April 2012
5 posts
“Skiing is positively thrilling no matter how well or poorly you’ve...”
– G.D. Maxwell, Piqué Newsmagazine, April 9, 2009
“To achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan, and not quite enough...”
– Leonard Bernstein, composer
“… life isn’t built out of eating, praying, and loving but out of...”
– Dr. Meg Jay, The Defining Decade
February 2012
1 post
The Wise Man
The wise man of the village goes to the sufi master. The Wise Man says “The people of the village won’t leave me alone. It’s wise man “help me with this”, wise man “help me with that”. They keep at me day and night! What can I do to make them go away?” The sufi master replied, “Sit in the center of the village, tear your clothes, pile dirt...
January 2012
2 posts
To Find Happiness, Forget About Passion →
“Happiness comes from the intersection of what you love, what you’re good at, and what the world needs. We’ve been told time and again to keep finding the first. Our schools helped developed the second. It’s time we put more thought on the third.”
There's more than one way to do some good
(written on May 5, 2011)
The distinction between for-profit entities and nonprofit organizations was often cut and dry: a for-profit existed primarily to make money while a nonprofit organization focused on helping the community or provided a service. Today, however, more and more for-profit and nonprofit businesses alike are focused on socially conscious missions and/or social responsibility...
May 2011
1 post
“Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the...”
– Joel Barker
April 2011
3 posts
Leadership, Social Entrepreneurship, and TOMS
I’m fascinated by the challenge of being a leader. The root of this fascination is my understanding that the job of a great leader is never done. You’ve had success? Awesome: your team is excited, people congratulate you, and then … they want to know what’s next. What will you, and thus your team, do to top your recent success? How will you master tomorrow?
Back when I was playing soccer...
February 2011
4 posts
“So be sure when you step, step with care and great tact, and remember that...”
– Dr. Seuss
“If you’re going to do something, do something that matters.”
– REWORK
“The dark does not destroy the light; it defines it. It’s our fear of the...”
– Brene Brown
January 2011
8 posts
7 tags
The process, outcomes, and goals
Two weeks ago tomorrow I had knee surgery. It was a meniscectomy and it was pretty basic basic: The doctor went in with a scope and simply cleaned up the torn/frayed/flipped-up section of my meniscus.
As has become my usual routine, before our team ran this morning, I went to rehab. While chatting with our athletic trainer, I mentioned that I’ve been back at Bikram Yoga for the past week (yay!). I...
Social Media for Coaches →
Last week at the NSCAA Convention, my friend Amanda Vandervort gave a presentation alongside Ryan Knapp on social media and how we, as coaches, can best utilize it. She was nice enough to post the slides and notes - you should check it out!
5 tags
“Workaholics aren’t heros. They don’t save the day, they just use it...”
– REWORK
“We search for happiness everywhere, but we are like Tolstoy’s fabled...”
– Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love.
Key Social Media Metrics for NPOs →
“A survey of 200 charity and foundation professionals revealed that nonprofits are finding it difficult to determine how valuable social media tools are for their organizations. Seventy-nine percent said they hadn’t found ways to do so.” – Chronicle of Philanthropy, November 12, 2009
Here’s some good insight on how to do so.
December 2010
12 posts
4 Innovative Campaigns for Social Good →
(via @Mashable)
“When we find inspiration, we need to take action for ourselves and for our...”
– Aron Ralston, 127 Hours: Between a Rock and a Hard Place
“You can’t get to wonderful without passing through alright.”
– Bill Withers, Wisdom
“Just try to notice what you’re drawn to all the time. Because that’s...”
– Billy Connelly, Wisdom
“There [should be a] recognition of the separation between who the person is and...”
– Alan Arkin, Wisdom
The Courage Of Jill Costello →
This is an unbelievable story (thanks @psuwomenssoccer alum Allie Daus - @alliemdaus - for passing it along).
In her words: “this is the most gut wrenching inspiration, ‘put your life in perspective’ story I have ever read. It makes you really understand that sport (no matter what it is) is bigger than talent and competition.”
“You have to find it.
No one else can find it for you.”
– Bjorn Borg
“All of life is about becoming more of who you are.”
– Oprah
November 2010
5 posts
Nike Turns London Into a Game Board to Get People... →
Nike shows sports brands a thing or two about utilizing social media.
“Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must outrun the fastest...”
– Roger Bannister
“To succeed you need to find something to hold on to, something to motivate you,...”
– Tony Dorsett
7 tags
Why we do it (coach, that is)
I spent the last three years of my coaching career as a volunteer assistant at Penn State. In my first fall, 2007, the team earned a 10th straight Big Ten title. Last year, in my 3rd and final season, we guided the program to the 12th straight.
This past season, as a now full-time assistant at the University of Utah, I watched the Penn State team from afar as they chased what seemed to be the...
October 2010
3 posts
“The fear of failure is worse than failure itself.”
– Paulo Coelho
“There is no stability in anything so you might as well follow your dream”
– @ariannahuff (via bmconry)
Utah Women's Soccer's "SHOW YOUR SCARF" Campaign
The concept
The Utah Women’s Soccer (UWS) program launched the “SHOW YOUR SCARF” campaign in the summer preceding the Fall 2010 college soccer season. The concept behind the campaign was inspired by the classic European football tradition: just as baseball fans don their team’s hat and football fans sport their team’s jersey, in Europe, soccer fans wear their team’s scarf.
The purpose of the...
September 2010
1 post
August 2010
3 posts
Thoughts on Relationship- and Cause-Based Coaching
Last week, I had the pleasure of listening to Joe Ehrmann of Coach for America come to our Athletic Department and speak about “Inside-out Coaching.”
Rather than talking Xs and Os, the central theme of Ehrmann’s talk was what really matters in life. Given powerful, personal experiences, he believes that “what it’s all about” comes down to two things: (1) relationships – loving and being loved, and...
Lessons in Golf, Lessons in Goalkeeping
It’s preseason (read as: things are insanely busy). But, we only had one training session yesterday, at a later start-time, so I decided to venture out to the driving range to hit some golf balls before heading over to Ute Field. I went with a friend who’s a significantly better golfer than me. Actually, “significantly” might be understating it a bit, but you get the picture.
While I was...
July 2010
4 posts
“Re: social media utilization in sports: “our first goal is to humanize the...”
– Tim McDermott, Philadelphia Eagles senior vice president and CMO
(Survey: Social-media use builds fan avidity)
Preseason, Bounce, and Yoga (and how they fit...
Three recent events happened that inspired this post:
1. I looked at a calendar.
2. I read Bounce by Matthew Syed.
3. I went to yoga.
Random on the front-end, I realize. But, I promise: there’s a point.
This past Friday, I looked at the calendar and realized that there’s approximately 2.5 weeks until our players report for preseason on August 3rd. Simultaneously, I felt a shift in my consciousness...