From Magnet Cove to March Madness: How Hard Work Shaped Coach Josh Austin’s Calling (Part 1)

In this Lifework Podcast episode, Dr. Stan Norman sits down with Williams Baptist University head men’s basketball coach Josh Austin to trace how a small-town Arkansas upbringing, an IT-dad and jeans-factory-mom, and Saturdays filled with yard work—not screens—forged his relentless work ethic. 

Coach Austin shares stories from Magnet Cove, from spotlighting deer and folding Arizona jeans to getting pancaked by a future D‑end standout, and reflects on how his parents’ expectation-driven home and ag-style grit taught him that “winning” is a daily process, not just a final score. He also opens up about coming to faith as a boy on a back road in Wicks, Arkansas, how his mom quietly explained the gospel in a 1976 Ford pickup, and how that moment planted a relationship with Christ that would later deepen in college and ultimately shape his vocation as a Christian coach.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to the Life Work Podcast. Today our special guest is Coach Josh Austin. He serves as our head men's basketball coach, and you have been here a day or two, haven't you?

SPEAKER_02 0:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:13

How long have you been at Williams now? It's year 15. Wow, I don't think I knew. It was the I was thinking nine or ten, but fifteen? Yeah. Fifteen years. Okay. It's been a long time. Well, you had a great season this year, didn't you? Especially compared with where you were last year.

SPEAKER_02 0:32

Yeah, we did. We uh we were fortunate to get some good players in. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:38

Local guys. Yeah, yeah. And it made a noticeable difference in the crowd. A lot of parents and family members were coming to the ball games, and uh I would sit in the big middle of them, and all of a sudden I think I'm gonna get thrown out of this game because they were always all over the rest. At the last game, I think it was one of the one of the moms of one of your players. I was getting color commentary on the refs. Nothing about the game. She was all over every move they were making.

SPEAKER_02 1:08

I'm sure I know who who's that was.

SPEAKER_01 1:11

We will not say the name to protect the protect the guilty here. So for our listeners, they may not know much about the man, the myth, the legend, Joshua David, Austin. Your dad was a preacher, wasn't he?

SPEAKER_02 1:27

No, he wasn't. He wasn't. No, dad was uh he was an IT guy.

SPEAKER_01 1:33

I thought he was a pastor. No, no. Well, he certainly went all Old Testament on new, didn't he? With the name, Joshua David. Did he have any expectations that went along with that name? I'm sure he did, and he and I still haven't met him, I'm sure. I I will tell you this. Uh a few months ago, my father, who was in a nursing home in this area, went to visit with him and we're just talking, and I always try to engage him in conversation, get him to thinking about his family and and his life. He uh he's always ready to talk about those things, and he always wants to know about the school, especially the ag related stuff, because he grew up on a farm. And then there was a pause in that conversation. He said, You know, son, you've exceeded all my expectations. And my first thought was there were expectations. There were expectations. I didn't know there were expectations. And when did I cross over? How you know I'm in my 60s now. When did I cross over to finally meeting those or surpassing the expectations? So did you have any with the Joshua David on you?

SPEAKER_02 2:37

You know, I yeah, we we had expectations a lot in our house because I never met them. So I always was told I was reminded that I was not meeting those extra.

SPEAKER_01 2:50

You you're passing on that which you received your players tonight.

SPEAKER_02 2:53

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 2:54

So where's home?

SPEAKER_02 2:55

Where'd you grow up? Grew up in Magnet Cove, Arkansas. Magnet Cove is down around Hot Springs, Malvern area. Um that's uh it's God's country. Oh, is it? I thought that was Oklahoma.

SPEAKER_01 3:08

No, no. Oh, I think if you love Jesus when you die, what's the you go to God? You're the reason God made Oklahoma too. Yeah, that's the song. That's what they think.

SPEAKER_02 3:18

The only thing good out of Oklahoma was I-40, right? Wow.

SPEAKER_01 3:22

Are we gonna do this? Are we gonna throw this down now? So you grew up in Magnet Cove, Arkansas. So tell us about that. Tell our listeners who and what that was all about.

SPEAKER_02 3:33

Yeah, so um Magnet Cove is very similar to Walnut Ridge except for there's hills. Okay. There's elevation. Okay. There's uh Well, there is a ridge. That's right. Yeah. I still haven't found it. Um it's a small town. We uh Friday nights we would just we'd probably go out and spotlight deer. That's what we did. We would uh up and up. That's right. We uh we would go out hunting, we'd fish, we'd lay out trot lines, we um, you know, Friday nights were always shut down for football. And yeah, it was uh it was a small town that you know everyone knew everyone, and it was just like I said, very similar to here.

SPEAKER_01 4:19

So your dad was in IT. What does that mean? What did that look like for you guys?

SPEAKER_02 4:24

You know, we never really knew what dad did. Oh really? Yeah, we thought we thought he worked in the CIA that for a minute because we didn't understand. Uh I wasn't uh but no, he did. He worked with uh computers, he worked for systematics for a long time, then it was called uh uh Alltell Information Systems, and then it was Fidelity Information Systems, and what he would do is um basically he would manage a team and they would create this software and then go to uh banks or whatever and they would they would sell it and then he would program it.

SPEAKER_00 4:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 4:59

Uh so he did all that with a PE degree. So wow. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:04

Okay, so that's where you grew up. Your dad was involved in technology sector. Did your mom work outside the home?

SPEAKER_02 5:10

So my mom was a um she did. She was a manager at um uh Alf's Manufacturing, which was a uh gene company. They made uh Arizona jeans. Really? Yeah, and uh she was it was there in Malvern. Okay, and she was uh kind of a manager of that when we were growing up. So I did live in Oklahoma City for 10 years.

SPEAKER_01 5:38

Um I knew there was something I liked about you.

SPEAKER_02 5:41

Yeah, but I don't I don't claim Oklahoma, but she was just dead.

SPEAKER_01 5:45

You just did.

SPEAKER_02 5:46

And so like the first 10 years of my life before we moved to Magnet, um, she was a manager of a daycare. So she's always been working, and um then when Alps shut down, um mom took over uh mowing. Um my grandpa was the vice president over Altel at the time. It used to be now it's Verizon, uh, was uh Altell in Glenwood, Arkansas. Really? And he retired and he got bored, and he took up mowing the local Altel buildings, and my mom took it over, and then my mom's 60-something years old now, and uh probably up until probably about seven or eight years ago, she had like 65 yards that she mowed herself. Um, and so that's what we that's what we did.

SPEAKER_01 6:35

Okay, so there's a lot there to unpack. Yeah, this is where you're growing up. So tell us about how the work your parents did, how did that influence you? Um when when did you begin to pay attention to what your parents were doing and what were you seeing growing up from them?

SPEAKER_02 6:56

We saw hard work, and you know, dad, like I said, worked in IT, but it was you know, Saturday mornings were we had a childhood, but we didn't do like the normal like we would wake up in the morning on Saturday mornings and we would work. We would uh work out in the yard, work out doing something outside of the house um to help around. You know, that was the one thing that my parents instilled in all me, my brother, and my sister was that nothing is given. Like you need to go out and work, and um, you don't have to have money to work. You gotta, you know, this is something that God created us to do is to work. And and so didn't mean that we liked it and I didn't like it.

SPEAKER_01 7:43

Yeah, you you probably wanted to watch cartoons or go do stuff with your friends.

SPEAKER_02 7:48

That's right. But um, but nonetheless, you know, we we did. We they instilled in us, it was always you never you had to fight the laziness, but my parents were very good on holding us accountable and um never allowed us to really get settled into that. And and so it was every weekend we always knew we had to do some type of work, and and we didn't live on a farm. My dad grew up on a cattle and pig farm down in southwest Arkansas, down in Wicks, Arkansas, and so they were also chicken farmers, and um, you know, so he grew up with that, and so we never had a farm, but there was always stuff around. We had 17 acres, we would either be clearing land, mowing, doing something on those Saturday mornings, and so it was always a big deal.

SPEAKER_01 8:41

Are you the oldest sibling? I am okay, me too. We had to carry the others along with they they would want to dog it on the work and we'd have to come on, man. That's right. Come on. That's right. So what I'm hearing then is that farm ag work ethic that impacted your father, that really influenced his life and his work ethic, even though you weren't working on a working farm, so to speak, that kind of work ethic was passed on from him to you.

SPEAKER_02 9:16

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_01 9:17

Yeah. And your mom. So did you ever go to work with any of your parents? Go to work with your mom?

SPEAKER_02 9:23

So I never I would, you know, I went on a trip with my dad. You know, our vacations were always, you know, his dad was IT, so he would always travel a lot. So our vacations were revolved around him. Like if he went to work in North Carolina, we that's our vacation. We went to North Carolina. We took a vacation to Tupelo, Mississippi. Like, who goes to Tupelo, Mississippi for vacation?

SPEAKER_01 9:49

We're we're not gonna comment on that. There may be somebody from Tupelo listening.

SPEAKER_02 9:53

Hey, true. And um, and we did, and we and we enjoyed it, you know. Um, and so we would always go around that. Well, I remember one uh dad was in working in Atlanta. Uh I was a junior in high school, and he took me with him, and I got to be around his job, and um we got to I got to see him interact with clients, and and that was really cool. Mom at the gene gene factory, I mean, we would go there a lot, and and I remember Arizona jeans at that time, they had their own little store, and and mom would have uh have us, we would fold jeans every now and then to help because they had a little store out there. And I remember she would get the jeans for like five or ten dollars, and like that's what we wore was the Arizona jeans.

SPEAKER_01 10:41

I was about to say, yeah, did uh affect your uh styling growing up?

SPEAKER_02 10:46

It sure did. I had the I had the the tapered legs at the bottom, and I looked I looked pretty much.

SPEAKER_01 10:53

I wouldn't pay good money to see you in a pair of jeans like that today.

SPEAKER_02 10:56

That's right, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:58

Okay, so you're growing up in this hardworking family. Leisure time even included work, vacations included work, is that right?

SPEAKER_02 11:10

For someone, you know, even like you're right. Like like dad, we spent many times at residence inns and uh at the swimming pools, and that that was the thing we remembered so much because dad would work during the day uh wherever we were at. He would work, and um I one memory I have just as clear as day is I remember he rented a big van that we when we went to North Carolina and it had TV in it.

SPEAKER_00 11:38

Oh boy.

SPEAKER_02 11:38

Oh wow, it was you know, it was awesome. We you know, I remember that it was like like it was yesterday. We but yeah, it it always revolved around some type of work. It was it we never really um went just to all of us vacation, like dad was either working or someone was working wherever, even on vacation.

SPEAKER_01 12:00

So you're currently working as a collegiate level coach, and for every coach I've ever met, that passion, that desire, that calling, that career began somewhere in their growing up years through their own personal involvement and activities in athletics and sports. So I'm assuming you played sports growing up.

SPEAKER_02 12:23

I did. I football, basketball, and uh I ran track. I actually uh my claim to fame was I I couldn't jump, but I got fifth in district and high jump. So that was always that means there was probably there was probably only five people that were jumping. That was probably the reason why. But um yeah, like we, you know, football and basketball, and I loved uh I loved really competing in both of those, and I had um I I I thought, you know, we I was blessed to have good years doing both of them.

SPEAKER_01 12:55

Um and this is in Magnet Cove.

SPEAKER_02 12:57

That was at Magnet Code, yeah. And um, you know, basketball was always like on the back burner as the sport, but the thing we were blessed with was we were blessed with coaches that instilled in us like it didn't matter what we did, you know, winning was the goal. And and so I remember we would get beat, we'd always go deep in the football playoffs, and we would always have to turn around. We'd get beat on Friday night, and we'd have to turn around and play a basketball game on Monday. And so we'd practice Saturday and Sunday to get ready for Monday, and there was no excuse. You you're expected to win on Monday. And we would it's crazy. We'd always be teamed up with a team called Benton Harmony Grove, which now they have football, but they didn't have football at the time. And so they already had like ten ten games under their belt in basketball, and by the time we played them on Monday, you know, they already had 10 games, and we would be expected to beat them. Did you? And we did a few times, we did. We beat them. And uh it was just that that that winning, and that's the thing my parents also instilled in me and my my siblings was you winning is not a result, it's the process. It's it's what you're doing every day. Are you that's why they would always fight us about being lazy because you're not winning, you're not they wouldn't use those words, but they would under they would instill in us that hey, it's a process and you need to focus on every second trying to do the best you can at what you're doing. And um and usually the result will come out, you know.

SPEAKER_01 14:45

Did you have a favorite sport?

SPEAKER_02 14:48

I loved basketball. I loved basketball because I was better at it.

SPEAKER_01 14:54

Um so what position did you play in football?

SPEAKER_02 14:57

And football is a tight end.

SPEAKER_01 14:59

Okay, so you you had at least three on the ground, if not four or three. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:04

Yeah, yeah. So I would, yeah, three on the ground and um and I and I did. I loved it. I love tied in because I got to hit someone because you're you're basically a wide receiver on the offensive line. And so I got to hit someone and then also catch the ball every now and then.

SPEAKER_01 15:22

Do you remember a game? Football that we'll move into basketball. Do you but do you remember a game that you felt a particular challenge or you went up against someone that was kind of overwhelming or intimidating, or or what is a memory from all of that?

SPEAKER_02 15:38

Yeah, I mean I I use that story. I use a story of that all the time with uh a player that we we played again, we played against Beardon High School, which was a powerhouse, and they had a defensive end named Purvis Osborne, and he was a beast. He was a beast. And I remember going into that year, that was the year that our our coach called me in and uh tried to pump up my head, telling me he said, You're projected as one of the best tight ends in the state. And I that was ringing in my head. Well, then when I saw Pervis, I realized real quick that I'm not as good as what he coach thinks I am.

SPEAKER_01 16:17

So how did the night go?

SPEAKER_02 16:19

Oh, I spent the majority of my night on my back. Really? Yeah, he he would bulldoze me and go kill our quarterback, and our quarterback was Mike May, who's actually over the Fellowship of Christian athletes in the whole state of Arkansas right now. Okay. And uh he was the quarterback, and uh Micah was was a really he was all state quarterback, but he spent a lot of his time on the ground too.

SPEAKER_01 16:42

So you you brought up FCA, that's let's get into um discussing growing up in faith, faith in the Lord. So was it a Christian home? Did you grow up in going to church?

SPEAKER_02 16:55

Yes, sir. Yeah. We um mom and dad both um dad was was the spiritual leader in the family, and then as years went on, it was crazy how mom took that role. Like it was it wasn't that they were competing against each other, it was just different types of spiritual leadership uh that we were getting. Mom was very um very just like uh very adamant that we had a prayer life. And um and that's how and that's how mom is to this day. I mean, I'm 45 and my mom will call me after what we got beat in the championship game. She called me, you know, Jesus still loves you. I'm like, yeah, I know mom. Like I wish the refs did. That's right. That's right. But um, and then dad was dad was very adamant on just living that life, living the Christian life. And um, you know, it I the way I like the picture is dad was he would help show us how to live when people saw, and mom was showing us like what do you do in the closet? You know, that's what's important because what you do in the closet is what people are gonna see outside.

SPEAKER_01 18:12

So when did you give your life to the Lord? Tell us what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_02 18:15

I was young, I was young. I was in a 1976 Ford pickup, and we were in Wicks, Arkansas, and we were traveling from one grandparent's house to the other, and I had to have been around eight or nine, but I remember asking my mom, she was driving, and I remember asking her the questions of Mom, what happens, you know, after you die? You know, I know about I've heard about heaven and and hell. Like, how do you get to heaven? And at that time I remember mom um uh just explained it to me. You know, she didn't preach it, she explained it. And I feel like sometimes that's where we can mess it up where we preach it too much and instead of explaining what this really means. And she did. And I remember I s at that time we pulled over, it was at a welding shop there in Wicks, Arkansas. Wow, yeah. And uh to this day, every time I drive by it, I just it's brings tears to my eyes. But um and right then that she explained to me what I'm supposed to do on how to turn my life over to the Lord. And and I did at that moment. And I remember getting to my grandmother's house, and that was the first thing my mom said, said, Hey, tell me mom what you did. And and I did. And but it wasn't until later on in life that I realized that this is a relationship. This is not just a one-done thing. Like this is that the Lord really wants a relationship with you, and so it wasn't until later until I got into college. Now I lived my life, I've lived my life as as the Lord is my bot as the Lord of my life. But it wasn't until I got to college I'm like, okay, wait a minute, this needs to go to a different level. And that's when the Lord dealt with me then, too.

SPEAKER_01 20:12

Okay, well, I want to stop there with a cliffhanger. Okay. On this episode, and then can we pick it up in the next episode and let you walk us through what that looked like in college, and then I want to explore your calling and when you begin to sense that calling and how that played out in terms of your faith, in terms of your passions, in terms of a sense of vocation. Are you good with that? Absolutely. Okay, thanks. Yes, sir.