The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

Famed hammer thrower/coach and friend Kibwe Johnson presented the Fortius TC Virtual Throws Consortium in May 2020. He was gracious to allow us to rebroadcast the Sports Psychology portion on the Gill podcast to help bring more value to you. We present four amazing people talking past the X's and O's on how to coach the event and get deeper into coaching the person.  Speakers and topics inclu...

Dive deep into the world of athletics and coaching with Kevin Hadsell in this enlightening episode of the Connections Podcast. Tracing his athletic roots to New York and Vermont, Kevin shares how the pivotal moments of his life shaped his career trajectory. He candidly mentions, "The lifestyle that I live is not conducive to coaching... as an actor, I just did two auditions today and then one...

BSN Sports presents Dr. Smith's presentation of Culturally Competent Coaching from their online webinar series ongoing throughout the summer. Dr. Smith is an expert in diversity, inclusion, and team building. In today's podcast, he explains the responsibility of coaches for their athlete's 'off the track' development, not just 'on the track' development.  Visit www.bsnsports.com/clinics to vi...

Brittany joins us to talk about being the head track coach of the girl's team at Taylor HS in Katy, Tx. We get a chance to talk about her challenges and victories as the head coach at Taylor and then back up and learn about her interesting college career. Brittany was a team manager for great coaches at Kansas State University and Texas A&M University. Super unique to hear her perspective on c...

Do you go with what's in the book or with what gets you the results ultimately?  This week with the GREAT Vince Anderson with us for conversation, we chat about the different philosophies of the short hurdles as well as the philosophical thoughts of coaching trees.  After tackling the process of naming HS GOATs: per gender and track then field separately...we have added a new weekly segm...

His athletic accolades precede him, as Willie Banks has set American Records, World Records, and many other superb performances. Today we talk about a few coaches who helped him along the way, as well as the difference between conscious thinking and subconscious thinking as it relates to athletic performance (and law school!).  Willie also gives us a detailed account of the world record in 19...

*Scratches head* This week the gang ponders how some of the decisions that are being made...ARE BEING MADE!?  We start the discussion with pondering "Pup's" situation at St. Aug, how a non-educational entity makes an education-related decision and end with the guys' favorite races at the different levels, in both genders.  There's a little in between as well! Click on the link to find ou...

So happy to have David Kaiser on the podcast today. Among many topics, we start of extending the conversation started by Brooks Johnson in episode 57 regarding coaches who focus specifically on one event group their entire careers versus a more holistic 'track' coaching style. David lives this as a former mid-distance athlete who taught himself how to pole vault (15'+) and has coached all-american...

OOh we! This week we get to hear some of out of the world commentary on who the guys think is the best underrated athlete and what they think is the best NCAA Championship meet to date...join us to see if you agree!  You'll also get some quality words on how we can better our sport via different types of competition...what could they be talking about?  Guess you'll have to tune in and fi...

What an interesting leader in the sport of track and field. Clyde joins us today and talks about his dual athlete and coaching roles in football and track. Luckily for track and field, he dropped football to focus on family and track. After taking over the head coaching role at his alma mater, he moved on to the head coaching role at Wabash College and hasn't looked back. We enjoyed getting to kno...

What an honor it is to talk to a real pioneer of women's track and field coaching. Sue Humphrey joins us to talk about the state of women's track and field starting back in the 1960s all the way through today. Sue has accomplished so much as a field events coach at Arizona State, LBSU, and Univ of Texas. She was honored in 2004 to be named the head coach of the women's Olympic team. We had so much...

Joe Frontier, the host of the 'throw BIG throw FAR' podcast interviewed Gill's National Sales Manager Mike Cunningham recently. We're rebroadcasting that here for you to learn more about Mike's coaching background, his surprising career between coaching and Gill, and what it's like to work at Gill Athletics. Listen now to learn what Mike thinks is the most interesting throwing secret Gill has! Tha...

We focus on the AAU summer club level of track and field today with our guest Robby Strickland. Robby founded and runs the Wildwood Prep Summer Track Club in Wildwood, Fla. He talks to us on the motivation to start a summer track club, the ups and down, and gives us an up to date status on the AAU Junior Olympics this summer. Little known secret, Robby and our host Mike Cunningham are both Troy (A...

A native Oregonian who became a Beaver at Oregon State, David joins us and share his journey as the head coach of Summit High School in Bend, Ore. As a 7' high jumper, David has coached Summit High school to nearly 20 state championship team titles. We talk about fundraising for high school teams, talent identification, and the value and gift a track and field coach is to the athletes and school....

This week we are joined by Vin Lanana, Director of XC/TF at Univ. of Virginia and President of USATF.  With his great input on topics currently going on in our community we talk about the specific effects on minorities when cutting programs, specifically XC/TF.  We address a couple other ideas with Coach Lanana's insight that will get you thinking!  The guys go ahead and give their...

So thankful Andy joined us on the podcast. His story is one of humility, hard work, and leaning in. Starting out his first day of practice in dead last, yet sticking to it on a daily basis he went on to become an all conference college athlete as well as a college track coach. You'll hear more indepth on his journey through the community college track/cc system then on to four year school. Andy co...

Jud Logan joins Brandon and Rob in episode 10 of the Virtual Throws Conference. We had Jud as a guest on episode #49 of the Gill Athletics Connections podcast. This episode from the VTC is a perfect add on interview where they talk about a wide variety of topics. We think you'll enjoy this episode, especially if you couple it with our topic on Culture with Coach Logan back in episdode 49. ENJOY!

We promised you a surprise but due to some technical difficulties, we have to delay the reveal incorporated with the show.  You'll hear reference to it and hopefully we get it up soon!  Sorry to over promise and under deliver!  What does Lamar have in that cup!?!?  Listen in as we talk about the GOAT 100mH Queen, how to re-build track and field and lastly, hear the guys declare...

Associate Head Coach Kebba Tolbert joins us in today's episode. We pick up where we left off in episode 5. If you haven't listened to that one lately, go listen now then come back here. We pick up Kebba's journey in coaching track and field at Syracuse, his first DI job. He takes us through his first head coaching job at Portland State, what he learned during his time at UTEP, and now the challeng...

The life of a high school track coach is much different than one of a college track coach. And then sometimes their are a lot of similarities. Today we learn of Ryan's journey from athlete to teacher to coach. The trials and tribulations have a lot to teach us about perseverance and passion. Lots of lessons on how to teach kids today whether it's history or sprinting, along with why to teach kids....

Happy Fourth of July, we've got your fireworks today! Help me welcome Michael Bergmann to the podcast. Michael has had many roles in track and field including a 30 year career at Nike. Today we focus on his position as President of Portland Track. We discuss what Portland Track does, the Tracklandia 'The Hunt' event on YouTube, and unveil a meet that will debut on YouTube tomorrow July 5th.  ...

In this episode of Athletics LLC, we welcome Christian Taylor!  The HUMBLE Olympic triple jumper joins the guys for some conversation about Tokyo 2021, the imbalance that exists in the horizontal jumps and his group, Athletics Association.  After, the guys reveal their opinions on the KING of the 100m collegiate and professional, all time.  Tune in to see what else the gang is bante...

Rodney's journey is just beginning and you'll find out in today's episode how much he's accomplished in such a short amount of time. We had a blast getting to know his journey as an athlete, the passion for coaching he has, as well as the next chapter in career.  ENJOY!

When the idea the University of Connecticut may drop men's track and field, alumni Andrew Dubs (current throws coach at Virginia Tech) sprang into action with many other alums to do everything in their power to not let it happen. It was announced today the University is dropping men's cross country, but keeping the indoor and outdoor programs.  Today, hear directly from one of the leaders of...

Robert could be considered Mr. Junior College Track Coach.  Having academically attending a junior college, starting his coaching profession at a junior college, and now as a long time assistant turned head coach of Coffeyville Community College, Robert has a lot of passion, knowledge, and experience on this level. And he's not going anywhere!