The Great Coaches: Leadership & Life

Our Great Coach on this episode is Rikard Grip. Rikard was the national coach of the Swedish cross-country skiing team between 2010 and 2019. At the age of only 32 he led the national team to their best performance ever at the 2014 Winter Olympics, where they finished equal top on the medal table with Norway winning 11 medals. As a result he was named the Swedish coach of the Year in 2015. In 2019...

Our Great Coach on this episode is Mark Lebedew. Mark is an Australian volleyball coach and former player. He started coaching in the early 90’s eventually joining the Australian Institute of sport as a coach in 1997, where he also served as an assistant coach of the Australian men’s team at the Sydney 2000 Olympics In 2010 he became a head coach of Berlin Recycling Volleys and in 2012, 2013 and 2...

Our Great Coach on this episode is Andy Friend. Andy is an Australian rugby union coach and former player who is currently the head coach of Irish province Connacht . He was previously head coach of the Australia Sevens team, the Brumbies in Super Rugby in Australia, English club Harlequins , and Canon Eagles and Suntory Sungoliath in the Japanese Top League . He also coached the Australian Under-...

Our Great Coach on this episode is Jackie Carson. Jackie Carson is the Head Coach of the Furman University Womens Basketball team. She also played there as a student athlete, and still hold the conference record for most free throws made. In 1999 she was honored as Furman’s Female Athlete of the Year and in 2009 she became on the third player in the programs history to have their jersey retired. S...

Our Great Coach on this episode is Paul Roos. Paul is a former professional Australian Rules Footballer and coach. Paul began his professional playing career in 1982, eventually retiring with 356 games, 5 Best and Fairest awards, 7 All Australian selections and the 1986 Leigh Matthews Medal under his belt. He began coaching in 2002 with the Sydney Swans. It was here that he implemented his high pe...

Our Great Coach on this episode is Carrie Graf. Carrie is a former professional basketball player and coach. She started her professional playing career as a 16 year old in the Australian National League; playing in a team that won multiple championships. She transitioned to professional coaching in 1993; winning the National championship in her first year. 7 Further championships followed in the...

Our Great Coach on this episode is Ben Ryan. Ben is the most successful men’s rugby sevens coach in history, he is the only coach to have won Continental, World and Olympic titles. He started his international career in 2007 with England 7’s, coaching them in over 300 matches. In 2013 he took over as the coach of Fiji 7’s, and led the team to the gold medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics. The gold medal...

Our Great Coach on this episode is Lisa Alexander. Lisa Alexander was the coach of the Australian Netball team, known as the Diamonds, from 2011 to 2020. Her coaching journey started in country Victoria, before she progressed to coach the Melbourne Phoenix in the nationalcompetition, taking the team to two title wins in 2002 and 2003. She was appointed head coach of the Australian U21 netball team...

Our Great Coach on this episode is Eddie Jones. Eddie is a rugby union coach and former player. He coached Australia from 2001 to 2005, winning the the Bledisloe Cup in 2001 and 2002. The team also reached the 2003 Rugby World Cup Final, losing in extra time to England. He was an assistant coach for South Africa when they won the 2007 Rugby World Cup and from 2012 to 2015 he coached Japan, leading...

Our Great Coach on this episode is Tamsin Greenway. Tamsin is a retired Netball player and now coach. She represented England on 67 occasions and along the way, was part of the team that won bronze medals at the 2010 Commonwealth Games and at the 2011 and 2015 Netball World Cups. In the English Superleague, she has won 7 championships; 4 as a player, and three others as player-coach, a coach and a...

Our Great Coach on this show is Ric Charlesworth. Ric is an Australian sports coach and former politician. He played first-class cricket for Western Australia and international field hockey for Australia winning a silver medal at the 1976 Summer Olympics. He also served as a federal member of parliament from 1983 to 1993. He was appointed coach of the Australian Womens Hockey team in 1993 leading...

Our Great Coach on this episode is Gary Kirsten. Gary played 101 Test matches and 185 One Day Internationals for South Africa between 1993 and 2004. He retired as the first ever South African to play in 100 tests, and the first Test batsman to make hundreds against each of the other 9 Test nations. He became the coach of the Indian cricket team in 2008 and led them to win the World Cup 2011, the B...

Our Great Coach on this episode is Conor O’Shea. Conor was capped 35 times for Ireland and represented them at the 1995 and 1999 Rugby World Cups. After his playing career ended, he became Director of Rugby at London Irish and was awarded Zurich Rugby Director of the Season in 2002. He then joined Harlequins as Director of Rugby in 2011 leading them to win the premiership in 2012. Conor then becam...

Our great coach on this episodes is Peter Giles. Peter is currently the Australian under 19 Baseball Head Coach. A role he has had since 2011. He started playing baseball in 1969, finished in 1994; and began coaching in 1995. He won a championship in 1998 with Sandringham; and then led Essendon in the Victorian State league to 6 successive championships from 2011 to 2018. He has also coached the A...

Our Great Coach on this episode is American women's basketball coach Brenda Frese While injured as a player at the University of Arizona , Brenda volunteered as an assistant coach at Pima Community College . After graduation in 1994 she started as an assistant coach at Kent State . In 1999 she was appointed into her first Head Coach role at Ball state and then in 2002 to the University of Maryland...

Our Great Coach on this show is Philip Sutcliffe Sr. Philip is a former boxer, who represented Ireland at 1980 and 1984 Olympic Games. He is the winner of four national titles in Ireland, as well as bronze medals in two successive European Amateur Boxing Championships . In 1992, he and 2 friends; Paddy Wheelan and Gary Griffin took over the derelict Crumlin Boxing Club. Today that club has pr...

Our Great Coach on this episode is the Australian cricket coach Justin Langer. Justin represented Australia in 105 Tests, and in 2009 surpassed Sir Donald Bradman for the most runs scored at first-class level by an Australian. He retired in 2009 and transitioned into coaching, first as the Australian team batting coach, before becoming the head coach of Western Australia in 2012. over the next 6 y...

Our Great Coach on this episode is Norma Plummer. Norma played Netball for Australia and was part of the 1975 team that won the World Netball Championships. In 1996 she coached the Melbourne Pumas to win the inaugural Super League Grand Final and Victorian Open Championship. In 2003 she was appointed coach of the Australian Team, leading them to 67 victories from 89 Tests, including the 2007 and 2...

Our Great Coach on this episode is  Sir Gordon Tietjens . Gordon is the former coach of the New Zealand men's national team in rugby sevens ; the All Blacks Sevens . He started coaching the team in 1994 and had immediate success winning the Hong Kong 7’s. He then went on to win the 7’s world series on a record 12 times. Along the way the team also won the world cup in 2001 and 2013, and 4 Com...

Our Great Coach on this episode is Rodney Eade. Rodney is a four time premiership player in the Australian Football League. After retiring he started his coaching apprenticeship, and within 5 years was elevated into his first head coach role at the Sydney Swans, taking over from the legendary Ron Barassi in 1996 In his first year he took the time to the Grand Final, only for them to lose to the Ka...

Our Great Coach on this episode is basketball coach, and former All-American point guard Pokey Chatman. Pokey started her coaching career as a student assistant in 1991 while finishing her degree at Louisiana state university. She then became an assistant coach, before becoming the teams head coach in 2004. As a head coach she had an immediate impact leading the team to 3 consecutive NCAA final fo...

Our Great Coach on this episode is Stuart Lancaster. Stuart played Rugby for Leeds and was the first player to reach 100 games for the club. He transitioned into coaching in 2000 initially leading youth teams until he was appointed Head Coach of Leeds in 2007. From there he moved into coaching ngland teams before being appointed England Head coach in 2011. He took the team to the Rugby World Cup i...

Our Great Coach on this episode is Tom Ryan. Tom Ryan is a former All-American college wrestler, and now coach of the Ohio State Wrestling team. During his collegiate wrestling career, he was a member of the University of Iowa 1991 and 1992 NCAA and Big Ten championship teams. He became a Head Wrestling coach at Hofstra University in New York in 1995 leading them to six consecutive conference titl...

Our Great Coach on this episode is John Buchanan. John started his coaching career in 1978 with minor county side Oldham in England. In his first year they won the league and cup double for the first time in 40 years. He then went on to coach the Queensland Bulls to 2 Sheffield Shields, the first the state had ever won in their 69 years in the competition. And then in 1999 was appointed coach of t...

Our Great Coach on this episode is pioneering Australian Rules Football coach, Peta Searle. Peta played football for ten years in the Victorian State Womens league, where she was named in the all Australian team three times. She then began her coaching career in 2005 with the Darebin Falcons and in 2006 she coached the first of her 5 successive premierships with the team. This led to her being awa...