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Hello there. This is Terry Denise, a Lansing Community College student and your host of Ripper in LCC Connect podcast where I interview others and ask about their unique efforts and connections in around and beyond the community of Michigan's capital city. Well, hello, this is Terry Denise Ripper right here in LCC Connect. It has been quite an eventful summer so far for me. Happy solstice, by the way. The solstice took place almost a month ago now. I actually was nowhere near town of near LCC's campus or in the studio. Even though I was trying to get possibly some, some feedback from others, I did not have time because I was on the road working when this solstice took place. I was actually at the, I keep wanting to say electric funeral because I'm a Black Sabbath fan. It was the Electric Forest Festival that took place, which is pretty big up in Rothbury, Michigan. I actually ended up working and it was very hot. It was the instant Michigan summer kind of hotness where it's like spring happens maybe now, a couple of days full of rain, that happens. And then all of a sudden instantly it's like 90 degrees. And it happened that weekend. It was a great weekend. There's a lot of good music, a lot of good people. The vibe was wonderful. The trees were amazing. The sky was perfect to look at. And going to the beach always after, especially after a long weekend of working, serving people under the hot sun. That's what our coast is for. That's why I love exploring things in a different kind of setting where another faction of mine is called most coast, where I explore and ask people about what their favorite coastlines are, I guess to visit their, their favorite water holes to go into. And I base that off of, you know, being a Michigander. I love our shorelines everywhere you go. Lake Superior is one of my favorites to go to out of the coldest. It is one of the most wickedly awesome ones to go to. The water is so neat and clear and it's just spectacular up there. But Lake Michigan, of course, is one of the shorelines that you can instantly go to from here. It's not very far. LCC's campus, an hour and a half away. And most of that is just getting through the west side of the county. Once you reach Portland, you're basically already almost to the. The shoreline of Lake Michigan there. Anyway, Rothbury is pretty near Lake Michigan. It's like 15, 20 minutes away or something. And there's a lot of different beaches that you can go to that are near there. So yeah. After a lot of loud music and a lot of extraordinary light shows. Big up to everybody that did production and put on the shows and put on the side shows and all these spectacular other events that were going on when you were just walking around the event. They did such a great job, great artist, had some favorites. Disclosure was one back to back where a bunch of DJs come on stage, giving each other moments to reflect on and another DJ comes in, another DJ comes in and then ends with a big show and goes till forever almost into the daylight. So. And by that time, since the solstice was happening, that is the longer event that you know, you have a shorter time span between the sunset and the sunrise, of course, because the sun is going to be out longer, so it's going to be up earlier. There's campgrounds, so by the time you're getting back to your camp or leaving, you're going to meet the sun. You will meet the sun if you're up closing the nights or the early morning spectacular events going on. I had to be up early in the morning anyway, regardless to go back into work. So I was oftentimes seeing the sunlight and then maybe getting about four and a half hours of sleep until I had to go venture back out into the hot, dusty or very windy atmosphere. It did rain at some point in time and we did have to shelter in location, which just simply meant sitting on a bus for a long time until it was safe to leave the event and then go to the campgrounds. That was fun, kind of. It was, it was a lot. Because you were in the torrential rain and thunderstorm and then just sitting there sitting with a bunch of other people, especially people that had worked earlier in the day as well. So everybody's extremely tired and duddy. Dusty or muddy. Duddy dusty and muddy put on. Yeah. So it was exactly what it needed to be for you to enjoy and appreciate being along with other people that are just trying to get through the moments. And then your head nods when you leave your shift and you are somehow injected with a lot of energetic bounce. And for some reason you cannot sleep, you can't go back into your campground until you hear a little bit of some house or weird acid jazz or some kind of DNB exclusive artists that are just amazing at what they do. Anyway, so I'm obviously, I haven't introduced anybody except myself because I am going solo today, so there's not going to be any interviews, but I have a lot on my mind. We had the fourth that just happened. It Was an interesting fourth, I'm sure for many. For me especially I was on the road from Electric Forest. So I had come into town back to Lansing and was heading back towards the beach area to work on some things. And I had some issues that happened that incurred. And I spend a lot of my time in parking lots or screaming at the side of the road when it was dark off of an exit turn and having to wait for the tow truck and then also having to wait for great guidance and great coverage from the local area. A sergeant actually came and helped me because before the 4th, I was in a. A truck and using that to work in to get to different places that I needed to work in different areas that I needed to do gigs in. And somehow some way along the path, I started to notice that, oh yeah, I needed to put some coolant into the machine. So stopped off to do that. I've never put coolant into an engine before, so that was my first time. Also hadn't done the engine oil before either. So I also put engine oil in. So I live the experience of things going wrong. So instantly had the steam coming out of the engine so that stopped. I got a chance to let things cool off. Mind you, the heat index was, was not going down. It barely cooled off over a number of days. So the, the entire vehicle was overheating while I was on the road and I definitely needed to bring it in, get it looked at. Meanwhile though, I did not realize that there were other things going wrong with the machine. So while I was just thinking that, oh man, the coolant's low, so I need to put coolant in and just, you know, I check the engine oil and you know, check the, the dipstick and everything like that afterwards and everything looked fine, the levels were up and everything like that. I actually did not realize though that one must put coolant into two places. So there's a reservoir that's four coolant. So I put it in that, filled that tank up and was like, cool. Now let me put the engine oil in. You know, I knew you had to run the vehicle after actually, you know, going to get your oil change and everything like that. You tend to realize that, oh yeah, you need to run the engine, let things, things go through. So I did everything correctly on that end. But what I didn't realize was that the coolant needs to go into another part of the. The area. There's. So there's the tank where I put everything in and then there's the transmission fluid area which I needed to put the coolant in or just like this other area that you needed to unscrew. And so I didn't realize that that might have kind of set things off in a way that caused a bunch of trouble. So I was on my way towards the beach, Lake Michigan again and did not make it that day because the engine kept shutting off. So I made my way over to a couple of different locations. I had to get pushed through and the car cut off a couple times while I was on the road. So I had to. I was limited to where I could go. I'm over in the west side of the state in an area I'm familiar with over near GR or like GR suburb locale. So I was familiar with the places that I could go to where I could let the engine at least cool off while it was overheating under the not cooling sun, not cooling heat at all. I did catch some fireworks, which is fine. I eventually just had to submit and acknowledge that I was probably not going to get to the shoreline by the fourth, which is fine. I wanted to go up to Ludington, which they put on a good fireworks display. Didn't make it up there. Didn't make it up to see some buddies that were going to be playing actually north of there at a chicken shack somewhere on the west coast there. Didn't make it up there. I was hoping to get up there to get it, grab an interview from a person that does some fishing, that has a fishing local fishing line. So that'll be for another time. Hopefully. Maybe I'll get them in the studio at some point before the summer's over. So I didn't get a chance to do all that. And I was hoping to bring some interviews back in, but by now. But it's okay. I have the story I get to tell. So there's a locale place that the guys really helped me out and they did this thing where you get your information. You plug a machine in and it gets the information from the vehicle and you can find out if there's extra things going on. So apparently a cylinder is not correctly working. So there's like a misfire with a cylinder that was going on on top of everything else. So everything kind of like catapulted or snowballed. I don't know what you call it in the heat. Heat indexed during this temperature and flux that we were having. And yeah, so not a lot happened with me being able to remove myself from the area by my own admission or ability to drive the vehicle. It was fine at some point in the night I was going to try to make it actually back into Lansing area and got on the highway and it shut off completely. And I waited a little bit and I was like, well, maybe I should call a tow. Eventually got on a tow line, you know, had the hazard lights on and everything like this. But by now the, the sun was going down, which means that it was pretty late at night by this time, if the sun was actually disappearing in our new summer season there with the equinox. And it was getting dark really quickly. And I had the hazards on. And then I noticed that the light started to dim within the vehicle while I was searching for the. The card to call the, the company for the tow. And I was like, that's weird. I wonder if maybe I should turn off one of my portable fans that are plugged into the. The USB port in there. And I was like, well, okay, maybe in a second. And then the hazards went out completely. By now it's pitch dark and I was off of a ramp. So, you know, I'm being bumped bypassed by many, many semi trucks and a lot of cars that are going very fast. And you don't realize how fast people are going on the road because you're on the road yourself unless you are pulled over to the side and you can't start your engine again because everything is officially off now. The hazard lights went off, which means that I was stuck in a vehicle with electronic controls, so I could not get back into the other side of the vehicle because the electronics controlled the window. They controlled the ability to unlock the vehicle itself from the other side because everything's on electronic. So I had to do everything manually and with no hazards, means that nobody could see me on the side of the road. And I didn't have any flashers or anything like that on me. I didn't have a. Strangely enough, I didn't have sparklers on me, which probably would have helped. So it was a very strange, perplexing and kind of traumatic event that happened. But I fortunately had been on the line with some tow truck and my phone was charged. So that's a great thing. Had insurance and a charge phone and have the ability to call a truck, which is great. And then I had to get online with the emergency services because nobody could see me out there. It was that dangerous where even the emergency vehicle that came out to help me, which I was very thankful to. That sergeant from McKent county was very nice and really had nothing going on apparently for a minute. And then he had to get back on the road. But for that time spent, he was very, very patient and just spent the time with me, Making sure the hazard lights were on on his vehicle and stayed with me until the tow truck came. And, yeah, I had been an eventful. That was my July 4th, basically. So I was spent down the side of the road Nearly getting run over by semi trucks and, like, obviously, vehicles that were going over 80 miles an hour. You really don't know the impact of that until you're sitting in the vehicle, which is not moving, and you are shaking and rocking back and forth in that kind of vehicle. And that kind of moment, it was a little bit of stressful. I did kind of jump out of the car Because I could not restart it to move it further over to the right on the shoulder. So I was jumping out on the highway itself when it was almost clear. So I had to run around the vehicle. Of course, you know, having to go to the restroom the entire time. And I could not do that, Especially when the emergency vehicle came up, because, yeah, that's probably not the best thing. Best timing to. But held on, Held on, and eventually got to an area where I could gather my bearings and waited for another tow truck in the morning and got a tow back into the ingham county area. So without a vehicle right now, it's okay. We're making it work. So, yeah, the fourth was very interesting for me. I'm sure it was very interesting for a lot of people, but, oh, boy, it's been eventful. Trying to catch up with a lot of things, including my class right now. So I just added the midterm for a class I'm in right now and just got that out. Did it? I have no idea. I did not check on any of the class. I did not check on the results yet from the test yet, Because I just. I'm not ready for that. I don't know what's going on with that right now. So I'm just trying to get through it all right. Just really need that passing grade to keep going and get my goals. It just seems that there's. I've got a gremlins, I guess, that, you know, keep. Keep kicking them out, but they keep finding a way back in. It's okay. They're. I think they're kind of leaving now. They're probably getting a little bored with me Because I'm like, you know, it's like, guys, come on. Come on, gremlins. There's not much left to do right now. You know, I'm as bored with you as you are with me. So, anyway, so, yeah, I had an interesting song that I wrote about maybe six to seven years ago, which. It's called America. Now, some of the lyrics are actually. It starts out with, oh, can't you hear it? Those liberty bells? It's the sound of freedom. Very inspired by America, but only for some. I would say, can't you see a nuclear dawn as bright as can be? So I wrote those lyrics a little while ago and I wrote them near the fourth of July. It was just kind of happenstance. I'm actually going over them right now and going over the music. I'm kind of going to tweak the music a little bit. I had actually performed versions of that song before. There was already the version I had written myself that I brought to one of the projects that I'm involved with locally. It's a local group called Otho Roy. And I wrote them. You know, I wrote the music out, brought lyrics to practice, and we started playing it live. I've been on hiatus, sabbatical from the group for a minute now, but I'm sure they've been working on something themselves. I know everybody individually has their own projects going. If they're working on anything, I'll hear about it pretty soon. So the music that I'm going to bring will eventually have a different version that I'm working with on this song. But I keep trying to tweak the music and I've tweaked it over the years, but very recently I noticed something was sounding really redundant about it. And I thought it was me. I thought it was like, maybe I'm doing a riff that I used to do in a different band or something like that. And I realized it wasn't me. It was a song that reminded me of something from a band that was called Retire, which was a local Lansing band. They have since retired, funny enough. But I realized that just like this one stanza and it sounded really, really similar to a song that they had done in years previous. This was a band that I had actually done some vocals for, but this was like over 20 years ago. It hadn't even occurred to me. So I'm gonna be revising that song heavily because I had realized that it's not. It wasn't a stolen riff or anything like that. I don't like doing that. But when I realized it sounded a little bit too similar, it gave me the ick factor. Or not in a terrible way, but more just so in a. In a creative mind way where I'm like, oh, I gotta. No, that's. That's a little bit too close. That band retire. I had done a couple songs for. I'd lent some vocals to I Was a Baby. When I did those vocals, I was like, just barely 18. There's a couple songs on there that I'd asked to do some backup vocals on. But then they had me do a cover version of the song Piggy by the band Nine Inch Nails, which is interesting. I was so young. I haven't heard that version in a long time. And it's really weird to start thinking about that era of time because all I can think about is that band. Everybody went on their adult separate ways and so I don't. You know, they've all been doing their own thing in life. Me working out the song that sounded similar to a different song of theirs. There's no Harm no Foul. I actually personally hate when I think that I'm doing something new and then I realize that I'm just. I'm just doing a riff of somebody else that I've heard. It's hard to not do that. There's only so many chords and notes that you can work with over the years. But, you know, you got to tweak it a little bit. I love covering other bands and I absolutely love doing nods towards influences. But to accidentally or for some other people purposely straight up lift from other people, that's not my style. So, yeah, that cover I did for the band, though, when I did those vocals, at the time I had like just graduated from secondary school or high school or whatever. And that entire year is its own weirdness. That had been during a time when I graduated from high school and was like, I'm going to New York and being on Broadway or maybe off Broadway or at least off off Broadway, gonna audition for then. And then September hit and that was 9 11. And so, yeah, I did not quite make it to New York that year or close to that year. I had actually previously ventured out to New York City. So I made it to the city before that happened, that previous April in 2000 with the school, and was like, I'm coming back here. It took a while to go back. But that summer, though, it was such a great summer to bring it back to Rothbury. Before Electric Forest became a thing, there was the Rothbury Festival. But before it was even the Rothbury Festival, it was just a bunch of people hanging out on farmland. And I went to one of those events. And that year happened to be that year, that was 2001. And we just went out and listened to a bunch of music and followed a bunch of weird signals and signs to let you know that you're close to the event. That was during the time where you would get a number, somebody would give you a number, and you'd have to call a number and be like, okay, so where are we headed? No, the locale has changed. We've got to go somewhere else. And take right here, take another right there, and then watch for the glow sticks hanging up the trees or something. Good times. Also a very good time. Also in the heat. The heat index wasn't that high, but it was a good time, I'll just say. Much of the same kind of vibe going on, though. Just hanging out in the woods, in the grass and listening to a lot of good music, a lot of great D and B and everything like that. But anyway, I listened to a lot of Aaliyah that year, a lot of Strokes. And then Aaliyah had passed away within that year, and it's just really good stuff. That was her Liberation album, her self titled. Man, that's a great listen. If you have never listened to any Aaliyah, start with her absolutely fantastic album, Self Tided album that came out during that time. It was such good times, but weird, weird to full stop. Go and have this weird anniversary of sorts, a personal anniversary of going right back to Rothbury during that time. And then lots of good summer stuff going on along the coastline again. Hanging out on Lake Michigan this time by myself. Actually, no, I did go with a few people that I worked with again. But going back to the coastline, the road travels are more solo nowadays than anything. Anyway, coming back to doing a different version of that particular song, which hit with America. Now I'll be undergoing some other versions of that iteration. I can probably bring in an acoustic version of that. I'm sure I can try to work something out here in the studio, work out some versions while I'm here. But on that note, please have fun out there. Please stay safe. Please go and visit as many local places as possible and support people. Support your festivals. Support the people that are putting the festivals on and definitely have as much fun as you can right now and try to stay as frugal as possible while you're doing it. You know, if you can make your deli sandwiches or anything like that while you're on the road, do that. It's. It's fun. Grab your Capri Suns, you know, hit it up 90s style. Get those coolers going. Get your. Get your fanny packs going. Zip it up, put those things in there, get as many passes as possible and have a good time. Thanks for tuning in to Ripper. You can find more about this and other LCC connect podcasts@lccconnect.com.

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Calm down and celebrate with me tonight. We'll all go out. Hello and welcome to another episode of Stars on Sports. I'm joined today by our assistant athletic director, Steven Cutter and our producer, Jereny Robinson.

Hey.

And I always give you a hodgepodge of topics, people, before we talk today. And this one has always been on my radar and I'm kind of excited to talk about it and hopefully I prepared well enough. But we'll see what direction it goes. Is choosing your battles wisely. And journey mentioned parenting in the pregame, I guess our pregame before we get on here here. And I always think of it as a leadership, but I also believe coaching and parenting are a lot of similar things. So I also think coaches deal with this pretty regularly. And I always teach my kids and I live by this prayer and don't mean to get spiritual on here, but it's the serenity prayer. I like it. I try and say it every day and I just think it's good word to live by. And it's God gave me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference. And that last night the wisdom to know the difference and you know, and people get frustrated about things they can't change back to that serenity piece and then the wisdom of knowing which ones to change. And that's kind of the thing that I really think we have to learn as leaders and coaches and parents to figure out because, you know, a lot of those battles come our way. And I believe in our business, the rules we live by by our national association help dictate what battles, what we choose. But again, any quick thoughts on choosing your battles wisely?

Powerful words. I believe that if you're going to fight all the battles that there are to be fought, that it's going to drain the energy and focus of what truly matters and what's truly important. I think in coaching much aligns with life. You have to understand the things that you should respond to and the things that you shouldn't respond to. And I think the best coaches, they've learned how to know where that line is and not fighting every battle only take on the ones that are most important and have the biggest impact on the people that you're leading.

Journey. What do you think?

When I hear you say that, I think about, do you feel like you have to have control over everything?

And I wonder that same question and when you just talked, does experience help you learn what those battles are? You talk about what's most important. So I think that's a good gauge because I think your goals or what's worth fighting for, what's going to help you get to your end result are many ways help you to determine which of those battles to choose. And you're also right in the sense of if we did fight every battle, we would get tired and we would wear out and it would decrease our energy. And then when an important battle came up, that we wouldn't have that energy to fight that. And that's specifically true in the middle of a season or a season with team camaraderie or trying to play your best, that knowing those battles and knowing which ones, that wisdom of knowing which ones that escalate, every kid is different. Even our own kids are different in how you handle them. And some might not think it's fair or not fair. I've shared before on this podcast before. One of my great mentors out there taught me to take a breath for a second and see if they can solve the battle first themselves. I mean, because some, especially in today's society, I think our kids want us to solve everything and come to us for everything. And again, give a man a fish, feed him for the day, teach him the fish, feed them for a lifetime kind of a thing. Picking those battles, help educate and teach them how to handle adversity and. And fight through things while also, you know, saving some of your energy so that you can fight the bigger ones that come to you and that really need addressing.

I think sometimes you have to edge them into like, well, my son, like, I open things up for him, Right. But as he gets older, I'm like, you have the ability to open this jar, but you're so used to me doing it that you don't even want to try. So then it's like, okay, the battle I'm gonna pick is that I'm gonna let you try your hardest first, and then I will help assist you instead of just doing it for them. Yeah.

And I think you have to solve some battles for them or, you know.

Teach them to end up like the elephant story, you know, from a another country where the elephant is tied to a very small rope when it's very small. And then as it grows and gets bigger, it's still tied to a very tiny rope. And the analogy and the story are really the same thing. And the elephant, because it couldn't get away from the rope at a small age, didn't try. As it grew and got bigger, it could easily snap the rope, but it's been limited by that. And a big thing with problem with, with the issues. And what you're speaking about is like you're, you really need to be able to teach problem solving 101.

Yeah.

To, to get through some of that stuff.

Yeah, I, I agree. It is teaching others how to, to solve their problems. And again, I think sometimes it's, it might be easier to solve the problem for them. And though they're probably the best examples to, you know, help them solve their problems because you don't want it to escalate. Time is of the essence, our time, their time. You know, the elephant one's a great example of helping them develop habits. You know, in that case, I don't know about negative habit, but what they've learned to do. But they also, the other perspective is that they learn parameters. They didn't go outside of those parameters, but it is about problem solving and whether it's you solving it for them, which is the job of leadership and coaches and, and parents. But the other part of it is educating those that are your followers or dependent to learn to do that themselves. And they'll come back to knowing which one to do and which ones not to do and journey. You gave a good example of parenting and kids growing up as the younger they are, the more dependent on you. Hopefully as they grow older, they're able to spread their wings and fly away. And you know, sometimes, you know, even with different kids, some of my own kids are better at that when they're turned adults and other ones are, you know, more reliable and dependent on the family. So I guess I failed in some aspects, but it's still that point and still teaching them how to problem solve. But the key proponent is again determining what problems to solve for them. And I had a colleague that always, you know, whenever we called about a question about a rule, he'd go, is this a hill worth dying on? And it always stuck with me. And it's true. And it goes back to when you, again, when you're trying to solve a problem, it's very similar. Again, we can't go a podcast without ero what the result, I mean, is the effort putting in going to get you the consequence you want and specifically when we're looking at winning or success. And you can argue which way to go on that, even in the middle of a game, of those internal battles of your own players or those battles with the other team, like in basketball playing zone or man to man of the battle, you got to determine matchups. But it's preparation, it's experience, as we've talked about many times before, and I actually believe more, or in this case experience helps determine what battles. You learn from your previous mistakes. You learn from interacting with your teams and your opponents and your officials and your own kids to determine what battles are worth fighting. And going back to the parenting thing, I didn't even think about this when I was working on this. But is it natural? You're hardest on your firstborn and you're easiest on your baby. I don't know if that's true, but did the first one pave the way? Did they wear you out with your energy or did you just learn, hey, you know what? That battle isn't worth fighting for because they'll be okay failing or dealing with that.

I think that a model that I kind of use is similar to what you talk about. Is this hill worth dying on. But I tend to step in when it has an impact on our culture. If it's got to do with effort or discipline, if it's got something to do with mindset, that can be extremely detrimental to the student athlete. And then finally, like the principles or the standards of the program, if it falls within there, that's when I step in. Or what I say is respond. If it doesn't fall within those parameters, if it's something else that's outside of those parameters, I let that stuff go because I've determined what's most important for not only myself, but our program. And if it falls within those, I respond. If not, I don't respond. So you can't. I mean, as I said earlier, you're going to lose energy and focus on the things that are most important if you're trying to respond to every little thing that comes up.

And thank you for sharing that, because that's kind of what I wanted to leave with today is how do you choose those battles? And you hit on it. And it's interesting you hit on it because the other topic we were looking at talking about today, and we're not going to dive deep into it today, is core values. And that's what you're getting at, and I know it's true. In your own baseball program with the core values, you guys have set for your program. But those are the guiding principles of your team. But they're also the guiding principles of the battle you choose to fight. So that's a great point. And how do you help determine the battles you choose of? Choosing wisely and the core values is a good place to start. I mean, I even think in, you know, going back through history, when you look at wars, you know that turning points in wars were determined by battles chosen or you know, how you responded to battle chosen and just again, assessing a game plan. And you mentioned preparation earlier about the more you prepare. And we were talking about preparation on this podcast before, on the podcast and just how important it is. And the more prepared you are, the more battles you can probably handle. But also the ones that help choose you which one do. And some come to rise to the top that you have to deal with rather you want to or not. And especially when you're dealing with kids or young adults to the point of parenting, they're going to need some guidance.

I think having those pillars is. It's really important for that guidance piece and understanding what's most important, whether it's your core values or whatever it might be having those pillars. Because Tim Grover said something like, you can't win every battle. That's not what the goal is. You're trying to win the game. So understand what the big picture is. And I think that you can say it over and over and people kind of understand like you can't fight every battle. But then sometimes you get lost in all the little battles. So if you have those bumpers on in the bowling alley, they're there for a reason, to kind of guide you through and keep you in the lane or on the tracks or whatever it might be so that you don't get lost with the noise. There's a lot of noise out there. Whether it's social media. I mean, there's noise everywhere and you can get lost in it. And that's fighting a battle too. And sometimes you don't need to fight those battles because. Cause it's taken away from whatever your purpose is supposed to be right now.

I was thinking about what you was talking about and I learned, like, especially as a coach, when you know the bigger picture that you're willing to battle against, you're able to be inconvenienced with that thing as well. For the greater good. For example, like a youth basketball, you can run zone, but is that gonna better your team to be better in the future? But you know, running man to man and Teaching them how to stay with a kid might benefit them even though you might lose more games. And that's a battle you willing to.

Strategy is very important. Yeah. And I think the successful one, the juster strategy and I think that's experience because I agree. I think we come into a profession and we want to control everything because we think by controlling everything that will lead us. And you almost choose every battle to fight and you learn that you don't have the time to or the energy to or the just bandwidth. Two that you have to learn from experience on choosing those one that fit your core principles but also get you the result you want to get to. Like you might not be a zone person, but for the win this game, a zone would be our best chance that you implement that strategy and fight that battle. But you got to teach them and. But it's knowing the right time and the right result and it's very important to determine that. And it's hard. We've talked about reacting before and you know, when you get hit what you're playing and I think those still play into this too.

And when you see people or where we get lost into trying to fight every battle, I really think it weakens credibility because you start looking at somebody that's trying to fight every battle and you start questioning things like, well, what's really important to you if you're fighting every, you know, battle. And so I think it does weaken credibility as well.

Yeah, good point. One of my favorite quotes I, I tell people is when you get in a pig pen and fight with a pig, you both get dirty, but the pig likes it. And I, I use that as an analogy that again, be careful. I mean fighting can be again what fighting for the right things. But just to fight the fight you both get dirty. And the other one, that's what they wanted to do to you. And just like back to strategy zone the competitive advantage. Because the other thing I was going to talk about is the emotions and actually in athletics and competition, trying to either rise to the occasion or bring the opponent down that dealing with those battles will determine a long way of how that that goes. And we all know it's important to remain professional and maintain your composure.

It's huge because you're going to typically see that emotional control and things like strategic thinking are what separates people that have a lot of success and the people that burn out. And so it's those two things that help you through determine which fight am I gonna put put up and which fight am I gonna walk away from yeah.

And I think your ego can be a part of that. Back to the emotional piece. Experience peace and because as well as you prepare and that the great thing about athletics is it's reality. I mean the game's not going to go according to script and you know, we've talked before how, you know, certain football coaches script the first 30 plays of the game and things go great and then, you know, then you got to adjust like if they're going to play man to man or zone defense or blitz or not. And so there's all those internal battles and you know, I always try to tell coaches and it sounds done is have fun. You know, my last message to them before a game is always have fun because the game is stressful. I mean, those are all those internal battles of what you're trying to like game of chess throughout that game and you know, on the attack or on the defense or physical or not physical or you know, left hander, right hander, but you know, powerball or you know, and again you're. So there's all those internal battles and you know, we talked about with your golf swing before is not ours. But you know, just play sometimes, you know, and, and don't fight those battles but just go out there, have fun and play and you know, be loose a little bit. And hopefully your preparation gets you where you want to be or, you know, again, your training that you fall to that level is where you need to be. And those are the battles you deal with every day in practice. Very intentional and we talked about that. So the last thing is just really, you know, the right time. And I think that's a big thing is, you know, something that could determine like we're public employees, we're out in the middle of a lot of spectators watching us. And some battles are better to be behind closed doors. And I don't mean to hide or anything, just to protect emotions or because emotions are high in our business. It's just again, knowing the right time I think also helps you determine how to choose your battle because you might lose. I mean, it's okay to lose a battle here or there. We're going to. And that understanding that, that you're not going to win every battle.

Yeah, I got a great example. So I watched like my little YouTube shorts and I saw one of them giving a story about Carmelo Anthony and Kevin and Kevin Garnett. And they said Carmelo got mad at KG during the game. And after the game he was so mad he got dressed right away and went to the tunnel to wait for him. And he said KG was walking out and Carmelo got up ready to go. And KG said, man, that was just a basketball game. And he could have responded, you know, in a way of I'm a tough guy too. But his response was, hey, man, the game's over. I'm good.

And that's a great attitude. And the game is over. And we've seen sore losers or poor losers that haven't been able to let go of the game. Very competitive, the people that haven't let go, especially if it's like a championship game. But also, that's a great analogy right into choosing his battle.

He didn't.

That wasn't a battle. He was going to fight after the game was over.

I'm good.

We did. We hopefully we left everything out on the floor for that to happen. So again, I go back to, you know, that prayer that I try and live by every day. You know, most people, the quote is, choose your battles wisely, but serenity, courage and wisdom. And if you those things, I think you'll be a lot more successful in coaching life and parenting. So anything else, real quick on choosing your battles.

Just like you said in the workplace and anywhere else, like you talk about the pig pen analogy. Some people want to argue and you have to know those people and know that, hey, it's not worth that battle because you're giving them the dirtiness that they want and you don't even want that in your life.

That's a great point. And I think that's very common in athletics, especially if you're losing or you need to try and find an advantage. And you know, we see it, you know, with crowds and such. But yeah, that is definitely some people do want you to stoop to that level. I always say the high road is a lonely place, but you know where you can get things done. So that'll be a whole nother podcast.

I agree.

But talking about YouTube short, I want to talk about that sometime. I'm not real familiar with YouTube short. I learned about more about it when TikTok was banned for a day or two in our country. But are you familiar with YouTube short much? Okay, good. I don't feel the only one, but I'm gonna have to learn more like our kids in that do. So in choosing your battle again, I lot of dumb food questions. Here is our last one. I know not dumb. I already know Cutter's answer. But there's one little thing out there is for the rest of your life, if you could only have pizza for breakfast or pancakes for dinner? What would it be so easy.

That's an easy thing.

I knew it. Easy for you.

Nice supreme pizza. Yeah, I'll take it for breakfast.

You pizza too.

You know, I can choose between sugar and bread or, you know, a multitude of choices of sauce and pizza, so.

Yeah.

So do you like pizza for breakfast?

Yeah, it's fine.

Especially breakfast pizza. Yeah.

Yeah. Like. Like pepperoni or supreme pizza.

Yeah.

Do you warm it up or you eat it cold?

It doesn't matter. I could eat pizza all the time. Doesn't matter.

I thought you could.

Really?

You could.

Could. I don't.

Right, right, right, right.

I knew.

I knew you liked it.

I have something to call an air fryer. And it brings my pizza back alive.

Yeah.

And it's great.

Has been a nice invention for that. And cold french fries.

Yep.

Would you eat your pizza cold or warm in the morning? Like a supreme pizza, Not a breakfast pizza.

I probably because I've been doing the air fryer thing is just spoiled me.

See, I like the less toppings on it. I eat cold, but the more toppings on it, I want it warmed up.

I can agree.

Like a supreme pizza. I'd want warmed up, but a pretzel pepperoni pizza I could eat for breakfast cold. I like pancakes, too. I could. We have breakfast for dinner a lot in our family, you know, so you don't. In your family, Cutter?

I don't think so.

Okay.

I've done it before. Yeah, it's cool. It's one of them. Like. All right. Meat is not unthought.

Right. I'm not talking cereal. I'm talking wildflower. They're pancakes, eggs and bacon. All right. Good contribution, Journey. Until next time. Go stars. Stars on Sports is recorded live at the WLNZ Studios. Engineering and production assistance are provided by Dadalion Lowry and Journey Robinson. You can listen to the episode and other episodes of Stars on Sports on demand@lccconnect.org to find more information about our athletic program, visit lccstars.com thanks for listening. Be sure to join us next time for more Stars on Sports.

Go Stars.

This has been a presentation of LCC Connect, a weekly program that features the voices, vibes and vision of Lansing Community College. All shows featured on LCC Connect are recorded at the WLNZ studio located on LCC's downtown campus. Each program is podcast based and can be heard anytime@lccconnect.org if you or someone you know would like to be a guest on one of our shows, connect with us by emailing LCC ConnectCC.

Eduardo.