SPEAKER_00 0:00

We won fifty to twelve. I was nobody saw it, but I was in kind of like tears as the national anthem was going because I was so super stoked about the moment, the lights. The last time I was there playing my last home game at Woodburn High School, and now I'm here coaching my first home game as a head coach at Woodburne High School. So it was surreal.

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Hey there, and welcome to the Woodburn Podcast, where we believe every story matters, and every neighbor has something worth sharing. I'm your host, Gilbert Lopez. I'll be sitting down with local business owners, community leaders, and hometown heroes right here at Woodburn. You'll discover amazing people in your own backyard. And if you're more connected to the community we call home, make sure to follow us on Instagram and YouTube at Woodburn Podcast to be the first to know about new episodes and announcements. Welcome back to another episode of the Woodburn Podcast. Today I'm sitting down with JJ Navarete, the new head coach for Woodburn High School. JJ graduated from Woodburn High in 2002 and started his coaching career right here in our community. Later on, he went on to Jervis High School, where he helped Jervis turn into a state contender. Now, 20 years later, he's back home leading the Bulldogs. JJ, welcome to the podcast.

SPEAKER_00 1:26

Hey, thank you for having me, man.

SPEAKER_01 1:28

I want to start with some icebreakers. What is your favorite NFL team? San Francisco 49ers. 49ers. Besides football, what is your favorite sport?

SPEAKER_00 1:42

Basketball.

SPEAKER_01 1:43

Michael Jordan or LeBron James?

SPEAKER_00 1:46

Michael Jordan.

SPEAKER_01 1:47

What is the better feeling as a coach? A huge offensive touchdown or a big defensive stop.

SPEAKER_00 1:55

A big defensive stop.

SPEAKER_01 1:56

Favorite restaurant in Woodburn?

SPEAKER_00 1:58

Ooh, that was hard, man. That was hard. That's a hard. I'm gonna have to say Los Dos Compas, downtown Woodburn, used to be Casa Marques. Very, very good. It changed over. I never had tried it. I was waiting in line at the other places. In my head, I'm like, I gotta go find something different. And so I walked in there and they were very respectable. I've tried everything that they had, and it's a phenomenal restaurant, man. My hats off to them. I gotta check it out. Right next door to Luisa Takeria, which is where everyone wants to go to. But that day they were packed. I wasn't planning on waiting. So I'm like, I'm gonna go next door.

SPEAKER_01 2:31

Which order?

SPEAKER_00 2:32

Actually, I had their postolin delicious. So I'm each a kind status, so they do a lot of the stuff that I enjoyed growing up as a kid. That's where my mom made. So it was kind of like, all right, this place is pretty dang good. So not too shabby.

SPEAKER_01 2:44

Cool.

SPEAKER_00 2:45

All right, so let's talk about how football came into your life. I want to say in 1994, I was playing soccer in California, San Jose for a club. And I remember playing my last game at San Jose Earthquake Stadium. We won our championship, and I'm back at practice looking at the boys and girls club from a distance in San Jose, and I see football happening over there. A kid hanging on the net, and I remember my coach yelling at me, if you want to go play that, then go play that. And so I was like, okay. So the next day I went home and said, Hey, mom, I want to do that football. I want to play football. I don't want to do soccer anymore, which breaks every Latino or Hispanic Spanish heart. She didn't like the fact, but she said, Okay, she was gonna sign us up. And then that summer we decided on vacation in in Oregon. Okay. And so next thing you know, my mom's pulling in from California to U-Haul, and here we are living in Woodburn, Oregon, and I'm like, I'm not going back to Cali, right? Well, I gotta find a sport. So I found out right away. French Prairie was like, hey, they have football, seventh and eighth grades. I'm playing football for the Spartans, man. Go Spartans. Yeah, Spartans. Seventh grade year, started playing and enjoyed it and never looked back, man, ever.

SPEAKER_01 4:03

Wow. Were you offense or defense?

SPEAKER_00 4:06

Both. I was center and a defensive tackle.

SPEAKER_01 4:10

What is your best memory in the field?

SPEAKER_00 4:13

Playing wise, I think it was my senior year against Park Rose. At Park Rose, we were down, came back. I remember having a defensive stop where it was fourth and one, and their fullback comes through the hole, and I met him in the hole, and he didn't get the first down. So it was a defensive stop. We get the ball, run the clock out, and we win the game at Park Rose. That was the moment that I was like, man, I love this, and what's next for me, right? So that's my moment that I'll remember forever.

SPEAKER_01 4:45

Wow, fourth and one, and you get the stop. You mentioned earlier that you rather have a big defensive stop. Can you explain the emotions you have when you have that big stop?

SPEAKER_00 4:56

Man, it sets the tone. It sets the tone. When you make a defensive stop, not only is your defense just hype this can be, but your offense is like, give me the ball so I can go score for you guys. I've said this over and over to kids. You could score as many points as you want, but if you're not playing defense, bro, you're not gonna win a game. I tell them defense wins championships, offense wins games. And that's just plain and simple, man. If they can't score, they can't win.

SPEAKER_01 5:21

I don't care what team I'm watching. I like a good defensive stuff.

SPEAKER_00 5:25

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, who doesn't? I get it. I'm a 49ers fan, but I'm a football fan in general. Everybody watches the Super Bowl, right? Whether your team's in it or not, you're still watching the Super Bowl. Why? Because people love the game of football in every sport, man. You know, in wrestling too, you being a wrestler. If you're a good at defense, bro, nobody's gonna score on you, right? That's the truth. If you could sprawl, if you can stop them, they can't do anything. Yep. That's why I've always prided myself on that. Defense is gonna get it done for you.

SPEAKER_01 5:53

So you wrestle a little bit. Did I help you with football?

SPEAKER_00 5:56

Yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, if you really think about it, those are the kind of concepts they go hand in hand. I tell kids that all the time. If you're not playing basketball, you need to be wrestling. Most of my big dudes, I tell them the same thing, even when they're like in in middle school, get on the mats. That's where you want to be, right? I wrestled all middle school, got to high school, tried it, and then realized I'm gonna emphasize more on football, weightlifting, doing football, lifting, doing football. But half my buddies were all wrestlers. It was like one of those scenarios where I probably should have done it and I didn't do it for high school. We had a lot of guys that were good at that 200 plus pounds. It would have been a shot in the dark for myself, too. I pride myself that I'm a prideful guy and probably would have made it on their teams. You know, obviously, I dabbled in something else. I did cheer for a couple of years at Woodburn High, but it wasn't for dance, it was more for stunting purposes and that kind of stuff. They convinced me you're strong, you can throw the curls, so yeah, let's do it. You're telling me you weren't a flyer? No, definitely not a flyer. No, not at all.

SPEAKER_01 6:51

What got you into coaching?

SPEAKER_00 6:53

So I had gotten an offer to go to the University of Redlands in California to go play. When I got that opportunity and got to go out there to go see them, and I saw how big those guys were compared to me, right? The story Rudy were like on the littlest dude trying to work. I could have done it. I really could have. But somehow something drove me back home. I said, No way, the tuition was way too much money to go to school there. So I'm like, you know what? On top of that, my mom ain't gonna be able to come up with that. And I'm not trying to be in debt to my eyeballs in college. I came home, did what normal guys do, went to Chameca to community college, and my high school coach calls me with Gary Johnson. He says, Hey, I got it. What are you doing? Say, well, I'm just going to Chameca. He says, Do you want to coach? I said, What? He's like, You want to coach? I said, I don't know, coach. Let me think about it. Yeah, 19 years old. I'm not thinking about trying to coach. But then I'm like, and I really think about this. What better could I do if I'm not playing, but to show everything that I learned, right? I called him back. I said, Hey, and then I asked him, Hey, can my brother coach too? And he said, Sure, I was gonna ask you what he was doing, but bring him with you. That was the start of everything, man. I think it was 2000 and 2004 was the start of our coaching. Myself and my brother and Claxton Fernandez was the first group. 2004 is when we started coaching and getting everything going with the junior bulldogs when that program was around.

SPEAKER_01 8:17

And then you started coaching at the middle school?

SPEAKER_00 8:19

Yeah, so we went 04 to I want to say like 07, 08, and then we got to middle school and we coached there at French Prairie also. So we got there, and then I want to say 2009, the opportunity came available, but we were still coaching the Pop Warner team, the middle school team, and still going up to the high school to coach, man. So yeah, we were all over the place as far as coaching, and people would be like, dude, that's crazy, but it's what we wanted to do to become successful, right? We took uh, I think our first year coaching Pop Warner, we went 0-9. Second year that we coached Pop Warner, we went undefeated. Second year, I mean the third.

SPEAKER_01 9:00

You go from 0-0-9 to undefeated.

SPEAKER_00 9:03

Undefeated, yeah. We actually went on a five-year stint where we didn't lose a game between fifth and sixth, all the way up into middle school. I mean, we were just it was a dominant thing, and we were watching the high school hoping that by the time we were pushing these kids up in the high school, it would do something good for Woodburn. Yep. So in 2010, 11, we got an opportunity to go coach up at the high school. So myself and my brother, we went up to the high school, and that was the year 2011. I was explaining earlier, is when we ended up taking the Woodburn Bulldogs to not us on a staff. Like Tracy Jackson was a head football coach at the time, but we were on a staff and we made it to the playoffs the second round against the Ben Lava Bears and lost in a tight game. That was the first like taste of success, you know, like at the high school level. Because everybody used to say, you guys are middle school coaches, or you guys are top corner coaches. And so we would always be like, dude, we're gonna somehow have to prove to everybody that we're not just that, you know. So, but yeah, and then from there, I went back down to French Prairie to coach. So after being up there, we went back down, coached for uh another two or three years where we were super successful at the middle school, still going back to a couple of years of undefeated. And then they basically asked us, hey, in I want to say 16, that it was like you either coach at the high school or there won't be a middle school position anymore. Boom. So it was kind of a you gotta go, right? And so I'm like, all right, cool. So we went and I just couldn't do it. I mean, I'll be honest with you, Tracy Jackson, Gary Johnson, those were all mentors, guys that I could work with because they always gave you the aspect of respect to tell you, run it, do it the way you want. And if I have anything I don't like, then I'll come and talk to you to fix it. And unfortunately at the time, what was happening at Woodburn, we weren't getting that. It was more like our way or no way. And so when people say that, you know, I actually made a phone call to Gary Johnson prior to wanting to leave Woodburn. And he said to me, listen, and he was right, if you can't follow what the guy in charge wants, then might be a time for you to vacate and find something different. So I basically was like, hey, here's my resignation letter. I'm sorry, but it's just not for me anymore. You know, like not Woodaburn at the time. So I didn't have a choice realistically. I asked to go back to the middle school to continue to run the program, but there was no place for me anymore. So I think I had resigned, and an hour later I get a phone call from Jervis saying, Hey man, we need coaches. Are you interested? I wasn't done coaching, right? So I'm like, let's go, let's get there, let's make it happen. I call my brother again, said, Hey man, what do you think about this? And he says, I'm in. So I called Clark and said, What do you think about I'm in? So here we are on our way to Jervis to start 2016 season over there with Dan. It was different, okay, because they didn't have the numbers we had at Woodburn at the time. So you're starting from scratch. You like you show up and there's six kids. Six, six kids. Well, and then you're like, This is what I have for summer program, right? You're like, okay. So then the next day you get eight kids and then 12 kids, and then before you know it, you barely you barely got enough to fuel the team. So you got 22, 23 kids at Jervis, and you're like, nah, how am I gonna do this, right? We went four years there, and 2019, uh and I'll get to it, like 2019, it was kind of a rough one because Tracy Jackson came back to Jervis to coach for one year. And he called me up again and said, Hey, I want you to be my assistant head coach. And he's once again the guy that would give me the ability to do what I needed to do. If he wanted to correct it, he would correct it. Okay. Then it was hard because I wasn't the head coach, but I was at Jervis coaching from 2016 to that 2019 season. And then he says, Hey, bud, I just can't do it. Said, I'm at the point where I just can't. I'm like, What do you mean? He's like, Well, I'm gonna quit. And I'm like, No, so I'm thinking I'm out again, right? Like, I'm I'm kind of struggling with the fact that my coaching career might be done over with. Yeah, yeah. And so he says, No, I'm gonna talk to the head people in charge and uh see if I can't get you on. Then COVID hits. COVID. Yep. And so I still get a call. Hey man, you're gonna be the knee jervis head football coach. So I'm like ecstatic, right? I'm like, let's go. So I'm the guy, and then we play four games, we're two and two, and then our season gets cut because of COVID. So we got four games, so went 500, and then from there it was just every year it would get better. 20 kids out during summer, 30 kids, and my final year there, we would have 45 kids regularly out for workouts.

SPEAKER_01 13:59

Well, tell me about your last season.

SPEAKER_00 14:01

Last season was difficult. So at the end of 2025 or 2024 season, I'm sitting down with the kids, and I got nothing but seniors coming back for that for last season. Okay, and we have an opportunity because we just lost in the semifinals to Oakland, who ended up going on and winning the state championship. So I tell the kids, here's your option we stay 2A, we play nine man, and we probably win a state championship at Jervis and a league title. Or we go to 3A, play 11 man and go to the playoffs and go do something cool. So they all pick to go up.

SPEAKER_01 14:37

They took the challenge.

SPEAKER_00 14:38

They said, We want the challenge, let's make it happen. So we go on a great run, four wins, we play Banks, Banks beats us. We kind of skid, lose two more games, we end up losing three games, but we end up finishing strong and end up back in the playoffs. First round of the playoffs, we go play Sayusala in at Sayusula. Okay, we put it on Sayusula like bad to the point they've never lost that bad. Our starting running back scores six touchdowns rushing that game. Whoa. Yeah, and so we win, we jump the first round, everybody's kind of freaking out. Second round of the playoffs, we get him at home. We play Douglas at Jervis, we play Douglas, we put it on court running back, has six touchdowns again that game. So in two games, he's got 12 touchdowns. Well, our offense is just handling uh defense is not giving up nothing. We're just going right. And so we're excited because Banks beat us, but I'm seeing Banks in the bracket, and I'm like, hey, we might end up seeing each other again. So we end up in the semifinals against Cascade Christian, which nobody knew this, but Banks, Cascade Christian were all four A schools playing down to three. Oh, really? Yes, and we're a two-A school playing up. Yeah. So Cascade has our number. They end up beating us 36 to 0, but they were just a good squad, more kids. They did their job and they won it. Yep. They ended up being the state champions in 3A for last year. It was a great run. I mean, phenomenal run. Like I said, these kids had worked so hard in the four years that they were with me that potentially 14 offers to go play college football. How many? 14.

SPEAKER_01 16:19

14 offers.

SPEAKER_00 16:20

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 16:20

It's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 16:21

Yeah. And like I said, the kid at Jervis, who had 12 touchdowns, ended up making it to the shrine game, the east and west game, and was going to be a starter for the shrine game. So that was something that's never happened for them either. So it was something super cool that they got one quarterfinal finish, two semifinal finishes in the last four years that we were there. So I mean, I don't want to say that we turned a program around, but I think we built a program. We built a culture there that was great and these kids adapted. And I feel like it can be done where we're at now.

SPEAKER_01 17:24

Before we jump into what berm, what are you most proud of from your time in Jervis?

SPEAKER_00 17:31

The community, the families, the kids that gave everything to us, the way that they embraced me and accepted me as family. I will never forget that. I will always cherish those memories, those relationships, even though everyone is always kind of salty about certain scenarios, right? Nobody wants to see what they've had go, right? Yeah. And and I get that. But at the end of the day, Jervis is a phenomenal place. It's a great place, great people, wonderful AD, wonderful secretaries, wonderful principles at the time. Like I said, that is a chapter that the book that I have closed and kind of moved on, but I will never forget. I will always hold that close to my heart. But now I'm now coming back as a coach, how does that feel? I mean, it's my second stint, first time as a head coach, but the first time when I came back to coach was in 2010. And that was exciting because there were still teachers there that were teaching when I was in school. If I feel like I'm up there in age, how do they feel? You know what I'm saying? Still love for them, and the fact that they're still there, they're still grinding and teaching these kids. My daughter got to be taught by one of the same teachers that I was able to get taught. So it's pretty dang cool. It was one of those moments where I was happy just to be back, getting involved, helping coach.

SPEAKER_01 18:53

How did you feel when you found out I am the new head coach for Woodburn High School?

SPEAKER_00 19:00

It's crazy because I got offered the job, or not offered the job, but when they call you, they give you this, I'm recommending you for the job.

SPEAKER_01 19:09

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 19:10

And so you get excited. You're like, I'm the coach, I'm the coach. And then someone says, No, no, no, no, no. You're not the coach yet. They just recommended you for the job. I'm like, uh, okay, okay. So then everyone's like, You can't say you're the coach until you sign on that dotted line. So just imagine, I'm like a kid in the candy shop, bro. I'm in the toy store. I got this new position, I got this new great thing, right? And I can't tell though we can like nobody. You sign this NDA, right? So, like, you can't really even go and tell anybody it's me, blah blah blah. Not my brother, not my wife, not nobody. I'm just sitting there just waiting and waiting. And then finally, finally, I get the I get a call from the HR saying, Hey, come in and sign your paperwork. I signed it, got my badge, and then I finally am able to post something, and I give everybody the thanks, put the Woodburn sweater up, and play one of the best songs that one of my buddies told me he said, Hey man, this song suits you so well. And I was like, which one? And he's like, Maced his welcome back. Oh yeah, like yeah, so I like I had to think about thanking George for that moment for for that one. So yeah, he was like, this song suits me so uh yeah, it was I'm gonna play in the background when I edit. Yeah, so I was like I said, I was just ecstatic, called everybody. I don't know how many likes I even stopped looking at the post, but I'm somewhere in the hundreds of likes that I got and loves and congratulations, and so I mean, bro, I'm to the max, just like just stoked.

SPEAKER_01 20:34

I remember the day you posted it. You got so much love. Welcome back, you're home. Dude, can only imagine that feeling.

SPEAKER_00 20:42

Oh, dude, it felt great. It felt great though. I was telling you earlier, people are gonna be salty at times, but that's just how it is.

SPEAKER_01 20:48

It just means you did such a great job there. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, they want you there. So you guys had your first game last week?

SPEAKER_00 20:56

Yeah, last Friday. How'd it go? We won 50 to 12. One of those scenarios in life where you kind of feel like, bro, I was nobody saw it, but I was in kind of like tears as the national anthem was going because I was so super stoked about the moment, the lights. The last time I was there playing my last home game at Woodburne High School, and now I'm here coaching my first home game as a head coach at Woodburn High School. So it was surreal, super surreal. Like my weekend was I was on cloud nine, bro, and everybody could be like, oh, it's just a game. It is a game, but it's something that I've been wanting, right? And I finally was given that opportunity to do it. So it's pretty dope. The kids balled out, which is even better. You asked me earlier defensively, we didn't let up. We did just great, man. Great group of kids just tearing it up out there, man.

SPEAKER_01 21:47

That's amazing. When's your next game?

SPEAKER_00 21:50

This Friday, the Battle of the Boons, man. North Marion versus Woodburn, dude. Yeah, yeah, they used to be rivals for a long, long time. It's crazy because Jervis played them last year. So this time I get to plan. But now, being that I'm at home at Woodburns, it isn't gonna be the rival that we probably want because the league is a lot different, but it's a preseason game that's leading us up into what I'm about to share with you afterwards. So it's kind of crazy, but it it works itself out.

SPEAKER_01 22:16

Now, as you grow the program, what do you think Woodburn needs to grow a successful football team?

SPEAKER_00 22:23

Gotta start all over again. What I'm doing right now. Is going down to the middle school, showing my face, talking to these kids, explaining to them that in the next couple of years they're going to be up at the high school. That's a start. Then the following year is to start the fifth and sixth grade tackle football. That's another way to make our program even better. To be completely honest, that's how you start over, how you make things better is starting from scratch and doing it all over again. Okay. So right now they don't have tackle football. They don't. They have flag football. You're still doing some kind of football, right? But it's flag. I'm involved in that. I coach flag football. So everybody's like, what? I go, yeah, I'm the high school coach and I coach flag football. And I do that because I want those numbers. I want to grow those kids. We've had about 23 kids come out for flag football. So we've had to split it into two teams. And then you start, you think about doing it. Why you do that? We do it because to understand the game of football. So by the time they get to middle school, they've already had two or three years under their belt as far as a flag football team. So then when we do fifth and sixth grade now, those kids coming down the line, they're not doing flag anymore. They're actually doing tackle football, which is getting them prepared for middle school. And that's how the Silvertons of the world do it. The West Salem, the North Salem, South Salem, Spree. That's how they grow and become good. But we need that everywhere. We don't need it just for football. I think right now the one that I've seen the most that does it a lot is basketball. They got kid tournaments, they've always got stuff going on for basketball where I get it, it's a little bit more easier, but come on. Come on, Team Woodrow. We got to do it all together to make this thing grow. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:06

You mentioned something about the AD and Woodburn.

SPEAKER_00 24:08

Dude, when I first met him and talked to him, it was kind of a crazy deal, right? Getting to hear this guy talk and he was like telling me things, and he's like, I'm not about football and I'm not about soccer and I'm not about basketball. I'm about team Woodburn. I want all of us to be successful. You want everybody, and that's how I am too. I don't prey on anybody's not success because we wear the same name when we're out here in the community, right? So I want basketball to win state championships, no matter who's at the home. I want soccer to do great wrestling as a team. You know what I mean? So when he said that, I'm like, dude, he's so right. If you're not team Woodburn, then then you shouldn't be a part of this thing. And that's the truth.

SPEAKER_01 24:45

Exactly. We should be rooting for each other.

SPEAKER_00 24:47

Now that you're back home, do you feel like you have a little bit more pressure? I wouldn't say pressure. I feel more pressure on myself because I'm home. Because I've come from a place where we help grow a different culture, a teen, right? So now what we want is the same here. Like you want the same success for people. I know people are like, well, it's year one, and last year they didn't do so well, and the year before they didn't do so well. So what do you think they're thinking? He's probably not gonna do so well. Well, no, that's not the case, man. These kids buy into what we're doing, and we could be as successful as we want to be. The sky is the limit, man. So it is pressure, but I think it's gonna be more pressure on myself to build a different culture here that's gonna suit us and be better for us as a head coach. We've seen these kids grow up. Yes, so a lot of these kids, it's crazy because some of the kids I coach their older siblings. So, like my starting running back at Woodburn right now, I coached his older brother. He was one of my receivers back in the days. So, a lot of these kids, I've seen them, and like even last a year, I would come to games because my son plays basketball, and that guy would always be like, Hey, can we go to the games? And I'm like, Let's go. So we would go together to the games, and I would be able to watch these kids as they're growing. That guy's gonna be a phenomenal athlete, he's gonna be a phenomenal athlete, and then all of a sudden you get here and you start coaching, and I was right about half of these guys. It's pretty cool to see these guys coming up the pipeline. Besides football, what else do you want these kids to learn? To be honest with you, football is just a star, bro. I want them to go to college, I want them to get an education. I want to turn these young individuals into these great young men that we could put out in society and not worry about what they're doing or who they're associating themselves, just the fact that they're a reflection of us. If we act a certain way, they're gonna act that way, right? If we present ourselves and conduct ourselves in a great manner, these kids are gonna do the same because why? Because that's what they've been told. I'm not their dad by any means, but I'm their coach. And sometimes they'll listen to a coach over their parent. And I see it with my kid. Like I send him to train, I tell him the same things. He don't listen to me. I mean, he does, but he doesn't. But then coach tells him over there, and all of a sudden, I've been telling you the same thing for me. I didn't have a father growing up. So my role models, people that I looked up to were my coaches, dude. I was, what can I do, right? If I do this, I'm gonna look bad. If I do this, they're gonna look bad, right? That's why I tell these kids nowadays. Do you know how long something goes when you see a guy, whether he's picking up the trash or whether he's pruning something uh off a tree and you say, Hey, como estás? Like, how you doing today? Good, hey, everything good, right? I go, that gesture goes so long, man. I said, if you treat a janitor like you treat the principal or you treat the janitor like you treat, you know, the superintendent, bro, your name goes so far because the day you forget your backpack in a door and you need someone to open it for you. Guess what? That guy's gonna have no problem in opening. That time much, I got a tu mochila, but if you treat that guy bad, he's gonna tell you, hey, go find your coach. And that's the truth, right? Like we've I've experienced it myself. I'm like, man, that guy is so nice, and these people are not so. Like I say, I tell these boys we treat everybody the same, man. That's a thousand percent. Love them, respect them, cherish everybody because everybody deserves it, man.

SPEAKER_01 28:12

That's what I like about sports, brother. I don't care what you do, football, basketball, wrestling, soccer, or it's just a way to help these kids learn respect, discipline. It's just beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 28:26

It's crazy because this year, the one word that I describe us, I told them, is accountability. Be accountable for everything, hold them accountable for everything. Be accountable if you make a mistake, own it, man. It's mine. I did it. I'm sorry, but let's move on, right? But accountability is a huge one, and even everywhere in like, dude, like in a job afterwards, college, everything, you got to be accountable. Nobody's gonna tell you what you know you need to do. That's accountability, bro. The professor's not gonna reach out to you and say, Hey, by the way, you need to turn this in. No, that's on you, that's your accountability, man. I'm trying to tell them life is much more than football. Football is just a small portion of it. But if it teaches you how to be there on time every day, when I'm sick and I can still show up, show up. You know, I tell everybody that, bro, sports will get us through some of the greatest moments of their life.

SPEAKER_01 29:25

You hit rock bottom, but because I did a sport, I was able to overcome it. If that makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 29:33

When you've hit rock bottom, the only way to do is look up, baby, because from there you can't look down any further. So you gotta look up. And it teaches us that everywhere. How many times have you been on the mat and you think you're done, and you remember, hey man, I could do this, I know I could do this, and I flip it, and next thing you know, you're on top regulent, dude. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 29:53

If you're a parent who has a kid who's interested in football or want to support the program, what's the best way to help?

SPEAKER_00 30:02

Well, number one is like, we gotta make sure we start telling these kids, you only got four years of high school, man. I tell everybody this, whether you're a wrestler, whether you're a soccer player, whether you're a basketball player, you got four years, man. Four years of high school ball. So I don't care what you do, but you make the best of those four years. Yep. I got kids right now that are like, oh, I can't because I work. Buddy, you got the rest of your life to work. You got four years of high school, and that is it. If you don't take advantage of those four years of high school, I mean, I don't know what to tell you. It goes quick. It does, it does. A freshman year, I tell kids it goes like this. And then they're like, Coach, you told us that, and now we're seniors. I'm like, I don't say it just to say it, guys, because I've experienced it and I've been watching this for the last 23 years. I see a kid that I walk into at Walmart, I kid you not, Yogurt, heads down. Hey coach, how you doing? I'm good, man. How are you? Uh, just like you said, man, just working, working, working. That's all I do now. I said, Yeah. And kids like him who had the potential to go to college for free, to do all those things. I said this in the very beginning. My goal at Woodburn is to get these kids to the next level, to get them offers. We had 14 offers last season at what at Jurts to go play football or to even go to college for free.

SPEAKER_01 31:20

That's a tremendous amount of help for the parents.

SPEAKER_00 31:23

It is, but unfortunately, our kids nowadays, because everything is set up where you're on a certain platform, like Huddle and all that, right? Those coaches are reaching out, they're reaching out, they're reaching out. Some of these kids don't even tell their parents that. Oh, they don't? No. So I get coaches calling me saying, Hey man, I haven't been able to get a hold of this kid. Can you get a hold of him for me? This is me already here at Woodburn. And I'm like, dude, I'm not there anymore. I still try to reach out to these kids and tell them, hey man, call these guys, call them. Oh no, I'm gonna go do this, I'm gonna go do that. And eventually you fall right back into the same thing. My ultimate goal is to help Woodburn kids figure out how to get to the next level, to go to school, whether it's football or whether it's just academically, let's just get there. Go do something that someone in your family hasn't done. I want them to be the best them possible, is what I tell these kids. So, but yeah, that's one of the main things that I want is I want these kids to forest to just be the best version of them that they could possibly be.

SPEAKER_01 32:25

I love that. It starts with academics.

SPEAKER_00 32:27

It does, it does, and that's like one thing too. I tell everybody this I am a football coach, but I'll tell you right now you're you're a student first and an athlete second, bro. Like if those grades, we just start at school, so everybody starts with what? What A's? So I tell all these D's and hey, you better be coming to me with your phone telling me you've got straight A's because this is for day four of school, so you should have straight A's moving forward, right? And I tell these guys that is what we gotta do because I don't want to be getting into November football, which is playoff time, and four or five of my kids can't play because we have academic issues.

SPEAKER_01 33:03

Yeah, that can't happen.

SPEAKER_00 33:04

Nope. So, like I said, I'm always gonna be number one to make sure that our kids have their education and their stuff in order prior to football. And if I gotta sit out my starting quarterback or my starting running back because of it, I've done it before and I'm not afraid to do it again.

SPEAKER_01 33:22

What's that saying? Nobody is bigger than the program?

SPEAKER_00 33:24

Correct. I tell these kids we're like a train, baby. So what do you mean we're like a train? The train must go, it keeps going no matter what. So you're either on or you get left behind. And I go, unfortunately for you guys, the train always does what? It always comes back. So if you're ready to jump back on when we come back, then you're ready to jump on. And if you're not, then it's gonna leave you again.

SPEAKER_01 33:46

Yeah, just going back where you said high school just goes really fast, bro. It you hear it growing up, and then you experience it, you're like, that person was right. Why are we like that?

SPEAKER_00 33:58

I think it's because even as I get older, the days go by faster. And these kids, I think that as the days go for them, they feel like they go by slower. I don't know if that makes sense, right? Because they get up, they hang out, they don't do nothing, they go to practice, they get done, they go stay up really late. I can't stay late no more. Those days are gone, man. I'm, you know, 10 o'clock, I'm trying to be like, hey, I'm in bed already. And people are like, I was called you last night at 11. Yeah, good luck. My kids, I didn't bring them up, but married, been with my wife for 23 years. I got two kids, 15-year-old and uh 11-year-old. And those guys sometimes stay up till three, four o'clock in the morning. At times I'm like, dude, we need to sleep, we need to do better. So I tell all these dudes, man, I want to be taller. Well, how much do you sleep? Well, not enough. All right, well, then there you go. Just one of those scenarios where I feel like as we get older, time goes by a little bit quicker. And I think these guys, being that they're younger, they think it goes by slow and they have all the time in the world. But you blink and it's over, man. You blink and you're graduating from high school. And unfortunately, sometimes even us as parents, as coaches, if we didn't do a good enough job preparing them, when high school's over, they're lost. They don't know what they want to do or what they're gonna do. That's why I start talking to my daughter right now as a sophomore. What's the plan? Plan for what? What's the plan for after high school? Because I want her to be ready, I don't want her to be behind. And then we're struggling, which I don't care if she's 30 years older than with me, right? But I'm just saying, like, I want her to be able to flourish and go to college and get her degrees and try to work on an MBA, all that kind of stuff is what I want for her. I want that for my son too. For me, whatever I can do to help mine grow, I'm learning with other people's kids, and it's true, right? Other kids I coach, I learn from them to what I'm gonna do with mine at the end of the day, and it's the truth. Whether people are like, oh, that's crazy, it's true. Because I see the trials and the tribulations that these kids go through. I'm gonna probably see them with mine too. And how that person got through it might work out from mine or it might not, and I gotta figure it out. But at the end of the day, like I say, I'm here with you. I appreciate you having me and talk about Team Woodburn or how we are about Woodburn and how you've given everything the same way. Been here, your family's been here. I mean, people that don't know, obviously, your wrestling background, you know, phenomenal nationals too, like you know, stuff that's great. That's why I always adapt to everybody, to you guys, to your family, because of the same thing. We're all vested.

SPEAKER_01 36:27

That's well loved by you. Ever since I known you, you're you just the love and support you give coming from a football background, but you love the wrestlers too. You love every sport. As we wrap up, what is your final message for the people listening?

SPEAKER_00 36:42

Hey, it comes support. If you got kids that have had a bad experience or not the greatest experience in sports, let's try to get them back out there again. I know Woodburn is changing. I know things are different. Taking your kids to other towns when you live in this town is crazy. Let's build Woodburne and make Woodburne strong and make Woodburn the way that we want to make it as far as success in sports, success in school. We talked about it just a bit ago, right? We want our kids to be students first and athletes second. So let's do that. Let's do that together. If I could help and Gilbert can help, then let's do it all together. Why not? Love it.

SPEAKER_01 37:21

Well, that's the wrap for today's episode. Thank you for listening to the Woodburn Podcast. If you enjoyed it, share it with a neighbor and make sure to follow us on Instagram and YouTube at Woodburn Podcast. Until next time, stay safe and watch out for those muffles.