Out of the Mouth of Babes "Our Future Leaders"
Welcome to "Out of the Mouth of Babes: Our Future Leaders" with Kevin Handley Sr.!
In this enlightening and empowering podcast, we delve into the minds of the next generation—the brilliant and dynamic youth who hold the keys to our collective future. Join our host, Kevin Handley Sr., as he takes us on an inspiring journey through conversations with young visionaries, activists, innovators, and changemakers from around the world.
Each episode of "Out of the Mouth of Babes" brings you candid and thought-provoking interviews with these remarkable young individuals who are making a significant impact in their communities and beyond. From tackling pressing global issues to spearheading innovative projects, these youth leaders are reshaping the world as we know it.
Kevin Handley Sr., a seasoned and compassionate host, skillfully uncovers the stories behind these young achievers, delving into their motivations, challenges, and the transformative experiences that have shaped their journeys. Listeners will be inspired by the depth of insight and wisdom these young guests possess, proving that age is no barrier to effecting meaningful change.
Whether you're a parent, educator, community member, or simply passionate about youth-driven initiatives, "Out of the Mouth of Babes: Our Future Leaders" offers a unique platform to learn, engage, and celebrate the voices of the youth. Together, we can gain valuable perspectives and support the aspirations of these incredible young leaders, nurturing a brighter and more inclusive tomorrow.
Join us as we amplify the voices of the youth and discover the extraordinary potential that lies within "Out of the Mouth of Babes: Our Future Leaders" with Kevin Handley Sr. Be ready to be moved, motivated, and inspired!
Out of the Mouth of Babes "Our Future Leaders"
S1 EP5 Pt.1 - Coaching Wisdom and the Path to Growth
What happens when two passionate student-athletes, De'Arieun Hicks and Teles Ortiz, refuse to be defined by a winless football season? Join us as we explore their remarkable journeys at Richmond High School, where they not only excel on the field but also manage to balance academics and athletics with impressive dedication. These seniors share the secrets behind their rigorous training routines and how their families have inspired their love for sports, showcasing the resilience that drives them to change perceptions and earn respect.
Reflect on the profound impact of mentors in shaping an athlete's journey, as I share personal stories of the coaches who molded my career and those of my co-hosts. From humorous anecdotes to lessons in strategy and resilience, we discuss the pivotal role these relationships play in not just athletic development but personal growth as well. This episode offers an inside look at navigating coaching relationships and how they contribute to building strong, adaptable athletes ready to take on challenges both on and off the field.
Prepare to be captivated by the spirit of high school athletics as we compare the contrasting styles of old school and new school coaching. We passionately advocate for the recognition of these athletes' unique qualities, urging college recruiters and local media to look beyond the previous season's record. As we gear up for an exciting scrimmage against Jay County, the anticipation builds around the team's "Four Horsemen," a dynamic core ready to showcase their potential. We invite you to support these young athletes as they strive to prove their mettle and redefine what it means to be a student-athlete.
Good evening and welcome to Out of the Mouth of Babes, the podcast for our youth. Today I got a special group in the house. Today is the athletic day. We're going to talk to some student athletes. We're going to talk to them about their experiences, their journeys, what makes them tick, why they do what they do, and we're going to give them some publicity, because these two young men right here have been overshadowed and I want to make sure that the folks realize who they are, what they do and get them the proper respect that they deserve. And before I introduce them, I want you to notice we got some background effects in the house. We have the Gary Roosevelt letterman jacket. Let's give it a clap for Gary Roosevelt. We got the Earl of Hustling Quaker letterman jacket. I want you guys to know this is what they're aspiring to do. You know, go away to college and play college football, get a degree and come back and serve. So let's start off with the far far to my far right your first name, last name, grade.
Speaker 2:My name is Telus Foy Ortiz. I'm a senior. This year I'm going to be a senior.
Speaker 1:And you are. And what sports do you play?
Speaker 2:I throw for track and I mainly play football. What position in football? I'm a defensive tackle, the D tackle down in the trenches.
Speaker 1:Up next, who do we have on the microphone?
Speaker 3:De'Ariane Hicks and I'm going into my senior year.
Speaker 1:What other sports do you play, Mr Hicks?
Speaker 3:Mainly football, but I'm going to try to get back into basketball and track this year.
Speaker 1:All right Now. Both of these gentlemen I was about to say have played basketball in their time period at Richmond High School. Exceptional athletes, great role models. So let's start off. And you guys, this is kind of real, informal, so I don't want you to think that I'm going to call your name. I'm just going to ask a question and I want both of you to answer the question. As a reminder, speak into the microphone, get as close as you can, but first, starting off, share your journey with the folks that are listening about how you started playing sports and what inspired you to play sports.
Speaker 2:Really, when I started sports it was just my mom signing me up for baseball and stuff, basketball leagues and stuff like that. But like, um, what really pushed me to like, really pursue, like it serious, was probably my older brother, like he was. He played before me. You know he was pretty good at what he did.
Speaker 1:So you know I just want to be better big tim is his older brother and when I say big tim, I mean big tim. I say Big Tim, I mean Big Tim, bigger than the Big Tim that I know.
Speaker 3:Next up, mr Hicks. When I was younger, my mom really just wanted me to get out the house and be outside more. So she just asked me if I wanted to play football. So I said yeah, and that was like fifth grade. After that I just kept on going, kept on pushing.
Speaker 1:All right Now. What is a typical training routine like for you?
Speaker 2:Really, like you know, hitting the weight room.
Speaker 3:You know I mean a lot of a lot of a lot of field work.
Speaker 2:You know we have to at our position, we have to use our hands a lot. You know our hips, our legs so it really takes. It really takes a lot of practice, like by ourselves, like just me and him on the field just repping through stuff. You know, I mean it take a few hours, like just me and him on the field just repping through stuff.
Speaker 3:You know what I mean. It'd take a few hours Stretching and going through the same movement you would do in a game. It takes time, it takes practice, it takes effort, and in the weight room you gotta be strong, you gotta be tough and you gotta play fast. So it's pretty much what I do.
Speaker 1:Now you guys are also exceptional students. How do you balance athletics and academics?
Speaker 2:you know, um, it's really, it's really just time management. You know I mean like once, once we're done with football practice, you know we go straight, like straight home. That's when we start homework, all that. You know what I mean. We make sure I have our priorities straight. You know what I mean, like make sure class comes first, then football you know what I mean and then friends and all that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I pretty much. I try to get all my work done in one period and then, if I have time, I don't really know.
Speaker 1:So you, basically what I hear you saying, is that you spend time even at school, kind of like study hall or study table. Some people have those periods where they can get additional work in. Is that what you do?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I have free time, but I don't go home and just do no work. I get all my work done in the classroom first and then go to football practice.
Speaker 1:All right. Now you guys are aspiring to go to college. Yeah, to play college football. That's exciting, yeah, and this is what we're working for. You guys are currently on a team where we've had some challenges. I would say right. We've had some ups and downs. Last year the team didn't do so hot, so what happens now is that people don't recognize and respect you. Yeah, for sure. How does that make you feel?
Speaker 2:It gives me a drive Like seeing like posts and stuff about guys to watch out for and like only one of our players being there. You know it really like pushes me, makes me want to like prove them wrong, like you should be looking at me right now. You know what I mean?
Speaker 3:I mean going 0-10,. It comes with it being disrespected, but this year is going to be different.
Speaker 1:I can tell you that these two gentlemen are probably I'm going to speak it into existence right now. There are not too many offensive linemen that are going to be able to compete with these two gentlemen right here. I'm putting it out there right now. Would you guys agree with that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1:I'm trying to tell you now People don't recognize. But over here on the east side of Indiana we got two and they're both 200 plus pounds. You can't really tell because they're sitting next to Buff Bagwell here, but they're sitting next to Buff Bagwell here, but you know they're both about over 6'2", so you're not getting a true measurement of their size, but there's some big boys in the middle. All righty, Can you share a memorable moment about football?
Speaker 2:About football. It was, I think, my sophomore year. We won our first sectional game. You know, in a minute and you know the feeling of that of just winning. You know what I mean, especially on a high-stakes game, to like move on. You know it felt great. You know Like our whole team just clicked at the final, like fourth quarter. Everybody just clicked and it just felt really good to all be on the same page.
Speaker 3:You know what I mean. Back in the hub, back in like fifth and sixth grade, my mom dropped me off for practice and she didn't feel like cooking dinner that night, so she packed my lunch and told me I went after practice is over, just eat that. So after practice was over, I took out a honey bun and I start snacking on it, and then that's when coaches is like honey bun, oh yeah, that's your new nickname, we're going to start calling you honey bun. So I grew out of that, though Not really Nah going into high school.
Speaker 3:I grew out of that.
Speaker 1:We still call him honey bun every now and then.
Speaker 1:Yeah, a little bit, we still call him Honey Bun every now and then. Yeah, a little bit I wasn't there, but I remember when they told me the name Honey Bun and I just kept calling him Honey Bun. So I have had the pleasure of being coached by some of the most amazing men. You know, I started out with Coach Talaferro and Gary Roosevelt, one of the greatest coaches in Gary history. I had Coach Arnold Price for football I had, you know, one that I to this day has really shown me what it's like to be a coach and a father. Coach Kennedy, Hanna, Coach Hanna he was kind of the crazy coach where I probably get most of my craziness from, but he was like a father figure to me. We had Coach Bullock, Coach Graves Coach Graves he's actually Coach Graves is currently the offensive coordinator at Warren Central High School, but Coach Graves was the coach who taught me how to understand the X's and O's in high school football, Because he had just come home from.
Speaker 1:I think he played at IU and I was a young coach and man. He taught us so much stuff. I think he played at IU and I was a young coach and man. He taught us so much stuff. And then I transitioned to college where I had the opportunity of being recruited by one of the greatest recruiters in the world, and that's Greg Williams. Williams taught me how to build relationships with student-athletes and he did that because he was a Caucasian football coach who traveled to Gary, Indiana, to pick us up and bring us to Richmond for us to have the opportunity to learn about the college. And it was funny because at the time when he pulled up, he came, picked us up and we got in the car. He was listening to the music that we were listening to at the time, which was the Ghetto Boys. And I'm telling you, man, Paul Stanley and I we were it was Paul Stanley and I we were in the car and we were super pumped. We was like, man, this coach is cool, he's listening to our music. Now He'll tell you the story that before he left, he asked some of the other football players like what did they listen to? And they gave him a cassette tape and so he popped it in Because it was cool, because Richmond's about a three-hour drive from Gary, and so what ended up happening was the tape was just to put it in. You got to flip it over, but he did it like two or three times, but we were excited because this is what we listened to.
Speaker 1:Then I also had the pleasure of being coached by Stan Hill. Stan was my position coach at Earlham College and the one thing I learned from Stan is that he allowed me to make mistakes, and so it taught me to be a better football player. And if you combine all of those gentlemen and the last one is Robert Lee Robert Lee was was, um, he never coached me, but he coached me because he taught me how to be a coach in college. So when I got it, got the job at earlman, start coaching, I would go to butler and, surprisingly enough, robert lee and jimmy graves were working together, which was my high school coach. And and so Robert taught me how to recruit, he taught me how to understand special teams, he taught me how to build relationships while I was recruiting, and so he was my coach mentor.
Speaker 1:So for all of those gentlemen, you know and I know I left some out, particularly on the wrestling side and other sides of other sports that I may have dibbled and dabbled in, but those guys really made an impact on my life. You guys have a coach that coaches you now, who sometimes goes over the top. Talk to us a little bit about how do you deal with your coach when you don't understand him sometimes and you don't understand what he's trying to do. And I want you to be transparent and I also want the listeners to know. I happen to coach these two, so I don't know what they're going to say, but I'm going to turn it over to them.
Speaker 3:You want me to go first? Yeah, you got it. You got it All right. You got it, you got it All right. Old school coaches can be a little hard sometimes because I got the pleasure of getting coached by a new school coach and an old school coach and old school coaches definitely coach harder and love harder because they care about me. The new school coach you know what'm saying. He did, he did his thing. But yeah, it's just, sometimes it's hard because you know, you know they really care about you and they want to see you succeed in life. But that's the good thing all right.
Speaker 2:Um, my experience, like with the coach that goes over the top, especially offensive period. I'm playing offense. You know he likes to get the defense riled up, you know for us. So you know he's really teaching us. He knows we can do it physically. He just wants to test us mentally. You know what I mean. He doesn't want us to go out there on Friday night and like some guy say something to us and us like react in a bad way. You know what I mean. So he definitely pushes us, you know physically and mentally, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, now you guys are looking at colleges and we're not going to specifically list out all of your colleges unless you want to. But if you had to tell a college coach right now a little bit about yourself, what would you say? Why should they recruit you? Tell them right now, look them in the camera and tell them who you are, what you are capable of and why should they recruit you.
Speaker 3:I'll be the first, last time, dog All right.
Speaker 2:Why did you recruit me? You know I'm going to be there, I'm going to show up. I'm dedicated to this. You know what I mean. Like you know, I'm working with my teammates all the time, you know, on and off the field you know, you know, what I mean.
Speaker 2:I take academics seriously. You know what I mean. I take academics seriously. You know what I mean. Started out like high school, like kind of like messing around, but now you know I'm locked in. You know what I mean. I'm trying to push all my guys you know everybody on the D-line receivers, all of them. You know we all got to rally as a team. You know what I mean. So I feel like I can bring motivation into the program.
Speaker 3:Why you want to recruit me. I think I should be recruited because I'm a carrier of the boats. I'm dedicated to the game, I love the game, I love playing football and I'll do anything to play college at the next level.
Speaker 1:Now tell us. You mentioned and tell us but we call him TO, TO and Honey Bun are in the house TO. You mentioned that you know we may not get the respect that we deserve. Yeah, if you had the opportunity of communicating to the newspaper locally or the radio, or what would you say to them? And why should they start to look at you?
Speaker 2:um, I feel like that they just overlook, overlook us because of our um, not because us as an individual, they're just overlooking us like as a team. You know I mean like um, we went, we had 0-10, like Tink mentioned. So like it's really like a comeback season for us. You know what I mean. It's like going 0-10 doesn't feel good. So you know we have that drive. You know that other teams don't have, they're used to doing like what they normally do, but for us, man, like just don't overlook us. You know what I mean. Like I feel like we better than most people, we better than most people in in Wayne County, you know I mean.
Speaker 3:So they just have to have to watch and see mmm, I feel like whoever typed that, uh, I don't know no disrespect. I feel like we got the best defensive line, we got the best quarterback, we got the best wide receiver group. Our O-line still needs some work but we're gonna get that situated. But I just feel like we're the best team in Wayne County by far and we play harder teams, we play tough teams, we play 6 harder teams, we play tough teams, we play 6A teams and we got two-way numbers. So that just goes to show how we're up for the challenge. I'm not trying to back out and go to a lower division. That's not me. I want the challenge.
Speaker 1:So what he's mentioning is that we play in the NCC, which is the North Central Conference.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And in that conference there are teams that are definitely in size and numbers in school and even their programs are larger than us, and so that's when he said we play larger teams. The other thing I want you guys to always understand and know is that our record last year was not indicative of you all right, and so because we I mean you know there's a core group of you all that have been doing what you need to do. So don't ever put yourself in a position like it's you or it's your teammates, because what we're dealing with is systemic, right, and when I say systemic, it has. It goes all the way down from, you know, from the top to the bottom. You know, from coaching, coaching selections to plays, to, you know, getting kids out there, recruiting, and so in our community we have to continue to keep encouraging kids to want to come out and play. Do you guys have anything else you want to leave the audience and the people in the audience with?
Speaker 2:we coming yeah, fair, you know what I mean. Hey, we're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna show up when we need to. You know what I mean. We're going to be there, especially against August 18th.
Speaker 1:So if you guys are excited about you know you've heard them next Friday there's a scrimmage. It's a scrimmage home, right against Jay County. Come out and check the Four Horsemen out. That's what I call them, the Four Horsemen. If you guys don't know who the Four Horsemen are, they was a wrestling group back in the day, in the 90s. So these are the Four Horsemen. Right now you're talking the inside, the two of the nucleus of the Four Horsemen, and then now you're about to. Now you guys are going to meet the exterior, the ends, so we're going to take a pause and bring in the next guys. Thank you, guys for listening to Out of the Mouth.