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!

Hello and welcome to another episode of Stars on Sports. As usual, I am joined today by our assistant AD Steven Cutter. And Steven, today we're going to be talking about new beginnings, new seasons. It's January when we were recording this, and for the athletic department and for our society, that means new year, new semester, new season. You know, for us sports, starting new semester, recertification of some sports halfway through the season. So in our world, that's exciting. In our society, that's exciting. You know, we talked about in previous podcasts about goals and resolutions, which I'm not a big resolution, but I do like new beginnings. I like hope. I like the start of a clean slate and seeing what the future holds and how we can improve and get better. You're in that boat of the baseball coach of a new season starting and the potential there. I like the holiday season because of giving and thankfulness. But how exciting to start and have a new season and especially athletics a new team, one person can change the whole dynamic of a team. You're familiar with that, setting goals for your team to see where they are at the end of the season. I used to always have a coach that said, you know, not if you're in the starting five or not, but it's if you're on the floor at the end of the game, that really matters. And, you know, but we're starting, so it is important to be off to a good start and bring people together. So do you have that same excitement as you start the year and start a new season and see some of those similarities?

Yeah, for sure. I think anytime that you can get a fresh start, it's exciting. As you, you mentioned the word hope. That's what everybody needs is hope. And so it's an exciting time of year. I know the baseball team kicked off their season late last night. And, you know, we have softball and we have our other sports that are still in season. So the first of the year is, is always an exciting time. And I'm not a Big person on making New Year's resolutions. I'm more about having really good processes and trying to follow through on those.

Yeah, and the process is what takes us to that end and the result. But still, you know, there's a lot of planning that goes involved. As we're in January, people are already giving up on resolutions or goals. And you know, and that happens in athletics. It's starting, you know, starting. Some of our mentors that we listen to how important starting is. You know, starting a semester, how to emphasize to our student athletes and even my own kids at home is get off to a good start, make a good first impression for your teacher attendance, you know, how important that is, Just showing up, being there every day and working hard. It's very important as we start anything new, because starting is sometimes the most difficult part of making that decision. So again, as we start these seasons in this year, it's very important in our athletic department to do that. As a coach, you know that you develop impressions right away of student athletes. And again, most start off with a good impression of working hard and listening and having fun. But. But that's a whole nother demeanor of getting teams to come together to gel. You talk about the process and how we both believe if you follow through, the will come, but it's still starting and having those goals in place for that season. And I think that, you know, pretty prevalent in athletics and even for those teams, as you mentioned, basketball in the middle of their season to reevaluate, to set maybe new goals for the rest of that season and for those that may be in the out of season, setting those goals for their next season and working on out of season activities to get better. But you mentioned baseball and softball are in full swing now, which is crazy to me. In January we're playing baseball and softball. We'll be indoors for the short term, but track will be starting soon and basketball in full swing. So, you know, very busy time for our athletic department and planning ahead. And people don't probably realize how much planning goes into starting a season. You know, even putting your schedule together to get off to a good start, to prevent injuries, to schedule accordingly, to build confidence. And a lot of things we take for granted. You know, there's many people out there that just redo the past, like, what did we do last year? Let's do it again this year. And for the good ones and the ones that be successful, you have to the confidence, constantly reflect and reevaluate. And so you have to take that time this year even as we're early into it, constantly do that. And I think we're both big believers in reflecting and looking back and what worked and not worked and how to get better. But it's exciting again, a lot of potential for success, you know, a lot of chances to utilize resources to be successful at that time of year and a lot of clean slates and hopefully we can build on those and improve them and make, make a positive imprint on Lansing Community College athletic. So what do you think, any advice you give your student athletes regarding new start, maybe even for the semester or other things, you know, the academic year for them?

Yes, I like to try to teach a lot of visualization stuff. There's a really famous saying that would say something to the fact of I'll believe it when I see it. And if that was actually something that was true, we wouldn't have things like cell phones, we wouldn't have cars, we wouldn't have walked on the moon, all those things. It's more seeing it to actually have it actualize or believe it. And so if you're looking to do something, you need to be able to maybe close your eyes, you can leave them open, but you want to start visualizing that stuff that you want. If you can start seeing it, then some of that stuff will start down the road coming true.

I agree with you, Steve, about the visualization, but you and I both have talked about believing too. And one of the best presentations I saw was from a National Geographic photographer who talked about believing as seen. We all talk about seeing as believing, but his point was he'd go in and if he tried to do a photo shoot and he was looking for something, it was sometimes hard to find where if he believed he could find it in that picture. It was amazing what came out of that picture. And both of those are so important in the athletics believing. Just watched Ted Lasso for the second time. One of my favorite shows that has a lot of coaching references in it and believe is a big part of that, but also the visualization part, how important that is for our student athletes to understand that they are what they are and they have to visualize what they they can do and can be. So I've been very impressed with your use of visualization in practice pre game and you think that's going to be more prevalent in our area as we go in the future. And we both know a lot of colleges are using resources for personnel to help with that and you have significant training which you'll expand on throughout the future of these podcasts and your own of your background in that. But both of those are instrumental in start to the season of getting your team in to believe in those goals and seeing what they can accomplish throughout that season. So I think in the semester too, I mean we talk academically too, you know, we reflect on our last semester and how well we, our student athlete did academically. You know, we had over half our team with a 3.0 GPA, many kids with 4.0s. We had our share of kids that struggled and we're identifying them and working with them, but helping them see that they can succeed in the classroom and, and get them the resources to help. Because as the new season starts, a new semester starts, which is exciting, seeing more students on campus, you know, getting back to in person instruction, getting back in our gymnasium. So seeing that and believing in it go hand in hand and both very important to athletic success. And as we talked about, if you're, you know, the things you can be successful in athletics carry over into the classroom and into your life in general, that some of those same characteristics you do you can use in other parts of your life to be successful. So that's exciting, you know, this time of year, you know, with all those things aligning of our society, you know, doing New Year's goals, our team starting seasons, our college starting a semester that, you know, there's a lot of hope there. You know, Shawshank Redemption is one of my favorite movies. It's on TV all the time. And talk about hope is the greatest of things and you alluded to that earlier how important hope is and new season, bring that again one game into the season, it might change everything. And for most people it does not. For me, I like the first contest because that's where we start, that's where we know we got to go moving forward. But too many people dwell on that first result and change their tune and say, oh, we're not going to be as good as I thought this season or fail that first exam and oh, this is going to be a tough class. But to me that's an opportunity to see where we're at and, and where we got to go. So that's this exciting. I know you're excited for your baseball team to and again, things we're doing in our athletic department to get going. The other hot topic right now and we're going to talk a little bit about today, but I imagine we'll expand on it and bring guests in the future. The health and safety in athletics and how important it is and with current events going on in sports world, how important it is to have protocols in place and to educate your staff on how to handle difficult situations. And there's so many ones. We talk health and safety. Sudden cardiac arrest has been prevalent one in athletics. And you know, I believe a young lady had passed away in Florida in flag football just recently. And I got an email from a company, said that it happens every couple days of sudden cardiac arrest and how prevalent that is in sports. But then you got violence too. And dealing with those protocols, We've seen it in other parts of society, in grocery stores or movie theaters, and we've seen it in some athletic events how important health and safety is and how sometimes it unfortunately falls to the back burner. But you and I goal of working on our protocols and understanding especially the different ones at different facilities. Have you had any experience with some of those incidents of health and safety?

Yeah, you know, if we talk about some of the stuff that's happened in the NFL and you look and there's so many things when it comes to health and safety that take place when the lights are off or behind closed doors that people just don't see. But those are once again, those are processes that people are following, whether it's athletic trainers or support staff or whoever. All of our coaching staff has AEDs. And so those are really important because when our men's and women's basketball team is playing in our gym, we have one there as well. But what happens to the softball team when they're off site? Those AEDs are typically always with the coaches. But what happens when they're not?

And what a change in the last, I'd say even three to five years of the presence of AEDs in schools and in athletics. And we are fortunate. At LCC, we have AEDs throughout campus and we check them monthly. We have brand new ones. I think they just bought all new ones for campus. Every team has an aed. I was watching the news the other day where they did a sample on there. Just a person that didn't even know how to use it. How easy it walks them through. And we talked about technology before in athletics, but there's probably there is no more important technology than the AED being present in athletics because of sudden cardiac arrest has been. But going to other facilities looking for and making sure they have them. We had to practice and play off site last semester and I noticed that that facility had one or two AEDs around. So they're almost as common as fire extinguishers in facilities. And Rightfully so. That had been one of the most positive changes. It did start with Wes Leonard. They're the I don't want to butcher names, but a girl named Kimberly foundation that was important in getting AEDs in schools. But even businesses in school that understand the importance have provided them. They've come down in price, but they're still relatively expensive. And how much are they? Last I knew they were between 800 and $1200 depending on the model. There's different models. I think they're all adaptable now for age for kid.

In your opinion. And you mentioned fire extinguishers. I'm not sure everybody knows how to use the fire extinguisher either. But do you feel like the AEDs are pretty easy to use without any training?

They are now. When they first came out you had AED was part of CPR training. My understand now has been watching the news the other day and I believe this is that anyone can use it. You open it up and it walks you through and it won't shock them. They're sophisticated enough. It won't shock the person unless it identifies that it needs that. It tells you where to place the pads and it monitors it. So it's very important and you know I've been fortunate and something we have to do better to be CPR and AED trained on a regular basis and how important that is in the initial response to any person that is injured or definitely doesn't have a pulse of, you know, getting blood flowing in that first 10 minutes. And as you mentioned in the NFL saw an article how the NFL is the most watched sports program in the world, like the top 10 shows. And seeing something this on national TV has brought a lot of awareness to these kind of incidents and how important it is to have protocol in place because it's scary. I mean it's very difficult to handle. And unfortunately for most athletic teams, they have trainers that are there to help and you have protocol of getting first responders there. I have never dealt with a sudden cardiac arrest, but I've dealt with concussions where kids have lost consciousness and there's usually a doctor or nurse in the crowd that's been able to help. But it's back to your point of having things in place before the actual event happens and then having right people in place because not everyone can handle those situations because it is so difficult and stressful.

It would be nice to even see our student athletes all get CPR certified. And I come to that with something that I had some real world experience With I coached a college baseball player that I was over a couple years span, and he was sitting in a classroom and, you know, young, healthy man sitting in the classroom and basically fell over with cardiac arrest. His teammate, who was also on the baseball team happened to be sitting next to him. And the day prior, he just completed his CPR training and he actually saved his life that day. And you know, he's playing professional baseball now, but it's a heck of a story. Prior to that student athlete actually doing the training, he adamantly said, I would have had no clue what to do. So sometimes in the gyms and the different areas, but then you also have the student athletes that are, you know, doing that are sitting in classrooms and that are in different spots. So maybe that, that could be a goal down the road.

I think it's a great goal and I think it should be an emphasis of our society that everyone is CPR training, because even if you're at home, those first 10 minutes are so important to get the blood flowing that, you know, to help a family member. But as we've talked before, it seems like music and sports bring big crowds together. That it's definitely important when there's more people around, there's more chance of it, of it happening. And we've seen it unfortunately too many times happen in athletics of someone suddenly collapsing. But. And at all different levels with the different medical personnel you have. And fortunately most have that medical, at least a trainer on staff. But I think that's a great goal for us. We talk about goals for this year. Back to tying in about our earlier conversation of getting people CPR certified because we can rely on aed, but CPR is still an important part of that. And even with the AED training, you do that and then you move back over to cpr. And it's something we hope we never have to use. And it's something when you do, you never want to use it. But again, back in education, in sport, that's being prepared and that would help us be prepared for some of the most. The most difficult situation that we could experience because the game becomes secondary, as we saw in that NFL situation, that the game is secondary. And people's health and safety are and always should be the priority. It's usually the number one goal of every organization is the health and safety of your constituents. So that fits right into us and doing better here at LCC and across the sports world.

You know, you brought it up. So my mind's kind of going back to it a little bit. You Brought up the fire extinguisher. And I don't know if it's just you or. But do you want to kind of talk real briefly about the fire alarm that was going off during the basketball game recently?

Yeah. And as we talked about another podcast, athletics happened at all different hours. So we had a game off site a couple weeks ago, a women basketball game, and somebody pulled the fire alarm in the middle of the game. And so you're supposed to evacuate the gym. You need to evacuate everything. But we knew it was a pull. We saw it. The kid ran out the door when it happened. And I've dealt with them many times. That's something you end up dealing with in athletics. And even though I was off site, I had a good grasp of going to the control control panel, finding the key to reset the alarm. The fire department did come. They were very helpful. We had to call the operations director from that particular school to come in and address and make sure we were all set. But we had to delay the game. We had to add warm up time. The strobe lights are going off, which impacts some people. So they are not fun to deal with. And they happen too frequently in athletics because you have a lot of people around and usually some little kids end up pulling it or. I've had backpacks catch on to them. Thankfully for me, I've had enough experience that I can handle those. But it's still stressful and you're still. People want to. People want to leave, people want to keep playing. You got to work with the officials on proper protocol to get this game started. And strobe lights, are they a distraction? Can you play through them? The fire alarm ended up getting broken that day, so we had to figure out a way to fix it again. Just another situation of being prepared. Anything can happen. I don't like surprises. It even carries over into my home life now that my. My wife knows not to surprise me, because in this job, you don't want surprises. You want to be able to prepare and deal with it. And fire alarms are a big part of us because they're throughout and they're usually easy enough to grab for a little kid. I mean, I know growing up, I always wanted to be that person, to at least pull it once. And when I worked at Mason, they let me pull it a couple times just to get that thrill. So I know every kid wants to do it, but just not during an hour athletic event, you know, because it's a serious. It's a serious thing. Because if there's a Fire. You have to get people out. That's. It's scary. And back to having protocol and having announcements that help people, guide them, especially being at a facility you're not familiar with. So, fortunately, it worked out well. But for 20 minutes, we were, we were scrambling, and you have to remain calm. You got to listen. You gotta communicate. All things again that carry over to other facets. So that'd be one thing I'd like to forget. It's funny, I, I, you know, we don't. Knock on wood. We haven't had many instances in Gannon, and I, I'm not really as familiar with them because it's a bigger building at that particular facility. It was smaller, so you saw them. So I'm hoping that we've had our one fun and experience with that for the year. But that all plays into the health and safety of an event, you know, making sure that, you know, you take care of your people. You got a lot of people there that are new to the facility or, you know, and handle surprises like that differently. So it's not fun. But you learn and you develop and you communicate. Thanks for bringing that up. I had forgotten about that one.

Thanks for sharing.

Again. It's just working together. Thankfully, the fire department was excellent. The guy was great from the Delta Fire Department, and the operations director from Great Lakes Christian College was very helpful, too. So you just gotta work together, just like in any instance of medical emergency or other emergency during an athletic or academic event. Well, Stephen, that was excellent. Tied into, you know, a good conversation on new stars, beginning of the seasons and academic semester, along with how our health and safety is a goal and how prevalent that is in both of those arenas and our goals for that for this year. So, as usual, exciting conversation about maybe not specifically towards LCC athletics, but what is involved in LCC athletics heading into another a year of competition. So, as always, I enjoy this time of talking with you and look forward to the next one. So had a great time today. Until the next time. Go Stars.

Stars on Sports Outro: Stars on Sports is recorded live at the WLNZ studios. Engineering and production assistance are provided by Daedalian Lowry. You can listen to this episode and other episodes of Stars on Sports on demand at LCCconnect.org to find more information about our athletic program, visit LCCstars.com thanks for listening. Go Stars!