Nate Tuatagaloa: Coaching with Heart

When Coach Nate Tuatagaloa says "we don't recruit, we represent," he captures the essence of his leadership philosophy that's transforming Fremont High School football into one of Utah's premier programs. His journey from college player at Southern Utah University to head coach reveals how the best teachers of the game are constantly learning themselves.

Coach Tuatagaloa's experience wearing both offensive and defensive coordinator hats simultaneously at Ben Lomond High School accelerated his coaching development in extraordinary ways. Rather than forcing players into rigid systems, he learned to adapt schemes to fit his personnel—a philosophy that has served him well at Fremont. What truly sets his program apart, however, isn't tactical innovation but relationship-building.

The culture at Fremont starts in the weight room, where partner exercises teach mental toughness and teamwork. Walking rather than running between stations creates conversations and bonds between teammates. Academic excellence receives equal emphasis—with a team GPA of 3.51 and the "F'd My Life Club" ensuring players who fall behind academically face consequences. This approach reflects Coach Tuatagaloa's belief that grades directly correlate with on-field success.

His "coach with a smile" approach requires staff to maintain positive interactions with players even in challenging moments. Tuatagaloa measures success not just by wins and losses, but by whether players defend their coaches to parents and whether relationships remain strong regardless of game outcomes. For young athletes looking to improve, his advice is simple: put your time toward effort, not distraction.

Ready to hear more coaching wisdom that extends beyond the field? Listen now and discover how to create an environment where players can thrive through supportive accountability.

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Transcript

The Impact of Coach Nate Tuatagaloa

Speaker 1 0:01

You know, one of the most important kids you'll ever coach is the one that needs the program more than the program needs that kid. Welcome to Above the Whistle with your host, devin McCann. Welcome to another edition of Above the Whistle. On today's podcast we have Nate Tuatagaloa, head coach of Fremont High School. Welcome to the show.

Speaker 2 0:24

Thanks for having me Appreciate it. Thanks, Devin.

Speaker 1 0:26

Yeah, yeah. So let's just kind of go into your background a little bit, if you can. Just kind of take us back, walk us through your journey into coaching. How did you get into it, did you always have an interest in coaching, and what led you to become the head coach over here at Fremont?

Speaker 2 0:43

Yeah, I've always. It's funny because when I went to play college at SUU, the jump I had there all of a sudden I learned what an actual cover two was, rather than just standing in front of a guy doing all these things and in high school as much as they're teaching us. It really didn't sit with me until I got to college. And then that's when my journey to coaching started, because I also was very curious. I was like, okay, so what other coverages are there? What else are we doing? What else this and that? And then after that my kids started playing little league, started doing some things and then just helping a little bit here and there and watch a lot of college football.

Speaker 2 1:23

But my true journey started was very a lot of my coaching influences come from Coach Fineunga, so he coached me in high school. So I always loved his style, this and that. So my goal was to be very similar to him, but just try to be better as far as take what he can and make it my own. But it's when I went to Ben Lohman. My son was going to be a freshman and at that time I wasn't satisfied with what I was seeing. So prior to that I was already helping out with Chew Matt Hammer at Weber High and he was so generous to let me come over there and do strength and conditioning and do all these other things. So I learned a lot over there as well.

Speaker 2 2:10

But when I went to Ben Lohman, everything that I've learned and I was watching them I just it didn't sit well with me. So then I kind of I guess you can say inserted myself and started coaching there. And then that's how it happened and from there I was very fortunate I was surrounded by a lot of people that eventually had been loman was. I ended up coaching both sides. Okay, so I was offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator. So when it came to game planning I had to do a lot of film for both sides you were doing this at the same time during the same year, oh wow.

Speaker 1 2:46

Yeah, that's a lot of responsibility it is it?

Speaker 2 2:48

it was a lot like, oh man, I was talking about film after film, yeah, so then I game plan for offense, and then I'll game plan for defense, set up our practice schedule, do all that stuff, and then when we get to games, as soon as offense is done, I'll click over, start calling defense, um, doing all these things, and then, even, you know, with special teams, kind of dabble a little bit in there. So it was literally everything, yeah. So I had to learn really quick every single position there ever was, everything and how to coach, and that's after I did that. That's one thing I'm very grateful about with ben loman, and it wasn't due to oh oh, coaches didn't know this, and that it's just. I was willing to invest more. So then from there it's like okay, so I started doing it. It's weird because it sounds hard, but it's not, because once you understand it, you're already doing it in your mind anyway, as a coach like you can call playing chess against yourself.

Speaker 2 3:47

Yeah like you're like well, what kind of play would I call if I saw this right? And then vice versa, well, what kind of defense would I play if I saw this? Yeah, so it was just natural like, so, from there doing that, it really propelled me like I would say, if fast forward, I mean it took extra years off my life, but it also fast forward my progress in coaching by a lot.

Speaker 1 4:13

Yeah, I don't know if I've ever really heard of someone doing both OC and DC at the same time. Yeah, yeah, I mean it's a lot of work but it is. But, yeah, to your point. I mean you already are going through the mental gymnastics of okay, if I run this offense, if I was the DC, how would I try to play against this? And then how do I run an option off of this? And you just kind of go down that cascading effect on both sides of the ball.

Speaker 2 4:43

Yeah, correct and I'm fortunate that I'm surrounded by a lot more smarter people. So when I hear all my coaches and all my friends talk about kind of offense they run, kind of defense they run, how they stop it, so in my mind I'm already kind of, you know, recording everything they say so I can try to apply it to what we're trying to do. Yeah, but it really opened my eyes more, because a lot of times for me the major thing was we started changing our defense. We always say, oh, change it to your personnel, but really a lot of coaches don't.

Speaker 1 5:14

Yeah, no, they don't.

Speaker 2 5:15

Because they don't want to learn new things. But for us, when I was at Ben Loman, I had to. I had to do that because the thing about Ben Loman is kids, they're teenagers, they're not your normal teenagers. Teenagers there become the man of the house at 13,. Basically, they got to work all these extra hours. I mean football is just hours. That takes away from hours they can work. That's the problem I had.

Speaker 2 5:42

I had to compete with that so I had to compete with their 30 hours a week working and how can we make it enough for them to like, hey, can you not work 10 hours this week? Come do some football. Yeah, you know, that was that was what made it hard to as well at ben loman. But we had, like, the talent we had, the kids we had there, the iq. I mean you know the senior class my last year at ben loman, the senior class we had there, the iq. I mean you know the senior class my last year I've been low in. The senior class we had there was I will put them as far as iq goes with anybody. They were so smart, like it was, they made my job a lot easier.

Speaker 1 6:15

Yeah, so when I think honestly, if you were to ask those kids um the impact you had as a coach because they are going through some of these, you know real life experiences and challenges and and just hurdles your impact as a coach was probably Even more so with that group of kids at Ben Loman than, say, you know, here at Fremont High School when you know some of the kids might not face those same challenges.

Speaker 2 6:42

Yeah, no, correct it, it still isn't, even to this day. Like you know, those are my boys, like you know. Yeah, like I said, like that senior class, like we had davian jackson, hunter, jake, miguel, you know, I can go on and on I can see.

Speaker 1 6:59

I can see, you know, I mean the emotion behind it when you say those names. I mean you can tell there was a true connection with those kids and it'll go beyond just the gridiron, it'll go on for years, right.

From Player to Coach: Learning Both Sides of the Ball

Speaker 2 7:10

And I was just fortunate because Alan's my oldest. He was friends with all of them, so that's kind of how organically it happened. So it happened that way where I was coaching my son. I started coaching them Before we did that. But what I realized that was our most successful season we had at Ben Loman in like 40-something years is the time commitment I put in and everything. But I realized that it didn't matter what I knew, but how can I teach it to the kids and how can I prepare them better in practice.

Speaker 2 7:41

So we changed so much over there at Ben loman, which is, I think, what helped prepare me to come here. So I wanted to come here and coach at fremont because it was, let's just say, it was differences. Okay, you know, basically it was differences, yeah. So I was like, okay, then I, I guess I'm out, yeah. So then I applied and then I was fortunate enough to get here at Fremont. But the thing that I carry with me from Ben Lohman is, honestly, I held the way I held these kids to a expectation and a standard. I did the same thing here, yeah. And what's funny is it worked even that much more here, right? Because, unlike Ben Lohman, where the kids become man at a house at 13,. I was fortunate that now I'm dealing with kids who have an example at home of how to act, how to carry themselves, how to respect, how to put in work so that part I didn't have to work as hard.

Speaker 1 8:43

You're just reinforcing it, you're not introducing it to them.

Speaker 2 8:45

Yeah, Like all their parents here at Fremont, did such a great job at already putting that in there. I just had to make sure that I held them to that same standard, right. So that was easy. That's added more years back to my life, for sure. Yeah, and I mean these kids here here, for example, will have 6 am. They lift every day. We do all these things and they're here. Yeah, even when they're playing another sport in season, they're still here.

Speaker 2 9:12

Yeah, all right, but that's what I've carried here from ben loman is like at ben loman, relationships is very important, but I'm also a relationship driven, because it's hard for a kid to trust me if I don't have a relationship with them, right. So when I ask them, hey, you got this, they trust me, they believe me. But I also got to have the same in the same manner. I got to be tough on them and be like you know what you're supposed to do. Why didn't you do that? Right, with them being like, not being offended at their coach, but instead, man, he's right, I'm sorry, you know. He knows it comes from a place of love.

Speaker 1 9:50

So, yeah, how do you go ahead and build that trust? You know, when you have a freshman coming in, where do you start to begin building trust with that, that player? And then you know, do you have to kind of mold that to the personality of that said player? Yeah, it's.

Speaker 2 10:09

What's funny is the way we adapt. Is we adapt to attention, okay, um. So we tell our coaches hey, just be who you are. The only difference is there's some kids that need a little bit more attention than others. You know, um, we never want you to mold in a sense that's going to change who you are but also realize if this kid's going through something, okay, we need to pay a little bit more attention to what's happening. So when a freshman or a new kid walks in, comes through, the kids actually pretty much almost do everything for us, meaning they're welcoming. It's something as simple as when they go through the stretch lines, they give everybody a high five. They're like, oh, hey, what's up? Hey, what are you doing? If they do something you know really good, they start cheering for them. Same thing with the coaches. We walk in, we introduce ourselves like, hey, oh, you're new, what's your name?

Speaker 1 10:58

Hey, nice to meet you. Yeah, you create a culture and now the upperclassmen are, are kind of helping do your job right. They're setting an example, they're leading by example, they're welcoming the, the underclassmen in, and they make your job a little bit easier if you have the right leaders in place it.

Speaker 2 11:15

It's something as simple as as a simple dap. Like when you go tell a kid, hey, how you doing, shake his hand, you give him like a little half hugs like hey, man, thanks for coming. It, good to have you here. Yeah, people don't understand. Like the strength and just that alone, no Cause. Yeah, it breaks open a lot of kids like oh, what's happening?

Speaker 1 11:32

Well, especially during adolescence, I think a lot of kids, you know you think back to when you were a teenager, you're going through puberty or you're. You know you're just kind of unsure of yourself how you fit into the world and things like that. And you go to football and you know there's kids that are the stars and they're well established and things like that, and you kind of have imposter syndrome where you don't know if you truly fit in and just that simple. Yeah, you know half hug, hey, how are you doing?

Speaker 1 12:01

Hey, what's up, man man, yeah, just all of a sudden just kind of makes it easier, right, it makes you feel welcomed and it's, it's just something easy, you know it's. It's nothing that you have to ask the upperclassmen to go out of their way to do, just just they just do it, just do it yeah yeah, we make it as natural as possible, right like promote fun.

Speaker 2 12:24

We want to make sure we always say there's a difference between fun and funny. Funny involves one or two people, fun is everybody. Yeah, I like that. So, let's not be funny, let's have fun. I love that. I love that.

Speaker 1 12:35

You mentioned when you were at Southern Utah, cover 2, you didn't know the concept and all that. And you also mentioned just trying to teach kids. So how do you go ahead and try to teach certain concepts to kids? I mean, do you think it's? They're just high school kids so you just kind of tell them, hey, go run this route, or, you know, do this, and it's just easier for them to learn that way. Or do you think there is something more powerful in teaching? Hey, let's teach you the concepts and why we're doing things the way you know we're doing them yes, we always teach the why.

Speaker 2 13:11

So we teach them a concept and we teach them why we do this. So now, when they're out there doing it, we believe in, like rep after rep after rep, so until they finally understand what we truly mean. Like it's like giving a kid a word and then a definition, but the kid keeps using that word the wrong way, and then finally he starts using it the right way. And then that's where reinforcements from everybody be like hey, that's what I'm talking about. See, now you're starting to get it. So now, mentally that clicks in the kid's head Okay, I just did this, I just got to make sure I keep doing that. And then it just reinforces it more and more. And then what we do is, from there we start stressing him out a little bit more by okay, now we're going to throw a little bit extra. Or towards you, now can you still understand the concepts on why we do this? Right, right, yeah, yeah, type of thing yeah, um.

Speaker 1 13:59

so now I mean, you did defensive coordinator, you did offensive coordinator, you did offensive coordinator. Where's your first love? What side of the?

Speaker 2 14:06

ball, do you like? Naturally I'm a defensive player, okay, yeah, so that's where my love came from is defense. But I got thrusted into the offensive coordinator position and ever since I have. It's weird because defense people probably disagree with me, but defense is easier. Defense is easier from a preparation standpoint, defense is easier from a scheming standpoint to our offense.

Speaker 2 14:36

It's so hard because I believe the order and importance for me is o-line, qbd line, yeah, and then just the o-line itself is probably the easiest yet most complicated position to teach. And that's what makes offense hard. Yeah, because these O-linemen guys, they can't see where the ball's going. So they got to trust you and your coaching to get to the certain position and just block there and know that, hey, this is where it's coming through. I trust them. So it takes a lot for O-linemen to trust you. And that's where I think coaches need to understand when they're teaching an O-lineman, they're teaching them to go block for somebody they can't see. You know what I mean. So that's truly like O-line. When it comes to O-line, they got to have faith, so they got to trust in something they can't see.

Speaker 1 15:31

It gotta have faith, yeah, so they gotta trust in something they can't see. It's, it's funny. And in little league football, and you know, I think even in high school, um, you know offensive linemen, defensive linemen, um, to a certain degree, but you win or you lose in the trenches, yep, and the offensive linemen don't get a lot of the, the notoriety. So you, you know a lot of the players. They want to run the ball, they want to. You know they want to be a receiver, they want to score. Those offensive linemen are vital to the success of a team.

Speaker 1 16:02

And you know, in Little League and, like I said, even probably you know in high school, a lot of those players, no, I want to score, I want to. You know, I want to catch the ball or run the ball. And it's hard to get them to buy into just how important they are to the overall success. And then, like you said, I mean they're doing things and being asked to go. You know, hit someone every play without knowing exactly where the ball is going. You know, I mean the quarterback, the running back, they can change tracks real quick and they need to just still be able to trust that they're doing the right thing. It's difficult.

Speaker 2 16:42

It is hard, and that's what I mean is. I don't think like everybody talks about. Yes, corner is probably the toughest position from a physical standpoint because you're one-on-one, you make a mistake, everybody's watching. But O-line is the most vital, important position there is in the game of football because one missed block it's either a sack, it can be a strip sack, tackle for loss, it can be all those things, our O-line man. We do the best we can to treat them like kings.

Speaker 1 17:15

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean I think it's a meme or a picture of some sort. We look like this and it's a picture of all the offensive linemen just covered head to toe in mud. So our quarterback looks like this and he's in his pristine white uniform still right.

Speaker 2 17:28

So our quarterback looks like this, and he's in his pristine white uniform, right Like that.

Speaker 1 17:30

Exactly that's the mentality you need with your lineman.

Speaker 2 17:32

It is. And what's funny is we can tell, like I've been around enough, or long enough to know a kid who's an old lineman and a kid who's a D lineman. Yeah, like you can just tell mentality wise. Like old linemen just have a certain mentality about them. What's that mentality it's?

Speaker 1 17:50

it's like goofy you know what I mean? It's like I do, yeah, yeah, it's like they're goofy.

Speaker 2 17:55

It's like they're, they're, go lucky, they're one of those guys like something broke and I'm like, oh man, it broke, oh no, and then they try to make light heart of it.

Speaker 1 18:05

Yeah, yeah, that that is exactly them.

Speaker 2 18:08

Yeah, yeah, nope, I completely agree with you on that they will lift, and if they fell in a lift, they'll kind of laugh at each other. Yeah, right, so where d lineman is sitting there trying to bend the bar because he failed, right, yeah, yeah yeah they're.

Speaker 1 18:21

They really are able to kind of you know that goldfish mentality. They're like, okay, yeah, I made a mistake, but yeah, and they just move on where a defensive lineman will beat themselves up for you know the next hour about, hey, I made a mistake here and yeah, they're just, yeah, it's different it is.

Speaker 2 18:39

It's just totally different, yeah yeah, um.

Speaker 1 18:42

So, being on the offensive side, the last you know couple years, who's been your coaching? Um influences, since you were more of a defensive guy, you know growing up in college and all that like, have you leaned on anybody to?

Speaker 2 18:57

um, I, I, honestly I just so. I've learned every single offensive. I want to say every single, but I did the best I can to make sure that I studied every different types of offenses. Yeah, right, so like I'll go to coaches clinics, I'll talk to a lot of my friends about it. Like I'll go to coaches clinics, I'll talk to a lot of my friends about it and I'll do all these, all these other things, and then when I see what I got, then that's what I try to fit.

Speaker 1 19:18

Okay, this would be good for what we have because of this yeah, I think you nailed it on the head earlier when there's so many coaches that they have their system, yeah, and it doesn't matter. You know we're plugging in these players into our system and it works. And I think you're better off having the personnel first, identifying what players you have, what type of players, then building, you know, the formations, the offense around that and then you can start designing plays. But it really starts with who do you have?

Speaker 2 19:51

Yeah, Right, exactly, that's exactly what it is. So, oh man, I'd love to run Air Raid. Oh, I'd love to run this. I'd run to love that. I was like, well, do we have it? Yeah, so I'm so used to, because size is always going to be like a what's the word I'm looking for?

Speaker 1 20:09

Just like an issue, or yeah, it's like a commodity, yeah, if you have it.

Speaker 2 20:13

Oh my gosh, it's great. Yes, right, so a lot of my offenses is built off of the lack of that. So a lot of our offenses, you know, yeah, there's some air raid sprinkled in there, there's some power sprinkled in there. If it was a perfect world, I can run zone all day. Yeah, if it was a perfect world. But zone is the easiest to teach, the hardest to master.

Speaker 1 20:34

Yes, it is yeah.

Speaker 2 20:35

It really is yeah.

Speaker 1 20:37

Yeah. Yeah, it's difficult to execute for a variety of reasons. Yeah, but it is from an instruction standpoint. It's pretty easy to teach.

Speaker 2 20:46

It is yeah, this way, this way. Then get the guy that comes this way, okay.

Speaker 1 20:51

But then you watch it on film and you're like what are we missing here? And you beat yourself up as a coach Like am I teaching this wrong? What am I doing? But it is hard to execute. It is hard to execute. Hopefully you have a good running back and can make your lineman rank even if they make a mistake, right, exactly.

Speaker 2 21:13

Oh man, a run game is. Is that's my best friend to anything when all else fails.

Speaker 1 21:15

Hopefully we got a run game. Yeah, exactly, Exactly, yeah, Um. So when you took over here at uh um, at Fremont I think, I read a quote that you want to build a premier program up here North and one of the premier programs in the state of Utah. Yep, what does that look like for?

Speaker 2 21:31

you. So what that means is not just success on the field, but success off the field. It's obviously we're going to be judged based off of wins and losses, but I truly believe before you even step on a field to win, everything has to be taken care of off the field. So there's a correlation with our success last year. Our team GPA last year was 3.51. Wow, that's good.

Speaker 2 21:55

Yeah, we had 71 kids 3.5 or higher, 30 of them 4.0. So even at Ben Lomond, I truly believe that a GPA is a direct correlation of the success you're going to have on the field, because not everybody is going to have on the field right, because not everybody's going to have all these athletes. That's interesting.

Speaker 1 22:14

I wonder if yeah, if they did a study, if there is a direct correlation with that yeah, I truly believe there is. That would be an interesting study.

Speaker 2 22:22

I believe, because it teaches them to work hard. It teaches them to understand their responsibilities, it teaches them expectations, but it also teaches them that they can't just be lazy on Monday, tuesday, wednesday. Make up for Thursday, friday, right right. So every day we have class, we're constantly checking up on grades. We call it F'd my Life Club. What is it called F'd my Life Club? Okay, so anybody who has an F or a D during that time has to run before they lift. So everybody has a four lap mile. But because you decided not to do what you're supposed to do, you're running a four and a half lap mile, or five lap mile, depending on the consequences, wow yeah.

Speaker 2 23:04

As a group has.

Speaker 1 23:06

I love that actually.

Speaker 2 23:07

Yeah, and then that's every day, even in off season, even in whatever it is, it doesn't matter.

Speaker 1 23:13

I'm shocked because when you know I played and maybe I'm wrong, maybe it's just age getting to me and I just forget what it was but I swear that the rules were any Fs, you didn't play, you had to have like a 3.0 GPA Maybe. Maybe it was two, five or something, but it seems like we've become more relaxed on. I think you can have two Fs, or at least one F maybe now.

Speaker 2 23:36

Yeah, so you can have one F, which is crazy If you have an A, you have to have.

Speaker 1 23:48

Yeah, it's like they canceled each other.

Speaker 2 23:49

You have to have one A, it is so weird, even for our football team, our expectation is 2.5. The state is 2.0. Ours is 2.5. I swear it was 2.5 back in the day.

Speaker 1 24:03

I swear it was too.

Speaker 2 24:05

Maybe we're just doing our assignments.

Speaker 2 24:07

Yeah, they show up to class and do your work. But what I think the thing that we miss that I really love, because when we're doing this thing holding them expectations, making sure they're not getting F or D during the quarter at the time, because I'm always doing it every day is it actually forces these kids to have to talk to adults. Yeah, yeah, right, it forces them. Like it's easy to talk to an adult when they feel welcome, but when they got to talk to an adult because they're failing, they hate that. Yeah, they do, they want to avoid it. I was like no, you better go talk to them. I don't mean, unless you want to keep running, right, yeah, so it forces them to do that and it like there's some kids on our team that I can tell they took those steps to do it and you can start seeing the maturity in them when they start doing it yeah, yeah, yeah, they start taking ownership and yeah yeah.

Speaker 2 25:00

Then they start telling their friends oh, why don't you just go talk to your teacher? I know, it's just a kid that didn't want to go.

Speaker 1 25:06

Yeah, exactly yeah, but hey, peer, but hey, peer pressure, that's good peer pressure, I take that yeah exactly, and that's exactly what we do Like simple things that we do like school starts at 745.

Speaker 2 25:18

Well, football starts at 730. Yeah, it was like, oh, okay, we got to be early. It's like, yeah, we always say it's you know, no knock on the average student, but you chose to play football, so now you're above average. Yeah, so you're going to be treated like you're above average, agreed, so I want, by the time 745, when they're barely going to class, I want them to see you guys kind of sweating already, already doing this, and they're like what time did these guys show up?

Speaker 1 25:41

Right, right, right, yeah, yeah, things like that. How much of building a culture is done in the weight room?

Speaker 2 25:49

oh, it's everything, yeah, yeah. So culture that that word is thrown out a lot. All it is is standards and expectations, and in our weight room it is. It is vital. So what I mean by that is that's where we can teach kids do mental toughness. We have like one of our workouts here. It's like partner curls. Basically, you have three guys to a bar and then you put on 25 pounds or 45 pound plates on each side and then the fourth guy is doing pushups. So it's about a 30 second interval. 30 seconds. The guy's doing pushups and your three guys is curling. Ok, it sounds like it's easy, but it's not Right. So, but once it touches the rack, then that means we have to start all over. Okay.

Speaker 2 26:38

Yeah, and like that was one of the things that I did bring back from Ben Lohman, cause I've been Lohman when I was there. That was the thing that I saw that taught kids how to be resilient, taught them how to grit, taught them how to kind of fight, like that your brain's saying stop, but you're not. But guess what Boys love to do arms.

Speaker 1 26:58

Oh, they do, yeah, right, they do. Oh, man, when we do it, girls for the girls, yeah exactly so.

Speaker 2 27:07

When we do it, it's like they love it, but they also hate it, because there'll be times where kids like I heard it touched the rack. I'm like, nope, now we're starting all over. Yep, like what? No? But the thing I love about it is there's three of them and they have to work together, because if one's curling faster than the other, like the weight's about to fall, so they're like, no, no, let's go ready, go and they're working together. And then they realize when they work together it's actually lighter. Yeah, yeah, load, yes, yeah. So those are things that we do to help build mental toughness. We got another one where you know we do a core workout where your feet can't touch the ground for the length of the song and the kids now to. They're to the point where they sing the song while they're doing it and it's, it's pretty cool, like they embrace it, yeah things like that, yeah.

Speaker 1 27:48

yeah, it's kind of like the Navy SEALs, right, when they're doing sand stars yeah, they're out there in the surf and they're getting hit, and it's cold and it's dark and they all start singing. That's literally how they mentally get through the challenge, right.

Speaker 2 28:03

It's just and so. And then our weight room, because we work out differently. We're not like, uh, the old school, bigger, faster, stronger. We do a lot of more. I know they say athletic lifting, but we do a lot of agilities on top of our lift. Okay, right, so that way we can see how kids move when they're you know, just got done moving a lot of weight, how are you able to move still, yeah, so that also shows us a lot of things that we're doing.

Speaker 2 28:28

It's funny because when we first got here, kids used to run from station to station. Okay, right, yeah. And it's weird because we told them hey, you don't have to run, right, you can walk, things like that. And they're like well, why'd you? And then somebody asked me it's like well, wouldn't you want them to run and hustle to the next station? I was like no, not really. They're like why? I was like as long as they're walking to the next station, I'm okay. But when they walk, it creates conversation with another teammate. When they walk, they also can see more of what the other teammate is doing, like, hey, you shouldn't be doing that. Oh, hey, good, jump there you go. It creates more of a bond rather than them having to run to the next station and missing two, three guys that they could have easily had a conversation with. Yeah, you know what I mean. Like, oh, did you see that game? Oh, yeah, I saw that. Yeah, so I feel like when they do that, it decreases bonds okay yeah, does that make sense?

Speaker 1 29:18

no, it does. Yeah. No, it really does. It's kind of that water cooler type thing. You know like it gives you a second to to debrief, or create some sort of you know dialogue with yeah, but they're still going to the next station. They're still gonna get the, but they're still going to the next station.

Speaker 2 29:29

They're still going to get the work in. They're still getting that workload. Yeah, like the other ones would be like oh man, that was tough. What did you get? I did 75.

Speaker 1 29:37

They're like oh, dang, okay, yeah, yeah, as opposed to we've got to hurry, we've got to run to the next one. They're already focused on yelling. Hurry up, let's go. Yeah, we don't want that. Yeah, yeah, I like that it's. It's interesting in all the podcasts I do with you know winning programs, how much culture is truly established in the weight room yeah it really.

The Weight Room: Where Champions Are Made

Speaker 1 30:01

It's kind of been one of the aha moments you know, doing all these different episodes where it's like the common thread seems to be like you know if it's a winning program, they're doing things the right way. It truly starts out there lifting weights, and you know the bonds they create, um in the weight room.

Speaker 2 30:18

Well, when I got here, they didn't lift on off days, so they have there's a day and b day. Yeah, a day is football b day. They didn't really do any lifting. So when I got here I went a day, football was still lifting. B day was 6 am. Yeah, so every day we're doing something and although it was different, they embraced it like I had a lot of people show up. But the funny thing about that is when, uh, when we lost and we're out of the playoffs, we usually give it about three weeks, right, because we still have for first period football. Yeah, one week after, everybody's like coach, we're gonna get back to six am really.

Speaker 1 30:56

I was like whoa, that's awesome.

Speaker 2 30:58

Yeah, I said yeah, you guys want it. Everybody's like yeah, we want it. Yeah, I was like cool, we're gonna have it. You know, as I cried because I wanted a break, but okay, yeah, yeah, all right no, it's cool and you kind of install those different things and you see it come to fruition without you being the one kind of poking it.

Speaker 1 31:14

We have a thing that I started a couple of years ago with my team the one more, one more mentality Right. So after you know we do conditioning at the end of practice or whatever we're doing, the kids on their own will call one more and they'll go do one more lap or one more you know rep of something and it's just this one more mindset. I like it. And um, yeah, a couple of years ago in the semifinals we lost and you know everyone's crying and we give our you know kind of farewell speeches or we'll get them next year. You know that, yeah. And at the end of the the um discussion, you know we had our chair and we broke. All of a sudden one of the kids was like one more and they all took off and ran one more lap after the game.

Speaker 2 31:54

And, yeah, I had that little tear going down my cheek, where I was like that's what it's all about they actually listen it's so cool when that happens, because with our kids I think I know we know they're kids.

Speaker 2 32:07

But sometimes when you're coaching you're so stuck in the wins and losses because you want to be successful that you forget they're kids. Yeah, oh yeah, like ours, like our practice. As much as I say we lift every day, we do this In the summer, though it's totally different In the summer. Besides our padded camp, we practice three nights a week, 5 to 8.30 pm. Right yeah, so kids can have four-day weekends. Kids can stay up as late as they want, because that's the only time they're going to have that, right yeah?

Speaker 2 32:37

Yeah, mondays, summers go fast, exactly, and then Mondays yeah, we'll have some team activity stuff on Mondays, but once the season starts I feel when we do that the kids are not just excited but the burnout doesn't come so early.

Speaker 1 32:53

It's hard. I have a kid my oldest is a freshman. He still has that I'm going to miss my entire summer. It's literally football every day. You don't want him to get burned out. What's that fine line about? Hey, we need to install our offense and defense, we need to get these kids ready for the football season, but at the same point, you don't want them to burn out. And I get. There's moratoriums and certain weeks that you can't practice, but are some coaches pushing that too much and it is creating burnout? I don't know.

Speaker 2 33:31

Yeah, and you know, to each his or her own, but for me I always feel you want to do enough to where they want to come back. Yeah, you know, it's the same thing when we train kids. When we train kids, we'd rather have them leave saying I could have done it. I know I could have Versus in pain, saying I should have never done that. You know what I mean. It's like no, yeah. So for us, the kid's no expectation, and that's why our expectations, our standards, are very important In order for us to do what we're doing. They've got to understand. Then, if we're going to give you this, you've got to give us this Right, right, yeah. So knock on wood. So far it's been working.

Speaker 1 34:11

Yeah, do you have any like mantras?

Speaker 2 34:12

or slogans that you guys kind of put around the you know, yeah, well, there's, there's, there's a lot okay, yeah but our number one thing is anytime anywhere.

Speaker 2 34:17

Okay, right. So people like, oh, like you play anybody anytime anywhere. I'm like well, yeah, but it also means as teammates, with the amount of kids we have on here, there should be one person that can help a kid out here anytime anywhere. So it could be 3 am Like, hey, this kid, something happened. Is there anybody that can possibly go help them out, pick them up or whatever? Yeah, maybe you can't, you can't, but you're telling me, out of this whole entire team, not one person can, and everybody's like no, and everybody's like no, there could be at least one. I was like so, anytime anywhere. You guys better make sure you're willing to help each other. So that's what it is. It's not just, oh, yeah, we'll go play you anytime anywhere, but it's knowing that, hey, I got your back. Anytime anywhere.

Speaker 1 35:00

Yeah.

Speaker 2 35:01

That's one of them. The other ones we like is we heard and we love it too, is boys seek attention, men seek respect. Legends don't care about either.

Speaker 1 35:10

Yeah, yeah, that's a good one, it is.

Speaker 2 35:16

And, as coaches, I told them our job is to make them as legendary as possible, because if we fail, at least we know they're going to be men? Yep, absolutely yeah.

Speaker 1 35:21

Absolutely. Yep, I want to transition a little bit. You kind of mentioned it a little bit, but you're also the owner of Tip Top, mentioned it a little bit, but you're also the owner of a tip top.

Speaker 1 35:30

Yeah, walk us through. You know the inception of that. Where did you come up with the idea? You know I give us a little bit of your background as well which led to tip top. And then, um, I want to talk a little bit about just sevens, football and your thoughts on that as well, of course, yeah, uh, uh.

Speaker 2 35:47

So tip top. I was working at Utah County. I was a strength and conditioning coach at Utah Valley university and at that time when I was there, I was also helping to train other kids as well in the private sector and I've noticed. I was like Whoa, this is crazy. In Utah County you got 12 year olds training like collegiate athletes and you know what I mean as much as they can. And I was like man, I want to come back home and bring that same thing. So then I started doing that, and I always say it started with a dream and a cone.

Speaker 2 36:18

And then we started doing it and then you know, and then Ben, you know he's like a brother. Then Ben, and then we started pushing it along and what it is is, and then we also got Matt Euler as well. But what tip top is it's not just a training aspect is we try to make it as home as possible for many kids? Now, what I mean by home is they got their house, that they can do all their stuff and this. But when it comes to tip top, we wanted to make sure that they understand it's a safe place to fail up. Yeah, you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 36:49

So, like, if you're trying to bench this and you can't and you fail, it's okay. Yeah, we're going to get it. Hey, if you jump over this and you fall, it's okay, we're going to get it. Yep, and then that's the thing is because at the end everybody, like you, can be the smartest trainer there is in the world and the dumbest trainer in the world, it doesn't matter. If that kid doesn't leave with more confidence than when he came there, then we're not doing our job.

Speaker 1 37:13

Right, right, you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 37:14

So that's why we try to create that, that home for them, where they know they can come here and tinker around and do stuff and fail up and it's okay.

Speaker 1 37:24

Yeah, always I I heard this years ago. But failure is feedback and and you know you can use failure as a way to just. Like I said, it's feedback, so you can either use it to get better and improve or you can have it where it just kind of beats you down. It's your choice. But it's really just feedback and you choose if it's going to be positive or negative.

Speaker 2 37:48

Yeah, correct, and then that's what we try to instill in a lot of athletes. Is what we mean by fail up? Is you failed at something you've never tried?

Speaker 1 37:57

You're going up, you'll be all right, you'll be all right, you'll get it next time.

Speaker 2 38:01

You'll be good have you ever done that before? No, I was like okay. Then it's okay, you're good, yeah, my littlest.

Speaker 1 38:07

He's always just negative self-talk and things like that and you're like have you done this before? I know he just started playing lacrosse last year and was struggling a little bit. I'm like have you ever played lacrosse in your life? You're fine, you'll get this yeah.

Speaker 2 38:23

That's one thing we've done very well here, with our coaches too, is we allow our kids to make mistakes. When it's okay to make mistakes, we tell them. When we get to the game, we're going to coach you up. But you also got to understand that's showtime. You make a mistake, we'll coach you up. You make another one, there might not be another opportunity, but before we even get to that part, we let them keep. Hey, it's okay, let's keep filling up, let's keep doing this. We know you can do that in cover two, but can you do that in cover three? I'm not comfortable with it. Well then, let's go, yeah.

Speaker 1 38:54

Yeah, let's get back to the drawing board, let's get back to work. Let's grind.

Speaker 2 38:58

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 38:58

Yeah, I mean, games are really just a test. Like, did you put to work out at six in the morning and put in that time, and all that because come game time we'll see it, we'll see, and I'm glad you said it's test.

Speaker 2 39:14

Yeah, we know a lot of people who are not good at taking tests, right? So our job is to make sure that every time they lift back to the weight room it's always a test. Yeah, like, hey, I saw you. Like there'll be times where, randomly, we just sit there and watch it like, hey, how many reps did you do? I did seven. And then we'll ask the spotter hey, how many reps did you do? The spotter be like I don't know. I was like well, there you go. You failed him as a teammate. Yeah, you weren't holding him accountable, yep, and then you were not holding yourself accountable because you know it's 10 reps yeah, you know things like that, so yeah, for sure, yeah.

Speaker 1 39:49

So that's that's where that whole.

Speaker 2 39:51

One more mentality and mindset for us kind of came from.

Speaker 1 39:54

It's like okay, I'm asking you to do it. Oh, excuse me, 10 reps, go one, one more, go one above that, go 11. Cause you start stacking those little wins up, you're going to start creating a big gap between you know what your competitor's doing. If they're just doing 10 reps a day and you're doing 11, well, shoot, in a week you've done seven more and then you start compounding that and all of a sudden, yeah, you, you start, you know, yeah, progressively getting, yeah, it adds up quick yeah it, it's so cool because in football it's so territorial, right, people are always like, oh yeah, this is our territory.

Speaker 2 40:36

Like hey, they're so aggressive towards whatever it is For us. We try to tell our kids it's not that serious For us, we don't care what they're doing, all we care is what we're doing and that we have each other's back, yeah. So if you go somewhere and you see another school like you're not going to be that guy, I'd be like, oh, you guys suck this and that Like no. Now if they say something to you guys, okay, get each other's back, right, yeah. So those are the things like with the kids that I'm fortunate enough that the parents instilled in them. Like you said, I'm just reinforcing it Right, right, yeah, and that's a big deal. I don't think coaches understand how big of a deal that is, because that turns into on-field behavior. That also turns into off-field behavior, because if you promote that, I think as a coach we're like oh yeah, this is Fremont. Yeah, you guys want some of this. When you promote that kind of behavior, what kind of kid are you creating?

Speaker 1 41:33

Right, right, you know what I mean. There was a team last year I won't name names, but they lost, I want to say, five or six of their players because they got in a fight the night before. And now you're hurting your other teammates because you're not able to play in the game, because you had to go out there and you know, represent which just represent on the field. You don't need to. You know, go throw down in a parking lot.

Speaker 2 42:02

Like I get some of the things, like I know what they're trying to say, but like that, us versus everyone, right?

Speaker 1 42:08

Yeah.

Speaker 2 42:08

So when I see that I'm, I'm like, well, I don't want to be against everyone, I want everyone's support yeah, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 42:15

So, for sure, like for me it's like I don't know yeah no, I'm with you, yeah, um, life's a lot easier when you have support and it's not this. I gotta climb up this hill and it's, you know, me against, like you said, everyone else like, yeah, no, I, I want someone to kind of help push me and you know I want to your point earlier. The best coaches are the ones that are smart enough to recruit other great coaches to come help them.

Speaker 2 42:40

That's what I did. That was my first thing here. I'm glad you said that because I forgot to mention it, but my success here at Fremont could not have been done without the coaches that I got. You know what kids should be around. Yeah, like these are men. If something was to happen to me, I can trust them with my kids. Yeah, so those are the first ones. I didn't care about their football knowledge or IQ, I just knew, when it came to your son, they're gonna take care of them as if it's their son yeah, no, you really have.

Speaker 1 43:13

I mean, and it doesn't go unnoticed. I mean, a lot of people talk about what you're building here and and the coaches you've kind of recruited and brought in and to your point, they're all just outstanding, stellar, you know, men, yeah, teaching and who want to teach these young men to become great, outstanding men themselves.

Speaker 2 43:32

So yeah, there was a game. Uh, we played davis halftime. You know everything was getting tight and you know coaches and our thing is is like, coach the same whether you're up by 40, down by 40 or whether it's a tie, yeah? So our stuff is we always try to say hey, coaches, if there's no scoreboard right, no scoreboard how would you coach? And that game we had to remind each other because I said at the end I said if, if we were to lose this game and these kids could not look at you in the eye or hug you or do anything like that, we failed. Yeah, like we failed. I love that. So we have to remind ourselves at the end, like, can we look at these kids and say, hey, regardless of what I was coaching, I feel good about how I treated you today.

Coaching with a Smile: Prioritizing Relationships

Speaker 1 44:12

Yeah, yeah, yeah and then so that's and that can be. You know hard to do, you know the heat of the moment, and we have this thing called coach with a smile.

Speaker 2 44:20

Yeah, so anytime one of our coaches is about to go off, we look, we walk by them like, hey, coach with a smile bite your lip, yeah, yeah hey guys, yeah, yeah. So we have to say with a smile when one of our coaches remind us to do it, that's so yeah, because I can be mad like what do you think you're doing? And they're like hey coach with a smile, then I got a smile. Be like hey coach with a smile, Then I got a smile and be like hey, what are?

Speaker 2 44:41

you doing, man? It changes the impression Exactly. It changes the tone, yep.

Speaker 1 44:44

Absolutely. I love that, and that's just holding each other accountable Right, which you know well. In turn, yeah, just have a better overall impact on these kids.

Speaker 2 44:55

It is Because, whether we were successful or not, we're going to love these boys the same.

Speaker 1 44:59

Yeah, and they're going to. I mean, I don't know about you, but I can look back and my coaches either have a positive memory of them or I have a negative memory and, quite honestly, it's probably just the way they treated me. Yeah, it wasn't whether we won a championship or we lost 10 games. It's how did they treat me and did I feel respected and heard and things like that yeah, that's exactly it.

Speaker 2 45:24

Yeah, that's so, that's that's. What I mean is. I think we've become short-sighted on that with a lot of coaches because they want to be so successful. Just so you know, be like I told you yeah, yeah, you know what I mean it's like, but uh, it's not really about that. I'm just fortunate that this is the byproduct of what's happening.

Speaker 1 45:41

Yes, you know. So, yeah, yeah, I mean you know that was kind of the. Where this podcast originated from was because I do think coaches have the ability to either have, like I said, a very just positive influence and impact on a kid's life or, you know, on the flip side of that, a negative, um, and coaching really should be much more than just the wins and losses at the end of the day, like what's the overall impact you're having on these kids' lives? Because, like you said over at Ben Loman, some of these kids they don't even have a father figure, you know, and so you might be that father figure.

Speaker 1 46:20

And what kind of young men are we and young women? This is, you know, across the all sport. But coaches have a huge impact on on young kids' lives because, I mean, it's a these these years, you know, 12 to 18, there it's. There's a lot going on, especially nowadays with social media and just all the noise from the different apps and things. We need good coaches out there to help provide support and help teach a lot of these lessons to the youth.

Speaker 2 46:56

And I think another point that's overlooked is it's very important for us as coaches especially the staff that I got because we're pretty diverse and we're in an area that's not that diverse. Yeah, so a lot of times where these kids first introduction to people who look like us, yeah. So for us to have a positive impact like that is going to help this kid, as he gets older, create other relationships with other people that he normally wouldn't have had it not been for our impact towards them.

Speaker 1 47:25

Yeah, that makes sense? No, it does absolutely, yeah, so it's we like.

Speaker 2 47:29

For us, this is very it's, it's a very like we don't carry it lightly. Yeah, it's important responsibility that we, we know that we take on and we have to make sure because, I mean, you know, people say, well, how, how are the parents? Are you worried about the parents? Honestly, I don't care about the parents. What I mean by that is, I'm not worried about the parents, because if I can treat the kid enough to where they're defending us towards their parents, then that's all I need to focus on Because I can't coach the parents right, then that's all I need to focus on.

Speaker 2 48:00

Because I can't coach the parents right, I can't impact the parents. But if I can impact this kid and the parent is saying something negative about us and the kid turns around and offends us, then that's the kind of impact we can have. Absolutely Right, cause parents are there. They're shaped by their own experiences. They are Right. So our job is to make sure everything that we have with a lot of these parents when they give us their kids to shape them with a positive experience to where they can, you know, not just defend us but defend their teammates as well. Right, right, you know I mean, but, like I said, god, this community, that's what the craziest thing me and my son, when we came here from Ben Lohman it is like crazy for us because we've never been part of like a football first school yeah so Ben Lomond, like they did their best and things like that and we had a great time there. But when we came here just a year, we had, like I mean, the team dinners was crazy here.

Speaker 2 48:53

I mean all the things that we do the parade, the homecoming festivities like going places, like when we go around here, they recognize the players that recognize us. Like going places, like when we go around here, they recognize the players, they recognize us. It is like it's pretty cool yeah, it's.

Speaker 1 49:06

It's always crazy. I always say a good team, mom like elevates a team more than anything else like that is, so they bring the fun they bring, the, I mean, that is so true experiences and all that that come kind of outside of. You know those those lines on the field like a good team mom really helps facilitate all that yes, no, you're right.

Speaker 2 49:26

Yep, thank goodness we had some good ones.

Speaker 1 49:28

Yes, yep, yep, um. So let's talk a little bit about sevens, um, and just kind of the culture around that. Um, you know, because tip top, you guys put out a lot of you know sevens teams and you know there's a lot of different tournaments I think there was a tip top. You guys put out a lot of you know sevens teams and you know there's a lot of different tournaments. I think there was a tip top tournament. Just yeah, we just had one this last yeah last weekend it's.

Speaker 2 49:47

I mean, I have mixed feelings about it because I I love seven on seven for what it should be.

Speaker 1 49:54

Yeah, I don't like what it is now I'm just gonna say how much has it evolved from when you first started with it to what it is now. Oh so much. Gonna say how much has it evolved from when you first started with it to what it is now.

Speaker 2 50:02

Oh, so much yeah, I'm talking about something as simple as when we go play somewhere. We actually have true linebackers. Yeah, they don't. There's like seven dbs out there. That's it yeah you know what I mean. And they're running like these routes where you're like, okay, they're running into alignment, whatever, okay, that's never going to happen right, so there's the quarterback.

Speaker 2 50:21

Doesn't have six seconds back there, yeah all these things like even like I was telling somebody is like even if they had all this time in the world, like I don't like the thing where you know, um, they, they can just grab, turn and throw. Yeah, I was like that's never going to happen again. Yeah, yeah, you know, like the quarterback's holding the ball and then they snap it and they throw it right away like that that's not gonna happen yeah yeah, snapper, have whatever it is.

Speaker 2 50:49

So those are the things I don't like, but I definitely don't like the culture of you. Know I'm better than you seven on seven. Like the celebrations over-the-top, I get it. Kids want to have fun, but there comes a point where, when your fun starts intruding into another kid's self-esteem, that's where I have a problem.

Speaker 1 51:06

See, I think that's kind of my problem with sevens football. I love seven on seven, I really do. I do think it's kind of gone away from what it originated from, especially when I watch quarterbacks and they're not even, you know, working on their, their footwork and they're getting sloppy and all that. Like I mean that should be a great um you know stage for these quarterbacks to really work and develop on on on the mechanics and the proper footwork and all that, and we're just so sloppy with it. But it's the gamesmanship that I think just I just it's not needed. I get it can kind of be fun, but when you know they're wearing all this swag and you know talking just trash and all that, like when did that become a part of the game? Like that shouldn't be a part of it, like I just it's disrespectful in so many ways and on so many levels. So yeah, and it bleeds onto actual football, yeah it does yes.

Speaker 1 52:06

It teaches.

Speaker 2 52:07

So much bad habits they do. Yeah, you know, and there's nothing worse than when I go seven on seven and then the linebackers are sitting at eight yards and start backpedaling and you're like come on, All right.

Speaker 2 52:22

I'm going to run on this all day long, yeah, it's just. But yeah, that's the thing. I love sevens because it will take a quarterback that's inexperienced with receivers that's inexperienced and help develop their game and their craft. The hard part is, if we were to take them and put them in a tournament, they might not want to play anymore, right? Because I already know skill-wise they're not going to be able to match up with some of these other kids. So they're going to be made fun of. Now. Social media they're going to be on their highlight film, right?

Speaker 1 52:49

All these things yeah.

Speaker 2 52:50

And I'm like okay, and then it sucks, because I also want to teach them how to compete, but not to a point where it's going to be detrimental to them.

Speaker 1 52:58

Yeah, what would be your best piece of advice for a young athlete?

Speaker 2 53:03

My best advice would be focus on what's important. Like we always say, keep the main thing, the main thing Meaning. If you were to get a schedule of what yours look like, so, eight hours of sleep, eight hours of school, the free eight hours that you have, what are you doing? Doing the most of most of these kids are playing video games. So then you're like, okay, well, you play video games for four hours out of your eight free time, right, and then you're spending one hour football or whatever. Yeah, so you expect to be good at football when you put more time towards video game?

Speaker 2 53:40

Yeah, so my, my advice to all the athletes is put your time towards your effort. Yeah, like video games, not effort, right, you just grab stuff, you play, sure, but then effort is where you got to get up, you got to do stuff, do it. So if it's basketball, football, whatever sport it is, I don't even care if it's robotics, right. The thing is is put your time more towards this effort to make your effort easier, so it looks effortless. So what took you two hours takes you one hour. Now takes you 30 minutes, so you can start building upon that craft.

Speaker 1 54:14

Yeah, you know things like that yeah, it's the old um this the story goes you know, this plumber shows up and um, you know, he charges you know like ten thousand dollars to fix a washing machine or whatever it is, and he literally turns. You know, after looking at it for a minute, he turns like one bolt and they're like, wait, what? That's it. You're, yeah, we owe you ten thousand, you know, for that. And he's like, well, it wasn't ten thousand for turning that bolt, it's the ten thousand dollars, um, for my knowledge, to know what bolt that I needed to turn right. Because he's put in all that work over all those years and he has the experience now he can charge, you know that amount.

Speaker 2 54:55

Yeah, people's like, well, do you know how much I paid for me to get this knowledge? Yes, yeah, no, I, I agree. I mean it's like, oh, athletes get paid ridiculous amount of money. Like, well, they Do you know how much I paid for me to get this knowledge? Yes, yeah, no, I agree. I mean it's like, oh, athletes get paid a ridiculous amount of money. It's like, well, they also pay a lot to get to where they're at. Oh, yeah, it's tough. They put in the work. Yeah, they definitely do put in the work.

Tip Top Training and Seven-on-Seven Football

Speaker 2 55:13

I mean, and like for other athletes, to me it's find where you feel good. Right, because there's a lot of kids transferring everywhere, doing all these things. Like, find where you feel happy. Like, go find your happiness. Like for us, maybe it's not here, any kids would transfer out. My thing's like, hey, don't worry, it's okay. Like I don't take it personal. To me it's like go find your happiness, because high school experience should be the funnest times you had. So if you're here and you're not happy because playing time or whatever, then go find your happiness. Man, like I'd rather see you happy at another sideline than miserable on ours.

Speaker 1 55:52

Yeah, at the. You know before off the air, you mentioned um recruiting. I want you to just go ahead and say your statement again.

Speaker 2 56:02

As far as yeah, part of our creating a premier program here in the state of Utah is everybody's so focused on recruiting. For us, we don't recruit, we represent. And what I mean by that is we represent what we do, what we are, how we go about, our ways, what we do, our expectations, our standards. And if a lot of people love what we represent, then I can't help it. I'm not going to sit here and stiff arm all these kids that's trying to come here. Right, you know, but I'm not going to go out there and drive around and be like come here to Fremont. Yeah, you know, for me it's like our program and our kids are just going to do that. No, no Itself.

Speaker 1 56:41

I love it. Well, I think you're building something special here. I think you're going to have one of the premier programs in the state. If you're not already, you know one of them this next year. So I appreciate the time, Nate. Yeah, I look forward to seeing how you guys do this next year and, yeah, I'm excited for you guys. Hey man, Thanks man, Thanks for having me. Yeah, no problem, have a good one, guys. Bye.