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BONUS: Live Coach's Interviews from Day 2 Nike Outdoor Nationals! · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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  We're back here for day two of the Nike Outdoor National
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  Championships, USATF U20 Championships and beautiful
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  Eugene, OR Hope you enjoyed yesterday's day one mini
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  interviews, micro interviews right here on site at the Gill
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  Athletics coaches hospitality suite down by the 200m star.
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  We're going to do it all over again, but maybe we'll have some
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  repeats. Hopefully we'll have a bunch of
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  new people and we'll just interview them and ask them how
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  they're doing, how's it mean to be here in Eugene, OR and what
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  their athletes are up to. So stay tuned and let's get
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  started. Field is.
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  Down here, fine. All right, so here we go with
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  our first interview of Day 2 at the Nike Outdoor National
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  Championships. Coach, won't you introduce
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  yourself and tell us where you from?
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  Yeah, I'm Coach Nick Thiel and I'm from Kalispell, Mt and we
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  have a couple athletes here from the Flathead, Polson area,
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  Hamilton, so western Montana. And yeah, we came in a couple
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  days ago and I had a couple of middle schoolers run yesterday
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  and today and a high schooler going to Miles so.
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  Now I've been to Montana, I think just once and I had to
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  drive from like Montana State to University of Montana, Big
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  State. But it's it is up here and we
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  run from the Midwest. So I don't know how far things
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  are. Do you drive to Eugene or is
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  that a flight or? Yeah, some people might fly.
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  We drove just, you know, you have enough athletes and and
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  family and everything drive is good.
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  So it's 11 1/2 hours of drive time and we we drive a lot.
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  That's kind of a disadvantage of living in a rural state.
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  Yeah, yeah. I mean, our nearest AA school
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  really outside of our town is an hour drive and it's further from
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  there. So an hour to five hours is a
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  common drive for us. Yeah, I told you I host the
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  podcast here that we're on right now.
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  And last year I went and did a kind of an ambitious project.
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  I interviewed 1 high school coach from every state to talk
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  about their outdoor track and how do you qualify, what events
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  do you do things like that. And one of the questions that we
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  asked each state was do you do a like a meet a champion.
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  So, you know, you have different classes here in Montana.
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  You come back a week later and all that kind of stuff.
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  And I came here, the coach that we had that volunteered this
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  time to do the interview with us from Montana.
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  But I remember his, his response to that was like, dude, do you
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  know how big the state is? He goes, it's hard to get
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  everybody to the state meet. Yeah.
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  He goes to try to do it all over again.
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  He's like impossible in Montana. Yeah.
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  It is hard. We do have a top ten meet, but
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  they separate out Easton from West because it is, I think it's
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  a nine hour drive across the state.
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  So to do it east and West makes sense, yeah.
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  You know what, Texas, they always talk about how far it is.
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  Montana. You got it there, too.
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  Yeah. What is Texas left to right?
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  Oh my God, I think in calendar you have to do it by calendar
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  like. Monday through Wednesday, hey.
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  Nick, you must be good luck because you know today, as we
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  started yesterday, was beautiful.
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  Weather wise. Today it started.
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  I won't call it typical Oregon weather, but you know, it was
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  overcast, so Sprinkles talking to you.
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  The sun has come. Out.
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  Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Well.
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  What do you got going on today? What what athletes are between
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  today? We can watch them and report.
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  Yeah, actually we had. 2 middle schoolers.
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  Quinn Delaney and Ada Thiel in the middle school 800 Yeah, I
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  saw those. Yeah.
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  So one was a second off for PR, but she ran a good mile
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  yesterday and PR yesterday in the mile and then.
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  And we also had Ada Thiel who ran mile yesterday also.
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  And technically, well, I don't say technically she PR Ed by the
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  record books by 12 seconds, but she had run that time actually
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  on her own in a workout being paced.
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  Yeah, but it's it's not official, right?
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  So. So is.
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  The PR kind of, yeah, a big pair, but anyway that was great.
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  She won her heat and 7th, so just off the podium but exciting
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  and then she ran the 800 today and she got eight, one second PR
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  so. It's the middle of June and
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  you've got kids that are PR in and near PR in that says good
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  coaching if you keep them motivated and.
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  Keep them going. There is that.
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  Yeah, I think Catch 22, you know, you're trying to stretch
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  out the the peak in their season, the middle school
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  season. Some, some of them are done two
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  weeks ago, some of them are done 456 weeks ago.
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  So like trying to figure out, do you get a little micro cycle in
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  there or do you just try and hold that taper or so?
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  Yeah, it is interesting. But I mean, they're motivated
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  kids and always being here. People run.
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  Faster. That's.
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  Right. Yeah, yeah.
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  So walk. Through the gates.
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  If you're faster, if you're not motivated here, yeah.
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  What are you doing in track? And field, yeah, I mean, this is
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  the Mecca, right? This is it.
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  That's. Right, Nick, thank you so much,
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  man appreciate it being here, enjoying.
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  It's so fun to watch your athletes compete and honestly
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  for me, you know, I'm a coach advocate, so I'm always working
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  to up listen, honor you to be able to see you guys and gals do
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  your craft. That's the that's the real
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  blessing for us. So.
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  Thanks for being awesome. Yeah.
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  Thank you. All right, we're back here
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  Hayward Field Nike outdoor national championships for our
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  next little micro interview here and we got, you know, some of my
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  favorite people. I've got throws coaches here, so
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  let's do another throws coach here.
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  Why don't you introduce yourself and where you're from?
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  I'm Colin Post. And I'm at Wake Forest
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  University. And, you know, insider secret,
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  this is actually take two for for this interview here.
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  Colin, what what are you doing here?
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  What's going on? You got athletes or Yeah.
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  We had we had an athlete feeding in the women's U20 javelin and
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  she came out and ended up 6th place, got on the podium, so we
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  had a pretty good day. How do you you know college
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  track and field is so hard in regards to you know, how do you
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  qualify for the championships and the level you know you guys
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  are, it's all your fault. You guys are just coaching kids
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  so much better. How do you manage as far as
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  coaching with that kid to now come back a week later or two
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  weeks later, whatever you know it might be, how do you keep
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  extending that that season for them?
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  Well, a lot of it was just let's cross our fingers and hold on
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  this year, you know, she had a little bit of back injury so it
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  was up and down. So we got to the end of the
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  season. She wanted to do this meet.
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  I said, look, I can't change your training at this point.
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  Back off for a couple days, ramp back up for two weeks and then
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  cross her fingers were still in in some somewhat of a condition
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  when we get there. I know sometimes we try to
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  overthink it a little bit. It's like, you know, it's a
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  week, Mike, not two months. That might be a whole different
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  aspect. If you're doing something like
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  that now you're here, you're competing with her and that
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  Javelin recruiting as well. Yeah, we're hanging out watching
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  some tracks. See if anybody make good Demon
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  Deacons. You, you've done this for a long
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  time, so you're seeing the the change in the incident of late
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  when you go to a meet like this today, 2025, how different is it
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  from 2015 as far as recruiting and all the things that have
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  changed? I think we just got to be more
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  focused now, right? I I got to know who can come in
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  and help faster. Yeah.
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  Yeah. Do you?
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  Have to have difficult conversations with kids that
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  maybe, you know, again, 10 years ago, you know, it's like, Oh
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  yeah, I'd love for you to walk on or books.
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  And now it's like, you know, it's just, it's not my fault.
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  I, I It's the system that I'm. Handed Absolutely.
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  There's a lot of conversations being had about due to the the
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  nature of NCAA right now, I can't give you a shot.
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  Right. Yeah, makes sense.
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  Makes sense. Well, I told you earlier
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  yesterday, I met one of your former athletes who grad
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  transferred to North Carolina. Thomas.
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  He spoke so highly of you, man, and just you're doing a great
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  job, really do. Appreciate you.
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  Yeah. Appreciate it.
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  Awesome. Thanks, Colin.
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  All right, let's keep the interviews going.
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  This this is a fun one. I'm I'm really excited about
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  this one, so let's hop right into it.
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  Why don't you introduce yourself and tell us who you're you're
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  here with what team or track club?
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  Yeah. Sure.
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  My name is Donna here and we're here with the Nike Elite
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  program. My daughter was selected a
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  couple years ago to do that. She also is in high school,
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  King's High School, just South or north of Seattle area Small
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  Kitchen High School and she throws the primarily throws the
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  hammer. Yeah, so I've learned a little
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  bit about the elite program from our NSFANSAF people and we
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  support it with some equipment, things like that.
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  What kind of support do they do for for her?
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  Like how are they helping her out with her a bit?
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  The hammer specifically. OK, well, they give her.
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  They pay for the Nike outdoor meet, which we're just in
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  Seattle, but they'll pay. They'll put her in a hotel here
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  and they'll give us gas money. Then they give her to the indoor
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  New York. So that's a travel.
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  She gets to compete and and throw the weight and I think
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  she's done the shot there as well.
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  So that's, and they have a whole program for about four days
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  there with some hospitality. They put it in a hotel,
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  transportation is all taken care of.
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  And then the other thing they do is they give you a meat of your
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  choice. So if you want to come down to
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  Prefontaine, if you want to go to California to Arcadia Relays,
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  Mount SAC. So she went to Mount SAC Junior
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  Olympics are in Savannah. So I think that's going to be
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  our our trip for her and they'll pay the airfare and and do the
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  travel support for that. And so and.
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  Some kind of mentorship with other right former elite
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  throwers. Right.
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  So they'll have, in fact, they had a breakfast this morning.
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  There were some Olympians in there that they got to mingle
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  with and just some of them told their story and they can see,
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  you know, what they did with their education.
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  Did they, you know, become an Olympian and then go to college
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  and become a nurse? Or.
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  Or vice versa, have kids now what they're doing and they're
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  coaching. So they get that and they have
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  monthly. We have monthly.
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  Well, not many, but there's Zoom meetings.
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  They get together and they will have people talk about
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  nutrition, talk about training, offseason.
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  They might have Olympians that they'll have breakouts.
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  So then the throwers will have Deanna Price online and we'll be
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  able to talk to her about, well, how do you train before they
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  meet or how do you get ready six weeks out?
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  Yeah, before the Olympics and. Things like that.
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  They can ask those questions and then they build a rapport with
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  them and then sometimes they get to see them at a meet like, you
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  know, like U 20s or something when.
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  They're out here. And how's that been working out?
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  She threw yesterday, I believe. Right, Right.
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  OK. So U 20s very competitive year.
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  And so she went out, she had a great series, went out and threw
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  really close to her best, which IS1861846 something like that.
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  186 Oh, I shouldn't know this. Anyway, she threw like 184.
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  So she was just a couple feet off to open up with sex and
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  saying OK, if you want to find the whole big monkey off your
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  back. Anyways, her fifth throw she
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  unleashed 1. She was in second place.
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  I think she was in the second place already, but she better
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  that more to a 190, which is a personal best.
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  And then it's also the age group record 1718 year old being a
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  junior in high school. So that's where it ended.
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  The one he throw was a 196, so she was pretty close to that.
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  We're a little disappointed there's no team.
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  Normally that would have been. A team.
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  To Pan Am, but we kind of saw that coming.
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  With some information. That came out.
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  But, and selfishly, you told me she threw the gill hammer.
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  Yeah, because it was a record they had to impound everything
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  they carried and and she said it was this, it was this silver one
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  that's and they took that one back.
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  She also had her pull on it and she carried that one out with
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  her and they went and re measured, re weighed that and it
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  was perfect. And we love supporting young
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  athletes, old athletes, you know, it's all about what they
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  do on that field or in that circle.
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  And so we're excited to work with NSA, NSAF and work with
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  Nike Elite and your daughter and just, it's really cool.
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  That's very, very awesome. If we had more time, I'd talk
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  about the background, how she got into Hammer because that's
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  cool too. But thank you so much for being
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  here with us today. Thank you.
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  And stay tuned to Sunday another.
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  Competition. Let's go Sunday.
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  All right. I'll be paying attention.
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  All right. Awesome all right, that's going
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  to do it for day two of the Nike outdoor national championships
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  with the coaches hospitality sponsored by Gill Athletics.
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  The rain kind of dampened the number of interviews that we
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  could do we didn't have great weather today.
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  However, that weather did not dampen the athletes out on the
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  track. What an amazing, just an amazing
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  amount of performances today. These coaches are coaching their
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  tails off and so super excited to be able to showcase them in
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  our small way here on the podcast.
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  Check us out tomorrow. We'll come back for day three.
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  We're hoping. We're praying for better
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  weather, but I know we're going to see some real fire on the
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  track. So thanks for listening and
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  we'll talk soon.