POLKcast: Polk State Basketball alum Bart Ross supports program that supported him [TRANSCRIPT]
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One day he’s talking to someone,
he’s having the time of his life.
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He hangs up the phone and he
does what he always did. He goes,
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do you know who that was? And
my answer was always saying,
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I have no idea who it
was, <laugh>. And he goes,
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it was Dusty Rhodes, the American Dream.
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Free foam Rock roll. Make gu. So
maybe want a tap toe, another count.
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Free foam rock. Make goy solo.
Maybe want a tap toe? Woo.
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Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
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Welcome to the POLK Cast, I’m your
host, Mike Ferguson. Joining me today.
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I our co-host Andrew. How
are you, Andrew, too. I’m.
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Doing well, Mike. Glad to be back with.
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You. Um, today we have a,
a very special guest. Uh,
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this gentleman’s a former standout
forward at Polk State, uh,
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then Polk Community College
for the basketball program,
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who’s a member of the 1989
State Championship team. He, uh,
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was awarded a scholarship to go play
at Carson Newman before concluding his
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academic career at Florida
State University. In, uh, 1994,
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he, uh, served as an assistant under
head coach Josh Giles for Polk,
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then Polk Community College’s third
State championship team. He’s, uh,
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currently the owner of Lakeland
Base Marketing Company,
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red Whiskey Incorporated. With us today
is Bart Ross. How are you doing today.
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Bart? I’m doing super. Thanks for having
- I do want to correct something.
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Stand out is a stretch, but I’ll take it.
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Okay. All right. Well, you know, we,
we, we have, uh, we have software.
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We can edit that out, so we’ll.
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Have, uh, no, I’m fine. I appreciate
- That was a gr that was a great team.
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Good times here, and
lots of good memories.
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Um, from what I understand, you,
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you played for Coach Josh Giles,
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a legend at this college or
later in assistant for him,
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but you’ve continued to be a big
supporter of the program today.
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His son Brandon, who’s our
current head coach. Uh,
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what is it about your time here, um,
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that has kind of made you continue
to follow the program and, um,
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supported in the way you have?
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So I think it’s a truly a
blessing playing for Coach Giles.
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He was the OG even though
he was jg. And, um,
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Brandon was just born when I played
here. So I’ve known the family for,
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or known Brandon all of his life. Um, Mrs.
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Giles is obviously a great lady in Joslyn,
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so I think the connection
with the family has helped.
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Although when Coach Frajan was
here, I came as many games as I could.
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I was born in Polk, born in Lakeland.
So I’ve been here all my life.
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It’s just a, it’s a great place.
And I believe that for me,
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it helped me get to where I wanted to
go in life. And so it’s, it was good.
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It’s always good to give back.
And plus I enjoy basketball.
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Yeah. And speaking of that,
love for basketball, so is,
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is basketball something you always grew
up with? Was that always your sport?
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Were you grew up in an athletic
household, kind of, where did the,
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the interest in the sport peak for you?
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So my dad was a Triple Letterman
at Troy State, which is now Troy.
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Um, so he did basketball, football,
and baseball. Um, in high school,
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I did the same. I like
basketball cuz it’s indoors. Um,
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so it’s air conditioned.
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Fair enough. And Florida.
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<Laugh>, it’s, it’s helpful.
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Absolutely. Did you ever consider, as
you were playing, um, in high school,
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leaving Polk County, you say
you’ve been here all your life.
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Did you ever consider maybe
going, going away at first,
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kind of what was the process
of you deciding? Okay,
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Polk State is where I want
to go. I wanna stay, uh,
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where I’ve grown up here in Polk County.
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So my first year outta high
school, I went to Florida Southern,
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and then I ended up coming to Polk my
sophomore year and playing for one year
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here. Um, it was an opportunity that
just came up. So out of high school,
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had a couple offers. I wasn’t big about
leaving home to where they were. Um,
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so I ended up coming here.
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I was thankful for the opportunity
to play for Coach Giles and,
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and be on that team. Uh, I
learned a lot about myself. Uh,
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you learn in basketball, you learn
a lot about life outside the lines,
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inside the lines. So I’ve really taken
those, uh, lessons and I’ve tried to,
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when I coach, tried to pass
them on to other young men. Um,
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so it’s just basketball’s just, I
love it. It’s, it’s a great sport.
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Obviously talent. You, you
gotta have it to win. Uh,
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you played with Lorenzo Williams
who, uh, you know, went on to have a,
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a lengthy career in the nba,
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but you were part of the
89 State championship team.
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You’re part of the 94 state championship
team as an assistant coach and
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with these championship teams,
with championship teams in general,
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there’s always sort of seems to be
some sort of intangible that makes them
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special. Talk about those two squads and
ultimately, uh, what was it outside of,
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you know, the talent factor
that, that made him so good?
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So I think it’s a love, it’s a
love for one another because even,
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even during those rough times when
you’re at practice, you’re battling,
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like our 89 team, if you
interviewed other players,
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they would tell you some of their
toughest battles were in practice.
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And then when you got to the
game, it was a little bit easier.
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We recently had a member
of that team, Dexter Hill,
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who’s from Bartow High School, got
married. So we kind of had a nice reunion.
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We got a chance to relive some of the
stories in the, in the battles. You,
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you kind of get the, the jabbing at
one another that, you know, guys do.
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So it was great as a coach getting
to see a different perspective.
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I got to see the other side of Coach
Giles because one thing about Coach Giles
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is his love and care for his players,
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which I know Brandon does
as well outside of the
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wins and losses. Um, really
talking to you about life,
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the things you’ve gotta prepare yourself
for once you get done with basketball.
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And I think that has went on to some
of those other guys that I was with the
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other day. And, and that’s
what’s carried on. So as a coach,
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being able to sit there with Coach Giles
and kind of behind the scenes with him
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talking about our players in a different
standpoint than when I sat on the other
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side and I was getting the whistle
blown because I wasn’t doing something
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correct. Uh, it’s good to learn
that side as well. And again,
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how he’s trying to mold
people into men. And again,
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that’s why I love basketball.
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It gives you opportunities to teach
lessons about life while doing
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something you really love
and is actually a lot of fun.
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So that’s always been good with me. I’ve
always tried to do that when I coached.
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I carried that on with my
own kids and, you know,
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basketball delivers those messages.
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Anything in particular about Coach Giles
that really stuck with you that you’ve
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continued to kind of, uh, take with you
as you’ve gone on through the years.
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Family friendly podcast here?
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So there’s a lot of things
that I’ll keep to myself. Okay.
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But one thing that was
great about coaches, again,
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his care for us as student athletes
mm-hmm. <affirmative>, right?
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It was you had, you had,
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we spent a lot of time in here in where
we are in the library, study hall,
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that kind of stuff. So it was the,
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it was just as hard as
we went at practice.
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He was more concerned for
successes post school.
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And again, so kind of relaying
them back to coaching.
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We had a lot of players on our team,
everybody’s dreams to play D one.
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Everybody’s dream is to go to the nba.
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But one of the things that coach tried
to strive to do is challenge us to say,
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Hey, do you want to go somewhere
where you can win championships? Um,
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maybe at a smaller, um,
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D two school or an I school so that
you can be a contributor to that?
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Or do you want to go
somewhere else? You know,
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just because they may be on television,
but you may not be on television.
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But most importantly you want to go
somewhere you’re gonna be successful in
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school. So that was one of the things I
would just say that he really harped on.
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Um, so from being in there
with Coach Giles, that was,
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it came through whether as a player
or as an assistant coach with him.
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Yeah.
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What was that conversation like for you
to come on and join the coaching staff
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with Coach Giles after
you had played for him?
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Did he kind of approach you at that
point after you finished up at,
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at Florida State and kind of what was
that conversation like of getting you to
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come on staff with him?
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Well, I had dreams of going on to
stay in coaching for my career. Um,
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and that takes a couple of things. You,
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you’ve gotta have the right opportunities,
you gotta have the right background.
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Um, you’ve gotta have advanced degrees,
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which I went back to
FSU to get my degree in.
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And so opportunities have
to exist. So I came here,
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he gave me an opportunity
to learn from him,
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the opportunity to spend time
with young men developing them.
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That was always good to me. So, you know,
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just from a standpoint of wanting
to carry on something, again,
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we all came here with
the dreams going D one,
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going to the pros as an assistant coach,
I came here with similar dreams, right?
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I wanted to come here,
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learn from someone I loved and
cared about me to developing
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my own skills to go on to D one,
maybe to one day, be an NBA coach.
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Didn’t work out that way, but I think
it’s worked out the way it should.
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You, you mentioned a lot
of the intangibles and how
Coach Giles really kind of
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strived to mold you guys as
young men in addition to players,
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but on the court kind of
describe, uh, his teams. I mean,
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what was your style of play? What, uh,
what was your mindset going into games?
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So it was pretty exciting. We had a great
point guard named Reggie Shields. Uh,
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you could always count first
five minutes of the game.
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He was gonna steal the ball from whoever
the opposing point guard was, take it.
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And he was a tremendous leaper. So we got
to see some of the most amazing dunks.
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Um, past that, the,
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just the team that we had was
they very well played together.
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So we had a couple of big guys,
Lorenzo, we had Marshall, Barbara,
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um, great inside players. Um,
our three men, Jim Horn, um,
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Larry Patrick, there were
just solid players. We had,
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um, Zoe that we were just a good
team. Uh, and it was intense.
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So the guards could play very tight
because behind them they had the
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Twin Towers and Lorenzo and Marshall
could certainly clean up anything that got
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inside. So that was, I,
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I think we played pretty freely from
a defensive perspective. Alright.
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Um, you went to, this area
is kind of outside of your,
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your time away at Carson Newman,
ultimately Florida State.
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You’ve been here most of your life.
You went to Mulberry High School,
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you said Florida Southern here.
And, uh, you know, you, you,
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you make your home here. What is,
what is it about this area that, uh,
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that you love or what, what,
what kept you home? Ultimately.
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It’s, it’s home for me. I love
where I live. I love the county.
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Um, I have a hashtag that sometimes
I use on social media called, uh,
00:10:28.780 –> 00:10:32.380
Polk County Baby. Cuz I just love, um,
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cheering for people from Polk County.
And even as growing up, you know,
00:10:36.180 –> 00:10:39.860
going to Marbury High School. So our,
you know, our intense rivalry was Bartow.
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They were always beating us. But again,
00:10:41.540 –> 00:10:43.540
there was always that
sense of a rivalry there.
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Of course you have that with the
Lakeland. Kathleen, I, I love that.
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Currently I sit on the championship
committee at the Lakeland Center where we
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bring in the basketball state
championships. So again,
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it’s my way to kind of
stay in it. I love it.
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I love cheering for our Polk teams to
get there. Whether it’s a, you know,
00:11:00.020 –> 00:11:02.020
a girls team like Winter Haven
is always a force.
00:11:02.020 –> 00:11:05.460
So trying to get teams like that there
or, you know, some of our other ones,
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Bartow High School again, uh, getting
there, I just, I just love this area.
00:11:09.850 –> 00:11:11.860
I love being in the center of Florida.
00:11:12.250 –> 00:11:15.860
I love that it’s not overcrowded and just,
there’s a lot of great athletes here.
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That’s.
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So true. Uh,
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PO County gets overlooked so often for
the amount of high level college and
00:11:21.180 –> 00:11:24.980
professional athletes that come out
of, uh, of this area. And, you know,
00:11:24.980 –> 00:11:27.540
I don’t think people think about the
athletic powerhouse Polk County is,
00:11:27.540 –> 00:11:29.460
but it’s, it’s pretty impressive.
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Yeah. Um, back to the game of
basketball, I mean, what was it,
00:11:33.500 –> 00:11:38.260
obviously you mentioned you played all
three sports, basketball was indoors,
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you preferred the air conditioner to
the side. But what else about the game?
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Is it, um, that made you
kind of fall in love with it?
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One of the things is, I think
it, it is very team oriented.
00:11:49.640 –> 00:11:52.630
So you can always have great players,
right? That you can single out.
00:11:52.630 –> 00:11:57.540
But I think think a great
team can always outs skill
00:11:57.860 –> 00:12:02.660
great players. So that’s the thing
that I love about it. I love watching.
00:12:03.240 –> 00:12:07.990
And when they’re working
together, they can just a team,
00:12:07.990 –> 00:12:11.150
it’s like a machine. It’s like watching
a fine watch. And an example I’ll give,
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I don’t like to give it because
it involves the Florida Gators,
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but when the Florida Gators beat
UCLA for the national championship,
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I believe they had 30 assists in that
game for a college basketball game to have
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30 assists. Crazy. It was
just, it was fine. Watch,
00:12:26.750 –> 00:12:29.710
just watching them pass and you could
just see that they had care for one
00:12:29.710 –> 00:12:32.070
another and they didn’t care
whether it was, you know,
00:12:32.070 –> 00:12:35.710
one guy going or another guy. It was
just the way they played together.
00:12:35.710 –> 00:12:38.550
So I can, I think that’s what I
really like about it, is just the,
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the team aspect of it. Um, coaches have
some ability to control it. Mm-hmm.
00:12:43.390 –> 00:12:47.230
<affirmative>, like when I watch the N
B A, it seems to be very one off, right?
00:12:47.230 –> 00:12:50.150
It’s a lot of, it’s a lot of
my talent versus your talent.
00:12:50.250 –> 00:12:53.750
Not that they aren’t the most amazing
talented athletes in the world,
00:12:54.340 –> 00:12:57.790
it’s just not the same that you see at
high school or college where they’re
00:12:57.790 –> 00:12:58.990
working together. So.
00:12:59.460 –> 00:13:01.750
Yeah. Have you kind of taken
that approach, you know,
00:13:01.750 –> 00:13:04.750
kind of talk about that
selfless kind of, uh, aspect of,
00:13:04.750 –> 00:13:08.950
of basketball that you admire, that you,
um, that you experienced? Uh, you know,
00:13:08.950 –> 00:13:12.150
do you kind of carry that
your professional work now
and you do it in marketing?
00:13:12.150 –> 00:13:14.830
Do you carry some of those kind of
intangibles into what you do now?
00:13:15.160 –> 00:13:18.950
So I’d say yes, because I
am still a team person. Um,
00:13:18.950 –> 00:13:20.710
I really believe in
the team aspect, right?
00:13:20.710 –> 00:13:22.350
Not everybody has to have every skill.
00:13:22.350 –> 00:13:26.150
You just have to have a group around you
that has maybe qualities that you don’t
00:13:26.150 –> 00:13:28.750
possess so you can build
on each other’s, um,
00:13:29.040 –> 00:13:31.350
talents and skills so
they can be enhanced,
00:13:31.350 –> 00:13:35.510
like to the sum of the parts is
greater than the, the difference. Um,
00:13:35.720 –> 00:13:39.750
so I really like that from marketing
side. I love the competitive side of it.
00:13:39.750 –> 00:13:44.470
So that’s interesting too. It’s just
fun to get in to try and problem solve.
00:13:44.490 –> 00:13:47.270
How do you plan, how do
you execute? You know,
00:13:47.270 –> 00:13:51.030
in marketing you look at it and they’re
just like basketball or any other
00:13:51.030 –> 00:13:55.310
sports. There’s tape, there’s results.
Are you meeting the goals that you need?
00:13:55.480 –> 00:13:58.990
If you aren’t, you need to go back and
you need to adjust and you need to, uh,
00:13:58.990 –> 00:14:01.710
uh, you know, move that
game plan forward. So, uh,
00:14:01.710 –> 00:14:05.510
there’s a lot of parallels in my
world to what I get out of basketball.
00:14:06.260 –> 00:14:08.590
I’ve always found that interesting. Um,
00:14:08.590 –> 00:14:13.350
people who aren’t sports fans sometimes
don’t see the value in that, but there,
00:14:13.680 –> 00:14:18.390
there’s a ton of life lessons that
come from, you know, athletics,
00:14:18.560 –> 00:14:22.550
playing in a team environment, overcoming
adversity. I mean, there’s just,
00:14:22.720 –> 00:14:26.630
there’s just so much to
it that I think, you know,
00:14:26.630 –> 00:14:30.350
people who the laymen or the
non-sports fan may, may overlook.
00:14:30.350 –> 00:14:33.270
They just see it as you’re getting
sweaty and you’re getting sweaty.
00:14:33.420 –> 00:14:37.150
What’s the point of putting a ball in
a basket? But like you said, I mean,
00:14:37.150 –> 00:14:39.110
there’s, there’s a ton, uh,
00:14:39.110 –> 00:14:43.790
of life lessons that go into
being a part of a team and
00:14:43.790 –> 00:14:45.270
being involved in athletics.
00:14:45.280 –> 00:14:48.270
There’s obviously, there’s
successes and there’s failures.
00:14:48.440 –> 00:14:52.840
There’s the way people approach
to you to give you critiques. Um,
00:14:52.840 –> 00:14:56.960
one of the things that I often say is,
if I made a pass and say, coach J said,
00:14:56.960 –> 00:15:00.480
well, that was a dumb pass. He wasn’t
calling me dumb. He was saying what I,
00:15:00.480 –> 00:15:05.480
what my behavior was, was not
up to snuff, not up to par,
00:15:05.480 –> 00:15:08.640
not up to expectation. So again,
those things aren’t personal.
00:15:08.640 –> 00:15:10.840
They’re critiques and, you know, we,
00:15:10.840 –> 00:15:14.360
we have the propensity to take those on as
00:15:14.980 –> 00:15:19.640
individuals. They’re indictments of
ourselves. They’re not, they’re just an,
00:15:19.650 –> 00:15:22.640
uh, a critique of what we did
at that point in time. So again,
00:15:22.640 –> 00:15:24.080
there are a lot of those behaviors,
00:15:24.080 –> 00:15:26.440
a lot of things that
happen to you that if you,
00:15:26.570 –> 00:15:28.280
if you look at them appropriately,
00:15:28.590 –> 00:15:33.200
they really will give you opportunities
in life. So again, failures,
00:15:33.260 –> 00:15:36.120
you lose games, right? Figure
out what you did wrong,
00:15:36.120 –> 00:15:38.680
try and do better the
next time. If you win,
00:15:38.980 –> 00:15:41.920
you gotta figure out what you did
so you can replicate that behavior.
00:15:41.920 –> 00:15:46.580
So just trying to keep in that same
mindset as, you know, watch the tape.
00:15:47.830 –> 00:15:51.060
Looking back at your time
here, you’re, you’re, um,
00:15:51.120 –> 00:15:52.900
championship season as a player.
00:15:52.900 –> 00:15:57.100
You spent three years as an assistant
and your contributions to the Polk State
00:15:57.100 –> 00:16:01.060
Basketball program. Is there anything,
uh, you’re specifically most proud of?
00:16:03.020 –> 00:16:06.390
I think being a good teammate
or a good assistant coach,
00:16:07.540 –> 00:16:10.830
I was never a star in either atmosphere,
00:16:11.410 –> 00:16:15.870
but good teams are made up of utility
players, people that know their role,
00:16:15.870 –> 00:16:20.150
that understand their role. The
Chicago Bulls perfect example.
00:16:20.150 –> 00:16:23.550
Dennis Rodman could have scored a lot
more points. That wasn’t his role.
00:16:23.550 –> 00:16:27.150
His role was to play
defense, get rebounds. Um,
00:16:27.540 –> 00:16:32.350
Scotty Pippen was a great
right hand to Michael Jordan,
00:16:32.840 –> 00:16:36.230
um, the shooters. So again,
finding your role in the team,
00:16:36.260 –> 00:16:41.150
trying to fit in and, and help. I think
that’s where I, I feel my most at home.
00:16:41.300 –> 00:16:44.750
Yeah. And there’s John Paxton
and Steve Curry, two of, uh,
00:16:44.750 –> 00:16:46.750
winning shots to clinch
two of those finals.
00:16:46.750 –> 00:16:48.350
There you go. Yeah. Yeah.
00:16:48.350 –> 00:16:49.590
Everybody has a role.
00:16:49.590 –> 00:16:50.590
That’s right. The big.
00:16:50.590 –> 00:16:52.750
One. Um, yeah, you mentioned, uh,
00:16:52.750 –> 00:16:55.670
carrying on things you’ve learned and
stuff with when it comes to your kids as
00:16:55.670 –> 00:16:56.990
well. So do you have, uh,
00:16:57.110 –> 00:17:00.270
children that have gone on to participate
in sports basketball specifically,
00:17:00.270 –> 00:17:01.070
or other.
00:17:01.070 –> 00:17:03.230
Endeavors? Uh, so my kids
played when they were younger.
00:17:03.230 –> 00:17:05.430
My daughter was a high
school swimmer. My son,
00:17:05.680 –> 00:17:09.710
he participated in some sports when he
was younger. He was more book oriented,
00:17:09.710 –> 00:17:11.950
which I’m perfectly fine with. Um,
00:17:12.610 –> 00:17:17.510
but my daughter swam competitively for
McKeel for a long time. Again, I did,
00:17:17.510 –> 00:17:21.470
I swam. I’ve lived in Florida all my
life, but never competitively swam. I,
00:17:21.470 –> 00:17:26.430
I really learned to appreciate
the value in a high school.
00:17:26.590 –> 00:17:28.310
Swimming is a team sport,
but it’s still individual.
00:17:28.570 –> 00:17:32.550
Basketball’s always a team
sport. Uh, so the, to seeing the,
00:17:32.970 –> 00:17:37.510
how that individualized
team sport was different,
00:17:37.510 –> 00:17:40.110
was interesting to me because again,
00:17:40.110 –> 00:17:41.990
you’re trying to get his
most points for your team,
00:17:42.570 –> 00:17:45.990
but you’re still trying to
always beat the clock. So to me,
00:17:45.990 –> 00:17:49.680
there was a sense of always a trying
to achieve to push yourself forward.
00:17:49.680 –> 00:17:52.120
So I really like that
about that. So again, I,
00:17:52.120 –> 00:17:55.040
I was fortunate enough to watch
both my kids participate in sports.
00:17:55.950 –> 00:18:00.680
You’ve been around basketball at a few
different levels. Uh, what is it about,
00:18:00.970 –> 00:18:01.320
um,
00:18:01.320 –> 00:18:05.160
junior college level that you would say
kind of makes it different or unique or
00:18:05.160 –> 00:18:06.040
stands out about it?
00:18:06.270 –> 00:18:10.480
Well, I think from a
standpoint of, there’s a lot
of stories to be told on why,
00:18:10.930 –> 00:18:13.440
um, men or women are at a junior college.
00:18:13.600 –> 00:18:15.720
Maybe they’re a late bloomer athletically,
00:18:15.720 –> 00:18:18.280
maybe they had a couple struggles
in high school. Maybe they,
00:18:18.960 –> 00:18:21.240
academically they needed to
get some things in order.
00:18:22.090 –> 00:18:24.920
It doesn’t mean there’s
a lack of talent. Uh,
00:18:24.920 –> 00:18:29.240
and so that was always interesting to
see who passed through a junior college.
00:18:29.730 –> 00:18:33.120
Um, so again, everybody comes
to things on their own time.
00:18:33.250 –> 00:18:38.190
So I think it’s fortunate. It’s fun. It’s
interesting to hear the back stories,
00:18:38.190 –> 00:18:41.870
right? Those stories exist in
bigger sports as well, you know,
00:18:41.870 –> 00:18:45.670
at the D one D two level. But at junior
college, you kind of really get into,
00:18:45.970 –> 00:18:49.950
you know, some of those kids may
need a little extra sh shove,
00:18:49.950 –> 00:18:53.790
they may need some, show ’em a little
extra love right? To push them through.
00:18:53.890 –> 00:18:57.990
But again, they can still be champions.
They can still be champions in life. So.
00:18:58.490 –> 00:18:59.590
You know, Mike, uh,
00:18:59.590 –> 00:19:03.510
mentioned earlier about your support for
the program now at Polk State and your
00:19:03.510 –> 00:19:06.870
relationship with Brandon Giles, uh,
you know, current coach and, and,
00:19:06.870 –> 00:19:09.630
and how you were, I mean, I think
it’s so cool that you talk about,
00:19:09.790 –> 00:19:11.830
remember when he was born,
when you were a player and,
00:19:11.830 –> 00:19:15.110
and now kind of full circle, having
this relationship with him as he’s, uh,
00:19:15.110 –> 00:19:17.590
as a coach. Um, what’s
been special for you,
00:19:17.590 –> 00:19:18.990
kind of about that dynamic of getting,
00:19:18.990 –> 00:19:22.430
of knowing this guy for his whole life
and now getting to kind of support him
00:19:22.430 –> 00:19:26.030
and his endeavor as a head coach for the
program that you played for his father
00:19:26.030 –> 00:19:27.550
and coach with his father with.
00:19:27.860 –> 00:19:30.110
Well, before I share that, I,
00:19:30.110 –> 00:19:33.230
I also coached against Brandon
when he was in high school. Uh,
00:19:33.230 –> 00:19:36.150
that wasn’t very fun for me,
by the way. Um, so again,
00:19:36.150 –> 00:19:39.630
getting to watch Brandon kind
of become his own person, um,
00:19:39.630 –> 00:19:43.150
it’s always exciting, you know, you
know, someone you’re proud of. Him and I,
00:19:43.150 –> 00:19:45.910
I don’t wanna say that in, it’s not
meant to be condescending at all, right?
00:19:46.110 –> 00:19:49.270
We’re proud of the program that
Brandon’s trying to build here,
00:19:49.270 –> 00:19:52.670
that he’s trying to run. He’s different
than his dad. He has different skills,
00:19:52.670 –> 00:19:56.590
different talents. Um, they’re u
they’re unique in their own right.
00:19:56.600 –> 00:19:59.910
So I enjoy watching him from
that perspective. Again,
00:19:59.910 –> 00:20:03.190
knowing him from the time that his mother
brought him to the games and he was,
00:20:03.400 –> 00:20:07.870
uh, just a baby to now seeing him
as a, a man with his own sons,
00:20:07.980 –> 00:20:10.870
like he’s, he’s raising his own kids.
00:20:11.460 –> 00:20:14.930
It’s just exciting to kind
of see that, that happen.
00:20:14.940 –> 00:20:16.370
It also means I’m getting old.
00:20:16.770 –> 00:20:21.130
<Laugh>. Yeah. Um, you,
you mentioned you, how,
00:20:21.130 –> 00:20:23.770
one thing you said is they
both kind of have that really,
00:20:25.720 –> 00:20:30.050
that desire to mold kids
beyond basketball. Uh,
00:20:30.050 –> 00:20:33.890
you mentioned he’s his own person
also. They’re him and his dad,
00:20:34.190 –> 00:20:37.330
not exactly the, the same coach. Uh,
00:20:37.330 –> 00:20:40.170
are there other ways you’ve
noticed that they’re similar?
00:20:40.170 –> 00:20:44.530
Maybe just kinda watching from afar
maybe does something you say, oh.
00:20:45.800 –> 00:20:49.640
I couldn’t really pick something out off
the top of my head. Okay. Um, I just,
00:20:49.640 –> 00:20:51.240
because I’m not at practice, right?
00:20:51.240 –> 00:20:53.960
So that’s one of the things I remember
about coaches at practice being out on
00:20:53.960 –> 00:20:56.120
the floor with us, you
know, kind of directing us,
00:20:56.610 –> 00:21:00.280
nudging us occasional occasionally. So
I haven’t been there to watch Brandon.
00:21:00.280 –> 00:21:01.400
So in the game time,
00:21:02.110 –> 00:21:06.960
I would say that Brandon May be a little
more relaxed on the bench than Coach
00:21:06.960 –> 00:21:10.440
Giles. Coach Giles was very intense. Um,
00:21:10.620 –> 00:21:14.480
and he really drove us
to be hard. And again,
00:21:14.510 –> 00:21:18.360
that doesn’t make one way better than
the other. It just makes him different.
00:21:18.730 –> 00:21:21.080
So again, some people are very intense.
00:21:21.080 –> 00:21:23.120
My wife would probably
say that when I coached,
00:21:23.120 –> 00:21:26.840
I was intense and she didn’t
enjoy watching me coach and I,
00:21:26.840 –> 00:21:30.000
I picked that up because my high school
coach, Colin Smith, was similar. Mm-hmm.
00:21:30.000 –> 00:21:33.160
Coach Giles is very similar.
They like to talk to refs.
00:21:33.670 –> 00:21:38.240
I don’t see Brandon talk to
refs as much as Coach Giles, um,
00:21:38.240 –> 00:21:41.320
the elder did. So, um, that
might be one difference,
00:21:41.320 –> 00:21:42.960
I would say between the two of them.
00:21:45.290 –> 00:21:47.480
Uh, Bard, is there anything else, uh,
00:21:47.480 –> 00:21:51.920
we didn’t ask either about your experience
here at Polk State or kind of how
00:21:51.920 –> 00:21:53.880
it’s molded you into, uh,
00:21:53.880 –> 00:21:56.840
the person and business owner you
are today that you’d care to add?
00:21:57.110 –> 00:22:01.280
Well, so one thing that I would say is
as my time as an assistant coach, uh,
00:22:01.280 –> 00:22:05.720
being a Coach Giles office was always
fun to me because that phone would ring
00:22:05.720 –> 00:22:06.680
and it was always a game.
00:22:06.680 –> 00:22:11.120
He’d pick up with the phone and you never
knew who was on the other end of that
00:22:11.120 –> 00:22:14.120
phone. And I remember
many times sitting there,
00:22:14.120 –> 00:22:17.200
whether it was John Thompson
calling or, you know,
00:22:17.200 –> 00:22:21.760
these are like idols or Jerry Tartanian,
or one day he’s talking to someone,
00:22:21.760 –> 00:22:23.200
he’s having the time of his life.
00:22:23.940 –> 00:22:26.770
He hangs up the phone and he
does what he always did. He goes,
00:22:26.770 –> 00:22:29.690
do you know who that was? My
answer was always the same.
00:22:30.280 –> 00:22:33.490
I have no idea who it
was. <laugh>. And he goes,
00:22:33.980 –> 00:22:38.250
it was Dusty Rhodes, the American
Dream. Oh. And I’m just like,
00:22:38.520 –> 00:22:40.210
having grown up watching. Yeah,
00:22:40.210 –> 00:22:43.090
the son of the plumber Champ
championship wrestling. I’m just like,
00:22:43.540 –> 00:22:46.570
oh my goodness. To have to
have been, have not been there.
00:22:46.570 –> 00:22:49.690
And me to answer that phone and Dusty
would’ve been on. It was so great.
00:22:49.750 –> 00:22:52.010
But it was just amazing the,
00:22:52.400 –> 00:22:55.090
that here’s a gentleman
that grew up in Detroit,
00:22:55.430 –> 00:22:57.210
and here you’ve got dusty roads.
00:22:57.210 –> 00:23:00.930
The American Dream everybody would
think of is just a total redneck.
00:23:00.930 –> 00:23:05.890
And the fact that their worlds
collided in college and that they
00:23:05.890 –> 00:23:08.730
became friends and they remained
friends, it just, to me,
00:23:09.020 –> 00:23:14.010
it just tells a story about
how awesome sports is to
00:23:14.010 –> 00:23:16.890
bring us together. If we
would just focus on that.
00:23:17.420 –> 00:23:19.730
As for the, the campus itself, uh,
00:23:19.730 –> 00:23:22.570
what are some of the big changes
you’ve seen over the last, uh,
00:23:22.570 –> 00:23:23.403
three plus decades?
00:23:23.450 –> 00:23:27.050
We’re sitting in one right now. It
looks so much different in here. Uh,
00:23:27.050 –> 00:23:31.370
the gym is nicer. We don’t have the old
rubber floor that we used to have. Um,
00:23:31.370 –> 00:23:36.210
obviously it’s, it’s grown. The size of
the campus has grown. It’s freshened up.
00:23:36.510 –> 00:23:40.010
And the number one thing is it’s
not the Vikings anymore. <laugh>,
00:23:40.010 –> 00:23:43.730
it’s the Eagles. So, yeah. Yeah. Do you,
do you miss the old Vikings at all?
00:23:44.040 –> 00:23:46.750
I don’t miss the colors because
of the green and orange,
00:23:46.750 –> 00:23:50.030
which are the hurricane colors. So as
a seminal, we don’t like this. That’s.
00:23:50.080 –> 00:23:50.430
So.
00:23:50.430 –> 00:23:55.270
Subject. Yeah. No one
looks good in orange. Yeah,
<laugh>. Um, but the, uh, the,
00:23:55.270 –> 00:23:58.430
the logo, I love it. It’s
cool. I was part of, um,
00:23:58.430 –> 00:24:00.390
doing some development with them, uh,
00:24:00.390 –> 00:24:02.350
from a marketing side when
they did the new website,
00:24:02.350 –> 00:24:03.470
I had some involvement in that,
00:24:03.750 –> 00:24:07.430
so it was right about the same time that
they were changing the logo. So it’s,
00:24:07.430 –> 00:24:10.150
uh, certainly cool. I
love to see the evolution.
00:24:10.620 –> 00:24:15.190
Yeah. What’s kind of, from
your perspective as, as
being student athlete coach,
00:24:15.800 –> 00:24:18.790
um, member of, you know,
the community now here, um,
00:24:19.120 –> 00:24:23.030
as a leader in the community for incoming
players here at Polk State coming in
00:24:23.050 –> 00:24:25.870
and, and really just like the
student athlete today as a whole,
00:24:25.870 –> 00:24:28.350
and obviously the landscape
of college athletics is,
00:24:28.350 –> 00:24:32.830
is changing and a lot ever changing,
but what is some, uh, advice you,
00:24:32.830 –> 00:24:35.550
you either you do give or would
give to incoming, you know,
00:24:35.550 –> 00:24:37.630
student athletes at the college
level playing basketball?
00:24:37.740 –> 00:24:41.550
Yeah. The, the world is changing,
um, around us with the, the portal,
00:24:41.550 –> 00:24:42.550
the n i l stuff.
00:24:42.550 –> 00:24:47.030
So the one thing that I would say
is the grass is not always greener.
00:24:47.560 –> 00:24:52.470
Um, sometimes we learn, we learn that
the hard way seas on opportunity,
00:24:52.840 –> 00:24:57.790
because again, the guys
that I played with here to,
00:24:57.800 –> 00:25:01.230
to see that this might not
have been any of our, you know,
00:25:01.510 –> 00:25:05.670
ultimate destinations to begin with.
We came, we all got here by chance,
00:25:05.670 –> 00:25:07.430
opportunity, great opportunity.
00:25:08.090 –> 00:25:12.950
And to have been able to use
that to get better either through
00:25:12.950 –> 00:25:16.910
basketball as a student,
ultimately as a, as a man,
00:25:17.800 –> 00:25:20.270
to see the successes that
some of our guys have had.
00:25:20.270 –> 00:25:25.190
And many of the guys off of my team,
they’re either teachers or, you know,
00:25:25.190 –> 00:25:27.430
and they’re going back and
they’re giving the young men now,
00:25:27.430 –> 00:25:31.510
which is exciting to see. So they’re
carrying on that, that genealogy,
00:25:32.300 –> 00:25:33.910
I would just say seizes opportunity.
00:25:34.710 –> 00:25:39.470
Hmm. That’s great. Bart.
Um, this has been, uh,
00:25:39.470 –> 00:25:43.750
fantastic talking to you. We’re
really, uh, we’re really glad, uh, you,
00:25:43.750 –> 00:25:46.430
you came on and joined the Polk
cast today. Anything else, uh,
00:25:46.430 –> 00:25:48.550
you’d care to say before we, uh, sign.
00:25:48.550 –> 00:25:52.270
Off? I appreciate the opportunity to
share, um, some memories. It’s been great.
00:25:52.680 –> 00:25:54.470
Um, go Polk.
00:25:55.650 –> 00:26:00.150
For Andrew too, I’m Mike Ferguson and
thank you for listening to the PO Cast.
00:26:01.160 –> 00:26:05.070
Another free rock roll
make, maybe tap toe,
00:26:05.080 –> 00:26:06.950
another free rock roll.
00:26:06.950 –> 00:26:10.230
Make toe yeah.