Stars on Sports Intro: It's time for Stars on Sports! A podcast-radio show dedicated to sharing stories about our athletic program at Lansing Community College. LCC athletics has a strong tradition. 24 national championship wins! Over 170 All-Americans! 19 MCCAA All Sports trophies! Stars on Sports will introduce you to individuals that have contributed to our program success and give you the backstory on what it takes to develop it. We'll also dive into and break down the topics and issues facing athletic departments across the nation and right here at LCC. This is Stars on Sports!

Hello and welcome to another episode of Stars on Sport. Today I'm joined by our assistant AD Steven Cutter and our producer, Daedalian Lowry. And today, gentlemen, we're going to be talking about hard work, you know, which is a foundation in athletics and a foundation here at LCC when we talk about what we want our teams to represent and a characteristic they want to have. But growing up, that was like my number one thing, like, you got to work hard and, and I've learned over time that hard work doesn't always equal success. You know, there's teams there winning that is talent more than hard work or hard work more than talent. And one of the things I did always believe is if your most talented athletes are your hardest workers, you're going to have a successful team. But coach cut, you and I have talked a lot about in the last week about hard work doesn't equal success, which has been really totally against everything that I stood for for the beginning of my career. So it's kind of a change for me and a difficult one because I still believe hard work, the foundation of a success, is it the number one characteristic of a successful team? I don't know. There are different characteristics that you need to be successful. So I'm guessing, you know, again, hard work's a part of that. But there's so many parts of hard work, you know, as we talk about our athletic teams, that it just, you know, something I'm struggling with right now because I've always thought of hard work being, you know, growing up, it always was, you know, hard work beats talent, you know, and the thing behind that was if you, if you work harder than the talented person, that you will pass them. Well, we both know from experience sometimes that doesn't always happen. And as a coach, sometimes that your most difficult thing, when that hard work might pay off, but they just might never catch that more talented student athlete and coach, you've, you've hit on this in our office in the last week or two. Anything to the ad right away.

I think it's a good lesson to learn. It's obviously one of the more frustrating things about it is if you do work really hard at something and you don't see the, the fruits of that labor, it becomes extremely frustrating. And, and most often is the case, people just kind of want to quit and maybe stop doing what they're doing. And so hard work is one of those things that is a necessity. It's, it's not going to always provide you with success because sometimes you can be hard at something and your process for what you're doing isn't just quite the right thing. And you can put a lot of hours in, but you're not doing what you should be doing. And you can be working hard. You can put 40 or 60 or 90 hours in a week, but you might be doing the wrong things.

And that's actually what I've learned the most from even our conversations or even people that we listen to is the intent of the hard work or the purpose of the hard work. If you're playing golf and you swing to, you aim to the left, but the hole to the right, you're. You're being counterproductive. You still might have a good swing and working hard. And the same again with running. If you're running the wrong way and you're running 90 miles an hour, you're not getting to where you need to be. So great point on, you know, working hard doesn't always equal that result. But again, it's just that change. It's still important to me. It's still one of my values. When I talk about a team. It always has been one of my values. One of my favorite, like, analogies on sport is touch the line. I mean, I really looked at kids that went all the way to the line. They didn't come up short. They didn't just do a quick curve, you know, like, that's the kid I wanted, the one that will go and touch the line. No shortcuts. And to your point, you mentioned too, people quit. But I think hard work teaches you to persevere too, that if you really do work hard, you're going to persevere. You put too much time into it,

maybe in the long game, but if you're talking about just touching lines, the person that comes up short of the line and the person that goes and touches the line, often time, the person that takes that shortcut is going to win the race. And so that's what becomes so frustrating about the winning piece. And we're not talking about necessarily winning the race, but winning when you're trying to win in your life and you're trying to do all the right things and you're working hard and you're touching the lines that you talk about, sometimes you're still going to have people win or situations win because they've taken a shortcut or a hack or whatever it is. And that's when I talk about hard work does not always equal success and how frustrating it becomes at different points.

And that's, again, good at looking at the bigger picture, because I didn't think of it that way. If you take a shortcut, you could win. And, and, and hard work isn't easy. I mean, one of the things that I had learned recently is that when you think you have reached full potential, you're at, with your mind is really only at 40%. You still have 60% more to go. But we just, we're used to comfort and we're used to, like, you know, thinking we're at the end when we're not. And so it's important that, you know, to push a little farther and even go through that line. But recognition is important in hard work, you know, because hard work isn't easy and it's not something that everyone looks forward to every day, you know, to

yourself, because you're probably not going to have a whole lot of people clapping for you when you are working hard, especially if your audience isn't super big. So that recognition's got to come from yourself and you're the. It's that slow, you know, pat on your back or whatever, you know, good job, keep doing this, that kind of stuff, because it's typically not going to come from other people unless you have an extremely large audience that's visually watching what you're doing.

And I think. But it's important for coaches to recognize work hard work and celebrate it and find ways to reward it, you know, because I think that sets the tone if coaches reward those, those hardest workers, like practice player of the week or something that just, you know, maybe again, that most talented kid. But they are working hard because the more people you get to work hard, I think the stronger your overall team will be in general.

You know, after every win, we take a picture in front of the dugout of wherever we're at, and it's, it's, it's a celebration because winning in sports is really, really challenging. And you put a lot of work into the preparation before those games. And sometimes things can go sideways with weather, with Calls, you know, just with, with whatever might happen. But you do get an opportunity to celebrate with a win. We take a picture and then that picture gets laminated and the city that they're in and everything else. And so we have pictures of all of our wins. And I think that kind of stuff becomes important. It's the same thought process as having, you know, a really nice suit or dress in your closet that you only wear on super special occasions, which might mean once a year or once every three years. You know, if you really like it and you enjoy it, enjoy it and use it.

Yeah, I think that's great. I did not know you did that. And I think that is a good way to celebrate the moment. But also, yeah, when you, when you win something, you focus on the winning instead of what might have got you there. And hard work is one of the biggest things that, that helped you get there. So, no, I think that is one way to help recognize and celebrate hard work. And the result of hard work, as we've talked about, winning isn't the only thing I think hard work carries into every facet of life. So that's one thing that sports can help instill and make you understand that you got to work hard in the classroom. I mean, if you want to be successful, you got to work hard in the classroom. In your real job, you have to work hard to, to get things done. But it leads to other characteristics, too. And another interesting thing about hard work as I prepared for this podcast is when and where, I mean, when no one's watching, I mean, are you working hard in the off season? Are you working hard when the coach isn't watching you? Are you working hard when your teammates aren't watching you? And then the other importance of hard work is injury prevention and coming back from injuries. And some of those student athletes, that work ethic or hard work, they seem to hopefully be better in those two facets of, of sports, too, is injuries.

So I think it's the closer you can get to not flipping switches. And so the theory behind the flipping switches is you're going to work hard when somebody's watching you or, you know, when something's on the line and then kind of flip the switch to the other direction. The closer you can get to not flipping switches and being more consistent with what you do, the more success you're going to have, just personal success.

And I think that is so true in working hard because it's not easy. So it's not always easy to flip that switch to say, oh, I'm going to work hard today. You know, that's where I think even consistency. And when you look at other characteristics of being successful, I think hard work is one of those more tougher things. Because it is difficult, it is challenging. It might not be as fun, that it's not as easy to flip that switch. Where consistency and hard work, I think is a true tale of successful teams. Again, whoever wins that tournament at the end need the number of factors to be successful. But I would believe most teams have worked hard to get there.

I agree.

You know, even, you know, looking at this, you know, you look at some of our most talented athletes in history and like some that I found, you know, in this research were Michael Jordan, Jerry Rice, Ronaldo, the Williams sisters, you know, that had to work hard to get where they were. We celebrate them as the most talented athletes in their respective sports. But they all had a hurdle to overcome when they were younger. And one of the biggest things that helped them overcome was working hard.

I mean, watching they also had talents in those things and they took their talents and then combined hard work with those talents. And I believe everybody has talent and it's just a matter of finding what your talent is and then working incredibly hard at that talent. You might not be extremely good at that point, but you have the talent and you combine the hard work. That's where you're going to start seeing successes with it. And I think the, you know, if you bringing up the Kobe Bryant's or the Michael Jordans, I mean, they had talent and they were incredibly hard workers. And I think for anybody else that wasn't a Kobe Bryant or a Michael Jordan or the Williams sisters or anybody else, it's, you have natural talent. You got to find that and you've got to go after it. And you got to be willing to work and you got to be willing to not have a lot of praise for it and just keep going. Yeah.

And again, when you talk about Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, you talk about relentless hard work. I mean, they worked hard around the clock. So I think also what you're saying is I just got to find my talent yet. I'm working hard. I just haven't found my talent yet. So I guess, you know, still at my age in my life, I thought there's still hope for me.

I think you got a lot of talent. The paper stacking is one of the finer things that you do.

Man, this, I brought my. This is the smallest stack I brought today. You know, God, this is almost worse than parking. But, but do you I mean, where do you rank hard work in a successful team? Do you think that you know one of the top characteristics or just is it fit in with four or five characteristics?

No, I think that for you to get a ticket into the aren of life, the, the hard work pays for that ticket, but once you're in, it has, you know, no. Bear in son, if you're going to have success or not, because there are going to be some times where the lines are not going to be touched and all that and you just kind of gives you an opportunity to get in. I actually want to read something that applies really strongly to hard work. And it says, I bet we have a lot in common. We are not the strongest, most charismatic or smartest, the best voice or the richest, not the most connected or best looking. Our genetics are not the best. But what we do have is something that a lot of others do not have, and that is the will to work hard. If there is one avoidable truth in this world, it is that there are no substitutes for putting in the work. There is no shortcut, growth hack or magic pill that you can get around. People have tried to cut corners or skip steps in this process for a long time. Eventually those people either fail or either fall behind or get left in the dust. Because working your tail off is the only thing that works 100% for 100% of the things worth achieving. Work works. This single idea has shaped my entire life.

Wow. Again, that's what I believe.

That's impressive.

It is. And I think that summarizes even to what, what we've talked about, because I would argue even once you get there, you know, even those teams that won championships, you almost have to work harder that next year to sustain it because you have a target on your back or everyone's trying to get to that level that you are at. And another interesting thing that you talked about that I think the whole nother podcast topic is the Will, you know, the motivation, the, you know, I'm gonna say will, but I don't wanna. I gotta. I think we have a great podcast with Will in the future too. So that, you know, having that, you know, just like coach, you know, trying to get you to work hard and like one of the best quotes I heard in the last week, I wasn't even gonna use it. This is. It's easier to put out a fire than start a fire. And I think that's true with coaches and hard work. It's easier to, you know, bring a kid back from working hard than trying to get that kid to work hard. And it's, it's so important, as you mentioned.

Yeah, as. As a. At least in my coaching philosophy, when we get our kids and we, you know, we have them for quite a long time from, from usually early August until the 1st of June, they're with us, and they're with us, you know, almost seven days a week at most of the season. The initial thought is the first, you know, half of that is I'm trying to motivate them. And then once we get through a certain section of the season, I'm done trying to motivate our players. If, if I need to continually motivate them, then they're probably in the wrong spot. I'm trying to take the ones that are bought in and we're elevating them at that point. And the motivation is completely gone. So the motivation has to be internal for whatever you do in life. And it doesn't have to be in sports. It can be whatever, but your motivation has to be internal. And you don't need other people motivating you when you have a purpose.

And I think that applies the hard work, because I think it is hard, you know, that has to be internal to, you know, you want to reach your goal and internal motivation because the coach can only do so much. Your teammates can only do so much. But although I've seen a lot with encouragement or believing in others that help raise their performance, but not necessarily their work ethic. And again, I'd like to talk about motivation in a different podcast, but that is important. Competition is important. Being a competitor is important. And I think again, the harder you work, the harder it is to quit or the harder it is to fail. And so again, I think just to me, it's always been hard work has been that main staple. And I think it's, you know, in our profession, with our calendar, with our schedule, with our demand, that it's been a separating factor. And again, I agree that. But it. Just because I say it's in our profession, I do believe it. It can separate you in any profession, but you see it more in ours, maybe because we're on TV or in the sports section. But yeah, that a quote that you have had or that one you found or that's a good one. I'm gonna have to look that one up and put that one on. My.

Tend to do a lot of writing and, you know, just putting different thoughts down. I think that.

Wait, so this is from the desk of Coach Cut.

I think that the, the difference is when you're in competition, whether it's in sports competition or life competition is you have a lot of experiences where you just don't feel very good about the outcomes. And I think it's extremely natural. I. I feel them, too, where you just kind of want to quit, you want to give up, you know, and here's a letter of resignation. You know, whatever it might be, you just feel like that. And so when you have student athletes, it's the same thing. You know, they feel those same things. And so it's not so much that you're trying to motivate them, you're trying to elevate them and say, you know, this is okay. This is a natural feeling. If you put effort in and you fail, it's a natural feeling to be upset, to be destroyed, whatever it might be.

But that's one of my favorite things about sports, and I'm glad you brought it up, is some of my best moments in this career is when we've lost, but we know we've given it our all, you know, that you laid it all out there, you're exhausted, and it was an incredible battle. It was an incredible contest. But. And again, I don't like losing. But I'm just saying, if you're going to lose, knowing that you gave it your all, because when you do lose, I think one of the first things you looked at is, did you work hard enough? Did you do what you were supposed to do to. To beat that other team? And again, sometimes you just run into a better team. But if you do lose and you look back and have that feeling, I think a lot of it is, you know, to hard work if you worked hard enough to do that. And, you know, my own daughter, you know, is a high school student athlete, and we battle on, you know, her definition of working hard or, you know, not getting the results she wants. And, you know, I would attribute it, you know, again back always was that just work harder. That was, you know, my, you know, philosophy growing up. Just work harder, and then you'll, you know, you'll happen. That's why I never like golf, because you could work hard at golf and still not be very good at it.

Oh, come on. That's not true at all.

It is true if you got a bad swing. I mean, you need lessons, you need technology, but that's working hard right there. Yes, you're right. And there are different facets of working hard, which I was going to point on earlier, is, you know, your effort, your mental toughness, you know, at the great Point of. I think of working hard at energy expended, but it actually.

When you were talking about hitting the ball out there, generally, like, I. I had a year where summer where I was just slicing all the time, and I found myself pointing to the left and. And realized that when I would hit it straight on those rare occasions, I would end up in the woods and be in a bad spot. So I've gotten to the point now where I realize, kind of on the premise of working hard, trying to improve that swing, I have to always point myself straight. No matter if I feel like I'm going to hook it or splice it or anything else, I always point myself straight now every time, just because, you know, where do I want the ball to go? This is where I need to visualize and go. Now I'm still going to say probably about 40% of the time, I still end up in the woods or wherever.

I've improved over the years. Years.

That's what I've noticed. And that's.

That's hard work. And you're right. Golf is hard work. I mean, to be a good golfer, you have to play a lot. You have to, you know, practice. But. And I'm stubborn. Like, I slice it all the time, but I still feel like I'm hitting it straight, so I gotta aim straight even though I know the ball is going right.

That's exactly it. That's exactly it. But that's what I started doing. I always point myself straight, and through hard work, 60%'s not bad in golf.

But again, that's great. You're right. Working hard, there's different ways, and I haven't gotten lessons or technology, so I didn't work hard enough in those areas to help my game. Not that saying. That's all. But I just think it's so important in our field and in successful teams. Anything else on hard work before we end with a little fun topic?

I think you need to make winning your habit, not your goals. I think champions are not obsessed with the trophies, but with the habits that inevitably get you to those goals.

And that's a great way to end Coach Cutter, because I agree with you, and I think one of the most important habits is hard work. Growing up, I thought it was the most important, and over the latter part of my career, I realized there's a lot of other things that also play into that. Is that true? All right, so I want to have some fun as we wrap this up. And, you know, Dan and I talked a little bit about this. You know, I listened to some other podcasts that do, like, their favorite thing or their least favorite thing. So today I thought, let's end it with. What's your favorite concession stand item? If you're going to a concert or a sporting event, what the one thing or two things that you would get at the concession stand?

Yeah. Walking tacos.

Walking tacos? Yeah.

He. I totally believe it's not a concession stand unless you have walking tacos.

Do most concession stands have walking tacos?

No, but average is all over the place. You know, we're looking for uncommon.

That's. We are. Yes, we are. Interesting. Okay, I am going to go with

the giant pretzel with cheese. Giant pretzel with cheese.

That's a good one. That would be up there.

And salt does need to be on that.

No salt.

No, no, no.

Salt does need to be on there.

It needs to be on there.

Interesting, because I was looking at. I guess I didn't even think of my favorite. I was looking at what I think most people's is, and it's popcorn. You know, the smell of popcorn when you walk into a gym. And like, when people come to our event and we don't have concession, they always want popcorn. You know, just, you know, an athletic event. Popcorn. And, you know, I've been in this field my whole life, so I've experienced concession fan through and through and main items. And the two you mentioned are big. But it's just interesting. Not all of them offer that. I think pretzels are becoming a more mainstay at concession.

Popcorn is definitely a movie mainstay. Mainstay.

Definitely. Definitely interesting. I would agree with that, too.

I mean, and lately I've been into popcorn with M M's thrown in there.

Oh, yeah.

It's weird, but it's kind of good.

Oh, I like him. I like that mix.

Peanut or regular?

Okay. Would you want peanut?

I'm not sure.

Not even sure I want to throw M's.

I think I do. I think I've heard of that. And I would. I like popcorn and then I like M and M's.

You're doing that at the movies?

I do occasionally, yeah.

Oh, man, it's crazy, you know? But again, back to my concession stand. AIDS pickles were popular. You know, we started getting big pickles and people would buy those fried Oreos were some popular ones at other places that I had been. Again, then you get the generics, you know, the hot dog or the. Or the Snickers. But for me, it'd probably still be popcorn just because of the smell. Oh, yeah. You know, but unfortunately, Cutter, I would. I really like pretzels. I just went out after the baseball game the other day and had a big, giant presto, and it was incredible. So my kid that it would be

pretzels walking Taco was also a good pick, though.

You know, going to Michigan State events, it was always the melting moment, ice cream sandwich. I would look forward to going. The only reason I'd want to go to a Michigan State event was the.

We have these. We have those.

We do now. Yes. And, you know, interesting. I came to one of your leadership meetings and you went to a break and all the baseball players ran to the vending area. And there was another one with Eminem that they chose more than the melting moments one, there was the ice cream sandwich with Eminem.

They're still learning.

Aren't we all?

Every day.

All right. And with that. Go stars.

Stars on Sports Outro: Stars on Sports is recorded live at the WLNZ studios. Engineering and production assistance are provided by Daedalian Lowry. You can listen to this episode and other episodes of Stars on Sports on demand at LCCconnect.org to find more information about our athletic program, visit LCCstars.com thanks for listening. Go Stars!