the best ever has come out of our school. It's not even close, and the reason he's got to that point is because of simply, he outworked everybody. And when I say that, like, you know, I played college basketball for five years and play with a couple of guys that are playing professionally and one that played on an MBA championship team with the Warriors. Steph Curry's backup got Indian Clark. Dante on is the hardest working student athlete I've ever seen. His freshman sophomore and junior years at penalty counted. He was the first student to walk through the school door to the doorway every single day. Hey would be at the gym before school, or at least an hour every day shooting, working on his ball handling. He will lift weights on his own and more times than not. He would be the guy that stayed after practice to work on his game. Uh, he's been blessed with the talent from both sides of his family. His dad was a really good player. His mom is really good player. And, you know, he grew to be six foot six and, you know, during a senior year he led the country in scoring before his injury with 45.7 points per game and a CZ. Cartoonish is that sounds. We were taking him out with 45 minutes left in those games because of the score. Yeah, his high school career, something that I'll never forget. I was very blessed to be in that situation, to be around him for six years because he played high school ball for six years. But yeah, like I said, it was like following a movie star for for his career. Everywhere we'd play, we'd have sellout crowds, and I think we did a good job of getting him around the state of Kentucky so that he had a chance to win Miss Mr Basketball. And even though he only played 13 games as a senior because he tours a CEO I think I was doing a great job of getting him to play it all just about every region of the state in his career. And it didn't hurt that he signed with Kentucky. So, um, yeah, it was a fun time to be ah, high school basketball coach. And not to mention like he was created being a really good teammate. And when things were not going well for him, he didn't point fingers. It wasn't blaming the coach and blamed his teammates. In fact, he was mean all five years that I coached him all of our shit level. He finished first in sprints every single day in practice. So that just kind of to show you how great of a remarkable he was a person as well.

Nate

Wow, Yeah, I had seen something on Social Media campaign feels you're another teacher but showed a little clip of him shooting free throws at 6 30 in the morning or whatever it was before school didn't realize that was, ah, almost daily thing. That that's incredible to have, you know, to have that, obviously that some of that raw God given talent, but just absolutely maximize that to the ends degree and to not, you know, And from what I gather to yeah, just a great teammate had every reason in the world to to be kind of the and the diva, if you will, you know, be be that have that rock star mindset. But they have the humility to put in the work and and did not let that affect how well he was a teammate. That's just and I just as a ton for him as a player and in for you, obviously, for setting that model. I feel like it was kind of a really cool way where you could kind of help help him guide his steps because you had kind of gone the exact path that he was going.

Coach Belcher

Well, I need to be honest with you. I just try to stay out of his way. I don't want to see anything up with him. I've always been taught when you have a town to player, give him the most room, give him more opportunities to do what he can do and not over coach him. So that's exactly what I did. Um, he hears a quick story when he was a like the first day of school sophomore year. Open up the gym. It's 6 34 home. Look, we usually did his freshman year. He texted me that night and said, Coach six. Thirty's not early enough. I need to go 6 a.m. And I remember I was like, Okay, so for his sophomore and junior and senior year, we open up the gym and 6 a.m. for him, the pills to get high school and his career stats air remarkable. I think you scored 3255 career points and had 1200 rebounds, and he missed 39 games in his career for illness, injuries, et cetera. So he would have if he was healthy his entire career, he would have been the all time leading scorer in Kentucky. Uh, which is difficult to do and like a lot of states where because you can play, you know, in middle school. So, yeah, he was a blessing toe be around for for that time.

Nate

That's awesome. And just props to you, too, because six I am also means it's not like you lived a block away from school, too, so you're going to get up pretty early to make those get their toe. Open it up as well. Um well, hey, moving. Moving forward. I know he's obviously has a great work ethic. And you recovered from the knee injury, you know, Have you Have you talked to him recently? Is he doing all right?

Coach Belcher

Well, I think we text probably weekly. Um, he's in a good mindset right now. I think he's jumping at the He's foaming at the mouth to get back name because, you know, basketball is just love. And for the last 1.5 seasons, he hasn't been able to participate. You know, he hasn't practiced, uh, okay, but he was really eager to get back on that court. And I really think that he's got gotten a lot mentally stronger in the last year and 1/2 from the A. C L tear. Um, he's still been working on his game consistently. He's excited to represent penalty Kenny High School in his hometown of found with Kentucky and where that Kentucky uniform and show that he could hold his own against the nation's top players and play on a level that he's always dreamed about playing on.

Nate

Yeah, That's excellent. Make sure, Sharon. Well, hey, I just want to give a little bit of room at the end here. Is there any other lesson learned along the way or best practice? If you were to be talking with maybe a coach, that's just kind of starting now, Maybe getting into into the coaching ranks. You know what would be, Maybe something that you would share that you've picked up along the way.

Coach Belcher

Yeah, I'll share two things that I've learned a little way When I was when I was a young coach right on college. I probably didn't see this as much as I should have, and I've definitely I try to embrace that now. And the first thing is, no job is too small. If you're a young assistant coach and your head coach asked you to, I don't know, clean the bathroom toilet in the locker room, do it and embrace it. And trust me that when you climb the ladder in your coaching ranks, you'll look back at those times and you will be thankful for everything you did to get to the point you are now. I remember when I was a grad assistant at Eastern Kentucky for a year after my playing days at Belmont, I had to make the coffee every single morning in the coach's office, and I didn't even drink coffee at the time. So in my last piece of advice is, uh, the old adage. There's more than one way to skin a cat. That's kind of a country saying, But what that means is there could be 10 coaches, and there might be 10 different philosophies on how to do things. So I think you have to figure out for what? For what is best with your team, what your philosophy is and do what you think's right. And once you figure that out, stick with that philosophy and just hone it and improve on it and get really good at it, because I'll just use John Calipari as an example. John Cal Perry is a phenomenal coach. Obviously, he's won a national championship in the Naysmith Hall of Fame. He and I had just a little bit different views on things. You could ask the desk next coach, and he would have something different than him as well, or me as well. So don't try to copy everybody system and everybody style. It's okay t to borrow things from different programs in different coaches but trying to come up with your own style in your own philosophy in your own program. So that way you can leave your, um, orcas is doing things different. Uh, you know, to be successful.

Nate

No, that's a good word. Just be kind of comfortable in your own skin and to be your own person and kind of have that There's always some principles you can take from people, but to never destroy total being pay somebody else. Uh, as a coach, I heard a quote one time from her friend's name is Todd. Henry. Hey, said cover bands never changed the world like that. Yeah, that was good. Yeah, I just I respect that Take out of you, Keaton. Just where you've come from, how you handle yourself. Even I haven't seen you coach a ton. But what I have been just impressed with and you're calm demeanor amidst Ah, I was watching that the Dixie game this past season and it just during timeouts. And you know, you would be It was just a sense of like that the guys we're not gonna be freaking out based on what you were telling him. You know, you're kind of just bringing that that energy of Hey, we got this instilling confidence in him. Um, and I just know that that takes some time. Did to kind of figure out so so blessings toe to you and your bride and enjoy that new house in Fort Thomas. And, yeah, we're looking forward to catching some some basketball games next season. Get back, get back on the court.

Coach Belcher

Well, thanks for having me, Nate. And, you know, I appreciate our friendship, and, you know, I'm glad that we met through Larry Travis. And I would like to try to forget that Dixie game because we didn't We didn't win that game, but, uh,

Nate

sorry to bring you bring that up.

Coach Belcher

appreciate the kind words. And, you know, we talked about borrowing things from different coaches. The demeanor thing that you mentioned. I think that has something do with my personality. But also, I've kind of learned that from Brad Stevens, who coaches the Boston Celtics, he kind of has that same calm demeanor and where they're about 20 or down by 20 you shouldn't let your players see Ah ah, roller coaster ride and their coaches for is, you know, emotional being emotional. So I really appreciate that. I think this podcast is awesome and keep doing what you're doing with the F. C. A branding because it's it's really ah enhanced since you've been a part of that program, So I really appreciate

Nate

Thanks and encouragement to see ya.

Well, there you have it. Our conversation with Coach Keaton. Belcher really impressed with him, just as a person as a coach and look forward to see what the future holds. Hey, I wanted to just encourage you. If you found this episode of previous episodes helpful. One of the best ways to stay in contact with us is to let's go ahead and to subscribe to whatever after listening on and we love to hear from you. If you have any topics or potential guests, you love the sea on the podcast. Just shoot us an email at nsallee@fca.org. We'd love that. Connect with you in that way. And if you've enjoyed this. We just encourage you to text this or send this to at least one other person that you think would appreciate. It just really helps us kind of build out the exposure and get more people involved in this community and really benefiting from the again the collective wisdom that we're all seeing. So until next time, keep growing, keep learning and keep changing lives on your team and in your home.

"Creating a Culture of Winning and Life Lessons"

nsallee@fca.org (Nate Sallee) — Thu, 14 May 2020 17:27:59 GMT

Ep. 31: Coach to Coach Podcast - Steve Funke

Clint Hurdle joins us on the show with some veteran insight!

Playing Career:

- Declined College offers from the U. of Miami and Harvard to play professional baseball.

- Drafted by the Kansas City Royals with stops with the Reds, Mets, and Cardinals organizations.

Coaching:

- Hitting Coach then Manager of the Colorado Rockies

- Hitting coach for the Texas Rangers

- Manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates

- Currently a "Lifetime contract with the home team"

Topics discussed:

- Personal faith journey

- His coaching philosophy and how it progressed

- Amazing stories including 3 World Series runs

- 3 things every player wants to know

- What he would tell a new coach starting out

Subscribe so you don't miss any new episodes!

Transcript

Nate:

This is the coach to coach podcast, episode number 32 game time. Hey, what's going on guys? Welcome to the coach to coach podcast where we believe every kid deserves a coach that cares and every coach deserves someone in their corner. I'm your host Nate Sallee and this podcast is sponsored by the Northern Kentucky fellowship of Christian athletes. Once again, I have to just give a quick shout out to all of our donors and our supporters, board members, volunteers, and student leaders who are all a valued part of this team. And I gotta tell you we are seeing life change happen here in the Northern Kentucky region as we continue to minister to and through coaches. Well, Hey, on this episode, part of the vision of this podcast is to capture and collect a wisdom and know that Kentucky greater Cincinnati and beyond. We're going beyond today. We got an interview with Clint hurdle. Clint comes with 45 years of being at a spring major league baseball training camp. He has played with guys like George Brett back in the day. He has managed with the Colorado Rockies. He was the hitting coach for the Texas Rangers and most recently you've probably remember him as the manager for the Pittsburgh Pirates and he is now in a next season of life and he was willing to take some time to sit down and share about his, his personal journey as a man of faith, some of the things he's learned along the way, coaching all those years and playing all those years with players. And he has three questions that he knows that he asked as a player of his coaches and he tries to answer those three questions with all of his players. And I think you're really going to appreciate his wisdom, his insight from a major league baseball manager, Clint hurdle, incredible guy. We had some great laughs, some good stories. You're going to want to grab whatever you use to take notes for our conversation with coach Clint hurdle.

Nate:

All right guys, we are here with Clint hurdle. Clint, how are you doing today?

Clint:

I'm doing really well. Nate, good to be with you.

Nate:

I see some Palm trees in the background, so you're probably sitting a little bit warmer than me. We're about 43 degrees here in Northern Kentucky.

Clint:

I happened to be perched up on the intercoastal waterway and go down to the Gulf of Mexico and Annamarie Island is where we've made our kind of made our home. We're transitioning from Pittsburgh to here. Yeah, 85 degrees. A little balmy today. That's awesome. Well, Hey, I'll have given the listeners a bio of your kind of your, your baseball world a little bit, but I just wanted to start kind of with present day. How is, if you're like me, my first spring without baseball was definitely kind of an one. Uh, and how has, how has this spring of 2020 with you with the transition and then you throw in all this Corona jazz, how are you doing?

Clint:

Man there's been a long transition in my life. I retired, basically took the side and put the uniform in the closet. Back in the middle of November is actually our anniversary day. Carla and I, our anniversary date, November 13th, I've done some interviewing for some positions. I actually got offered another contract. I thought about getting on that treadmill again. And then just it's through conversation, through prayer. Just decided, you know, I've been traveling a long time. I've been gone a long time. I have two, two teenagers in high school. It just seemed like the right time for me to reinvest in my family. That was the biggest transition. 45 consecutive spring trainings I've gone to. This was the first year I did not go to a spring training since I was 17, I think. 18 years old. Mmm. And another interesting facet. They've all been majorly camps, which doesn't happen very often. Even when I was a minor league player, even when I was a minor league manager, I get invited to come in. Great. That was kind of a mule a, I could hit him, I could hit a good foam go, I could throw BP forever. Those are two nice things right there. And you can throw strikes and you can hit their barrel. Yeah, you're all good. So that was a, a big transition. However, it wasn't that challenging. Um, I was at peace when I made my decision November and then watching the, the months play out. October, November, December, January, February. The challenge of the COVID 19, watching my wife, my wife, work in our, in our how's every day. Um, I gave it everything I had for 45 years. So I'd never had an itch. I wasn't going through withdrawals. I didn't need to get back in a uniform. I didn't need to be at the front of the room, didn't need to be making out a lineup card. I was good being home and trying to figure things out here. And for those of you that maybe are musically inclined, this might make more sense to them, but I think we all can relate a little bit to it. If my family, is a band right now, Nate, I'm just trying to be the bass player. I'm trying to be over on the side of the stage. I've been out front for 16 years as a manager. I've been out front most of my, most of my life coaching, playing. Um, so now the opportunity. Yeah. Biblically, Barnabas was a huge encourager to Paul. I'm trying to be an encourager from the side. I'm trying to be an encourager from behind. And there's some days though, I'm like a six month old puppy. You know, maybe I'm peeing in the corner and I got to get in your lap and look on your face and make up and figure things out. But creating space, making space, sharing space, then giving everybody their own space. I'm learning all this again. It's been wonderful. It's been good for, cause there's, there's days that I think these kids are looking like no time for you to go somewhere and now we're quarantined. So there's no going anywhere. It's been three plus weeks. A home cyber schooling as well. Yeah, my hands have been full. My heart's been full. We've delegated chores, we have movie nights, we have games of cards that we play. My, my daughter Maddie, I'm a special needs child at 17. She thinks she's the world's greatest Uno player ever. We're family walks. We have two dogs a lot going on. The homeschooling thing has been crazy cool. Because I'm the chorus teacher. I'm the driver's ed teacher, the English teacher. Um, so I'm a little bit stretched out, but uh, I'm having a blast.

Nate:

That's amazing. Yeah, it's, it's really good to see. Uh, a lot of people are being able to kind of redeem some of this time and I'm glad you guys have been able to do the same as well. And I actually was able to go to spring training any for a couple of days with my brother and father-in-law out to a Goodyear. We saw one of the games and just just happened to, we were just walking around the stadium just happened to run into Marty Brenneman who's the longtime broadcaster and recently retired and he was just on cloud nine as well during it. It was his last year, this past season. And he said, Hey, you know what, if I just want to come here for the game for about an hour and a half and then go play golf, I can do it. And he was like, I'm good. This is awesome.

Clint:

Marty has a home down here in Sarasota with his wife. Yeah, we run into them occasionally when we were out last, last spring prior to spring training when he went out in Arizona. Of course I get involved. I was in Boulder, but he has a standing feud with my daughter Maddie, about which teams better? The pirates are arrests. You may not know this, but I was a red for about a minute, for about a minute. And as it turned out, we had a very saucy year last year with the rents. Basically. It was, I guess it was kind of like a country feud at times. However, I've always had the utmost respect and respect for the organization for the tradition, the history, um, the city of Cincinnati in and of itself, it's a grassroots baseball town. They have one of the best museums of any major league organization. I lived at one Lytle place when I was in Cincinnati, actually got married second time across the street and, in Newport but justice of the peace way back when. So I've got some nostalgic history, Cincinnati and it's been a fun organization to watch grow and they really fought hard to put themselves in a pretty good place for this 2020 season.

Nate:

That's right. Yeah. It's, it's funny. I, we drive, I drove past the one Lytle place all the time driving around the area. That's, that's amazing. Uh, well Hey, just wanted to shift gears a little bit. Kinda from present day to, let's just take a look back kind of the, the history book a little bit. Tell us a little bit about your, your faith story. I know at one point, I know FCA a kind of a role into that. We just kind of love to hear a little bit of your journey.

Clint:

FCA has always been involved in my faith journey. Basically. My mom and dad used to get us dressed up and send us out of the house on Sunday, Sunday school and we'd go to the kids' church. I think it bought them three or four hours for their own time. They were both working sometimes my dad working two shifts. It wasn't a bad thing at all. I took no disrespect or nothing that my folks didn't go to church with us. They sent us to church. We went to Bible Sunday school. Matter of fact, one of my greatest memories was every, every Sunday walking out the house and hearing platters in the background, knowing I was going to the church. As I continued to grow in my, my church journey, started off in a Methodist church, eventually started spending more time in church related activities. Basically the Methodist church was stretched and once I got into high school, a first Baptist church of Marinol was built. I gravitated to that. Um, and it was there that I kind of ran into two men really grabbed a hold of me. And it was the first time I had people wanting to invest in my soul rather than my baseball, football or basketball skills. I don't mean that in a bad way. Native just growing up when you comply and you got some skills and you're playing three sports, no, we want that kid in our team. And then we want you to quarterback her pitcher, shortstop, and your playing. And I reached out to a pastor, Glen Turner, a Sunday on Easter, the tax, we're going to talk next week, pastor Glen Turner, brother John Paul were the two men that really started helping me dig and to own my faith. And they explained the story of salvation. So they explained the reality that it's the one religion where God reached down. We don't have to reach up. It's not based on merit, based on grace. Right. And on my worst day, God loves me as much as he does on my best day in my mind, cause I don't have a best or worst day to him. He wants a relationship with my heart. He wants me to be a man of service. So they started sharing and preaching and you know, and then as you well know, maybe don't, but in a Baptist church they'll drop that health thing on you in a heartbeat. Where are you going? And it got my attention and I said like, think I'm going to heaven. I, you know, when they go, Hey, it ain't about more good than bad. This isn't the justice where the scales there. There's a way, then it's through Christ. It's either the redemptive blood of Jesus Chris and you know, it starts with believing in his life and it goes to the cross where he died for your sins. And then the greatest comeback, the greatest comeback ever in the history of the world was the resurrection. Um, and I said, you know what, that makes sense. I want some of that. So they said, we'll say the sinner's prayer. And they were having FCA functions at the church ongoing. So it wasn't just brother John and pastor lent. It was a leader in the, it was a leader in the community. It was one of our coaches at Edgewood junior high. It was some other teenage guys or teenage guys, or showing up and sharing faith So my salvation came at Marinol Baptist church. The one thing that I never really grasped Nate was when I made that commitment to Christ and I asked him to come into my life, take control of my life. I never realized that he would never leave. Hmm. Because after I made that commitment, there was a honeymoon period. And what I found out through that commitment was that if I want to stay grounded in Christ, I need to have people around me that are grounded in Christ. I need to do things with those people that are grounded in Christ. I don't need to try and be a religious Christian in a secular world. Just taking it on myself. I need there's strength in numbers. There's power in cohesion in a group and the church doesn't have to be in the church. The church can be on the street, it can be in your home, it can be in your locker room. And right now, even with the Covid 19 Church and shut down church has been deployed churches out going to get people and share with people. So yeah, I made that commitment. Things were good. There was a honeymoon period. And then when I graduated and accepted an opportunity to go play professional ball in the summer of 75, I kind of got isolated and I lost that touch. I lost that tight knit relationship with other believers. There were some believers on the team. Uh, however, my investment capital wasn't the same and I started losing ground and losing myself, started, you know, REM song. I started losing my religion. My Christian walk actually became a Christian obstacle based on my choice and my lack of development in my lack of reaching out. And truth be told, I shared this in FCA huddles ever since because I stay connected to FCA. I'm actually working with a group here in Sarasota and Nancy County, so that's a reignite the program here, but it was very involved in Pittsburgh as well. I use Jesus as an ATM card for 23 years from the age of 17 to the age of 40. If I needed some Jesus, I'd go get some Jesus. Things were roll, baby. I'd come back, I'd get on a little bit of a roll. Things that settled down, things that get good. Okay, let me get back in charge of this thing now let me grab these reigns. You know, and man, it was like a roller coaster ride that you couldn't get off of. The highs were high, the lows were low. The ride would never stop. At the age of 40 through some other circumstances. Basically through that 23 year period, I was married, divorced, married, divorced, married two years, married for nine years, got a daughter in and out, life as far as commitments to a faith based church. It's a Bible study, a baseball chapel always showed up on Sunday and I always went and I wouldn't pray for hits. I would pray for a better relationship. And little did I know that all this time God was putting men in my life and women in my life helped me reconnect. I wouldn't picking up what he was putting down, but the last woman that he put my life around at the time was my now wife Carla and uh, the age of 40, I kind of went through male applause. Just why am I here? What am I doing? You know, I had buddies, they tried, they tried relationships with younger women or a motorcycle or something else was the answer. I was fortunate enough that through Carla's unconditional love and wisdom, I needed to find myself and I had a list of about 20 things I needed to improve upon. And the first one was to recommit my life to Christ. The second was to get so cause I basically drank myself into this state of alcohol recovering alcoholic, now 21 years of sobriety.

Nate:

Congratulations.

Clint:

Yeah. Well thank you. But I had 18 other things down there to this day Nate I can't tell you what the other 18 were. Once I rededicated my life to Christ and got real with that. And once I got sober and got real with that, it's kind of taken care of itself. But it was through the godly wisdom of a woman that knew there was more man in there. Then I gave myself credit for and she called me out on it cause actually I proposed to her and she said, that's an interesting question I've grown accustomed to. She said, well there's a good guy in there, but he doesn't come out often enough and I would never even attempt it. So getting in a relationship with you like that until you find a way to make yourself happy, you'll never make me happy. So really 23 years of walking in the wilderness. I know the Israelites did 40. I did 23. Um, and when I recommitted my life to Christ at the age of 40, I looked at the past 22 years and has been nothing but miracle after miracle after miracle and it's taken me to that point today.

Nate:

Oh, thanks so much for sharing. A couple of points that just stuck out to me were the isolation and going out alone. I had my own kind of bow out with that as well, where when you start losing that community and that investment and that can, that's kind of where we're most most vulnerable, that that's not necessarily when we feel distant from God. It's not because he moved. It's usually because we moved and you know, I remember moving away at different times and knowing exactly where to go, what I needed to. I kind of thought of it. You mentioned the ATM thing. I had a very similar analogy. I would just kind of view them sometimes as a good luck charm where he was just a big part of my life and I was trying to make it, you know, at the collegiate level in baseball and he was just a part of my package to get as far as I could athletically. It really wasn't a surrendered life to him per se until I was about 21. And I thought, I just think it's a big difference and it's a good good thing to, to not only realize it's not just a good outweigh your bad, it's all him, but to realize that you need others and it's so much more than just an ATM or a good luck charm. That's great. Well, Hey, uh, moving forward, uh, let's, let's kinda switch gears into just kinda your, your coaching worlds is the coach coach podcast. We're going to be shipping this out to coaches of all levels and just would love to hear some of the lessons learned along the way. Uh, but first maybe, uh, kind of the, I know you had the, a lot of stops with the Rockies and then most recently with the pirates and there was a world series run mixed in there. I know at least one of them in 2007, I believe. I looked at that, that starting lineup that was quite a roster when you had Matt Holiday and all those guys. Tory all behind the, on the plate. Uh, man, that was, that was quite a squad. So what was, what was it like winning that, that uh, league championship and what were some of the, I don't know, maybe some of the pieces along the way that really you saw your, coaching or managing of it. Um, yeah. What were some lessons learned through, through that year?

Clint:

Yeah, it's been a journey as well. The things that were first important to me as a coach back in 1988, I think it was my first year as a minor league manager in the Mets organization. I manage the Mets organization six years and then went to the Rockies as a minor league hitting instructor. For three years, almost five years of the major league hitting coach. Before I started man, a world series trips, I took one a 1980s a player with the Royals of 2007 as a manager with the Rockies 2010 as the hitting coach with the Texas Rangers? Right. I've been to the world series three times, which is a pretty small group when you consider player, coach and manager. Yeah. You want to know a smaller group, Nate. We finished second place all three times. Each journey was significant in of itself because each had its own timeline, each had it's own cast of characters. I was a small cog in a world series club in 1980 with, you were checking a line about, you look at that line up. I hit seven. I had my best offensive year in the big leagues that year. The play with Brett, the play with McCray to play with, you know, Darryl Porter, uh, the play with Amos Otis, Willie Wilson. Oh, Willie Mays Aikens. There was just a, it was a really good group then in 2007 to actually be a manager of 18 that found itself during the season, but ignited late in the season. And what a great cast of characters. A good cast of characters. We had that season. You want to talk about a college team, college players, a grownup man that they grew up together on. Minor league system, Helton was at first base played at Tennessee, Tulowitski, Long beach. Uh, was a shortstop. Garrett an Atkins was from UCLA. And then we had Holliday. Yeah, came out of high school. His dad was connected to the university of Arkansas and then we had Brad Haup, I believe it was LSU national championship. So the fun thing about that group was we were never hot. We were never cold. We just kinda stay in the hunt for five plus months. And then with two weeks ago we're five or six games out and we caught fire. We won 13 out of 14. We had a play in game that we won in dramatic fashion and 13th inning slide at home that some people still don't think Holliday he did. And then we won five in a row. We once used me, we won seven in a row more to get to the world series. We swept the Phillies in a five game series or something, three, and we swept the Diamondback. So we won 21 out of 22 games, flat out on fire guys showing up early, staying late, different hero every night. The pitching, if the starter spit the bit, the bullpen came in and locked it down. If we had a lead after six and it was pretty much over our bullpen, shortened the games dramatically. And we found a way on offense, even though we're playing at Coors field, a lot of people thought, you know, everybody resonates. The Blake street bombers, not the home runs. That was a good offensive club cause we could beat you a number of different ways. We could still bases guys did put down buns, we hit homers, we hit doubles. We were aggressive on the basis, but we could, we could win a game by one run with the best of . And then we unfortunately ran into an eight day layoff because one of the world series was played And Boston, played Cleveland and they came back from being down three to one. They stretch that out. The eight games we went in there, we gave it our best shot, but we lost, I really believe we had lost some of the mojo the rhythm and the adrenaline and they were a good team that was hot and they rolled us up in four games and that was over. And then in 10 I went to the world series with the ranger as a hitting coach and it was a big year. Hamilton had where he was the NL MVP, but what a team, you look at another fantastic lineup to be the hidden coach of that team.

Nate:

Yeah. Was that the same season that Hamilton did the home run Derby craziness hit it the next year in 2008.

Clint:

Okay. Yeah. Excuse me. No, I want to say he did that in 2008 we, I wasn't there until two years later. Okay. I managed in that all star game, the national league club, the night at Yankee stadium they had, it was the last all star game at Yankee stadium. So also had that honor of managing in an all star game. That was the deal that went fifteen innings,

Nate:

I remember. And it was, yeah, that was a struggle on how are we going to finish this up?

Clint:

Yeah, it was nuts. So that's the timeline. I mean, I've been a hitting coach, I've been a minor league coordinator. I've been a minor league manager and a coach, first base in charge of outfielders, the hitting coach thing I always gravitate to. And then I felt the opportunity to manage in 2002 of the Rockies and then had the good fortune of managing for 16 years at the major league level with just two organizations. So things are important to me when I started, probably weren't as important to me when I ended. Um, I learned a lot about trust. I learned a lot from my players. I learned a lot from some critical guys that I had on my staff, some Barnabas's on my staff to help grow me up. Um, cause there's a lot of different vacuums you can call it get caught up in as a manager you gotta give man, you gotta give men and coaches the opportunity and the freedom to coach into play. And that's probably the biggest of, but I really wanted to embrace, I knew what to let go and let it happen. It was one of the best learning lessons that I had walking in the door.

Nate:

No, that's great. Yeah. You talked about building and one of the main resources we use in FCA with coaches is called three dimensional coaching or there's the physical side and then the mental emotional side. And then you have the kind of that heart and the spiritual side and you clearly had had knowledge of the game shoot, you'd been at big league camps since you were 17-18 years old. And then it sounds like the later on you got, the more you kind of saw the need for kind of those second and third dimension type things where it's about the relationship is about building trust and ultimately delegating well. So maybe what were some of the things that that stuck out to you as far as building that trust? Because I know it's a little bit different compared to maybe you know, a high school or college or middle school program, cause I know there's a lot of money involved and it's a little bit more of a business at that point, but how were you able to kind of build that trust, build that rapport and maximize those? Those player's potential.

Clint:

Well it's, it's very different and it's very similar and it all, it all works off your ability to earn trust. You need to have honest self evaluation of yourself, who you are, your role, what can you impact, what can you influence when to delegate? You gotta let coaches coach. Some of your coaches need to be smarter in their areas than you are and you need to give them the opportunity to go coach people up. Uh, you got to let players play. There's the time when a lineup does get made and you explain things certain ways or certain things are done. However, once the game plays, you want to put them in a position of strength and distractions are eliminated where they can truly focus on being a teammate. The one thing that I learned that humbled me the most was when I got into coaching. I got into coaching because I kept threatening to play and what I mean by that is they wanted me to manage when I was 30 which I thought, well, it makes sense, but I still wanted to play. I have 10 years in the big leagues. They wanted me to manage a very low level and I wanted to manage it, enable a level. It was 30 minutes from the home where I lived in and they kept offering me lower jobs. I kept saying, no, I'm going to apply unless you give me that job in port Saint Lucie because it's right down the street. So I held, I kept threatening to play, which got me the opportunity in st Lucie, which is what's gotten me on my, you know, my, my journey through coaching. But I was fortunate when I recommitted my life to Christ, Christ continued to bring men into my life and help, help me steer and help guide me. That challenged me about not losing sight of what that chair meant in the bigger picture. I needed to be intentional with my actions. I needed to be a servant. I needed to be a transformational leader. I needed to be a leader that players could trust, know that he's going to take, he's going to help us get where we want to get and he's not gonna use us to get where he wants to get. I really had to remember, remind myself daily how hard a game it is to play. The farther you get away from the game, the longer you're out. Sometimes the easier it looks, man, you want to get real easy, you get up them stands and watch them up top, game slow. Oh my gosh. Because I've got thrown out of a few and suspended a couple times and I'd rather watch those games up there looks way easier than in that speed of that dugout, let alone the speed on the field. But I'd always needed to remember what, what impacted me as a player who impacted me as a player and why they impacted me as a player. And I also needed to revisit the heartbeat of the game. I have tremendous respect and admiration, love and passion for the game of baseball. And there's been times throughout my career and even in the last few years where I feel that we've lost some of that in some areas. It's kind of like, do you remember the first car you bought Nate?

Nate:

Yeah. You did. You did you buy a car? Yeah. Um, well actually had a divorced parents of both famous, got a third car, so I didn't actually get to fully have a job in than purchase it. But I had a Ford ranger in a red Chevy 1500 that I had a different house. It's okay.

Clint:

But when that, when you were in that car was your car, right?

Nate:

Oh yeah.

Clint:

Did you take care of that car?

Nate:

Absolutely.

Clint:

Did you want anybody to mess with your car?

Nate:

No. They better stay away.

Clint:

Okay. That car was special and significant. You protected it. You honored it. You respected it. You took care of it. Now as you've gotten older, do you have a rental car policy? Can you go rent a car every now and then? Yeah. How do you take care of your rental car?

Nate:

It feels different. It feels, yeah. All I did was it got me where I wanted to go and I kept gas in it. That's right. Yeah.

Clint:

Mine had a name. I took care of it. I washed it and I cleaned it. You better not mess it up. Hey. You know, be careful. And that's how I felt about the game of baseball. And in some areas it can help happen in society, can happen in your faith. You become a renter and not an owner. Um, and I wanted to make sure, and I was fortunate, I had a President in Colorado that grew me up, mentored me. Kelly McGregor was a big fan of FCA, also in Arkansas where he was an assistant athletic director, Frank Broyles. Um, he grew me up and he would always tell me, you need to be managerial when you're managing on and off the field, your, your actions will speak louder than your words. You need to be a man of integrity, a man of character. You can't act one way at home. And another way of the park and another way in the uniform, you need to find a way to be the same guy. So team first, that was hearkening to me early on as a kid when I realized when I got into the big leagues, because I went from being a really good high school player back on all American in a small, in a small school. So as I start playing pro bowl, there's all Americans everywhere you turn. Different levels of all Americans, you know. And then I realized, you know what, when you win, it's way better than losing. And when you win, not so much that it's a deodorant, but when you win and you don't do well personally, you feel a whole lot better when you lose and stink and have poor performance. That's tough.So the coaching philosophy evolved over time, but knowing that I was serving God and I actually had a friend telling me a long time ago, and it was Kelly, he said he's the president of the team. Our general manager was a man of faith Dan Murtaugh the three of us would meet regularly and not just talk baseball, but talk faith, talk family, talk roles and responsibilities. And Kelly would always share with me, as long as God wants you in that manager's behind that desk, no man can move you out. And when God doesn't want you to behind that desk, no man can keep you there while Kelly then fired me seven years down the road. Hey, we prayed later that day together. I was fired in New York as a minor league manager. I got fired. And in Colorado 14 months after going to the world series, I was fired. Last September 29th while we were playing the Reds, the last game of the season, God kept me in two chairs for 16 years to manage. And when he called time, it was time. No, man could keep me there. It's time to move on. So I do know this. There's going to be a day where if I'm on my knees in front of the Lord and I'm up in heaven, he's not going to ask me how many games I want as a manager. He's not going to say, Hey, did you bring the world series rings? He's gonna say, boy, how many did you leave to me? Wow. How'd you use your position? Who did you impact? Who did you influence? Did you grow boys and the men? Did you grow men and the leaders? Did you bring them to faith? Did you help him grow up that the love on their wives and honor their wives? Did you help him grow up their kids? Did you help them grow up their teammates and grow together? And that's where I got to and that's what I kept in place.

Nate:

Wow that's amazing. Yeah. Just to have that, that vision for really for, yeah. For generational transformation of those that you're, that you're building into. And baseball is such a beautiful vehicle to do that. I love the game as much as anybody else, but I've kind of had to realize at one point that uh, a, if it becomes your, you know, it's a great game but a terrible God. And at one point it became, it came my God and it definitely led me down some, some rough things personally. But when I, when I can see it just as the game that it is and as the vehicle that it can be to build up people, it's, it's a really a beautiful thing. Well, Hey, I got a one, one quick selfish question for you and then we'll, then we'll wrap up with kind of a final one. But being, being a Reds fan, I still appreciated and respected the heck out of Andrew McCutchen, just a special guy. He's, he was always not the biggest guy, but every ounce of them was just like look, like sheer muscle. He was fast. He could absolutely crush the ball and realize and no one, he was a man of faith as well. Uh, w what was it like coaching a player like that who kind of had several different tools and I'm sure it was, it was a good locker room guy as well.

Clint:

We're very fortunate to have a relationship with Andrew still to this day and his wife and his two boys, but another guy that I was fortunate Pittsburgh to watch come in with a girlfriend, marry her and have kids. Walk the whole evolution. Wow. I'm watching Maria and him, you know, from a girlfriend, boyfriend into a husband, wife, and then the kids coming. Andrew and I developed a relationship basically over time, and it started off with, I shared early on with him, I had three questions as a player growing up and I always wanted my players to know the questions I had because I wanted to answer them for those guys because I felt I could answer three basic questions and it goes, it touches on the 3D the transformational coaching that FCA does. Well, the first question was, can I trust you? The second question was, do you care about me? And the third question is, can you make me better? Yeah. Well, you know what? You're not going to get to the other two until you earn the trust. Because think about people that you trust in your life. What wouldn't you do for them, right?

Nate:

Yeah. You run through a wall for him and then people that you don't trust, you go X amount of distance and that's it. Yeah, there's a boundary there for sure.

Clint:

Right? So you earn their trust and that's what I told Andrew. So I'm here to earn your trust. Might take, you know, it's going to take some time. I don't expect it to happen overnight. There's going to be a situation come up. I want you to watch how I react, watch how I treat others, watch my actions, watch my words, and then I want players to know that I care about them more than a corner infielder with average speed plus pop, susceptible to breaking balls. You know all the metrics. No, he's got a heartbeat. What are his hobbies? What's his wife's name? What's his girlfriend? His mom and dad. He come from a broken home did he come from, a God fearing home. Just I needed to know the story so I needed to know the person and I needed to be able to feel the heartbeat of the player. I shared that with Andrew and then also shared with him. When we get those things in line, I really believe I've got enough life experiences. I can help you get better in some area. The fun thing about Andrew is I told him all the time. I can't relate to silver Slugger awards and MVPs and all those things, but I can relate to the two for 32 slumps. It seemed like every April he would be in a slump and it didn't matter. Spring training, it'd be seven homers and a 500 batting average come April. The switch went off, everything sped up. He'd be behind the heater ahead of the hook and we'd have to work through this and our Aprils were our times where we, and I tell him, I tell him and remind him, I should say, remind him that you're going to have a better chance to witness when you hit .220 that you ever will hitting .320 because people are watching like a Hawk.

Nate:

Yeah. They want to see how they, how you're going to react when, when things aren't going your way personally.

Clint:

Yeah, and I've always shared with him, you know, when I, when I got to know him pretty good, I said, I'll tell you how much I think I hit you third every day and I'd let you take my daughter. I can't, I can't put any more trust in you than that. Back before he was married. Um, so he was just a fun guy to have on a team. Great laugh, great sense of humor, very creative, very arts oriented as well. Could sing, dance imitations, fun guy to be around. But he was a blessing. It was a blessing to be around.

Nate:

Thanks for sharing. I appreciate that. Kind of as a, as a final kind of wrap up, if there's any other lesson or thing you picked up along the way, what would you tell a younger coach that's just starting out? Getting their footing that you wish you would've known when you were starting out in your coaching?

Clint:

Don't worry about getting them to like ya. Work on getting them to respect you. Um, and think about the guys you gravitated to as a player. What type of coaches did you gravitate to. Be intentional with your actions. Be intentional with your words. Uh, the human touch is important. There's some kids that don't like to be touched. That's another thing you got to find out about. Some kids love to be hugged. Some kids just need a hug, a hug and hang in there and they're good. You've just empowered them. You've given them everything they need. Some kids just sitting down and talking through what do you feel? Here's what I'm seeing, but what do you feel? I don't know and it's going to take time and you can't expect to happen overnight. But I would, I would encourage them to keep the heartbeat in first place. There are people, they're not pieces. You hear that term a lot in our industry today. You know that they're pieces.. Attached to every player and there's a story to find out about every player because there's reasons. They act the way they do. They've all, whether the choices they've made, the history of the lifestyle they come up with. You can learn so much about, maybe it's former coaches that you talked to, maybe it's some other players you asked about. Um, and then just smiling, sitting down with them and sharing those three questions. Hey, I want to earn your trust. It'll take what it takes and Hey, you know what I care about you. Is there something I can do for you away from the park? And then, you know what? I really think that we get to that point and there's some things I can, I can bring to the table that they make you better as a player as well. The other thing, the last thing I would add is there's so much failure in the game of baseball. Remind them that failure is an event. It's not a person that's good because there's some kids that were, man, I mean I see it in little league. You see it in, you know, usually you see it in college, you seen it in the pros. Failure is an event. It's not a person. And sometimes failure can be your best teacher. What can we learn from that opportunity that it didn't work out, that you failed it? What can we learn from that? And when that opportunity arises the next time, what could you do differently to get a better outcome?

Nate:

Yeah, that's, that is a game changer. I remember hearing for the first time the difference between guilt and shame where guilt says, I've made a mistake, but shame says I am a mistake. And so many times when we fail, we just feel like we are a failure. Not that we have failed and failure is an event. Not a person that's a great way to put that as well because as gosh, how many times did I strike out or have that that o for four day with with two or three K's and just felt like as a person I am a failure, not just I had a bad day at the yard. To have a healthy view of still being competitive, still playing with all of our heart is doing it for the Lord. Not for man, but not letting it wear it, like not having it. Wear us down now like you were talking about and that's a big, that's a big one. Yeah. Thanks for sharing that.

Clint:

Yeah, you bet!

Nate:

Awesome. Well, I did pick up on another line that you had was you said you wanted to have a lifetime contract with the home team. So tell me a little bit more about what that means for you in this season.

Clint:

Oh my gosh. It all goes back to getting fired and then thinking about what's next, what needs to be next, what should be next? And through a couple of conversations, my wife and I had, I can remember Carla, she's been raising two children. I've been half a dad for 17 years for Madden, no special needs shop or I'll go 15 year old son. I've been half of that half a husband. I mean truthfully I'm home half the year, you know spring training. We always come here together. So we spent three to four months together. We put them in school down here, but I'm still gone eight, 10 hours a day. I mean whatever it is that started where on the travel started to wear on. Yeah. And then having the conversation, Carla would say, well, if you want to do that San Diego thing or you want to do that, we'll figure this out. And the kids will, and I just kept hearing it. It just kept resonated almost like somebody bang, bang and a drum in the back of my head going, buddy, maybe it's time for you to pull the car over and just get and just say, you know what? You don't need to do that. I need to do this. I need to settle down. I need to find a way to pour back into this family. And I mean I got offered a contract with a great opportunity and through those conversations I can almost see myself getting right back on that treadmill. And here I go again and I thought, I got my health. I've got healthy children. I mean Maddie, yes, she's a special needs but she's a healthy child. Yeah, she's given us a lot of joy. Christian is 15 he's on the crew team. He's doing things.They're both in high school. My wife has been a Saint. She, you know, behind every good man is a much better woman. And she's been, I'm not sure I'm a good man. She's a better woman. She's been my life source, my energy, my truth teller. And it's time to stop dragging them around. It's time for me to just fit in. And that's what I came up with. The thing. I just need to sign a lifetime, a lifetime contract with the home team and, and do that.

Nate:

That's excellent. Well, Hey, I want to make sure everybody knows where they can get in contact with you a little bit more. I know you have a almost daily take the take the Sundays off, but you have uh, Clint hurdle.com. Uh, tell us a little bit about the, the daily kind of devotionals that you send out.

Clint:

It's been fun. It has been really encouraging and rewarding the last six to eight weeks, Clinthurdle.com if you type that in, it'll take you to my website and if you went on, so that website's about that big.

Nate:

It's simple. I like it.

Clint:

But it tells the story. Uh, we were setting up some programs in Colorado, there was 12 of us count, 13 count, may and some front office people, some employees, some coaches, you know, just life lessons, leadership and trying to sprinkle some faith. Then with it and then it was over. I take the notes or some quotes and text them and I did that for in 2009 I started doing it and you know, seven weeks into the season I'm fired. Um, and it was on July 4th weekend I was on a family vacation. My phone rings now look at this number to Colorado. Wait a minute, what's this? And it was one of the, one of our, one of our leaders, the female on the phone going, Hey Clint, how you doing? I'm like, well, you know, I'm okay. I'm doing pretty good. It's weird. I said, I keep looking at my watch. My wife tells me to stop. My swipe card doesn't work anymore. Um, but I'm okay. I'm doing pretty good. She goes, well, I'm not, I miss the meetings. I miss the lessons. I miss all of us getting together. And at the bottom of all your texts, you would always say, make a difference today. Love Clint. She said, you're not making a difference today. And I don't know. I don't think you love me.

Nate:

Wow.

Clint:

My wife happened to be watching me having this conversation and I got off the phone. I looked at her and I went, wow. And she goes, what was that all about? And I told her she was, so, what are you going to do about it? Well, I'm gonna take a little walk around this block here and figure something out. So I took a walk around the block and it was plain as day to me. I needed to find a way to start connecting with people. There's people that are looking for encouragement. I was one of them. So many times I mentioned I'm a flawed man, two divorces and alcoholic. However, 16 years as a manager in the big leagues. I'm a man of faith. I'm a man of God. I'm a child of God. I've led, I've been responsible. I've been blessed. He's made a miracle in my life. There's people out there that are looking for miracles in their life that need encouragement. They need a hug, need something. Maybe they can read something that day. It just empowers them. It gives them some hope. This is a time of hope. This is a time of pause in our country. And I know there were times when I had maybe just a couple of people and it only takes one to help you on your journey to help you on your way. To say I care and I'm here to listen. I'm going to give you the greatest gift I can give you. I'm gonna give you some time. So it became a devotional email and it became an encouragement email so there's two options. Some people sign up for both, but some people sign up for one or the other and the numbers have grown exponentially since the new year. Actually since the end of the season, for some reason, for whatever reason, the numbers have picked up, more people are reading than ever before. It helps me cause it sharpens me first Nate. I've got to do the research, I got to do the reading. And if an electrocutes, me I think, you know what I prayed over and then I put it in a thing. All these are done at least a week ahead of time and it's so encouraging to get an email. Like today. I got probably close to 20 or 25 responses for the two emails. Perfect message for me today. Well, it was sent out nine days ago. It wasn't like I crafted it today and put it in the hopper and you got it today. God's timing.

Nate:

Yeah, he uses it all. Well, Hey, thank you so much for, for sharing and being open with your story and sharing some of the wisdom. I know a lot of our listeners are going to be encouraged to coach and to grow personally at home with their teams. You really brought it today and I appreciate it. It's a blessing to you and your bride and your family. Keep enjoying that, that warm weather, even though we're doing the quarantine thing for a little bit longer.

Clint:

Thank you. We're going to stay sheltered here. We're going to, we're gonna follow the rules and let me know if I can be of service to you and thanks for reaching out, Nate.

Nate:

Alright. Take care. We'll talk to you soon.

Clint:

Love you man, Bye.

Nate:

Wow. Wow, wow. Again, so grateful to Clint for coming on the show and being so transparent with his personal story, for being generous with the lessons that he's learned both through mistakes and other people that have built into him as a person, as a coach back in the day when he was a player. What about those three questions? Can I trust you? Do you care about me? Will you be able to make me better? I know if you're like me, I was asking those questions deep down in my heart when I was going through as an athlete and that's something that we should probably be answering for our players and here's a little wrinkle in it. The same things are being asked of, for those of us that have a spouse or children as well, those same questions are being asked. It just may not be in the baseball world or the sport world. Hey, if you haven't already, we encourage you to go ahead and hit subscribe on whatever app you're listening to. That way you don't miss any new episodes coming down the pipe. In the future, we're trying to push out new episodes a little bit more quickly because of Corona virus and people have more time on their hands. So go ahead and hit subscribe. We have some other great ones coming down the road. So go ahead and do that. And until next time, keep growing. Keep learning and keep changing lives on your team and in your home.

"3 Things Every Player Wants to Know"

nsallee@fca.org (Nate Sallee) — Mon, 11 May 2020 15:37:25 GMT

Ep. 32: Coach to Coach Podcast - Clint Hurdle

Clint Hurdle joins us on the show with some veteran insight!

Playing Career:

- Declined College offers from the U. of Miami and Harvard to play professional baseball.

- Drafted by the Kansas City Royals with stops with the Reds, Mets, and Cardinals organizations.

Coaching:

- Hitting Coach then Manager of the Colorado Rockies

- Hitting coach for the Texas Rangers

- Manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates

- Currently a "Lifetime contract with the home team"

Topics discussed:

- Personal faith journey

- His coaching philosophy and how it progressed

- Amazing stories including 3 World Series runs

- 3 things every player wants to know

- What he would tell a new coach starting out

Subscribe so you don't miss any new episodes!

Transcript

Nate:

All right guys, we are here with Clint hurdle. Clint, how are you doing today?

Clint:

I'm doing really well. Nate, good to be with you.

Nate:

I see some Palm trees in the background, so you're probably sitting a little bit warmer than me. We're about 43 degrees here in Northern Kentucky.

Clint:

Nate:

Clint:

Nate:

Clint:

Nate:

Congratulations.

Clint:

Nate:

Clint:

Nate:

Yeah. Was that the same season that Hamilton did the home run Derby craziness hit it the next year in 2008.

Clint:

Nate:

I remember. And it was, yeah, that was a struggle on how are we going to finish this up?

Clint:

Nate:

Clint:

Nate:

Clint:

But when that, when you were in that car was your car, right?

Nate:

Oh yeah.

Clint:

Did you take care of that car?

Nate:

Absolutely.

Clint:

Did you want anybody to mess with your car?

Nate:

No. They better stay away.

Clint:

Nate:

It feels different. It feels, yeah. All I did was it got me where I wanted to go and I kept gas in it. That's right. Yeah.

Clint:

Nate:

Clint:

Nate:

Yeah. You run through a wall for him and then people that you don't trust, you go X amount of distance and that's it. Yeah, there's a boundary there for sure.

Clint:

Nate:

Yeah. They want to see how they, how you're going to react when, when things aren't going your way personally.

Clint:

Nate:

Clint:

Nate:

Clint:

Yeah, you bet!

Nate:

Clint:

Nate:

Clint:

Nate:

It's simple. I like it.

Clint:

Nate:

Wow.

Clint:

Nate:

Clint:

Thank you. We're going to stay sheltered here. We're going to, we're gonna follow the rules and let me know if I can be of service to you and thanks for reaching out, Nate.

Nate:

Alright. Take care. We'll talk to you soon.

Clint:

Love you man, Bye.

Nate:

FCA Teammate Runs His Own Personal "Bellevue Marathon"

nsallee@fca.org (Nate Sallee) — Wed, 06 May 2020 17:33:28 GMT

Tom Ratterman organized his first ever 26.2 mile run due to the Flying Pig Marathon being postponed due to the Corona Virus...and finished!!

2020 NFL Draft - Reflections about Faith, the Bengals, and Joe Burrow

Fri, 24 Apr 2020 18:33:48 GMT

Chris Cornett Shares a Devo After Watching the 2020 NFL Draft

"With the 1st pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, the Cincinnati Bengals select, Joe Burrow from LSU." There's something really powerful about being chosen. That someone knows you, chooses you, and delights in you. In this video, Chris shares how we all can have a similar feeling that Joe Burrow had on draft night.

Devo: How the Life of Joseph Can Encourage Us Today

nsallee@fca.org (Nate Sallee) — Wed, 08 Apr 2020 19:37:59 GMT

Meredith Heater

Cincinnati Bengals RB's Coach Shares How He's Handling Covid-19

Wed, 01 Apr 2020 19:35:30 GMT

Cincy FCA Metro Director Interviews Jemal Singleton

Coach Singleton shares how he's currently handling the Covid-19 pandemic personally and has some words of encouragement to the coaches and athletes of Cincy/NKY!

My Top 5 Lessons In My 1st 5 Years With FCA

nsallee@fca.org (Nate Sallee) — Mon, 06 Jan 2020 21:24:02 GMT

January 1st marked my 5th anniversary of joining full-time staff with FCA.

Going from a local church youth minister to local missionary was quite the transition! In many ways I felt like a spiritual entrepreneur, having to wear many hats and bootstrap our way towards momentum.

Here are 5 of my top take aways from all the trial, errors, wins, tears, smiles, and sweat.

1. Ambition Isn’t bad

Selfish ambition is bad...but ambition itself is not.

"Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart"

Psalm 37:4

This is a great reminder that when we abide in Christ, God will give us the desires of our heart, which will align with HIS will and HIS kingdom.

Passivity was Adam's downfall in the garden and isn't recommended...following Jesus is an active lifestyle. God wants us in the game!

2. Having a Team is mandatory

A mix of my pride and my fear of damaging any relationship created some challenges early on.

I was pretty intimidated to ask people to come on the team as a financial supporter..I had some growing to do in my mind and heart.

I also liked the control that came from trying to do things all by myself, but that quickly proved futile.

It's obvious to me now that no one person has all of the gifts/skills needed to succeed, this forces us to link arms with others.

We're better together as the body of Christ.

Volunteers
Prayer partners
Donors
Staff
Advisory Board Members

If any of these are missing we are by definition not prepared for God to entrust us with more open doors, influence, and resources. I'm so grateful for this team!

3. Clarity is king

When you are so immersed into a certain field we develop the "curse of knowledge" and assume everyone else understands who you are and what you are about.

Some people in NKY still don't even know what FCA is. Humbling, but true.

As one of my favorite authors states, "If you confuse, you lose."

Being clear and direct was intimidating to my conflict avoidant tendencies but it's necessary to communicate well.

Gospel

Many people need to hear the Gospel about 7 times before they grasp it and make a decision. That's why our tool of "The Four" is so helpful.

Fundraising

People rarely give to causes they don't understand. That's why I'm grateful that we can say "we are Transforming NKY by ministering TO and THROUGH the COACH."

Equipping Coaches + volunteers

Answering these 2 question is huge: What do you want me to do? How do you want me to do it?

4. Most of our limits are just thoughts we believe to be true

For 30 years of my life I never considered myself a long distance runner. I wore husky jeans back in elementary school and was way more comfortable in a weight room.

I made all the jokes:

"I'm not running unless someone was chasing me"

"Runner's high?! Yeah right...those people are crazy"

I changed my thoughts, which changed my feelings, which led to new actions and now I'm proud to say I've completed 3 Half Marathons and 1 Full marathon (even though it took me what felt like forever)!

Romans 12 encourages us to be transformed...HOW?

By the renewing of your MIND. If you want something to change, challenge your thoughts and existing narratives around it.

5. Numbers are a great tool but a terrible God

Scoreboards exists for a reason, unless it's Upward and then you may have to keep a running note.

Numbers are important because they act like gauges on a dashboard.

They help tell the story if we are winning or not.

Finding the RIGHT numbers to look at is key. They have to be things that we can actually influence.

We can't turn someone's heart and make them follow Jesus...but we can do life with them, create environments for them to hear God's word, and invite them to trust Jesus.

We do the possible and trust God for the impossible.

What's one thing you've learned in the last 5 years?

Thanks for journeying with us!

What's Your "One Word" for 2019?

nsallee@fca.org (Nate Sallee) — Thu, 21 Nov 2019 02:23:56 GMT

Words are powerful.

Just this past week I delivered a message on the "Power of Words." If you look closely it's a theme throughout the entire Bible.

God SPOKE the world into existence.

God's promise to Abram in Genesis 12...words.

Proverbs says that words can bring blessing or curses, life or death.

Following Jesus begins with confessing with our mouth (words) that he is Lord.

On July 31st, 2011, I showed up to a wedding a single man and left a married man. The difference? Several words that made up mine and Katelyn's vows to one another to be faithful until death or until Jesus' comes back.

That's the power of words.

2018 further confirmed the power of words in my mind. We chose one word as a family theme and executed on it. What word you ask?

RESPOND.

We wanted to respond to opportunities and needs that we were seeing and be people that were quick to take action instead.

After a lot of daydreaming, we finally took action towards improving our kitchen and living area to improve our ability to be hospitable.

I responded to my discontent with my health by training for and completing 2 half marathons.

When our kids spilled milk, we quickly reminded them to respond.

When one of Katelyn's top volleyball players blew her knee out 3 matches into the season, they resolved to respond and had an incredible year despite that adversity.

One word may seem too small, but it touched every area of our life.

Some of you may have already botched your traditional new year's resolution...I have great news for you, it's ok!

I challenge you to switch up your approach.

Pray and seek the Lord for what he's calling you and your family to this year.

Land on a One Word theme and put it everywhere. Make it your lock screen on your phone, print it and put it on the door at eye level so you see it on your way out of the house.

"RESPOND" changed our life. This year our family's word is "INTIMACY."

We will pursue intimacy with the Jesus, each other, and those who God has put in our life.

My brother in law Rhett said this recently, "Relationships are not a means to an end in the Kingdom, they are the end goal."

Love God. Love Others.

Get your word for 2019 and start seeing what God can do in and through you!

Finish Strong!

nsallee@fca.org (Nate Sallee) — Wed, 13 Nov 2019 20:02:32 GMT

As I went into 6th grade I had my first chance to play ball for a school team.

Basketball tryouts were early in the year and I was PUMPED. I had worked on my shot some and had loved playing in the years before.

So the very first day of tryouts came around and they threw me a curveball. Instead of going right into drills or scrimmages we are told to meet down at the track.

Before we did anything in the gym, everyone had to run a timed mile.

Now, I had actually gone through a couple of phases where I ran on my own. Unfortunately it had been awhile and the reality was I was a dude built for strength instead of speed. Let’s just say as a boy, I knew what husky jeans were…you get the picture.

So we take off and everyone jumps out to a quick start, including me. That did not last too long at all and by my third lap I was sucking some serious air. By the end of the last lap, which felt a whole mile by itself, I saw the finish line with the coaches standing there at the end.

Once I had made the last turn, I kicked those thunder thighs into gear and finished with a desperate burst right past the finish line. My time was around 10 minutes…I know, not great, even for a middle school kid.

Feeling down and with my side hurting like crazy, I will never forget the coach’s response.

As soon as I had finished I heard him clapping and practically yelling, “Nice finish my man! Nice finish!”

It was a powerful lesson. Even though I was far from the best that day, I look back and see how endurance and running with a purpose really matters. That experience energized me and I ended up playing well during the rest of the tryouts to make the team!

Through that experience it became clear to me that finishing well should be on our minds just as much as getting off to a good start.

We need to approach the next day, the next week, or this next year with the end in mind and finish strong.

Our God has an eternal prize, heaven, waiting for us as Christians. He is anxious to tell us, “Nice job! Great finish! You made it all of the way to the end!”

"But the one who endures to the end will be saved." Matthew 24:13

The Top 3 Reasons Why Sports Can Make or Break Your Community

Wed, 13 Nov 2019 16:46:00 GMT

The story lines, the skill, the drama, the endurance, the mental toughness, and the risks taken are what make sports one of the most entertaining things I can imagine.

I love sports! During every season and just about any sport has the potential of grabbing my attention. Heck I even watched professional arm wrestling the other day.

My life involves swimming in the sports culture year round. I’ve found that sports can be a powerful vehicle to transform lives in a good way and also an avenue to wreak havoc on the next generation. Why? Here are 3 reasons...

1. Sports are Prevalent

The first reason is that sports are everywhere. They also start early. Katelyn and I were talking to some new friends a few weeks ago who had their first week of t-ball practice coming up...for their 3 year old.

There’s school-based teams and a slew of club/select/church/travel/AAU teams just about anywhere you go.

Even when a kid isn’t playing a sport it seems it’s almost inevitable that they will be around sports.

Games are a great excuse for social time. Just about any parent is totally cool with their kids going to them.

Another example...

“So you’re in marching band, that’s cool! I’d love to come watch some time.”

“Sweet! Our next performance will be at half-time of the football game on friday night.”

AND, Let’s be honest, there’s really only two types of cable packages. One with ESPN channels and the one without.

Sports are prevalent in our culture.

2. Sports are Powerful

Athletics have incredible influence. A Coach is one of the most influential positions in our entire culture. One coach’s life can literally have a ripple effect on an entire community.

We’ve already seen this happen in Altus, OK: WATCH VIDEO

When Katelyn is setting up the schedule of games, practices, tournaments, meetings, and other events for her high school volleyball team...guess who else is affected? Every family connected to the team.

A coach also has a powerful voice in the life of an athlete. I can still vividly remember specific statements from coaches YEARS ago. Anywhere from, “What are you thinking?!!!? DO YOUR JOB!” to “OUTSTANDING!! That’s how it’s done fellas!!”

Coach’s voices are just as powerful if not more so today...

A voice that can give life and break hearts.

A voice that can inspire, motivate, and get the best out of a player.

A voice that can speak identity, truth, or lies into the mind and heart.

A voice that can change a kid, a team, a family, and yes a community.

Aside from that, consider the passion and emotion it brings out of people.

I mean there are few things that will motivate an obese man to go shirtless with body paint in front of thousands of people...sports are that powerful. It happens every NFL Sunday.

Sports are a powerful force...if used for good it’s one of the best ways to invest the next generation...if not, it can mess people up for decades. Life after your last official game is tough. If your performance is all you’ve been living for then it’s a tough reality to face.

3. Sports are Perpetual

Sports have been around since the Bible times. The Apostle Paul uses multiple illustrations that pertain to athletics (Philippians 4:13 isn’t really one of them but that’s for another time).

Sports aren’t going anywhere either. I’m glad too!

I love watching games. Athletes have trained hard, are figuring out how to work together, facing adversity, and the suspense of watching something that comes down to the wire gets my adrenaline pumping every time.

Sports are perpetual...there’s a 24 hours news cycle just for them. Many sports at least train if not compete year round.

Just ask Ella Mae Colbert if sports stop being relevant too. She set a record time for the 100 m dash for her age...at a 100 years old!

Take this away

Finally, I simply encourage you to observe, reflect, and be aware of this powerful behemoth called sports. Be intentional about seeing to it that they are life giving to you and your family.

The influence of sport is sort of like money. Money is neutral. It’s not automatically good or bad. It’s the way that they people use it as a tool that makes the difference.

Athletics are no different. Proceed wisely. The future of your community depends on it.

Endurance: Reflection from an NKU FCA Student Leader

nsallee@fca.org (Nate Sallee) — Wed, 13 Nov 2019 16:34:27 GMT

ENDURANCE:

It took a lot of it to make it up that mountain (pictured). It’s also a word that has been on my heart for over a year.

Hebrews 12:1 tells us to throw off anything that slows us down, so we can run with endurance, the race that has already been marked out for us.

God tested my faith last year and through the trials I found that my endurance and faith were not high. I was constantly running into failures and seeking my own way out of them.

My plan for my life was all I could see and all that I wanted. The hardships that I encountered were only slowing me down. I wasn’t willing to understand the idea that God might want me to go down a different path. I was experiencing the opposite of endurance. I was tired and strung out.

This past semester was not much better. If I’m being honest, a lot of these past 5 months has consisted of me enduring in the wrong way. Enduring the next practice. Enduring my next exam. Enduring a sickness. Constantly being sick, failed relationships, and uncertainty of where my degree was taking me, I felt the cycle of my sophomore year beginning again.

Things kept happening that were slowing me down and I prayed for them to stop. & then God answered my prayers. Not by giving me everything I had ever wanted (He actually took away most of the things that I thought were best for me).

Instead, He gave me a change of mindset.

I was going through the motions and simply getting through the tribulations. But now, I have faith that god’s plan is way [way] more superior than mine.

I now have faith that He has my best interest in mind. ALWAYS! In this I have found more purpose in my life.

Although some of my whys may not be answered the way I want them to be, I know that everything is all in God’s timing, and ultimately to bring me closer to him.

I have uncovered my passions in life and can see a light at the end of the tunnel for my degree. I’ve grown closer with people who encourage me and celebrate my successes and constantly point me back to the truth (even when it is extremely hard!!)

So whatever season of life you are in, endure with a purpose. Not only endure it, but seek what God is teaching you, reflect on it & grow from it.

thanks for reading,

Julia