The Good Athlete Podcast

GoodAthleteProject.com For today’s episode, Jim sits down with Eric McMahon, the Coaching and Sport Science Program Manager at the NSCA Headquarters in Colorado Springs. He joined the NSCA Staff in 2020 with over 15-years of coaching experience, including roles with the Texas Rangers, Milwaukee Brewers, and the MLB Europe Programs. From 2009-19, McMahon was a Strength and Conditioning Coach in the...

GoodAthleteProject.com For today’s episode, Jim sits down with Dr. Lauren Casella, Academic Program Director for the Catholic School Leadership Academy and Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Administration in the School of Education at Loyola Marymount University. Before entering higher education, Dr. Casella served Catholic elementary schools within the C...

GoodAthleteProject.com For today’s episode, Jim sits down with Dr. Timothy Dohrer, director of the Master of Science in Education program at Northwestern University. He is the former principal of New Trier Township High School in Winnetka, Illinois. In a career spanning more than 25 years, Dohrer has taught middle school, high school and college students in rural, urban, and suburban settings and...

GoodAthleteProject.com For Today's episode, Jim is joined by Molly Gosline, Coordinator of Social Emotional Learning at Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, Illinois. In her role at Stevenson, she works within the professional learning community to build an SEL culture. She is the Executive Director of SEL4IL and the founder of SEL School Consulting. Molly earned an Ed. M. in the risk &...

GoodAthleteProject.com For today’s episode, Jim is joined by Dr. Robert Higgins, Director of the Department of Surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Dr. Higgins is the leading authority in heart and lung transplantation, minimally invasive cardiac surgery, and mechanical circulatory support. His scientific interests include the mechanisms of cell injury in failing hearts, hea...

GoodAthleteProject.com For today’s episode, Jim is joined by Dan Calandro, Chief Principal Advisor at RefQuest+. Dan has over 35 years of experience in sports at the collegiate level. He worked at the NCAA National Office in a multitude of different departments, including Enforcement, Championships, Governance and Membership Affairs. His last role with the NCAA was as the Director of Playing Rules...

GoodAthleteProject.com For today’s episode, Jim sits down with Director of Strength & Conditioning at Purdue University, Jason Pullara. Coach Pullara returned to the Boilermakers from Northwestern, where he worked for 18 years. Coach Pullara served as the sports performance coach for the Northwestern women’s lacrosse program during all seven of its NCAA championships from 2005 to 2012. He was also...

GoodAthleteProject.com For today’s episode, Jim is joined by Lewis Caralla, Head Football Strength & Conditioning Coach at Georgia Tech. Coach Caralla has 13 years of experience as a strength and conditioning coach. He has previously served as the head strength and conditioning coach for three different NCAA Division I FBS programs and is in his third season as head football strength and condition...

GoodAthleteProject.com For today’s episode, Jim is joined by Alex and Rijad to talk about their experiences in high school strength and conditioning both as athletes and as coaches. Additionally, they discuss the Good Athlete Project’s new initiative to bring high quality strength & conditioning to more high schools across the nation. To learn more about how you can partner with The Good Athlete P...

Goodathleteproject.com For today’s episode Jim is joined by strength coach, physical therapist, and Founder of The Movement System, Matt Castero. The Movement System is an educational platform with the mission to “Make The World Stronger”. Matt received his bachelor’s and his doctorate of physical therapy from Ohio State University and has worked in high school strength and conditioning, corporate...

GoodAthleteProject.com For today’s episode, Jim and Rijad debrief the 2021 IHSPLA State Championship Meet. Then, Jim is joined by John Beerbower, Assistant Divisional Chair and Director of Strength & Conditioning at McHenry High School, to talk about his experience as a member and coach in the IHSPLA. Follow the IHSPLA on Instagram and Twitter: @IHSPLA or visit them at the website: IHSPLA.com Foll...

GoodAthleteProject.com For today’s episode, Jim is joined key members of the Good Athlete Project family – Rijad Pekmez, Rob Miner, and Matt Klem. They discuss the upcoming 2021 IHSPLA State Championship happening on May 29th, as well as their own experiences competing and coaching in the sport of powerlifting. Learn more about the IHSPLA at IHSPLA.com or follow us on Twitter and Instagram: @IHSPL...

GoodAthleteProject.com For today’s episode Jim is joined by Matt Johnson, Head Strength & Conditioning Coach for the Chicago Bulls. Coach Johnson has been with the Bulls organization since 2012, starting as a Strength and Conditioning Intern. He was promoted to Assistant Strength & Conditioning Coach in 2013 and served in that role for 3 years before being named to his current position in 2016. Co...

GoodAthleteProject.com For today’s episode, Jim is joined by Michelle Di Benedetto, Vice President of Institutional Advancement at the Infant Welfare Society of Chicago. Michelle leads the department responsible for fund development, communications, marketing, outreach and community relations. Before coming to IWS, she was the Programs and Development Director for the Kellogg Fellows Leadership Al...

GoodAthleteProject.com For today’s episode, Jim is joined by Coach CJ White, Director of Strength and Conditioning and Head Football Strength Coach for Jackson State University. Prior to his time at JSU, Coach White had roles on the strength and conditioning staff at Arkansas State, SMU, and his alma mater, Mary-Hardin Baylor. While at Mary-Hardin Baylor, CJ played Outside Linebacker and Defensive...

GoodAthleteProject.com For today’s episode, Jim is joined by Jason Hardrath, Endurance athlete and elementary school teacher. Jason currently holds more FKTs (otherwise known as Fastest Known Times) than any other athlete in the world with 97 and ultimately aims to be the first athlete in the world with 100 FKTs. He previously competed in Cross-Country and Track at Corban University and has also c...

GoodAthleteProject.com For today’s episode Jim and Alex start by discussing a passage from the book “This Is Water”’ by David Foster Wallace. They talk about what the book and passage mean to them and how the messaging from it can apply to daily life. Then, they move on to discussing how to go about building a process and what can be done if one feels they have fallen off that path. Got an idea fo...

GoodAthleteProject.com For today’s episode Jim is joined by Jen Foust, Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach currently working at the University of Arkansas with both Men’s and Women’s Track and Field/Cross Country. In addition, she is co-owner of PWRx (power x) performance, a consulting company bringing quality programming and structure to Jr. high and high school strength and conditioning. J...

GoodAthleteProject.com For today’s episode Jim is joined by Mike Jennings, Director of Physical Education and Character Development at Athlos, an educational service provider. In his role as Director, Mike provides virtual and on-site professional development and support for physical educators: in all thing’s movement, fitness, physical activity, and coaching. He is also a regular presenter at loc...

Goodathleteproject.com For today’s episode Jim is joined by another key member of The Good Athlete Project, Rijad Pekmez. In this first of what will be a 2-part podcast, they discuss what Rijad took away from his reading of the book “The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups” by Daniel Coyle. They also dive into what their culture looks like and how they’ve maintained that over the...

GoodAthleteProject.com For today’s episode we are joined by Aaron Willits, head football coach at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois. Prior to taking the head job at Knox, Coach Willits was the Offensive Coordinator at Concordia College in Minnesota. In his nine years with the Cobbers, the team had an overall record of 62 - 28 and a record of 48 - 24 in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conf...

GoodAthleteProject.com For Today’s episode we are joined by Brad Dixon. Coach Dixon is the Head Football Coach, Head Boys Track Coach, Strength and Conditioning Coordinator, and Physical Education Teacher at Camp Point Central High School in west central Illinois. He has been coaching football for 16 years, including the last 8 years as Head Coach at Camp Point Central. In his time as head coach h...

GoodAthleteProject.com For today’s episode we are joined by the Head Coach for the Earlham College Lacrosse Team, Blake Keenan. He was named Head Coach in 2019 after spending three years as an Assistant Coach at North Central College. Keenan is a 2017 graduate of Benedictine University with a degree in exercise sports studies, where he was a three-year letterwinner on the men’s lacrosse team. A th...

GoodAthleteProject.com For today’s episode, we are sharing an excerpt from a recent interview that Jim did on the “Culture Builders” Podcast hosted by friend of the project and former guest JP Nerbun. JP had Jim on his show to discuss his thoughts on the idea that American Football should be banned. The Culture Builders Podcast shares thoughts, tools, and tips for leaders to improve relationships,...

GoodAthleteProject.com For today's episode Jim and Alex open the show discussing an all-too-familiar topic in Chicago - who will be the next Bears Quarterback? We then move on to discuss the 50-30-20-10 rule for return to training and how to easily and effectively implement it at your school. If you're interested in receiving a tool to help you determine how to implement the 50-30-20-10 rule, reac...