More Than a Coach: The Leadership Every Young Athlete Needs

A young athlete will eventually forget the final score.

They won't forget the coach who believed in them.

In this episode, Greg sits down with Brandon Gulley educator, mentor, and founder of the Student Athlete Leadership Academy to discuss why the greatest impact we can have on young people has very little to do with sports.

Wins fade. Highlights disappear. Trophies collect dust.

Character remains.

Greg and Brandon explore what today's student-athletes are really struggling with: comparison, social media, identity, confidence, and the pressure to perform in a world that's constantly watching.

They discuss why so many kids simply want to be seen, why parents often don't realize the influence they have, and how mentors can help shape a young person's future long after the game ends.

The conversation moves beyond athletics into leadership, responsibility, resilience, accountability, and purpose. Whether you're raising children, leading a business, coaching a team, or trying to become a better mentor, the principles shared in this episode extend far beyond the field.

One idea surfaces again and again:

Young people don't just need instruction.

They need someone who genuinely cares enough to invest in who they're becoming.

Because the greatest coaches don't build better athletes.

They build better people.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

They don't give a fuck whether or not you are a good athlete going to college. Your coach cares. If you don't have a good coach, good luck. And then if your parents aren't college athletes, what connections do they have? How much can we impact a kid's journey and success?

SPEAKER_02 0:15

So a lot of athletes feel like they're not seeing. We see them, letting them know that these skills are transferable to life because your clock will stop at some point in time.

SPEAKER_01 0:25

What do you think is the most important thing you're doing with Imagine Athlete? If you had to boil it down, what do you think that one thing is? I believe that reg Venner Podcast here with Brandon Gully, the man, the legend. Looks like you're still lifting. A little bit. Traps are looking strong.

SPEAKER_02 0:50

Gotta stay in shape, man. These these these kids are trying.

SPEAKER_01 0:55

So uh we had a good friend of yours on the podcast a little while in uh alumni, Coach Hunt. And um you are also an Annapolis High alumni. We are the same age. We are class of 2001. The greatest class. One of the greatest classes of all time. And so you're doing a lot of work in the community helping athletes at all high schools with a nonprofit. Talk to me about what you're doing right now, why you're doing it, what the name is. I mean, you're giving back.

SPEAKER_02 1:42

Yeah. So uh we are imagining an athlete. Um we we started this because we felt like there was a need. Uh I graduated from college in 2006, uh, worked at Annapolis High School as a student advocate, walked the hall to the same high school that we went to, the the lunchroom cutting up. And uh the following year I coached and uh coached for about three or four years, developed some good relationships with some student athletes. Um, and when those guys became adults and graduated from college, they said, uh, how can we, how can we help? How can we get back? So I started questioning them like, hey, so what is this guy doing? What is that guy doing? Started naming off some good kids who had potential where they they couldn't went to college. They went nowhere, right? They were at home chilling on a couch. So I'm asking myself, like, why is that happening? What could we have done better? Or what could we do? How can we get back immediately?

SPEAKER_01 2:45

Right. So guys came back, they want to give back. Yeah. You're thinking, how can we do this? How can we help? You're currently working at Annapolis High full time? Yes. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 2:59

I was working at Annapples High. Well, coaching, yes, but when this idea came about of Imagined Athlete, I was working at the Phoenix Academy as a crisis interventionist. Yes. So uh the vice president of Imagine an Athlete is a former player of mine, Terrence Brown Lee.

SPEAKER_00 3:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:16

So he he gave me a call at the graduating from college and said, Hey coach, I need a job.

SPEAKER_01 3:21

So so Phoenix is the same Phoenix that when we were growing up. It's like when you get kicked out of school, you go there and it's you've been expelled, right? It's it's looking at the case. Or you have behavioral issues or or what? What is it now? I don't even know.

SPEAKER_02 3:41

Considered the last stop for a student, but sometimes kids get placed there for 45 days depending on while they got you know asked to leave the school. Yeah. But now it's a little bit more polished in a sense of uh they're there to serve students of all abilities.

SPEAKER_01 4:00

Right. So you go there if you need a little reset.

SPEAKER_02 4:04

Yes. Or you want to be in a smaller classroom. Uh-huh. Uh it it has changed now because the location of Phoenix Academy is now Mary Mars. So those those two schools and location switched. So the Mary Mars folks came over to the location of the Phoenix Academy. The Phoenix Academy folks went over to the Mary Mars location.

SPEAKER_00 4:24

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 4:25

Yeah, so working there, and uh we started off as the uh student athlete leadership academy. Uh-huh. We hosted a seven on seven at the Boys and Girls Club.

SPEAKER_00 4:36

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 4:37

Great, great time, great turnout. And uh a lot of people ask, like, what's next?

SPEAKER_00 4:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:42

So that's when we got into you know COVID happening, and we got into the mental health, yeah, and just figuring out how we can best serve the modern athletes.

SPEAKER_01 4:51

Yeah. So what is I know there's a million different things because every kid's got a different issue. Right. But what do you think is the most important thing that you're doing with Imagine Athlete? Like if you had to boil it down to one thing that you're like, this is the meat and potatoes. Because again, everybody's got a million different things they need support on to get to the next level. Um, but what do you think that one thing is?

SPEAKER_02 5:24

I believe that we see them. So a lot of athletes feel like they're not seen. Um, and like you said, we we provide a lot of resources, but seen from like a parenting perspective? I think the landscape of being a student athlete has changed. Uh social media, guys want to have you know the pictures, the highlights, and all of that stuff, and they figure that they're not gonna be successful because they don't have uh a 30-second highlight every week. Yeah, they're kind of unsure of where uh their athletic career continues.

SPEAKER_01 5:58

So they got some FOMO, like resource FOMO.

SPEAKER_02 6:01

Yes. So we're there to see them and also ask them what do they need. And from what we've seen, they need presence. They need people who care.

SPEAKER_01 6:14

Um And where are they not getting are they not getting it in the home? Are they not getting it on the actual teams that they're on? Like like get let's get let's get into this.

SPEAKER_02 6:25

Okay, I I think that they are getting it from the team. I think the the parent may be unfamiliar how to support the athlete. Yeah. So I think if if you're so like the other eight hours, right?

SPEAKER_01 6:39

You're in school for eight hours, you sleep for eight hours, the other eight is where you guys live. Yes. You're like Starbucks' third place. We are, we definitely are. And and so from a resources perspective and being seen, it's an athlete, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, I'm processing all of it. It's an athlete that has the abilities but doesn't have the mental component of it because they're looking around. This kid has more than them, or they got highlight reels, or they go to St. Mary's, or they go to Spaulding, and who the hell am I, or I'm not good enough, or I don't know how to get to college, and you're the pillar of strength in the storm, and you're like, dog. You don't need a 30-second highlight reel. You need to show up on practi to practice on time and execute at high level and do these things and then go to these camps. And so you're kind of you guys are mentoring.

SPEAKER_02 7:45

Yes, and also letting them know that these skills are transferable to life because we want you to win on the field, but yeah, winning off the field is is the most important because 100%. Your your clock will stop at some point in time. Yeah, and we figured that, well, not figured, but we've seen a lot of athletes, you know, they they don't know what they like, they don't know themselves without a particular sport.

SPEAKER_01 8:08

So let's figure out identity stuff.

SPEAKER_02 8:10

Yes. What would you like? How do I go about surviving in this world when my name is not being called?

SPEAKER_00 8:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:18

Or people are not cheering, looking up to me, or admiring me for my athletic ability. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:24

Yeah, that's cool. I use sports all the time as the greatest example of how to build resilience and perseverance and all of the skills necessary to be successful. But if you don't have somebody bringing that to your attention, it's almost like Mr. Miyagi.

SPEAKER_00 8:50

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 8:52

Where he's like waxing all day and painting the fence all day, and he's like, when am I gonna learn karate? And then he starts attacking him, and he's like, And he thought he was just waxing and painting, and in reality, he was learning the fundamentals, and not until it was brought to his attention did he have any understanding of what he was doing. And so it sounds like that's what you guys are doing, right? Like, hey, being on time for practice is the same as being on time for a job. Yes. Okay. So how come you guys aren't larger than you are? Lack of resources for you guys, or you want a small focused footprint?

SPEAKER_02 9:41

I want to say lack of resources, but we a lot of times people may not believe what we're doing is important. Who? Certain coaches. So they they may feel like, hey, it's cool that you're doing that, but my kids may not need that.

SPEAKER_00 9:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:58

Until they come to an event and actually see what we do, what we talk about. Then it's like, oh, I get it.

SPEAKER_00 10:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:05

And that's a recent conversation that I had with a coach that was like, hey, I didn't get it the first go round, but the second go around I did. And that's when a company I talked to my business partner and say, hey, we we have to make people believe that what we're doing is right for the kids. And people will say, Well, hey, well, if you're doing it for the kids, well, all everyone should should be able to buy in. Everyone should be able to see it. That's not always the case.

SPEAKER_01 10:32

When is that ever the case? It's not it's it's it's never when when is when does anybody see what they're supposed to see and do what they should do out of the uh you know, goodness of their heart? That rarely ever happens, right? So, where do you guys get your funding right now?

SPEAKER_02 10:52

So we we are blessed to uh have a couple donors uh locally in the city of Annapolis.

SPEAKER_00 11:00

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 11:00

And uh people who believe in the vision, uh they they they really do support us. And we we come off of that pockets ourselves. We we have a I want to say fairly large team, but we have enough guys to where if we need something to get it done, then you know we we will definitely go in that pockets and get it done.

SPEAKER_01 11:20

So do you guys so to flip the script a little bit on on you all, because it sounds like you're doing an unbelievable job with the kids, and Coach Hunt said that you are, and um, I know who you are, so I'm assuming that is also true. But so do you guys, from a organizational perspective, have a mentor helping you grow like you're helping athletes grow? No. Hmm. We don't. The teacher becomes the student, or the student becomes the teacher.

SPEAKER_02 11:54

That's that's that's a personal goal for me.

SPEAKER_01 11:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:57

Because I want to expand, I want to work with more sports. You know, a lot of times people are like, well, you guys just do football. We do football because we have relationships with those coaches, and it's easy as easy for us to access those those team athletes.

SPEAKER_01 12:13

Yeah. That's interesting because you know, my dad was in nonprofit work his whole his whole career. Okay. So I grew up with a dad that was always raising money for nonprofit, you know, for for helping people and and everything else. And so I understand how one, how hard it is to do it, and two, from a completely different perspective of business, how hard it is to brand and scale and market your organization while you're full-time trying to help everybody else. Because it's like, well, when are you gonna have the time to do all the things that you need to do while you're helping all these kids that that need to be helped? So how many people are you helping right now? Like how many students? Currently? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:17

Uh 300, 300, 350?

SPEAKER_01 13:22

Yeah. Yeah. And so that's how many people are in the organization? Nine. Okay. And so, and you're limited, basically, you're doing it mostly in Anneron County. Yes. And you think you could branch out and do more if you had more resources and and more people to help? Definitely. Yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_02 13:46

So the this past spring we we we do a development clinic at Annapolis High School.

SPEAKER_00 13:51

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 13:51

Uh, and we we partnered with True Sports. They came in who was one of our presenters. They did some sports performance and recovery stuff.

SPEAKER_01 13:59

But also Are they up in Glen Burney? At the Moose Lodge. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 14:03

That's one of their locations based out of uh the Moose Lodge. Yep. Okay, keep going. Uh so we had uh two other gentlemen to come in and do some uh team building, character building, uh workshops with the guys. But uh the participants for that event, we had three schools in Anarona County. We had Annapolis Seventh School North County, we had one school from Montgomery County, one school from Howard County, one school from Prince George's County, and one school from Baltimore County. So the goal is to repeat this event in those counties with more teams and pour into those individuals the same way we do at Annapolis. And that's the goal for next summer. So we we've done two this one this year. We also held a seven-on-seven tournament in uh Prince George's County. But we want to expand, we want to give these development clinics what we have to offer, uh, team building. And you know, we we we survey the coaches like, hey, what do your guys need? Because we know certain topics may not benefit certain programs, so we really want to cater to those audience. What what what what are what are things that you're hearing from your players? Or what are some things you want your players to do?

SPEAKER_01 15:17

And what's in Apples Highs, or we won't call it an Apples High School specifically. Yeah. What is a public school need versus a private school need if you had to put those two in buckets? Are they the same or are they different?

SPEAKER_02 15:35

I think they're the same. Um Anna Ronal County, generally speaking, okay uh I think private schools may have a little bit more many a couple, they have more resources on on deck. If they want to call it mental health, sports performance, yeah, they they'll label it uh different things that um that's how it's advertised. They don't have those things at at uh the public school. They have to figure it out on their own. Yeah, the parent or someone who cares about them may have to pull them aside and and have a conversation.

SPEAKER_00 16:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:19

So I I didn't know kids they didn't eat lunch. Like you're gonna go out to practice two and a half hours and you have not fueled your body all day.

SPEAKER_01 16:31

Yeah. I mean, it's we sponsored um St. Francis in Baltimore for a couple years when they were like, you know, number one or number two in the country uh from a food perspective. Right. So these are the most elite high school football players in the country, and their tailgate was like a bag of Pringles and a lollipop. And so when we were uh at Tessie Mays, we basically committed to like funding and making and delivering all of their tailgates for all of their home games and then giving them a nutrition plan and um just allocating and explaining the significance of food. Yes. And so this is at the time I think they were ranked number two in the United States of America. Wow. And they don't have food after tailgates. And then you you know, Annapples High is its own animal. I mean the school lunch is a piece of shit. It's the same thing it's always been, I'm assuming. Square pizza one day, that dirty ass uh steak sub that was delicious. Right chicken patty sandwich that you could take and toss over like a frisbee. Like there's no nutrition in there, but at least it's calories. Right. Um so you're embarking on this whole thing. Why? Is it because you felt like you didn't have the resources in high school to go where you should have gone?

SPEAKER_02 18:29

Yes. Um I had the physical attributes of a Division I player, but I had a high school work ethic. And I was academically immature. That's what I like to say. I went the junior college route. Dr. Jane Good, uh, she was the reason that uh myself, she she took us on a visit. Myself, Trayvon Williams, Keon McHel, and Camaro Henson. Dr. Good said, hey guys, my sister's a uh professor at Brown University, but there's a junior college nearby in Franklin, Massachusetts that I want you guys to go check out. Uh-huh. So she flew us up to Rhode Island. We toured Brown University, which was cool. Yeah. But then we went over to Dean Junior College in Franklin, Massachusetts. And to me, it felt like St. John's in downtown Annapolis.

SPEAKER_00 19:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:21

I had that feeling. Okay, no problem. This is home for me.

SPEAKER_00 19:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:24

Uh we went to visit, I want to say, sometime in February. And right then and there, I knew I was going to junior college.

SPEAKER_00 19:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:30

But also, uh going through that, so my first year of the only start as a freshman, uh, first game, first game of the year, double-digit tackles, second game 9-11 happens. No. We were supposed to play uh Navy prep at Navy in New York, but the game got canceled. Uh, but end up in practice, having an injury, uh, breaking my ankle basically, clean break. I thought it was an Achilles tear. I'm rehabbing like crazy, talking about I'm ready to go. Yeah. The school's like, hey, go go get a go get an X-ray just to make sure. Yeah. Clean break. Put that walking boot back on. Your season is done.

SPEAKER_00 20:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:11

So turn around second year and have a really good, successful year. Defensive MVP for the team. Uh, we weren't really good as a team, yeah. But you know, junior college, there are a lot of good players. It's just tough to get that winning camaraderie. Yeah. And you're only there for two years.

SPEAKER_01 20:27

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 20:28

Yeah. So, but working in the school system, I always felt like how further along in life would I have been if I would have had someone who looked like me walking the hallways saying, hey, don't do that. Stay at the school to get help. You need a ride? Okay, I got you. Let's get in the weight room. If these are your goals, then this is what you need to do.

SPEAKER_01 20:51

Or just anybody, right? Let alone uh a dude that's the size of you that looks like you. Like, that's fucking icing on the cake. Yeah. How about anybody? Yes. How about anybody going, hey buddy? Like, I'll give you a great example. My daughter's uh going to uh new high school. We met with the principal, head of school, whatever you want to call it. And she had this hilarious way, she goes, I lead from the sidelines with a chicken wing. And I go, what the hell does that mean? She goes, Well, you know, all the girls are gonna do what they want to do because she's going to an all-girls school. And but if they say, Hey, I want to go to an Ivy League school, I look at the classes that they're taking and I say, Hey, if you want to go to this thing that you just told me, you're not doing any of these things. Well, I don't really want she goes, boop, chicken wing, you're doing it now. Oh. She goes, Okay, hey, I want to go to this school and I want to this. Okay, well, are you doing this in the fall and this in the winter? And they go, Well, I don't really boop chicken wing, you're doing it now. And that simple conversation and that just level of effort, which is not a lot. Right. We had no chicken wing. We didn't. We had nobody standing on the sidelines going, Hey man, you're pretty big. You're pretty fast. You could probably go to these schools with the current speed and strength and whatever metrics. So if you don't like these schools, maybe you should get a little faster and this is how you do it. Or a little stronger and this is how you do it. Or a little bit better grades and this is how you do it. Because I remember me specifically, I got recruited by every, let's say, smart Division I school. Okay. Right? Not every Division I school, but every smart one. And I remember getting all these letters and being like, holy shit, I can't believe I'm getting recruited by these Ivy League schools and these schools and these. And I remember sending in my GPA and them going, oh man, that was close. I'm like, but I'm in all honors and AP classes. They go, we don't give a shit about that. We need the GPA to be something. I'm like, so what did I just spend three years taking all honors and AP classes, thinking I'm doing something that someone's gonna care about, and y'all don't care? And like, you know, it's it's your fucking problem. Now, everything ended up working out, hooray for me, right? I went to a good D3 school, I was an all-American, I met my wife, I played professionally for a couple years. So, in the grand scheme of things, like, did it work out? Yeah, sure. It wasn't easy. And I hear what you're doing for these kids, and the reason I asked you why you're doing it is because I know why you're doing it. It's the same reason we're having this conversation, and it's the same thing I tell my kids every single day, which is like everybody's talented in some way, shape, or form athletically, right? And I and I actually do believe that. I mean, if you put in work, you can get faster, you can get stronger, you can get better skills, you can do all of these things. If someone's honest with you, they're doing it out of true intentions, because I think that's probably what you're doing for these kids is like you're not a fucking asshole about it. You're telling them what it needs to be with no other ulterior motives, and then it's their choice whether or not they do it or not. Right. And, you know, I do think about the lack of guidance and the FOMO that's currently happening, probably with these kids because of social media and how much that must fuck these kids' heads up because we didn't have any of that shit. No, it was a mystery, which in some instances maybe that was a little worse because you're like, how the hell are these people doing this? Who are they? Right, you know, they must be, and I was talking to Hunt about this because we were talking about like Marcus Neal and Marcus Johnson and Thomas, like they were the best fucking basketball players I've ever seen ever, and they weren't going anywhere. And you're like, how? How? How is this possible? You're telling me these kids I'm watching on TV are better than these dudes doing 360 one-hand dunks and shooting three-pointers and playing phenomenal defense. I'm like, I just I don't I don't believe it. And the reality is is those guys were just as good. They just didn't have Imagine Athlete helping them figure out the course, making the phone calls that now Hunt's making on behalf of his players. I heard one of those guys now just committed to Auburn, yes, which is crazy. Annapolis high guy going to Auburn the fuck? Forestar, I believe. Dude, I mean that's crazy talk.

SPEAKER_02 26:33

That's crazy. And and that's one of the things where I would look at those kids that I coached and said, this kid could have gone somewhere. Yes. Why not? Why didn't he go?

SPEAKER_01 26:44

A hundred percent, man. And you know, I do think my recommendation to you, and you're not asking me for it, but I don't care. I'm gonna tell you what I think anyway, is like you guys need to allocate a portion of your time to getting your message out there, right? Because it sounds like a hundred percent of what you're doing right now is just helping kids. Yes. Well, it sounds like you need more funding so that you can then hire more people so you can help more kids. And if you're not allocating a certain percentage of your time to develop the organization like you're developing these kids, then you're basically just gonna sit stay the same size forever, right? So I mean, yeah, I would I would start allocating a portion of your time to that because I don't, you know, it hits home for me hard, you know, and it it hits home for probably my brother Brian as well, because he wasn't gonna go to college, he had to go to prep school. Um same thing, you know, like enables high, okay, great school, sure. Like they don't give a fuck. They don't give a fuck whether or not you are a good athlete going to college. Like your coach cares. And your coach only cares if you get a good coach. If you don't have a good coach, good luck. Nobody cares. And then if your parents aren't college athletes, which mine weren't, what connections do they have? Zero. Work hard. Well, and you know, thank God. I mean, I have the greatest privilege that was ever given, which is like a two-parent household privilege that they loved me because like they didn't even the funniest thing ever is like my dad. I think me and Brian were both playing professionally together, and he was like, Wow, man, you guys really turned out good. I mean, he's like, Maybe we should have provided you with some more resources. I'm like, Yeah, that that probably would have been helpful, but you know, it all worked out, so whatever. You know, you guys were there. Um, and then the other joke with him is like, because I sucked for so long. I'm like, thank God my dad didn't know anything about lacrosse because he would have looked at me in eighth grade and been like, you need to hang this shit.

SPEAKER_02 29:16

Those called ride homes from practice, like, hey man, uh I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 29:22

Dude, he didn't know shit. So he's telling me on the ride home. You looked amazing out there. I go, I suck. I'm fucking horrible. I'm the worst person on our team. He's like, no, no, you look fast, you look so fast. I go, I got in for four seconds. I am horrible. That sprint out and that sprint back in. Dude, and he's like, no, Greg, no, you're good. I'm like, you don't know what you're talking about. Uh, but I'm actually really grateful he didn't know what he was talking about. And that's actually a lesson I try and keep in the back of my head with my kids when they're younger. Because it's like we're analyzing these kids almost too aggressively, too young. We're not putting it on a timeline chart with metrics that need to be hit with reminders of where they are, right? So the United States has a massive uh club sport burnout problem.

SPEAKER_02 30:31

Do you know what the I I'm just learning about club sports and the recruiting process with uh soccer and lacrosse. It's crazy. No, no idea that it had that effect on uh sports in high school with recruiting.

SPEAKER_01 30:48

The average age for burnout of kids right now in the United States of America is 13. Now tie that into this thing they call the seventh grade slump. The seventh grade slump is there because that's when some kids hit puberty and some kids don't. So the kids that don't hit it, these coaches are screaming in their fucking faces that they suck or that they're slow, and at the end of the day, they're just their balls haven't dropped yet. You know? And so, like, we're not leading and managing these kids properly and looking at these milestones properly of all of this stuff before puberty. This should be just habit forming, love of the game, skill performing, learning to compete, having you know the right mindset, the right kind of endurance and work ethic and preparation process. Because when those balls drop, you're either going to the moon because puberty's on your side, yes, or you're fucked.

SPEAKER_02 32:08

Everything that that transferable, everything that you were you were practicing now, okay. I got it. Now it's on.

SPEAKER_01 32:15

It's on. Or it's not on.

unknown 32:17

Right.

SPEAKER_01 32:18

And you've got maybe you've got an unbelievable amount of work ethic and character and wisdom, and you've overcome adversity in those years, that whatever you choose to do after puberty uh is going to be more successful because of how you know competitive you were as a young kid. But I think about my dad not understanding anything about lacrosse and me in eighth grade being horrible, but then hitting puberty that summer, growing basically a foot, getting fast as shit, making varsity as a freshman, going to play like if you were a betting man in eighth grade, is Greg Vetter going anywhere? The answer is a hard fucking no. It's a hard no. And you know, you look and you look at that, and again, to tie it back to Imagine Athlete and everything else that was going on, I don't know how. I think I pulled it off out of anger and rage. Same with me. Because I was so mad that there was no help, and I was doing it almost as like a middle fingers up, and I was really mad. I remember all these kids at private schools had committed to like the biggest schools on the fucking planet, and I'm sitting here, you know, with nothing, and I remember just being so pissed off and just being like, I'm gonna fucking prove these dudes wrong. Now, it didn't have to be that hard for me. If, for example, an Imagine Athlete advisor was walking through an Apples High School and saying, Hey, Greg, you know, you're pretty fast. You made varsity as a freshman. If you have above this GPA and you, you know, keep growing, and here are your strength metrics, and here are your speed metrics, this is what you're gonna have available to you. I would have done high school completely different. Definitely. Completely different. I got so I won, you may not know this, almost every accolade our senior year, but I had to choose which one I wanted. So, you know, like uh most comical, life of the party, Mr. Panther, you know, so I I won almost everyone except for most athletic, which pissed me off. But that's neither here nor there. But look, so they go, but you can only choose one. Do you know what I chose? What's in the yearbook? No. Life of the party. That's what I wanted. Out of all of them. Life of the party, because that is the only thing I cared about at an apples high, was are we throwing the most epic parties imaginable all the time? And you look back as like a fucking parent, and it's like, dude, that's important. Having fun's important. It is getting in trouble is important. Trouble that doesn't stay on your record. Right. But like, I want you to get in trouble. I want you to fuck around, test the limits, you know, get in a couple fights. Obviously, don't kill anybody. You should know how to fist fight. I'm not advocating for doing anything illegal, but you know, if no one's there, you know, yeah. Let's we'll have that on a separate podcast. But like, that can't be the only focus of your high school tenure is throwing the best parties imaginable. That's probably not gonna end well for you. No.

SPEAKER_02 36:27

And and I'm sure, you know, guys who who who didn't have the grit, who who wanted to transfer that into uh successful athletic career or academic career, or or who just wanted to go to college. Some guys just, hey, I want to be known as the guy who wants a party. Yeah, and that's it. But similar to you, man, I was I was I played youth league two years, but I was overweight. That's because they had the 140. They they had it wasn't unlimited back then.

SPEAKER_01 36:56

It's well, I think it should be weight classes still. Like, why is it unlimited?

SPEAKER_02 37:02

I'm not sure. I think because the size of the kids, kids probably wouldn't be able to play. Yeah. No shit. Kids, kids just big as hell. I was one of those kids who was big as hell. My brother, he's four years older than me. I watched him play every game from what, 1994 until he graduated, until I came into high school, and I would read those papers every Friday and look, lean tacklers, touchdown, interception, all of that. And I couldn't wait to get to high school because I'm like, well, I'm up next. I I wasn't, you know, someone who was looked at as a good athlete or football player, high school or middle school. It took time.

SPEAKER_01 37:44

Yeah, I mean, I'm not super deep in the intricacies of Annapolis high football, but from an outsider looking in, you looked like a pretty mean motherfucker. You're walking around the halls like you were fucking giant. That's a big thing for football. You had a cowboy collar, didn't you?

SPEAKER_02 38:06

No, it wasn't that cool.

SPEAKER_01 38:08

You didn't have a cowboy collar? No collar. I could have sworn if I was a betting man. I thought I had I thought you wore that shit. Keon had a cowboy collar. Okay. Keon had a cowboy collar. Um yeah, but I remember you fucking playing great. Big tackles. You were getting it done.

SPEAKER_02 38:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:28

What were you, number 54?

SPEAKER_02 38:30

54.

SPEAKER_01 38:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:31

That was my brother's number.

SPEAKER_01 38:32

Yeah, you were play play the same position. Yeah, you were getting that shit done. Yeah. But it is interesting, this concept of resources and support. And it I guess it goes back to nurture or nature, you know, because we found a way without any support. But you give some people a lot of support, nothing turns out at all. Like I had a guy that worked for me at Tessie Mays, and he went to fucking Boys Latin, played sports at Boys Latin, and he's working on our fucking manufacturing line putting caps on bottles. So what's his excuse? Yeah. Because he had every resource. I mean, that's an elite institution. That's not an apple side school. It's not. And so, you know, how much can we actually help and impact a kid's journey and success? I guess that's the real question.

SPEAKER_02 39:38

I think we we try to give them what they asked for or what we think they need. And it's it's hard to measure that, but uh we have some success stories where we have kids uh going to college or just even going to the military. And that's what we want. We want those guys to uh to have options. Like, hey, you don't have to go to a specific go to you, you if you don't want to go to college, fine. Let's find your trade school. You don't go to trade school, fine. Let's find the military. Neither one of those work. Let's find a career that you can be successful in, but use those transferable skills that you learn in sports, being on time.

SPEAKER_01 40:25

Well, and now more than ever, dude. I mean, trades, those dudes are making a shitload of money. Military? Faster. With no debt. Faster. Off top. Coming to fix a fucking air conditioner. Guess what? It's the summer. There's an emergency fee. Guess what? That bill's not going to be cheap. And, you know, it's funny because there's been a million books on this. I wrote a book on it. It's called Fix Shit. And we have just gotten away from the ability, one, to fix anything. And but two, like, it's no longer a part of our curriculum. We're not teaching anybody how to fucking make anything or fix anything. You know, we teach them to sit quietly in a classroom and politely raise their hand. Is that how you get the starting job on a uh, you know, Division I football team quietly sitting in place and raising your fucking hand? You better be a maniac. You gotta be a maniac. And that same skill in entrepreneurship, same shit, dude. You think I built the businesses that I built quietly sitting in a chair and raising my fucking hand? Now I will say, going back to planning parties, that is a transferable skill to entrepreneurship. Right. Because you're giving the customer what they want. And the customer's coming back. And the product is good. The product is good. Right. And you got to understand these things. But it it is just such an interesting concept, and one that I am really interested in watching and observing you do over time, which is like what is the recipe for success on this nurture versus nature combination of taking people that have abilities that want help, giving them resources, and then seeing where they go with it? Right? Because it really is, if you figure out that formula, I mean, your reach could be unlimited. Right? So because there is this thing of like what aspect of this is the most significant to someone's success? Now there have been books written on it, and one Harvard psychologist boiled it all down, and she said it's just basically grit. And so, okay, it's grit. Can we help people get gritty? I don't know. Me neither.

SPEAKER_02 43:24

They gotta fucking wanna do it. They gotta wanna do it. Some some of them naturally have it. They they and you can see them on the walk-up. They didn't say a word, chest up, head high, they look like they're ready to play. Yep. And then there's ones that you gotta tug on a little bit to say, hey, come on, let's I I see it in you. Yeah, let's let's get it out of you. And some they they play in and you know, they want no parts of it. They they just there to wear the jersey.

SPEAKER_01 43:55

Yes. And I can think of a couple people like that. They just Wanted to wear the jersey on game day to be able to walk in the hallways. We had a guy like that in college, too. Um but I think you know. So from a fundraising perspective, how much money do you need to raise a year to be at a like a hundred percent effectiveness from a from like a business plan perspective?

SPEAKER_02 44:33

I want to say 250,000 a year.

SPEAKER_01 44:36

250 grand you gotta you gotta make in donations at a minimum every year to just execute the plan, and that equates to like three helping 300 kids with your existing staff. And so if you raised a million dollars, what would that go to? Just more people?

SPEAKER_02 45:03

That would go to a building. I would love to have my own facility, indoor facility. Um where do you guys operate out of now? Wherever weekend. Oh, really? Wherever where wherever we can.

SPEAKER_01 45:15

So it's like remote.

SPEAKER_02 45:17

Yes. So we'll we'll go to Bowie State University, we'll go to Annoron Community College, we'll go to uh in rent space or something and rent and rent the spaces. Uh my goal, uh facility, indoor, indoor turf, indoor basketball court, being able to serve all sports, kitchen, uh, classrooms, weight room.

SPEAKER_01 45:39

So like taking a boys and girls club and basically putting it on steroids. Exactly. Yeah. IMG North. Yeah. That's interesting. That's cool. And so how many m fundraising events do you guys have a year?

SPEAKER_02 45:59

Well, we ongoing, uh, but usually three or four.

SPEAKER_00 46:03

Three or four.

SPEAKER_02 46:04

Three or four. But the goal is to learn. That's something that uh personally I want to do with within the next year. Learning how to fundraise.

SPEAKER_00 46:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 46:15

Uh seeking out mentorship so we can get this thing the way, you know. I know it can go, but I definitely need some help figuring that, figuring everything out. Having conversations like this with individuals say, okay, I see what you want to do. Yeah. Let me give you the chicken wing. Yeah. Here you go. Sideline with a chicken wing. Yes.

unknown 46:37

Boop. Boop.

SPEAKER_01 46:39

Uh, that's interesting. So I have a couple people that come to mind that I think could really help you from a fundraising perspective. One, one of which is like my dad, who spent his entire life in the nonprofit world. Um, and we'll talk offline about other people I think that could be very helpful. Because I am just generally interested in human development and performance and what resources are actually required for elite performance. And it and and don't confuse the word elite. Like, when I say elite, it's like you have a dream, you accomplish the dream. That to me is elite. Yes. Right? It doesn't, you don't need to be, you know, fucking Michael Jordan. That's not even elite. That's like I don't even know why. Yeah. You know, LeBron. No.

SPEAKER_02 47:38

Not a LeBron fan. No. He's he's mentioned with Jordan when it comes to that.

SPEAKER_01 47:46

No. Don't get me started on that bitch. Mo and I have an ongoing thing. I send him all the videos of the comparisons of the two. I'm like, no. No way. He flops, dude.

SPEAKER_02 48:02

Oh, not not in the same, not in the same sentence.

SPEAKER_01 48:05

Uh-uh. You can say Kobe. Okay. That's my guy. Love him. He's the he's it. He's the cat's pajamas. Uh, but I'm just fucking with you. Obviously, LeBron's elite. I just I don't like him. Uh but yeah, man, I just I think it is just so interesting. And if you could figure it out at a school in schools like the public schools in Anarchal County, that produce so many elite athletes, you know, now they don't all go to public school, they're at every fucking private school around here, ranging from you know, St. John's in Virginia to Boys Latin to McDonough to Gilman to Loyola, you know, like they're all over the place. But if there was a way to really kind of support the kids that go to Annaplos High, to Southern, to North County, to Northeast, to Glen Bernie, to the gophers of Glen Burney. Well, uh, absolute pleasure having you on, man. Thank you. Um, I'm really interested to see what you do. Um, I'd like to provide any help I can with this endeavor that you are on. I think it's really important. I've lived it firsthand. You've lived it firsthand. Uh it there's a need in the world, and I think it's a need that's transferable outside of athletics to anybody. So it's just generally interesting. Um, imagine athlete, Brandon Gully. Thank you for being here. Thanks for having me. Greg Vetter Podcast. We will be back.