Transcript: Carter Loeser on Football, Entrepreneurship, and Building Community

Good morning and welcome back to the Late Start Show. We're here with senior football linebacker and student entrepreneur Carter Lozier. How are you today, Carter? I'm doing very well.

Thank you guys for having me, Jack, Charlie. That's great to have you on the show. Thanks for being on. Well, Carter, when did you first join the U.S. community and what's the story of how you ended up here at US?

So I came here as a freshman. I'm a Jarvis scholar. I mean, I loved my shadow days. I shadowed twice just to make sure that was the right fit.

I had a brother who went to Gilmore. But I mean, really, it was the community, the all boys aspect that really drew me. And that's why I think I came here. So yeah.

And for those that don't know, what is the Jarvis scholarship? How'd you earn it? And then I guess the follow up to that would be, does that scholarship kind of give you a sense of responsibility or pressure for you that you kind of have to live up to those expectations because of it? So the Jarvis Scholarship is awarded to incoming freshmen.

It's a four year fully funded scholarship given to 10 freshmen each year. I came here from St. Francis of Assisi just down the road, and I had a really great eighth grade year there. I was very involved in community and in service.

And when I came here, you know, I was really thinking like, man, did I peak in eighth grade? Which was a little scary, right? I had a lot of expectations to live up to, you know, mostly set on by myself. And I think being a Jarvis kind of fed into that in the sense that I felt like I had some other responsibility to be greater.

And while I think that an attitude like that can definitely be dangerous, thinking about like, you know, am I putting too much pressure on myself? But I think that pressure can also be a good thing. I think it's kind of shown me that I need to grow and to do more. You know, I coach basketball with my dad.

I've done theater here. I own my own business, right? I played football. Like, I feel like I've applied myself in so many different ways to get the most out of this experience.

So I think there's definitely pressures there. But at the same time, I think it can also inspire you to do more. You know, what was that transition like to U.S. academically and socially? Obviously, you know, I never had kind of transition, but a lot of kids I talked to, right, kind of talk about that tradition academically being a step up and socially, obviously, you're kind of a new place.

What was that larger move for you? Yeah, I mean, I really only knew three people here, you know, only one person in our class and then a couple of upperclassmen. And socially, I think it was definitely rough starting out. it's a very different environment going from a school where my graduating class was 22 kids and, you know, coming here where it's, you know, 100 kids to a class, you're making connections and bonds with upperclassmen as well. And I think playing a fall sport definitely helped, right?

Playing football, like you kind of get acclimated on day one, you know guys. And I think it really helps. But I would say academically, it was definitely a step up. I mean, U.S. is the number one ranked school for boys in the state for a reason.

But, you know, teachers help. Like it's the cliche answers, right? You can meet with teachers all the time. And it really is a smooth transition, especially because I feel like they give incoming freshmen like a lot of leeway. so yeah and we're going to try to get to all of those interests but first we're going to talk sports so you mentioned you joined football as a freshman what was it like jumping into u.s football as a ninth grader what was that transition up to high school football like so i was lucky enough to um in my like middle school years be on some really good football teams um specifically like my eighth grade year um we we really didn't lose we went undefeated up into um the like CYO championship.

And so it became different because I kind of found out what it was like to lose. And, you know, like our freshman team was good. And we had success, especially on the varsity, my first two years here, especially. But, you know, I had never really played any position besides offensive line, defensive line.

I was a fat little eighth grader. I hit my growth spurt pretty early. So I had to learn how to play linebacker, which was really fun. Like linebacker, I have enjoyed so much.

I'm very sad that I will really never get to play the position at any sort of organized level anymore. But for the experience that I had, I was so happy with it. So, you know, we kind of talk about the fact that you're not only involved with football and a lot of our students here are not only involved with one sport, but you're also involved with basketball. Yes.

You know, you played on the basketball team when you first came to U.S. and at some point you kind of made this unique change that not a lot of students here get to do and took a coaching role for the JV team. How did that opportunity come about and how have you kind of had fun with it? So my sophomore year, week two, I tore my ACL in my left knee, ACL meniscus sprained MCL. And I was planning on playing basketball, right?

I played freshman year. And I love the sport, right? I love being around it. I'd like to think I have a very analytical mind when it comes to it.

And when it comes to sports in general. And my dad has always coached. He coached me, you know, up until eighth grade, baseball, basketball, never football. But he was offered the JV job here.

And he was like, hey, you know, if I take this, you know, Carter just tore his ACL. He wants to be a part of the program. Could he come coach with me? And so that's how that kind of came to be.

And it was rough at first. You know, I was coaching guys that had been my teammates like the year prior You know I see these guys at my house on the weekend as my friends and I I gotta go coach him But I really feel especially in the last couple of years as if like you know it become less about maintaining a friendship and being a coach and more about being a coach and then building a friendship, right? Because I'm meeting a lot of these guys and getting to know them for like the first time. But yeah, that's really how I became a coach and I've loved it.

I've loved coaching more than I've ever loved playing. And I've always wondered about how challenging that would be to coach your peers that are just one to two years younger than you. Do you feel like you have to work to earn their respect in that role? Or do you feel like just through your mentorship and being able to relate to them, you can kind of do that naturally?

I would say it's a mix, you know, especially in the in the last two years. I feel like I have learned how to manage both seeing these guys at school and then at practice and kind of having to yell at them sometimes. And I feel like it helps when I've got a group of all sophomores and one freshman this year who look up to me as an upperclassman and as a coach. I feel like my respect is earned based on the amount of time that I put in.

I show up for these guys. I watch film. I do whatever I can. I stay after practice to make sure that these guys are getting like all the extra work and the help that they need.

You know, and I'm, I like to think I'm the calming voice out of the coaching duo between me and my dad. And so I think I've earned their respect. At least I hope. And I hope that's what that, you know, they'd say.

So, you know, outside of sports, you decided to push yourself in a completely different way and kind of theater, right? Yeah. What made you decide to audition for a school play? How has that kind of played your high school career?

And what do you just love about it? Yeah, so I have only ever been able to do theater my sophomore year, but I loved it. I'm planning on doing the spring musical. I started doing theater when I was, I think, in sixth grade.

It's always kind of called to me. At least just like, you know, you can kind of step into the shoes of somebody else, you know get to know people uh not just you know through who they present themselves to be but who they like become um in theater and i think it's a really special experience like as much as i like enjoy practicing for you know football or helping out with practices for basketball like nothing as far as practicing wise has ever been as fun to me as rehearsing for a play or a musical so yeah and then another big chapter of your story at us is your entrepreneurial venture of good for you smoothies and then not so good for you milkshakes you even landed a feature in the cleveland magazine which is congratulations you guys do your research yeah we do some background research so where did that idea come to start selling smoothies at school and how has it grown over time so um i'm an anderson scholar in entrepreneurship it's a phenomenal program I don't know if you guys are a part of it. We're the Burns Scholars. Okay, Burns Scholars, yeah.

And so one of the requirements is to create a micro business that generates $1,000 in revenue. And I think I was talking with my mom like after school one day and I was like, man, you know, I really wish there was a way that, you know, before practice, if I forget to pack a snack or whatever, like, you know, especially on Mondays and Fridays because the USP doesn't sell those days. like man like I really wish I could I could go get like a smoothie at like smoothie king or something and my mom was like why don't you start selling smoothies and so I took the initiative I went and I got the approval from everybody that I needed to and it really started off as a way for you know people to you know kind of gas and go before practice or lifts or whatever and it's transformed especially the milkshakes milkshakes are a fan favorite I'm selling them today um and you know it's all about finding what people want find what people like taking all of it into consideration like when people come to come to me with feedback i always take it into consideration like i love when people are telling me what i'm doing right and what i'm doing wrong you know there's flavors i should be adding um you know just changes in like recipes and and things like that um so that's that's kind of the story of that you know what was that reaction like from classmates and teachers when you first started selling it and obviously you talked about kind of getting that feedback and growing but what was just kind of the overwhelming idea when you first started doing it and how has it grown from just that idea that you had with your mom to a business that everybody says good for you oh yeah um you know i i think i've done a really good job and i i also think that it kind of hurts me um to an extent of combining both my professional life and my personal life as far as smoothies go you know like I'll be like walking down the hall and say smoothie boy I'll throw you know the good for you it's like you know I'm really happy that people recognize me for my business although I will say it does get a little annoying when I'm in the weight room and I get called smoothie boy three times in a row by three separate people but you know I really think that the people are the most important part of it you know they'll be the kids that get off the bus from the lower school that'll come up and they'll always come buy a milkshake and, you know, getting to watch them like smile as they drink their milkshakes. And usually their mom will pay for it. But, you know, it's, it's, it's really nice to see that, that kind of human connection that I'm able to build through just something as simple as, as my business, you know, the, the, the you I throw up, you know, it's something that like kind of everybody can do like people that I really don't know, like that I've never talked to before, will throw it up in me.

And now we have, you know, a sort of connection there just instantly. So I do think it's a really special thing to have. And we've talked a lot about the success that you've had over all of the things that you've done, but I'm sure there have been some setbacks that maybe people don see So has there been maybe a time when you on your smoothie business and the blender breaks something is wrong or sports you know you talked about your injury or something that went wrong a failure that you really had to grow from and it made you better yeah um this is a a story that i love to tell because it was it was right before winter break last year and i'm getting my smoothie stuff prepared i'm i'm making a few up i got out of class a couple minutes early and i opened my doors and i start blending a smoothie and it was i i'd started off with my parents vitamix and it was like a um like a ninja blender and this ninja blender i i think they got it as like a wedding gift right i mean the thing is like 20 years old and i start blending and it's not blending so i i'd like take the top off my milk and try to stir it up a little bit and it's not blending and i keep it on for like a couple seconds too long and I just start like black smoke to start coming off of it and like I like unplug it I take it off and like the bottom just like shoots off like the thing exploded like while I'm trying to prepare for my smoothies um and so I had to scramble right I only I have one blender um and there is a line of people like waiting for me to start making smoothies so I very calmly explain everybody hey there's probably going to be a backlog um I'm going to get through my pre-order guys first. If it's going to be too much of a wait, especially like the speech and debate guys from favorite practice to go to, I wouldn't recommend, you know, waiting around.

Um, but a lot of people stayed and I, I think it's, you know, pretty telling that, you know, people enjoy the product that I make and they're willing to wait for it. But it also kind of taught me how to, how to think on the fly, right. I had, uh, you know, only use one blender for the duration of the day. Um, which really is not fun, especially when, you know, there's, there's 30 guys waiting for you to make a smoothie.

But just the resilience and I guess the creativity that it taught me how to use, that's something that will never leave me. Like, I think it's a funny story to tell, but it's also such a great lesson for me to share. You know, as a senior, you'll be leaving US soon. So what's the plan for good for you when you graduate?

Do you tend to kind of pass the torch on to someone else at school or will the smoothie stand closed and stay that way when you leave? So right now the frontrunners to take over the business are sophomores, Challen, Bell, and Toby Drake. They've been helping me out this year. I've been kind of teaching them how to run the business, everything that goes into it.

And they've taken it really seriously. They've done such a great job this year. I feel very confident in the future of Good For You Smoothies. Glad to hear it's going to keep going.

Talking again about all the stats, you've worn scholar, athlete, actor, entrepreneur. How have you managed to excel in all those different areas? Because I would imagine that kind of when you spend more time on one, another drops off. But how have you managed to kind of keep all of those up as you go?

I'm somebody who very much thrives off of having something to do, right? You know, I think back to the springs where I haven't done an extracurricular. And I think back to the times when I've kind of overloaded myself. and I think I'm really good with managing what I have going on, right? Taking advantage of the free blocks, the second lunches, the extra time I get at home to make sure that all my bases are covered and just trying to stay proactive with, you know, my teachers and my classes and my homework.

I think back to sophomore year, right? I tore my ACL for football. Ms. Pribble had very graciously let me be a part of the show, even though I was doing my rehearsals on Crushes.

And I was selling smoothies. It was like the start of the business. I had just started coaching and I decided to join Speech and Debate. So I've got all these things going on at once.

And I remember one day I sold smoothies and then I had speech and then I went to basketball and then I went to rehearsal. All in the span of one day. and I got home at like eight o'clock and I was exhausted. So I emailed my teachers. I'm like, hey, I've had probably the busiest day of my life.

Is there any way I can get an extension? Thank you, Dr. Yoder. And yeah, I mean, they were all great about it.

I was able to make up everything that I was, you know, kind of missing. And it made me realize that sometimes you can't do everything. I ended up dropping speech and debate sophomore year. And it was just that kind of extra thing to take off your plate in order to make sure that all of your other bases are covered.

You know, looking ahead, obviously you're in the senior year, so you're looking at colleges, kind of in that process. What do you kind of want to study in college, and are you leaning towards any particular colleges or majors at this point? So, I'd like to think I'm good at business, economics, finance, that type of thing. So that's what I'm really looking to go into.

I've been looking at schools with good business programs. um you know front runners right now are ohio state vanderbilt unc uh but it all depends on where i get into you know just kind of wait and see um because you know every like nothing's guaranteed especially with far reaches you know unc and vanderbilt especially like those out of state especially are impossibly into um but we'll see i've got a lot of safeties on my or foundationals on my list um i do wish i i would have stayed a bit more on top of it throughout because I'm finding now that while it's not unmanageable, I do have to catch up a little bit, but it shouldn't be too bad. So I'm sure you'll excel wherever you end up. And part of that is because I'm sure you asked and all those experiences have prepared you for that next step. Are there any particular experiences or lessons from here that you think will help you succeed at college in a different environment?

Um, you know, I would say, especially here, the connections that we make, not only with alumni, but also with the people that we surround ourselves with. Like, I just think that the quality of the student here is just so much higher. Like, I believe I've found friends for life. And so as far as lessons I learned as I mentioned before resilience and creativity through the times when you get swamped with work and you got to figure out a way to get through it on your own But more so I believe that people are the best thing to take away from here.

You know, obviously, football, I personally believe, shows us the best. But U.S. often emphasizes that brotherhood and really community. Can you talk about a moment when you felt that brotherhood at U.S.? And how has that shaped the way that you just kind of look at this class? yeah I mean I I think you said it best like football is is in my opinion football mirrors life so well um you know you've got the good days and the bad the days where there's so much work to be put in and the days where you reap the rewards of the work that you put in you know the 6 a.m lifts and then the victory Saturdays after you know a hard-fought win um I I just I I believe that the brotherhood of a football team mirrors how we form relationships, especially through hardship in life.

And now going to your family, because I mean, you've talked about your mom with the business, coaching with your dad, and then your brother at Gilmore. So how have your parents and siblings influenced your journey here over these four years? Yeah, my family's been nothing but supportive to me. I mean, everything that I've wanted to do, they've made sure that they are doing whatever they can to make sure that it's possible.

Right. My parents are nothing but supportive, especially when it comes to my business. You know, they they help me grocery shop. You know, I use their Costco membership to buy all my stuff.

And, you know, like just the fact that they've let me grow and be my own person, right? They've never forced anything onto me, right? They've never said, hey, you have to go play football. You have to start a business.

I've done these things on my own accord. And moreover, they've supported me through it. They've made sure that everything I do, I can do to the best of my ability. So, you know, high school years can really shape a person.

So how do you think Carlos here today is different from Carlos as a freshman and what would you tell yourself looking back back then man i i i believe that if you can't look back on yourself one two three four years ago however long and and not cringe a little bit you've done something really wrong right we always are constantly growing as people right and i i believe that i am a collage of the experiences and people that have shaped me and i didn't know the same people now that I, you know, like, I didn't know the same people freshman year that I know now. And not only that, the people that I didn't know freshman year have also grown and changed. And especially being now a senior, the average maturity of everybody in our senior class has just gone up so much. And I think it's really special to see.

And if I could give any advice to myself freshman year, you know, I would say just got to be a bit more confident. You know, I really think I've grown in confidence, especially. So you've looked back and now looking forward, years from now, what do you hope people at U.S. remember about Carter Lozier, kind of that legacy piece? And then do you see yourself staying connected to U.S. down the road?

You know, I would love to see Good For You smoothies continue on well past, you know, my tenure or the people that are taking it over after I'm gone. And I would love to have that be part of the legacy I leave behind. I'm already a donor. You know, I try to give back to the community in any way I can.

And I've been donating the proceeds, at least partially, the proceeds of Good For You Smoothies back to this school on Give Day, which is just something that, you know, I really don't talk about a ton. But I just think it's a really nice way to be able to give back to me, to the community that's given so much to me. So, you know, I hope that the legacy I leave behind is not just, you know, through my business and through any donations that I give, but also through the quality of my character. I hope that, you know, there will be moments in classes when teachers look back and they say, hey, you know, man, Carter Lozier was awesome at this.

And, And, you know, we hear stories in classes where teachers will say, oh, it's the so-and-so rule because so-and-so used to always do this. So, you know, I really hope that I'll have a moment like that with a teacher that, you know, can kind of carry on my legacy. You know, Carter, you've accomplished so much here from academics, sports, arts, and so many more. When things kind of get tough, when those early mornings, when you're trying to make those smoothies like so much last second, what is it that keeps you going?

So in other words, what is your why? What is my why? I mentioned it before, but the connections that you make with people are so important. You know, what is life without other people?

Humans are naturally social beings. And we do so much of what we do for the people around us. And, you know, I really think that, you know, my parents have done such an incredible job getting me to the position that I'm in. And to do anything else but give my best effort would be a disservice to them.

There are so many of my friends in my life who are constantly cheering for my success. And again, to do anything else but succeed would be a disservice to the people that are always supporting me. So I would say the people around me are really what drive me to be great because it takes a village to help raise people and um i'm i'm very glad with the people that i surround myself with well carter it's been great having you thank you guys so much for having me i i really enjoyed this you know thank you so much for taking the time to share your thoughts experiences and stories with us to our listeners thank you so much for tuning in and we'll hopefully join us next wednesday for another episode of late search oh thank you carter thank you guys