“My job is to protect what we already have and what I sold the guys in our locker room. If I go and recruit a kid that wants a lifestyle that's completely opposite of that, I'm doing those guys in the locker room and injustice because I'm bringing in a poison.”

Sean Carlson’s approach to coaching comes from the fear of being out worked and not being good. He had this mentality at North Central College running 120 mile weeks as a Sophomore which led to a team finish of 16th place. His perspective of what constitutes hard worked was shaped during his time at North Central when that 16th place team eventually won the National Title 2 years later. He has followed a similar trajectory leading the Notre Dame Cross Country team from a 14th place regional finish to a National Runner Up in 5 years.

Sean knew he wanted to be a Coach but having daily wisdom from Al Carius was a helpful catalyst to know he was heading in the right direction. Coach Carlson credits the rise of the Notre Dame distance team to a strong team culture, which he learned from Al Carius. Sean has worked tirelessly to get the team to be at a point where they are doing all the small things correctly, and are running at Notre Dame for the right reasons. He has even gone to recruited kids that would be a better fit for the team, rather than take the fastest kid available.

You can listen to Al Carius’ episode here: https://www.d3glorydays.com/podcast/episode-22-al-carius

We mentioned the documentary, ‘16 2 1’ in our conversation with Al. It’s a documentary made by @NCCMensXCTF alumnus, RJ McNichols. It highlights the rise and fall from 2005-2011. He’s offering our listeners 50% off if you follow this link: https://vimeo.com/r/2Tcn/WHJqaGw0WG

As always, we really appreciate your support of this podcast. If you’d like to help spread the word, share the podcast with a friend, or leave us a review wherever you’re listening.