CTC-22 "Justin Otto - Former Henry Clay Lacrosse"

Justin jumps on the podcast with us and shares his story as a hockey and lacrosse athlete as well as how he coached Henry Clay to a state championship in Lacrosse.

- Create a culture of honesty and strong work ethic
- Pre-season prep and 1-1 meetings
- Book "Hard Hat": Jon Gordon resources: www.JonGordon.com 
- Invest in the individual and team level
- Be clear and be simple in your coaching
- 3 Controllables: Attitude, effort, and actions
- Importance of data and tracking progress. 

Transcript

spk_0:   0:00
This is the coach to coach podcast episode Number 22 Came Time. Hey, what's going on, guys? Welcome to the coach to coach podcast. We believe every kid deserves a coach that cares, and every coach deserves someone in their corner. I'm your host, Nate silly, and this podcast is sponsored by the Northern Kentucky Fellowship of Christian Athletes. There's an incredible movement among FC A. Were transforming Northern Kentucky by ministering to and through coaches, and that's one of the reasons we have. This podcast is to have some great conversations and the occasional teaching on the first and 15th of each month to help come behind you, provide great content and expose you to some of the great faithful coaches right here in our backyard and beyond. This episode we have an amazing guest. His name is Justin Auto. He's currently lives in Northern Kentucky, and he has some experience, is an athlete but also as a coach. One of his highlights was heavy opportunity to coach Henry Clay lacrosse to a state title in recent years. I really think you're gonna get a lot out of our conversation with Justin and how he personally approaches building cultured, dealing with parents, motivating kids, tracking progress, setting and vision for the future beyond athletics and being coachable himself. So I just can't wait for you to go to dive right into it. And, hey, if you haven't already done so would you please subscribe and help give some exposure to this podcast if you found it helpful if you found it valuable Police texts it to somebody you know or share on social media. All of that doesn't an incredible job of helping us get the word out on this podcast. In helping to serve more and more coaches White, let's jump right into our conversation with Coach Justin Auto. All right, guys, I'm so excited we're here with Justin on. Just how you doing today? I'm doing

spk_1:   2:08
great. I'm doing really well. Thank you so much for having me. I'm really exciting. Just love the work that you're doing. I mean, it's so important.

spk_0:   2:16
Yeah, thanks for thanks for being on. We're actually in the Metropolitan Club and the sun is coming up over the hill. It's a beautiful day. Let's hop in. Justin, could you just give our listeners a little bit of your your story? your background and how you get in tow. You get into coaching.

spk_1:   2:31
Sure. Um, well, I was It sounds like a country music song, but I was born in a house next to the railroad tracks in Newport, Kentucky. Nice. Uh, my dad was a state trooper. Him and my mom had me at the house a little unusual, but my entire life I've played sports sports have been really important. My grand parents were really active in sports. They were my great grandfather was an incredible baseball player a lot, although back there all the way, my great great great grandfather played professional football. So it was always something that was around the house. Like watching the Reds of the Bangles or growing up my dad being law enforcement. Moved OXFORD, Ohio. A. CZ. The assistant director of public safety for the university. I started playing. The game is about the great campus on. Do you know when my two sports hockey and lacrosse talking primarily when you think about like, Okay, you were born in Newport. Grew up in northern Kentucky. Your family has roots in northern Kentucky. How did you certainly hockey like why'd you what? Yeah, make any sense at all. And I, you know, I went Thio. I was in a preschool class and a guy. There's a Mac 80 and has been one of my if not closest, friends growing up. His dad was at the time head hockey coach, so everyone in the preschool size got ice skating lessons. We all went ice skating, and I loved it and went to this. My my dad took me to a game of Miami University hockey game, and during the game, the goalie was playing and he took a slap shot to the head. Oh, on ur home. That's right. We took a slap shot to the head and practice home it and the screws in the home and, like, went into his head. So he's like, knocked out on the ice. My head had to go down there carrying off on a stretcher, and I looked at my mom to Mom that

spk_0:   4:36
she looked at me and she goes, Oh, you wanna be a paramedic? That's really cool. Okay, you could be a paramedic. I No, no, I want

spk_1:   4:41
to be a goalie. I want to be an ice hockey goalie. And she was like? I don't think so. Like so there were a couple of moments where she, like, took me to the ice rink incident. Are you sure you want to be that? Are you sure you want to do this? Okay. I want to do it. And my mentality. I'm sure I'm a lot like yourself where I get hooked on something and I just practice, you know, whether it was a home or, you know, inside. If I didn't have a goal on home, it was it was a closet. And I was having my parents shoot on me like that. It was all I wanted to do. I collect hockey cards, read about it and played whenever possible. So at one point in Austria, I was playing for my age group because goalies were hard to find, right? No one really wanted to be a goalie. So I played for my age group. I played for a group ahead of me in a travel king. So it was like back to back back hockey games. It was incredible. It was awesome. I mean, I still told my parents. Thank you for doing that for driving all

spk_0:   5:36
those calls a lot of investments, and I started playing

spk_1:   5:40
and my parents moved back to Northern Kentucky for Thomas and I can't play hockey. I played for a team in Cincinnati commuting to Oxford to play for a travel team there. You know, it was just an awesome experience. I felt very lucky and got recruited with my best from Matt to play hockey at Culver Military. So Kovar is in northern Indiana. Looks like Hogwarts Castle like it's drive up on Dhe. They are known throughout the world for having really great hockey teams.

spk_0:   6:18
That kind of close toe Gary or Fissures or South Bend sounded finding

spk_1:   6:24
its way from so it's in the middle of nowhere. It's like corn fields will also see this castle in military school. It's, you know, when you save military school, it's not like I'm stealing cars in the eighth grade or something like, I was a good kid and it's a really prestigious school to get into. And they are ranked nationally for having great hockey, all sports, but at the time, really great hockey and lacrosse. I went away to school four years in high school, employed, roomed with Matt Matt, Look at me and we room together.

spk_0:   6:59
That was a big part of the deal.

spk_1:   7:00
It was awesome. Nando's known those having him there having someone that I knew there getting through because it was tough. I mean, I was 15 years old. I'm away from my family. And, uh, but Culver was It was a really great experience. And that's where start playing lacrosse. I've really got to think that us? Yeah. Uh, so I think of looking back on my athletic career there. I'm handsome, really incredible coaches. I've had some, I think, like most people coaches, that probably didn't do that shot, in my opinion, as a player. Um, but I think that was one of the most unique experiences because, uh, you know, hockey was my number one sport. That's why I went toe went there, like in lacrosse was just what a lot of the hockey I said, like, I had a my

spk_0:   8:00
fresh, similar kind of movement said, You know your way. I'll mash

spk_1:   8:03
your It's like hockey and, you know, except you're throwing a ball through the air with that and and lacrosse, you know, there's a little bit of like you. It was like a little bit of a cool factor, right? I'm from Kentucky, known place across from Kentucky. And so I'm gonna play conductor. You know, Dylan doesn't sport, so, um, but my my sophomore year, uh, we, you know, it was just not wasn't much fun to play the cross. It was fun. My freshman year and my software, it wasn't which one. Uh, and we had a new coach my freshman year. There's a guy who was the goalie coach for the hockey team and his head coach for the lacrosse team. Really? Was your guy awesome. God. And he ended up leaving after my freshman year. So we got in the coach and and I think a lot of the seniors on the team you didn't really They don't really get along with them. And it just wasn't a great it wasn't a good experience In my junior year. I was, you know, it was gonna be a one sport athlete. I was just gonna focus on hockey all the time. And there was a guy there who was one of the dean of students. That son was my ear. Uh, and he convinced, with the new coach convinced a group of my friends to play. Um, our minds were made up. We weren't gonna play. We're gonna you know, we were gonna work out, get stronger for hockey and just focus on that and on. And he convinced us a play, and I reluctantly was like, Okay, I'll play like, Okay, we'll do it, you know? Okay. And, uh, it was one of the best sports years of my life. Like just I had the most fun. And it was one of those moments where I was like, I didn't know I was gonna turn out. And you're still open, at least reluctantly but reluctantly open. And it was, you know, I look back on all the teams I've been on all the games I played that my junior year. Lacrosse is one of the best experiences I think I've ever had. You know, Ziggy, lt's a great we went. We lost one game that year. We won state championship. It was awesome. It was a really, really good experience. And then after that, I went to college, came back too. Northern Kentucky, sometimes air university for college, came back to northern Kentucky and started working, and you know you get so wrapped up in professional life and there weren't many lacrosse teams or hockey team coach um, So I followed my career around the United States and then came back to Lexington a couple years ago. I started coaching with my brother, is probably the best coach I knows. He's the assistant at Transylvania University for the lacrosse team and really involved FC A. So just awesome, awesome coach. And he er and I started coaching lacrosse with him, and we I had the opportunity to coach Henry Clay, and we want to state championship another really great experience and Costa Middle School across and travel across. And, you know, I've been very, very fortunate. Uh uh, for some of the teams I've been on some experiences, I've That's cool. Thanks a lot.

spk_0:   11:25
Thanks for sharing. Who would be you mentioned? He had kind of a couple coaches that were really, really awesome experiences. Some not so much. But he would be one of two coaches that you really felt like, man, I owe that guy. He really he really built into me. I'm so grateful that he was come to me at that

spk_1:   11:43
point, you know, I think for me, I had a couple coaches growing out through my I would say that those years of 4th 5th 6th grade, middle

spk_0:   11:55
developmental years

spk_1:   11:56
that I was very lucky. Excellent. Best coaches you could have. And by

spk_0:   12:02
best, I don't mean

spk_1:   12:03
they were knowledgeable. Like they were just really good guys. You know, I think now they always hold me account and were quick to call me, you know, whether I was focused or, um, you know, I never had a problem with effort as a player. Like I was always. But sometimes my focus will be off. Did you get bored pretty quickly on guy? Think on. They were Quick, quick toe, uh, hold me accountable. But we're just really good guys, and I think in college or in high school, the same. I mean, I had some really great coaches that, you know, I think you hear a lot of people talk about, uh and particularly with millennials, I don't wanna I don't wanna quarter middle of millennials into one group, but emotional intelligence, you know, getting to know me and making me feel like I was part of the team. And like they cared about me and made me care more about them and the team of what we're doing. So I think those are the ones that really liked. You know, I owe a lot to, you know, now on the flip side of that, there were some coaches that in my experience, I've had that were really knowledgeable and great coaches like

spk_0:   13:24
X's and O's all day.

spk_1:   13:25
Unbelievable. And I liked I don't think they were. They were bad coaches, like, I think, you know, in the moment they were. I really liked him. Um, but not great role model, you know? And I think that's where it's easy for, huh? You know, that's why I tell people all day it's You don't have to know, especially for lacrosse. Like going across in Kentucky. You don't have to play, have played lacrosse. You don't have to be the best lacrosse player you don't have toe. You need to know the rules of the game, right? Right. But you have to be. You can't. You can't be afraid to hold players accountable, but you're never gonna call someone an idiot. You're not gonna calm down. You're not gonna curse. You're not gonna You're not gonna, uh, you're not gonna belittle kids, but that doesn't mean that you can push them to be better, right? That

spk_0:   14:22
doesn't mean you still hold him accountable, and you're still accountable. You're

spk_1:   14:25
so pushing, You're still gonna get in there, girl. A little bit of there. Not if they're if they're not playing well. And because you want to bring the best out of these kids, you know, and sports, you know, sports to me is one of the greatest things. I mean, especially professionally being part of a team and on managing people, leading leading groups. I mean, it's one of best experience I've ever had.

spk_0:   14:52
One, if I remember right you have. Ah, future father in law was a pretty good coaches. Well, I know he's one of the best S

spk_1:   15:00
O. I liketo. You know, I think, uh, I'm gonna butcher the quote a little bit, but John Wooden has a quote that's like, surround yourself with really smart people

spk_0:   15:11
will be the smartest person in the room. Yeah, I

spk_1:   15:14
surrounded myself with coaches, right. I mean, that's even cooler. So I think for me, I've enforcement to be around, uh, especially with the last several years. Some really great coaches. If you look at Henry Clay's coach now, huh? And, uh, hey is just Josh Stewart. He's just a really good guy, a really great coach. But he's also just a really great guy. Great Christian, great leader for those kids. Uh, you know, my brother is also another guy that's just just one of the best lacrosse coaches. You know. He's probably the best lacrosse coach in Kentucky right now. And again, just another good guy on coach, right? So, you know, it's like, uh, Kevin Wright, whose my fiance is dead. Uh, he's back to back State champs and girls soccer Kentucky on there right now. Yeah, they were. They were in the Final Four last year. It was funny. He was like the Final Four people for a disappointing season for some people inside, you know? I mean, he and he is just, you know, if you talk about the power of positivity, he is a positive coach. I mean, he truly cares about those girls, would do anything for his team and loves his team. And that's a guy that, you know. It's like and he's just a great like a wee on Sunday. It's way we're going to church together quoting Bible scripture to me as we talk about intermingling with coaching. I mean, that's what has me, you know, Iron sharpens iron. I mean, he is He is a true coach. And then, uh uh, you know, I've been fortunate to work with some of the Lexan Christian staff, and, you know, they've They've been incredible, you know? Their strength training teams is, you know, and that's for me. My, my jury. Through my faith, I have always gone to church. I've always been, you know, growing up in northern Kentucky was ST John's United Church of Christ confirmed. There we were, my family in high school, converted to and I became Catholic. My family, team tablet Every game I felt, you know, during Mass, I felt closely God, I felt peace. But there was a point in Lexington where I wanted I wanted more. I wanted to be challenged. I wanted to be more. I wanted a person work that talked about Southland Christian Church one weekend I would do service. I was like, You know what? I'm I was driving to Mass and I was like I'm gonna go try. I'm just gonna go take a detour. Yeah, just try it. You know it. Just like I don't know why I don't. And it was like, uh, it was like, John Wiese, their passports, speaking directly to me like I was like, This is like, you know, there was a call to action. And in the next week, I just started coaching Henry Clay. And the next week we have been doing strength Training sessions are team with Coach Ray, like seeing Christian yet. And Coach Ray saw me in a church, was seen by myself, and he was like, Hey, come, come sit with us and on. And, man, I've just talked about a mentor like he is just incredible guy, great coach. He easy guy that gets it, you know, their schools so lucky and so fortunate to have him. Eddie, you're through him. My faith has just gotten so much stronger. And he ended up at a early morning, You know, he was doing early morning workout sessions for my brother. That's where he introduced me to my fiancee terror. Uh, and then later baptized, You know, I've been baptized before his baby but baptizing again. And I owe so much that it's a really good guy.

spk_0:   19:30
Came behind you, set you up with a way, and then my fiancee Sorry.

spk_1:   19:38
The most important coach I know probably wasn't assistant Lexie in Christian soccer's player. She's currently, uh, everyone was disciplined players, and I know because she's so she's getting ready to go toe to Caroline. The Curves was training camp, so I was march 1st. So coming

spk_0:   19:58
out far away months. Definitely good stuff. Thanks for sure you mentioned. Let's circle back a little bit to the well, he kind of pick. Either you're called limited military kind of days. Or Henry Clay. Both. You had a state championship as a player, and as a coach, what would be maybe one or two characteristics of those cultures that really feel like that man, that was like a really core part two. How well we did as

spk_1:   20:28
a team. Sure, I think you know the similarity between the both. They both had fairly new coaches, right? I was new to toe Henry Clay and they had had some success prior toe be getting there. But I think the culture wasn't great in the locker. You know, we really worked hard. Thio become a team, and we all worked hard. I think at Culver, the biggest difference between the two is most of kids that go cold, play sports are incredibly driven. And I'm not saying that that guy's head reclaim weren't driven. They were. They were ridiculously driven, too. But there was a difference off. When you look at the player, you look at a player over and they just look bigger because they just worked out. You know, you only have so many hours in

spk_0:   21:23
place. If if yeah, if you're gonna ship off from home and go to school for your high school years, very few days, you're on your radio roll, right? Yeah. You know, a lot less distractions. There's very few distractions. Get a coed school. It was

spk_1:   21:34
okay. You know, I could count on my hand the number of times that we watch TV, you know? I mean, at that point, So it was. And while we're really busy, you know, your military or school on then athletics. I mean, there was precious thing and I called her asleep like you. You get so jacked up about 8 15 Sleeping like your house gold,

spk_0:   21:58
your sleep till a 15. That's like man praises. And I think

spk_1:   22:05
with with Henry Clay it was a little bit more difficult. But I think for our success there we came down culture, you know, And it wasn't easy. It wasn't like we had a retreat and everyone got really excited and way want to state championship it? Waas It was a long process, and it's it's not peace piece by piece. And there were many times where it would have been during the season. Easy to give up and just say All right, it's not gonna work, you know, because the other thing that, you know, I think that it was still there, but you saw less in Culver was you know, you want parents to be involved, and I think it's important for parents to be involved. Um uh, but you didn't see it as much gold, right? You're away so that there's a different dynamic of, uh, you know, not only are with high school kids, you're you got school, you know, you've got social activities, a large part of the high school student's life on dhe. Then you've got parents, you know, in a high school. Stressful. It's not easy. I mean, you know, it's I think you look back and it's easy to put blinders on you, like high school is the best part of my life. It was really cool, is really fun. I know. But man, talk about some say you're growing. You're you know you're becoming a man. It's it's your very you could be influenced by small things. I mean, high school can be tough. And I think, you know, if I could give any advice to coaches or you're thinking about coaching high school players, it's It's I would recommend starting a season knowing what your goals are, what your visions are. And you've got to have great assistance, you know? And that's hard for I mean, a lot of time. I think you hear about, you know, I don't have time to coach s o get what you've got, right? I mean, a a line where you have 100 advocates.

spk_0:   24:14
So some of the best coaches aren't exactly knocking down your door. Yeah, exactly. You know, it's like, Well, I've got a

spk_1:   24:19
coach, this middle school lacrosse team, you know, where the assistants. How am I gonna do it? You know, right. But it's just since they're so important, because if they don't buy into your culture or what you're trying to do, um, they can derail a team pretty quickly if you're out of the same age with an assistant. So I think assistance are important. So you've got your your culture. And if you're not, if you're you know, what is culture, how you know?

spk_0:   24:44
He said he didn't do retreat. It was kind of a little bit little What were some of things? Maybe that you did Thio intentionally build? Sure, I'm a big

spk_1:   24:53
I'm a big believer, not recreating the wheel, right? Especially as a high school coach works on a full time gig. You need to try to grab as many resources. You can make it easier for yourself. So, uh, I'm a big believer of John Gordon. I think John Gordon Books and John Gordon Hey, can look him up because, uh, he writes some of the best coaching books around any coaches,

spk_0:   25:23
sometimes about 20 does is up there, right All quick read. They're all progress is exactly on. There's

spk_1:   25:30
stuff afterwards and go on the Web. You read a book, go on the website and he's got, like, you know, kind of action items. So you

spk_0:   25:37
have, like a video guides and video guy posters

spk_1:   25:40
to put the longer I'm so make it easier. So keep it simple, right? So John Gordon's a great resource. So for me, John Gordon has a book called The Heart. It's about Cornell lacrosse player. That was just the epitome of being a good leader, you know. So I had the book I bought, like 15 of those books and ahead of the guys reading, you know, before the season. Here's what. Here's what you're you know. Here's what I read this book and then we're gonna talk about so before we're even studying on the stepping on the field before we're you know, we're reading the book

spk_0:   26:17
and I'm

spk_1:   26:17
holding them accountable. Like I hate to be like, uh, t like you gotta have coarseness. But, you know, there are hard questions, but it's an easy way to see who's reading in his Yeah, okay, and, uh, and after the book, there's a couple things that pulled out of, especially on an individual level team level So for me, for the guys, it's, you know, I get so important level with high school. Could you don't complicate things. And for your own, you know, that's easy enough to come get your own life. So clarity helps everything. Exactly. So there are three things that I sense the guy's toe. This is the only three things you need to worry about. Okay, The only three things you can control, right? Your attitude, your effort. Okay. So attitude, effort, actions. That's it. That's all I need you to worry about. Control your attitude. Control your effort on control. Your actions. Okay. Uh uh. And then we sat down together and talked about as a team. So we did our We read the book. I had one on one meetings, and I can tell you that with a team of like, we were at 60. Okay, we went ourselves down toe about 40 but we started 60. That's varsity and Gabi's, but I met with every player, so I met. And it was It wasn't 1/2 hour meeting. It was I went to Starbucks for four hours, five hours and rotating. Banquet is

spk_0:   27:45
rattling off. Yeah,

spk_1:   27:46
let's Let's meet for 5 10 minutes. I just want to tell you what mine. I wanted to tell each player individually what my expectations were for the season and one of my vision. Waas for the for the year, and I wanted to get to know where they were, What type of they want to play college lacrosse, Because if they want to play college across, I want to help him play college across, going to do everything I can to make you know there's enough lacrosse programs and you can play college across if you wanna play, cause across. So do you want to play or are they there just to have fun, which is fine? I mean, supports is supposed to be fun. So are they there? Just to have a good you know,

spk_0:   28:28
my friends would be part

spk_1:   28:29
of a team that's great, too, Like I'm totally. But as a coach is better than you because of, uh, you know, if for a player that's there for fun, you know they're not gonna get jacked up over, you can burn a kid like that out pretty quickly, and a lot of those players were there for fun. Are good players. You need it. It's not like they're like, Oh, it's, you know, you're gonna ride, ride the pine for the season Just gonna be the funny guy, you know, So that for me that that was really important individual meetings on

spk_0:   28:59
And that's the That's the hardest part. You could do the book thing on your own. You're gonna put that it's

spk_1:   29:04
the time that goes into meeting each one of the kids and on. And then it's whether you have I think there's some protection with, uh, the school that you go chap with the cross. It was governed by a parent board. So really making sure the board was on the same page as well is so important because there has to be some boundaries within you. The coach has to be able to coach the team. There's gonna be, you know, that there's gonna be again. Touch what it don't get to highs on the highs to lows. With love's right, there's gonna be hills and valleys. So be prepared for that.

spk_0:   29:41
All that up front investment, I'm sure, paid off big time. Well again, it's

spk_1:   29:45
John Order. Quote the route before the fruit right Yes, that's what you build first, uh, you know, it's it's you don't win championships and for lacrosse at the end of the season, almost summer, right? You build them like and fall, right, you know? So So those were the first things. The followed things is, even if we did workouts, Coach Ray workouts where? Even if even if you're doing two a week, Uh, you're, uh you've got the guys together, you know, you've got the guys together getting better. You're you know, and, uh, again, this is a little bit more work, but you're tracking progress, so it's really important for a guy or for it. I mean, even me, that if I'm working out, I don't know when I started. I can only do three pull ups, and by the end of workouts, I can now do a I'm getting stronger, I'm getting faster. So So it's not just having the time to work out, but it's making sure the guys in the other tracking second see progress

spk_0:   30:49
encourages into like saying, Hey, I'm getting I'm getting a payoff here, another showing up just because they're actually Earth movement here. I'm not sure it's encouraging to the player. And obviously it's good for you. The coach see handed out his give.

spk_1:   31:01
Yeah, exactly. So on down on the coaching little with our assistance, we were very clear that we can you know, we can be emotional, right? We can. We can be loud. Uh, but we can't call kids down. We can't make fun of Ken's. We can't the little kids and that we can also, And this is, you know, I mean way can't go and drink with parents. You know, we can't drink in front of kids. Um, we're role models. You know, We're always, you know, it's as a coach, and I had our told players the same thing. When you play a high school sport, um, everyone's watching you all the time. You know, even the kids don't play sports. So what are you doing? You know, What's the coach doing? How does it go? Jacked. You may go to a restaurant, you know, and in the way you behave in a restaurant or at a grocery store, people are always watching. You know

spk_0:   32:01
what? That conversation with the cashier, that's whatever look like they're taking cues, and I've been realizing that sometimes I was talking with one of the NK you athletes just last night, and she said she had a teammate come up to her and say, Hey, he's a different name. Hey, hey, Jenny, like, how do you How do you always stay like, kind of joyful like me? Like, you have a great week and you know, what's up with that? She's like, Well, I'm following I know he just kind of gives you that piece that foundation wedding stuff isn't really going so well. And she was like, Huh, like, really? Like That's the difference. She's like, Yeah, I mean, if you take guy the equation, that would be totally up and down with a good weeks and bad weeks. But I know he's always there, has had that, And she was just She was so encouraged that a teammate was noticing something in her that shouldn't even feel like she was really showing off. But this other teammate was just watching her live her life. So I was making a big ripple effect is like, so cool, and that's

spk_1:   32:59
you know, when you talk about, uh, hills and valleys right, whether it's in sports because it's going to happen, you know, I mean, you're never gonna win every day. It's just not just not I want to meet that person, right? That's never lost

spk_0:   33:15
lives, he said earlier. There's too many things you can't control that go into a result of the game. T o be banking on every single topic. A lot you go out expect in the way of playing to win. But if you give all your attitudes good, all your effort, you're controlling all the actions. And sometimes they're just they're just things that you can't control it exactly, you know, And that's the wrong way. So what do you

spk_1:   33:37
do? What do you do in the end? There's things that you can't control. Its God, right? I mean, it really is. I mean, you know, I think even professionally in my life when when things are seemed like they're spinning out of control or my personal life for, you know, the thing has got me through. All of that is to think, Hey, this, You know this this game doesn't define if I'm good or bad. If I'm good or bad person, you know it's not gonna define my future. God's got me. No, you have. God's got me. You know, And there is talk about a sense of using that anxiety. When, when? When you're just so committed to God that God's got me trusting it. Why wouldn't you know what I mean? It's so funny. One. When you, you know, you're I look back in my life, I'm going through adversity or a season or a game. And unlike man, I never thought it would turn out like this. Why? Like, why would I ever down like God didn't happen? You

spk_0:   34:38
know what I really like? What? What do you mean, like like, you know, and therefore you before exactly why You know why? It's easy. It's easy

spk_1:   34:46
for me. Sometimes we look, why wouldn't you know? I can't believe that turned out ok, right? Like you guys got us, right? I mean, so I think you know, in that relationship, it has made me just better. Incredible comes because again, it's everyone's watching you. Not that that's the reason you should be doing this. But, you know, for me, it was important that, uh

spk_0:   35:10
what an opportunity, right? Yeah, you know, And you know, not

spk_1:   35:14
only are you with the cashier. Or but Is this a guy said we talked about coaches that were good coaches, but not great guys. Right? So am I good to women? Yeah. You know, my good. Gotta women die. My God and my family. Um, I got a husband, brother. You know, my good work, son. My good. My going to church. You know what? My active within my church, my i committed to my church. Or do I walked the walk or just talk the talk? I mean, it's, you know, while well, kids, our kids, right? So they get they get passes on something because their kids, But they can You'd be surprised how how easy they can smell food. Yeah, that's right. You know how easy like your servant leadership leading by example. I mean, they can see it. I mean, you know, it's easier for me to be like you need to be working out and I'm not working. Yeah, you need to eat well, but I'm gonna I'm gonna order

spk_0:   36:23
down. It doesn't know. Yeah, you know, like, you know, that's just

spk_1:   36:26
for you, Not for me, you know? I mean, that's so that's that's really important. to. So I think, uh, leading by example is huge. That's great. Well,

spk_0:   36:40
Justin, thanks so much for sharing. I just appreciate you and just your heart just how genuine you are. And you are you just that you're a positive presence if every room you walk in. And I could tell that that definitely helped you in your coaching ranks. Thanks for all your wisdom, your shared and just looking forward to seeing future either, you know, volunteered with us or future coaching opportunities. I know that the future is bright, whatever you do. And congrats again on your engagement and wedding coming up.

spk_1:   37:07
Thank you. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much for everything that you do. It's it's so important. And I think all the work that you do for these kids and these players, you know, they're gonna look back in 10 years and be like thinking this neighbors there. Yeah, you know. Thank you.

spk_0:   37:25
I appreciate that. Well, there you have it, guys. Our interview with Country Justin auto really appreciated his heart and sharing his story as well as his experience as an athlete and as a coach. So many golden nuggets in there. A couple of takeaways for me is to always make sure that we're being clear and being simple in our coaching. A lot of times we can complicate things, and especially with with younger players, it's so important to have clear set expectations and to be very simple in our coaching. One of his simple takeaways was There's really three things that they can control as a player, their attitude, their effort and their actions, and you can go into more detail. But if you really remind him over and over again, they can control their attitude. Effort, inactions. If he had all three of those firing Alice and Cylinders, Wow, that would be an incredible, incredible team, then the importance of setting the example personally as a coach. It's just how Jesus started to model. He modeled and demonstrated personally, howto live to his followers, and then he slowly taught and trained and equipped them on how to live a similar life. And then he sent them out to G O out into the game where he couldn't do it for them, and it was such a incredible thing to see him see the value of that when I thank you so much of those who have subscribed and continue to share on social media encourages. Send this out to least one person that you know. But until next time, keep growing, keep learning and keep changing lives on your team and in your home.