In continuing along with my 'people who have influenced or helped on my journey..'

Today it’s Steve Waterson who I met when the Houston Oilers were practicing at Southwest Texas State University and  Yes  I’m aware its called Texas State now but it wasn't back then and the Houston Oilers became the Tennessee Titans!!  But back to my story,  I was sitting on a picnic table as the team was heading out to the practice fields when Jerry Glanville comes walking by with his assistants and he smiles and says; “Damn son I was looking for some extra linebackers so lets get your big ass some gear and get you on the field!!”  He asked if I was there to watch practice and I told him that I wanted to be a Strength and Conditioning Coach so he yells out and Steve came over and introduces himself and then not 2 minutes later I’m invited out onto the field to watch up close.  After warm ups were completed Steve takes me aside and talks to me for a while inviting me to follow him for both practices (this was back when they had 2 hard practices a day in training camp).  At lunch the equipment manager comes up with a bag of gear and just drops it on the table and walks off…Steve looks at me and says ‘that’s for you’.  After the second practice and another meal with the coaches and players Steve told me that he would love for me to intern for him at next year’s training camp and handed me his business card then Coach Glanville comes up to me and hands me his business card and invited me to attend a game as a guest of the team and stand on the sideline with Coach Watterson.  

I just there sat in my Jeep looking at the big ass bag of gear thinking about what just happened. What an experience!!!  I went to 3 games that season and stood on the sidelines each game and I'd called Steve several times in the months up to the next year’s training camp.  I was waiting tables at Dick’s Last Resort so Steve use to tell me that if he came into his office and the message said ‘received at 3am’ he knew it was me!!!  I use to just call so he didn’t forget me but I didn’t want to bother him while he was coaching so he’d call me when he could and if I wasn’t home he’d leave me a message of a good time to call AND he’d always remind me to get my ass to school so I could become a Professional Strength and Conditioning Coach. 

The next season there was a change with Jeff Fisher becoming the new Head Coach and training camp was moved to San Antonio at Trinity University and true to his word Steve had my credentials and another big ass bag of gear!!!  I worked and learned AND filled my notebook that I always carry to this very day you will NEVER see me without a notebook and mechanical pencil (0.5 Pentel to be exact) if you see me go ahead and ask to see my notebook and I'll show you...Yeah I'll show you the cover of it because no one sees inside.

One of the most valuable lessons I learned was to always make yourself valuable to the players and to the organization. If you know me and my approach to coaching then you know that I took this lesson to heart!!  

When I was with the Spurs I had the pleasure of bringing Steve to a game and while him, me and Brungy (my boss with the Spurs) were visiting after the game I learned from both of them that Steve had told Brungy he was crazy if he didn’t hire me as an assistant after I left Baylor University…. and that is another story and a damn good story at that and it deserves it's own blog.  I've also got some great stories from training camp that I'll be sharing as well 

Play Hard... Train Harder... NO EXCUSES 

 #powersportstrengthconditioning #oldstrongguysrule