"Cultivating Key Habits and a mindset for High Performance"

Multi-sport standout athlete at Pendleton County HS (Basketball and Golf)

Belmont University Men's Basketball

Coaching:

Currently Ryle HS Boy's Basketball Coach

Previously Pendleton County HS Head Coach

Eastern KY University Graduate Assistant

- Playing in the KHSAA Sweet Sixteen and multiple NCAA tournaments

- Habits and a mindset that helped him maximize his potential

- The coaches that developed him and why

- Family influence on his success

- Current coaching philosophy

- Coaching Dontaie Allen (Current UK Men's Basketball)

- Advice for young coaches just starting out

This is the coach to coach podcast episode number 30..game time. Hey, what's going on, guys? Welcome to the coach to Coach Podcast, where we believe every kid deserves a coach that cares, and every coach deserves someone in the corner. I'm your host, Nate Sallee and this podcast is sponsored by the Northern Kentucky Fellowship of Christian Athletes. We have an incredible team of board members of donors, volunteer leaders and other student leaders that help contribute to the movement of God and in the life change that we're seeing in our region. The vision of this podcast is to collect the amazing wisdom in northern Kentucky, Greater Cincinnati and beyond when it comes to coaching, when it comes to having a high performing team but also thriving personally in our homes with our marriages and families. And we have some incredible interviews already that have been recorded, you could go to nkyfca.org/podcast to see all of our previous episodes. But hey, I'm excited for this particular episode. A friend of mine, Keaton, Belcher. You get to hear a little bit of his story But he came up as a standout high school basketball player, got a chance to play in college and is now in the high school coaching ranks for boys basketball, where he was at Pendleton County, his hometown alma mater. And then now he's currently the head varsity boys basketball coach at Ryle High School. So he has some incredible wisdom that he's picked up from coaches that have impacted him along the way. Some habits and some mindset things that allowed him to go from a very small school, small town to the division one level, be recruited, playing college. And he also has some insight on to coaching different styles and what that could look like and his personal philosophies on some things. And then he shares a little bit about how it was to coach Dantaie Allen, current University of Kentucky basketball player, in what some of that journey was like since some really good stuff. Okay, I don't want to wait any longer. Let's hop right into our conversation with Coach Keaton. Belcher. All right, guys, we're here with Coach Keaton. Belcher. Keaton, How you doing this morning?

Fantastic. Trying to survive in a thanks for having me on

Yeah, as we're recording this we're still in the thick of all the corona stuff and we're both in the comforts of our own home and make it some adjustments, but Well, hey, I'll have given the listeners a little bit of, ah, background on the intro can we just get a history lesson on Keaton? Kind of growing up and eventually getting into basketball and eventually coaching.

Well, I grew up in an extremely small town in Butler, Kentucky, which is on the north side of Pendleton County. And when I say extremely small when you enter the city limits, there's a sign that says Welcome to Butler. Population like 596..I was always proud of I went to college in Nashville, Tennessee, to say that I was from a town with less than 100 or less than 1000 people. So I grew up my parents to live in the same house that I grew up in had two younger brothers. Ah, lot of the sports influence comes from my parents. They were very flexible and letting us choose the sports that we wanted to play. They got us involved at a young age. So at one point in time, I played soccer, baseball, basketball and golf. By my senior year of high school, I decided to only focus on two of those which were my best to, and that was golfing basketball. So luckily that I was good enough at one of the sport's to earn a college scholarship, where, after my playing days at Pendleton County High School, I played at Belmont University, and, you know, I've always been a sports guy. So I was pretty much on Cloud nine for four straight years because as a senior in high school, I was lucky enough to point on a team that played in the Sweet 16 basketball tournament. And then my 1st 3 years at college, we made the tournament. So for a kid from Butler, Kentucky, I couldn't have asked for a better high school career or a better college career for me, So I had a lot of great influence, is not only for my parents, my brothers, but also coaches. I I was really blessed to be put in the right position to learn and grow as a student-athlete under some great coaches.

That's awesome. What? What kind of drew you to basketball eventually. What kind of led you to kind of focus on on the basketball side?

Well, it didn't that I was six foot eight. If you don't see too many six-foot-eight golfers out there. My childhood hero was Larry Bird and I would study how he did things and how he played. And he was similar He came from a similar background than I did a very small town, a rural area I grew up on tobacco. We had a very, very similar skill set when we played like a guard, even though we were a big guy. So I was drawn to him at an early age. Um, and that kind of influenced me to my ah high school career in a basketball career. So when I got back to school, I was pretty skilled for high school or so luckily, Belmont. But coaching staff of Belmont saw that I could play a little bit and I could shoot it pretty well for a six-foot-eight guy. So you know, that just kind of stuck and Oh, that that led me to Nashville for five years.

That's awesome. Well, while we don't have current live sports on TV, I did catch a clip of Larry Bird like a throwback game. And it was the one where he he told the other team what he was going to do. He's like, I'm gonna run off this curl step over in the corner, hit this three and beach yellow and then they showed it where he played, developed it. He went over and exactly what it told him he was gonna do. It was amazing. I was like, Man, I need to watch some more labored clips for back in the day.

And as much as I admired him, Nate, I was never able to do that. I was never going to tell my opponent what I was gonna do and actually complete the task. But yeah, he was a special player and and he was so fun to watch. And even though I came, I was a lot younger than when he played. I was born in the eighties. There's so much stuff on YouTube and old videos, and I have a couple of his book. So I really followed him and pattern my game around him.

Yeah, that's awesome. Well, hey, we're gonna have ah, a little bit of fun for a second before we Before we dive in, we'll be talking probably mostly basketball the rest away, but would just love to hear you say that you don't see a whole lot of 6-8 golfers. What would be your most embarrassing moment on the golf course? Because I know you've played a ton of golf and they're probably several, but what's what's one comes top of mine.

You know what I thought about this question because you sent it in an email and nothing over the top goofy that I've been embarrassed by. The only thing that I can think of when I was a senior in high school, I was in a back that back when I was in high school in this was 04 or five, I was a senior in your region. To get a stay, they took the top two teams and the top three individuals that didn't weren't on those two teams that qualified for state. So my goal is to qualify for the state golf tournament that year. So it comes down to we're in a four way tie for the last individual spot to get a state. And on the first hole, Eagle Creek Country Club, the Grant County. I had it A. My approach shot went to about eight feet, and I thought that I was gonna qualify for State because I was the only guy that hit it really closed. I thought I was gonna make the body part, and I ended up missing the pot, and I ended up double early enough bogeying the second hole, which knocked me out of the playoff. Really embarrassed because not only that, I missed that birdie putt on one did not qualify for State on Ho 18. I double bogeyed. That made me tie to go to the play off. I didn't know this at the time, but power just bogeyed 18. I would have qualified for that last individual spot, so I think I shot 78 that day, which that was definitely the peak of my golf career. At age 18 is a senior high school. I'm nowhere near that now, but I was just embarrassed because I had so many chances to qualify that didn't I remember telling my dad in the parking lot that day, like like, this really stinks? But, you know, it would be it would make up for it with the state in basketball, which we did

nice, kind of flipped and served as a little bit of motivation on the big games. I'm sure it hurt at the moment. Yeah, I do forget that there's a little bit different when you're a good golfer. You have less of those moments that have been somebody like me. Who just goes and knocks it around a little bit because I was in a I was in a scramble one time a Twin Oaks playing, and it was called A Round for Robin. It was a benefit, and there I guess it's Latonia technically, but we were playing off the middle tee box. So there's that other tee box in front of you, and they had a little, little, uh, kind of colored golf balls. They're kind of mark where you tell from and I rare back and I swing too hard cause I don't know what I'm doing. I'm just I'm used to baseball just as hard. You can start bareback, smoke a ball, and it goes like it stays like six inches off the ground and it slice and hard, and it hits one of those golf balls and it splits it right into and had the top half of it flies up like it got shot out from the ground somewhere. And they were like, How in the world did you do that? Like you could never like? I could have tried that 1000 more times and not even get close to hitting that. But I was just when you're bad at golf

I'm turning 34 in July that summer, and I've been around a golf buggy around golf a long time. I've never heard anything like that before,

so yeah, that was mine. We'd made sure you take the picture and, you know, kind of commemorate that.

You should have kept that golf balls like a memorabilia and put it The man cave signed it or something.  

Yeah, that would've been good. Uh, let's talk a little bit about a little bit more of your journey from I know you said you're just the pride you take in going from Butler, the small town to individual-level basketball. What were some of the habits or some of the mindset things that you had to have? Because I'm guessing there wasn't Ah, whole lot of D-I recruits at Pendleton County High School at the time. So you kind of had to really probably figure out how to stand out. But also just compete with everybody else is trying to get a D-I scholarship when you're probably not getting a whole lot of exposure from other kids that are doing the exact same thing.

Great question. And as cliche as it sounds, it was just a work ethic. Nowadays, AAU is huge, like, way bigger. Than it was 15 years ago. Personal trainers now our big When I was in school and we were in school, Nate, you didn't hear about a whole lot of personal trainers like kids going to work out with this guy for an hour. And the parent's paying. I'm like we never did that. As you said, there wasn't many individual players in Penalty County, so I knew that there were only 3 players to ever Pendleton county high school that signed a Division One basketball scholarship, and I wanted to be the third. So that kind of motivated me from a small town. And to be honest with you here is kind of how got to that boy. I simply took my ball in my back, went to my backyard and shot for least an hour a day like nobody else was out there. So it's a little bit of a self-motivation thing where I remember I had a shooting journal and I would just chart every day how many I made and how many I missed. And over the course of time, that translated to the games where I was so confident myself with my shot that I really started to blossom as a player. And again, it didn't hurt that I was six grew to be six foot eight. So, uh, when I got to college, I played on the perimeter. As a three men are a four-man so man, I really just dedicated, like every summer to enhancing mind or golf to my by athletic ability in my skill set. So that's really how I got to be a solid player. The whole recruiting thing. I was playing. Alan played Hey, you basketball on the national level for one year and I was in Houston, Texas, and I hit it. I remember hit back to back threes from the corner and Beaumont assistant coach Casey Alexander was at that game, and I had absent being offered a scholarship by them, and they signed me. But Casey Alexander is now the head coach of Belmont because Coach Board retired last year. So it was kind of the right place right time thing for me was two shots, and he saw that I was bigger than the average card. So I got really lucky in that sense to play for a great coach in a great school.

Yeah, that's awesome. Well, there's Yeah, I've been digging into this idea of comparison and how, for the most part, comparison is pretty is usually a negative thing. You know, you don't want to just compare yourself like, Oh, at least I'm better than this person when we're talking, especially like just in life in general, right? Like social media compares to be unhealthy, different things like that. But there's one type of comparison which I think is really healthy, which it's not necessarily trying to be the best. That trying to be your best and you shooting every day you journal in your constant competing against yourself. I think there's something really powerful on that that could get lost in the shuffle when were constant, just looking, looking elsewhere to compare to other people instead of just locking in every day and say, How can I be my absolute best and see where that takes me? So I love that. That's awesome.

I'll never forget where I was when Coach Berg called and offered me a scholarship. I was at Longhorn Steakhouse in Cold Spring, Kentucky, and I left my phone in my car and this was back before iPhones. This is a gnocchi, uh, whatever. Where you could play snake on it, whatever from the original. Choke yourself and I had a voice mail from Coach Bird, and it said that they want it all for me. A scholarship, remember driving home and crying on my drive home because I was so proud that I finally and this was probably late October, early November of my senior year. Yeah, I was really proud of that. moment. I'll never forget where I was when that happened.

Yeah, it's amazing. Another habit that I know you mentioned a future horn a little bit. You were at got induction to the Northern Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame recently, and I was really impressed by one of the Nuggets that you shared of relating to practice. I'm assuming is probably went through college. Is it true that through your entire basketball career, you never missed one practice? Is that right?

I actually missed one

Only 1. Wow,

I never missed a game and I missed one practice in high school, So I sure did. I read sharing my freshman year Belmont. Um, so four years of high school ball and five years of college ball on this zero games would practice, and the whole all that credit goes to my parents for telling me how important it was to showing up. They always told me that showing up was half the battle and I still our high school players that a za coach and I tell my students that like guys, if you just show up, you've conquered a lot or heady times. I can't tell you how many times that I never I didn't really feel well and didn't feel like going. It's hard to goto 100 practices a season and, you know, clear your best every day or you got other things going on in your life. So showing up being reliable was extremely important to me and also being punctual. If our practice starts at three o'clock, you better be there on the court by 2 50 that tells me that you are extremely, um, into what we're trying to do.

Yeah, that's so good. Just be having that consistency and being reliable because there are times you just don't use Don't feel like it. And then what's nice is if you build that, have it now, later on in life. And you don't have that organized team to really pull you in to keep you gonna work, announced, staying healthy. You already have that just so embedded in you that half the battle just showing up and getting that done. I know that's gonna serve you and all the players that you coach, um, pretty well along the way.

And that takes a lot of luck, too, because I never had any major injuries I really I'm a big proponent of putting multi sports. I think that helps your your body reset and your mind dead. So because I played baseball, golf in basketball in high school, it really gave my body and break. So I never really had any bad knee injuries or back in trees or ankle injury. So I was fortunate to play in those practices and games.

Yeah, it is a small miracle. Then I have a bad ankle injury playing that much basketball you mentioned your parents had. He left a huge mark on you all on the way On that, I met them. They're wonderful people. What are some of the, you know, between Pendleton and Belmont? You know, water, maybe. Or maybe you're a kid. What's maybe one or two coaches that really left? Ah, positive mark on you along the way.

Yeah. You know, there are three coaches that come to mind that influenced me the most in my athletic career. One was my great school coach. One was my high school coach, and one was my college coach. Uh, critical coach was again a Mark Manes who's from Pennington County. He played a pencil county high school in the early eighties. His son was our starting point guard in high school, and he knew at a young age that if he got my classmates together that we could have something special about time. We graduate high school and, you know, being right. So the reason that I focused on that I still focus on fundamentals today. Our practices is because of him. So I was in second grade. He took a bunch of us to local church, Jim's local school gyms. He just honed and preached fundamentals in our mind and something as simple as making a right handed layup the correct way. Making a left handed Lampitt correct way, uh, doing a pull back dribble the correct way. Little little things like that. He had a dribbling around chairs at a young age, the correct way to pass the ball. So, ah, lot of our success in high school should be granted towards Mark Manes for showing us how to play the right way at a young age. The second coaches Buddy Biggs, my high school coach of Pelting County. Um, like I said earlier, timing's everything. When we were entering our freshman years of High School of Big's got the job of Penalty County, and he was the coach that we needed. He was extremely difficult to play for, and what I mean by that is his practices were very, very hard and demanding, and we hated going to practice every day. And in fact, we don't really like him all that much at the time. But he is what needed. We needed to be pushed out of our comfort zone and what I learned the most from coach bases had a motive. A student athlete had a push them and push them and get them to the level they need to get to. And he definitely definitely did that with us. And lastly, but certainly not least his Rick Bird, my college coach. You will be in the Naysmith Hall of Fame one day one day he made 100 career games at Belmont, which is because when he took the job 34 years ago, Belmont was an average in A I school on the basketball level and he took them to a a mid major power that would consistently beat high major teams. Like when I was in school, we went to University of Cincinnati and B. You see, we went to the University of Alabama and beat Alabama. We almost beat Duke in the state tournament. Look, we lost by one point, and what I learned most from Coach Bird is he cared way more about how he acted, that how he played. You had to had to wear a shirt and tie to the airport when you flew the games. You had to take out your you're off your iPod earbuds. When you walked into a restaurant, you had to say yes or no, sir. But besides being a fantastic offensive minded coach, little things like how to run a program, we're really fate, really some of the keys that stuck with me as a coach today, So I would say that Mark Manes, Buddy Biggs and Brick Bird of the three guys that have influenced me the most.

Yeah, that's awesome. Thanks for sharing. And I just reminded me of some of the small things, whether that would be the fundamentals back in grade school or taking there earbuds off on coming off, going into a restaurant, just the John Wooden quote, or I don't know if he has an exact quote, was talking about taking care of the little things. Like he was even talking about how to make sure you put the socks on, right? You know, the little things add up to be the big things. And, you know, that's even in the Bible talks about if you're faithful with the little things to be faithful with, with more in a kind of responsibility s so that they actually liked really well into basketball tomb. I was speaking of that. How does your head is your faith effect? Kind of the why and the how you, coach know you had some years of Pendleton County and you get you get currently at trial. Um, how is that? You know, some of that background affected your kind of philosophy or strategy in coaching.

Well, Nate, I've always believed that if you do try to do the right thing and treat people right, a TTE some point, God is gonna bless you with good things. So, again, this is parent influenced at a young age that we were going to Sunday school involved in youth group and going to church at a non non denominational church compote pre Christian, where Larry Travis preached and they just instilled in us, treat people the right way, worship God, pray consistently and just know that whatever happens, he is deciding what happens in your life. I've tried to use that athletics my entire life. I remember in high school and college, praying during the national anthem during games on my own. Now, before games is a coach, we pray the locker room I lead a prayer, and the Bible verse that I've always stuck with is Philippians 4 13 I could do all things through Christ who strengthens me, and I've always used that in high school, right on my game shoes, because even during adversity and tough times, God is there for you. And I try to share that with our players, like Look, it's never gonna be smooth and easy and simple. We're gonna have to work for it sometimes. So I've always used that that Phil Phil 13 Bible verse to try to help me and help our team be successful.

Yeah, that's that's a great one, and something I've learned is to read a little bit before in a little bit after some of the big ticket Bible verses. And what's really interesting about that verse as well is it goes into talking about having being rooted in heaven foundation and being content. In all circumstances, he says, I've been I've been the highest of highs, and I've been the lowest of lows. But here's the you know, but I found contentment because I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And I just love that because you know that any season's gonna have the roller coaster ride, you're gonna be on on Cloud nine and then you'll get beat on a buzzer beater and you just have the back and forth, but just have to be rooted in something beyond the score board, which usually translates into a high performance on the court. But to have that have that foundation regardless, that's really good. It's really important to deal. Well, we can't We can't chat with, uh, with the coach who has coached Dante Allen without asking, asking a little bit about just who he is. Um, as a person, you know how you what was the experience? Like coaching him and kind of what you see his? Ah, his future to be in the coming years. It

was like being around the rock star for six years at Pendleton County. I mentioned earlier that I was the third Division one player. He has became the fourth in the 60 year history of Pennington County High School. So again, it doesn't happen very often. But the level of talent you know, Dante's the best ever has come out of our school. It's not even close, and the reason he's got to that point is because of simply, he outworked everybody. And when I say that, like, you know, I played college basketball for five years and play with a couple of guys that are playing professionally and one that played on an MBA championship team with the Warriors. Steph Curry's backup got Indian Clark. Dante on is the hardest working student athlete I've ever seen. His freshman sophomore and junior years at penalty counted. He was the first student to walk through the school door to the doorway every single day. Hey would be at the gym before school, or at least an hour every day shooting, working on his ball handling. He will lift weights on his own and more times than not. He would be the guy that stayed after practice to work on his game. Uh, he's been blessed with the talent from both sides of his family. His dad was a really good player. His mom is really good player. And, you know, he grew to be six foot six and, you know, during a senior year he led the country in scoring before his injury with 45.7 points per game and a CZ. Cartoonish is that sounds. We were taking him out with 45 minutes left in those games because of the score. Yeah, his high school career, something that I'll never forget. I was very blessed to be in that situation, to be around him for six years because he played high school ball for six years. But yeah, like I said, it was like following a movie star for for his career. Everywhere we'd play, we'd have sellout crowds, and I think we did a good job of getting him around the state of Kentucky so that he had a chance to win Miss Mr Basketball. And even though he only played 13 games as a senior because he tours a CEO I think I was doing a great job of getting him to play it all just about every region of the state in his career. And it didn't hurt that he signed with Kentucky. So, um, yeah, it was a fun time to be ah, high school basketball coach. And not to mention like he was created being a really good teammate. And when things were not going well for him, he didn't point fingers. It wasn't blaming the coach and blamed his teammates. In fact, he was mean all five years that I coached him all of our shit level. He finished first in sprints every single day in practice. So that just kind of to show you how great of a remarkable he was a person as well.

Wow, Yeah, I had seen something on Social Media campaign feels you're another teacher but showed a little clip of him shooting free throws at 6 30 in the morning or whatever it was before school didn't realize that was, ah, almost daily thing. That that's incredible to have, you know, to have that, obviously that some of that raw God given talent, but just absolutely maximize that to the ends degree and to not, you know, And from what I gather to yeah, just a great teammate had every reason in the world to to be kind of the and the diva, if you will, you know, be be that have that rock star mindset. But they have the humility to put in the work and and did not let that affect how well he was a teammate. That's just and I just as a ton for him as a player and in for you, obviously, for setting that model. I feel like it was kind of a really cool way where you could kind of help help him guide his steps because you had kind of gone the exact path that he was going.

Well, I need to be honest with you. I just try to stay out of his way. I don't want to see anything up with him. I've always been taught when you have a town to player, give him the most room, give him more opportunities to do what he can do and not over coach him. So that's exactly what I did. Um, he hears a quick story when he was a like the first day of school sophomore year. Open up the gym. It's 6 34 home. Look, we usually did his freshman year. He texted me that night and said, Coach six. Thirty's not early enough. I need to go 6 a.m. And I remember I was like, Okay, so for his sophomore and junior and senior year, we open up the gym and 6 a.m. for him, the pills to get high school and his career stats air remarkable. I think you scored 3255 career points and had 1200 rebounds, and he missed 39 games in his career for illness, injuries, et cetera. So he would have if he was healthy his entire career, he would have been the all time leading scorer in Kentucky. Uh, which is difficult to do and like a lot of states where because you can play, you know, in middle school. So, yeah, he was a blessing toe be around for for that time.

That's awesome. And just props to you, too, because six I am also means it's not like you lived a block away from school, too, so you're going to get up pretty early to make those get their toe. Open it up as well. Um well, hey, moving. Moving forward. I know he's obviously has a great work ethic. And you recovered from the knee injury, you know, Have you Have you talked to him recently? Is he doing all right?

Well, I think we text probably weekly. Um, he's in a good mindset right now. I think he's jumping at the He's foaming at the mouth to get back name because, you know, basketball is just love. And for the last 1.5 seasons, he hasn't been able to participate. You know, he hasn't practiced, uh, okay, but he was really eager to get back on that court. And I really think that he's got gotten a lot mentally stronger in the last year and 1/2 from the A. C L tear. Um, he's still been working on his game consistently. He's excited to represent penalty Kenny High School in his hometown of found with Kentucky and where that Kentucky uniform and show that he could hold his own against the nation's top players and play on a level that he's always dreamed about playing on.

Yeah, That's excellent. Make sure, Sharon. Well, hey, I just want to give a little bit of room at the end here. Is there any other lesson learned along the way or best practice? If you were to be talking with maybe a coach, that's just kind of starting now, Maybe getting into into the coaching ranks. You know what would be, Maybe something that you would share that you've picked up along the way.

Yeah, I'll share two things that I've learned a little way When I was when I was a young coach right on college. I probably didn't see this as much as I should have, and I've definitely I try to embrace that now. And the first thing is, no job is too small. If you're a young assistant coach and your head coach asked you to, I don't know, clean the bathroom toilet in the locker room, do it and embrace it. And trust me that when you climb the ladder in your coaching ranks, you'll look back at those times and you will be thankful for everything you did to get to the point you are now. I remember when I was a grad assistant at Eastern Kentucky for a year after my playing days at Belmont, I had to make the coffee every single morning in the coach's office, and I didn't even drink coffee at the time. So in my last piece of advice is, uh, the old adage. There's more than one way to skin a cat. That's kind of a country saying, But what that means is there could be 10 coaches, and there might be 10 different philosophies on how to do things. So I think you have to figure out for what? For what is best with your team, what your philosophy is and do what you think's right. And once you figure that out, stick with that philosophy and just hone it and improve on it and get really good at it, because I'll just use John Calipari as an example. John Cal Perry is a phenomenal coach. Obviously, he's won a national championship in the Naysmith Hall of Fame. He and I had just a little bit different views on things. You could ask the desk next coach, and he would have something different than him as well, or me as well. So don't try to copy everybody system and everybody style. It's okay t to borrow things from different programs in different coaches but trying to come up with your own style in your own philosophy in your own program. So that way you can leave your, um, orcas is doing things different. Uh, you know, to be successful.

No, that's a good word. Just be kind of comfortable in your own skin and to be your own person and kind of have that There's always some principles you can take from people, but to never destroy total being pay somebody else. Uh, as a coach, I heard a quote one time from her friend's name is Todd. Henry. Hey, said cover bands never changed the world like that. Yeah, that was good. Yeah, I just I respect that Take out of you, Keaton. Just where you've come from, how you handle yourself. Even I haven't seen you coach a ton. But what I have been just impressed with and you're calm demeanor amidst Ah, I was watching that the Dixie game this past season and it just during timeouts. And you know, you would be It was just a sense of like that the guys we're not gonna be freaking out based on what you were telling him. You know, you're kind of just bringing that that energy of Hey, we got this instilling confidence in him. Um, and I just know that that takes some time. Did to kind of figure out so so blessings toe to you and your bride and enjoy that new house in Fort Thomas. And, yeah, we're looking forward to catching some some basketball games next season. Get back, get back on the court.

Well, thanks for having me, Nate. And, you know, I appreciate our friendship, and, you know, I'm glad that we met through Larry Travis. And I would like to try to forget that Dixie game because we didn't We didn't win that game, but, uh,

sorry to bring you bring that up.

appreciate the kind words. And, you know, we talked about borrowing things from different coaches. The demeanor thing that you mentioned. I think that has something do with my personality. But also, I've kind of learned that from Brad Stevens, who coaches the Boston Celtics, he kind of has that same calm demeanor and where they're about 20 or down by 20 you shouldn't let your players see Ah ah, roller coaster ride and their coaches for is, you know, emotional being emotional. So I really appreciate that. I think this podcast is awesome and keep doing what you're doing with the F. C. A branding because it's it's really ah enhanced since you've been a part of that program, So I really appreciate

Thanks and encouragement to see ya. 

Well, there you have it. Our conversation with Coach Keaton. Belcher really impressed with him, just as a person as a coach and look forward to see what the future holds. Hey, I wanted to just encourage you. If you found this episode of previous episodes helpful. One of the best ways to stay in contact with us is to let's go ahead and to subscribe to whatever after listening on and we love to hear from you. If you have any topics or potential guests, you love the sea on the podcast. Just shoot us an email at nsallee@fca.org. We'd love that. Connect with you in that way. And if you've enjoyed this. We just encourage you to text this or send this to at least one other person that you think would appreciate. It just really helps us kind of build out the exposure and get more people involved in this community and really benefiting from the again the collective wisdom that we're all seeing. So until next time, keep growing, keep learning and keep changing lives on your team and in your home.