Guiding Young Athletes in Track & Field: A Conversation with Olympic Coach and Author, Sue Humphrey

0:00:22 Bruce Anthony: Welcome.

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0:00:55 Bruce Anthony: Our audience continues to grow with each and every episode and I

humbly thank you.

On today’s episode, I’ll be interviewing Sue Humphrey.

She’s an author, an Olympic coach, and whether she realizes or not, a women’s rights activist.

First things first.

So as I said, I’m going to be interviewing Sue Humphrey.

She’s the author of I Want to Run, the Olympic Development, Training and nutritional Guide

for young and teen track runners ages ten to 18.

You can get that on Amazon.com.

0:01:35 Bruce Anthony: If you’re watching on YouTube, we’re going to put that link down

in the description.

She’s also been an Olympic coach.

She’s worked with Will Chamberlain jacket jerry and her curfew flow joe she started

track and field at universities.

She was an athlete before title nine and a coach at the beginning and throughout title

nine.

What she has to say about the history of women’s sports is going to be fascinating and I am

looking forward to learning a lot about her life.

0:02:14 Bruce Anthony: And I feel like when you hear about her life from athlete to coach

and everything in between, you’re going to be really fascinated at the life that she’s

lived.

So without further ado, let’s get the show on the road and get started with this interview.

Welcome.

I’m here with Sue Humphrey.

She’s an Olympic coach, an author, and I’m going to say a woman’s advocate.

Sue, thank you for joining me today.

I appreciate this.

0:02:51 Sue Humphrey: Thank you so much for the invitation.

I really even been looking forward to this.

0:02:55 Bruce Anthony: I’m glad you were looking forward to it because I was as well.

Let’s get started.

You wrote a book and is.

I want to run the Olympic Development, Training and nutritional guide for young and teen track

runners ages ten to eight.

What is your hope that the readers will take away from it and what made you write this

book?

0:03:15 Sue Humphrey: Okay, well, it’s for ten to 18.

In other words, youngsters in middle school, high school first wanting to get started.

And so what I did is I put together kind of a beginner’s guide, if you will, and so it’s

for parents.

It’s written for a middle school audience as to the different events in track and field,

the history of track and field a little bit.

Also what I consider the off the track activities as far as nutrition, sleep.

0:03:52 Sue Humphrey: If you want to get a college scholarship, what are some of the

academic requirements that you’re going to need to look at?

So it’s kind of a cross section beginning novel or beginning guide, if you will for

someone that wants to get involved in track and field.

0:04:09 Bruce Anthony: Wow.

So it’s a prep book, correct?

Yes, it’s a prepackage.

0:04:17 Sue Humphrey: It’s not real heavy, but I do give sample workouts and ideas for

coaches or for the kids who want to get started.

0:04:27 Bruce Anthony: So what made you write this book?

0:04:30 Sue Humphrey: I guess I have a feeling my paying job over the years has been as a

middle school teacher or administrator.

And so I’ve always worked with kids and I’ve always wanted to be sure that they’re set

and have a prepared life ready for whatever route they choose as a career and to help

youngsters guide them along the way.

And I think that’s a big thing nowadays is our youngsters are not in always getting the

best guidance, if you will.

0:05:03 Sue Humphrey: And so this was like a beginning novel for them.

In other words, a beginning starting guide.

Because so many times you look at the track and field books which are printed, there are

not a lot of them.

And so this is like, well, how do I get started?

And I think getting a good base and getting a good start is important, obviously.

And so I wanted to give them the good framework to get started with.

0:05:33 Bruce Anthony: That’S so very important.

I’ll tell you from my own personal experience, I was a basketball player.

How good of a basketball player I was is disputed or debated between my friends, me and my family.

But one of the things that in middle school in preparation for high school because they

could tell in middle school that I was going to be on the varsity basically my freshman

or sophomore year was that the track and field coach pulled me aside and said, you need to

learn how to run and jump properly.

0:06:06 Bruce Anthony: And I was like, well, what do you mean?

I just run and jump?

And he’s like, no, there’s a technique to running and you’re not jumping.

Right.

Some people are 1ft jumpers, some people are 2ft jumpers.

And it’s like you’re jumping off to the wrong leg.

So that’s interesting because the basis is if you want to succeed in athletics in high

school and beyond, you do need that base.

0:06:33 Sue Humphrey: Right?

And I work with younger kids, meaning middle school, high school kids nowadays.

And so many of them, like you say, have no idea how to run or I’m surprised they get

from point A to point B sometimes with it.

And so we break it down and try to get them that good foundation so that the high school

coaches can then build on it and the college coaches can build even further.

Because many times I’ll talk to the college coaches and they’re like, oh, we’re spending

a year or so breaking down all their bad habits.

0:07:10 Sue Humphrey: Yeah, well, I’d rather the kid go to college without the bad habits

or as many bad habits so they can again, progress.

0:07:18 Bruce Anthony: So you’ve worked with middle school kids.

But you’ve also worked for some big names in the Olympics.

You’ve worked with will Chamberlain, jackie Joyner, Kirsey flores Griffin Joyner.

I have so many questions just from those three names, but what was that experience like working

with them and being a part of the Olympics?

0:07:41 Sue Humphrey: Well, they were twofold working with Wilt and Jackie and Flow Joe.

Those all came before the Olympic experience for me, actually.

I met Jackie when she was high school student through USA Track and Field.

We would host junior elite camps in Colorado Springs, which is where the Olympic Training

Center is, and we would bring in high school elite high school athletes and their high

school coaches, again trying to help them and teach them the right way to do things

so that as they advance, they were ready to go.

0:08:17 Sue Humphrey: And so I met Jackie that way and we got along.

And she’s notorious for not liking the high jump, which she Will radily admit.

And so Bob Kirsie, her coach slash husband, he saw that we did have a good rapport back

and forth, and so he would bring me in at various times of her career or of her season

to work with her on high joke, because they would end up always batting heads as to what

to do.

And Jackie and I didn’t bat heads as much.

0:08:55 Bruce Anthony: Okay.

0:08:56 Sue Humphrey: I was kind of the neutralizer, I guess, with that.

Florence, before she became Flojo, was Florence and she was part of the group and we were

part of Wilt’s Athletic club.

And that’s where getting to work and meet Wilt came in because he sponsored our team.

And so I was working with a high jumper at the time, Colleen Sommer, and so she was one

of the world’s best high jumpers.

And the team was maybe ten or twelve of the elite athletes in the US.

At that time.

0:09:33 Sue Humphrey: Most of them were from the UCLA Bob Curse group there.

But we were kind of the addition to the group and appreciated it.

And Wilt would help and be there as a motivator, as a supporter.

He traveled with us.

So that was a very interesting experience, to see him off the track and see how people

react to him when he’s trying to just walk down the street, that was very eye opening,

too.

0:10:05 Bruce Anthony: So I’m going to sidetrack a little bit.

I watched this documentary he had to be about a year ago about Andre the Giant and the looks

that he gets, the stairs he gets, because he’s just this massive, massive man.

And I also watched a documentary about Cremo Dujibar, and he explained his relationship

with Will Chamberlain, both of them tall in stature, wilt a little bit bigger and not

confrontations, but how people would approach him.

So can you kind of explain a little bit about what that experience was like for Wilt off

the track in just everyday life and how people approached him?

0:10:42 Sue Humphrey: Well, I know it meets he would usually sit down or like at UCLA,

there’s a wall between the track and the stand and we would usually be down at the end by

hijack because that’s what we were watching at the time.

And he would sit against the wall so that unless you really were looking for him around

the wall, you wouldn’t see him there.

I do know one time somebody came up to him and called him Bill Russell and he got very

upset.

0:11:15 Sue Humphrey: I can imagine that person left pretty quickly.

I know one time we were in New York and he was walking down the street just to the hotel

and I came up to about the top of his legs, so I was at his belt buckle and this guy just

started coming up and kind of being a pest and, hey Wills.

Or hey, Mr. Chamberlain, and just kind of harassing him.

And the guy was not that big.

I mean, he maybe was 5554, something like that, and Will kept saying, hey man, leave

me alone.

Hey man, get away.

0:11:54 Sue Humphrey: And this guy just kept being a pest and finally I guess he got the

message and left.

But it was very interesting watching people’s reaction to him, whether it be, oh, there

he is, or even on the airplane watching the stewardesses.

That was quite interesting because they tracked him down, so he told us, he said, Leave the

plane last.

So we stayed on the plane.

It was La to New York, so it was one of the big planes and he said, Just stay on and then

we’ll get off at the end.

0:12:31 Sue Humphrey: Well, we got off and had to walk through the airport and go to

baggage claim and do all of that.

Well, these two or three stewardesses I remember were quite eager to find where we were going

and just stay with us.

So that was pretty obnoxious with it.

So I could see where these bigger basketball players and stuff, it’s not always their fault

that maybe there’s rudeness involved or negative reactions because the public is not always

that polite.

Definitely.

0:13:06 Bruce Anthony: Well, when you’re in the public eye, you lose your sense of privacy,

but at the same time, people can be respectful of your privacy, right, so I’m going to detour

again.

Working with Olympic athletes and then working with middle school kids is a dramatic difference

in ability.

I once coached and I coached different grade levels and I found myself I knew that I wasn’t

going to be a good coach because I didn’t have the patience for people that didn’t have

a good skill set.

I didn’t have the patience to teach the basics.

I wanted to get to the advanced stuff.

0:13:43 Bruce Anthony: How do you do that transition?

How do you go from working with Olympic athletes to working with middle school kids?

Obviously you love the kids because you’re a teacher and administrator, so I’m sure that

love for the kids helps with having that patience.

0:14:02 Sue Humphrey: Yes, definitely.

Working with younger kids gives you patience, that’s for sure.

I think you hit the nail on the head kind of when you said you didn’t want to have the

beginner athlete that didn’t have the skills to begin with.

And to me, in my history, I was not a very good athlete physically.

I played softball in middle school and high school and then back then, and I go get to

this with the title nine, there weren’t a lot of opportunities for girls and so I went

into the coaching at 15.

0:14:43 Sue Humphrey: As to working with kids obviously younger than me, but that young.

As to at least being an organizer, I’m not claiming I knew everything at that time, but

I had good people around me.

And so because I was not that good of a physical athlete, I had to learn these events from

ground zero.

I had to learn the very basics.

I had to learn where does your hand go, where does the leg go, why does it go there?

0:15:10 Sue Humphrey: And I think that has helped me over the years in being able to

explain basic techniques to the younger athlete or to the beginning athlete.

Now, ironically, working with Olympic level athletes is a little different.

But again, every year we kind of go back to the basics at the beginning and refresh and

remember, because sometimes we cruise through that a little too fast and then we need to

go back and rebuild that muscle memory or the technical base.

0:15:44 Sue Humphrey: Obviously the Olympic athletes, you would think they’re a lot different,

but in a way they’re not that different.

In that they’re human beings.

They have emotions, certain things bother them.

Obviously things that bother an Olympic athlete are different than bother a twelve year old.

So you have to work with situations as they arise.

But I think just dealing with people is the biggest and being patient.

0:16:15 Sue Humphrey: I mean, I know the patients that I have in working with some of my mid

20 year olds is far more than working with some of my younger kids at times.

So it just really depends on the individual.

0:16:29 Bruce Anthony: Once again, I’m a detour.

Do you think that’s because of the power dynamic, as you’re dealing with kids, you’re an older

adult, so it’s easier to have them just follow your lead as opposed to an older person, and

they’re set in their ways and they’re more complicated because that power dynamic isn’t

quite there.

I’m not talking in the power dynamic, it’s abusive.

I’m talking just as far as age and kids being respectful to the elders, at least certain

generations.

0:17:03 Sue Humphrey: I was going to say back in.

0:17:04 Bruce Anthony: The day, back in the day, back.

0:17:06 Sue Humphrey: In the day there was a respect for the adult.

Nowadays it’s not quite as common.

Initially it’s there once you develop a rapport with the student, but it’s not an automatic

the way it was 1020 years ago.

That’s definitely different.

Again, like you say, though, as they get older, they feel they know everything as we did when

we were that age.

Sometimes there is I know this leave me alone type of idea.

And so then you have to again, that’s where patients step back, wait till they have an

issue, or fall on their face, and then say, okay, now you’re ready to regroup, let’s move

ahead now.

0:17:53 Bruce Anthony: I like that.

So you brought it up, and I know you’ve started as you said, you started your athletic career

before Title Nine, and you’ve worked all the way through Title Nine.

For those people out there that don’t understand what Title Nine is, can you explain it to

them?

And can you explain the differences in athletics for women before and after Title IX?

0:18:17 Sue Humphrey: Well, before Title Nine, females in high school had play days where

we could go and play little group games and things like that.

On Saturdays, we had no or very limited interscholastic sports, as I remember.

In high school, we had golf, badminton and tennis.

And if you didn’t have one of those sports, which again were more of a higher economic

sport, you went to the low play days on Saturdays, and that was it.

It was very parks and recreation playing game type of thing.

There was no real structure and no working ahead.

There were no high school programs of working with other states and things like that.

Except for those three sports, there were no college scholarships or anything like that.

So to be in athletics, it was more to be you wanted to be in recreation, I guess, at that

time.

0:19:22 Sue Humphrey: Then when Title Nine came in, of course it took a 180 because now

all of a sudden everybody has to have these programs by law, and it went from zero to

100 in a millisecond.

And it wasn’t always the best transition, very definitely, I mean, there was high school

programs that suddenly came in for girls, let’s say, in track and field.

The coaches were not ready for it, the coaches were not that knowledgeable of it.

0:19:55 Sue Humphrey: There was a lot of peer pressure put on the students because before

that we had developed and swimming in track and field pretty much have worked together

over the years with this, where we had a club system, in other words, through the AAU, or

now with USA Track and Field or USA Swimming.

There’s club sports where you can compete against athletes within your own area, your

region, state, internationally and so on, and earn your scholarships.

That way back in the 70s when the high school programs came in, all of a sudden there was

pressure put on these top athletes who had been doing well in the club to suddenly leave

the club training and become a high school athlete.

0:20:51 Sue Humphrey: Well, the training was night and day difference, and the opportunities

were totally different.

But the peer pressure put on the students was pretty intense by the teachers, coaches

at the high schools, and by their friends.

And so this is what I ran into mostly in Arizona at the time, was having an athlete that we

had worked with and developed through our AAU program from maybe age nine or ten up

to 14 or 15.

0:21:25 Sue Humphrey: And she had been doing well, competing nationally, setting records

maybe nationally and doing very well.

And all of a sudden she wants to leave and go to a program that was nothing and hadn’t

been started, and the coach wasn’t that into it.

And I’m like, you’re giving away any future possibility of a college scholarship, which

is now becoming an opportunity because the training was night and day difference, and

swimming was this way too.

0:22:00 Sue Humphrey: So we took our top club athletes and it was very rough there for a

while because it was a battle between the club coach and the high school coach and the

club program and the high school programs and so on.

So that was a problem when Title Nine came in, obviously the opportunities provided were

above and beyond anything we’d had because we didn’t have any scholarships.

And now all of a sudden there are scholarships, there’s opportunities available.

0:22:34 Sue Humphrey: And of course the families were all involved with that and excited and

rightly so, because things that the guys just took for granted as far as opportunities,

now the female counterpart had it too.

0:22:49 Bruce Anthony: So it kind of seems like what you’re describing is the reverse,

what basketball and AAU for high school kids are now.

Whereas a lot of the kids, the AAU team is their most important team in the high school

team, if it’s their local high school that they actually go to and not to a private school

is not as important.

So that’s interesting.

From what I’m gathering, that first initial wave of females that were participating in

athletics when Title Nine first started, there may have been some lost talent through.

0:23:28 Sue Humphrey: That transition, very definitely, or interruption in training.

If you have been training on one level and rising up, there was definitely you put yourself

in neutral there for a year or two if you even then continued.

And that was the other thing is, again, peer pressure, as we all know, is very powerful.

And so depending on the student, depending on her goals, her stability, that became integral

part of decision making too, with.

0:24:08 Bruce Anthony: Time period, because obviously now when we look at the back end

of Title Nine and we have women’s soccer, right, the women’s soccer team is better than

the men’s.

Like the WNBA is a huge thing.

Now, what was that time period where it all caught up and there was a smoother transition

where there wasn’t a loss of talent anymore, that the high schools caught up with the clubs,

or maybe the clubs were just phased out and were all integrated into the high schools

and those coaches left the clubs.

0:24:44 Bruce Anthony: What was that time period and what exactly happened to make it

a smoother transition in later years?

0:24:51 Sue Humphrey: I don’t even know if we could say it’s a smooth transition today,

but transition well in the it was rocky because again, the college programs were developing

and they were looking for good athletes and rightly so.

And we would look because then I got involved in the college scene at Arizona State.

So now all of a sudden I’m a club coach and now I’m a college coach.

So I’m looking for the best talent because I want my program’s reputation and results

to be good.

0:25:32 Sue Humphrey: So I’m not looking at just the high school talent, I’m looking at

the club talent too, and bringing athletes in.

So that went from the 80s, let’s say eighty s and ninety s in the 2000s.

Then the club started to fade away a little bit because the high school program was gaining,

the coaches were taking much more seriously.

The coaching and learning a coaches education programs were blooming all over the place.

And so the high school coach nowadays, the straight one that wants to be a high school

coach is definitely much stronger and much better trained than they were 20 years ago.

0:26:22 Sue Humphrey: Now there are still some high school coaches who are football

coaches that are getting a stipend in the spring and that’s why they’re there.

But that’s a minority, hopefully.

So the high school programs that I’ve been involved with are seeing for the most part

now, are stronger, much stronger on training and education and doing the right thing, shall

we say, in getting your athlete ready for college.

0:26:52 Sue Humphrey: And I can’t speak for swimming as much, but I think in track, definitely

the club programs have faded in some regional areas here way like I’m in Texas now and the

club programs are very minimal compared to what I had in Arizona back in the but I’m

still dealing with high school coaches nowadays.

In fact, this weekend I do private lessons, so I have individual athletes from maybe ten

different high schools.

0:27:32 Sue Humphrey: And some of the high school coaches are fantastic and communicate

back and forth and are just awesome to work with.

And then others not so much.

Because now we get into the ego thing and like I’ve told parents, I’m not in it for

the ego.

I’ve been there, done that.

I want the kid to have a good experience and to be successful.

Last year I had a young lady who had a sprint coach and a jump coach and a strength coach.

0:28:07 Sue Humphrey: Yeah, she was kind of diversified there and there was a little issue

with the sprint coach and me as to telling her what to do with the meets.

And so it got down to where I said to the parent because apparently the sprint coach

was badmouthing me to the athlete and I didn’t know that.

And then I find out about it later and so I’m like, hey, Mom, I’m going to step back

because I don’t want your daughter to be pulled this way.

0:28:40 Sue Humphrey: Because if she’s pulled this way, the performance is going to matter

and be affected, and I’m not there for that.

Well, the mom fired the sprint coach and kept me.

The athlete was rated number one in the nation, her event, and made the World Team.

So it worked out well.

But then I also have stories where it didn’t always work out well, and I was left just

hearing.

So it depends on the individual.

Definitely.

0:29:17 Bruce Anthony: So, sue, you talked about coaching and having issues with other

coaches, and I have to ask you a question.

What is it like for you in a quote unquote man’s world of coaching?

0:29:32 Sue Humphrey: It’s a struggle at times, and it’s wonderful at times.

And as I mentioned, with the athlete, it’s very individual.

Likewise with your peer coach, male or female, it’s individual.

There are some male coaches that are like big brothers to me or fathers and have just

been awesome and helped me, mentor me through my career.

There’s other ones that because I’m a woman, I’ve been tossed aside.

I’ve been called the most stubborn bee this individual ever heard of or ever dealt with,

and that I was called by a college coach.

0:30:14 Sue Humphrey: Jeez.

It just varies back and forth, and I just know where my heart is and my passion and

my motives, and I have to go with that.

0:30:26 Bruce Anthony: So the reason why I said you’re an activist is because you founded

the woman’s Track and field program in Arizona State.

0:30:37 Sue Humphrey: Yes.

0:30:38 Bruce Anthony: So can you tell me a little bit about how that guy started?

I know you said you were coaching in the clubs and then you moved towards the college.

So I’m going to assume that this was the first college or had you already been working at

other colleges and then you went to Arizona State.

How did that all come about?

0:31:00 Sue Humphrey: Okay, well, I was in Phoenix and I had gone to Arizona State.

That’s my school and where I graduated and everything else.

So I was teaching in Scottsdale, which is a suburb of Phoenix, that whole metropolitan

area.

And again, Title IX came in 73, 74.

And I was very fortunate that one of my parents, one of my athletes I’ve been working with,

apparently knew the athletic director at ASU, and I guess they were talking or something.

And this father, ironically, the father said, well, call sue.

0:31:37 Sue Humphrey: They were looking for a female, obviously, because all of a sudden

now you have to have a female.

And so the athletic director called, offered me the assistant track coach, women’s track

coach.

It was part time, so I had to teach all day, full time teacher, and then drive over to

the university in the afternoon, have practice and so on.

And what they did economically, and I understand this as I look back, that the head women’s

coach position was tied in with the men’s assistant track position.

0:32:14 Sue Humphrey: So the assistant men’s coach now all of a sudden became the head

women’s track coach too.

So he now suddenly had two titles, one position, two different titles.

And that way the university had a full time women’s head coach, but he was a male.

So I come over as the female in the afternoon and he was really good, cooperative, but a

nice guy to work with and so on.

But he had some personal issues.

And unfortunately the second year we were into the production of the team there, second

year, he had to take a medical leave in October.

0:33:04 Sue Humphrey: All of a sudden he was out of commission.

And so the athletic director is like, okay, well, we’re not going to bring anybody in

mid year, so it’s you.

And so luckily, I had a very good manager.

And between the two of us and figuring everything out, we did, and the team did very well.

One conference and so in the afternoons we would have practice and then I would have

to after school, I mean after practice, I would have the equipment order, the recruiting,

because again, at that time recruiting for the women was done just by letters and by

phone calls.

0:33:45 Sue Humphrey: There were no visits, none of the luxuries that we have nowadays

for recruiting.

You kind of went based on the marks and the rapport you had over the phone.

So I had that and then workouts and everything.

So my job basically went from maybe 04:00 in the afternoon to whenever I was done in

the evening and then go back to school the next morning.

0:34:12 Bruce Anthony: So it went from a part time.

0:34:14 Sue Humphrey: Job to a full time job exactly for $4,000.

So you’re not going to get rid of coaching college.

0:34:24 Bruce Anthony: Maybe not then.

0:34:25 Sue Humphrey: Now, certain ones, they’re making big bucks, but I’ll tell you some more

as we go on.

So that was an ASU.

And so again, at the end of that year, which would be my second year there, obviously now

they’re going to hire somebody to take this coach’s position who had to take the medical

leave.

Well, I interviewed and I knew that it’s probably a far shot just because I was younger and

a female, but I also knew that we had taken the team from basically nothing to third,

4th in the nation.

0:35:02 Sue Humphrey: And so obviously we have done something.

0:35:05 Bruce Anthony: Right, so why wouldn’t okay, I’m trying to understand one.

I know you said that the men’s assistant coach had to become the woman’s coach from a standpoint

of it had to be a full time job, but why did it have to be a man?

Why couldn’t it be a woman?

This goes back to the original question from the beginning of this segment, Dylan, and

quote, unquote ladies and gentlemen, I’m literally, if you’re listening to the audio, I’m putting

up the quotations, quote unquote man’s world.

I’m not saying it’s a man’s world, okay?

I’m not saying that.

0:35:47 Bruce Anthony: Okay.

Sue will.

I’m saying the perception was but sue is confirming that it was.

I don’t understand why you had to interview if you had that type of success.

One, please finish your story and tell me what ended up happening.

But the fact that you had to interview kind of annoys me a little bit, and I’m sure annoyed

you.

0:36:09 Sue Humphrey: Well, it was rough because I agree with you.

I thought, okay, I’m doing a good job, and we’re being successful by bringing in a new

person who maybe would not keep the continuity going.

Well, I was told that this individual got the job because it involved coaching male

athletes.

So the athletic director’s rationale to me on why I did not get the job was that the

coach they brought in was a male who had coached male athletes before.

0:36:44 Sue Humphrey: I said, okay, has he ever coached women before?

No.

The Ad blatant, he was not hiding that at all.

I said, So I can’t coach men, but I can coach women, and this guy can coach men but not

women, and he gets the job.

And that was the rationale.

Now, in looking back, I think the head coach at that time was very much a male chauvinist,

and so I’m sure he had something to say about it, too.

But the rationale I was given was I did not get the job because I’d never coached men

before.

0:37:24 Sue Humphrey: And so, ironically, as we work through the next few years, a lot

of the male jumpers, seeing the success that we were having on the women’s side, started

to come over after their practice was over and watch and ask if they could kind of work

with us.

And of course, that was rough because I didn’t want to get in trouble, if you will, or get

on the bad side of my peers with the mail coaching staff.

So it got to be a little frazzled at times.

0:37:56 Sue Humphrey: But the male jumpers, male high jumpers were coming over to work

with us, so obviously I could coach men.

0:38:04 Bruce Anthony: It’s so funny how I said something in one of my previous podcasts.

As far as education is concerned, kids don’t know the difference of gender and race and

things like that.

It’s something that’s taught as they get older, and then you start to see these segregations.

But when you get into college and the reason why they say colleges are so liberal, but

it’s about experiencing something outside of where you come from, and you see, I’ve

never really interacted with this person.

I’ve never seen a person like this.

0:38:39 Bruce Anthony: Why?

I didn’t know they had that capability.

So you could have had these students, these male track and fields from small towns where

maybe, as you said, the high school program wasn’t that great, and they didn’t see female

athletes like this.

And then they get to college and they see the female athletes are just or maybe more

passionate than they are, more disciplined than they are, and they decide to learn from

it, but the older men stuck in their ways.

0:39:10 Bruce Anthony: And how was that dynamic with the new coach that took over from the

previous coach?

0:39:17 Sue Humphrey: It did not go very well, and mostly because of certain things that

were happening off the track.

He didn’t share a lot of information as far as what was happening with the team or the

workouts or things.

And so I don’t know, because I went into it.

I felt I went into it.

Okay, we got to work together.

I had recruited that team.

So it was basically athletes I had brought to ASU, and so I wanted them to be successful,

obviously.

0:39:54 Sue Humphrey: And I remember one of the first meetings I had with him, he went

down a roster, and he was like, well, what about this athlete we were talking about who

is recruiting?

And this was in 77, so the 76 Olympics had just happened, and there was a high school

hurdler, female high school hurdler on the 76 Olympic team.

And so he’s like, oh, we got to get her.

We got to get her.

I said, Coach, she arrives next week.

I’ve already signed her.

0:40:24 Sue Humphrey: And the team that I had recruited was awesome.

They ended up again third and fourth in the nation, winning the national title four by

one, all American.

So he got a full fledged team walking in there.

Now, whether that was a problem and ego, whatever, I don’t know.

And this is all keep in mind, in the late 70s, this is before the safe sports stuff

and the women’s rights and just I’m trying to think the sexual harassment stuff.

0:41:04 Sue Humphrey: Okay, well, that was going on off the track, and so I couldn’t

deal with that.

It just ate me up, basically, because these kids were being used.

So I ended up resigning there in 1981 because by staying there, I was condoning what was

happening, and I just couldn’t anymore.

And so then I went over kind of joke about midlife crisis.

At age 30, I went over to Long Beach, and again, you talk about a good male coach over

there, Long Beach State, and he welcomed me to help with the team.

Now, of course, it was a volunteer, so I had to teach full time.

Again, I worked in a gas station at night.

0:42:01 Bruce Anthony: Jesus.

0:42:06 Sue Humphrey: That’s when we got involved with Wilt’s athletic club.

So he helped me some financially.

So the transition was pretty smooth, actually, there.

0:42:16 Bruce Anthony: Wow.

0:42:17 Sue Humphrey: Then come to Texas in 84.

I’m here.

0:42:23 Bruce Anthony: This is a personal question, and you don’t have to answer this.

Do you have a bad taste in your mouth with your experience with ASU, or is it a proud

is it bittersweet?

0:42:34 Sue Humphrey: It’s bittersweet only against that individual, the athletic director,

the women’s athletic director.

When I resigned and gave her my letter, she’s like, can’t you get the girls to talk, or

can’t we do something to get the situation fixed?

And I said, I’ve been trying.

The girls won’t talk.

They’re afraid they’ll lose their scholarship.

I even talked to one of the mothers of a young lady who was on a full ride who was not that

good athletically.

I mean, she was a nice kid, good student, but not somebody that was full ride material

at that time.

0:43:16 Sue Humphrey: And unfortunately, her mother said, we’re not going to rock the boat

because she’s the first one in college.

She’s graduating in a year.

And I thought, my gosh, you’re kind of prostituting your child to get this college scholarship.

So it’s bittersweet against the situation, not against the school, not against the athletes

or any of that.

0:43:43 Bruce Anthony: Have you kept in touch with any of those athletes from those teams

from ASU?

0:43:49 Sue Humphrey: Yes, I still see them, or again, through social media.

And actually, ironically, last year at the USA Track and Field Convention, this young

lady came up to me and said, you don’t remember me, do you?

And it was one of our long jumpers from that original ASU team.

And she’s now in Connecticut and coaching and doing a good job there.

So it was really fun to see her again.

0:44:16 Bruce Anthony: I love that.

I love that.

How can parents and coaches of girls and young women who are interested in competitive running

best help them succeed?

0:44:29 Sue Humphrey: I think it’s to letting the student, making sure the student is what

is this?

Is their passion, not the parent passion, not the coach passion.

Unfortunately, we saw many years with the boys where the dads were reliving their athletic

dream or lack of through the kid.

Well, we see that sometimes with the girls, too, obviously.

And so I think as being sure that let the kid do what she wants to do or has passion

to do at that time, I think specializing too young has become an issue with, like you mentioned,

AAU basketball there’s, AAU volleyball there’s.

Some of these kids, their schedule is unreal.

0:45:17 Sue Humphrey: Their day to day schedule between school and club practice and school

practice, it’s unreal.

And I’m afraid that they might not be ready or they might not want to continue in sport

because they’re just burned out from it.

And that’s a concern I have, is looking ahead, when we look back at the stars of today in

track, at least how many of them were stars when they were high school or freshmen high

school.

0:45:48 Sue Humphrey: It’s kind of mixed, I think, is to support your kid, definitely.

And I don’t mean just financially, but there’s a financial commitment, but also to be supportive

of her dreams and what she wants to do.

And if it might not be what you want her to do, kind of go with the flow and see and just

check out the people, the coaches and the group or organization she’s working with.

Because nowadays, because of the gymnastics fiasco of the last few years, with the harassment

of the athletes and the abuse of the athletes, there are a lot of safeguards built in now

that weren’t five years ago even or ten years ago.

0:46:33 Sue Humphrey: But there’s still, unfortunately, individuals that are getting away with things

that she shouldn’t be.

And they’re using their position as authority, leader or power position in the team to take

advantage of young girls and young guys.

It’s not just the girl thing.

And we, through track and field was a program through the Olympic Committee actually called

Safe Score.

And so we have a program where you can anonymously call in and report someone and they investigate

it.

0:47:09 Sue Humphrey: And some of the names that come back as people that are banned are

shocking to us because they’re people that have been in the system and worked their way

up quite high in the system, and you never knew that they were doing this off the track.

0:47:26 Bruce Anthony: Wow.

0:47:27 Sue Humphrey: Scary.

0:47:28 Bruce Anthony: Wow.

Well, that leads me to you’re involved in a coaching summit.

Can you tell me a little bit about the event and what attendees can learn and expect to

learn from the coaching summit?

0:47:40 Sue Humphrey: Yes.

It’s called the gold medal coaching summit.

Goldmetalcoaches.com.

The goldmetalcoaches.com.

It’s a free summit this week that’s happening.

We have 30 different coaches speaking on a variety of events topics.

So all the way from the sprints to the distance to the jumps to the throws, and you can pick

and choose which ones you want to listen to.

Again, it’s free.

Initially, if you want to get access to the recordings, lifetime access, then you can

buy a premium pass for $67, and that gives you all 30 sessions for life in the cloud.

0:48:28 Sue Humphrey: So it’s a good thing.

And again, it’s coaches that are elite level coaches and some college coaches and some

top high school coaches.

So I tried to pick a variety of individuals.

So it’s not just Olympic coaches, because a lot of times, if you’re a high school coach

and you listen to what the coach at the University of Blah Blah Land says, that might not be

something that you can take back to practice with your kids because of difference of ability.

0:49:02 Sue Humphrey: But if you’re talking with another high school coach who’s in the

same kind of setup that you are, and here what he or she can develop, you’re like, oh,

okay, that’s a possibility.

So I tried to have a variety of levels of speakers, too, and it’s been pretty successful

this week, so we’re.

0:49:20 Bruce Anthony: Excited about it, ladies and gentlemen.

Check that out.

Also, check out her book.

Can you give me I want to run that’s right?

Put it up there on the screen for all those people that that are watching the video podcast.

I want to run the Olympic Development, Training and nutritional guide for Young and Teen Track

Runners ages Ten to 18.

By Sue Humphrey.

It’s on amazon.

Go get it.

Lastly, what’s next for you and your career?

What are you most excited about?

0:49:49 Sue Humphrey: I think now I’m leaning more toward continuing the coaches education

part and working with the developing athletes.

Coming up again, going back kind of a 360.

I started out coaching young kids in a club setting and have been the whole gamut.

Now kind of back that way and again, trying to pass on the things that I’ve learned in

the good and the bad and help future coaches.

Maybe not make the goofs I did, but learn from things that were successful.

0:50:25 Bruce Anthony: So really you’re talking about solidifying that foundation, right?

Because you’re attacking it from the coaches.

Because we talked about how some of these coaches for the clubs and the schools aren’t

really good.

So you’re continuously building that coaching tree as well as helping the young kids.

So you land the groundwork for the foundation for the future.

I love that.

0:50:51 Sue Humphrey: Right?

That’s the goal.

0:50:53 Bruce Anthony: Sue, I want to thank you again for joining me today.

This has been a very insightful and interesting interview.

You’re a very insightful and interesting person.

Your life experiences is wow.

It’s pretty incredible.

Yeah, it’s pretty incredible.

So thank you again for joining us today.

0:51:13 Sue Humphrey: Thank you.

I really enjoyed it.

Appreciate it.

0:51:15 Bruce Anthony: No problem.

Wow.

I told sue off camera that her story is a story that should be told.

She should start writing her book, and that’s a movie.

Because from the beginning of her athletic career all the way to her continuous coaching,

she’s been a part of so much and has interacted with so many people and has been there from

the beginning, before title nine, the beginning of title nine and through title nine.

And me and my toxic masculinity was thinking that women, it’s all great now.

Women have it, and she’s telling me now it’s still not where it should be.

And I identify with that.

0:52:12 Bruce Anthony: Just being a black man in this country, I identify what she’s

saying.

With the struggle that women athletics are still having, they’re not at the promised

land yet.

There’s still work to be done and she’s out there doing it.

Get her book.

The link to her book on Amazon is in the description, as well as the link to her coaching summit

is in the description on both the YouTube and wherever you get the audio podcast, it’s

in the description.

0:52:44 Bruce Anthony: I hope I did her life service, that I did a good job representing

how important she is just in American culture and society and what she’s gone through and

the interactions she’s had.

I feel like there’s another interview because there’s more details.

Like I said, we were off camera talking about some stuff, and I was just like, wow, there’s

some stuff you can’t put on there because it’s private.

But just her career and her life is remarkable.

0:53:19 Bruce Anthony: I hope that you got out of this interview what I got out of this

interview and I’ve had a lot of interviews with people that I’m extremely impressed with.

And Sue Humphrey is right up there.

She’s right up there.

This is one of the most impressive people that I’ve got in the interview, and I’m very

fortunate to have interviewed her.

And once again, I thank her and I hope you guys enjoyed the interview.

0:53:45 Bruce Anthony: But until next time, I’m a holler.

Thank you for listening to Unsolicited Perspectives with Bruce Anthony:.

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Out of 5000 peace.

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