Way of Champions Podcast

A highly-respected coach and educator, Theresa "Tree" Beeckman (@tbeeckman13) is the president and founder of Tree Roots Culture Consulting and Camps LCC. She possesses more than two decades of coaching experience at a variety of levels and has built a championship pedigree with success at numerous stops. The longtime collegiate coach served as an assistant coach at NCAA Division I Central Michiga...

Aaron Cusack is a Senior Lecturer in Sport Coaching and PE at Plymouth Marjon University in England where he program leads an MSc in High-Performance Sport Coaching.  Coupled with his academic career, he is also a football coach with over 20 years of experience in coach education. Formerly a trainee youth player with Plymouth Argyle, Aaron turned his passion to coaching at 22 and spent 13 years as...

Dr. Ben Freakley has coached individuals, teams, and organizations on the psychology of performance, team dynamics, and well-being. A former NCAA Division I athlete, Ben has been an NCAA Division I men's soccer coach, mental performance coach for special operations forces (75th Ranger Regiment), general manager for a sports club with over 1100 members, and head of mental performance for the Toront...

Coach Levi Nelson is a long time football coach and teacher, and holds a doctorate in Sport and Performance Psychology, two master's degrees, and he also currently serves as a college professor and coach developer for USA Hockey. In His new book LEAD: A Coach's Playbook on How to Positively Impact the World Through Love, Effort, Attitude and Discipline he describes the importance of formulating yo...

Alan Kirkup is a former professional soccer player with Manchester United, and then spent multiple decades coaching in the US. He was head women's soccer coach at SMU, Maryland, and the University of Arkansas before joining Becky Burleigh at the University of Florida for nearly two decades. He compiled over 250 wins as a head coach, leading SMU to a Final 4 and making the NCAA tournament every yea...

Alan Kirkup is a former professional soccer player with Manchester United, and then spent multiple decades coaching in the US. He was head women's soccer coach at SMU, Maryland, and the University of Arkansas before joining Becky Burleigh at the University of Florida for nearly two decades. He compiled over 250 wins as a head coach, leading SMU to a Final 4 and making the NCAA tournament every yea...

Alan Kirkup is a former professional soccer player with Manchester United, and then spent multiple decades coaching in the US. He was head women's soccer coach at SMU, Maryland, and the University of Arkansas before joining Becky Burleigh at the University of Florida for nearly two decades. He compiled over 250 wins as a head coach, leading SMU to a Final 4 and making the NCAA tournament every yea...

Alan Kirkup is a former professional soccer player with Manchester United, and then spent multiple decades coaching in the US. He was head women's soccer coach at SMU, Maryland, and the University of Arkansas before joining Becky Burleigh at the University of Florida for nearly two decades. He compiled over 250 wins as a head coach, leading SMU to a Final 4 and making the NCAA tournament every yea...

For over 25 years, Paul McVeigh (@PaulMcVeigh77) has been an elite performer in two of the most competitive industries on the planet; elite sport and performance psychology. As a thought leader in business, performance psychology and as a published author, he's dedicated his career to understanding what makes humans 'tick' and how it affects the way they think, feel and act. As a Premier League an...

For over 25 years, Paul McVeigh (@PaulMcVeigh77) has been an elite performer in two of the most competitive industries on the planet; elite sport and performance psychology. As a thought leader in business, performance psychology and as a published author, he's dedicated his career to understanding what makes humans 'tick' and how it affects the way they think, feel and act. As a Premier League an...

For over 25 years, Paul McVeigh (@PaulMcVeigh77) has been an elite performer in two of the most competitive industries on the planet; elite sport and performance psychology. As a thought leader in business, performance psychology and as a published author, he's dedicated his career to understanding what makes humans 'tick' and how it affects the way they think, feel and act. As a Premier League an...

Dr. Cassidy Preston (@cassidypreston) is a Mental Performance Coach for professional athletes and high-performers like surgeons, hedge fund managers, and CEO's. The challenges he faced as an elite hockey player created a passion for finding a better way to work on the mental game. He has dedicated his life to helping his clients use practical and personalized strategies that deliver repeatable and...

Dr. Michael Gervais (@MichaelGervais) is one of the world's top high-performance psychologists and leading experts on the relationship between the mind and human performance. Dr. Gervais has spent his career being called on by the best of the best across the worlds of business, sport, the arts, and science when they need to achieve the extraordinary. T0day we discuss his brand new book The First R...

Maureen Monte (@maureenemonte) builds winning teams that unite, overcome obstacles, and achieve big goals. She has a B.S. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering, and an M.S. in Leadership and Business Ethics, and is a Gallup-certified StrengthsFinder subject matter expert. She provided leadership development training for executives as an adjunct professor at Cornell and delivers leadership training to...

J.P. Nerbun (@jopnerbun) is a bestselling author, leadership coach, and founder of TOC Culture Consulting, a leading global sports-consulting and leadership coaching business. His mission is to support leaders and their teams to achieve their full potential through 1:1 coaching, consulting, and community. Nerbun's impressive scope spans across sports, education, healthcare, and business, with a pr...

This week we welcome George Mumford, author, psychologist and Mindfulness & Elite Performance Expert. Named Phil Jackson's 'Secret Weapon' to winning eight NBA Championships, George's passion is teaching mindfulness to high profile sports, business and academic teams alike; from the Los Angeles Lakers, Chicago Bulls and New York Knicks, to senior global executives and systems. John and Jerry dive...

This week we welcome George Mumford, author, psychologist and Mindfulness & Elite Performance Expert. Named Phil Jackson's 'Secret Weapon' to winning eight NBA Championships, George's passion is teaching mindfulness to high profile sports, business and academic teams alike; from the Los Angeles Lakers, Chicago Bulls and New York Knicks, to senior global executives and systems. John and Jerry dive...

Dr. Lauren McHenry is a certified mental performance consultant through the  Association of Applied Sport Psychology  and national certified counselor. As a former Team USA and professional athlete, Lauren understands the pressures, expectations, and emotional highs and lows in the world of elite and collegiate sport. She is the founder of McHenry Mental Performance, LLC and Thriving Through Being...

Matthew Kaiser is a graduate of Villanova University School of Law and an emerging force in the sports law world. He first joined the Global Sports Advocates ( www.globalsportsadvocates.com ) legal team in 2016 as an intern while a student in the International Sports Law Master's program at the Instituto Superior de Derecho y Economía (ISDE) based in Madrid, Spain. Matt has been a full-time Intern...

Ben Freakley (@bcfreakley), is a sport psychologist, founder of ready,Set,Resilient, and former head of mental performance for the Toronto Blue Jays of Major League Baseball. Ben brings a lot of experience working with elite performers, from professional athletes to working with the 75th Ranger Regiment to multiple college and professional teams. In this replay from April 2020, we dive into how hi...

Dr. Troy Urdahl has spent his professional career at St. Anthony Village High School (SAVHS), a Twin Cities, Minn. public school.  For the past 16 years Urdahl has been the SAVHS Huskies head baseball coach.  In addition to his head coaching responsibilities, Urdahl has been a social studies teacher, middle school volleyball coach, and is the athletics and activities director for the St. Anthony –...

Rebecca Rusch (@rebeccarusch) is an author, filmmaker, adventure athlete and world champion biker and skier. Her memoir  Rusch to Glory: Adventure, Risk & Triumph on the Path Less Traveled , continues to receive popular and critical acclaim. She is the Emmy-winning protagonist of Blood Road , a documentary chronicling her successful bid to become the first person to bike the 1,800-kilometer Ho Chi...

Major General Scott Clancy served in the Canadian Armed Forces as a tactical helicopter pilot. He taught tactics at the Army Staff college and planned expeditionary operations at all levels of the Royal Canadian Air Force. Before retiring after a 37-year career, he served as the Deputy Commander of the Alaskan NORAD Region and finally as the Director of Operations for all NORAD in Colorado Springs...

In this replay of a brilliant episode from year 2 of the podcast, we welcome Dr. Stephen Norris to the show. Norris was the Director of Sport Physiology & Strategic Planning at the Canadian Sport Centre Calgary for the three Winter Olympic cycles (2002, 2006 and 2010), focusing on Canada's winter sport teams. He acted as the central performance consultant for the Own The Podium initiative leading...

Kelly Amonte-Hiller is one of the most decorated athletes and coaches we have had on this podcast. As an athlete she was a 2x NCAA Champion and 2x NCAA player of the year at University of Maryland, as well as an all-world selection in 2005. As a coach she has won 8 NCAA championships, been named IWLCA National Coach of the Year five times, and is an inductee into the US Lacrosse and IWLCA Hall of...