EP 16 // David Walker

[00:00:00] Speaker A: What's up, you guys? Episode number 15 of the Prop Perform podcast. We've got an awesome guest named David Walker, a good friend of mine and my wife's. But this episode specifically today, we discuss his time as a successful college football player. But even kind of more excitingly, what I was perplexed by, we really dive deep into the value of our kids gaining success in their adventures through finding what they want to do with their athletic career. We discuss more of how we can impact their character, their personality, how we can build them up and help teach them the lessons within those extracurricular activities and really build them up as a person, not necessarily out, based off their outcomes and their performance. So here we go. Check out this episode with David Walker. What's up, you guys? Michael, with the Proper form podcast, this is actually episode number 16 with David Walker. Really excited to have him here. How you doing today, man? [00:01:10] Speaker B: Doing all right, man. [00:01:11] Speaker C: That's good. [00:01:11] Speaker B: It's a little Friday here in Dallas, so. [00:01:14] Speaker A: Yeah. Friday. What? [00:01:15] Speaker B: It was little Friday. It's Thursday. Okay, Thursdays. It's little Friday. [00:01:19] Speaker A: I have not heard it like that. I've heard it's like Friday Eve, but little Friday. I like that. [00:01:26] Speaker B: Just all about putting the right spin on it, you know? [00:01:28] Speaker A: Heck, yeah. Well, man, I'm really excited to have you here. So kind of quick little backstory. Dave and I go back. We've been friends and buddies. We go to the same church, citizens church. We've had a few different guests that are part of that church or work within that church. Tamarcus other buddy, Jay Howard. And we were in home group together, and we had that home group a lot over at your crib, and we had. Golly, how many families? Eight. [00:01:52] Speaker B: Yeah. Seven. Eight different families over there. [00:01:54] Speaker A: Like, literally, I don't know the exact amount, but, like, within 18 months, like, everyone was just popping out babies. [00:02:01] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:02:01] Speaker A: I mean, literally, like, we had six to eight kids over the course of. [00:02:07] Speaker B: It made the structure of our home group almost come to a screeching halt, actually. [00:02:11] Speaker A: It was crazy. [00:02:12] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:02:12] Speaker A: And then we kind of started doing, like, girl nights and guy nights, which was a kind of, like, plan B to all the kiddos we were having and trying to juggle on that. [00:02:21] Speaker B: Yeah. Divide and conquer, for sure. [00:02:23] Speaker A: Yeah. But, I mean, that was a real. I really enjoyed that time with all those people, and it was great. [00:02:27] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:02:27] Speaker A: But, man, what I really want to kind of dive into, and specifically with you and kind of your background is you're a big guy. Literally, physically, you're a pretty Big dude, hard to not miss. But that goes back to your career as a college athlete. You played college football. Could you share a little bit about where you played, what position you played, and just your career in that space? [00:02:51] Speaker B: Sure, yeah. So apparently I am a big guy, but I do wear all black. You know, just. It's flattering. It's slimming, right? [00:02:59] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:03:00] Speaker B: But, yeah, Former offensive lineman and played at University of Oklahoma my first two seasons. Finished my career at Harding University. And, yeah, that was a big part of my life. There was definitely, definitely periods of my life where I would say it defined my life probably through my adolescence. I think sports was definitely, you know, I was raised with the four GS. It was God, grades, games, and girls. That was, you know, and there were times when those. I had those four GS as my priorities, but they weren't always in the right order. But I think definitely sports was something that was a passion for me. My dad and grandpa were both college basketball players. I grew up wanting to do that, and then around 14, realized probably not going to be much taller than 6, 2, 6 3. So not a lot of demand for big white boys in the paint that are big white boys wide, not big white boys tall. So putting my hand on the ground and getting in the weight room and doing those things was the path. So I played basketball all the way through high school and enjoyed that, but football was definitely the path as far as being recruited and things like that. [00:04:09] Speaker A: So it was kind of like the pivot. I mean, as you obviously kind of grew into your body and into your size. [00:04:15] Speaker B: Yeah. Mentally, it was a big pivot for me because it's funny having boys now that are into sports. And my oldest plays tackle football and has been doing that for a few years. And I remember being in fifth grade and as old as fifth grade, and people telling my parents, like, oh, but he's excited to play football. And they would say that in front of me. And I look at them thinking, don't they know I'm a basketball player? Like, why do they say this about me? I don't really like football, you know? [00:04:39] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:04:40] Speaker B: And I think in eighth grade, I dunked the ball for the first time. And I thought, like, hey, I'm on my way to doing this in eighth grade. Yeah. Yeah, it was funny. I remember it was Veterans Day of 8th grade. My. My friend and I were texting about it the other day because we were in the gym together when it happened. And so at that time, I thought, hey, this is. This is trending. Well, for me. All right. My dad and my grandpa, they are college basketball players. This is my sport, quote, unquote. [00:05:04] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:05:04] Speaker B: And my dad, in his wisdom, saw it differently and realized, like, hey, we need to be in the weight room. So, really from at age 14, I was. I was in the weight room pretty consistently and really never. Never looked back on that. Um, but, yeah, it was definitely a pivot for me mentally, because I. I kind of grew into loving football, but it wasn't necessarily my original passion. [00:05:25] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:05:26] Speaker A: Dang, that's cool. That's crazy. Do you feel like you've seen some similarities in the way that your dad saw that maybe before you did, in the way that you see things in your boys now? [00:05:37] Speaker B: Oh, absolutely, absolutely. Yeah. My oldest is. He's a fifth grader now, and he's about 5, 7, 5, 8, 180 pounds. [00:05:47] Speaker C: Yeah, he's a beast. [00:05:48] Speaker B: And he, you know, as of a year ago, he'd be the. He's like the recess football commissioner, essentially. He's the quarterback. He's been picking the teams. He's running the league. He's coming home, telling me about all the passes he's thrown on, thinking, that's good, man. You get that out of your system right now because that's all the skill player you're gonna get is on the recess football field. So, yeah, I definitely see that. You know, but he gets it. I think he. He is. He's a lot more comfortable in his skin as a big kid than I probably was, just. But I've tried to, you know, growing up as a big kid, you kind of learned a lot of things along the way about, you know, about your body and about how people perceive you and different things like that. So raising big kids has been, you know, I've been able to do that from a different vantage point. So that's actually been pretty helpful, too. [00:06:35] Speaker A: Do you feel like your dad. I mean, I think from what I've known and what you've shared about your dad, he's an awesome man. I would still love to meet him, I think. Well, I think I've met him a couple times. [00:06:42] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:06:44] Speaker A: But do you think that. Did he have any kind of relation like that to you when you were younger and as you were kind of growing into, like, oh, I'm gonna be this basketball player to now pivot, like, whoa, Now I'm this football player. But the way that you feel like you've been able to connect with Beckham on kind of the level of, like, his size and kind of guide him did you feel like you had that kind of two? [00:07:05] Speaker B: Definitely. I think, you know, my dad's a coach, so I was, you know, we can talk about my coaching later. But I ended up being a fourth generation coach myself. But my dad's a third generation coach, so he grew up a coach's kid, I grew up a coach's kid. And in that space, like we call them CKs, and if you're a coach's kid, it's just, you know what that means, like, hey, oh, he's a ck. And that comes with hey. He's been taught the game the right way, he understands how to approach sports the right way. He has a proper perspective because he's a coach's kid. He's learned the game from a different vantage point, from a team vantage point, from a psychological standpoint. So I think my dad did a great job of crafting my sports experience in a way where it's like, hey, he's putting me in positions to be successful. He was always willing to work with me. Yeah, to the extent that I was willing to go after it. So, you know, and I think that was always healthy, where it wasn't a situation where he wanted it more than I wanted it. And I think had that ever been the case, there would be resentment, there'd be bitterness, there'd be, you know, yes, a lot of burnout and things like that. And that was never the case. So I was, I was driven and he helped support me in that drive. And I think what that's done for me is I started having those conversations far earlier with Beckham than my dad had with me, because I understood what was possible, I think for myself growing up in Fort Gibson, Oklahoma, you know, you knew somebody that knew somebody that had played at a high level. You didn't see them around. You certainly weren't being coached by them or seeing them in Target or whatever. Right. Like here in dfw. I mean, Beckham, my oldest, he's played for a handful of different NFL players. He's played for a lot of Division 1 guys, all of his sports. He's been coached and trained by people who have been there and done it. Right? So his worldview is like, hey, it's attainable. So at a young age, he started having these big dreams. And I sat him down as young as like 6 years old. And I talked to him, I said, listen, I will help you achieve anything you want to do, and I believe anything's possible for you, but you've got to want it more than I want it for you. Because if there's ever a day that I want it more than you want it for yourself, then that's going to be a big negative in our relationship and it'll show up down the road and you'll resent me for something. So let's make sure that, you know, I will help you to the extent that you want to help yourself. [00:09:29] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:09:29] Speaker A: So that's great. That's super cool. And do you feel I would like. We can. We can definitely come back to some of the. [00:09:37] Speaker C: The. [00:09:37] Speaker A: Your time as an athlete. Because I want to keep chewing on this with kind of the coaching, if you like. Totally. I would love for you to touch a little bit on your coaching, but then also, like, you shared. It reminds me of my dad. Like, I look back, I'm like, man, I was put into all these different combines and camps and, you know, just the naive of like, my dad, like, hey, we're going to another combine or this weekend. And I wanted to do it. I didn't have any resentment. If anything, that's some of my most valuable memories with my dad is hearing his voice in the stands and here's his encouragement and him taking me to all these different colleges for camps and to be seen and whatnot. But how has you did some coaching, but then also as a father, how has you kind of stepping back and letting some of these other pros or great guys that are in this area, like. Cause you've had to be the one to pay and drive and, you know, take him to all those things. How is that stepping back and letting other guys pour into him affected? [00:10:31] Speaker B: Yeah. I think it's actually really healthy for kids to be coached by multiple people. Right. They need to have different voices. They need to learn from different people. I think there's a tendency as a dad, especially if you've played at a high level or coached at a high level, there's a tendency for you to feel pressure to kind of help control their youth sports experience. And you gotta coach all the teams. And there were times where I found myself coaching T ball and youth football and basketball, and I eventually had to scale it back. Like, I can't do all of that. I don't have the bandwidth and I can't do everything. I can't do all this. Rebecca may not do it for Chamberlain. You know, so I've, at some point, you know, with your oldest, you can be a lot more aggressive and you can, you know, raise your hand to say yes to more things, but eventually you start to have to pick Your spots. And so what I kind of settled on was, you know, coaching the basketball teams, football. I stepped back the last couple of years and let him play for other people. And he's playing for Legacy Christian now. He's in school ball. So that's, that's been a good transition and it's healthy because I'm able to see things from the stands and give him a different vantage point when he wants it without having to be dad and coach, which is a nice. It's refreshing actually, not to have to be. Because when you're coaching your kid, a lot of times you're hard on them because you have to be one. Because I don't want to go soft on them. I don't want them to be soft. So I'm going to make sure that they're able to take hard coaching because I'm not going to be the last hard coach they play for. Right. And also I'm not going to coach anybody else's kid harder than I'm going to coach my own. Right. I want the precedent for that. And so, yeah, so I think there's definitely been some value in letting other people go work with your kid because at some point you're going to turn them lose to somebody and they need to be able to handle, you know what that looks like. [00:12:26] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. And did he play. I know he's been playing basketball. Did he play like any select football kind of before he started playing at lca? [00:12:35] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. So he's. So Beckham started playing tackle football as a second grader and I didn't play football until seventh grade. So down here in Texas. Look, I grew up in Oklahoma, a small town where I thought we liked football. You know, I thought we loved football. And then I moved down here and was like, this is a whole nother thing. And just the football knowledge that he had. So he started playing tackle as second grader with a bunch of third graders. He'd been playing different sports with them and they were all kind of ready to play tackle. And he's the biggest of all of them. So it's kind of like, who am I to say, no, my kid's not ready and he wants it, you know, I mean, as a kindergarten first grader, he was getting up watching college game day at 8:00 in the morning. I mean, he's ready to watch it. He's. He talks it, he analyzes it. He'll stay up, we'll watch the last game of the night on Saturday night. He's that guy and so it's been a passion for him, so I was helping support that. So I was coaching the line for those teams, and it was a really good group of athletes. Like I said, the coaches were former D1 guys or NFL guys. And so he was around a lot of good athletes, which I think is really important to get your kids around other good athletes, because if your kid's the best athlete on the team all the time, it's actually counterproductive because they're not being challenged, not being held accountable. They're getting away with certain things. So he's played three seasons of what you would probably call select football. And I think the best thing about that is being coached by people who hold you accountable, but also being coached by other good athletes that hold each other accountable is a big thing, because ultimately, at the level that all these kids kind of think they want to go play at, that's what it looks like. [00:14:17] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:14:17] Speaker B: So the earlier you can identify with that and be cool with that, then it allows you to elevate your performance and get what you're capable of out of you. [00:14:27] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:14:27] Speaker A: So 100%. I mean, and that goes right in line kind of in the business space and work as well. I mean, aligning with people that are driven, have a similar drive, vision, passion that you have. [00:14:40] Speaker B: Definitely, definitely. And there's so much that's applicable. I mean, sports is the best training ground that I know of for people to be successful in life. And, you know, all these, like, you know, catchphrases, it's more than a game, or it's this and that. But the reality is it is more than a game. Right. I mean, we probably spend way too much time focused on outcomes, and I've been guilty of that many times in my life, especially as a player and sometimes as a coach and not on development and not on, like, the journey that you're on in the midst of all that, because the journey is really where all the growth happens. Right. I mean, the pain points the valley and that's life to a T. So sports are invaluable in a young person's development. But I think, you know, with, you know, being guys who have boys in our house that were raising young men, I think developing young men who are resilient, have strength and resolve when things are hard, man. Like, that's. This world needs that, and sports is the best place I know to help produce that in them. [00:15:43] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:15:43] Speaker A: On a consistent basis, for sure. In community, going through the suck. Like my. One of my favorite movies is, remember the Titans. And also, I'm a huge Dallas Cowboys fan. I'm like, man, I feel like the Cowboys need, like, I remember the Titans moment. I needed to go off to camp and, like, get back together of without Jerry. Yeah. [00:16:03] Speaker B: Jerry can't come to camp. [00:16:04] Speaker A: Yeah. For sure. But, yeah, I mean, like, you get just. You can. In regards to the Cowboys, any sort of team, like, you can see if there's not, like, deep connection and blood and sweat and tears together, that creates just an unbelievable bond. [00:16:20] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. The best teams I've ever been a part of, whether as a player or as a coach, are teams that love each other. [00:16:26] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:16:26] Speaker B: You know, and that can't be manufactured. And there's not enough talent that you can put together that can overcome a lack of love for each other and a lack of team chemistry. You can't. It's an invaluable thing that has to be developed, but it also has to be encouraged. It has to be valued, and it has to be celebrated and promoted, and it can't just be statistics. It can't just be highlights. We live in a Instagram real world, right. Where every youth sports game and everybody does it. I'm not hating on this. I get it. Right. Everybody's proud of their kids. I'll share some things of mine, but what happens is we live in a world where it's a, hey, I'm just looking for the thing that my kid's gonna do well that makes him look like a star, and that's what I'm gonna champion for him. And in reality, there's a lot of things that he might be doing well or she might be doing well that the rest of the world might not celebrate in value, but are far more important than the play that was just made. Right. And that stuff like, hey, when he comes out of the game, how does he respond to his teammates? Right. When he's on the bench, is he sitting there feeling sorry for himself, or is he up, you know, going crazy for his team because somebody just made a play? Like, is he a team person? Because there's a lot of intangibles that sports produce that are off camera that are really the things that they need to be getting out of it. [00:17:46] Speaker C: Yes. [00:17:47] Speaker B: Because life is not a highlight reel. And if you're living for a highlight reel in life, you're going to be disappointed all the time. And that little spike, that little adrenaline rush of something good happening cannot sustain you. The same way that in sports, like, the, you know, the mundane things are actually where all the value Is. [00:18:04] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:18:04] Speaker B: So I think just encouraging kids to be great teammates, be disciplined, be accountable, be an encourager, you know. Who did you encourage today? I think if parents ask their kid that on the way home from every game instead of, you know, belittling them for what they did wrong. [00:18:19] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:18:20] Speaker B: Or overemphasizing things they did right. [00:18:23] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:18:23] Speaker B: Asking some of these open ended questions to put that back on their kid of like, yeah, I know you had some points and I had some this, but who'd you encourage today? Who were you a good teammate to? [00:18:32] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:18:32] Speaker B: Okay. How. Yeah, you know, did you pick somebody up when they were down? Did you, did you, you know, cheer somebody on? Like, what were you doing to help the team outside of your performance? You know, so. And I think that's just, that's a lot about how you work in the workplace, how you lead your family is doing the mundane things that aren't necessarily celebrated but are vital to success. [00:18:58] Speaker A: For sure. Dude, that's great. I mean, how do you think, kind of making little shifts, but keeping this similar journey and theme. How did that correlate into your career? Like, I mean, how did you. I mean, you got a beautiful ring on. I mean, how did your, how did your career finish at ou? Did you have a desire to even go pro? Because, I mean, four or five years before that, you weren't even thinking you were going to play football. How did that shift or change? [00:19:26] Speaker B: I would say for me, and this is kind of to back up a little bit, to answer your question, probably to go back a little bit. So when you grew up in Oklahoma, this is pre Oklahoma City Thunder, there was no pro team and OU football was the pro team in the state of Oklahoma. [00:19:42] Speaker C: Okay. [00:19:43] Speaker B: And so when you grow up that way and you know, Saturday afternoons, it's like appointment viewing. [00:19:48] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:19:49] Speaker B: Once you start playing football and you realize like, hey, that's kind of if I want to do this, that's where I want to go play. Then it became a thing for me is like, that's what I want to do. That's my end game in this sport is I've got to prove to myself that I can play for the Sooners. So it wasn't ever really for me, like, would I like to play in the NFL? Sure. Like, would I turn down that opportunity? From a financial standpoint, probably not. But it wasn't the desire of my heart to go up there, do these things, get drafted. That was not really the end game. The end game for me was I just needed to do it. I was big on like, hometown pride. I wanted Fort Gibson, Oklahoma to be on the roster. At the time when I had that dream, we hadn't really had anybody do that. A couple years before I got there, one of my teammates, Teddy Lehman, was two years older than me. He signed. He was a butt kiss award winner, All American defensive player of the year, nationally draft pick. Like, all the things he did, all the things before I got there. Right. He stole my thunder. There you go. But he's also a big white boy that ran a 43-340-So, I mean, you can't, you know, we're not all blessed with that. [00:20:51] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:20:51] Speaker B: So. [00:20:52] Speaker A: Gosh. [00:20:53] Speaker B: So, you know, but for me, it was really more about like, not being like Teddy, not doing anything, just being like, maximizing what God had given me from an athletic ability standpoint and helping pursue my dream. So I was willing to do whatever I needed to do to get on the field and prove that I could do that. So my approach with that was as I was being recruited, I was highly rated and under recruited, which is a weird thing to say, but I was like in the Rivals.com world, like the Rivals 100. [00:21:20] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:21:20] Speaker B: I was ranked in the top 80 in my position as an offensive guard, which you would think, like, man, you know, 125 schools divided by two. Everybody takes two linemen, you know, 250 guards taken every year. Probably I should be getting signed by somebody, right? [00:21:34] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:21:34] Speaker B: Well, we had a high school that wasn't really built on a lot of tradition and we weren't really recruited that well. And my technique was probably not great. I was an athlete, a big athlete, but probably not like a highly skilled lineman at that point. [00:21:47] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:21:48] Speaker B: So I'm sure, like, some of the plays I made on film look good, but it wasn't something that was just popping off the screen to the right people. So my opportunities were take a juco scholarship at a place that was a division one factory that produced a lot of D1 assignees, which is. Was probably where I was going to go with it. And I had some Division 2 schools and I had an offer from Tulsa that I put in my back pocket and thought I was better than Tulsa. So I didn't take the offer. By the time I came back around to it, I was like, hey, we would like to have had you, bud. But we had to fill those commitments. So that was a big learning experience, which is those are things I've been able to take from my recruiting process, that I was ignorant to a lot of stuff and be able to hopefully Share that with young people of like, okay. It's about the, you know, finding the right spot. It's not about gathering offers and posting online about who offered you latest. You know, it's about finding the right fit for you. But for me, it was really always about trying to find my way to ou. And they, they had switched offensive line coaches in the spring or I guess middle of my senior year after the bowl game. And I went up there to visit with him. I was going to sign with a JUCO in Oklahoma, Northeastern Oklahoma A and M and met with him and he was like, hey, listen, if you go there, you're probably going to be coming to walk on, because unless you're a five star out of juco, I like guys out of high school. He's like, that's just my opinion. And in my mind I'm like, well, that's the only opinion I really care about because this is where I want to be. [00:23:08] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:23:08] Speaker B: But he'd offer me an opportunity to be a preferred walk on pwo, as they call him now. Now with nil, those guys are getting paid too, to become walk on that. Which is nice. I would like that. [00:23:17] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:23:18] Speaker A: Dang. [00:23:18] Speaker B: But I took that opportunity, bet on myself. The GA that they had was the online ga had walked on and become a team captain. Won the national championship just a year before that. And he's telling me like, dude, I've seen you on film, like, you'll play here. So I was like, okay. You know, so I just, I trusted them. I trusted myself, bet on myself, walked on and red shirted, which was miserable because that wasn't the time where like, you red shirt, like, you play one, play you, that counts for the whole year. Now these guys get to play four games. [00:23:49] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:23:49] Speaker B: You know, so to go from starting on both sides of the ball, never leaving the field to doing all the work and not playing for a year. It was a long, miserable year. [00:23:57] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:23:58] Speaker B: But the next year comes around and both of the years I was there, we're ranked number one in the nation. We won the Rose bowl my freshman year. Second year, we're ranked number one preseason. And I played in half the games that year and got to travel, had worked my way into the two deep. [00:24:13] Speaker A: Nice. [00:24:14] Speaker B: And every game I played in, we were ranked number one in the nation. So. Which was a cool thing because when I fell in love with OU football and wanted to play there, they actually weren't very good. It was like the worst. Like the mid-90s before Bob Stoops. Fast forward to my Senior year, they just won the national championship and now they're like the hottest team in the country. And now my dream got a little more challenging, right? So that year unfolded. And when the spring came around, you know, I was still not on scholarship. It was going to be really, you know, you got to really start to get a scholarship at that position. And I'm the oldest of four. My parents were teachers in Oklahoma, High school coach and teacher. And I was putting my family in a bind financially by doing continuing the walk on path. So for me, it was really more about, you know, yes, I'd like to maybe see this thing through for three more years. But what's best for me, what's best for my family is for me to look for a scholarship somewhere else. So that took me on a path to Arkansas State, to Central Oklahoma, and then ultimately to Harding University. And that was, I would call it like a year in the wilderness. Like in the Old Testament when Moses was leading into the promised land, they kind of rebelled and he said, all right, well, you get to wander for 40 years before you actually get to go to the place I need you to go or want you to go. And I think me being a little bit hard headed, like, I got to be at ou, I got to do those things. God was kind of like, okay, I'll let you do that. I'll let you get that out of your system. I'll let you check that box, prove yourself, you can do it. But I got something else down the road for you. So in my effort to stay D1, which was a pride thing, I transferred to Arkansas State, turned down a scholarship from Missouri State because they were FCs. And I thought, oh, you know, I want to stay D1. All things being equal, Arkansas State didn't go like I wanted to. They promised me a scholarship that didn't produce. So I said, I was there for a season, left, lost 60 pounds, weighted tables at. I was done with football at that point. I'm out, I thought. Waited tables on the border in Oklahoma City. I just transferred back to uco. It was kind of home for me. Like, my dad played at Oklahoma Christian. They were right in the same city. So I thought, hey, I can go to hang out with my friends from oc. I'll go to school at uco. It's a state school, a little cheaper. I'll just wait tables, get my body right. So I started running every day. Lost 60 pounds, interned as a youth minister over the summer. And I thought, well, I either want to go into coaching or Ministry. So I decided when I was at Arkansas State, I drove past Harding University in Arkansas to get to where ASU was is on the way. So I was familiar with it. I was familiar with it, and it was more affordable, private Christian university. And I was like, you know what? Like, had a good conversation with my friends who was telling me, hey, why don't you go to oc? That's where he was going. He played basketball there. I was like, I can't really afford to go to a Christian school. And he said, well, he said, what if you found your wife at that school? What if, like, the person God has for you is at that school? Like, can you put a price tag on what that's worth to you? And I was like, that's a good point. You know, So I go to Harding, and this is really. When you say, like, why did I not go to the NFL? One, I don't think the NFL was looking for me. So. But I think I bring all this up because there's. There are our plans and there's God plans, right? And I think ultimately sometimes in his kindness, he allows us to get to have a little bit of both. He lets us pursue the desires of our heart and doesn't let it crush us, but maybe lets it teach us some lessons about who he is and all those kind of things. So I go to Harding. I'm just planning to be a student again. Like, I've lost 60 pounds. I'm a shell of myself from a football standpoint, but I have kind of, you know, developed a discipline from playing in Oklahoma. Like, I can pretty much do anything. Like, running every day is easy compared to what I was having to be asked to do, and strength and conditioning and all the things they were requiring, because for 46 weeks out of the year at that level, they own you. I mean, you are where they want you to be when they want you to be there. And you better have your mind right when you show up, or it's going to be even more miserable than it sounds. So that discipline was instilled in me. So I started running. And I'll circle back on that later, because it's kind of. I made a healthy thing unhealthy with the exercise. But September 3rd of 2005 is really when my life kind of took a major pivot. I would almost say, like, in certain ways, like, my life kind of began in that. On that day, because I had gone home to watch my little brothers play high school football. And the next morning, I had told my friends I Was going to come back Saturday night to watch the Harding football game, which I had no interest in at all. But I was just trying to be social, trying to meet some people, try to be, you know, get involved in the student body, you know, and. But I was also a little bit depressed because I'm trying to find my identity now. Right. Like this is my first semester, my first going into the fall that I haven't played football since I was like 12, so trying to figure out like how to be a student, you know, I'm waiting tables at Chili's and I'm just, you know, trying to make some cash. But I told them I'd be there. So. Ou played TCU that morning at 11am I watched that game at my house, at my parents house. My brothers. Ou is like top 5. They get upset by TCU, but I would have been a junior, redshirt junior on that team. So I got. My friends are starting and playing in that game, get in my car, start driving. And I get into Arkansas, I pick up the Razorback radio and they're playing Missouri State, who I turned down because I thought I was better than that in my pride and all that. And I'm like, man, I could have been playing at OU today. I could be playing in Fayetteville against Arkansas today. But I'm in my car on i40 by myself, driving to a game I don't want to go to. [00:29:55] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:29:55] Speaker B: So I get to. [00:29:56] Speaker A: To watch. [00:29:57] Speaker B: To watch. To watch, yes. Not to play in, no. So I get there, I go up into the stands and I didn't even know this until later. I look back on this day as I was reflecting on the significance of 9-3-05. But they were playing Missouri Southern, which was a school that had come to Fort Gibson High School to recruit me, interested in me. I wanted nothing to do with them. And I could have theoretically been playing against Harding in that stadium, but instead I'm walking, trying to find my friends and I sit down and they had. I had my Big 12 championship ring on and they. They had some girls with them that they were. They asked me to. Hey, can I see your ring? And they were passing it to these girls. Not really because they wanted me to look cool, but it was all. I think maybe, like, maybe it made them look cool. [00:30:42] Speaker A: Yeah, Yeah. [00:30:43] Speaker B: I was like, sure. Okay. [00:30:44] Speaker A: Check out my buddy's ring. [00:30:45] Speaker B: Yeah. So it was kind of weird. I was like, sure. But as they were passing it down, I looked and there was this blonde girl that I saw was going to get this ring. And I was like, hmm, well, maybe she'll think that's cool, you know? So come to find out, she couldn't have cared less. But that. That ended up, I started seeing that girl on campus. And long story short, like, that's my wife. [00:31:04] Speaker C: Yeah, right. [00:31:05] Speaker B: That's how I met my wife. Was going to this game I didn't want to be at. And on that day, I could have been playing football in Norman, in Fayetteville, on that field in Searcy, but instead, I was in the stands at a game I didn't want to be at because that's where God had me to be on that day. Right. And I think that's what I think about, like, what was my plan for my life? It would have been, I'm going to play for the Sooners for five years, and if it takes me five years to get on the field, even if that's like, special teams, that's great, I'll do it. And he was basically like, no, I'm going to let you have all that in two years. Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl, National Championship game, all that stuff. Play with the Heisman Trophy winner, get you a couple rings, and I'm going to get you out of there because I need you to ultimately find your long and winding road to Jonesboro, Arkansas, back to Edmond, Oklahoma, to Searcy, Arkansas, because there's a girl from Atlanta, Georgia, there that I need you to meet, and I need you to raise a family with and serve the Lord with. And that's. That really, you know, is like, I feel like just if the story of my life was told, it would start on that day. [00:32:09] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:32:09] Speaker B: It wouldn't start in 83. Spoiler alert. I'm 41 now. [00:32:13] Speaker A: Crazy in the four 0s. [00:32:14] Speaker B: Yeah. In the four O's. [00:32:15] Speaker A: So, man, that is wild. I mean, like, to be at so many different colleges in such a short span to then, like, the humor of God, to be sitting in the stands at a game. It was passing on a ring that, who knows, Laura may not have been, like, even known what the ring was from. [00:32:34] Speaker B: There is nobody in the United States of America that would have cared less about a Big 12 championship ring than Laura Merritt at the time. So, fun fact. My wife took a picture. This is how my wife is lover, but she's not a sports person. She was in Dallas with a bachelorette group. They were staying at a hotel in Dallas, and they were running around the day before the wedding. And the Cavs were in town to play the Mavericks. This is when Lebron was with the Cavs, and they were looking for somebody to take their picture. And my wife goes up and hands this guy the camera. [00:33:09] Speaker A: No. [00:33:11] Speaker B: And he looked a little confused, and. But he took the picture from a high vantage point, and as. As he gave the camera back, like, this lady comes up and asks him, like, did you know who that was? And it was LeBron. So my wife asked LeBron to take their picture. Yeah. So that's. So, you know, that sounds really like her. Yeah. So long. Clearly she was not impressed by my ring, but. But, yeah. So that's. You know, that's where I think when I look at. To kind of circle back to the sports perspective and recruiting and how all those things work together. I think that for young people, especially in dfw, youth sports is, like, held in this. I mean, it literally runs people's lives, and it can run mine if I'm not careful. Is that the end game really needs to be about, like, what kind of young man or young woman do we want our kids to be when they're done with all of this? Because one day, they will be done with all this professionally or not, like, whether they get to play. I mean, I've got a lot of friends who have played in the league, and the music stops at some point, and they're sitting here like me at 41, and they get a lot of life left to live, and then what happens? You know? So if we're not preparing them for those things of, like, hey, like, okay, what kind of man do you want to be? What kind of wife do you want to have? What kind of family do you want to raise? Like, those are the questions that we need to be asking them just as much as, like, well, what's your favorite sport? And, you know, how do you want to get better? It's. It's. Those things have to be happening concurrently. [00:34:36] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:34:36] Speaker B: Because in the end, you know, I. September 3rd, 2005, is a whole lot more significant to me than January 1st of 2003. Being in the Rose bowl and winning the Rose bowl like that. That day happened, but it came and went. You know, it doesn't have any lasting power other than it's a ring on my finger and a cool memory. [00:34:53] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:34:54] Speaker B: But it doesn't sustain me in any measurable way. Yeah. [00:34:57] Speaker A: And a common question we ask little kids is, who's your favorite player? [00:35:00] Speaker B: Yep. [00:35:00] Speaker A: And it usually has to do because of their performance or cool play they did, or it's not really that deeper. Like, well, why? Like, what is it about them Their character, who they are off the field, that makes them your favorite player. [00:35:13] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:35:14] Speaker A: Probably a lot of people couldn't answer those. Those questions, especially little kids. [00:35:18] Speaker B: Yeah. And I think that's. I'm glad you brought that up because I'm a Dodgers fan and they just won the World Series, which was cool. But along the way they had two pitchers. Two of their primary relievers had. One had a cross on his glove and the other had a scripture on his glove and Blake trying and his Dodgers like primary closer and he had a scripture from Proverbs on his glove. And during the nationally championship series we were watching and I just pulled up the Bible and I'm reading it to the boys and we're just reading the scripture that's on his glove, you know. And it was. It started leading chamberlain, specifically my 8 year old, to. As he's evaluating players, he's like, are they a Christian? Like he's asking me all the time, like, are those players Christians? Like it's on his mind because he's kind of wanting to know. Like he's curious. Like, okay, I see they're good. But like are they a Christian? You know, he's curious about who they are outside of sports. Not just. Yeah. Like not what they're. [00:36:14] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:36:15] Speaker B: Abilities are, man. And I do think that's there are athletes out there that are doing those type of things and not all of them are showy about it. And there's a lot of that go under the radar. But I do think that kids are paying attention. I think that's important for people to realize that that stuff matters and kids. [00:36:30] Speaker A: Care so percent yeah, that's good. I mean like, it's kind of one of those things that just like I almost thought myself on like yeah, why. Why haven't I thought more about that? And I'm glad just even hearing this and absorbing this myself. Our oldest, Jeremiah is now in jiu jitsu and I was actually just talking to another dad yesterday who ironically he's probably almost 40, but at a younger age he was kind of a mentor to me through like when he was in high school and I was in middle school and like went to the same church and now it's. It's really cool to see he has two boys that are like right at the same age that Jeremiah and Josiah are at. And the dude is a bad a. Like, I mean works for department and does a lot of special kind of operational stuff. I don't know what I could share or not share, but like the dude could put you down quick. And I was telling him, kind of just connecting on the wrestling, jiu jitsu. He's done some fighting, professional fighting in his past. And I was talking about, like, yeah, man, you know, Jeremiah's doing really well. He just moved up to a new stage and, you know, thinking about maybe getting him into competing. And he kind of paused and stopped and then shared more on, like, why his boys, why he thinks maybe kids shouldn't compete at a young age. On just a different perspective on a lot of what you touched Sean on. Just, like, putting kind of this subconscious pressure on them of this performance and how just stepping back and taking more account into how are they going to take that. How's that pressure going to be on their shoulders? Not just are they physically ready because they have athleticism. Okay, now let's go compete. And that kind of made me sit back and reflect more like, okay, that's added a new perspective to my thought process on Jeremiah might have the athleticism to start competing in the next year or two. But, you know, how do I gauge that and nurture that and help along that way? [00:38:16] Speaker B: Well, that's a different. A little bit different animal than maybe some team sports, right? [00:38:22] Speaker A: Yep. [00:38:23] Speaker B: I think you said the word competing, and I love that word. I love compete as a word. And I think that sports really teach you how to do that. And I think that the idea of competing, it's a sports word, but it's really a life word. And I didn't used to think about it that way, but when I got done playing, I mentioned I started running. Right. And I was looking for a way, like, I'm not in team sports anymore. I don't have a team. I'm not in the locker room. I don't have teammates. And I missed the competition. I missed the shared struggle. I miss the setting a goal and pursuing it. [00:39:00] Speaker C: Yes. [00:39:01] Speaker B: So. And having grown up as, like, a big kid, Right. Where, you know, when you're a big kid early, sometimes you're not a big kid in the way you want to be. Right. Kids can say some, you know, fat boy or things like that, that kind of hurt you. And. And so I had lost 60 pounds. So now I'm, like, weighing less than 240. I mean, 305 was the heaviest I ever saw. That's not the heaviest I ever was, let's just say. But. And I ate everything and anything to get there. Just no inhibitions, no control, no discipline in food. But I became real disciplined about running. I ran at least a mile a day, usually a Minimum of like three miles a day. And I did that every day until Beckham was born. So I started on Christmas of 2004, when I thought I was done with football, Christmas night. And I didn't stop until April 28th of 2013. [00:39:50] Speaker C: That's insane. [00:39:51] Speaker B: So it was over. Eight years, 3,035 days of not skipping, one single day of running, and that was over. That included seven foreign countries and 20 something states. But it became a healthy thing. Had become unhealthy because it affected my mood. If I. If I hadn't done it for the day, I was getting irritable. I needed to get it done. But it was a. For me, it was a discipline, but it was also a competing outlet. It was. I was competing against myself every day to do something I didn't necessarily want to do. And it became my outlet to compete. Right. So I had to. When Beckham was born, I was like, hey, this is a good day to stop. I need. If I gotta. I gotta pick someday or my knees are gonna hate me, you know, they maybe already do. [00:40:29] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:40:31] Speaker B: But then it became like, okay, well, now we're competing. I was coaching at the time. I got into coaching women's basketball. My dad's a girl's basketball coach. So when I got done playing football, I finished playing at Harding, actually, after I took that first year, didn't play. And then my brothers were looking to come there. One was going to transfer from a school his coach left, and Harding had recruited him out of high school. So he transferred, got a scholarship to come. My youngest brother was a quarterback that was going to come play. And I was like, this is kind of a cool situation. We can all three be on the same team. And they gave me scholarship money to come out of retirement, quote, unquote, and play. So I played as a shell of myself. I didn't put any weight on for it. I'm like, I'll play, but I'm not putting the weight back on. So we had a. I kind of had like a victory lap there. And I was a student assistant for the women's basketball team as I finished up my undergrad. Did a GA at Arkansas for two years as video coordinator, grad assistant. Thought I wanted to be a D1 head coach. And then ultimately the Harding job came open for the assistant women's coach, and I took that and was there. I was there for five years. So when Beckham was born, I was in the coaching world. [00:41:31] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. [00:41:32] Speaker B: And in my running, you know, I was. That was my competition outlet. But Then I was like, okay, well, I'm still coaching. I got a place to compete in. Right? And. But competing has become, I think, a mentality over my life, that at first it was in a team sports setting, and then it had to sort of evolve. And when I was coaching at Harding, our team break, like, when we would do a huddle, we were the Lady Bison at Harding. And the coach would say, lady Bison, and everybody would say, team would say, compete. And I thought. I used to think. And I was immature at the time. I was in my 20s. I'm like, compete. We need to win. Let's win. Like, I don't want to come. I don't want to just compete. I want to win these games. I want to get to the NCAA Tournament. I want to win championships. I want to hang banners. Like, so when we ended up doing those things, and I got to be a part of a couple NCAA tournament runs and some conference championships and do some cool things there, but I didn't understand that competing was actually the goal. Winning. The outcomes are great, but, like, if you don't learn how to compete, then that's not going to serve you well in life. Right? [00:42:34] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:42:35] Speaker B: So now I coach my kids, and our basketball teams are called Compete. That's like Frisco. Compete is my basketball teams. We have. And that's from 1st Corinthians 9. 25 says for everyone who goes into the Games, competes in the games, goes into district training, they do it for a crown that will not last, but we do it for a crown that lasts forever. [00:42:55] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:42:56] Speaker B: And the idea is, like, even in biblical times, people were competing for stuff, Right. But it's like, but what are we competing for? And then I think in life, where in the sports world, in the training world, we can be competing for physical appearance as we get older, Right. We're competing because we want to feel good, look good, beach is coming up, spring break, summer vacation. We got to. Got to get it right, get it tight, all those things. But ultimately, these bodies are breaking down sometimes. [00:43:22] Speaker C: Yep. [00:43:22] Speaker B: And these. The eligibility is running out sometime on your sports life. So are you competing for trophies, scholarships, dollar signs, success? Or are you competing and learning the disciplines that life is going to require? Because when I tell my kids, when I tell them, like, why are we called compete? Well, it's because every day that I wake up at 41 years old, I have to compete against my own self. I have to compete against my desires to not do the right things, whether that's from a, you know, a sinful desire Or a laziness desire, or I have to war against my flesh every single day and compete against that. [00:44:01] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:44:02] Speaker B: So competing is not a sports thing. Competing is a life thing. Like, I have to compete against my own selfishness, against my own, the lust of my heart, the desires of my heart that aren't. Aren't right. And I have to compete against that to make sure I'm trying to make the right decisions, even though I didn't maybe don't necessarily want to. And that's a mental discipline thing that's required. But it's all from, you know, born out of competing. [00:44:24] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:44:25] Speaker A: Yep. And it's cool that obviously just sports help even bring that to life even more. But me, when I think of, like, the word compete, it's almost like I like, kind of just see like a period after it, rather than like a continuous movement, if that makes sense. So it's. It's cool to kind of think of that in that different perspective of that ongoing daily. And of course, like, as a believer in that space against our flesh and against all those things and. And just the things that we're called and the roles that we're in as fathers and providers and protectors. All. All of those. All of our kind of roles might be a little bit different in regards to the things we have to show up for every day, but, I mean, that's good. I really appreciate, man, I. We talked a lot about just. Yeah, just the athletic journey and the impact that has really even more so outside of the. The practice and the games and the outcomes. But, man, I really appreciate your time, you being here, coming on here and just spending the time to get back. And I'm excited to even, hopefully even connect more outside of this and possibly do some more life together. But, man, anything else you got you want to add? [00:45:36] Speaker B: I would just say this in summation, and obviously I'm passionate about competing. I could go all day on that. But ultimately what I'm passionate about is developing young people. And I think that sports. I can't reiterate enough, like, sports are the way to do that, I think. But it has to be in conjunction with the holistic development of who they are and not what they're capable of on the sports field or on the. On the court. And you know this podcast is called the Proper form, right? [00:46:07] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:46:08] Speaker B: And I was thinking about that today as I was driving over here. I was like, man, the proper form, like, that's so spot on. Because life, like proper form, without proper form in the gym, you get hurt. [00:46:17] Speaker A: Yeah, Right. [00:46:18] Speaker B: And proper form. Without proper form, as far as an approach to raising kids in the sports world, they're going to get hurt. And it might not be physical, but it could be. It could be. Actually, if you burn them out and you overuse the. Overuse their body, don't give them time to recover. You're chasing. You're going one place to the next all the time, and you never let them stop, then, yeah, that could get them hurt. But proper form also is like, mentally, if you're putting too much on them for them to carry, if you're living vicariously through their success because you need them to do something to validate you and not to champion what they're capable of and help them that support their life journey, not just their sports journey, then that's bad form, you know, and proper form is required in our daily life, like the competition. I have to live in my own life, to my disciplines, my spiritual disciplines. But proper form also is necessary to the way we cultivate them, the way we value them, and the way we show them who they are and not what they are capable of, who they are. Like, their identity has to be formed properly and rightly in light of who God says they are and not what the scoreboard says they are and not what the trophy room says they are. So I think, you know, in tying in with the name of your podcast, I think it's perfect because that's. I think that's overlooked too many times. [00:47:37] Speaker A: Yeah, that's great. I love that. Thanks you so much for. I'm glad that that kind of came into your mind. Even that was the way Michael actually Child came up with. With the name. And it just aligned with, like, yeah, this desire of what I'm doing in the gym and creating obviously proper form, but also then, like, creating really great conversation in a proper way. Kind of. Like I said, I want to do these podcasts face to face. And there's been a lot of times where I've had guests that can do it, but they're like, oh, I can only do a zoom. I'm like, well, I'll catch you next time you're in town. But, man, thank you so much for being here. This is episode 16 again with David Walker. You guys can find it on Apple podcast, Spotify and YouTube. Thank you all so much for listening and thank you for being here. [00:48:15] Speaker B: Enjoyed it.