Captains & Coaches Podcast

Half the roster was new. The season was months away. George Greene had to build a team out of strangers. Then the Minutemen shock the CFB world on Week 1.

George is the head strength and conditioning coach for UMass Football. He started there as a paid intern in 2008. Now he leads the program, with his first mentor's picture hanging on his office door.

In this episode, we get into how George and his staff turned the offseason into a competition. Eight teams. Eight captains. Points for strength, speed, and body comp. Minus points for missing class. Every rep was a chance to lead.

We also talk:

• Why six weeks is really 30 opportunities
• How confidence comes from preparation
• Why strength coaches shouldn't overcoach on game day
• His go-to interview question: "Teach me something in 60 seconds"
• Why he helps his best staff leave for bigger jobs
• Micro-dosing sport psychology every single day
• The three stages of peer leadership: example, vocal, emotion

Education -   "Funishment: Reframing Discipline in Athletics" -  https://fun.captainsandcoaches.com/

"Why They're Not Listening - Coaching Today's Athlete": http://listen.captainsandcoaches.com

Training - Old Bull Program - 7 Day Free Trial - https://bit.ly/old-bull-train

C&C Merch - shop.captainsandcoaches.com

Your kid just joined their first team. The coach is a volunteer with a job, a family, and a full calendar. They raised their hand anyway. That takes heart. But heart isn't a practice plan.

In Part One of our new series, Dad on the Sidelines, Tex is joined by Luke Summers and Patrick Ford, DPT. Together they built curriculum in the child development space, coached thousands of kids, and trained hundreds of coaches to work with kids from walking age to 11. Very few coaches in the world have more reps with kids and the coaches who lead them.

Now Luke and Pat are watching from the sidelines. This episode is their field guide for the parent who said yes to coaching 6U and is now Googling what to do on Tuesday.

In this episode:

• How to define a win that has nothing to do with the scoreboard
• Why fun equals focus
• Why downtime is the enemy of attention
• How to raise the stakes and break the script
• What to do with the kid who won't join the drill
• The one fix every volunteer coach can make this week

And if you coach high school, college, or lead a team at work, these principles still apply. If you can hold the attention of ten four-year-olds, you can lead anyone.

You're not a thermometer. You're a thermostat.

Education -   "Funishment: Reframing Discipline in Athletics" -  https://fun.captainsandcoaches.com/

"Why They're Not Listening - Coaching Today's Athlete": http://listen.captainsandcoaches.com

Training - Old Bull Program - 7 Day Free Trial - https://bit.ly/old-bull-train

C&C Merch - shop.captainsandcoaches.com

Live from the NSCA Tactical Conference, Tex sits down with Bert Sorin, CEO of Sorinex Exercise Equipment.

Using the seven stages of Predictable Success as a roadmap, Bert shares how Sorinex grew from his dad's trail in the woods to a five-lane highway. He talks about chasing his own athletic goals while the business stalled, building a culture where everyone has a hand on the wheel, and the last conversation with his dad that keeps him hungry today.

If you lead a team, a program, or a business, this one is for you.

Education -   "Funishment: Reframing Discipline in Athletics" -  https://fun.captainsandcoaches.com/

"Why They're Not Listening - Coaching Today's Athlete": http://listen.captainsandcoaches.com

Training - Old Bull Program - 7 Day Free Trial - https://bit.ly/old-bull-train

C&C Merch - shop.captainsandcoaches.com

Jeff Fisher shared a story at the 2026 Soldiers to Sidelines Summit about a cornerback who cost his Titans a football game. The player heard his assignment, said "I gotcha, coach," and got it completely wrong. That gap, between hearing and listening, is the subject of this episode.  

Tex breaks down what actually separates the two, why "got it" from a captain is a reflex and not proof of anything, and what to do instead. That includes a teach-back method for high-pressure moments, a framework for building shared language with your leaders before the season starts, and a story Tex heard Jeff Fisher tell live, about a group of hearing-impaired kids who never missed a word.  

Most people aren't hard of hearing. They're hard of listening. This episode is about closing that gap before it costs you a game, or a season.

Education -   "Funishment: Reframing Discipline in Athletics" -  https://fun.captainsandcoaches.com/

"Why They're Not Listening - Coaching Today's Athlete": http://listen.captainsandcoaches.com

Training - Old Bull Program - 7 Day Free Trial - https://bit.ly/old-bull-train

C&C Merch - shop.captainsandcoaches.com

Are captains born, or are they made? And why do so many coaches get the pick wrong?

Tex sits down with Martin Rooney [@themartinrooney] bestselling author of Coach to Coach and High Ten, founder of Training for Warriors, and a coach who's worked with everyone from Army Rangers to UFC champions to high school track teams.

Martin makes the case that captains aren't selected, they emerge, and that handing the title to your best performer or most popular kid by default is one of the most common mistakes coaches make. He shares the story of a state championship team that won without ever naming a captain, and gets into why today's athletes respond to feedback so differently than they did even ten years ago.

Along the way: Tuckman's stages of team development, the "pat on the back vs. kick in the butt" line every coach needs to internalize, and the story of a kid who gave away his own shoes mid-competition, and what that taught an entire team about leadership.

If you're a coach wrestling with who to name captain, or how to lead a generation that speaks a different language than you do, this one's for you.

Learn more from Martin Rooney:
🔗 coachinggreatness.com
🔗 trainingforwarriors.com

Education -   "Funishment: Reframing Discipline in Athletics" -  https://fun.captainsandcoaches.com/

"Why They're Not Listening - Coaching Today's Athlete": http://listen.captainsandcoaches.com

Training - Old Bull Program - 7 Day Free Trial - https://bit.ly/old-bull-train

C&C Merch - shop.captainsandcoaches.com

In this episode of CJ & Vinny's Secret Podcast, Tex sits down with CJ Appenzeller (Active Personal Training, ATS Systems) and Vinny Maltz (author and host of the Evolving Athletes podcast) to tackle one of the hardest skills a captain ever has to learn: how to inspire and motivate a team without it coming off fake. 

The boys dig into why "fake hype" gets sniffed out instantly by anyone who's competed at a high level, why real energy is more often an emerging property of competency and alignment than something you can force, and what it actually takes to get teenagers comfortable celebrating each other instead of hiding behind "too cool for this."

Education -   "Funishment: Reframing Discipline in Athletics" -  https://fun.captainsandcoaches.com/

"Why They're Not Listening - Coaching Today's Athlete": http://listen.captainsandcoaches.com

Training - Old Bull Program - 7 Day Free Trial - https://bit.ly/old-bull-train

C&C Merch - shop.captainsandcoaches.com

What happens when a team stops playing to win and starts playing not to lose? Dr. Ben Freakley, Certified Mental Performance Consultant and founder of Ready Set Resilient, knows that shift firsthand. Over two decades, Ben has worked inside some of the highest-pressure locker rooms in sport and the military, serving as a college soccer head coach, Head of Mental Performance for the Toronto Blue Jays, and a mental performance coach with Atlanta United and the Army's 75th Ranger Regiment.

In this episode, Tex and Ben dig into the two balls every coach has to juggle (the team and the individual), the "sustain, stop, start" halftime framework that gives players ownership of the solutions, and what separates leadership in a locker room from leadership on a battlefield. It's a conversation about loss aversion, trust, and what it really takes to build a team that plays brave under pressure.

Education -   "Funishment: Reframing Discipline in Athletics" -  https://fun.captainsandcoaches.com/

"Why They're Not Listening - Coaching Today's Athlete": http://listen.captainsandcoaches.com

Training - Old Bull Program - 7 Day Free Trial - https://bit.ly/old-bull-train

C&C Merch - shop.captainsandcoaches.com

Every locker room has small dragons. Left alone, they grow. Handled early, they're just Tuesday.

In this episode, we break down the five conflict styles every captain will run into on a roster: Competing, Avoiding, Compromising, Accommodating, and Collaborating. For each one, you get a specific tool to manage it, so you can catch tension before it splits your team apart.

This isn't about eliminating conflict. It's about reading it, meeting it where it is, and keeping your team focused on the standard instead of on each other.

If you lead a team of any kind, this is a playbook you'll use on repeat.

Education -  
"Funishment: Reframing Discipline in Athletics" -
https://fun.captainsandcoaches.com/

"Why They're Not Listening - Coaching Today's Athlete":
http://listen.captainsandcoaches.com

Training - Old Bull Program - 7 Day Free Trial - https://bit.ly/old-bull-train

C&C Merch - shop.captainsandcoaches.com

In this episode, Tex sits down with Tim Fletcher [@timfletcherco], founder of RE/ACT and the LIFT program, to talk about the hidden driver behind so much of sports culture: shame.

Tim breaks down what shame actually is. Not the emotion most people think of, but the belief underneath it. He explains the difference between big T trauma and little t trauma, the kind that comes not from what happened to you, but from what should have happened and didn't. He unpacks how that belief shapes identity, drives unhealthy motivation, and follows people straight into adulthood, into locker rooms, and onto sidelines.

Tex and Tim connect these ideas directly to coaching. How do coaches build competitive environments without leaning on fear? What happens when a coach uses shame instead of standards? And when ruptures happen between a coach and an athlete, because they will, do you punish the pain or repair it?

This episode is for every coach who carries responsibility for young people. Your words carry weight. Understanding where shame comes from is the first step to leading without it.

Learn more about Tim Fletcher's work, including the LIFT program, at timfletcher.ca.

Coach Education Courses:
"Funishment: Reframing Discipline in Athletics"
https://fun.captainsandcoaches.com/  

"Why They're Not Listening: Coaching the Modern Athlete"
https://listen.captainsandcoaches.com/

Coach blows up over something innocent. Wrong route. Empty water bottle. Kids laughing in the back of the huddle. So we hand out up-downs, bear crawls, and sprints and call it discipline.

But what is that actually teaching?

In this solo episode, Tex breaks down why punishment-based conditioning teaches compliance, not character, and why it quietly trains athletes to resent the very movement we need them to embrace. Then he introduces Funishment: movement-based discipline that builds a skill instead of extracting a cost, built on four words that anchor the whole framework: Define, Model, Shape, Reinforce.

This isn't "no consequences." It's discipline that asks more of your athletes, not less.

👉 Explore Lesson 1 free and use code POD25 for 25% off the full course at https://fun.captainsandcoaches.com/