Transcript: Ethan Roberts on Sports, Mentorship, Leadership, and Embracing Opportunity

Good morning and welcome back to the show. We are here with senior varsity captain of both golf and hockey, Ethan Roberts. How are you, Ethan? I'm great.

Thank you guys for having me. Thanks for being on. I think we want to start off all the way to how you came to U.S. What was your journey like to come to U.S.?

Yeah, so I started at U.S. way back in the fourth grade. I went to Onaway, which is a Shaker public school for the beginning years of my life. And my sister, who's two years older than me, went to HB in the fourth grade. So it's just a logical transition for me to come to U.S. in the fourth grade as well.

I guess to follow suit with what my sister did. And that year we did the Whalen trip and all that. So it's just a really great year to enter and move through middle school. My end of my middle school life was a little bit weird with COVID.

So I didn't really get that full eighth grade experience or anything like that. But high school was a little bit back to normal. And, you know, I just had a great experience so far. And that's what kept me here for sure.

I think a lot of kids can come in the middle school and end up making it. It's a decision to leave. But that wasn't the case for me and for a lot of my good friends. You know, I just I really liked it.

So I stayed. I know obviously you stayed here just in your year. And I know you recently decided to go to Wake Forest for college. Congrats, by the way.

Thank you. Thank you. What chose you to pick Wake Forest and what specifically choose finance? Yeah, so my mom's in finance.

So that was kind of the early indicator that I wanted to do something like that. I just learned a lot from her about, I guess, her career path and what she did in college and beyond. So I was just really interested in it. And so that was.

Kind of picking my major first off, I kind of knew going into the college process. So that's what I wanted to do. So I visit a ton of schools, obviously. Northeast, I visit a bunch of schools in North Carolina.

So UNC, I saw UVA in Virginia, things like that. And I think Wake just stood out to me. It's just, I guess, that sort of Goldilocks syndrome where it's not too small and it's not too big. It's got power five sports.

So they play the best teams in the country. You know, great athletics to go watch and overall just a really great community. And then, you know, the academics are still very strong and the social scene is great. So I think it's just the best of every world scenario.

And I guess that really stood out to me. And then I spent a week there this past summer doing a finance and investing program in the business building and learning from one of the heads of the Finance Institute. So I got to spend a week down there in the dorms to kind of, like, confirm my suspicion that I really wanted to go there. And I loved it.

So it sounds like there's a lot to choose from. But what are you most excited for going to Wake? Um. Gosh, I really don't know.

I think I'm more just excited to go to college, to just meet so many new people and learn some so many new things. Um, you know, I've had the same friends at U.S. for years now, and I'm ready to kind of, you know, branch out a little bit. And then Wake especially, they have such an interesting program called the Pre-Wall Street Track in their business school where you can get selected in your class. It's about 30 people who are finance majors, and you get to interview with real alums who work on Wall Street.

Um. And big. Big four firms, big companies. And so I think that's really just like a boost to the career.

And I'm really excited to kind of start on that track and, you know, hopefully make it into that program. You know, I know you're not committed to play sports at Wake Forest, but you've obviously been a big sports kid throughout your entire high school. I know you're a golf and hockey player. What really got you into playing those sports?

Yeah, I started playing golf and hockey basically like when I could walk. I played baseball, too, growing up until high school. So three sports basically my whole life until high school. I remember just picking up a club.

Like my my dad didn't play golf. My mom didn't play golf. And my dad just gave me a plastic club one day. There's like a photo of me out there when I was like two years old walking around with a plastic club.

And then we were originally members at the Cleveland Skating Club where I would play hockey. And they merged with Shake Rites Country Club when I was like six. So that's when I really started to be able to, like, play golf because I had access to the facilities. I met all the coaches and stuff like that.

So I just love the game. I think it's just so peaceful and relaxing to be out there in the sun in the summer. And now as I've gotten older, I get to play with my best friends every day out in the sun in the summer. So I think that's why I got into golf really just early with my dad.

And I just stayed in it throughout my whole life. And then hockey, I actually don't really know the back story about how I got into hockey, but I just put skates on one day. I started in figure skating, actually, which I think is a pretty common trend. So I was a figure skater until I was like six or seven and then started playing like might hockey and then moved up through like might to peewee to ban them.

Now in high school. So. And golf is definitely a peaceful game, but when you play it competitively, it can get hard, right? Playing baseball, I know how hard it is to play a sport that is difficult and involves a lot of failure.

So what's the biggest lesson that you've been able to take away from golf? Yeah, I think golf is just such an emotional game, especially in competitive scene. Like you said, it's just such a mentally toughening game. So I think just controlling emotions and acting the same in every moment is what I've learned.

So like when you hit a really great shot to not get, you know, too happy to not realize to then realize you have to go execute on the next one and the next one and the next one, the next one. And that, you know, you don't really tally up your score until the round's over. So staying in the moment. And then also, I think golf has taught me a lot about coming back from bad moments.

And obviously, like I've had my fair share of meltdowns on the golf course, I will say. And, you know, especially as a younger kid, you don't really understand the importance of like keeping your cool and and moving on. And. As I've gotten older, I've kind of emphasized in my golf game what it means to like the I guess how special it is to be able to hit a bad shot and then recover from it on the next one and to like take your they we call it a ten step rule.

So you have ten steps to dwell and to be angry about the last shot. And then after those ten steps, you have to move on because you have, you know, a bunch of shots ahead of you, a bunch of hard holes that that require a bunch of mental focus, just like you had to have on the last shot, which didn't go as planned. But I think I just learned a lot. About rebounding and staying in the moment and staying present through everything.

How do you feel that like that emotion is played into not only golf, but into hockey, too? I know. I mean, I really got into hockey watching your guys's high school team last year and watching kids just hit each other just to hit each other sometimes. How do you kind of control those emotions when you're just in the game in the moment?

Yeah. Hockey is a lot different just because it's so much more adrenaline focused and obviously like way faster pace. It's it's not even comparable. So.

But I think there are a lot of parallels between like you make bad plays in hockey. But the nice thing about hockey versus golf is you have four other kids in the goalie on the ice to back you up and then golf, you really just have yourself. But it's also just like the adrenaline rush or everything. You're just so focused on every little thing, you know, being the first guy on the park, laying a body, getting the puck, moving it to your teammate, getting it on net and then getting off and getting a breath.

And it's just I think staying present in the moment, like I said, in golf, it is very true for hockey as well. Like you're going to make mistakes. You're probably going to miss. And that and then you have to back check on the other end and kids can choose how they want to react.

You know, if you make a bad play, turn a puck over and stand there and throw your arms in the air, then you're doing yourself and your teammates a disservice. But if you stay in the moment and realize I can still back check, go get this puck, give it to my teammate and get off the ice and, you know, do some good on the shift, then, you know, you're doing the right thing. So I think that's just, I guess, how they translate a little bit is just hockey is a little bit different because you have a bunch of teammates. And I'd say making mistakes is a little bit easier.

Not only because you have teammates. To back you up, but also because you're so eager to go do something right for them versus in golf. It's really just yourself. So you guys had an amazing team last year, obviously making it all the way to the state finals.

What made you guys so successful other than the obvious talent? Yeah, we made the state final the last two years and fell in both games, which definitely stung. But last year, I think we we had 36 wins and four losses, which is a school record by five wins. And really didn't experience much like turmoil or adversity because when we found ourselves in the tough games and like in the tough situations, you could look at the guy next to you and rely on him to make a play.

No matter who it was, like if it was Sam Wade next to me, he's arguably the best player in program history. I'm 100 percent confident that that kid can make a play. Or if standing next to me is Pat, who is a sophomore, who's still a great player, like I'm confident Pat's going to go make a play. And so I think honestly, there's just such a bond between each other.

Not necessarily as like being best friends or, you know, being teammates, but just like having a trust with one another off the ice that stays on the ice that, you know, plays are going to be made in the toughest of times. We know that we're going to make plays. So last year we just finished up the Jamestown tournament this year. Last year in the semifinal, we were down two to zero and Sam Wade scored four goals straight.

And like we came back and won that game. And I think we found ourselves in those situations a lot. You're like in a dogfight shaker last year at home. We were tied one.

We won through a period. And you like look at the guy next to you is like, what are we going to do? Like and then we we came out and won the game by a lot. And there's I think that was just so special to just realize that we were never out like you, like we could be down, maybe had a bad period or a bad couple of shifts.

But I think that's what made that team so good is there was just no quit factor. There was just such a compete. So talent aside, everybody just wanted it so badly. I know you talk about the idea of like looking to your left and seeing someone saying, what were you going to do?

I know that takes a little bit of leadership too. Yeah. Tell that person, this is what we're going to do next. Now, as captain of the hockey team this year, where are some of those leadership traits that you hope to carry over from last year's team and maybe some new ones that you kind of think you'll bring?

Yeah, I definitely learned a lot from Luca and Kellen two years ago about what it means to be a captain at U.S., especially in the hockey program. And I guess a little bit of tips and tricks from them. I was on the phone with Luca a couple of weeks ago just looking for some advice. And I think the best things I've learned so far, I've captained 11 games now, is that To have kids understand and listen to you, and want to play for you, not only for themselves, but play for you, you really have to understand who they are.

And that's like a thing that's off the ice. That starts completely off the ice. It's, I guess, earning their respect off the ice. So I've tried to be friends with everybody, take interest in their hobbies and in what they do outside of hockey so that when we're on the ice together, when they make a mistake, you know, I can go up to them and be like Yeah, thanks to the team.

Sure. All right. Go ahead. this is what you we have to do better like last game um we couldn't break the puck out of the zone they scored a goal we have to start breaking pucks out just as an example and and it's just that factor of like holding somebody accountable and then not thinking i'm just like yelling at them you know them understanding that it's my job to to hold everybody accountable but also that they can hold me accountable so i look to guys like mitch and gavin and you know i'm still a player as a captain and i think that's something that's really important to understand is when you're losing games you're just as a part of that as anybody else um and so when we scored zero goals against gilmore you know you lose one zero and you feel like you played a great game defensively because they only scored one goal and then you look around it's like why can't we score any goals it's like you know i need to score goals too so to have that sort of like self-accountability um and have everybody in the room see that i guess is just makes everybody respect you a little bit more and that i think that's where the leadership starts just just from respect um and then you take that on to the ice i said like trusting each other and i think once you've established that respect and that understanding that you know i could make a mistake but i know the kid behind me is gonna get a make up for it and when he makes a mistake i owe it to him to make it up um for what when he made up my mistake um you know things like that so i think those i guess are the slight things i've learned so far and you know obviously i have a bunch of games to go and i'm sure i'll learn a lot but um yeah something unique about you is that there's shifting gears a little here but you're a part of the glee club so when did you start playing for the glee club when did you first start singing because the glee club is the the singing group at us yeah i uh i played cello my whole life until i was about like in the seventh or eighth grade um and i had been singing for a while at that point i started in the high tops or i started i guess with ms matthews who was my fourth grade choir teacher um and she was the first person i ever really sung with and i think charlie you probably experienced that and then i moved through middle school with uh mr hollings who was the dean of students of the middle school and i was the dean of school and did his high tops choir um and then my mom's always been a great singer and my sister did choir so i was like you know i really like this i'm having a good time i'm meeting a lot of new people who i wouldn't meet normally like kids that i don't play sports with and things like that um so i got to spend time with them in middle school and then in high school it was it was kind of a no-brainer for me it was just something i really wanted to do so i started out in university singers with uh mr singer who actually left now um and then moved to the glee club in u.s acapella for the last three years so you know one of the things that jack and i constantly talk about right it's asked a lot on our podcast but what is your what like what drives and motivates people kind of through the happiest moments and even their worst what does that kind of motivation look for you yeah i think my motivation is really unrelated to like anything to do with sports or school it's just i feel like i've been given so much in my life like i live in a very nice home with two very successful parents well educated i go to u.s you know then i'm going to school in ohio and um i'm going to wake forest next year and it's like a very expensive university and i get the things that i want like it sounds snobby but it's true and um you know i recognize that and i have so much gratitude for it and i think my why is you know jfk and i think the quote's been tossed around he said uh to whom much is given much is expected um and i try to like embody that with just how much i've been given the opportunities i've been given that you know 99 of the world isn't given it's i think it's almost a duty for me to like uphold these things to try every new thing i can um to try in school to try in sports you know i owe it to to myself but i also owe it to everybody that's ever done anything for me so my parents my coaches that have been unbelievable mentors for my friends my teammates my family my sister all these things i've just had such a special life i feel like so far that it's i think that's my why is just to i guess kind of cash in on the gifts i've been given and really um kind of you know provide for the my kids i guess the same way my parents provided for me you know hopefully one day so yeah who are some of those teachers or mentors that at us that have helped shape you yeah there's definitely a few um first of all mr sarah obviously he's been my sponsor for the last two years after ms lawrence who's my sponsor freshman sophomore year left and then he's been an active member of the golf team for a couple years then became the head coach this year he definitely has had probably the biggest impact on me he's helped hold me accountable when my grades are slipping and um but he's also the first one to like help me with those sorts of things so i remember last year uh junior year spring you guys are about to go or i guess you guys are sophomores we'll go through it eventually it's it's really a pain because you have to take ap exams and finals and you start doing college process and all that and so he like crafted this whole study schedule for me um and when i was trying to get recruited for golf at the d3 level like he helped me reach out all the coaches he helped me take calls take visits whatever it needed to be and i think he just played such an active role in my interests that he had a huge impact on me and then obviously coach jerro as well is probably like one of the most motivational guys in the world um his speeches are quite legendary and you know can really make you want to go run through a wall for him um but he's also just a really nice guy he's another person who always asks me what i'm doing what i'm up to you know off the ice and then on the ice you know he's all business and we're all business that's all compete um but you know he's definitely not like that 24 7. you know you're a professional and you know you can't be a professional if you're not doing a lot of things and so we have this really interesting relationship and i've had a lot of conversations with him and i've learned a lot from him about leadership as well um these last couple years and then i say teacher-wise there's three teachers that really stick out to me they're all teachers in my junior year dr bonin uh mr brian perry and dr folds i think just understood who i was so much more than who i was as a student meaning like they had an interest in my personal life and what i was doing guy in the world. And so I'd be sitting there like first period on a Monday morning.

He's like grinning, smiling, probably up at five for a run and just so much energy in the room that it made it really fun to be there. And Dr. Bone and I had my sophomore and junior year and his class was like unbelievably interesting. There was never a day where I was bored.

I was always attentive. I never wanted to be anywhere else when I was in this class. And I'm extremely grateful that I had him for not only one, but two years. And then Mr.

Perry, I don't think I've ever had a teacher go to so many lengths to help me because I've never really been a big math guy. And I was put in his calc class, his AD calc class as a junior. And I definitely struggled. And especially at the beginning during the golf season where you miss so many days of school, I was like not doing well.

But he like reached out to me and I met with him outside of school a ton to study for the AP exam. I would go up to school on Sunday with a study and I would go to school on Sunday with a study and I would go to school on Sunday with a study and I would go to school on Sunday with a study and I would go to school on Sunday with a study group from like eight to 12 and he'd always be there. And he just took such an active role in that class. And I think that's why he had a huge impact on his teachers.

And I have all three of those teachers. Do you also? Yes, I do. I can attest they're amazing teachers and people.

You know, another thing we all share a common bond between is we're all McKinley House. What do you think the house system kind of really brings to U.S. and makes it so special? And what do you think could actually even be changed to make it even better? Yeah, so I've been in McKinley House since I came to U.S.

You know, I didn't make any changes. I love McKinley House. I love everything about it. Love the color blue, love the tradition and all the prefects.

And I still remember like when I was a little kid, you know, in the fourth or fifth grade coming up to the high school and hearing Mr. Lewis scream brain over brawn because we weren't doing too hot in Founders Day and just talking about like the value of brains. That's just kind of a funny thing I remember. But I think the house system is such a great way to integrate kids in the community extremely easy.

So like a new freshman and I guess new students, they're putting your house and those are almost the first people you meet. And so right away, you already have a bunch of people that you have a common bond with, like you said. And we have, you know, 30, 40 other kids in McKinley House that we also share that bond with. So I think right away, just at face value, the house system is a family at school.

And then obviously Founders Day and traditions like that and the House Cup is special. And those days are always unbelievably fun. But I think the house system could play such an active role at U.S. And it already does play, a pretty active role in just like having house meetings on Fridays, you know, house lunches, Founders Day, house like food drive and clothing drives like we just did for McKinley House.

I think they could play such an active role in keeping the community together in a sort of sense that like, although we compete against each other in Founders Day and like the House Cup and all that, it's just such a way to like value the history of U.S. And also like, you know, look towards the future. Like, you know, Roland McKinley is my, I'm in his house. Like, that's pretty cool to say, right?

And kids can say it for Newton Anderson and things like that. So it's just like upholding the values of people that made us where we are today. I think that's why it's really special. I have a very interesting question for you.

So you've been through countless dances in your time in high school. And so for anyone that needs advice on how to pick up a date to a school dance, what would you say? It depends on how well you know the person you're trying to go on a date with. But I would avoid the sign and the candy and the flowers.

I think that's a hot take. But I guess all my dates, I think I did a sign maybe one time. But I guess all my dates is people I guess took to prom and homecoming. I've just been, you know, over the phone.

But there was one time where I did a sign and had flowers. I did it in person and it was special. But, you know, I definitely sweated it out a little bit. It was a little nerve wracking.

But I'd say just be yourself. And I'd say, you know, I think it's a good thing to know the person first. You know, if it's someone you're being introduced to, I'd hang out with them a couple of times before you go to the dance, especially to prom, because prom is to like three in the morning and everybody's tired. So, you know, tensions are high and you're with that person for like eight hours.

So you really have to make sure that you know who they are and are friends with them. So yes, that's my biggest piece of advice is know the person first and then make sure you, you know, can spend eight hours with them and then, you know, shoot your shot. Well, you can. I mean, it's been a really, really good episode on here.

It's been really nice getting to know you better. To finish the episode off, if you could tell fourth grade younger Ethan Roberts or any kid in your position on the first day of school all that time ago, what would it be? I would tell little Ethan Roberts or a first kid to trust your abilities, to trust what you have, that you're here for a reason. You have a village of people that want to help you and behind you and to never really get scared or stressed when times get tough and just understand, you can do it.

I think a lot of times in my high school career, especially like maybe I'm studying for a big test and like, oh, I'm going to fail. Like there's no way I pass this test. But it, and then everything works out in the end. And I think that's a little bit of the advice I gave to the freshmen who are about to take midterms.

I was like, just, just trust yourself, trust who you are and, you know, kind of just do your thing, perform and, and things will go well. So. Wow. Thank you so much, Ethan.

Thank you for having me. With a great interview and so many great insights and stories. To our listeners, thank you so much for tuning in and we hope you'll join us next time. Join us next Wednesday for another episode of Late Start Show.

Thanks, Ethan. Thank you.