The Word on Coaching

We explore the concept of coaching word by word.

The Word on Coaching

Season 5 Episode 3: The Word on Coaching - ADJUST

September 18, 2022 • Kevin Fuselier

0:00 | 38:59

Don't miss this episode. If you only listen to one podcast today or this week let it be this one. In this episode we explore what it means to adjust. Amy Champion current Gulf States Vice President at Brock USA and former head coach of women's basketball coach for the University of New Orleans shares her story of how she led her team before, during, and after Hurricane Katrina.

In our conversation with Amy, she focuses on understanding how hard work, discipline, tolerance and having fun can help you make it through times of uncertainty. She shares stories of making tough adjustments to help her team and herself make the most out of a tough, tough situation. Be prepared to laugh, learn and adjust as we discuss the word - ADJUST on this podcast.

Get ready to go beyond the Xs and Os and learn how we can apply the wisdom Amy shares about finding opportunity in adversity.

We hope you enjoy this episode.

Check out our best-selling book The Word on Coaching released on June 14, 2022.

Amazon.com: The Word on Coaching: 9781737643807: Neely, Debby, Auger, Joann, Fuselier, Kevin: Books

Also, please check out quick guide about powerful questions: "Embrace the Power of Questions!" A Quick Reference Guide to Getting the Answers You Need.

Kevin 0:05

Hi, everyone. Welcome to the word on coaching podcast. I am Kevin. I'm here with Joe Ann and Debbie say hello.

JoAnn 0:14

Hi everyone. Hi everybody.

Kevin 0:17

We are coaches three, three friends with years of leadership and coaching experience who want to share our passion with others. Our podcasts are four leaders, whether you have the formal title or not, because we know a lot of you are out there leading without a title. We focus on one word that relates to leadership and coaching. We know leadership is hard. So we, along with our guests give you tips information, a fresh perspective, and always a lot of support. We got you today. We are excited to welcome Amy champion, vice president of Gulf state's region for Brock USA. And I met Amy. Traveling. And I saw her in the airport and we just kind of acknowledged each other. And then when I got on the plane, I was looking for an aisle seat and I walked by Amy and there were two seats right next to her. And I asked her if I could take that aisle seat. And of course, I'm the guy that talks to people on the airplane. So so I started talking to Amy and the more she talked, the more interested I got with her work that she did. And then she. Slipped up and said, yes, I used to coach basketball. And then I was like, tell me a little bit more about that. And as the flight went on, we talked more and more and I said, you have to be a guest on our podcast. That's how I met Amy. And then as we were leaving, she said, my name is Amy Amy champion. And I said, coach champion. What a name that's like the best name coach champion. So Amy, tell us a little bit more about.

Amy 2:00

Okay, well, first of all, thanks for having me guys. This is, this is really quite an honor for me. And Kevin's right when he continued with the conversation, I did mention that I used to coach it kind of dug up some old bones, but some really good bones. I grew up playing sports. I'm a sports fanatic. I grew up between two brothers and uh, Fight for my life every day. Playing all kind of sports from football to soccer, to basketball and basketball just happens to be my love. I was fortunate enough to graduate high school and go to college on a basketball scholarship. I played at Delta state university. In Cleveland, Mississippi, and we were fortunate my junior and senior year to win national championships back to back. Wow. Uh, Had a great career there and I always knew I wanted to coach. After that, we, we were under a really driven coach. His name was coach Lloyd Clark. I give him all the credit today. He'd never, ever played the game. But he taught us everything about the. Which enabled me to move into the coaching world. So shortly after graduation, I went into grad school at the university of Southern Mississippi and was able to coach there for a few years and then was fortunate enough to take a head coaching position at a junior college, right outside of bay Manette Alabama. And it used to be called Faulkner state community college. Three years there. My third year, we went to the national championship and we didn't win it. We came close but we finished third in the nation that year. And I was able to go to the university of Alabama, Birmingham as their head recruiting coordinator. And I spent 10 great years there. And we were able to go, the NCAA tournament made it to the sweet 16. Had some great teams, had some kids drafted into the w N B a and shortly after those great years at UAB, I took the head coaching job at the university of new Orleans. And that's where I actually finished my career. That was a really, really tough time. And when Kevin said. Hey, tell me a little bit about your situation at UNO. I really had to reflect back cuz that was a very tough time coaching and leading. I took the job in 2004 and hurricane Katrina hit the city of 2005. So recruiting young women to the university of new Orleans Needless to say was very, very difficult, very challenging. We survived, we made it through it. I'll share with you my challenges as we move along in the podcast. But in 2011, I made a decision to step back and get out of coaching to be with my family. My father was very sick and it was the best two years. That I had with him from 11 to 13 and still to this day, as Kevin mentioned, I worked for Brock USA. Brock is a shock pad company, and I do sports fields for athletes. I put in the concussion layer, the safety layer that goes below the artificial turf fields that we install. So I'm still around young people and athletes, and that's just kind of where my heart plays.

Kevin 4:56

Thank you, Amy. And as Amy and I were talking back and forth, I contacted about being on the podcast. We need to pick a word and we talked back a little bit back and forth and she said, the word is adjust. And I said, interesting. oh yeah. Because as coaches, we make a lot of adjustments when we're working with people. And I was speaking with Joan. She said, we make adjustments before. During and after coaching. Amy, tell us a little bit more of why you wanted to focus on the word, adjust.

Amy 5:27

Well, I'll be honest. I, you know, before I took the head women's job at the university of new Orleans in 2005, you know, life was great. We were moving along in different universities, having some success. And, you didn't really think that it was gonna be any different and you just kind of had your basketballs every day. You had uniforms and things were just rolling along as normal. Recruiting was great. And then taking the, the position at the university of new Orleans and then Katrina hitting shortly after that, you know, those 10 months there on campus was great. We had started to build the program, but when Katrina hit the city That word, Kevin just resonates with me because as a coach and as a leader, when you're looking at 12, 18, 19, 20 year olds, all of a sudden you really have to adjust to your environment what's going on around you. Their lives, their needs their parents, greatest concerns. Are, are they safe? Uh, So I had to literally adjust not who I was, but how I dealt with them. That that was very, very challenging because it became more about survival. It became more about just living life and, and trying to live every day and really instead of basketball. So it was very tough, very tough. And, and I tell people going through Katrina was life changing for me. And, and having to adjust to a different way of coaching, a different way of leading and really just a different way of living. It was, it was very difficult, very difficult.

Kevin 7:04

So if you don't mind and Debbie and Joanne jumping here, when you have questions, but a question came to mind when you said adjusting the way you lead. Can you tell us more about how you made adjustments to the way you lead?

Amy 7:17

Well, that's a great question. Um, Leadership comes in a lot of ways, right? I mean, we, we look at leadership in different, different ways as you deal with young people and leading for me was young women for 22 years. So. You have a certain way of doing things. Kevin, as you, as you coach young women, you have certain mannerisms and you have certain communication skills and you have certain expectations and you have just a certain way about you moving young people through life. When you have adversities such as Katrina and they have lost. Their practice gear and their locker room and their home and their academic situation. And they're moving eight hours away from their families and all of the things that they're having to deal with all of a sudden I had to deal with. So it became, became just a different way of life. You know, the, the, the mandates of being at practice and the requirements of being at video sessions and the, the driving of discipline every day, having a schedule. We, we were not able to have a schedule every day because we were using someone else's practice facility. We were wearing, the universe of Iowa was practice clothes. We were, there was no normalcy. So normalcy went out the window. And when you lose any level of normalcy with young people, and there's not much consistency in their life, that's very, very difficult to juggle. So your focus and your energy. Goes toward more of their complete wellbeing, their mental health, you know, did you have breakfast this morning? I know we're living in a staff locker room right now, but so basketball really, you know, I, I told people, dear Katrina coaching was the last thing I ever did. It was more supporting and encouraging and being that inspiration every day or really puts things in perspective.

JoAnn 9:17

That's what a wonderful story, you know? And I, I admire, you know, what you did during that time? The question I have is like, where did that come from? Where did you dig that from? Where did, how did you find that? Because, you know, I have seen the three of us live through Katrina in different ways. The Louisiana was my home state. I went. To my home state during that time in state for two or three weeks to help out. And, and I saw a lot of poor leadership and I saw a lot of things happening, but then I also saw people really digging in. So looking back, what, what was it in you, do you think that you were able to open up and, and, and make this adjustment that you need? What was already there? You.

Amy 10:03

You know, Joanne, I think going through that, I really had to sit down and figure out how we were gonna make it. And I had to identify within my own self certain traits that I had to sustain every day for our kids. And I, and I think the number one thing I wrote this down the other day, I had to actually make peace with the situ. And so did our team. They had to make peace with us being relocated to Tyler, Texas, living on salvation army cots for three weeks, being away from new Orleans, being dually enrolled in two different universities. So we kind of had to make peace with what was going on. Our situation was just absolutely nuts. So we, we had to do that first. The second thing we had to look at it as a chance for opportunity, you know, here we are, we're relocated. We're the only school outside of T lanes. That's been relocated. Basketball season is approaching, what are we gonna do? Are we gonna take a chance that this opportunity, or are we just gonna everybody quit and just go back? we had to embrace the fact that this really was a chance for opportunity for us to grow as people and to understand what we were going through and what the country was going through and what new Orleans was going through and what our home was going through. And the last, the last thing that really jumped out at me was, you know, I told our kids the whole time, you better have a sense of humor about this. If you don't have it, you better find it. Cause we, we better have a little sense of humor about what's going on. You know, my point guard, who is at the time, she's five 11, she's, she's a great player. She walks in, she's got on a university of Kansas Jayhawk sweatshirt and, you know, Tulane university shorts because we lost everything here, Katrina. So when we relocated to Tyler, Texas, everybody was shipping us all this practice gear and apparel. So we had to, we had to have a level. Fun about this. So I think those, those three things, you know, embracing where we were understanding, it was probably an opportunity for us in some way we had to figure that out, but then enjoying the time and keeping a sense of humor about it. Those, those are the three key factors for us.

Debby 12:16

That's awesome. I love the element of fun. I think some people we forget about that, right? We, we gotta, we still gotta work that in. So Amy, I would love to hear, cause I, I can hear your passion for these young women. I can hear your passion for leadership when you talk and just your, your selflessness as a leader comes through a lot. And I think sometimes we forget that leaders are going through these things at the same time that the people they lead are going through it. So how did you make sure that you still took care of yourself and didn't lose yourself in this process of leading these young women?

Amy 12:50

You know, Debbie, that's a great question, cuz I really felt like in all honesty I did lose myself. It was very hard to look yourself in the mirror and go, okay, what am I gonna eat today? What am I gonna wear today? What, when I, when I felt this high level of concern for our kids, I wanted, I wanted these guys to have three meals, a. Wanted them to have everything that every other division one athlete had at that moment. But unfortunately we, we couldn't give'em all of that. So, you know, the energy really turned to them every single day we would wake up going, okay, what do we have to do for Pam today? What do we have to do for Patricia today? You know, these kids are needing home or they're needing, so really you do lose yourself. In moments like that. you know, our staff was, we were, we were very cohesive. We were very close group at the time. All three of us have a lot of faith. We would say a devotion every morning together before we started the day, hoping that God would guide us through this. So there, there were a lot of things that we had to. Um, For these young women to stay interested and stay with us and to stay the path and take this opportunity as I mentioned uh, so there was a lot of trust, you know, a lot of trust a lot of motivational talks. But you do. That's a great question. You and I don't really, to be honest with you, I don't think I ever found myself till we got back to new Orleans. It was so, you know, selfless of all of. To just say, Hey, whatever you need. We're we'll, we'll, you know, this is a tough time for everybody. So it was, it was a different way of living for sure.

Kevin 14:27

You mentioned something earlier when you were talking about safety, like being safe. And today we talk a lot about not just physical safety, but psychological safety, but it seems like during Katrina, there. All kinds of different levels of safety. So can you speak to, how did you focus on keeping everyone safe and, and looking after their wellbeing?

Amy 14:52

Kevin, we just made sure that we were with our players and with our team, probably 10 of the 12 hours outta the. We were in a, a very you know, we were in Tyler, Texas. We didn't know anybody. The only people that we knew were our players. And the only thing our players knew were us. And we had a few administrators from the university of new Orleans at that time that had kind of moved out there to kind of guide us through this little process. But, you know, we made every effort to keep these kids in tune. Where we were at all times where they were at all times. It's kind of an unfortunate situation because we first got to the university of Texas at Tyler. They were very welcoming, but the first thing that happened to us was when we arrived, oh, we had rooms with volleyball players on campus. There, we were gonna put, you know, several of our kids over here with basketball players. Oh, we've got a staff locker room here. So the first thing that happened. Our little cohesive group was gonna be split up all over campus. And the first decision I had to make was pretty tough. I'm like, I'm sorry, but we will all sleep right here in this locker room. It is my responsibility to keep each young women safe. I've made that commitment to their families. And this is what we will do. So if we have to. Go to a house that has five bedrooms. We will all shack up together and we will all live together. But we, this is what we will do. We will keep you very safe. And this is the commitment I've made. And the university understood that and they made concessions for that. But again, we did live in a locker room on campus together, my whole staff of four, along with 12 young men for about three to four weeks, if you've never done that, that's, it's pretty interest. Pretty interesting. it's pretty educational too. But, you know, Kevin, back to the safety portion, our university chose to bring the men's and women's basketball team back to the university of new Orleans before the city city was ever really deemed safe. They located us to downtown new Orleans in the French quarter. And we lived in the hotel mono Leon for about eight weeks with the national guard. We were not able to practice on our campus. The arena was still, you know, Devastated from the storm. So we were busing to Loyola and we were busing to Tula out of the French quarter every day with national guard on our bus to and from. So the city was still very uncertain. But again, for me as their coach and my staff, it was a utmost importance to keep these young women safe, even being in the French quarter and living in the hotel model, Leon. We were all, we all requested to be on the same floor. So we kept them very tight, close to us. But again, scary times, you know, anything can happen at any given moment. And it was our utmost concern to keep these kids close to the best every single day.

JoAnn 17:36

It's just amazing. It's easy to see why you picked the word adjust you are constantly adjusting, right? Yes. Ma'am. You know, after we have these, these catastrophic times that happened to us and it turns our life and our world upside down. And we learned so many lessons when, and, and, and like you say, probably never went back to whatever normal was. Right. What do, what do you think your biggest takeaway from that as you move forward into the next phase of your life, what, what did these adjustments do? And what, what did you take with you that you, that applies to your life today?

Amy 18:16

Well, the number one thing is you never take any, you just don't take things for granted. You know, don't, don't take things for granted. Don't take people for granted. Don't take your day to day activities for granted. And I think our athletes that went through that time with us would tell you the very same thing. You know, you're bopping through life and you get up, you drink your coffee every morning, or you go to the gym or you have this little routine you have every day and when that's gone and, and you wake up in the morning and you don't have a coffee pot and you don't have gym shorts to put on, you don't have a gym to go to, or those are the things that will ground you quickly. And one thing we all learned is, you know, life is not guaranteed. We were fortunate to survive the storm and get out of new Orleans. And I was able to get all of our kids home safely until we reunited again. But I, I would say Joan, probably the biggest thing is just, just don't take life or people or things for granted nothing's ever, ever promised. Absolutely.

Debby 19:15

A great lesson. So Amy, I would love to hear from all of your years experience of coaching young women, this is a two-parter. Okay. okay. Cause I, I bet you built a lot of leaders too. Like you, you're a great leader, you modeled that, but you were also building these young women into leaders and enhancing their leadership skills. So my two partner is number one. What advice would you give to young people who are listen to the podcast? Just advice on how they can enhance their leadership skills become great leaders. And the second one is what advice do you have for people like all of us who support young people in helping them do the

Amy 19:51

same thing? You know, I think another word that jumps out to me when I talk about um, You know, advice for others or what would you do? You know? It it's it's tolerance. Just, just, just be tolerant of your current situation. Be tolerant of the people around you. Be tolerant of today's world and just, just be tolerant and sensitive to, you know, life's curve balls. You know, when you mention that, I think back on the team that went through hurricane Katrina and out of the 12 women that actually went through that whole 16 to 18 months of just pure adversity. I've got two they're actually in med school. Two that actually went to med school. They've actually graduated. One is a pediatrician and one is a, general practitioner. I've got one that's in education. She's got a double master's working on her doctorate. You know, it's funny, you asked me that Debbie cuz looking back on that team. You're talking about some character and some integrity. These young women went through a really, really tough time, survived it. Two of those were new Orleans natives who lost everything in the process. So surviving it, staying with it and, and looking at them as young women and now moms professionals, career driven individuals. It's just amazing to see the success. Of these kids as I call'em But I don't know. I, I think there's a lot of things you can say to encourage and to lead people, but I think today's world is really just evolving and changing. It's so fluid. You know, I look at college athletics right now. It's not anything remotely like it was when I coached, I mean, the ni and conferences moving and changing and. You know, we have to be tolerant of all those things and we have to adjust to those things. So, you know, I think, I think everyone's situation's different, but in order to lead, I think you really have to be tolerant of others and understand others to get the best out of others.

Kevin 21:56

I was just thinking about you being a coach over those many years. And when you have young people who come through, how do, how did you identify the leaders of the team? Like how did that happen on your teams? Cause I know I'm a, I'm a sports fan and I, I like college basketball and sometimes you can look on the court and you can tell who's running the team. And then sometimes you can look out there and you wonder who's leading this team. So how did you identify leaders on your team and, and how did you develop

Amy 22:29

them? Well, first of all, Kevin, I'm a believer that leaders are born. Okay I think people are born with a certain DNA that allows them to be really, really good leaders. And can lead people. I used to focus my recruiting efforts around that. I could tell when we would go watch a high school game or an AAU game, you can kind of tell which one of those young women will be the spokesman for the team or who everyone turns to. I used to look for those traits when I recruited young women. You can actually look down the bench and you can tell who's into the game. Who's paying attention. Who's really wanting to be in there. Who's watching, who's understanding. Who's trying to figure out strategy. And I would always try to identify those young women early you know, leaders have a certain skill set. And that skillset to me you can develop that to a certain extent, but I do think people are born with the skillset to lead. I, I really do believe that. And I've been under some great leaders and I've learned from some great leaders. And I've seen some of the kids I've coached go on to be great leaders, ones. I really thought that could. But again, I think you can identify those, those traits early on. And we, we, when we recruited all those years, Kevin, for those teams, we would try real hard to identify those skills or those traits when they were in eighth and ninth and 10th. It's interesting to, to go into a gym and watch kids that you go, oh yeah, she's, she's got it. She's got that special. She's got that special skill set. She's probably gonna be our leader in the next three years. That was fun. That was a lot of fun. That was in the recruiting part. That's what I really enjoyed the most is hoping to find that, that special one that, that had that skillset.

JoAnn 24:19

I believe that many leaders are born. I, I ascribe to kind of both, but I do think that it is in the DNA and all you gotta do is go look on the at a bunch of kindergarters playing together. You, you can see the

Amy 24:31

leader. You're right.

JoAnn 24:35

Lot of times we don't call.'em a leader. We call'em bossy. take a step back. They're really leading. They're stepping in and, and. They were born with that. Yeah. That just, that that need to be, can see a need and, and want to, you know fill that need or somebody needs direction and I can help them. So, yeah. I'm sure that you saw it at a very early age.

Amy 24:59

Yeah. And, you know, it's kind of interesting, you can, and as I've grown as a, as an adult and you juggled several careers after athletics you know, I've, I've had bosses that are very headstrong leaders and they try to micromanage everything. And then I've had some very selfless leaders that are probably some of the best I've ever been around. Everything, everything in the business is, you know, they focus on it every day, but it's whatever that, that group or that clientele needs, you know, there's very selfless. It's just, I'm here to support, you know, the people that, and the bat, you know, it's just, it's just is what it is, but I've seen both. It's interesting. I feel like

Debby 25:38

the foundational piece you've talked about it, you know, several times about people's character, but I also feel like I'm learning a lot about you without you directly saying it about your value system, Amy, you know, and, and you did mention early on in, in your story about who you are about a big change that you made in your life for family and how that, you know, sounded like that was a pivotal piece for you and that it really aligned. Core value for you. Will you talk a little bit more about that for people of how does someone's value system play into maybe life's decisions and how that can be really important for people to make sure that they know what their values are and pay attention to those.

Amy 26:17

Sure., I think if you looked at every successful person in the world today, they have a core and I've always called it a core. There are many different values in that core, but your core being is really who you are and who you want to be and, you know, character integrity. Those are two words that I have lived. Um, It's very fortunate. Both of my parents were very disciplined individuals, educated individuals um, were very tolerant of the three of us. My father was a college athlete and at the time worked on a farm and was required to work on that farm in the mornings, under his parents, my grandparents, you know, from 5:00 AM to 7:00 AM, and then he would actually catch a ride to football practice in Oxford, Mississippi, Ole. He would practice. He'd go to class. He'd come back home. He'd work on the farm again. So there was a level of discipline for us all of us growing up. And that discipline also came along with, with expectations. But I would've, I wouldn't have had it any other way. I, I think that athletes today, when we coach them, I think they crave discipline. I really think kids want to be disciplined. They want to have structure. They want routine. And for me at an early age, playing multiple sports until basketball really became my real love. I. It was a focus. It was a drive. I wanted to be the best. And in order to do that, you have to have a level of integrity about yourself. And sometimes you have to make tough decisions. And if you could do that and handle those adverse situations, but stick to who you really are and what you believe life can be successful for you and whatever. I've always believed that in whatever you. Take on. But you're right. I do have a core to me. I have a lot of faith stepping out of college athletics, as you mentioned in 2011 to move home and to help my mother take care of my father, who was a severe diabetic at the time and in a wheelchair, she just wasn't able to do that. And for me, I had spent a lot of time in college athletics. And as you guys know, it's 24 7. So the amount or level of family time that I did not have was very disheartening to me. I missed my family. I missed special occasions. And so I just decided in 2011 to be the good daughter. And to be who I really am. And I stepped out of athletics on my choice and moved back to Mississippi and bought a little house and helped my parents for two years. And it was the best two years of my life with my dad. And I don't regret that one minute, even though it took me down a different road, you adjust, right? So you have to adjust to the different things in your life and you, again, you, you ha have peace with the situation. You have a little humor to it. And you just, you just move on, but you're right, Debbie, I appreciate you recognizing that because having integrity and being a truthful, honest, and a good person, you know, treat people the way you wanna be treated. I've always lived by that. And

JoAnn 29:32

I wanna commend you too, of, you know, being faithful to that, those core values. We see oftentimes where we, have leaders who violate those day in and day out. I just wanna commend you to. You know, looking inside and said, these are the things that drive me. This is what I value and moving on those., cause I see a lot of people who look back with so much regret because they didn't pay attention to their core values or they didn't live according. To their core values. So thank you for that.

Amy 30:04

Yes, I thought, thank you. Thank you.

Kevin 30:08

sometimes people struggle with the, with the changes and they struggle with the adjustments and then we live in a world that's constantly. Changing and people have changed. Fatigue Change is about consistently making adjustments. So what advice would you give to a leader or a person who's struggling with adjusting or making

Amy 30:29

adjustments? You know, it goes back to what I mentioned earlier, Kevin, I, I would look at adjustment as opportunity, you know, I, I was, I wouldn't look at it as, oh, it's just gonna be something else I have to endure. Find the opportunity in it. Find the opportunity in. Whatever challenge this may be, or whatever change this may be. There, there is an opportunity in there somewhere, and you, you know, going through Katrina, we really had to figure that out. And, you know, as leaders, they face challenges every day and they face change every day. And as I said, today's world you guys. We all know it is. It's changing all the time. And if you can't adjust to that change and find a challenge or an opportunity within that, it is difficult. But I would encourage people that do struggle with that to just, you know, refocus yourself, put yourself somewhere else and find an opportunity within that change because I guarantee you, there is one

Kevin 31:31

Well, we have a few last questions. We do this with all of our guests. And so as we start to try to wind up, there's three questions that we ask all of our guests and these questions are softballs. They're easy ones. so at least that's what we tell people. The first one is what book do you think a leader coach should read?

Amy 31:56

When I saw that question, I thought, oh my God, I have read, you know, so many motivational um, How to handle this or that. There there's so many books out there that you can pick from, and I've, I've read everything from who moved my cheese to to pat summits, you know, the summit. I think one of the, the books that I read early in my coaching career that I really enjoyed is written by Lou holds it's called winning every. um, It it's really written it, it's kind of like the, the common sense book for success. I don't know if you guys have ever listened to Lou holds or even read any of his books, but he's really just a very common sense guy. And this book, he, you know, he shares some of his day to day stories and, and funnies about dealing with young people and. And leading them through. But the stories kind of focus on the success and the principles. And really there's a lot of truths in these stories. So I, I found that book to be very educational um, very light. Um, And like I said, just very common sense. It was very spiritual, book. He shared a lot of spiritual opportunities with his young men was very philosophical. Motivational. So it's kind of a mix of, of everything. And, you know, from that book, you kind of learn where you're going and how you want to lead based on his experiences and the different things he had to deal with. So winning every day is probably one that I had a lot of fun with. It's not a real intense read. It's just common sense on how to be successful. I.

Kevin 33:40

Great. Great. The next one, what question have you been asked that gave you pause or made you think a little deeper or think differently?

Amy 33:51

I thought you said they were softballs

JoAnn 33:56

I just said that's what we tell people.

Amy 34:02

You guys are probably gonna wonder what in the world, when I tell you this. But probably one of the, the toughest questions that was ever asked to me was, do you wanna have a season. Let me, let me reiterate how this actually, let me, let me explain how this question came about. So, as I mentioned to you, hurricane Katrina hit, we were told 24 hours to get all of our players off of campus. And I had, you know, I took four kids back to Mississippi with me, cause I couldn't get'em home. They were on buses, planes, trains, automobiles, their own cars, getting. So we lost touch with our university. I lost touch with several of our players. You know, the, the system, the cell service, everything was down in Orleans for at least two weeks. So shortly after labor day, I get a text message from my athletic director. He goes, Hey, I hope you're safe. I hope you're fine. And I wrote it back. I said, I'm safe. I'm in Mississippi. I have four players with me. All the other players made it home safe. And here comes the question. Do you wanna have a season? And after spending years in coaching, you know, your immediate reaction is of course I don't have a season, but I really had to think about that. I had kids scattered all over the country. We don't have a place to play. I had 22 feet of water in my office. We didn't have basketballs. We didn't have practice gear. We didn't have uniforms. What does he mean? Do you wanna have a season? So, yeah, I paused and I took a big pause that that was um, a question I couldn't answer as much as I loved the game. I could not answer it at that time. I said, let me get back to. So at the time I was with my parents, father was still living and I sat down with him and he's kind of my Lou Holtz or was in this world. And I said, what do you do? You know, what, what do we do here? I. And he said, you have a season, you love the game and you lead young people go have a season. So I called ad back. I said, sure, do I do wanna have a season? So again, they relocated us to Tyler, Texas, and we traveled 27 of 28 games that year. But we had a season. So that was the question, Kevin, when you poked the bear and you asked me that I'm like, God, you know, that was so raw back then. So yeah, that was the question in my lifetime that really, I had to pause on.

Kevin 36:39

Well, thanks for sharing. Thanks for sharing that, Amy. And the last one is what is your word on coaching?

Amy 36:49

Hmm, there are so many I'm gonna go back to tolerance. I think in today's world, you guys with, with all of the changes going on with young people in high school athletics, college athletics, just in athletics and competition in general, I, I just think tolerance has got to be. Kind of a way of life. There's so the diversity in our culture today is incredible. It's fantastic. It makes us who we are, but that diversity brings a lot of good, bad and indifferent. And I think we as Christians, we as people we have to be tolerant of the ways of the world. And that would be about work today. Well, thank you

Kevin 37:32

very much, Amy. Joanne, Debbie, it has been a pleasure and I hope everyone has an opportunity to sit next to coach champion on an airplane. And if not, you can just listen to the podcast over and over again whenever you travel. Thanks everyone for listening. We appreciate your support. Please check out and share more of the word on coaching podcast. Please connect with us on Facebook. We have a Facebook page called coaches three. Please follow us. And oh yeah, we have a book. called the word on coaching. It's available anywhere you wanna buy books online. Please check it out by the word on coaching and buy a copy for a. So we appreciate everyone listening today. And until next time, that is the word on coaching. Woohoo.