WBCA Podcast: Growing Our Game

Flaum (Tulane) and Villarreal (Georgia Tech) offer their insights on building relationships, managing and maneuvering COVID-19 and what’s it’s like to wear many hats for a women’s basketball program.

We continue our “Coaches on Coaches” series with head coaches AnnMarie Gilbert of Detroit Mercy and Molly Miller of Grand Canyon. Both coaches are entering their first season at the NCAA Division I level after successful stints at NCAA Division II programs. In this episode Gilbert and Miller offer insights into their transitions from DII to leading a DI program.

We continue our “Coaches on Coaches” series with assistant coaches Tasha Brown of UCLA and Danielle O’Banion of Minnesota. Brown and O’Banion discuss coaching over the past eight months including empowering student-athletes through civic engagement and how their programs have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Retired head coaches Harry Perretta of Villanova and former WBCA president Barbara Stevens of Bentley combine for total of 1,822 wins and today they are going to offer their insight on what they’ve learned through their 40+ years of coaching experience.

Shanteona Keys, WBCA manager of education, sits down to talk with Amanda Alexander, licensed psychologist at Stretch Performance Psychology. Alexander is a former Division I athlete and earned her doctorate in Counseling Psychology from the University of Tennessee. Her primary areas of expertise and interest are peak performance, stress management/reduction, burnout and more. Today she will talk about performance anxiety in student-athletes and how coaches can best support them.

Shanteona Keys, WBCA manager of education, sits down with Lindsey Wilson, founder of Positive Performance Training. Wilson will discuss why coaches are the perfect people to deliver mindset training, even during a global pandemic, and why it is important to prioritize your mindset and self-care first, as a leader of your team.

Nikki McCray-Penson from Mississippi State and Yolett McPhee-McCuin from Ole Miss join the #WBCAPodcast to talk about their activism to get the Mississippi state flag changed. McCray-Penson is entering her first year with the Bulldogs after a successful three-year stint at Old Dominion. McPhee-McCuin is a 16-year coaching veteran and is entering her third season with the Rebels. Today they will offer insight about their recent experience of going to the Mississippi state capitol to advocate to change the Mississippi state flag.

Shanteona Keys, WBCA manger of education, sits down with Carla Gilson, director of sports medicine at Georgia Tech, to discuss returning to campus during the COVID-19 pandemic. A 19-year veteran of the Georgia Tech community, Gilson has served as an athletic trainer with women’s basketball, football, tennis, track and field and cheerleading. In this podcast, Gilson gives her advice on how to keep student-athletes safe when they return to campus.

Shanteona Keys, WBCA manager of education, sits down with the University of North Georgia women’s basketball staff led by Buffie Burson to talk about their in and out’s of recruiting. Burson has over 500 wins in her career and has guided the Nighthawks to 12 national tournament appearances. Today, Burson and her staff break down their specific recruiting responsibilities and overall recruiting approach.

Shanteona Keys, WBCA manager of education, sits down with Oklahoma head coach Sherri Coale to continue our discussion on evaluating the year. Coale has been at the helm of the Sooners program for 24 seasons, earning six Big 12 titles and 19 NCAA tournament appearances. Coale offers her perspective on the evaluation process with your administration and staff and how this has evolved for her over the years.