The Great Coaches: Leadership & Life

As a player Greg Cannella was a High School All American, and a an All American while at Nassau Community College.After graduating he spent time as an Assistant at Stony Brook before becoming Head Coach at his alma mater the University of Massachusetts in 1993.Since then, he has gone to achieve eight NCAA Tournament berths, Eight New England Championships, 4 ECAC Championships, five New England Coach of the Year honors and was named National Coach of the Year in 2006, when he guided the Minutemen to the program's first NCAA Championship Game appearance.In 2019 he was inducted int the USA Lacrosse Hall of Fame.If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com

As a player Franco Smith represented South Africa as well as playing for clubs in South Africa, Italy, France and Wales. He started his professional coaching career in 2006 with the South African team the Cheetahs. Then in 2008 he became Head Coach of Benneton in Italy, guiding them to 2 National Championships, a Coppa Italia and a Supercup. In 2015 he became Head Coach of the Cheetahs and lead them to two Currie Cup titles in 2016 and 2019. In 2019 he was appointed Head Coach of the Italian National Team, and then in 2022 was appointed Coach of the Glasgow Warriors. In his first year with them team he led them a top-four URC finish as well as guiding them to their first European final.If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com

On this episode, my firend Jonathan Cole and I are joined by owen Jordan who has just written a terrific new book called Wise Words: Thoughts and Beliefs of Great Coaches. And today we talk about some of the key things he has learned about coaching and leadership while putting the book together. If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com

Shaun Caven was born in Scotland and started coaching canoeing when he was 16 years old. He progressed until he was the coach of the national team in 1997.He then went on to lead the British Junior and Senior teams before moving to the USA in 2008 to lead the program at Oklahoma City University team. That team went on to win National Championships leading to him being appointed coach of the USA team at the 2009 World Championships.He then transitioned into coaching para-canoe and lead the USA team to 2016 Paralympics. In 2019 he moved to Australia and now leads the National Para-canoe team.If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com

Our Great Coach on this episode is Lisa Alexander. Lisa was the coach of the Australian Netball team, known as the Diamonds, from 2011 to 2020.  During that time She oversaw gold medal successes at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and 2015 Netball World Cup, as well as silver medals at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and 2019 Netball World Cup.We first interviewed Lisa in June 2020, soon after she had finished with the Diamonds. And since then, she has been a great supported of the podcast, encouraging us, offering feedback and introducing us to some other great coaches along the way. Recently however she started worked with Code sports interviewing some of the top netball countries in Australia as well as a recent deep dive with Eddie Jones. The interviews go a lot further and deeper than what you often get when coaches are interviewed about their teams and so we asked her to come back on to the podcast to talk about what she has learnt through that series of intervies.You can follow Lisa here:XInstagramLinkedInIf you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com

Our Great Coach on this episode is Andy Shay. Andy is a former Lacrosse player who started coaching as an assistant for four years under Greg Cannella at the University of Massachusetts where he helped the team win three New England titles. Then in 2003 he was named the Head Coach of Yale where he has gone on to lead the team to the 2018 NCAA Championship, five Ivy Tournament Titles and three regular-season Ivy League Championships. Under his leadership the team also regained the #1 National ranking for the first time since 1883.If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com

Our Great Coach on this episode is Sjoerd Marijne. Sjoerd is a Dutch former field hockey player and now coach. As a player he twice won the Dutch National Championship and EuroHockey Club Champions Cup. He then transitioned into coaching, first with youth teams, eventually leading the Netherlands U21 women to the gold medal at the World Cup and the U21 men to a Bronze at the World cup. In 2015 he was appointed Head Coach for the Dutch Women, then in 2017 led the Indian Men to gold at the Asia Cup, before leading the Indian Women’s to their momentous 4th at the Tokyo Olympics. In 2021 he was voted 'best coach in the world of a women's team' by the international hockey association. If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com

Pat Summitt was an American basketball player who won a silver medal at the 1976 Olympics and then transitioned into coaching leading the USA team to a Gold at the at the 1984 Olympics. However its as the coach of the Tennessee Lady Vols basketball team from 1974 to 2012 that she is most famous. Over her career she amassed 1098 wins and led the team to 8 NCAA championships.She was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of fame in 1999, was named the Naismith Basketball coach of the century in 2000and in 2012 was awarded the Presidential medal of freedom in 2012. After 38 years leading to Tennessee, she retired from coaching at the age of 59 due to a diagnosis of early onset Alzheimer’s disease. She would eventually pass away in 2016 at the age of 64. She is mentioned so frequently by the Basketball coaches that we interview that I have decided to learn more about her life and this led me to put together a posthumous interview with her based on her words. I used 3 books to create this discussion all of which she wrote.Sum It Up: A Thousand and Ninety-Eight Victories, a Couple of Irrelevant Losses, and a Life in PerspectiveReach for the Summit: The Definite Dozen System for Succeeding at Whatever You DoRaise the Roof: The Inspiring Inside Story of the Tennessee Lady Vols' Groundbreaking Season in Women's College Basketball This episode was fascinating to put together, Pats coaching style was, by her own admission, very challenging and but in the context of her background and the times in which she was coaching I can also understand why it was this way. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com   

Our Great Coach on this episode is Alf Galustian. Alf started his career playing for Wimbeldon in the UK. Knee injuries cut short his career and he transitioned into coaching. In 1984 he founded Coerver® Coaching, along with Chelsea great, Charlie Cooke. He has gone on to work as a Coach with 17 national federations including France,Brazil, England and Japan. As well as a coach instructor with over 50 top professional clubs including Bayern Munich , Manchester City, Real Madrid, Manchester United, Benfica, Roma, AC Milan,Newcastle United, Juventus and Arsenal.  If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com