Masters in Coaching Podcast- Episode XXX

Tim Cates talks with Mike Teague about his journey to becoming the Associate Athletic Director at Vanguard University and his experience going through the Masters in Coaching and Athletics Administration Program at Concordia University Irvine.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
From soccer player to college administrator.Mike Teague from Vanguard University joins us next.
It's episode thirty of the Masters inCoaching podcast Let's go Well, welcome
into episode number thirty of the Mastersin Coaching podcasts here on iHeart Radio or

(00:22):
wherever you download your podcast or whereveryou may be watching this video right now.
We appreciate you being with us forour next episode. Excited to talk
to our next guest. He wentfrom a soccer player graduate of Biola and
now he is the Associate athletic directorat Vanguard University, is eighth year,
already his sixth year in the positionthat he is currently yet right now he

(00:43):
is Mike Teague, and he joinsus. Mike, how you doing good,
Tim, Thanks so much for havingme. Really looking forward to talking
with you. Absolutely looking forward todiving into your background and talking to more
about your career. But first off, exciting times right now on campus at
Vanguard University. You guys are hostinga big tournament. Yeah. Yeah,
we were super excited to be ableto host the NAI National Tournament opening ground.

(01:04):
So we've got three teams coming fromall over the place. We've got
a team coming from Tennessee, ateam coming from Oklahoma, and then a
team coming from the South Bay,all the way from the South Way out
to US. So it should befun. It's gonna be a busy weekend.
We've got two games on Thursday,one game on Saturday. We hosted
the conference championship this last weekend,so we feel like we're pretty prepared.
But always a busy time out here, but super exciting. For those who

(01:27):
may not be familiar with Vanguard University, Low Cutting and Coast of Masa,
a great small school in Anaia programas far as athletics is concerned. But
tell our viewers to our listeners alittle bit more about Vanguard. Yeah,
definitely. So the school itself isactually a hundred years old. We celebrated
our hundredth year in twenty twenty,I guess, and so nineteen twenty listening

(01:49):
is established. It's a faith baseduniversity and for us, it's about sixteen
hundred undergraduate students. And then inthe athletics department, we've got nineteen sports
four hundred plus student athletes and we'vegrown a ton over the last five years.
When I first started in the athleticsapartment, we had about one hundred
and sixty student athletes. Now we'reup to four hundred plus and so it's

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a fantastic location as well. Obviouslylocated in Costa Mesa and beautiful Orange County,
just down the street from you know, the beach from Disneyland, and
you really can't beat the location itself. But our student athletes are awesome,
and I think one thing that welike to do and I think signifies us,
we like to say we want tobuild our student athletes to go from
the sideline to the sidewalk to significance, and that's something that we really try

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to build up. They're more thanjust athletes here. We really want to
make sure that we're building them asmen and women of character and someone can
go out and make an impact intheir community at the end of the day.
But Bangor is a special place.It's a lot of people say it's
kind of that hidden secret, butonce you get on campus, it's it's
awesome. It's such a cool place, really welcoming environment and love the place

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here. So it's been really funas an associate athletic director talk to our
viewers and our listeners about the NAIAlevel and the competitiveness here in southern California,
get up and down the state ofCalifornia. It may not be D
one D two, but certainly AIAis very competitive and at all athletics.
Oh no, absolutely. I thinkthat's something that a lot of people don't

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understand is the n ai IS.It's competitive, man, especially at that
top level. Our top ten teamsin the n ai I would put up
against top ten teams in Division twoand probably some of the lower Division one
teams as well. To be honest, there's a ton of talent and obviously
in southern California it's it's a poolof talent for almost every sport, right
and so for us, it's sucha cool spot for us to be in

(03:34):
as a small school. We reallylove being part of the association and being
able to compete still at a highlevel. I think a lot of people
think, oh, n ai youknow, it's not Division one Division two.
Were each in Division three, butit's comparable to Division two when it
comes to competitiveness. If you wereto come to a basketball game and you
didn't know who was on the jersey, you would think that you're watching a
high level D two, maybe lowlevel Division one game, really really quality

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all across the board, and Ithink that's just one thing I wish people
would be aware of a little bitmore. It's like, hey, we're
pretty quality over here, and youget a really good education, you get
coaches that really care about you aswell, not that they don't have the
Division one Division two level, butgot some really quality coaches here who were
able to make an impact both physicallyand then just kind of as people as
well. And we're looking again toimpact people and grow them. So yeah,

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absolutely, it's a good spot tobe in. I Tag is our
guest here on the Masters in CoachingPodcasts, episode number three. You can
follow them on Twitter at Mike Underscortigue, Associate athletic director at Vanguard University in
Costa Mesa. They're hosting the SoccerChampionship tournament there coming up this week.
As far as you your background,how did you end up at Vanguard in

(04:42):
the position that you're at because Iknow you went to Biola and you've got
an athletic background yourself. Yeah,definitely for me, I was I was
a soccer player in my whole life. I love soccer, that was my
passion. So I ended up thatBiola and finish up my career there and
love my time there. And it'sfunny I look back at and if I
were to look at my profile andthe bile of website says it wants to
be an athletic administrator. At thetime, I had no idea what that

(05:04):
meant, and so I ended upgoing in the hospitality route. I worked
for Hyatt Hotels for about seven oreight years, and I you know,
at the end of the day,I'm like, I want to get back
into athletics. I want to getback into a place for where I felt
I can make a positive impact onthe lives of student athletes, a place
that was so formative for me.And so I'm like, okay, well
how do I do that? Andso Vanguard was just down the street for

(05:26):
me, and I apply for aposition just in the admissions office, and
I ended up working my way overto athletics and it's been It's been a
dream. I mean honestly, LikeI look back and I'm like, this
is I'm living the dream. Everyday I get to make an impact.
Yeah, you know, there's hardwork too, but at the end of
the day, this is what Ilove to do and so for me,
getting into this role was just itwas through wanting to make an impact on

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student athletes and having that hospitality background. For me, I see our student
athletes as our customers, and soI want to provide the best customer service
I can. But I also,you know, in this pursuit, went
to Concordia and got my masters,and I think that really helped me kind
of learn what this business was aboutand really sharpened my skills as well.
And so from there, I've justbeen able to continue to grow in my

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position, continue to get involved withthe NAI, and yeah, just continue
to get better and enhance our departmentthe best we can. So yeah,
it's kind of my journey in anutshell. I suppose, now, when
you took the job at admissions,was the goal all along to get over
to athletics or did you know atthe time where that direction was going to
lead you? I would like tosay, yeah, absolutely, Like that

(06:31):
was my mindset for me. Idon't think I knew I wanted to get
into that, but it just endedup working out perfectly. And so yeah,
I took the role and I didn'tknow where I was going to go.
I was kind of had a crossroadspersonally, and so I'm like,
well, let's let's just try itout, and just took the risk,
you know, stepped off the boatand ended up working and yeah, so
I really just it worked out andnow I'm here and I really love it.

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It's been fun. Talk a littlebit about your role as it is.
So see athletic director for those whodon't know, you have an athletic
director. A lot of colleges atthe high school level, you don't know
necessarily have multiple athletic directors because it'sjust the way the dym dynamic is,
and you have one athlet or itoversees a lot of abit boys and the
girls. But at the collegiate level, you got the athletic director and associate

(07:16):
athletic directors, and there's different responsibilities, isn't there. Oh yeah, I
think a lot of people think athleticsdepartments are just an athletics apartment. You
do athletics, right, Well,there's so much he goes into that.
I mean, you've got for mepersonally, I oversee our compliance department,
which is making sure all of ourseems are eligible and make them sure we're
sticking to our conference rules. Ourassociation rules, our school rules at the

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end of the day too, Butthen you've got different aspects of it too,
Like I also oversee our student developments, our leadership development. I do
that. We've got an internal operationsperson as well and Assistant athletic director for
internal ops. We've got sports informationstaff, we've got marketing, We've got
all these different pieces. At theend of the day, athletics is a
business. So anytime that you seein athletics department, you're going to see

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essentially what you'd see in any otherbusiness as well. If you've got marketing,
you've got communications, you've got rulescompliance, you've got internal operations,
you've got budgets, you've got allthose things that go into it. And
so, yes, athletics corrector essentiallythey're the one who's leaving the charge.
They're the ones set in the vision. But yeah, you've got people underneath
who have to support that and providethat foundational administrative support as well. Right,

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So for me, I'm the AssociateAthletic Director. We've got another Associate
Athletic director as well, who overseesour fundraising, and then we've got a
handful of assistant athletic directors as well, whoever see various departments again, sports
information, internal operations, and we'vejust hired a second compliance individual as well.
So we've got a lot going on. And you know what it's is
something that again as you look intoit, it's you have to do a

(08:43):
lot. I mean, we haveto plan for travel, We have to
you know, in last minute sometimestoo, like for us thankfully we're hosting
that soccer tournament. Well, forthese teams that are coming out from Tennessee,
Oklahoma, they found out yesterday thatthey are coming to California and so
they have to get on the call, get on the phone and book thirty
tickets, you know, and soit's like things like that. It's it's

(09:05):
fast changing, it's always moving.But I think it's what we love to
do and we want to provide thatexperience for the student athletes and seeing them
be able to compete at a highlevel. That's that's why we do it,
right. So yeah, that's that'skind of how they administrate a foundation
works there. I don't think youcould have described it any better. The
dynamics and the way it lays outas far as infrastructure and an athletic department.

(09:26):
That was very well put as faras we're starting with, it's a
business, and I think a lotof people forget about that. They think
it's funding games and kids get thereat that level and they're they're playing a
different sport and they're getting an education. But at the athletics side of it
as well, it is a business, and you know, you don't have
the TV revenue or the media revenuethat a D one program has or a
D two program has in the Midwestor the East. As an NAI school,

(09:50):
you guys really have to watch yourbudgets. You really have to kind
of maintain order, and you don'thave the luxuries of what other programs around
you may have, like you seeyou Irvine or a little farther north than
UCLA or San Diego State down southof you guys, Is that something that
you guys really have to focus inon, is that, Hey, we're
a smaller athletic department, so wereally have to kind of watch what we're

(10:11):
doing. Yeah. No, absolutely. I think if you look at our
department, we fundraise about forty percentof our budget every while, So that's
something where you know, yes,we're given a budget but it only covers
pretty much kind of the basics andthe necessities. If we want to again
provide a tremendous experience, if wewant to be a nationally recognized athletics program,

(10:31):
we have to do more than justthe basics. And so for us,
our coaches are phenomenal fundraisers. They'vegot great relationships all over the place.
So each one of our programs goesout and tries to enhance their experience
for their student athletes by going onfundraising. And again, we fundraise about
forty percent of the budget every singleyear for what we do. And so
yes, we're not in the levelof maybe some of these larger departments that

(10:54):
are fully funded in some ways.But at the end of the day too,
you know, I think that thoselarger partments also struggle because when you
have a lot, you want more, right So everyone's always talking about budgets
and trying to figure out how tomanage those. But yeah, for us,
we're trying to put that into ourour student athletic experience as best as
we can. And so, butyeah, that the budgets are always always
a concern, always a problem,and that's something you know, actually last

(11:16):
year we didn't use this much budgetbecause we weren't traveling a ton, so
you know, that kind of help. But now we're back into hel we've
hit reality where yeah, we haveto watch what we're doing a little bit
more. But you know, that'sthat's just part of it. And you
know, I think that's that's somethingthat has challenged us and helped us grown,
or grow at least we personally,I have grown a lot just learning
how to manage those budgets. Forsure. You mentioned two words earlier in

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what you do, and that's studentdevelopment. If you could talk a little
bit more about that in what youdo with the student development in your student
athletes, and maybe some of theplans and goals and ideas you have moving
forward to expand on that. Yeah, definitely to me, you know,
compliance is great, that's part ofthe job. I have to do it

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student developments. Honestly, it's mypassion. I love just pouring into students.
I love to meet with them.I love to just help them grow.
So we put a few things intoplace. One thing that our athletic
director before our athletic director now hisname is Bob Wilson. He's in the
NAI Hall of fame was a legendin the NAI. But he's developed something
called the Championship Character Course, andthat's something that I think it's almost twenty

(12:22):
years now that it's been around,but it's a course that all of our
new student athletes have to take inthe fall, and it's unique. It
tells them about our five core valuesand what it means to be a vanguard
line and so it really gives themkind of that foundational piece of yeah,
what they're supposed to look like asa vanguard student athlete. And so that's
one piece of it. I teachthat class and we go through that every

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single fall. We've got one hundredfifty new student athletes this year, and
so we have different breakout rooms andsmall groups and all that. So we
have them get to know some ofour current student athletes, some of our
current coaches, so they're not justin their own kind of team. We
have them go and learn about otherteams and other student athletes. Well,
outside of that, we have somethingthat I developed a couple years ago called

(13:03):
the Pangroth Leadership Academy, something wherewe take emerging leaders and captains on the
team and we take them through leadershipexperience and that changes every single year.
But we've we've gone through a fewdifferent experiences and we just teach them,
Okay, what does it mean nowas you were leading? What does that
look like? And for us thatit goes back into you have to lead
yourself well before you can lead others. And so we're really poort into them

(13:26):
to learn, Okay, what doI need to improve on personally before I
can actually lead others? Because youcan't lead in a healthy space unless you
were healthy personally, right, Andso those are kind of things that I'm
working on. And then ideally,you know, I'm working on a four
year kind of leadership development plan wherewe can take them from freshman year,
sophomore year, junior, senior year. We have different experiences for them,

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different opportunities for them to grow.So that's you know, long term vision
what I'd like to do. Butright now, you know, we're just
we're doing it day by day,meet with them and yeah, just trying
to meet them where they're at everysingle day. I think that's the most
important thing. Man. You've gotit going right now at Vanguard University.
That is awesome. I have adaughter who's a freshman and playing club sports

(14:07):
over a grand Kenyon University. Andit's you talk about incoming freshman and having
a course about the values and whatour athletic department in school is all about.
It that's something that every school Ithink should do, no matter the
level, because it gets it getsthem into the school, It gets them
in with other sports and other kidsthat are playing different sports and and like
you said, not just tied inwith softball or baseball or basketball, and

(14:30):
they kind of forced in a goodway to blend with everybody else in athletics
there. Yeah, no, it'strue, and that's you know, it's
uh, I've heard the term beforeforced family fund, right, and so
you know we're kind of forcing theminto it. It's a requirement. But
the key is, you know,like we want them to build some connections,
and I think for us it's theconnections even with other coaches on campus.
Again, we talked about those smallgroups. They're led by two different

(14:54):
coaches and then what we have theycall line leaders, and so those who
are juniors of seniors who want topour into some of the freshmen and so
it's kind of a group of themthat just they lead these small group discussions
and they talk through what it meansand some of the things that we've covered
in the course, and so yeah, that's it's something that it's I think,
like you said, it's so importantfor people to know what they are

(15:15):
stepping into because it is built onthe foundation of many, many generations before
and many people before who have builtit into what it is now. So
we talk about the history, wetalk about what these core values mean.
So I think it's important for themto understand that just so they know what
they're stepping into, know what they'rerepresenting at the end of the day.
I love that. I love that. Mike Teague is our guest Associate Athletic
Director of Van Guard University here onthe Masters and Coaching Podcast, Episode thirty.

(15:39):
Thanks for being with us. Allright, you told us how you
got to where you're at. Atwhat point in that journey, Mike,
did you figure out, Hey,I maybe need to go back and further
my education and go to Concording UniversitiesMasters and Athletics and Administration program. At
what point, at what time didit kind of go off in your mind
that hey, I need to figurethis out and go down this road to

(16:03):
pursue my education further. Yeah,you know, for me, it was
after the first year of me beingan admissions counselor here at Vanguard, I
realized, Okay, where do Iwant to go? So after that first
year, you know, we talkedabout I wasn't sure where I wanted to
be. But after that first year, I'm like, I want to be
an athletics department. I love whatthey're doing over there. I want to
get into it. How do Ido that? How do I level up
right? And so how do Ido that? And so I started asking

(16:26):
around about different programs, like,Okay, I want to get my master's
an athletic administration. I want tobe an athletic administrator. So in order
to get to where I want tobe, I have to be able to
invest in myself and invest in away that it is going to maybe set
me apart from others. And sothat's when I thought, okay, where
are we going to go? Andthe masters over at Concordia Coaching Athletic Administration

(16:49):
was was perfect for me. Itprovided kind of that flexibility I needed.
It was all online, that's theroute eye shows. Just with the admissions
role, it was going to behard for me. I was traveling a
lot, I was having to goto different places, and so it provided
kind of that flexibility for me.And so that's when I decided to do
it. And I kind of dida fast track and doubled up on everything

(17:11):
and finished up in a year becauseI knew I wanted to get it done,
and so I got it done ina year. But for me,
what I loved about it was Iwas able to It kind of forced me
to start thinking about things that Ishould have been thinking about, Like I
wanted to be an athletic administrator.Well, you know, naturally if I
don't have a deadline on it,I think I was like, well,
I'm not going to do a wholefacilities project just on my own. I

(17:33):
need I need a structure to beable to like how do I do that?
And so I think that the programis able to do that for me,
everything from you know, sports lawto facilities to just anything in regards
to athletics. It allowed me toenhance my knowledge and I actually still have
some of the books from the coursesup on my desk right now, and

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so I referenced those every once ina while, and yeah, it's been
great. I really enjoyed that processin that program. It sounds like in
order to get to where you wantedto Uh, not only did you want
to do this, it sound likeyou needed to do this in order to
further your your education and further youryour resume. I guess to get into
working as an associate athletic director forthose who are maybe thinking about, you

(18:17):
know, further in their education ortaking that next step, or at a
currently a spot that maybe want toget to that next spot or move over
to a different spot. Like youdid, tell our viewers, our listeners,
just you know a little bit aboutthe process for you, how easy
it was to do online. Thecourse of self is not easy, but
the process of doing it and gettingthat master's degree, in completing it over
the twelve to fifteen months that youcan do it in, Yeah, you

(18:41):
know what, it wasn't it.Obviously the course work is difficult, but
in regards to the process itself,concorting made it really easy just to get
in and get accepted the university.And again, like to get into my
role, I knew I needed toenhance my profile and again level up and
so especially in the world of higheducation. Obviously education is important, so

(19:02):
me just having a bachelor's degree,it was great and I believed in myself
enough that I probably could have continuedto advance, but I think in order
to advance quicker, I needed tojump into that program, and so that
was something that I reached out tothe program, and I think, honestly
it was it was starting pretty soonand the guy was working with over there

(19:22):
got me in and started I wantto say, three or four weeks after
that, so it's pretty quick.And you know, though it was they
made it easy and then you know, with the online modules and such,
I mean, online education now isand even now it's probably much better than
it was when I graduated in thirteenor fourteen whenever that was, and so
I can't imagine what it is now, but yeah, you know, it

(19:42):
just helps that they made it soeasy, and again the online option for
me, it was perfect. ButI honestly look back, I think I
would have been nice to maybe goat one or two classes like in person.
But at the end of the day, I think it all worked out,
and yeah, just super it was. It was a great time.
I'm super about it is able todo it all Right before we wrap things
up here, I got to askabout the soccer tournament coming up. The

(20:03):
championship for the Naia Van Guard isthe number two seed. I believe in
the fourteen tournament, how the Lionslook it, we got a shot at
winning this thing. We look good. Honestly, we're looking really good right
now. I think you know onething about the West Coast teams is I
mean, if you look at ourroster, our roster is all kids from
Southern California. I think that's onething we pride ourselves on is we have

(20:26):
a lot of talent, especially soccer, a lot of soccer talent here in
this area. And so for me, I'm looking forward to seeing the essentially
Southern California team compete against these teamswhere there's a lot of international students and
teams that recruit heavily with internationals,and which is great and I love that
for them. We're just not atthe place to do that here at Vangard,
and so we have a lot oflocal talent going up against some really

(20:48):
quality teams, and so I thinkwe have a chance that you know,
right now, we're ranked in thetop twenty, the team the top seed
that we've got in here is undefeatedright now Mid America Christian out of Oklahoma,
and so you know, we'll see. We got to make it through
our semi final round first against cumberLynn out of Tennessee. They've got a
good team as well, so it'llbe fine. I think we've got a
good chance. We're playing pretty goodball right now. Just matter if we

(21:10):
can manage some injuries and make surewe're good on that front. Well,
good luck to the Lions in thistournament. Mike, thank you so much
for the time. Enjoyed talking withyou. I know our listeners enjoyed it
to see your career path and howyou maneuvered and to get to where you
are now and the role Concordia University, Irvine and their Masters program played in
that. You're doing great things.The athletic department is in great hands and

(21:32):
it sounds amazing and continued success.And thank you so much for the time,
and thanks so much to them.I really appreciate talking with you.
And yeah, thanks for the kudosas well. It's been awesome, so
thanks to appreciate it. Well,my thanks to Mike Tigue from Vanguard University.
Doing great things there at that universityand Coasta Masa. Give him a
follow at Mike Undersportigue to find outmore about him and the university. All

(21:55):
right, that's gonna do it forepisode number thirty of the Masters in Coaching
podcast. As all, if you'reinterested in Concordia University Irvin's Masters in Coaching
and Athletics Administration program, get itall the information right now. It's Cui
dot eedu slash coaching. The degreecan be completed one hundred percent online,
a blend of face to face orboth. Thousands of coaches and administrators have

(22:17):
gone through the program and are goingthrough it now. Why not you?
Cui dot eedu slash Coaching, America'snumber one Masters in Coaching Athletics Administration program
at Concordia University, Irvine. Again, Cui dot Eedu slash Coaching. Cui
dot eed u slash Coaching until nexttime. Tim Kate's saying, so long, everybody,