Eric Hyman had a front seat to collegiate athletes for almost five decades. He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he earned All-ACC honors in football. Following his career, he began coaching - first at Furman University. In 1982 he moved into the front office where he became Associate Athletic Director at Furman. From there he went on to become Athletic Director at the Virginia Military Institute, Miami University in Ohio, Texas Christian University, the University of South Carolina, and Texas A&M University. His list of honors is long. And his insights into at ..read more

Jim Thompson is a social entrepreneur, a prolific writer, and the man behind the movement that has shifted coaching toward an approach grounded in "relentlessly positivity." As the founder of the Positive Coaching Alliance in 1998, Jim has helped usher in a sea-change in youth and high school coaching by teaching us all to prepare our athletes to win, and to be better people in life.  It is my deep pleasure to provide this half-hour conversation with Jim that ties together relentless positivity, climate change, poetry, and athletes in a way that few people have. He also discusses his new ..read more

1:00 - Allison talks about how she got into coaching, talks about the difficulties of cracking into the coaching ranks. 3:35 - For coaches who want to make the jump from high school to college, it's important to not let that desire get in the way of finding the right fit.  4:35 - Georgia has become a hotbed of volleyball, which is one of the fastest growing sports in America. Allison talks about why the competition in Georgia is so intense, and how the club and high school teams feed off of one another. 6:20 - Allison talks about the tensions between the club and high school coaches, and ..read more

Roy Kessel is the founder of the Sports Philanthropy Network, an organization committed helping sports leagues and teams do good in their communities. Roy has built an impressive network of top-tier sports personalities, local community sports organizations, and funders who are committed to advancing social change, education, empowerment, and opportunity through sports.  In this episode, Roy helps high school coaches understand the sports philanthropy landscape, and gives them real-world into making connections with organizations that can help support their work. There are no short cuts o ..read more

Javan Bexson lives in Saskatchewan, Canada, and is the founder of Underdog Coaches. Over the course of his high school coaching career he has coached seven sports.  1:00 - Javan describes how he came up with the name "Underdog Coaches" and what the organization is about. 3:11 - Javan describes becoming a head football coach, having never coached the sport, and how leveraged technology to bring himself up to speed in the sport. 6:04 - Relationships, according to Javan, are the best part of coaching. Javan talks about how he builds those relationships. 8:30 - A key part of developing those ..read more

Megan Bartlett has a long career in youth sports and in developing resources and materials to help make coaches better. Today, she runs We Coach (www.weallcoach.com). Based in Boston, Massachusetts, We Coach, per its website, "works with organizations that are serious about increasing their social impact through sport. Our team of experts helps integrate innovative practices from the fields of youth and community development into sports programs and strategies." In this episode she speaks in depth about trauma and its impact on young athletes, helping athletes deal with stress, and the ever-ex ..read more

Nicole Ialeggio is an athletic trainer at Riverbend High School in Fredericksburg, VA.  In this episode  Nicole explains the role of the athletic trainer at the high school level, the difficult decisions she has to make, what it takes to become an athletic trainer, and the things that coaches should know about the work trainer's do. Here are the highlights. 5:50 Mark - Nicole discusses the growing responsibilities that schools and districts place on high school trainers. She talks about the difficult decisions she has to make, what informs those decisions, and how coaches and trainer ..read more

Mat Pistole of Bureau Valley High School has been in coaching for more than a decade, and never endured the kind of losing streak he is now enduring. Rather than get discouraged, he has drawn important lessons about coaching and the meaning of sport from his struggles. A twitter post about this went viral. Now, Mat joins Time Out for Better Coaching to talk about the lessons he has learned, and the important lessons that other coaches can take from his experience.  ..read more

Mark O'Keefe has spent a life in journalism. What does that have to do with coaching? Well, as a high school athlete he learned about the power of coaching from one of the legendary Cross Country coaches in his home state of Wisconsin. At Marquette University, he broke stories about the basketball team and its head coach. And in Virginia, he covered some of the better high school coaches in the state. In this wide-ranging interview, Mark talks about his own upbringing, the relationship between coaches and reporters and how to improve them, and his newest venture aimed at helping people get fir ..read more

A ..read more