This is Busted Pencils, fully-ledded education talk.
Here are your hosts, Dr. Tim Slecker, and Dr. Johnny Lupinacci,
educated educators talking education.
There it is, Busted Pencils, fully-ledded education talk,
educated educators talking education.
First downs, Friday nights, Busting Balls, you name it.
That's what we're doing here.
Johnny Lupinacci, how you doing, my friend?
Hey, man, I'm great.
Tim is good to see you.
It's always exciting to be convening for this segment.
It's probably my favorite thing of the whole week,
that being second to, you know, spend time with my kids,
my family, and then, and then my team.
So I'm excited about, you know, a conversation today
because, and there's nothing better
than being a coach and a teacher and an educator
and all those things wrapped up into one role.
When the guys call you a coach, it's something special.
Yeah, and we love it.
And guess what?
We've got our friend, Jimmy Cusca Coach K here joining us
again to do a little bit of breaking down
this experience of what we call coaches, Jimmy.
How you doing, buddy?
Good, fantastic, guys.
I too look forward to this segment every week.
You know, I wasn't part of the segment last week,
but I got to get an education last week
in listening to Mel Dow, who has a passion
for sports specifically wrestling
at a very, very good Stoten program
that he was the athletic director for.
And now, of course, he's taking that vision statewide.
This segment, for me, is also one of my highlights.
Yeah, I love that.
Make sure you go back and check out that episode last week.
We just really name image and likeness.
I had no idea that that was a reality dealing
with high school students.
We did that there.
The other thing to do before we get going here,
hey, check it out, man, busted pencils.
We have our mail bag.
It is 6085578577.
Is that number for the mail bag?
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your admiration, your adorations.
You maybe even just some plain old simple talk.
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You can get in touch with us.
Let us know what's happening.
Hey, ideas for Friday nights,
busting balls, first downs, too.
We'd love to hear from you.
What would you like to hear about on this segment?
If you're a coach out there listening to this and go,
I want to be on.
Well, then we want to have you back
get in touch with Coach K.
We there.
All right, fellas, though.
We're talking about our own experiences here
in this idea of, well, it's coach.
Coach K, you're already there.
Coach Johnny Lupinacci and Coach Tim Slecker here.
We've also had our experiences then
in that standpoint of saying that,
yeah, I know what it's like to coach.
I'm going to admit off the top here,
my experience coaching at the high school level
was largely volunteer as a wrestling coach
and not as when I was a teacher.
My most coaching time
was actually spent with junior football
when my son was in middle school
and really working in junior high football.
So my experience as a coach
was really as a wrestling coach volunteer.
And I got to tell you what,
trying to coach wrestling 30 years
after you were a wrestler.
Oh my, not a good experience
for those first couple of weeks.
That's all I got to say.
I can empathize with that because I jumped
in to coach 20 years after my playing days.
I've been broadcasting for over 20 years.
And then I'm like, you know, one day I decided,
you know, I'm going to coach football, right?
Oh, there's a longer story to that, but I jumped in
and a little worried because it had been so long
since I've been away, but one thing that I learned
right away is that, you know,
fear and adult and you're there to help them.
Kids generally are pretty good about
taking that advice and stride.
I know there's a lot of horror stories about like,
oh, the kids don't listen.
They got the electronics throughout the fun.
And it's not really like that.
A lot of them that are, you know, in a sport
or in any extra activity, band art, whatever it is,
you know, they tend to be the more engaged type of students
and they tend to be more focused on what you're doing.
So they tend to listen a little better.
Obviously, for me, it was great to get back into it.
It's helped me tremendously when I do play by play
as a broadcaster because now I've got,
I've refreshed everything in my mind of what,
instead of going back on experiences
that are now in the black and white era,
you know, in the 1990s, you know,
whereas my son calls it the 19s,
what he tells me that I'm old.
Now I have all these recent experiences I can share.
I know how teams are, you know,
what software they're using.
You know, we're not mailing VHS tapes,
you know, overnight, it's huddled now.
You've got a lot of different apps.
You've got a lot of different safety things that are in place.
There's so many things that have changed
in just the 20-something years from when I played
to now that I'm a coach,
that I can really empathize with that
because it is quite an adjustment
because, you know, back, you know,
back at our day, we brought different.
So, Johnny, before you jump in though,
you've got to just say this Jimmy K Jimmy Costco,
you brought up VHS tapes.
I'm going to date myself.
I'm telling you when I was playing high school football,
we were watching films.
And I hate to say black and white,
not because there wasn't color invented yet,
but because our school district would not pay
for color films,
but we watched films and I remember coach Novak
whenever he was yelling at my buddy Nick Nutella Boots
and he tried to hit rewind on a video
that was going through in a tape
and it would get out crumpled up in the machine.
Oh, man, film day though.
Love film day after football events.
Johnny Lupinati.
Well, you know, fellas,
it's gotten much better in that department.
We have, you know, iPads and all kinds of like YouTube streams
and, you know, great film footage.
The second, the play itself is done.
You can be rewind and then going over things,
which is awesome because coaching is being,
is so much like being a teacher
and this is a plug out there for anyone
who's doing both or who's coming into teaching,
you know, or the urine educator
and you're looking to connect, find an extra curricular.
Doesn't even have to be a sport.
You don't have to be like Tim Jimmy and I
and have been players.
Like there's some,
some of my best coaches,
right, have not been players of a sport
and have been, you know, advocates of children learning
and being in a space together.
And almost every sport
and I'll say this even like whether it's, you know,
the drama club, the band,
all of these have training programs to learn to be a coach
and it's a great opportunity for your students
and for the community to learn about you
and to see you and in a different capacity as an educator.
And I will just tell you hands down
one of the best things I ever did
while I was teaching in high schools
and in a classroom was also being a coach.
It just kind of helped facilitate that relationship
but brought down learning barriers for a lot of students.
You know, whether they were my athletes alone
or whether they were just participants
in the school community,
you know, it just really helped us all be together.
So just my plug for anyone thinking about it
and thinking, well, hey, I didn't play football.
Like trust me, they could use you.
They'll find something for you to do
and Tim, you hit the nail on the head.
I don't know very many coaches that aren't volunteer.
But this comes out of the love of the sports,
a love of seeing young people doing something healthy
and that's complimentary to their education.
Remember, being at school is so much more
than just your reading, writing, and arithmetic.
Yes, those things are important,
but you're also growing up in learning how to be in community
and there's no better place to do that than in a club,
than in a sport, you know, than at an activity
where there's some volunteer usually.
That's sort of, you know, leading that
and it's an amazing experience and something
that's ever important.
So that's my plug for it, man.
It's such an important part of our education system.
The way you talk about the volunteers
and the two, I wonder if we can just engage
in that discussion for a little bit
between the three of us because I'm wondering,
we keep saying, you know, first of all,
let's stop calling them extra curriculars.
Let's call them essentials just part of the core,
whether it's football, whether it's choir, whether it's drama,
all of these activities that create the community
around an entire public school.
Are we, what are we saying though to those
who are participating when we require volunteerism
in the coaching areas is that is that a statement
of saying like, that's why we actually believe
in the volunteer aspect of this
or is that a devaluing of the sport where we're sent,
let's say in the case of sports right now,
schools, you know, we don't have enough money
to quote pay for coaches.
And so the reality is is we're going to have this extra,
God forbid we call it an extra,
then all of you are going to have to put in extra work.
Parents, teachers, is volunteerism a problem?
Or is there a virtue potentially on the side
of having volunteerism being the way
we actually bring people to a coaching realm
Jimmy, what do you think?
Well, I'll say this, I think that especially
when you're talking about Wisconsin
and rural public schools, that, you know,
if you're a coach, you know, if you're a paid coach,
you're not making a whole lot for hours.
So, you know, you're getting maybe a thousand bucks
to do, you know, 40, 50, 60 hours a week
in season, more out of season, you know,
being a team of events, et cetera.
Like, there's, you know, the line between
being a paid assistant coach and a volunteer coach,
I mean, that's a pretty, you know,
that's a pretty fuzzy line because there's, you know,
a lot of the coaches that are doing this in Wisconsin
are not doing this, they're not in it for the money.
You don't make, it's not, we're not talking
about deep self football, for example,
where you can get a six figure salary to coach high school.
I didn't like that here with any sport.
This is a stipend for most coaches,
or, you know, you get an extra percentage
of your base salary or whatever it is.
It's, we, you know, when you look at just the aspect
of people coming into a program to volunteer
and donate time, I myself am a volunteer coach
and this is my third year volunteering as a coach.
And I spent a lot of time, you know, doing the data,
I do our huddle, I do a lot of things
with social media to market the team,
try to get interest in the team.
It's really hard to do sometimes
when your team as the fourth longest losing streak
in the state right now.
But, you know, we, you know, we do our best.
We promote the kids, we stay positive.
And I know that when you have more people there
that are involved, whether they're a coach,
whether it's a manager, having somebody
from another sport come over, you know,
and help with a practice or show some technique,
these are all pieces that I think add
to the greater whole.
Everybody that's involved, they want to be there
and from a student perspective,
they don't really see the difference
between an assistant coach who's paid
and a volunteer coach who isn't.
And I'm just saying that for my own experience,
if you're a coach and you're there either,
the thing that is most important to students
and to any kid is that you're showing up
and that you're there.
Yeah, and what's great is so many
of these different sports have or have governing
organizations that provide so much learning
even for you as a coach, right?
Like I know as a hockey coach,
the USA hockey provides so much training
and support around, you know,
one making sure I have my background check
that I have safe sport,
which is making sure all of our young people stay safe, right?
And then also, you know,
learning about concussions,
learning about all of the ways that people can be injured
both physically and mentally and emotionally.
And so you learn a lot about how to support young people
at the level of growth that they're at.
And that's, I know that's true in football.
I know that's true in wrestling.
And I know that's true in so many of the other sports
that I've been lucky to have been a part of,
well, that's a player, but then especially as a coach.
So, you know, it's just a wonderful thing.
Those volunteers are actually,
you know, oftentimes highly qualified
and not just because,
hey, they were good at this sport
or they know a lot about it.
Like that's just a little fraction of the benefit
that young people get by having coaches.
The biggest benefit is that they have an adult
in their community who cares about them
and who is really aware and how to help them be, you know,
adults in our community to grow into that.
Because what we know is that, yes,
it's about the competition.
It's the fun of things.
It's playing the sport.
And of course, you know, dreams of being in the professional
leagues are going to college or getting a scholarship.
That's just not the reality for so many
of the young athletes that we teach.
So it's really important when coaches are there
to support them, like Jimmy said,
like they're consistent, they're there.
And they're saying, hey, it's so important
that you're here, that you're being healthy,
that you're going to school.
This is life, these are life skills.
We're developing together.
When you're a grown-up, you're going to lean
into these habits that you've formed together.
You're going to know how to be a member of a team.
You're going to learn how to lead.
You're going to know how to take responsibility
for things.
You're going to have great time management
because your homework, your health, all of those things
are taught and learned by being a member
of some extracurricular.
And I really say it that way because I don't want
to just emphasize that this is sports,
like there's so many things.
You know, we have esports now, which is a huge thing
for kids.
We have quiz ball.
You know, we have the bait team.
We have all the cheer.
We have dance teams.
We have band.
We have all these ways that young people come together
and have the opportunity to gain these life skills.
And all of those require leadership and coaching.
And so it's just a big plug.
It's great to be sharing that, yeah,
that's been a big part of my life as an educator.
It still is, even as a professor.
You know, I love coaching the college hockey team.
It's invaluable to my connection to campus and community.
And it's just a great way to, I think, round out education
to reinforce and support the reason why anyone's
going to school is to become a better person, right?
And so, yeah, we're learning skills
that we'll use on our jobs or that we'll use in the world,
but also how to put those skills to work in a team setting.
It's really valuable.
You know, the way you put that too, Johnny,
I like that part word.
And it feels to me like there is something positive
about the kind of volunteerism that makes this happen,
whether you're the advisor for the debate team,
whether you're the assistant wrestling coach.
Those ideas there too is that these extras
or essentials, as we like to say,
really do bring an opportunity of community members
to come together to not just be about the academics,
but to realize the whole education.
That's what we're talking about.
The biggest education around is not just sitting down,
you know, math, reading, and writing.
You guys are putting out there.
Jimmy K, wonder those two as we're coming down here,
clothes not are, man, we go so fast
when we do the busting ball segment.
Oh, Jimmy, meaningful, awesome, impactful moment
from coaching.
Well, last year, I wasn't sure I was going to come back
after my first year.
My first year experience was a wild ride.
And I have a lot of commitments in my life.
So, you know, I had offers to go back into broadcasting
on Fridays to do coach, you know,
instead of coaching, I could call games for, you know,
not a great amount of money, but like I get paid
instead of being a volunteer and, you know,
working seven days a week, I'd have the one night a week.
But I think what the most impactful thing for me
was that last year, the students recruited me back.
They found me a quick trip.
They found me anywhere in town and they'd say,
hey, it'd be great if you came back.
We would really like to have a new,
and I never thought that there'd be a group of teenagers
would be like, hey, it'd be cool if you came back
and hung out and coach football with us.
And that really, that really meant a lot to me.
I had to pay it forward this year.
One of our, we had 12 seniors this year.
One told me a practice just yesterday
that he was not going to play football
until I pulled them aside in our first summer contact dates
and hey, I got a big role for you.
I would really like it if you came and you stuck with it
because I think you could be a major force on the team.
I could use you on special teams.
Well, now he's, he almost set a school record
and kick return yardage last week.
And oh, by the way, he's probably in line
for an all-conference not at safety this year.
He's five foot six, and he's third on our team in tackles,
which is crazy.
Guy, you've been at the best moment.
Oh, man, there's so many, you know.
First, you know, state championships, you know,
national appearances, all the things, all the big wins
and the close games and being close
to young people competing is those always rival
for moments.
But I have to say, aside from being called dad,
you know, every single time someone says coach,
it's the most impactful moment.
So whether I'm at school or whether I'm grabbing a coffee
in town, you know, it's invaluable.
That's my most impactful moment.
You get a text from a player that's, you know,
15, 20 years past haven't been on your team.
He says, you know, hey, coach, going through this
and then you'll fill in the blank.
And, you know, when you're a coach,
you are really a member of your community
and you're a part of someone's life in a special way.
And so, aside from being called dad,
it's the every single time the most impactful thing
is every time I hear, hey, coach,
that's my most impactful moment that I've experienced.
Oh, man, making me think too.
So mine, I'm going to make it to this, you know,
wrestling, that freshman that came out for wrestling
for the first time ever.
And somebody's going to say, what, their first pin?
No, actually watching them get their first maneuver,
their move that scored points in that ref
putting up the two fingers for two points on a takedown,
watching somebody get that first takedown.
Amazing.
Just one of those moments again, you feel like coach,
coach, Oscar, Johnny Lupinacci, man,
love Boston Balls with the two of you guys every Friday.
It is awesomeness that we're here.
If you love this segment and want to hear more
about this segment or again, have ideas, comments,
critiques we want to hear from you.
It's 608-557-8577.
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Thanks, everybody, for busting pencils.
Make sure you come in on Monday for, hey, it's that home room.
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Tell us what you're thinking, 608-557-8577.
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