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 AD Steven Cutter and a producer, Jereny. And today, gentlemen, we're going to be talking about experience in sports. And you know, as we enter the post season in some sports and begin the season in other sports, just reflecting on what it takes to be successful. And experience has been a big topic in college athletics, especially with the transfer portal and what that does in bringing experience to your team. But you know, looking back on, you know, success at a two year institution, I've seen teams, you know, go from worst to first in one year. But most of the cases it's sophomore driven teams, third year driven, you know, third year student athletes that have drove those teams to be successful. And I think that is true across college athletics. You know, you know, I'm a Michigan fan and they just came off of winning a national championship in football and oh really, a lot of people are attributing to the veterans they had on that team. And you look at all the guys, they're losing to the pros, but they had guys stick around. When you look at Michigan State basketball, most of his better teams are guys that have stayed three or four years there and you know, and how important experience is in life and just in general, you know, you always joke, you know, when you start a job that, you know, your first month on the job teaches you more than some of the things you learned in class. I would disagree with that a little bit. I think they complement each other, but there is a certain emphasis on how important experience is. Do you agree with that, Mr. Cutter?

I certainly believe that experience is an enormous factor in success, but you can also find examples of teams that have had very little experience. You mentioned Michigan winning a national championship in football, but I, I, my mind immediately went to the Fab Five. They didn't have any experience. They had a lot of talent and they had a large belief system. So I think in most cases experience really does kind of pay those bills and Make a very large difference on teams across the country, whether it's at the two or four year level. But you can also find some examples where it's not as big of a factor. And maybe that belief system and those talent levels kind of even some of the lack of experience out.

Yeah, and I would agree with that. I think of, you know, even again at the two year level I've talked about those teams that bring in a new roster with some young freshmen talent. Our women's basketball team this year is real successful and again we'll see where it goes in the postseason. We anticipate good things but but have really changed and doubled their win total in one year and they don't have a lot of experience on that team. But I believe as you mentioned, I think it's the belief system and experience that really help a team really get to that level. Even looking at Michigan football, it was their third year in the playoff before they finally won a game. And talking to journey a little before the Pistons back in the 80s and 90s, they had to get through the bold and the Celtic before they went were able to win championship. But getting there, you know, your team being to the World Series, getting there and getting the feel and see how it is. Yeah, there's, I mean I think experience helped more with staying there than maybe getting there that first time. But it's a combination of things we both know. I mean right before coming on the air we talk about the process, you know, and how important that is in being successful. But it just seems, you know, just recently that team with experience have done well. And I mentioned in the introduction the transfer portal where more coaches are recruiting kids that transfer because they have experience over incoming freshmen that are just talented. So you know, that's going to be interesting to see how that plays out in the future and impacts because I think, you know, a lot of seniors in high school are in a difficult situation because they're waiting to see, you know, how rosters fell out with transfers that have experience with kids that were successful at other levels that coaches know can come in and contribute right away where which experience gives you is contribution. You know, learning and knowing how to handle things where new teams, young teams, you know, have to, you know, figure some things out as you're aware of too. And that's, you know, what scrimmages are for and, and the beginning of the season for. I've always, you know, at the college season they're much longer season than the high school and you know, by the middle of the season. Most people are saying they're not freshmen anymore, which I disagree with a little bit. But they're that experience. They've been going through it for two to four months. So I just thought, I still feel

like they fresh me. It's nothing like their real game experience.

And agree, I mean, because going through a whole season one time, especially getting to that post season and experiencing those freshmen haven't dealt with, what they've dealt with is the routine of game and practice on a somewhat familiar basis.

Um, so I was about to say something. It's like a twofold thing to me with experience. So like we had like the Jordan who had to get through Pistons, so he had to experience going to the playoffs and losing a couple times before he win. But I also see where a negative experience where a team that lose so much, they start to believe that that's just what they do.

Jereny taking over our podcast here, which is good because that is one of the topics I wanted to talk about today is it is bad experiences. And especially with young teams, they become contagious.

Yes.

But back to influen their belief system. You know, we had a softball team a couple years ago that was relatively young and they go down on a spring trip and play, you know, five top 10 teams and get beat up pretty good. And it took them a month to recover from them to get their belief system back and be successful, which they did because they had talent and built, you know, build on success. But I totally agree that, you know, negative experience can influence you that way also.

Yeah. You mentioned trusting the process and that's really good. But you got to make sure the process that you're trusting is a tried and true process because you can work really hard in the wrong direction and you're not going to get to where you want to go. I think with experience, we've kind of seen it on the baseball end for the last three years and the experience does matter. And. But the belief system does play a large, large role in that too. We've had bad starts and, and done really well, and we've had very good starts and done really well. And the experience has kind of been one of those things that makes a large difference in teams. But the belief system and trusting a solid process really is the game changer in my views.

And I think they go hand in hand because as we've talked about already, experience can be positive or negative. Don't just rely on it. It's what you do with the experience that really helps you benefit from it. And Having those standards, having that belief system, I think helps you deal with that experience because everyone just thinks, well, if you have experience, you're going to be good. And what we're finding out, no, that's status quo. That how you handle that experience. Are you going to make the most of it? Are you going to continue to improve? If you have a strong start, you could get pretty complacent and you have the experience, but it's learning and growing it. That process of getting better that standard you attribute it to. I had a wrestling coach a long time ago that they were state champions and every year he would go like, by January 15th we had to be here. By February 1st we had to be here. He was measuring against that standard, not against their record. And I know you do the same thing with your baseball team of what are the standards, what are the analytics to be successful at the World Series. And I think Tom Izzo, the big person on that, he doesn't promote analytics, but he has certain characteristics of a team that this is where we got to get to by this time to be successful. And experience helps with that. But again, I think the process is even more important in that aspect.

It's, it's always interesting when you speak about practices and I know from just a coaching standpoint we are constantly trying to prepare our players and we've got a fall season where we get to play, you know, Division 1 teams. We, and that starts in August and goes until December. And we're preparing them. We can do inner squads. We've had great weather, you know, over the last few winters, you know, all things considered. So we can, we can get outside, we can inter squad, we can play against each other. They're seeing live pitching and I tell you what, as soon as those first games start against an opponent that has a different jersey on and they don't know who they are, it's completely different. And I think coaches across the country are trying to find ways to make things more game like whether it's in basketball, football, baseball or whatever. And I just, I just don't believe that they found the true thing because it's just different for, for student athletes when they're facing somebody else in a different color jersey that they don't know. And it's, it's pretty wild to watch. And so that's where that experience comes in, where players have been there before. They might not necessarily know that team that they're playing, but they've been in that situation before. They know what those seasons look like in, in A baseball or a basketball or a soccer season, whatever it might be. And that's truly, you know, somewhat what you're talking about, how, how important experience matters.

And it does in the sense of, you know, even scrimmages don't take the place of that first game. And I think scrimmages are important. I think, you know, some teams, you know, don't have the fortunate case of scheduling easy opponents for that first game. They might have to start with a tough opponent and that can influence how your team is. And it's much better if you have an experienced team to deal with a stronger opponent at first because they've been there, they understand it. Ye, you know, joking when I came here, how important, you know, like experience gives you knowledge, it gives you understanding, it gives you like, ways to prepare. And they're the hard substitute for that except for actually doing it. You know, the only example I saw my research of this podcast is going to the moon. There's really no experience that going. You know, no one's gone to the moon before the second and third time, but that first time is a leap. You know, in sports, thankfully, like you said, we're trying to find ways to mimic the game like situation to help prepare our kids for those situations. But I still think it's very difficult. And like you said, I don't think we're ever going to get to the point where it actually does except for the game. And that's why I don't give,

I

guess I look at a season as where you started and where you end instead of, you know, like winning that first game again. I want to win, but you know, it's more that growth, that process of, you know, and I always try to tell coaches, is the scrimmage is the best way to tell where you're at now, you know what to work on. I mean, you just finished opening weekend and now you know what you know, have a much better gauge of what your team need to work on. And that's where you really see where a team goes is where they go. And again, I'm talking Tom Izzle more than I ever would. But, you know, everyone's hard on him in November and December, but his teams always seem to get better and they're ready in January and March even when they like just don't understand what he's doing. But he has a process where he has to get them to. So I think we get too caught up in early season results. Obviously they mean more in certain sports or can influence your team as we talked about if it's a negative start, but the true growth of a team is from where they started and where they ended. And we've seen in sports too many teams that just didn't get any better as the season goes on. And it's hard because your team is your team that you might kind of just not have a good one in that situation.

I think in sports, just as you said, they'll say it's not how you start, but how you finish. And that's really true. But if you think a little bit deeper on it, that belief system, if you start pretty poorly, it usually takes a toll on that belief system and that belief system. Sometimes on teams like, you know, you mentioned the softball team was, it might have took three or four weeks to kind of get it back. But some teams, if you watch high school teams or, or college teams, you'll see that they, the whole season, they, they don't get it back. It's. It's gone, you know, and so they don't finish well and they didn't start well. And so you kind of get that complacency in there. And the belief system of, instead of I can or I am, it's I can't and I won't, you know, and I'm not.

And then you touched on it a little earlier, though. Part of having that leadership, that culture of at least a certain number of teammates, having that understanding of the process or that, you know, we're headed in the right direction, we're not where we're at, but, you know, but it's also coaches building, you know, finding ways to rebound and build on successes such as, you know, like scoring a run or. And I know that's an exaggeration, but if you get shut out three games, that scoring a run and finding those wins to stack to build, because you're right, some, some good teams have just not done well because the belief system wasn't there after they had a, a bad start and took too long to recover from it. But again, I think that's where experience comes into play and might even be more important because if you have some teammates on there that have that experience and know, hey, we're doing the right thing, there's just certain things we gotta fix that that will help them build the belief system of the younger student athlete on that team.

And you were an athletic director at the high school level for a long time. Do you feel that's why you typically see seniors being named as captains of whatever respective sports that it is?

Yes. Unfortunately, I think that's more just a lack of understanding of leadership. And I've learned a lot from you and even in the last couple years about how important it is to teach leadership. I think there's just a general premise out there that the best player or the most veteran experience should be a captain and they lead your team. Where we've learned that leadership is taught and anyone can be a leader that you know best teams are team led though, player led and helping them do that and the coaches that take the time to do that helps with these situations because hearing the coach yell all the time when things aren't going well and hearing the same message isn't going to help you get better. But I told you we have some NAIA schools playing at our gymnasium this year because we're hosting games and watching some of the huddles where the, the student athletes are doing the coaching in the huddle, which has been pretty impressive and it just seems to be more impactful and more empowering. And I would like to know if they're upperclassmen or underclassmen. It doesn't matter. But you just wonder them being there before, being there before with experience has helped them put them in that situation to know this is what we need to do.

Yeah, I feel like the leadership thing, I don't think it's an age on it. Cause like even in the NBA I watched like even though he made some tough decisions, Ja Morant who was like year three and the whole team respected him and him trusting and leading the team and him making good decisions on the court. Shy Gilgeous Alexander only like a three year player who leading his team and he's like the youngest player on the team but he has that quality that everybody want to gets around him and follow him.

And it is not. I don't believe it, there's an age on it either because I think you can look at the military and you'll see, see you know, 19, 20 year olds leading in much tougher situations. So it's not an age thing. It's, it's, it's how, how they're been managed and what kind of modeling they've had in front of them that kind of gives them the, not only the confidence but the abilities to lead in situations. And so, so you might have a high school senior that is named a team captain because he does have that experience. He or she does have that experience because they've been there for maybe two or three or four years.

Right.

But they might not necessarily have the, the definitions the managing and the modeling of what it takes to, to be a leader. And so sometimes that experience as we've seen, you know, I'll bring up the Fab Five again. Sometimes that experience doesn't matter because you've got freshmen that can lead each other and, and I think that team was, was very much a coach fed player led team as well, you know, and those are good things to see when you can see that.

And I think that's been one of the biggest shifts in leadership and a pos. It's not about age, it's actually about your leadership ability that I think for too long we used age as the main factor of leadership where now we're learning it can be anybody. And the teams that have good leadership that it's not the popular person but the person as you mentioned, that the team will go through a brick wall for those teams will be successful. But even at looking at those younger leaders, they still have experience. I mean even the fat five, they played a lot of basketball before they got to Michigan. I, these NBA players have played a lot, even back to your point at the high school level, it's usually those ones that are older have played maybe around varsity for two or three years, a little longer. So there's still even the military. I think those younger ones might have had some good previous experience that helped them be more successful in leadership sooner. Maybe not successful in push ups or pull ups or basketball, but back to whether born a leader or taught a leader, you know, being taught somewhere along the line they were taught maybe sooner to help them have experience.

That's where the contagious proximity comes in. You know, the models that you're around. It really makes an enormous impact.

And again learning from you, I am a big believer in contagious proximity and truly agree that is another important aspect that you are who you're around or the five people around. And I preach that to my, my kids every day. You know, and we know same with teams. You know, if you're, you know, you know, you know, we always joke like you don't have to like your teammates, you just have to be able to handle them for two hours of practice and games. And I disagree with that. I think the teams that are more like a family and have that leadership and experience are the ones that are more successful.

Yeah, I'm coaching this 11 and 12 rec league team.

Love it.

And I got this one AAU kid and he makes me look like a great coach. Like I set up the offense and he just runs it smooth. Then I got this other kid who's so talented, but he just haven't been there. And I'm like, all right, set up the offense. And he just start to dribbling and running all around the court. I'm like, just listen. And like the experience of this kid being in aau, he slows the game down and it's just like, ah, this is great.

But that's again, but it's not just experience. Now, your team will be successful in my eyes if that kid helps the other kids or doesn't help them by being frustrated that he is so much better. So again, it's using that experience as a positive or negative on how your team will be successful. Anything else to add on experience, gentlemen? At some time I want to end

with like, I think it makes a difference. Just in driving. I was thinking about as I was coming in this morning, you know, I have a couple of kids that are driving now and you know, they're not. They don't have the experience. Maybe it's the winter roads, maybe it's the ice, maybe it's the heavy rain, that kind of stuff, heavy traffic. Other people that are distracted, all that stuff, they don't necessarily have all that experience, but the only way they're going to get it is by going out and doing it. And so hopefully by the time they've been driving for 10 years or so, they're in a better situation than they would have been 10 years prior. And that's kind of the biggest thing that we talk to our teams about is, is it's not so much comparing yourself to other people or other teams. It's comparing yourself to what you were where you were yesterday. And if you've gotten better as a team or as an individual from yesterday, then you're in a good spot and stop, you know, comparing to what other people are doing or what other teams are doing. And if you can do that, then I think it really does play into experience. It's not so much about where you start, but it's about where you finish.

I truly agree. Be better. Be better than you were yesterday. But you just hit on so many topics. One comparison will be a whole nother podcast. The association theory will be a whole nother podcast. My driving was already a podcast and I am a much from experience of parking in the parking garage. I'm a much better parker. I still don't back in well because I haven't practiced. I don't have much experience with it. And I think you're right. I mean, I remember My daughter calling me on her first day drive in a snowstorm this year and she's driven for a year and she's driven in snow before but nothing like this. And she was scared to death. And I just. She never. She didn't know how to handle it. But now the next time she will have a better understanding on how to handle it. And it's different every time. But I think driving the perfect example of driving on the highway of learning from experience. It does matter. Building confidence though, again, what you do with that experience. If you have a negative experience, you might never get on the highway again. But if you learn to build on it, then you will get better at it. And man, there's a lot of crazy drivers out there. So, you know, experience. Experience crazy drivers out there. So. So I think that that is great especially. And I think part of the problem nowadays is we try and do to so many too many things for our kids that they don't get the experience in doing those.

That is so true.

Protecting them.

Yeah, we think we're protecting them. Where you got to try, you got.

There's a little risk involved actually not protecting them.

Not from long term, maybe short term. You know, if I'm. I'll drive you to school because the roads are bad, then they never get that experience. So.

Yep. I'm looking for a car right now for my daughter because of that experience.

Get a big one.

Exactly. Yes, I agree. I hear you. Yeah, Protect them. Yep.

She no longer has a car right now, but we gonna get her another one.

Yeah, I hear you.

Experience

suv. And I want them to drive the SUV when it'd be safe.

When our oldest daughter was learning how to drive, she. I would take. Let her drive my truck and I would, you know, of course, be in the truck. And she almost hit a tree. So from that day forward, pulling in the driveway, she never drove my truck again. Drives my wife's vehicle. You know, she has her own vehicle now. But you know, that experience is. Is enormous and I think everything in life, but it's, it's what you do with those experiences and how you grow. And if you do have a bad experience, whether it's driving or a game or a team or a coach or whatever it might be, you've gotta be able to adapt and recover from it and move forward. The saying, get back on the horse when you fall off, ride a bike.

Yeah, right. And I pushed for my kid to get back on it quicker because the longer you don't get on there, the more you get afraid And I think that's a perfect example of even coaching, even at parents where if they do get afraid or if they do mess up that of how to build them up, how to break it down and help them. And that's where the great coaches do with experiences if it was a negative one of building them back up. And again it goes back to veteran players, leadership, belief system, process and all things that are standard in successful teams and in life. But again, it seems like driving besides music is another analogy with these things.

In a lot of ways that's where anxiety comes from too, is those bad experiences. And then not being able to be present is where people struggle. The main thing with anxiety. So whole nother podcast but it is but those experiences are really, really impactful. And it's not so much about what happens to you, but how you respond to it. It might take a little bit to be able to respond in a good way to it doesn't necessarily have to be that instant, but how you respond to it ultimately determines what you're going to be able to do.

And that is a whole nother side topic of experience because I just listened to a podcast where anxiety is from bad, usually from bad experiences and how to build moving forward. And again, a common theme on this podcast is ero how you respond to it. Be better than you were. So no better way to end than that. 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. 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!