BYRON BURT – ST. LAURENCE (IL) HIGH SCHOOL BOYS’ BASKETBALL HEAD COACH – EPISODE 704

Website – https://www.stlaurence.com/teams

Email – bburt@stlaurence.com

Twitter – @Burt3030

Byron Burt is entering his third season as the Head Boys’ Basketball Coach at St. Laurence High School in Chicago, Illinois.  He previously served two seasons as the Head Coach at his alma mater, Stephen T. Mather High School before landing the job at St. Laurence.  Byron also worked at Beacon Academy in Chicago as the Head Boys’ Basketball Coach and Assistant Athletic Director from 2017 to 2018.

Coach Burt has worked as a coach at the youth level since his playing days and currently helps to oversee Chicago Hoops, the AAU Program he started back in 2016.

Byron played his high school basketball at St. Laurence and eventually ended up playing college basketball at Loyola of Chicago for Coach Porter Moser.

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Take some notes as you listen to this episode with Byron Burt, Head Boys’ Basketball Coach at St. Laurence High School in Chicago, Illinois.

What We Discuss with Byron Burt

• The coach that inspired him growing up in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago
• How his experiences as high school player influenced his decision to coach
• “Play together, trust each other and just do what’s right.”
• Coaching youth basketball for his local park district
• “That’s the beautiful thing about basketball. You have all these different people and you’re bringing them together to try to accomplish one common goal.”
• How he ended up walking on at Loyola of Chicago
• “It takes all 15 guys, everybody has a role.”
• “You have to be a good person first.”
• Doing the little things every day
• “At the end of the day, everything is earned. You have to work for it.”
• The need to be transparent with players regarding their roles
• The importance of having a circle of mentors and friends
• How he got the job as the head coach as Mather High School, his alma mater
• Learning the history of a program when you take over the job
• Coaching through COVID
• “I definitely like to adapt to our players. I’m not a big system guy. I’m a huge concepts teaching guy. I don’t like really giving them plays.”
• Teaching communication
• The Wall of Culture in the Locker Room
• Using advantage/disadvantage drills in practice
• His practice planning process
• Using practice film to clean up the little things or avoid slippage
• “You have to fix what’s going on with your guys first before you try to go and stop someone else.”
• What he looks for when watching game film of an opponent
• Pre-game preparation
• His keys to building a great culture
• Creating dedicated “mental” days for his program
• Building trust with players
• “It’s fun knowing that you’re getting better.”
• “Everybody just wants you to walk in winning, but it doesn’t work like that.”
• His Chicago Hoops AAU Program and what makes AAU both a blessing and a curse

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THANKS, BYRON BURT

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TRANSCRIPT FOR BYRON BURT – ST. LAURENCE (IL) HIGH SCHOOL BOYS’ BASKETBALL HEAD COACH – EPISODE 704

Mike Klinzing: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to the Hoop Heads Podcast. It’s Mike Klinzing here without my co-host Jason Sunkle tonight. But we are pleased to welcome to the Hoop Heads Pod, Byron Burt, the head boys basketball coach at St. Laurence High School in Chicago, Illinois. Byron, welcome to the Hoop Heads Pod.

Byron Burt: Hey, what’s up Mike?

Thanks a lot. Appreciate you guys for having me on.

Mike Klinzing:. Absolutely. Excited to have you on. Looking forward to diving into all the things that you’ve been able to do in your coaching career. Want to start by going back in time to when you were a kid? Tell us a little bit about some of your first experiences with the game of basketball.

Byron Burt: Yeah, for sure, man. I think with me, I grew up in Chicago, Rogers Park. I was pretty much involved in a lot of that was like competitive, like the cheerleader, soccer, all type of stuff. So I was really involved in team aspect and stuff, but I think playing basketball and like really looking like really looking into it and stuff like that was probably seventh, eighth grade year.

That was, that was, that was pretty like a, that was a fun year for me. We had an amazing [00:01:00] coach and I think that’s kind of what sparked everything off.

Mike Klinzing: When you think about that coach and you think about the people that influenced you when you were younger, what are some of the things about that particular coach or some of the other people that you had that influenced you, that made them so impactful in your life in terms of how you approached sports and how you looked at basketball?

Byron Burt: Yeah, for sure. Like, so seven, eighth grade we had Coach Foyer at I went to Eugene Elementary School in Rogers park. Really small school, not that big. So Coach Ford basically coached every sport. So he coached like lacrosse, football. Basketball. He had us doing wrestling and I remember he used to like tell us like he had this like saying like he knew that we all wanted to play basketball.

So he had this saying like, Lacrosse gets you football ready. Football ready gets you wrestling ready. Wrestling ready gets you basketball ready. And he [00:02:00] basically made us all play these so we can play basketball. And they work and we did it. But the fact that like, he just was like so involved, man. Like I think he really like did a good job of these are great school kids.

He did a great job building relationship with us. And it was like it was more than just the basketballs piece of it He held us accountable for grades. He run us accountable for like the how we dress, the way we looked. All this other like in terms of like appropriately, you know what I’m saying?

He did a real good job with that. And I think that’s what gravitated all the players towards him. And when I saw that man, I just saw like somebody who actually cared. Cause I was always in a position where I was always overlooked everybody really paid attention. And I told you I played all these sports, but I was always the guy kind of caught it out.

And this coach like just inspired all of us and gave everybody hope. And he got me started, man, and after that I got intrigued with coach and I started to really love the game of basketball more. And [00:03:00]  I wanted more.

Mike Klinzing: So when you started thinking about taking basketball more seriously and working on the game and getting better, what did you do like as a high school player to improve your game?

Were you playing a lot of pickup ball? Were you in the gym by yourself, working out? Did you have a friend or a coach that kind of helped you? Just, what was your process for getting better?

Byron Burt: Yeah, for sure. I think it made it so crazy. It’s so different right now. Like when you look at these players, Now that are like 14, 15 year olds.

Like I got a young team right now, St. Laurence, and I’m looking at some of these guys, they have trainers like they got individual trainers and it’s kind of like crazy. We didn’t really have that stuff back then. It was kind of like you doing most of the work on your own. So I definitely played a lot, I did a lot of pickup.

I did a lot of like, just work at my local park. This was like Ola Park. Like we did a lot of just work there on our own man. And like, he used to look up videos on like YouTube and see what the, [00:04:00] that’s what I kind of went to the gym and did on my own. Or I’d get my friends and we’ll go and do those drills and stuff like that.

So yeah, that’s kind of how that went with high school. But I think it started to change a little bit when I got to my sophomore year we kind had some my mom was kind of having some financial problems. I kind of had to step away from basketball to kind of help work.

to put some money in that you know, to bring some money home and help out my mom. So that kind of took a little toll on me as well.

Mike Klinzing: So when you get through that rough patch and you think about your high school basketball career, what are some memories that you have? Is there something that stands out in particular as a high school player that when you think high school basketball, there’s something that pops into your head as that core memory?

Byron Burt: Yeah, so we had these conversations with our, with our players man. Like, so it is crazy how I just told you, right? Seventh, eighth grade year, I had this coach who really like, just investing in, everybody [00:05:00] intrigued me as a, wanted to make me get more involved in the coaching.

And then as high school kind of to go on we had a coach, we had coach Hef. Man. He recently coached division one basketball. He ended up going to a coach at Lama Prep. This is all after his high school coaching career at Mather.

So I kind of, when I got there, like my junior year didn’t really play that much, but he was the coach, but I really didn’t get, really get a good feel of it. And then I was excited going into my senior year man, and he ended up leaving.  His son was on the team. His son was extremely talented.

They all, they both went to Lama Prep and when that kind of happened, it was like, Oh man, it was tough. So we got a new coach in at first me and the coach wasn’t really, I mean at first me and the coach was kind of seeing eye to eye. You know, it’s off season, we get an idea what he wants to do, and as the season goes on, man, it just wasn’t too, it wasn’t a great experience, man.

And, and that with, and that kind of, [00:06:00] that experience made me want to coach even more becaose I wanted to make sure that I gave my players the experience that they, that I, that I didn’t get the chance to have. I wanted them to have that experience. You know, so that’s, it’s kind of crazy that drove me to want to really coach even more after my senior year.

Mike Klinzing: Yeah, absolutely. So as you’re thinking about becoming a coach, and obviously you’ve got sort of a good example and maybe a not so good example to kind of fall back on, which again, talking to coaches over the past few years in the podcast, that’s one of the things that a lot of coaches talk about is you, whether it’s somebody that you work for or whether it’s somebody that you played for, you get to see the things that you really like and you say, Hey, I’d like to incorporate this.

And then on the other hand, you see things that you’re like, Hmm, I don’t know if I’d do that. Or maybe I’d do that differently or approach it. So I’m assuming that throughout the time when you’re playing both in high school, and then we’re going to get to your college experience that you had in the back [00:07:00] of your mind, Hey, I’m going to coach.

So what were you. Doing in terms of sort of prepping to, to get into coaching? So were you, in other words, were you taking notes? Were you, were you just mentally kind of filing things away? Did you have a system? How much of it, how much of your thought process while you were still playing was focused on I’m a player, but eventually I know that I wanted to get in, I want to get into coaching, so I better start kind of paying attention to what’s going on around me.

Byron Burt: So, yeah, with that, like I told you, I started coaching really, like when I was like about going into that senior for about 17 years, 16, 17, I started coaching youth basketball man at my local park district. So I was like the youngest guy there and I was assistant with this other guy and we had a really talented team.

They were a really talented team. And the following year the guy offered me the head coach position. He thought I did such a great job. This was like, not even like, Knowledge wise, just like motivational wise and [00:08:00] just the way I relationship building with the kids, he thought, I can do it.

So I really didn’t have any  Xs and Os and knowledge and stuff like that. Man. I just was a great motivator talking to the kids and just got them to play hard. And I was a big team guy. I always tell them like, just play together, trust each other and just do what’s right and we end up winning like the championship for like a little youth league.

Mike Klinzing: Yeah. So as you’re doing that, what was the part of it that, that really grabbed you, that you’re like, Man, I, I just love this about coaching. I’m assuming based on what you’ve said to this point, that it was the relationships with those kids and being able to be that role model that you felt like had such an influence on you.

Byron Burt: For sure. That was definitely it right there, man. I think. That’s the beautiful thing about basketball. It’s like you got, you got all these different people, man, and you’re bringing them [00:09:00] together to try to accomplish one common goal. And along that journey, man, you learn so much about yourself.

You learn a lot about the other people involved, about the coaches. And it’s like, it becomes so much more than just basketball. It becomes lifelong relationships. Like those eight grade kids that I coached I still have a relationship with those guys to this day. Some of them have graduated off from high school and they’re two years into college right now.

And some of them have started their own businesses at age 19 and 20 and 21. Like, it’s just crazy man what basketball really can do for somebody.

Mike Klinzing: Yeah. I think that one of the things that I’ve talked with lots of coaches about, and it’s one of the things that when I hear somebody.

Talk like you’re talking about, just being able to have that impact and, and building those relationships that continue for 5, 10, 15, 30 years down the road [00:10:00] that the opportunity to use basketball is something that you love to be able to have an impact on the kids, on the players that you touch every day.

To me that’s, I can’t think of anything that would be more rewarding is in using something that you love to be able to be able to have an impact on other people’s lives. To me, that’s super powerful and it sounds like that’s kind of where. You started, and that’s kind of where you’ve continued to go and we’ll get into building your culture at St. Laurence and what you’ve been able to do there in a few minutes. But I get the feeling that those relationships are going to be a huge part of the theme of what we’re going to talk about as we go through. Yeah. When you talk a little bit about your opportunity to play for Coach Porter Moser at Loyola Chicago.

Byron Burt: Yeah. So that was a very intriguing situation. So I started off, so I’m give you a little back, let me give you a little back. Backtrack a little bit. After high school you know, I had some interest coming from like, Roosevelt University. Had an opportunity to go play there. I didn’t end up taking it because my grade situation [00:11:00] wasn’t the best. Do I end up going to I went to Northeastern for a semester that I had that’s going to be important to remember with this story. I went to Northeastern for a semester. And at the time I enrolled full-time not knowing like all the rules and stuff like that, but I did it and I enroll full-time and I end up like I ended up having an opportunity, They didn’t have a basketball team at Northeastern, so I ended up having the opportunity to go to North Park.

I met some people, they told me to come check it out and I ended up dropping, like those classes that I had at Northeastern, I enrolled in North Park immediately. So I started planning North Park there and I kind of jumped right in. And there things kind of things for me was like very just blurry man, not a good place in my life in terms of like mentally and I just felt like I could do more coming out of high school already. I told you the situation with my senior year didn’t end how I wanted at the end. And I always thought like, I can go play at the highest level.

Like, I always told myself [00:12:00] like, I can do it. Like, no ever give up on that dream. And I went, I was at, while I’m at North Park, like things just weren’t working out, man. I wasn’t getting much playing time. I just wasn’t like playing well. Like when I did get to play I wasn’t playing well. It was very, it was a frustrating time.

Sort of like midway through the season, man, I ended up gathering all my film together. Now, at the end of the season, I ended up sending it off to a bunch of schools. And it’s crazy, like Loyola hit me back one time during the summer Flash. It was Gordon that hit me up, and he had offered me to come play in an open gym at at Loyola.

So I’m going to these open gyms and I’m, I’m playing there one of these open gyms, man. And like they, they needed, they were short guys. Like they needed some guys. They were just coming back from the summer. So I’m, I’m getting the opportunity to play with like Ben Richardson, Milton Doyle James you know, everybody.

I’m getting this opportunity and like, I’m fitting in, man. I’m not telling, like, I’m not saying like I was out there like destroying, [00:13:00] but I was fitting in. Like I, I look like I belonged for sure. And that made, that made me feel good. So I end up getting invited back again. A couple more open Jams played really well.

Coach Porter actually was in the gym a few times watching, and I went to his office and I got the, he, he sat me down and he told me like, Hey, look Byron really like you. He was saying like we can offer you like a walk on position. He told me like walk-ons don’t really play.

But he said like, you know he was building a culture at the time and he said, like, he, he even said it, Porter was saying that some special things are going to happen here at Loyola. And he was like, You have an opportunity to be a part of that And when he said that I, at this time, I was really low and like at a low point, so I’m like, this is it.

This is my opportunity I’m going to try to get in what I fit in. So I ended up walking on that Loyola University man. And that opportunity, that day Porter changed my life, man. The staff there was just amazing and I learned so much.

Mike Klinzing: So much. When you think about that time and [00:14:00] the experience that you had, Obviously there you have your scholarship players, you have your walk-ons.

How did the guys, how did the guys incorporate you into, into the team? Cause I know that I’ve been around situations where walk-ons get treated really well, and then I’ve heard situations where unfortunately sometimes they don’t. So it sounds like your experience based on was definitely different. The, Yeah.

Yeah. It was definitely one where, where you felt like you were a part of it and, and that they made you feel exactly like, Hey man, you’re, you’re no different from every o else out here working and, and, and playing and being a part of it.

Byron Burt: Yeah. That’s facts. Well, I give credit to his staff, to him and his staff.

Man, they did an amazing job of treating everybody like like everybody had a part, you know what I’m saying? I took that aspect from Coach Porter and I, I use it to this day. It takes all 15 guys, everybody has a role. Like I, I, even though I didn’t really play much, I had a role on that team and he got us to [00:15:00] believe in that.

And I think that’s important. I think with the players though, I think they kind of accepted me a little bit differently because of the fact that I could actually compete with those guys. You know what I’m saying? Like, I was out there competing, man, I, I wasn’t out there just like I knew a lot of difficult walk-ons go out there and they’re, they’re the hustle hard players and all that other stuff.

That stuff was great for me, but I, like, I, I honestly could say like, I, I was, I was definitely competing. I was kind of holding my own you know, my time there. And I think that’s what. That’s what helped the players kind of like accept me a little bit more. Like there was times where I even had players like newing them.

They were saying like, Yeah man, there’s it. You could probably, they were saying like, you could probably go play somewhere else. You know what I’m saying? Like, you could probably go place somewhere else. Yeah, But I think that always crossed my mind of trying to possibly leave. But I can’t lie, man, that the group of guys that I’ve met there and the staff, it was such an enjoyable time and I got so much love for that school at university.

Just the people in, man. It was one of, it was the best time. My [00:16:00] life changed everything for me. And we all have that same relationship to this day. Like, you know what I’m saying? Like, I still talk to my teammates I’m still talking to my coaches, like, you know what I mean? Like still, you can still, like, even though Porter’s at OU right now, you can still shoot him a text right now.

He’ll text right back. Like that type of stuff, man. Like at the end of the day, no one’s remember. Someone’s remembering like, Oh, you had 25 points that game. You know what I’m saying? Right. They remember the relationship part, the bonds, the, the memories and all that stuff. So I think that’s what’s so important.

Mike Klinzing: What do you take that is part of your coaching today from that experience that Loyola, whether it be from Coach Moser or whether it be from one of the other members of the staff, are there one or two things that you picked up at Loyola when you were there as a player that you’ve incorporated into your coaching today?

Byron Burt: Yeah, for sure, we move by it every day. Like the number one thing is you have to be a good person. I remember Coach Porter used to say You have be a good [00:17:00] person first. You have to be a good human being in society. And the number two thing is whatever you do, you have to do it every day.

You know, whatever you decide to live by has to be a everyday thing. And it’s like those little things you have to do every day. You know what I’m saying? Like a lot of little things, and that’s why I try to pre star kids right now. Like a lot of the little things that they don’t think matter. Those things are the, are the deal breakers, those are the things that championship teams do.

You know, those little things. And it’s every day.

Mike Klinzing: All right. Give me an example of some of those little things that you talk to your kids about.

Byron Burt: So for example, like cleaning up the bench after the game, you know what I’m saying? Like, or, or coming into some, coming into a place and you. You see trash on the floor and you’re picking another little things like saying good morning when you see an adult in the hallway in the morning, you know what I’m saying?

Like this speak instead of keeping the locker room clean. You know, it’s so many little things. And then when you do those little things off the court, when you get on the court, you start doing these little things on the court, right? Like his teammate [00:18:00] falls down, you run over there every, all five, all four guys are helping picking that guy up.

You know what I’m saying? You bring like just clapping on the bench, giving verbals on the bench, talking while you’re sitting on the bench. If you’re not in the game. Still being active and being involved. That’s a real small thing that a lot of people are not, like a college coach isn’t coming in the gym really and too much focused on what the bench looks like.

You know what I’m saying? But that’s a small detail that’s so important for the team aspect, you know? So all those things are huge, but they’re small things.

Mike Klinzing: All right. Let me ask you this because I think this is a question that a lot of coaches wrestle with and try to figure out, and that is, How do you keep your kids who aren’t getting the minutes that they want to get or maybe that they think they should get?

How do you keep those kids involved in buying into the, cleaning up the bench, cheering when they’re not in the game? Cause those are things obviously that any good program you want to have that be a part of your culture. And yet I think coaches [00:19:00] sometimes struggle with how to keep those kids who are their reserves, who aren’t playing as much struggle to keep those kids engaged and feeling like, Hey, we’re a 12 man team, or we have, we’re a 15 man team, as opposed to, we’re only an eight man team, which, which is the guys that are in our rotation.

Then these other seven are just kind of afterthought. So how do you go about making sure you keep those kids involved who aren’t getting as many minutes?

Byron Burt: Yeah. I think with that, the first thing this is from, and this is like I said, like a lot of coaches probably have their own opinions on this. What we do is, I think the first thing is transparency, man.

Like. You have to be transparent with all the kids. Like it’s a really tough thing to do. But you have to be as truthful and transparent as possible and let them know the idea for everybody’s role. Like, this is where everybody has to pitch in and have to do your job.

So like if you got guys that are not really getting in, right? Like their role might be to practice extremely [00:20:00] hard. You know what I’m saying? Like, you might have to challenge our point guard on a daily basis. That might be your role. And you, by you challenging our point guard on a daily basis and practice, and he performs well in the game, like that’s credited.

That’s credited to you, like, great job. You in here challenging this guy. You know what I’m saying? And, and, and eventually, like, sometimes that even leads to like getting extra minutes here and there, you know what I’m saying? Like you, if you focus so much in on like, let me do my best to show up to practice and, and, and challenge this guy and control what I can control, sometimes that can lead to some guys sneaking in to that seven, eighth, eighth man role and getting some minutes.

But I think the transparency part is huge, man. You think you have to let kids know, like, listen, this is who’s in front of you. At the end of the day, everything is earned. You have to work for it. And if this kid is just talented, more talented in you, and he’s out working you, you have to figure out a way to get yourself in.

You know what I mean? But at the end of the day, that comes with you trying to challenge them at practice.

Mike Klinzing: Those [00:21:00] conversations, have they gotten easier since your first time sitting in that chair as a head coach? Have you gotten better at ’em? What have you learned from having those transparent. Brutally honest conversations with kids.

Because those aren’t easy. It’s not, that’s not, that’s not easy to sit down in front of a kid and sort of tell ’em, Hey, your dream of being a starter, average 15 points a game. There’s another role that we need you to play on this particular team. And that’s not easy to do. So just talk a little bit about how you’ve evolved or how, how you’ve, how you’ve approached that over your career.

Byron Burt: I think when I first started, when I first started coaching high school, I got my first hit, I was really young when I got my first head coach. I’m still young right now, but I started my first head coaching diversity job at the high school level. I was 23 years old, so it, I was coaching 17, 18 year olds. So having, I think at that time, I think it was more.  I think when I first started it was more about trying to please everybody. I think that’s what, that’s what [00:22:00] that was. So it wasn’t, it wasn’t, it wasn’t totally being transparent. It was more about like stringing them along to try to get them to do it and tell ’em like, Hey, it might be next game, it might be this.

Right? And it’s like that. And I realized like, man, that’s actually like a awful, that’s for me. It wasn’t, it didn’t, it didn’t sit right with me. And I just started doing, when I got in that position, I started just doing more research on certain guys. Like, I’m a huge fan of Steve Kerr Like I love the way this guy, he runs his he runs the, the Golden State Warriors.

And, and one thing he talked about was just him being transparent and just talking to guys about being truthful. Like, it hurts, but sometimes that truth is what we, what we need. And you have to figure out how can you fit in. I think right now, like as this is my going into my sixth year now as a head coach, Like, I’m sitting down with guys and it’s like one on one, and I’m being transparent with you.

I’m letting you know, and I, I ask kids, I tell me, I tell ’em like, kids that are, that are not playing, I ask them, Who do you think you should be playing over? [00:23:00] And then you have to tell me why. You know what I’m saying? Like, those are the conversations we’re having now. Like, who should you play over and why?

You know what I mean? If you can give me a good argument or you can point out like, Hey, this is my practice stats, this is my game stats. I’ve done this. Things like that, I’m always willing to hear people out. I’m open.

Mike Klinzing: Have you had kids?  I think when you have those conversations, I think deep down, I think most kids, and again, there are exceptions to this, but I think most kids, especially when you phrase it to ’em the way you just did, I think most kids deep down know and kind of understand that if they’re not playing, that the guy ahead of them is better now, their dad might not understand

Yeah. Yeah. Which is where, which is where a lot of. Separate issues come, come into play, which we can talk about in a minute, but I think most of the time kids know. So what, when you’ve had those conversations with a kid of like, take, tell me who, tell me who you’re better than or Tell me then [00:24:00] tell me why you should be playing ahead of, of a kid.

Do most of the time it does, does it get cut off most of the time before you have to get to that point where the kid kind of eventually in the course of the conversation, I don’t know if it admits is the right word, but just kind of, sort of comes to the realization that, hey, , there’s a reason, there’s a reason why somebody’s playing ahead of me.

Because it seems like kids, kids know and a lot of times what they’re hearing or or when they’re disgruntled. I think a lot of times it’s coming from unfortunately us parents.

Byron Burt: Yeah, I think so. I mean, we’ve had a few conversations with these, I think it is when the kids hear that man, they, they kind of just say, I don’t, they say I don’t and if, and then when they put you in that situation, I say, So, like, if you don’t know who you should be playing over, like, you know what I mean? What we really having this conversation about if you are, if you can’t, you don’t know. You know what I’m saying? So yeah, it’s tough.

But I think the kids who, the kids who really like accept that [00:25:00] and figure out ways to get better, I think those are the ones that end up being successful, not only with basketball, but man, just in life. You know what I’m saying? Like, just figuring it out.

Mike Klinzing: Absolutely. Tell me something that you are better at right now than when you started.

I know the answer’s going to be almost everything, but let’s start with maybe something that you feel like when you look back on your first year as a head coach, you were like, Ooh, man, I was, I was really bad at that. And now it’s feel, you feel like it’s something that you’ve sort of have to handle on and really improved upon?

Byron Burt: No, just the better understanding. Like what our vision, what, what our vision is. You know, and what our core values are, sticking to that. So I’ve definitely gotten better at that and I’m, I’m real happy about that.

Mike Klinzing: Who have you gone to over the course of your time as a head coach, sort of as a mentor or people that you’ve talked to?

Is there anybody that fills that role for you? Is there, is there a group of guys that you talk to, or is there somebody specific that [00:26:00] when you run into a situation, you’re like, Oh man, I wonder what the best way to handle this is, Or I need this from an Xs and os standpoint. Do you have a guy or, or a group that you, that you reach out to?

Byron Burt: Yeah, I think, it’s multiple people, like you said. It’s a lot of different situations come up. I, I like to use all my resources. I for sure hit up my coaches. Like that’s, that’s if I, if I really, if I’m in, if I’m in trouble, I definitely hit up my coaches you know, B Mullins, he’s over at SIU I got still have some connections at Loyola with London.

He’s over there. And then I got Clay and those, I don’t, I try not to bother the porter over at OU with these type of things, but I hit up clay. Right. You know, Clay, he’s working with OU as a player development coach. So I hit up these guys and they give me advice it is great. They, they give me some things that they do with their college players and stuff like that, which is always helpful, what they do with their teams.

And then I have like a group of friends, I have two friends who are two of my buddies, good buddies. They like, we, we have these debates [00:27:00] every day and like they, they, they really do keep it, they keep it real and they, they tell me like, this what’s probably best. And I hear it all out and then I end up making my decision based off of what I kind of get.

My assistant coach, Jim Tracy, who’s like, he’s probably a legend, legend for Illinois high school basketball, man. He’s my assistant. He’s been coaching for 20 something plus years. And this guy, he’s great to have as an assistant. He gives me a lot of advice on certain situations, so he’s always there to help me.

And yeah, I got a lot of good buddies I can always reach out to.

Mike Klinzing: I think that’s important when you start talking about being able to, to reach out and get a different perspective, which I think one of the things that I would say this is about coaching, I think teaching is the same way. A lot of times you feel super isolated and you feel like, Hey man, this is, this is only happening to me.

Like this situation is something that it’s, it’s never come up ever in the history of basketball. I can’t believe this is what’s going on. And then you realize, you talk to somebody, you’re like, No, no, [00:28:00] no. This has happened all over the place. And so to be able to have that diverse group of people that you can reach out to, I’m sure has been really valuable for you in your career.

Let’s go back to that first experience as a head coach. Tell me about the interview process, what you remember about it, and then just what your feeling was going into it as a guy, as young as you were. What do you feel like were your strengths there as, as a young coach that you tried to sell as you’re trying to get that first job?

Byron Burt: Yeah. So the first actual real job I think was at so I ended up coaching at my alma mater. I got the math job, so I went back to my old high school and I got the head coaching job there. That was kind of, that was, that was a really dope experience. The interview was kind of weird, man.

Like It was, it wasn’t really an interview man. Like this, at this time, this is when Loyola was at the Final Four. So Loyola versus was at the Final four. So, like I was, I was going to  a few games and stuff like that going [00:29:00] back and forth, but I was, I happened to been back at Mather at this time.

I was, I was doing an internship with the AD and it turns out like he was looking for a new coach and I was looking like, you know what I can put, I could potentially take that role, man. And you know, at the time I think I was a hot ticket because I went to Loyola and I think everybody was asking questions about the team now.

Cause those guys that played in the Final four, those pretty much all the, those were my teammates. Like, I had just finished literally like the, the, the the, the year before. Like, that was my last year there. So I was kind of like a little, I guess I was like a hot thing. And he was, he was super excited about that.

And he was like, We would love for you to be the head. To take over. I think these guys, he said he think the guys would really relate well with me. And he just said like just whatever you learn at Loyola trying to bring it to these guys. So I was it. I was like, Let’s do it. You know? So I jumped right into it.

And there was really no interview process though. I kind of like gathered on the spot. I guess.

Mike Klinzing: That’s the easiest interview you’ll . Yeah, [00:30:00] it was. So was it harder, do you think it was harder or easier to have your first job at your alma mater?

Byron Burt: I think it was easier. Part of the fact was the expectation that the school man was just so low, you know what I’m saying?

It was really like the only way you really can go is up. And we made like the, the, the entire school culture, like change. Man I did it for two years and I was just so proud to see how many kids came out to the games. Like when you think about last, the year before me, People were saying like, no one went to the basketball games.

You know, we totally redid the social media page. We got the kids new gear. Like we just made it more exciting, man. Like we had a real off season. We made, I literally, I tried to make it as much as like much as possible was like we had my experience at the loyalty university. I tried to make it like a college experience.

We did trips, we went to team camps, we got to visit Marquette University. So like, everything was like, it was, it [00:31:00] was, it was fun, man. Like the process was so fun. And we made such big jumps. Like we went for my first year, I think we won like nine or 10 games to winning like 17 games. Season tie in first for the conference championship.

So it was so much like just culture changing. It was amazing. Like, and I was just so like proud for, to be a part of that. And it was my alma mater too. So that’s what made me feel any better.

Mike Klinzing: So that seems like a job that from the outside looking in, you’re at your alma mater, you’re getting things turned around, you’re putting the kids that.

Only seven or eight years ago, you were sitting in the same chair that they’re sitting in. That seems like a place where, man, I could be here for 30 years coaching. So over the course of your time there, what changed that made you think, Hey, the opportunity to go and be the coach at St. Lawrence might be a better opportunity for me in the long term?

Talk about that thought process and just what that looked like.

Byron Burt: So like, yeah, Mather was great. It was [00:32:00] good, but I think the one thing like that St. Lawrence offered was I had a little bit more ability to kind of choose what type of kids we wanted in the program. You know, when you had a Catholic school like there’s academic recruiting that you can do, like you can go out to, to seek certain kids.

You know what I mean? Sure. You go watch what public school, it’s a little bit different. Some public schools, yyou have to get the kids that’s kind of living in the area. Like you get who you get. And that could be sometimes difficult. Cause you don’t always have of a choice on like, who you kind of bring in.

Unless you’re like, some of these CPS schools, they’re selective enrollment, which means they kind of select who they want in the school, which is, that’s kind of an advantage. But I think that’s why I, I kind, I kind moved on and, and the, the league that we’re in with St. Lawrence is just competitive, literally from the top to the bottom.

Like it’s a, well publicized league. It’s very competitive all around. And it was a bigger challenge. So I definitely was looking forward to [00:33:00] that challenge. II love competing at a really high level.

Mike Klinzing: How’d the interview process compare?

Byron Burt: Yeah, that was totally different.  The St. Laurence wasa real interview. Like, I kind of took that job in the midst of Covid. But that interview process was like real dude. They had the president of the they have the pres. I was going to say the president of the United States

Mike Klinzing: That’d be good. They had get Obama sitting in there with you?

Byron Burt: No, they had the president of the school on, man. They had they had some some board members on there. The ad principal was on there. It was a, it was a full out meeting, man. They had me talk with some of the parents. So it was like, it was, it was a full, it was a full blown meeting and it was like multiple interviews.

So it was, I guess they, at that time they said they had about 95 candidates that they were that they were interviewing. So it was a real rigorous process. But no, I definitely was ready to go for it though. I love a good challenge, so [00:34:00] I was all ready to go prepared.

Mike Klinzing: Is there a question that they asked you that stands out that you remember?

Byron Burt: I think when they, when they asked about like, what is your, they told me to create a plan, like a one year plan, two year, a three year, then like a four to four to six year plan. I think when they started to say that, I was like, All right, this, this is real. You know, that stood out to me.

I’ve never seen an interview process where they’re having you put together a plan. Like, and this is like a recruiting plan. Like, what do y’all, like, how you going to, what areas are you going to hit? Look like, I don’t know. I felt like, wow. Right. This is the real deal, you know? Cause my main goal is I want to my, I want to be a head coach at the, at the division one level, or maybe if it possibly goes to get to the NBA.

So like when I saw this opportunity, I was like, Man, this is probably the closest thing to college basketball and I want to be in it.

Mike Klinzing: What were some questions or a question that you asked them? Because clearly when you get [00:35:00] in there, you want to be able to. Know, and, and understand what the expectations are for the program, what kind of resources they’re going to have available to you.

So what were some things or a thing that you asked them during the process to help you to make sure that this was the right place?

Byron Burt: Well, the first thing we’re going to say is the check .

Mike Klinzing: Just saying, nah, I just went those, those checks, those basketball checks are small man compared to the hours you’re putting in, as you well know.

Byron Burt: Yeah. Nah, that’s facts. Yeah, that’s facts. But I think the question I asked too, I think mainly was about just gym access.  I’m a huge gym rat, and we, we preach what our kids like. We, we want gym rat players. So like the gym access for me was like a big thing. Like I wanted to be able to say like, Hey, if a kid calls me at 12 1:00 AM in the morning, say, Coach Burt, I want to get in the gym.

It’s like, All right, let’s go. I’ll meet you. You know what I’m saying? So like the gym access thing was, that was, that was that was huge. Because that’s a big thing we preach in our program is always, always trying to get in extra work, trying to get better. So like, that was, [00:36:00] that was probably a, a big one for me.

Mike Klinzing: Once you get the job. Who did you talk to in the course of the first couple weeks? If you can think back to that, Obviously, I’m sure you met with the players, but did you meet with parents? Did you meet with community members? Did you meet with administration? Just what were some of those conversations like in the first week, two weeks on the job?

Just to kind of get a feel for where the program was and then. Trying to start to impact your vision and put that in place? Yeah,

Byron Burt: I think most of the conversations were kind of like, just a lot of history, like just giving me past stuff about like the program, what happened the year before, what happened five, 10 years ago and stuff like that.

Expectations for like, this year, the season coming up, because like the it was, this was around April I think I got in. So, and everything was kind of shut down, so I really didn’t get to like, meet the players like face to face like that. You didn’t even get to see all that. So it was just really about expectation give, giving me some history and just really the, the, the school was really [00:37:00] supportive and just saying like, Hey, what, what is it that you guys need?

Like, what is it trying to help me get a put a staff together. So just really just being able to just see what you guys need. Like what, what was going to help me get started.

Mike Klinzing: So, coming in, in the middle of Covid, clearly not a normal situation to walk into. When you look back at that time. And you think about what you had to do and how you had to do it because of the restrictions that were in place with covid.

What were some of the biggest challenges from that, that you felt like, Hey, we’ve have to be able to overcome this, to get where we want to go. And, and maybe obviously if Covid wasn’t in place, you would’ve done it differently, but just talk a little bit about those challenges that Covid put in front of you when you first get that job.

Byron Burt: Yeah. I think when you are a new coach coming in, right? Like you kind of, it’s the, it is, you’re in the, you’re in the inherent aspect of the game. Like when you kind get what you get. I think we, what, what really hurt us was the team chemistry. Like we didn’t have that [00:38:00] opportunity to like bond with each other.

Like we didn’t, like I told you, like at math, we went over the off season. We were at Marquette, we were at Michigan, Michigan State’s team camp. Like we were doing so much. We were at team dinners, all that stuff got canceled out. You couldn’t really do much it was, the only thing you really can do was like a bunch of Zoom calls together and.

It’s tough to like build that type of you don’t really get that real connection. I’m, I’m huge on like the team aspect, part of the game. I didn’t really get that connection with them because kid really couldn’t be around couldn’t really get them, everybody together. So I think the team chemistry part was huge and just that, that’s a, that’s a huge factor.

Mike Klinzing: How did you overcome that? What did you do to try to bridge that gap of not being able to get everybody together face to face? What were some of the things that you tried to do, whether through Zoom or through individual conversations with kids in order to be able to start to build the chemistry that you were hoping to have, which obviously was much more challenging, but just how’d you go about trying to instill it despite the challenges that were in front of you?[00:39:00]

Byron Burt:  We end up doing like some, like we had to, like, I wouldn’t say we like bent the rules, but like we were walking right on the edge of the rules, man. Like just making sure we didn’t break it, but we stayed up, we stayed right behind it. Just like making sure, like if we can meet, do some meetings outside, like we tried to do, have to get the kids together outside and to play at like an outside park if we can try to get everybody together.

We did stuff like that. But mainly it was a lot of zoom calling man. It was a lot of just staying in touch with everybody and you know, just trying to keep them, keep their spirit high and stuff like that.

Mike Klinzing: At this point, being your second head coaching job, where were you in terms of feeling solid about your on court philosophy?

So now we’re talking maybe some X’s and O’s in terms of how you wanted to play offensively, how you wanted to play defensively, and obviously there’s some adjustments and tweaks that you have to make year to year based on the kind of personnel that you have and who the players are on your team. But, , how comfortable were you at that point and [00:40:00] maybe even, how comfortable are you right now with, Hey, this is the way we want to play and these are the things that are kind of my non-negotiables on both ends of the floor?

Byron Burt: For sure, man. I think offensively I definitely like to adapt to our players. I’m not a big system guy. I’m a huge, like, concepts teaching guys. Like, I don’t like really giving them plays. I like to teach them how to play. I think that’s, that’s, that’s so important. Especially if kids want to go to the next level, right?

Because there’s different, everybody plays differently with it depending on what school you go to. Yeah. So based on our, based off our players, I kind of go off that like we’re, I like to play very fast. I like team, I like playing with a lot of guards. I like to go really fast. We like to shoot a lot of threes.

I think that’s the game like that we’re kind of going into right now, man. Like with, with the way college is being played with the way the NBA is going. You know, threes has kind of been like the, the hot thing right now. So, but defensively that’s the part where I get those non-negotiables.

I think defense is something where I really kind of take [00:41:00] away a lot of the freedom of it. And it’s like, this has to be done this way. With that. Because defense, like, I’m a, I’m a big, big defensive guy. Like, I can sit here and talk all day about plugging gaps, switching up not switching, like switch.

Mike Klinzing: Tell me how you like to play So defensively, what are some things that you like to do? What are some things you believe in?

Byron Burt: So we like to send our guys send, send the, send the other guys the offensive guy to the nearest baseline. Like, we like to no giving up, no middle. We love to like switch up and we play aggressively.

We like to switch up aggressively. We like to pick up full core speed. A lot of teams up, make them do things they don’t want to do but just mainly keeping them out of the middle man and just, just hounding them. And I think just disrupting what they, what the, what a team likes to do defensively. I think that’s all we we’re striving to do.

But we’re always preaching like help the helper escaping the paint, guys, getting out, being active hands just like always being active that’s [00:42:00] a huge thing on defense. I don’t think a lot of kids like, are so used to at a high level. Like when I play that college, it’s like every time something’s coming, you have to be in that mindset that something’s coming.

Something’s about to happen You have to be extremely active. You have to be extremely, extremely communicative. You have to talk. And, and that’s when that team chemistry comes in at man, When, when everybody, all five guys are communicated, it’s beautiful to watch.

Mike Klinzing: How do you teach your kids to talk on defense?

What’s that process look like? Because we all know, look, no matter what coach you talk to, everybody wants their players to talk more with high school kids. It’s tough. It’s, it’s not necessarily naturally part of every kid’s personality to communicate. You think about what it looks like a good college team and how much those players are talking, and then you compare that to the average high school game and it’s just not quite at the same level.

So what do you do to teach your players, first of all, just to talk at all. And then secondly, [00:43:00] to make sure that when they’re talking, they know what they’re supposed to be saying to each other, right. When they’re out there on the defensive end of the floor. Right.

Byron Burt: So what I kind of took from Loyola, we have like a wall of culture, which is like in our locker room right now at St. Laurence. Like, there’s this wall of like all these different verbiage words that we, that we use and, and we’re on the court. And like the kids, each off season, they have to study these words and we plaster it all over the place. We put it in group chats, we put it on the walls, like we put it in their binders.

You know what I’m saying?  and the kids kind of joke around with it and use these things when they’re off the court. They use these type of words like, Like switch up like you, a ball you man. But to the baseline, like all these little things that gives you like little reminders. But I think the first thing you have to do is you have to emphasize that like when we’re, we’re doing our little sit downs, we’re watching film, like we emphasize like how important the communication is.

And when we hit the floor, we love to put our kids in disadvantage drills. Like, we like to put ’em in four on five disadvantaged drills. And our focus is on the defense. Like, if [00:44:00] you’re going against five guys, you’re with four guys, you’re forced to talk. Because if you, if you don’t, there’s, somebody’s always going to be scoring a basketball.

You know what I’m saying? So like, we like to put them in a lot of disadvantaged transition drills where you’re forced to have to communicate where you in transition, you don’t have a man. So you have to, you have to talk out loud and then you have to figure out how to get back and switch back to your man.

Once they get into a half four setting, you slow them down. Like that, putting ’em at disadvantage that they just emphasizing on a daily basis. And our meetings, we record our practices and games like, like when I get to the defensive end, like we, we hear it and it’s like, you and film don’t lie. Like we tell our kids on time, like the film ain’t buy it.

Like we don’t hear anything. Like we, we got, it’s on the wall in the gym as well. It’s on the wall in the locker room as well. Like lounge, gyms, The loudest gyms are the best gems. Right? So like you have to be extremely loud and just emphasizing it.

Mike Klinzing: Yeah, I think putting that focus and making sure that it’s something that you make a part of what you do every single [00:45:00] day is, is critical.

And I always like to use the word intentional. You have to be intentional about that communication piece because it’s easy. It’s something that if you’re not intentional about it, even though you want your kids to be doing it, if you don’t emphasize it, if you’re not bringing it to the forefront, every single.

That’s something that I’ve found in my experience is easy. It’s easy for that to slip away. Yeah. Cause you can start focusing on the fundamentals and the movement and the positioning and how we’re going to do this and schemes, and then it’s easy to get away from that communication piece if you’re not continually making sure you remind kids of, Hey, hey, you have to be talking.

Yeah. And, and what are you, what am I supposed to be saying? What is, what does good communication look like? Because a lot of times as coaches will say, you’ll hear, you’ll be at an AAU term, you’ll be, Hey, we have to talk more on defense. But what do I say? But what do I say? You wonder, like, and again, I don’t expect a coach on the sideline to be saying, Okay, you should be saying this.

But you know that during practice, that’s something that you have to really talk about and [00:46:00] teach is, Hey, what, what is it that I want to say? How do I communicate that there’s a screen coming? How do I communicate that we’re going to switch? How do I communicate? I’m here in help side and how do I communicate?

Am I helping from the right or the like? All those things are such small little details.

Byron Burt: It’s  really important.

Mike Klinzing: I think it’s critical. I think if you don’t, if you’re not communicating, I think you’re so many good things that teams do can be erased if you’re not if you’re not, if you’re not communicating and to be able to do that, as you said to emphasize, I think that’s key.

So let’s take that a step further. When you are putting together a practice plan, what does that process look like for you in terms of when are you putting together a practice plan? Let’s say it’s preseason. When are you putting together that practice plan? What do you make sure that you include in it?

Are you talking to your assistants during the process? Are you sharing it with them after the process and getting their feedback? Are you looking at the previous day’s practice film to figure out what do we need to [00:47:00] work on? Just how do you go through and, and put together. Your practice plan on a daily basis?

Byron Burt: SDo definitely I would say, like I’m looking at, at film to see like when, what, what, what’s, what’s killing us? Like what do we, what’s some things that like, we’re just not getting and we have to, and we have to work on, so I make sure we add those things in. But like you said, I think it depends on the, the time of the season, right?

Like if you got offseason stuff. I think the practice plan more like when we get our little live days in June, I think our main focus right there is just about individual skill work and then implementing some new, some new things that we want to do offensively or defensively. So the practice plan is pretty set, straightforward with that.

I think on a daily basis you probably want to make sure that you’re doing rebounding, transition defense and your half core defensive stuff. I think you want to make sure those. In their practice every day. Like those are like the daily, the daily things that have to happen. And we also include our individual work and our, and our daily thing [00:48:00] like that in the, in the season it kind of changes more to like 30 minutes compared to our off season, which is a little bit longer, maybe 45 to 50 minutes.

Our individual work in season drops about 30. But our assistant coaches, I usually send it out to them and say like, Hey, anything that you guys want to add in or maybe take out just send it to me and we can make that change. One thing that I know I have to get better at, I try to put a lot of people around me  who are organized because you know, sometimes I get off, I get off on a tangent, like I’ll be in practice and I’ll have like a, I’ll have like a spare the moment impulse and I’ll be like, you know what, let’s do this.

And I’ll kind of get off the practice plan and stuff like that. So my assistants, they do a good job of trying. To keep me organized on following what the practice plan is. But sometimes I get so excited, man, and I just say, I got something better that just popped in my head that we can do that can be more beneficial.

Mike Klinzing: Do you share that plan with the players before practice?

Byron Burt: I don’t share with the [00:49:00] players. They, they, we typically just go right in and they, they, we do our film session before, we usually do our practice and stuff like that. And we kind of, we kind of, we always write in our practice plan like emphasis on the day and we kind of usually go over that and we have like at the bottom like thoughts of the day, we typically go over that type of stuff.

So they kind of get a hint of like where we’re going. Like if the coaches are, if we’re pissed, they get hint from those emphasis because we really emphasize what we’re about to do and they know like, alright, we know what type of practice we’re going to be with. And then they get a hand when they know what type of it’s going to be like one of those skillful practices.

Mike Klinzing: Absolutely. Yeah. Understood. That makes a ton of sense. How much of that practice film, you mentioned film and practice, what’s your process like for going back, looking at that film? What are you looking specifically for? Just talk a little bit about how you use the practice Film.

Byron Burt: Yeah, practice film.  I use that to break down them individually as well. Like those are the opportunities where we can say like, hey, like this is where your positioning needs to be fixed at. You know what I’m [00:50:00] saying? Like, here’s where we feel like you wasn’t really communicating. Like it’s a lot of individual stuff you’re really focused on.

And then you look at like the team defense and you can watch over that as a, as a group and say like, here’s the mistakes that we’re making here in practice. Let’s try to like get it fixed for the next practice. So like that, that, that practice film is huge man. Because you’re basically just cleaning up a lot of mistakes before you actually have to watch like real game film.

You just cleaning up a lot of that little stuff. Slippage. Film is film. The film is huge though. I do want to put, like, film is hu we watch so much film, like we watch a lot.

Mike Klinzing: How much do you watch of an opponent when you’re getting ready for an opponent? How much do you as the head coach, watch?

Byron Burt: I watch a lot.

I usually watch about four to five games and I like to do research on the coach. I like to go watch the coach at his, like, if I don’t really know, like the school, like I got to the Catholic League, I was kind of new, so I had to watch like some, some of these other coaches and some other coaches, they’re just coming from other schools.

So I had to go back and watch how did they, what, what did they do when they were at [00:51:00] this specific school and stuff like that. So I’m, I’m, I’m, I’m, I love watching film. I love watching the high school basketball players play. So it’s really not a big deal to me. I’m, I’m watching a ton of it, man, and I’m like, I got coaches right now.

I was requesting film in September and August, and they’re like, some coaches writing back a little, little early right now. I’m like, Yeah, I know. I’m, I’m just, I’m just like watching it just to see. But I, I think in terms of like, I like, like we watch a lot, like with the players, we watch a lot of film, but we tend not to really try to, like, it depends on the year.

Like last year we were more watching more of ourselves than other guys. Cause I feel like if you got, you have to fix what’s going on with your guys first before you trying to go and stop someone else. Like, we have to fix us. So I think that that was, it was a totally different year last year compared to what’s about to happen this year.

Mike Klinzing: Yeah, that’s a big balance. I think that a lot of times different teams need different amounts of film or are capable of handling [00:52:00] different amounts of film, right? There’s some players, some teams that they just eat that up and you can give ’em a ton and they can process it and they can utilize it and it’s beneficial.

And then there’s other teams where, man, you can show ’em as much film as you want and  it’s flying right over their head and they’re just going to go out and play and, and do it and do what they do. And sometimes that’s enough, just because, again, every team. Every team is different, every player is different.

And so they all have different needs when it comes to how much film they can, they want to consume and how much they can consume. Right. When you’re wa, when you’re watching as the head coach, what are some of the key things that you try to pick out when you’re watching an opponent? What are things that you’re looking for that you really feel can help you to gain an advantage over an opponent?

Byron Burt: I like to look at like, first off, like what, what do they like to do defensively? Like, are they switching? Do they play zone? Are they staying with their guy? Then I typically look at like percentages of like what they’re giving up. Like are they, are they willing to give up a lot of threes? Like some, [00:53:00] some teams, some schools like their biggest thing is like, we’re giving up a contested three.

Are they giving up a lot of lay ups? What’s their transition defense looking like? Can we, we, can we beat them in transition? Can we go really fast without allowing them to set up? So we we’re looking at a ton of things, man, and then, we’re looking at, like, I like to look at like, when it comes down to, to teams offensively, like who’s their guy?

Is there a guy that’s just like, every play is going through him? You know what I mean? Cause of high school basketball is typically you typically get about one or two guys on the team that’s like just dominating. Like, if you can shut those two guys down, then you’re, I mean, you can shut down one of those guys that you, you have a pretty good chance of winning.

Absolutely. Yeah. So it’s, it’s a lot of things. Or like, I even had a conversation with I had a conversation with and I, that’s a good question to talk about too with, with with mentors. Like Mike Ellis, he’s the head coach at Evanton Township, one of probably the best coaches in, in the state right now.

He had to, he had a great theory. I was talking to him on [00:54:00] the phone and I was asking him a question. I was at Mather. I was like, We’re going against this one kid. He scores like 40 points a game, man. He’s, he’s really amazing. I was saying like, what do you, what do you advise I should do? And he was like, if he was like, Sometimes you can allow that kid to get his 35 points and shut down everyone else around him.

Right. So that way, like all you have to do is outscore that kid. You score 45 points and he has 30, you’re probably going to win the game. Right. You know what I mean? Right, right. So he had some, it was like you can, It is so many different things that you can kind of do like when you’re looking at a team, but I definitely like to look at them, like to see who’s the guy.

Mike Klinzing: Yeah. Having an understanding of who the main players are on a team, I think, and what those main players like to do, I think that’s a huge advantage. I know I’ve talked to a lot of coaches who feel like in those situations sometimes you can, you can mix in and throw in a junk defense, which a lot of times teams just aren’t prepared for necessarily.

So maybe you can steal a couple possessions. You come out and throw a box at one, at somebody for three or four [00:55:00] possessions. And if you can get a. Again, that proverbial six oh run, right? Yeah. Where you can, you put together enough six oh runs in a game and that’s going to lead you to be able to, to win games.

And so if you can squeeze one of those out with some kind of junk defense that throws the team off the rhythm, I think there’s, there’s something to be said for that. When, when you’re looking at that, get that game prep piece of it and you’re trying to get your team ready. And let’s talk about like day of the game right before the game.

What’s your thoughts about day of the game shoot arounds, walkthroughs, and then just what’s your pre-game prep actually in the gym as you guys are getting ready, pre-game talk. Just talk a little bit about sort of the, the lead up to game day.

Byron Burt: Yeah. Really most of the time it’s usually like team, It’s like a pre-game meal.

We like to do that, like that’s when we got to do in college, which is kind of cool. You get there pretty early, do a pregame meal. Kids get to kind of sit around, talk with each other. You loosen up [00:56:00] a little bit, joke around a little bit. It’s kind of, it’s a good team bonding experience. And then you kind give ’em a little break to kind of sit around at that food digestion we go into.

You know, you go into like a walkthrough. Walkthrough is kind of where we like, go through like what, what sets we’re, what this game what, what is the, what defense, what are they giving up, You know what I mean? Like, he are the looks that we should be looking for. You know, here are some of the, the actions that we ran last game that they probably scouted and were going to hit ’em with these adjustments.

So all that stuff is probably leading up to, and then we allow the kids to like go get in their zone, you know what I mean? Before, like a couple, like two hours before the game, we allowed ’em to get in his own. There’s different, there’s every, every kid is different, right? You always got those group of kids, I think on a team that they have their way of getting ready for the.

You have those, you have those kids that like to joke around like that, like to have a lot of fun before the game. That’s what looses them up. You have those serious guys who put their headphones in and they sit in the, they sit in the locker and they just put their, their sweater over their head, their [00:57:00] head, and no one talks to them.

You have those guys that just go off by themselves somewhere, so yeah, you, you, you allow them to do what’s, what’s, what works for. And then yeah, you get them, get them back in the locker room. And I think we’re big on energy. So like, before we leave outta locker room, like I, I try to like, I always try to look up like really cool like speeches and try to like steal like some motivational speeches and you know, just giving them the like just giving them that energy when they go out there.

Man, game day’s always fun.

Mike Klinzing: Yeah, absolutely. I think as a coach, obviously you get a lot of joy from practice and being able to put in the work on the practice floor, but then that game is the reward. It’s certainly a reward for the kids. And, and then for you as a coach to be able to bring that excitement and have that type of enthusiasm and, and get the kids ready to play, get a motivated to get out there and, and, and play the game, which is obviously why everybody’s there is to, is to be able to get a chance to compete and measure yourself against your opponent.

[00:58:00] Talk a little bit about what you’ve done there at St. Lawrence. I know we’ve kind of touched on it here and there, but let’s kind of put it together as a whole package. In order to build the kind of culture that you want to have. Let’s break it down and maybe give three keys, three things that you think have been most important to you being able to build the type of culture that you have built and want to continue to sustain there at St. Laurence.

Byron Burt: Yeah, for sure. The, the first thing, man is, is about who you’re bringing into the program. You know, with the players and the coaches, I think that’s huge. You have to get guys that believe in what you believe in, whatever our core values are, like they have to match that.

So who you bring in is huge. And I think right now, man, we have some, like the players that we have in right now, they are the most unselfish, talented kids I have ever seen. Man, it’s, it is the, it is beautiful basketball to watch. Like, they are, like, we literally just had a, a little meeting today and the, the, some of the answers that these kids are [00:59:00] saying, it’s like, it’s blowing me away on how unselfish they are.

you know what I’m saying? Like, you know what I mean? Like we got, we got people asking these kids how many points do you want to average? We got kids in the locker room talking about, like, that’s not what we thinking about how many points we’re average and we’re going to do whatever we need to do to like, win the game whatever, whatever, how many points it takes for me to win the game.

If that’s me scoring one point and having 10 rebounds, or me scoring 15 like that, that’s the type of answer we’re getting and it’s so like, amazing to see me. I love it. Yeah. That’s awesome. Yeah. The second thing I would, I would, I would definitely say is the emphasis on like the team chemistry, right? So after you get those guys in, like the building, the team chemistry and, and being a good person and like finding that joy that’s, that’s, that’s have to be there.

Like, that’s the whole part of like building our culture. Like, you have to be a good person. You have to make sure that it’s team first and you have to be enjoying this man. You have to enjoy the process. You have to have fun with it. If you, if you not, if there’s no joy while you’re playing, then I don’t know, I really don’t know [01:00:00] how successful you’re really going to be.

It’s have to be some. And then the, the last thing I think in terms of building our culture is definitely taking care of our mentor. We started to put more time on just talking about our mental focus and you know, how to handle pressure how to handle expectation, how to handle losing and all this other stuff, how to handle things.

That’s hearing the conversation between your parents, the media, all this other stuff, social media. So that’s been a big part of our culture is that, is focusing more on the mental side.

Mike Klinzing: Okay. I got two questions. I’m hoping I can remember both of ’em some. The first one is when you’re talking about the mental side of it, how do you go about instituting that with the kids?

In other words, are you talking about. Daily on the practice floor, just as sort of that teachable moment where something comes up and it gives you an opportunity to talk about something in terms of what you need to do? Or is that more done formally? I’m guessing it’s probably a combination of [01:01:00] both.

Byron Burt: We, we got something now where like on, on Wednesdays, like we, we have like dedicated mental days and we’re going to continue this through lots of practices, it’s personal like growth.

Like you’re focusing on how can I grow as an individual. So we do those for Wednesdays. And man, the kids are just like, they’re love me. Like I’m starting to love Wednesdays. Like they’re participating, they’re coming up with great scenarios. Like we’re talking about a lot of things that they have to go through throughout a game.

The pressures of it like expectations from coaches and stuff like that. So like, we’re, we’re, we, we have, we meet on it weekly and we open it up for the, for the players to kind of talk about it, tell us how they’re feeling. And there’s like a no repercussion thing we do with them. Like they’re free to say whatever they want to say, like if they feel like a coach is.

You know, like been picking on them, like there and they open up and they say it and it’s like a, it’s dope man. Like and I told you like the transparency part for me is huge. Like I, I’ve learned that. That’s key. Yep. Yeah. Like [01:02:00] we’re all on the same page now, you know what I’m saying? So there’s daily reminders too that the kids are getting through like, Right.

Like they’re all, when we get on the court, we’re always making sure we emphasize kids focusing. Because you know, the beginning stages of practice, especially in November, they’re kind of boring because you have to, it’s a lot of talking, it’s a lot of like, it’s not really fast paced when you first get started.

So mental focus have to be there.

Mike Klinzing: How do you build that trust? This isn’t my second question, but it’s a follow up to this point. How do you build that trust with your players? Where, because look, I know I’ve been on teams and you’ve probably been on teams where players aren’t going to say what they really. To their coaching staff, because there isn’t that trust that there isn’t going to be repercussions, as you said.

So what have you done? Because that doesn’t happen by accident. It’s not like you just throw your team in the, in a room and be like, All right guys, start throwing criticism at us. It doesn’t work that way. The players have to trust that they could share those things with you the same way you’ve shared things with [01:03:00] them.

So what do you think’s been the key for you to build the kind of trust that you need in order to get the kids to open up and share some of those things that ultimately benefits everybody in the program?

Byron Burt: Yeah. I think it, well, I think it starts, like I said, like it starts with the kids you bring in, right?

Like, we have a, like our, our recruiting process is like we got a list of things like, if a kid is not this, this, this, this, and this, then we’re probably not talking to ’em. So like we, we make sure that we’re finding these kids who are. Who are first joyful and able to open up, speak their minds.

Like we, we like, we like a lot of kids like that, but building that relationship while you’re recruiting the man is huge. Like just shooting them a text every day, talking to them, making, checking in on them. And it’s not about basketball, like, it’s about like, how was school today? You know, stuff like that.

Like what other, what’s your other interests? Like finding out what, what other things guys want to do besides basketball? Like all that stuff is like, and it’s, some of it is built in the off season too, [01:04:00] right? Like you’re spending this time with all of, you’re spending this time with the kids and you’re going out to all these dinners and you’re watching all these basketball games and you know, you, you built their leadership with them.

And I think that trust comes in through that part, which is huge, man. You need that.

Mike Klinzing: Yeah, absolutely. I don’t think that that happens by accident. That’s something that is built over time by, as you said, spending time with the kids and then also, Getting to know ’em as people and not just as basketball players.

Right. And understanding, helping them to understand that you care about them, not just as an athlete and what they can produce on the basketball court, but also about who they are as a person and what they are as a student. And those things go a long way towards getting kids to trust you so that they’ll open up and share things that ultimately are going to benefit.

As I said, everybody in the entire program, it just, it, it, it goes without saying. And yet at the same time, I think that’s something that it’s not easy to do. It takes a huge investment in time and it takes [01:05:00] a lot of work to try to build up that trust. We know that it doesn’t happen overnight. It’s not easy to do.

So the fact that you’re able to get to that point with your kids, I think is a testament to what you’ve been able to build and what you’re trying to do. Yeah. The other thing that, the other thing that you mentioned was the idea that what you’re doing has to be fun. And I think this is another spot where sometimes coaches.

struggle or go back and forth with, Look, I want my kids to have fun and I want them to have it be a great experience. But yet there also has to be the discipline piece and the piece that there’s things that we have to get done. There’s things that are not going to be necessarily what everybody would consider to be fun.

There’s hard work that has to be done, right? So how do you ba how do you balance setting high expectations and being demanding of your players, and yet at the same time, making sure that when a practice ends or when a season ends or when a game’s over that the kids still [01:06:00] look back on it, be like, Hey man, coach had really high expectations of us.

He pushed us. He demanded things from us, but yet, man, that was still fun. How do you do that? Or what does that look like in your mind when you’re thinking about that?

Byron Burt: The fun of like competing against each other. Like, that’s fun. You know what I’m saying? It’s fun knowing that you’re getting better.

Like it’s fun seeing like progress from you from this week to next week, that’s the type of things we talk about fun with those guys is like, you’re seeing progress. You see development, you know what I’m saying? you’re seeing this growth mentally, physically, that’s fun.

You know what I’m saying? It’s fun when you got division one coaches at your open gym watching you. That’s fun. You know what I’m saying? It’s, it’s fun when you got division one coaches giving you a call talking to you about how they, how they would like to see you at their school. Like, you know what I mean?

That the fun part. It’s fun seeing the seeing all those fans that at your school that come out and get in the student section and you win the basketball game [01:07:00] like that. That’s the fun part we’re talking about. And I think you, you, we tell them like, you have to put in that work if you want those things.

Like that’s the reward. Like the work is the, is the thing you have to put in and then the outcome is going to be this stuff.

Mike Klinzing: Yeah. I always like to say it’s fun to be good. Yeah. There you go. Yeah. You know, I mean, it’s pretty simple, but you can’t, you can’t be good if you don’t put in. the work and, and that process isn’t always quote unquote fun.

But yet at the same time, when you look at the totality of what you’re doing and what the results are, that’s where, that’s where the fun comes. Look. It’s a lot, it’s a lot more fun to win games than it is to lose games. That’s, And we can, we can talk, we can talk about all these other culture piece and, and this and that and whatever, but anybody who’s competitive knows that those things are, are critically important.

But yet it’s a lot easier to have all those things go well when you can combine that with winning games. And I think all the things that we’ve [01:08:00] already talked about in terms of the culture that leads to winning games, I think sometimes there’s a, Yeah, right, There’s a disconnected, people say, Well, all that stuff.

That’s soft skills. And those are things that like, we have to just be on the practice floor grinding away and this and that. But I think all the things that you’ve talked about in terms of building trust and building a culture and making sure that your guys are good people like that, that contributes to winning.

Yeah. And sometimes that line is maybe hard to see. There’s not as directive a line from that as there is to, Hey, we’re a better rebounding team, so that leads to more wins, Right? Like that’s a more direct line. But I think the, the other things have a huge impact. But let’s face it, everybody wants to win games.

Byron Burt: Yeah. I’m, I’m glad you said that too, about like, Like the, the winning aspect of it. But the part that I’ve kind of seen right now is when you talk about building culture, man, I think a lot of people, they don’t talk about the adversity that you go through at first. You know what I’m saying? Like, you look at Loyola University report, like people don’t know when he first got there, like [01:09:00] Loyola was at its lowest point.

You know what I’m saying? Like it was a lot of adverse situations, like players, previous players had to go through before, like they just went to that Final four. There was players that came before, those guys that did things that they were, they’re in tough situations, weren’t winning, but they stuck it out.

Like I think a lot of people like. They don’t want to go through that challenging part, but like, they don’t understand, like, you really have to enjoy that process, man. Like that’s a process you embrace. Like I embrace this. I like right now, like this is these past two years that I, the first year I had at St. Laurence was the covid year. We only played like 12 games, but we did pretty good then the, this se the season we just had pa this, this past season. We just had, it wasn’t a good season. We ended off on a, on a positive note, but wasn’t a good season. But and I don’t think and, and we, and our, and we basically started four freshmen.

We had four freshmen started on varsity and like, I don’t think, like people see like the adversity that our [01:10:00] kids went through. And it’s like, but that stuff is going to, that stuff is going to come back when we win, when we won a championship. When we go down state, we can look back and say like, those situations made.

You know, and that’s when Absolutely, that’s what that building culture means. I think people want it to be instant, but it don’t work like that, man. Everybody just wants you to walk in winning, but it doesn’t work like that.

Mike Klinzing: Yeah, you’re exactly right. In order to be able to build the trust and put together a team that is going to be able to compete and compete at a high level and compete against other really good opponents, you have to be able to look to the side and trust the guy that you’re playing next to that if you get beat, he’s going to be there to help you.

That if you’re having an off game, somebody else is going to pick you up. If, if you look to the bench, your teammate’s going to be cheering you on and trying to pick you up and beat. No one that, no one that guys are there for you. Like that just doesn’t happen by accident. I mean, you could take it to the highest level of the game, right?

You talk about these NBA super teams and guys come together [01:11:00] and that just doesn’t happen. Even when you’re talking about the best players in the world, they have to build. Trust with each other and they’ve have to figure out a way to make sure that they’re all on the same page. And that’s just like, you don’t just walk into training camp one day just because you got two or three all NBA guys.

It doesn’t, it doesn’t work that way. Like there’s so much more, as you know, that goes into building a cohesive team that’s going to trust each other in big moments. I think you make a great point that that’s a process. It’s not something that happens where, okay, I just come in and I wave a magic wand because I’ve built a culture somewhere else.

Or right, this kid was playing on a good team before. Like we have to all go in and build that together and we have to kind of go through the fire in order to get to that other side to be able to have the success like you were describing. I think that’s a great way to describe it. Yeah. All right. I want to talk a little bit about parents in your program.

Cause I think any high school coach, if you talk to them, one of the things that inevitably is part of that conversation is how do I try to [01:12:00] engage the parents in my program to get them to be. Supportive parents who are positive as opposed to parents who are in the stands grumbling about the coach and grumbling about this and that, and what offense are running and my kid’s not playing, and all that kind of stuff.

So what are some things that you do there at St. Lawrence to make sure that you get your parents engaged, get them quote unquote, on your side and supportive of your program?

Byron Burt: I love our parents. We got some really, we got some really cool parents. They’re all of our parents. They’re all pretty much involved.

I think. I have a, I like to have a conversation with our parents now. I like to talk to them, especially doing like the offseason times, I’m really involved with, like our with the, with the, with our kids who play on the, they play on my aau they play for my program. I don’t coach them, but I usually go check them out and watch ’em.

But like, I’m always going at the games and I like to sit with the parents. I like to talk and hear like, some of their inputs and how they feeling, Stuff like that. Like I told you from the beginning, I’m a really open guy. Like, I like to hear [01:13:00] out scenarios and I I love to hear it out.

But just like we built relationship with our parents in terms of like, we were recruiting them. So like I kind of give them what exactly like we’re about to give to your kid. And like if you accept it right then and there, then it’s like, ain’t nothing change. Like we, I stay fluent what I told I was going to offer you from the get-go.

Like, nothing changes. It’s all, it’s all opportunity based with us, but we, we got, our parents have been pretty cool, man. They, they’re, they, they trust the staff, they trust us and they allow us to do our jobs pretty well. And has it been too much, too much from them. But I do enjoy talking with them.

Mike Klinzing: I think when you get out and you have those conversations and you do it early and you’re proactive and you’re talking to ’em while it’s positive, it’s the same thing as a teacher, right? If you can have those conversations with parents, Say something good about their kid or talk to ’em about something positive that happened.

Then if there is a case where you have to have a more difficult conversation, those conversations becomes e become easier. I think that proactive [01:14:00] communication is, is really important. Let’s shift gears to aau. Tell me a little bit about your AAU program, how you got it started, and just where you guys are at in terms of what you do with the aau.

Byron Burt: Yeah, so Chicago Hoops, we kind of got started. It’s kind of crazy, man. The idea was pitched to me in college. I don’t even know. I don’t think it, I don’t think I violated any NCAA rules though with this because I actually, I didn’t create the program at the time. It wasn’t under my name. I gave it to one of my friends.

It was his, I gave him the idea of it because some of my teammates was kind of joking around saying like, Man, you should coach. Like, they was like, you should coach, like you should get an AAU program at some of my teammates. Cause at Loyola we would have like media days and kids all around the neighborhood would come in and they would want to get autographs on the papers.

And I pretty much knew all the kids because I, I was, I grew up in Rogers Park so that when Loyola University’s right in Rogers Park, so everybody knew me from the area. So we always had support from that. And I took it serious and I brought it to some of my friends and they created a they created, they created Chicago Hoops, Man.

And yeah, I mean, it’s just [01:15:00] been, it’s been, it’s been kind of cool to kind of sit back and watch how it all works. And the AAU circuit is wild. I’m sure you’re going to have some questions that, that are getting me going on there. AAU is a gift and a curse.

Mike Klinzing: All right, So let’s talk about each side of that.

What about it is a gift?

Byron Burt: I think it puts kids in a position to maximize their maximize their exposure. Like show, like to expose their game at a high level their individual skill. I’m starting to see a lot of AAU teams kind of steal away from like team ball.

Like it’s totally different from high school basketball. Like even if I, when I talk to some of these division one coaches, like they tell me like, Yeah, AAU is like, we, like they, some of ’em don’t even like watching it, but they have to go watch this kid because this is the kid they kind of want in their program.

But the team aspect of it doesn’t always translate.

Mike Klinzing: I think the big thing for me, and I’ve kind of got to experience this, my son is going to be a high school junior is a high school [01:16:00] junior. He’s going into his junior season. And I think what I found is that for, for his younger years, like I ended up being his AAU coach so I could kind of control the environment, make sure that he was getting good coaching, and then slowly as he improved and last year we decided we probably needed to get him off dad’s team and find him, find him, find him a better team you know, to be able to play on, find some better teammates to play with.

And, and we were able to do that and we ended up with a program and a coach that just did. A tremendous job. And we had 10 kids on the team, and as you were describing your high school players and talking about how they’re like, Man, I don’t care how many points I average, we just want to win games. And that’s kind of how this AAU team for my son ended up breaking down was he just had 10 kids who were really talented and they all shared the ball and they played so hard for each other.

It was a joy to watch. I tell people, and I think [01:17:00] this is probably the biggest endorsement I can give of our coach and, and our team was most of the time as a parent you’re sitting in the stands and if your kid’s not in the game, you’re kind of a little down. You’re like, Ah, come, They’re not, How come they’re not in there?

They should be, they should be in there. And, and I’m sitting there in this AAU game and I’d be, I’d be sitting there and I, I enjoyed watching our team. Play so much. Cause they just played so hard and they were so unselfish that even when my son was out of the game, like honestly, I was like, I don’t even care.

Like these guys are just so much fun to watch.

Byron Burt: Yeah, there’s a lot of programs out there like that, that, that do it like that. Those are great programs.

Mike Klinzing: Yep. And I mean, it makes such a difference. And I think the point that, the greater point that you’re trying to make in terms of the curses, right, is that there’s a lot of people that are doing it right.

And then unfortunately, because AAU has now become just so widespread that basically anybody and everybody is playing AAU basketball. And so you just have room in the space now for people who don’t have the best [01:18:00] interest of the kids at heart. And they’re, as you said, putting kids in positions that don’t allow them to maximize what that experience can be.

And I think that’s where you get into the danger. I think AAU done correctly that’s great. Can be a fantastic, fantastic opportunity for kids. But yet at the same time, . I’ve been in lots of situations. I’ve seen lots of situations. I’ve been to tournaments where you just looking around and you see whether it’s coaching or whether it’s the organization or whether it’s the fact that here’s the team that has 12 kids and they’re traveling across the country and Guy 12 is, gets one minute and they just, their parents spent $1,200 to go stay at a hotel.

Like, those are the kinds of things that you’re just like, man, it’s just, you wish you could get people to be better educated about what AAU basketball could be or should be all about. Because there are, as you said, there’s so many programs that do it well that it’s just a shame that sometimes kids don’t get [01:19:00] the, the opportunity to, to work with those programs.

It’s interesting. I mean, it’s, it, it’s going through and like I said, this is the first year that my son with his, with this team that we got the chance to travel and go and, and play in some bigger tournaments and play against really good competition. And I have to say it was, it was a lot of fun both from a from my, from my son’s point of view, the entire team, and then me as a parent getting to tag along and go and watch and experience that.

And just, obviously I’m a hoops guy, so just sitting and watching games and able to walk around and see kids play and that kind of stuff was a, was a lot of fun. But by the same token, we did that going into his junior year. I’m not so sure that that would’ve been worth my money when he was in fifth, sixth, seventh grade, which a lot of people are doing it, a lot of people are doing it that those younger ages.

And I don’t know, To me that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. I’m not sure. You’re fine. I’m not sure you’re, I’m not sure. Your fifth grader, your sixth grader needs to travel out of town to find. To find great, find great [01:20:00] competition. Yeah. We’re not doing it

Byron Burt: Like you just said, the environment of the AAU stuff sometimes really cool man.

Like you educated out of just to make sure they’re putting in a right position to be successful.

Mike Klinzing: Yeah, absolutely. All right, we are coming up on an hour and a half. So I want to ask you one final two part question. First part, when you look ahead over the next year or two, what do you see as being your biggest challenge?

And then number two, what’s your biggest joy when you think about what you get to do every single day? So your biggest challenge and your biggest joy.

Byron Burt: Yeah, I think the biggest challenge that’s, that’s a really good question. I think it’s the biggest challenge really, man, is just staying consist like competitively, like consistent with that.

Like you want to be consistently. I think that, that’s a challenge because the recruiting process is just so gruesome, it’s constantly trying to find the right, [01:21:00] right match. Trying to make, put position to be successful, know what I’m like as transferring right?

Like it’s all trickling down like the NBA and all that stuff, all the movement and stuff that’s going on. College guys are now transferring who’s giving the most money, and that’s trickling school. They got something on the internet like school, and it’s like they got one for Illinois basketball, so kids are transferring a lot. So what’s this about? How can we keep our guys together how can we continue to keep being competitive.

The joy For me, man, I think honestly the biggest joy for me is just being able to be around my players every day. Like, I get to see my guys [01:22:00] every day. We have the best kids I think in the world. These guys are just a joy to be around. They, they work extremely hard they, they have great personalities.

I just love being around ’em. I’m really blessed to do, I’m doing especially age. And I my job so much I group to around my school. So like, dads definitely a biggest just being and Uber show those see guys’s faces. See them in the hallway, always giving fist that fist bumps, they always smile when I see them.

So it’s like, yeah, the, the kids is definitely why I wake up in the morning, do what I do.

Mike Klinzing: The great answer is well said. Byron, before we get out, I want to give you a chance to share how people can connect with you and your program. You want to share social media, website, email, whatever you feel comfortable with, and then after you do that, I’ll jump back in and wrap things up.

Byron Burt: Yeah, if you guys have interested [01:23:00] and that’s Instagram. We try make, have to make it real close for people who are who are following us and I’m really looking forward to this season. It should be a really, really excited season.

Mike Klinzing: Perfect. Byron, could I thank you enough for taking the time out of your schedule? Really appreciate it. And to everyone out there, thanks for listening and we will catch you on our next episode.

Thanks.