The Just Athletics Podcast

Chris, Dave, and Travis breakdown an exciting NCAA D1 Indoor Track & Field Championships.  Please enjoy the show! Please subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram. And if you’re enjoying the pod, we’d love for you to rate the show! If you have any questions or suggestions, you can send those to justathleticspodcast...

We are excited to have another one of the country's top coaching minds on the pod this week with Chris Puppione of Sonoma Academy, where is the Head Cross Country and Track & Field coach, in Santa Rosa, CA Coach Pup, as he is affectionately known, has had a decorated coaching career spanning over 30 years now across the California Cross Country and Track & Field scene with positions a...

We were convinced we’d already had the great Jeff Hess on the pod… turns out we hadn’t, which made this conversation even more exciting. We’re thrilled to welcome Coach Jeff Hess of South Eugene High School to the show. As an athlete, Jeff was a multiple-time state champion at South Eugene and a true phenom, setting the national high school record in the boys’ 3000m steeplechase with an 8:50 mark...

Chris, Dave, and Travis discuss all the clinics they attended this winter, some takeaways, Dave's fantastic voyage around the Northeast including attending The Millrose Games and the races at that outstanding meet, and later in the show they do a Seinfeld episode draft - give it a listen and vote on the instagram page who won the show.  If you want to send in any questions for our next show o...

We decided to have return guest Dr. Ross Dexter back to discuss the impact carbon plated shoes may have beyond really fast performances. Do they cause injuries? Ross is our go to guru to discuss just about anything related to the physio world. Ross is now the Assistant Athletic Director for Health and Performance at Southern Oregon University.  This is a great discussion with a true expert.  If yo...

Alex Lyons competed at American University for Matt Centrowitz Sr. and Sean Graham, for two years before transferring to the University of Illinois to focus on academics.  He coached at the high school level for ten years in the state of Illinois at Lyons Township HS and Downers Grove North HS. Alex moved to Utah in 2023 and started coaching at Olympus HS in Salt Lake City in January of 2024. Duri...

If you know of Dirk Lakeman’s running career you are probably in awe. If you don’t know about it, sit back and relax and listen to Dirk take you through his time at powerhouse South Eugene in the late 1970s under the guidance of legendary coach Harry Johnson, who after building the dynasty of all high school dynasties went on to coach a little professional group called Athletics West. DIrk was the...

No guest this episode. Chris, Dave, and Travis just talk. You must really like these fellas to listen to this episode. The guys talk about some random stuff, but mostly about training.  If you do enjoy the show, especially outside of this episode, please give us that five-star rating! Also, if you want to send in any questions for our next show or send us any message, please reach us at justathlet...

Fresh off of the Boulder Running Clinic, we are thrilled to have Jonathan Dalby, Co-Head Coach of Cross Country and Track & Field at Mountain Vista High School in Highlands Ranch, CO. Jonathan is regarded as one of the best high school coaches in the entire country. His girls team won Nike Cross Nationals this fall by an impressive 32 points. This was the first national title for Jonathan, but...

We are fortunate enough to finally have Jamey Harris on the pod to breakdown his epic win at the 1998 USA Track & Field Championships in the 1500m in New Orleans. You can find video of the race here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us2CfrGmR_M Jamey ran and graduated from Fresno State University in 1994 and went on to compete as a professional runner before taking his talents to the coaching r...

Chris, Dave, and Travis are fired up to breakdown a film no one has seen in "On The Edge" starring Bruce Dern from 1986. The best running movie ever made. If you want to see the film, you can find it here on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0stg_3P9fkM (note there is nudity in the movie). You'll probably want to watch the film before listening to the podcast, but still might...

The Just Athletics podcast is like "Curb Your Enthusiasm", we go on long hiatuses, but then come back with bangers. Kicking off 2024 we have an incredible guest in Sean Brosnan. Chris, Dave, and Travis banter a little to start the show, so if you just want to listen to Sean, skip to the 17:15 mark in the show. Sean Brosnan has established himself as one of the best coaches in sport. He m...

After a LONG hiatus, the boys are back and with a new format....scandals and animals, OK not that, but TRIVIA! It is a clash of the titans as Chris competes against Dave in a 10 round trivia question format where you listeners can play along in the comfort of your homes, on a drive, on on a run. Moderated by Travis Floeck, this will be a series that we come back to regularly. Please enjoy! Subscri...

We have one cool cat on the show today and one of the best middle distance runners in the United States and the World. Craig Engels is only 26 years old, but already has an impressive resume as a world-class middle distance runner. He is the 2019 USATF 1500m National Champion in a race where battled the reigning Olympic Gold Medalist, Matt Centrowitz, to the line winning by .04 seconds. He went on...

Oh boy, do we have a good episode for you this week on The Just Athletics podcast. Our guest, Don Kardong, has his fingerprints all over the American distance running scene the last 50 years. Don had a remarkable career at Stanford University, where he held school records in the 2 mile, 3 mile, and the 6 mile, graduating in 1971. Some of the big achievements of Don's running career after Stan...

Who is on your Mt. Rushmore in terms of distance runners in the history of the United States? Chris, Dave, and Josh all give you their Mt. Rushmore on the men's side, the women's side, and overall in terms of American distance running. These guys bring it like Stephen A. Smith  on ESPN. Disagree with them? Get on the social media and let us know. We hope you enjoy another episode of The...

We are fortunate to have running royalty as this week's guest of The Just Athletics podcast. A true hero in Joan Benoit Samuelson. Joan, of course, is the 1984 Olympic Champion in the marathon, the first time the distance was ever contested for women at the Olympic Games. She was also a two-time winner of the Boston Marathon and a winner of the Chicago Marathon in 1985 in an American Record t...

On a very special episode of The Just Athletics podcast we bring on Amy Flora to dive into her background as a five-time Oregon State Champion and state record-holder at the High School level for Myrtle Point in Coos County or legendary coach Pat Towne, her time at the University of Washington as a student-athlete, and her time as a middle school and high school coach. She also happens to be the b...

The Men's 800m final at the 2008 Olympic Trials in Eugene, OR was nothing short of epic and we have an epic podcast to reflect on that amazing race for our millions of listeners. A race that people often cite as one of their favorite races of all-time. Christian Smith and Andrew Wheating join us to look back on the race, you know two of the guys who made the team and realized their dreams tha...

We are rocking 2021 so far with amazing guests. This week we bring on one of the best coaches in the country in Scott Christensen of Stillwater High School in Minnesota.  Scott is a graduate of Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota, where he majored in Biology for for his undergrad and went on to study Physiology and earn his masters degree at the University of Nebraska.  Scott wears many hats in...

We have an all-timer for our millions of listeners. We bring on an incredibly influential and successful personality in our great sport. Jeff Johnson is famously known as Nike’s first employee and is a big player in the company’s rise to the giant brand it is today. He went to Los Altos HS in California … Continue reading Episode 53 – Jeff Johnson + Surprise Guest

We decided to kick off our 2021 campaign with something a little different. We bring on two guests who were involved in the 1998 dueling biopics about Steve Prefontaine to discuss and compare the two films. Jeff Atkinson joins us. Jeff both had a part, a speaking line no less, in the movie “Without Limits” … Continue reading Episode 52 – “Prefontaine”/”Without Limits” Movie Breakdown

After last week’s glitch in the Matrix, Chris and Dave return for one of the best shows ever with an incredible guest. Want to be inspired? Check out this episode with American Record Holder Courtney Frerichs. We delve into Courtney’s incredible rise from being a 2:24 800m runner in high school to one of the … Continue reading Episode 51 – Courtney Frerichs

We jump to another dimension with two mystery guests and dive into their backgrounds as athletes and coaches. We won’t ruin the surprise, so check out this long and fun episode. Subscribe to the show on iTunes or Stitcher or Spotify to get future episodes and please follow us on Twitter @just_athletics and like us … Continue reading Episode 50 – Multiverse Episode

This week’s episode of the Just Athletics podcast we bring on one of the best young High School coaches in the country and a coach who has a little bit of experience being part of a successful program at arguably the greatest high school program of all-time at York High School. Eric Dettman is the … Continue reading Episode 49 – Eric Dettman