SPEAKER_00 0:00

What's up, everybody? Welcome to the Coach Chijo podcast. Real conversations about volleyball, coaching, growth, and the journey behind it all. So let's get into it. Just go. Coach Janita. Hi. What's up? I've been wanting to have a conversation with you on my podcast. This is exciting for me. Really?

SPEAKER_01 0:23

This is exciting for me. You know, you kids and coaches constantly tag me in your videos. So it's kind of cool. GSA.

SPEAKER_00 0:32

Yeah. Okay, let's do a shout out to your club.

SPEAKER_01 0:36

Hey GSA. I hope log on, get in here. Um, we're in Las Vegas. I'm with Coach C, and we're having a and we're gonna have a conversation today. Yes. Game Day Sports Academy, Bakersville, California. We host at the beautiful Dignity Health Sports Complex, Bakersville, California.

SPEAKER_00 0:55

And I heard it's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 0:57

It is. We have seven um full courts, so we can run 10 practice courts, and we have air conditioning and heat.

SPEAKER_00 1:03

Yeah. Okay, I'm there.

SPEAKER_01 1:06

It's beautiful. We have the best, it's just a state of art state of the art facility. We have the best facility in all of the valley.

SPEAKER_00 1:16

Okay. So now what's your title with all this?

SPEAKER_01 1:18

I am the director of volleyball. In our facility, we have travel teams, girls and boys travel teams, and then we have a year-round non-travel league. Oh. In addition, we have basketball and of course pickleball everywhere.

SPEAKER_00 1:33

Everywhere.

SPEAKER_01 1:34

But I'm the director of volleyball.

SPEAKER_00 1:36

Okay, all right. So total, how many teams you got?

SPEAKER_01 1:39

Right now we have, well, at the end of the season now, we have nine girls' teams, three boys' teams, and then in our travel, we have another, or not travel, we have another 20 teams.

SPEAKER_00 1:53

So you got a lot going on.

SPEAKER_01 1:54

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:55

Okay, how many teams do you have here?

SPEAKER_01 1:57

Today we only have one, just our eight teens.

SPEAKER_00 1:59

Okay, all right. So you actually coach one of them, right?

SPEAKER_01 2:03

I coached today. I'm coaching eighteens. I'm stepping in. Okay. But I coached 13s this year.

SPEAKER_00 2:08

Oh, 13.

SPEAKER_01 2:10

Last year was 18s, a year before that I think it was 14. I gotta move around.

SPEAKER_00 2:14

Okay, so when did you start playing volleyball?

SPEAKER_01 2:18

Well, I didn't start playing volleyball until 10th grade. 10th grade? Yeah, before that I wanted to be a majorette. Oh. My brother said no.

SPEAKER_00 2:28

Okay, wait, timeout. I get a lot of questions from people watching this probably and listening to the podcast. Uh, I'm 14 years old. I'm 15 years old. Is it too late to start?

SPEAKER_01 2:39

No, um, I didn't start till 15 and until 10th grade. Yeah. And I was I I feel like I was exceptional by the time I graduated. Yeah. It's not too late. It's never too late to start. It's never too late to be what you might have been. Of course, you gotta work. It's not gonna be, you can't just start and not work.

SPEAKER_00 2:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:58

Because you can start at 10 and not work and not ever grow. You gotta work. You gotta work.

SPEAKER_00 3:05

Okay. So then what happened after you played in, you know, high school?

SPEAKER_01 3:10

Well, the first thing is that my confidence. Because, you know, I was I'm six foot tall. I was six foot tall at that age. I weighed 122 pounds. Yeah. Didn't really like being six foot tall, but it was the first time that my height was a good thing first. And it and I really, it was the first thing that was challenging for me. Yeah. So I had to really work and catch up with everybody else. And it was the first time that I really challenged myself and really understood how strong I could be. At the same time, my coach, I don't know what connection he had with the Olympic team, but he took us to see the Olympic team at that time train Debbie Green and Flo and Debbie Green. Hi Debbie, hi Debbie. She, we besties now. You besties. I love Debbie Green. We're besties. Okay. But I when I saw her, it was the first time I saw women just playing like athletes. That's the first time I ever really saw that. And it just, I was one over.

SPEAKER_00 4:07

Like playing strong.

SPEAKER_01 4:08

I never saw that. Debbie Green, I wore number 10 because of her.

SPEAKER_00 4:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:12

On my team now, the you gotta be tough to wear number 10. Because that was she was the first time I ever saw a woman play at that level. Yeah. And just give everything like that. I was just amazed by the sport, by the women that I was watching play. And it's and I probably have played or coached every year of my life since.

SPEAKER_00 4:33

Okay. I got a question for you. Maybe this is a little sensitive question, but so I've I've been coaching for 30 plus years, club, several different high schools. I'm in Oregon. Okay. It's a pretty wide state. Oh. And I like, I do a happy dance when I show up at tryouts and there's more diversity.

SPEAKER_01 4:56

My program is very diverse. I would I would arguably say we have the most diverse program, maybe in California. The only thing that may be more diverse are the Starlings programs.

SPEAKER_00 5:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:07

Because, you know, they were they were designed, you know, to help um underserve children. Yes. I used to be a Starlings director. I support Starlings programs. I love Starlings programs. They're great programs. Our program, you know, we just it's very diverse. We have like every ethnic group, every social economic group, we have everybody represented in our program.

SPEAKER_00 5:29

Okay, so I'm gonna say something that maybe is a little controversial, right? But I'm gonna say it. Club volleyball in the US is like a white sport.

SPEAKER_01 5:39

Yeah, it's because I mean, even if it wasn't intentionally designed to be that way, when you have something that's priced so high, yes, you're gonna price out people, and you know, and in America, black and brown people tend to be have the lower incomes, so they're gonna get priced out. So in our program, we're we we provide a great service, but but our price is quite a bit lower than the rest of the surrounding area. Quite a bit lower.

SPEAKER_00 6:06

But how do you accomplish that? Because you still got a cost, you gotta still pay for stuff.

SPEAKER_01 6:11

Well, it helps because my godson owns a facility.

SPEAKER_00 6:15

Oh, your godson owns the facility.

SPEAKER_01 6:17

Well, that helps.

SPEAKER_00 6:18

All right, that helps right there.

SPEAKER_01 6:20

My godson owns a facility, so that's the first step to be to to help it out because you know the practice time. Yeah. But but there's still a tangible cost with the practice time, the electricity and all that kind of stuff. Yeah. But I do fundraising. I have a nonprofit called Saving Destiny, and we try to provide opportunities to help kids, not just girls, but everybody, do things that keep them out of high-risk behavior. So I constantly fundraise separately from the girl from the kids. Okay. But we also allow all of our kids, our older ones, they work to coach the younger ones. So we they coach and ref our younger kids on non-travel. And then I constantly have a fundraiser going throughout the year so that some of our parents are able to pay all their fees on fundraising.

SPEAKER_00 7:05

Okay, shout out to your nonprofit.

SPEAKER_01 7:07

Thank you. Saving Destiny Youth Foundation. And um, we're located in Bakersville, California, started by myself and my three cousins, and to honor our moms, because our moms were always helping people. My mother just lived for helping the community. And also to remember Destiny Love Ayala, she was one of our athletes that we lost due to fentanyl poisoning on graduation day. Google her, share the story with your families. Is Destiny Love Ayala and share it with your children and maybe we can save somebody else's destiny.

SPEAKER_00 7:42

Oh, let's put that in the show notes. Okay, I will. So we'll get all that info. Okay. Yeah, we got to support people who are doing good things for good reasons from the heart, right? That's that's why it's never work. It's never work. Okay. Yeah. So all the stuff that you're doing with GSA and making it accessible. I've been thinking about this for so many years because I just keep seeing more and more vol, especially club, club volleyball changing into the haves and the have-nots.

SPEAKER_01 8:17

No, it's always been haves and have nots. It's not changing, it's always been that way.

SPEAKER_00 8:21

I know it's always been that way, but I feel like it's even more, like it's drastically spinning faster that way.

SPEAKER_01 8:29

It is, and and I, you know, I've always had like before I discovered the Starlings program, because I did bring the Starlings to Central California, along with Jim Greer, who was my partner, he's a great guy too. Okay. So we brought the first Starlings program to Bakersfield and we helped start the Central Valley Starlings and the other local programs.

SPEAKER_00 8:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 8:48

But prior to that, I always had like a individual club, an independent club that was that was for everybody else.

SPEAKER_00 8:55

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 8:56

And you know the thing is, like, the when I coached, I had like when I was running these clubs, I would have like all the best coaches in town working for me, volunteering basically, because they wanted to see something great for it for the community as well.

SPEAKER_00 9:10

Okay. Can you enlighten me and also our audience about Starlings?

SPEAKER_01 9:15

Okay. Starlings was started by Brian Schuman and and Kim Odin, Olympians. But when Brian, when Byron came, Byron Schuman, when he came back from overseas playing, the first thing he noticed is that brown brown kids were completely eliminated from the ability to play. So he started it, and his motto at that time was giving all girls a chance to fly. So they changed it a little bit now. I think it's giving all girls a chance to soar. He passed away, I think, two years ago. But he Kim Odin is still running it. Okay. And um, all the Olympians, when I was a director, Karch Karay, Misty, May, all of them were on the board and they would come out and work with the kids. They would come out and train us. We used to have to go to a director's convention with them. Karts was right there training us. Yeah. And um, and they opened my John Kessel.

SPEAKER_00 10:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:07

All of them were there. That's how I met all of them. Yeah. And they would come out and they trained us and they developed us, and they, you know, they sent us back out there to build a community. And it's Starley's is a great program. Um, I hope it continues to grow. Yeah. I think it got smaller since Byron passed away, but I'm hoping that it'll it'll pick back up. Okay, so was it one location, one? Initially it was San Diego. It was a San Diego area. It started in the San Diego area, and it spread at one point. I think there was like 3,4,500 kids around the country, and they had a team in Africa and Mexico. It got huge.

SPEAKER_00 10:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:46

You know, and I think it's a little smaller now, but um, it grew fast. In San Diego area, they have so many clubs they really don't need to play anyone else. Because they have so many that they don't have to even play off the club. That's what I heard.

SPEAKER_00 10:59

They got a lot of clubs going on down there.

SPEAKER_01 11:01

Yeah, it's great. It's a it's you know, I'm I'm gonna always be a Starlings USA supporter.

SPEAKER_00 11:07

Okay. So is there still international? Is it kind of toned down to U.S.?

SPEAKER_01 11:12

Um, I know they have Tijuana Starlings because the last national championship I was in, them little Tijuana girls was smacking chicks. Those little Tijuana are I, you know, 30 years ago or 20 years ago when I was director, Byron, we raised, we collected shoes and took down there for them. But them little girls came and they were tearing it up. And so I know they still have Tijuana, and I'm not sure, you know, because I haven't been involved with them that closely, probably in the last six years. Okay. But I'm not sure where they are now, but they they were international at one point.

SPEAKER_00 11:47

Okay, so how do Starlings make it accessible?

SPEAKER_01 11:50

Well, they negotiate since they got like all these top volleyball people in their program, Tom Maddox, they're all involved. Yeah. So they negotiate, they have they negotiate with like Under Armour. No, I think they were the Adidas. They have Adidas. Oh that then they negotiate like our purchase for balls.

SPEAKER_00 12:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:09

The the um associations used to give us discounted fees to enter tournaments. I think we used to be like you enter two, you get one free, stuff like that. Balls, balls, we're getting balls for 30%. So right there, you know.

SPEAKER_00 12:25

Not 30% off. You were paying 30%.

SPEAKER_01 12:28

We were paid like for a molten ball, like $21 a piece, and then for every four, you got two free. Oh. Something like that. So uniforms, I the last time I ordered a package, it was a two jerseys, a shorts, and a t-shirt. It was 35 bucks printed. So you know I can't get that. 35 bucks? So, you know, the goal is that they they they do this for you so you pass this on to the children.

SPEAKER_00 12:52

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 12:52

So that's how you're able to survive as a startings club.

SPEAKER_00 12:56

Okay. So what else? I mean, in this country, right, how are we gonna get more diversity in club volleyball?

SPEAKER_01 13:05

You gotta make it accessible. We're gonna have to bring it to them because uh one of the some of the like I have a great facility, but I still have children that can't get to my facility. You need transportation. Yeah, those things like you you consider, you know, example, where I where my kids grew up, they, you know, everybody had a pool in the whole backyard, you know, every, you know, that kind of stuff. The parent one, it was a except for my household, there was a there was a parent that was home that could drive them. Yeah. Where the school that I coached at on the other side of town, both parents worked. So, you know, getting them to a gym is still a problem.

SPEAKER_00 13:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:42

So um, our gym is centrally located, so it's making it, we're right in the middle of town, so it kind of is perfect.

SPEAKER_00 13:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 13:49

But even getting the kids there, because it's not that the parents don't want to do it, but how they're gonna get them there.

SPEAKER_00 13:55

Yeah, because they're working.

SPEAKER_01 13:56

Yeah. So most of the time I drove them. Most of the time when I I I drove kids to all the tournaments, I would, it would be me and one parent. Yeah. You know, so it's it's a lot of barriers, not just the price, but you know, the circumstance the family circumstances. You know, it's not that the parents don't want to be there. The parents just have a lot of other things they have to do to make their family work. So, you know, you gotta have, you know, coaches that understand it. I had a kid one time, and she was the best player on the team, and my and she was at her high school, so one of my coaches was just so frustrated.

SPEAKER_00 14:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:30

Oh, she keeps missing practice. She got to work in the fields. Oh. And she was, I said, Well, don't you drive by the fields on the way to the gym? And I said, just pick her up. And I said, because her mom, her family is not gonna ever understand that she can't, that she gotta play volleyball and not work. So why don't you just pick her up?

SPEAKER_00 14:52

No brainer.

SPEAKER_01 14:53

And that's what she did. I said, you gotta, you gotta work with your families.

SPEAKER_00 14:56

Okay, here's another thing I'm wondering. I mean, I'm Asian. Um, I think there's a lot of Asians playing volleyball. All right, but it's kind of we need to we need to get more of like the ratio of browns.

SPEAKER_01 15:08

It's gotta be exposure, you know.

SPEAKER_00 15:10

So do you think there's there's kids that see or feel that it's like this white sport and they just don't even want to go there?

SPEAKER_01 15:22

I don't know because I maybe I'm not the person to ask because my community, my volleyball community is so diverse. Yeah, you know, and I have great relations. The other clubs are not so diverse, but one more than the other in our area. Okay, but I have good I have good relationships with the director as well. Like, you know, we have a great club there, Bakersfield Volleyball Club. It's the oldest club in that area. Okay, and um, and Judy does everything she can to try to expose kids, bring more kids in. Yeah, but the price range is usually the issue. Right. I think exposing them, I've I've had Penny Lucas White, Quanchelle Scott, I've had different people, different people from different backgrounds come to our facility. Yeah, and so that everybody can like see somebody different. That's why I want you to come. But they all know you, you the guru. How did you become the guru? That's my question.

SPEAKER_00 16:18

I don't know about guru. People ask me all this stuff. I tell people, I'm just a guy, I'm just a coach, I'm just a volleyball coach.

SPEAKER_01 16:27

It's just your love. Like, even in watching the tapes, I was just watching your your pancake one the other day because one of the kids sent it to me. Flip the pancake. With the maple syrup. With the maple syrup. Somebody, one of the kids actually tagged me then, so I was just watching that the other day. And it's just a you can see your joy when you're coaching and when you're training. And I I think, you know, that just like that just like grabs people right away.

SPEAKER_00 16:55

That means a lot. I I I appreciate that. Because I just want to help.

SPEAKER_01 17:01

And you are. You you you you changing the environment. I d I'm trying to think, do I have a lot of Asians in my club? Not a lot.

SPEAKER_00 17:10

Not a lot.

SPEAKER_01 17:11

Not a lot. And I'm trying to think of the other clubs locally. There are some completely Asian clubs in our area though.

SPEAKER_00 17:18

Yeah, I've seen them.

SPEAKER_01 17:19

Yeah, we have some completely Asian clubs, especially NorCal. And they come and play in our facility. So it's kind of cool.

SPEAKER_00 17:25

To answer your question, I mean, I'm not gonna say guru, you know. I I'm just a quiet guy at home. I just chill, you know.

SPEAKER_01 17:31

You need a volleyball whisperer, my man.

SPEAKER_00 17:34

Volleyball whisperer.

SPEAKER_01 17:36

Uh I gotta we have a volleyball whisperer in Bakersville. His name is Matt. I gotta introduce you to him.

SPEAKER_00 17:41

Okay, we gotta connect. All right, so I'm old school, right? I'm I like to keep things simple. And I started coaching when I was a teacher. High school teacher. Where were you teaching at? In Oregon.

unknown 17:56

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 17:56

High school teacher. And I had a great mentor. Doug, Doug, if you're watching this, like you launched me. And if you remember, I said back in 1993 when I was his varsity assistant, I said, someday I just want to do volleyball. And we just kind of laughed at it. Like, how can you do that? And here I am doing volleyball 30 years later. Okay, so I'm loving what I'm doing, and it it's not work.

SPEAKER_01 18:29

It's not work. I retired from a prison. I started as a correction officer. Whoa! And I would, and people would say, Oh, you're gonna be a ward, you're gonna be a warden. I said, No, I'm not, I'm gonna retire. Play with my grandchildren, play volleyball for the rest of my life. Yeah. Look at God. That's exactly what I do. Play with my grandchildren and play volleyball for the rest of my life.

SPEAKER_00 18:50

So I just wanna, I mean, I I can't help myself. I want to help. I see some some player do something, and I'm like, if you tweak this a little bit, I think you're gonna get this or that better. And just like, I gotta, I gotta help.

SPEAKER_01 19:07

And they and when they see that, when they see how compelled you are, when they, you know, if you if they know that you care about them, they'll jump off a cliff with you. They'll they they believe you. When you when you when you when they see how much you believe in them, they believe you. That's the beauty.

SPEAKER_00 19:25

But you know, you know what? Okay, I'm gonna admit something. I'm gonna tell you what volleyball means to me. Is that alright?

SPEAKER_01 19:32

Yeah, I want to know. All right.

SPEAKER_00 19:34

I mean, we just met and everything, but I'm just gonna let it rip.

SPEAKER_01 19:37

We like old friends now. I'm adding to my collection of great volleyball people.

SPEAKER_00 19:43

Okay. Volleyball saved my life. And when I say that, literally saved my life.

SPEAKER_01 19:51

Byron Schuman said that too.

SPEAKER_00 19:52

Okay, I might I I I wouldn't be alive. Were you out there thugging? There's a high chance I'm not even alive on this podcast if I didn't encounter volleyball at the time I found it in my life.

SPEAKER_01 20:06

Well, thank you, volleyball.

SPEAKER_00 20:08

So see, I grew up in California. Okay, so my parents are Japanese. I didn't speak English until I went to school because my parents didn't speak any English. So immediately I'm like, imposter syndrome, get picked on, and stuff like that, right? Um because I'm going to school in the 70s and 80s, and you know, there's a lot of junk going on, even in even in, you know, NorCal at that time. And I had kids chasing me on bikes, trying to run me down, and calling me Jap and all kinds of stuff. Right? So then my family decided we're gonna move to Japan. So I said, okay, hmm. So maybe I can finally go somewhere where I can fit in. Except you're American. That's what I found out the hard way. They called the they called my type of people bananas. Bananas. Yellow on the outside, white on the inside. And I didn't know that. So here I was, I went to Japan. It was worse in Japan.

SPEAKER_01 21:18

I've been in Japan before.

SPEAKER_00 21:20

Because I was more American than I thought I was. Even though growing up in the US, I thought I was more Japanese, and that's why I was getting picked on, and all these problems were happening, right? But I go to Japan, it's worse. Wow. Bullying, picked on, called names, you know, you're supposed you're supposed to be Japanese. You're supposed to act like this. How come you're acting like that? And I'm like, I don't even know what you're talking about. This is just how I act. You can't be like that. You can't be like the do the American stuff. You're Japanese. You gotta be like this. And then, like, I don't even know how. So what did you did you start playing volleyball there or here? There. So what happened was so I was a tennis bum in California. I was tennis bum. All all day long. I was outside playing tennis. That's all I knew. Never heard of volleyball. Well, I mean, I heard of volleyball, but so it got so bad where, like, well, I'll I'll say it now, like the rugby team, right? Those are all the brawny dudes. Like, they got pissed off at me for something that I said because it was too American, and they started chasing me around the school. Oh, you don't want to get caught by them rugby dudes. Cornered me in a room, made me kneel on the floor and kiss feet and bow down to them.

SPEAKER_01 22:49

Did you tell your parents what's going on?

SPEAKER_00 22:51

Nope. And when I had that, my my best friends saw that, and then um they they left because they were satisfied that I was subservient to them and I'm gonna kiss their feet. I will be Japanese, I promise. I had to do that, I thought they were gonna kill me. These are like six, six, five, two fifty, you know, dudes, right? Rugby team. So after that happened, like I was so emotional. I couldn't, I didn't know what to do. I went to the bathroom, my best friend came in with me, and I just started crying. I thought, this is not worth living for. And then I had all these nightmares, like really bad nightmares of I mean, I won't go into details, but it involved death, and like I was like ready to so where did volleyball come in?

SPEAKER_01 23:46

How did volleyball save you?

SPEAKER_00 23:48

So my friend was on the volleyball team, and he's like, come check it out. And also, we need your height. Okay, because we're in Japan. And I'm I was 6'2 then. And so I went and played, but I quickly learned that that was tough too, because it's total hierarchy. Yeah. You if uh if any even whoever's one grade above you and tells you to like wash your shoes, uh, go clean the toilet, go get me a drink, bow down right now in front of me on the floor, you gotta do it.

unknown 24:31

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 24:32

That's the way it was. And then you have to carry yourself.

SPEAKER_01 24:36

So you needed a couple big brothers like I had.

SPEAKER_00 24:38

Nothing would have protected me. Oh, because in Japan, the the nail that sticks out gets hammered in. It all has to be the same. There's no I've been to Japan before.

SPEAKER_01 24:49

I've been to Japan, Korea, a couple places.

SPEAKER_00 24:52

Yeah. So, man, so then it was even harder there because in sports, it's complete discipline, physical punishment. I mean, they'll throw the ball at you, you shank a ball. They'll hit you in the head. You can't do that anymore. Uh they probably still do that there. Uh I was watching a I was in high school. I was I went to my high school baseball game, okay, and our home, our school batter, he strikes out. So he goes into the dugout, managers, you know, his coach is sitting down on the bench. So the the player comes in and bows down like total 90 degrees, and then takes off the batting helmet, and then bows down 90 degrees like this and hands it to the coach. And then I bow down again, the one that struck out. The coach takes the batting helmet and whacks the kid on the head, slams him, then he puts the batting helmet on, bows to him total 90 degrees, and then goes and sits down.

SPEAKER_01 25:55

See, that's why I quit karate. I used to do karate, but my sensei used to hit us with bamboo sticks.

SPEAKER_00 26:01

But that's sports in Japan. Baseball's worse. Baseball's one of the worst. People over here like see Otani and stuff. I mean, those guys, it's brutal training in baseball in Japan. Yeah. Um, so I believe it. So it was like that. And if you shanked a ball, you were doing frog jumps around the entire gym until you came back, and you better make it back before your next turn is up, or you gotta go again. And so I'd go home like I was hurting every day, like hobbling.

SPEAKER_01 26:32

So when'd you fall in love with it then?

SPEAKER_00 26:34

Because it allowed me to just scream. So at first I wasn't playing, I was on the bench, right? Every once in a while I go play outside. And I go, how come I'm not playing? And everybody's like, like talking and cheering is a big thing, like unity. So I said, I'm just gonna talk and scream, right? So I just started doing that, and then I realized I was playing, and uh it was my escape because in school I was getting picked on, bullied, you're too American. What are you thinking? You're cocky because you're trying to act like an American. That was the thing. You're so cocky, you're you're doing American things. And I'm like, that's just me. Do you know that and they didn't expect that?

SPEAKER_01 27:20

Do you know that black people experience that in America? They either want you, you sound white, you talk white, you that same type of thing. My son, who was a kind of, you know, he's a basketball player, but he was like a superior athlete, just a good boy. And he would come home, Mom, they keep calling me Will Smith. And I said, no, that's a compliment. He goes, No, it's not. They mean it in a derogatory way. And they would tell him, like the teachers would tell him, they would, he was, they would try to separate him from other black kids, and like he's you're not like them. And he my son was like, you know, I raised my son to be comfortable in his own skin. But the teachers would try to, people would separate him, like you're not like other black kids, or that kind of thing. And they that goes on right here in America. Black kids experience that all the time, right here in nobody deserves that.

SPEAKER_00 28:13

But but I I stuck with it because even though all the crap was going on in school, like kissing feet and getting chased by the rugby team. Uh once I went into the gym, I can just go all out, give everything I got, sweat, scream, yell.

SPEAKER_01 28:35

That's how volum got me too, because it was like, it's like I found out how strong I was.

SPEAKER_00 28:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:40

You know what I mean? That's when I found out how strong I could be.

SPEAKER_00 28:43

It was like freedom. But I hated the coaches. I hated how I was being treated. But I I still did it because that was that was my only escape. Because I was thinking if I don't do, I mean.

SPEAKER_01 28:57

When you first started coaching, did you coach the same?

SPEAKER_00 28:59

Did you coach similar to them, or you were immediately different?

SPEAKER_01 29:03

Because I mean I think I was authoritarian at first because that's what I was used to, but I learned as I matured and grew, and as I matured, I learned to coach differently. But I think at first I was, I regret some of my first years of coaching. I felt like I was too hard on kids. I coached them like I like they coached us in the Marine Corps.

SPEAKER_00 29:25

I don't know. I mean, right now, just talking about this is bringing back like really bad memories. And yeah, there were times I can't believe I'm saying this on the recording, but I was like ready to end it.

SPEAKER_01 29:38

Well, thank God you didn't, because look what you're doing for the world. Look what you're doing.

SPEAKER_00 29:43

So that's what it means to me.

SPEAKER_01 29:45

See, now you need to go figure out why now you don't even have to figure out why God saved you. He saved you so you can save somebody else.

SPEAKER_00 29:52

That's what I want to do. I want to give this to other kids that can't accept they can't access it, or they got all kinds of. I mean, 33 years of coaching, I got so many. I got moms telling me, yeah, make sure that you don't you never see the dad in the parking lot because we got a restraining order on him, and that's why she's like this. And I mean, there's so much stuff going on. So I'm like, okay, when you're gonna be able to do it.

SPEAKER_01 30:18

And you never know what the blues the kids are going through. You never know.

SPEAKER_00 30:21

You come inside the lines and you check in, we're gonna create an environment that just for two hours, forget all that crap. Just I wanna give them an escape because that's what I had. But I did take away a lot of good stuff. So discipline in training is important. Not the punishment part, but discipline. Discipline.

SPEAKER_01 30:44

Because discipline means teach, it doesn't mean punish.

SPEAKER_00 30:47

Correct.

SPEAKER_01 30:47

That's what people gotta understand.

SPEAKER_00 30:48

Yeah, some people mix that up. Yeah. So discipline. The other thing is team. We work together, we train together, we struggle together, we lose together. Everything's together. Because that's the Japanese culture. So I from day one, that's what I tried to build in a positive way.

SPEAKER_01 31:08

So are you doing right now? Do you have do you train, coach, do you have teams you coach right now in your gym?

SPEAKER_00 31:14

No. Well, so I've been coaching for a long time, 33 years, and eventually I was a director of a club and I was with that club for a long time. This is my first year, I don't have a team. I left the club. This is all I do now because with the videos and stuff that I put out, I didn't plan any of this. I don't even know exactly why this happened. But we're nearing almost a million followers. You know, and people are coming left and right, like let's do this, let's do this, let's work together on this. And there are opportunities that are coming that are gonna allow opportunities for more kids across the country and around the world. I can't believe it.

SPEAKER_01 31:58

Well, we can get you to Bakersville. They better be getting them likes in.

SPEAKER_00 32:03

Bakersfield. I want I want to see, I want to go where I can see volleyball more like what it should be.

SPEAKER_01 32:11

When we were in Hawaii. When we were in Hawaii, there was actually some fan, I don't know where he was from, that was watching our team play. Yeah. And they and they said that they go, this is so, they made the comment like, it's your teams are you just it's so great to see such diversity. And he got like tears in his eyes, and I didn't know who he was, but he just stood there and watched our team. But he was just happy to see our team so diverse. You want to go meet our team, my team?

SPEAKER_00 32:39

I want to go meet your team.

SPEAKER_01 32:40

Okay, they're getting they're down, they're about to finish, and we can go down there.

SPEAKER_00 32:43

Okay, so let's wrap this up. I really appreciate your. And we gotta talk more. We'll talk more.

SPEAKER_01 32:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:50

Yeah. Because you're doing it from the heart.

SPEAKER_01 32:52

That's why it's not work.

SPEAKER_00 32:54

Yeah, that's why it's not work.

SPEAKER_01 32:56

It's but you know, it saved me too because, you know, I I worked at, I retired from the prison. I worked at Corcoran. The work was the worst prison in the country and all this stuff. I opened it actually at a young age. And um, but I never considered myself, I always consider myself a coach who worked at a prison.

SPEAKER_00 33:14

Oh.

SPEAKER_01 33:16

I've always considered myself a coach. That just, and the prison was my day job. I paid really well, but it was always my day job. Yeah. So now, you know, I'm in an environment where I can, you know, the next person to go on my spot, they can actually have a working salary to be a coach.

SPEAKER_00 33:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:35

You know, when they come into my salary, into my position.

SPEAKER_00 33:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:38

So I'm trying to build that for my coaches. I spend a lot of time training coaches, you know, and making them see it as a more professional environment, you know, real profession for them where they can, you know, have a real livelihood from it. That's what I want to say.

SPEAKER_00 33:54

You're doing a lot of good stuff.

SPEAKER_01 33:55

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 33:56

Do you ever go home and you're like, I don't know about this? Or cry, gotta eat ice cream. I mean, you know, you have days like that?

SPEAKER_01 34:07

Yeah, of course, but I do have like a great support unit. Like, you know, I'm I'm I'm equally as involved with my kids and grandkids. Yeah. So there's not a lot of time for to be sad, you know. So there's been times I'm like, I'm done. You know, I've had like, I'm not doing this anymore. It's too much. But I think I like kind of went to the other side now where I'm not so, I I don't take so, I'm not hurt so much by things that happen. I used to be really hurt by a lot of things that happened. Parent, comment, you know, kids. But now I I guess I see it in a different perspective. I I see the bigger picture now. So it doesn't like, there hasn't been been anything new lately. So it's it's kind of the same things over and over. But I think there has been times over the years where I was like questioning my questioning my whole life. Um there was one point where I realized I was coaching and the team was better than my coaching level. I said, I realized that this team, that I'm, they they're as good as I can coach. And I went back and got a master's degree in coaching after that. I went back to school. And I just reinvented myself, you know. But I guess it's always you get to now have granddaughters to play. So I have a daughter, granddaughter playing in college. I have a 13-year-old that's playing that I get to coach. This is my first year coaching her. My only, I that's the only reason I coached this year, because she agreed to let me be her coach. Because I wasn't sure, you know, I didn't want to, you know, she's my little sweetheart. And it didn't work out at first. She was mad at me the whole first part of the season. She did not like grandma's coach, but now we're good. So it's like it's always fresh. There's always something fresh, you know. It's like little kids. Um, the kids that are some of the kids that are on my 18s were in my little tots program when they were eight. So you always get to see something new through their eyes, and it changes everything. They call on us. We're gonna go down and meet them.

SPEAKER_00 36:13

Yeah, we gotta go down and meet them.

SPEAKER_01 36:14

We'll go down and meet them. We call them.

SPEAKER_00 36:16

Appreciate you being here today. Keep learning, keep growing. And remember, let's play volleyball because it's fun. And we'll see you in the next episode. Just go.