Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Faith in the Zone. I'm Fox Sports ninet
twenty in your iHeart Radio app. I'm Mike mcgiver alongside
my co host. He's the head pastor at Brookside Baptist Church. Pastor.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
How are you doing.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
I'm doing great, Mike. Good to be with you and
David today, so and our guests.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Yeah, it's good to have Roger Rode.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
We were coming from the Donovan of Jordansen Heating and
Kooliing Studios fortieth anniversary for my friends at Donovan and
Jordanson Heating COOLi the largest employee owned HVAC company in
the state of Wisconsin. They've been doing this in our
neighborhoods for forty years, keeping you warm, keeping your family warm,
making sure the air conditioner kicks in, the furnace kicks in.
(00:41):
And I'm big fans of the people at Donovan Jordansen
Heating and Cooling. Our special guest, we had him on
at the other station years ago. And Roger Liipe, who
is the character Coach. He is the character director for
Nations of Coaches. You go to Nations offcoaches dot Com
to get more information on what Roger and his team
(01:03):
what they do all all throughout the country with Nations
of Coaches. Roger, how you been.
Speaker 4 (01:10):
Very well? Thanks so much.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
All Yeah, we're good. I really appreciate your time today.
And you know, if you we've had a number of
guys from Nations of Coaches on here in the last
I don't know, six months to a year. Grayson Wakefield
young Man, we had on a number of months ago.
How is Grayson doing.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
Grayson's doing great. He and his wife have two little
ones now and he's a young dad and he's an
invaluable colleague.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
To me, that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
You know, I've had Kelly Kennedy on a couple of
shows I do Roger, I do a high school basketball show,
and we had her on as a former coach, and
then we've had her on Faith in the Zone and
and uh, I remember the phone call I got from
her saying, Hey, listen, here's what I'm doing. I'm heading
over to to start the women's side of Nations of Coaches.
(02:03):
And I was so happy for her. I've not talked
to her in about probably eight months. How is she doing?
Speaker 4 (02:10):
She's doing great. We were just in a meeting together
via zoom today working on preparations for the women's Final
four coming up in Tampa.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Please tell those guys, especially Kelly had her in studio.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
She was in Milwaukee for.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
A tournament of volleyball tournament and I had her and
two of her daughters come in studio and got a
chance to talk with her. And I've read her book
a couple of times. It gained a lot of insight
as a father and as a former coach and a
grandfather for that matter, into making sure I you know
how I treat officials, how I treat coaches. And I
(02:45):
wish Pastor Ken would have read that book, you know,
when I was coaching his kids.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
But you know, other than that, it worked out just fine.
Oh he was awesome. We loved him.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Yeah, I've got some video that might question that. Oh no,
that ye. Kathy, his wife used the videotape our games.
And I don't know if she knew that the microphone
was out all the time. Roger, I gotta be honest
with you.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
She just wanted her son to be put back in
the game. She did.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
But you know, you just turn the ball over three
or four times in a row, and he's pulling out
his jersey asking to come out. Hey, Roger, let's talk
about your background. How long you've been with Nations of Coaches.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
Three and a half years now. Prior to that, I
did twenty seven years with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Man, that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
To talk a little bit about why you made the
change from FCA over the Nations of Coaches.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
That's a great question because with FCA, what I did
was a bunch of things broadly, and at the same
time tried to do what I was doing here at
the university with sports teams here as deeply as possible.
But those things often worked against each other. And what
(04:01):
I would try to do deeply, I also had the
responsibilities broadly, and so he was back and forth and
Nations of Coaches was looking for a character coach director,
and they approached me about it, and I said, let's
talk about it. We had a bunch of phone calls
and I said, guys, look, I'm about sixty five years old.
I think I have five to ten years of go
(04:23):
really hard in me. I'd really like to spend that
time doing things as deeply and as narrowly as possible.
And they said, let's go. And so what this has
afforded me just to focus on character coaching sports chaplaincy
as the thing that I do as opposed to one
of several things because I do.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
Hey, Roger, what schools have you have you been involved
in or got open doors?
Speaker 4 (04:50):
Was? Yeah, great, well one I served directly here at
Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, right, But then we're at
we're serving. We have one hundre in the eighty seven
character coaches serving around the country now everywhere from the
West coast to the East coast and the golf all
the way up through Chicago and into Michigan. So we're
(05:12):
all over the place. Some of them Power four kind
of very high profile programs, a lot of them D three,
n ai A Division two. So we're all over the
place in a bunch of different environments. But in our ministry,
it's all in college basketball, both men's and women's.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
You know.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Pastor, you know coach Shid from from Saint Francis, who
we did. We did the prayer time with people at
Brookside with coaches, and he came to see I don't.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Want to hear about it. He came to see me
in my theater debut didn't work out.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Well, but he has reached out to Roger about possibly
doing some things because we don't they don't have a
character coach in the state of Wisconsin working with colleges
here and coach said who is now retired from coaching
girls basketball. He's still on staff until the end of
the year, but he has heard. He listens to Faith
(06:08):
in the Zone every week and he heard Grayson, He's heard,
you know, Tim Carter and Pete were in a number
of guys we've had on and had a lot of interest,
prayed a lot about it and reached out to Roger
and has some interests in maybe working with a character
with nations of coaches here in the state of Wisconsin.
And I'm a big coach, said Fan, So I'm hoping
(06:29):
that maybe the Lord has that in his future.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
That'd be awesome.
Speaker 4 (06:33):
Yeah. And in addition, we have Bob Lichty who's over
at University of Wisconsin Stout. He's serving as character coach
to men's basketball there, affiliated with US and he's on
FCA staff. So we have a great partnership in a
bunch of places with FCA staff working with US athletes
and action staff, campus outreach, a bunch of other campus
(06:54):
ministries and then lots and lots and lots of local
pastors who volunteer with us as well.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
I'm sorry, but what is the man's name that that
works with U W.
Speaker 4 (07:03):
Stott, Bob lichty l I C H T Y. Bob's
the outstanding guy, long history as a college football coach,
but opportunity to serve with the basketball open and he said, yeah,
let's do it, and we got together and got him
trained in the grow up to the ways of college
basketball and he is crushing it.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
So now you're the Nations of Coaches, are you primarily
just focused on basketball or do you have some that
work with football?
Speaker 4 (07:31):
Nope, just college basketball.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
At this point, yep, just college basketball. We are talking
in our and our special guests for the entire hour.
He is Roger Life. He is the Character Coach director
for Nations of Coaches And if you get a chance,
go to their website Nations off Coaches dot com, Nations
off Coaches dot Com. And when you find Roger, right
(07:53):
next to him is this young man Grace and Wakefield,
who he just talked about. And there's a way to
support if you're feeling led to help these guys because
that's how they make a living. Uh, they're they're not
paid a salary, but they go out. And for people
that listen to a show like Faith in the Zone,
if they're feeling led to continue this ministry, these guys
(08:13):
are on, there's a support Grayson tab, there's support Kelly,
Kelly Kennedy, and you can go all the way through
this supporting Billy Donn and Jim Good guys that we've
had on this show. I would ask you to consider
that and read the bios. The reason I've brought up
Grayson a couple of times, he's just a young guy.
He's a young guy, two little kids, and he's he's
(08:35):
working really hard to make sure that this this ministry
that he's involved in continues. And and Grayson is. He
was great on our show and we'll replay that show
coming up here in the next couple of months so
that people get a good idea on who Grayson is.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
So Roger, you were talking about, you know, from you
know D two to in I A or in A
I A. Do you have do you have some D
one programs that you're working with?
Speaker 4 (09:03):
Yeah, we do, I mean just a couple of that
are prominent, right now because they're winning at the Power
four level. Is we actually have a full time character coach.
He's there all the time. The coaches are at Auburn University.
They're pretty good. Yeah, right, number one in the nation
at the moment. We have a guy serving full time
at Baylor University. Okay, we have another.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Guy and we've had the We've had the coach at Baylor,
his dad and everybody on for that.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
The we we had about six weeks at Drew's. I
think it was awesome.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
It was awesome.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
Yeah, good, Sorry, sorry who you were mentioned? Some others.
Speaker 4 (09:45):
Yeah, we have another guy who's serving he's a local pastor,
but he's also serving at Texas Tech who's very good
at the moment as well. And then some just other
programs around the country. To Paul, just thinking about some
off the top of my head.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Many at Oklahoma. You need anybody at Oklahoma.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
Not at the moment.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
No, are you sure I've got I've got a head.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
I've got a head pastor and a church and.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Go to you would step down tomorrow if he could
get back to Oklahoma. I'm just telling you right away.
He wants to He wants to tell you that he
grew up in Carbondale, Oh, Klahoma.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Yeah I did.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Yeah, I went to Carbondale Bible Chairs. That's where I
grew up. That was that was the area I came
to know the Lord. So I don't know why as
a small boy, but Carbondale, Illinois really caught my attention
and I thought, what a neat place.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
I have to go there someday.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
Yeah, it's a great place. It's funny because you mentioned
all of our opportunities to serve as character coaches come
at the pleasure of the head coach. So it was
it's not a programmatic thing at all. Rather, it's an
intentionally relational thing. And as the coach expresses interest in
somebody like Pete Pete Weary or Jim Good or Billy
(11:00):
Donn or one of our regional directors, Kim Carter, they
talk with the coach. Coach says, yes, we kind of
outline what the role is and then we start trying
to coach, is there somebody you know, you already trust
that we could train to serve in that role, And
often they're brand new to town, so I don't even know
anybody here in town yet, and so but we'll then
(11:22):
work through our connections, who do we know in town
and how can we find the right fit and then
what we'll train and prepare that person and help get
more her develop into that character coach that serves the
team and the coaching staff as designed by the coach.
Coach always sets the parameters for what we do and
how we do it, and we serve faithfully and it
(11:44):
really really goes.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Well, that's great.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
Well, I would think Porter Moser would be in touch
with you guys because Oklahoma is on a downward spiral
as fast as they can go right now, So I
would think they would be interested in a character coach hope.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
So yeah, I do too.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Hey, before we get to a break, you had talked
about the Women's Final four, I want to talk a
little bit about the events that you guys do at
the Men's Final four coming up April third through the
seventh in San Antonio, Texas. Like Thursday, April third, the
Gathering and it's a welcoming space for coaches wives to
(12:21):
connect with others, which I think is really needed and
I appreciate that. April fourth, the Coach's Edge, then the
coach John Wooden Keys to Life Breakfast, Yeah, and then
the worship service Sunday, April sixth, Man, you guys are
awfully busy on Final four, and it must be a
great time for you guys to connect with the number
of coaches.
Speaker 4 (12:44):
It really is, because that's the important thing for us,
is we want to be where the coaches are. They
are going to the Final Four and that's where the
Coaches Convention is, and so that's why we try to
offer some ministry events at the spot where they are
already are make it as convenient as possible because their
lives are crowded with tons of things going on even
(13:07):
during the convention. I mean, there will be recruiting, police made,
they be a ton of things going on at the
same time. And that's one of the things we've been
pleased to do. Like with the gathering event, is we're
trying to make it more spouse friendly for the coaches'
spouses so that there's something for them to do beyond
I'm just going to go hang out in the hotel room,
I guess, or just follow you around or something. But
(13:29):
there's something specifically for them. And then the coaches edges
for coaches and it helps coaches large part of what
they're trying to do at the convention anyway is the network.
And this puts a whole bunch of coaches in the
same room. They get to talk to each other, they
get to meet new colleagues, They get to a lot
of those guys are looking for the next job, and
they get to see some of the coaches are of
(13:50):
the like mind as they are faith oriented folks. They
get to meet them right there in that same room
and it builds a lot of relationships.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Hey Pastor on that the John Wooden the coach wouldn't
Keys to Life Breakfast. They they award different awards and
last year Lionel Hollins, former as U Sundella NBA player
and coach, he was the Award of Recipient last year.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
And and when you look on on UH.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
On what they're doing and some of the past award winners,
these are guys that everybody knows and you know, Alan Houston,
and Rick Barnes and John h. B Line and and
Scott True. It's really interesting to me all the work
that that these guys are doing during the Final four
and I think it's important to understand that it's this
is where they have to be and UH you know,
(14:42):
it'd be fun to go to one of these. I've
never been to a Final four, but would uh would
think about going If I could, you know, do some
of this stuff in the morning during the day and
then get to some basketball games that night.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
You'd be very good at Mike, you'd be very good
at it. Well to eating breakfast. Is that where you're
going with that?
Speaker 3 (14:59):
Remember last Connected Connecting last week I talked about how
great you were, right, Yeah, I.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Could go back. Man, I gotta tell you, Roger.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
Last week he started the show by saying, Hey, I
went to a basketball game and there was this coach
and he was found mouth and he was a horrible coach.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
He reminded me of you a little better. Yeah that's man.
Speaker 5 (15:22):
No, it came out wrong, Roger. It just came out
you know what. And look, I love Ken Cultner and
I just started laughing. I said, Wow, that didn't make
me feel very good. Yeah, it bothered me the rest
of the day. Man, come out with that.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
It just gave it gave me a little bit of
stuff to say. Guys, let's get your break. On other
side of the break, we will ask our special guests.
He's Roger life character coach director for Nations of Coaches Again,
go to Nations of Coaches dot com. We're gonna ask
Roger to share his testimony this Faith in the Zone
on Fox Sports ninet twenty in your iHeart Radio app.
(16:05):
Welcome back to Faith in the Zone on Fox Sports
ninet twenty in your iHeart Radio app. I'm Mike mcgive
her alongside the head pastor at Brookside Baptist Church. He's
Ken Keltner, coming from the Donovan and Jorgenson Heating and
Cooling Studios. Our special guest. He is the Character Coach
director for Nations of Coaches Again. Go to Nationsocoaches dot com.
(16:27):
You'll get a great feeling on the mission statement behind
what they're trying to accomplish and what they have accomplished
for a long time. And as you're doing that, if
you're feeling led to help these guys in this mission,
there's a way that you can help individual guys or
it can go right into the general fund, and I
would ask that you would consider doing that. Hey, Roger,
(16:49):
our second segment is our favorite where we ask our
guests to share their testimony if you would be so kind.
Speaker 4 (16:57):
Sure. The front end of this is incredibly boring because
I was a kid who grew up in church committed
my life to Christ at ten years old just because
I knew it was the right thing to do. It's
really really simple to me. But then growing up in
a town with brothers, in small town in southern Illinois,
things are just kind of normal until at age sixteen,
(17:19):
when I'm a high school wrestler and just a jock,
and I wind up going to explode seventy two, which
was a big event during the Jesus Movement in Dallas, Texas,
And all of a sudden, I'm exposed to people from
all over the country and I'm walking. I'm going there
are hippies giving up heroin for Jesus. There is something
(17:39):
more going on here that I knew about as a
Baptist boy from southern Illinois. What is happening here? And
so suddenly, because it's a campus crusade event, we're learning
how to share the four Spiritual Laws, We're learning all
this stuff. I've come back with ignorance on fire, and
suddenly we're doing a lot of things. At our high school.
I've seen my classmates and teammates come to Christ and
(18:01):
in the middle of the FCA there at the school,
and lots of things are happening, but we're still as
dumb as a post, but following along, doing the best
we can. And then I'm still competing. Love sport, love
to play all kinds of sport all the way through
my life. And then but after high school, it was
just no place to go. And I'm playing, you know,
(18:24):
slow pitch softball with my buddies, playing fast pitch softball,
doing bracketball, a bunch of other things. And suddenly, at
about nineteen eighty, I'm really starting to build discipleship into
my life and growing in some ways in that way.
And I go see the film, Sure It's a fire,
(18:44):
Because I had always been the guy who was either
I was I was rather kind of almost bipolar in
the way I competed. I was really, really, I think,
a nice guy off the field, but man, I competed
so stinking hard, and it was it was a terrible
dichotomy for me to think, Okay, I can either play
hard or I can play nice. Everybody at church wants
(19:07):
me to play nice. Well, I hate playing nice. I
really love to play really hard. You know. I was
always in a catch twenty two in that process. But
it was wasn't until I saw chariots and fire and
here's Eric Little standing there about to win the Olympic
gold medal in nineteen twenty four on the screen and
he's saying, I know God made me for a purpose,
(19:28):
but he also made me fast and when I run,
I feel his pleasure. And then he says further to
give it up would be to hold him in contempt.
And suddenly I am freed. Suddenly I saw that I
can compete as hard as I want to, but I
need to do it in a God honoring way. Well
(19:50):
that was really simple and touch a stroke of the
genius for me to be able to see. Now I
know how to not have play harder play nice as
a dichotomy, but rather embrace sport. Embrace competition is something
I can do wholeheartedly as a matter of worship and
say this is my offering to God by how I compete,
(20:13):
and let that shape the way I compete. Holy smoke.
That was transforming. And then years later FCA came along,
and then you know, my whole career with that. But
those foundational moments from ten and then sixteen and then
I guess I was twenty four in nineteen eighty and
suddenly there it is. I can see these things coming
(20:34):
to fruition and it all kind of brought integrity to
my life in Sport.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
So Rogers, thank you for sharing that. So at ten
you came to know Christ. And then what I loved
hearing is, I think the big theological word is sanctification,
which means basically God, God is growing you. He's setting
you apart. I mean, you get rid of some of
the things that are hurting you spiritually with yourself, with
(21:00):
the things that are helping you grow. And it was
encouraging to just listen to how God was taking you
along that journey and he's still taking you along the
journey as he is Mike and myself also where he's
just showing us conforming us to how he wants us
to live and how we can honor and glorify him
and really how He's gifted us. And so that was powerful, Buddy,
(21:23):
I appreciate hearing that, you.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Know, pastored when he if I can't Roger what it's
funny because there are guys that we have on this show,
and we talked about this a lot, right, Like Rogers said, Look,
the first half of this is kind of boring. And
to me, I'm envious of that Roger that at ten
years old, because it took me a lot longer to
(21:45):
figure this thing out. And there's nothing boring to that
last week or two weeks ago when we had autumn
and studio and you said look at and you've said
this a number of times, but that is so brilliant
that he made it so easy that even a child
can underst stand it. Yeah, and that's just stuck with me,
pastor Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (22:06):
Yeah, yeah. I have lots of friends who have come
to Christ later in life, and we'll compare notes on things,
and I come away going, you know what, I don't
wake up with bad, bad memories of ellas teachers, I
never had any. I don't wake up with feelings of
regret and guilt because of a bunch of mistakes in
(22:29):
relational situations, but because I didn't have those. So there's
a freedom in that that some of my friends are
very jealous of, because they're like, yeah, that stuff is
still back there in the back of my mind and
I have to deal with it. Yeah. There's a great
deal of freedom of having been saved from things as
opposed to being saved through them.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
Yeah, and you know what, the Christian life, God is good.
I mean David said it even kind of a lower
time in his life, but basically in some things before
he says OTAs and see the Lord is good and
the Christian You know, someone will say, well, man, that
Christian life is just born.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
I think it's just been awesome. I mean it's fun.
I mean, love life, love people. I tell people you
can't really know how to live until you know how
to die, because we're all going to die, you know,
and you got to know what's going to happen to
you after you die.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
Amen to that.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Our special guest he is Roger Life Again, character coach
director for Nations of Coaches Nations of Coaches dot com.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
One of the.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Things that I love about Nations of Coaches is you
don't you don't just focus on the coach. You focus
on the family, the marriage and family. And as a
guy that coached at different levels for thirty six years,
and I use this line a lot, there's a special
place in heaven for coaches wives because I look my
(23:57):
I would I drugged my wife with basketball guy hug.
I dragged her into gyms all over this area, over
and over again. And it's funny because when I did
retire her about I don't know, three months, two months
into the basketball season, she said, I thought she'd be
home a little bit more.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
And I said, no, I'm still going to games.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
I'm still going to some practices because I have to
get kind of that little fix, right I Ever, once
while I get asked to come run a couple of drills.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
Well, you know, I've never asked you this, but did Terry?
Would she actually do a little critiquing of your.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Team doesn't box out enough? That was what she got
out of that.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
And the three years I coached my well, the three
years at the high school level I coached my son,
why'd you pull him out?
Speaker 2 (24:43):
Why not pull him out?
Speaker 1 (24:45):
Because he wouldn't defend. He missed three shots, and he
throw the ball over a couple times. And I know
if I pull him out and I just look at him,
I could get him back play well pretty quick.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
I thought.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
And she never said anything about Michael, you need to
calm down out there or anything like that.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
Sure, not sure?
Speaker 1 (25:02):
And then she'd asked me why missus Keldler yelled at
me all the time.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
I think those are the things.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
Hey, as we're talking to Roger, let me tell you
real quick, the mission statements run online, so they're not
running from this.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
Guys. When somebody puts.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
Their mission and vision vision statement right on their website
for everybody to see, this is what they This is
their true mission and vision statement. But to see coaches
and all whom influence impacted for the glory of God,
and their vision statement is to equip coaches to leave
a legacy of excellence. And I love that. And when
(25:36):
Roger talked about look, I found out from watching Chariti
and Fire and Going to Explode seventy two that I
could be a competitive athlete and still be a believer
and still accept Jesus Christ my personal savior. And we've
had that conversation with guys over the years pastor can
you can you go as hard as you can on
(25:58):
the basketball floor on there, Matt right, and still be
able to then say, look, I'm doing this all for
His glory and we believe you can't.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
First Corinthians ten thirty one says it pretty clearly, whether
therefore you eat or drink, or whatever you do do
all to the glory of God. So you better believe
it you go out to win.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
Hey, Roger, is that a conversation that you have with
some of the guys that you're hoping to get in
as character coaches or guys that already embedded with nations
of coaches, That you can have those conversations with players
at the college.
Speaker 4 (26:31):
Level, absolutely, because a lot of them come from the
same kind of dichotomy of how you either play harder
you play nice And no, that's not what we're talking about.
And there are always to compete in a God honoring way.
And I mean you mentioned first Corinthians ten thirty one.
I often talk about one Corinthians nine, twenty four and
(26:53):
twenty five. Romans Chapter twelve, Verses one and two. These
all inform our way of approaching competition as a God
honoring venture and even as an expression of worship. That's
my point in Romans twelve is I present my body
as a living sacrifice. I'm an old wrestler, so there's
(27:13):
a whole lot of things about wrestling that is a
living sacrifice every day and it's just painful at times,
and so that resonates with me really strongly that I
can present my body as a living sacrifice and then
it is holy and it's acceptable to God. Yeah, that
is my spiritual act of worship. Yes it is. And
(27:37):
so to help folks see that as not just okay,
I go to church on Sunday to worship. Then I
go to the wrestling room to work out. No, no, no,
you can work out and worship in the wrestling room,
on the basketball floor, on the football pitch, wherever it
is you're going. You can carry your faith goes with
you into those environments. They become holy because you're there,
(27:59):
because you're expressing your heart for God in the moment.
That's the stuff that makes it go.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
Yeah, you know, Roger, I did do some before I
came down to Brookside. I was doing some college D
three n c C Double A Division two basketball with
the young women. And you know, these girls had a
great love for the Lord and they wanted to they
wanted to hand out tracks to the other team and
(28:26):
so forth. But I remember telling them, Hey, when we
get beat by over fifty, we're not giving any tracks out.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
You know, you know, right, you have to compete.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
You have to compete and play hard and make this
somewhat competitive for anyone to even want to listen to you,
and they.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
Kind of picked up on it.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
Yeah, yeah, they yeah, they got to eve if they
beat you, they still respect you and respect how you play.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
Hey, Roger, did you get on of the You still
get on the mat every once in a while, or
the wrestling days are all.
Speaker 4 (28:59):
Here?
Speaker 2 (28:59):
We go? Hey, I'm just asking Roger.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
Roger Roger might loves talking smack to many of our guests.
I don't care if they're a pitcher in baseball, he's
gonna step in the batter's box and put wood on
the ball.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Or I don't know what you're talking. Well, he was
setting you up, Roger.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
He was asking if you get on the mat anymore,
because he was getting already in his uh position of.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
You know, wanting to slap somebody in the head.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
Roger, I got to tell you this. We had a
guy on and he was, uh, he had he had
never lost in high school. He won four NCAA championships.
He was about to make the Olympic team when he
tore up his shoulder and older, you know, older like
me now, And I said, uh, you know, hey, if
you ever get he lived in the state of Washington,
(29:44):
he's not getting to Wisconsin. So I said, hey, if
you ever get to Wisconsin, I'll find him. Matt, I'll
grapple with you. I wrestle for two years in high school.
And he goes, really, I go absolutely, He goes, my
daughter teaches at Milwaukee Marshall. Now I was looking for
a reason to come in town.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
And I go, hey, I was just kidding.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
He goes, oh, no, big boy, And Pastor was like,
I'll rent a wrestling I'll sell tickets to that thing.
He would have pined me in about fifteen seconds if
he wanted to. There was no vision quest going through
me and trying to beat him. I can tell you that.
And I wouldn't get out of mat with you either,
mister Lipe.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
I just wouldn't.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
Our special guest for the entire hour. He is Roger
Life character coach or director. He is the character coach
director for Nations of Coaches. Go to Nations of Coaches
dot com.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
We'll get you a break.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
On other side of the break, will continue our conversation
with Roger. This is Faith in the Zone on Fox
Sports ninet twenty in your iHeart Radio app. Welcome back
to Faith in the Zone on Fox Sports ninety twenty
in your iHeart Radio app. I might be giving alongside
the head pastor from Brookside Baptist Church. He's Pastor ken Keeltner,
coming from the Donovan and Jorganson Heating and Cooling Studios.
(30:58):
Our special guest is has been really fun for me
is Roger Life. He doesn't want to get up to
Wisconsin get on the mat with me. I guess I
don't know.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
He didn't seem to.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
He didn't seem to even nibble on that when I
threw it out. I don't blame him, do you?
Speaker 2 (31:13):
Uh? Well, I would last five seconds? Yeah, yeah, I
would enjoy watching it. Yeah, you would.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
Maybe what we could do is you and I could
be a tag team and I could tag off and
then you go. You try to take Rogers down a
little bit. Roger Life is a character coach, director of
the Character Coach director for Nations of Coaches.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Yes, Roger, that's funny.
Speaker 4 (31:40):
About ten years ago, I'm in the locker room with
our football team preseason and it's you know, summer, it's
August to today kind of practices going on. There's two
knuckleheads over there kind of acting like they're wrestling. And
I said, you guys don't know what you're doing. And
one of the guys said, oh yeah, let's go, and
so I we locked up and I underhooked him and
(32:02):
I was about to throw him. Oh no, And it
was funny because all the team then pulled up and
it was great and we neither one got thrown to
the floor, but it was pretty good. He got like
a little man strength.
Speaker 3 (32:16):
Well, well, I mean you you get you received immediate
respect from that guy right then.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
That was it. That's all you had to do.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
And then put him down, walk away and say, don't
don't be messing with me. I still know how to
do this. Hey, hey, Roger as as the uh the
director of Character Coaches Nations of Coaches, what keeps you
up at night?
Speaker 4 (32:39):
Like?
Speaker 1 (32:39):
What is are the things that as you go about
your day and and and look at kind of this
legacy that you're trying to leave what keeps you up
at night? And I would assume trying to find the
correct fit for the areas that you're trying to find,
but I might be wrong on that.
Speaker 4 (32:58):
All that's part of it is as we get opportunities
with a coach who says, I think I do want
a character coach. Now, trying to find the right person
to fit that opportunity is a huge thing, and it's
not easy. You think it would be snap, Oh good,
there's probably ten people lining up to do that. Well,
nine of them may be really bad at it, and
(33:19):
I really don't want them to do it. They may
have the wrong mentality, or they may have a poor motive,
or so we'll do a lot of things to try
to vet with people. Are they the right fit? Is
this person coming at it from the right point of view?
I challenge them hard. Do not act like a fan,
(33:40):
because coaches don't need fans here. They need someone who
cares for their souls. That's what they need. Someone who
genuinely cares for the people and is not going to
ride up and down based on the win loss record
this week. No, I'm not going to disappear if you
perform badly. We have to have the right mentality, and
so trying to find the right people to fit the
(34:03):
opportunity is the thing.
Speaker 1 (34:05):
Hey, and again, on the website Nations Offcoaches dot Com,
there's a quote by Tommy Kyle and he shared some
statistics and this, for me, this would be something that
would keep me up at night if I was in
your space, Roger, there are nearly two thousand men's college
basketball teams. That relates to about ten thousand coaches and
(34:29):
a little fewer than thirty thousand student athletes. Every year,
we are in about ten percent of the programs. We're
reaching more student athletes and coaches than ever imagined, But
there's so much more work that needs to be done,
and that I look when you break down the numbers,
when you go look, it's just math at this point,
(34:49):
right if you just look at that ten percent of
the programs. Love the fact that nations of coaches have
gotten to the point that you're in over ten percent
of the programs. But boy, there's still ninety percent of
them that that that need guys like you that are
willing to do the work.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
And that's what would keep me up at night.
Speaker 4 (35:11):
Yeah, it really doesn't keep me up at night because
I know I can't do anything to change it. Again,
because we serve at the pleasure of coaches. It's a
matter of coaches being aware of us. First, we're working
hard on that just to make them more aware, and
that's why we go to the final four, do things
like that. But then it still comes down through the
(35:32):
coach wanting to I think that is the big thing
in the Kingdom of God is hunger. Yeah, if there's
no hunger, there's nothing to do.
Speaker 3 (35:42):
Hey, rogers, so help us help me out. So if
you if Mike comes in as a coach, you know,
for he's going to be a character coach for a team.
I mean, what what what basically then happens? What's he
do with the coach? What's he do with the play?
I mean, well, tell tell me a little bit of
what goes on.
Speaker 4 (36:01):
Yeah, great, Again, it starts with the coach, coach expressing
an interest in having one. Okay, we say we're at
you know, East Podak State. Good love it. Who's in
your community coach whom we might be able to train
to be and serve well? And often it'll be you
know what, this guy goes to church with me. I
kind of like him. Let's talk with him. Good, that's great.
(36:22):
If we have that, it's a perfect place to start.
Then we would talk with that person about the role.
Is this something you'd like to do? I have a
simple orientation video here. Watch this video. See if this
where we kind of describe the role. What does that
look like, oh, I'd love to do that, brilliant. Let's
do that. We get him trained and then attached to
(36:42):
a team. But that's kind of the way it starts.
As the coach says, yes, we find the right person,
get that person connected and okay by the coach. Then
we train them. We have a training process of online
videos and as well as some written material, and then
we do an in person training where we help them
take this general information that could work with all levels
(37:05):
of college basketball. Now, let's let's tailor it to East
Podunk State University to where you know your coach players.
Let's make sure this fits your environment, how you would
go about it given your particular skill set, gift set,
How much time can you give us per week, that
kind of thing, to where it then comes down where
(37:26):
the character coach knows when I go back to home,
When I go back home this weekend and I walk
into the gym on Tuesday, I know what to do.
That's kind of our process. And then we have a
series of things like zoom meetings throughout the season and
other things to help develop people month to month, year
to year so that they're able to serve.
Speaker 1 (37:45):
Really well, you know, It's an interesting pastor because when
we had either Jim Good or Billy Donn, and I
wish I could remember, but he said, look, on a
day to day basis, my job might be to pick
up people at the airport, or to fill the wall bottles,
or to you know, I'm there at the head coaches right.
(38:05):
I'm there to serve this program and this staff. And
if if what it is is to get these guys
ready for an away trip by helping, you know, put
the luggage in the butt, I'm there to do that.
And you know that that whole servant leadership heart that
that I believe this is something that we are taught
and not born with. They were taught that somewhere and
(38:28):
somewhere along the line. And when you talk to Roger
and he talks about as a ten year old and
then as a you know, a high school age kid
going to explode seventy two and doing all of this,
I think that that's where that all comes from. And
I really commend these guys because they're there working hard
every day to find the niche where they can talk
to a player. They got to take the take a
(38:50):
player to the airport because he's got to go home
for Thanksgiving or whatever. They get that time to spend
with with those players, and I love the fact that
they're doing whatever they can to find those moments that
they can then have those conversations, and I think they
do great work. One of the things that one of
the reasons we've had so many guys on from nations
(39:10):
of coaches is because I truly believe in their mission
and what they're trying to accomplish with these coaching staffs
and these players on different universities and at that time
in these young men lives, that's when they need a
character coach, I think more than ever.
Speaker 2 (39:27):
Guys, let's get to a break.
Speaker 1 (39:28):
On other side of the break, we will ask Roger
Lafe that question that we always ask at the end
of Faith in his own any uniform he's ever put
on as an athlete, as a coach, we put him
in a closet he gets to pull one out.
Speaker 2 (39:41):
Which uniform does he pull out? Who does he play against?
And why? Where do you think he's going with this past?
Do you like to predict? Oh, it's going to be
on the wrestling Matt really, Oh yeah, all right, we're
gonna find out. Well, we'll check in. I don't know
about that. He's coached a lot too. Yeah, we'll see.
Speaker 1 (39:58):
This is Faith is Own on Fox Sports nine twenty
and your iHeart Radio app. Welcome back to Faith in
the Zone on Fox Sports nine twenty and your iHeartRadio app.
I Mike be given alongside Pastor Ken Keltner from Brookside
Baptist Church. Our special guest has been really fun for us.
Roger Life Character Coach for Character Coach Director for Nations
(40:22):
of Coaches, go to Nationsofcoaches dot Com and again, spend
some time in that website, get a good feel for
what they're doing, and then introduce yourself to some of
these guys that are doing this and some of the
different things that they do, not only with coaches, but
marriages and wives and families. It's it's a very stressful
(40:43):
time to be a college basketball coach, which means it's
stressful for them at home, stressful for them in the
locker room. And we would appreciate if you're feeling led
to help any individual guy out, there's a place to
do that or for the overall mission of Nations of Coaches.
There's a donut donate button right there. On their website,
(41:03):
and we would appreciate any help that you're willing to give. Hey, Roger,
this last segment is really fun for us. All the
uniforms you've ever put on as a player, as a coach,
you can put them all in a closet. You get
to pull one uniform out to get one more game,
one more match with that team.
Speaker 2 (41:21):
What uniform do you pull out? Who do you play against,
compete against? And why.
Speaker 4 (41:28):
Funny you mentioned that earlier and I had five different
things go through my mind. But then when I ask
coaches or players this kind of question, I'm usually looking
for a point of pain because there's something attached to that,
and that's exactly where I w ended. Is I remember
back in my mid thirties, I was playing for a team,
(41:50):
a local fast pitched softball team called the Merchant Murphis
Bure Merchants, and I had been a kind of a
mid season addition to the roster some catching and done
some pitching, some hitting, done a bunch of things with
the team, And all of a sudden, we're playing in
a postseason tournament and we're playing against a team from
(42:13):
the Federal prison. No fulling from the Federal Prison and
they had a team and they entered him in this tournament.
And we're playing, and it's the seventh inning, the last
inning of the game, and I'm sitting here because I'm
pretty much in a reserved pitcher role, and all of
a sudden, the managers the team looks at me and
(42:34):
he says, Okay, pinch it for this guy. Well, yeah,
all right, there's two outs in the seventh and I
walked up there and I think I filed the ball
off and took another one, took a strike, and then
I'm standing there and I'm thinking, all right, I'm watching
for this bastball coming out here. God drows me a
change up and I took it for a third strike.
(42:54):
That kills me still. And I'm sixty almost sixty nine
years old, and I could still see that environment in
my head because I never get I never strike out
looking I'm gonna swing the bat. But that day, somehow
I took a third strike and it ended the season,
ended the I don't know that I played fast pitch
off ball ever again.
Speaker 3 (43:16):
Hurt anything, noy, Hey, I play, Hey, I loved it.
I played fast pitch right out of of college in
High Schoor High School and college at our church in Oklahoma.
But the pain for me came with Brookside. They got
they got in this slow pitch league softball league, and
(43:37):
I'm telling you, remember Randy Johnson hit that bird when
he was pitching. And I'm up to bat and all
of a sudden, this bird kind of flutters over to
my left. I take my eye off of the ball
because I'm looking at that bird, and I swing and
I missed course and slow pitcherer out. Then my wife
happened to be at that game, and when we're walking
out the car, she said, I'm curious, do you think
(43:57):
you need glasses?
Speaker 2 (43:58):
I go, you didn't see that. You did not see that.
Speaker 1 (44:01):
Brd Yes saved Brookside Baptists softball team, But it was
a different year. I subbed, I subbed, and I went.
I was twelve for twelve and I hit the ball
to the right field and kind of consistent. I just
go to the right field, and I knew a bunch
of guys on the other team. And it was the
last game of the year. We're gonna lose again because
(44:22):
the church softball team didn't play.
Speaker 2 (44:23):
All that well that year.
Speaker 1 (44:25):
And I'm on deck and I'm thinking, Wow, I'm twelve
for twelve and I get up and the shortstop was
like a coach, and the umpire was a referee, and
the pitcher was a youth coach.
Speaker 2 (44:35):
All guys I know.
Speaker 1 (44:36):
And as the guy is underhand of the ball, and
it was I think twelve feet right coming in, the
shortstop started running to the other side of second base,
and I thought, I'm gonna do sit a ground ball.
The short I'm gonna get on and so I used
my feet and I swang and missed. The umpire are
tears flowing down his faces.
Speaker 2 (44:54):
Eleven. He was mcgiverern. You missed that thing by like
four feet, And I thought I got home.
Speaker 1 (44:59):
My wife's how to go? I go, I swang A
mission goes, isn't it underhand?
Speaker 4 (45:03):
I go?
Speaker 1 (45:04):
Yes, he underhand? Hey, guys, we gotta go. Roger, thank
you so much again. Nations Offcoaches dot com, please do
us a favor and do yourself a favor. Go on
that website, spend a little time on that website and
understand the mission that they're trying to accomplish. And when
you get a chance to read the quote from Tommy Kyle,
it's eye opening to me that number of people that
(45:27):
they're trying to reach, and they are doing a great job,
but it's about ten percent throughout the country. We'd love
to see it get to fifteen to twenty percent because
it just would make such a difference. Hey, Roger, thanks
a lot, brother, I really appreciate your time.
Speaker 2 (45:43):
Thank you, Mike, you got it is good to see you.
You too, Mike, than you bet, David, thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (45:49):
This is Faith in the Zone on Fox Sports nine
twenty in your iHeart radio app.
Welcome to Faith in the Zone. I'm Fox Sports ninet
twenty in your iHeart Radio app. I'm Mike mcgiver alongside
my co host. He's the head pastor at Brookside Baptist Church. Pastor.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
How are you doing.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
I'm doing great, Mike. Good to be with you and
David today, so and our guests.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Yeah, it's good to have Roger Rode.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
We were coming from the Donovan of Jordansen Heating and
Kooliing Studios fortieth anniversary for my friends at Donovan and
Jordanson Heating COOLi the largest employee owned HVAC company in
the state of Wisconsin. They've been doing this in our
neighborhoods for forty years, keeping you warm, keeping your family warm,
making sure the air conditioner kicks in, the furnace kicks in.
(00:41):
And I'm big fans of the people at Donovan Jordansen
Heating and Cooling. Our special guest, we had him on
at the other station years ago. And Roger Liipe, who
is the character Coach. He is the character director for
Nations of Coaches. You go to Nations offcoaches dot Com
to get more information on what Roger and his team
(01:03):
what they do all all throughout the country with Nations
of Coaches. Roger, how you been.
Speaker 4 (01:10):
Very well? Thanks so much.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
All Yeah, we're good. I really appreciate your time today.
And you know, if you we've had a number of
guys from Nations of Coaches on here in the last
I don't know, six months to a year. Grayson Wakefield
young Man, we had on a number of months ago.
How is Grayson doing.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
Grayson's doing great. He and his wife have two little
ones now and he's a young dad and he's an
invaluable colleague.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
To me, that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
You know, I've had Kelly Kennedy on a couple of
shows I do Roger, I do a high school basketball show,
and we had her on as a former coach, and
then we've had her on Faith in the Zone and
and uh, I remember the phone call I got from
her saying, Hey, listen, here's what I'm doing. I'm heading
over to to start the women's side of Nations of Coaches.
(02:03):
And I was so happy for her. I've not talked
to her in about probably eight months. How is she doing?
Speaker 4 (02:10):
She's doing great. We were just in a meeting together
via zoom today working on preparations for the women's Final
four coming up in Tampa.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Please tell those guys, especially Kelly had her in studio.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
She was in Milwaukee for.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
A tournament of volleyball tournament and I had her and
two of her daughters come in studio and got a
chance to talk with her. And I've read her book
a couple of times. It gained a lot of insight
as a father and as a former coach and a
grandfather for that matter, into making sure I you know
how I treat officials, how I treat coaches. And I
(02:45):
wish Pastor Ken would have read that book, you know,
when I was coaching his kids.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
But you know, other than that, it worked out just fine.
Oh he was awesome. We loved him.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Yeah, I've got some video that might question that. Oh no,
that ye. Kathy, his wife used the videotape our games.
And I don't know if she knew that the microphone
was out all the time. Roger, I gotta be honest
with you.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
She just wanted her son to be put back in
the game. She did.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
But you know, you just turn the ball over three
or four times in a row, and he's pulling out
his jersey asking to come out. Hey, Roger, let's talk
about your background. How long you've been with Nations of Coaches.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
Three and a half years now. Prior to that, I
did twenty seven years with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Man, that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
To talk a little bit about why you made the
change from FCA over the Nations of Coaches.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
That's a great question because with FCA, what I did
was a bunch of things broadly, and at the same
time tried to do what I was doing here at
the university with sports teams here as deeply as possible.
But those things often worked against each other. And what
(04:01):
I would try to do deeply, I also had the
responsibilities broadly, and so he was back and forth and
Nations of Coaches was looking for a character coach director,
and they approached me about it, and I said, let's
talk about it. We had a bunch of phone calls
and I said, guys, look, I'm about sixty five years old.
I think I have five to ten years of go
(04:23):
really hard in me. I'd really like to spend that
time doing things as deeply and as narrowly as possible.
And they said, let's go. And so what this has
afforded me just to focus on character coaching sports chaplaincy
as the thing that I do as opposed to one
of several things because I do.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
Hey, Roger, what schools have you have you been involved
in or got open doors?
Speaker 4 (04:50):
Was? Yeah, great, well one I served directly here at
Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, right, But then we're at
we're serving. We have one hundre in the eighty seven
character coaches serving around the country now everywhere from the
West coast to the East coast and the golf all
the way up through Chicago and into Michigan. So we're
(05:12):
all over the place. Some of them Power four kind
of very high profile programs, a lot of them D three,
n ai A Division two. So we're all over the
place in a bunch of different environments. But in our ministry,
it's all in college basketball, both men's and women's.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
You know.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Pastor, you know coach Shid from from Saint Francis, who
we did. We did the prayer time with people at
Brookside with coaches, and he came to see I don't.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Want to hear about it. He came to see me
in my theater debut didn't work out.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Well, but he has reached out to Roger about possibly
doing some things because we don't they don't have a
character coach in the state of Wisconsin working with colleges
here and coach said who is now retired from coaching
girls basketball. He's still on staff until the end of
the year, but he has heard. He listens to Faith
(06:08):
in the Zone every week and he heard Grayson, He's heard,
you know, Tim Carter and Pete were in a number
of guys we've had on and had a lot of interest,
prayed a lot about it and reached out to Roger
and has some interests in maybe working with a character
with nations of coaches here in the state of Wisconsin.
And I'm a big coach, said Fan, So I'm hoping
(06:29):
that maybe the Lord has that in his future.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
That'd be awesome.
Speaker 4 (06:33):
Yeah. And in addition, we have Bob Lichty who's over
at University of Wisconsin Stout. He's serving as character coach
to men's basketball there, affiliated with US and he's on
FCA staff. So we have a great partnership in a
bunch of places with FCA staff working with US athletes
and action staff, campus outreach, a bunch of other campus
(06:54):
ministries and then lots and lots and lots of local
pastors who volunteer with us as well.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
I'm sorry, but what is the man's name that that
works with U W.
Speaker 4 (07:03):
Stott, Bob lichty l I C H T Y. Bob's
the outstanding guy, long history as a college football coach,
but opportunity to serve with the basketball open and he said, yeah,
let's do it, and we got together and got him
trained in the grow up to the ways of college
basketball and he is crushing it.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
So now you're the Nations of Coaches, are you primarily
just focused on basketball or do you have some that
work with football?
Speaker 4 (07:31):
Nope, just college basketball.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
At this point, yep, just college basketball. We are talking
in our and our special guests for the entire hour.
He is Roger Life. He is the Character Coach director
for Nations of Coaches And if you get a chance,
go to their website Nations off Coaches dot com, Nations
off Coaches dot Com. And when you find Roger, right
(07:53):
next to him is this young man Grace and Wakefield,
who he just talked about. And there's a way to
support if you're feeling led to help these guys because
that's how they make a living. Uh, they're they're not
paid a salary, but they go out. And for people
that listen to a show like Faith in the Zone,
if they're feeling led to continue this ministry, these guys
(08:13):
are on, there's a support Grayson tab, there's support Kelly,
Kelly Kennedy, and you can go all the way through
this supporting Billy Donn and Jim Good guys that we've
had on this show. I would ask you to consider
that and read the bios. The reason I've brought up
Grayson a couple of times, he's just a young guy.
He's a young guy, two little kids, and he's he's
(08:35):
working really hard to make sure that this this ministry
that he's involved in continues. And and Grayson is. He
was great on our show and we'll replay that show
coming up here in the next couple of months so
that people get a good idea on who Grayson is.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
So Roger, you were talking about, you know, from you
know D two to in I A or in A
I A. Do you have do you have some D
one programs that you're working with?
Speaker 4 (09:03):
Yeah, we do, I mean just a couple of that
are prominent, right now because they're winning at the Power
four level. Is we actually have a full time character coach.
He's there all the time. The coaches are at Auburn University.
They're pretty good. Yeah, right, number one in the nation
at the moment. We have a guy serving full time
at Baylor University. Okay, we have another.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Guy and we've had the We've had the coach at Baylor,
his dad and everybody on for that.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
The we we had about six weeks at Drew's. I
think it was awesome.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
It was awesome.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
Yeah, good, Sorry, sorry who you were mentioned? Some others.
Speaker 4 (09:45):
Yeah, we have another guy who's serving he's a local pastor,
but he's also serving at Texas Tech who's very good
at the moment as well. And then some just other
programs around the country. To Paul, just thinking about some
off the top of my head.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Many at Oklahoma. You need anybody at Oklahoma.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
Not at the moment.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
No, are you sure I've got I've got a head.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
I've got a head pastor and a church and.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Go to you would step down tomorrow if he could
get back to Oklahoma. I'm just telling you right away.
He wants to He wants to tell you that he
grew up in Carbondale, Oh, Klahoma.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Yeah I did.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Yeah, I went to Carbondale Bible Chairs. That's where I
grew up. That was that was the area I came
to know the Lord. So I don't know why as
a small boy, but Carbondale, Illinois really caught my attention
and I thought, what a neat place.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
I have to go there someday.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
Yeah, it's a great place. It's funny because you mentioned
all of our opportunities to serve as character coaches come
at the pleasure of the head coach. So it was
it's not a programmatic thing at all. Rather, it's an
intentionally relational thing. And as the coach expresses interest in
somebody like Pete Pete Weary or Jim Good or Billy
(11:00):
Donn or one of our regional directors, Kim Carter, they
talk with the coach. Coach says, yes, we kind of
outline what the role is and then we start trying
to coach, is there somebody you know, you already trust
that we could train to serve in that role, And
often they're brand new to town, so I don't even know
anybody here in town yet, and so but we'll then
(11:22):
work through our connections, who do we know in town
and how can we find the right fit and then
what we'll train and prepare that person and help get
more her develop into that character coach that serves the
team and the coaching staff as designed by the coach.
Coach always sets the parameters for what we do and
how we do it, and we serve faithfully and it
(11:44):
really really goes.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Well, that's great.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
Well, I would think Porter Moser would be in touch
with you guys because Oklahoma is on a downward spiral
as fast as they can go right now, So I
would think they would be interested in a character coach hope.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
So yeah, I do too.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Hey, before we get to a break, you had talked
about the Women's Final four, I want to talk a
little bit about the events that you guys do at
the Men's Final four coming up April third through the
seventh in San Antonio, Texas. Like Thursday, April third, the
Gathering and it's a welcoming space for coaches wives to
(12:21):
connect with others, which I think is really needed and
I appreciate that. April fourth, the Coach's Edge, then the
coach John Wooden Keys to Life Breakfast, Yeah, and then
the worship service Sunday, April sixth, Man, you guys are
awfully busy on Final four, and it must be a
great time for you guys to connect with the number
of coaches.
Speaker 4 (12:44):
It really is, because that's the important thing for us,
is we want to be where the coaches are. They
are going to the Final Four and that's where the
Coaches Convention is, and so that's why we try to
offer some ministry events at the spot where they are
already are make it as convenient as possible because their
lives are crowded with tons of things going on even
(13:07):
during the convention. I mean, there will be recruiting, police made,
they be a ton of things going on at the
same time. And that's one of the things we've been
pleased to do. Like with the gathering event, is we're
trying to make it more spouse friendly for the coaches'
spouses so that there's something for them to do beyond
I'm just going to go hang out in the hotel room,
I guess, or just follow you around or something. But
(13:29):
there's something specifically for them. And then the coaches edges
for coaches and it helps coaches large part of what
they're trying to do at the convention anyway is the network.
And this puts a whole bunch of coaches in the
same room. They get to talk to each other, they
get to meet new colleagues, They get to a lot
of those guys are looking for the next job, and
they get to see some of the coaches are of
(13:50):
the like mind as they are faith oriented folks. They
get to meet them right there in that same room
and it builds a lot of relationships.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Hey Pastor on that the John Wooden the coach wouldn't
Keys to Life Breakfast. They they award different awards and
last year Lionel Hollins, former as U Sundella NBA player
and coach, he was the Award of Recipient last year.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
And and when you look on on UH.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
On what they're doing and some of the past award winners,
these are guys that everybody knows and you know, Alan Houston,
and Rick Barnes and John h. B Line and and
Scott True. It's really interesting to me all the work
that that these guys are doing during the Final four
and I think it's important to understand that it's this
is where they have to be and UH you know,
(14:42):
it'd be fun to go to one of these. I've
never been to a Final four, but would uh would
think about going If I could, you know, do some
of this stuff in the morning during the day and
then get to some basketball games that night.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
You'd be very good at Mike, you'd be very good
at it. Well to eating breakfast. Is that where you're
going with that?
Speaker 3 (14:59):
Remember last Connected Connecting last week I talked about how
great you were, right, Yeah, I.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Could go back. Man, I gotta tell you, Roger.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
Last week he started the show by saying, Hey, I
went to a basketball game and there was this coach
and he was found mouth and he was a horrible coach.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
He reminded me of you a little better. Yeah that's man.
Speaker 5 (15:22):
No, it came out wrong, Roger. It just came out
you know what. And look, I love Ken Cultner and
I just started laughing. I said, Wow, that didn't make
me feel very good. Yeah, it bothered me the rest
of the day. Man, come out with that.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
It just gave it gave me a little bit of
stuff to say. Guys, let's get your break. On other
side of the break, we will ask our special guests.
He's Roger life character coach director for Nations of Coaches Again,
go to Nations of Coaches dot com. We're gonna ask
Roger to share his testimony this Faith in the Zone
on Fox Sports ninet twenty in your iHeart Radio app.
(16:05):
Welcome back to Faith in the Zone on Fox Sports
ninet twenty in your iHeart Radio app. I'm Mike mcgive
her alongside the head pastor at Brookside Baptist Church. He's
Ken Keltner, coming from the Donovan and Jorgenson Heating and
Cooling Studios. Our special guest. He is the Character Coach
director for Nations of Coaches Again. Go to Nationsocoaches dot com.
(16:27):
You'll get a great feeling on the mission statement behind
what they're trying to accomplish and what they have accomplished
for a long time. And as you're doing that, if
you're feeling led to help these guys in this mission,
there's a way that you can help individual guys or
it can go right into the general fund, and I
would ask that you would consider doing that. Hey, Roger,
(16:49):
our second segment is our favorite where we ask our
guests to share their testimony if you would be so kind.
Speaker 4 (16:57):
Sure. The front end of this is incredibly boring because
I was a kid who grew up in church committed
my life to Christ at ten years old just because
I knew it was the right thing to do. It's
really really simple to me. But then growing up in
a town with brothers, in small town in southern Illinois,
things are just kind of normal until at age sixteen,
(17:19):
when I'm a high school wrestler and just a jock,
and I wind up going to explode seventy two, which
was a big event during the Jesus Movement in Dallas, Texas,
And all of a sudden, I'm exposed to people from
all over the country and I'm walking. I'm going there
are hippies giving up heroin for Jesus. There is something
(17:39):
more going on here that I knew about as a
Baptist boy from southern Illinois. What is happening here? And
so suddenly, because it's a campus crusade event, we're learning
how to share the four Spiritual Laws, We're learning all
this stuff. I've come back with ignorance on fire, and
suddenly we're doing a lot of things. At our high school.
I've seen my classmates and teammates come to Christ and
(18:01):
in the middle of the FCA there at the school,
and lots of things are happening, but we're still as
dumb as a post, but following along, doing the best
we can. And then I'm still competing. Love sport, love
to play all kinds of sport all the way through
my life. And then but after high school, it was
just no place to go. And I'm playing, you know,
(18:24):
slow pitch softball with my buddies, playing fast pitch softball,
doing bracketball, a bunch of other things. And suddenly, at
about nineteen eighty, I'm really starting to build discipleship into
my life and growing in some ways in that way.
And I go see the film, Sure It's a fire,
(18:44):
Because I had always been the guy who was either
I was I was rather kind of almost bipolar in
the way I competed. I was really, really, I think,
a nice guy off the field, but man, I competed
so stinking hard, and it was it was a terrible
dichotomy for me to think, Okay, I can either play
hard or I can play nice. Everybody at church wants
(19:07):
me to play nice. Well, I hate playing nice. I
really love to play really hard. You know. I was
always in a catch twenty two in that process. But
it was wasn't until I saw chariots and fire and
here's Eric Little standing there about to win the Olympic
gold medal in nineteen twenty four on the screen and
he's saying, I know God made me for a purpose,
(19:28):
but he also made me fast and when I run,
I feel his pleasure. And then he says further to
give it up would be to hold him in contempt.
And suddenly I am freed. Suddenly I saw that I
can compete as hard as I want to, but I
need to do it in a God honoring way. Well
(19:50):
that was really simple and touch a stroke of the
genius for me to be able to see. Now I
know how to not have play harder play nice as
a dichotomy, but rather embrace sport. Embrace competition is something
I can do wholeheartedly as a matter of worship and
say this is my offering to God by how I compete,
(20:13):
and let that shape the way I compete. Holy smoke.
That was transforming. And then years later FCA came along,
and then you know, my whole career with that. But
those foundational moments from ten and then sixteen and then
I guess I was twenty four in nineteen eighty and
suddenly there it is. I can see these things coming
(20:34):
to fruition and it all kind of brought integrity to
my life in Sport.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
So Rogers, thank you for sharing that. So at ten
you came to know Christ. And then what I loved
hearing is, I think the big theological word is sanctification,
which means basically God, God is growing you. He's setting
you apart. I mean, you get rid of some of
the things that are hurting you spiritually with yourself, with
(21:00):
the things that are helping you grow. And it was
encouraging to just listen to how God was taking you
along that journey and he's still taking you along the
journey as he is Mike and myself also where he's
just showing us conforming us to how he wants us
to live and how we can honor and glorify him
and really how He's gifted us. And so that was powerful, Buddy,
(21:23):
I appreciate hearing that, you.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Know, pastored when he if I can't Roger what it's
funny because there are guys that we have on this show,
and we talked about this a lot, right, Like Rogers said, Look,
the first half of this is kind of boring. And
to me, I'm envious of that Roger that at ten
years old, because it took me a lot longer to
(21:45):
figure this thing out. And there's nothing boring to that
last week or two weeks ago when we had autumn
and studio and you said look at and you've said
this a number of times, but that is so brilliant
that he made it so easy that even a child
can underst stand it. Yeah, and that's just stuck with me,
pastor Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (22:06):
Yeah, yeah. I have lots of friends who have come
to Christ later in life, and we'll compare notes on things,
and I come away going, you know what, I don't
wake up with bad, bad memories of ellas teachers, I
never had any. I don't wake up with feelings of
regret and guilt because of a bunch of mistakes in
(22:29):
relational situations, but because I didn't have those. So there's
a freedom in that that some of my friends are
very jealous of, because they're like, yeah, that stuff is
still back there in the back of my mind and
I have to deal with it. Yeah. There's a great
deal of freedom of having been saved from things as
opposed to being saved through them.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
Yeah, and you know what, the Christian life, God is good.
I mean David said it even kind of a lower
time in his life, but basically in some things before
he says OTAs and see the Lord is good and
the Christian You know, someone will say, well, man, that
Christian life is just born.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
I think it's just been awesome. I mean it's fun.
I mean, love life, love people. I tell people you
can't really know how to live until you know how
to die, because we're all going to die, you know,
and you got to know what's going to happen to
you after you die.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
Amen to that.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Our special guest he is Roger Life Again, character coach
director for Nations of Coaches Nations of Coaches dot com.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
One of the.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Things that I love about Nations of Coaches is you
don't you don't just focus on the coach. You focus
on the family, the marriage and family. And as a
guy that coached at different levels for thirty six years,
and I use this line a lot, there's a special
place in heaven for coaches wives because I look my
(23:57):
I would I drugged my wife with basketball guy hug.
I dragged her into gyms all over this area, over
and over again. And it's funny because when I did
retire her about I don't know, three months, two months
into the basketball season, she said, I thought she'd be
home a little bit more.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
And I said, no, I'm still going to games.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
I'm still going to some practices because I have to
get kind of that little fix, right I Ever, once
while I get asked to come run a couple of drills.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
Well, you know, I've never asked you this, but did Terry?
Would she actually do a little critiquing of your.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Team doesn't box out enough? That was what she got
out of that.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
And the three years I coached my well, the three
years at the high school level I coached my son,
why'd you pull him out?
Speaker 2 (24:43):
Why not pull him out?
Speaker 1 (24:45):
Because he wouldn't defend. He missed three shots, and he
throw the ball over a couple times. And I know
if I pull him out and I just look at him,
I could get him back play well pretty quick.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
I thought.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
And she never said anything about Michael, you need to
calm down out there or anything like that.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
Sure, not sure?
Speaker 1 (25:02):
And then she'd asked me why missus Keldler yelled at
me all the time.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
I think those are the things.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
Hey, as we're talking to Roger, let me tell you
real quick, the mission statements run online, so they're not
running from this.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
Guys. When somebody puts.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
Their mission and vision vision statement right on their website
for everybody to see, this is what they This is
their true mission and vision statement. But to see coaches
and all whom influence impacted for the glory of God,
and their vision statement is to equip coaches to leave
a legacy of excellence. And I love that. And when
(25:36):
Roger talked about look, I found out from watching Chariti
and Fire and Going to Explode seventy two that I
could be a competitive athlete and still be a believer
and still accept Jesus Christ my personal savior. And we've
had that conversation with guys over the years pastor can
you can you go as hard as you can on
(25:58):
the basketball floor on there, Matt right, and still be
able to then say, look, I'm doing this all for
His glory and we believe you can't.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
First Corinthians ten thirty one says it pretty clearly, whether
therefore you eat or drink, or whatever you do do
all to the glory of God. So you better believe
it you go out to win.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
Hey, Roger, is that a conversation that you have with
some of the guys that you're hoping to get in
as character coaches or guys that already embedded with nations
of coaches, That you can have those conversations with players
at the college.
Speaker 4 (26:31):
Level, absolutely, because a lot of them come from the
same kind of dichotomy of how you either play harder
you play nice And no, that's not what we're talking about.
And there are always to compete in a God honoring way.
And I mean you mentioned first Corinthians ten thirty one.
I often talk about one Corinthians nine, twenty four and
(26:53):
twenty five. Romans Chapter twelve, Verses one and two. These
all inform our way of approaching competition as a God
honoring venture and even as an expression of worship. That's
my point in Romans twelve is I present my body
as a living sacrifice. I'm an old wrestler, so there's
(27:13):
a whole lot of things about wrestling that is a
living sacrifice every day and it's just painful at times,
and so that resonates with me really strongly that I
can present my body as a living sacrifice and then
it is holy and it's acceptable to God. Yeah, that
is my spiritual act of worship. Yes it is. And
(27:37):
so to help folks see that as not just okay,
I go to church on Sunday to worship. Then I
go to the wrestling room to work out. No, no, no,
you can work out and worship in the wrestling room,
on the basketball floor, on the football pitch, wherever it
is you're going. You can carry your faith goes with
you into those environments. They become holy because you're there,
(27:59):
because you're expressing your heart for God in the moment.
That's the stuff that makes it go.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
Yeah, you know, Roger, I did do some before I
came down to Brookside. I was doing some college D
three n c C Double A Division two basketball with
the young women. And you know, these girls had a
great love for the Lord and they wanted to they
wanted to hand out tracks to the other team and
(28:26):
so forth. But I remember telling them, Hey, when we
get beat by over fifty, we're not giving any tracks out.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
You know, you know, right, you have to compete.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
You have to compete and play hard and make this
somewhat competitive for anyone to even want to listen to you,
and they.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
Kind of picked up on it.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
Yeah, yeah, they yeah, they got to eve if they
beat you, they still respect you and respect how you play.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
Hey, Roger, did you get on of the You still
get on the mat every once in a while, or
the wrestling days are all.
Speaker 4 (28:59):
Here?
Speaker 2 (28:59):
We go? Hey, I'm just asking Roger.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
Roger Roger might loves talking smack to many of our guests.
I don't care if they're a pitcher in baseball, he's
gonna step in the batter's box and put wood on
the ball.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Or I don't know what you're talking. Well, he was
setting you up, Roger.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
He was asking if you get on the mat anymore,
because he was getting already in his uh position of.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
You know, wanting to slap somebody in the head.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
Roger, I got to tell you this. We had a
guy on and he was, uh, he had he had
never lost in high school. He won four NCAA championships.
He was about to make the Olympic team when he
tore up his shoulder and older, you know, older like
me now, And I said, uh, you know, hey, if
you ever get he lived in the state of Washington,
(29:44):
he's not getting to Wisconsin. So I said, hey, if
you ever get to Wisconsin, I'll find him. Matt, I'll
grapple with you. I wrestle for two years in high school.
And he goes, really, I go absolutely, He goes, my
daughter teaches at Milwaukee Marshall. Now I was looking for
a reason to come in town.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
And I go, hey, I was just kidding.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
He goes, oh, no, big boy, And Pastor was like,
I'll rent a wrestling I'll sell tickets to that thing.
He would have pined me in about fifteen seconds if
he wanted to. There was no vision quest going through
me and trying to beat him. I can tell you that.
And I wouldn't get out of mat with you either,
mister Lipe.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
I just wouldn't.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
Our special guest for the entire hour. He is Roger
Life character coach or director. He is the character coach
director for Nations of Coaches. Go to Nations of Coaches
dot com.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
We'll get you a break.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
On other side of the break, will continue our conversation
with Roger. This is Faith in the Zone on Fox
Sports ninet twenty in your iHeart Radio app. Welcome back
to Faith in the Zone on Fox Sports ninety twenty
in your iHeart Radio app. I might be giving alongside
the head pastor from Brookside Baptist Church. He's Pastor ken Keeltner,
coming from the Donovan and Jorganson Heating and Cooling Studios.
(30:58):
Our special guest is has been really fun for me
is Roger Life. He doesn't want to get up to
Wisconsin get on the mat with me. I guess I
don't know.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
He didn't seem to.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
He didn't seem to even nibble on that when I
threw it out. I don't blame him, do you?
Speaker 2 (31:13):
Uh? Well, I would last five seconds? Yeah, yeah, I
would enjoy watching it. Yeah, you would.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
Maybe what we could do is you and I could
be a tag team and I could tag off and
then you go. You try to take Rogers down a
little bit. Roger Life is a character coach, director of
the Character Coach director for Nations of Coaches.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Yes, Roger, that's funny.
Speaker 4 (31:40):
About ten years ago, I'm in the locker room with
our football team preseason and it's you know, summer, it's
August to today kind of practices going on. There's two
knuckleheads over there kind of acting like they're wrestling. And
I said, you guys don't know what you're doing. And
one of the guys said, oh yeah, let's go, and
so I we locked up and I underhooked him and
(32:02):
I was about to throw him. Oh no, And it
was funny because all the team then pulled up and
it was great and we neither one got thrown to
the floor, but it was pretty good. He got like
a little man strength.
Speaker 3 (32:16):
Well, well, I mean you you get you received immediate
respect from that guy right then.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
That was it. That's all you had to do.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
And then put him down, walk away and say, don't
don't be messing with me. I still know how to
do this. Hey, hey, Roger as as the uh the
director of Character Coaches Nations of Coaches, what keeps you
up at night?
Speaker 4 (32:39):
Like?
Speaker 1 (32:39):
What is are the things that as you go about
your day and and and look at kind of this
legacy that you're trying to leave what keeps you up
at night? And I would assume trying to find the
correct fit for the areas that you're trying to find,
but I might be wrong on that.
Speaker 4 (32:58):
All that's part of it is as we get opportunities
with a coach who says, I think I do want
a character coach. Now, trying to find the right person
to fit that opportunity is a huge thing, and it's
not easy. You think it would be snap, Oh good,
there's probably ten people lining up to do that. Well,
nine of them may be really bad at it, and
(33:19):
I really don't want them to do it. They may
have the wrong mentality, or they may have a poor motive,
or so we'll do a lot of things to try
to vet with people. Are they the right fit? Is
this person coming at it from the right point of view?
I challenge them hard. Do not act like a fan,
(33:40):
because coaches don't need fans here. They need someone who
cares for their souls. That's what they need. Someone who
genuinely cares for the people and is not going to
ride up and down based on the win loss record
this week. No, I'm not going to disappear if you
perform badly. We have to have the right mentality, and
so trying to find the right people to fit the
(34:03):
opportunity is the thing.
Speaker 1 (34:05):
Hey, and again, on the website Nations Offcoaches dot Com,
there's a quote by Tommy Kyle and he shared some
statistics and this, for me, this would be something that
would keep me up at night if I was in
your space, Roger, there are nearly two thousand men's college
basketball teams. That relates to about ten thousand coaches and
(34:29):
a little fewer than thirty thousand student athletes. Every year,
we are in about ten percent of the programs. We're
reaching more student athletes and coaches than ever imagined, But
there's so much more work that needs to be done,
and that I look when you break down the numbers,
when you go look, it's just math at this point,
(34:49):
right if you just look at that ten percent of
the programs. Love the fact that nations of coaches have
gotten to the point that you're in over ten percent
of the programs. But boy, there's still ninety percent of
them that that that need guys like you that are
willing to do the work.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
And that's what would keep me up at night.
Speaker 4 (35:11):
Yeah, it really doesn't keep me up at night because
I know I can't do anything to change it. Again,
because we serve at the pleasure of coaches. It's a
matter of coaches being aware of us. First, we're working
hard on that just to make them more aware, and
that's why we go to the final four, do things
like that. But then it still comes down through the
(35:32):
coach wanting to I think that is the big thing
in the Kingdom of God is hunger. Yeah, if there's
no hunger, there's nothing to do.
Speaker 3 (35:42):
Hey, rogers, so help us help me out. So if
you if Mike comes in as a coach, you know,
for he's going to be a character coach for a team.
I mean, what what what basically then happens? What's he
do with the coach? What's he do with the play?
I mean, well, tell tell me a little bit of
what goes on.
Speaker 4 (36:01):
Yeah, great, Again, it starts with the coach, coach expressing
an interest in having one. Okay, we say we're at
you know, East Podak State. Good love it. Who's in
your community coach whom we might be able to train
to be and serve well? And often it'll be you
know what, this guy goes to church with me. I
kind of like him. Let's talk with him. Good, that's great.
(36:22):
If we have that, it's a perfect place to start.
Then we would talk with that person about the role.
Is this something you'd like to do? I have a
simple orientation video here. Watch this video. See if this
where we kind of describe the role. What does that
look like, oh, I'd love to do that, brilliant. Let's
do that. We get him trained and then attached to
(36:42):
a team. But that's kind of the way it starts.
As the coach says, yes, we find the right person,
get that person connected and okay by the coach. Then
we train them. We have a training process of online
videos and as well as some written material, and then
we do an in person training where we help them
take this general information that could work with all levels
(37:05):
of college basketball. Now, let's let's tailor it to East
Podunk State University to where you know your coach players.
Let's make sure this fits your environment, how you would
go about it given your particular skill set, gift set,
How much time can you give us per week, that
kind of thing, to where it then comes down where
(37:26):
the character coach knows when I go back to home,
When I go back home this weekend and I walk
into the gym on Tuesday, I know what to do.
That's kind of our process. And then we have a
series of things like zoom meetings throughout the season and
other things to help develop people month to month, year
to year so that they're able to serve.
Speaker 1 (37:45):
Really well, you know, It's an interesting pastor because when
we had either Jim Good or Billy Donn, and I
wish I could remember, but he said, look, on a
day to day basis, my job might be to pick
up people at the airport, or to fill the wall bottles,
or to you know, I'm there at the head coaches right.
(38:05):
I'm there to serve this program and this staff. And
if if what it is is to get these guys
ready for an away trip by helping, you know, put
the luggage in the butt, I'm there to do that.
And you know that that whole servant leadership heart that
that I believe this is something that we are taught
and not born with. They were taught that somewhere and
(38:28):
somewhere along the line. And when you talk to Roger
and he talks about as a ten year old and
then as a you know, a high school age kid
going to explode seventy two and doing all of this,
I think that that's where that all comes from. And
I really commend these guys because they're there working hard
every day to find the niche where they can talk
to a player. They got to take the take a
(38:50):
player to the airport because he's got to go home
for Thanksgiving or whatever. They get that time to spend
with with those players, and I love the fact that
they're doing whatever they can to find those moments that
they can then have those conversations, and I think they
do great work. One of the things that one of
the reasons we've had so many guys on from nations
(39:10):
of coaches is because I truly believe in their mission
and what they're trying to accomplish with these coaching staffs
and these players on different universities and at that time
in these young men lives, that's when they need a
character coach, I think more than ever.
Speaker 2 (39:27):
Guys, let's get to a break.
Speaker 1 (39:28):
On other side of the break, we will ask Roger
Lafe that question that we always ask at the end
of Faith in his own any uniform he's ever put
on as an athlete, as a coach, we put him
in a closet he gets to pull one out.
Speaker 2 (39:41):
Which uniform does he pull out? Who does he play against?
And why? Where do you think he's going with this past?
Do you like to predict? Oh, it's going to be
on the wrestling Matt really, Oh yeah, all right, we're
gonna find out. Well, we'll check in. I don't know
about that. He's coached a lot too. Yeah, we'll see.
Speaker 1 (39:58):
This is Faith is Own on Fox Sports nine twenty
and your iHeart Radio app. Welcome back to Faith in
the Zone on Fox Sports nine twenty and your iHeartRadio app.
I Mike be given alongside Pastor Ken Keltner from Brookside
Baptist Church. Our special guest has been really fun for us.
Roger Life Character Coach for Character Coach Director for Nations
(40:22):
of Coaches, go to Nationsofcoaches dot Com and again, spend
some time in that website, get a good feel for
what they're doing, and then introduce yourself to some of
these guys that are doing this and some of the
different things that they do, not only with coaches, but
marriages and wives and families. It's it's a very stressful
(40:43):
time to be a college basketball coach, which means it's
stressful for them at home, stressful for them in the
locker room. And we would appreciate if you're feeling led
to help any individual guy out, there's a place to
do that or for the overall mission of Nations of Coaches.
There's a donut donate button right there. On their website,
(41:03):
and we would appreciate any help that you're willing to give. Hey, Roger,
this last segment is really fun for us. All the
uniforms you've ever put on as a player, as a coach,
you can put them all in a closet. You get
to pull one uniform out to get one more game,
one more match with that team.
Speaker 2 (41:21):
What uniform do you pull out? Who do you play against,
compete against? And why.
Speaker 4 (41:28):
Funny you mentioned that earlier and I had five different
things go through my mind. But then when I ask
coaches or players this kind of question, I'm usually looking
for a point of pain because there's something attached to that,
and that's exactly where I w ended. Is I remember
back in my mid thirties, I was playing for a team,
(41:50):
a local fast pitched softball team called the Merchant Murphis
Bure Merchants, and I had been a kind of a
mid season addition to the roster some catching and done
some pitching, some hitting, done a bunch of things with
the team, And all of a sudden, we're playing in
a postseason tournament and we're playing against a team from
(42:13):
the Federal prison. No fulling from the Federal Prison and
they had a team and they entered him in this tournament.
And we're playing, and it's the seventh inning, the last
inning of the game, and I'm sitting here because I'm
pretty much in a reserved pitcher role, and all of
a sudden, the managers the team looks at me and
(42:34):
he says, Okay, pinch it for this guy. Well, yeah,
all right, there's two outs in the seventh and I
walked up there and I think I filed the ball
off and took another one, took a strike, and then
I'm standing there and I'm thinking, all right, I'm watching
for this bastball coming out here. God drows me a
change up and I took it for a third strike.
(42:54):
That kills me still. And I'm sixty almost sixty nine
years old, and I could still see that environment in
my head because I never get I never strike out
looking I'm gonna swing the bat. But that day, somehow
I took a third strike and it ended the season,
ended the I don't know that I played fast pitch
off ball ever again.
Speaker 3 (43:16):
Hurt anything, noy, Hey, I play, Hey, I loved it.
I played fast pitch right out of of college in
High Schoor High School and college at our church in Oklahoma.
But the pain for me came with Brookside. They got
they got in this slow pitch league softball league, and
(43:37):
I'm telling you, remember Randy Johnson hit that bird when
he was pitching. And I'm up to bat and all
of a sudden, this bird kind of flutters over to
my left. I take my eye off of the ball
because I'm looking at that bird, and I swing and
I missed course and slow pitcherer out. Then my wife
happened to be at that game, and when we're walking
out the car, she said, I'm curious, do you think
(43:57):
you need glasses?
Speaker 2 (43:58):
I go, you didn't see that. You did not see that.
Speaker 1 (44:01):
Brd Yes saved Brookside Baptists softball team, But it was
a different year. I subbed, I subbed, and I went.
I was twelve for twelve and I hit the ball
to the right field and kind of consistent. I just
go to the right field, and I knew a bunch
of guys on the other team. And it was the
last game of the year. We're gonna lose again because
(44:22):
the church softball team didn't play.
Speaker 2 (44:23):
All that well that year.
Speaker 1 (44:25):
And I'm on deck and I'm thinking, Wow, I'm twelve
for twelve and I get up and the shortstop was
like a coach, and the umpire was a referee, and
the pitcher was a youth coach.
Speaker 2 (44:35):
All guys I know.
Speaker 1 (44:36):
And as the guy is underhand of the ball, and
it was I think twelve feet right coming in, the
shortstop started running to the other side of second base,
and I thought, I'm gonna do sit a ground ball.
The short I'm gonna get on and so I used
my feet and I swang and missed. The umpire are
tears flowing down his faces.
Speaker 2 (44:54):
Eleven. He was mcgiverern. You missed that thing by like
four feet, And I thought I got home.
Speaker 1 (44:59):
My wife's how to go? I go, I swang A
mission goes, isn't it underhand?
Speaker 4 (45:03):
I go?
Speaker 1 (45:04):
Yes, he underhand? Hey, guys, we gotta go. Roger, thank
you so much again. Nations Offcoaches dot com, please do
us a favor and do yourself a favor. Go on
that website, spend a little time on that website and
understand the mission that they're trying to accomplish. And when
you get a chance to read the quote from Tommy Kyle,
it's eye opening to me that number of people that
(45:27):
they're trying to reach, and they are doing a great job,
but it's about ten percent throughout the country. We'd love
to see it get to fifteen to twenty percent because
it just would make such a difference. Hey, Roger, thanks
a lot, brother, I really appreciate your time.
Speaker 2 (45:43):
Thank you, Mike, you got it is good to see you.
You too, Mike, than you bet, David, thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (45:49):
This is Faith in the Zone on Fox Sports nine
twenty in your iHeart radio app.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Ridiculous History
History is beautiful, brutal and, often, ridiculous. Join Ben Bowlin and Noel Brown as they dive into some of the weirdest stories from across the span of human civilization in Ridiculous History, a podcast by iHeartRadio.