#407 Anson Dorrance Pt. 2: Another NCAA Title, the New UNC Coaching Regime, and the Importance of Love in Your Coaching
Release Date: 12/13/2024
Way of Champions Podcast
David Baird (@CoachDavidBaird) holds a UEFA A License and a UEFA Elite Youth A License. He has coached youth soccer for more than 15 years. Currently, David works as a Coach Educator and Football Development Officer for the Scottish Football Association. Prior to this, he spent time coaching in the United States, the United Arab Emirates, and most recently, with the Heart of Midlothian Football Club academy in Scotland. His book is a wonderful addition to your coaching toolkit, as he gives you dozens of ways to create more competitive and engaging games in your training session. These...
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In this replay from May of 2022, John interviews Jonah Oliver (@jonah_oliver1) one of Australia’s leading performance psychologists. Combining his training in sport psychology and neuroscience, Jonah brings a unique, simple and effective approach to facilitating peak performance. Over the past two decades he has worked with a wide variety of clients: ranging from professional golfers (caddying on the PGA tour), Olympic athletes, professional soccer teams, AFL clubs (Gold Coast Suns Football Club, Essendon Football Club), car racing teams (Porsche – Le Mans World Champion) elite tennis...
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Damian DiGiulian is in his his 13th season as the men's ice hockey head coach at St Michaels College in Vermont. DiGiulian has also coached in the USA Hockey development system and at NCAA Division I and III as assistant coach at University of Vermont and Middlebury. John and Damian worked together at UVM from 1999-2003. DiGiulian has led the Purple Knights to a pair of Northeast-10 Conference regular-season co-championships and five league tournament title games during his tenure. Two of DiGiulian's student-athletes were honored as winners of the 2017 Hockey Humanitarian Award, with Danny...
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Damian DiGiulian is in his his 13th season as the men's ice hockey head coach at St Michaels College in Vermont. DiGiulian has also coached in the USA Hockey development system and at NCAA Division I and III as assistant coach at University of Vermont and Middlebury. John and Damian worked together at UVM from 1999-2003. DiGiulian has led the Purple Knights to a pair of Northeast-10 Conference regular-season co-championships and five league tournament title games during his tenure. Two of DiGiulian's student-athletes were honored as winners of the 2017 Hockey Humanitarian Award, with Danny...
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This week we welcome Meredith Civico to the podcast, a coach who worked with Jerry as a 2005 national champion player at Maryland and whose program currently works with John. She enters her 14th season at the helm of the Rutgers field hockey program in the fall of 2025. She has won 135 games in that time, reaching at least nine wins in 10 different seasons and leading the team to three NCAA Tournament appearances and the 2021 Big Ten Tournament Title. Since Meredith and John began working together in 2018, the Knights have 43 wins over Top 20 teams, including 3 top 10 wins in 2024. The...
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As John has spoken of many times on this podcast, he spent 1999-2002 coaching soccer at University of Vermont. So needless to say when the Catamounts won the 2024 NCAA Championship, he was over the moon. And he was even more excited when Head Coach Rob Dow and Associate Head Coach Brad Cole agreed to join him on the podcast. 2024 was Head Coach Rob Dow’s 8th as Head Coach and 13th overall at Vermont, and it was a doozy, winning his second America East Championship and oh yeah, the 2024 NCAA Championship in thrilling fashion. In eight seasons at the helm, Dow has accumulated a...
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Joe Ehrmann is the critically acclaimed author of InsideOut Coaching: How Sports Can Transform Lives. He was an All American football player, was named to Syracuse University’s All-Century Team, lettered in lacrosse and received the Arents Award, SU’s Most Distinguished Alumni honor for his contributions to society. Joe played professional football for 13 years and was named Baltimore Colt’s Man of the Year. He was the NFL’s first Ed Block Courage Award Recipient, and named “The Most Important Coach in America” by Parade Magazine. The Institute chose him...
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In our first season of the podcast, we interviewed author Michael Zigarelli, who wrote a book called The Messiah Method: The 7 Disciplines of the Winningest College Soccer Program in America. The book outlined the tremendous success of Messiah College soccer, where between 2000 and 2010 the mens and women's teams had won 11 national titles and been to 17 Final Fours between them. Ever since then, we have wanted to bring onto the podcast the architect of that dynasty Dave Brandt. Today we get to do that. In 24 seasons as a college head coach, including stints at Messiah, the US...
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This week's episode is a replay from 2022 with Captain Ryan Bernacchi, USN (Ret.) a retired naval officer who possesses a unique background in aviation, leadership, high performance teamwork, and organizational culture. During his distinguished 25-year career in the Navy his notable positions include the Commanding Officer and Flight Leader of the Blue Angels, command of a fleet Super Hornet squadron, and TOPGUN Instructor, with worldwide deployments aboard aircraft carriers, including major combat operations. In academia, Ryan has complemented his operational expertise with the study of...
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Angelo Gingerelli (@mr5thround) is the Strength Coach at Seton Hall University and NJ State Director of the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA). He recently published his second book The Next Four Years: Compete, Win & Thrive in College Sports. Gingerelli has been a collegiate strength coach for over 20 years and the book focuses on all aspects of the student-athlete experience from physically preparing for freshman year (weight room proficiency, conditioning tests, work capacity, etc.) to new issues in athletics like NIL and The Transfer Portal. The book is a great...
info_outlineOn November 14, 2024, we interviewed 22 time NCAA Champion Coach Anson Dorrance from University of North Carolina Women's Soccer. At the time the Tar Heels were in the midst of another winning season, and Dorrance had resigned his head coaching duties, handing the reigns to interim coach Damon Nahas, Asst. coach Tracy Leone and GK Coach Chris Ducar. As the third assistant coach, Dorrance fulfilled a role he had never done before, and 24 hours prior to us recording this podcast, we witnessed the Tar Heels become NCAA Champions for the 23rd time! In this most timely of interviews, we discuss the championship with Anson, the qualities of the new coaching staff (Nahas was named Head Coach just prior to the championship game), the importance of love in your coaching, and so much more. This is as close as it gets to conducting an hour long on field interview with a national champion! If you have not yet listened to Part 1 of our talk, check out Episode 403.
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Our 2025 Mastermind and Certification Program is sold out, but we do have a waitlist as well as a collection of coaches who are interested in being part of our next cohort. If you want to take a deeper dive then ever offered before into your coaching and personal development, or work within your school or club improving coaching or transforming the culture, or you want to hit the road as a speaker and presenter working with teams and youth sports organizations, we will give you the tools and support to do so. We are collecting names who are interested at this moment in joining the waitlist or being the first to know when we offer another program, you can do so by clicking here and adding your name and email to the list.
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