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 Spot. I am joined today by our assistant athletic director, Steven Cutter and our producer, Jereny Robinson. Hey, and again, we're going to talk about final exams today because as we record this recording that is our exam week at Lansing Community College. But listening to that intro song, I don't think we could have picked a better song for our podcast. It just encompasses what we're trying to establish here. So it definitely gets us going.

Yeah, I like it.

It's fun to start with that. But, um, first question is, what do you think of when you think of final exams, gentlemen? What do you.

Pressure?

Stress.

Good. Both good answers. Both good answers, but definitely a negative. Really?

Regret. Yeah, I think I've heard that over the last three years of being here is as the final exams are taking place, it's like, you know, I missed this or I missed that. I should have done better here, I should have done better there, and this exam wouldn't have been nearly as important to what I'm trying to do in the future if I would have done X or Y. So I think there's a lot of regret in there at times that takes

me in a whole different direction because now I think of the finality of it. I was thinking more of the stress and the pressure that you guys first mentioned, but now you've led me on to the ending the final. It's, you know, and whether it's regret or sadness because maybe you like the class or. And, you know, I was going to try and tie it into our own sports season. You know, what's. What's the final exam in the athletic season? We're coming up on the end of the year for LCC athletics, and I believe we mimic or, you know, assimilate the academic calendar. I would argue practices are like the daily classroom and contests are like tests. The closest I could get to a final exam is post season, you know, that are. And I'm not sure that's an accurate analogy or not. But that, you know, it's close. Yeah, me too. I would agree. It's close enough. And when I think of final exam for postseason for athletics, I think of more pressure and which adds stress to

it and I think of joy.

I would agree.

It's the same thing with the final exams. If you've done what you were supposed to do and you put in the hard work, you go into those exams with a lot of confidence and you're kind of enjoying the ride.

Well, and that's what I was going to try and spend most of our time is that ride before the final exam. Because I think final exams have a negative content to them. Because the word I think of is cram. Everyone wants the cram for a final exam and. And I'm a believer is it's too late. I always tell I used to when I was in high school or even myself, you're too late to cram. I mean this is a semester long process that you just stay on top of. And it's just like athletics. It's not like you can cram for the pro season in one practice. It's that ride. It's that process of attending class, having your work in, working hard. And I'm a big believer even having relationship because I first impressions. I believe if you have a good first impression in the class, the professor is going to work with you or teacher or coach. So. But it's got a negative kind of tone because of the stress and pressure. And it's the final test that summarizes that whole semester, which is I think similar to the postseason at that final test that summarizes our season. So I just think back to your point. It's that ride of doing all those things before. But across the country right now in the academic college calendar, a lot of people are cramming and stressing and feeling the pressure of final exam. And the same for us as we talked about before we came on here, that the post season's coming up for our spring sports. So those are our final exams too.

Yeah. And when they're all done, do you experience joy or do you experience relief? Yep.

I used to think that it's not fair because it's one moment that pretty much establishes a big chunk of what your host like season is so true. But when you think about it in sports wise, it's just like the tournament. You could play good the whole season, but if you don't show up in the tournament or like the finals, your grade can look bad.

And that's how you're viewed, you know, good or bad.

Yep. And I think that's again, another reason that they're the kind of tone with final exam because I think people worry about failing and. Or even in our season, only one, there's only one champion at the end of the season. And you know, I think Kobe has said it best before. I think Giannis has said it well about is it a failure if you don't win a championship? And no, hopefully it's a lesson learned.

Yeah, there's. It's definitely a failure. I mean, people.

Wow. True. True.

People lose their jobs. Yeah.

Yes. Yes.

That affects families and, you know, a lot of different things. So I think it's. It's definitely viewed differently in the sports world and that's why the NCAA tournaments and all the things that happen into the year mean so much to people because I think everybody realizes the finality of, of what's at stake and, and how you're judged. You're judged by wins and losses. You better hope that your processes are good enough to get you to where you should be at. And if they're not, you're most likely not going to reach that.

Right.

And you can't cram for it in one week of practice before that post season. You can tweak things in that, but that's back to that process of. Again, I think I've talked about this before in other podcasts about. I had an old coach from a previous job that on January 1st, this is where his team needed to be. He really didn't care about the record. And then on February 1st, this is where they needed to be in practice. And it's about measuring to a standard which you've talked and, you know, follow significantly in your program.

We do that. We break our seasons into thirds. And this is where we need to be. And like our, our program is right where they need to be right now. But there's still a level of trust that needs to be there and belief and everything else. And you know, in reality in sports, it's. You just don't. The team doesn't show up one day, you know, that's, you know, so that's a little bit different. If you don't show up for your job one day, you've still got another six days or four days or whatever it is in your cycle of your work week to kind of make up for it.

That's true.

It's different in sports. You don't show up. Seasons are over.

Yeah. And I think that leads to joy and relief and you Know, there's a lot of students right now across the country that aren't feeling that press stress because they have an A in the class and they can fail the exam and be okay. You know, we don't have that in athletics. You know, back to your point of losing that last game and whether it being judged as failure or not, but, you know, still putting yourself in that position in some sports, you know, making the postseason is part of it. And so to get to that final exam, the ones that are probably more comfortable right now are the ones that have done the work all season, you know, and that stress or pressure isn't on there. Having said that, I still think people feel stress and pressure when you even announce the words final exam, when you announce the words post season. I mean, student athletes going in, no, if we lose, this is our last game, we're done. You know, what's after that. And, you know, your whole life changes in the sense of your schedule. The next day is totally different. The people you hang out with is totally different. So really working with your team on trying to minimize that focus and focus on just the next game. And I think that's the same for the final exam. It's another test.

Yeah. Being present is probably the largest thing, whether you're taking a test or you're playing a sport, not worrying about what the potential outcome of the situation is going to be after the, you know, it's over. It's just trying to be present where your feet are. And, you know, if you're preparing for a class, it's kind of the same thing every, you know, a lot of people can attend the classes, but can they actually be present in those classes to help stack some bricks? So at the end of the year, it matters.

Take it a step further that attending the class is the first step. And again, attendance is so important, I believe. But you're right to take it to another level. And those students that do well in class and do well in practice participate, get the most out of it. And about reflection and learning and trying to be better that next day. And the same in the class of not just settling for showing up, but making the most of it. It's a waste of time, really, just showing up. But getting them to show up is part of the battle throughout the season. But I also want to look at the other side of, you know, if a kid fails an exam or if a number of kids fail an exam or they fail a certain section of the exam, I think there needs to be ownership on the coach or the professor. And the same with a team like, you know, if we lose because we didn't feel well, or if we lose because we didn't hit well or we didn't shoot well, you know, it's also time for the coach and the professor to learn a lot from the performance on a final exam.

Always. I think it's easy to break it down into really two categories. If you have students or student athletes that overachieve in. In the classroom or on the field, the coaches get. Or teachers get. Professors get a ton of. Should get a ton of accolades. Just getting people to overachieve in general is a huge win. Yeah. And then on the same side, if you're going to accept those accolades and if you have a classroom or some that underachieve or a team that underachieves, then coaches got to wear that too. And so it kind of goes both ways. And I think most everything falls on leadership and everything kind of rolls downhill from the leadership. And the elite forces of the military say something that they believe to be wholeheartedly true. And they say there are no bad teams, just bad leaders. And they do some things to really show that that's not just words they've shown through boat crews and different things that they've done that extremely true.

Wow.

So that's a tough one sometimes for people to hear. But a lot of times they believe there are no bad teams, just bad leaders.

And I agree with that 100%. And you know, we could go through teams histories and see the leaders on those teams. And you know, the best teams have leaders other than coaches that help be them successful. I mean, I'm a true believer. I've said it before, is your most talented player needs to be your hardest worker, doesn't need to be a leader per se. Most people think your most talented players should be a leader. Helps if they are, but it's more that leader that, you know, just go. You'll go through a brick wall through or, you know, just, you know, you don't want to let down.

But.

But it is about learning. And I think the coach has, you know, like you said, when they overachieve, that's maximizing potential. That the greatest feeling in the world is when you're able to maximize someone's potential. And hopefully it wasn't because of low expectations to begin with, but some people have, you know, but. But we both know it's really just overachieving, you know, in general. And those are great seasons. And you know, I've shared with you before my excitement at Beginning this season. Because when you start a season there's just so much hope and like potential. But it's those teams that even good teams that go above and beyond and that's action.

Action.

Yeah. And what we can hope for the most as leaders in the classroom and on the playing field is that we get them to overachieve. And our biggest disappointments are when we underachieve. You know, we didn't get there. And you got to reflect on that. Just like if they fail on an exam, you got to step back and reflect on what maybe I got changed this next semester, maybe I got to change this next season. And so I think a final exam in the post season result does kind of give you that final grade on not again, maybe failure. But where do we go from here?

I think it's really hard too to be a professor or a teacher and you've got 30 different people in the classroom and you're trying to teach them one singular thing at a time and you're trying to relate ways to get them to understand you. That's pretty challenging. Yeah, in its own way. Because I think it's really proven that everybody learns differently and through different, you know, forms. And that's probably the biggest separator is those that figure out ways to be able to communicate with, you know, multiple people instead of just the high achievers in the room or, you know, the people that are always paying attention. It's being able to figure out how to get to the people that maybe are looking around or have their head down or sleeping or you know, whatever it is. That's. Those are typically the ones that you find that are the difference makers.

And I think there's a lot of similarities between a coach and their team and a professor or teacher in the classroom. But I think the one part where it might be harder for a professor is usually with a coach. A student wants to play that sport. So you might have some motivation where the teacher, they might have been forced to take chemistry or English. That's good, you know, so. But I agree with you. But the good ones find ways to get through to those kids, especially those ones that struggle. And that's an important part of being successful as a team. I mean, I'm not maybe a total believer in your strongest as your weakest link. But getting those student that don't buy into buy in can really help take your success to becoming an overachiever. But you're going to have to rely on them at some time, whether in the classroom with their distraction or on the team, if someone gets hurt or injured, that if you get them prepared, they can step up and fulfill that role. And that's really what it's about in the end. In the classroom, they get a grade. In sports, they get a trophy. But it's about reaching their potential. What do you laugh about reaching? I couldn't think of a better example at that time. That wasn't part of my script. Trophies, man. Tough crowd today. But the impact you have on them and how significant that is. And I don't have the quote in front of me, but I heard it in the last week about how teachers and coaches. You can impact the change of an individual. And one of my favorite things is everyone wants to change the world, but not want to change themselves. And it actually starts with changing yourself. And it's so hard to change yourself. I mean, it's not. It's come down to habits and all the things we probably want to be better at ourselves. But how coaches and teachers can measure that from the beginning of the season to that final exam and how rewarding it can be when you can see the change in maybe a majority of your class or your student athletes.

Yeah, I don't think you're necessarily going to get to everybody on a team. I don't think a team's weakest link does. It describes how weak a team can be. I think you're always going to have some people that aren't quite as bought in, whether they have to be in the class or they just happen to be on the team because they have talent, you know, but don't have for love of the game. So it's your teams that do really well. And I think classrooms that do really well all have a lot of things that are. That they have in common. And a lot of those is really good leaders and a group of people that are pulling on the rope in the same direction. They have. Their wants are the same as everybody else's in that. In that group. And they want to do well. They. They want to move on to the next course. They want to move on to the next college. You know, they want to have this class to help them with their job that they're going to be going into. And the same thing happens on the field. The best teams have players that aren't completely bought in. It's about the ones that are.

And I think the more that you do get bought in that might help with your level of success. But that's a great point in the sense of even back to the final exam or Final grade is what's next. And for some, it could be graduation, or for some it might be, they need to. This might be a class they need for that next class. So back to that connotation of what a final exam means. That's what adds to that pressure or stress is what's on the line for that test. And where I would argue our post season, that is significant because that's what most people look back and judge our grade 18 by.

I think dream chasers in general have seeds of delusion. And I think sometimes you take that final exam or the post season or whatever, and there's a little bit of delusion in there that means more than what it really does at the end of the day.

And I agree. And more facets, even, like, if you got a good grade on the exam, doesn't necessarily mean you understood all the content, especially if you were good at cramming for it or such. So, yeah, that's a good point too, in the sense of what does success actually mean from that postseason?

A couple words I've learned through the coaching journey is seek perspective. And those are really, really powerful words. And I know, like, I was able to drive my daughter home from her high school softball game last night. And I was thinking back when I was driving her home, I was kind of reminiscing a little bit and thinking about when I was driving our older son home at her age. You know, I'm trying to give him the cross, the T's, dot the eyes. This is what you need to do. This is what you don't need to do. You know, that kind of stuff. And, and you just fast forward a few years through growth and stuff. And I'm telling her, I mean, we're talking about what she did well, and we're talking about mental processes and belief. And, you know, it's okay. It's. We're just trying to get better. And you know, that. That kind of stuff versus more the demeaning style, which I used to have with. And I thought that was helpful, but I've learned like, that that's not really super helpful because most, if not all of the kids, they know when they fail, they. They. They don't need to be reminded. They really know. You can see it in their body language, you can see it in their tears, you can see it in their frustration or whatever it is, but they know. So they don't necessarily need that reminder. They need the reminder that, okay, this is, this is where you're at. It's okay. I still Love you. I'm, I'm. I'm proud of you because of the person you are, not because you hit three home runs and struck out the side. You know, that kind of stuff. And I think that seek perspective is by far the most important thing. So that can take away the stress of the classroom in this final exam. Seek perspective. I've studied, I've been here, I've attended, I've done everything that I can possibly do. I'm going to go give my best effort on this final exam and it's not going to be the end of the world if I get 100% or if I get a 50%.

And I agree with you. And I think there are similarities between the classroom and sports in that thing, even in the sense of doing your best, just learning. And there's a lot of pressure on certain kids to get high GPAs. And that's why I always liked when a kid got an A minus. And it just totally took that pressure off of keeping that 4.0. I mean, we had parents come in and argue when their kid got their first non 4.0, and they're so worried about getting a 4.0 than actually learning content. And to your point of, yeah, if you've learned everything you could in that class, then you're okay. If you've done everything you could to be successful on the playing field, you know, that's all we can ask. And another real point you hit in there about the attention to details, I think that's a separator and I think that is important part of that process of being successful in the classroom and on the playing field. But yeah, I think we get sometimes too focused on the result. And that's again, another reason there's stress of a final exam is because we're so worried about the grade instead of what did we really learn, how did we really grow?

Yeah. So I was trying to find a text that I sent to my daughter and I got this from you, honestly, just hanging with you guys and just getting a better perspective on how to just be positive affirmations. So she is a really good track runner, but she hasn't been doing good this season. So I kind of got from you. It's like as long as you show up every day and you go hard and you give your best, the results will come. And kind of, you know, kind of instilled that into her and she's been a lot less stressed these last couple of meets and she finally cracked back into that 12 this last pass running and, and I was like, yeah, they know when they mess up. Like what you was just saying, like, why am I gonna beat. I don't like to get beat down when I'm already down on myself. I need somebody to lift me up and tell me like, okay, it's gonna be okay, but you gotta work at it.

Yeah, yeah.

They definitely feel the pressure. Just like the final exam. They feel that pressure of that final parade and trying to give them encouragement or you know, and just. And it is a mental thing too. And I still go back to the Scottie Scheffler God thing is that, you know what, when he won the Masters, he goes, I'm Scotty Scheffler. Whether I winning the Masters or not, my life isn't going to be. Although society places a lot on his life. You know, parents place a lot on their kids performance. I wasn't perfect on my ride home with my son after basketball game, but I learned and thinking this is dumb. This is a time we can be together and celebrate what you did do that game. Why are we focusing on the things you didn't do? And it's a battle, it's a struggle. And parents and coaches and teachers all have to deal with it. We're dealing with people. So that's what makes it harder than if you're dealing with a blueberry or a package that doesn't have feelings or caring.

Do what I tell you.

All right, well this has been great. Conversation. Conversation. So let's get to our fun question of the day. And I have a bunch of them. So I don't know which one to choose today, but we're gonna go with fast food. What's your favorite fast food place?

I've been letting that go, so that's

probably a good thing.

But what do you consider fast?

Probably, you know, not that it's per. It's already ready. You know, the, the quick chains or whatever. McDonald's, Chick Fil A, you know, not the subplates, anything. You just something you're gonna, you know, you're quick go to if you wanted to get a quick bite to eat.

Quick bite to eat. Lately, I'll say if it was a quick bite to eat. I've been filling the firehouse subs.

Yeah, that is solid. That's our go to place for downtown.

Yeah, I think I try to stay away from the drive throughs. Okay. They're easy. And especially on a coach's schedule. It's pretty insane. And I just try to just go hungry for the most part. But there are. There are two things that are really solid. McDonald's has a plus Coke. So their Coke is, is by far the best. And if you hit them at the right time, if you get a coke and fries, it's. It's a good pick me up.

I agree. I like McDonald's because if their fries are right, you know, I know I used to like sweet tea from McDonald's but it's always such a. But it's so hit and miss that I would go to Chick Fil A. There's so many other good places now that have yeah good sweet tea.

The coke is consistent.

That's. I like a good coke so I might have to start. But I like their cheeseburger meal is pretty cheap too. The two cheeseburger meal, the good meal. But I like a lot of fast food. I try and cut back to at firehouses. That's what our go to place for downtown Lansing. So that's a good one. You know, I'm not a chicken person but I have been going, you know, my kids like Chick Fil A so we go there. Right.

It's a solid.

I mean again that's our society.

So I haven't had it that much.

Yeah. So Culver's is probably actually my go to place because their menu is so broad that it can, you know, appease anybody and it been quality lately. But that, you know, can change here or there. So. Okay. Just a fun question to see where we're at. But until our next time, go Stars. Good luck on finals.

My pleasure.

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!