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. 23 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!

I am Greg Lattig. Welcome back. I'm here with Steven Cutter, our assistant ad. And today we're going to talk about being thankful and giving back to the community. We are taping this episode before Thanksgiving. Most likely you'll hear it after, but we're going to talk about how our athletic program can give back. We're going to talk about how our program is impacted by our calendar and then just have some general discussion at the end. But we're excited to be here and talk more about LCC sports. So how you doing today, Steve?

I am excellent, thank you.

Good to hear. Again, as I talked about, you know, we're very fortunate to be in this profession and, you know, a lot of people out there that support our program and a lot to be thankful for with the holiday season coming up. And I know a big emphasis of your program and our athletic program overall is giving back to our community. As we've talked about before, you know, we want to excel in the classroom, we want to excel on the athletic field. We want to, you know, be a part of the college and be a part of this community. So today, you know, I thought we could talk a little bit about how our athletic program is an integral part of the downtown Lansing community. You have implemented some programs for our athletic program to be involved in the community. You know, it's exciting to give. As you and I both agree, the more you give, the more you get back in return. So any thoughts on community service, where it became important to you or how it became such an integral. It's a core value of, you know, to your baseball program, so. And again, for our athletic program as a whole.

Yeah, I think overall I'm really thankful to just have a job and then it goes from there. I think anytime that you can have an opportunity to impact lives, our student athletes are anywhere from 17 to 21 years old. So it's a. It's a prime time to impact them. You can get too caught up in the X's and o's of sports and kind of forget that there are people and they are going to be leaders in their, in their households, in their communities and everything that they do. So what we've done in the baseball program is it's, it's a part of who we are. We've, we're teaching service based leadership and if you're willing to serve others at a very, very, very low level, it, it makes them feel better at the lowest of, you know, low levels in that service piece and at the higher levels they are, they're actually impacting a number of people that maybe are less fortunate or have had a few bad breaks or whatever it might be. And that is more of that impact piece. So we're leaving them with more things than just wins and losses in a season. They're, they're leaving with truly impacting their community. And we live capital city and so there, there's a lot of opportunities here. There's a lot of need, whether it's with businesses or anything else that they're looking for help. And the baseball team is large, it's you know, 45 plus members. So when we can come into a situation and help, it's a lot of help when you have that many hands and it is a special thing.

And you know, and it sure is and you're right, it is impactful. And you know, we sometimes focus too much on the competition which is impactful to our athletes in their lives. I mean I'm always pleased that, you know, they can handle, learn how to handle life lessons and adversity on the playing field. But this is the community they live in and all our programs have do some type of community service and most goes unrecognized, which is what it should be. But you know, it is nice, you know, being involved in the community. And that's one of the things that excites me about the holiday season. It just seems like our society as a whole makes that important and a need and a way to get back paying it forward. You know, it seems like this time of year on the radio that always says, hey, pay for the person, you know, drive through behind you. Which my wife is really good at. But you know, those are good lessons that we can teach our student athletes to be a part of the community that supports them. And you know, you know, we need a lot of support in athletics. You know, there's a lot of behind the scenes things that take place for us to be successful. You know, businesses supporting us financially or parents and spectators being there to cheer how important that is, and how, you know, sometimes we take for granted that a little moral support from a crowd can help us perform better. You know, the workers, you know, the officials that take a lot of criticism, but, you know, we can't have events without any of that support. And it's nice to have our student athletes kind of show that in another way in the community that they are part of. Thinking back on my own history, a quick story. We went to a Special Olympics basketball game, my former principal and I, and we were in Panera Bread and the guy in front of me, his credit card wouldn't work, you know, and he's like panicking and figuring out what to do. So he walked away to go try and find somebody to get him paid for. And I went up and paid for it, you know, not thinking anything, just thinking the right thing to do. And, you know, everyone thought, man, wow, what a gesture. And the lady wanted to give me my meal free. The guy wanted to give me more money than the meal was worth when he found money. And I just always use that story as, you know, just doing something little that, you know, you're just taught to do by your parents or your teachers or somebody and you give something. And, you know, I almost got more in return and I did get more and how I felt when I left that place. My principal sent a nice thank you to me afterwards about doing the right thing and, you know, just trying to again, carry that over and teach that to our student athlete that, you know, sometimes, you know, they're busy and time is tough, but taking the time to go out in your community and contribute goes a long way for yourself and for your community. So I hope we can really install that. I know we have our cross country and softball teams will be working the turkey trot this weekend, you know, helping out there and so many other ways that, you know, helping out at the local schools, which we want to do even more, or the other community centers in Lansing. That just makes sense for us to be a part of and help others in the field of athletics growing up or just in life in general. Any other things real quick that the baseball team has, Coming up with community service?

We always have something. It's just like, you know, practice or study tables or anything else. We always have something. We've done a incredibly large amount of impactful things for our community and for our student athletes here on the baseball team, a couple of them that are a little bit deeper that you're not going to see anywhere. We've done stuff that's been on the news and been promoted and that kind of defeated a little bit of what we were trying to do. But we're working with big brothers and big sisters. All of our baseball players are bigs. So that is a large impact on a number of young men in our community. One of the more special things that our program is doing.

Excellent, excellent. And as we talk about community service in time, you and I have, over time have talked about our calendar and how it's different than the 9 to 5 business calendar, you know, with Thanksgiving coming up. Because again, this is being pre recorded, you know, some of our student athletes, you know, that are farther away don't even, you know, get to go home just because of the schedules or we have games or practices over those breaks. So it's just a different commitment. And you know, one of the things we always hear from our student athletes is time management. That's one of the most difficult things they have to learn when they get here. And we're very fortunate at LCC that we have academic success coaches that help them out and give them strategies and help them with those issues. But you know, you and I have talked about in the entertainment business which, you know, you could consider athletics where our games are at night, our games are on the weekends and practices over or holiday breaks and just year round now a very unusual calendar that maybe other people, you know, go and watch at that night for enjoyment but don't realize that we're working or something is going on that we have to worry about or take care of that it's just different but something we're used to, something we been a part of for a long time. So we don't know any other way. Looking into this podcast, I look back in history and calendars have been around for thousands of years and so have sports and society, you know, gladiator fighting 2,000 years ago. But you know, some little tidbits, you know, 35% Saturday, their favorite day. And you know, Saturday is also one of our busiest days of athletic competition. A lot of people prefer a four day week nowadays in some countries going to that, but that wouldn't work for us. So you know, we, we use seven days, you know, and that's not enough. You know, the calendar is very interesting to athletics. You know, we embrace it, we don't, we don't know anything different but share a little bit about from a coach's perspective, you know, a calendar and you know, how it impacts families and student athletes that might be different than the general student body.

Yeah, I Think it's becoming a little more normal just because youth sports are so huge in America that people are getting used to missing dinners and being at practices. And those Monday nights look much like their Saturday nights do. They're constantly busy. A little more normal. I think more people can relate to that piece of it. But ultimately, in sports, if you're going to continue to play at higher levels or even at the youth level, in order to get something, you have to give up something. And so with that being said, some people call that sacrifices. I tend to lean towards calling those investments instead of sacrifices. But if you're going to try to do something, well, you're going to have to give up some stuff to get that. And so athletes, a lot of times student athletes are giving up quite a bit. You know, we have. We have. Not all of our kids on our baseball team are from the Lansing area. So we have kids that are from across the state. Thanksgiving's coming up. They won't be going home for a couple of days because it's just not feasibly possible. It's not that they don't want to. It's just not financially possible to pull that off. So they'll be here. People don't necessarily see that. You know, we have sports teams that are playing during the holidays, you know, with basketball over, you know, during the Christmas time. And those are those sacrifices or investments on depending on how you want to look at them. But that's what. That's what happens with student athletes.

Agree. And some of it we get criticism for, maybe rightfully so. I mean, some of us blame us for not having family dinners or our Sundays are taken away because of athletes. So there's a balance there. But to your point, you know, in the book the Outliers talks about, you know, mastering something that takes like 10,000 hours, I believe. And so to achieve each level, you have to put in the time. We're definitely impacted and benefit from that. But I hope all our teams and our student athletes take time to themselves and get some. Some rest and relaxation. But it is a calendar that we have bought into and invest in and embrace and I don't know anything other way. I mean, I've been doing it for 25 years. It's my adulthood. When I started in this business, we had certain days off because of exams or we didn't have games on Wednesday nights because of church or didn't play on Sundays. But as you mentioned, as more and more people participated and more teams took place, you needed to find time for them so Wednesday became the first thing, and then, you know, hey, no one's playing on Sunday, so let's use Sunday now. And from the growth of sport participation that we are using all those days, and our society has bought into it and good and bad. So hopefully, I think, I worry because even for some of our workers, it's getting harder and harder to find because they're so busy being involved with their own families. And not just athletic. There's other professions that takes this kind of time to be a professional at it, if that's your goal, or participate. Even like music or theater are one that come to mind too, but very similar to the athletic schedule and not the traditional nine to five. So I hope as we come up to this holiday season, regardless of celebration, at least, you know, you can find time to be with family and find time to get a little rest and your own time, because, you know, that's very important too, is time to yourself. Yeah, I mean, we talked baseball before. I mean, you know, it's summer, too. I mean, there's summer ball two seasons. I'm not sure everyone realizes a fall and winter season. So a lot going on constantly and hopefully a lot of good things come from that as we believe. We've invested in this profession because we believe how it helps students become successful in life. But definitely this time of year, I hope, you know, there's time for. For other things, too.

Yeah, I think it's. It's just hard. Yeah, you know, it's. It's. Though the things that you're. You're missing, the things that you give up for larger impacts on people, it can become a difficult thing. Whether you're a student athlete or you're a coach, there are a lot of investments that you're working through.

And especially, you know, the leaders of those groups, coaches do I worry about because they're working even more when just the normal structured time that is available. You gave me a nice little document in the last week about 24 hours in a day. And of that 24 hours, you really have, if you take out rest and work or school, you have six hours really in a day to be productive. And we're both of the growth mindset of trying to get better and learn every day. And you think six hours, that's a lot. And I know I have to do better myself, thinking I don't maximize that six hours a day. And, you know, at midnight I'm reading or when family goes to bed, I'm trying to, you know, listen to more podcasts and Such. But time has always been one of my most baffling things. You know, you can steal it, it goes fast, it goes slow, you lose it. It's a very valuable resource that we, I think, take for granted. And again. And I don't think it's realistic that you maximize all six hours of that day. But. But the more you do of that six hours, the more it'll help you grow and be better. Which we're trying to do and trying to teach our student athletes.

Yeah, I think it's your. They say that the average American spends at least an hour a day scrolling through social media. If you're able to eliminate that piece of it, that's seven hours a week. And that equates over to 28 hours a month. Think about what you can do in 28 hours in a month. And that's just an hour. You know, that's just an hour. So with our student athletes, one thing that we've done is because there's a lot going on. It doesn't matter what sport you're playing in, there is a lot of things going on. It's not just practice and games. There's a ton of things going on. And so a lot, especially freshmen, they come in, they're used to their high school seasons. Their high school seasons are much smaller or at least shorter. And the. Some of the commitments aren't as much. And they come in and one of the first things they say is, I don't have time. And most of the, most of it is they're not saying they don't have time for their sport. They're saying, I didn't have time to write that paper. I didn't have time to go to that class. That's in reality what typically happens. So we started, or I started doing anytime I heard I don't have time because ultimately that's an excuse. Pull out your phone, show me what your average screen time is a day. And you, your mind would be blown when those phones come out, because it's usually they're averaging about six to seven hours on that phone. So if you can cut that down, maybe it's just an hour, you know, cut it down a little bit. You try and tell me you didn't have 45 minutes for class or that hour to write that paper. And that's the end of the discussion at that point. Because it's the reality piece somewhat hits

them and it's showing them the reality. And my fear that's only going to go up because I think it's so hard for students to get off that phone. But you're right, it just shown them that reality and showing them how to manage that time, which, again, we're fortunate. We have resources also on this college that help them with that.

But we would have been the same way if, if when we were kids, if we would have had the phone. I mean, we would have been the same and we would have hopefully had people out there showing us like, hey, you need to take a break here. It's going to be helpful because you get a ton of on the phone, you're looking at it and you're, you're using the comparison thing and they're scrolling, they're seeing in their comparison, comparing whatever they're seeing to themselves. And a lot of times that doesn't make people feel good. And that's not a great situation to be in either. So if you can cut some of that out and do something a little more productive. We're not talking about taking it away forever, just talking about an hour a day.

Well, I look forward to that text I get every Sunday telling me if my screen time was up or down from last week. And I get mad when it's up. I work hard to get it down.

What's your time on average?

Probably two to three hours. I have so many different devices, so I don't know how accurate it is, but I try not to be on. I'm not on it at all during the day at work. I'm usually on it at night when I get home to check my email, to check the news for the day and then just search some sports stuff or watch podcasts. But, you know, I have children, so I know how difficult is that. One of the best tips I learned from one of those shows on Netflix is turn off your notifications, because if you get notifications, it seems like that draws you right to the phone. So I don't have really any app that notifies me that it's, you know, there's something there for me to look at. But again, I can do better. And I try every Sunday to, if my, you know, be less than I would last time and I'm not successful and there's some weeks that, you know, I am frustrated with my own self of being on it more than I should. And you're right. And when I was younger, I would probably, if I had one, I'm glad I didn't. I'm glad I have one now, though. It's very helpful for work. But I also feel in our business, it's Been a challenging thing because before cell phones it gave time people to debrief before they could contact people where now if you're frustrated, you can reach to your phone and share that frustration. You know, we have a 24 hour rule in sports, but it's much harder to implement nowadays because of the cell phone, because everyone's right there.

And I didn't know that 24 hour rule was still followed. I think that was more of an old school kind of thing. And I don't think, I don't think

there's a, it's not followed. But I'm telling you it's a good thing because again, emotions are high after events, whether practice or game. And if you can go home and just take a breath and refocus and rethink about it, it might help you handle the situation better. And I just think, you know, that's one of the challenges we deal with when, when you have a communication tool right there that you can share something without having time to reflect or calm down. So you're right, there is no 20, there's not a 24 second rule anymore because of our technology.

You spent a long time at the high school level. Do you think cell phones should be in high schools?

You know, they're valuable. And again, back to what's practical. I mean some teachers use apps or use, you know, it's a great calculator on there, but just like anything in life, it comes down to balance with it or in moderation because you can use them, I mean to check things or such. But in the classroom per se, probably not as much use or more minimal. But you know, the funny thing to me is, you know, when you used to go to the doctor's office, they used to have all those magazines there and you'd read them. Now, I mean everyone's on their cell phone. They'll look busy or they're not by way the themselves or something. And then you can watch a movie while you're, you know, waiting for a doctor's appointment inside.

So we, we somewhat live in a society now that if you're sitting on a park bench and you're just looking around at nature, you look a little bit weird, you know that you're, are you lost?

Do you not have a cell phone?

Right. Do you need a friend? Because that's the automatic turn to. Now if you, if we're bored or we go out, we've got a minute, we, we turn to the phones. That, because we're talking about the phones, it does play into student athletes and really monitoring that before competition because there's a piece to locking into a focus of what you're getting ready to do or what, what you're supposed to do, what your job might be. And if you're on your phone, most everything that I just said isn't going to happen. And then you've got the comparison piece coming in where maybe you just saw something of somebody else that was your age and was driving a Ferrari or something. You're thinking, I'm, I've got my dad's beater car and here I am getting ready to, to play a basketball game the day after Christmas.

You know, and there's a lot of positive from phones. I mean, we can video games, we can live stream games, we can. There's apps for scorekeeping in games. But I mean, we've seen in the last year where professional athletes have headphones fall out of their pockets or, you know, on the sideline there. And just like anything else, you know that in my belief in athletics is once you step on the court, it's a different kind of focus. You know, you work harder, you become more competitive and then when you step off the court, it's a different parameters and set of structure to follow. But so, yeah, I think they're the place and I'm sure the classroom, you could argue that those same set of parameters occur. I believe the sports fields are classrooms. So I'm glad I don't have to make those decisions whether cell phones should be in school. I've been a part of those. And it's a battle, I mean, especially as important. I mean, there's, you know, growing up a car with, you know, getting a car would have been most important to us. Nowadays, they'd rather have a cell phone over a car, I believe. So I'm just glad, you know, we have to deal with it in our job, dealing with our own student athletes, you know, going to check at practice, you know, real quick on a break or something and, and you just try and teach them the goods and bads and the moderations and being able to focus on the task at hand. So I don't want to pick on cell phones today. We use them a lot of good for them too, but good stuff, good stuff. Well, the World Cup's going on right now. You follow it all. It's the largest sporting event in the world. 50% of the world watches it.

I must be the other 50%.

Yeah, I watched the US in their first game. And it's a high level of sport. It's good stuff. It's soccer and we don't have it yet here at LCC. It's definitely a sport we're looking at in the future. Seems to be a growing sport and I think the World cup, when that comes around, it adds to it. But there's a lot of things you can take from the World cup that we can talk in the future as as that tournament wraps up. All right, well, excellent. Always enjoy talking athletics and educational athletics with your coach. So we will wrap this up and be back soon with even more Stars on Sports.

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!