Available 6/12/26
Andy Holmes carries two titles that rarely appear in the same sentence. He is the Business Development Manager for the Americas at Informed Sport and Informed Choice, the world’s largest anti-doping third-party certification organization. He is also the Strength Chaplain at Ottawa University, a role he helped create and one that speaks directly to what he believes coaching is actually for. On this episode of the Samson Strength Coach Collective, Holmes makes the case that toughness has been misread by athletes and coaches alike, and that the weight room is one of the best places to correct that.
The reframe is direct. Fighting is easy. Drinking is easy. Walking away from both, showing up when it is hard, being accountable to something bigger than yourself, that is tough. Holmes builds that framework with a football roster of 150 to 200 players at the NAIA level, players who come from all kinds of backgrounds and often land at Ottawa because something did not work out somewhere else. He is not running a Sunday school class. He is coaching, and the physical demands of training give him a credible platform to say things these athletes have not heard from many men in their lives.
Holmes also spends significant time on the supplement safety side of his work. As someone who has spent a decade inside the anti-doping certification world, he has a clear-eyed view of the manufacturing vulnerabilities that put athletes at risk. One in ten non-third-party-tested products contains something that could trigger a failed drug test. NIL has compounded the problem by flooding the market with unvetted brands and unvetted product, and the legal exposure for strength staff and dietitians has grown alongside the money in sports.
The two halves of this conversation connect. Whether Holmes is talking about what goes into an athlete’s body or what goes into an athlete’s mind, the underlying principle is the same: responsibility is not optional, and taking the easy road has a cost.
Key Takeaways
- Toughness is not what most athletes think it is. The easy road is fighting, drinking, and avoiding accountability. The hard road is showing up, doing the work, and being responsible to something beyond yourself.
- Athletes respond when a coach cares about more than their position on the depth chart. When a player knows their value is not tied to their spot on the roster, they open up. That is where real influence starts.
- The weight room is a credible platform for hard conversations. The struggle of getting stronger maps directly onto the struggle of growing as a person, and athletes who train hard already understand what it means to earn something.
- One in ten non-certified supplements contains something that can cause a failed drug test. The manufacturing pipeline is more compromised than most coaches and athletes realize, and the legal exposure for strength staff when something goes wrong has grown significantly.
- NIL has created a supplement compliance gap most programs are not equipped to handle. Athletes signing deals with unvetted brands and taking untested product are putting their eligibility at risk, and the coaching staff can end up in the lawsuit.
Quote
“The easy way out is fighting, drinking. A lot of times doing the hard thing is being tough. That’s one of the biggest things we try to teach. What does it mean to be tough spiritually as well?” — Andy Holmes
Andy Holmes:
You know, these are the guys who are like probably taking on the some of the toughest lifestyle ⁓ challenges of all guys. And ⁓ you know, bringing like, hey, this is what you’re gonna face as a guy, how are you gonna handle it?
You know, how tough are you gonna be? And ⁓ you know, I had a background doing some prison ministry for ⁓ a stint and like that was the thing is like everybody if you was respect and toughness. And how do you define toughness? And it’s like it’s not always taking the easy way out. And the easy way out is fighting, drinking, you know, it a lot of times it’s like doing the hard thing is being tough. And so that’s one of the biggest things that we try to teach is like.
What does it mean to be tough ⁓ spiritually as well?
Samson:
Samson Strength Coach, Collective Listeners? On today’s episode, we have Andy Holmes, which he’s got a long title here for his initial job, and then he’s got the coolest title I’ve ever heard. So this is going to be a very I think this is the most engaging title introduction we’ve ever had on the podcast. But he’s the business development manager for the Americas for Informed Sport and Informed Choice, which is the long extended title, obviously. And then the
Andy Holmes:
Way long.
Samson:
The cool title is he’s the strength chaplain for Ottawa University. So, Andy, thank you so much for coming on, man. I’m stoked to speak with you.
Andy Holmes:
Connor, thanks for having me, man. It’s great to be here. ⁓ I just appreciate you ⁓ asking me to be on here. It’s it’s pretty humbling, and I think it’s great to be here.
Samson:
Well, I it was easy for me, right? Because, you know, you were actually I think you were the first person I spoke to at the conference that I hadn’t previously met. Right. You know, obviously when you set up at CSCCA, there’s gonna be some people that you see year in, year out. Obviously I know the Samson guys. And then, you know, we you came over to the table and we s started speaking and just hearing about your story and what you do and a lot of the things with being a strength chaplain. I was like, we have to get you on the podcast. And so it’s finally come to fruition and we get to, you know, see exactly what you do, and I’m excited for our listeners to find out.
Andy Holmes:
Yeah, I have to go to those ⁓ conferences every year. And so like I hate like I can’t stay in the booth very long. So I’m like I’m always like, you know, running around seeing what everybody’s doing and and what everybody has at their booth and stuff. And ⁓ no, I always I always go by Samson. So like, ⁓ but no, I’ve been a big fan of Samson’s equipment for a long time. So I always go by you guys.
Samson:
Well, I greatly appreciate that. And I know ⁓ everybody at Samson appreciates that too. And so now it’s exciting to to get to speak with you. ⁓ you know, we’re I’m a fan of you, so we’re fans of each other at this point. It this we’re gonna work out pretty well. But ⁓ yeah, exactly. Can you just give us your background? I know you’ve got an extensive athletic background and then kind of your ⁓ path into strength and conditioning and also working with informed sport and what leads you to Ottawa University.
Andy Holmes:
That’ll work out great.
Sure. ⁓ well, my background is I was born and raised in western Nebraska, in a place where there’s more cattle than there are people. ⁓ my family’s got a background in raising cattle for about a hundred years. And so, ⁓ you know, it’s kind of an interesting background compared to maybe a lot of other backgrounds out there because ⁓ you learn a lot of different things, ⁓ being by yourself and ⁓ rely on self reliance, things like that. And I had really good ⁓ folks who
you know, kind of poured into me and encouraged me, especially in athletics. ⁓ you know, my parents really were behind me. I think they were excited because it kept me out of the bars and stuff like that. So they were they were all about it. Went to college, ended up pr ⁓ participating in three sports, and then ⁓ that kind of led into an opportunity later in life to ⁓ you know, to participate in two sports after that. And ⁓ you know, from those ⁓ you know, experiences.
I got to, you know, do a lot of things athletically, which kind of opened up my eyes to like, you know, it’s not all about one thing. And you got to meet a lot of different people, different perspectives, different training, ⁓ different ⁓ ways people recovered, things like that. And y you know, you you just are exposed to so much more. And you also get a lot of coaches. And like I hate to say this, but there’s a lot more bad coaches than there are good coaches. So and I yeah.
Samson:
You’re right. Yeah, I mean you’re right.
Andy Holmes:
And like I, you know, you know, I was always going through, you know, I remember going through college and going, man, if I was ever a coach, this, you know, this is the way I was gonna be, you know, and like this and that. And then, you know, those are people too. And so, you know, it’s kind of interesting, you know, on this side of it, you know, you give an opportunity to kind of ⁓ do it the way you want to do it and you know, kind of learn from those experiences. And then ⁓ you know, from that background, ⁓ I had an extensive background in athletics, and so.
I knew about the anti-doping scene, you know, because you were drug tested and all that kind of stuff. And then ⁓ I took a stand as a military contractor, so I knew that. And then ⁓ you know, I just had worked in the the sports nutrition industry, you know, in different capacities. And my buddy of mine, ⁓ called me and said, Hey, you know, LGC Science, which probably no one’s heard of, is ⁓ it’s a very large multi-billion dollar company out of ⁓
Great Britain out of the UK and they own the world’s largest ⁓ anti-doping third party certification called Informed Sport and Informed Choice. They said they’re hiring a guy. They’re looking for a guy to handle the United States. And ⁓ they said and they asked me, you know, do you know anybody? And I said, You’re the only guy I’d recommend. So I went and interviewed, and 10 years later, I’m still doing it. So ⁓ you know, that’s that’s a that’s a whole ⁓ chapter.
right there just because that’s a weird that’s a weird job because like everyone’s like, you’re an anti dopamine, what’s that mean? And you kind of get to see stuff and hear stuff that you’re like, I didn’t even know this went on. As an athlete, I remember taking creatine being like, it’s just creatine. It’s not that big a deal. But it it starts to become a big deal. So
Samson:
Absolutely. I mean, no joke. I mean I I wanted to speak with you about this. I know we talked about it little bit earlier, but you know, I always kind of just thought like supplements are supplements, you know, and and there’s gonna be some that are a little bit higher quality and there’s gonna be some that have a little bit more bioavailability, whatever it may be. And my wife is a dietitian. So like, you know, I never even yeah, I never even yeah, yeah, yeah. She’s I we actually work at the same university. ⁓ so we get to see each other every day. Yeah. ⁓ but
Andy Holmes:
Yeah.
no way. Okay. I didn’t know that.
very cool.
Samson:
You know, I I always knew that, you know, supplementation can be important. It can help, you know, complete what you need ⁓ from an athletic perspective and from your nutrition perspective. And I was just kind of thought like, well, you know, I’ll go with kind of the trusted brands, but it’s not a big deal if I deviate every once in a while. And then I remember speaking and and or sorry, attending a conference where ⁓ Lauren Link, the dietitian for ⁓ Purdue University, was speaking and she showed me the statistics and literally just went through about how many different supplements that are not third party tested.
have banned substances in them, trace amounts or even large amounts. And it’s just crazy to me how out of control that can get. So I guess my first question for you is really like, what is the importance of third party testing? Cause I I know some strength coaches here may not be able to fully grasp it. Can you just break it down for us?
Andy Holmes:
Well, like when you say third party testing, it could mean anything from like they’re testing for heavy metals or the testing for like pesticides or junk like that. Like we verify that kind of stuff’s being done. But like what we do is really specialized testing, which is we’re looking for drugs. We’re looking for banned substances that are on the water list. So that could be steroids, methamphetamine compounds, beta blockers, masking agents, all kinds of fun tricks, you know, all that kind of stuff. So, and everyone’s like
What do you mean there’s testosterone in this? What? You know, and they’re like, how could that be? And ⁓ you know, there’s a lot of like ⁓ methamphetamine compounds out there, you know, and the r how it works is is like you could have raw materials being made in China and let’s say they’re making Connor and Andy’s protein over there and they’re sending the raws over here to be packaged. Well, before they made our protein, they made Sudafed and so they’d some dude
you know, goes over there and air hoses it out and all right, throw the protein in. They don’t care. And so it gets over here and you don’t even know what’s in there. The manufacturer doesn’t know. And it ends up in the product. ⁓ another place it gets in there is through the manufacturing process. You have poor man manufacturers that don’t have good ⁓ standard operating procedures. They’re not they’re not taking care of that kind of stuff from a manufacturing
standpoint to you know they got banned substances in the facility. I like I got this guy yelled at me one time because we’re like, dude, we can’t we can’t certify your stuff. And he’s like, Well, why not? And I go, Well you have ephedrin in your in your place. And he’s like, So? And I go he goes and I go, dude, is it run on the same machine that you this liquid collagen you want to get? And he goes, Well yeah, but we clean it. And I go, mm mm
Samson:
No, no, that works.
Andy Holmes:
I was like, no, it doesn’t
work like that, bro. I was like, and he goes, Well, we’re we’re really good. We do this. I go, mm-mm. No, sorry. And I was like, that’s a deal breaker. And he was so mad. And but I was like, dude, I go like the way I look at it is, you know, that’s another way, you know, banned substances can get in there. And like, why it matters, like from a s if you’re a strength coach or like your wife who’s a dietitian, you have responsibility over these athletes. And a lot of times, unfortunately.
what they’re taking, they’ll the whatever you put in front of them, they’ll take. And so now over the last 10 years, it’s become a lot more litigated. So if an athlete tests hot, they’re going to test everything that kid has. And then they’re going to find out where it’s at. And they’re like, where did you get this? well, my strength coach gave it to me. Or my dietitian gave it to me. And they’re going to be like, well, let’s just name him in the lawsuit that my parents are cooking up with their lawyer.
Because they’re gonna sue the school, they’re gonna sue the athletic department, they’re gonna sue the, you know, strength coach or the dietitian or anybody. And so there’s a lot more at risk. And it matters more because as we see sports grow, ⁓ you know, there’s more money in sports. And so there’s more at risk. And so what we do is we mitigate that risk. And like to kind of give you an idea, we do
Like we’ll pull a bunch of products from different regions of the world. And ⁓ I don’t care where you’re at, Europe, Australia, here in the US, it’s about one in ten. One in ten non third party tested products has something that could cause you to fail a drug test. I know.
Samson:
It’s just crazy to me. I can’t believe
that, you know, but it’s true. It’s a true statement.
Andy Holmes:
Yeah, I always tell like dietitians if I talk to them, I said, you know, if you and I go to Walmart together and we go shopping and I go, we go down that aisle that has all that, you know, supplements in there and we just start dump ten in there and I go, We’ll test ten, one and ten will have something that’ll cause one of your athletes to fail. And ⁓ and it’s that’s a big deal. And the other thing too, if you look at it, you know, you know, we’re protecting the athlete because, you know, they spent their whole life trying to do this. You know, I remember
Dexter Lawrence, who’s playing for Syracuse, he got busted for I think it was Austrian or something. Like, and this is all public, so I can say this, but like, ⁓ you know, he got busted and he didn’t get to play in the SEC title game. Well, think about that. He’s an all-pro or all conference or all whatever defensive tackle. Well, if you don’t get to play, do you think the odds change? Well, heck yeah, they do. And so, like, it’s like you
Samson:
Yeah, yeah.
Andy Holmes:
Like for a kid, like, you know, you gotta be responsible for not only yourself, but for your team. You know, like I bet he wanted to play. You can’t. Sorry. You should have thought about that. And ⁓ you know, I think he ended up getting drafted like in the fifth round anyway, but like still he didn’t yeah, worked out for Dexter. Yeah, you missed out. And so, ⁓ you know, and then I think two years ago, like the third string dude for the Saints, he popped up for something and he got
Samson:
It worked out, you know, but y you don’t get to play in one of the biggest games of your life, you know.
Andy Holmes:
I can’t remember how much I think he was suspended for three games. It cost him like it was over half a million dollars or something. I gotta look. But like I was at a lot of money, more money than I got. So I was like that I was just like, dang, that that kinda stinks. So ⁓ it matters.
Samson:
Well, it matters, like you said.
That’s exactly why it matters. And, you know, like you said, all these people put all this time and energy into, you know, trying to be as safe as possible and trying to be at the peak of their performance. And sometimes it’s just small things that can completely affect your life and change the course of it. Right. And, you know, ultimately with the interviews with the NFL process and, you know, with the NBA, like I know how some of those interviews go. I’ve heard to people, I’ve talked to people who’ve been in them and and they
They care about that stuff, right? Like if they know if you put tested positive and even if it was a supplement that had trace amounts of, you know, X ingredient or compound, whatever it is, they know that, okay, well, this person may not be as responsible as we thought he was. You know, like it changes how people perceive you and, you know, it it’s tough to handle. And it’s funny you bring up, you know, just with the athlete and the collegiate level, because with the NCAA rules of creatine, right? I can’t purchase the creatine for the athletes.
And so the athletes have to purchase the creatine themselves. And every single time I send them direct links to th literally supplements that are only third party tested by informed sport. And I say, You can only buy this, do not buy anything else. And then if I could find a contract that legally said, I told you for a fact not to buy anything other than this supplement, you know, because at some point, like you said, at one out of ten, somebody’s gonna test positive for something. And it’s happened continuously.
Andy Holmes:
Well, and that’s like the whole thing with NIL, because NIL’s like, ⁓ hey, look, I can make money off of this and they’re gonna give me free product. Well, is that product tested? Like, no. Well, then what do you do? You know, because as a school, you can’t keep them from making money, but like, you know, it’s almost like they have to make these little contracts that are like, Hey, we’re not liable for what you’re doing. But then the other thing too is let’s say it does test hot, you don’t get to play in the game. So it hurts the school no matter what. And so
We do a little thing on the side. We do ⁓ we have an NIL custom testing program. So like if a school like wants to ⁓ let’s say they have an athlete that’s being approached by a company that’s not doing testing and the athlete wants to take that stuff, we’ll test it for like a really reduced rate, like below half of what it really costs. And we’ll we’ll try to get that the the brand to pay for it. And that way that one lot.
Like that one lot of creatine, let’s say, is tested. And so he can only pull out of that lot because we know that’s been tested. But any of the other lots you can’t have. And so what we’ll do is we’ll try to work with that brand and get him certified. But like that’s the biggest problem with NIL. Like there’s all kinds of junk out there. You, you know, those guys are just it’s the that’s the wild, wild west right now. It’s like a two point, I want to say two point seven nine billion dollar market is NIL.
Samson:
Yeah. And I’ve seen it firsthand. Cause I I mean, I remember this is again being married to a dietitian, this helps to have a story for this right now, right? But we had right when NIL started, ⁓ we had a local company ⁓ reach out to some of our athletes and said, Hey, we wanna do an NIL deal with you. And they didn’t, you know, none of the athletes came by this because again, this is right when it first started. So we didn’t have the system of, you know, kind of checks and balances in place. And so these athletes signed up for it, started taking their supplements.
Andy Holmes:
Yeah, right.
Samson:
⁓ and then immediately my wife like was in a one on one consultation with one of the, you know, athletes and they basically said, Yeah, I signed a deal with this supplement company, you know, local and and you know, I’m taking these. And it was like, you know, ridiculous amounts of like caffeine and taurine and like a bunch of different things that they could test positive for. And so she went back to the actual company themselves and said, Hey, you know, are you third party testing anything? Like is anything legitimate essentially with what you’re doing? And they were like,
Well, no, you know, does that really matter? It’s like, yeah, it matters a lot, actually. And so it happens all the time. And then and then we had to actually set up a full, you know, if you have an NIL deal, you have to, you know, bring it to the school, immediately tell them what it is. If it’s anything related to nutrition, our dietitian has to approve it and make sure that it’s positive, you know, and that’s a ⁓ you know, a positive outcome for you as well too, because like you said, it affects their money and it affects the school’s money too.
Andy Holmes:
Yeah, matters.
Yeah, and it’s just like it’s just better like to like instill that kind of like, Hey, look, you’re different. And like you just got like you can’t be like your buddy. You just can’t roll into Walmart and take anything off the shelf. You gotta like you gotta look. And ⁓ that’s just part of it. It’s part of the responsibility of being a collegiate athlete. Like, and that’s just if you don’t wanna do that, then fine. You don’t have to, but you ain’t gonna play here. So that’s that’s just it’s either or type of deal.
Samson:
What?
It’s just it’s a good lesson in ownership, right? ⁓ which, you know, I we are gonna talk about some of the th other lessons that you teach here soon because, you know, I I could spend all day talking about the third party testing. I know you got a cool lot of fun stories with that, but I really have to make sure we get into the strength chaplain piece of this. Cause we mentioned this before the episode. You said, I think I’m the only strength chaplain in the nation. I said, I’m pretty sure that’s the world, right? ⁓ yeah. And so for me, I want I want to know like essentially what is a strength chaplain?
Andy Holmes:
World, yeah.
Samson:
How did you kind of get into this position and what do you do on a daily basis?
Andy Holmes:
Yeah, so okay, so Strength Chaplain came about because well, like I had a death of a family member. My my my dad passed away and I was in Arizona and out of nowhere, school approached me through connections. It wasn’t really out of nowhere. They, you know, ⁓ a fr some friends of a friends of a friend’s, they said, Hey, you know, we really you know, you should meet my dad. And I go, Who’s your dad? And he’s told and he’s like, he’s a
professor. And, you know, long story short, I ended up getting a scholarship to go to seminary. And ⁓ you know, and I’m, you know, knee deep in seminary right now. And I wanted to do something that was completely different than my regular job. But I also want to do something that would ⁓ you know, something I could give back and and I think would be valuable to people, just the way like my folks were valuable to me. And also I think this is something that God was kind of
pulling at my heart to do because ⁓ you know, I kinda didn’t know why I found this stuff interesting because a lot of people are like, man, I don’t want to study any theology or anything like that. So but like I found it interesting. So anyway, I ended up getting a scholarship to go to this seminary. And so and it’s a great seminary, ⁓ very old, very established, but ⁓ they called TCM and ⁓ you know, Training Christian Ministries Institute, they’re a great ⁓ organization, but they
He you know, I was doing that and then I was at the CSCCA. And ⁓ this kid came up to me, kid, he’s older than me, I think. But anyway, he came up to me and and he and he goes he goes, What do you guys do here? And I was like, well, I’m with Inform Sport. We do this, we do that. And and I and I go, Well, where are you from, ma’am? He goes, I’m from Ottawa University. Or no, he no, first thing he goes, he goes, I’m from a small little university. You you probably wouldn’t know it.
And I go, nah, try me. I didn’t know where he was from. So like he goes, Have you ever heard of Ottawa University? I go, Yeah, I know Ottawa University. It’s like five minutes from my house. And he goes, What? And so I go, I know who you are. And he goes, You do? And I go, Yeah. I go, I go, I go, you guys are Christians. I heard that. And he goes, What? And I go, Yeah, you guys are Christian guys. And he’s like, How do you know that? And I go, I’m at a dude on the golf team, he told me. And
And he goes, he started laughing. He goes, dude, who are you? And I said, and I explained who I was. And he goes, he goes, man, he goes, I and we started talking about our background. Well, he found out my background. He said, Hey, you know what? If you ever want, stop by the facility, I’d love to give you a tour. Well, little did I know that him and and you know, his little staff had an idea. They were like, ⁓ free help, you know. They’re like, let’s get this guy on staff. So
They got me on staff and they said, Look, we you know, we really appreciate you, you know, having a background of strength and conditioning and and knowing what to do and being, you know, a an asset like that. But we what we really need is we need someone to bring a spiritual component into the weight room because we’re getting kids from all over the country. We’re NAIA, so we’re gonna get kids who ⁓ come out of division one, division two, division three, but from all over with
all kinds of different backgrounds and there’s and sometimes there’s a reason they’re an NIA and I N A I A, you know, like that like why did you have to transfer? Have to is a good, you know, what’s going on here? What’s your background? Why, you know, how’s you know, all these things. And what we what I found, and I said, you know, I had no idea what I was signing up for. And I was like, yeah, it sounds awesome. I can do this. And they and I said, well, you know, how do you how do you want to structure this? And they go, you’re going to be the strength chaplain. And I go,
I go, what’s a strength chaplain? He goes, I don’t know. I just made it up. So and he goes, but you’re it. And I was like, okay. So what I do is I end up, I’m in the weight room as a strength and conditioning assistant coach and you know, coaching them and everything that an strength coach would do. But on the side, what I’m doing is I’m speaking to them about their faith. And you know, I’m I’m a born-again Christian, so I come at it from a Christian faith.
And ⁓ you know, and that’s well received no matter what the faith background is, because we’ll there’s a lot of things that from that Christian faith that like correlate with strength and conditioning. And and I work exclusively with the football team. And like, man, the N A I A is like I I don’t wanna say it’s no rules, but it’s a little different than the NCAA. We’ll have like 150 to 200 kids on our football team. Yeah. Like we had like two hundred kids last year.
And they all know me. Yeah, they all know me. And I’m like, you know, everybody’s, you know, I gotta f figure out what everybody’s name is and remember. And do I know do I remember all two hundred? No. But like if I don’t, I get mad and I start looking at the roster and trying to find the kid. But ⁓ no, it’s ⁓ it’s one of those things where like, you know, you’re not only working out physically, but you’re correlating like the the difficulty of of training and
Samson:
That’s a lot. Yep.
Andy Holmes:
⁓ exerting that effort, you know, you know, definitely, you know, the probably the struggle of getting stronger and faster and bigger and working towards a goal is a good correlation to life ⁓ as with Christ. But like the a lot of times we get guys who come to us and they’re like, I don’t have any faith background. I don’t have anything. I I don’t, I don’t need one. I don’t whatever, you know. And I’m just like, and those are the best guys because it’s funny because
Even the guys who ⁓ you know, don’t have any faith background, they like you. And well, they like me because they don’t owe me anything. I care if like I care about ⁓ beyond football, beyond the weight room. How’s your school going? Do you have a job? How’s your mom? I remember like, my mom’s going through dialysis, or this is going on, my parents are getting divorced, or
Hey, my girlfriend’s pregnant or something like that. You’re dealing with all these things, but you’re you come alongside as like not like as a someone that’s a coach, but someone that like, hey, man, like I don’t care if you’re str the starter or your sixth string, like you’re you’re valuable. Your your value is beyond the game you play. And so, ⁓ I look at like that. And so what’s interesting is they eat that up. And ⁓
I have a I have a hidden secret is I don’t look like a chaplain. ⁓ the the head coach of the foot football coach, he brought me up one time into his office and he goes, Hey man. And I said, Yeah. He goes, You don’t look like a chaplain. And I was like, looked at him, I go, I’m not that kind of chaplain. And he he started laughing. He goes, no. And so ⁓ but the thing is, is he told me one time, he goes, That’s good for you because they’ve never had
Most of the guys come from backgrounds where like a guy that’s very like a you know, a guy, you know, like strong, ⁓ you know, athletics, guys they that they can relate with have never poured into or give anything, like, hey, good job, or give them some kind of praise. It’s always come from, say, like their mother or grandmother, things like that, where you if you have a guy who’s pouring into you sincerely, you know, beyond like you you matter more than this sport.
That’s that’s really ⁓ rare and ⁓ it has a a real good effect and it’s a positive effect, which then leads to being able to talk to them about the gospel and talking to them about like, hey, this is how Christ fits into your life. And ⁓ which is great because they come with questions. And that’s that as long as you can get talking, in my opinion, that’s that’s the number one thing. Does that make sense? Okay.
Samson:
Yeah, yeah, no, a hundred percent. And I you know,
I I wanna just for our listeners very much clarify that you do not look like a regular chaplain. I can promise you that. If ⁓ you are a great spokesperson for the title strength chaplain. ⁓ because I remember when I first met you, I was like, This guy is absolutely yoked. And then I found out he worked for Informed Sport and I was like, Great, so he’s not on TRT and he’s just that much better looking than me. And then immediately afterwards, you said you were the strength chaplain, and I was like, Well, this is incredible.
I mean, I I d I thought it was fantastic because you’re right. I think back to you know, my Catholic school. I went to a Catholic high school and I think back to a lot of our fathers who, you know, were around ⁓ and they, you know, obviously spent a lot of their time, you know, studying or, you know, devoted to their faith. And it didn’t feel like a lot of them spent their time on the physicality aspect. But then, like you said, there’s a lot of connections between the physicality and between the faith-based teachings that you can, you know, kind of communicate.
And so I think you serve a really good purpose of having a a good segue between that because you know what it’s like to train hard, but you also know what it’s like to live a hard life and then to ⁓ fall into your faith and then be able to use that as something to help you progress further in life too. So I think it’s I think it’s great and I think it’s the most appropriate title I think I’ve ever seen for anybody in my life.
Andy Holmes:
Well, I appreciate that. You know, it’s kind of funny, like, kids are real honest. And I I’m sure everybody’s listening who works with kids know that. They’re like, and like one of the the hardest guys, like, you know, the guys who come from the street or the guys who are just like, hey man, I’m I’m an atheist because I just don’t want to deal with it or something. You know, they tell me like the stuff that they really believe. And a lot of them are like, hey man, I just don’t want to be fake. And I’m like, ⁓ okay, tell me about that. And they’re like,
Man, I know if I give my life to Christ or I do something like that, I can’t I can’t be perfect. I can’t like, man, I I struggle with porn. I st you I I’m sleeping with my girlfriend. I’m, you know, I’m smoking weed or whatever that whatever it is. And you’re like, I was like, ⁓ you thought this was like a this you thought this was like a magic wand. Like you were gonna be perfect all of a sudden. You know, and I s you know, I always tell them like the church is a is a hospital for broken people. And I said, you know, this is.
I said, if you were perfect, we wouldn’t need Christ. I said, you know, that’s the whole idea. Guess who we came for? I go, you. Guess who we hung out with? People just like you. And I said, look, man, it’s a process. And I go, you don’t go in the weight room and bench 405 on the first day, do you? No. I go, you ever get stuck? You ever get, you know, freaking dump a frickin’, you know, squat rack and all this stuff. You ever do this or that? You ever get injured? Yeah. Well, it’s the same thing with your faith. I go.
It’s a journey. It’s a it’s a way to to you’re growing ⁓ that spiritual muscle just like you would, you know, your physical muscles. And like once you start making those correlations with the guys, they’re like, ⁓ because they ’cause they they really do care. And but also at the same time, I think kids really like the challenge. You know, like they’re like, if you kind of turn it into like, ⁓ all right, I’m gonna grow.
I’m gonna grow. And I, you know, you can c kind of get into how do you grow and you know, different disciplines to help them. And you know, you kind of come alongside And it’s something that I told I tell them, hey, look, you’re gonna come here to this university and they’re gonna get everything they can out of you. I go, while you’re here, you need to get everything you can out of this university, which means an education. I go, here’s an opportunity to work on your faith. I go, ’cause when you I tell all, I go, you’re all gonna be somebody’s husband, father, leader.
In that order. So ⁓ but I said, Look, I go, What kind of husband, father, and leader are you gonna be? You know, and so you know, those are things that, you know, I say, Look, you know, no one was a better leader than than Christ. And I said, That’s why we look to him many times is, you know, how did he handle this? And so I try to bring him always back to to Jesus to kind of use that as a backdrop. But, you know, a lot of times, ⁓
It’s just kind of nice to have that, but like it’s never a Sunday school lesson and it’s never shoved down their throat because they get it. ⁓ because it’s overshadowed by the strain and and by the the action of the physical part of what I get to do too. So that’s nice.
Samson:
Well, it’s so funny that you you give the analogy of, you know, if you were perfect, you wouldn’t need Christ, right? Because I what I say to our guys all the time is when they come in and and everybody wants to be successful, right? You know, so everybody, like you said, wants to come in squat four five on the first day and then, you know, when they get frustrated and they don’t see the progress that they want to see immediately, I tell Well, you know, if you were already that jacked, I wouldn’t you wouldn’t need me, right? I wouldn’t get a paycheck, right? And it’s the exact same thing that you’re saying there. So
Andy Holmes:
Right.
Right.
Samson:
I love that analogy because again, these two two things do fit together so well for me. And, you know, just when it when I think about it, it makes complete sense. So to see it in action, you know, obviously it’s gonna have a lot of really positive benefits and change people’s lives, quite frankly. I guess I’m curious from a a day to day basis, does this look like a lot of team talks? Is there Bible studies? Is a lot of one on one talks, or is it kind of all those three?
Andy Holmes:
All those three. So like ⁓ during the week, ⁓ lot of one on one talks and it’s most of the time it’s guys coming to me. Like they’ll come to me or like and you know, like you’ll see somebody, ⁓ you know, who’s just out of it. You’ll go talk to I remember there was a kid two years ago, he was married and ⁓ his wife ⁓ had a miscarriage and like, you know, things like that. You mean just there’s all kinds of stuff. ⁓
money issues, family issues, whatever. And you just go over there. Sometimes you go over and talk to them. But they’ll come, they’ll seek you out. And then ⁓ we have Bible study every every Tuesday night. And so we do ⁓ Bible study and it’s usually topical a lot of the time, but we try to make it like how do you apply this to you to you today? Like how did it what did it look like back then? How does it apply to you today? And what can you do with this? And ⁓
Then there’s also like we have chapel services. So like they’ll have me run a chapel and like ⁓ you know, give a message. ⁓ one of the bet like one that I always like to do is like, you know, are you gonna be ready? You know, you’re gonna you know, how are you gonna perform under pressure? Things like that. Like and I use I don’t you know, you know, like there’s you know, the disciples who ran with Jesus for three years, but you know, they’re hanging out in the garden, the guy cuts, you know.
Peter cuts the dude’s ear off, Malchus’s ear off. And I’m like, man, you go back like one chapter before that, it says, pray for your enemies. And this guy’s cutting his ear off. You know, and I’m like, and it’s just kind of like, you know, you’re gonna be out on the field and you’re, you know, it’s gonna be in the fourth quarter, and it’s gonna be, hey, you’re gonna have to be able to cover this guy. And you made it you better know the coverage. Cause if you’re not, you’re gonna everyone’s gonna suffer. Like, you know, so get your act together. You know, it matters. And this is saying there’s a correlation there.
And so you have to be like, hey, you’re accountable to something bigger than yourself. Like, get your crap together. You’re not a kid anymore. If you’re gonna play here, you know, if you’re gonna play on this team, we’re serious. And like it doesn’t mean you have to be perfect, but it means you’re responsible to do the best you can. And if you’re not doing the best you can, we’ll get somebody else in. I guarantee you that because we want to win. And you need to wanna win enough that you’re accountable to your friends. You need to be ready so you don’t have to get ready, type of deal.
So it it’s fun. There’s all kinds of correlations you can use.
Samson:
Yeah.
Well, seriously, and then I think about, you know, our own football team here, we have the you know, I think it’s like the can’t get right board, you know, and it’s okay, let’s say you skipped reps, obviously that’s you made a conscious decision to do that, right? ⁓ but then let’s say you hit, you know, seven reps when you were supposed to hit eight and you just didn’t really, you know, focus on it, right? you get on the can’t get right board because ultimately like it’s the same thing on the field. It’s you know, well, you thought you knew the play and you didn’t know it and then you blew the coverage and like you said, everybody suffers. So I really
Andy Holmes:
Yeah.
Yeah.
Samson:
It’s really impressive to me to again some physically doing it, right? Making the connections between these things because I could see just how well they fit together. You know, I guess I I’m a sucker for success stories and happy stories and and I and I like failures too. But, you know, is there any one story from your time at Ottawa that has really stuck out to you as a great success? Obviously we don’t have to get into super specifics, but you know, anybody that kind of sticks out in your mind is like, wow, I’m really happy that I chose to do this.
Andy Holmes:
I think like one of the biggest things, like one of the ones that sticks out was when I first was starting, ⁓ there was a kid, Alex and his ⁓ Snowing Kid and his dad died and unexpectedly. And I was like and you know, he was kind of a mess, obviously. And ⁓ you know, Smo and culture they’re very, you know, close, tight knit. And ⁓
You know, I went he played defense, so I went to the D coordinator. I said, Hey man, I go, if you want, I’ll talk to Alex and kind of, you know, talk to him a little bit. You know, like I go, I lost my dad, you know, just not too long ago unexpectedly. I can relate to him. And he’s like, Yeah. He goes, That’s that’s all you, man. He goes, He goes, I I don’t wanna like, that’s not my deal. You got it, you got it, coach. Go go for it. And I was like, so I went up to him and I ⁓ we started talking and ⁓ you know, I said, Hey man, I go.
Samson:
I’m good. You got it. Yeah.
Andy Holmes:
I said, I’m really sorry about your dad. ⁓ you know, like I can kind of relate a little bit. My dad passed away and he goes, he looked over at me, he goes, Really? And I go, Yeah. And I go, You want to know the best thing that someone did for me when my dad died? And he goes, What? And I go, someone took me out for a steak dinner. I go, What are you doing Friday? So I took him out for a steak dinner, you know. I think he ate like two steaks, you know. Like I said, order I ordered I made a mistake, order whatever you want. He ordered everything. And like, ⁓
Samson:
Yeah.
Yeah.
Andy Holmes:
But we started talking about his faith and how to, you know, and grief and kind of like how do you you know the legacy of his father and you know how he can, you know, kind of honor that. And we just it was really nice and talked and stuff, and he really made a big difference. And, you know, he’s you know, at the end of the night he’s crying and stuff, and he’s just, you know, hugging you and all that junk. And anyway, and he was fine, you know, for the most part. And so we have parents’ night. And, you know, ⁓ I was like,
Not gonna have anybody here, you know, like it’s no dad or whatever. Well, I also forget that Samoan families are enormous. So, like he had 40 people there, 40, 50 people. And like, ⁓ I’m walking into the into the complex and Alex is yelling at me. He goes, Coach Holmes, Coach Holmes, he goes, Come here, come here, come He goes, I introduce you to my mom. And so I walk up, you know, to the stands and he’s like, This is my mom. She goes, I’m so happy. Thank you for taking care of my son. You know, I really
Samson:
Ha ha ha.
Andy Holmes:
I’m happy to meet you. This and that. Coach Holmes, thank you so much. And then I hears this big deep voice, Coach Holmes. And there’s like the three biggest men I’ve ever seen in my life. There’s uncles are over here and they overhear they’re like, ⁓ are you Coach Holmes? And I’m like, Yeah. And they’re like, If you if not, should I say yes? Like, you know, and they ⁓ so they go, they go, hey man, they go, thank you.
Samson:
If if you want me to be, if if not, I don’t know.
Andy Holmes:
You know, they came over, freaking shook my hand and were just so warm to me. They said, Hey, thank you for taking care of our nephew. You know, like, ⁓ you know, it means a lot to us that you took care of our of ⁓ Alex. And I was like, Yeah, of course, you know, and and ⁓ they go, We can’t tell you how much we really appreciate that. And I I didn’t realize, you know, that was, you know, such a bad you know, a thing. And after the game, you know, they’re all together and everybody has a lathe and all that junk and like
And they’re doing a family photo and he says, Coach, he goes, Come here. He goes, Get in the photo. And so, you know, some Holly in the middle of all these ⁓ pollies, you know, and ⁓ yeah, it was like you, you know, I thought I thought about it and I was like, you know, a lot of times people think about like struggle or death or something like that as bad and like how could it ever be good? And what I think’s kind of cool about an opportunity to coach the way we coach is that
All our opportunities can be opportunities to pour good into people because you have a choice. You know, you can use it and define yourself, be it by it and be bitter and stuff like that, or you can use it to bring light into a situation. And that’s all we’re called to do in the Christian faith is bring light into very dark situations. And there’s nothing more dark than a than death. And so ⁓ that’s where I was like, I’m sitting there in the middle of all these people, and I’m like, man, my my dad would be laughing his head off.
He’s like, he’s like, how’d you end up there? You know? And so that’s kind of like one that sticks out. I mean, there’s all kinds of stuff that sticks out, but that one was really special to me because it was so close to when my own dad died. So that’s that’s a good one.
Samson:
Yeah, no, that’s an amazing story, seriously. And, you know, I I think you say like in in dark situations, you know, trying to bring light, I think that’s just so important. And the beauty of coaching to me is the making those connections, right? And then like you said, you know, you you try to be there as much as possible, you know, but sometimes you never really know the full impact that you had. ⁓ so those moments where you can kind of see, you know, okay, wow, I really did help this person in this situation, not in a pat on the back way, but just in a like
Thank goodness that I’m doing what I’ve set out to do. Right. You didn’t become the strength chaplain just to come on the Samson podcast and say, I’m Jacked and I’m I’m a strength chaplain, right? Like you did this because you want to continue to introduce people to your faith. You want to continue to bring be the light in other people’s lives. And it’s a really cool story to just hear about how that actually came to fruition. So I really appreciate you sharing that with us. I guess my I guess my next question for you is you know, you’re obviously a very influential man in other people’s lives.
Andy Holmes:
Faire.
Yeah, of course.
Samson:
You know, who have been the most influential men in your life?
Andy Holmes:
that’s that’s that’s you know, I’ve had a lot of influential guys in lot of a lot of father figures. ⁓ someone that everybody will know on this podcast is ⁓ Jeff Madden, Coach Madden. ⁓ yeah. Yeah.
Samson:
Absolutely. I it was a leading question if I’m being honest, ’cause I knew this it would come to this,
so I wanted to get to this story for sure. So please c go ahead.
Andy Holmes:
Yeah.
Yeah, Mad Dogs, ⁓ he’s a very important person in my life. ⁓ I met him when I was ⁓ between my freshman and sophomore year and I was getting recruited by a guy named Coach Gregory and ⁓ I went to a camp, you know, and ⁓ I met they took us in the weight room and I knew a little bit about lifting, but I didn’t I didn’t know nothing. And I saw this the biggest
baddest man I ever thought I saw. I was like, who is this guy? And I was like, man, this guy must he seems to know a lot, you know, and like command the room. And I was like, I was like a little in awe. I was like, man, well if anybody knows how to play college football and how to get here, that guy does. Well anyway, they dismissed us to go, you know, to go eat. And I didn’t go. And I like stayed in the weight room.
And I waited for everybody to leave and I I saw where his his office was. So I knocked on the door and I’ll do my best, Coach Madden. Yes. And he’s like, and I I put I poked my head. I was like, Coach Madden? He’s like, Yeah, what do you need, son? And I was like, Can I talk to you? And he’s like, Come in. He goes, sit down. And so I asked him, you know, hey, what do you what do you gotta do to play college football? I go,
Samson:
Pretty good.
Andy Holmes:
What do you gotta w what do I gotta do? And that guy stopped his entire day and for 45 minutes talked to me about college athletics, strength and conditioning, speed training. ⁓ he’s just and and just a mindset of like, hey, whenever you think you’re good enough, you’re not. You know, like you think you’re fast, you’re not. You think you’re strong, you’re not. You know, there’s always somebody.
down the street who’s going to be stronger. I remember he even asked me, he looked at me, he goes, he goes, you drink and do drugs? And I was like, no. It’s like, I was like, I was like, here we whoa. I, you know, and he goes, well don’t start. And he’s, you know, he started he go he started rambling off about how you like you, you know, you work out for two days or something like that. And then you go get trashed. He goes, you’re going to waste those two days or something like that. And I, and I was like, man, this guy
Samson:
Ha.
Andy Holmes:
I was just like eating up everything he was saying. And what he did was he gave me their off season training manual. He goes, here, take this home and follow it. He goes, do everything it says. He goes, this will help you become better for n for next year. He goes, do everything it says. And I and I took it home and I like laminated it and like was like my own little notes. I was doing all this stuff and like ⁓
Man, I followed that thing to a T and he was right. Made me a better, made me a better athlete. It got me into strength and conditioning, got me into seeing that like, hey, you you have some control over the effort you put in and what kind of effort you put in matters. And that’s where strength and conditioning and coaches and things like that matter. And so anyway, we had we had lost contact and ⁓ this was about, I want to say seven, eight years ago. I was at the CSCCA and I said, I go, coach Madden.
And he goes, he goes, he kind of looked over and he goes, he goes, do I know you? And I was like, I know you. And he goes, you do? And I said, yeah. And I said, and I reminded him of that story. And he looked over at me and he goes, and you know, he kind of was like, you know, you’re not gonna believe this. And I go, what? And he goes, I was praying in the morning that God would give me a sign on me staying in this ⁓ business.
And he goes, he goes, I think you’re that sign. And he’s and it was like out of nowhere, you know, and it was kind of one of those like coincidences that like, you know, just at the right time, right thing. And so he’s been very instrumental in like the whole strength chaplain thing and encouraging me. And ⁓ you know, definitely is encouraging me to do take it even further into speaking and things like that. But like he was huge.
Samson:
Well
Andy Holmes:
He was huge. Like I would have never developed into the athlete. ⁓ and then that, you know, transcribed into coaching and stuff, ⁓ without him. Like just that forty five minute time, like he took his time. And that I’ll never forget that. Time is the most valuable thing we own. It’s the commodity of life. And for him to take time, because I wasn’t anything. I was not a top recruit at like between my freshmen. I wasn’t the nobody. I was a
He’s probably like, Kid, this you’re you’re lost. Go go to lunch, you know.
Samson:
Yeah, you
need to figure out where you’re supposed to go. But
Andy Holmes:
Yeah, you’re not even in the right spot, but no, it made
huge difference.
Samson:
Well, I think that’s such a cool story because like you spoke about with Alex on your side, right? You were the coach of that situation, right? you know, Coach Madden was on the opposite side of that for you and personally growing up. And then again, it’s what’s really cool about coaching to me and you know, the paths that are laid out for us is you get to meet people who change your life and you don’t really know ⁓ you know, until ⁓ later on that ultimately somebody really impacted somebody. And so it’s so cool for me to hear that and see that.
Andy Holmes:
yeah.
Samson:
I’m cracking up at you ask him asking you if you drink or do drugs because I remember he came on our podcast as kind of the, you know, ⁓ legacy series that we did. And they ⁓ he told the story about when they lost the national championship and then came back the next year and won it. And I said, Well, what was the difference between those two? And the first one, you know, he goes, Well, we were out drinking the night before. You know, the first one he goes, in the second one, we figured it out. You know, so it’s just funny, it cracks me up because
Andy Holmes:
Yeah. Yeah.
Samson:
The you want to talk about a man who’s true to himself. I mean, that guy has got it down to a T. So it’s so cool for me to hear about that experience.
Andy Holmes:
yeah, and he’s the same guy now as he he was back then. That’s what I love about him is like he’s a consistent guy. And I think that’s what you can that’s real leadership is if you have a guy you you see is what you get. And like ⁓ that’s that’s someone you can trust and like he’s just been a great mentor to me. So like he’s one he he’d be he’d be up there on the top, up there on the top list. But and like, you know, like I’ve been like I said, I’ve been blessed with guys and you know, I’ve had you know, real strong
Samson:
That’s awesome.
Andy Holmes:
⁓ guy’s been discipling me for, you know, twenty years. ⁓ Stan Murdoch. There’s another my godfather. And that’s that’s a very interesting man. ⁓ he’s probably the man I fear the most but love the most. And he ⁓ like he’s he like he’s a dangerous man. Like he ⁓ he’s he’s got like ⁓ probably forty years in policing, work with like, you know, on the national level and you know
W worked in special tr ⁓ weapons and tactics, just an interesting man. And ⁓ also, you know, taught at the university, things like that. Just a kind of a renaissance man. But like my mom used to call him my godfather because she said, Hey, he’s the only guy outside your own dad that I trust you with. And ⁓ he’s the guy who taught me judo and jujitsu and I mean, and he came from the old school. And so it was like rough, you know, like a little little rougher than normal.
And so ⁓ but I remember we’d go to the police training academy or training center, and they had a really nice ⁓ mat room. It was patterned after the codecon. It was like a bouncy floor, all new mats. We’re the only ones there, and we’re we’re just training. And so it was like three hours of training on a Sunday. So it was like an hour and fifteen minutes of judo, hour and fifteen minutes of jujitsu. And then he had something called street technique. And it was like, Well, I go, What’s that? You know, he’s like,
Remember, we don’t do this in the dojo with our friends. This is all for the street. And I was like, What do you mean the street? He goes, You get attacked. And I was like, ⁓ okay. This is real. And he’s yeah, this is real. This is how you’re gonna really screw somebody up. And I was like, I was like, okay. And it but it was like this is and he would say, No, don’t do this to your friends. He goes, You’ll get kicked out of a tournament. And you go kicked out, you know, clubs and stuff. And I was like, okay. And one day
⁓ like my mom would always call me on Sundays and she’d say, Well, what did you and Steve learn today? You know, what did Steve teach you today? And I said, we did some judo and we did some jujitsu, and then we did something called street technique. And she’s like, and she knew after a while street technique was always part of the lesson plan. And she she goes, Well, what’d you learn today? And and I said, Well, we learned how to pistol whip somebody. And she and it’s just me and him, you know, it’s just me and Steve.
And he and he and she goes and there and I go and I was all excited because I was young. I was like, yeah, it’s a figure eight thing on his face and she’s like and I’m all excited and she’s like, There’s just silence on the other end, you know, my mother. And like she’s like, Hmm. And then all of a sudden, after this big long pause, she goes, Well, if Steve thinks it’s important to know, I guess it’s important to know. She goes and I was just like and I was like, Okay. He’s like he’s like the one guy.
Samson:
Ha ha.
Andy Holmes:
They could teach me that. My mom would be okay with it. But yeah. yeah. Yeah. That guy, yeah. So ⁓ but ⁓ he’s a guy that ⁓ real strong Christian faith. ⁓ I think that’s a big thing that between him and a lot of the guys that, you know, I ran with and God bless me with being in my life, and that’s something I try to portray to these guys is like because you have faith in Christ, a lot of times people think Christianity is, you know, kind of like
Samson:
Yeah, that trust runs deep. ⁓ yeah. Yep.
Andy Holmes:
soft and kind of weak and yeah, I not weak, but kind of like ⁓ you know, like the Ned Flanders type of guy off of Simpson or something, you know? And then and I’m like, no, it’s actually the opposite. You know, these are the guys who are like probably taking on the some of the toughest lifestyle ⁓ challenges of all guys. And ⁓ you know, bringing like, hey, this is what you’re gonna face as a guy, you know, and, you know, this is the way, you know, how are you gonna handle it?
Samson:
Yeah.
Andy Holmes:
You know, how tough are you gonna be? And ⁓ you know, I had a background doing some prison ministry for ⁓ a stint and like that was the thing is like everybody if you was respect and toughness. And how do you define toughness? And it’s like it’s not always taking the easy way out. And the easy way out is fighting, drinking, you know, it a lot of times it’s like doing the hard thing is being tough. And so that’s one of the biggest things that we try to teach is like.
What does it mean to be tough ⁓ spiritually as well? So ⁓ all these guys who were influences to me were all very tough men. So that really helped.
Samson:
Yeah, absolutely. And it’s just so it’s so cool to me to kind of we ⁓ worked a little bit backwards, right, from how we got there, right? But to then to see how you were mentored and then how you’re able to mentor people in the future. It’s all about giving back and and being that person for others too. So I I’ve I’ve really enjoyed just kind of being able to hear about your life story and about what you do. And ⁓ truly, you know, I I I challenge somebody else to find another strength chaplain in the world. I just don’t think they’ll be able to do it. I just think it’s such a cool profession.
Andy Holmes:
Yeah.
Well, if if they do, then we could start a club ’cause like I only know of one. But I think there’s a lot of great guys out there. Like they’re probably strength chaplains. They don’t know that’s the title. So like there’s a lot of good strength coaches out there trying to ⁓ do the right thing and bring ⁓ Christ into the weight room as much as they can, you know. And ⁓ you know, it’s been a it’s it’s a blessing. It’s really humbling to tell you the truth, like ’cause you’re responsible for a lot of guys and you’re trying to, you know, there’s days you’re like, man, you’re just having a
Samson:
Mary God.
Andy Holmes:
You’re having a rough day yourself, but like you just kinda like, hey man, you know, it’s not about you. And you gotta like, you know, you gotta look at it like, you know, if you don’t do it, who’s gonna do it? And ⁓ you know, I kind of look at it like that, that, you know, it’s it’s important. It’s not about me. It’s not about how I feel about it. It’s about, you know, if you don’t reach that kid, then maybe nobody will. And so, and you never know where someone’s coming from. So if you can bring some light into that.
into their world, it really does matter, I think. So it’s been it’s it’s been a blessing to me and it’s it’s something I would have never guessed doing. I mean, I always talked to the A D and I said, Man, you wouldn’t recognize me five years ago. I was like running cattle. And I was like, Yeah, not at all. Yeah, I would have never thought. Yeah.
Samson:
That’s awesome. I mean, but it’s just incredible
what it’s morphed into. And, you know, again, I just I just think it’s so cool to see again the connections between your faith and what you’re able to do with these athletes and and I think it’s just a very uplifting story for me. You know, ⁓ we talked about this a little bit beforehand. Like it’s it’s just cool for me to do these podcasts because it kind of reinvigorates my, you know, ⁓ love for coaching and it just shows me, you know, what other people are doing out in the universe. It’s just very cool for me to see. So
I really, really appreciate you coming on the show. You know, I guess the the final piece that I kinda wanna mention for you too is that you’ve kind of talked about diving into public speaking just a little bit, you know, and if anybody’s listening and was curious about how to get in contact with you or, you know, what you could possibly do, what would what would be the best way to follow up?
Andy Holmes:
Well probably. ⁓ you know, obviously email me or ⁓ you know, get a hold of me through inform sport. But ⁓ you know, what I could do is I can, you know, obviously give you my contact information and that way we can have it ⁓ for anybody who’s interested. But yeah, like that’s you know, ⁓ again, like Coach Madden, he’s he’s the guy who’s pushing me real hard for that. He’s like, Hey, you got a a good message that is, you know, tailored for guys. ⁓ and I think there’s there’s a need.
⁓ you know, what’s interesting about guys ⁓ these days is they’re facing stuff that ⁓ you know, I didn’t I had I didn’t face. And, you know, I I think we talked about this at the C S C C A. Like, you know, you kinda have a really interesting ⁓ time in in the world where you have, you know, guys like when I grew up, and I’ll give you some examples. When I grew up, I had like thirty people in my class because I came a small town in Nebraska.
And so let’s say half of those were were girls. You know, let’s say there’s twelve girls or something like that. Well, there’s a good five of them you don’t want to date because they’re ugly. You know, like and so you got you know, so that kind of brings that pool down even smaller. So you have to like learn to communicate. You have to learn to talk, you have to learn to listen, you have to learn to pick up on cues, like, she likes strawberry ice cream, or she likes
you know, this is, you know, important to her or whatever. You have to listen. Cause if you want a date, you know, or you want to, you know, have a girlfriend, you’re gonna have to figure that out. But if you can’t communicate, you know, then whatever. But today the attention span is like so small. The communication skills have gone down because they’re always picking up the phone and stuff, you know, and it’s scrolling through things. I watch I’m like, man, these guys, this is like
I was like, you guys have horrible communication skills. And like, but the other thing too is like you have now ⁓ like dating apps, you know, where like you can just swipe left and there’s like unlimited number of women available. So I don’t have to really concentrate on anybody. You know, if that, you know, well, swipe left, I’ll get another one. And so that’s kind of weird. And then ⁓ you know, the other thing too is like the women who are out there have a ⁓
kind of a false sense of reality because like they’re looking at it at social media and they’re seeing guys who have like a an eight pack or a ten pack and they’re like six foot four or whatever and like they’re driving a you know a Ferrari or a you know sports car and they’re making you know half a million a year. I’m like, do you know how many guys there are that are like that? Like it’s so small. Like if and if any, you know, and like and so a lot of times guys, you know, are getting
pushed back against with like, well, what do you do for a living? well, I’m a I’m an assistant strength coach. ⁓ well, okay. You know, like, yeah, you know, it’s kind of like, and then they kind of feel like, well, I’m not even gonna try. And then, you know, you know, another thing that I and this is like what guys tell me. And so like the other thing that’s interesting too is, ⁓ and you know, I don’t, you know, we don’t have to get into this too too heavy, but like the rise of pornography. Like, I’ll tell you what,
There’s a lot of guys who struggle with that. And, you know, in the old days, you know, people got married because like, man, they’re lusting. They like, hey man, I gotta get married. I gotta I’ve gotta start making some kids or something. Like, what am I, you know, I gotta do something about this. But now you have ⁓ kind of a virtual Nova cane. You can get, you know, pick your poison and you can kind of subdue those urges. And so
Samson:
Yeah.
Yeah.
Andy Holmes:
What does that do? It g it does a lot of things internally in the head, but it also does a lot of things with their communication skills and how they see ⁓ sex and and women and and all that stuff. And like, you know, it’s kind of like it kind of warps it a little bit. And it also delays, you know, again, like where’s that, you know, intimate communication, you know, and that can that can fall into like a marriage can fall into ⁓ all kinds of issues. And so
I look at that and these kids are just bombarded by it. They’re bombarded by all that stuff. And what I find probably more often than not is that there’s a lot of anxiety. they already have anxiety because they want to play all the time. You know, they want to be the starter. And then the other thing too is they have anxiety about their their self worth. And so ⁓ my biggest thing is if they walk away from me knowing that they’re worth more than how they than their spot on the team.
as a as a person, like they have value. And if they have that, then you can start you can start from there and build a base.
Samson:
And so these are things that you can speak about with other teams too. You know, and that’s where yeah, the public speaking piece can be so so big is, you know, it obviously Ottawa’s very lucky to have you, but you know, you can ⁓ be rented out for possibly an hour or time and talk talk with people about these communication issues because it is a big issue, you know. So I’m really glad that that’s your mission because I see it happen ⁓ where I am and I think it’s a common theme that a lot of us have seen as coaches.
Andy Holmes:
yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Well, and that’s the other thing too. It you know, sports is such a cool thing because it brings all kinds of people together, but it’s also such a cool opportunity because you have such influence for, you know, a concentrated time. And if you can bring such good things out of that influence, besides I mean, win wins are a good thing. But like, you know what, there’s always another game. You know, and so like but you know, if you have long term wins with the with the person ⁓ individually, I think that matters a huge that that that that’s just
Taking advantage of the situation, you know.
Samson (1:00:13)
No doubt. Absolutely. I think that’s all we look for, right? Is, you know, kind of like you said, the short term wins are a little bit more exciting, maybe, but the long term wins are what really keeps driving us and keeps us going. So I think it’s fantastic. Well, Andy, thank you so much, man. Seriously, this has been one of my favorite episodes. It was really great to speak with you and and get to know you more and hear about your journey and and what you do and what you put out in the world. So thank you. I can’t thank you enough for coming on the show.
Andy Holmes (1:00:16)
Yeah.
Yeah, definitely.
Well man, I can’t thank you enough for letting me on here ’cause I’m like, I man, nobody wants to hear what I’m doing. Like but I
Samson (1:00:43)
No, I d I think I
think you’d be surprised, seriously.
Andy Holmes (1:00:46)
Yeah, well I really do appreciate it and it’s a great opportunity and ⁓ you know I just appreciate you, you know, you know, being having an interest in ⁓ putting it out there. So ⁓ thanks. Would love to do it again if you ever needed me.
Samson (1:01:00)
Yeah, we’ve actually been ⁓ bringing some guests on that we’ve had on previously. So ⁓ I can say that we, you know, we’ll possibly have the opportunity to do it again too, which I would love to do.
Andy Holmes (1:01:09)
Awesome. Awesome. Thanks, man.
Samson (1:01:11)
Thank you, Andy. I appreciate it.
