Episode #39: Todd Stepsis

Todd Stepsis was named the Head Football Coach at Drake University in December of 2018.  He is the 27th head coach in Drake history and took the reins of the program after five seasons as its defensive coordinator.  

After every interview I do, I walk away saying “where was that coach when I was 17 looking for a place to play and go to school?”

Coach Stepsis is one those leaders.  He’s smart.  Graduated magna cum laude from college.  He’s humble.  The health and happiness of his family, his coaches, and his players all come before the quest for wins.  He’s genuine, kind, insightful, and above all, significant in all he does.

If you are a parent  listening to this wondering what type of coach you want for your son or daughter.  Todd Stepsis is the quality of person you’re looking for.  Fun conversation!

Learn more about Todd Stepsis:  https://godrakebulldogs.com/sports/football/roster/coaches/todd-stepsis/1257

Transcript

2:03

Hey, how you doing coach? How are you? How's the team feeling? So far so good. We were actually just at an elementary school here in town, just running around with elementary kids and they look spry and they're bouncing around shooting hoops, playing soccer, all that stuff. So how many of them get engaged and really get excited about working with that level of kid? How many do you have to twist their arm a little bit? I would say probably 80 percent of them are all in on it. And then probably 20 percent hang in the back. But then it's funny when you work with Yeah, like 1st, 2nd, 3rd graders, like they're grabbing them by the hand and pulling them around. And so it ends up everybody has a good time. That's great. I'm so happy you do that stuff that, I was a college basketball coach for a long time, and those were always the moments where, you felt like you were taking the kids out of their comfort zone. But I always got more thank yous that we did it afterwards. because they enjoyed them felt like they made a dif Oh yeah, all the time. You talk about, so whether it's companies or, you kn forces maybe, i units, but all at the foundation, yo an individual. It's about the team and it's about doing things for others. And that's, for me, I'm a former special ed trade there. And yeah, it's just I like doing stuff with elementary school kids. And it definitely does feel like at that age, they're very impressionable. And they look at our guys like they're superheroes. And Yeah, it's a good time. And I think, like you said, guys look at this and they don't see it as an obligation. They look forward to it because there's no, the impact that it does make and the difference that it does make. So that's fantastic. You guys are having a great year. It's got to be exciting to be rebuilding this team and to see the results that you're seeing. Is this where you expected to be at this point? It's The story actually goes back five years ago, to be honest, this is it's not necessarily this year process has been going on for a while and we have 25th year seniors on the team and and so again, the world of college athletics nowadays, that's, it's probably pretty unique. And another unique stat about us is we don't have any transfers either. And we've stayed true to the roots of what college sports should be. And that's, you take a guy that's just finishes up high school and yeah, you're part of a journey, a part of a growth, part of a maturation. And you take your lumps and yeah, and you get knocked down a bunch. But, it's about getting back up and continuing to press forward. And so five years ago these fifth year seniors it was their first semester here and it was during covid. And we didn't have a season their first fall. And I want to say the class, I want to say they all got booted from campus right away just because, I had too many people in my dorm room or I took a picture, and post on social media and I didn't have a face covering or whatever it was like not like normal college things you usually get in trouble for. And so it started off really crummy and that year really didn't get to experience what college was like. They had every excuse to quit and to do something different there, but they didn't. And the next year we pick it back up. So their second year at drake, we proceed to go to a nine. And again, when you're not experiencing a ton of success on the field, it you know, why stick around? Why continue to do this? You start to listen to the doubt and you start to listen to the, the reasons to take the easy way out. Their third year we proceed to lose our first eight games. And so when you take their second year in your third, their third year and you combine them, total of five wins out of, 22 games or whatever. And I think there might have been a stretch between the one year and the eight loss. I think we might have lost like 13 in a row at one point. But again they still continued to believe where didn't have necessarily a ton of show for it. And their last three games two years ago, we want them, so we went oh and eight and we finished. Then all of a sudden, like that was the switch that needed to be flipped. And last year, we proceed to win all eight conference games and when the conference for the first time, and I think it was 11 years and the first time, a drake team had ever won eight games in conference and then we got to play in the NCAA playoff set. First time ever doing that too. And this is the same group of fifth year seniors that I'm, they're now leading the team like they went through all that, they were in the lows of the lows, they got to experience the highs of the highs. And they weren't about to let their last ride be a downer. And as a coach, very fortunate to have great leaders on the team and guys that are self starters and self motivated. And here we are now again having another great year and just that fifth year group, I think it was the challenges that they faced and overcame came and didn't quit. That's why we are where we are today. And I'm going to get into this with you. And that's a big part of why I wanted to have you on. I went through a similar process building my first program, but I'm always torn about the portal and I'm always torn because of your story. When you see this many kids that stick it out together, stick it out with the same coaching staff, stick it out with the same system, the growth, the discipline, the maturity that you get, you and I got by playing college sports, by staying at the same school for the same time for the whole time, what that does to your future as an adult. You're the epitome of it this year. You're the poster child of what college is supposed to look like when you stick it out and you fight through adversity, right? Amen on that. Yeah, that is, yeah again, it is, everything's changing, everything's evolving. And I get that. But I get asked, Why do you coach all the time? My dad was a high school coach and I played the sport and I played a lot of sports and I love to compete and football. It was my favorite. I love it. I love everything about it. And, certainly there's a little bit of that on why I do it because I love the sport so much. But, the to be a part of someone's life, for four to five years to help them figure it out, when initially when you get them, they have no clue and then all of a sudden they finish and now I do, they have a clue they're ready to go. And just to be a part of that process that journey. And then. That relationship that then, starts in the beginning with recruiting ends up lasting forever. And so like now it's okay when I get a phone call or an email or a text that talks about an engagement or a new baby or a job promotion or whatever, like it feels like a win. It feels like a big win, an overtime win, like we had, that felt great. Hearing from former players and continue to be a part of their lives and their victories that's why I do it. Yeah, it's just, it's a lot of fun. And so the portal, I think I think there's a place for it. I think all this stuff that's changed, the reasoning that they were designed, I think there was good behind the reasoning. It's just has gone off the rails. And yeah, this Somebody much smarter than me needs to figure out how to fix it all. I think we need to start with guys like you. And I think we need to have some high level conversations and there's a need for it and there's a desire for it. Every coach I talked to wants to be a part of that conversation. We all want to get back to being able. To raise kids the way we got into this business to raise them not to negotiate salary, you know Nobody got into teaching to negotiate your salary We got into to teach you how to be an adult to teach you how to live a life That could be significant. So i'm going to get to the heart of why I called you And this may be a challenge for you, but I'm going to put you on the spot a little bit, but I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to go through this journey with you. If you're down with it I work with high school kids and families every day. So I'm oftentimes I'm the middle man between a guy like you and a high school kid and parents and I talked to parents on webinars and I speak at events and showcases and it's getting harder and harder for me to look a family in the eye and say D1 is an option for you. When every coach I talked to at the division one level is saying we've got to go into the portal when I have an opportunity to bring in a kid that's 21 years old or 20 years old already knows how to lift already knows how to handle his grades already knows how to handle his academics already coming in with a mature mind and body or I bring in a 17 year old who I have no idea what they're going to become. What do we tell that family that's done everything right? They're like, you kicked it in the butt, in the grades. Characters fantastic. They have an amazing work ethic. They've got the size, they've got the speed, they've got the stats and they're seeing kids. On TV that are, they're probably better athletes then, but they're not getting the call. They're not getting The response. What do we tell them? What do we tell that family about their future? Is it go somewhere where you can play right away and hope you get seen by. you get seen by Alabama b rushing yards in a season What do we tell them? Yea a great question because It's a dying thing. Our coaching staff, we're all very aligned with this. But again it's tempting to go for the talent. It's tempting to not want to miss out on man. Here's this guy that, was a all conference guy for whatever school and he's looking to transfer and all that stuff. And it's hard to miss, to say, I'm okay with missing out on that because, I think that, by taking this guy, that means there's one less opportunity for somebody that could really need this, and I don't know, like it is become very transactional in that case with portal guys and, just trying to like, schools, I think they're so focused and there's so much pressure on winning, that they I think they let that cloud the real reason of why they're doing what we're doing. And so we talk about that with our players all the time. Okay, what is your purpose here? You know what? You know what? What's the big reason? You're getting up at six o'clock in the morning. What's the reason you chose Drake? What's the reason? You know that you're going through all this. And I think sometimes we lose sight of what our purpose and our why is because there's so much pressure, to win, and my wife, loves the profession, hates the profession because, everything's judged on what that score says on a Saturday, and when we were losing, a few years ago, it wasn't boy, your team GPA is as high as it's ever been, or your community service hours are off the charts. It's man, you lost 27 to 24 to, San Diego or whoever we were playing at the time. And then there's there are no other professions out there that where your failures are public, I didn't weigh out. I'm Joe that is in sales. And I don't, I didn't meet my quota, but no one else knows that we're like paper like on Mondays. So I do think it's easy for coaches to, to lose their way. But I do think there are places and there are programs and there are leaders of those programs that that do it the right way. And so I think for those families that, that might be getting frustrated with, the recruiting process and, guys that we recruit, I think they're still in the same boat because there, there are limits, gosh, we'd love to have a roster of 200 because there's a ton of really good high school players there now than there ever was because of the portal. Hypothetically, here in this state, you've got Iowa State, you and I and, let's say, each one of them are taken 25 per class. Before that was like, 23 high school kids and maybe a couple of Juco guys where now it's, we'll shoot now it's maybe 15 high school guys and 10, transfer portal guys. And so now all of a sudden those 10 guys that were those caliber player now they're looking. And so there's 30 more guys that were available in this era for us. then maybe weren't a few years ago. And so I just think just trying to find those places, I think, that are like us because I think they're still out there and it's about it's about football and it's about future. I gotta tell guys that all the time that are looking for places to go play is, the place better care about football. They better love it. They better want to win. They better be competitive. But more importantly they better be in it for you to in your future because that's the unique thing about our situation here is we don't give N. I. L. Deals and we don't, all that stuff like our guys come in with the only promise that I ever give them is that every time I walk in the door of our facility, I say to myself, what can I do today to make this experience for our players? One of the best of their lives and that they would do over and over again. And when they leave here they're going to continue to say, gosh, that's the best thing I've ever done. And they'll have, they'll get married, have kids, and we'll start to fall down on that pecking order. But, At the day, when they're old and gray, like me we were top three in their life, things that they've done and the decisions that they've made. And so that's the only thing that we promised these guys. And so when they accept that and they choose us based off of that they immediately fall into the. Amen. It's not a what's in it for me. It's what's in me for it. Just like the coaching staff has promised. Hey man, it's what can I pour into you? What can I give to you to help you be successful? Then that's that's, there are still programs out there. It's just unfortunately, few and far between. And, and I think the level of play I think sometimes for kids in high school is a little bit of a. a distraction, where like I've coached D three ball of coach D two ball and it's college football is college football and the right program with the right people in the right values. are still going to get you. You're going to be a champion. If you can find those things and find a place like that. And yeah, you might be D one and you might have that talent and for a reason you fall through the cracks. But, there's a lot of lower level programs that are going to treat you right. They're gonna pour into you just like we pour in our players that again, if you're good enough the pros will find you. And and if you're not you're still going to be a champion in life and you're still gonna Have a great future and all those things. It's remarkable what we get out of what we do when we have a break to actually look at it the way you do, to really understand the development of a human being. and the role that we play and how significant that is. And it's just great to hear, and it's, and I want families to hear that. I want high school coaches to hear that because I think I see it so much at the high school level. These coaches are, they feel like they got to win, they got to win, they got to win. And sometimes it gets a little lost. On what we're doing with these guys and gals and where that where they're headed. So I appreciate it you're a dad. You got kids you're married. Oh, yeah Talk to me a little bit about your day to day because I had, I was a college basketball coach. Most kids I ever had on my roster was 18. I knew them all. I knew their shoe sizes. I knew if they, I knew how they put their socks on. I knew them intimately because I only had 18 of them. You've got, you're capped at one Oh five. Yeah. One Oh five. Yeah. I'm here. Coaches complain about one Oh five. How the hell do you? Do it, Todd. It's it's every day. It really is, it's the numbers, but again, you've heard that saying, man, you never want to be the smartest guy in the room. And that is never the case for me. The staff that we have that we're real fortunate to be a part of this thing. I wouldn't trade him for anything. And, the way we recruit players is identical to how we recruit people to be a part of this thing. So whether it's a coach, whether it's or whether it's a strength, someone in the strength and conditioning groups or the sports med people. Yeah, we'd love for you to be an expert in your field. And we would love for you, if we're looking for a linebackers coach to really know your X's and O's and your techniques and, your defensive structures and all those kinds of things. But if you don't have the spirit that we're looking for, if you don't have that passion, for Porn any young people then I don't care how smart you are and how talented you are, with what you know you're not gonna fit here. And so I think you gotta have the spirit and I am a believer where if you have the, if you have the right attitude and the right mentality you will be an elite. Coach, like the, the skills that you're gonna need to be a great position coach or a great coordinator or a great head coach down the road. If you have the stuff on the inside and in here, you will that you're gonna naturally become, one of the best teachers out there. And yeah. Yeah. So that's, that, that's how you get it done with one 10, it's, you need an army of people that are like you and that that care as much as you do. And so that's what we have here, man. We've got a great coaching staff. We got a tremendous sports med staff and a great strength conditioning staff. And it's funny, like I started coaching D three ball and boy, we had 100 50 some guys on the team and and I was the strength coach and I was the recruiting coordinator and I was the, the, this, that and the other thing. I look back and I was like, God, how the heck did I do that? I was, I'm with you, my friend. Yeah. I had a 1, 500 my first eight years. I had a 1, 500 assistance stipend. Yeah. It was like, oh, trying to find anybody. To work the hours you need to work to run a college program for 1, 500. It was. Luckily I found a 70 year old former high school coach that was fantastic and looking for something to do to keep working with kids, it was great. Yeah. What does, everybody watches the, the, I can't remember what it's called on HBO where they show the preseason games, the bears and Oh yeah, Hard Knocks. Hard Knocks, love freaking, love Hard Knocks. Tell them, tell our audience what your day to day, when do you wake up? Walk us through just what you do from when you wake up to while you go to bed. You just, today, we talked about you were at an elementary school today, working with your guys and working with kids. Talk a little bit about what an average day looks like for you in the middle of your season. Wow. Number one, God bless my wife coaching any sport football, basketball, you name it. It's just, it is it's a seven day a week. When you're in season, it's, there are no off days and Sundays are our work days, unfortunately. And it just depends on the day of the week. But again, God best my wife for being who she is and putting up with me and and my habits, I am a very Habitual person to a fault. So you could ask me, Hey, what are you doing on March, 14th? And I could probably tell you, but Right. I get up every morning at five o'clock. I'm a morning person. I like to exercise because I'm a demonstrator and I'm a doer. And so I, when we're at practice. in order for me to move around and do things not nearly as quick or as strong as I used to be. But I still feel like I can show what I'm looking for and be a part of the program that way. And then, one of our One of our big pillars is energy. And I can, I feel like at practice or at meetings or, doing the day to day things. Yeah, I've got the energy and the steam that these guys are gonna witness and observe and feed off of. And so I'll wake up and I'll exercise. But one of the things that, that that might make me a little different than the majority of the coaching world out there. Gosh, man, let me think. It was probably, yeah, probably about 10 or maybe nine or 10 years ago. You start off early in your career and it's not necessary. Yeah. You're always like, eyes, pie in the sky dream job, love the coach for the Cincinnati Bengals, being from Ohio or the Ohio State Buckeyes or whatever. But then as you work through, you start to, figure out what matters. And then it was right around nine or 10 years ago. I just I kept running into older coaches, that hanging out with grandkids and I kept hearing the same thing, man. I just feel like I'm making up for lost time. with my kids, with their kids. And I just like, I don't ever want to have to say that. And I know that, there's going to be things that, that we have to miss. But I make it a point where every morning there are no staff meeting until nine o'clock, so I make sure that if it's a cookie. or that has a family that this is their opportunity to have some breakfast with them and get them off to school. If it's a, if it's a, maybe a person that's engaged or freshly married. Hey man, this is your time to spend some time with your significant other, have a cup of coffee have a conversation, whatever before work. And even if it's a single guy, hey, this is an opportunity for you to be a better you. Take this time to, read a book, listen to a podcast. If your spiritual miss is a great time to pray or get into the bible and get some scripture. And I just think that the self maintenance part of coaching needs to be evident and needs to be present in any day. And so for us up until nine o'clock in the morning, that's that. And for me, it's the workout in the morning and then it's, getting the girls ready for breakfast, for school and breakfast and, and then it's always a sprint out the door to get him, get him to school. And I'm always, shouting hey, let's go. Former son of a coach, like terrified of being late to anything. Yeah. And And that once I get him to school and once we start nine o'clock, it's, it's pretty much peddled down to the ground, so when when you try to shorten the days, you really got to be efficient and maximize the time you're there. And I tell our staff, gosh, I wish I could pay you all a million dollars, because you're worth that. But how I can compensate you is a great work environment and time. And by us not starting until nine o'clock we all have the energy. We're all in a little bit better mood. We're all ready to attack the day with a ton of enthusiasm and we're able to be efficient because we can work at a high level. And it's a lot of we'll always start with a staff meeting. To make sure that our eyes are down in our teaser cross for that day. But then a week out in a month out, we always just try to look ahead as best we can. And then we split up, in the sides of the ball to plan for the day and go over what we're looking at. And, maybe there's some game planning involved depending on time of week. But then once we get to lunch, that's another time I make them all shut it down. Okay, if it's noon to one. If you live close to here, then maybe it's time to run home and let the dog out or do whatever. But then once we get back at noon, that's when the players start coming around. And so we'll have position meetings and different things to get them ready for the day of practice. And then that practice usually 30 at night. And then And then really, after that, it's I want them to try to hard stop by 7 30. So if there's like some kind of recruiting things, that's usually when we do those. But like I say, if we can be home for dinner, let's be home for dinner. If there's something that can wait, like maybe right after practice, you can go. And then, when People are in bed, you can go back and finish what you need to start. But just man, what can we do? What can we focus on? That's important. What really matters here. And then let's pour into that. And let's not spend 18, 19, 20 hours in the office because that's what everybody does, so like to me, it's like a lot of people do that. And that makes us equal, so what can we do that can be different that can, maybe give us an edge and it feels like that's the way to go. Where were you 25 years ago when I needed this speech? 25 years ago is my first ever grad assistant job. Yeah, that was a fun year. That was a great time, but yeah, I just, My dad was, gosh, he coached for 40 years and I've been really fortunate to be around and just some great mentors in my life. And and just that's your dad's still around. Oh yeah. He's still around. I'll still talk to him once a week. I it's He's slowing down a little bit now, but still always has great advice. He always congratulates me on a win and talks about how the football gods are with us. And then on a loss, those football gods have a funny sense of humor, and, he just he's always there to pick me up when I need it. But then also, as a kid, And he still knocked me down when I needed to, it was a tough love environment growing up. But yeah, I wouldn't trade it for the world, it was neat. This off season, I've got a 11 year old and eight year old, a girl. Girls and this was the first training camp where they were there, and so as a kid growing up, that's what we were there, so we were getting the water, we were, getting the equipment out, we were, cleaning up the field when the, when it was over, we were running around the school. It was a ball, man, I dream. Yeah, I just, I, those are my only real memories from my childhood was the football stuff and here my girls are out there filling up water bottles and then we're doing, the quarterbacks are throwing the receivers and they're snapping the balls to the QBs. And it was, I'm just watching that thing. I was like, dang, man, this was, this is great. Trying to find ways to get them around is, has been another thing. In addition to the schedule that we have that I think has Made it pretty, pretty awesome. That's great. J just tidbit, how much of that day, from nine to, you guys practice? What about 3, 3 30, I imagine? Yeah, it's around three 30 is when we start rolling out there. How much of the day is. Making recruit calls planning, right now your practice plan how much goes into those real, those intangibles that really are huge for your day to get done. Is there executive coaching that you're teaching where you're telling you guys, Hey, 30 minutes every day, you've got to make a phone call to some recruits, you've got to send some letters to some recruits, or do you have a staff that kind of takes care of that? 90 percent of that for you. No. Yeah. We allot every day. There's gotta be some recruiting in there. And so depending on what's going on. So like Wednesday's our big practice day. So that day it's a 30 minute time allotment. So again, like it's, this, we have a skeleton of, Hey, this is what our day looks like. There's free times throughout the day. There's free times in the mornings and the night, you need to make sure you carve out a 30 minute block there, but every single day, that's the minimum, some of the days that are, a little bit less taxing than, we want you to do more. And so again, for us, we're trying to find some diamonds in the rough, so it does take a little bit more time to not only locate those guys, but then also vet them out. I think we do a lot of that here because it's, the school is tough and it's a challenging environment to survive in. And there's got to be There's got to be some, for lack of a better word, like there's got to be some accountability that kids already had, before he gets here, where he knows how to take criticism and coaching and that and he's okay with messing it up and he's messed it up in the past. There's somebody there that He looks up to so whether it is a parent or two or a mentor of some kind finding who those people are and what, what they've taught that young man, like that takes additional time that maybe other places don't necessarily dive into like we do. But, everybody looks at the, the huddle tapes and everybody calls the high school coaches and everybody looks at transcripts. And so those are all like. Yeah, we, everybody does those kinds of things, but I do think there's a little bit more to it to find the right kind of guy that a man, I'm committing here and I'm committing to all of it, I'm committing to, to, maybe not playing for a year or two, being a developmental guy, I'm, we're gonna, we're gonna promise you that, hey, we're gonna, we're gonna play the best players, but, you're class of 30 guys that are coming in. Guess what? They were all stars. They were, they were all captains. And and then you've got guys that are two, three and four years older than you, that were same as you. And just understanding that, success isn't going to happen right away. And and again what was the, what was the four years previous to us? What was that experience like? And to do some more diving into to make sure that, hey man, when they get here, they're going to stay because that's how we're successful. We don't, we're not a revolving door here. We don't bring in new players, mid year, we just, we pick the guys we want to pick and then, hey man let's see how good we can help them become. I'm assuming your positional coaches have a region. Yep. They're responsible for, and I'm assuming they're responsible for building really good relationships with those recruits and making the call to the biology teacher, making the call to the guidance counselor to find out those character and find out what's really here that we're not seeing on huddle. We're not seeing on the film. At what point do you get involved? Cause if you're bringing in 30, you're probably looking at 1300. more than that. Yeah. Yeah. Set me straight there because the bigger the number, the more I'm just in awe. At what point do you get involved with that recruit and that family? It all basically starts here it's, everything's moved up. Like I said, that's the one thing, gosh, from 25 years ago till now, I laugh at the recruiting process, so when I first started coaching, I remember I would go to these recruiting fairs in December with a bag of VHS tapes that I would hand a high school coach. In exchange for a game of his so it was like a tape that he could use to record, to give to somebody else. And so we were doing these recruiting fairs in December. Signing day is February. That was 25 years ago. I remember those days. Yes. Yeah. And now, shoot, I'm getting like. Social media stuff from like eighth graders. It's what are we doing here? But but, we really, we focus on high school seniors. When they're midway through their junior year, you're like, we'll still take questionnaires and we've got great connections all over the country as far as man, this kid's a sophomore, but keep an eye on him, get him in your system dah. So we do that, but we really don't pay much attention to him until January of their junior year. And so January of their junior year. is when we start that evaluation process. We always start with the high school coach. And again, like you to your point, the relationships that you develop in those areas are critical because if you don't have a great relationship with that coach, he's just going to tell you what you want to hear, where all of a sudden when he knows you and respects you and you've been in there a couple of times, he'll shoot you straight. And so that's it's imperative to make sure that you get to know those, those coaches. And we take those recommendations and then we always have a few criteria that a lot of those coaches know. Number one, his academics better be in order and school better matter. And how we tell if school matters is his GPA. The higher his GPA, that means He cares about school, but more importantly, somebody at home or somebody that's influencing him cares about school. And so when his team cares about academics, then all of a sudden a school like us becomes an attractive option. Okay, wow, this place plays division one football and. boy, they got a great education for you. That's a double win there for us. The high school coach makes recommendations based off of grades. FCS football is amazing football. Gosh, like last week we're coming back from our game in South Carolina. And I was bummed because our flight was at the beginning of the North Dakota State versus South Dakota State game. And clash of the titans. We played both of those teams over the last couple of years, and it's just, it is amazing football. And making sure that, okay, we're looking for talent. But then again, like we're looking for toughness, we're looking for guys that absolutely love football guys that You know, that, hey they're not afraid to be vulnerable and put themselves out there and to fail and and just to give it their best. And so and we have some characteristics in there and some qualities that we ask for too. And they give us back their recommendations. And so we spend a good chunk of January just, filtering through. some of those recommendations for coaches. And then, again, some coaches are better than others. So you have to do a little bit more digging to build your pool, which for us ends up being close to 4000 names, which is wow. But again, like because of the filters, the GPA the characteristics the talent, that 3000 starts to shrink or 4000 starts to shrink really quick. Yeah. And so then, once we have that list of guys that kind of hit all those marks, we then extend visit junior day visits, which happened during spring ball. And when those guys take time out of their days. or they take days out of their weekends because sometimes it takes a while to get to Des Moines, depending on where you're coming from. That now is a green light then for me to get involved because, okay, there's something about us That they're now interested in. And so now I gotta start to figure out, okay, who, who are these guys and what are they all about and what are they looking for? And so whether that's a conversation or whether that's a group meeting or whatever it is that, that's where I start to get really involved with those recruits. But then it goes up a notch in our prospect camps that summer before their senior year. So all of a sudden they show up to a junior day and then they're back for a. For a camp. Okay. Now we're talking here. It sounds like, we've got something that you're really interested in. And so let's dive into you a little bit more. Let's figure out, who's at home. Let's figure out what they do. Let's figure out You know what your habits are and what your daily routines are. And for me, I love the multi sport guys. So let's talk about other things that you do. Is it another sport? Is it just something else? Is it, we had an offensive lineman that graduated here back in May that he graduates, in May. And I think June and July he spent in Italy is the lead in an opera over there. And so he was a. He was a thespian and he was a, he was an artist and he was a musician. That's right. That's insane. Yeah. You don't see the Renaissance man anymore. You don't. It's so rare. That's so great. Yeah. So like that, start to really dive into who they are and then, again do they have the work ethic to survive here? Do they have Hey, when you say you're committing us, we're committing to you and we're committing to you for forever now. This is not a, hey, I'm just I'm just going to pour into you. And if you end up being not very good, I'm going to push you aside. No this is, you pick Drake, man. This is, you're a bulldog for life now and your family. Yeah, you are. And do the good and the bad, and I think that's important for them to know. And that's where I might be the king of second chance, but I think that's where we learned the most is when we fall the hardest. And yeah, like it's you know, this is a decision that you're gonna make where we're gonna be hip to hip. And you're gonna, you're gonna get a kick in the rear end for me when you need it. And then you're also going to get a hug from me when you need it. And then this thing is all over and everything's all said and done. I'm still going to be your biggest fan. I'm still going to be rooting for you and I'm still going to be here if you do need something. But yeah, I think it starts by finding the right people. And so it's a little bit of a process. I know you've got a brain that can, that remembers faces and names and energy at these camps is your staff giving you a list before a spring visit prospect camp and saying, Hey, this guy's been here before we really liked him. These are the 10 kids I want you to just pay attention to coach. Yep. Yeah, that's the each position coach, always we have, we always have staff meetings, leading up to, whatever recruiting event that we have, so if it is a junior day, it's happening on a Saturday. We'll talk about who's coming that, that friday, like a week ahead of that. Eight days ahead of that. Okay, who's all signed up for this thing? And then we'll revisit it, monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, thursday, friday, leading up to that saturday. Just okay, did anybody add, did anybody drop, so and so still coming. We, we're, We put a lot of stock in the local talent and Des Moines Metro kids. And so okay who from the area is showing up? And so all those little details we try to hammer home and they do a great job of giving me the cheat sheets and making sure I can keep them all straight. It all gets so expensive for a family. Oh, and I know the price thing that you, your university and your program and you're putting into it, it's, it almost sounds like not much has changed in 30, 40 years. Obviously you're still recruiting nationally, but you almost have to have. I don't know, half your roster within three, four hours. That's what we would prefer to have. Does it look like that at the end? Yeah, and it's even a lot. So I've been here 11 seasons and it's interesting how It's has evolved a little bit where we've always, since the beginning of time, we've always had a ton of Chicago land kids, so again, that's a four and a half hours, straight shot down 80. And so a ton of alums, again I talked to a guy that plays, played back in the sixties and all of his buddies are from Chicago. And we even do we'll play some golf out in Chicago once a summer and we get a great turnoff. So we've got a great reputation in that city. And a lot of people have come from there and a lot of guys on our roster right now are from there. That's been pretty constant. And then, because of our highway system, the twin cities, Kansas city, St. Louis. Those have all been, hubs for us. But then like Iowa up until recently hasn't been, and I don't know I couldn't put my finger on it. Why or why it now has changed, so like last year, We had eight Des Moines Metro kids in the incoming class. And I don't even think we had eight total on the roster, up until that point. So you think it's kids want to just want to be further away from home? I think I think that's how it used to be. And now it feels like there's a little bit of a shift. It feels like kids are wanting to be closer to home. Yeah. So in, in my, I've got real life experience when I'm talking to a guy that's closer to home in the fact that, I have the experience of, Some of the best times in my life right now are when I'm watching my two girls do their sports. Absolutely. When I'm down the third baseline, watching them hit or pitch or whatever they're doing. Oh man, that's some of the, I love that stuff. I love watching them do their thing. And our pitch to the local, Your parents want to see you play. And that's right. Why wouldn't you want to, make it a little bit more convenient for them. So I can go through those real life experiences of how much I enjoy that. Yeah. And so I think, I don't know maybe as a COVID thing where kids are wanting to stay close to home now, I can't figure it out. I think this pandemic almost reminded us how important it was to be a human being. How important it was. To really value the things that are understand what our value proposition really is family. Yeah. You got to spend that time with them that you didn't have before. And it made you realize God, I'm missing out. Yeah. But yeah, but then I say all those things and. We get kids, we got kids from Arizona and Southern California and all these other places. And it feels Chicago is about as far East as we can go, because it feels as you continue to head East, there's a lot of schools like us, where it's high academic, it's good football. And so it's but then as you head West of here, it becomes a little bit fewer and far between. And, we've actually done a crazy job in Arizona because if you're not going to play for. Arizona state, northern Arizona. I think there might be a couple NAI schools down there, but the kids down there, so many, there's tons. They name one name, one school that immediately comes ahead. That's a high academic school in Arizona. There's, I can find you a party school. Yeah. Yes, for sure. Yeah. But that's just it. But there's there's. Thousands and thousands of kids, in the, that Phoenix area. And even down there in the desert, as you get into Tucson and and it's good football there. I actually compare it, so I recruited Oklahoma for a while. I compared to that state where it touches Texas. Yeah. And so like the importance of football and the quality of football, Is gone into that state. It's bled in. No one really knows about it because everybody's going over that state to get to Texas. We're like, I'll edit this part out of the podcast for you. What's that? I'll edit this part of the podcast out for you. But Arizona is very similar. We're like, everybody's going man, Southern California is where it's at. Gosh, Arizona. And again, like if I don't go to one of those three schools I mentioned, you got to travel. And so we have a direct flight from Phoenix to Des Moines every day. And so that's awesome. Let's roll with it. And so we've gotten some really good players in our our last home game, our two players of the game, one was a kid from Brophy and another kid was a small school kid from Tucson. So that's fantastic. Yeah. So yeah we love the local guys, but we've had some great luck all over the nation. It's so rewarding. When you find a pocket like that, you're like, man, we can go in here and we can make a dent. Yes that's really cool to hear coach. I know how busy you are. I so much appreciate your time. It's been a true pleasure getting to know you. You've offered, you've got an offer to one of my guys too. So I really appreciate how you guys have treated him. And his family and you and I can talk about that afterward, but I've got one question for you that I ask all coaches and feel free to take some time to think about how you want to, how you want to say this, but what's the most significant advice. You can give to my audience and my audience is real heavy. High school kids, parents of high school kids, high school coaches. What's one piece of significant advice you can give them? Oh, man. I, when you're prepping me for that question, I was like, okay, I'm going to think about this actually. I think it's easy. And this is held true and I think will continue to hold true even in the environment that we're in. And so I'm from Ohio, grew up small town in between Cleveland and Columbus. And so my dad was a high school coach. And Some of the names that he would talk about, the motion becklers of the world. And Woody Hayes was the icon, in Ohio back in the day. And he had this saying, you win with people. That was like the famous quote that he had. And then, my dad burned that into my head where Hey, it ain't about, What you have, it's about who you're doing it with. And so like in, in my opinion, you're gonna, for, if it's a high school kid or maybe a parent of a prospect that's trying to figure it all out, there's gonna be a lot of things that are gonna grab your eye and get your attention, man, nice stadiums, cool locker rooms 19 different uniform combinations, a gourmet, cafeteria, training tables, pretty girls whatever it is, like there's going to be things that grab your attention. and are going to persuade you maybe one way or another, right or wrong, but that stuff, once you get to wherever you're going to get in about a week is going to become white noise. Like our stadium is a really neat stadium. It's, seats 14 some odd thousand. The Drake relays is this iconic track meet. Some of the greats have. have competed on that turf and in that stadium, in football and track, we practice in there every day. We walk down this tunnel every day and the first time you do it, you're man, I feel like I'm in the movie gladiator. This is something special. And then in recruiting, like we've got the lights on, we do it at night and we got the blue lights, lighten up the tunnel and then all this stuff to make it look cool. A week in the training camp. You guys don't notice that stuff at all. And where it really struck me was a year ago. We got a chance to play South Dakota state at the twin stadium up in Minneapolis. Wow. Walk out of that dugout and man, everybody's eyes are this big around and then I elbow one of our assistants. I'm like, do you think the twins react like this when they walk out of this dugout? And he's probably not. And so back to my point in the wind of people is. That's what you need to find. Is you're looking for a place. And I think you can stretch this across life, whether it's looking for a significant other or looking for a corporation to work for, or looking for a school to attend or a program to play for the stuff is just stuff. And people that are involved in that program, who they are, what they're all about, what their values are. That's the stuff that matters. And that's the stuff that never goes away. That's right. So it never becomes white noise. And it sticks with you forever. So when you make decisions on where to be, if that piece is aligned with what you're looking for, it doesn't matter what the rest of stuff looks like, you're going to make a great decision and I'm living proof of that. So I went to Asheville university. Now the place is amazing now, but the guys that that played with me who can vouch, we had the worst stadium in the country. Grassfield crown that where you can see from the waist up. We had a weight room on campus. Our practice facility was somewhere else on campus. If it rained a little bit, it flooded. We had the worst stuff. You can our uniforms were purple and yellow. We didn't have any of the frills whatsoever, but you know what, we had a bunch of dudes that, man, you know, they I like these guys and the coaching staff and I like these guys get me like they're, they want to see me be the best that I can be. And I wouldn't trade that decision for anything. And I think that's the same way that I think if you approach it that way, I think you can't go wrong. And again, like finding people that, it's not about me and, the logo that I'm wearing here. It's about me. and my role in helping you find what you're looking for. And so that's right. Having that discussion to have boy, I love for you to come play for us. I'd love for you to be a part of our program. But boy, if you don't feel the same way, then this probably isn't the place for you. But I want to help you find that, because that's what I had when I was in your seat. And that's what we believe everybody deserves, because at the end of the day, if a kid is talking to a college coach. he's obviously made great decisions up to that point that he deserves a next step. That's gonna help him, go to new heights and do new things. And so our roles is coaches and recruiters to help them find this, find that situation that's best for them. The ego sometimes doesn't like it when it's not us. But at the end of day, we're gonna be happy and we're gonna, we're gonna know that Hey, you know what? He didn't choose us, but he chose the place that was the best for him, and that's what we wanted. At the end of the day, that's what we want for everybody. It's, as you're talking, I used to do an exercise with my players where I'd give him a sheet, it was a foxhole. We talk about who do you want in your front? Who do you want in your back? What do you want? Who you left. That's how we pick captains. Nice. But it's it's such a great lesson. I'm going to start using the same principle from a recruiting standpoint. Who do you want in your foxhole? You visited with five coaches. You've had 20 coaches call you. Who do you want in that foxhole with you? When the fit hits the Shan, which coach has made an impact in you, which one can you want to go to battle with you? Who do you want to have your back for the next four years and kicking your button and making you the man or the woman you want to be, right? I love that coach. Just love that. Yeah. So great advice. Coach. It has been an absolute pleasure. I know you got you got Maris this week. Is that right? Yeah. so we're off tomorrow. So this is our bye week. And it gives us a little extra time to have some fun. And then yeah, Maris will be next weekend at home. So good for that one. And yeah, it'll be here for, at these seasons. Gosh, they fly by. Oh, gosh, I know it. But great. You're having a great year. So happy for you. So happy for the boys. So happy for your family. Give my best to I'm glad he's he's still doing well and has your back. So that's exciting. Thanks for everything coach. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you.