Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / #159: Gill1918 Presents Three-Time Softball Olympian Lauren Regula “My Experience as a First-Time Track Mom” Powered by Coach O

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#159: Gill1918 Presents Three-Time Softball Olympian Lauren Regula “My Experience as a First-Time Track Mom” Powered by Coach O · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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Welcome to the Gill 1918 Project, a podcast series by
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coaches for coaches, powered by Gill Athletics.
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Think of it as the Ted Talks of track and field coaching.
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Short, insightful, and packed with valuable strategies to help
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you grow as a coach. This episode is part of the
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Youth and Beginner Series, brought to you by Coach O.
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In this series, we focus on topics relating to coaching
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youth athletes, coaching beginner athletes of any age,
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and supporting brand new coaches as they find their way.
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With that in mind, let's grow. Hi, this is Lauren Regula.
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I'm a three time Olympian in softball for my home country,
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Canada, and I'm going to chat about discoveries as a first
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time track mom. So this is through the lens of a
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mom I am sharing with everybody. I want to yell from the rooftops
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to any parents out there how impactful track has been for me
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as a mom and for our kids. Before I get into that, before I
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get into why I think it's amazing, not only physically but
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mentally and emotionally as well, I want to give you a
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little bit of background. I want to share why I'm so
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passionate about it. And I also want to share because
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I'm so proud of where I'm from. How track runs deep into the
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community where I was born. I was born and raised in a town
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of Canada, in Canada called Trail, BC.
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It is so small. It's about 7000 people and not
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7000 people. And then you can drive 30
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minutes and now you're at a bigger city.
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If you wanted to go to Costco and you lived in Trail, you
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would have to drive 3 1/2 hours to hit a place big enough that
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even had a Costco. So it's this little gem known
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for creating athletes. Personally, I went to the
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Olympics three times. My brother, his name is Jason
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Bay, He played over 10 years of Major League Baseball.
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We have the most NHL players per capita that come out of trail.
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Even in my graduating class, one of my very best friends and
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another friend of mine were both first round draft picks for the
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NHL. That was very common.
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We have amazing athletes, but track is where it started.
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Hockey and track, I would say, are the the two sports where
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athletes were built. And I want to share because I am
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so proud. And it wasn't until I was doing
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this episode that I actually dug in because the track era that
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I'm going to talk about was before me.
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So track wasn't necessarily ever in my sight because by the time
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I got to elementary school and high school, I did a little bit
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of track, but it wasn't as big as it was in the area.
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But track was able to grow thanks to a man named Willie
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Krauss. He is a fascinating man.
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If you have a chance to Google him, it's WILLIKRAUSE.
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He immigrated into Canada in 1958 from Germany and he built
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unbelievable track athletes in this tiny town of Trail, British
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Columbia. He was so invested, he would do
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things like actually build and create the hurdles when we
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didn't have any. I got really deep down into the
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Willie Krauss rabbit hole. We have a, we have a field house
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named the Willie Krauss Field House where I did a lot of my
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training, not just track, although we did do track meets
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in there for schools, but also for softball.
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It was a field house. He instilled.
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Not just the physical part, but the mental part, the emotional
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part in these athletes. And I do want to shout out some
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of them who have come from our teeny tiny town of Trail, BC.
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We had a 1980s gold medalist in the heptathlon at the Pan Am
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Games in Teresa Lynarden. From our little town, we had a
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pole vaults head to Washington state.
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His name was Bob Yard. We had a 1964 high jump in
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pentathlon Olympian in Diane Jurace.
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She's now Diane Fox. And then I want to talk about my
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family. Track is in my family, and I'm
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going to be dead honest with you.
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I sometimes forget that because I wasn't around to watch it.
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I wasn't around to be involved or immersed in it.
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My aunt, Leanne Morrow went to the University of British
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Columbia. She won the Kate Brierley
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Service Award, which is service for the athletic department, and
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she was on the track team. She did hurdles and shot put.
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And my great uncle, his name is Jerry Morrow, is a two time
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Olympian in the decathlon. He went to the 1964 and 1972
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Summer Olympics. He pole vaulted at the
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University of Oregon, ended up being a pole vault coach at the
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University of Santa Barbara. And again, track is in his
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blood. And I would like to think that
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it's in our blood. I just didn't realize it until I
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was able to get there with my own kids.
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So that's a little bit about our family background.
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And as I was preparing to do this episode, I got so deep into
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it and I thought, I wonder if This is why I love it so much.
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But then I realized, no, it's not just that.
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It has to do with the environment and has to do with
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what track brings to the table, not necessarily that my family
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has it in our blood. So I'm a mom.
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I grew up, so as I was growing up in Trail BC, my parents
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wanted to keep us out of trouble, so we did sports.
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It's a small town, there's not a lot to do there, so we did all
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the sports. I did run a little bit of cross
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country. I did do track, but mainly
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through the schools. When the schools had track
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meets, I did volleyball, basketball, softball, you name
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it. If there was a sport, I did it.
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We live close to a place called Red Mountain, so in the winters
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I skied. I was on the curling team.
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My parents wanted us to do everything because they knew the
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importance of, one, keeping kids out of trouble.
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And two, I will, I will quote my dad.
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They wanted to introduce us to so many different things.
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So we could always say yes if that opportunity popped up in
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life, if we grow up. And I remember my dad saying
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this, hey, Lauren, if you grow up and your kids or your friends
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want to go skiing, you want to be able to say yes.
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You know how you've done it. And this was a prime example.
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Our curling team needed another player.
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And my dad's like, Lauren, do you want to go curling?
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And I was like, dad, I don't want to curl.
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No. And he said to me, hey, you
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never know, you might be older and your friend say, hey, do you
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want to go curling? You don't want to say no because
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you don't know how. And I took that to heart and I
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became the lead on the curling team.
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And I'm not even kidding you. I moved with my husband and my
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family. We moved to outside Cleveland,
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OH. And we, within the first year we
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got there, one of our friends rented a lane at the Cleveland
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Skate Club and they said, do you want to go curling?
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And I went, you've got to be kidding me.
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My dad told me this was going to happen 30 years ago.
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And he was right. So just a reminder, parents know
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more than we think that. So that was my upbringing.
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And then when I got to high school, I had to pare down.
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And I did that by narrowing it down to three sports.
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All through high school, I was a volleyball player in the fall, a
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basketball player in the winter, and a softball player in the
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spring and summer. And it wasn't until my senior
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season of high school that I had to pare that down to two sports.
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I ended up just staying with volleyball and softball because
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I had signed my letter of intent to go play softball at the at
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Oklahoma State University and I wanted to be sure that I didn't
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do anything stupid on the basketball court because I could
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be a little crazy. That jeopardized my scholarship,
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so I ended up playing two sports through high school.
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And I'm sharing that because as a mom who have kids right now,
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my kids are 1615 and 13. We have been all about multi
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sports. We have been all about doing as
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much as you can. I'm taking my dad's philosophy
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that he taught me. You want to be able to say yes.
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You want to be able to say yeah, I want to play that intramural
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league or that rec league or when you get older, if your
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friends are going out to do things, I want them to have that
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opportunity. I know how important it is
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physically, yes, but also mentally and emotionally to have
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breaks from your one sport. I will say sports are a lot
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different these days than they used to be.
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Parents seem a little crazier. I wouldn't know, but maybe it's
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because it's on social media and that's the way it seems.
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But they seem a little bit more intense, a little crazier.
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I can tell you that the sport, the sports themselves, when it
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comes to the traditional youth sports are a lot different.
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Kids are traveling at really young ages very far.
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There's year round commitments and it's a very challenging
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landscape to navigate as a parent, especially a parent who
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believes in multi, multi sport athletes and the benefits that
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those sports can bring. So as a mom, we said kids,
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you're doing it all. So our kids have done soccer,
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volleyball, basketball, lacrosse, baseball, cross
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country now, track now. And I'm trying to think there's
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some others in there too. But anytime there was an
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opportunity for our kids to try a new sport, we were like, let's
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try it. You never know what you're going
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to love until you try it. And through our time as a
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parent, as parents, my husband and I, we have been able to
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expose our kids to enough sports where they have found the ones
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they truly love. I have a daughter who's 16 years
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old and she is knee deep in the club volleyball world.
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And I've got two boys, 15 and 13 who are knee deep in the club
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volleyball, see or excuse me, who are knee deep in the club
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soccer scene. But let's get back to track.
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I want to share how that came about.
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I wish I could tell you. I wish I could say I knew how
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how amazing track was going to be.
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So we were going to do it no matter what.
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And that simply isn't the truth. But what ended up happening was
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as my daughter got older, she started picking off the things
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she didn't like. She understood that basketball
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wasn't her thing. She played a couple of seasons
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when she was young, just, you know, drills and, you know,
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smaller rec leagues. And it wasn't her thing.
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So we went to lacrosse. She tried that for a season.
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It wasn't her thing. She played softball.
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She did that for a season, actually 2, and it wasn't her
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thing. And volleyball stuck.
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And she loved volleyball. All she wanted to do was
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volleyball. But we have a rule.
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You got to do more than just one sport.
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And when I really boiled down, track was the only sport that
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actually worked with her schedule.
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And I said, perfect, let's do track.
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And she was on board. I won't ever make my kids do
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something that they don't want to do, but she was on board.
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She wanted to do something different.
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I had no idea what to expect. I'm coming from the club
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volleyball world and the club soccer world where parents are
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screaming at kids and they're screaming at refs.
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And I would often sit either off to the side.
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If I was at the soccer field, I would be way down by the corner
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flag with my headphones in because I don't want to listen
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to parents. I don't want to.
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I'm not trying to scream at refs.
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I'm not trying to tell my kid what to do.
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I just want to watch them play. So if I was on the soccer field
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I would be down with my headphones and if I was at the
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volleyball courts I would usually sit as high up as
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possible and still pop my headphones in.
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I would wave to my kids I if they ever did look up.
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They don't really, I believe a a win as a parent is having our
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kids focus on their teammates in the game and not parents in the
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stands. But I would definitely be
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watching and let them know that I was watching.
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I just didn't want to hear the commentary and the screaming
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from anybody else, so I didn't really know what to expect.
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I'll be honest, I was a very naive track parent.
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I 100% showed up in the spring not realizing my kids, my
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daughter probably needed extra clothes because it was, you
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know, March, April in Ohio. At one point, I think it was 40
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and raining, slash snowing, slash sleeting and she's
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freezing. I had no food.
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I had no idea what to expect in track.
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I was pretty naive, but from the moment, the moment I went to a
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meet, everything felt different. I'm, I was mind boggled at how
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positive everybody was, how encouraging everybody was, how
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excited the team, the track team was for each other.
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There was no, oh, I hope they screw up.
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So I place higher. That wasn't the vibe.
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The, the vibe was I'm cheering hard for the person who's
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running in first. I'm cheering just as hard for
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the person who's coming in last. And we're cheering for
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everybody. And there were hugs to everybody
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who had a personal best. And I was literally mind
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boggled. I, I couldn't believe it.
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It was such a sharp contrast from the other aspects of club
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sports that I had kind of become used to, hence why I bring my
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headphones everywhere because I don't like to listen to people.
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And my daughter loved it and I didn't know if she would.
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I really didn't. But she loved it.
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And believe it or not, I'm saying believe it or not,
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because I'm picturing myself run this, running this.
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She fell in love with the 400 meter and she was on, She did
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the 400 open. I'm learning all these terms,
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the 400 Open and then the four by 4 relay.
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And she loved it. I spent more time watching the
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kids who were not competing cheer on those who were
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competing because it just, it restored my faith in humans and
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in sports. Again, it restored my faith in
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the reason why sports exist. This is why sports exist.
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I think we've gotten lost. It's gotten lost in in
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competitive and everything's so expensive and it's a business.
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We forget why sports matter. And that's what I want to bring
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back to track is this is what my parents taught me.
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I ended up going to 3 Olympics as a softball player.
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My brother ended up playing 10 years.
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Over 10 years of Major League Baseball, my parents never once
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tried to raise athletes, ever. They wanted us to learn the
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things that came from sport. They wanted us to learn about
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discipline. They wanted us to learn
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accountability, to work within a team, to persevere.
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How do you pick yourself up when you fail?
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They wanted us to learn, learn the life lessons.
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They wanted us to have teamwork and the ability to compromise
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and the ability to work with people that maybe they're not
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your best friend, but you have to know how to respect them in
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your respective sport. You have to learn how to get
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along with them. They understood, and I don't
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know how I I'm thankful for them every single day.
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They understood the greater good of what sport could offer
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athletes. And that's the exact approach
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that my husband and I take with our kids.
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We're not trying to raise athletes.
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We're trying to raise good human beings, good teammates, good
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members of society. And I believe sport helps that.
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And what track brings to the table is just missing from from
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a lot of sports. It does bring that camaraderie.
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It does bring that enthusiasm and it brings the positivity and
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it it really creates an environment where kids want to
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go to. And I've said this a million
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times. I've coached my kids.
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I coached them in T-ball. You know, my boys, they were in
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T-ball then they were in coach pitch and I coached all of that.
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My daughter played two seasons of softball.
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I coached that. And parents ask me all the time,
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what do you think is successful? Like how do you know you've been
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successful as a coach? And my answer is always the
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same. If the kids want to come back
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next year because we're working with 89101112 year olds, if they
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want to come back next year and they're excited about it, I
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think we've done our job. Because the only way we can get
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better is by staying on the field, staying on the court,
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staying on the track, staying in whatever discipline that you're
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in. That's the only way you can get
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better. If we quit, if we're miserable,
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we're not going to get better. And I want to share another
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philosophy as as why I think track is so amazing.
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So the physical aspects of burning out are real.
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I think everybody knows overuse injuries in one sport are
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they're real. You can't deny them.
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There's a lot of statistics, but I'm also a big believer in
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mental and emotional burnout as well.
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And there is something about being in that environment where
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people actually want to see you do well.
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They actually want to see you break your record, blow past
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your personal best, no matter where you finish in the race.
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That is so refreshing. It is so motivating for kids
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because they don't feel like they're constantly being
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scrutinized. There's no parents who are
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yelling at the ref because times don't lie.
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Measurements don't lie and it's an environment that I think all
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kids deserve to be a part of. I think the fact that track
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offers something for everybody is another reason why I like it.
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Hey, maybe you're not a fast runner, but you can throw things
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really far. Maybe you're really hoppy.
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Maybe you've got some lungs on you and you're might not be a
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100 or, but hey, you're in the mile or the 800.
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There is a place for everybody and that's what I love.
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I mean, I just love about track. I cannot yell from the rooftops
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loud enough. The impact and I like the word
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impact because the impact that it's had on our kids is you have
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to grind. You know, I'm, I watched my
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daughter run the 400 and the 4 by 4 and it is not hard.
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I, you watch when they hit that wall when they're just coming
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around the corner and it's like, oh, oh, she burned out a little
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bit too fast and now she's dying.
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And having the mental fortitude to push through that, the
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physical aspect to push through that, the emotional aspect to
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push through that is so it's growth oriented in every single
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way. To see kids be proud of
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themselves is one of the greatest gifts track can give.
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And to see kids be disappointed but have a game plan to say,
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what am I going to do next time? That's something my daughter
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learned doing the 400 was, oh, there's strategy because I
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didn't know I'm I'm no help in this area.
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You want to talk about softball, I can help you all day long.
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But when it comes to track, I don't know.
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So she went out too fast a few times and then next thing I know
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she's watching YouTube videos on strategy on where to kind of go
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hard, where to kind of let off the gas to kind of make sure you
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have your kick. I'm using all these words.
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You guys could be laughing at me because I'm not a track person.
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I'm, I'm talking from what my memory is from this YouTube.
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But what was cool for her was she had a game plan and she was
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able to do that. And the same thing you can work
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on your start. There's always something you can
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work on. And yeah, you might not beat the
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next person, but that's fine because everything in life is.
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Can you be a little bit better today than you were yesterday?
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Track teaches that so beautifully.
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We talked to our kids about that all the time.
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It's not about beating the next person because that person just
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might be faster. But can you do something today
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that will help you be a little bit better than you were
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yesterday? And if I, if that's not a
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metaphor for life, I don't know what is.
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It's so easy to get distracted now with like, what's that
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person doing? And you know, what is that
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person doing over there just in life as, as a person.
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Like look at the house that person bought and comparing what
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we're doing to other people's lives.
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And track is the perfect setup for kids to understand.
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It's not about the person over there.
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It's can I be better today than I was yesterday?
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Can I shave off .01 from my time?
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And that's a win. I can't tell you how much I love
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it. I am now that parent who if I
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meet someone, I'm like, oh, and then I just start talking about
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track and how much I love it. Are your kids doing it?
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Even if even if they don't know they're going to like it, try.
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There is no, there's no harm in trying.
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I have enjoyed. I've enjoyed it so much that my
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son's doing it now. But actually, both of my sons
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are doing it now. My son is in high school.
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And even during club season, he said, you know what, Mom, I want
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to do track. And I was so happy.
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I wasn't sure if he was able to do it because the club season is
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is a big, it's a load, right? There's a lot of practices.
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There's a lot of running already in soccer.
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There's a lot of travel. And he says he wants to do it
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and we're doing it. We actually have a track meet
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tonight. My younger son, he's in 7th
20:45
grade right now, and he's also doing track.
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And it is the biggest breath of fresh air.
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I could not tell you, I don't think I can adequately describe
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how thankful I am that we literally stumbled across track.
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It was the only thing we could do that worked with my
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daughter's schedule. And I believe everything happens
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for a reason. It was introduced to our life.
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And I appreciate everybody in the track community, people
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saying, Oh my gosh, you didn't bring food, which was me plenty
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of times because again, it wasn't in my routine.
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Here's a banana. You can go give it to Grace,
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things like that. That camaraderie and community
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is just, it's missing and it's needed.
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And I'm so thankful for track for finding out.
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So thank you for listening to my story.
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I, I, I, I hope every parent has the opportunity to introduce
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track. Maybe it doesn't stick for
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everybody, but I have yet to meet a person.
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I've been. This is true.
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I'm trying to think as I'm saying this.
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I've yet to meet a person who said that was awful.
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I wish I never did it. There hasn't been a person, I
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mean, talk about just setting kids up for life with some
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running and some jumping and some training and some, you
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know, lifting heavy things and doing hard things.
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It's just, it's unbelievable. So I'm sure you can relate.
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Just talking through the the lens of of a mom.
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My daughter had to, she didn't do actually track.
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She had some knee issues growing with growing actually.
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And so she didn't do track her first year of high school.
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But that is on her list to come back and hit hit up the track
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team in high school because she loves it.
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She misses it and I know how much it brought to the table.
22:32
So that's to be determined. But we are leaving that door
22:35
open because we love it so much. And in the meantime, I'm going
22:38
to have at least another five or five more years at the track
22:43
with my boys. So thank you so much for
22:46
listening. I'm Lauren.
22:50
I'm a three time Olympian, three time mom.
22:52
And the other reason why I love track is because what I do for
22:56
work is I own a company called Strong Mom and the goal is to
23:00
help moms physically, mentally and emotionally.
23:03
And that's what I think track and sport does for kids is build
23:07
them up physically, mentally and emotionally.
23:09
We just have to get them in the right environment and track is
23:13
definitely the right environment.
23:15
All right, thank you so much for listening and have an amazing
23:18
day. Hey gang, Mike Cunningham here.
23:20
Thanks for joining us for this episode in the Youth and
23:22
beginner series Powered by Coach O Powered by Coach O is more
23:26
than a platform. It's a movement to benefit track
23:28
and field by supporting coaches, athletes, parents, officials and
23:32
event directors in countless ways.
23:34
Find out more and get yourself plugged in to the Powered by
23:37
Coach O by visiting coacho.com today.