June 23, 2022 • 51 mins
Season 5 Episode 2 of The WeCOACH Podcast, presented by Hudl, launches June 23, 2022 on the 50th anniversary of Title IX, so it’s only appropriate that we dedicate this episode to a new resource recently released; Winning Ways of Women Coaches, edited by volleyball coaching legend and former WeCOACH Board President, Dr. Cecile Reynaud. Episode 2 also features two contributing authors from Winning Ways; Carol Owens, Notre Dame Associate Head Women’s Basketball Coach (also a former WeCOACH Board member) and Felecia Mulkey, head coach of Baylor’s Acrobatics & Tumbling program. The women have over 75 years of coaching experience and an astounding 13 national championships combined. Tune in to get the Cliffs Notes from their chapters about what has allowed them to enjoy winning careers. Then make sure to order your copy of Winning Ways of Women Coaches today—it’s a must read.
Host: Vanessa Fuchs
Recorded: June 13, 2022
For more information, links and resources and hundreds more conversations from the world of women’s sport including articles, blogs, videos and podcasts visit wispsports.com.
WiSP Sports is the ONLY GLOBAL PODCAST FOR WOMEN’S SPORT with more than 60 hosts, 1600+ episodes across 50 shows and over 7 million downloads.
Every episode is a WiSP SPORTS ORIGINAL PRODUCTION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
We are ranked in the top 2% of more than 2.71 million podcasts worldwide. WiSP Sports is on all major podcast players. Follow WiSP Sports on social media @WiSPsports. Contact us at info@wispsports.com.
Host: Vanessa Fuchs
Recorded: June 13, 2022
For more information, links and resources and hundreds more conversations from the world of women’s sport including articles, blogs, videos and podcasts visit wispsports.com.
WiSP Sports is the ONLY GLOBAL PODCAST FOR WOMEN’S SPORT with more than 60 hosts, 1600+ episodes across 50 shows and over 7 million downloads.
Every episode is a WiSP SPORTS ORIGINAL PRODUCTION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
We are ranked in the top 2% of more than 2.71 million podcasts worldwide. WiSP Sports is on all major podcast players. Follow WiSP Sports on social media @WiSPsports. Contact us at info@wispsports.com.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:20):
Hello everyone, and welcome to Seasonfive, Episode two of the week Coach
podcast, presented by our partner Huddleon with Sports Radio. Huddle is leveling
the playing field for women in sports, both through the technology they create and
important events like Breakthrough Summit. Cocreated with week Coach. All podcasts episodes
(00:41):
are inspired by collective input from ourweek Coach community. Please join us every
two weeks for thought provoking discussions focusedon timely topics of national significance. I'll
be your host, Vanessa Fuchs,CEO of week Coach, a one of
a kind nonprofit dedicated to offering yearround growth and leadership to development to recruit,
advance, and retain women coaches inall sports and levels. This podcast
(01:07):
is a co production of with SportsRadio and we Coach. We look forward
to bringing you new shows dropping everyother Thursday. Today, June twenty third
is an important day. June twentythird marks the fiftieth anniversary of Title nine,
and in recognition of the golden anniversary, We Coaches launching our year long
(01:29):
celebratory campaign, Move the Numbers.The campaign title is significant for three reasons.
First, it represents our wee Coachmission to dramatically increase the numbers in
terms of women coaches in all sportsand levels. Second, we're fundraising to
increase the number of year round growthand leadership programs, and most importantly,
third, these additional leadership programs willthen allow us to impact greater numbers of
(01:55):
women coaches. And to kick offour fiftieth celebration, we have three coaches
as our special guests today. Thesewomen have over seventy five years of coaching
experience and have one an astounding thirteennational titles combined. Our first guest is
a long time personal friend and mentorof mine, doctor Cecile Renaud, who
(02:16):
served as FSU's head women's volleyball coachfor twenty six years. She retired in
two thousand and one and has beencoaching me up as our mentee ever since.
In two sixteen, Cecile was honoredwith the Friar Award, USA Volleyball's
highest award that's given to an individualwho's exemplified leadership and service in volleyball for
over thirty years, and two eighteen, Cecile was our week Coach Board President.
(02:42):
She has published several books in herillustrious career, including a new book
released by human Kinetics in May entitledWinning Ways of Women Coaches, featuring twenty
of the most remarkable women coaches inthe world. These women know how to
not only win in their sport,but they are winning on Amazon as well
as it's already the number one bestselleron Amazon in the Sociology of Sport category.
(03:06):
Generously, Cecil and the contributing authorshave directed all proceeds to Week Coach,
for which we are incredibly grateful.And speaking of contributing authors, two
of them are with us today.Carol Owens, associate head coach of Notre
Dame women's basketball, also a formerWeek Coach board member, and Felicia Mulkey
coach fee is the head coach ofBaylor's acrobatics and tumbling program. Coaches,
(03:30):
thank you for joining as guests today, and most importantly, thank you for
your generous support you've given to WeekCoach pleasure to be here. Thank you
for having me so excited to behere. Thank you, absolutely, Cecile.
We're gonna start with you, andbefore we get to the book,
I felt obligated to start with Titlenine. It's been fifty years since Title
(03:53):
nine was passed in nineteen seventy two, and I just wanted to listen to
what you describe as the greatest advancementswomen have made in sport. What have
you been most proud of? Well, first of all, I'm proud to
have lived through all of this history. I was in college when this law
passed in nineteen seventy two, soclearly I'm the oldest one on the podcast.
(04:14):
But in nineteen seventy six I gothired as a graduate student at Florida
State University as the head volleyball coach, and that in nineteen seventy eight I
got hired full time. And nowI look at all the staff members that
everybody had, and you know,back then, we did it all.
So we you know, we drovethe fifteen passenger van with fifteen people and
luggage. We'd drive all the wayback from Miami overnight. We couldn't afford
(04:36):
to stay. We called it ourown scorers. You know, we didn't
have athletic trainers. And so tome, it's exciting to watch the staff
expansion, the travel, you know, chartered buses, chartered planes, no
more having to stay four people ina hotel room. And then the scholarship
opportunities for more women to compete,and you know, these past few I've
(05:00):
watched our teams play on national televisionand it's it's just exciting to see them
in beautiful uniforms, fantastic facilities.And then I also think the success of
that we've seen of all the women'steams in the Olympic Games has been a
thrill. So we have come along way and it's just been fun to
sit through that whole history. Couldn'tagree more. You know, you talk
about the history. What we're goingto try to do through some week Coach
(05:24):
fifty at the anniversary events this yearis to capture that history, those stories.
It's so important that we make everypossible opportunity to preserve this important history
before we move forward. I justwanted to see Caroller coach Feed. Do
you have anything to add in regardto the impact of Title nine. I'm
(05:45):
just grateful. You know, Iwon't go into what my sport is,
but it we created it to increaseopportunities for females at the collegiate level where
there was not an opportunity for thembefore. So all the work that Cecil
has done and everyone feel like I'mstanding on their shoulders and I just hope
that I can do as much inmy time so that the next generation can
stand online. I mean, I'mjust super grateful to be able to do
(06:09):
everything we're doing. And I also, you know, I've been coaching in
college for a few years and tobe able to see it change and evolve
and watch these women on national television, it's just amazing. I too,
stand on the backs of these womenthat paved the way for Title nine.
And I just remember being in highschool and you know, a freshman and
(06:30):
listening to a lot of the juniorsand seniors that played volleyball, softball,
and basketball, and you know,such and such god a scholarship, and
it was such a monumental thing atthe time that everybody celebrated. We celebrated
it. The whole school celebrate whensomeone got a scholarship, especially at athletic
scholarships. So, you know,I too am grateful. And when you
(06:57):
see the growth of women's sports,this is fifty years of Title nine is
amazing and will continue to grow,continue to grow all of our games.
So excited to see what has ledto be and still still growing. So
good, Carol, you mentioned thewomen who paved the way and the growth
(07:21):
of women's sports. You know,a lot of people don't realize Title nine
allowed increased participation in sport for notonly girls and women, but for boys
and men. And but what othersalso don't realize, as we've seen a
drastic decline and women coaches during thatfifty year span. You know, we
(07:45):
used to have over ninety women coachingwomen's sports in the seventies and since that
time, we're now sitting at astagnant forty two percent. And so what
it speaks to our mission here wecoach is trying to content you to elevate
those numbers and create awareness of thedecline and build up the pipeline of who's
(08:07):
next in terms of the future forour women coaches. Cecil, let's talk
about this awesome resource you've created forus, and can you share your inspiration
behind winning ways of women coaches andwhy you want to do this project with
women coaches. Well, let mego back to two thousand and five.
I put a book together called SheCan Coach, and I when I was
(08:30):
as a young coach, I wasreading as much as I possibly could,
and I found that everything I wasreading was by male coaches highly successful and
I was learning a lot. ButI thought, I really want to know
what the best women that are coachingare thinking and what they're doing. So
I had worked with Human Kinetics Publishingon a couple of volleyball books, and
I said, you know, Ireally want to dig into women coaches and
(08:52):
see if we can't get some resourcesout there. And they thought it was
a great idea. And as Ishared that thought with people around the country,
they I said, you know,we're going to write a book about
great women coaches. And they said, oh, Gino RMA with yukon basketball,
and I went no. And thenthey'd say, oh Anson Drance at
(09:13):
UNC soccer anyway, great coach,but Nope, that's not it. And
then they said Mike Kendrea from Arizonasoftball, and I went, okay,
I really have to do this becausewe want them to know who the best
women coaching are and so human Kineticslet me do that. And so then
in twenty twenty I contacted and saidI think it's time we need to do
(09:33):
this again, and thankfully they agreed, could you also so see I'll talk
about the process, how you wentabout putting this resource together? How long
were you working on this project.Well, the process is pretty interesting.
First you have to kind of comeup with a proposal if you want to
do a book, and it's it'sa pretty extensive process. So then you
have an outline of possible topics.You think about contributors who you might have
(09:58):
access to or who you might youknow, be able to work your way
to get in touch with. Andthen of course they put the publishing company
puts you on a timeline because there'sgoing to be you know, there's publishing
dates and all the process everything theyhave to do at the publishing company.
And it took about two years,and of course we went through COVID and
(10:18):
so it was interesting. When wefirst started contacting the coaches, everybody was
free, no, you know,nobody was doing and you think Tara van
Vera was skiing in Minnesota and said, I have nothing to do, so
see, I'll be happy to talkto you as long as you want to
talk. And then, you know, as we went along, then all
of a sudden things started to ratchetback up and more action, and then
(10:39):
people went through, they started winningnational championships, they were getting ready to
leave for the Olympic Games and soI was just trying to fit all this
together. But it was about atwo year process. And how did you
decide on chapter topics and which coacheswe're going to contribute? Well that you
know, that's really when the fundsstart. So I had a list of
topics I thought were relevant and alsowanted each coach to share their thoughts on
(11:03):
team culture. We tried to addthat in each book, even if that
wasn't, you know, part ofwhat your assignment was, and then trying
to match up the people we thoughtwe could get with those titles, so
you just kind of have to plugit in. We started going after the
top female coaches in the world,and we reached out to two very successful
(11:24):
coaches in can We wanted to expandit too, not just to the United
States, but we got two verytalented, highly successful women from Canada contribute.
We went to Australia and thankfully LizMason from Athlete Assessments connected with two
brilliant women from Australia. And thenwe also wanted to include coaches that were
(11:45):
in men's sports, so Jen Welterfrom the NFL and then Rachel Bakovitt from
Major League Baseball. I thought thatwas an important perspective for women to think
about that they can coach in men'ssports and be successful. Then I started
putting the pieces together, and it'sthe complex process. I want you to
think back to school when you'd workon a group project and you might have
(12:07):
three or four people. But Iwas working with twenty extremely successful and very
very busy women in coaching, andso you know, it was like the
twenty most popular, smartest people inclass and trying to nail them down.
And I was just fortunate enough tohave these women share their time and their
expertise, and I'm so grateful toall of them. So I think it
(12:30):
was it was enjoying. I thinkI was enjoyable for me. But I
do hope that this resource will servethe purpose of supporting WEE Coach and that
organization that I think striving to helpsupport and retain and recruit women coaches.
But I hope it will be servedto really help coaches to a better job
all around. We're so excited forthe success of the book already to seal
(12:52):
again. We can't thank you enough. You mentioned the publisher's reaction and mentioning
Geno and Ants, and it remindedme of my neighbor across the street comes
over, he goes, hey,Vanessa, I heard about the new job
you've taken on with we coach.I actually just interviewed a coach today,
Salon Pillow. So Carol, you'llyou'll appreciate the story, because yeah,
(13:15):
I interviewed Shalan and we were doinga feature story on a former coach that
she had and he must have hadjust a tremendous impact on her life because
she just raved about him, somecoach named Pat. And I told my
neighbor, I said, you realizeSalon Pillow played at Tennessee and he and
she's talking about the legendary Pat Summitand it was a pretty funny moment.
(13:41):
But Cecil, you mentioned in thebook that Pat's an incredible mentor to you,
and I was just wondering if you'dbe willing to share some tidbits that
she's left with you. Well,I was fortunate enough to get to meet
her back in the early eighties.I was coaching with a World University Games
team and she was on a coachin the PanAm team, and we just
got to spend a lot of timetogether and uh, you know, I
(14:03):
tried to talk her into writing abook a long time ago. I even
had the title. I said,let's let's write a book. It could
be called first Class or Coach,because you know, we're always talking about
traveling. But you know what Ilearned from her is it's really important for
us to reach out to others thatyou're not competing against and that you know,
(14:24):
reach across sports. I could callher about anything, whatever was going
on with our team, and Ihad a safe person to talk to because
she wasn't she wasn't a competitor,but you know, she just worked hard
and worked long, but she hada lot of fun. And so that's
really what she left me with to, you know, take care of the
people, enjoy the process. Youknow, work hard and success will come
(14:46):
to you. So I was reallyfortunate to have her as a good friend.
Pat Summit cemented a legacy, obviously, and talking about really successful women's
basketball programs, I want to pivotnow to Carol, who Notre Dame certainly
has had their fair share of success. Carol, you've been coaching for almost
thirty years, and during that spanyou've been able to serve as an assistant
(15:09):
coach, an associate head coach anda head coach, and so you've got
obviously a great deal of experience froma variety of seats. What's the primary
role of an associate or an assistantcoach and how important is that role to
the success of a program. Ibelieve the primary role for an assistant or
associate coach is to support your headcoach. We have our responsibilities, but
(15:35):
as we know, there's always dutieson assigned and that's what we're called to
do, is support the head coach. And I think you know, with
the expansion of positions and all ofthat, the support staff is very important
(15:56):
in particular assistant coaches, and wehave our response abilities, and I think
our responsibility primarily is the support andthen too to make sure that I think
ultimately to not have to be micromanaged, to be able to hone into your
own responsibilities so the coach doesn't haveto worry, and that support in itself.
(16:21):
So I just think that we arethe gateways into a lot of different
areas that come up with our jobs, academics, performance. Obviously to student
athletes, we are the gateways andwe speak a lot of times on behalf
of our head coach, and soI think overall that falls under the umbrella
(16:45):
of support. So good. Ilove what you talk about there as far
as thinking like a head coach.In your chapter of Winning Ways, your
chapter is entitled Changing Coaching Roles Advancingyour Career and it discusses serving in these
different roles. What's some advice you'dgive to young coaches serving in these roles?
(17:06):
I think you you have to knowwhat your why is when you come
into coaching. A lot of I'vemet a lot of assistance that have come
from playing professional professionally or they arestudent athletes and they want to get into
coaching. And you have to understandwhy are you getting into coaching, because
there's there's a lot of responsibilities,there's there's a lot of work that goes
(17:30):
into it, not just stepping onthe on the basketball court and coaching your
players. You know, that's asmall percentage of what we all do.
But you have to know your why. And and I say, if you're
not in it to first and foremostbe a mentor along with with coaching um
(17:52):
young ladies and helping them get better. UM, then you're in You're in
the wrong sport because or the wrongfield, because you are going to have
to do things that are selfless,and you have to be a selfless individual,
and you have to be able towant to serve and not think about
(18:18):
the money initially, think about beingthe best you can be with the responsibilities
you have and being the best youcan be for our student athletes, well
said, and for our listeners.If you'd like to hear coach Carol Owens
why you're going to have to purchasea copy of the book, well said.
You know you worked with another legendarycoach, coach Muffett McGraw for a
(18:41):
long time. I love the storyin the book that you share of your
hand drawn facts cover sheet that youcreated for Muffett with mountains and stick figures,
and you actually say that's what gotyou the job. But I digress.
You won two national championships on herstaff, and now you're working with
a new first time head coach,Neil Ivey. And what's that like transitioning
(19:07):
to work with the first time headcoach. Um, it is a transition,
but in our case, uh NeilIvy played for coach McGraw and um,
she has a lot of her personalityin terms of coaching is UM as
far as coaching goes. But frommy position, I recruited Neil, so
(19:34):
it's it's a different dynamic. AndUM I served her, but I also
served as an advisory as a asan advisor and UM, you know,
transitioning. We transitioned new head coachesduring COVID, which was very very difficult,
(19:56):
UM. And we had a admittedaccess to our players, to UH
facilities and all of that. Imean, you can imagine how that all
played out. But there is atransition, you know, because in that
in that whole process, the headcoaches, you know, a new head
(20:17):
coach is trying to understand who theyare as a head coach, and you
have to allow that and you haveto support and you have to give advice
when it's needed, but also letthem see who they are in the process.
And so it's been a beautiful thing, UM. And we've had a
quick turnaround. You know. Wewe had some young individuals that were here.
(20:42):
Of course COVID, we were um, you know, reinventing the program
because we lost so much UH intwenty nineteen, all five of our players
went to the draft, and sowe were we were starting new and it's
been a quick turnaround since then interms of uh, just the maturation of
(21:07):
our program and where we are now, and it's it's good to see it
and doesn't happen overnight. Um.You have to allow the coach to to
be themselves but also know their wayinto this coaching field. But you got
to know what kind of kids theywant to coach, what type of kids
(21:29):
should we recruit. It's different inthat way, but I've I've really enjoyed
it, Um, And the transitionwasn't as hard as you might think it
is. But the transition was wasgood. It was challenging, especially during
COVID, but it's been very,very good. I can imagine how special
(21:49):
that is for you to be ableto now work with one of your former
players. I had that same opportunity, similar opportunity coming back to Florida State
and being able to after Sue Summerhad impacted me so significantly during my playing
career come back and then be ableto support her as her advocate and sport
administrator. So I can't imagine howspecial that relationship is to you. And
(22:12):
you're you're one of the few staffs. You know. We talked about the
numbers earlier. Currently forty two percentwomen coaching women's sports in Division one,
and your staff is a bit unique. There's there's not a lot of staffs
out there that are made up ofall four women's basketball staff being female coaches.
And just wanted to hear from youwhat that's what that's like working on
(22:33):
an all female staff. You knowwhat, I'm just really excited about working
with very good people, very goodin their field. And I think we
have some highly qualified women that haveplayed at a very high level and you
know, has had great experience incoaching, and we just happen to be
(22:56):
female. And then I'm excited aboutthat, and I'm excited. I'm always
excited about women succeeding. And tobe able to be around successful female leaders
is amazing. I learned so muchfrom them on a daily basis. And
(23:19):
we know that we're not just coaches, womentors to young women, so and
I think that's important. And soit's it's been great for our young ladies
because they can see themselves and us, and I think that's why the coaching
tree from Notre Dame is so sobroad. Well, we we coach agree,
(23:44):
you know, we certainly recognize there'spower when men and women role models
are impacting not only these young womencollege athletes, but also the young men
college athlete male athletes, and sowe recognize the importance of how having both
men and women in coaching. Wecertainly would like to see the numbers on
the women's side continue to grow andget back to a level that's well above
(24:07):
fifty percent. You know, wehave a saying through Week Coach that if
she can see her, she canbe her, And that's exactly what you're
talking about there, Carol. You'vebeen very intentional to serve on several boards
throughout your career. I mentioned yourrole with Week Coach. You've served on
the WBCA Board Black Coaches and Administrator'sBoard. You've immersed yourself also with USA
(24:32):
Basketball teams, and so I wantedto just hear what's gained by engaging in
these ways. How have these experiencesimpacted your coaching career? You know,
I always want to be around goodleaders, and what a way to be
inspired by being on several boards,including the Week Coach organization, where you're
(24:56):
around some successful people, especially inleadership, because that's what we're doing that
we're in the business of leadership,and that was a way that I was
able to grow in my profession inthe sport, and I wanted to get
back to the game. I wantedto be someone that was relied on to
(25:22):
give of their time and serve oftheir time in the area of sports.
I love what you said. We'rein the business of leadership and we can't
thank you enough for your leadership andimpacting this next generation of leaders. I
(25:42):
want to turn our attention now tocoach Felicia Mulki. You're coaching a sport
at Baylor, acrobatics and tumbling.Tell us a little bit about what your
sport consists of, coach fee,Thanks Vanessa. I will keep it short
because I could go on forever aboutmy sports. So acrobatics tumbling is a
sport that I think it's the onlysport that was ever created for women by
(26:03):
women. Was created by women,female administrators and coaches about I think thirteen
years ago. I can't believe I'msaying that thirteen years ago, but we
created it very intentionally to meet theinterests and abilities of young women at the
collegiate levels. So it is aevolution of different disciplines of gymnastics. So
(26:26):
right now, there's tens of thousandsof young women graduating every year from high
school that have trained in all differentdisciplines of gymnastics, and there's not a
lot of things for them to do. At the collegiate level. There's college
gymnastics, which is a very specificskill set that you need to have.
And then for a while, theother option was, well, maybe I
could be a cheerleader in shore onthe sideline, which is a great opportunity
(26:48):
if that's what you want to do. We created something to sit right in
the middle of those two opportunities,and it is made up at each of
our rosters made up about forty women, and they're able to bring the skill
set that they competed in high schooland compete it at the collegiate level on
behalf of their university. It issuch a passion of mine and all of
(27:10):
the women that are part of itright now because we're watching lives change because
of this. You know, oneof my favorite things right now is to
go out and recruit and speak toa group of young female athletes and watch
their eyes light up, because youknow, our sports relatively new if you
think about it and watch these youngwomen realize like, oh my gosh,
(27:30):
my career is not over. Istill get to compete. So it is
the way to explain. It isa little bit of circusle, a lot
of athleticism. It is for youknow, women of all shapes and sizes.
You can come in and bring yourspecialty. There's bases, there's tops,
there's tumblers. There's six events ata meet lasted about an hour and
(27:52):
a half. There's six events.And I always tell people, if you
have not been to a meet,just go and you will be entertained.
You do not even need to knowwhat's going on yet, you'll figure that
out slowly are actually pretty quickly.It's pretty easy to figure out, I
think when you watch watch it andwatch for what the deductions are and stuff.
But it is and I tell peoplehere at Baylor just come out and
(28:12):
see it. I think it costsfive bucks to get into a meet.
I'll refund your five dollars if youdid not have a good time. But
it is just for me. I'mpassionate about it. We talk about Title
nine and that's the reason our sportshere is creating these opportunities for young women
to compete at the collegiate level thatliterally did not exist thirteen years ago,
(28:33):
as we were the only sport outsideI think of football that started at the
collegiate level and is now trickling downinto the youth level. So now there's
youth acrobatics and tumbling programs out there. We recruit from artistic gymnastics, but
not the young women that are goingto go to collegiate gymnastics. If you
dig into gymnastics, you see howbig that population is. And the young
(28:55):
women that are coming to our teamsare not going to collegiate gymnastics. They're
not. It's not that they're notathletic enough or talented enough to go into
collegiate gymnastics. They just have adifferent skill set that can be utilized in
our sport. And so we recruitfrom all of the different disciplines of gymnastics,
power tumbling, acrobatic gymnastics, artisticgymnastics, and then also high level
competitive cheer because if you look atthat, those are actually gymnast that I've
(29:19):
gone over and are competing. Thisamazing thing. So it is. If
you have not seen it, Isuggest everybody go google it, take a
look at it. You can watcha highlight video for Baylor if you want
to google Baylor highlight video. Butit is really a fun sport. I
will mention this an Essa, sinceyou guys were talking about female opportunities.
(29:41):
It's exciting that every school that addsa sport. We started with six schools
about thirteen years ago and we're nowat forty three and it continues to grow.
We're now an NC doublea emerging sport, and we'll be an Incuba Championship
sport very soon within the next twoyears. Every school that adds is forty
plus opportunities for women to compete atthe collegiate level. But what I'm even
(30:03):
more passionate about is we also createdcareer opportunities. One hundred percent of our
head coaches right now are female.I think ninety nine of all of our
coaches are female right now. Andnot that men could not coach our sport.
They totally could, it just hasn'thappened yet. So we are really
excited about that number. And aboutseventy five percent of our current coaches our
(30:26):
former acrobatics and tumbling student athletes,so a young coaching group. So extremely
grateful for we coach and all ofthe training and support that you guys lend.
But it's pretty exciting. It isabsolutely exciting and entertaining, and I
agree. You've got to get outand watch a Baylor highlight video and you
will be automatically instantaneously converted to afan of acrobatics and tumbling. Thank you,
(30:52):
coach Fee, you know you're right. Those the rosters for your sport
adds significant numbers on the women's side. Many schools are still today fifty years
after Title nine, still struggling abit to ensure their participation numbers in terms
of the proportion. Proportion of menand women competing in their athletics departments is
(31:14):
in alignment with university enrollment. Andit's such a great opportunity with acrobatics and
tumbling because you are adding significant numberof women with forty plus on the roster.
I was fortunate to return to FloridaState at the time that we were
launching our inaugural year of beach volleyball. It was sand volleyball at the time,
in twenty ten, and it hasbeen tremendously exciting watching the growth of
(31:37):
that sport and now ESPN their nationalchampionships. It's aired on all the prime
ESPN channels. It's grown dramatically sincetwenty ten, and it was really fun
to be one of the first schoolsright out of the gates at Florida State
to host and start a team.And you're you've seen something similar evolving in
(32:00):
your sport, which we're really reallyexcited about. You mentioned there's now forty
three teams participating. You've coached yourBaylor team to seven seven straight national titles
and get this, You've won alleleven national championships that have ever been at
both Oregon and now Baylor combine elevennational championships. How the heck have you
(32:25):
done that? Well, it hasbeen fun. It has been a journey,
and you know, I think partof it is just the excitement right
now of all of the young womenthat come in that are able to do
this at the collegiate level. Youcreate a great culture on the team and
they go out and they fight forit. I believe culture is the biggest
(32:49):
thing to winning. Our group isvery collaborative right now, our organizations,
so we compete very fiercely during theseason, and then we get together at
our coach's summit in the summer andwe all teach each other everything, and
then we'd go back at it andwe fiercely compete again during the season.
But I believe that the culture ofa team is the key to victory.
(33:09):
And I think, yep, yougot to get some talent, and you've
got to be able to coach thexs and os and you have to do
all that. But you know,there's all these old cliches, but hard
work beats talent all the time.And you know, I saw that my
first year when I came to Baylor. I was I had just left the
University of Oregon and we had woncoming off a championship, and came down
(33:30):
to Baylor and inherited a program thatwas the first time in my career I
had ever done that at Oregon.I actually created the program and went out
and recruited that inaugural roster. Sowalking into Baylor, walking into someone else's
culture was a huge challenge for me, and one of the most important things
(33:51):
that I've ever done in my careerwas to walk in and instead of,
you know, actually change a culturethat was there and it just wasn't my
culture. You know, I don'twant to say it was bad, just
wasn't mine. It didn't work forwhat I wanted to do. So being
able to come in that first yearat Baylor and watch for three months as
this team tried so hard to tryto get out of everything instead of actually
(34:13):
doing the work, just tried forthree months to see what they could get
out of and we created a cultureof accountability and started taking pride in the
hard work and started taking pride andin the discipline and taking ownership of who
we were and deciding letting them,you know, a culture is what they
believe they are, not what weas a coach want them to be.
So that was you know, wewon that first year at Baylor. We
(34:36):
actually beat my team. I didnot bring any athletes from Oregon with me
to Baylor, and we went andwon the national championship that year. And
it was a storybook here, andit was about really about just the team
pulling together, not necessarily being themost talented team, but we definitely were
the best team. So I justtry to recreate that. I've been trying
to recreate that every year and I'veevolved and learned, and you definitely don't
(35:00):
do things the way we did,you know, ten years ago, but
it is someone asked me this yearafter the championship in an interview, you
know, are you addicted to winning? And I said, absolutely not,
because I'm not going to always win, But I am addicted to the journey
and I really love watching that,and I think, I just can you
(35:22):
know, I'm gonna try to doit again this year. I'm excited about
the group we have coming in andthere's that even though though you'll have some
returners, it's just going to bea different dynamic. It's just going to
be a different culture this year.And being able to help them intentionally navigate
that through the year and then hopefullypique at the right time. I love
that addicted to the journey, andyou do talk about that journey and your
(35:42):
chapter of winning ways. But Iwanted to jump back. You just came
off of serving as a featured presenterat our Women Coaches Academy in Denver a
few weeks ago, and our fortythree women coaches that were a part of
Class fifty one had the fortune oflistening to something that I recall Now I
don't have my notes right in frontof me, Coach Fee, but I
(36:02):
recall you saying and this isn't adirect quote. You will say way better
than I do. Don't strive tobuild a team, build a culture.
Culture breeds sustained winning. I thinkthat's close to what you shared with our
Women Coaches Academy members and we can'tthank you enough for making the trip to
(36:23):
Denver to pour into our coaches.Let's talk a little more about your chapter
and Winning Ways of Women Coaches.It's entitled Planning, Scheduling and Delegating And
what are some of the keys youfocused on in your chapter? You know,
just being detailed and how that playsinto the student athlete experience. And
(36:44):
I'm not, by nature a detailedperson. I am at fifty thousand feet
all the time. I'm always thinkingahead and what can we do next?
And what can we do next?But as a coach, and especially as
I started coaching and before I hada staff, I'm very lucky and have
a staff to help me with allthese things. Now, you really had
to pay attention to the details ofeven just travel and what that looked like.
(37:08):
And it was so helpful. Iwas, you know, when Cecilia
and I talked about what chapter todo, and this was my topic.
I really went back and thought throughall of the little things that we have
to think of, and it youknow, from planning it sounds so silly,
but from planning your itinerary for atrip. And you know, one
(37:30):
of the things I share in thechapter is is we my very first year
at the University of Oregon, weended up at this really high end restaurant
at a casino. Because you know, it was totally my fault, but
my assistant coach had created this itineraryand and she googled it and Okay,
yep, this is where we're goingto go. And what we learned after
(37:51):
that trip was, ah, let'sjust not look for a restaurant. Let's
actually look at the restaurant and whatis the budget? Because we just blew
our entire budget at this one restaurant. I mean, what do you do
once you get there? Totally myfault, not my assistances fault, because
I did approve the itinerary. Butthinking now, my I can't say that
hurt our student athlete experience for sure, because they enjoyed the heck out of
(38:12):
that state night and everything that wentalong with it. But you know,
just how really careful planning from lookingat what you want to do at the
end of the year and then backingthat out throughout the year. Really,
careful planning cannot only save your mentalhealth as a coach, and really,
you have so many other things tothink about during the season. Planning it
(38:34):
out ahead of time it can helpyou as a coach, but it can
also really lend to the student athleteexperience. You know, Entitlement really hasn't
hit our sport yet. They're allstill really grateful to be there. But
I like to spoil them when we'reon the road. I don't want them
to worry about anything. I wanteverything to be set and ready to go,
and their study time is here,and their treatment time is here,
and when you're traveling. We haveforty five on our team right now,
(38:58):
but we travel eight on our roster, so that's a huge number to manage.
So my chapters a lot about that, just digging in to planning everything
from your trips to your yearly.You know when you're going to recruit and
how to like lay that all outin your calendar and how if you you
know, I'm lucky I have astaff, but what if I'm one of
those new coaches that doesn't have abig staff yet how do I handle that?
(39:22):
And I hope that my chapter willhelp some of those new coaches and
maybe some of the veteran coaches too, But some of those new coaches really
be able to handle everything that's thrownat them by being able to get ahead
of it and delegating and if there'ssomeone to delegate to, and then managing
their time by planning out everything aheadof time. Yeah, that was a
great story of the high end restaurantat the casino reminds me our women's basketball
(39:47):
team had made it to their veryfirst ever ACC championship appearance. In the
championship game, Carol, I thinkwe were playing your Notre Dame team,
if I'm not mistaken. Sue takesthe team out to a high end steak
restaurant, and this time it wasintentional to spoil them a little bit and
congratulate them for this achievement, andit backfired on our Many of the kids
(40:08):
thought the sit time was too long, it took too long for the food
to come to the table, andmany of them did not care for the
sauces that were on their steak.So I saw one of our staff coming
in the hotel later that night,with bags of McDonald's and it too,
it was to replace the fine diningat the steakhouse for our team. Too
(40:30):
funny, but you know, youdo. You spend a lot of time
talking about that addiction to the journeyand seeing it through the eyes of your
student athletes. And one of thethings you say is that you do this
so that at the end of aseason, they say, coach, I
would gladly do it all over again. And in my mind, you coaches,
(40:51):
that has to be one of thehighest compliments you can receive from one
of your student athletes. And Imentioned you were at our Women Coaches Academy.
Could you talk a little bit aboutyour message to our academy coaches and
also how would you describe the academyexperience you are now at returning faculty member
of our academies. What's that experiencelike in your mind? It is well,
(41:15):
I'll speak to that first because itis my favorite time of year.
The energy in the room, it'sjust so you know, I spoke there
once in person pre COVID and thenwe did the two virtual years, which
were wonderful. Virtual maybe we madeat work, but there is something about
being in that room with all ofthese motivated women coaches that oh my gosh,
(41:35):
I just love it. And Isuggest, I don't care if you've
been coaching for two months or twentyyears, you should apply and you should
go to the Women's Coaches Academy.The connections and just to watch the cohort
come together. In the short timeI was there to watch them bond,
I laughed, I cried. Itwas fantastic, So I said everyone should
go. My chat it was aboutteam culture and it was interesting because it's
(42:00):
you know, it was. Iwent back and updated it and I noted
my power points stayed kind of thesame. My messaging was the same,
but my stories were different. Andeven in the four or five years I've
been working with a week coach,I was I've evolved as a coach and
the way that I approach things,and I think that's an important message,
like let's keep evolving and don't loseour philosophy, but keep evolving. I
(42:21):
talked my chat, it's all aboutculture, and it's a lot about intentionally
navigating the culture. You know,a lot of times coaches, I feel
like, especially if you're inheriting aculture, if you walk into an existing
program. But even if it's yourown culture, or even if it's your
own team, we could blame anindividual on the team or maybe a class.
(42:44):
I've heard coaches do that. Well, if I could just get rid
of the senior class, my cultureis going to be a lot better.
And my main message is no,as a coach, we either create a
culture or we allow it. Soyou know, we can't blame it on
the student athletes that are there.We have to decide how we're going to
navigate and what we're going to doto create the culture we want. And
then keeping in mind that, youknow, coming up with that logo at
(43:06):
the beginning of the year, thatcatchphrase is helpful as a coach, and
I know we do that. Hey, this is going to be our past
year. This past year at Baylor, our catch phrase was above the Line,
and our whole team meeting at thebeginning was about above the line.
And I love to hear my teamtalk about during the year. They would
refer to above the line. Butour culture is what that team thinks they
(43:29):
are, not what I tell themthey are at the beginning, And so
my talk is a lot about that, navigating that and how do we navigate
the stages of team, and Irefer to doctor Bruce Tuckman's Small Groups.
He wrote it. It's an olderarticle. I was fascinated with it in
college. I'm a huge nerd.So I've applied his four stages of team
(43:50):
or four stages of a small group, and I've I've applied it to team,
and I've done it for years now, and it's really interesting. It's
my favorite part is just to watchthem hit the forming stage, the storming,
the norming, the performing, andI can watch my team go through
it. I even discuss it withmy team when they're going through those stages
and yeah, so that my chatis about that and kind of educating about
(44:12):
that. And then all of oursports are so different and we compete our
game days and meat days are sodifferent. So just really kind of laying
out that blueprint and then allowing thosethat are there at the academy to try
to, you know, how couldthis work with my team, How could
this work if I'm coaching field hockey, How could this work if I'm coaching
tennis? And then you know,having conversations about that. It's been a
(44:35):
few weeks since our academy experience andI'm still on fire. I hope you
are. I continue to hear fromour academy participants about the impact that it
made on not only their career,but on their lives, and I just
can't thank you enough, Coach Mulki, for pouring into our participants and having
(44:55):
that level of impact on them.Gosh, ladies, we could we could
continue this conversation all day, butI know you've got teams to get back
to, and so what I liketo do is close out every podcast with
this question, and it's for anyone of you if you would like to
share a response, But can yougive us your advice for how we move
the numbers in terms of supporting andincreasing the number of women coaches and all
(45:20):
sports and levels. Vanessa, thisis the seal. Let me just say
that, first of all, thanksto these two women for participating today,
and to think there's eighteen other coachesthat are just like these women that will
share in this book. And it'smy hope that each one of these women
will write their own book in thefuture. But I think as far as
improving the numbers, we've got toobserve young women in our programs and even
(45:44):
on opponents teams. Think about thepeople that might have the right personality,
the temperament, the knowledge of thegame, and it doesn't have to be
a star player. Let's start themout with fifth year, eight or sixth
year aid, whatever that is now, as a volunteer or a graduate assistant,
or have them coach the young clubsin your area. We need women
(46:04):
coaching at all levels and coaching menand women. So I hope that we
can reach out to the people weknow and get them involved. Vanessa,
I think you know, one ofthe most disheartening things I have witnessed in
my career, and I'm sure weall have at some level as women not
supporting women. So for me,I think we continue to move the numbers.
(46:25):
It doesn't matter if it's within ourown sport or if it's a sport
that we watch every day. Butlet's just support women in sport, period
and let's support them with our words, with everything that we can do lift
others up around. And I thinkthat's how we're going to move the numbers,
is just to continue to reach outand support as much as we possibly
(46:46):
can. Sometimes we tend to stayin our lane, you know, I'm
acrobatics and tumbling, Harold's basketball.You know, we tend to stay in
our lane, but let's just lifteveryone up. That's what I love about
the Coaches Academy is it's it's allsports and it is really amazing to see
that. So I'm going to committo doing that, you guys. I'm
just going to lift everyone up thatI possibly can. For me, mentoring
(47:08):
is so huge, um you know. I know, like a lot of
times when we are about to startthe season, we have someone from our
conference come in and talk about officiating, and at the end of their conversation
they always talk about while we needof female of referees, you know that
(47:32):
we want to grow. We wantmore women into UM officiating, you know,
college games, and you know,hope you guys are interested. If
you are, just give us acall. But I think we need to
reach out in that way as well, especially at the grass roots level.
If you notice, there's not alot of high school or club coaches that
(47:54):
are that are female, and soat any level we need to encourage you
know, UM cecil had mentioned thatif you see someone that that has the
coaching attributes or that is interested,you know, act on that mentor them,
give them the education that it thatthey need to get into the sport.
(48:17):
But um, you know, Iwant to do whatever I can for
the game and and and share thesestories. I think you know, doing
this podcast is going to be reallygood, very educational for women that you
know are thinking about getting into coaching. Well said, and thank you for
(48:39):
that advice. Uh, you know, Carol, you nailed it. There
is a national push right now,a very well orchestrated push with sport officials
sports officiating to recruit more women andand students who played the game to go
into officiating. And it's it's differentwhen we talk about women and coaching.
(49:02):
You talked about the high school andyouth level and the lack of women there.
I believe the statistic is twenty fourpercent women coaching at the youth club
and high school level, only threepercent women coaching men's sports. And so
certainly there's lots of opportunities there tomove the numbers and fee You're absolutely correct,
(49:27):
women supporting women Cecile tapping who's nextand intentionally asking and inspiring, helping
these women catch a vision for theircareer by saying, Hey, you'd make
a great coach. Why don't youconsider getting into coaching. I can't thank
you enough for the time that you'vespent with us, and while listeners at
(49:47):
home have received the cliff notes here, make sure you order your copy of
Winning Ways of Women Coaches today.It's the number one bestseller on Amazon and
as our country celebrates the golden anniversaryof title nine, this book is a
great option to provide as a mementoto your men and women on staff,
coaches, student athletes, donors.The leadership learnings in this book are transferable
(50:09):
to any industry. Thank you again, Cecile, Felicia Carol for contributing to
the Winning Ways resource. We've lovedhaving you today. Thank you for continuing
to dedicate your lives and careers toimpacting our next generation of leaders, and
thanks for listening to episode two ofThe Week Coach Podcast season five. And
(50:31):
thank you again to our sponsor,Huddle and production partner with Sports. Please
join us again on July fourteenth.Our July podcast installments will feature a two
part series on the critical topic ofmental health and emotional well being and recognition
of July being BIPOC Mental Health AwarenessMonth. You don't want to miss Episodes
(50:52):
three and four follow us and shareyour comments on Twitter at week coach and
at whis sport, or on Facebookat we coach sports and at with Sports.
Interested in learning more about any ofour upcoming events, resources, membership
and donor options, please visit ourwebsite at we coach sports dot org And,
(51:15):
until next time, keep moving thenumbers. We teach, we inspire,
we motivate, we lead, Wecoach
Hello everyone, and welcome to Seasonfive, Episode two of the week Coach
podcast, presented by our partner Huddleon with Sports Radio. Huddle is leveling
the playing field for women in sports, both through the technology they create and
important events like Breakthrough Summit. Cocreated with week Coach. All podcasts episodes
(00:41):
are inspired by collective input from ourweek Coach community. Please join us every
two weeks for thought provoking discussions focusedon timely topics of national significance. I'll
be your host, Vanessa Fuchs,CEO of week Coach, a one of
a kind nonprofit dedicated to offering yearround growth and leadership to development to recruit,
advance, and retain women coaches inall sports and levels. This podcast
(01:07):
is a co production of with SportsRadio and we Coach. We look forward
to bringing you new shows dropping everyother Thursday. Today, June twenty third
is an important day. June twentythird marks the fiftieth anniversary of Title nine,
and in recognition of the golden anniversary, We Coaches launching our year long
(01:29):
celebratory campaign, Move the Numbers.The campaign title is significant for three reasons.
First, it represents our wee Coachmission to dramatically increase the numbers in
terms of women coaches in all sportsand levels. Second, we're fundraising to
increase the number of year round growthand leadership programs, and most importantly,
third, these additional leadership programs willthen allow us to impact greater numbers of
(01:55):
women coaches. And to kick offour fiftieth celebration, we have three coaches
as our special guests today. Thesewomen have over seventy five years of coaching
experience and have one an astounding thirteennational titles combined. Our first guest is
a long time personal friend and mentorof mine, doctor Cecile Renaud, who
(02:16):
served as FSU's head women's volleyball coachfor twenty six years. She retired in
two thousand and one and has beencoaching me up as our mentee ever since.
In two sixteen, Cecile was honoredwith the Friar Award, USA Volleyball's
highest award that's given to an individualwho's exemplified leadership and service in volleyball for
over thirty years, and two eighteen, Cecile was our week Coach Board President.
(02:42):
She has published several books in herillustrious career, including a new book
released by human Kinetics in May entitledWinning Ways of Women Coaches, featuring twenty
of the most remarkable women coaches inthe world. These women know how to
not only win in their sport,but they are winning on Amazon as well
as it's already the number one bestselleron Amazon in the Sociology of Sport category.
(03:06):
Generously, Cecil and the contributing authorshave directed all proceeds to Week Coach,
for which we are incredibly grateful.And speaking of contributing authors, two
of them are with us today.Carol Owens, associate head coach of Notre
Dame women's basketball, also a formerWeek Coach board member, and Felicia Mulkey
coach fee is the head coach ofBaylor's acrobatics and tumbling program. Coaches,
(03:30):
thank you for joining as guests today, and most importantly, thank you for
your generous support you've given to WeekCoach pleasure to be here. Thank you
for having me so excited to behere. Thank you, absolutely, Cecile.
We're gonna start with you, andbefore we get to the book,
I felt obligated to start with Titlenine. It's been fifty years since Title
(03:53):
nine was passed in nineteen seventy two, and I just wanted to listen to
what you describe as the greatest advancementswomen have made in sport. What have
you been most proud of? Well, first of all, I'm proud to
have lived through all of this history. I was in college when this law
passed in nineteen seventy two, soclearly I'm the oldest one on the podcast.
(04:14):
But in nineteen seventy six I gothired as a graduate student at Florida
State University as the head volleyball coach, and that in nineteen seventy eight I
got hired full time. And nowI look at all the staff members that
everybody had, and you know,back then, we did it all.
So we you know, we drovethe fifteen passenger van with fifteen people and
luggage. We'd drive all the wayback from Miami overnight. We couldn't afford
(04:36):
to stay. We called it ourown scorers. You know, we didn't
have athletic trainers. And so tome, it's exciting to watch the staff
expansion, the travel, you know, chartered buses, chartered planes, no
more having to stay four people ina hotel room. And then the scholarship
opportunities for more women to compete,and you know, these past few I've
(05:00):
watched our teams play on national televisionand it's it's just exciting to see them
in beautiful uniforms, fantastic facilities.And then I also think the success of
that we've seen of all the women'steams in the Olympic Games has been a
thrill. So we have come along way and it's just been fun to
sit through that whole history. Couldn'tagree more. You know, you talk
about the history. What we're goingto try to do through some week Coach
(05:24):
fifty at the anniversary events this yearis to capture that history, those stories.
It's so important that we make everypossible opportunity to preserve this important history
before we move forward. I justwanted to see Caroller coach Feed. Do
you have anything to add in regardto the impact of Title nine. I'm
(05:45):
just grateful. You know, Iwon't go into what my sport is,
but it we created it to increaseopportunities for females at the collegiate level where
there was not an opportunity for thembefore. So all the work that Cecil
has done and everyone feel like I'mstanding on their shoulders and I just hope
that I can do as much inmy time so that the next generation can
stand online. I mean, I'mjust super grateful to be able to do
(06:09):
everything we're doing. And I also, you know, I've been coaching in
college for a few years and tobe able to see it change and evolve
and watch these women on national television, it's just amazing. I too,
stand on the backs of these womenthat paved the way for Title nine.
And I just remember being in highschool and you know, a freshman and
(06:30):
listening to a lot of the juniorsand seniors that played volleyball, softball,
and basketball, and you know,such and such god a scholarship, and
it was such a monumental thing atthe time that everybody celebrated. We celebrated
it. The whole school celebrate whensomeone got a scholarship, especially at athletic
scholarships. So, you know,I too am grateful. And when you
(06:57):
see the growth of women's sports,this is fifty years of Title nine is
amazing and will continue to grow,continue to grow all of our games.
So excited to see what has ledto be and still still growing. So
good, Carol, you mentioned thewomen who paved the way and the growth
(07:21):
of women's sports. You know,a lot of people don't realize Title nine
allowed increased participation in sport for notonly girls and women, but for boys
and men. And but what othersalso don't realize, as we've seen a
drastic decline and women coaches during thatfifty year span. You know, we
(07:45):
used to have over ninety women coachingwomen's sports in the seventies and since that
time, we're now sitting at astagnant forty two percent. And so what
it speaks to our mission here wecoach is trying to content you to elevate
those numbers and create awareness of thedecline and build up the pipeline of who's
(08:07):
next in terms of the future forour women coaches. Cecil, let's talk
about this awesome resource you've created forus, and can you share your inspiration
behind winning ways of women coaches andwhy you want to do this project with
women coaches. Well, let mego back to two thousand and five.
I put a book together called SheCan Coach, and I when I was
(08:30):
as a young coach, I wasreading as much as I possibly could,
and I found that everything I wasreading was by male coaches highly successful and
I was learning a lot. ButI thought, I really want to know
what the best women that are coachingare thinking and what they're doing. So
I had worked with Human Kinetics Publishingon a couple of volleyball books, and
I said, you know, Ireally want to dig into women coaches and
(08:52):
see if we can't get some resourcesout there. And they thought it was
a great idea. And as Ishared that thought with people around the country,
they I said, you know,we're going to write a book about
great women coaches. And they said, oh, Gino RMA with yukon basketball,
and I went no. And thenthey'd say, oh Anson Drance at
(09:13):
UNC soccer anyway, great coach,but Nope, that's not it. And
then they said Mike Kendrea from Arizonasoftball, and I went, okay,
I really have to do this becausewe want them to know who the best
women coaching are and so human Kineticslet me do that. And so then
in twenty twenty I contacted and saidI think it's time we need to do
(09:33):
this again, and thankfully they agreed, could you also so see I'll talk
about the process, how you wentabout putting this resource together? How long
were you working on this project.Well, the process is pretty interesting.
First you have to kind of comeup with a proposal if you want to
do a book, and it's it'sa pretty extensive process. So then you
have an outline of possible topics.You think about contributors who you might have
(09:58):
access to or who you might youknow, be able to work your way
to get in touch with. Andthen of course they put the publishing company
puts you on a timeline because there'sgoing to be you know, there's publishing
dates and all the process everything theyhave to do at the publishing company.
And it took about two years,and of course we went through COVID and
(10:18):
so it was interesting. When wefirst started contacting the coaches, everybody was
free, no, you know,nobody was doing and you think Tara van
Vera was skiing in Minnesota and said, I have nothing to do, so
see, I'll be happy to talkto you as long as you want to
talk. And then, you know, as we went along, then all
of a sudden things started to ratchetback up and more action, and then
(10:39):
people went through, they started winningnational championships, they were getting ready to
leave for the Olympic Games and soI was just trying to fit all this
together. But it was about atwo year process. And how did you
decide on chapter topics and which coacheswe're going to contribute? Well that you
know, that's really when the fundsstart. So I had a list of
topics I thought were relevant and alsowanted each coach to share their thoughts on
(11:03):
team culture. We tried to addthat in each book, even if that
wasn't, you know, part ofwhat your assignment was, and then trying
to match up the people we thoughtwe could get with those titles, so
you just kind of have to plugit in. We started going after the
top female coaches in the world,and we reached out to two very successful
(11:24):
coaches in can We wanted to expandit too, not just to the United
States, but we got two verytalented, highly successful women from Canada contribute.
We went to Australia and thankfully LizMason from Athlete Assessments connected with two
brilliant women from Australia. And thenwe also wanted to include coaches that were
(11:45):
in men's sports, so Jen Welterfrom the NFL and then Rachel Bakovitt from
Major League Baseball. I thought thatwas an important perspective for women to think
about that they can coach in men'ssports and be successful. Then I started
putting the pieces together, and it'sthe complex process. I want you to
think back to school when you'd workon a group project and you might have
(12:07):
three or four people. But Iwas working with twenty extremely successful and very
very busy women in coaching, andso you know, it was like the
twenty most popular, smartest people inclass and trying to nail them down.
And I was just fortunate enough tohave these women share their time and their
expertise, and I'm so grateful toall of them. So I think it
(12:30):
was it was enjoying. I thinkI was enjoyable for me. But I
do hope that this resource will servethe purpose of supporting WEE Coach and that
organization that I think striving to helpsupport and retain and recruit women coaches.
But I hope it will be servedto really help coaches to a better job
all around. We're so excited forthe success of the book already to seal
(12:52):
again. We can't thank you enough. You mentioned the publisher's reaction and mentioning
Geno and Ants, and it remindedme of my neighbor across the street comes
over, he goes, hey,Vanessa, I heard about the new job
you've taken on with we coach.I actually just interviewed a coach today,
Salon Pillow. So Carol, you'llyou'll appreciate the story, because yeah,
(13:15):
I interviewed Shalan and we were doinga feature story on a former coach that
she had and he must have hadjust a tremendous impact on her life because
she just raved about him, somecoach named Pat. And I told my
neighbor, I said, you realizeSalon Pillow played at Tennessee and he and
she's talking about the legendary Pat Summitand it was a pretty funny moment.
(13:41):
But Cecil, you mentioned in thebook that Pat's an incredible mentor to you,
and I was just wondering if you'dbe willing to share some tidbits that
she's left with you. Well,I was fortunate enough to get to meet
her back in the early eighties.I was coaching with a World University Games
team and she was on a coachin the PanAm team, and we just
got to spend a lot of timetogether and uh, you know, I
(14:03):
tried to talk her into writing abook a long time ago. I even
had the title. I said,let's let's write a book. It could
be called first Class or Coach,because you know, we're always talking about
traveling. But you know what Ilearned from her is it's really important for
us to reach out to others thatyou're not competing against and that you know,
(14:24):
reach across sports. I could callher about anything, whatever was going
on with our team, and Ihad a safe person to talk to because
she wasn't she wasn't a competitor,but you know, she just worked hard
and worked long, but she hada lot of fun. And so that's
really what she left me with to, you know, take care of the
people, enjoy the process. Youknow, work hard and success will come
(14:46):
to you. So I was reallyfortunate to have her as a good friend.
Pat Summit cemented a legacy, obviously, and talking about really successful women's
basketball programs, I want to pivotnow to Carol, who Notre Dame certainly
has had their fair share of success. Carol, you've been coaching for almost
thirty years, and during that spanyou've been able to serve as an assistant
(15:09):
coach, an associate head coach anda head coach, and so you've got
obviously a great deal of experience froma variety of seats. What's the primary
role of an associate or an assistantcoach and how important is that role to
the success of a program. Ibelieve the primary role for an assistant or
associate coach is to support your headcoach. We have our responsibilities, but
(15:35):
as we know, there's always dutieson assigned and that's what we're called to
do, is support the head coach. And I think you know, with
the expansion of positions and all ofthat, the support staff is very important
(15:56):
in particular assistant coaches, and wehave our response abilities, and I think
our responsibility primarily is the support andthen too to make sure that I think
ultimately to not have to be micromanaged, to be able to hone into your
own responsibilities so the coach doesn't haveto worry, and that support in itself.
(16:21):
So I just think that we arethe gateways into a lot of different
areas that come up with our jobs, academics, performance. Obviously to student
athletes, we are the gateways andwe speak a lot of times on behalf
of our head coach, and soI think overall that falls under the umbrella
(16:45):
of support. So good. Ilove what you talk about there as far
as thinking like a head coach.In your chapter of Winning Ways, your
chapter is entitled Changing Coaching Roles Advancingyour Career and it discusses serving in these
different roles. What's some advice you'dgive to young coaches serving in these roles?
(17:06):
I think you you have to knowwhat your why is when you come
into coaching. A lot of I'vemet a lot of assistance that have come
from playing professional professionally or they arestudent athletes and they want to get into
coaching. And you have to understandwhy are you getting into coaching, because
there's there's a lot of responsibilities,there's there's a lot of work that goes
(17:30):
into it, not just stepping onthe on the basketball court and coaching your
players. You know, that's asmall percentage of what we all do.
But you have to know your why. And and I say, if you're
not in it to first and foremostbe a mentor along with with coaching um
(17:52):
young ladies and helping them get better. UM, then you're in You're in
the wrong sport because or the wrongfield, because you are going to have
to do things that are selfless,and you have to be a selfless individual,
and you have to be able towant to serve and not think about
(18:18):
the money initially, think about beingthe best you can be with the responsibilities
you have and being the best youcan be for our student athletes, well
said, and for our listeners.If you'd like to hear coach Carol Owens
why you're going to have to purchasea copy of the book, well said.
You know you worked with another legendarycoach, coach Muffett McGraw for a
(18:41):
long time. I love the storyin the book that you share of your
hand drawn facts cover sheet that youcreated for Muffett with mountains and stick figures,
and you actually say that's what gotyou the job. But I digress.
You won two national championships on herstaff, and now you're working with
a new first time head coach,Neil Ivey. And what's that like transitioning
(19:07):
to work with the first time headcoach. Um, it is a transition,
but in our case, uh NeilIvy played for coach McGraw and um,
she has a lot of her personalityin terms of coaching is UM as
far as coaching goes. But frommy position, I recruited Neil, so
(19:34):
it's it's a different dynamic. AndUM I served her, but I also
served as an advisory as a asan advisor and UM, you know,
transitioning. We transitioned new head coachesduring COVID, which was very very difficult,
(19:56):
UM. And we had a admittedaccess to our players, to UH
facilities and all of that. Imean, you can imagine how that all
played out. But there is atransition, you know, because in that
in that whole process, the headcoaches, you know, a new head
(20:17):
coach is trying to understand who theyare as a head coach, and you
have to allow that and you haveto support and you have to give advice
when it's needed, but also letthem see who they are in the process.
And so it's been a beautiful thing, UM. And we've had a
quick turnaround. You know. Wewe had some young individuals that were here.
(20:42):
Of course COVID, we were um, you know, reinventing the program
because we lost so much UH intwenty nineteen, all five of our players
went to the draft, and sowe were we were starting new and it's
been a quick turnaround since then interms of uh, just the maturation of
(21:07):
our program and where we are now, and it's it's good to see it
and doesn't happen overnight. Um.You have to allow the coach to to
be themselves but also know their wayinto this coaching field. But you got
to know what kind of kids theywant to coach, what type of kids
(21:29):
should we recruit. It's different inthat way, but I've I've really enjoyed
it, Um, And the transitionwasn't as hard as you might think it
is. But the transition was wasgood. It was challenging, especially during
COVID, but it's been very,very good. I can imagine how special
(21:49):
that is for you to be ableto now work with one of your former
players. I had that same opportunity, similar opportunity coming back to Florida State
and being able to after Sue Summerhad impacted me so significantly during my playing
career come back and then be ableto support her as her advocate and sport
administrator. So I can't imagine howspecial that relationship is to you. And
(22:12):
you're you're one of the few staffs. You know. We talked about the
numbers earlier. Currently forty two percentwomen coaching women's sports in Division one,
and your staff is a bit unique. There's there's not a lot of staffs
out there that are made up ofall four women's basketball staff being female coaches.
And just wanted to hear from youwhat that's what that's like working on
(22:33):
an all female staff. You knowwhat, I'm just really excited about working
with very good people, very goodin their field. And I think we
have some highly qualified women that haveplayed at a very high level and you
know, has had great experience incoaching, and we just happen to be
(22:56):
female. And then I'm excited aboutthat, and I'm excited. I'm always
excited about women succeeding. And tobe able to be around successful female leaders
is amazing. I learned so muchfrom them on a daily basis. And
(23:19):
we know that we're not just coaches, womentors to young women, so and
I think that's important. And soit's it's been great for our young ladies
because they can see themselves and us, and I think that's why the coaching
tree from Notre Dame is so sobroad. Well, we we coach agree,
(23:44):
you know, we certainly recognize there'spower when men and women role models
are impacting not only these young womencollege athletes, but also the young men
college athlete male athletes, and sowe recognize the importance of how having both
men and women in coaching. Wecertainly would like to see the numbers on
the women's side continue to grow andget back to a level that's well above
(24:07):
fifty percent. You know, wehave a saying through Week Coach that if
she can see her, she canbe her, And that's exactly what you're
talking about there, Carol. You'vebeen very intentional to serve on several boards
throughout your career. I mentioned yourrole with Week Coach. You've served on
the WBCA Board Black Coaches and Administrator'sBoard. You've immersed yourself also with USA
(24:32):
Basketball teams, and so I wantedto just hear what's gained by engaging in
these ways. How have these experiencesimpacted your coaching career? You know,
I always want to be around goodleaders, and what a way to be
inspired by being on several boards,including the Week Coach organization, where you're
(24:56):
around some successful people, especially inleadership, because that's what we're doing that
we're in the business of leadership,and that was a way that I was
able to grow in my profession inthe sport, and I wanted to get
back to the game. I wantedto be someone that was relied on to
(25:22):
give of their time and serve oftheir time in the area of sports.
I love what you said. We'rein the business of leadership and we can't
thank you enough for your leadership andimpacting this next generation of leaders. I
(25:42):
want to turn our attention now tocoach Felicia Mulki. You're coaching a sport
at Baylor, acrobatics and tumbling.Tell us a little bit about what your
sport consists of, coach fee,Thanks Vanessa. I will keep it short
because I could go on forever aboutmy sports. So acrobatics tumbling is a
sport that I think it's the onlysport that was ever created for women by
(26:03):
women. Was created by women,female administrators and coaches about I think thirteen
years ago. I can't believe I'msaying that thirteen years ago, but we
created it very intentionally to meet theinterests and abilities of young women at the
collegiate levels. So it is aevolution of different disciplines of gymnastics. So
(26:26):
right now, there's tens of thousandsof young women graduating every year from high
school that have trained in all differentdisciplines of gymnastics, and there's not a
lot of things for them to do. At the collegiate level. There's college
gymnastics, which is a very specificskill set that you need to have.
And then for a while, theother option was, well, maybe I
could be a cheerleader in shore onthe sideline, which is a great opportunity
(26:48):
if that's what you want to do. We created something to sit right in
the middle of those two opportunities,and it is made up at each of
our rosters made up about forty women, and they're able to bring the skill
set that they competed in high schooland compete it at the collegiate level on
behalf of their university. It issuch a passion of mine and all of
(27:10):
the women that are part of itright now because we're watching lives change because
of this. You know, oneof my favorite things right now is to
go out and recruit and speak toa group of young female athletes and watch
their eyes light up, because youknow, our sports relatively new if you
think about it and watch these youngwomen realize like, oh my gosh,
(27:30):
my career is not over. Istill get to compete. So it is
the way to explain. It isa little bit of circusle, a lot
of athleticism. It is for youknow, women of all shapes and sizes.
You can come in and bring yourspecialty. There's bases, there's tops,
there's tumblers. There's six events ata meet lasted about an hour and
(27:52):
a half. There's six events.And I always tell people, if you
have not been to a meet,just go and you will be entertained.
You do not even need to knowwhat's going on yet, you'll figure that
out slowly are actually pretty quickly.It's pretty easy to figure out, I
think when you watch watch it andwatch for what the deductions are and stuff.
But it is and I tell peoplehere at Baylor just come out and
(28:12):
see it. I think it costsfive bucks to get into a meet.
I'll refund your five dollars if youdid not have a good time. But
it is just for me. I'mpassionate about it. We talk about Title
nine and that's the reason our sportshere is creating these opportunities for young women
to compete at the collegiate level thatliterally did not exist thirteen years ago,
(28:33):
as we were the only sport outsideI think of football that started at the
collegiate level and is now trickling downinto the youth level. So now there's
youth acrobatics and tumbling programs out there. We recruit from artistic gymnastics, but
not the young women that are goingto go to collegiate gymnastics. If you
dig into gymnastics, you see howbig that population is. And the young
(28:55):
women that are coming to our teamsare not going to collegiate gymnastics. They're
not. It's not that they're notathletic enough or talented enough to go into
collegiate gymnastics. They just have adifferent skill set that can be utilized in
our sport. And so we recruitfrom all of the different disciplines of gymnastics,
power tumbling, acrobatic gymnastics, artisticgymnastics, and then also high level
competitive cheer because if you look atthat, those are actually gymnast that I've
(29:19):
gone over and are competing. Thisamazing thing. So it is. If
you have not seen it, Isuggest everybody go google it, take a
look at it. You can watcha highlight video for Baylor if you want
to google Baylor highlight video. Butit is really a fun sport. I
will mention this an Essa, sinceyou guys were talking about female opportunities.
(29:41):
It's exciting that every school that addsa sport. We started with six schools
about thirteen years ago and we're nowat forty three and it continues to grow.
We're now an NC doublea emerging sport, and we'll be an Incuba Championship
sport very soon within the next twoyears. Every school that adds is forty
plus opportunities for women to compete atthe collegiate level. But what I'm even
(30:03):
more passionate about is we also createdcareer opportunities. One hundred percent of our
head coaches right now are female.I think ninety nine of all of our
coaches are female right now. Andnot that men could not coach our sport.
They totally could, it just hasn'thappened yet. So we are really
excited about that number. And aboutseventy five percent of our current coaches our
(30:26):
former acrobatics and tumbling student athletes,so a young coaching group. So extremely
grateful for we coach and all ofthe training and support that you guys lend.
But it's pretty exciting. It isabsolutely exciting and entertaining, and I
agree. You've got to get outand watch a Baylor highlight video and you
will be automatically instantaneously converted to afan of acrobatics and tumbling. Thank you,
(30:52):
coach Fee, you know you're right. Those the rosters for your sport
adds significant numbers on the women's side. Many schools are still today fifty years
after Title nine, still struggling abit to ensure their participation numbers in terms
of the proportion. Proportion of menand women competing in their athletics departments is
(31:14):
in alignment with university enrollment. Andit's such a great opportunity with acrobatics and
tumbling because you are adding significant numberof women with forty plus on the roster.
I was fortunate to return to FloridaState at the time that we were
launching our inaugural year of beach volleyball. It was sand volleyball at the time,
in twenty ten, and it hasbeen tremendously exciting watching the growth of
(31:37):
that sport and now ESPN their nationalchampionships. It's aired on all the prime
ESPN channels. It's grown dramatically sincetwenty ten, and it was really fun
to be one of the first schoolsright out of the gates at Florida State
to host and start a team.And you're you've seen something similar evolving in
(32:00):
your sport, which we're really reallyexcited about. You mentioned there's now forty
three teams participating. You've coached yourBaylor team to seven seven straight national titles
and get this, You've won alleleven national championships that have ever been at
both Oregon and now Baylor combine elevennational championships. How the heck have you
(32:25):
done that? Well, it hasbeen fun. It has been a journey,
and you know, I think partof it is just the excitement right
now of all of the young womenthat come in that are able to do
this at the collegiate level. Youcreate a great culture on the team and
they go out and they fight forit. I believe culture is the biggest
(32:49):
thing to winning. Our group isvery collaborative right now, our organizations,
so we compete very fiercely during theseason, and then we get together at
our coach's summit in the summer andwe all teach each other everything, and
then we'd go back at it andwe fiercely compete again during the season.
But I believe that the culture ofa team is the key to victory.
(33:09):
And I think, yep, yougot to get some talent, and you've
got to be able to coach thexs and os and you have to do
all that. But you know,there's all these old cliches, but hard
work beats talent all the time.And you know, I saw that my
first year when I came to Baylor. I was I had just left the
University of Oregon and we had woncoming off a championship, and came down
(33:30):
to Baylor and inherited a program thatwas the first time in my career I
had ever done that at Oregon.I actually created the program and went out
and recruited that inaugural roster. Sowalking into Baylor, walking into someone else's
culture was a huge challenge for me, and one of the most important things
(33:51):
that I've ever done in my careerwas to walk in and instead of,
you know, actually change a culturethat was there and it just wasn't my
culture. You know, I don'twant to say it was bad, just
wasn't mine. It didn't work forwhat I wanted to do. So being
able to come in that first yearat Baylor and watch for three months as
this team tried so hard to tryto get out of everything instead of actually
(34:13):
doing the work, just tried forthree months to see what they could get
out of and we created a cultureof accountability and started taking pride in the
hard work and started taking pride andin the discipline and taking ownership of who
we were and deciding letting them,you know, a culture is what they
believe they are, not what weas a coach want them to be.
So that was you know, wewon that first year at Baylor. We
(34:36):
actually beat my team. I didnot bring any athletes from Oregon with me
to Baylor, and we went andwon the national championship that year. And
it was a storybook here, andit was about really about just the team
pulling together, not necessarily being themost talented team, but we definitely were
the best team. So I justtry to recreate that. I've been trying
to recreate that every year and I'veevolved and learned, and you definitely don't
(35:00):
do things the way we did,you know, ten years ago, but
it is someone asked me this yearafter the championship in an interview, you
know, are you addicted to winning? And I said, absolutely not,
because I'm not going to always win, But I am addicted to the journey
and I really love watching that,and I think, I just can you
(35:22):
know, I'm gonna try to doit again this year. I'm excited about
the group we have coming in andthere's that even though though you'll have some
returners, it's just going to bea different dynamic. It's just going to
be a different culture this year.And being able to help them intentionally navigate
that through the year and then hopefullypique at the right time. I love
that addicted to the journey, andyou do talk about that journey and your
(35:42):
chapter of winning ways. But Iwanted to jump back. You just came
off of serving as a featured presenterat our Women Coaches Academy in Denver a
few weeks ago, and our fortythree women coaches that were a part of
Class fifty one had the fortune oflistening to something that I recall Now I
don't have my notes right in frontof me, Coach Fee, but I
(36:02):
recall you saying and this isn't adirect quote. You will say way better
than I do. Don't strive tobuild a team, build a culture.
Culture breeds sustained winning. I thinkthat's close to what you shared with our
Women Coaches Academy members and we can'tthank you enough for making the trip to
(36:23):
Denver to pour into our coaches.Let's talk a little more about your chapter
and Winning Ways of Women Coaches.It's entitled Planning, Scheduling and Delegating And
what are some of the keys youfocused on in your chapter? You know,
just being detailed and how that playsinto the student athlete experience. And
(36:44):
I'm not, by nature a detailedperson. I am at fifty thousand feet
all the time. I'm always thinkingahead and what can we do next?
And what can we do next?But as a coach, and especially as
I started coaching and before I hada staff, I'm very lucky and have
a staff to help me with allthese things. Now, you really had
to pay attention to the details ofeven just travel and what that looked like.
(37:08):
And it was so helpful. Iwas, you know, when Cecilia
and I talked about what chapter todo, and this was my topic.
I really went back and thought throughall of the little things that we have
to think of, and it youknow, from planning it sounds so silly,
but from planning your itinerary for atrip. And you know, one
(37:30):
of the things I share in thechapter is is we my very first year
at the University of Oregon, weended up at this really high end restaurant
at a casino. Because you know, it was totally my fault, but
my assistant coach had created this itineraryand and she googled it and Okay,
yep, this is where we're goingto go. And what we learned after
(37:51):
that trip was, ah, let'sjust not look for a restaurant. Let's
actually look at the restaurant and whatis the budget? Because we just blew
our entire budget at this one restaurant. I mean, what do you do
once you get there? Totally myfault, not my assistances fault, because
I did approve the itinerary. Butthinking now, my I can't say that
hurt our student athlete experience for sure, because they enjoyed the heck out of
(38:12):
that state night and everything that wentalong with it. But you know,
just how really careful planning from lookingat what you want to do at the
end of the year and then backingthat out throughout the year. Really,
careful planning cannot only save your mentalhealth as a coach, and really,
you have so many other things tothink about during the season. Planning it
(38:34):
out ahead of time it can helpyou as a coach, but it can
also really lend to the student athleteexperience. You know, Entitlement really hasn't
hit our sport yet. They're allstill really grateful to be there. But
I like to spoil them when we'reon the road. I don't want them
to worry about anything. I wanteverything to be set and ready to go,
and their study time is here,and their treatment time is here,
and when you're traveling. We haveforty five on our team right now,
(38:58):
but we travel eight on our roster, so that's a huge number to manage.
So my chapters a lot about that, just digging in to planning everything
from your trips to your yearly.You know when you're going to recruit and
how to like lay that all outin your calendar and how if you you
know, I'm lucky I have astaff, but what if I'm one of
those new coaches that doesn't have abig staff yet how do I handle that?
(39:22):
And I hope that my chapter willhelp some of those new coaches and
maybe some of the veteran coaches too, But some of those new coaches really
be able to handle everything that's thrownat them by being able to get ahead
of it and delegating and if there'ssomeone to delegate to, and then managing
their time by planning out everything aheadof time. Yeah, that was a
great story of the high end restaurantat the casino reminds me our women's basketball
(39:47):
team had made it to their veryfirst ever ACC championship appearance. In the
championship game, Carol, I thinkwe were playing your Notre Dame team,
if I'm not mistaken. Sue takesthe team out to a high end steak
restaurant, and this time it wasintentional to spoil them a little bit and
congratulate them for this achievement, andit backfired on our Many of the kids
(40:08):
thought the sit time was too long, it took too long for the food
to come to the table, andmany of them did not care for the
sauces that were on their steak.So I saw one of our staff coming
in the hotel later that night,with bags of McDonald's and it too,
it was to replace the fine diningat the steakhouse for our team. Too
(40:30):
funny, but you know, youdo. You spend a lot of time
talking about that addiction to the journeyand seeing it through the eyes of your
student athletes. And one of thethings you say is that you do this
so that at the end of aseason, they say, coach, I
would gladly do it all over again. And in my mind, you coaches,
(40:51):
that has to be one of thehighest compliments you can receive from one
of your student athletes. And Imentioned you were at our Women Coaches Academy.
Could you talk a little bit aboutyour message to our academy coaches and
also how would you describe the academyexperience you are now at returning faculty member
of our academies. What's that experiencelike in your mind? It is well,
(41:15):
I'll speak to that first because itis my favorite time of year.
The energy in the room, it'sjust so you know, I spoke there
once in person pre COVID and thenwe did the two virtual years, which
were wonderful. Virtual maybe we madeat work, but there is something about
being in that room with all ofthese motivated women coaches that oh my gosh,
(41:35):
I just love it. And Isuggest, I don't care if you've
been coaching for two months or twentyyears, you should apply and you should
go to the Women's Coaches Academy.The connections and just to watch the cohort
come together. In the short timeI was there to watch them bond,
I laughed, I cried. Itwas fantastic, So I said everyone should
go. My chat it was aboutteam culture and it was interesting because it's
(42:00):
you know, it was. Iwent back and updated it and I noted
my power points stayed kind of thesame. My messaging was the same,
but my stories were different. Andeven in the four or five years I've
been working with a week coach,I was I've evolved as a coach and
the way that I approach things,and I think that's an important message,
like let's keep evolving and don't loseour philosophy, but keep evolving. I
(42:21):
talked my chat, it's all aboutculture, and it's a lot about intentionally
navigating the culture. You know,a lot of times coaches, I feel
like, especially if you're inheriting aculture, if you walk into an existing
program. But even if it's yourown culture, or even if it's your
own team, we could blame anindividual on the team or maybe a class.
(42:44):
I've heard coaches do that. Well, if I could just get rid
of the senior class, my cultureis going to be a lot better.
And my main message is no,as a coach, we either create a
culture or we allow it. Soyou know, we can't blame it on
the student athletes that are there.We have to decide how we're going to
navigate and what we're going to doto create the culture we want. And
then keeping in mind that, youknow, coming up with that logo at
(43:06):
the beginning of the year, thatcatchphrase is helpful as a coach, and
I know we do that. Hey, this is going to be our past
year. This past year at Baylor, our catch phrase was above the Line,
and our whole team meeting at thebeginning was about above the line.
And I love to hear my teamtalk about during the year. They would
refer to above the line. Butour culture is what that team thinks they
(43:29):
are, not what I tell themthey are at the beginning, And so
my talk is a lot about that, navigating that and how do we navigate
the stages of team, and Irefer to doctor Bruce Tuckman's Small Groups.
He wrote it. It's an olderarticle. I was fascinated with it in
college. I'm a huge nerd.So I've applied his four stages of team
(43:50):
or four stages of a small group, and I've I've applied it to team,
and I've done it for years now, and it's really interesting. It's
my favorite part is just to watchthem hit the forming stage, the storming,
the norming, the performing, andI can watch my team go through
it. I even discuss it withmy team when they're going through those stages
and yeah, so that my chatis about that and kind of educating about
(44:12):
that. And then all of oursports are so different and we compete our
game days and meat days are sodifferent. So just really kind of laying
out that blueprint and then allowing thosethat are there at the academy to try
to, you know, how couldthis work with my team, How could
this work if I'm coaching field hockey, How could this work if I'm coaching
tennis? And then you know,having conversations about that. It's been a
(44:35):
few weeks since our academy experience andI'm still on fire. I hope you
are. I continue to hear fromour academy participants about the impact that it
made on not only their career,but on their lives, and I just
can't thank you enough, Coach Mulki, for pouring into our participants and having
(44:55):
that level of impact on them.Gosh, ladies, we could we could
continue this conversation all day, butI know you've got teams to get back
to, and so what I liketo do is close out every podcast with
this question, and it's for anyone of you if you would like to
share a response, But can yougive us your advice for how we move
the numbers in terms of supporting andincreasing the number of women coaches and all
(45:20):
sports and levels. Vanessa, thisis the seal. Let me just say
that, first of all, thanksto these two women for participating today,
and to think there's eighteen other coachesthat are just like these women that will
share in this book. And it'smy hope that each one of these women
will write their own book in thefuture. But I think as far as
improving the numbers, we've got toobserve young women in our programs and even
(45:44):
on opponents teams. Think about thepeople that might have the right personality,
the temperament, the knowledge of thegame, and it doesn't have to be
a star player. Let's start themout with fifth year, eight or sixth
year aid, whatever that is now, as a volunteer or a graduate assistant,
or have them coach the young clubsin your area. We need women
(46:04):
coaching at all levels and coaching menand women. So I hope that we
can reach out to the people weknow and get them involved. Vanessa,
I think you know, one ofthe most disheartening things I have witnessed in
my career, and I'm sure weall have at some level as women not
supporting women. So for me,I think we continue to move the numbers.
(46:25):
It doesn't matter if it's within ourown sport or if it's a sport
that we watch every day. Butlet's just support women in sport, period
and let's support them with our words, with everything that we can do lift
others up around. And I thinkthat's how we're going to move the numbers,
is just to continue to reach outand support as much as we possibly
(46:46):
can. Sometimes we tend to stayin our lane, you know, I'm
acrobatics and tumbling, Harold's basketball.You know, we tend to stay in
our lane, but let's just lifteveryone up. That's what I love about
the Coaches Academy is it's it's allsports and it is really amazing to see
that. So I'm going to committo doing that, you guys. I'm
just going to lift everyone up thatI possibly can. For me, mentoring
(47:08):
is so huge, um you know. I know, like a lot of
times when we are about to startthe season, we have someone from our
conference come in and talk about officiating, and at the end of their conversation
they always talk about while we needof female of referees, you know that
(47:32):
we want to grow. We wantmore women into UM officiating, you know,
college games, and you know,hope you guys are interested. If
you are, just give us acall. But I think we need to
reach out in that way as well, especially at the grass roots level.
If you notice, there's not alot of high school or club coaches that
(47:54):
are that are female, and soat any level we need to encourage you
know, UM cecil had mentioned thatif you see someone that that has the
coaching attributes or that is interested,you know, act on that mentor them,
give them the education that it thatthey need to get into the sport.
(48:17):
But um, you know, Iwant to do whatever I can for
the game and and and share thesestories. I think you know, doing
this podcast is going to be reallygood, very educational for women that you
know are thinking about getting into coaching. Well said, and thank you for
(48:39):
that advice. Uh, you know, Carol, you nailed it. There
is a national push right now,a very well orchestrated push with sport officials
sports officiating to recruit more women andand students who played the game to go
into officiating. And it's it's differentwhen we talk about women and coaching.
(49:02):
You talked about the high school andyouth level and the lack of women there.
I believe the statistic is twenty fourpercent women coaching at the youth club
and high school level, only threepercent women coaching men's sports. And so
certainly there's lots of opportunities there tomove the numbers and fee You're absolutely correct,
(49:27):
women supporting women Cecile tapping who's nextand intentionally asking and inspiring, helping
these women catch a vision for theircareer by saying, Hey, you'd make
a great coach. Why don't youconsider getting into coaching. I can't thank
you enough for the time that you'vespent with us, and while listeners at
(49:47):
home have received the cliff notes here, make sure you order your copy of
Winning Ways of Women Coaches today.It's the number one bestseller on Amazon and
as our country celebrates the golden anniversaryof title nine, this book is a
great option to provide as a mementoto your men and women on staff,
coaches, student athletes, donors.The leadership learnings in this book are transferable
(50:09):
to any industry. Thank you again, Cecile, Felicia Carol for contributing to
the Winning Ways resource. We've lovedhaving you today. Thank you for continuing
to dedicate your lives and careers toimpacting our next generation of leaders, and
thanks for listening to episode two ofThe Week Coach Podcast season five. And
(50:31):
thank you again to our sponsor,Huddle and production partner with Sports. Please
join us again on July fourteenth.Our July podcast installments will feature a two
part series on the critical topic ofmental health and emotional well being and recognition
of July being BIPOC Mental Health AwarenessMonth. You don't want to miss Episodes
(50:52):
three and four follow us and shareyour comments on Twitter at week coach and
at whis sport, or on Facebookat we coach sports and at with Sports.
Interested in learning more about any ofour upcoming events, resources, membership
and donor options, please visit ourwebsite at we coach sports dot org And,
(51:15):
until next time, keep moving thenumbers. We teach, we inspire,
we motivate, we lead, Wecoach
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