#82 Mike Bedosky

Ep 82 Mike Bedosky is the definition of servant leadership. A former standout offensive lineman at the University of Missouri, Mike went from the football field to the classroom, from coaching to administration, and now abou to serve as an Assistant Superintendent in Georgia. In this episode, we dive into leadership, culture, accountability, academics, multi-sport athletes, the role of parents, and why relationships still matter most in education and athletics. Mike brings a powerful perspective as a former player, coach, teacher, principal, and educational leader — and this conversation is packed with wisdom for coaches, parents, administrators, and athletes alike.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:03

That's nice. That's nice. Well, I'll go ahead and introduce you. Um, Mike Badoski, you are the principal at is it Villa Rica?

SPEAKER_00 0:13

Villarica.

SPEAKER_01 0:14

Villarica. Villarica. Yeah. Um high school in Georgia. And um that's for what, the next month or so? Until July 1, yes, sir. And then you go over to Social Circle City Schools and still in Georgia as an assistant superintendent.

SPEAKER_00 0:31

Yeah. So yeah, it'll be a change. We'll be good. I'm excited. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:36

Yeah. Give it give people a little bit of background on you. Um, I wanted to have you on. So let me back up. You you are a graduate at the of the University of Missouri. Um, you played for, you were an offensive lineman, played for the private or the the previous staff before my dad got there, before I got there. Um and uh you had a great career, man. You had a great career. You were you were consistently all big eight, um you know, all academic, and uh just reading up on you, and and you got an opportunity, kind of bounced around with a couple teams in NFL and and got your master's, got your PhD, was a was a high school football coach, um, teacher, principal, um, and now you're you're off to being an a super an assistant super, which is great, man. Congratulations.

SPEAKER_00 1:30

Thank you. I appreciate it, Gordon.

SPEAKER_01 1:32

But I I I wanted to have you on because we talked to a lot of coaches, um, high school, college, mainly, and and it this is really kind of more for high school coaches and and youth coaches and parents and players, um, just to kind of gauge where we're at. And, you know, I I think you and I both we were around football, we were playing the game. I'm a couple years younger than you, but we were playing the game back when you know just things were different. And, you know, your grades mattered, your character mattered, and not that it doesn't now, but but I started this a year ago because I wanted to keep leadership and character and all the the outside of the athletic arena the main focus. And you bring a very, very unique perspective that we haven't had on the show yet, and the playing experience, the coaching experience, the teaching experience, um, principal, um, superintendent, and and we talked briefly yesterday about you know, my big thing is is nowadays I see not everybody, but it's about 50-50. It's starting to kind of taper, taper off, is that administration um tends to not I don't know the right words, tends to just kind of take the onus off the importance of extracurricular, specifically athletics and how it can build people. And in our society, I mean, you're a father, I'm a father. I mean, we work our butts off to to teach our kids how to be accountable and disciplined and be leaders and focus on others and servants and all that kind of stuff. So um that was a long-winded intro, but thanks for coming on. And yeah, um, you know, starting out, what what made you what made you want to become a teacher and a coach initially?

SPEAKER_00 3:29

So actually, I s I swore I wouldn't do it. Um I was planning to be a vet until Genetics 202 at the University of Missouri with Dr. Cohn, and that changed my perception of being a vet pretty quickly. But what was funny is my 11th grade history teacher, Ms. Heckenberg, told me when I was in high school that Mike, when you grow up, you'll be a history teacher. I looked right at her and I said, No way, Mrs. H, they don't make enough money. But my background prior to administration was a history teacher. Um, yeah, but for me, you know, growing up, I my dad really wasn't in the picture. Mom and dad divorced, dad was in New York, mom was in Missouri with me, and mom knew I needed male influences. And so her thing was get him into athletics, get him into uh events, be involved, kind of like what you're talking about, you know, the importance of being involved. And because of that, I have phenomenal coaches, I have phenomenal teachers. And when it all boiled down to it, how could I give back was being a teacher, a coach. And then eventually I realized in administration as well.

SPEAKER_01 4:38

Have you always had, because that's that servant mindset, right? That that servant heart where, you know, we have this desire to, you know, and I think it's innate with leadership and being a leader. Um, is that something you learned growing up the way that you did? And I know you went to Jeff City High School in Missouri. Um, is that something that you were aware of that that you had um at an early age?

SPEAKER_00 5:04

I guess that's a great question. I don't know if I was aware of it, but my mom was. So my mom was always saying I was doing stuff for other people, I always think about other people, um, try to help them out. Um and it I think it, you know, as we mature, we gain wisdom. And as I did that, you know, it became more and more toward the forefront. But I always enjoyed helping and seeing people succeed, um, which kind of plays into exactly what I'm doing right now.

SPEAKER_01 5:32

It's funny because I didn't, and I didn't really learn this until I mean I went to a high school in all boys Catholic High School. I'm not Catholic, but all boys Catholic High School in Los Angeles called Loyola High School. And at the time, you know, we were in with the modern days and St. John Bosco was was awful. Um, servites, Crespys, you know, Bishop Amont. But um, the motto for Loyola High School were what is men for others. And it was kind of cool because our second semester of our senior year, we went to school for the first two weeks of the second semester. But then we were required to um we we had to uh do community service at we had to find a place where we could do community service on a daily basis, four days a week from you know, four or four or five hours a day. And then we went back at the last couple weeks and and um you know had finals, which I I don't even remember what they were. They were probably just what are you gonna do? Um but I think that really changed my mindset and my focus and and made me understand that you know, and it was something my mom saw in me too, and I didn't realize it as a young age. And then when I went to college, I mean, you know, playing at SC and then going to Iowa and being a quarterback, like everybody thinks the quarterback is the leader, and they are, but I quickly learned that being the leader offensively as the because of the position, I had to embrace that first of all, and I had a a duty to myself and to others to accept that responsibility. But you know who I leaned on the most? You know who the leaders of that team was? Both teams. I'd be the guys in front of you, I'm guessing. Yep, 100%. The offensive linemen. And and I'm not saying that because you're an offensive lineman or because I coached it. Um it just people don't think about that. But when you get when you got people like Casey Wigman and Ross Verba, and you know, uh other guys at Iowa that were great, and then at SC, um, you know, Matt Willig and Pat Harlow and Mark Tucker and all those guys, like you quickly learn as a quarterback that it's not about just taking care of them, it's about leaning into the offensive lineman.

SPEAKER_00 7:59

Um when you think about ultimate servant leadership, where else do you find it more than the offensive line, right? I mean, you're the first to be yelled at, you're the first to take the blame, and you never get any glory. None. It's it's the ultimate kind of, you know, I always told my offensive lineman when I coach him, like, there's two people watching you. It's your mom and me, and that's it. Your dad's watching where the ball's going. Like he's not even watching. It's, you know, it's that you'll burden in obscurity and then you know, hope that everything else comes out well because you do your job.

SPEAKER_01 8:30

Uh and you've continued in that leadership role, you know, it sounds like your your whole entire life since you accepted that and embraced it. What are some important things with, I mean, because you you're just not the leader of young men and young women. You're also the leader of being the principal, you're the leader of the staff community. Now being an assistant super, that leadership chain just keeps going up and up. Um, what do you think are two or three of the most important leadership qualities that you try to promote, develop, um, really focus on when it comes to helping others grow in their own leadership?

SPEAKER_00 9:14

That's a great question. I think, you know, as you work, it evolves. But I think first for me is just being transparent, having an open door. Let people know I'm human, I make mistakes, I'm gonna screw it up. And if I do, I own it, right? Um, you know, kind of like what Truman the Buck stops here, right? It does stop here. But I won't always make the right decision. I won't always make the right thing, but I'm gonna do what's best for the kids, the teachers, and the community. And I think being transparent, having the open door, and just letting them know that you're human goes a long way in order for people, you know, to respect you, uh, you know, and and honor what you're saying and know that you have their best interest. Um, it's important to delegate, which was very hard early in the career, uh, either being the head coach or you know, now moving to administration. But if you don't delegate, you you can't watch other people grow. And they may not do it exactly the way you want. Like you would do it, like I want to come in and I'm gonna do it, but I'm gonna give it to Corbin, let him do it. It may not be exactly right. But it allows them to have opportunity and seize the moment, and you learn a lot about your people real quick when you're able to delegate and let them see what they can do. Um, because that's important, because if they don't, then it it they can't grow, and you want them to grow. My my purpose is to create, I have five APs, I want all five of them to be principals one day if that's what they choose to be. So how do I model that for them? Um, and then the last one I think is you you can't fear change. You know, when I was young, I didn't like change. Like this is what we're gonna do, this is how we're gonna do it. But change is gonna come whether we like it or not. And if we don't fail, we can't improve. Right? So we chase failure, if we catch failure, we learn from it and we move on. But that change is constant, and we have to just embrace it and know that we're gonna move on with it. I think back when I was, you know, head coaching football, we didn't have a ton of talent, but we tried to do some things. We were in shotgun, we were doing zone read, we had RPO before RPO was RPO. Um were we successful? Not overly. You know, ran a 3-3-5 on defense when everybody was in a 4-4. Um, but we were looking for ways to innovate and do what was best for our kids. And of course, you look at the field today, even the NFL is sitting in, you know, that type of stuff. So you know, you just have to uh do those things, be open, be transparent, delegate, and just embrace change.

SPEAKER_01 11:50

So let me let me ask you this because you you hit you hit a a spot for me when you were talking about delegation, because when I first became a head coach, that was the hardest thing. I knew I needed to do it at the same time. Like you said, things needed, I wanted things done a certain way. And um, you know, even expressing that if I delegated something to a coach and said, hey, this is kind of the the standard, this is what I expect, this is where, you know, we're we're what we're looking at. Um I didn't really, I wasn't able to constructively um give feedback when they weren't doing it, you know, in a way that was up to par. So, so as a leader, and and I found figured that out later on, and um, you know, everybody's different, you deal with with different people, but when you do delegate, because I think a lot of high school coaches need to hear this, because I think I do think it's not necessarily an issue, but but again, you know, being in a leadership position, you like things done a certain way, call control, whatever. So, how do you approach just generally someone when you've delegated something to them and you're expecting more or different, or they've maybe don't understand the vision?

SPEAKER_00 13:15

So, you know, honestly, everything comes down to relationships. Yeah, you know, we think, excuse me, um, we think about the classroom, even if you don't have a relationship with the kids in your class, they're not gonna learn from you. They're not, you know. I always tell my teachers, I tell them they don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. And it goes back to being that transparent open door. If you don't have a relationship, then you can never approach those tough conversations. So if I've given something to one of my APs and it's not done the way I want it, I'm gonna go sit down in their office and have the conversation. But I built the relationship prior to that to them know that where I'm coming from is a place of growth. And it may be a very difficult conversation, and I might be mad as all get out, but we're gonna have it and they're gonna understand because we do have that that backstory, I guess, whatever, um, to know that, you know, this is what needs to happen, this is why it needs to happen. And here are some suggestions how to make it happen better the next time. Good. Good.

SPEAKER_01 14:22

Um, and you're you're a hundred percent right. I mean, I was I was when I got done coaching college football, I got into medical device sales, and I remember I interviewed for some pharma jobs and then got in with a spine company, and and the pharma was really funny because when it comes to that, that um, you know, sector of business, pharma's down here and medical device sales are up here, right? But I interviewed three or four times for different companies, and they all told me that I didn't have enough sales experience. And I remember I leaned heavy, I'm like, I've been coaching college football for eight years. Give me a scenario where sales is more difficult than selling a kid, a family, a coach, and a principal, an athletic director, a priest, you know, an aunt, uncle, a grandma, grandpa, a girlfriend on the next four five years of their lives. But people didn't get it. But but but my whole thing was like, listen, I'm not going out trying to sell things because I'm gonna build relationships. And then it's kind of like the culture and winning aspect, right? If you focus on the culture, wins will come. If you focus on relationships, those sales will come. Um, and that's true for everything in life, whether it's your relationship with, you know, with with the Lord or with your wife or with your kids, or you know, as an admin, as a coach, as a salesperson, um, doesn't matter. So the the change aspect that you brought up, I want to focus on that too, because um, you know, they're there, and this is becoming more prevalent, but growth mindset compared to fixed mindset. And um, my personal opinion is is it's probably about a 50-50 mix. I think there's probably more people in fixed mindsets. And as coaches and leaders, you you you you can get stuck in that fixed mindset, like we were talking about um with delegating. So how do you what do you what did you do as a coach? What are you doing as a principal? What did you do as a teacher that that really promotes a growth mindset? Because if you have that mindset, then change doesn't seem as difficult. Yeah, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_00 16:38

And I agree with that. And in the biggest thing is you have to look, you know, at what's coming down the pike, what's out there, what do you need to be aware of? I mean, in in you know, in education, it's constant change. Like my first day as a principal, I was so excited, came and had my list of things that I was gonna get done for the day. And I think I checked off two, and after that, it just went uh, you know, Hades in a hand cart. And, you know, we had to get everything sorted out, and I never really even got through that list for the rest of the week. So it kind of taught me to embrace change, but you have to look at what the trends are, what's happening, and education itself is a constant swing. I mean, I've done this 30 years now, and so I've seen stuff that we started with back in '96, '97 that's come full circle and come back again. You know, it's we have to look and see where things are happening, but also how can we best support and help our kids? So, for example, it's, it's, it may seem fixed to some, but we really push paper and pencil here at Villarica High School. Because, you know, 10, 12 years ago, it's like, hey, get a computer, right? Get in front of people, get them, get the technology, they're gonna have to use it. But we've shown that the technology does not help learning, especially if it's just programs that aren't don't have teaching behind it. Um, colleges have removed the ability for kids to take notes on computers because there's something when you put a pen to a paper that registers in your mind, right? Um, and so we've we've really stressed that for writing, for assignments, get off the computer as much as possible. The kids have reflected and we've seen growth and change, but that's old school stuff that's come back around. And so just being able to adapt and see possibilities and see where things are gonna go, and then you know, take the chance and see what happens kind of goes back to, you know, embracing failure and chasing failure. Hey, we're gonna try and see if it works. If it does, we're gonna build on it and see what happens. If it does not, let's regroup, refocus, and find what will work best for our kids, our community, and for our teachers.

SPEAKER_01 18:46

Yeah, I love that saying, chasing failure. I I mean, that's I I I've heard it before, it's been a long time, but but I think it's so important because you know, it's kind of like when I when I go out and speak and give seminars, we talk about how important failure is for growth and and um you know success. You can't have success without failing. And the analogy I always use is learning how to ride a bike. When you learned how to ride a bike, how many times did you fail? Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds. But the first time you jumped on that bike, your dad, mom may have held that seat for 10 feet and then you fell over. Second time, maybe it was eight feet, and then the next thing you know, no one's holding on, there's no training wheel. And yeah, and you may fall, but then you get up and you learn and you grow. And you, I mean, I think everybody knows how to ride a bike now.

SPEAKER_00 19:43

Yeah, I hope so.

SPEAKER_01 19:44

I hope so. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 19:45

This new generation may not, I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_01 19:47

Yeah, yeah, with all the e-bikes. Um let me at let me ask you this. Um, becoming uh a principal, uh, obviously you're you're pretty involved in all the hirings. Um as it relates to athletics and no specific program. I I don't care what program it is, but but what are some things that you look for in a potential head head coach?

SPEAKER_00 20:14

That's a good crap. That's a that's a good question. Because, you know, coaching in a lot of areas of special education takes a bad rap. Like, well, he's a coach, he can't teach, you know, he can't do this because he's a coach. And I it was funny uh when I was at a a high school many years back now, but I stepped aside from coaching at the high school so I could coach my boys who were in middle school at the time. And I made a joke with a buddy of mine. I said, you know, the first year I stepped away from coaching, I guarantee I get teacher of the year. Literally, the first year I stepped away, I was county teacher of the year. Um, because they get that bad rap. So when I look at who's gonna be a head football coach, who's gonna be a coach at all, is if they can coach, they can teach, and if they can teach, they can coach. They go hand in hand. You don't get it done in the classroom and not get it done on the field. You don't get it on the field and not in the classroom. That doesn't work, right? If I'm a good coach, I'm a good teacher. If I'm a great coach, I'm a great teacher. Those are things I look for when I'm talking and looking for people. I look for the ability to create relationships. How do you seem when we're talking? Do you have that it factor that will draw people to you that will help them become better? Do you look for ways to improve people? But the bottom line is do you get it done in the classroom? And can you bring people into your program that are going to get it done in the classroom and then get it done on the field? Because it goes hand in hand. And that's what you know, a lot of you know, a lot I'm here to coach and teach. Well you're Your coaching stipend is $4,000.

SPEAKER_01 22:03

So you're here to do it.

SPEAKER_00 22:04

Your teaching salary is $65,000. So you're not going to live on that coaching stipend. So you've got to get it done in the classroom in order to do it. And I've been very fortunate here at VR, the two head coaches we have have brought in phenomenal teachers and phenomenal people in the classroom and in the school and in the community that want the best for our kids and hold them accountable. In other places, I think it's been the same thing. I've had some that were not. But that's that's what I look for because it's important.

SPEAKER_01 22:37

Do you guys um do your head coaches struggle? Because I know on the West Coast it's gotten really bad. Um, and I always tried to get as many coaches on campus as I could, whether it was security guards, you know, specifically teachers, but if not, um how many, what would you say the percentage of the assistant coaches at VR are off-campus coaches?

SPEAKER_00 23:01

Off campus, the way we do things in Carroll County is we have clusters. Ours is the biggest cluster. We're about, as a cluster, about 6,500 students of the 16,000 in the district. So we have a couple coaches at each of the middle schools that also feed to us. But on campus, one, two, three, I'm gonna say probably 75% of our coaches are on campus. 25% might be community or lay coaches. Um that's so important, isn't it? Oh, it is. If I'm not in the building seeing you, how can I hold you accountable? Right? If I'm not seeing you how you act at lunch, then how am I gonna know what you're on the field, right? That's what I tell teachers like go to prom, go to games, see your kids in a different light because the ability to come back and say, hey, Court, man, I saw you make that throw Friday night for that touchdown. Dude, that was amazing. Well, now you're cut you so much better in my algebra class, it's not even funny. Or just seeing them dressed up as prom makes all the difference.

SPEAKER_01 24:03

So it's funny, and I've told this story numerous times before, but I'll tell you. So I interviewed for one of the before I became a head coach for the first time, interviewed for a lot of a lot of jobs and was always like second or whatever. And interviewed for this job in Arizona, and final interviewed me and another guy, went in there at nighttime, met with the principal and the AD only. A D and and I didn't know the principal, I knew the AD, good guy. Um, the principal, one of his questions was towards the end was do you see yourself as a coach first or a teacher first? And I've been asked that question, and I answered it the same and what I believed. And it was exactly what you said. You can't, I see myself as both. I there there's no separation. In order to be a great coach, you have to know how to teach. In order to be a great teacher, you have to know how to motivate, which to me is just coaching. Um, and he sat and argued with me for like five, ten minutes on that. Nope, you got to be one or the other. I don't agree. And finally, I I said, Mr. So-and-so, I said, I I respect your your opinion. I said, but this you asked me the question, and that's my answer. And I I don't feel like I need to argue about it. Well, about three hours after, two, three hours after leaving that interview, I got a call and got offered the job, and I turned it down. And I never been a head coach. Oh, yeah. I turned it down because my dad told me something in the two weeks, you know, that he was in the hospital before he passed away. He we had all these talks. I was with him every night. And at one point he said, Corby, he said, in everything, he said, it's who you work for and who you work with. And so um, let me ask you this because I think coaches also get get caught up or get kind of stumped and give the easy answer or the easy question when they are interviewing for a head job. Because you and I both know one of the very last questions that you ask in an interview is what questions do you have for us? Um what what are some important things that you personally look for when someone answers that?

SPEAKER_00 26:16

Well, first of all, that you have questions. A lot of times you feel like, oh no, I think I'm good. No, there's something you want to know. There's some burning desire. And I think, not I think, I know. It's very important that you've done your homework. Like you need to ask me something about, you know, in Georgia CC RPI scores, right? Ask me about my CCRPI scores. Ask me about my EOC testing. Ask me about previous coaches and the programs and what we've done and where is our where is the support? Who is the person I need to speak to to get things done? What future plans do we have? Um, you know, there needs to be something. Don't ask a salary question. That's for after everything's said and done. You should generally know what the salary is going to be. Um, but you need to have stuff that shows you've done research with my school, with our district, so that I know that you're vested in if you were to get the job, you'd be vested in what you want to do and how you want to do it here.

SPEAKER_01 27:19

Um that that's gonna help a lot of guys. Um from a culture standpoint, being being a principal, um, have you noticed you if if if you if your focus is on the entire school, does that normally trickle down to the athletics? Because one of the big things that I've been focused on when talking to coaches, talking to ADs in regards to to the more than the MTTS sports group, is that that shared language, right? All across all of your athletic programs. And coaches, what what's a standard for football may be a different standard than soccer, which is a different standard than track and field, which is a different standard than wrestling. And having a culture where the standards remain the same for everybody, you know, there's that cross crossover action and and conversations that coaches have now with different athletes from different sports, girls and boys, that is a shared language. And so these kids understand that, okay, this is the culture that we are. So the initial question the culture that you've created at VR as a principal, does that trickle down to your athletic coaches, their assistants, and then people share that same language?

SPEAKER_00 28:37

It does because one thing we work really hard on is the alignment, right? Alignment from all sports horizontally, but also the alignment vertically. So we have to make sure our middle schools are aligned on what we're doing in all sports. Now we need to make sure in cheer, whatever, they're aligned and feeding into us so the kids coming up know what the expectations are. Um I'm very big on processes and procedures. And I talk to the coaches, I talk to my teachers about here are your processes, here are your procedures, here are the expectations for students, for athletes, for everybody. Um, and I don't have an issue if you spend the first week just going over your processes and procedures before you start teaching class or getting them ready to be on the field. Uh the accountability piece, um, very big being visible, being seen, not just as a principal, but you as head coaches need to be visible, need to be seen, need to be out in the hallways, uh talking and recruiting kids for everything. Um and then there, you know, and this is very much me. Um discipline plays a very important role in the school setting. Um, in the in the fact that if kids don't feel safe and secure, learning cannot take place. Same thing carries over into the athletic fields, the athletic courts. Kids need to feel safe and secure, and discipline has to take place. If if they step out of line, there needs to be a reprimand of some sort for that. Because as a human race, we hate discipline, but we crave discipline.

SPEAKER_01 30:16

Crave it.

SPEAKER_00 30:16

We crave structure, we crave that that putting us into alignment and people respond to that. Um, and so if you don't have that structure and discipline on your teams, then your teams reflect down the field. And that'll be the first conversation we have. If you're not reflecting what our community is, you and I are going to sit down and have a very quick talk about how that needs to be fixed and what needs to happen, because the product we put on the field, we as a school and we as a community of Villa Rica have to be very proud of that. So, yes, that all carries down. And if not, then we're having a conversation.

SPEAKER_01 30:53

What about multi-sport athletes? Um how do you get your coach? How do you how but how do you align the coaches, the different head coaches? Because here's my experience. The the the really the two programs from a male standpoint that that when they say they they push multi sport athletes, they truly encourage it. And I know for me, I couldn't make it um, you know, uh uh what's the word I'm looking for? I couldn't I couldn't I highly encourage that everybody was a multi-sport athlete. I couldn't make it mandatory, obviously, but it was football, the head football coach and the head wrestling coach because there's such coordination between the two. Um so, but everybody and a lot of good coaches I I coached with that were head coaches at other programs at different programs within our schools, and they always said that they wanted multi-sport athletes. Everybody tried, but those other coaches, when it came down to it, they weren't pushing a six foot-7 basketball player that was 240 pounds, that had the softest hands you've ever heard to go out and play tight end for the football team and understand that he'd probably be an all-American football player.

SPEAKER_00 32:10

He had more offers there than he will in basketball because six seven in basketball is a dime a dozen.

SPEAKER_01 32:15

Right. So, how how do you get your coaches to actually follow through with it?

SPEAKER_00 32:20

And in all and I will say one thing. Our coaches are here are very good about pushing it. Where we run into it is with parents and guardians. Parents and guardians are the ones that seem to think that, you know, there's six, four, you know, 180-pound basketball players gonna go be playing at Duke. Well, unless he's draining 57 points a game, there's not gonna happen, right? And so our coaches have to work with our parents to make sure those kids are playing um the other sports. And and our baseball coach has really done a good job with that. We've pulled a few baseball players the last couple years where they've been very much kind of in that um, you know, I gotta play fallball, you know, I gotta play spring ball, summer ball. And then also the football wrestling, who, again, for us, the exact same things I always did as a footballer head wrestling coach, you know, have people going back and forth. Those guys have to be understanding during the summer months. Yeah, you may have a baseball tournament this weekend and not make our seven on seven, but you know, come here, we expect you to be here, and and be flexible. There is no perfect solution. Um, because a lot of times, you know, the the guys that are coaching have been there and played that, and that's what they did, and that's what they saw too. Uh but it's finding the right people that have that fit and just keeping the talk. I know my cousin played baseball at Wake Forest, and he's, you know, the baseball mentality is don't lift, don't lift. You don't want to get bulky. And uh his son now plays uh at North Carolina and is amazing. Um, but he uh, you know, his first thing is like, I got there and they put me in the weight room. You know, they redshirt me, put me in the weight room. I'm like, this is stupid. And he goes, all of a sudden, I'm hitting the ball 400 feet. You know, I'm throwing it at 92 as opposed to 88. He goes, it was amazing what that change was, but everybody had told him, you know, going up, you don't have to, you don't need to be ball keeping. You know, it's there is no it's just you have to keep working and keep reminding.

SPEAKER_01 34:22

No, and that's that's what we what I always you know had to deal with too was like, you know, every sport needs to be in the weight room. Well, you know, I play baseball and I don't need to get well the program for baseball weightlifting is completely different than what it is for football, is it's different than wrestling. And um you you spoke about parents, and I I briefly want to hit on that. What what are some things? Because, you know, academics, I was gonna ask you about academics, and I'll I'll combine the two with parents and academics, but how do you guys keep academics at the forefront? Um, what what do you you know do you have a parent meeting for a whole school? Do are is there is are are there emails that are sent out, or you know, there they're constant checks that are sent out to parents. How because I think that that's where it starts. I mean, there are some kids, you know, like you, that that, I mean, academically you were always at the top. Um, and I was too, but not because I liked it. I did it because I had a dad that was a head college coach that would get on my butt, and I had a mom that was constantly in my ear. Um, but like, you know, my girlfriend's son, I mean, he he's got a weighted, you know, he's just graduating, he's got his weighted GPA is like 4.5 or something. And I've seen that kid study one time at home in four years. One time. And um, so it starts at home, right? I mean, it does. So what are some things coaches can do? What you know, parents can do to really make sure they're on top of their kids' academics.

SPEAKER_00 36:08

So it's a lot easier now than it was when you and I were in school, or probably a lot of people. We we use a program called Infinite Campus um here in VR, and parents can check grades constantly, kids can check grades, everybody has it. It pushes out information when your kids are not doing well. But the biggest thing for us, we require all coaches to have a parent meeting at the beginning of the season. That's a non-negotiable. You will have a parent meeting, you'll get parents there, you will set it up, and if they're not there, you follow up with them. So they understand, you know, expectations, what has to happen. In Georgia, we're on a traditional schedule, you have to pass five of seven in order to be eligible for the second semester. Um and so, and if not, then we're talking summer school, we're talking credit repair, credit recovery to make sure you can stay eligible and on track to graduate. But having that parent communication, laying out the foundations, and talking it early. If some of some of our coaches um are able to host study halls before practice, you know, boy, basketball is a great example because you often only have one gym, so you're splitting time. Well, that's a great opportunity. Don't send them home. Don't you know keep them there. All right, guys, you know, on Tuesday, Thursday this week, we're gonna do a study hall for an hour and a half, two hours. I've talked to the math teachers, they're gonna come in and work with you on math to make sure everybody's on the right page. And I'm gonna check grades and do it because it's a smaller group. And then we also we have a four and a half week check, a nine-week check, thirteen and a half, and then of course semester grades for all um other places I've been coaches have asked for uh grade checks where I can pull them or I can send them or give them the ability to check and see where kids are so that they can make sure and they can keep on them. Or if I'm, you know, you build relationships, goes back to relationships. I see a kid in the hall, I can say, hey, why didn't you turn in your assignment? You know, I can I can I can make that too, but it's it it's again those process and procedures and reminding parents to check, you know, infinite campus, reminding kids to keep up on stuff, and knowing when that's gonna bottleneck at the end of quarters and in the semester, there's gonna be a million things due, and you gotta always remember that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:31

Going into this this new job, new position that you have as an assistant super, um what's what's your main focus gonna be?

SPEAKER_00 38:40

So it uh for me, I'm middle and high school. That's what I'll be over. I'll be sec assistant superintendent over uh secondary student achievement is my official title. Um, so I'll be working with the alignment between the middle and the high school, making sure that we're pulling on the right teachers, the right coaches, and then also uh developing leadership within the admin that's already there, and that also teacher leaders who want the eventual opportunity to move up uh to see, you know, possibly admin or a head coach or department head, whatever their dreams may be, uh, to ensure that they are having that. And then there's a there's a there's a litany of things I'm technically responsible for, like alternative school, uh the goal scholarship, um McKintie Vento kids, it it goes on and on. But those are kind of the big things the leadership aspect, the student achievement aspect, making sure we're aligned and developing those future leaders and future opportunities.

SPEAKER_01 39:46

Good. Um, last question I want to ask you. When you look back at your life and and you know, once when you got into athletics and going through high school, going through college, um, getting an opportunity at the next level, and now doing all the things that you have done so far and accomplished so far, when you look back at all that, um is there anything that that you wish that you would have done differently from, you know, um a professional standpoint that may have made your personal life a little bit better? I know that's kind of a weird question, but I but I think there's and the reason I ask is because I think a lot of coaches out there um will question the direction that they need to go in order to attain the goals that they want to attain. And the process, I mean, I know when I got into it and got done playing, um, you know, I I was a GA and then became a position coach and then went to schools. Then I chose to get out of it. And then when I went back to become a teacher and a coach at the high school level, I went and got my master's in special education. And there's a reason I did that. Um, but I look back and I and and you know, I wish I probably would have had a plan B if I was done coaching college to coach, still continue to coach high school. So that's the reason I ask.

SPEAKER_00 41:16

And that's that is a very good, because we, you know, you can always say, well, if I'd done this, if I'd done that, you know, but the thing is, and I look back at it, you know, coming out of high school, I came out of a very successful program with Coach Atkins and everything he did. I lost like from the time I started playing football, I lost three games through my senior year, from sixth fifth grade through senior year. Um, and immediately went to University of Missouri and lost nine in the the first season there. Um But uh all those things, uh that choice you made, that that turn you make, whatever, would change your whole trajectory, right? If I had gone to Iowa, which was my number two choice, we could have played together, right? But I wouldn't have met my wife, I wouldn't have my boys, and honestly, I would not be sitting in Georgia right now as a principal. I that that one choice changed that trajectory. If I had not come to Georgia, I don't know if I would have the opportunity to be a head coach as early as I did, which wins and losses was not real successful, but learning curve football-wise was tremendously. Um had to be an opportunity to be a head wrestling coach, start a program at a brand new school, and then completely rebuild another program at another school. Um, you know, those everything has a reason and a purpose and a plan, right? And and my wife Ashley tells me, no, if you want to hear God laugh, tell him your plan. Well, I tried to tell him his plan. And his plan was not my plan. And it directed me here. I mean, even to the point, like I never planned to be a principal. I never planned to go into administration. I was completely happy coaching and teaching in my classroom with my 180 kids, 150 kids, and molding them. And then I think we've all had we had that principal that we did not jihad with. And I was head coach, did not feel supported. Long story short, resign or get fired. I resigned, changed schools, had new opportunities. And then someone asked me, you know, hey, would you be interested in applying for the principal spot at a small private school? And I was like, okay, well, you know, let's look at it, let's think about it. And then I realized in my classroom, I impact that 150 to 180 kids over the course of a year. As a principal, I have the blessing to impact 1,650. Kids here at Villarica High School. As an assistant superintendent, my oversight now grows to 2,000 or more. So if I want to change trajectory and want to impact, then I have to move up and change. So going back to your question, I don't regret anything I did. I don't think if I go back, I'd change a thing. Should I have had a plan B once I got done playing with the NFL? I should have a little. Yeah, I knew I was going to teach. I knew I was going to go back and do that. Everything you do puts your trajectory on a new and different path. So again, you want to hear God laugh? You go ahead and tell him your plan because your plan's not always. But he's going to put so that you can make the biggest impact you possibly can. Like, I'll go back to your dad. Like when he came into Mizzou and we were trying to train and get ready, you know, for the NFL and stuff, he did not have to let us practice and lift and run with the team. We were done. We were not his, you know, he could have just said, you guys take a hike, go get a gym someplace, right? He did not do that. And that impacted me on how I look at things now. So by him doing that simple thing, changed my trajectory. And so you think back and you you look at all that, and you know, it aligns to whatever you're supposed to do. Every turn, everything we look, whatever it may be, puts us to the spot we're supposed to be. Love it.

SPEAKER_01 45:38

Love it. Well, Mike, I I really, really appreciate it. Um, best of luck to you and your family. Thank you. I know you're not losing you're not moving states or but you're you're moving you know far enough away where yeah, yeah. So um just hold on a sec, but again, I I really appreciate your time and your insight, and it's been extremely valuable for me and and I know others that are listening. So thanks again, brother.

SPEAKER_00 46:03

Hey man, anytime I appreciate the opportunity. Yeah, just hold on a sec. Okay.