That Coach Sucks
A podcast dedicated to helping coaches survive the evolving career that is coaching.
That Coach Sucks
Episode 7 Pete Smolin
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In the world of coaching, especially in Southern California, the importance of community cannot be overstated. Coaches often find themselves isolated, relying on the internet for resources instead of connecting with peers. In a recent discussion with Coach Pete Smolin, the new head coach at Don Lugo High School, we delved into the reasons behind this trend and explored how we can revive the spirit of collaboration among coaches.
So I've been gone here for a little over a month. I say this because right before I decided to take a break from recording, I did an episode with Coach Pete Smollen. Yes, the long time promised episode. I also recorded some of the highlights and speakers from the Southern California Football Coaches Association Annual Award Banquet and Clinic. You'll be able to find the Skifka coverage on my YouTube at ThatCoachSucks. I say this because a lot of what Coach and I talk about references stuff that we got from the clinic. I decided to take some time off because I recently had to make a tough decision about my coaching career, and all of my thoughts were focused on that decision. When you decide to make a change as a football coach, there's a lot to consider. I guess it's not that much different from other professions. What's the pay gonna be? How are the benefits? How far do I have to travel, etc.? But when you're working with kids, I don't know, it just seems to have a greater impact on the larger number of people around you. My eventual decision was mostly influenced by how it would impact my family. However, I also had to be honest with myself about where my place is in the world of high school football. I had to take a long look in the mirror and figure out where I was going to have the most positive impact on the sport and in our region. Ultimately, I chose to continue as a head coach at another school. Like I said, considerations like salary, benefit, and my drive were a huge piece in my decision. I know there are a lot of people out there that aren't happy with my decision. I wish I would have done it differently. Sometimes doors open for a reason, and you have to just take a chance and see where God's leading you. Anyways, enough about my situation. I just thought I owed my audience an explanation about where I've been. Take a listen to this interview with Coach Pete Smollen. Coach has a great perspective on what's going on with a new generation of coaches and how we can bring back some of the camaraderie that used to exist in our profession. Welcome to the That Coach Tuck podcast. My name is Coach Joe Girardo. I've been a high school coach most of my life. Here I'll talk with coaches of various levels and sports about their experiences navigating the world of coaching. Come with me on my journey to discover why people decide to get into coaching, why they stay, or why they leave. This dude, that coach, suck. So you called Joe Casey.
SPEAKER_00I called Joe Casey. I and it said Joe Girardo, so it must have saved his name, his number, and your your contact. That's the only thing I think of.
SPEAKER_01Hey man, there's a lot of Joes in the world.
SPEAKER_00Joes.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_00But it was great talking to him, and he's and he has a very distinct weird voice, so he's like, Well, who is this? And I was like, uh Pete Smollen. He's like, Pete Smollin. I know that is. I was practice. Oh, well, you know, we I have the kids six period. We're not doing anything after school yet, so uh but the kids are great. I mean, I love them. Yeah. Work hard and you know, they're very respectful.
SPEAKER_01That's good, man. That's solid. I think things are going well over there for you.
SPEAKER_00Well, you know, we'll see.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00So far, so good. I'm getting blown up. Michael Fuller is the guy I was a guy I was gonna talk about tonight, is calling me now at the block.
SPEAKER_01No, you gotta turn that off, Coach. This is the elusive interview going all the way back to the very first episode.
SPEAKER_00Oh, I know. We uh this is this is I'm a hard man to I'm a hard man to catch, you know.
SPEAKER_01Well, are we let's let's let's get started with Coach Pete Smollen, the new head coach at Don Lugo High School. I worked for Coach Smollen uh when he was the head coach at Sitches Valley. Coach Smollen has uh has an amazing career, successful. Uh he's been all over Southern California, back east, in Utah. Coach, thanks for being on with us.
SPEAKER_00Well, I I really appreciate it, Joe. It's always great talking to you. This is very odd for us because usually we're face to face with a couple cold ones, but um that's what I love doing, talking to you. And I am I love what you're doing with your podcast. I think it's great. You know, the coaches need a voice, you know. We really don't have that, and uh, you know, we're we're we don't really have a union and we don't have much support, you know. Um if you're winning or losing, it doesn't matter. And you've had some great, great coaches on on here, and I'm just honored that you know I can be part of it and maybe uh add some insight to what you're trying to do and and for our profession.
SPEAKER_01Well, I'll tell you what, coach. So you were present at our at our coaches association clinic. Um we talked a lot there. Uh it wasn't well attended. I've heard a lot of the the different reasons why it wasn't attended. And I I want to talk to you because you've without being disrespectful, you've been around for a while, right? You've seen the ups and downs, you've seen the association at its highest.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01What do you what do you think is going on with these young coaches and these new coaches? Why don't they get involved?
SPEAKER_00You know, I really don't know. I th I definitely times have changed. I mean, we you know, I've I can I have a million stories, I have 35 years of stories and you know, connecting the dots, but uh one thing that's been true, the trajectory of a profession is is not what it used to be. The the professionalism, you know, uh part of being a a football coach professional is to stay up on your trade and always do the best thing. And you know, and it's not just um looking up drills on YouTube and things like that. It's it's networking, talking to college high high school and college coaches. And you know, Matt Logan's, you know, same age as me, and he's extremely successful. He's probably the best in the country, if not the world, and um what he does in in football. And uh to hear him speak and talk to him and and spend time with him after and and pick his brain, I mean, um, that's invaluable. You can't find that on YouTube. You know, you can't have that interaction and all that stuff. So definitely a generation is is a generation thing, but it's also the system has changed. You know, it's the parents are different, the administration is different. Kids are kids. I don't think kids have changed too much. They have a lot more distractions, and maybe that's what's happening with uh the younger generation. There's a lot more distractions and they think they can learn everything on the internet, I guess.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I would agree with you on the internet part, right? A lot of coaches are going to their Glazor vault, or they're going to YouTube or CoachTube to get stuff. Everybody goes to Glazor, but I kind of wonder, you know, are you going to Glazor for the clinic talk? Are you going to Glazier for the bar afterwards in the evening, right? I think the the piece that I struggle with, and then I've heard a lot of people say, well, I didn't know about the clinic. Um, I didn't get the information. And I'm gonna circle back to that, but you know, Matt Logan is talking, Rick Garrettson is talking, two Titans, right? Matt Logan 300 wins at a public high school playing with the Trinity League, right? I know, I know it was out there on X. I know that our president sent out emails to coaches. Still, guys don't put the same emphasis on the association in Southern California that they do on on the privatized end of things. Do you think that is just a new wave of SoCal coaches, or is it a communication problem with the association? Do we need to get younger? Do we need to get louder?
SPEAKER_00What do we need to do? You know, um I'm not really an expertise on on the association and the history of it. I myself am a victim am a culprit of kind of zooming, swinging in and swinging out of it, and and but I think, you know, the approaches have been different, you know, in the past. I mean, I remember getting mailers and filling out forms and you know, and and kind of having, you know, more of a connection. And I don't know if the marketing is an issue, but I know that there's a generational shift where there's some older guys that are still there that do an amazing job and kind of want to do things their way, and there's some younger guys that want to kind of do their way, and it's not I don't know if it's they're hitting all the all the cylinders, you know. And um saw on on uh social media some guys are saying, Well, I didn't know about it, you know. And uh if you didn't honestly, if you didn't say, Hey, you should come by, you know, I probably you probably wouldn't have, you know.
SPEAKER_01Sure, sure. So an emphasis thing. Well, let me ask you this, because you you were coaching out of state, you were incredibly successful at a at a school in Utah. What was it like there as far as coaches' camaraderie and associations and and clinics, that stuff.
SPEAKER_00That's a very good point. Um, I coached at the largest and most diverse high school in the state of Utah, and we were kind of on the west side, and the west side is the blue collar and you know the multicultural side, and we weren't the rich guys on the hills under under the ski resorts. And well, first of all, I'll tell you that you know, nobody likes California coaches coming over there. So, you know, I just I got shined off on everything, you know. Every time I'm trying to schedule games, people are just like, yeah, whatever, dude. But uh that being said, once we got our foot in the ground, got to network, they have a really good job. They have a state college, uh a state, I'm sorry, state high school football coaches association. Um they have put on a great clinic, and guys from BYU, Utah State, Utah are there speaking, and uh actually spoke at that clinic uh last year, which I thought I thought was really great. And it's a good network, and we try to help each other out, but it's it's a smaller, smaller segment compared to what even the southern section is like.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I hear a lot of that. I you know, at the national convention this year, I got a chance to to sit down with coaches at other states that ran state associations, and and I'm blown away, right? I mean, I'll talk about Texas, but even in states like Minnesota and Illinois, the way that they organize and get their coaches together, but it's not just those guys. The coaches that coach there, they want that camaraderie. And sometimes I wonder in Southern California if that's even what we want. I mean, forget about the rest of the state, right?
SPEAKER_00Just in Southern California, getting our big enough in Southern California than the most states are. And I think we have more schools in Southern California than all of Utah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's just different, right? Yes. Okay, so let me s let me let me circle back to Texas because Southern California doesn't have more schools than Texas. And I got invited to go to the the Texas Coaches Associate Football Coaches Association social in the national convention and coach, there were like 600 guys there, 700 guys there, college coaches, high school coaches, everybody. You name a guy that's coaching in Texas, and they were bumping elbows, you know, having a libation, eating some food, and we were just talking ball and hanging out. And I know it's Texas, and I know Texas is different, but I mean, shit, man. Southern California wants to say they have that same pride and that same level of football, but we don't have that same kind of camaraderie, you know. I and I just I'm at a loss. Like, how do we get everybody together?
SPEAKER_00I you know, I d I don't know. Um I mean, obviously there's nothing like Texas, and and you know, you know, even break into college high school coaching in Texas, you you know, you got to know someone and or you gotta wait for someone to die and carry the body out. We there was a a kid that I coached um in college, and uh he was very successful here in Southern California, and his wife's like, we're moving to Texas, and uh great guy, Josh Knight, and you know, he's he's a he's a junior high head coach, and he's excited that he got that experience, and he didn't get that last year. It's just so hard, it's so it's so competitive. But I think with the camaraderie and the networking, I remember things happening back in the day. There's more regional, and there's a great guy um who's been around East LA uh college coach named Rick Gamboa, old Roosevelt coach, and everything. And I remember him having like calling up local coaches and say, we're gonna meet at this Chinese restaurant, and the offensive coordinator from Oregon State's gonna come down, and it's all you can eat and all you can drink, and ask them as many questions as you want. And you know, Coach Riley from from Oregon State was there, and we would hang out and talk, and and the um there's been old groups that you know with leagues that and they would bring guest speakers and you meet at some sporting goods store in the back and have a couple cold ones and and you just chop it up, and it's basically, you know, because we didn't have the internet back then.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, I agree. You talked about like getting the flyers. I mean shit, coach. I I used to live for being a young coach and going to the the you know the school mailroom and finding that flyer and be like, I'm going to this clinic, you know, so-and-so is talking.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and it's great. I mean, and I I don't know, I can't speak much for younger coaches. I don't know what they're doing and and how they're getting things going. But I remember when I started out as a young coach, I was 27 years old, and you know, be careful what you wish for. I was an assistant and I interviewed for the job at a P position at the school and they gave it to me. And I just uh I didn't even I didn't know what I didn't know. And it was it was hard. It was hard to um find resources and there wasn't internet back then. I mean this is early 90s, and yeah, um you just kind of had to talk to guys like I went up and talked to the head, old head coach who was teaching biology. I'm like, what did you because he was a couple coaches ahead and he was very successful, a guy named Don Schumacher, and he was winning league championships at Glendale. They were beating Muir and beating, you know, Arcady and all those teens back then. You know, he's like, hey, this is what we ran. We ran USC's offense, and he drew it all up for me. And I had it, and I met uh an old coach from Crescenta Valley named Gordy Warnock, and we met I met him at a bar. He's like, Well, go talk to Gordy because that's where I got my stuff. And I go up and talk to Gordy, and he drew a power encounter on a napkin. And I had that, that's what I ran for five, six well. I ran it with Citrus Valley with you, you know. We just ran, that's how we ran Power Encounter exactly what was on Gordy Warnock's bar napkin. So it's it's a little different, you know, then and then it is now.
SPEAKER_01Right. Guys are are finding all kinds of videos all over the place and drawing that stuff up. Nobody's getting a bar napkin at a bar, right? From a legend, right? And hearing it from that guy. But I want to bring up the fact that this past weekend at the at the the coach's clinic, you bump into a couple of guys, and they're guys that you hired when you were coaching. Were you where were you coaching at that point? And you bumped into some guys that just won a city championship, as a matter of fact.
SPEAKER_00Well, yeah, so I was at Cantwell, and uh those two was only one guy, but he went over and he went over to Southgate and he went over there, and it just it was a guy who was an alumni and he wanted to help out, and I said, Hey, uh uh P. Gonzalez willn't trade film at St. Paul, so can you go over and film some St. Paul games for us? And he did, so uh, you know, things things have changed, you know, a lot. You know, that it was hard to get film from, you know, you had to get meet meet at a McDonald's on on 40th and Waterman uh exchange VHS tapes, you know. Lot of St. Paul, a lot of St.
SPEAKER_01Paul, a lot of St. Paul hate this past weekend, man. You're a St. Paul Paul guy and you're a listener to this. You you guys missed out because I heard a lot of guys talk about St. Paul over the last weekend.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean they were they're formidable. You know, that's that that's a team you need to film on, you know, for sure.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. Well, and so let's kind of let's fall back on on this. You talked about how hard it is to get in on Texas, right? And I've heard the same thing, and and I've heard similar stories throughout the nation. The profession of being a head football coach, especially at these high schools, I mean, it's a coveted position. And and now you look here in Southern California and you go to Chris Ford's website, Eight Laces, and and he and he lists all the coaching changes. And I want to say we're at ninety-five, ninety-four right now. It seems like in Southern California we're hiring a hundred coaches a year, right? Is you know an opportunity for a new coach to come in and listen to a Matt Logan or a Rick Garretton or to just meet a guy like you or meet any of the guys on the board. It seems like that would be valuable. I understand the communication issue, but what's going on? What do you think is going on with there's a lot of guys getting coaching jobs annually here in the Southern California region, right? When you and I were young guys, right, long time ago, we we searched out that information, clinics, coaches, sitting in is sitting in an office or at a bar at a restaurant with the coach. You know, what do we what do you think we need to do to get this message out to these young guys? Um do we need to reach athletic directors? Is there they the ones that have to say, hey, you're you're now our head coach, you need to join your association. What do you think?
SPEAKER_00And that's a very good point. Um, being a former athletic director myself, I think that's another tool that you can use, but it's got to come down to these coaches wanting to be true professionals and having understanding their responsibility to be professionals and do what's the right thing for their kids, the new safest technique of teaching, tackling, and blocking and new schemes and staying up on their profession. And it's not just X's and O's, it's you know, all the things you're doing to build build a pro comprehensive program of teaching the intangibles, you know, of character leadership and you know, and making them better men. You know, that's why we do it, right? And uh, you know, we back in the day, the administration had more reverence for the head football coach than they do now. The administrations were former head coaches, and there was more of like you were more of a higher status, you know, and you had that res you understood the responsibility that you had. And it, you know, and in Texas, that's exactly what it is. You know, in Texas, like you're revered, as you're, you know, you're you're as important as a principal on the campus. And and it is kind of in Southern California, but I don't think the administration um Southern California is the same, you know, with as it used to be, and the same in other states. It's just been we've been devalued. You know, we were letting all these walk-on coaches come. Like I remember back in the day, like, you know, you better be a teacher on campus, you better have a credential, and we'll take your two three top assistants and we'll hold all our teaching positions for them. There's a great golden age where you know, football uh administrators understood the importance of football because most of them were former head coaches or former football coaches.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I I mean this is what Patrick Thompson and I talked about uh in the last episode. There was a time when football coaches, like you said, they were as important as your principal, and your principal was a probably a guy that played football and coached football. He was a football guy too. I mean, you look around on a lot of campuses now, we have so many schools. There's so few schools where you walk around campus and you can find five or six football coaches, right? You're a new coach at a at a high school, and you know, I know when I walked on campus when I became a head coach and I was begging teachers to coach football, I don't even care if you played, right? And something's changed there. A a lot of people going into education aren't coaches.
SPEAKER_00That's a good point. You know, there's uh there's no one on your campus, you know, the the way it used to be. Used to be guys got into teaching because they wanted to coach, and that's why I got into teaching. I mean, I'm I would probably be a millionaire if I put all this time and energy in a money-making scheme, you know, like selling stocks and bonds or something. But um they're just not on campus anymore, and it's so hard. I mean, I used to remember sending out emails to every school, every school I go to, I send an email like, hey, you know, uh, Vince Lombardi, who's the other guy, John Wooden, they started off as high school teachers. You know, hey, they gave to the school, and if you're interested in helping out, I just someone who could be there on time. I mean, you're done the same time school's over and whatnot with me, and are good with kids. There you go. And I'll coach you up and teach you what you need to know. Because there isn't those ex-head coach head coaches just roaming around your campus, and they're not sitting at their house. There's none of those guys, there's no Vince Lombardi's or or John Wooden sitting at their house three o'clock in the afternoon waiting for me to call them so they can come over and coach Don Lugo. There's just not it's impossible.
SPEAKER_01Well, how many of us, how many of us have reached way deep in the bag and pulled guys out of retirement, right? I mean, yeah, I did it my whole my whole head coaching career at Rum of the World. Like, hey, please come back and help me. You know, I know you're retired, and and we're we're kind of getting to that, right? Young head coaches and guys our age, we're reaching into the bag to bring out guys that are in their 60s because we can't find anybody younger than us.
SPEAKER_00It's tough. And I don't know how these new coaches are doing it. I don't know how they're getting staffs. Sometimes they inherit it. It's tough, you know. Sometimes you have to inherit who you have on campus, and then you're dealing with, you know, you deal with some old issues that are tough, you know. Are these guys gonna be really be loyal and support me? And it's it's tough. And you know, I I love these articles I see everywhere, and I'm not talking bad about anyone because everyone's trying to help everyone out, but you know, us are the 16 qualities you need in assistant coach. I'm like, can you just show up at 330 and and be nice to the kids? Like, that's that's it. That's it. You're good. You know what I mean? Like, I don't need a sick a list of 16 things to look for in assistant coaches because I don't know.
SPEAKER_01I need a guy over here with DBs. That's what I need right now.
SPEAKER_00You know, so I don't I don't what am I what do we need that chart that list for? You know what I mean? Like, I'm if you can be here at 330 and you're good with kids, I'll I'll get you going. And you can get cleared. Yeah, you know.
SPEAKER_01Well, that's another thing too, right? I mean, we've got some most districts, I mean I'm probably sure all districts now have some outrageous qualifications. I under I understand why, but it's like the kids, obviously. Right, protect the kids, but like uh an assistant coach that's gonna make like a twelve hundred dollar stipends gonna spend five hundred dollars just to get cleared to be an assistant coach, right? So the guys really gotta love the game.
SPEAKER_00Right, and you know, and they're you know, they're doing background checks on everybody and and they're you know, uh I heard a story today because I'm I'm not one of my guys um that was trying to get on the staff and he had an open container citation in 2021 and couldn't get hired as an assistant coach. So I'm like it's just it's just crazy. And I know we want to protect the kids and and have the best for them, but we're just we're it's hard to h hire assistants. And you're right, they pay they pay$415 in our district even and even the guys who are volunteer that aren't even gonna get paid at the time.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Right. Just to be on the field with kids.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you don't even have that many checks.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Interesting uh concept, bringing up the coach's clearances, and I want to kind of get into something that we talked about um at the coach's clean. Clinic and and I'm gonna preface it with this, coach. We're not gonna throw anybody's names out there and we're not gonna talk about any of the specifics that we talked about, but there was a great conversation. We had a coach's round table because I mean, let's be honest, there was like 17 of us there, so we we all sat around the table and we talked about what the hell is going on with Southern California football in regards to CIF and and how they're doing things and are they transparent, are they not transparent? Welcome back to Southern California football, Coach Smolin. And how did how did you feel about hearing guys from the very top of high school football in our area and literally to the very bottom division of high school football? And they all kind of said the same thing, like we don't know what's gonna happen with with our leadership at CIF. How did you feel about that? Were you like, oh shit, what am I getting back into?
SPEAKER_00Well, you know, honestly, um, first of all, it's I don't know much about the new playoff system. You know, when when I was uh on my way out of California to go into Utah, I didn't make the playoffs the that the last few years, and but things had changed, and I really liked the way things had been in the playoff system. I I just I don't know what was wrong with it, but it seemed fine fair to me. Like you were the third place team in this league, you play the first team, first place team in that league, and twos played twos and a couple wild cards, and let's go. And you're you already kind of knew what division you are before the season started. So I know there's like a lot of controversy, and then that's why people think that things aren't transparent. And what happened to your you and your program is a travesty. It's just like I just it it when something doesn't seem right that prominent doesn't seem right, then guess what? It's not right. There's something not right, you know. It just when you s verbalize it or write it down, or you know, it's like, what? You know what I mean? It's like it doesn't make sense. So, you know, who are we doing what's best for the kids? A team that has nine wins, the kids won nine games. So I don't what what are we telling them? What what what are what are we saying? Well, like what are we saying to these kids? Yeah, I mean And then you're you're not it's not like you're recruiting from the from the ghetto ghetto school across the railroad tracks from you. It's not like you're recruiting anybody. Like why why we why punish the kids that live up in the mountain and chop woods and rake leaves and wrestle bears all day, you know, in nine games.
SPEAKER_01I mean, let me let me say this. I understand the system and I understand the system the way the system works. I understand that there's a desire to get the best teams in the playoffs, and the best teams need to be in the playoffs, right? Our top 100. And I think with our system, the problem is that again, we have too many teams. I talked about this with Pat in the last episode, right? The southern section is is just way too big. I guess if you're gonna keep this section together, what do you you add a 15th division, right? And and and but you look at the lower divisions, coach, you know, 13 and 14, those divisions have a hundred teams in them, and then the open division, division one has eight teams, right? And so that doesn't make a lot of sense, right? And and there go ahead.
SPEAKER_00No, I was gonna say I'm I'm trying to answer your question. I didn't mean the hardbone one thing. I just wanted to advocate for you and what what a tremendous job you did in your program for all those years. But you know, you deserve to hear that, and and people need to stand up for that. When hearing the that panel speak and what they said is another thing that's you know, you have you have spidey sense, like this doesn't seem right. Like there's another thing that just doesn't seem right. When you hear about schools sandbagging games so they get into a lower division, like doesn't seem like let's let's it's if something doesn't seem right and your spidey sense is tingling, then that means something's wrong and it needs to be addressed.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, well, I mean, coach, you're gonna you're gonna face that battle this year, right? With your your program. It's gonna be the question of how many games do we win, and you start to watch your ranking, right? You watch, okay, we're at this number, we're in this division, uh-oh. Well, now we move to the bottom of this division. Okay, now we're in the middle of this division, we're okay. Uh-oh, we're at the top of this division now, and if we win anymore, we're gonna be at the bottom of the next division, right? That's not the kind of mentality that we we were raised on. We weren't mentored that way, right? You talk about the old system, you were mentored to win league, finish second, finish third. We know what we're gonna get in the playoffs. And I mean, I know guys complained about that system at the, you know, the teams at the top that were finishing in third place, and they'd have to, but I always felt like in our divisions, in those mid-divisions, those lower divisions, guys were pretty comfortable with that system because we knew what we had to do to get in. Right now, you you just you don't know. You literally don't know unless you're in the top 100.
SPEAKER_00And right, and you don't know till the end, right?
SPEAKER_01Exactly.
SPEAKER_00You don't know until the end. They'd prepare. And you know, we used to we used to be able to figure out the brackets like you know, by week nine. We were like, okay, you draw it all up, then we go meet, you know, over at Eureka Burger and you know, hash it out, you know, and and start looking looking at film. And I don't I don't know. I don't know what the answer is. I thought it was fine when I left California. Utah's a great system, everyone's in one of six uh class, class six A, five A, whatever it is, and then everybody's rated within that class, and there's maybe 30, 40 teams, and the top 16 go, and it's by your rating. And it benefited you to play a higher rating team and even lose than it was to be a low rating team.
SPEAKER_01Great point because in the old system, we used to schedule preseason up to get ready for the playoffs, right? Right? You could say, hey guys, we saw these guys in the preseason, and nothing we're gonna see in the playoffs is gonna be better than that.
SPEAKER_00We want to be better for the playoffs because we know we're gonna at least be second or worse third in our league. So let's play a team that's gonna be like a first place team in our division preseason, so we're prepared. Now everyone's trying to get cupcakes so they can get 500.
SPEAKER_01Shit, coach, I remember coaching for you, and the battle cry was we beat Redlands, we're in, right? We beat Redlands, we're in, and we knew that we always stood. Yeah. We were in the CBL, which was a big jump for Citrus Valley. Your first year in the CBL, and we come out of the gates smoking hot, and the battle cry was we know what we're getting, let's get in the playoffs. That's the team we gotta beat. I love that system.
SPEAKER_00Because it's simple math. Yeah, pretty simple. We got we gotta be in the 18 league, we gotta be fourth. And to be fourth, we gotta be Redlands.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's right.
SPEAKER_00Busted out the single wing and got it done.
SPEAKER_01Ha. So talk to me about your move. You moved over to Don Lugo, that's in Chino, right? That's in Chino High School.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. It's it's beautiful. The kids are the kids are so respectful, hardworking. It's absolutely a pleasure being there. The school does well traditionally. The coach before the the previous coach was, like I said, is a guy that I coached in college, and he was back-to-back league champions there. And I think that it's the smallest school in in our uh district, and it's you know, and there's schools that are in our district that have a higher enrollment and are playing in higher divisions and higher leagues. So, yeah, there is some inequity and some parity and everything like that, but hey, we just got to get more kids and get better and attract more kids that want to come to our school. And I want to move up. And I think once we move up with the other schools in in in our district, you know, we can be competitive. You know, I always said if if I'm playing someone with the same last names, then you then you have nothing to complain about. You know, if your last names are a lot of different pronunciations and different spellings, then uh, you know, it's it's gonna be a tough road. But we're just the same guys, you know, same kids, and we just you know, and attract kids to come to our school by be doing the right things and having a solid program and and letting know that we care about the kids and they're gonna be well coached and sell them to the next level. You know, I I do a tremendous job wherever I've been to promote kids in the next level because it's a win-win. I get this kid a scholarship. There's a school for everyone if you have the grades and you have some decent film. So you gotta find all those you know, Chateron states in Nebraska and get this kid out from East LA, and he's he's a freaking hero in Nebraska because he's got tattoos and he's not gonna not gonna piss out of everybody, and he's a Southern California kid, and he's got a scholarship. And uh um you sell him to the next level, and then the more kids you sell to the next level, the more kids, the better kids you'll have want to come play for you.
SPEAKER_01Well, you're no strange you're no stranger to being uh coming into a district with multiple high schools and being the smallest one. You did that at Citrus Valley, you came in, you knew that there were two other big public high schools, you were the small school. After a number of years, you come in and uh you take over really the flag flagship high school. You beat Redlands High School and your first year in the CBLs. I would say you're a kid playing for Coach Smolin right now, you're you're gonna be okay. It's a coach that knows how to get the job done. So good for you, man.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and it's just you know, it's no secret. You know, if there was a secret, you know, someone would write a book and there wouldn't be a secret anymore. So it's just, you know, it's hard, you know, you were there, just hard work and be organized and and treat the kids well. And then and if the kids know that you love them and you'll do anything for them, then then it, you know, it's it's a fun, it's a fun time. And you your RIM teams were like just like that. And you know, I I loved it when our Citrus Valley kids would would play RIM. We had some neck and neck battles that you know, overtime games, and and our kids had a lot of respect for those rim kids. The kid, you know, the kids were like, Oh, that small little school in the mountains where those guys, and I'm like, they're gonna come after you, they're gonna hit you, you know. And like I said earlier, you know, they're chopping woods, raking leaves, and wrestling barriers. You know, our kids are playing Xbox, you know, in their five-bedroom house on the cul-de-sac, so it's a little but they had a lot of respect for the rim kids, and we had some great games, and I think that competitiveness that we had in that was a great league. I think in five years in that league, we had five different league champions, and there's there's some solid things going on. Obviously, we ended up getting to be a bigger school, but still the small school in the CBL, and we competed. But I think that we just our trajectory and growth really prepared us for that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, well, I agree with you. I think if you look at when that Mountain Valley League was formed, I mean Bob Burt was in there for a moment, you know. Uh you had Jason. Right. Jason McMaines is in there. Yeah. You know, how you we had a handful of guys that all went on to win CIF championships.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and McMillan and CIF over there. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01It was a great league. And I think, man, I I hate going in this direction because uh if you're listening to this and you're gonna get offended at what I'm about to say, I'm sorry, I'm not sorry, right? But there was I felt like that was the that last generation. You brought up earlier the amount of work that that we put in as head football coaches, and and I kind of got on this whole division thing, right? Back in the old system, the guys that won the playoff games were really those coaches that were traveling to McDonald's to exchange film, right? Go home, put the work in. Yeah. The I think that we see this turnover of a hundred coaches a year for two reasons. One, a lot of guys our age are getting tired, right? I mean, that that's why I resigned at Rim. I was getting tired of being a head coach at a small school battling for nothing, right? You go nine and one and it didn't matter. But I think another reason is that guys get into coaching and they haven't spent those five or six years as an assistant coach, go to a JUCO, get your teeth kicked in, go get the coffee, go get the milk, go get the donuts. Pay their dues. Bam and pay their dues, right? And and then when the work gets really hard, and look, man, the work's not that hard anymore. I I'm just gonna say it, okay? If you're a young coach out there and you're overwhelmed, bro, try driving down to the CIF office for playoffs, friggin' bishop guys at Bishop High School and Mammoth High School, driving down in an RV and spending the night in the parking lot, right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, with a shoebox full of VHS tapes.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, man, with a giant box of VHS tapes. That was our job, right? When you were a younger coach, it was like head coach is like, here's the tapes I want. I talked to their head coach, and you'd meet some other assistant coach, you know, an hour away, and you'd exchange film. I think that guys are, I don't know if I'm not gonna say they're lazy, but I think that they've just they haven't they've skipped that step of you know five, six years as an assistant coach, that mentorship. And then on top of it, when you have an opportunity to go listen to Matt Logan or Dom Ferrar or Pete Smolin, and and then have a cup of coffee and then have a beer with him. And I'm gonna say this, coach, like after the clinic, going to grab a beer and some wings, like more. I I learn more shit at that afterwards than sometimes I do sitting down because you get some real stories from those guys.
SPEAKER_00Well, going back to the CIF office, I like to go there, you know, you shane film, but you're talking, you're networking other coaches, you're changing ideas. Like, hey, do you see that kickoff that team was running? This is how I would stop it. And you learn so much, and you have that network where now again, now I don't know if we we do that with the parents anymore in exchange film because the huddle. And he's talked about coaches um being lazy. I think they just have it easier. You know, they didn't how many coaches bring kids in on Saturdays now? You know what I mean? Because they have the huddle and they don't want to deal with it, and you know, every kid's got an excuse for something, and and instead of just putting the work, and you know, those Saturdays used to be eight, eight, ten hours of hard work, and then then you're on Sunday, you're doing game plans, and you know, everything's online now. And uh, you know, it's this huddle, Xbox, YouTube kind of generation now, and you know, with the backpack and the out backwards, and and uh, you know, we're just gonna do what I you know I did when I was in high school and and and make it work. And I'm not putting any of those guys down because you know, there is a lot of good technology stuff that if you use it well, kids save you a lot of time. But you know, guys haven't paid their dues. I was talking with the guy who just called me earlier that had a block him. Um he made a good point, and he's an old school guy like me, and he's been my line coach since wow, back in the in the Cantwell days in the early 2000s, and he's at a big time, big time IE program. And uh he made a statement. He's like, Hey, I I love my head coach, he's a great guy, but he all he did was play there, play you know, four years in college and been an assistant there for a couple years. Now he's the head coach, like he has no idea the things that we had to do, the things that we went through um in these rough areas with no money. And we I was told a story that uh we need I didn't have a weight room in one school. He was this guy, this coach was with me, he's now with his big time coach at a big time school, and we didn't have a weight room, we had a storage container that had like an old universal machine in it. Yeah, and that was a weight room. And uh so we took it apart and sold it for scrap, and we bought some bumpers and bars and some racks. And uh Matt Logan actually came up and helped me clear it out. He actually bought two uh leg curl machines from me back in 2002. I had to remind him about that on Saturday. And um, but the things that we had to do, and then like, you know, who who's who didn't get arrested this weekend, and you know, and what's gonna happen with this kid and you know, this kid, you know, and uh some of these guys that uh grew up in those sheltered systems because they're with this big time coach, they never went at any adversary, never do anything. They like I was this guy's DB coach for a couple years, and I ran his defense for a couple years. Now that guy's a head coach at a school, another new opening, and they never, like you said, pay their dues, they never um done the things we had to do. Like I have coaches all the time, and I love my guys, I love my coaches that oh, I gotta mispractice here and I can mispractice there, and I'm gonna be late here, and I'm and you know, you know, hey, can you can you show up in uniform? And they just can't, they don't understand. Can you imagine doing that 20 years ago? Never like you know how many practices I missed in 32 years? Right. Zero. I never missed a practice, ever, you know, and I I wouldn't I would never do that. That would be so disrespectful to any head coach I was working with, you know. So it's just like you said, times have changed for sure.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. I they have changed, man. I and I and I think in addition to those coaches, you talk about guys that worked the way up the ranks and become head coaches, and then you wonder what happened to that program. It's it's the leadership too, right? I mean, it falls all the way back to ADs and and principals aren't old football coaches anymore. Or I mean, whatever. They're just they weren't coaches, right? I mean, I've been on campuses, I'm not gonna say which one, where I look around campus and I'm like, man, not a single one of you played a single sport, the entire teaching staff and administration, right? You got like you got like the one or two people, and then and then people ask, what what do you mean there's no athletic culture here? Well, there's no athletic culture here because nobody understands athletics, you know.
SPEAKER_00And then usually it's just the football coach is the bad guy, you know. He's the only one that's like you know, making a big deal about all these little things, and nobody understands. No one understands, and it's tough, you know. The the kids, the kids are kids, but you know, the parents coddle the kids sometimes, and the kids, you know, you're making them do things that they've never done before. You know, how many kids have spent three hours in the hot sun going full speed or pounding weights, you know, for an hour and a half? You know, most kids, if they're not playing football, never had any experience doing any of these things, and they don't want to do it. And so what they do, well, the coaches mean I don't want to go to practice, coach yelled at me, or coach did that, you know. That coach sucks. You know what I mean? So it's like it's like you're trying to change a whole culture, you know, not just the administration, but it's it's the parents in the communities like they don't understand what it takes um to be successful in the football program. You get a lot of backlash from that as well. So now you have this parent who's like the football coach yelled at my son, and you have this administrator like, oh, I will handle that right now. We'll bring that coach in, and next thing you know, you have 98 openings every year. Right.
SPEAKER_01Well, it's like uh Chris Ford's story about being an athletic director at a small school, and uh principal calls him in and says, I want you to fire this coach because of one one parent complaint, right? Chris chose not to do that, and a week later he's not the AD then anymore. And and so we don't have that support anymore, which makes the job tough and it makes other people think, you know what, maybe I don't want to get into that because those guys don't have the kind of respect they used to have.
SPEAKER_00You know, I've I've been doing this a long time and I don't know how or why, you know, but I just can't imagine not doing it. And, you know, I've been around, like you said, but there's a reason why I want to coach football is to give these kids some guidance and direction um that they don't get. I mean, there a lot of them don't have male role models at home. There's obviously not too many male role models on campus. You know, we don't have those type of men on campus anymore, um, a lot of schools. And um, and so it it saved me when I was in ninth grade and I was clueless and didn't know what I was doing. And the head football coach said, Hey, you're pretty big and pretty fast, you're playing football, and I was like, What? And you know what I mean? And and it changed my life. It saved my life. You know, I grew up in South Philly where um you know, if you saw the movie Rocky and stuff like that, you know, that's that's yeah, you were chasing chickens. I mean, I get it. Oh, yeah, right. You know, but I'll I wasn't chasing chickens, but if you had a brand new starter jacket and some uh new Nikes and you couldn't run fast or fight, you weren't coming home with them. Yep. You know what I mean? So it's a it's a different type of deal.
SPEAKER_01So, you know, um so football was I think I think California too is such a convenient place, right? Where we've got plenty of people now that are going into administration and and leadership positions that didn't experience that, right? When you talk about the guy, football saved your life, it saved my life, it saved a lot of head coaches will tell you football's the reason I am who I am today, and they're gonna they're gonna follow that up with a story of hard times and why football saved them. We don't have a lot of that in leadership in California. A lot of these guys kind of grew up and you know, the worst thing that happened to them was a football player beat them up in high school. I let's be honest, right? Yeah, that's their thing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, times have changed. I've been very lucky, very lucky that I most of the schools I've been, more than more than not, they had some great principals. You know, the principal at Cantwell who ended up going to Alamany after Cantwell just was a great man. Uh Dr. David Chambers is awesome. Um you know, he did a really good job, and he he understood the value of football. You're a Catholic school principal. You better have a good football team, or you're not gonna have enough boys enrolled in your school. And um, you know, Bernie Kavanaugh at at at Chris uh, you know, wow, he's awesome at Citrus Valley. You know, he was principal Yukaipa and the AD at Big Bear. So, I mean, he understood the value of what football did for kids, and he was the same kind of guy that, you know, he would always look out for the kids that had it rough and and guide him into football. You know, and I had some great football players with you know, Bernie and bringing him into my office, like, hey, this is Juan. If uh he's gonna play football for you, if not, he's gonna be you know hammering nails on a roof all afternoon. So uh why don't you take care of him? You know, so it was great.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, football, football is something that we need in California, we need in the United States, we need in the world. It it's so important. Coach, thanks for talking to us. I can't say thank you enough. This has been a long time coming. Uh like I said at the beginning of this, uh the elusive coach Pete Smolen is finally with us.
SPEAKER_00Agile and hostile. You know, we gotta keep moving. But like Joe, uh, we talk so much and and I have 32 years of s of stories, and you know most of them. But the but the bottom line is uh we have to protect our profession and we have to, you know, uh uh uh increase the status of being a high school football coach so they're not just you're gonna have this big time turnover. Um and you know, I don't know what the answer is to that. I think if we need to get together as coaches and brainstorm and have, you know, go to clinics and and talk about things and and I don't know if unionize is the right word, you know, I'm from Philly, so union's a big thing, but um Well, you know, but or pseudo-union, like let's get together, let's have a voice together, you know, and I think we could be strong. And then, you know, the committee that's this on the CIF committee, um, you know, they're trying, but they're it's hard for their voice to be heard. Um, so I don't know what the answer is, but I think, you know, if we you know, just the old union thing, like come together, you know, form form uh one piece of voice and and we really need to fight for our profession. Um, because it's ridiculous having 98 openings. I mean, uh what, 400 how many schools?
SPEAKER_01I we're just under 400, I think. Right.
SPEAKER_00So one quarter every year turnover what are we doing? You know, and how are we really benefiting these kids? If we really, really care about the kids, and then what are we doing when uh you know 25% of them is gonna have a new head football coach every year?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. No, I I agree with you. I think we gotta find a way to bring back things. If it's not the coaches' association and it's something else, excuse me, but we need to get together. So, coach, thank you again for your time. I appreciate it.
SPEAKER_00I appreciate it, Coach. I got a lot more people, so just calm me up.
SPEAKER_01Thanks again to Coach Pete Smolin of Don Lugo High School. Coach, I apologize for taking so long to get this episode on the air. You can follow Coach on all of his social medias at Pete underscore Smolin or check out his new football program at DLHS Football. A quick plug again for the Southern California Football Coaches Association. If you're a head coach in the Riverside or San Bernardino area, Skifka is having a coach's social at Ancho's restaurant in Riverside on Sunday, April 26th at 3 p.m. We would love to have you join us for a beverage and some snacks. No strings attached, just come and hang out before the chaos of spring football gets gone. I hope you enjoyed this episode of That Coach Sucks. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and follow us on all your social media platforms and on YouTube at ThatCoachSucks. If you're a coach and you have a story to share, please email me at thatcoachsucks at gmail.com. I need to start banging some more episodes so I don't have a long break again. If you're interested in supporting ThatCoach Sucks and you want to hear your product or business advertised here, please shoot us an email. Until next time, remember that coach sucks.