From cross country-only to a full track & field powerhouse, Coach Mike Rosolino has spent two decades+ growing Embry-Riddle’s program with vision, patience, and a whole lot of heart. In this conversation, we trace the evolution: early proposals, a 100-athlete open tryout, staffing stability, the NAIA ➜ NCAA DII transition, competing in two outdoor conferences, and what it’s like to coach your own children.

In this episode you’ll hear:

🧭 Starting from scratch: building the blueprint (roster size, budget, equipment, staffing) and leaning on mentors

🏃‍♀️ Year 1 without a track: training on grass, borrowing facilities, and still attracting sprinters

👥 Staff that sticks: how continuity (20+ years!) multiplied culture and results

🏗️ Admin realities: adding 50–100 athletes affects everything—training room, tutors, housing, classes

🎓 NAIA ➜ NCAA DII: learning a new rulebook, two postseason “gap years,” and keeping athletes engaged

🏟️ Two conferences, one team: the rare setup of outdoor “track-only” and full “track & field” championships

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Dad & Coach: coaching his son (distance) and daughter (pole vault)—boundaries, fairness, and family

🔧 Evolving as a coach: from running with the team to mastering multis and technical event coaching

🚀 What’s next: breaking through nationally in DII while keeping ERAU’s student-person-player ethos

Quote:

“There’s something about this place that just brings people back.” — Mike Rosolino

🌟 Explore Our Library: Dive into 300+ episodes featuring insights from coaching legends such as Boo Schexnayder and Dan Pfaff, Diljeet Taylor (BYU) and Beth Alford-Sullivan, as well as superstar coaches Petros Kyprianou (Illinois), Althea Thomas (Vanderbilt) and many more! Find us on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and more for your listening pleasure.

🎙️ Create Your Own Podcast Episode: Reach out to Mike Cunningham for instruction on how to create your very own Gill1918 Project episode, which airs Tuesdays through Sundays. Find YOUR voice on the Gill Connections Podcast Network.

📲 Stay Connected: Want to get in touch with our host, Mike Cunningham? Follow on Twitter (@MikeCunningham), email at [email protected], or text to 217-898-3038. We love hearing from you! 🎧👍

Gill is partnering with Glazier clinics for a FREE track and field clinic in December. To help you understand what value this clinic will provide you, we will have clinicians give introductions to themselves and their topics for December. Today we have Josiah Norville of Western Michigan giving us an intro into his December topic "Simple Triple Jump Breakdowns to Improve Each Phase of the Jump."

Enjoy and look for the sign up for this FREE amazing clinic from Glazier Clinics soon!

Back in August Randy Anderson of the Illinois Top Times Speed Lab hosted a one day track clinic featuring the great Boo Schexnayder and Vince Anderson. Coaches were treated to six amazing talks (and a free dinner!) and walked away more prepared for the 2026 season! For the month of October and September in 2025, we’ll be publishing each presentation in a two-part format. Every Wednesday and Thursday you’ll hear one of five talks from Boo and Vince: Week 1-Teaching the Long Jump, Week 2-Training the Hurdlers, Week 3-Plyometric training, Week 4-400m training, Week 5-Relays and Week 6-Hamstrings!

Welcome to Gill1918, the track & field coaching podcast powered by Gill Athletics. Since 1918, Gill has been dedicated to empowering coaches with innovative equipment—now, we're bringing elite coaching education straight to your ears.

Our goal is to create the Ted Talks of track/field podcasts bringing the annual track clinic to your ears DAILY! Topics will include but are not limited to covering key strategies, techniques, and training principles to help you improve athlete performance, structure better workouts, enhance team culture, and more!

Whether you're a high school, collegiate, or club coach, Gill1918 is your go-to resource for quick, high-impact coaching education from the best minds in the sport.

📩 Want to contribute an episode? Submit your 10-30 minute coaching talk to [email protected] or read ⁠⁠⁠THIS LINKEDIN ARTICLE⁠⁠⁠ for information on how to get started. All coaches are invited to participate!

🎙️ Don’t forget to subscribe and follow Gill Athletics for more expert coaching insights!

#TrackAndField #CoachingEducation #Gill1918 #ByCoachesForCoaches #TrackCoach #TedTalksOfTrackFieldPodcast

Back in August Randy Anderson of the Illinois Top Times Speed Lab hosted a one day track clinic featuring the great Boo Schexnayder and Vince Anderson. Coaches were treated to six amazing talks (and a free dinner!) and walked away more prepared for the 2026 season! For the month of October and September in 2025, we’ll be publishing each presentation in a two-part format. Every Wednesday and Thursday you’ll hear one of five talks from Boo and Vince: Week 1-Teaching the Long Jump, Week 2-Training the Hurdlers, Week 3-Plyometric training, Week 4-400m training, Week 5-Relays and Week 6-Hamstrings!

Welcome to Gill1918, the track & field coaching podcast powered by Gill Athletics. Since 1918, Gill has been dedicated to empowering coaches with innovative equipment—now, we're bringing elite coaching education straight to your ears.

Our goal is to create the Ted Talks of track/field podcasts bringing the annual track clinic to your ears DAILY! Topics will include but are not limited to covering key strategies, techniques, and training principles to help you improve athlete performance, structure better workouts, enhance team culture, and more!

Whether you're a high school, collegiate, or club coach, Gill1918 is your go-to resource for quick, high-impact coaching education from the best minds in the sport.

📩 Want to contribute an episode? Submit your 10-30 minute coaching talk to [email protected] or read ⁠⁠⁠THIS LINKEDIN ARTICLE⁠⁠⁠ for information on how to get started. All coaches are invited to participate!

🎙️ Don’t forget to subscribe and follow Gill Athletics for more expert coaching insights!

#TrackAndField #CoachingEducation #Gill1918 #ByCoachesForCoaches #TrackCoach #TedTalksOfTrackFieldPodcast

Katie Follett is a National Champion in the USATF Road Mile and a World Indoor Finalist at 3000m. She competed as a pro for 13 years. Now she's giving back to the sport in many ways including serving as a Mental Skills Coach and more. Katie provided this free resource for you to use and share: Purpose Driven Mindset. This is part three of a series on mental resilience that Katie will present here.

Got something you'd like to share? Contact David Mitchell at [email protected] to learn how to join the fun.

From Friday-night lights to track-side hurdles, Jhad Jones’ coaching journey is anything but typical.

In this episode, he opens up about the long road from a football dream to building Buffalo’s next sprint and hurdle stars 🦬

Highlights:

🏈 Thought track only existed at the Olympics…until he found it himself

💥 A “petty bet” sparked his passion for coaching

🏃‍♂️ Hustled with two coaching jobs at once (Moorpark & Cal Lutheran)

📚 Returned to finish his degree mid-career while coaching

🌎 Took a leap from SoCal to Southern Arkansas before landing in Buffalo

💬 Shares the hard truths about recruiting in the MAC and building culture

“You’ll probably mess up more athletes than you help early on — but you don’t know that until later. Growth takes trial and error.” — Jhad Jones

🌟 Explore Our Library: Dive into 300+ episodes featuring insights from coaching legends such as Boo Schexnayder and Dan Pfaff, Diljeet Taylor (BYU) and Beth Alford-Sullivan, as well as superstar coaches Petros Kyprianou (Illinois), Althea Thomas (Vanderbilt) and many more! Find us on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and more for your listening pleasure.

🎙️ Create Your Own Podcast Episode: Reach out to Mike Cunningham for instruction on how to create your very own Gill1918 Project episode, which airs Tuesdays through Sundays. Find YOUR voice on the Gill Connections Podcast Network.

📲 Stay Connected: Want to get in touch with our host, Mike Cunningham? Follow on Twitter (@MikeCunningham), email at [email protected], or text to 217-898-3038. We love hearing from you! 🎧👍

Back in August Randy Anderson of the Illinois Top Times Speed Lab hosted a one day track clinic featuring the great Boo Schexnayder and Vince Anderson. Coaches were treated to six amazing talks (and a free dinner!) and walked away more prepared for the 2026 season! For the month of October and September in 2025, we’ll be publishing each presentation in a two-part format. Every Wednesday and Thursday you’ll hear one of five talks from Boo and Vince: Week 1-Teaching the Long Jump, Week 2-Training the Hurdlers, Week 3-Plyometric training, Week 4-400m training, Week 5-Relays and Week 6-Hamstrings!

Welcome to Gill1918, the track & field coaching podcast powered by Gill Athletics. Since 1918, Gill has been dedicated to empowering coaches with innovative equipment—now, we're bringing elite coaching education straight to your ears.

Our goal is to create the Ted Talks of track/field podcasts bringing the annual track clinic to your ears DAILY! Topics will include but are not limited to covering key strategies, techniques, and training principles to help you improve athlete performance, structure better workouts, enhance team culture, and more!

Whether you're a high school, collegiate, or club coach, Gill1918 is your go-to resource for quick, high-impact coaching education from the best minds in the sport.

📩 Want to contribute an episode? Submit your 10-30 minute coaching talk to [email protected] or read ⁠⁠⁠THIS LINKEDIN ARTICLE⁠⁠⁠ for information on how to get started. All coaches are invited to participate!

🎙️ Don’t forget to subscribe and follow Gill Athletics for more expert coaching insights!

#TrackAndField #CoachingEducation #Gill1918 #ByCoachesForCoaches #TrackCoach #TedTalksOfTrackFieldPodcast

Back in August Randy Anderson of the Illinois Top Times Speed Lab hosted a one day track clinic featuring the great Boo Schexnayder and Vince Anderson. Coaches were treated to six amazing talks (and a free dinner!) and walked away more prepared for the 2026 season! For the month of October and September in 2025, we’ll be publishing each presentation in a two-part format. Every Wednesday and Thursday you’ll hear one of five talks from Boo and Vince: Week 1-Teaching the Long Jump, Week 2-Training the Hurdlers, Week 3-Plyometric training, Week 4-400m training, Week 5-Relays and Week 6-Hamstrings!

Welcome to Gill1918, the track & field coaching podcast powered by Gill Athletics. Since 1918, Gill has been dedicated to empowering coaches with innovative equipment—now, we're bringing elite coaching education straight to your ears.

Our goal is to create the Ted Talks of track/field podcasts bringing the annual track clinic to your ears DAILY! Topics will include but are not limited to covering key strategies, techniques, and training principles to help you improve athlete performance, structure better workouts, enhance team culture, and more!

Whether you're a high school, collegiate, or club coach, Gill1918 is your go-to resource for quick, high-impact coaching education from the best minds in the sport.

📩 Want to contribute an episode? Submit your 10-30 minute coaching talk to [email protected] or read ⁠⁠⁠THIS LINKEDIN ARTICLE⁠⁠⁠ for information on how to get started. All coaches are invited to participate!

🎙️ Don’t forget to subscribe and follow Gill Athletics for more expert coaching insights!

#TrackAndField #CoachingEducation #Gill1918 #ByCoachesForCoaches #TrackCoach #TedTalksOfTrackFieldPodcast

Coach Emeott's East Kentwood HS teams have won 8 State Titles and a National Team Championship. At EK they've built one of the biggest T&F programs in the country. Learn how they recruit within their district and why those methods matter to both the team and to each athlete.

If you’d like to contribute an episode, email David Mitchell at [email protected].

From a street race with his sister in Brooklyn to leading Eastern Washington’s program in the Big Sky, Erin “Tuck” Tucker’s journey is full of grit, lessons, and growth. In this conversation, Tuck pulls back the curtain on coaching under Mouse, learning the hard way at Illinois, building something special at Kentucky, returning to Florida, and finding his home at EWU.

🏙️ Brooklyn circle-block race → first taste of sprinting

🐊 Florida years: Ralph, Mouse, behavior-mod moments, and a 46-split epiphany

🎯 Retiring on his own terms → stepping into coaching at Illinois

🧰 First lessons: “more is better,” breaking school records, recruiting hurdlers, and mistakes that became teaching points

🏟️ Kentucky: from five walk-ons to SEC-level success, coaching women, and balancing swagger with growth

🤝 Mentorship & humility: evolving with Mouse, learning from Weber, and leaning into staff dynamics

🦁 Penn State years: becoming the glue, associate head coach experience, and preparing for the top chair

🦅 Eastern Washington: culture-building, scholarships, and a vision for Big Sky greatness

🔊 Signature “MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE!”—where it came from and why it stuck

👨‍👩‍👧 Fatherhood, leadership maturity, and coaching with empathy

“Having a son changed me. If I wouldn’t curse around my own kids, why would I curse around someone else’s?” — Erin Tucker

🌟 Explore Our Library: Dive into 300+ episodes featuring insights from coaching legends such as Boo Schexnayder and Dan Pfaff, Diljeet Taylor (BYU) and Beth Alford-Sullivan, as well as superstar coaches Petros Kyprianou (Illinois), Althea Thomas (Vanderbilt) and many more! Find us on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and more for your listening pleasure.

🎙️ Create Your Own Podcast Episode: Reach out to Mike Cunningham for instruction on how to create your very own Gill1918 Project episode, which airs Tuesdays through Sundays. Find YOUR voice on the Gill Connections Podcast Network.

📲 Stay Connected: Want to get in touch with our host, Mike Cunningham? Follow on Twitter (@MikeCunningham), email at [email protected], or text to 217-898-3038. We love hearing from you! 🎧👍