Way of Champions Podcast

Christina Murillo (@xtinamurillo10) is a former Mexican international soccer player. She earned 29 caps with Mexico and took her senior year off from the University of Michigan to play in the 2015 Women's World Cup. She later played in the UEFA Champions League and the NWSL for the Chicago Red Stars before retiring in 2019. She is currently the U11-14 Director of Coaching for both boys and girls f...

Brad Stulberg researches, writes, and coaches on health, well-being, and sustainable excellence. His brand new book is called Master of Change: How to Excel When Everything is Changing, Including You. He is the bestselling author of  The Practice of Groundedness and co-author with past WOC Podcast guest Steve magness of Peak Performance . Stulberg regularly contributes to the  New York Times , and...

Becky Burleigh began her college soccer coaching career at the ripe old age of 21, coaching Berry College to two NAIA National Championships before moving onto the University of Florida. In her nearly three decades at Florida, she won the 1998 NCAA Championship, a combined 26 SEC regular season and tournament championships, and over 500 games. Upon retiring, she was named interim coach of the NWSL...

In this week's coaching masterclass, John and Jerry sit down with the coaching staff from the University of Notre Dame's 2023 NCAA Champion Mens lacrosse team. Head Coach Kevin Corrigan just completed his 35th season at the helm of the Fighting Irish, and has amassed over 300 wins, 25 NCAA Tournament Appearances, reached 5 Final Fours, and won a combined 22 regular season and conference tournament...

Jenny Levy has led UNC Women's lacrosse to 3 NCAA Championships, 13 NCAA Final Fours and over 400 wins. She has been named NCAA Coach of the year on three occasions, and ACC Coach of the year seven times.  She was also the Head Coach for the US Women's National Team from 2017-2022. You do not sustain such success unless you can consistently recruit and develop leaders in your program, while at the...

Sandy Barbour is one of the most influental womens in sports. Upon her retirement in 2022 as Athletic Director and VP of Intercollegiate Athletics from Penn State University, she had been named one of five finalists for the Sports Business Journal's prestigious Athletic Director of the Year for the third time in her career and second time at Penn State (2009 and 2018). She served as AD at Penn St...

Dr. Alan Goldberg received his doctorate from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and is a former #1 singles player for the UMass Minuteman tennis team and twice Conference Champion. His background also includes 22 years of professional tennis coaching experience and a first-degree black belt in Shurin Ryu karate. he has early four decades of experience working with individuals and teams seek...

Keynote Speaker and Experiential Facilitator, Molly Grisham (@mollygrisham) helps to build and sustain teams in a wide variety of industries. She believes that teams don't grow apart; they die apart. She knows that elite, high-performing teams in all industries get stretched and stressed by the demand to perform. She is passionate about helping teams to rediscover their strengths and restore their...

Drewe Broughton is a former professional soccer player in the UK, with over 500 appearances over a 17 year career and over 100 goal scored. After retirement he divorced, struggled with addiction, entered rehabilitation, and has since embarked on a career to help players, coaches and business people find their sense of self and overcome the stress, fear, and loss of identity that comes in the world...

This week on the podcast, John and Jerry break down Jerry's newest book,  The Mindful Coach: Leading with Intention, Instinct, Influence, Inspiration and Insight . The book is a wonderful read with short lessons around incredibly critical components of mindful leadership, We pay special attention to egolessness and detachment, two qualities that are not discussed enough in the realm of leadership....

Dave Dickerson is the head men's basketball coach at the University of South Carolina-Upstate. A former player at the University of Maryland, he has been an assistant coach at numerous schools including Maryland, Ohio State, Tulane and others. His teams have won an NCAA title, (2002) and reached multiple Final Fours. In his five years as head coach at USC Upstate, he has done extraordinary work in...

This week I was preparing a talk for a University athletics department on connecting and communicating with Gen-Z, and I started by re-listening to this great podcast we did in 2021 with Betsy Butterick. She is a former college basketball coach at the University of Washington, Occidental College, and UC San Diego in addition to having worked as the Logistics manager for the Seattle Storm. Today, B...

Dr. Jeremy Alland (@JeremyAllandMD) is a sports medicine physician at Midwest Orthopaedics at RUSH, a renowned, consistently top-10 nationally-ranked orthopedic practice in Chicago, IL. In addition to a busy clinical practice, he serves as the head primary care team physician for the Chicago Bulls and Chicago Dogs, as well as a team physician for the Chicago White Sox and Chicago Fire Soccer Club....

Shayamal Vallabhjee is a sport scientist with a masters in psychology and a world renowned mental and strength trainers He was strength and conditioning coach with South African Davis Cup team from 2006-2008, and has worked in cricket, and multiple other sports. He has authored five books on sports science and motivation and his new book is called  Breathe, Believe and Balance. In this book, he co...

This week on the pod we interview Hall of Fame Volleyball coach Cecile Reynaud and WeCoach CEO and long time college athlete, administrator, and NCAA admin Vanessa Fuchs to discuss the book Winning Ways of Women Coaches, edited by Reynaud. We've entered a new era of women in coaching. Women coaches across the globe have triumphed, using their expertise, experience, and sustained success to break d...

This is a very special episode of the podcast this week as John and Jerry celebrate the release of their brand new book The Champion Teammate: Timeless Lessons to Connect, Compete and Lead in Sports and Life.  We are so excited for this collaboration, as it is the book all of our teams have been asking for the last few years; a book they can read together, study together, and have great group disc...

We did a little something different this week and invited the entire coaching staff for the 2022 NCAA Champion UCLA Women's Soccer team. Head Coach Margeuritte Aozosa had a storied career as a player at Santa Clara and then great success as an Assistant Coach at Stanford before taking over the Bruins, and winning a championship in her first year was quite an accomplishment. In the podcast we break...

Tom Bates is a UEFA A Licensed soccer coach and a well known Sport Psychologist who has worked with EPL clubs Aston Villa, Birmingham City, West Brom and more, as well as with athletes in professional soccer, boxing, golf, swimming, and numerous other sports. He is the author of the amazing book The Future Coach , which we spoke about in Episode 152 of the Way of Champions Podcast . This episode i...

Dr Rob Bell has written eight books on mental toughness and puts out a sport psychology podcast called 15 Minutes of Mental Toughness .  Since 2006 he's consulted with hundreds  of athletes, coaches, and teams. He also currently serves as a Sport Psychology coach for Indy Eleven pro soccer team, and University of Notre Dame. He has worked with winners on the PGA Tour, an Olympic Silver medalist, A...

Craig Parnham is the current High Performance Director fo USA Field Hockey, and former Head Coach for the US Women's National Team. He also served as Assistant Coach for Team Great Britain in the 2008 and 2012 Olympic games, and played for Team GB in the 2000 and 2004 Olympic games, ultimately earning over 100 international caps for England and Team GB. His current role not only includes supportin...

Sherri Coale was   one of the most accomplished and impactful head coaches in University of Oklahoma history in any sport, is retiring after a transformative 25 years at the helm of the OU women's basketball program. Coale retiring after 25 years, more than 500 wins, 3 Final Fours, 9 Sweet 16s and 10 conference championships. Owner of the most wins in OU women's basketball history and a member of...

DR. KELLY STARRETT is the coauthor of the  New York Times  best sellers  Becoming a Supple Leopard, Ready to Run ,  and the  Wall Street Journal  best seller  Deskbound .  He is also the cofounder of The Ready State, and the cofounder of San Francisco CrossFit. He consults with athletes and coaches from the NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB, the US Olympic Team, elite Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coas...

This week we bring you a special episode recorded in Sitges, Spain with TOVO Academy Founder Todd Beane (@_ToddBeane), Soccer Parenting founder Skye Eddy (@SoccerParenting), and John. We all happened to cross paths in Spain when John's team was participating in a training week at TOVO, and we took the opportunity to have a few tapas and record our conversation. It's a wonderful conversation about...

Ken O'Keefe served as head coach at Allegheny College for eight seasons (1990-97), where his team won five North Coast Athletic Conference titles and the 1990 NCAA Division III national title. O'Keefe led Allegheny to four undefeated regular seasons (1990, 1991, 1994 and 1996), and six NCAA playoff appearances. He was named NCAA Division III Coach of the Year in 1990. From 1999-2011 he was the off...

Nate Boyer (@NateBoyer37) is a renaissance man. He is a former Green Beret, and played football for the Seattle Seahawks and the university of Texas despite having never played high school football! He currently works as a film producer and leadership consultant, as well as runs his not profit MVP: Merging Vets and Players ( www.vetsandplayers.org) Boyer gained national attention in 2016 when a le...