Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / BONUS: USTFCCCA 2023 LIVE: Sarah Anderson-University of Cincinnati

Transcript

BONUS: USTFCCCA 2023 LIVE: Sarah Anderson-University of Cincinnati · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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  Hey gang, you know we like our bonus material, so from today
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  all the way. Through USTF CCA.
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  In celebration of our live podcast recording at the
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  convention, we're going to play you last year's clips, each one
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  individual from today all the way up until Monday, December
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  16th, when we go live on YouTube at 6:00 Eastern Time.
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  Join us if you're at the convention, sit down.
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  We're going to be talking about your feelings, actions, thoughts
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  about the way the NCAA is changing, and we're going to
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  make some predictions for next year.
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  And every guest that sits down with us will you get.
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  A exclusive. Free gift, so join us December
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  16th, 6:00 PM Eastern Time for the Gill Live Connections
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  podcast on YouTube and at the USTF CCA Convention.
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  Here is bonus material. OK, you know, it's, it's, it's
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  not for everybody, for the faint of heart to sit down in the hot
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  seat, especially when you have no idea who the person is or
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  what questions are going to ask. Why don't we start by
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  introducing themselves, OK? Hi, I'm Sarah Anderson.
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  I'm the women's cross country coach and assistant track and
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  field coach at the University of.
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  Cincinnati here with Miss Susan. CI AM.
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  So Susan was recently a guest on our podcast.
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  So We Run a Monday long before it's like an hour and 40 hour
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  and 50. We really dive deep into your
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  whole history and Coup Seaton was recently on there and Oh my
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  goodness. Her.
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  History and background in our sport is amazing.
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  How How long have you been there?
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  I've. Been there a year and. 1/2 How
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  do you, I'm going to say work around that, But what I mean by
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  that is like you have an opportunity to learn from her to
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  help you with your career. Yeah.
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  How do you take advantage of that?
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  Yeah. Do you take advantage of?
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  That just like her knowledge and experience, yeah, every day she,
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  she's really given me a lot of autonomy to like do what I want
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  with the program and with that is like making mistakes and
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  learning from it. But she has like truly given me
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  a platform to learn and grow. And we just have an open
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  relationship for like, I feel like I can ask for anything,
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  whether it's like track and field related, recruiting, just
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  life in general. But she's been involved with the
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  sport for so long, she said kids do the sport like just being a
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  female head coach and doing it as successfully as she had for
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  so long. For me, just having the
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  opportunity to like be entered by her.
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  I try to soak it in every day. Just learn under her and throw
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  under her. You know, I'm fascinated in our
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  sport. We're roughly rough numbers
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  here. We're roughly 50%.
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  How you doing about? We're roughly 50% women and 50%
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  men. I don't know what the numbers
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  are racially, but let's say it's 5050.
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  It's definitely not 91 and 10 or the other, right?
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  So I'm always wondering how can we help in this example where
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  women become coaches? We have 50% that do the sport.
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  We certainly don't have 50% in our coaching Staffs that are
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  women. What does it mean to you?
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  I don't mean to touch on the spot here and maybe.
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  That's the whole point. Of the interview, yeah, yeah.
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  She had no clue what's going on there.
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  When you see someone like a Coach C and there's a mother,
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  amazing. Beth, Alfred Sullivan, Kathleen
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  Rasky. I mean, some amazing, amazing
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  women out there that are coaching unbelievably.
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  Is it is it something for you? Like, did you have to see a
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  woman in that position before you could believe that you could
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  be a track coach? Talk to me about, you know, that
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  kind of, yeah. I was really fortunate in my own
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  like personal intelligent experiences.
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  I was coached by females. It wasn't like when I was
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  getting recruited to run at the college level, it wasn't like,
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  oh, you know, a male coach is recruiting me at a female.
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  I just ended up at a university where a, a female was there.
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  And for me originally, coaching wasn't like.
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  The the goal. I I did exercise science and I
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  thought maybe, you know, PT or strength and conditioning.
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  And when I was a junior, my, my coach at the time, I'm Taryn
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  Sheehan, just ahead of Yale now. She sat me down and she was
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  like, yeah, I'd love to, Erin. She sat me down and she was
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  like, you have a lot of energy and you have a lot of leadership
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  skills. Have you ever thought about
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  coaching? And she kind of instilled the
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  seed in me. And then I went on to compete at
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  Michigan State under Lisa's and Cabbage.
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  So talk about just two, like really powerful, really
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  incredible, like inspirational women.
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  So those two are kind of like, yeah, really big factors.
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  And like, hey, you can, you can do this and you can do it at a
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  high level, but you can also have a balance with it.
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  And that's something that I've been learning with Susan.
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  Like this is a really enjoyable lifestyle and women can do this
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  and be successful. So like having the opportunity
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  to not only be coached by women, but like now be mentored by, you
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  know, Susan, that's kind of like my why behind this is like I
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  felt like I was poured into and impacted in so many positive
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  places. So like I want to be able to do
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  that for the next generation. I love that story example you
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  give about Terrence saying, hey, you've got a lot of energy, a
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  lot of good qualities that will help other young people.
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  You know, I really believe the superpower of coaches,
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  specifically track coaches here, is seeing something in others
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  before they can see it themselves.
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  Yeah. And that was kind of that sounds
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  like that's kind of the example of like, you didn't think like
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  we could be a track coach and here she is, like, you need to
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  be a track coach. Yeah.
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  Yeah, yeah, it was I I still like think back to that
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  conversation like it's, it's that weird time of life where
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  you're like junior going to be a senior in college.
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  Are we doing grad school? Are we trying to go pro?
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  You know, are we is the goal to win a conference title and the
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  national meet? And I just felt like I was like,
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  I was so overwhelmed with the next step.
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  And she was like, just relax. Like I think this could be a
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  good step for you, but let's just be present right now.
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  And I was so like focused on what to do next.
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  And she was just like, hey, like, it'll, it'll come.
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  Like I think this is an Ave. you should explore.
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  And I remember walking out of that office and for the first
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  time in, like, my young adult life, I was like, I am really
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  passionate about this and I can be really good at this.
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  So like, she kind of like, you know, woke that up.
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  And he was just really special. And yeah, she's she's an awesome
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  mentor for me. We talk all the time.
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  How do you, you brought up kind of the things that you were
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  thinking of as your in your senior, junior, senior year and
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  all these different avenues you have and all these different
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  pressures at the conference in nationals and do you go to the
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  next level and things like that? I assume you're human and what I
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  mean? By that is, yeah, yeah.
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  What I mean by that is you also probably have pressures of
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  grades and maybe relationships and family.
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  You know, we're not just athletes, just like we're not
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  just coaches. We are humans behind that.
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  How do you use the experience that you had going through that
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  with your athletes today? Yeah.
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  I think something I I should just talk about this with my
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  women a couple days ago, Something I take a lot of pride
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  in is like being a younger coach.
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  I have so much relatability because I was in their shoes
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  very. Recently that was a.
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  Long ago. So I think with with recruiting
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  and culture and all that stuff, I can bring something to the
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  table in terms of just like understanding the stressors of
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  the day in and day out lifestyle of a student athlete.
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  You know, there's a lot of learning and growing on the
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  coaching side, but I know what that feels like and I know what
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  that pressure feels like and the the stress.
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  So I really try to bring a lot of energy to practice and truly
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  make that the best part of their day.
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  Because like, if you're nervous or scared or stressed about the
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  workouts, that just builds and builds.
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  And yeah, you know, performance is going to decrease, school's
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  going to decrease. So like if I can make that 2
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  hour block of their day positive and they can walk away feeling
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  like they want and feeling confident, then I'm doing
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  something right and that's going to help pour into their school
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  and stuff. Here's a famous for giving
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  challenges to our guests. So I'm going to challenge you,
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  Sarah. You know, I believe in what you
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  said there in regards to because you're not that far removed from
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  them. So you, you know, you know what
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  TikTok is and maybe some of our other coaches don't know what
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  TikTok is. This is a very small, funny
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  example, right? And So what the challenge is
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  going to be, Sarah, that you're going to be in this profession,
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  hopefully for an extremely long time, you're going to be the 40.
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  God bless you if you're 47, like maybe 50. 60 hope I look that
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  good when I'm. 40 she knows how to earn a return guest of
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  fields. I'm going to challenge you that
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  it's it's good and right with your your thought process here
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  today. How do you you know, you want to
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  think about the statement work on this as you go through your
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  career. How do you still relate at 40?
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  How do you still relate at 50? How do you relate at 60?
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  Because I don't think the kids change.
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  I think the lead change. I was once at A at a topic where
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  the person was like, how would you describe millennials and
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  Gen. Z's and all this kind of stuff,
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  right. And whatever like whatever the
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  youngest is now is it's you or. The athletes I don't.
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  Even know, and it was like, oh, what do you know, how would you
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  describe? And you know, people nodding
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  like yada, yada, yada, yada. And she brought up like a here's
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  what Life magazine says and blah, blah, blah.
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  And then she goes, oh, wait, I'm sorry, that's actually Life
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  magazine from 1950, talking about young people back then.
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  So young people are going to be brash and maybe short and maybe
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  indecisive, whether they were young in 1940 or young in 2024.
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  But we get older and now go, you know, back in my day, we used to
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  study harder. We used to run.
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  The challenge for you and for all of our coaches here is to
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  remain relatable so that you can continue to help these young
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  people over and over and over. They need it more than one, not
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  more than ever because the young people in 1940s needed help and
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  and leadership just like they do here in 2023.
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  They need leadership and what you have the responsibility of
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  and the privilege of is to be that leader more than that.
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  So just a challenge just as you continue to get through because
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  I because I want to have you back here in 40 years when we
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  are 60 something and talk about if you remember back in 23 and
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  how do you you know, have developed and still have you
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  know, the love, passion for your athletes and be related.
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  Having flexibility and being going to change that.
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  All right, well, we have a little fun now.
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  So I've got 100 random questions, and trust me, they're
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  random. You get to pick the number one
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  through 100. I get to ask the question 24.
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  Why 24? My favorite.
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  All right, love it. Gobble, gobble.
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  What were PAC Man's pellets? You didn't even know Pac-Man.
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  What were PAC Man's pellets made of?
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  And why was he always hungry? Do you even know who?
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  Pac-Man. I know Pac-Man is.
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  OK, OK, OK. What was pellets made of that?
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  Why was he so hungry? He was hungry all the time
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  eating those pellets, I told you.
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  What's something? It's like potato chips.
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  Can't you see one? And it kind of looked like,
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  yeah, that might be the best answer we've had.
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  OK. All right.
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  Sarah, for anybody who sits down with us today and only for
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  people who sit down here tonight, this is not something
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  we're going to give away tomorrow and all that stuff.
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  This is exclusive. We'd like to give you just a
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  small memento podcast, this little Christmas ornament for
• 10:48
  you. We're so grateful because here's
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  another thing, you know, we're getting close to episode 250
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  here in the Guild Connections podcast.
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  Again, you know many, many amazing women on the on the
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  show, the Jeep from the BYU and. In our conference.
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  Yeah, I'm crazy. Good luck, by the way.
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  And you know, almost every one of them expressed some kind of
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  form of this story of when they saw another woman in leadership,
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  typically as a coach in our example here, that it showed
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  them that they can also do that. And you're a great example of
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  that with some other women. But now you get to be that
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  example. So I just want to bless you and
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  just say, you know, what you're doing is more than showing
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  people how to run laps around a track and over the hills and
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  through the Dales. There are young people today
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  that are going to do really amazing things.
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  Most of them are not in track and field.
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  Let's be honest with you. You're going to become moms and
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  dads and business owners and coaches and clarity, etcetera,
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  and you're going to be a big part of someone's going to be
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  telling someone else. You know, my Kirk, Sarah, she
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  believed in me and I and I didn't.
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  And that helped me to understand that I can believe myself.
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  So yeah, just love you and just so grateful for what you do and
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  choosing to be a track coach. Thank you, Sarah, Thank you so
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  much. Thank you.
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  For stop by appreciate you. So much hill, Susan, I said
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  hello, and if you didn't listen to her podcast, you got to
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  because her background is amazing.
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  Are you coming to sit down?