Coach Marco Regalado on UTRGV Football, the Walk On Mindset, and Betting on Yourself

speaker-0: Yeah, yeah, fire up the grill, crank the speakers loud Saturdays feel holy in this college crowd, Seth and James on the mic, preaching gospel true, talking rivalries, legends, red, black, old and blue From Dead Valley lights to the camp, Randall Cold, they're telling stories, they never get old, ain't no bench warm hearts on the show tonight They're walking on, proud on the stadium lies Little preferred walk on, no scholarship still putting it on From the church until gate hands in the

speaker-1: Okay. Welcome to the Preferred Walk On Show, the People's College Football Show. I am your host, Seth Saunders. Now, to most people, the birth of a football program starts with a kickoff a pack stadium, a brand new uniform, a team running out of the tunnel for the very first time. But the truth is, programs are built long before anybody sees the scoreboard. They're built in recruiting offices, in high school hallways, in late night phone calls, in the quiet work of finding the right people before there's tradition to sell records to point to or adept. Chart to inherit. And today's guest understands that kind of work because his own journey has been built the same way. His path through football has not been traditional. He did not rise through the profession on name, recognition, or shortcuts. He climbed through Texas high school football, player personnel, recruiting, and parts of the game where titles matter less than trust, effort, and consistency. That is a walk-on story. Heart, hustle, the willingness to do the job in front of you. Before anyone promises you the next one, the takes no talent traits that turn opportunity into momentum. Now he has brought that same mindset back home to South Texas, helping build UTRGV football from the ground up, not just a position room, not just a recruiting board, but a program with identity, belief, and a real connection to the valley. This is a conversation about that climb, about betting on yourself when the path is not obvious, about recruiting belief before results, about what it takes to help lay the foundation. Today we have a very warm walk on, welcome to U T R G V Coach Marco Regalato. Coach, welcome to the show, brother.

speaker-0: May have been the best introduction I've ever had in my life. I appreciate it. I'm excited. I've been a fan for a while of this show and ⁓ just honored to to be on here.

speaker-1: Well, we're fired up to have you, man. And look, if you need if you need a hype man or a promoter, you holler at me. I'll be on the first flight and I'll go with ya. All right.

speaker-0: Right. Done. Son where do you well I can send you the contract, we'll get it done.

speaker-1: Well, hey coach, before we get into football, we were talking a little bit about this off air, but I want to start with something that I think some people know about you, but maybe everybody doesn't know. And that is, you know, you are a football coach by day, and I obviously have so much passion for that, but you're also a musical artist. You write songs, you release music, ⁓ you put stuff on your socials, and it's awesome. So where did the music side come from? And how does how does the overlap between the creativity and songwriting and music overlap with With your coaching journey.

speaker-0: Yeah, so really my love for music started young, just my dad loves music. He doesn't play any instruments, but like anything he's doing around the house, out in the yard, I'm I'm assuming he does it at work like it did it at work too. It's like he's always singing. ⁓ any kind of song, like usually traditional Mariachi music, but like ⁓ the stuff in the oldies and stuff like that. So always kinda grew up hearing him sing. And when we got to middle school you kinda had that option, like, all right, you can join you know, band, mariachi. ⁓ w fortunately we had that. And I always knew I wanted to play guitar. Mariachi didn't start till seventh grade. So the first thing I started was drums. And then my parents were like, no. So seventh grade finally got to make that transition. And I learned the basics of guitar. And like I I love that music. I still listen to it and appreciate it. But that's where I learned like the basics of playing music. And then I started branching out. Like my dad had an old video of Woodstock. I saw Jimi Hendrix. I was like, like just what he was doing blew my mind. I started just diving in, reading books, what did he do? And like I wanted to be like him. And I think my first electric guitar, we went to the local pawn shop and found one for like s fifty bucks. But like that's that's what Jimmy did. So that's what I was gonna do. Yeah. So like My musical taste has evolved and grown from Jimi Hendrix to like what's the heaviest music I can listen to, then getting to college and realizing that's not what people want to hear. So like learning more pop stuff and then really truly like I wasn't always a singer. Actually another fun story I had to take you know, I wanted to take singing lessons because I wanted to sing and ⁓ like it was about four sessions in 'cause my brother sings beautifully. So we both go. ⁓ but about four sessions in, the the guy was like, Listen, don't I don't think this guy's a singer. Like he doesn't have the range. It's just not gonna work. And I was like crushed. But like I didn't like I didn't sing in public after. Like really, I would do a lot of like just in the shower, just by myself and stuff. ⁓ but slowly started to find what fit my voice. Instead of trying to fit my voice to things that didn't fit, and it was like, what style of music fit me? And I found country music and I still remember like I was in a college in an in an apartment with like three other dudes and I'm just kinda in my room door closed, just playing. And I hear a knock on the door and they're like, Is that you? I'm like, sorry, I'll keep it down. I know it's bad. And they're like, No, no, no. Come out to the living room. Like, we like that. So slowly just kind of building confidence. And once you kind of find a style and find your voice, then like it really took me a while to write. things, just experiences and life experiences. And and the funny thing is you tied like you talked about how I tied coaching to the music and stuff like that. A lot of people don't know. Like I wrote a song called Right Guy Wrong Time. And a lot of people are like, ⁓ it's a love song. It's about heartbreak and blah blah blah. I wrote that song after I got turned down after a job interview for a for a coaching gig. And like that was kind of what was told like, Man, you're the right guy. It's just the wrong time. Yeah. And then it just kind of went off on a on a little tangent there. But music for me is just kind of a a little getaway. It's also another way to relate to people 'cause we've got t guys on the team that play instruments. ⁓ I got a ukulele sitting up there and clear like again, like I learned the ukulele when I was at Washington State 'cause we wanted to recruit kids from Hawaii. So and I was surrounded by great guys like Craig Stuttsman, Nick Rolovich and Ricky Longos. So I learned about that. Like it's just another way to connect to people 'cause again, ⁓ whether they play an instrument or not, people listen to music every day. So I will find something that I can play whatever on the guitar. Like I can adapt and and do different covers, but I'll find something that you can relate to with my music.

speaker-1: Man, I love that. And see, even within that, coach, like I hear, I hear the walk on side of things, right? Like I feel like so, so often in the stories we hear from guys that have been in those shoes is it's about functionally, and this is something I try to express with my kids, you're the only person has to believe in your story. And I think where we get lost, and I think it's a lesson f for any athlete is wanting that external affirmation, which is natural, right? We all want that. Feels great. somebody pump your tires and and kind of give you that give you that affirmation, lift you up. But man, you're the only one that's got to believe in it. I always tell my kids, two people got to believe in your story. You and God. That's it. That's all you need. And so, man, I love that. And your music's in that, right? Like you just believe in it and do it and and and sing your heart song, man. So I love that. Well look, I I know the opportunity that you're in right now is super special. You're a South Texas guy. Now you're helping to build a program in the valley, a brand new program. What does that mean to you on multiple levels, professionally and personally.

speaker-0: It was just I think I don't think I could have found a ⁓ more perfect setting. Exactly like you talked about. It was an opportunity to come back home. You know, my parents live two hours away. I live in the same city as my brother. My little sister's in Laredo two hours away. Like I get to see all my nieces and nephews. I was missing birthdays. I was missing births, like and holidays, and now I'm I'm I'm pretty present, which is again pretty unique in this profession. Like I knew when I dove into the college side of things, like, hey, you may never get to live close to home. Shoot, you might not even be in the same state as your family. It's just kind of going with the flow and how this stuff works. So I don't take for granted the special opportunity that this is to continue to follow my dream and be a division one position like coach at home, essentially, with ⁓ surrounded by my loved ones. And then again, like the unique opportunity to s help start something from scratch. Like the vision They coach Bush and the original four, they got down here and started building. And then we kind of came in, you know, at a later date to fill out the staff and then fill out the team. Like I said, when I I got I first got hired November 28, 2023. My first day on the job was I got to the portable offices that were right over there. Like we didn't even have facilities. They threw me a gym bag. They Hey, put on something. We gotta go. It's the groundbreaking ceremony for this building that I'm sitting in. So like that was my first day. You shaking a lot of hands and and a lot of moving parts. But then the first like we r right back into the office and talked about, okay, like we have to feel the team. ⁓ you know, we we gotta go out and find again, not just anybody. Like we we do, I think as a program, starting from the top all the way down, we do a great job of vetting and and and like filtering and finding like and again everybody su says it, but it's our kind of guys, guys that fit what we do culturally, that that that ⁓ you know, they buy that are gonna buy into what we're trying to build. ⁓ you know, not necessarily finding the truly the best football player athlete. It's again it's finding the best fit for what we do to get a hundred percent buy. So really again, I I like I commend those those first four guys when they hit the road, I think they hit every school in Texas with four people. And then we came in and added a little bit more and we're able to get out. I think that first year when I got there that spring, I was on the road felt like four or five weeks in a row. Like it it would just felt like forever, but you were we were just trying to do our due diligence because we had to get 90-ish freshmen for that practice year. ⁓ so again, like unique experience, like would recommend it if any if you ever get the chance. Like there's obviously good and bad and and and and stuff like that and stuff that's hard work, but absolutely rewarding when it comes to that first game you finally get there like fruits your leg.

speaker-1: You mentioned it a little bit and I think you have such a unique perspective because you've you've straddled both sides of the line. You've been on the off the field roster building piece of it. You've now been on the on field side of it. So you've seen globally the entire picture. Modern landscape for college football, right? And you mentioned something I think is important is the value in finding guys that believe in the mission. Because I feel like now more than ever, there's so much more distraction, especially for young kids, right? Who are still trying to figure out who they are. What they're trying to be, develop a worth work ethic, all these kinds of things. What is something that y'all as a program try to hone in on? And if you were gonna kind of say, look, these are the core values we're looking for in guys that are gonna be part of the Paqueros program, what does that look like?

speaker-0: And it's kind of built into our pyramid. If you go to our team room, it's there. It's there's things that are built in there that we preach every day. And at the end, it starts off with like, gotta find tough kids that love football. Mm-hmm. Tough kids that love competing. Like we'll take kids again that like may not be the most prolific football player, but they love to compete and they work their tails off. And again, that that that need to be developed and we develop ⁓ I mean, we again we took a lot of kids that first year that nobody wanted. ⁓ and now ⁓ you know, we got kids that are out that hit the portal, now they're getting paid a lot like a lot of money. But again, it's it's again, it's finding the kid that got that that that thing right here in the mindset of just like always competing, relentless effort, mental toughness, grit. Like there's things that fall into what we do every day that don't require any talent and everything within our pyramid is a choice. And it's finding kids that are gonna be on the right side of that choice. ⁓ more often than not, and that's doing our due diligence, like talking to their high school coach and not only their high school coach, but you know, people they they played against other coaches within the district. I making calls to to, you know, counselors, principals and and talking to other players that played with them or played against them. It's just really it's just also getting to know the kid. You know, really truly recruiting the kid before you just hose out an offer or anything like that. Like really like old school recruiting. I got like a call sheet. That I got from Pete Caligus that he used when he was at Wyoming. He gave it to me when I was at Washington State. And it's really just a little kind of step-by-step thing, but just getting to know a kid. Like, hey, who's your favorite NFL team? Do you have one? You know, what like different things like that? Just and you kind of like check that, but ⁓ at by the end of it too, it is a little section at the end, like questions for the high school coach, like asking toughness, examples of toughness. You know, would you count on this kid in this situation and stuff like and just really taking a deep dive to get to know the kid. I think in today's culture it's more like, Hey, let's offer first to get in the game and then you never talk to the kid again. I I think like and I love that that's kind of our approach and again it starts w from the top down, you know, Coach Bush and that's just been our philosophy is doing right by the kids and ⁓ making sure that when we throw out offers they're committable and like really, really doing our due diligence before it goes out.

speaker-1: Love about your story, coach, is your path has not been this traditional star player at a big school, walks into a nice GA position and then climbs this essentially laid out ladder, right? You know, you have had to grind it out and figure it out. And that's my favorite thing. But when you look back, what part of the climb, what part of the journey would you identify has has shaped you most and and maybe even a pivot point where you went, Man, I'm on the right path. Like this is what I'm supposed to be doing.

speaker-0: So it's like ⁓ when I was in college, I went to ⁓ I had a couple offers out of high school. ⁓ I played offensive line severely undersized, but like I had a D two offer to go play fullback at ⁓ Lindenwood back when I think there were NAIA and I had the academics and everything to kind of make it work. Mm-hmm. But I had a full academic scholarship to Texas State. And my mom was not gonna let me pass that up. And that's just again, like in the grand scheme of things, like getting your school paid for is is overrides a lot of things as much as it hurt to turn down some football opportunities. ⁓ but I told myself, like, I'm gonna go to Texas State and I'm gonna walk on. Like I'm gonna do it. And as I know like unfortunately, like as bad as I wanted to, like I'm not a division one football player. Those are unique individuals. Like and I as no matter how hard I work, like it just it wasn't in the cards. So I did two tryouts, didn't make it. So I still had that itch. I wanted to play. I didn't like flag football. Like it just wasn't my game. So what I did was like, you know, you talk about creating your own path. Like I got some other like minded buddies who went to that tryout and didn't make the team and we started a student organization. We started the football club. So we fundraised and got our own equipment. We played like a local semi pro schedule, but like it's a bunch of college kids that we wanted to play football. And, you know, again, like just because we weren't set out to play, you know, that, you know, couldn't play at the division one level, why couldn't we still play? So that was kind of my first taste of building a team from scratch. That was my first taste of like a little bit of leadership. Cause not only was I playing, I was also kind of like a coach. I was the president of the organization. I was doing a lot of different things and organizing travel, buying equipment and stuff like that. Cause at first I went to school to study physical therapy. But the more I did things like that and a strength and conditioning internship and being around athletics, I was like, man, this is this is what I want to do. This is what gives me that high. This is what like I enjoy. And again, like that student organization was like I was a part of it for the two years that I had left of school. And I think it carried on for another three or four years before it eventually folded. But like that was kind of like for me, like a yeah, like this is this is what I want to do. ⁓ and that's when I've kind of made the transition ⁓ from physical therapy to to wanting a coach.

speaker-1: Well, look, this show is obviously built around walk on values, something we have termed here as, you know, TNT traits. Take no talent traits, right? We're we're always thinking like, Man, you want guys on your squad that are TNT all Americans that are gonna do the quiet things when nobody's watching that kind of escalate you and make you what you are as a programmer, as a person, things like heart, hustle, toughness, humility. I mean, we've already heard that. A ton in your story, right? But when you hear that, what does that bring up from your coaching journey? Where where does that stick out? All those type things.

speaker-0: I think that's just again, like those are always the the kids with their chip on their shoulder. Like, you know, that's kinda how I've learned to appreciate it. You know, my my first coaching gig at Tex A ⁓ Kingsville was a GA, but they didn't have GA spots. Again, I created a spot for myself. They didn't pay for my school. They didn't pay for my like I just volunteered GA, a walk on GA, I guess. Yeah. So I find it like consider it a soft spot for kids like on our even our roster, any other roster we've been on that like are gonna take that chance and bet on themselves and and and take, you know, they have to do what everybody else is doing, but more to show that they are they're worthy to be there. And and like I I love using this program as an example. We have plenty of kids that came in here as walk-ons, PWOs or whatever that first year that have came in here and earned a half. Now they're on a full. They're a starter. Now they're a freshman all-American. Like we have freshmen all Americans that came in here as walk-ons. We have kids that came in here on a half scholarship that nobody else wanted that ended up full, boom, all American. And now they're making a million dollars elsewhere elsewhere. So it's again, it's it's taking a chance on those kids. And I think again, that chip on that shoulder, it it's something special. I I I I guess, yes, you're gonna find talented kids that you're gonna bring in on scholarship and stuff like that. But it's just me, it's I've had that mentality. So I I just I consider I guess like I I it's the kind of kids I like too that They really love this stuff. You know, they're they're paying their own dime. Like it's sometimes they're putting themselves into finan but it's for the love of the game. And that's like again, like all that stuff we did when I was in school just because I wanted to play. Like, did I probably put myself in a little bit more debt wanting because I wanted to go buy a helmet and shoulder pads and play semi-pro to put my did I put myself in more debt because I wanted to go play college football coach at Texas AM Kingsville? Like yeah, but it was all worth it. Because without doing those things, I'm not here. I'm I'm not right where I am everything happened for an exact reason and I I I don't think I'd go back and change anything because like I needed every one of those steps to be able to learn and grow and learn and grow, ⁓ to be able to get to where I am today.

speaker-1: You're in a great spot right now, Coach, because you're in a position where you can take the things from your journey and all the things you've learned and pour into the kids in your position room on y'all's roster. But people poured into you too as well, right? And you've already mentioned a few coaches, one of them being Coach Craig Stutzman, who we've had the privilege of talking to on this show. Just awesome. I mean, world class. And I'm curious on your journey in coaching. Who are some guys who influenced you? Who are some guys that helped? set a foundation for you as you're building your coaching career.

speaker-0: I can start from from the jump. You know, my high school head coach, I I still talk to him every day. He's currently the offensive coordinator at a high school right down the road. But just a dude, like anytime I need just to check, you know, just ask just general questions. And he's always checked on me. He always believed in me. He was the one I used to be a running back. And then he pulled me into the office. He said, Look, son, like you're a guard and you're gonna be a pretty dang good one. I know you don't see it. You're gonna hate me. But promise you're going to do this. It's going to help the team. And in the long run, you're going to become a better person for it. So I I was opposed at first, but I did it. And sure enough, like it fit. We were slot T. Like so it just, it made sense. Slot T guards were basically fullbacks in a sense. But like he just kind of, I found the love for the game. Cause I I I got a funny story too. Like I I was going to quit football when I got to high school. I growing up, like, I didn't know anything. I didn't watch it on TV. Like I just played it. 'cause my friends played it. And again, no no gripe against those middle school coaches. But sometimes like the there's like a hundred and twenty kids. Like how can they reach every kid and really show them like I was just like I was playing, but because at the time like I was the same height I am now in seventh and eighth grade. Like I just a bigger kid. They're like, Yeah, put ⁓ out there. Like I was I don't know what I'm doing. Like and then I got to high school and those coaches slowed the game down. So when you separate, you got freshman, JV, and I played freshman. I played JV before I even got to the bar. Like, but that just kind of like once I understood everything and it clicked, like, man, like you would have thought, like, it was people just kind of thought it was funny. Like, I went from like absolutely hating the sport to like, now it's what I do every day for a living. And again, I credit my mom. She didn't let me quit. Now she doesn't really care for sports. Her reasoning was, hey, you need an athletic credit to graduate. So you're gonna play for one more year. But like that's really all that year. is all it took. And then like now I fast forward, you know, my time at Kingsville working with Kevin May and Dave Brown. ⁓ you know, Kevin May is now the head coach at Sedon Hill Division II school out in Pennsylvania or the East Coast. And Dave Brown, he's now a high school defensive coordinator, but worked I got to work for him twice because then he got into the high school world and ⁓ and I worked for him at PSJ Memorial High School. But those guys really truly me truly showed me like I had this im like I was just, you know, everybody always told you when you take a GA gig, they're like, get ready, 'cause they're just gonna Ride you, they're gonna it's gonna like but they just they treated me like I was a person. I learned, like, and that truly showed me like there's good people in this profession. And again, without ⁓ Kevin May like kind of standing on the table and telling them, like, hey, let's give this kid a shot. Like, I I'm again, I'm not here. You know, I talk about like my first high school job, full time job, Art Lozano. He's the AD there at Santa Gertrudis Academy High School, and that's a d like I still call him like Especially when I was like at Rice in a position of leadership and I had people that worked under me and I had to deal with conflicts and things like that. Like I'd conflict resolution things. I'd call them like coach, how how would you deal with this situation when there's like this situation, this, this, and they're butting heads like, what do you do? 'Cause again the football stuff and the recruit I was it's more like, Man, how did you manage these people in these situations? And again, that's still a guy that I call ⁓ to this day. ⁓ you know, I'll always give a huge credit to Nick Rolovich. Like special person to me because like when I wanted to get back into college football, there was not a lot of like people just getting back to me. And he was one that that gave me a chance to interview. And again, I'll it was a recruiting assistant position. It wasn't necessarily what I wanted to truly do, but he told me, he's like, just get your foot in the door. It's all gonna work out. We're gonna figure it out. But you're good people and I want good people and I want to surround myself with good people. It's gonna be fun. And man, it was fun. Like and that's again getting there. I got to To be around, like you you move 2,000 miles away, take a $40,000 pay cut, you feel pretty lonely. But like I got out there, I couldn't find an apartment. Nick Rolovich is like, Well, you're gonna live with me. So I stayed with him for like three, four weeks, like talking like having breakfast and dinner with his family. He was driving me to work, like cause it was in the middle of a snowstorm and stuff like that. But like I stayed with him for a good till I found my own place. But like I couldn't name another P4 coach, give the shirt off his back for a guy who was like, Just a step above a GA. Like that he really didn't know. And then like guys like Craig Stutzman and Ricky Longo, like again, those guys became my family away from home. Josh Amurra, Jason Severko, those guys made sure that I was okay. Mm-hmm. Mike Bloomgren, you know, with the position that I had there at Rice, like I worked really closely with him. You know, my office was right next to him. Again, in terms of roster building, that's where I really got to take my chance of of like a position of, you know, being in charge of of people. And even he tried, like it was funny, is like a lot of people told me, like, don't take that job. Why would you go to rice? They're on the hot seat. And even he told me on the interviews like, Hey man, with this this season could go one or two ways. You sure you want to do this? I'm like, man, I truly believe in Mike, like I I told him, like, I'm moving rice out. Like, I believe in Mike Bloomgren. Like that's like I'd known him for a little bit since I was a high school coach and I wanted to work with him, align myself with him. I learned a lot just of again managing people. doing the right things, doing right by people, treating people right, roster management. Cause it truly at the end of the day, like he was like the GM. Most head coaches, I know there's G he was a GM and I'd like was again director of player personnel. But the way again we made numbers work, I'd sit there, go to his office and be like, coach, I like, we're over. And he's like, it's gonna work out. I promise you. And it would every time. ⁓ but he again just gave me an opportunity to have some leadership, brought me back to Texas, trusted me. Like that was the big thing. He's like, Man, you just you run with this thing. You do it. I trust you. Just make sure nothing rolls across my desk and we're fine. Just tell me where I need to come in and sign and stuff like cross T's and dot I's, but like this is your show. And like truly like we built a really special class. Like that that for like again, like I hate that this is now the the term of rating that stuff like that, but like a lot of those kids played early and a lot of those kids are at P four programs now from that original class that we signed. Yeah. But like he's one of the only few that like We came we did the signing day press conference and he threw me up there. He's like, You're you need to like I'll talk. He's like, but you need to talk about this class. It's your class. So I thought that was pretty special. And and like I'll always ⁓ give credit to Coach Bush because again, like I talk about a lot of people giving people opportunities. Man, I've been wanting to coach for a long time at this level. Like even from when I was at Washington State, like I'd swing at a lot of things. And a lot of people told me no for a lot of different reasons. But he gave me an opportunity. And like I feel like I'm in like forever, like just trying to constantly like my drive is to prove him right. Like that, like again, that he made the right choice bringing me here, that it's not just like, hey, he's a South Texas guy, so we're bring him in the South Texas program. Like I wanna show him, like we you know, he made the right choice. So like I'm super thankful for him and and like I've learned I feel like I've been in like a PhD in football the last three years that I've been here with him, just different scenarios and watching how he game plans. Cause I think that's again one of his superpowers. offensively as how he gained plans opponents. So again, like just really blessed to get like be around everybody in this building. But those are some of the guys that I credit, you know, and again starting from high school all the way to here is like those are guys that gave me opportunities. Those are guys that are always going to be special to

speaker-1: Coaching is obviously a wins and losses game when things get boiled down. But really, to me, the the the beauty of it and the opportunity that you have as a coach is the legacy that you leave with the kids that you coach. And so when it's 10 years from now, 20 years from now, when eventually you're retired and your former players call you or they come back and see you, what is it you hope they remember about being coached by Coach Regalado? Or what is it that you hope you've left with them as they go on their own journeys.

speaker-0: I just think the morals that were instilled in me when I was a young, it's what I try to still to them. It's like you'll go very far in life if you work hard and treat people right. I like I want them to remember that it didn't matter if they were the preferred walk-on or the this the star studded running back. Like I treated and coached everybody the same. And I love every single one of them the same. Like you really couldn't tell who's who. And that's what I just I want them to know and remember that like I care. And like i there's, you know, there's standards in my room that I set and I'm tough on them, but again, they know it's out of a place of love. And it's because I want to see them successful. I want to see them reach their potential and be the best they can, whatever it is, even in the classroom. Like if the best you can give me is like a 2.7, 8, whatever, but like, dang it, like that's what I want from you every time. Like just give your best until you don't know any better. And again, that's another thing within our pyramid. It's we have a plus two mentality. Everything we do, it's not a 10 yard sprint, it's 12. It's not 20, it's 22. Everything we do, like running back room, we make contact, I want plus two. So it's just kind of knowing it, just giving that little bit of extra effort. ⁓ but those are things that when they remember coach regardless, that's that's I hope they remember me. That I was just fair, good to them, tough on them. But I want them to remember like things we talked about because I want to make sure that if the only thing I did with them in four to five years is make them a better football player, shame on me. Like I I've got things that I lessons I've learned from other coaches, my parents and things like that. Like I wanna give that to them.

speaker-1: Coach, I close with you like this. This is how we close with all of our coaches. We've got Doc Brown's DeLorean, and we can go back in time. I want you to go back to 22-year-old Marco. You get to tell him one thing to help him prepare for the journey that's in front of him. What's the one piece of counsel that you give him as he embarks on that journey?

speaker-0: There's a lot of things, but one that always stands out to me, and it's a shift that happened a little bit later when I got older and a little bit more mature, is instead of doing all this to to prove people that doubted you wrong and focusing negative energy and negatively shift it and focus on proving every single person who believed in you right, proving that that That that they made the right choice and and again making them proud and stuff like that. And simple things too is just every time I tell another young coach, like they're like, How did you do what you do? How do you get to it it it's really it's it's being comfortable with getting uncomfortable, putting yourself in uncomfortable situations, treating everybody the way you'd want to be treated, and just work your tail off and good things will happen. Like I think it's it falls into those things. But I that's again like I s things I wish like I wouldn't change anything about my journey. But those are some things that I like when I was I think a young Marco ⁓ would have really appreciated hearing.

speaker-1: That is one of my favorite paradigm shifts we've had on the show ever, Coach. I love that. I think there's so much more power in positive energy than there is in negative energy. And like you, as I have aged, gracefully, I hope, that ⁓ man, the ⁓ energy is a real thing. And the more you can surround yourself with people that are trying to pull the rope in the same direction as you are and kind of latch on to people that are pulling a rope in the direction you want to go in, God man, the better off you're gonna be. So I absolutely love that. Well, well look, coach, I have so enjoyed getting to learn about your journey and hearing your story. And man, you are like everything that the walk on mindset embodies. So ⁓ I will certainly be rooting for you. Please tell our listeners how they can support you, how they can support the Paqueros program.

speaker-0: And just again, follow UTRG V football on every social media you got and ⁓ continue to spread the word. Again, I think we're still we're becoming a household name. We're still pretty new. People see five letters and they're like, What is that? But it's it's ⁓ I think again it's we're right on that cusp of again, of just continuing to to blow this thing out of the water. But I think the the more that people talk about us and talk about our players especially, 'cause they deserve mo like if not all the praise, most you know, like just continue to talk about this program. And and again, I like you said it in ten, twenty years from now, it's gonna be amazing to turn back around and see what this thing has transformed into.

speaker-1: Yeah, man, I I feel like the program is at a really exciting place. And to be as early as it is, and to kind of have the the foundation that's already in place and the on-field success that's happened and in my mind is going to continue to happen, boy, it's something I'm excited to watch. So I I'm fired up to watch all this fall, Coach. And I and I know based on talking with you that it's gonna be a it's gonna be a good season to be a Vacaros fan. So we we appreciate you, brother.

speaker-0: Absolutely, man. Hope to see you at a game.