The Jump Around with Blake DuDonis

Illinois State HC Kristen Gillespie joins me to talk about her journey. From a family of coaches, Coach Gillespie played for the legendary Kay Yow at NC State, and has coached at the high school, D3, D2, and D1 levels. She shares all about her journey, her family, her highs and lows, and the feeling once she and the Redbirds reached the top.

We're back! After a long, dormant period, The Jump Around returns with one of the best young coaches in the country. Sam Purcell just wrapped up season one at Mississippi State and he takes us through his journey to get to where he is. He also shares the high's and low's of year one, tells us what caught him by surprise, and what he thinks is in store in the future.

UC Irvine head coach Tamara Inoue joins me and shares her story from her time as a prep and college baller in California and how that took her to Australia and the eventual start to her coaching career.

Delaware head coach Natasha Adair joins me to talk about her journey, from the DMV to Florida all the way to Delaware. She shares about the coaches who impacted her the most, her former players and what their success means to her, and how she took Delaware to the top of the CAA.

Former Wisconsin head coach and Stanford student-athlete Bobbie Kelsey joins me on the pod to talk about her story to Stanford, around the country, and back to Stanford again.

We discuss her time as head coach at Wisconsin and everything she's done since then.

Then, we get into a long dive into the current climate in America.

Former Boston College and University of Denver head coach Erik Johnson joins me to tell all about his interesting story.

From a tall practice player to the head coach of one of the most prestigious schools in the country, Erik shares all about how he got

to where he did and how. Included are some chances meetings, some great successes, as well as a great personal tragedy.

Today I'm joined by St. Louis University head coach Lisa Stone, who has had a storied coaching career.

Starting her career as a 22-year-old D3 head coach, Lisa has gone from little Cornell College to UW-Eau Claire to Drake to Wisconsin and now to St. Louis. She shares all about her journey and the lessons learned in between.

New UNLV head coach Lindy La Rocque joined me on the pod to talk all about her new gig and her journey to get there.

After an incredible playing career at Stanford, La Rocque went on to serve on staff at Oklahoma, Belmont, and Stanford before returning to her hometown of Las Vegas as the head coach of UNLV.

We talk all about that journey, her enjoyment of golf, and a Youtube clip that she is embarrassed by but I think is awesome.

Welcome back! After a few months away, we back!

Joining me today is the new head women's basketball coach at UNC-Asheville, Honey Brown. Honey had been an assistant and associate head coach at UNCA for the past eight seasons before taking the top spot this spring.

We discuss her journey through coaching, her rapping her version of Kurtis Blow, why the word "loyalty" comes up for her so often, and her love of Diet Coke.

In part 2 of a 2 part series on the last day of Autism Awareness Month, the University of Albany head coach Colleen Mullen joins me and shares her story.

After having a daughter, Colleen and her wife, Lauren, decided to have one more child and ended up with twin boys. As time went on, they came to discover that they both were on the spectrum.

Colleen graciously shares their story from start to finish.