WBCA Podcast: Growing Our Game

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Shanteona Keys, WBCA manager of education, sits down with the newest member of the WBCA team, Deputy Director, Mary Ellen Gillespie, to talk about evaluating your staff. Gillespie is a former Division I athletics director and under her direction in 2019, the Hartford women’s basketball team earned a postseason berth for the first time since 2013. Gillespie goes in depth into the review process and offer tips and best practices for successful evaluations.

Shanteona Keys, WBCA manager of education, sits down with Courtney Banghart, head coach at North Carolina to talk about interviewing. Banghart is in her first year at the helm of the tar heels and she’ll discuss the steps she took to complete her staff along with advice for growing one’s professional network.

Shanteona Keys, WBCA manager of education, sits down with Chad Chatlos to discuss interviewing. Chatlos specializes in senior executive searches across the sports industry with a focus on diverse roles in the ever-changing landscape of Intercollegiate Athletics. Today he will offer tips on building your career resume and share some do’s and don’ts of the search/interview process.

Shanteona Keys, WBCA manager of education, sits down with Cori Close to discuss coaching Generation Z student-athletes. With over 25 years of experience as a head coach and assistant coach, Coach Close will talk about what traits define Generation Z along with how your coaching style can evolve to help this generation thrive in your program.

Shanteona Keys, WBCA manager of education, sits down with Tim Elmore to discuss Generation Z. Elmore is the CEO and founder of Growing Leaders and a world-renowned expert on Generation Y and Generation Z. Elmore provides insight on how to communicate and relate to this up and coming generation.

Shanteona Keys, WBCA manager of education, sits down with Amanda Butler to discuss financial planning. With 20-plus years of coaching experience under her belt, Coach Butler took over the Clemson program in 2018-19 and led the Tigers to a 20-13 record and a NCAA tournament 2nd round appearance. Butler offers her coaching perspective on how to manage and effectively plan a coach’s finances.

Shanteona Keys, WBCA manager of education, sits down with Kathleen Kunkler to discuss financial planning and investing. Kunkler is a Senior Vice President for Morgan Stanley and was named Global Sports and Entertainment Director in 2014. With over 30 years in the business of helping coaches financially, Kunkler will discuss your FICO score, investing for retirement and give you a few tips on financial habits for all coaches.

Shanteona Keys, WBCA manager of education, continues her discussion with Jen Fry and Nevin Caple on diversity & inclusion. If you haven’t heard part I of this discussion hit pause, listen to it first and then come back to this one.

Shanteona Keys, WBCA manager of education, sits down with Jen Fry and Nevin Caple to discuss what it means for a program to be diverse and inclusive. Fry has created a social justice education firm, JenFryTalks, and is a veteran coach with over 15 years of experience. Caple is a strategic inclusion consultant, educator and national thought leader on race, gender and LGBTQ inclusion.

Shanteona Keys, WBCA manager of education, sits down with Florida State University head coach Sue Semrau to discuss the transfer portal. In a career featuring 450+ wins and seven consecutive 20-win seasons, Coach Semrau’s culture focuses on developing student-athletes on and off the court. Today she will offer best practices for working with transfer students and how to navigate the transfer portal.

Shanteona Keys, WBCA manager of education, sits down with Susan Peal, Director of Governance at the NCAA, to talk about the transfer portal. Peal’s career began in coaching women’s basketball. Eventually she joined the administrative ranks at Charleston Southern and The Ohio State University. Established in October 2018, the transfer portal was developed to comply with legislation and help administrators manage the transfer process. Today, Peal will go in-depth into details surrounding the portal and help you gain a greater understanding of the process.

Shanteona Keys, WBCA manager of education, sits down with Nell Fortner to discuss practice planning and her return to coaching. In a career that spans over 30 years, Coach Fortner recently was a broadcaster for ESPN and during her coaching career led USA basketball to two gold medals at the 1998 FIBA World Championship and 2000 Olympic Games. Now the head coach at Georgia Tech, Fortner will discuss returning to the court, practice planning strategies and how they’ve evolved over her illustrious career.

Shanteona Keys, WBCA manager of education, sits down with Nicki Collen of the Atlanta Dream to discuss practice planning. With coaching experience at the collegiate and professional levels, Coach Collen will offer tips and best practices when it comes to planning a successful practice.

Shanteona Keys, WBCA manager of education, sits down with Yolett McPhee-McCuin to discuss leadership transitions. Coach Yo emphasizes the importance of not skipping steps and working with people you can trust, which is wisdom she utilized when she took over a power 5 program.

Shanteona Keys, WBCA manager of education, sits down with Molly Fletcher to discuss Navigating Leadership Transitions. Molly Fletcher is a trailblazer in every sense of the word - a rare talent of business wisdom, relationship brilliance and unwavering optimism.

Immediate past president, Jennifer Rizzotti, sits down with current WBCA president, Tricia Cullop, to talk about the state of the WBCA.