Coaches, Be Encouraged.

On a trip to Minneapolis in January of '26 I sat down with DeLaSalle's new athletic director, Austin Junker. It was a great conversation during an emotional time in Minneapolis, and we both left feeling encouraged. Here's a look at the questions I fed to Austin: 1. What do you love about your job as an AD? 2. How do you lead as the new guy at an old school with great history? 3. What are you up to...

Kevin Guzzo is the long time AD at St. Joseph HS, MI. In this podcast we discuss the following topics: 1. Changing the name, "Athletic Director" 2. Breaking free of the paperwork 3. You must lead yourself 1st 4. When to pull the plug on a coach 5. 90s Culture vs Today

Scott Garvis is a long time AD, speaker, and now author of 4 great books! In this episode Nate throws the following questions at Scott, and he hits 'em out of the park: 1. What do you love about the job? 2. How do you handle coaches that have no interest in learning? (Swallowing the Frog) 3. Tell us more about your practice "Walk Thru" form. 4. How do you get into writing and speaking? 5. Tell us...

On a road trip to Nebraska to capture some mic'd up practices I got to stop by Wahoo HS and chat with AD Robert Barry. The former Nebraska tight end became the AD at Wahoo 7 years ago and is doing some great leadership work. Here's a list of questions Robert answered: 1. How do you generate good conversations amongst your staff? 2. How have you handled coaches that struggled to admit areas of need...

This episode was recorded in Seward Nebraska! Scott and I had a great conversation about the art of coaching. Here's a list of the questions Scott spoke on: 1. What's great about your job? 2. Tell us about your coaches academy? 3. What were the results on your study on momentum in sports? 4. Where does coaching the mind fit into practice?

Jason Grunkemeyer went from playing D1 basketball to coaching it. Though there was one year mixed in there as a high school AD, he put together a good career coaching NCAA basketball which included stops at Miami of Ohio and Ball State. 3 years ago, Jason got an opportunity to get into athletic administration at the University of Maine, and outside of a single year as a high school athletic direct...

Mark Price played his college basketball at Samford then coached men's college basketball for 21 years before ending up at Baylor School in Chattanooga coaching their high profile basketball program. Recently, he gave it up to give his full attention to leading the entire athletic department at Baylor. In this episode Mark talks about the transition, about how an AD can serve his or her coaches, a...

Jason Maxwell is a fairly new to the world of being an AD and had great insight to share in this episode of Coaches Be Encouraged. We asked Jason about what 'Good Baseball' looks like, what's tough about being an AD, what's a hard lesson you've had to learn, and who in your building is doing a great job as a coach?

Jeff Behrens has been the AD at Pewaukee WI for 8 years now and is doing a great job pouring into his coaches. In this episode, Jeff talks about building a good team around you because the discouraging days cannot be avoided. He also shares a great story from his girls basketball coach and gives an idea of how he is promoting growth within his athletic department.

Mike Ellson, CMAA is the executive director of the TIAAA and was able to put together an incredible 33 year career as an Athletic Administrator. In this episode Mike gives thoughtful answers to the following questions: What are the keys to a long career? How do you know if it's your calling? How can you encourage your coaches to develop friendships? Why get involved with the NIAAA?

Ingle Martin has been at Christ Presbyterian Academy for 15 years. The former college football player who spent time in the NFL is now serving as an athletic director and head football coach. In this episode he speaks on dealing with conflict, knowing when a battle is worth fighting, and how let the other sports know that you don't only care about the one you coach.

How can you impact your athletic programs as an AD? In this episode you can hear Scott's passion for the job as he says, "If you take the job seriously, you can really be a valuable resource to a community." From the E.A.T. mantra that they implement throughout all programs to an opportunity in their school for leaders, Scott's working hard at impacting the culture at Mascoutah.

Kendall Griffin has been the AD at Maine East for the last 6 years.  Enjoy listening in on this conversation we had with Kendall on a standout cheer coach he has in the building, creating your department mission and vision, and even on being a minority in education.

Molly Tomlinson is in her first year as the Athletic Director at Glenbrook North HS in the suburbs of Chicago. Molly shares a great example of how a former coach of hers used feedback from the kids, something he could have taken as a criticism, and turned it into an opportunity for growth. How good are you at receiving feedback?

Chris Madson came up teaching and coaching in his home town of McHenry and got the Head Basketball job at a young age. They started off with a hugely successful season and followed it up with a season where wins were hard to come by. It was the start of approaching coaching from a place of humility. Now as the AD there at the same school, Madson encourages his coaches to build winners... but not b...

Darren Howard has been an athletic director for 25 years and right in the middle of his career he had a pivotal moment. The school he had poured his heart and soul into decided to 'move on' and left Darren crushed. Since then he's gone onto even larger roles as an AD and as a leader within the state organization. A great story of encouragement for athletic professionals.

Matt Ryder is in his 6th year as the Athletic Director at Maine South HS in the northern suburbs of Chicago. It's a great job, and one he never would have had if the door he first sought would have been opened to him. This former college basketball coach stayed motivated to get back up after hearing 'no' and pursued his career.

Todd Thompson is the Athletic Director at Moline HS in Moline, IL. A former wrestling coach, Todd and host Nate Albaugh have a good conversation about how Todd supports his coaches, how he hopes to be able to improve upon as an AD, and what his best coaches have in common.

After a 30 year career as an AD in Illinois Matt Hensley shares insight into how he approaches his job, the things that get to him, and how he has improved over his career.

Let's kick things off with understanding what types of actions, or lack of, build the cultures within our athletic programs. Special guest John Woods, AD at Libertyville HS, IL is one of the states leaders in championship culture building. Learn from stories of what not to do as well as what to do and leave with action steps to getting your program started on the path to a culture that makes a pos...