My wife likes to tell everyone I don’t have a filter.
When I get an idea, I jump right into saying or doing that thing without thinking it through.
Sometimes, my spontaneity can get me into trouble. But every once in a while, it sparks a viral trend that involves demolishing trash cans.
Let me rewind.
It all started on December 21 in our locker room before the Cal Poly game.
We were on a two-game losing streak, and I could just tell our guys were feeling kind of down in the dumps.
I tried to fire up the team before the game, but no one was really buying what I was selling.
I thought, “Man, these guys are just out of it right now. What can I do to get them going?”
So I put this huge trash can in the corner of our locker room.
I just hauled off and kicked the crap out of it and started yelling at it.
Four guys next to it got scared, and four guys across the room jumped up and started yelling at it, too.
It sounds bizarre, but it worked. Something snapped within our guys.
We ended up winning nine games in a row.
But this was always about more than a trash can.
Letting It Out of the Locker Room
I didn’t even think this would become a tradition, to be perfectly honest with you.
After we beat Cal Poly, I kicked the trash can again in the locker room, yelled at it again, and thought it was going to die.
But then we beat Mount Marty after Christmas, and the guys go, “It’s still in here, Coach.”
So, I kicked it again, screamed at it, and one thing just kind of led to another.
We found trash cans on the road, and a weird, silly thing was born.
The funny part is I never wanted it to get out of the locker room.
But after we beat North Dakota State, our SID recorded it and put it on Twitter.
I was just scrolling through Twitter one day, and this thing pops out on the timeline, and I’m thinking, “What is this?”
And he’s like, “Oh, it’s going to be great, Coach. People are going to love it. It’s funny.”
He was right.
It ended up blowing up, and before I knew it, we were doing it again and again.
I even passed it on to the younger generation of our coaching staff.
Work Hard, Play Hard
I think the big thing with the trash can is that it’s a reminder for us to have fun.
There’s a lot of different coaching philosophies about team culture, but sometimes, in college sports, when you move up the ranks, the fun gets kind of taken out of it.
I’ve played for coaches that, when I’d show up to the practice gym, even if we were winning or losing, it was just miserable to be there because you knew they were going to yell at you and cuss at you.
As a coach, it’s my responsibility to help the team keep their joy and passion for the game.
I want our guys to take pride in working hard.
People have asked if the trash can sparked our win streak.
It didn’t.
It was coach Chris Crutchfield shrinking the lineup, playing the right guys, and getting the rotations down correctly.
It was our guys locking in at practice.
Coaching for Fun
The trash can, as silly as it may seem, reflects the joy I find in coaching.
I get to show up every day and help the athletes on and off the court.
But it’s not just the players I love helping, either.
I’ve reached a point in my career where I can help coach our younger coaches.
I’ve known one of the guys on our staff since he was a kid back in the third or fourth grade.
Another guy on our staff was a player that Coach Crutchfield and I coached at OU.
To see these guys go from either kids you knew when they were younger or players that you formerly coached and now getting into the coaching business and helping them out along the way is very satisfying.
At the end of the day, the trash can is just a small snapshot of how grateful I am to coach this team.
But I’m glad people got such a kick out of it. (Pun intended).
