0:05

Amy, welcome to

0:05

picking teams a podcast that

0:08

dives into the playbooks of

0:08

seasoned coaches. I'm your host.

0:12

Amy Bryant, a 23 year veteran

0:12

college coach, and my guests

0:17

hail from the professional

0:17

college and youth ranks.

0:20

Together, we'll share real

0:20

stories from our coaching

0:23

experiences to empower you as

0:23

parents to be positive forces in

0:28

your child sports journey. Our guest today is Coach Jason

0:35

Zimmerman. Jason is the current

0:39

division three head men's

0:39

basketball coach and director of

0:42

coach Z's basketball camp. He

0:42

has over 28 years of college

0:47

coaching experience, including

0:47

stints at the University of

0:50

Evansville and his alma mater,

0:50

Davidson, and now he's at Emory,

0:54

where he's been since 2007 So

0:54

Jason, tell me a little bit

1:00

about your journey to become a

1:00

college coach, absolutely.

1:03

Well, let's

1:03

first say we miss you here, like

1:06

I miss working with you here

1:06

down the hall, so I come down

1:10

and see you. I miss that, but my

1:10

journey that brought me here,

1:15

yeah, I think it's, I don't know

1:15

if it's unique, but I just, I

1:19

enjoyed basketball, right? Like

1:19

growing up, I just enjoyed it.

1:23

If people say, you you pay more

1:23

attention in the classes that

1:26

you enjoy in school, and I just

1:26

really enjoyed basketball,

1:30

right? So every time I was in in

1:30

practice, or, you know, working

1:35

with my coaches, I just tried to

1:35

soak it all in. And I guess I

1:40

went to Davidson, I thought I'd

1:40

be an accountant maybe. And

1:44

really know if I've told many

1:44

people that, probably. But I

1:47

went to Davidson, thought I'd be

1:47

an accountant, and then I got

1:49

there and I was like, No, I just

1:49

it's in my blood to coach and be

1:53

part of teams. And so I played

1:53

for some unbelievable coaches

1:59

growing up, so my high school

1:59

coach is in the Hall of Fame in

2:02

Indiana high school basketball

2:02

hall of fame. My college coach

2:05

is in the New York Basketball

2:05

Hall of Fame. He's in the

2:08

Davidson obviously Hall of Fame.

2:08

He'll be in the Naismith Hall of

2:11

Fame soon, if he's not. So I

2:11

play for unbelievable guys who

2:15

are great mentors and people. So

2:15

that probably led to me getting

2:20

into coaching and then getting

2:20

into college coaching I got

2:23

into, I was a high school

2:23

teacher for two years right

2:25

after I got done at Davidson

2:25

education, and teaching was

2:30

always something I was

2:30

interested in, just because I

2:34

think teaching is coaching and

2:34

coaching is teaching, and that

2:37

really just led to me getting

2:37

into And my two coaches I played

2:41

for were unbelievable teachers,

2:41

which I think sometimes is lost

2:46

today in today's college

2:46

coaching world, but I had an

2:50

unbelievable math teacher for

2:50

high school coach, and my

2:52

college coach was a high school

2:52

teacher headmaster, before

2:55

became a college coach. So I

2:55

just grew up around teaching the

2:58

game and went to five star

2:58

basketball camps teach the game.

3:01

And so I was a teacher for two

3:01

years. Taught economics and

3:05

government to seniors in high

3:05

school, and I was 22 years old.

3:09

I wore a tie every day because I

3:09

felt like I looked like a senior

3:11

high school myself. And then

3:11

coach mckibble asked me to come

3:15

back and be on his staff. I was

3:15

on his staff for seven years,

3:18

and went to Evansville for four

3:18

and then Betsy Stevenson called

3:22

me. I have no idea why, but she

3:22

called me and asked me if I'd be

3:27

interested in the Emory job. And

3:27

I didn't know much about Emory

3:30

at the time, and took me about

3:30

30 seconds to research it, and

3:34

said I'd be very interested in

3:34

interviewing for the job. Took

3:38

me a long time interview, and

3:38

then thankful for the people

3:41

like you chose me and I got to

3:41

be here for the last 17 years.

3:44

So that was, that was my

3:44

journey, kind of here. It's been

3:50

really special for me, and to be

3:50

in one place for 17 years as a

3:54

college coach is special. Like

3:54

my kids grew up at Emory. You

4:00

know, my kids grew up in

4:00

Atlanta, and now they're in

4:02

college and but that's, that's

4:02

kind of my journey into coaching

4:05

is really started teaching is,

4:05

is how I got into college

4:09

coaching, right?

4:11

That's awesome. I

4:11

had no idea that you're a

4:13

teacher, but it makes so much

4:13

sense knowing you, because you

4:17

really are all about teaching

4:17

life lessons more so than even

4:22

just teaching basketball and so,

4:22

yeah, it's, it's been, you know,

4:29

the pleasure has been all mine,

4:29

being able to work alongside you

4:32

for, I guess I only got to work

4:32

alongside you for 15 years

4:35

because I cut out a little bit

4:35

early, but, but I really feel

4:39

fortunate To have learned all

4:39

sorts of lessons from your

4:42

teaching through that time. So

4:42

one thing that the parents

4:46

listening to the show are really

4:46

interested in is how to get

4:49

their kids into college, how to

4:49

get them recruited. And

4:53

throughout all of your

4:53

basketball coaching jobs, I'm

4:57

sure you have a lot of

4:57

experience with the recruiting.

5:01

So which outlets would you

5:01

recommend for families?

5:08

Obviously, basketball to get

5:08

seen by the right coaches, and

5:13

how do they go about picking

5:13

those outlets?

5:15

Yeah, it's

5:15

interesting question, because

5:17

I've had two children. My

5:17

children have gone through the

5:21

other side of the process, and I

5:21

realized, like, I have no idea

5:25

how this works, and I've been in

5:25

the business for 40 years,

5:28

right? Or whatever, 30 years. So

5:28

not that I have no idea how it

5:31

works, but I think the biggest

5:31

thing is you got to find schools

5:35

that are just going out there

5:35

and being like, Hey, I just want

5:38

to get recruited, right? I think

5:38

it's important to do research,

5:41

like, what schools you'd be

5:41

interested in? I think that's

5:44

the most important thing. Like,

5:44

they say, like, when you're

5:47

good, people find you, right?

5:47

That's why, when you're good

5:49

people find you, yes, but like,

5:49

so big world, like, there's a

5:53

lot of things out there, like,

5:53

there's so I think showing

5:57

interest in a school is

5:57

important, right? And then

6:00

there's a fine line there, like

6:00

you can show you go overboard,

6:03

right? I get inundated with

6:03

emails from the same person like

6:06

and like, hey, maybe there's no

6:06

interest from our side, right?

6:10

So it, but I think showing

6:10

interest in that school and

6:14

doing your research in that

6:14

school and coaches, etc, is very

6:17

important when it when it comes

6:17

to being seen. And then the

6:21

other part about that is

6:21

understanding who goes to what

6:25

events like for basketball, for

6:25

example, and basketball like

6:29

Emory being the educational

6:29

piece to Emory and admissions

6:34

and all that. So we we use a lot

6:34

of the Ivy Leagues, Patriot

6:37

leagues, elite camps when we go

6:37

to a an AU tournament, which we

6:42

go to some. When we go to AU

6:42

tournament, we've already done

6:44

our homework of getting people's

6:44

transcripts, finding out grades,

6:49

you know, finding out, like,

6:49

things about the family, right?

6:52

Like can is Emory a spot for

6:52

you. So we do a lot of as the

6:57

coach. We do a lot of our work

6:57

free, going out to see so I

7:02

think when you ask, where do we

7:02

get our guys from? I think we've

7:06

been the we've been really

7:06

fortunate, and I'm fortunate to

7:10

work in a place like Emory, like

7:10

people seek us out, right?

7:13

People seek Emory out because of

7:13

our education. And we've had,

7:18

we've been fortunate to have a

7:18

really good run out of the last

7:21

1413, what, 17 years we've been

7:21

here, we've had a good run at it

7:24

and be successful. So people

7:24

have the emails that we get.

7:28

That's the first place we look.

7:28

It was like, hey, somebody knows

7:31

about our education, somebody

7:31

knows about Emory, somebody

7:34

knows about our staff. Somebody

7:34

likes the way we do it. That's

7:37

how we start looking. Now, when I was at Davidson and Evansville, it's probably a

7:39

little different. You know?

7:42

Different. I didn't really go

7:42

through our emails quite as much

7:45

because of the level that we had

7:45

to get to to play. And we go out

7:50

and find but you still have to

7:50

find those, find those people. I

7:53

use a hook a lot, right, like I

7:53

know a lot of people in the

7:56

basketball world. So usually, if

7:56

it's a good player, he's going

8:00

to know somebody that knows me,

8:00

or knows somebody that knows

8:03

like, I've just been in a long

8:03

time. So that's, that's how we

8:06

get a lot of our student

8:06

athletes. I know that doesn't

8:09

answer the question. The thing

8:09

I'll say about parents, and I

8:12

think later on, we'll talk about

8:12

this and parenting, is like,

8:16

you're never going to feel like

8:16

you did it right, ever, just you

8:20

could do everything right, and

8:20

your your son or daughter could

8:22

go to the perfect place, and

8:22

you're still going to feel like

8:25

you didn't do it enough, right,

8:25

or it right, right? So there is

8:29

not a right way to do it.

8:29

Somebody told me, when we

8:32

started, when I started

8:32

coaching, long time ago, is 99%

8:37

of what we do in recruiting

8:37

doesn't matter. But nobody tells

8:41

you what the 1% is that matters.

8:41

So you got to do you got to do

8:45

all of it. You got to do the

8:45

100% right? Because you don't

8:49

know if you only do this 99%

8:49

Well, that 1% that you didn't do

8:54

could have been what mattered

8:54

for that kid. It's the same if

8:58

you flip it on the other side,

8:58

99% of what parents do doesn't

9:02

matter, but the 1% we don't tell

9:02

you what it is, right? Is it an

9:05

email with a with a video? Is it

9:05

a calling a coach that I know?

9:09

Is it a visiting campus, sitting

9:09

down, you know? Is it? There's

9:14

all kind of things that you can

9:14

do, right? So, yeah, I I just

9:19

think it's an inexact science.

9:19

Amy. You're like, I really do,

9:22

like, it's not. And for people

9:22

who are very type a like, two

9:25

plus two equals four in

9:25

recruiting, it doesn't work that

9:28

way. Like, two plus two this

9:28

year it could be six, and next

9:32

year it could be one. And like,

9:32

you're like, I don't know. I

9:35

don't know how that happened,

9:35

which makes it really exciting

9:38

and really frustrating, right?

9:40

So, yeah, well, that

9:40

helps. No, that helps. It

9:43

definitely helps. I think it

9:43

helps, especially for parents,

9:46

to know that what they're

9:46

feeling is is real. You know, we

9:49

need to feel validated as

9:49

parents, especially as we're,

9:52

you know, trying to help our

9:52

kids get to that right place.

9:56

One thing that you said, I want

9:56

to just follow up on, because I

9:59

get this question a lot, and

9:59

that is, how often do you want

10:04

to hear from a student athlete,

10:04

and this would be one that

10:07

you're recruiting, okay, not the

10:07

one that you're not interested

10:09

in that's inundating you with

10:09

emails, but the one that you're

10:12

recruiting. Let's say you start

10:12

talking to him in his junior

10:15

year, like, how often do you

10:15

want him to reach out to you? To

10:18

be like, coach, I'm still alive.

10:18

I'm still interested,

10:21

yeah, it's a

10:21

great question. And I think

10:24

different sports vary, right?

10:24

Like, we only want to get four,

10:27

four student athletes a year.

10:27

That's Max. Like, that's what we

10:31

want, right? So there's not many

10:31

that, there's just a few spots

10:35

there, right? We can get as many

10:35

as we want, but we typically

10:38

only want four, right? And I

10:38

think, you know, it's funny you

10:42

said, because sometimes a parent

10:42

reaches out to me too much,

10:46

like, Now, I want to hear from

10:46

the student athlete, right?

10:48

Like, that's great. Like, I love

10:48

that. You love your son or

10:51

daughter, right? I love that,

10:51

and I do too, and I feel that,

10:54

but like, I want to hear from

10:54

your son, right? I want to hear

10:57

like I read an email and I said,

10:57

Well, I know he didn't write

10:59

that. Like his mom wrote that

10:59

email, right? Like somebody else

11:02

wrote that email, right? And so,

11:02

like, I want to get the genuine

11:07

and it's this how we are here.

11:07

We I want to get to know the

11:10

genuine person. Like, all right,

11:10

who is this? Who is this young

11:13

man that I'm going to be coaching, right? Because I'm not going to coach, I'm not going to

11:15

coach your dad or his mom, or,

11:18

like, I'm going to coach the

11:18

young man, and he's 18 years

11:20

old. He's going to be 22 and he

11:20

leaves me and like, we want to,

11:24

we want him to grow but like,

11:24

sometimes I think the parents,

11:27

especially at a place like ours,

11:27

they try to do too much for

11:30

them, right? Like, hey, when I

11:30

talk to your son on the phone,

11:33

I'm going to want to hear His

11:33

voice, right? I don't want to

11:35

hear why he thinks, why he

11:35

wants. Because a lot of times

11:38

what I want, what my son wants,

11:38

is two totally different things,

11:41

right? Like, not totally

11:41

different, but I may want

11:44

something a little bit more. He may want something a little bit less. It wasn't something a

11:46

little bit different. So the the

11:50

number of times that we reach

11:50

out, it's funny, because now

11:53

with text messaging and calling,

11:53

like, we don't call a lot

11:58

anymore. Like we don't we don't

11:58

talk on the phone a lot anymore.

12:00

We do it over texts. And my

12:00

staff texts all our our

12:05

prospective students, and they

12:05

get to me, Hey, are you going to

12:08

text him to set up a call? And I

12:08

said, No, I'm going to call him

12:11

and then, and then he's going to

12:11

answer my call, and if he

12:14

doesn't answer my call, I'm

12:14

going to leave a message. He's

12:16

going to call me back, because I

12:16

want to talk to them, right? And

12:19

so maybe I'm old school likehat

12:19

a little bit, right? But I

12:22

wanted to, even if it's for 30,

12:22

you know, two minutes, like, our

12:25

phone calls aren't long anymore.

12:25

Like, they're not but even if

12:29

it's for four minutes, Hey, how

12:29

are you doing? How's your day?

12:32

What's going on? Like, what are

12:32

you doing right now? Right?

12:34

Like, I like asking that

12:34

question, like, where are you

12:36

right now? Like, what are you

12:36

doing right now? Maybe a Sunday

12:39

night at seven, right? Like, we

12:39

know it right now, and, well,

12:44

I've been in the gym for seven

12:44

hours, okay? Like, you use your

12:47

time more wisely, right? Like,

12:47

our like, come on, right? But,

12:51

but, like, that's, that's a

12:51

piece for me. I'm hearing it

12:54

from kids. I like to hear from

12:54

kids, right? And the emails,

12:58

like, believe me, I know. I tell

12:58

my son, hey, email this person,

13:02

and then a week later, did you

13:02

do that? Oh, I'm getting to come

13:04

on. Like, what do you do? But

13:04

just that genuine connection

13:09

that to have with the student

13:09

athlete is really important and

13:12

and when so, you know, I can say

13:12

I used to think I got to email

13:18

everybody back. So every email I

13:18

get, I got to email him back.

13:22

Well, if you're emailing coaches

13:22

or not emailing your back, it

13:26

doesn't necessarily mean they

13:26

they don't want to hear like

13:28

they don't like your student,

13:28

because maybe they just but it's

13:32

also, after a while, if you send

13:32

3456, and a day, get back to

13:35

like, I can't email everybody

13:35

back. It's impossible, because

13:38

if we do that, I have no time to

13:38

run a camp. I have no time to

13:42

coach my team like so, so that's

13:42

the piece. Now, it could be

13:47

that, you know, our staff is

13:47

one, Jacob and I have two part

13:50

time guys like, you know, our

13:50

division one staffs now are 17,

13:54

some of them, you know. So

13:54

that's a little different, too.

13:57

I think there's a fine line

13:57

there. And I think that's a

13:59

being aware of feel of, it's

13:59

just like anything in life,

14:03

right? It's, you have to have a

14:03

feel like, Man, I'm probably

14:05

going over the top here. Okay,

14:05

back up, right? And I gotta do a

14:09

little bit more. And usually,

14:09

when you're feeling that, it's

14:12

probably, it's a good feeling,

14:12

right? You need to listen to

14:15

yourself a little bit, right?

14:16

Absolutely, yeah,

14:16

that makes sense. And And

14:20

speaking about that feeling,

14:20

let's say, let's say you have

14:24

two recruits, okay, side by

14:24

side. They both have the same

14:28

athletic ability. They both have

14:28

great academics. They they're

14:32

going to thrive at Emory,

14:32

academically, athletically, but

14:36

you only have one spot, okay? I

14:36

mean, I know we have

14:39

flexibility. We can, you know,

14:39

when I was coaching like,

14:42

sometimes you just be like, I

14:42

can't say, I can't pick only

14:45

one. I'm taking both. We're

14:45

gonna have an extra kid next

14:47

year. You know, that's it. But

14:47

let's say, in this world, you

14:50

know that we're creating right

14:50

now, you only have one spot.

14:53

That's it. What is the

14:53

characteristic? What's the feel

14:57

that you get from those kids?

14:57

What's the one that you're gonna

15:00

use to make that decision.

15:01

I don't know if

15:01

there's one thing Amy, the first

15:05

thing we do is, like, does it,

15:05

you know, in our sport to, like,

15:10

what position you know, so,

15:10

like, if one's a garden, one's a

15:14

big you know, like, Okay, we

15:14

need more of that this year.

15:19

Like, my roster, like, a lot of

15:19

times it's my roster, like,

15:23

Okay, we could use a taller guy,

15:23

or we could use a guy that has

15:28

this skill shoot it better than

15:28

this guy. So very rarely are

15:32

they exactly equal, right? Very

15:32

well, especially in our sport,

15:37

when you have like five

15:37

different positions that you can

15:41

play, and then, you know,

15:41

there's a skill, maybe there's

15:45

one skill that we're looking

15:45

for, like, we'd really like to

15:50

shoot it better next year. So

15:50

when we go into this summer,

15:54

like, that kid shoots a little

15:54

bit better. I'm gonna, I'm gonna

15:59

like, Hey, I'm gonna try to get

15:59

that kid right. Maybe the other

16:04

thing is funny when you say that

16:04

is because sometimes it's your

16:08

roster that you have right now,

16:08

and it's like, maybe somebody in

16:13

your roster just just grates at

16:13

you right? Like, something he

16:18

does just like, man, we can't do

16:18

that. We kind of do better than

16:23

or something that he does. He

16:23

does really well. And when you

16:27

go on the road and look at

16:27

recruiting, you're like, Oh, I

16:32

like that guy because he reminds

16:32

me of this guy, right? Or, or,

16:36

Oh, I don't like that guy

16:36

because he has the same issues

16:40

that I've been dealing with my

16:40

team this year, right? So that's

16:45

why we go back to say it's such

16:45

an inexact science, because,

16:50

like, this summer I may be

16:50

looking for different than last

16:54

summer, but So last summer I may

16:54

have taken that kid, and this

16:59

summer I'm like, I don't think I

16:59

can take him, because we're

17:03

looking for something totally

17:03

different, right? And it has

17:08

nothing to do with how good a

17:08

player that the young man is,

17:12

right? But nothing now,

17:12

obviously, if he stepped curry

17:16

and step curry, like I want to

17:16

take him, it doesn't matter,

17:21

right? But, but, like, a lot of

17:21

times. And I think you said, is

17:25

there one thing that goes it

17:25

also comes back to who I want to

17:30

coach, right? Like, I'm with

17:30

these guys a lot, right? Like, a

17:35

lot, and they're in my office a

17:35

lot. You know you were, I mean,

17:39

they're in my office, they come

17:39

down. I'm with them. I'm on a

17:44

bus, I'm on a plane. And, I

17:44

mean, more than my children,

17:48

right? And so we watch a lot of

17:48

the the intangibles, right?

17:53

Like, he comes out of the game

17:53

and he blows off his coach,

17:57

right? Like, no, that's not

17:57

happening, right? Like, now you

18:01

have to understand, like, maybe

18:01

there's a situation where I'm,

18:06

like, I can see why he did that,

18:06

right? Like, if you're watching

18:11

the whole situation, but if

18:11

you're watching everything, when

18:15

you go recruit, that's where I

18:15

think evaluation is so

18:19

important. You know, sometimes

18:19

I'll see a kid walking out to

18:24

his car, talking to his parents,

18:24

right? Like, as I'm walking out

18:29

of my car, and maybe the kid's

18:29

not, you know, treating his mom

18:33

with respect, right? Like, hey,

18:33

like, I don't we, don't we just,

18:38

not what we do, like, it's not

18:38

who we want to be, right? And so

18:43

there is a, there is a

18:43

continuum, though, like, how

18:47

good is he? Maybe we need to

18:47

teach you, like, we could teach

18:51

him, we could teach him. And

18:51

that's, that's coaching, right?

18:56

But I do think, like, all those

18:56

things, and I think our

19:00

program's been really and Emory

19:00

helps with this, like to get

19:05

good kids right. Good kids, who

19:05

you know, are just they have

19:09

good families. Are brought up

19:09

the right way, not that there's

19:14

one way to be brought up, like

19:14

you go in our locker room. This

19:18

is what's great about basketball

19:18

and sport in general, is like

19:23

you go in our locker room. We

19:23

have white guys, black guys,

19:27

right? We have we have

19:27

Christians, we have Jews, we

19:31

have atheists, we have guys from

19:31

the West Coast, guys from the

19:36

East Coast, and we're all in the

19:36

locker room, and we're all

19:40

together. We all have the same

19:40

goal, and we're at pregame meal,

19:45

and our discussions at pregame

19:45

meal, I just, they just blow my

19:50

mind, right? And so that's why,

19:50

that's why I love coaching in

19:54

general, like, just because you

19:54

have, like, if, if our country

19:59

worked as a team, right? And

19:59

like, hey, we have a goal here,

20:04

and we have it now. It's a lot

20:04

easier when you're a basketball

20:08

team, like, Hey, we're trying to

20:08

beat such and such, and we're

20:13

trying to do that on Friday and

20:13

Sunday and excited. Like,

20:17

there's a lot more complicated

20:17

things, but man, our locker room

20:22

is if we could somehow get take

20:22

that into a greater, you know,

20:27

you can scale it, I guess, for

20:27

the business word, right? If we

20:31

could scale that, it'd be a

20:31

special place, right? Special

20:36

place. So true. That's so true.

20:36

Just to kind of build on that

20:40

too, like, because, to me,

20:40

that's, you know, coaching is

20:44

about so much more. It's about

20:44

those conversations, it's about

20:49

the pregame meals. It's about

20:49

that locker room time the time.

20:54

And you know, that's what I

20:54

remember when I look back in my

20:58

time coaching. So what would you

20:58

say is your fondest coaching

21:03

memory? Oh, you put that

21:03

question. There's just so many

21:07

like, I mean, the first time we

21:07

went to the NCAA tournament at

21:12

Davidson, I was an assistant,

21:12

and so I worked really hard as a

21:16

student athlete to do that, and

21:16

we missed it by a game on the

21:21

last second shot, my went back.

21:21

And the first time we won that

21:26

Southern Conference tournament

21:26

to go to the NCAA tournament

21:30

1998 like that was, like, really

21:30

special, right for me, just

21:35

because it was, like a seven

21:35

year journey, and we were really

21:39

bad at Davidson, when I played,

21:39

when I started playing, and then

21:44

we got pretty good by the time I

21:44

was ended our career there,

21:45

I love that. I mean,

21:45

on my wall in my office, and

21:48

you've seen this too, I had this

21:48

huge bulletin board, and I just

21:48

because coach wouldn't plan me

21:48

more. But that's why we got

21:52

stuck up there every card and

21:52

every note that I got from from

21:53

really good. And then, you know,

21:53

when I came back and coached

21:55

players, parents, other coaches.

21:55

It didn't matter anything that

21:57

that coach, McCook, first time

21:57

he went to the NCAA tournament.

21:59

was just really mental and just

21:59

kind of, you know, made it real

22:02

I mean, that's really like that.

22:02

Davidson was great. And then

22:03

me. It made it more real than

22:03

than what I was doing, like more

22:06

personal and more intimate. And

22:06

that's, you know, that's the

22:07

there's so many here, Amy, that

22:07

it's like we went to the lead

22:10

relationship that a coach really

22:10

has with the people that that a

22:11

eight one year and winning a

22:11

game at Stevens Point, the first

22:14

coach works with every day and

22:14

touches every day. And I still

22:16

time we went to the NCAA

22:16

tournament at Emory, the first

22:18

have my board behind here. You

22:18

can't see it here, but I still

22:20

time we won the UAA championship

22:20

at Emory for me, then, not the

22:21

have it with some of my notes

22:21

left over, and nobody writes

22:25

handwritten notes anymore. I get

22:25

text messages. I text like I

22:25

first time Emily had, but first

22:25

on a long time, right? And then

22:28

don't write handwritten notes.

22:28

That's bad, the lost art, and I

22:30

we were able to go on this run

22:30

where we had 10 in a row, or

22:32

love it. And one of the things

22:32

with the student athletes that I

22:34

went to 10 in two blade

22:34

tournaments in a row. We were

22:36

work with, I tell them, Okay,

22:36

after you meet with a coach,

22:38

like the only division three at

22:38

the time that had done that.

22:39

after you visit a school, I want

22:39

you 100% sending an email. Thank

22:43

Like those things are in there,

22:43

and it's not just like one

22:43

you right away. Within 24 hours,

22:43

you got to do that. That's but

22:47

your bonus is if you sit down,

22:47

write a handwritten note and

22:47

moment, but I think the fondest

22:47

is when I come into my office

22:50

mail it in, also just

22:50

highlighting one thing that you

22:51

and I look on the wall, and you

22:51

know this, I have all the teams

22:53

remember. I don't how many kids

22:53

actually do it, because it's

22:56

that that I've coached here as

22:56

their pictures on the wall

22:57

optional. You know, optional

22:57

sometimes means I don't have to,

23:01

right. And when you come in,

23:01

sometimes you'll be in here on a

23:01

but, but I think the high

23:01

flyers, you know, they really,

23:04

they really take that from heart

23:04

and and, you know, I know that

23:05

Saturday during the season, and

23:05

you're frustrated, and you look

23:08

I, I used to value that board in

23:08

my room.

23:10

up and you see a guy and you're

23:10

like, Oh, I remember that guy,

23:10

So it's

23:10

interesting that you said I was,

23:13

gosh, there's probably that's,

23:13

we have alumni weekend, like,

23:15

like, I gotta call him, like,

23:15

Hey, I gotta, I gotta reach out

23:17

we, we're gonna do every other

23:17

year. And then the guys like,

23:19

to him. I haven't talked to him

23:19

in a while. I gotta call him. So

23:21

let's just do it every year. So

23:21

anyway, it was a couple years

23:24

on the way home, you'll call

23:24

him, and then you're talking

23:24

ago. It was after covid, maybe

23:24

two years and then my wife was

23:28

about these things that these

23:28

guys remember, that you kind of

23:28

with me, and we were at just a

23:28

restaurant in town with 35 of

23:32

our alums. And my wife said to

23:32

one of the alums like, this is

23:33

remember, but, like, you

23:33

remember it differently, but it

23:36

why, like this. This is why I

23:36

record so. Really cool. Great.

23:37

affected their life, right? So

23:37

those things are so, like, real,

23:40

That's perfect. I love that.

23:40

That's that's really powerful,

23:42

right? And just being able to do

23:42

that special.

23:44

actually, so I love it.

23:51

Thanks for tuning in

23:51

for today's play. Join us next

23:54

time to hear more insights from

23:54

another outstanding coach. Until

23:58

then, remember as you navigate

23:58

the ups and downs of your

24:01

child's journey. You're not just

24:01

picking teams, you're building

24:05

character, fostering resilience

24:05

and creating lifelong Memories.

24:09

You