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 Sports. Today I'm joined by our assistant athletic director, Steven Cutter and our producer, Jereny Robinson. And today, gentlemen, we're going to be talking about goals, New Year's resolutions, and, you know, as we record this, it is the end of July. And, you know, frankly speaking, we start events, the practices next week, August 1. So for us, this is kind of like our New Year's Eve, our December 31. And in the academic world, it's a new fiscal year. It's a new academic year, new academic calendar. So July really a time of closing up the previous year and looking forward and really building on things for your new year. And as I've talked about in previous broadcasts, I love the start of new seasons. I love the hope, the potential, you know, we've also talked in podcasts regarding, you know, those check marks along the way of seeing if we're meeting that potential. Cause it's one thing having it and the best thing is accomplishing it, but, you know, but it's also exciting coming up with goals for the year. And I always feel like we have high goals here at LCC. You know, I put some goals down at paper. I didn't bring them today, but, and, like, refer to them regularly, but they're more generic for our athletic department, you know, of, you know, just kind of our pillars, our values and our standards. I'm not big on having smart goals or goals myself of defining them, but I still have things I want to accomplish that year, things that I want our teams to accomplish in a given season or year. So where are you at with the goal thing?

I think goals are important. I try to break them down into two categories, really. The first category is telescope goals, things that are far out and try to think about what you really want. That's a ways out. And then the second category is microscope goals. And those microscope goals you want to be sure are going to lead you to the telescope goals. So you're doing really small things over a long period of time that will get you to the end. The telescope goals, you're not always going to meet or reach all those goals. A lot of that comes into dream chasing and stuff like that, which maybe we'll get into in this podcast. But goals are, are extremely important, and I feel it's incredibly important to separate them into microscope and telescope goals.

And for that is microscope. I like those terms, actually. You shared those with me in the last year, I believe, and I've really, you know, tried to break them down in that sense. Is, is microscope more like this season or this year and telescope farther out, or is it even broken down further than that?

I think the microscope goals start with maybe weekly, and then as you get better with that, you can refine them into daily goals. And they don't have to be a long list. It can be a thought process, like it could be. We talked with New Year's resolutions on one podcast about having a word. If you're consistent with what you're doing, and consistency is a superpower, and I say that all the time, but if you're consistent with what you're doing, you will reach some of those telescope goals that you have. But you have to have the microscope goals that are really short term based to be able to get out there. And so a season would be more of a telescope goal. What that looks like at the end of the season, what that looks like at the end of a school year. And the microscope goals are going to be the things that you're doing on a weekly or a daily basis to get you to where you want to go.

Do you think teams, it seems like almost every team has a goal, and it's usually winning a championship.

I think so. I believe that every team starts a season. That's why there's so much excitement from, you know, all the, all the teams that start a season is they plan on winning, you know, the championship, whatever that championship might be.

So that's not uncommon and not like too broad or anything. I mean, it's why we're in this business. I mean, first for a certain standard. And again, I like the idea of just being better every day, you know, being better than you were yesterday. And that would, you know, that the short term goal, micro scope goal, that will lead you to a telescope goal, that you will be better at the end of the season.

What's it going to take to win that championship? And that's what those microscope kind of things are. Or what's it going to take to, to have the, the cups that you want to win for an athletic department, things like that. And it really comes down to the people that you have and, and taking those small steps every day, every weekend to get to where you want to go.

So using those telescope goals to build and, you know, like recruit or develop or put a plan in place, I.

Feel like there, it's. If you. I know you're an excellent bowler and it's bumpers, and you never, you've never used the bumpers before. But I feel like the telescope goals are the bumpers. They kind of keep you in line as, as you're doing things, you can kind of, that keeps you right in that lane saying, okay, this is what I want to do, you know, down the road. So I need to stay in this lane here. And that's what your balls do in the bowling alley, and you don't need the bumpers because you're a very good bowler.

We're going to talk bowling now. Cutter. I'm not a good bowler. I like bowling. Our family likes bowling as an activity. And I remember in PE class in high school, learning four step approach thumb at like, 10:00 and straight through. I'm not a curver, which, you know, in my previous job, we had bowling, and we had state championship teams in our bowling. They were really good, and it was impressive. And it's just like any other sport, the oil pattern on the floor. But I am a horrible bowler. Cutter, are you a good bowler?

Not to digress, but I've heard there's a lot more people doing the two hand bowling because they get more spin on it.

Yep. That is, man, this. Jereny, you bowl your family together?

My family, yeah. When I was young, we used to do a lot of bowling as a large family. Cause I was left handed, I had a lot of bowlers come up to me like, oh, you a lefty? You a natural.

I don't know why, but lefty also has an advantage. Cause the oil pattern for lefty is cleaner because there aren't as many left handed bowlers.

So I was a curver. So either I can do real well or over curve.

I think lefties always have advantages. Even in baseball, the left handed batter spots is always a lot smoother than the right hand.

It is true even in a lot of sports, because even defense and basketball, you're used to the person going right. My son had left handed, and they'd always tell he's left handed, and they still would struggle with him going the other way. Would you let a left hander be a catcher?

Absolutely.

See, my son in law was over this weekend, and we were just talking about him playing. He played baseball up to a sophomore year, high school, and he was a left hander. And his coach said that he couldn't be a catcher, even though he was.

One of the top national teams at the college softball World Series. They had a left handed catcher.

Wow.

I've seen him a little more common in softball. I saw a handful last year that LCC played. I at least saw two or three opponents have left handed catcher. So that kind of changed a little bit over time. Cause wouldn't you agree? At one time, it used to be kind of a.

There's some limitations there. But, you know, when I coached high school baseball, we had a left handed shortstop that we. I love him play shortstop. Cause he was a really good fielder and a very good athlete, and people were scratching their heads all the time. But he made the plays. You know, did he have some limitations on the, on the backhands or the forehands in the hole? But yes, but still, I mean, just let him play.

Wow. Oh, he digests. Yeah. Shout out to lefties. So we digressed a little bit from goals to bowling. Example, I appreciate example, and I like bringing other sports into it. You know, if we ever add sports at LCC, which we're looking at, that is the goal of ours, actually, this year is to put some proposals together to add sports. So that is fitting that you tied that into that. And bowling would be garner some of that conversation. When you look at adding sports at a community college, you look at the high schools in your area and what they're strong in, and we have a strong bowling contingency in the Lansing area, and I've had a lot of people reach out to me regarding it. Plus, the NJCA national championship, the bowling are played right here at Royal Scott and Lansing. So we have a beautiful facility, a national championship facility here. But that is a goal of ours and something you and I have talked about, you know, and, you know, now that we've been here a couple years, when I was hired here, looking at adding sports, we have nine sports at LCC. I think that really a pretty average amount throughout the country, some less, some more. But I think there's opportunity for us to add sports, and that is a goal of mine this year to work on a plan to see if that is an opportunity for us. So wait for bowling. You know, there's some other sports, too. I have a whole list, so I don't want to rule any out or nothing, but I've met with a number of people in our communities, from wrestling and hockey to football to soccer is another big one that would be a little higher on that list. Competitive cheerleading, I've met with some people on. Just had a student reach out to me regarding men's volleyball. So there's definitely interest out there. I don't know how much interest. As we talk about, it's a little more difficult to two year level. Cause the changeover is more quickly. So if you get someone that's interested, it's hard to. So you gotta make again, that's where it's important to know what's strong in your area. Facilities staffing are also a part of that, but that is definitely a goal of art that we talked about to see where we're at with it. Maybe nothing will come of it, but to definitely look at it, you know, more microscopically to see if that's something, you know, we can do here.

You guys just start with archery.

You know, you know, you joke, but, you know, that is a sport, I don't think, at the NJCA level. But Clay target, you know, Mason had one of the nicest facilities in the country. They just hosted the high school national championship this year of people for the archery clay target, actually. So this is like ski shooting that's more popular.

My daughter volunteered for one of those.

Okay.

Yeah, she's cheerleading and like, she got volunteer points for going out there and being out there for the tournament. So I had to drive her out there. And there's a ton of people.

Yeah, it's huge. And there's two schools in Michigan, community colleges in Michigan. They have, I think southwest Michigan and mid Michigan have clay target. But there's other ones. Bass fishing. You know, bowling used to be considered that kind of, you know, esports is another one that we've looked at putting a proposal together. So you are trying to find avenues of different interest group to bring them in and get them invested, involved in the college instead of the tradition. Ball sports, I guess I would say.

Esports is getting huge, too.

It is. It's growing. There's some neat facilities out there, and they're big money and a billion dollar business. And you talk about professional sports. People are making millions doing it. I, you know, I get mad at my son for playing video games, but now people are paying to watch people play video games. So, you know, it's crazy, but see where your bowling analogy led to.

But it happens when you start talking about bumpers, you know, and then all these other things come in and what sports are we going to add? I definitely want to add one more thing to it because when we talked about microscope and I telescope goals, well, it really makes me think, and I had to pull it up, but it makes me think of Denzel and Denzel, you know, I love it when you can you just use one name, you know, Jordan Denzel. He said, dreams without goals are just dreams. And without commitment, you will never start.

Wow.

And without consistency, you will never finish.

Yeah, that is excellent. That is a great. I've not heard that one before.

So you need the commitment of the microscope goals.

Right.

And you need the consistency showing up.

Every day, sticking to your standards, finish.

And that's where I say things like, consistency is a superpower. It really is.

And back to your point of dreaming. And there and then maybe that's part of the quote. But like he says, dreaming without goals are just dreams where goals kind of quantify it, they kind of identify it. They kind of like set that target. Because a dream I think most people consider as a wish, you know, just back to our point of winning a national championship first or a league championship for some team, that is a wish. Until you start putting the plan in place to meet it.

Those goals, dreams are really just a motivation to walk the path. And that's really what those dreams are. And that's why the goals are so important.

But to the point of realistic dreams or realistic goals, or even having the will to reach those goals, it's one thing to have a goal, but how do you get to that?

You say realistic. I've written, I think, a lot, just stuff that I only read, but I think all dreams contain a seed of delusion in them.

Gotcha.

So I'm not sure if realistic is the right word because I believe there is a lot of. Some seeds of delusion in those dreams, and that's why it's more of a motivation to walk the path.

Yep. Well, again, I would compare it to having too low of goals or too low of standards that, you know, that are easy achievements. You gotta put yourself out there a little bit, put a little risk to it.

I remember when I coached high school baseball and I would hear some coaches talk about their goal for the season was to win a district championship. That's the first round of the playoffs. That was their goal for the season. And they didn't have enough delusion because they were maybe more realistic because their team wasn't that gifted or talented, but there wasn't as much delusion in there. Why would you set a goal for just a district. Why wouldn't you set it for a state championship? Why would you set it to play at Michigan State in the semifinal? You know, that kind of stuff. Why are you gonna. Why are you gonna lay up here? And because maybe because there's too. There was too much realism in that goal.

And I think reality, they're the spot in there. Reality keeps you in check. But I had the opposite where I hired a coach that said, we're gonna win a state championship. And people thought, he's crazy. Cause at that school, we had never won one in that sport and weren't even ever really close, that he had to develop buy in. I mean, instead of thinking, you know, like, well, they're the crazy person going down with his dream, but it's selling it, buying into it.

It's typically easier in society to get buy in on lower dreams than it is on higher dreams. And I think kids, younger kids, often get their dreams dashed by us adults because there's no seeds of delusion in there. And you're like, you can't do that. Truly, at most, anything is possible if you're willing to put the consistency into it and you have the motivation to do.

That's why I like that you. Because this is new to me, the microscope and the telescope. Because to me, like, I'm a visual learner. So when you said that, I thought of, okay, we have a mansion, and then we have the bricks. So every day, like you said, stacking bricks. So we stacking until we get to that mansion. Or it might end up being just a house, but we still was shooting to make a mansion.

Absolutely.

So I think that's really cool. So when I talk to myself as well as my kids, I'm gonna start saying, okay, let's write down some telescope. You know what I mean? And let's do some microscope, and then let's see where it goes.

That's powerful stuff. And that's where that saying came from. Shoot for the moon. And even if you miss, you're gonna land amongst the stars. Very fitting for the stars.

Well, another thing you interesting. You said journey is talking to yourself. And when you have goals, you do have to reaffirm yourself or because there's gonna be days you don't think those goals are achievable or that, you know, they are out there too far. So talking to yourself is important. But the other neat thing you hit on, and this has kind of gone a different direction, which is totally fine, but we'll get to our goals. But is kids dreaming. And I've seen a lot of marketing campaigns recently regarding, you know, how young kids like you dream of being an astronaut. You dream of being a pro player. And to your point, of dashing those dreams, as we get older, for some reason they get squashed and people don't have that same, I forget the word you used earlier, but dream or, you know, that it's kind of like it becomes more local instead of a broader dream that, you know, as we get older, we kind of, like, lose that big picture of being anything we want to be. So something to be careful. And I think that's true in life. It's true in sports. You know, at certain parts of the season, you got to reevaluate your goals or recheck your goals. If you start zero seven, you know, winning a conference championship could be difficult that, you know, what can we do to make the most of it? Or even at the first of the half of the, of a conference season, you can reevaluate where you are championship wise.

So that's, that's where it's, it's better to make goals that are based on what you're doing versus what the results are going to be. And just like journey brought up, you know, stacking bricks to build this mansion, it's more important to stack the most perfect bricks that you can stack. And whether you get a four story mansion or you get a one story level house, you know, it's going to be strong.

Right.

And, and that's what's most important versus always getting those looking for the results. It's more about, you know, as people like Brian Kane and them will talk about. It's more about the prop, your process and what you're doing. And that's where the, like, the microscope comes in. Figure out what's most important to you and understand what your telescope goals are. Maybe it's that mansion and start stacking really good bricks and, and there's going to be some days you're not going to, you know, really want to stack that brick because you're, you're tired or sore, you know, whatever it is. You've got three tests today and the girlfriend just broke up with you or whatever it might be you, you've gotten, you know, the stuff in your backpack.

Well, two things. Yes. What important to you is kind of your motivation or your passion, and that helps you buy in and probably work hard toward that goal. And that's a huge part of team success, is getting that buy in or developing that important, because if you just have a goal that's not important to anyone, it's going to be hard to achieve. And then the other thing is the quality. Like you said, really good bricks and then giving your best work every day. Because even in the end, and I think sports is the best analogy of you could be have your best season, be your best team and still not win a championship. If there's another team out there that's better. True, you might be able to beat them on one day. So that's why, you know, we talked about the comparison theory and the thief of joy. But just doing your best, building your best brick, giving your best every day will help you reach your best.

Somebody will always have a bigger mansion.

Yeah. If you're one of my favorite things, my principal, you say, if you're the smartest person in the room, get to a new room and become where they're smarter people. And a neat story. It's a quick summary because I know we're running out of time, but we're going to go along today is the builder that wanted to retire and his boss said build one more house and he wasn't really enthusiastic about it and he built the house with less quality and the boss ends up giving it to him. And, you know, now he regrets not giving his best every day. And, you know, I think that's so true with goals and that motivation of where and even where you're at in your career, you know, getting incoming freshmen to understand their role, getting outgoing sophomores, the continue that buy in if some of those goals aren't, you know, attainable what they thought. So all team dynamics, all we're back to where those microscopic goals are important and I think that's where practice plans are important, daily goals and improvement. So real quickly, any specific goals for the year for either one in bm?

Yeah. You want me to go first?

Sure.

Okay. So my goal for this year is to get my first musical placement on a tv show or some type of ad.

Excellent. Awesome. Cool.

That's a really good goal.

It is.

I like that.

Especially. We've talked recently with some of your success and some of the competitions you've done. So good. Good. We're going to hold you to it. We're going to keep checking in on you with.

I like that. For me, I don't have or necessarily going to share a ton of telescope goals, but it's boring about the microscope stuff and I'm just trying to get better in my processes and by me getting better in my microscope stuff, it helps increase my impact. And I think when you're coaching, that's the trophies and the medals and that stuff that those are going to fade away, those are going to collect dust. But the impact is by far the most important thing you'll hear coaches often talk about. It's the relationships. And though that's really important, it's more about impact and what can you do in your life. And that's kind of where I stand.

I love that people don't care what, you know until, you know, what you care. And again, I feel we're in a business that has significant impact on the future. So a couple quick things. Accountability journey. We talked about it. That is, I think, huge in goal setting. You need someone to hold you accountable. I think we need accountability partners in life and general. And coach Cutter, you know, daily helps me with that. I think, you know, by putting it out there, making your go public makes it, you know, help you take that risk a little more. So quickly for us, you know, a goal for us every year is to win our, our cup, our, you know, the cup for our conference. And that just shows across the board. Our sports are competing at a high level. So I always like, you know, and Lansing has more than any other MCCA school, but, you know, we've taken second the last two years. So our goal is to bring that back to Lansing. This year. I think we may have 19, so it'd be nice to get to that 20. You know, last year our student athletes did a great job of supporting each other at other athletic events and, you know, baseball was a big part of implementing that a couple years ago. So I want to build on that. It was awesome last year to see the interaction, so I hope we can build on that this year. And you talk about impact. I want to make it the best student athlete experience we can for our student athletes. And that's on and off the floor or field and, you know, setting the standard high and giving them an experience, they can remember that as a lifetime and then always that academic piece of, you know, improving our GPA. So those are more telescopic goals for LCC stars. But, you know, that is what, you know, as we head into next week in our first set of practices, those are things we will emphasize with our staff and student athletes that we want to work on this year.

Good stuff.

All right, let's end with our fun question.

Let's go.

What's the strangest thing you've eaten? And I can go first if I don't give you guys these ahead of time. I ate a cricket. When we went on vacation one time, and I'm a very picky eater. I mean, I go to restaurants and eat hamburgers or chicken tenders. I'm not. I don't branch out very much. So I felt, well, we were, you know, somewhere tropical. It's cool. My wife is a very daring eater, so she tries lots of things. Her answers would be crazy on this, but she was trying them. It was crispy. I couldn't really tell. I know, you know, what it tasted like or that it was a cricket, but it was a fried cricket or whatever. So that's my. I believe that's my strangest thing I've eaten. So.

Impressive.

You two got one?

Yep. I didn't know as a kid what I was eating, but the strangest thing I ate is a cultural dish called chitlings.

Okay.

Yeah, yeah. My grandma used to get this big red bucket and clean them and the house smelled real bad and I didn't know what it was. And chitlins, pig intestines.

Okay.

Yep.

All right.

That's pretty incredible, I think. I think I've eaten my fair share of bugs, and I really can't come up with anything outside of the bug world that I've eaten. I have been pretty disciplined enough to say, no, thank you.

Seafood. Are there any seafood like octopus or squid or.

No, thank you.

Yeah, me neither. I don't eat any of that.

I had my first calamari.

Okay. I've tried calamari. My kids.

I didn't care for it.

It depends. But calamari can be really good.

Okay, so that's a strange, strange outfit.

Not really. I mean, that's.

Any meat? Any wild animals?

Yeah. I mean, like, remember going to Cabela's? They'd serve all kinds of different meats there. You know, they had a small restaurant and I'm sure they probably still do, but I. Yeah.

You know, there's a place when you drive north on St. John's, has all this jerky, you know, alligator. I never had it. My son said he tried alligator. My daughter said she ate a scorpion, you know, at some time. So I'm not very daring either, but, you know, I'm a scorpion. It was. It was enough class. It was in class in elementary school.

Survivor or what?

I know I could not do survivor, but. Yeah, I'm not risky either, but certain people are. My oldest son, he'll try anything. If he goes somewhere, he'll eat bugs or nature's animals and gotta be careful. But I thought that'd be fun. Next time. We're probably gonna talk do our hot dog. We had a great hot dog conversation before, but we are running out of time. So until next time, 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 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!