Greg Olsen's BEST Coaching and Football Stories on Bussin' with the Boys | Youth Inc.

Summary

Podcast Summary

Episode Overview

Podcast: Youth Inc. with Greg Olsen
Episode: Greg Olsen's BEST Coaching and Football Stories on Bussin' with the Boys | Youth Inc.
Date: January 8, 2026

This episode features a lively and insightful discussion between Greg Olsen (former NFL All-Pro tight end, current youth and middle school football coach, and father), hosts from Bussin' with the Boys, Luke Kuechly (former NFL linebacker and Greg's coaching partner), and other coaches. They dive deep into the ethos, responsibilities, and realities of coaching youth and middle school football, the challenges and strategies within the Charlotte sports scene, and how football culture and development is evolving at the grassroots. The conversation is peppered with humor, real talk about the coaching grind, stories about rebuilding and recruitment, and practical wisdom for coaches and sports parents alike.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Clarifying Career Rumors & Coaching Philosophy

• Future Coaching Intentions

  • Greg categorically addresses rumors about taking a high school head coaching job, explaining their real commitment is building the middle school "farm system," prepping athletes for high school:

    "We've been very clear. Our job at the middle school level ... is to turn over as many good football players, as many kids ready for high school football to [the varsity coach] in 9th grade as humanly possible."
    (Greg Olsen, 00:32)

  • They see themselves as foundational builders, focused on culture and development, not at all eyeing the high school head job in the near term.

• Commitment Duration

  • Greg’s coaching future is closely tied to his children’s school journey:

    "I got five more years after this until my young, my three are all gone. And that'll be... our emphasis."
    (Greg Olsen, 02:44)

• Coaching as a Life Commitment

  • On high school head coaching:

    "That is a 12 month a year job ... Coaching real high school ball, if you want to do it right, is a 7 day a week, 12 month a year full time job. I'm not doing that."
    (Greg Olsen, 05:35)

2. Charlotte’s Unique Youth Sports Landscape

• Transfer Culture & Recruiting Realities

  • Greg highlights the differences between Charlotte Christian and other schools, notably the challenges without open enrollment and constant player movement:

    "The high school world nowadays is the wild west... The idea of movement and the idea of kids bouncing around is obvious... we are not like... calling kids out of the blue and pleading for them to come to our school."
    (Greg Olsen, 15:40)

  • Instead, culture is the calling card:

    "Our recruiting is when you come watch the games... I want you to be on that team. They're organized, they play hard, they're fast, they're multiple."
    (Greg Olsen, 16:40)

• Size & Retention

  • Small school sizes make talent acquisition and retention different:

    "Not a very big school... 110, 115 kids in a grade, give or take."
    (Greg Olsen, 17:53)

3. Youth Sports Dilemmas: Playing Time vs. Winning

• The group discusses a real flag football controversy (over playing time in the championship), sparking a broader dialogue about playtime, competition, and philosophy at the youngest levels.
  • Greg recalls:

    "When we did Pop Warner... there was minimum play time reps. Every kid had to play what, 10 plays."
    (Greg Olsen, 07:30)

  • Luke shares their approach:

    "We play a fifth quarter, so all the kids get 12 offensive snaps, 12 defensive snaps. Before the game, we get all our kids in."
    (Luke Kuechly, 09:11)

  • Competitive balance:

    "Once the ball kicks off, we're trying to win a football game... if the score and the time in the game dictates it, we can put the other kids in... the best thing that we can do is try to prepare our seventh graders for live action next year."
    (Luke Kuechly, 09:11)

4. Program Building, Fundamentals, and Scheduling

• Practice & Bye Week Mentality

  • The coaches are unapologetically competitive but see the value in rest and fundamentals:

    "If it was up to me, we'd practice every day ... but the reason we have a bye is the kids aren't here."
    (Greg Olsen, 10:19)

  • After a break, maintaining humility:

    "We're pretty good at, like, the humbling approach... we've played okay. I wouldn't say we've played great."
    (Greg Olsen, 11:39)

• Clean-Up and Player Development

  • Self-scouting and skill refinement are key:

    "We've got a lot of things we need to get better at. ... But the one thing I will say, our kids play hard. ... that's what we've stressed all summer. ... As the year goes on, we'll clean up the operation, we'll clean up some of the details."
    (Greg Olsen, 11:39)

5. Rivalries, Motivation, and “Real” Football

• Coming games and rival schools (Providence Day School) are discussed with respect — but no “bulletin board material.”

  "They've got a really good football program. ... It was a good win for us. They're a good football school. They take football serious, as do we."
  (Greg Olsen, 21:16)

• Greg and Luke's unofficial program motto:

  "We play real ball."
  (Greg Olsen, 06:40)

6. Turnover Issues & Solutions

• The hosts and coaches review turnover margin and accountability:

  "We've turned the ball over six times at three games too, too many. We've got to protect the ball. ..."
  (Coach Mitch, 23:53)

  • Brainstorming creative fixes:

    "I want to see you carrying the football anytime I see you. Locker room, bathroom, doesn't matter. And guys are going to come trying to knock it out."
    (Interviewer 2, 25:49)

  • Building team and school-wide buy-in for accountability:

    "Can we get different teachers in on it? ... Can we make sure we test them throughout the entire day?"
    (Coach Mitch, 26:44)

7. Offseason Training Insights

• Early morning training, life lessons:

  "20 kids, seventh and eighth graders ... 6:30 before school, weight room, shred mill, track. Four days a week ... Our kids are grinding."
  (Greg Olsen, 27:53)

• Greg emphasizes the value beyond physical gains:

  "It's just learning how to be in the weight room, learning how to load the rack, learning how to be on time, learning how to go through a warm up... so many lessons that are built in a weight room that have nothing to do with how much I can bench press."
  (Greg Olsen, 28:27)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the farm system approach:

  "We are the farm system. We are the fundamental foundation of the Charlotte Christian football program. We take great pride in that."
  (Greg Olsen, 01:40)

• On NOT taking a high school head job:

  "I'm not eager nor do I really want ... to be a head high school coach. That is a 12 month a year job."
  (Greg Olsen, 05:35)

• Play Real Ball:

  "It's our slogan. We play real ball."
  (Greg Olsen, 06:40)

• Recruiting philosophy:

  "We're not going to apologize for that. ... we want you to see us and say, that's where our kid needs to be."
  (Greg Olsen, 16:40)

• On off-field accountability:

  "Every once in a while you got to slit a throat. ... you got to reset the standard."
  (Coach Mitch, 26:49 — punchy, direct coaching language)

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Important Timestamps

• 00:32–02:11 – Commitment to middle school model, farm system, youth development
• 02:44–05:35 – Greg explains commitment to kids and reasons for not taking on high school coaching
• 07:30–09:11 – Discussion on play time rules, youth sports competition philosophy
• 10:19–11:39 – Bye week routines, coaching humility, cleaning up for long-term success
• 15:40–17:24 – Player movement, culture vs. recruiting, the “wild west” of youth football
• 21:16–22:13 – Rivalries and mutual respect with Providence Day School
• 23:53–24:55 – Turnover issues, teaching accountability in creative ways
• 27:53–29:27 – Offseason training and importance of building habits for life

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Podcast Tone & Style

• Friendly, honest, and direct—casual banter mixed with serious insights.
• Coaches speak authentically, not shying away from the grind and sometimes employing blunt coaching language.
• Emphasis on humor, humility, and community as much as on competition and structure.

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Final Takeaways

This episode gives listeners a rare, unvarnished look at the heart and soul of youth football coaching from Greg Olsen and Luke Kuechly. The focus is on long-term development, integrity in recruitment, and building resilient, high-character athletes. Even as they chase wins, the coaching message is clear: the real victory is fostering growth on and off the field.

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For anyone wanting to understand grassroots athletic culture, leadership, and the changing landscape of youth sports, these stories and strategies from Greg Olsen and crew are invaluable.

Transcript

[Interviewer 1]

What do you guys say to the rumors swirling about you guys taking the head high school football coaching jobs? Because I, I've. I've. We've received a couple of texts. They're Charlotte area code and it's the, it's. They're going by the name. Don't worry about it. 573-573 people are saying. And a lot of coaches in the high school world are talk like they could, they look, they can do it in the Pop Warner world. There's no shot they could do it in high school. Coach, you guys hear those rumors?

[Interviewer 2]

Greg Oz, he travels with his son. His son's gonna be playing high school ball here very soon.

[Interviewer 1]

Y.

[Coach Greg Olson]

We have been very clear. We have a great relationship with the high school staff. Chris James, the varsity coach at Charlie Christian, good buddy of mine. I make it very clear to everyone our job at the middle school level. Yes, we want to win. Yes. Don't get me wrong. Our job is to turn over as many good football players, as many kids ready for high school football to him in 9th grade as humanly possible. We sent them a class last year that are now freshmen.

[Interviewer 2]

Our.

[Coach Greg Olson]

Our tailback from our 8th grade team right now. Jamal, Jamal Rule. Who's the kid going to Nebraska? The running back. He broke. He hurt his thumb and had surgery, so he's missed the last couple of weeks. Our backup is a freshman. He played for us last year as an eighth grader, had never played football before, and now he's playing on varsity. He had two touchdowns Friday night against a really good team out of Georgia and is playing real ball. He's played one year for us. Our goal is how many of these freshmen in every class can we have ready to play high school ball? Whether it's as a freshman, a sophomore, junior, who knows? But we're going to give them another really good class to back up that one. Our eighth graders this year are really good. Our seventh grade class might be as good as any of them, if not better. So as many of these classes that we can prep hand over to the varsity to kind of build this thing from the ground floor up, that's our model. That's what we're trying to do. And we've been very clear where our support lies, what our roles are. We are the farm system. We are the fundamental foundation of the Charlotte Christian football program. We take great pride in that. We believe doing it at that level and letting these kids grow up through the program is the right way to do it. It's the best long term way to do it. And that's what we believe in.

[Interviewer 2]

So it's safe to say you're, you know, in the immediate future. Let's just say 10 years. 10 years. They're going to have this farm system in place. Middle school football, Greg Golson, Luke Keakley.

[Coach Greg Olson]

Coach Stewart, just 10 years is probably aggressive.

[Interviewer 2]

Okay, just. I didn't know, I didn't know what kind of future we're looking at over there.

[Interviewer 1]

Doubling down on that. What. How old is your youngest son who is going to go through this process?

[Coach Greg Olson]

Seventh grade. So I got five. We got five more years.

[Interviewer 1]

Five more years. Well, they go to high school, right? Ninth grade. Correct.

[Interviewer 2]

But he's letting the fan base know.

[Coach Greg Olson]

My kids are right now 8th and 7th.

[Interviewer 1]

Okay.

[Coach Greg Olson]

So I got my son after Wednesday, he's got four more years of high school football. He'll be a freshman next fall. And then my seventh graders got five years left. He'll have eighth grade and then four years of high school. So I got five more years after this until my young, my three are all gone. And that'll be. That's where our emphasis is. Can we get a five year grind? And, and again, I want to be very clear of what we're doing here. There are a lot of schools around Charlotte that import kids on a daily basis. Kids are changing classes, changing schools. Mid season, we got kids transferring after week five and then going to show up and play quarterback on another team five days later. Like what you see happening is happening here in Charlotte. We have kids that want to come to Charlotte Christian. If we could get everyone in, it'd be a lot easier, but we can't. So you get in a couple here and there, but we don't have open enrollment. We don't have open admissions like some of the other schools we compete against. And the reality is this is the harder way to do it. Right? Like, this is the. This is a bigger grind and we don't shy away from it. We're going to continue to coach the hell out of these kids. We're going to continue to coach our kids and build that core and build that. You know, it's no different than at the college level. If you don't recruit well, you can only transfer portal your way. So much high school football has become the transfer portal. At least here in North Carolina, there's always going to be an element of kids coming into the program that's common, but you have to add good kids to an already very good core nucleus of players that understand your culture. That's the secret you see it in college, it's no different than in the high school world.

[Interviewer 2]

So this is again, I'll clarify, I'll see if what I'm saying is correct because this sounds like pretty big breaking news that Adam Schefter would cover. Charlotte Christian can feel good about having this staff in place in the middle school era for the next five years.

[Coach Greg Olson]

I want to be clear. We are going to coach the middle school team one more year. Next year we are going to get this current seventh grade class that we're coaching now.

[Interviewer 2]

Okay.

[Coach Greg Olson]

We will get them to high school. How we manage doing, you know, do we start helping out with some of the JV stuff to allocate some time to there as these classes get older before they're ready for varsity, I don't know. We will coach the middle school team. Okay, more year next year get my younger son up to high school, contracts up and maybe some sort of hybrid middle school JV type world while you know, my kids are in 9th and 10th grade.

[Interviewer 1]

This is exactly why Greg Olson has such a great career on the podium. And he's doing so great now. He's so well spoken. He's saying we'll do the JV and we'll do the Pop Warner but we know when it sounds like he doesn't want it. We're going to have a head football coach for the high school. Coach James is. He doesn't know what's coming and I honestly don't blame him. I stay we're not start that rumor. We're putting that rumor to bed and that you're doing a great job right now. You're doing a phenomenal job. We'll put the rumor to bed.

[Coach Greg Olson]

I'm going to put the rumor to bed. I'm not eager nor do I really want whatever. I want to be a head high school coach. That is a 12 month a year job. I could not call my games like volunteering. Doing what we're doing now as a, as a program accessory, as a program kind of helper is one thing. Coaching real high school ball, if you want to do it right is a 7 day a week, 12 month a year full time job. I'm not doing that. Maybe Luke wants to do that. I'm not doing that right now.

[Interviewer 2]

Some people saying you don't love it enough. Coach Keakley, Coach Keakley, when you have, you know, this next year going into the final year, your guys contract when you have seventh graders hitting the portal and wanting to visit Charlotte Christian, what is your Message to them knowing they're not going to get you for the full two years at Charlotte Christian.

[Coach Luke Keakley]

Well, they, they'll keep growing. We'll still be part of the program. So they might not get us that year, but the next year will be still there. So they just got to continue to learn and play hard. And you want to come play real football, you got to come to Charlotte Christian.

[Interviewer 2]

I love that.

[Coach Greg Olson]

It's our slogan. We play real ball.

[Interviewer 2]

We play.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Interviewer 2]

Hey, we, we have. So Luke and by the way, whenever this your guys season ends again, invites on the table, both you guys. Greg, I know you travel around a lot as well, but open invite to join the boys in the locker room.

[Interviewer 1]

Or NFL 45 minute flight. Really easy.

[Interviewer 2]

We'll put you up, do the whole thing quick flight. 45 minutes will feed you really well. Camaraderie will be high will be a Clay Matthews and Delaney Walker. But where I'm taking you with this question. Clay Matthews has a very competitive kindergarten flag football team. He's under a lot of heat right now from the outside noise in the fan base and the parents that are with that team because he went in the championship Sunday and apparently didn't play all the kids because he was trying to win a football game. Now he's taking a lot of heat for not playing all the kids. Care to comment? Both of you guys?

[Coach Greg Olson]

Every coach's worst nightmare. I'm shocked that there's not playtime rules. When we used to do the kids at the younger level, when we did Pop Warner, when Luke and I and my dad did Pop Warner a couple years ago for a few years there was minimum play time reps. So this was what like four fifth and sixth grade we had minimum plays and they had somebody who actually sat on the sideline with a clipboard and had to check off. Every kid had to play what, 10 plays.

[Coach Luke Keakley]

10 plays.

[Coach Greg Olson]

10 plays minimum play time. So place templates you've always had in the football world, there's been rules in place. When we did flag football when the kids were small, each kid had to play like a quarter or like whatever. There was like ways to quantify playing time. So I don't know. Listen, I'm not judging anyone. We have not always gotten it right. It's very easy to get caught up in the moment of trying to be competitive and trying to win at the, you know, kinder kindergarten.

[Interviewer 2]

Six year olds.

[Coach Greg Olson]

Yeah. Even I'm like, let him get a rep. I mean they don't have to get the ball.

[Interviewer 2]

Greg, Greg. Clay has lost Sleep. Because that trophy, they lost the game. They were in a, they were in a tough one. And he's trying to win a game. All the kids don't get in. It's five on five. I think this team carries 14 on the roster.

[Coach Greg Olson]

It's a lot of kids first mistake.

[Interviewer 2]

But he's, he's lost sleep over not having the championship. And after, you know, he's still bleeding and a lot of parents, he's hearing a lot of noise. You didn't play my kids.

[Interviewer 1]

A lot of emails take place, a lot of random text messages from different area codes.

[Interviewer 2]

Yeah.

[Interviewer 1]

Coming out at him right now. So it's tough.

[Interviewer 2]

Luke, are you trying to win a football game or are you making sure you getting all the boys in?

[Coach Luke Keakley]

Well, luckily for us, we can get them in before the game starts.

[Coach Greg Olson]

We play a fifth quarter, so all.

[Coach Luke Keakley]

The kids, we get 12 offensive snaps, 12 defensive snaps. Before the game, we get all our kids in. So once the ball kicks off, we're trying to win a football game. The rules for the Pop Warner that Greg talked about helped us out a lot. And then that fifth quarter before the Christian game helps us out a lot because all the kids get an opportunity to get a couple reps every game so they know they're going to get in. And then when we play the real game, we get our kids in there that can go play and help us win football games. So I think we just, we owe it to the kids to go out and try to try our best to win the games. And if the score and the time in the game dictates it, we can put the other kids in and get other kids opportunities. Because I think the best thing that we can do is try to prepare our seventh graders for live action next year. So it's the eighth grader and the older guy's job to help us get ahead, get a lead and put those young kids in to give them an opportunity to play for next year.

[Interviewer 2]

When you're approaching a bye week, are you letting them get out of the building and enjoying their vacation time? Are you still bringing them in and you got to do some self scouting. What's the staff doing on the week of the bye week? And then what are you doing with your players? Because you know, in the NFL, it's like, hey, are we going to get this vacation time off or is coach going to keep us around? You your thoughts?

[Coach Mitch]

Yeah.

[Coach Greg Olson]

So if I, if it was up to me, we'd practice every day.

[Interviewer 2]

Yeah.

[Coach Greg Olson]

But the reason we have a buy is the kids aren't here. So the kids, we took them to school this morning. Well, my wife took them to kids. I was flying across the country. They went to school this morning, boarded buses and they took them away. So they're going to be gone. They don't come back until Wednesday afternoon. So we'll have no practice today, Tuesday or Wednesday. We'll be back to regular school on Thursday. We'll practice after school like usual, start prepping. We'll kind of do like a hybrid corrections from last week, get back to our first fundamentals, get back to all of our stuff. We always start with us before we worry about them. That's kind of like our model. So we'll do our corrections, we'll do our fundamentals, we'll do all of our stuff on Thursday and then we'll start getting into game prep for the team that we play next week. And then Friday we'll do. We'll come in, we'll do like an hour and a half practice. We'll watch the game film from our first two weeks, like, in person, in the classroom.

[Interviewer 2]

Love that.

[Coach Greg Olson]

I'll make like a mini cut up of, like, the plays we've got to watch that we've got to correct off of. And so that'll wrap. We'll be off on the weekend and then we'll get back to work on Monday. So that's our, our buy schedule. We'll get two good days in this week.

[Interviewer 1]

Greg, speaking of staying on the bye week, you got a lot of guys. You start two and, oh, you have a very early buy in this season. How do you stop your players from getting big heads and feeling like, hey, we're going to roll over everybody this year.

[Coach Greg Olson]

Yeah, we're pretty good at that. We're pretty good at, like, the humbling approach. Like, we, we've played okay. I wouldn't say we've played great. I think we have a. We have a good team. We have really talented kids and like, we're tough and we play hard. Like, all those things, we've been a little sloppy. So we. The nice thing is, you know, it's like, it's no different than what we saw yesterday in week one of the NFL. There's a lot of teams that walked into the locker room one and oh, and the. When that euphoria kind of wears off and you kind of take a deep breath and you come back in and you watch the film, you're like, oh, my God, we're not that good. Like, we got a lot of things to do, but it's a lot easier being one. And, oh, coaching off wins. That's the same thing for us. So we've got a lot of things we need to get better at. We've got a lot of things that we can improve on. Our operations, some ball security. But the one thing I will say, our kids play hard. Like, our kids are physical. They run to the ball. We're not always in the right spot. We overrun some plays. We don't fit the right gaps in the run game. You know, we can coach all that. We run, we hit, we tackle. And that's what we've stressed all summer. As the year goes on, we'll clean up the operation, we'll clean up some of the details, the penalties, the blown assignments. Like, that's just part of being young. I mean, we saw that yesterday with professionals. So that part we always expect early on. But the one thing we do do is we play fast and we play hard.

[Interviewer 2]

Is the team next week? How are they? What is their record? Is this team you got circled on the schedule right now?

[Coach Greg Olson]

Yeah, they're. They're undefe. A local. They're a local. Their high school is like a local power. Their high school team is. Is really talented. They've got kids going all over the country for college, and they run a really good program. It's called Providence Day School. Chad Greer, Will Greer's father, is the coach. And so they do a nice job. They've got a nice high school program. So, you know, like anything, it trickles down. Kids come to that school as middle schoolers because they know it's a good high school. That's kind of like what our school is like. Our high school is really talented. We're a little smaller than them. We don't have as many kids, but we're good. Our running backs going to Nebraska. Will, by the way.

[Interviewer 2]

Yes. I remember you saying that on the bus. Shout out Nebraska. Big red looking nice, too.

[Coach Greg Olson]

Yeah, good win, Nice job. But anyway, so, yeah, it's a, It's a big game. They're. They're right up the street from us. They're a mile away. It's a rivalry game, and we got.

[Coach Mitch]

To come ready to play rivalry game.

[Interviewer 2]

I love to. How he's. He's doing a good job of lifting up the opponent and not giving him any. Any bulletin board material going into the game week.

[Interviewer 1]

No doubt about it. When you play this game, you talk about you're playing two teams that are undefeated and this both high school teams are big. Now, I know there's Been rumors swirling around the Charlotte county area saying that when Greg Olson's kids are old enough, he might be taking over the head coaching job at high school. Those are just rumors at this point.

[Interviewer 2]

They're on the message boards. I've seen, I've been seeing the message boards. I got a login, I got a subscription. That is.

[Interviewer 1]

You dive in. Those message boards are going hot, right? There's still hot. It's called Reddit. They, they get this going.

[Coach Greg Olson]

Now, I haven't been on Reddit because it's toxic, but I'll tell you, growing up as a kid, man, you wanted to know where you stood in the New Jersey high school you went to, like NJ.com. you signed up for a forum.

[Coach Mitch]

Yeah.

[Coach Greg Olson]

And you'd be like, is anybody talking about me?

[Interviewer 1]

Oh, yeah.

[Interviewer 2]

Type in your name.

[Interviewer 1]

And you're kind of like, oh, Dave Luan was big time on MGO Blue, which was their message forums. Every single week. He had to find out what, hey, what the whole community thought of Luan.

[Interviewer 2]

Red Sea Scrolls.

[Coach Greg Olson]

Now you don't have to look at. Now you don't have to look very far.

[Interviewer 1]

People will tell you, oh, no, yeah, the bird will tell you everything you have to know. But you play, you play this team out there, you play this team, you beat this team. Are you Kikley and a couple of guys maybe going over to some of those kids saying, hey, you want to be a part of a championship program? This is the place for you. You're only a mile away.

[Coach Greg Olson]

Not on the field, no.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah, but once you, but once the juice boxes are in hand and the orange slices are given.

[Coach Greg Olson]

Oranges, once the oranges are passed out.

[Interviewer 1]

Then it's free game pretty good out there. I'll tell you what, man, we could use you at cornerback next year.

[Coach Mitch]

You know what?

[Coach Greg Olson]

And, and this is the God's honest truth. And you guys know, like, the high school world nowadays is the wild west. I mean, there are kids transferring during the season, there's kids transferring a week before the season. There's kids that are going to three or four high schools over their four year high school journey and not even blinking. So the idea of movement and the idea of kids bouncing around is obvious. We all understand is just the reality. I will say though, like, we are not like, call. I'm not calling kids out of the blue and pleading for them to come to our school. We do hear from a lot of families that reach out to us, reach out through the school, what we want. Our, our recruiting. I'm just speaking from the middle school, our recruiting is when you come watch the games, you watch our team play, and you watch your team play. And this isn't always the case. I'm just saying this is our goal. We want you to walk out and be like, my kid loves football. I want him to be coached there. Like, I want him to be on that team. They're organized, they play hard, they're fast, they're multiple. Their kids are playing real, real football. That I could see being a good springboard as my kid gets into high school. Like, to me, that's our recruiting. And we've lost games. We haven't. Like, we haven't won every game by 100. That's the. What we're trying to build, the groundswell we're trying to do. That's our recruiting. And then if you reach out to us and you're interested in coming, we'll see what we can do about getting you in and going through that whole process. But we're not going to apologize for that. Like, we're going to try to put a brand of football that. If you care about football and you. Your kid cares about football, we want you to see us and say, that's where our kid needs to be.

[Interviewer 2]

If. If your team's worth a shit, your social media person right now, they need to be clipping that, running it.

[Interviewer 1]

For.

[Interviewer 2]

Whenever recruits do come into the office, that's the first thing see and hear.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Interviewer 2]

You know what I'm saying? And start kind of building that from the inside out.

[Interviewer 1]

I'll say this, you talked about you. When people want to come in, will you say, we'll see what we can do? If they can fit into the culture. Have you had to go through that as a head coach, where you have to look at another kid and be like, hey, there's 12 other teams in this league that are going to want you, but unfortunately, it's not this team.

[Coach Greg Olson]

We. Well, typically the kids that want to come are, we know, are pretty good players. But at our school, and this is a credit to the school, we don't have a lot of turnover and it's not a very big school. So we got like 110, 115 kids in a grade, give or take. So it's a. It's a relatively small school, so there's only so many spots. Right. You know, you'd say there's 50 boys, 50 to 60 boys in a grade on average. So there's just. There's not a lot of numbers. There's not a lot of empty Seats, you know, so we could have, we could get 20 new kids to come play football for us next year if we wanted to. Like, it's not hard. It's just hard getting everybody in because kids don't leave our school. So there's a couple spots and obviously admissions does a nice job trying to spread them around and multi sports and guys and girls and performing arts and there's a lot of mouths that need to be fed. So we are not at a school. Some of the schools around us that we compete against, if a good kid wants to come, it's a 100% admission they're in. That's not the case at our school. So we don't get everybody. We, we probably don't get half the kids who want to come play for us. And that's just the nature of the business. We get as many as we can. The vast majority of our team that we coach are kids that are just at our school. They've been there since they were in kindergarten. They've worked their way up and now they're in seventh and eighth grade and they're eligible to play on the team. That of our 50 kids, I'd say 40 plus have gone to school there their whole life.

[Interviewer 1]

Talk to me about Eagles and Rams.

[Interviewer 2]

Open up my first question. I want to know how his team did when they came back from their little, their little break.

[Interviewer 1]

This is the first game back. They had the bye week last week.

[Interviewer 2]

I know, but I want to know how, how was tempo? How was practice? Did they hit the field like he wanted to see him?

[Interviewer 1]

That's the most important thing.

[Interviewer 2]

Was it, was it a down week? Did you have to correct them after the practice? Like, hey, we ain't coming out here just to fiddle our thumbs. We need a sense of urgency.

[Coach Mitch]

Yeah, I think I, I think, I think you're spot on. I think maybe the first practice returning last Monday, maybe a little. We had to get on him a little bit just to get the blood flowing a little bit, get the juices going, get back in the groove. I thought Tuesday we had a really good day. Wednesday review day before the game. We had a really good day. Wednesday night, did a nice video. We do it via Zoom. Did a nice late night team video session. Corrections from the week in practice. We record all of our practices. So we did a little, did a little team correction, did some game review stuff from former weeks to just clean, clean everything up. And then we, we, I wouldn't say we played great. We played well. We won 20 to nothing. Defense played really well team. We played, had some good player.

[Interviewer 1]

Oh, we're losing them.

[Coach Mitch]

Oh, I would say we played. I would say we played well.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Interviewer 2]

Okay.

[Interviewer 1]

Good. Not great is what you'll put on the. You'll put on it.

[Coach Greg Olson]

Yeah.

[Coach Mitch]

I want us to be more dominant. Like, I want us to be more assertive. It took us a little. It was only six nothing at half. Couple turnovers. That's been a problem for us this year. We got to get cleaned up. But defensively, we played really well, which was exciting.

[Interviewer 1]

I love that.

[Interviewer 2]

Say that again, Mitch.

[Coach Mitch]

Greg, you played my buddy from college. You played his team this past week. Oh, really nice.

[Interviewer 1]

What was in the team, Mitch?

[Coach Greg Olson]

I don't know what high school or.

[Coach Mitch]

Middle school he works at. So the program that we played, their high school team, so it's called Providence Day School. They're right up the road from us. To their credit, like, I give credit where credit's due. They've got a really good football program. Like, their. Their high school is loaded. They produce a lot of really good college kids. They're. If they're not the best team in the whole state, they're one of the top handful. They do. They do a good job. So I, you know, give credit where credit's due. So it was a good win for us. They're a good football school. They take football serious, as do we. And it was. It was a game that we wanted to win.

[Interviewer 1]

Is it too early in the process, looking at these middle school kids? Because, like, you know, testosterone is now finally getting to the body. You're seeing these kids develop. Are you looking at any of these kids on your roster going, this kid's D1. This. This kid's going the distance, possibly.

[Coach Mitch]

You know, there's kids that have those qualities. Like, there's kids that have those, you know, characteristics. What's so hard about the middle school is, you know, These kids are 13, 14 years old, that some of the really big ones, and we don't have a ton of these on our team, but, like, as you look around the league, the really big, like, early bloomers, you ask yourself, like, all right, how much more are they going to grow? And then some of the other kids that are more on the early side, you say, hey, they've got a lot of good qualities. They're good players. How big are they going to get? So I think football is just so hard because even if you have the skill sets, even if you show those qualities of being a good receiver, a good defensive back, as you guys know, so much of the game and opportunity at the higher level is just, how big are you? How tall are you? How much do you weigh, how fast you run? And I think at 13, 14 years old, it's. It's hard to predict for most of these kids what they're going to look like at 17.

[Interviewer 2]

Yeah.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah. We ran into that problem when I was playing for the Scottsdale Shockers. We had a kid named James Rayna. I have no idea what he's doing to this day, but he was about 5, 6, 5, 7, and he was like 8 years old. He was like a tall 8 year old. He could run the hell out of the rock. Fast forward to him being a senior in high school. He's the same height, so that you always. You always got to be cautious about giving out a green flag. Hey, this kid's going to be the one. He's going to be the absolute one.

[Interviewer 2]

What is the. What's the scattering report we got on this, this upcoming game this week for you guys? What are the team keys to success?

[Coach Mitch]

So number biggest focus today. So I'm literally on my way back to my airport. Back to the airport to fly home to get back for practice. There's no days off, boys.

[Coach Greg Olson]

You know the deal.

[Coach Mitch]

So we got our first Monday. This will be our first practice back after last week's game. We give the kids the weekends off. We've gotten a little soft in today's middle school. We should practice seven days a week. But anyway, our biggest thing is we've got to clean up, like, our stuff.

[Coach Greg Olson]

We.

[Coach Mitch]

We've turned the ball over six times at three games too, too many. We've got to protect the ball. We got to get back to our basics. The one thing our kids do, and I've told you guys how much we value this, and our kids have answered the bell. We play extremely hard. Our kids play fast. They run to the ball. We tackle, we block, we finish. Like, all the things that we stress, we've done it. We've. Our kids have really answered and done a good job. We need to play cleaner ball. We got to protect the ball assignments. It's early in the year. They're young. All of our effort going forward, these next couple of weeks is going to be like, we got to clean up our ball. It doesn't matter who we play. It doesn't matter what they do. If we clean up, the little stuff that we can control will be hard to beat.

[Interviewer 1]

It's got to feel good. Sitting undefeated and knowing all the issues you have, and they're all internally fixable things. It's not a talent issue. Talk about six turnovers in three games. What is the total turn turnover margin you guys got going on in your team?

[Coach Mitch]

Yeah. So I'd say we're probably even. We four, six, mix of fumbles and picks. So I think for the season, we're even. The last time I ran the numbers, I think we're six and six. So I feel pretty good defensively about taking the ball away offensively. Got to have a little bit more. A little bit more focus in that area.

[Interviewer 2]

Now, when you're, you know, when you're coaching these middle schoolers, Coach Greg Olson, is this a situation to where you challenge the offensive players to carry a football around school hours? During school hours? This seems like a prime. I want to see you carrying the football anytime I see you.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.

[Interviewer 2]

Locker room, bathroom, doesn't matter. And guys are going to come trying to knock it out.

[Coach Mitch]

Yeah, it's like remember in the. Member in the, in the program?

[Interviewer 2]

Yeah.

[Coach Mitch]

You guys remember the movie, the Program, when he carried the ball around? They knocked it out in class and they started like a riot down the stairs recovering the fumble.

[Interviewer 2]

Yeah.

[Coach Mitch]

I feel like we might need to. I don't think our kids are ready for the program. You think we can watch the program.

[Coach Greg Olson]

With middle school kids?

[Interviewer 2]

I think so. I think there's a situation where you get your running backs and quarterback carrying the ball around and they might see Luke Kuechley down the hall and you better protect yourself because Coach Keakley is going to get the ball out.

[Interviewer 1]

That's, that's the biggest thing is making sure that you and Coach Keakley are at, at the school. I don't know how often you're inside those hallways, but if you could somehow dress down to look like a middle school kid and just kind of walk up and punch that thing out. You get that on video. Put it in a team meeting by boys. Do you think this is how we're going to be successful? No. On the line. Everybody outside right now.

[Coach Greg Olson]

I'll be honest. I like it. I like it.

[Coach Mitch]

I think you're onto something. I, you know, every once in a while you got to. We used to say you got to slit a throat. You know, every once in a while you got to slit a throat. You got to reset the standard. And I think carrying the ball around and then, and then hiring people throughout the course of the day, like, can we get different teachers in on it? Can we get the administration at the school, the principal, can we get them kind of Come punch, peanut punch. Rip the backside point. Make sure the front tips are higher than the back. Like can we make sure we test them throughout the entire day? Going between math and science and make sure there's a good cup the wrist. When there's traffic, we get two hands on the ball. Yeah, maybe no better way to do it than in the hallways. I think you're onto something.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah, you got to get. It's got to be a whole team thing. Especially when you're talking about how small your school is. We don't have a lot of kids in there. Not everybody just gets into that. Okay. Teachers administration, if you're going to be like that, then we got to make sure we're all kind of carrying the flag, is making sure our football team is as good as possible. Because the standard is the standard. You guys have have set one. What's your guys's off season training look like right now with the kids?

[Coach Greg Olson]

I'm glad you asked. We got like 20, we got a good group. I'd say give any day 20 kids, seventh and eighth graders. Group's gonna shrink. And you know, some kids are playing winter sports, some kids, you know, so there's a little kind of fluctuation of, of who. But give or take 15 to 20 kids Monday through Thursday, 6:30 before school, weight room, shred mill, track. All sorts of four days a week training, 6:30 to 7:15. Our kids are grinding.

[Interviewer 2]

We got them in a hypertrophy mode. You're really breaking them down so that way you can build some muscle mass.

[Coach Greg Olson]

I like that. I will. I like that. Yeah, dude there. I don't go to the workouts. We have a really good strength and conditioning coach at school who he handles it. So I just drop the kids off and let them go do their thing. But dude, 45 minutes a day for 13, 14 year old kids four days a week. It's amazing how much they can get done. It's amazing how much they can learn. And it's not even about like how much weight's on the bar, how much weight. It's just learning how to be in the weight room, learning how to load the rack, learning how to be on time, learning how to go through a warm up, learning how to like there's so many lessons that are built in a weight room that have nothing to do with how much I can bench press or back squat that for these seventh and eighth graders to get an early kind of look at what that looks like, it's such. This is the first year we've Ever done it. We don't typically start our football workouts until the spring. So for our kids to start this and go all winter, then we'll take the holidays off and then come back for the start of the second semester and go through, you know, late winter, early spring, I think it's going to pay off as we get rolling for next year.

[Interviewer 2]

Yeah, you're going to jump on the opponent.

[Coach Greg Olson]

How's your tone, man? Yeah, set the tone from the ground up.

[Interviewer 2]

What's your boy pushing these days? What is he got on the rack right now? What are we talking here? We got, we got 135 on the bar yet. You know what?

[Coach Greg Olson]

I'm not sure I think, which I agree with, I'm not sure if they've ever done straight bar bench. I think all of their very smart, prone, pressing type exercises, I believe they're all using dumbbell. Kettlebell.

[Interviewer 1]

Smart, smart.

[Coach Greg Olson]

I, I could be wrong on that. When they get home from school. Well, they're not in school today, but when they get home, when they go back again, I'm going to ask them, but I don't think they do straight bar bench, but I have to ask them. I, I believe it's all dumbbell.

[Interviewer 2]

Yeah. Boys. You boys doing some eccentric work in that weight room right now? We're in the wintertime. We're in phase one.

[Coach Greg Olson]

Let's get break the body and everything in your body's just shaking.

[Interviewer 1]

Yeah.