Gridiron Tales and Personal Well-being with a Veteran Coach

As a former student-athlete turned head coach, Shawn Dodd's story is more than just a professional arc—it's a heartfelt journey back to the roots that shaped him. In our latest conversation, we're thrilled to host Coach Dodd, who takes us along on his nostalgic trip from North High School in Eastlake, Ohio, to the football fields of Europe, and back again. His tale is one of full-circle moments, where past and present connections with Nick Tomba and Jason Bickel illuminate the profound impact of community and family on his life and career.

Coaching isn't just about calling plays and running drills; it's a life that demands balance with personal well-being. In this heart-to-heart, we reveal the lessons learned in our coaching careers about keeping burnout at bay. Drawing on the experiences and unwavering dedication of legends like Tom Thibodeau, we unpack the strategies that help maintain equilibrium between the sidelines and home life. Join us for candid insights that resonate with both fresh-faced coaches and seasoned tacticians.

Finally, we gear up for the 2024 football season, discussing everything from the North-South game rivalry that electrifies Lake County to the meticulous training plans for the team. Between reflections on high school sports and our fitness endeavors (including a cheeky 5K with a winery waiting at the finish line), this episode is as much a playbook for coaching as it is a guide for staying motivated in competitive sports and life. Don't miss these personal stories and practical tips, especially if you're looking to spice up your routine or your meal prep game.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 2:18

Welcome everybody to another episode of the Ride Home Rants podcast. This is your special guest host, john Fittifo Coney, and today I have a really great guest in Coach Sean Dodd. Before we jump into Coach Dodd's story and his amazing journey through the coaching profession, make sure you check out all of our sponsors on our pre-read roll and our post-read roll. Also, check out the newest sponsor we're going to talk about right now, and that's Sweet Hand Sports, and that's brought to you by my ex-college teammate from Bethany College, where we played football together, matt Lando Landowski. Lando has established this company as the premier batting glove company in all of western Pennsylvania. Neil Walker, the Pittsburgh Pirates great, the Pittsburgh Prodigy's son even even wear these gloves. So check out Sweet Hand Sports today, brought to you by one of the toughest football players I ever played with, matt Lando Landowski.

Speaker 1: 3:10

With that being said, we have a great guest coming to us today from Northeast Ohio. He is the head coach at North High School in Eastlake, sean Dodd. Sean, welcome to the show. Hey, john, thanks for having me. Yeah, no, absolutely Happy to have you here. So, first thing is, I know we've had on a couple of your coaching buddies on this show previously, in Nick Tomba and Jason Bickle. So how do you know Nick and Jason?

Speaker 2: 3:36

Oh boy. So Nick is. I'm an Eastlake North alum. Nick is also an alum. He's a lot younger than I am, so we knew each other. When I was coaching at some different places prior to coming to North he was coaching at North and he and I actually teach together now at Willoughby Middle. So we're both ELA teachers there. He has eighth grade, I have seventh grade. He's now coaching at Willoughby South, which is our rival. But you know a unique situation where we have two high schools so we teach together, see each other. We actually flip classrooms. One period he leaves, I enter it. So it's kind of neat. We get a chance to talk, some ball a little bit, and then Bic. Bic has been on our staff for the nine years since I've been at North. He left for a little bit to go coach with his brother and then he had to stop at Willoughby South with Tomba and then back with us the last couple of years. Now he's serving as our defensive coordinator. So I've known both guys for over a decade now. So good dudes.

Speaker 1: 4:34

Yeah, definitely good dudes. They've been on the show here quite a bit. Nick's been on as an individual guest, jason's been on as an individual guest, they've been on for our roundtables that we have from sports and small business and holidays. So they're great contributors to the show. They're great supporters of the show and make sure everybody checks them out too in their professions and their social media and things like that. So, with that being said, you kind of brought this up. You are an Eastlake graduate, so kind of tell us about growing up in Eastlake. You know you're very close to Willoughby, but tell us about what's growing up in Eastlake was like. You know in your high school experience.

Speaker 2: 5:12

Yeah. So it's either a really cool story or a really lame story. It's kind of how I tell it to everybody it's. I've lived here my entire life, so for 51 years I've never moved away from this area, this community. I've been here forever. I met my wife in high school at North Student Alumni. All three of my kids have graduated from North.

Speaker 2: 5:31

You know it was a great community to grow up in. You know, in the 70s and 80s when I was a little kid playing Eastlake Youth Baseball and Eastlake Little League, and then Willowick Middle where I got a chance to teach for a little bit, and then over there in Lancer Land and then, you know, being at North now coaching, going on year 10, being an alum I played there for Coach Dan Kukura, so being an opportunity to come back home Coach, where I played and grew up and all my high school buddies come to the games and they support. We have our fundraiser this Saturday so all my buddies and teammates will be there Now players that play for me and my son's on the coaching staff now, which is a neat thing. It's a really cool experience and I'm excited to be a part of it. It's been a neat thing. I'm very honored to be able to be back there.

Speaker 1: 6:18

Awesome. There's not a lot of people that say they can be a coach at their alma mater. You know, and have the success also that that you've had there. I'm kind of rewind on this, though. So you know you graduate from Eastlake, you know, just a couple of years ago as a high school student, and you move on to college and you know you became a teacher. But where did you ultimately go to school at? And you know what did you exactly get your education degree in go?

Speaker 2: 6:43

to school at and you know, what did you exactly get your education degree in? Yeah, so right out of when I was in high school I had the goal in mind to teach and coach and I actually just wanted to be a middle school guy because I knew I wanted to have kids and, you know, have a family and I wanted to be around and the time commitment and that sort of thing. And then I started off in college. I went to Cleveland State I'm originally committed to Gannon University and PA. There I had some injuries and setbacks, decided not to go, ended up playing in Europe a little bit down the road.

Speaker 2: 7:12

But the teaching thing started in high school. I got an opportunity to go kind of leave our class and go work with the elementary schools and that sort of thing. I was in high school and I really kind of got the bug and talking to my coaches in high school they were kind of encouraging me to teach and coach. So it just kind of took off from there. And then when I was in college I was a secondary degree major and my guidance counselor pulled me aside and said listen, if you go for elementary, being a male and a jock like you're going to get hired right away and I did my student teaching in Euclid. My second week of student teaching they offered me a teaching position, so I never even had to interview for that. And then Mike Rizzola offered me a position to coach the freshmen.

Speaker 2: 7:54

I wanted to do middle school but didn't have anything open and then once I got at that level, like I kind of got the bug and it just kind of took off from there. So teaching and coaching is something I've always wanted to do. Pretty fortunate, I'm not a guy that you know, had to take a while to find his way, couldn't figure out what he wanted to do. I always kind of knew what I wanted to do. It was fortunate to have a family that supported it, because it's a huge time commitment, but I've been fortunate to be able to do this for 26 years now and I wouldn't change it for anything.

Speaker 1: 8:26

That's definitely awesome. So I know we were talking a little bit in the pre-roll and you know now I work in higher ed but I'm actually a former high school assistant coach and head coach in track and football and I coached football at the college level a couple previous stops ago. So I do get about. You know, you catch the bug for it, you want to get into it, you want to, you want to keep going with it and, yeah, you have to have your family behind you and that you can definitely attest to that with what you just said. And I wasn't married at the time or anything like that. But you know, and my parents, my sibling or my sister there as my sibling, you know, it's evident probably with your children, your wife, and you know your family too, because you got to have them behind you. Because if your family's not behind you, and coaching that's a tough road to go, because you suffer both at home and on the field.

Speaker 2: 9:09

Yes, yeah, absolutely. You have to have that support system. I've seen guys that they either had to get out of you know, coaching for the, for the family stuff, or they broke up with girlfriends or whatever, because of the time commitment. It with girlfriends or whatever, because of the time commitment it's a, it's a, it's a lot. So you have to have that, that base, that foundation that that's going to support it and I've been very, very blessed and very fortunate that it's never been an issue. It's funny, you know, I've been doing this for X, 26 years now and I've had some people ask you know, when are you going to give it up? And you know my wife be the first one to tell you like he's not done yet he can't come home, like he's got to keep him over there at the field. He's, he's nowhere near it yet. So I still have the energy, still have the juice, still love it. So, god willing, health wise, and you know they still want me around, I'll be doing this for a while still, I hope.

Speaker 1: 9:54

Yeah, and I think you know you get attested as we're going to get into this a little bit more later on in the show but I think when you're a coach right and you're a teacher, especially when you coach two sports, like I've done and you do now, there is a health element that goes into this right. Of course you have to have the support behind you at home, but you have to make sure for the longevity and I only did it for 12 years, not, you know, 25, like yourself but you have to make sure you're eating right, you're training right, you're getting enough sleep, you are doing things that you enjoy outside of that, because for the longevity of it, to keep yourself healthy and not get out of shape or get burned out, I think you can probably attest to all those different things. I mean there is a lot of like behind the scenes things. Personally, people have to do for the longevity of coaching for health reasons.

Speaker 2: 10:39

Yeah, yeah, I think mentally and physically. I tell my guys all the time I'll reach out to my staff, you know, starting now, because now we start early and earlier. We actually have our first practice Thursday. So we have camp already coming up with the way Ohio changed some of the rules and contact periods and that.

Speaker 2: 10:56

But you know, early on in my career I was a guy that would be up till one, two in the morning looking at film and falling asleep with the computer on my lap and my wife would have to like put me to bed or close the computer for me and I would wake up on the couch and they would kind of sit with me a little bit on the weekends and room weekends after a loss. And I didn't balance maybe part of that as well as I should have when I was a little bit younger. Now I'm a little bit older, I can balance it a little bit. I make sure I get to bed early and make sure I get my seven, eight hours and you know there's plenty of time to watch film later and sometimes you can do too much of that. So I try to tell younger guys to balance all of that. But I will tell my staff. Hey, man, you guys got to start getting into a shape. You know. You got to start walking, running, getting on the treadmill, start getting ready to be out there in the heat, especially as the guys get a little bit older.

Speaker 2: 11:42

Our staff is pretty balanced right now. We have some older guys 50s, 60s we have some 20-something-year-olds and some guys in their 30s. But being able to balance all of that and staying healthy, eating properly, I do think that that's important in the role that we're in, because you have to be energetic. It is long hours, even at the high school level, and if you're going to coach multiple things or some guys coach three sports, especially these young guys, and you have to have some, some activities outside of football, you know you have your family stuff and all that I like to work out. I don't golf or anything like that, but some guys golf. You know we have a boat, we do some boating and things like that, but you have to have other interests also. It can't just all be the sport that you're coaching. I think that's when guys get burnt out I agree with you on that.

Speaker 1: 12:27

You know, I I've worked out over the years, um, but really my release when I was coaching is I love working on my car, not like fixing the engine and stuff like washing, waxing, cleaning out my car, and I and I love reading. So when I was coaching I was doing a lot of that to do. Like that mental stimulation, that that ability to get away, um, you know, from the game, but it is a hard thing to do because you want to grind so hard when you're young, you know with it, but you can, you know, burn yourself out um easily. So, yeah, same what you were saying about the working out, getting on the treadmill, doing all those things. Got to get yourself, get yourself right for the season. It is funny, though you're talking about family support and working out and all that. So I'm a big New York Knicks fan. Are you a basketball fan at all?

Speaker 2: 13:14

Not a Cavs fan, but not like a huge guy.

Speaker 1: 13:17

Okay. So Tom Thibodeau, who is the Knicks head coach, former coach of the Bulls, former coach of the Timberwolves, he's 66 years old. I read a very interesting article on him when he was 24. I think he was engaged and he was an assistant basketball coach at Salem State Division three school. He broke his engagement off and he sent with his athletic director and the athletic director said why did you break your engagement off? He said because I can't be a great basketball coach and be married at the same time. He goes, I can't devote to both. And now I think that guy's like the exception of the rule that he's been a bachelor's whole life, singles, whole life coach, basketball 43 years, and all he does, they say, is just get there at five in the morning and like leave at midnight. So for that guy, I give him credit on that, because that's a rare thing to find without making yourself sick or getting burnt out right, absolutely of of coaching and I think bill belichick was a little bit that way as well um, a little exception, exception to the rule.

Speaker 1: 14:21

So so, coach, we kind of talked about you know, your your a little bit of your experience, um, over over your realm coaching. So you get the freshman job at euclid when you're a young guy coming out, um, and then can you kind of walk us now from that time at euclid to when you became the head coach at east lake north and all your stops in between yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 14:40

So um at euclid I I was fortunate enough to uh I was freshman coach for three years and I was able to move up through the varsity um for another six. So I had nine years at Euclid high school um with uh Mike Rizzola is the head coach, and Tommy Gibbons and the whole Gibbons family, uh Rick Lytle and a lot of these guys are coaching at Lake Catholic now uh over in Mentor. And then after that I got an opportunity to go to NDCL out in Chardon with Byron Morgan, who's a Hall of Fame coach. He had come out of retirement to take the job and was looking for some guys and was fortunate to go there. And when I was talking to him I was like you know, at some point I would like to be a head coach and as a guy, well, I'll throw a ton of responsibility on you. So it was a really good opportunity for me to learn the weight room, the warm-up stuff, a lot of the behind-the-scenes things that you don't typically get just as an assistant. So I was grateful for Byron to let me do all that stuff and coordinating and, you know, learning the ropes and all that. And then from there I was fortunate enough to get the head coaching job at Gilmore Academy in Gates Mill. So after four years of NDCL, four years at Gilmore and what a great experience that was I came in.

Speaker 2: 15:47

I think it was like 20, some guys on the roster, nine through 12. It's a small private school and they had gone. I believe it was like one and nine, one and nine in the previous two years, knew. We had a big uphill battle there and by the time we left we had finished year three with the best offensive statistically year in school history, got to eight and two. The next year we were supposed to have a down year. We finished eight and two again some back-to-back playoff appearances, a playoff victory and then going into that year five, we kind of had it where we wanted. We were pre-ranked sixth in the state and you know we were really proud of where we were able to take them from to where they were 55 guys now in the program.

Speaker 2: 16:32

And then Eastlake North calls and boy was that a tough decision. I think I probably would have said no just about every other school in the state and actually, ironically, matt Duffy, who's the head coach at Willoughby South a good friend of mine he's the one who called and said hey, listen, you're on the short list and probably yours if you want it. So I talked to some veteran coaches Nick Restifo from St Ignatius, john Story from St Joe's and Rush Jakes from Strongsville some guys that have been around a long time and they all told me, retirement-wise, definitely take the North job because it pays into STRS. They said, in the long run you're going to thank us when you're at the end of your career.

Speaker 2: 17:10

Retirement-wise, we had an opportunity to come back home and teach where I was, teach and coach where I'm living. My kids were in the district already, even though they were in younger school. My middle son was at Gilmore with me. We gave him the option and he decided to come over to North with us, which was pretty cool because he was a freshman and by the time he was a senior. His senior year at North we were able to make the playoffs for the first time in school history. You know, father-son, being able to do that together was a pretty neat thing. And now he's on my staff. So so now I've been at North for uh, the be going on year 10 now coming up.

Speaker 1: 17:48

Gotcha. So let me ask you this question. I'm always curious when I talk to multiple time head coaches. So when you got that job at Gilmore Academy, compared to when you got the job at Eastlake, did you feel like almost a flip in your personality and the difference? Like when you first got that gilmore job did you try to kind of do everything, run the offense, defense, special teams, kind of hover over all your coaches, but as then you got a little bit older and got the second go around, you kind of let the assistance coach and take that step back um, not really.

Speaker 2: 18:17

I'm a very type a and kind of a control guy and I've learned just recently, probably in the last maybe eight years, probably a year or four or so three, four, five somewhere at North when I was at Gilmore I was that way. When I got to North, when I started I was that way and then as I got a little bit older and stuff, I've been able to back off and it's not a trust thing, it's just kind of how I work. And fortunately my staff, they all came with me from Gilmore to North. They all know how I operate and they can kind of laugh at me and they know when they kind of just tell me off and tell me to back off, and you know they get it. They don't take it personal and they don't get butt hurt or anything. But I've just kind of learned over the years but definitely from Gilmore to North I was kind of the same guy starting off at both places. About halfway through this time at North is when I kind of started backing off a little bit.

Speaker 1: 19:11

Gotcha, when I was a head coach for the two seasons I did at the high school level, that first year I really and I guess it was just being a young guy, like I was 29, turning 30 and you know I was really like I want it this way and da-da-da-da-da and trying to control everything. You know, I take a step back and let the assistants coach I, I move out of being a position coach and I handle more, more of the game day stuff and you know, one side of the ball coordinating. So, um, I do get like it's. It's tough though to let, like, let go. It is, it is, um, and and I learned that from guys I coached under and I coached under my time in high school you know three really good, um, or sorry, two really good coaches and my college coach I coached under too. They, they always said, when you go in, it's really hard though to let go because you want to control everything.

Speaker 1: 20:06

And the growth of a coach is, you know, like, kind of like what you said, right, kind of taking a step back and letting guys do stuff. But, yeah, you can't take it personal. When someone, someone starts ripping on you, um, you know that's your boss, so um, so I. One thing I want to I want to talk about is that is the interesting dynamic of the willoughby east lake school district and the towns being right here and how that works. And I don't think people maybe outside of lake county quite know how that works. So being a teacher you know at willoughby that works. So being a teacher you know at Willoughby Middle School and being a coach at Eastlake, but really having that Willoughby Eastlake School District together, can you kind of talk about that for all the listeners?

Speaker 2: 20:44

Yeah, so we have two high schools I don't know how many districts have that within the state of Ohio, but we have Willoughby South High School and we have Eastlake North High School, and then from those high schools we have three middle schools. We have Eastlake Middle, willowick Middle, which predominantly feed into North, and then we have Willoughby Middle, which feeds in the South, and I teach at Willoughby Middle, which feeds into our rival school, and then the different elementary schools that feed directly into either Willowick or Eastlake or Willoughby. So yeah, so that's kind of how the setup was. I started off at Willoughby Middle and then I was able to bid into Willowick Middle, which would be like a North school, and then we had some cuts and stuff and I got bumped back to Willoughby Middle, where I've been the last four years and I had an opportunity this year, with some changes, to potentially get out. But I'm pretty comfortable. I'm pretty happy where I'm at right now with my role at Willoughby. So it really it it. It isn't much different from like when I was at Gilmore. I was still teaching in Euclid when I was the head coach at Gilmore, so I'm used to that dynamic of not being in the building.

Speaker 2: 21:55

At first, it really bothered me being like in South territory, you know, because as a teacher, I want my kids to have pride in their school, to be excited about South, and you know I don't want to mess with that at all. I think that's selfish of me to do that. So, promote it, all it will be stuff. But you, you know, seeing your rivals, colors all over the place and, um, everybody's supporting them and booing you and you know they want you to lose and do terrible. But now that I've been there for so long, uh, the kids really embrace it. Uh, so they get excited.

Speaker 2: 22:25

Every week they want to hey, how'd you guys do? You know can't wait to play, and then that week is a big week and it's, you know we stink again and, uh, south is the greatest. And you know I want them to have that. I want them to have that high school experience and that school pride. So it's a unique situation. But when South is away, my students will come to a North game, which is pretty neat. You know we're in our South stuff, but it's a lot easier for them to get to our place than another community. That's a little bit further away if they don't have rides because they're middle school kids. And then Matt Duffy, the head coach, over there in Tamba, like you mentioned, he's their defense coordinator. Those guys are friends of mine, like we talk all the time and you know I hope those guys go 9-1 and just lose to us every year.

Speaker 1: 23:09

You know it's so funny that you say that too and like they're being their friends. And Funny that you say that too and like they're being their friends. And you know, not being from here originally but being here now, I guess people don't realize if you're not in Lake County, the, the game of games, the North South game, and what that entails. I've been around enough and, with my job, know enough now that it's like. It's like the Ohio state, michigan game of Lake County, ohio, the North North South game. I think you know people are crossing out the first letter and they're not saying the name. You know, can you kind of talk about the excitement though, and the rivalry and the, I guess the history of the North-South game.

Speaker 2: 23:45

Yeah, so history wise as a player, we had a run like we never lost to South when I was playing and it kind of goes in. If you look at the history it kind of goes in chunks, like somebody will win like six years in a row or 10 years in a row or whatever it is, and South had our number. When I came in I kind of inherited a losing streak and continued it for a little bit myself and then we were able to get them and then we got them again this year. But it's, I mean, it's sold out. The place is insane Duff and I really try to keep it to where.

Speaker 2: 24:18

Hey, guys, we don't want not just the football guys being in the stands. We'll tell the kids on both sides, community-wise guys, let's have a friendly rivalry. We don't like them that day, they don't like us. We both want to win and we want the bragging rights. We want to be excited and celebrate, but we don't want the fights behind bleachers and cops being called for different things. There's the different pranks the kids will do and that sort of thing, but for the most part it goes pretty smooth.

Speaker 2: 24:44

I'm sure there's some issues like any high school rivalry that might go on. As a coach I don't ever see any of that kind of stuff. I just can tell you it's packed. There are probably 3,000, 5,000 people, whatever the sellout crowd is, but it is the mayor's coming. The mayor's all betting Local businesses around here. The losers will wear the opponent's jersey to serve at a restaurant or what have you. So it's a pretty big deal. I'll get calls and messages from the mayors and he's thinking we'll look like coach, we're gonna win this year because we've got a bet and we want to know going into the season. You know how confident are you? So you know it's a pretty unique thing yeah, no, that's, that's definitely awesome.

Speaker 1: 25:24

And if anybody's just a fan and you want to check out the north south game, definitely come up. Um, even if you don't know much about lake county, willoughby and eastlake have a lot of places to eat, a lot of places to get gas. You can go, hang out, have a good time and kind of have your have your pick of whoever you want to cheer for that night, whether it's whether it's north or south. So, coach, one thing I kind of want to talk about now with you is I want to talk about, like, the division that you're in, or people want to say, the conference that you're in. I know that's changed a little bit, um, over time. So can you kind of talk about who you actually play year in and year out with your um conference or you know region, however you want to say it. Uh, people talk about a little bit different. Then your non-league games and how do you actually schedule your non-league games?

Speaker 2: 26:08

yeah, so I'll start with the non-league. Um, we, I, I have, uh, the freedom to kind of work on that and navigate that myself. In doing this for so long, you kind of know a lot of different guys and meet a lot of different guys. So it just becomes like a phone tag game, like, hey, I need a week one. You'd be a good game for us. Are you open? And you just kind of work through it that way. If that doesn't work, then a lot of schools will post things on the OHSAA website. There's some different Ohio scheduler on Twitter. We'll have everybody send their open dates on there and you can kind of navigate through that, or they'll actually contact you. Hey, coach, so-and-so is looking for a week too. Do you need anything? So it just kind of works itself out that way.

Speaker 2: 26:49

But I ultimately have a say and control of the non-conference games and that's worked out pretty well for us and we try to do things the right way, to treat everybody with respect and you know whether it's win or lose, and we try to be open and honest. Hey, this is the type of team we think we're going to have this year. You know, we don't want to sandbag and then blow somebody out by 50 and set them up for failure, or or do the opposite, say we're going to be really good and we're going to stink that year, and now somebody that's really looking for a tune-up for the playoffs didn't get what they were looking. So we try to be open and honest about where we're at with our evaluations and I think that's important because some guys you know they'll tell you oh, we're going to be down, it'll be a good game. And then you play and they got 61 guys and you're like wait, wait a minute, this isn't what you told me you were going to be.

Speaker 2: 27:41

And then, conference wise I mean our conference is loaded, we're very. I mean Chardon, who's just won two state titles. Kenston just won a state title recently, so we have three state titles in the last I think it's five, six years in our conference. Mayfield High School, who is a perennial playoff team year in and year out. Riverside, who's had the probably the best two seasons in school history. The last two years they made the division, two playoffs and advanced pretty far. And then willoughby south, who had a ton of success. Uh, not too long ago they went three years in a row undefeated in the previous conference in the pack, you know, and they produced cream hunt.

Speaker 2: 28:14

Um, we all I'm sure most of your listeners are familiar with him, with the Cleveland Browns and and then us, um, so the conference is, uh, a very tough conference. Um, like I said, you know, you've got some state champs in there. And then, region wise, uh, just a few years ago is voted one of the top regions in the nation, um, cause we have Akron, hoban, massillon, so we're D2, region 5, and it is a grinder of a region, playoff-wise, hudson, just to name a few. But it's tough. If you're looking at Hoban and Massillon, it is the top two in that region, just the region alone. And they've probably been in them more outside of Cluedo Central Catholic, who won Division III last year. They've probably won or been in and won outside of Cluedo Central Catholic who won Division III last year. They've probably won or been in the last five or six state title games, just from our region.

Speaker 1: 29:02

One of my old college teammates is the head coach at Austintown Fitch, TJ Parker. I know TJ's in that same region. I know you got Warren Harding in there. Akron, St Vincent, St Mary's you just have a brutal, brutal week in and week out schedule of teams, especially with that 16-team playoff. Really those 12 through 16 seeds can have a rough go in that.

Speaker 2: 29:29

That week won't be rough and we've been there. A few years ago we got in as a 16, and we got Hoban and we got out there and I'll tell you what it was 14-0 going into half and you know we were telling hey, guys like that's, and we weren't a Hoban team at that time. You know everybody was expecting us to lose 100-0. Second half the wheels kind of fell off and they took it to us. But you know, 14, nothing to halftime on the road to Hoban for our little guys, for me it's like you know it was pretty exciting for half.

Speaker 1: 30:00

Yeah, for sure you get. You say you just hang, hang in there and you know, eventually I think we all can say as coaches, you know the depth of where you out in the skill will just eventually you know you take over. One thing I used to tell people when I, when I coached, is you know, you can, you can scheme it up all you want, but the bottom line is you got to have the guys, cause if you don't got the guys, it doesn't matter. Vince Lombardi was reincarnated. You just don't got the guys. And that's what really makes a coach good is having the guys.

Speaker 2: 30:31

Yeah, a good coach can make guys better, better, but you still got to have good guys to be right yeah, if my exes are bigger and faster than your o's, my exes are probably going to win, no matter what you do with your o's right, especially, you know, at this high school level.

Speaker 1: 30:46

Um, so I think people have a very hard time thinking that, especially like people that are on like the social media and you watch the nfl and all that, and it's not like that. It's just you have to have the guys to win at the high school. You know the high school level in that regard. So how do you think you guys are going to look this upcoming 2024 season? We're going to be small.

Speaker 2: 31:08

We have. We have our numbers will be good. Our numbers are pretty consistent. We're in at 60, 65 range, 10 through 12. We'll have about 25 freshmen, but physically we'll be on the smaller side.

Speaker 2: 31:22

But I tell you what they're gutsy, they're tough, they want to whack you. We've got to do well in the first five before we get to conference to have a shot at anything. But those are things that we don't honestly really think about or talk about too much this stage of the game. Right now we want to focus on our quality of practices and all the coaching buzzwords. But we really believe it Quality over quantity and just getting better doing what. We do not even worry about opponents. Our practices in the summer are just north versus north. We don't run scouts, we don't script things, it's just our offense, our defense, and that's all we care about. That's all we focus on getting better doing what we do.

Speaker 2: 32:01

But we'll be gutsy. It's going to be an interesting thing. We've got some position battles. I think we'll be a little bit stronger at the running back position on the offensive side of the ball and our strength will probably be in our linebacker core on the defensive side of the ball Going into it right now because of who we have coming back, and then the rest is going to be kind of up for grabs. We lose almost everybody on the offensive side our quarterback, our running back, some of our line guys, our top receivers, our tight ends. So it'll be interesting seeing what we end up with, but we'll be on the smaller side with their tough physical kids.

Speaker 1: 32:34

Gotcha Now. Do you guys have a freshman football team? Yes, okay, now I know that's a. That's kind of a rare thing to find in some places. Is that freshman football team? Um, do you? You struggle. Finding like eight or nine games for those guys or with the bigger schools up here in cleveland is a little bit easier yeah, it's, it's.

Speaker 2: 32:51

It's not too bad. Our conference. Some schools just combine their freshmen in JV. We might lose a freshman game because of that, but we can pick up a game pretty easily. There's enough schools around here that we're able to pick them up locally for the most part. There's been a few times where we might've played like a St Ignatius or somebody West side or maybea little bit further South. I know we played at St Vincent, st Mary, one year with our freshman team so they came up to play our freshman, which is only about 45 minutes away. But traditionally we can find some people within half hour or so near us or we. Even last year I think our JVs played Madison twice. So we both used to have an opening. We have a great relationship. They used to be in our conference.

Speaker 2: 33:35

So like, yeah, man, let's play them twice just to get the kids a game. We want to make sure every level gets 10 games. If we have to play somebody three times, we'll play them three times to get the kids the games. You know it's not like basketball and baseball where you have all these different games. You can pick up all these opponents. You know we're limited. If we miss a week. That's a tenth of our season, you know, and the kids practice all year round the lifting, the running. They want to play games.

Speaker 1: 34:00

Yeah, no for sure, and not being from here originally, being from Pennsylvania and some other parts of Ohio, west Virginia, you don't really find a lot of places have those freshman teams anymore. You know schools get smaller. It's pretty hard Youittsburgh, youngstown, you know just to get six, seven, eight games because just not everyone had a couple times they came up. You know this way. So I'm always curious when people say they have freshman football, do they struggle to find that? But I guess the bigger the area, the more choices yeah, it's pretty packed in here.

Speaker 2: 34:44

You know, I mean you, you can every 15 minutes you're hitting the high school. You know we can go all the way up towards pa and then you know you have to ask your county. It's a little bit more spread out but, um, you know we can go east or west for for a good half hour or so and run into a whole lot of schools no, that's that's definitely good, that that's a good thing to have the good quantity over quality in that sense.

Speaker 1: 35:08

So one thing I want to talk about now is as we're kind of winding up the show here is we talked about it earlier you know the fitness part of it. So you said you enjoy working out. You know you're 51 years old, so it's a little bit different training as a 51 year old than an 18 year old, a 51 year old than a than an 18 year old. So can you kind of talk about, like what your fitness regimen is to keep yourself in shape. And you know, prevent injuries and not get injured. You know lifting as we all get older, cause it does happen to us. Ego brother.

Speaker 2: 35:37

I've got these kids that you know. They're in there moving weight and I'm looking and looking at them Like I don't want these guys catching me. And then my son, who works out like crazy all the time. He's on the staff and he's all buff and jacked at 24. And you know I keep looking and I'm like I don't want them catching me yet. So that's a big part of it. If I'm just going to be blatantly honest, you know, being around younger guys and stuff that are crushing weights motivates me, you know. Know that's a way for me to be competitive versus them but also be competitive myself.

Speaker 2: 36:08

I'm a very competitive person, as I'm sure you are, from playing and coaching, um, you know I've got to find a way to do something competitive. I don't play softball or flag football or gave all that up in my early 20s. Something had to go to coach and have kids. So I don't golf, um. So it's a way for me to be competitive. But for me it works to get up early.

Speaker 2: 36:26

I get to the gym about 530 in the morning, leave around 645, 7 in the morning so I can get home, shower, get to school. If I do it after football and stuff, I'm just too tired. I'm just mentally exhausted at that point. But I still do all the heavy lifts, all your basic, you know, your bench, your shoulder press and push pull leg is pretty much my split. That I do and I try to get 20 minutes of walking on an incline for some cardio.

Speaker 2: 36:56

I'm not a runner. Nobody wants to see or hear that pounding on the treadmill. It would look ugly and sound even worse. So I don't really do a lot of that, although my daughter's trying to get me on a 5k like the first weekend in june, and I asked her like two days ago and she hasn't told me she's signing up or not. So if I gotta go run this 5k I haven't ran in about 20 years this is gonna be uh interesting, but there's a winery at the end, so she said we can hit that afterwards that could be a good like, uh, you know, like pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, yeah you know you can use it.

Speaker 1: 37:26

You can use it to train and then run in the willoughby 5k, you know, later on this year for yourself. People know me at that one. I don't know about that.

Speaker 2: 37:35

Yeah, I can go down my tent and go do that. Nobody will know me down there.

Speaker 1: 37:40

Oh, that's, that's. That's funny. You know, I think the the one thing I've learned as I've gotten older, with the, with the lifting and the running, is, you know, as a former player and coach, right, you get injuries, you get bumps and bruises. I can't do things like I can't barbell squat anymore you know I can't avoid that you know.

Speaker 1: 37:58

So I've catered to like doing sumo squats with um you know, with dumbbells, or um, you know, doing body squats. In that regard, doing a lot of leg press, things like that, just because I can't put the pressure on my back. I can't really run anymore, I can't sprint anymore, just got to walk on the treadmill or do the bike. So I definitely do get it. But, coach, as we're winding the episode down here, we do have a special segment on the show called the Fast 55. And we came up with this a couple of years ago and it's five random questions that I come up with for all of our guests. So they really have nothing to do with the show, but they're a fun way to end the show. So you don't have to elaborate if you don't want to, but it's completely up to you. So if you're ready, we can get started. Let's do it, okay. Question number one what are your thoughts as people having rabbits for pets?

Speaker 2: 38:51

Thumbs down. I don't even know why I'd even have it. It doesn't serve a purpose. You can't get eggs from it. You know you're not going to cook it or raise it for food. Can't take it for a walk. Yeah, I don't see a point in it.

Speaker 1: 39:06

Okay, all right, better actor, this is. This is good. It's coming from you being from the from the 80s and the 90s, arnold schwarzenegger or sylvester stallone I gotta go stallone.

Speaker 2: 39:15

I mean rocky rambo, I mean those were staples as a kid. Yeah, I did. Carmen conan was awesome. I gotta go sly I think it's.

Speaker 1: 39:24

It's a tough one. They've done some great movies together. On a complete side note, though, the one thing I do want to bring up, especially because you like lifting when Schwarzenegger did Conan and I forget what Conan it was, maybe Conan the Barbarian, when Will Chamberlain was in that movie and also Andrelain was in that movie and also, um, andre the giant was in that movie, schwarzenegger said and for strongest schwarzenegger was, he said those two were the strongest human beings he's ever, ever encountered. And andre the giant and will chamberlain, he said will chamberlain was probably stronger than andre the giant he said he was just the strongest human being he's ever ever encountered.

Speaker 1: 40:09

So if you get a chance to look back at like that and schwarzenegger and talking about working out with those guys, do so you may. You may find some enjoyment, it's great never knew that one, yeah, so number three better grocery store marks or aldi's so number three better grocery store Mark's or Aldi's.

Speaker 2: 40:27

I use Aldi's more, but my first job was Mark's. It used to be called Jode's back then, or Jody's, I don't remember. I got to go Aldi's because it's right by my school and that's where I go for convenience. I couldn't even tell you the difference, but it's closer so I go there. So Aldi's.

Speaker 1: 40:46

Fair enough, number four. What is harder to do when the World Series of poker or when the World Series of?

Speaker 2: 40:55

chess. I would say chess because, yeah, I would have to go chess.

Speaker 1: 41:01

I think so too. Chess is very, very difficult. I mean, you have to be difficult, very strategic. I have no idea but checkers yeah, well, you know what I don't play? Chess either, I'll play.

Speaker 2: 41:14

I'll play mean game of checkers yeah, give me the king and all that.

Speaker 1: 41:19

I don't know all right last question Are soccer players more athletic than hockey players?

Speaker 2: 41:28

Athletic. I'd have to say no, and I respect both only because you're on that thin little blade so I'd have to go. And they're changing direction at a fast rate of speed. I'd have to go hockey only because of the blade, the blade.

Speaker 1: 41:46

If you put them both on grass, I have no idea, but I I gotta pick somebody, so I'll go hockey okay, well, that was the fast 55 and that's just something like we'd like to do to to end the shows with. But before we let you go, coach, um, you don't want to say thank you for being on again? You know, we really appreciate it. We wish you the best of luck and east lake north a great season ahead, and we give every guest about a minute if they want it. If there's anything you want to promote, whether it's the team or just send a good message out there to all of our listeners, we'll give you about a minute if you want, and the floor is yours.

Speaker 2: 42:18

Yeah, no, just thanks for having us. I appreciate the publicity for myself, but more importantly, the school. You school knowing our Ranger guys. And you mentioned Nick Tomba a few times. But he has Tomba's Dry Rub. Coach's Dry Rub is what it's called. So I'll pump up Coach Tomba's side business with his catering and that, but Coach's Dry Rub I use it. I honestly use it on all my stuff. I eat chicken every day and Coach's Dry Rub's on it, so it's something I use personally. So support him.

Speaker 1: 42:47

It is great for everybody. Yeah, definitely check out Coach's dry rub. Nick is a great guy. I actually got dry rub downstairs. We use it all the time for dinner. So I got to ask though, coach, before we go, what is your favorite dry rub that he has?

Speaker 2: 42:59

Oh boy, now you're going to put me on the spot. I think me on the spot, um I think there's like a cajun one.

Speaker 1: 43:11

I honestly don't remember the name of it. To be honest with you, I've got 15 feet away too. I honestly don't know the name of it. Okay, I was gonna say yeah, I would recommend to have all of them. We have the um, we have the steak and pork chop one, we have the all-american and we have, like the honey, the honey barbecue. So honey barbecues want to use a lot. Love the honey barbecue you put something that on chicken, get a side of ranch. It's like eating.

Speaker 2: 43:28

It's like eating honey barbecue wings yep, that's my sunday meal prep, but for my lunch is the chicken breast with his dry rub, and that's it so it's a great way to end the show.

Speaker 1: 43:38

Plug in, plug in nick tombo. But thanks again, coach, we really appreciate you being on, as always. If you like to show a beer friend and tell a friend if you didn't tell them anyway, because I bet they like it just because you didn't. This is Fitty signing off and we'll see you next week.