All Episodes

June 20, 2025 β€’ 12 mins

Trying something new, as we bring you REAL TIME on the field (and track) interviews from the Nike Outdoor National HS Championships. Gill Athletics is proud to sponsor Friday's Coaches Social at NON. Coaches were able to have a free lunch on us and grab a few door prizes (neck fans, gateboards, wristbands, sunglasses, and more!)

Check back tomorrow for Day 3!


🌟 Explore Our Library: Dive into 300+ episodes featuring insights from coaching legends such as Boo Schexnayder and Dan Pfaff, Diljeet Taylor (BYU) and Beth Alford-Sullivan, as well as superstar coaches Petros Kyprianou (Illinois), Althea Thomas (Vanderbilt) and many more! Find us on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and more for your listening pleasure.


πŸŽ™οΈ Create Your Own Podcast Episode: Reach out to Mike Cunningham for instruction on how to create your very own Gill1918 Project episode, which airs every Tuesday through Sunday. Find YOUR voice on the Gill Connections Podcast Network.


πŸ“² Stay Connected: Want to get in touch with our host, Mike Cunningham? Follow on Twitter (@MikeCunningham), email at mcunningham@gillathletics.com, or text to 217-898-3038. We love hearing from you! πŸŽ§πŸ‘

Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
We're back here for day two of the Nike Outdoor National
Championships, USATF U20 Championships and beautiful
Eugene, OR Hope you enjoyed yesterday's day one mini
interviews, micro interviews right here on site at the Gill
Athletics coaches hospitality suite down by the 200m star.
We're going to do it all over again, but maybe we'll have some
repeats. Hopefully we'll have a bunch of

(00:22):
new people and we'll just interview them and ask them how
they're doing, how's it mean to be here in Eugene, OR and what
their athletes are up to. So stay tuned and let's get
started. Field is.
Down here, fine. All right, so here we go with
our first interview of Day 2 at the Nike Outdoor National
Championships. Coach, won't you introduce
yourself and tell us where you from?
Yeah, I'm Coach Nick Thiel and I'm from Kalispell, Mt and we

(00:44):
have a couple athletes here fromthe Flathead, Polson area,
Hamilton, so western Montana. And yeah, we came in a couple
days ago and I had a couple of middle schoolers run yesterday
and today and a high schooler going to Miles so.
Now I've been to Montana, I think just once and I had to
drive from like Montana State toUniversity of Montana, Big
State. But it's it is up here and we

(01:06):
run from the Midwest. So I don't know how far things
are. Do you drive to Eugene or is
that a flight or? Yeah, some people might fly.
We drove just, you know, you have enough athletes and and
family and everything drive is good.
So it's 11 1/2 hours of drive time and we we drive a lot.
That's kind of a disadvantage ofliving in a rural state.
Yeah, yeah. I mean, our nearest AA school

(01:30):
really outside of our town is anhour drive and it's further from
there. So an hour to five hours is a
common drive for us. Yeah, I told you I host the
podcast here that we're on rightnow.
And last year I went and did a kind of an ambitious project.
I interviewed 1 high school coach from every state to talk
about their outdoor track and how do you qualify, what events
do you do things like that. And one of the questions that we

(01:50):
asked each state was do you do alike a meet a champion.
So, you know, you have differentclasses here in Montana.
You come back a week later and all that kind of stuff.
And I came here, the coach that we had that volunteered this
time to do the interview with usfrom Montana.
But I remember his, his responseto that was like, dude, do you
know how big the state is? He goes, it's hard to get
everybody to the state meet. Yeah.
He goes to try to do it all overagain.

(02:11):
He's like impossible in Montana.Yeah.
It is hard. We do have a top ten meet, but
they separate out Easton from West because it is, I think it's
a nine hour drive across the state.
So to do it east and West makes sense, yeah.
You know what, Texas, they always talk about how far it is.
Montana. You got it there, too.
Yeah. What is Texas left to right?
Oh my God, I think in calendar you have to do it by calendar

(02:33):
like. Monday through Wednesday, hey.
Nick, you must be good luck because you know today, as we
started yesterday, was beautiful.
Weather wise. Today it started.
I won't call it typical Oregon weather, but you know, it was
overcast, so Sprinkles talking to you.
The sun has come. Out.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Well.
What do you got going on today? What what athletes are between
today? We can watch them and report.

(02:54):
Yeah, actually we had. 2 middle schoolers.
Quinn Delaney and Ada Thiel in the middle school 800 Yeah, I
saw those. Yeah.
So one was a second off for PR, but she ran a good mile
yesterday and PR yesterday in the mile and then.
And we also had Ada Thiel who ran mile yesterday also.
And technically, well, I don't say technically she PR Ed by the

(03:17):
record books by 12 seconds, but she had run that time actually
on her own in a workout being paced.
Yeah, but it's it's not official, right?
So. So is.
The PR kind of, yeah, a big pair, but anyway that was great.
She won her heat and 7th, so just off the podium but exciting

(03:38):
and then she ran the 800 today and she got eight, one second PR
so. It's the middle of June and
you've got kids that are PR in and near PR in that says good
coaching if you keep them motivated and.
Keep them going. There is that.
Yeah, I think Catch 22, you know, you're trying to stretch
out the the peak in their season, the middle school
season. Some, some of them are done two

(04:00):
weeks ago, some of them are done456 weeks ago.
So like trying to figure out, doyou get a little micro cycle in
there or do you just try and hold that taper or so?
Yeah, it is interesting. But I mean, they're motivated
kids and always being here. People run.
Faster. That's.
Right. Yeah, yeah.
So walk. Through the gates.
If you're faster, if you're not motivated here, yeah.
What are you doing in track? And field, yeah, I mean, this is
the Mecca, right? This is it.

(04:20):
That's. Right, Nick, thank you so much,
man appreciate it being here, enjoying.
It's so fun to watch your athletes compete and honestly
for me, you know, I'm a coach advocate, so I'm always working
to up listen, honor you to be able to see you guys and gals do
your craft. That's the that's the real
blessing for us. So.
Thanks for being awesome. Yeah.
Thank you. All right, we're back here
Hayward Field Nike outdoor national championships for our

(04:41):
next little micro interview hereand we got, you know, some of my
favorite people. I've got throws coaches here, so
let's do another throws coach here.
Why don't you introduce yourselfand where you're from?
I'm Colin Post. And I'm at Wake Forest
University. And, you know, insider secret,
this is actually take two for for this interview here.
Colin, what what are you doing here?
What's going on? You got athletes or Yeah.
We had we had an athlete feedingin the women's U20 javelin and

(05:05):
she came out and ended up 6th place, got on the podium, so we
had a pretty good day. How do you you know college
track and field is so hard in regards to you know, how do you
qualify for the championships and the level you know you guys
are, it's all your fault. You guys are just coaching kids
so much better. How do you manage as far as
coaching with that kid to now come back a week later or two

(05:26):
weeks later, whatever you know it might be, how do you keep
extending that that season for them?
Well, a lot of it was just let'scross our fingers and hold on
this year, you know, she had a little bit of back injury so it
was up and down. So we got to the end of the
season. She wanted to do this meet.
I said, look, I can't change your training at this point.
Back off for a couple days, rampback up for two weeks and then

(05:47):
cross her fingers were still in in some somewhat of a condition
when we get there. I know sometimes we try to
overthink it a little bit. It's like, you know, it's a
week, Mike, not two months. That might be a whole different
aspect. If you're doing something like
that now you're here, you're competing with her and that
Javelin recruiting as well. Yeah, we're hanging out watching
some tracks. See if anybody make good Demon

(06:08):
Deacons. You, you've done this for a long
time, so you're seeing the the change in the incident of late
when you go to a meet like this today, 2025, how different is it
from 2015 as far as recruiting and all the things that have
changed? I think we just got to be more
focused now, right? I I got to know who can come in
and help faster. Yeah.

(06:30):
Yeah. Do you?
Have to have difficult conversations with kids that
maybe, you know, again, 10 yearsago, you know, it's like, Oh
yeah, I'd love for you to walk on or books.
And now it's like, you know, it's just, it's not my fault.
I, I It's the system that I'm. Handed Absolutely.
There's a lot of conversations being had about due to the the
nature of NCAA right now, I can't give you a shot.

(06:50):
Right. Yeah, makes sense.
Makes sense. Well, I told you earlier
yesterday, I met one of your former athletes who grad
transferred to North Carolina. Thomas.
He spoke so highly of you, man, and just you're doing a great
job, really do. Appreciate you.
Yeah. Appreciate it.
Awesome. Thanks, Colin.
All right, let's keep the interviews going.
This this is a fun one. I'm I'm really excited about
this one, so let's hop right into it.

(07:11):
Why don't you introduce yourselfand tell us who you're you're
here with what team or track club?
Yeah. Sure.
My name is Donna here and we're here with the Nike Elite
program. My daughter was selected a
couple years ago to do that. She also is in high school,
King's High School, just South or north of Seattle area Small

(07:31):
Kitchen High School and she throws the primarily throws the
hammer. Yeah, so I've learned a little
bit about the elite program fromour NSFANSAF people and we
support it with some equipment, things like that.
What kind of support do they do for for her?
Like how are they helping her out with her a bit?
The hammer specifically. OK, well, they give her.

(07:51):
They pay for the Nike outdoor meet, which we're just in
Seattle, but they'll pay. They'll put her in a hotel here
and they'll give us gas money. Then they give her to the indoor
New York. So that's a travel.
She gets to compete and and throw the weight and I think
she's done the shot there as well.
So that's, and they have a wholeprogram for about four days

(08:13):
there with some hospitality. They put it in a hotel,
transportation is all taken careof.
And then the other thing they dois they give you a meat of your
choice. So if you want to come down to
Prefontaine, if you want to go to California to Arcadia Relays,
Mount SAC. So she went to Mount SAC Junior
Olympics are in Savannah. So I think that's going to be

(08:34):
our our trip for her and they'llpay the airfare and and do the
travel support for that. And so and.
Some kind of mentorship with other right former elite
throwers. Right.
So they'll have, in fact, they had a breakfast this morning.
There were some Olympians in there that they got to mingle
with and just some of them told their story and they can see,
you know, what they did with their education.
Did they, you know, become an Olympian and then go to college

(08:57):
and become a nurse? Or.
Or vice versa, have kids now what they're doing and they're
coaching. So they get that and they have
monthly. We have monthly.
Well, not many, but there's Zoommeetings.
They get together and they will have people talk about
nutrition, talk about training, offseason.
They might have Olympians that they'll have breakouts.

(09:18):
So then the throwers will have Deanna Price online and we'll be
able to talk to her about, well,how do you train before they
meet or how do you get ready sixweeks out?
Yeah, before the Olympics and. Things like that.
They can ask those questions andthen they build a rapport with
them and then sometimes they getto see them at a meet like, you
know, like U 20s or something when.
They're out here. And how's that been working out?

(09:38):
She threw yesterday, I believe. Right, Right.
OK. So U 20s very competitive year.
And so she went out, she had a great series, went out and threw
really close to her best, which IS1861846 something like that.
186 Oh, I shouldn't know this. Anyway, she threw like 184.

(10:02):
So she was just a couple feet off to open up with sex and
saying OK, if you want to find the whole big monkey off your
back. Anyways, her fifth throw she
unleashed 1. She was in second place.
I think she was in the second place already, but she better
that more to a 190, which is a personal best.
And then it's also the age grouprecord 1718 year old being a

(10:24):
junior in high school. So that's where it ended.
The one he throw was a 196, so she was pretty close to that.
We're a little disappointed there's no team.
Normally that would have been. A team.
To Pan Am, but we kind of saw that coming.
With some information. That came out.
But, and selfishly, you told me she threw the gill hammer.
Yeah, because it was a record they had to impound everything

(10:49):
they carried and and she said itwas this, it was this silver one
that's and they took that one back.
She also had her pull on it and she carried that one out with
her and they went and re measured, re weighed that and it
was perfect. And we love supporting young
athletes, old athletes, you know, it's all about what they
do on that field or in that circle.

(11:10):
And so we're excited to work with NSA, NSAF and work with
Nike Elite and your daughter andjust, it's really cool.
That's very, very awesome. If we had more time, I'd talk
about the background, how she got into Hammer because that's
cool too. But thank you so much for being
here with us today. Thank you.
And stay tuned to Sunday another.
Competition. Let's go Sunday.
All right. I'll be paying attention.
All right. Awesome all right, that's going

(11:32):
to do it for day two of the Nikeoutdoor national championships
with the coaches hospitality sponsored by Gill Athletics.
The rain kind of dampened the number of interviews that we
could do we didn't have great weather today.
However, that weather did not dampen the athletes out on the
track. What an amazing, just an amazing
amount of performances today. These coaches are coaching their

(11:54):
tails off and so super excited to be able to showcase them in
our small way here on the podcast.
Check us out tomorrow. We'll come back for day three.
We're hoping. We're praying for better
weather, but I know we're going to see some real fire on the
track. So thanks for listening and
we'll talk soon.
Advertise With Us

Popular Podcasts

Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club

Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club

Welcome to Bookmarked by Reese’s Book Club β€” the podcast where great stories, bold women, and irresistible conversations collide! Hosted by award-winning journalist Danielle Robay, each week new episodes balance thoughtful literary insight with the fervor of buzzy book trends, pop culture and more. Bookmarked brings together celebrities, tastemakers, influencers and authors from Reese's Book Club and beyond to share stories that transcend the page. Pull up a chair. You’re not just listening β€” you’re part of the conversation.

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted β€” click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!

Dateline NBC

Dateline NBC

Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

Β© 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.