September 20, 2022 • 34 mins
Tim Cates talks with Anthony Rouzier about his path to becoming one of the top high school coaches in California and his team playing in the #1 high school football league in the country. Coach Rouzier pivoted from pursuing a career in law, to his true passion of coaching football. Coach talks about building a culture for his program and the importance of being a leader to his players on and off the field.
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(00:00):
From walk on at Yukon to coachin Germany to now head coach at Santa
Margarite A High school in one ofthe most prestigious high school football leagues in
the country. He is Anthony Rusier, and he's my next guest on episode
forty six of the Masters in CoachingPodcast. Let's go well, welcome into
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episode number forty six of the Mastersin Coaching Podcast here on iHeart Radio YouTube
wherever you download your podcast or watchingthis video. We certainly appreciate you doing
that. I'm fired up to talkto our next guest, So I'm gonna
be honest. I did my researchand find it out more about coach,
and I knew a little bit abouthim. Coach. He coaches in one
of the toughest and best high schoolfootball leagues in the country. He's in
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his third season now at Santa margaryA Catholic high school, and I am
fired up to talk to coach AnthonyRousier right now here on the Masters and
Coaching Podcast. Coach, Welcome,how you doing. I'm doing all right,
man, I'm pretty fired up too. You're actually one of the few
people that the first time got mylast name right, So you got me
fired up. You got me firedup. Tim, Let's talk about you.
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Let's talk about the program. Andbefore we get into all that,
in your story, which is awesome, and what you're doing a Sanna Margarita
is fantastic and you're building on whatwas already established there here. We are
about a month into the high schoolfootball season here in Southern California. And
for those who are watching nationally,watching from not here in Southern California,
may not know about the Trinity League, may not know about how great high
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school football here is in Southern California. Just how are you guys doing right
now in your season? Well,we just had a tough loss the other
day. We played the Los Alamidos, And like you mentioned, right,
it's a Trinity League, but it'sreally all of Southern California and there's a
lot of great teams, a lotof great coaches. What blew me away
about this was just the investment thateveryone out here has in building football and
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you can see it in the developmentand that's why these teams do so well
when they go in they play outof state teams. But you know,
last week we had a tough oneand we played you know, Malakai Nelson
and Makai Lemmon amongst some other guys, and man, those two guys were
special. Man Makai Lemon did whata great player does. And you know,
we talked to our guys before thegame and all week about what their
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abilities are and that those are theguys that can play on Sundays, and
they surely proved that. But itwas also awesome to see some of our
guys really continue to grow in immature. Our quarterback Jackson Potter was lights out,
you know, objectively, Well Ican't really say objectively because I'm biased,
but I think if you were tolook in a vacuum and see,
you know, games Malikai and Potterright there, you'd be like, you
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know, those guys are toe totoe talent wise, decision making and abilities.
And it's awesome to see Potter growingmature as a young man and see
it manifest. And I think that'swhat makes high school football such a unique
time and such a great time tocoach kids because you're watching them get better
and get better and get better,and and the light ball goes off and
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you see them really take that nextstep. You know, it's kind of
like I'm a young dad with twoyoung kids. My son's three and a
half of my daughter is three months. But like you know, my wife
always sends me the things about likeyou know, this the growth stage and
then here and then like once theyhit that stage, like they continue to
move forward, right, And sowatching a lot of our guys go through
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that experience, this being my fifthseason here, third as the head coach,
I think is my probably my favoritepart about the experience and then getting
a chance to play guys where youknow, even when you have a bad
game and you know, I wasDC so obviously didn't do a very good
job either, you know, justto feel like how frustrated it gets.
You're like, man, it sucks, but like to be able to love
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something so much that emotionally you're soattached to it, you know, that's
your job, Like it's kind ofyou know, it's like so Marcus are
really it's like you love the painto some degree too, and just you
know, and it's not going tostop the challenges because of who we play
in the league we play and thecoaches we play, So we're excited.
I think Dubai was timely for us. We have a lot to improve upon,
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but you know, I love thecoaches that I get to work with
and the players I get to workwith, and great support from the administration,
So I wouldn't want to be ina different place. Well, we're
gonna get into your story here.Before we do that, I just want
to ask you about high school football. And you've been here now five years,
as you mentioned, an assistant coach, now third year as a head
coach, and I know you knewwhat you were getting into with the Trinity
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the League because of your dad andknowing the area, and you know you
were talking to other coaches and friendsand who brought you to Santa Margarita,
and you kind of got and toldyou what it was all about. But
for those on the outside watching whoaren't familiar with southern Southern California high school
football, how intense is you playhigh school football Massachusetts? But I mean
here we are, I mean thisis pretty legit. Texas has got football
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and Friday night lights, Florida's obviouslygot talent down there, but Southern California
high school football in general, thenyou get it even smaller with the Trinity
the League on a national level,I mean high school football is big here.
Yeah, I mean it's kind ofa triumphrate right of the talent pool.
Right. You're you're dealing with southernCalifornia, So anywhere where there's great
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weather, you're going to have goodamount of athletes and good speed, and
you're dealing with, you know,really the investment that the schools have in
the programs, right. And Ithink with the investment, you know,
obviously comes quality coaching because you're gettingguys that they get to do this as
their full time jobs. I mean, you know, I'm a high school
coach and I coach football, likeand that's it. And so that's a
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testament too. Obviously are the institutionthat we're at, but it's also just
a testament to the culture out hereas a football program, right, and
just an area where people are youknow, invested in the league. And
then when you got guys you knowthis is before my time, but a
guy that I really respect and lookup to as a young head coach and
the disruptor like Jason Negro, wholike you know, just looked at this
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and said, what you know,woke up the sleeping beasts in Bosco,
Right, And then you know,you watch Rollo. Again, these are
more stories, but you've got tostudy the greats and understand where you come
from and where you're going against,how he's adapted to what you know,
what they've done, and how theyfit in the mold. And the reality
of this is this really is likecollege football junior. I mean, you
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see these guys playing on Saturdays.You see these guys being impactful players,
you know, and so it's reallyit really is a bear because I think,
you know, the thing about outhere is that you have so many
resources and the development I think issecond and none. It's a really interesting
dichotomy of the supplementary training that theguys get. But the quarterback play is
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unbelievable. I mean, there's nothere's nowhere in the country that has this
much of a concentration of quarterback elitequarterbacks. I think that that's where,
you know, seven on seven isreally big out here. So guys can
really throw it around all across theyard, and you're playing guys that you
know you're gonna see that are playingon Sundays consistently, and there's a lot
of teams and once you hit league, there's a there's four or five one
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kids on every team you know,and it's it's like the NFL, where
it's like a win is a winis more of a relief than like an
expectation, you know. So it'sjust it's hard to put in words,
but like when you watch a Boscogo to Texas and handle business or modern
day you know, obviously we're notat that level, but even you know,
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teams and years past Jay Sarah's playJersey teams and they're all good opponents.
But it's just when you kind ofhave that steep culture and environment,
you know, and these kids arelooking to play at the best spots,
Like you're getting a lot of concentrationand talent into pretty much one league and
a few other schools like a littlestyle. For example, Anthony Rousier is
our guest. He's the head coachat Santa Margary at a high school here
in southern California. Third year isthe head coach. Five years with the
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program and coach your road to gettingto where you're at is awesome. I
love hearing your story. I've heardyou tell it a couple of times,
and it's it's an inspirational story.It's a great story about somebody knowing their
passion and maybe deviating for what theythought they were going to do in life
and getting back to what they werepassionate about and what they wanted to do
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with their career. And that's somethingthat is your story. And he goes
back to the Northeast and playing footballin high school and then playing football in
college at UMass, then a Yukonand then UMass and and then going after
college coach and your education and furtherin that degree. And while you were
doing that down in Florida at FloridaInternational, you took a pivot right and
you decided I want to get backinto coaching. Talk a little bit about
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that. Yeah, So I wasthe guy, Well, my dad was
a very pragmatic guy and I reallyappreciate it for him. And as a
young kid, uh, you know, it's kind of frustrating because you don't
really know. But I was like, I want to play in the NBA.
And he was like, yeah,I don't know if you're gonna be
telling enough, you know what Imean? Yeah, And I was like,
hey, man, like I wantto go to a high state.
He's like, all right, well, well let's look at two lane.
(09:01):
You know, things like that,you know, and so I had a
very pragmatic approach to what the nextsteps were always and I thought that that
was a really interesting upbringing. Andwith that, you know, I was
really blessed at a young age tobe coached by great coaches. My high
school coach, my defensive coordinator,played at Youngstown State, Tom Collins for
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our Doozy's debt, and so hewas a mentor of mine and coached me,
you know, all through high school. And actually my middle school coach
was Scott Rhodes, who played forhim and was like the best linebacker and
you know, Little of Massachusetts wasa really good player. So I was
taught at a young age kind ofthe nuances and intricacies of defense and linebacker
play, and then played with him, and then had some great coaches also
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in high school coach Jack and coachPeterson. And then went but didn't get
any scholarships, so I ended upgoing to college at Yukon. Wanted to
play as you know, get thatopportunity, and that was when Yukon was
really in the BCS, and theya year later, two years later they
went to the Fiesta Bowls. Sothere was a lot of really good players.
Played with Darius Butler, you know, Donald Brown, Taylan Branch,
(10:07):
Randy Etsel was there at that time, right, Yes, I was there.
Yeah, he was my head coach, and Todd Orlando was the DC.
He was a linebacker coach. Yeah, and just the things I learned
from Coach Orlando were incredible. ButI didn't end up getting scholarship, and
U Mass ended up offering me afull scarship. So I went back to
you Mass where I was home,and I played for Don Brown. And
then so Don Brown is back,and so he was at Arizona, was
(10:28):
at Michigan for a while, andKeith the Zinsky and a bunch of guys,
Sean Spencer who's at Florida. Justa bunch of guys that I've coached
with, their played with. Andwhen I was my first semester at you
Mass with a spring, they hadthis house in sport management at the time,
and they said, write a paperabout what you want to do in
your career. You know, I'vealways been kind of an outside of the
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box, like here's you know,maybe he was the lawyer in me.
You know, here's this, andthen here how are we how do we
apply the rule to this situation.And I wrote about coaching, you know,
and so I interviewed Coach Brown abunch of people, and you know,
I wanted to be a coach,and I wanted to go coach college
football, you know, league potentially, but really college at that time,
and uh, you know, wrotea whole paper on that and was really
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I did an internship while I wasin while I was in college with our
coaching staff for breakdown, take CoachBrown, give me like a little assignment,
you know, it would do that. And then what happened was I
had a ton of injuries. Youknow, I had a bunch of soft
tissue injuries that really impacted my collegecareer. And I was on that end
of like almost like you know,kind of getting my spirit broken, and
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then felt like I needed to takea break from the game after I finished
playing. And my parents I hadalways kind of said to me like,
hey, well, you know,why don't you go to law school?
Why don't you be a lawyer.And again, my dad, being pragmatic,
had found something he obsesses with research, So he looks up something and
saw that in Florida do you becomean in state resident, which is super
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easy. In one year you canget in state tuition and go into law
school in state was like nineteenthllars.Wow. So I ended up doing uh,
you know, going down there.I actually worked at a nightclub,
I was a busser, I pickedup cups, and I was a security
guard for a year and started doingreal estate in twenty ten. So I
think I was the world's worth worstreal estate agent and uh ended up doing
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that, but went and got intoFIU law school, did that, but
the whole time after I left,I just felt like this kind of this
anxiety, this emptiness. Yeah,and I never felt like that. I've
always been a pretty smooth, likeyou know, internal emotional guy where nothing
really bothers me. Pretty happy,go lucky. Some some may argue different,
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but you know, like just havea pretty happy outlook on things.
I can get back to neutral prettyquickly. And just even living in South
Beach and then living in Coconut Grove, like, man, I gotta get
back to balls. So I endedup doing an internship at FIU and coach
christ Ball was there and I justended up reconnecting with a few coaches over
at Miami. They gave me acall the other day, and I talked
to him and coach Smith, DennisSmith and coach Wanavarrow. You know,
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guys that remember me and I rememberthem from at this point thirteen years ago,
twelve years ago. Did that andthen you know, law school became
a bear, so I kept Ihad to go through that. So I
did two years of law school withthen one year of an NBA program and
back to law school. And whenI graduated, I just I missed it,
man, And I went home andwatched U Mass play Boston College and
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Don Brown was at BC at thetime, and Mark Whipple, who was
at U Mass when I was alittle guy on the sidelines when my dad
was a team dot and they wonthe national championship or just come back,
and I remember crying watching the nationalanthem and just was moved to tears,
and I was like, man,if I don't do this now, I'm
never gonna do it. Yeah.So I went and talked to coach Brown
after the game, was like,hey, man, you think I'd get
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a GA job and not really understandingbeing foolish enough to know or not know
how hard it is to get thesejobs even basically you know, way under
minimum wage, and he was like, yeah, that's all right, and
I went home to Miami. Ilooked at my brother who I was living
with, I said, and Ipacked my stuff and I moved home.
So I went and volunteered at UMass that just in that spring or that
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fall, and I coached at myhigh school. So I became the DC
in the middle of the season,and then I went over to UH ended
up getting a volunteer job at WinstonSalem State so at ah you in New
UH in Winston Salem, North Carolina, and I was a waiter also because
I didn't make any money. Andthen right before the season started, I
got a GA opportunity at UMass,so I went home. So my dad
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always jokes I worked for free,then to work for less than minimum wage.
I did that for a few years, which was a great experience.
And then connected with my buddy whodoes helps European kids get scholarships to the
States and Brandon Collier, and hewas like, hey, man, you
should come out here and help medo this thing. So I was like
all right, And I saw andgot a chance to be the DC over
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at a team in Hamburg, Germany, and never heard of it. And
Sean Embry was the head coach andhis brother is John Embry who was now
with the Dolphins, and Sean playedat CEU and we had a lot of
connections and stuff and you know,and before you know it, he got
a job here with the forty nineers. But simultaneously there was an opening
to coach here. And he convincedme said, hey, man, I'm
at this high school. You gottacome check this thing out. Man,
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I'm gonna get you a job.And you know said this, you know,
you can make a certain amount ofmoney. And I was like,
well, he was like, no, dude, I'm telling you. And
then he told me they played ModernDay and they told me played Bosco and
I was like, that's when myeyebrows raising, my ears perked up,
and my German girlfriend and we gota job opportunity because the DC ended up
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going to Coastal Carolina. They neededa linebacker coach. And so I looked
at my girlfriend, who then becamemy wife three days later. So I
asked, I asked her dad,actually, her parents are coming in tomorrow
for the first time into the UnitedStates and now speak any English and I
and I asked her dad will youmarry me? So I asked him if
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you'd married. I meant to say, can I marry your daughter? But
he kind of looked at me crazy. But we got married three days later
and we moved out here with twosuitcases. And then I just saw what
this league really was and what itwas. And that was my first year
here. Was when Bryce Young Iwas a junior, DJ was a junior,
was like and I loved it.I loved everything about how great the
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league is, how great the coachesare, you know, the collegialness of
all of it, the opportunity tokids and you know, coach kids that
will be here on Sundays and uh, you know. And but also helped
the kid that ends up going toChapman or just wants to be a part
of your program and doesn't even playcollege football, or the girl that's a
manager and just was like, thisis an awesome place with awesome people running
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the program, in the in theschool. So somehow some way became the
head coach after that. Anthony Rousieris our guest. His story is awesome.
The fact that he keeps pivoting andmoving and going from place to place
to get it to where he's atnow as the head coach at Santa Margarit
at a high school here on theMasters and Coaching podcast. Thanks for being
with us. A couple of thingsI want to touch upon that you talked
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about and that itch and you talkedabout crying the national anthem and wanting to
get back into football and get intocoaching. Was it more to get back
into football in the football life orwas it coaching? And I want to
pour into somebody younger than me,teach them what I know and I learned
from these great coaches. What wasit the combination of both? Was it
one or the other? It wasboth? You know, it's both,
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and I think that you gotta haveboth in order to be great at what
you're doing in coaching. You gottalove football, you gotta love your subject
matter, but more importantly, yougotta love the relationships. Right. It's
that adage, Right. Kids don'tcare how much they know, you know,
and so they know how much youcare, right, And I missed
that camaraderie. That was the biggestthing. You know. No slight on
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the legal world, but it's avery reactive and you're solving problems and it's
crisis more a lot, whereas infootball you get an opportunity to get back
and build up and get better.I mean, I've talked to a lot
of friends, especially after this week, you know, where we had a
tough, tough game and stuff,and they're all super encouraging, you know,
coaches across and like, hey man, what makes football amazing? It's
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just the opportunity to get better,right, and and the cool I love
coaching. I love it. Ilove coaching more than I love playing,
to be honest, because I lovethe opportunity, like you talked about,
to pour into the kids and toconnect with them and then watching them get
it in the light bulb to gooff from playing. But I think more
importantly than what they do on thefield, it's more about like how do
(18:36):
they get the mentorship and how doyou accompliment to their parents and the people
around them? Right, It takesa village to get them going, to
get where they need to go,but to be part of their experience so
that they become the best young menthey could be or young women, you
know, And like, you know, I've been really lucky. You know.
Coach Kunw who connected us for thispodcast, has been an amazing mentor
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to me, coach be some who'shere who's now with the Washington Commanders,
was a guy that's been hugely impactful. The coaches I talked about before,
we're all really impactful. But youknow, the thing that comes back to
it all the time is like,it's what's your why? You know,
what's your purpose? And then whatwhat culture you're trying to build? Right
and you know, at the endof the day, right and anything.
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And I think that that was kindof part of the question is is you
know, what is the business ofthis, right and or the industry of
this or whatever you want to callit. It's about people about relationships,
right. And I was just talkingto our advice president this morning about you
know, how do you have themorale you know, be high and then
especially you know, especially when you'rethe leader and something goes down that that's
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not up to your standard, youdon't do as well as you think you
can, Like, how can youlook yourself in the mirror and and you
know, separate yourself from that experienceemotionally, but then apply it and then
be rigorous about where you want togo and try to make things better.
But helping the kids figure out thementality of life and what they need to
do. You know, our purposehere is to build champions, right,
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And to build champions, you know, it's all about what you're doing off
the field, right. It's thingsyou're doing when no one's watching, right,
your character, what you're doing whennobody's watching, right. And our
number one goal here is to getinvited to our players' weddings, right,
And that's where for us, likeif to do that right, it's got
to be a two way street too, and you got to get it.
And that's the thing, you know, kids, families and everything and pouring
into that right, And then howdo you help these young men come along?
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And it's that you know, it'snot you don't want them to hate
you, but you're willing your yourgoal is to not be like your goal
is to help them become the bestyoung men they can be. And they
understand later what you try to teachthem. And so you know, it's
like that whole thing. You know, you read the book Legacy, It's
like you're planting a seed in atree for something that will be harvested past
your lifetime, right, And soyou want to connect with them, right,
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you want to make it feel likehome for them, you know,
for us, that's what we're tryingto do here. You know, win
their heart, make it feel home, help them harvest their talents wherever they
go, you know, and thenhelp them achieve something with you know,
to earn and to learn and tryto win, right, because there's real
goals and there's real expectations in thisleague and there's nothing wrong with that.
Coach, you talked about something afew minutes ago, and I want to
(21:15):
hit on that you talked about.It doesn't matter if they're going to a
D one program like Michigan. Iknow, you've got a young man.
It's it's a highly recruited young manthat's going to places and playing D one
and multiple athletes as well. Butthen the kids that go D three,
go D two, go to aChatman, you know, go to a
Nevada. Those those are also wins. I mean, people get caught up
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in D one and they're gonna goplay and play on Sundays and Saturdays and
learn the big places. And that'sgreat. But to see kids, and
I know Coach Negro's talked about thisguy talked about on the podcast with them,
and and it's those players because youknow, getting guys plugged in at
different spots, and we all getcaught up in five star, four star.
And this kid's going to sc thiskid's going to Michigan, this kid's
going to Miami. But the kidthat's getting scholarship to go play D three
(22:00):
and getting the education paid for orgetting a tuition break, those are also
important. I love how you madeit a preference to talk about that and
mentioned that it's Chapman or it's Michigan. It's the same to you. Yeah.
I mean, well it's easy too, I think, unless you lose
sight of it, unless you're thatguy who was a first ballot Hall of
Famer. Yeah, I was thatguy, right. I mean, so
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like I understand, you know,like like kind of tying back to your
other question, it's like you wantto pay it back, you know what
I mean for what the game gaveto you. You know, I was
super fortunate. I have great father, great mother, extremely stable family life.
But my coaches were hugely impactful inmy life. And even though I
got married on the three days notice, I called on my coaches up said
hey man, and a few showedup. You know, like and so
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it's about finding that place in thathome where that you're gonna get to,
right, and then like are wedoing our job to supply them with the
tools so that wherever they go,that they thrive in that situation, right,
And it's it's about the proach.It's it's like everything else, right,
It's it's about the process us.It's so funny. People are so
outcome driven. You know, youneed to be out I love what McVay
says. He's outcome aware, butnot outcome driven. Right, it's about
(23:08):
the process and getting kids where theywant to go. And yeah, we're
fired up about the kid that cango and get an experience and hopefully we
created an environment here at an experiencewhere when they get to the next place,
they're prepared and they're ready to gobecause of the things that we've taught
them, right, And that's rightfor us, Like, I think that's
where ours as our program here,our egos come out is watching our kids
(23:30):
at the next level thrive wherever itis and like thrive when like, you
know, it's about how the coachesas the kid preparing, right, is
he nice to the lunch ladies?Is he great to his tutors. Is
he respectful to women? Like thosethings? Like that's where it goes out.
But like some of it is justyour god given ability and just because
you're great at football, it doesn'tmake you a greater person, right,
So what are we doing here andhow do we help them on that journey?
(23:55):
Coach rus is with US coach AnthonyRousier from Santa Margery at a high
school here on the Masters in Coachingpodcast. Coach, the culture you've established
at Santa Margarita, I know youwant to pay respects to the previous coaching
staff and getting that program going andmaking it to what it is when you
took over now in year three.But for your culture, you're what you're
(24:15):
doing with the program. Do youfeel like you've instilled it now in year
three and where do you see theprogram continuing to go As far as the
culture is concerned, I think youknow, it's tough games. You don't
want to make games a Littonist test, but they're also there. They're an
example, there's something. They're abarometer to seeing where you're at to some
(24:36):
degree, and I think that youknow the other night, not too heart
too much about it. Again,I Think was a kind of a good
example of that. We still havea long way to go, but we
our kids didn't quit, right,And so we talk about like, you
know, right wrong or in differentright. The authenticity of me is,
you know, the identity of wewant to be some dogs man, some
relentless dogs and just like you know, like a dog, like a dog
(24:57):
is a loyal dog, is aman his best friend. A dog is
going to protect its homeowner and it'sgoing to protect its family, right,
And if you're on its side,that's the best thing for you. But
if you're not, you got towatch it out, you know. And
so we have a little acronym toit that we uh, you know,
apply with our kids, right.And it's a desire to achieve greatness,
(25:18):
right, you know, you gottahave a burning desire, talk about mentors
and stuff. I don't know him, but I've read Think and Grow Rich
by Napoleon Hill a number of times. I'm big into like mentality and putting
yourself in a mind state where youcan have a white hot, burning desire.
And that's the first principle in thatbook, because if you don't want
something bad enough, you're not goingto achieve it, you know, and
(25:42):
so then and then you want it, but you've got to have the attention
to execute right, like how yougotta get craftsman. You got to you
gotta know and want to know yourjob and do your job so well you
become the very best at it,and you gotta obsess with it and right,
and that's the connection to the desire. And then you know, you
got to be able to do it. You know, you gotta it's easies
do one rapp or one day ofpractice, but do you have the willpower
(26:02):
to persevere when you know things gethard and difficult like on play fifty five
of the game, are you thatsame guy? Or the fifth week of
practice or the you know, thestudy hall that you don't want to do,
or you know, the conversation thatyou need to have with your mom
because you're falling short, Like youhave the willpower and and the you know,
humility to push through those things andknow what you don't know? And
then for us, right, it'sabout family, right, and since it's
(26:23):
a g right, you know,it's the game, it's like really playing
and having it where there's you putthat blood, sweat and tears into what
you're doing and you're playing for others, right. You know, I've been
really fortunate. There's some local guyshere at Toyota that have been really great
mentors to me and been helpful theprogram. And they always talk about having
hearts for others, you know,and just being guys that are that and
(26:48):
young men that can be out thereto serve in the community and make people
feel good because you're there. Right. You know, we're at a Catholic
institution, and you know, ifyou're at a faith based institution, what
more important thing than to be thento be, uh, you know,
representing and falling Christ right, whichis to be the most leving, the
most humiliated, the most humble,and to push through even when things aren't
(27:11):
good, right when you want toyou know, have wickedness or scoring somebody
like you got to look in themirror and forgive. You know. I
talked to our kids a few weeksago about you know, the two most
powerful things that we have as humansare the palate, the power of the
apology, and the power of forgiveness. Right, And so you know,
I think we're at a good spot. You know, we want to play
(27:33):
and be on a national level wewant to be a program that could compete
with anybody. I'm not afraid tosay it. We've put ourselves in that
position. The school has invested inthe program to that degree, so it
deserves that type of uh, youknow, effort and and you know,
I don't I don't know if I'ma product, but you know performance by
(27:53):
us as as a staff, andI think we can get there. And
I think it's a combination. Andyou know for a place like US,
where it's a really high academic school, uh, that we don't lower our
academic standards or character to try totake a shortcut. And we just got
to beat us and see where wecan do and be the best versions of
(28:14):
us to be where we need togo. But it helps when you got
a great present like Andy Sulik andpeople vps like you know, Sergio and
Manis who do a great job withus and academically, these guys have helped
us. You know, we're ableto get Collins in uh, mister Hyak
and miss would you know our adis great, so uh, you know,
it helps when you have that opportunity. So I think we're getting where
(28:37):
we need to go. You know, every every game is a new opportunity,
new challenge, and we're excited.I don't think coach and I appreciate
the time. Uh what do youwhat do you see yourself doing in a
few years? Do you see yourselfat Santa Margarita continuing to build a program
and be an elite high school program, because it is that's you guys?
(28:57):
Are you know you're right there withmodern Day and Saint John Bosco, Jay
Sarah and the surveys. I mean, it's the Trinity League. It's still
the Holy Trinity of high school footballhere in southern California, this league.
Are you comfortable being there and justbeing the long term coach there? Yeah?
I mean I love this place.I love the school, I love
(29:18):
the leadership and everybody that's here,and I think this is an awesome place.
I mean, I think one ofthe best things about being a coach
in the high school level and beingthe head coach is I get to see
my kids and I get to setthe tempo with that. And it's not
only like there's no brushback. There'sactually encouragement from the administration to make it
family oriented and to spend time withyour family. So you know, I
(29:41):
would love to be here as longas they want me to be here,
you know what I mean. It'sjust it's as long as we keep doing
what we need to do and keeppushing forward and keep opening our doors from
whomever wants to be here. Youknow. My big thing, uh,
as far as who can come hereis like you know, football all is
about bringing the world together. Youknow, I'm very deliberate and intentional about
(30:04):
wanting anybody, no matter what yourrace is, no matter what you know,
your financial background is, no matterwhether you live closer far or even
if you're a Catholic or not.Those shouldn't be determining factors into why you
want to come to Sana Margarita,right, And those shouldn't be things that
allow you or inhibit you to comehere. It should be about being able
(30:25):
to Uh you want to be herebecause you love the academic rigor you want
to be here because you want tobe developed by the coaches, be supported.
I mean, we're not the placethat promises kids, Uh you know
that they're going to get an earlyoffer things like that. I mean we're
pretty blue collar and old school,and that not saying that others are,
but you know, I'm just speakingfor us, you know, And yeah,
(30:48):
I would love to build this andbe competitive with these guys. And
I'm quite frankly, I'm very interestedin to see how the high school landscape
is to continue to grow and shift. And it's it's an interesting time all
that's going on, and you justgotta stay ready and prepared and remind yourself
at all this right now like asbig of a as big of a thing
as it is is, we're stillcoaching kids and that's what it's about.
(31:10):
Yeah, I mean, we can, we can spend a whole hour talking
about the high school football landscape andwhere it's going and where it could be
next year, five years, tenyears from now. But Coach, I'm
born and raised here in southern California. I played high school sports. I
still remember my high school football coachfor what he instilled into me to this
day. I hated him at thetime. I love him now for what
you did. And again, I'vegot three three daughters play high school sports.
(31:33):
I watched their coaches pour into themat their school village Christians. So
I love everything you're doing. Ilove everything about you coach, your energy,
your passion for the sport of football, and most importantly for coaching and
for these kids and pouring into them. So I loved talking to you.
Continued success. I'm rooting for youin the Trinity League every single week.
(31:55):
We're gonna follow you in this seasonand beyond. Thank you so much for
joining us on the podcast. Thankyou so much. I'm very humbled,
you know, super grateful to beamongst a lot of the coaches you talk
about, Negro and other guys,and I know that you're about to do
a doubleheader at the Dodgers, Soyou know, I'm humbled an appreciative that
I'm I'm part of your day whenyou got a lot going on. But
(32:15):
Coach, we appreciate it. Continuedsuccess this season, and I hope we
get to talk again. Thank youvery much. Well, there he goes
Anthony Rusier. What a god,the head coach at Santa Margarinea High School
here in southern California, a highschool football powerhouse in the toughest high school
football league in America, the TrinityLeague. He goes up against Servey Jay
(32:36):
Sarah Saint John Bosco in modern dayevery single football year. Thank you to
Coach Rusier. Coach Ruse as wecall him, doing great things in the
community, great things at the highschool. Love his intensity, Love the
passion and fire he's got for hisplayers and his coaching staff, and for
coaching in general. What a greatstory. Diverted from a life as a
(32:59):
lawyer sport agent, got into coaching, started at the bottom, worked his
way up, and it's just agreat inspiration for all you coaches out there.
Again, if you want to findout more about him, you can
go and check it out in RanchoSanta Margarita Catholic High School in southern California.
To find out more about the Mastersin Coaching and Athletics Administration program at
(33:19):
Concordia University, Irvine, Real SimpleCUI dot eedu slash coaching CUI dot eedu
slash coaching. Fall Session two isabout to start here in October. You
can find out more about that inthe scholarship program. Find out more about
the program in general, how itcan best, how it can best fit
into your schedule, online or inperson. They'll make it work. They're
(33:42):
great to work with at Concordia University, Irvine, and that they're to help
you through the entire process. Again, CUI dot EEDU slash coaching. Hope
you enjoyed Coach Anthony Rusier. Iknow I did. We certainly appreciate you
listening and watching. Until next time, Tim Kate's saying along everybody, m
From walk on at Yukon to coachin Germany to now head coach at Santa
Margarite A High school in one ofthe most prestigious high school football leagues in
the country. He is Anthony Rusier, and he's my next guest on episode
forty six of the Masters in CoachingPodcast. Let's go well, welcome into
(00:25):
episode number forty six of the Mastersin Coaching Podcast here on iHeart Radio YouTube
wherever you download your podcast or watchingthis video. We certainly appreciate you doing
that. I'm fired up to talkto our next guest, So I'm gonna
be honest. I did my researchand find it out more about coach,
and I knew a little bit abouthim. Coach. He coaches in one
of the toughest and best high schoolfootball leagues in the country. He's in
(00:50):
his third season now at Santa margaryA Catholic high school, and I am
fired up to talk to coach AnthonyRousier right now here on the Masters and
Coaching Podcast. Coach, Welcome,how you doing. I'm doing all right,
man, I'm pretty fired up too. You're actually one of the few
people that the first time got mylast name right, So you got me
fired up. You got me firedup. Tim, Let's talk about you.
(01:11):
Let's talk about the program. Andbefore we get into all that,
in your story, which is awesome, and what you're doing a Sanna Margarita
is fantastic and you're building on whatwas already established there here. We are
about a month into the high schoolfootball season here in Southern California. And
for those who are watching nationally,watching from not here in Southern California,
may not know about the Trinity League, may not know about how great high
(01:33):
school football here is in Southern California. Just how are you guys doing right
now in your season? Well,we just had a tough loss the other
day. We played the Los Alamidos, And like you mentioned, right,
it's a Trinity League, but it'sreally all of Southern California and there's a
lot of great teams, a lotof great coaches. What blew me away
about this was just the investment thateveryone out here has in building football and
(01:56):
you can see it in the developmentand that's why these teams do so well
when they go in they play outof state teams. But you know,
last week we had a tough oneand we played you know, Malakai Nelson
and Makai Lemmon amongst some other guys, and man, those two guys were
special. Man Makai Lemon did whata great player does. And you know,
we talked to our guys before thegame and all week about what their
(02:19):
abilities are and that those are theguys that can play on Sundays, and
they surely proved that. But itwas also awesome to see some of our
guys really continue to grow in immature. Our quarterback Jackson Potter was lights out,
you know, objectively, Well Ican't really say objectively because I'm biased,
but I think if you were tolook in a vacuum and see,
you know, games Malikai and Potterright there, you'd be like, you
(02:39):
know, those guys are toe totoe talent wise, decision making and abilities.
And it's awesome to see Potter growingmature as a young man and see
it manifest. And I think that'swhat makes high school football such a unique
time and such a great time tocoach kids because you're watching them get better
and get better and get better,and and the light ball goes off and
(03:00):
you see them really take that nextstep. You know, it's kind of
like I'm a young dad with twoyoung kids. My son's three and a
half of my daughter is three months. But like you know, my wife
always sends me the things about likeyou know, this the growth stage and
then here and then like once theyhit that stage, like they continue to
move forward, right, And sowatching a lot of our guys go through
(03:22):
that experience, this being my fifthseason here, third as the head coach,
I think is my probably my favoritepart about the experience and then getting
a chance to play guys where youknow, even when you have a bad
game and you know, I wasDC so obviously didn't do a very good
job either, you know, justto feel like how frustrated it gets.
You're like, man, it sucks, but like to be able to love
(03:44):
something so much that emotionally you're soattached to it, you know, that's
your job, Like it's kind ofyou know, it's like so Marcus are
really it's like you love the painto some degree too, and just you
know, and it's not going tostop the challenges because of who we play
in the league we play and thecoaches we play, So we're excited.
I think Dubai was timely for us. We have a lot to improve upon,
(04:06):
but you know, I love thecoaches that I get to work with
and the players I get to workwith, and great support from the administration,
So I wouldn't want to be ina different place. Well, we're
gonna get into your story here.Before we do that, I just want
to ask you about high school football. And you've been here now five years,
as you mentioned, an assistant coach, now third year as a head
coach, and I know you knewwhat you were getting into with the Trinity
(04:28):
the League because of your dad andknowing the area, and you know you
were talking to other coaches and friendsand who brought you to Santa Margarita,
and you kind of got and toldyou what it was all about. But
for those on the outside watching whoaren't familiar with southern Southern California high school
football, how intense is you playhigh school football Massachusetts? But I mean
here we are, I mean thisis pretty legit. Texas has got football
(04:50):
and Friday night lights, Florida's obviouslygot talent down there, but Southern California
high school football in general, thenyou get it even smaller with the Trinity
the League on a national level,I mean high school football is big here.
Yeah, I mean it's kind ofa triumphrate right of the talent pool.
Right. You're you're dealing with southernCalifornia, So anywhere where there's great
(05:13):
weather, you're going to have goodamount of athletes and good speed, and
you're dealing with, you know,really the investment that the schools have in
the programs, right. And Ithink with the investment, you know,
obviously comes quality coaching because you're gettingguys that they get to do this as
their full time jobs. I mean, you know, I'm a high school
coach and I coach football, likeand that's it. And so that's a
(05:36):
testament too. Obviously are the institutionthat we're at, but it's also just
a testament to the culture out hereas a football program, right, and
just an area where people are youknow, invested in the league. And
then when you got guys you knowthis is before my time, but a
guy that I really respect and lookup to as a young head coach and
the disruptor like Jason Negro, wholike you know, just looked at this
(06:00):
and said, what you know,woke up the sleeping beasts in Bosco,
Right, And then you know,you watch Rollo. Again, these are
more stories, but you've got tostudy the greats and understand where you come
from and where you're going against,how he's adapted to what you know,
what they've done, and how theyfit in the mold. And the reality
of this is this really is likecollege football junior. I mean, you
(06:21):
see these guys playing on Saturdays.You see these guys being impactful players,
you know, and so it's reallyit really is a bear because I think,
you know, the thing about outhere is that you have so many
resources and the development I think issecond and none. It's a really interesting
dichotomy of the supplementary training that theguys get. But the quarterback play is
(06:44):
unbelievable. I mean, there's nothere's nowhere in the country that has this
much of a concentration of quarterback elitequarterbacks. I think that that's where,
you know, seven on seven isreally big out here. So guys can
really throw it around all across theyard, and you're playing guys that you
know you're gonna see that are playingon Sundays consistently, and there's a lot
of teams and once you hit league, there's a there's four or five one
(07:09):
kids on every team you know,and it's it's like the NFL, where
it's like a win is a winis more of a relief than like an
expectation, you know. So it'sjust it's hard to put in words,
but like when you watch a Boscogo to Texas and handle business or modern
day you know, obviously we're notat that level, but even you know,
(07:29):
teams and years past Jay Sarah's playJersey teams and they're all good opponents.
But it's just when you kind ofhave that steep culture and environment,
you know, and these kids arelooking to play at the best spots,
Like you're getting a lot of concentrationand talent into pretty much one league and
a few other schools like a littlestyle. For example, Anthony Rousier is
our guest. He's the head coachat Santa Margary at a high school here
in southern California. Third year isthe head coach. Five years with the
(07:54):
program and coach your road to gettingto where you're at is awesome. I
love hearing your story. I've heardyou tell it a couple of times,
and it's it's an inspirational story.It's a great story about somebody knowing their
passion and maybe deviating for what theythought they were going to do in life
and getting back to what they werepassionate about and what they wanted to do
(08:15):
with their career. And that's somethingthat is your story. And he goes
back to the Northeast and playing footballin high school and then playing football in
college at UMass, then a Yukonand then UMass and and then going after
college coach and your education and furtherin that degree. And while you were
doing that down in Florida at FloridaInternational, you took a pivot right and
you decided I want to get backinto coaching. Talk a little bit about
(08:39):
that. Yeah, So I wasthe guy, Well, my dad was
a very pragmatic guy and I reallyappreciate it for him. And as a
young kid, uh, you know, it's kind of frustrating because you don't
really know. But I was like, I want to play in the NBA.
And he was like, yeah,I don't know if you're gonna be
telling enough, you know what Imean? Yeah, And I was like,
hey, man, like I wantto go to a high state.
He's like, all right, well, well let's look at two lane.
(09:01):
You know, things like that,you know, and so I had a
very pragmatic approach to what the nextsteps were always and I thought that that
was a really interesting upbringing. Andwith that, you know, I was
really blessed at a young age tobe coached by great coaches. My high
school coach, my defensive coordinator,played at Youngstown State, Tom Collins for
(09:24):
our Doozy's debt, and so hewas a mentor of mine and coached me,
you know, all through high school. And actually my middle school coach
was Scott Rhodes, who played forhim and was like the best linebacker and
you know, Little of Massachusetts wasa really good player. So I was
taught at a young age kind ofthe nuances and intricacies of defense and linebacker
play, and then played with him, and then had some great coaches also
(09:46):
in high school coach Jack and coachPeterson. And then went but didn't get
any scholarships, so I ended upgoing to college at Yukon. Wanted to
play as you know, get thatopportunity, and that was when Yukon was
really in the BCS, and theya year later, two years later they
went to the Fiesta Bowls. Sothere was a lot of really good players.
Played with Darius Butler, you know, Donald Brown, Taylan Branch,
(10:07):
Randy Etsel was there at that time, right, Yes, I was there.
Yeah, he was my head coach, and Todd Orlando was the DC.
He was a linebacker coach. Yeah, and just the things I learned
from Coach Orlando were incredible. ButI didn't end up getting scholarship, and
U Mass ended up offering me afull scarship. So I went back to
you Mass where I was home,and I played for Don Brown. And
then so Don Brown is back,and so he was at Arizona, was
(10:28):
at Michigan for a while, andKeith the Zinsky and a bunch of guys,
Sean Spencer who's at Florida. Justa bunch of guys that I've coached
with, their played with. Andwhen I was my first semester at you
Mass with a spring, they hadthis house in sport management at the time,
and they said, write a paperabout what you want to do in
your career. You know, I'vealways been kind of an outside of the
(10:50):
box, like here's you know,maybe he was the lawyer in me.
You know, here's this, andthen here how are we how do we
apply the rule to this situation.And I wrote about coaching, you know,
and so I interviewed Coach Brown abunch of people, and you know,
I wanted to be a coach,and I wanted to go coach college
football, you know, league potentially, but really college at that time,
and uh, you know, wrotea whole paper on that and was really
(11:11):
I did an internship while I wasin while I was in college with our
coaching staff for breakdown, take CoachBrown, give me like a little assignment,
you know, it would do that. And then what happened was I
had a ton of injuries. Youknow, I had a bunch of soft
tissue injuries that really impacted my collegecareer. And I was on that end
of like almost like you know,kind of getting my spirit broken, and
(11:33):
then felt like I needed to takea break from the game after I finished
playing. And my parents I hadalways kind of said to me like,
hey, well, you know,why don't you go to law school?
Why don't you be a lawyer.And again, my dad, being pragmatic,
had found something he obsesses with research, So he looks up something and
saw that in Florida do you becomean in state resident, which is super
(11:54):
easy. In one year you canget in state tuition and go into law
school in state was like nineteenthllars.Wow. So I ended up doing uh,
you know, going down there.I actually worked at a nightclub,
I was a busser, I pickedup cups, and I was a security
guard for a year and started doingreal estate in twenty ten. So I
think I was the world's worth worstreal estate agent and uh ended up doing
(12:20):
that, but went and got intoFIU law school, did that, but
the whole time after I left,I just felt like this kind of this
anxiety, this emptiness. Yeah,and I never felt like that. I've
always been a pretty smooth, likeyou know, internal emotional guy where nothing
really bothers me. Pretty happy,go lucky. Some some may argue different,
(12:41):
but you know, like just havea pretty happy outlook on things.
I can get back to neutral prettyquickly. And just even living in South
Beach and then living in Coconut Grove, like, man, I gotta get
back to balls. So I endedup doing an internship at FIU and coach
christ Ball was there and I justended up reconnecting with a few coaches over
at Miami. They gave me acall the other day, and I talked
to him and coach Smith, DennisSmith and coach Wanavarrow. You know,
(13:03):
guys that remember me and I rememberthem from at this point thirteen years ago,
twelve years ago. Did that andthen you know, law school became
a bear, so I kept Ihad to go through that. So I
did two years of law school withthen one year of an NBA program and
back to law school. And whenI graduated, I just I missed it,
man, And I went home andwatched U Mass play Boston College and
(13:31):
Don Brown was at BC at thetime, and Mark Whipple, who was
at U Mass when I was alittle guy on the sidelines when my dad
was a team dot and they wonthe national championship or just come back,
and I remember crying watching the nationalanthem and just was moved to tears,
and I was like, man,if I don't do this now, I'm
never gonna do it. Yeah.So I went and talked to coach Brown
after the game, was like,hey, man, you think I'd get
(13:52):
a GA job and not really understandingbeing foolish enough to know or not know
how hard it is to get thesejobs even basically you know, way under
minimum wage, and he was like, yeah, that's all right, and
I went home to Miami. Ilooked at my brother who I was living
with, I said, and Ipacked my stuff and I moved home.
So I went and volunteered at UMass that just in that spring or that
(14:16):
fall, and I coached at myhigh school. So I became the DC
in the middle of the season,and then I went over to UH ended
up getting a volunteer job at WinstonSalem State so at ah you in New
UH in Winston Salem, North Carolina, and I was a waiter also because
I didn't make any money. Andthen right before the season started, I
got a GA opportunity at UMass,so I went home. So my dad
(14:39):
always jokes I worked for free,then to work for less than minimum wage.
I did that for a few years, which was a great experience.
And then connected with my buddy whodoes helps European kids get scholarships to the
States and Brandon Collier, and hewas like, hey, man, you
should come out here and help medo this thing. So I was like
all right, And I saw andgot a chance to be the DC over
(15:01):
at a team in Hamburg, Germany, and never heard of it. And
Sean Embry was the head coach andhis brother is John Embry who was now
with the Dolphins, and Sean playedat CEU and we had a lot of
connections and stuff and you know,and before you know it, he got
a job here with the forty nineers. But simultaneously there was an opening
to coach here. And he convincedme said, hey, man, I'm
at this high school. You gottacome check this thing out. Man,
(15:22):
I'm gonna get you a job.And you know said this, you know,
you can make a certain amount ofmoney. And I was like,
well, he was like, no, dude, I'm telling you. And
then he told me they played ModernDay and they told me played Bosco and
I was like, that's when myeyebrows raising, my ears perked up,
and my German girlfriend and we gota job opportunity because the DC ended up
(15:43):
going to Coastal Carolina. They neededa linebacker coach. And so I looked
at my girlfriend, who then becamemy wife three days later. So I
asked, I asked her dad,actually, her parents are coming in tomorrow
for the first time into the UnitedStates and now speak any English and I
and I asked her dad will youmarry me? So I asked him if
(16:04):
you'd married. I meant to say, can I marry your daughter? But
he kind of looked at me crazy. But we got married three days later
and we moved out here with twosuitcases. And then I just saw what
this league really was and what itwas. And that was my first year
here. Was when Bryce Young Iwas a junior, DJ was a junior,
was like and I loved it.I loved everything about how great the
(16:25):
league is, how great the coachesare, you know, the collegialness of
all of it, the opportunity tokids and you know, coach kids that
will be here on Sundays and uh, you know. And but also helped
the kid that ends up going toChapman or just wants to be a part
of your program and doesn't even playcollege football, or the girl that's a
manager and just was like, thisis an awesome place with awesome people running
(16:45):
the program, in the in theschool. So somehow some way became the
head coach after that. Anthony Rousieris our guest. His story is awesome.
The fact that he keeps pivoting andmoving and going from place to place
to get it to where he's atnow as the head coach at Santa Margarit
at a high school here on theMasters and Coaching podcast. Thanks for being
with us. A couple of thingsI want to touch upon that you talked
(17:07):
about and that itch and you talkedabout crying the national anthem and wanting to
get back into football and get intocoaching. Was it more to get back
into football in the football life orwas it coaching? And I want to
pour into somebody younger than me,teach them what I know and I learned
from these great coaches. What wasit the combination of both? Was it
one or the other? It wasboth? You know, it's both,
(17:30):
and I think that you gotta haveboth in order to be great at what
you're doing in coaching. You gottalove football, you gotta love your subject
matter, but more importantly, yougotta love the relationships. Right. It's
that adage, Right. Kids don'tcare how much they know, you know,
and so they know how much youcare, right, And I missed
that camaraderie. That was the biggestthing. You know. No slight on
(17:52):
the legal world, but it's avery reactive and you're solving problems and it's
crisis more a lot, whereas infootball you get an opportunity to get back
and build up and get better.I mean, I've talked to a lot
of friends, especially after this week, you know, where we had a
tough, tough game and stuff,and they're all super encouraging, you know,
coaches across and like, hey man, what makes football amazing? It's
(18:15):
just the opportunity to get better,right, and and the cool I love
coaching. I love it. Ilove coaching more than I love playing,
to be honest, because I lovethe opportunity, like you talked about,
to pour into the kids and toconnect with them and then watching them get
it in the light bulb to gooff from playing. But I think more
importantly than what they do on thefield, it's more about like how do
(18:36):
they get the mentorship and how doyou accompliment to their parents and the people
around them? Right, It takesa village to get them going, to
get where they need to go,but to be part of their experience so
that they become the best young menthey could be or young women, you
know, And like, you know, I've been really lucky. You know.
Coach Kunw who connected us for thispodcast, has been an amazing mentor
(18:56):
to me, coach be some who'shere who's now with the Washington Commanders,
was a guy that's been hugely impactful. The coaches I talked about before,
we're all really impactful. But youknow, the thing that comes back to
it all the time is like,it's what's your why? You know,
what's your purpose? And then whatwhat culture you're trying to build? Right
and you know, at the endof the day, right and anything.
(19:18):
And I think that that was kindof part of the question is is you
know, what is the business ofthis, right and or the industry of
this or whatever you want to callit. It's about people about relationships,
right. And I was just talkingto our advice president this morning about you
know, how do you have themorale you know, be high and then
especially you know, especially when you'rethe leader and something goes down that that's
(19:40):
not up to your standard, youdon't do as well as you think you
can, Like, how can youlook yourself in the mirror and and you
know, separate yourself from that experienceemotionally, but then apply it and then
be rigorous about where you want togo and try to make things better.
But helping the kids figure out thementality of life and what they need to
do. You know, our purposehere is to build champions, right,
(20:03):
And to build champions, you know, it's all about what you're doing off
the field, right. It's thingsyou're doing when no one's watching, right,
your character, what you're doing whennobody's watching, right. And our
number one goal here is to getinvited to our players' weddings, right,
And that's where for us, likeif to do that right, it's got
to be a two way street too, and you got to get it.
And that's the thing, you know, kids, families and everything and pouring
into that right, And then howdo you help these young men come along?
(20:29):
And it's that you know, it'snot you don't want them to hate
you, but you're willing your yourgoal is to not be like your goal
is to help them become the bestyoung men they can be. And they
understand later what you try to teachthem. And so you know, it's
like that whole thing. You know, you read the book Legacy, It's
like you're planting a seed in atree for something that will be harvested past
your lifetime, right, And soyou want to connect with them, right,
(20:52):
you want to make it feel likehome for them, you know,
for us, that's what we're tryingto do here. You know, win
their heart, make it feel home, help them harvest their talents wherever they
go, you know, and thenhelp them achieve something with you know,
to earn and to learn and tryto win, right, because there's real
goals and there's real expectations in thisleague and there's nothing wrong with that.
Coach, you talked about something afew minutes ago, and I want to
(21:15):
hit on that you talked about.It doesn't matter if they're going to a
D one program like Michigan. Iknow, you've got a young man.
It's it's a highly recruited young manthat's going to places and playing D one
and multiple athletes as well. Butthen the kids that go D three,
go D two, go to aChatman, you know, go to a
Nevada. Those those are also wins. I mean, people get caught up
(21:37):
in D one and they're gonna goplay and play on Sundays and Saturdays and
learn the big places. And that'sgreat. But to see kids, and
I know Coach Negro's talked about thisguy talked about on the podcast with them,
and and it's those players because youknow, getting guys plugged in at
different spots, and we all getcaught up in five star, four star.
And this kid's going to sc thiskid's going to Michigan, this kid's
going to Miami. But the kidthat's getting scholarship to go play D three
(22:00):
and getting the education paid for orgetting a tuition break, those are also
important. I love how you madeit a preference to talk about that and
mentioned that it's Chapman or it's Michigan. It's the same to you. Yeah.
I mean, well it's easy too, I think, unless you lose
sight of it, unless you're thatguy who was a first ballot Hall of
Famer. Yeah, I was thatguy, right. I mean, so
(22:21):
like I understand, you know,like like kind of tying back to your
other question, it's like you wantto pay it back, you know what
I mean for what the game gaveto you. You know, I was
super fortunate. I have great father, great mother, extremely stable family life.
But my coaches were hugely impactful inmy life. And even though I
got married on the three days notice, I called on my coaches up said
hey man, and a few showedup. You know, like and so
(22:44):
it's about finding that place in thathome where that you're gonna get to,
right, and then like are wedoing our job to supply them with the
tools so that wherever they go,that they thrive in that situation, right,
And it's it's about the proach.It's it's like everything else, right,
It's it's about the process us.It's so funny. People are so
outcome driven. You know, youneed to be out I love what McVay
says. He's outcome aware, butnot outcome driven. Right, it's about
(23:08):
the process and getting kids where theywant to go. And yeah, we're
fired up about the kid that cango and get an experience and hopefully we
created an environment here at an experiencewhere when they get to the next place,
they're prepared and they're ready to gobecause of the things that we've taught
them, right, And that's rightfor us, Like, I think that's
where ours as our program here,our egos come out is watching our kids
(23:30):
at the next level thrive wherever itis and like thrive when like, you
know, it's about how the coachesas the kid preparing, right, is
he nice to the lunch ladies?Is he great to his tutors. Is
he respectful to women? Like thosethings? Like that's where it goes out.
But like some of it is justyour god given ability and just because
you're great at football, it doesn'tmake you a greater person, right,
So what are we doing here andhow do we help them on that journey?
(23:55):
Coach rus is with US coach AnthonyRousier from Santa Margery at a high
school here on the Masters in Coachingpodcast. Coach, the culture you've established
at Santa Margarita, I know youwant to pay respects to the previous coaching
staff and getting that program going andmaking it to what it is when you
took over now in year three.But for your culture, you're what you're
(24:15):
doing with the program. Do youfeel like you've instilled it now in year
three and where do you see theprogram continuing to go As far as the
culture is concerned, I think youknow, it's tough games. You don't
want to make games a Littonist test, but they're also there. They're an
example, there's something. They're abarometer to seeing where you're at to some
(24:36):
degree, and I think that youknow the other night, not too heart
too much about it. Again,I Think was a kind of a good
example of that. We still havea long way to go, but we
our kids didn't quit, right,And so we talk about like, you
know, right wrong or in differentright. The authenticity of me is,
you know, the identity of wewant to be some dogs man, some
relentless dogs and just like you know, like a dog, like a dog
(24:57):
is a loyal dog, is aman his best friend. A dog is
going to protect its homeowner and it'sgoing to protect its family, right,
And if you're on its side,that's the best thing for you. But
if you're not, you got towatch it out, you know. And
so we have a little acronym toit that we uh, you know,
apply with our kids, right.And it's a desire to achieve greatness,
(25:18):
right, you know, you gottahave a burning desire, talk about mentors
and stuff. I don't know him, but I've read Think and Grow Rich
by Napoleon Hill a number of times. I'm big into like mentality and putting
yourself in a mind state where youcan have a white hot, burning desire.
And that's the first principle in thatbook, because if you don't want
something bad enough, you're not goingto achieve it, you know, and
(25:42):
so then and then you want it, but you've got to have the attention
to execute right, like how yougotta get craftsman. You got to you
gotta know and want to know yourjob and do your job so well you
become the very best at it,and you gotta obsess with it and right,
and that's the connection to the desire. And then you know, you
got to be able to do it. You know, you gotta it's easies
do one rapp or one day ofpractice, but do you have the willpower
(26:02):
to persevere when you know things gethard and difficult like on play fifty five
of the game, are you thatsame guy? Or the fifth week of
practice or the you know, thestudy hall that you don't want to do,
or you know, the conversation thatyou need to have with your mom
because you're falling short, Like youhave the willpower and and the you know,
humility to push through those things andknow what you don't know? And
then for us, right, it'sabout family, right, and since it's
(26:23):
a g right, you know,it's the game, it's like really playing
and having it where there's you putthat blood, sweat and tears into what
you're doing and you're playing for others, right. You know, I've been
really fortunate. There's some local guyshere at Toyota that have been really great
mentors to me and been helpful theprogram. And they always talk about having
hearts for others, you know,and just being guys that are that and
(26:48):
young men that can be out thereto serve in the community and make people
feel good because you're there. Right. You know, we're at a Catholic
institution, and you know, ifyou're at a faith based institution, what
more important thing than to be thento be, uh, you know,
representing and falling Christ right, whichis to be the most leving, the
most humiliated, the most humble,and to push through even when things aren't
(27:11):
good, right when you want toyou know, have wickedness or scoring somebody
like you got to look in themirror and forgive. You know. I
talked to our kids a few weeksago about you know, the two most
powerful things that we have as humansare the palate, the power of the
apology, and the power of forgiveness. Right, And so you know,
I think we're at a good spot. You know, we want to play
(27:33):
and be on a national level wewant to be a program that could compete
with anybody. I'm not afraid tosay it. We've put ourselves in that
position. The school has invested inthe program to that degree, so it
deserves that type of uh, youknow, effort and and you know,
I don't I don't know if I'ma product, but you know performance by
(27:53):
us as as a staff, andI think we can get there. And
I think it's a combination. Andyou know for a place like US,
where it's a really high academic school, uh, that we don't lower our
academic standards or character to try totake a shortcut. And we just got
to beat us and see where wecan do and be the best versions of
(28:14):
us to be where we need togo. But it helps when you got
a great present like Andy Sulik andpeople vps like you know, Sergio and
Manis who do a great job withus and academically, these guys have helped
us. You know, we're ableto get Collins in uh, mister Hyak
and miss would you know our adis great, so uh, you know,
it helps when you have that opportunity. So I think we're getting where
(28:37):
we need to go. You know, every every game is a new opportunity,
new challenge, and we're excited.I don't think coach and I appreciate
the time. Uh what do youwhat do you see yourself doing in a
few years? Do you see yourselfat Santa Margarita continuing to build a program
and be an elite high school program, because it is that's you guys?
(28:57):
Are you know you're right there withmodern Day and Saint John Bosco, Jay
Sarah and the surveys. I mean, it's the Trinity League. It's still
the Holy Trinity of high school footballhere in southern California, this league.
Are you comfortable being there and justbeing the long term coach there? Yeah?
I mean I love this place.I love the school, I love
(29:18):
the leadership and everybody that's here,and I think this is an awesome place.
I mean, I think one ofthe best things about being a coach
in the high school level and beingthe head coach is I get to see
my kids and I get to setthe tempo with that. And it's not
only like there's no brushback. There'sactually encouragement from the administration to make it
family oriented and to spend time withyour family. So you know, I
(29:41):
would love to be here as longas they want me to be here,
you know what I mean. It'sjust it's as long as we keep doing
what we need to do and keeppushing forward and keep opening our doors from
whomever wants to be here. Youknow. My big thing, uh,
as far as who can come hereis like you know, football all is
about bringing the world together. Youknow, I'm very deliberate and intentional about
(30:04):
wanting anybody, no matter what yourrace is, no matter what you know,
your financial background is, no matterwhether you live closer far or even
if you're a Catholic or not.Those shouldn't be determining factors into why you
want to come to Sana Margarita,right, And those shouldn't be things that
allow you or inhibit you to comehere. It should be about being able
(30:25):
to Uh you want to be herebecause you love the academic rigor you want
to be here because you want tobe developed by the coaches, be supported.
I mean, we're not the placethat promises kids, Uh you know
that they're going to get an earlyoffer things like that. I mean we're
pretty blue collar and old school,and that not saying that others are,
but you know, I'm just speakingfor us, you know, And yeah,
(30:48):
I would love to build this andbe competitive with these guys. And
I'm quite frankly, I'm very interestedin to see how the high school landscape
is to continue to grow and shift. And it's it's an interesting time all
that's going on, and you justgotta stay ready and prepared and remind yourself
at all this right now like asbig of a as big of a thing
as it is is, we're stillcoaching kids and that's what it's about.
(31:10):
Yeah, I mean, we can, we can spend a whole hour talking
about the high school football landscape andwhere it's going and where it could be
next year, five years, tenyears from now. But Coach, I'm
born and raised here in southern California. I played high school sports. I
still remember my high school football coachfor what he instilled into me to this
day. I hated him at thetime. I love him now for what
you did. And again, I'vegot three three daughters play high school sports.
(31:33):
I watched their coaches pour into themat their school village Christians. So
I love everything you're doing. Ilove everything about you coach, your energy,
your passion for the sport of football, and most importantly for coaching and
for these kids and pouring into them. So I loved talking to you.
Continued success. I'm rooting for youin the Trinity League every single week.
(31:55):
We're gonna follow you in this seasonand beyond. Thank you so much for
joining us on the podcast. Thankyou so much. I'm very humbled,
you know, super grateful to beamongst a lot of the coaches you talk
about, Negro and other guys,and I know that you're about to do
a doubleheader at the Dodgers, Soyou know, I'm humbled an appreciative that
I'm I'm part of your day whenyou got a lot going on. But
(32:15):
Coach, we appreciate it. Continuedsuccess this season, and I hope we
get to talk again. Thank youvery much. Well, there he goes
Anthony Rusier. What a god,the head coach at Santa Margarinea High School
here in southern California, a highschool football powerhouse in the toughest high school
football league in America, the TrinityLeague. He goes up against Servey Jay
(32:36):
Sarah Saint John Bosco in modern dayevery single football year. Thank you to
Coach Rusier. Coach Ruse as wecall him, doing great things in the
community, great things at the highschool. Love his intensity, Love the
passion and fire he's got for hisplayers and his coaching staff, and for
coaching in general. What a greatstory. Diverted from a life as a
(32:59):
lawyer sport agent, got into coaching, started at the bottom, worked his
way up, and it's just agreat inspiration for all you coaches out there.
Again, if you want to findout more about him, you can
go and check it out in RanchoSanta Margarita Catholic High School in southern California.
To find out more about the Mastersin Coaching and Athletics Administration program at
(33:19):
Concordia University, Irvine, Real SimpleCUI dot eedu slash coaching CUI dot eedu
slash coaching. Fall Session two isabout to start here in October. You
can find out more about that inthe scholarship program. Find out more about
the program in general, how itcan best, how it can best fit
into your schedule, online or inperson. They'll make it work. They're
(33:42):
great to work with at Concordia University, Irvine, and that they're to help
you through the entire process. Again, CUI dot EEDU slash coaching. Hope
you enjoyed Coach Anthony Rusier. Iknow I did. We certainly appreciate you
listening and watching. Until next time, Tim Kate's saying along everybody, m
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