Speaker 1: These coaches.
Speaker 2: If we're going to be effective, we've got to understand
Speaker 2: that every athlete walking through our door has a unique history,
Speaker 2: a unique family life, unique genetic background. They're going to
Speaker 2: respond to stimuli in different ways. And if we're going
Speaker 2: to be effective coaches for all of our kids, not
Speaker 2: just a select few, we've got to get to know
Speaker 2: who those people are walking through the door. And that
Speaker 2: just takes time and energy.
Speaker 3: This is the Reform Sports Project, a podcast about restoring
Speaker 3: healthy balance and perspective in all areas of sports through
Speaker 3: education and advocacy. Hi, this is Nick Bonacor from the
Speaker 3: Reform Sports Podcast. My guest today is Greg Parini, had
Speaker 3: men's and women swimming and diving coach at Dennison University
Speaker 3: since nineteen eighty seven. Coach Parini has built one of
Speaker 3: the most successful programs in the history of D three athletics,
Speaker 3: highlighted by seven NCAA Division three national championships, sixteen national
Speaker 3: runner up finishes, and a streak of sixty eight consecutive
Speaker 3: top ten national finishes across both genders. Greg and I
Speaker 3: discussed his interest in helping young people transactional verse transcendent
Speaker 3: relationships with athletes and the importance of getting to know
Speaker 3: each athlete. Now, before we get to the interview, we'd
Speaker 3: like to dedicate this episode of Greg's mother, the Reverend
Speaker 3: Barbara Dennison Parini, who passed on January thirtieth, twenty twenty four.
Speaker 3: A highly accomplished priest in the Episcopal Church, Reverend Parini
Speaker 3: served five different dioceses, was instrumental in developing the first
Speaker 3: hospice ministry in Michigan, and worked tirelessly for battered and
Speaker 3: abused women. She was a positive role model not only
Speaker 3: for the community she served, but for her family as well. Man,
Speaker 3: I'm humbled, I'm grateful for this gentleman. We connected, damn
Speaker 3: near four or five years ago. We've spoken several times.
Speaker 3: I'm really, really, really excited. He's definitely a legend. He's
Speaker 3: a goat, you know, one of the best coaches NCAA
Speaker 3: history for sure, the head swimming and dive coach from
Speaker 3: Dennison coach, Greg Parini coach.
Speaker 4: Thanks so much for hopping on.
Speaker 1: Colin Nick.
Speaker 2: It's good to hear from you again and have been
Speaker 2: following you and your podcasts success and trajectory over the
Speaker 2: last few years. You guys are doing a remarkable job.
Speaker 2: Just honored to be a part of it.
Speaker 4: Well, thank you.
Speaker 3: Coaching I've had on, as you know, several coaches, you know,
Speaker 3: I've had Dabo Sweeney on, I've had you know, Bob
Speaker 3: Bowman on Anson Dornce on, a lot of these coaches
Speaker 3: that have had sustained success. And I think our listeners
Speaker 3: and I know I am fascinated with I mean, you
Speaker 3: got three national titles, I don't know how many runners up,
Speaker 3: and then you were a ridiculous swimmer in your own
Speaker 3: right and had amazing success there. How do you get
Speaker 3: Dennison to have such success year over year over You're
Speaker 3: constantly either you're win international title, all Americans are in
Speaker 3: the fight for how do you keep doing How do
Speaker 3: you build that from scratch?
Speaker 4: Which is what you did well?
Speaker 1: I you know I didn't. I didn't arrive here with
Speaker 1: an empty play.
Speaker 2: Dennison had established a strong tradition in swimming and diving,
Speaker 2: not to the level we've taken it now, but I
Speaker 2: had a solid foundation to work from. And that was
Speaker 2: one of the things that attracted me to Dennison is
Speaker 2: that I saw the resources in the form of facility
Speaker 2: and otherwise to build something.
Speaker 1: And you know.
Speaker 2: I honestly, if you'd asked me thirty seven years ago
Speaker 2: when I arrived, is this the level of success we
Speaker 2: would have had? And I said, well, in some ways,
Speaker 2: I would tell you, yeah, I'll be surprised if we
Speaker 2: don't have that level of success. But then, knowing how
Speaker 2: hard this can be, sometimes I'm really surprised we've had
Speaker 2: this much success at all. It's a it's a really
Speaker 2: weird dynamic, but very fortunate to work in a place
Speaker 2: like Dennison that is so supportive of what we're trying
Speaker 2: to do, providing us with opportunities and resources. And you know,
Speaker 2: when I first arrived, it was just pretty much me
Speaker 2: and then it was you know, incremental improvements and resource
Speaker 2: allocation in the form of you know, hiring assistant coaches
Speaker 2: from part time to full time, then finally adding you know,
Speaker 2: the facility about ten years ago. And so it's been
Speaker 2: a well, you know, let's say, genesis of the program,
Speaker 2: but consistent.
Speaker 3: That way you said thirty seven years right, yeah, and
Speaker 3: you often hear you know the cliches. You know, kids
Speaker 3: are soft right here at all time, kids are soft.
Speaker 3: You know which times change, right? You know, everyone changes?
Speaker 3: How do you have a culture in which you as
Speaker 3: a as a human, as a coach, have been able
Speaker 3: to adapt because let's face it, I mean things are
Speaker 3: different social media. How do you create that consistency within
Speaker 3: your program is to start with the recruiting process, Like,
Speaker 3: can you walk us through how you continue to have
Speaker 3: the level of consistent success and buying it sounds like
Speaker 3: from the athletes that you bring into your program.
Speaker 2: Well, I think it starts with a vision and a
Speaker 2: really strong reason why. I'm really fortunate. I got into
Speaker 2: this game not necessarily because I wanted to develop the
Speaker 2: most competitive or a highly competitive small college swimming program
Speaker 2: in the country. I got into this game because I
Speaker 2: really wanted to work with young people and I was
Speaker 2: interested in using, you know, swimming as a vehicle through
Speaker 2: which we could help young men and young women kind
Speaker 2: of find their way. And I think that precedes everything
Speaker 2: that we're trying to do competitively. Is this I think
Speaker 2: innate strong desire to work with young people and equip
Speaker 2: them for life afterwards. And I think if we do
Speaker 2: that process and we're committed to that process in a
Speaker 2: heartfelt and authentic way, it really makes the rest of
Speaker 2: the job much easier because, you know, there's a consistency
Speaker 2: in our messaging, there's a consistency in our team culture
Speaker 2: that transcends I guess time. I mean trying to help
Speaker 2: young men and women's that transcends time and era and generations.
Speaker 2: And I think there are some unique dynamics in play
Speaker 2: right now with the current generation of eighteen to twenty
Speaker 2: two year olds. I was just talking about this with
Speaker 2: some colleagues yesterday about what that means for us as educators, mentors,
Speaker 2: and coaches. But I think we're fortunate here to start
Speaker 2: at the foundation that we're just here to try try
Speaker 2: to help young men and young women find themselves, find
Speaker 2: out who they are, develop authentic relationships with themselves and
Speaker 2: the sport that they've chosen in an effort to I guess,
Speaker 2: equip them for for life after after college and life
Speaker 2: after sport. And so I think that's what's allowed us
Speaker 2: to maybe move generationally. Is that that common threat of
Speaker 2: helping people, I think transcend anything that we're doing logistically
Speaker 2: or strategically.
Speaker 1: If I'm making sense.
Speaker 4: I mean, it makes complete sense.
Speaker 3: In fact, I've always heard it sounds like the people
Speaker 3: who have the most success seem to really have that.
Speaker 4: But listen.
Speaker 3: I want to raise great human beings. You know, I
Speaker 3: have six children, right, I want to help them be great.
Speaker 3: But I'm a freaking competitor, you know what I mean? Like, like,
Speaker 3: you're a competitor, So do you have to separate? Like
Speaker 3: do you have to I guess what I visualize as
Speaker 3: you as you were telling your story about helping young people,
Speaker 3: I'm like, yeah, do you come in every you know,
Speaker 3: let's say the season ends in you know, six eight
Speaker 3: weeks whatever it is, and you win the national time,
Speaker 3: you don't win the nationality either way, we all start
Speaker 3: the next day at zero.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 4: It's like if you're in sales, you have a.
Speaker 3: Great month, the next day you're in first of the
Speaker 3: month and you're at zero.
Speaker 4: You know, whatever it is, right, you.
Speaker 3: Got to compete, right, So how do you balance the
Speaker 3: vision like you described of literally keeping the main thing,
Speaker 3: the main thing, which is to use swimming as a
Speaker 3: platform to help people, but also realize, Man, I want
Speaker 3: to go I want to go win national title and if
Speaker 3: there's anything wrong with that, but how do you continue
Speaker 3: that balance?
Speaker 2: Well, I this is competition, and I think competition is
Speaker 2: good for people. I mean, I think it's important that
Speaker 2: we take on hard things. I think it's important that
Speaker 2: we set course on a goal, recognizing all the potential
Speaker 2: trip wires and challenges that are going to come along
Speaker 2: the way. But you know, I think the competitive environment
Speaker 2: exposes us a little bit in a way that we're
Speaker 2: not exposed necessarily in real time in other areas. I mean,
Speaker 2: we're fortunate to be in a sport like swimming where
Speaker 2: we have an apt salute standard, which is the Stopwatch,
Speaker 2: and you know, and our swimmers are measured objectively every
Speaker 2: single day. They don't have to always pass. You know,
Speaker 2: I've got since played ice hockey, and so much of
Speaker 2: their their ascension in sport was not only past, you know,
Speaker 2: putting up good metrics, but also passing the eye test
Speaker 2: with the coaches.
Speaker 1: And I think, you know, swimming benefits from the standpoint
Speaker 1: of we've.
Speaker 2: Got absolute standards in the form of the stop Watch
Speaker 2: that expose us and basically tell us exactly who we are.
Speaker 2: As I tell my team around here, there's no bsing
Speaker 2: to stop watch. It's going to tell you exactly who
Speaker 2: you are. And whenever you find yourself in an environment
Speaker 2: like that, you know you're challenged to be at your
Speaker 2: best the competitive environment brings all that out. And so
Speaker 2: if I'm committed to helping young men and young women
Speaker 2: move down the maturation pipe, I understand the competition and
Speaker 2: the discipline and the training that comes along in order
Speaker 2: to be successful on our sport is a great laboratory,
Speaker 2: it's a it's a great experience for us, and so
Speaker 2: the competition fits.
Speaker 1: In with that growth mindset.
Speaker 2: I don't think you can have a growth mindset without
Speaker 2: having a healthy sense of competition with yourself.
Speaker 1: If that makes some sense.
Speaker 4: I think it's great.
Speaker 3: You know, the reason I always I always want to
Speaker 3: dig in a little deeper, especially on a point like that,
Speaker 3: is because you know, it's so easy at the youth level,
Speaker 3: right to younger ages.
Speaker 4: Right You're you're you're dealing with young adults.
Speaker 3: You know, in some cases today, I mean, for God's sakes,
Speaker 3: there's college football athletes or whatever because of COVID that
Speaker 3: are twenty seven years old, you know, I mean, that's
Speaker 3: what it is, and through no fault of their own,
Speaker 3: it is what it is.
Speaker 4: Those are damn adults.
Speaker 3: So my point is when you trickle that back down
Speaker 3: to the high school and middle school and youth ranks,
Speaker 3: you know, it's very easy for coaches that get caught
Speaker 3: up in the results, in the winning and the winning.
Speaker 3: How many of those of those coaches, I don't know,
Speaker 3: Maybe they all are, maybe none of them are are
Speaker 3: sitting there going I really want to use this platform
Speaker 3: to you know, help young people. Well maybe they also
Speaker 3: want to do well so they can you know, progress
Speaker 3: their career, you know, their own coaching career. So how
Speaker 3: I guess I want younger coaches to hear from folks
Speaker 3: like yourself who are season You don't you can never
Speaker 3: coach again tomorrow. You're a Hall of famer. You know,
Speaker 3: your your accolades speak for themselves. But I want to
Speaker 3: take folks like you and have that mindset trickle down
Speaker 3: because I think at any age, if you have that mindset,
Speaker 3: you're going to get good results, putting the athlete ahead
Speaker 3: of anything else. I mean, what do you think about
Speaker 3: the landscape and maybe taking your approach to younger kids.
Speaker 4: Do you think that you don't see enough of that?
Speaker 3: Do you think it's more driven around because I know
Speaker 3: you volunteer coach as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well I think you know, I think as coaches,
Speaker 2: we've got to make a decision whether or not the
Speaker 2: kind of relationships we want with our with our athletes
Speaker 2: is transactional or transcendent. And if if we're interested in
Speaker 2: only generating transactional relationships with our athletes, where we see
Speaker 2: athletes as a means to an end rather than an
Speaker 2: end and of themselves, I think that's a path to success,
Speaker 2: and I think it can. I think one of the
Speaker 2: outcomes of that can be really good relationships. But I
Speaker 2: also know that that, generally speaking, has a pretty short
Speaker 2: shelf life if your athletes perceive themselves as only being
Speaker 2: a memes to a coach's and I'm not sure that
Speaker 2: there's always going to be a ton of trust there.
Speaker 2: That's always my concern is. I think that when we've
Speaker 2: got the best long term interest of our student athletes
Speaker 2: in mind, and we're thinking in terms of developing transitional
Speaker 2: or transcendent relationships versus simply transactional, then I think we
Speaker 2: set ourselves up for longer term success. I've had the
Speaker 2: good fortune to work with and talk to a lot
Speaker 2: of coaches who are much better than anything I ever did,
Speaker 2: and the one thing, the one common thread that they
Speaker 2: have is that they genuinely enjoy interacting with their athletes.
Speaker 2: Not necessarily from a transactional standpoint, but from let's say,
Speaker 2: just a simply holistic caring standpoint. If you go back
Speaker 2: to the John Woodens of the John Wooden clearly had
Speaker 2: the love and respect of his athletes in large part
Speaker 2: because of the love and respect that he showed them.
Speaker 2: There's that iconic photo of him and Leuel Cinder at
Speaker 2: the time later to become Kareem Abdul Jabbar walking across
Speaker 2: the gym floor when Wooden was a young man and
Speaker 2: el Sinder was a student. Then there's that picture juxtaposed
Speaker 2: to that fifty sixty years later, when Woodin is on
Speaker 2: a cane and there there's Jabbar helping him across the
Speaker 2: same floor. And I think that that speaks to the
Speaker 2: quality of relationships that Wooden was driving that through his
Speaker 2: basketball program, and that I think that's a role model
Speaker 2: for all of us.
Speaker 1: I think all of us can do that.
Speaker 2: I mean, whether we're talking about the Bob Bowmans of
Speaker 2: the world, who I spent a few days without in
Speaker 2: Arizona in December, we're talking about Doc Kusman and Indiana
Speaker 2: who for generations just nurtured those relationships. You know, I
Speaker 2: think every coach has to decide at what level they
Speaker 2: want to have a transactional versus a transitioning or transcendent
Speaker 2: relationship with their athletes. And I just think having the
Speaker 2: ladder sets us up for much longer term success and
Speaker 2: if we're just simply trying to, let's say, take the
Speaker 2: next step in our careers.
Speaker 3: When we return, Greg and I discussed his coaching strategy
Speaker 3: for his team as well as his sons. Before we
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Speaker 3: Where we left off, Greg and I were about to
Speaker 3: discuss the importance of getting to know each athlete and
Speaker 3: coaching them accordingly.
Speaker 4: I think that's so well said it.
Speaker 3: You know, you mentioned you have, you know, boys that
Speaker 3: played hockey and your professionist coach. So how did you
Speaker 3: juggle the balance of being dad and coach? Was it tough?
Speaker 3: How did you navigate it? Because you know you're a competitor.
Speaker 3: I'm sure your boys were competitors.
Speaker 4: How'd you do it?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 2: You know the thing that's remarkably I mean, I coached
Speaker 2: five of our six sons. Our oldest didn't play hockey,
Speaker 2: the next five did. And for me, I got into
Speaker 2: the hockey coaching simply because it afforded me an opportunity
Speaker 2: to spend time with my kids as a volunteer assistant coause
Speaker 2: I played pond hockey in Michigan. I never played organized hockey.
Speaker 2: But you know, to coach organize hockey, you got to
Speaker 2: learn something about the game that goes beyond simply.
Speaker 1: Skating on the lake. But for me, my priority.
Speaker 2: In becoming a hockey coach is just to be able
Speaker 2: to have some time with my kids because my days
Speaker 2: year at the pool were pretty long. I basically leave
Speaker 2: the house at four thirty AM, I don't get home
Speaker 2: till seven pm, and my boys' schedules just didn't line
Speaker 2: up with that very well. So if I wanted to
Speaker 2: have any time with my kids, it had to be
Speaker 2: at the hockey rink once I got off the pool deck.
Speaker 2: So typically I'd be at the pool deck for you know,
Speaker 2: thirteen fourteen hours, and then I'd head out to the
Speaker 2: ice rink for a couple hours to skate with them.
Speaker 2: So my priority in being their coach was really dad
Speaker 2: sun time. Now, having said that, we had some pretty
Speaker 2: successful teams. We had some high school teams that made
Speaker 2: it all the way to the national tournament, which was exciting,
Speaker 2: and you know, we got into you know, the quarterfinals
Speaker 2: and things like that. We had some pretty good hockey
Speaker 2: going on here, and my boys were as.
Speaker 1: Competitive as they get. But I think.
Speaker 2: Balancing that bad coach dynamic was really dependent on each
Speaker 2: one of the sons. I was working with a son, Joe,
Speaker 2: for instance, is you know you know he's he's cut
Speaker 2: from a really competitive cloth. He's a Green Beret, he's
Speaker 2: in Special Forces now, he's a self described door kicker.
Speaker 2: He's the kind of kid who loved me to be
Speaker 2: in his ear.
Speaker 3: As a coach, you could say, you could just say
Speaker 3: he's a complete badass.
Speaker 2: Well, he's something else. He's a work of art, there's no.
Speaker 1: Doubt about it.
Speaker 2: But his younger brother of only fifteen months, it's really interesting.
Speaker 2: For sixteen months, his younger brother, Solomon didn't want anything
Speaker 2: to do with me on the on the ice or
Speaker 2: on the bench. And so I had to as a
Speaker 2: father and as a coach, I had to learn who
Speaker 2: among my sons was willing to listen to me and
Speaker 2: who wanted that input. So like with Joe or with Gabe,
Speaker 2: or with Simon or with Ted, I could be their coach.
Speaker 2: With Solomon, I really had to step away from it though,
Speaker 2: simply because the relationship was The dynamics with that of
Speaker 2: the relationship just didn't necessarily work for him to be
Speaker 2: a better hockey player. So the quieter I was, the
Speaker 2: better Solomon played. The Noisier I got with him, the
Speaker 2: less effective he was because I think I just simply
Speaker 2: think he got in his head and you know, he
Speaker 2: had dad's voice and his said too much and it
Speaker 2: just messed them up. So I think as a dad coach,
Speaker 2: as a volunteer coach, you've got to read your child
Speaker 2: and ask yourself, Okay, does this guy need me as
Speaker 2: a dad right now? Or does he need me as
Speaker 2: a coach? And they're not always the same thing, because
Speaker 2: ultimately it's about putting our athletes needs before our own.
Speaker 2: And I've seen way too many times over the years
Speaker 2: where we have a volunteer coach is trying to relive
Speaker 2: their high school club experience through their children, and I
Speaker 2: don't always think that that's a particularly good combination.
Speaker 4: I couldn't agree with you more so, how did you?
Speaker 3: I mean, you found each personality to your own kid
Speaker 3: and coached to that.
Speaker 4: Wow. Any successful coach I've ever spoken to it?
Speaker 3: And I know because I played for you know several,
Speaker 3: but I could speak to Mike Fox, who's retired UNC
Speaker 3: baseball coach. I speak about him a lot, And that
Speaker 3: was the first time I really played for someone who
Speaker 3: really coached everyone differently, like he knew who he needed
Speaker 3: to kind of get on, who he had to love
Speaker 3: on a little bit more. How do you do that
Speaker 3: in a limited amount of time, particularly if you're a
Speaker 3: you know, volunteer coach, because you're still got to do
Speaker 3: x's and o's.
Speaker 2: Well, see, yeah, here's my own personal belief on that.
Speaker 2: I think, you know, for us, it starts with developing
Speaker 2: that relationship with the athlete even before they arrive at
Speaker 2: Dennison and we have that recruiting window that we can
Speaker 2: work to get to know the person and things like that.
Speaker 2: But you know, a lot of times we have coaches
Speaker 2: just stepping out on the field. They inherit a team.
Speaker 2: They don't necessarily get to pick their team. But you know,
Speaker 2: for me, I think the key thing, and I learned
Speaker 2: this from Doc Councilman, is that to make sure that
Speaker 2: I slow, let's say, my mind down and practices, and
Speaker 2: to listen and to ask questions and to observe. I'm
Speaker 2: generally a fairly quiet coach on deck simply because I'm
Speaker 2: watching how my athletes are responding to what's going on
Speaker 2: around them with the training and with the stimulus that
Speaker 2: we've hit them with. Frankly, I guess my own belief
Speaker 2: is I think coaches do too much talking and not
Speaker 2: enough listening and observing. And I think the best coaches
Speaker 2: out there get to know their athletes by asking good questions,
Speaker 2: by listening to those answers, and by observing their athletes.
Speaker 2: Had a great conversation with Sparky Anderson, the great Cincinnati
Speaker 2: res in Detroit Tiger's manager, right after nineteen eighty four.
Speaker 2: I was just getting into the coaching gig, and he
Speaker 2: happened to be one of doing one of those those
Speaker 2: winner Tours with the Tigers promoting season ticket sales, and
Speaker 2: I had a chance to talk with him as they
Speaker 2: went through Lancey, Michigan, where I was in grad school,
Speaker 2: and I asked him, I said, you know, Sparky, can
Speaker 2: you tell me how many different managerial approaches you have
Speaker 2: with your team? And he says, well, I've got forty
Speaker 2: guys on my team. I've got forty different approaches. And
Speaker 2: I thought that that was particularly insightful, and I thought
Speaker 2: Anderson is arguably one of the best player He is
Speaker 2: a player centered manager. The guy knew his athletes well
Speaker 2: and knew what they needed. And some kids, you know,
Speaker 2: some of our athletes need that proverbial hug and some
Speaker 2: of them need a proverbial firmer place to land. And
Speaker 2: I think as coaches, if we're going to be effective,
Speaker 2: we've got to understand that every athlete walking through our
Speaker 2: door has a unique history, a unique family life, a
Speaker 2: unique genetic background. They're going to respond to stimuli in
Speaker 2: different ways. And if we're going to be effective coaches
Speaker 2: for all of our kids, not just a select few,
Speaker 2: we've got to get to know who those people are
Speaker 2: walking through the door. And that just takes time and energy.
Speaker 2: And sometimes we don't have that time, and sometimes we
Speaker 2: don't have that energy. But I think I think the
Speaker 2: time and energy we invest in those relationships correlates very
Speaker 2: highly with a successful athletic experience.
Speaker 3: Not to bring it back too much, but you mentioned
Speaker 3: the transactional versus transcending relationship.
Speaker 4: You're at the division three level.
Speaker 3: I played Division three, So there's no athletic scholarships, right.
Speaker 3: I don't want to go down the weeds and how
Speaker 3: you know, kid, there's money available in other ways, but
Speaker 3: I don't want That's not what this is about. But
Speaker 3: if you look at sports that are in our face, right,
Speaker 3: power five basketball, men's and women's you know football.
Speaker 4: Course, it is transactional in many ways. I mean it
Speaker 4: really is.
Speaker 3: I mean coaches will tell you, you know, especially the
Speaker 3: ones that I've had on who are at, you know,
Speaker 3: the later stages of their career. A lot of them
Speaker 3: are retiring it's a different game, you know, because they
Speaker 3: valued the relationship so much. But it really not that
Speaker 3: it's not valuable today. But it really seems like, I mean,
Speaker 3: let's just call space to spade, like players and coaches
Speaker 3: are kind of using each other to get whatever that
Speaker 3: and I'm not that sure it could be mutually beneficial, right,
Speaker 3: It's like in agreement, like we're going to do this thing.
Speaker 3: Is it becoming and this just maybe a random question
Speaker 3: to you. Is Division one Power five type athletic? Is
Speaker 3: that just pro sports and what you do what I
Speaker 3: say you do Division III and that type of is
Speaker 3: it different?
Speaker 4: I mean, is it going to become different? How do
Speaker 4: you see it shaking out?
Speaker 2: That is the sixty four thousand dollars question, Nick, And
Speaker 2: I wish I had a firm answer on this one.
Speaker 2: I do think with the amount of money that is
Speaker 2: floating around the Power five, and again I don't live
Speaker 2: in that world, but I do. I live just thirty
Speaker 2: five miles down the street from Ohio State.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, you're in the biggest brand in the world,
Speaker 3: one of them exactly.
Speaker 2: And I let you know, you read reports out of
Speaker 2: the Columbus Dispatch that, you know, they spend thirteen million
Speaker 2: dollars on nil money for the football Transfer Portal. I mean,
Speaker 2: that's just mind boggling to me that. You know, I
Speaker 2: think whenever you introduce that level of income in anything,
Speaker 2: you know, I think you run the risk of getting
Speaker 2: entirely transactional. Somebody's sharing and I didn't do a deep
Speaker 2: dive on this, but somebody shared a post with me yesterday.
Speaker 2: How I think the Georgia quarterback just landed a Lamborghini.
Speaker 4: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. Oh I saw that too. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, I remember going back to the nineteen
Speaker 2: eighties at Michigan State when Sam Vincent, who ended up
Speaker 2: playing in the NBA, showed up in a brand new
Speaker 2: car outside Jennison Fieldhouse because he had just recently signed
Speaker 2: with an agent.
Speaker 1: And what a shock that was in the media.
Speaker 4: Oh burnamt you know, like it was a big deal,
Speaker 4: Like did you couldn't do it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, But I think you introduced this much money into
Speaker 2: the relationships, it's bound to become increasingly transactional. And I
Speaker 2: do think that that's unique. You know, I can't I
Speaker 2: don't know if it's unique to Power five. I know
Speaker 2: that we don't see that kind of money in D
Speaker 2: three and I think that So I do think it
Speaker 2: changes the nature of the relationship between coach and athlete.
Speaker 2: But I also think it changes the relationship between the
Speaker 2: athlete and the sport. And do we have athletes who
Speaker 2: are competing purely for transactional relationships?
Speaker 1: How far can this get me? In?
Speaker 2: I understand the reality some kids putting, you know, are
Speaker 2: putting their whole lives on the line in committing everything
Speaker 2: they've got to becoming you know, that professional athlete. You
Speaker 2: know where where athletics is transactional. And I get that
Speaker 2: there's some there's some stark realities out there where people
Speaker 2: are trying to get their needs and family, families and
Speaker 2: needs met.
Speaker 1: But I think you.
Speaker 2: Introduced that much money into any situation, you are bound
Speaker 2: to get into a transactional thing.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I'm troubled by that.
Speaker 2: You know, I'm not talking anything about whether it's the
Speaker 2: right thing or the wrong thing. I'm just talking about
Speaker 2: the impact that I think is having. And you know,
Speaker 2: and I think it very easily. I think our students,
Speaker 2: and our coaches, and our parents and our ads could
Speaker 2: very easily get lost in that transactional process at the
Speaker 2: expense of I think having the quality relationship that you
Speaker 2: are looking to develop with your kids.
Speaker 1: So no clear answers.
Speaker 2: I don't think there's a clear path other than just
Speaker 2: saying it's go get Really I think it's going to
Speaker 2: get messier before it gets cleaned up.
Speaker 3: Coach Parini, I can't thank you enough. Man, this has
Speaker 3: been We're going to do this again. Your wisdom, your insights,
Speaker 3: freaking you know, second to none, you know, entrenched and
Speaker 3: getting ready to go into the postseason.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: I hope you all continued to knock it out of
Speaker 3: the park in and I just thank you so much
Speaker 3: for joining us man.
Speaker 2: Thanks Nick, it's always approviaged to talk to you. Keep
Speaker 2: up the great work. You're doing such important work out there,
Speaker 2: and I think getting light and air exposed to these
Speaker 2: issues is really important for everyone.
Speaker 1: So thank you.
Speaker 3: That's Greg Parini, Head Men's and Women Swimming and Diving,
Speaker 3: coach at Dennison University.
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