BE A BALLER -"Building a lifelong legacy"
Welcome to Be A Baller, where we're building a lifelong legacy for our families, communities, and the world! I'm your host, Coach Tim Brown, and I'm excited to for you join me on this journey.
On this show, we'll be talking about how to be intentional about building a lasting legacy. We'll be exploring what it means to leave a mark that goes beyond just our own lives, but has a positive impact on those around us and even generations to come.
Our guests will be individuals who have built a legacy in various fields – ministry, business, sports, and community service. And what's unique about our guests is that they're committed to the Wisdom Pledge. That means they're not just sharing their own stories and experiences with us, but they're also paying forward and sharing wisdom to empower the next generation.
So if you're looking for inspiration, guidance, and practical tips on how to build a lasting legacy that makes a difference, then you're in the right place!
So grab your earbuds, get comfortable, and let's dive in!
BE A BALLER -"Building a lifelong legacy"
Coach Stan Jackson, The Real Game Lessons on Accountability
Send us a comment about the Be a Baller Podcast Episode. Thanks for support.
Coach Stan Jackson, who has a wealth of experience both playing for Ohio State and now coaching at Westerville North HS, emphasizes that the values learned in sports—that accountability, hard work, and competition—carry over into every aspect of life. Coach Stan Jackson shares his journey through sports, weaving in practical wisdom that every athlete and parent should hear. He openly discusses the pitfalls of "Daddy Ball" and highlights how crucial it is for young athletes to earn their positions through genuine competition.
He draws on poignant experiences as a player and a father, reflecting on how he juggles responsibilities as a coach while ensuring his children are held to the same standards he expects from his players. Jackson encourages listeners to foster a culture where children understand the significance of hard work and commitment, rather than relying on favoritism. As youth athletes navigate the changing landscape of sports, especially in today’s competitive environment of scholarships and recruitment, he stresses proactive approaches parents should take.
Tune in for insightful stories and advice that provide a blueprint for building character and competence in young athletes. With Coach Jackson's commitment to mentoring, he inspires future generations to become warriors in life and sport. Join us, and if you find value in what you hear, share your thoughts, subscribe and leave a review!
Daddy ball doesn't work. It doesn't help your son or your daughter Make them earn it. The more you put them in a position that they don't have to earn it, it just makes it harder at the next level. If the first time your son or daughter has to compete for a position is in high school or in college, how are they going to know what they need to do if you didn't make them compete early? That's one of the biggest errors I see in parents. But be hard on them. I'm hard on my boys. I hold them accountable to a high standard. A lot of times people don't understand that. That's the other thing I would say Don't worry about the outside noise. Don't worry about the outside noise and don't set outcomes that are unrealistic.
Speaker 3:Welcome to Be A Baller podcast. I'm your host, coach Tim Brown. Today we have an amazing guest joining us today, osu great Stan Jackson and current head football coach at Westerville North High School. Stan has a wealth of experience through sports, being a player, team owner and a mentor to student athletes. Stan, welcome to the show.
Speaker 1:Thanks for having me. I feel like you're slumming a little bit. I know some of the last guests you had are pretty high-ranking in this community, so I feel privileged to be amongst that group.
Speaker 3:You are, you're in there. You're in there. You made the cut, you made the cut.
Speaker 1:That's good news.
Speaker 1:I know it's a little different for you now being on that side of it because usually your experience in broadcasting with the big 10 network and 10, 10, all that kind of stuff, what, what did you take from that, from that experience? Yeah, that was a fascinating experience. Um, because what I've gathered is that most people that are in the industry didn't play and their perspective is a lot different. Okay, they don't really understand the athlete, honestly. Honestly and it was frustrating at times to hear some of the things that they were saying about athletes knowing what it took to get there, like this concept of a bust, a pro bust. I don't believe in that concept, but that's used quite often in broadcast, especially sports broadcasting, and I think if people understood what it took to get to that position, to be drafted in the top 10 of any sports league, they wouldn't use that language Because you know, obviously there's a lot of things that have to take place for you to have success at that level and there's a lot of things that can derail it.
Speaker 1:I think about our guy, greg Oden, who was taken number one in that same draft. Kevin Durant was taken. So a lot of people look back at that and say, well, it was a poor decision by Portland and Greg was a bust. Well, greg had injuries that derailed him. So for me it's just understanding that most of the people in the industry didn't really understand the athlete was fascinating, but other than that I had a lot of fun. It's just a lot of fun staying around the sport, being around the athletes and traveling the Big Ten countries, seeing all the stadiums. I mean it was pretty fun, right, right.
Speaker 3:Speaking of that, let's go back to growing up in Patterson, New Jersey.
Speaker 1:Oh, way back yeah.
Speaker 3:Did you always—was football always your game? Was football always your sport?
Speaker 1:No, no, it wasn't. My father is a baseball enthusiast. Oh, wow. Baseball was the first sport my brother and I played and I loved the game, but it got boring at one point. You know, football the action of football always, you know, kept you attentive as a player, so to speak. But baseball you play in the outfield. Sometimes you're sitting there, you're waiting, you never got a ball hit to you. You play third base. You never get a ball hit to you. So it got boring. I regret that. I do regret that, but baseball was my first love.
Speaker 1:But I always knew that I was good at football. I played the big three American sports, as I call it baseball, basketball and football, and we had a really good basketball team. I played with some really good players. I actually got a trivia question for you. I may be the only guy in the country that has played basketball and football with top ten picks. Wow, very few people would say that. Maybe Julian Peppers, who played at North Carolina, okay, okay, but Tim Thomas. Tim Thomas was one of my high school teammates. He was drafted top 10 and played at Villanova and then, obviously, playing at Ohio State and played with a lot of top 10 draft picks. Sean Springers was my roommate, so yeah, but I knew at some point that football would be the ticket to get me out of Patterson, new Jersey, and that was always the goal.
Speaker 3:You grew up with your older brother, were you guys pretty competitive.
Speaker 1:Very. He's the reason why I played at Ohio State. He also played quarterback. He played at Bethune-Cookman oh nice.
Speaker 1:And really probably should have played at a better school. He was a better quarterback than me. I was a little better athlete, a little taller, a little faster, but he tore his knee I believe the sixth game of his senior season, and back then in 1989, when you tore your ACL, that was a big deal. A lot of people didn't think you would play again, but at the time he had almost 2,000 yards pass and he was more of a passer and so that bumped him down to play at Bethune-Cookman. So his experience at Division I is a little different than mine, but he would come back every summer and we would work at the quarterback position, and so that really had a big impact on my ability to play the position at the high school level, to get an offer at a place like Ohio State.
Speaker 3:You know, speaking about basketball, there's a story about when the Ohio State recruiter came to watch you play. Oh yeah, he came to a basketball game, he did, and the word on the streets is that you put on a show that night. Talk about that.
Speaker 1:Well. So I knew he was coming. So my head coach, aminul Mathis, played strong safety at Ohio State. That's kind of how he really guided me to come here. So he said, hey, ohio State's coming tonight, so I need you to let them know why they should be offering you a scholarship. So the funny thing is I didn't play great but I just I showed my athleticism. I had a really good basketball team right, and I was more of a rebounder, more of a defender, but every chance I got I tried to tear the rim off, that's the word.
Speaker 1:And he saw that Mike Stock was the guy who recruited me. He saw that. He saw this kid is an athlete and that was the end of it, Wow.
Speaker 3:Wow, you know you were blessed to play quarterback at Ohio State, win a Big Ten championship and a Rose Bowl championship. What was it like playing quarterback at Ohio State and what life lessons did you learn?
Speaker 1:Bittersweet. Okay, it was bittersweet at the time, you know, because I'm a competitor and I want to play. I had never sat the bench in my life, in my career, in any sport. I always played. And then you got to Ohio State and you got these really good players who are older and ahead of you and I had to sit for three years and that was a challenge, having to learn how to be ready and not play but yet still prepare yourself like you were the starter. It was a learning curve for me and not being frustrated with that. So that was a challenge.
Speaker 1:And then, obviously, when I played, I had to split time with Joe Germain and that wasn't fun, but all in all, I don't think I would change it in hindsight, looking back at it. I mean, those lessons are the lessons that built me, that adversity of things they're able to get through to help become the man that I am, become the father and husband I met my wife at Ohio State. Had I played somewhere else, I wouldn't have the family that I have today. We've been married for 25 years in May, so that was bittersweet. A lot of tough moments, a lot of tough decisions with a lot of people, tears at times, but all in all it was a great experience. The friendships I still have to this day. And very few people would say they played quarterback at the Ohio State University.
Speaker 1:That's something that I can hold on to, and I also had the privilege to be a captain there. So a lot of good things from that experience.
Speaker 3:You said something there and I want to expound on that for young folks about learning to be ready. Yep, can you expound on that?
Speaker 1:When you're a backup quarterback, you're typically the most famous player on the team right, at least from a fan perspective unless your quarterback is really good. Exactly, everybody wants the backup, and a lot of great quarterbacks at Ohio State have been booed in horseshoe. I'm one of them. I remember when they booed Bob Hoyne. I couldn't believe it. Bob Hoyne, bob Hoyne so you're popular and people think you're better, so they want you to play, but at the same time you're not playing, you're not getting the reps that the starter's getting, and typically in football it's an 80-20 split.
Speaker 1:So how do you prepare yourself for that moment that might come, because you never know when it happens. When an injury occurs and for me it happened, I believe it was Illinois we were playing and Bob got knocked out the game and had to come in and was able to throw a touchdown to Rick Dudley. But early in my career I struggled with that because I wanted to play so much and I felt like I was better. Just put me out there, I could play. I didn't do the things necessary to be prepared for the moment and after my redshirt sophomore year, we were playing Iowa in the horseshoe and we're up 50 to nothing and that offense was unbelievable. That was Eddie George, terry Klan, rick Dudley, bob was the quarterback, orlando Pace and Walt Harris decided that he wouldn't put me in the game as the backup. Then he put Tom Hoying in and I remember going to Matthew and I said what's the deal with that? Why are we making that decision?
Speaker 1:He said well, you failed the quarterback test and then that came out in the media. Now, fail is a stretch. I got four questions wrong on a 50-question test. Okay, but for Walt, if you're going to be a quarterback in his program, you don't get any questions wrong because it's all important and because of that now you're going to watch Tom go in before you. So it was a learning lesson. So I learned that if I'm going to play this position at this level, I've got to be prepared for the moment and I need to do the things necessary to be there. So I started watching more film, I prepared myself like I had him before, and I never failed another quarterback test.
Speaker 3:Right, right, wow, that's a great story. It's a great story. You know, you also played in the Canadian Football League and was owner of a team in Marion Ohio in the CIFL League. How did those leadership positions help you become the man you are today?
Speaker 1:Well, you know, I think hopefully you can learn from every station. You are in life, right, and it changes dramatically. You know, you think back to when you were 15 years old. You're not the same person today than you were then and even though you made some decisions back then, that could impact your life at 50. Right, right. And so, just at every station, learning what was important to be a leader in those roles at quarterback is important. Not only to do it by words, but by deeds. Right, you got to go out and play. Well. Now you just can't tell the guys, hey, I need you guys to play. Well, we need to go out and rah, rah, rah, and then don't go out and perform. That's perform In other positions, like in ownership.
Speaker 1:You know that's not about performing on the field, but that's about managing right Management, managing money, managing staff, managing expectations, getting the best out of your people. And it's the same in what I do today with Buckeye State Bank, being a founder of that right. So managing people and getting the best out of them is a little different than you managing yourself and being a player. So that's what those positions have taught me that leaders have to always be willing to learn from people around you, even the lowest of people, so to speak, and then you know applying those lessons that you learn throughout life the good, the bad and the ugly.
Speaker 3:You know, as you transitioned to be a head football coach at Westerville North High School, what really motivated you to take that on. I know you were youth football. I've seen the pictures of you out there with your sons. What motivated you to be a?
Speaker 1:coach. Well, you know, I didn't force any of my sons to play any sports, but once they started playing, you know, I wanted to be a part of it and uh, and and just watching. So so, uh, my oldest son, stanley, was at Marshall. Now it was his first year playing tackle football and I had coached him in baseball and in basketball. Tackle football I wasn't coaching, I was going to let other guys have him.
Speaker 1:And then I heard one of the dads yo, put your head down in the hole. Ooh, all right, um. And I knew that that wasn't something that should be taught at that level and I thought for a second I'm not sure sitting this one out is the best course of action. And then I think it's Woody the field that day and saying to that coach hey, I know the lesson you're trying to teach, but maybe you ought to use better words, right? So then I told him so you don't want someone to put his head down because that puts him in danger. What you're trying to get them to do is have a low pad level, right.
Speaker 1:And you know, obviously for dads who haven't played at a high level, sometimes they don't what started it. So I said I'm going to coach them up through the sixth grade, right? Then you let them go to middle school football and then I was, just you know, honestly challenged, sitting on the sideline watching some of the high school coaching. If I'm going to be totally honest, right, great guys. But just you know, didn't know enough about the game and I felt like I could do a better job and not just coaching X's and O's, because that's the easy part about building young men Right, because that's our motto we're here to build warriors, to build men and, at the same time, help them achieve their goals. Most high school football players want to play at the next level, so we probably do a better job than most of reaching out to make sure that our guys that are capable and want to play have an opportunity to play at the next level.
Speaker 3:You know you have speaking of next level. You have a new, unique experience being a recruited player, being a parent and being a coach. So your experience is a little different. It is you can speak to all three of those levels. So how has that been being a part of all of that? It's been fun. The whole process. It's been fun. It's been frustrating, it's been disappointing. Let of that whole process.
Speaker 1:It's been fun, it's been frustrating, it's been disappointing. Let me just say this the process today is way different than when I came out in 1993, right, I mean, these kids are celebrities now.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, With the portal and with NIL. I just posted a video of Nick Pitino or Rick Pitino, who's back coaching St John's. He's got that program running now and he said we're not taking a high. You know, we've got some older kids that are leaving the program. I can't replace them with high school kids. So it is harder today than ever in the history of college sports to earn a scholarship coming out of high school. And I think what you're going to see over the next few years is that very few kids, maybe only five stars, are getting that opportunity. And now you're going to see kids going to JUCOs where they change the rule, Division II schools, and they're going to be feeders Because coaches are realizing that you know what we want older, stronger kids, not just high school kids, and coaches don't want to coach as much and they don't want to develop as much anymore because they feel like if I develop a kid I'm going to lose them to the portal. So I want to get a kid ready to play right now. It's really almost a pro level at the Power Four. So the recruiting is a lot different and I'm learning on the fly.
Speaker 1:But the thing that I would say is you have to be proactive now. As a young athlete, I didn't have to be, they came and found me. Now you have to be proactive. You've got to get your highlights out there on Twitter. You have to stay in contact with coaches. You have to visit the schools that you want to go to. You have to go to their camps.
Speaker 1:I didn't have to do any of that, but now they want to see you in person. They want to make sure that you're the height you say you are, You're the weight that you can run, and so it's different. It's very similar to coming out of college football when you have the NFL combine where all the coaches and the doctors are there and they're poking and prodding on you and they're pushing you through. You can do the Cybex machine and you run the 40 and jump the vertical. That's what's happening at the high school level. Now they want to see you and when they get you on campus, they put you through all those paces. You run a 40. You jump a vertical. They measure you to see how high you are, how long your arms are, and sometimes, if you don't fit the metrics of that Power 4 program. They're not going to give you an offer, no matter how good you are.
Speaker 3:You know, as you became head coach, you recruited a whole lot of ex-Buckeyes. I did that staff. You know what inspired you to create such a unique team. One and two what were you looking for in those guys that you hired? What were you looking for?
Speaker 1:Well, it was a few things. Number one I was working with a few of them anyway at the youth level, right, and we all had kids that were the same age, so we were coaching together. But the reality is, I'm looking around Central Ohio, I'm looking at coaching staffs and I'm asking myself we're all the former Buckeyes? We're right here, we're in Columbus. I know there are a bunch of guys that would love to pour into young people and they're practitioners. In essence, these guys have their masters in football, and so I wanted to surround these kids with the best of the best guys who did it at a high level, who know what the expectation is and who are going to hold the kids to a very high standard. And we do. We hold our kids accountable. At the same time, most of the guys, every guy that we brought on our staff, does something else professionally, so it's not just about football.
Speaker 1:Beanie Wells is in broadcasting and owns a ton of property across the state of Ohio, so if one of our kids wants to go down that track, he can talk to Beanie about doing that. Reggie Germany owns and operates Crumble Cookies, so if somebody wants to be a franchisee, they can talk to Reggie about it. Ashante Webb is an agent, so now you can talk to him. Winfield Garnett had a technology company. I started a bank with my partner, sean Keller, 11 years ago, so if you wanted to go into finance, you could talk to me about that. So all our guys have something else that they do that our kids can talk to them about and be mentored in if that's something that they want to do. Jamar Martin is a teacher, so I was very deliberate around that. I didn't just want to have a football guy that was just going to come in and talk football and then leave. I wanted guys that were going to be mentors beyond the game Because at the end of the day, like I said earlier, in my opinion we are responsible to build warriors.
Speaker 3:That's good. That's good. You know you're also a parent of three of those boys. Three of those guys on the team have gone through the program. How does that motivate you as a coach? You know it's football 24-7,. You know, after the game you're in the car riding home with you at the house watching film all night. You know what is that like Dad.
Speaker 1:Well, ok, so let me just say this my wife is from Massillon, ok, so my kids were young, I never purchased a football. She brought them up and it's a big football family. Gary Young Conley is her first cousin, and so you know it's kind of like a football pastime, right? But yeah, no, we spent a lot of time talking about the sport because this is something that they chose to do, and so, yeah, in the rides home if they didn't play. Well, I'm not the dad that holds back, and this is even when I wasn't their coach. But at the same time, I let them know that when we walk on the field, I'm not dad anymore, I'm Coach Jackson, and I'm going to treat you like everybody else, and if you want something on this field, you have to earn it, and if you don't earn it, you know football did a lot for me.
Speaker 1:You know, patterson, new Jersey is one of the toughest communities in America to live in, and football was a vehicle for me to escape that, the same with my brother, and so I know how powerful a vehicle it can be, or any sport in particular, and I know the lessons that you learn between the white lines will translate to the professional ranks of whatever you want to do. There's an assignment done. I'm not panicking. I've been in a two-minute drill. I know it's like when a clock is ticking down and you're trying to get something done. So I'm not going to panic in my professional life.
Speaker 1:Right, you get knocked down. Well, guess what? I've been knocked down a ton of times. I've been cut. So all those lessons they do translate and make you a better person, and so that's why it was important for my wife and I to make sure that our kids did participate in sports. Now, we didn't dictate what sports, but once they chose it, our rule was okay, now that you've chosen the sport, we're all in. Right, we're not going to half bake this cookie, we're going to fully bake it and make sure that we're all in and you here doing everything you can to be the very best you can be, because I knew those lessons would carry them a lifetime. That's good.
Speaker 3:You know, as a father coach, what is it like balancing, being a parent and leading a football program.
Speaker 1:That's a really good question. I don't balance it. I don't worry about it Because when my boys hit the field they're football players. I'm not their dad and they've got to earn it. And I think what happens when you earn it people around you, they see it. So my kids. There's no daddy ball at Westfield North.
Speaker 1:So Ronald was our quarterback. He's a three-year starter. He compiled over 3,700 yards last year, 2,500 passing, 1,300 rushing, over 30 touchdowns. If anybody has anything to say about that, the numbers speak for themselves. Trey, who was my youngest he started eight games for us had 75 tackles as a true freshman. So they've earned their right. And the other things I've done is I've sort of insulated the dad-son relationship. So I didn't coach quarterbacks the last two years. Marcus Ray was our offense coordinator. I let him handle that. People realized that there wasn't any favoritism happening with my son because I wasn't even coaching the position. And the same thing with Major. You know he played defense and Coach Martin had him and they're the ones that made the decision to make sure those guys were on the field. So that's kind of how I. But football is in my DNA so we don't really separate it and it's in their DNA and they love it and I've gotten a lot out of football.
Speaker 1:Right, I worked in broadcasting because I played football. I'm part of this bank because I played football, so I don't separate the two. What I try to do is just make sure that I don't overwhelm them with talk of, you know, sports, sports, sports. Because I truly believe that they're more than the sport that they play. But the sport is just teaching them valuable lessons so that, whenever they decide whatever it is that they want to do, those lessons will carry them to be successful in those fields.
Speaker 1:I want the guys to understand you have a short amount of time to play this sport. Prepare yourself now for when it's done. Even if you played 15 years in the NFL, you're still going to be a young man and life goes on and you have to do something else, and so that's the only thing that I've always been concerned about with my sons. I don't want them to experience that depression that athletes have when they're done playing, because we get put on this pedestal. It's a high pedestal and it's fun to be on there, but at some point you got to come back down there.
Speaker 3:That's good stuff, you know. Speaking of that, what advice would you give to parents who are coaching their children? Take me to that youth level, because you coached down at that level. I really want you to speak to these youth parents.
Speaker 1:Daddy ball doesn't work. It doesn't help your son or your daughter Make them earn it. The more you put them in a position that they don't have to earn it, it just makes it harder at the next level. If the first time your son or daughter has to compete for a position is in high school or in college, how are they going to know what they need to do if you didn't make them compete early? That's one of the biggest errors I see in parents. But be hard on them. I'm hard on my boys. I hold them accountable to a high standard.
Speaker 1:A lot of times people don't understand that, but that's the other thing I would say. Don't worry about the outside noise. Don't worry about the outside noise and don't set outcomes that are unrealistic. Right, have your boys play, or your girls play, the sport to the best of their ability and live with the outcomes that come from that. Everybody can't play power, for everybody can't go to the NBA or the NFL, right, and that's OK. But the lessons that they learn in the sport will have them be professionals and something else else, and so don't get tied to social media and chasing status and posting things that are ridiculous, because it's harder today than ever Highlight. And it's harder today than ever to get a Power Force scholarship. And if that's the ultimate goal, I don't think that's fair to your kid.
Speaker 3:That's good. You know I worked for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, been on staff for about 20-plus years and I know you guys have an FCA group there at Namalong. The football team as well as the chaplain comes in. Can you share how important that is, that aspect for the team, for the program?
Speaker 1:You know I'm going to be really transparent here. Number one I think it's vital. I think establishing your foundation in what you believe is important, and the way that I'm going to be transparent is I don't think we've done a great job at that. Honestly, I think we've dropped the ball a little bit at Westerville North and that's my responsibility. Obviously, we do the FCA and we encourage that. We want our kids to go, but I don't think I've done a good enough job of displaying my beliefs to our team in a way that it could be a little more effective. So that's laid on my heart all offseason and we're going to do a better job going forward.
Speaker 1:But for me it's just establishing truth in the building, the truth that I live by, the truth that helped me escape poverty, the truth that delivered my mother from drug and alcohol abuse. The truth that delivered an 18-year-old man my father when he had my brother to being who he is today. I've watched it firsthand. I've watched Jesus kick the door down. So, knowing all of that, sometimes I think I need to be a little more transparent with our football team and I will be going forward. But having any partners that can come in and help that, I think, is very important. That's awesome.
Speaker 3:Well, I do know this. I've been hanging out with your son, Ronald, and I know just solidly you've done a great job there. I know that. I know that just watching him and just how he carries himself and you can just see the Holy Spirit all over when he walks in that room, when he shows up to our mentor groups, it's a whole to our mentor groups, it's a whole different deal, you know. And he walks in there.
Speaker 1:That's exciting. That's exciting to hear. I just wanted to let you know that We've been blessed. We've been blessed, yeah.
Speaker 3:You know, as a coach, you had a unique opportunity to impact not only your players but also the community in Westerville. So can you talk about how you see yourself building a lasting legacy through your program?
Speaker 1:Well, there's a few things. Number one Westerville is a very unique suburb. It's not like most suburbs. 40% of our kids are on free and reduced lunch, and so that's a challenge for us, because we don't practice until 4 o'clock, so we're doing a lot of things differently. So we feed our kids six days a week. So our kids get out of school at 2.10, and then there's a two-hour window before we practice. We don't release them, their hour is after school, and so we send them to study table and we feed them.
Speaker 1:So every day there's a sack lunch where there's a sandwich and chips and a drink that goes out, and then they're required to go to study table After that first hour.
Speaker 1:Then they go lift weights or they watch film, right, and then obviously we go onto the football field, and so I think that's a part of it making sure that the kids have what they need to thrive and be successful. I'm going to ask them to give me their very all that we got to make sure that we're feeding them and things of that nature, and I'm not sure a lot of coaches or communities do that and understand what you're asking when you want your kids to get full effort and they haven't eaten, when you want your kids to give full effort and they haven't eaten. Secondly is just making sure our community understands what we have, what we're dealing with and we had to change our culture. We're still battling some of that culture. It lost for a long time and I think that's one of the biggest things that we'll leave as a lasting legacy is that winning is something that we can't do at Westville North.
Speaker 3:As a guest on the Be A Baller podcast. We ask all our guests to commit to what we call the wisdom pledge, and that is about being intentional literally in every conversation, sharing wisdom.
Speaker 1:Can you share one piece of advice or life lesson from your coaching experience that you would pass on to our audience? As far as a wisdom word I wouldn't say from my coaching experience alone, but just in general. From my coaching experience alone, but just in general I've had the privilege of being around a lot of really great men that shared a lot of very valuable lessons, and the first one was my father and this is a great story, so I hope we got the time. So my father's a hardworking. He was 18 when I had my brother. I came three years later, so he was young, he didn't have a clue, but they figured it out and he stayed.
Speaker 1:He stayed in the generation that was leaving and he instilled in us principles that his father instilled in him, and one was you know you work for what you get. And so you know, I was a good kid and my father worked hard and I remember he brought me my first bike right and it was a used bike. We lived on the second floor and it was my responsibility to carry that bike up the steps right Because it was my bike, but it was an old, used bike and sometimes I'd leave it down, but nobody bothered it. Well, my father saw that I loved it. He said you know, we're going to get you a new bike. He paid $200 for a Mongoose and I remember it like it was yesterday and back then, right In 1985, $200 was significant, but my job was the same. This is your responsibility, this is your bike. I've worked hard for the money I'm giving it to you, but you have to take care of it. So you must carry this bike up the steps every night because if you don't, this bike is going to be gone. He said I know what you did with the other one. If you leave this one down, it'll be gone. It'd be the last bike I've ever purchased you.
Speaker 1:Well, one night, after riding all over the city with my brothers, I was just too tired to carry it up and it was a heavy bike and I left it downstairs. Came out the next morning, the bike was gone. I thought my dad had took it to teach me a lesson. So I called him and he said no, I don't have your bike, it must be gone. Last bike I'll ever buy you and to this day he has never purchased me another bike. It's a very valuable lesson and I pass that lesson on to my kids and to our team. You have to earn everything you get and you have to respect what's given to you, because to whom much is given, much is required. That's good.
Speaker 3:That's good. That's a great story. That's how I was back in the day I was. Today.
Speaker 1:I'm not replacing this $200 back then was a lot of money.
Speaker 3:You know this has been a great episode. I really enjoyed the conversation as we kind of come around the corner and you kind of alluded to some of these things before. But what are some of those life lessons you want your players to take away from their experience playing at Westerville North High School?
Speaker 1:So we have a mantra at Westerville North. There's a saying that I heard and it said that you know that tough times make tough men and tough men make easy times and easy times make weak men. So it's our responsibility to build warriors and we take that very seriously, especially for kids some of the kids living in suburbs. Your parents have made it easy for you and when it's easy you don't realize how much it's going to take hard work from you to be successful. So I want the kids to understand that we're trying to build warriors. We're trying to build men, and real men stand up to a standard. They don't fall for the fried ice cream or the things that they see in the movies or what they hear in music. They realize that there's a standard that they need to live up to. You wear Westerville North on your jersey. You're representing us. You have the last name of your family. You're representing that. Live up to the standard that your family has set for you and don't take the easy way out.
Speaker 3:Wow, that's powerful. Live up to the standard. Live up to it. Live up to that standard. Well, that's all the time we have for today's episode on Be A Baller Podcast. I want to thank our special guest, coach Stan Jackson, for his commitment to paying forward and being a blessing to the next generation. Coach Jackson, thanks for building a legacy in sports and empowering the next generation to success, and don't forget to subscribe to our podcast so you can stay up to date on all our latest episodes. Our podcast guests are always willing to share wisdom and inspire others to build a legacy that lasts Absolutely. Thanks for your time. Thanks for having me. It's been great.
Speaker 2:It's fun. If you enjoyed our show, please share this podcast with family and friends. Be a Baller podcast is available on all major podcast stations. Be sure to come back next week as we continue to discuss on how to build a lifelong legacy. Until then, don't forget to be a baller. This podcast was created by Coach Tim Brown and produced and edited by the video production class of Worthington Christian High School.