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. 25 national championship wins! Over 190 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!

I'd say that again.

Hello and welcome to another episode of Starz on Sports. I'm joined today by our assistant athletic director, Steven Cutter and our producer, Daedalian Lowry. And gentlemen, we're going to be talking today about communication, which we already just learned how important sound can be to a part of that communication or not. And this could go many different.

And I will say that was my bad. I pressed the wrong button there. It's a complicated job. Real complicated.

Well, this podcast only going to get better from here. That's what again, how we respond to that, that's not going to define us at this podcast. So we're going to move forward and do our best. And communication is something we've probably talked about on every podcast, but now have really dived in and I believe it's one of the most important aspects of a team, one of the most important aspects of society. And again, this could be a three or four part series, but we're just going to generally hit on it today. And how important I feel it is when I have coaches meetings, when I talk to coaches, I always bring up communication, as I've said before, that a coach can get by on is communication and organization. But communication is number one on my list. I had a boss teach me real early in my career that communication solves all problems and it's at the root of all problems. And if you really dive into that, I believe that, I mean, probably a breakdown in communication or a miscommunication or a lack of communication is probably why something can escalate and go astray. And the only way to solve it is to communicate through it.

George Bernard Shaw said something like the single biggest issue with communication is the illusion that it's taken place.

Yes.

And so that really sums it up beautifully of what you said.

Yeah. And again, we'll go in many different directions and there's so many different forms of communication and I even think we're not Going to talk a lot about it today, but body language is communication that coaches have really hit on. And we'll talk a little bit about it, but that's something. Maybe we can dive into a whole podcast later. But back to George Bernard Shaw. I've taken that a little further. And two of the things I tell my coaches in the coaches meeting is it's not what you say, it's what they hear. I mean, you think you can give the best presentation ever, but if it went way over their head or they didn't listen, I get it. That illusion of it taking place, you.

Know, step back in time a little bit. It's kind of like us. I mean, we're so used to. Used to be able to have phones with Google Maps or Waze or whatever it might be you can punch in. But do you remember what it was like when. Probably more for like, you, Greg, but like.

Oh, I remember what it was like.

When you had to. But you had to ask for directions and it was up to somebody to. To explain where you're supposed to go.

Yes.

And they might have felt like they explained beautifully where you're going because they. Most of the time, they knew right where you're supposed to go. But whatever you received, you end up going. I'm not really sure was that the.

First left or that after I took the first left out of this parking lot.

And so it isn't about what you say. It's, it's. It's what's heard and how you can communicate it.

So, again, great quote from George Bernard Shaw. Well, nice contribution, Cutter.

Thank you.

And again, it is so the illusion that it takes place. And for coaches, it's so important because you. You communicate regular. You know, in some jobs, you might be a little more private, a little less communication, but in practices, there's constant communication. And again, I wasn't even going to bring it up, but we'll talk a little bit about a new communication technique you've started this spring in silent practices. So, yeah, I go over it with our coaches all the time. You know, when I'm looking to hire a coach, I look at communication as a valuable part to bring to the job. I love associating with people that have specialized in communication. Backgrounds can help me be better, but also help coaches be better or become good coaches, because I think it's that important. And there's so many realms of communication. As we've talked about body language or nonverbal or, you know, in a previous podcast on our year podcast, we talked about Listening, how important that is. And that's an important part of communication to your point of the illusion. I explained this drill as well as possible, and they go out and, you know, run it totally astray and in consistent communication. As you know, we talked about consistency on this podcast and social media, how that's impacted our jobs in an effective form of communication, because that's where a lot of our student athletes get their communication from.

It really becomes a bridge between confusion and clarity. And that communication's right in the middle. And if you're in a leadership role and most people are one way, shape or form, it's super important that you can communicate not only verbally, but with your actions, your body language, your disaster, your energy for what you're doing, that kind of stuff, because people can see that, they can feel it. And if you're trying to say something but you don't have the other modeling piece with it, that's where the stuff doesn't get heard.

And we've talked about in our office how important words are and even at the beginning of this podcast tone and how through text and email you might not always get that. And I like sarcasm a little bit, so you have to be careful because through text and email they might not get it or understand it, but how important all those factors are into communication and coaches, you know, in high pressure situations or under stressful circumstances or trying to get attention across the. You know, if you're yelling to your left fielder from the dugout or to a player down 94ft away from you or a cross country runner out on the course, you gotta yell. In general, I really encourage our coaches not to yell personally at them. And in some sports, I think it's gotten out of hand a little bit with demonstrative communication and the effectiveness. I actually just saw an article yesterday or day before regarding the University of Michigan's new basketball coach, and he's soft spoken on the sideline. And they asked, can that be effective in the Big Ten? And a lot of people are going, you're crazy for even bringing this up. And two previous coaches was pretty soft spoken too, and he was successful. But the perception is you got to be loud and on the officials and on your players to be effective in the Big Ten. And I disagree with that. I again, I encourage our coaches to work on their communication on the sidelines when they're in public. I think that sets the tone for the whole event.

I haven't had the opportunity to see cut coach ever. Is that more your approach? Because you seem Like a soft spoken.

Guy for the most part. I think that especially in coaching, really important thing is knowing when to respond and when not to and understanding where those lines are. Because there's a lot of things that are going to happen in a work environment or a team environment. And there are times that you need to respond and there are times that you don't need to. And so I think that's kind of the same in the game situations or in practice situations. I will be soft spoken, but there will be lines. And I really believe, like communication is less about what you know and more about how you act and how you believe in what you think you know.

Here's a quote for you. Effective communication is 20% what you know, 80% feel about what you know.

Right. Wow.

Okay.

Peter F. Drucker.

Yeah, I like Peter Drucker. He had some good books. And again, that's about passion too, and about response. I've seen coach cut many times and I don't think I've ever seen him lose control. In fact, I haven't seen him lose control. My bad.

That was Jim Rohn.

Jim, okay. Not Jim Rome.

Jim Rohn.

Roan. And I think that's important because in sports, sometimes you think you need to get out of control to like send a message to your team or motivate your team. And sometimes that is effective, but for the most part it still goes back to ero and how you respond to certain situations.

Just my perspective, but it goes back to modeling. For the most part, student athletes are not going to be at their best if they're losing control or losing their minds. They're going to model that. And we've seen that as an athletic department and you've seen it, I'm sure, for a long time at the high school level, if a coach gets really demonstrative, then typically what it does is it allows the fans to take their seat belts off and they can start getting demonstrative towards the officials too. So. So it's just kind of one of those things where if you can keep a calm mind while everybody else is kind of losing their head, it's a modeling thing. And your players, they're going to go through the same waves at some point. Maybe in that situation, maybe another one, they can, they kind of have some guidance. Okay, this is, this is what it looks like. Even though the seas are super rough around me, we need, we need to keep somewhat of a level head through all this. And that does feed back into E plus R equals O. And it doesn't mean that you're going to be perfect. It doesn't mean that I'm not going to be perfect, but it means, like, this is what the standard is and that's what we're trying to meet.

Yeah. And it definitely helps solve the problem because if it goes out of control, it's an avalanche, it's contagious proximity. It's all those things that if you remain calm, the one person that's out of control, you can help bring them down. Then three or four more people getting technical or ejected or demonstrative. And, you know, I always try and talk to coaches or student athletes that get a technical or unsportsmanlike conduct. And just the learning lesson of that's the line. We do get to that line sometime, but don't go over the line. If you do go over the line, there's consequences, you know, usually a suspension of some sort.

And the lines are so different, too. That's really hard. If you start looking at the lines, it's hard to understand because the things that, you know, somebody like Coach Izzo or, or a basketball coach can say to officials cannot happen in the sport of baseball, that does not happen. You will be thrown out immediately on the second word, you know, and so the lines are so different. Same thing in football. It's just different lines. And you have to understand what environment you're in. And.

Well, and sometimes people are enforcing those lines, and some people have different definitions of those lines or different tolerances of the lines. And as good coaches, you learn as you get to know people what those lines, even if your players, the officials, the parent, the crowd, you know, that you can get away with more with a certain official than another. And I disagree. There were some demonstrative baseball managers back in the day, but you're right. Nowadays it has changed.

You could do a lot of different things, but what we're talking about here is still communication. It's just a different form of it. And that's why it's so important in.

Everything you do in our area that communication can be verbal, but that's also where body language comes in significantly of, you know, throwing your arms up or yelling or screaming and getting red. And it is important for our coaches to maintain that. And we have had some coaches that have been more demonstrative in the past that have mellowed out. And we have some that are younger and maybe trying to find their way in that. So there are different lines out there, but there's still a standard that you said that we have. And thankfully, our Coaching staff is usually pretty good on the sidelines of, you know, representing LCC well, which is our main mission and goal anyway. But you know, back to that quote you talked about because I did have this word on here is enthusiasm and passion and like I love my job, I love educational athletics. So if you get me talking about it, I just start going and I lose track of time and I get real passionate about helping kids succeed in the classroom, on the playing field. So I might not know a lot, but I have a passion for it. And I do think coaches have a passion for their sport. So that helps them get through things too because one, I think it also helps them learn. So you start to learn more, know more of what you're saying. But I think that is an important characteristic too of communication is believing in what you're saying and having a passion for what you're saying. And I think those for the most part, successful coaches, those epitomize what successful coaches have. Other parts of communication that you know, we've dived into is like trying to find our brand in the community. You know, things that I have done is I put out a weekly or bi weekly newsletter that I send out to local high school and people on the college and local media. We've implemented software in our athletic department where I'm able to communicate to all our student athletes and you know, their schedules on there and trainer schedule. You helped set up Google sheets that, you know, we can send that out there. Text vs Mailman I already talked about. So again, it's so important in our department because one of the different things about athletics, especially when at the high school level is when you work in an educational setting, you spend a lot of time in that institution. But in athletics we're the one main, one that talks to many other institutions. We're communicating with institutions across our state. Like I've done a cross country zoom meeting today with ads from Maryland to Florida to Arkansas to Kansas that we have that opportunity by competing or interacting with, you know, with our travel. That communication is important, not only internal but external and finding ways to disseminate that information. You know, another thing I do that a lot of ads in our league do or some do is send out communication before each of our contests. All our constituent, the local media, the official, the opposing school, all the people on our institution that could be impacted by having that contest on a given day. So our security knows that we're going to be in the gym tonight starting at 3:30 and going till 10:00 at night. So finding effective ways of communication is important because you're right, the illusion of it happening is one thing, but how handling to make it happen is other things. So those are certain things that I have tried to implement in our athletic department to communicate to all our constituents and always looking for better ways. I have not done as well on social media. I've tried to put things out on Instagram, is what our student leadership has told us their main way of getting. They don't go to our website, they go to Instagram to get information. And I've shared that with the college of how important that is.

So with the studying of excellent teams and what those excellent teams look like versus the average teams, you really find that one of the key denominators there is communication. And that communication leads to either a team that will work together or a team that just happens to be together. And I think that's one of the bridges that separates excellent teams from just average teams. The teams that that communication allows them to work together or just happen to be together if it's lacking.

And that's a great segue because the last part of my notes is that what communication leads to, and we've talked about it before, and how important is this team is trust and relationships. And you're right, the successful team by communication have more trust and stronger relationships, which lead to better performance.

And the communication isn't always going to be, you know, positive. It's not going to be the blue skies and 75, you know, it's going to be filled with honesty. But I think before you can give a whole lot of truth or honesty, there has to be some trust built into that. And through that trust comes a little bit of belief, you know, and once you have that, then you can add some honesty in there and that helps with growth. And then you're also adding, you know, the other sides as well. But it is communication so important in our world, and it is extremely important as well in the sports world and makes a huge difference between teams that are, you know, just somewhat status quo or average. And then the excellent teams. And if you look at any excellent teams, it doesn't matter what sport it was, it doesn't matter what time it was. Communication is one of the bigger things in every one of those team environments.

And again, we focus on verbal communication, but even in those cases, it's the non verbal. You can see that the joy, the happiness, the celebration, maybe high fives, you know, Jim Harbaugh, the big high five person, and how contagious that is. Of just giving a high five. How like it pumps you up, it makes. It gives you a positive vibe of connecting with another person. And we see that a lot in when something good happens. But you know, the good teams, it's even, you know, if you strike out or miss a free throw with someone. It seems to be a common thing in basketball when the free throw shooter shoots it, they gives handshake to the two people.

And now we can bring in the Peter F. Drucker quote. It is the most important thing in communication is hearing what isn't said.

So there you go.

Interesting. Thank you, Peter.

Yeah.

Really? Yeah. And I was looking at the one at the bottom there. The art of communication.

The art of communication is the language of leadership. That is James Humes.

There has been a lot of study on communication. And it though unfortunate that we all struggle with it sometimes. And even some would argue, I mean, that's human nature.

But we're a work in progress. So you're going to see some of those struggles.

But another quick thing to hit on, especially, you know, when you. When we're limited by time, is effective communication in like, is it to inform, is it to persuade, is it to entertain, is it to disagree with? And I think coaches have to. You know, another podcast topic just for you that want to listen in the future is choosing your battles. Is using communication in the right way, whether it's through an email, whether it's having a team meeting, whether, like, to your point, like, you know, the kid just struck out. Do you want to go yell at him now or do you wait and let it, you know, soak in and just finding the right times? Duke can be calling. You know, I've seen game one and a lot by coaches calling timeouts in the right second or changing pitchers. I saw a great cartoon the other day that said with a pitcher on the mound, the coach comes out and he goes, how come you never come out here when I'm doing a good thing? You know, And I thought, that's funny, you know, and back to Charmin and sensitive society to a certain extent. But how important it is, especially in sports when success is on the line per se. I mean, much more than wins and losses, but even again, that pitcher's belief system or confidence or morale, it's important.

Into who we are as well. Because I think communication provides clarity, which then eliminates confusion.

Yeah, and I agree. I mean, when you have clarity, you're going to be successful. And I believe confusion for some reason is a lack of clear communication. But to get Back to clarity. You need to communicate correctly. And I don't mind taking ownership. Like if I think I explained something and they did it wrong, like a teacher on a test. Like if a kid fails a test, I think the teacher has ownership that the kids, the content wasn't communicated correctly, just like the same as coaches. And I have that same thing. Well, obviously I had a role in not communicating that effectively to that person. That again, some of it's the ownership of the person, but working hard to find the best way to get through to student athletes. And that's because the other thing I always tell my coaches, every student athlete is different. I encourage our coaches to talk or their staff talk to every kid every day just to get a feeling of how they're doing or what they're doing. So, yeah, I spend a lot of time on communication and coaches, meaning I hit those points every time. It's that important.

Repetition is necessary, for sure.

And consistency, you know, the superpower. And I think consistent communication can go a long way. And I think sometimes we focus in athletics on when something bad happens. But I, you know, again, I think that the emphasis can also be when the good things happen on how to, how to handle that and how to communicate that well. And, and I probably don't do a good enough job in communicating when people do well because I expect that, you know, let's celebrate.

And for sure, much more of a thinker and might be communicating in my head, but then oftentimes forget to, you know, say what I'm thinking about.

So I will say that I'm guilty of that.

And I think we all are. And again, something all we continue to get better on even the best and you know, even our president that have been great communicators can get better. I like using humor in communication, as you mentioned. I do a lot of thinking too, and processing or writing it down as we talked about journaling or finding the time to speak it. And know that timing's everything too.

It just goes a long way just to kind of finish up. Dadalion reached out to me a couple months ago or whatever and said a couple things about podcasts. And he didn't have to say that kind of stuff, but he was being honest. And that stuff goes a long way. But, you know, we all oftentimes think it, but then we just kind of fail on the communication part where it can, it can help somebody either get better or just commit might help them with their day at that point.

And I think I'd like to end on that Point before we go to our end of the year question or end of this podcast question. Not end of the year yet, unless we're getting canceled after these conversations. Medallion but one. And my original intent of this communication thing was how one word can change the whole conversation because we've talked about that. So we'll go into that another topic just again. But I haven't talked about even reputation. One word can change a reputation. And I'm not. I have a strong vocabulary. So I wish I tried to read more even at my age to be better at vocabulary because I think that helps in communication. And then the second thing is what a great example to end on. And I've. Since the pandemic, I've tried to do better is send out thinking notes, show your appreciation of people, tell them, give compliments, and you know, be kind. In this world, when we can be anything, be kind and do that through communication. That if you see something you like or you see something, bring them up, send them a note. And I've tried to do more too, of, you know, on Fridays, I try and send out a thank you to someone on campus or across the country. I wasn't good at that. You know, I had my previous boss was. So I took it from him. And then the pandemic, I had time and I saw the impact that it had on other people. I mean, they would send me something back much nicer than I sent them. You know, I'm thinking that's not. Was not my intent. I was just thinking of you. And I wanted to send something positive. So I encourage all three listeners out there to do that. So thanks, mom and dad. Last question, gentlemen. I had two I was debating on. So we might do two if we're not. But first one, we'll go with pasta. You know, I love pasta. It's a good meal for student athletes for the most part, you know, with carbohydrates and starch and such. So do you have a favorite? Pasta, I guess is where I wanted to start. Do you like pasta?

Well, you said sports and I remember in high school we'd go over, you know, on game days or the night before and have a team dinner and things like that. And it was always spaghetti. And my mom makes world famous spaghetti, so I think it's kind of just been spaghetti. And because she made world famous spaghetti, now I make world famous spaghetti. And I think only my daughters would agree to that. Usually my wife. Hey there.

Hey. That's one good crowd.

Only crowd that matters.

Yeah, right. So spaghetti with meatballs or without meatballs?

With meat, but not. Not the balls.

Okay with me. I prefer meat sauce, too. Thin, straight lines. I mean, that's what spaghetti is, right? When we're clarifying thin.

And the noodles cannot be al Dante.

So. So a little story behind spaghetti. I hate to do this because we're late in the show here, but.

I know. Sorry.

But it is one of those things where I've gotta share this, and I don't think Mom's gonna hear this, so I don't think it's gonna be a big deal. And I am sorry, mom, if you do hear this, but my mom, growing up, made the worst spaghetti in the world. It was the thinnest, disgustingest, most worst, terrible spaghetti with these big chunks of tomato in it.

Oh, I don't like tomatoes either.

And huge chunks of meat. And then one day, you know, and I thought for the longest time I hated spaghetti. And then she bought, like, ragu or prego or, I don't know, something in a jar one day, prego. She put it on there, and I.

Went, oh, my God, I like spaghetti.

I like spaghetti, Mom. So after that, she never made her own spaghetti sauce. I guess she kind of knows the story. So even if she does hear it, that is good.

But you have a favorite pasta?

Well, if you're talking about a particular Italian dish, I am a huge fan of manicotti. But when it comes to actual pasta, I like the seashell pastas in my Mac and cheese because it cups that cheese and it adds, like, that. That cheese vibe.

Okay.

I love seashell pasta.

I want to dish on your mom, but I didn't like tomatoes either. My mom would put them in a blender, and, you know, so they weren't chunky, because I did not, like, cook chunky tomatoes for making spaghetti.

Oh, so gross.

And growing up, you know, even when you go to the college, it seems like you learn how to do laundry and cook and, you know, you make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. But making pasta was a pretty cheap and easy meal you made. And you throw it against the refrigerator to see if it sticks to see if they're done. Because I don't like overcooked pasta either. And I'm glad you brought up. I wasn't thinking Italian dishes. I was thinking pasta itself. But I'm a big ziti person.

Oh, ziti's good. Yeah.

But I love. There's some good manicotti. There was a restaurant in Ann Arbor that had a great manicotti. But again, those are my favorite pasta dishes. But my go to is Mac and cheese. I could eat Mac and my wife make the best. My mom made the best homemade Mac and cheese. And you know, and during Lent and other times, you know, live on macaroni. I can get macaroni cheese. At any rate, I'm sure I have.

To bring in my Mac and cheese sometime. All right, well, have food, because that became my quest during 2020. I was like, looking for the best Mac and cheese recipe and I found it, I think.

And they've added too many ingredients to it. You know, you can add any protein to it now. I just like a good cheesy.

Oh, I don't mind a little protein. Little bacon.

I don't mind it. I'm just saying you could too. But so again, so manicotti. I love spaghetti. I like meatballs.

We might need to open up a food podcast here.

I really, I just really tell them we're listening to our food. Tater Tots was so funny.

Stars concession stands.

There you go. But that's why I like having it at the end here. Just have some time to spend on food in general. So till next time, go stars.

Stars on Sports is recorded live at the WLNZ studios. Engineering and production assistance are provided by Daedalian Lowry and Jereny Robinson. 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!