Transcript: Coach Alvarez’s Bold Predictions, Winning Advice, and His Epic Journey to U.S.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Next we go to golf, where they won first place out of eight teams at the St. Ed's Invitational, getting some much-needed revenge. The team is looking as dominant as ever, looking to pick up only another high. The team is looking as dominant as ever, looking to pick up only another high.

They are placing at next week's tournament at Quail Hollow for the D1 Sectional tournament. Hopefully the team brings home a trophy with this good push into the playoffs. With that, we finally go into cross-country, where they went to the Strongfield Vertical Runner Invitational. And Ethan Anson led the pack in the 5,000 meter run with 54th place with a time of 17 minutes and 19 seconds.

Just following seconds behind him, Quinn McPhail, Alex Schott, Brandon Coley, and Thomas Ledowski. The team looks to next Saturday. The team looks to next Saturday. they will compete at the You Want to Come Back Invitational at Madison High School. Good luck to them.

Now, some of the biggest news around the school. This past week, reigning Founders Day champs Goodwillie House took to the fields to defend their title and fell short, earning a sad 10th place. In the end, Crookshank House was the one that could lift the Founders Day Cup. Next, looking at our week's senior speeches, we had great speeches from Josh Belcher and Johnny Fedele, and we look forward to more great speeches from Adam Sands, Tristan Jackson, aka T-Money, and Phillip Colvin.

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

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

Truly an honor, boys. Truly an honor. Great to have you. So you're here at university school now, but this is just the latest destination on your long and impressive journey.

I've always wondered how you ended up at this school. Can you tell us about your path to this point? So I started actually 30 years ago, right? This is my 30th year in the game.

I started as actually a student assistant volunteer at Summit Country High School in Cincinnati as a sophomore in college. Then from there, I got an opportunity to start this program at St. Xavier High School that same sophomore year. So I was a Sanex sophomore, junior, senior year.

My junior year, I got an opportunity to get an internship under Coach Marotti at Cincinnati, who's currently at Ohio State. I did that until I graduated senior year. I got invited to join Notre Dame. Coach Marotti headed there, so he took me with him.

Spent two years at Notre Dame, then got hired as the first Latin American strength and conditioning coordinator in MLB by the Indians. Left the Indians, headed to the Cincinnati Reds in charge of major league, minor league strength and conditioning. Left the Cincinnati Reds, jumped ship, went back to the high school level to St. X, spent nine years at St.

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

I was lucky enough to have this school open up, and I've been here ever since, and it's been... Amazing challenge, and, you know, it's great work, great kids, great institution, amazing. So that's how I'm here. Wow, that's, I mean, that's really impressive, just place to place.

I mean, you, like, what we kind of wanted to understand about you was not only you as like a strength coach, but even further, you as a person, because I feel like that picture has never really shown. I mean, you've certainly had, like, a really extensive career as, like, a coach and an influence not only on, like, St. X's and all these different places, but on U.S. already. Mm-hmm.

What do you find most rewarding about helping athletes reach their full potential as people and in sports? Well, I think my personality, first and foremost, is to serve. I feel like I'm a servant leader. My mom was, like, that kind, sweet, warm-hearted, you know, so I've always felt like a need to help others, and as a young kid, I remember being 16 and having an epiphany where I'm like, I need to work in sports.

I don't know what I'll do with my life if I don't work in sports, right? It's, like, the only thing I found passion in. Um, so as I came... As I came along, when you work in coaching or teaching, um, you get humbled a lot.

You know what I'm saying? Like, you pick up the trash, right? Like, you rub the pads, you pick up the puke. Strength and conditioning is the trenches, right?

It's the trenches, so you learn to be humble as you come in through the field, right? And you meet coaches, and you meet mentors, and you learn what you want to do, and you learn what you don't want to become, um, and every level is different. But personality-wise, and you guys have heard me say this all the time, I think at, at this point, you just don't know what people's stories are. So as a coach, win or lose, my job is to make sure that you guys are front and center on my mind every day as to how do we reach our full potential, you know what I'm saying?

So it's just been one of those things where I know the power of a good morning, I understand the power of a smile, I don't know your story, so I'm not going to judge you, uh, I, I'm empathetic because, you know, as a strength coach, I'm not going to judge you. But you struggle, and it's like a tough gig, um, and it's not recognized, and so I know every day when I walk in, and I've said this to you guys, I bring my own energy. And having a kid go through this school, I know how challenging it is mentally and physically to be a student-athlete. So I'm aware that, you know what, sometimes you guys just need guardrails, sometimes you need a pat in the back, sometimes you need a click in the butt, like, that's just part of growing up.

So I feel like having been an athlete. Having been in this world of sports for so long, being, consulting with big companies, I think you learn that at the end of the day, we do this for you guys, right? Like, as a coach, it's not about wins and losses. I already got my 20 state titles at this level.

And I tell you guys this all the time, it's not about the wins anymore for me. It's about showing you guys the path to get there. So that's why I feel like my role here is clear, right? I'm a strength coach, I love it.

And it's to help you guys get to the next level, right? Help you find your path to mastery. So I'm intentional, I'm confrontational, right? Like whatever it takes to get you right.

And I love it. And that's why I kind of am here at US, like, there's no need to go anywhere else at the moment. And I can say as a student athlete myself, like going through school, it's always hard, you're always looking to the next thing, what you need to do that next test. But then just going to the weight room at the end of the day, it's definitely something where you can just put everything else aside and focus on getting better in that moment.

So. It's definitely something that's helped me. And is that satisfaction of helping those people reach their potential the only factor that's led to your success? Because personally, I believe there are many factors that go into an individual success and passion for what they do, right?

Are there other things that drive you to be better daily and push athletes past their limits? Well, I think, you know, being pushed and being motivated and inspired are all keys to success, right? Sometimes you need that. And for me, at a young age in my career, someone told me, and I won't say the team, but my junior year of college, I went like on, everybody went on spring break.

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

And I said, yeah, I could be. And he said, this is what I'm looking for. I said, listen, there's only 30 of us in the world go be a PE teacher. I said, bet.

And I had that chip on my shoulder ever since, right? So I knew, ambitiously, I was going to be a head guy at the pro level, right? That was just like, there's no way you're going to tell me otherwise. And it happened two years, actually three years after college, right?

So that chip on the shoulder led me to create goals and objectives and go visit other dudes and just take it upon myself. And now I get to say, you ain't stopping me. So that's been me. And you guys see it.

I never stop. I know what it takes to win. And I'm going to push every single one of you to get there. So knowing what it takes to win, I think drives me to help other people.

Because it's hard to win a state championship in this state, in any state, especially Division I, right? So you always have a chip on your shoulder, right? So at least that's for me. Miya Nakamura Right?

I go I want to go out there and make sure that you know we dominate so that takes a lot of hard work so I think that's kind of what drives me like helping you guys succeed but then seeing you raise that trophy at the end of the year and see how hard it was and celebrate it together you know one of the things I think is really interesting is that like dominance like how you like have to instill that almost into everybody you know during the 630 football workouts that this summer I constantly didn't get enough sleep and would yawn all right and you would always tell me to do 10 push-ups and you know at first I always thought to myself oh this isn't gonna make me disciplined or anything and it's just gonna make me more grumpy at 6 in the morning but you quickly realize the importance of the small little things that lead up to that huge culture of just excellence dominance you worked at many different places with many different athletes what's the culture you hope to build at these schools to make them successful well I think the most important thing when you're building a culture is to understand that culture is to understand that culture is to mean culture is just caring about your people. There's no secret to that. You know what I'm saying? Like people talk about culture and it's all, it's all, no.

Take care of you. Take care of you. If we can show that we have your best interest in mind, and my why is that, getting your path to mastery, helping you get there. So for me, that's the most important thing, right?

How you build culture. Take care of your people. In young athletes, as in, well, in college or professional, there has to be a standard. We don't yawn.

We don't sit. We don't lean on equipment, right? Are pushups good? Yes.

So we're yawning. Yawning is good. So it's not like it's a punishment per se, but it's like, listen, lock in. We got 45 minutes, no yawning, no sitting, get to work.

So really it's those little things just build the standard. And I've had kids 20 years later be like, and I still look behind my shoulder for you. So it kind of stays ingrained in you. But those are just little things that we try to make sure that you can build the standard.

Standard every day. And then within that, right, we talk about it. If you do hard things every day, the reward of that is you learn to do hard things. That's who you become.

So for us, it's just that. If we consistently build and push the standard forward with just the little things, quality rep, no yawning, wipe down the equipment, take pride in your room, that builds a culture of understanding of pride in what we do and how we're going to go about our business, right? We want to be the less selfish team. So less selfish player on the field.

Like, it's always about others, right? And that's why I always tell you guys, man, we got to love each other if we want to be winners. Because on hard times, you have to lean on others. So really, it's nothing other than taking care of you guys.

We don't judge. We show empathy, right? We're patient. Because that's what you need.

Nothing more than that's what the youth need today. Someone to be there and like, just be there. And that translates into life. Like, I'm slumping in my chair, in class.

Well, I better pick it up, sit up straight, focus in for class. So just the little things that we practice in the weight room, just how you do one thing is how you do everything. That's correct. It's a good lesson.

All right. So you have a lot of quotes, a lot of sayings. But one of my favorites is, every stud program has a stud strength coach. I love it.

This quote from you proves that you know your value and you have confidence in the job that you do, as you should. But where do you find your confidence every day? Because I think that's something that a lot of people struggle with, but maybe not something that you struggle with. Where do you find that?

Again, what you see is what you get with me. There's no faking what I am, right? And sometimes that upsets people. Sometimes that intimidates people.

But for me, it's like, if I bring my energy every day, it's not about other people's energy. And I say this to you guys all the time. Bring who you want to be every single day. That's good enough, right?

And that's just... Who I am. I don't know if that... I guess people perceive it as confidence.

But I just know what I want every day. And I know your parents. And I know what you struggle with. And I see your grades.

And I see your demerits. I see you, right? So at some point, it's like, well, how am I going to connect with you today? Right?

I saw you lift 315 in season the other day in the weight room, right? Or off season. You got to celebrate that. Same thing with you, Charlie, right?

You got to bump fingers. You're hurt. You still show up, and you grind it. So really, it's not a confidence thing.

It's like, I care about every single one of my dudes. So I'm just coming at you as I am, like, energetic. I'm taking care of you. What do we need to do?

Because that's how I would bring my day. I bring my energy. I don't let other people dictate how I bring my day. So I guess that relates as confidence.

Do you have a certain influence in life that is like, or someone or something that has really influenced the way you work and the way you strive to be? I think my family, right? Like, I think I see how hard my wife works. I see how hard my kids work.

I see, you know, so for me, being in a place that inspire me, inspires me and motivates me every day to be my best. That's enough, right? You journal, and we've talked about this, right? You show gratitude, right?

You do the little things, marginal gain everything every day. Because you don't have to eat the elephant in one bite, right? Like, it's this is long term, you're here for a long time, right? You're here for a long time, right?

You're here for a long time, right? You're here for years. So you have to find every year, every day something to inspire and motivate you. For me waking up in the morning and seeing my family that to me is like, I know what I'm doing here.

You walk into the school and you hear go to assembly and you hear a senior speech. And you're like, that's why I'm here. So how you go about your day again. That's what motivates me every day.

Because you look around us and there's greatness everywhere. Teachers, faculty, staff, facilities, new, like food service. So it's just finding out, you know, something that you can be passionate about, whatever that might be. And that will give you the food you need every day.

But you have to come correct every day, right? You have to know who you are. You know, walk into the interview, we had a we talked about the idea of how privileged like we are to I mean, even have like a podcast room by itself. I mean, that's like a huge privilege.

Is there something like I know, we have so many facilities already? Is there something that you really think would just push you to the next level? Is there something that you really think would just push us sports to the next level? Like, can you maybe see one factor that would really that you really think would lead us to just having success in every single sport state champions?

Nick Horowitz I believe so, you know, and those are questions that are asked often in high academic institutions, right? Like, can we do high, high academic and high, high, sport, success, competitive excellence. And I believe that it's that's, and I've said this all the time, this is not an either or proposition, we could do both. Not an either or proposition.

And that's it. You know, we can do both. I mean, day and we did it say next we did it us we're doing it right so i don't think there's one thing we need to do i think and i've had these conversations with komal basa i think what we're doing infrastructure wise good trainers good strength and conditioning the nutrition the hydration right the support from the athletic department the support from the administration and the alumni that's the foundation and resources aren't an issue if we play with our resources correctly so there's not one thing i feel like to really support athletics and sports at a highest level it's about support elevating performance programs or organizations normally it starts with personnel right facilities learning outcomes and then you got to get the talent right so i wouldn't say there's one thing we need to do i think we're slowly working through what we need to accomplish and then putting the pieces together but building success is not easy it takes time it takes patience right it takes communication it takes cohesiveness so with anything i would say you know we have small pieces we got to become more cohesive right uh we got to get better every day as coaches as players as so yeah not one thing i think we're slowly been building over the last six years um but again what you guys are doing is great as coaches we got to coach more and as administrators we have to support more and then you add the community to that and it just becomes a winning formula i mean to that point it's one of the most impressive things you've seen like around here like one of those where like everything is working like everything we have worked upon the season has just does it have to be sports are going to be academics i mean really i love the sponsor system i think that is one of the things that has impressed me most about the school is the ability for as a parent sometimes you worry that you don't know what your kid is doing but then you sit down with your advisor and you're like everything's okay so to me that as a parent and as a parent as a staff member and faculty at times i feel like the sponsor system is the thing that's impressed me the most it's a big week got a big game on friday against the team up the street what do you think the power of that rivalry is what's your favorite part of that rivalry i think we have a road right some center road i think there's always you know and i've lived that before because i had at stx we had colerain on north bend road right so those are healthy rivalries i think at day i've seen my daughter going to gilmore i've been able to see the enthusiasm they have this year um you know and we see it from our end where we've been on a streak uh but to me it's it's going to be healthy competition i love that it's become a rivalry just for the sense that it's something we can look up to every year on the calendar and strive for success on that but to me again down the road healthy rivalry it'll be physical right they have an amazing team as well they should do well this season but again it's team up the street so it's time to rock and roll i mean we can keep that two-year streak which would be which would be going great well we're coming close to time but this has been a great interview with one of the greatest coaches to do it uh coach it would be great if you could finish the episode off quickly by giving the people listening one of your favorite quotes or words of motivation you've heard through your years in sports i think when i use a lot is no excuses no explanations right excuses are 99% true 100% unacceptable around here so i love that one wow no excuses no explanations i just show up do the work can't show up it's fine i trust all my guys so for me that's a big one for us to understand that you guys are pragmatic there's a lot on your plates and the weight room it's a small piece of your total development if i can get a little bit of your time great if not i get it there's no exclusives well that was a great interview with coach alvarez thank you so much to tell us more about yourself and thank you guys for tuning in and we hope you'll join us next wednesday for another episode of late start show thank you pleasure guys