December 6, 2023 • 32 mins
Dan Mulrooney, Head Football Coach at Lock Haven University, took over the program in 2022 and in only his second season guided the team their first 5-win season in 41 years. Prior to Lock Haven, Dan was the head coach at Anna Maria College (Div III) where he helped lead the program to its first-ever conference championship and NCAA tournament appearance. A former collegiate football player turned coach, Dan joins Nick to discuss what drives his success in helping turn around programs, fairness vs opportunities, and the importance of communication and emotional intelligence.
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
And if you're talking to the right kid into their
left family and they want to come play for someone
who's really going to be passionate, enthusiastic about their development
as a young man.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
That's where we find success because it's real.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Because it's authentic, because it starts with I love you,
it ends with I love you.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
This is the Reform Sports Project, a podcast about restoring
healthy balance and perspective in all areas of sports through
education and advocacy. Hi, this is Nick Bonacor from the
Reform Sports Podcast. Today, I'm reconnecting with.
Speaker 4 (00:32):
Dan mulrooney, the head football coach at lock Haven University.
I first interviewed Dan in episode nine at the end
of twenty twenty one, right after he had led NCAA
Division III Anna Maria College to its first ever NCAA
Tournament appearance and first ever Eastern Collegiate Football Conference championship.
Dan moved on to lock Haven in twenty twenty two
and recently led the team to its first five win
(00:54):
season in forty one years.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Dan and I discussed his success in turning around struggling
football program, college recruitment, and the highs and lows of
coaching at the collegiate level. Man, we got a first,
the first of having a guest for the second time,
and I couldn't be more like ecstatic to have this
dude on. He graced us with his presence right right
around the beginning when the pod launched, and at the time,
(01:20):
he was coming off of a storybook season for a small,
little Division III school in the Northeast. He totally turned
around the program and was coming off of Cinderella season
and Maria College. But now here we are two seasons later,
coming off of another Cinderella story, another turnaround story at
the Division two level with lock Haven University. Man, I'm
(01:42):
just so pumped to have him. Head football coach lock
Haven University, Dan mulrooney, Dan Man, thanks for hopping on,
bro Nick.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Thanks so much. Man, I'm excited to be on. Obviously.
You have a hell of a.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Hell of a podcast, help of a story here. What
you're doing is incredible. Just thank you an honored to
be on again.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
I can't have enough words to thank.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
You, So let's just jump in in the saddle here.
First of all, he old you. Are you even forty
years old?
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Yet I'm thirty four thirty four?
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Holy gee, I'm ten years older than you. But anyway,
so a young man thirty four dude, So you're you're
a head football coach at the D two. Why do
you seem to be taking over programs that seem to
be like I want to just call them like outcast.
It almost seems like coaches don't want to go to
these progsm too. How do you turn them around so
quickly at such a young age?
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Yeah, I mean I took over to rebuilding programs. And
when you're rebuilding, you better have a lot you better
at first of all, you better have a vision, right
I think number one when you take over a program
that hasn't had success in a very long time.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
First at the Division.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
III level, never won more than one game, and then
Lockehaven never won more than two games three games in
forty one years.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
This year we won five games. It's the most in
forty one years. Pretty wild, pretty great story.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
I think the two things you walk into a rebuild
and I've learned this, which is amazing. When program durn
rock Bottom, you better have a really really strong vision,
number one, and number two, you better have a lot
of confidence in your vision because the second you don't
believe it or the second you don't surround yourself with
your staff and with people that really buy into what
you're trying to do. You know, the kids, the staff,
(03:17):
the school. Everyone's smart and they can see right through
a phony. You better be authentic, and you better have
a confidence level to yourself that's real and that's passionate,
and that's something that you could really change and change quickly.
I mean the whole reason you take a rebuild is
for the opportunity, right, I mean, the opportunity is huge obviously.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
You know.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
I decide to see every problem as an opportunity to
find a solution, right, And I love problems.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
I think I'm a great solution person.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
And you know, it's more impactful when you can turn
around to program that Like at this place at Lockape,
my interview for the job is that we're gonna win here.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
And they're like, well, we haven't had.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
A we haven't won five games in forty one years.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
It's going to be a long haul. And I'm like,
just trust me, trust me. I know I'm doing that.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
I just did it at the hardest place to win
I think in the country, at a Maria college, and
I know the resources here. I know what's possible and
it's gonna happen here, and you just have that confidence
in yourself and it kind of just exhudes to everybody
else and it's pretty impactful when it actually kee me done.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
And actually I was shocked myself. I did it pretty quickly.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
And that brings me to this, like, how do you
get so you have the vision, right, you have the
belief in yourself, but how do you get a group
of eighteen to twenty two year old kids, you know roughly,
to buy in so quickly? I mean, I think about
the movie I'm Gonna Show my atu here. I think
about the movie Wildcats. You know, here's this new coach.
(04:36):
You know in that movie Goldie hawn Right, it's a comedy,
but in general, sometimes there's like, you know, a new
coach comes in, it's like the players might test the
Water's like, what the hell does this guy know? He's
only X amount of years older than me, he doesn't
know more than me. But how do you get these guys,
these athletes to buy in so quickly to your vision?
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (04:56):
I think like just in general, like every coach says
the same things when they take over a job, right,
walk into a job and they said, we're gonna do this.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
We're gonna do that.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
You know when with the people, you gotta do this.
We have to recruit, as recruiting is the lifeblood. Like
they also had the same coach talk realistically, it's about
connecting with those kids, like.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
That's really what it's about. It's having emotional intelligence. We
talk about that a lot as the staff.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Emotional intelligence to me is the ability to connect with people.
And when I got interviewed for the job and I
met with the team, it was basically over because what
happened was I walked in that room, I closed the door,
there was no administrators in there, and I said, I
want to win now. I said, all the other stuff
you're gonna hear about rebuilding is it takes time and
we're gonna do things the right way and blah blah blah.
(05:37):
I said, guys, I want to win now. Are you
willing to sacrifice what it takes? And you got to
make a choice to be great and to be elite
If you want to be average, I'm the wrong guy.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
For the job.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
And when you look them in the eyes and you
can connect with those kids, I'm only ten years removed
from playing the Division one football and their level of football.
And when you can get in that room with them
and you know you have their eyes right, you know,
you have them and their foots tapping under the chair,
you know what I mean. You have them like you know,
and you have them and you know what they're going
to say and you know how they're reacting to you.
(06:06):
That's the emotional intelligence I think you need. There's new
generation of athletes right the TikTok, the Instagram culture there
right now, success stories.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
They want it right now, right.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
So when I closed the door after I got introduced,
the president walked out, the ad walked out.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
I closed the doors. Listen to all that stuff I
just said, it was great, But here's the real deal.
I want to win now. If you don't want to
win now, get out. And at lock Haven, well I
had them.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
I took over a team with seventeen athletes on it,
and lock Haven I took over a team with thirty eight.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Athletes on it.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
So rock Bottom was an understatement, but no one would
have walked into I knew the challenge was real, but
I knew the opportunity was better.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
And you know, for me, when I talk to these athletes.
I just talk to them real like.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
I'm passionate, I love, I love my family, and you know,
I'm tough. You know, that's my brand, That's who I
am as a person. I hold that very sacred to
myself and everything I say, everything I do, the way
I act, those three words come out passion, love and toughness.
And that's our culture, you know. And you can't fake it,
you know, you put it on the board. Every place has,
you know, passion, toughness, family all over the board, like,
(07:12):
but that's me and I protect that really sacred. And
I think in this new generation having a youthful coach
that has a lot of enthusiasm to coach centric world too,
like marketing, branding. I'm sure we'll get into that stuff,
but you know, that's what the coach centric.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
World is right now.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
The football program a lot of these small colleges of
the front porch to the university and what people are
seeing and when people go to the games, it means
a lot to the community, it means a lot to
the school.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
So when you say you connect with them, I mean
you are only ten years removed. So I mean I'm
ten years removed from you. Ry, I'm ten years older
than you. But the difference between a forty four year
old thirty four year old, I mean you kind of
probably started really you kind of grew up at the
very I don't know, I don't even know, like when
social media you probably were still in college or even
beforehand when it really started to kind of you know,
(07:58):
get a little momentum so you can connect with them, right,
And there's you know, I notice I talked to you know,
one of my biggest mentors in my life is Mike Fox,
who was a longtime coach University of North Carolina baseball team,
Hall of Famer and you know, a legend, and he said,
it's different. You know, he retired a few years ago,
and he's like these younger coaches who grew up in
this environment, they can really connect. And here's a guy
(08:20):
who has had success, you know, been to the College
World Series numerous times and one at the Division three level,
and then of course was in Omaha six or seven
times at Chapel Hill. And when he was ready to retire,
he's like, man, you know, it's just different now. So
what is you having the experience only being ten years removed?
Why is that an advantage, do you believe versus someone
(08:41):
who maybe my age or a little bit older, who
may be quote unquote a little more seasoned. But why
does that give you potentially an advantage with connecting with
these with these younger kids particularly, I guess in the
recruiting process.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Yeah, the social media age. I got into it.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
I start coaching twenty thirteen, so it was right when
like twitters started being big, Instagram. I'll say, I have
all the apps and all the things that they have,
and I understand how I connect.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
It's so easy to access kids these days. Right back
in the day when.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
We were growing up, send the DVD or the vhs
and whatever. The coaches, I think it really just helps recruiting,
you know, when you're younger and you want to be
really connected to these kids, know what they want, right,
Recruiting is a simple thing to me. It's a lot
of effort, but my simple thought we're recruiting is don't
change the tract. Right, So everything that they see on
(09:28):
social everything that you want them seeing, everything that they
want you to believe, you could put out there in
social media and they see it. Recruiting is a huge
piece of that and the connection with older coaches.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Versus younger coaches. To answer your question on that, I.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Think it's as simple as adapter die right, And you
know the famous you know, famous books on that stuff
and things like that. But times are changing, you know,
and obviously sports are changing.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Whether it's baseball, football.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
And you have to sacrifice sometimes some of your morals
and some of your things to have a great team
and be a great recruit.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
At the end of the day, you have to be real.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
You have to be able to look those kids across
when they're here on campus.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
But I'll talk to a lot of coaches, you know
a lot of coaches. The hardest part is.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Connecting with them and getting them on campus. And we
firmly believe here if they're sitting in my office and
I have a family sitting across from me, we're gonna
win on that recruit ninety percent of the time.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
You know.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
So it's one of those things that can you attract
the kid off your social media?
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Can you connect with the kid off your social media?
And nowadays with the transfer.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Portal, we saw immense success from the transfer portal.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
A lot of team you.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Know, a lot of coaches I talk to that are older,
a bunch of the ones that just retired.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
They're talking about how hard it is, you know, how
annoying it is. The portal is so tough. It's so hard.
It's so bad for college football.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Where I look at it as such an opportunity for
college football, it's just an opportunity for me. Now I'm
gonna rebuilding program. But I got a Penn State transfer
to come here, who was the first team All Conference player.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
I had an Alabama.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Running back transfer to me in Lockhavid, I had Buffalo.
I had seventeen transfer come in from the portal and
they all were All conference.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Three of the four of them were All conference.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
One was the offensive player of the Year in the
Peace Act, the first that Locke Caven's ever had major award. Wise,
we made such a big step forward in the portal
because they're mature, you know, and you're able to speak
to these kids.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
I was them right. I went to Bulkham College.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
After I graduated, I transferred to Tony How was the
transfer success story? There's not many of those, and I
can look at them across and say, this is what
you need when you're transferring, Because to me, transferring.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
Is about trust. You have to trust the head coach and.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
When every other assistant coach that's twenty five, twenty six
is contacting you when you're in the portal and you
feel lonely, when the head coach calls you and facetimes
you and it's different, and you're like, Wow, this guy
is young, he's different.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
He wants to give me a plan and we found
success there. Now, our closest airport is about three hours away.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
At lot Cans, so it's not really a transfer portal destination, okay,
But at the end of the day, they want to
trust the head coach at their next school to have
a plan for them. And really, when you're looking at
you know, recruiting and social media and being young and
the portal is such a great thing for the new
age college football because not only are the kids in
(12:10):
your team important, but obviously recruiting the grown men that's
going to make a difference in your program important too.
So I know I long winded, but at the end
of the day, social media, be young, having the opportunity
to help people, I think there is.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
One of the main things that I believe I'm great at.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
Let's just cut to the Chaser. You mentioned programs like
Penn State. You mentioned programs like Alabama. When I turn
on my you know, TV on Saturday to watch college football,
you know, I'm sorry to say it, I'm not watching
the Lockehaven They're not on TV, right, I mean, and
I'm a proud Division III graduate. You know, it's part
of a national championship team in baseball. Like, I have
a big heart and I'm a big advocate for find
the right fit. However, how do you, as a college
(12:50):
coach at the Division two level, you know, compete on
a recruiting trail with a high school kid or even
let's say a high school kid who is a fringe
FCS player or can go to lock Haven. You know,
let's say the kid can you know potentially you know,
go to an FCF school in the southeast, right, and
I mean, God for nothing, lock Haven a little bit
(13:10):
different weather in PA than it is when you're going
to a school in the Carolinas are in you know,
the south somewhere warmer weather. So how do you, from
a competitive standpoint sell a Division two you know, rebuild?
I guess you know you've taken it to the next
level now versus a kid who may be somewhat courted
at an FCS school in Florida type thing. I mean,
do you feel comfortable that you can get those kids?
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (13:33):
Absolutely, I think you know when I sell to really anyone, Right,
it's not about the price, it's not about the facilities,
it's not really not about any of that. A lot
of the schools are the same, right, every school, regardless
of the facilities, they're all similar.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Right.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
There's dining halls, there's dorm rooms, there's stadiums, the helmets,
their shoulder pads, some different colors, right, they have all
the same things. Every school is basically offering the same thing.
Some are better prices, you know, some better things facility wise,
But what every school doesn't have is the people that
could be the right fit. Like, you have to go
to a school, in my opinion, if you're looking at maturely,
(14:10):
it's transformational to go to college. That's what it should
be about. And when you're around the right people, you grow.
These eighteen to twenty two year olds are so impressionable.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
And I was too, and I'm sure you were as well.
That you really have to be really selective.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
And careful about the people you want to surround yourself
with because that's who you're going to become, especially at
that age, right, we're young men.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
There's ego.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
Eighteen to twenty two year old men are so hard
to control and so hard to be around.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
But at the end of the day, it can transform
your life.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Into either a really positive thing, an average thing, or
go downhill.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
And realistically, if you're looking at.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
It maturely, like zoom out on all the other stuff,
right the stadium and the facilities, and you know the location,
and if it snows or if it's sunny, and really
zoom in on the people that are going to transform
your life. And if you're talking to the right kid
into the right family and they want to come play
for someone who's really going to be passionate, enthusiastic about
(15:09):
their development as a young man. That's where we find
success because it's real, because it's authentic, because it starts
with I love you, It ends with.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
I love you.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Right a lock Haven any place I've been, right, and
these kids like.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
There's nobody after the.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
Season this year, you know it's portal season, right, there's
not one kid in the portal from lock Haven, right.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Because they love it here. You know, they love the coaches,
they love their.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Experience, right, and they see it from the outside end,
they say, wow, this place looks different. You know, these
players are having fun on social media. They're loving their coaches,
they're loving the school, They're proud.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Of their community.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
That's coaching to me, that's the new age, right. You
have to make it student athlete based. As a coach,
you have to center it around the student athlete experience.
It has to be about them. It has to be
can I give them everything in my power to make
their experience good? Because if not, it's going to go
real south really quickly.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
When we return, Dan and I dive into important coaching
skills and balancing his coaching career and family life. Welcome back.
Where we left off. Dan and I were about to
discuss the role of fairness in sports and the importance
of hard work. There's eleven there's eleven starters on offense,
(16:26):
eleven on defense, eleven on special teams. How do you
make the kid? And let's face it, man, there are
kids on every team who know, after a little bit
of time, there's a very very strong likelihood they're never
going to be a starter at the table. I mean
that's just real. For the most part. In high school,
everyone who's in college and athletics, right, No, I don't
(16:47):
care what division you're at, what level you're at. You
were probably one or two or three of the best
players in your high play in your area, you know,
wherever you grew up. But then you go to college
and you're like, holy cow. My son Avery is a
Division two wrestler for UNC Pembroke. Right now, he actually
is a true freshman. He he's in the starting lineup,
but which is huge, But he's realizing there's a there's
(17:08):
a difference. It's not he can't do the same thing
in college and get away with it on the wrestling
met that he could in high school. So he's learning
through it. But he's good enough. He's put himself in
a position to be competitive as a true freshman. But
there are plenty of kids on that team who are
true freshmen who can't and may never right. And that's
every program. So how do you as a coach keep
that kid? How do you retain them? And more importantly,
(17:29):
how do you make sure that that kid doesn't become
a problem. How do you make them feel part of
even though they might not be contributing on the field.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Yeah, I think that's a great question. I really think
it's messaging. I think half a life and being a
head coach your communication skills. I think that's the most.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Maybe underrated value, communicating correctly. But there's two administration, alumni,
the community the players. Most importantly, having strong communication skills
is huge and being able to talk to them real
and saying here's one of my favorite lines.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
I always say, I hate the word fair.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
We don't use that word, and fair is a thing
that is not real in college athletics, parents call me still.
You know, I just want to be fair. The kid
wants a fair shot. You know I want fairness.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Farentens does not exist in my program. Okay, opportunity does.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
I guarantee the kid that isn't playing the season that
didn't get the fair shot gnet plenty of opportunity to
prove it.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Now more kids get more opportunities. Yeah, one kid might
get one play on kickoff and if he doesn't do
anything with it.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
He doesn't make the tackle, if he's run over somebody,
that might.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Have been his only opportunity ever. And that's life, and
that's why sports teach you.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
The best parts of life, right, I make it one
opportunity that the interview at Lockehaven. I had one shot
and I seized it. Now, the guys might not have right,
but at the end of the day, you have an opportunity.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Whether it's fair or not. Fair doesn't exist in this world.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
As an adult, you know that right, you're never gonna get.
It's never gonna be fair, it's never gonna be balanced.
And you know fair and balance is not a thing
I use.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
Like a parent, call me the other day she.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
Said, well, I'm worried about his balance of school in football.
Like listen, there's no balance as a student athlete. You
want to be great at something. You want to be elite.
There's no just thing is balance. You do what you
have to do to make sure your life is very controlled.
But I want to be great at football. I want
to be the most elite coach you know in Division two?
Speaker 2 (19:24):
How does that happen? But you're in the office, you're
misunderstood a lot.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
You miss holidays, you miss birthdays, you know, you miss
time being dad.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
You miss a lot of things and people say, well,
you're crazy. I want to be great.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
So the balance of life doesn't happen like that. The
fairness doesn't happen. You have to create your own opportunities.
And we live in football. In sports, it's a result business.
You lose by one point, you still lose.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
You have to win.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
You have to be on the left hand side of
that column every time where you're not a good coach
or you're not a good leader, and obviously there's other
things that go into that.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
You're impacting lives.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
And you're changing, you're helping kids and you're developing them.
But at the end of the day, to answer your question,
I mean the worst fair I don't use the word opportunity.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
I do, and you either sees it or you don't.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
And there's a lot of opportunities I'm sure these kids
have gotten. Whether it's a training camp rep. Did you
take a perfect step? You know, we're you first, We're
you first to breakfast? Were you first to every meeting?
Do you bring a pen and pencil to every meeting?
Are you trying to be great or you're trying to
be elite or you're trying to be excellent? Are you
trying to be average or you're trying not to care?
And if you let that bring you down as an athlete,
(20:31):
and you're not noticing that. Coaches realize everything, and you're
constantly evaluated.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
You're hurting yourself. So I think that's that's really.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
My two cents on I'm just obviously seventy percent of
the athletes don't play right, So why.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
Don't they play. Let's take it a little deeper. Why
don't they? Is it just talent? Is it just gifts? Sometimes?
But I think most of the time, persistence is key.
If you want something, you got to go get it.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
Coach, every time I talk to you, and you know,
we stay in touch, you know, through text and stuff,
and I feel like anytime I want a jolt of
energy and enthusiasm, I got a head up, Coach mulrooney,
and you kind of give me that juice. Like what
do we expect going forward? I mean, what does it
look like now we're going into the off season for you?
What does it look like? You didn't say the word obsessed,
(21:15):
but I've heard that enough from people. I try to
follow people who have had sustained success for long periods
of time in different fields, not just athletics, and infringes
on the borderline of like negative obsession, like it's flirting
this line of like unhealthy obsession. So how do you
balance being a father of young kid's husband, you know,
with all these ambitions and goals and trying to be
(21:35):
the best coach and recruiter and such for Lockhaven. What's
it look like now for you through December and January
and so on.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Yeah, first of all, have a great wife that understands
you're a coach and that you know, it's a blessing
that she married a winner. It's also a curse that
she married a winner at telling all the time. You know,
have a wife to understand your obsession. And the obsession
is a good thing, you know, because it's elevating my
career and elevating everything our families about.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
She sacrificed so much.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
I get emotional thinking about it, to be honest, sacrificing
her career and moving away.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
From family, and she is the best. She's my rock.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
In terms of being a dad, you have to be
very selective and that gets me emotional thinking about that
as well, because you don't want to miss out.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
I'm little kids.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
I have a three year old and I have a
one and a half year old, and you have kids too,
and there's no better time in life than being with
my kids. Like, I literally have no hobbies. I'm in
the office, working, recruiting, coaching, or I'm with my kids.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
And my wife. That's it.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
I heard a quote like, if you have a good
golf game, you have to be coaching very long. I
don't have time to sit on a golf course for
eight hours by myself.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
And get good at golf. I don't want to do that.
I have no interest. I literally just want to be
with my kids.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
And honestly, like I think dad is a much bigger
role than coach in my opinion, and being a head
coach is really cool because I get to create my
own schedule in a way. I'm not obviously a twenty
seven year old or thirty five year old assistant who
has us to travel.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
For two seconds and work for someone else. But I
think you have to be selective on what memories you
want to create, and really, what I've done comes of
being his dad.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
I drove my kids to school every morning, and sometimes
it's really hard to do that consistently, but I haven't missed.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
I drove my kids to school, I drive my kids
to daycare every single morning.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
I take my son to what we call treat Day
on Friday morning.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
To a little diner. We have pancakes, we sit there.
He's the little mayor of that little diner. Hilarious. They
all know him, they'll walk in. We're in a little
small town. But I want to create those memories so
that when they're older. And yeah, I missed a lot of.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
Time being dad, But they said, you know what, my
dad drove me to school every single.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
Day, no matter how busy he was, and you always
brought me a breakfast every Friday, Like you never forget
that as a kid. And I just know that that's
important to me.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
And obviously it's emotional thinking about that because I love
him so much and I want to miss time.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
But like you said, there's no balance.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
Like you want to be elite at something, you can
have to sacrifice a lot.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
You're gonna be misunderstood.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
There's gonna be problems creating friendships.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
Like you know, people understand my life and if they don't,
then you know they're not going to be in it.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
But you know, you miss holidays, you miss birthdays, you
miss weddings.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
I mean I missed so many weddings. Through the years
from coaching.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
But at the end of the day, if you want
to keep building upon what you just did, Like, we
just won five games, the first this school's ever had
in forty one years, the most wins in forty one
years of this college.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
And that's amazing. But I'm not a five hundred football coach.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Every single place I've been, whether it's high school, college.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
We've won a championship.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
I've won seven championships in my life. My resume, all
that stuff, it's all championship driven.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Now.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
I think the Bill Parcells quote that's really popular is it's.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
Not hard to be mediocre, right, It's not hard.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
To you know, certain places is hard, right, this place
hasn't been done forty one years.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
But the difference.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Between seven and nine and eight and eight in the NFL,
Bill Parcells said.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
Is not that hard. It's not big of a difference.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
But the biggest difference is the ten and six, the
eleven and five. What makes you mediocre to playoffs? There's
so much growth and so much difference in those teams.
That's my next challenge and I'm so so excited that hopefully.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
Get to that next step. But what's that look like?
Was my plan. How am I going to be different?
How am I going to move different? Right?
Speaker 1 (25:14):
What type of steps am I going to make? They're
going to elevate the program? Would I do good? That
want to be great?
Speaker 2 (25:18):
At what I do? Bad?
Speaker 1 (25:19):
That want to be that I want to really pick up,
you know, whether it's fundraising, alumni relations, you know, all
these things that go into be a college coach, especially
at a lower level, Like you're the player personnel guy,
you're the GM.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
Like you're the recruiter.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Like we have eight guys on staff right, four of
them are full time. Like you better be your self
starter at these programs if you're D three D two,
Like big misconception that I've always heard when I was
interviewing for the job.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
It's like, you're a D three coach. You know, this
is a new ballgame. Now it's Division two. There's scholarships.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
You might not be ready, And I'm like, so if
you give us more resources.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
It's only going to be easier. It was such a.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
Misconception that, like the hardest job in the world to
me is a high school coach that you can't recruit
at right, you could be the best coach in the
world but if you go to a high school and
you can't recruit at the high school and you have
to play with whoever's in your town, it's hard.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
The next step is Division three because now there's no scholarships.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
This parody and no one has scholarships and it's all
just recruiting off what resources you have in.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Terms of facilities.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
The biggest misconception is that say, well, you need to
get recruiting experience with scholarships, because that's so hard.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
Once you get scholarships, it's harder. Nick it's easier once
you get scholarships.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
Now I could make it more affortable for these families,
and we.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
Just crushed it.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
We just had fifty five kids last year and we
jump from one win to five wins basically overnight. It's
not harder, it's easier. If you keep getting more resources
and you build a certain way where you're not used
to having anything, and then you're given something, it just
makes it easier.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
And I think that's such an important and such an
easy point to think about.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
I think the more resources you've given when you haven't
been given something is just so beneficial.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
As we wrap up, Coach, I just a podcast on
the Steve stephen A Smith. Everyone knows who he has
had Tom Brady on, you know, the goat Tom Brady
and and you know, I've just watched it a little
while ago, and I was, you know, I hang on
every word like a guy like Tom Brady, scept guys
like Michael Jordan, Tom Brady, I want to listen to
what these guys, you know, these athletes, these people have
(27:19):
had sustained success talk about and and Brady talked about
how you know how challenging it is for for kids
these days is because you know, they're so used instant
gratification there in many ways fishing for clicks and YadA, YadA, YadA.
But that's not sustainable. You know, it's not sustainable. What
sustainable is is work. I'm gonna ask you, and I
would love for you to elaborate on it. Is is
(27:40):
there a substitute for down in the trenches, straight up
hard work from your experience? Had things changed where you
can shortcut or is it still down in the trenches
hard work, grind and if you want to be the
best version of yourself, I think that's always.
Speaker 2 (27:59):
Been my secret to success.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
Anybody that's elite or great, you know the secret sauce.
This is why I tell my staff the secret sauce
about lockap.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
And football that I want no one else to know.
It's how hard we work. To outwork everyone is a
sign in my office. I can text it to you after.
This does not work everyone.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
And it's one of those things that growing up, my
favorite word I like to use. When I was in
high school, nick, I love when people say I was lucky.
I'm lucky, lucky that you're born that fast. I'm lucky
that you're a genetic freak, and that your parents were
this and that and the third.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
I wasn't lucky. I outworked everybody. And you can ask
any of my high school coaches or anybody.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
I woke up at six in the morning, went to
the YMCA before school. Every single day at the y Waterbury,
I worked out two hours a day before school, then
did it again after school. I pushed my dad's van
up a hill three times a week. I backpedaled up
that hill. I want no one to know how hard
I worked, and I wanted for people to think I
was lucky. That's the same mentality I have.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
What I do. I want everyone to.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
Think I'm just out there getting lucky and recruiting good
kids and blah blah blah.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
But what they don't know, and what they.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
Don't realize, is I'm up till two in the morning
staying connected with them. These kids will answer a FaceTime
at eleven PM these days and they'll answer, you can
recruit up until up until midnight.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
You can work as hard as you want to work.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
And when you work hard, I always tell the staff this,
don't complain about.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
The results with the work you didn't do.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
That's literally my motto on life, like, don't complain about
the results with the work that you didn't do. If
you did the work, and you can look yourself in
the mirror and say I did everything in my power
to get this place better, I could live myself.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
But if I didn't do the work and I was lazy, I.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
Took shortcuts, and I wasn't very selective for my time,
and I didn't do the right things, that's on you, man.
And I tell my student athletes the same thing, and
I can't look at them and they can't look at
me without knowing that works harder than everyone in this building.
To the head coach, you better work harder, you better
set the time every single day. You walk in with
a certain swag to yourself that you're gonna set the
(30:04):
tempo on that work ethic every single day and you
better not fold. And as a leader, as a communicator,
as a coach, they look at that and they look
at everything. So yes, I do believe, at least to
my core, that work is the ultimate key there everything.
Speaker 3 (30:19):
Dan freaking mulrooney coach. Where can people connect with you
on all your social platforms or handles all that stuff?
Speaker 2 (30:25):
Please? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (30:26):
I mean Twitter is probably my biggest one. That's because
college football recruiting is all over there. I'm coach Underscore
mul coach mole obviously on Instagram, Dan Underscore mulrooney. And
that's about it for me for the social media basically
on Instagram, Facebook.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
And Twitter obviously, I'm very active on those.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
I do respond, you know, if you DM me or
send me a message, I'll definitely get back to you.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
Obviously if you want to chop it up, learn.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
More about me or learn more about my vision. I'm
always willing to help coaches, you know. Obviously speak at
the convention on every year down in Nashville.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
This year, I'm.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
Excited about that and obviously always always around to help you.
Speaker 3 (31:03):
Dan mulrooney, lock Haven University. I love it. I can't
wait to see you guys bust out win that championship
like you have been everywhere you've been. Man. So I
can't thank enough, bro, and let's keep in touch. We'll
rock this back again after you win that title next year.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
Thank thanks, It's been a blast. Honestly honored to be
on this podcast again. I'm the first two time, two time.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
First of I mean, you have some amazing guests and
this is a great and you have a great platform.
I'm just like I said, I'm just honored to be
here and obviously have a good Christmas and all that stuff.
Speaker 3 (31:31):
All right, brother, I appreciate the same to you. That's
Dan mulrooney at football coach at lock Haven University. Thanks
for listening to the Reform Sports Podcast. If you've enjoyed
this episode, we would appreciate it if you took a
moment to rate and review our podcast. As we work
to grow our community of supporters and advocates for more
reform sports content, please subscribe to our newsletter and blog
(31:52):
at Reformsports Project dot com. You can also follow us
on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
And if you're talking to the right kid into their
left family and they want to come play for someone
who's really going to be passionate, enthusiastic about their development
as a young man.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
That's where we find success because it's real.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Because it's authentic, because it starts with I love you,
it ends with I love you.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
This is the Reform Sports Project, a podcast about restoring
healthy balance and perspective in all areas of sports through
education and advocacy. Hi, this is Nick Bonacor from the
Reform Sports Podcast. Today, I'm reconnecting with.
Speaker 4 (00:32):
Dan mulrooney, the head football coach at lock Haven University.
I first interviewed Dan in episode nine at the end
of twenty twenty one, right after he had led NCAA
Division III Anna Maria College to its first ever NCAA
Tournament appearance and first ever Eastern Collegiate Football Conference championship.
Dan moved on to lock Haven in twenty twenty two
and recently led the team to its first five win
(00:54):
season in forty one years.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Dan and I discussed his success in turning around struggling
football program, college recruitment, and the highs and lows of
coaching at the collegiate level. Man, we got a first,
the first of having a guest for the second time,
and I couldn't be more like ecstatic to have this
dude on. He graced us with his presence right right
around the beginning when the pod launched, and at the time,
(01:20):
he was coming off of a storybook season for a small,
little Division III school in the Northeast. He totally turned
around the program and was coming off of Cinderella season
and Maria College. But now here we are two seasons later,
coming off of another Cinderella story, another turnaround story at
the Division two level with lock Haven University. Man, I'm
(01:42):
just so pumped to have him. Head football coach lock
Haven University, Dan mulrooney, Dan Man, thanks for hopping on,
bro Nick.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Thanks so much. Man, I'm excited to be on. Obviously.
You have a hell of a.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Hell of a podcast, help of a story here. What
you're doing is incredible. Just thank you an honored to
be on again.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
I can't have enough words to thank.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
You, So let's just jump in in the saddle here.
First of all, he old you. Are you even forty
years old?
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Yet I'm thirty four thirty four?
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Holy gee, I'm ten years older than you. But anyway,
so a young man thirty four dude, So you're you're
a head football coach at the D two. Why do
you seem to be taking over programs that seem to
be like I want to just call them like outcast.
It almost seems like coaches don't want to go to
these progsm too. How do you turn them around so
quickly at such a young age?
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Yeah, I mean I took over to rebuilding programs. And
when you're rebuilding, you better have a lot you better
at first of all, you better have a vision, right
I think number one when you take over a program
that hasn't had success in a very long time.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
First at the Division.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
III level, never won more than one game, and then
Lockehaven never won more than two games three games in
forty one years.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
This year we won five games. It's the most in
forty one years. Pretty wild, pretty great story.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
I think the two things you walk into a rebuild
and I've learned this, which is amazing. When program durn
rock Bottom, you better have a really really strong vision,
number one, and number two, you better have a lot
of confidence in your vision because the second you don't
believe it or the second you don't surround yourself with
your staff and with people that really buy into what
you're trying to do. You know, the kids, the staff,
(03:17):
the school. Everyone's smart and they can see right through
a phony. You better be authentic, and you better have
a confidence level to yourself that's real and that's passionate,
and that's something that you could really change and change quickly.
I mean the whole reason you take a rebuild is
for the opportunity, right, I mean, the opportunity is huge obviously.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
You know.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
I decide to see every problem as an opportunity to
find a solution, right, And I love problems.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
I think I'm a great solution person.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
And you know, it's more impactful when you can turn
around to program that Like at this place at Lockape,
my interview for the job is that we're gonna win here.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
And they're like, well, we haven't had.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
A we haven't won five games in forty one years.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
It's going to be a long haul. And I'm like,
just trust me, trust me. I know I'm doing that.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
I just did it at the hardest place to win
I think in the country, at a Maria college, and
I know the resources here. I know what's possible and
it's gonna happen here, and you just have that confidence
in yourself and it kind of just exhudes to everybody
else and it's pretty impactful when it actually kee me done.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
And actually I was shocked myself. I did it pretty quickly.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
And that brings me to this, like, how do you
get so you have the vision, right, you have the
belief in yourself, but how do you get a group
of eighteen to twenty two year old kids, you know roughly,
to buy in so quickly? I mean, I think about
the movie I'm Gonna Show my atu here. I think
about the movie Wildcats. You know, here's this new coach.
(04:36):
You know in that movie Goldie hawn Right, it's a comedy,
but in general, sometimes there's like, you know, a new
coach comes in, it's like the players might test the
Water's like, what the hell does this guy know? He's
only X amount of years older than me, he doesn't
know more than me. But how do you get these guys,
these athletes to buy in so quickly to your vision?
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (04:56):
I think like just in general, like every coach says
the same things when they take over a job, right,
walk into a job and they said, we're gonna do this.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
We're gonna do that.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
You know when with the people, you gotta do this.
We have to recruit, as recruiting is the lifeblood. Like
they also had the same coach talk realistically, it's about
connecting with those kids, like.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
That's really what it's about. It's having emotional intelligence. We
talk about that a lot as the staff.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Emotional intelligence to me is the ability to connect with people.
And when I got interviewed for the job and I
met with the team, it was basically over because what
happened was I walked in that room, I closed the door,
there was no administrators in there, and I said, I
want to win now. I said, all the other stuff
you're gonna hear about rebuilding is it takes time and
we're gonna do things the right way and blah blah blah.
(05:37):
I said, guys, I want to win now. Are you
willing to sacrifice what it takes? And you got to
make a choice to be great and to be elite
If you want to be average, I'm the wrong guy.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
For the job.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
And when you look them in the eyes and you
can connect with those kids, I'm only ten years removed
from playing the Division one football and their level of football.
And when you can get in that room with them
and you know you have their eyes right, you know,
you have them and their foots tapping under the chair,
you know what I mean. You have them like you know,
and you have them and you know what they're going
to say and you know how they're reacting to you.
(06:06):
That's the emotional intelligence I think you need. There's new
generation of athletes right the TikTok, the Instagram culture there
right now, success stories.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
They want it right now, right.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
So when I closed the door after I got introduced,
the president walked out, the ad walked out.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
I closed the doors. Listen to all that stuff I
just said, it was great, But here's the real deal.
I want to win now. If you don't want to
win now, get out. And at lock Haven, well I
had them.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
I took over a team with seventeen athletes on it,
and lock Haven I took over a team with thirty eight.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Athletes on it.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
So rock Bottom was an understatement, but no one would
have walked into I knew the challenge was real, but
I knew the opportunity was better.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
And you know, for me, when I talk to these athletes.
I just talk to them real like.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
I'm passionate, I love, I love my family, and you know,
I'm tough. You know, that's my brand, That's who I
am as a person. I hold that very sacred to
myself and everything I say, everything I do, the way
I act, those three words come out passion, love and toughness.
And that's our culture, you know. And you can't fake it,
you know, you put it on the board. Every place has,
you know, passion, toughness, family all over the board, like,
(07:12):
but that's me and I protect that really sacred. And
I think in this new generation having a youthful coach
that has a lot of enthusiasm to coach centric world too,
like marketing, branding. I'm sure we'll get into that stuff,
but you know, that's what the coach centric.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
World is right now.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
The football program a lot of these small colleges of
the front porch to the university and what people are
seeing and when people go to the games, it means
a lot to the community, it means a lot to
the school.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
So when you say you connect with them, I mean
you are only ten years removed. So I mean I'm
ten years removed from you. Ry, I'm ten years older
than you. But the difference between a forty four year
old thirty four year old, I mean you kind of
probably started really you kind of grew up at the
very I don't know, I don't even know, like when
social media you probably were still in college or even
beforehand when it really started to kind of you know,
(07:58):
get a little momentum so you can connect with them, right,
And there's you know, I notice I talked to you know,
one of my biggest mentors in my life is Mike Fox,
who was a longtime coach University of North Carolina baseball team,
Hall of Famer and you know, a legend, and he said,
it's different. You know, he retired a few years ago,
and he's like these younger coaches who grew up in
this environment, they can really connect. And here's a guy
(08:20):
who has had success, you know, been to the College
World Series numerous times and one at the Division three level,
and then of course was in Omaha six or seven
times at Chapel Hill. And when he was ready to retire,
he's like, man, you know, it's just different now. So
what is you having the experience only being ten years removed?
Why is that an advantage, do you believe versus someone
(08:41):
who maybe my age or a little bit older, who
may be quote unquote a little more seasoned. But why
does that give you potentially an advantage with connecting with
these with these younger kids particularly, I guess in the
recruiting process.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Yeah, the social media age. I got into it.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
I start coaching twenty thirteen, so it was right when
like twitters started being big, Instagram. I'll say, I have
all the apps and all the things that they have,
and I understand how I connect.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
It's so easy to access kids these days. Right back
in the day when.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
We were growing up, send the DVD or the vhs
and whatever. The coaches, I think it really just helps recruiting,
you know, when you're younger and you want to be
really connected to these kids, know what they want, right,
Recruiting is a simple thing to me. It's a lot
of effort, but my simple thought we're recruiting is don't
change the tract. Right, So everything that they see on
(09:28):
social everything that you want them seeing, everything that they
want you to believe, you could put out there in
social media and they see it. Recruiting is a huge
piece of that and the connection with older coaches.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Versus younger coaches. To answer your question on that, I.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Think it's as simple as adapter die right, And you
know the famous you know, famous books on that stuff
and things like that. But times are changing, you know,
and obviously sports are changing.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Whether it's baseball, football.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
And you have to sacrifice sometimes some of your morals
and some of your things to have a great team
and be a great recruit.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
At the end of the day, you have to be real.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
You have to be able to look those kids across
when they're here on campus.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
But I'll talk to a lot of coaches, you know
a lot of coaches. The hardest part is.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Connecting with them and getting them on campus. And we
firmly believe here if they're sitting in my office and
I have a family sitting across from me, we're gonna
win on that recruit ninety percent of the time.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
You know.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
So it's one of those things that can you attract
the kid off your social media?
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Can you connect with the kid off your social media?
And nowadays with the transfer.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Portal, we saw immense success from the transfer portal.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
A lot of team you.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Know, a lot of coaches I talk to that are older,
a bunch of the ones that just retired.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
They're talking about how hard it is, you know, how
annoying it is. The portal is so tough. It's so hard.
It's so bad for college football.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Where I look at it as such an opportunity for
college football, it's just an opportunity for me. Now I'm
gonna rebuilding program. But I got a Penn State transfer
to come here, who was the first team All Conference player.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
I had an Alabama.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Running back transfer to me in Lockhavid, I had Buffalo.
I had seventeen transfer come in from the portal and
they all were All conference.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Three of the four of them were All conference.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
One was the offensive player of the Year in the
Peace Act, the first that Locke Caven's ever had major award. Wise,
we made such a big step forward in the portal
because they're mature, you know, and you're able to speak
to these kids.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
I was them right. I went to Bulkham College.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
After I graduated, I transferred to Tony How was the
transfer success story? There's not many of those, and I
can look at them across and say, this is what
you need when you're transferring, Because to me, transferring.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
Is about trust. You have to trust the head coach and.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
When every other assistant coach that's twenty five, twenty six
is contacting you when you're in the portal and you
feel lonely, when the head coach calls you and facetimes
you and it's different, and you're like, Wow, this guy
is young, he's different.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
He wants to give me a plan and we found
success there. Now, our closest airport is about three hours away.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
At lot Cans, so it's not really a transfer portal destination, okay,
But at the end of the day, they want to
trust the head coach at their next school to have
a plan for them. And really, when you're looking at
you know, recruiting and social media and being young and
the portal is such a great thing for the new
age college football because not only are the kids in
(12:10):
your team important, but obviously recruiting the grown men that's
going to make a difference in your program important too.
So I know I long winded, but at the end
of the day, social media, be young, having the opportunity
to help people, I think there is.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
One of the main things that I believe I'm great at.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
Let's just cut to the Chaser. You mentioned programs like
Penn State. You mentioned programs like Alabama. When I turn
on my you know, TV on Saturday to watch college football,
you know, I'm sorry to say it, I'm not watching
the Lockehaven They're not on TV, right, I mean, and
I'm a proud Division III graduate. You know, it's part
of a national championship team in baseball. Like, I have
a big heart and I'm a big advocate for find
the right fit. However, how do you, as a college
(12:50):
coach at the Division two level, you know, compete on
a recruiting trail with a high school kid or even
let's say a high school kid who is a fringe
FCS player or can go to lock Haven. You know,
let's say the kid can you know potentially you know,
go to an FCF school in the southeast, right, and
I mean, God for nothing, lock Haven a little bit
(13:10):
different weather in PA than it is when you're going
to a school in the Carolinas are in you know,
the south somewhere warmer weather. So how do you, from
a competitive standpoint sell a Division two you know, rebuild?
I guess you know you've taken it to the next
level now versus a kid who may be somewhat courted
at an FCS school in Florida type thing. I mean,
do you feel comfortable that you can get those kids?
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (13:33):
Absolutely, I think you know when I sell to really anyone, Right,
it's not about the price, it's not about the facilities,
it's not really not about any of that. A lot
of the schools are the same, right, every school, regardless
of the facilities, they're all similar.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Right.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
There's dining halls, there's dorm rooms, there's stadiums, the helmets,
their shoulder pads, some different colors, right, they have all
the same things. Every school is basically offering the same thing.
Some are better prices, you know, some better things facility wise,
But what every school doesn't have is the people that
could be the right fit. Like, you have to go
to a school, in my opinion, if you're looking at maturely,
(14:10):
it's transformational to go to college. That's what it should
be about. And when you're around the right people, you grow.
These eighteen to twenty two year olds are so impressionable.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
And I was too, and I'm sure you were as well.
That you really have to be really selective.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
And careful about the people you want to surround yourself
with because that's who you're going to become, especially at
that age, right, we're young men.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
There's ego.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
Eighteen to twenty two year old men are so hard
to control and so hard to be around.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
But at the end of the day, it can transform
your life.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Into either a really positive thing, an average thing, or
go downhill.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
And realistically, if you're looking at.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
It maturely, like zoom out on all the other stuff,
right the stadium and the facilities, and you know the location,
and if it snows or if it's sunny, and really
zoom in on the people that are going to transform
your life. And if you're talking to the right kid
into the right family and they want to come play
for someone who's really going to be passionate, enthusiastic about
(15:09):
their development as a young man. That's where we find
success because it's real, because it's authentic, because it starts
with I love you, It ends with.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
I love you.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Right a lock Haven any place I've been, right, and
these kids like.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
There's nobody after the.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
Season this year, you know it's portal season, right, there's
not one kid in the portal from lock Haven, right.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Because they love it here. You know, they love the coaches,
they love their.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Experience, right, and they see it from the outside end,
they say, wow, this place looks different. You know, these
players are having fun on social media. They're loving their coaches,
they're loving the school, They're proud.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Of their community.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
That's coaching to me, that's the new age, right. You
have to make it student athlete based. As a coach,
you have to center it around the student athlete experience.
It has to be about them. It has to be
can I give them everything in my power to make
their experience good? Because if not, it's going to go
real south really quickly.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
When we return, Dan and I dive into important coaching
skills and balancing his coaching career and family life. Welcome back.
Where we left off. Dan and I were about to
discuss the role of fairness in sports and the importance
of hard work. There's eleven there's eleven starters on offense,
(16:26):
eleven on defense, eleven on special teams. How do you
make the kid? And let's face it, man, there are
kids on every team who know, after a little bit
of time, there's a very very strong likelihood they're never
going to be a starter at the table. I mean
that's just real. For the most part. In high school,
everyone who's in college and athletics, right, No, I don't
(16:47):
care what division you're at, what level you're at. You
were probably one or two or three of the best
players in your high play in your area, you know,
wherever you grew up. But then you go to college
and you're like, holy cow. My son Avery is a
Division two wrestler for UNC Pembroke. Right now, he actually
is a true freshman. He he's in the starting lineup,
but which is huge, But he's realizing there's a there's
(17:08):
a difference. It's not he can't do the same thing
in college and get away with it on the wrestling
met that he could in high school. So he's learning
through it. But he's good enough. He's put himself in
a position to be competitive as a true freshman. But
there are plenty of kids on that team who are
true freshmen who can't and may never right. And that's
every program. So how do you as a coach keep
that kid? How do you retain them? And more importantly,
(17:29):
how do you make sure that that kid doesn't become
a problem. How do you make them feel part of
even though they might not be contributing on the field.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Yeah, I think that's a great question. I really think
it's messaging. I think half a life and being a
head coach your communication skills. I think that's the most.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Maybe underrated value, communicating correctly. But there's two administration, alumni,
the community the players. Most importantly, having strong communication skills
is huge and being able to talk to them real
and saying here's one of my favorite lines.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
I always say, I hate the word fair.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
We don't use that word, and fair is a thing
that is not real in college athletics, parents call me still.
You know, I just want to be fair. The kid
wants a fair shot. You know I want fairness.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Farentens does not exist in my program. Okay, opportunity does.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
I guarantee the kid that isn't playing the season that
didn't get the fair shot gnet plenty of opportunity to
prove it.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Now more kids get more opportunities. Yeah, one kid might
get one play on kickoff and if he doesn't do
anything with it.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
He doesn't make the tackle, if he's run over somebody,
that might.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Have been his only opportunity ever. And that's life, and
that's why sports teach you.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
The best parts of life, right, I make it one
opportunity that the interview at Lockehaven. I had one shot
and I seized it. Now, the guys might not have right,
but at the end of the day, you have an opportunity.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Whether it's fair or not. Fair doesn't exist in this world.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
As an adult, you know that right, you're never gonna get.
It's never gonna be fair, it's never gonna be balanced.
And you know fair and balance is not a thing
I use.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
Like a parent, call me the other day she.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
Said, well, I'm worried about his balance of school in football.
Like listen, there's no balance as a student athlete. You
want to be great at something. You want to be elite.
There's no just thing is balance. You do what you
have to do to make sure your life is very controlled.
But I want to be great at football. I want
to be the most elite coach you know in Division two?
Speaker 2 (19:24):
How does that happen? But you're in the office, you're
misunderstood a lot.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
You miss holidays, you miss birthdays, you know, you miss
time being dad.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
You miss a lot of things and people say, well,
you're crazy. I want to be great.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
So the balance of life doesn't happen like that. The
fairness doesn't happen. You have to create your own opportunities.
And we live in football. In sports, it's a result business.
You lose by one point, you still lose.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
You have to win.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
You have to be on the left hand side of
that column every time where you're not a good coach
or you're not a good leader, and obviously there's other
things that go into that.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
You're impacting lives.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
And you're changing, you're helping kids and you're developing them.
But at the end of the day, to answer your question,
I mean the worst fair I don't use the word opportunity.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
I do, and you either sees it or you don't.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
And there's a lot of opportunities I'm sure these kids
have gotten. Whether it's a training camp rep. Did you
take a perfect step? You know, we're you first, We're
you first to breakfast? Were you first to every meeting?
Do you bring a pen and pencil to every meeting?
Are you trying to be great or you're trying to
be elite or you're trying to be excellent? Are you
trying to be average or you're trying not to care?
And if you let that bring you down as an athlete,
(20:31):
and you're not noticing that. Coaches realize everything, and you're
constantly evaluated.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
You're hurting yourself. So I think that's that's really.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
My two cents on I'm just obviously seventy percent of
the athletes don't play right, So why.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
Don't they play. Let's take it a little deeper. Why
don't they? Is it just talent? Is it just gifts? Sometimes?
But I think most of the time, persistence is key.
If you want something, you got to go get it.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
Coach, every time I talk to you, and you know,
we stay in touch, you know, through text and stuff,
and I feel like anytime I want a jolt of
energy and enthusiasm, I got a head up, Coach mulrooney,
and you kind of give me that juice. Like what
do we expect going forward? I mean, what does it
look like now we're going into the off season for you?
What does it look like? You didn't say the word obsessed,
(21:15):
but I've heard that enough from people. I try to
follow people who have had sustained success for long periods
of time in different fields, not just athletics, and infringes
on the borderline of like negative obsession, like it's flirting
this line of like unhealthy obsession. So how do you
balance being a father of young kid's husband, you know,
with all these ambitions and goals and trying to be
(21:35):
the best coach and recruiter and such for Lockhaven. What's
it look like now for you through December and January
and so on.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Yeah, first of all, have a great wife that understands
you're a coach and that you know, it's a blessing
that she married a winner. It's also a curse that
she married a winner at telling all the time. You know,
have a wife to understand your obsession. And the obsession
is a good thing, you know, because it's elevating my
career and elevating everything our families about.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
She sacrificed so much.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
I get emotional thinking about it, to be honest, sacrificing
her career and moving away.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
From family, and she is the best. She's my rock.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
In terms of being a dad, you have to be
very selective and that gets me emotional thinking about that
as well, because you don't want to miss out.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
I'm little kids.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
I have a three year old and I have a
one and a half year old, and you have kids too,
and there's no better time in life than being with
my kids. Like, I literally have no hobbies. I'm in
the office, working, recruiting, coaching, or I'm with my kids.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
And my wife. That's it.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
I heard a quote like, if you have a good
golf game, you have to be coaching very long. I
don't have time to sit on a golf course for
eight hours by myself.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
And get good at golf. I don't want to do that.
I have no interest. I literally just want to be
with my kids.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
And honestly, like I think dad is a much bigger
role than coach in my opinion, and being a head
coach is really cool because I get to create my
own schedule in a way. I'm not obviously a twenty
seven year old or thirty five year old assistant who
has us to travel.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
For two seconds and work for someone else. But I
think you have to be selective on what memories you
want to create, and really, what I've done comes of
being his dad.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
I drove my kids to school every morning, and sometimes
it's really hard to do that consistently, but I haven't missed.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
I drove my kids to school, I drive my kids
to daycare every single morning.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
I take my son to what we call treat Day
on Friday morning.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
To a little diner. We have pancakes, we sit there.
He's the little mayor of that little diner. Hilarious. They
all know him, they'll walk in. We're in a little
small town. But I want to create those memories so
that when they're older. And yeah, I missed a lot of.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
Time being dad, But they said, you know what, my
dad drove me to school every single.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
Day, no matter how busy he was, and you always
brought me a breakfast every Friday, Like you never forget
that as a kid. And I just know that that's
important to me.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
And obviously it's emotional thinking about that because I love
him so much and I want to miss time.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
But like you said, there's no balance.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
Like you want to be elite at something, you can
have to sacrifice a lot.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
You're gonna be misunderstood.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
There's gonna be problems creating friendships.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
Like you know, people understand my life and if they don't,
then you know they're not going to be in it.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
But you know, you miss holidays, you miss birthdays, you
miss weddings.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
I mean I missed so many weddings. Through the years
from coaching.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
But at the end of the day, if you want
to keep building upon what you just did, Like, we
just won five games, the first this school's ever had
in forty one years, the most wins in forty one
years of this college.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
And that's amazing. But I'm not a five hundred football coach.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Every single place I've been, whether it's high school, college.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
We've won a championship.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
I've won seven championships in my life. My resume, all
that stuff, it's all championship driven.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Now.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
I think the Bill Parcells quote that's really popular is it's.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
Not hard to be mediocre, right, It's not hard.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
To you know, certain places is hard, right, this place
hasn't been done forty one years.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
But the difference.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Between seven and nine and eight and eight in the NFL,
Bill Parcells said.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
Is not that hard. It's not big of a difference.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
But the biggest difference is the ten and six, the
eleven and five. What makes you mediocre to playoffs? There's
so much growth and so much difference in those teams.
That's my next challenge and I'm so so excited that hopefully.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
Get to that next step. But what's that look like?
Was my plan. How am I going to be different?
How am I going to move different? Right?
Speaker 1 (25:14):
What type of steps am I going to make? They're
going to elevate the program? Would I do good? That
want to be great?
Speaker 2 (25:18):
At what I do? Bad?
Speaker 1 (25:19):
That want to be that I want to really pick up,
you know, whether it's fundraising, alumni relations, you know, all
these things that go into be a college coach, especially
at a lower level, Like you're the player personnel guy,
you're the GM.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
Like you're the recruiter.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Like we have eight guys on staff right, four of
them are full time. Like you better be your self
starter at these programs if you're D three D two,
Like big misconception that I've always heard when I was
interviewing for the job.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
It's like, you're a D three coach. You know, this
is a new ballgame. Now it's Division two. There's scholarships.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
You might not be ready, And I'm like, so if
you give us more resources.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
It's only going to be easier. It was such a.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
Misconception that, like the hardest job in the world to
me is a high school coach that you can't recruit
at right, you could be the best coach in the
world but if you go to a high school and
you can't recruit at the high school and you have
to play with whoever's in your town, it's hard.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
The next step is Division three because now there's no scholarships.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
This parody and no one has scholarships and it's all
just recruiting off what resources you have in.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Terms of facilities.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
The biggest misconception is that say, well, you need to
get recruiting experience with scholarships, because that's so hard.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
Once you get scholarships, it's harder. Nick it's easier once
you get scholarships.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
Now I could make it more affortable for these families,
and we.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
Just crushed it.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
We just had fifty five kids last year and we
jump from one win to five wins basically overnight. It's
not harder, it's easier. If you keep getting more resources
and you build a certain way where you're not used
to having anything, and then you're given something, it just
makes it easier.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
And I think that's such an important and such an
easy point to think about.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
I think the more resources you've given when you haven't
been given something is just so beneficial.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
As we wrap up, Coach, I just a podcast on
the Steve stephen A Smith. Everyone knows who he has
had Tom Brady on, you know, the goat Tom Brady
and and you know, I've just watched it a little
while ago, and I was, you know, I hang on
every word like a guy like Tom Brady, scept guys
like Michael Jordan, Tom Brady, I want to listen to
what these guys, you know, these athletes, these people have
(27:19):
had sustained success talk about and and Brady talked about
how you know how challenging it is for for kids
these days is because you know, they're so used instant
gratification there in many ways fishing for clicks and YadA, YadA, YadA.
But that's not sustainable. You know, it's not sustainable. What
sustainable is is work. I'm gonna ask you, and I
would love for you to elaborate on it. Is is
(27:40):
there a substitute for down in the trenches, straight up
hard work from your experience? Had things changed where you
can shortcut or is it still down in the trenches
hard work, grind and if you want to be the
best version of yourself, I think that's always.
Speaker 2 (27:59):
Been my secret to success.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
Anybody that's elite or great, you know the secret sauce.
This is why I tell my staff the secret sauce
about lockap.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
And football that I want no one else to know.
It's how hard we work. To outwork everyone is a
sign in my office. I can text it to you after.
This does not work everyone.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
And it's one of those things that growing up, my
favorite word I like to use. When I was in
high school, nick, I love when people say I was lucky.
I'm lucky, lucky that you're born that fast. I'm lucky
that you're a genetic freak, and that your parents were
this and that and the third.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
I wasn't lucky. I outworked everybody. And you can ask
any of my high school coaches or anybody.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
I woke up at six in the morning, went to
the YMCA before school. Every single day at the y Waterbury,
I worked out two hours a day before school, then
did it again after school. I pushed my dad's van
up a hill three times a week. I backpedaled up
that hill. I want no one to know how hard
I worked, and I wanted for people to think I
was lucky. That's the same mentality I have.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
What I do. I want everyone to.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
Think I'm just out there getting lucky and recruiting good
kids and blah blah blah.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
But what they don't know, and what they.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
Don't realize, is I'm up till two in the morning
staying connected with them. These kids will answer a FaceTime
at eleven PM these days and they'll answer, you can
recruit up until up until midnight.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
You can work as hard as you want to work.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
And when you work hard, I always tell the staff this,
don't complain about.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
The results with the work you didn't do.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
That's literally my motto on life, like, don't complain about
the results with the work that you didn't do. If
you did the work, and you can look yourself in
the mirror and say I did everything in my power
to get this place better, I could live myself.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
But if I didn't do the work and I was lazy, I.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
Took shortcuts, and I wasn't very selective for my time,
and I didn't do the right things, that's on you, man.
And I tell my student athletes the same thing, and
I can't look at them and they can't look at
me without knowing that works harder than everyone in this building.
To the head coach, you better work harder, you better
set the time every single day. You walk in with
a certain swag to yourself that you're gonna set the
(30:04):
tempo on that work ethic every single day and you
better not fold. And as a leader, as a communicator,
as a coach, they look at that and they look
at everything. So yes, I do believe, at least to
my core, that work is the ultimate key there everything.
Speaker 3 (30:19):
Dan freaking mulrooney coach. Where can people connect with you
on all your social platforms or handles all that stuff?
Speaker 2 (30:25):
Please? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (30:26):
I mean Twitter is probably my biggest one. That's because
college football recruiting is all over there. I'm coach Underscore
mul coach mole obviously on Instagram, Dan Underscore mulrooney. And
that's about it for me for the social media basically
on Instagram, Facebook.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
And Twitter obviously, I'm very active on those.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
I do respond, you know, if you DM me or
send me a message, I'll definitely get back to you.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
Obviously if you want to chop it up, learn.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
More about me or learn more about my vision. I'm
always willing to help coaches, you know. Obviously speak at
the convention on every year down in Nashville.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
This year, I'm.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
Excited about that and obviously always always around to help you.
Speaker 3 (31:03):
Dan mulrooney, lock Haven University. I love it. I can't
wait to see you guys bust out win that championship
like you have been everywhere you've been. Man. So I
can't thank enough, bro, and let's keep in touch. We'll
rock this back again after you win that title next year.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
Thank thanks, It's been a blast. Honestly honored to be
on this podcast again. I'm the first two time, two time.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
First of I mean, you have some amazing guests and
this is a great and you have a great platform.
I'm just like I said, I'm just honored to be
here and obviously have a good Christmas and all that stuff.
Speaker 3 (31:31):
All right, brother, I appreciate the same to you. That's
Dan mulrooney at football coach at lock Haven University. Thanks
for listening to the Reform Sports Podcast. If you've enjoyed
this episode, we would appreciate it if you took a
moment to rate and review our podcast. As we work
to grow our community of supporters and advocates for more
reform sports content, please subscribe to our newsletter and blog
(31:52):
at Reformsports Project dot com. You can also follow us
on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
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