Today's episode is extremely special for me, and I think you will find it so, too. My guest is Bob Kuykendall. Bob is an English teacher and wrestling coach at Carmel Catholic High School in Mundelein, Illinois. However, what makes it such a special episode for me is that Bob has been my best friend in the world since I was 5 years old.
As he says in the episode, when we were in college (at different schools), and we realized that we were both going into teaching English and coaching, I said, "Wouldn't it be cool if we ended up teaching and coaching at the same school?" Well, that's exactly what happened! I taught and coached with Bob at Carmel for 11 years after we graduated from college. Those were some of the best years of my life in teaching and coaching.
I then fulfilled a lifelong dream and moved to Montana, while Bob stayed on at Carmel teaching English and coaching wrestling. He was an assistant wrestling coach for 26 years! He is one of the most loyal and dedicated people I know, and that statistic kind of bears that out. He has now been the head wrestling coach at Carmel Catholic for the last 13 years.
His quote today, fittingly, comes from the world of the English classroom. Most of us will recognize it from the movie Dead Poet's Society. The teacher, Mr. Keating, played by Robin Williams, quotes Walt Whitman from his poem, "Oh Me! Oh Life!" Keating delivers the line to his English class students, trying to get them to see that they each can contribute something to the world, if they will just work to find what that something is.
Interestingly enough, though, Bob has used this line with his wrestling teams as much as, and maybe even more than, his English classes. When you listen to the episode, you will see how and why. You will also hear some incredibly powerful stories that Bob shares, illustrating how the line impacted his wrestlers and his teams through the years.
If you would like to connect with Bob, you can email him at bkuykendall@carmelhs.org. You can also find him in the directory at the Carmel Catholic High School website, www.carmelhs.org.
For more information to help you on your road to becoming your best, check us out at SlamDunkSuccess.com or email me at scott@slamdunksuccess.com.
As always, our background music is "Dance in the Sun" by Krisztian Vass.