TV backslash wind cider. Welcome back to the wind siders show we are very honored to welcome in this episode the Indiana fever head coach Christie sides, very glad to have you, head coach sides has a nice ring to it. So I got how you doing? How you enjoying this new title? Hey, man, first, thank you so much for having me on. It's still not normal for me to hear head coach. It is, it's awesome, and it's been a great experience so far. November, through now, has been, it's been a grind and we've been working, but it's been fun. I've got great people around me. You know, I never thought I would be sitting in this seat. I'm not gonna lie. I mean, I've never, I've had the opportunity, people have reached out and it was so easy for me to say, hey, I really appreciate you calling and your interest, but I'm just really happy in the seat that I'm in and that assistant coach and role. And Lin Dunn reached out and for whatever reason I was sitting on my parents farm and talking to her and I could not when it was time for me to say those words, they would not come. And I was just like, okay, let me just so, you know, took a deep breath and decided, okay, let's just see how this goes. If it works out great, it's the timing would be awesome. And everything was smooth. And that's how I knew this was the right time for this opportunity for me. Well, let's start from the beginning of your coaching career. I believe the early 2000s, I saw you got into coaching at the high school level, how did that come to be? So I was, I was really, I wasn't going to go play pro, I had tried to go play the Portland fire, had brought me out to their training camp, and you could have an injured reserve player at the time. And so I never got on the roster, but was kind of iffy on what I wanted to do. And so I talked to coach Barr. I played for legendary coach Baltimore, Louisiana tech. And I had had an opportunity to go coach a division three out of division three school with a good friend of mine in Oklahoma, and I was just about to do it. And this man, he knows everything and finds out everything he always has. He always will. I don't know how he does it, but he called me up and he said, I don't want you to take that job. Just hold tight. He said, you don't need to leave and go to Oklahoma. And at the time, I didn't have a job at graduated college. I was like, coach, what am I going to do? He was like, just hold tight. This was a Sunday. Monday morning, I wake up and my phone rings, and I have a job offer at ruston high school, big Firebase school right there, and we're Louisiana tech is. To teach and to be the head freshman coach and JB coach and then assist with the varsity team and I mean, that's just who that man is. I mean, he's incredible. I mean, he's always, you know, he made me a better player, you know, I coach my philosophies were very similar to his in some ways, just his discipline and his hard nose, but he got me that job and he brought me in his office and he said, as soon as I have a position, it's yours here with me at Louisiana tech. But I need you to sit here and rustin and be close. And that's what I did for two years. And then the opportunity presented itself. He offered me the job with him at Louisiana tech and I actually didn't get to sit on the bench with him because after he had hired me, everything was in place, a few months later, he decided to retire, and that's when Kurt Bucky took over. Which was almost perfect for me because instead of being the director of basketball operations, I was able to have a dual role in the operations and be able to get on the floor and coach as well. So not sure if he had that in his plan, but I really appreciate him for helping me out, you know, for putting me in that position and kind of kick start in this my career. Well, and you've been at so many different stops. We talked about your stop at the high school level. Talk about Louisiana tech, LSU, even out there at Sparta in Moscow. Yeah. You've also coached northwestern Louisiana Monroe. And then your WNBA stops. Chicago, Indiana, Atlanta. Tell us about just kind of that journey because you've kind of gone back and forth throughout the course of your career. I have, you know, started out at Louisiana tech, my college career worked with Kurt Bucky, him and Katie hall and Chris long. We were on staff together, had a great run, got beat by Ella Shu. Out in Palo Alto, California, but we had a great run. I learned a lot in that time frame. And then poke Chapman reached out. I was playing golf with the staff and we had actually been battling a recruit. Keanu Cheney, this is, you know, this is a long time ago, but we were battling key on a chain. The LSU in Louisiana tech and there should have been no reason that we were in that ball game. LSU had gone to that final four and coach gunner when she stepped down, she told pokey, she goes, I don't know who you're planning on hiring, but you need to try to get Christie's sides 'cause we don't want to be bad on Louisiana tech for these recruits. And so thank you, coach gunner, who is one of my all time favorite human beings in the whole world. But she, you know, so poke reached out, offered me the job. Went back home because I'm from right outside of Baton Rouge. So I was able to coach and go to three final fours. With them and coach Simon Augustus and some great players there. I went in there for you. Great players all around, though, had several of them there, Sylvia files, my gosh, like we were, we had a great team. And then once I got out of coach and I kind of, you know, we'd go into the final four every year and I was trying to figure out my path and left Ella shoe and was went to work with one of the track coaches from LSU who had resigned about the same time I did.