Masters in Coaching Podcast- Episode XXXIV

Tim Cates talks with Tom White, the Founding Director of the MCAA Program at Concordia University Irvine. Tom started the program in 2005 with 12 students and has helped grow it into the Nation's #1 athletics graduate program.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
It started with an idea and nowhas become the nation's number one athletics graduate
program. He is Tom White.He is the founding director of Concordia University,
Irvine's Masters in Coaching and Athletics Administrationprogram, and he joins us next
on episode thirty four of the Mastersin Coaching podcast. Let's Go. Well,

(00:25):
welcome into episode number thirty four theMasters in Coaching Podcast here on IHRT
Radio or ever you download your podcast. Thank you for watching on YouTube as
well. We are so excited totalk to our guest today. Why he
founded the Masters in Coaching Athletics AdministrationProgram at Concordia University, Irvine. He

(00:47):
is the man behind the entire program. He is the founding director at Concordia
University or Vine in this program.We are so excited to talk to Tom
White. Tom Welcome, Thank you. How are you doing, sir Jim?
Thanks for him man, great,Thank you. All right. First
off, you're no longer the directorof the program. You founded it back
in two thousand and five when itlaunched. Obviously we'll get into that,

(01:08):
but what are you up to nowadays? Sir? Well, I am still
involved on a limited basis. Withthe masters program. I am happy as
a grandparent. I'm speaking to youfrom Palm Beach, Florida, where I'm
with my two grandchildren and daughter andjust doing a lot of things, enjoying

(01:29):
life. All right, let's goback, well back before two thousand and
five, because the program started intwo thousand and five at Concordia University of
Irvine. It was your brain child, started with twelve students. But I
know it didn't just start when youlaunched it that first day. Take us
back to the idea. You're ineducation administration coaching for forty plus years in

(01:51):
southern California. What was it thatmade you say, hmm, I want
to start this program him? Ifelt that there was a huge need.
Having been involved in high school andcollegiate athletics for many years, I felt
that there was a missing link inthe educational process. I strongly felt that

(02:12):
coaches needed to be trained. Theyneeded to be trained professionally, They needed
to grow and developed, They needto be lifelong learners, and there were
very few outlets for doing this.There were programs of master's degrees in education
in physical education, but the coachingcareer. The career coach was not really

(02:35):
being served. So I felt thatthe program would be a natural despite the
fact that two of my best friendssaid it would never work. And once
they said it would never work,I said, I'm going for it.
It would work. So you comeup with the idea, you come up
with the program. How long fromwhen you decided, hey, there's a

(02:59):
need here, there's a need forthis program for coaches to that first day
with those twelve students. How longwas that process in between? Well,
I think we evolved in coaching educationover a long period of time. The
state of California came up with thenotion in the late nineties and several of

(03:19):
us went to Sacramento to a lobbyfor the idea. It's been natural because
curriculum development, program development, teacherdevelopment was taking place in almost every area
of a school curriculum. However,coaches for some reason were left out.
And in my viewing and the viewof many others, coaching education was a

(03:44):
very, very important ingredient in acomprehensive school. So that was the basis
upon which we did it. Ihave to say that people around the nation,
we're thinking about it. As wemoved forward. We did some things
in Sacramento and then in the CapusholIdentified School District, where I was fortunate

(04:04):
enough to be the district athletic director. We started a coaching education program which
flourished. So taking it to Concordiawhen I retired from the school district was
not something that I had really planned, quite frankly, but something which was
a natural outgrowth to make it adegree program where there was the educational value

(04:28):
placed upawn and athletic leaders. Whenyou approached Concordia University and Irvine was what
was the reception. Did you haveto sell them hard on this master's program?
Were they kind of on board fromthe first get go? I think
it was mutual. I have togive some people some credit for having some
faith in an idea that wasn't highlyregarded, and it took a lot of

(04:54):
faith. It was a blessing tohave some of the leaders involved say let's
go with this, let's see whereit goes. And those first twelve students
I have to thank them from thebottom of my heart. Because we had
developed a curriculum, we had developedsome thoughts and ideas, but we were

(05:14):
constantly evolving. And to say thatthe program when we started it is the
same as the program now would bevery misleading when you started it in two
thousand and five with those twelve studentsinto where it is now. Is it
still the same core fundamental? Isthe same foundation that you had set when
you started the program. I wouldsay that the foundation is the same.

(05:39):
I believe that it's based upon somevery reasonable principles. I think the idea
of having a practical and relevant curriculum, the notion that coaches are transformational leaders
was very important, and then lastly, the idea that coaching and athletics is

(06:00):
relational and coaches have a great opportunityto build and developed young people far beyond
the world of athletics. Tom Whiteis our guest here Masters and Coaching podcast
here on the iHeartRadio Network. Thankyou for download the podcast. Thank you
for watching here on YouTube as well. The program has flourished. You went

(06:25):
from twelve students to hundreds of studentsnow thousands of alumni and it's it's amazing
to see Tom. The people we'vetalked to here on the podcast, the
first thirty three episodes from Coach Negroat Saint John Bosco here locally to the
NAIA UH Westcliff University to high schoolstrength and conditioning coaches back on the East

(06:47):
Coast, to see how it's spread, and obviously with the relationship with Concordia
University of Irvine and the online platformthat allows for that growth outside of just
Southern California and attending in a classroom. Is that something that you wanted from
the get go was to make itavailable to people, not just in that
classroom setting Inurvine, in southern California, to let it grow to do a

(07:12):
national thing. Well, humbly,I would like to admit that we didn't
have a clear vision. We hada vision and mission, but as to
who we would serve, we wouldhave to say. I would have to
say that we looked at the studentsand the coaching community in the athletic community

(07:33):
took more or less guide us.They were more or less giving us the
ideas that we needed. We startedwith one site that being concording into our
Siurvine. We want five local SouthernCalifornia sites and one evening. I thought,
and it probably was based upon alot of wishing and hoping and not

(07:57):
a lot of sound thinking, weshould go national and have a program that
was offered online. Now I knewvery little about the Internet. I probably
couldn't spell it at the time.However, it took off and that was
in two twelve, and I thinkwe've been blessed with that. We now

(08:22):
have four thousand, five hundred andthirty one alumni in all fifty states and
live in foreign countries, and wecounted as a blessing. Those alumni are
very, very important to us.We talk in the program about the importance
of relationships in a relational program.Well they are to this day very very

(08:43):
important in our growth and development.There are focus group of nothing else.
We talk to people who are practitioners, who are in the real world,
doing real things, with real problemsand real issues in order to fully understand
where we should go. And sowe are blessed. We have grown and
we would like to continue to growand serve. I want to pick off

(09:07):
something that you just talked about therethe development of the program and that it's
it's set up, but it's alwaysevolving. And that's important for a program
because you want to get the feedbackof your alumni. And a lot of
those alumni have come back and havebecome professors or teaching classes for you in
person or online and doing it remotely. It's been awesome to see that,
but to see your program continue tochange and that feedback from the alumni,

(09:31):
if you could just a little bitmore about how important that is for you
to keep it evolving the program tofit the needs of coaches today, because
I mean the coaches we've talked toTom from you know, from D one
to high school coaches to strength andconditioning coaches, they've all talked about it.
It's no secret coaching fifteen years agoit's a lot different than it is
now. Just the way the studentathletes have evolved in coaching and private teams

(09:54):
and the whole coaching umbrella has changedover the years, and you have to
adapt with well. Tim, Ithink you're absolutely right. We have to
evolve and adapt, and we've triedto do that to the best of our
ability. We have tried to navigatethe world and culture of sport, that

(10:16):
being D one, D two,D three, NAI community College, high
school, middle school, and we'veeven served people who have never coached before
who have a passionate vision that theywould like to coach. So evolving and
developing has been very, very importantto us using experts, using that term

(10:37):
lightly in to help guide us asto next directions, next steps has been
very, very important. Some ofour best ideas have come from current students
and alumni, so I have togive them a lot of credit. We
owe them that of gratitude for beingloyal alumni, and we say that in

(10:58):
the most sincere terms of the word, because these people are like the MCA
family, and we feel that theMCA experience has been a valuable part of
their coaching history and by the waywe have impacted these people in our view,

(11:20):
but through their relationships and through theirbehavior as coaches, they have influenced,
in my view, thousands and thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of
student athletes, and those people areeventually the beneficiaries of what we find to
be very very sound coaching philosophies.Our mission and vision therefore is being expanded

(11:43):
on a daily basis. Tom,Did you ever think it would get to
this point, the program where it'sat now with the network of alumni that
you talked about. Now, arethey giving you feedback? Now? Are
they imprinting on young kids and theircoaching and and being a fled characters and
over kids are pouring into them atdifferent levels, from middle school, high
school, as you mentioned, tothe collegiate level. Is this something that's

(12:07):
even for you? It's like,why I can't believe in twenty twenty two,
here's where this program is that westarted back in two thousand and five.
And does it get you kind ofmotivated to like we can still do
this, or we can go downthis road, or we can continue to
tap into this kind of resource.Are you constantly thinking about moving it forward
as well? Well? Personally,yes, it started out with a friendly

(12:33):
bet with our great former provost,doctor Mary Scott, that we could have
more students in our program than theyhad undergraduate graduates at the university. And
we're both competitors and so that wasa challenge. The second part of that
is is that as we grow anddevelop, we not only learn, but

(12:54):
we gained some allies along the way. I do think that would I would
not be truthful, as I said, if if I said we would have
this number. However, I'm anxiousto celebrate our five thousandth graduate and if
we get to that. This isan old track coach, never ever lower

(13:16):
the bar once we get to fivethousand alumni. I would think it would
be appropriate to aim for a tenthousand student alumni. So I think,
like most coaches and competitors, welike to think that what we are doing
is worthwhile. If this is worthwhile, it will continue to grow and develop.

(13:37):
We haven't had an incredible marketing base. We had used our students,
alumni, and athletic leaders to promotethe value of the program. We haven't
used a hard sell approach. Ithas been very logical. When I was
starting the program, I would asksuperintendents of schools, how do you train

(13:58):
your coaches? And these great PhDs, great leaders would mumble and fumble and
didn't never have an answer. Sotraining your coaches to meet the standards of
your school, your college or university, your program is very very important because

(14:20):
we can't expect that person to readyour mind in regard to how you expect
the athletic personnel, the coach,the athletic read to behave. So I
feel it was very important, andquite frankly, I think it will continue
to grow. Athletics. As yousaid, tim has changed incredibly, and

(14:41):
I think society has changed incredibly,so they'll be opportunities to grow and develop
and we need to be contemporary.We are not the authoritarian type of coaches
that many of us may have beenin our early days. We know that
there have been some great our fathersin regard to coaching, education, in

(15:01):
regard to character education, John Woodenwould be one. I'm a huge John
Wooden advocate. Tony Dungee, wecould look at Frosty Westerly, we could
look at all sorts of people aroundthe globe who have been great teachers,
great educators, and great servant leaders. So this is nothing new. And

(15:26):
again I mentioned a few people,but we have a lot of people who
have been involved in our program whoI feel are in athletics for the right
reason. They are teaching and coachingall their student athletes, not just the
superstars. And I know there's ahuge difference between professional athletics and maybe Division

(15:46):
one athletics. We have had studentswho have been in those realms. We
have five Olympic gold medal Stuart graduates. We have twenty two NFL alumni who
are graduates of the program. However, we come to the common theme that
you should treat everyone well, youshould treat everyone with dignity, and everyone

(16:08):
is an opportunity to build and developcharacter. So those are some of the
things that are I think really incumbentupon us to continue to strive to achieve.
Tom White is with this the foundingdirector of the Masters and Coaching and
Athletics Administration Program and Concordia University,Irvine. He is the brains behind it.

(16:30):
He is the one who put ittogether. For all you coaches and
administrators out there that have gone throughthe program, are going through it currently
right now, or have thought aboutit, Cui di eedu slash coaching,
Cui di Eedu slash coach, andmake sure you take advantage first time students
of the one thousand dollars scholarship.For those looking to a rule, you

(16:51):
can look into the spring and summeras well if you're looking to further your
career, become a better coach,become a better administrator. I think you
hit on something interesting, Tom,that you talk to athletic directors and superintendents
that you know, hey, youwant to make your coaches better. It's
not just going to the coaches andsaying do you want to better yourself?
It's going to the people above them, they're superiors, and say do you

(17:11):
want to make your coaches, whetherit's football, basketball, baseball, wrestling,
lacrosse, volleyball, you want tomake your coaches better, better people,
better communicators, better leaders of theirstudent athletes. They need to they
need to do this, and that'ssomething that's that I think is interesting to
hear because it's not just ad directingyour attention towards those coaches. It's the

(17:32):
people above to make their their theiremployees better. Well. If we want
to hold people responsible and accountable fora great student development in all areas,
we need to train them. Andif we don't train them, our expectation
can't be that they're going to followsomething that we wrote twenty five years ago,

(17:56):
the standard for greatness, that theidea that schools, college and universities
not only train their people, supportthem, support them to move forward.
My view is, and I loveathletics, is that for high schools,

(18:17):
college universities, athletics is one ofthe best things they have. It's the
front porch in terms of public relations, but it also is foundational in terms
of character development. And those greatcoaches out there are building people, both
men and women, and they arereally in a position to do great things.

(18:41):
So they can be the beacon forthe future of athletics, which I
think is very bright. It's onthe program. When you started it was
it intended to be an overall coachingplatform and an educational platform. Because now
we've talked to coaches that are goneback or alumni that have gone back and
now teaching a class and it's baseballspecific or it's volleyball coaching. Is that

(19:06):
something that you wanted to be apart of the program or is that something
that kind of grew off the initialstart of the coaching Master's program. We
started out, as I mentioned earlier, as an on site program. We
were designed for working professionals, particularlyin high school, and our curriculum was
specifically high school. And as wegrew and developed, I noticed not only

(19:30):
middle school people but Division one,Division two, Division three coaches, and
that was the alarm to make surethat the curriculum was specific enough. The
master's degree in coaching and then Ihad all sorts of athletic directors. Ironically,
the state of California had three athleticDirectors of the year who did not

(19:53):
have their master's degree. Wow.And when I found that out, two
of the three UH earned their master'sdegree from US. It was the opportunity
that they needed. Many of themwere a very busy b uh, didn't
really want to go down the educationaladministration path, and there wasn't a program

(20:15):
designed for their passion athletic leadership.So we have been fortunate to attract some
of those people. But the programhas grown up. The sports specific classes
we started in two thousand and twelve. Okay, people said why don't you
have these, and we said,well, based on your ideas and out

(20:38):
of respect for those ideas, we'regoing to move forward, We're going to
do this. We did it.It's been very, very successful. That's
that's what you talked about earlier,and getting input and feedback from your students
and your alumni and constantly molding thismaster's program, and that's that's a big
reason why it's the number one coachingmaster's program in the entire country. Tree

(21:00):
against Cui dit etu slash Coaching tofind out more. Tom White is our
guest. He is the founding directorof the Masters and Coaching Athletics Administration program
at Concordia University of Irvine. Lookingahead, is there things that you still
hope that your program I know youhand things off now, but you're still
involved with the program. Is thereare there things you're you're still hoping to

(21:25):
get done or things you're you're thinkingof that you want to start implementing the
program as the one who started thiswhole thing. Well, I think one
of the things we need to dowith current students, alumni and perspective students
is come up with opportunities for themto discuss, to to look at,
to analyze, to share ideas onthe very most recent topics that coaches,

(21:55):
athletic directors and students are faced with, because there are some topics that we
would not have guessed would ever havebeen at the forefront of athletics maybe,
let's say fifteen years ago. Youmentioned that earlier, and so I think
people need to be aware we needto have still discussions if we have differences,

(22:18):
and we need to move forward withsome plans on how we can best
serve our communities, our coaches andhow we can move forward. Tom,
We appreciate it's real important. Yeah, absolutely absolutely appreciate your time. The
program has done so many great thingsfor so many people, and it continues

(22:38):
to do so, and it continuesto evolve and it continues to grow from
where you started it to your brainchild to implement it and working with Concordia
University or Vines at two thousand andfive and launching this program to where it
is now. The network, Ithink that can't be underestimated that the network
of alumni that you've got Tom tohelp to communicate, to promote and get

(23:03):
behind this Master's program is truly remarkable. I mean, people can go and
see right online at Cui dit EtuSlash coaching testimonials from from Olympic Stars,
gold medal winners, to high schoolcoaches, to college coaches and flight directors.
It is certainly a program that hashelped so many people. And I

(23:25):
mean I can't say enough what you'vedone for people. So on behalf of
everybody that's going through the program.Thank you so much. Him. I
want to say thank you to you. I would like to acknowledge that there
have been a lot of people.I think we need to stay humble,
continue to pursue the goals that westarted, not forget our mission envision,

(23:48):
and recognize that there are a lotof people that we can continue to serve.
So I just want to thank youfor all that you do. I
appreciate it. Tom, Thank youso much. I have a great afternoon.
Thank you many thanks to Tom,the founding director of the Masters in
Coaching and Athletics Administration Program at ConcordiaUniversity, Irvine. He came up with
the idea, he founded it twelvestudents back in two thousand and five,

(24:11):
and here we are thousands of graduates, thousands of alumni, and it couldn't
be flourishing any better than right nowat Concordia University, Irvine. Check it
all out if you're interested. Youwant to find out more information. There's
a thousand dollars scholarship program for firsttime students. All the information is right
in front of you at CUI doteedu slash coaching CUI dot edu slash coaching.

(24:34):
You just heard from the man whostarted the program, why he started
it, and where his vision isnow moving forward in twenty twenty two and
beyond. Thanks again for listening.Tim Kaid's saying soul on everybody.