¶ Introduction
You're listening to Airy Bros.
Radio, be there or B Square because it's all killer, no filler.
This is Nick Polk and you're listening to Airy Brothers Radio.
We have another exciting episode with a great guests coming back for an indoor coach, A track coach, across country coach is joining us tonight. Nick Polk from Lipscomb University, director of Track and Field and cross Countries with us tonight, so we're excited to get into that. But before we do that, please give us a follow on YouTube. If you're not already following, make sure you check Coach Polk socials and all that stuff with Lipscomb when we give
those out. And if you're following on Spotify or any other podcast platform, if you'd be so kind to leave us rating and a review. And as always, you know, Jimmy and I love our coffee, so if you click on that link to Bias of Coffee, we would be greatly appreciated. If you're getting any value out of anything we're doing over here, by all means, throw a little love back and give us a little value as well. All right with that set? As I said, Nick Poulk
is joining of this joining US this evening. He is the director of cross country in track and Field at Lipscomb University. He's been there since twenty nineteen. Under his leadership, Lipscomb has produced three NCAA Division One All Americans and three athletes have broken four minutes in the mile, including
the first ever sub four minute indoor mile. Fairly recently, coaches also led the women's cross country team to their first NCAA Division one National cross country appearance in twenty twenty three, where they finished eleventh, and they returned this year as well, finishing twenty third. Also, coach has been a four time Atlantic Sun Coach of the Year. His teams have claimed three consecutive Attic Sun Conference titles and
earned fifty three postseason honors. Before he was at Lipscomb, coach has extensive experience with USA Track and Field, where he managed high performance program globally, and his coaching background includes multiple NCAA titles and All Americans at Grand Valley State and Elon, and coach was also an All American at Grand Valley State as well. Coach Nick Polkatt is an honor and a pleasure to have you join us for an episode of aery Bros. Radio. Thanks for joining us.
How are you doing this evening?
Good? Yeah, thanks guys, appreciate it. Thanks for having me.
Absolutely is honor and a pleasure. So coach, before we get too far into the episode, you know, we have coaches from junior college that are fans. We have parents and athletes that are fans. Any recruits anywhere you want the recruits or parents or coaches that are trying to connect with you, maybe get a Aery Bros. Pipeline down there at Nashville, the Flora Yours.
Yeah. On social mostly what I look at is our Instagram and that's just lipscum x C TF so l I P s c O M b x c t F and I probably I think I have my own, but I never I haven't updated since probably maybe a couple of years ago. And so that's how I look. That's how we get. We get in contact with a lot of people, either on Instagram or Twitter probably are the two best ways. And yeah, we're pretty coaches are pretty easy to find, I think in cross country track.
Yeah, we've been talking about how the the landscape of recruiting has changed so much since when you know, we were in school where you know, we get excited to get a phone call from from a coach and you drop what you're doing to take that phone call, and it seems like that that isn't really a thing that much these days. Maybe you got to send some text messages before you can get that phone call. But it's it's interesting how things have changed.
And yeah, because it used to be used to not be able to do that. I've been coaching long enough to remember when you couldn't do that. It just didn't make any sense at all. Like if a kid was on campus and you wanted to say where are you? You had to call them, you know, and and so that's evolved so much. But yeah, it makes it makes life a lot easier to be able to utilize technology.
Yeah. Yeah, I always say it's the best thing and the worst thing we have going for us right now.
Yeah, no doubt. Yeah, especially like I know that's part of the topic for you guys too, is just like when you're a smaller school and you don't have that like notoriety of a football game on Saturday. Social media is, you know, can be it's your branding, it's your way that its can see what are your colors or what your uniforms look like or you know, it just they wouldn't know a whole lot about us without it. So it's it's it is kind of vital to what we do.
Go Bison. Yeah, right, So coach, as we get into one of the first things we like to always start off with coaches is, you know, Jimmy and I have an origin story, how we got into athletics, how we got into coaching. So curious. You're originally from Indiana, I believe correct, Yeah, what's your origin story as an athlete? And then how did that being an athlete, being getting into running, how did that lead into coaching?
Yeah, I was Okay high school athlete and got recruited by my college coach, Jerry Baltis at Grand Valley State. He was from Indiana. Then I think it just we just had a kind of good connection and it wasn't as hard probably back then as it is now. And so we went up to Grand Valley and had a good experience there. And then I had no intention of like coaching. I actually didn't. I didn't want to do that at all, but I love sports, and so I like, I did an intern internship at Nike when I was
in college. I got really lucky to do that. And then when I graduated college, I worked at Nike for a little bit, and then when I was there, I just I still realized like I still wanted to run, so I kind of was heading down that kind of corporate path, and like at lunch, I would go out and I would see Alberto Salazar and Galen Rup at the track and just kind of hover off in the distance and ask them what's going on and see if I could run with them and all this kind of stuff.
So even though I was like kind of starting a dream job situation, I still kind of had that itch to run. And so while I was doing that, I just trained the whole time. And I ended up being able to join a group called Zapp Fitness in North Carolina to continue training, and so kind of left Nike. Did the professional running thing for about two years, and
I would just hurt a bunch. I think I had something like nine stress fractures and I earned college and then like two kind of big ones when I was running posts collegiately, and so that was kind of like I knew my running days were over, and so I figured I'd probably transition back to you know, Nike or something in that kind of sports world. And then my college coach just he was really good at recruiting and recruited me to come take over like the assistant coaching
¶ Nick's Journey
job there with him. So I didn't want to do it. He called me and you know, it was like we have we have He almost like told me, okay, you're doing this. And then a couple of days later we hadn't talked, and he's like, so, like, are you taking this or you know, like he had a follow up with me, like he didn't even know if I said yes, And I'm not even sure I said yes. But a
couple of days later I was coaching. And it took me like a year or two to enjoy it, I think, and and just kind of like, yeah, maybe kind of blaze my own path in it, and uh but yeah, I just had a good experience doing it, just kind of kept getting better and better. Yeah, just kind of I kind of realized that's all I think I wanted to do at that point, was just be involved with young people and be on a campus and all that.
So, coach, I want to address how coaching stuck with you. But you mentioned in turning at Nike spending time up there, Curious, do you still wear Nike?
No, We're an under armored school, so I'm pretty much much by this time, you know, you just wear I just wear whatever free clothes I get. I don't all run my own clothes, so pretty much that, but I'll still wear yeah, some stuff. But the last two schools I've been at were under armour, so I just have, like, you know, so much of that going on.
And being that you spend time in Oregon for that internship. Yeah, so Ridge feel free to jump in because I don't know the name. But did you get to run on that track that's like got a force in the middle? Yeah?
Yeah, absolutely. That was on the campus. So that's where I'd like sneak out at lunch or before work or after work because that's when there was like the Nike organ Project and Bauerman was there and so there's always you know, fast runners out running. That was who I kind of wanted to be, and so yeah, I was out there as much as I could be.
That is amazing because, like Rich said, we grew up as our dad had this thing like if you're going to be a wrestler, you're going to be a runner, You're gonna know about it, You're gonna.
Know the history.
So we grew up like in our bathroom, like we had all the old runners world and stuff like that, so we would like I would see stuff like that. So the fact that you got to spend time and sneak out for your launch break, I am envious of you in that.
Yeah, that was the dream, Like just to be able to do that and like live off your running and make a career out of it or whatever. You know. I think I was really just trying to find at that time, like how do I do this and make money and make it sustainable and all that, And I wasn't fast enough or durable enough to do it. But I'm like I've been able to thankfully do that since then for a career.
So you mentioned going back to Grand Valley and being an assistant coach there, but you weren't sure. You weren't sure what did you have a moment did you have an athlete something that kind of stuck and you're like, oh, I can change lives, I can make an impact here.
Yeah, I think so. And I think one of the things I always struggled with was like as an athlete, it's a selfish endeavor. You know. It's like you have to like you know, you know, hanging out with friends all the time, and you know, people aren't to go on vacations and you're not going, and you didn't have
a lot of money. So like I was just getting to that point I think where I was, like my friends were making money at that time and they could go on vacation together and you know, or like you know, buy a nice car or whatever it would be. And like I just knew coaching was was some of that, like you're giving away your I would say, you're like that selfishness or like ability to grow yourself and you just take that and you put it into other people.
And I think that took me a little while to realize like probably how selfish I was as an athlete in person, you know, and then as you get into coaching, you just give a lot of yourself to other people. That's like your time, your energy, you know, at that as an assistant coach and not making a lot of
money and all that. So I think it just took me a little while to enjoy investing in other people when you probably spend like most of your life through college investing in yourself, you know, and so I think that's probably what took me the most to like. And then once you kind of recruit somebody and you make them better and you can kind of see like, oh, I'm like helping somebody grow. I think that for me, it's kind of started to click, you know, that it
wasn't about me, it was about investing in other people. Yeah.
You know, we talked to a lot of coaches and Damian Han as a Division one wrestling coach South Dakota State. He's from our home area, and he says, you know, you have two kinds of coaches and coaches that are in it because they're trying to build up their resume and they want to win because they want to win.
And then they have coaches that are really in it for the development of the individual and the betterment of the human and making you know, better athletes, but better humans and better better people that are going to be productive in society. And I think that's when I first started coaching. I was probably that first guy that was like, I want I want kids to run fast because it's going to make me look good now at you know,
forty eight seem to be forty nine. It's like, well, I want you to still doing this when you're my age. I want you to be running like I'm still runner. I want you to enjoy it. I want it to be a lifelong passion and something you really enjoy doing. Like it'd be great if you run fast, you know, but I'm really here to make you a better human.
Yeah. Absolutely, Yeah, And I think that's something that you struggle with because it does feel good to make somebody run fast, like internally, but if you know, and it's something I mean a bigger conversation, but I fear with like where Division one is heading, is that it just becomes so transactional that you lose that like the growth of the person and the development. And you know, I grew I was an Okay high school runner, Division two
college runner, so definitely experience like that growth. And none of us did it for like a big scholarship or fame or something like that. So I think, yeah, I think that's in me, and I have to try to like guard myself against turning into so like that guy, you know, the guy that is just out for results.
Yeah, I would imagine it's fairly can be a challenge at the Division one level, and we'll get into some of those other things that you were talking about in a little bit Curious is that fitness those guys they were based out of North Carolina. Is that what made the Elon connection or was that just two kind of coincidental.
Yeah, it's coincidental. But I really like North Carolina. I thought, like I lived there for about two years and totally different area like Boon or Blowing Lock Rock, North Carolina, which is in the mountains and is awesome area, but
I really like just the state of North Carolina. And so yeah, that when Elon came up, I was at Grand Valley and had I'd lived there for maybe ten or eleven years total as an athlete and a coach, and at that point, like my coach was just like he just had it down, like every day he knew exactly what he's gonna do because he did it last year on that day and just had the whole structure down. And so they afforded us a lot of opportunity to coach.
But I kind of want to see if could I do this on my own, and what would be like if I had my own program, and so yeah, that was a good opportunity to like do my own thing a little bit but still be in North Carolina.
Okay. You know we always talk about, especially as a director, you know, with wrestling coaches, to the head of the program is like the CEO of a business. And so when you took over and stepped into that kind of CEO role at Elon, But now at Lipscom, how has how has your role evolved? I guess from stepping into it at Elon to what you're doing now in twenty two.
Yeah, I mean, I think it's one thing that's more challenging at Lipscomb is we have a men's and women's like track program. At Elon we had men's cross and then women's ross and track, so there's a few more bodies to it, but a lot of it's the same kind of thing I think of just trying to like at Lipscomb, just we have our distance coaches that kind of helped me out, and then we have our sprint
¶ Building Lipscomb Track & Field
and jumps and kind of everything else coaches and just making sure people have what they need to be successful, and then the knowledge of just kind of like what are your parameters, you know, like we don't have everything
we need. We don't have unlimited budgets. So just like I think, setting the expectation for what successes, and then just checking on people to make sure you know that they care and you're there and yeah, a lot of you know, it's like coaching the distance kids for me, but then it's like partially coaching the coaches and setting the tone and stuff. So thankfully, I think I'm in year six, you know, I think it gets a little easier that you you kind of know the structure and
what's to come. So every year for me, I think it's gotten a little bit smoother in that.
Okay, coach, you mentioned being in year six, So how did it start and how's it going?
Yeah, So so I had a little gap in there too when I was at Elon. I was there for three years and it probably bounced, you know, around a little bit a little bit much at that time. But I left. I left coaching. We were having a daughter and my wife and I and and honestly I was kind of like a little bit burnt out on coaching at the time having a daughter. A good opportunity came up to work at USA Track and Field in the
national office and a sweet job. Like I it was in my hometown of Indie, and so I could have our daughter, I get home with family and traveled like the world. So I went to almost every Diamond League meet and got to just do the professional side of the sport. So I you know, went from T two to D one to you know, working with professional athletes, and it was way more of like the one percent.
So I wasn't coaching them or doing any of that, but helping them like find a doctor for an injury, sports psychology, sports science y type stuff for helping them with like grants and financial side of things. So so it was cool I got to do like the kind of little one percent for the top athletes in the US and got to travel the world and all this stuff. But I also it was a really nice break from coaching because it made me miss the ninety nine percent
of the time with just the student athletes. And so I came to Lipscomb like really refreshed, I think, and ready to invest in the student athletes because I was able to kind of get check that like professional box and meet a lot of people and kind of do things at a high level. But yeah, so I transitioned, yeah, from USATF and yeah, it's been awesome six years. It's flown by so far.
So you kind of mentioned running the full gamut of every experience as far as D two, D one USA track and fields, and before you had mentioned that recruiting's kind of changing a little bit with the ANIL and the ability to just kind of pay kids. What do you think the advantage of being at a smaller Division one school like Lipsyn is and what do you think you know some disadvantages might be.
Yeah, I mean the biggest disadvantage I think is just like you're you're not typically like on anybody's radar to start, you know, like you're not the school that like the you know, you're at the hospital. They're putting you in the Alabama Onesie or the South Carolina. You know. It's like a lot of kids have that, Like from day one, my dad and my uncle, my mom went here, so this is where I'm going to school. So you always
are fighting that battle. But I do think once you can get a program to a national level, it definitely opens people's eyes because we get recruits now that are like, oh, I just looked up the top all the schools at NCAA's and just emailed every coach you know, and it's like you would have connected with that athlete if you didn't make it into that pool of schools. So it definitely has gotten a little bit easier as you get things to a national level because you just have a
little bit more eyes on you. But that is probably our biggest struggle always is just like fighting the battle. It's you know, the schools you see ESPN all the time, and but in that, you know, you get it in that. I think like we have also found, probably more than anything recently, that the kid the kids that are interested in Lipscomb or a place like us, like they're not
interested in the big schools and vice versa. So if we lose a kid we're in the state of Tennessee, if we lose a kid to Tennessee, like they were never coming here, they wouldn't have been a good fit when they're here. And you get a lot of kids that go to those schools just because of the football program or just because of the notoriety or on Instagram. They want to, you know, show their friends that that's where they went to school. And we've often found that
those kids just aren't good fits. And like one of the reasons that we've gotten good is because we don't have a lot of kids like that. Like, we don't have a lot of kids that came to run d one or to to look good and kind of you know, cash out once they get there. So pretty much everybody that came is like here for a reason and still desires to be good. Like none of them feel like they made it. And so yeah, I guess just on a recruiting aspect again, like we just we fight, we
fight the brand, I think a lot. But the kids we get are here for a purpose and often have a lot of desire once they get here.
And you've got a pretty I don't know if diverse is regionally, you know, geographically diverse roster, you know. I see you've got a boy and a young man and a young lady from New Jersey, but you've got some kids from California. We've got a wide range of some
people from the Midwest as well. And I, like you said, I would imagine the ladies getting twenty third and eleventh year before and having a couple of gentlemen run under four minutes has kind of helped bring in some of those individuals and get you some notoriety.
Yeah, absolutely, yeah, it helps a lot. I think any little thing along the way. It was like the first girl to bring sixteen minutes, that first got a break for the first of all American, Like, every time I feel like you can achieve something like that, at least, it's just something fun to talk to about, you know, in recruiting, and it helps. It helps a lot. But yeah,
we've we've been fortunate to have people all over. I mean, so last year when our women got eleven at a Nationals, we were probably the only school and maybe that this never even happens again, but we had seven the seven athletes on the line, we're all US athletes, no transfers, and so they're all undergrad kids that came to us from Ohio and New New Hampshire and you know whatever. So the days of that probably ever happening again are over.
But it was pretty cool to be able to do that with like kids that we recruited from high school and kind of developed over time, as opposed to kind of you know, picking off athletes out of the transfer portal, which we do now kind of because we have to. But it's a. It's a changing environment for sure.
Yeah.
And you see you got some some Aussies, some international students as well.
Yeah. Yeah those are fun. You have a good you get one one kid from somewhere, they have a good experience and they tell their friend and or you know it, their two friends are fast and looking at your school and it's a it's an awesome recruiting pipeline.
Yeah. Just being in Nashville help.
Recruiting, yes, one hundred percent. Yeah. I think if we were someplace else, I'm not sure we have the success that we have. Uh, Nashville. It was I mean it was a tool for recruiting myself to coach there. Like it's like a big little city. It's fun, there's stuff to do all over the place, but doesn't feel like you live in a major metropolitan area. It's kind of warm, or it can be warm. Yeah, it's a great place. I think, like especially kids from Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, and Illinois.
It's a it's a destination for them for sure.
And it's correct correct me if I'm wrong, but it's a it's a Christian university, yes.
Yeah, yeah, and it's a Christian school and so we have and so there's a niche kind of factor to
that too. Is that like I think that schools like Lipscum, there's only a couple you know that kind of do what we do, and the kids are probably held to a higher standard and you kind of have to want that as a part of your educational experience and and so it creates it does a we probably have access to a little higher level athlete than the typical small private school because just there's a faith aspect of like a lot of our kids, that's just what they look for as a part of their experience.
And is that something that's part of the schooling, Like is there like a weekly chapel or daily chapel?
Yep, they go to weekly chapel Tuesdays and Thursdays. They all you know, typically take a Bible class either each year each semester. And then like we the team went on a mission trip to El Salvador and Ember we
¶ Balancing Athletics & Faith at Lipscomb
did a volunteering opportunity at of school just today. And so yeah, there's a lot of ways I think that we invest in the student athletes that they're probably not going to get at other schools while maintaining you know, a high level of athletic performance too, And.
Is it do you find this to something with that aspect to the university that that almost because it narrows your focus of student athletes, it almost makes recruiting in some ways easier.
Yeah, one hundred percent. Yeah. I think from who we draw to us, it's easier because like initially we'll cast a pretty wide net and then you'll you know, you might have a phone conversation with someone and you're like, there's no chance, like you'd be successful. In the first sentence, I'm like, how do I get out of this phone call? I've had that with a couple of times, Like just I talked to some kid and it was just like
ten f bombs in the first two sentences. I'm like, dude, you know it's not gonna work, you know, for us. And it's like, again, I don't have anything against that necessarily, but it's not going to fit you know, here and so and so there's that aspect. It helps us narrow
it down a little bit. And it also, like I said, it gives us an access to a higher level pool, Like we don't always get the kids, but if it's like a strong Christian runner, that's top ten in the nation at foot locker, like they'll talk to us for a long time, and you know it might be end up we end up losing the battle to you know, one of the one of the top ten athletic schools. But we'll be in the conversation with anybody as long as that, as long as there's a faith fit all the way until the end.
Most of the time, Coach you mentioned first couple sentences of that fund conversation, you might realize, oh, this is just might not fait. Do you have any stories where you might have had a wild child or two and coming to this school help them and being on the program.
Or yeah, no doubt. Yeah, I mean and I say so, I would say we will take like selective risks too. So so as we've gotten better, you just get more kids that are interested in running and the opportunity and the coaching and stuff in Nashville, and so you know, we'll have that conversation because there's people on our team that have like you know that are they came to Lipskomb for the faith aspect like that was number one. And then we'll have some students that came to run
and just like you have student athletes. You've got athlete students and that kind of thing, and so we'll take risks, but yeah, we've got some guys that are We always try to do a really good job of explaining like what it's about. I mean, there's no no guys and girls dorms. You know, you're taking Bible classes. You know, it's there are things that I think are strict and
have made us better athletes because they're so strict. But yeah, I think it can be a shock for some and so I don't necessarily have I mean, there's still squirrely kids, Like there's still kids that do things that they're not supposed to do, and you know, they're getting caught in dorms and cars and you know, like, nowhere's perfect. Our kids are going to do silly stuff. But at Lipscomb, I think the level of craziness is pretty tame. And
and that is also the byproduct. Byproduct of that is like it has helped running performance as well.
So I want to get to the campus and be in Nashville. But you just brought something that kind of raised this question in my head. You mentioned kids are going to be kids, and they're going to do what kids are going to do coaching for so long? Does anything shock you now.
No, especially in the last few year. It's just in life. Like I mean, I've said this a lot of times, probably the last couple years. Nothing surprises me anymore. Like you did you think that there could be a global pandemic you know that shut things down? You know? Did you think like the NCAA we're going to be paying athletes?
You know, I mean just anything like recruiting stuff, recruiting stuff doesn't Like That's probably the biggest thing, is like I'm not surprised by anything, like us getting a kid. We never thought we would, a kid committing until the day before school starts, them leaving, kid leaving after you know, just like there's everything is on the table. So I am I'm not surprised by anything these days. And that might just be age, you know, you just kind of like seen it all after a while, no doubt.
Yeah, I feel you there, coach. I am thirty seven, and there's so many times in my daily where I'm like, man, I'm getting old, like just my perspective on things. It's crazy how that works.
But you brought up and I have to remember that too, Like when we take kids to like Brian Clay in California or NC State, or like they make it to Nationals. It's stuff I've done like twenty times, but they've never done that, you know. And so I have found myself recently being like, you know, reminding you yourself how cool
that is or how fun it is. Like We'll get on a plane and it'll be like, hey, this is my first plane trip ever, and you know, you kind of forget that when you've been doing it for twenty years. So I'm though, I'm not surprised by it anything. I have to always remind myself like how cool this is. And it's a different journey with every kid, you know, every year.
So Matt, not to show our age again, but this is a conversation we have with all the coaches we have on and the generation gaps and kids nowadays they don't understand. And we were talking about the recruiting and how that has changed. How has the way you communicate with your athletes change, and is there kind of a different way of how you need to approach athletes than it was ten years ago.
Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I've definitely gotten older. I feel like I've been in this. When I first started, I think I was a really good recruiter because I could I could talk just like they did and have those conversations. And then I kind of got into this weird you kind of get in this weird middle place. I don't know, if you're like just an uncle or something, and you know, you're like you're not the kid and you're not quite dad,
and you're just like in this weird zone. I think I'm almost getting closer to like being dad, you know, And I think that and I have kids now, so that helps. But probably one of the best things we hired an assistant, Grace who ran for us, and she can still speak the lingo and talk about Taylor Swift to the girls and like, you know, Nashville coffee and ice or you know, cold brew or whatever you know they do, and that's huge because I can't do that
stuff anymore. So I'll be like the closer talking about training. And typically I'm better with like the really serious ones, like the serious kids that want to talk about what does training look like? And I want to be pushed or grad students, Like if it's a grad student, I'm normally I'm the guy because they want to know, like how much does it cost? What are you going to
train me? Like? And so I think for us as a staff, you know, I think I've realized what my limitations are and I think O their staff members have probably done that. So you just try to really fill in the gaps because yeah, again, as a foty year old, it's hard to talk to a seventeen year old girl about anything in life other than the small connection that we have, which is, you know, running most of the time, and they don't even want to talk about that, you know, most of the time.
So what color are the uniforms?
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, Hey, we've gotten a kid. I've got a kid to come once one of our best runners ever at Grand Valley because she liked the color of the uniforms.
So you just happened. So it happens. What's that big said? You know you mentioned in your sixth year and you had your third consecutive a Sun championship on the women's side, you returned to nationals, you just had another gentleman break four. How has the twenty twenty four to twenty twenty five year been working out for you? Shaping up for you?
Are you?
Is everything? On track where you hoped you would be. Yeah, I think so.
Yeah. I think it was our goal to to get the ladies back to NCAA's I mean it was hard because we we finished eleventh in the first year we ever made it, so that is a pretty high bar to be set. And then we return to everybody. We end up losing our top run her who was an All American fairly late. She got a job offer and was a nurse and just kind of wanted to go do that, and so she left eligibility on the table. So that was kind of a shock for us, and
so being able to absorb that. We knew that would be tough, but I think for us just to be back was a challenge in itself, and thankfully we were able to do that get twenty third, and so on the lady's side, it's been an awesome progression that was exactly like how we envisioned the program six years ago. It's going, I think exactly how we would have wanted. And then on the guys side, we've had all we've had some really good athletes, but we still haven't been
able to kind of get over this hump. And so I think for me, that has been one of the biggest challenges is if you can get the ladies to that level, why can't you get the guys there? And the guy who is kind of broke through first? We had our first All American. We had a guy, two guys run one eight hundred and the first All Americans in this Uh, the story of the school in any sport. So the guys kind of like broke through first, but uh, and then as an individual and the ladies did it
as a team. So I think for us on the guys side, it's like we have We've had all these like good individuals along the way, but getting enough of them to be a team and breakthrough as has been
a challenge. So so it's been good. I've kind of gotten what I've wanted on the women's side, and then it's something that's left to be desired on the men's side and just trying to like I know, you had Robert Gary on that not that long ago, and I think they've done a really good job of not being there every year, but the men and women kind of
being at a similar level. And so while we've had success on the women's side on a team perspective, just in twenty twenty four, twenty twenty five, trying to get those guys to get there too and experience that.
Is it a Is it a friendly rivalry with the men and the women about that?
Yeah?
Competitive at all?
Yeah, I think it does. Yeah, especially like Team GPA and stuff, like the guys the girls for the first time ever by like point oh one, and so yeah, it's a friendly rivalry. I think the guys are kind of fed up and they're like, all right, we're ready for our turn. But then again, the guys have had a lot of individual success, Like some of our best guys have been better than our best women. It's just we put together a really strong team on the women's side.
So yeah, it's just getting you know, getting the guys to Getting the guys to feel like a team and be a team and compete as team is not easy.
Is that the X factors the cohesiveness of the men's team coming together as one?
Yeah, I think so. And then just training expectations. I think even for me, I think realizing how much you have to run and how hard you have to train. And we've had for whatever reason, just that we've had a few really talented guys in our program that are just injury prone and so I haven't been able to train them as much as they probably need to be. And so yeah, just like for me, raising my expectations of like what is weekly mileage look like and how
¶ The Evolution of College Recruiting
long the workouts need to be and what kind of volume we need we need to put in and yeah, so I think it's like a cohesiveness in training. And then on the other side, it's just recruiting too. I mean, you can't you have to have good kids, have a good team. So it's probably all the above.
Right, I guess with that being said, you know, the hot topic lately with training is the double threshold. You guys dabble in the in the world the double thresholder.
Yeah, yeah, I think everybody pretty much does to some degree. So, yeah, we typically will early on in the season, normally not more than once a week, and a lot of times we do, we like on non race weeks, so like on a Tuesday in a non race week, the guys will do two sessions. But we try to, uh, we're trying to go overboard with it. But yeah, it's definitely a way we've we've gotten better because we've kind of inched up the amount of training that we're doing with it.
Is it well received? Yeah, oh, you got a lot of guys that a lot of coaches. I should say that that the kids are kind of chomping at the bit that they want to try it.
So oh yeah, yeah, which is crazy. You know, you think it'd be the opposite way. The kids love it. They they would do double workouts four times a week if they could. And I haven't done as much on the lady's side. Honestly, the ladies, I don't think that they love it. I think we get we try to get in as much as we can in one session. But the guys they'll do it. They'll do it all day.
They love it.
Yeah, most of them can't handle it, but they love it.
Do you think that's just something we mentioned some of the guys that tend to be maybe a little injury party. Think breaking it up like that is beneficial for some of those individuals.
Yeah, that's good. Yeah, yeah for sure. And then we just do less junk mile its too, Like instead of doing a twenty minute warm up and twenty minute cool down, we might do two mile warm up, one mile cool down or one in one like we basically have taken away junk and added quality and so that's been a huge, uh change. It's just less less junk mileage and more high quality running.
Coach, before you brought up bringing back the same team that got eleventh and getting twenty third this year, was that a different in a meet or was that a difference in a season? Meaning was there stuff that went different during the season, or was it just not having a good NCAA meet.
Yeah, that's a good question, I think. Uh, I think a lot of teams got better, and so I don't know how much I want to say worse we were, but a lot of teams went out and got international athletes or Kenyans or just got older and got better. And uh. And I also don't think we ever put it together on the same day. Like I think we had probably just as good of a team, like we could have been eleventh or twelfth or something, but getting five people to kind of knock it out of the
park on one day is really hard. And we had one athlete in particular just she just had a tough season, and uh, and typically that's how it is, you know, Like we had like kind of two of our best athletes when one was on, one was off, and then and it flipped almost every meat and so you just like crossing your fingers, like, can you guys both hit them on the same day, and if they do, we
are probably eleven, twelve, thirteen something like that. So it's just so like finicky and fickle that like if you if you get to the meat, like we beat even at twenty third, we beat multiple teams that beat us all year, you know, and so yeah, it's just kind of like how do you perform on that on that day?
So what do you what do you base success for the for the season and for the team on, knowing that the variables can be so different and that it's so competitive. Obviously the lay person might look and just see numbers and think, oh, that's that's the worst season. But you might not.
You might know what.
Went into the train and what went into the personal stuff. So how do you kind of give that back to the kids, like, hey, you guys had a great year?
Yeah, yeah for sure. I mean I think like improvement over years before. So if like a kid was a hundred, it's like, could you do better than that? So I think looking at the hard numbers of it. I mean obviously in our sport, you know, okay, like where did
you place? What was your time? So you have like some feedback there, and then just trying to be realistic, like there are some programs now that are like algorithm based and they're not perfect, but they can give you a pretty good idea of like where your team is at the time. And so there's one right now that I'll look at and it, yeah, you can see kind of like as a coach, I take it with a grain of salt, but you can manage expectations a little
bit too. You know. It's like I never want to go in there and be like, hey, we're a top ten team and then they get twenty third and they feel bad. I always try to keep in mind of like where are we actually in twenty third at that point was probably an over performance from our I think we ranked twenty eight or twenty nine or something like that. And at one point this algorithm is, you know, pointing out that we're supposed to get last, you know, get
thirty first. So so yeah, I think it's like individually, how'd you do, team, how'd you do? And then like what are the real expectations like, I don't want to have conversations with kids that are not realistic and get their hopes up, So always try to be very realistic on like what do I think that they can do? If that makes sense.
So I have a crushed off that because I know I had some coaches that gassed me up for the better where they made me think I was better than I actually was, and I would that performer. But like you said, you don't want to gas them up too much because they might not even come close. So what is that middle ground? Or you strictly this is what the numbers tell me and we're sticking on that, or do you try to say, hey, if you believe it, you can achieve it type thing.
Yeah, I know that's a struggle because like last year when we did get eleventh, I would be like they got mad at me because I was like, you know, top twenty would be good. You know, I realistically thought like, Okay, that was probably the best we're going to do last year, And I remember the girls like looking at each other like like what's this guy talking about? We're going to
do better than that? And so I think it probably is the group dynamic too, Like I tend to try to be real rational with them and be like, Okay, if I think you're gonna get tenth because you've never beaten those nine athletes, then this is what your pr at whatever it is. If I think you're gonna get tenth, Like I'll probably be pretty honest with them in that regard,
but I try to play the room too. Like last year's group felt like underdogs and for me to kind of give them a low bar that was like not acceptable to them, and they went out and tried to outdo me. And then this year, if I go say, hey, we're a top ten team and we don't do it, I think this team probably would have crumpled. And so I think it's just kind of knowing your team and knowing what to tell them at what time. But it's fun as a coach. I mean, I can you're with
them so much. A lot of times. We'll go to these big meets and I'll predict. I'll be like, you're gonna run thirteen to fifty five for five K, and then they go run thirteen fifty four for five K. So it's like it's fun because you've seen them for all these years. Like as a coach, I can predict typically within a second or two of how they're going to perform, you know, if everything goes to plan, and so I don't know, as a coach, you have pretty good intuition on that stuff.
Do you still get nervous though?
Uh? Before when it matters a lot? Yeah, you know, I think I'm less nervous that when it doesn't matter. But yeah, when it like the start of the line of NCAA's or like you get to the The thing I never like is like the time from when you get to a meet and then the athlete goes like that hour two hours is horrible. I'm like, you know, fidgeting looking at stuff on your phone, especially like NCAA
outdoor track like you have. We'd go to a Eugene and we'd have one guy in the eight hundred and so you spend like thousands of dollars and you're away from your family for seven days and you know you're at this meet and uh that just that kind of like all build up for one athlete for that to hour span is terrible. So yeah, I still get you know, still get somewhat nervous on that stuff.
Yeah, I hear you it's you sick. As you get older, that kind of wanes a little bit. But yeah, when the bright lights are shine and sometimes and you've got to be able to keep a poker face because you don't want them to know that you're you got butterflies.
Yeah, you've got to exude confidence of stoicism. Yeah, yeah, no doubt. And I think we have a pretty good We've got a pretty good group that's not real nervous in general. So that helps too because they don't they don't make me nervous. It's like, hey, I've got this, you know, and that's that's a good place to be.
Yeah. So coach, we touched on the religious aspect to the school, and I believe there's a a strong nursing program at the school as well. Possibly what what are some of the academic things that you know, might coincide with the religious component that some recruits are keen in on.
Yeah, I mean you hit one right there with nursing, Like, we get a lot of kids that we have a lot of women that do nursing that aren't able or not allowed to do that at other schools, and so that's one way that we can we can get them as well allow them to do it. And so we hear that all the time that you know, coach, that I can run if I do nursing. And so we would never be a place that would sacrifice your academics for your athletics like that. So we allow of kids
to do engineering or nursing or whatever they want. But that's been big. We're the only fully accredited business school in the state and so in the state of Tennessee, and so we get a lot of kids that are that come to do undergrad business or NBA. Engineering is big, so you know for us health sciences of some sort of business engineering. That's pretty much the makeup of our whole team.
Okay, God, Jim coach, before you brought up that, I believe it was.
The cross country team had the first All Americans ever at the school. Were you guys the top dogs on campus?
I mean, I like to think so. I think we're definitely a basketball school. We made the tournament and hopefully they do it again this year. Our men's soccer team has been ranked in the top ten in the NCAA. But I think our women's team last year eleventh. I
¶ Coaching Philosophy & Long-Term Goals
think that's the you know, that's the probably the best team the school's ever had at the Division one level. I think we've been Division one for since two thousand maybe,
so it's pretty cool. I mean, we're we're also like our women's team is cross country team is the highest ranked team in any sport in our whole a Sun conference too, So you know, just being able to tell our ladies that, Like, I don't think they realize how good they are, Like they're the best team in any sport and any gender in the entire conference, our school, the city. You know, it's like they're one of the best, the best teams of any any sport in the in
Nashville and the conference, all that kind of stuff. So yeah, I think not like taunting that around, but I think that's something that we take pride in as being really good at what we do.
You brought up a couple of times not having a football team is actually a benefit to you guys, But we know that having a football team is kind of this is what we're doing on the weekends. This is what we're doing. We have home meets. What is the student life like on campus? What are kids Obviously you're in Nashville, so there's plenty to do, But what's going on on campus when kids aren't in class or running?
Yeah, that's good. Yeah, I mean I think the Nashville side helps. Like if you're in a small school like lipscumb but you're in the middle of a cornfield, I think it'd be a pretty tough place to be. But I think even for me, like having a family and stuff, I mean, Nashville is there's music. There's like, yeah, there's concerts, there's sports, there's every restaurant you know you could ever
think of, and there's f one racing there. You know, there's something like all the time, and so that's fun. And the other cool aspect I think that kids don't you get everywhere is like we always say, it's like redneck Hollywood. There's like country artists running on our track.
Our track is totally open, so you'll see tons of music artists there and comedians and like you know, there's the one guy yet our track like four days a week gang yeah and so and just people like that are all over and so it's just a different experience that our kids get to. Like those kinds of people are everywhere there, Like my so Lipscomb also has like
a k through twelve. You can go to within the same umbrella, and our kids are in there with like kid rocks, grandkids and like you know, all these country artists and stuff. So yeah, it's just a different thing. Like there's just so much like music and entertainment kind of around them that there's always something to do and
something kind of exciting. But I also think our kids live a pretty spartan lifestyle too, so especially our ladies, though there is fun stuff to do, you know, they're one of the reasons for success is like on a Friday night, you know, a lot of our grandma's and going to bed at nine pm. Because just the kind of life that they live and what their goals are. So it's a balance, like though there is a bunch of stuff to do, they're not always doing it though too.
Coach, you mentioned there being some good food. Where are you taking recruits? You got any barbecue seekerts anything like that.
Yeah, we'll do Yeah, we'll do a little bit of barbecue. There's a Mexican place that we like a lot. We had this awesome Mexican place, but it got taken over by Nashville continues to grow and so they just got got pushed out, so we found a new one that's great. But yeah, we typically we have like a Burger spot that we go to, we have a Mexican spot that we go to in the or barbecue for guys. Mostly
ladies don't seem to really like that. But yeah, there's everything, I mean everything within a couple of miles of us.
Are you guys right in the thick of it in Nashville.
Yeah, we're about three miles from downtown. So do you go up like the tallest building on campus, you can you know, see downtown. But you're also run this little neighborhood called Green Hills, So it's super nice, safe area, but not far from downtown.
Okay, cool, Well I think you you know, like I said, he lived a pretty spartan lifestyle. But I think you know, it's it's there's there's a lot of potential for for a lot of athletes, uh to be successful and kind of balance that a little bit either in the off season or maybe once in a while taking a concert of their favorite athlete or go see Urman theo in in in the comedy show.
Yeah, he's always asking if he can try out for the team, So.
You know, it's funny. He on a recent one of his recent podcasts, he mentioned the soccer team.
To see that someone like I had watched it and then most people had sent it to me. Yeah, his next door neighbor is like our our men's soccer coach, and so I think they get along pretty well. And uh yeah, he's he's around all time and then always bringing his you know, his clan. They've got a bunch of comedians and stuff that are around. So it's just fun. That's not an environment that I necessarily grew up in grew grew up in, so I enjoyed, you know, open into those people.
Very cool. Coach, I got two more for you. I don't know if Jimmy has any other ones, but first one, you know, we always like to talk to people like coach Gary and yourself that are doing things down south and the coaches at Wingate is you know, how do you how do you navigate you know, early summer camp and maybe early fall and then you know, on the back end of it going into the championship part of the track season when when it's you're dealing with some
some temperatures and some humidity, how do you how did you manage to schedule out practices and handle the Yeahshville.
And I'm dealing with the same thing and just cold right now, which I wouldn't I wouldn't have expected. But yeah, I think we we definitely ease into the fall. We go early, so our two workouts are typically at six am in their long runs in the morning in the fall. And so you have to have kids that go to sleep too, Like, if you don't have kids that sleep well, you know, it'll eat them alive and by the middle
of the season like your toast. And so I think that you have to have trust that the kids are going to get seven eight hours of sleep a night, that you can go early and beat the heat. But yeah, our first month is tough, but the top kids aren't racing. You know, we're fortunate that we can really kind of we've gotten good enough, or we can put our eggs in the big meats kind of middle to end of
the season when it's starting to cool off. But it's a grind and so just kind of doing everything we can to not like cook the kids early that they can have success later and then as it like it gets real hot again at the end of track. But a lot of times you're used to that, then we could go early. But we've had a lot of like middle distance success at the end of the season, and the kids like they love the train and the heat,
so I mean, thankfully hasn't been a big factor. We have definitely been ones that have been proponents of using like heat training and then also ice vests and like using all the sports science tools we need to get ready for heat or kind of cool off when it's hot too.
All right, was that do you think being in Wisconsin at Nationals do you think coming from from the South that had getting up in those colder conditions at the end of the season, where you guys, did you been doing some cold Yeah, getting ready for that.
Yeah, it was tough too because we we had a regional you know, eight days before in Florida, so we went, Yeah, we went to Tallahassee and then eight days later in Wisconsin and it snowed, you know, two days before I think it was so Yeah, we were a weird, weird position where we were in like shorts eight days before that and then racing in the cold. Thankfully, I didn't get as cold it was as it was supposed to.
So they handled it. They handled it fine, And honestly, a lot of our kids are from the Midwest or in places like that, so sure it wasn't a shock to them, right, And.
That's what I had. I heard you talk, I believe was with the with the athletic director talking about, you know, some some ways to maybe grow the sport or increase get some new fans. You know, you heard you're talking about maybe some dual meets and those sorts of things.
Can you maybe touch on that, you know, I, like Jimmy said, we grew up as track geeks and you know, spend many saturdays an all day track meet, and you know, I think sometimes those long drawn out things, even from a wrestling perspective, it's tough to get new fans and to create new fans. So I was wondering, you know, if you had some ideas on that.
Sort of stubject.
Yeah.
I was actually just listening to a guy yesterday. It was someone in wrestling, and it was on YouTube. As I'm like watching us, I'm falling asleep or something, but talking about duel meets, and I do think, like in a Division one right now, some of those selling out and being really big fan you know, draw us for fans, and so I do think there's a place in our
sport for that. And I also think, like I've always had a crazy idea of doing a state meet, Like I don't know why every every state doesn't have every state for the universities and colleges don't have a state meet, Like why is there not a Tennessee state meet that would be prior to you know, your conference championships, your regional championships. You know, like every high school kid would come.
You'd get so much attention if if that was the case, it doesn't allow people to get at large points, and you know, the big schools don't want to lose to the small schools. And I understand there's the politics of it, but yeah, I think there are ways, whether it's dual meets or creative ways, like a cross country state meet in college. You know, I think you would get a
lot of interest in that kind of thing. And because I do think like cross country is super exciting, like that national meet, if you have an athletic director or someone that's never been before and then you bring them there. I had that when I was at Elon. You know, our athletic director I had never been to a cross country meet probably ever, and then his first meet was the national meet, and he was like, this might be the coolest thing I've ever seen, you know, just like
it is exciting. All schools are against each other. So yeah, I don't know, I don't have like great answers to that, but I think there are definitely ways to draw people in.
Yeah, I will say we had when I was at MoMath University, they used to have a New Jersey College
¶ Nashville Life & Closing Thoughts
country Championships. Yeah, we had the junior colleges and the three, the Division three and the Division one schools running all at once. It was it was exciting.
Yeah, we had it. When I was in school in Michigan, we had that two Michigan Intercollegiates and most of the time all the schools came. It was awesome. But that, for whatever reason, that's kind of died. I don't know how many places still do that.
Yeah, coach bringing up that statement and rich saying all the divisions compete against each other. We follow a lot of Division two, a lot of anai A, a lot of D three, a lot of JUCO, and we've been seeing some anai A wrestling teams beating some good Division two teams being a smaller Division one school. Do you have any thoughts of that the more of the Marrier
will take on any division. Do you think that hurts at all if you know, you guys go against a top Division two school and they get one over on you.
Yeah, I love it. I mean, yeah, it would be I think it'd be good. It'd be a great coaching tool for me because, like you said, you know, I know you guys talked to Paul at win Gate, and I know Paul really well. He was our intern when I was at us A TF and he's an amazing job. But his team world, Yeah, they would whip our guys and so like that would be good for our guys to see an experience, and I would welcome that, you know, if you know that kind of thing. And I love
seeing that. I love seeing when he brings his team to a D one meet and then they beat ivy big schools and top schools like that's that's fun. That's how I know. Again, I'm from Grand Valley, a D two school, and and that lifts him. Like I get so much joy out of beating big schools. That's half of what makes it fun for me.
It's fun.
We got us, coach. Yeah, yeah, I appreciate that perspective. I think that's awesome. One last thing I have for you before we get in the final four. During the research of this podcast and seeing pictures of you, I'm.
Like, who does he look like? Who does he look like?
Do you ever get Ralph Ralph matchio?
As a kid? I got that all the time.
Yeah.
And my dad was like, he was into martial arts a lot and stuff, and so yeah, I got that all the time, Like karate kid, even though I can't. I couldn't. I couldn't karate chop anyone, but I have. I have done the you know, stand on one foot kick thing in my in my.
Day grain kick.
Yeah, final floor, Rich, let's do it, coach. Are you a coffee drinker.
I'm not a coffee drinker, Okay, I'm I and I've thought about this, needing the caffeine, but I am a cool, cold drink drinker. I just don't like hot drinks. I think that's that's kind of what gets it for me.
Cool I do cold bro that that's my thing. It's the easiest way to get some caffeine into my system.
And I think that if I go that route, that's that's definitely how I would have to do it.
All right, all right, coach, do you have any daily practices or rituals that you do on a regular basis to show up as the strongest version of Nick Polk?
Yeah, that's a good question. Not necessarily, Like I'm a big family person, so like I think, like obviously trying to see my kids and spend as much time with
them every day that I can. I've also kind of realized, like I'm not the most social person ever, and so I think one of the things that's worked for me is in my job, Like I love the aspects of I can be in the office with like the door closed and just kind of like working on program stuff, travel stuff, Like I need some of that time whe I'm not around anybody, and then I can also then go outside and you know, talk with the kids and
have fun and joke around and stuff. And so yeah, I think for me, like a really good day is like a couple hours where I'm not talking to anybody and then a couple a couple of hours where I'm outside with the team. And I think for me, like some of my best days are those like I got to spend some time with my family, I went for a run, I had a little bit of alone time, and then I had some time at practice.
That's a pretty good day, coach averted introvert.
Yeah, yeah, it's like, yeah, I wouldn't want to be inside all day at an office job, and I wouldn't want to be outside all day like a throws coach or you know some you know, but that like combo is perfect.
Yeah, I think we can relate right Rich definitely, coach. What are you listening to right now? Music? Podcast, audio books? Are you reading anything?
I am a big YouTube listener, so like like podcasts, I listen to weird history stuff, like a lot of world I was listening to. I'm like trying to redo a bathroom, well not on purpose, just because we had a water leak and I'm trying to I'm just really cheap and that's my d two days. So I'm just trying to do it myself. As honest, I can't. But I was just listening to some random World War two stuff and I don't know anything where I can learn a little bit. I like to try to learn something
on history or self improvement. Or lead ship or you know, any anything like that's good.
So I got a question and feel free to say, next question, what are your thoughts on the pyramids?
Oh, yeah, that's good. Yeah, they built by aliens or that's like a Joe Rogan that. I don't know. I think it's really I think it's pretty crazy to think that those were actually built. I don't I don't know how they were were built. There's a lot of theories. I don't think it was aliens. I think I'll stay on stand on that.
Do you think it was a power plant?
I don't know what they say. There's also the one now that there's giant people four bigger. Yeah, I mean it's anything. Again, I'm not I'm not shocked by anything. If there's aliens, definitely could be possible. Giant people probably possible. I'm a I'm a mild conspiracy theorist.
I think we get down with pseudo history. So we've talked to some sas squatch guys. You've talked to some pseudo historians.
So yeah, yeah, you'll find what you're looking for, you know, Like, I absolutely love it.
Do you have a coach, you have a favorite concert you've attended? Or been to while you've been to Nashville.
That's a good question, honestly, not Like I've probably saw more concerts before I got to Nashville. So basically, like when we moved to Nashville, coincided and we had two kids, and.
So we just cut out concerts.
Yeah, I mean, one, I have morning practice all the time, and two with kids finding babysitters, it ends up being expensive. So I end up going to We're going to the Circus on Sunday. So that's about the exciting that I get. But no, I mean it's been fun, like, uh like some of our favorite bands, our kids go to school with the singers kids, you know, that kind of stuff like, and so it's been cool to have that perspective of like I've seen them in a concert and now my
kids hanging out with their kids, you know. So you know, like just the Nashville kind of thing is fun in that way.
On In fact, I can't from smash Mouth has been a guest on the podcast, so oh wow, his kids are in school down there. I don't know, I'd be a little bit older, but yeah, he was.
Yeah, you run into people all the time. Yeah, I see, like I saw the singer from Creed driving down the road the other day. You know, you're like literally, you know to like, shout out to Scott's Stap. Yeah, Scott STAPs saw him driving down the street.
Shout out to Coach McGee too. He's gonna like that one. Yeah.
What a weird you know, what a what a crazy world. You know, it's like those people were real and they just got the kids off at school.
Like I am, so, were you went to country music at all before you got there? Or are you?
It's starting to grow on me a little bit. I was very anti. I was definitely just kind of rock or probably an emo punk, you know kid in high school and was pretty anti country. But I'm kind of open at this point.
Yeah, it grows on you.
Yeah, yeah, maybe it's just yeah, they getting old and maybe some of the stuff that they're talking about actually applies to my life at the right.
Definitely, which last one we got for you, it's a fun one. I'm just curious. It could be food. Maybe it's a beverage. You know, you got young kids, maybe and you're in the Nashville. Maybe you're a closet swifty. Do you have a guilty pleasure.
Oh that's a good Uh, that's a good question, man. What would it be? I don't know, Probably like ice cream or you know, I'm I have to try to prevent myself from eating sweets. But I can down have Ben and Jerry's little thing of ice cream pretty quick, so.
That that probably be it, all right, any particular flavor, just Ben and Jerry's.
Across tonight tonight dough? You ever had that?
Yes?
Absolutely, that's one at my fridgs right now. I might have after this. We'll see there you go.
We are recovering wrestlers, so we've had them all. I understand that, coach, Thank you so much for your time. I know our listeners are sick to hearing me say this, but you got two new fans, the Lipscomb Track cross Country love having this conversation. If you love getting a program like you out to the masses. Hopefully the bright people who need this episode find this and find you in the program and nothing but the best from the area, bros.
I appreciate it, guys. Thanks thanks a bunch for happing me on.
Yeah, Nick, it was an honor pleasure to chat as you get to know you and hear more about the program, and like Jimmy said, we'll be we'll be rooting for you all through the indoor and outdoor and getting excited and fired up for next cross country season. So the best of luck to you and all of the men and women of the Bison program.
Thank you, appreciate it all.
Right, y'all. Another episode air Bros Radio in the books make sure you go over to the socials gives the Lipscomb Track and Field across country team a follow If you are a student athlete and the things that you heard tonight kind of resonate with you and who you are as an individual and as an athlete. As a student, give coach a shout and see if we can get that pipeline going from the area Bros Over down to Nashville. It sounds like they've got a lot of good things
going on and it's in a cool place. You never heard who you might run into.