“I’m Not Delusional” – RealityNewsOnline’s Exclusive Interview with Survivor: Tocantins’ Coach

As I prepared for my interview with Coach, I expected him to be fiery and perhaps a bit defensive. I knew the questions I would be asking would challenge his moral views and his honesty. But what I found in talking to him was a very calm, almost contrite at times, Coach that we rarely saw on TV while watching Survivor.

RealityNewsOnline: Hello, Coach, and thanks for taking the time to talk to us here at RealityNewsOnline.

Coach: My pleasure.

RNO: There are questions that my readers have been begging me to ask you for weeks now. So let me start with one of the biggies. You talked about how you wanted to compete against the best. But at almost your first opportunity, you voted out Brendan. When asked about it, you said he went against you. Could you explain how these actions and statements were not contradictory?

Coach: I definitely don’t think they were contradictory. After the merge, it’s kill or be killed. If I hadn’t have taken out Brendan, I would have gone home and I wouldn’t have had the chance to take the weakest or the strongest to the end.

I didn’t want to gloat over beating a weaker opponent. That very first day I told Brendan I wanted to change the game. If he would have jumped on board, he, Tyson, and myself would have been checkmate for the final three. I was disappointed he didn’t. I didn’t want to cut Brendan, but Tyson had been telling me for days about Brendan and I kept saying I don’t want to do this. But as soon as I found out he was gunning for me, it flipped and I needed to take him out first.

RNO: If your plan was truly to take the most deserving and strongest players to the end, can you explain how that could have been a winning strategy?

Coach: Well, again it was a different strategy. As I said, I wanted to change the game. If I won along the way, it would be a bonus. It was almost a winning strategy. If Tyson would not have been eliminated, we would have been one-two. Tyson wanted to play it much differently coming in. When we got in an alliance, he played it differently [than he had originally planned]. Unfortunately, I was his downfall. He was too honest and he told J.T. and Stephen where they would end up. He was a voracious competitor who I deeply respected and admired. Obviously, the game is full of twists and turns. If something different would have happened, I think I got pretty close to fulfilling what I wanted to do.

RNO: You claimed to have never lied and to value honesty above all else. But we saw the situation with Sierra and we saw you tell quite a different story. Similarly, we saw you lie to Brendan about who was going to be voted out when Brendan was actually the target. How do you reconcile that, especially now that you’ve seen everything on TV?

Coach: With Sierra, what you see is final product. She did come up to me two days before. In a moment of complete lucidity and brilliance, she laid out the rest of the game: They’re going to pick us off. She did come up to me.

When I spoke in Tribal about my honesty, that was what I was remembering. I was very disappointed in myself. She was referring to the conversation that day. At the time, I did not think I lied. Watching the show, I think it was a gray area, and I wanted to avoid gray areas.

When it was Brendan’s turn to go out, I asked him, “What do you want to do?” He told me and I responded, “I want to go with the numbers.” I had the numbers, so it was not a lie. So I think I’m justified in saying I did not lie.

I wish I would have handled the Sierra situation better. I was not lying to stay in the game. I was still trying to be true to my alliance. I never went back on who I was going to vote off or vote for. I stayed true to my word and I’m one of the few people who can say that.

RNO: How did it feel to watch episodes over the past few weeks, including last night’s, and see that you were being taken for a ride while fully believing in your allies?

Coach: Overall it’s been a roller coaster. It’s been great and very tough. I’m human and I’ve been raked over the coals. It’s to make a brilliant character [for the show], which maybe I am and maybe I’m not. It’s been very tough to watch people you put your trust in. We’re relying on each other to survive. You build trust and you have to break that trust. It makes me sick to my stomach to watch that.

It was just so close to mapping out the rest of the game and solidify that change to the game and the culture of the game. I think I was successful, but it could have been even better. It ripped my guts out when Debbie turned against me. Last night, the whole episode was overwhelming for me. I wasn’t surprised that Stephen turned against me.

But just watching my body, it was very sad and very heroic. I’m not trying to toot my own horn, I just didn’t realize what shape my body was in. I never thought I was stronger than Brendan or faster than Tyson or smarter than Erinn. I thought I was one step back and knowing people would expect a lot from me. All I have left in this shell of a body is my mental focus. Getting myself psyched up for the game was what my strategy was all along.