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. I'm joined by our assistant athletic director, Steven Cutter and our producer Daedalian Lowry. And today, gentlemen, we're going to be talking about our year in sports at lcc. Plus a couple other topics I want to hit on as we head into a new year. But I'd like to say we're in the middle of the summer as we record this, but I don't know what the middle of the summer is for athletics because we're already looking forward to next year and kind of put a close on 23, 24. And I would like to talk a little bit about 23, 24 and LCC sports. Great year for us. I probably think all years are great, but I think it is what you make of it. But you know, we had success on and off the field. So I'd like to highlight a couple things. One of my favorite reflections on this year was during our volleyball season and our baseball team has done a great job in your tenure here of attending home contests of every other sport. And that's become contagious and something we've wanted to emphasize in our department. And this fall our volleyball team with having their best season in school history. And it started out as different teams coming different nights and sitting in different parts of the gym. But by the end of the season, all our team, other teams were there supporting our volleyball team, cheering, having fun and it's just great visual memory of me of what we've tried to accomplish here in our athletic department and in the camaraderie we kind of built among programs, you know, because then the team went and supported the cross country event and then there was, you know, it continued into the winter and spring season. So that's one of the highlights, you know, and that's off the floor technically but you know, some success on the floor. I just mentioned our volleyball team making to the national tournament. In the first time in school history, our men's cross country team won the national championship and Another exciting sport success story is our women's basketball program that, you know, went from almost last place the year before under a new head coach this year who, you know, Megan's done an excellent job of really trying to set high standards and you know, they win the conference and take second in the region and of course all our sports across the board, you know, did well. So, you know, it's hard not to point out other sports, but those are some of the significant improvement that we've had from.

I think you see that at the two year level especially, you know, when you were talking about basketball in general because so many kids are coming in and coming out every, every year or every two years you can have those large changes where you can maybe have a season that you've struggled a little bit and the next year you can, you can really bring in a great class and, and some new philosophies or whatever it might be and you have a lot of success. And so that's definitely one of the positives to being at a two year,

you know, coming from a four year level at the high school level and then even being involved in another four years school. Sometimes you think, man, having a kid for four years, a long time for some of those kids. But having them for two years, it goes really quickly. And, and you're right when we, when we've talked about experience matters on this podcast before, but in my short term here at this level, sophomore laden classes have done well. You're right. You can get an infusion from having a good core freshman, but I still think there's an experienced part of it and there can be a big changeover from year to year at this level

because of it definitely can be good or bad. I know the Dalian completely understands this. You spend a lot of time training, you spend a lot of time getting these people up to the student athletes or whomever. It might be up to speed on what you need and what your standards are and what you're looking for. And then poof, like that, they're gone.

Certainly. Yeah, I definitely deal with that with student employees. They get here, you train them up to the point where you're like, I can pretty much just leave them alone and let them do their thing and then by the time I get them to that point, they're gone. Yeah, I know exactly what you mean.

Again, that's difficult. I mean, because then you're starting over really again. And you know, for us in athletics, it's nice to maybe have some balance classes. So, you know, if your team, the 50, 50 mix, that you have a core that's coming back and understands your standards and such. When the number's smaller, even on our smaller roster team, that's when you could probably feel it more because you don't have that training or experience to let them be independent, that you're doing more coaching or teaching or involvement and in

other ways, it's a large kudos to lcc, our entire college, the athletic department, to continue to put out really good teams, 24 national championships and all that, to show consistency over a long period of time with the things that we just talked about.

And I'm glad you brought that up because that was one thing I wanted to reiterate is we are fortunate because for having a strong coaching staff, our levels haven't dipped as much, you know, because you have seen teams go from first to worst or worst to first, where thankfully, a lot of our teams don't have that significant fall, that they're still competitive every year. And that's a standard we want, and that's the consistency we want with all nine of our programs. And we're not there yet. We still have a couple that might dip more than we want, but that's something we continue to emphasize and try and support and give the resources to our coaches to be able to do that. Because you're right, there's some schools out there that, you know, we took second in the conference cup, which is a disappointment to me. I mean, we want to win it. We can't change our byline. We're still at 19. We need to get to 20. And we've been second the last two years, which is still pretty good. But getting that consistency up across the board, you know, seen some programs that have done well go all the way back down, where we've always continued to be in that top part, which is, again, a reflection of our college being supportive of us, you know, reflection of our coaches, reflection of our recruiting. But because it is, you know, we take it for granted a little bit, but it isn't easy to have that consistency with the changeover we have at this level.

Out of curiosity, I think my situation is a little different because usually the. The student employees I deal with, they are people that have not done anything having to do with what I do or what I do here around the station. But in your case, you're dealing with students who come in and they've already got some experience going on at the high school level. Do you find that you have to uncoach a lot a Little bit.

I think that they're just typically not prepared. Okay, so even somebody that maybe has done a lot of podcasts in their home maybe would come in to hear and still not really be prepared to run their own podcast out of here, if that makes sense.

It does.

It's kind of the same thing. They, they might not have necessarily bad traits or anything, but they just don't understand the workings of how LCC works or how the athletic department works or how the, the. What the coaches standards are or maybe even when you're talking about student employees, what your standards are for, you know, what you're doing. And so I don't know if it's necessarily uncoaching them. I think it's just trying to bring them up to a higher level, typically.

Yeah, that does make sense.

Yeah, the Dalian that. It's like we had a preseason meeting before this podcast because that's a great segue into the next part. Now, we're going to still continue in our year in review, but one of the topics I wanted to talk about today is because now we're looking forward to 24, 25 is our student athletes prepared for college athletics? And I listened to a great podcast the other day of a lady that was a D1 volleyball player that wasn't prepared and ended up transferring after her first year to a D3 institution and just had the best experience of her life. And her main thing was I was not prepared for college athletics. And it is a significant transition from high school or club sport to college sport that I think was. We don't give enough emphasis to that. We don't, we don't address it or talk about it. As you, you phrase that question that college coaches, you know, there's a lot of variables that come into play when they come to the college level. And one, you know, you might have been the best player at the. On your high school team, but now you're with all the best players on your high school team, even at, you know, Lansing Community College, where, you know, you know, when people ask, you know, can we walk on or try out, we usually have some scenarios for that, but we recruit at a high level. Unfortunately, we have a strong recruiting base in the Lansing area or the state to maybe have those kids that are talented enough. But the other factor, the maturity or mentality. And one of the biggest changes is the length of season. We go pretty much all year at the college level. Baseball, softball start in August and go to May, June. Some of the other sports have second seasons that you don't get at the high school level. Basketball team play more game than at the high school level. So it's a long season for our freshman student athletes, and, you know, we got to help coach them so they don't hit that wall at the most important time, because the end of the season kind of that, you know, postseason thing that we've talked about.

So I think it's really hard to be prepared if you have never done something. You can read a lot about it, you can watch some videos. But I think that's the separation with student athletes when they're coming from the high school level to the college level. They. They've never been a part of those seasons. Maybe it's the length of them, the intensity, whatever it is, trying to balance the academic piece with the. The athletic piece. You weren't ever prepared to drive a car until you started driving a car. I mean, it's the same thing. And so I think the preparation is always going to be lacking until you start doing something, you're not going to be. You can do as much as you want in speaking, but to get up in front of a thousand people and speak, you're going to struggle a little bit because you haven't done it. But if you do that a few times, you're going to get significantly better at doing that kind of stuff. So I think preparation is. Only goes so far. You've got to have some action and start getting experience. And that's where, you know, we've talked on podcasts before, where experience is really that thing that matters the most.

And I agree. And it's hard to get experience without doing something. And so whenever you don't get a job, it's because you don't have experience. Well, how do I get experience if I can't get hired? So it's like a catch 22. But in student athletes, it's tough because you're still competing. So even though we know they haven't gone through that length of season, we still have to train and prepare them and manage that time because it is a significant change. And plus, they're growing. They're away from home for the first time. Academics you talk about, time management is probably the biggest issue our student athletes talk about. And some of it I've learned even is that preparation coming into the season, because a lot of our student athletes might play a summer sport or a ball in their program, so that lengthens their season. We keep bringing up Caitlin Clark right now in this podcast, and they talk about how the WNBA players Go right from their college season right into the WNBA season. So you get tired, your body not used to that at a high level. So I think, you know, good coaches have to have a schedule in place to try and help teach and manage those freshmen student athletes so that they don't hit the wall or that they, you know, and it just at the managing of the schedule because we've also talked about our schedule is different throughout that year. But yes, experience matters. I think it's still something we need to do better at because I think it can be an issue with in college athletics with freshmen. And why at our level it's even more telling because back to we only get them for two years where at the four year institution you can redshirt them or you're not anticipating them contributing right away. So you can, you know, they can have a year or two to adjust where we don't have that time here. So I think that's a significant variable in our program that this level of, you know, we're counting on them probably contributing right away or playing that we have to manage them and help them get up to speed probably sooner. But to your point, how do you when they haven't done it, especially when it come in January and February and they've already played longer than they did their whole high school or club season. Yeah, but you know, and then that leads to the point of, you know, we've talked about this a little bit before is, you know, I heard it from a. Don't want to give credit to a Michigan State football coach but that, you know, there is no off season. There's an out of season and even out of season it's important of working on skill development. And you know, a lot of our student athletes have jobs too that they got to play into that schedule and can wear on them. So learning that is integral of how much success you have. And maybe not, you know, again, falling as far down as you would like when you have that changeover or seeing those teams that might not have that balance of freshmen and sophomores, how to manage that. But again, the out of season stuff, you know, we've talked about before, is it better to play out of season? Is it better to skill development out of season? Is it a combination? Is it better to get rest and out of season?

Depends on the person.

Yeah. And you've alluded to even the experience like if you've already played a lot of games, then maybe just work on skill development. If you haven't played a lot of games because you were red shirted or her or just weren't on the depth chart that you probably want to find a situation where you can play some games. And then we always talk about how there's not enough skill development going on. And the old phrase used to be championships are won in the off season. That's where all the improvement and everything takes place. And sometimes we forget that. And we see a lot of programs that you just play games in the off season.

Very, very true.

So it's tough. And again, we're fortunate here at lcc. Again, I think it comes down to recruiting the right student athletes do. And fortunately our coaches have done a great job of that. And we've had, you know, even back to our own year, we had in the two program, they had their most successful 10 years in recent memory, women basketball and volleyball. We had two freshmen, all Americans on those teams.

So that it's always about the people.

Yep, it sure is the people business. But again, so it's important to have freshmen and recruit the right people that you know, can fit well and handle what they expect. But to your point, I don't think they ever do it. Just managing that throughout the season and helping them and knowing your student athlete, knowing, you know, giving them a break when they need to in that. But you know, again, some other things, you know, some of the neat comments I heard this year where, you know, you know, lcc, they wish it was a four year institution because they like it here so much. You know, we talk about how the community college isn't always anybody's dream to play at that level, but we have our share of kids that say it's the best decision they made, which is, you know, validating. And you know, I, you know, I heard an interview with Michigan State ad, you know, his favorite thing is when a student athlete says I love it here. You know, and we get our share of that too here, which is really more than that experience is more than even the success they have on the playing field. You mentioned academics. You know, we work hard on improving our academic. That's a tough transition being in the high school environment. You know, I always learned that like the transition from schools was the toughest academically, like elementary school to middle school, middle school to high school. And I've also experienced that here. It's a big adjustment. As we talk about athletics, it's also academically, you know, the class schedule, the content, the pace, you know that it's tough for the kids that have done well at high school. We've learned, need more support Here. But we've worked hard on making sure our student athletes have success. And I think we're, you know, we have a high level of students recognized for award like, you know, we had 68 MCCA, all academic kids, 35 in JCA which, you know, based on their grade point average, 3, 6 for NJCA, 3.4. And that's I think, one of the higher levels or higher numbers in our league. So, you know, again, it's that balance. And we've talked about how, you know, our passion is the student athlete experience, doing it in the classroom and, and on the playing field. And as we reflect on this year, as we know, the hurdles that, you know, we have to deal with, you know, that's why I still feel it was a great year. I want to get that cup, but I still feel, you know, we had a great year. Any other memories from you this year that stand out?

Well, I still think it's about the people and without, you know, the great philosopher Mike Tyson said everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face. And you were talking about those transitions, you know, going from high school to college or, you know, going from college to the workforce, whatever it is, you, you've got a plan, you're going to get punched in the face and you really need people to help you. And I think that's what the, what a coach's job is. I think you do an incredible job as an athletic director with that. I think our professors do a great job here with that kind of stuff is once they get punched in the face with all the things that are new, it's about having people around you to somewhat pick you up and say, it's all right, you know, dust yourself off and this is gonna work out.

I can't believe we're quoting Mike Tyson on our podcast.

It's not a bad quote though, and it does stand. The reason it's a good quote.

It is one of my favorites actually too, because it directly relates to athletics. Because we all have a plan going into the game, but as soon as that game happened, then you're going to face adversity. How do you handle it?

And it applies to life.

It does. And again, back to our. What you learn on the field can apply life lessons. And that's one of our biggest ones that we forget sometimes. Handling adversity and still being successful, having failures, still being successful. Because I listen to the podcast about when we look back on life, we don't look back and regret our failures. We regret the risks. We don't take and we forget that sometimes because we're so caught up in our failures and expecting to be successful. But I love using that quote. I 100% agree with it because we all think our plan is the best having heading into the game. We all think we're ready and prepared and boom, something happened that you didn't expect to happen and it's how you handle it. So I give kudos to Mike Tyson, too, because I'm a quote person and that's one of my favorites. So well done and bringing that in and quoting the great Mike Tyson. So, Nadalian, any reflections on your year here at lcc?

My year's been pretty good. Much like the sports program we've been growing here at LCC Connect, and it's been a lot of fun and been great because I've had the opportunity to actually talk with a lot of folks that normally like you guys I wouldn't have ever got to talk to here at the college. Just being involved in this and doing what we're doing, it's really cool.

Well, this is one of my favorite half hours of the week, so I

appreciate you guys every week too.

We love we're talking sports, we're talking current issues, but you do a great job in guiding us and Journey does

and congratulations, you guys on a successful year. I mean, this is really cool stuff. I like to hear that the other teams are supporting each other. That's awesome.

It is awesome. And that was our goal coming in here. Even the sport, the college at the president's kickoff in the fall, at the welcome Back kickoff in the fall, at some of the other events, we have worked hard in creating an importance of our student athletes being at those events too, because we want to be on campus too. And that's our goal because we're all better if we support each other and work together. And again, back to knowing if you're working against each other, it just becomes harder. And if you want to be successful at the highest level, you have to be aligned and have less resistance. So our goal is to work with the college. This is just one part of it, but it's one of my favorite parts. I mean, we've been off a little bit due to the summer, but you know, it's exciting to be back here and just talking. I like to talk, so I guess that's part of it too. So. But no, thank you. And I'm glad that you had a great things you said. We were up to over maybe 25 podcasts here.

We're looking at probably around the end of the summer, we'll probably have a little over 25 podcasts.

Awesome. So go out there and listen to other ones. But again, always give us a like and hope you enjoy our stuff. So again, recently we've been asking, I've been asking like dumb questions just to end the conversation. So my one today, gentlemen, is what's your most used emoji on your phone? Oh, I'm not an emoji person, so I'm pretty simple. Mine's either the thumbs up or the check mark. Like I got it or good. I use the star one a lot too now for social media, but I'm not a big emoji guy, but I thought that was a pretty cool.

I got two that I tend to. I'm pretty emotive with the eyes myself personally, you know, when you see me in the flesh. So I've got the side eye one that I use a lot and then I will use the, the big eyed one. I don't know what they're called. Surprise. I guess those are usually my, my favorites.

I think those are pretty good. Mine really started somewhere around Covid, you know, coaching.

You're, you're the one with a mask.

You're, you're around a lot of kids and they, man, they have a lot of handshakes and a lot of bro hugs, you know, the different stuff. So I, I was doing fist bumps before it was, you know, before COVID started. So my most used emoji is still fist bumps because for the most part I get a lot of messages from student athletes, different people that I, I coach or train, and they're seeking some kind of advice. It might not be life changing advice. It might be just fairly minor and usually using the fist bumps after it pretty consistently.

I guess as you mentioned that I use the rock on hand symbol too.

That's right up your alley.

In fact, I use that more than the thumbs up. Really?

Okay. See, that's why I don't use them. So I'm going to start using probably both of those a little more. It's funny now because when you type in a word, the emoji for that word comes thumbs up. But I still prefer words over emojis for some reason. But.

All right, Greg, if you're going to use the rock on, make sure it doesn't apply to the I love you. So there's two different ones.

Okay. All right, where's our video? All right, one last quick one because we've talked a lot of pizza. I have. I'M generating. I'm learning more as we go through this on other, you know, podcasts or even websites of people, you know, sharing their bios. But does pineapple belong on a pizza?

I'm gonna let Steve fire this one up.

I mean, it's all about personal preference, certainly, but I don't believe that it should be on there.

Okay, well, I'm gonna disagree with Steve on this one. Pineapple definitely belongs on a pizza, especially when you put that with some ham and some jalapeno. It is a delicious combo, especially. Cause you get that sweet and that sweet and spicy vibe.

I'm somewhere in the middle. I don't understand how it belongs on it, but I do not mind a Hawaiian pizza with pineapple.

I don't search it out.

I don't search Me neither. I prefer bacon instead of jalapeno peppers with my pineapple. And. But I have like one family member that's their favorite. But whenever there's leftover, no one else in our family eat that at the leftover pizza. And they also like barbecue chicken pizza, which I can't believe either one of those are on a pizza.

But I don't want to digress too far, but I'm just saying the greatest frozen pizza maker in the world does not give pineapple as an option. So I'm going to say that pineapple does not.

I think I know that.

I know the maker you're talking about.

And okay, that's fair.

It's a fair argument there. That's a good way to end it. So thanks, gentlemen, and 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!