I don’t usually get excited on Division III commitments. Being a D3 coach for 12 years, you always wanted to see your recruits eyeballs on-campus in the fall because there was no athletic scholarship binding them to the school.

However, the commitment over the last month hits a little different.

Jason Pogue committed to play D3 football at Carroll University (Waukesha, Wisconsin) from Mountain View High School in Tucson, Arizona.

I was in grade school around 1995 or 1996, fourth or fifth grade, and my dad was called to a special meeting with my grandparents (his mom and dad) and my two uncles (his brothers). No one else was allowed to attend this meeting.

Not spouses. Not the children.

Seemed like an odd thing. My dad assumed someone in the family was sick. Why else was this meeting such a secret?

In the meeting my grandmother let my dad and his two brothers know they had another brother. At the time my dad was in his early 30s. His brothers were a year and two years younger than him respectively. They had grown up not having a clue there was another brother!

My dad responded with, “Awesome, where is he?”

My grandmother responded, “Tucson, Arizona.”

In high school my grandmother and grandfather had been on and off in a relationship. My grandmother got pregnant and her family was not overally enthused with that. My grandmother and her parents went down to Arizona for awhile. They made her give the baby up for adoption. When she gave birth, she didn’t know if it was a boy or girl, it was taken and given to the adoptive parents.

For 30+ years, she never told anyone about the baby. Not friends or extended family. As time passed, and after moving back to Wisconsin from Arizona, my grandmother married my grandfather and proceeded to have my father and my two uncles. Everyone lived in the northern Wisconsin area and raised families.

So what happened to the child she gave up are birth?

Well, my uncle was raised with a loving and caring family in Tucson. He wrestled in high school like my grandfather, dad and two uncles did in Wisconsin. Has many characteristics like my dad and uncles. Even grew up a Packers fan…figure that one out!

He married and has three kids. Each of his three kids have similar looks (obviously) to myself, my brother and sister.

In 1995 or 1996, my uncle reached out to agencies and used state records to try and track down his birth parents (my grandparents). Now, this is during the infant stages of dial-up internet and social media wasn’t even a word at that time. Miraculously, the people he was working with were able to track down my grandparents in Conover, Wisconsin.

Talk about two different ends of the country, Tucson and Conover!

They said it was one of the few times that they were able to find the birth parents still together. My uncle immediately shared the news with his wife. Shortly thereafter, the whole family from Tucson traveled to Wisconsin.

That story in itself would be enough to create a movie on. The relationships and camaraderie that we’ve been able to share in is priceless. It’s not a perfect story and we’d love to see each other more, but it’s a pretty good one. We’ve been able to take visits down to Tucson and they’ve been up to Wisconsin quite often since that original connect. We say it’s too hot, they say it’s too cold.

With Jason (my uncle’s grandson) planning on attending Carroll in Wisconsin this fall, it’s just another piece to a great story. Like a full circle moment.

Coach Cabral Huff shares his 25-year coaching journey, highlighting the importance of character, relationships and organization. In this episode we discuss Atlanta AAU, being the DOB at Georgia Southern, assistant at Alcorn State, what makes HBCU's unique, being a head coach at Voorhees during COVID, building Edward Waters as head coach, the shock of being let go, reflection, bouncing back and what he learned at Newberry.

Brian Rosario shares his journey through the collegiate coaching landscape, how setbacks fueled his growth, and the importance of strategic networking and personal branding in one's career. We talk about his stops at McNeese State, Cumberlands, Cornell, Loyola Marymount, Chandler/Gilbert Community College, Pepperdine and Long Beach State. The beginnings of being a ticket holder with Clippers and being a practice player at San Diego to his work currently with founding BNR Advisory Group.

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Sonny Cumbie on Win More, Live Better

The GOAT talks, you listen. Lot of great nuggets from him growing up to what kept fueling him to be great. Tom Brady on Champion Mindset.

_{Fired Coaches Podcast started in May 2020. The podcast interviews coaches, scouts, media and others connected to the sports world that fell from the mountaintop. They were either fired, resigned or told that their contract would not be renewed. Level does not matter. The story does.}