More Than Wins | Mike McAndrews

In this episode of House of Hammers, host Aaron Babicz ’93 welcomes Mike McAndrews — Director of Admissions at Cardinal Mooney and longtime head boys basketball coach with more than 300 career wins.

A proud Cardinal Mooney alumnus and former three-sport athlete, Coach McAndrews reflects on a lifetime dedicated to building young men through faith, discipline, and competition. From his days as a four-year college basketball player at Concordia University Chicago to leading Mooney’s basketball program, he shares what it takes to sustain excellence over decades.

The conversation explores the deeper purpose behind coaching and leadership — why relationships matter more than records, how faith shapes culture, and why the greatest victories come in the lives of the students and athletes you serve.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:13

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to episode 13, a lucky number 13 of the House of Hammers. We are so blessed to be here today with our special guest. You will notice we are missing six foot five, 320-pound co-host, Chris Okoye. Chris has got some stuff going on. So, Chris, we're praying for you, praying for family, nothing serious, but he's got a lot on his plate and outside of the office today. But before I get to our guest, I want to catch everybody up on a few special things here that are going on at Catholic Central. We had a historical weekend again with the hockey team winning their seventh straight state championship. The wrestling team sent 13 to Ford Field after coming off of their team state championship last weekend. They ended up with 10 all-staters, five individual state championship. So congrats to Coach Mitch Hancock, who did announce at our wrestling state championship assembly this will be his last year as the head wrestling coach at Catholic Central. So, Coach Hancock, we wish you the best. He's going to become our first lay principal in Catholic Central history. Very excited for him. Complete servant leader, leads with faith and has always done it right and is one of the best wrestling coaches in the country. So very excited for those guys as well. Swim and dive team had a great weekend at Catholic League. They're looking forward to states this weekend and spring sports start today. But back to the House of Hammers, everybody that's tapped in, watched an episode, listened to an episode, caught one of the clips, you guys know that this is about positivity. It's about pouring back into people. It's about perseverance. It's about picking yourself up when you're down, failing forward, all things that we've talked about. And our guest today, I'm very excited because he's one of my favorite human beings. First and foremost, don't start crying when I give you this introduction, but he's favorite one of my favorite first and foremost human beings. He's a great leader. He's a coach. He's a head of the Men's Coaches Association for the Catholic League, just a phenomenal servant leader. One thing that is also special about him, he is from the class of champions, 1993, which makes it sound a little bit older. But uh one of the things that I really love about this guy is that I try to surround myself with people who are very similar to me, people who are positive, people who give back to the kids, people who see coaching as a calling and as a mission as a mission. And this man is one of the best to do it, regardless of level, whether it's high school, college, uh what I see him do with his kids, the way that he surrounds them with love and he's a firm believer in loving tough just like I am and everybody else here at Catholic Central. Just a great product of the Catholic League and one of Cardinal Mooney's favorite sons. Can I say that?

SPEAKER_02 2:47

I guess.

SPEAKER_01 2:48

Ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, Mr. Mike McAndrew. So, Mike, welcome to the House of Hammers. We're happy as heck to have you here.

SPEAKER_02 2:53

Yeah, I appreciate it. And all those kind things you said about me. I will uh There's more. I'll cut the check after the podcast.

SPEAKER_01 2:59

I have more. Well, you know, we pay athletes now as everybody. Right to what everybody says. Any money that we can get. I'm sure you hear the same thing when you're successful at Mooney and all the schools here, but really excited to have you on today. Really excited to dive in a little bit deeper into some of the things you've been going through. Um, definitely some challenges, but a lot of great things going on in the McAndrews household and at Cardinal Mooney. One thing that we like to do is start off with what we call the two-minute you. And I know you're like me, class of 93, you could talk about yourself for 25 minutes. But in a nutshell, give us the two-minute version of Mike McAndrews, who you are, what makes you tick, and your why on how you are the way that you are.

SPEAKER_02 3:37

Yeah, well, first and foremost, I am uh a proud product of Catholic education. Um, having grown up and went to 12 years of Catholic education coaching uh at Cardamuni, but I also went to school there, was fortunate to play basketball there and some and football and baseball. Um what makes me tick is giving back to young kids. Um, you know, pouring into them, as you say, um, leading with love. You know, I I've had some opportunities and you and I have talked to go other places, but I I just find that where I'm at has the biggest impact, not only on the student athletes, but on me. You know, I said it in our senior night a couple weeks ago. As a coach, you hope to have an impact on young men that you're entrusted to coach, uh, not realizing that they have an equal impact on you and your life. So I'm very fortunate to, you know, I I said it many times. Um, if you do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life. And uh I I I believe that I'm in that space and very lucky to be able to do that.

SPEAKER_01 4:34

It's you know, I do love that you come to me with little things like that, like, you know, I have this opportunity here, but like I told you last week, you're part of the fabric at Cardinal Mooney. I know being an alum of CC, how much it means to see our people happy. And I know that you're you're like that. You know, you're also very positive. What and who are some of the people that that gave you that skill set to stay as positive as you are, to pick yourself up when you fall, to be there for the kids when they fail forward. Who are some of the people that influenced you to help you build that armor?

SPEAKER_02 5:04

Yeah, so growing up, obviously my parents had a huge influence on me. Um, my father was a uh a successful high school basketball player and college basketball player in Philadelphia. Um, shout out to the West Catholic 1959 team, the only team to beat Wilt when he was in high school. I was gonna bring that up, but I'm glad you did it.

SPEAKER_01 5:21

Um for you youngsters out there, Wilt Chamberlain, one of the greatest centers in NBA history.

SPEAKER_02 5:27

So uh the love of the game, first and foremost, came from my dad, but the power of prayer um came from my mother, very devout Catholic. Um she instilled that in us from a very young age. Uh, they made tremendous sacrifices to send us to Catholic school. So they'd be the biggest influence on my life uh to remain positive and give to other people. It was something my mom taught us from an early age was to, you know, you get more. My mom's famous saying when we were growing up is you get more, you attract more supplies with a bottle of honey than you do with a bottle of vinegar. Um, so being able to put back into people is very important to me. Um, some of the coaches that I had, obviously, you know, my my high school coach, uh my older brother's high school coach, and my coach when I was a freshman, Dave Jackson, the late Dave Jackson, he was Bob Knight 2.0. Um, did some stuff back then that if you did today, you'd end up on channel four. You could do it back then. It was it was almost like you yeah, you it was legal. Yeah, and it's it it's why the class 93 was the toughest, right? Exactly. You heard that, Sean, right? Guys like that. Um, and then my older brother, my older brother Jim, which you know, who's a successful high school official now, was my high school basketball coach as a sophomore junior and senior. And um, when I say not taking it easy on me was an understatement. Um, he had to move out of our house. He was a young guy, just graduated college, was assisting at the time with Dave Jackson. Dave left to go to another school district. They gave the job to my brother uh in his mid-20s. He was still living at home with us and he had to move out because the very first practice I looked at him, he was yelling at me about something, and I kind of gave him the like the brother, and he kicked me out of practice.

SPEAKER_01 7:05

How'd that go over at home?

SPEAKER_02 7:07

Well, first of all, I said, Where do you want me to go? You're driving me home. Should I wait in your car? Typical gym. Yeah, should I wait in your car? Um, and then at a certain point, it was like, All right, if this relationship as coach player, you gotta move out of the house, man. So, but he was he he's the reason I wanted to coach. I wanted to be like my older brother, I wanted to impact kids. I saw the effect that he had not only on me but my classmates and the way they revered him as we became adults. Um, you know, guys that graduated with me 35 years ago still call him coach. Um so some of those guys are uh are the most impactful in my in my coaching career. And then as I got into coaching, you know, it was it was guys within the league, right? Like you try and find people that are like-minded. Um, you know, you hear people say as they get older, they don't get new friends. Well, I I I look at you and I, right? And our relationship and how it's blossomed over the last four or five years as we've gotten to know each other because we're not only uh morally aligned, but we're athletically aligned on how we want to approach. I've learned so much from you in the last four or five years on how to handle um student athletes, how to motivate them. Because kids have changed, right? Like the culture has changed, how they view themselves have changed, how their parents how to deal with interact with parents to now now has changed. Um so to be able to have resources like that, you know, the Brian Kelly is another one, and an old friend of yours. Brian, when he became the athletic directorate, Cardamuni and I were so aligned in how we wanted to handle student athletes and hold them accountable and treat them with love, but yet have that tough accountability that we thought would carry them into their lives as they became young adults. So it's people like that that have come across my path that I've been fortunate to call friends, not just colleagues, but to call friends that have had the biggest impact on me.

SPEAKER_01 8:52

There's one I know that is very special to you, and we lost him recently. And we talk about Vic Michaels, our former league director, on here repeatedly, just because he was such a servant leader. And Vic, Vic was very special because if you were with him and you were talking to him, he made you feel like you were the only person in the world. And there's there's not a lot of people that do that. One other one for me here was Father Richard Elmer, who Sean knows really well, and Father Elmer was the same way, no matter how busy, no matter what they had going on, even in their own personal lives, he would always make time for you. And Vic was the same way. Explain to me how you're related, because I know you guys go back. Explain to me a little bit more about your relationship with Vic.

SPEAKER_02 9:30

Well, my relationship with Vic started quite contentiously, not on purpose, but I could never beat his team when I was playing against St. Clement in high school. Um which I'm sure he reminded you of repeatedly. Of course, of course. Knowing Vic. Um, but then having to get uh to be in the league, you know, I was a young coach at 22 years old, uh, came into the league when he was the associate director and Tom Rashid was the director. Baptism by fire there. Yeah. And um, you know, as a young coach, I overstepped sometimes and emotions got the best of me, and I can remember, you know, Vic had the uh the ability to communicate with you and demand things of you, but not in a demeaning fashion. Like, you know, it kind of almost reminded me, you and I are of the age where we remember the old E. F. Hutton commercials, right? Like when E.F. Hutton talks, everybody listens. That's what Vic Michaels was for a young coach for me. And then as my career progressed, um, you know, Vic had tried to persuade me to come down to the Catholic League office at one point. He knew my heart was at Cardamoone, and that I, you know, again wanted to be able to be at a place where I could have the most impact on young people. But he saw value in people, um, and he saw the value in me to make me the coaches association president and get involved in the league on a different level, uh, which has led me to get interact with you and form a relationship and a friendship with you. So I owe Vic Michaels an awful lot of of making Mike McAndrews the person he is today.

SPEAKER_01 10:52

I think a lot of people could say that it it's uh Vic was very uh special and intentful with the way that he spoke to people. Like you knew if he was upset with you, and he never uh Vic never yelled. No, even when even when, you know, and like I said, as a young AD, I took over in 2009 here, which is crazy because this is my 17th year. And that trust me, we as young ADs, young a young coaches, you make a lot of mistakes, and he was always really patient. Even when I deserved to get a foot up my rear end, he was just so special and we lost him way too soon. I loved when you had Vic on your podcast and you had the t-shirt with his face on it. Yeah. And then you this is one of my favorites of all time, talked about who the best athlete in the Mick Andrews house was.

SPEAKER_02 11:35

I asked him who the best coach was because my sister's a Hall of Famer.

SPEAKER_01 11:38

Who's the best athlete in the house? Your dad?

SPEAKER_02 11:40

Well, yeah, certainly. I he said, I don't know who the best coach is, but I know who the best athlete is, and it's your dad. Um, but you know, I used to tell my dad all the time, right? Like, I could have I could have been all state in the 50s when you played, right?

SPEAKER_01 11:52

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I wonder if I still would have got cut from freshman basketball back in the 50s.

SPEAKER_02 11:57

I was my dad's team, we had Phil Martelli on our podcast, who's a Philly legend, right? And he said to me, What you guys don't understand about your dad's team was there were 15 guys in the neighborhood who didn't make the team who were probably better than some of those guys, but they had to work instead. So my dad played JV as a junior. Wow. At West Catholic. You know, they had like 3,000 boys. Um and uh made the team as a varsity as a senior and was six man, and then ended up earning a scholarship and played at St. Joe's.

SPEAKER_01 12:27

I love it.

SPEAKER_02 12:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:28

For me, you know, you talked a little bit about motivating the kids and and loving the kids up as an AD, which I don't I don't know, I don't really consider myself an A D. I feel like, and this is not a knock on other leaders or the way that they do things, but to be an athletic director, we had Jason Malloy on here. I don't know if you've met him, he's a great guy, AD at Westland John Glenn. One of his student athletes came up to him and said, you know, Mr. Malloy, you're a real A D. And it was just because he simply went to games, supported them, was there for him. Like for me, I don't feel like an athletic director. I feel like I need to be out of my office, out with our people, making sure I'm loving up the coaches and things like that. So it really is for me just seeing people happy. And and you have those tough losses where you see your coaches are gutted by a tough loss. You know, we had a tough loss uh a week ago, one-point basketball loss to Ann Arbor Pioneer. And I probably texted Tori. He probably got sick of it, but I texted him at least 10 times that night just saying, I see what you're doing, I see what you're pouring back into the kids, just stay the course because I love to see growth in people too. As a coach, do you feel like it's the same thing? You just want to see people happy, be successful, but you also have to add a touch of discipline as well if things aren't going the right way, if they're not running the right sets for you. So, how is that approach for you as a coach? What do you feel like you get the most out of seeing from your people?

SPEAKER_02 13:44

So, one of the things as a coach that I've tried to live by, advice that I was given a long time ago by the late Dave Jackson, they don't care how much you know till they know how much you care. Um, and that is something that I've lived by, right? Like you have to be, in order for this generation, it's not like when we grow up, you're gonna do it, here's the line, it's black and white, do it or don't do it. These kids want to know you care about them more than what they can do uh with a orange basketball and a and a hoop. Um, so I it's important to me to get to know my players on a personal level, right? Like get to know what their interests are, where they want to go to school, what do they want to do with their life? How can I help them? What's going on in their personal lives that might be a roadblock for them that they, you know, I say to guys all the time that I'm meeting with, this is your safe space, my office is your safe space. Um it's your space to come in here and vent your frustrations with me, with something going on at home, with a girlfriend, whatever it is. And I think when you build that level of trust, they allow you to push them because they trust you. Um kids need discipline, they want discipline, but they're only going to follow through on it from somebody that they know loves them and cares about them and trusts them.

SPEAKER_01 14:54

Yeah, it it's I think that's the fine line that people don't understand in private schools is you can build those relationships a little more organically because you are under a faith-based institution and a faith-based model. So it gives us an opportunity, and I'm sure it happens at public schools as well, but I feel like in our environment, we're able to just dig a little bit deeper and find out more about them because kids, it's like any adult right now, they want to be heard, they want to be seen. So I I love the way that you bring them in. I do the same thing too. Like sometimes I feel like I'm more of a psychologist than an administrator, which is perfectly fine with me because I love to have people empty their buckets for me and then I try to refill them and hopefully they refill mine as well. You know, for you, when it when you decided to coach, okay, now you're following your brother, obviously, who was a hero of yours, your dad, highly successful. Did you feel any added extra pressure because you were going back to Mooney just a little bit more want to?

SPEAKER_02 15:46

Um, yeah, certainly, right? Like it's the fear of failure, right? Like, I don't want to go back to my alma mater, follow my brother who won two Catholic League championships. Now, granted, he had a great point guard that helped him win those championships in the class of 93, but um, yeah, there's the pressure of wanting to succeed for the school that you love and that you care about. You know, I my affinity with Cardinamone in the basketball program, I I was the ball boy in third grade for my older brother's team. And I'd been around that program my whole life. Um and one of the things, one of the motivating factors for me, um you know, and I I a few years ago I was asked to write an editorial for our local paper as to why I coach. And one of the themes as I was talking about it was, you know, I had these aspirations like any young kid when I started coaching. Hey, I'll go to Cardinal for a few years, we'll be successful, I'll get a big I'll go to a bigger school and then I'll end up in college and I'll be coaching college. That's the dream, that's the thing. And something happened along the way uh and I fell in love. I fell in love with student athletes, I fell in love with the culture of our school, I fell in love with the relationships that I was building after they graduated. Um and that has been one of the best blessings of my entire life. So there was there was internal pressure put on by myself to want to succeed at at the school that I care about that the that I love um and give back the same way that people poured into me when I was a youngster.

SPEAKER_01 17:12

Do you feel like sometimes here at Catholic Central people are like, oh, you just love this place and this and this? But for me, it wasn't always like that. I feel like when I came back from Hillsdale after playing football there and obviously going to school the majority of the time, but after playing football there and coming back here to coach in the fall of 98, it's like it was like a second love affair. You know what I mean? Like I I loved it as a student, but not as much as I love it now as an employee, because I feel like you just get to move in different directions. Did you feel the same way when you now do you feel like you love Mooney more now than you did when you were a kid?

SPEAKER_02 17:44

Without question.

SPEAKER_01 17:45

Beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 17:46

Without without question. Um, you know, when you're there as a as a student, um, you know, you're invested in it. You're invested in the things that people are doing for you, but you don't realize it, right? You don't realize it. It's a different kind of love. Like we love the sport, we love wearing the jersey, we take a lot of pride, right? Like I can remember, as I'm sure you can, the last time I took my jersey off and the emotions that came with it. I know you took you took yours off in the state championship. Are you talking about basketball? No, is that what we're doing? Is that um Do you remember the last time you took your wrestling onesie off? Sophomore year when I quit.

SPEAKER_01 18:19

Sophomore year when I quit. Don't talk smack because Sean was a wrestler too.

SPEAKER_02 18:22

So yeah. But I'm I'm just talking about you.

SPEAKER_01 18:25

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 18:25

Yeah, I can remember it. But I but when you come back as an adult and you're you're you have a vested interest in the success of the entire community, it's a different love affair than what it was when you were there. When you're there, it's the relationships you're building with your peers and and your the guys you're on teams with. Um, you know, the best thing about Cardinamone for me was the opportunity to to play different things and not be the best, right? Like I was the best basketball player, certainly was not the best football player, and was a terrible baseball player, but those were great lessons for me to learn, right? Like I went to college thinking I'm gonna play right away, and when I didn't, I had those other sports experiences to fall back on to say, look, we gotta you gotta grind through this. This isn't just gonna be handed to you. Um so that that to me was the importance as a student athlete. Now that I'm there now, it's how can we pour into all of our students, how can we we make this environment the best for all of our students, whether they're athletes or not, whether it's DECA, whether it's mock trial, whether it's academics, whatever it is, that they feel the same way that I did as a young man when I was in school. And how can we help them with their faith formation? Right? Like first and foremost, we're there to evangelize young people and bring them to the faith, whether they're Catholic or not, um, and bring them closer to Jesus Christ. That's our first and foremost job. And if we can use all these other things like athletics and robotics and mock trial and all of these other extracurriculars that are really at a high level to do that and build those relationships that where they trust us, and then we can start to evangelize them even more. That's that's what it means to me now as an adult.

SPEAKER_01 20:04

It it is great to have that too, because it's being in this school and around these kids, sometimes they've helped evangelize me. And like I'm reading a book right now called Rediscovering Jesus. I feel like I have a great relationship, but one of the things that we talked about in mass, I think like two weeks ago, and I used it with our kids on a Kairos retreat, which is one of the best things we do. I told them, guys, the whole world outside is screaming at you. And then you got Jesus over here just whispering to you, like, I'm always here, I'm not here to judge. I've I've already know your whole plan. I've seen everything you've done and everything you're gonna do. So do you feel like kids nowadays? Because that very similar. I know we joked about it on your podcast with Jim that I was the only guest. I think I'm still the only guest on your guys' podcast that got cut from freshman basketball.

SPEAKER_02 20:45

Yeah, it's usually a prerequisite that you have to have some sort of high school basketball experience. We made an exception. You know, I'm sensitive about this too. We made an exception.

SPEAKER_01 20:53

Thank you. You knew I was the CYO Knights of Columbus free throw champion. I did hear that. That was on your resume. That carries a lot of weight. Yeah, not much of a basketball player, Sean. I'm not sure if I've shared this with you before. Neither am I. Okay, good, good. So we've got two non-basketball players and the greatest point guard in Cardinal Mooney history in the room. But do you think kids nowadays have a hard time accepting that humility about not being the best? Because I firmly believe in a lot of schools, kids just want to be part of something bigger than themselves. Kids don't want to necessarily be they now they want to be the best, but do you feel like they have a hard time present day dealing with the fact that they might just be a role player if they're a stud in another sport?

SPEAKER_02 21:30

I do. I do think, and I think a lot of it has to do with the overall culture, um, nationwide of specialization and the instant gratification of social media, right? And all of these pop up uh elite status teams. I think they're getting a false sense sometimes of who they actually are. Um and I think, you know, I it this conversation is proven 'cause I just had a conversation with my wife last night about my daughter playing softball and trying out for softball at her grade school. her Catholic grade school and having never played. Um and I said and she said something along the lines, well what if she doesn't play? And I'm like, good. Good if she doesn't play. Then she knows that she has to work a little harder at something, that we can't be the best at everything all the time. And I think that's a, you know, even for a fourth grader, I think it's a great lesson. Right. To be able to go, all right, I'm not as good because I haven't played as much at this. So I think there's lessons in everything. I think this generation has a hard time adjusting to it and understanding that. Because of the fact that there's so much external pressure put on kids today to do to be the next highlight reel, to you know, uh play on this elite team, to go to this school, to do these things, to be a Division I athlete when in reality, and you and I know this, the statistics don't match what their aspirations are, right? Or their parents' aspirations or these external people. Like I it's never been harder for a student athlete right now to navigate on who people who you can trust, right? And it's why it's so important to build trust on a different level because there are so many people out there that are promising these young kids things and they're not they can't possibly follow through on their delivery of it. It's just not possible. And I think that they l they lose a lot of lessons in life by being involved in something where they have to be a role player, right? Where they have to have a different role on the team, be a great teammate, right? Have a positive attitude. You know, one of the big things we talk about in our program that I talk about with our guys is work while you wait. Right? Like I got I had a kid this year, Aaron, who you know had a um as a played JV as a freshman sophomore, didn't play it all for me last year as a junior, um started for me every game captain this year. And uh I got a text at 11 o'clock last night from his mom talking about how at the time she didn't understand it, was frustrated. They never intervened they never intervened made him come talk to me all the time as a junior like a young man and how she could not have imagined his senior year playing out any better than it did.

SPEAKER_01 24:13

Which you know we don't get those very often. No it's and when you do it's like the greatest thing it does because there could you could have 10 other kids that feel the exact opposite yeah but that one hope that one glimmer of hope in that kid and we're not we're not hope dealers here. A guy used a term here last week uh I think he called it hopium which I love like so everyone's like oh Babbitz is going to put it on a t-shirt or blah blah blah but it's it's true though like you you you hope kids are having a great experience but then when you get that one simple message it makes all the BS worth it. Do you notice with parents nowadays, because with my two boys one 10, one seven playing they're both playing baseball now I'm noticing that a lot of parents don't want these kids to fail. Whereas I feel like our parents like forced us to like you're gonna go outside you're gonna go to this now we didn't have a ton of video games growing up which these kids now all play video games and things like that and we we limit it because we we see a change in our kids when they play too much like we took we took video games away from our 10 year old for a month just because he got a little yeah he got a little smart and never been more artistic drawing writing little stories with his little brother and so we made sure that we taught that to him do you feel like parents nowadays you hear the term uh lawn mower parent helicopter parent yeah snowblower parent and do you feel like parents nowadays want to protect their kids more than get them out of their comfort zones?

SPEAKER_02 25:32

They do. And I think the difference between when we grew up and now is I think the love you have for your child is the same. Wanting to protect your child is the same but valuing hard times and working your way through it has changed. You know inherently we want to protect our children. We want to protect them from failure. We want to protect them when things don't go well that's an inherent value that we all have as parents right um we we have to take a step back though and go what's the lesson here? What can we learn from this? And I think there is more valuable lessons in failure than I do in success. I think success is um is a is especially early success without putting any work in it is can be misleading and mischievous in terms of what actually has to go into long-term success in anything you do in life. And I think a lot of the parents now want to try and navigate that to keep heartache from a young man or a young woman who is not seeing the fruits of what they want right away and I think they want to intervene because they're letting their parent emotions come to the surface but I think my advice to parents is take a step back take a deep breath especially at the high school level right like these are young men we're dealing with. You know I say to our kids all the time you're gonna be on your own in four months. Yeah. What are you gonna do? Right? Like I I just walked into a classroom last week a teacher long tenured teacher was having a hard time with this group of kids and I walked in and I said can I talk to him and I said look you know I I know how this is going to go. I know you're gonna tell me it was him it was him it was him it wasn't me I go let me know how that plays in six months. Let me know how that plays for you that excuse in six months from now. So they need to learn how to fail. They need to learn that actions have consequences right they need to learn that you're only going to get out of things what you put into it. And all of these things if we are really in the business of not winning games and losing games or championships or all of this success is going to be the young men and women we send out from Catholic schools into the world to make a difference, then we need to start teaching them how to fail a little bit better.

SPEAKER_01 27:44

It's it's great to win and we talked about it at our wrestling assembly match or excuse me our wrestling uh assembly for the state title the other day that we're not going to apologize for winning, but you hit the nail right on the head and you teetered on it a little bit too. If you can build a strong culture, the wins and losses take care of themselves. You're gonna you're gonna obviously catch the occasional loss but if you have a strong culture built on faith, on love, on brotherhood, sisterhood if you're at a girl school or co-ed school and accountability, that usually translates into and if you can make that team and I know you do it the same way, you make your team feel like they're a family before they become a team. I'm sure you make sure that the kids are there for each other. What are some of the things that you preach to your leaders of your team or just the overall culture at Cardinal Mooney that makes it so special?

SPEAKER_02 28:28

You know one of the things for me that I that I've done over the course of my career, I spend more time talking in one-on-one meetings to the guys that don't play as much right making sure they have a clear understanding of their role where I see them where I see what they could be a lot of kids and a lot of parents they don't have a long-term plan right they don't see past their nose of what's happening today. And I want to make sure that I communicate with all those kids because look nobody's trying out for a team making a team and putting on a uniform or practice jersey every day to go there just to go, can't wait to sit. Yeah. Right? Like everybody wants to play why would you do it in a competitive environment if you didn't have the will to want to play more to make sure that I'm communicating with them that their value is as high as it is that I think it is that they understand their value that their long term plan that I've put together with them of improvement is being followed and then if you don't here's what you're not doing. I told you this is what you need to do this is what you're not doing. Here's what you don't get yet and I think I get m I get more out of those conversations than they do. But what it does is it breaks down the animosity right it breaks down the animosity of the last kid on the bench and his parents or when they contact me I go has Johnny talked to you yet about his long term plan that we've discussed that I have for him and whether he's holding true to that or not so I think that's one of the things and back to your point like don't apologize for winning right it's the old uh if you build it they will come right like if you're doing it the right way and you have stability in your programs and you have the right people around you who doesn't want to be a part of that right naturally people are going to want to gravitate towards that. And when you get to a a level of coaching as long as I have and doing the things here at CC that you guys have done, people know what they're getting into too right like they know that they're gonna get coached hard by me. They know it. They're signing up for it. It's not for everybody. But the ones that are there I know are there because they know what they're getting themselves into.

SPEAKER_01 30:31

That's such a it's such an intricate thing too in a in a slippery slope because you feel your heart breaks for those kids at the end of the bench and you're lucky because you have a roster of 15 yeah right around there. I look at those bigger teams and that's why I love getting out in the hallway and finding that kid who maybe he's just a long snapper and pumping him up and telling him dude you are a huge part of this team or maybe it's your defensive specialist that's an energy guy that comes in off the bench for you. What do you look for in those types of kids? Is it something that you can feel because I'm I'm big on being able to as cheesy as it sounds feel people's like spirit. You know what I mean? Like that's why you and I get along so well. We're both complete smart asses. Yep. I mean more times than not it's me and you ripping on each other and text messages but the other three quarters of the text are hey man I love you. I see what you're doing I'm proud of you. So when you finally find that in one of your student athletes what are you looking for in them just somebody who's a good listener or somebody that's kind of not afraid to take the bull by the horns?

SPEAKER_02 31:27

In terms of leaders are the la the the kid at the end of the bench? The kid at the end of the bench.

SPEAKER_01 31:31

Because sometimes your kid at the end of the bench could be one of your best leaders.

SPEAKER_02 31:34

And and oftentimes they are right um because they form the team first attitude better than anybody that's playing a lot. That's special if you can get that buy in yeah and you know I make a a point in practice every day of so we do this thing we call uh point of emphasis and thought of the day and I randomly throw the ball to a guy we're in a circle I throw the guy and he's got off the top of his head give us uh our basketball point of emphasis that we should be focusing on but more importantly it's positive thought of the day for us. And I pick on those other guys a lot more than I do because their message is more valuable, right? Like in terms of you get a starter he'll be like you know let's make sure we play defense today or let's make sure we're shooting the ball good today. You get that kid on the end, he's like be a great teammate today. Improve today. Get 1% better today. And oftentimes I use them as an example with the guys that do play a lot on how sometimes kids take it for granted. Right? Like this dude's coming putting his hard head on going to work every day just trying to get better. He's got a long term plan that we put together. Be a little more like him today. So that's really important for me to make sure that we have buy-in from one to 15 right because uh if you don't 14 13 14 15 and the animosity can permeate through the program.

SPEAKER_01 32:55

Yeah it can be a cancer there's there's no doubt about it. More times than not those kids on the end of the bench end up becoming phenomenal coaches too I've noticed a lot of our guys that come back that are getting into coaching didn't really play a ton of hoop for us or even in other sports and those because they become students of the game like you said their response be a good teammate today you know hustle a little bit more today things like that. They see those little things that maybe and it's not that they're picking at the starters it's just them realizing how they're growing in that process of being the last guy on the bench that has to practice every day.

SPEAKER_02 33:27

Yeah there's no doubt about that and it's probably uh they're more well-rounded too to be honest with you um in terms of their how prepared they are for real life once they leave high school because they're not the kids that everything came easy to right that had to work for it. You know we're real I I'm real big in in waiting your turn um you know of course we've had kids that are going to come in as youngsters that are capable and able and talented enough to play right away but the majority of our kids are going to go through the path of a year or two at JV, come up to varsity, earn their keep and then hopefully see the fruits of their labor as a senior because we all want seniors on our team right like seniors understand it. They have a sense of urgency. They know this is the last go round so we've kind of prided ourselves on on that projection for a student athlete when they come into the program now we've been fortunate to have four year varsity players three year varsity players that are very good but if they're not paired with guys like that that have that experience as seniors especially when they're young that they know how this is how this program works these are how these are how these guys handle themselves. This is the expectation because we all know they get sick of coach listening to coaches, right? Like be they you become parents to them they list hear the same voice they've had enough um and when you become led by the group that are seniors that have gone through that path then your program's in a lot better place than some of the other programs that are just relying on talent.

SPEAKER_01 34:51

It's everything you talk about that I love is built on family whether it's your home life whether it's what you do at Mooney whether it's you do what you do in the Catholic League your relationships outside of that we just went to Nemo's I know we're not supposed to tell people we're on the 100 male athletes committee but we both were neither of us are on it by the way which is a yeah all the other guys made the decisions on that I was 101 you were 102 on that list. 101.5 101.5 yeah we did that after the meeting that's right so we just missed the cut but doing things like that that's when I love to interact with you the most because yeah we do we are we we're there to talk a little bit of business but we're also there to catch up on each other's lives now I want to share something and I hope you don't mind it but I have to because it is one of the most positively grueling things I've seen somebody go through. Now I know how big you are on family how great your household was and and how your dad motivated you your mom was there with the faith the support and your brother and sister obviously but recently you guys had a bit of a health scare not even a health scare in the Mick Andrews family. Probably about two weeks ago. Yeah a little over two weeks ago a little over two weeks ago I get a text from Mike Evoy telling me that Annabella was experiencing some health issues. I texted you right away just letting you know I was there for you and love you. And you sent me something back that even when I read it present day right now, even though Annabella's getting closer to being in the clear it just shakes me to my core because I could feel how scared you were and for me that was impossible because if there was any way for me to take away your nervousness the the pain that you were going through you and your wife watching your daughter battle through this and I I don't want to dive too deep into it but if you could explain what she battled and how serious it got to our our watchers and our listeners.

SPEAKER_02 36:36

Yeah so my daughter uh about two weeks ago as we were talking before we got on I saw you and Tori and the CC team playing in the K League Championship on that Friday night. Yep. That Friday night my wife ended up with my daughter at the ER uh she broken out into some hives. They sent her home uh some sort of reaction to a cold or flu B or whatever is what they initially thought. Uh the next night um we had given her an antibiotic she was on an antibiotic for um about a week prior to this for some issues she had uh nothing major so they put her on a new antibiotic and uh she had this unbelievable reaction in the middle of the night I carry her into Royal Oak Beaumont Hospital at like four in the morning and ultimately she gets diagnosed with uh what's called Stephen Johnson syndrome it is an extremely rare reaction to antibiotic an allergic reaction it can be life threatening um we didn't know anything about it and when they first told us about it you know you Google what is this and then the first thing that pops up is this life threatening illness uh it was a long 10 days that she was in the hospital we were fortunate to um have a great team of doctors at Royal Oak Beaumont um she turned the corner on about day five but it it was something that um tested our resilience as a family um I will tell you that probably the two things that I learned the most through this you know to watch your child suffer and she was suffering um is extremely difficult to do right you just you wish with everything you had that it could be you laying in that bed taking away her pain. Two of the things that I learned throughout this whole process uh my faith was strengthened um and I'll tell you a story so and I'll make it really quick as quick as I can we had about five doctors in her room I went down the hall to call my mom about something and I came back in and from down the hall I can just hear screaming bloody murder and I walk into the room and there are like five nurses and doctors holding my daughter down trying to get uh a biopsy done and she's screaming bloody murder and my wife's crying and about two minutes later my pastor shows up from St. Peter's where my kids go to school St. Mary's and Mount Clemens uh unbeknownst to us he shows up um to do an anointing of the sick and I look at all the doctors and we go everybody out our priestess here everybody out and when he came in to anoint her the calmness I mean she was at a 10 that the room was in chaos when he came in and anointed her the calmness in that room you could feel the Holy Spirit in that room you could feel it and my faith was strengthened in that moment my wife's faith was strengthened in that moment uh he anointed her hands and three hours later her hands looked a hundred percent better. So if you did if you weren't a firm believer in the power of Jesus Christ and God's healing hands before that if you were in that room you certainly would be after. That's the first thing my faith got strengthened the second thing was as guys we think we have this when somebody says toughness we have this perception of this big strong I'm tough hardworking guy my six year old daughter taught me what tough really looks like um the way she battled through this and came through this and you know minimal complaining just wanting to get better just wanting to go home just wanting to see her sister um so those are the two things there's there's good in every situation and those were the two things that were really good for me and I'm and my family and my wife with this situation.

SPEAKER_01 40:19

I would text Mike every day and just be like tell me something positive tell me something good and I know once you said well she's starting to write stuff down and she's getting her old little smart attitude back that's when I knew that she was starting to make a turn for the better then she beat you at Uno.

SPEAKER_02 40:33

She did the game is it a rematch out of my two kids Annabella is more like her father than Marielle is um and in our first game of Uno sitting up in her bed when she was first able you know taking it easy on her she beats me and she looks at me and she whispers you suck and I was like all right she's on her way back and that will never happen again.

SPEAKER_01 40:54

Oh I love it. I love it. I did try to steal your daughter's popcorn at Oakland and she mean mugged me. Yeah yeah like don't even think about touching a kernel that's it was it was such a and like I said for me being on the outside someone that cares emotionally for you a ton. It was so hard to see you go through that because there's nothing I could say to make it feel better. It's just be there for the other person, love them up a little bit tell them you're there if you need to have a conversation or crack a few jokes and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_02 41:23

You know and the people what people don't understand about Catholic schools, faith-based athletics, the Catholic League, the amount of people that reached out to me that were praying for my child having never met her is the single reason my child is alive and well and doing well today in my opinion to be able to have so many people from our faith community whether it's CC, Catholic League, Card Mooney, St. Mary's where she goes to school, the outpouring the amount of people that were praying for her is the reason she's doing so well today. There's no doubt about it in my mind.

SPEAKER_01 42:01

I know it was I know you guys had to be scared you know with you and your wife did that bring you guys closer together?

SPEAKER_02 42:08

It did I mean uh my wife what she did for 10 days in the hospital she wouldn't leave I could not get her to leave her side you know and a mother's love is undefeated. Yep it's undefeated you know we think we're tough dads are tough sports guys are tough my six year old and my wife their toughness is off the charts and a mother's love cannot be disputed and can't it's undefeated man. Like she there there isn't anything she didn't do for that child.

SPEAKER_01 42:36

It's probably still the same for you to this day same with me with my mom. Oh yeah I mean it's there I could have the worst day in the world and I'll call her and she'll tell me suck it up or she'll love me up and everything's fine.

SPEAKER_02 42:47

Yeah I mean through all of this my number one phone call every day was to my mom right getting advice from my mom on how to handle it because when you're in a situation like this to not have to not create even more fear in your child you step out of the room to have emotional moments right to not do it in front of your six year old daughter who's already scared who can't communicate with you properly so I would step out of the room and call my mom and have all of these emotions about what's going on with my child and to hear her reiterate to me to put your faith in God right put your faith in God's healing hands. Everything's gonna be okay. Continue to pray there are so many people praying for her it just it gave me a sense of okay this is going to be okay this is in God's hands and when that happened with the anointing I was like she's gonna be fine to put the cherry on top of the Sunday yeah um and the one thing I'll tell you we talked earlier Aaron about giving back to kids and wanting you know to to have an impact on kids and not realizing the equal impact they can have on you. You know I hadn't seen my team in over a week hadn't coached them in a couple games and I showed up on senior night at the advice of my wife going just go you're gonna be fine what they did for me that night For two hours, they'll never understand it.

SPEAKER_01 44:02

They won't. Well, I love the story how you you told them. You came in, you didn't even have a pen or a marker, and you said, guys, just go out and play hard.

SPEAKER_02 44:08

Yeah. I mean, it it changed my perspective a little bit too on not just what's important, but what's important with athletics, right? Like we're all stuck on winning and winning and winning, and we are, and that's a byproduct of doing it the right way. But when I walk into a locker room having not seen my team in 10 10 days almost, having missed two games, I've never missed a game unless I was forced to.

SPEAKER_01 44:32

We won't talk about that.

SPEAKER_02 44:34

Um and I've never missed a game for any personal reasons in 28 years. And when I walked into that locker room just prior to tip and my team's going nuts just because they saw me, I walked in, I go, guys, I don't have anything. I don't even have a marker. So the game plan tonight is just go have fun, man. It's really hard to have fun.

SPEAKER_01 44:50

How tough did you feel in that moment when you walk into the locker room? You're already emotional from everything going on with your daughter. You haven't seen your team, which is one of your callings to be a servant leader and a coach. How did you how did you feel in that moment?

SPEAKER_02 45:01

I felt loved. I felt loved. I felt like everything I've done in my life coaching um was paid back to me in that moment, right? Like you hope to pay it forward to everybody else. Um it was paid back to me in that moment between not only just my players, but our community that night. I mean, I my car was full when I left that game of stuff for my daughter, for my family, uh, the outpouring of love and support.

SPEAKER_01 45:26

Um I want to see your freezer because from what you told me, you got quite a bit of food during that time as well.

SPEAKER_02 45:30

Not only that, I mean, you could probably tell, but DoorDash has been treating the McAndrews family very well. Nope, didn't notice at all. Very well. Black is very slim. It's why I wore it this morning. Um but just I can't tell you how much that night meant to me. And a night I've had a lot of good nights as a coach. Um, we've won a lot of big games and gotten to the Final Four and State Championship games and all of that. That will be the most memorable night for me. That locker room before the game and the locker room after the game. Getting emotional with my team, being vulnerable with my team, and knowing that they loved me and that they had my back, and that for two hours I was able to take my mind off the toughest time of my life. They'll never realize it. I hope they never realize it. I hope they never get put in that situation and that they'll never realize what an impact they had on me.

SPEAKER_01 46:22

But for your wife to feel that that was where you needed to be to, that just shows you that you made the right choice there as well. Shout out to Mrs. McAndrews, obviously.

SPEAKER_02 46:29

Yeah, Bree. My wife's name is Brie, and she, you know, I outkicked my coverage for sure. Listen, I've trust me, dude.

SPEAKER_01 46:34

We're in the US class of 95. I kicked a 90-yard field goal somehow with my wife.

SPEAKER_02 46:38

So I feel like I outkicked my coverage on that for sure.

SPEAKER_01 46:41

Um my friends repeatedly remind me of that, which is typical of them.

SPEAKER_02 46:45

Yeah, same. Um, but yeah, she's just the support system that I'm fortunate to have all the way around between, you know, my wife, my daughters, my extended family, my parents, my brother, my sisters. Um it's you know, my brother and I are are nine years apart. Um he's the oldest, I'm the youngest, and we're the best of friends you could possibly be, right? Like we've gone through everything together. And that night, he was the first one who showed up to the hospital just to make sure I was okay. He couldn't even get in the room. Yeah. You know, and and you know the story about my buddy Bobby who's battling cancer. Yep. He showed up to the hospital just to sit. He texted me, I'm in the lobby, just to sit with me when I needed it most, just to let me be vulnerable with him. Nobody was allowed in the room. He knew it. But to take the time to come up and just be with me when I needed it most, like those are the people that we have in our lives that we're fortunate to have in our lives.

SPEAKER_01 47:41

I really feel like they're they're angels in some cases, to be totally honest. When you need them the most, they're there. You know, that's a perfect segue into what I wanted to ask you. You talked about it.

SPEAKER_02 47:48

Because I'm perfect that segues.

SPEAKER_01 47:50

You're good. You are very good. I feel like I carried our podcast when I was with you and your brother, even though I referred to you as the Joe Rogan of Catholic League podcasts. Um I have a lot more hair than Joe Rogan. That's true. Don't let's you and Sean can talk that talk for now. I don't think you're thinning it at all, Sean. I'm not. You look like you're good too.

SPEAKER_02 48:06

My dad had a full head of hair.

SPEAKER_01 48:08

It was white, but it was there. First, we talk about getting cut for freshman basketball. Now we're making hair jokes. Another perfect segue since you're so good at it. You talked about this vision that we have of like a tough guy, or like, you know, oh, he's, you know, he's got this, he's got that. I feel like that's changed over time, though, because before, like when our dads were coming up, they didn't show a lot of vulnerability. It was ruling with an iron fist. This is how things were done. But I think nowadays, like to me, my definition of a quote unquote tough guy is somebody who can be a little bit vulnerable. Like, I'm I like to act like I'm tough, but I'm not. I'm about as sensitive as they come. I'm an only child, complete mama's boy. My mom still calls me baby cakes to this day, and I'm 50. So that tells you a little bit about our relationship. But to me, I feel like a tough guy nowadays is somebody who might shed the occasional tear after a big win, a big loss when they see somebody hurting. So it's changed so much over the years. How do you feel like the difference is now between who we get to be as those the new age tough guys, I guess you would say we're supposed to be, as opposed to what we came up with?

SPEAKER_02 49:14

Yeah, and I think, you know, it's because we had strong women in our lives that raised us that we're allowed to have it's okay for us to have these emotions that come to the forefront for us, right? Um I I firmly believe, you know, I'm like the Roy Williams of high school basketball. I'm gonna cry every time the season's over, regardless of who it is. Um, because you're so invested in each other um and you're you you appreciate everything that these young people have have poured into you. You know, you you believe in them, but they believe in you. Like they have to have a certain level of belief in you in order to want to do it for you, for the team, for everything. And, you know, as a dad of two girls, I've probably softened even more um and and been a little more emotional or in touch, you know, being able to have my emotions come to the forefront a little more, um being a dad of two girls, you know. And I I've often said being a dad of two girls is just God's way of telling me I should never coach my own kid. Um because it probably wouldn't have been very pretty. Um, but yeah, I think that's I think that is toughness now, right? For a guy to be able to uh share his passion, but also his emotions uh of it, right? Like we're pouring so much into this, we're putting so much in to kids, and kids are putting so much back into us, and the people we work with are pouring so much in, and we're filling everybody's filling each other's buckets, right? Like to not be able to share your emotions, that's would be criminal in my opinion, right? To not be able to say, hey, I really care about you. I care so much about you that I'm brought to tears that this is over with.

SPEAKER_01 50:50

I love that. That that's I think especially in our league, and there's some really special coaches outside of our league as well, but our league allows us to celebrate that humility, to give grace, to be patient with people that we might not want to be patient with. We talked about some parental stories, things like that. And you'll have the occasional person that you know has nothing but complaints, but then you'll get that one letter, like you said, you got from the mom or the I think it was a text that you got at 11 o'clock at night. And it's like you'll never, you'll never know how much this means. I think that for tough guys like us, that's what that's what I think fills our bucket. When you see the smiles on the kids' faces, when you see parents happy, or when you're able to get through a tough situation, I feel like if you're there for your people, that's the greatest thing that you can do as a coach, as an AD, as the head of the men's coaches association, things like that, or just as a servant leader. And I feel like you're somebody that is always there for his people. Like I feel like if if I pour into you, I know that if I needed you, that you'd over you'd help my bucket overflow, overflow.

SPEAKER_02 51:49

Without question, right? Like at the end of the day, no matter what industry you're in or what you're doing, if you're not getting the most out of the relationships that you're building, and if you don't care about other people, um, you're not gonna get very far. Right? You're not gonna be fulfilled. You might get far in terms of financial gain, you might get far in terms of fancy things that you acquire, but you're never gonna be feel fulfilled. The only way I've ever felt fulfilled and content is by pouring into other relationships with people around me, like-minded individuals, um, who I know you know, it's the old saying of being able to do something without expecting something in return. Right? I get more gratification out out of that, um, of doing for somebody that's in need than I do of them doing it for me when I was in need, right? Like, and that was just I I think the outpouring of love and support for the scenario we talked about earlier with my daughter was a result of my family living that way. My wife and I living that way, the way I was raised, my mom, the way she has always put other people first. Um, and it's just a byproduct of trying to live the right way. Have I made every right decision? No, right? I'm a sinner, just like the rest of us, and I have to go to confession and I have to confess my sins and ask for forgiveness. But at the end of the day, everything I do in my heart, I think I'm doing with an open heart for other people.

SPEAKER_01 53:08

Absolutely. It it's we've and we tell our kids all the time here too, every saint was once a sinner. Yep. And once again, to touch back on that Kairosh retreat, I told him, guys, like, and I've I've told this story, I think, on every podcast since I spoke. I said, if let's say God sent you a friend request on some form of social media, whatever his tag would be, at The Real God or something. I would make that little joke. And I said, but would you give him, would you grant him access to everything you post, knowing that he sees every little nook, every little cranny, every little crack in your character, things like that. And the kids just sit there and think for a second, because I try to put it in something they can understand in today's day and age. You know, because today, back when we were in high school and even in college, there was a limited number of hallways we could, or limit limited number of rooms we could go into down that hallway of temptation. Now, for these kids, as opposed to there being maybe four or five for us, it's like four or five hundred. Correct. And you talk about that comparison on social media, other kids getting offers. I'm better than this kid. Why am I not getting this, this, this, and this? How do you handle some of that doubt that the kids place in their own minds with all of this outside noise? Do you really try to limit that outside noise and just get them laser focused on their faith in each other?

SPEAKER_02 54:17

Yeah, I mean, I think it's impossible for us to control for them 24-7, right? They have computers in their pockets. Um, but for us, it's building habits, right? Build the right habit to be able to say, I don't need to go down this road on or down this rabbit hole on social media and compare myself to somebody else. That Jesus made me in his likeness and image, and I am who I am uh because God wanted me to be this way. Um and having those conversations, you know, my favorite all-time Bible verse is uh from 1 Corinthians chapter 16, verse 13. Um it says, be on guard, stand firm in your faith, be courageous, be strong. And I think that you can relate that verse to athletics, to life, to the situation my wife and I were just in, to hardships, to times of glory. Um, so I I talk to our kids a lot about that Bible quote in that situation. Like they have to stand firm in their faith in the temptations that they have. They have to be strong, they have to be courageous, they have to be courageous to not do what everybody else is doing. Um so I think if you can have those conversations with them and start to help them build habits, um, everything we do in life is habits, right? Like you are the sum of the ten closest people in your life, which is why I like to surround myself with people like you, right? And people that I'm aligned with morally and and what we're trying to do for this generation. And I think I tell our players that all the time you are the company you keep, right? And if so and so in school is getting in trouble, guess what? It's only a matter of time for you're associated with that and you're in trouble too. Yep. And you need to be mindful of that.

SPEAKER_01 55:59

They not it never ends. I mean, it it's the older I've gotten, and it's it's really just I'm working on growing up still, as you and I discuss. Yeah. Same. Trust me, still making plenty of mistakes, but I've noticed that certain friends of mine that I used to hang out with when I was just on a different path, not necessarily a bad path, but before I was married, before I had the boys, I just don't I don't see them as much anymore, just because they don't run in the same circles that I do anymore. So, you know, in that personal growth for you, when did you start to realize like, did you know right away that coaching was a calling for you?

SPEAKER_02 56:30

No, I didn't. I did not. Um again, I can't my my intention originally was just to come back. I graduated college by some miracle. Um chat GPT, but chat GPT, no. Just gutted it out. You had to go to a labor. You had to go to the computer lab to type your paper. Remember that? If you had your own computer in your room, you were like, Yeah, you were yeah, you were on the up and up if you had your own computer in the room. Um so I graduated college and I was just gonna come home and help Jim. I was gonna be an assistant coach, his assistant coach. And he had just uh taken a new job with Stryker Medical, and they had redid his territory, and it was gonna be impossible for him. And um so I interviewed for the job. You know, I played four years in college, stayed on as a as a grad assistant for the fifth year because a lot of us it takes those of us from '93, it took us five years to graduate instead of four.

SPEAKER_01 57:21

You know it took me a full five as well. Yeah. Like that. Yes. Um I wanted to stay that extra year. So did I have more knowledge experience, yes, life experience.

SPEAKER_02 57:28

Old school. Um, so at the time I interviewed for the job, and it was me and a couple other guys, uh the JV coach at the time, and then somebody from outside the school, and our athletic director um at the time, Jim Benoit, who had been there a very long time, Hall of Fame softball coach, won a state title at Mooney, had been there forever, um, took a chance and hired me at twenty-two, twenty-three years old. And which is rare. Very rare. Years later, I said to him, Why would you do that? Um, take you know, why would you hire a guy? He's like, Because and and rightfully so, at a school like Carter Mooney, you can be a stepping stone job for a bigger job, right? For a lot of guys and turnover. He said, I gave you the job because I thought you'd stay for a while. I'm like, Well, you were right in that assessment. You were right in that assessment. So I owe everything to Jim Benoit. Like, I didn't even have intentions of being a head coach at that point in my life. Um, and the more I did it, the more I loved it.

SPEAKER_01 58:24

Did you feel like when you won that interview with him after you walked out, did you think, oh, I got this job?

SPEAKER_02 58:29

No, I thought I'm gonna be the JV coach. So it worked out pretty well. It did. And then with the first parents meeting, he introduces me at the dad's club meeting, and these dads all start harping. And it was almost like something out of Hoosiers, right? And when the that little barbershop interruption, yeah, he's introduced me to the dad's club, and these dads are saying, I don't know why in the heck we hired some 22-year-old kid, blah blah blah. And he stood up and said, Gentlemen, this is your new head coach, and this meeting's over.

SPEAKER_01 58:57

Oh, I love it. Did he end the meeting? End the meeting. Oh. That had to be pretty special for you, though, to have someone. Now, how how long had he been there at that point?

SPEAKER_02 59:06

Oh, he had been there at that point 20 plus years. Like he was he was there with all my older siblings. He was the AD when I was there, um, and he was the AD for like 10 years after.

SPEAKER_01 59:16

Think about some of those legends we got to come up with, guys that had been in the league for so like my predecessor Bob Santello, who is still he could go if Sal can be an AD at multiple schools over the years. I'm telling you, Bob Santelo, that's not a knock on Sal, love Sal Malik, but Bob could still do it. And it's funny because I came into his office my first day well when I got hired. He still hadn't packed his stuff up yet, and his computer was there, right? And I he never used his computer, him or Coach Mac. They would have our current athletic secretary, Nancy Johnson, at the time, get the email, give it to them, and she'd have to type up their handwritten response. That's how old school they work. Yeah. Bob comes in a year later, I have my computer screen on, and he goes, Oh, is that what that thing does? And I'm thinking, how did you do this job without technology? I know. Because now I'll tell him stories, he just laughs in my face and I tell him, Bob, it's the same stuff, different toilet. There's just more technology. Yeah, it hasn't changed that much. What's for you, coaching wise, what's the biggest change you've seen in yourself over your coaching career, and what's the biggest change you've seen and change in that you've seen in in sports over these years?

SPEAKER_02 1:00:21

So for me, I think it's um preparation, right? Like the importance of preparation. As a young coach, I don't know that I understood the importance of preparation. Um I put a lot of time and investment in our scouting report, in our preparation. Um, and and the other thing that I've learned over the years, no matter what you're doing, you're better served to be great at something than average at everything. Throwing too much at kids, right? Like we really focus in on what the strengths of our team's gonna be in the preseason. Yeah, we are who we are. Yeah, and we're gonna we're gonna perfect what we do, and everybody else is gonna have to adjust to us. Um, so the preparation aspect of it, I'm a film junkie. I watch film at nauseum um on our opponents.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:04

Not during the school day, though, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:01:06

Never during the school day. Exactly. Right after I put my kids to bed.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:08

Yeah, Tori never watches film during the school day.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:11

No, I that it's blocked on my computer at school. You can't even get it. Yeah, I bet Huddle's not allowed. Um so those are the two things that that have impacted and changed with me in the preparation, and our our program really took a turn for the better once I really focused in on those two things. Um in terms of athletics in general, what's changed in the last you know, close to three decades is um you know, the the kids haven't changed too much, just the way you need to reach them has. You know, they all want to communicate with their cell phone in their hands. Um I'm a firm believer in face-to-face conversations, hard conversations. So just getting them to open up to to me to a coach or an administrator or somebody else in the building is a little bit harder than it used to be just because they're so used to having conflict resolution with this, which doesn't which doesn't really have any result in conflict resolution. Um and that is why I think high school sports are so important because it teaches them the skills that they're not getting anymore with technology. First and foremost, how to struggle, how to come through that struggle, and how to have conflict resolution. Um so those that that's probably the biggest change is is we I've seen in kids, right? Um I will say a little bit on the parent side too, they're more involved than they ever have been um in what goes on with their with their their son. Um I'm fortunate that I've had really good parents at Cardamoney that you know, and when you've been doing it a long time, they I get back again, they understand what they're getting into. Um I say to our parents all the time, like I was not a good math student. My mom wasn't gonna demand that I get put in AP math just because I wanted to. Correct. It's not the way this works. You had another thing we have in common, too. Not a math lead. No, it's not the way the world works. Um, if everything's equal in terms of commitment, dedication, effort, which we expect they will be, the best players are gonna play.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:12

Do you have the same amount of fire you had as that 22-year-old first-year head coach?

SPEAKER_02 1:03:17

Um it's been channeled in a better direction. That's exactly what I was gonna say. I have the same passion for it. Um, I'm as motivated as I've ever been to do it. Um, but I'm much better at where it needs to be focused at um than when I was at 22 years old.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:35

I remember coming back here to coach fall of '98 and was just a lunatic. I mean, coaching freshman football, just getting them all fired up in pregame speeches and screaming during the game. One of our kids was coaching CYO out here, a kid that I coached, and he's like, Coach Babbits. He's like, I modeled my whole coaching style after you. I was like, Oh, that's that's great. And I watched, I'm watching him during the game, and I'm like, did I used to yell like that? And then I'm thinking, yeah, probably back then I did like, but I'm still the same way. I don't know if you ever lose that fire. And I feel like honestly, and I'm I'm serious when I say this, I feel like it means more for us because of where we plant our feet on a daily basis, not only at the home front, but once you get to go to a school that you went to, it just means get more skin in the game. It does. It just you don't want to let people down. I'm I'm reading a book right now called The Twin Thieves, and it talks about there's two twin thieves that can that can take away your joy or that can take away from a big victory, and it's fear and judgment. And I feel like every single day here, I don't I'm to the point now to where I don't really care if like what people judge me on. Like uh we did a podcast and they're like, Oh, what's your legacy gonna be? And I'm like, my legacy is not wins and losses here. Like we could win a million state titles, nobody's gonna care about that. It's about the impact that you have on these kids and these families. For you, what's the most exciting thing for you about getting on campus every single day and diving into that community?

SPEAKER_02 1:04:58

So you can probably attest to this too. The school, being in a school, uh specifically a Catholic school, sucks in the summer. Yeah, right when there's no kids.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:10

That's the worst part about it. That's why COVID was so brutal. It wasn't any of the other BS, it was the kids not being around.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:16

You know, I'm the director of admissions at Cardin, along with the basketball coach. So I I get a unique perspective of getting to know kids when they're in eighth grade and their families. Um, the best thing for me is I stand at the front door every morning, you know, with principal and some other people. And, you know, I just greet kids every morning, have different handshakes with different kids coming in because I'm a firm believer if you can build positivity to start their day, the rest of their day will go better. Yep. The rest of their day will go better. Um, because you have no idea what went on in the household in the morning, what they've dealt with the night before, what kind of stresses they're under academically or socially. And if you can just plant that seed of positivity to start their day, then they're gonna Have it, but it's my favorite part of the day is standing at that front door in the morning.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:03

I don't get to school quite that early sometimes, majority of the time.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:08

I've heard people here at CC complain about that. I'm also the only AD that works the whole summer.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:12

I love asking these other ADs. I'm like, hey, what's your schedule on a game day? They're like, meh, I roll in at like noon. I'm like, what? Like, I even if they told me I could roll in at noon, I still don't think I would come in that late just because it's such a I wouldn't want to sit at home and like relax or do it. My kids are in school, my wife's at work, so what am I gonna do? Sit with a dog all day? Yeah. I'd rather get here and get on campus because you hit the nail on the head earlier when you said not a single day for me in this building feels like I'm going to a job.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:39

Never.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:39

I feel like that's why we're so young in spirit as we get a little older now. Like I said, 1993, it makes it sound even older.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:47

But I think that the kids helped it's A D or B C.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:50

Yeah, exactly. I don't even know if our kids know that. They should. But for me, it it doesn't feel like I'm going to work on a daily basis. It feels like I'm going to hang out with extended family. And when you said that you, you know, you have little handshakes with kids, that little touch means so much to them. Oh, yeah. And I'm I'm hoping this happens in other schools, but I love hearing that another school has their people out front to greet the kids because we don't know what these kids go through, no matter how well we get to know them. We don't know what they go through when they leave our hallways or when they leave our activity, whether it's robotics or lacrosse, it doesn't matter. Sometimes when they go home, that's when real life begins for them. And it's tougher than we could ever know. So that small touch of positivity in the morning might shift their whole day, maybe their whole week, maybe that month for them because it can it happens on a consistent basis. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:37

And it it's just building relationships with everybody in the building, right? Like, and pouring, like you say, pouring back into the kids. I get more out of it, Aaron, than I do than I put into it.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:47

Absolutely. Without question. I can't give enough. It's not even close. No, I can't give enough to get what I get back.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:52

No, it's not it's not even close to what I get out of being around young generation of kids that we get to try and help along the way and play a small part in their journey. Um now, do we have the occasional knucklehead? Yeah, but I like that kid.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:09

That makes it worth it too.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:10

It does because I see a lot of myself in that kid, right? It makes me want to go out of my way even more because I see myself in that youngster, right? Like I wasn't the straightest of arrows growing up.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:20

Do you tell those kids that and share those? Oh, for sure. I love it. Same thing. For sure. You know, what Sean was an angel, never got in trouble, no detentions, perfect. Model student. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:30

Um, yeah, I I mean, those are the kids I want to reach even more, right? Who might not have the best home life or structure going on and tell them, like, look, I was in your shoes. Like, I was a knucklehead at times. I didn't get the best of grades. Um, there's hope for you. Yeah, right. There's still hope for you. Look at Babbitt's night. There's hope.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:53

People still can't believe I have this job. Still they're like, you still have that job? I'm like, somehow, I guess maybe they believe in, I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:00

You know, and for my for my admissions job, one of the best, one of the best jobs in Catholic schools.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:06

For sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:07

You know, somebody like Jake, right here, who's an alum. Um, somebody like myself, when you're when you're in that scenario, and I was in sales in corporate America prior to being in the building. And to be able to just speak something I wholeheartedly believe in, I'm not selling you anything that I don't wholeheart, like I'm living it. You're looking at somebody who, and to be able to go to people like I felt so called to come back here and leave corporate America because of the impact this place had on me, and that's what it can have for your child. It's easy. It's easy for me to talk about because I'm not lying to anybody. I'm not BSing anybody, I'm not selling them something I don't believe in or that we can't follow through on.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:48

Yeah, it uh my first job out of college was selling copiers. So I mean, just once again, another thing we have in common, just grinding through sales, cold calls, and quotas and stuff like that. Well, then I get into the admissions job here. And like you said, you're selling a product people want to hear about. Yeah. Like going door to door selling copiers, nobody wants to hear that. It's like selling it's like selling loose leaf door to door. But then I got here and I'm like you said, I'm selling a product I can stand behind. And when I talk about it, it's coming from my heart. Like I don't, I don't think I've ever prepared a speech at this place, whether it's at the state of the school, which is to our biggest constituents and donors, or if it's to one of our teams, it's I got to talk to the hockey team Friday before their game. And I just told them, guys, it's not about your parents, it's not about the fans out there, it's about everybody in this locker room. It's your journey. Everybody's here to support you. There's plenty of people that want to see you fail, but it's about what you guys do together as this hockey family or whatever team I'm talking to. So it it's I think it does mean a little bit more to us because we love it.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:48

Oh, yeah, and we lived it, right? Like I am a product. It wasn't easy. No, but I am a product. Like I am I say this to people uh through the admissions, you know, process about what our school can do for you, right? And I'm sure it's the same thing here at CC and a lot of other Catholic high schools. Um I'm a living, breathing product of this school. I could have gone in two different directions, and I probably was teetering on two different directions as a young adult. Yep. Um and this school made me who I am today and can do the same thing for your child, right? It's the same thing you talk about. I don't I don't have to have this crafted uh presentation of why I think this is the right fit for you. I can I'm living it right. And I can give you 15 other examples in our building, you know, of a of a a school of a smaller size and a smaller staff than what you're talking about, a bigger school. We've got 75% of our staff is alumni.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:48

It speaks for itself. Hiring within the mission. Yeah, yeah. It speaks for itself, right? Place had a humongous impact on them. They want to come back and give back to the next generation.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:58

That's I think that is one of the greatest things about our schools because we try to hire alum as much as humanly possible. Yeah. Hiring within the mission. How long have you been in the admissions job at Mooney?

SPEAKER_02 1:12:07

Uh, nine years.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:08

So you were you there when we had to go to all the grade schools? Oh, yeah. Oh, the real guy. That's what I tease Jake about all the time. I'm like, Jake, we had to do 30 grade schools in a month. Yeah. Like two during the day, one.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:19

Jake and I were two of the ones that got rid of it.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:23

Of course you did. You could have made him do it for a little bit longer.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:25

Just did it for a little bit. I think my first couple years we did it.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:28

Loading up your your uh your briefcase and your presentation, your table script, all that stuff. But I would I'd have my presentation up more times than not. I would just leave it on the first page and just go over the whole thing just off the top of my head. And I think I think feet people feel like you know, I talk about culture, hearing it, seeing it, feeling it. And with you, and I I feel like I'm the same here, they hear it from you every day. They're always gonna get some type of positive interaction from you every day. They're gonna see it in the way you you live it. Like you said, you want the kids to see, you want to model that behavior for them. That's love and action. And they feel it though, just by your spirit and how you walk around that place. That's why I'm so happy you decided to stay there because you are a part of that fabric at Cardinal Mooney. And I don't know if it's a big part of me.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:14

It is right. And so you and I had talked a couple years ago. I asked your advice on a potential job uh that I'd been approached about. Um and I said then that regardless of financial gain or anything, that if something were to ever happen to me or my family, that I know for a fact that community would rally. Absolutely. Little did I know two years later with my daughter that that whole thing would come to fruition. Yep. Right. And so that not only is I'm I a part of the fabric of Cardinal, they're a huge part of the fabric of Mike McAndrews.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:46

Yep. Yeah, Father Fulton says that a lot too. He's like, you know, God knows that Catholic Catholic Central needed you, but he also knew that you needed Catholic Central.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:56

Amen.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:56

And it's it couldn't be more accurate because we need the kids to be forward thinking. We need them to be good young men, young women of faith. You know, I I feel like that our kids need to understand, and you said it perfectly, when they have no idea how much they give back to you. I could have the worst day at home, you know, in a war with my wife, which does happen from time to time. I'm sure yours is very similar to mine, a saint.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:22

Most of the time. Um, and with two boys, it it's just it's a bloodbath on a daily basis. But I'm trying to get them to realize, much like you, and that's why I love the friendship that you and your brother have. And I was gonna say like the brotherhood, but it's not. It's you can tell that you guys are friends. And that's what I'm trying to tell Brooks and Bo is like, boys, mommy and daddy are raising you for when we're not here anymore, and you guys just have each other, which is impossible to say. And I've shared it on here a million times because you know, I'm getting older now and I'm thinking, all right, my dad's close to 80, you know, my mom's getting up there in age, and you know, what I'm how am I gonna tell them when Grammys and Pa aren't here anymore and stuff like that. And then I think about it for me, and I'm like, I can't even imagine. So seeing what you went through with Annabella, you know, I I feel like that that little thing, and it's not a little thing that you went through, but the little piece I could plan it just by being there for you made me a better dad. Because you just never know. You want to you want to protect the kids, but you know they got to hurt a little bit and go through things. You never hope it's for something like that. But the amount of faith and love that you had around you, I really feel like that's that's what got you guys through. And and for your priest to come in too in the middle of chaos. Oh, yeah. That was and just feel you talk about culture, like him coming in and just calming the room with his presence, but that also shows that he poured back into your family. Annabelle's comfortable with him, she knew exactly what it meant and knew like it was a time to like to like be in his presence and and just give yourself to God. And it was I can't tell you how much I thought about you guys during that time, how much I wish I could just reach out to you and just be like, dude, it's gonna be alright, like it's in God's hands.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:58

But it's the fact that you texted me every day, give me some positive news, what that did for me, Aaron, you'll never understand because your mind goes to what can what can happen really bad.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:13

Yeah, worst case scenario, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:16:14

Like you're you're just automatically there when it's your child. And you would text me daily on give me some good news, and it would force me to concentrate more on the little victories that were going on in that room rather than what could go wrong, right? Like she's up today, right? She's getting she's eating today, or something positive. It refocused me. So you'll never understand the t the daily text and what they did for me personally, and in refocusing my mindset of right, like we both pride ourselves on being positive people, but we're also human beings. And my mind, as positive as I can be, went to a negative place. Yep. Of this can't happen. Like, I don't know how I'll make it, I don't know how I'll survive, I don't know how I'll do this, how will I be there for my other child? How will my wife be able to handle this? And to get those little just give me something positive, refocused me on little victories that were going on in that room that I was missing, that I wasn't paying attention to. And for that, I can't thank you enough to refocus my mind on we are take taking steps in the right direction. This my daughter is gonna be okay. Like we're gonna focus on the good, not the bad.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:26

I just care about you. And I knew what you guys were going through, and I'll never forget that line you put in your text to me. She's gotta make it. And I I'll never forget that. I remember when you texted that I was like, All right, you gotta figure out how to help any way possible you can in this situation. I knew I knew the pain you guys were going through.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:42

It was tremendous to just give me something positive, right? And I'm like, at the time you go, What what what can be positive about this? And then you go, All right. All right, I'll give you something positive, right? Like, she's eating today, she sat up today. Uh the doctors were in and said she's doing X, Y, and Z better today. Like And then my mind started to shift on let's take these baby steps and get her out of here. Let's just build And she's how close to getting back to school? Yeah, today they're her and my wife are at the the doctor right now, hopefully getting clear to go back to school tomorrow. You do realize you'll be getting another tell me something positive text later on today, so you can update me on the So this will hopefully probably be out before this happens, but or not after this happens, but so you talk about good people in and I know we're biased to Catholic schools. I know we are. I make no apologies for it. Nope. None. Zero. Um her first grade teacher, she was really struggling for three, four days. Her first grade teacher came in and uh Brie and I left the room. She hadn't eaten, and they told us if she doesn't get something down in the next 24 hours, we're gonna have to put a feeding tube in. And uh her first grade teacher took the time to come and visit on a weekend, family of her own, young kids of her own, Catholic school teacher, dealing with a hundred rug rats, right? Like she comes up there and um goes into teacher mode, sticker charge, doing this right, doing this right. Changed everything.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:05

Gave her a sense of normalcy, changed everything. It's just those little things. It it's and like I said, you are the king of segue, so this is the part of the podcast where we put our people on the spot and make them give some positivity to the I always say 10,000 listeners, and it's probably like is it you listening 10,000 times? It's me on repeat just listening to I I fast forward through everybody else's comments and just see like how cool I sound. So I probably won't remove it.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:32

I understand. That's not true. We can I post a podcast, I understand.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:35

We clip of we clip other people's stuff.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:37

Yeah, it's usually I could edit out my brother more, I would on our podcast.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:41

Do you want me to cut this out or do you want me to leave that in here?

SPEAKER_02 1:19:44

You can keep it in. He knows who's running the show.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:46

Oh God, here we go.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:47

He's an official, nobody likes him.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:49

I like him. Didn't like him so much in the rice game, but you know, he's I had to act like I didn't know him. Like we gave each other a little head nod, like, what's up? I was on your podcast. Give us an extra traveling call something. But this is the point where we kind of wrap things together and put a nice little bow on it. And what I want you to do is just share some positivity, some advice for the people out there, the people that are watching, the kids that might tap in and watch, because we do have a lot of kids that'll listen to it, but just share some positivity and some advice for the crowd out there that might tap into this podcast on anything you want.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:21

On any topic, um some positivity. So there's a lot of things I could talk about. Um, first and foremost, I think for young people, if the more they give and put into their peers and to other people, the more their life will change for the positive. Um, you know, I I didn't realize that at that age, um, but I do now as an adult that the more you put into people that need you, um, you know, I've said before, you you look at friendship, right? Um as you get older, Aaron, you can attest to this. You you alluded to it a little earlier, um, about guys you're used to run with, right? And how life takes different paths. True friendship is not measured on how many times you see and talk to each other. True friendship is measured on the amount of times you show up when you're needed. Um, so the best advice I could give a young kid today is make sure that when you're needed, you show up.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:20

I love that. That's I hate to keep using the segue thing, but you kind of stole the one that I was thinking of. And and for me, it's really just showing up for your people. No matter how you feel, I could have the worst day at home, but I know when I get on campus here, I have to leave that there. I can deal with it after, even compartmentalize it, which might not be the healthiest thing to do. But I know when I step foot on this campus around our kids, around our faculty, it doesn't matter who it is on this staff. I mean, like you said, you want to engage everybody from the top all the way down to your last person. I know when I step on this campus, I have to be present for my people. And being present for them to me means being a good listener, being empathetic, being grateful for the conversations and the relationships I build. Because when we talk, I'm not just thinking of like, okay, what question can I ask him next? You know what I mean? I want to take in what you're saying. So when I talk about being there for your people, just be there when you're needed. And you hit the nail right on the head when you said that. When it's time for you to be there for somebody else, show up. Yeah. Even when it's time for you to not be there for somebody else, show up anyway. The smallest little touch, hey, I saw you pick up that piece of trash in the hallway the other day. I'm really proud of you.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:30

I flipped it because I saw something great the other day, too. And this is one thing I want to share with everybody out there. Be proud of yourselves. Other people can control your serotonin and things like that, and they're like, well, I'm proud of you. Well, you shouldn't have to depend on me telling you that I'm proud of you. I want you to be proud of what you've done. And if I could say that to you right now, I want you to be proud of the man that you continue to become because it's inspiring for guys like me coming from the same class and being the same age, even though you have more hair and a better basketball career. But to see you fight through what you went through with your family and how you embraced your faith and the story you told me about the priest coming in and everything you went through and sharing pictures with Annabella, for me, that I can't tell you how much it has helped me grow. And and for you to say that just that little text message meant a lot to you. Like, I can't tell you what a bucket filler that is. Cause I just want people to be genuinely happy and be there for them, help them pick up the pieces, help them motivate, anything that I can possibly do. So, you know how I feel about you. I love you, dude. And I'm so proud of what I can see you turn into as a man before anything else and a human being, and it trickles down to your beautiful family and everything you guys continue to battle through and all the victories that are gonna come your way. And and I can't tell you how much I appreciate you taking time out of your day today, coming in here to the home of the Shamrocks.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:49

I know I keep telling them So I do want to tell you, you know, a lot of times you get involved in schools, right? And there's this not necessarily animosity, but we're all very protective of what we do and what we're what we're attempting to do. I will say this at the cost of making a lot of other schools angry. Um the culture that is here at CC, the number of times I've been out here um and walked through the hallways or been at athletic events, it is it is the cream of the crop. I will tell you that what it's it's from the top down. Everybody's living it, breathing it. It's palpable when you're walking here. Um it is the gold standard that the rest of us uh should try and and and strive for. Um and I'm appreciative that you've allowed me to not only build our quality friendship, but learn from you and from the people at CC what living your faith in a Catholic institution should look like.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:47

It's the best. It's I appreciate you saying that. I I think people, and you know this, if you win a championship or you win at a high level, people think, well, you had to cheat. There had there's got to be some way that you did this. It can't just be, but I think if the one special thing we do here and a lot of our other schools do is we lead with love. And we're not afraid to say it. I don't think many ADs get up to a microphone at a winter sports assembly and talk about leading with love. Like our kids all think I'm gonna go up there and just scream and yeah, which I do a lot, but yeah, but you're right though. I I feel like we do a good job of leading with love here, and we try to help as many schools as possible. If that's the secret sauce for us, we feel like that is. It's it's just leading with love and making the kids know that they're loved. Every single kid, from your quietest kid to your most popular kid in the school. Yeah. Every kid has to get that same piece of engagement. So I I I appreciate that. We continue to lead with love. I know you live your life like that, which is why we get along so well and why you're part of my circle. And I don't have a big circle. You know, I always kind of go to the same people when we're at our league meetings. I'll say hi to everybody. Yeah. I'm politicking for AD of the year this year. It's been how long has it been? 12 or 14. So cyclically, it's it's getting close. You know how the cycle works in the league. I'm kind of kidding about that.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:00

I don't know, man. I I there's any voters out there though. I am on that committee, and Brandon Melanowski called me to politic himself on the way here today. So didn't he get it recently? I think so. Yeah, I think he got it. I think he got it last year or year before.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:12

Yeah, he's he's not due for another 15. Yeah. But yeah, it it's I think that that leading with love and showing up with your people are the two most important things we do.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:19

Anytime you do something at a very high level and you do something consistently at a high level, um people want to throw darts at that because it's done so well. And all they're doing is exposing their own shortcomings, in my opinion. 100%. Um, and you guys, you know, championships aside, they're a byproduct of what goes on in the halls here and way the way that the faith is being evangelized here and the way that the kids are being loved and p built up. That's a byproduct of that. People don't understand that, right? They don't understand that when you're not in a a school with that kind of culture. Um, and I would challenge anybody, both public and private, to start to live your school that way, start to build that culture within your school, and you'll see the same results that a CC scene.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:10

It can happen anywhere. Anywhere. It really is that it's that simple. You're doing it in your school smaller, but you guys lead the same way that we do, and that's why Mooney is so successful. Yeah. You keep hiring within the mission, you keep hiring great people, you have a great family community there built on faith and love. For guys like us, I don't think we could want anything more from our experience at our alma maters. No.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:32

So you know, you you alluded to it earlier. I get up every day and love going to work. Absolutely love it.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:39

You can ask Sean. We uh we treat it like a brotherhood here. I mean, between the fact it gets within the faculty, and I know you like to talk a lot of smack like I do, Mike. So, you know, it's constantly walk around and and but we'll tell shadows too, and it and I'm sure you say it in admissions watch how the adults interact with each other and watch how the kids interact with each other and the adults. Yeah. You're gonna see kids with smiles on their faces. Yes. We're very serious about what we do in the classroom, what we do activity-wise, but we're even more serious about our faith and loving the hell out of our people. And that's that's roots, not fruit, to attain. Yeah, amen. Just focusing on your people and every piece of fruit you want will be attainable, regardless of what it is. So but we we appreciate you, we love you, we wish you nothing but the best. I can't wait to see the growth from you and the future. And and like I said, you are such a special person to me because I know every time I'm around you, I have a positive experience, regardless of what it is. Even with what you were going through with your daughter, just me reaching out and knowing that you were there for me if I ever needed it to in turn is something that's that's really special. You're a perfect fit on this podcast, you're a perfect fit in the Catholic League. And I can tell you this, you are a perfect fit at Cardinal Mooney. You are you you bleed the colors of that place, much like we say we bleed Valley Blue and Pierless White. I know you're the same with Cardinal Mooney. One thing I do have to mention that if you want to continue to hear great podcasts like this, I'm stealing this one from Mr. Okoye. He always says, make sure you support the 1928 club. Usually some other stuff that he throws out there. But uh, Chris, we missed you on this episode. Mike, absolutely fantastic. I love spending time with you. I love pouring into each other and just making each other better versions of ourselves just by the relationship and brotherhood we've built. To everybody out there, feel free, tap into any of the 12, 13 episodes we've had of House of Hammers. You will find at least one positive nugget on how to fail forward, how to be stronger in your faith, and how to be a mentor for the kids of today and for each other. On that note, we love you guys. We can't wait for you to check back in again. We've got some great guests coming up and go shamrocks.