Today’s guest Jennifer Gross is entering her 14th year as the head women’s basketball coach at the University of California - Davis.

UC Davis is a special place for Coach Gross, as she was a point guard for the program from 1993-1997, before returning as an assistant coach in 2004. She led the Aggies to five straight Big West Conference regular season titles from 2017-2021. 

During her time as both an assistant and head coach, she’s helped the Aggies to three NCAA Division I Tournament berths and five appearances in the WNIT, including a trip to the WNIT Elite Eight in 2018.

We talk about team success, team culture, the program’s core values, relationships with student-athletes and more. 

Hear about:

• The program’s transition from D-II to D-I
• Jennifer’s transition from assistant to head coach
• Building a program and creating a culture
• How schools can set coaches up for success
• Why fit matters in recruiting
• Staying competitive with graduation and transfers
• Team-building strategies
• Motivating today’s student-athletes

About the host

Ross Romano is co-founder of the Be Podcast Network and also hosts The Authority Podcast. He began his career in the pro sports industry before becoming a leading communications, marketing, and management expert working with education companies. He is founder and CEO of September Strategies, a coaching and consulting firm that helps organizations and high-performing leaders in the K-12 education industry communicate their vision and make strategic decisions that lead to long-term success. 

Connect on Twitter @RossBRomano or LinkedIn. Listen to The Authority: https://authoritypodcast.net. 

Welcome to “opening day” here for Season 3 of Sideline Sessions! I’m thrilled to start the season with a great guest, Damon Lembi.

Damon is a two-time bestselling author, the host of The Learn-It-All Podcast, and CEO of Learnit – a live learning platform that has upskilled over 2 million people. He also was a Division-I college baseball player who was drafted to play professionally and draws from this experience to bring an athlete’s perspective to leadership. 

Damon is passionate about helping young athletes develop a learn-it-all mindset and moving away from pressuring kids to specialize in one sport. Today, we talk about:

• Damon’s baseball career and the lessons he learned from coaches
• Applying an athlete’s perspective to leadership
• The downsides of specialization and the year-round emphasis on only one sport
• The learn-it-all mindset for youth development
• Building confidence in young athletes
• Navigating pressure and expectations in youth sports

Connect with Damon and learn more about his work:

• www.learnit.com 
• www.thelearnitallleader.com 
• LinkedIn
• Instagram: @damonlembi, @Learnittraining

About the host

Ross Romano is co-founder of the Be Podcast Network and also hosts The Authority Podcast. He began his career in the pro sports industry before becoming a leading communications, marketing, and management expert working with education companies. He is founder and CEO of September Strategies, a coaching and consulting firm that helps organizations and high-performing leaders in the K-12 education industry communicate their vision and make strategic decisions that lead to long-term success. 

Connect on Twitter @RossBRomano or LinkedIn. Listen to The Authority: https://authoritypodcast.net. 

In the Season 2 finale, I speak with Aaron Makelky.

Aaron has served as a head high school football coach for 12 seasons in Wyoming, assistant for 4 seasons, and has also coached wrestling, basketball, and track. He is currently consulting with sports teams and elite individuals who want to learn mindset and mental conditioning skills.

Our conversation covers:

• How to determine the culture you want to set and how that’s evolved for Aaron during his career
• Who helps to build the culture?
• How to develop leaders within the team
• The challenges that make culture-building “easier said than done”
• Developing mental toughness, leadership and other skills

Connect with Aaron:

• Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, & TikTok: @aaronmakelky. 
• LinkedIn
• https://aaronmakelky.com 

About the host

Ross Romano is co-founder of the Be Podcast Network and also hosts The Authority Podcast. He began his career in the pro sports industry before becoming a leading communications, marketing, and management expert working with education companies. He is founder and CEO of September Strategies, a coaching and consulting firm that helps organizations and high-performing leaders in the K-12 education industry communicate their vision and make strategic decisions that lead to long-term success. 

Connect on Twitter @RossBRomano or LinkedIn. Listen to The Authority: https://authoritypodcast.net. 

My guest today is Lee-Anne Gilchrist. Lee-Anne is currently the CEO of the Golf Performance Center & Academy, in Ridgefield, Connecticut working with young people from all over the world to nurture intrinsic motivation and unlock human potential.

We discuss:

• How to introduce kids to golf
• Good motivators for golfers
• The opportunities available to young golfers
• What parents should be prepared for if they’re getting kids into golf
• Resources for parents and coaches
• The biggest challenges to junior golf development today
• Predictors of success for junior golfers

Learn more about the Golf Performance Center:

• www.thegolfperformanceacademy.com
• https://golfpdi.com 
• YouTube

About today’s guest

Lee-Anne Gilchrist is a motivator and educator who has worked with hundreds of athletes and their parents in the quest for athletic success in college and on the professional tours. With a dream to create a unique environment for athletic development, Lee-Anne was a founding partner of two successful junior golf academies. She is currently the CEO of the Golf Performance Center & Academy, in Ridgefield, Connecticut working with young people from all over the world to nurture intrinsic motivation and unlock human potential. 

About the host

Ross Romano is co-founder of the Be Podcast Network and also hosts The Authority Podcast. He began his career in the pro sports industry before becoming a leading communications, marketing, and management expert working with education companies. He is founder and CEO of September Strategies, a coaching and consulting firm that helps organizations and high-performing leaders in the K-12 education industry communicate their vision and make strategic decisions that lead to long-term success. 

Connect on Twitter @RossBRomano or LinkedIn. Listen to The Authority: https://authoritypodcast.net. 

Taylor Cook is a retired professional hockey player with over 25+ years of international experience. She currently works as a mental performance coach serving athletes and sports coaches.

We discuss:

• How Taylor’s experience as an athlete serves her as a coach — and understanding the limits
• The education and training that contributes to her coaching
• Personalization of coaching
• Building blocks of mental performance
• Mental skills that are beneficial in hockey
• What makes a hockey player successful?
• Visualization techniques
• What Taylor covers on The Athletic Mind Podcast

About today’s guest

Taylor Cook is a retired professional hockey player with over 25+ years of international experience, owner of Taylored Minds Coaching where she works as a mental performance coach serving athletes and sports coaches, and she is the founder and host of The Athletic Mind podcast. Learn more about Taylor:

• https://www.taylored-minds.com
• LinkedIn
• The Athletic Mind Podcast

About the host

Ross Romano is co-founder of the Be Podcast Network and also hosts The Authority Podcast. He began his career in the pro sports industry before becoming a leading communications, marketing, and management expert working with education companies. He is founder and CEO of September Strategies, a coaching and consulting firm that helps organizations and high-performing leaders in the K-12 education industry communicate their vision and make strategic decisions that lead to long-term success. He also works directly with professionals at all levels, in all industries, coaching them in their pursuit of success.

Connect on Twitter @RossBRomano or LinkedIn. Listen to The Authority: https://authoritypodcast.net. 

Adolfo Gómez Sánchez has dedicated over three decades to studying and modeling what drives optimal performance. 

Adolfo was a competitive athlete and is a performance mentor to professional athletes on the ATP and WTA tours, C-Suite executives of large multinational corporations, and performance artists such as Grammy nominated singers and opera stars.

Our conversation covers:

• The Optimal Performance Formula
• What makes a tennis athlete great
• How Adolfo approaches his work with tennis athletes
• Growth mindset
• Applying the science of performance from sports to business challenges
• Lessons from athletes including Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Michael Chang, Jim Courier, Carlos Alcaraz, Jerry Rice, and Tiger Woods
• Learn more about Adolfo’s work at www.gold-results.com 

Subscribe to Sideline Sessions here: https://sidelinesessions.transistor.fm/subscribe 

About today’s guest

Adolfo Gómez Sánchez has dedicated over three decades to studying and modeling what drives optimal performance. His mission is to mentor professional athletes, leading multinational corporations, and performance artists to achieve the best version of themselves and to gain the “millimeters” of difference that separate champions from the rest in every field.

He holds an Ivy League Graduate Degree from Yale University and an undergraduate degree from McGill University, complemented by thirty years of studying scientific research on performance. He has merged his academic knowledge of what science has discovered that drives performance with his experience in the trenches as a competitive athlete and as a performance mentor to professional athletes on the ATP and WTA tours, C-Suite executives of large multinational corporations, and performance artists such as Grammy nominated singers and opera stars. Follow him on LinkedIn.

About the host

Ross Romano is co-founder of the Be Podcast Network and also hosts The Authority Podcast. He began his career in the pro sports industry before becoming a leading communications, marketing, and management expert working with education companies. He is founder and CEO of September Strategies, a coaching and consulting firm that helps organizations and high-performing leaders in the K-12 education industry communicate their vision and make strategic decisions that lead to long-term success. He also works directly with professionals at all levels, in all industries, coaching them in their pursuit of success.

Connect on Twitter @RossBRomano or LinkedIn. Listen to The Authority: https://authoritypodcast.net. 

This week, we're sharing a "Best Of" episode, going back to the series premiere with the amazing Dr. Jen Welter. 

In 2015, Jen became the first female coach in NFL history when she coached linebackers for the Arizona Cardinals. She was also the first woman to play a contact position in men’s professional football when she signed as a running back with the Texas Revolution, a professional indoor football team.

Jen also had a distinguished career in women’s professional football, as a 2x World Champion with the US and 8x pro bowler. She’s a culture shift expert with an MS in sport psychology and PhD in psychology. And, as you may expect, she was an amazing guest on the show. 

You'll hear about all this and more:

• Jen’s journey to playing and coaching football
• How she prepared herself for the opportunity to coach — before even knowing it was possible
• Shattering the “glass sideline” (in both the NFL and Madden 2020)
• The power of authentic leadership
• Keeping players physically and mentally healthy
• The state of women’s football and Grrridiron Girls flag football 
• What difference can coaches make in changing opportunities for their athletes and future coaches?

Subscribe to Sideline Sessions to hear more great episodes coming up this summer and fall: https://sidelinesessions.transistor.fm/subscribe 

Jason Payne has coached the Varsity Boys Basketball team in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, Canada for the past 24 seasons. He also works with teams and athletes as a Mental Performance Coach.

It was a pleasure to speak with Jason about the following and more:

• How Jason got into coaching and why he almost quit in 2018, nearly 20 years into his career
• What he learned about avoiding burnout
• Advice for new coaches 
• The most important things any coach can do
• Connecting with today’s student-athletes
• The pillars of high performance
• Jason’s Competitive Advantage Newsletter, which strives to help coaches improve the performance of teams, coaches and athletes. Subscribe here: https://thecompetitiveadvantage.ck.page/profile 

Subscribe to Sideline Sessions here: https://sidelinesessions.transistor.fm/subscribe 

About today’s guest

Jason has coached the Varsity Boys Basketball team in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, Canada for the past 24 seasons and works with teams and athletes as a Mental Performance Coach. He is also the author of the Competitive Advantage Newsletter which strives to help coaches improve the performance of teams, coaches and athletes. Connect with him on Twitter @jasonpayne306 and LinkedIn. 

About the host

Ross Romano is co-founder of the Be Podcast Network and also hosts The Authority Podcast. He began his career in the pro sports industry before becoming a leading communications, marketing, and management expert working with education companies. He is founder and CEO of September Strategies, a coaching and consulting firm that helps organizations and high-performing leaders in the K-12 education industry communicate their vision and make strategic decisions that lead to long-term success. He also works directly with professionals at all levels, in all industries, coaching them in their pursuit of success.

Connect on Twitter @RossBRomano or LinkedIn. Listen to The Authority: https://authoritypodcast.net. 

Are you a professional looking for insights to reach the next level, find a fulfilling new career, or achieve peak performance? You may be a candidate for performance coaching. Schedule an introductory chat here. 

Connor Gettemy is the Director of Sports Performance at Flagler College and Owner of Gett Strong Performance, both located in St. Augustine, Florida. 

At Flagler, whose sports teams compete at NCAA Division-II, Connor oversees a sports performance department that services over 400 athletes. Under his direction, Flagler has produced 169 All-Conference selections, 22 All-Americans, and a number of professional athletes in a variety of sports.

We cover:

• How Connor decided to get into this work and what education he received
• The myths about strength training
• When young athletes should begin weight training 
• Which sports have the biggest gap in training between the high school and college levels?
• Questions athletes should ask when beginning their training program
• Character and other important traits to develop in youth and amateur sports
• What athletic departments, coaches and/or parents should be looking for in a strength/conditioning/performance coach (certifications, training, qualifications, etc.)

Subscribe to Sideline Sessions here: https://sidelinesessions.transistor.fm/subscribe 

About today’s guest

Connor Gettemy (Coach G) is the Director of Sports Performance at Flagler College and Owner of Gett Strong Performance, both located in St. Augustine, Florida. At Flagler, Connor oversees a sports performance department that services over 400 collegiate athletes. During his five-plus years as director, Flagler teams have won 23 conference championships and been to ten Sweet Sixteens, six Elite Eights, and four Final Fours. Under Coach G's direction, Flagler has produced 169 All-Conference selections, 22 All-Americans, and a number of professional athletes in a variety of sports. Coach G's company, Gett Strong Performance, specializes in youth and high-school sports performance with a mission to "Strengthen the Individual" - both in body and character so that young boys and girls can become the best possible versions of themselves. Learn more:

• https://www.gettstrongperformance.com 
• https://www.instagram.com/gettstrongperformance 

About the host

Ross Romano is co-founder of the Be Podcast Network and also hosts The Authority Podcast. He began his career in the pro sports industry before becoming a leading communications, marketing, and management expert working with education companies. He is founder and CEO of September Strategies, a coaching and consulting firm that helps organizations and high-performing leaders in the K-12 education industry communicate their vision and make strategic decisions that lead to long-term success. He also works directly with professionals at all levels, in all industries, coaching them in their pursuit of success.

Connect on Twitter @RossBRomano or LinkedIn. Listen to The Authority: https://authoritypodcast.net. 

Are you a professional looking for insights to reach the next level, find a fulfilling new career, or achieve peak performance? You may be a candidate for performance coaching. Schedule an introductory chat here. 

Mike Jarvis is a well-known name to fans of college basketball. In his long career at the high school and NCAA Division-I levels, he coached future professionals, including Hall of Famer Patrick Ewing, won hundreds of games, and developed a number of future leaders. 

He coached first at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, where his players included Ewing, and in NCAA Division-I at Boston University, George Washington, St. John’s, and Florida Atlantic. His teams made 9 NCAA tournaments, including a Sweet 16 and an Elite 8 appearance, and a number of NIT tournaments. 

He has also served as a college basketball commentator and has written three books, Skills for Life, Everybody Needs a Head Coach and 7 C’s of Leadership.

We discuss:

• His biggest influence, Red Auerbach
• His coaching and leadership philosophies
• The benefits of playing multiple sports
• Achieving success at mid-major universities, along with major conference programs
• Coaching along with his son, Mike Jarvis II, on his staff
• The thrill of going head-to-head with Mike Krzyzewski, Jim Calhoun, and Jim Boeheim
• What separates the good players from the great ones
• What he’s learned in life after basketball, and what he wishes he knew back when he was coaching
• Message to coaches who want to make their mark

Subscribe to Sideline Sessions here: https://ss.bepodcast.network/subscribe 

About the host

Ross Romano is co-founder of the Be Podcast Network and also hosts The Authority Podcast. He began his career in the pro sports industry before becoming a leading communications, marketing, and management expert working with education companies. He is founder and CEO of September Strategies, a coaching and consulting firm that helps organizations and high-performing leaders in the K-12 education industry communicate their vision and make strategic decisions that lead to long-term success. He also works directly with professionals at all levels, in all industries, coaching them in their pursuit of success.

Connect on Twitter @RossBRomano or LinkedIn. Listen to The Authority: https://authoritypodcast.net. 

Are you a professional looking for insights to reach the next level, find a fulfilling new career, or achieve peak performance? You may be a candidate for performance coaching. Schedule an introductory chat here.