The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

The Coaches Collab group on Facebook paneled a conversation about budgeting trends and tips in consideration of upcoming budget cuts. This discussion was led by Gabe Sanders of Boston University, Adrian Myers of Northern Illinois University, and Jon Hill of Rice University. The group discussed lots of unique ways to cut your budget, but not your student-athlete's experience, with travel, recruitin...

MF Athletics and the National Throws Coaches Association (NTCA) present a Virtual Throws Conference featuring Tom Pukstys. Tom is a two-time Olympian, six-time US Champion, as well as being the American record holder. He continues to train post collegiate and high school javelin throwers from around the country at his home base in Birmingham, Ala. In this episode he talks about his throwing days a...

This episode we talk with Auburn assistant coach in charge of vertical jumps and combined events Scott Richardson. We explore his coaching career through Eastern Kentucky, West Point, on to Auburn for the past 16 season. Topics discussed include meeting his wife at an Army versus Navy contest, adopting his second child, and a track equipment renovation project they kicked off in 2017. It was no sm...

In today's bonus episode, we bring you a webinar put on by the American Sports Builders Association (ASBA) to the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (NIAAA). While this was done through a video webinar, we felt the audio portion might provide you value when considering your track facility's potential renovation. The webinar is hosted by Kaylee Derby of the ASBA and is pan...

JJ is the head coach of a small high school in the state of Mississippi that won their first ever state championship team title in 2018. In this episode we'll explore JJ's college coaching roots, why he decided to move to the high school level, and how he built Center Hill to a state championship team. If you've ever thought you were at a program that didn't have enough money, or enough facilities...

Blake has been a state champion, college conference champion, sub-4 minute miler, college coach, and so much more. In today's episode, we learn how Blake got into track and field, his journey to a Hall of Fame career at Missouri State, and the ups and downs of being a post-collegiate runner. We talk about the highs of becoming the 287th American runner to break the mystical 4 minute mile barrier a...

Originally airing 4/30/20 live on the USTFCCCA's Facebook page, Emma Delira of Pomona-Pitzer, Kari Kluckhohn of North Central College, Katie Wagner of UW-La Crosse, Kenneth Cox of Birmingham-Southern College, and Nicole Wilkerson of Middlebury College came together to discuss various topics including their coaching backgrounds and what makes coaching on the NCAA Division III level special, among o...

Joe does it all for the throwing world. Throws coach at James Madison Memorial High School, director/coach/co-founder of the Madison Throws Club and host of the 'throw BIG throw FAR podcast', there isn't much Joe hasn't and doesn't do for the throws community. In today's episode we discuss how he fell in love with the throwing events, why he started a throws club, and get in-depth into his podcast...

MF Athletics and the National Throws Coaches Association (NTCA) present a Virtual Throws Conference featuring Gary Aldrich. Gary is the head coach (and throws coach) at Carnegie Mellon University as well as serving on the coaching staff for the 2021 USA Olympic Team.  Gary talks about motivation, the history of our sport, how he coaches successfully at CMU, and so much more.   This is an audio bro...

Today we bring you an awesome episode of the world's number one (and only) javelin podcast 'Through The Point'.  Hosted by Scott Fuchs, he brings you javelin throwers from around the country. In episode 8, Scott sat down with Gill Athletics' very own Tim Glover! Tim is our Construction Specialist at Gill focusing on track and field cages, sand pit forms, take-off boards, circles/toeboards, as well...

Todd was the keynote speaker at the 2018 USTFCCCA Convention in Orlando. For nearly thirty years, Todd has built his expertise in leadership and team dynamics by serving in a variety of senior level roles in business and athletics. From entrepreneurial start-up, to public company to college athletics, Todd’s real-life practical experiences in these worlds have given him a perspective that allows h...

The Evolution of Mike 'Mouse' Holloway - From Buchholz HS to the University of Florida and Beyond In this captivating episode of the Connections Podcast, host Mike Cunningham sits down with the renowned Mike 'Mouse' Holloway. From his early days coaching high school track at Buchholz HS to his meteoric rise as the University of Florida's first-ever combined program head coach,...

A real pioneer in athletics coaching and coaching education, Peter Thompson joins us today to discuss his roots from Europe to Eugene. We had a great time discussing the club system in Europe and how/why he came to North America for educational advancements. Peter is an amazing coach having worked with a variety of events in track and field. He also was a pioneer in creating the Coaches Ed system...

Originally airing 4/16/20 live on USTFCCCA's Facebook page, Bobby Van Allen of Johns Hopkins, Matthew Barreau of Lewis & Clark, Jordan Carpenter of Pomona-Pitzer, Dan Moore of SUNY Geneseo and Jeff Stiles of Washington (Mo.) discuss various topics, including their backgrounds and what makes coaching on the NCAA Division III level special, among others. This is an audio rebroadcast of their video e...

With the 2020 track season cancelled due to COVID19, Nick, Derek,and the entire UW-LAX program created a virtual dual track meet with their rivals at UW-Stevens Point. They join us today to talk about why they did this, how they created it, and how it's going. They also give great feedback for other coaches on ways to do their own virtual track meets.  Kudos to these two leaders who didn't let a m...

In the conclusion of this wonderful three part series with Harry Marra, we talk about the magical time of coaching Olympic medalist Ashton Eaton and Brianne Theisen-Eaton. We pick up where part 1 (episode #25) ends as Harry is brought to Oregon to interview for the combined events assistant coaching position. We get a real insider's view of how the world record in the decathlon was broke at the Ol...

Harry Marra's Four Pillars - Crafting the Art of Coaching In the second installment of a three-part series on the Connections Podcast, host Mike Cunningham is privileged to delve deeper into the coaching philosophy of the legendary Harry Marra. Harry, with decades of experience under his belt, shares his Four Principles Necessary to Fully Develop the Art of Coaching, encapsulated in the acrony...

The Storied Journey of Harry Marra - From Humble Beginnings to Legendary Coach In this insightful episode of the Connections Podcast, host Mike Cunningham is privileged to converse with the legendary track and field coach, Harry Marra. As they delve into Harry's illustrious coaching career, listeners are treated to a deep dive into his experiences, challenges, and the mentors who shaped his tr...

Ever wonder if you should (or could) transition from coaching track and field to working in the business world? Bryan joins us today to talk about his transition; he coached in spots such as Cal-Berkely, Ranger JC, Harvard, Missisippi State and spent the last 8 years as the Director of Track & Field/CC at the University of Virginia. He knows co-owns a business, works different projects with super...

Coach Blue is the throws coach at Cal State Pomona for the past few years. We had a blast learning about his time as an undergraduate at Fresno State and Cal State-Northridge. Did you know he played rugby?  Learn this and more about his time at Southern Arkansas University and now the impact he's having at Cal Poly-Pomona. 

Had a blast today getting to know Adam, the sprints/hurdle coach at Northwestern State University in Louisiana. He has had some amazing success these past few years including having a men's 4x100 run sub 39 seconds! Today we talk about how he got started in track and field, his journey through the junior college track route and what coaching means to him as it relates to his family responsibilitie...

When the NCAA track and field season was cut short in the middle of March, Marissa sprang into action. She created a Facebook group on March 17th titled 'Coaches Collab'. Her goal was to bring a few coaches in her network together to recreate the exchange of information that occurs on a yearly basis at the USTFCCCA Convention.  What started with 20 coaches quickly blossomed to 50 then 100. &n...

Hassaan is the assistant track coach for sprints, hurdles, and relays at ETSU for the past 7 seasons. In today's episode, Hassaan takes us back to his days in the famed Quicksilver Track Club as well as a real special time during his athletic career at the University of Tennessee. I was touched by his sharing of how his promising professional career was cut short by a freak accident, yet he was ab...

You do NOT want to miss this episode! Today you'll hear about the importance of second chances and what a coach can do to turn around someone's life.  Iggy is in his first year as the assistant coach in charge of jumps/pole vault/multis at Stanford University. Properly named Arthur Ignaczak, affectionately known as Iggy Oggy, he has coached high school through college and now in the Pac-...

Ernie is the associate head coach for the Eagles of Ashland and a total hurdle fanatic. Growing up running the hurdles in high school and college, he has become one of the top college hurdle coaches around. However, before coaching at Ashland he was a high school track coach for 14 years. We focused on the transition from coaching high school to coaching on the college level. Ernie discusses this...