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Growing Our Future
Growing Our Future
There Is No One Like You
In this episode of the Growing Our Future podcast, host Aaron Alejandro sits down with Dr. Coach Nate Hearne, an esteemed coach, educator, and mentor. They discuss the power of mentorship, leadership, perseverance, and faith in shaping young lives. From his humble beginnings to coaching state championship teams, Coach Hearn shares powerful lessons on building a culture of excellence and standing firm in leadership.
Story Notes:
- Grateful for students and their potential to shape the future.
- Inspired by the educators who mentored him in his youth.
- The power of testimony: "We stand on the shoulders of those who came before us."
- Building a championship culture at Permian High School with an 88.9% winning percentage over 35 years
- Creating the "Mojo" phenomenon that unified an entire community around student excellence
- The importance of knowing yourself and loving what you do, not just being good at it
- Breaking an arrow and throwing it away to protect a good student, demonstrating values-based leadership
- Three essential leadership tips: "Listen, listen, listen"
- The power of creating environments where others can experience personal transformation
Learn more at MyTexasFFA.org
Welcome to the Growing Our Future podcast. In this show, the Texas FFA Foundation will take on a journey of exploration into agricultural science, education, leadership development and insights from subject matter experts and sponsors who provide the fuel to make dreams come true. Here's your host, Aaron Alejandro.
Speaker 2:Well, good morning, good afternoon, good evening or whenever you may be tuning in to the Growing Our Future podcast, we really appreciate you stopping by. We enjoy this podcast because it's an opportunity for us to find folks that are willing to pour into others, to share their time, talent, testimonies, experiences and, like we always say, if you want to know what the future is, grow it. Well, the way you grow something is you got to plant the right seeds. Well, today's no different folks. We have got an extraordinary guest. Well, today's no different folks, we have got an extraordinary guest, and I cannot wait to get to their seeds of greatness that I know, if we plant them in our lives, we're going to grow something mighty, have a harvest and a bounty we're sharing. And so, ladies and gentlemen, it is an honor and you're going to get to hear more about this man here in a second, but it's an honor to have Dr Coach Nate Hearn Coach thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 3:My honor to be here and I love the way you talk about seeds because, oh man, those seeds were poured into me by some great people over the years and many of them. That's an eternal friendship. It's, it's gonna last forever, I'll never forget them.
Speaker 2:I'm with you, trust me. That's the power of testimony. What you just said, that's the power of testimony. Uh, we stand on the shoulders of the people that went before us and we're grateful for the seeds that people share, which is why, coach, we're grateful that you're with us today, so that you're going to get a chance to share with the audience of students, with adults, with sponsors, with educators, and it goes around. Amazing, coach, how many people around the world watch this podcast Blows me away.
Speaker 2:So, just know that your words here are going to become seeds of greatness. I appreciate you taking time to join us. I'm honored. Here's the thing Every person that comes on this show, everybody gets the same first question Coach, what are you grateful for today? What are you grateful for?
Speaker 3:I'm grateful for the opportunity to be here today to know that our future is with our students. That's been my heart forever, to know that they're out there, they want to learn, they want to grow, they want to make a great nation and I'm honored to be a part of that, to know that we can do this and it has an effect for the future.
Speaker 2:I'm going to agree with you. You know, when Tom Ziegler by the way folks, coach Nate and I have a mutual friend and Tom Ziegler, the son of the late great Zig Ziegler, and when Tom and I first started talking, coach, we were talking he said, well, tell me what you do. And I said I'm in the future business. And he said what do you mean? I said I'm in the kid business, and if you're in the kid business, you're in the future business. And so I appreciate what you said because it's an honor I know you're grateful for that. It's an honor too for me to sit in the seat that I sit in and have an opportunity to work with young people and to work with educators. So thank you so much for what you're grateful for, coach.
Speaker 2:I know that there are some that may be tuning in that have heard your story, have heard of you, but we've got a lot of young listeners that might not know. When we talk about Friday Night Lights and we talk about Zig Ziglar, sometimes it's not something that's immediate in their wheelhouse. I know the success that you've had as a coach, as a husband, as a father, in so many roles that you've played. I know you didn't just fall into that seat. Something tells me that there was a journey, there was things that happened, doors that opened, doors that closed, that led you to where you're at today. If you would take a moment and just kind of walk us through Coach Nate's journey and how you got to where you're at today.
Speaker 3:It's just awesome. Yeah, the main thing is, like you said, I had seeds poured into me, watered and nourished by some great people. Now, my parents were great, wonderful parents. I came from a home of seven other brothers and sisters and my parents. They poured into us the things that we were supposed to do and how we were supposed to do it, and the most important thing was to be caring and kind and helping, of service.
Speaker 3:My parents were people of service orientation, but they were not educators and grew up poor. I didn't know where my next meal was going to come from. I wore hand-me-down clothes. I didn't know if I was going to come from. I wore hand-me-down clothes. I didn't know if I was going to come home to the same house sometimes, but my parents kept us together and provided for us.
Speaker 3:School was different. You need it. You grow up in poverty and you know that you're isolated out there and things are just not the same. Sometimes a rural can be cruel and you need that teacher figure, authority figure, that can come along and say hey, you're okay, I think you're going to do great things someday. Every one of us need that a smile, a pat, an encouraging word. So I got that from two great men. A science teacher, seventh grade, and my football coach did that for me and I'm eternally grateful for the seeds that they planted in me, because Aaron and I would not have made it without their encouragement, without their encouragement. My science teacher he took me under his wing, he made me his lab assistant in his class. My football coach a seventh grade football coach, mark Wallace. My science teacher's name was Mr Clyde Hake. Where was this at?
Speaker 2:coach.
Speaker 3:This was Andrews, Texas.
Speaker 2:Andrews, Texas.
Speaker 3:West Texas, west Texas. Yeah, this was Andrews Texas. Andrews Texas, west Texas, west Texas. Yeah, little small town, maybe 5,000 people at the most. You know they took me under their wing and nourished me. I became, from their nourishment, from their seed planting, the thing that I wanted to do and I decided at an early age because of their influence in my life. I remember that I said you know I was one of those, you know, troubled children. I had lots of trouble in school. I wasn't successful until I met those two men and they turned me around. My grades were bad. I made C's, d's and F's in elementary school. You know I had behavior problems. And then I met those two men and it just flipped.
Speaker 3:I went from making F's and D's on my report cards to being on the honor roll because of their influence and I decided in the seventh grade that I wanted to be a science teacher and a coach, and in that moment I would never let it go. Wow, I never let it go Wow, and today I still follow their leadership, the examples that they set for me. Today I'm 73 years old and I still follow the things that they taught me when I was in the seventh grade.
Speaker 2:I know we've got a lot more to talk about. We could stop right there. Just listen, coach. Here's the thing. When we talk about growing the future and seeds of greatness, what I tell people the reason why people's testimonies are so powerful is if you'll listen to somebody's testimony. Tony Robbins said success leaves clues. And if you listen to folks' testimony, you start finding those seeds. Just in your first sharing. There you talked about encouragement, you talked about expectation, you talked about accountability and you also trickled in a little want to. And you also trickled in a little want to. Yes, because none of that words of encouragement and none of that opportunity that was presented to you could have ever been nourished and brought fruit if you wouldn't have had some want to, and you obviously had a little want to. I think you sounds like you wanted to maybe have a little more than what you had. Growing up, you were encouraged by what somebody gave you, so you wanted to kind of share that with somebody else. Yes, I kind of picked up on that that. You know, these are the kind of seeds of greatness that I hope people hear. One of the things that I share with some of our youth leaders, coaches. I tell them.
Speaker 2:I said go ahead, get into school and you can take all you want. I said get into junior high, get into middle school, get into high school and you can take. I said if you go to college, guess what? You still may find a few opportunities to take. I said, but once you get out in the real world it's going to get a little bit harder to take. I said but once you get out in the real world it's going to get a little bit harder to take.
Speaker 2:Yes, I said, but if you can learn at an early age to serve, when you get into high school, you can serve yes. When you get into college, you can serve yes. And when you get out of college and you start a career and you live in a neighborhood and you live in a community, guess what? There are going to be needs and an opportunity to serve Always. So think big about that service component, because it doesn't matter if you become a coach, it doesn't matter if you become director of a nonprofit, it doesn't matter what your role is in life. Giving back to others is probably one of the greatest gifts, and you and I both know what did Zig always say? You know you can get anything in life you want, that's right.
Speaker 2:If you help enough other people get what they want, that's right. So you were a coach. So tell me, you became a coach. I know y'all did that. You didn't just fall into a state championship. So what does that journey look like? To build a team, to build a program and here's one for you, Coach to build a culture of excellence and winning.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you have to have the right mindset to build that kind of culture. You have to have a process and you have to get the guys to believe in that process. It's like it's like anything in life If it's going to be successful, the most important thing in any entity are the people, the relationship with the people, the relationships with those young men, the relationship with the people, the relationships with those young men. We had to nurture and grow those relationships in order for them to excel in that program, because it was a very difficult program. It was based on a college level program. We instituted the first coach, instituted that and came down to the high school level and instituted school level and institute it and they begin to take off and for 35 years at permian high school we had that one percentage of 88.9 percent. Six state championships, national champions, team of the decade the times that I was there, 10 years, the years that I served there we renamed a team of the decade with uh, 122 wins and 11 losses.
Speaker 1:Just unheard of and most amazing thing about those guys.
Speaker 3:They were undersized One time. Aaron, we're playing in the semifinals for the state with the smallest team in Texas, but we're in the big school division. Our middle linebacker weighs 145. Our linemen are over 200 pounds the smallest team in the state and we're playing against another team and they have seven Division One already scholarship athletes on the team.
Speaker 3:They've got the 250s, the 260s, the 270s and those guys with the heart of a line. We lost that game 28-21. So that was the nature of that school and a culture. Because of that, the moniker was Mojo. Because of that, mojo, mojo. We had a following. They built a stadium in 1980 and people thought they were crazy. They built a stadium in 1980 in Odessa, radcliffe Stadium that seat 28,000 people for high school football. This was in 80. And they thought we were crazy and they feel that stadium every Friday night when we played at home for 31 years.
Speaker 3:But 31 years, right, and with that kind of atmosphere, with that kind of following, we had over 500 students in the band, 380 Peppettes, a community that would follow us to to the end of the world to watch us play, to support us. That program brought to that community. And when you have something like that, it changes the community, it changes everybody, it affects a lot of lives. When you have that kind of culture in the school behind students who want to excel, they want to do the good thing.
Speaker 3:They want to do the right thing they're playing it's wholesome. It's mom. Apple pie, white picket fence. That's what it was Right.
Speaker 2:You know, kyle, there's so much there. Again, you just, for example. I love doing these interviews because there's so many little things that people will just listen that you can pick out. Success begets success. Listen to what you just shared. It was so beautifully.
Speaker 2:You didn't just talk about the football team, you talked about how those successes were duplicated in fine arts. They were probably duplicated in other classroom activity. They were probably duplicated. I guarantee you anybody that knows small town Texas, you know there's coffee shops where everybody gathers to cuss and discuss what's wrong with the country and everything else. But when you're winning, guess what they're talking about? They're talking about success.
Speaker 2:How did they get that success? How did they plan that play? How did they plan for that team? How did we know we were going to be outmanned, we were going to be outweighed, but we weren't going to be outhearted? We, you know. And so what you just shared is the beauty of success. One of the guests that I've had on here, coach, is a guy that he just matter of fact, I worked for him when his company first started. He just made the largest gift in Texas Tech University history. He gave him a $44 million gift, oh man, and he very much humbled beginnings and just became very successful. But what he likes to say that I like is he says it's okay to win.
Speaker 3:It's okay to win.
Speaker 2:It's okay to win. Yeah, y'all put in a lot of work. It's okay that you won. It's true, no one gave it to you, no one said you're entitled to it. You were grateful for the opportunity you put in, the work and you reap the results. It's okay to win. It's okay to win, and success begets success. It does, and y'all did that throughout. I can tell you and I think I mentioned this to you before in 1985, I was state FFA president and I would travel four to five schools a day, five days a week. I traveled all over the state of Texas. I've been in high schools all over the state and to your point, to your point, in 1985, 86, and that year I remember coming to Permian and I remember driving by the football stadium and I remember saying that's where the mojo happens. I also remember you'll remember this too I remember the Monday Moguls.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:Yes, and I remember when they built a brand new high school and football field in Gilmer Texas.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:You remember? Yes, you remember. And so it's amazing how a structure can become kind of a flagpole, that's true, kind of rally around. But something you said, coach, and I'm always listening in these interviews to find the title of this interview, and I'm not saying I've got it yet, I'm just giving you an example. You can have all the structures of this interview. I'm not saying I've got it yet, I'm just giving you an example. You can have all the structures in the world, but if you don't have the right people and the right culture, you just got a pretty structure and the first thing that you said when you started to tell me about your journey was you said it's about the people. That was the first thing you said. It's about the people, about the people. That was the first thing you said it's about the people and I wrote that down. That's it, because God didn't create us to be the Lone Ranger. No, life is not a solo project, and you said it.
Speaker 3:You said it was all about the people yeah, and I I know that you know this and and I hope this is what the students get from this is that anything that you do in life, the thing that makes that success is that you have to know who you are right, knowing your identity, knowing who you are. Becoming self-aware uh, john maxwell in his book self-awareness he says that's the most important thing in life that you have to be able to identify who you are. If you're able to identify who you are, then you can plan anything, you can plan your life, because you know what you want, you know who you are and that's why the people are so important. And you said it you can get a good product, a good stadium, you can have a great process, but if you don't have the people who know who they are, it's not going to work Right.
Speaker 3:They got it when my cat and I do a program called Core Clarity, and it's all about helping students identify their strengths. Because we feel this way If you know your gifts, if you're an achiever, if you're a communicator, if you're a relator, if all of those things you know about yourself, when you walk across that stage, instead of handing you the keys to the Beetle Volkswagen, they're handing you the keys to the Beetle Volkswagen. They're handing you the keys to the Audi, the Mercedes, the Maserati. Right, because you know who you are. You're not guessing anymore about your future. You know where you want to go and you know what you want to do. That seed has been planted and now all it has to do is be watered.
Speaker 2:Writing that one down too. Know who you are. That's powerful. And, by the way, when you say that I don't mind throwing this in, coach, because I'm not ashamed of spirituality, I'm not ashamed of faith, and the reason I appreciate you saying you got to know who you are is because I know who made you, and God doesn't sponsor any flops and he doesn't make any trash. So let me tell you something there's not a person listening to this show that was not created for anything less than greatness, and all we got to do sometimes is look around, find that encourager, find those skills and be the best version.
Speaker 2:You know one of the guests that we've had on here, coach, and I don't know if y'all's paths have ever crossed and if you haven't, I'm going to make an introduction but his name is Dan Owolabi. Dan Owolabi, well, let me say this, coach, tom Ziegler, who's a mutual friend of ours. Tom holds you in very high esteem and he's told me he said Aaron, coach Nate could be, next to my dad, the best speaker I've ever heard. That's pretty powerful commentary coming from Tom Ziegler, and I'm going to tell you that Dan Owalabi could be one of those as well that you need to get to know. He wrote a book called Authentic Leadership and he talks about being your authentic self, yes, and not trying to be something that you're not or you're trying to become something that the world's told you that you've got to become. So when you said that you got to know who you are, there's a lot of wisdom in that comment. A lot of wisdom in that comment.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and you know you get people who will work and do a job in some companies. These people are really good at what they do, but if they don't love what they're doing, they can even be paid air handsomely for it. And sometimes if you don't sit down and ask them, you know, get to know them. Just like you said at the beginning of this, you got to get to know people, you got to talk to people. If you don't know them, you don't know if they're happy in that job or not.
Speaker 1:Even though they get paid haphazardly.
Speaker 3:Even though people come and say, oh, you're great at this, they might not like it because it's not who they are. They don't identify with that because there's parts of that that they really don't love it. And when you talk to them they go I can do it, I do it well, but I don't like it. And if if you have a gift, we do not call it a strength if you don't love what you're doing it's not a strength.
Speaker 3:It's not a strength if you don't love, you gotta love it, and you know there's millions of people out there doing things that they don't love doing right there man, that's good.
Speaker 2:Oh, coach, that's good. I've, uh, I've been the development officer now here for the texas ffa foundation for 25 years and, uh, I've had my share of opportunities. As you might imagine, I've had a lot of people say, hey, if you ever want to make a change, I'd love to have you. There's been some very attractive financial offers, but there's no amount of money that you can place on a heart that's bent for a passion and a purpose that they believe they've been given Not a purpose that they believe they've been given. And there were a lot of doors that closed on my journey and there was a lot of doors that opened to put me where I'm at, and I couldn't agree with you more.
Speaker 2:I know a lot of people that have told me, aaron, I make a lot of money, but I wished I could be as happy as you are. Thank you, told me, aaron, I make a lot of money, but I wished I could be as happy as you are. Thank you, and you know, at the end of the day, we're in charge of that. Nobody else is in charge of my happiness. No, you know, we're in charge of that. That's right. And so, to your point, if you can find that thing that makes you happy, that thing that gives your passion purpose. You're going to be wealthy yes, you are. You're going to be rich in spirit yes. You're going to be rich with friends yes, and you're going to have enough money to pay the bills. It's like I tell people if you'll just manage what you got, maybe at the end of the month you might have a little bit left over and there might be somebody that needs a little bit.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, yeah, and you get to help them, and that's a good thing. That's a good thing. Coach, tell me about a time that you had to take a stand for what was right for your students or your players. What does it look like in a leadership role when you have to make those kind of tough decisions to stand for what you think is right?
Speaker 3:There's so many, aaron, but I remember one you might be familiar with this. Students back in the day started, maybe 2003, 2040 went to the zero tolerance policy and they were legislators, were hammering that zero tolerance policy. Zero tolerance policy was based on you know the weapon things, you know knives, guns, things like that. If a student was came to school had those kind of things, ammunition, things like that, that was the state was saying and it was trickled down to the administrators. That's it. You expelled, no warnings, no, you expel them and they're not. It's not to their discipline school, it was to JJ AEP, the Juvenile Justice AEP program, which is one step away from prison.
Speaker 2:Absolutely TYC used to be TYC.
Speaker 3:Yes, right, so you know right, so that's pretty tough. I see, yep, right, yep, so you know right. Yep, so that's pretty tough. And we had a situation where a young man the officer brought SRO officer, brought an arrow and an ID into my office early on a Monday morning and he just laid it on my desk.
Speaker 3:He didn't say a word, he just shook his head and he just walked back up. I knew what it was right he did too, because we talked about it. That's zero tolerance. Zero tolerance. It's an arrow. That's ammunition. That's how they saw it. That was automatic expulsion to JJ AEP. Took the young man's ID, looked him up he's a senior, he's an.
Speaker 3:AB student. He has no discipline referrals. He's got maybe one or two excused absences. Good student, right, a class of 1,100 students and he's the kind you never see, right, you never get the chance to spend it with the good ones, right, he's a good student, right, I sent for him. Comes in and he says mr hernan, am I going to be expelled? I said all the records show that I say, everything here is leaning towards that.
Speaker 3:This is an arrow, it's in your truck. And I said before we get into all of that, tell, tell me how this happened. So he said I have a friend whose dad bought him one of those high dollar crossbows. This is an expensive bow. He and his dad hunts a lot. And he called me and so we went hunting, but not like he and his dad. We were just target practicing. We shoot at rabbits or stuff like that, or just shooting some targets, and that's all we were doing. But when we finished the day, I took him home and when I dropped him off I looked in my backseat and there was the arrow. He said so I took the arrow, put it in the front seat, I'm going to pick him up, we're going to go to lunch and I'd give him the arrow back.
Speaker 2:He said Mr.
Speaker 3:Herring, that's not my arrow. I said. I understand. I said, but the state, the school district, everybody sees that possession is 99% of the zero tolerance policy. It is in your possession. If I called his parents and tell them that we have an arrow in my office, they're going to say he didn't bring it to school and they're going to get lawyers and you and I are going to become the bad guys and you might lose your best friend out of this. So I need to call your parents.
Speaker 1:He said Mr Hearn. I never knew my father.
Speaker 3:He left my mom and my little brother me, my mom and little brother at an early age. They got a divorce, so my brother younger he never saw him he never knew. And he said my mother is in the hospital, in the ICU unit with colon cancer. You can call her, but they're not going to let you speak to her.
Speaker 2:That situation just got darker, right.
Speaker 3:That situation just got darker, right, I mean. So I said I'm gonna send you back to class and I've got to check this out. I'll go by and check the hospital and then I'll call you in in the morning and tell you what we're going to do with this. Immediately after he leaves, about five minutes later, I get a call from the secondary superintendent over secondary assistant superintendent. He asked me what's going on. I tell him about the arrow, I tell him about the student and he's like oh, that's a pretty unfortunate situation, but our funding is based on how we handle these zero tolerance policies, these zero tolerance circumstances. He said keep me updated. The superintendent and sure the school board wants to know.
Speaker 1:So what is he?
Speaker 3:saying read between the lines. Stay in the policy, do the right thing right this is a good kid hold the policy, do the right thing. I go to the hospital and he's right and you know colon cancer. They're in that IC unit. They're covered with plastic Tubes, are running Monitors monitoring her and the head nurse on that unit.
Speaker 3:She was nice enough to talk to me. I could look inside, I could see it through the windows, and she told me hey, there's not a lot of, she doesn't have a lot of visitors here. She said maybe one or two, but the prognosis doesn't look good.
Speaker 1:Stage four colon cancer.
Speaker 3:So I leave, get up in the morning, send for him, send for the SRO officer take the arrow, I break it, I throw it in the trash.
Speaker 3:And so I said now this situation for you is over, no one will approach you again about this. I sent him back to class. Right In Tom's book the Ten Virtues Leadership Virtues for a Disrupted Time he talks about being the light right. He talks about being the light in dark situations, that we have to be the leader. We have to shine the light right, and sometimes shining that light is kind of tough because you know people put your job on the line. My job was nowhere near it as important as that young man's life Right.
Speaker 3:It didn't equate Right. So sometimes being the light means you have to take the air break and throw it in the trench Right, because you know who's in charge. God's always in charge. God's always in charge. He's always in charge. And when we have that relationship with God, we don't have to have anybody validate us. We don't need to beated by anybody.
Speaker 2:So much in that story, so much what a gift God gave you with that young man, what a gift God gave you with that situation, because there's no telling how many times you've had an opportunity to share that story and have people sit and reflect. My board chairman always says Aaron, the right thing is always the right thing Always the right thing he said it's never too late to do the right thing, Never.
Speaker 2:And when you hear stories like that, it just makes you appreciate ethical leadership, core values, confidence. It goes back to what you just said knowing who you are. You knew who you were when you made that decision. You knew what value system drove you to make that decision there was no hesitation there.
Speaker 2:One of my favorite books on leadership is Captain Sully. Oh yeah, that landed the plane there in the Hudson, yeah, and of course they got everybody off. Sully was one of the last ones off. The media is going crazy. They want to interview him, but obviously they got to do a debrief. And as they're walking down a hallway, a flight attendant she's still frazzled from the accident but she runs up to him and she hands him a piece of paper that's folded in half and it's still wet, crinkled up, and on the outside of the paper it simply read thank you. And when he opened it up on the inside it said when your values are clear, your choices are easy. When your values are clear, your choices are easy. And when you share stories like that, coach, that right there for me is a reminder that when we face those moments that we have to make decisions tough decisions that when your values are clear, your choices are easy, easy, powerful story coach.
Speaker 2:Before we wrap up, give me a. We got a lot of kids that'll be watching this that want to be leaders. They want to aspire the leadership. Give me three leadership tips. If you could plant the seeds of leadership tips, what would you tell kids to become better leaders three things listen, listen, listen, got it.
Speaker 3:That's the only way to let people know that you care about them. Right? I see it all the time and you do too, aaron. We get in there, we talk to people and some people ask how you doing. Well, you tell me they really don't want to hear it. Right, they really don't want to hear what you got going on, because they want to talk about what they have going on. And when you sit and you listen to a student, they know you're listening. I don't know how many times students had come from talk, come to me, coach kids that I've coached, kids in totally other sports, kids that's in my room, kids who knew me from other students talking about me, kids who I coached that I wasn't even their position coach would come to me, come to my room and say, coach, I have a problem. And when they finished they said, coach, I came to you because I knew you would listen. How many lives do we touch, aaron, just saying, just listening.
Speaker 2:Just listening, what a powerful mentorship that is, because if you can learn to listen, there will always be somebody that needs to be listened to. I remember Tom Ziegler. He tells a story about his dad. He said, tom, how do you know somebody needs encouragement? And he said I don't know. And he said if they're breathing they need encouragement. And we're all going to go through seasons of life. I had a lady once and she was really just sharing some really heartbreaking events that she's dealing with and I just listened, like you said, coach. I just I didn't have the answer. I just listened and I finally looked at her and I said I'm sorry. I said, by the way, I said if you want a place that it never rains, I can take you there.
Speaker 1:And she said what do you mean?
Speaker 2:I said sounds like you've had some storms and I said but I can take you to a place that never storms.
Speaker 1:And she said really, I said yeah.
Speaker 2:I said, it's called a desert and nothing grows. Nothing grows. But you show me somebody that's had a little rain, a little storm, yes, and with the right mentors, with the right encouragers, with the right seeds, with the right encouragers, with the right seeds, with the right stewardship, I'll show you somebody that's bound for a bountiful harvest. Awesome, so so awesome.
Speaker 2:Coach, I can't tell you thank you enough. I will never forget the first time we met. Obviously I knew a little of your story before we ever met, and sometimes you meet people and you wonder is the story as good as the person behind the story? And I've got to say, coach, not only did you meet that expectation, you exceeded it and I value what you do, I value what you've done and I value more what you're going to do, because I know God's not finished with you and there's still a lot of work to be done. There's a lot of lives to be touched, a lot of people to be encouraged, a lot of people that need an example in the mentorship. So I just want to thank you, but you don't get out of here without a fun question.
Speaker 3:Yes, sir.
Speaker 2:So everybody that's been on the show gets a fun question at the very end. So the question is this Coach Nate Hearn, dr Nate Hearn what's the best concert you've ever been to?
Speaker 3:Oh my yeah, the best concert you know. To tell you the truth, the best concert I've ever been to, I put it together.
Speaker 2:Let me hear it.
Speaker 3:I was asked after I retired. I was asked to see if I would be a chaplain in the prison system. Yeah, exit to Portland Criminal Justice Center. Yeah.
Speaker 3:So I said no problem, because I want to go in there and help. Right, that's my whole thing, that's right. God says, hey, where were you when I was in prison? Right? So I'm saying I'm going to be here, right, I'm going to do what you asked me to do. So I know to touch souls sometimes music is key. If you got the right music, if you're a pastor and you got the right music and it's hitting and you see the Holy Spirit coming down, you don't even have to keep you. If you can humble yourself, you don't need a message, Just extend the invitation. The Holy Spirit's already working. That happened. I brought a gospel fest to a prison unit. Fifteen different groups of all genre, of all ethnicity.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 3:Blacks, whites, browns, just every kind of music you want to hear. And the inmates had to make a request to attend. 1,100 men on the unit, 700 asked to be to their tent and the group got up. They had the full ensemble all five instruments. They had background singers, they had a lead singer and they started and they were really really good. They were really really good and 700 inmates in white, just picture this thing right 700 of them. The music is Christian and it's flowing.
Speaker 3:A little bitty guy about five foot three on the very back in the middle row outside seat. He stood up and he just said Jesus. And then he started doing four rows and when he got to the front he said Jesus and all the other inmates stood up and they just Jesus. They're clapping, they're dancing, and some are on their knees, some hands extended, some just circling. You hear this, the CO's correction officer. You hear those radios start cracking and go Major, major, you want to lock him up. You want to lock him up and the Major goes yes, lock him up. And then the warden says leave him alone.
Speaker 3:Leave him alone and then, there's a pause there and then she says that's the Holy Spirit. But that moment, aaron, the Holy Spirit ascended, came descended down on those men and all that pin up. You know, in prison there's a lot of things going on. All of that emotion came flowing out of them and they began to praise God. Wow that was nothing but a God moment. And I still I get goosebumps telling that story, aaron, because I saw it real, it was real.
Speaker 2:I saw it. Well, let me tell you something, coach. What you just shared Number one, that was incredible. And when you talk about a concert, that was incredible. But in closing, you also made another point that I like to share with people, and that is this you can never argue with somebody's testimony Never. You can never look at somebody and say that didn't happen to you. So, folks, what you just heard from the coach, I have every reason to believe, down to the detail, that what you just heard was the best concert that man's ever seen.
Speaker 2:Far enough, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us for another episode of Growing Our Future. You know, I like to tell people that our country's got three vital and renewable resources, that's, young people and agriculture and leadership, and we combine all three and we get to bring guests on that say, hey, let me tell you what I found to be successful, let me share with you what I found to be encouraging. Let me share with you some seeds that helped me grow a success in life. And they're here sharing those seeds with us. And today we were honored, we were blessed by coach Nate Hearn, dr Nate Hearn and coach again, thank you so much. We appreciate you, we appreciate all of you that stopped by today and until we meet again, go out and do something great for somebody else. You're going to feel good about it. More importantly, you might just be the example for somebody else that's going to go out and change the world. Thank you so much for joining us today. We'll catch you down the road.
Speaker 1:We hope you've enjoyed this episode of the Growing Our Future podcast. We hope you've enjoyed this episode of the Growing Our Future podcast. This show is sponsored by the Texas FFA Foundation, whose mission is to strengthen agricultural science education so students can develop their potential for personal growth, career success and leadership in a global marketplace. Learn more at mytexasffaorg.
