Transcript: Tristan Jackson on Football, Entrepreneurship, and Building His Legacy at U.S.

And welcome back to the Late Start Show with me, Charlie Martin. And me, Jack Nelson. We once again hope you're enjoying your nice break from waking up at the crack of dawn. And for the new people listening in after we officially announced the first episode on Monday, thank you.

And hopefully we can give you something good to listen to on your morning coming into school. Every week we interview one student or teacher about their experiences and maybe some of their hot takes about a wide range of topics around U.S. and more. But before we get to those great interviews, let's first spend some time going over what this week has to offer. Let's get to our sports section.

First, with soccer, the team dropped their game last week against Twinsburg 1-0. That leads them to an overall record of 7-3-1, and they are ranked 29th statewide. The team plays Walsh-Jesuit on Tuesday at home. And as this is recorded, the first morning before the game, we will go into our first ever prediction section.

You know, I personally believe they will play a win against Walsh. They haven't played against them. They've been almost 700 days, last losing to them 2-1 on October 29th, 2022. I really believe that the team pulling a win out from this and giving momentum for the rest of the year.

I agree. Walsh has a record of 6-2-2 right now and has put up some equal scorelines to opponents we have also faced, such as St. John's, Jesuit, and Riverside. Hopefully they can win against Walsh and also win against North Ridgeville this Saturday and at home on Tuesday against Archbishop Hoban.

Next in football. We lost to Akron East. We lost 3-7-9 with a big week upon us as we head out to hopefully pick up the biggest game of the year against rival Gilmore at their house down the street. Last time we lost in football to them was almost 1,100 days ago in 2021.

We look to continue our long streak of victory against them and hopefully propel the rest of the season into success. Next we go to golf, where they won first place out of eight teams at the St. Ed's Invitational, getting some much-needed revenge. The team is looking as dominant as ever, looking to pick up only another high.

Next we go to golf, where they won first place out of eight teams at the St. Ed's Invitational, getting some much-needed revenge. Next we go to golf, where they won first place out of eight teams at the St. Ed's Invitational, getting some much-needed revenge.

We look to continue our long streak of victory against them and hopefully propel the rest of the season into success. Next we go to golf, where they won first place out of eight teams at the St. Ed's Invitational, getting some much-needed revenge. The team is placing at next week's tournament at Quail Hollow for the D1 sectional tournament.

Hopefully the team brings home a trophy with this good push into the playoffs. With that, we finally go into cross country, where they went to the Strong Seal Vertical Runner Invitational. And Ethan Antsman led the pack in the 5,000 meter run with 54th place with a time of 17 minutes and 19 seconds. Just following seconds behind him, Quinn McPhail, Alex Schott, Brandon Coley, and Thomas Ledowski.

The team looks to next Saturday where they will compete at the You Want to Come Back Invitational at Madison High School. Good luck to them. Now, some of the biggest news around the school. This past week, reigning Founders Day champs Goodwillie House took to the fields to defend their title and fell short, earning a sad 10th place.

In the end, Crookshank House was the one that could lift the Founders Day Cup. Next, looking at our week's senior speeches, we had great speeches from Josh Belcher and Johnny Fideli. And we look forward to more great speeches from Adam Sands, Tristan Jackson, a.k.a. T-Money, and Phillip Colvin.

Well, guys, that's enough from us about this week. And coming up soon is an interview from probably one of the most recognizable coaches in U.S. history, Coach Alvarez. He sat down with us to speak about topics such as how Coach Alvarez arrived at U.S., his proven formula for success, his drive to building a winning culture, and his must-hear advice for students around U.S. All right, let's jump into it, y'all.

Coach Alvarez, up next. We are here with Coach Carlo Alvarez, the head strength and conditioning coach for U.S. Coach, how are you? I am doing great.

Thanks for having me. Truly an honor, boys. Truly an honor. Great to have you.

So you're here at university school now, but this is just the latest destination on your long and impressive journey. I've always wondered how you ended up at this school. Can you tell us about your path to this point? So I started...

I started actually 30 years ago, right? This is my 30th year in the game. I started as actually a student assistant volunteer at Summit Country High School in Cincinnati as a sophomore in college. Then from there, I got an opportunity to start this program at St.

Xavier High School that same sophomore year. So I was at St. X sophomore, junior, senior year. My junior year, I got an opportunity to get an internship under Coach Marotti at Cincinnati, who's currently at Ohio State.

I did that. Until I graduated, senior year, I got invited to join Notre Dame. Coach Marotti headed there, so he took me with him. Spent two years at Notre Dame, then got hired as the first Latin American strength and conditioning coordinator in MLB by the Indians.

Left the Indians, headed to the Cincinnati Reds in charge of major league, minor league strength and conditioning. Left the Cincinnati Reds, jumped ship, went back to the high school level to St. X. Spent nine years at St.

X. And then I jumped back to the pros and became the head of sports performance for the Pittsburgh Pirates. And after a few years, you know, young family out of town, 50, 60 days at a time, it was time to kind of come back. My wife is from Cleveland, so we had an opportunity to move back.

I loved high school. I was lucky enough to have this school open up. And I've been here ever since. And it's been an amazing challenge.

And, you know, it's... It's great work, great kids, great institution. Amazing. So that's how I'm here.

Wow, that's... I mean, that's really impressive, just place to place. I mean, you, like... What we kind of wanted to understand about you was not only you as, like, a strength coach, but even further, you as a person.

Because I feel like that picture's never really shown. I mean, you've certainly had, like, a really extensive career as, like, a coach and an influence not only on, like, St. X's and all these different places, but on U.S. already. What do you find most rewarding about helping athletes?

What do you find most rewarding about helping athletes reach their full potential as people and in sports? Well, I think my personality, first and foremost, is to serve. I feel like I'm a servant leader. My mom was, like, that kind, sweet, warm-hearted.

You know, so I've always felt like a need to help others. And as a young kid, I remember being 16 and having an epiphany where I'm like, I need to work in sports. I don't know what I'll do with my life if I don't work in sports. But it's, like, the only thing I found passion in.

So as I came along, when you work in coaching or teaching... You get humbled a lot. You know what I'm saying? Like, you pick up the trash, right?

Like, you rub the pads. You pick up the puke. Strength and conditioning is the trenches, right? It's the trenches.

So you learn to be humble as you come in through the field, right? And you meet coaches and you meet mentors and you learn what you want to do and you learn what you don't want to become. And every level is different. But personality-wise, and you guys have heard me say this all the time, I think at this point, you just don't know what people's stories are.

So as a coach, win or lose, my job is to make sure that you guys are front and center on my mind every day as to how do we reach our full potential. You get what I'm saying? So it's just been one of those things where I know the power of a good morning. I understand the power of a smile.

I don't know your story, so I'm not going to judge you. I'm empathetic because, you know, as a strength coach, you struggle. And it's like a tough gig. And it's not recognized.

And so I know every day when I walk in, and I've said this to you guys, I bring my own energy. And having a kid go through this school, I know how challenging it is mentally and physically to be a student athlete. So I'm aware that, you know what, sometimes you guys just need guardrails. Sometimes you need a pat in the back.

Sometimes you need a click in the butt. Like, that's just part of growing up. So I feel like having been an athlete, having been in this world of sports for so long, being consulting with big companies, I think you learn that at the end of the day, we do this for you guys, right? Like, as a coach, it's not about wins and losses.

I already got my 20 state titles at this level. And I tell you guys this all the time. It's not about the wins anymore for me. It's about showing you guys the path to get there.

So that's why I feel like my role here is clear, right? I'm a strength coach. I love it. And it's to help you guys get to the next level, right?

Help you find your path to mastery. So. So I'm intentional. I'm confrontational, right?

Like, whatever it takes to get you right. And I love it. And that's why I kind of am here at U.S. Like, there's no need to go anywhere else at the moment.

And I can say as a student athlete myself, like, going through school, it's always hard. You're always looking to the next thing, what you need to do, that next test. But then just going to the weight room at the end of the day, it's definitely something. You can just put everything else aside and focus on getting better in that moment.

So it's definitely something that's helped me. And is that satisfaction of helping those people reach their potential the only factor that's led to your success? Because personally, I believe there are many factors that go into an individual success and passion for what they do, right? Are there other things that drive you to be better daily and push athletes past their limits?

Well, I think, you know, being pushed and being motivated and inspired are all keys to success, right? Sometimes you need that. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

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Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Someone told me, and I won't say the team, but my junior year at college, I went like on, everybody went on spring break.

I decided to go on a 17 school trip, rented a car, had 200 bucks in my pocket, and I did a recorder. And, you know, in one of those visits, I visit a pro team and they're like, what are you studying? And I said, oh, I'm studying health promotion, exercise science. He's like, oh, you could be a teacher.

And I said, yeah, I could be. And he said, listen, there's only 30 of us in the world. go be a PE teacher I said bet and I had that chip on my shoulder ever since right so I knew ambitiously I was going to be a head guy at the pro level right that was just like there's no way you're going to tell me otherwise and it happened two years actually three years after college right so that chip on the shoulder led me to create goals and objectives and go visit other dudes and just take it upon myself to say you ain't stopping me so that's been me and you guys see it I never stop I know what it takes to win and I'm going to push every single one of you to get there so knowing what it takes to win I think drives me to help other people because it's hard to win a state championship in this state in any state especially division one right like so you always have a chip on your shoulder right so that at least that's for me like wherever I go I want to go out there and make sure that you know we dominate so that takes a lot of hard work so I think that's kind of what drives me like helping you guys succeed but then seeing you raise that trophy at the end of the year and see how hard it was and celebrate it together you know one of the things I think is really interesting is that like dominance like how you like have to instill that almost into everybody you know during the 630 football workouts that this summer I constantly didn't get enough sleep and would yawn right and you would always tell me to do 10 push-ups and you know at first I always thought to myself oh this isn't going to make me disciplined or anything and it's just going to make me more grumpy at six in the morning but you quickly realize the importance of the small little things that lead up to that huge culture of just excellence dominance you worked at many different places with many different athletes what's the culture you hope to build at these schools to make them successful well I think the most important thing when you're building a culture is to understand that you're not just building a culture you're building a culture you're building a culture and that culture is just caring about your people there's no secret to that you know what I'm saying like people talk about culture and it's all it's all no take care of you take care of you if we can show that we have your best interest in mind and my why is that getting your path to mastery helping you get there so for me that's the most important thing right how you build culture take care of your people in young athletes as in well in college a professional there has to be a standard we don't yawn we don't sit we don't lean on equipment right our push-ups good yes so we're yawning yawning is good so it's not like it's a punishment per se but it's like listen lock in we got 45 minutes no yawning no sitting get to work so really it's those little things just build the standard and I've had kids 20 years later be like and I still yawn and look behind my shoulder for you so it kind of stays ingrained in you but those are just little things that we try to make sure that you can build the standard every day and then within that right we talk about it if you do hard things every day the reward of that is you learn to do hard things that's who you become so for us it's just that if we consistently build and push the standard forward with just the little things quality rep no yawning wiped on the equipment take pride in your room that builds a culture of understanding of pride in what we do and how we're going to go about our business right we want to be the less selfish team so less selfish player on the field like. it's always about us right. others right and that's why i always tell you guys man we gotta love each other if we want to be winners because on hard times you have to lean on others so really it's nothing other than taking care of you guys we don't judge we show empathy right we're patient because that's what you need nothing more than that's what the youth need today someone to be there and like just be there and that translates into life like i'm slumping in my chair in class well i better pick it up and sit up straight focus in for class so just the little things that we practice in the weight room just how you do one thing is how you do everything that's correct yeah it's a good lesson all right so you have a lot of quotes a lot of sayings but one of my favorites is every stud program has a stud strength coach i love it this quote from you proves that you know your value and you have confidence in the job that you do as you should but where do you find your confidence every day because i think that's something that a lot of people struggle with but you struggle with where do you find that again what you see is what you get with me there's no faking what i am right like and sometimes that upsets people sometimes that intimidates people but for me it's like if i bring my energy every day it's not about other people's energy and i say this to you guys all the time bring who you want to be every single day that's good enough right and that's just who i am i don't know if that i guess people perceive it as confidence uh but i just know what i want every day and i know your parents and i know what you struggle with and i see your grades and i see your demerits like i see you right so at some point it's like well how am i going to connect with you today right i saw you lift 315 in season the other day in the weight room right or off season you got to celebrate that same thing with you charlie right you got to bump fingers you're hurt you still show up and you grind it so really it's just it's not a problem it's not a problem it's not a problem it's not a problem it's not a confidence thing it's like i care about every single one of my dudes so i'm just coming at you as i am like energetic i got you know i'm taking care of you what do we need to do because that's how i would bring my day i bring my energy i don't let other people dictate how i bring my day so i guess that relates as confidence do you have a certain influence in life that is like or someone or something that has really influenced the way you work and the way you strive to be every day i think my family right like i think i see how hard my wife works i see how hard my kids work i see you know so for me being in a place that inspire me in part inspires me and motivates me every day to be my best that's enough right you journal and we've talked about this right you show gratitude right you do the little things marginal gain everything every day because you don't have to eat the elephant in one bite right like it's this is long term you're here four years so you have to find every year every day something to inspire and motivate you for me waking up in the morning and seeing my family that to me is like i know what i'm doing here you walk into the school and you hear go to assembly and you hear a senior speech and you're like that's why i'm here so how you go about your day again that's what motivates me every day because you look around us and there's greatness everywhere teachers faculty staff facilities new like food service so it's just finding out you know something that you can be passionate about whatever that might be and that will give you the food you need every day but you have to come correct every day right you have to know who you are you know walk into the interview we had a we talked about the idea of how privileged like we are to i mean even have like a podcast room by itself i mean that's like a huge privilege is there something like i know we we have so many facilities already is there something that you really think would just push u.s sports to the next level like can you give us some maybe see one factor that would really that you really think would lead u.s to just having success in every single sports state champions i believe so you know and those are questions that are asked often in high academic institutions right like can we do high high academic and high high sports success competitive excellence and i believe that it's that and i say this all the time this is not an either or proposition we could do both notre dame we did say next we did it u.s we're doing it so i don't think there's one thing we need to do i think and i've had these conversations with komal basa i think what we're doing infrastructure wise good trainers good strength and conditioning the nutrition the hydration right the support from the athletic department the support from the administration and the alumni that's the foundation and resources aren't an issue if we play with our resources correctly so there's not one thing i feel like to really support athletics and sports at a highest level it's about support elevating performance programs or organizations normally it starts with personnel right facilities learning outcomes and then you got to get the talent right so i wouldn't say there's one thing we need to do i think we're slowly working through what we need to accomplish and then putting the pieces together but building success is not easy it takes time it takes patience right it takes communication it takes cohesiveness so with anything i would say you know we have small pieces we got to become more cohesive right we got to get better every day as coaches as players as so yeah not one thing i think we're slowly been building over the last six years but again what you guys are doing is great as coaches we got to coach more and as administrators we have to support more and then you add the community to that and it just becomes a winning formula i mean to that point what's one of the most impressive things you've seen like around here like one of the most impressive things you've seen around here is that you're not just building those where like everything is working like everything we have worked upon the season has just does it have to be sports are going to be academics i mean really i love the sponsor system i think that is one of the things that has impressed me most about the school is the ability for as a parent sometimes you worry that you don't know what your kid is doing but then you sit down with your advisor and you're like everything's okay so to me that as a parent and as a staff member and faculty at times i feel like the sponsor system is the thing that's impressed me the most it's a big week got a big game on friday against the team up the street what do you think the power of that rivalry is what's your favorite part of that rivalry i think we have a road right so i'm center road i think there's always you know and i've lived that before because i had at stx we had colerain on north bend road right so those are healthy rivalries i think at the at the end of the day i've seen my daughter going to gilmore i've been able to see the enthusiasm they have this year um you know and we see it from our end where we've been on a streak uh but to me it's going to be healthy competition i love that it's become a rivalry just for the sense that it's something we can look up to every year on the calendar and strive for success on that but to me again down the road healthy rivalry it'll be physical right they have an amazing team as well they should do well this season but again it's team up the street so it's time to rock and roll i mean we can keep that two-year streak which would be which would be going great well we're coming close to time but this has been a great interview with one of the greatest coaches to do it uh coach it would be great if you could finish the episode off quickly by giving the people listening one of your favorite quotes or words of motivation you've heard through your years in sports i think when i use a lot is no excuses no explanations right excuses are 90% of the time i'm not going to be able to do it 99% true 100% unacceptable around here so i love that one wow no excuses no explanations i just show up do the work can't show up it's fine i trust all my guys so for me that's a big one for us to understand that you guys are pragmatic there's a lot on your plates in the weight room it's a small piece of your total development if i can get a little bit of your time great if not i get it there's no exclusives well that was a great interview with coach alvarez thank you so much for taking the time out of your time and i hope you have a great rest of your day and i'll see you in the next episode of late start show thank you coach pleasure guys