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Head Football Coach of Snow College Zac Erekson
14 Plays2 years ago
In this week's episode, we talk to the head football coach of Snow College Zac Erekson. We talk about his story and growing up a minority in Utah. We talk about helping young people prepare for the transition to college, the importance of parents being there for their children in appropriate ways, advice to that young high school athlete who wants a chance to play at the next level and so much more.
https://snowbadgers.com/staff-directory/zac-erekson/111
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Credits:
Hosted by Dustin Smith & Shad Martin
Produced by Shad Martin and IMAGINATE STUDIO
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Support the show: https://especiallyforathletes.com/podcast/
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Introduction and Guest Profile
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey everybody, welcome to the SportLight Podcast.
00:00:02
Speaker
On this week's SportLight Podcast, we talk to the head football coach of the Snow College Badgers, one of the best junior college football programs in the entire country.
Advice for Minority Kids
00:00:11
Speaker
Zach Erickson is his name.
00:00:13
Speaker
He gave some advice to minority kids who were growing up in a not-so-diverse place like he did, and how he handled some of the things that came his way.
00:00:23
Speaker
He talked about the importance of helping young people
00:00:27
Speaker
make the transition from high school to college and some things we could do in high school to help them be ready for that transition.
Uplifting Others through Athletics
00:00:34
Speaker
And he also talked about using your position as an athlete to help and lift other people and so much more.
00:00:40
Speaker
It was an incredible discussion.
00:00:42
Speaker
We hope you enjoy it.
00:00:44
Speaker
Welcome to the Sportlight Podcast for parents, coaches, and athletes.
00:00:47
Speaker
The Sportlight refers to the time in an athlete's life when they have increased ability to affect the culture around them and the increased opportunity to learn life's lessons through sports.
00:00:57
Speaker
This podcast aims to help parents and coaches capitalize on their athletes' precious time in the Sportlight.
Coach Erickson's Background and Career
00:01:03
Speaker
The Sportlight Podcast is brought to you by Especially for Athletes program.
00:01:09
Speaker
Hello everybody, welcome to the Sportlight Podcast.
00:01:12
Speaker
I'm Dustin, I'm here with Shad Martin and Coach Zach Erickson, who's our guest today on this episode.
00:01:18
Speaker
Coach Erickson is currently the head coach at Snow College, a junior college down in Ephraim, Utah.
00:01:24
Speaker
One of the top football programs has been for many years in the country.
00:01:28
Speaker
And Zach's been a long friend of especially for athletes.
00:01:31
Speaker
We're excited to have you on, Coach.
00:01:34
Speaker
Oh, hey, thanks, guys.
00:01:35
Speaker
Really excited to be here today.
00:01:37
Speaker
Really excited to be able to visit with you guys about E4A and all the things that we'll talk about today.
Growing Up as a Minority in Utah
00:01:44
Speaker
Something that I really love is I've gotten to know your program and you guys.
00:01:49
Speaker
So I'm really excited to be able to talk to you guys today.
00:01:53
Speaker
It was probably, I don't know, Zach, five, six years or so ago that I
00:01:59
Speaker
you, you brought our program into the high school that you were the athletic director at at the time at skyline high school, also coaching there.
00:02:07
Speaker
I can't remember.
00:02:07
Speaker
I think you and I knew each other before that through football.
00:02:11
Speaker
I know we'd coached at a lot of camps together and you've helped me at a lot of my quarterback elite events, but I can't remember if it, I know for a fact it through, especially for athletes, I've really gotten to know you.
00:02:23
Speaker
Um,
00:02:24
Speaker
And you've gotten to know Shad and your daughter is currently at Snow College.
00:02:29
Speaker
Or sorry, Shad's daughter is currently at Snow College performing and dancing down there.
00:02:34
Speaker
And she does a lot of halftime performances and things when you're in the locker room yelling at your guys.
00:02:39
Speaker
So for us, it's fun to have you on, man, because you've kind of seen, especially for athletes, grow.
00:02:45
Speaker
And we've seen you grow from a
00:02:48
Speaker
high school coach to now the head football coach at one of the top junior colleges in the country.
00:02:52
Speaker
And your wife, who is currently the head coach for the Utah Valley University golf team, we've watched her grow as well.
00:03:00
Speaker
And so this will be a fun conversation.
00:03:04
Speaker
And I know there's a lot of things we want to dive into, not just from a coaching standpoint, your position as a head college coach and some advice and tips for parents and kids, but
00:03:15
Speaker
there's some personal things that you have some experience with that not many of our guests have experiences with.
00:03:22
Speaker
And I want to kind of start by diving right into that, if that's okay.
00:03:27
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely.
00:03:29
Speaker
So Zach, we, we spoke about this a week or so ago in depth for several hours.
00:03:37
Speaker
It was a real interesting conversation for me with you.
00:03:41
Speaker
Cause I,
00:03:43
Speaker
if you remember, we were driving together for four or five hours, and I asked you a question that I've never asked because, one, I haven't had the opportunity.
00:03:53
Speaker
Two, I was sensitive on how to ask it, and that being that you're African-American.
00:04:00
Speaker
I'm not, and I straight out asked you a question.
00:04:07
Speaker
You know, what was that like, and do you see prejudice, and do you
00:04:12
Speaker
Growing up in Utah, what are the things that we can do better?
00:04:18
Speaker
I kind of tiptoed around that topic a little bit with you, and then we dove right into it.
00:04:23
Speaker
You had some really cool things to say.
00:04:25
Speaker
Tell us a little bit about your story, and then Shad and I want to fire off a couple questions to you about race and prejudice and things that we all need to be better at.
Overcoming Racism and Building Self-Confidence
00:04:38
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely.
00:04:39
Speaker
So,
00:04:40
Speaker
I think my story starts all the way back at the beginning.
00:04:44
Speaker
You know, I come from, you know, my mom grew up, well, she grew up in California and in Utah, went to high school there at Spanish Fork High School, and then went off to College of Eastern Utah to play softball and volleyball.
00:04:59
Speaker
And while she was there, got pregnant with me and decided she was going to give me up for adoption.
00:05:06
Speaker
And so went through that whole process.
00:05:10
Speaker
Here comes November 19th, the day I was born.
00:05:13
Speaker
The doctors take me away, take me out of the room immediately.
00:05:16
Speaker
And I guess back in the early 80s at that point in Utah, the birth mothers had 48 hours to change their mind.
00:05:23
Speaker
And in about hour 46, my mom said she just had this overwhelming feeling that no matter what was going to happen in the future,
00:05:35
Speaker
And whatever came with keeping her son, she was willing to deal with.
00:05:40
Speaker
So she grabbed the nurse and said, go get my son.
00:05:44
Speaker
I don't think I can do this.
00:05:46
Speaker
And so off we came back to Spanish Fork, 19-year-old.
00:05:51
Speaker
White LDS girl bringing home a black baby out of wedlock.
00:05:56
Speaker
And so I think you have to go all the way back to that point in time to really kind of understand my story and how it went from there.
00:06:04
Speaker
Beginning in that hour, 46th.
00:06:08
Speaker
A lot of things have gone my way since my mom decided to keep me.
00:06:13
Speaker
Yeah.
00:06:15
Speaker
By, you know, the family that I was raised in, my grandparents, her parents that initially were really upset about what had happened.
00:06:24
Speaker
But the second I got to their home, I felt nothing but love.
00:06:29
Speaker
And then my mom being fortunate enough to find the man that I call my dad, my
00:06:36
Speaker
She was able to meet and marry my dad, Dave Erickson.
00:06:39
Speaker
They got married when I was 10 months old and I was adopted by him a few years later.
00:06:46
Speaker
And so I've always had a full family.
00:06:49
Speaker
I've always had a mom and a dad.
00:06:50
Speaker
And, you know, and when you kind of look back and think about that and sometimes sometimes I forget what.
00:06:58
Speaker
courage and what faith that that must have taken for my dad to, you know, get married to a woman that already had a child, but not only a child, but a black child in the early 80s in Utah.
00:07:12
Speaker
Right.
00:07:13
Speaker
We all know that was probably, you know, not what everybody would consider.
00:07:19
Speaker
OK, at the time.
00:07:20
Speaker
Yeah.
00:07:21
Speaker
Yeah.
00:07:22
Speaker
And so so from there, again, I just got lucky and things have really gone my way.
00:07:28
Speaker
Blessed to have a great family.
00:07:29
Speaker
I've got four siblings that my parents had after me and I've spent most of my life in Utah.
00:07:36
Speaker
I'm 38 right now.
00:07:38
Speaker
And I think of I think I've spent 28, maybe 27 of those years living in Utah.
00:07:45
Speaker
Yeah.
00:07:46
Speaker
Um, I, you know, I grew up in Utah.
00:07:49
Speaker
Uh, I went to Springville high school, spent a little time at Lone Peak high school, went to Brookside elementary in Springville, Utah.
00:07:56
Speaker
And so, uh, I really, the bulk of my growing up took place here in Utah and kind of per our conversation, Dustin, it was, you know, something, another kind of conversation kind of, I think turned us into that.
00:08:12
Speaker
And, um,
00:08:15
Speaker
It was two very different portrayals, I guess, if you will.
00:08:21
Speaker
You know, we had someone suggesting that our football staff didn't know what it was like to grow up.
00:08:29
Speaker
being black in Utah.
00:08:32
Speaker
And I shook my head like, excuse me?
00:08:36
Speaker
No, I'm pretty sure I do know.
00:08:38
Speaker
And like I told you, for me, I thought it was great.
00:08:43
Speaker
I absolutely thought it was great.
00:08:45
Speaker
I thought it always was something that I was proud of and something that my family was proud of.
00:08:53
Speaker
And that doesn't mean that there weren't
00:08:55
Speaker
instances where I saw racism or instances where I felt that because of the color of my skin, I was being treated maybe differently, unfairly at times.
00:09:08
Speaker
But I think because of the way that I was raised in the home that I grew up in, I was very fortunate enough to not really let that affect my
00:09:19
Speaker
Number one, my view of myself or other people's view of me really affect who I was and what I wanted to do and what I wanted to accomplish.
00:09:29
Speaker
I knew that if I was a good person and I was doing the things that I knew my parents had raised me to do and the principles that they had instilled in me, I knew that it didn't really matter.
00:09:38
Speaker
And ultimately, things would work out in my favor.
00:09:41
Speaker
A couple of little things that I remember very vividly growing up that had to do with my race.
00:09:47
Speaker
I'm 10 years older than my youngest sister.
00:09:51
Speaker
And when she was about seven, so I'm 17, this is probably my junior or senior year in high school, she came home one day and she asked us all, we're probably at the dinner table or in the living room.
00:10:02
Speaker
She said, mom, how come Zach is black?
00:10:07
Speaker
And it was a really...
00:10:09
Speaker
interesting moment.
00:10:12
Speaker
I was like, oh, how's my mom going to answer this to my seven-year-old sister?
00:10:16
Speaker
And I think that was, she might have been the only one that I know of that really distinguished the difference.
00:10:24
Speaker
Like,
00:10:25
Speaker
Zach is different.
00:10:28
Speaker
Yeah, he's my brother, but there's something different about him than there is the four of us.
00:10:33
Speaker
And so I very well remember that instance.
00:10:37
Speaker
And whether her friends pointed it out to her, whether someone asked her, whether she just noticed that.
00:10:45
Speaker
And then the other time was I'm a ninth grader.
00:10:48
Speaker
My little brother was an eighth grader.
00:10:50
Speaker
And we were at the Pony baseball fields there in Springville, right behind the football field.
00:10:55
Speaker
And my brother was playing.
00:10:58
Speaker
They were just warming up for a baseball game and playing catch with one of his friends.
00:11:03
Speaker
And a couple of kids came by and started kind of messing with my brother.
00:11:08
Speaker
And as they were kind of, you know, talking back and forth,
00:11:12
Speaker
They said to him, well, you're the one that has the N word for a brother.
00:11:18
Speaker
And I'll never forget my brother running over to me.
00:11:24
Speaker
I get really emotional when I think about this.
00:11:30
Speaker
I remember my brother running over to me and telling me that.
00:11:35
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:40
Speaker
for the first time he had experienced that and wanted to know what he should do.
00:11:46
Speaker
He said, should I go beat him up?
00:11:48
Speaker
And I said, no, I said, that's not what you want to do.
00:11:52
Speaker
I said, we'll just leave.
00:11:53
Speaker
We'll go home.
00:11:55
Speaker
And as we, as we got to walk home, uh, we just, I remember holding hands and, uh,
00:12:08
Speaker
Saying to him, hey,
Challenges in College Sports for Freshmen
00:12:10
Speaker
we don't worry about what other people think.
00:12:14
Speaker
And I was more upset for him than I was for myself.
00:12:20
Speaker
Because like I said...
00:12:22
Speaker
I didn't really let those type of things bother me because, again, my parents had taught me that it didn't really matter.
00:12:35
Speaker
But to see the way that that really affected my brother in that moment, I think that bothered me more than what the kids actually said.
00:12:46
Speaker
And so, sorry, I didn't even know that that was going to hit me like that.
00:12:51
Speaker
But, you know, outside of those couple of instances, things were always good until college.
00:12:58
Speaker
Right.
00:12:59
Speaker
And then now you get.
00:13:02
Speaker
Pulled over.
00:13:03
Speaker
You get questioned for some things on I-15 in Provo.
00:13:06
Speaker
You know, my dad did very well.
00:13:09
Speaker
So, you know, he made some deals with me.
00:13:12
Speaker
So I drove a nice car towards the end of high school.
00:13:16
Speaker
And I felt like I got pulled over quite a bit more often than maybe some other people might have.
00:13:22
Speaker
Nothing ever came of it.
00:13:24
Speaker
They always ask me, is this your car?
00:13:25
Speaker
I said, yes, this is my car.
00:13:27
Speaker
And I'd show them the registration and, you know, match my driver's license and all of these things.
00:13:33
Speaker
But I never really felt that personally I had any negative lasting experiences growing up here.
00:13:43
Speaker
I thought it always, in some cases, works to my advantage.
00:13:47
Speaker
You know, I got to I got a lot of dates, I think, maybe because of it.
00:13:53
Speaker
I don't know.
00:13:54
Speaker
You know, it was it was always something that I really took.
00:14:00
Speaker
I think I took some responsibility to maybe allowing for myself to represent myself.
00:14:08
Speaker
you know, my race, my family in a positive light.
00:14:11
Speaker
And, uh, and so I tried to always do those things, man.
00:14:14
Speaker
That was really long answer and, and kind of emotional answer too.
00:14:17
Speaker
I didn't, I didn't.
00:14:20
Speaker
The reason you got the dates was because of the car you were driving.
00:14:23
Speaker
Come on.
00:14:24
Speaker
That might be true.
00:14:25
Speaker
That might be true.
00:14:26
Speaker
They did like that car as well.
00:14:29
Speaker
You stopped thinking it was good.
00:14:30
Speaker
You were just a handsome black guy.
00:14:32
Speaker
It's because of the car you were driving.
00:14:34
Speaker
You might be right.
00:14:35
Speaker
You might be right.
00:14:37
Speaker
You know, Zach, that brought up a question, and that is we do have opportunities to speak to a lot of athletes, and some of them are –
00:14:47
Speaker
from minority groups and you seem to handle it so well as you reflect back on that.
00:14:54
Speaker
If you were just, I know you've covered this a little bit, but maybe not every one of them has the family backing that you had and
00:15:03
Speaker
What are some of the things that you think helped you deal with growing up a minority in Utah?
00:15:11
Speaker
When those little blips on the screen happened, what principles did you return to that helped you deal with that that might help the minority athletes that we work with deal with what they'll have to face?
00:15:23
Speaker
Yeah.
00:15:24
Speaker
I think initially I go back to self-confidence and self-belief and then how I got to that.
00:15:35
Speaker
It's interesting.
00:15:35
Speaker
I kind of similarly had a small conversation with my daughter just last night, similarly about self-confidence and how you get that and how you...
00:15:47
Speaker
we were talking about fear and all these things because she's a gymnast.
00:15:50
Speaker
And we were saying that if, if you're prepared, then you won't fear.
00:15:54
Speaker
And I think that kind of goes into kind of the same thing where a lot of my self-confidence came from the, the things
Parenting for Independence and Support
00:16:05
Speaker
that I did leading up to whatever it was going to be.
00:16:08
Speaker
Right.
00:16:09
Speaker
I, and again, I,
00:16:11
Speaker
This probably came from my parents, but it doesn't have to.
00:16:15
Speaker
You know, I was never allowed to miss a practice or miss a workout or, you know, I worked really hard to maintain a 3.5 GPA, which I didn't always do, but that was my goal.
00:16:28
Speaker
That didn't come from anybody else.
00:16:30
Speaker
I always wanted to be a good teammate.
00:16:32
Speaker
I did not want, you know, I was fortunate enough that most of the time I was the best player on all the teams that I played on.
00:16:39
Speaker
And I knew that, but I wanted to make sure that I was a good teammate that allowed my other teammates to...
00:16:49
Speaker
be able to enjoy the success that we all were going to have, right?
00:16:52
Speaker
Because I couldn't have done what I was doing without the other guys on my team.
00:16:57
Speaker
And so, you know, I wanted to work hard.
00:17:00
Speaker
I wanted to make sure that I didn't miss things, right?
00:17:05
Speaker
I didn't miss practice, didn't miss games, didn't miss workouts.
00:17:09
Speaker
And then I really wanted to be a good teammate.
00:17:11
Speaker
And I think because of all those things, that allowed me to have the self-confidence in myself
00:17:16
Speaker
to be able to kind of shut out all of those things.
00:17:20
Speaker
You know, I, one, one other quick thing that I won't name the high school, my junior year in high school in a basketball game, we were at an away game and the opposing crowd started chanting Oreo every time I got to football or excuse me, the basketball.
00:17:36
Speaker
And it was really funny because this was another instance where this really bothered my teammates and
00:17:41
Speaker
But if you go back, and I would love to find this video somewhere, because I had one of the best games of my high school basketball career, because for me, I almost allowed that to...
00:17:54
Speaker
fuel me to want to be better on, you know, out there on the court.
00:17:59
Speaker
And, and I guarantee that there's probably pictures or video somewhere of me just with the biggest smirk on my face, every time they would start chanting and every time I would hit a three or every time I'd go dunk the basketball.
00:18:13
Speaker
And yes, Dustin, I could dunk a basketball back then.
00:18:16
Speaker
And, and you know, those things, it really just fueled me to, to be better because I think of the self-confidence I had,
00:18:24
Speaker
and the things that I did to be able to build up that self-confidence in those moments.
00:18:30
Speaker
That's great.
00:18:31
Speaker
That's awesome, man.
00:18:33
Speaker
You have a kid come in right now.
00:18:35
Speaker
He's a freshman.
00:18:37
Speaker
You've recruited him.
00:18:38
Speaker
He gets in there and he's got to handle the workload now of being away from home, being a college athlete, having to go to school, more intense weight room, more intense practice.
00:18:54
Speaker
He's got to take care of his own laundry and his own food and everything.
00:18:58
Speaker
So he's, he's, he's gotta be a big boy now.
00:19:03
Speaker
What do you see, or do you have conversations with your players?
00:19:07
Speaker
How do you help them understand how to be effective with their time?
00:19:12
Speaker
We have a principle and especially for athletes that, as you know, win the hour, I guess this question kind of touches on when the hour and maybe a little bit of resiliency.
00:19:23
Speaker
being away from home and having to kind of adjust and bounce back from some difficulties.
00:19:29
Speaker
Do you see that hard for kids and what do you do to help them?
00:19:34
Speaker
Yeah, I think that that is something that this generation of kids actually really have a hard time with.
00:19:40
Speaker
I would say 90% of the freshmen that we get really struggle in this facet, in this area.
00:19:49
Speaker
Um,
00:19:50
Speaker
You know, we still have we still have those great kids that show up and are going to make straight A's and they're going to be early to every workout.
00:19:58
Speaker
And they really understand what it's going to take.
00:20:02
Speaker
And they succeed in pretty much everything they do.
00:20:05
Speaker
But I think a lot of the kids that we get struggle, they really struggle with this concept of.
00:20:12
Speaker
You know, you guys would call it win the day.
00:20:14
Speaker
We, you know, you could throw in time management into that.
00:20:18
Speaker
You could throw in resiliency into that.
00:20:19
Speaker
You could throw in priorities into that.
00:20:24
Speaker
You know, they get down here and suddenly they think, oh, I can just play Call of Duty or 2K all day, every day, and no one's going to stop me.
00:20:34
Speaker
And they'll do that until here they are a month, six weeks into the semester.
00:20:40
Speaker
They've got all F's.
00:20:41
Speaker
We're not letting them practice.
00:20:43
Speaker
They're doing extra workouts because their grades aren't in.
00:20:46
Speaker
Now they've got to be in study hall six hours a week.
00:20:49
Speaker
So what we've tried to do to combat that is, you know, at the beginning of every semester in our team meetings, we try to identify the guys that we think are high risk guys.
00:20:57
Speaker
We break them up into groups, color coded groups.
00:21:00
Speaker
And then we each group gets.
00:21:04
Speaker
different things, right, with what we think they need.
00:21:07
Speaker
So like our red group, they will have a meeting with myself as an entire group, myself, our academic advisor, and one of her assistants.
00:21:19
Speaker
And we try to outline for them
00:21:22
Speaker
Here's what your day should look like as a college athlete, as a high level college athlete.
00:21:28
Speaker
Right.
00:21:29
Speaker
Probably you're waking up at six o'clock in the morning to be at your early morning lifts.
00:21:34
Speaker
From there, you should go straight to breakfast.
00:21:35
Speaker
You need to eat.
00:21:36
Speaker
You need to fuel your body from there.
00:21:38
Speaker
You're going to be in class for the next four, three to four hours.
00:21:42
Speaker
Then you are back in the building for practice or for meetings at two o'clock or treatment in the training room.
00:21:50
Speaker
Make sure you get back for treatment before meetings.
00:21:53
Speaker
Then after that, you know, make sure you have dinner plans and then you're going to be in.
00:21:59
Speaker
depending on what group you're in, your two-hour study hall.
00:22:02
Speaker
And by that time, it's nine o'clock at night.
00:22:05
Speaker
And really, you should go try to get your eight hours of sleep to be able to do it all over again.
00:22:10
Speaker
And a lot of times we tell them, there's going to be things that you're going to have to give up if you want to perform yourself.
00:22:20
Speaker
Athletically, academically and even socially.
00:22:23
Speaker
Right.
00:22:23
Speaker
We're not telling you you can't have a social life, but you have to understand what's going to take priority in that.
00:22:30
Speaker
And as you make those decisions, you will see the benefits or the repercussions of your choices.
00:22:39
Speaker
And so we really try to set them up for success initially.
00:22:43
Speaker
Ultimately, they have to make those choices, right?
00:22:45
Speaker
We can't hold their hands 24-7.
00:22:47
Speaker
We wish we could.
00:22:49
Speaker
We just don't have those resources down here.
00:22:52
Speaker
But I think once the light comes on, and usually it takes these guys about a semester, the light will come on most of the time and they'll understand, oh, hey, what coach or what Mrs. Shopey was saying is exactly right.
00:23:08
Speaker
And if I do those things, then I can be successful.
00:23:11
Speaker
And guess what?
00:23:12
Speaker
By Friday afternoon,
00:23:14
Speaker
I can go out and hang out with my friends on Friday and Saturday because I've taken care of my business all week.
00:23:19
Speaker
If not, you spend all day Saturday, all day Sunday trying to catch up and that's not fun.
00:23:26
Speaker
You know, there's something in there, Dustin and Zach, that while our young people are with us in high school, we have to be very careful that we're not holding their hand too much, that we're not allowing them to develop the muscles necessary that when they get on their own,
00:23:45
Speaker
that they know how to do things.
00:23:46
Speaker
And sometimes parents, when we're too quick to bail out or to, okay, let's sit down and do all this homework together.
00:23:53
Speaker
Okay, let's do this.
00:23:54
Speaker
I'll call your teacher.
00:23:56
Speaker
When we do too much, and then all of a sudden they find themselves on their own in college with all of this freedom, there's definitely a balance there.
00:24:05
Speaker
We need to set up scaffolding and help them through high school.
00:24:09
Speaker
But
00:24:10
Speaker
I've seen it with some young people I know that their parents were too involved in helping them give the appearance of success
00:24:20
Speaker
So they have opportunities in college, but then that leads to failure in college initially or struggle at least because of the fact that they have never learned how to deal with the, like that temptation to play Call of Duty all day because they've had someone there telling them, no, you can't do this.
00:24:41
Speaker
No, you can't do that.
00:24:42
Speaker
And I think it's important for us to let our kids struggle sometimes, you know, to get a 3.3%
00:24:49
Speaker
GPA that they had to work things out and get a 3.3 GPA is better for a kid, in my experience, than getting a 3.9 GPA and everyone thinking they're a great student when their parents have done so much.
00:25:02
Speaker
And then all of a sudden they arrive in college and they don't have any of the skills.
00:25:06
Speaker
that are necessary to manage that.
00:25:08
Speaker
And so I think the things you're talking about right now would be wise for parents to hear and to say, okay, let's start doing this when they're a sophomore, junior, senior in high school, instead of depending on a football coach to teach them all these things with the 130 kids that he has responsibility for.
00:25:27
Speaker
I only have three kids.
00:25:28
Speaker
You know, I could take responsibility for that.
00:25:31
Speaker
Yeah.
00:25:33
Speaker
Well, I throw something out of both of you then because I can hear a parent listening to this having the thought, well, on the one hand, I'm told I'm supposed to be, and by the way, I don't know the answer to this.
00:25:48
Speaker
That's why I'm asking you.
00:25:50
Speaker
On the one hand, I'm supposed to be involved and engaged and doing things with my kids and helping them and
00:25:59
Speaker
I want to spend time with them.
00:26:01
Speaker
I'm told I'm supposed to spend time with them.
00:26:03
Speaker
I need to put my phone down and my job away and be present.
00:26:09
Speaker
So if I go and I help my, if I get involved in helping my son or daughter do something and I'm helping them with it.
00:26:18
Speaker
So where's the, my point is, where's the, like, where do you think that line is from being hands-on and involved and I'm helping my kid?
00:26:25
Speaker
Cause I, I want to be a good dad or mom.
00:26:28
Speaker
And
00:26:29
Speaker
I'm coddling and overprotecting and like you said, Chad, not allowing them to develop the muscles they need to to be strong when I'm not around.
00:26:40
Speaker
So I'm curious to hear your guys like Zach and Chad, what you do for a living is you help mentor a lot of parents.
00:26:50
Speaker
But this exact question, I'm sure, you know, what are your thoughts on that?
00:26:55
Speaker
I think, Zach, I'll take a shot at this because Zach already said it.
00:26:59
Speaker
That moment he had with his gymnast daughter.
00:27:02
Speaker
Yeah.
00:27:03
Speaker
I think if parents will view their role as teachers and motivators instead of doing it for the kids.
00:27:15
Speaker
And so, for example, I mean, something as simple as laundry.
00:27:20
Speaker
you know, hey, I want to help you start getting ready to go to college.
00:27:23
Speaker
So let's learn to do your laundry.
00:27:25
Speaker
I've done it for you for a while, but I want to show you so you don't ruin every item of clothing that you have on your first time washing laundry.
00:27:34
Speaker
And so something, I mean, I'm using that as a simple example, right?
00:27:39
Speaker
Let me show you how to do your laundry.
00:27:40
Speaker
You're going to do it for this next couple of years so you know how to do it.
00:27:44
Speaker
The other thing is like Zach talked about sitting down with
00:27:49
Speaker
with the academic advisor and saying, let's talk about a schedule.
00:27:55
Speaker
I wanna teach you about how to plan your day so that you're more intentional so that you happen to life instead of letting life happen to you.
00:28:05
Speaker
And so I think if we view our role more as teaching skills and helping them develop capacity rather than bailing out and doing for them, I think that's where I think in the role of teacher is where we could we could help them with that.
00:28:25
Speaker
Yeah, I like a lot what you said, Shad, and I agree with you wholeheartedly.
00:28:30
Speaker
And it's funny because I think.
00:28:34
Speaker
Because of what Julie and I do for a living, we get to see both ends of the spectrum, right?
00:28:40
Speaker
We are with college athletes all day, every day.
00:28:43
Speaker
And then we go home to our eight, nine and 11 year old who aspire to be college athletes.
00:28:49
Speaker
And we again, my same conversation last night with my daughter, she says, I
00:28:57
Speaker
do you know how hard it is to have two parents who are both head college coaches?
00:29:02
Speaker
And she says, there's a lot of pressure with that.
00:29:05
Speaker
And as we were talking about that, and I do this kind of with my boys too, we want to,
00:29:12
Speaker
do exactly what you said, Chad.
00:29:13
Speaker
We want to teach them how not to do it for them.
00:29:18
Speaker
We want it as simple as you use laundry.
00:29:21
Speaker
For me, my eight-year-old has finally figured out how to tie his shoes, right?
00:29:24
Speaker
He wanted us to do that for him so badly.
00:29:28
Speaker
And my wife, bless her, I love her.
00:29:32
Speaker
She kept buying him slip-on shoes.
00:29:33
Speaker
And I'm like, he's got to learn to tie his shoes at some point.
00:29:36
Speaker
So let's buy him shoes that he has to tie.
00:29:39
Speaker
And, you know, you spend that time and you teach them how to do that.
00:29:42
Speaker
And then they do that.
00:29:43
Speaker
And, you know, it's with anything.
00:29:45
Speaker
You know, our kids, my boys golf.
00:29:48
Speaker
They play basketball.
00:29:48
Speaker
They play baseball.
00:29:49
Speaker
They play football.
00:29:51
Speaker
I want to show them how to do certain things.
00:29:54
Speaker
And then I'm going to get out of the way.
00:29:55
Speaker
It's the same thing with their schoolwork.
00:29:56
Speaker
They come home.
00:29:57
Speaker
And if I can help them, I want to, you know, I'll work through it with them.
00:30:03
Speaker
And then I want to get out of the way and say, okay, now you do this.
00:30:06
Speaker
You're going to mess up and that's okay.
00:30:08
Speaker
We'll come back and we'll fix it.
00:30:09
Speaker
And we'll try to keep practicing until you can get it.
00:30:13
Speaker
And I think, Dustin, to your point, trying to figure out where that line is.
00:30:18
Speaker
I struggle a lot with the whole putting my phone down and being present when I'm with my kids.
00:30:24
Speaker
And my wife sent me something the other day that was like a poem talking about a girl that's a gymnast.
00:30:32
Speaker
It was kind of funny because that's what we deal with.
00:30:35
Speaker
The dad was sitting at her practice and all the parents were sitting there on their phone.
00:30:41
Speaker
And nobody was watching the girls practice.
00:30:43
Speaker
And so he noticed and he goes, I'll put my phone away.
00:30:46
Speaker
And as he's watching his daughter practice, he said he noticed that every couple of minutes or so his daughter would look over and
00:30:55
Speaker
Just make eye contact with him to see if he was watching.
00:30:59
Speaker
So then he said, I started looking around at the other kids and they were all doing the same thing, but none of their kids, none of their parents were looking at them.
00:31:09
Speaker
And he said, that was the most powerful thing that had ever happened to him.
00:31:12
Speaker
Because it taught him maybe that's what she needs.
00:31:17
Speaker
She just needs to know that I'm there and that I am present and that we can make eye contact, that I'm not buried in my phone.
00:31:25
Speaker
And so maybe that is part of it, just being there and allowing them to...
00:31:32
Speaker
fail because they're going to fail.
00:31:33
Speaker
Right.
00:31:35
Speaker
And I think we learn a lot about ourselves through our failures.
Impact of Parental Reactions during Sports
00:31:39
Speaker
And my wife said, you don't fail until you stop trying.
00:31:43
Speaker
Right.
00:31:44
Speaker
You're just learning.
00:31:45
Speaker
It's a learning experience.
00:31:47
Speaker
You're not you're not a failure.
00:31:49
Speaker
If you know our daughter right now is trying to throw her fly away off the uneven bars, you're not failing.
00:31:55
Speaker
you're learning, you're learning, you're learning, and then you'll get it.
00:31:58
Speaker
Um, and I think that's kind of where you can find that happy medium is, is don't do it for them.
00:32:03
Speaker
Uh, allow them to do it, allow them to learn and grow, um, until they get it.
00:32:08
Speaker
Well, and I want to say one thing to that, because that, that story you just told Zach, um, any of those people listening to this, that follow us on Instagram, we actually shared that story.
00:32:20
Speaker
Um, the guy that talked and he shares that story of that, that,
00:32:25
Speaker
the his gymnast daughter on our Instagram page.
00:32:28
Speaker
But, you know, I know from coaching and I think I, I think I remember this vaguely as a player as well.
00:32:34
Speaker
However, my parents were always, they always were great when it came to this, but I've noticed it as a coach that kids will turn and look at their parents.
00:32:45
Speaker
And so, you know, one of maybe three things are going to happen.
00:32:49
Speaker
You're going to have, you know, they miss a free throw or they, you know,
00:32:52
Speaker
They strike out and they go in the dugout.
00:32:54
Speaker
And, you know, once they kind of settle down, they peek over at dad.
00:32:58
Speaker
If they see dad on his phone, there's the one, you know, they wonder if he even saw what happened.
00:33:03
Speaker
That's the scenario you just discussed.
00:33:05
Speaker
And it's discussed in that video scenario two is they're looking at you or they're taught that you can see them and they're disgusted.
00:33:13
Speaker
They've got that negative ashamed reaction.
00:33:16
Speaker
I can't believe my son just struck out or he just missed that free throw.
00:33:20
Speaker
And that's,
00:33:22
Speaker
really selfish, I think on the part of the dad, because I think he's more embarrassed in most cases for himself because he wanted to have that.
00:33:31
Speaker
I hope, I hope I'm wrong here.
00:33:32
Speaker
I hope that it's not dang it.
00:33:34
Speaker
I can't have my moment right now where my son made the big shot or my son hit the home run and I was going to have my moment.
00:33:41
Speaker
And now he's disappointed that he didn't get it.
00:33:43
Speaker
I hope that the disappointment would be that I'm sad for my son, but if that's the case,
00:33:51
Speaker
The third one is how our reaction needs to be.
00:33:53
Speaker
And that is we need to keep the negative reaction in whatever it is for whatever reason, whether we're disappointed for him or disappointed because we didn't get to have our moment with our son being the star and make sure that we know our child are going to turn and look at it.
00:34:10
Speaker
Our children are going to turn and look at us and have some sort of
00:34:15
Speaker
you know, a positive, a smile, you can do it, a thumbs up, it's okay.
00:34:20
Speaker
You know, that body language, they can't hear us, but that body language that we're giving back of, Hey, it's all right.
00:34:25
Speaker
Shake it off.
00:34:26
Speaker
You're good.
00:34:26
Speaker
You know, something that tells them that they're okay.
00:34:30
Speaker
If they are that kind of child who's constantly looking over to see if mom or dad, first of all, that could be unhealthy.
00:34:39
Speaker
You know, we probably need to talk about why do you keep looking at me for approval?
00:34:43
Speaker
You know, worry about the game.
00:34:44
Speaker
Don't worry about what I think.
00:34:45
Speaker
I don't, I'm proud of you no matter what.
00:34:47
Speaker
Shad and I talk about this all the time.
00:34:48
Speaker
It's the process, not the reward that we should be interested in in parents.
00:34:53
Speaker
I'm proud that you got in the box and you took a shot at it.
00:34:57
Speaker
What I'm not happy about is that you're thinking about it five minutes later, forget about it and move on, get back to work, right?
00:35:03
Speaker
But if we have children who are looking at us constantly for feedback, we have to be aware that
00:35:10
Speaker
If we're sitting on our phone, not paying attention, we show that we're apathetic to what they just did.
00:35:15
Speaker
If they turn around and look at us and we're negative and we were giving them a dirty look or something like, what do you, how did you do that?
00:35:22
Speaker
Or I told you to not do that or whatever.
00:35:24
Speaker
We're tearing them down.
00:35:25
Speaker
You know, that, that's, that might, that's worse than the striking out was that dad is upset at me now and I'm going to get in the car and
00:35:33
Speaker
dad's going to tell me why, why do we do all that practice?
00:35:36
Speaker
And why do I spend all this, you know, and you know, better than that.
00:35:39
Speaker
We've worked on that.
00:35:40
Speaker
That's does no good.
00:35:42
Speaker
The third one is the one I think we as parents have to be.
00:35:45
Speaker
And Chad, going back to the word that you said earlier, we talk about a lot, intentional, intentional parenting is going into those games, knowing at some point during this game, my son or daughter are going to turn and look at me for some sort of,
00:36:00
Speaker
you know, approval or just to see that I'm there.
00:36:05
Speaker
What image am I going to portray?
00:36:07
Speaker
And how's my body portraying that image?
00:36:09
Speaker
Because it's going to be mostly through our body language.
00:36:12
Speaker
And that can help our child move on from that or sink them even deeper into the, oh man, I'm struggling.
00:36:18
Speaker
I suck.
00:36:19
Speaker
I'm going to hear it from mom and dad later.
00:36:21
Speaker
And then they can compound on their problems later.
Social Media and Team Success
00:36:26
Speaker
That's great, Austin.
00:36:27
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:36:28
Speaker
I love those three things.
00:36:29
Speaker
It makes me think.
00:36:30
Speaker
I have had times where I know I've shown disappointment.
00:36:34
Speaker
Even in my own case, I think most of the time it's I want so badly for my kid to be successful.
00:36:41
Speaker
You know what I'm saying?
00:36:42
Speaker
And I'm disappointed for them.
00:36:44
Speaker
But that word that we love, intentional, if I'm thinking about it, knowing, hey, when they look at me, it's just...
00:36:52
Speaker
It's okay.
00:36:54
Speaker
Give them a fist pump and encouraging, like, you got this.
00:36:58
Speaker
You don't have to be the... What that does to a kid's heart, which I know I've done, that look of disgust or disappointment,
00:37:11
Speaker
it might not be interpreted by them the way you mean it.
00:37:14
Speaker
It's disappointed for them, but it could be interpreted, they're disappointed in me.
00:37:22
Speaker
And then that adds additional weight onto what they're already feeling, the pressure of the game they're already feeling.
00:37:30
Speaker
And so I love that, Dustin.
00:37:32
Speaker
I always want to be that third guy, and I could be more intentional about that.
00:37:39
Speaker
Zach, I know because of what you do for a living that you're going to, and you know this as well, we've talked about this.
00:37:44
Speaker
There are players on your team.
00:37:46
Speaker
I hope there's not many of them.
00:37:47
Speaker
And I know you've been out recruiting high school guys and looking at high school guys.
00:37:55
Speaker
There are lots of them, unfortunately, more than I think we've had because of social media, who will, they would rather in some cases lose
00:38:07
Speaker
and get good highlight films of themselves to share on social media the next day than win and not have any of the social media highlight picks and video because they've got to be able to go to social media and share, you know, the cool video that everyone's going to look and see and that you as a head coach at Snow might look and see.
00:38:27
Speaker
Is that worry you that you might have players on your team more interested about their film to try to impress the division one coach that they are ultimately wanting to go play for rather than their team?
00:38:40
Speaker
And is that a discussion or something that you have to do?
00:38:43
Speaker
Look for that in kids when you recruit them?
00:38:46
Speaker
Yeah, that is definitely something that we deal with.
00:38:52
Speaker
So much so that it has become one of our hallmarks in our program.
00:38:59
Speaker
We have four hallmarks.
00:39:01
Speaker
Our third hallmark is team.
00:39:03
Speaker
It's not about me.
00:39:03
Speaker
It's about us.
00:39:05
Speaker
And we talk about that a lot because we talk about the success that we all want to have comes from team success.
00:39:12
Speaker
Right.
00:39:12
Speaker
It doesn't matter if if our running back rushes for 250 yards and has three touchdowns.
00:39:19
Speaker
If we lose, it doesn't matter.
00:39:21
Speaker
Right.
00:39:22
Speaker
Same thing, you know, on the other side of the ball, if our defensive end has four sacks and, you know, three TFLs and all of these things, if we end up losing a game, what what did that really do?
00:39:35
Speaker
And I think.
00:39:37
Speaker
I think maybe our guys here at Snow, maybe because we talk about every day, every day our kids recite our hallmarks and we talk about them.
00:39:47
Speaker
And like I said, that that third hallmark is part of it.
00:39:51
Speaker
But I see a lot of in the kids that we recruit.
00:39:55
Speaker
I see a lot of this prior to them getting here to us.
00:40:00
Speaker
A lot of individualized highlight stuff, whether that's like seven on seven stuff or them in the gym or them doing this where it's, hey, look at me, look at me, which some of that's OK.
00:40:14
Speaker
And we need to see some of that stuff.
00:40:17
Speaker
But I feel that kids are getting so excited.
00:40:21
Speaker
they're getting a lot of their validation from their likes and their retweets and all of those things that happen on social media.
00:40:29
Speaker
And, and so bringing that kind of back to what kind of maybe led us to this, if they're getting their validation from their parents or from their coaches, or then maybe that isn't as important to them.
00:40:42
Speaker
Maybe it still will be, but, but I know that, you know, for me, when I was playing, there was no social media and, and I can remember when,
00:40:50
Speaker
getting in the car with my parents after games.
00:40:53
Speaker
And most of the time it was good conversation, right?
00:40:57
Speaker
Whether I played good or whether I played bad.
00:41:00
Speaker
And I was fortunate enough to, you know, my dad never played sports, but my mom did.
00:41:04
Speaker
And so I kind of got both perspectives, right?
00:41:07
Speaker
You know, my mom was usually the one to be able to say, you know, hey, what can you do better, right?
00:41:13
Speaker
Like,
00:41:14
Speaker
If you, you know, if I went over three in a baseball game, she knew and understood that.
00:41:19
Speaker
And she said, hey, how can we fix this?
00:41:21
Speaker
Right.
00:41:21
Speaker
Because you're better than that.
00:41:22
Speaker
And let's fix it.
00:41:24
Speaker
And my dad was, you know, he was always he was just always the encourager.
00:41:28
Speaker
He always he thought I was the best no matter what, probably to his detriment.
00:41:33
Speaker
But, you know.
00:41:35
Speaker
having that encouragement and that positive re you know, affirmation coming from your parents or your coaches, I think maybe, maybe that does help.
00:41:47
Speaker
And, and now the kids don't have to go get it on social media and all these things.
00:41:51
Speaker
Cause I mean, you know, like I even, even our guys they'll on their highlight tapes, the stuff that they're posting via social media, they have friends coming to our games, like just filming them.
00:42:06
Speaker
And so it's not like a game clip.
00:42:08
Speaker
It's like they paid someone to make this highlight tape of just them, of them warming up.
00:42:14
Speaker
Them getting off the bus.
00:42:16
Speaker
I've seen it in high school, like walking into the locker room.
00:42:19
Speaker
Yes.
00:42:20
Speaker
And in warmups and all of these on the side.
00:42:23
Speaker
And it's like, what are we doing, guys?
00:42:26
Speaker
This is not healthy.
00:42:27
Speaker
Not healthy at all.
00:42:29
Speaker
Yeah.
00:42:31
Speaker
That car ride home.
00:42:33
Speaker
Chad, I know a year or so ago, maybe it's in a podcast or maybe it was just in a presentation, but we've used the word sacred.
00:42:42
Speaker
And I think it's appropriate that that car ride home after games to me is a sacred moment.
00:42:48
Speaker
It is a, it is so important.
00:42:51
Speaker
The word said in that five or 10 or 30 minute ride home after a game or practice, but specifically a game, win or lose,
00:43:01
Speaker
the words in the conversation and the way we direct that conversation, those are sacred moments with our kids because we can absolutely ruin a kid in those moments, set them up for, you know, future negative thoughts, um, or really help them.
Quick Fire Questions with Coach Erickson
00:43:18
Speaker
We have to, as parents, really be aware of that.
00:43:21
Speaker
Um,
00:43:22
Speaker
Chad, do you have anything else or should we rapid fire at Zach?
00:43:25
Speaker
I'm sorry if you had a couple other questions you wanted to run by.
00:43:28
Speaker
Oh, this has been awesome.
00:43:29
Speaker
This has been awesome.
00:43:30
Speaker
And I love the rapid fire part.
00:43:33
Speaker
And then at the end, Zach, I'd love just to have you tell us about Snow College and what it offers.
00:43:39
Speaker
And so maybe let's do some rapid fire questions, Dustin.
00:43:44
Speaker
And then we'll end with just asking a few questions about Snow College's football program and other athletic programs.
00:43:50
Speaker
All right, Zach, what we do here is we take a minute or two and we just throw questions out at you.
00:43:55
Speaker
You get about 10, well, five seconds, five to 10 seconds to answer them.
00:44:00
Speaker
And they're going to be all over the map.
00:44:02
Speaker
All right.
00:44:03
Speaker
All right.
00:44:03
Speaker
Sounds good.
00:44:04
Speaker
First thing that comes to mind, keep it PG rated.
00:44:08
Speaker
If you could please, you ready?
00:44:11
Speaker
Ready.
00:44:13
Speaker
Okay, here we go.
00:44:14
Speaker
All right.
00:44:16
Speaker
If I open up your iPod right now or your playlist, what music am I listening to?
00:44:21
Speaker
You're going to get a lot of Texas country or you're going to get a lot of Lin-Manuel Miranda Broadway musicals, In the Heights, Hamilton.
00:44:32
Speaker
Those are the two things that you'd hear today.
00:44:35
Speaker
Okay, that caught me off guard.
00:44:37
Speaker
Good.
00:44:37
Speaker
Awesome.
00:44:38
Speaker
Your most favorite sporting moment was what?
00:44:42
Speaker
Player or coach?
00:44:43
Speaker
You have one that just
Advice and Opportunities for Young Athletes
00:44:44
Speaker
stands out.
00:44:44
Speaker
Your Super Bowl moment as a player or coach was what?
00:44:49
Speaker
My senior year of high school at Springville, we were playing Clearfield High School.
00:44:55
Speaker
They were ranked number two.
00:44:56
Speaker
We went to triple overtime.
00:44:58
Speaker
We went for two and we ran power and I dove over the line and scored the two point conversion and we won.
00:45:05
Speaker
That one has always been maybe because, sorry, this is going to be more intense.
00:45:10
Speaker
That was the first weekend that I had met my biological dad and he was at that game.
00:45:15
Speaker
And so I think maybe that plays into why that one sticks out the way it does.
00:45:20
Speaker
That's cool.
00:45:21
Speaker
You and your wife playing at Augusta, the course the Masters played on.
00:45:27
Speaker
You guys are playing at Augusta.
00:45:29
Speaker
She gives you 12 strokes.
00:45:34
Speaker
Does she still beat you or do you beat her?
00:45:36
Speaker
No, she still beats me.
00:45:39
Speaker
And you played with me.
00:45:40
Speaker
I'm pretty decent.
00:45:41
Speaker
She still beats me.
00:45:42
Speaker
She still beats me.
00:45:44
Speaker
I got one more, Shad.
00:45:46
Speaker
I got a couple more, but Shad, I'll let you fire one or two at them.
00:45:49
Speaker
Last time you went golfing, how did the 18th putting green situation work out for you?
00:45:56
Speaker
Um...
00:45:57
Speaker
I two-putted for par on the 18th hole at TPC in Scottsdale three days ago.
00:46:06
Speaker
Shoot.
00:46:07
Speaker
I was trying to lead you.
00:46:08
Speaker
You know where I was going with that.
00:46:09
Speaker
I know you did.
00:46:10
Speaker
I know.
00:46:11
Speaker
And I'm glad I was able to answer that differently.
00:46:15
Speaker
I thought the last time you played was with me, and I made the 10-footer to get out 18.
00:46:21
Speaker
Dang it.
00:46:22
Speaker
All right.
00:46:24
Speaker
Shoot.
00:46:24
Speaker
Shoot.
00:46:25
Speaker
Thought I had you set up beautifully for that one.
00:46:29
Speaker
That was my warm-up round, Dustin, to go to Stan's deal with my buddies.
00:46:33
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:46:34
Speaker
I got to get your feedback or have you tell me how that went.
00:46:36
Speaker
Chad, you fire a couple at him.
00:46:38
Speaker
Awesome.
00:46:39
Speaker
What advice would you give to a high school kid who wants to take it to the next level and be considered to go on and play in college?
00:46:49
Speaker
Right now, there's a sophomore that's pretty good.
00:46:53
Speaker
What advice, if you could go back and talk to yourself as a sophomore, would you give to a young person to take it to that next level?
00:47:02
Speaker
Do more.
00:47:04
Speaker
Everyone is at workouts.
00:47:06
Speaker
Everyone is at practice.
00:47:09
Speaker
Do more.
00:47:09
Speaker
What are you going to do to separate yourself from everybody else?
00:47:13
Speaker
You're going to get done with that workout thing.
00:47:14
Speaker
Man, I just I did this.
00:47:16
Speaker
But guess what?
00:47:17
Speaker
So did everybody else.
00:47:18
Speaker
What are you going to do that then they won't do?
00:47:23
Speaker
Awesome.
00:47:24
Speaker
Looking back at your time in high school, I know Dustin and I have done this a lot.
00:47:28
Speaker
We wish we could go back and take our 14-year-old selves by the shoulders and say, hey, you don't understand the position you hold as an athlete and how it can help you do better for others.
00:47:38
Speaker
What would you say to that high school kid that would help them realize the impact they could have?
00:47:45
Speaker
I would tell 14, 15 year old Zach to really do what I've heard you guys tell athletes to do.
00:47:53
Speaker
And really that's, you know, getting your eyes up and doing the work and seeing where I could help.
00:48:00
Speaker
Don't be so worried about me and my friend group.
00:48:03
Speaker
We're all going to be fine.
00:48:04
Speaker
But as you walk the halls,
00:48:07
Speaker
who needs, who needs to be lifted up?
00:48:10
Speaker
Uh, who needs to, to have that friendly face smile and say hello?
00:48:16
Speaker
Um, you know, who needs to be included or invited?
00:48:19
Speaker
Uh, I think that's definitely something because I, I still have people say hi to me that I have no idea who they are that I went to high school with.
00:48:28
Speaker
And if 20 years ago, I would have had my eyes up and spoke to them in the hallways or at lunch, uh,
00:48:36
Speaker
Maybe it could have made things better for them if they were having a bad day.
00:48:41
Speaker
That's definitely what I would definitely tell myself or kids that are, you know, starting high school.
00:48:47
Speaker
Be aware and do, even though it may be uncomfortable at first, you'll get used to it and probably end up liking it if you'll do those things.
00:48:56
Speaker
Yeah.
00:48:57
Speaker
You never know who you're helping.
00:48:59
Speaker
Zach, tell us a little bit before we wrap this up.
00:49:03
Speaker
Tell parents listening to this what what they should know about snow college and if they have a son or daughter thinking of going there why it would be a good decision to do so.
00:49:14
Speaker
Yeah.
00:49:15
Speaker
So I think snow is a great place.
00:49:17
Speaker
I think it provides a great opportunity for kids, not just athletically, but academically to to get to where they want to go.
00:49:28
Speaker
Obviously, you look across the board and I think our athletic department in general is one of the top junior college athletic departments in the country.
00:49:38
Speaker
Our teams are competing in national tournaments year in and year out.
00:49:42
Speaker
Our teams are usually ranked in the top 10, if not the top five in the country.
00:49:50
Speaker
Specifically speaking about football, you know, in my three years as the head coach, we've never finished worse than fourth in the country.
00:49:58
Speaker
And, you know, you're going to come down here.
00:50:00
Speaker
It's small town.
00:50:02
Speaker
So there's not a lot of trouble to get into.
00:50:05
Speaker
I mean,
00:50:06
Speaker
You can find trouble if you're looking, but it's probably not going to find you down here.
00:50:11
Speaker
I love being able to talk to parents and say, hey, listen, your kid's going to take that math 1050 class, that college algebra class at Snow College, and there's going to be 20 kids in the class, not 200.
00:50:23
Speaker
And it gives them an opportunity to be a lot more successful.
00:50:28
Speaker
They're going to get to know everyone around campus and get the help and support that they need should they need it.
00:50:34
Speaker
And if you don't need it, you'll be left alone, right?
00:50:36
Speaker
You'll be, hey, we got guys that I've never asked to step foot in a study hall because they're 4.0 guys.
00:50:43
Speaker
They know how to handle their business and they're very successful.
00:50:47
Speaker
And I think speaking to our football program, especially you're going to come here and this is going to be a place that you're going to feel valued.
00:50:54
Speaker
You're going to feel loved as a person, not just as a football player.
00:50:57
Speaker
We want to develop the whole person.
00:51:00
Speaker
We want you to leave Snow College not only as a better football player, but as a better man.
00:51:05
Speaker
to be equipped to be a better husband, a better father, a better just member of society in general than you were when you got here.
00:51:16
Speaker
And we as coaches will love on you hard, but we'll expect –
00:51:22
Speaker
you to do hard things as well.
00:51:24
Speaker
And I think when we establish that relationship and that love for one another, that then we can start demanding some of those things that maybe push you out of your comfort zone.
00:51:35
Speaker
And that allows for our players to maybe feel that it's coming from the right place, right?
00:51:41
Speaker
We're not just wanting you to go out there on Saturday nights and be the best football player.
00:51:45
Speaker
We want you to maintain high GPAs.
00:51:48
Speaker
We want you to have a good social life, a good spiritual life, a good all of these things, whatever that may be.
00:51:53
Speaker
We want to help you develop that and grow up and be a man that you can be proud of and that your family can be proud
Personal Experiences and Community Engagement
00:51:59
Speaker
of.
00:51:59
Speaker
And in the process, we're going to win a lot of football games doing that.
00:52:03
Speaker
And so I love it down here.
00:52:07
Speaker
Ephraim has been great to me and to my family and our coaches.
00:52:10
Speaker
And it's just it's just a great place to be.
00:52:13
Speaker
Dustin, let me add, I have a daughter at Snow College right now who's a Badgerette on the dance team, and she loves it.
00:52:21
Speaker
She loves everything you said about Snow College, and the small town makes it so everyone comes and participates in all these sporting events.
00:52:28
Speaker
It's like the only thing to do in town, which just makes it so fun, so fun to be a part of.
00:52:34
Speaker
But one thing she often tells me is how nice and kind she is.
00:52:40
Speaker
the football coaches are to those dancers.
00:52:42
Speaker
And so, so Zach, it's hard for you to say, well, here's one thing, you know, that I want everyone to know about me.
00:52:49
Speaker
I am such an awesome gentleman, you know, I know you wouldn't say that, but I want to say that for you, you and your staff are incredible, not only to your players, but, but to the whole community.
00:53:02
Speaker
And my daughter has been a beneficiary of that.
00:53:04
Speaker
So I thank you.
00:53:05
Speaker
for for the man you are there and have seen the great things you're doing and just appreciate it so much you guys are awesome oh thank you thank you very much well zach thank you for coming on with us today it was a great interview nothing but respect for you and what you're doing brother and keep it up and we're glad to have you and lucky to have you in our community and at one of our one of our schools here so
00:53:29
Speaker
Thank you everybody for listening to this episode of the support light podcast.
00:53:32
Speaker
Please follow us on social media, share our podcast and the other things we put on social media with other people.
00:53:39
Speaker
If you wouldn't mind, it helps us share the message, help us get in in front of other schools and teams with our message in person.
00:53:47
Speaker
We have our book available on our website, the sport light book, as well as other merchandise.
00:53:52
Speaker
And we'd love to get in front of you, your business,
00:53:55
Speaker
or your child's team or school.
00:53:57
Speaker
Keep your eyes up.
00:53:58
Speaker
Do the work.
00:53:58
Speaker
This has been the Sportlight Podcast from Especially for Athletes, sponsored by Coca-Cola.
00:54:04
Speaker
You can learn more about Especially for Athletes by visiting the website at especiallyforathletes.org.
00:54:09
Speaker
You can also learn more about the book, The Sportlight, by Shad Martin and Dustin Smith at especiallyforathletes.org.