The Lost Episodes of Coaching Character Podcast, Volume 7, with Chris Saras, High School Football Coach and Former College Quarterback

Phil: Welcome back to how soccer explains leadership. Thanks again for being a part of the conversation. I'm Phil Darke, your host, Paul Jobson. And I love bringing you great conversations with great people from the world of soccer. But this summer, we wanted to take a little break from that so that we could share with you the last episodes of the coaching character podcast, which are just some great conversations that I was able to have with my good friend, coach Greg Roeszler, also known as coach Roz with Other people in the sports world, from the world of the other football, American football. And today's episode that we get to share with you is an especially special one to me. Because it's a conversation that we were able to have with my cousin, Chris Saras chris is a former college. Quarterback. He is also a current high school.

Quarterback coach in Northwest Iowa. [00:01:00] He's also An amazing man in the world of business who has some great lessons that he's going to share with us about how we can. Coach character into the children and the young men and women that we get to work with that we have the privilege to work with as coaches. So without more for me today here's that interview from the coaching character podcast last episodes with chris Saras.

[00:01:27] Coach Roz: Welcome to coaching character. I'm Greg Roeszler, coach Roz. I got my partner in crime, Phil Darke, and it's a good morning out here in Sacramento. I am excited for a variety of, I'm always excited. We're always excited for a variety of reasons, but we get to talk to yet another football guy and I'm really excited to.

To see and hear what comes out of this. Let's kick this thing

[00:01:51] Phil: off, Phil. Yeah. You know, and this, this is also this, this, this, I thought this was actually gonna be several new things today. First of all, I thought you were gonna say that I [00:02:00]was good looking, which would've definitely been a first. And then, you know, we, we have a, we have a first today though, cuz all these other guests have been your buddies, your cronies, who really, you know, as technician,

[00:02:12] Chris: Raider

[00:02:12] Phil: nation, people that.

Bolstering solid Christians, pretty much. You're a guy that, you know, you're saying, I want them to talk, how I'm was this big time dude, back in the day and all those things that just, you know, kind of came with it. But, but today we have a guy that really he's never heard of you, you know, it's probably like most people, quite frankly, you know, but you know, I can't believe they haven't learned the legend of coach Roz, but.

It's actually a guy who not only do I love and respect this guy because he's my cousin, but I love and respect this guy because of who he is as a person who he has been as an athlete, who he is now as a coach, he also is, you know, he's, he's coming, he's coming close to 40 years old and he's still out there competing as a CrossFit guy.

He's, he's posting these [00:03:00] videos on. On social media that I don't even know what these lifts are and he's getting personal records as them. And this is a guy who was a college athlete. So at, you know, 30 something years old at 37 36, whatever he is, he's old, you know, and he's still doing this stuff. So this guy is a dude that, you know, he's just not just talking about it, he's doing it.

And so we get to talk to him about some of the cool stuff that he's been able to do over the course of his life as well. The lessons he's learned and what he's continuing to learn in coaching and what he can teach us from all of those lessons.

[00:03:34] Coach Roz: Well, I want you to introduce me next time you, so who are we talking to?

[00:03:38] Phil: Yeah, I, I get a introduce him, kick him off. I get, I get a, I get a kick out of, you know, Kick being that's very little in, in football, ironically, American football, but kick actually happens a lot in the real football. So, you know, again, things that we can, we can talk about why, what makes sense, things like that, logic, all that, [00:04:00] whatever.

We'll talk about that later. But I, I actually, as you know, Greg. I mean, let's, let's be honest. I love when our guests are able to just really share their story. And so I gave a little bit of a little bit of a nugget of, of who this guy is, but, but Chris, first of all, welcome.

[00:04:16] Chris: I appreciate you guys having me on this is

[00:04:18] Phil: good.

Yeah. You know, sorry for the banter here, you know, it's just, we can't help it. We're just

[00:04:23] Coach Roz: join in the banter, Chris.

[00:04:24] Phil: Yeah, you might. Yes. You might careful what you wish for . Yeah. Well, one of the things that I did neglect to mention is the fact that, you know, speaking of American football, there was this game back in probably early nineties.

It was called bill wash B bill Walsh, college football. Some of you may. So Chris was probably in his video game prime and his cousin would come back to col from college and, and just hang out with him and say, what do you wanna do? He'd go. I wanna play this college football bill Walsh. I was like, all right.

So I picked the Colorado buffalos with Dar and [00:05:00] Hagen and Eric BI enemy and their option offense. And let's just say that you. The, the guy who really didn't play video games kept beating this 12 year old kid in his prime who got very, very frustrated. So, but you know, that was just, that's one of the lessons that he was able to learn as a child that probably have built into him now and able to really speak when his kids go through real issues in their life, he can actually speak to them based on probably those losses that he incurred as a, as a child.

Chris Sarahs. And I did neglect to say that, you know, and it is, there's all kinds of funny stories. We're not gonna, we're not gonna get on all these things, but Chris Sarahs, you know, with that, I know it's really hard to, to one up that introduction that I was able to give you Chris, but can you just take a shot at it and just share your story with our audience and, and just let 'em know who you are really, and you know why you're excited to be on the coaching character podcast.

[00:05:55] Chris: Absolutely. Yeah. First of all, I'm the much, much [00:06:00] younger cousin to Phil, dark and much better looking. I mean, coach can agree with that. So, but yeah, I would say I still haven't learned the lesson of how to play a defense. Both Jackson on bill Walsh, college football could only get me so many points.

I, he, he couldn't play defense. So. That's where Phil. Phil got me with Colorado, but yeah, my name's Chris Sarahs. I'm 37. You were close Phil follower of Jesus Christ, married to Ashley. My wife of 12 years. We have three boys cash nine, Nixon seven and Oakly three, or actually he just turned four. So, yeah, moved out from California in 2008 live.

Played college football. I played in California at the university of Redlands after starting a small stint after high school at UC Davis and Yuba junior college finished up there at university of Redlands and met my wife after college. We [00:07:00] moved out to Iowa. I'm a financial advisor by trade, and I also am a partial owner of CrossFit.

Lamars in Lamars Iowa and I coach high school football at the varsity level. I help out with offensive. The passing game and coaching quarterbacks. So we have a lot of balls in the air juggling and a lot of them are the, the real oblong football not the, the round one.

[00:07:24] Coach Roz: Well, great to meet you. Chris and we got so many things to talk about and, and, and and just my gosh where character falls into all of this and so much that we can learn and a new connection of some things that we may be able to talk about that we're able to do together. And you'll Chris, you'll be, you'll be pleased to know that Phil is sitting across from me.

He's got his little Manchester United. I'm a fan starter cup. So he's so he's all, whatever Manchester United is. I don't know. So he's really excited about that. [00:08:00] And and Phil, there's just so much that you're gonna learn this morning so much that you're gonna learn. First of all, football quarterback, coach, I can't wait.

So

[00:08:10] Phil: let's get going. I'm exci I'm always excited of what I can learn from any sport, really. And so, you know, and you know, again, we're not gonna get into all my vast, vast experience in the, in the sport of American football, but because it's not about me today at. It's all about Chris Harriss. So, Chris, you know, really, as you talked about you had, you played football growing up, you played pop Warner, you played high school here in, in Northern California as well.

Delora some of you listening may be aware of Del and the storied program. It has And, you know, you've played for a lot of coaches in, in college as well. And you've coached with a lot of coaches, but really who was the best coach that you played for? And what puts him at the top, the

[00:08:53] Chris: top of the list?

That's a great question. I, I did some digging and I I've gleaned a lot from a lot of the different [00:09:00] coaches that I've had. The best coach I've played for, I would have to say is the late John Fletcher he passed away 2018. He he just had an incredible track record as a, a football coach and success. And he led Del Oro high school to several section titles in Northern California. What made him the best wasn't necessarily something that I enjoyed playing for him the most, it was what he pulled out of me that that made the difference.

And couple things that I thought about was he demanded your best effort. You were, you were required to give your best effort if you wanted to see the field. He taught me that you're not entitled to anything that you know, just my generation entitlement is a big issue. And so being able to overcome the fact that I'm not, I'm not given anything, I have to earn it.

He preached team above individuals. And so we functioned well as a team because we didn't have a bunch of hotshot individuals that made things about the. Another thing is execution and attention to detail that we would run plays over and over again in [00:10:00] practice to, to aspire to perfection. So that come game time, it was easy.

And so practices were very demanding and there they weren't necessarily easy at all. But it was fun to see the fruit that came about when we actually bought into. What he was preaching every day. And that uh, yeah. Caring about your, your individual teammates and. Trying to pull everybody up together.

I learned a lot from coach Fletcher. I also learned conflict resolution from coach Fletcher. We had a guy come in from a arrival school. My senior year I had come in. I was looking to be the, the guy, the starting quarterback. I had sat behind actually, Randy Hassani's younger brother, Rocky, Randy, played at Stanford was the top quarterback recruit in the nation in 99.

And. I played behind his younger brother. And so, the year before my JV year, our football team went undefeated. And so we had a lot of talent coming up and I was like, this is my senior year. We're gonna have a great year. And this is my job. Well, we [00:11:00] had a guy come in and coach, you know, we, we broke down, you know, completions in practice to that extent as far as who was gonna be playing.

And so I had to overcome a lot of adversity and I even had the the had the opportunity to go in and talk to coach about Want wanting to fight for my job and to, to fight for being the leader of the team. And so he made me go way outta my comfort zone. But it's helped me a ton in life.

And as a, as a parent and as a coach and as a, an employee and an employer life lessons that you, you can't learn by reading a book.

[00:11:34] Coach Roz: Chris, first of all, that great, great start. If I can drill into the question about your senior year, you thought you were gonna be the guy, and it turns out that, that there was somebody else that all of a sudden materialized question, was there ever a thought in your head of transferring and going to another school because of your situ.

[00:11:59] Chris: Very good [00:12:00] question. And that's a, a very popular move today in college football, as you're watching that, Hey, I don't, I don't get my way, so I'm gonna go where they're gonna give me my way. And that didn't, that wasn't an option. I know that I knew that the, I had a loyalty to my teammates, to my coaches to the program to the community that I was gonna see it through.

It was a matter of, Hey, I, I need to. I need to raise the bar. I need to get better. I need to make it not about me. And. It was hard, you know, being a high school kid, it's all about you and the maturity level. I had to mature in areas that I, that I didn't want to, it was uncomfortable, but no, I never considered transferring schools to, to leave.

I was too attached to my team and, and what, what the vision of the team was was, was going towards. Well,

[00:12:51] Coach Roz: and I think in today's climate and I'm making a generalization particularly with open boundaries. I don't know if, if you deal with that out where you are, [00:13:00] but when the going gets tough, just find another school where you, where you slot in more easily.

And that's so common today. And, and I, and I just, you know, I know I'm old, I'm old school. It's just wrong. I ju I just have to believe that the lessons you learned by staying there. Far have out exceeded and, and, and carry over to today that you don't pull the rip

[00:13:26] Chris: cord. Yeah, we dealt with that actually last year, my first year of coaching here, we actually had an end of season coup attempt on our coaching staff to try to get him ousted.

Our head coach grant Hegsted is a phenomenal high character, man. We even got accused of preaching too much charact. Not enough Xs and OS, which I've never heard before. May and you, all of our coaching staff has collegiate football experience grant got, looks in the NFL as a linebacker at Northwestern college here in Northwest Iowa.

So yeah, we had. Two sets of parents take their kids [00:14:00] out to arrival school. They had a great year football wise this year. We, we, we didn't have any wins this year. We could have definitely used their, their talent, but from the parents down to the kids, it was a cancer on our team and it hurt our team quite a bit.

And so I, I definitely disagree with the idea of, Hey, when things are tough, we're gonna bolt and go to an area where I don't have to deal with life's advers.

[00:14:24] Coach Roz: And, and where, where I see this prevalent is it is even beginning at the youth level where parents are positioning their kids in the right youth program to make sure that they're feeding the right high school.

And if their kids aren't playing or getting the result they're looking for at the youth level. Now we move our kid to another youth program. So I believe it starts. At a very young age at a very grassroots level.

[00:14:53] Chris: Yeah, absolutely. The, the, the parents set the stage, they set the tone for the kids. And so it needs to [00:15:00] start at the parent level to.

To instill in their kids that no, you're, you need to go through these life lessons. You need to stick through these, you know, less than stellar situations because of the lessons you're gonna take away from that. Sure. And how you can, how you can be a part of the solution instead of the problem. Right.

[00:15:20] Coach Roz: And Phil, we know that translates to sports.

[00:15:22] Chris: Far beyond football. Yeah. It's it's every single sport. Right. Just

[00:15:25] Coach Roz: go to camp basketball to camp soccer, camp, whatever

[00:15:28] Chris: today.

[00:15:29] Phil: So literally everything, literally every sport. And like you said, Chris, it does start from the, the parents. But I wanna just jump back to your coach at Del Loro. So, you know, As you said, these are lessons that you learned, that, that you still go back to today.

And I think this is what we, we often don't think about when we're coaching. We think about the moment we think about the, the here and now we think about the wins and losses we think about you know, the, the short term really. Right. But what we often don't think about is that long term [00:16:00]is as we talk, you know, this is obviously the coaching character podcast.

So we, I don't believe you can teach too much character because of this, because if we're looking at the long term game it's, it's the only thing that matters quite frankly, but. When you look at this, what, what are one or two lessons like specifically that he instilled in you while you were playing that you still use today?

Whether it's in your work or your home or just in your friendships today?

[00:16:25] Chris: I would say the biggest lesson is that the entitlement, you can't, you're not entitled to any outcome just because you show up. You need to put in the work you need to push through the difficult times in order to experience the, the fruit of, of your labor.

And that there's no shortcuts. It's a grind oftentimes in life, whether it's in sports or in life that you're gonna be pushing and pushing and pushing. And you're gonna feel like you're [00:17:00] not making any progress, but there's at no point, do you. He didn't allow us to quit. And so I would say, yeah, just what it takes to, to be champions.

We were the, the SFL champions of Sierra Foothill league champions. And we went on to the section title and lost in a, in a really difficult weather circumstance game. But we made it to the top and it, it required, you know, We hard work, determination pushing through the really nasty times because that's what it re it requires to, to, to be successful.

[00:17:38] Phil: And how are you using that? Like, obviously we fully agree with that, but I, in your parenting, for instance, or in, in your work, how has. Come through, like, as I said, just kind of a specific example that, cause I just wanna, I want people to understand, like these aren't just words that this is actually, so we can be thinking more about the specifics in our [00:18:00] life to say, where can we implement these lessons in our lives?

That aren't just sports lessons, right? These are lessons that are, that are literally gonna be used. Or can be used in every aspect

[00:18:12] Coach Roz: coach. Okay. In other words, a coach Fletcher life lesson. Yeah.

[00:18:15] Chris: That,

[00:18:15] Phil: that you use, like with your kids, with your three boys and I I've seen you use some of 'em, so I know it's not just making it up.

Right. But, but what, what are, were some things that you actually like can think about that was coach Fletcher coming out in me?

[00:18:29] Chris: Yeah. Well, I would say my oldest son cash he's a real competitive player in sports and. Wrestling was one, I'd never wrestled growing up, but he's doing wrestling and he, he wasn't, he didn't see the success of it as far as in a competition.

So he, he, first year he went out, he, he went to his first meet and there were kids just as big as him. So he thought, oh, I'm bigger than everybody else. So I'm gonna dominate. Well, these kids were if, every bit as big as him and he, he had a tough [00:19:00] time. He got whoop. Because he didn't have the technique down.

And at the end he was crying and frustrated. And so we had to talk about it and said, Hey, this is how you get better. You learn from this and how you get better. And so this year we had a conversation. So my life lesson was, you know, he wanted to not go out for, for wrestling because of his, his past experience of going through difficult stuff.

So I said, you know, cash, this is how you get better. And it's gonna actually translate to helping. In the sport of football, you want to be a tight end or a D lineman. These are gonna translate well to those things, but you have to go through the difficult stuff in order to thrive in that, that sport that you really wanna be in.

And that's that's football.

[00:19:45] Coach Roz: Chris. We were, we, we were talking about both high school and youth football. I'm, I'm gonna put you on the spot here for a minute, cuz we didn't rehearse these questions. Be a high school coach for just a second. And you are at a [00:20:00] coaching clinic with Phil and I, and Phil and I are youth coaches.

Can you give us one or two things that as a high school coach, you would like. Us to be implementing into our program. That's going to make them successful and make them easier to coach when they get to you. Tell, tell me, coach, tell us what you want from us.

[00:20:27] Chris: Hmm. That's a good, good question. I would say One or two takeaways

that the attitude of your kids and their effort are, are gonna be the, the premier things that you're gonna wanna look for. I, I don't, you could take a, a kid that's less talented and we we've seen it. The last couple of years, we've seen very talented kids that. Put in the work they don't put in the effort.

And it's frustrating because you, you go, if you, if you can marry attitude and effort with that God-given talent that you [00:21:00] have, you would be a stellar all conference player. And so it, talent is not re a re prerequisite for your attitude and effort, you know? So it's a matter of if we can. You to focus in on your attitude and effort of your kids.

Those with talent are gonna are gonna really shine. And those that maybe don't have the talent are gonna be playing at a level that you didn't expect out of them. We had, we discovered a, our, one of our best linebackers based off of his attitude and effort. When we didn't see the talent on the service coming into the season and he became our key contributor on defense.

[00:21:38] Coach Roz: So, okay. So we're, we're staying at the clinic here for just a minute, coach Chris. First of all, you didn't tell me that the most important thing was that we have to be able to run buck sweep. Well, by the time we get to, to your level attitude and effort, I'm a youth coach coach. Can I get better at teaching and [00:22:00] coaching attitude?

And. Or is it an intangible that, that I, that I've got no control of at the youth level?

[00:22:08] Chris: Kids want to know that they're valued and, and their identity is not found in their performance. And so pulling a kid aside that maybe you see that they're not playing up to their ability and saying, Hey, here's what I see in you.

Here's the positive traits. Here's what. Here's the great things as well about you as a person and what you bring to the team and get them to buy in and have a belief in them that they are actually making a difference. And that we, we see that there's more in them that they maybe don't see themselves, but we're gonna try to pull that up in them by, by building them up and affirming them as a young man, because half the, these kids are trying to find identity.

If you preach your identity is based off of the Xs and OS and the stats sheet you're gonna, you're going do 'em a disservice. And so when you preach character into them and you [00:23:00] preach about their identity, and for me, my identity it's found in what the scriptures say, what the Bible says about me was true about me, not about how I perform.

Or other people's opinion, that's something I've took from athletes in action in, in college. And so your performance is gonna go up and down, just look at professional athletes, you know, your worth is not tied into your your performance. And so when we help those kids know on a one-on-one basis that, Hey, coach, Saras says that they believe in me that I have leadership skills, that I have a competitiveness that.

When I give my best, it comes out and that my teammates need me to, for our team to succeed. That's where I, I see a change in kids. So as,

[00:23:47] Coach Roz: as, as we're on a mission to trying to help youth coaches at, at the, at the lowest level, at the youngest level, excuse me coaching attitude and effort. [00:24:00] Is far more valuable to you, the high school coach than maybe how far they're coming along with a particular skill or a particular position.

That just seems, first of all, I love it because that's all character. It's just a new paradigm for coaches that that may not be as prepared. Chris stay at the youth level or, or even go to the high school level. If you're asking a coach to get better at coaching attitude and effort that goes beyond just hollering at them.

Try harder.

[00:24:34] Phil: Right? It also goes beyond the, if you go pick up a book at Barnes and noble, if they still exist anymore, by the time this airs a and or on Amazon that says coaching. You're gonna pick that up and it's gonna say, here's the plays, here's the Xs and OS here's the positions. Here's the, the, the structure of how you would put together a practice.

And, and it would very likely [00:25:00] not include the things that you're talking about there. Those would be in leadership books. Those would be in, as you said about the scripture, those would be in understanding a humble posture, a learning posture to be understanding that my attitude is really, really important.

And. And effort is really, really important. So I, I absolutely agree with what you just said Roz there and, and everything that you're talking about here, Chris and UN, unfortunately it's not the norm. Right. And I, I want to go back. You alluded to it early on the last few years that you've had, or last couple years of coaching football have, it's been kind of a roller coaster for you.

Right. You know, and, and And I know that you talked a little bit about the lessons that you learned through that, but any other, you know, first of all, I wanna go to the other side of it. What, what have you enjoyed most about coaching football? And, and then we can go on from there, but what, what have you enjoyed most about it?

[00:26:00] What has been the things that just brought you that joy? As you said, you had. From, you know, what most people probably look into your program. Most people probably look in and think you had a complete disaster train wreck year, but when you look back at it, what did you enjoy most out of that? Oh, in whatever year.

[00:26:19] Chris: Yeah, absolutely. I think it's the one-on-one individual relationships with the kids and the coaching staff, our coaching staff. I, I couldn't pick a more cohesive unified group of men that have their vision set in the right direction. High character guys godly. Christian men. That character is of the utmost importance that we're preaching.

And so I would say what I've enjoyed is getting to, getting to know the individual kids some of the quarterbacks on our team. It's really fun to go. Hey, I'm I'm. I'm a lifelong learner. I like to, to learn and I love to teach and to, to instill what wisdom that I've learned along the way into kids.

I like to [00:27:00] think out loud, I like to, to share my life lessons. And so when I talk to these kids and I share them with them and I have practices, it's really fun to be affirmed by their parents and say, oh man, our, our son just really enjoys having you as a coach. And sometimes it comes as surprise.

Other times it, it comes as you know, I I get it because we get along well. You'll get kids coming up and shaking your hand and saying, you know, thank you same with parents and say, and parents, you know, coming to your defense saying, Hey, we, we know this is not easy. We appreciate you guys. And we want you to keep doing it the way you're doing it.

And so the big takeaway from this last year going, you know, if you take any normal program, In any professional sport or at any level, what do they judge it by? Wins and losses. Right? And so we've had to clearly redefine what a win is. If you don't have wins and loss, if you have, you don't have anything in the win column, you have to redefine [00:28:00] what a win is.

And so our coaching staff, it's not been easy, but our coaching staff is we are going to double down on. Building character into these kids because when we, when we get kids to actually buy in the best effort, attitude and passion is gonna come out of them, the good stuff is gonna be the fruit. From that it doesn't come the other way around.

You know, you can have an immensely talented team that don't function well together. They're at each other's throats and there's not, you know, they might have more win. But for what, what did they take away from that year? That they're probably gonna walk away and say, Hey, we didn't have enough wins. It was a, it was a failed.

That's the only thing they take away from it. So what we're trying to do is as our head coach has instilled into our team, we have a, a mission statement that really encapsulates. What that is. And it's building men who courageously attack [00:29:00] life with toughness, excellence and gratitude. So building men who courageously attack life with toughness, excellence and gratitude, it doesn't say anything about performance.

Doesn't say anything about wins and losses there. And we have three team rules, always protect the team team above all. I think we stole this maybe from. Urban Meyer, but no BCD, no blaming complaining and defending, and then be early. And so those, those are life lessons that you can use in any format of life as a employee employer.

As a, as a husband as a son, as a brother, you know, you can use that in any area of life and it translates well. And so we, we have, we had to redefine what a win is, and it was hard for me because I've always been a part of winning teams. I've always either 500 or above or champions. And so going to a team that for two years, we've had one.

That's not been it it's not been [00:30:00] easy.

[00:30:01] Coach Roz: Chris, I, I coach in places where a win is very a, a win on the scoreboard is very, very rare. We're real familiar with the running clock but, but literally. We have at times defined a win as a first down. If we can, if we can get a first down guys, we're excited about that.

I mean that, that's how broken down us defining a win on the field is we also define a win as. As nobody quits the team early, you know, when, when you're a team that doesn't win a game the thing that I dread, one of the things I dread the most is basketball season beginning, because it usually starts about three weeks before football's over.

And all of a sudden the 30 year team just quit or was injured so that they can get an early start on basketball practice. I don't know if you've ever experienced that, but but nobody quits. All of us are eligible. I mean, those are some of the [00:31:00] noncore board wins that that have been important for us.

I wanna back up just a minute, you have a team mission statement now. That's, mm-hmm, , that's that's music to my heart. I'm assuming that your parents know your team mission statement, is that, is that

[00:31:16] Chris: accurate? It is accurate.

[00:31:19] Coach Roz: And, and then as the going gets tough. Is that is referring a parent, a disgruntled player or a disgruntled parent is referring them back to that mission statement ever useful throughout the season when playing time and, and things come up that you've got parent problems.

[00:31:42] Chris: Yeah, that's a great point. I unfortunately coach Hegsted our head coach has to deal mostly with the parents, but when it comes to a disgruntled. Kid. We preach it every day in practice. And we, we not only do we preach it when things are challenging, but we [00:32:00] also call out the positive examples of kids who are exemplifying these different traits so that we get buy in from the kids that, Hey, these things matter, these things make a difference and we see it.

Do you

[00:32:11] Coach Roz: have a, do you have a youth program underneath your high school program? We do. Yes. Okay. So, so then next question is, does the mission statement translate into the youth program as well?

[00:32:25] Chris: Yeah, and then the good news is one of our one of our, our defensive coordinator helps out at the eighth grade level and the seventh grade level.

And, and so we also incorporate the middle school coaches into our meetings, so that we're all trying to create the, you know, unified mission in that, in that area. Excellent.

[00:32:43] Phil: Yeah. The one thing about the mission statement, and we're gonna have to wrap it up here in a minute. We, we gotta bring you back on sometime, because these are two

[00:32:49] Coach Roz: quarterbacks.

We'll wrap it up when he and I are

[00:32:51] Chris: done,

[00:32:51] Phil: I'm wrap it up. I'm just gonna tell you that our, our producer right now is, is written the, the length of our show several times on the board, which tells me that we're [00:33:00] probably getting to that time where we need to be wrapping

[00:33:02] Coach Roz: it up. And both of us are afraid of

[00:33:03] Chris: Katie anyway.

So yeah, I know

[00:33:05] Phil: exactly. Which just popped that recording next time. But you know, I, I do wanna say the one thing. I love about, well, I love a lot of things about the fact that you have a mission statement and then what the mission statement says, but that it says in life, right? It doesn't say on the football field, it doesn't say in the locker room, it doesn't say when you're on this team, it looks well beyond and it goes to everything else you've been saying today.

It goes well beyond that team. And I. I think it's, it really is a great place to wrap it up. I mean, we've talked about this before and I just wanna hear your thoughts on it here. Do you believe that? Do you, I mean, do you believe that it, the impact a coach can have on the lives of his or her players can be neutral?

[00:33:49] Chris: I don't it's, it's either positive or negative or you're pushing them towards things that are going to help them in life or they're, they're gonna be going, you know, the opposite direction. It's almost like climbing a [00:34:00] grease pole. You have to fight to instill these things because culture is pull constantly pulling you in the opposite direction.

[00:34:08] Phil: Yeah, no, I, I think that that is something, I think you said culture too. I think the culture of a team is. It's gonna be positive or negative for that team. And I think for their future, Chris, as,

[00:34:21] Coach Roz: as, as we do wrap up first of all what a pleasure to meet you. And, and I think we just have a starting point here with with this area of character, you guys are well ahead of the curve.

Mm-hmm , but just how we can stay in dialogue and more things about how do we get involved with the youth program and assisting the youth coaches, because. We, we believe that that coaches. Across the country are pastors of a congregation called a team. And that could be anywhere from, from 10 to a hundred.

So just imagine these pastors with these [00:35:00] congregations that are. That that just need the right information to deliver to the kids on a character basis. And again, you guys are ahead of the curve, but so many of them are unprepared to deliver character to their congregation. And we just know there's a lot of room for growth.

And information in, in getting them information and encouraging them to do that. So that'll be our, our next place pickup spot. And I'm excited that you took the time and, and that you're part of the Playmaker team. And we can't wait to for this COVID thing to end so we can get out and and spend some time with you.

[00:35:41] Phil: Absolutely, absolutely. I'm so bummed. Cause we had several other questions to get to, but if you wouldn't have.

[00:35:46] Chris: 14 minutes to introduce him.

[00:35:49] Phil: I know, but you know what I, I am, I'm very proud of you. I mean, as we called you growing up little Chris, and now you're, you're much, much bigger than me, and I'm just [00:36:00]proud that, that you're, you're part of my family.

I'm proud of the man you've become. And I. Even prouder after this interview. So I'm, I'm very excited that we were able to get you on. I'm excited for what you're doing. And that what your program is doing, man. I mean, it's just so cool to see the focus when it's, it would be so easy to just sell out to the.

To the wins and losses and, and do what you gotta do to do that. But no, you're like, Nope, we're gonna double down as you said. And so thanks for being a part of this man. And and we'll, like I said, we'll definitely have to, to get you back on or share some other things and just some tips and, and resources that you have for us.

So thanks a lot,

[00:36:39] Chris: man. Absolutely fellas. I really appreciate the opportunity coach. It was a pleasure meeting you. Phil, I've looked up to you, obviously you're like an older brother to me and the character and the, the, the, the path you've the trail you've blazed has made it easy to follow in your steps.

And you're a man of high character and you've inspired me to pursue that [00:37:00] because I know that that's the right direction to pursue God. Pursue people and to make an impact outside of yourself. So thank you fellows for this opportunity and look forward to talking to you soon.

 Well, if you could not tell from that interview, I am so dang proud of my cousin, Chris. he is the real deal. He, as you could see from that interview, from that conversation. Chris is a man who is all about character, all about building up people, all about helping people to flourish. He does that in his business. He does that as a coach and I'm just excited to see what God is doing through him.

And so grateful that we were able to share this interview with you because we weren't able to get it out on the coach and character podcast. But fortunately this summer, as we've talked about, we were able to get these episodes of coach and character podcast to you. So hopefully you learn from that.

What I did. a lot of different, really good things that I'm going to apply in a lot of different areas of my life. So thank you, [00:38:00] Chris. Well, as always, I also want to remind you that Paul and Marcy Jobson have their warrior way soccer camps that they're doing this summer. Probably most of them are done at this point, but they still have all kinds of good stuff going on. Go check it out. Warriorwaysoccer.com.

we got coaching the bigger game, Christian DeVries, and I are doing that. Check that out, coachingthebiggergame.com, lots of cool stuff going on there. And, you know, we have the new season of how soccer explains leadership coming up in September. It looks like the second week of September is what we're shooting for.

We got some great interviews we're working on. So stay tuned for that. So folks as always. I hope that you're taking what you're learning from this show, but you're taking what you're learning from these coaching character lost episodes that we're bringing to you this summer. And you're using all this stuff to help you be a better leader, a better spouse, a better parent, a better friend. [00:39:00]

And you're continually reminding yourself. That soccer does explain life and leadership. Thanks a lot. Have a great week